May 3, 2025 • 47 mins
Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, May 3rd, 2025
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports nine and you Hire a radio app
coming live from the Donovan and Georgia Sin Heidi and
Cooling Studios. I'm Bingo Emmins, I'm owner of Creative Construction.
I'm time with the future owner Zach Emmons and Aaron
Anderson from Creative Construction. We have a special guest, Kathleen Vincent.
We'll get to her in just a second, but anyway, Zach,
(00:22):
you guys, you're starting to move up in the world here,
just all ready to take over the whole company.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's up now much just heading the ground running here
here this spring. Just been busy with jobs and knocking
them out and doing a lot of water damage window
repair jobs where we're not actually doing the windows but
fixing all the stuccover the brick work. And it's been
getting after it.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Hey, Aaron, most pliming if you hire somebody from Creative Construction,
you know zachly Aaron, because one of those guys are
in charge of those jobs. So, Aaron, what projects are.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
You working on?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Basically the same thing. There's been a ton of water
damage projects. Water it's been raining a lot this spring,
so it's causing quite a bit of havoc. And just
finished up the job up in Madison, the big job,
and nice to be back in the Milwaukee area and
start taking care of the Milwaukee people now.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Then hol Shelby doing the grandchild. I have to ask
that she's doing great, of course, and along today we
also are special guests as Kathleen Vincent. She's a Greenville
school board and Milwaukee County supervisor. This is me Mental
Health Awareness months. We invite to talk about those. Let's
talk a little bit about your background, your school board
(01:37):
member and Milwaukee County supervisor. You can't find enough activities?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Well, I also teach full time, so I just wanted
to add that to the mix. But yeah, I enjoy
serving the community and I just kind of got involved
in those things and spend my time serving the community.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
What do you exactly teach?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
So right now I'm currently teaching seventh grade to England. Yes,
I'm in my thirty fifth year as a teacher, twelve
years down in the Kenosha Unified District, and next year
I'm going to be moving down to fifth grade, so
that'll be a change for me after many years of
being in the middle school.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You're a big I mean, I haven't been to school
in a long time, but you're a big difference. You're
a big difference in the curriculum between like going from
seventh to fifth grade. Yeah so I or how have
things changed in the progression throughout the years?
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Sure, well, as someone that's been teaching a long time,
there have definitely been changes. In particular with English. We
used to have what was called the whole language approach,
but the state and the country really are moving back
to more standards based grading and moving down in grades
I think is a little more challenging. The kids are
(02:51):
a little bit more needy at the younger grades. Although
many people that I talked to would never touch what
I do as a seventh grade teacher with a ten
foot poll because there's a lot of hormones.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Going on at that age.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And then also your position on a monche Country supervisor,
what's that? I don't even know what that's like.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
Yeah, so I didn't know either.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
When I ran for the position, one of the Greendale
trustees told me that the position was opening, and it's
been a long time since Greendale was represented. Usually the
district stretched it used to stretch all the way into
West Dallas, So we had a representative that was from
West Dallas and didn't necessarily understand Greendale. And as you know,
(03:30):
being from Greendale yourself, Greendale's a very special historic village.
And I moved back there in twenty twelve.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
To run for office.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I actually had run for State Assembly at the time,
and basically when I found out that the position was open,
I started learning about it. And it really you deal
with a lot of public service in terms of people
calling about complaints. You know, it could be about the parks,
it could.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Be about roads. We covered the zoo. I say it's
A to Z. Actually it's the airport to the zoo.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So anything in between there is what county supervisors kind
of oversee, and as an elected body, we just try
to set some policies and resolutions that you know, we
pass on to help make sure that the county has,
you know, got its base is covered and that the
services are there for all the residents.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
From A to Z. How about B. There's a boat
you guys got would boat? What about that boat that's
on Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
It kind of was a mess because nobody wanted to touch
that boat, except for the people that were vandalizing it.
That was going on for a while, But the county
and the city didn't necessarily want to take ownership for that.
And I think a private person that came forward actually
to have it removed, if I'm understanding correct. But the
(04:56):
county and the city, we're obviously concerned about it. It
was becoming a hazard on the beach.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I just I just wanted, like every meeting, Okay, what
are we gonna do with the boat now, because that's
that's just sitting there and it's just getting worse and worse.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Now.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
I feel bad. I didn't get down to see it actually.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
When it first showed up, but hey, it's like a
brand new boat. If you don't want it, you know,
I would would have took it. But didn't take long
before that thing turned into painted mural.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Now it's a public art museum and it's just there.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Didn't the roof of it or something got torn off
at some point too.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah. I drove by it and I noticed something was missing.
I couldn't remember what, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, and then I saw like there's a pond toom
boat next to it, and then I got split in half.
So it just got worse and worse.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So anyways, me is mental Hellness, mental health Wellness Month,
Awareness awareness Month, right, and uh you know we're on construction,
so I stare walls for a living, So I buyd
an you a lot of help. Yeah, so that's what
you know we all do. But uh so, anyways, what
are the concerns that that's that you've seen that you
(05:59):
see the problems are, especially in a construction industry that
we're involved in with mental illness.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Sure, and I'm going to be transparent right from the start.
I am someone with lived experience myself. I have dealt
with some challenges with mental health and mental illness over
the years, and I have decided to use my elective
position to help work with all all people to break
down the stigma that's associated with mental illness. So I
(06:28):
when I became a supervisor the second year I was
on the board, I really chose to focus on mental
health and mental awareness and mental illness because.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
There is such a stigma.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
And I think especially I'm probably not gonna be wrong
in saying this, but in the construction industry there's a
lot of men.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
Is am I correct?
Speaker 4 (06:47):
And saying that it's primarily a male dominated field and
mental health is one of those things that people just
don't want to talk about because it it you.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Know, it's a taboo. It's a taboos it is.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
And especially for men.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
You know, traditionally men are you know, not not wanting
to share that they maybe have you know, some struggles
or what have you. And so I met recently with
the director of NAMIS, it's a National Association of Mental
Illness and she is from Milwaukee. She we talked about
me coming on this program actually, and I said, well,
(07:24):
how can I tie that into the construction industry? And
she mentioned to me, she said that the construction industry
is actually one of the highest industries out there that
has individuals that are struggling with mental health. And she said,
and part it has to do with, you know, being
a male more dominated, but also the fact that it's
(07:45):
a very stressful position because you have deadlines. You know,
the work hours are very long and sometimes very you know,
challenging hours. It's not just your nine to five kind
of job. And you know, so and just it's not
a place where people think about reaching out to get
services or help.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
A lot of times.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That's true because I know it's a lot and especially
in commercial jobs when we go to where we go
to a big job where someone's running a job as
soon as the day we show up, exact like, well,
you're three weeks behind. We didn't know about this job
two days ago. And that seems to happen a lot.
Though there's a lot of pressure. It's always you're always
in the deadline, there's always a budget, there's always you know,
things that you know, nothing really goes, you know, especially
(08:28):
in those bigger projects. You know, the small residential patches
are easy, but I mean just talking about some of
those projects. You get there and they're all looking at
you like, you know, hey, you got to get this done,
you got to do this. And I'm a you know,
typical guy. You know, we keep our motions way down.
We bottom all up until until it's too late. So
it's it's kind of nice that they get this. I'm
(08:48):
having trouble. I got a criticism already. I say, mental
health awareness a month I'm getting I'm getting criticisms from
my fans. I'll listen here. You know, you got to
learn to say but it's hard to say. It's even
how to even say that as a as a male,
so I understand what you're talking about is a male
you know, dominant sport of construction. You know that mental
healthness is a problem. I know what nery uh they
(09:10):
actually have when we do when we expose centers, we
have exposed they actually do sminar mental health. It's a
great industry, but there is you know, there is, there
is you know, e motions, things that can't happen, and
most of the time, most of it's just awareness. It's awareness.
If you see somebody that's having a problem, you know,
you're supposed to ask them what's you know, they call
(09:31):
it calming calling questions, you know ce l M in
calming questions. You know, sometimes a person is having a
problem at work and you don't know why, and if
you ask them a question, you find out it has
something that there's nothing to do with anything else. So
that's what you're supposed to work on, and that's what
they try to teach you at one of those that
you need to your employees.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And finding what's really going on, right, I think that
conversation is real important.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, yeah, because I mean life is heavy, you know,
as a you know, as a guy. You know, you're
trying to support your family, you got ambitionous gold, you
got expectations, trying to live up to, you know, in
your personal life. And then you know, also you know
it's again in your work life. So it's just you know,
life gets heavy, it does. And yeah, and for you guys,
I feel a lot of times it's hard for them
(10:20):
to talk about their emotions because you know, whether employers,
you know, friends you know, not well, not friends, but
like you know, whoever you know, they might weaponize it
against you. So sometimes people feel it's just easier just
not to. And then on you know, a lot of jobs,
you try to open up about something, well it's okay,
that's fine, but by get your job done, you know,
(10:42):
you're just going down down the production. We don't care
about you know what you got in the background. You know,
leave your personal stuff at at.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Home, right and you know here, if we were here
talking about physical illness or so forth, no one would
have a problem with that, right, Like I'm going to
be having shoulder surgery at the end of this month,
and you can go and talk to someone about that
and no one's going to judge you or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
But with mental health, a lot.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Of times people think, well, that's a weakness and that
is not something you know, we should even be talking about.
And so so you know, to have opportunities and also
really to know the resources that are out there. I
at some point I'll share with you some of the
resources that Milwaukee County does have to offer. But you know,
even having a radio programs like this where you're having
(11:30):
this kind of topic and letting people know it's okay
to talk about it, I think is really important. I
know when I was asked to come on the program
and you know, share something with you, I immediately came
to this as, you know, something that I thought would
be beneficial to all the workers in the industry as
well as any listeners out there. You know, to know
that there's help and support, you know, as somebody who
(11:53):
had struggled with mental health in the past. And I'm
going to be quite upfront, I actually had a suicide
attempt in two thousand and three, and thankfully it wasn't
what they would call successful, which I don't call that successful.
But one of the things is in the construction industry
there are high rates of suicide. I think in twenty
(12:13):
twenty two alone, there were over six thousand construction workers
that died by suicide in the United States, and that's
just a staggering number.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
And oftentimes it's because people get to.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
A point where they don't think they can turn and
talk to someone or ask for help, or they're afraid
to ask for help, and so they get to those points.
So I think, you know, it's really important, and I
appreciate that you guys are having me on today not
as an expert, but as someone that's trying to help
break down the stigma so that people can be more
(12:46):
comfortable with this kind of topic.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
No, I'm just thinking about it because like when I said,
I one of seminars you know, you know, a few
months ago, and they talked about that, and you're saying,
you know, how many of you know somebody personally that
committed suicide, and everybody raised their hand, right, And did
you guys know that the other problem before they committed suicide. No, No,
they don't know. Then there's always signs that you always
see that's too late, right, So that's what we do,
(13:10):
not just what this's me is, you know, mental Health
Awareness Month. See I'm getting better at it.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You are getting you get it, You'll get it right way.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I got mental health right there. Yeah, you know. Usually
I make a lot of jokes on this station, went,
especially when I'm doing there. Doing construction sugar is easy,
but as this is a serious subject. This is where
people if you see somebody you know something, help them,
right because you just don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And it's also about being you know, more aware and
not just being so self absorbed in your own life.
You know, you're trying to get through the A to B,
but like, oh, I noticed that you know this person.
I know they usually do this, but they're doing this now,
just trying to pick up on the subtle small signs
where they start acting different or start saying just something
ever so slightly different, and you know they take that
five extra seconds to say, hey, what's going on?
Speaker 5 (13:57):
That's right?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
And I think Zach is supervisors. I think that's kind
of part of our responsibility too, is to to know
our employees and be able to tell when things are
off because we each have our our crews that we
work with more and I could tell when somebody's having
a bad day, and I'll set them off to the
(14:18):
side and ask what's going on? See if I can
help at all, and I'm sure you do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, I mean you definitely have to check in with
with them. You know, when when an employee starts, you know,
doing something that's out of the norm for their standard,
just check in with them and just I just try
to check in with them. You know, how would you
weaken what you do? You know, what do you got
going on? Just try to stay an open line of
(14:47):
communication with them.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And you've got to draw the line between making sure
they're getting their job done and making sure they're okay.
Not just physically okay. Obviously you want to physically okay,
but you want to make sure they're mentally okay. We
could from a productivity set standpoint, that slows it down,
but also from a personal standpoint. Nobody wants to see
(15:10):
somebody going through that.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, and yeah it's a little stuff down too. But
if you can get him to, you know, open up
and let's let's try to figure out, you know, work
and work through whatever you got going on together, that
actually has a very good job seite reward, but like
it can actually speed things up as well because they're
not trying to go and battle that mental burden that
they're taking on alone, they have they have an outlet
(15:33):
for it.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
And the stigma that let's talking about, do you have
you seen it going down recently?
Speaker 5 (15:42):
So I would like to say yes.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
You know, it's hard to put a measure on something
like that, but you know there are people out there
that are having conversations like this across the country, just
taking the time to actually focus on that topic. And
you know, one of the things that because I've researched
before I came here about the construction industry because as
a teacher, I don't I don't have that kind of
(16:06):
lifestyle I go to. It's not a nine to five job,
but it's like a seven thirty to three thirty kind
of job, and so there's very specific things that I can.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Expect with my job. But in the construction.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Industry, there can be a lot of times where people
and you can speak to this yourself, but that you're
away from home, you're away from your family, become isolated
in the work site, and so to find someone to
talk to is not always as accessible necessarily as maybe
in a profession where people have others, you know, around,
(16:38):
you know, the entire time that they're working. So so
I think that's that's another thing is just you know,
the isolation factor, you know, and and so to have
open conversations. And I like that you mentioned Aaron that
you know, supervisors can also be paying attention to that
because you know, a lot of times the workers, not
(16:59):
just in the inner history of construction, but any worker
is maybe a little intimidated to go to their employer
and say, you know, I'm having these struggles, I'm feeling
this way, I'm depressed. So so I think it's great that
you guys, you know, acknowledge that you can play a
role in just kind of working with your workers.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, and so like touching base on that. So, like
I had a guy that was working with me years ago.
You know, one day, all of a sudden, he just
started showing up, you know, he was showing a plate
or just you know, called no show. I'm like, man,
do you know does he not want to work here?
You know what's going on there? You know, he just
turned into you know, quote unquote a bad employee. But
then let you know, dove down into it and he
(17:37):
was struggling with a lot of stuff that I would
never even think that he had going on right. And
a lot of that too is the subject for guys
with going and uh, with therapy. You know, it's hard
to say, oh, you know, I'm going to go to
go to therapy. For guy to do that, but then
also will be open up about it. That is huge
because no, I mean I know a few people that
(17:59):
go to therapy because we've know, we've had that conversation.
But yeah, I forget where I'm going and going with that.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
No, Well, I think you bring up a good point
is that people don't always understand that going to speak
to someone about a problem is actually not a bad thing,
and you know, to have that person and I do
have a person that I see. I'm just going to
put it out there that I see regularly to just
kind of ground me and you know, have conversations about
(18:27):
things I'm experiencing. In the field of teaching, it's also
very stressful. I mean, you're working with kids all day.
You know a lot of demands, and you know, it
is good to be able to have someone to go
to and you know, to have a therapist or a
doctor or someone that you can you know, just share
that I'm having some of these struggles or feeling alone.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
Or what have you. So I think that's important to
be able to do.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I mean I've been wanting to get the therapist
for for a while because, yeah, I can talk to
my fiance here, my family, you know all that. But
you know the fact of getting a third party, unbiased, unopinionated,
just eraw brain answer instead of giving an emotional answer
from like a loved one. Right, that is huge.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Right?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And you see because like you said, it keeps you grounded,
it keeps you in check. Are you overthinking this? You
underthinking this?
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah, And I'm going to just put a plug in
because Milwaukee County does have quite a few resources that
people are probably not even aware of. Our behavioral health
system made to hold off a second. Okay, our behavioral
health system has things like a cars group it's called
it's Community Access to Recovery services, so people might be
(19:38):
dealing with substance abuse and things like that. There's a
comprehensive community services Milwaukee Mobile Crisis Access Clinic that's where
people can go for additional help, the Milwaukee County Mental
Health Clinic, and there's also wrap around services even for
Milwaukee Children's Community Mental health so there's many different resources
(19:59):
out there.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Okay, yeah, so get your pencil on paper out if
you know somebody some Right after the break, we'll give
you some locations, some websites. There are phone numbers that
you can call. So this is the Creative Construction of
Wisconsin Home Improvement show on Fox Sports nine twenty and
your iHeart Radio app. Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement
Show Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio App.
(20:21):
We are live from the Donovant and Georgis and Union
Cooling Studios, Wisconsin's largest employee owned company. And do not
wait until it's too hot to get your air conditioners
checked out. This is really a good time to get
a call. And I said your public service announcement, don't
wait till it's too late to get your air condition
running so they can check these things. Any temperature now
(20:42):
you can get this checked out so before before it's
too hot. And then we're going to get back to
our special guest, Kathleen Vincent. Sheesus. We know a school
board member and a Milwaukee county is super supervisor, right,
and we're busy talking about today about Mental Health Awareness
Month and mainly talking about is you need to be
(21:03):
aware that people out there have issues and you need help,
and what's a good source if you see as somebody
with a problem, and what's a good source to get help?
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Sure well, And I don't know if it's as if
it's as prevalent in the construction industry, but a lot
of employers have employee assistance programs. I know with probably
smaller companies and so forth. It might be a harder
thing to do, but that would be one way to
reach out right through your employer.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
So like for us, I know that our insurance that
we have through our company here you get a couple
free therapy sessions per year. I mean, I've never taken
it up on it because I just, you know, quote unquote,
just don't have anything to go and dig down that.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, we're just talking about that. We're just talking about
that earlier too, us right, I would not, but I
would never call that number myself. I don't have any problems,
and that's part of the problem.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Sure well.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
So there are groups like NAMI Wisconsin. NOMI Milwaukee actually
offers support in group activities or educational programs. There's also
Mental Health America of Wisconsin. As I mentioned before. The
Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division does have support.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Available and.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
One of the things we have a twenty four to
seven hotline right here in Milwaukee County. You can call
four one four two five seven seven two two two,
and that would be for a child or an adult
that's having a mental health or substance crisis.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
You're encouraged to call that number.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
As I mentioned before, with the whole notion of suicide
and that type of concern, there is the National Suicide
Hotline and it's now been changed. It is be nine
eight eight, so that is always that that would be
obviously if you're in a serious crisis. But more importantly,
looking for some of the resources that are available that
(23:00):
I just mentioned, you know, and reaching out to see
what they could help offer, I think is a route
to take for anyone, and a lot of times there
is no cost involved with that. You know. Milwaukee County
in general wants to be the healthiest county in the
state of Wisconsin.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
So to do that, we offer services such as this.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Okay, yeah, and our phones are again some touch messages here,
you know, when people ask questions like this. As a manager,
I find that my staff member is afraid that they
might get fired if they have issu mental issue ordered
I mean, well mental issue, or is worried that they
might miss work. I mean, so you understand the problem
that they're having is afraid that they might say something,
(23:40):
somebody might say something might fire them, right.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Right, because it's a topic that people just are not,
you know, used to being able to say, you know,
I'm having some concerns and so so that is a
very especially in the construction industry, right because you're more
limited to the amount of people that you're around during
the day, So you know, to who can you go
to and trust that is, you know, maybe not going
(24:04):
to judge you or what have you. And I think
that's a concern some individuals have, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
And I think in like the bigger firms, it might
be harder to know who would quote unquote care about
your issues with with us. We're a super small company, right,
and I mean we see the entire company on a
regular basis, so that's easy to figure out who I
can talk to about stuff. But in like a bigger
(24:28):
commercial union job where there's a thousand people on site
at a time, you very rarely see your direct supervisor.
It's it's hard to find somebody that you're able to
talk to, let alone, somebody that you're able to talk
to and feel that they care enough to talk to
you about it and not just judge you and tell
(24:51):
you to get back to work.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, there's another one here said, I treat it just
like a regular doctor's appointment. That's which is why I
bullied your bosses. I have doctor's appointment, I have to
do this. I do that treaty like that. It's the
same as physical therapy, as they're trying to reference here.
So apparently you know, people are listening here understand that
this is an issue you're talking about. You know, their
employees are afraid to say something to them.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah, and they're you know, with a Family Medical Leave Act,
there is ability, Like in my case, I have what's
called intermittent leave, and most companies will offer that just
because it's a federal A lot that you know, employees
can have, you know, not only mental but physical health
taken care of. The way you're going to be best
(25:37):
on a job is if you are healthy, right, whether
it's mental health or physical health. And so to have
resources available and the availability to go and get the
help is probably going to help the employer in the
long run.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah. I mean most companies, I know, like our company,
we become a family. They do stuff together. We do
four game a couple of weeks. You do stuff together.
We get get clothes. But uh, what do you have
when when you're new, what are you gonna do? You're
gonna say, well, I got I mean when you apply
for a job, you don't say, hey, I guess what
(26:11):
I think. I got problems, so you need to get
you know, And a lot of times, a lot of
construction companies become families, become loyal to become the cover
for each other. They work together. You know, I got
you know, our business, our family and fifth generation you know,
and I get six generations taken over. I get Zach
and get back and Aaron right now, they can you know,
(26:31):
they can. They just take care of the whole company
I got. You know, everything's taken care of right now.
I mean, but there's you know, it's not everybody has
that that you can talk to. You know, Aaron has
a problem, you talk to me. It's like that, you know,
I'm still no matter what Zach does, maybe as boss,
but we're still dad, right but as you know, so
he doesn't make want to not want to talk to
me about right. So my my thing is that if
(26:55):
what would be your first goal to if you think
you play with that as a problem, won't your first
go to method talk to him, talk to help? What
would you do?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Yeah? I think if you are recognizing that someone is
having struggles, I think the first thing is to just
show compassion and say, hey, I've noticed that you're having
some concerns and I would like for you to, you know,
feel comfortable.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Sharing with me what your concerns are.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
So just being open and being able to talk to
your employees I think is very good. I think it's
important too to encourage others to seek help. You know,
that's definitely something that people don't always feel is able
to be beneficial to them.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
So that answers, Boy, I didn't know they had a
problem with my mic? Here say is it working now?
It's better? Way? Yeah, we're having we're having a problem with.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Wasn't like speaking about mental health and Spence is over
here just trying to sign language fix your mic?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
You might.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
That's got to be that's got to have a toll
on your mental health.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
So is a mic working. Now there's Spencer. All right,
there we go oait. So I don't know if you
heard me, but so anyways, then you said county has
it on a website. Yes, please go find help.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
YEP.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
If you go right onto the Milwaukee County website under
the Behavioral Health Division, you will find all kinds of
resources that are available to not only adults, but for kids.
In the county. We used to have the mental Health complex.
You probably remember. Back down on Watertown Plank Road, there
used to be a complex. The county no longer operates that,
(28:41):
but rather contracts out with Granite Hills in West Dallas.
But they also have a twenty four hour emergency health
center for someone that might be in crisis. That's the
extreme end of things, but there are many good services.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
I think. I don't know if I mentioned it before,
but just.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Dialing the number two two one one will get you
a plethora of resources. You can call in and share
what your concerns are, what type of help you need,
and they they're ready to help you with that.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
They call somebody I don't know for one one.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
I'm trying to think that one of the things I
mentioned before, you know because I was trying to research
the construction industry and just just the mental health construction
workers is so important because what you guys do is
such a physically demanding job, right, and so in order
to be physically able to do the work, you've got
(29:42):
to be mentally able to do the work too.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And our work is you know, I love I love
my job. So it's all about our job is visual appearance.
I mean, people see it's always a finished product. We're not.
There's a lot of people that do things that you
never see right right for hours of our lives, and
we drive around because my kids will tell and Zach
ms Aaron kids will to be telling them because you
can't try pass something without telling somebody we worked there,
(30:07):
We did this, we did that. We're very proud of what.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
We do right right.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
So let's can I share something personal just about you
and your family. Your father is responsible. L Emmons is
responsible for the beautiful stucco artwork on the Greendale Originals,
and at his celebration of life, we took a tour
and it was just for me as a resident of Greendale.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
I'm proud I live in one of those original homes.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
To begin with I don't have that kind of a
chimney that I can do that, but to drive through
the village at Greendale and know that there's a person
in a face and a company behind that that's artwork
and it's just beautiful, and you know, it's something to
take pride in.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
And so you know, I just I want to say
to your.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Family's credit is that you've left a legacy in Greendale
that people to this day you can drive down there
and see the beautiful work that Creative Constructions has done.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
And there's also you know that you know because my
dad was the inventor all that stuff. Uh, there's also
too is the marking then area executive director sent me
a picture there's a you know that thing that Greendell did,
you know, allan Virginia Eman's Day and stuff like that. Yeah,
you sent me a picture of it. And that's kind
of cool that people can see that it's on post
at the Broadway at the broad Street Coffee Shop. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(31:26):
my dad is my dad was responsible for who I
am today. That's for sure, you're bad, but that's so
that's why I turned.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Out he was probably in my opinion, him and Roy Ryman,
who both passed away in this last year, are two
of the biggest personalities in Greendale. And your dad could
always be seen with his red jacket or sweatshirt as
little I forget the name for the type of hattie, but.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
What is it?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
The fedora, his red fedora.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
And his white pants, and of course with John John
just you know, I do miss him greatly. He he
really was a true friend of mine and coming back
to Greendale, he was definitely one of those people that
you'd have to say, this is someone you need to
know when you come back to Greendale.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That's a Jason President of Greendale. He says, Man, I
really miss seeing your dad around his little red car.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
And you guys have a property right behind my house,
so your dad would come over oftentimes with his walker
and just sit in between my property and that property
and we would talk about the future, you know, the
bushes in between and all that, and just just to
watch him take pride in the work as the workers
were continuing to do projects. You know that they were
(32:34):
part of a company that he I don't know if
he built the company you said in sixth generation, but.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Zach is six I'm the fifth generation and the company
has been wrong for a long time. Yeah, but the
whole chimney thing that was all his, that was all
his doing.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Yeah, it was. It's amazing there. I know, there's.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Actually I did I probably just three hundred chimneys done.
I probably did, you know, two hundred and seventy of them. Yeah. Yeah,
I did not like doing them at all. I just
all the time going up there doing this and that.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I'm glad we did it now, but back then I
did not. I was not. I was not a supporter
of doing well.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
It definitely, it's definitely something that is only found in Greendale.
I don't I don't know of any other community that
has something quite like that.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I know, I see there's tours and stuff. Looking at them.
Like you said, during my dad's funeral, you know, we
did the famous we actually got the route that there
was the tours, so we followed their route. So that
was kind of a nice tribute.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
That was. That was great. That was a really special day.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
So anyways, this is this is my mental Health Awareness Month,
and we have Kathleen Vincent in here that talked about
to help us to let people know that be aware
that people have issues. You know, you don't want to
be uh. That was the term caring. You go up
to somebody, Hey, I think you've got mental health issues. Now,
I just pay attention be aware, especially your co workers
(33:56):
that I'm afraid because family will always tell you the problems,
whether you want to hear it or not. But co
workers sometimes we'll keep it to themselves and we see
a pattern something that changes. It's called a calming question.
It was also just ask them, what's up, what's going on?
You're not doing the same, What's what's going on? What's
really going on? And you should just ask. Sometimes just
asking them can solve help solve the problem because they
(34:16):
get to tell someone about it or if they need help,
you know, you said, go to you know, go to
the website there and walking on a website and there's
a whole bunch of things where you can do to
find help.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Absolutely, one of the things I was going to say
would be a call to action for everyone, no matter
what industry people are in, is to share your experiences
and thoughts on mental health in the you know, in
this case, in the construction industry, Like I encourage all individuals,
especially since we're focusing on the construction industry to you know,
(34:47):
start to feel comfortable and find that person that you
feel comfortable with and open up.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Or if you know someone.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
That's struggling, you should reach out and share some of
the resources that you're hearing about today and let them
know that they're there is support for you out there.
Mental health, as I mentioned before, is just as important
as physical health. You really can't have one without the other.
And seeking help is a sign of strength, it's not
a weakness.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
And it's you.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Know, speaking of you know, talking about you know, you know,
getting help and issues and stuff. It doesn't have to
be as far as the you know, extreme point of
you know of self harming, right. It could be just
you know, it's easier to put out a fire when
it's very small versus when your whole house is a fire. Right,
So just trying to be proactive at an early point,
like you know, I got this going on, just trying
(35:35):
to talk to somebody, you know, sooner versus later and
just bottoms Oh, it's just you know, I'll get through it.
You know, it is what it is. I'll figured out
what Just trying to get it's sooner and it's not
you know, if you have something going on, it's not
you know, this big issue that's bad. You know, it's
it's normal. Everybody's got it. And just what I try
(35:56):
to do is trying to, uh try to put myself
in the perspective to see where they're coming from, sympathizer
level with them. They try to really grasp understand what
they're going through, because like it could be you know,
something could be happy, you know, a way over on
the left side of their life, that it's affecting the
right side of their life. If if I'm explaining that right.
Speaker 5 (36:17):
It does.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, this must be a hot subject. I'm getting text messages.
I can't keep up to these things. Right there, I'm
glad to hear that just says that you never know
where people are going through. Yeah, divorce, they can find
what they got an illness, family gotta say an illness,
our caretaker burnout. They just found out that they got diabetes.
I mean, there's different things that can change things, you know, diabetes, right,
(36:38):
people people just to think that was mental illness. I mean,
you know, because they're low on sugar. There's other things
that could be going on too, right, So you know,
I'm just I'm glad. We touched a lot of people
here of awareness, and uh, you know, it's it's it's great.
It's great that you're that you're willing to come on
and talk about a subject that isn't funny.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
No, And and I can tell you the first time
I came out public, I knew I was putting myself
out there. I knew that there could be potential for
negative backlash, and there was actually some from some individuals
that I think need to reflect on their stance on things,
you know. But even with my family, it was very
challenging at first because I told them I was going
(37:19):
to be sharing my personal story. They got concerned right
away that I might be sharing their stories and that.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Had nothing to do with it. But that's how mental
health is.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
People don't feel comfortable putting it out there. They feel like,
you know, that's something you got to keep to yourself.
And the day that I chose to go public with
this before the County Board of Supervisors, it was extremely
emotional for me. I shared my diagnosis at the time.
I didn't say this earlier, but I do a deal
with bipolar disorder, which is a mood disorder. So you
(37:52):
go from highs to lows. But with medication and with
good therapy, you can get the help you need. And
obviously I'm able to do things like be a county supervisor,
be a teacher, be a school board member. But that's
not you know, without some support along the way. And
people should not feel afraid to say that I need
(38:13):
support to do the things that I do.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah, because because it shows that you're real. I mean,
you're a real person. Everybody has emotions. Anybody that says,
oh I don't, they're they're full of baloney. And I
think a lot of the problem with all that is
is a social media these days, because it's literally everybody's
highlight real nine times nine point nine times out of ten.
You don't go on Facebook or whatever and post, oh
(38:35):
I'm having a bad day. You only post, oh, look
at this cool cup of coffee I had or whatever.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
So a comparison is a thief of joy, right it is.
Speaker 4 (38:44):
And I was going to say, now that you brought
up social media, there is a social media challenge right now.
Eleven years ago you probably heard of the als ice
bucket challenge. Well this year it is kind of revived
and there's a group called Active Minds, a youth organization
that's across the country. We have chapters right here in
(39:05):
Milwaukee at UW Milwaukee and at Marquette. And this month
they are doing the ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness
for mental health and to help break down the stigma.
And so at our County Board meeting on the twenty
second of May, I will be you know, recognizing some
individuals who have made an impact in the.
Speaker 5 (39:26):
Area of mental health.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
But I have challenged the County Board of Supervisors as
well as the Mental Health Board, and we're going to
challenge even the Milwaukee Common Council and anyone else out
there to take the ice challenge, ice bucket Challenge and
to you know, start talking and having these conversations about
mental health.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Is that going to be open to the public.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Anybody can do it. Yes, So I'm asking the supervisors
to just.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
I'm just going to say, because Mike knows, Mike Forgivevens
is not here, So I think, what do you think, Spencer.
I think, Mike Forgivens, you have to do it Ice
bucket challenge.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
I don't think you want to do it in this
room though, because that might ruin near technology electrical stuff.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
Yeah so, but.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Yeah, so I'm encouraging everyone to do that, and you know,
to just really think about ways that you can start
this conversation or continue the conversation.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
Things are much better than you know. Back in ninety
nine when I.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Was first diagnosed, that was the taboo thing. I could
not talk to anybody back then. I wouldn't want them
to know. And now I'm becoming more comfortable, and I
encourage other people to to start getting comfortable with who
you are.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Okay, yeah, thanks, and we can definite you can talk
to us and we can well talk to you all
right when we get back. This is the Creative Construction
of Wisconsin Home Improvement Show on Fox Sports nine twenty
and iHeartRadio App. Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin
Home Improvement Show on Fox Sports nine twenty and I
Hear Radio app live from the Donovan and Georgison Heating
(40:51):
and Cooling Studios. You already get my lecture about getting
your conditioner fakes. I'll do it, Okay, give Donovan and
Orgison call. They're a great company, employee owned, so we
like them. They're great sponsors the show. We're here, well
in a couple more minutes to talk to Kathleen Vincent
about mental health awareness just Mont. Thank you for coming in.
Anything that you what's your you know, I know I'm
(41:11):
gonna ask you this over again, but your peak is
some people come in late. Who would you contact? What
would be your first contact? If you were to contact
somebody and say I think I got an employee that's uh,
that's having a problem, it would be your first contact.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
So obviously talk to that individual.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
But if if they need services, Milwaukee County Behavioral Health
Division has all kinds of services listed on our website,
all free. Yes, many of those are are free. I
mean obviously if you have to go for extending counseling
and so forth, you you would probably have to use
an insurance provider. But there's a number two one one
(41:47):
you can call just to find out what resources are
available to.
Speaker 5 (41:51):
You in Milwaukee County.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
I mentioned earlier the nine eight eight number is now
the National Suicide Hotline. They changed that just to make
it easier for people to remember. I wanted to say
to all of you today, all three of you, that
I want to thank you for actually acknowledging this as
a topic of importance and how it impacts the industry
(42:14):
you work and because you know it's just in the past,
people have not been open to these kinds of conversations.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
And I think it's a very brave step.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
And I know there's probably at least one listener out
there that probably has benefited in some way today from
this topic, probably not even expecting this was going to
be your topic. So I think it's really great that
you guys are acknowledging that this is very important. And
I'm sure it's important to the work you do to
have people that are both physically and mentally able to
(42:46):
do the work that you have.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, So your message is, you know, don't ignore it
if you see it all night one, Is that what
you're saying.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Yeah, Yeah, I would say, you know, if you're having
any sort of concerns, do not be afraid people that
you reach out to.
Speaker 5 (43:03):
These resources are not going to judge you.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
As a matter of fact, they're probably gonna, you know,
be in awe of the fact that you're stepping forward
and saying I need some support.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah exactly, I mean calling the resource you're geting to help,
and just even for for me personally, I'd rather have
a buddy or even a stranger, you know, cry My Shoulder,
than have to go to their funeral, right, you know,
just the fact that being just being able to help
is it's powerful.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Those are should say that for I think that was perfect.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yes, cry My Shoulder, Then what are your funeral? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (43:35):
And you just never know the impact you're going to
have on someone just by simply asking them how are
how are you doing? Or I've noticed you've seemed a
little withdrawn lately, like can I help? You know, just
say is there anything I can do to help?
Speaker 1 (43:51):
We got a couple of minutes left, Aaron, you don't
have to change the subject a little bit, but I'm
to change your subject. What's your next product? If that's
coming up?
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Next project got a basically a whole bathroom, living room
remodel and some throwing some tower pairs just to spice
it up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
And I know its every time I wanted the bathroom.
I sort of started with this guy was gonna remodel
his bathroom. And you see the pictures of all the walls.
He just took on all the walls and houses. I
want them replaster. I'm mad at this, which is good.
That's what we do wear a plaster company and that's
what we do. So you know it's great that people
do that. Maybe yeah, both the issues, but yeah, he
(44:32):
decided just wanted to do some regutting.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Yeah, because they're the first picture you'd sell me of.
It was just a couple of small water damage patches.
And then luckily he was nice enough to call you
back out before we went out there and showed us
that it was down to the studs.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
A good remodel is is I just had a guy
at my house last week because I had a plaster
issue with water coming through my original into the kitchen
and he ended up doing wood lambin it for the ceiling.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
And it's I mean thing, Hey, Zach, Uh, what's what
you got up next besides golfing?
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yeah, that take up a lot of my free time in.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
This fireplace is uh. We do talk about your fireplace
every week. And I heard you're putting the heart on
this week.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Yeah, it's been you know, it's like the old saying
is the shoe Kypler's kid has no shoes, right, So, uh,
you know, doing some thin stone at my own house,
it you know, takes a lot, take a long time
to do versus you know, because they do it for
a day job. But right now, what what we're doing is,
I've been working on a lot of EAPs homes late
late late lately. You know, putting in in kickoff flashing
(45:36):
is just you know, trying to help keep keep the
homeless water water tight. And with it being springtime out,
I'm trying to reminder but you know, make sure your
gutters are clean, because amount of gutters I'm not having
to clean out is.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
Just people say, yeah, hey, my stucco is leaking. You
go up there and the gutters are full of pine needles.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Yeah, you find pine needles, baseballs, tennis balls, and the gutters.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
So uh yeah. So thanks Kathleen for coming in and
on your school board, and congratulations on you're going to
keep running for the county supervisors. Well that's elected position.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Both of them are in next year. They both happen
to be up in twenty twenty six. At this point
in time, I do plan to run for both school
board and county board again, mainly because I just enjoy
helping out in the community and I think I've been successful.
I've been on the school board for eight years now
and this is my third year on the county board.
Once I retire in three years, it'll actually give me
(46:28):
more time. I probably won't pick up a third job,
but you know, it'll even give me more time to
do the things I'm doing now.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Yeah, we don't get into politics at our show, but
I can tell you that you know, you show that
you care. So if you're from Greendale, you know people
can hear that you actually do care about people and
you care about the individuals. Thank you, so so thanks
again for coming on, Aaron Zach for coming in help
me out with this, and next week Mike will be
back and I'll be back here with Mike next week.
(46:54):
So I want to thank you all for listening to
Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvements on Fox Sports nine
twenty in iHeartRadio app
Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports nine and you Hire a radio app
coming live from the Donovan and Georgia Sin Heidi and
Cooling Studios. I'm Bingo Emmins, I'm owner of Creative Construction.
I'm time with the future owner Zach Emmons and Aaron
Anderson from Creative Construction. We have a special guest, Kathleen Vincent.
We'll get to her in just a second, but anyway, Zach,
(00:22):
you guys, you're starting to move up in the world here,
just all ready to take over the whole company.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's up now much just heading the ground running here
here this spring. Just been busy with jobs and knocking
them out and doing a lot of water damage window
repair jobs where we're not actually doing the windows but
fixing all the stuccover the brick work. And it's been
getting after it.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Hey, Aaron, most pliming if you hire somebody from Creative Construction,
you know zachly Aaron, because one of those guys are
in charge of those jobs. So, Aaron, what projects are.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
You working on?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Basically the same thing. There's been a ton of water
damage projects. Water it's been raining a lot this spring,
so it's causing quite a bit of havoc. And just
finished up the job up in Madison, the big job,
and nice to be back in the Milwaukee area and
start taking care of the Milwaukee people now.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Then hol Shelby doing the grandchild. I have to ask
that she's doing great, of course, and along today we
also are special guests as Kathleen Vincent. She's a Greenville
school board and Milwaukee County supervisor. This is me Mental
Health Awareness months. We invite to talk about those. Let's
talk a little bit about your background, your school board
(01:37):
member and Milwaukee County supervisor. You can't find enough activities?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Well, I also teach full time, so I just wanted
to add that to the mix. But yeah, I enjoy
serving the community and I just kind of got involved
in those things and spend my time serving the community.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
What do you exactly teach?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
So right now I'm currently teaching seventh grade to England. Yes,
I'm in my thirty fifth year as a teacher, twelve
years down in the Kenosha Unified District, and next year
I'm going to be moving down to fifth grade, so
that'll be a change for me after many years of
being in the middle school.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You're a big I mean, I haven't been to school
in a long time, but you're a big difference. You're
a big difference in the curriculum between like going from
seventh to fifth grade. Yeah so I or how have
things changed in the progression throughout the years?
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Sure, well, as someone that's been teaching a long time,
there have definitely been changes. In particular with English. We
used to have what was called the whole language approach,
but the state and the country really are moving back
to more standards based grading and moving down in grades
I think is a little more challenging. The kids are
(02:51):
a little bit more needy at the younger grades. Although
many people that I talked to would never touch what
I do as a seventh grade teacher with a ten
foot poll because there's a lot of hormones.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
Going on at that age.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And then also your position on a monche Country supervisor,
what's that? I don't even know what that's like.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
Yeah, so I didn't know either.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
When I ran for the position, one of the Greendale
trustees told me that the position was opening, and it's
been a long time since Greendale was represented. Usually the
district stretched it used to stretch all the way into
West Dallas, So we had a representative that was from
West Dallas and didn't necessarily understand Greendale. And as you know,
(03:30):
being from Greendale yourself, Greendale's a very special historic village.
And I moved back there in twenty twelve.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
To run for office.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I actually had run for State Assembly at the time,
and basically when I found out that the position was open,
I started learning about it. And it really you deal
with a lot of public service in terms of people
calling about complaints. You know, it could be about the parks,
it could.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Be about roads. We covered the zoo. I say it's
A to Z. Actually it's the airport to the zoo.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So anything in between there is what county supervisors kind
of oversee, and as an elected body, we just try
to set some policies and resolutions that you know, we
pass on to help make sure that the county has,
you know, got its base is covered and that the
services are there for all the residents.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
From A to Z. How about B. There's a boat
you guys got would boat? What about that boat that's
on Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
It kind of was a mess because nobody wanted to touch
that boat, except for the people that were vandalizing it.
That was going on for a while, But the county
and the city didn't necessarily want to take ownership for that.
And I think a private person that came forward actually
to have it removed, if I'm understanding correct. But the
(04:56):
county and the city, we're obviously concerned about it. It
was becoming a hazard on the beach.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I just I just wanted, like every meeting, Okay, what
are we gonna do with the boat now, because that's
that's just sitting there and it's just getting worse and worse.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Now.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
I feel bad. I didn't get down to see it actually.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
When it first showed up, but hey, it's like a
brand new boat. If you don't want it, you know,
I would would have took it. But didn't take long
before that thing turned into painted mural.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Now it's a public art museum and it's just there.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Didn't the roof of it or something got torn off
at some point too.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah. I drove by it and I noticed something was missing.
I couldn't remember what, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, and then I saw like there's a pond toom
boat next to it, and then I got split in half.
So it just got worse and worse.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So anyways, me is mental Hellness, mental health Wellness Month,
Awareness awareness Month, right, and uh you know we're on construction,
so I stare walls for a living, So I buyd
an you a lot of help. Yeah, so that's what
you know we all do. But uh so, anyways, what
are the concerns that that's that you've seen that you
(05:59):
see the problems are, especially in a construction industry that
we're involved in with mental illness.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Sure, and I'm going to be transparent right from the start.
I am someone with lived experience myself. I have dealt
with some challenges with mental health and mental illness over
the years, and I have decided to use my elective
position to help work with all all people to break
down the stigma that's associated with mental illness. So I
(06:28):
when I became a supervisor the second year I was
on the board, I really chose to focus on mental
health and mental awareness and mental illness because.
Speaker 5 (06:38):
There is such a stigma.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
And I think especially I'm probably not gonna be wrong
in saying this, but in the construction industry there's a
lot of men.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
Is am I correct?
Speaker 4 (06:47):
And saying that it's primarily a male dominated field and
mental health is one of those things that people just
don't want to talk about because it it you.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Know, it's a taboo. It's a taboos it is.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
And especially for men.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
You know, traditionally men are you know, not not wanting
to share that they maybe have you know, some struggles
or what have you. And so I met recently with
the director of NAMIS, it's a National Association of Mental
Illness and she is from Milwaukee. She we talked about
me coming on this program actually, and I said, well,
(07:24):
how can I tie that into the construction industry? And
she mentioned to me, she said that the construction industry
is actually one of the highest industries out there that
has individuals that are struggling with mental health. And she said,
and part it has to do with, you know, being
a male more dominated, but also the fact that it's
(07:45):
a very stressful position because you have deadlines. You know,
the work hours are very long and sometimes very you know,
challenging hours. It's not just your nine to five kind
of job. And you know, so and just it's not
a place where people think about reaching out to get
services or help.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
A lot of times.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That's true because I know it's a lot and especially
in commercial jobs when we go to where we go
to a big job where someone's running a job as
soon as the day we show up, exact like, well,
you're three weeks behind. We didn't know about this job
two days ago. And that seems to happen a lot.
Though there's a lot of pressure. It's always you're always
in the deadline, there's always a budget, there's always you know,
things that you know, nothing really goes, you know, especially
(08:28):
in those bigger projects. You know, the small residential patches
are easy, but I mean just talking about some of
those projects. You get there and they're all looking at
you like, you know, hey, you got to get this done,
you got to do this. And I'm a you know,
typical guy. You know, we keep our motions way down.
We bottom all up until until it's too late. So
it's it's kind of nice that they get this. I'm
(08:48):
having trouble. I got a criticism already. I say, mental
health awareness a month I'm getting I'm getting criticisms from
my fans. I'll listen here. You know, you got to
learn to say but it's hard to say. It's even
how to even say that as a as a male,
so I understand what you're talking about is a male
you know, dominant sport of construction. You know that mental
healthness is a problem. I know what nery uh they
(09:10):
actually have when we do when we expose centers, we
have exposed they actually do sminar mental health. It's a
great industry, but there is you know, there is, there
is you know, e motions, things that can't happen, and
most of the time, most of it's just awareness. It's awareness.
If you see somebody that's having a problem, you know,
you're supposed to ask them what's you know, they call
(09:31):
it calming calling questions, you know ce l M in
calming questions. You know, sometimes a person is having a
problem at work and you don't know why, and if
you ask them a question, you find out it has
something that there's nothing to do with anything else. So
that's what you're supposed to work on, and that's what
they try to teach you at one of those that
you need to your employees.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And finding what's really going on, right, I think that
conversation is real important.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, yeah, because I mean life is heavy, you know,
as a you know, as a guy. You know, you're
trying to support your family, you got ambitionous gold, you
got expectations, trying to live up to, you know, in
your personal life. And then you know, also you know
it's again in your work life. So it's just you know,
life gets heavy, it does. And yeah, and for you guys,
I feel a lot of times it's hard for them
(10:20):
to talk about their emotions because you know, whether employers,
you know, friends you know, not well, not friends, but
like you know, whoever you know, they might weaponize it
against you. So sometimes people feel it's just easier just
not to. And then on you know, a lot of jobs,
you try to open up about something, well it's okay,
that's fine, but by get your job done, you know,
(10:42):
you're just going down down the production. We don't care
about you know what you got in the background. You know,
leave your personal stuff at at.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Home, right and you know here, if we were here
talking about physical illness or so forth, no one would
have a problem with that, right, Like I'm going to
be having shoulder surgery at the end of this month,
and you can go and talk to someone about that
and no one's going to judge you or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
But with mental health, a lot.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Of times people think, well, that's a weakness and that
is not something you know, we should even be talking about.
And so so you know, to have opportunities and also
really to know the resources that are out there. I
at some point I'll share with you some of the
resources that Milwaukee County does have to offer. But you know,
even having a radio programs like this where you're having
(11:30):
this kind of topic and letting people know it's okay
to talk about it, I think is really important. I
know when I was asked to come on the program
and you know, share something with you, I immediately came
to this as, you know, something that I thought would
be beneficial to all the workers in the industry as
well as any listeners out there. You know, to know
that there's help and support, you know, as somebody who
(11:53):
had struggled with mental health in the past. And I'm
going to be quite upfront, I actually had a suicide
attempt in two thousand and three, and thankfully it wasn't
what they would call successful, which I don't call that successful.
But one of the things is in the construction industry
there are high rates of suicide. I think in twenty
(12:13):
twenty two alone, there were over six thousand construction workers
that died by suicide in the United States, and that's
just a staggering number.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
And oftentimes it's because people get to.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
A point where they don't think they can turn and
talk to someone or ask for help, or they're afraid
to ask for help, and so they get to those points.
So I think, you know, it's really important, and I
appreciate that you guys are having me on today not
as an expert, but as someone that's trying to help
break down the stigma so that people can be more
(12:46):
comfortable with this kind of topic.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
No, I'm just thinking about it because like when I said,
I one of seminars you know, you know, a few
months ago, and they talked about that, and you're saying,
you know, how many of you know somebody personally that
committed suicide, and everybody raised their hand, right, And did
you guys know that the other problem before they committed suicide. No, No,
they don't know. Then there's always signs that you always
see that's too late, right, So that's what we do,
(13:10):
not just what this's me is, you know, mental Health
Awareness Month. See I'm getting better at it.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You are getting you get it, You'll get it right way.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I got mental health right there. Yeah, you know. Usually
I make a lot of jokes on this station, went,
especially when I'm doing there. Doing construction sugar is easy,
but as this is a serious subject. This is where
people if you see somebody you know something, help them,
right because you just don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And it's also about being you know, more aware and
not just being so self absorbed in your own life.
You know, you're trying to get through the A to B,
but like, oh, I noticed that you know this person.
I know they usually do this, but they're doing this now,
just trying to pick up on the subtle small signs
where they start acting different or start saying just something
ever so slightly different, and you know they take that
five extra seconds to say, hey, what's going on?
Speaker 5 (13:57):
That's right?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
And I think Zach is supervisors. I think that's kind
of part of our responsibility too, is to to know
our employees and be able to tell when things are
off because we each have our our crews that we
work with more and I could tell when somebody's having
a bad day, and I'll set them off to the
(14:18):
side and ask what's going on? See if I can
help at all, and I'm sure you do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, I mean you definitely have to check in with
with them. You know, when when an employee starts, you know,
doing something that's out of the norm for their standard,
just check in with them and just I just try
to check in with them. You know, how would you
weaken what you do? You know, what do you got
going on? Just try to stay an open line of
(14:47):
communication with them.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And you've got to draw the line between making sure
they're getting their job done and making sure they're okay.
Not just physically okay. Obviously you want to physically okay,
but you want to make sure they're mentally okay. We
could from a productivity set standpoint, that slows it down,
but also from a personal standpoint. Nobody wants to see
(15:10):
somebody going through that.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, and yeah it's a little stuff down too. But
if you can get him to, you know, open up
and let's let's try to figure out, you know, work
and work through whatever you got going on together, that
actually has a very good job seite reward, but like
it can actually speed things up as well because they're
not trying to go and battle that mental burden that
they're taking on alone, they have they have an outlet
(15:33):
for it.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
And the stigma that let's talking about, do you have
you seen it going down recently?
Speaker 5 (15:42):
So I would like to say yes.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
You know, it's hard to put a measure on something
like that, but you know there are people out there
that are having conversations like this across the country, just
taking the time to actually focus on that topic. And
you know, one of the things that because I've researched
before I came here about the construction industry because as
a teacher, I don't I don't have that kind of
(16:06):
lifestyle I go to. It's not a nine to five job,
but it's like a seven thirty to three thirty kind
of job, and so there's very specific things that I can.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
Expect with my job. But in the construction.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
Industry, there can be a lot of times where people
and you can speak to this yourself, but that you're
away from home, you're away from your family, become isolated
in the work site, and so to find someone to
talk to is not always as accessible necessarily as maybe
in a profession where people have others, you know, around,
(16:38):
you know, the entire time that they're working. So so
I think that's that's another thing is just you know,
the isolation factor, you know, and and so to have
open conversations. And I like that you mentioned Aaron that
you know, supervisors can also be paying attention to that
because you know, a lot of times the workers, not
(16:59):
just in the inner history of construction, but any worker
is maybe a little intimidated to go to their employer
and say, you know, I'm having these struggles, I'm feeling
this way, I'm depressed. So so I think it's great that
you guys, you know, acknowledge that you can play a
role in just kind of working with your workers.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, and so like touching base on that. So, like
I had a guy that was working with me years ago.
You know, one day, all of a sudden, he just
started showing up, you know, he was showing a plate
or just you know, called no show. I'm like, man,
do you know does he not want to work here?
You know what's going on there? You know, he just
turned into you know, quote unquote a bad employee. But
then let you know, dove down into it and he
(17:37):
was struggling with a lot of stuff that I would
never even think that he had going on right. And
a lot of that too is the subject for guys
with going and uh, with therapy. You know, it's hard
to say, oh, you know, I'm going to go to
go to therapy. For guy to do that, but then
also will be open up about it. That is huge
because no, I mean I know a few people that
(17:59):
go to therapy because we've know, we've had that conversation.
But yeah, I forget where I'm going and going with that.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
No, Well, I think you bring up a good point
is that people don't always understand that going to speak
to someone about a problem is actually not a bad thing,
and you know, to have that person and I do
have a person that I see. I'm just going to
put it out there that I see regularly to just
kind of ground me and you know, have conversations about
(18:27):
things I'm experiencing. In the field of teaching, it's also
very stressful. I mean, you're working with kids all day.
You know a lot of demands, and you know, it
is good to be able to have someone to go
to and you know, to have a therapist or a
doctor or someone that you can you know, just share
that I'm having some of these struggles or feeling alone.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
Or what have you. So I think that's important to
be able to do.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I mean I've been wanting to get the therapist
for for a while because, yeah, I can talk to
my fiance here, my family, you know all that. But
you know the fact of getting a third party, unbiased, unopinionated,
just eraw brain answer instead of giving an emotional answer
from like a loved one. Right, that is huge.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Right?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
And you see because like you said, it keeps you grounded,
it keeps you in check. Are you overthinking this? You
underthinking this?
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah, And I'm going to just put a plug in
because Milwaukee County does have quite a few resources that
people are probably not even aware of. Our behavioral health
system made to hold off a second. Okay, our behavioral
health system has things like a cars group it's called
it's Community Access to Recovery services, so people might be
(19:38):
dealing with substance abuse and things like that. There's a
comprehensive community services Milwaukee Mobile Crisis Access Clinic that's where
people can go for additional help, the Milwaukee County Mental
Health Clinic, and there's also wrap around services even for
Milwaukee Children's Community Mental health so there's many different resources
(19:59):
out there.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Okay, yeah, so get your pencil on paper out if
you know somebody some Right after the break, we'll give
you some locations, some websites. There are phone numbers that
you can call. So this is the Creative Construction of
Wisconsin Home Improvement show on Fox Sports nine twenty and
your iHeart Radio app. Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement
Show Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio App.
(20:21):
We are live from the Donovant and Georgis and Union
Cooling Studios, Wisconsin's largest employee owned company. And do not
wait until it's too hot to get your air conditioners
checked out. This is really a good time to get
a call. And I said your public service announcement, don't
wait till it's too late to get your air condition
running so they can check these things. Any temperature now
(20:42):
you can get this checked out so before before it's
too hot. And then we're going to get back to
our special guest, Kathleen Vincent. Sheesus. We know a school
board member and a Milwaukee county is super supervisor, right,
and we're busy talking about today about Mental Health Awareness
Month and mainly talking about is you need to be
(21:03):
aware that people out there have issues and you need help,
and what's a good source if you see as somebody
with a problem, and what's a good source to get help?
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Sure well, And I don't know if it's as if
it's as prevalent in the construction industry, but a lot
of employers have employee assistance programs. I know with probably
smaller companies and so forth. It might be a harder
thing to do, but that would be one way to
reach out right through your employer.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
So like for us, I know that our insurance that
we have through our company here you get a couple
free therapy sessions per year. I mean, I've never taken
it up on it because I just, you know, quote unquote,
just don't have anything to go and dig down that.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, we're just talking about that. We're just talking about
that earlier too, us right, I would not, but I
would never call that number myself. I don't have any problems,
and that's part of the problem.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Sure well.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
So there are groups like NAMI Wisconsin. NOMI Milwaukee actually
offers support in group activities or educational programs. There's also
Mental Health America of Wisconsin. As I mentioned before. The
Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division does have support.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Available and.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
One of the things we have a twenty four to
seven hotline right here in Milwaukee County. You can call
four one four two five seven seven two two two,
and that would be for a child or an adult
that's having a mental health or substance crisis.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
You're encouraged to call that number.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
As I mentioned before, with the whole notion of suicide
and that type of concern, there is the National Suicide
Hotline and it's now been changed. It is be nine
eight eight, so that is always that that would be
obviously if you're in a serious crisis. But more importantly,
looking for some of the resources that are available that
(23:00):
I just mentioned, you know, and reaching out to see
what they could help offer, I think is a route
to take for anyone, and a lot of times there
is no cost involved with that. You know. Milwaukee County
in general wants to be the healthiest county in the
state of Wisconsin.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
So to do that, we offer services such as this.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Okay, yeah, and our phones are again some touch messages here,
you know, when people ask questions like this. As a manager,
I find that my staff member is afraid that they
might get fired if they have issu mental issue ordered
I mean, well mental issue, or is worried that they
might miss work. I mean, so you understand the problem
that they're having is afraid that they might say something,
(23:40):
somebody might say something might fire them, right.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Right, because it's a topic that people just are not,
you know, used to being able to say, you know,
I'm having some concerns and so so that is a
very especially in the construction industry, right because you're more
limited to the amount of people that you're around during
the day, So you know, to who can you go
to and trust that is, you know, maybe not going
(24:04):
to judge you or what have you. And I think
that's a concern some individuals have, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
And I think in like the bigger firms, it might
be harder to know who would quote unquote care about
your issues with with us. We're a super small company, right,
and I mean we see the entire company on a
regular basis, so that's easy to figure out who I
can talk to about stuff. But in like a bigger
(24:28):
commercial union job where there's a thousand people on site
at a time, you very rarely see your direct supervisor.
It's it's hard to find somebody that you're able to
talk to, let alone, somebody that you're able to talk
to and feel that they care enough to talk to
you about it and not just judge you and tell
(24:51):
you to get back to work.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Yeah, there's another one here said, I treat it just
like a regular doctor's appointment. That's which is why I
bullied your bosses. I have doctor's appointment, I have to
do this. I do that treaty like that. It's the
same as physical therapy, as they're trying to reference here.
So apparently you know, people are listening here understand that
this is an issue you're talking about. You know, their
employees are afraid to say something to them.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah, and they're you know, with a Family Medical Leave Act,
there is ability, Like in my case, I have what's
called intermittent leave, and most companies will offer that just
because it's a federal A lot that you know, employees
can have, you know, not only mental but physical health
taken care of. The way you're going to be best
(25:37):
on a job is if you are healthy, right, whether
it's mental health or physical health. And so to have
resources available and the availability to go and get the
help is probably going to help the employer in the
long run.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah. I mean most companies, I know, like our company,
we become a family. They do stuff together. We do
four game a couple of weeks. You do stuff together.
We get get clothes. But uh, what do you have
when when you're new, what are you gonna do? You're
gonna say, well, I got I mean when you apply
for a job, you don't say, hey, I guess what
(26:11):
I think. I got problems, so you need to get
you know, And a lot of times, a lot of
construction companies become families, become loyal to become the cover
for each other. They work together. You know, I got
you know, our business, our family and fifth generation you know,
and I get six generations taken over. I get Zach
and get back and Aaron right now, they can you know,
(26:31):
they can. They just take care of the whole company
I got. You know, everything's taken care of right now.
I mean, but there's you know, it's not everybody has
that that you can talk to. You know, Aaron has
a problem, you talk to me. It's like that, you know,
I'm still no matter what Zach does, maybe as boss,
but we're still dad, right but as you know, so
he doesn't make want to not want to talk to
me about right. So my my thing is that if
(26:55):
what would be your first goal to if you think
you play with that as a problem, won't your first
go to method talk to him, talk to help? What
would you do?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Yeah? I think if you are recognizing that someone is
having struggles, I think the first thing is to just
show compassion and say, hey, I've noticed that you're having
some concerns and I would like for you to, you know,
feel comfortable.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Sharing with me what your concerns are.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
So just being open and being able to talk to
your employees I think is very good. I think it's
important too to encourage others to seek help. You know,
that's definitely something that people don't always feel is able
to be beneficial to them.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
So that answers, Boy, I didn't know they had a
problem with my mic? Here say is it working now?
It's better? Way? Yeah, we're having we're having a problem with.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Wasn't like speaking about mental health and Spence is over
here just trying to sign language fix your mic?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
You might.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
That's got to be that's got to have a toll
on your mental health.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
So is a mic working. Now there's Spencer. All right,
there we go oait. So I don't know if you
heard me, but so anyways, then you said county has
it on a website. Yes, please go find help.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
YEP.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
If you go right onto the Milwaukee County website under
the Behavioral Health Division, you will find all kinds of
resources that are available to not only adults, but for kids.
In the county. We used to have the mental Health complex.
You probably remember. Back down on Watertown Plank Road, there
used to be a complex. The county no longer operates that,
(28:41):
but rather contracts out with Granite Hills in West Dallas.
But they also have a twenty four hour emergency health
center for someone that might be in crisis. That's the
extreme end of things, but there are many good services.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
I think. I don't know if I mentioned it before,
but just.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Dialing the number two two one one will get you
a plethora of resources. You can call in and share
what your concerns are, what type of help you need,
and they they're ready to help you with that.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
They call somebody I don't know for one one.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
I'm trying to think that one of the things I
mentioned before, you know because I was trying to research
the construction industry and just just the mental health construction
workers is so important because what you guys do is
such a physically demanding job, right, and so in order
to be physically able to do the work, you've got
(29:42):
to be mentally able to do the work too.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And our work is you know, I love I love
my job. So it's all about our job is visual appearance.
I mean, people see it's always a finished product. We're not.
There's a lot of people that do things that you
never see right right for hours of our lives, and
we drive around because my kids will tell and Zach
ms Aaron kids will to be telling them because you
can't try pass something without telling somebody we worked there,
(30:07):
We did this, we did that. We're very proud of what.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
We do right right.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
So let's can I share something personal just about you
and your family. Your father is responsible. L Emmons is
responsible for the beautiful stucco artwork on the Greendale Originals,
and at his celebration of life, we took a tour
and it was just for me as a resident of Greendale.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
I'm proud I live in one of those original homes.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
To begin with I don't have that kind of a
chimney that I can do that, but to drive through
the village at Greendale and know that there's a person
in a face and a company behind that that's artwork
and it's just beautiful, and you know, it's something to
take pride in.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
And so you know, I just I want to say
to your.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Family's credit is that you've left a legacy in Greendale
that people to this day you can drive down there
and see the beautiful work that Creative Constructions has done.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
And there's also you know that you know because my
dad was the inventor all that stuff. Uh, there's also
too is the marking then area executive director sent me
a picture there's a you know that thing that Greendell did,
you know, allan Virginia Eman's Day and stuff like that. Yeah,
you sent me a picture of it. And that's kind
of cool that people can see that it's on post
at the Broadway at the broad Street Coffee Shop. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(31:26):
my dad is my dad was responsible for who I
am today. That's for sure, you're bad, but that's so
that's why I turned.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Out he was probably in my opinion, him and Roy Ryman,
who both passed away in this last year, are two
of the biggest personalities in Greendale. And your dad could
always be seen with his red jacket or sweatshirt as
little I forget the name for the type of hattie, but.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
What is it?
Speaker 5 (31:49):
The fedora, his red fedora.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
And his white pants, and of course with John John
just you know, I do miss him greatly. He he
really was a true friend of mine and coming back
to Greendale, he was definitely one of those people that
you'd have to say, this is someone you need to
know when you come back to Greendale.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That's a Jason President of Greendale. He says, Man, I
really miss seeing your dad around his little red car.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
And you guys have a property right behind my house,
so your dad would come over oftentimes with his walker
and just sit in between my property and that property
and we would talk about the future, you know, the
bushes in between and all that, and just just to
watch him take pride in the work as the workers
were continuing to do projects. You know that they were
(32:34):
part of a company that he I don't know if
he built the company you said in sixth generation, but.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Zach is six I'm the fifth generation and the company
has been wrong for a long time. Yeah, but the
whole chimney thing that was all his, that was all
his doing.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Yeah, it was. It's amazing there. I know, there's.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Actually I did I probably just three hundred chimneys done.
I probably did, you know, two hundred and seventy of them. Yeah. Yeah,
I did not like doing them at all. I just
all the time going up there doing this and that.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
You know.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I'm glad we did it now, but back then I
did not. I was not. I was not a supporter
of doing well.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
It definitely, it's definitely something that is only found in Greendale.
I don't I don't know of any other community that
has something quite like that.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
I know, I see there's tours and stuff. Looking at them.
Like you said, during my dad's funeral, you know, we
did the famous we actually got the route that there
was the tours, so we followed their route. So that
was kind of a nice tribute.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
That was. That was great. That was a really special day.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
So anyways, this is this is my mental Health Awareness Month,
and we have Kathleen Vincent in here that talked about
to help us to let people know that be aware
that people have issues. You know, you don't want to
be uh. That was the term caring. You go up
to somebody, Hey, I think you've got mental health issues. Now,
I just pay attention be aware, especially your co workers
(33:56):
that I'm afraid because family will always tell you the problems,
whether you want to hear it or not. But co
workers sometimes we'll keep it to themselves and we see
a pattern something that changes. It's called a calming question.
It was also just ask them, what's up, what's going on?
You're not doing the same, What's what's going on? What's
really going on? And you should just ask. Sometimes just
asking them can solve help solve the problem because they
(34:16):
get to tell someone about it or if they need help,
you know, you said, go to you know, go to
the website there and walking on a website and there's
a whole bunch of things where you can do to
find help.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
Absolutely, one of the things I was going to say
would be a call to action for everyone, no matter
what industry people are in, is to share your experiences
and thoughts on mental health in the you know, in
this case, in the construction industry, Like I encourage all individuals,
especially since we're focusing on the construction industry to you know,
(34:47):
start to feel comfortable and find that person that you
feel comfortable with and open up.
Speaker 5 (34:52):
Or if you know someone.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
That's struggling, you should reach out and share some of
the resources that you're hearing about today and let them
know that they're there is support for you out there.
Mental health, as I mentioned before, is just as important
as physical health. You really can't have one without the other.
And seeking help is a sign of strength, it's not
a weakness.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
And it's you.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Know, speaking of you know, talking about you know, you know,
getting help and issues and stuff. It doesn't have to
be as far as the you know, extreme point of
you know of self harming, right. It could be just
you know, it's easier to put out a fire when
it's very small versus when your whole house is a fire. Right,
So just trying to be proactive at an early point,
like you know, I got this going on, just trying
(35:35):
to talk to somebody, you know, sooner versus later and
just bottoms Oh, it's just you know, I'll get through it.
You know, it is what it is. I'll figured out
what Just trying to get it's sooner and it's not
you know, if you have something going on, it's not
you know, this big issue that's bad. You know, it's
it's normal. Everybody's got it. And just what I try
(35:56):
to do is trying to, uh try to put myself
in the perspective to see where they're coming from, sympathizer
level with them. They try to really grasp understand what
they're going through, because like it could be you know,
something could be happy, you know, a way over on
the left side of their life, that it's affecting the
right side of their life. If if I'm explaining that right.
Speaker 5 (36:17):
It does.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Yeah, this must be a hot subject. I'm getting text messages.
I can't keep up to these things. Right there, I'm
glad to hear that just says that you never know
where people are going through. Yeah, divorce, they can find
what they got an illness, family gotta say an illness,
our caretaker burnout. They just found out that they got diabetes.
I mean, there's different things that can change things, you know, diabetes, right,
(36:38):
people people just to think that was mental illness. I mean,
you know, because they're low on sugar. There's other things
that could be going on too, right, So you know,
I'm just I'm glad. We touched a lot of people
here of awareness, and uh, you know, it's it's it's great.
It's great that you're that you're willing to come on
and talk about a subject that isn't funny.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
No, And and I can tell you the first time
I came out public, I knew I was putting myself
out there. I knew that there could be potential for
negative backlash, and there was actually some from some individuals
that I think need to reflect on their stance on things,
you know. But even with my family, it was very
challenging at first because I told them I was going
(37:19):
to be sharing my personal story. They got concerned right
away that I might be sharing their stories and that.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
Had nothing to do with it. But that's how mental
health is.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
People don't feel comfortable putting it out there. They feel like,
you know, that's something you got to keep to yourself.
And the day that I chose to go public with
this before the County Board of Supervisors, it was extremely
emotional for me. I shared my diagnosis at the time.
I didn't say this earlier, but I do a deal
with bipolar disorder, which is a mood disorder. So you
(37:52):
go from highs to lows. But with medication and with
good therapy, you can get the help you need. And
obviously I'm able to do things like be a county supervisor,
be a teacher, be a school board member. But that's
not you know, without some support along the way. And
people should not feel afraid to say that I need
(38:13):
support to do the things that I do.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah, because because it shows that you're real. I mean,
you're a real person. Everybody has emotions. Anybody that says,
oh I don't, they're they're full of baloney. And I
think a lot of the problem with all that is
is a social media these days, because it's literally everybody's
highlight real nine times nine point nine times out of ten.
You don't go on Facebook or whatever and post, oh
(38:35):
I'm having a bad day. You only post, oh, look
at this cool cup of coffee I had or whatever.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
So a comparison is a thief of joy, right it is.
Speaker 4 (38:44):
And I was going to say, now that you brought
up social media, there is a social media challenge right now.
Eleven years ago you probably heard of the als ice
bucket challenge. Well this year it is kind of revived
and there's a group called Active Minds, a youth organization
that's across the country. We have chapters right here in
(39:05):
Milwaukee at UW Milwaukee and at Marquette. And this month
they are doing the ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness
for mental health and to help break down the stigma.
And so at our County Board meeting on the twenty
second of May, I will be you know, recognizing some
individuals who have made an impact in the.
Speaker 5 (39:26):
Area of mental health.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
But I have challenged the County Board of Supervisors as
well as the Mental Health Board, and we're going to
challenge even the Milwaukee Common Council and anyone else out
there to take the ice challenge, ice bucket Challenge and
to you know, start talking and having these conversations about
mental health.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
Is that going to be open to the public.
Speaker 4 (39:45):
Anybody can do it. Yes, So I'm asking the supervisors
to just.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
I'm just going to say, because Mike knows, Mike Forgivevens
is not here, So I think, what do you think, Spencer.
I think, Mike Forgivens, you have to do it Ice
bucket challenge.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
I don't think you want to do it in this
room though, because that might ruin near technology electrical stuff.
Speaker 5 (40:02):
Yeah so, but.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Yeah, so I'm encouraging everyone to do that, and you know,
to just really think about ways that you can start
this conversation or continue the conversation.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
Things are much better than you know. Back in ninety
nine when I.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Was first diagnosed, that was the taboo thing. I could
not talk to anybody back then. I wouldn't want them
to know. And now I'm becoming more comfortable, and I
encourage other people to to start getting comfortable with who
you are.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Okay, yeah, thanks, and we can definite you can talk
to us and we can well talk to you all
right when we get back. This is the Creative Construction
of Wisconsin Home Improvement Show on Fox Sports nine twenty
and iHeartRadio App. Welcome to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin
Home Improvement Show on Fox Sports nine twenty and I
Hear Radio app live from the Donovan and Georgison Heating
(40:51):
and Cooling Studios. You already get my lecture about getting
your conditioner fakes. I'll do it, Okay, give Donovan and
Orgison call. They're a great company, employee owned, so we
like them. They're great sponsors the show. We're here, well
in a couple more minutes to talk to Kathleen Vincent
about mental health awareness just Mont. Thank you for coming in.
Anything that you what's your you know, I know I'm
(41:11):
gonna ask you this over again, but your peak is
some people come in late. Who would you contact? What
would be your first contact? If you were to contact
somebody and say I think I got an employee that's uh,
that's having a problem, it would be your first contact.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
So obviously talk to that individual.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
But if if they need services, Milwaukee County Behavioral Health
Division has all kinds of services listed on our website,
all free. Yes, many of those are are free. I
mean obviously if you have to go for extending counseling
and so forth, you you would probably have to use
an insurance provider. But there's a number two one one
(41:47):
you can call just to find out what resources are
available to.
Speaker 5 (41:51):
You in Milwaukee County.
Speaker 4 (41:53):
I mentioned earlier the nine eight eight number is now
the National Suicide Hotline. They changed that just to make
it easier for people to remember. I wanted to say
to all of you today, all three of you, that
I want to thank you for actually acknowledging this as
a topic of importance and how it impacts the industry
(42:14):
you work and because you know it's just in the past,
people have not been open to these kinds of conversations.
Speaker 5 (42:21):
And I think it's a very brave step.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
And I know there's probably at least one listener out
there that probably has benefited in some way today from
this topic, probably not even expecting this was going to
be your topic. So I think it's really great that
you guys are acknowledging that this is very important. And
I'm sure it's important to the work you do to
have people that are both physically and mentally able to
(42:46):
do the work that you have.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, So your message is, you know, don't ignore it
if you see it all night one, Is that what
you're saying.
Speaker 4 (42:56):
Yeah, Yeah, I would say, you know, if you're having
any sort of concerns, do not be afraid people that
you reach out to.
Speaker 5 (43:03):
These resources are not going to judge you.
Speaker 4 (43:04):
As a matter of fact, they're probably gonna, you know,
be in awe of the fact that you're stepping forward
and saying I need some support.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Yeah exactly, I mean calling the resource you're geting to help,
and just even for for me personally, I'd rather have
a buddy or even a stranger, you know, cry My Shoulder,
than have to go to their funeral, right, you know,
just the fact that being just being able to help
is it's powerful.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Those are should say that for I think that was perfect.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yes, cry My Shoulder, Then what are your funeral? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (43:35):
And you just never know the impact you're going to
have on someone just by simply asking them how are
how are you doing? Or I've noticed you've seemed a
little withdrawn lately, like can I help? You know, just
say is there anything I can do to help?
Speaker 1 (43:51):
We got a couple of minutes left, Aaron, you don't
have to change the subject a little bit, but I'm
to change your subject. What's your next product? If that's
coming up?
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Next project got a basically a whole bathroom, living room
remodel and some throwing some tower pairs just to spice
it up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
And I know its every time I wanted the bathroom.
I sort of started with this guy was gonna remodel
his bathroom. And you see the pictures of all the walls.
He just took on all the walls and houses. I
want them replaster. I'm mad at this, which is good.
That's what we do wear a plaster company and that's
what we do. So you know it's great that people
do that. Maybe yeah, both the issues, but yeah, he
(44:32):
decided just wanted to do some regutting.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Yeah, because they're the first picture you'd sell me of.
It was just a couple of small water damage patches.
And then luckily he was nice enough to call you
back out before we went out there and showed us
that it was down to the studs.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
A good remodel is is I just had a guy
at my house last week because I had a plaster
issue with water coming through my original into the kitchen
and he ended up doing wood lambin it for the ceiling.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
And it's I mean thing, Hey, Zach, Uh, what's what
you got up next besides golfing?
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yeah, that take up a lot of my free time in.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
This fireplace is uh. We do talk about your fireplace
every week. And I heard you're putting the heart on
this week.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
Yeah, it's been you know, it's like the old saying
is the shoe Kypler's kid has no shoes, right, So, uh,
you know, doing some thin stone at my own house,
it you know, takes a lot, take a long time
to do versus you know, because they do it for
a day job. But right now, what what we're doing is,
I've been working on a lot of EAPs homes late
late late lately. You know, putting in in kickoff flashing
(45:36):
is just you know, trying to help keep keep the
homeless water water tight. And with it being springtime out,
I'm trying to reminder but you know, make sure your
gutters are clean, because amount of gutters I'm not having
to clean out is.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
Just people say, yeah, hey, my stucco is leaking. You
go up there and the gutters are full of pine needles.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Yeah, you find pine needles, baseballs, tennis balls, and the gutters.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
So uh yeah. So thanks Kathleen for coming in and
on your school board, and congratulations on you're going to
keep running for the county supervisors. Well that's elected position.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
Both of them are in next year. They both happen
to be up in twenty twenty six. At this point
in time, I do plan to run for both school
board and county board again, mainly because I just enjoy
helping out in the community and I think I've been successful.
I've been on the school board for eight years now
and this is my third year on the county board.
Once I retire in three years, it'll actually give me
(46:28):
more time. I probably won't pick up a third job,
but you know, it'll even give me more time to
do the things I'm doing now.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
Yeah, we don't get into politics at our show, but
I can tell you that you know, you show that
you care. So if you're from Greendale, you know people
can hear that you actually do care about people and
you care about the individuals. Thank you, so so thanks
again for coming on, Aaron Zach for coming in help
me out with this, and next week Mike will be
back and I'll be back here with Mike next week.
(46:54):
So I want to thank you all for listening to
Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvements on Fox Sports nine
twenty in iHeartRadio app
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