Ethan Conlon and Barrett Howard

[00:03] ETHAN CONLON: My name is Ethan Conlon. I'm 33 years old. Today is November 27, 2022. We are in the east wing of the White House. I'm here with Barrett Howard.

[00:17] BARRETT HOWARD: I'm Barrett Howard. I'm 22. Today is November 27, 2022. We are in the east wing of the White House, and I am here with Ethan Conlon.

[00:29] ETHAN CONLON: So, Barrett, how has it been over the last week? Being here installing artwork with me in the east colonnade and in the blue room.

[00:41] BARRETT HOWARD: Okay, so it's been kind of ridiculous. It's a lot of fun. Not. Didn't think I'd ever be good at art, which. This is kind of proving me entirely wrong. Um, wild. Um. It's one of the more interesting things I think I've ever done.

[00:58] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah, I'd say so.

[00:59] BARRETT HOWARD: It's.

[00:59] ETHAN CONLON: I mean, yeah. I've come from a situation where this is what I do for a living, and I love what I do, and it is still nothing that I ever expected I would find myself in the situation of. So it.

[01:17] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah. One of the things I was noticing with y'all is it's very much. People were asking, like, how'd you end up here? And I'm like, well, they do this for a living.

[01:23] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah.

[01:24] BARRETT HOWARD: Like, how'd you get here? And talking about how I bumped into you through welding on. On your studio's building.

[01:32] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah. Well.

[01:33] BARRETT HOWARD: And then coming to work with you with all the different, like, the welds that you've been doing and projects.

[01:39] ETHAN CONLON: Well, it's been a lot of fun, and, you know, you gotta go hide.

[01:43] BARRETT HOWARD: In all the back rooms and fun things in this building, which was.

[01:46] ETHAN CONLON: There's so many different things that you never consider if you're not here. So I found that really fascinating. And I was also really fascinated by the wide variety of people that we were working side by side with.

[02:03] BARRETT HOWARD: Yes. Because it varied wildly from, like, the people who are planning out the. The different displays and the different trades that came here to do the displays was also really interesting, from plasma cut wood to hand cut wood to our entire metal monstrosity.

[02:18] ETHAN CONLON: Oh, yeah. And we saw electricians, carpenters, you know, you name it. There was people from all sorts of backgrounds. We saw teachers. We saw. I mean, floral designers, you name it. There were all sorts of people required to make this sort of thing happen and make it. Make it a reality. But I guess my question for you is, I know we met several years ago, or maybe a year and a half ago, something like that. And at the time, you were just kind of starting out on your journey as. As a metal worker and a craftsman. And, you know, I think you've come a long way since then. What's been the most interesting part of that journey?

[03:16] BARRETT HOWARD: Probably the most interesting part is transitioning from. So I met. Right before I met you, I was working at a drilling company, and they did geotechnical, and it was the big, muddy, heavy duty drill rigs. And I was doing all of their construction, welding, and hard facing and repairs because they would go out every day and break their equipment.

[03:39] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah, I bet they were pretty good at breaking their equipment, right?

[03:42] BARRETT HOWARD: Oh, I definitely had a heavy hand in breaking their equipment, but I switched after I left them. I bumped into Taylor, who helps run your building, my neighbor, and was talking to him about something, and he introduced me to you as you were doing. You were doing handrails?

[04:02] ETHAN CONLON: Oh, yeah.

[04:02] BARRETT HOWARD: Setting up the set of handrails outside that warehouse. And we got to talking, and at that point, I was very quickly transitioning from an industrial, dirty, heavy industry career to what has become an art installation at the White House. And that's probably the most interesting transition I think, I've ever made, because I never thought I'd make that kind of transition, which is one of the coolest things. I think I've learned a lot from you specifically.

[04:37] ETHAN CONLON: Well, you've been pretty good at absorbing information and problem solving and picking up clues from the context around us, and I think that's a really important part of working in our fields, respectively.

[04:58] BARRETT HOWARD: Which get closer and closer together, as I've noticed.

[05:01] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah, well, I do so much that requires metalwork or woodwork or mixed media work. And, you know, my time from school and trade school was really influential on my understanding that we really never stop learning.

[05:25] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah. And that was the never learning. Never stopping learning does continue really, really well, because I went to trade school, and that's one of the things that we hit it off really well with, was the fact that you basically alley you to trade school into your college experience.

[05:44] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah, I didn't feel like I had learned quite enough, and so I went and I learned some more, and, you know, at some point, you know, found my way outside the classroom to keep learning. But we all get to a point where we develop independently, and I think that you've got the motivation and drive to do that. Are there other members of your family that have shown that kind of motivation and drive?

[06:12] BARRETT HOWARD: So the really fun one is my father is in the middle of working on his fourth masters.

[06:19] ETHAN CONLON: Wow.

[06:21] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah. And none of them are related. His first master's was in theology. His second master's was in western philosophy. Eastern philosophy. Sorry. Because it was. That's where he learned Sanskrit.

[06:32] ETHAN CONLON: Okay.

[06:33] BARRETT HOWARD: His third one was a b bmade. And the one he's going back for is data analytics, which. Right.

[06:40] ETHAN CONLON: That's a little of everything that made.

[06:42] BARRETT HOWARD: Calling him to tell him I was dropping out of college really fun.

[06:45] ETHAN CONLON: Have you ever heard the term renaissance man?

[06:47] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah.

[06:48] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's something that would describe him, and maybe it's a good thing to strive for.

[06:56] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's one of those never stop learning things. And that's why working at the drilling company and then working here was a lot of fun, because I went to. I thought I was going to end up career, just career fabrication, which has proved not to be the case because I went to school for about a semester, and the first day of second semester, packed up all of my stuff, came home, and on the drive home, enrolled in trade school.

[07:24] ETHAN CONLON: And how nervous were you when you decided you were going to drop out of college or just, you know, pursue a different path?

[07:33] BARRETT HOWARD: Okay, so the day before I dropped out was the most nervous I've ever been. The day after I dropped out was the least nervous I've ever been. Ever. Because at that point, I was 9 hours from home, I had a 96 jeep, and I packed all of my stuff into my car, told the ra, I was like, I'm so I'm. I'm gone. And they were like, are you sure? Yeah, I'm gonna just dip. Packed up, loaded the last little bit, hopped on the road, on the drive home, on my phone, found the trade school I was going to put in the application, and then I called my folks. 3 hours into a nine hour drive, I'm like, so I'm on my way home, but the semester started yesterday. I'm like, yep, I'm headed back. Rolled in trade school already. That's what's happening. Which is shortly before I met you, actually, because I was working for your neighbor. In the interim between when I got back and when trade school started that.

[08:27] ETHAN CONLON: Spring, I remember talking to him about, he said he had known you for a little while.

[08:35] BARRETT HOWARD: And got back, went to trade school.

[08:39] ETHAN CONLON: So even once you dropped out, you really decided, well, there's something more for me, even though this wasn't my path.

[08:49] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah.

[08:51] ETHAN CONLON: And I think that actually reflects a lot on the sort of problem solving that we do together on a daily basis, you know, when we face an obstacle that we don't expect to find or something that we've planned for, doesn't work the way it does. Part of the best way to handle it is to say, okay, well, what's the. Our plan now?

[09:13] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah.

[09:14] ETHAN CONLON: It's one of those, being adaptable and flexible is one of our biggest assets, and it seems like that's something that we're able to apply to our professional as well, as well as our personal lives.

[09:29] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah, look, jump, regret, repeat, or jump. Look, regret, repeating.

[09:34] ETHAN CONLON: Well, I don't know. From where I'm sitting, I don't have a whole lot of regrets.

[09:39] BARRETT HOWARD: Fair would repeat, though.

[09:41] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah. Oh, for sure. Repeat.

[09:45] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah. That was one of the interesting things is going from. I spent. I think the longest I spent is I spent a year after trade school working at a company building playground equipment, just because for that progression, I hadn't never finished really learning anything, because there was always one more machine or one more thing we could make or one more thing we could do. And then eventually, we, you know, company changed hands. They pivoted on what they were doing. And I was like, well, there's nothing else to do that's challenging. Yeah, there's no more challenge. There's no more progression. And I went to the drilling company because they were like, well, we got some interesting problems. Like, the worst. The worst one they had was they grenaded an engine in one of the rigs, and in doing so, split the frame rail of the rig that they then we then had to figure out how to patch so that it could get back into the shop to replace the engine.

[10:40] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah.

[10:41] BARRETT HOWARD: You know, one of those.

[10:42] ETHAN CONLON: I can't even imagine that continuous problem solving moments. But you found something you loved about it.

[10:51] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah.

[10:51] ETHAN CONLON: And, you know, I think of the sort of challenges I faced, and I think of how we've looked at those challenges together, working together, and I think about, okay, every solution we use a different tool to solve, or every solution we approach differently. What's your favorite tool? What's your favorite tool in the shop? And what do you want to use that you haven't tried yet?

[11:28] BARRETT HOWARD: Okay. You're gonna giggle a little bit. Favorite tool in the shop is probably that big hammer.

[11:33] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah. I can understand why.

[11:35] BARRETT HOWARD: Cause it's not moving. You can just make it satisfying. You can make it move, and it's very satisfying.

[11:40] ETHAN CONLON: You gotta love the swing press, man.

[11:47] BARRETT HOWARD: Either the tig welder, for its versatility.

[11:50] ETHAN CONLON: So it can do a little of everything. We even brought it with us for this trip on the chance that we might need it.

[11:57] BARRETT HOWARD: I was really disappointed when we didn't have to, because I really wanted to.

[12:00] ETHAN CONLON: I really wanted to weld in the White House, too.

[12:02] BARRETT HOWARD: Weld in the White House.

[12:04] ETHAN CONLON: I wonder what the Secret Service would have thought.

[12:08] BARRETT HOWARD: Right? Did they let you bring that in through security?

[12:13] ETHAN CONLON: Yes, they did.

[12:14] BARRETT HOWARD: They let us print all sorts of sketchy shit in through security. Sorry. That's good. All right, so I'm curious, can you share a little bit more about that phone call? You got to come do this.

[12:28] ETHAN CONLON: Oh, man. So I got the phone call to come and do this. It was already a really surreal week. We had just finished one project, and I was getting ready for shoulder surgery.

[12:47] BARRETT HOWARD: Wait, this happened way? I thought we had way more lead time on this project than that.

[12:51] ETHAN CONLON: No, we made this happen fast.

[12:54] BARRETT HOWARD: I figured with the way we pulled it together, y'all had been planning this for, like, six months.

[12:58] ETHAN CONLON: Well, I had been planning the shoulder surgery for, like, six months, but we were. I think it was about a month between the time we really realized that, oh, this is going to happen. And before, between we. When we started actually making stuff. So that was. Yeah, not that long ago.

[13:22] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah.

[13:23] ETHAN CONLON: But I will say you're. You're right on the money as far as it really happened quickly. We had. We had a lot of weird things going on that week between, you know, my personal life and work life. But when I got that call, I knew immediately that, well, how could I pass up the opportunity? Yeah. Especially when I knew that we were going to make, what, 56 trees and, you know, canopies for those trees out of metal, cardboard, and whatever other materials we deem necessary. It was quite a challenge to plan it all out, and you were a big help with, you know, problem solving and troubleshooting the different elements of that design.

[14:26] BARRETT HOWARD: So the most probably the more interesting part of this process as a whole, not just this trip, was slowly troubleshooting that with you, on account of I didn't know where it was going.

[14:39] ETHAN CONLON: Oh, yeah.

[14:40] BARRETT HOWARD: I wasn't allowed to know where this was for or what we were doing until about a week before, two weeks before we left to come up here. And so as we were building these pieces or building the trunks and trying to figure out how to make certain pieces fit, I'm like, I. Here's an option. You're like, that doesn't quite work. And I'm like, neat. I. Why? We're like, well, uh.

[15:00] ETHAN CONLON: And there were so many things that I wanted to tell you. I remember you asking me a few questions about how these trees were all going to stand up, and because they.

[15:14] BARRETT HOWARD: Didn'T stand up on their own unless you got them balanced just right.

[15:17] ETHAN CONLON: Which was really, really difficult to do, and so we had to have another structure to support them. And I had a whole bunch of questions about that that I eventually got answered, but it was. You ask good questions and you always have, in my experience. You know, you're a curious dude, I.

[15:39] BARRETT HOWARD: Think, albeit a wee bit off the cuff, but, yeah.

[15:41] ETHAN CONLON: Oh, off the cuff is your brand.

[15:51] BARRETT HOWARD: It was interesting trying to piece those.

[15:54] ETHAN CONLON: Which element of that project, because I gave you as much information as I could, but which element do you think we troubleshot the best? Was there any one thing that you weren't sure how it was going to fit together and you were surprised or delighted when it did?

[16:16] BARRETT HOWARD: The bases made perfect sense, the way that, because it's just the one piece that telescopes into the other, and they bases made perfect sense. The trunks, we did a lot of easy troubleshooting.

[16:26] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah.

[16:29] BARRETT HOWARD: And by easy troubleshooting, I mean we saw all the pieces. There was no real guesswork because with the way we had to make the wraps there, the trunk cardboard fit. Figuring out the placement of the brackets was only a real guesswork.

[16:42] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah.

[16:43] BARRETT HOWARD: The tops, I had no clue because I. The tops, I knew at the time they were going somewhere and they were going to be hung up somehow, but I could not. I hadn't figured out the part or didn't know that there was going to be the mirrors hanging from them or the way they were getting wrapped or the way they were getting painted or decorated. I just knew they were going on top of the trunks we had made. And so every piece of that I was trying to piece together, oh, it might look like this. Here's what we should do. Oh, it might look like this. Here's what we should do. And you were like, ah, that's really close, but not quite. And I'm like, okay, so it isn't quite that. And as we would get through the bends or starting the thicker branches with the box steel and then branching out into the actual branches was more like, okay, I can kind of see it shaping together.

[17:31] ETHAN CONLON: I think that there were a lot of, a lot of learning experiences that we had. Like using the, the sheet metal nibbler to shape the cardboard. That was, that was a fun one. It turned out that's the best tool for cutting a cardboard tube down the length of it.

[17:54] BARRETT HOWARD: Very much.

[17:55] ETHAN CONLON: Do you think any of that weird knowledge is going to apply to any of the other work that you see yourself doing as a welder and a fabricator?

[18:05] BARRETT HOWARD: Oh, yeah. It's the best progression I could see it being is where I see myself going, because I was explaining this to one of the volunteers the other day, is not in construction or welding per se, but in professional problem solving.

[18:24] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah, there's a need for it and.

[18:27] BARRETT HOWARD: Being able to kind of stab in the dark really helps. As far as like a large construction site where I was the two days before we left where they won't tell you what all is going on, but there is a problem that needs fixing.

[18:41] ETHAN CONLON: Mm hmm.

[18:42] BARRETT HOWARD: Is absolutely.

[18:45] ETHAN CONLON: And you know, being able to, you know, pivot and think on your feet is going to be an applicable job skill for almost anyone.

[18:56] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah, it's just been really cool to work with you over the last like six months, eight months, to really hone all, although the two things would be really hone all the little skills that you've got that I've started to get like I can weld, I can, you know, do all of those skills but there are like tips that every time that I do it you're like, actually you could do that just a little different and it gets better every time. Well then the grand problem solving.

[19:24] ETHAN CONLON: Well I think it's, I think it's interesting. We, we have these skills and they're like a toolbox and you know maybe we don't use a certain tool every day, but if we add it to the collection, we'll have it when we need it.

[19:37] BARRETT HOWARD: Yep.

[19:38] ETHAN CONLON: And you know I think of, I think of my grandfather and my father and my mother who are all craftspeople, artists. It runs in my family but they always made a point to share that knowledge with me and I feel it's kind of my duty to share that knowledge with the people I work with and the people that are helping me reach my goals and it's been a privilege to kind of show you all those little tricks and all those little secrets that I've kept from all, all my family but you know, is there, do you hope to kind of then continue and share those with someone who you train up and you showed the ropes?

[20:36] BARRETT HOWARD: Oh yeah, there's a absolutely do. One of my younger brother brothers I think five or six years younger than I am. One of his friends is going straight from high school into trade school and has been welding as a hobby in his spare time.

[20:54] ETHAN CONLON: How old is he?

[20:54] BARRETT HOWARD: I think he's 18 like 1718 he's younger. A younger brother friend of mine and he's gotten to the point where he can, someone will ask him to fix a fence gate or something and he'll call me to be like, so I got this new thing. And it's, you know, I've got a fence gate that has a crack. What do I do? And I'm like, well, you fix the crack.

[21:11] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah.

[21:12] BARRETT HOWARD: And he's like, okay. And it's all those little tricks that, like, I now find it obvious as trial and error, but that someone taught me.

[21:20] ETHAN CONLON: Sure. Like, okay, fixing a crack, drill out the end of the crack so that the crack can't continue to propagate and.

[21:27] BARRETT HOWARD: Grind it all the way through.

[21:28] ETHAN CONLON: And then your weld doesn't break after it's been fixed.

[21:33] BARRETT HOWARD: It's one of those, to me now, that's common knowledge. That's just how it's done. But to, you know, me, two, three years ago, I would have never guessed.

[21:40] ETHAN CONLON: Well, that's, you know, something that I'm glad to hear. You're gonna share and you're gonna keep passing that knowledge on. What's, what's the, what's the biggest challenge, you see to growing your business and growing as a, as a trades person?

[22:03] BARRETT HOWARD: That one's easy. Keep it up with paperwork. That one's the easy one. Oh, yeah, I can do, I can do the work.

[22:10] ETHAN CONLON: I forgot about that.

[22:11] BARRETT HOWARD: I can do the work. That's the easy part. But, like, getting insurance and keeping up with payroll and paperwork, that, that's what's gonna get me. And that's, that's one of the things that I'm really glad. It's like the owner of the drilling company still, still sticks around, and I call him every now and then. I work with you, you know, a couple days a week, and it's really useful that, that you've done all of that. And, you know, I, when I had to get company insurance, you were the first person I was like, so you have insurance? Like, you're here, you have company insurance. How does that work? And, you know, we talked about it for a little over an hour, and then I ended up getting the right kind of insurance and getting the job.

[22:50] ETHAN CONLON: You felt more confident.

[22:51] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah.

[22:52] ETHAN CONLON: When you went to go and actually do it.

[22:53] BARRETT HOWARD: Yeah, it was nerve wracking because I got the, I got, someone approached me to do project, and the first thing they asked was, you know, hey, do you have company insurance? I said, give me a couple days. And then I called you.

[23:08] ETHAN CONLON: And it's nice to find clients that are patient with you and will let you work things out when you need to.

[23:14] BARRETT HOWARD: They were on a nice, easy schedule, and so they were, you know, got back to them a week later, was like, okay, I got insurance. Now they're like, did you go just get insurance? I was like, yeah, I did just go get insurance. So problem solved, right? That's the little learning things step by step and figuring it out one piece at a time.

[23:41] ETHAN CONLON: When you think about figuring it out one piece at a time, and it's a day to day challenge, but, you know, it's led you where you are now. Is there anyone that's not around that you wish you could share that with?

[24:02] BARRETT HOWARD: I've been really, really fortunate about that one, actually. The really interesting thing is, you know, everybody in my immediate family and extended family is super proud, even though, like, I bet oftentimes the thing is, like, the first one to go to college, I'm the first one for probably at least two generations to not, like, just decide not to go.

[24:26] ETHAN CONLON: Mm hmm.

[24:27] BARRETT HOWARD: And everybody's like, that's, yeah, no, do it.

[24:30] ETHAN CONLON: Yeah, well, that's, that's good that they've been encouraging and understanding, so.

[24:37] BARRETT HOWARD: And it's one of those, like, the, the best kind of sappy story I have is dad working corporate, doing all of that. Then the industry he's in, all of his coworkers, kids are off at various universities who are, all of the ones who are of similar age are off at various universities pursuing higher degrees. And their one story he told was, as they're all sitting around and hanging out lunch on trips and whatever, he usually got quiet during that conversation, just like, I'm gonna not say anything. And then one day, someone asked him, and he was like, okay, I kind of have to say something now. And said, that was right after I left the drilling company and right after we filed for the EIN numbers and all the government business information. And that's what he said. He was like, so we just filed for a welding company, you know, as far as government insurance is concerned. And everybody was like, hang on, that's an option. And he was like, yeah, we just decided school wasn't the right idea, and now we run a welding company. And they were all like, oh. And after that, he was like, gonna. Every time someone asks, he's like, jumping at the gun to be like this, look, this is what we're doing.

[25:40] ETHAN CONLON: Mm hmm. I think of the people that encouraged me to, you know, go to college and apply to colleges and stick it out, even though I had a significant amount of difficulty. It was, you know, I think my grandparents pushed the hardest. My grandfather had actually been a carpenter and a trades person, and he made a great living for his family and my mother doing that. I think about how I've been able to combine my different skill sets. And, you know, it's very much something that he encouraged, but he found a lot of satisfaction with his career, and he, you know, he truly loved what he did. He was always the person to help his neighbors. You know, I remember in, like, I think it was Hurricane Andrew. They lived down in Florida. He got storm shutters put up on his house, and then we went around and we helped all the neighbors get storm shutters on their houses. And he found his skills and his trade was something that not only put food on the table, but was able to help those around him. Was there, you know, was there any opportunities you found recently to help other people with your craft and your skills entirely in doing.

[27:26] BARRETT HOWARD: Doing what I do? Because being able to problem solve and fix things is, you know, repair welding is more like what I do. And so if you own one skid steer, and that is what you do for a living, and you break that.

[27:41] ETHAN CONLON: Skid steer, then you're enabling people to continue to make money and feed their family.

[27:48] BARRETT HOWARD: Yep.

[27:49] ETHAN CONLON: Or maybe the obvious example is when I had shoulder surgery recently, that was.

[27:56] BARRETT HOWARD: The other answer I was going to.

[27:57] ETHAN CONLON: Use, and I needed someone who could keep me productive.

[28:04] BARRETT HOWARD: I'm glad I could help.

[28:05] ETHAN CONLON: Heck, yeah, I'm glad you were glad you were available to help.