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Welcome to the FourMan Podcast, where four shop teachers step out of the classroom and into the booth to talk all things building, trades, and the people behind the tools. Each week, we welcome a surprise guest from the world of construction — from seasoned pros to rising stars — to share real stories, career insights, and the kind of shop talk you won’t hear anywhere else.
Whether you're a student just picking up your first hammer or a veteran foreman with sawdust in your veins, this podcast brings you humor, heart, and a heavy dose of hands-on wisdom. Just straight-up conversations built on blue-collar pride.
Join us as we build futures, one episode at a time.
Noah (00:00)
this week on the podcast we have Tony McClellan. He is Hollywood Decks if you follow him online.
Today the topic is finance, is money.
Tony, how have you been? It's an honor to have you on the podcast.
Hollywood (00:12)
Good on the contrary, gentlemen. Thanks for having me. I've heard quite a lot of you guys. Quite a lot. Your names precede you, I'll tell you what.
Noah (00:20)
Well, coming from you that means a lot.
Adam Kennard (00:23)
Yeah, it's because we have Scott on on this podcast.
Hollywood (00:23)
⁓ That's what
Scott (00:26)
I
Hollywood (00:26)
it is.
Scott (00:26)
know.
Noah (00:27)
That's right.
All right, so Tony, as far as what should be taught in the classroom, We teach people how to build well, hopefully, ⁓ every day. But one thing that I don't even really touch in my class is the finance aspect. And is that something that you think needs to be taught in schools?
Scott (00:43)
you
Hollywood (00:49)
Yeah, we, you know, we firmly believe that the reason why Hollywood decks has been able to sustain as long as we have is because of my finance background. You know, I think there's a big aspect where you have these wonderful builders outstanding at their craft. But unfortunately, if you don't know how to manage money, right, you then begin to slow down and you start running into debt.
and you start running into some financial problems. And as great as a builder you are, if you don't know how to manage your money, know, I mean, standard and you guys heard me if I'm wrong, but what you've heard, most builders go out of business in how many years?
Ken Shek (01:35)
First five.
Hollywood (01:36)
Yeah, right, right, right. And that is unfortunate, right? Because we've all met them. We all know several builders that I've tried, that have launched, right, that have gone on their own. And it's unfortunate that such good skill is lost and those businesses are lost because they don't know how to manage their money. That doesn't say They're not a good builder, right? That doesn't say they're great at what they do. They simply didn't know how to manage money.
Noah (01:37)
her first three.
Adam Kennard (01:37)
Wow.
Scott (01:53)
you
Hollywood (02:05)
And so it's an unfortunate disconnect in this industry, in the construction industry, where just swinging a hammer is not good enough anymore, right? You being good at what you do is just not good anymore. You have to know the administrative side, the finance side, all the behind the scenes. And if you don't know it, you got to be willing to hire somebody, right? You got to be able to generate enough revenue to hire. And so absolutely, I think they both go hand in hand. You got to know your skill. You got to know your trade.
but you absolutely have to learn and know the administrative and the finance side of it.
Scott (02:40)
that's a big component. I'll say real quick, I try to instill a little bit of financial values into my students, but it's kind of like personal finance type stuff. ⁓ I ran into a guy recently that he, boy, he was so excited to...
⁓ share his knowledge on that the business side of finance and the whole like You know kids can learn this stuff and then they can go out and flip houses and he got real excited about how to use debt and all this stuff and cash flow this and that and I'm like I Don't think I'm dumb, but man you you just made me feel dumb
Hollywood (03:16)
That's
a great point, Scott. There is a difference between personal finance and business finance. And you have to be able to balance that too. But at bare minimum, yes, personal finance is a must know. And it's unfortunate that all these like home ec, all these like wood shop, all these classes that used to be standard before are now just so rare to get.
It's absolutely needed.
Adam Kennard (03:49)
What would you first think about as like when are your suggestions to a student of thinking about
starting on pricing yourself
Hollywood (03:57)
Yeah, that's a loaded one. think when it comes to you and your niche and your trade and your market, it's exactly that. You have to do the homework and the research within your market, right? Because what stage we're about to, gentlemen, in?
Adam Kennard (04:12)
Pennsylvania.
Ken Shek (04:12)
I'm in Michigan.
Noah (04:14)
Virginia.
Hollywood (04:16)
So each one of your markets is different, right? Your price point is different. ⁓ Obviously supply and demand is different. Material is different. Suppliers are different, right? And so if you're wanting to narrow yourself down into the trades and pick a specific niche, I remember reaching out to, they're scarce now.
but your local salesman of your supply lumber yard, right? And so if there is one store that you're primarily gonna be obtaining your material from, those salesmen are usually happy to take you out to lunch and have a sit down and a powwow. And they speak to several different builders in the area, right? And they know what their materials price is. So they were one of the first ones that I remember sitting down with and saying, hey, you know, back then in California was Jerry.
Jerry out of gun all lumber and then out here in Florida was Dustin Dustin out of Decks and Doc supply. I sat with them. We went out to have lunch and I said, hey man, right? Here's what I'm thinking. Here's price point. Here's base and just pick their brain in terms of pricing. What's this cost? What's that cost? What's this other builder charging for this? Right? What's this other building? And so that gave me a starting point so that I know material labor competition.
Adam Kennard (05:33)
Hmm.
Hollywood (05:38)
And then once I do that, then I start right honing down my craft, right? Being specific in the way I build and how I build. Finding the specific clientele, finding the right project for me. And then to start gauging your work and your time and when what that value is. ⁓ and so now I, I, I confidently tell most of our homeowners, right? We are the pricier option. Absolutely.
And if there's somebody that's more expensive than we are, I'd be concerned. But for the most part, we are always going to be the most expensive one and we can back it up. Right. So start there. Start, start with those local sales reps. If you know, there's somebody else in the industry in the specific niche that you're wanting to get into. I'd also go and have a, have a coffee, have a drink with that builder, right. And say, Hey, look, I'm just trying to get into the industry. I get it. We're in the same area, region, right.
But I'm a newbie, right? I think if you're a well-established builder, you wouldn't mind helping out a newbie, right? And sharing some price details and right? Now mind you, I guess we are within parentheses because there are very few of us that are willing to share that information with others. I know there's, yeah, say it Ken. I know there's other mothers, right? Many others are like, I'm not telling you nothing, right? Go figure it out, right? I had to figure it out. I am all about, I am grateful for whom I learned from.
Ken Shek (06:53)
Yeah.
Hollywood (07:07)
and I am fortunate to be able to teach others. And so I've picked the brains of many builders in the area. Instagram is a great resource and a great tool. I have absolutely tapped into other builders in other areas and asked, right? And we've gone back and forth and brainstormed. So find those good people and absolutely ask those questions because that's going to avoid you from having to learn the hard way, right? Where unfortunately,
Adam Kennard (07:34)
Yeah.
Hollywood (07:35)
Again, some of these builders go and take on jobs and they bid them and they bite off more than they can chew, right? And they end up losing money, losing time. You got a bad customer on your hands and now it just becomes a headache, right? So try to educate yourself as much possible before you go into the deep end of pricing.
Noah (07:57)
So why do you think like when we mean me and Ken were at JLC live and one thing that we talked to you know we were asking different pros and different things just about advice for young people and a lot of them talked about basically hey look I made I've made every mistake in the book like hopefully you know I can teach people and they can learn from this and a lot of it was kind of directed towards like mistakes in ⁓ actually craftsmanship and everything like that.
Adam Kennard (07:58)
That's good.
Noah (08:23)
Do you feel like in some way it's avoided as far as like the business and money side of things? And then like, if it is avoided, why do think that it that is?
Hollywood (08:33)
think it's taboo, right? It's taboo because nobody wants to share that nobody wants to say right how much money the and I absolutely get it. absolutely understand it. Right. ⁓ For those that have that to build up and start from scratch and nobody right held their hand nobody helped them. I get it right. They're like, well, why should I help somebody else? ⁓
You have to find another circle, right? You have to find another group of folks that are willing to grow and learn and teach and share and brainstorm. There are circles out there, right? There are a group of folks out there that are willing to do that. So if you are within that circle of folks and you can kind of sense that animosity, right? You can sense that hostility and that secretiveness and nobody wants to say nothing, nobody wants to touch that topic, find another circle.
because there are plenty of folks out there that are willing, right, that have gone through trial and error and would absolutely love to pass that along so that the next fella doesn't have to.
Adam Kennard (09:35)
That's good.
Ken Shek (09:36)
One of my questions is like,
How do we give kids advice on if you are like an LLC or you just own your own business, like how do you get out of working in your business to like find those circles to get into a network and try to get more knowledge? Because I found myself so far, like 100 % of my time was working in my business. I didn't have time to work on it. What would be your advice to do that?
Hollywood (09:57)
Yeah.
Absolutely. ⁓
I've I've You know, I think I've tried it all right the networking groups right the chamber groups ⁓ The local builders association groups I I must say and I and I wholeheartedly believe this and mind you this is coming from somebody who is
super skeptical of social media in general. So at a personal level, I don't do social media. I'm married and marriage is tough enough without social media in the mix. So I just try to avoid at a personal level, right, having social media. But as a tool, as a resource, as a network builder, the easiest and quickest thing you can do
is getting on that social media, right? And finding those within your group, within the industry. I can show you now, there's a lot of DMs that I've sent out to brands, to builders to say, hey, I'm Tony, right? Here's what I'm trying to do and I'd love to pick your brain for a little bit. ⁓ Social media is an absolutely astounding tool. And if you use it like any other tool, if you use it correctly, right?
You can absolutely get out what you put in. And so I think one of the best ways considering your timeline and your workflow and just your hectic schedule, get on social media a little bit, right? Create that profile and at bare minimum, create that little group, right?
Adam Kennard (11:46)
So what would you as a basis for teachers, what would your suggestion to us to expose kids to finance, expose kids to this realm of the business, either it's like curriculum or a little bit of curriculum or, I don't know, just.
Hollywood (12:12)
⁓
so I remember.
And it's well, so let me, got a question for you guys. Can we take, can we take a few minutes for you guys? Welcome to the, welcome to the fifth, welcome to the, well, sorry, I'm going to come back to that question, but I just, I want to, I want to close this loop here. ⁓ Welcome to the fifth man podcast. We're currently going to be interviewing four different teachers here who have shared their podcasts with us. ⁓ Gentlemen, question number one for each interview, so one of you is how long have you been?
Adam Kennard (12:17)
Yeah?
Noah (12:20)
Yeah, we're hammering you with questions, so
sorry about that.
Adam Kennard (12:26)
No, that's, you're good,
you're good.
Hollywood (12:43)
a teacher in the education field.
Adam Kennard (12:46)
14 years.
Hollywood (12:49)
Adam 14.
Noah (12:52)
Scott has been doing it for 105 years. Myself and Ken are about five years each.
Hollywood (12:58)
Five years.
Adam Kennard (12:59)
20 years.
Hollywood (12:59)
20?
Noah (12:59)
40,
Ken Shek (12:59)
20.
Noah (13:00)
20 years. You can turn your mic on.
Hollywood (13:01)
Did you say 20?
20? You look 21. All right. So then here's the follow up question of that.
Ken Shek (13:08)
I know.
Adam Kennard (13:09)
Ha ha.
Hollywood (13:15)
Why have you spent that amount of years specifically in education? Why?
Ken Shek (13:23)
I initially started it because one kind of a selfish reason, but also I want to give back to the community that's given back or given me so much. And with the age gap and everyone aging out of the trades, like it's important that these kids understand that you can have a decent life building things with your hands.
Hollywood (13:46)
What about the rest you gentlemen? Why that many years in education?
Adam Kennard (13:51)
⁓ It's kind of similar. so I work in a little bit of different educational situation. I work in an inner city youth ministry ⁓ that so all of our classes are like after school or summer programs, things like that. So for me is, ⁓
helping students have opportunities that I have, ⁓ that I had and have, yeah, and then that they don't have access to.
Hollywood (14:20)
good
one. it primarily low income or socioeconomic or?
Adam Kennard (14:25)
Yes, yeah,
low socioeconomic is the majority. Anyone in the Pittsburgh region is welcome to our program,
Hollywood (14:33)
You guys grant funded or federal state funding?
Adam Kennard (14:37)
Mostly private funded being a religious organization. ⁓ like myself, ⁓ each of the main program people have a financial team around them. ⁓ So I have a group of about 70 people that give on a monthly or annual basis to help cover my salary.
Hollywood (14:39)
Holy smokes!
Wow,
that's impressive.
Noah (15:04)
don't want to follow that up, but ⁓ So I owned two businesses originally, and then COVID really destroyed one of them, and I was a contractor as well. And then I think just like the financial stress of everything and a lot of reasons, I ended up just, there was an opportunity to teach at the high school and me and my wife, I have two young boys and we just decided, ⁓ you know what, let's totally change things and take a risk and maybe rely on God to take care of the rest.
Hollywood (15:08)
Thanks.
Sweet.
Noah (15:32)
And it worked out really well. So it was a cool opportunity. I really didn't think I was going to be doing it for more than two or three years. But I really have fallen in love with it.
Hollywood (15:33)
See you guys later.
And amen to that brother. Amen.
Scott (15:45)
I would say ⁓ for me in the like 2006 was my first year teaching and like that summer of is when I kind of got my job. But for us here in Kansas the economy was tanking. I kind of stumbled into the job. It was just ⁓ I didn't know what I was going to do because all the builders were going out of business and stuff. So I got this job and like Noah said it's kind of like
Adam Kennard (16:07)
you
Scott (16:08)
It's pretty cool. Like I ended up having fun. I've stayed. I mean, I didn't really think I would just stay a few years, but I've stayed longer than I ever imagined I would. So it's been fun. It's been a blast to, know, kids. I feel like kids can keep you young. So I've had fun with them.
Hollywood (16:17)
Yeah.
It's one way to do it. ⁓ Gentlemen, random applause for you guys. And I hope for those of you guys that are listening, maybe they haven't shared this before, but I absolutely appreciate what you gentlemen have done and how you've absolutely made the best of all these different scenarios, ⁓ And I think that's always what connects best with students, right? Adam, going back to your question.
There is nothing like sharing your own personal struggles and circumstances when it comes to finance, right? Because it has to be relatable. ⁓ And sometimes, you know, there's a lot of organizations, there's a lot of individuals that you can bring into campuses, right? That'll come back and they'll share you this graph, right? And they'll give you all these book smarts and all these terms of finance. And you're going to end up coming out more confused out of that conversation than not.
But if you hear how you've been able to survive market crashes, in a house crash, in COVID, and one business through another, that's what's gonna make an impact. That's what's gonna leave a lasting impression to your students. So I think there's nothing better when it comes to having that finance conversation than sharing your own personal experiences. ⁓ With that being said,
I think one of the great organizations that I will say that I've tapped into in the past and they have a real, real good understanding and I don't know if they're available in your neck of the woods respectively, but Junior Achievement, right? So Junior Achievement, if you have or have not heard of them, they typically have different little pockets in different areas and they are specifically a student-focused financial education organization. So Junior Achievement,
does have different reps and events that they can put together. And they'll have these little role-playing situations where they will put students in either for that specific timeframe or throughout the different semester or year, they'll tell students, here's your task, right? And here's how you're gonna learn how to manage and balance a checkbook, right? And how to open an account. And so I remember back in my heyday when I was a little more involved in the industry.
We used to create a lot of one day events and then just follow up moments where these reps would come out to the schools and have these conversations. And it was great because it involved them, right? It was hands on. It wasn't just you sitting there and listening to somebody talk to you for a minute. So, you know, I think if you guys are able to share your experiences, that's always, you know, that's always the best way to go about it. And if you're not,
then tap into that I know of, Junior Achievement is a great program to help students.
Adam Kennard (19:13)
Awesome.
Scott (19:13)
I've got two
things to say real quick while I was on mute John van Dyke is a fantastic ⁓ Instagram.
a business coach guy. if anybody out there listens to this podcast and needs some help, that would be my suggestion. And the other is, I'm curious, Tony, how you feel about Dave Ramsey. I've shown my students some clips of Dave Ramsey. A lot of them don't even like they don't understand compounding interest. kind of in a lower ⁓ economic part of town. And so it's fun. Like it's fun to watch some kids, their eyes just light up and they're like,
Hollywood (19:28)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Scott (19:50)
and you know, then I'll pull up a compounding interest calculator and put it on the big screen. And I'm like, okay, so like this much when you go out and get a real, you know, a real job.
Hollywood (19:56)
Yeah. Dollar goes
into $2 and $2 and thirds into $3. Yeah.
Scott (20:01)
Yes,
and you start showing them and then the kids are like, how do I get one of those accounts? I'm like, it's so much fun to walk them through that.
Hollywood (20:06)
Yeah. Yeah.
yeah, absolutely. There's, levels to it. Right. And I think Dave Ramsey is definitely on the higher end level of those conversations. ⁓ but, but, but the reason why I enjoy Dave Ramsey at times is because he gives it to you straight, right? You've to give it to me straight doctrine. Sometimes you can't sugar coat these financial things. Sometimes you got to just slap somebody in the face, right? And be like, you're going to, you're going to go bankrupt, right? Yeah. And listen, I've said it and I'm, and I'm going to, I'm, I'm going to say that, right.
Scott (20:31)
You don't need a car right now.
Hollywood (20:38)
Typically, if you start a business in the construction industry and you get your first job and you get that first big deposit and down payment, what's the first thing these guys go and do with that first check? Right? And that absolutely boggles my mind and I can show you and I can take back pictures. I've been in the construction industry for about 20 years, okay? Not till 2023 that my accountant was like,
Scott (20:48)
Big truck, baby.
Hollywood (21:06)
you either got to spend that money or you're going to pay that money in taxes, right? And I was like, yeah, I'm done paying these taxes. So not till 2023 did I ever buy, right? Not till three years ago out of 20 years of construction did I buy a brand new truck. All my trucks have been these wonderful old little beater trucks. I've had a Ford Ranger, I've had a Silverado, right? 1500. I have absolutely hauled more stuff than I should.
But right, but I get the job done, right? ⁓ And so yes, absolutely Dave Ramsey is one way to go about it. ⁓ But here's my concern, and I'm gonna be blunt with you guys, right? And feel free to pass this along or not. When it comes to these life coaches or finance coaches or business coaches, ⁓ my irk is that what works for you may not work for the next fella.
Noah (21:52)
you
Hollywood (22:05)
And my concern is when these coaches almost guarantee you that if you buy their course for 9.99 and if you sign up, right, for the next five months, they will 10 X your life. That is my issue, right? You can't guarantee me anything. So I am always skeptical when somebody comes to me and says, I guarantee you're going to be generating leads and revenue and jobs, right? You can't do that. You just, you can't do that. There are so many factors to so many different markets.
Right? There is not, there's not one fits all formula for business and for finance. And so that, that's just my hesitation with some of those folks. But other than that, yeah, there are a lot of folks too on social media and on Instagram that are very knowledgeable, right? That explain, explain the basics very well and easily. So that's a great starting point too. Absolutely.
Scott (22:56)
So, all right, so let's say we have a student that graduates and they go out and they're like, because I think of my son, he's going out and mowing yards and kind of doing the whole like all mow years for like 30 bucks or 50 bucks. But at some point, you you start, you get like an LLC or something. So like at what point, like when you create your own company and you're kind of getting serious about it, maybe gonna make a living from it, like what's the first financial thing you would recommend someone to do?
Hollywood (23:28)
So out of the gate, out of the gate, you open up a soul prop. So out of the gate, if you are wanting to ⁓ do this as a living and open up a business and be able to start charging money for a service or for whatever it is that you're doing, at bare minimum, you're gonna go to the bank and you're gonna say, I wanna open a business account. And they're gonna tell you, right, here's what you need to bring to us to be able to open up a business account. Why?
you need to be able to differentiate for tax purposes, right? Where is that money coming from? Because you're going to be taxed as an individually different than you are a business, right? And so a sole prop also allows you to present yourself as a formal business, right? For example, a sole prop allows you to open up a doing business as. So instead of me going to the homeowner and saying, I'm going to cut your grass as
Joe Schmo, right? I can now go to the homeowner and say, hey, I would love to cut your grass. And this is, right, beautiful grass, cutting your grass. And so when you make your checks, you're going to make your checks out to beautiful grass. Makes you look a little more presentable. You're also now starting to keep track of what business revenue you're generating. And also, when you got to go put gas in the lawnmower, or you need new blades, or you have to buy a new hat for your lawn mowing business,
You can also start deducting and keeping track of those expenses. So a sole prop is just base level foundation for a business, right? So if any individual, any youngster is wanting to go out and start, start with a sole prop, you can go to any banker and the banker will walk you through it. It's done online. It costs like 50 bucks. It's very inexpensive, but a sole prop will allow you to just stand out and make you a little more official. Now.
If you are now wanting to do that full time and you know you can start generating at a pretty penny and you now want to start getting some more equipment, maybe get a little helper, maybe get right, get a little employee. A sole prop is not going to be enough, right? Because now you are taking on more equipment, more employees, more jobs. And there is a thin line where you start crossing a business into liabilities and liabilities.
are things that might harm your business. And usually when you start getting a little too big, you start getting a bunch of liabilities, right? Even a client. So, you're cutting your neighbor's yards, right? most, we'll say in most neighborhoods, we're talking about a house, not so much, we're in 2026. A standard average cost of a house is 400,000, right? And so we're out there with a little soul prop, with a lot of weed eater, and we're cutting a house.
worth of 400,000 and something jumps up and it breaks a window. Okay, a couple thousand bucks, maybe a thousand, 2,000 bucks to replace that window, right. We're to have to dig in and everything we've earned for the last two months, we've now had to go and buy that window. Well, what if we start doing real good and we start getting called to those upscale gated communities where we're talking about one million dollar houses, right. And you break one of those windows.
It's not going to be a thousand. It's not going to be $2,000 windows. Some of these suckers are custom windows, right? And so you've now broken a window that's going to cost you $10,000, pretty much all the revenue you generate all year long, right? And so a sole prop, they're going after you because it is you as an individual and whatever you're generating as an individual for the business. So they're coming after you and they're going to have to get 10,000 out of you somehow some ways. You're going to have to
Adam Kennard (27:00)
you
Hollywood (27:25)
start baking cookies, you're gonna have to sell that Xbox that you saved up for, you're gonna have to sell everything to be able to make that equal, right? And LLC will protect you and separate you from the business, right? So they can't come after you and your Xbox and your fancy bicycle that you bought, your e-bike. Now the LLC gives you some kind of protection, but then you will also have to have insurance, right? So there's levels to it and you have to...
You have to grow with your business, right? So if you are getting bigger, if you are charging more, a sole prop can get you started. LLC is the next level. We can start getting into Corpse to the next level. But you also have to understand that you have to grow with your business and you can't, you know, there's folks out there that are still running, you know, a sole prop DBA from 10 years ago. And they don't, maybe because they don't know.
Maybe because they don't really understand what that looks like. Yeah, sorry, gentlemen, I'm going off. But yeah, this can absolutely get deep. And I'll share with you, sorry, I'll share with you. I don't know if you gentlemen are aware, but I'll try to summarize it for you. So I went to school for graphic communications. So when I was in high school, there was an outstanding teacher, Mr. Freeman.
Adam Kennard (28:31)
No, that's great. That was really good.
Hollywood (28:51)
And he was teaching us all the Photoshop back then, right? All these old MacBooks, you he's well looking things. And so he's teaching us everything from scratch, graphic designs, and then silk screening, and then we take it to a press, and we're doing everything from t-shirts ⁓ to a dark room and film and all that good stuff. And I really enjoyed it. And I really liked it. So by the time I got out of high school, there was a small business program.
Noah (29:04)
Thanks.
Hollywood (29:19)
Where if you went and completed it within two years you can get some kind of certification to open up a little small business print shop And I was like that's what I want to do right so I left high school. I wanted to open up a print shop So I went I went to school and I started the program and obviously part of the program right was graphic Art all that artsy stuff and then one of them was finance right? Truth be told there is one F on my transcript
And the one F I've ever gotten is in math. I hate math. I, I, if, if my kids fail math, I wouldn't be upset at them. ⁓ but yeah, I spent many summers making up math classes in high school. Anywho, so we've got to college. They're like, you got to take finance. was like, damn it. All right, we're in. Cause I got to complete the certification program. And so I'm taking my artsy artsy classes and then I start taking these finance classes and it just, it clicked, right? Something was like, huh, I hate math, but I can do it.
Noah (30:01)
You
Hollywood (30:19)
but I'm good at it, right? Except that one fail. But so the teacher didn't like me, you know, right? Isn't that what they all say? The teacher didn't like me. So I ended up going into finance and then I just took a hard left and then I left all my graphic communications in college and then I started going into the finance world. So much so that I...
Adam Kennard (30:25)
You
Noah (30:26)
You
Hollywood (30:40)
I finished college, my first job was at Citibank. I was a teller. That was my first job. Secular job was a teller. And within nine months, I went from a teller, the teller supervisor to a banker to a fully licensed investments advisor. And so in Citibank, within a few years, I was just, I was in it, like just knee deep in it, right? ⁓ And I enjoyed it. I was like, holy smokes, this is a whole other world. And interestingly enough,
Ken Shek (30:43)
you
Hollywood (31:11)
⁓ Another job came up and back then when I was in LA, ⁓ LAUSD, my wife back then worked for LAUSD, right? Is it the second largest school district? New York is number one? Is that still the case? Can't keep track anymore. So LAUSD, right, second largest school district in the nation. ⁓ And so I actually, went, I quit Citibank. Back then I went to work for LAUSD and we were doing office administrative kind of stuff, right, because I have some of that experience.
Noah (31:23)
I think so.
Scott (31:24)
doing
them.
Hollywood (31:40)
Um, and then I bounced, I got pink slipped, right? Wonderful budget cuts and LA USD happening to the date. Sorry folks. Um, and so I got pink slipped from LA USD. I quickly pivoted back to banking. So I went back. think I must've been with like us bank. went to another financial institution. Then I got called back. Then I went back to LA USD. And then of course that died out again. And then I went to another bank and then I ended up going to Burbank unified.
⁓ Running fiscal, same fiscal administrative kind of stuff. ⁓ And so my initial experience in finance has been in financial institutions, in school districts, and then I had my own wealth management agencies ⁓ for the last few years of my finance career. So needless to say, I've seen a little bit of everything when it comes to the finance world. ⁓
And I've, I've, I've done it in multiple different kinds of phases and roles. But now that I come back and I sit right in a business, man, all those years are absolutely kicking in right now. Right. And then allowing me to make these wise decisions, right. And smart decisions. And you know, I tell folks all the time, man, if you can play chess in this construction game.
Right? If you can play chess and let those other folks keep playing checkers, you're going to be okay. Right? You don't have to beat yourself up. You don't have to kill yourself. You don't have to work the 50, 60, 70 hours a week. You want to go for those big ticket items, right? Find your niche, find your specialty, right? Don't get into the competitive world because some areas, you know, Los Angeles, holy smokes, brother. Good luck, right? Good luck even getting in front of a client.
Right? ⁓ But find your niche and you can work your decent hours, right? And then be home and be able to have dinner with your kids, right? And have a date night with your wife. But you gotta be smart about it. Otherwise you're gonna burn yourself to the ground in this construction industry. And all you're gonna have to show for it is that GMC Sierra Sierra truck that's in your parking lot, that you can't even move because you got bald tires on it.
Alright, that's it up. I'm gonna stop right there.
Scott (34:06)
Huh.
Noah (34:10)
Nah, that's it.
Ken Shek (34:11)
With that being said, think what one last thing, what would be like two or three books that you would recommend for someone just getting into the trades to read
Hollywood (34:24)
any sense. you know, finance, finance, like I said, it's just, it's hard. It's, hard. It's just, it's a delicate subject, right?
And unless you relate to it and you have, you kind of have somebody sharing that with you, ⁓ it's not going to make sense because you've got to have somebody apply it to your circumstance and to your situation. think most of the books that I'm reading are leadership related, right? Because part of it is you got to know, you got to know what you're good at. And I say this all the time, know what you're good at and know what you're not good at. Right. And so, like I said, even with my knowledge, right, I, we have an accountant.
And we sit every quarter and we have conversations and we brainstorm. Why? Because I'm not, you know, knee deep in that world anymore. Right. And she is, and she's very aware and she knows all these new rules and new regulations, right. And new little pathways on how you can write stuff off and deductions. She keeps up to date in that. Right. And so I recognize I'm not in it now. Right. I'm not fully licensed anymore. Right. I let those things die a long time ago. And so now I go and I tap into.
the specialists in their respective field, right? And so know who to use, right? Know how to build that good circle to tap into. ⁓ And I think, you know, I think for students, they need to find those mature, right, experienced, you know, older folks, ⁓ you know, because you're not gonna get it out of your classmate, right? I mean, you guys might be able to just hang out and build cool stuff.
but tap into those older folks that have already experienced the difficulties of finance.
Noah (36:09)
That's awesome. Incredible advice. I still remember, I think it was like ⁓ right at end of my first year teaching, a student came to me was like, hey, you're an adult. ⁓ I overdraft my bank account. What do I do? And I said, you know what? I could probably help you out with that. ⁓ So ⁓ it is cool when you have the opportunity to teach people even when they make mistakes and stuff like that. Finance is a crazy world to me. Understanding it with business is something that, I mean, I'll be honest, I struggled with.
Scott (36:09)
Goodbye.
Adam Kennard (36:12)
Yeah.
Noah (36:39)
entire time I ran businesses and everything like that. It's tough. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your insight, share your knowledge with this. It's incredible to know you. Me and Ken met your wife at JLC. She's incredible. ⁓ It's super cool to follow what you have going along. ⁓ And I'm incredibly impressed. And you to take the time to share your insight is incredible. I do have one question though. This is totally out of left field.
Adam Kennard (36:44)
Yeah.
Hollywood (36:56)
Cheers.
Adam Kennard (36:57)
Yeah.
Hollywood (37:08)
Go for it.
Noah (37:08)
It is my
dream to teach in the classroom, deck board bending. Is that something that's doable to teach in the classroom?
Scott (37:10)
I'll up.
Hollywood (37:18)
Let's see, Virginia, think I'm 13 hours away from you. If I can get in the car now, I got my heating blankets right beside me. I can get there in 13 hours,
Noah (37:24)
hahahaha
There you go. I can zoom you into the class.
Hollywood (37:31)
I'm game. I'm game.
Noah (37:32)
Sometime,
I think next year my goal is to try it and teach it and I think it'll be a fun experience for the students.
Hollywood (37:40)
Yeah, no, glad to. we, yeah, we're always suckers. ⁓ We're suckers for education, right? We're suckers for finance. And, you know, if there's one thing I want to emphasize is, listen, we learn and we teach, right? You got to be willing to do both. And hopefully all of us in the construction industry right now realize that it's not a matter of us, you know, job security and us being afraid of letting go because we're going to be replaced.
You know, if you're still in the construction industry and feeling that way, good luck taking your knowledge to the tomb, right? Go for it. But at this day and age, if you're in the construction industry and you're not consistently learning and teaching, you're going to get phased out, right? Because it is changing so quick. know, innovation here is happening with material and tools and resources and software and AI, right? And so if you are not keeping up with all of this,
Noah (38:18)
Yeah.
Hollywood (38:40)
and you are not sharing all of this too, man, you're gonna weed yourself out quick.
Noah (38:47)
Yeah, Solid advice. Thank you so much. If anyone have any closing comments or anything.
Adam Kennard (38:51)
Yeah, thank you so much.
Hollywood (38:56)
Cartridge in a man. No. All right. Now we're gonna film the Spanish episode guys. Stay tuned.
Adam Kennard (38:57)
Yeah.
Ha
Scott (39:08)
Si, me gusta.
Noah (39:11)
Honestly, would say quarter of my students are native Spanish speakers. So I need to get out. They're trying to teach me, but I am like, I need to work on it.
Ken Shek (39:13)
We just really appreciate your time, Tony.
Hollywood (39:17)
Sweet.
Listen,
when Scott wasn't talking, I was going to start using American Sign Language. thought he just didn't want to, maybe, maybe that's how he communicates. We can do that. Yeah, we're trilingual, brother, yeah.
Ken Shek (39:27)
you
Scott (39:29)
There we go.
Noah (39:29)
Do you know American Spine Language?
I'm impressed. I gotta get it together!
Hollywood (39:35)
American Sign Language.
Yeah, man. So in college, I'll tell you what, so my wife took it in high school real quick. She took it in high school, right? And she was always so excited about American Sign Language. Her high school offered it, mine didn't. And so when we got to college, we both went to the same college and I was taking my little nerdy graphic communications program and they offered American Sign Language. So I was like, yeah, being a good boyfriend that I am, I was like, I'm about to take some American Sign Language classes.
So when we were both in college, man, we got so involved in the deaf culture and the deaf community. It was outstanding. And yeah, we both went in with sign language. And so when we were dating, we both learned it. We used it a lot. We got very well connected to a lot of friends and to the date. We have friends that we met back when we were dating in our early 20s. We got married and our goal was to serve where the need is greater.
Adam Kennard (40:22)
It's awesome.
Hollywood (40:27)
in sign language, right, to look for all those little deaf pockets and being able to help the deaf. And then of course, marriage comes at you and life goes. ⁓ So we didn't do that. ⁓ But a couple of years after we got married, we had our firstborn. And our firstborn turns out is deaf. So ⁓ as hard as it is to hear anything like that for your kids.
Adam Kennard (40:48)
Wow.
Hollywood (40:52)
We kind of just shifted real quick and we're like, he's already been learning baby sign and we still have communication. So, know, God is great and he's going to help us through it. So my oldest is 16 now, outstanding kid, loving to death. And ⁓ yeah, it's been, life has been surreal.
Adam Kennard (41:01)
Amen.
Noah (41:12)
Man.
Scott (41:12)
How cool is that that your paths prepared you for that?
Adam Kennard (41:15)
Yeah.
Hollywood (41:16)
Absolutely. Yeah. It is, yeah, it's always breathtaking when we talk about it, man. But yeah, great wife. We've known each other since we were eight. Holy smokes. Yeah, we've known each other since we were eight. 19 years married. I've known her my whole life. I swear somebody sold me for like two chickens and a goat. I say that all the time. I was like, somebody arranged me somewhere down the line, man. Somebody sold me out.
Noah (41:17)
100%.
Adam Kennard (41:27)
Wow, that's awesome.
Noah (41:37)
No.
That's hilarious.
Adam Kennard (41:44)
Congratulations, 19 years, that's awesome. I mean, that is something to be celebrated.
Scott (41:47)
Yep, there it is.
Hollywood (41:49)
out
some way. I've earned all these white hairs, know what
Adam Kennard (41:51)
Ha ha.
Noah (41:52)
We're gonna have you on the marriage counseling episode as well, just so you know. That's the experience talking, I guess. Awesome. Well, thank you again. I can't thank you enough. This has been incredible. You're super cool. So thank you so much.
Hollywood (41:54)
Sign me up, brother. I might be listening more though. I might be listening more than talking on that episode.
Ken Shek (41:59)
Hahaha
Hollywood (42:03)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Kennard (42:07)
Yeah, this was great.
Hollywood (42:07)
Contrary gentlemen, thank
you so much.