Allowing workmen in your home during Coronavirus | Joel Sigman HVAC systems | Vance Crowe Podcast

About this episode

HVAC and geothermal contractor Joel Sigman (mislabeled as Vance Crowe throughout the transcript) talks with Vance about running an essential-but-optional home service business during the early Covid-19 lockdown. Joel describes outfitting technicians with masks and gloves for the first time, the drop-off in routine maintenance calls as customers weigh essential-vs-non-essential visits, and low-contact workarounds like photo-diagnosed filter swaps for customers who don't want anyone inside. The conversation moves to remote work and video calls becoming normal overnight, and closes with Vance's standing "what does the world look like in two weeks" question, where Joel frames staying calm and positive as directly tied to economic recovery and immune health.

“I think that the amount that they will meet with people on video will go up so dramatically as a result of this. That there won't be a memory of when this was rare. Like it used to be a big burden for me. It used to be if somebody wanted to video chat, I was like, ugh, why, then I can't keep working on whatever I'm working on while I'm talking to you on the phone. And now, because we're kind of sequestered in our house, it feels incredibly gratifying to be able to see your face. But our children will have no concept of how unusual this was for us.”

“I think one of the things that has become so abundantly clear in this whole shutdown or shelter in place is you cannot actually have everyone shut down, because you need to have the vascular system of our nation working. You need to have food delivered, you need to have plumbing that's going on. You need to have heating and cooling and electricity. We can't have a system where everybody just stops working. It literally, we would die.”

“You are a trusted contractor for me, somebody that actually did a fair amount of work in my house, putting in a geothermal, well drilling system.”

Key moments

• Joel establishes the relationship — Vance is a past client who trusts him with geothermal well-drilling work — and frames the interview around how tradespeople are handling in-home visits during Covid.
• Joel describes outfitting his crew with masks and gloves for the first time ever, purely to make nervous homeowners comfortable.
• Joel notes younger techs feel less personal anxiety about the virus than older, more vulnerable clients.
• Joel walks through low-contact maintenance workarounds — photograph your filter and coil, he'll diagnose remotely and drop parts on the porch.
• Vance raises the "vascular system of the nation" point that essential trades can't fully shut down without broader collapse (windows).
• Discussion of video calls (doctor's appointments, business meetings) going from rare and awkward to suddenly normal, with Joel predicting kids growing up now won't remember a time this was unusual (windows).
• Joel expresses concern that if lockdowns extend past April and negative messaging dominates, "the economy's really gonna fall apart because you can only get so much money from the government" (money, institutions).
• Closing exchange on Vance's two-weeks question — Joel argues positive messaging keeps people calmer, healthier, and helps the economy recover faster (trust, craft).

Notable quotes

“You cannot actually have everyone shut down, because you need to have the vascular system of our nation working.”

“I'm really worried that the economy's really gonna fall apart because you can only get so much money from the government.”

“It used to be a big burden for me... now it feels incredibly gratifying to be able to see your face... our children will have no concept of how unusual this was for us.”

Predictions made in this episode

• Video calls will become permanently normal rather than a temporary lockdown habit, to the point future kids won't understand a time when it was rare or burdensome.