Thursday, July 27, 2023 Streaming Skills Nick Tountas has found his niche in an unlikely place: as an advocate for the skilled trades through his foodie YouTube channel Guide magazine Sectors Construction By Rachel Debling IT’S NO SECRET THAT THE most popular YouTube videos involve food, interviews, or kittens. For former Local 53 member Nick Tountas, the secret to his online success combines two of those three magic ingredients. NickFlix and Skills, Nick’s YouTube channel, is devoted to highlighting the best and brightest in the skilled trades, from women who have pivoted from another career into the trades to politicians who influence the sector. His videos meld a cooking show format with a Q and A. After Nick prepares a meal from scratch, he shares it with his guest as they talk about their careers, their interests, and the state of the world. “I still think the production value is quite lacking, but I’m learning as I go,” he says. “And people seem to enjoy it.” Nick’s foray into streaming began in 2020 when he first saw episodes of a show called Cooking with Doug, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s pandemic hobby. “I don’t know what it was about that segment; I just loved it,” says Nick. “I think seeing the human element of our premier was kind of funny. It was lighthearted. And that was during a time of such uncertainty and confusion. It drew me in, for whatever reason.” Inspired, Nick fired up his own camera and began filming. Cooking with Nick, an homage to the premier’s show, was born. “I think I produced maybe 15 videos or so of Cooking with Nick, trying to get Doug Ford’s attention,” he remembers, joking that he tweeted at the politician “to the point of harassment. I wanted to get his attention, to tell him to bring back his show. “After that, I was going to wrap it all up and just stop. But there was so much positive feedback about my videos that I decided, okay, I’m going to keep going, but I want to make it more unique and authentic to myself.” THAT AUTHENTICITY CAME FROM ADDING another of his passions into the mix: the skilled trades. A former employee of J.M.R. Electric Ltd., based in Exeter, Ontario, and now a sheet metal worker, Nick has long been a proponent of, and active participant in, the trades. “I’ve worked at quite a few companies over the years,” he says. “They’ve varied a little bit from one to the next, but I mostly worked commercial my entire career,” though he has in the past taken positions in the heavy industrial and residential sectors. Leveraging the power of his social network, Nick began to rebrand his YouTube channel to NickFlix and Skills, a play on a slang term that became popular during Netflix’s rise to streaming fame. He pulled in his friends and coworkers, not only because, as he admits, he was tired of seeing his own face on the screen, but because they provided a wide variety of perspectives and experiences in the trades. “I decided to do something nobody else was doing,” says Nick. “There are so many people who are promoting the trades, and there are so many cooking shows. I thought, if I can put out a cooking show where I make meals at home and interview all different sides of the sector, whether it’s tradespeople, government officials, or trade organizations, it would be a pretty cool concept. And it’s worked out really well so far.” In the time since his channel’s launch, his notoriety has also expanded beyond his own viewership. Last year, Nick was featured on Trade Talks with Monte McNaughton, the podcast of Ontario’s minister of labour, immigration, training, and skills development. His son, Nick Jr., who also got the trades bug, came along for the ride. “The show covered our journey as a father-son team being sheet metal workers,” says Nick. “Monte thought it was a great story and wanted to cover it.” And while Nick Jr. enjoyed the interview, his dad doesn’t think that he’ll be following in his streaming footsteps any time soon. “He’s like, ‘Dad, I don’t wanna be in front of the camera,’” laughs Nick. TO KEEP HIS CHANNEL FRESH, Nick keeps his eye on the calendar and notes important days that he can tie into his content. On March 8, International Women’s Day, he featured Libby, a professional cook for more than 15 years. As Nick points out in the video, the culinary arts are an oft-overlooked area of the trades, though he is looking to feature more women in construction and manufacturing in the future. His online endeavour has inspired Nick in other ways, too. In July, he will be saying goodbye to the trades altogether to pursue his bachelor of education in technological studies at the University of Windsor. With this shift, he hopes that he can help future generations enter a rewarding career in the trades. “I kind of gear the show toward young people, but I hope a parent who’s watching one of my episodes takes away something as well,” he says. “I don’t think trades advocates are going to take anything away from my show they don’t already know. But I think there are a lot of parents out there, or even educators for that matter, who really don’t know what the skilled trades are and how many opportunities are out there.” SO, DID NICK EVER COME face-to-face with the person who motivated him to start his own channel? “I actually met Doug Ford last year,” he says. During that meeting, he learned his online tweeting campaign worked. “He told me, ‘Yeah, I know who you are,’” laughs Nick. Unfortunately for Nick, they didn’t enjoy a home-cooked meal together. But who knows what the future may hold? You might be interested in Liftsafe Engineering Employees Overwhelmingly Ratify New Agreement 11 Feb 2025 School Bus Drivers In Fort Nelson, BC, Unanimously Ratify New Contract 11 Feb 2025 The Cooperative Advantage 11 Feb 2025 BC NDP Needs to Walk the Talk on Canadian Solidarity 10 Feb 2025