JLD: Light that spark Fire Nation. JLD here with an audio master class that we are calling Handmade, the amazing opportunities in the blue collar world. To drop these value bombs I have brought Ken Rusk on the mike. He is a blue collar business entrepreneur who has launched several successful endeavors over the last 30 years. He specializes in hiring, training and developing job seekers, coaching and life path design.

Today Fire Nation we’ll be talking about what the heck ever happened to shop class? Has college been over sold? What’s the current state of the blue collar world? And what is this four-year head start and so much more as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors.

Ken, say what’s up to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don’t know.

Ken: Well, good afternoon everybody. One of the things I think most people don’t know is I kinda have one of those neurotic things about making sure everything is in order and straight and balanced so if I get out of my car and I parked it on an angle, gotta get right back into the car and straighten it out before I can go in the house.

JLD: You know, there’s a lot of entrepreneurs that kind of just have that little twinge of OCD. You know, we just have to kinda do things just a certain way. I mean if you were to stand over my shoulder while I’m actually editing these episodes you’d be like why are you doing it that way? I’d be like I don’t know, it’s just because that’s how I want to do it.

Ken: That’s great.

JLD: But Fire Nation, we’re gonna be talking all about handmade, the amazing opportunity’s in the blue collar world and I gave you a bunch of teasers about what our focus is today. We’re gonna be talking about a lot of awesome stuff, but I just want to dive in Ken because this is an important and fascinating topic for me. So, let’s just start off by asking this question. What the heck happened to shop class?

Ken: You know that’s a really good question. I think the beginnings of the shop class disappearing were in the ‘80s and there’s a couple of different reasons for that. It’s kinda like one of those things where you know how the home phone just kinda disappeared and nobody really noticed and now everybody’s on their cellphones and you ask them about a landline and they’re like yeah, I used to have one of those. But it’s kind of the same way because whether they were too expensive to continue to run with all the digital assets and some of the other classes that were coming online or it could have been the liability of the whole thing.

I never met a shop teacher that wasn’t had a few scars on him while working on cars or working with the saws in woodshop or whatever. And then I think college just began to really market themselves heavily and almost overwhelmed that career path which is kind of a sad thing.

JLD: I think it’s a really sad thing. I mean I’m actually old enough, I’m in my 40s now, to remember during high school going to that really weird part of the high school that probably is now just used for storage but it was a basement somewhere; we had to go downstairs and up these stairs and it was like this weird room that had like a sliding door. And then I remember my shop class teacher, he was kind of a cool guy but he had his own little quirkiness as well, and just doing some really interesting things. I mean I would always look forward to shop class. I mean we would do some really interesting and neat things.

And I just remember at the end of these classes I’d be like, you know what? I kinda feel like I did something. Like after algebra or like after fill in the blank like trigonometry or even like certain English literature, I’d be like what did I really do. I mean I read out of a – but, I felt like I actually did something when I left those classes. And look at today, I look around and especially for America and Americans I’m like what skills do you actually have as a human being? Like what happened to having actual skills that could benefit humanity?

So, let’s talk about college because I have a lot to say about this and you might be surprised about what side of the coin that I’ve fallen on this because I did go to college and I had an amazing four years but first you. Has college been over sold?

Ken: Yeah, I actually believe it has. When I was in high school in econ class and the teacher said, “Hey, raise your hand if you’re going to college.” Only about half of us raised our hand and I thought that that was pretty balanced because even now they’re saying only 60 percent of kids actually go to college but 100 percent of them are sold on the idea. So, when you think about the fact that probably four in ten kids go to college without any idea of what they want to do and then the statistics get even worse from there. Only one in three end up working in the field that they study and another one-third of them don’t ever get a job in the field that they went the four years for.

So, I think you have to try to ask yourself, is it possible that it’s for everyone? And I think the answer is pretty obvious there. I don’t think it is.

JLD: One thing where I look back on my college experience it was this, the best four years of my life. I mean I loved it. I went to Providence College in Rhode Island; I was the biggest basketball fan so I was at every single basketball game. It was kind of like I was in this mini community this mini family where we were just in this bubble together. Everybody was between 18 and 22 years old. It was kinda my first experience not having my parents hovering over my head micromanaging everything so that was kind of a cool thing. But that was really the reality for me too, Ken. I had that exact same experience of just like hey, everybody who wants to become successful in life, you know “successful” just goes to college like that’s the next step.

And those that don’t go to college you kinda like ooh, like I hope he enjoys pumping gas at the local gas station because that’s pretty much the only option they have for themselves. And that’s just not the reality. I mean I do honestly agree with Ken that college has been over sold. I don’t think it always has been. I think that it’s just unfortunately, just like online marketers, just like we ruin everything in this world eventually. Email marketing, Instagram marketing, Facebook, it’s like we ruin everything eventually. You know, college in a way has unfortunately ruined itself. You know just these unbelievably high hiked up prices, the unbelievable amount of debt that the average college graduate graduates with.

The racket that is college debt you know, where no bankruptcy will get rid of it. And literally how does a 17-year-old understand what signing a $200,000.00 commitment even means? Like they don’t even comprehend that. They’re like oh, I’ll make $100,000.00 a year after college so I can pay that debt off in two years. They couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m in my 40s and I have friends Ken, that are still paying off their college debt that I went to school with. Now, I went a different route. I went the Army/ROTC route so I had no college debt when I graduated.

I was a second lieutenant the day that I graduated, was an officer in the Army for eight years so I did not go that kind of typical college route which is probably why I look back on it so fondly because I wasn’t burdened with all that debt but I mean it is just crazy to think how good a job colleges and universities have done marketing themselves when the reality is man, you are kinda being sold a bag of goods that doesn’t always come out in your favor. And unfortunately, at the debt rate that most people graduate it almost always does not come out in their favor.

So, let’s talk about the fact when it comes to college not being for everyone. Who do you still think college is for, Ken, and who do you think it is for not?

Ken: It’s interesting that you say that because one of the first things that I try to always get out there is I’m really not an anti-college guy. I mean if you’re gonna operate on my knee so I can get back on the golf course or if you’re gonna manage my money or if you’re going to teach our kids, I think you need to know everything there is to know about that particular field. There’s no question about that. What I’m against is this you just gotta go to college. If you don’t you’re less than the next guy. There’s a stigma attached to it. You know, who wants to be a plumber for the rest of your life or something like that and having that particular kid just go because he's told he’s supposed to.

If you think about it college physically can’t be for everyone or who’s gonna do things like build beautiful houses or who’s going to make beautiful landscapes or create awesome flower arrangements or bake bread for us or have their own businesses. I mean who’s gonna swing the hammers, who’s gonna turn the wrenches if everybody says you gotta go to school. And I think that’s the real sad thing because it was never intended for everybody but yet today it’s being sold like it is intended for everybody.

JLD: Let’s talk about the current states. What is the current state of the blue collar world because frankly college is not for everybody for all the reasons that both Ken and I have mentioned; the debt, you know the fact that you just don’t need it for certain professions. Of course, again it’s the right path for certain people with certain aspirations. Awesome. That path is there for you. But absolutely not for everybody across the board.

And I really hope that this conversation along with others is gonna kinda draw that stigmatism down a little bit that hey, if you’re 18 years old and you decide you want to maybe take a year to figure things out, awesome because you may figure things out that you don’t need to go that college route. And that can be A-Okay. So, talk about the current state, Ken, of the blue collar world.

Ken: Well because of the things we’ve been talking about already John, the pendulum, if you can imagine a pendulum swinging back and forth between blue collar trades and careers and a four-year expensive college degree, the pendulum has swung so far towards college is the only way to go and what that does is it creates a supply and demand problem okay. If you’re waiting six months for somebody to come out and build a nice stone outdoor kitchen for you then you know there’s a supply and demand problem. If you’re carpenter is getting paid more than your doctor then you know there’s this supply and demand problem.

And I gotta tell you, if you want to keep this really simple and I love to talk just really simple, if everybody’s betting on Team A, you might want to start thinking on betting on Team B because the line’s gonna start moving.

JLD: Yeah, and Ken let me jump in here for a second because it’s actually one of my favorite quotes in the world by Mark Twain. Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority it’s time to pause and reflect. Now that doesn’t mean that you’re always wrong being in the majority but guess what? Sometimes you gotta step back and reflect on that current situation because being just part of a herd of sheep not the way to go. So, Ken, keep it going.

Ken: Well, yeah because in this case the line that moves back and forth is opportunity and wages. So, if I’m gonna look at what I want the rest of my life to look like sometimes I might say to myself, is it so important what I do for a living or is it more important what I do with what I’ve done for a living. And that’s why I say if you have a clear vision for what you want to do in life there are so many amazing opportunities in the blue collar world and John this is where all the opportunity and this is where all the money is right now. And those jobs are not getting backfilled because of people retiring. I mean the average age of an electrician is 53 years of age and they’re retiring at a five to one rate for people coming in to backfill those positions.

So, the only thing that does is create scarcity, demand and wage hikes and we’ve got to take advantage of that. If you’re one of those kids that says college isn’t for me there is a huge amount of opportunity out there for you.

JLD: Fire Nation, we’re gonna be talking about a lot of things after the break. We were talking about the four-year head start. We’re talking about comfort, peace and freedom and then something I’m pretty interested is the five steps to actually nailing your future. Ken’s gonna break that down and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

So, Ken we’re back and as I kind of teased before the break, let’s talk about the four-year head start. What is that? Why does Fire Nation need to understand that concept?

Ken: Let’s assume that you’re thinking about what you want to do whether you’re looking at the rest of your life or you’re looking at a career change or whatever that might be. You know there’s a really good book out that says you can master anything in eight to ten thousand hours. Okay, now if you’re working 40 hours a week that’s about four years. So, if you think about it right now, there’s 44 million people that owe a trillion and a half dollars in student debt. The average debt is between 40 and 60 thousand dollars. So, it took you four years to learn something to try to master something and yet you walk away with 60 thousand in debt and now you’re just getting started.

Imagine if you took the opposite track and you spent that same amount of time mastering a trade or a skill and guess what? You’re getting paid to do it the entire time. So, now you’re getting paid a good salary a good wage you literally have a four-year head start in learning and in earning as compared to the others who go through college and come out the other side with a mountain of debt. Now, again if you have a specific reason for going to college that’s fine. If you don’t have a specific reason for going to college then you could be potentially four years behind someone who took that other track.

JLD: Now, Fire Nation, I loved college. Like I mentioned towards the beginning I do look back at it as some of the best four years of my life. Some of my best friends to this day were on my freshman year floor in my dorm. I mean it can be a great experience. It can be a horrible experience for some people. Some people just don’t click with it but it could be a great experience too. So, I look back at my college years incredibly fondly but man, now that I’m an entrepreneur, now that I’m a businessman and now that I look back and I see the truth of those 10,000 hours that Ken’s talking about, man I look back and I got good at a lot of things in college. I’m not proud of all those things. I got good at shot gunning beer.

I got good at refereeing intramural sports. I got good at talking to girls at bars. Again, those are just some of the things. I got good at studying and I learned some things too, but hey, if we’re being honest, that’s sometimes the things you’re focusing on during those years. Not a bad thing but man if I could take those four years back and I could focus them into something that I was passionate about that I was curious about that I wanted to become an expert in or I wanted to become a master in in taking those 40 years a week like Ken said over those four years and gotten to seven, eight, 10,000 hours, I mean think of that head start that you’re getting.

And again, some people have no clue at 17 and 18 years old what they want to do for the next four years. So, hey, maybe go figure it out. But for those kids that do let’s not shame them, let’s push them in the right direction to say get going on that thing because why not? College is gonna be there. Like what’s wrong with going to college at 28 years old? Nothing. What’s wrong with going at 48 years old? My mother went back to college when she was 53 years old and she had a blast, she loved it. You know because she never went before and that was just her thing and that’s an amazing opportunity.

And we haven’t even talked and we won’t because we have other things to focus on but I mean what about doing your thing but then you can log online at night, you can take MIT courses, you can take Berkley courses, I mean these are all available now for you to consume ala carte as you wish.

So, let’s talk about comfort. Let’s talk about peace. Let’s talk about freedom, Ken. What do you want to share with us about that?

Ken: Think of a triangle and how each leg of a triangle is kind of interdependent upon the other one to remain strong. I came up with these three words: comfort, peace, and freedom when I was first writing a letter to my daughter. She went through a pretty serious health battle about ten years ago and one of the things that I did as I watched her go through it is I tried to write some notes down as to what I would tell her about life. And I kept coming back to these three words: comfort, peace, and freedom.

And to me what they mean is it’s almost like an overall goal for living and you can have a vocational passion and that’s great. But I’ve always believed if you don’t pair that up with a very clear life vision then you can never really achieve comfort, peace, and freedom which I believe is everybody’s goal. And what’s important to remember here is you can have these concepts at any level. I mean we are not all going to draw into our life plan, yeah I want a mega yacht and 15 cars and a bunch of houses. That’s just not in the cards for everyone of us and if those things are what you’re after fine, go for it.

But there’s a whole lot of people out there that have figured out a way to live in a really reasonable way because they have a really clear vision of what they would draw in their life plan to make them happy and then they kind of pair up their vocational passion to gain those things. And when you have that kind of balance you live a life that is just so stress free and you live a life of anticipation and I just think it’s in everybody’s best interest to really figure out what they want their life to look like. I teach my people here to take out a big poster board, good old fashioned box of 64 Crayola crayons and just start drawing what they want their life to look like and just keep going.

Keep going until you’ve got it the way you want to see it and then start knocking those things down one at a time as though you’re anticipating this creation of a life plan or life map. And once that occurs for you and along the path to achieving that you will have this amazing sense of comfort, peace and freedom which again I think is everyone’s goal.

JLD: And that life map Fire Nation, that should be drawn today. Like this should be something you should do now and I just want to take a little stress anxiety off of people thinking that when you’re drawing this life map you’re not etching your gravestone. Like whatever’s on that life map that’s not things that have to come true because yes, guess what, you might change your mind in the future. This life map can and probably should evolve. So, just get it out there. Like get your passions, your curiosity, your skills, your excitement, the value you want to share with the world, get it out of you.

Get it onto this life map and you’re gonna have that feeling that Ken’s talking about the comforts, the peace, the freedom, super critical stuff and again, you need Fire Nation to at least start to have that north star and evolve and adjust as you move forward. And one thing that you talk about are some dayers versus two dayers. Break that down for us.

Ken: I look at this as though imagine you have two country clubs and you’re moving into town. I’m a golfer so I do a lot of golf analogies. I hope you don’t mind.

JLD: No worries.

Ken: But I literally would go into a town and say, “Okay, if I was gonna join one of these two clubs what would I do?” Well, one of the clubs is typically called the Somedayers Club and the other one’s called the Todayers Club. And if you look at the attributes of these two clubs they’re very different okay? If you go to the Somedayers Club the parking lot is full of cars. Lots of people can’t wait to get in and join this place. So, you get out of your car, you walk in the door and they can’t wait to have you in as a member. They can never get enough members and one thing for sure John; is they don’t ever want to let go of any of their members.

And as you’re walking around in this club one of the things you realize is you hear a whole lot of people saying, “Hey, you know, some day I’m gonna do this. And why don’t we do that some day?” Or, “You know, we should go to lunch at some point” or, “We should go and do this,” or “Some day I’m gonna invest and start my future,” or “Some day I’m gonna get that job that I really want.”

The problem is nobody’s accomplishing anything in this world. There’s a whole lot of people who do a whole lot of talking but nothing’s ever really getting done and after awhile of belonging to this club you realize man, there’s a whole heck of a lot of ideas going on in this place and the people mean well, but this isn’t where I want to be.

So, then you attempt to leave this club, you’re done with the tour and you want to go over to the Todayers Club and on the way out the door these people are grabbing you by the collar and they’re saying, “Don’t go over there, don’t become a doer. Be like the rest of us; just live in a world of hope, or maybe, or some day.” And now you gotta fight your way out of this club because they don’t want you to leave because they feel the same kind of guilt amongst themselves that everybody else does. And you can see where I’m going with this.

You go down the street to the Todayers Club, may not be that many people in the parking lot and maybe less cars there, maybe harder to get in, but once you get into this place you’re hearing nothing but I’ve done this, let me show you that, here’s how I did this, let me help you accomplish yours. Here’s what my 401k looks like. Hey, let’s schedule lunch for tomorrow. Hey, let’s go learn that language starting next week or let’s go work on your golf game this afternoon.

There’s a distinct difference between the two clubs because one of them is focused on either what they’re doing or what they’ve done and the celebration of that and then to move forward to the next goal and the other one is kinda stuck in gee wiz, someday we’ll make that happen and I got a lot of wishes and a lot of dreams and a lot of hopes but they’re stuck in that someday mode and it’s just a stark contrast between two groups of people. I just think everyone should endeavor to go to a place where things actually get done.

JLD: These are powerful words Fire Nation, and I really hope that you recognize why I end every episode by saying you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with because it’s those people you surround yourself with that’s going to determine the trajectory of your future. Are you hanging out with todayers, like people who are living for today and are taking action today or are you hanging out with somedayers, people that are taking action “someday.”

Now you have the five steps to nailing your future one by one by one. Break down this process for us.

Ken: Well, first off have you ever heard somebody say, “Hey, I’m gonna set a goal,” or “I set my goal today.” Well, the first question I always ask what does the word set mean. Draw that for me. Here’s paper and the crayons, draw the word set. What does that even mean? And they can’t get past that first step. They have maybe a vision for what they might want to have but that’s kind of where it ends. And it’s funny because as I go through these you’ll understand how the crowd gets to thin as you get towards the end of them but my whole goal is to make anyone’s goals absolutely bullet proof. If you’re gonna take the time and spend the energy to set something you’re gonna get it done because I believe the only way to live is to live a life of anticipation.

So, one of the first steps I think that anybody should do is congratulate yourself because you literally need to say, “I am this different person now, John. I am not that somedayer anymore.” Like a smoker who quits finally because they say, “I am a non-smoker now.” That is a very, very key thing to acknowledge who you are and it’s important to take that next step.

The second thing which becomes a little more tricky is to identify a goal that is so clear, so vivid that you’re actually building the brochure in your mind because what your mind sees it gets. So, if you think about it, I don’t care what the goal is, a few categories might be what’s the size of this goal, what’s the color? In my case what’s the horsepower of it, where is it located, what are you gonna name this thing, what kind of feelings does it give you when you think about obtaining it? And how will you be better once you’ve gotten it? No matter what that goal is it needs to be completely and clearly built inside your mind.

And that’s critical because again if you can’t see it you’ll never get it. And the thing is, John only 20 percent of the population is able to get this far believe it or not.

The next step, which is where again, it gets a little more tricky and that is once you have this clear vivid goal, you need to create its completion with certainty. You need to make sure that this is something that is absolutely going to happen and the way to do that is to think about the typical things: how much does it cost, how much do I have, how much do I need to save, how long will it take me to save it, how can I break that down? Get the goal broken down into little pieces so that you can kind of celebrate the little wins along the way as you’re making this happen but it needs to be a goal that you create and that you know for sure you have to do this with certainty. Only 16 percent of us can get that far.

The fourth step is where the fun comes because once you’ve gotten this far you need to actually take this goal and put it into action. And what I mean by that is you go to your payroll clerk and if you’re trying to save X amount of dollars you say, “I want $50.00 a week taken out of my check. I want to put into this account. I want to take the debit card of the checking account that goes to that account and lock it somebody’s safe somewhere so I don’t have access to it. I’m gonna walk this path. I’m going from here to there, there’s nothing going to stop me and in 52 weeks from today or 104 weeks from today or whatever your timeframe is, I will complete it for sure.

So, I’ve set the goal, now I’m not gonna sweat it anymore. I’m just gonna breathe and walk and I will hit that goal. And once it’s in action you become a whole different person because now the time flies by and you can see how you’re halfway there, you’re three quarters of the way there, your anticipation completely builds. It’s like having several vacations planned at one time. You kinda see it in your mind and the brochure just keeps going around in your head until you get to that completion point and then as you’re approaching this the final step which in my mind is one of the most important ones is to share the setting and the putting into action of this goal to share it with others.

Now do you remember when you first went off the high dive as a kid, the very first time you jumped off that board? It might have ben 15 feet in the air? I’m absolutely certain that before you did that you probably had a conversation with three or four of your buddies who were all six years old in their little swimsuits and they’re thinking, man, is he really gonna do it? And there’s this whole negotiation thing that goes on. But what comes from that John, is an amazing amount of strength because you have several people looking over your shoulder kinda nudging you along.

So, here you go to the ladder, you grab that rusted ladder, you’re walking up the steps, you’re nervous as a six-year-old, it’s getting really high in the air, you’re looking over at your buddies, they’re pushing you along, they’re egging you along and they’re cheering for you. You walk down the end of that board, the board starts to get a little spongy at the end, you look over at them, am I really gonna do this, and what do they do? They help you launch into that water.

And I would bet that if you didn’t have those guys there that diving board would go unused for one more day and one more week and one more summer. Okay, until you had the energy and the confidence that comes from a group of people walking you down that path putting their hand on your shoulder when you try to turn around and saying you gotta go do this. So, the amazing thing about this is only one percent of the people get to this point.

JLD: Wow. I mean Fire Nation, think about the power of these five steps. No. 1, you’re just gonna congratulate yourself because you’re no longer a somedayer. No. 2 you want to be building that brochure in your mind. Like get a visual so your mind can actually see it because your mind gets what it sees. Complete that creation of your goal with certainty. You’ve gotta be certain confident Fire Nation. And then, of course, put your goal into action. Action will also speak louder than words and then the last point share your goal with others. Have that accountability. That’s why the mastermind concept is so powerful and that accountability is so real.

So, Ken you’ve dropped so many value bombs today brother. Take us home. What is the one thing that you want to make sure that we really get when it comes to this entire episode that we talked about. All these value bombs give us the one key takeaway. Share with us how we can connect more with you, consume more of your content. Any maybe gift or giveaway that you have for Fire Nation and then we’ll say goodbye.

Ken: First off, I appreciate your having me. I guess the first thing that I would say is there is no doubt that people have a heck of a lot more control over their own world, their own destiny, their own selves than they give themselves credit for. And the thing is once you start going down the path of creating these goals for yourself, all you have to do is hit one or two of these and you become a self made goal crushing machine. I mean it’s like okay, thanks for the path Ken, now get out of my way. I can do this on my own. I mean I watch it happen every day. It’s a great thing to see happen.

As far as what I’m doing, I wrote a book called Blue Collar Cash about this whole process. It comes out on July 28th and it can be preordered just about anywhere. You can go to kenrusk.com and I encourage you to go to my Facebook page. I have a whole lot of great content there that talks about the different jobs that are available, the different ways that you can get these jobs, the high paying blue collar jobs that nobody even knows exists, the ones you can get without college degrees and just a lot of things about how to improve your life and keep it on track. So, I hope people go visit me there and get some of that content.

JLD: Fire Nation, you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You’ve been hanging out with KR and JLD today, so keep up that heat. And if you head over to eofire.com and type Ken in the search bar the show notes page will pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today. It links to all this jazz. Of course, his book Blue Collar Cash. Go preorder, go order if you’re listening to this after the actual publication date. Make it happen; lot of value there. And of course, check out his Facebook page; a lot of great content there as well.

And Ken, I just want to say thank you for sharing your knowledge, your value, your truth with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you and we’ll catch you on the flip side.

Ken: Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.