Hector Resendez's Trade School Secrets - Relationship Marketing Podcast

(upbeat music) - Hey, how's it going, everyone? Welcome to the Relationship Marketing Podcast. Today, I'm really happy to be joined by Hector. Hector and I met on X, or should we call it Twitter? Hector, share with my audience exactly how you're helping people right now, and then we'll dive into the podcast. - Sure. I'm helping people get access to a grant called WIOA. No one's heard about it. It's a kept secret and I'm here to blow the whistle on it. - I'm excited to hear about it. It's something that grants are like almost secretive. People don't know much about grants, but they're so powerful for things. So Hector's the owner of National Trade Institute. Also, you know, what you're promoting now is the trade school secrets. And the reason I wanted to interview you, Hector, is because you're really trying to help people. Like, yeah, you have a business, but then you're starting, you have the second thing where you're actually like, I'm trying to give back. I'm trying to help people. So who's Hector and how did this all start? - Oh man, Brad, I appreciate it. You're one of the first people that engage with me on X. I'm not on social media until now. I'm a rookie on X. I say that all the time, but who Hector is? I mean, I'm an average person from South Texas. I accidentally started an online trade school. Everyone's heard of trade schools, but mine's specifically 100% online. So that makes it a little bit unique. Why it's unique is we're able to start classes every Monday versus a semester base. So there's no waiting around. And this grant no one's heard of helped me scale our school to over $2.4 million in our second year of business. And now I want to pay it forward. I want to make such a complicated process of accessing this grant simplified. So trade school secrets is just a guide that I build that gives you step-by-step process on how to get the grant, where to go get it, what to say, what to write on it. Just so you can go get the grant. And for anyone that qualifies for it, we'll dive a little bit deeper in it, but that's in the nutshell, that's what it is. - All right, simplify this for me. Let me know if I'm understanding this right. Let's say I'm unemployed, maybe I'm out of college or instead of going to college, but I want to do some sort of trade business. This grant will actually pay for that school for me and then help me get a job or... - Yes. - So real quick, high level, if you're unemployed, you lost your job, you're not working, you're on food stamps like government assistance, affordable housing, pretty much that generational cycle that deserves a second chance. A lot of times they don't realize that there's a grant called WIOA that will pay for you to go to a trade school, short-term course for free. They'll pay the entire tuition, I don't care what state you're in, there's some kind of model around it. And the real reason behind that is, they're trying to teach you a new skill set in a real popular course. For example, pharmacy technician, cybersecurity, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, coding, anything that's in high demand because once you learn this new skill set, guess what? You're gonna start paying taxes and taxes for a long time. So the government's gonna get it back. They're just making an investment in you early on with a grant. - Before we go any further, a lot of my audience are business owners and entrepreneurs as well. So something that stuck out to me on our pre-interview talk was speaking about, hey, this may even pay for the first three months salary if you were to hire someone that came from this. Can you touch on that real quick and then we'll dive in deeper later? - Yeah, so something that I found out, again, Brian, you, when I was in Austin, Texas, they were, once the student graduated, they were like, well, then what? I have this new certificate who's gonna hire me now. So I found out that there's another program called Upscale, part of this grant, again, that for any smaller employers, I think the size is like 20 employers or 20 employees or smaller, you know, SMB, small, medium business, you're able to do a test drive on each other. The workforce will not fund your tuition. Now they're gonna pay you a decent hourly wage to test drive the employer for 90 days. That way you're test driving the employer, but really the employer is test driving you to see if you're a good fit. Again, the hourly is not a home run, but it gives you the hands-on experience. So now you have something to put on your resume or it's a win-win where the employer is like, hey, man, I'm taking you on, let's bump your pay up and I got to see what you're about and it's awesome and it's just a cool unique. That's just one. There's a whole bunch of other little hidden bills and whistles out there. It's just no one bothers to ask or look. - That's like sparking some, you know, some things in my head. Like that's a paid internship right there, right? That's gonna go on someone's resume. It's also gonna help me get a really good employee potentially for, you know, a low cost where I can test them out. So I love the theory behind that. So let's dive into the backstory on National Trade Institute. It started during COVID and where are you guys at now? I know you touched on that, but I think my favorite thing I want you to dive into is how many people you're employing and how you're even helping people with jobs and then how many people have you guys helped along the way. So the reason this is funny, and I always say I accidentally started the schools 'cause it was an accident right before COVID. I was a VP of a big financial debt settlement company. I was, you know, trapped with a bloated salary. I mean, I loved making a lot of money. I was, you know, 250, 280 a year. However, I was trading my time. I was working 60, 70 hours, high blood pressure, leaving before the sun was up, coming home when the sun was down. It's just, I was just trapped there. I knew there's something better for me. And I had enough money to start an insurance company. Your think of State Farm brought the broker out. I invested a lot of money into that company and the silver lining there was, I got a call three months later into the insurance company that wasn't, unfortunately, what they told me wasn't exactly that model. So I got, I fell for that trap and it is what it is. Learning moments, I love failures for that reason. I got a call from a former employee and he wanted truck driver insurance like for an 18 wheeler. And I'm just like, dude, what do you need truck driver insurance for? He goes, oh, me and my brother started a school doing truck driving. I'm like, who in the right mind gives you a school and how is this business? So I was immediately drawn to that. I went down there and this is in March, 2020 where the sickness thing was going on. I didn't know what it was going to be. So we're still, the indicator though, there was, he started a struggle getting DMV appointments 'cause they started to shut down, the world started to close, this is now April, but obviously silver lining was there as I got to see the opportunity. So that was kind of like my aha moment. I'm like, man, this could be good, but I don't think they're doing it right. Now they're all going to be home, just like courses that people here sell and exist. I mean, once you do an online course, it has to be more profitable. So I went down that rabbit hole and went, every state has a target occupation list, which is what each county will pay for that's on demand. So once I found out and what he told me, the second part is that he told me his brother got a grant to become a CDO driver and then he did it. I was like, what grant? And it's been around forever. Like I said, I can't say it enough. It's called WIOA, Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act. Google that wherever you're at, go down that rabbit hole. That's allowed our school to scale big time. What I did, I used every phone experience I ever had, every sales experience I ever had. I got to understand the grant. I got to understand the audience. Who could qualify for this grant? And I hit the phones and I hit the streets. Even during COVID, Zoom was a thing. So I was zooming with everyone, women's shelters, sober living groups, nonprofits, church groups. And I was coming on to the call, we're like, hey, who in your audience or who in your network that you provide services for can use a free online school. I'll send you a laptop, because I know that was a barrier and it's free. And it just was mind blowing. No one's heard of this. They didn't believe me. But what a cool call to action you have. Free laptops, free school. I was known as that guy. And before you know it, we're at about 370 students so far with a completion rate of about 82%. - Okay, and how many teachers? - Six to seven. It's seasonal sometimes, but about 67 at any given time. - That's really cool. Thanks for sharing that. I mean, and that's what I want to encourage a lot of entrepreneurs too. If you're looking for your next opportunity, like find that missing thing that maybe, it might be right under your nose, you have no idea, but listen to people, be self-aware, see what other people are doing, see what people want. And during COVID, that's what people wanted. They had to stay home. They wanted to get a new job. And then your friends are starting the truck driver school. It's like, ding, maybe what's all this about? - Yeah, I mean, that's what happens with everything, right? You find an idea from somewhere else and you invent a better mousetrap. You, I was able to, I mean, your name's automation links. I was able to find CRMs to automate a lot of the process that kept the team lean and we're able to do what big schools do, but on the masses and with just a lean team because of automation. - That's so cool, man. Congrats on your growth. And now tell me about if I'm, let's say I'm unemployed, I wanna get into the trade program. I wanna learn more about the grant. How does it work? Do I reach out to you? Do I reach out to your website? How long is my course? Or do I get to choose what courses I want? - Yeah, those are all good questions. I could tell you how we do things and then maybe that'll resonate with whoever's watching. Every trade school at our size, until you hit the five-year mark, you're not gonna get accredited to go across state borders. You'll notice that easily. We're a dot com, so it's nationaltradeinstitute.com. We're only licensed to do Texas. So if they're watching from Texas, I'd love to help them out. Whether it's my school or not, I tell everyone, I just want you to get this grant. If you choose my school with a bonus, we only have so many courses. If you wanna be a paralegal, I can't help you. If you wanna do police officer, pharmacy technician, or surgical tech, by all means, I'll point you in the right direction. But if you do wanna do HVAC, electrical, and plumbing or construction, I could help you. You're in my wheelhouse. Believe it or not, all those that I just mentioned, the hands-on is not important. 90% of it is curriculum. No one's gonna watch you go up a ladder and change a filter or unclog the drain. You still gotta take that test on a computer. So that's what people don't understand that has to happen. And with that being said, when it comes to all that, reach out to me, if you're in another state, I tell everyone, start with this. Google, WIOA near me. And that way it's gonna come up your office you need to go to. You could go to my guide, which will leave a link below. And it's a step-by-step guide to any state. It's gonna show you how to get the grant, how to call in and what to say when you get the grant. 'Cause if you call these government agencies, they're like, yeah, sometimes they don't even know. They have people, they employ so many people, they don't pay well, it's a revolving door and they make it so complicated. Something so simple, it's so complicated, but I could help in those ways if that answers that. - That's awesome. All right, so I wanna join. You're gonna give me that free guide. We'll link that down below. If I want, I'll reach out to yours if I'm in Texas, but I'll do my research. I'll get started in one of these trade schools. Are they all online now or are they both in-person and online? - Traditionally, I wanna say 90% are in-person. It's a hard cycle to break because you have to understand most trade school owners are tradespeople themselves. So for example, if you're an HVAC person and you got hurt climbing a ladder or falling off the house or in the attic somewhere or you're in your fifties, you're like, you know what? I don't wanna be in hot attics anymore, but I love this profession. Maybe I'll teach it. That's who becomes accident owners. And what happens with them is they don't understand the online concept. Like, what do you mean I could do it online? What they don't understand is like, well, you have to teach it in person anyway. And it's all online. You're teaching a textbook. It only 10% hands on. And if we realize something, these trade school owners, they don't treat it like a business. They just did this as a means to kind of get by and they kind of just roll with the punches. They settle for average and it's okay. They get their bills paid. They love it so much. I treated it only as a business. I mean, this is the first time I'm blessed to be put in a position where the more people I help, the more money we make. Literally, the more I share about this grant, it just gets better and better. - So could you help the trade school owner? - Of course, yeah. I help too now, accidentally, unprofessionally. Like I help, I've been getting reached out because I have things, I'm three years into it now. I've seen what works. I've made all the mistakes. I have a 62% response rate on a text message. No one could figure that out and it's so simple. I know what CRMs to use. I know where to find leads. I've spent $0 on leads in three years 'cause I just made partnerships. I don't need to spend money. I appreciate those that spend money. I just, I have too many leads right now as it is. And there's just not enough schools. Even if I help 20 people in each state with their schools, still not enough. The bridge gap is so huge between people trying to apply for these jobs and the people that have them. Like I said, the average trades person is 52 years old. Here in five or 10 years, we're in trouble if they don't get replaced. - That's great. If you want to be an entrepreneur, I almost think you'd get an actress position and learn from him. Like, start doing a trade school online. Like, holy cow, in your state. Like, that's an incredible opportunity. - From your house. - That is awesome. So you got Texas covered. I don't know. Maybe you should branch out to every state, Hector. - I don't even think I have Texas covered 'cause you gotta understand if you Google trade schools, I mean, what makes us different is that every trade school is semester based. Every trade school is only night schools 'cause people still have to have jobs and they kick the same course they're offering. Let's just say it's a hundred hour for HVAC. They take six to nine months 'cause they could only do it during a certain window. The instructor's probably the owner. He could only, he only has this much of bandwidth. I give it to you all 100% online. You can do it at your own pace. I'll send you a VR goggles. You're, you know, doing it that way because the only difference between my student and the trade and the in-person student is, is they get to go in person and take a long time with us. It's all online. And if you think about it, once you get that certificate, you both have to take the same test. It's on a computer. We deliver the curriculum. I feel a lot better 'cause it's curriculum heavy. Then when you get on that job site, no one's gonna give you the keys to the truck. You're still gonna have to shadow somebody for six to 12 months before. And everywhere you've gone with a degree or a certificate, every employer says the same thing. I know what you learned, but I want you to do things my way. And so for the next six months, this is how we do things. So it just gets you your foot in the door. That's a great point. The first job that we must do. Yeah. That is a great point. You're right, a hundred percent right. They're gonna teach you their way as soon as you get in. So that's key there. Sure. So you promised a case study. You filled me in a little bit on one last time of someone you've helped. I always like hearing real people's results. And since you're helping people, you have a business. Yeah, but I know you're really trying to help people. Share a cool case study result with us. Yeah. So one of the one that pops up was early on. We helped a gentleman from the sober living community take an office management course. A lot of times people don't underestimate what a basic office management class could do, but it teaches you modern computer skills, Microsoft Office Suite. A lot of that stuff could be daunting as fast as technology is getting. He had been stuck like most of our audience in fast food, warehouse, fast food, like just that vicious cycle in fast food industry, assistant general manager at this restaurant, that restaurant. And it was a tough, if you look at his resume, it's real job-hoppy, right? So when he came to us, he was recently laid off 'cause he moved a restaurant. He came to us, he went through the school, and it was really cool. We hosted a job fair with the workforce there in Austin, Texas. And he was able to get a job with a nonprofit as a case manager. And now what he does for a living, he helps veterans and homeless people get access to this grant and get them work, which is I think is so ironic, but what a Cinderella story. Like now he's paying it forward. I think he's making like a lot of people understand nonprofits don't pay okay. They get like all these benefits. And I think he makes like 52, 55 a year, and he loves what he does. He's like out in the community, he can't believe it, that this came from a little certificate from a little unknown school. But that's the power of what you don't know, right? Taking advantage, taking action, doing what you love. And now he'll do that for the rest of his life. And we're featured on Fox 7 News. If you go to our website, you'll see it in the media. He's on there sharing a story and it's really cool to see. - That is awesome. So you're paying it forward, which is also helping other people pay it forward, which is really cool. - So cool, not enough. Like there's a long way to go. I said, I have a goal. Starting now, being on X, meeting people like you, all these connections, I want to help a thousand people get this access to this grant. We're at five so far, I got a long way to go. - Yep. So we keep referring to X, but it's Twitter if no one's on there yet. - Yeah, it's print. - I really enjoy it 'cause it's a lot of business professionals and it's kind of like a different type of LinkedIn, a more personal LinkedIn. - Had no idea. If I knew how positive, how meaningful these connections were, I would have joined a while back. I didn't know. Like I only know what I know. And it's what others tell me. And I wasn't around like-minded people that were using Twitter for business Twitter, as they call it. I had no idea, man. So I'm new to it. I've been here seven weeks. You were one of the first people to engage with me and I appreciate it and it's been fun. - What have you found that works? Is it, 'cause what I see is you and for your business, you talked about, you're not trying to get leads. You're trying to make partnerships. I think that's how, that's what's working best for me on X/Twitter. Seems like that's probably what's working best for you as well. Is that what you would recommend other business owners and entrepreneurs also when they go thinking of a platform or building their business? - I think, I mean, obviously, yes. The traditional marketing isn't always the best fit for everyone. You have to find out, you have to kind of niche it down. If you're the HVAC guy, then everyone's gonna be in the grocery store, cards on the little public, publication magazines, that's kind of played out. What I would do if I was like an HVAC guy or someone at home service, I would partner up with my local church. These church followers, these church groups are huge. I would say, hey, once a year, I'm gonna donate an HVAC system to one of somebody in need. And that press alone of paying it forward will be huge. You'll get so much of business out of that. So I would do, out of the box thinking like that, man. I would, I've learned that once you pay it forward, it comes back 10 times. - Wow, that's a great point. I like that, you know, you get, you do one nice thing for somebody in a church or your group or school. And they're gonna tell everyone about you. - Same thing with roofers and everything. I mean, I belong to a really cool church and that's all, that's what I see them do. They're like, hey, the storm hit by. We, I didn't even know we had this huge storm just come by, North Dallas, where a trillion trees get knocked down and blown out. And apparently our church has a chainsaw crew, like these volunteer dads and I'm like, what? But it come to find out it was a tree trimming service company that was donating all their workers. You telling me that business didn't blow up? - They're crazy right now. I'm about to use them. And I'm just, that's how I find out about them. - Exactly. Now you know someone you can trust. - Exactly. - That's key. One last question before we get into closing things up is, let's say I'm a business owner and I want to hire somebody that just went through this grant and get that salary. Do I reach out to you? Do I just Google it? - You can, we could tackle it together. Every state, like here in Texas, they're called Workforce Solutions Office. I know in Illinois, they're called Illinois Works. In Florida, they're called Career Source. We just have to figure out, that's why I say, if you start with we owe a grant near me, it'll point you towards the office and what it's called. You definitely don't want to just cold call them and say, hey, I pay for my employees. Like I invited anyone to have that conversation with me first and let's kind of put a plan together. And I'm happy to do it while I can, right? As long as we can figure out a time that works best, but I'm happy to help everyone, man. I feel, again, I've been very blessed. I want to pay it forward. I want to help small businesses. I'm a small business dude. I want to help everyone I possibly can. I don't want anything in return. I just want the virtual high five is good for me. - Yep, just like we talked about, it always comes back at some point, whether it's referrals or connections or anything like that. So I think you just explained it. If anyone wants to connect and reach out to Hector, definitely go to his X profile. We will make sure we put it in the link below. I think we Google WIOA grant. - Near me. - Yep, near me. And then you can find that there. And how about we send everyone to tradeschoolsecret.com for to join your newsletter as well. - Sure, yeah, I could help. In those ways, you could link up the school. You could see my school website. Nothing impressive about it is just tells you how I could get away with an online school. I mean, it's just, we're birthed during COVID and we stayed online 'cause it's just more profitable. It makes more sense. It's unique. We start classes every week and why not? You know, I can't compete with the big boys out there. So I just need to stay in my lane and do what I could do best. - That is awesome. And if you're watching or listening to this right now and you're looking for maybe a different career path or you're unemployed or you want to learn a trade, like I highly suggest taking a look at this, researching it. And even if you're an entrepreneur or business owner, like look into starting a course like this or hiring some people that go through this grant, I think it's really important and all comes around. - For sure. That's kind of cool. I mean, not that we're going kind of off the topic here, but like think about it. If you're an HVAC company and you want to kind of just do the school on the side, you have employees forever paying for by the grant. I mean, that's kind of a little hack that we just came up with. - I know, it's awesome. I'm like, what the heck? I might even start this like, holy cow, it's awesome. Well, I appreciate you being on the show Hector. And thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom and everything you learned with our audience as well. - Thanks for having me Brad, this is awesome. - Thank you everyone for watching. Remember we're on YouTube and all your favorite podcasts, Spotify, you know, Apple podcasts and whatever the Android podcasts are, I don't even know. But thanks for joining in and make sure you go follow Hector and give him some love for being on the show. Thanks again and we'll see you guys on the next show.