Is AI going to steal your job or save your business? Author and tech expert Mark Beckman joins John Rush for a high-octane conversation about artificial intelligence, automation, and how the future of work is shaping up. From VR classrooms to robot plumbers, this episode breaks down what AI can—and can’t—do. Plus, John dives deep on why young people should consider the trades over traditional college, and how guidance counselors are failing the next generation. If you’ve got a kid, a business, or a fear of the future—this is your episode.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is Rush to Reason. You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush. My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job first. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 15 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 04 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 08 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we are back. Hour number three, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Appreciate you all listening to us. And we’ve had a great two hours so far today. Mark Beckman joining us now. Mark, welcome. How are you, sir? John, good afternoon.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s great to be on your show.
SPEAKER 03 :
How are you? I’m great. I appreciate you joining us. Author of Some Future Day, How AI is Going to Change Everything, and The Comprehensive Guide to NFTs, Digital Artwork, and Blockchain, I should say, Technology. And yeah, AI continues to get bigger and bigger, as we know, Mark. And I think for some, it’s very scary. They don’t really know much about it. They’re confused. They don’t really know where we’re headed. Others are embracing it. And I think there’s probably some that are halfway in between.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s for sure. But there’s an easy way for beginners and curious people in your audience to learn what it is and how to implement it into their life to make their careers and their finances better, to make their family life better, and to even make their city, their community, Denver, better. And that solution is really to pick up my book. I wrote this book, Some Future Day, How AI is Going to Change Everything, to give people the tools, beginners. It’s not a deep tech book. It’s to give beginners. the ability to figure out how they can now take steps to improve their life. So each chapter goes through different ways that they can implement AI into their lifestyle.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. So let’s start with the fear that some folks have. Are fears legitimate? I mean, are some of these folks that think that, you know, robots are going to take over and they’re going to end up running everything and, you know, we’re going to be the minions when it’s all said and done. What do you say to those folk?
SPEAKER 07 :
those people that their fear is with merit to a certain extent but in a very very small way so my opinion is that AI is going to transform the way we live American society radically for the better within three to five years but it’s at the end of the day algebra it’s a machine and this machine can be used as a tool and you know the way certain tools are used if the human using the tool is a bad actor and is malicious, then it could hurt us. Think in terms of like a gun, right? Like if a bad person shoots the gun, it could hurt someone. But if you’re a good actor and you take care of the tool in a gentle and kind way, it can be really used for benefits and to improve the community.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know what, I’m with you on that as well. I think that goes along the lines of a lot of things that, you know, over the years that we’ve had, going all the way back, I’m a car guy, so going all the way back to the invention of the car when, frankly, if you were a horse and buggy maker, had been used to horse and buggy and this newfangled, stinky invention that came along and You know, it was this, you know, mechanical thing that you had to do different things with than what you were used to. And a lot of folks thought, well, that’s just going to be taboo. It’ll never work. It’s not going to do anything. And at the end of the day, though, Mark, it was the opposite. It revolutionized travel in America.
SPEAKER 07 :
John, it’s great that you bring that up. I actually just read a story about how Americans during that time period were really fearful also about losing jobs, losing their own jobs.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 07 :
it created a whole new ecosystem of jobs. And it opened up the economy in a huge, huge way. And I think we’re going to see the same thing here with AI. I think we’ll see the elimination of a lot of white-collar jobs, lawyers, advertisers, accounting, etc. But at the same time, a slew of new inventions and new jobs, new products will be invented. And I think it’s going to help fire up
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t disagree with you. In fact, the one thing that I think there’s some correlation with the automobile is, as you know, the reason why it also created a lot of additional jobs is because with now having transportation to where towns that weren’t along the railway, They could now open up for business and do things even tourism wise that they were never able to do before because people couldn’t get to them easily. As you know, it just created this whole new economy, if you would, to where towns that had never been on the map before. Now, every town, frankly, was on the map. And as the automobile end of things continued to expand and get better, which is exactly what will happen with A.I., It just opened up more and more opportunity for people to where, you know, here’s where we are today and now this next huge invention. And I do look at it as an invention, Mark. And again, like the car could be used for bad, it could be the getaway car and a bank robbery on the same token. It could take you to your job every day back and forth. AI will very much be the same way.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. And exploration with AI, it’s interesting that you’re talking about exploration and freedom through automobiles. exploration with AI is really opening up as well. I have a client for example who’s in academia and what she’s done is created for students a fully immersive experience in virtual reality, fueled by artificial intelligence, which allows for students to go to a multitude of different places, whether it’s the Boston Tea Party or the moon. And what Stanford, a study at Stanford University, showed is that the retention rate for students that participate in a VR type of immersive experience is exponentially greater than when a student is reading or when a student is lectured to. So the ability to explore all different types of things comes to life now in a way that we would have never dreamed of before.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I’m with you on that. I think, yes, it needs to be used properly. We need to, like anything, has to have checks and balances around it and so on. But at the end of the day, I just see so many things, including in the – you talked about the job end of things. Yes, it will eliminate some jobs. On the same token, Mark, to your point, it will create jobs because what it will now bring to the table that we’ve never had before – We’re going to get down the road. I’m with you. We get down the road three to five years. We’re going to look back and say, how do we ever go without this?
SPEAKER 07 :
I totally agree. And these efficiencies are valuable for people in your audience now, too. So think about the small business owners. You have so many of them that are listening to your show that would love to have budgets to advertise, to compete with their bigger companies that are in their sector. Well, now for a small amount of money and for a very short period of time, they could stand up bullish advertising campaigns to drive new revenues to their businesses. It’s really an interesting time, John. It really is super compelling.
SPEAKER 03 :
It is, and I’ve got folks asking me, you know, maybe next segment, you know, what jobs would I recommend to young people? What field should they get into? And so I’ve had several different inquiries along those lines come in of late, Mark, and I’ve got my own thought process along those lines. And frankly, there are some jobs because of AI that I would not get into, yet there’s others that I would jump into headfirst.
SPEAKER 07 :
I totally agree. If you want me to hold off… and get to that after the break. I’m happy to do so if you want me to get into that right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, we’ve got time. We’ve got a few minutes right now. Let’s just do it right now. So if you were talking to a young person, looking at, you know, they’re coming out of high school right now, or some maybe have even gone through college, but I’m really talking more about some of the young people that, you know, frankly, Mark, some of the folks listening might even have sophomores and juniors or seniors. Maybe they’re graduating this year, trying to figure out what are they going to do next. What are your suggestions along those lines?
SPEAKER 07 :
Number one recommendation is cybersecurity. I am just absolutely astounded with the amount of cyber attacks, facial recognition, all different elements of cybersecurity that are needed here in New York City. I had New York City’s chief technology officer on my show some future day, and he told me that there are actually 80 billion cyber events every single week in New York City alone. So those are attacks on our infrastructure. our water supply, our finance systems, our communications, hospitals and beyond. And the thing is that here in the United States, because we have the private sector running our infrastructure, we’re not ready to defend the way that a centralized government like a communist government or a monarch type of government would be able to defend their infrastructure. So I am very, very bullish for Those graduating kids, those kids in college, to look at AI specifically in the cybersecurity sector. There are so many applications to it.
SPEAKER 03 :
I can’t disagree with you at all. The other thing, folks listening, that I, because I’m in the trades and have come out of there, that I would still look at because AI, believe it or not, Yes, there’s still going to be a certain amount of manual things, Mark, that have to happen. You know, certain things that have to be done by a person that, frankly, will probably never go. I say probably. I mean, at some point you might get some robots do some things that that, you know, we as humans do. But we’re a ways off in that area. For example, the. HVAC, plumbing, electrical, fixing the cars that we were talking about, transportation. Those things are still going to need to be done by individuals. But where AI, I believe, Mark, and it’s already here, where AI is going to come along and help those individuals make their job easier is through the whole diagnostic end of things. Where before, you know, we were, you know, I came up in the automotive world where, I was looking things up back in the day, Mark, either in a book or microfiche because computers didn’t exist. And, of course, now with the advent of all of that, you’ve now got repair manuals literally online where you can go look at things and things along those lines. Where AI now is going to come into play is being able to feed all of these known problems into AI, or AI then is going to be able to come out and say, well, you know what? Chances are, knowing the things you’ve just fed me, you should look at A or B as probably being suspect as to why this particular problem exists.
SPEAKER 07 :
John, that’s a great example of how AI could be used now. In my book, I talk about an invention that Google created in the medical sector to support doctors. It’s a diagnosis tool called AIME. It’s exactly what you described. And what they’ve done is they’ve programmed this LLM, this artificial intelligence tool, with diseases that are rare, underserved, diseases that have left society over 100 years ago, And now doctors can use Amy to diagnose diseases at almost a 100% accuracy rate. So think about the amount of lives that are going to be saved because they’re quick to figure out what’s wrong with the patient. Again, to your point, not eliminating the doctor, not eliminating the human, not eliminating the person, but using the machine as a tool to make the diagnosis more effective. It’s going to be a good thing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and folks listening, trust me, even if it gets to the point, Mark, to where a robot can go in and do that furnace replacement or something along those lines. And by the way, that day, I do believe, Mark, that day will come. I mean, we just saw Tesla with a dancing robot. The day will come where there’ll be those sorts of machines that will even assist us. Maybe it’s not them doing that job fully, but typically where you’d have a robot you know master plumber and a journeyman helping them with certain things because you need four hands versus two some of those robots will replace some of those particular individuals that we’re talking about which by the way there’s not enough of them to go around anyway so that’s a good thing but at the end of the day being able to again feed some of that information into ai get some of those answers back and then oh by the way that robot that i just mentioned mark That won’t operate indefinitely. It will need to have things done and parts changed and maintenance done because it’s not a human. It is, in fact, a machine.
SPEAKER 07 :
Totally. Good point. And, you know, it’s interesting that you mentioned Elon’s robot in particular because what he’s going to do is create a certain level of democratization of this new technology. So the robots that he’s creating are targeting really everyone. Apparently, they’re going to try to hit a very reasonable price point. I’ve heard a bunch of different ranges, John. As little as 5,000, but then going all the way up to 50,000. Right, me too. Who knows where we’ll really end up. But one thing for sure is that that robot might be in your house helping with all of those menial chores that everybody hates, from washing laundry to cooking food to… You know, leaving the house and going to the grocery store, picking up food, filling up the cupboard. You could see how a robot, a humanoid robot like that will run chores for a household, pop into the self, the autonomous vehicle, the self-driving Tesla and fill up those shelves while you have time as an individual to spend. working on your next invention or being with your family and loved ones and so on.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. No, again, I look at a lot of this as, yes, every time something new comes along, Mark, it can be a little bit scary for a lot of people. Let’s face it, Mark, a lot of people just don’t like change in general. And, yes, this is change, but I think at the end of the day, done properly – I do believe when it’s all said and done, it will help us, frankly, just live a better life when it’s all said and done. I know there’s folks out there listening that think I’m crazy, but I don’t think I am, Mark.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, you’re definitely not. It’s going to create real value for the communities. It’s going to create economic value for our communities, and in turn, people will have more access to food, food security, better health care. It really will improve our society. AI is going to create, is going to be was going to serve as an underpinning across so many different business sectors, from the creative fields like art and fashion, music, to the sports industry, across into finance. I mentioned medical. The government we’re going into. I talk about this in my book, a post-nuclear war period where drones are going to be fueled with AI. It’s going to be a very, very interesting and exciting time for sure.
SPEAKER 03 :
Where do folks get the book, Mark?
SPEAKER 07 :
Some future day, how AI is going to change everything is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, all major booksellers. And it’s a good time, John, to buy it. The book sold out. It went to number one for AI on Amazon, and it sold out of both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and it’s restocked right now. So it’s a good time to grab it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Mark, I appreciate your time very much. We think a lot alike, and I appreciate you joining us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it’s such a pleasure having this conversation. Very natural. Have a great day.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you, Mark. Take care. Have a great rest of your day. Golden Eagle Financial is next. Al did a great interview here of late. Stay tuned, and we’ll be right back after this.
SPEAKER 14 :
Al Smith from Golden Eagle Financial and the show you love, Retirement Unpacked, is here with me. How are you today, Al? I’m doing great. How are you, TJ? I’m doing great as well. I have a couple questions for you. As a financial advisor, do you also do taxes?
SPEAKER 13 :
No, I don’t prepare my clients’ taxes. I do, however, spend a lot of time talking to them about taxes. To use a sports analogy, tax preparation is like doing a recap of the game. What I do is more like creating a game plan and then following up over time to see how it’s working.
SPEAKER 14 :
And how much are taxes a part of that game plan that you create?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, with so many different taxes we’re faced with, it becomes an important thing to take into consideration. It’s not how much income you have, but how much you get to keep. In addition to federal and state income taxes, there’s property taxes, state and local sales tax, and fees. And they all play a part in shrinking our income.
SPEAKER 14 :
What about people who already have really healthy balances in 401ks, IRAs? Won’t they be facing significant taxes as they draw income from those accounts?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, it depends. Everybody’s situation’s a little bit different. There’s no one size that fits all when it comes to tax planning. But often when I work with people, we’ll create a strategy where we will convert traditional IRAs to Roth over time. And that not only reduces taxes in the future, but it will also lower the tax they’ll be paying on their Social Security.
SPEAKER 14 :
Is that kind of strategy really only for the wealthy?
SPEAKER 13 :
Not at all. Many of my clients who have modest IRAs have chosen to convert to Roth over time. They enjoy the freedom of having a tax-free nest egg that they can access on their own timeline rather than an RMD schedule.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, that is excellent. And how can people reach you if they want to learn about their own taxation in retirement?
SPEAKER 13 :
You can reach me through KLZ or contact my office at 303-744-1128. And when you call, I’ll provide you with a summary of all the tax changes for 2025.
SPEAKER 14 :
You heard it here, folks. Good things from Golden Eagle Financial and Al Smith. Again, you can reach them at 303-744-1128 or just find them on the advertisers page at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 11 :
Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, I want to continue on before we get to the bottom of the hour and, again, answer that question somebody asked me as to, okay, and I already had this in my notes. It’s really ironic that some of you are texting. If you were going to have a conversation with a young person about what jobs to get into, what would you recommend they do? And I already had this in my notes. So it’s really ironic that you guys are texting that while it’s, and I’m not joking, already in my notes. I had a Wall Street Journal article talking about Will anyone take the factory jobs that Trump wants to bring back to America? So that kind of spurred me along the lines of, OK, if I were going to advise a young person on what to get into, what would that be? And then some of you are texting me those very questions as to what would I recommend young people actually get into? And you heard me talk about that a little bit a moment ago with our with our guest, Mark, who I really enjoyed talking to, by the way. And just a side note, Charlie and I were talking during that interview that Al Smith just that we just played. It’s funny that most, if not all, of the guests I bring on, I do get a whole, just so you all know, I get a whole poop sheet on, this is the book, these are the questions you should ask, blah, blah, blah. I don’t do any of that. You guys probably already know that. I don’t do it. I’ll be straight up honest. I don’t even read any of that. I read who they are, what they’ve authored, where they’re from, what the book is about, and that’s it. I don’t read any of the recommended questions. I just don’t. I don’t care. It’s not how I do things. I just have a natural conversation, as you heard Mark say as we were ending, that he enjoyed that because, frankly, that’s not typically the way interviews are done on a coast-to-coast basis. Most, if not all, hosts will read the recommended questions and, in some cases, roll right through them. I don’t do it that way. I just want to have a conversation. What do you think about this? What do you think about that? And he even was willing to stay on with us and talk about what jobs should young people actually get into. So I enjoyed the conversation with Mark, and that’s how I do things. I don’t look at any of the notes that are given to me on any particular guest. And some of them I have on enough that I just knew who they are anyways. But a new guest like Mark, I just don’t do it that way. It’s just not how I do things. But back to the topic of what would I recommend young people get into? Well, you guys all know me. I’m a trades guy. I’m sort of like Mike Rowe in a lot of ways. I think the trades don’t get near enough justice, and folks don’t look at them nearly close enough, and if they would, they would find themselves with not only a much more fulfilling career as time goes by, but a lot more wealthy when it’s all said and done as well. There’s a great article that was out this weekend in the Wall Street Journal talking about those sort of silent businesses that make people very wealthy. And it was a great article. Richard had found it and sent it to me. I actually saw the headline for it as well. And it’s a great article talking about some of those things that nobody thinks about that still need done that have made some people very wealthy. And, again, I would be looking at the trades in that way. Everything from, you know, working on cars, electricians, plumbers, you know, you get into the whole, you know, I’ll be straight up honest. One thing my son and I were talking about last week that we struggle to find is irrigation techs. And you think, irrigation tech, what is that? Guys that fix sprinkler systems. And this is not an exaggeration. And it’s not too far from this right now. You’re going to find us, me, paying irrigation techs $70,000 to $100,000 a year. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that. Some of you are thinking, what? Yeah. Yeah. Because there’s not enough of them, and you can’t find good ones. And the thing about an irrigation tech is they not only have to understand the plumbing side of it and how sprinklers work and so on, but how do you design the right zone? How many heads do you need for that zone? Where do they need actually water? There’s electrical ends of things that have to go with that. There’s both sides of electrical, 12 or 24 volt and the 120 volt end of it. So there’s DC and AC. So that tech has to understand all of that. And, oh, by the way, how do I find this broken wire underground? Because this particular valve’s not opening. So that technician has to understand all of those things I just mentioned. And I’m not joking. In the not-too-distant future, we’ll make $100,000 a year plus doing that. And it’s not a bad job at all at the end of the day. Yes, you get a little muddy. Yes, you can be a little bit wet at times. Yes, it can be cold in the spring around here and a little bit cold in the fall. But keep in mind, when you’re out in the summertime and it’s 100 degrees and you get to go do irrigation work, that’s not such a bad gig. So my point is there’s a lot of things in the trades that these jobs are not going to go anywhere. I mean, if there’s one thing about what I just said a moment ago, you might get a robot on down the road to work on some of the things I just mentioned, but we’re a ways off for that. You’ve got a good decade plus to have a career in that field. And even then, you might have a robot be a helper. Hey, go dig this head up. But you’re not going to have them doing all the things I just mentioned because their ability to discern and find things and figure things out and so on, we’re just a ways off in that. We’re decades off. So what would I recommend young people get into? You’ve heard me say this all the time, and I’ll maybe kind of close out this particular segment with this. I am not one, and I hate the people that say, go do what you love and you’ll always make a ton of money. No, you won’t. No, you won’t. You could have a love for music and not carry a note. How’s that going to work out? You could have a love for music and not be able to play anything on any instrument whatsoever other than the radio. How’s that going to work out? By the way, that’s me. I love music. I don’t like musicals, but I love music. I can’t play a note. I can’t tell you one note from another. Don’t ask me. And I don’t care. I don’t care to know. I don’t want to know what chord a particular note is in or whether that note has a little tail on it or two or three tails and what that means. And as you can tell, I don’t know anything about notes because I just know they have tails on them. I know there’s like quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes, and I can’t tell you what. I don’t even remember from when I was a kid what they do, and I don’t care. I don’t care. So I’m one where, yes, I love music, but don’t ask me to be a musician. I would stink. I would be the ultimate loser at that. I would make no money whatsoever. I love, in some cases, certain kinds of art. Personally, I love people that can do pencil sketches. I’m amazed, and I see some of these on the Internet, where people can take a number two pencil and draw pictures that I just look at, and I’m like, how in the world do you do all of that with a pencil? the shading and the depth and they can make an image look three-dimensional and all of this out of just a pencil. And I’m absolutely amazed that people have that kind of brain power to do that because I can’t draw a stick figure. So while I love that, don’t ask me to do it because I can’t do a stick figure. And I’m not exaggerating. Ask me to do a smiley face. That’s about it. Good luck. That’s about it. And I have great penmanship, but I’m not an artist. So, so many people, so many guidance counselors. I was watching a video, by the way, late last night, where a gal that I follow on social media was saying, you know, my daughter graduates high school this week, and the one thing that I’m hugely disappointed in her guidance counselor is… She not one time mentioned that she could go to the trades and be successful there. And this particular lady that I follow is a hairdresser. And so she was talking about how there’s money to be made in a lot of different trades, and yet guidance counselors at schools, high schools especially, never mention them. She was talking about how her daughter was really kind of feeling a little bit down because all of her classmates were trying to figure out, you know, what school or what college were they going to go to and what were they going to study and this, that and the other. And yet there’s this huge world of trades that nobody’s mentioned to her other than her mom. And I’m thinking we are doing. several generations now of kids a disservice by not mentioning to them what they can actually do in the trades and how much money they could actually make there. So personally, what would I do with a kid? I did this with my own. Number one, not what do they love. What are they good at? What are they good at? What kind of talent do they have? Are they right brain, left brain? Are they a combination of? Are they good at problem solving? Do they have great critical thinking skills? Are they good with people? Are they not good with people? Are they good at figuring mechanical things out or not? Are they good with money? Would they do well on the financial end of things? On and on we go. Those are the things that I would be asking a young person as to what are they good at, not what do they love. In fact, the last thing I would ask them is what do they love. There’s that old saying, well, you do what you love and you’ll always be, you know, you may not make a lot of money, but you’ll enjoy what you do. Well, yeah, being poor sucks. Just going to say that. Being poor sucks. Been there, done that. I don’t want to go back to that. It sucks. No one wants to be poor. I don’t care if somebody says, yeah, I like being poor. They’re lying. They’re lying. No one wants to be poor. And that person that says that is either mentally ill or a liar or both. Because no one wants that. Oh, I don’t want to be rich. Think about all that money and all the things you have to hassle with by having it. Yeah, that’s a poor person mentality for sure. Absolutely. Now, what’s a rich person? Define rich. I don’t have that definition, folks. I don’t know what that is still to this day. Do you have to be a millionaire, a billionaire? You know what? That’s a different term for everybody. But I can tell you this, you know, scraping by, trying to figure out how to make the payment every month and not knowing where the money is going to come from. And are you going to be able to put food on the table? No, that sucks. And yeah, that’s that’s my definition of being poor. Not knowing how you’re going to pay all the bills next month. That sucks. Period. No one likes that. And I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Neither would any of you. So what I would encourage kids to do is, A, what are you good at? What can you excel at? What have you been good at up to this point? And I get you need to have some sort of enjoyment in what you’re doing or life becomes very miserable. But on the same token, what’s that individual, what’s that kid good at? And some would say, well, man, he’s a really great athlete. Really? Keep in mind that only less than 1%, less than 1% of all high school athletes ever go to the pros. So if you think that your kid’s going to be the next John Elway, maybe, but probably not. Probably not. I mean, we just saw what happened in the draft with Deion Sanders’ kid, who’s really a good quarterback, but because of whatever other circumstances were out there, didn’t go until the fifth round in the draft. And still has a long way to go to actually prove himself as a NFL quarterback. And keep in mind who he is. So just because your kid’s good at throwing the ball and is doing really well on his particular high school team doesn’t mean he’s going to go to the pros and or be able to rely on that. And here’s the other thing to think about. Even if they do, so let’s say your kid’s really good at whatever the professional sport is. Let’s talk, you know, in this case, football. I’ve talked about this before. The average NFL player is there two and a half years. That’s it, folks. Two and a half years. So they can make millions of dollars in two and a half years and come out broke, and most do. If you don’t believe me, there’s a series called 30 for 30, and there’s an entire episode dedicated to what I’m talking about with professional athletes, especially football players. I would encourage you to watch it, especially if you’ve got a young person thinking they’re going to be a professional athlete and then make it that way. Very few do. Very few do. There’s very few, quote-unquote, you know, Caitlin Clarks of the world who is, you know, the women’s basketball star that does pretty well financially speaking but, again, doesn’t do what some of her male counterparts do, rightfully so, by the way. But the reality is most kids will never achieve that kind of status. And I know I said I was going to close with something else, but I’ll close with this. And this is one that we were talking about raising kids and money and all of that earlier. And please, some of you may take this the wrong way. Don’t. But those of you who have kids in club sports, be very careful. Those club sports can ruin a family. Let me explain. Club sports will have you dedicating your entire life to that one kid, or kids plural, and the sport they play. Could be football, could be basketball, could be volleyball, could be cheerleading, could be soccer, you name it. There are club sports for all sorts of things. And those of you that don’t know what a club sport is, it’s a sport that kids get involved in, and they get on these clubs, quote-unquote, that don’t have anything to do with their school, per se. Now, some of their friends from school might play on the club, but it’s not sanctioned by any school. It’s a club. And they’re all over the place. Baseball, softball, girls softball, you name it. You name it. There’s all sorts of clubs. And what I know is we limited how many of those our kids could be involved in because I knew those things can wear a family out. They can ruin marriages. They can ruin families. And it’s nothing against club. The club itself doesn’t do it. It’s a lot of the… parents and people that get involved in it, and pretty soon before you know it, the club is more important than anything else going on in your family. So be careful with club sports because, A, it’s doubtful your kid will ever go on to do anything outside of that anyways, and, B, you may ruin your entire family by doing so. So I’ll close with that. If you’ve got questions directly on club sports, ask me. I’ll give you my own thoughts and processes on them, which I kind of did already, but very, very seldom. Is that a requirement for your kid to go on and be really good? If your kid’s a great athlete, they don’t have to play club sports for a scout down the road to understand that and still place them inside of college and or go to the pros after college. They don’t have to play club sports. In fact, most really good players probably never did. They’re just really good to begin with anyways. Geno’s Auto Service coming up next. When it comes to AC with your car, Geno’s is there to help you with all of that. They got a special right now. Go to genosautoservice.com to find them.
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All right, some of you may have been through some really rough storms here of late, and others may go through some yet this summer. If you’re involved in any kind of a storm where you’ve got damage to your home, your roof, your siding, you name it, give Dave Hart a call. He is our certified RoofMax dealer. He can help you with whatever needs you have when it comes to your roof, commercial or residential, and he’ll do all of the work for you, even with the insurance company himself. So one-stop shopping, I should say, are all under one roof. 303-710-6916.
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Wind and rain and hail, oh my. There’s no place like home, and you have to do what you can to keep a reliable roof over it. Summer hail storms are here, bringing damage and door knockers. That’s where we come in. At Roof Savers Colorado, we take pride in helping homeowners like you find the right solution for your situation. We strive to provide peace of mind and a quality roofing experience for every customer. From plant-based rejuvenation treatments that give new life to dry, old, or minorly damaged shingles to full roofing replacements, we want to provide the best service for you and your home. Hail season brings many out-of-state roofing companies knocking at your door, but we’re here to provide you with honest inspections, quality service, and customer care. Don’t wait. Call us for a free assessment before filing your insurance claim. Call today at 303-710-6916 or go to RoofSaverCO.com. That’s 303-710-6916 or go to RoofSaverCO.com to set up your free inspection.
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All right, flesh law is next. Criminal, civil, I know I say that a lot, but Kevin works both sides of that. Some don’t. Some attorneys are only on the civil side, for example. Some never take a criminal case. Some have never been to court, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that. Some have never been to trial, even. They may have been to court, but they’ve never been to a full trial. Kevin does all of that. He’s not afraid to do that on your behalf. Give him a call today, 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 16 :
Here’s why you need personal injury attorney Kevin Flesch on your side. He understands the way the jury thinks. In the context of a personal injury case, you’ve been hurt by someone else’s negligence. The idea is that you’re going to try to recover so that you can get back to where you were just prior to that incident occurring. What that really means from a jurist’s perspective is that you’re going to be asking them to award you money. So when we talk about fairness, we’re talking about six people that you don’t know. Those six people view the evidence and make a unanimous decision that will decide what the fair value is. When you’re the one who’s hurt, you have a good idea of what you think it’s worth. The question is, can you persuade those other individuals whom you don’t know and were witnesses to believe that’s what the case is worth? Kevin Flesch understands the way the jury thinks. Call now for a free consultation, 303-806-8886.
SPEAKER 05 :
The best export we have is common sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Going back to my conversation a moment ago about just kids and recommendations on what they should do. And again, I know this is a broad topic and there’s a lot of different fields out there where, you know, a young person could find themselves getting into. And I’ve said this before, and I think most of you would agree with me that there are some kids that I do think that going to college is the right thing for them to do, depending upon what their skill set is, for example. And I had one of these as well. Maybe somebody really wants to be a doctor or a nurse and they feel really called to that and they enjoy that and they’ve got a skill set for that. And they’re really good at, you know, biology and all the things that it takes to actually go down that path. OK, great. We need more doctors. I’m not opposed to doctors and nurses. We need both of them. And we will for quite some time. On the same token, we need folks out there that can collect trash and own trash companies. And I’m not opposed to either one of those. And, yes, that kind of goes from both ends of the spectrum, if you would, from doctor to, quote, unquote, trash man. Now, as a side note, trash men got a bad rap for a really long time, and there’s a lot of really, really wealthy trash, quote, unquote, men out there. Some have made billions of dollars in the trash industry. Some I know personally, and they have made a boatload of money in the trash business. So it’s not as quote unquote trashy as it once was. So again, your child, your student, your kid, may have all sorts of different talents, and I think the thing you have to do is help them zero in what are those talents, what are they really good at, and what could they turn into cash, quote-unquote, per se, when it’s all said and done. That’s how I would look at coaching my young person into whatever field they would like to get into. Now, one other thing that I really feel strongly about is do that sooner than later. You should be coaching your child on this when they’re literally sophomores and juniors in high school. not sophomores and juniors in college… We don’t want our kids taking two years in college to the tune of tens of thousands, if not hundred thousands of dollars, trying to figure out what should they be doing next. That’s a waste. And by the way, that’s why we have so much student debt that we have today, because nobody did this early on. It’s taking kids sometimes two or three years to determine what they really want to do, what they’re good at, and by then they’ve even had to change majors, and now it just keeps piling on the tuition. That’s really bad, by the way. Kids should be growing up faster than they are right now, and they should be knowing some of this long before getting to college, I feel. These are things that we should be talking about when they’re younger, not when they’re older. John from Cheyenne, go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, you touched on it when you were talking about the guidance council and the trades council. Part of that is getting rid of all the different shop classes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Because, you know, maybe a kid doesn’t know how good he is with his hands. Because he’s never used them. Yeah, exactly. Maybe his father’s an IT guy and sits at a computer, which there’s nothing wrong with.
SPEAKER 03 :
No.
SPEAKER 06 :
He’s got a ton of money.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, not against that at all, Jamie. You know me. I’m not against those individuals at all. They’re needed just as much as anybody else is.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, but what I’m saying is, has a kid going to know if he’s good with his hands and he’s got that, you know, we used to say they were mechanically inclined.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
And, you know, how much is a framing carpenter making today, a good one, or a finished carpenter, or, you know.
SPEAKER 03 :
In that world, John, anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour?
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, yeah. You know what a lineman’s making coming out of his four-year apprenticeship?
SPEAKER 03 :
How much?
SPEAKER 06 :
Depending on if you work for a company or you work for a contractor, but 60 is the low end, an hour.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. It’s funny you say that. I was on vacation last summer, and I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I was on vacation last summer, met a lineman. We had a really good conversation and kind of hung out a little bit and chatted it up. You know how it is. You’re sitting around the pool and whatever, and there’s all sorts of things.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, you chat it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, you’re just chatting it up and so on. And learned a lot, by the way, along those lines, quote unquote. But yeah, he made a very good living and is at the point where he, this is no joke, John, he made enough money as a lineman. He’s not super old, mid-30s, has made enough money as a lineman where he’s also understood what it takes to do some of the, you know, smaller excavating work and things along those lines and has since bought a dump truck and a dump trailer and an excavator and so on and he’s darn near getting to the point where within a couple of years he’ll be out on his own doing his own business all supplied out of being a lineman uh-huh well i we had a guy here he um went to contract and contractors make a ton of money and they make a ton of overtime and in three years now he had to travel for that but he was a single guy so that helps
SPEAKER 06 :
And he had a nice fifth wheel and a truck, so he didn’t have to rent a place. He just rented a trailer park. And in three years, he was able to pay all his debt, his house that he had here that he rented out off completely, everything. And then he came back to the utility because he was just like, I don’t owe any debt. I got money in the bank. I need a steady nine to five, five days a week, a little overtime here and there. but he wanted the more stability of us, you know, and that’s how they make a lot of money. But, I mean, how many trades are out there that are just, what did Mike Rowe say, 7 million open trades?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think that’s fairly close, and I think that’s a pretty well-known, Stat today, John, and again, this is an article in the Wall Street Journal, if Trump brings more and more of these jobs back, who’s going to do them? Well, my answer is we need to do a better job in the school systems, plural, in teaching kids. There is a viable option there, and there’s a lot of money you can make there, and at the end of the day, do just as well as you can doing a lot of other jobs that are out there.
SPEAKER 06 :
You know, how many kids that you went to high school and I went to high school with became auto techs because they got into auto shop in their freshman or sophomore year and then loved it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Quite a few. Quite a few.
SPEAKER 06 :
And bought an old beater and fixed it all up and everything because that was all they had. In New York, and I don’t know if it still exists, it used to be Grady Automotive High School. They had a specific high school that specialized in automotive where they taught the kids how to be mechanics. And a lot of guys I knew that went there graduated from high school, walked right into a job because they had… They graduated from Grady, and that was like the reputation there. If you go to Grady, you’re going to get a good job coming out because the mechanics are really good.
SPEAKER 03 :
The mistake that we made, John, during that time, to your point, is we had some like that, not near enough. And unfortunately, some of the vocational schools became the dumping ground for those kids that didn’t do very well in class. So a lot of the guidance counselors would just shove them out to vo-tech because they didn’t think they could do anything else. So then what happened is a lot of the Votex schools got the reputation for just having nothing but, quote, unquote, you know, kids that were losers and couldn’t do anything else. So then they went to the trades. And, again, we did that completely backwards. We sent the worst of the kids to the trades, and we should have been sending the best of the kids there, and we didn’t.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, or like we were saying at the beginning, if there was a ninth grade, you gave them an auto shop or wood shop or machine shop, one of those, they would at least know whether they had wanted to do something like that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, my point is, and I witnessed this firsthand because I served on some of these boards where we’d have these discussions, and the kids that were getting sent to VoTech were the kids that were dropping out. They had truancy issues. They had this. They had that. So they’d somehow end up at VoTech, and at the end of the day, only maybe 1% of those were worth hiring because the rest of them did it just so they’d get their GED and leave.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, just so they could get the GED and go do something else. But that’s like, you know, I always look at these kids that if you don’t know what you want to do, give the military three years. You’ll figure out what you want to do, and at the same time, you’ll get out and have enough money to go to college. I never asked you, did your son that served in the Marine Corps use his GI Bill to go to school?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, yeah, he’s actually got his own business. He’s a welder now, and he went to welding school and got certified and did all of that out of that.
SPEAKER 06 :
out of that out of you know he gave four years he got sent to the middle east which was never a fun thing for any of us but he came out with the ability to go to school correct and not be in debt at the end of his welding school really quick before i let you go john somebody texted and said do we you know has somebody ever developed a test to determine what a person is good at with their career and so on
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, actually, we’ve had it around for decades. We just don’t use it anymore. John, you probably remember this. Charlie, you do as well. It was called the ASVAB test that was done mainly in part by the military to determine what kids would be good at what if they ever did go to the military. We quit doing that because of, quote unquote, discrimination.
SPEAKER 06 :
But I think they still do it for kids that want to go into the military. They take the ASVAB.
SPEAKER 03 :
We should do it for every kid, personally. It should just be standard practice that every kid takes that test.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think it took, when I took it, and that was 1981, it took two hours.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I was going to say it was a two- to three-hour deal at that time, I believe, John. Yeah, I remember taking it more than once, by the way, because it used to be it was something that, at least in our school, granted, I went to private school, we did it every year.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, no, I just did it once when I went… Yeah, I’ve taken that test numerous times. And you know what? Based on your scores, they would guide you in certain directions. And, like, I knew a girl, she wanted to be a chef.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
So she went in the military, and even though they said, you’ve got great scores, she goes, no, I want to be a cook, and cook isn’t the highest rate.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right, right, right, right.
SPEAKER 06 :
She did two years to learn how to work in a kitchen.
SPEAKER 03 :
Gotcha.
SPEAKER 06 :
Then she went on, she stayed in the reserve… So she had money coming in, but she went on and used her GI Bill to go to chef school.
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s a great example. John, I’ve got to run. I appreciate that very much. Great conversation. Let’s do this. Cup Creek Heating and Air Conditioning. Speaking of the trades, they are next. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
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All right, Dr. Scott, if you’re looking for a great doctor that thinks like we do and is not beholden to big pharma or big health care, talk to him today, 303-663-6990.
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The good news for seniors on Medicare is that you have more options today than ever before. The challenge is that all of these new options can be very confusing and making the wrong choice can cost you thousands of dollars more out of your pocket. Call Paul Lanigro at GIA Insurance and his team of Medicare specialists will help you find the right plan for your needs. Call 303-423-0162, extension 100, or go online to e-gia.com.
SPEAKER 05 :
This isn’t Rage Radio. This is Real Relatable Radio.
SPEAKER 03 :
Back to Rush to Reason. All right, that’s wrapping up today’s show. We appreciate you all listening. And again, I should mention this, and I’ve done this before for folk. If you’ve got a young person that really doesn’t know what they want to do, they’d love to have somebody to talk to besides mom and dad, I am more than willing to have those conversations. I’ve done that in the past, and I have no problem. Sometimes I can do it even via text messaging or even an email. It just depends on how they want to do it, but I’m always there to help young people. I love young people. I want to help them get into a career that will benefit them and their future family, and I really want to do that, so I mean that sincerely. If you’ve got anything along those lines you need help with, I’m always here to help in that regard. So we’ll be back tomorrow, same time, same place. Have a great night. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
