One of the cool things that I came across a couple years ago and I've been Kind of following is the HVAC industry has an award show. It's sort of like the Emys but it's for HVAC guys and you've got to check this out. We actually got Tom with the founder of this award show. it's called the HVAC Tactical Award Show.

It's so awesome! They've got multiple categories they give out Awards to all kinds of different folks doing great things in our industry. So Ben tell me about this award show that you know I Just think it's such a cool idea that you guys are doing well. The award show basically is just to here to honor and bring recognition to men and women in the trenches who are out there getting it done every day that are just passionate about what they do every day but don't get the recognition for what they do every day. I Think Covid helped change a little bit of that and it helped show how important blueco collar trades are, but it still needed to push right and so for the for the award award show it basically just boils down to we just wanted to set aside one night that we could all get dressed up black thae fair and just honor each other Pat each other on the back.

build a community, build more camaraderie in the industry because Lord knows we're lacking that for sure. Yeah, it just turned into this thing. So what made you come up with the idea Because that the idea alone I Remember when I first heard about it they were like it's like the Hollywood shows you know Awards shows except there these guys actually have brain cells that all the people in this room so I was like oh that's that's a that's a good analogy Yeah I mean I've never heard that one yet but that's cool yeah I I refer to it as like the EMS for HVAC right and people are like huh? and I just stumbled upon a community of a bunch of guys and girls on social media that just took pride in what they did and they had a passion for what they were doing and I said these are my people man like this is where I belong I just said I want to do this for them No nobody ever did it for me and I've been in this trade my entire life I want to do this for them and so we we did it. We did three Awards we did it just over Instagram There was no award show, there was no nothing, it was just a post saying congratulations to these three people.

right? And then the very next year we did a live show in Las Vegas on the heels of uh ahr and that was, uh, we sold 120 tickets, sold out in less than 24 hours, and um, that was the first show and then from there it's just been. Uh, the rest is history. You know, Let me ask you. I I know? it's grown.

You said you started out with three and now I Think there's more than that. What are some of the awards that you guys give out? So we have the The Lady of the Trade Award. That's always the first award that gets given away. Uh, you know, ladies first, right? Uh, so it's always the first award that gets given out in the beginning of the show.

Uh, so Lady of the Trade award And that's just to recognize women who are in the trade who are just out there getting it done, done. And it's not just somebody who's being a service tech, right? So like, there's women out there who are installers. There's women out there who are service techs and they're awesome. Um, but there's also women out there who are service techs and doing a lot of other things inside the industry.

like this year's winner Jennifer Monzo. Um, she is actually not only a service tech, but she runs a company. She also is a a trainer like she gives out free training to people. She's a huge advocate for women in the trade like it's just a perfect fit right? Like this award is perfect for her.

There's mentor of the Year award, Hbac podcast of the Year Award influencer of the Year award, the Hidden Gem award and that's out there basically recognizing guys who aren't getting any attention or have really small kind of followings on social media, but are doing incredible things. I Mean these are guys who should have 10, 20, 30,000 followers, but they got like maybe 500, right? a thousand. So just recognizing these guys and saying man, you guys are worth something Man, you guys are really on to something this next year in Orlando we will be talking about doing um, like some type of hydronics award so trying to get a little bit more of the plumbers that you know kind of involved and there's a lot of plumbers that come to the show and they just want to be part of the community even though they know they're not going to win an award. Um, but I I think we're now they can Now they can.

We're kind of stepping into that world where the plumbers can now kind of come in and say hey, we want to do something here, right? But we're also in talks with another organization who is very interested in putting on a sister type show. uh with uh with Plumbers Only and we're really excited where everything's going and you know we're just here to just encourage man people and and really stop trying to recruit people into the industry and try to attract people into the industry right? And how do you do that? You do that through cool things like this. You do things that are different that are outside of the box that are not normal. you know? Well my last question is the award show is not just a few awards given out.

if I you know there's like a a red carpet. There's a almost like a TV show that you guys do talk a little bit about that and then also where folks can find it next year. So that way you know they can watch it themselves. So the award show is actually live streamed.

Uh, this year we did the live stream over YouTube Um, trying to build a YouTube channel. so it just made sense to push people to the YouTube channel to do it. Um, and so you know we're that YouTube channel. HVAC Tactical.

Okay, make sure you subscribe to that folks. You can find me on all social media platforms at HVAC Tactical. But yeah, we we wanted to emulate a real show right? Like a production and the Emmys or the Oscars or the Grammys or whatever right? And what's the first thing you do when you show up to that place right? You walk down this red carpet and Paparazzi shooting photos and you're pausing and you're You're mingling with your friends, right? So so when you show up to the venue, you come through registration and then you walk through red carpet and then you you got the backdrop behind you. You're taking pictures.

You're seeing people that you've never met before, but you know who they are because you see them on social media. and like everybody who's anybody in in HVAC who is on social media is in this event right from YouTube to Tik Tok to Instagram all these guys are just they're just and they're amazing genuine people and uh and I always tell people you know the secret is is that this the award show is really just one big party for me and my friends right? Like for me I just get to hang out with all my friends and I love it right? even though it's super stressful. But yeah you come through the red carpet, you get all your picture stuff, you just meetting people and then you go to a cocktail hour and that cocktail hour is just hanging out just having some drinks, just hanging out with your people making these conversations. and now these companies who are sponsors of the show have the opportunity to be in this room with all of these influencers and say hey look uh I think you'd be a good fit for what we're trying to do.

Like let's let's link up and talk after this right? And so what? We did different in Chicago this year after the award show. Uh so after after cocktail hour we go to dinner and then dinner rolls right into the award show. Well after the award show we decided to have an Afterparty like an official Afterparty and that happened because when we did the last show in Atlanta um everybody was like Dude Where's the Afterparty at and I made some jokes about there was an Afterparty and there wasn't but everybody was like expecting this Afterparty and so I said well what would be really cool in Chicago is if we just did like an official Afterparty right? and uh and so we did. And so after the award show everybody left that room went back to where we did cocktail hour but it was a little revamped.

Uh, you know, different logo go up on the projectors and uh, they had a DJ in there and um, lights and stuff like that and it was. It was really really cool and it was kind of an opportunity to allow all of these people who had these really cool networking conversations at cocktail hour that didn't get to sit with each other at dinner because we do a S seating at dinner right? We totally jack up your your plan right? Because that's awesome. That's what should the whole yeah, the whole purpose is for you to meet new people right? And so we force you to meet new people by sitting you with people at dinner that you don't know. So after that you go to the the Afterparty and that all these people can kind of relink together have these conversations kind of get, you know, hey, let's exchange information, you know? um and then of course it's just the Talk of the Town for the next three days.

Right as you're walking through Ahr Ashray. Depending on whatever you call it, it's just a really, really good time. And um, I'm sure you know who veto is. Veto toolbags they were uh, the head sponsor.

They gave us some really cool backpacks for all the attendees. but yeah, I mean it's it's just been awesome. The support from the community, support from sponsors, and you know, I'm just going to make sure that I do what I got to do to to protect the Integrity of what we're doing and protect uh, the community. and I think we move further and faster together than some somebody trying to do it solo.

So yeah, and that's really been that's really been kind of the the mindset through the whole thing. So so that's it. What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear them if you put them in the chat down below. I'm also going to put a link to Ben's channel so you can watch the awards show next year.

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