What It's Lke Working In The Trades With Bobby From @blue_collar_code

Five o'clock. If y'all are watching this live on YouTube, Facebook, maybe Instagram, it is five o'clock on the East Coast Sunday. I have a great guest for you today, Bobby Armstrong from Blue Collar Code. If y'all don't know who he is, you're going to check him out. I'll try to leave some links. He's got some very entertaining social media stuff. I've been wanting to get him on the show. Just because of the character he is, he looks like he's going to be fun to talk to. So y'all hang around. I guarantee you we're going to have a good time tonight. Here we go. Here we go. This is Bobby to people who do not know. Hello. Hello. I'm pretty sure you made it to the last AHR. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. I did not make it to Las Vegas. That is more like something like home territory for you, isn't it? Ha ha ha! Actually, Vegas, yeah, it's pretty close, southwest. But that was my first AHR. Was it? And I think I saw that you went to the awards show. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah, good time. It was fun to be surrounded by people as passionate about the trade as I am. Yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that. It's a crowd full of people who all seem to know a lot about the things we're interested in, and that's kind of, I thought it was a cool crowd myself. Yeah, yeah. No, it was a good one. Don't miss this year. We're planning something big, so don't miss this year. Well, I plan on being there. I missed it last year. I was in Orlando, but last year it was like a cold snap hit right. When things were really kicking off and, you know, a one-man show, and I was like, you know, I kind of need to stay. Yeah, yeah, not here yet. So this year, if it gets busy, I'm sorry, I've got to go this year. I missed it last year, so I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, I can't make any announcements, official announcements yet, but we've got something amazing in the works, so it's going to be a good time. I'm looking forward to it, man. I mean, you can't drop any hints. Like, it might be at a certain booth or anything like that at a certain time or anything. I'll say ACIQ's involved. The last one, I missed because I was so involved. . All right. . . Actually, ACIQ is helping to take care of me when I go up to Chicago. . . . . . . And I think we're going to have an event at Wrigley Field. . . . . . Am I telling too much? . . All right. . No, no. . . I'm looking forward to just. . . . . Just the whole thing. I mean, I live in almost a podunk town . . . . . in the middle of nowhere and it's hard for me. I mean, like the other day I made a trip to Atlanta for. some watch party and that was a major event for me to be able to be in a place like that where things like that can happen so i want to take advantage of if there's any good shows or anything like that in chicago or something that i'll never see down here in south georgia that that's what i'm thinking about when i'm headed to chicago just and take advantage of being in in the place the the city itself is overwhelming if you've never been it's it's it's The second city, I guess, to New York or whatever, but there's some blocks that you walk down or you can only see blue sky if you look straight up. So it's a pretty big city. I have been to New York City one time, and I remember being on a bus that was going downtown, and I remember every intersection we went through, if I looked forward, backwards, left, or right, it was just like skyscrapers. Yeah. It was like a valley, and at the bottom of the valley was the road, and the rest was just Scott and F. It made an impression on me, because you don't see that every day. Yeah, no, that downtown area is very close to, I believe, the AHR's McCormick Center, which is right down the street, so you're right there. It's going to be freaking cold, though. I'm looking forward to it. I really am looking forward to it. I was born and raised right down the street from downtown Chicago. Really? Yeah. That is a cool deal. Deal. I have never been to Chicago. I've flown around it on my way to Milwaukee. They actually avoided the airspace when I was on my way to Milwaukee. The plane went around the airspace, but I have never actually been to Chicago. Should be a good time. Yeah. If you would tell some of the people who are watching, I don't think I pulled up any comments, what you normally work on and do, because I have seen you on some commercial equipment And one of your videos. Really got my attention because it pointed out something about D-Home. So what do you normally do? It looks like commercial work. Yeah, yeah. Currently, I do all commercial. I'm going to say commercial work is probably close to half of my career has been commercial. But primarily what I'm working on right now is A. O. N., Addison equipment. I'm We're seeking to expand that to maybe CaptivAire, starting Valiant, Greenheck, but right now it's mostly Aon and Addison equipment. It's pretty complicated equipment, to and when these sales guys are selling that equipment, speak they're selling a startup package, and that's where I come into play. now. Actually, even on a small scale, the little residential stuff that I do, that startup package is something that I'm going to start offering to make sure at least myself or a startup technician visits after the install is done to do checks, check pressures. Try to make sure that we're not going to have a callback within a couple days. The way I look at startup is startup guys are the last line of quality control. When that equipment leaves the factory, it ends up in our hands, and then we're the ones who verify all their wiring, verify the copper isn't rubbing. A lot of the pre-checks are pretty intense, and they will save that equipment from breaking down. It can, it definitely can. I agree. Um, now the, some of the stuff you're talking about, Aon, my experience with Aon has been like, um, conditioned makeup air units on top of restaurants and stuff like that. Is that similar to what, are you working on something bigger or stuff like that? Um, well, they got DOASs, they got ERUs, they got MAUs, they got split systems. Aon's got a wide variety of equipment. The same with Addison. They, they're, they're kind of, They compete against each other, but they're focused more on commercial stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah, but I'm you know, they they got standard RTUs And yeah, so anything that's a Aon I'm the guy working on. Okay. Um Um, One of the last Aons I have worked on was Basically remotely controlled it was remotely monitored and controlled and I kept having to call in and say hey I need you to put this in in the cool mode for me so that I could check things. I mean I couldn't even control it with the thermostat. They had complete remote control of the thing and it's frustrating when I'm used to just going to the thermostat doing what I need to do and I'm sure you can relate to what I'm talking about. Yeah yeah you can't you can't manipulate those systems without a laptop. You're right. The laptop is just another tool in my tool bag. Video that you posted that really got my attention. I think you called it a reheat valve. It is not a reversing valve. Used for dehumidification, and it really got my attention because I guess about 20 years ago, Lennox tried to do this on a residential split system, and they actually had a second condenser coil inside with the evaporator coil, and it was like you had two line sets going in. It was a nightmare. It was an absolute nightmare. If you can imagine. It's surprisingly, surprisingly, it's pretty basic stuff, but it can be very intimidating to guys that haven't seen it before. Now, the only work guys that don't have to deal with it every day. I know there's a lot of coils. There's a lot of refrigerant. There's, there's a lot going on. There's only one like that, that I take care of. And it is. An air conditioner dehumidifier for an indoor pool at a hotel and it's got three condensers on it. So that's the only one like that that I work on. It's the only one out of everything I'm taking care of right now. Yeah yeah so that that second coil that is after the evaporator coil in the airstream basically all it does is that valve just turns that coil into the condenser coil. So you're pumping that hot discharge gas into that coil, basically to reheat the air, because in dehumidification, you might not be calling for air conditioning. You might just be calling for dehumidification. So that coil will help temper the air so you don't have ice cold supplier temperatures blasting downstairs. Exactly. Exactly. Basically. The way residentials are doing it now, they just slow everything down and we put the coil at below the dew point temperature and just run air conditioning very slowly and it's still removing about the same amount of liquid humidity. Yeah, yeah, it's basically the same concept except we're reheating the air via the name reheat. Yes, yes, but it's a good idea, it is, it's a good idea the way they've done it. So the reason why I said it's not a reversing valve is because we get, you know, we don't get naturally born guys joining the commercial side of this trade. You know, usually they're residential guys wanting to get into commercial. And so when they see something like that they've never seen before, I mean it could easily be interpreted as a reversing valve, a fancy reversing valve. Let's get into it. Let's get into the video. So I've had multiple guys say that that's a reversing valve Okay. So I'm going to start with the video itself. So let's get into it. So let's get into it. and I had to correct them, So let's get into it. but that's where that whole video came from. So let's get into it. There are multiple things in air conditioning where you have to do that. Like there's sometimes there's a muffler on a compressor and you have to tell people that is not a dryer. It looks like But it's not. The one thing that's really getting guys now is the oil separator and the accumulator. They mount them side by side in an Aon unit. So everybody's like, why has it got two accumulators? And that's a fun one. Yeah, I can imagine that. Will you talk for a second how you got into commercial? Did you start out in residential? Yeah, yeah. I spent 17, sorry, let me correct that. About 16 years in residential before I jumped to commercial. I moved to Arizona, and I just started applying at companies because I was there just to visit, and I ended up staying because I got the job. Well, when I got there, I noticed all the vans, all the air conditioning vans, and so I decided to apply. Arizona is beautiful. And I came from originally Chicago, and then I spent 13 years in Florida. So going from Florida with all that humidity to Arizona where there's hardly any humidity, it was it was like paradise. So I ended up staying and I took a job with a commercial company, mechanical company, and they specialized in high rises, downtown Phoenix, Tempe. And I was they pulled me in as a service tech and I screwed up a lot of ---- before I became a good A good... before I became a good commercial service tech. I mean, um... I can say I burn up my fair share of motors, and I remember one of my first employers, he was like, you do realize every time you burn up one of these motors, I have to pay for it. I mean, I'm trying. All right. But in his credit, he did let me figure it out myself, and that way I learned it in a way that, you know, I'll never burn up another one. Yeah, yeah. Now, the best technicians didn't, like I said before, they're not naturally born. You know, they screw up a lot and they learn from their failures. And unfortunately, that's part of the growth process in this trade. It is. It really is. I mean, even if somebody, I've had people apply for a job that are mechanical engineers. And it's not that they don't have the smarts. They need the experience of hands-on. And actually changing a motor or something like that to know how to do it right and understand how to wire things up and it takes experience before you're comfortable just doing it. Yeah, a lot of a lot of the best leaders that I've, you know, studied under were very patient and allowed me to make those screw ups. You know, they would say, do it this way. And I'd be like, no, I'm going to do it this way. And when I screwed it up, they were there to, you know, comfort me and show me this is the way to do it. Oh, I kind of I did have a couple of times when I rode with a senior tech and. Those times were rare. I actually probably spent maybe a total of two weeks training with somebody. And I remember this old guy. He was so old school. He basically charged by like beer can cold. You know what I'm talking about? And back then, almost everything was R22. I mean, R410 was just coming out. But he charged like that. And I remember when he would work on a furnace, he would jump. from red to white with a jumper and while he was watching he was keeping keep his hand on the jumper just in case he jumped back he would shut the system off automatically Thank you. Thank you very much. and he was he was so old school and he was i mean i think that's fun i would have been slapping behind him like that making him jump on purpose i remember being in the van and every time i mean The fellow smoked, and I loved him to death, but the smoking would give me a headache. So I would mess with him because things would fall off the shelves when we're driving down the road. And one day, I took like a magnet and filled it full of zip screws and just had it barely teetering on the edge of his cabinet. We went around a bump, and it made a big noise, and I loved messing with the guy. He was a character. He was. Honestly, that's my favorite part of the trade is screwing with people. I do it all the time. I do. There's this one particular guy at one of my parts houses. I will go in there all serious and everything and ask him for a two-sided filter or, you know, something. I'm looking for it, and I'm like, dude, come here. That's good. That's good. Yeah, he's a good guy. So where are you at exactly? What side of the country? I am in South Georgia. If you know anything about Georgia, North Georgia and South Georgia are like two different countries. It is, it's, North Georgia is metropolitan mostly, it's the Atlanta suburbs and all around Atlanta and it's completely different except there are some small towns you get far enough We're in a void from Atlanta. But South Georgia is an agricultural-based economy down here. Small towns, lots of farming going on. It's a completely different vibe down here than it is in North Georgia. Got it, got it. Yeah, I've only drove through there and around the city. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Mm-hmm. Albany is basically one of those towns that might be on the way to somewhere else. So you got that nasty humidity. Oh, it's bad. Yeah. We basically, we're far enough south where we basically get tropical weather. Yeah. Yeah. Afternoon thunderstorms when it's real hot, kind of like in the middle of Florida and stuff like that. It's very similar weather to Florida weather. I'm only an hour and a half from the border of Florida. Gotcha. Florida Georgia line. So you have to insulate your insulation. I'm Hey, that's why I came, that's, dude, that's why I stayed in Arizona. starting It was like, it was Arizona compared to Florida. It was like, Arizona is a baby in the terms of air conditioning. Like they're just figuring it out where Florida is far advanced to speak in air conditioning. We, you know, it was crazy. It was crazy, but it was like, I was getting paid more money. now. To work less because I didn't have to insulate, uninsulate, uninsulate, and do all that crazy stuff. It was like, why wouldn't I stay here? You know, one of the first introductions to air conditioning out west for me was on YouTube. And there's this fellow out there. He's either in Nevada or California named Chris that does HVAC videos. And I saw one day he was working what I think was a restaurant. One of the air conditioners was like a regular air conditioner with compressors and evaporator coil removing humidity and then on the other side of the building there was a swamp cooler and I'm like that would never work here in South Georgia you know what I mean? Yeah no no that so so they do have a lot of swamp coolers out here um they're they're pretty much phasing them out on residential but they still use them in like warehouses. And as soon as it gets, believe it or not, we do get a little bit of humidity. We get a monsoon season. And as soon as we get humidity in the air, those swamp coolers stop working. There's no evaporation. So temperature transfer. So it just feels like hot, wet air blowing on you. And then they start leaking water because they're not evaporating. Yep. Easy money. Easy money. Man. I cannot tell you how many people have asked me about these advertisements they see either on Instagram or something about little swamp coolers for like women in office who they want to get a little bit of extra cool and they feel hot. So they're thinking about buying this little swamp cooler. And basically it's just a little humidifier is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, no, no, no, you don't want one of those things. You will regret it within 20 minutes. Trust me. It's just a humidifier. They don't work. It don't work, not down here. Honestly, even in the super dry climate out here, when you got all the swamp coolers working in a warehouse, you walk into that warehouse, you do feel, you know, like a 10 to 15 degree temperature difference. But honestly, when I first moved to Arizona, I started experiencing those swamp coolers. It literally just felt like Florida. Walking into a warehouse felt like walking into Florida. It was sweat. Oh, no, it's a nasty. It's a nasty exchange for some air conditioned air. I'll tell you that people have those on their houses. I'm gonna go to a comment here. Thank you. No problem. I do hope my videos do help somebody as I'm sure you do. It my efforts in the videos have been initially just purely educational to pass on what little bit I know, and has grown into a great community. I will tell y'all, I do plan on being in Chicago. As Bobby here, I'm going to support my friends over at ACIQ and probably stop by their booth. So hopefully I might be able to publish a time, exact time when I'm going to be there. We just haven't nailed it down. So I hope to see some of y'all in Chicago. Yeah. Don't want to miss it. Don't want to miss it. It felt my first time at AHR, it was. It was fun to meet all the people that I watch on social media and people that I follow and actually get to meet them. I was, I was a little starstruck, you know, meeting all these people, but it was, it was all of them, you know, it was a huge crowd of just influencers there. It was, it was pretty amazing experience. You know, my very first time at any experience like that was the award show in 2025. And, um, I didn't, it was a very large Instagram crowd. Um, I was one of a few YouTube people there. And I remember trying to just go shake some hands and talk to some people that I was kind of starstruck about, you know, and some of those people in there are stars, man. You know what I mean? They really are. And you never know when you go to the award show who you're going to be sitting with. I remember. Just sitting down having a regular conversation and you know I'm just a one-man contractor on making a little bit of money with the YouTube you know maybe buy my tools and stuff and the guy that's sitting next to me was a plumber who started and ran a successful business then found a way to franchise his business and now his name and his company is in like 10 different states and this guy's this huge multi-millionaire and I'm just thinking This room is full of some great ideas, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, yeah. It was just, some astonishing people were in there. The networking and relationships that I made really changed the course of my career, my social media, my professional career, people I'm extremely close to nowadays, so it's quite an event. Well, I will put it like this. Before... That award ceremony and before AHR two years ago, I did not look at YouTube seriously. After that, I was like, you know, maybe I need to pay more attention, not just as pay attention to what I'm doing, but pay attention to it as a source of income. Oh, yeah. Untapped, untapped revenue from social media, YouTube. I recommend anybody do it. If you, yes, if you are a competent professional in your field and you're proud of your work, post your work on social media, you never know what may become of it. And not only that, it's like a live resume of your work for future employers or clients or something that they can just, yeah, we know this guy. You know how many job interviews I've gone into and just gave them I'm going to leave him my Instagram instead of a resume. Really? At least two. They're either going to be like, whoa, this guy's a liability, or we like this guy. If one or the other, you're right. All right. You're right. I'm starting to speak now. Social media has been extremely good to me. So you are echoing something that I have said myself, even as just a young professional. That may one day wish to market his work or her work in some kind of way, either to an employer or to clients for one day, your own business, social media. If you can maybe separate your personal social media from your professional, but put your professional work on social media, that there are benefits. There are. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. 100%. I didn't, I really didn't know that when I started my business, it's been what, 16 years now. I did have a Facebook profile, a Google business page, but I developed a website and I spent a lot of time and effort on having a really nice website and learned how to do some coding things. I mean, I went way overboard to do a good job and it did me no good. So, I mean, I ranked at number one on every HVAC search for like eight years. Did me no good. But when I stopped doing that and started posting pictures and videos to my Google business page, and then my YouTube page is now linked to my Google business page. I have a website. If you go to my website, it is my YouTube page. And just doing that has made a difference in my business. Just that little bit right there. Well, you think about it, the old school way of marketing was what TV commercials and billboards on the side of the road, ads in magazines, yellow pages, everybody's got a freaking phone in their hand. Like social media is like a marketer's dream because. Instead of paying $20,000 for a billboard annually, they can pay a content creator $1,000 to make them a bunch of videos. And so basically, they're getting marketing on pennies on the dollar. Everybody's got a freaking cell phone in their hand. Everybody's watching something. I will give you an example. Simple. Milwaukee Tools, almost their entire marketing program is social media influencers. And as far as I know, they don't pay anybody. They just treat them well, maybe send them some tools to review and hope that they'll use them in videos and stuff like that. Their whole marketing program is social media, and they're doing wonderful. They've gone from being one of the backwater tool company what you had to plug into a wall to be in the leading Power tool company in the country. Yeah, no, it's definitely a game changer. It's definitely, we're on a wave that's, you know, still riding high, you know, still climbing. So it's, you know, like I said, I recommend anybody do it. If you want to do it to either build a personal brand or even promote your business. Yeah, you're right. There's no other easier way of getting that done for free. Here's a question we both might be able to answer. What are some must-haves to start making content? Are you talking about phone, camera, stand, or anything like that? I just use my phone. I just use my phone and then the editing apps within Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, they all have their internal editing applications. That's how I started. I go back and look at some of my original videos and it's super cringe. I did the same thing. I've been I've been doing videos now for over five years on YouTube. And I realized that there's like a little filter right here, instead of listing the newest first, you can list your oldest first. So I clicked on it, and I looked at one of my oldest videos, and I was just like, no, it's good. This is completely unprofessional, unedited, just To answer the question, cell phone and just start playing with the apps. I mean, just post a video. And it don't have to be some long, elaborate tutorial or something. It could be like a 10-second clip. That's all you need. I know it, and that's all you start. I'm going to tell you this. I kind of, because I enjoy doing the shorts sometimes, I will put shorts on Instagram. And I just allow Instagram to automatically post it to my Facebook page, my business Facebook page. And because of that, my business Facebook page has gotten to like 20,000 followers now. And when I'm posting on Facebook now, I get a little bit of money. So I'm like, you know, it's a no brainer. Just just let it post. I mean, I'm not even monitoring that business Facebook page very much, but it's generating. One thing that got me is when I started generating money on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, don't pay me nothing, uh, is the taxes side of it. I got, I got hit with fines at the end of the year. Cause I figured I could go in and give them all my tax forms throughout the year and pay taxes like normal. You got to pay your taxes quarterly. Oh, yeah. So if you're making money on Instagram or if you're making money on social media, Make sure you get an accountant to help you with your taxes. This is an argument I have with my accountant every year. They want me to pay quarterly, but I'm not going to do it. I feel like I can manage that money because I can manage it better myself. And the government management manage it and I earn the interest in the benefits of managing it if I manage it myself and I can make more money than the fine that they're going to give me for not paying early. True, true. The fine wasn't some crazy amount because I think I made like less than. $1,200 or something like that. But it was an eye-opener that, you know. It could happen. Yeah, it could happen. If you're making a lot of money on social media, that fine can get astronomical. It's comical, so. My fine, I'm talking about company, all personal income, everything filed under the same thing. My fine was like $500. To me, it was worth it for me to keep my money and just pay everything at the end of the year. Yeah, it was just it was an eye opener for me of my ignorance on the system. You see that, Bobby? Yes, I'm doing merch soon, finally. You know, I get a lot of people asking me about it, and that's just another source of income that I'm not taking advantage of with social media. How are you going to do the merch? You already got it planned? Are you going to do it all yourself, or you got somebody trying to handle it for you? No, I got... I think the easiest way to start it is there's companies that will produce the product and mail out the product, take all the orders and do everything for you. And basically, you just get a cut. The company I'm getting ready to work with is Fourth Wall. And basically, all I got to do is just enter my bank information and to help design the products and basically just sit back and collect a check. So that's that's the route I am going. Well, I may ask you more about that. They got, they got. Texting you on Instagram because. I mean, they got stickers, mugs, all kinds of stuff. And you just basically take whatever image you want to put on that product, design it. And they, then you have a link that you can send people to, to buy your product. Like a store link. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Awesome. And that's four. Fourthwall. It's. Fourthwall. Fourth wall. Okay. I have been requested for merch, and the only thing I've got, like, on my YouTube channel is a really old merch store that kind of came with the package of YouTube, like, five years ago, and it's not serving me in any purpose, really. Yeah, you can actually look up some of the YouTube videos on 4th Wall. There's, you know, pros and con videos and stuff like that. That's where I went to do my research. Will do, will do. Basically, you don't have to have the inventory or pay the taxes on that asset. You know, it's all made to order. So it's almost like you're making a commission on your own product. Speaking of which, I'll give a little piece of advice that I got from another influencer. This store y'all see in the corner, that link, that is my Amazon store. I basically started that because some of the, Some of the potential sponsors that I was going after were just low-balling me, and I didn't like it. So I take their products that I like, I put them in the store, and I promote the store. And that way, I'm still making money off the products I like, even if that company doesn't want to be a sponsor. Awesome. And is that set up through Facebook as well? That is Amazon Affiliate Store. And basically, that just goes... That code is actually not a static code. It takes you to a website that leads you to my store. I'm having trouble actually finding what is called a static code that leads you to the source address immediately, and it would never change, and companies don't want to make one for you. Of course. But, yeah, that's how I use that store. For example, if I like a field piece probes. And I want to sell them and get an affiliate link. You know, Field Peace might not work with me, but I can put those probes in my store and still profit off of those. Interesting. I'm at your store right now. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. I just put something new on that store, I think. We might need to swap some trade secrets. I actually learned that little trick there from a person who does YouTube full-time now. Oh, okay. And that's a big part of this. Unfortunately, I can't quit my job to do social media full time because I will run out of content. So will I. I mean, I mean, I got to work or I'm not going to have anything to make videos of. I mean, I don't think y'all want to watch me going camping because that's what's happening when I when I retire. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Hey, so besides us being older, white, male. HVAC, other common denominators, ACIQ, and that's honestly how I found you. Really? Yes. ACIQ, I'm going to go ahead and start off with saying I know people are criticizing them because they're having some boards failure. So is everybody else. I have been installing them for about a year now, a little over a year, and I've had very few failures. What I really believe in with ACIQ is product that they are selling and how good it is for my market. A heat pump that can heat a house that does not need heat strips in a unitary system like a split system or a package unit or something like that is wonderful. I mean, it is a great deal for the people who live here and that is the number one reason I'm supporting them because these big American name brands are just now getting on the train with these side discharge inverter systems and they've been selling inferior heat pumps for years and I'm glad to see what ACIQ is bringing to the market. Yeah yeah no they they approached me they approached me at AHR. Did the Thanks. Are you an influencer? And I said listen pay me 20 grand and I'll give you whatever you want. And they reached their hand out to shake my hand, like, okay, deal. I'm like, who the heck are you? That was That was my first run-in with ACIQ. Oh, man, I'm trying to imagine who you ran into. Do you know who it was? It was Nicole. Good call. I even got her on camera, because I was doing my Construction Confessions series. And so I was doing interviews, and I had my mask on, my glasses on. You couldn't even see my face. And so, yeah, she sees this guy running around with a mask on in this professional AHR atmosphere. And she's like, I'll buy that. Oh yeah? Yeah. And I gave her, I busted on her as soon as she walked up on me. Thank you. Nicole's a true, she is a true. No, they're definitely, they're definitely fun people. They are. They are good people, and I can't believe they put up with me as long as they have. Ha, ha, ha. Oh, wait. We put up with them. We put up with them. That's right. That's right. That's right. It looks like the comments are popping off. Hold on. I'm trying to get there. My buddy Jake is in the house. He's also one of them long-haired hippie people. I don't know. You know, you knew I had to say something. Are you going to wear your hard hat in the full get up when you go to the award show? It's a secret. Oh my, oh my. Thank I wear this Aussie hat in a lot of my videos. There's a good chance you might see that on a tuxedo in Chicago. The story behind that was I was in a competition with the hard hat manufacturer. you. Uh, they asked for, they asked for three videos and I had given them two and it just so happened that the HVAC tactical awards aligned with this, this video competition. So I'm like, you know what? I got a tuxedo. I'm going to wear my hard hat up in there and I'm going to take footage and I'm going to turn that in. Man, I turned in that footage to them and less than 24 hours they called me up and they're like, you won. You're coming to Texas with us and you get to tour the factory. That is cool. When you know now, you know now that people want to see the hat. I know. I know. I know. It's definitely, besides the mustache, that hard hat is definitely a signature of mine. And if I may give you a compliment on that mustache, I have never been able to grow a mustache like that. I'm afraid to try now because it might be all white. All right. It gets me a lot of attention from men and women, but I come from a long line of epic facial hair dudes. It's just in my genes. Okay. Somebody made a comment here that maybe you can explain. What's the deal with bananas bro I don't know I so i quickly learned working in florida working in the attics that if i ate bananas it it helped me through the day not get cramps and stuff like that so it just stuck with me and then being out here in arizona it's the same thing The heat will suck it out of you. Suck out all your minerals and stuff. So I eat bananas. I freaking eat bananas. They show up in my ******* videos. Pardon me. They show up in my videos because they're always with me. But it works, right? Bananas sell, man. I'm I need to land a brand deal with Chiquita or something. starting Something. Perfect. I was, you know, I saw the bananas, like maybe a sticker or something you had put on Instagram. And I'm like, all right, I got to ask about the bananas. Yeah, the bananas. to I don't know how it happened. I just became the freaking banana man. speak. I love it. Man, oh man. Well, let me ask you, within the crowd that you work with, maybe at your home base, when you go to parts stores, do people recognize you? Uh, yeah, yeah. I get, I get, man, I get recognized on jobs halfway across the country. Uh, that's, I'm still, I'm still trying to figure out a way to, uh, absorb that because when somebody approaches you and says, Hey, I know you from Instagram, it's a weird, weird feeling. Um, to a degree flattering and I don't know how to respond to that. Like, Oh, Hey, yeah, you're a fan. Cool. See you later. I'm still trying to figure that out. So I don't. I don't alienate my my following. Um for me um people do come up to me and talk to me and at first you know I was like man that guy didn't even know me and it was kind of exciting you know um there have been that there have been some times where I'm like you know I just didn't think it was appropriate and um and at the same time I do want to react. well to everybody and be friendly. I don't want to be guarded like that. It takes some getting used to. Let's put it that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's definitely a muscle that needs to be worked out because, like I said, it's real easy. Could you imagine being starstruck and walking up to, you know, somebody that you see on social media or basically TV, right? And that person Just totally weirding out because you walked up to him. I mean it's It could really change, it could really affect somebody, which is a really good point. You don't know how your actions, your words affect the people around you. So, you know, something that I'm working on. I try to base my reaction on the way that a couple reacted to me when I went to Milwaukee. I was there for their pipeline event and there was a couple, a young woman and a guy that do a tool show. I can't remember their names. But I was kind of starstruck, and I went up to them to introduce myself. And the way they treated me was just so friendly. They were just like just as friendly as you could imagine, like, hey. And so when it happens to me, I try to respond in the same way because that was really nice, you know, to treat me just like this. Yeah, I had the opposite. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Derek from Vice Grip Garage, big YouTuber. I went to, I went to, uh, uh, A race to see him and shame on me I approached him way too early because he was still setting up his booth and everything and I approached him and he was like listen bro I got all this stuff to set up come back and see me later and I was heartbroken. I still didn't let it affect me because you know I'm really not that sensitive but it really did make an impact on me and I still love the guy and I realized I made a mistake but. What? But if I wasn't so self-aware, I probably would have punched him in the face because he was being so freaking rude. Ha, ha, ha! Hey, Jake, Jake in the comments, bro. You better hook me up. He says he's going to hook me up with some, he says he knows an owner. Bro, you better hook me up, Jake. Well, here he goes. I do work for the owner of Chiquita. They live in Orlando. Maybe I'm put a word Hook it up. That'd be the brand deal of a lifetime. You're going to go from Blue Collar Code to the Chiquita Banana Guy. Slang and AC's the bananas. No. Jason, I'm not answering your comment, bro. Your question about Aeon Addison. I'm not answering it, bro. I love them both the same. Is this it? The question? No, no. He said Addison or Aeon. I love them both the same. All right. I've got to ask what he's talking about. Tell us about the job you did where the guy donated his kidney or lung. Do you know what he's talking about? Yeah, so ACIQ donates equipment. I donate my time, and we help out somebody in need of a new air conditioning system. So I've done two videos. In the most recent one, the guy donated his kidney to his mom, and she's going into retirement. I think the unit was a 2002 and it broke down every year so she didn't have the funds to continue to pay for this piece of equipment that's possibly going to break down every year in the future so we replaced it for free. No strings attached. That is cool. That is cool. Yeah. You know I like to somebody once told me it's okay to work for free and it's okay not to charge But here's the, here's the deal. Don't let your customers tell you when you work for free, you decide when you work for free. You know what I mean? Absolutely. Um, man, if I could, if I could live a comfortable life and not have to charge anybody for the work I do, I would do it in a heartbeat. Cause I'm a, I got a service heart. I just want to help everybody. And I overcommit a lot because I just want to help everybody. That's something that I'm working on, but, but yeah, dude, I, it's like, it's like being the dad on Christmas, like watching all your kids opening up all their Christmas presents, you know, you brought them all that joy and it, it didn't cost them anything. Um, that's, that's the way I feel like. And plus I like being, I like being the hero. I like, I like walking out of that house. Like I fixed that air conditioner and they're going to be comfortable. I love that feeling. That's one of the reasons why I do HVAC. Dude, it does give you a sense of accomplishment, doesn't it? I've tried to describe it like every day when I do a good job, it's kind of like when you just cut the grass with a push mower and it leaves these little fine lines all across your lawn. You turn around and look at it and you're like, yeah, I did that. How old are you? It feels good. It's a sense of accomplishment. You've done something with your hands. You've helped somebody out. It's a good way to spend the day. Yeah. Well, I, uh, I spent six years in the office. I, I graduated from the field to the office and that was probably one of the hardest, hardest things about being in the office is I didn't get that daily dose of accomplishment. And you'd go, you'd go weeks or months before you'd get rewarded or, or see the fruits of your labor. And, uh, that, that was, I don't work in the Not in the office anymore. I can very much empathize. There was a time when I tried to grow my company, and I had install crew, two technicians, a young lady answering the phone. And I was trying to manage this from a back office. And I realized nothing made me happier than getting out there and working. That is all I wanted to do was get out and work. I didn't want to be in that office. I didn't want to be a... Service manager. I wanted to work. And that's kind of part of the reason when I had bad luck with employees, I just said, you know what? I'll go back to doing it myself. I was happier then anyway. Yeah. So that's what I did. Now that stress will age you quicker than anything in this world. And stress is worse than cigarettes. Tell me about it. I have recently been through some. Stress related. I think stress has made, I got foodborne illness about a week ago and I think the stress just made it worse where it was harder for me to recover. And so the stress, I mean, it's just like a slow killer. You're right. You got to watch it. And it's a hit to the pride when I can't fix an air conditioner. I take it personally. I will go home and cry myself to sleep. Okay. Okay. Figure out how to fix it and then go back the next day and fix it. I know you're going to stay up all night thinking about it. Well, is it a hit to the pride if you have to call tech support? No, no. No, it should not be because it happens to everybody, right? Yeah, no, there's, I'll never get to a point in this career where I think I know it all. Never, it'll never happen. And every time I call tech support, it is like, it's like, it's like going to school. You get a real quick education and like, it could even be as simple as. Why didn't I freaking check that? So next time, check that before you call tech support. You know, I appreciate the tech support guys. Some of them annoy the crap out of me, but I appreciate them. Yeah, there's a couple of them that probably know me by my first name now. But yeah, you got to be friends with tech support, know how to use the resources around you and try not to be intimidated by some of this stuff. I'm going to go ahead and get ready to sign off. It is close to an hour. For everybody who does not know this is Bobby Armstrong, you can find him on Instagram. Blue collar code is blue underscore collar underscore code. Yeah, don't mess that up because I got a lot of clones out there imitating me right now. So look him up, guys. I'm going to go ahead and hit the button and turn this off.