How I Built a Self-Running Training System That Stopped the Revolving Door
The Breakthrough Nobody Saw Coming
After years of chasing employees around like a babysitter with a clipboard, I hit a breaking point.
If I had to explain how to install an antenna one more damn time, I was either going to lose my voice or my mind. Probably both.
So I thought to myself: “What if I just record this once, and never say it again?”
That was the moment everything changed.
The Pallet Training Pad
Now, let’s get one thing clear—I wasn’t some polished business owner back then. I was a 20-something kid just trying to keep the lights on.
So what did I do? I dragged out a pallet, bolted a dish and an antenna to it, and declared: “Boom, here’s the training pad.”
Looking back, it was laughably amateur. Honestly, it looked like a middle school science project gone wrong. But you know what? It worked.
That pallet became my “studio.” I set up a camera, sweated my ass off in the Texas heat, and walked through installs step by step:
* How to put the dish up.
* What to do when things went sideways.
* How to troubleshoot without blowing up my phone every five minutes.
Ugly? Yes. Amateur? Definitely. But it was the start of a system that saved my sanity.
The Real-World Recordings
Backyard training was good, but I knew the real magic was in the field.
And here’s where my amateur self really showed. I could’ve just ordered a damn phone stand off Amazon—or whatever was popular back then. But no. The rookie in me decided to actually pay someone just to hold the camera.
Half the time, this guy didn’t even know what the hell he was doing. The camera was shaky, sometimes zoomed in on the wrong thing, sometimes pointing at the sky. But in hindsight? Not the worst decision. Because he managed to grab close-up shots of wires, bolts, and little details a tripod never could.
So there I was, sweating in the Texas heat, explaining jobs while my “one-man film crew” fumbled around. We still managed to capture at least 20 installs—different setups, different problems, and plenty of *“oh sh*t, watch how this gets fixed”* moments.
It looked amateur, because it was. But it got the job done.
The Extra Pieces That Made It Work
I didn’t stop at just install videos. I added all the stuff that used to drive me insane when employees screwed it up:
* The toolbox checklist: because showing up without the right ladder? That was my breaking point.
* Compliance picture requirements: no more redoing jobs because someone “forgot the photo.”
* Safety procedures & SOPs: because the last thing I needed was another dumb, avoidable injury.
* Inventory management: because I got sick of hearing *“Boss, we’re out of parts”* when I knew damn well we weren’t.
Bit by bit, I built a six-hour training library.
The Filter That Saved My Sanity
Here’s where it clicked.
I made new hires binge-watch the entire training series before they ever touched a job.
Then they had to sit down with me in the office, where I grilled them with questions. The serious ones passed. The half-ass ones? They folded instantly.
It was like a bullsh*t detector for employees. No more wasting weeks figuring out who was going to quit anyway—I filtered them out in the first meeting.
The Payoff
That training system saved me from the insanity of groundhog-day training.
* No more babysitting.
* No more repeating myself like a broken record.
* And way fewer “bad news” calls from the field because my guys actually knew what the hell they were doing.
Was it perfect? Hell no. But it gave me one thing I didn’t have before: consistency. And in business, consistency is king.
What’s Next
But training was just the beginning. Once I cracked that, I realized I could systemize everything else too—safety, compliance, inventory—you name it.
Read Blog 3: Scaling Systems – From Training to Safety, Compliance, and Inventory Management.
🔥 This version now has:
* The pallet rig story (scrappy, funny, relatable).
* The clueless cameraman detail (“didn’t know what the hell he was doing”).
* Moderate profanity for authenticity.
* Smooth storytelling arc → problem → scrappy solution → payoff → lead-in.
