#2 Trade Skills & Tiny Homes feat. Sean Ticknor (Big Skills Tiny Homes)

Build Our Future Podcast

Today’s inspiring guest is Sean Ticknor, founder of Big Skills Tiny Homes, a not for profit organization based in California that teaches trade skills to high school students with the hopes of sparking an interest in them. We discuss Sean’s teaching methods and what building a tiny house entails, the great but under-recognized career path offered to tradespeople, off the grid living, and what finding your vocation really means! Kicking things off, we hear about the idea behind Big Skills Tiny Homes where Sean is trying to expose young people to the joy of a trade career in an environment where schools only sell the idea of college as a viable future. Sean talks about what the curriculum he teaches entails, involving taking a few students through the entire build of a tiny house, and all the challenges, lessons about construction logistics, and lightbulb moments this involves. We discuss the tiny house and container conversion movement, and the growing desire people have to be mobile due to land coming at such a premium. Toward the end of our chat, Sean gets into the overlap between doing what you love, what you’re good at, what you’re paid for, and what serves others – a sweet spot wherein the meaning of life lies! Wrapping up, we hear Sean’s dreams for the future of Big Skills Tiny Homes, and his ambition to make the project more widespread so that young people can take up jobs in the tradesperson sphere, a portion of the market that could do with the extra hands!