Check out these cool photos of Mike with the Blue Angels last week in San Francisco during Fleet Week. More to come!
If you haven’t heard, Caterpillar introduced Mike to the folks at “I Make America”. Here’s some more recent press on the campaign from CNN:
October 11, 2010
Today’s Mission Possible is Mike Rowe. You may have seen him on Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs show. He’s tried 300 of the dirtiest jobs out there, like changing a lightbulb 600 feet up in the air or cleaning out skulls. His work is all about bringing respect to the skilled workers who make life possible for the rest of us. We’re talking about plumbers, rig workers, car technicians, etc. We’re expected to see a shortage of these workers in the next few years.
To check out the I Make America campaign, click here.
Also check out Mike Rowe Works website by clicking here.
To check out his show Dirty Jobs, click here.
Keep on reading – we’re putting up more press on the I Make America campaign launch as it comes in.
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By PATRICK GAVIN | 9/30/10 8:26 AM EDT Updated: 9/30/10 10:17 AM EDT
Most celebrities come to Washington, D.C. and are eager to chat up politicians about their policy of choice.
Not Mike Rowe. The “Dirty Jobs” host held an event on Capitol Hill Wednesday to launch an effort (dubbed “I Make America”) to support America’s manufacturing industry, but didn’t take the usual approach.
“I don’t really talk to politicians,” Rowe told POLITICO.
“I’m more interested in talking to the kinds of people that watch the show and just go through their lives. I don’t think I’m one of those B-List celebrities who has some type of pull on politicians.”
But Washington, D.C. can have an affect on manufacturing jobs, right?
“It’s really not about Washington, D.C. and politicians,” said Rowe. “The larger issues are a lot more fundamental. … The symptoms are this attitude that there’s a certain type of education and a certain type of job that are better than others. … We need to celebrate people who do these kinds of jobs.”
Rowe’s task on Discovery’s “Dirty Jobs” is to spend some time on jobs that most people would find, well, stomach-turning (think: shark suit tester, skull cleaner). And since we always hear that politics can be a dirty business, how does Washington, D.C. stack up?
“Politicians and lobbyists — they’re a lot like California: They’re an easy target. They’re easy to make fun of. They sort of bring it on themselves,” he said. ROWE HITS HILL
BONUS!! Click HERE to see Mike on his end of the interview with Patrick.
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AEM’s “I Make America” Launch a Resounding Success
AEM launched its “I Make America” national grassroots campaign to a packed crowd on Capitol Hill today. The launch event featured Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs fame, and was attended by several congressional representatives, media and equipment manufacturers. During the launch, both Rowe and AEM President Dennis Slater urged lawmakers to pass legislation supporting infrastructure investment and international trade agreements.
Press coverage of the event has already started, with stories in The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones, CNN and Fox Business. More coverage is expected later today and tomorrow since media organizations such as NBC News, Roll Call, Heard on the Hill, Transportation TV (AASHTO), and Capitol News Service were also at the event. ABC Nightly News with Diane Sawyer plans a story for next week.
“U.S. manufacturing has suffered greatly during this recession, but the truth is, we’ve been allowing it to decline in this country for too many years. We need to stand up for our industry and put a stop to it while we still can,” said Slater. “Congress can create hundreds of thousands of good, sustainable jobs and keep America competitive in the global economy by taking action on infrastructure investment and free and fair trade.”
The “I Make America” campaign launch was just the start – the aim of the campaign is to create a groundswell of support that lawmakers can’t ignore. You can support “I Make America” by going to www.IMakeAmerica.com and signing up as a supporter. AEM UPDATE
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Equipment Manufacturing Group Urges Congress To Pass Infrastructure Bill
By Darrell A. Hughes, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES, Sept. 29, 2010
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Association of Equipment Manufacturers on Wednesday urged U.S. lawmakers to pass legislation that supports infrastructure investments and helps to create jobs in the construction sector.
Dennis Slater, the association’s president, said a full six-year reauthorization of the surface transportation bill would lead to business and market stability in the construction equipment industry.
Without full funding, “this industry here will tug along at a very slow pace,” Slater said. He noted that construction equipment manufacturers and dealers employed 1.25 million people before the recession, and has since lost 550,000 jobs.
As congressional members prepare to leave Washington and with elections approaching, Slater said it’s important to remind Congress why passing an infrastructure bill and free-trade agreements remains imperative. Read More...
Published September 22, 2010 – Get Rich Slowly
reprinted from Fox Business.com – Personal Finance
I write a lot at Get Rich Slowly about Financial Independence, by which I essentially mean early retirement
(or semi-retirement). That is, accumulating enough money that I no longer have to work. To me, escape from work has always seemed like the ultimate goal.This is probably because my father held out retirement as a sort of Promised Land. He worked hard — if not always effectively — and he always made retirement and the end of work seem like the goal of life. And the sooner one reached retirement, the better.
But whenever I write about early retirement or Financial Independence, I get e-mail and comments from readers who never want to stop working. They love their jobs. Others write to say that we’re not supposed like the work that we do, but we’re supposed to do it anyhow. It builds character, and helps us pay the bills.
I’ve never found these arguments convincing. To me, early retirement has remained the goal.
Dirty jobs
Last week, Eileen e-mailed a link to a video with a one-line explanation. “This video is WEIRD and COOL and speaks to many GRS ideas like working and satisfaction,” she wrote. Yesterday, I finally had a chance to watch it. This video made me pause to reconsider my notion of work.
I didn’t know what to think at first. Mike Rowe, the host of Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and the voice of Deadliest Catch, starts by relating an anecdote about castrating lambs with his teeth. “What does this have to do with Get Rich Slowly?” I wondered — but because his story was so compelling, I kept watching for all 20 minutes, 34 seconds. Turns out there is a connection.
It takes about half the presentation for Rowe to make his point, but eventually he does. “People with dirty jobs are happier than you think,” he says. “As a group, they’re the happiest people I know.” And his work on Dirty Jobs has led him to realize that there are a lot of misconceptions about work in the United States.
Example: Rowe notes that a lot of people say that you ought to “follow your passion”, and that if you do then things will work out. But that’s not always the case. Millions of people chase their dreams but never reach them. Meanwhile, millions more do work they’re not passionate about, but which brings them fulfillment (and sometimes riches) anyhow.
We hear these messages over and over and over again so that we, too, come to believe that work is something to be fought against. It’s something to be avoided or escaped. Work has been marginalized. It’s looked down upon. In essence, there’s a war on work.
The War on Work
“We’ve declared war on work. As a society. All of us,” Rowe says. “We didn’t set out to do it [...] but we’ve done it. And we’ve waged this war on at least four fronts.” The war on work is being fought:In Hollywood. “The way we portray working people on TV — it’s laughable,” Rowe says. “We turn them into heroes, or we turn them into punch-lines.” Television and movies don’t do a good job of making work complex and three-dimensional.
On Madison Avenue. The central message of so many commercials is, “your life would be better if you could work a little less, if you didn’t have to work so hard, if you could get home a little earlier, if you could retire a little faster, if you could punch out a little sooner.”
In Washington. Lawmakers use work as a political tool, exploiting our notions of work for their own gain. And the policies they implement shape the way we view work.
In Silicon Valley. New technology changes the way we think about work, and changes the way we actually do our work. Not all of these changes are bad, Rowe says, but overall technological advancement contributes to the war on work.
“The collective effect of all of that has been this marginalization of lots and lots of jobs,” Rowe says. “Somebody needs to be out there talking about the forgotten benefits [of work].” He believes that what’s needed is a PR campaign for work.
Rowe says that the war on work has casualties, just like any other war. For one, the U.S. infrastructure is a shambles. To make matters worse, trade school enrollment is dropping fast, meaning we won’t have enough workers to rebuild that infrastructure. In order for this to change, we have to stop marginalizing work and start talking about the benefits.
The forgotten benefits of work
I’m disappointed that Rowe’s presentation ends before he can explore this topic further. I’d like to know more about what he thinks are the hidden benefits of work. After thinking about it most of the day, I have a short list of my own:Work gives us meaning. I know plenty of people who hate their jobs. I’ve had shitty jobs too — jobs I’ve hated and wanted desperately to leave. But almost without exception, the folks I know who are happiest are those who work hard, even if they don’t have jobs they love. And those who are unhappiest? They’re the ones without jobs for one reason or another. Does the unhappiness lead to the lack of work? Or does the lack of work make people unhappy? I’m not sure, but they seem to be connected.
Work gives us money. For most people, their career will be the single largest source of income they have in their life. Your health is your most important asset, but your career is a close second. Your career is your cash machine, which is why I stress the importance of networking and learning how to negotiate your salary. Without work, you probably don’t have the resources for anything else either.
Work builds relationships. Again, for most people, their jobs are their primary social activity. I’m not saying this is good or bad, but it’s true. When you spend 40 hours a week with a group of people, you come to know them. In many cases, your co-workers become your friends. And work also teaches you how to build other relationships, especially through networking.
Work builds skills. And, of course, work teaches us to do stuff. I wasn’t born knowing how to write. Sure, I learned some theoretical stuff about writing in all of the classes I’ve taken, but most of what I know (which still isn’t much) is a result of tens of thousands of hours of actual writing. By doing the work, I’ve built the skills. The same is true of any work we do.
Though I found Rowe’s presentation entertaining and thought-provoking, I don’t agree with him completely. (I rarely agree with anyone completely.) For one, I still think that you ought to follow your passions, if it’s feasible. Yes, people can get into trouble if they’re slavish to this advice, but I truly believe that work you love can be tremendously fulfilling.
Still, I may have to re-evaluate my dogged pursuit of Financial Independence. I’ve already been shifting my aim from an ideal of early retirement to one of simply semi-retirement (in which I’d continue to work in some fashion). Maybe work isn’t the enemy. Maybe there are reasons to keep doing something I love.
What do you think about work? Is it marginalized in our society? Do you think there’s a war on work? If so, what should we do about it? What sorts of benefits does work provide? Do you love your work, or do you hope to retire as soon as possible? Or both?
READ MORE HERE
For some strange reason, comments on this article on the foxbusiness.com site are closed so you can’t tell the author what you think but maybe if enough people go to the article and “like” it, they’ll open it back up. One never knows…
by Reinhardt Schuhmann on September 29, 2010
Even though Advertising Week is supposed to be for the ad men, that industry’s increased interest in music made a couple of yesterday’s panels especially interesting for musicians.
As we’ve stressed on WAMM many times before (here and here, for example) partnering with brands is becoming increasingly important for musicians. While Tuesday’s The Celebrity-Brand Marriage and Clear Channel Conversation centered on high-level partnerships (Goo Goo Dolls, Subway, Ourstage and Clear Channel; Mike Rowe and Caterpillar) well beyond what most indie bands can aspire to early in their careers, there were points made that apply to any brand partnership.
At The Celebrity-Brand Marriage, Mr. Rowe noted how important it was that the brand and the campaign he was a part of enabled him to authentically represent his personal brand. An essential factor in making that happen is acute self-awareness, of yourself as well as your brand – who your audience is, what they value, what you value, and the messages you want to get across. The other panelists made it clear that Mr. Rowe excels in this department. The Dirty Jobs star also took his branding partnerships one step further; when meeting with Liz Cahill, VP of Marketing for Lee Jeans, he made it clear that he was as interested in the Lee brand as he was his own brand. Brands are flattered if when discussing a partnership you let them know you care about them and what they represent. If it’s really a good fit then this should come easily.
The discussion also stressed that companies are often not interested in having a celebrity spokesperson for their brand. The focus is more on partnerships that reflect the values of the brand and are beneficial to both sides. While this has worked incredibly well for a television star like Mike Rowe or an established band like Goo Goo Dolls, it’s an encouraging sign for less established artists. This line of thinking in branding partnerships implies that a relatively unknown artist could make a very effective brand partner if the right connection existed.
Tuesday’s Clear Channel Conversation also focused on band-brand partnerships, but it underscored a change in thinking that’s taking place in corporate America. Now that content is distributed digitally, “brands are the biggest distribution networks in the world,” said Stuart McLean, the CEO of Content and Company. This realization – did you know that 1.3 million people like Subway on Facebook? – has pushed more and more companies to move aggressively into promoting and creating their own entertainment content and experiences. If you’re keeping an eye out for products or campaigns that resonate with you, it’s increasingly likely that the brand offering it will be receptive to working with you.
Mike Rowe
Full bio (from the Fall 2007 issue of Classroom to Community Express)
To the world, Mike Rowe is the host of the Discovery Channel’s popular Dirty Jobs series. In each episode, he serves as an apprentice to the men and women who do the sometimes dangerous and dirty jobs that need to be done – such as cleaning up toxic bird waste, diving for golf balls in alligator-infested waters, and removing road kill from our streets.
To many in Baltimore County, however, Rowe is also known as a graduate of Overlea High School and the son of two former Baltimore County teachers. He is remembered for his stage performances in high school and then for going on to sing professionally with the Baltimore Opera. Many in the Baltimore County community have followed Rowe’s career as he sold more than $100 million of simulated diamonds on QVC and appeared in several dozen Tylenol commercials. He also hosted Worst Case Scenario for TBS, On-Air TV for American Airlines, The Most for The History Channel, No Relation for Fox, New York Expeditions for PBS, and Evening Magazine – a local program on San Francisco’s CBS affiliate. Along the way, he has narrated more than 1,000 hours of television and has performed in dozens of theatrical productions.
Rowe’s affiliation with the Discovery Channel began before Dirty Jobs. Discovery sent Rowe to the Valley of the Golden Mummies to host Egypt Week Live! and to the Bering Sea for the filming of Deadliest Catch, the network’s series on Alaskan crab fishing.
Below Rowe answers some questions about his career:
How did your school experiences prepare you for your career?
A successful career in broadcasting depends largely upon an understanding of how regular people work and function in the real world. I think, in this way, a public education was more valuable than a private one and certainly more relevant to what I do for a living today. As for college, it’s still tough to beat a broad-based liberal arts education, and I’m grateful to have had one. It might not guarantee any one thing in particular, but it’s helped me immeasurably in sounding smarter than I actually am.
What do you like most about your work?
The variety. In the last three years on Dirty Jobs, I’ve had more than 150 different gigs. I’ve shot in every state and on most continents. I’ve met an extraordinary number of really unique people, made some lifelong friends, and laughed a lot. I also really love the fact that Dirty Jobs is such a simple hit. No script, no agenda, no Hollywood pressure to constantly up the ante. The level of creativity and freedom on Dirty Jobs is very high and very unusual in television.
How did you approach your career? What qualities were most important?
Luck and realistic expectations. The entertainment business creates far more failures than hits, and it’s filled with people who only swing for the fences. Basically, everybody’s looking for stardom, and that sort of mentality creates an opportunity for anyone not motivated solely by fame. Personally, I was always more interested in a career that gave me a lot of free time, so I looked for projects that wouldn’t suck the life out of me. There is no shortage of them. I’ve worked as an actor, an opera singer, a game show host, a spokesperson, a pitchman, a narrator, a writer, and a producer. I’ve hosted game shows, reality shows, and talk shows. I didn’t get in the business to get famous. I got in it because it suited my lifestyle.
So what happened? How do you explain your current renown? Dirty Jobs is a hit show.
Basically, I miscalculated. I pitched Dirty Jobs as three one-hour specials. My goal was to become the guy that Discovery would send to places like Everest, The Titanic, Egypt, etc. I wanted to be their “specials guy.” To make that deal work, the network wanted to launch a mini-series featuring me. I pitched Dirty Jobs, and more people watched than anyone ever expected. It blew up almost overnight. So much for six months off every year…
Regrets?
No. A hit show wasn’t part of the plan, but I’m not inclined to complain. Dirty Jobs has a good message, and it reaches millions of people around the world. It’s evergreen and will probably be around long after I’m gone. That’s cool.
What’s the message of Dirty Jobs?
There are several. Mainly, it’s that dignity and humor can exist in unlikely places. Balance is in short supply these days, and people with dirty jobs seem to have more of it than the rest of us. They have a perspective and an understanding that keeps them from being defined solely by their work. It’s a perspective worth celebrating, I think.
What do your parents think of all this?
I think they’re puzzled, but pleased. My parents both taught in Baltimore County Public Schools. I think it’s safe to say they’re sympathetic to those with dirty jobs…
What advice do you have for current students on choosing/building a career?
I’m a fan of the “reverse commute”: Watch where the masses are going, and head in the other direction. I think the best opportunities are currently nonexistent positions that will eventually be created by the people who really want them. I would suggest doing that. Don’t worry about a job. Find an industry that you like, and then figure out a way to make money in it.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Caterpillar Inc. has announced that it is partnering with Mike Rowe, the creator and star of the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs and founder of mikeroweWORKS.com. With Mike’s dedication to the trades and Caterpillar’s commitment to its customers, the two have joined forces to highlight the important and essential work Caterpillar customers perform everyday.
Rowe will be spending time with Caterpillar customers and dealers to get a real world perspective on their jobs and how the two partner to be successful. These encounters will be featured on cat.com and at Cat Dealerships across the country and will be used to demonstrate the solutions that Cat Dealers provide their customers throughout the lifecycle of their equipment, highlighting their superior parts and service support.
“When hard work is being performed and progress is being made, Mike wants to be in the thick of it, so teaming with him is an absolute perfect fit,” said Denny Vosberg, Caterpillar Parts and Service Support Manager. “Our dealer personnel are the best in the world and have been supporting our customers with their critical work for generations. Now is the time to shine a light on it and Mike is going to help us with that.”
Rowe, who calls himself a perpetual apprentice, has performed more than 300 jobs in locations around the country via his show, Dirty Jobs, which is currently one of the Discovery Channel’s most popular programs. Mike is also the creator of mikeroweWORKS.com, a website dedicated to and for people in the trades to meet, discuss relevant topics and learn what is the latest in the industry. He says his partnership with Caterpillar was “inevitable” because the two share the same work philosophy.
I see Cat equipment and the hard working people operating it around the world, building and creating infrastructure,” said Rowe. “I’m excited to go beyond the machine and talk with the people who are actually making it happen.”
