Who's Really Building the Data Centers w. Ted of Contractor RX

Did you did you notice people like tapping you for this stuff once you got into contracting the data centers or are you talking about you do a lot of these because of your work as contractor RX, which I think is awesome too. By the way, it's. James, it's a combination of both. Really. Before this, I built a solar company and I was pissed because I was this close to getting the nine figures with it. I hit seventy five million dollar evaluation and I was trying to get offers and whatnot, and then unfortunately one of my my manufacturing partner did a hostile takeover. It took me right out. My fault. The other day, I assume its wrong. It's my fault. I had the responsibility for it because I didn't see it coming, and it's my I should have And it's one of the reasons why once that and I started doing contract I REX, because I realized there was fourteen other companies they did this too. A similar way. Yeah. This is so when you start to build a company that is threatening a big company, there's only two plays for them, either buy you out, and they had already made the offer, and I laugh at the offer, and I said, you're you're a year, a couple of zero short, being a little probably a little too hockey, you know, hey, andize that they realized the only need to spend a couple of hundred grand and take me out of the knees. So they did just that. So I'll tell you this a corporate level of structure of America. What you learn on being on the wrong side of a hostle takeover, yeah, is an education that you can't find in books or on YouTube. I can only imagine. Yeah, Yeah, that's something a lot of us are shielded from until we're face to face with it. Right. Yeah. So what I've done is I've turned that into a business and I now work with contractors in either one or two things. Either help make them grow, help build them up so they can get acquired, or as they're growing, helps shield them from vulnerabilities that I'm now very well aware of. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of You're running into a lot of grateful people, man, because it's it's definitely wild out there. It's highly competitive everybody. You know, there's more entrepreneurs than ever, right, and that's it's a beautiful thing. But I guess to your point of time. It can be. It can be a radically competitive situation too, I guess huh yeah. But at the at the heart of it, isn't that what an entrepreneur is? A highly competitive son of a bitch. I just want to yeah, right, and that is what, uh, what makes capitalism a system that works? Right? You gotta have competition, you gotta have price competition in the market, and you know, the best rise to the top and then the regular people get to take advantage of the best. That's how it works. You know. I feel like there's some kind of and I can't speak in behalf of women, but as far as men, I feel like, you know, you're you're a guy, you know, like when you were a guy and you go into a room, you obviously size up the room for protection of your family whatever. It is, like, Oh, that's an intainability is competitiveness, Like you want to be the best you can be, and if you're not, the hell are you doing? Yeah that's a really good point, right, Yeah, that is a good point. But hopefully there's not yeah, too many out there in the what the hell are you doing? Category? No, it does seem like we hang into what the hell you doing category a little later in life nowadays than we used to. Right, So how did you wind up going, I get and what or was this just the nature of how you do business? How did you wind up going, Hey, who's building these big, gigantic data centers? And how can I get involved? So I get a pretty pretty wide national network, as you can imagine, and my partner and I we own a red a roofing company in Texas, and through the network somebody reached out and they're electricians, and they said, hey, listen, where on we just get on with this company. They're doing data centers all over the country, and is always how do I say this? The most amazing part of this is these things are so large. You're building communities, you're building essentially a town or a city. Just the only thing that's missing is the place for people to sleep. Yeah, right, But like the size of these things, the grid demand, all of these things are just at scale. I've been doing this for thirty two years and I've never in my life, never, not once, have ever been on a job site where cost wasn't the issue. It was the time. Right. So when you're told, hey, listen, the cost is irrelevant. We need to get this done by a certain date. And I'm sure everybody's heard of liquid data damages, and if you haven't, real quick, I'll explain for your audience. Go ahead. Liquidata damages is like if you're gonna see I, you're gonna build Walmart. Okay, Walmart will give you. You have three hundred days to build it, and they don't care about the weather. They don't care about like shortage of materials. You sign on, you get paid handsomely. But excuse me, but on three hundred in the first day, if you're not done, it's fifteen thousand dollars a day you have to pay Walmart because they're they're missing on them revenue. Right, So that's what. So on these jobs, there's no liquidated damages, but there's also no budget. There is get it done now, and it's crazy. So this electrical company brought us in and said, listen, there's always a couple of contractor voids. Where as well engineered as these are, they always forget things. And I'll give you an example. We got Broa. We started out doing gutters. So centers. Yes, yeah, So how this works is they're essentially if you know what a connex box is like. An oversea Yeah, oh yeah, we bury them. Yeah right, exactly what you guys need. That's a phnomo model. So what these things are is they're a classed up version of it. They're about the same size. Each one is about one point two one point five million each. They weigh about one hundred thousand pounds. They've got crazy software computer work, and they're crazy electronics and you know, just a TPO commercial vinyl roof. And after all the engineers and all the architects and all of the reviews and all the meetings, somebody forgot that, hey, we need gutters on these things. Oh wow, it's. Gonna leak inside. Now. What's crazy about this is they knew they needed them because they suspect them. They just forgot a gutter contract. And so we were listen, you know this, this, this one particular site has a few hundred pods in it, and each one needs gutters. Can y'all do it? So put some numbers together. It wasn't too far from our location. We said, yeah, let's try it out. We did one location, which then became can you guys go to Oklahoma? Can you go? Now we're in many different states, and we don't no longer just do gutters, We do roofing, we do gutters, you do other things too, So yeah, it became an animal. Once you're into this ecosystem, you're in as long as you're a contractor that follows the safety because safety is huge course, so there is no three strike rule. If you one strike, you're out. So we go over safety and we take it very serious with our guys, all of our contractors and our own people too. And then obviously communication is huge, right, they have to have the info. So you do those two things right, and as a contractor, you can make some crazy money. But I got to disclose this. I've been doing this again. I've been doing it for over thirty years, and I know I've seen this patter before. And you have two which is you know this is temporary, right, you know this is all to you to four a six year run and then it's off. It's done, So you make everything you can and that in that period you bank it, you reinvest it, and then you know, you go on to the next thing. So I know it's not forever. So we're just making what we can with with what we have, right, now and and grateful for it. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean that is how those building jobs tend to be, right, or how any real trend tends to be. There's high tide and low tide, no doubt about it. So these things look like they're coming along pretty swimmingly when you're on the site, like it looks like they're going up. They're going up quick, you know, the work is done and then and it's a round. I mean, it would it would appear. I mean I can't speak to Hawaii, but it would seem like they're in all they're in all fifty states. They're in all fifty states. My dog here kind of dog is wolfy. Ah, golden retriever. That's not very golden. Did you U want you get that from terminator to or. No, what's what's the gold retriever? The name that was the the Connor's dog, and that would be actually, no, it wasn't his It wasn't his dog's name. It was the fake name Terminator used to trick T one thousand on the telephone when he was sounding like his mom. Remember, yeah, so I popped into my head. But I know I know what I'm working on right now. Is not exactly huge in the community. H What do you mean by that? Well, the preppers, the the and I hate to call I hate to call him preppers because my family and I we are also like we have our own homestead, we are self relying on food. Nice. Yeah, so like I see the writing on the wall too. I'm just making the money because I know deep down it's funny. I'll give you this. You know how much hate. Oh, I'm sure you get it. I'm sure you get it like crazy. That's why I wanted to bring you on. The thing is I knew that was under the surface. You know, listen, that's that's fine, but you know it's it's interesting. So many people message me, and very few of them want to actually have a discussion about it. Most of them just want to leave a comment. I'm just like, okay, whatever, and I understand that's the price of success and progress. Sure, but there are a few that will reach out and say why are you doing this? And I'm like two things. One, every comment you leave saying oh, you're killing the world, everything else, that comment that you're leaving on that app on your cell phone is all stored on a server on these data farms. So as much as you tayan for building these things, you're literally the one that's creating the supplying demand for these. That is a very good point. And so isn't so isn't your Amazon order, your streaming services? Like everything we do the internet, everything runs off of these. Now there is no going back. Oh, there's definitely no going back. And the other thing, James, is we've been building these for over twenty years. Yes, this is wild. That's wild. I know that because we have a host who lives in the Northern Virginia area and we've been well maybe three or four years ago, we were in the area of Ashburn, which is just you know, inundated with these things already. Yeah. But one of the big reasons I wanted to bring you on though, was to also talk about like how many guys are working a site like this, Like how many American men are employed at a single site, you know, ballpark. I know you don't know all the numbers exactly, but you're pulling into this place, going you. No, I actually do not. On one of my sites, it's just under two thousand men every day. So the shifts, it's three shifts, okay, and it's seven days a week. And when I tell you on Christmas there's still a thousand guys on site, that's incredible. I'm not because again, it's about the time. Yeah right, it done. And the other thing I wanted to talk to previously before that was they told us, they literally told us, if you have any feelings about working on these things, we will bring in people. And it's not like they haven't done it before. They will go to other countries and bring in people and give them work vices, and these things are getting built one way or another. Oh oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, So the difference is. The Americans conscience is too deep, then they'll just get visa people to come into any You. Might as well give the money to American taxpayers, the American contractors, right, I mean, at least we're reinvesting the money back. We're buying what do we buy. We're buying Harley Davidson's with them, We're buying pickup trucks with them, they're buying clothes here, we're putting the money back kids college accounts, like we're reinvesting it here, whereas if you're bringing people from the country to build these data centers. Where do they do they send them money home? Definitely? Well that is kind of the gray area that that I'd never thought about until I saw your Instagram channel, which was and I didn't know it was two thousand. But you know, where do those guys go work? You know what I mean? Where do they get the money to put the food on the table if they're not doing this job. So it's it's just a reminder to everybody out there watching, like it's not always black and white, man. You know it isn't. And I'll be honest with you, man, if I can disclose this, like we all know what's happening, and we all know in ten years like where this is going. But like the truth is like if if you sit down as a as a reasonable man and have a cigar and you think, okay, we're all just gonna pick at this and we're not gonna build it. Okay, let's be completely honest. This spending trillion brilliant dollars on these I'm sorry, but a bunch of us outside holding some signs is not gonna make this go away. Clearly, not the mension behind the eight ball anyway. To your point, it's coming like this. There is nothing You and I John the common man can do it. But hi, baby, you can know about this. It's just yeah, well it's really not even coming here. They literally told us we will bring in people from another place if we must. Wow. Imagine it's all that. Like now it's like, all right, go back to work. Oh for sure. Yeah, I have no doubt about it. Yeah it is. It is kind of crazy, and it's also not that crazy, right. It new technology, it's the railroad, it's the oil industry, it's the you know, just our version of it, there really is, which was a very similar thing, right They brought in the Chinese to help with the railroads, and you know, it's it's real similar. It's real similar. I guess one of the things that we always worry about is just purely the nefarious and the terrible things that could come of it. I'm sure they'll plenty, and there's also been good to come from it too. You can't argue that there is. Going to be some good. But you're right, I do. I am concerned about because it does seem and I hate to be this way, but again, like I'm a father of for and a husband, like it's my job to look down the road. Oh yeah, act and provide. So like I'm always concerned because I do understand like this surveillance state is coming, but I also understand like again, we've had the Patriot Act for twenty five years. So the people who are pissed about losing their privacy and it's like, dude, we've never had it. Yeah, a lot of generations never even knew what it was like before the Patriot Act. Good point, you. Know, So we have like for twenty five years, the government has been legally allowed to circumvent the Constitution and record us, watch us, keep tabs on US catalog us, and do everything they want. And like, if you don't like it, there's the door kind of attitude. And I don't agree with it because I am a you know, I'm gonna get too political here, but like I always vote for smaller government. I'll just say it that way. Like my wife and I both carry a gun every day, like we believe in America being a stay out of my business. I will police my own self kind of situation. I am all for that every day. I am a again only too blow up. I'm a red guy living in a blue state of Massachusetts. So many of us in blue states, red and blue. I mean, so that's the thing. If you look at mass the western half of it, which is not a lot of population out here, we're almost all read out here. Oh I'm sure. Yeah, it's just population density of Boston, you know, like a lot of statesa same boat. The metro area dictates a state. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's an ugly thing. But you know, the other thing though about it all is right. We have had the ability in the past and will I think we'll have the ability in the future to navigate society slowly away from our mistakes, you know what I mean, Like we're making mistakes with surveillance right now, of course, but you know, in time people are going to say it's pretty you know, pretty easy to do with statistics. You look at well, burglaries, murders, you know, all these kinds of things. Is it stopping anything? Is it making things better for the average person? To me, to be quite honest with you, the surveillance in the country seems to be all about making money off the average person for speeding or you know, there's so much money to be made off having cameras at every corner, for guys who are just daydreaming and drive through a red light or something like that, you know, or speed or go over the speed limit. Yeah, there's a lot of money being made doing just that, taking pictures of license plates and sending bills out automatically. You know what's ironic as the hell speaking about that, James is so, I was a fireman for ten years. I retired, and I'll say this. Do you ever notice, like the news never reports any feel good stories. It's always fear, fear, do this, Oh my god. But whenever one of these cameras that none of us, like none of us want, catches somebody accidentally having a heart attack or something. Yes, that's the only time they ever show any good situations. That's a good point. The only good citizen is a camera. That's pretty funny. Yeah, I mean, but I appreciate your perspective on it, man, because you're and that's probably why so many people are jumping on your Instagram is because you're adding a wrinkle in it all. You're adding this weird wrinkle of the sort of the boots on the ground and which you know, really speaks to like the just the horrendous nature of journalism in America today that nobody's at these data centers talking to these guys just about like, you know, Hey, I'm Dan and I work my ass off here make a lot of money, and my situation's gotten way better because I'm building this data center, you know what I mean. And my family's got money. I'm saving money. You know, if you're working seven days a week, you're you're making money. It doesn't matter what you're doing. Really, so, James, yeah, go ahead, you're. Let me tell you you're you're so on the ball. I don't know how much research you've done in these things, but you know, traditionally, when I say union contractors like union, we'll say union employees labeled right, like a union electrician in Boston, I think makes like a life selection. I'm gonna say eighty five to ninety dollars an hour, right, Yeah, So the union is usually set at the same parameter as what's called the day the Davis Bacon prevailing wage, right, which is, if you're doing any public work any city, like government work, you get paid a minimum wage, which is usually about the same give or takes as unions. On these data farms, it's so much more you have twenty five year old electricians making three hundred grain in a year on forty five hours a week. That's what I'm saying, Like. You tell this guy he shouldn't be doing this right like and knowing this guy knows what I know, which is like, hey, man, if you don't do this, we're gonna bring in some some people from Bangladesh and we're gonna train him for six months and then we're gonna let them loose and then we're gonna have supervised people watching them making sure they're doing it. And yeah, it's gonna take them a little bit longer, but what are they gonna pay them the labor? It's gonna be waiting. Yeah, yeah, they'll offset that. So you have a twenty four year old kid making three hundred grand a year of forty five hours a week and he's doing side work. I mean, when this people so people love to say to us all the time, what are you guys gonna do when this work ends? Problems? Retire counting at all? What do you mean or just like reinvest or, like start a business or like these these these young guys, they're well capitalized to do. I mean, think of the advantage you have at twenty four and twenty five working no college debt, right, which is huge shoes and then making you know, six seven grand a week right on forty five hours. Man, Like that's awesome. Get it while you can. Oh yeah, those guys can go on to do incredible things for the country. Yeah. God only knows, you know what I mean, God only knows what people would do. Yeah, these are red blooded American tradesmen and trade women. These are people again, they want the money to stay in this country. They want to reinvest here. They're gonna buy real estate and multifamilies and give jobs and create Like this is wonderful on a bigger scale. And I understand the community of just like you're you know, we're gonna head to this and it's like that's only because you're not educated. If you take ten minutes we can have a conversation about it, you would understand that. Again, like we said, this is happening one way or another, and if you don't believe it, it's because you don't want to. But that will make it go away. Yeah, I mean, so what do you what are your thoughts on? Like you, I don't know if you'll know, Like what the next steps are. But you bring up an interesting point about they're gonna happen no matter what. And now it seems we have a few states who are kind of like, I know, Hokeel in New York was like, we're not doing anymore. Yeah, does that any teeth or is that just a political statement in your opinion? You know, you'll notice there is already how many permitted and built at this point. Oh, I see we are? Yeah, so right. So it's kind of like and what a politicians do, right, which is like they secretly have their hand down low taking the envelopes while out front smiling and everybody. Yeah, that's like they get the inside and it's like all right, guys, they call, they get contacts from Apple and meta. I'm like, how many more are we building in the next two years? All right? So I'm gonna go out in the press and be like, we're gonna limit the next four years to twenty units. And that's it because I put a stop to this. That's what I figured. Welcome to the man. Yeah, you know it, and most I think most Americans are onto it now. Yeah, yeah, that's what I figured because I imagine, like, you're gonna score a lot of points in the short term, you know what I mean with constituents, and people are gonna go, wow, look at the strength and the bravery here. And man, listen, it's all about getting elected next cycle, right. You know that is what it has come down to. Unfortunately, that is what it's all about. It's not about representing the people anymore. Yep. So how do we get Ted's and guys making three hundred grand a year at twenty five too, at some point in their life, kick these lifetime politicians out and you guys run things. You know. So I have this theory and I'm not alone, and I know I think a lot of your audience. If I'm guessing I'm reading the demographic right, you have one political party that believes in pushing drag queens and pan sexuals and same sex marriages. Mathematically, over time, that have to shrink, right. Yeah, we've talked about that before, right, Yes, party after a certain amount of time. Yeah, Like I'm listen, I think the older I get, the more and the more successful I become more patient I've become also, and so the more I understand the math doesn't math for one side's outlook, which is why they I think they've been trying to do the whole bringing people from outside, which is now. So once that's quashed, I feel like over cycles we'll come back around to where we should be. Yeah, I hope that way. I hope. So. I mean to your point, that's inevitable. I mean the math works, right, it's inevitable. And let well, but then again, who knows, who knows what we'll be able to, how we'll be able to reproduce in another ten twenty years. That's a good point too, write My goodness. Well, with all that said, I want to I want to say this because very few people give me the space to go on and explain this. Yeah, and again I am either followed because of this from the blue collar contractor community, sure, or it's everybody outside of it thinks I am literally the devil. Yeah, you're the devil himself. Of course I can't see it. I could see it in your comment section. I was like, well, right, and it's and the thing is too is like if you look back, the printing press was the devil. Electricity was the work of the devil. Reading is the devil? Like oh my god? Like okay, all right, Well listen, you people that are going to keep doing this eventually every cycle. Right now it's data center, sure, and you know five or ten years it'll be something else. But right now I'm the devil or I'm the guy helping people find jobs. Because I'll say this, for every ten comments of you shouldn't be building these things, you're contributing to the end of the world, I'll get one or two young men that's like, how can I get involved? Oh, some of these guys are willing to move anywhere in the country, Like can you hire me? Do you know the place that will hire me? Like I've been to the electrician for three years? Where can I apply? And it's like I am literally behind the scenes of my DMS trying to hook up as many of these people as possible because I know, again this is a two to four year place. So if you can go out and make some crazy money, man, go out and do it. My only recommendation and say, listen, and I have said this to everybody under thirty that I've done this too. I'm gonna ask, OK, I'm gonna give you the name of somebody to call. I'm gonna I'm gonna make you promise me, even though I can't really check up on you in five years, to make you promise you do one thing. Invest thirty percent of your pay because you're gonna make way more than you need to take thirty percent and put it into something so that when we are all unemployed in twenty years because of AI, you still have some funds to feed your family. Man, That's all I ask. Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. Yeah, that's a good way to set them up too, because that is a lot of money. And I'm sure you know, at twenty five years old, you'll figure out what to do with it. Yeah, or it'll just like just it'll get sucked out of here, right, like yeah, fool is money, right, no doubt about it. Man. Yeah. So that's the only stipulation I've given these young men and a few women. And I'll tell you, the feedback on that side has been great. Like I've already found fifteen people have secured work just from that one. Uh, that one post that one really mad So I feel good about that. Well that I mean, that's where the rubber reed meets the road because the same I feel like, that same sort of voice which is sort of the cautious and you know, pessimistic voice, which is important in society. Is the same voice. The same voice as saying Data Center's bad, is also saying cost of living crazy, can't afford a house, can't afford this, can't afford that. Ted's bringing guys in that are going to be able to afford a house, you know what I mean, They'll be able to afford a house, and they'll be you know that kind of stuff. So I don't know the big I'm glad this panned out the way it did, Ted, because one of the big reasons I wanted to bring you on was to identify and sort of iron out that gray area. And in all of this, like when you think Data Center, you think AI overlord, end of the world. You don't think two thousand men making great money going home at night being like, let's book Disney, Let's let's live, you know what I mean, Let's have a good life here because Dad's got a good job and we can do these things and that you know that, that's America. That's the big picture. You know, It's never as cut and dry as Mark Zuckerberg and the devil shaking hands. You know what, I mean, yeah, so what exactly is the Instagram? So if people want to go watch the circus or even maybe come work for you or work with you or whatever. This you know, however, they have build a relationship with ded. It's the contractor RX all one. Yeah. And and also for those out there who we have a lot of trades guys in the audience, Yeah, your business itself contractor RX IT I may have I'd like you to clarify it because I may have represented it wrong. And the lead up to this show, you help contractors do better at large, right, like almost like coaching. Yes, sir, so one of the one of the so one of the foundations of it is a lot of guys will be in construction for twenty five thirty years. They'll get like, you know, two or three trucks, four or five guys, but their whole business runs through their cell phone and it runs through them. And then these guys, you know, they've done okay, they've done pretty great. They've got maybe like a lay college or something, but they don't really have a big retirement. Sure, and because they've also been like I'm just gonna sell my business when I'm done, only to find out when you're fifty eight years old, a private equity firm or a company, or even a competitor, there's nothing really to buy because they didn't build a brand. There's no systems in place. Because they don't get the cell phone and all your contacts and these nohow. Right, because all of your customers will last thirty years. Hired your your company. So what I do is and this is how it kind of started. One of the things was a guy called me and gave me, I mean almost in tears. He goes, I just got off the phone with a private equity firm about a month ago, and I realized I can't retire, he said. My house is paid, he said, to get social Security, he said, but I'm going to live like a bummed rest of my life. He said, is there a way I can take my business? I own everything I have, I'm liquid, but and I do. And he only did about five hundred grand our revenue, which for a contractors not great, but right, He said, is there anything I can do to retire? And I said, and I put together a plan. We built a brand for his business. We did a couple of niche things in his market. We branched out into that he was able to supply the demand for the market in metro area that no one else really was touching. Long story short, in about twenty eight months we sold his company, but just not a three million. He walked away with feet with fees and taxes and everything. He walked away with like one to seven. So he was thinking, I'm on my terrible Social Security check for the rest of my life. Yep. And then all of a sudden had a nest egg for one point seven which he could. You know, invest in just under three years. Fine, yeah, wow, yeah, well done contractor or X. That's sweet, man. So that's that's one of the benefits that I get to do with my job. It makes me feel amazing and like the truth is, James, is when you help a man do that, that man loves you for the rest of his life. You know, if I'm in town and I need a place to stairs, I can call, He'll invite me to his house and his wife will cook for me. You know, like he's like, anyway, so thank you. Yeah. So yeah. So that's what we do. We we help contractors grow and kind of make themselves a little bit different from their competitors build out their brand value because the simplest way I can relate it to anybody, whether you're in construction or not, which is if you go to see like a Dick Sporting Goods or a Target, and you see a black T shirt and it's for for on sale for eight dollars, and then right next to that, there's when it's his has a little swoosh on it and it's sixty bucks. And the when you read the tag and they're made in the same facility. Oh yeah, right, exactly. That's the power of brand. Yeah. No, branding is everything, man, definitely is. There's no doubt about that. So well there, yeah, that's that's pretty much it. So well. I appreciate you, Ted. I know you were on a call before this call, so I'm not going to drag the conversation. You were phenomenal. You hit the button right that I wanted to hit, and I appreciate that, man. So thanks so much for coming on, and good luck out there in the social media world. Keep your guard up. Yes, I know, it's. Thanks for having me on today. I appreciate you, man. Talk to you soon. PB and family.