July–August 2026 Completion Ceremony: Christopher Gonzalez

Danny –Danny Explains Real-World HVAC Training and Why Attendees Make Videos

That it is like—it’s as close to a real-world working environment as possible for two reasons. One, Andrew and Robert, they’re owners, operators of HVAC, Tropical Air of Central Florida. The work that those technicians do, our guys and girls do as well. So, that’s something that is a huge advantage.

Y’all came here. I hope that we delivered everything that y’all were looking for. I know we did, but you have to believe it.

One of the things that we, we do is, well, we do videos. And the purpose of these videos is to show that you know how to do something comfortably, confidently, and you can present yourself in a way that, well, a potential employer or whoever’s looking can understand and recognize as, “Hey, this guy knows what he’s doing,” or “This girl knows what he’s doing.”

So, we do that, and it’s one of the requirements. And our guys—this time it’s only guys. I know next time we have a couple of girls. But, so the guys did their videos.

So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to introduce the videos, and whoever was up on that video, then we’re going to see what they have to say.

So, hold on one second. Let me get this ready for you.

Unfortunately, we can’t take you on a tour, but trust me when I say it’s hard work. It’s hot, and it’s a matter of growth.

One of the individuals who helped us grow not only as a company, but as, as, as individuals through HVAC is a young fellow by the name of Andrew.

Andrew’s been in the business for a bunch of years, not quite as much as Robert. And he is recognized throughout, throughout the nation and internationally does work.

He is somebody who is extremely, extremely gifted, and for those who don’t know this, but he does have a potty mouth. So, just a word of warning.

So, I want to introduce you to Andrew.

Andrew, come on up here.

Robert has been in the industry for 40-plus years as an owner. HVAC. Andrew, 20-plus, 25 years, I don’t know. Same thing.

I, I like the way that they teach because they’re not teachers, per se. They’re business owners. They’re HVAC organizations that want to show you as an employer would want you to learn.

That’s a huge advantage over the academic side of it. Would not still learn the academics, but it’s a huge, huge advantage.

So, what I would like to do is talk a little bit about the next person.

Oh, let’s watch this video. I think we took like another, like, a dozen or so. It was horrible. Horrible.

Just kidding.

And if you notice, all the videos were all outside in the sun. So this isn’t a place where you could just get comfortable and just kick back.

We had a couple of, you know, issues with Christopher. There’s no doubt about it. But we, we went through it, and we weren’t going to—you didn’t give up. And I wasn’t going to let you give up, cuz we would be out there, we’d be duking it out.

And you don’t want to mess with me.

Christopher, come on up here and say a couple of words.

Thank you.

Well, we’re here. We made it, you know, all the way through that six weeks. Was, was, was fun. It was fun.

Like he mentioned, I went through a lot of stuff. You know, I went through frustration. You know, pretty sure everyone does, but I showed a little bit more when I get frustrated.

But all in all, I could say the experience was great. You know, it was amazing. You know, something like this is very rare that you get.

You know, I understand people that go to school for HVAC and they, they go for like 10 months, nine months, and what it is is well worth it. Well worth it.

I would highly recommend this to anybody. I told all my friends already about it. I tell how much Danny is a great instructor. Teachers are great people, man. Robert, my favorite one. We had good times. Andrew, all the laughs that we did, taught me also a lot.

Chris, you know, I don’t know where he’s at, but Chris was definitely a good, great influence to me in the HVAC.

Also, all in all, I would say I did—I had a great time, and I would like to give a very big thanks to my, my parents and then my grandfather that’s here.

I started off as a, as a vision, and it got a little emotional, but yeah, things I, I went through wasn’t, wasn’t easy.

And I’m here. I’m here.