Ep. 101: Introducing the Untapped with UpSmith Podcast
Wyatt Smith: [00:00:00] Welcome to Untapped with UpSmith, a show diving into ideas to build the future. I’m Wyatt Smith, founder and CEO of UpSmith.
Alex Hudgens: And I’m Alex Hudgens, UpSmith’s resident storyteller. On Untapped, you’re getting real talk and real help. We’re bringing you industry experts and inviting guests on to share perspectives on what they’re building.
We’ll even workshop their business challenges in real time. Expect practical advice, inspiring ideas, and even some fun. We
Wyatt Smith: promise. Ideas build the future and the future is bright. It’s time for Untapped with UpSmith.
Alex Hudgens: I’m Alex Hudgens. And I’m Wyatt Smith and welcome to Untapped with UpSmith, Wyatt Smith. Tell me about UpSmith, who we are, what we’re
Wyatt Smith: doing UpSmith is focused on combating the [00:01:00] skilled worker crisis. It’s the lack of available talent to be able to take on roles across our economy. That are builders, people are responsible for helping to grow communities.
And, and ultimately that, that gap is something that limits human flourishing. So our company is very focused on building technology to expand workforce productivity. We’ve had a lot of impact in helping companies grow their businesses and we’re excited to extend that.
Alex Hudgens: Give me more of your backstory because it’s very interesting.
There’s been a lot of twists and turns, but it feels very aligned to me, but let the people know why are you doing this? Okay. Bye. Bye.
Wyatt Smith: My whole life I’ve been focused on helping expand opportunity for people. I grew up on a cattle ranch in West Alabama, really small town called Reform. Shout out to Reform.
And my high school graduating class was around 27 people, 13 of whom I was in kindergarten with. So people that you grew up with and it’s a very blue collar part of the country. People that work with [00:02:00] their hands. The majority of my classmates went to the military or to community college. I was the only person to go more than 50 miles from home from our group.
And I think the types of people that the dignity of work and the character that comes from being a builder is something that ultimately had a deep rooting impact on My value system, how I think about the world and, and the types of things that I’m, I’m, I’m most encouraged about focusing on building myself.
Um, so after college, I was abroad for a period of time. I came back to the U. S. and joined Teach for America in Alabama. I taught high school history, enrolled history in Birmingham. Remains the, the best and hardest job I’ve
Alex Hudgens: had. How many naps were recorded on your watch in high school history class?
Wyatt Smith: Everyone was pretty wrapped with attention. Okay. Mr. Smith’s history class. It was a pretty fun, fun experience. I think my big takeaway is that for [00:03:00] many people in current, including a lot of my students who I encouraged to college, the trade of money and time for post secondary education is not always a very good one.
Given that the quality of a lot of those post secondary programs is not high and it’s even worse if you borrow money and you don’t finish and now you don’t have a marketable skill to trade and you’re carrying a debt load with you. And that’s true for a number of students who I encouraged to college is a net positive thing that, you know, years later, I look back on with a little bit more circumspection.
So the big idea for UpSmith is that you can use technology to verify skills, people’s. Capabilities, knowledge, um, is a, is an important thing, but mindset and behavior markers are, are equally as important, uh, enablers of success. And then people can use those to be able to create lots of value for their employer and ultimately for themselves.
Alex Hudgens: What have you seen to be some of the key [00:04:00] or lead characteristics when I just meet somebody and I go, that person has so much potential, they could be really successful. What are those? What are those
Wyatt Smith: indicators? I think across all parts of our economy, the playbook for how to be really successful as an entry level worker is relatively consistent.
Do you have a mindset that is focused on working hard? Are you a good listener? Do you build trust with people quickly? Are you able to be gritty and persevere and things happen that aren’t great and you move through them? We’ve now deployed our technology platform in over 15 states across the country, and when we’ve done that, we’ve found that the skills you need are very learnable.
You can build technical skills quickly. The mindsets, traits, behavior markers, those are things that allow people to be successful and stand out. And so we built technology that helps to identify those, those natural gifts and then help people tell their stories in more compelling ways than they might otherwise tell themselves.
[00:05:00] Increasingly, we see an opportunity to use technology to help to maximize. Proactivity, whether it be revenue, whether it be throughput, whether it be reducing rework time, which is also tied back to motivation. What are the things that get people fired up both intrinsically and extrinsically? And that’s a real opportunity for technology too.
Alex Hudgens: Let’s talk more about the opportunity because we’ve had studies, we know brain science, none of this is new, we know what motivation can do for people. Yep. And a lot of the problems happening, particularly in the skilled trades, when we’re talking about the labor shortage, are also not new. So why is Upsmith, what is this, you know, new idea that we have?
Why is this working and why has it not happened already?
Wyatt Smith: That’s a great question. Across skilled trades, adoption of technology varies. And there are still companies that are run largely using paper and, and are using phones and dispatching people that way. [00:06:00] That said, there’s been a tremendous adoption of software platforms to be systems of record for how you dispatch people, how you record invoices, and what’s really cool about that is given that adoption has been increasing, we can build software that hooks into those platforms and creates new insights that says, Hey, as soon as this invoice was recorded or this ticket was generated, We can analyze it and say, great, here was a really cool thing that happened in this customer interaction.
We can reward someone for the the behavior that they demonstrated and this becomes a way for technicians for Blue collar workers to participate in the value that they are creating for their employer In a way, that’s really really motivating because it’s not necessarily just tied to money . It’s also tied to recognition.
It’s also tied to a sense of I’m a master at my craft. It’s also tied to a sense of like, I have something to teach [00:07:00] somebody else about this. And that’s a really powerful implementation of technology that obviously been able to deploy, to be able to address this skilled worker crisis by helping expand workforce productivity and drive attention for skilled workers in different
Alex Hudgens: contexts.
What has been one of your favorite stories? So we’re talking about. Boost UpSmith’s product boost. And I just want to know in general, whether it’s boost or are upscaling our core product in 2023, what is one of your favorite stories from a, you know, UpSmith customer
Wyatt Smith: perspective? Yeah, totally. I’d love to tell you about Juan Bravo in Texas.
Uh, which is the best name. It’s the best name. Juan Bravo. He planned it that way. Juan is such a, such a high performer and relatively young person in his twenties working a number of hourly jobs in food processing, just a really hustler and wanted to build a skill to [00:08:00] have a way to be able to grow and develop and demonstrate mastery that wasn’t necessarily an hourly job.
But the switching costs to go back to school are high, you have responsibilities, you have, you have obligations, you have dependents, one became an HVAC technician in Texas with a really phenomenal home services platform that we’re partnered with. And in a very short amount of time, he became one of the highest performers, not just in the DFW market, but the whole country, like of all of their branches across the Midwest.
And I think it’s indicative of. Juan Bravo’s desire to make an impact for sure his work ethic, he told us, listen, I’m at the top of the leaderboard right now for Dallas, but like I’m not stopping there. It’s going to, oh yeah. I’m still at the top of the whole company. And so what’s also interesting about our, our boost product is every time he performs in a way that matches the activity that his employer wants to see to maximize output, we can [00:09:00] message him and we can say, Hey, Man, what an awesome impact you just had in the last three minutes.
And it helps drive, I think, really timely rewards for him to get a sense of here’s where I stand and here’s what I can do to even further increase my impact, which for someone who’s new to the profession is a really powerful
Alex Hudgens: boost. Yeah. We can send him a text that says, bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo. I’m sorry.
I had to, I could not resist. You kind of answered this, but I want to get deeper into it. Why Upsmith now? Again, we have these issues. This is a huge shortage. It’s a huge crisis, arguably, in this country. Sure. We talked about what Upsmith does, but why now?
Wyatt Smith: Our point of view is that there’s a particular timing now that is driven by a couple of factors.
From the supply side, we’ve had an acceleration in people leaving skilled trades. [00:10:00] In some markets and some geographies, I mean, it’s really acute and when 45 percent of the, the construction workforce is 45 years of age or older, when roughly 20 percent is, is posed to leave the workforce in the next 10 years.
And when the rate at which people are joining is not keeping up, I mean, some markets and some geographies, it’s a three to one, four to one, even five to one mismatch. , you have a really acute supply side problem. At the same time, COVID revealed a lot of fragility in the supply chain, not just for the construction vertical, but really for everything.
Mm-Hmm. . It’s true in pharma, true in healthcare, advanced materials. And so a lot of companies have chosen to reshore to, to nearshore, to bring really critical infrastructure back to the United States. And in doing so, there’s a big spike in demand for builders is true. Construction is true. Manufacturing.
[00:11:00] When you have a supply side rate replacement problem, and you have a twin problem on the demand side where you have a big spike, that’s what creates the acute need for innovation, for technology, for, for new ways of working. And there’s nearly a million openings in us manufacturing construction alone.
Right now, that number is poised to triple by 2030. And that creates a, an opportunity to build something new.
Alex Hudgens: And is that just, I mean, we talk a lot about semiconductors and battery chips and that’s, you’re also arguably we’re trying to bring work back as well, not just fill the gap that’s already here.
Wyatt Smith: That’s right. You know, there are different ways to attack a productivity problem. You can, you can bring new workers into the set, which is a really important lever. You can help everybody produce more. So this is thinking about what the output is for each each worker hour and then you can, you can intervene to help people stay longer and across most markets, [00:12:00] attrition is a really, really tough issue and there’s lots of reasons people to trip.
But if you can drive into things that will create a better experience or more rewarding career and something that people can generate lots of value from as they create it, then that’s a powerful way to drive the. The process there to
Alex Hudgens: use the word builder. And I love this term. And a lot of what you don’t see is the upswept team has been working on what it’s really core to us.
What are our values? How would we express ourselves to the world? And this word builder comes up a lot, be a builder who is a builder. What is a builder? What’s that mean to you? And I would love an example of someone in your personal life who you look up to As said, builder, like who exemplifies what that means to you?
Wyatt Smith: What a wonderful question. I mean, I think be a builder is a charge for all of us about creating something valuable. And it also, I think it invokes some really powerful ideas around [00:13:00] being an owner, being a, being a person that is really focused on the outcome and is focused on doing what he or she needs to do to create.
That outcome, but it’s easy to admire problems doing something about it as tough. And I think that’s also the builder spirit that we want to, to grow and have thrive at Upsmith. My dad’s had a huge influence on me. My dad’s a cattle rancher in Alabama. He’s an entrepreneur. He has built a really important business just on sweat and hard work and encourage.
And didn’t grow up with much, but had a desire to be able to have an influence and came back from having played football at Ole Miss and, and, and really was hustling, borrowed money, built chicken houses, would work at night to pull the manure out of the chicken houses and then go and sell it as a fertilizer to other farmers.
And I think as a kid working for him was tough. He was a hard boss. [00:14:00] What I didn’t realize was the lessons that he was teaching me implicitly around work ethic, around doing hard things, and that has a big impact on a kid’s development. So as an adult, I have deep appreciation. Yeah.
Alex Hudgens: For that. We will forgive you, Mr.
Smith for playing for Ole Miss. He likes me. So I’m allowed to say this. Go doors all day. Uh, I would love to know what was the best job on the farm and the absolute worst job on
Wyatt Smith: the farm. Yeah, that’s a good question. Uh, best job on the farm was, was certainly when you had the chance to be responsible for bailing hay because the, The, the air conditioned cab of the tractor was a nice respite from 100 degree July day in Alabama.
The worst job on the farm, which was my job most of the time, was, um, each day there’s some number of, of chickens in your chicken house that pass away, uh, and you have to go [00:15:00] through and pick them up because it’s not good from a health standpoint if they, they’re not picked up. So. Um, I think I wrote about that on my resume as like a, for college application as ledgering mortality rates.
That was the,
Alex Hudgens: you were McKinsey speaking before you ever worked there? Guilty.
Wyatt Smith: Interesting. Guilty as charged, but that was a pretty tough job. That was a not so glamorous.
Alex Hudgens: I’m disturbed. What, what did you do with it? Are you just walking through? 125, 000 chickens. Right. Looking for dead, looking for the dead ones.
Yeah. Well, I got the answer. That’s it. I asked for
Wyatt Smith: that was the not so fun job. Uh, it’s very sanitary. It’s, you know, this very controlled.
Alex Hudgens: I don’t know. You’re going to talk about the, when the cattle come, we went to Wyatt’s family’s farm as a team offsite, which was awesome because we got to see where it all started.
We got to see how bougie I live in Manhattan. I’m not, I don’t even see dirt most days. That’s not true. I see dirt, but it’s not like real.
Wyatt Smith: I thought it was great. We had you with the horses. [00:16:00]
Alex Hudgens: It was great. It was great. My grandpa’s a cowboy, so I got it in my blood, but I thought you were going to say when the cow comes through the shoot and then you got to catch them and put the thing.
I’m sure
Wyatt Smith: medicating cattle. That’s, that’s an important job for sure, but not the worst. It’s not the worst. There’s worse. There’s more challenging jobs out there. This is what we’re going
Alex Hudgens: to cut and do it. No context, but for social. Uh, back to the builder question. I want you to also nerd out for a minute.
Uh, love that your dad is a personal inspiration. You’re also a former history teacher. That’s right. So give me who’s your most inspirational builder in American history.
Wyatt Smith: Oh, that’s a great question. Uh, I’m, I’m a really big admirer of Sam Walton. I think, I think Sam Walton embodies a lot of, Um, ideas in his, in his life and in the impact that Walmart as a company has created in the world.
And I think some of the things that are most inspiring about Sam Walton is [00:17:00] a big focus around process and a big focus around risk taking. And I think the story of Walmart is one where you had someone starting in a very small community in Benville as an underdog. Um, but, but really having big dreams and shooting big.
And I think Walmart created a lot of entrepreneurial activity in part because of the spirit of, of Sam Walton that you still see today. I mean, the leadership of the company takes a deep amount of pride in the connection that they have with their core mission and about a time that they’d been in those seats.
And, um, there’s a couple of really great books about Sam Walton’s life that I would, I would encourage anybody that. It’s a student of history and of entrepreneurship to read because it really speaks to, I think, a great American story to build around.
Alex Hudgens: Resident bookworm here. You started this. So let’s talk about books.
What were your top three reads in 2023? What would you [00:18:00] suggest to the people that we dive into in 2024 if we want to elevate ourselves, our businesses, et cetera?
Wyatt Smith: Yeah, I love that question. Um, I just finished Walter Isaacson’s biography about Elon Musk. If you haven’t read it yet, I would certainly encourage you to do so.
I mean, Elon Musk is obviously one of the most consequential humans on earth and the impact of the many businesses that he’s, he’s, he’s built is I think still in the earliest innings of seeing how it goes. Um, he obviously says what’s on his mind without much filter. And the book goes in, in pretty, in pretty, you know, depth about His origin story challenges in his childhood, how that impacts his behavior today.
And, but I, I find it inspiration in just the amount of vision and mission that those companies have. And then the, how that encourages people like really go above and beyond for, for the impact. Upsmith that has like a really [00:19:00] big mission and a big impact in the world. And that’s, that’s really inspiring to me.
Um, I would say Michael Lewis’s book about SBF is a very fascinating read of how lots of bad things can happen in a culture. If you want nightmares. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I would, I would encourage folks to check that one out. It’s a pretty fast read too. Okay. Finished that one pretty recently. Those two.
Those are two. Those are two. Um, I’m reading Ben Horwitz’s book right now about building culture. Um, and for those who haven’t read it yet, I think that. It speaks to choices that you make, stories you tell, ways you think about really raising the flag. Like this is what it means to be a part of this team.
And, you know, we’ve been building on this mission for a few months. And I think we’ve learned a ton and we have a lot of stories to build around. And so my goal before the end of the year is that that’s going to help inform. Ways we talk about our mission, which are better values. And it’s [00:20:00] pretty timely one.
Alex Hudgens: Indeed. We are workshopping something that involves banana pudding as a value. So there you go. I was hoping I, okay. I set myself up for the answers you gave and they’re great. Great. And we should read those. Was there any fiction in your life? There was no fantasy romance wreck. Give the people what they
Wyatt Smith: want.
The world’s so interesting without having to make up stories.
Alex Hudgens: Okay. I asked for that. Another three part question. Kind of got into this a little bit earlier, but I want it more chonkable. Three things that you learned in 2023 helming UpSmith, working with customers, iterating on products, everything that we did.
That you are taking with you into 2024 and perhaps it’s like, I wish I’d known that at the top
Wyatt Smith: of this year. Yeah. Well, I think anytime you’re building something, especially in the earliest innings, you have lots of opportunity in front of you. And as an entrepreneur, you’re, you’re, you’re [00:21:00] constantly talking to customers and you’re, you’re constantly thinking about your product and you’re thinking about how can I better serve people with what we’re building.
And another thing that’s like a hard truth is like, it doesn’t meet your expectations. Like you’re not, It’s not good enough yet. And so you’re constantly in a, in a failure state. It reminds me a lot of when I was an early tenure teacher and you’re constantly failing and you have a vision for like what you want to accomplish for your kids and for the outcome that you’re solving for.
And like, it’s really hard. And you’re creating the product, your lesson plans that you’re going to teach while you’re testing it with your user, the student, and then you’re not getting the outcome you want. Right. And so you’re like, Holy cow, I gotta work harder. And so. It’s 10 o’clock at night. The janitor’s like kicking me out of the school and saying, Hey, we got to lock it down for the night.
Can you go home? I’ve had a very similar experience, you know, building it UpSmith in so far as we have an awesome customer set of customers. We have a really clear product to be able to make their lives better and lots of good things are happening, but there’s so much more to do. [00:22:00] And so you see all that opportunity and it’s difficult as a leader not to be.
Chasing lots of things at the same time. And so the biggest reflection I have on 23 is how important focus is for moving faster, and if you can focus your team and you can focus yourself on what’s going to be the most needle moving impactful way to show value. I think that serves you well. And so going into 2024, that’s, that’s what’s top of mind for us is like, how do we really focus in on how we’re going to drive?
Value for the people that we serve and do some ways to help us grow faster
Alex Hudgens: can do anything Cannot do
Wyatt Smith: everything can’t do anything can’t do everything. That’s exactly right. We love it. Okay, that’s one. So other reflections, I think People are at the heart of any venture and I’m extremely proud of the team that we have have built at UpSmith so far and I Know that the success that is ahead of us is going to be Linked to the people that will [00:23:00] be coming next.
And so keeping a super high bar for talent is another thing that’s top of mind. For me, we’re, we’re going to be hiring more people. We’re going to be expanding and I think thinking through how you build culture so that best ideas, when people have all like a really high sense of ownership, there’s a deep, like belief in people and a belief in the power of technology to improve the lives of the users that we’re serving and like humility, like appreciation for them and understanding that we serve them.
So those are all things that like will reflect a bit of that, that cultural value reflection. And then thirdly, I think I’ve learned a lot about myself and, you know, building and growing startups is challenging. My wife and I welcomed our second baby, second kiddo this year in May, and we’re so proud of him and proud he’s here.
Um, having a startup and a startup family at the same time is a unique challenge. And so. You know, I’m, I’m, I’m really lucky to have a great partner and somebody who’s [00:24:00] been deeply understanding of all the, the, the ups and downs of the journey. And so like being, being thoughtful about that and saying like, how, how can I.
Make sure our family’s in a great spot as we keep growing this company. Shout
Alex Hudgens: out to Saint Meg. I’m getting shirts. Team Meg or something like that. Just so she is a star. That was actually one of my questions for later, but let’s do it now. I mean, there’s so many unique things about startup culture, but as you’re building a team, you know, we all have families, we have lives and this is a huge commitment to a very different style of work.
That’s right. How do you rally people around? Not only idea, the idea of Epsmith and what we’re working on, like the mission, but also the ride that is a startup.
Wyatt Smith: Right. Well, it starts with the mission. The mission is the most important. And there is a massive challenge across the United States around the world right now on fiscal labor shortage.
And we play a really important role on [00:25:00] building a solution to help address it. And so you start small, but you have a really clear vision for how you’re going to be able to impact things at scale. And you find people that are equally motivated by that mission. And then when you’re doing work, that’s super important and super meaningful.
You’re willing to invest a lot of yourself in it. You’re willing for it to, it’s not a normal job. It’s um, it’s a, it’s a cause. And so that’s where you start. And then I think it’s about finding the right way to set people up so that they’re performing from a place of strength. And when you’re leading from strength more than 80 percent of the time, you enjoy what you’re doing, you find success in it.
You’re able to overcome the, the troughs because you know that what you’re doing aligns with your passion and your gifts and, and ultimately how you can make an impact in the world. And I think that’s my job as a leader is to help people operate from strength as much as possible.
Alex Hudgens: Let’s talk more about.
Opportunities that you see. I’m a very vision human. I love that about you. What’s my like, uh, what’s it called? Strengths finders. [00:26:00] I think future. I think we both have futuristic. I think that’s right. The term as our top one, Bryson too. We’ve got a lot of future people on our team. Anyway, what do you think is the biggest opportunity for business leaders specifically in the trades?
In 2024. So whoever is listening, you’re like, this is what you’ve got to do next year. Well,
Wyatt Smith: if I’m, if I’m a skilled trades, um, operator, if I own a company out there listening to this right now, it’s been a really challenging year and time. Interest rates are high that is impacting consumer demand for those that work in the home services world.
You know, there was a lot of spending that happened during 2020, 2021, even 2022 that pulled forward. And so there’s been a lot of, [00:27:00] uh, private equity consolidation of different assets in this market. It’s still a very fragmented market. I mean, most home services companies as an example, employ less than 25 people, but because there’s been lots of consolidation that’s happening, like there’s lots of, That’s how you ultimately fulfill the mission for the people that you asked to bet on you when you’re in that business.
Um, so whether you’re in that seat or you’re a small business owner, who’s thinking about, gosh, interest are high. I’m concerned that maybe some of the demand that I was going to see next year has already been pulled forward. You got to think about how do you drive more productivity with your existing workforce?
And so. Again, different ways to do that. But the most powerful way is to link value creating behavior with rewards because you can motivate people to be able to do the thing that is going to move the needle. And the beautiful thing about software is you can, you can implement it really quickly and you can link it to the thing that you know matters most.[00:28:00]
And maybe that’s driving sales conversion. Maybe that’s reducing the rework time that’s required for a construction project. Maybe it means that You’re able to have a better customer success rate, like the, the feedback that they give after a service visit, which means that the likelihood that they come back to you next time on a bigger project goes up.
But, but focusing on those levers is my biggest encouragement because that’s how the investment you’re making is focused on things that are incremental. You’re going to drive like a new dollar that you weren’t getting before and working with partners like us is very focused on helping you achieve that outcome.
And, and we participate when you win. Right. So like our, our, our stake in this is really, really tied to getting something that’s 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 times greater for the customer we serve. And what’s awesome about that is like the technician’s better off too, right? Cause they’re, they’re creating more success.
It’s a better outcome for them. They’re making more money themselves. And that’s where you can really align everyone’s interest.
Alex Hudgens: Yeah. What do you think is the [00:29:00] most relevant news story, current event that came out of this year? to the mission that we are on to solve the skilled labor shortage?
Wyatt Smith: Oh, that’s a great question.
If you look at the amount of openings in the U S over the last six months, they’ve been decreasing. When you dig into why that is, it’s not because we’re filling lots of them necessarily, um, the labor market has been in a weird spot. And. A lot of signals are that the economy is performing well, but people aren’t necessarily participating in that.
So, like, wage stagnation has been a thing, and I think that you see that playing out in the world that we operate in. And raising wages is challenging for companies, but they haven’t had a choice on that. Like, there’s been a lot of inflation on wages since 2020. And so when I, when I refer to way stagnation, that’s not been in the last three years, it’s like a, it’s a thing going back 20, but, but real like the actual wages that we’re paying are up 15 or 20%.
And [00:30:00] so that’s a bunch of weird data that can be conflating. Go back to now the employer who’s trying to figure out the future. Wages are a blunt instrument. Once you raise them, it’s really tough to walk them back. Right. And so they’re totally happy to invest behind people that can create more value for them.
But it’s really difficult to do so if it’s not tied to something that is like very trackable and, and ultimately incremental. And that’s where we can build technology to play a role. So I, I’m looking at a lot of jobs data, which is not the most like super exciting current event to follow. It’s really cool.
When the jobs report in June came out or for, for June, end of Q3, beginning of July, Juan Bravo, who I alluded to was quoted. So cool. That was a great report, which was neat. I’d met the AP reporter that was, that was tracking that and said, Hey, if you know anybody that just got a job somewhere in the country, we did one Bravo.
We knew him. Bravo, Bravo. And it was, it was, it was fun seeing him be able to be recognized for a really cool [00:31:00] accomplishment for his own career development. And then ultimately I think what’s ahead of him is really cool too. Yeah.
Alex Hudgens: Well, yes it is. Shout out to you, Juan. Um, I would love to know, this is like a very Homer question, super biased, but why are you betting on Upsmith?
Why bet
Wyatt Smith: on us? Big mission, big market opportunity, great team moving extremely fast. So that, that’s a good combination of factors on building something really valuable in the world. But like, again, when you have a, just in the U S alone, a million person shortage, um, In construction and manufacturing, there’s a lot of opportunity for innovation and there’s a lot of entrepreneurs that are thinking how to innovate there.
So then you think through, okay, cool. That’s, that’s a big opportunity. Um, who’s the customer they serve? Do they understand that customer’s problem really well? And have they shown an ability to move fast to keep iterating on the product that they’re building to, to solve that pain? And I’m really proud of our team.
Like that’s what we’ve been focused on [00:32:00] for the last 18 months since launching this business and in the summer of 2022 in Tennessee. Yeah. And to now be impacting people across more than 15 states and a chance to really expand that in the year to come. That’s, that’s what I’m super excited
Alex Hudgens: about. Yeah, we need a bell or a gong or a ghee hall thing.
Uh, let’s talk about the podcast specifically. Let’s do it. Who do you want to tune in? Who are we talking to? Yeah, on
Wyatt Smith: this podcast. I’m, I’m excited for our podcast to serve builders. There are people across. The world who are, who are building things and are facing a bunch of really tough decisions. And I hope that we can share some of the things we’re learning in a way that’s useful to them.
I’d like for this to be an opportunity to bring other people that are building things that are interesting to, to share what they’re doing too, but to have folks reach out to us and say, you know, I talked to an entrepreneur last month who is operating a lumber mill in Lake [00:33:00] Placid, New York, and. He knows that if he could hire more boom truck operators, he could produce more revenue, but there aren’t a lot of boom truck operators in Lake Placid, New York.
And so, you know, we, we, we walked, we worked through how much would it cost to be able to think through sponsoring CDL licensure, commercial driver, commercial driver’s licenses. For a new generation of boom truck operators. And I think the breakeven was like two weeks, two weeks. Cause it’s such a productive job in this guy’s business and it’s limiting his growth.
And so being able to hear from entrepreneurs, people that are struggling with the skilled labor shortage and, and think through ideas for how we can help them share those with people on the podcast. That’s, that’s our goal.
Alex Hudgens: I love it. So call us, DM us, Email us, go to upsmith. com, upsmith. com. We genuinely want to know, I mean, this is a call for, what do you want to call it?
Workshopping. Yeah. Send us your issues. That’s right. What was [00:34:00] that? Is it dear Abby, dear Alice?
Wyatt Smith: You know, I wasn’t the biggest follower of, I’m familiar. Yeah. That was like, call in. Some life advice problems. Yeah. Yeah. I’m thinking more like click and clack. The guys that would give like car.
Alex Hudgens: Okay. So we’re somewhere between all of these.
Yeah. You can call us with your relationship issues. I’ll help you. However, I think maybe we would like to workshop your business more than anything, but really I think we want this to be interactive. That’s right. We would love for this to be, that’s right. What’s the quote? I need more coffee today. Uh, high tide lifts all boats.
We want everybody to be better. That’s right. Cause we know this mission is huge.
Wyatt Smith: Believe in builders. Can’t just be upsmith. Believe in builders. It’s a big, it’s a big need. Lots of folks working on it. So, um, yeah, we’re, I’m really excited for the chance in 2024 to be able to share more about what we’re learning to, to learn more from people about the challenges they’re facing and we’re going to keep building technology to help them.[00:35:00]
Alex Hudgens: Let’s give a shout out to our dream guests. Okay. Put out the plea. Who do you want to, who do you want to come sit in the third imaginary chair? But the third chair right here.
Wyatt Smith: Yeah, well, there’s all sorts of people that I have lots of admiration for. I know you do too, that are, that are working on this problem and ones like it.
Um, I, I generally am most excited to talk to the business owners out there, the builders who are working through problems. And I think there are so many people that have great stories about risk and Courage and, and making their community better. And so giving those people a chance to like, share those stories and us to hopefully help them in some way.
That’s, that’s what I’m like, really honestly, most excited about with this book. There’s lots of people that I like really admire and have learned from micro stands out as somebody. We’d love to involve and invite if you’re listening, Mike, Mike, please. You’re welcome to
Alex Hudgens: join. Being diplomatic and I will flan girl.
I will shoot my shot. Mike, [00:36:00] we would love for you to come on. Thanks.
Wyatt Smith: There are a lot of people that I think are in the world that you know so well, who are influencers that are active. I’m sure we’ll invite on to share Alex. For those who don’t know is. , um, very popular on lots of social media platforms.
Alex Hudgens: Please careful. Are you about to call me an influencer? I you influence? I have mixed
Wyatt Smith: emotions. You influence my thinking on all sorts of things.
Alex Hudgens: Okay. We need a new term. That’s a whole episode. Okay. What are we gonna call influencers? Builders? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It’s like impactors. Builders. Builders. I’ll be a builder.
Mike’s a good answer. We’ll take
Wyatt Smith: him. And then, you know, there’s people that are doing cool stuff in the policy world that I think we can invite on, uh, people that are, that are thinking about big ideas. Um, and we can talk with those big ideas in ways that it can help make a workforce that’s better suited for the challenges of, of this, this, this decade to come.
And [00:37:00] it’s just really broken right now. We’re not producing people with the skills to. Do the jobs of the future and our, our existing institutions are not keeping up. And so it, it, it, we need innovation. We need new ways of solving these problems and we need to support people in government to allow those ideas to flourish and to allow entrepreneurs to help to solve the challenge.
And so we’ll talk about that too. Yeah.
Alex Hudgens: Give me a little bite about, we haven’t really discussed the private public Partnerships and just the unique relationships that Upsmith has that helps us to get to see and have an opinion in a lot of different areas that, that have to do with this massive problem.
Wyatt Smith: Yeah. Well, I mean, just in the last year, hundreds of thousands of dollars of, of grants of workforce development credits that we’ve helped generate for our clients and. And states is, you know, wide ranging as Texas and Tennessee and Arkansas, just really across the country. We’ve, we’ve been able to see [00:38:00] success and saying, okay, here’s a program that exists to create more skilled workers that people are not taking advantage of.
How can we help them be able to invest in their workforce and be rewarded for doing it? So that’s a, that’s a big idea that we’re wanting to test. And there’s a lot of people that equally want to see the private sector. Be unlocked to go and help solve this problem. I think there’s lots of people that have worked hard on it across workforce development institutions and, and, and in higher ed, but like, we’re not moving fast enough.
And I think the reformers and those. Areas want to move faster too. And so there’s a chance for us to help unlock them to do better work as well. We discuss
Alex Hudgens: a lot about Upsmith, the storytelling that we will do as a company, as a brand helps to solve the mission as well. Like it actually matters just as much as the products that we make.
Who are you seeing doing that really well right now? Helping like a company who is storytelling in a way that’s pushing [00:39:00] their mission forward and not just.
Wyatt Smith: Yeah, I’ve been very impressed by lots of companies in the world that we operate in that, that storytell well, Caterpillar, I think storytells very well, they have stories of users of, of customers, of people whose lives are different shout out to a friend, uh, Andrew Levy, who leads a, a really great company at pipe that, that helps to do that storytelling, um, it’s really impressive what they’ve been able to do.
I’m, I’m a big believer in, in some brands that I think speak to the, to the people that I work with. The dignity of work and the spirit of what makes builders build Carhartt does a great job. We’re big fans of upsmith of their impact and I think it’s true across. You know, lots of parts of, of our economy.
So I, I, I’d like for us to be able to like learn from people that do really, really good storytelling and then tell stories that people were serving in a way that helps amplify what they do.
Alex Hudgens: Did you see the Stanley cup in the burned out car? I [00:40:00] did.
Wyatt Smith: It’s funny. You say Stanley cup. I think, I
Alex Hudgens: know, I think trophy,
Wyatt Smith: but yes.
So what I, what I, what I recall is that there was a fire in a car and this insulated cup that Stanley makes. Uh, it was in the car and subject to the fire and the, maybe the owner of that car, uh, picked up the Stanley cup and there was still ice inside. She rattled it around and you heard the ice and you’re like, what, what?
There was a fire and it, and that’s pretty cool. That’s a, that’s a moment of truth for a product, right? Stanley bought them in a new car.
Alex Hudgens: Yeah. So then they took it to the next level and get on, I think, TikTok first, but somewhere in the video, a leader at Stanley gets on and says, that’s awesome. Yeah. That our Tumblr survived.
Right. It’s not awesome that your car is totally burned out. We would like to buy your new car. He did preface it by saying, [00:41:00] we’re only going to do this probably once. Okay. Do not go light your cars on fire. Everybody like
Wyatt Smith: a torture car. Yeah. Drop us
Alex Hudgens: daily. Don’t do that. No, no. Full of ice. Yeah. But I think that that’s good storytelling.
It’s great storytelling. It’s organic storytelling. Yeah. Very authentic. Sure. But I think that that’s what is going to be required. My marketing brain. It’s like, okay, people are over. We know when we’re being sold at this point, right? Sure. We want real, we want the real, real. That’s right. I think Epson is really good at that because what we’re doing is really, truly changing people’s lives.
Yeah. So we just got to talk about it. Well, and I think
Wyatt Smith: people also really value substance. They want to learn something, you know, if it has. Some eating us to it. That, that helps too. Um, so I think we’ll balance each other well on that score.
Alex Hudgens: I can’t wait to have a guest now that it’s not fun to just talk to you, [00:42:00] but I can’t wait to see that interaction. Yeah, it’ll be fun. Yeah. We’re going to nerd out with some people. So again, if you would like to come and hang out with us and talk about your workshop, your business, let’s go. Call me, beat me.
If you want to reach me, do you know that reference? I do not. It’s Kim Possible. You’re not that much older than me, Wyatt. Okay. Anyway, in closing, what are you most looking forward to? We’ve circled this question ish, but what are you most looking forward to in 2024?
Wyatt Smith: Yeah. I mean, I, I’m really excited to grow.
Like we, we have a lot of momentum. We have great people that we’re serving and the chance to really expand it in 24, which is going to be awesome. How about you? What are you most excited about in 2024? This podcast, great
Alex Hudgens: answer, obviously. I think it’s going to be so much fun. I love getting to have real time with people and pick brains.
It’s a bad rap, but [00:43:00] It’s, it’s relationships, like businesses are people, and I like people and I like to learn from people. And I think this is the thing that we’re doing thus far. This is the most intimacy building thing that UpSmith is doing from a storytelling perspective. So I’m hype. Well,
Wyatt Smith: there’s a lot of awesome stories to tell.
We’re lucky to have you in a leadership role to tell them. Thank you for, for what you’re building. Thank you.
Alex Hudgens: Be a builder.
Wyatt Smith: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of untapped with UpSmith. We’d love it. If you’d share this episode with anyone, you know, who might benefit from our discussion
Alex Hudgens: and don’t forget to subscribe, leave us a review wherever you get your podcast and connect with us on social media or at upsmith.com
