HVAC Workshop Opening – Completion Ceremony Mar–Apr 2026

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.