Welcome to the premiere episode of Overhauled! 

Welcome to Overhauled - Overhauled S1E1 is now on your favorite podcast app!

Want to be a guest on Overhauled? - https://www.shopdiesellaptops.com/pages/podcast-guests

In this podcast your host Melissa Petersmann (The Diesel Queen) discusses diesel technicians, trucks, the diesel economy at large, and many more interesting topics in a style that only she can bring - raw and unfiltered. 

On the first episode Melissa is joined by Tyler Robertson, CEO & Founder of Diesel Laptops to discuss what brought Melissa to Diesel Laptops, how we can lead more young people to the diesel industry, and more. 

As always, thank you for watching and listening!

 

Connect with Melissa Petersmann:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-the-diesel-queen-b95a23b9/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/the.diesel.queen/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thedieselqueen/

Connect with Tyler Robertson:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-robertson-diesel/
Website – https://www.shopdiesellaptops.com/

Transcript for Welcome to the Overhauled! - S1E1

Melissa:

Hey guys, this is the Diesel Queen here, on my new podcast Overhauled, with the Diesel Queen. I am here today on episode one with Tyler, who is the owner of Diesel Laptops. Diesel Laptops is the company that is partnering with me to be able to bring you this podcast. Today, in this episode, I'm going to be covering with him, why we're doing this podcast, what you guys can expect in the future episodes, and what is the driving force behind us partnering up to be able to do this podcast. So I hope you guys like it. I look forward to seeing you guys in the future. Let's get it.

So Tyler, what's your goals with this podcast? Because I know we talked about, you have a lot of ambitions and goals and people you want to reach with this podcast.

Tyler:

Yeah. I think what's interesting to me is, I've been an industry guy forever. I was a service manager, a service writer, my family owned truck dealerships. I've been around this space forever, and the one thing I've noticed is, every year it is more and more difficult to get technicians. All the, we call them the gray hair, no hair, and I guess I'm starting to join that gray hair club. I have been since high school. But those people are retiring and as that's happening and we're aging out this workforce, on the flip side, the supply side, we have less and less diesel technicians entering the field every single year.

And we have less technical colleges bringing in new students. And when I was a service manager, I actually felt we were getting over-trained diesel technicians that were having the wrong perception of what they were walking into. They thought they'd come in day one, overhauling engines, because that's what they were doing in their diesel tech classes.

Melissa:

I agree with that.

Tyler:

And there's a lot of misconceptions and I think the big pivot point for me was, earlier this year when we had our virtual diesel expo, and we had Mike Rowe on there and everyone knows who Mike Rowe is. Everyone knows Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs guy. I love Mike Rowe. I told him I had a man crush on him. It got weird there for a little bit.

Melissa:

I've seen that LinkedIn post.

Tyler:

Yeah, it got a little weird. But he has it absolutely right. And what I've come to realize is, I have zero confidence in the industry leaders in the space that we're in, because they've been talking about the same thing for 20 years, since I've been in this. "We're going to go get high school kids and convince them to be diesel techs. We're going to go make a video game and show them how cool diesel tech is and then they'll want to be diesel techs." All this craziness. And every time, I'm like, "You guys have no clue what's going on or what it takes."

And in my opinion what it takes is more Mike Rowes'. It takes more people sharing the stories and sharing the journeys. And I had the chance to interview you about a year and a half ago, right?

Melissa:

Yes, with Miranda.

Tyler:

You came on. Yeah, Miranda. That was great. And I was like, "That's what the industry needs. It needs people sharing the stories. It needs people telling them what this profession is like and all the benefits that come with it." Because frankly, college has been pushed down so many people's throats for so many years.

Melissa:

And it was pushed down mine.

Tyler:

Yeah. I looked at the stats before this. 40% of people that start college don't finish. And college is not... These are the four-year degrees. College is not cheap. There's about $1.8 trillion in student loan debt and growing every year. So we have a problem getting worse and worse and worse. So I was like, "You know what? It's time for somebody to do something about it that hasn't been done before." And this is the new world, and what it's going to take is people that have social media savvy, people that can talk the talk, people that aren't afraid to be on camera and talk about our industry, that's really where it starts. And it starts with the ground swells. So that's when I said, "You know what, I'm going to talk to the Diesel Queen and I'm going to convince her, we should do a podcast together. And I think there's a lot of the cool things we can do together." So I'm really excited about this.

Melissa:

So I was also one of the kids that had college forced down my throat. The ACT tests were a big deal, that my parents made a big deal of. And I was pushed and pushed and pushed to go to college. And I originally wanted to go to college for horse training, when I was younger, younger I wanted to be an astronomer. That didn't happen. So I changed my dreams over to horse training. And then, I've always been around equipment especially, I've always had a thing for diesels. My dad had a 2002 Dodge Cummins that I absolutely loved, 2001, and he had logging equipment that I was around my whole life, but it never really hit me, "That's something I want to do", until I started hanging out with the kids that actually went to WyoTech and we'd hang out in their storage units and turn wrenches and I just had a passion for it and that's what I wanted to do.

And I decided, "Well maybe I could go to a community college and do horse training and diesel mechanics, and then also have the community college thing." And finally I just decided against my parents' original wishes, I decided to only go to WyoTech, no community college, nothing. And that's what I decided and that's what I wanted to do. So that's what I did. And that was probably the best decision I ever made. Not going to a community college and just strictly going to a trade school, where that's all you do for eight and a half hours a day. If you're in engines phase, that's all you do is learn engines for eight and a half hours. You have no English classes, you have no math classes. Which after working in this industry, might have benefited some people, but it was good for me. There's a lot of people that think, "Oh trade schools are a waste. I can learn all that as an apprentice."

And yeah, you can, but for somebody like me that was lucky to change their own oil before they started WyoTech, that was a great program for me. I didn't know, I had basic understanding, because I took automotive class in high school and welding classes. So I had a basic understanding of it, but I didn't know exactly what made a diesel engine run.

I didn't know what was inside a transmission. I didn't know any of that. Refrigeration, electrical diagnostics, hydraulics, hydrostatics. I had no idea. So for me, it was great and I just fell in love with it even more. What I think you and I have talked about too is, I had the automotive classes in high school. In my high school, it was actually required that you had to take at least one year of automotive, and then one year of either welding or woodworking, you had to. That was a requirement to graduate. So you'd have the little gothic emo chick in your welding class, running beads on an arc welder and she's pretty damn good. And she liked it. But that type of person never, she would've never done that if it wasn't a requirement. Never.

Tyler:

So my kids are nine and 11 and they do well in school and all that, but I'm trying to find real life skill stuff for them to learn outside of school when they come home. Learn about the stock market, learn about coding-

Melissa:

Taxes.

Tyler:

Learn about welding, learn about building things out of wood, doing something besides more math or whatever. You get that at school. That was great, learning about your educational background. Mine was somewhat similar. I thought I had to go to school and I had to go to the best school. That's what I was told for 18 years of my life and I applied for the best schools, I got accepted, and my dad had go get a second mortgage on his house to afford to put me through my first couple years of college.

Melissa:

That's insane.

Tyler:

So I'm in my first two years and they promptly kicked me out of school. I literally blew through $100,000 of my dad's money and had nothing to show for it after two years. And it was like, "Man, I suck at life. This is the worst thing that happened to me." And I can tell people now looking back on it, because where I'm at today, that was the best thing that could have ever happened to me in that regard. And it sounds like what you found at a much younger age than I did is, I have a passion about something. I love doing this. And that's what you said when you got a chance to get a wrench in your hand and start digging, you're like, "This is some really cool shit. I love doing this kind of work."

Melissa:

It took a while, it took some time to get the acceptance of, this is going to be my career. And my mom and dad, or mom and stepdad are probably going to kill me for this, but they weren't aware when I first started this. And it's not their fault. I love them. They are very supportive of me now. But they weren't aware of the amount of money you can make in that industry, because 20 years ago you were making shit.

Tyler:

Yep.

Melissa:

It was not a great career to be in. That was a career that flunkies out of college took because they didn't have anything else. At least that was a vision that everybody had about it. And I started my first job in Denver, Colorado at $17 an hour. I had a job before I even left WyoTech, before I even graduated I had a job from their career fair. And I started at $17 an hour and I flew through pay raises the entire seven years I worked in the industry. Now I make more than my mom. And sometimes when she gets pay raises we're neck and neck, but it's a little friendly competition sometimes. My mom has a very good career. She works for the State of Wyoming and she's put in a lot of hard work into her career. And it's something that I'm proud of, to be able to show that, hey, my career as a diesel technician that used to be viewed as a low level job, has given me the ability to own houses, own land, make my bills, things like that, that people don't usually associate with trade jobs.

Tyler:

That's a skill too. And anybody with a skill like that, literally you never have to worry about having a job a day in your life, because say this doesn't work out at diesel, I guarantee you... I told you this when I was trying to convince you to come work for me. I'm like, "If it doesn't work out. I promise you, you can go back immediately and get a job with somebody else and probably for more money than when you left." Because that's just the way our industry works a lot of times. So your parents, it sounds like your mom or maybe whoever's a little disappointed at first when you went a different path. Have they changed their tune a little bit now or are they still like, "Oh, you should go back for your degree." Where are they at now?

Melissa:

Yeah. And it is not just my mom and my stepdad. There's a lot of stigma that you need at least a two-year degree to make it anywhere. And for a while there, my mom was right. There's a lot of jobs out there, a lot that required at least a two-year degree. So she was trying to look out for me, I was just stubborn and I'm like, "Nah, I'm going to do my own fucking thing", because as my mom will tell you, I was a little hellion in my teenage years, but it turns out the risk that I took was worth it. And my mom is a huge supporter of me now and she's one of my biggest fans that I have. So the tides have changed a little bit.

Tyler:

Yeah. You're popular on Instagram, you got followers, a lot of comments and things. Do you get comments from people that are younger, male, female, interested in this career and starting to ask questions? Those ever come up in your social media stuff?

Melissa:

Oh yeah. And unfortunately, I have so many, between TikTok and Instagram, I have a million followers on those platforms alone. TikTok has 800 some thousand and Instagram is 221,000. And it is very hard to keep up with messages. I get 200 message requests a day and I used to be better about replying to them or reading them. But I do get a lot of younger people. I actually have, one of the girls that's going to come on the podcast with me is a girl that I met in Honnen when I worked at Honnen, in Wyoming. And her dad knew about me because he was a customer, I believe, of Honnen equipment.

And he drove all the way from Colorado, all the way up into Cheyenne, Wyoming to bring his daughter to meet me, to talk to me, because she wanted to be a mechanic. And she had some social media stuff she was doing and he really wanted her to talk to me, because he knew, she does the social media and she's a mechanic and she's competent and she's successful. And according to her bosses, she does good work. So she came up and we talked for probably an hour and a half about that and she's going to be on this podcast season with me. I think she's one of the first, actually. And she's still 17, I think.

Tyler:

I think that's what I'm trying to get across the audience here is, there is talent everywhere, literally. People that are on the audio don't see you right now on camera. The people that do, know. You're not super huge, but you're in a hard industry. There's heavy stuff out there that you have to lift. I can imagine, you come to people like, "I'm a diesel tech." They're like, "Yeah, whatever. Sure you are. What do you really do?" It's got to be a little bit of that stigma.

Melissa:

Well the guys that work in the industry and the people that are actually heavy equipment mechanics are like, "The button on the crane works great." They get it, because most of that stuff is so big that my boyfriend that's 250 pounds of muscle ain't lifting that. And you don't need to be big. There's so many ways around things, especially lifting stuff. And in the heavy equipment industry, almost everything you fucking take off is going to need a crane. Or there's been times where the water pumps on really old loaders are this big, or some of the older 9000 series tractors are this fucking big and it's an awkward thing. You got to-

Tyler:

A weird angle. Yeah.

Melissa:

But I have done a lot of work with ratchet straps and pry bars and there's also nothing wrong with asking for help.

Tyler:

Well there was that one comment, I tagged you on LinkedIn. A guy was like, "Oh, it's heavier stuff." He was going from auto to heavy duty. He's like, "Oh, it's bigger stuff. I don't know if I can do it." And you made the comment like you just said, "Well you work smarter, right?" The straps, the cranes, all the things that you need to do, to do that. And I think that's what this podcast is going to be about. It's going to be about just sharing the stories of diesel technicians, you just named one that, she's not even a professional diesel tech.

She's going to be a diesel tech or wants to be. And that's been interesting to me is, I've started to reach out to people I know that are diesel techs. We have someone here, at Diesel Laptops, who was a diesel tech in Antarctica. You want to hear a story about just different things. We have diesel techs in Saudi Arabia. We got diesel techs on the other side of the world, in Australia. I've been up in the Yukon and seen what goes on the scene of Gold Rush, with those technicians, with Juan Ibarra, we got Nathan Clark, who is on Gold Rush.

Melissa:

He's a badass.

Tyler:

Yeah.

Melissa:

Mitch is badass too.

Tyler:

Yeah. Mitch Blaschke, all these guys. But what's exciting to me is, yeah, it's a profession, but there's so many different ways you can choose to use this profession to do whatever you want with your life and provide a great income for yourself, your family, your security, all those things that come down. I'm really excited. It's going to be fun, we're going to have brand new people. We're going to experienced people, people over the world. I think I got some people from Africa that we're going to be talking to.

Melissa:

Nice.

Tyler:

I think the story that people hear, there's going to be some resounding themes that go along with this. I'm sure the podcast will mold and meld and change as time goes on here. But this is what the industry needs. It needs to know that this field exists. It is a fun field. It is a very lucrative field, a stable field. Forget what all the hype is about EVs, diesel's going to be around for a very, very long time, before both of us turn to stone. So yeah, I'm excited. I'm really excited.

Melissa:

I'm excited too.

Tyler:

Yeah, so the question's been, my big question when I first started talking to you was, "Can you do a podcast? Can you do interviews?" So how's it been going, learning how to do interviews and podcasts and all these things?

Melissa:

It's been interesting, because obviously people that have seen my content on TikTok and Instagram, I just wing everything and I'm like, "Take it or leave it. This is what I'm doing and if you like it, great. If not, can't please everybody." So it's been a little bit of a learning curve, because I have to plan for things and I've got to have my shit together. I've been interviewed a lot, where somebody else is leading it. So it's been a little bit of a challenge to try and figure out how to lead the conversations and not have dead space and figure out how to... I think most of these people will be okay for the most part, especially if they're diesel mechanics. I can talk to mechanics all day. I've been doing it for seven years. So I think we'll be okay, but the technology part of it has also been challenging.

I'm a little technology challenged, but I think it'll be fun and I'm looking forward to it. And it also gives me a way to answer all these questions that other people have. And especially when I get young people like the lady that's going to be coming on, who's not even graduated high school yet and wants to be a mechanic. She has so many good fucking questions that so many people, especially girls have for me. And I don't get the chance to answer all of them. And not only am I trying to run a business online, but I also work for you and I've got a lot going on. So this is giving me the opportunity as well, to answer these questions, and is also giving me the opportunity to bring on seasoned people. So the younger generation can see, "Hey look, they've been doing this for how many years? And they're not the typical mechanic meme jokes of, I'm 25, going on 80. They look like normal people. They don't look like they're beat to hell like most people think you are."

So I think it'll be a good mix between seasoned people and young people that haven't joined. Because I want to share that it doesn't even matter how old you are. You can start the industry, you learn new shit every day. You're never going to know all of it. The industry is a constant learning curve, especially with technology. It's a constant learning. So it's never too late to start in, because you're not really going to miss out on anything, because all the new you're learning now is the same that the old seasoned mechanic is having to learn too. And it's a very supportive business or industry to be in. Most people are more than happy to help.

Tyler:

So when I was a service manager, this is back in the '04, '05, '06 days in that area, I remember a couple guys... So '04 was the first year emissions really took a thing with EGR systems on commercial trucks.

Melissa:

With over the road?

Tyler:

Yeah. And things started to get more complicated, more computers and more sensors and multiplex wiring, and things were a lot more simple before that. I remember I had a couple guys, where they were near the end of the career and they were just not going to work on the new stuff. They just were like, "I'm too old, I don't want to learn it, I can't learn it, it's too confusing. Just let me keep overhauling DT466 engines and doing clutch jobs." That was what they wanted to do. And it was fine. I was like, "I get it. You're at of your career. The world's changing." And that's added so much complexity to everything we do. Obviously we're Diesel Laptops, we sell a lot of diagnostic tools all over the world, because these things got complicated and people are just thirsting for knowledge and resources and all these things.

And I can wrap this all up in a bow and say... People are like, "Well why did you do this Tyler? Why are we doing a podcast? Podcast costs money. They cost time, they cost all these things." I'm like, "Look, it's going to do three things. One for Diesel Laptops, it's going to help build my brand. Two, for Melissa, Diesel Queen, it's going to help build her brand and the things she's doing as well in her career. And Three, our industry needs the help. It needs voices, it needs people talking and speaking about these things."

And I think it's going to be a great platform. I'm excited to do what you do on social media. Partner that up with Diesel Laptops reputation and marketing in our space. I think we're going to have a pretty cool thing here. And I think we're going to be sitting here a year from now, being like, "Man, this podcast is absolutely insane. What are we doing next?" And all these things that are going to happen. So I just want to say, I appreciate you taking a leap of faith with me. I know this is different than anything you've ever done before.

Melissa:

Leaving the industry was a rough decision, it was. But I did a lot of thought and the industry might be losing a full-time mechanic by me leaving and I put seven years into John Deere, I got capstones out the fucking ass, but me staying in that industry is not helping the industry get people. And like you and I have discussed before, a few years ago when we were going to do this and I decided not to at the time, was, I don't have the time. When you're working 10 hours a day, six days a week, or even 10 hour days, five days a week, it is hard to find the time to do what we're doing right now.

And I made the decision and I decided I believe in what you're trying to do and I believe in what your vision is and you're trying to do. And it also matches what I've been trying to do with my content online too. And finally, I'm given the opportunity to follow that path of trying to open the industry up to people that don't even know that they want to be in this industry and help the industry grow. Because like you said, it has been a decline of mechanics and it just keeps getting worse. It's worse and worse and worse.

Tyler:

I want to go back to one of the things for the audience that you just said there, Melissa. And that was, so she's right. I interviewed her a year and a half ago and right after I called her, I'm like, "Hey, you should come work for me and do a podcast." And she totally rejected me. Totally was like, "No, no, I'm going to go do this other thing." And that was the right decision at the time. But what I want people to know is where did this all start?

It started on social media. It started with me finding Melissa on there, inviting her on a podcast. That's why I do podcasts, to build networks and build opportunities and create doors that we can choose to open the doors and choose to do these things. And that's what this is all really about at the heart of it, is creating opportunity in our industry, for me, for Melissa, for all these people. So I think it's going to be an exciting thing. And I think we at least got to say, we've been swearing on here. I got a podcast, I don't swear on there. This one's going to be a little bit different. This one, [inaudible 00:22:23].

Melissa:

Well you have a podcast with a diesel mechanic and we use fuck like a comma. So no one's going to believe that I'm a mechanic if I channel my inner good mouth and not say fuck. All my followers know me. So they're going to be like, "Is this Melissa or is this a robot Melissa? Because I have not heard the F bomb yet."

Tyler:

Yeah, and by the way, it's been hilarious to watch you squirm a couple times with HR meetings or whatever, "And that's bull... Crap." You can tell, but it's cool. We know what it is.

Melissa:

I got a little message about using the word fuck, in the group chat.

Tyler:

Yeah, I think that was day one of the Slack channel.

Melissa:

Yeah. They're like, "You can't on the Slack channel." Like, "Oh."

Tyler:

Save it for the podcast and YouTube. No, this is going to be a lot of fun and I know we're going to start getting some episodes out there and it's going to be a great time. So again, thanks for putting this together and taking the leap of faith with us.

Melissa:

Yep. Well thanks for the opportunities. I'll do the best I can. I'll try.

Tyler:

Hey, that's all anyone can ask. I know, I remember watching some of my original episodes, I'm like, "Man, I was horrible. I was nervous. I was saying um, all the time. I wasn't clear with my thoughts." All that stuff. For people who listen to us that are afraid to do their own podcast or get on videos or do social media like the Diesel Queen here, it just takes time. It takes practice. I remember watching MrBeast, popular YouTuber, go watch his first video. You will be like, "How the heck did that guy get from that video, to a hundred million subscribers?" It's mind blowing, but you stay at it and you get better.

Melissa:

Trust me, my first TikTok videos and Instagram videos and stuff like that, I'm just like, "Oh this is cringe." I was so horrible.

Tyler:

Well cool, Melissa. Well I think we explained it pretty clearly here and everything. Any last parting words?

Melissa:

I'm excited to do this and I'm excited to share the industry from other people's perspectives too, not just mine, and get the word out that this industry is not some evil, horrible, I'm going to be rolling around in grease all day. It doesn't have to be like that if you don't work messy. The main point is, it's not this dirty, nasty, grungy, shitty job that people have made it out to be. Yeah, you got to get dirt on your hands sometimes and you get messy sometimes, but it's actually a fairly high reputation job right now.

It is a very well respected industry. And I want people to feel confident in their decision of going into this that they're not less of a person because they want to be in a trade. They're not losing out on anything. They're not missing opportunities in college. College is good for some people. For some people it's great, but there's a bunch of people out there that, if you don't know what you want to do, don't waste money going to college, get an internship or you try trades, do something to figure out what you want to do and maybe you'll fall in love with a trade and make it a career.

Tyler:

Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely not good for half the people that fail out and don't finish and the other half that do finish and never use their degree. We all know some of those people too.

Melissa:

I have a lot of friends that have degrees that never used them.

Tyler:

Yeah. I always tell people, "Look, I know a lot of dumb people that graduated with a four-year degree. Just because you get a four-year degree doesn't mean you're smart and you're going to go make a bunch of money." It's not the way the world works.

Melissa:

Well, and actually I was going to say this earlier about the college thing is, the trades, there are way more jobs than there are people to fill them. And you touched on this with, you can find a job anywhere. I could work for you for 10 years and if I decided to go back and work in a shop, even though I've been out of it for 10 years, I could get a job tomorrow.

Tyler:

Oh, tomorrow. Yeah.

Melissa:

And there's something to be said about that, because you can always find another job in the city you're in if you're not happy with the shop that you're in. If you move, I moved to Indiana without a job, and I found one no problem.

Tyler:

Yeah, you don't have to worry.

Melissa:

It wasn't a problem. But with college, there's a lot of degrees in a lot of college spaces where, there's way more people going into the industry than there are jobs available. And that's when people have, yeah, they did really good in college and they passed all their classes and they're ready to work, and then there's no jobs. So at least a trade, there's always going to be a job, anywhere.

Tyler:

100%. You have no idea how excited I am to get this thing out there and into the world and start this ball rolling. I know we're going to get you at a couple trade shows this coming year as well and get out in the field and do all those things. I know you said not being a diesel tech anymore, but I can tell the audience, you and me have been talking about a special YouTube series and doing some stuff there as well. And I know we get some sponsors and everything coming to help us as well, SP Tools and some others. So it's going to be exciting times, a lot of new things in 2023 for Diesel Laptops, including overhauled with the Diesel Queen. So people will find us right in the website, shopdiesellaptops.com. I don't know if you got any closing words or signing off or if you're even in that far into the thought process yet, but how do you want to close this out here?

Melissa:

I'm looking forward to interviewing all these people. I'm looking forward to doing this podcast. I think it'll be fun. Everybody knows I have a great sense of humor and I can talk shop. So I think it'll be entertaining as well as educational. And thank you for the opportunity for doing this, so I appreciate it.