Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

Okay, now that I’m the teacher, Andrew, if I am a heat pump—

No, like everyone said, this was amazing meeting everyone. Special someone, as everyone says so far. Yes, you. Yes.

Thank you, Andrew and Danny and Rob. Amazing teachers. If I had you in high school, I probably never would have dropped out.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for always pushing me like you always do.

Great experience. Thank you.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

Well said. Definitely. Definitely well said.

But yeah, we build relationships—sometimes different kinds of relationships. Sometimes great, sometimes not so great. But we’re dealing with a lot of different people, and that’s the beauty of it. The ultimate beauty of why we do this, why I have such diversity. That’s what keeps it alive and active, with the exception of the next guy, a little, you know.

But anyway, you’ll see his.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

Big guy, huge heart, very big heart. And that’s what’s going to make him extremely successful in any endeavor.

And I know he’s been in the restaurant business, so I know he’s used to customers standing on his feet. He’s halfway there.

So, come on up here, Nasheem, please.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

Oh man, I just want to say I had to do so many takes. He kept making me laugh. I was looking in the camera, and he was just making me nervous.

But no, man, this has been an incredible journey. Honestly, I’ve never done anything like this before. I come from working in the kitchen. Every day waking up and doing the same thing over and over again kind of made me feel like I was caught in a loop, you know?

And I really appreciate my teachers here for giving me the skills and the confidence to go forth and be successful in life.

I couldn’t have done any of this without my beautiful wife right here.

All my classmates, man—all the laughs. Sometimes, you know, I’m kind of a difficult guy to deal with. I have little patience. I get irritated quickly. But I appreciate all the patience from my teachers and from my classmates, man, and allowing me the room to grow and just be better.

I really appreciate all y’all, bro. I’ll never forget any of y’all and anything that I learned from y’all.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

Well said, definitely. I want to talk about the next one. A couple of people didn’t—I knew that wasn’t going to come in, but I thought that Courtney would be here. But anyway, she’s not. That’s okay though. I guess that’s a good thing—more food for us.

But the next one, let’s take a look at this one here real quick.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

For the little failures that were in there, unfortunately the cameo made up for it.

Well, sorry to—you know, I don’t know that guy in the video, but he seemed pretty funny. But like everybody said previously, this is a great class to take. It became very family-oriented. We all became a family, whereas the first day no one was talking, no one was saying anything. We were just laughing at our teachers because we got a comedian back there and a sarcastic one over here. They were the best duo you can have—most unorthodox teachers I ever had in my life.

But I promise you, they can teach anything to anybody, and they get you to understand and retain information. Danny here—I remember it was like the second day we were here—we were learning about capacitance, and like he told y’all, he’s not a technician, he’s just our teacher. He doesn’t do the technician part. Well, Nick went back and told Rob and Andrew that the capacitor was like a battery, and boy did we laugh about that because they were so upset. They were talking about, “Where did you hear that?” We all said, “Danny, Danny,” all on one accord like we’ve been talking about it. And we laughed about that for weeks to come, and that brought us closer together as a family from that moment on.

Nobody ever walked in the classroom without interrupting the teacher saying good morning because we all made sure everyone was having a good day starting off. But, you know, I’m sad that it’s over. I wish it was longer like everybody else said—more time with Andrew. Maybe I just want to call him just to call him. Just want to for sure call Rob.

But you know, I appreciate you, Danny, just for allowing me to understand what Second Chance University was about and how it was different from all the other schools when I was looking at my process. I thank my family for the time y’all sacrificed for me to be here, and thank y’all to my classmates for the memories and the laughs that we had together.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

I’m proud of every single one of y’all, but definitely Isaiah, because when he first came, he was very timid. It’s hard to believe, but he was timid. But he has really grown in confidence in a great way.

And it’s an honor. It’s truly an honor to be part of y’all’s journey.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

But last, but definitely not least, he was not the one who did the most retakes. I’m not going to mention any names, but we’ll get to him a little bit later.

It has been a pleasure, and I know that our road is not ended. So, come on up here. Say some great things about me, and yeah, your family too.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

He’s right, by the way. If you know, you know.

Yeah, this has been a journey. This has definitely been a journey. All the friends, all the relationships that we’ve made—as pointed out by Nick, some more than others—yeah, it’s definitely been a blast. I agree, it should have been longer. It definitely should have been longer.

Yes, thank you to my parents who have pushed me through this, made sure that that handsome fellow could get through.

Yeah, there’s so many more things to learn, so many, many more things to come. And I hope none of these relationships that we’ve made are broken off.

Andrew, I’m definitely going to be calling you. I definitely will be. I definitely will be.

Danny, yes, the resume was amazing. The resume was amazing. I really did like it.

But yeah, a lot of life advice was given here along with HVAC experience and advice. And that’s something that, from what I’ve seen at other places that I looked at before here, just didn’t offer.

And if I was ever to suggest this place, I would 100% every single time. You guys kill it—Robert, Andrew, I saw Chris in here earlier—Chris and Danny, thank you guys for pushing us through this.

This is definitely the beginning, the end to the beginning.

So, without further ado, thank you.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

I’m proud of every single one of y’all, but definitely Isaiah, because when he first came, he was very timid. It’s hard to believe, but he was timid. But he has really grown in confidence in a great way.

And it’s an honor. It’s truly an honor to be part of y’all’s journey.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

Here we do a lot of work, a lot of work from day one. It’s constantly busy, and that is just our approach, and that’s the way that you learn—by doing. And that’s what we encourage everybody to do. We are here at Second Chance University, and HVAC Technical Academy has been around for several years, and we came here in 2016. It is an honor and a privilege to work with so many great people—very progressive people helping you get along, advancing in your world, in your life.

That’s why we do this, and that’s why I do this, and Elaine, all of us, because we’re here to help you. And we’re too old to really do anything but try to make a difference in other people’s lives, which is why we’re here.

But HVAC Technical Academy, as you can see, we do a lot of work. It’s a six-week program, very rapid, and I know it puts a lot of struggle and a lot of stress on family members as well. So, thank you for allowing them.

We almost had 100% attendance for everybody, but I did have Kevin and Arturo miss one day, and you missed the last day. What are you going to do? What are you going to do?

So, we always enjoy our little celebration. So afterwards, in about an hour or so, we are going to have food. So please don’t run off, and it’s going to be a great experience.

But I want to introduce a couple of the instructors. They’re going to come up here and say a word or two—just like their belief and what they feel and their philosophies. Do let it be known that I do have some great instructors. They’re not schooled instructors per se. They’re field technicians. They’re owners of companies, and that’s what I wanted—to make sure that y’all experience the real world, which is what you do.

So, Andrew, you want to come up here first, or Robert? I’m not used to Robert being here on time, so it’s like this is weird. Weird. So, come on up here, Andrew.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

I mean, it’s always interesting with every class. You got 10 people that don’t know anybody. They don’t know each other. They come in all quiet and kind of non-talkative, and then, you know, by the third week they’re like friends, and they’ve got their own little chats they do, and they hang out at night. It’s extremely odd how this class does this. And it’s not just this one. It’s every single class that we’ve done here.

It’s 10 people that come in here, or five or seven, that don’t know anything about this in some cases in regards to HVAC, and then there’s others that have a little bit of knowledge, and somehow they leave here just a close-knit group. It’s pretty impressive.

Kind of like Danny said, it’s not regular. You guys have already experienced this for six weeks. This is not a teacher or student kind of atmosphere where you do your homework. No, you’ve been yelled at, you deserved every little bit of it.

And at the end of the day, it’s just a different thing that we do here. I think everybody progressed immensely from when they got here, except for Mike, because he just doesn’t listen very well. But other than that, everybody else did. No, everybody did exceptionally well.

I’m quite impressed for a lot of people that have never done this, never touched a meter before, and now they’re dangerous, which is what we try to shoot for.

So, congratulations, guys.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

Contrary to what Robert says, I don’t believe in luck. I believe that you have the skills, the knowledge, and ability to do this. Yeah, a little bit of luck, because you’re going to find a place that just happens to be needing somebody right then and there. But without the knowledge, skills, and abilities, luck ain’t going to do it. You have control over your life. You’re going to create that path, and we’re developing that path for you personally and professionally. And that’s something that can never go away.

I told y’all in the very beginning I don’t want excuses, and y’all haven’t given me any excuses. This is probably the only time that we’ve experienced that people didn’t have little hissy fits and cry and walk off and say it’s too hard, it’s too hot. Well, welcome to the real world of HVAC.

We did get a couple of comments about Robert, because sometimes he can be a little frustrating to other people. That is intentional. That’s on me. I’ve asked Robert, I’ve asked Chris, and I’ve asked Andrew, don’t make it easy. Make it challenging, because that’s how you learn. You learn through challenge and growth. If they just say, “Yeah, you’re doing good, you’re doing good,” no, that is not going to happen.

So with that said, yell at me, don’t yell at them. And with that, one of the things that we do is we want to make sure that everybody feels comfortable and feels confident when they go to a job interview. We did a lot of “why you as opposed to another?” We did a lot of that—selling yourself.

And in HVAC, you are not only selling yourself, but you’re in customer service. We did a lot of that. So with that said, we also encouraged people to do videos, little HVAC-focused short videos that we are going to…

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

00:00:01
One of the goals here is to build relationships which is I think that we’ve done very very well and y’all have done and that is extremely important not only for today but for tomorrow but for the future because with 10 people going into the HVAC industry you have a lot of resources that you can use a lot of phone numbers a lot of friends and you also have Andrew’s phone number and Robert’s phone number I intentionally did not give you my phone number uh only because I’m not a technician and I make

00:00:30
that very clear. I am not a technician. They’re the technicians and so is Christopher. Um but different philosophies like Andrew said, it is about relationship building. One of the things that I always encourage individuals to do is think. And that’s what this program is all about. HVAC is about thinking, understanding what’s going on, stepping back, understanding how to make the right choices, having the confidence, which y’all have gained tremendously, and the competence to do the job. My job

00:01:02
is your personal development, making sure that you do see things clearly through clarity, choice, confidence. Their job is to give you the competence. And it it’s a great great mixture of of stuff. nothing like this in the world at all. And I’ve even had a organization in California and Colorado try to find out what we’re doing and try to find a way that maybe they could, you know, reinvent. But there’s only one of us and there’s nothing like that. So, the choices that y’all made to come here,

00:01:36
it’s it was a great choice and in in so many ways. one of the individuals that we have that that helps with the class is by is is Robert. Robert, um, according to some of the, uh, evaluations, um, I’m going to get you a chill pill, Robert. There was a couple of rep. No, no, no. the thing that we do and like Andrew said, we’re not a school where there’s a classroom and we treat you and here cuddle you and oh, you’re you get a a trophy for showing up. You’re going to work hard and if you don’t do right,

00:02:13
we’re going to make sure you know you don’t do right, you can do it again. Get over it. And I told y’all that from day one. Robert is a good example of that same attitude that you’re here to work. He is a perspective. He is a business owner. And because of that, that perspective that he brings is so valuable. So what I would like to do is Robert, come on up here for a few minutes.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

Hello. Y’all know me, or most of you know me, and all I got to say is you guys are going to do great. Okay? You guys really did well. You took abuse just fine, because that’s what you’re going to find. I mean, I hate to say it. You’re not going to be coddled. That’s HVAC. Well, actually, that’s construction.

When I got into it, I didn’t realize how much it was going to be just a whole thing with your life and the way you think and everything else. So, you guys are going to go through some changes and some learning experiences, and it’s all good, because that’s what you want to do, and that’s the best thing. Don’t ever lose that drive.

So with that, I like to say we got you to the beach. Now you can decide what you want to do with that. You can go back to where you came from, or you can go down the beach, and you can go up this way, or you can go down that way, or you got this big wide open ocean in front of you.

Now with this opportunity of taking this class, you guys make it to where you can work anywhere in the world and be a valuable person. Okay? So think about that when you’re thinking about what you’re doing. You are an invaluable person to all these people because no one really gets this like we do and like we do now. Do you guys understand what I’m saying?

Okay. So, good luck. You guys are going to do great. I hope the best for all of you because this has been a really good class. That’s all I got to say. You guys have been really good. There hasn’t been too many extreme challenges that I’ve had to deal with.

So, you know, we got everybody has their moments, and you got to understand you’re going to do that at work too. But remember to keep that in line because now this is your job, this is your life. You don’t want a dark cloud just going to follow you around.

So with that, best of luck, guys, and way to go. That’s all I got to say.

Sanford, Florida | March–April 2026

The important thing is that you’ve done these. When I contact a company or a company contacts me, they’ll ask about you. I will invite them to look at your video to see your personality. And they know, and we know, that you’re not 100% right on anything or everything. You’re not. But it’s not about that.

And you’re going to see, as Andrew was saying, there’s a couple in here that, well, you know. So, we are going to watch some videos, and from there I will ask the person who did the video to come up and just say a couple of words and go from there.

Because it’s hard on the family. Y’all struggled too. It’s not just you. Homework. Did anybody—did y’all want to go out sometimes and they said, “No, I have to do my homework?” Probably not. They probably said, “Homework? Screw that. Let’s go.” I could tell.

But we did a lot of homework, and for that it’s also important. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to put that down for a second.