Strong teams build strong work— Karly Rolls Hoehn shares what it really takes to lead in the trades.
In this episode of Commercial Grade, host RC Victorino talks with Karly Rolls Hoehn, Vice President of Rolls Mechanical, about leadership that actually holds up in the field.
Karly grew up in the trades and now helps lead a family-owned mechanical contractor through its next chapter. She breaks down what “people first” really means when the work is hard, margins are tight, and quality still matters.
From embracing social media and marketing to implementing new technologies and exploring AI, she offers an honest look at how leaders can attract talent, maintain quality, and adapt without losing the human side of the work.
RC and Karly dig into the realities of hard work in the trades, the importance of apprenticeships, and why human connection still matters most—even as technology accelerates. They also talk candidly about succession planning, women in the trades, and the powerful role the trades play in strengthening local communities.
In this episode you’ll hear:
About the Guest:
Karly Rolls Hoehn is the Vice President of Rolls Mechanical, where she brings a people-first, high-energy approach to leadership in the skilled trades. Raised in the industry, Karly blends deep respect for craftsmanship with modern marketing, emerging technology, and strong quality control standards. She is a passionate advocate for apprenticeships, workforce development, and supporting women in the trades while helping lead a family-owned business into its next chapter.
Episode Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction to the Podcast
(00:17) Meet Karly Rolls Hoehn
(00:43) An Eventful Year
(01:51) The Honey Moose Honeymoon
(02:57) Karly’s Trade Story
(03:15) Growing Up in the Trades
(04:04) Joining the Family Business
(04:23) The Importance of Skilled Trades
(06:00) High Energy and Passion for the Industry
(07:12) Family Dynamics and Career Choices
(08:22) Succession Planning and Leadership
(12:24) Embracing Social Media and Marketing
(15:16) Marketing Strategies and Team Involvement
(17:57) Attracting Talent and Industry Impact
(20:28) Leadership and Common-Sense Marketing
(21:29) Top Workplace Recognition
(22:37) The Role of AI in the Trades
(24:27) Coaching AI: The “Easy Button” for Leaders
(25:22) AI’s Practical Role in the Trades
(26:18) The Reality of Skilled Trades
(31:36) The Importance of Apprenticeships
(35:22) Women in the Skilled Trades
(47:11) The Future of the Skilled Trades
Links & Resources:
BUILD004 - Karly Rolls- Commercial Grade Ep. 04 DRAFT
[00:00:00] Karly Rolls: Day, but people don't ask and think about like, how did this get here? Or how is it that I have running water? How is it that I have sewer lines, drain lines, all of those things.
[00:00:12] RC Victorino: Welcome, welcome everyone to Commercial Grade Podcast that Honors, the Unsung Heroes of the Trades. I'm your host, RC Victorino, and I do want to give a quick shout out to BuildOps for making this podcast possible. Today my guest is Karly Rolls Hoehn. VP of Rolls Mechanical and for the better part of a decade, she's helped grow and lead her team.
[00:00:30] RC Victorino: Uh, she's a leader in the trades, a voice in the trades if you know her on social media, you know, she's quite active there. Uh, we'll definitely dive into a lot of that today. So, Karly, welcome to the show.
[00:00:40] Karly Rolls: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
[00:00:43] RC Victorino: Uh, Karly, first off, by the way, what a year for you, some, some big milestones for you, the company, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:00:49] RC Victorino: So congratulations for all things. If you wanna share a little bit with, with the audience on some of the, the highlights of your year, if you will.
[00:00:55] Karly Rolls: Yeah, this year has just absolutely ripped by with so many great things. So very blessed, but a lot of hard work kind of behind the scenes has went into a lot of it.
[00:01:04] Karly Rolls: Um, the beginning of the year, we decided that we wanted to implement a new CRM, but that also required us to switch our payroll as well as our ERP. So we decided on a BuildOps Mitre, and sage in tech suite and we switched everything in six weeks. And so if everybody can, uh, I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that.
[00:01:24] Karly Rolls: And the heavy lifting that went into it was, was massive, but it was so worth it. Uh, our team has just, has loved the softwares, the whole package and, and so that was incredible. And then basically we went live beginning of June. At the end of July I got married and very excited about that. And middle of September, got to go on our honeymoon and, and had a bunch of fun on, on that trip.
[00:01:46] Karly Rolls: And now we're already doing budget planning for 2026.
[00:01:50] RC Victorino: Wait a minute. Wait a wait, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You pass, you, you passed right over the, the meat of it, if you will, for your honeymoon. So is it fair to call it a honeymoon? I feel like you had a different name for it. That actually one of my colleagues might have coined it, right?
[00:02:01] RC Victorino: Is that right?
[00:02:01] Karly Rolls: Uh, yes. Erica, she coined it the honey moose. Because my husband and I actually went moose hunting in Alaska for 10 days for the honeymoon. So, uh, the Honey Moose trip was absolutely incredible. Definitely a, a once a of a in a lifetime trip, and probably not your average honeymoon, but perfect for us.
[00:02:24] RC Victorino: As I remember, our photograph you showed shared on social media, I think with a ring on one of the, the points on the antlers, right? Is that right? Yeah. Well done. Well, good shot, but which again, well, you, you seem to know. What it takes to get people to pay attention to something on the scrolling feed. So I definitely wanna dive into that.
[00:02:40] RC Victorino: 'cause I think there's a lot of people listening and watching that, that, uh, want that end result, right? They, they, they want some attention, they wanna figure it out, and obviously it's not, there's no like necessarily a secret formula, but there might be some tips that you can, they can share along the way.
[00:02:53] RC Victorino: Before we dive into that, I do want to get into, uh, the backstory of the history. So I love to ask Coexist. So what is your trade story? How did you get into the trades?
[00:03:03] Karly Rolls: So I think I've been in the trades unknowingly for my entire life. I actually stumbled upon some core childhood memories that evidently are not typical for other children.
[00:03:15] Karly Rolls: Okay. Um, my, my dad would drop my mom off at the front of a grocery store and instead of, and my, myself and my two sisters would be in the car, right as little kids, mom runs in to get groceries. And instead of dad pulling back to the back of a parking lot and sitting out there like a normal dad might and waiting for mom to cut outta the grocery store, we would pull around to the back of facilities and take a look at the condensers, um, or equipment and piping that my dad might've installed, or that's just in the back.
[00:03:45] Karly Rolls: And it was, it was kind of a core childhood memory that I didn't really think was that odd, but evidently it is. And so kind of snowballed from there. Um, and I've just always, always loved it, but I formally got really involved. I didn't have an internship one year for college, and my dad was like, Karly, I need help at at the office.
[00:04:10] Karly Rolls: Can you come up? And so I came up as a shop hand warehouse worker, driver or whatever you wanna call the parts runner, gopher, and, and did that position for a summer and absolutely loved it, like the skilled trades. When you don't think about, like, if you don't think about how woven the skilled trades and the, and the trades that we do specifically as well, how woven it is into every single day that you exist, right?
[00:04:35] Karly Rolls: Yeah. We do a lot of refrigeration for produce, produce facilities. I started to see that in grocery stores once I knew the name and you know, the plumbing projects that we're doing in electrical and some of the manufacturing plants, stuff like that. Like, it's literally stuff you're interacting with every single day.
[00:04:51] Karly Rolls: But people don't ask and think about like, how did this get here? Or how is it that I have running water? How is it that I have, you know, sewer lines, drain lines, all of those things. So once I started connecting the dots and seeing the behind the scenes, I just absolutely fell in love with it. I think the skilled trades are so vast in what they're doing, but the tempo, like especially in the service space, was initially where I got started. The service space, you can install a rooftop, the same rooftop, 20 different buildings, and it might be 20 different applications. Or the facility themselves are doing different things. And so there's just so much variety there that I've always been a, people tell me I'm high energy.
[00:05:32] Karly Rolls: Mm-hmm. I've never once been bored a single day. Like the joke is, is that with my husband, uh, he always jokes that he unplugs me at the end of the night because I fall asleep like that and I wake up, like, plug me back in and I'm like, zing, let's go and hit the ground running. And I just, I love our industries.
[00:05:50] Karly Rolls: Yeah. And I come to the office and before I know it, it's it's like dark and I have to go home and it just goes by so fast. I love our, I love our industry and what we get to do so...
[00:06:00] RC Victorino: Have you always been this high energy your entire life? Is that just a trait that, that you were born with essentially?
[00:06:05] Karly Rolls: Um, I think my parents have a whole bunch of childhood write-ups and report cards from Karly being too talkative or a distraction in class.
[00:06:13] Karly Rolls: So I would have to say yes.
[00:06:15] RC Victorino: Isn't that funny that those, those writeups that like, I, I think were made to, this is, this goes back to now again a running theme here, though. Um, some of these writeups and acknowledgements from teachers in, in, in grade school that say like, oh, I can't sit still talks a lot.
[00:06:28] RC Victorino: Like, and like it's supposed to be sort of like sounding the alarm bells of like not being a good student or it could be a better student actually, like all the folks who do that. Have such success in life, right? Because like, life is not in a classroom anyway to begin with. And so that kind of energy that you have represents like who you are.
[00:06:44] RC Victorino: And if you find your path and you find the thing that's, that fits you right, then boom, there's, there's no limit to what you can do, right?
[00:06:50] Karly Rolls: Yeah, no, I completely agree. I think my teachers who are definitely writing up those, what would've been coined as derogatory, uh, write-ups, and my parents definitely weren't thrilled about them back in the day, but looking back, I think it's definitely consistent with who I am and now I get to use it as a superpower.
[00:07:11] RC Victorino: Yes. Awesome. You're not an only child though, right? Like you, you, you have siblings who are not in the trades, is that right?
[00:07:19] Karly Rolls: Correct. So I have two sisters. Both of them are attorneys. So the running joke is, is that I'm unsuccessful of the three of us, um, which is comical, but, uh, I have two sisters.
[00:07:30] Karly Rolls: Both of them live out of state and our attorneys and are not involved in the skilled trades.
[00:07:35] RC Victorino: It like, it's, it's a running joke, right? And, and it's a family joke and so ha ha ha. However, like I, I dunno, someone much smarter somewhere back in the day said something way better in this, in this line of thought.
[00:07:45] RC Victorino: But like jokes are only funny if there's some level of truth into it. They're not necessarily that it's truth that, that you are the, the not smart one for this choice. But society as a whole has this idea of the trades. And so it's only funny because that does exist somewhere in the world that we can acknowledge like, oh yeah, that's a thought that exists.
[00:08:03] RC Victorino: So that's a little frustrating, right? Like that is a thing that exists that like success at least, maybe not in the last couple years as we've seen it, we can talk about, but like success has always been to do the, the attorney or a doctor or whatever fill in the other blank of a white collar, very successful profession versus the trades.
[00:08:22] Karly Rolls: Yeah, my dad never really thought that I would be getting into the skilled trades. I think, you know, back in the day we've talked about it. He always joked that he was going to have to do an auction or something at the end, whenever he wanted to retire 'cause he just, he didn't have the succession planning or anybody else, um, you know, that he really considered.
[00:08:39] Karly Rolls: And then when I hit the ground running, he was like kind of surprised of course, and just started to see that there could be a different option. But the, the game plan really growing up was never my guidance counselors. It was never to get into the skilled trade. So I'm really excited to kind of see that dynamic shifting.
[00:09:02] Karly Rolls: And I think there's a lot of opportunities there. And I, we say at Rolls Mechanical, we like to do things differently here. Mm-hmm. And it just. There's so many different applications to that say, and I suppose, but for sure myself, like there's not many, many women involved in the skilled trade. So I like to do things differently here.
[00:09:23] Karly Rolls: Um, us staying family owned forever and being very proud and outspoken about that is different. Um. So I kind of like to be a little bit of a, a renegade in a few different ways and, and our company loves it and we, we encourage that, that personal touch of everything. Yeah. And it's consistent with who I am, who my dad is, and who most of the people on our team choose to be.
[00:09:47] RC Victorino: Like, personally speaking, I mean, I, I guess you can talk, also talk about a little bit more culturally within like, the ranks of the company, but during that succession plan, because that is not a a rarity, right? That is a thing that happens handing off to someone else, sometimes family, sometimes not a family.
[00:10:02] RC Victorino: Maybe it's someone who just happens to be in the business for a long time, et cetera. Uh, but that's changed no matter what, no matter how well that plan is, is developed and transparent, et cetera. That is still some sort of change and some change management is involved in that. What kind of experiences did you and the rest of the team have during this kind of handover, this change of, of leadership?
[00:10:25] Karly Rolls: I think that we've seen success with it because we communicate a ton where the company is headed, what we're working on, what I'm working on. I feel like a lot of people communicate things to their teams. That need to be fixed, that need to be done. Mm. But not necessarily like where the ship is headed.
[00:10:43] Karly Rolls: And that's been successful for us so that people have appreciation for what management really is working on, and they feel that stability within the organization. Like they know the direction we're all headed and we're all heading there together. There's no surprise or you know, or gray space around that.
[00:11:00] Karly Rolls: So I think people who are really getting into succession planning, they need to start working on it today and start transitioning, uh, the leadership. And even if it's not on, on a contract or something like that, but start transitioning it now so people can get comfortable, see that there's stability there, rather than some of these organizations where they wait to the very, very bitter end to then go, okay, this is new.
[00:11:25] Karly Rolls: Your new boss and then that old, you know, legacy leader just rolls out and now there's a lot of concern, there's a lot of confusion. Um, I don't see that being very, very successful. So my dad's, I've been so blessed to work with my dad. I mean, I, the list goes on and on. A million, a million different things, but I've been really blessed that we've been able to work together with some of the, the, the processes, procedures, team culture that we've built.
[00:11:56] Karly Rolls: So now. The, everything that we have is really commingled. It's not just that legacy leader that was Jim who built everything. It's now both of us and people feel that stability, uh, for our leadership across the board.
[00:12:09] RC Victorino: Mm-hmm. I, I don't know the history of the company's social media, uh, feed 10 years ago.
[00:12:18] RC Victorino: Uh, maybe I can find that scary. The internet is a scary place, but I have to assume that that one of the things that you have brought to the company is this more active role on social media, both with yourself, but also with the company itself. Uh, why, how did this begin? Like what, what was the reason for this?
[00:12:39] Karly Rolls: So for, for 30 years, we've never done any marketing whatsoever. Oh, okay. And after year 30, we've, we kind of just said like, we've had so much great success, we've got such an incredible team, and everything I do is really driven by the core motivator to give amazing skilled trades, men and women, more opportunities, more opportunities to be your personal best to have the career that you want.
[00:13:08] Karly Rolls: I say that we're building a company big enough for everyone's dreams, and I mean that sincerely, but I have to be able to continue to grow and offer these opportunities to allow people to achieve their dreams. So when we were kind of looking at the success that we've had, and we've done it with no marketing, it kind of was like.
[00:13:28] Karly Rolls: We had this running joke that again, isn't that funny, but it was that we're the best company you've never heard of 'cause that is what people would always say. Like, what, you guys have been in business for 30 years and you do this? I've never heard of you. Like, oh yeah, best company you've never heard of.
[00:13:39] Karly Rolls: Well then finally at year 30, I'm like, the joke isn't that funny? And imagine what we could do if we actually told people we exist and, and bragged about the things that really are brag worthy that our team's doing. So we kind of had this big shift. We did have this shift where I'm like, I wanna tell people about the incredible things that we're doing and I wanna brag about my team.
[00:14:03] Karly Rolls: And if that in turn generates more brand awareness and visibility and separates us from some of the competition, especially private equity, I really think that it would behoove us to, to put our best effort into it. And I feel like myself and our entire team here, we give everything our best. We're gonna show up, we're gonna give it 110%.
[00:14:28] Karly Rolls: And so when we kind of decided to, to start getting into the marketing ish space and social media and that type of communication form. We wanted to give it our absolute best.
[00:14:39] RC Victorino: I think marketers overthink marketing way too much, right? Like, and there's a lot of demands externally to ensure that we're reporting on this and reporting on that and have intentions and plans and goals, et cetera, and that, that's all good and done.
[00:14:48] RC Victorino: But like in the end, mark, good marketing, I guess is just like human storytelling in some sort of way. Connecting with people in what, in whatever way makes the most sense to them. Uh, all that preamble to, to ask you like, to what extent are you strategizing, planning, is there like a, uh, like you have these core pillars that you always wanna talk about.
[00:15:08] RC Victorino: You have a cadence of like, I want one video here. Like how, how intense is that part of the social media for you guys?
[00:15:16] Karly Rolls: I would say that we we do make a plan, um, and we have a cadence that we like to try and post at. And obviously there's like core things that when it's Thanksgiving you should talk about Thanksgiving to make a post related to that.
[00:15:30] Karly Rolls: So we try to make sure that we've got that stuff kind of baked into our game plan. And then from there we really encourage our team to share the work that they're doing. Mm-hmm. Highlight themselves, highlight their teammates, brag about it. So I think there's so much content there that people take for granted and you have to get your team bought in so that they're actively participating it as well and sending you the that content.
[00:15:57] Karly Rolls: But I think it can help with quality control too, because you need to do work that is worthy of sharing on social media. Yeah. And you know, there's a whole bunch of trolls and haters out there, and if you're gonna put something out there that's a little bit less. Then they're gonna come back at you. So I think that that's great with quality control, but most of the work that we do is in boiler rooms, in basements, in on penthouses.
[00:16:20] Karly Rolls: Like it's just, it's not visible to the everyday person. And I wanna shine the light on that work on the skilled trades, and especially my team, 'cause the work that they're doing is beautiful and badass. So I like to have fun with it and I think. We also just don't take it too, too seriously. Yeah. A lot of our stuff can be, I guess it's, it's just, it's true to us.
[00:16:45] Karly Rolls: Uh, our, our campaign is best is personal, and so I don't want it to feel like some corporate. You know, white glove curated experience that's, you know, lacking personality. I want it to be true to us. We had some fun for Thanksgiving. We generated a bunch of content with the taxidermy turkeys that we have here in the office.
[00:17:09] Karly Rolls: Okay. And that's just, it's true to us. A lot of the people here are, are hunters and anglers, and we 100% have three different taxidermy gonna need turkeys in this office. So we were running them around and having a lot of fun with it. Um. I think it's nice. It brings some pizazz to us. And again, it's, it's true to who we are and it's, it's personal.
[00:17:28] RC Victorino: That's great. You, you, you had a line earlier that, uh, I think I, I had a question about like, to, to what end, and you mentioned about like it's marketing quite literally for your business. You're, you're, you're likely getting, uh, at least brand awareness, if not actually like pipeline growth. You're actually getting customers or people phone calls, what have you.
[00:17:44] RC Victorino: Uh, I did wonder if like, there's also like some sort of like attraction of talent as well. People are wanna get. Join the team. Basically, they're seeing what the team is like. Is that, is that true? Are you getting a lot of people who are candidates? I guess?
[00:17:57] Karly Rolls: Yeah. I think it's, it's both, um, customers that are attracted to that type of marketing, energy, personality, as well as potential employees.
[00:18:09] Karly Rolls: I mean, the reality of our space. Companies are selling to private equity or selling to roll-ups and different things like that. So what What's gonna set us apart? They can pump money into technology. They can pump money into marketing and be the first company listed on the PPC or whatever it is. But they can't buy our people.
[00:18:32] Karly Rolls: And in a lot of it, it's a really faceless transaction. You don't actually know as a consumer or an employee who is actually steering the ship, right? Mm-hmm. Like, you don't even know where this money's going. As a consumer and as a technician, you don't really even know in a lot of ways, like who your boss is, or you just got a new boss, or maybe your boss is potentially, you know, that you've been working with for 30 years is about to, you know, transition out in a year and you don't know what that looks like.
[00:18:56] Karly Rolls: And so for us. We want you to know who we are as people, as leaders, as mechanics, as technicians, as installers. Like you can see what we're all about. If you, you can see us giving back to the communities and the communities that we're impacting and just really bringing that personal experience to consumers, to technicians.
[00:19:17] Karly Rolls: I think if you're a technician, you can look at Rolls Mechanical and go, gosh, they seem like really great people. But then you also can see our leadership team. Is stable and it's potentially not changing until well after you as an employee might retire. Right? The average demographic right now on the Scaled trades is 55 plus.
[00:19:41] Karly Rolls: I'm not 55 plus my other leaders, my department managers, my CFO, they're not in that demographic. So for a lot of people, their stability and consistency. So you could come here and not have to deal with all of the change and unsettling things that are going on in the, in the trades and in the world in general.
[00:20:01] RC Victorino: Yeah. And, and you touched upon this earlier, and, and, and there's hints of this in what you're talking about right now, but like. There's a level of your marketing efforts, both on your own personal, but uh, maybe even more so on your own personal than, than even on the companies, uh, that goes beyond marketing the company.
[00:20:18] RC Victorino: It's, it's more about the industry as a whole. Is that like. Is that a, I don't wanna call it a burden, but for, for the sake of, of just ease, we'll call it. Is that a burden that you're excited to take on, like you're willing to take on is a larger conversation about the trades as a whole and the impact of, of the things you're talking about, PE but also with labor shortage, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:20:38] RC Victorino: Is this something that you're, you're ready to fight for essentially?
[00:20:42] Karly Rolls: Definitely, I think we've been fighting for it for the past decade. Our management team sits down and says, how can we make this the best company possibly possible to work with? To be honest, like I expect every single one of my employees to be recruited, and if they're not getting recruited, something is wrong, right?
[00:20:59] Karly Rolls: I mean, that's the truth. And so how do you make sure that you separate yourself, um, as an employer? But I also just really feel like it's just the right thing to do. A lot of our leadership is just common sense leadership. Our marketing is just, to me, some common sense things, and I feel like if we can do right for our team and do right for the industry.
[00:21:26] Karly Rolls: Yeah. Then the rest comes. I was just at an event, uh, we won Top Workplace now from the Detroit Free Press for the fourth year in a row. Oh, congrat. Which is incredible. Yeah. I, they interviewed over a hun, or just under a hundred thousand employees in the state of Michigan for hundreds and hundreds of companies, and we ranked number 14 and we're extremely excited about it and honored.
[00:21:50] Karly Rolls: But what was really interesting was. There's actually a fund that's publicly traded and it's a group of companies and they call it the The Human Capital Fund. And essentially it's exclusively companies that are winning the Top Workplace Award. And when they put those to companies together in this fund and then compared it, the performance of that fund to the S & P 500, the companies that are winning the Top Workplace Award are outperforming. S and p 500 by 70%.
[00:22:29] RC Victorino: Can we dive into that a little bit more? 'cause now, now I'm gonna go onto a side tangent a little bit here, which, but, but I, I value your, your perspective on this. So I mean, like, at least in the world I'm from, and this is interesting 'cause of the trades I think are a little bit more, um protected from this.
[00:22:46] RC Victorino: Uh, but like ai, basically I'm trying to get to AI and essentially like the efficiency quotient of AI and like the number of layoffs we're seeing, at least in like, again, my world here. Uh, and just the ability to remove human beings from the equation. Like no one thinks twice about it. Like, let's do it, let's be more efficient.
[00:23:03] RC Victorino: And I do wonder, like, yes, for the short term you might get some productivity gains I guess, but it, is there, are we, are we gonna like face a reaper at some point? Like is there a problem with the fact that we're removing the human quotient from this and that, that eventually we're all gonna hit basically, uh, a ceiling, a status quo of, of Averageness?
[00:23:23] RC Victorino: 'cause we're all using the same AI tool essentially, and we still need humans. We still need humans to stand out to actually succeed. Right.
[00:23:30] Karly Rolls: So I think that type of perspective, and I I, I've heard it quite a bit, is specifically. It's kind of like fearmongering, but it's also only appealing to like lazy leaders.
[00:23:44] Karly Rolls: And what I mean by that, is it's the people who are not effective and are tired of telling their team the same things over and over again and coaching the same people on the same thing over and over and over again. They're not seeing success. And rather than reflecting on yourself as the leader, like why is it that my team keeps making the same mistakes or I have to keep repeating myself?
[00:24:08] Karly Rolls: It can't be because of me. It must be my team. Right? So now I want AI agents. Mm-hmm. And I want AI to take care of all that. All that for me. Well, I think one, that person probably should reflect on themselves why they're an ineffective coach. But then two, the unfortunate thing that I don't think people are looking far enough ahead.
[00:24:27] Karly Rolls: Anytime you start working with these AI tools, what do they tell you? You have to coach it. Right. So if you were a bad coach with people
[00:24:38] RC Victorino: Oh, brilliant. Yeah. Wow.
[00:24:39] Karly Rolls: It's potential that you might be a bad coach with AI and then there's less uh, personal experience with that. Your, the communication, like you can't really talk through the processing of it and stuff like, so I just, I really think it's like, it's attractive to the ineffective, lazy leaders who just wanna easy to hit that easy button.
[00:25:01] Karly Rolls: So easy button leaders are like, yes, I want AI to solve all of these problems. Yeah. Now I wanna use AI as a way to optimize what my team is doing and make them more successful. I want it to be a tool to everyone on my team rather than a replacement recipe. So I think AI can definitely help us in a lot of different ways, make us more efficient, collect more information, you know, understand and pull together what dots are out there for us to connect so then we can make better decisions.
[00:25:37] Karly Rolls: But AI's not replacing boots in the ground and any of our actual employees, and I think the employers who are really taking that type of perspective with it and are like excited about it, are those easy button leaders.
[00:25:54] RC Victorino: Got it. Great perspective. Uh, I think this, this, this, um, role of AI and how it is essentially impossible for it to replace human beings boots on the grounds, right?
[00:26:07] RC Victorino: Like it can't do that. Like it can do, it can replace coders, uh, talking to a computer. 'cause that's what it does. I mean, there is a computer talking to a computer. How, how more efficient can you be than that? Uh the work that the, the trades folks do, it can't replicate. And I think that's making now the trades more attractive again.
[00:26:26] RC Victorino: Uh, we just had Mike Row, I know you were in attendance for that as well at Forge. You had some great stories about this and et cetera, and like, uh, how there's a huge shortage and one of the biggest things, one of the biggest mishaps we could have done in this country is to get rid of shop wood, shop metal shop, et cetera.
[00:26:40] RC Victorino: I was a victim of that. I never attended either of those. They literally were removed the year before. Uh, I went to sixth grade and seventh grade, et cetera. Uh, but I do think that it's becoming more attractive now as a result because people feel like this is a, um a more secure long-term job. You and I talked about this off air a little bit.
[00:26:57] RC Victorino: I do want to talk about this, 'cause you mentioned about like quality of work and everything, like et cetera. And the running theme that I think you actually sparked in me that I can't get outta my head. So kudos to you, Karly, is that, you know, it's not, it is important to close the skill labor gap. The, the labor gap for sure.
[00:27:13] RC Victorino: But not, not to like make people think that this is an easy job to do. Right? And not to think that like everyone can do it. Like this is an important thing that we need to make clear is that it's still work. It is hard work. Right. And it is difficult both physically, but also mentally difficult work.
[00:27:34] Karly Rolls: Yeah.
[00:27:34] Karly Rolls: My, my running joke is, is that HGTV is the worst thing that's ever happened to the skilled trades. And I mean that because you can watch a 30 minute episode. It will start with maybe a technician coming to a house and, and demoing a unit or talking about what they're gonna install, looking at fixtures and stuff.
[00:27:54] Karly Rolls: Then, you know, 27 minutes later, you'll see finished products. It's beautiful, it's clean, and none of the work in between. You got to see, and then they end the episode with, you know, get into the skilled trades, become an HVAC technician where you can make $40 to $60 an hour. That's boom, done. So you will have people who literally come to a skilled trades company and that's the only context that they have.
[00:28:25] Karly Rolls: Yeah, 30 minutes, it's clean, it's beautiful, and that's it. And I think between that and AI, um, people, again, they think it's gonna bring a lot of improvements. And the piece that they're missing is, it's not gonna actually resolve the hard work. You can't, no matter what, efficiencies, automations, tools, things, you can't get the hard work outta the skilled trades.
[00:28:51] Karly Rolls: And I would say out of the people who it's, you know, their first day, their first week who don't work out, it's really just a misconception of how physically demanding and taxing some of this work really is. You know, not only in lifting. Heavy fiberglass ladders like that is a reality for us. Mm-hmm. That the big fiberglass extension ladders, they're really heavy.
[00:29:13] Karly Rolls: And to hoist them on a top of a van and off, um, or swing them up to a roof, like it's just, it's pretty hard work. Or cast iron pipe or, you know, bending some of our wires. It's, it's physically demanding. And then on top of it. We're doing it typically in unconditioned spaces. Yeah. I legitimately had somebody who joined our construction division had went through trade school, uh, the units.
[00:29:41] Karly Rolls: I went through trade school as well, and it's 10 units that are pretty much brand new systems and a shop lab, and you're in there and it's conditioned and you kind of work through bugs. So it's helpful because you can learn about sequence of operations theory, stuff like that, but it's all relatively new equipment.
[00:30:00] Karly Rolls: Again, it's conditioned. Well, this gentleman started with us on our install, went out to the job site and quit that same day, and he goes, I didn't know it would be hot. And we're like, whatcha talking about? And he's like, I thought we were doing HVAC. I thought I'd be cool. I'm like what I'm like, if we're there installing it, right, it doesn't exist.
[00:30:21] Karly Rolls: It's not installed, like it's not working. And I'm like, and then when, 'cause we're installers. When it's working, we leave, we're done. And for our service team, like if we're on site, it's probably because it's not working. So once we fix it, we again, we leave. So it's not only physically demanding with the work that you're doing, but just the conditions that we're working in, it can be pretty taxing as well.
[00:30:43] Karly Rolls: And I, I don't think people have, have put as much thought into that piece of it as, as they probably should, because it is, it's gonna be an everyday experience.
[00:30:54] RC Victorino: Wow. I wonder like, do trade schools need to have more real life setting experiences? Like, or how else? So I was talking to Greg Crumpton, he was, he was on the show as well, and he talks about, uh, he does, he does ridealongs mentorship, like he makes sure that people see the real thing. Right? The experiencing is, is that the, is that the solution before someone jumps into the job is like, literally like, and actually this brings up another question, but like, literally like business owners and leaders will bring these folks along to make sure they, they understand the realities, but who has time for that?
[00:31:25] RC Victorino: Like, can they afford to have these, these folks come along and ride along and experience, uh, the traits in real life outside the classroom setting? Is, is that, is that the solution?
[00:31:36] Karly Rolls: So I think apprenticeships need and, and so skilled trades need to be matched with apprenticeships. Yeah. You know, if you're not gonna actually be able to physically do the work or enjoy the work that you're doing, and you go through a, you know, a year, maybe two year trade school program, and then you get into it and then finally see the reality and you're like, oh my God, I don't wanna do this.
[00:31:56] Karly Rolls: It just, it doesn't serve anyone. So I'm a really big advocate for doing the apprenticeship with on-the-job training supplemented with trade school. Um, and I think during the summer you can get internships with different companies and again, just get general exposure. So we constantly have apprentices here at Rolls Mechanical, and during the summer we do interns.
[00:32:19] Karly Rolls: Um, whether it might be a high schooler or a college student who's going through these programs. And I think that that's a really great way to get you up to speed as quickly as possible. Again, in trade schools, it's potential that you might only see those 10, 10 systems. Yeah, and they might be brand new or they're just a handful of bugs.
[00:32:37] Karly Rolls: The reality. And our trades is, they might have decades of cobbled up messes in these units or, you know, underground and people really don't know, you know, what they're working on. So it's, it can be challenging and I think that the quicker you can see what real life is like in the trades every day. The better you are going to be long-term.
[00:33:02] Karly Rolls: And honestly, sometimes it might be a career shift or sometimes you're like, okay, now I really wanna be paying attention to X, Y, and Z and maximize these resources. So, uh, we have a lot of people that are, that are doing both with the trade school as well as working with us in the apprenticeship. And that definitely seems to be the most beneficial
[00:33:22] RC Victorino: is, is, I mean, to pay it forward and to make sure that there's a pipeline of talent is obviously, uh, self-serving and, and important. And if, if one can have the long-term vision, then one can see the value, but not everyone can afford to have that long-term vision. Like, is is there, is there a time suck? Is there is a resource intensive for shops to have these apprenticeships?
[00:33:45] RC Victorino: Is, is or is there no, no reason for them not to, basically,
[00:33:49] Karly Rolls: yeah I really think most people can't afford not to. And if you're not doing it, you're, you're behind already. I see it a lot with companies or really people that we're interviewing and, and then common narratives when I'm talking to different, you know, operators of, I can't find anybody good. Well, what are you looking for? I'm looking for a five plus year experience, journeyman technician with this experience, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, well, they're not available. So if they're not available, are you just gonna stand there and have this opening for forever or are you gonna do something about it?
[00:34:26] Karly Rolls: And I think you can have a lot, uh, especially if you're doing that trade school as well as on the job training. You can cut down on the learning curve for that individual, but just give people a chance. I really think that owners, um, operators, they really need to be proactive about the apprenticeship.
[00:34:46] Karly Rolls: And I think that the benefit you're gonna see from that type of investment will be far greater than you could ever really count for. 'cause you're gonna train somebody on your, your values, your culture, how you do things administratively, uh, all of those different things. So we've got a ton of people in our leadership who similar to myself, started as a shop hand and moved up the ranks. I mean, I could probably count a a dozen different people who all started in that same position. And I think, you know, that shouldn't be overlooked.
[00:35:22] RC Victorino: Uh, you're an advisor for Women's Group and I wanna dive into that a little bit more. I, I think that, uh, obviously just, just by the nature that you're a woman that I think a lot of people who are young in the trades who might wanna go join the trades will be attracted to listening to this conversation to see what you have to say. So can you tell me a little bit more about this women's group and why you chose to be an advisor for it?
[00:35:42] Karly Rolls: Yeah, so I think especially in the commercial space, a lot of contractors and operators like don't get out much and play.
[00:35:49] Karly Rolls: We're just so busy in the day to day that I don't have time to really seek out other operators and build those relationships. I actually stumbled upon another Gail in a hotel, um, like conference area and we just started talking and immediately hit it off. She was running a large company, um, out in California and was in our industry, and I was like, oh my gosh, how incredible.
[00:36:14] Karly Rolls: And I also have a couple mentors who I've stumbled upon throughout the years that are in similar spaces and just being able to talk to people. In our space. Um, you know, and then on top of it, our women operators in the skilled trades. It's really, it's helped me grow as a, as a manager, as a leader, as an operator, as a woman, and. Also just have some friendships. Yeah. Again, tough as an adult, like you're just so busy life a hundred percent so fast. So to be able to build those relationships and then to have people who really actually like, understand our industry, it's been phenomenal. So I had the opportunity to support one of my friends, the one that I met in that hotel, um, she was setting up, uh, it's called the sisterhood, and it is a training experience for people.
[00:37:03] Karly Rolls: It, you don't necessarily have to be in the skilled trades, but it's definitely targeting that group. And you can sign up and there's a board of advisors all coming from different walks of life, but a lot of us all on the skilled trades, running various different size companies holding different positions.
[00:37:20] Karly Rolls: Um, you know, we've got some people who are financial experts in there. And anyways, you sign up and you're a part of this training and then on top of all the different training classes, you get access to all of the different advisors and for people who are, you know, interested in what I'm doing and learning what I'm doing and, and my experience, we can set up training calls and, and interact and, you know, if you're interested or in the garage door space, they've got an operator, phenomenal female operator in the garage door space and so on.
[00:37:50] Karly Rolls: So that's been a really great way to kind of connect and make up. A community, uh, of women, especially in the skilled trades, and they're all over the country. So it's just been nice to be able to kind of like niche that down and, and build some relationships and support. And I think I always say like, I don't wanna reinvent the wheel.
[00:38:08] Karly Rolls: And so for people at different points of their journey, it's really great to speak to these advisors and understand what's worked, maybe what hasn't worked and worked smarter, not harder. So it's been a really fantastic opportunity. I've loved it. I'm really grateful. I keep learning every single day.
[00:38:24] Karly Rolls: That's my goal. So it's just been really good conversations.
[00:38:29] RC Victorino: Do you think, uh, from your point of view, the trades is a good space for women? And I say that with, actually, I just got off con conversation with Angie Simon, uh, who's been in the trades for a long time, for decades, and obviously has seen things that, that I would like to think are not as seen these days, but I don't know, not being in the trades, not being a woman as well.
[00:38:50] RC Victorino: So from your point of view, what's it like on the ground? Are women welcomed and is it a place where they can flourish in this industry?
[00:39:01] Karly Rolls: To be honest, I don't think it's that different than a lot of industries. You have to find a company that has the right culture and can appropriately. Lead a team, a diverse team, and I, I, I've had some not so great experiences with other companies that don't have safe environments and don't have great cultures for diversity.
[00:39:26] Karly Rolls: And then, you know, I know with our company and the other handful, like there's great leaders that really do encourage diversity and growth. Um, so I think you just have to be careful. I would encourage. Anyone looking to get into the skilled trades who maybe has had a negative experience to not give up, to just find a, a different employer who has a culture that you're gonna flourish in.
[00:39:50] Karly Rolls: I think that's a huge piece of it, and I don't think that, you know, is that different if you're in it or for, you're in construction so. Find the right place for you. And I also encourage people, there's a million different ways that you could be involved in the construction space, in the skilled trade space.
[00:40:07] Karly Rolls: Doesn't necessarily mean you have to be swinging a hammer. My, you know, wrench turning days have now been, uh, behind me for quite some time. I was in the field for a few years and I think I've been formally outta the field now for. Eight-ish, nine years. I mean, I love the opportunity when I can throw my boots on and get out there, but most of the time now I'm behind a desk and I think a motto that we live by is.
[00:40:38] Karly Rolls: The contract isn't worth the paper it's written on if we don't have the team to do the work, and I don't just mean that with our installers and our technicians, I mean it with our warehouse team, with our payroll team, with our billing team, our dispatchers, our apprentices, our managers. Our estimators, it takes an entire army to make this machine work.
[00:41:01] Karly Rolls: And I really think that while there's a lot of great motivators and people speaking at large about getting into the skilled trades industry and they promote a lot of that, um in the field, manual labor, um, you know, skilled trades position. And that is like the typical, you know, thing that you're gonna visualize.
[00:41:22] Karly Rolls: The skilled trades is so robust, project management, billing estimator, like, there's so many different ways to get involved and we need every single one of those positions filled. So I try not to. Over glorify certain positions and just make sure our entire team, but really, you know, try to communicate at large within the industry that there's value in every single one of those positions and opportunities.
[00:41:49] Karly Rolls: And there's opportunities to growth. And I challenge a lot of people. To put in an extra second of thought, again, I started as a warehouse worker, as a driver, I've got a superintendent, a foreman, my service manager, my assistant service manager. My head of purchasing my refrigeration pipe fitter, foreman, all of these guys all started out as shop hand warehouse workers and move their way up their ranks.
[00:42:19] Karly Rolls: So get involved wherever you can in the guild trades with a great company that's going to invest in you and if you take advantage and embrace that opportunity, your oppor like it's just unlimited.
[00:42:33] RC Victorino: I love that. What a great message to, to end on. Alright, let's shift to the lightning rounds. Here we go. One tool that you cannot live without, any tool whatsoever.
[00:42:44] Karly Rolls: Google Calendar. Google. Google Calendar.
[00:42:47] RC Victorino: The one tool that I think many people might hate, but you cannot live without it. Fantastic.
[00:42:51] Karly Rolls: I have to, we did a a, my husband and I, a card game. That's like, how well do you know your spouse? And one of the questions was. What's their favorite app on their cell phone, and while most people would think like TikTok or Instagram or something, my husband literally put Google Calendar and it is so true.
[00:43:07] Karly Rolls: I just, I like to be on top of it. I like to think far enough ahead and Google Calendar is my saving grace.
[00:43:14] RC Victorino: That's also another good question, by the way, favorite app on the phone? That's, that's an interesting one. I'm not sure what I say. My goodness.
[00:43:20] Karly Rolls: Spoiler alert for future guests.
[00:43:22] RC Victorino: Yeah. Yeah. Best thing that you have ever built again, like quite literally, could be metaphorically, physically, whatever it may be, but best thing you have ever built.
[00:43:31] Karly Rolls: Uh, I would say our team here at Rolls Mechanical, right? Uh, I'm so proud of each and every one of them. We're opening a new wave of apprentices come this spring, spring of 2026. We try to have a, a annual cadence with that. Usually we have about 400 people who apply. It's incredible. And we just had a, a large service meeting, tons of, of teammates up there and we told everybody on our team, if you have a referral, regardless of experience, but if you wanna refer somebody to the apprenticeship program, I'll make sure that we interview them. Wow. Because if not, it's just, it's a pretty competitive thing. And the reason I, I bring it up is we then ask them to raise their hand.
[00:44:16] Karly Rolls: Anyone in the room who started here as an apprentice with no experience. And it was astonishing. And I think it was really inspiring for so many people on our team, the skilled trades. I mean, probably at least 20 people, if not more, raise their hands. Um, all who've varying levels of experience now in tenure here.
[00:44:36] Karly Rolls: And I, I believe it, it changed their lives. I know it did. And the opportunity for our apprenticeship. It'll change their lives. So I'm so proud of the team that we have here. Um, the people that they've become, the families that they've built, you know, the, the professionalism that they deliver and quality they deliver to every one of our customers.
[00:44:56] Karly Rolls: So, I know a lot of people probably would answer our team, but I, I see every single day and, and the people I get to work with and the families that are benefiting in the communities that we're building around them.
[00:45:09] RC Victorino: Love it. What is the biggest misconception people have about the trades?
[00:45:14] Karly Rolls: Ooh, there's a lot of them.
[00:45:19] Karly Rolls: There is. I think the biggest misconception that people have is the amount of effort that it is going to take you to get up to speed and be really con, a contributing member within the guild trade space. Uh, again, a lot of people kind of see that, that dollar amount that they want on their paycheck. Yeah.
[00:45:38] Karly Rolls: And they think that they're just gonna have to show up. To make it happen. There's a lot, the skilled trades are, are so much more technical than what they give them credit for. You not only have to service a unit that was installed in 1930s and the control system from the 1930s and then you're gonna have to install and maybe service, uh, a piece of equipment that's cutting edge, right.
[00:46:02] Karly Rolls: And has a whole new super intense control system. And I really think that. Because people are promoting the skilled trade so heavily right now. They're just like, oh, they just need bodies. Like I can just show up and be successful and I'll make $60 an hour. Um, and maybe in some, some places you can do that.
[00:46:24] Karly Rolls: I know for our team, we want people who are going to invest in themselves. I'll also invest in you heavily. But if you wanna maximize and really reap the rewards fully that the skilled trades has to offer, you are gonna have to invest in yourself, in your training, be open, be a forever student, be a leader.
[00:46:43] Karly Rolls: Um, I think there, there's a lot more to it and I just, sometimes I, I love that we're encouraging people to get into the skilled trades, but also in some ways I feel like. We might sound a little bit desperate and people are just like, oh, they need anybody. Yeah. And I just, I like to bring it to light for people to really make sure they understand it's ai, you know, all these things.
[00:47:05] Karly Rolls: It's still gonna be hard ass work, and you're really gonna have to push yourself to be a professional at it.
[00:47:11] RC Victorino: Right. On last question, what gets you most fired up about the future of the trades?
[00:47:19] Karly Rolls: The future of the trades are so beautiful. I think we're coming into a fantastic era where we can utilize technology and highlight our team, but allow opportunities for people to grow.
[00:47:33] Karly Rolls: Within the space that really have been unparalleled before I talked about my team and the families that we're able to build, and communities that we're able to build in a positive way around our team. I, that's for sure what I'm most, most excited about. I just, it's cool to think about what the skilled trades has has brought to me as a person, and I'm most excited that I can bring those opportunities to people far and wide.
[00:48:02] Karly Rolls: Um, not only can you know our team, but consumers I think really deserve better. And as we continue to push for higher quality and a better consumer experience and trust and bringing back legacy and all of these things, I think. We can just continue to really turn it up. I think the skilled trades are a, are a beautiful place to be and I think just the level of impact in a positive way we're gonna have with our team and our communities far and wide.
[00:48:32] Karly Rolls: It's, it's gonna be incredible. It, it inspires me every single day and as a leader, I feel like I have to keep leveling up. Mm-hmm. I have to deliver a higher pro like product to my team and to consumers, and I think that, that fires me up. It's a, it's a big hill to climb, but I think every single day we can just inch forward, uh, to, to bigger and brighter things.
[00:48:57] RC Victorino: Awesome. Well, Karly, uh, your energy is absolutely infectious. Your feeds, your social media feeds are absolutely entertaining and also educational. You, you pro, it's a wonderful mix, right? Like, like I, I enjoy and I laugh and, and I learn. So you're doing so many things right? And clearly you're doing so many things right.
[00:49:17] RC Victorino: I, I see all the people that you celebrate on your team. We've been there for a long time. We're very excited to be where they are. So I think that you are absolutely a, a representation of everything that's great and beautiful, uh, in this industry. So I really wanna thank you for taking the time to. Talk with us today.
[00:49:32] RC Victorino: Uh, for everyone else, we will add a bunch of links in the show notes including to, to Rolls feed and Karly feed, et cetera, et cetera, so you can learn all about that. Um, yes, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate you, Karly. No problem. Happy as always. All right. Keep building y'all. I.