Announcer:

Are you ready for an open discussion with the best of the best and the best of what's next? Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. Join in on a great conversation today with some of the world's great influencers as they showcase great advice and techniques that made them the game changers they are today. Now here's Tony DUrso.

Tony:

Welcome. I'm your host Tony DUrso. I interview some of the most successful people in the world, and I thank you for joining us. In just a moment, we have an elite entrepreneur join us who provides insights and guidance you can use to move along your vision path. This show is dedicated to helping you turn your vision into reality and we are the number one show on www.voiceamerica.com. Also, check us out on Apple at www.tonydurso.com/apple, and please leave a five-star review. The show is free to you and a nice review helps support us and you get my eternal thanks. That's priceless! Start building your better portfolio today. Get started at www.fundrise.com/durso to have your first 90 days of advisory fees waived. More details just ahead on this sponsor with a lot more info about them, so please stay tuned. Today's show is about mentoring and apprenticeships with Matt Poischbeg. Let's see what we can learn today. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary recap of what we went over, so stay tuned for that. Matt Poischbeg, born and raised in Hamburg Germany, moved to Everett WA after finishing his BA in Business and in a few years, took over the reins at Sea-Lect Plastics Corporation, a manufacturer of plastic injection molded products with an in-house tool & die shop. A genuine passion of Matt is the support of apprenticeship programs. Matt’s TED talk and support for apprenticeship programs is a direct result of his own experiences. He finished school at the age of sixteen and completed two, 2- year apprenticeships in Germany. Here we go. Hi Matt. Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. So glad to have you on with us today.

Matt:

Hi Tony. Thank you for inviting me. I'm glad to be here.

Tony:

Thank you. The honor is mine, and this is a very unique subject because you understand apprenticeships so well. And this world, we were beginning to understand more and more how valuable mentoring is, how important it is and the difference between night and day for so many people when they get mentored and get apprenticed. But before we get into that, Matt, and before we go into all about apprenticeships and the differences and so forth, I want to find out a little bit more about you and your journey to success. How did it all start for you? What's your backstory?

Matt:

My backstory. I think it's pretty cool. At least I like telling people about it because I'm actually born and raised in Germany and I came over to the United States in 1995 to start working for the company I still work for. So this year is my 25th anniversary, and...

Tony:

Congratulations. That's a long time to work at a company. That's unheard of.

Matt:

I tell you; it went by so fast. I can't believe how fast. The only thing I can see every day what has changed is when I started, I had a lot of hair and by now all my hair has gone.

Tony:

You gave your hair to the company.

Matt:

That's what I tell my boss. Exactly, yes. And he still has all of his.

Tony:

Thank you for your contribution.

Matt:

Yes. So, I grew up in Germany and in Germany, when you go to school, you actually have a choice when it comes to your education. You don't necessarily have to go to college. You can graduate after 10th grade and you can choose to go into an apprenticeship program. The apprenticeship is basically hands on learning, which also gives you a great education to take you into a profession in which you can become a master and basically stay in your whole life without adding any further education to your portfolio, or at a later point, when you see that you need more, a college education for the problems you want to solve, then you actually go to college and you earn credits and all that stuff along the way. And so that's exactly what I did. I started out as an apprentice to become a farmer, because originally when I was 16 years old, I wanted to become an agricultural engineer, and since my parents didn't have a farm of their own, I basically had to go out and do my apprenticeship on somebody else's farm. And so on the first year, I worked on a dairy farm and on my second year of the apprenticeship, I worked on a pig farm. And basically, I keep telling people that these two years of apprenticeship, which were at an age of 16, 17, 18, where there was a lot of things you could shape in my personality, I learned a lot of lessons for the profession to be a farmer, but specially I learned a lot of life lessons. After the apprenticeship, it turned out that my grades were not good enough, so I didn't get into the agricultural college and so I had to just do my military service, which is basically something you do in Germany, or did have to do in Germany at that time. And after that, I still didn't have good enough grades to get in, so I had to find a summer job, as I would call it. My hobby always was sailing, and so I found a summer job in a marine hardware store in my hometown of Hamburg. I worked at the marine hardware store as a sales clerk and really liked it because it was a very small shop and it basically was selling goods, but also a lot of problem solving. So a boater would come into the shop and would have a problem and would ask me to basically pick out of my selection of a variety of different parts, the best solution for his problem. So after that summer job, that part time job was over, I left and thought I'll go back my path to go to the agricultural engineering degree, but the shop owner actually called me a few weeks later and said, hey Matt, we really liked your performance here at this company and would you like to consider to come back as a full time employee? And I said, wow, that's pretty cool. I would actually like to consider that, but would you be able to offer me an apprenticeship? Because one of the things my mom just kept telling me over and over and over again when I grew up as a small child was that whatever I do, I needed to get an education. And so he said, well let me find out. And lo and behold, yes, there was an opportunity to do a second apprenticeship to become a retail sales clerk, something you would not find here in the United States, but in Germany, it's not that uncommon.

Tony:

You would never hear of somebody being apprenticed as a sales clerk.

Matt:

Exactly, exactly. And so I finished that second apprenticeship in under two years, and basically from that point forward, just moved up in the ranks of that company. So from just becoming a sales clerk at the end with a certificate, I then became branch manager. And as the branch manager, I was in charge of purchasing all the goods for that branch. Yet the owner had several other branches so because I did a decent job on purchasing, shortly after that I took on the purchasing for all the other branches. And eventually I purchased all the goods, all the hardware goods, because we also sold clothing and footwear and stuff like that. So I was in charge of buying all the hardware goods for 5 branches in the north of Germany. And when I was at that level, I really realized at that time I was 28 years old. I realized that I needed more theoretical information. I just did not have enough knowledge to just do my job properly. I thought I can do a better job if I know more, and they offered a specific program for purchasing as an evening class two times a week. And, and so I told my boss about that evening class and ask them if I could leave two times a week at four o'clock in the afternoon. So basically, two hours earlier than I would normally leave. And he flat out said, nope, I can't let you do that because I need you to lock up the store. Nope, that's just no way to do it. Well, I was adamant about getting more education, and so I basically decided that I would quit my job and go to college at that time, because finally I had reached the level where I could just get in because my grades and my credits I had built up over all these years were enough to get me entrance into the college. I walked over to his office and I said, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to quit to go to college, and he looked me in the eye and he said, you're making the biggest mistake in your life and that stumped me for a moment because I thought, wow. That's heavy, but I was determined. I had it all arranged anyways and so I said, okay, thank you very much, and I left and went to college. And I pretty much during my college period, which was actually pretty short, it only took me three years to get a bachelor's degree for business administration, specifically because I had so much work experience, so much real-world experience. My learning was completely different from some other students who had never been in the real world before, and so applying the knowledge was just so much easier. So basically, I just breezed through those three years. And as you know, as a college student, you have the whole summer off. And so I thought I always wanted to do an internship outside of Germany and I knew that even if I would go back into the marine hardware industry after I would get my degree, that industry in Germany is just so tiny. If I really want to grow in that industry, I would have to go to America and see if I could work there.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about mentoring and apprenticeships with Matt Poischbeg, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment

Tony:

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Announcer:

You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with special VIP guests. Now back to Tony and his guest.

Tony:

All right. We're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you could learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about mentoring and apprenticeships with Matt Poischbeg. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this, and share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. Matt graduated from the Leadership Snohomish County program in 2008 and served on its board for three years. All right, and now back to the chat with Matt.

Matt:

And so for the summertime, I decided I will try to get an internship at one of the American companies I had gotten to know while I was purchasing their product for the marine hardware store I worked in. And so I sent out applications, I think about 40 or so, and I got only denials. Nobody had an opening, nobody was busy enough to hire me and it was very frustrating because in my mind, I thought they were just waiting for me to just come over. You know what I mean? But unfortunately, that was not the case. And so then somebody said, well, you have to make it a lot easier for them. Basically, in your letter, you have to include a return mail letter with a stamp and a return envelope and everything. That way they can just easily send you the offer. And I said, okay. And that's exactly what I did. In my store, I sold for many years a very specific marine interior light, and that interior light had the manufacturer and the manufacturer's address on it, so in that last push of sending out another 20 applications, I sent one letter to this company who was making this interior light in Everett, Washington, and believe it or not of these 20 letters, this company Seadog Corporation was the only company who sent a response.

Tony:

That's amazing that actually the 20 plus the 40 before. That's 60 letters.

Matt:

Right.

Tony:

Those are good odds these days.

Matt:

But it gets better. So they sent me back a letter and they said, Matt, we're happy to have you. We will put you to work. We'll pay you; we'll have a car for you, we'll have a place to stay for you. When can you come?

Tony:

Oh, I want to go too.

Matt:

I mean, it was just exactly what I was looking for. And I was just beyond excitement and I was super happy and basically got all my acts together and then came over here.

Tony:

We're talking about mentoring and apprenticeships with Matt Poischbeg, and you can find him at www.sealectplastics.com.. Now let's spell that. Sea is SEA. It's a little play on words. www.sealectplastics.com. Matt, this is really interesting, and I get how you wound up being at this company and staying there pretty much for life and doing so well. And it's because of your knowledge on apprenticeships and mentoring and the value of them. And I'm just curious in your career, you may have talked about it, but I just want to understand this vision of what made you. Where did that come about? Because you've done a TED talk on apprenticeships. You really know this inside and out. It's almost a dying industry, I think so I want to tie your vision into this now.

Matt:

Okay, if I can just give you a very short story of an incident which pretty much made a huge impact on me during my first apprenticeship to become a farmer. About 3 months into the apprenticeship, my boss comes up to me and he is furious. You can see it in his face. He is really upset. And he yells at me and tells me, Matt, I will give you $1000 dollars if you quit for you.

Tony:

You don't hear that anymore, so that's amazing.

Matt:

I know, but I mean, I was shocked. I thought I was doing a decent job for the first 3 months and that he felt so upset about my lack of ability to do this job, I couldn't believe it. What happened was that I was in charge of the young calves. So when the cow had a calf, these young calves, they were basically put in my care and I had to feed them twice a day. And in order to feed them, I had to heat up some milk and bring that to a very specific temperature of hand warm. We didn't have a thermometer. It was just to stick your hand in the milk and feel when it's the right temperature, and for the life of me, I could not get this temperature right. It was either too cold or it was too warm. It was too hot. And so the calves were getting diarrhea, and so my boss had told me this over and over again. He said, Matt, you have to get this temperature right. Yes, boss, I will. You have to get this temperature right. Yes, I will. Yet I did not understand what he was actually trying to tell me and boom! That basically triggered this thing that I want you to get out of here. I give you a thousand bucks. Leave! Get out of my sight, so to speak. This had a huge impact on me at that time and it has carried me through the rest of my life. And that's what I think is part of apprenticeships. Apprenticeships, especially when you get into them at an early age, at an age of 16, 17, it doesn't just teach your lessons for the job. You're not just learning your job. You're learning life lessons. It's important that you pay attention during those times and it forms you for your future. And basically, what happened to me from that point forward, I decided whatever I do it, I have to give it my all. I always have to give it my best. Of course, my best is different every day, but it doesn't matter. I have to give my best and then nobody can come up to me and say, Hey, you're not cut out for this or whatever, or if they do, okay, then I just can't do it. And so it made a huge impact on me and that kind of put me on this trajectory that I believed that apprenticeships are just a great form of education, especially since you start at an early age and you don't have to go to college and then eventually enter the workforce when you're maybe 22, 24 years old, and really have not gained any kind of real world experience. All you have at that time, more or less, is book knowledge.

Tony:

I know exactly what you mean. Didn't the world run on apprenticeships centuries ago? What do you think happened?

Matt:

That is exactly right. In Germany we say that apprenticeships are the backbone of the middle class, and in Germany, the system is totally set up like that. And if you look at the value of people who do not have college degrees on the social ladder, so to speak, they have no problem. They have to have a very high position on that social ladder, because a profession, a trade or retail sales or a banker which is also an apprenticeship in Germany has a very good income. You can have a good living with that and achieve a whole bunch of your dreams, so to speak, without going to college. You're contributing basically as a 16 year old right away, because you're working 40 hours and you're getting paid 40 hours and you're not spending your life until you're 22 or 24 years old living maybe at home or in a college dorm and all the money you're making with jobs is just going to your school and you're not necessarily contributing to society, so to speak.

Tony:

You know, while you were saying this, I was just thinking. Just last week my wife was talking about one of her coworkers who talked about a recent job they had before they came into the industry where my wife works. And this person got a job as a medical receptionist where you greet the patient coming in and you take care of all their information or whatever, get them set up, you get them to fill out the forms, you get payments or whatever. And this person started this job, and when the person got there, there was nobody there to show this person. So she called up to the one that hired her and she was told, just figure it out. She quit of course, after a little while, but that's where apprenticeships and mentorships have gotten to some point. You show up for a job; there's no one there to show you. Just figure it out. How did this happen in this society? Why? Is it a care factor? Is it a deterioration of the culture? Why aren't people taught and really put through the paces so that they know what they're doing?

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about mentoring and apprenticeships with Matt Poischbeg, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment

Tony:

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Announcer:

You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with special VIP guests. Now back to Tony and his guest.

Tony:

All right. We're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you could learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about mentoring and apprenticeships with Matt Poischbeg. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this, and share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. In May of 2014, he joined the Village Theatre board, a calling due to his passion for the performing arts and musical theatre. And now back to the chat with Matt.

Matt:

I've heard many different theories and one of the theories I have is that at some point in time here in the United States specifically, because it's not so dominant in Europe, that it was said that an individual is only successful with a college degree and in my mind, that's how then our education system got changed to more or less send every student to college. And there's so many reasons and unfortunately, I cannot all pinpoint them, but somebody told me it started as early as the Vietnam War, because you did not get drafted if you were in college, but if you were just an apprentice or a tradesman somewhere, that did not protect you from being drafted. Another reason is back then, we had a lot of vocational training as it was called back then. Now it is called CTE - Career Technical Education - in our K-12 system. And again, it was said that back then that if you're more a hands-on learner, if you go into an apprenticeship or if you're more CTE or vocational, you're not smart enough to go to college or get an academic education. And so all those stereotypes per se I think were part of the reason that it was decided that every child has to be able to go to college. And out of that, every child has to be able to go to college became every child has to go to college. And so then the education system got changed that now everything is laid out that you're more or less completely a sideline. The hands-on training in schools, the shop classes have disappeared in many schools, and everybody has to get their 24 credits to graduate high school in order to go to college right out of high school. In my mind, that has set us up with this huge lack of skills crisis, and that we do not have a pipeline of workers who are coming in to fill all the jobs of all the retirees, because as you know, the baby boomers are retiring in large numbers, and as they retire, they take with them all the knowledge they have gained throughout the whole life. And if we don't have a way to capture that by them mentoring an apprentice so to speak, it's lost. It's lost forever.

Tony:

You know, I also think of when I go to Europe, which I love going throughout all of Europe, and one of my passions is all the old buildings, all the cathedrals and just marveling that they're still around hundreds of years later, and nobody builds buildings like that anymore, Matt. Just absolutely no. I mean, you're talking about amazing cathedrals, intricate, huge ceilings, 20, 30, 50, 100 tall inside. And yet today, you look at churches, I saw a church, a new church built, and you would not believe it. It looks like a box. And I'm like, where is this technology gone for building? Even that has gone down and that's what I believe is a deterioration of apprenticeships, because who knows how to build these cathedrals anymore? Who knows how to build such intricate elaborate structures?

Matt:

Right? Yeah. I mean, it’s dying out. If you remember when Notre Dame in Paris caught on fire, and fortunately they put that fire out sooner than later, they only had one company who had, or has these craftsmen who are going to be able to restore Notre Dame to possibly to the way it was before. I think it's like 16 individuals worldwide who are left to do this task because nobody else has the knowledge and skill to do this type of masonry and type of design work. Old school, so to speak, because everybody is now learning how to do things on the computer, how to do them fast, how to 3D print them with the computer, but not necessarily do anything with the hands. Again, that's where apprenticeships are necessary because you can't learn everything in college. Some of the skills you have to basically spend the time and learn it on the job.

Tony:

And you know what, Matt? On the flip side, which is what most of my show is about, and I don't mean it in a bad way, is we focus on entrepreneurs and helping them succeed in their life, focus on small business owners, and we do hit upon career minded people. The show is very good for career minded people, but we really, really help give people the tools that allow them to create their own life, to generate their own income and take their business up, take their idea up, take their passion to a higher level. And when you look at that, that in a way promotes the deterioration of an apprenticeship type system, so we do get mentored. We have coaches and consultants that help us with our business. All businesses will succeed and statistically succeed faster with a mentor, but the apprenticeship part, that's just dying out of society. I know you're a big advocate for this, so let me ask you. What can we really do? What's real in this society? As you say, we have 3D printers and we're all electronic people. What can be done? What do you recommend?

Matt:

So if I could step back for a second and tell you what happened here at my company at Sea-Lect Plastics in 2013. Up until that time, as we are plastic injection molders, we also have mold makers working for us who build the injection molds for plastic injection molding. And up until that time, we were able to find mold makers, skilled mold makers with experience to do the job which was needed. However, over all these years I've been with this company, none of the mold makers left to go to work somewhere else. They basically all retired because even in 2013, the average age of the mold makers working here at Sea-Lect was 66 years old. I think the oldest one left when he was 72 years old. And so when my mold maker in 2013 told me that he's thinking of retiring and I started advertising for his job, I just had no response. I had no response on my ads my paper ads, my internet ads, my posts on the websites, on forums and stuff like that. I then hired a headhunter. Nothing! Absolutely no success, which then kind of put me into a panic situation because in order to run our business, we really need a mold maker on staff. Even though at that time, we were not building molds anymore, but we need them on staff to do all the repair and maintenance modifications, and so forth for the existing molds we purchased - to be honest with you - from overseas. And so at that time, I basically remembered that in Germany mold makers are apprentices and there's just no other way to get them as to train them yourself, and I wanted to start my own training program. And so I connected with the Department of Labor and Industries, which in our state oversees the registered apprenticeship programs. And they said, yeah, that can be done, but you have to be cautious because you have to follow some very strict guidelines because a registered apprenticeship as a tool and die maker carries a lot of weight. Which means if you get your journeymen card after a five-year apprenticeship, you are eligible to use that certification in every single state in America. It really carries. It's an accepted, valued certification. And so they said, there is this organization out there which is called AJAC, the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, and AJAC has a tool and die maker program so you may want to connect with them and see if they can help you.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about mentoring and apprenticeships with Matt Poischbeg, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment

Tony:

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Announcer:

You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with special VIP guests. Now back to Tony and his guest.

Tony:

All right. We're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you could learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about mentoring and apprenticeships with Matt Poischbeg. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this, and share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. You can reach out to Matt about all aspects of Injection Molding & Tooling. His specialty is Product Design, Engineering, Prototypes and Pricing for Molds and Production. And now back to the chat with Matt.

Matt:

And so that's exactly what I did. I connected with AJAC and they had the program I was looking for and all I needed was an apprentice, which luck again was on my side. Just a few weeks after I had found this out, a young man stopped by and he was just laid off by another company and he had worked as a plastics guy who was just helping to set up molds to get ready for the run. And so he had some very basic knowledge about plastic injection molds and mold making and stuff like that. And so I said, I would love to hire you, but what are you thinking if you're taking on this apprenticeship opportunity and become a tool and die maker in five years? And he looked at it and he said, sure, let's do it. And so he was our first apprentice and has now basically graduated over the years. But that was the initial starting point, which got me into apprenticeships, got me to know AJAC, and basically again, got me on this trajectory of I'm not just training apprentices, I'm actually taking this on and becoming an advocate for apprenticeships because I'm a success product of apprenticeship education. I know how it works. I've done two apprenticeships myself, and it got me to this position right here. Now I'm running a company. If I can do it, other people can do it, and I just need to explain to educators, to other businesses, to parents, to students, what apprenticeship is all about and how to get into it and basically help this skills gap crisis and avoid people going to college, spending a ton of money, finding out after they're done that either they don't have a job or they can't find a job, or the job they will find still doesn't pay them enough so that they can pay back their student loans.

Tony:

You know Matt, one thing about apprenticeships and the way it's the way it was done before, the way you're doing it now is it has a very unique job security that we just don't see anymore. Because this person is so knowledgeable and so specialized and understand such an important component of a company, it's sort of like the complete job security.

Matt:

Correct. Yes.

Tony:

Which is also always very, very good because when you hear of people working so many years, it's unheard of. Today people maybe a year, maybe two years or so, it seems. Unless they're an entrepreneur and they've got a successful company taking off, we don't hear people working long stints at a company. You just don't hear about it.

Matt:

Yes. Yeah. It has gotten rare.

Tony:

I also wanted to ask - you have several apprenticeships happening at your company, which is very unique. How many apprenticeships do you have running right now? Just curious.

Matt:

So currently we have six apprentices. We have three apprentices in our tool and die department, which is a 5-year apprenticeship program, and we have three apprentices as plastics process technicians, which is a 4-year program. We have one opening for a youth apprentice, which is a program which gets the individual in who is still in high school, so that could be a 16 or 17-year-old individual.

Tony:

So let me understand this. A kid in high school - male or female, I presume - that is interested in molding, tool and die and so forth, can actually concurrent with their studies can actually start an apprenticeship. They would have to be in the city where one of your companies are, is that correct?

Matt:

That is correct. You have to be basically in a distance to our facility that you can reach us. Even if you have to use public transportation, you have to be able to get here on time because again, that's something you would learn on the job that you have to be on time and you have to follow directions. Not every 16-year-old yet has their own transportation, so public transportation is basically very important. I work with three school districts who are basically all around the city of Everett and one skill center, which is also in very close distance of Everett, and they have a selection process where they vet interested males and females who want to become youth apprentices and then send me their dossiers, so to speak, their application dossiers, and then I invite them to do a tour and then have a one-on-one interview, and through that process I make my choice. Most of the time I let them choose us because believe it or not, those kids - and I call them kids. I shouldn't - but those youth who have come through over the last three years have been all incredible. I mean, they have the right attitude, they want to work with their hands, and they all did a great job so far.

Tony:

Matt, I like the fact that you choose them because they choose you, because they want to do it. Their hearts are in it, as opposed to you choosing them. I really actually like it. It's a different focus. And I'm curious, is this only done at Everett, Washington or does your corporation have other locations where apprenticeships are also available?

Matt:

This is done through the organization AJAC, and if you don't mind, I would like to talk about them for a little bit, but because AJAC is kind of unique for the state of Washington. When you look across the country, most of the states who offer apprenticeship programs, they came about those programs through large corporations who basically went to their public officials and said we need skilled workers. What are you going to do about it? And because they had a lot of leverage through offering employment, so to speak and pay taxes and so forth, they usually get what they wanted. This exact thing also happened here in our state in 2008. In our state, the Boeing company, who is our largest employer, went to our government officials and said what are you going to do about it? And fortunately, here they then founded AJAC as the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee. It has aerospace in the name, but fortunately when they set up this organization as a nonprofit, they brought to the table educators, union representatives, employer representatives, community college representatives, but they didn't give either one party the control. They put in an Executive Director and that Executive Director basically built this organization. So we all have a vote but none of us are treated preferably. And so because of AJAC and because it's so unique, I totally became an advocate of AJAC and decided I will go out and promote AJAC and the youth apprenticeship because through the AJAC organization, we can sign up youth apprentices throughout the whole state of Washington and not just In Everett. Since you need a school district to participate, originally it was difficult to actually find a district which had, like I mentioned earlier the adequate career technical education classes, CTE classes, or shop classes, to support a program like that. But over the years - we started this in 2016 - over the years from initially 14 youth apprentices in '16, we now had 65 youth apprentices for the whole state of Washington in 2019. So we're pretty happy with the growth and we're of course pushing, so hopefully in 2020, we're getting to more like 100 to 150 youth apprentices throughout the state, and this is across the whole state of Washington.

Tony:

That's fantastic, Matt. What a nice comeback for apprenticeships. That is great. And one last question here, we've talked about so much, one more time, my audience is composed of entrepreneurs, midsize businesses, and so forth. We're always looking for something else to take away, and I'm just curious If you have any other great resources that you would like to share with our audience success squad?

Matt:

Yes. I think a very important point is that when I go out and meet with other employers at the employer round tables, and we talk about youth apprenticeships or apprenticeships in general, the immediate answer I usually get is why should I train the workforce for my competition? And that's something which seems to be very unique for America because in Germany or Europe, because everybody trains, you may lose a trained worker, but you also get a trained worker back. They are not just training for the workforce. They are training in general, and maybe then they only … let's say they're training five apprentices, graduating apprentices. They may be only keeping two of them. Three of those five, they will go out and work for other employers. And so once we make the shift that we all start training, then we don't have to worry about this fact that we're training for our competitor. But on the other hand, there's some very interesting ROI studies out there that actually over the course of the apprenticeship, the employer gets the investment back off that training, because when the apprentice starts, he or she usually starts at a higher wage than an unskilled worker. And when the person finishes at the end of the apprenticeship, he makes a good journeyman wage. In the beginning, there's a deficit because the person has trained a lot and needs a lot of attention. Towards the middle of the apprenticeship, that kind of shifts and towards the end of the apprenticeship, the journeyman level person is bringing in a lot of work, but is still not being paid fully as a skilled worker would be paid. So there's your return. We did this research actually here at Sea-Lect and we have monetary proof that our payback is there financially for every apprentice. So employers please trust me on this. An apprenticeship is beneficial for you in many, many ways. Not to mention that you give your employees more opportunity to grow in your company, and so they will feel better. As they feel better and learn more, they become more valuable and as they become more valuable, they will stay longer with you because you're willing to pay them more.

Tony:

Once again, we're talking about mentoring and apprenticeships with Matt Poischbeg and you can find him at www.sealectplastics.com. Matt, this was very, very interesting talking about mentoring and apprenticeships, and I'm so glad that apprenticeships are making a comeback. We need that because we don't want to walk by and see cars and doors and computers and things no longer being made because that technology has gone. We've already lost some of that technology on, for example, cathedrals as mentioned earlier. I don't want to lose any more. So guys, check this out and see about apprentices for whatever you guys build in your company, whatever great ideas. Think about posterity and having that endure. Matt, thank you. This was very much an eye opener. I really loved it.

Matt:

Thank you so much, Tony. I appreciate it very, very much. And for everybody out there who wants to just learn more about apprenticeships, I have a TEDx talk out there about the value of apprenticeship. It's on YouTube. Please feel free to take a look at that as well.

Tony:

Hey, fellow entrepreneurs, thanks for hanging out with me while I featured an elite entrepreneur who took his vision to reality. I hope this was as inspiring for you as it was for me to do this interview. I learned so much about mentoring and apprenticeships with some great ideas I'm going to chat about in a second. The insights are so valuable. So how did you like it? Mentoring and apprenticeship with Matt Poischbeg. At 16 years old, he started an apprenticeship program in Germany to become a farmer and eventually an agricultural engineer. I love how he got offered a full-time job, and he asked for an apprenticeship in order to be able to do it, the job being a full-time sales clerk. You can see how he climbed the ladder at his company, by not just doing a good job, but by wanting to learn more so that he could do better. Do you see the difference there? Here's where education plays a pivotal role in performing anything, including something new that us entrepreneurs are so good at starting. You can also see this in his resolve to quit his manager job in order to go to college. That's quite a bold feat for a young person to do. And here's another person that was given a company car is part of the job offer. Steve Snyder was another whom I recently interviewed. This isn't done anymore these days and the times have changed, but it's so interesting to see how it was done decades ago. There's always something to learn about how businesses conducted themselves in the past. I truly love Matt's work ethics. I see how his agriculture fiasco shaped his life, also making him want to learn more and get apprenticed in order to do a good job. That's a bit different from what we see in today's times. A person who's fired doesn't necessarily develop this kind of mindset. Were you ever fired from a job? Maybe once, maybe more? Did that change your mind set on becoming better in the world of business? Think about it for a moment. This interview is here to help you improve and get your business to the next level. It's good to spend time on past failures and learn from those experiences. After all, any failures are there to help you learn to become a future success. I sure hope you think so, because that is really how it is. There are no failures, only experiences that we can use to make ourselves better. Did you ever get apprenticed at anything in business? And if so, are you still in that field? Do you hire? And if so, what's your system to mentor and apprentice people so that they can do their best for your company? As you've heard, I talk about this as a care factor that we don't see any more today. People showing up for work as a new hire are not shown what they need to be shown, and they're just told to figure it out. That doesn't seem to last long, does it? What do you think happened along the way that brought about such a major change of apprenticeships? And it's amazing that buildings of the past are no longer able to be built today, for example. There's so much more I got out of this interview. What did you get? I'd love to know how you use this information to help you in your business or career. Now grab hold of your vision, decide you're either going to start something great or take it to the next level. You have to decide first. It always starts with a decision and you can get my Vision Map to help you along the process. The eBook is at www.tonydurso.com/books and you can pick up the audio version and the training class too. Highly recommended. I created my empire in just a few years. That's all it took. I had the Vision Map as my guide. I wrote it up so that you can now do it too. Let's help you move on your journey to success. And once again, check us out at www.tonydurso.com/Apple, and if you like what you hear, how about a five-star review. Much thanks. Thanks, and remember: just take action. Success awaits those who persevere and remain steadfast despite the odds. Sow good seeds, do good deeds and join me on the next episode of the Tony DUrso Show.

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