In this episode, our host is joined by a prominent figure in the fire protection industry, Matt Bass. Matt is a respected influencer who’s been deeply involved in various fire protection communities, particularly on platforms like Facebook. He’s an admin for several fire protection groups, making him a valuable source of information and insights.
In this discussion, we’ll dive into Matt’s journey within the fire protection sector, how he got started, and his perspective on the industry’s trajectory. The conversation will cover a wide range of topics, including exchanging knowledge and expertise between field technicians, office personnel, designers, and engineers.
0:02 – Intro
1:25 – Looking Up Everywhere You Go
3:40 – Who is Matt Bass?
3:57 – A Great Mentor
8:26 – The Importance of Giving Back
9:51 – My Trusty NFPA 25 Handbook
10:45 – YouTube Videos
12:28 – NFPA 25 Inspectors Group
14:57 – Open Feedback
15:42 – Hey, There’s Bob Caputo!
16:23 – Not to Name Drop but Tracy Demy, Ralph Bliss, Tom Parish
17:15 – “Just When I Thought I Was Out…”
17:49 – Need a Job in Antarctica?
20:22 – A Love of Helping People
21:50 – Make a Group Anywhere
23:36 – It’s Global
24:44 – Need Photos of a Specific Sprinkler Head Deficiency?
25:58 – Sarcasm & Snark: We Love to Roast Each Other
26:46 – Our Industry Works Hard and Plays Hard
28:24- Lots of Consolidation in Fire Protection
31:19 – The Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Commanders Trying to be one Team
32:06 – People Starting Their Small Businesses
33:33 – The Age Gap: Younger People Need to Step Up
35:09 – The Experienced People Need to Teach the Next Gen the Details
36:13 – Learn Everything You Possibly Can
37:36 – Quick Response Round!
37:50 – Coolest New Product in Fire Protection
38:06 – Flex Heads!
39:48 – Favorite “Star Wars” Movie?
40:30 – “Return of the Jedi”
40:57 – A Bar? Nope, A Toy Store
41:44- Favorite Dry Pipe Valve?
42:06 – Don’t Over-Engineer Every
44:17 – Wrapping Up
45:07 – Where to Find Matt, aka. Maddie
47:45 – Money isn’t Everything
48:36 – Helping Someone is Worth More Than Dollars
48:59 – Until Next Time
Full Transcript
Drew Slocum:
This is episode 52 of the Fire Protection Podcast powered by Inspect Point. Today my guest is Matt Bass. Matt is a fire protection influencer in the fire protection industry. I met him probably through some of the Facebook groups a few years back, and he’s a very big influencer and admin and a bunch of the groups out there. A lot of information passed around the industry from just technicians in the field to office, people to design and engineer. So it was cool to have Matt on and talk about the industry, get into where he started, but also where the industry’s going. So yeah, make sure to subscribe to the podcast a lot more to come putting a little bit more content out this fall. Inspect point’s. Got a bunch of new features that we’re rolling out this fall as well, so reach out to me or just request a demo. There’s some really cool stuff that we’re doing within the inspection and service side of fire protection. So onto the episode, take care, live here with Matthew Bass, d Matt Bass. I like your profile down there from the Zoom bar. Welcome to the Fire Protection Podcast.
Matt Bass:
Thanks, drew. Thanks for having me.
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, I’ve been meaning to get you on here for, I don’t know, probably a couple years. I remember talking to you a couple years ago, and it is funny where you’re heavily involved in a lot of different social groups and I’m going to call you a fire protection influencer influencer, even though you might not think so. But yeah, it’s good to finally get you on one of these podcasts.
Matt Bass:
Yeah, like I said, glad to be here. I love talking fire shop, so whenever I can do it, I’m sure my wife hates it. I’m sure all of our wives hate it go out in public and they’re like, just tell me what’s wrong. I see looking up, I’ll be looking around.
Drew Slocum:
It’s the looking up thing, right? It’s like as soon as you do this, you’re like, I got a dirty look.
Matt Bass:
She really hates it when we go to restaurants and they have the enunciated right at the entrance. You walk in on Applebee’s and you have the little keypad. She just like, don’t even look. I see it’s yellow, don’t look. And it’s like, I got to look like I know what,
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, you got to see what you’re in for just in case something happens.
Matt Bass:
Yeah, yeah. It’s all safety.
Drew Slocum:
I went into a Broadway, like a theater, I don’t know, in the last year or something in New York, and especially in those theater settings, it’s just kind of, I don’t know, it gets you as a fire protection professional. You’re in this group of people like, all right, how do I get out of here if anything goes wrong? Those old theaters are, there’s usually a deluge system on the stage, but it’s, there’s no sprinkler, so it’s just fire alarm. So how do we get out? And they have a good method in obviously emergency exits and some of the bigger ones, but it’s kind of funny what goes through your mind in some of those public settings.
Matt Bass:
Exactly. Yeah. For her, I doesn’t understand. You just can’t turn it off.
Drew Slocum:
No, I know who’s going to do it. So I guess tell the listeners about you. They might not know who Matthew Bass or Matt, do you go by Matthew or Matt? Either.
Matt Bass:
Probably Matt, probably the best, you know.
Drew Slocum:
All right, Matt, so I guess I know people involved in the industry know who you are, but whoever’s listening that doesn’t know who you are, I guess give who you are, where you kind of came from, how you got into the industry.
Matt Bass:
Oh, yeah. It’s always a good quick question. Yeah, I’ve been doing it for 25 years now, which is kind of crazy to think when you start doing the math. He started doing the subtraction of when you started to where it is now. And I started when I was 19 years old, got into fire protection. Most of us didn’t even know it existed. Had a girlfriend that knew I didn’t like what I was doing, and I told her I wanted to do a job Monday through Friday, but I didn’t want to be in an office, which down quite a bit. So she had a cousin that did fire protection, and the funny thing was I didn’t know anything about fire protection, but I knew that they probably needed information about myself. So I went for a green helper position, which is usually like you can just show up and if you’re breathing, you’ll get hired. I actually showed up with a resume for a 7 25 an hour job,
And I think the owner of the company looked at me and he didn’t even look at it. And I was so taken aback because I was like, oh my God, I spent so much time on that, and he didn’t even look at it. And he literally asked me four questions. He’s like, can you show up on time? Yes. Have you ever worked construction? No. Do you have a reliable car? Yes. And he said, do you have any tools? No. And then he is like, all right, you can start Monday. And I was like, okay. So started doing a sprinkler install, which I think was great. It gave a good foundation for a lot of what I have experience on to see the systems from just blank pipe on the ground to actually hanging them and commissioning them. It was a small company, my first one, so we didn’t have a service team, so the installers were also the service technicians. So at night we would run service calls and I was very ambitious, so I took ’em all, which was also very helpful because if you take all the calls and then the one time the boss is very nice to you because you’ve taken the last 30 calls in a row.
So I got a lot of service experience and a lot of it was by myself at night at two o’clock in the morning. And so you almost have to learn it because you’re there by yourself. We didn’t have Google and Facebook and other things that we could look up then kind of got into, went to VSC fire security. They were looking for inspectors, and I didn’t know anything about inspections, and that’s really kind how I got into inspections. That’s really my bread and butter has been since that point. And then I was very blessed in my career to have really good positive mentors, like managers and leaders around me. And my first real positive manager, his name was Kurt Dubach at VSC Fire and Security. He’s the first one who got me to know about NYS E, and that really propelled my career because he gave me a task of a $500 bonus for passing each level. Wow. I was 24 young with a girlfriend that wanted Outback every Friday, and I was like, $500 bonus hop. Give me all of ’em how I got started and got obsessed with nyce. So I thank him for pushing that button. Once he pushed it, it hasn’t stopped since.
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, no, that’s great. What nyce certifications are you?
Matt Bass:
I have nyce level three and water-based inspections. I have level two for special hazards. I have level three for fire alarm, and I have level two for ITM fire alarm.
Drew Slocum:
Wow.
Matt Bass:
I have quite a few of ’em. So people reach out to me quite a bit for advice because I’ve been doing it for, it seems like a long time.
Drew Slocum:
That’s great. From randomly getting into the industry, be a high level. Nice. And obviously everybody’s for tech questions a lot of times. So weirdly enough, those questions you got as a helper, those four questions because of the lack of technicians in the industry, it’s probably not that much different of a question set. Can you show up on time? Do you have reliable car? Okay, we need you. Right.
Matt Bass:
I mean, that’s kind what we’re looking for anyways. I mean, just can you show up and can you be there and can you be willing to learn? And that’s why I joke because I still think back and I was like, I actually did a resume. I was like, oh my God, what was I thinking?
Drew Slocum:
I know, I know. But now I’ve seen you on social media, Facebook and other places you offer to. I’ve seen you post stuff out there. Hey, I’ll take a quick shot at your resume. I’ll help you out. I think I saw that at one point, right?
Matt Bass:
Yeah. I’ve done it quite a few times because I think with some of the groups, I’ve always tried to, I think again, I was very blessed in my career. I had very good managers and mentors around me, and I always told myself that, look, these people took me under their wing. They didn’t really have to if they wanted to, but they taught me a lot and I’ve wanted to give that back to other people to be a positive leader, to share what I know. Because I think too often people sometimes can get, there’s some job scared of passing on your information, and I truly would pass on everything if you can pass me. I think that’s the ultimate compliment to us is that, Hey, can someone that I trained eventually come back and tell me that they’re making more money than me? I’m not going to be sad.
I’m going to be proud of you. I’m going to be like, heck yeah. So I think showing people that you can offer more than just expertise on how to fix a dry system or fire pump, because right now there’s a lot of companies that are looking for resumes and some of these people have just never built a resume before. They don’t even know where to start. And just things like that, I try to offer to help people so they don’t get into a situation where they just feel uncomfortable. They don’t want to make a change or make a decision because they just don’t know how to do it. And so I think offering people more helpful information besides again, just backup experience or for helpful on ITM, but like, Hey, look, even for your nice set, your work history, I had a gentleman just last night reach out to me that I’ve talked to for off and on for about five years, and this was our first time talking in person.
And of course the first phone call was like, that’s what you sound like, pretty cool. But he had a nice set work history question and he said, I’ll send you over my information and could you review it? And I’m like, yeah, of course. And so I think offering other things to people beyond just again, the helpful on experience, but nys e work history, the recertification process, just different questions. To have that resource to available to people I think is great for the people. Again, I can tell people seem to like it because I get asked questions. I just got asked a question about two hours ago, I have my 25 handbook right here open because the question almost kind of even stomped me a little bit. I had to go back to the main book and get some more information, but I’m going to call him after about two o’clock to give ’em the answer.
Drew Slocum:
Oh, that’s great. What was the question
Matt Bass:
On five-year flow standpipe testing?
Because there’s a lot of, some of the wording, I joke, I said I’m a pictures person, that’s why I love YouTube and videos. You can stop and play it, but these books are amazing, but I wish they would have more demonstration videos. I think that would help people to say, okay, that’s what they mean there, because words can be black and white, but sometimes I think that’s why YouTube is so popular with the videos because you can see so many the informational things and you can stop it and record, stop, rewind it fast forward. But you can also have that aha moment and go, oh, that’s what they’re talking about. So I’m going to try to help ’em out with the question. But that’s what I try to do. I try to be positive where I can. And of course some people know that you are going to get a little side of smart ass or sarcasm here and there, but that comes with it too.
Drew Slocum:
It’s part of the industry, right? You got to have fun with it too.
Matt Bass:
Oh yeah.
Drew Slocum:
Yeah. It’d interesting if NFPA, I don’t think NFPA will ever get into videos. I know they obviously do some training, but it would be nice to throw videos out there of real life. I mean, we could even do it with our platform potentially just the basics of this requirement per 25 or whatever you’re doing. And there’s always a gray area. There’s always going to be instances where it’s not going to be black and white. So social media wise, I think we talked about this on Do and tape last week when I was on, there’s like 10 to 20,000 members on some of these Facebook groups, right?
Matt Bass:
Yeah. The main one that I help on is the NFP 25 inspectors forum. I think there’s almost 8,000 members across, and it’s not just United States, it’s Canada. There’s other countries that are represented. The one that’s called nyep Fire Alarm online. I think they have 11,000, almost 12,000 members in there. And there’s other ones for special hazards, and they have other groups as well. There’s even one for NFP, for 10 for extinguishers. Just that’s kind how I enjoyed those groups is knowing that I can talk to people and see or hear that whatever I’m experiencing or going through is almost similar to what someone over in Seattle, Washington, somewhere so far away from us, and I’m in Raleigh, North Carolina. And to hear that someone is experiencing the same thing or having the same problem with a valve or a system or a panel, I think that was just cool to know that there’s others out there experiencing what we’re experiencing, that we’re not alone. I think that was one of the biggest draws I had is that you could post something and be like, oh, okay, so I’m not the only one experiencing this issue with whatever.
Drew Slocum:
Right. Yeah. I didn’t even know about the Nyep fire alarm online. That’s crazy. By the way, I just put in my application to be a member.
Matt Bass:
The main guy, Kyle, he runs that, I think his name Schumer, I’m going to slaughter his last name, but Kyle’s the main guy and he has a lot of good content. He even has some helpful stuff for NY Set. They do quite a bit. But one of the things too I love about the groups is that most of the people don’t understand how much is actually in the group itself. But in our N FPA 25 group, we have a whole media section that has all the pictures from people that have posted stuff in the group from when it was first started. So you can scroll through and see just all this cool stuff, actual examples of things that are out there, deficiencies or people to find. But there’s also a file section where people like myself, if you go in the NFP 25 group and look under files, a lot of the ones that have been uploaded are ones by me and a few other people where you can upload helpful. People are always asking like, Hey, which of these heads are on a recall list? And we’ve put all those files in the file group and the groups are more than just going and talking. And even in the n FP 25 group, if you go on there, there’s a video I made a few years ago explaining the whole gambit of what’s available for each of those groups just to make sure people understand just how much valuable, how much value these actually could have for you. So
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, they’ve been super valuable for even us on the software because a lot of times you don’t get the feedback and those are open feedback where you can learn about different products, just different instances in the field and what people are running into. And then what happens is they comment, comment, comment, and again, we essentially take a lot of that feedback and hey, this would be a cool new feature to add, or this would be a new feature to add, or Hey, let me reach out to this person to get more details on that. But it’s a great community to be a part of. And I know there’s a bunch of ’em, just not N FPA 25, there’s extinguisher ones, there’s suppression ones, there’s obviously fire alarm ones.
Matt Bass:
Yeah, there’s even ones for sprinkler head collecting, which is a big thing for people that post pictures for all the heads they’re collecting over the, and there’s some people, like there’s a guy named Danny who’s from Canada. He and I are pretty close, and I’m always roasting him once in a while because I said, how do you have time to find all these heads and do work too at the same time? That’s
Drew Slocum:
Funny,
Matt Bass:
But even some people will ask about the groups and they’re saying, oh, but it’s Facebook. And I said, because you can go into each of these groups and look, once you get into ’em, you can actually go in and see all the members and you’ll be surprised how many high level people from our industry are actually in there. There’s like the Bob Caputo’s, the Tracy Bellamy, the Tom s. And I tell people, if these didn’t have legit helpful information, I don’t think those industry titans would be in these groups. And you see Tom, and the thing I do enjoy too is that those people, like a Bob Caputo, he’ll chime in every once in a while. Oh yeah, great to see that. To see the president of AFSA or a Tom Parish, if you go on the fire alarm one, Tom is always commenting. Which again, I think it helps show people that even people, their level who formed our businesses that we have, they’re willing to step in and help out people with questions. And I think that solidifies those groups. If those groups didn’t have value, you wouldn’t see a Tracy Demy or a Ralph Bliss or Tom Parish or Bob Caputo in those groups. And so that to me is also why I enjoy ’em because you have that kind of level in there willing to also offer their guidance to the masses.
Drew Slocum:
And I was off Facebook for a while, but the groups brought me back in. It’s actually one of the best things that Facebook did is brought in these groups and it’s just like these channels of people on whatever, and it’s tremendously helped out to just different niches in life. So yeah, obviously if you’re listening, join up. Obviously there’s some credentials you got to put in just that you’re not going to spam them or put up advertisements or whatever. But
Matt Bass:
Yeah, even some of the groups I’ve posted things like I’ll say a posting for a supervisor position or a manager position, and I’ll post it and just saying, Hey, look, I’m trying to make this more widespread so people can see it, more visibility to it. So if you have that desire to do that, and even one of the guys in the 25 group, I posted a position for, it was a manager position for down in Antarctica to run the property down there. And to this day, he always thanks me and says, man, because of you, I knew that job was out there and I got it. And he always just says that Thanks, just for even posting it. So I even knew that it was available for me. And so now he’s the director down there and he’s always,
Drew Slocum:
Oh, that’s awesome.
Matt Bass:
So the groups are not just for chatting, but I’ve posted job postings to help out people to get, again, to say if you want to move into that role. And that’s also things I’ve also offered to say, look, if you’re looking to go from a tech field position into a supervisor manager, if you need help with that transition, I’ll be willing to help you. I had to do that myself. And so I think the groups offer just so much more and people will post. And even one of the reasons I even first got into the group was because of the networking availability through the groups for a while, there were people at one of my companies were asking me because other offices were using recruiters to find workers,
Drew Slocum:
And
Matt Bass:
They came to my office and said, what are you doing different? Because you’re recruiting balance is like zero. You haven’t used it at all. And I said, I’m not. I’m recruiting through other means. And they’re like, well, what are you doing? And as soon as I mentioned Facebook, they all kind of laughed at me and I’m like, no, but I’m finding people, I’m posting stuff like, Hey, we’re looking. If you do it the right way, you can post actual positions. And there’s even one of the groups is for job positions for fire protection. And you can post positions there. And through the networks I’ve met people and say, Hey, where do you live? And they’re like, oh, I live in this state. And I’m like, well, I have an opening in that state, would you be willing to just entertain it? And so I think there’s a lot of value to at it and beyond just the stereotype of it’s Facebook and it’s just not useful. But to me, I’ve actually found it so useful that I use it daily. Of course, my wife sometimes gets a little angry when she’s like, who are you helping now? And I’m like,
Drew Slocum:
Got to get your consulting hat business going next.
Matt Bass:
There’s always that thought of monetizing it. But honestly, I love because I think too, it falls on my history. My parents were both educators,
Drew Slocum:
So
Matt Bass:
I grew up in a house of just everything you should learn, you should teach to other people. And I just have a passion for it. I do it to this day. Like I said, I usually get about two messages every day from one of the groups of someone asking for advice, guidance, which again, I love that because if I know I can help somebody and they didn’t have another avenue. And also what makes it best for me to feel good is that I’m a total stranger to these people and they still feel the need that I can maybe help them out or point in the right direction. So to know that these people reached out to me, they don’t know me from the next door neighbor or whoever, and they feel confident that maybe I can help them, that makes me feel good that I don’t even know most of these people, but they still reach out.
Drew Slocum:
No, that’s great. It’s obviously something for you too because empowering and it’s a good feeling, obviously going back to your education with your parents. No, that’s awesome. So I was talking to the guys on the show the other day about the Facebook stuff came up and they’re on Discord and some other ones. And I think there’s ripe by opportunity, it’s just to go to other platforms. It’s just there’s nothing really set up for groups and everybody’s on Facebook. I think eventually something may happen, but again, most people are on Facebook and that’s a tough way.
Matt Bass:
Yeah,
Drew Slocum:
That’s the way it’s going.
Matt Bass:
And plus, because I think it’s so easy because if you or I just wanted to make a group on something about fire production, you can go and make a group right now, it takes about five minutes to make a group and then you can share it with your friends and other people. And so I think the ease of it and the fact that you can, so many of us use Facebook, whether it’s for personal or for business or for both myself, I can friend people and I can probably do a group today and probably have 500 people in the chat, or at least within probably a week time just saying, Hey, come here. And so I think it’s easier to set it up and plus so many of us, I think like to entertain this knowledge. And so when you actually go into these groups, you can actually see who are friends of yours that are in the group.
And you’ll notice almost most of us are probably in four or five of the groups. We’re not just usually in one. There’s a lot of us that are covering a lot of groups. And then there’s even groups down to specific panels if you want to join a panel group on for Honeywell or that kind of stuff to meet people that if you have a question that’s specific to a brand, there’s even groups down to that level. I just think that there’s so much value that you can get from that because you’re talking to live people all parts of the country. But again, dealing with maybe the same issue that you’re dealing with and the volume that you can reach people, I think is what makes it helpful for me. I can talk to someone. I mean actually literally today I had a call from Alberta, Canada. I posted a question about something, I was looking for an answer, and the gentleman messaged me and I said, Hey, you mind calling me? And he called me this morning and we chatted, and he’s a fire official up in Alberta, Canada. So those are things I just couldn’t get through. Maybe a discord or
I can reach so many people through Facebook because this is, again, not just United States, it’s Canada. I’ve talked to people in other countries, great Britain and stuff like that. So to me, it’s a huge value I can touch. I get to so many people quickly.
Drew Slocum:
Oh yeah, yeah. It’s the information age where everybody’s connected and you can literally Google or put in GPT now you have obviously the social networks to get that knowledge out there. Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, I look forward to, I got to explore a few more now that you’re mentioning all these different groups. I just saw there’s a Honeywell one that has 20,000 members. It’s like, oh, wow, all right. I’m never going to get hyper into there, but I like to look at the problems of the industry, and that’s what we’re obviously trying to solve. So you get the problems through there, you get the pros, you get the cons. People are kind of real on there and they tell you how it is in the field.
Matt Bass:
Oh yeah. And I think that’s what, because there’s even industry people like Vince Powers from nsf.
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, yeah. I say
Matt Bass:
In and he’ll say, Hey, can you all send me pictures of your sprinkler head deficiencies that where the bulb is leaked out or something? And people will just start pumping all these pictures and it’s like there’s not a platform. I think you can get that, get that kind of response and quickly response. There’s ones for sprinkler fitters for union, there’s ones for non-union. There’s so many out there that if you have a desire, and again, when you see 20,000 people in a group, I mean there has been some value for those people to want to join that and be in that group for that long. So I think there’s some really good value that if people just took a chance and looked at it and just chimed in, and you probably will see that, yeah, you’re going to get some sarcasm, some one-offs here and there. And it’s even funny because in the NFP 25 group, people know me now that they’ll actually private message me and say, Hey, Matt, before I post this and you roast me like crazy, can you let me know if this’s a good question? I give them the blessing and say, yep, go with it. I won’t roasty too bad.
Drew Slocum:
Then you get people, I don’t know, being snarky about it and it’s like it’s got to be open because not everybody’s at the same level.
Matt Bass:
And even the gentleman who called me yesterday, they had a question for his work history. I told him, I said, look, if most people could see me when I’m actually typing the words, I’m actually probably laughing like 90% of the time, almost people. My wife always says, do you joke about everything? It is. I usually, I love laughing, I love joking, I love having fun. So there’s really not much seriousness behind anything. If I ever said anything, if I ever hurt someone’s feelings, you have to almost know that behind that, I was actually laughing. I was actually trying a good time. I wasn’t again, trying to, I’m more about helping the people. And again, that’s a lot of times if a person has a question, I said, look, if you just call me once you hear my voice, you’ll understand. I’m here to help. I’m just a big jokester. And again, unfortunately, being in construction in the early age, my foremans taught me how to be a smart ass. And
Drew Slocum:
That’s what I liked about the trades. That’s what I like about the industries can’t be all serious. You got to have fun with it, even if it’s in the niche.
Matt Bass:
Because even when people may hear some curse words, I always tell ’em, but listen to the curse word. I’m not saying it to you. I’m describing something. I’m using it as an attitude. Different how you say it.
Drew Slocum:
Right. So obviously great career, got nice at certifications, variety of different large companies in the kind of mid Atlantic Southeast. So what are you up to now? I know you’re working at Amazon. I guess what, what’s different about that than what you were doing before?
Matt Bass:
Yeah, it’s a different opportunity because before I was working for contractors that were always looking out for work, always having to go get the next job or the next inspections. And so there was always a constant, you could never sit back and actually try to help a lot. You were constantly trying to chase the work. And obviously with most of the companies, they’re trying to run some kind of a profit, so you have to constantly watch numbers, watch manpower, and after doing it for 23 years, it started to weigh on me a little bit because sometimes there was deciding where the profits lie versus doing it the right way sometimes, which is unfortunate, trying to make sure that we’re doing it the right way. And especially too with a lot of the companies that are getting gobbled up and there’s not as many just outlying family owned companies.
There’s probably still some more, but there’s a lot of consolidation with companies right now. And it’s more about, I think to me it’s just a personal opinion. It’s more about profits and I think there’s some of the other stuff’s taking a backseat. And I just thought there was another way, and this opportunity came kind of fell in my lap and realizing that I could work for just one company and be on the other side where I’m more a consultant helping out and going in the right direction, actually being able to use the knowledge I have because in my prior positions as managers and I was, most of my job was really just to bottom line was to produce profit for the company, take care of the customers and produce profit. And this is a little different. I can actually use my knowledge and my expertise to actually help and guide people in the right direction. So it’s just a different side of it and not having to chase the work all the time. It is nice. It’s a breath of fresh air to actually say, I can actually help people and I can use the 25 years I’ve gained of install service and inspections to help and guide people in the right direction.
Drew Slocum:
There is a lot of consolidation in the market and I think it’s going to continue. Obviously the private equity world, which caress about profit is kind of taken over the industry. There’s pros and cons to it and obviously the con is just always looking at profit and maybe not fire protection all the time, but I think there’s some good to that too. It’s just, I guess where do you see it going? I have some opinions on it. I’d be interested to see what your thoughts on, I guess pros and cons of that consolidation and where does that go from here?
Matt Bass:
Yeah, that’s a good question Drew. And one I think a lot of us have looked at and talked about because sometimes you can go on LinkedIn and there’s companies that are getting bought it seems like almost every week now. It’s too because it’s kind of spiked the last five or six years. There was many years before this that you hardly ever heard about this many acquisitions so quickly. It’s a little different pace than I think many of us were used to. And seeing that uptick that had me only work just because you’re taking so many of these individual unique companies and putting ’em all under one umbrella. And just because I’ve experienced that, I was with a company that acquired three other companies at the same time, and it was more of a battle than it was a coming together because it was who was going to be the dominant company, who was going to be the dominant team.
And it really was not a path I wanted to go down because it seemed like it was more of a battle than it was, Hey, we’re one team. It was almost like, because one of the companies, they put two companies that actually did the exact same thing. It was like having the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Commanders and saying, Hey, we’re going to be one team. It’s like, that’s not going to work. I don’t care how you do that. It’s going to be impossible to put that together and not have some issues. And I just think with that kind of consolidation, I just don’t see how you’re going to benefit the business by bringing all these companies with different personalities, backgrounds, and then also be taking care of the customers and doing the right job. I don’t see how those two can play.
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, I feel like we’re in that, and I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon. I think it’s a good bad part of the industry. But what’ll happen, and this has happened before in the industry 20, 30 years ago when cex Grinnell acquired, they were Tyco back in the day I started my career with, they were just acquiring everybody. And then they ended up the managers and technicians and the field techs there, they go out and start their own company. So it’s almost like this cycle where because there’s such a need for knowledge and labor within the space, they could go out and start their own thing and they’ll have to grow it, and they have those growing pains. And I think there’s better tools for an owner operator, a small company to really make a business these days. It’s just making that jump. How do you make that jump? And then there’s also a generational age gap where you and I are kind of in that middle where there’s a gap of there’s a lot of fire protection professionals that are retirement age or getting pushed out then, so who fills that void? We’re kind of that next generation, but there’s also who’s behind us as well.
Matt Bass:
That to me is actually probably the bigger issue than anything else is that I’m sure most of us have seen it, and I’ve actually posted it in the groups before and it’s like, how many of you have gone to a training recently or to an AFSA meeting or some of these other different meetings and there’s just not a good range of ages in there. There seems to be a very high one higher age group, and that’s a good thing, the ones that probably help build our industry to what it is today, but it also means they’re going to probably be retiring in the next 10 years and who’s going to fill that? Like you said, who’s going to fill that gap? Because even at NFPA, they had one of the training sessions was they’re looking for new instructors to come on for NFPA to teach the classes is because honestly, some of the Baca, kudos and raw blesses, I mean, they built our industry, but I’m sure they probably want to go play with their grandkids or something, join some time, and they need us now, our generation to step in and start taking those leadership roles in either these companies or these organizations to provide the next level and start now us being those people in those leadership roles.
So I think there’s going to be a little bit of a gap. And also I think just how the industry has changed too, because people like myself, when I first came up, we started as installers, then we went to service, then you went to inspections. A lot of these companies now are just taking people right from green to inspectors and they’re almost expecting that they’re going to give the same value of work versus the person who has experience. And it’s like, I think there’s a gap there because I’ve dealt with that personally and I’ve seen too much where they say, well, how come so-and-so write up these deficiencies better and document everything we need to know of how to make a proposal. And I say, well, that person doesn’t know what’s above the ceiling or behind the wall, or they’ve never done that, so how are you going to expect them to know all the components or all the what ifs that could be used to make a proposal because they’ve done it.
And that piece we’re losing because there’s people like myself, when I wrote up my deficiencies for my inspections, most of the salespeople were like, oh my gosh, I can basically just put a number to this and send it out. I gave them labor, all the details, I gave ’em material lists, I gave ’em everything they would need to do to get this work completed. I think we’re losing that. And it’s not a bad thing. I mean, obviously we want people to have opportunities, but I think that informational background experience of installing it and servicing, I think we’re slowly losing that from this new generation of people that are in our business.
Drew Slocum:
And I think getting in the industry is important and trying to obviously experience is big. I always gravitated toward the associations and try to learn as much as raise your hand, go to a training, want to go to these conferences. You learn a lot. The more exposure you are, and if you get involved in the associations, they’ll take anybody on. You go to these, if it’s local, go to these chapter meetings during the evening. I know it’s tough with everybody’s time and families and all that, but you could do one every other month, get out, meet people. And I think the numbers like 30% or less people or contractors in the market are part of an association, which is I think has definitely dropped. And there’s consolidation going on too, so it’s definitely going to drop even more.
Matt Bass:
Yep. Oh yeah.
Drew Slocum:
But all right, shifting over. I could talk to you for hours about different things.
Matt Bass:
I’m the same way. Like I said, my wife sometimes goes, can we have one conversation without you either being interrupted on your phone from a text or a Facebook or a phone call? She’s like, can I just have my husband for an hour this afternoon?
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, right. Well you a few quick response. I call it the quick response around some quick response questions. And the first one doesn’t have to be quick. What’s the coolest new product? Infire protection doesn’t have to be sprinkler can be whatever. What is the kind of product out there that you think could change the industry?
Matt Bass:
It is going to sound kind of funny, but flex heads, oh my God, I know that they’ve been around for a little while, but for someone like me who came through the industry and I had actually nipple in 90 over the pipe and put a hanger on there and get it center of tile, I can’t tell you how many times with my first foreman, he would come behind us and he was very particular. He said, if they’re calling for center of tile on the sprinkler head, it needs to be 12 by 12. And he would take out his stick ruler and go behind it and measure it. And if it was 11 by 13, you were redoing it had to be 12 by 12. And seeing these flex heads where you can actually just get centered the first time and you’re done. I mean, I’m so jealous of the guys and the guys that can do that because we didn’t have that when we used to do install. We used to have competitions on who could pipe this many heads in, and he would just do that. But then again, my foreman would come behind us and measure each one and be like, he said, I should be able to look down that row of heads. And if they’re all 12 by 12, I should only see one head. If I see any other head popping out, you’re going to fix it. And it’s like, come on, Richard.
I’m just so jealous of that technology for flex Heads. I’m just jealous. I wish I had it when I was doing it. So
Drew Slocum:
That’s funny. Yeah, that’s funny. Yeah, they’ve come a long way. I remember just being involved in New York City market probably five to 10 years ago, they wouldn’t even allow them really enough. I think they’re finally allowed there, but it’s just, it’s an easy technology and it solves a potential. It just makes it quicker.
Matt Bass:
I’m just jealous. I never got to be able to use them because I just got out of install when they started coming on the market and I was like, oh my God, do you know how fast I could have been installing those?
Drew Slocum:
Right, right. All right, next question. Favorite Star Wars movie or series?
Matt Bass:
Yeah, I just watched, I’m big on Star Wars as most people. It’s actually funny because in the groups, people know I’m a Star Wars fan, people will actually message me. Bill Hayes, he’s one of the guys in the group. He actually sent me something just about four months ago. It was a tin can for candy and cookies, but it had the Star Wars on there and he sent it to me. And so I get stuff quite a bit from fans that know that I’m big into it. Best series I think is, I mean, I’m going go with original. I mean, I’m an eighties kid, so one of my best memories was going with my dad to see Return of the Jedi. I think I was five years old, but that memory with my dad I think was the best part was just being with him. But then it was with the Star Wars and it is never left my, that’s the other thing. My wife laughs is most people that know me, I’m big on collecting and that kind of stuff. And so I think when Toys R Us closed, I think I actually had tears in my eyes. That was
When I used to be an inspector. You get to go around to all the facilities. And when the GPSs first came out, my first boss said, Hey Matt, I need to call you into the office. I have some questions on your travel paths. We have a little concern that maybe you’re going other places with your company vehicle. And so they pulled it up and they had all these other locations and he said, can you please explain? Because of course they’re thinking maybe like a bar or something. And he said, can you please explain all these stops you’re making after these jobs? And I said, those are toys or Russ and KB toys. And he was like,
Drew Slocum:
KB toys. Wow.
Matt Bass:
He looked at me, of course, I think they were thinking it was like a bar or something. And when I said KB or Toys or rus, he said, oh my God.
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, that must’ve been a fun laugh in the room.
Matt Bass:
Yep.
Drew Slocum:
That’s great. All right. This is favorite dry pipe valve
Matt Bass:
Viking by far.
Drew Slocum:
What model?
Matt Bass:
Just the moment that you can put the handlebar in there and just pop a clapper right down
Drew Slocum:
F,
Matt Bass:
That’s the one I’ve always used. And it’s just have something about that. It’s so reliable. I don’t have many issues with it. And I think sometimes some of these, we try to over, we specialized the system, the valve, and it just makes it more complicated. I actually just did a training on just that very thing because sometimes these new drive valves have the water priming line, which is great, but it’s the number one issue when someone says, Hey, I got everything shut down, but I still hear water running. And I’m like, you didn’t close the priming line. And they’re like, oh, that’s what that was. And I’m like, yep. So I think you can over-engineer some of these. And a Viking valve to me is just so simple. It’s just pop in, clapper down and you keep on going.
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, I think manufacturers get on the side of install, that’s where they make their money install. They don’t always take in the account of service and inspection and maintenance. And hopefully that changes. I think it’s maybe starting to, but just the materials of the valve. That valve, when I worked for Viking, I think we had to replace some clappers that were from the 1940s somewhere in New York City. I forgot where it was. Might’ve been in airport or something, but it was from the 1940s. They still worked. They just needed a gasket replacement and it was just like, oh wow. That’s crazy.
Matt Bass:
Yeah, because even some of the newer drive valves, I feel bad. I had a friend of mine send me a video of one of them, how to set it up, and I responded to them. I was literally just like, oh my gosh. I wrote down 15 steps. Some of them were almost the number of steps you have to remember for all the different valve and actuators and things you have to work on. It’s just you’re engineering a device that it’s so easy you’re going to miss something or forget something. And some of the older dry valves were just very simple, the clapper down water on top of it. And I guess that’s probably of my mentality. Maybe people say I’m old school, but I like simple. I used to do those service calls at two o’clock in the morning and we didn’t have the ability to watch a video done on how to reset stuff. And so a Viking valve to me, which is so simple, just clapper down, pop it, lock it, go.
Drew Slocum:
Well with the Viking, I think you could hit the QR code and get a video of it now. Or at least I started my career manufacturing the Tyco dry valve. I’ve probably brought that up too many times, but that’s a gray valve as well. I remember then going to Viking, I’m like, oh man, this thing’s, it’s a tank, but it’s not going anywhere. And that’s going to be there 20 years down the line. Easy.
Matt Bass:
Yep.
Drew Slocum:
Well, cool. Thanks Matt for joining the podcast today. It was a little bit of everything and kind of talking about how you’re influencing the fire protection community. I guess tell everybody where we can find you on social media and any contact info,
Matt Bass:
Facebook and LinkedIn, you just go look on there. And if you go into those groups, the other thing, lot of the groups is their private groups, so whatever you talk in there or chatting there is not going to see on your regular feed. So no one’s going to be seeing what’s going on. So just getting onto Facebook or LinkedIn and you’ll see me pop up, I get a lot of comments, I get a lot of questions. And again, I love it because again, I try to help out people and probably one of the biggest questions I get, and it’s just a cool quick story to end the taping is on LinkedIn. My nickname is Maddie, and people ask me where that came from. And it was at one of my companies, FLSA, Jack Mech, I was was the inspections manager. I had 40 some people under me.
We were in the warehouse, had everybody going through a training session. I was the manager up on the front talking to all my technicians and helping ’em out. And you’re trying to put off that bravado of like, Hey, I’m not only the big chief, but hey, I’m here to help you guys. I’m the boss, whatever. And then all of a sudden out of nowhere, Jack goes, Hey, good job, Maddie. And it was one of those nicknames I didn’t know he was going to call me that. And all of a sudden all my guys go, Maddie. Oh, okay. And I was like, my face got blood red. I was like, where did that come from? Because most of us were trying to have that strong bravado type outside exterior. And when he dropped that Maddie, it was just like everybody in the group was just looking at me and just started laughing. And I was like, I don’t know where that came from. It’s funny. And of course that just kind of stuck. And then people started calling me, Hey, what’s up Maddie? I’m
Drew Slocum:
Like, that’s good though. I mean, obviously you’re known through those channels before, so it’s good to be known and I think social media is a great way to do that. Kind of a personal brand behind it too.
Matt Bass:
Oh yeah. Yeah. I enjoy it. Like I said, just knowing the fact, if I can help change someone’s direction or help ’em, put ’em in the right direction or give ’em some guidance, that will help. If they’re looking for a new role or a new position, I mean, that’s why I do it because again, I’m trying to showcase that there are positive leaders out there that will help you out. And again, that’s why I get asked so many questions daily. It it’s crazy, and if I can ever monetize it, I’ll be okay. But right now I just enjoy knowing that I’m helping people.
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, money’s not always everything. Sometimes you got to feel good about what you’re doing, right? I think that’s a big part of life.
Matt Bass:
Yeah, I think probably the biggest callback I enjoy is when someone will reach out to me after a year or two and be like, Hey man, thank you so much for your feedback. It helped me so much. And that means a lot to know that people didn’t have to reach back out after I gave ’em the advice or gave them the input. And it is actually how I got to where I’m today. I helped a gentleman and with some nice set and stuff, and people just always will reach out and say, thank you so much because what you did for me, I helped people get their CFPS, the Certified Fire Protection Specialist, and people will reach out two years later and be like, because of what you did, give me the advice and going for it. I’m either making really good money now or I’m in a really good position. And that makes you feel good. It makes you feel good at the end of the day.
Drew Slocum:
Yeah, yeah. No, it’s important. And it’s worth more than dollars. Is that just that good feeling if you’re doing something good for somebody or the community? Yep. Well, thanks Matt for stopping on. I’ll, I’ll get this all prepped up and look to chat more and being involved in some of these Facebook groups.
Matt Bass:
Awesome. Drew, thanks.
Drew Slocum:
This was episode 52, the Fire Protection Podcast, powered by Inspect point. I want to thank Matt Bass again for coming on talking Star Wars, all the fun, fire protection stuff. So appreciate him. We’ll definitely have him on. Again, he’s a nice neutral independent source within the fire protection industry. So yeah, hopefully enjoyed it and see you here again soon. Thanks.
