Janeen Oliver is a Third Generation Family Concreter and Advocate for Trade Recruitment

Janeen Oliver is “not your average concrete rep” because it’s all about being hands on, boots on the ground with the crew and then working her day job.

You already know this if you follow @concrete_diva and if you don’t, today Mike Knoche of The Contracting Handbook podcast hosts Janeen to hear her story as a third generation concreter, leaving the family biz, returning after a couple few careers and repping for the company that eventually bought her dad’s company.

The labor deficit in North America (and everywhere) fueled Janeen’s push to help found the Crew Collaborative @the.crew.collab , an organization formed to recruit more youth into the trades through classroom talks and outreach programs.

Janeen is all about her relationships on the ground. She shows up before the (mega) pour starts, helps keep the ball rollin’, keeps the crew fed with food and support and it does not go unnoticed when she’s not onsite) as indicated by texts she received just before we recorded on a Monday morning…).

The tough days start at 1:30 am on site, working through the 9-5 part of the day, returning to a pour, napping and then back at it in the middle of the night. Are you getting a sense of “not you’re average sales rep?

She’s part of a crew that’s building the Los Angeles skyline but Mike can’t help but wonder out loud how they deal with extreme heat and concrete curing. She uses ice, Mike uses blankets. A cool contrast, lol!

She’s content where she’s at and leaving the door open for opportunity.

Then, a brief dive into whether tradies should need to take on side jobs to make ends meet and how price cutting during bad economic times is incredibly difficult to recover from.

Skilled trades, values, tools (very specific!), best jobsite jams (we’ve got a first folks!) and you know there’s always those nuggets!