In this episode, Brian Hall shares how a lifetime of hands-on electrical work, from wiring homes with his dad to overseeing safety at a nuclear power plant, shaped his path to becoming Director of Training at Guidant Power. After coming close to losing his life in an electrical accident early in his career, Brian became deeply committed to keeping others safe. Today, he teaches workers across industries how to recognize hazards and follow safety protocols, turning complex standards into practical, real-world lessons. With lived experience, humility, and a passion for making sure people go home safe, Brian uses his expertise to help save lives.
Key Takeaways:
Chapters:
Listen to our podcasts at:
https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts
There you will also find our other Everyday Heroes episodes, alongside our series Microcap Moments and Bigger. Stronger. Faster., highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.
Other ways to connect:
Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog
Shore Capital University: https://www.shorecp.university/
Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/
Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog
This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, nor a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.
And I think about this all the time.
Brian Hall:Hard work will take you a long way.
Brian Hall:I'm not somebody that has a lot of formal education and those sorts of things.
Brian Hall:Determination can take you a lot of places.
Brian Hall:And I think that's a message that a lot of people need to hear, right?
Brian Hall:Don't stop.
Brian Hall:Keep plugging on.
Brian Hall:Sometimes things will seem impossible when you get low, but just gotta keep persevering and keep working hard, and if you do that, good things will happen.
Brian Hall:That's really the way that I've always approached my life, is just work hard and keep learning as much as you can and you can go a long way.
Anderson Williams:Welcome to Everyday Heroes, a podcast from Shore Capital Partners that highlights the people who are building our companies from the inside every day, often out of the spotlight.
Anderson Williams:With this series, we wanna pull those heroes out of the shadows.
Anderson Williams:We want to hear their stories, we want to share their stories.
Anderson Williams:We want to understand what drives them, why they do what they do, how they might inspire and support others to become everyday heroes too.
Anderson Williams:In this episode, I talk with Brian Hall of Guidant Power.
Anderson Williams:Brian's Everyday Hero journey has taken him from wiring houses as a young man with his dad to managing electrical safety at a nuclear power plant, to being the lead electrical instructor at Guidant Power.
Anderson Williams:From music to electrical safety, Brian's is a story of finding your passion and identifying what you're good at so that you not only love your work, but you make an impact on the work and lives of others.
Brian Hall:My name is Brian Hall.
Brian Hall:I am the lead electrical instructor for Guidant Power.
Brian Hall:I am based out of Cleveland, Ohio.
Brian Hall:We are on the Great Lakes, which is a great thing and so one of the things that we like to do is boats.
Brian Hall:My wife and I enjoy getting out on Lake Erie and fishing, and we have some islands here that we like to go over to and on the weekends and enjoy.
Brian Hall:Big music lover have been, uh, playing the guitar since I was, I don't know, 15 years old or so, have been in bands here and there.
Brian Hall:Don't do that much anymore.
Brian Hall:I'm 60 years old, so I like to be in bed by 10 o'clock at night, not two in the morning hauling amplifiers out of a bar somewhere.
Brian Hall:So I quit doing that a long time ago, but I still play the guitar and love music.
Brian Hall:I've seen hundreds of concerts and um, I've been married for 38 years.
Brian Hall:That's a fantastic thing.
Anderson Williams:What kind of music do you play or did you play?
Anderson Williams:Has it changed?
Brian Hall:You know, that's interesting.
Brian Hall:So primarily started playing just your basic classic rock things.
Brian Hall:But you know, the more you learn about music and get exposed to different things, certainly have found an appreciation for different types of blues music if they're playing a guitar, I'm usually interested.
Anderson Williams:As we think about your work and your career, most of us, because of people like you, don't give a lot of thought to the electricity we consume and the electricity that's surrounding us at any given time because you do your job well.
Anderson Williams:Tell us a little bit more about what you do and what that looks like, just so the listeners and I better understand what a regular day might look like for you, Brian.
Brian Hall:Certainly electricity is powerful, right?
Brian Hall:Can you imagine your life without it?
Brian Hall:You know, I mean it, it runs anything and everything.
Brian Hall:Even to the point now we're relying on it for our vehicles, but it's a powerful thing from the other side of that, in terms of it can hurt us, right?
Brian Hall:For sure.
Brian Hall:There are things that electricity can produce, such as what's called an arc flash.
Brian Hall:We'll call that a violent release of electrical energy that can burn you severely.
Brian Hall:Obviously, we can get shocked and get electrocuted, and so people who have to work on this equipment, you know, if you work in a factory where you work on a utility line.
Brian Hall:These sorts of things.
Brian Hall:You gotta work on this electrical equipment to keep your factory going.
Brian Hall:And people are exposed at times to these hazards of arc flash as well as electrocution.
Brian Hall:And so what I do is teach people how to be safe when they're performing that work.
Anderson Williams:So gimme a sense of what the training or the work or the business side of that looks like in terms of how you get invited in to do that work.
Brian Hall:Let's just start with the basics.
Brian Hall:So OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, has rules about electrical safety training.
Brian Hall:OSHA is a branch of government, and OSHA's purpose is to ensure that we Americans have a place of work to go to that is safe.
Brian Hall:And so the way that OSHA ensures that Americans have a place of work to go to that is safe is simplifying things, but they write rules.
Brian Hall:And so OSHA has rules that revolve around electrical safety.
Brian Hall:And one of the rules is to ensure that employees that work on or near this hazard receive formal electrical safety training.
Brian Hall:So that's really the genesis of it.
Brian Hall:Employers have to find people like me that have the expertise and understand the OSHA requirements for the training, and again, how to keep people safe when they're working in around this equipment.
Brian Hall:In most cases, they don't have that expertise themselves, and so they go out and find contractors like Guidant Power to come in and provide that training.
Brian Hall:And so that's generally how things get started.
Anderson Williams:One of the things that you mentioned and your Everyday Hero nomination described you as a champion of quote, making sure people go home.
Anderson Williams:That is a really powerful statement.
Anderson Williams:And will you just sort of say more about the importance of the education that you're providing and in its absence, obviously the danger that's at least potentially there.
Brian Hall:Well, when I was a young electrician, and that's really my background, been working around electricity my entire life, I really never had a job where I didn't work around electricity.
Brian Hall:My father owned an electrical contracting company when I was growing up, and this is really how I got started in the electrical trade and had worked my way into a working in large industrial plants.
Brian Hall:And what I would tell you is I was shocked once on 480 volts, nearly took my life.
Brian Hall:I was standing on top of a crane, 80 feet up in the air, nearly got knocked off the crane and fell.
Brian Hall:And if had I fallen, I probably wouldn't be here today.
Brian Hall:And this is really what motivates me.
Brian Hall:So if I could teach people not to do what I did, right?
Brian Hall:Had I had this formal electrical safety training when I was a young person, and that would've never happened had I known the rules and had the personal protective equipment to put on and all of these things, that probably wouldn't have happened.
Brian Hall:And so if I can a impress on people how important this is to follow your electrical safety rules, right?
Brian Hall:Put on your insulating gloves and your arc flash gear and follow your safety rules.
Brian Hall:It's so important.
Brian Hall:This can hurt you, right?
Brian Hall:And it did to me.
Brian Hall:And it can happen to you.
Brian Hall:And here's how this can be prevented.
Brian Hall:Here's how you can go home, right?
Brian Hall:And so that's really the idea here.
Anderson Williams:And you said your dad was an electrician as well, so you kind of grew up in the business.
Brian Hall:That's correct, yeah.
Brian Hall:From the time I was, I don't know, maybe 12 years old, I could wire a house.
Brian Hall:Uh, my dad was that kind of guy.
Brian Hall:He had a strong work ethic, and he had still that in us.
Brian Hall:And so we would go to work with dad and wire houses and buildings in the summer and after school every day.
Brian Hall:And, and, you know, looking back on it, I mean, what's better than that?
Brian Hall:Right?
Brian Hall:You get to go to work with your father every day.
Brian Hall:And sometimes when you're a kid, you don't look at it that way.
Brian Hall:But now I'm, I'm awfully grateful.
Anderson Williams:Yeah, that's an amazing thing.
Anderson Williams:So you specifically have evolved from that young person doing work with your dad into a career in electricity, but really evolved into being a teacher and a trainer.
Anderson Williams:And can you talk about that evolution of moving from doing the work to teaching the work?
Anderson Williams:And how did you make that transition?
Anderson Williams:And maybe what is it about teaching the work that you've really found that you really love to do?
Brian Hall:Well, how I ended up teaching is interesting.
Brian Hall:So I ended up working in a nuclear power plant.
Brian Hall:So when I got outta high school, I tried going to college, but I figured out pretty quickly that was not for me.
Brian Hall:I wanted to get out in the world and make my own way and I, I knew I could do that being an electrician, and I loved the work anyway.
Brian Hall:I knew I needed formal education, so I went to technical school and I got out of technical school and I started working for a company called Alcoa.
Brian Hall:Then I had the opportunity to go to the Chrysler Corporation, and when I worked at Chrysler, as well as Alcoa, I was an electrician on the shop floor.
Brian Hall:Went out every day with a volt meter doing the same sort of thing, keeping an industrial plant running from the electrical side of things.
Brian Hall:A few years later, Chrysler closed the plant down, and so I put my resume out there and somebody called me from the Perry Nuclear Power Plant and I was offered a job to be a part of the electrical maintenance supervision at the Perry Nuclear Power Station, which was incredibly interesting and a great opportunity.
Brian Hall:And so I did that for a number of years.
Brian Hall:Then Perry Nuclear Power Plant offered me the opportunity to go into the training department.
Brian Hall:So if you work in the nuclear industry, you go to a lot of training.
Brian Hall:It is required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brian Hall:There was a pretty significant nuclear accident here in America called Three Mile Island.
Brian Hall:I don't know if you're familiar with that or not, but when Congress did their investigation of the Three Mile Island accident, what they determined was that the people at the Three Mile Island facility weren't well trained, and so the Nuclear Regulatory Commission instituted a very structured training program in that industry.
Brian Hall:And so I was offered the opportunity to be the electrical maintenance instructor at Perry.
Brian Hall:When you're working in a nuclear power plant and you're going to teach, you gotta know what you're talking about.
Brian Hall:So I spent a lot of time researching OSHA standards and there's another standard called NFPA 70 E. And really learning all of these standards and how to apply them and, and really got a good foundation on the electrical safety side of not only the rules and regulations, but more importantly, how do you apply those?
Brian Hall:That really is the key.
Brian Hall:So when I got up in front of my class, I could.
Brian Hall:Say, here's the rule, ladies and gentlemen, but here's how we use this out in the plant to keep ourselves safe.
Brian Hall:And so that was really how it started.
Brian Hall:It really wasn't by design, it was just kind of a collateral duty of being an electrical instructor at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant.
Anderson Williams:Well, I can't imagine the stakes are any higher than the electrical safety and a nuclear power plant.
Anderson Williams:That just, all of that sounds scary to me.
Brian Hall:Yeah.
Brian Hall:So I always tell people that, you know, they follow their rules there very closely, electrical safety rules in a nuclear power station.
Brian Hall:If you're an electrician working in a nuclear power plant and you're working in an electrical panel and you poke your screwdriver in the wrong spot, this is one of the ways we can create arc flashes.
Brian Hall:Now, two things happen when we create arc flashes.
Brian Hall:One is people get hurt if they're not protected.
Brian Hall:But the other side of that.
Brian Hall:Is equipment gets damaged and in some cases catastrophically if that equipment is responsible for keeping cool water flowing over the core of the reactor or some other safety system in the plant, you can challenge public safety by not using good, safe electrical work practices and understanding how they work.
Brian Hall:And so I just decided I would do this a little bit on the side.
Brian Hall:I had a lot of vacation time built up and you could carry it over.
Brian Hall:And so I had a lot of time off and I, I just thought I'll just go out and try to help some people in and around Cleveland really understand electrical safety.
Brian Hall:And so I built a little website and started a company called BCH Electrical Safety and just started providing electrical safety training to my clients in and around Cleveland.
Brian Hall:And that's really how I got started doing this.
Anderson Williams:After using up all of his vacation time and with increasing opportunity with his clients for more business and more types of electrical services, Brian took the leap to walk away from his nuclear power plant to build his own business and focus on his growing partnership with a company called Rozel, which was co-founded by Jeff Kershner.
Anderson Williams:Rozel was the founding company of Guidant Power.
Anderson Williams:I talked with Jeff who shared how he originally met Brian and why he's an Everyday Hero at Guidant Power.
Jeff Kershner:Well, Brian actually found us in 2017.
Jeff Kershner:He found our website and he called us and asked if we had any interest in maybe partnering with him.
Jeff Kershner:So we, we were a standalone unit and he only offered electrical safety training.
Jeff Kershner:And we thought basically immediately after we met Brian that he was a perfect fit for us.
Anderson Williams:And what was it about it that made him a perfect fit?
Anderson Williams:What, what were you reacting to?
Jeff Kershner:I was first exposed to a professional trainer in the electrical safety space in probably 2008, and this individual, I swear, would go to sleep reading OSHA standards and electrical safety code.
Jeff Kershner:And he had a true passion for training people and just learning why we needed to enforce safety.
Jeff Kershner:And I never thought I would meet another person like him until Brian Hall reached out to us in 2017 and Brian is exactly the same way.
Jeff Kershner:He has a passion for learning.
Jeff Kershner:He has a passion for training, and he has a very unique ability to convey that information to others so that they learn it, they absorb it, and they want to use what they've been taught.
Anderson Williams:That's amazing.
Anderson Williams:And tell me a little bit about how that works and what makes him an Everyday Hero as he applies that learning, training, teaching skill or, or whatever that is that he has.
Jeff Kershner:Well, most of the people that Brian trains are electrical workers in factories or other environments that require lots of electrical support.
Jeff Kershner:And you can imagine as you do your same job every day or asked to do similar tasks every single day, you get a little complacent, good or bad.
Jeff Kershner:You get in this rhythm of doing things over and over, and you may forget to do certain things related to safety.
Jeff Kershner:It's also common to get stuck in your ways, right?
Jeff Kershner:You want to just continue to do things the way you've been doing them.
Jeff Kershner:So whenever someone comes in and says, you may have been doing things one way, but now you should do them another.
Jeff Kershner:From a safety standpoint, it takes the right person to really convey that information properly so that there's not pushback, but instead people actually start doing what has been taught and performing the safe work methods moving forward.
Anderson Williams:And how does he do it?
Anderson Williams:To, what do you ascribe his ability to break through that kind of resistance or complacency or whatever it might be?
Jeff Kershner:Brian comes from a long background of doing electrical work so he can relate to just about anyone in that space.
Jeff Kershner:So he is an authority for all different types of electrical work, and whenever someone says, well, you know, I come from this background, well, he's very relatable.
Jeff Kershner:He's a very personable person, and he's just very easy to get along with.
Jeff Kershner:Anytime he goes on vacation, we'll hear that he made best friends with somebody that he met five minutes earlier, and he's just got that personality to where you want to be around Brian all the time.
Jeff Kershner:I think just Brian in general, Brian will never turn down hard work.
Jeff Kershner:He'll never turn down, staying up late to make sure that a customer is supplied.
Jeff Kershner:He'll schedule trainings at two o'clock in the morning, four o'clock in the morning, two o'clock in the afternoon, whatever it takes.
Jeff Kershner:Whereas in the past, whenever I was doing the training, I was certainly say, oh man, at two o'clock training, you know, how can we change this?
Jeff Kershner:And Brian is just, uh, whatever the customer needs to make sure that the employees are trained properly.
Anderson Williams:It is clear that what Brian does is important and even lifesaving.
Anderson Williams:It's also clear that he's really good at it.
Anderson Williams:But to be honest, as someone who teaches and trains for a living myself, it sounds like a really tough topic to make compelling and to help people learn.
Anderson Williams:So I ask Brian how you take something like OSHA standards and compliance training and make it something meaningful so people actually learn it and then go live it.
Brian Hall:I think there's a couple of things.
Brian Hall:One is I've done it, if that makes any sense.
Brian Hall:So I've been an electrician my whole life.
Brian Hall:I've worked in shops performing electrical work and doing all the things that most of my students are currently doing, right?
Brian Hall:So instantly we're able to form something of a bond and we share stories back and forth about being shocked and these sorts of things.
Brian Hall:And I think this is one of the things that helps me is that I have done the work before, and I really understand what these folks are up against.
Brian Hall:And again, I've walked in their shoes, if so to speak.
Brian Hall:The other side of that, I think truthfully is the passion that I bring to it.
Brian Hall:I really want to help people understand this can hurt you, right?
Brian Hall:And it is really important that you follow your electrical safety rules.
Brian Hall:It is a job.
Brian Hall:We've gotta get it done and all of those things, but let's go home.
Brian Hall:Right, and so I think that's really the two things.
Brian Hall:One, certainly is I've done the work before and maybe the other thing is this, is that I'm able to explain it to people in a language that they understand.
Brian Hall:I basically teach people the way that I would want to be taught if I was an electrician on the shop floor.
Brian Hall:Again, here's the rule.
Brian Hall:Yeah, I got that, but how does it apply to this particular work?
Brian Hall:What does this really mean?
Brian Hall:And so I kind of come at it from a little bit different angle.
Brian Hall:You have to bring the human element into it and there is a lot of rules and regulations that you talk to, and a lot of times is a very dry subject for sure.
Brian Hall:But you do have to bring the human element into it and give examples of people getting hurt, I guess, and your own personal experiences, and people will share their experiences with you and really bring it down to a human level.
Anderson Williams:Your Everyday Hero nomination said
Anderson Williams:"Brian conducts hundreds of electrical safety trainings annually, reaching thousands of workers across diverse industries.
Anderson Williams:His exceptional instruction and expertise make him a trusted advisor to his customers who frequently seek his guidance on facility electrical issues, PPE, recommendations and safety best practices.
Anderson Williams:His post course reviews are almost always five stars across the board.
Anderson Williams:And note that his passionate teaching and deep knowledge create top of the line training experience."
Anderson Williams:Those are pretty powerful words to say that you're doing exactly what you wanted to be doing.
Brian Hall:Yeah, flattering to say the least.
Brian Hall:But I love what I do and I think that comes across in my training.
Anderson Williams:What continues to motivate you, Brian?
Brian Hall:The feedback that I receive that really motivates me.
Brian Hall:So I, I do travel a lot away from home, at least a few days a week in most cases.
Brian Hall:And that can be difficult.
Brian Hall:But what motivates me is when somebody comes up to me after the training is over, or they provide us with some feedback and say, Hey Brian, that was just great training and I really appreciate you being here, and I'm gonna look at things differently than I have in the past, and I'm gonna put my arc flash gear on now.
Brian Hall:And I, you know, I, I really understand how important that is.
Brian Hall:And that's what really motivates me.
Brian Hall:Hopefully, you know, we've changed some people's mind about working on this equipment and again, how important it is to protect themselves and and follow their electrical safety rules.
Brian Hall:And when somebody expresses that to me, that's very gratifying.
Anderson Williams:Before I wrapped up the conversation, I couldn't resist coming back to something Brian mentioned at the beginning, I had to ask him if he saw any connection between his passion for music and his approach and success at training.
Brian Hall:That's an interesting question.
Brian Hall:So if you think about music, or playing music.
Brian Hall:Lemme say it that way.
Brian Hall:It's really the three things.
Brian Hall:So certainly you gotta understand music, right?
Brian Hall:How it works.
Brian Hall:The notes on the guitar, there is theory, right?
Brian Hall:And then the other side of that is a lot of people can play the notes, but there's only so many people that can play the notes that are pleasing to your ear, right?
Brian Hall:Or become whatever artist it is you like, right?
Brian Hall:Be able to take that theory and turn it into music, right?
Brian Hall:Or art.
Brian Hall:And I guess that's kind of the way I look at my electrical safety training, right?
Brian Hall:Again, there are these standards and, and so there is this theory, if you will.
Brian Hall:And so how do we take that and turn it into something that people understand and can use and sometimes enjoy, right?
Anderson Williams:Brian Hall is an Everyday Hero whose superpower is his expertise.
Anderson Williams:He has turned a lifetime of knowledge into life-saving learning, and in the process has become a champion of making sure people go home.
Anderson Williams:If you enjoyed this episode, check out our other Everyday Heroes at www.shorecp.university/podcasts there you'll also find episodes from our Microcap Moments as well as.
Anderson Williams:Bigger.
Anderson Williams:Stronger.
Anderson Williams:Faster.
Anderson Williams:series each highlighting the people and stories that make the lower middle market space unique.
Anderson Williams:This podcast was produced by Shore Capital Partners and recorded in the Andrew Malone Podcast Studio with story and narration by Anderson Williams, recording and editing by Austin Johnson.
Anderson Williams:Editing by Reel Audiobooks.
Anderson Williams:Sound design, mixing and mastering by Mark Galup of Reel Audiobooks.
Anderson Williams:Special thanks to Brian Hall and Jeff Kershner.
Anderson Williams:This podcast is the Property of Shore Capital Partners, LLC.
Anderson Williams:None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, nor a recommendation or offer relating to any security.
Anderson Williams:See the terms of use page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.