Trade Legends | Construction Podcast

Paul pulled up to a job in Sidcup. Half an hour later, his phone rang. Someone was breaking into his van. Two builders across the road had already run over, smashed the car window, and grabbed the keys from the thieves. The whole thing was on camera. Ten million views later, Paul came on the podcast to tell the full story. But the van break-in was just the start. The courtesy van got done two days later on the same road. Then the insurance company lost his van. Then they told him they couldn't fix it. Then they suggested he scrap it. Four insurance companies, hours on the phone, and weeks of admin later, he shut the claim down and sorted it himself. Paul also opens up about something he's never really spoken about publicly. A table saw accident that nearly took off his thumb. Six months off work. A breakdown in a London hospital. And a Big Issue seller who said two words that changed the direction of his life.

Yas played professional football for Charlton, Brighton, Watford, Gillingham and AFC Wimbledon before a career in carpentry. Emily went through insurance, Amazon security, door work, paint delivery, gym fitting and marketing before she picked up a saw. Between them, they've probably had more jobs than most people have had hot dinners. In this episode, the two of them sit down to talk about how they found carpentry, why they're now working together on an all-female renovation project in Ipswich, and what it's actually like being a woman in the trades in 2024.They cover everything from getting paid less than male colleagues as apprentices, to pricing your work confidently, to why the trades industry isn't the boys' club people think it is. Plus a genuinely useful tip on always adding 13% to every quote.

Super Trowel 2024 sold out. Vans got broken into in the car park. Kyle won the competition, and his dad, who had done the same competition 30 years earlier, ran out of the crowd to hug him. Jack lost his dad a month before the event and never got to tell him it sold out. In this episode the Super Trowel boys are back to talk through everything that happened at the 2024 show, what the Vegas trip looked like for Charlie, Ben and Kyle, and what Super Trowel 2025 is shaping up to be at Stoneleigh Park, doubling capacity to nearly 3,000, a new Super Trowel Masters craft competition, stone masonry, dry stone walling, plant machinery demonstrations and a full CPD programme. They also address van thefts head-on, with dog patrols, mobile CCTV towers, perimeter intruder detectors, and a partnership with Admiral Business Insurance. If you're coming to Super Trowel 2025 in your van, this is worth listening to.

Joe spent 12 years as an electrician. Then, during lockdown, he paid for a PT course, started posting videos outside Greggs in his hi-vis and hard hat, and built a fitness coaching business specifically for tradespeople. His first client lost over 40 kilos. He's had a guy reverse type 2 diabetes. Another came off asthma medication completely. In this episode, Joe, the Tradesman's Coach, sits down to talk about why tradespeople are the hardest demographic to get fit. The van life, the meal deals, the cafes, the lack of prep. It's a perfect storm for weight gain and low energy. Joe knows because he lived it. And he's built an entire business around fixing it.

He talks through how he transitioned from Sparky to Coach, why he trademarked the name Tradesman's Coach before he'd even got his first client, and how he grew from 618 Instagram followers to 30,000 in two years by just being exactly the same person on camera as he is on site. Including standing outside Greggs in full hi-vis, shouting at the camera.

He also breaks down what his coaching actually looks like. Custom nutrition plans, training programmes, supplementation, a dedicated app, one-to-one accountability and a WhatsApp community. He talks through real client transformations, why he insists on a minimum 16-week commitment, and why he'll turn you away if you're not serious. Plus, the analogy that will change how you think about meal prep forever. It's exactly the same as ordering your materials before a job.

Kimmy the Spark won Electrician of the Year 2024 at the On The Tools Awards. She started out doing admin for an electrical firm at 18, saw how much the electricians were earning compared to her and decided to become one. Her colleagues told her not to be silly — she's a woman. That edged her on.In this episode, Kimmy talks through 10 years of being a self-employed electrician in London, including social housing work on estates most people wouldn't go near alone at 2am. She also talks about tearing her ACL twice, keeping working from a wheelchair, and making more money that month than any other in the previous year. She covers brand deals, how to get paid by clients who ghost you, why she keeps a banned-client list on her phone, and how she went from £1.50 an hour in admin to charging three grand for a 30-second video.

Trade Talk | Home Improvement Shows | What Happens Behind The Scenes! Laura Jane Clark sat down with @MJTiffPlumbing earlier this year to discuss her career in Television and construction. She has worked on several high-profile 'home renovation' shows across various networks, helping out with designs, planning, and physical construction. Unfortunately, however, she noticed that her appearances in the home renovation shows were being dramatically cut, to a point where she knew she had to speak up.. and in so doing, she "burned her bridges quite severely."

Greg has a degree in forensic psychology and has spent the last 20 years branding stadiums at FIFA World Cups, UEFA Champions League finals, the 2012 Olympics and the Women's World Cup in France. He was up for 20 hours a day for two weeks straight on one job. The deadline is never negotiable — the doors open at 8 am, whether you're done or not. In this episode, Greg talks through how he went from running for TV shows at university to becoming one of the most in-demand exhibition carpenters in the country. He covers working at World Cups across Papua New Guinea, Korea, Jordan, Chile, Colombia and Brazil, meeting his wife at the London 2012 Olympics while building the scoreboard, and how one Instagram reel about bending oak got him 50,000 followers overnight. He also gives some of the best content creation advice we have heard on this podcast. His reels are unlike anything else in the trades space, and he explains exactly why.

2024 is done. Alex and Mark sit down to go through their top episodes of the year, the guests that stayed with them, and the moments they did not see coming. From Danny Moss and the Halloween ghost special to Nathan the plumber and his cancer diagnosis at 27. From Darcie and the OnlyFans conversation to Luke Blue Bulldog and his OCD story. From Joe Screed Papi and his battle with drink to Roger Bisby and everything he knows about the industry. They also talk about where the podcast is going in 2025, what the 100th episode might look like, and why Jack pissed in a Stanley Cup outside a house viewing and kept using it afterwards. No guests. Just Alex and Mark looking back on three and a half years of Trade Legends.

It is two weeks before Christmas. Dave, Pointy and Joe sat down with Mark on a Friday afternoon to talk about what silly season actually feels like from the inside. Phones are going off mid-sentence. Customers want media walls built before Christmas. Builders moving timelines. Kitchens are being fitted on weekends because nobody can say no. Wives are wondering why you are always on your phone. Kids you have not put to bed in three weeks. Dave, Pointy and Joe talk through the real pressure of running a trades business in December. How you price this time of year, whether you turn jobs away, what the minimum call-out charge is on Christmas Day, and why, no matter how much you say you are having two weeks off, you will still be answering your phone. Honest, funny and something every self-employed tradesperson will completely relate to.

This week on the Trade Legends Podcast, plumber Nathan Nash joins us to share a story that changed everything. In early 2024, at just 27 years old, Nathan started getting a nagging pain in his lower back. Like most tradespeople, he put it down to the job and got on with it. The pain didn't go away. After weeks of painkillers, GP visits, and medication that wasn't working, Nathan was eventually diagnosed with anaplastic large cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, an extremely rare form of blood cancer. He talks candidly about the three weeks he spent in hospital before the diagnosis came through, the moment he found out what he was dealing with, and how he processed being told he had a 60 to 70% chance of coming through it.

Nathan opens up about getting married just days after starting chemotherapy, losing his hair exactly two weeks later, and the six months of treatment that followed while raising two young children. He talks about the raw social media posts that connected him with an outpouring of support from the plumbing and construction community, and why he wants to use his platform to raise awareness of a cancer hardly anyone in the trades has heard of.We also cover what's next as Nathan moves into radiotherapy, the news that he's since been given the all clear from active cancer, and his longer-term goal of moving away from the tools and into teaching the next generation of apprentices.This isn't just a cancer story. It's about what happens when your body tells you something is wrong, and you actually listen