Top Plumbing Industry Trends in Plumbing from Mechanical Hub

Christoph Lohr: And welcome back to The Authority Podcast: Plumbing & Mechanical. I’m your host, Christoph Lohr. And it is with my extreme excitement and joy to have joining me today Tim Ward, editor and business development with Mechanical Hub Media, and John Mesenbrink, president of Mechanical Hub Media. Gentlemen, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to join me on the podcast today.

John Mesenbrink: Hey, thanks, Christoph. We really appreciate it, man. Thank you.

Tim Ward: Thanks for the invite.

Christoph Lohr: Absolutely, glad to have you all here. For our listeners, if there are any listeners that aren’t familiar with Mechanical Hub Media — which I hope there’s not that many — but for those who aren’t, can you tell our listeners a little bit about who John and Tim are and what Mechanical Hub Media is?

John Mesenbrink: Yeah, Mechanical Hub started in probably 2012. It was an idea to take all plumbing, hydronic, HVAC information, kind of media-related, and make it all digital. We developed a website and went from the traditional print media, which, there’s still print media, which is still a viable source, but we felt that the audience was kind of revolutionized, it was moving toward a digital footprint, with phones and iPads and laptops and things like that. There were more ways to disseminate information than just a print publication.

I worked in the publishing industry, the trade press, for about 10 years. That’s where I met Tim. Tim worked at a

Tim Ward: I ran a PR agency in Chicago.

John Mesenbrink: He ran a PR agency, so we met there and then in about 2012, we launched Mechanical Hub, all digital, and then — I’m sure we'll get to this later — but in 2016ish, we kind of went to social media as another form of getting that information out.

So now we kind of say we’re a hybrid company. We do resources through our digital footprint, through websites and newsletters and things like that. And now we have the social media aspect as well.

Tim Ward: Yeah, and what John’s not saying, and kind of what we kind of hung our hat on from Day One was we wanted to be the voice of the contractor and with our other partner, Eric Aune, we feel like we’re still trying to achieve that, but we feel that we are a good, good ally and supporter and voice of the contractor.

Christoph Lohr: Excellent. Excellent. And speaking of being a voice and just impacting industry, I think you all have been working with IAPMO in various forms. Can you tell our listeners about how you guys have been working with us here at IAPMO over the years?

John Mesenbrink: Yeah, for a long time. I mean, I’ve known IAPMO back when Russ Chaney was the CEO and now Dave Viola and working with them. We actually went to ISH in Germany last year, Frankfurt, the big trade show over there last March, and were fortunate enough to visit and, well, IAPMO was doing this IWSH and, what was it, Tim?

Tim Ward: It was working with all the apprentices throughout Europe that had come in and worked on projects there and wound up doing the Frankfurt football club or soccer team, did a retrofit of one of their  

John Mesenbrink: I’m not sure if they were apprentices, but they were the winners of their respective contests

Tim Ward: Contests, yes

John Mesenbrink: so there was people from North America, U.S., Canada, Germany, Liechtenstein. We met the only female plumber in Liechtenstein, so she said, so that was pretty cool. So yeah, we covered that with IAPMO and hopefully a lot of more good things to come.

Tim Ward: Well, and one of the other things that we do with IAPMO, and we’ve been doing this since we started our podcast, the Appetite for Construction Podcast in 2020, Dain Hansen, who you know, Christoph, and many of your audience will know, has been somebody that we’ve had on our podcast numerous times. He’s our go-to person for anything in the D.C. area, anything with codes and stuff. And John Mullen has become one of our go-tos recently too. Since John’s joined IAPMO he’s been a great ally to bring on, to talk AI, to talk about some of the programming that you guys do with IAPMO.

And then just recently introduced to John Watson and hoping to get John on a podcast soon as well.

Christoph Lohr: Excellent. Excellent. No, I was going to say, I definitely recommend our listeners. I listen, I’m actually a subscriber to your podcast. I have been a longtime listener now for a while. Those episodes are some of my favorites, the ones you mentioned with John and then Dain.

I even listen to them as an IAPMO employee. Obviously you guys have a lot of connections in industry. You go to a lot of events. John, you just came out here to Scottsdale, Arizona, for the Emerging Water Technology Symposium, were the moderator for the discussion that I was involved with. You guys see a lot of stuff.

You have a lot of conversations. When it comes to the plumbing mechanical industry right now, what are the top three things or problems or potential solutions that you guys are seeing right now that are on top of your mind at this time?

John Mesenbrink: Well, the three that I think are on top of mind of our audience and contractors, I think the biggest one is electrification right now, the movement away toward from gas appliances, natural gas, and going all electric for appliances, for water heaters, for cars and things like that.

We just did a podcast today with the president of PHCC actually, and he was very adamant about having a choice for fuel, having fuel choices. And we all understand that electrification is important. It’s important for the planet, but I think we need to pump the brakes a little bit on how fast we’re moving toward this and maybe have a better plan and the infrastructure to support such legislation coming down the pike.

That's a big one. Tim, what do you think?

Tim Ward: Well, I do think that’s a huge one. I also think AI, as we touched on earlier, some of the discussions we’ve had with John Mullen, AI is critical. One, I don’t think that AI is coming for all the jobs. The human workforce I think, is OK right now.

John Mesenbrink: SkyNet’s not coming, Tim?

Tim Ward: I think there’s some great benefits for AI in our industry. Lead generation, customer support, inventory and safety management are all things that I think AI can be supremely helpful for in our industry. Yes, there are, some of the risks are data breach and data breaches and stuff like that.

But for the most part, I think AI is another big, trending thing that we hear as we talk to people in the industry.

John Mesenbrink: And one that continues just to be top of mind also, I mean, it’s been ever since I entered into this trade industry probably 20-something years ago, is just getting people into the trades, getting young people into the trades.

There’s going to be a huge trade gap. What was the number today, Tim?

Tim Ward: 80,000 jobs a year are needed in the HVAC, plumbing, electrical, all construction trades.

John Mesenbrink: Yeah. And so we talk about it all the time. We interview people that can talk better on the subject than us two dopes. And there are a lot of good programs around the country, a lot of people are doing good things, but maybe we need to all come together as an industry and maybe start a very significant program.

Tim Ward: Well, the pandemic expedited that situation, but as long as there’s, if we can find ways to create more funding for apprenticeships, for trade schools, job fairs, skilled trade staffing agencies, or training programs, whatever we can do, 80,000 jobs a year that needs to be, to find workers for, skilled workers for, that’s a lot of jobs.

John Mesenbrink: Yeah, and piggybacking off of the skilled trades issue is getting more diversity into the trades. More women, more African Americans, and there are a lot of great organizations out there that are, are beginning to shine a light on getting more diversity into the workplace.

Tim Ward: Well, thanks for taking my one future item.

John Mesenbrink: (Chuckling) Oh, Tim, dammit!

Christoph Lohr: (Chuckling) Well, speaking of that, next question is, that’s kind of like the current state. What are the future trends or the future item that you all are kind of keeping tabs on. Tim, do you want to touch on that since you brought that up?

Tim Ward: Yeah, for me, I think diversity in trades is critical.

We can see that through recruitment, retention and other strategies, be it focused or focusing recruitment efforts on the underrepresented groups, such as women and minorities, obviously. New citizens, cultural groups, military. I think there’s ways that we can recruit more people of diversity into the trades. Retention, ensuring these women and minorities feel supported and appreciated in the industry.

And then as bosses or people that have power in companies, acknowledge cultural diversity. I’m not saying be woke, but acknowledge cultural diversities, invest in minority scholarships, use employee surveys and think groups, understand how good it is to mix teams up as well. I just think diversity is going to be critical as we look to replace people in these skilled work positions.

John Mesenbrink: Yeah, my thing about the future is the future. Would you imagine that 10 years ago, Christoph, we’d be on this call talking on camera and recording it and broadcasting it to our audience? There is a responsibility we all have to share information, whether it’s for education or entertainment purposes, but be responsible about it.

And we live in an age now where social media is a very big part of the trades. And it’s a good thing because it’s bringing what was behind the wall, and now it’s a sexy thing. Like people are like, dang, look at that install. Like, this is cool, look at this. And it's a great thing, but I hate — Tim, do I bring it up? Do I bring it up?

Tim Ward: Bring it up.

John Mesenbrink: Well, we have to be responsible. We can’t just, I don’t know what the word is, but like robots to just, ‘Hey, you’re going to send me a free tool and pay me some money. I’m going to talk great things about it and put it on my social media.’ It becomes a slippery slope where maybe your message becomes diluted.

So you have to be authentic and true to yourself and true to whatever brand, if it’s your brand or it’s a company brand, you have to be authentic with it. And that’s very important to us.

Tim Ward: John, that’s critical. I think when we think in over the years, social media becomes everybody’s A game or everybody’s ‘best of’ when in reality, there’s a lot that we could utilize and teach and educate people utilizing those kind of channels and platforms.

John Mesenbrink: Yeah.

Christoph Lohr: Excellent. Excellent. We talked about a few different things. We talked about what Mechanical Hub has done with the IWSH. We talked about the current three things that you guys are seeing as the hot-button items and future items. If you were going to summarize everything that we talked about today in one word, what would that one word be and why?

Tim Ward: Go ahead, JP.

John Mesenbrink: Well, as I mentioned, probably the future; it’s exciting. We always talk about technology; maybe a component of what brings people into the trades to look at — plumbing is just not like you’re standing over a toilet with a plunger. There’s a lot of stuff, a lot of smart people in this industry using technology.

Putting gas lines in hospitals. This is, you’re talking about, we always say it, the health of the nation. I’m excited about the future of this industry.

Tim Ward: And for me, Christoph, it’s the word dynamic. I think of the word and I think of it as an adjective. I think of it as being constant change, activity or progress, or as a noun it’s something that stimulates change or progress. So a dynamic business is a company that adapts to market conditions. They embrace change. They foster a healthy workplace. They move faster. They satisfy customer needs and they outperform their competition. So in a nutshell, for me, we all need to be dynamic.

Christoph Lohr: I love it. I love it. Well, for our listeners that want to learn more about Mechanical Hub or get in touch with you all, what’s the best way for them to do so?

John Mesenbrink: You can go to our website, mechanical-hub.com. We have two other websites, plumbingperspective.com and hydronicshub.com. And you can follow us on social media at Mechanical Hub or at Plumbing Perspective.

Do you have anything I'm leaving out?

Tim Ward: Nope, that’s it. Go to the website, subscribe to our newsletters, listen to our podcast.

John Mesenbrink: Yeah, we have two podcasts. We have two podcasts, Appetite for Construction and Make Trades Great Again. Eric and Andy Mickelson do that one as well. So check ’em out, man, there’s a lot of great information. I know Tim and I, we we work hard on our podcasts and we bring a guest on, and I go back and listen to it. I’m really proud of the work we do on that podcast, Tim.

Tim Ward: I 100% agree with you. I think, and we touched on this earlier on one of our podcasts that we recorded earlier today, and Christoph, I think you’ll agree with this. This industry is one big family. There’s a lot of moving parts, but when we get together on podcasts or see each other at trade shows or seminar or work events, we are really one big family.

Christoph Lohr: I would totally agree.

John Mesenbrink: And Tim’s going to sing ‘We Are Family.’ Here we go.

Tim Ward: No, no singing.

Christoph Lohr: (Laughing) Well, John, it has been absolutely enjoyable having you on the podcast today. I really appreciate you guys taking time out of your busy schedule. And just on behalf of The Authority Podcast: Plumbing & Mechanical, and IAPMO, I just want to say thanks for your contributions. Thanks for your involvement and look forward to conversing with you in the future again.

Tim Ward: Thanks, Christoph.

John Mesenbrink: Yeah, thanks, Christoph. I just want to say one thing. I was at that Emerging Water Technology Symposium. You were a lot of brains behind that. So in two more years, if you do it again, make sure you go to this. It’s fantastic.

Christoph Lohr: Appreciate the vote of confidence, John. Thanks all; appreciate it.

John Mesenbrink: All right. Have a great day.

Tim Ward: Thanks.