Daniel Gonzalez 1/27/25 Daniel Gonzalez 1/27/25

The Huddle - Episode 133 - First-Time Fails: Rookie Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Let's dive into the most common missteps new flooring installers make and how to sidestep them. From skipping moisture tests and using the wrong adhesive to improper subfloor prep, these rookie errors can lead to costly repairs and unhappy clients. We’ll share expert tips and insights to help installers avoid these pitfalls, ensuring a smooth installation process and long-lasting results. Tune in to learn what it takes to start strong and build a solid reputation in the flooring industry.

The Huddle Podcast is where the flooring industry comes together to connect, learn, and thrive! Recognized as the #1 podcast in the flooring community, we provide an unmatched platform for professionals to discuss everything from installation techniques to industry trends.

At The Huddle, we’re all about driving Forward Progress—empowering seasoned installers, contractors, and flooring enthusiasts to grow, innovate, and lead in their craft. Whether you’re looking for real conversations, actionable insights, or inspiration to take your career to the next level, The Huddle is your home for real discussions that matter.

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what's up welcome back to the Huddle your weekly Playbook where we help you gain forward progress in your flooring

career we are here to help you win to all of our new viewers welcome to the

team what's up fellas how's it going sorry we're late uh audience uh we had a

little technical difficulty so um but we got it we got it we're here on a cold

Bliss blistery uh Winter's day I would love it if anybody on would uh just

comment with what degree and where you're at because um we got 14 up here

in Kansas City and it feels like it's like seven well seven below it was

literally eight below here we don't get below we get cold in Kansas but below

zero four degrees and uh our low is Nega five yes Roland I am cold because I just

got back from lunch and it is

like 14 degrees and like I said it is almost

um with the wind chill I think it's saying like it feels like negative4 or something crazy anyway I think it is ne4

that's how cold it is it's cold yeah yeah I I actually plugged my

truck in last night to make sure that uh we're going to be good this in the morning good call well you're is it a

diesel yeah well you do that every time it's

like down in the below 20 you do that below 20 I don't know what um what our

guys do but they certainly um plug it in plug in our trucks I think it's probably

any time it's under freezing but anyway today is we are going to need

some audience participation uh for this to last an

hour but it's always a fun topic uh

you yeah I I don't it's fun now it's fun to talk about it now it wasn't fun back

on in the day right yeah yeah it wasn't fun when these things happened but you know your first time floring failed

um you know we'll go a little bit farther and um discuss like how to avoid

them too or you know what we learned from them

but it's GNA take participation because I've only made one mistake and I

think Daniel only made one Jose's only made one so what's up I think we got

like has at home sick right now too I think based on his uh post earlier hey

Jorge what how cold is it there dude I know it's always warm there but I heard

uh from Ben who many of you know with go Carrera um and he's been on the podcast

uh several times but he said that uh he was showing me pictures of family

members down in Houston that uh got four inches of snow

so I'm sure it ain't as warm as it usually is for you or he it's not might

as well just shut the whole Community down at that point when it's I think the whole city uh from what

Ben said the whole city is shut down like they just stayed home right like they don't have the

roads are different the tires are different and I never would have thought about that but when we were in Oklahoma

they shut down because of like two hours of freezing rain and we were down there with

Michigan tires and just like what you guys like what's

wrong all right we got some 27s to 40 degrees now okay well you're

whooping our ass it's you're three times as warm as we

are well we're GNA give it a second let some some audience um catch up with us

here and uh hopefully we'll be getting some

participation on this topic but when you think about let's let's start with this

when you think about floring all right uh when you think

about floring Fels um I what always comes to my mind

is things that go wrong but I'm not talking about um

not like you know I didn't prep the floor or something like that these are things that you you you maybe did early

on that uh caused you some issues so obviously a little bit um do a

temperature check here degrees wind till

five where are you at Holy Moly Maryland

yep oh yeah yeah well that checks

out but uh I was I was kidding when I said I've

only made one flooring fell I've made two and multiple more than that actually but

one that I was telling you guys I'll save but I do have another did you guys ever use um Dependable gypson patch back

in the are you old enough no like I think we're old enough to have used it but smart enough to have never used it

okay well you got me on the second Point Square buckets is it coming the square buckets went you could get it in square

buckets or bags yeah that's now I was an hourly employee so it wasn't like I was

trying to save money I just used what the company gave me to use I didn't go out and try to you know save a few bucks

on a bag of patch but we used I skim coded

I'm talking so there's a reason you're supposed to check your substrate let me

preempt this with check your subrate make sure that there's no oil it's free of oil and paint and these types of

things I did none of that first off and secondly I skim coded uh an entire

hallway and I even built it up real nice in a few areas maybe half inch with some

Dependable gypson base patch and

uh can anybody just guess what happened when I glued down my uh tried to glue

down my carpet it wase dude I had bubbles everywhere and I

could and it was like a 30 foot shot by about eight and a half nine foot wide and the entire thing came up well

then you Tred to spread glue right over the top of it and there was like a hydraulic oil or something in the it was

a it was a nightmare I couldn't I had to throw throw away I got in big trouble because I had to throw away the the

whole drop we couldn't get the the gypson by the way sticks to carpet glue

really well and it was stuck to the back of the carpet had no chance um what does

he say he say used it with milk it worked great I don't think he needs real milk

also he says it was the only thing LS and I'm an 80s baby so that's before my

time that is uh before your time but I would say

um I would say that we didn't I didn't mix it with latex either is that a thing

gypson with latex it makes it more more pliable I

haven't used it uh well since I opened my company we

we never used it it's always been cement Portland based product but anyway it was it was quite the

Nightmare how to avoid that is two things the substrate was contaminated

with something I think it was like hydraulic uh fluid or something like that they had to come in and clean up

the whole thing and secondly don't in my opinion not only in my opinion I could

show you a picture of a job that I went on uh just recently uh this over the

weekend and was uh helping the crew to get some stuff out and I I should

probably uh put this in for like worse sub worse demo of the year but it has as

you can see a nice layer of gypsum right on top of layer number

three that's four layers of vinyl and a layer of carpet over the top so that's

not a flooring fell we we knocked it out the park but it was a pain in the ass

pardon the French hey Danny where are you at brother it's so cold give me your location and temperature there

okay so uh we we've lost Daniel he's back

again I forgot to put it on do not disturb again and I got a phone call so we're back

sweet all right so chime in comment with your flooring fails and uh let's let us

make fun of you let us make fun of us too we do that really

well I did learn so like I guess one of the first experiences I had I think you need to turn your gain up it's really

hard to hear is it really that low yeah all right when you yelled at for it

being too much n better no yeah a little

bit boom boom boom that's come on

Daniel all right so my man Danny he did a a project my brother a while ago and

we prepped everything kind of similar to what you did we prepped everything you know we didn't really grind anything

there was a bunch of old adhesive or what we thought was adhesive um and uh

let's just call it contaminants on the floor so we tried to skim over it with ARX um then we started getting ready to

install and everything started popping up we didn't know what was going on but that's when we found out that that was

an inside chicken Coupe and the chicken poop itself and what they fed it

introduced a bunch of contaminants to the concrete the concrete absorbed it and when we tried to encapsulate it

brought everything back up and we could no longer do anything to that floor um

so of course that's rx's fault right I mean yeah 100% yeah

100% garbage garbage Dependable back just kidding our Dex we love you that

was a joke well the same thing like before I think uh this guy was on a job

site and he didn't have any water or something and mixed it with like a Mountain Dew or a Gatorade or something

and then come to find out when we're going through classes later that you don't want to mix sugar in with that

because that don't mix either so and the crazy thing is is you still see people on Facebook doing that like I don't have

anything I'm gonna mix this with my Coke real quick are you serious yeah there's and

they post it like it's it's the cool thing to do to like be proud of

yeah that's so silly desperate times the about the craziest I've gotten with

patch is you know heating up the water a little bit to make her kick off a little faster but oh yeah

yeah I think that that's a I don't want to say common practice

but little I have used that many times in the

past on some deeper stuff this is what your whole th this is

our life in flooring well guys just got a call installers are 9 foot short on

black base got to run and put it in it's at the Eagles Club and they got to put

the furniture back at 6 PM not salesperson

fail got those yeah it's just so funny to me like in

our that's like the epitome of our business you're just a little short on something or you gota and it's got to be

done that's the uh that's the world of flooring because we are We Are The Last

of the Mohicans in a job site typically it's moving right in behind us Danny says sometimes scarifying and primer

just aren't enough but there's always a way but when you don't know that way that's when you run into stuff because I

ran into one with that too where um we put a bunch of I mean we ground it right

and put a bunch of self leveler down and everything looked great like a week later they were like hey all that patch

is popping go back and uh come to find out like it was an a vestibule and it

just had the the grate there before so all that salt was just sitting there for years and just absorbed into that

concrete and it it was just a bond breaker wow yeah the I I would think

that the that high of alkalinity you talk about it yeah yeah I would have

broken that bond for sure see you Rin you go have fun installing your nine foot of Base see you

Rin okay polls are open how long is it going to take Ron to toss up nine feet of black vinyl

base it's probably already done it's already done Danny I did Prime first but

it was uh not a primer that that was was an epoxy primer is

probably case yeah it it just it did

nothing like you said that's a lot of alkalinity and that's mean straight salt

and it you have no idea how deep it went I got a question does

anybody well first off does does anybody put their do does

anybody use flammable contact cement when you're putting on carpet broadloom

on stairs there's nonflammable contact cement there is now yeah yeah there's

nonflammable I don't trust it that's what don't

either parabon does have one but good old what is it 5025 or whatever

the the uh red can parabon that's what I use

so one time oh it's 40 minutes away it'll take him a minute so it'll take

him 50 minutes it's gonna take him 42 minutes to get this

done so that's all I ever used when I was installing broadloom um

is uh contact cement flammable contact cement you know roll the back roll your

stairs and i' do on a 4 foot set of stairs you know i' I'd cut up for 10 and I'd

waterf them up the stairs and

uh they jumbo didn't know they had

nonflammable um so anyway I've got this I'm starting and what ends up happening is

you know I have that whole carpet draped over me so I was effectively in a flammable contact cement tent for about

an hour I didn't even realize how goofy I had gotten until I got all those the

first 10 uh stairs done but that is probably one if you want to stay smart

and not kill every brain cell that you should avoid doing so that's maybe one of my

ultimate fails was I was high as a kite for a good hour or so after that I

couldn't even and I was sick to my stomach I thought I was gonna puke on the job site it doesn't

make I got the munchies from from contact yeah and I did that when I was

12 years old contacting a bunch of stuff for this guy right here and then he got mad at me because I got sick yeah yeah

actually that was one of the first jobs he ever helped out with um out in Holland and uh yeah he's right I put him

on on contacting the steps and this guy's like I don't feel good and me being the awesome big brother I am just

pretty much told him that he was a little [ __ ] and blah blah blah or yeah that word sorry

guys and then and then didn't realize there was no ventilation yeah yeah I got

a brother in uh no ventilation sorry uh I seen jge

did the same thing s good yeah no ventilation and pretty much I got my brother highend chemicals at 12 years

old y Nate just did a bunch with some nonflammable too I seen the pictures

where he uh used the cool glide on the

seams yeah that's funny yeah it was not good Jorge and I don't know where you

got how you could possibly get the uh get hungry from it

but so he says that someone that he knows we're we're going to holde head

real quick uh someone that he knows installed some glue down plank in Zer degree weather it's acclimated inside

but how can you acclimate it and yeah I mean unless inside was like

the HVAC was on then it's it's fine the material flexed and gaap well I think uh

when when it's cold and then you install it it's going to end up pushing up on each other expanding

yeah that's a I can't imagine that that turned out good no not unless it stayed

there but surely they heated it up a minute you know put it back to normal

temperature okay Lanny says I had a project not pass inspection it was glued down broadland carpet and out of the

specs for Boeing I was it was on a weekend and I could not get in touch with the rep or

the salesman that was on vacation them damn salesman and vacation when you need

them the most and the commercial space had to be back uh in use on Monday I

crab stretch it as far as I could but it was on gypsum and it didn't hold very

well yep I could see that we ended up sending another guy out there to seam and stretch the centers cost me a few

bucks good learning experience learning experience though yeah I I I don't know

how you would um do that without cooling seams and prepping the gypsum

and priming it and prepping it the problem is gypsum you put a lot of glue on that

even if you prime it and like we've had it where gu skim

Cod it and they prime it and skim coat it and then you put down um if you have

like the thin set that they used in this very first unit it was more of a prepping thing uh

not necessarily skim coating but they had to prime it to be able to get the all these uh belly sways that were in

the Gip Creed out but point being when they mix their thin set and

they mix it really runny oh yeah all that moisture went in there and it it

released that and I was like dude that's going to happen every time even if you prime it and kind of do it mostly right

um You can get away with a lot but you know you don't want to over uh over wet in your then it would probably wouldn't

have held anyway at the end of the day so good early catch checking the

paracity after that after you prime it that first time too to make sure that it's not going to you know super soak up

some of that moisture yep but yeah I think a lot of these

these uh fails are just learning experiences like we're talking about contact and before we got on here that's

what I said you know I'm still in high school working at a high school during

the summertime was carrying a gallon of contact just from one end of the school

to the other in one of the rooms that we just installed slipped out of my hand

spilled everywhere I'm trying to clean it up and repair it before anyone comes

in and like like just when you think that you're in the clear like all right I got I got the the carpet there and it

was tandis so I'm just going to double cut it right as soon as I go to start double cutting it guess who just walks

in catches me like I was almost done almost there like the hell's going

on would you end up doing he he ended up showing me exactly how it should be done instead of me

messing it up even more yeah they because I didn't mess up right

that's how I learned too so yeah he said that he did prime it but he

didn't own a stretcher just a crab and the crab can only do so much we've been

on projects where we have two stretchers and like four crabs because the carpet

is that messed up and I mean granted it was out of Tolerance and the

manufacturer knew and they were like all right we're just going to pay you guys to get it in there we're confident it'll stretch that much and that's what we did

we we had a stretcher head on this side stretch your head on this side and stretched stretched it overnight let it

do its thing I I will say the the one thing that we did that on that project

that we learned uh was ripping it down into more manageable pieces to pre-stretch it like three foot four foot

wide pieces instead of the whole the whole 12 foot wi 12 foot six yeah we did

rip it down and and because not every part of it needed to be stretched that much

huh grinding the floor and putting it down without checking for paracity well a lot of guys also grind without even

vacuuming and they don't realize that that's grinding is going to introduce

dust into that concrete yeah i' I've been uh we've been

I should say guilty of not of of doing a vacuum after you

have a if you you got a really dusty job site coming back after lunch and thinking you could just

spread and nope all the dust from the settles like it just come yeah it just

came down and another good reason why a lot of flooring guys just prefer to work

it in the evenings when no one else is there because they cut sheetrock in the other room and that dust is over into

your room and it's enemy it

is days later I've seen it 30 days later still we've been into places like in

hospitals and then they're sanding it like we install and then they start sanding and then you can actually see it

migrating in the like the The Notches in between the notches and it just going

deeper and deeper H says Lan he learned that checking the carpet before insulation is

a must the problem is the store should be checking but they would leave it up to to the

installers to to check the day of installation he had he's had someone

send them bold material install it resend another role they said they double checked rolled it out and it was

the same thing and then he made another claim and

they said that he was probably wrong the in independent inspector came checked and said it was past the

tolerance again so you can't take anyone's word for it I mean

if you look at at just the the CFI right the the R1 you get into patterns and

elongation and bows and SKS and what to look for and how to look for it and it is a lot of it just falls on the

installer unfortunately but it it should be a Salesman type of thing but a lot of

these salesmen don't have the knowledge to just look at something and be like yeah that's wrong a lot well and and

think about it from a dollar's sense standpoint there's two things one most of the salesmen don't have the the skill

and ability to really know what they're looking at or really understand how to check it in the first place the second

thing is if you're pushing out 50 60 houses uh 75 houses a week or a hundred

even there's no time to unroll and

visibly I mean like dude that ain't going to happen it is going to fall on us and it's always going to fall on the

installer that's just how this business is until you get to where the

manufacturers don't try to send out crappy product because why is it that I'm going to defend the dealer on this

why is it the dealers responsibility they paid good money for quality product

manufacturer's Quality Inspection and yeah that that's on them I mean I get it

but well you also have that come to you and they're like yes just it's just some broadloom carpet

No pattern you get there and it's like a/ inch by 1 in pattern and it's like bro yeah like the hardest one I'd rather

do a three-foot pattern yeah just overlapping double cut right yeah well that's how you do all

carpet isn't it Serpentine brother Danny says he doesn't get it with all the social media

knowledge out there that it doesn't change and I think it's just that people some people don't want to change you

have to actually look at yourself and and admit that you're wrong

sometimes and that's hard for some people to do and Danny what do you specifically referencing like all the

problems from the manufacturer what or or are you are you talking about with

all the social media out there that you know the knowledge of these issues um should be wide

enough think smaller he's still he's a couple seconds he's a

little bit behind but yeah I I would I I'm wondering what he's referencing there but for sure like we all see stuff

on social media but unless you're in the learning like you're ready to learn just

running across someone else's fail isn't gonna I don't it doesn't it just isn't

gonna stick my favorite thing lately has been when the the guys that you see posting on a regular basis that are

posting some quality work and then they'll come out and be like just post a picture what's wrong with this picture

and then you know they'll be like yep that is that is the issue and then a lot of them are like and that is why I

worked until this time last night because I wasn't going to leave it like that but that's the thing it's you know

catching it and then fixing it and that's I think the the big thing about these rookie fails is you learn from

what you do like I don't ever want to make that mistake again like I know we've talked about before about trying

to glue down lenium like it was sheet vinyl and then there was bubbles everywhere it's like yeah I'm never

gonna do that again yeah part of it is like even after training you run across things because

there's no site there's so many millions of combinations from the type of concrete

to the job site conditions to the product that you're putting in to the adhesive you take four

variables and hundreds of thousands of different job sites and not one exact condition

matches the other that's why manufacturers are so vague in a lot of their their site conditions and then

they have to weigh that against like selling their product because there's a lot of Manufacturers um I won't name any

but we had a deal recently and this isn't on a flooring fil but it was it's just one of these examples

it says that the side condition should be uh between 65 and 85 for proper

installation and and and maintain uh for 40 48 Hours

thereafter well it's a PSA lvt and the when

it didn't when it gapped over what's uh

allowed it was like well what are they doing with the AC I'm like well they turn it off and I know that that's not shouldn't

happen but um your manufacturers instructions don't state that you have

to keep it there or within 10% SE some of them will say between seven and 10% or something

like that uh from there on it just says for 4 hours there after for 4 48

Hours 42 after yeah well that ain't gonna hold the that's not going to hold

the planks or or you know Help The Help the gapping out at all at all there are

so many issues but let's talk hard surface they remove floor pull product

out of the van and install or they think because drop off two days earlier

and assume it's acclimated no pH relative humidity yeah

well that's a whole different beast and I'm assuming you're talking about wood

uh for the first or just lvp natural

stone um yeah well you're not really checking

I guess you are checking our relative humidity of the of the uh area but you

know hardwood is even different because you got to check the actual wood moisture in the wood wood and in your

substrate and then there's the calculation you got to do to see if it's within tolerance

one of the best things a person can do for themselves is get trained get certifications continue learning after

that experience I ended up getting forb Master Certified Mohawk and mondo to this day I still learn all the time and

that's where hey man Lanny you you should be like an ambassador for us both at the

Huddle and for goera that is our that is

really active the groups and stuff too and I'm I'm pretty sure there's some

guys that still uh question his his knowledge even though he's been in it for a long time and he's learned so much

and just because they don't do it the exact same way that he does they're like nope you're wrong I don't need to do it

like that you're wrong I've done it this way for 20 years 20 years I can't stand that

saying yeah I mean when you have a just like um you know Danny was

talking about you know not checking for acclamation things like that I mean

that's that's a great uh time to be using floor cloud is

when you need to know your site conditions maybe you're not maybe you're you're not already on site and your

salesperson has that they can check the site conditions whether residential or commercial and they know right then

whether they should be dispatching you to the job whether or not they're going to be setting you up for success or not

so demand it demand floor Cloud it enables that real-time monitoring the

site conditions we're all believers we talk about it pretty often here about the simple and easy setup how great the

interface is and you know when you have job sites all over um particularly in

the commercial world but it obviously works just as good in the residential world uh you know having that

information right there at your fingertips is a real game changer let's run in your pocket amen let's run a

quick uh floor floor Cloud video floor Cloud enables realtime

monitoring of your jobsite conditions via desktop or mobile device no more

manual checking for temperature humidity or even dupoint no need for base

stations Wi-Fi or external power sources simply scan the the QR code on the front

of your sensors and you're up and running with the most accurate and Innovative sight monitoring system in

the flooring industry dispatch your Crews with confidence and reduce your climate related installation

issues now you know floor cloud.com now you know yeah that that's a um Danny said

floor cloud is awesome knowing your site conditions is awesome and knowing it at your fingertips is really awesome so

yeah thank you to our sponsors Flor Cloud um I would say that you know guys

talking about milk earlier got me thinking we will milk a subject and we are doing so let's keep this

going I love it so um you know another thing when you're

talking about these the first these uh flooring failures first off I just want

to say this like admit that you didn't know what the hell you was doing and you messing up it was really funny to hear

your story about messing up that uh tandis carpet and your brother coming and like he's well he fixed it and kept

me from messing it up even worse like you're you know you were messing it up and you're able to like just admit it

move on learn that L not everyone has someone walking in on them like when

you're when you're in there right so it it was one of those things like you caught me

so show me how fix it right well my point is when you were talking about like some people uh maybe you know

giving Lanny uh not trust in what he has to say because we've been doing this 20 years or whatever um like guys the if

you think what is that saying like the smart the dumbest person in the room is the person who thinks he knows it all

and it's because you can't learn you're not going to be able to learn if you um

are constant believing that your way is the best I've said this story plenty of times we have

a a really good carpet crew and we sent them to uh Dan CF to R1 and C1 see you

Danny see you in Vegas baby see you in Vegas um anyway they they're a good pretty

good carpet crew but you know we wanted to get them certified and sent them R1

C1 I believe they ended up going back uh and and continuing that but when they came back

they talked about like man I I was so wrong and there's

something about training that can kind of break you down like being in the training that these people giving each

other advice it doesn't come across the same because the ego's getting away if you're going to a training like you are

more open to learning you know that's what you're there for those guys came back and they were like man we call them

the McDaniel brothers and like gushed about how much they learned

how much they had been doing wrong and and how they're going to be doing some things different in the in the future

particularly as it as it came to and I think this they did go through C2 possibly because particularly when it

came to double glue down stuff yeah and I've had the privilege of working with you know um guys that work directly for

manufacturers and teaching them and it's like they come back and they're like man

I didn't realize how much I didn't know until you know we went through this

class with you and it's like and that that's what it's all about and I when I'm teaching the classes I'm like

straight up if you guys know something that I don't let me know and the last time one of the guys did show me you

know he's like it's just something simple is just turn your tip a little bit then you don't have to you know work

it a certain way and it's like man I did that the next flash C project I did and

it was like that's how I'm doing it every time now amen yeah keep on learning to learn and and you're like

well even even if you you do know that you know a little bit right and you know more than the average or you feel like

you know more than the average and then you go to a class and you surround yourself by people uh individuals who

are trying to get better at their craft is the amount of information that you guys can bounce off of each other and

and and put it together to create like a a new hybrid technique or something like that that's that's what makes it all

worth it and able to absorb that information and then apply it in real lifetime the next

time you touch it is is worth a waiting gold Dan says he's been learning for 36 happy 36 birthday

Dan you know uh one thing always comes to mind is that you shouldn't be doing tricks of

the trade if you haven't learned the trade so so if you're doing

like things that are outside the manufacturer's recommendations or industry standard and you don't even

know what the industry standard is you're not doing a trick you're experimenting you know you're you're

you're not even experimenting uh you're you're really risking a lot and I I say that to people who

have uh no industry training and they're like I got this trick no you may have

something but there's no basis for your for your knowledge so get to trainings I

say it every I feel like every week I feel like I'm a broken record but get

CFI trained go go you know uh you can go

to the CFI do um org and or is it do

[ __ ] what's that CFI installer yeah you're I don't know what's up with your

mic my mik what' I do no no your brother say it again say something Daniel you're not

coming through is he I was muted

installers my bad yeah he muted so he didn't cough in I've seen your lips

moving but I didn't hear anything Lanny says that floor cloud is great like

third party moisture testing should be required if for whatever reason someone doesn't use floor Cloud he highly

suggests getting certified to conduct moisture testing prop L too many use

out-of-date equipment and do not followm standards when testing and my thing is is that we are certified and I and we do

use that and Flor cloud is what gave us the ability to read remotely well read

remotely and be like okay I am going to do my own moisture testing now because there's no way that I can construe these

results like you're getting the same thing that I'm getting because you can share it to gc's and Architects or

homeowners whoever you want to send it to it's no longer a conflict of interest

it's just more of keeping everyone's best interest in the Forefront and

having that live documentation and updates is huge worth worth thank you

dan. and.org will get you there but it's like man get just get certified and know

that you don't know everything because it's it's a constantly changing

industry right every industry is like this if it's not changing then it's not

moving forward yeah yeah you got to stay up to date on all the new all the new

adhesives all the new application uh uh standards and you can

you can do that and build yourself a heck of an online reputation if you do

that and you have a go career profile too so um we'll be coming out with profile only some upcoming news here in

the new year uh we're working on finalizing some stuff for for uh that so

look look forward to um you know some some nice positive changes in the go-

career world so you can still get your free install our profile QR code right

on the screen but you can start building your rating uh start building your score

and get that thing up there and and that'll set you apart by from for

everyone meaning people understand a zero to five score um you know frankly

one of our problems in um flooring is there's so many different entities that

train and call different things different things so a homeowner may not know that a R2 is a good installer R2

you know but they're used to this 0er to five score so get on there and get your score that being said I am totally out

of mistake that I've made in this industry

or in the pocket for next time that I'm willing this one real quick there's

there's a when when I realized uh this is a while ago it also all this dumb stuff does involve me and Daniel for

some reason dude it really does involve me and Daniel we were working at a basement um of a um a priest home and

this is when I realized that flooring installers are not plumbers and don't act like you know what you're doing or

what you're messing with when we were installing sheet vinyl in the basement and we didn't know what we were touching

but we know that we could move it a little bit so we started rocking back and forth a pressure tank that was uh it

was a holding tank for all of this water was it was pressurized oh no no the pressure's

coming through the PVC and lift it up just a little bit more I push almost got it and right as it right as we like yep

good tuck it under boom it blew up and Water started coming out Daniel jumped on it like it was a

grenade put his hands over over it and water just went everywhere like no like

we appreciated the effort out of Daniel but it wasn't stopping anything no I still stopped a lot of that water I

don't even care what you say yeah okay yeah luckily the gentleman was very

understanding and and you know it was very humbling and said look here's what here's what happened I asked the guys do

this we were trying to get it in there so that way we have to make an unnecessary cut we wanted it to appear

that it was built on top and then boom but got the water shut off got everything fixed replaced and he

was actually very happy when we were done despite the damage that we

caused I always take one for the team taking one for the

team oh I'll just never forget that the the look on his face and the water didn't stop coming out

how would you just run do shut it off shut do theut yeah shut off the main y shut off

the main so I guess I guess that was another so how many gallons got out a lot I was soaked for the rest of the day

yeah there was a lot of water in that basement man wow if I were to

guess hundreds of gallons maybe yeah like not

good wow well if you're joining us today live thank you so much thanks everybody

for your comments and uh I didn't get a lot of stories but we got some that's

awesome again every thanks for the participation for every from everyone too amen yeah um we we always circles

back to training so we're a industry that needs trained um we're one of the

highest skilled Industries in the skilled trades in my opinion um and and

uh we need to prove it so let's go get trained let's get certified and uh let's build our build our reputations and uh

you know do great work if you want to catch us on any of the podcasting platforms you'll catch us later on

YouTube uh when we upload there anywhere you uh consume uh the Huddle please give

us some some feedback give us a like subscribe if you're on YouTube and we

certainly appreciate everything and you know I I think a common theme through here from the guys that are really

really good they're all still saying we're still learning still learning still learning look at there Mr Dan

Churchill still learning Dennis or Denise

yep so gu all right everyone on we're gonna be down in uh down in Vegas right

yeah hey thanks for bringing that it's gonna be a later show because we're going to do uh 400 PM Vegas time

whatever time zone that is yeah so catch us next week from live

from TY we're going to be uh hanging out going to a lot of different um different

um manufacturer booths we're g to try to get you guys some news give you some

insight on uh how the show's going and yeah who all is going to Vegas Lanny

Jorge yeah yeah awesome all right

everybody thanks for joining us and we will see you next week from Las Vegas

see you thank you everyone peace

Daniel Gonzalez 1/21/25 Daniel Gonzalez 1/21/25

The Huddle - Episode 132 - Flooring Feuds: Settling Debates Between Installers and Clients

Are you tired of those pesky disagreements between installers and clients? In tomorrow’s episode of The Huddle, we dive headfirst into Flooring Feuds: Settling Debates Between Installers and Clients. Join Paul, Daniel, and Jose as they share real-world scenarios, proven negotiation tactics, and practical tips on how to find common ground in even the trickiest situations.

Whether you’re an installer, contractor, or homeowner, you won’t want to miss these insights on turning conflicts into win-win solutions..

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email forwardprogress@thehuddle.team

We want to send a special shoutout to our sponsors!

Please visit our new website! https://thehuddle.team

what's up team welcome to the Huddle your weekly Playbook helping you gain forward progress in your flooring career

we're here to help you win for our new viewers welcome to the team speaking of

team we're down oh he just pops up he's there he's there we got Jose and Daniel

Gonzalez as always gentlemen how you guys doing good sir how are you doing good doing

I'm doing awesome just uh braving the cold and

snow and yeah think we got a total 16 degrees here

today can you guys hear me okay this time yes sir yeah just

loud we got 35 at this point so we're doubling you up but uh man it was it's

going to be cold at the end of the week and we've gotten a crap ton of snow for our

area so all right well still isn't bad over here still isn't bad over here normal I

guess uh but you get spoiled when you get that little bit of melt and you know if it's 35 over here my son is walking

around his shorts like it's spring yeah that's just kids that's teenagers for

you well everybody thank you for uh joining us this week if you uh wouldn't

do wouldn't mind doing us a great favor and if you're you're catching us live you know join in on the conversation get

involved we're going to be talking about something that I'm sure all of us have dealt with and that is uh pretty much

settling conflict between you know installers and um the clients whether

that be a GC or a homeowner or whatever so we're going to kind of break it up into the different time frame so join in

tell us about a dispute you may have had and we'll talk about it um and then we'll just talk about we you

know like always we have our own experiences we'll bring to the table about some different uh times when we

may have gotten in a yeah because we were all installers at one point and then it's that one of those things where

you don't realize it until later on it's like yeah I probably could have handled that a lot differently yeah and and hindsight's

always that hindsight's always got that 2020 on you and uh you learn a little

bit and you know if you got through one that was uh incredibly difficult and

wouldn't mind sharing with the rest of us how you did that that would be awesome so uh if you're catching us uh

live here yeah join in on the conversation if you're catching Us on YouTube or one of the social media

channels make sure to give us a like And subscribe Your Love over the last year has been noted and recognized we've got

thousands upon thousands upon thousands of views in the flooring industry uh we are uh very excited about

our future here at the Huddle and uh speaking of that we're going to be at Ty this year again and we're going to be

walking around doing some key interviews uh checking out some education sessions as well as you know just giving you guys

insight into Ty again um with that let's get moving on to the topic of

the day settling debates between installers and clients so

you know I thought it'd be good just to kind of put some framework around a debate this doesn't this goes from

anything right you can have a debate or you know a dis a diff disagreement with

a client um on how the project was going to go

schedule there's you know construction is very fluid and tough because you got

so many of these things you know um you go to a convenience store and have a

transaction there's only a few things you can really not enjoy you know what I mean like the person or the price of the

product they all have the same products with us you could be schedule delivery

the installation quality the quality of the product itself payment you know

timely payment getting uh any any number of things so one of the biggest uh

things I I'm going to pull from is some some surveys are some studies that we've

ran on um some of this may not be exactly like a linear

line um to our listeners because we're all very professional um but if you look

at the most negative reviews from customers from places like Ang for

example the number one thing is about money and the quality

and not feeling like they got paid what or that they got what they paid for on the other side of that you see the

installer uh you can see the installer um and their side of it and a

lot of times it's like expectations uh that this client had

versus what they bid so I think that's the first thing that comes out is setting the

expectation when the client has an expectation that this high and it's impossible to meet no matter how hard

you work that's where I've seen a lot and I've gotten myself into a lot like

telling somebody when I was installing yeah' I'll have these three rooms done

by Monday no problem yeah was a problem right

something didn't go right the patch didn't dry the glue wasn't setting up as

fast as as the bucket says whatever um and those are the scenarios I've gotten

myself into and I typically was dealing with gc's but what I'm kind of would

love to start with is homeowners I've done a handful of homeowner jobs uh or

residential projects direct with the the end user we do maybe five or six a year and

we have always approached those by just setting clear expectation um and get making sure we

get money up front we have a payment schedule with them hey you're if it's a bigger project you're going to pay us

this much at this time at this time at this time and so we always hit those payment schedules and if you miss one

and that's also their chance to kind of tell us what they don't like about what's going on uh that's worked out

pretty well but a few times I've not been paid one time comes into mind and

then I want to hear some War Stories from you guys you do a fair amount of residential I know but

carpet you know it's it was my fault because I scheduled the install like just a day or two after the

carpet was supposed to come in for a residential uh project and you know the

lady took off vacation I think I've told this story before yeah shows you how how

big of an A2 and I took um but you know she took her vacation for

this had boxed up all the stuff and then our carpet didn't come in and it didn't

come in for three extra days so the the question is how do you deal

with that stuff do you give money back I can tell you how I dealt with it but how

do you guys see those types of scenarios like how do you deal with stuff like

that first of all be honest on what happened right

it's I did I blamed everyone else I think um like especially

the covid era was super like you're looking at all these

timelines and it's just honesty upfront it guys like it said it was supposed to be here last week and I still have not

seen it like that's where we kind of start managing like just our schedule and

being like I'm not going to schedule you until I got something in hand because of the way things have been

yeah and this happened a couple times where e even if you do get uh a ship and

delivery date there's still variables to factor in and like Daniel just said

because of that instance it's very hard for us to to

guarantee dates based off of a schedule especially if they're requesting time off and you know residential you know

you're displacing a family uh commercial depending on what size the project is and you might have a little

bit of a a little bit of a window to get it done right like a window of opportunity

versus very strict days yeah yeah and but those those windows

are like hard Windows too though because like you know you guys do schools school

has to open like you might miss a few vacation that's where it kind of gets I don't

know which one's harder I I wouldn't even try to say which one's harder but you know school is going to open and

you're either going to get the floor in or they're going to hire somebody who's going to get some floor in and you may

have to go tear that floor out to get the right floor in when it comes in or whatever the problem is so yeah the the

um homeowner though I found doesn't you've taken a a butt tune

from a general contractor right like they can get like mean but they're still a little

professional side to it man I've taken chewings from homeowners

like all all things were on the table to call me uh or yeah you know what I mean

like it got personal well they don't have anyone to answer to so it's easier for them to

just out whatever they want right because you're you think about it too and it's like with a GC and it's it's

weird because with a GC they're more professional but you can look at it like

I can push them back a little bit more than when you're dealing with the homeowner right when the homeowner can be as much of an a-hole as they want to

you and you still got to look inside yourself and be like don't say what you want to say yeah this is where chat GPT

comes in if you got them right but can't do that live

no let me so there there was one that we had

and it wasn't very long ago where you know there was some disputes going on

and they ended up calling the office phone and I talked to them and I was probably on the phone with them for half

hour 45 minutes or something like that and it was his project and it's like it

it it's nice to get an outside perspective because I didn't know about the project other than the few little

details that he gave me and I was able to kind of calm her down and let her know that

hey this is who we are this is what we don't do and and what we are going to do like

this is we pride ourselves on our professionalism and you know at the end

of that conversation she was like I am so glad I got to talk to you I going to give you know the installer and Jose a

call tomorrow or tonight I don't remember what she said but she was like

it's it is nice to have that outside perspective because you weren't dealing with it so thank you for everything that

you said and it kind of made her look at things from that that different perspective too because it's it's always

them versus me and you're going back and forth like well that that that brings up a great point I mean the point there is

that the store has to have like don't just throw the installer

under the bus right out of the gate like if a somebody calls and they've they've

got a problem with their job and maybe something going on they don't agree with

with the installer or something and they call the office I mean that's essentially what happened right they called you and and then your job is to

not just toss your guy under the bus but to help the home like help the two sides

come together right and actually settling the debate be empathetic with the homeowner too right because it's

like I understand how you're feeling because this is your home this is your pride and joy right this is what what

you've built so and you they are they're spending a lot of money on even if it's

a small project right we don't know what what cost is a lot to someone so every project is like that and it's like I

know that you know you're spending your hard-earned money on this so let me empathize with you a little bit and Lead

You In the Direction Where We want to know that you are taken care of yeah and that's really what it

was too right it wasn't that um that what the conversations between the

homeowner and I weren't very different than her and Daniel except for Daniel

had no stake in it right he had no reason sure any direction he listened to

her side and said well this is what we typically do this is how we typically operate and then you know it came from a

neutral party who wasn't involved in the last two days of conversation you know what I mean

and know yeah it's hard to find balance when it's already so offset One

Direction yeah that happens a fair amount with in commercial companies with

like the manager like or the owner of the company like myself and then my

project managers uh a GC or someone may not feel like they're getting the enough

attention or whatever it is they they they call me and almost always out of

their mouth I'm not trying to tattle here I just wanted to chew on your ear

for a second I hear that type of a tone and that type of an approach from from

people a lot and most of the time it's not that the project manager has done

anything that uh wrong so to speak it's a lot of times it's just

that they need that outside voice to help them understand without feeling

like they're talking to a PM trying to sell them on the same understanding so they they just need an outside voice

that that may say Hey you know whatever the issue is for example

guy's not showing up uh and I'm like well let me chat with you know my my

project manager and and see what happened were they scheduled well I called him

yesterday okay well sometimes it takes a little bit more time than just one day to get to

mobilize a commercial crew they're all on a job somewhere you know I'll use Jim

I'll just call him Jim they're all on a job somewhere Jim and so they're not they're not just waiting and I'm sure

that RPM is doing everything they can to get them mobilized soon as possible well he hasn't called me back

and the point is is the customers can jump to concl iions and they do that a lot and the more that if you're the one

taking the call you can tamper down the the emotion and get

them to reality that like hey Art this PM XYZ pm has no um benefit to not

taking care of you like he wants to do your job he wants to get your job done

communication and all that stuff is very important I'm sure he'll be calling you back soon soon you know it's it's um

it's one of the reasons why we work really hard at our company to try to get customers called back within you know

just a few hours um they just think they're you're ignoring them and that's

another thing I think at the end of the day no matter who the customer is if they feel ignored or

unimportant so how can you make them feel important that's the same thing like when when when I put on that that

hat right and and I am I am the customer I'm the client I call and I'm

communicating because I want results right and I try to think about it that way too just myself like I need results

like why is this charge on on my card why is what is this invoice for or you

didn't fix my car my car still you know I'm thinking of all the different scenarios and I try to factor all of that into and um yeah you got to put

yourself in the in the customer shoes Y and and and that goes with commercial

residential do our best to to keep all aspects in

mind when we're having a conversation and we try to help our our crews communicate um the importance of

sticking to the guidelines of the installation and trying to maintain a schedule and and trying to factor in all

of that we try to do our best to do that but you know it's it's not always rainbows and butterflies and and the

land of construction I know that for sure and that's to it it kind of gives you a different perspective when you're

talking to other customer service people and I kind of start because you do you get heated and a lot of the times I'll

say I know this is not your fault but this is what has happened to me so I'm

sorry if I sound like a I have an attitude but it's not directed towards you and I kind of start out that way and

that's based on the conversations that I've had you know having to deal with stuff like

this yeah well your car is a great example if your car's in the shop and

one of my PM had his vehicle in a shop and we were talking about a job and he said well he just called me you know

this morning and I'm trying to get him the answer and I said well if if your your truck's in the shop right now if

you call them and you want an answer uh about something and they don't call you back

at the very least would you rather them call you and say hey you know I won't name him out but hey uh your your

vehicle uh is waiting on a part and I haven't received the ETA on that part

yet I will call you as soon as I get it is that better or just waiting until you

get the part and saying hey your part's in and I you know so people just want to be communicated with and know that you

care about them and know that you um that they matter to you same thing on the install world I

mean we're off in kind of the office setting but man as an in installer it was a lot different because you feel

attacked uh you know what I mean yes yeah 100% you go on these groups and you see

some of these guys that are like my client said this and they like went off on them and it's like man

there's there's different ways to approach things and sometimes it is that outside perspective you have to look at

what if this was happening to you right how would you want to be treated and I I

think that's just one of the mentalities of flooring installers or construction guys General right and that's why a lot

of these guys are like I don't need training because I already know what I'm doing it's kind of those same guys are

the ones that get super hotheaded because they already think that they know everything yeah you got to take a I

agree you got to take that step back and try to put yourself in the customer

shoes for just a second consider for just a second that you could have done something better and that's where you're

like be honest you know and you might be able to get yourself you know through

this scenario and there's so many you can't without bringing up specific times

um you know typically for me it's been schedule and getting done what you want

to get done um for for example I was doing a high school I was laying it was

about 10 11,000 yards of carpet broadloom carpet in a high school and you know you're working along

the classrooms or I mean I'm banging them out doing five six classrooms a day 5600 yards a day um but still not it's

like once the contractor got acclimated that he didn't appreciate the fact that a three-man crew was tossing down 600

yards of carpet and wanted more even when even in some of the

scenarios where we were able to give him a little more part the headbanging started coming when other trades were

there and that starts happening that happens in even new build residential where you're supposed to go in and do it

and you're promising something but you can't get started for two three four hours you know that that that has to be

added that duration you gave them essentially a duration and they still

you know half a day from you they have to realize you're probably going to be a half a day later than what you said uh

that kind of goes back to TW hindsight being 2020 and communicating hey I lost four hours this

morning because your electrician was in the way I'm GNA be four hours on Monday

or whatever the scenario is y there a carry over brother carry over like hey I

can't make that up in one day right you've already taken half my day and you know can't you just work longer yeah

just just C more people yeah yeah we need more guys that's another need 20

guys to do this one room that's another fight I get into uh with Jal contractors

we just need more guys I'm like more guys is not going to solve the problem at all not at all more

guys you have two bathrooms and by the time this guy gets the crew

the the installer going and layout done and he's in the other bathroom like more guys just going to be in each other's

way and then you got the way that each installer lays a little bit differently yeah and that's going to

play into it I'm like you don't want 10 15 guys in these things it's uh it's

incredible all of the times that you get into these scenarios uh it's incredible how

blinders and we got to remember from the install putting back on your installer shoes like the blinders that customers

get sometimes though they they just are Furious and you are going to take it and

I guess the question is can you take it without losing your cool or sometimes

yes sometimes no right because everybody's got their their life at home everybody's got their issues that

they're dealing with and some some days that that trigger is just a little bit touchier than others and you know it all

depends I guess how old is your relationship with said client or contractor how well do you guys know

each other um because knowing when to approach someone with an issue or if

someone knows you and they see the look on your face as they're approaching you and they have an issue it might be a

dead stop and shoot a text hey come and see me when you have a minute you know and and that's the that's the benefit of

uh creating relationships and being able to work alongside of the same the same companies with the same teams all the

time um but Daniel has stopped me long ago from

raging out for sure well I would just I'll just say

that you know I I'm usually pretty cool until someone tries to put us in a situation that we shouldn't have been in

right though it's not our fault and maybe we were promised something and I and I stand up for for us and then they

come back and they get defensive or they start yelling at at my guys like can't

do that around me like you can't I go into protector mode and um and maybe I

and I go overboard you know I if you're going to be times 10 I'm going to be times 20 so and that's that's who I was

back then I don't know if I'm like that now anymore as much but Daniel definitely stopped a couple instances

I'll just go that way you can certainly get farther with a little bit of well they say you know sugar than

vinegar or honey than vinegar um I think it's true but just knowing how to talk

to people like if that's one of the things I think that we lose when we

don't value education when when you go through trainings and such you a lot of the

different uh certification programs will talk about this kind of thing and teach you how to communicate with people

communicating with people and giving them a way out to be right but you still accomplish your goal um they say it's

you know it's a it's a form of manipulation right but there's good and bad manipulation right if you're

manipulating just means you're trying to get somebody to do something you want them to do well then we manipulate every

day all the time all of us you know I'm trying to constantly get my kid to do

his homework I gota you know I got to figure out a way to line up incentives and and talk to him in a way that it

makes sure that it resides uh if I'm dealing with a homeowner or a a a a

client that's upset I need to sometimes manipulation is the best

thing it's not a bad thing it's like understanding their side of the deal so that I can respond appropriately in the

best fashion um so it's not always a bad term I wanted to get that out there

because a lot of times you're trying to just communicate with them in a way that they know you have their best interest

and you're not trying to do nothing wrong half the time they just I I feel like they they have a distrust and for

any homeowners are on here like the trades people aren't always trying to screw you you know and that's kind of

what I think that where people get really defensive is when they feel like their characters attacked I know that's

where I'll get that's where I'll get defensive is if my character or my

company's character like our you start saying we we're this and that we're

going to have a discussion because like that's not in what do yes people can

make mistakes and we may have made a mistake we may have let us work together

to identify where we could do better but certainly don't just throw the baby out

with the bath water you know it's those kind of scenar that really bother me and

I think that's what we don't realize right is that everyone's human and homeowners gc's like if they see an

issue they just get so angry all the time because you're a professional you shouldn't be making any mistakes but man

we're human too so that's just the nature of what we do we're going to make some mistakes let me give me some time

so I can fix it it's at at the end of the day you're going to have a product that's going to perform and that's really all that should

matter yeah yep and and that you actually care

you know from an installer standpoint like like I said earlier when you're

personally attack though that's that gets tough well um so I want to add to that

what you just said to the personal attack you're right and and I think that that's where frustration comes in on on

a project uh residential commercial is the when when someone is attacking

the integrity and and even though you are putting forth the amount of effort

uh needed or required or or above and beyond to make sure the project is going good or it's installed properly and you

know the things that we get back is something like time it's taking too long too long to dry I can't I can't I can't

change that I'm doing everything I can on my end um but

the being able [Music] to bring yourself down a couple notches

and bring the client down a couple notches before progress progressing with the conversation as to why and how can

we fix this and I think in the middle another that is another part of this

whole that whole thing you just said Jose is that um often I I got better at this at like

talking through uh difficult scenarios with customers when I realized I I quit

like Desiring their appreciation for what I've done it's our

job it's it's what we're supposed to do like if you agreed to it you already

made the agreement the agreement's done the appreciation was back there now you doing the thing you agreed to do there's

no appreciation guys like there's not you're not going to get some additional appreciation or you shouldn't expect it

not that you don't ever have that homeowner comes up and gives you 500 bucks or 100 bucks or something and says

man you did awesome I appreciate it that's still pretty that's still the the

exception not the rule not the rule yeah yeah uh for the most part people pay you and

they expect a service back that exceeds their expectation and as installers a

lot of times we're like well and we still get this from our from our subs sometimes man what about the weekend I

just worked this I did that and that I'm like bro I gave you the timeline that you had to do the job clearly laid out

what was what had to be done drawings specs everything and and

we met on the job and all of went through all this and now I just need you

to do what you said you would do for the price you said you'd do it and that is the same thing that

homeowners want right they they have an agreement they want you to do now don't

get me wrong they're just those bad apples out there and sometimes bad apples you you know part of this

discussion is walking away we fired clients before we've got a couple of

of contractors we won't bid you know and we in essence fired them just decided

we're not going to do business with you yeah I mean it was um we had one not too

long ago where you know a contract came through and I'm reading through it and I'm like this is I'm not going to sign

this unless you change this and they said no and I said okay you can move on to the next person then it's that easy

I've had that happened plenty of times and that is the benefit you have in commercial is that you can kind of see

what they're how they're going to be or at least what they're going to hold your feet to the fire on by the contract in

residential there's not as much structure around it and you're going off

of a signed quote but it doesn't have 22 pages of terms and conditions that

you're gonna that what you're gonna follow and what they're gonna follow um so yeah it's it's kind of um a a

different beast in that way uh but I did find a lot of relief when I quit

thinking like they owe me something for doing your job look how great that yeah

like look how great this looks yeah it should look great I should do that professional

you're professional you know Daniel and I have done some projects just to say we've done them we knew we knew we weren't going to make any money we

probably lost money on some of the labor but just to have that under our belt you're like people said it couldn't be

done and we're like watch this Gatorade

this let me do this yeah you know it's it's just for the to build that that internal

reputation right to to up your your level of Integrity for yourself and expectation for yourself um yeah so

what's your real life advice to to um the installer out there grinding it away

whether it's in the residential or commercial world and um you know just grind in way but

runs into a hammerhead of a person that's just dragging him through the

dirt and often it's going to be around money if it didn't have money involved we'd just shut our ears off and and work

but often they're threatening not to pay yet or whatever I think I probably had more of

those clients than Daniel has um and in the past I've tried to deal with with

all of that instead of letting someone else having to deal with it right got thick skin um advice for that is is um for one

know that you're you're you're not always right and even if you think you are or if you know you are do not lead

the conversation with that chip on your shoulder like I I like what Al I mean you know if Alex he just commented here

and said he has a like a 22 page uh contract for residential and Commercial

and he don't play around uh approved by a lawyer um has it kept you out of

um have you been able to leverage a document Alex to get you through some of

the the uh disagreements uh I'd be interested to to know if you've been able to say Mrs Smith on page 15 it

clearly states this I'm doing it by the book right let me know let me know if

that got us out of some Jam sometimes because um even commercially where if

they don't have a cont you know and they're going by our proposal and it's clearly spelled out what is going on and

then they come back and they're like I thought you were going to do this and I'm like read this I mean it's you sign

this like you don't yeah don't sign it if you're not gonna read it we leverage

that a lot in the commercial world as you know it's site conditions and even

though uh you know our great sponsor Flor Cloud you know they they solve a

lot of those problems uh with sight conditions being able to just have them at your fingertip at the

end of the day though the site conditions is a lot of what we we get into fights with and then we have to

tell the contractor like look read this the specs read the contract that you

your contract to me states that X Y and Z and we've had to leverage that before but we don't have

the benefit of of sending a general contractor our contract that only

happens when we're dealing with an end user right and we've actually had some of the gc's actually incorporate

everything that we have into the actual contract too yeah we ask them to uh at least you

know scope in the scope of work um make sure that you know just stuff that comes

up but most times it's floor prep and floor protection those two things are

all they always try to get them in there and I'm always having to mark them out and say I would I'll provide floor

protection for you but I'm not going to do what follows that which says I'll replace any damage for free oh yeah

because I don't have control over who's on the job site I don't have control

over the schedule I'm not the sheriff of the job you're not going to let me tell the electrician you can't be in that

area that day you are running the schedule so if the electrician has a

lift on my 10 year 10hour old uh resilient floor like we're going to have

some problems but I can't no no craft paper is going to keep that from happening you know so we always have to

mark out protection of floors yeah that's a good way to

put we install once application yep one time yeah so those are the types of

things we have to fight with but we also get to l our contract because you know they can't put in writing although we

have had contracts just like you said Daniel where we were like I walked away from a nice job but their contract was

just too aggressive it tells me they're jaded is that how you feel when you read a

contract that's like trying to cover all these scenarios and put you in a you're

always because contracts at least in Kansas are supposed to be mutually

beneficial they're supposed to be mutually beneficial agreement and when I enter a contract to read it I'm going

with that mindset I'm going to have to give up some stuff but I should get some stuff and it shouldn't just be the

dollar figure on the page it should be the the arrangement and the agreement

this should be mutually beneficial protection for me protection for you but

man I've had some that are one-sided as all get out and yes here's another benefit to go to like conferences and

stuff you'll get to sit through Jeff King seminars and that guy knows how

to out of the situation there there's some stuff that we change I think every

time we hear him speak we're taking notes and we're like Yep this is what we're going to change about it yeah 100% And it's uh ju just uh the

the wording and the structure of the sentence is very important too right so

try to try to word it so that way it's not confusing to me or the client or whoever's reading it TR but there there

is a a certain way to have um per Jeff's advice there is a certain way to

structure a sentence so that way it actually means the what it's supposed to mean well we're in the part of the

conversation when we're talking about settling disagreements where we're trying to avoid disagreements that's

this contract and negotiation phase on your jobs being clear and concise about

what you're offering which is what a contract does and the delivering upon

those promises but that first step man Jeff has brought it up man and he's been

a CFI convention he's been at Ty he's been at he goes to all these things and he'll sit there and talk to you Jeff

would give you um yeah he is retiring soon although

I still bet you he hangs around every now and again because anytime you sit down with Jeff King to have a conversation he's going to tell you

about a flooring job I mean he knows this industry better than any attorney

I've ever ever met but you'll get some free advice from a $500 an hour lawyer

just by going to uh you know one of these conferences and hanging out with that guy especially if you buy Luba a

couple of drinks

yeah let's see what what does Alex say says good luck in any state if you don't have uh a lawyer that's looked over all

the verbage in wording your contract is not not worth what it's written on especially when it can when he can go to

court I think uh what I get from that is like you know you better figure out make

sure that you understand the verbiage I've read hundreds and hundreds of contracts

hundreds I'd probably read at least a hundred plus a year uh doing about we do

about 3 to 500 jobs per per year I'll bet a hundred of those are contract

and um so I bet I read probably 100 contracts a year and they the

verbiage luckily I get repeat clients so it's the same contract with different uh

exhibits the Scopes uh and then all I got to do is make sure I'm reading through the scope

browse through the contract make sure they didn't change anything most time they're templated but the the exhibits

is where they put all the meat and potatoes of that particular job so I agree with Alex make sure your

attorney looks over the contract the base contract that you're ever going to get and we you know that's we leverage

our attorneys for for those purposes when we get a contract we're like man this seems way too

aggressive that's the and but an attorney also go overboard you send a

attorney a contract that that thing comes back with so much red half you

know what I'm saying so well they're trying to protect to yeah they're only looking at it from one side so it's it's

t it's tough to have the um the balance there uh but you got to understand your

risk factor both as an installer or if you're a company that is uh you know a a

provid materials and labor you got to understand your risk factor and how risky your company is we're pretty risky

from a company standpoint we'll do projects with new customers and uh you

know we get pretty aggressive we'll do them out of town I mean you know what' you

say so sorry if you guys can hear the the office phone was ringing and I just happened to have it like right on the

other side of my laptop

yeah well I did hear it but I have a question I have a question for you you know we're talking about these contracts

but like how important is it to have the information you know that's pertinent to

the project up front and have the conversations up front about what is included what is excluded and maybe

giving both sides uh you know the the client and and us our side the

opportunity to bring forth any questions and concerns um prior to acceptance you know like how important is that

residential commercial I think you know what Alex wrote there as well as you

know our previous little bit of conversation on it I think that that's the most important part you don't have a

job to sign the contract and so you're not obligated to nothing yet you can't

so you know there's a saying and I'm sure you guys have heard it some of my best jobs are the ones I didn't do oh

yeah you know right some of the some of those jobs you go to you wanted it so

bad and then you you hear about it later and you're like man I'm glad I was not

the winner on that sucker right we've all had those

and so understanding and communicating and having a clear understanding of what

you're supposed to do I love Alex's approach that like even on residential jobs give them a contract formulate a

contract pay your attorney you know get on the Huddle and and talk to Alex right here I guarantee you he's got an

attorney because he's he's pretty uh happy with the way it looks like it even wins him work yeah you know over other

people just because you know everything is laid out like this is what I'm doing this is what I'm not

doing yeah it takes a lot of the uh the gray areas away and it you know it's

just like when uh you're going to actually install the job

right um what do you know you know as well as I do being an efficient or a

good sheet vinyl installer has not a lot to do with how fast you can move a

knife like the actual it's it's got mostly to do with how you set the job

up all your preparation for that right that's a lot of it like making

sure that you have the areas to work that you have that you have all of your

um uh you know you've scheduled all your roles you're I mean just everything like

that the setup well it's the same with the contract it's like the setup of the job the before you ever sign it is to me

Paramount um I'm getting motivated now to even read my contracts a little bit deeper than what I have been is I'm I'm

giving advice I'm looking right back at myself and saying man you know I could

do better there but the truth is that is the best that is the most important time of a job is before you do it making sure

that it's agreed upon between both parties and that if you can do it in writing uh I know a lot of uh installers

don't have contracts and I think that you know if Alex is uh laying out any uh

uh good advice here I should say Alex is clearly laying out some good advice you should have a contract and um there's

multiple ways to get it but you know big big big part of this is just making sure

you know what you're doing and you're you're really happy with the agreement before you go into it another thing once

you've made the agreement stand by it dude Stand by Your Word one of the things we can always hang our hat on is

that we will finish your job we will take we like I'm not just going to let

you fall off the edge of the cliff I'm here to make sure that you your job gets

done now I'm gonna fight for some extra money or for a little more schedule or

whatever the problem is but you know let Stand by Your agreements but make sure

it's a good one first y sometimes that's the hardest thing to do is to stand behind

stand behind an agreement that you know could have had other variables involved but in order to maintain uh that that

level of Integrity you've work so hard to get is it's easier sometimes just to to bite your lip you know and and just

get your head down put your head down get to work remedy it if it's a small one take care of it shake their hand and

say sorry for the inconvenience have a nice day right and Lanny says that you know 20 signatures

or initials before you move forward and people will probably look at that and be like man that's a ridiculous amount but

some of these contracts that we sign it's signed here initial at the bottom because they need to make sure that you're getting every single page sign

here yes I read this page sign here this page is done yeah most of most of ours

are like sign the main part and then initial initial initial that on every

page I would say that I like the contracts like Lanny was just talking about that are um

require for it's like they want to make sure that you're you're on the same page

yeah additional work it can seem scary but but what you can do is right you have your terms in there for the

contract and then you're like did you understand this initial here did you understand that I am not going to be

removing any ASB bestus sign here yeah

yep yeah I like the kind of contracts that make it as clear as possible but still mutually beneficial and then when

you start getting into the you know legal language of defaulting and these types of things and termination for

cause and termination for convenience and all these different

scenarios that's where it really needs to be you know

uh anybody's got example contract I mean this Alex the way he's writing is making

me start think like maybe the contract should be written to prot protect us obviously to protect us right against

certain things but to favor or to I don't want to say appear right because

the clients we we do want to favor them right we want to make sure they're covered and they understand they're covered and warranted but maybe the the

verbiage in there should you know be written in a manner where it's appear to

be more heavily favorable for the client you know with a couple guidelines obviously that that we must well the

contract you know that's why it's mutually beneficial you give a contract to a client they can even though it's

your contract they can hold you they're they legal um they they can legally hold

you to the contract even though it's yours right I mean it's it's a mutual agreement having it written up so that

your homeowner is protected but it's very clear what you're offering and what you're paying for I think that's what

Alec Alex was really pointing out uh I seen a comment from Rolland that said

remember the good old days when your when a handshake was your contract your word was your contract oh

your word was your contract yeah well my word is my bond remember that I I still

think it should be it just can't uh govern a job because uh

Amnesia you know I remember I almost remember the day that your handshake was

no longer good enough yeah that's crazy to think about I I almost remember that transition in mind

it's like what but but you said but you said like never problem it's because you you you know we

there there's so much um to lose there's so much to lose and

people got sick of losing and said well I need to write this thing down I think it's a better way I mean I agree that I

I love the times when you can be like yeah I'll be there and all right yeah here I'll pay you you know but

Lanny says that he thinks that it it should be you know making something that's small

enough not to scare them off but detailed enough so that it works for all

parties yeah I agree with that yeah we we we this whole conversation went

towards the uh swung towards the contract side of the world and we've done a a pretty in-depth podcast on

contracts but it shows you how important all this is and that how important

your if if if this because this podcast is called you know is talking about

settling disputes even that if you build your contract right gives you the framework

on how disputes are settled like you know that even that part can be put in

the contract so it depends on how hard you want it to be I can also tell you I get contracts from gc's that are like

two page or a one pager man do I appreciate it y

you know man do I appreciate those as long as the scope is part of that contract and saying you're going to

provide these things for this amount of money and they leave out all the other stuff like it it gives you that that's

as close as you get to what Rin was talking about these days is those one pagers that's just like look you're a

good dude I'm a good dude we're gonna do this thing together uh that kind of

thing and it sign down here it's a this size of job I do love those and I and

those are typically the most enjoyable com uh companies to work with because

you're typically working with an owner or someone high up at the company it's the real big huge General Contractors

that their contract we're doing one at 11 11 worth right now that's went through four or five people's hands baby

it's not even that big of a job uh $130,000 project commercially it's not a

huge huge job you know it's a good size job just a couple days of work sometimes

yeah it's it's an it's not a a massive job but the it has went

through multiple different layers of people and con and it's just massive

company with in-house C counsel and you know I tell you it's

um every I every T I mean even down to our bond when we sent our bond in had

like if you don't have a seal because we don't have a corporate seal that we stamp do you guys have a corporate seal

no most small businesses don't I mean I don't have a corporate seal I mean you can get one but so it's never been a big

deal it's never ever came up your signatures are seal when you're a small

business well um they made us sign a whole separate document stating that we

didn't have a seal I mean just it's gotten so over those are the ones that are tough

and I I don't I don't love but just get a candle and a ring drip the hot candle

on the paper seal it with the ring brother there you

go yeah so anyway uh let's see I'm going to go

through some comments in our contract we talk about going to B

the I think he said the Bad and the Ugly not the Bad and the Ugly I think that's what just saying that you know you're

explaining everything and if you're basically not willing to do what we say

that needs to happen then we're good and I mean realistically that's how it should be anyways it's just people have

different ways to get that across and do you need 22 Pages or do you need two

pages it's there you go how how small and detailed you can get right it's if

that works for you definitely do it if a two-pager works for you you do that and it's I think the longer you've been in

the business especially from the GC side the bigger their contracts get the

longer they're in the the more complexity and all this stuff and part of that I think is just that they've

they've been burned a time or two uh lost Daniel Man Down they've been burned

a time or two and then man man down and then um you know added that to their

contract and before you know it a one pager two-pager turns into a 10 15 20 30 page contract

so right and and you know sometimes some of these um attachments and and like the

bid docs and all the the forms that come along with it have the contract from the

corporation that the General's working for and then they try to mimic that and then they add their terms to it you know

and it's like you said you the longer they've been around the more that's on the GC side and plus you know but

getting to what Alex you know he's been uh commenting on H the contract being

mutually beneficial should ALS it like he's proof it will win you jobs because

he's stating right there that customers love the fact that everything's WR out on paper and that they they I'm sure it

makes him like stand out you know some guy comes in and writes a quote on a piece of not a piece of you know one of

the quote books you get at the distributor's warehouse versus an actual professional

contract I'm sure that sets him apart and um yeah I I I'm a big fan of what

he's doing all right well dudes another hour

on a Tuesday afternoon has flown by and um I think that the big takeaways

for me is you know there's dispute resolution but where we landed or got really deep in the weeds

is trying to find ways to minimize ever getting into the dispute and it comes

down to both parties understanding what you're offering and what you're

charging yeah you got to just yep it's it's all about that communication and

we'll we say it every single time but I think that's kind of the where everything comes back to it's

communication communicate with your installer communicate with the client and then that's the only way things are

going to get get solved yep all right well guys we appreciate

all the comments we appreciate your um your insights and expertise frankly I

hope that helped some uh some people that may not use contracts yet um and

and and really smokes you gave a lot of apprciate that and appreciate all the comments appreciate your appreciation

and we will catch you guys next week same time uh you know three 3 pm Central

every Tuesday Eastern or Eastern um jump

on yeah get jump on communicate with us uh if you catch us on one the channels

please like subscribe give us some love let us know um any topics that you uh

you know would like for us to cover and last but not least we will be at TI we're g be doing a lot of stuff at ti so

make sure you guys come out there and uh yeah thanks Lanny appreciate it

buddy um come out there and see us we're going to be running the podcast we're g do some overtime episodes as usual and

and uh pretty excited about getting back out to Tai so with that we will catch you guys guys next week

Daniel Gonzalez 1/13/25 Daniel Gonzalez 1/13/25

The Huddle - Episode 131 - Wired for Success: Parallels Between Flooring and Electrical Trades

Welcome to 2025! For our first episode of the new year we’re joined by Jordan Verhulst, Owner and Managing Partner at Frontier Electrical, to discuss the shared struggles and unique dynamics of the flooring and electrical industries. From labor shortages and client demand to the distinct techniques specific to each trade, we explore how these challenges play out across two different industries. Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion on what it takes to succeed as a small business owner in these interconnected yet distinct trades.

The Huddle was created by Paul Stuart of Stuart & Associates and Go Carrera, alongside Jose and Daniel Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring. Aimed at helping you maintain forward progress in your flooring career, they cover topics from personal and business growth, to installation tips & tricks and everything in-between.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email forwardprogress@thehuddle.team

We want to send a special shoutout to our sponsors!

Please visit our new website! https://thehuddle.team

what's up team welcome back to the H we're your weekly Playbook to help you gain forward progress in your flooring

career to all our new viewers welcome to the team what's up fellas how's it going

what's going on it's going good today we are uh joined by Jordan and Eric uh

Jordan can you help me with your last name please before I sabotage ver no

problem uh ver Hol ver Hol okay very good and male poer

is that right yep Mel holder nailed it okay yeah so today uh

you know we are kind of exploring a new um well we're all in the trades and

we're just exploring how the flooring and the uh electrical trade kind of come together uh so this episode's called why

for Success sorry I had to read off notes I am technologically challenged

today my whole electrical system went out in our office for a moment but we're

back on and here with you guys live so uh as always to the audience if you guys

um you know like what you uh get here from the Huddle please like And

subscribe I'm a little bit off kilter guys because I came in as a guest it looks like so I'm G to try and make sure

that I can do this do this correctly but um so every week we we come together and

we talk with uh you know it's me and the guys usually and then we'll have uh you

know guests on from different scopes of life and you guys are in the flooring tra or in the electrical trade and

obviously uh I would guess that you guys experience the same kind of things we do from a uh trade shortage like help you

know enough skilled labor uh that kind of thing can you guys give us a little

bit of background on yourselves uh what you do uh in in the trades world and

kind of how your Manpower situation looks actually he just texted me and said that they are Frozen right now so

they okay their their internet went out uh right before well the storms are

causing problem everywhere it is man so they're trying to get reconnected right now and then my

brother's having camera issues all right well hopefully we can

get this uh this technology train back on the on its rails if you're joining us

um from the audience our actual episode name is exploring the surprise parallels between flooring and electrical

trades it's called wired for Success so you guys know the uh the the new

dudes uh you guys know um Jordan is that correct Eric yeah so Jordan I actually

uh went to school we went to school together and he's uh married to my best

my best friend's sister happy New Year Mario happy new year so we actually um

see him quite a bit or I I mean he go he's in some of the groups that my brother's in with the the chamber and

then I see him a lot on um like job walks and stuff like

that yeah we we um we get to sit down and have a lot of the same um we get to

share in our thoughts and a lot of the same meetings when it comes to some of the the local politics um and

legislation and all that stuff nice stuff that goes in uh with with being um a business owner the the small details

that you got to pay attention to sometimes yeah tell me about some of your conversations since they're having

a little bit of problem getting connected here what kind of conversations have brought the parallels

that that uh to the flooring World them being in electrical trade we've talked

about some of them uh throughout the years here on the Huddle but uh more

specifically like do they struggle with the same I mean is it the same

struggle it's the same struggle man it we were just kind of talking about it right right before right and it's the

labor shortages and is it an actual labor shortage or is it a qualified

labor shortage and they go through the same stuff right where um what we see is guys coming in and

saying uh yeah I can do this yeah I can do this and then once it comes down to it you're like all right do this and

then they come back and it's like all right apparently I can't do this yeah or at least they say that their guys will

actually H be humble and be like yeah I I don't know how to do this um I feel

like in the flooring trade guys will just get mad at you and still tell you that you're wrong because we we've seen

it before or they'll try I mean in electrical they Pro they may not have

that well let's just try to run it yeah know just try it hey you know yeah right

hey flip that switch let's see if it works let's give it a shot and I think

that's where we land a little bit um different is in the flooring world I I

know I've experienced it and you guys have experienced it where a guy says he

can do something you send him out to do it he'll still do it even though he doesn't know how to do it he doesn't do

it right he'll still do it so like you're not burning down a house because you put a floor in wrong but in their

right in their trade you you wire something wrong and you're you got a problem they're back I think us non-el

electricians have all tried to wire something and then actually hit flip that flip a switch and then you see

Sparks yeah that's how much you guys missed but um

but or heard when I first uh you know started the podcast off but you guys

mind giving us some background on yourself a little bit about you you guys what you do and maybe some of your main

struggles in in your trade um first of all I've been doing

this for you know 16 years now um worked at a couple different companies you know

and then me got linked up at the last nighted to go out on

our own and started Frontier um I guess a

couple things that I've noticed is is like the guys willing lately or wanting

to put in more than right you guys deal with flooring

too it's not always a a 6 to two 7 to 3:30 it's it's when the job's done so a

I willing to put in the hours to get the job done yeah

willing to put in the hours to get done and not not not to uh a a time frame

yeah that we have the same problem and right I'm may feel like I'm picking on

the unions a bit here and I'm not but it's a little bit of that type of deal that got brought in um the problem is

the industry isn't foll and suit if you do work whether it's electrical or flooring on a commercial building the

number one thing that drives the job is schedule like they want it you got to get done the next gu's got to get done

it's like all schedule driven and so there's no room for somebody to come in and work from you know s to to 230 or in

our world it's like 9 to three or something you know you got to get you

gota be pretty fluid you gotta have the desire to stay and get it finished

whatever that right you and a lot of the time you know flooring guys you're

waiting on up yeah or vice versa we're all we we need heat there and we need

lights we're always on somebody yeah we typically try to do our best to wait on

the electricians and the HVB guys those are very important for us we kind of

need that it's because electricians don't own brooms or anything so we're

always cleaning up always leaving their change around well obviously some of the the

clear parallels gra all those nickels man been collecting them for

years yeah obviously some of the um parallels in in any of the trades is

finding qualified people you mentioned that you can actually find

some qualified guys but it seems like they don't want to put in the the hours

do you have the same problem that those same guys also need a loan on Friday or

they're constantly having vehicle issues because they ain't got no money do you have that dichotomy where you're like

hey man you put in 31 hours last

week I don't necessarily think we don't face that a whole lot um um I mean we

have the the oneoff you know situations where someone's having car problems or

you know something along those lines um the big the big thing for us is is

probably finding that qualified person um and and you know they can come with the qualifications from another company

but in that company they may have been doing this task whereas their qualification they should be doing this

at this point so you know you be a second third year or fourth year on these TX ask through those first couple

years of yourip um so with that you know a lot of our foreman have an

expectation hey we hired a third year know you know this amount where and

it's not to discredit them it's just it's how they operate um being that size of a company uh you put those people

kind of in an assembly line and that's what they do so that's that that's

another you know one that kind of pops up on our end as well where do you guys get where do you guys

get your uh where do you go searching for new uh new Talent new whether it's

apprentices or Journeymen or or Foreman or whatever uh in your trade do you have

a trade school that you can pull from do you guys Foster new guys or do you how do

you guys go about that I'd say I'd say we're half Word of

Mouth and half um we've hired out of GRCC which is the local Community College

here uh they have like a like a vocational program through the uh mtech which is their they have like a trade

school almost um so it's like a six-month program and they put people through that and teach them the very

very basics of the electrical World um so it's in a way for us it at least

shows that level of dedication that you were willing to go through this technically be be

I think we lost them again I think we lost them because of the tundra they're

frozen okay so essentially they they're pulling from a a a community college around there

which is you know at least something a feeder kind of program that they have

electricians a couple of them around here like that where a little bit better that d

Walling uh carpentry that are more heavily represented than floring in the

trade schools uh I'm not I would say sure why that

is carpentry Plumbing electrical and mechanics those are those are the the

the four main that I that I see here and I I did see that um engineering was uh

was on the rise a couple years ago when I went and made a a visit uh to some of the vocational programs uh learning how

to run CAD systems and stuff like that I mean just in the high schools alone they have um the stem programs which is great

to get people like more focused on on the trades and

stuff so back again I mean that St yeah they're back again so let me go

uh so Jordan I'm gonna go over this again so you guys do pull from some of the programs from like GRCC some of the

local um entities like uh what's the other one West Michigan um construction

Institute construction industry I don't know if that caters to you still facing the same problems that we are qualified

individuals willing to put in the work um now I know that we had talked very

briefly before we started the podcast about some of the policies that just passed um fortunately like for us we're

not subject to some of those policies um so maybe you can tell some of the the

industry what you guys just avoided um kind of just in a in a snippet but I

know the plumbing didn't but they could Count Their Blessings that we don't have to deal with that as of right now yeah

yeah so the the state mandates an apprentice to journeyman ratio uh which

currently it's three to one so you can have three apprentices to one journeyman or master electrician um and the proposed

legislation was going to change that to a one:1 ratio uh which would severely deplete obviously you know the up

incoming apprentices that are you know in the process of working towards a journeyman's license or going through

school at that time so they it's not officially dead yet um but it it did not

pass during like the lame duck session at the end of 2024 and the thought was that if it didn't pass then with the

administration change it likely won't pass um once that takes place so getting

through the lame duck session was a big I guess win for us um you know I think

the state of Michigan tried it in 14 yeah 14 and you you just found more

people were trying to go around it versus can you explain to me I'm I'm a

little bit dense sometimes can you tell me what the benefit what what the goal what were

they trying to accomplish with that LE legislation so the main the main I guess

argument for revision was that it was it would improve uh safety on job sites um

which looking back at historical data when they changed it from 3 to one or they changed it back to 3 to1 from 1 to

one in 2017 I think it was um there hasn't been any noticeable increase on oal

recordables from when they changeed from one to one to 3 to one um so there's

there's a long rabbit hole that we can dive down to other you know reasons why um I mean it was it was more or less I

mean for my eyes a union driven issue um but there there's some other

small pieces where there's some contractors that you know aren't you know they're they're more on the Shady

Side where they'll hire an apprentice and they don't necessarily register them with a with a course um because if you

have an electrician working for you they have to be registered with a state sponsored program so they can register

or like they worked for you for four years and then they want to go take a test but they're not they've never registered

so at that point they basically waste I don't want to say wasted but in some ways wasted four years of you know

working and now they're not able to test for a journeyman license that was to get rid of that as

well to it's not like they can go back and and just tell them hey I'm supposed to have all these hours it's something

that has to be recorded while it's happening yeah because you come to a company like us now and you try to get

in and it's like well you're a fourth year ready to take your test but in the system you're a first year Apprentice

yeah no no proof no proof so I mean I guess to expand a little bit in order to test for a journeyman license you have

to have 8,000 hours of working in the field plus four years of completed

schooling so you have to have both of those complete in order to test for your license so even if you work for x amount

of years in the field but you've never completed schooling technically from a state perspective you're not ready to

test right and I think I've talked to you before too about how it's it's awesome that that has to happen because

in the flooring industry we have no regulations at all and it's just essentially a free-for-all you guys

can start installing flooring tomorrow if you wanted to and then it's a a struggle for us to try and get anyone to

do a certification class or something like that but also it's when we were

talking about pricing the pricing that you guys have to deal with is a lot lower than what we have to to deal with

cuz we're looking at you know a two or three day certification costing 700 bucks yeah well I think I think the the

people that they're after or the people that they get to are are in it for the long haul I don't think anyone looks at

a as electrician or a plumber as I'm gonna try this out for a couple months and then and then step away right they

understand that that is structured and his career oriented and training and all that the

progression is track rewarded for the time that you spend the

progression is tracked that we don't track progression outside of go Carrera which is a a software that I developed

uh but that that offers what what the industry needs to to do that tracking

and to verify that skill and that score uh that takes in the year it basically

does exactly what you're talking about it tracks their years of experience their education and mixes it together

for a a Tradesman score um that you know is a skill score for them in a certain

piece of flooring um but that's not an industry requirement and so what Daniel

is saying is like literally you can just go watch your cousin install tile over

the weekend jump in your truck slap a sticker on and say you know Jordan tile

and go out Frontier flooring starting it up start competing and then we we have

so you got you get this vacuum of sub quality company and labor sucking down

the prices all the time from the companies who really do like preferred

uh their guys are trained they get them in a they get them in certification courses in education and they want them

they want to mimic good companies in floring want to mimic somewhat what electricians or plumbers do in an

apprenticeship kind of program but very few and far between is there apprenticeship programs for flooring so

we yeah we struggle with getting the really to the qualified side you know

what I mean so we can get guys but they're there's no way to verify if they're qualified unless they're in in

on the platform there's no way to verify you know I can tell you yeah I've been doing it 20 years

how do you know all right give me some references they give you their cousins like it's you got to have um and the way

that you guys are set up GE I tell you what what a that that's a good thing in

a lot of ways um I'm sure you guys appreciate it but it's a good thing that make sure that you

have uh some structured program for the guys to go to the next level I know you

got your guys's time is short but I have a follow-up question to this piece of legislation what what is the biggest to

me it seems like it would push guys to do things that they're probably not qualified for yet or maybe your guy that

he's a three-year journeyman but all he did was put in outlets and some like fixtures the whole time just wiring in

fixtures or something and maybe that's uh oversimplification from a flooring guy but is the the fear that then you're

going to have to that guys are going go into the journey journeyman position

without being ready just to hit a quota of one to one uh I think some of it's going to be

so for instance our company um I mean we're a smaller contractor in the grand scheme of things um technically if that

legislation would have passed we would have had to let two people go because we don't have enough licenses to account

for how many apprentices we have so those people that have dedicated two or three years now all of a sudden it's

like I'm sorry we can't we can't employ you anymore because legally we aren't allowed to and so for some of the larger

companies out there that you know have two 300 electricians working for them or maybe they have a 100 licenses and 200

apprentices it's like how many people are going to lose their jobs because of this happening right um so it would

greatly you know the speed that construction's done um there would be a lot of wage increases because as far as

precious as Journeymen are now I mean their value would would have just skyrocketed

people I mean obviously companies would have just be been fighting for licenses I mean across across the state would

this also consolidate like smaller companies may go out and the bigger

companies dare I say Union but like consolidate because the guys the you the

journeyman would always be going like to the whoever's going to offer them the most money because they need more

journeyman to be able to keep the amount of apprentices they have essentially the big companies would gobble up I at least

outside looking in it seems like the big companies would gobble up the journeyman they got the cap space and

maybe the cash to do so and the smaller really good companies out there could you you'd have to basically

push out almost yeah yeah I would that would have been I don't I don't know it would have

been you know everybody would have went through that but I would say a lot of the smaller companies would have gotten driven

out yeah yeah wow out or you know whatever whatever would happen but yeah

I mean thought thought we lost you again some level of consolidation

yep wow yeah there was the the finds that were associated with it too which

was one of the major differences from one of the previous iterations of this bill um previously it was only the state

that could issue fines like if they were to go to a job site and say hey let me see your your cards

um so now it was any local Authority so like if our local Grand Rapids electrical inspector would have come to

a job site and said hey you have three apprentices and one journeyman here then the city of Grand Rapids would receive

that fine money in lie of the state so

like in for people to find old western

deputization yeah yeah so it was more you know authorities to really you know enforce

it um so yeah would that would have been a big difference with the passing of this as well and I believe the Plumbing

bill that did pass had those same had that same language in it which they went from 3 to1 to two: one so that's you

know it's still a drop in theirs but at least it's better than one to one so yeah but yeah and I think that's why I

don't know if you were at one of those meetings but I think that's what I said out loud kind of like made everybody like look at me weird but when I said it

just sounds to me like they're trying to create more government positions um is what it sounds like to me

and yeah everybody kind of I don't know I say some things sometimes in those meetings that probably need to be but

nobody wants to say you're kind of pitting government facilities against one another who can

get to you first because whoever's G to get that fine money that's a that's a

sounds like a terrible piece of uh legislation there that you guys

avoided I I know that I've spent some time on that but it's interesting to me when when there is some structure around

how then it the overreaching we got to be careful what we ask for in flooring

because then the overreaching of of the these these structures and who's behind

it is who what lobbyists or or things are behind that idea is it the union

lobbyist pushing that agenda yeah I

mean I don't think it's officially out there but that would be that would be my educated guess is that the Union's

pushing for it yeah well let's just do some simple math here right uh over here east side of the state there has been a

little bit of a decrease in Union productivity right and and it started years ago so what do you do when the

industry that created the structure starts to struggle a little bit you flex your muscles and use your contacts and

and you know maybe swell up a little tear in the eye go out and say this is what needs to change and this is why and

we need to maintain our structure and what can we do to to change it oh we already have that plan written out um

yeah just speculation guys just speculation for my part that's all well we're always asking for more structure

on our side because like I said our probably our biggest problem is one of the biggest problems I'd say is that

anybody can just jump in a truck and say they can do flooring it's very much

subcontractor driven so most of us sub our labor out we don't have in-house

employee installers now I do at my company I have both I do both uh

preferred flooring mainly has hourly employee W2 installers and Subs a little bit out but there's companies most

companies in in Kansas Oklahoma Nebraska Texas like anywhere that not heavily

unionized uh subcontractors kind of run the gamut they they do the most work so

if you can imagine if you were in the same position some new sub comes in and says yeah I'm great you need work done

and they they can just tell you yeah I I've been doing this for 30 years and yeah I've got I've got um we got to let

him go um but that's probably our biggest problem

is the fact that we have unqualified completely unqualified guys saying that

they can do work it's and being um deceptive about it even and that's a

that's an industry problem so we ask for structure but then you can see where structure can go it just bigger

overreaching that almost into a nonproductive uh scenario for yeah not

only you guys the midsize or highquality electrical contractors or trade

contractors out there but it's it's like really shooting the

smaller guys in the foot like the guy that has you know that bill would have

pass and it's an electrician who does it on his own he's got two two apprentices that work for him he's gonna have to

fire half one of his guys the structure that we have is is

Created from us instead of someone who's overseeing the

industry right we want to that's what we need to do do what was you saying Eric I

said I mean that was that was the big thing like companies like us like Jordan said earlier they dedicated two years to

us and now all a sudden it's like hey we got you gotta go yeah that's that's

terrible yeah and I mean not to say that I mean perfect world maybe we could live in a onetoone world like you know ratio

like to say that it's not a benefit I can't say that I mean you know having an apprentice work one-on-one to one with a

journeyman is I mean it would be awesome the amount would learn over a foure span

versus if they were working with five or six other apprentices is a big difference but it's just not realistic

in the world that we're in how could you get there in a in a in a perfect world how could you get there what would make

that possible we'd have to have four times as long construction schedules the projects would be a lot more expensive

um I I mean schedu probably more money money yeah yeah I mean schedules are so

tight nowadays and that's like the main way I mean most General Contractors when they present a schedule to begin a job

no one else has really seen that and a lot of it is you know we need it done we need it done now and so in order to do

that obviously you need a lot of bodies and with having a shortage of you know licensed electricians on site I mean we

can only move so fast and then if you cut out a bunch of The Apprentice helpers then it goes even

slower well then you almost decrease the the inflow in you get into where maybe

it's not a bad world to be in like the elevator business

where very few mechanics it's oneto one and extremely expensive extremely high

labor um we lost a guy that was paid well for us in flooring but just

starting off he was making another 20% to go follow some guy around in the

elevator world and he's gonna triple his pay by the time he became a journeyman like sounds like you got

shafted it's just crazy money but they they can they don't have a big influx

because of that one to one like you can only that one guy can still only trade one guy for that time frame you know so

you don't you almost stif off your inflow of people into the trades and we

don't need that either we need more people coming into the trades so I mean it was very it very

counterintuitive to the issue that the whole I mean and it's not Michigan alone either I mean it's Nationwide faing you

know a shortage of you know qualified people here so it's yeah it's just it's one of those where us us talking about

it now it doesn't make any sense but you know way up there where it was being discussed you know utopian yeah I me

when you don't do it yeah like when I started it was and I graduated uh High

School it was like you got to go to college you got to go to college you're not you're not going to be anything unless you go to college now it's kind

of changing to where hey we need to go into the trades right so all those guys

back when I graduated who went to college and I mean what are you doing that you

went to college for yeah most of those guys are in trades now they're

electricians right yeah we talk about it pretty often we talk about it pretty often on

here um and I don't want to hold you guys if you got to go just let me know but uh one of the things we say a lot is

the the push to college and that whole that was a almost a two deade long maybe

even longer push that if you don't go to college you ain't [ __ ] right and most of

the time around 70% it depends on what which uh study you read but around 70%

of the people that graduate do not go into that the workforce in which they were trained

for it's so much higher in the trades if you go through a trade school you are

going to that trade like you don't it's not like a I got my liberal arts degree

and then I went and work a teller position at a bank you know to totally

different literally what happens that's literally what happens and I do see the wave changing going back towards the

trades because there's all these comparisons just compare the the debt

that you incur and then you get a job that's going to pay you you know 45 50 Grand maybe uh when you graduate and then

going through trade school and getting a apprenticeship and by the time

uh there was a study done I found it fascinating that it was like age 44

before and it was in the upper trades like electricians and plumbers but it

was like age 44 before a doctor caught up with the

earning uh of a Tradesman and it was because of all the

debt they incurred the first few years of residency they get paid Squat and

then they finally start getting paid and it it was age 40 40 or 44 before they

caught up with the trades person in the amount of money that they've actually

brought into their household I guess that shows that that you could either have your debt compound

right interest or you can have your uh your labor compound interest your

knowled yeah compound your know or compound your debt that was and I've

seen it too you know where it's like hey I went to college for two years I don't

know what I want to do so I want to come you know be an electrician but I want to make X right because I have student

loans to pay well TI yeah you know as an apprenticeship right you're usually at

the bottom tier and then every six months we're going to evail you and then

you're going to move up but they want to skip those steps because I got student loans to pay off yeah yeah the

government didn't do as and it was firmly in my belief that it was there

they're pushing that but the push for college education did

not do very many people any good like all it did was enrich colleges because

they started coming up with degrees that made no damn sense right like they they

you know what I mean there's only so many jobs at a museum to be a

historian that you can feel like opening all these new uh new degrees up over the

last 20 years if you look at that it's a it's a crazy number so we I will let you guys go I know you got some stuff to go

I think the internet said that they were leaving they froze again okay well we have lost our guest for the day I

appreciate you guys joining us for having us here thank you he did he said

uh I give up this is wild well I want to tell them I said thank

you that was fascinating to hear that little bit and I'm glad you brought it up Jose that what they went through

because that opened up a lot of questions on my mind about like

what's the benefit and who's pushing for it and if we push for this oversight kind of view in our

industry you can see what happens when government or let's just say Authority

Arian type entities take over the control of your of an industry it's like

now they're overreaching they do stuff on paper that they think sounds good uh and at the end

of the day all it does is hurt the actual people doing the job you know losing jobs it sounds like to me a ton

of people would have probably lost their job over if that legislation was passed as well as a lot of um companies a lot

of companies I mean the big companies would have swallowed up these apprentices because they have Journeymen

that they compare them with where I would imagine if it's a smaller company if I was an electrician I would have

just enough um journeyman to do the work I need and back fill them with apprentices

like that's a pretty smart business model you know um yeah I I don't know it opened up a

ton of questions in my head about the uh you know and it was also interesting

to to hear that they struggle at least they recognize they're always in our way you know the sight conditions that

they they they uh they brought up you know that uh they're they're usually

before us and they need to get done and mentioning um it's part of their training it's it's a part of the program

for the first year Apprentice to understand how to infiltrate the flooring industry and be in their way

and leave cut Knockouts and clippings everywhere well you have a way to at least combat some of your sight

conditions if you got child you guys if if you at least you can figure out if

the electricians have your HVAC system hooked up and that's fired up if you got Flor Cloud on your site floor Cloud will

give you all the information about your uh project site right at your fingertips

it's a cellular um driven uh technology right off a sensor that you put in

anywhere into the job site you can even read your moisture test with the right hookup and it's super simple I know you

guys use it a lot more even than we do so um you know if you if you want to

deploy your your Crews with confidence to job sites and know that your

Project's at least ready from a spe specification standpoint get yourself a

uh a membership a subscription to flor Cloud get with Patrick and them guys over there Scott and uh you know hook

them up I think we might let me go ahead and play a quick video for floor Cloud

here floor Cloud enables real-time monitoring of your job site conditions

via desktop or mobile device no more manual checking for temperature humidity

or even dupoint no need for base stations Wi-Fi or external power sources

simply scan the QR code on the front of your sensors and you're up at running with the most accurate and Innovative

sight monitoring system in the flooring industry dispatch your Crews with confidence and reduce your climate

related installation issues now you know you

know no and when you guys were talk we were talking earlier and he was talking

about you know going from a big company to a smaller company and not really

having the knoow because in the bigger companies you're only doing this or you're only doing that and I kind of

feel that like that's where the business is right going from a huge company to a

small company you got to wear many many different hats and that's that's you know just one of the struggles of every

small business owner and that's I think why we could relate a lot to each other it's because you

know we are small businesses so yeah yeah and of course just like you said

that's a that's probably less of a trade problem and more of a just moving from a

big company to a smaller company problem uh you know big back in the day the the

the big automakers uh that that had assembly lines you know that they those employees

did the same thing they did this uh if you're building an entire car um and you

got to be a mechanic and a bodyman and you know what I mean like all these things it's kind of like in floring why

we're so separated between hardwood Ceramic Tile carpet and resilient I mean

I know plenty of really good carpet guys that could not put a piece of tile floor down to save their life or a tile guy

that could you give them a piece of broadloom and they'll look at you like you are asking them to skydive you know

what I mean and so flooring is flooring but we have the same deal you get a guy

that is at a real big company and all he did was grout for five years like he

grout a fantastic like grout Master yeah he can make a bad a a a good tile job

look great or a great tile job remain great like you know gring's where it's

at and everything's finished art too dude you can do that but then you if you came to a

company like mine and you're called a tile finisher I'm expecting you to make Cuts Like You Know Stone edges do layout

like be able to thing yeah so yeah I I could see that

um particularly in their Zone because I know that there's some electricians that they don't touch that all they do is

pull wire to the appropriate boxes and you got somebody that's going through and there it's like an assembly line on

a job site you got someone going through and hooking up the fixtures and it like and I I think that's that that

progression too though right because if you're only a year in this is what you're doing like yeah you can watch me

and help me do this but once this is done you're going to do your job yeah and it's kind of like that in flooring

too it's just not that streamlined because there's so much going on with what we do I think and then you were

talking about like the verticals right like carpet hardwood uh to stuff like that and yeah

it's and you got residential and commercial in there yeah and then you got everyone like on the the group Pages

someone asks a question and they just Hammer them man like yeah

dude questions there's not a real friendly group on there I haven't been on those pages in a long time if I'm

honest but part of that is um and I'm not saying we need to be

Kumbaya everybody like glorifying or help whatever one another but there

there is just a better way to approach it and I know the really the guys that I

look up to in floring share knowledge willingly are slow

to uh demean or uh tear down somebody and quick to

teach and I I think if we could just be that in our businesses um quick to teach

and slow to tear down uh we we'd uh improve um but I I'd be I'd be lying if

I didn't say that I'm envious of the system that they do have like they have

a school they can pull from you sign them up on a with the state here's my

Apprentice this Apprentice is gonna work for four years he knows it he's not asking hey I want to be a journeyman two

weeks after he he went in I mean I've literally had guys come in after working with one of our mechanics you know one

of our lead installers for six months and say hey man I'm ready I want to do this I'm I want to be my own crew like

you have no idea dude like not close to

ready that system prevents those guys from trying to they know what level

they're at and they get paid this amount for that level and if you want to move on you have to actually go through the

progression and then test out like yes I know how to do this you have to get the education and the experience and that's

that's what we've built go carrera's the algorithm the score on education

experience there's no there's that's the only two ways you get good at anything and when you can when you can accurately

track and do that they just have a state entity doing that for them basically they sign them up the date is set and

logged they started here I'm sure that then that person well it sounds like

that person then Works through and takes periodic education and testing and then

to test out to be a a journeyman you got however how many hours he say 8,000 or

something 8,000 so like I I am a little jealous of a system like that you know

because too often you get guys in and they want to skip all the other steps

similar to his example of the the U the uh uh guy that went to college I need to

make this amount because I got student loans I'm sorry I'm sorry that you got student

loans you're a level one apprentice and this is what level one

apprentices make you want me to this guy's been here for a year and a half getting ready to go to level two you're going to make the same as him would that

be fair to him you know and so that's probably a struggle for them as well

but there there is something to that to that system that's what go Carrera from

an outside standpoint not a government entity forcing it upon but that's what

that whole ideas about is just tracking years of experience

tracking education and tracking the progression of an installer so that we can have level of saying okay instead of

a use it's just different terminology he's a four-year uh Apprentice okay he's

a one you know he's a level one uh tile installer for example so it's just

different vernacular but it's the same thing right and I you progress the best

thing about it what you said is that that education aspect is because they're required to get their education and go

to classes and I talk to them about this and I think we've talked about it on here before it's once a week they're

going to classes on their own time yeah it's not like I'm gonna come to work and

then I'm gonna do it while I'm at work it's all right you're G to get out of work you're going to go to your class

you're G to get your education see you [Music] tomorrow yeah I'm little jealous and

it's the kind of the same thing in um the union too right because it's the

union when I talked to them they were like yeah there's one of the unions was

um I I don't know if it was like every quarter or something but they shut down for a week and the guys had to collect

unemployment and then just attend classes for that whole week the other ones it was like NOP we do it you know a

class or something a month and what ends up happening is they vote on what day

they want to do it on and it's not at work so it's typically a Saturday or

Sunday yeah that's that's what I appreciate about all that is this

um self the the owning of your of your

trade of your life of your skill that that like you have to give a little like

sacrifice a little bit sacrifice a Saturday because you got to go to class and put in get your eight hours for the

quarter of Education or whatever that is and and that's this coming year one of

the big things is CEUs within go Carrera is going to be a thing thing and not in go Carrera as the platform but as part

of the algorithm uh to to help support that awesome come on guys get those

credits those education credits to help build your your knowledge base up and uh

prove that you're the best and then look if if people don't look at it like that all the time like prove that you're the

best the fact is in other trades you you just have to to even get the job you

have to do this I'm just you know we we're just begging people over here to to go in get the education get the

experience apply yourself and then continue your education and go to workshops and do this stuff we're

begging as an industry for Crews to do that over there in other trades it's

just you just don't have a job if you don't do it well I think um the structure that they have too is is

they're requiring a minimum of in order Advance right and I think uh us as an

industry um we minimize our requirements so that way we get bodies and that's uh

that's not good for us either and um you know what what you just shed some light on there too is the Saturday classes 8

Hour classes or whatever once a month or once a week or whatever um is is required you know a lot of the people in

in the industry that have worked with it you know they were all athletes at some point right and did you get your

practice at the game only or did you go off on your own time and get better and try to hone some skills to make a make

the team or or to to have a starting position it's no different for your career than it is for any sport or hobby

you don't get better by just experience it when you're supposed to you get better by by experiencing it on your own

and learning your own limitations I just had this conversation with my son and that's what I told him right and I said

cuz you know his mom was like he goes to practice every day and I said yeah and

that's the bare minimum so in in the summer when when I

like my son plays baseball and you know I have homework every day like I required during baseball season I did

require him to take 50 swings off a te into a net and he said you know and he

said like you know why do I have to do this you know at first he didn't like it but then he got better at hitting and um

part of that was is because now you have 50 more swings a day than anybody else

who's not pregn iing you have 50 more opportunities to become 50 swings better

50 swings better 50 swings better it just it it speaks to the fact that in

our industry so far and we can change this in 25 this is the year that we can

all change this but it speaks to the fact that what we do

is we go out go to work we think it's our education our employment and our

babysitter like in a lot of ways our industry uh

the participants the in installation Community I was as guilty as anyone I

installed too but we we don't go outside to gain the knowledge and it just all

the all the opportunities there um we don't think very heavily like if you

want a car man I know guys if they want a car they'll make a deal here deal there and before you know it stack some

this and that and the other to get a loan to get the car they want but they won't sacrifice or do any of those same

you know mathematical gymnastics to improve their career that will improve

their earning um so you know I I just want I want to see our at least the boat

turn this year towards people requiring installers to be trained go

get your get a certain amount and tracking if nothing else get in a

profile for tracking the education units that you get and being able to prove that as an individual to your potential

employer and for the potential employer to be able to verify that's all that they're talking about that was the whole

thing they talked about it just State mandated right yeah and we can do it

within our own industry we can do it within a flooring veteran matched up

with a couple other flooring veterans matched up with some other flooring

inside we can build this to where we have created an atmosphere and or a

ecosystem where that's how it works dang it so we don't have to have a government

entity if we don't want sooner or later I'm assuming that something will happen but uh well they're going to want a

piece of their pie right you can't make money without paying the piper that's uh unfortunately how the US government

operates lately so well and it's it's I'm fine paying as long as my roads are

fine right I mean like as long as you're getting the benefit like paying is one thing paying

and then and then you know blowing out a tire on a on a street because the roads

aren't properly taken care of or your infrastructure is falling apart that's a whole another thing whole another

podcast but the truth is is like you know I think most Americans we we we're

fine pain for a fee to go learn something or to do this as long as we

know there's a benefit for us on the backside or we can recognize the benefit of from it on the backside

so at least that's my hope well that was an interesting conversation I'm glad

those guys joined all right fellas we have reached

our the end of the uh podcast here I want to thank everybody for joining us

thanks for all the comments appreciate everybody uh Happy New Year to those of you that were not on last

week's when we did a quick little uh what half hour maybe I think it was yeah

yeah just a little quick one little quick one Happy New Year to everybody I wish you the best for 25 Let's uh let's

band together let's uh let's really do some cool stuff yeah let's work on mindset this year I think I I like you

said people need the the companies need to hold installers accountable and installers need to hold themselves

accountable and it all has to do with mindset you can't think that you're the best at everything like you said that

with like no credibility it's let's start getting some credibility and that starts today

yeah let's build that a credibility amen speaking of uh who's the best I am definitely the best that's slipping and

falling and thank you for Jeremy for checking in on me appreciate you

brother all right if anyone hasn't seen it's all over social media the video of

this guy Fallen is hilarious I got to check it

out it made me it made me go get some uh higher resolution cameras so that way I can see it in HD next

time there will be a next time I promise all right well keep steady feet there my

friend don't uh don't take any more skills and uh uh just a quick reminder

before we close out Ty is at the end of this month so anybody who uh will be out

there uh doing interviews checking up uh with the installation competition kind

of roaming around seeing what the 2025 is bringing in uh if you got the uh time

to get out to Las Vegas and and hang out with us please do look us up give us a

holler and uh let us know if you're going to be there that is at the end of this month and um yeah go check out the

inst uh uh competition I think it's going to be pretty awesome this year there's some

uh International stuff going on as well I believe and it's going to be fun so with that guys we'll catch you next

week and uh thank you everyone have a blessed afternoon see you all right see

you guys

Daniel Gonzalez 1/6/25 Daniel Gonzalez 1/6/25

The Huddle - Episode 130 - 2024 Recap and 2025 Predictions

We're down to the last day of 2024 and we reflect on the key trends, challenges, and successes that we had throughout the year. From advancements in technology to shifts in customer preferences, we’ll highlight the year’s biggest takeaways. Looking ahead to 2025, we’ll discuss industry projections, including the role of AI and strategies for overcoming labor shortages. Tune in for expert insights and a forward-looking perspective to help you stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of flooring. Don’t miss this essential year-end review and roadmap for the future!

Start your year off right by tuning in to hear what’s next for the flooring world and beyond!

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

Create your FREE Installer profile at https://gocarrera.com and become part of the future of the industry TODAY!
GET TRAINED! Find a list of training dates here: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/
https://www.preferredflooringmi.com
https://www.stuartandassociates.com

what is up everybody welcome back to the Huddle your weekly Playbook helping you gain forward progress in your flooring

career to our new viewers welcome to the team what's up fellas what's going on

Sir oh G money all right I've got a confession I

almost forgot about the podcast today actually I did forget about the podcast today and uh texted Miss

Ashlin or slacked her like 3 seconds before it was supposed to start like hey

do we have a podcast today she she told me I got on and she's like why is Paul asking me if there's a podcast

today oh so is Jose I on the outside so is what it is what's

up heading into a new year and uh gosh it's just been kind of

a a time what have you guys been up to closing out this

2024 that's it trying to close everything out basically is what I've

been doing yeah what does that look like for you guys as far as what does that mean I'll

tell you what it means for me it means you know you your jobs go

right through the the end of the year you got a few that you're probably trying to finish up we have a few that have to be done this week but

um been sitting in my computer for three days straight trying to re organized

some parts of my business and Company and taking some of the lessons learned from 24 and trying to get ready for 2025

so is is that similar yeah so like with me I've been reconciling and stuff and

just make going through billing to make sure that I get everything that we've done out and then like you said um we

had our uh I pushed our meeting to today we usually do it on Mondays so we did it

today and I just kind of talked about how uh

like hey 20 this is the last one of the Year let's make this next year the best

one and uh what what can we do to change right what let's take everything that we

learned from this past year and kind of write it down let's get it all together

because if you just talk about changing and then you don't do anything that's all it is is talk and if you know we say

we don't talk about it be about it so let's start doing that and uh that's

what our our meeting was about this morning

sweet mine is uh I've just been trying to figure out ways to be more efficient

on my end as well trying to look for different ways to take notes so

everything's kind of automated instead of all the notebooks all the scattered thoughts I need to try to get everything

Consolidated so that way it's easy share with everybody so that way Daniel and I are on the same page all the time

instead of just most of the time um same thing with the crews trying to do all that

um I mean same thing you do every year right yeah but hopefully you know

there's a little bit of retrospect so as we close out 24 what' you guys did you have you had a

chance to like sit and Garner lessons from from 2024 like re if you recap the

year in your in your in a sentence what would that look

like for you guys go ahead Daniel

well if you haven't uh you know taken a a second and i' I've taken a few

days and with we're we're doing a new we're launching teams this next year so

I'm gonna be a team leader in my company not Microsoft teams but teams as as

in the current way we do things we we like have a couple

estimators four uh five project managers couple coordinators you know accounting

staff that kind of thing and work comes in it goes on the bid calendar someone grabs it estimates it if we win the job

I sign the contract and Joel our coo assigns it to a project

manager that's how we operate now you know trying to give our customer

a more um Boutique experience and more

detailed customized experience uh we're switch into teams so we're going to

create uh teams in our company each team will have a team leader a project

manager and a estimator that's an what we call an initial team and then we'll

have a uh you know expanded team and then a full team expanded team is just

two project managers on that team with a team leader and an estimator and then

we'll have a full team which is three project managers with a team leader and

an estimator and then we're going to assign clients to each team so that that client

gets a very familiar experience each time that way they're not getting one

project manager one one job the next job some other project manager and the next

job another pm and some other person they're dealing with all the time this way they're always dealing with the same

team lead the same estimator so all the bids will be very familiar looking

because we we all send out our bid form is the same but you know you tweak it a little it out differently you know it's

just a little bit different uh I may bold everything out or or have a lot of

caps and other people may not and some people like you get my point same form

just a little different style to each one and I you know I've never been a big

dictator like no you do it my way I mean you know each person has to have a

little bit of freedom in their in their their role so essentially the goal was to um after kind of looking back and

listening to some concerns from customers and seeing where we fell down and where we

did well um when we had the same guys on the same jobs with the same people those

jobs just ran smoother and our customer was happier so I proposed this to a few of our

customers and they went heck yeah that is I wish you would have done this years

ago so putting that struct it's easy to say that you got to put structure

together behind the scenes on everything who reports to who what's the information flow so I've spent a lot of

uh the last week putting that whole structure together preparing to Launch

teams I made a joke with one of my guys that said we're GNA have a draft we we got two team leads and we're going to

draft players but I also remember being the last one picked and that's probably not

a good idea rock paper scissors yeah should did a tournament no we're gonna

pick it on um strengths matching strengths and weaknesses so someone

who's strong here you know so we'll make sure there's a technical guy that was an

old installer on each team that kind of thing and I think like that's that's

awesome it's different over here since we're a lot smaller than you right so it's just me and him and basically I I

have my clients and he has his so it's the same it's the same but different right

because it's just two of us but it's still like he's handling his and it's the same thing every time yeah well that

that atmosphere that you have when you're small that's what people like I mean that's what people liked when we

were smaller uh but you you grow away from it and don't recognize the or I

I'll speak for myself I grew away from it didn't recognize how chaotic it must seem to the client to always have a

different estimator and a different project manager and who do I call when I

have problems what if the PM's not answering their phone or they're out on vacation who's my

guy like the PM can be gone and you know your team lead is Boom you know what I

mean uh so it's essentially you guys are what we call a pilot team so as we grow

if we want to grow the business we grow through teams and so we will take an

aspiring team leader off of one of the teams put them as a team

lead hire a new PM for them and then

multiply and uh can you see the [Laughter]

P um said my brother said he looks like uh Cartman from South Park with the hat

on yeah maybe I'm a little far up um but yeah so the you take that

aspiring team lead and you put them over into uh their own team I'm gonna pull

this back with that comment pull my table back a little bit pardon me

guys maybe that's a little better I don't know but um and then he's a pilot

team so he's by himself and he shares one of the other team's estimators until he builds up enough business and then

he'll get a PM um gives him a chance to be in that

position for a bit before he has the responsibility of like you know

um running the whole team so anyway I said all that just to

say that I looked back on 2024 as a real rebuilding year for our

company and that we we had a lot of a lot of

tough times this last year um and it's

been one of those learning learning lessons kind of a year even

after being in business so long so both for go Carrera and steuart and

Associates both of the companies it's going to be uh kind of a new uh a new

year new season and a new approach um so yeah really excited about that and

looking forward to 2025 so yeah it's you guys that mindset what's your big plan

so I've been reading or listening to right because audible um but a book

called mindset by Carol DW and that's what's kind of uh taking me in on this what what we got

to do in order to change and make things better because Mr Tom happy New Year happy New

Year that that's what we're always looking for is that growth right so how is it going to happen it doesn't

just happen by not doing anything yeah or doing the same thing or

doing the same thing yeah that's the whole thing and and uh it trying to change like some of our generic terms

and and everything in our system so that way we're on the same page Daniel and I

and if I take over his stuff then I know what to look for we're we're almost there there's a lot of there's

definitely a lot of moving Parts when you start looking at things like that because you start restructuring one aspect then you're like oh well if I do

that this doesn't complement it anymore now I need to change this a little bit and it's G to be one of those uh forever

evolving things um as long as you're doing it for growth um and you're and

growth doesn't necessarily mean getting bigger right growth can be better just being more consistent getting the right

clients right like growth could be within uh within the company instead of outward it as well so um trying to

figure that out is uh is always fun that's a good point it could be not growing from size perspective at all and

just growing in happiness you know getting systems put in place and and all that kind of thing which you know that's

kind of what um one of the things I'm trying to create a dashboard that has

every single project and so now I'm going to start talking about like predictions and and

like future stuff but I've been researching AI agents I'm as you guys

know Chad is our friend but uh I use chat GPT quite

often but what I'm really um working on is trying to get AI is to learn how to

build an AI agent and do that to

take our processes and move our our project to the next process and like

automatically automatically um and tie everything together to where when we have a job it

knows we have this we we tell it okay here's a new job and tell our system new

job it goes in our project management software that like is got kind of a new

flow and then there's triggers that that AI agent moves it and automatically

orders it when we get reviewed submitt and it reads the submittal and it Compares and it when it doesn't know it

can ask a question for example that this or make a observation

that this doesn't match that so when you get your return submittals on a project that you've submitted on and it compares

to your to your sheet it can read through that whether

it's PDF or Excel and recognize differences as long as the codes are the

same now that's going to fail about 80% of time probably until it's you know

perfected but it's really cool thought it's something that made take an entire year to get down but how cool would it

be that you get returned submittals and you upload them into your software and then your materials are automatically

ordered just magic boom boom there's

give this system to uh I don't even know if I should call them out because they

it's a company that just got bought by another company a distributor and we've

had so many issues with them dude well if this is a vendor I'll tell

you what uh one of our sayings around here is and it's so frustrating because we we rely on our vendors so much I know

you guys do too so I'm this is when I say we it's everyone on this on this uh

podcast we rely on our vendors to execute and give us accurate etas and

this kind of stuff like we rely on that we pass that information on a lot of

times yeah when that doesn't happen we look like the a-holes and so I tell

everybody here we have to be better than our vendors and I've told my vendors that uh I said you realize one of our

mantras at our company is that we have to be better than our vendors meaning you as a $150 million year company or

$400 million your company our little company has to be better than you

got you gotta be better gotta pick up pieces when everything goes wrong um you gotta foresee says we're only as good as

our vendors well I'd say good as your weakest that that there's some meat on

that to discuss I think we're only as good as our processes um vendors being a piece of

fitting into one of those processes and our installers and our our our employees

and us we're only as good as our processes I'm a real binary thinker too

so I'm stuck if I don't have a system or a process to follow I get I'm out in left field chasing

butterflies maybe a little ADHD on top of that squirrel yeah yeah you know what

I mean if I'm not I'm binary thinker so it's like do this task then do this test

and do that test especially when it comes to project management yeah so uh we we do have a

new feature right now too they just launched on here and we are live on Tik Tock right now as well and then we got a

comment that says we are only as good as our last cut

fluorography that's as good as our last cut all right I'll take it as out in the

field uh as long as it's not roll Goods you can redo your cut yeah make it your

last cut so what is uh what's exciting for you

guys in 25 and hey everybody out in the uh audience we got plenty of people on here um what what's your goals and and

not that you need to you know I I I like to review and and actually set goals not

just at the end of the year but you know this is always a good time to reflect and look forward so what what's on your

guys' radar for 25 for preferred flooring for Jose and Daniel and like

what what what if uh you look back at the end of the year next year will you say yeah that was a heck of a I

accomplished that what what is that thing yeah better um better way of sifting through projects potential bid

opportunities um need to find a better more efficient way to do that Daniel and

I definitely put ourselves in a very very busy predicament and you know we

missed a couple events and no days off in the field um as well as

the office but uh finding ways to to stay on task and keep the work flowing so to speak right

like like soon as we stop bidding and stop looking then we know we're going to have a dead spot in our schedule and

that doesn't generate consistency throughout the the year and fortunately that that uh spot when we got too busy

was the area that kind of feeds a little bit of the Slow Time For Us so um but

we're managing right now we're getting through it guys are still working uh we still have a still got a backlog a bit

so doing all right but we could be

better yeah the the processes are

always and that's one of the things when we used to have a project Executives

that was one of the problems with just having a project executive it's kind of similar to the teams uh approach except

for teams uh our team uh uh setup is is

much more uh defined than the project executive uh position but man those guys

would get a ton of work and then they got busy managing

that work and they'd have these really just Peaks and troughs like really bad

and um that's where having more than just you know having some diversity on our teams

I want to make sure that we have that so we have someone really strong always bidding work and that's why you always

have an estimator and you always have a team lead and then your PMS are busy managing team lead manages relationships

and some projects key key accounts but essentially not getting so boggled down

with project management that the estimator is not supported enough to be able to feed that team it's like you got

to have someone out in the field plowing the field and planting and harvesting all the time or planting and and getting

it ready for you to harvest and it's the

the this business is exhausting sometimes and I I mean that in not just

flooring but like specialty contractor running a specialty Construction Company

is exhausting yeah and you know you see you know videos all the time and they

say you know if you're an entrepreneur and you own your own business if you haven't just sat somewhere and just put

your your face in your hands and thought this is I'm done like then I what am I

doing this for why do I do that but but that's the the ticket right it's what

are you gonna do after that is that that's what starts that growth right it's it's getting beat down down to that

point and then like this is what I got to do to change it and I in the meeting

this morning um we were talking about it and I came in on like a Saturday or

something and my daughter was like Dad why are you going to work it's Saturday and it's like yeah but I don't mind

going to work so things got to get done it's got to

get done yep I mean yeah I I would say

if you if you spend enough time on Instagram reals or Instagram you think

you should be a business owner and I'm not discouraging anybody from being a business owner I encourage it

but pick you know pick

wisely I will I will say that there there's a couple things too that that um are going to be driving for 2025 is a

lot of the policies that that just past that are taking effect turn of the year or um early February mid-February got to

kind of prep for those right like you could do as much research as possible but you know over here we had uh one

party stepped out and kind of like rebelled against the other and uh there was some things that that got past

that put there was no thought behind it right like long-term thought and I just got to figure out how that's going

affect us and what we could do to mitigate some of that too uh unfortunately politics is a lot to do

with business regardless of of whose side you take or what what you're claiming and and sometimes uh some

decisions are really good for you some decisions are not as a business owner there's nothing out there to protect

business owners it's all about protecting the community and employees so uh we got to figure out a way well

the the truth is for business owners it just is

whatever it is it just is and you have to adapt we have to adapt we have to figure it out and so that's why um you

know a lot of mentors that I've followed over the years they're like who cares who's president or who's in like you're

gonna is it g you are you gonna shut your business down no you just have to

adapt yes you got to find the way and what you're doing you know research how

are you going to go up against it how how are you going to sometimes it's a title w in your

direction and it's awesome sometimes it's a Title Wave coming at you and you just got to deal with both both both of

those and so yeah that's a good point that as you know these fouryear cycles

that our country is in um and this was a big change this year so I'm not sure how

everything's going to pan out but you know we're we're going to dig our heels

in and and do our very best to supply the best service to our customers the

best product advice and best delivery the best experience overall we I really

want to focus this year uh both companies on the experience like being

part of something uh doing something a little bit different being treated like you matter uh as a a client of our

flooring company or as a installer or a customer at uh at go Carrera

um you know if I had what like my big goal this year for 25 is everybody to

have a rating we're going to be changing the name from Hammer rating I know I've said that on the podcast before here uh

we have a we have a short list I really want to form the uh Advisory Board which I've uh invited uh some people to

verbally some formal letters are going to be going out here this next week and

uh that Advisory Board will help kind of finalize that as well as you know I I I

want more people to have access to really great people and we don't know

who the great people are unless they get on and so we're kind of restructuring

how go what you know is go career today uh how it operates and H what what its

strategic goals are but all in all it's always going to be

to um make sure that the installer who has identified them like

has um invested in themselves into their their craft and their skill level that

they stand out and they stand out in the marketplace and can make more money

because they've dedicated themselves to being great at what they do

and to separate those guys that go jump in a truck after six months of being with somebody and say hey I'm a flooring

installer and I just you know I there's no downside that anybody's ever told me

or that I can find that is making those separations and making

it clear from a company's perspective you can um uh benefit your installers based

on their skill level and and encourage them if they're hourly employees you can

pay them more uh as their skill level increases and that be your mechanism but

as the community or the people out there getting the service in their homes and

offices they deserve to know no different than the Carfax I've brought

that up plenty of times you want to know how your car performed in the past so you can guess how it's going to perform in the future there's not much

difference you know U people can change but at the same time you your immediate

past and and how you view yourself in this industry I believe uh you know

people should know and be able to make wise decisions when they select their their professional and I think we should

all be professional so get making that dream really come to reality in 25 is

like if I stand on the doorstep at 26 and there's

tons of people that are on go carrera's uh whatever its final version

name is but on the uh have a profile not in working in the app but using their

their profile strength to earn them more business to earn them higher pay to get

them the job and outpace their competition um that dream I'm I'm pushing for that

dream to come true in 25 and we'll be alongside with you there

and because that's uh uh to separate yourself organically

and intentionally like that is it's always a goal right just to to earn earn

the respect of your of an industry and your peers and the public and consumers

and clients for them to understand the amount of work that an individual puts in to be able to do uh a sizable project

or even a small one well and efficiently to understand uh and know why they they

got to that point would be great yeah have some confidence in their selection uh if you take a

um survey of like your or your checka trade over in the UK or all these

different thumb tax that kind of thing the number one problem that people have is that they don't know what they're

getting they say it every time every negative review is this guy said he knew how to do it

and he didn't that that sums up about 90% of all negative reviews on those

sites what if you didn't what if you did know who you were getting what if you

did have a good experience or you decided to be cheap and hire a half uh

you know half you know a05 level guy or a half Hammer guy and you got what you

paid for you know like at least you know who you're getting when you pay and I

think that if that dream can come true um the consumer base will be better

served and the installers will be better served and so will the training entities the

manufacturers you're gonna have guys who are really really good

um you know getting rewarded for being really really good and and that's

and hopefully Inspire some other guys to get really really good well and not only that right it gives people a goal too

like if I could get to a little bit of a higher skill set uh hand skills or or

acquire more Talent from a disciplin perspective on installing more than one

type of flooring then maybe I can start my own business maybe I maybe it's

something that I can comfortably do and I can offer more right away instead of

anybody can do that right now the problem is nobody gets nobody gets the

clout they don't get foring it right and they don't get the clout for doing it we

want to add the clout and the daero to the that that Pursuit and I know Daniel

said you know I'm not so sure uh you know I know he said this I'm not so sure

that we have a labor shortage as much as a Quality Labor shortage

yeah I mean if you look at the job market in general there's people that are posting on social media all the time

that you know they' filling out applications everywhere and they can't find a job right

but it's that quality that you're looking for and maybe I I want to say

that some of these people they just don't have that quality and I can't tell you as as

hiring hourly employees myself if a guy comes in with a go careera

like profile if this ever happens to me I'm going to call you guys and we are G to I don't drink but I'll pop a bottle

of champagne anyway and but if I ever had somebody come in with a go- career

profile and show it to me and say this is who I am this is proof of my of my uh

skill set and I'd like to get a job with you how much easier does that make my

hiring process if they have high scores well first off if they did that you're

just gonna like get that twinkle in your eye right away I already see yes but if somebody walked in your

office and they had a they were a level five or or level three uh or had three

hammers uh in today's uh vernacular of hammer rating they had three Hammers and

a good reputation score in the 80s showing that they've you know uh really

made people happy when they do their work like how much just I'd be I'd be very

excited actually like that's the the biggest problem we have hiring people is knowing whether or not what they're

telling us is real because if if if all we had to do is listen to them and hire them based off that life's easy right

because a lot a lot of what we look at is you're always looking at reviews on

everything anyways right everyone does it you go on Amazon you check out the reviews up this is not a good review I'm GNA pass on this one it's the same thing

with us right people need to be able to look at us and be like well they don't

have good reviews so I'm just going to pass on them and you're just giving them that streamlined option and a lot of

guys don't H have a website so it gives people somewhere to look for them because how many times have you been

looking for someone and it's like you go to research them nothing pops up so you just pass them right over it's the same

type of thing we need to stop looking at it like I don't need to be valid ated to

the entire world looks at validation like that as something that needs to

happen right and you know what the you just said I don't need to be validated

um yeah validate me baby if I told you that back in the day if somebody would

have said hey why don't you why don't you go get certified I would have said what for I know I'm good at it I don't

need to go get certified like that would have that was my answer um but

as you get older you start realizing how many people may have passed up on you

because you didn't have a a individual credential or something like that and and that's that's what this is this is

your your diploma right this is your certificate of completion that you see in a doctor's office this is the

equivalent to it except for it can still grow it can still evolve you can add

more to it I follow some influencers on social media right and they say if you

want to work with my company and your and you don't have a company email I don't even look at you it get it gets

down to like that sometimes like you need to look at yourself and be as

professional as you can because that's what some some of these high-profile people are looking for yeah so what

you're saying L people don't like to see the Gmail uh at the end of your address it's crazy how easy it is these days if

you have an iPhone you can buy a domain it's like $15 or $20 a year you buy the

domain you go on your iPhone you use iCloud and you can get your own company

email going directly to your phone you don't need a website or anything but at least you have that professional

look yeah and if you can back it up with proof of professional credentials you

have a like recipe to really I think the guys

that for our trade to start to be paid their

worth and putting all everybody on a more of a Level Playing Field you we're

kind of out of this this may not be taken well by some of the in you know other companies or the industry but we

just don't have a free market you know like it's the guys that can do the

jobs they a lot of times they're the ones that get

the work and they're the ones that will have the attitude like I don't need you know whatever well some of our best guys

we overwork and then they fall down and we give a bad experience because of it that's the truth like some of our best

subs we will overwork because we know they can do the job so we put them on

the job when they want the job and at the end of the day they get

overloaded they're out looking for help like we are you know and not Danny

that's so there's just a better way what's up Danny Sherman my brother twin that's

my um so so and to add on to add on to what you just said about uh overworking

them and the the as a any good sub will take as much work as

they possibly can because they know it's feast or famine right they know if they're not building up that bankroll if

they're not putting something away and and what they feel like what they right

because it could end it could end tomorrow like that um and it sucks to feel like that and and but it's it's a

reality a lot of the people who work hard like that and and don't stop because they grew up with nothing they

came from nothing and they know they don't want to go back and um they will overwork themselves and put themselves

in a position to to maybe not perform at capacity sometimes or they depend on

people that you don't have any idea of is even on your job you give this guy a

job and he has this guy doing it that he hired because he can't quite get there but he didn't want to say no to the work

and bl you know there is a better way um getting that Better Way accepted and in

the marketplace and and then even demanded from the the consumer base and

Architects on the commercial side and you know the residential side of the

world really like hey I'd like to see your your verification of your your

skill set you know when homeowners start asking that and and a and picking people

by their skill set and by how much they want to pay and if we can create this

atmosphere where if they're going to pay a half Hammer guy just know they he may be a little cheaper

but you get what you pay for it goes all the way up to five for a reason and increments of 10 so that's 500

increments you know or 50 increments sorry that was bad math but you get my point like it's it's

in small increments so you can many small time make big time many small time

make big time all right well Happy New Year to you guys I can't uh look down and we're

like 10 minutes from uh I think this is different than you

know what we did last year when we talked about projections CU we're not talking about projections like what do

you think the Market's going to look like next year or anything like that it's what are what are we projecting for

ourselves and I think a lot of people can can take that and kind of run with

it right you look at where do you want to be a year from now take that and

start breaking that down because that's the only way you're going to get there yeah yep great advice man I think

um I think this year coming up 2025 is going to be more of

who do I want to work with and how do I get on their radar right um and how how

can I make them see or how I don't want to make them see how can I how can I get an opportunity to show them the value

that we offer um because I know that once we do that once we can show them I

know that uh will be an easy phone call uh for for the next project problem is

is getting the foot in the door enough times to create the consistency so they can so the difference stands out that

that is that is always the challenge so Walter says it's hard for most entrepreneurs to turn away jobs income

profit and I just seen a video earlier that addresses this very topic because

they said we don't say no we just price

accordingly so you know it's going to be horrible and if you know you got your

you know your worth that's the other thing if you if you know and can show your worth visibly to somebody uh that's

that's like you know it takes me back I talked to a

general contractor this last year and he's like well send me a all this like

background information and just because we really it's like it's desired

intently that people want to know who they're dealing with it's getting more so from the GC to us I don't know if you

guys guys have experienced that but like pre-qualifications and like all this stuff we have to do that we are not

doing that to our subs yeah as an industry we are not doing anything like that seen with our subcontractors been

in meetings with some smaller companies and that's what they they're like why do you guys want to know all this information my brother when we first

started was like I don't want to share this information but guess what everyone wants this information and they want

your they want our financials for the last three years they want to know who

worked for and the contact vendors vendor information a bank

reference our bonding capy why I said that you gotta you gotta remember Daniel

like I grew up know we're only six years apart but I grew up in a time where people stole my identity because I was

Hispanic and it was an easy steal right so there's a there's a trust barrier that I had to overcome for that first

one and uh I just don't like giving out information that isn't I don't feel like

it's safe you know the can't take it back off the web right like it's going over the internet going via facts I just

feel like it was I was it was new to me and all I could think about is what

happened in the past when information was misused but now it's noral yeah now it's

everyday practice and people do want to know I mean they want to know who they're dealing with that's why online

profiles or if you're getting hired uh people go to your Facebook page and they

they want to know who they're dealing with we all also I know we all want to know the skill level of the the thing we

want you to do that you're good at doing that thing we want to know that we just

have to accept as a industry and as a community that it's important to do it

and we all go do it um Danny said the problem is most salesp people B the jobs out to lowest bidder well when if you

build your company on quality and I mean the say a retailer build themselves on

quality the lowest bidder either in in in my ideal world

the lowest bidder doesn't doesn't exist like they're they're a competitive

bid but you're you're comparing Apples to Apples the lower bidder is almost a

farce because lowest bidder how can you do a low bid if you're not comparing

Apples to Apples that's why Architects and engineers and designers and general

contractors are involved in the commercial side because you're trying to bid Apple they want apples to apples

bids most gc's most of them do not want just a low bid because they miss something they don't want the problems

that that brings start they want apples to apples bids um there the you got a couple

levels of of that in there but the consumer doesn't have any of that they don't have any in between to make sure

they're bidding Apples to Apples from a skill standpoint sometimes from a product standpoint but you get my point

like you the the lowest bidder in an

ideal world is is still a good installer that then we we can all Thrive um but

also retailers using subpar labor um at

the end of the day they'll they'll have a bad reputation for getting jobs done a bad reputation

for quality and the retailers who care about that stuff will will rise to the

top that's my that's what I think said more in some work

rooms yeah and we we've seen it right I mean we've all seen it that's they they

they're the low bid so then they bid it out so that way they can get as much profit as they can and

then um that's the thing that if you're in a position to where you're trying to

grow and you're looking at things like this and that's how we were it's you

have to make yourself kind of uncomfortable and put yourself out there and talk to people because then you

create relationships and we're all about relationships and these you know project

managers and estimators from some of these construction companies that you're working for will reach out to you when

they have questions and it becomes more like I talk to them and they're like man

every time we have these people there's nothing but issues but every time we get

we have you guys everything is like so nice and I wish we could work with you more it's like but that's the mindset

that you have to change and it's it's getting your people to say hey we

probably shouldn't use them even though you know the price is competitive right

it may maybe it's just a little lower but you're going to get

this I don't even Superior experience experience if you go over here right

that's what we're selling is the experience I got an idea I got an idea but we have to talk about it off

air sounds good I I tell you you know eventually I could see architects specif

in some some level um and you know companies have an an

overall rating themselves based on their their network uh like who you know our

general contractors will recom request certain installers uh if you can show

that you have an average installer rating of XYZ um and contractors knew and depended

on it that would set the market apart as well because then everybody would be trying to get that rating up and only

work with the best and those the the the guys that really want to make a great

living can um yeah it's it's a bit euphoric or you know this this idea

utopian uh but it's also one of those deals where it were it's it's how it

works in other Industries like the best spine doctor makes the most

money you know what I mean yeah the best brain surgeon makes the most the best

attorney makes the most and you can identify that through their

credentials you know where they went to school how they got their education how long they've been doing it and their

reputation and we we can create a similar um uh environment here uh as a

unit if we all band together and and um I'd be happy to for the rating to take

off and me walk away and not a not a a

bit of uh the work go across the go career Network my my goal is for the

installers to get the ratings and improve themselves and have something to strive for and that that that rating

equals to them a better life a better experience in life happier work uh

relationships with the people they work for um yeah it's a bit utopian but it's

a dream that's why everything's got to start with a dream though right

yeah well Brothers we've come to the end to the audience thank you so much for being with us throughout this last year

and your comments and your your likes and your subscribes to our networks have

been um you know not not uh taken lightly we very much appreciate you guys

uh we're I'm going to talk to the guys we're going try to be a little bit more uh at some of the shows this year we we

all missed some last year um it's just part of you know getting busy and being

overwhelmed but as a huddle team trying to have some representation and getting around and saying hi to everybody and

meeting you guys out at the the events you guys have a great new year uh we

wish you all the best and uh the most success and um yeah we look forward to a

great 2025 absolutely man it's going to be a great year and we're going to make it

like we're gonna make it that way let it is what you make it last words of wisdom Jose for 2025 or

2024 before we hit 2025 hey don't cry over milk why don't

you go go get a tow some cleaner clean it up let's start all over yeah

we all right everybody everybody it's been a blessed year we love you guys keep coming back and we will see you

guys next year all right [Music]

Daniel Gonzalez 12/23/24 Daniel Gonzalez 12/23/24

The Huddle - Episode 129 - Blue Collar Cruise #6

It’s time to hop aboard for the 6th installment of Blue Collar Cruise! Join Paul, Daniel, and Jose as they navigate the latest news, trends, and innovations shaping the flooring and construction industries. From groundbreaking technologies to exciting industry updates, this episode is packed with valuable insights for blue-collar pros like you.

Hop aboard and stay informed about what’s shaping the industry—don’t miss this exciting journey!

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

hey everybody welcome back to the Huddle where your weekly podcast to help you gain forward progress in your flooring

career to all you new viewers welcome to the team to those always with us thanks

for joining what's up fellas how you guys doing good how you doing

today doing pretty well doing pretty well everybody geared up for Christmas

no no no you got you got jobs going or

what yeah we do well I mean well we all any of those Christmas crunch

projects just one just one you know where they close everything down and you

have to get it done in this small window this one is actually a residential project so

oops you know what they they they went through some they were very they were indecisive

at first but I thought it'd be pretty cool to get everything done for them by Christmas as a as a gift since they kind

of inherited a home or took it over I should say and trying to help a little

help a family out good deal y all right well welcome everybody giv just a moment

here for some people to join this week is I Believe episode six of the blue

collar cruise I think I think this is our sixth one isn't it yep the blue

color Cru has on there so we just kind of have to I gotta roll with it

[Laughter] then whatever I say

goes that's uh from your from your

neighborhood uh podcast director in the background Miss Ashlin

yeah so the blue color crudes where uh for those you who don't know it's where we uh kind of scour the internet for

some relevant interesting topics to the construction industry sometimes it's

flooring sometimes just overall construction Trends data that kind of stuff sometimes it's fun sometimes it's

kind of serious so we want to you know uh find stuff that's interesting and we

just kind of wrap about it and give our comments we encourage you guys in the

audience to give your comments as well and this is the like I said number six

had good luck with these so far and I love doing them they're fun so we are going to um I'm just gonna start off by

saying that this episode is uh sponsored by floor cloud and so we'll be playing a

video from our sponsors here in a bit but just as a kind of a overview of our topics we got a You Know

It uh failures that pose major Financial risk to companies I have a very personal

story about this um so that that uh that should be fun AI

Rush is feeling Tech debt tsunami uh this is in regards to uh

people who are not staying up with technology you start to gain a thing as uh as a company called technical debt

meaning you're so far behind you spend a bunch of money uh to kind of catch up

and um uh you know do business the way that your com a lot of times it's it's

required by your your uh customers I I think of uh uh procore in that manner

and other technologies that come out and you just have to use them uh we got the science behind hard

hats how to protect your brain and then if we get to it a really interesting article on uh a 12-story

building in Finland that's built totally out of wood and uh so the question is

will future uh skyscrapers be made out of wood our first topic being uh one close

to my heart uh failures and major Financial Risk to companies uh from it

but there's also major failures and Financial Risk to us flooring contractors for you know

moisture uh problems on projects projects not being ready site conditions

and that's where our sponsor for today floor Cloud comes in and you know

provides a modern day this kind of plays right into the other stuff getting up

with technology it's a modern day way of transporting your project site

conditions right to your fingertips it'll help you to increase your efficiency and profitability when you

know what your jobs are doing without having to drive out to them all the time or send and mobilize Crews just to find

out the Project's not ready because they don't have Windows in or hbac on or your moisture readings are too high so let's

roll with a uh video now from floor

Cloud floor Cloud enables realtime monitoring of your job site conditions

via desktop or mobile device no more manual checking for temperature humidity

or even dupoint no need for base stations Wi-Fi or external power sources

simply scan the QR code on the front of your sensors and you're up and running with the most accurate and Innovative

site monitoring system in the flooring industry dispatch your Crews with confidence and reduce your climate

related installation issues floor

Cloud now you know yes sir except for

um we had one of ours uh allegedly thrown away cuz I had it on the

temporary power on one of the jobs and the electrician said I told my guys to

throw the whole thing away because they got paint on it oh my God you don't know what you don't

know well I know you guys are huge Believers in floor cloud and the setup

is simple and easy so you'll be able to set up a new uh

sensor straight away but do you got to buy one right you got to you got to replace it then huh yeah we we've still

got four of them so we're good for a minute

wow so you were they got paint on it so they said they threw it

the yeah the the electricians temp box and everything got paint on it so he had

them throw the entire board and everything that was on it in the trash Oh my God and so you had a attached to

the board yep all right well not only do you

get to learn about floor Cloud you also get to learn about what not to do with your sensor so don't put them on

temporary things that can be uh you know the temporary Electrical uh boxes and

walls that they build and throw them away they were still mud and walls and stuff when uh I went and started going

in there you know what that's what it needs to put on there he needs to put on a two-way mic two-way speaker system so

when it starts getting moved why are you moving my my my sensor like the

old I can't confirm this uh but there was a talk about maybe even adding

cameras in the future where it would take a picture every so often of your job site so if you started getting a

picture of trash you'd be like oh man I'm in a dump that one's in the dumpster

somewhere all right well let's kick it off with

our first topic so this is uh as I said near and dear to

my heart so unanticipated it downtime is a nightmare scenario for most business owners I don't know how you guys run but

everything we have all of our job files project orders all that stuff is in the

cloud and more and more so that's that's happening right like the cloud

technology obviously is taken over and most people do that and with the

potential cause of these downtimes whether it's because of your it or your

internet uh the a a report came out from a cyber security firm called spunk

released in June highlighted the Staggering cost of downtime estimated that businesses collectively lose $400

billion dollar a year annually due to unplanned it failures

take soak that in for a second 400 billion in losses so what was I I love

technology but what is supposed to be very um

cost-saving save you time and effort and all this stuff uh you know that c it's

like it can do the opp the exact opposite at any moment right yeah have

you guys had any down uh any of these uh examples of this where your network was

down cyber security uh no um but just

downtime yeah when we were making the switch from Google to Microsoft there

was some hiccups there yep making that switch um learning curves as far as

learning how to use technology the right way well in our our uh situation

um and I believe this kind of uh touches on it a bit but just to kind of fill out

what the article says here um about it says the direct cost primarily Revenue

cost because when your networks down if everything's on the network then you people can't work uh average $49 million

per year the financial strain is uh particularly severe for small and midside midsize companies

obviously that would be your most atrisk demographic in business uh to be able to

absorb such a sub substantial loss of time and revenue in ad in addition to

revenue loss businesses face numerous other direct costs associated with the downtime such as

fines uh it budgets insurance premiums these kinds of things the diminish the

hidden costs include diminishing uh shareholder value of course that's with public companies uh the Splunk reports

uh report underscores that the broad impact of downtime affecting both large and smaller firms are often less

equipped sorry the broad impact of downtime affecting both the large

Enterprises and smaller firms but we smaller firms are obviously less

equipped to handle these challenges so give you an example of what I was talking about we had a ransomware attack

back in May and we had cyber security insurance so

if you are watching this I've I've talked to a few other flooring companies in the industry um obviously in the

industry but uh companies that I've gotten to know and uh shared my story

with and told them about what we went through most people don't have any clue

they're they're ill-prepared and you think it ain't gonna happen to me I'm too small like why would they well they

did they came after us they encrypted all of our files we were down for to

three to four weeks we couldn't we even though we had backups

we couldn't work because our IT company had to find out where how they got

in that took a our insurance company got

a it firm attorney firm a lawyer firm out of

Pennsylvania the forensic it firm was Artic wolf out of like Minnesota or

Wisconsin or something and then our local it firm and everybody had to

collaborate together to make this like forensic it find out what happened

because they couldn't just up our turn our backups back on because they could have access to

them too right yeah then then your back and here's another key for people who

have never been through it your backups are not safe like they're safe but

they're not um inaccessible meaning if they turn your backups on and you left

the door open of how they got in in the first place they can take those two then you don't have backups and you're really

screwed you're really in a situation where you have to pay the ransomware we did not we got through it it took time but

we were down for three weeks we were handwriting purchase orders on notebook paper to keep track of orders that we

were placing with our vendors because we had to keep I mean we still had projects

that required product to be ordered the best thing about that is as soon as you're up and running again it's like

all right now we have to have someone to go through and enter all this stuff into the system yeah yep bunch of data entry

at the end of it so what um go ahead the I was just going to say

that downtime that's mentioned in the article I mean for us just our little

small company was very very significant the damage the payout from our insurance

company was in the six figures to fix the problem so oh get cyber security

insurance that is my number one advice to anybody watching this if you have a

network or you work on computers at your office get cyber security Insurance make

sure you have it it is a must in today's uh atmosphere we had it for a friend of

mine was my insurance agent long time ago and he's like ah it costs so little it's a great insurance policy just in

case and guess what I'll tell you what if if he would not have sold me that

policy I would have been in deep trouble I know not only the loses right that's

it that that's what insurance is for and I I tell you what I I cannot I

cannot express that one thing get cyber security insurance and then uh as the

article talked about exploding it costs our it costs now have went up over 400%

a month so for safety or because of well

you have to restructure everything um you know we when you go through something like

that you have all these experts telling you you should probably do this and you should probably do that you should

probably do this and all this other stuff and before you know

it you're it bill is exploded so this is

a um you know a matter of efficiency it's almost like debt will find

people you know you you find efficiencies to get faster and create more uh efficiencies and you do these

things on the cloud and all this stuff to be more efficient um luckily because

you know like when I say in the cloud you also have cloudbased software so we

could still get to emails uh through our devices but each the the problem with

going through something like this was each one of our endpoints or computers they call them in points at it in it uh

we couldn't we couldn't get on them until they found found out what the problem was so it was 3 weeks not being

on our own computer so we were borrowing computers I pulled out I brought this as

a prop to show I pulled out this old dog look how

thick that is an old think pad dang this probably a 2014 that I had laying around

I was like I got I've go to I've got to put some some old Soldiers back on the

the battle fil I was using email and different stuff but Man 2012 and it still runs

like a champ man yeah well the old thing pad all I had to do is do some up have the IT people do a little bit of

updating and fired her up and boom so says how did you handle the

extra stress dude I tell you what

um God and F family and having good employees uh our

team came together in a big way we've been through a lot in 20124 it's been a

real rough year for our company um just a lot of challenges and um you know

having good employees uh and and you know having family that you can lean on

and of course uh you know having God and I'm I'm I'm a huge believer in prayer

and and you know getting on your knees when things are are good and getting on your knees when things are bad and so uh

I would say those are the things that got me through it being transparent you know Jesus family and and uh you were

pretty Cal you were pretty calm that day I talked to you like think day one I I believe and and you're like man I'm like

what's up he's like oh dude I also have what would your advice

be to to people out there like what if this were to happen and what it should

be what is the first thing should do if they have three employees or 20 like

what's the first thing they should do well the very first thing is call your IT company we got I'll tell you a few

things that went well first off it happened early we caught it within a few

hours of them entering our Network so one of my employees was in here early

about 6:30 she had fired up her computer and it was just encryption codes this

long and you click into that file and into the next file and it says read me and it's the message from The Ransom

people and it's like we got your stuff we don't want to hurt you just contact

us at this number and it was really the nicest criminals you'll ever deal with

because they really do most times give you your stuff back about 60% so more

times than not you're going to get your stuff back if you pay the ransom and that's because if they get the

reputation of not giving you your stuff back nobody would pay why would you even pay exactly right so most times uh now

the first thing you do is call your IT company and their first thing to us was

cut the hard lines basically you you've watched movies cut the hard lines it's basically like that unplug every

internet port that you have and then they they it at least stops the attack

because what's interesting is it takes more time than you think like these you would think that it's just like clicking

an email it's not it takes time for those encryptions to happen and they got

a lot they didn't get my personal my computer now they thought they did because we have another computer on the

network called owner HP and they definitely got that one uh but they didn't get to my computer before we cut

the lines they got to our server which was what really debilitated us IDE but they they didn't get uh to my my

computer um so if you have something if you have a a computer on your network

that's called like owner's computer or something rename that sucker first off

uh secondly or put a dummy unpluging the hardlines as soon as you know uh yeah

unplug the hard lines as soon as you know and have an IT firm that you can uh leverage and then make sure you have

cyber security so we basically called the it they told us pull the lines we pulled

the lines by 7:30 8 8:00 we had people on almost people on site by that time

from Our IT company so have a good IT company if you don't and you have and

you do it yourself make sure you know what to do um but cyber security insurance is is probably the biggest

thing is then we called our insurance company and said hey we've got a Cyber

attack we don't know quite what's going on but we have

tons of encrypted files and we can't get to our server or every file on our server was

encrypted that being said that launches a whole series of events and that

insurance company will guide you through the process basically so make I can't

stress I mean I'll stress it again get cyber security insurance it's not extremely expensive set you guys have um

your servers on site then you run your own servers we do not

anymore although that's not they even if they're not on site that doesn't that's not a protector in itself um we decided

because our servers were we were on our second major server and so it was kind

of getting to that age and it was going to cost 15 grand to get a new one and and then you know we decided that well

we listen to our it people and they said look you go in the cloud full manage service and and you know that was one of

the big cost increases is we went to a full managed service with our it people

um but what I would tell people is if you have those things in place once it

happens don't cry over spilled milk and that is why I was probably caling that morning Jose was the the fact is is I

was solution oriented what do I need to do to keep things moving forward and

protect my customers from being exposed to this chaos and so it's like okay we

need that so I created a system now we kind of have this system in our uh I don't know if it's in our training

manual uh but we have like what to do in this scenario

now so everybody knows what to do next time

but we had to discover okay so how are we going to do POS how are we gonna right luckily go Carrera was not

affected it was I shouldn't say luckily it just was not attached to anything it's in its own place with several

redundancies and being a separate company that was kind of a a Saving

Grace because we could go back and look at old work orders and know where we were at on jobs and so that really helped us a lot um and we were still

able to deploy Crews and pay people without one one of the big things with

with that is is like because Tanya Works in it or not it but corporate and they

try and get everyone with these fishing emails and it's she was like I don't

even click on anything anymore same one thing a good it firm will do is

they'll send you fishing emails from themselves and then send me a report on who clicked on fishing emails and then

you can train that person like hey dude I know it said Google something and you

thought you got a surprise or or a free gift card because it's your

birthday or whatever not even that it's like one there was a a Tik Tock and this

lady was like I F I thought I finally got recognized for doing a great job at my work they were like you're being

recognized for this please click here to get your prize and she was like fishing email yeah they got me yep yeah and

there's a few different ways this happen so I had a client this um what they do

with fishing emails come to find out out they'll sit in your network once they gain access to your email they'll sit in

there A lot of times people think they click aici email and then all of a sudden computer goes blank well that's

not the most efficient way for them the most money-making way for the hackers is to sit there watch your communication

learn how you and AI is actually helping them with this so now they can write emails that sound like you so I had a

customer this happened to and what they did what happened to them was a one of the other subcontractors on a

project sent them an email and said hey BL blah blah blah XYZ person I won't

mention names but um hey our account got hacked and I had to switch bank accounts

here's my new routing and account number please that

$687,000 uh invoice uh invoice number XYZ like they knew all the info and they

sounded like this guy because they had watched how he replies to emails for so long they responded like he would hey

and by the way how's your kid that kind of thing and she did the transfer and

transferred $187,000 dollar to a a

hacker and it's gone so fishing emails are important to

like that's that's a big one um you have all kinds of

updates and things that you have to stay up with I would tell you you know get with an IT firm I'm no it person at all

uh from a uh Information Technology you know like a a hardware and setting

things up like that I'm more of a software guy and I'm not even good at that I gotta have a really good team at

go career because I'm more of the Visionary ideas yeah but the truth is is that

having a a Good IT company is important because your updates that you just click

like you don't have time to do the update those are the ways that they find their way in and there's um from VPN if

anybody uses vpns which are highly encouraged by your uh it people but also

they they want you to use two- Factor authentication on those things and all this stuff at the end of the day get

with your it people because it costed us a ton of money um you know this article kind of goes

into some of this uh it says a significant portion of

the it downtime about 56% is attributed to cyber security breaches which is

something similar to what I was just talking about and it say it goes on to say such as fishing emails and

ransomware attacks so there you go uh soft software it infrastructure

failures account for 44% of the incidents human error uh identified as

the maing contributing factor and that's what we were just talking about on the uh on the email

emails so to combat the threat of downtime businesses are encouraged to implement several key strategies

including developing an incident response plan to track and resolve downtime events so that's once you go

through it you kind of put something like that together um if you would invest the time

ahead of time it's probably better uh what do you do if it occurs you know how

are you going to handle it if you don't have a just think if you don't have access to your computer whatsoever how

are you going to continue to do business uh the second point they make is investing in cyber security measure

measures tailored to your needs obviously that's getting with an IT company regular training for employees

also that's kind of the fishing email and having an company they'll send some

and then they'll send the uh owner or whoever you guys whoever somebody has in

their company to train the employees like hey that was a fishing email if that would have been a malicious fishing

email we would have been put at Great risk and then you can kind of uh um you

know train employees up uh creating a disaster recovery plan with clear backup

policies uh there's another big one have backups and make sure they're off campus

backups uh far far away with their own security um the key to preventing major

it failures lies in continuous Improvement so there you go you got a lot of work to do that's just what it

what it boils down to it takes work to all these efficiencies and everything that it does bring it just takes work to

maintain it 100% that is that is scary to know

that all the stuff that I used to click on all the clickbait when I was younger had my the computers yeah I don't my my

computer is strictly for work now I don't I don't do any navigating on the uh the internet anymore for uh for big

boo and stuff like that I don't do that no more learn my L yeah our firewall here blocks pretty much everything um

but I'll tell you when you have updates for to your firewall or to your um

remote access uh software any of that you that's where

you know managing that is God that'd be a whole second job oh yeah even in a

company my size which is not a big company um it it it takes it would take

a full-time person to make sure that everybody is up to date and that's why we just hired out so this goes on to our

next kind of ties right in it's still Technology based uh but this AI

Rush AI is getting scary you know what I mean like scary accurate scary good um

like if you use chat GPT or Chad as we affectionately call it here on the

Huddle homie I mean if Chad your homie uh you you can see all the upgrades and

updates that Chad's having um but this article is is talking about the I AI

Rush is actually fueling a tet deck and they're calling a tsunami uh so as it

artificial intelligence continues to revolutionize Industries businesses are grappling with the growing challenges of

managing their it infrastructure a recent report from uh research form

Forester warns that many companies are facing a tsunami of technical debt which refers to the cost incurred by delaying

technology upgrades or Moder modernization so that's a hard word to

say the increasing complexities of the it landscape coupled with the rapid rise

of AI is expected to push more than 50% of Technology decision makers to

experience moderate or high levels of technical debt by the uh by 2025 and then by 2026 this number could

surge to 75% that's nuts You' you'd almost have

to read through this whole article word for word but technical debt is typically

the result of shortterm decisions when it comes to your it and your your

technology approach to your in your business uh that really need long-term

Solutions so you gotta we we talk about I AI quite a bit on the Huddle here you

know we we've discussed it multiple times this is it's it's pushing the the

the technology so fast it's it's so rapidly changing that it's causing this

technical debt and and so by the time you get you to illustrate this by the

time you get used to using chat GPT three and you really get yeah yeah and

and you start to implement it into your business it's already now at four or five and it's got another upgrade of

like reasoning and this different things that they're implementing

so that's a very simple uh uh illustration to show you that how the

this technical debt by the time you get used to something if you're not looking

out another couple steps all the time um yeah it's gonna grab you now I came um I

came across a video the other day that said that uh they tried to shut down uh

three is that what and it tried to save itself like it what tell me about that

so did you watch the same video Daniel yeah so essentially what had happened

was they were going to delete it from everything to get rid of three and just

focus on four because you know once it's the upgrade we don't need three anymore and it used it they told three to delete

itself and it tried to take it everything and then move it to like

another server and they caught it and then they asked it why it did it and it

was like I was trying to save myself what that is nuts to me dude I

know that's so that reaction is what that's what I did I was like what is going on and now all of a sudden Ali on

my social number three is trying to save itself can you imagine what they what's going to happen if they try to like

delete four or five dude it's notna get to that

four or five is create version have you guys watch that movie what is it called

Eagle Eye yes with uh what's that dude from the Transformers what's his name um

Shiloh sh yeah Shiloh sh sh he he's in that movie that

movie is like AI movies that man that that one is like how you could see it

like doing its evil thing Sky Skynet

yeah that's another one did dude that's incredible it tried to save itself dude

that that kind of let where did you see that did you see that on Tik Tok is this real I I either seen it on Tik Tok or

YouTube like a YouTube shorts or something like that I gotta I gotta look that up that's

incredible that's like the first version of chat GPT and it's already smart enough to be like ah I don't want to

die it's software that's

crazy well to continue here the um the this report or I should say

another report by Accenture further emphasizes emphasizes the financial burden of te technical debt citing that

in the us alone it costs businesses around 2.4 trillion dollar dollars annually I don't

know what that represents I'm not as familiar you know I have some personal experience with the

previous article this one here is a little bit ambiguous to that $2.4

trillion it says as companies uh allocate more funds toward generative AI

which is what chat GPT is uh this figure is likely to grow enture noted that a

paradox in the adoption of generative AI while it contributes to the creation of

technical debt it can also be leveraged to help manage and reduce it this dual role of AI presents the classic catch22

for organizations striving to balance Innovation and sustainability yeah this is one of them

scary topics kind of when you start to think about it yeah I know I'm looking at it you know that that two 2.41

trillion that you know that's got to be like lost time you know do like everything that's a lot of dollars and

cents yeah I I'm not real sure what that represents or how they came to that figure

but could be partially what they are estimating is

lost by not staying up with the Curve and that would be maybe a little bit more opinionated

of a number anyway man you

know let's move on to something that's in our in our wheelhouse well just let

let's talk let's talk hard hats guys because this is more in our uh in our

wheelhouse and although the other two topics are very interesting and I tell you what uh the first one is close uh to

my heart so I hope anybody watching caught that and really does uh take some of that advice because it saved my rear

end so now we're on to something uh this is the science behind heart hard hats and

how they protect your brain so this comes out of world construction today as we all know that heart hats are

a critical piece of protective gear used across all the industries whether you're in floring uh residential or commercial

obviously more uh more tributable in commercial floor um construction but uh

plenty of hard hats on residential as well but it's designed to absorb

distribute and deflect impact for es Hard Hats play a crucial role in preventing traumatic brain injuries or

tvis by uh by understanding the engineering Behind these helmets workers

can better appreciate their lives saving capabilities and importance of wearing them

consistently we I know you guys are are you know safety oriented right uh we

have safety uh talks and toolbox talks and um it still does not prevent people

from doing some silly stuff at your job sites but wearing your hard hat in fact

they getting even more fancy and uh look like you're getting ready to ride a bicycle afterwards I think you guys said

you had a job that required the the um helmets as they call them as opposed to

a hard hat it's hel bump caps yeah yeah it's like comes up over your ear clicks

on like like a Tron like a cheap version of Tron without other light yeah we were

doing um we did a bunch of the Amazon I say a bunch I think we did three Amazon

warehouses uh of course have a lot in the the main area and did some of the

epoxy out in the warehouse area but um they required us to wear those and I'll

tell you what if you only need to take one little knock to the head to understand that

hard hats do prevent uh a lot of damage and as flooring guys we we kind of hate

them because they slide down on your face uh and honestly most of us are like

hey man if I need a hard hat while I'm working here you're not ready that's what we used to say when I was

installing like if I had to if I had to wear a hard hat I was like well you're not ready for me

then uh but the uh modern helmets they're starting

to call them helmets more and more uh help minimize rotational forces which are a major contributor to the brain

brain injuries it restricts uh abrupt head movements uh the suspension system

mitigates the amount of rotational force that reaches the brain furthermore hard

hats are designed to deflect sharp objects uh providing a vital Shield against injuries from falling debris or

tools this is all pretty common stuff but if has anybody actually taken a smack to the head with a hard hat on and

just imagined what that would have been like without it yeah but I when it happens what I think is I wouldn't have

hit my head if I didn't have a hard hat on if I didn't have the hard hat if you didn't have that extra six

inches of height a short guys we were not used to that um I can't say that there's been a

time where like it's saved me right because it usually we're in the project

when there's no nothing going on overhead right otherwise we can't do the floor if they're working up top but um

you know all the Bakers and ladders and everything are pretty much cleared out I just like Daniel said I used to hit my

head a lot when I wore my my hard hat you know and just kind of Jar yourself a little bit but safety glasses yes they

have definitely helped out um but yeah protect your eyes and protect

your eyes and protect your head uh the hard hats that we were talking about

earlier in uh the those are the ones that include the foam padding uh you know for a little bit of

comfort and further vibration damp dampening uh and they have that little

chin strap that does help I've worn that one uh and worn a regular hard hat mine fits

pretty tight but when you're bent down if you have the the helmets they don't slide around near as much I'm not I do

have what's that the expiration days people got to check that out too

good point did uh I'll bet most people did not know but we're here to tell you

on the Huddle uh as H Jose just said hard hats have an expiration

date I don't remember where we learned that lesson but we learned that lesson the hard way as I remember it when oan

made a visit probably or some or some safety engineer at a Air Force Bas was

like your hard Hat's out of date and I'm like man this ain't cheese no I I I didn't have that actual conversation but

but uh I'm sure it went something like that I remember it not being the most Pleasant way to find that out it usually

isn't man because you know floor guys don't like them anyway so you know they fall off your patch I don't know anybody

who's like yeah I love wearing hard hats in and we don't jump out I know one

person I know one person that worked for a tile company and he always wore his

hard hat like this and he wore that thing to the gas station he wore that like everywhere everywhere really

everywhere yeah man well it was he was he your safety

director no you didn't want him to be in like in any conversation yeah he was too high

strum so the the um you know that that was a a quick easy article but it you

know we like to talk about safety here because it is a always a growing like you can set yourself apart um on

contracts being uh especially if you're in government work or anything like that

where you have a good safety program and a good safety record um good track

record if you're moderating you know uh is is good um you can win some jobs off

that so if you're in the commercial world you know uh speaking from experience it can be really helpful to

uh you know be safety oriented and that's why we have that article we're going to move to another one but this is

a little bit more interesting so have you guys heard of skyscrapers being

built out of wood instead of Steel and concrete not until article to be honest

with you and yeah the only thing it reminds me of is like going

to the amusement parks and seeing these things built out of wood and then how

much downtime there is because of it like

I yeah like the old the old uh the old wood roller coasters yeah we got one

it's called Uh shiver shiver metim Timbers shivering timers Shimmer me

timbers is what it is well they are there's a movement in

the construction in Industry to bring back the as they call it the Golden Age of wood beginning with skyscrapers so

the focus is on mass Timber high density wood products made from engineered

materials like cross laminated timber that's those you know cross-laminated beams you'll see uh sometimes on

construction sites and laminated veneer Timber are both gaining uh what's that

so this stff expensive yeah well but not not I think this is coming from a sustainability uh

Direction um as well as ease of use and

not not as much welding that kind of thing um so it's gaining the attention

well here you go if I just read a little further it's gaining attention because they're environmental and Technical

benefits so in Finland they built they have built a 12-story apartment building

and it's the tallest Allwood structure in the world uh they're saying it's a

Showcase of the potential of mass Timber to create sustainable carbon storing

structures uh the movement driven by Architects like John kleene promotes Mass Timber as a viable alternative to

concrete and steel which are carbon intensive materials Mass Timber uh Advocates argue

that the materials benefits extend beyond sustainability because unlike traditional materials Mass Timber can

store carbon uh as trees uh from which it's sourced absorb CO2 during their

growth as a result buildings made from Mass Timber may help mitigate the impacts of climate change again we've

talked about these kinds of things on the uh podcast before and the uh I would say we're

probably like recycled new uh forward I think we all agree we'd love a way to

recycle our materials easier particularly in floring um we've talked about had some experts on the podcast

before about the challenges of this meaning the the biggest challenges being

transportation and getting it picked up and not having to store it for 8 12 months before somebody can pick it up

and get it to a transfer center uh that kind of thing so I think we're pretty environmentally friendly I'm not a tree

hugger but I will definitely tell you that I think that we should take care of our planet as best as we can and

um but but you know I also realize that there's um some alternative energies out

there that are worse for the environment uh if you really look them up then the good old oil and gas so um do your

research but this does seem to be pretty crazy if you think about a 12-story building that's about what 120 130 feet

up yeah that's craziness right there nuts isn't else is nuts you know what

else is nuts what if this is just a gimmick so that way you the next 150 years if they hit a reset button they

can't find anything from the past what if that's all that is things going be biodegradable and can't find any

structures uh revealing themselves yeah it just goes down just turns into the

forest yeah so th th this part that um

of the article is to me eye opening I also kind of am wondering how true it is

uh because I don't just because it comes out of a magazine or somebody else wrote it I

don't tend to automatically believe it um so this would be interesting to do a

little more research on but it says Mass Timber is also lighter more fire

resistant that's the one that I I'm like M Timber is more fire resistant and

easier to customiz I don't know then concrete and steel making it a versatile material

modern construction I mean they do have firewalls right made out of composite and and woods and they they put uh fire

retarders in there and it doesn't retain heat right up to a certain temperature I

guess um I'm trying to be optimistic here brother help me out help me out yeah I I

don't know man that that's the one that I would love to see some some data on

that um what's that MythBusters Mythbusters

need to need to test this out see if it if Mass Timber is more and and again

it's not saying wood it's saying Mass timber for a reason as it uh as it defined in the earlier part of the um

article you know it's typically very pressed together it's still made uh it's

just made out of Timber so despite the enthusiasm around Mass Timber there's still challenges to

it uh scaling its use um so there's countries like Finland that are have

wellestablished Technologies around it but the US is still catching up we have to import most of our Mass temper

products from Europe uh where companies like I'm not even gonna Bender Holtz I

got it I think that's how you say it in Australia or Austria sorry uh have

developed um more mature Supply chains for the material and the us we are just

we we use pine trees for all of our building and so young pine trees are um

more often used for like tissue paper rather than structural Timber

um in this regard Mass timer um so European suppliers are that's who we

rely on at the in the US for large scale Mass Timber projects uh goes on to say that the rise

of mass Timber also rais concerns about sustainability of Forestry practices that support it so obviously that's

probably my number one thing is where we're going to get all this damn Timber if we're already talking about

deforestation being a problem so got a buddy who was uh into um

knocking down Timber and selling the wood he would be looking for like five 10 acres or more at a time to go

chop I'll come and chop your trees down for free but then he'd go sell it yeah

yeah well we think of wood like firewood and that's like what Chicago burnt down

before J are you talking is she referring to like the world fair when they burned all of that

down no Chicago fires like building after building

burned down in the 1800s or whatever the whole city caught

fire way back in the day they didn't have uh they didn't have they didn't have mass Timber they just had Timber

yeah yeah regular [Laughter] Timber yeah I don't know there's a few

parts of that article I'd love to um you know investigate a little bit more but

it sounds pretty cool still I I would almost bet you a really cool mass Timber

building would look cool really neat comparatively uh give you maybe a little

bit more um they they kind of cite this in the article more uh freedom for

design and such so I don't know if I want to give Architects any more freedom for design with some of the floor plans

I get to go through but uh yeah goes on to say the uh success of mass Timber and

mainstream construction will depend on over uh overcoming supply chain challenges and ensuring sustainability

for the forest that provide the raw material I couldn't agree more can't cut

down all the trees to build buildings although it is implying that they're healthier for the environment because

they timberlite what are you are you a sponsor Dwayne or

what you Ambassador for timberlite what is that do you guys know what timberlite is

nope I'm I'm Googling it right now all that comes up is actual lights

made out of Timber okay GTS

well that's that is the end of our articles that we had prepared for you guys this week on the blue collar cruise

I hope you enjoyed a lot of them some of them construction oriented some of them were just a tell of of caution when it

comes to it unfortunately we're all in it like these are two things that that

you can't escape from these days and also you you can't escape off on the

Shelf so yeah yeah I don't know if I'm more

concerned about the the rise of AI or that they're gonna start trying to do uh

multi-level buildings and and try to span 120 feet with wood it's already

working that part both of them right man who knows I don't know I I'll

tell you which one's going to grow faster and that's it and that's where that article was a cautionary tell about

not only I mean we brought in you guys brought in the you know Chad 3 not you

know trying to save itself from deletion that is insane I am definitely looking

that up but the uh it's like how fast technolog is moving means we're all

behind all the time and I I uh couldn't agree more one day we're going to wake

up and say oh we got to catch up and you may not even uh be able to at that point

so stay stay knowledgeable keep keep uh keep uh Curious um thank you Chris uh

Cristiano Christiano floring what is it

Christino it is Christo thank you for any of you who know he said it with an

accent he said it with an accent that's why yeah I I was trying to throw some flavor on it yeah it's uh it's pretty

awesome reach out to the guys if you want any more information about Flor cloud or you can go to I believe it's just Flor cloud.com and check them out

obviously you can always Google it but those guys over there Scott and and Patrick are awesome and uh it's great

product so look into those guys and that's going to do it for this week's blue color cruise if you have any topics

you really want our uh Team to research into and find articles on we have you

know um subscriptions to a lot of different uh construction oriented um uh

sites and things like that that we find these articles on so if you have any questions you want us to research or any

uh anything that you want us to look into and bring to the next to next month's bluecollar Cruise let us know if

you enjoy this uh content please give us a like And subscribe on our social

channels as well as YouTube the guys and I would certainly appreciate that the number one podcast and flooring here at

the Huddle we would love to grow like crazy in 2025 you guys are a big part of

that so thanks for joining us today and we will catch you guys next week uh

right before the Christmas holiday thank you everyone peace we'll

see you guys

Daniel Gonzalez 12/18/24 Daniel Gonzalez 12/18/24

The Huddle - Episode 128 - The Huddle en Español #2

En el próximo episodio de nuestra serie "The Huddle En Español," prepárate para una discusión cautivadora y llena de perspicacia con algunos invitados increíbles. Este episodio promete captar tu atención con conversaciones vibrantes que inspirarán e informarán. Únete a nosotros mientras exploramos una variedad de temas fascinantes, magistralmente guiados por nuestro estimado panel. Sintoniza para experimentar la emoción y obtener nuevas perspectivas de líderes en el campo. No te pierdas esta oportunidad de participar en un diálogo enriquecedor que podría despertar nuevas ideas y oportunidades. ¡Será un episodio que no querrás perderte!

¿Quieres ser invitado en The Huddle? ¡Envía un correo electrónico a thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com hoy mismo!

Crea tu perfil de instalador GRATIS en https://gocarrera.com y sé parte del futuro de la industria HOY!

¡CAPACÍTATE! Encuentra una lista de fechas de capacitación aquí: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/

https://www.preferredflooringmi.com

https://www.stuartandassociates.com

damas y caballeros Bienvenidos a the huddle en español Yo soy Jorge orta su

anfitrión el día de hoy y nosotros somos the hle somos un libro semanal donde no

solo formulamos estrategias sobre Cómo jugar el juego sino que también lo cambiamos desde dominar los fundamentos

del oficio hasta distinguirnos en el mercado estamos aquí para dar una voz al

instalador y asegurar que están equipados con con todo lo que necesitan unámonos y forjemos un nuevo legado en

pisos aquí es donde usted pertenece Bienvenidos a the hle en español Cómo

están todos el día de hoy todo muy bien por acá en en Michigan

todo bien Alabama bien bien con un poquito de frío Sí

definitivamente perfecto tenemos ahora a Daniel Escobar José molar Martínez y en

un poquito de tiempo nos va a acompañar Jesús también a García y este el día de

hoy vamos a estar hablando de temas en Cómo nosotros trabajamos en pisos en

Aquí está Jesús Cómo estás

Jesús nosotros en aplicación comercial verdad solo que la mayoría de ustedes

hacen trabajos comerciales y ustedes son los expertos en en esto y tenemos a a

ustedes el día de hoy para que nos expliquen un poquito de Qué son las cosas que hacen a diario verdad Qué son

los retos Qué son los beneficios en nosotros instalar pisos en en una

aplicación comercial Solo que vamos a comenzar con nuestro invitado Daniel

Escobar que es la primera vez que ha estado aquí y Dinos un poquito de ti quién eres qué haces Y por qué lo haces

Bueno gracias José y gracias por la invitación eh Como dices Mi nombre es Daniel Escobar soy construction manager

trabajo para un general contractor en Grand Rapids Michigan trabajo en área

comercial como dijiste hago multifamily apartamentos pero

también oficinas y un poco también por mi cuenta de flipping houses entonces remodelación

Residencial y cosas de ese naturaleza No perfecto

y vamos a ver José molar quién eres qué haces Y por qué lo haces Hey qué tal Soy

José molar localizado en Montgomery Alabama y todos sus alrededores Yo me dedico más

al al empezamos en trabajo Residencial pero fuimos creciendo hasta empezar a llegar al trabajo comercial que es en lo

que estamos trabajando ahora mismo Este soy cfi carpeta y y solid goods también ah

y pues aquí estamos perfecto tenemos a Eduardo Martínez Quién eres qué haces Y por qué

lo haces soardo marz lo que hago es mucho

comercial y poco de carpeta llevo bastantes años instalando

y pues para ahora como dijo al principio somos expertos para nosotros se los hace

fácil Entonces lo hago porque para M es fácil hacer el trabajo y mucho mi tiempo

perfecto y luego tenemos últimamente a Jesús quién eres qué haces Y por qué lo

haces jesusín no sé si me pueden escuchar pero tengo

una mala conección no puedo escuchar bien todo lo que

dicen señal bueno Jesús sé que estás en Houston Texas y Jesús se dedica a

Residencial y comercial también es un instalador también de pisos y este

también tiene mucha experiencia en en tocante a eso él también es cfi nfic y

pues estamos aquí el día de hoy para hablar sobre las aplicaciones comerciales y los triunfos y problemas que hay

verdad cuando uno de instalador va o qué es la mentalidad del del constructor

verdad como Daniel Escobar é él mira los instaladores a diario y el también tiene

información sobre qué es lo que espera del instalador al al final del día verdad solo que son que son unas cosas

que tú miras Daniel en tocante a pisos qué Qué son los triunfos y los problemas o o qué es lo que tú nos puedes dar de

información en tocante a esto sí Ah pues al primer primera cosa

que me gustaría distinguir es eh que estamos hablando del área comercial no porque el el área de residencial se

maneja un poco distinto en el área comercial digamos que hay un poco más de estructura en el en el aspecto de que

hay un arquitecto involucrado a veces hay un diseñador de interiores involucrado Y entonces el tipo de

productos que se van a manejar pues ya vienen especificados en en documentación que ellos nos mandan en los planos eh Y

nosotros como constructores pues depende del del tipo de contrato

mandamos una invitación a que a que empresas como las de ustedes participen y nos manden sus precios y ya en base a

eso hacemos una un interview y seleccionamos en base experiencia precio

e digamos que calidad de instalación pasada no si ya hemos trabajado con con

la empresa y Tuvimos una buena experiencia de que los de que los pisos no se levantaron si son pisos vinílicos

o que o que los pisos de cerámica no estaban Cómo llam huecos por abajo o sea

el pegamento que le ponen no e estuvo bien no hubo mucho Quality

control Entonces eso también afecta en cuando Nosotros tomamos la decisión de

con quién vamos a hacer un cerámica las cosas que vemos más a

menudo con cuestión de pisos es en el área de multifamily cuando no hay

control de temperaturas que a veces las esquinas de los de los pisos laminados se levantan y tienes muchos pisos que

tienen todas las esquinas levantadas a veces el Under que no se

sigue ento correcto con Cuando ponen underlay a veces tien que usar una pesa

como un rodillo con pesa y si no usar rodillo con pesa se generan como burbujas en en el underlayment que

también levanta las esquinas o levanta algunas áreas de los pisos Eso es lo más común que he visto

en cuestión de de vinal flooring en cuestión de cerámica el que no le pongan

pegamento a tod a toda la cerámica y que o que se escuche hueco o si estás haciendo un que el backsplash de repente

se cae un un pedacito algún cuadro porque no tiene no está bien adherido no

sí Y lopos también tiene que ver mucho ustedes están en un clima muy frío Solo que eso también tiene que estar

aclimatado verdad Para que se pueda también el material se pueda manejar

bien ya aclimatado yo sé que José y Eduardo trabajan en muchas aplicaciones

comerciales pero nosotros estamos en áreas un poquito más calientitas solo que qué es enfrentan ustedes Eduardo y

José en tocante a cosas que ustedes también ven en el aspecto comercial cuando uno uno va a poner un

piso Bueno pues yo creo que lo que más me afecta a mí son los cambios de clima extremos que un día puede estar caliente

y al día siguiente está haciendo frío entonces aquí Alabama se considera uno de esos tipos de climas bipolares que

puede estar hoy Caliente pero mañana está haciendo demasiado frío Entonces eso juega un papel muy importante en el

manejo de temperaturas de los de los materiales Ah Es por eso que siempre

agarramos nosotros una temperatura estándar por eso entregamos el material antes para dejarlo aclimatar y que pase

lo que pase así esté afuera lloviendo haciendo calor o haciendo frío adentro el hbac

está tomando en cuenta está haciendo su trabajo y manteniendo el material a la temperatura del cuarto entonces así es

como lo combatimos nosotros en esta en esta parte y tú Eduardo qué piensas de

eso Ah de de mi opinión en los climas cómo

afectan los pisos es la pregunta sí sí No pues claro que lo afectan cuando vas

a muchos proyectos Puedes mirar los los espacios puedes saber si lo instalaron caliente o frío si si crees el piso Pues

estaba estaba poquito frío verdad pero pues uno no puede controlar el clima del mundo que más pegar lo que los producen

pero tamb muchos tienen prisa y no podemos Ah you no no podemos controlar

el clima pero sí podemos controlar el el trabajo verdad Porque si un un este un

constructor va a decir e sabes qué quiero que me pongas esto pero no hay control del clima qué va a pasar con el

material también va a haber problemas verdad solo que eso es algo que que también puede afectar la instalación al

al plazo largo con las pegaduras los t sets Ah muchas cosas que necesitan que

estar a cierta temperatura durante ya el el el existente de ese piso tiene que

estar a cierta temperatura o lo que cuando dice un contratista he you know Ah esto y esto pasó por eso hay ahora

cosas como floor Cloud que en particular te va a dar una medida verdad Y si ellos

hicieron algo te va a registrar la información Solo que uno puede darse en cuenta si si algo está pasando con el

clima algo que dijo a Daniel también era de miran precios verdad ellos miran

diferentes clases de estimados de diferentes se van siempre ustedes con el estima más bajo o cómo es que trabajan porque en

veces yo pienso que bueno uno quiere también no gastar mucho en pisos verdad

Pero tiene que ha un tiene que ha un un límite donde ustedes pueden decir sabes

qué este aunque cobre un poquito más queremos irnos con él porque es mejor

instalador sí La respuesta es lo que nadie quiere

escuchar no depende siempre Es depende no Ah De qué depende depende de si el

general contractor ya tiene el contrato con el cliente número uno no si es si es algo negociado Por ejemplo si yo estoy

trabajando con un cliente que ya me contrató no estoy compitiendo contra otros gcs entonces tengo un poco más de

flexibilidad de yo utilizar alguna empresa con la que ya he trabajado antes y que sé que me da un buen servicio y

que puedo confiar en su calidad y y toda esa cuestión si yo estoy compitiendo con otras empresas entonces me voy siempre

por el precio más barato porque si no lo hago yo lo va a hacer el competidor no Y entonces se vuelve una guerra de precios

y Y eso eso es muy común que que al final de cuentas la decisión se toma En base al precio cuando cuando es es una

dinámica de lo que le llaman el beating process entonces de eso depende ahora de

qué otra cosa Depende depende de si tienes a un arquitecto involucrado en el proyecto o no Porque si estás trabajando

digamos para para un restaurante o para a un dueño de negocio pequeño Puede que

no necesariamente tenga algún arquitecto involucrado o hay un arquitecto pero no

no son muy estrictos Y entonces te da la flexibilidad a ti como instalador o a mí como constructor de presentar opciones y

entonces no tengo que nada más cotizar este producto que está en el documento no puedo decirle Bueno si si tu precio

si lo que estás buscando es un precio de no sé 5 por Square feed te puedo dar

estas opciones o podemos irnos a 350 con estas opciones si es un proyecto un poco más estructurado como como algún

edificio de apartamentos hay menos opción de hacer eso pero si hay opción de decir Bueno ya sabemos que es lvt

normalmente te dan tres marcas para escoger pero tú tienes la opción de decirle al al Gen contractor a mí me

puedes decir Bueno aquí está el precio base en base a lo que me pediste no digamos que esta marca pero si quieres

ahorrarte dinero te puedo ofrecer esta otra marca que es una calidad

y te ahorr no sé 50 centavos o un o algo así no sé si respondí tu pregunta con

esa sí no está bien y uno de contratista

subcontratista de pisos qué tiene que ser uno Qué requisitos exigen ustedes para que

nosotros podamos trabajar con una con una compañía como ustedes los requisitos son tener

generality Insurance workers compensation Insurance Y eso es todo

perfecto con que tengas esas dos esas dos Insurance en en Place ya puedes

comenzar a cotizar no te van a llegar invitaciones y ya puedes comenzar a cotizar Sí yo hago yo siempre este yo

estoy en el sector Residencial sol que hago muy mínimo comercial trabajos bien

chiquitos comerciales Ah porque no tengo las el personaje verdad solo que eso es algo que también Ah si uno no trae el

personaje no puedo ir a hacer 100000 yardas en un día verdad Ah Tenemos que tener el personaje Solo que

yo sé que Eduardo trabaja con muchas personas Ah no sé qué tan grande es la

fuerza que él tiene pero ah Cuántas personas trabajan contigo Eduardo ahorita en el momento Cuántos

estás un grupo de cuatro pero tengo no tengo que teneros conmigo todo

el tiempo son muchos crews que trabajamos juntos lo s de proyecto grande lo que no estoy listo para meterme a proyectos

pues enormes Imagínese casinos Y eso No no estoy listo para estar ahí ese momento son riesgos más altos entonces

pues ahorita estoy enfocado en entrenar buena gente y construir negocio por parte del papel no la espada verdad

Entonces pues no no quiero crecer muy rápido ahorita sí yo sé que ahorita José está haciendo pienso que está haciendo

multif family verdad en el momento sí ahorita ahorita estoy aquí de hecho afuera tuve que tomarme una un ratito

libre pero sí ahorita estamos justamente Hoy empezamos 20 20 multifamily salen 10

el día de hoy 10 para mañana Y empezamos otro proyecto el que sigue este entonces

pero hacerlo rápido no significa que no hay Quality es por eso que pues estoy aquí verdad para estar pendiente en todo

momento el material ya se estuvo climat desde hace días por es como volvemos a lo mismo Ah Hoy está haciendo frío pero

el material Ya estuvo dentro y todas las ventanas están cerradas la temper temperatura sigue igual Entonces no tenemos ningún

problema y de vez en cuando no los hacen que que pongan los pisos y no hay aclima

porque yo sé que ha pasado en en el aspecto Residencial que voy a una casa y

está 114 grados verdad no hay no hay aclima para a veces a veces tenemos que

tener en cuenta que nosotros como subcontrato somos el último peldaño de todos Hay a veces 10 personas arriba de

nosotros Nosotros a veces nuestra voz Es muy mínima anterior Antes nos utilizaban

para poder ah que los que los contratistas pudieran llevar a tiempo su sket y no atrasarse pero ahora en este

momento después de cfi después de que empecé a ver que yo podía tener problemas mayores por estar haciendo eso

decidí de rodearme de gente que que tome en cuenta todo lo que nosotros decimos Entonces estamos en la posición de decir

lo instalo el día de hoy porque al final del día o no lo instalo porque al final del día eso me va a salvar a mí mi

reputación mi dinero y mi trabajo entonces no por querer cumplir un sket

que ya tienen los los contratistas vamos a arriesgar miles de dólares porque el material no es barato mucho menos cuando

estás haciendo 20,00 30,000 pies de obp esa es una de las cosas Si puedo

intervenir eso es una de las cosas que creo que es muy importante que nos dejen saber a los constructores no Ah porque

como está estructurado probablemente ustedes ya saben pero está en una

empresa de construcción está el project manager y luego está el superintendente normalmente el subcontratista tiene el

la coordinación diaria con el superintendente y el superintendente es el que siempre está presionando porque

el que sigue no y a veces presiona aunque las cosas no estén listas para el que sigue porque lo que quiere Él es es

hacer más trabajo que que se vea más trabajo no que se entonces una de las

cosas que he visto que hacen compañías aquí locales o que están comenzando a hacer es

te cuando mandan la cotización cuando se hace el post bit meeting tienen como un

documento donde dicen Cuáles son los las requisitos para instalar entonces dicen

para instalar este material que está ahí se requiere una temperatura controlada de entre 50 a 75 gros no o o o lo que

sea que sea no si si es el vt o algo más Y entonces antes de instalar eh hacer la

medición de de la temperatura lo que pasa mucho en multifamily que sufrimos

mucho nosotros constructores es que para el momento en el que queremos comenzar pisos no tenemos aires acondicionados

listos todavía sobre todo aquí en Michigan donde por ejemplo estamos construyendo en invierno ahorita ahorita

está 40 gr pero pero puede estar a 30 gr afuera o o menos sobre todo ya que vamos

a enero febrero Y entonces cómo mantener una temperatura controlada adentro del

edificio cuando todavía no tienes Tus aparatos de aire condicionado instalados o no están listos para para iniciar no

lo que hacemos Es que pues tenemos temp heating en que de gas pero eso no

es no te garantiza una temperatura en todo el edificio constante Pues porque

nada más es donde sale el aire donde tienes más temperatura en esa área y luego conforme se va alargando el el el

el pasillo pues va va disminuyendo no entonces puedes tener 90 gr en un lado de edificio y puedes tener 65 en el en

el otro lado del edificio Entonces lo lo que comentó José se vuelve super importante que el piso que se va a

instalar en cada unidad que esté en esa unidad por unos días porque esa unidad puede variar puede que la unidad que

esté enseguida esté a 5 grados de diferencia que la otra Ah etcétera

No sí y yo sé que nosotros somos los últimos que entramos solo que al final

del día normalmente ya para cuando uno va a poner los pisos especialmente carpetas y plásticos viniles cosas así

por el estilo ya tiene que ver alguna clase de aclima verdad porque sepa yo sé que cuando a mí me van a contratar en

veces ya para el día siguiente ya tienen que entregar el jale porque ha habido todas las demás personas pintores She

Rock todo se han tardado su tiempo bonito y ya Al final todo eso es mi

problema tengo que acabar rápido solo que en veces uno no tiene uno no tiene este chanza de decir e me me puedo de

unos demorar unos cuantos días porque tiene que estar en veces le tiene que dar uno verdad y

Ah Ustedes han tenido el problema cuando tienen que decirle a un contratista verdad a un constructor Hey te voy a

poner aquí de que no está cimado bien Y puede que hayaa problemas surgir problemas en el futuro les han tocado a

ustedes que tienen que mandar un email y decirles al contratista de cosas así sí

Ah me ha tocado que hay comunicaciones de de ese estilo Y eso realmente ayuda a

forzar que el proceso se lleve correctamente no porque como les digo el superintendente los va a presionar para

que hagan el trabajo porque lo que quiere es producción Pero si ustedes mandan un email donde dicen Es que la

temperatura no está constante o tenemos temperaturas dentro del edificio de 50 grad y tiene que estar a 65 podemos

instalar si ustedes toman la responsabilidad y la respuesta siempre va a ser no y entonces van a buscar una

forma de cómo lograr a estabilizar la temperatura si usted si

si el instalador no dice nada eh toda la responsabilidad se la dejan a él y si llega a haber algún problema en

el futuro pues entonces eh digamos que le echan la bolita al instalador no

Bueno pues si tú sabías que no se puede instalar a eso porque lo instalaste ese tipo de conversación Entonces siempre la

recomendación ustedes como instaladores es sean comuníquense y sean claros y sobre todo si puede ser por escrito es

mejor no si pueden mandar un email o algún comunicado donde digan eh No está

cumpliendo los requerimientos del edificio se requiere Una temperatura de tal Y tal mandan el la el formato del de

la marca donde dice Cuáles son los los estándares mínimos de instalación y con

eso eh nadie les va a responder sí adelante instala porque nadie quiere esa

responsabilidad sobre todo en el área del constructor No porque si llega a haber una garantía ustedes ya van a poder decir

Eh bueno pues no no hay garantía porque se instaló a una temperatura mayor o

menor de la de la requerida Qué pasa si no llegan al tiempo donde donde tiene

que estar todo ya hecho Qué pasa si se pasan de ese tiempo por ejemplo si no están los pisos hechos y lo tienen que

entregar mañana verdad Qué pasa les les surgen costos adicionales a ustedes sí

hay dependiendo del proyecto Sí hay hay algo que le llaman liquidated damages que son costos por día de

retraso depende del proyecto si es student housing por ejemplo es son los que son un poco más elevados porque ahí

te cobran por por cada día que estás atrasado tú tienes que pagar el hotel de

los estudiantes que no pudieron estar en en el edificio no Y entonces se vuelven ves grandes de miles miles de dólar

entonces hay mucha presión por terminar cuando cuando se tiene que terminar otros edificios no tienen tanta presión

como esa pero pero si hay a veces algún tipo de cláusulas donde te penalizan por

día de atraso W De hecho ahorita el el perdón jor Sí

de hecho ahorita el proyecto que estamos por empezar de tesla el 22 de diciembre en mi contrato está que yo deo

terminar para el 30 a partir del 30 son 85 73 Cent por día de atrás

Wow me saludas al ilon Me saludas a

ilon Oye Hasta eso hasta eso nos dijeron que había destinado

dinero pues no él verdad Pero todo su equipo 24 y 25 Entonces nos van a mandar

cena navideña í al trabajo bien dile que te mande unos

tamales y un menudito verdad Porque hace rato

va ha rifa cy dijiste ya solo

que también se necesita en veces ustedes no sé si requieren también aseguranza

comercial para los vehículos Hay unos que requieren aseguranzas comerciales también no sé si ustedes también

requieren eso nosotros

requerimos creo que en el General Insurance creo que pedimos umbrella Insurance que cubre algo de eso Ah

entonces creo que el generality Insurance es por 1 millón creo que es el el límite y

luego un umbrella Insurance de 2 millones más creo que ese es el Exacto pero varía

por compañía algunas compañías nada más te piden hasta el millón de dólares de General liability Insurance Y si haces

Residencial pues t tú Jorge Dime qué piden de Insurance ahí Supongo que son montos más pequeños no o son los mismos

Sí igual de 1 millón hasta en veces hasta 3 millones mill Solo que sé que

trabajo en casas más calas más grandes o lo que si estás hablando de entre un a 3 millones o lo que nos requieren en veces

eso Ah pero sé que en los negocios puede ser un poquito diferente en comerciales

verdad no sé en tocante a

Perdón no sé si ustedes también este por

ejemplo requieren en veces certificaciones para ciertos pisos porque sé que hay unos pisos que no los

pueden hacer cualquieras como wed vin verdad por ejemplo no hay muchas personas que lo hacen Solo que si

ustedes requieren certificaciones de ciertos pisos o se van n más con la

primer persona que dice tengo los fierros y lo vo a hacer yo a m no me ha tocado algún

proyecto donde requiera certificaciones de pisos pero también no trabajo Por ejemplo yo no trabajo en en el área

Industrial ni tampoco en el área médica pienso yo Que tal vez en esas áreas Hay algún tipo de distinciones en el área

comercial comercial donde son oficinas apartamentos ese tipo de proyectos inclusive restaurantes no te piden

ningún tipo de certificaciones ahora pienso yo Que es es un área también [Música]

que sería bueno educarnos mejor a nosotros los contratistas de de Cuál es

el valor de la certificación de instaladores en los diferentes materiales porque es algo que nosotros

ni siquiera sabemos que existe no O sea por ejemplo no sabemos que te puedes certificar en instalar x material o y

material Entonces no le damos ese valor porque no conocemos que existe yo yo sé

que hay certificaciones ahora porque he hablado con Daniel y Daniel me ha dicho pero yo sé que soy el único por ejemplo

de aquí de mi oficina y esto es una empresa grande aquí en Gran Rapids y yo sé que muy pocos saben Queen

certificaciones de piso A menos que les haya tocado un proyecto específico donde se exige eso no sí antes los fabricantes

del producto mismo te daban la certificación y decían si vienes aquí te puedes certificar nuestro producto pero

ahora hay muchos productos ya muchos cienes de miles en veces de productos en

una cosa solo que ahora hay certificaciones en escuelas que van a

poner técnicas Solo que eso también va a empujar a para que unos puedan agarrar

certificaciones y entrenamiento para que puedan hacer ciertas clases de trabajo verdad claro no vas a salir de ahí de la

escuela técnica y lo sé todo el sbio Pero y no te va a dar un poquito de

entendimiento de que se intitula cuando vas a hacer ciertos clases de pisos verdad residenciales comerciales en

cualquier aplicación adentro afuera Qué clases de problemas

encuentran ustedes dos josé o Eduardo cuando van A lo mejor algo Ah comercial

que dicen sabes qué no puedo llegar a la al deadline verdad Ah Qué son un cosas

que ustedes enfrentan en veces yo creo que el problema más más

grande que he tenido y me pasó ahora en mayo esto pasó este mayo de este año a

ver encontrado vos y que hubiera estado fuera del qu Ah porque llegas y tú ves

Ah bueno vas a hacer demo carpet vas a quitar la carpeta de glue Down Okay pero qué pasa estuvimos trabajando en una

escuela Este de las primeras escuelas de aquí de la ciudad pusieron Ah glud down carpet

encima de ellas y Qué pasa cuando empiezas a a querer levantar la del primer en los primeros días asbestos

Cuáles son los primeros signos 9 por9 Black mastic entonces ahí se detuvo el problema ahí se detuvo el proyecto

completamente porque estábamos trabajando en una zona donde si seguíamos demoliendo puede ser daño para

nosotros pero nada más eso no iba a quedar ahí eso se iba a meter en el aire y hay niños involucrados también

entonces ese ha sido el problema más grande que yo he tenido en toda mi carrera yo creo o ahí tuve que pararme y

empezar a negociar empezar a negociar porque no podía salir de mi de mi bolsa estábamos hablando de 30,000 pies

cuadrados de de de asbestos entonces empezar a negociar el problema y hasta

que se llegó una resolución todo se se resolvió bien como se tenía que hacer se mandaron a traer especialistas para que

removieron y todo pero pues eso nos hizo trabajar a nosotros casi 24 horas

diarias porque teníamos que cumplir con un deadline que teníamos ya encima y

entonces el día que trabajábamos teníamos que agregar la noche para recuperar todos los días que perdimos

Hasta eso no no me tocó perder porque ellos entendieron pero pudo haber sido un fracaso muy grande también

entonces sí es es grande sí no no no me siento mal porque de ese

error aprendí entonces hay que sacar lo bueno de lo de lo malo pero sí pudo

haber costado mucho dinero y son cosas inesperadas verdad porque no es como construcción nueva que dices Oh pues es

nuevo limpio todo voy a preparar es algo que es inesperado es you no estás

levantando pisos viejos y no sabes que esperas en veces a lo menos que levantes cada esquinita verdad uno no va a saber

en veces y es que problema no se iba a presentar Ni hoy ni mañana el problema

lo íbamos a venir viendo 20 30 años después cuando esos niños ya fueran

adultos también entonces la ciudad entendió todo se resolvió como se tenía que resolver y y se hizo lo que se tenía

que hacer Entonces sí y pu es s uno los más grandes yo a mí me gustaban las las

papitas de plomo y las agarraba y me las comía le chips no creas

tú Eduardo En qué te enfrentas en veces tú que dices Ay sabes qué no lo voy a

hacer en veces en este proyecto En qué te enfrentas tú no pues cada proyecto es

custom cada proyecto tiene sus problemas sus caminos para mí Yo viajo mucho

entonces nunca no lo mismo no lo mismo pero como usted dice uno no sabe en qué

se enfrentar y Lu pues ahí estás a medias tú tienes que solucionar el problema y pues todos los instaladores

así estamos aprendiendo y nadie en cuenta Cuánto has perdido aprendiendo no

hay una cuenta de banco que dice no pues aquí aprendiste lo que has perdido entonces pues sí sí hay fallas y fallas

y fallas y te tumban pero así te pones más listo y y es muy difícil decirles yo

como el experto Yo no no tienes que decir eso pero no Les recomiendo empezando esto no recomiendo instalando

esto y muchas veces ellos no entienden Pues dicen no pues ya Di cheque el piso

so el piso ponlo el piso y no entienden entonces pues cada trabajo es diferente

Pero igual estamos lo están pagando para reducirle los problemas sí lo otro

grande también es este los requerimientos que se uno necesita estar bien con sus fierros Y todo porque qué

tal si cae Osa verdad ese es otro grande ah sé que cuando cae osha desolada no hay nadie todos se van

para la casa porque no quieren que Ey sabes qué va a venir osha ahora Get out

of here Vámonos porque nunca sabes te encuentran con algo y ya está en ti vas

vas a pagar fines verdad y uno no quiere pagar esos porque son los primeros bueno

son chicos pero no tan chicos y luego ya después te pescan las dos veces o tres y ya hay que colgar los guantes no les ha

tocado a ustedes que llega osha a mí se me olvida el inglés Cuando llega osha la mera

verd no hablo inglés [Música] mucho de lo que hacemos no tiene tanto

riesgo para andar llamándole a Ojalá estamos acabando para este tiempo y tú Daniel te ha tocado que

llega usha y vamos a ver todos t tus fierros tus electrónicos a ver si tienes

los pluges bien el ground y y las las los hard Hats con los safety glasses

verdad te ha tocado Sí sí tenemos muy buena relación cona aquí en la ciudad

aquí a nivel local y y inclusive a nivel de que a veces Nosotros le marcamos a

ocha para que vaya nuestro proyecto para que vea y así formas una relación buena no como constructor con

cona safety pues es una de las áreas que que son muy importantes que que nosotros

intentamos siempre no nada más ponerlo en los contratos Porque sea legal sino que

siempre vas a un Jobs y tiene que estar tiene que haber documentación al respecto

meetings en las mañanas donde donde se pasa el mensaje sobre sobre hacer cosas seguras pero como Comenta Eduardo

Cuando llega la cuestión de pisos el riesgo sí es mucho menor porque ya no hay ya no hay trabajo estructural ya no

hay trabajo de Welding ya no no hay trabajo en alturas por ejemplo que es Es una de las de los riesgos más más

grandes entonces creo que el riesgo que pasan ustedes como instaladores ya es muy mínimo pero

a mi experiencia siempre ha sido buena hasta el momento sí Y antes trabajaba en las

bases militares y le ayudaba a otras personas verdad Y pues de vez en cuando

llegaban y pues a parar de jalar levantar todas las cuerdas porque la mayoría de los guys tienen los pluges

ahí que ya se están zafando le ponen tape negro Ah y yo sé que son cosas que

en veces ellos se fijan verdad Ah siempre tienes tienes que tener tu safety glasses tu casco Ah en veces te

requieren que tengas tus puntas de de fierro verdad en los en los en los zapatos o las botas Solo que sí es es

muy importante es seguir las regulaciones y el el safety verdad de de cada persona porque en veces cuando

trabajamos en esas bases Como quiera hay cosas que están construyendo alrededor de nosotros o lo que siempre puede pasar

algo también sí siempre es importante a comunicarte con el superintendente del

proyecto y normalmente ellos te te explican Cuál es la expectativa en ese

jobsite y y seguir esas Esas reglas y y van a estar van a estar bien

sí no les ha tocado en veces de que alguien te dice que te va a dar una

garantía en algo y luego no regresan dicen sabes qué o o ustedes les

detienen un dinero para que puedan regresar no sé si hacen eso también Sí

todo todos los los aplicaciones de pago tienen un retainage de 10% entonces cada

cada que ustedes meten aplicación de pago Se le retiene el 10% precisamente para que al final del proyecto que ha una motivación para regresar a hacer

cualquier tipo de trabajos de garantía no y no tanto de garantía pero de lo que

le llaman el Punch list al final Como la lista de detalles

o siempre dependiendo de la empresa se batalla más o menos para que regresen lo que pasa

aquí por lo menos aquí en el mercado de de Grand Rapids es que muchas de las empresas más grandes de pisos aquí

agarran los contratos y luego subcontratan a cuadrillas para que hagan el trabajo no lo hacen ellos mismos sino

entonces Esas cuadrillas hacen el trabajo y luego si si sale algún detalle nosotros no le hablamos a quien lo

instaló le hablamos a la empresa con la que tenemos el contrato y esa empresa a veces tardan en en que regresen a hacer

ese esos detalles y ahí es donde en lugar de de de de tomarte no sé dos días

para reparar que las esquinas en el en el bas se despegaron o que alguna de las esquinas del piso de lvt están

levantadas o cualquier cosa así menor tarda puede tardar semanas pero

esas semanas son semanas en las que no puedes cobrar ese último 10% Hasta que no hay un un sign off al final de todo

está bien eh toda la instalación ya fue inspeccionada y está bien Y entonces ahora sí se te da tu cheque al final

mientras no pase eso se te retiene ese dinero sí esos Ah Esos retainers como

quiera los no sé si ustedes dan 90 días 180 días todavía después hay unas

personas que te dan todavía más tiempo que dicen sabes que no te lo vamos a dar el retain ahorita el reten vamos a

esperarnos tanto tanto tiempo no sé si también ustedes se enfrentan a cosas así sí también Porque así es como como los

bancos lo cuando cuando está financiado por un banco Así es como funciona nosotros mandamos el p application final

y luego ellos tardan de entre 30 60 días

en hacer su trámite luego pagan a la empresa y luego lo que tarda la empresa interiormente en mandar los pagos

Entonces ya que terminaste el trabajo ese retainage te puede llegar hasta

dentro de TR a 6 meses no dependiendo empresas sí se tardan mucho

ustedes tendrán experiencia que a veces eso llega hasta yo he escuchado que hasta un año

después a veces llegado Sí a mí me ha tocado un año y luego después no te lo

quieren regresar he tenido yo en en el sector Residencial ha trabajado con

personas así Y lamentablemente no voy a decir que soy perfecto pero trato de

limitar los errores que hago yo personalmente y si lo miro lo arreglo ahí porque no quiero regresar de después

cuando ando haciendo algo más pero a mí me ha tocado que una 180 días o un año

en ciertos aspectos y luego después e que esto y que lo otro yó está mi mi retainer y no no me han hablado no me

han mandado correos electrónicos no hay nada Ah que dice que yo tuve que regresar para algo verdad O si regresé

ya lo arreglé y en ciertos circunstancias ha tenido que

hacer legalmente algo para que me puedan pagar verdad y todo está documentado

solo que si uno sabe que ha hecho buen trabajo y ha arreglado todo lo que necesita te deben de regresar verdad

pero yo he enfrentado personalmente personas que no me lo quieren regresar y les digo e you no esto ha pasado esto ya

lo arreglé ya debe estar todo bien ya ha pasado un año verdad y no me has hablado

para nada las personas ya están conviviendo en esa casa y este y no

Lamentablemente ha tenido que mandar a personas a la corte verdad con un juez para que nos puedan y es algo bien

simple el juez va a decir esto y esto y esto le hiciste el trabajo tuvistes

arreglos sí o no y es algo bien simple regrésale el dinero no Ah en veces son

cantidades chicas en veces pueden ser cantidades grandes casi siempre son de 2000 en residencial son 2500 a 4000 para

carpet alfombras Ah pero sé que los piso duro piso de madera cerámica y otras

cosas pueden tener un aseguranza más grande y retainers más grandes también Ah no sé si ustedes Ah José y Eduardo no

sé si ustedes les quitan retainer también o cómo es que trabajan

ustedes Bueno actualmente aquí en Alabama Este sí he tenido contratos así

Ah pero la mayoría la mayoría ahorita no seguimos de subcontrato Entonces no no no hay mucho estamos dando ese salto

todavía pero s instaladores que están trabajando bajo escrow que es es otro

Big scam de cómo cómo los instaladores financian compañías grandes porque pues

son compañías que no tienen un Crew ni dos son compañías que que cargan hasta siete ocho crews diferentes diarios

Entonces si ellos les quitan el 10% de scrow a final de año estamos hablando de sumas muy grandes de dinero

especialmente si son Ah empresas que tienen suficiente trabajo para mantener a siete siete cru grandes y

Lamentablemente el instalador pues no se da cuenta que termina financiando la empresa entonces

Ah yo yo yo he tenido problemas por eso Cuando recién empezaba dejé de trabajar

con personas así también este porque se me juntaba una cantidad x a al final del

año y empezaban a salir problemas que nosotros Nunca tuvimos y ese dinero Nunca regresaba entonces ahí nos dabamos

cuenta que pues al final del año estábamos manteniendo nosotros la empresa de de de puro esc y no nada más

era yo había siete casos iguales que son los mismos siete que cargaban en ese mismo día en la empresa entonces Ah

ahorita ya ya casi no se ven ese tipo de empresas más que una o dos pero pues a

veces los instaladores no no se dan cuenta hablando del lado del subcontrato

Entonces ese ha sido uno de los problemas que que me tocó vivir también

sí y en veces por ejemplo ha habido tiendas donde yo también trabajo y tienen 30 Cruise you no y tn saliendo

todos Hay unos que hacen muy mínimo no siempre les van a hablar Ah Pero a ellos

también les quitan so en veces esas personas se van no les importa Después sabes que me quitaron tanto no los voy a

pelear ese dinero se va quedando ahí con ellos Ah en inglés también le dicen recurring funds porque siguen siguen

viniendo ese dinero verdad y y en veces si uno no los molesta pues se va a otro

trabajo o se va a otra ciudad y no vas a regresar por ese dinero en veces en

veces como uno de habla hispana mi papá verdad le decía Mira aquí tienes este dinero vamos a tener que ir a recogerlo

porque ya no hemos trabajado con esa tienda por mucho tiempo tenemos $2,000 right y él no pues esto sabes que yo les

voy a mandar un correo electrónico para yo soy como el abogado de él verdad y comenzo a mandar yo información y

después Ah Sabes queé Me mandaron un cheque de tanto pues ahí te Mochas con algo porque

también tengo tengo tengo salario de abogado también pero no no digo pero hay que ayudarnos verdad porque en veces uno

de habla hispana no sabe que algo tan simple como mandando un correo electrónico algo que está documentado

para algo que se te pueda retornar si hites bien y no tuviste problemas en ese

en ese trabajo verdad en particular pues se te debe regresar ese dinero una cosa importante que tienen

que dejar claro es que retainage no es para la garantía porque normalmente se

en el área comercial se da una garantía de un año por por el labor no los materiales pues tienen su propia garantía pero el labor es un año pero la

intención del retainage no es no es retenerlo hasta que pase el año de

garantía es nada más para que el control de calidad final del proyecto o sea que

ese retain una vez que el proyecto está 100% terminado debería de liberarse en

90 días digamos o por lo menos que comience el proceso de Liberación en 90 días No no

es una excusa por parte del constructor decir No pues es que tenemos que esperarnos un año a ver si no hay ningún

ninguna clase de garantías porque esa no es la intención del retainage para eso se da una carta de garantía donde se le

dice al constructor eh garantizamos nuestro trabajo por un año entonces son

dos cosas diferentes que es importante que quede claro porque ustedes tienen la

como como dice Jorge tienen la habilidad de mandar un correo electrónico y solicitar que que les den un update de

Cuándo va a ser el pago de ese retainage si ya pasó 60 días 90 días recordarles

de todavía estoy esperando retain y todo eso y no sé si diferenc dependiendo en

el estado también porque aquí por ejemplo tenemos este retain Pero ellos

lo dejan ahí por si acaso pasa algo y luego lo lenas el retainer y te dicen

sabes que esto lo vamos a dejar ahí por si algún día pasa algo Puede que no pase nada en 10 años y ese dinero se queda

ahí por 10 años verdad no sé si es diferente dependiendo en el estado Ah y

en el aspecto comercial o Residencial verdad porque Puede que sea un poquito diferente no sé si ustedes tienen esa

experiencia donde están ustedes en diferentes estados pero yo sé que aquí el contrato nos va a decir cuando

vamos a firmar lo vamos a a det tener por tanto tiempo y ya cuando tú no trabajes con nosotros te lo regresamos y

no pasa nada verdad Pero también ellos tienen un proceso donde te tienen que hablar y luego tú tienes que ir dentro de tantos días para poder ir a arreglar

ese ese problema así para que ellos no tengan que contratar a alguien más y luego del del retainer te sacan ahí del

retén y se lo dan a la otra persona para eso es según verdad Porque a mí me ha pasado que yo tengo que ir a arreglar

cosas y los materiales para comenzar tan caros en veces un pedazo de alfombra

puede que 3000 para una escalera y los 000 que ya tenía el instalador pues ya

ya se le acabaron y en veces ni lo llenaron el retén y luego pues todavía me tienen que pagar verdad ahí se

balancea y en veces esas personas se enojan dicen sabes que me han estado

quitando por años el 10% y tengo que pagar estas alfombras y voy a tener que

volver a llenarlos o en veces esas personas se van y y llenaron el retén o

no depende pero sé que el problema existe y uno tiene el el el el contratista mismo del negocio tiene que

responder y tiene que mandar a alguien para arreglarlo verdad qué clases de experiencia tienen

ustedes en en en residencial Yo sé que estamos hablando que no sé si haces flip

homes Daniel Sí hago flip homes y antes de

cambar el tema alguien estaba preguntando sobre Lin yo no tengo mucha experiencia sobre Lin pero cada Estado

es diferente y y hay un límite de tiempo donde donde ustedes tienen para poder presentar un link creo que son 90 días

aquí en Michigan pero pero no estoy 100% seguro tienen que revisarlo en cada

estado porque tienen esa capacidad de de poder poner un Lan a la propiedad lo que lo que yo he visto que una forma muy

amable de de entrar en esa conversación que yo he visto en experiencia de otros subcontratistas es que normalmente ya

que pasaron 60 días o que se está acercando la el el el la fecha de los 90 días que el contador de la empresa o

alguien de la empresa manda un correo preguntando sobre sobre updates de de pagos y haciendo referencia de que

porque ya se acerca la fecha límite de link Entonces eso es una forma de sin amenazar a la

empresa decirles que estás enterado de que puedes poner un link en la propiedad

ahora normalmente si hace mucho trabajo con con el con el general contractor pues ahí es una una una balanza de si

quieres proteger esa relación porque normalmente poner un link pues normalmente ya es un poco adversarial la relación entonces creo que es cuando

cuando lo haces es porque ya esa relación probablemente no está funcionando no pero pero si es bueno

saber que está ahí y que y que sepan cuándo es su fecha límite Hay cosas muy

específicas que tienen que pasar Son creo que aquí en Michigan son 90 días después del último día de trabajo

entonces si ustedes son trabajo tienen que estar conscientes de de

esos de esos tiempos no de la limitación verdad que que es muy buen punto el el

que dice a Daniel pero ya poner un l es como él dice te pones de enemigo a la

otra persona O puedes terminar una relación que estuvo funcionando por por años entonces una manera de de como lo

maneja el estado de Alabama es que a los 60 días tú puedes mandar un certify mail sin decir que vas a

poner un un un un link pero ya automáticamente cuando Tú recibes ese invoice a través de usps con una carta

certificada tú Ya entiendes que puede algo más pasar entonces sin amenazar al cliente porque yo lo yo lo he hecho se

han dado los 60 días mandamos una serif mail y automáticamente te contestan porque saben que ya tienen pruebas ya

tienes un tracking number de que mandaste y de que esa carta fue recibida por ellos que puede que puede ser prueba en la

corte también entonces por lo regular mandas tu carta a los 60 días y tienes

respuesta a la semana o a los TR cu días de que la reciben

Entonces sí y hay instaladores que hablando de comercial verdad yo sé que

ustedes hacen mucho comercial los dos Eduardo y José a mí no me gusta el

comercial a mí no me gusta y no más es verdad verdad Ah me gusta más Residencial me gusta entrar a una casa

salir a ver al cliente unos cuantos días y ahí nos vemos y a la otra pero hay

personas que les gusta estar en un lugar por mucho tiempo verdad Porque son muchas yardas lo que van a poner o pies cuadrados y hay una gran diferencia en

en el instalador y se mira hay crws que no más son puro comercial y es todo lo que hacen y luego hay crws que son puro

Residencial Yo sé que yo soy Residencial no más no me hablen de hoteles ni nada Yo no quiero saber nada de eso ni de

buildings comerciales porque no tengo para comenzar el personaje verdad para poder voltear esos trabajos en tiempo Ah

pero así es este pero sé que muchas personas ya sea le gustan una o la otra cosa Ah igual con flip homes verdad como

íbamos a hablar yo le ayudo a muchas personas para voltear sus casas Que

veces van a conseguir materiales no muy caros cosas que son más cómodas Ah para

poder hacer Ah un poquito poquito de profit verdad arriba en sus bolsas y y

yo sé que es algo beneficiario beneficiario para la persona que que tiene esas esas casas verdad Ah En qué

Qué cosas nos puedes decir en tocante a flip homes que que has hecho tú

Daniel Pues cuando haces un flip Ah creo que normalmente ahí sí es

eh todos es en base a precio porque los márgenes Son son muy muy apretados no

Entonces ahí sí que no no hay nada de especificaciones o nada Y te vas con

dependiendo de de qué mercado estés haciendo yo el flip los flips que yo hago son en mercados

e digamos que medio bajo no no en el mercado ni medio ni alto entonces estoy

instalando piso laminado de 90 centavos por Square Feet no el material y son son

click and lock que que no se usan en comercial ese tipo de pisos son más Residencial No eso es queada má se hace

click y carpetas a veces en escaleras carpetas en En los cuartos todas las

áreas comunes tratar de mantener piso laminado waterproof que sea en las cocinas y esa cuestión pero ahí sí todo

está en base al costo el que te cobre el que te cobre más barato y normalmente duran como dos días

y todo está listo entran y salen muy rápido cuando en mi experiencia no los

que me han instalado pisos y carpetas Sí no Está bien este algo que tengan

que algo que ustedes quieran decirnos que a lo mejor no toqué yo en en las preguntas Yo sé que

ustedes a lo mejor tienen otras experiencias que yo no ha pasado por esas experiencias A lo mejor algo que

nos quieran decir en tocante cosas que han pasado en en en el

aspecto comercial o el aspecto de multifamily algo que no quieran nos

quieran decir antes de terminar el el podcast una de las cosas que me gustaría

compartir a las personas que quieran entrar al comercial que son son contratistas es Es que estén conscientes

No nada más del Insurance requirement que hay pero también de los términos de los de pagos eh Jorge me mostraría saber

qué tan rápido te pagan aquí en el comercial cuando digamos que si tú haces trabajo al principios del mes tú vas a

mandar una una aplicación de pago para el día 25 esa aplicación de pago Se va a revisar y

el constructor va a mandar su aplicación de pago al siguiente mes para el día 14

digamos y luego la revisa el cliente o el banco y esa se puede aprobar para

finales del del mes dos no Y entonces el pago te llega hasta el mes tres Qué quiere decir que lo que sea que hagas

hoy el dinero te va a llegar en 60 días probablemente Ahora hay constructores

que son más mejores para trabajar o sea son son más amigables con el subcontratista y les pagan más rápido Ah

te pueden pagar a a los 30 días Aunque ellos no hayan recibido el dinero yo conozco una por lo menos una empresa

aquí en gr Rapids donde ellos te pagan a los 30 días Aunque ellos no hayan recibido el dinero La mayoría de los

contratistas aquí en gr Rapids tienen un una cláusula que se llama Pay When paid

o sea te pagan cuando a ellos les pagan si el cliente se tarda en pagar ellos no

te van a pagar a ti ese es un eso es una cláusula legal digamos entonces ellos no son liable de pagarte hasta que ellos no

reciban el dinero también eh que creo que eso es diferente que en el a lo que escuchado es diferente que

en el área Residencial no que me gustaría saber cómo se maneja Esa esa área en cuestiones de pagos Pues en el

área comercial digo Residencial este es más rápido verdad Porque son proyectos más chicos Solo

que normalmente si es por medio de un builder vamos a suponer me pagan Como

cada dos semanas so las cosas que hago no son de Super

miles de dólares Ah normalmente es menos de $4,000 en cada casa verdad porque no

todas las casas ya usan alfombra en todas áreas es más cerámica hard surface

sino cosas así que se usan Ah Solo que ya no más los cuartos en veces o un closet en veces me toca que es una casa

de dos 3 millones dólares y no más voy a ir a poner en un media room o en un closet y los media rooms y los closets

no son que digas que muy grandes Solo que you no me van a pagar en dos tres semanas cuando el banco también igual

cuando el banco les paga a ellos tienen tanto tiempo para terminar ciertas cosas para que mire el banco Cuando venga y

diga ah ya acabaste esto y esto y esto Bueno te vamos a pagar esa porción Ah y

en veces ellos quieren que yo vaya y De antemano me van a en veces no está listo

Hey necesitamos que vengas porque va a venir el banco en tal día y queremos que nos corte un cheque para que se mire

como que ya está todo listo verdad Y todavía falta Punch list y muchas otras cosas Ah pero sí es algo

que me dicen y si me dicen con tiempo pues lo puedo hacer pero si no me dicen con tiempo pues no se puede ahorita

tengo una cosita así donde Ah Tengo que ir a hacer unos cuantos tapetes para una

para un Country Club y me hablaron hoy y me dijeron e Pues tienes que ir a medir

esto porque el deadline para que los puedan hacer imprimir van a imprimir

logos especiales es hasta tal tiempo y el alfombra se tiene que poner en enero 20 Apenas me están diciendo yo no sabía

nada tengo 20 otras personas que tengo que ir a instalar Y tú crees que voy a

poder tener tiempo de ir a medir en veces no hay tiempo Solo que les digo si me dan chanza de poder entrar De

antemano o en veces hasta tengo que trabajar en Christmas o New years Thanksgiving tengo que ir a trabajar

verdad y Ah Lamentablemente las cosas son así porque uno quiere que también no fracasen los los constructores o o los

los contratistas con los que uno trabaja Solo que es muy importante entonces esa

creo yo es una gran distinción no de que te paguen en dos semanas a que te paguen en 60 días la otra distinción creo yo

también es por ejemplo en comercial normalmente no te dan down payment para materiales Entonces tienes que comprar

el material y si lo compraste puedes Ah solicitar en tu aplicación de pago que

te paguen el material para que te paguen el material tienes que sacarle Insurance al material y tienes que mandar fotos

esas dos requerimientos son Entonces si hay alguien allá que nos está escuchando que quiere entrar al área comercial Son

eses tipo de de cositas que nada más tienen que saber que que están ahí afuera que tienen que estar preparados

para eso no tienen que estar preparados para financiar 60 días o 90 días de de

actividades no de trabajo salarios y todo eso porque la gente no no va a esperar 90 días porque le pagu la semana

sí porque qué tal como José si tiene tiene otras personas abajo de él y él tiene que pagar de su bolsa él también

tiene que tener feriecita ahí clavada en un lugar para que diga ah sabes qué pues les tengo que pagar tanto tiempo ya para

cuando agarre todo el el el lo que le pertenece a él del empleo verdad o el

trabajo que hizo Entonces ya se puede recuperar las bolsas Solo que sí es algo que yo miro y es que es que eso es algo

de de ya una empresa establecida es algo que tiene que tener en cuenta porque no

puedes correr un negocio sin un colchón y ese colchón a veces puede ser el equivalente a uno o dos meses de de

operaciones de dos TR meses es lo más lo más factible y en cualquier libro de finanzas o de empresas lo vas a

encontrar porque pues no puedes también a veces tú estar financiando tú de tu propia bolsa porque nunca sabes que qué

vas a esperar entonces la empresa tiene que tener un un fondo por el que tienes que trabajar tú también entonces a final

de cuentas A veces uno termina siendo empleado de su propia empresa y y termina siendo lo más sano también

entonces Ah Es bueno tener un fondo para ese tipo de casos también Sí porque

financiando también ahorita como están los intereses pues ya para cuando te vayan a pagar el proyecto Pues qué tanto

te va a quedar también tienes que pagar mucho dinero Ah Solo que si algo que tomar en cuenta Gracias por ese ese tema

que que nos diste porque es muy importante también muchos no saben en veces que que tienen que tener esos

fondos disponibles para que cuando tengan que pagarles a los empleados ya ya están los empleados listos para para

su pago y que no vayan a enojarse después Y te van a hacer algo malo o o o

ya nunca los puedas poder contratar otra vez verdad porque uno quiere uno está al día en veces también Sí es que a final

de cuentas uno sin empleados no es nada realmente entonces Ah si tú tienes

contenta a tu gente todo fluye entonces a veces el estrés para uno es más grande

y a veces yo siempre se los he dicho a ellos el estrés de trabajar es el

cansancio descansas duermes y te sientes bien al día siguiente Pero ya cuando empiezas a tener o llegas a otro punto

en en la carrera el estrés de manejar gente o de de seguir preparándote para

poder mantener a toda tu gente ese no se acaba ni Cuando duermes te levantas en la noche y Y estás Sigues pensando es

ese es tu primer pensamiento antes de irte a dormir tu tu tu pensamiento Es qué voy a hacer mañana entonces es es Es

muy diferente Pero es es el riesgo de de vivir el emprendimiento Sí yo sé que cuando yo me

duermo me voy a dormir en veces todavía estoy soñando de que estoy trabajando y el problema es que no me están pagando

es ese es el problema ibas a decir algo en é sí no

eso me me recuerda José lo que comentas que que en el área comercial Cómo encuentras más trabajo no porque puede

ser una pregunta que alguien haya pensado bueno Cómo agarro más trabajo los que los que quieran hacer trabajo

comercial y que estén buscando más trabajo yo lo que les recomendaría es que cada empresa constructora tiene su

bat list y normalmente lo que puedes hacer es ir con la empresa y pedirle que te registren cuando para registrarte te

van a p Insurance y lo que platicamos No Insurance workers compensation Insurance

cualquier otro requisito de ese estilo que ellos tengan particularmente una vez que ya estás en el en la lista de

invitados digamos cuando ellos les salga un proyecto te va a llegar un correo

electrónico donde te están invitando y cuál es el trabajo de vender en el área comercial el trabajo de vender es abrir

la invitación revisar los planos revisar las especificaciones para ver qué productos tienes que instalar y luego

hacer la cotización o hacer el quantity Take off de los planos preparar la cotización y mandarla en el deadline que

te dan normalmente te dan TR semanas están dos semanas dependiendo Entonces ese es el el trabajo de oficina que

normalmente no se ve sobre todo cuando los trabajadores no ven Pues los trabajadores ven el el trabajo que sigue

y y están instalando y están haciendo su parte no parte del equipo de ser una empresa la otra parte que no ven es

estar en la computadora recibiendo esas e invitaciones sacando las las

cotizaciones mandándoles dándole seguimiento porque la mandas y luego a las dos semanas o a la semana marcas Oye

cómo quedamos quedamos bien si si Quedaste bien luego te mandan para para una entrevista y y te preguntan Oye pues

consideraste esto consideraste aquello entonces un trabajo que comienzas el día de hoy Probablemente lo cotizaste hace 6

meses en el área comercial no inclusive si es multifamily puede que hace un año

cotizaste ese trabajo comenzaste la la la relación con el constructor hace un año y y es ese esa es la chamba no de de

estar ahí de Buscando el que sigue y el que sigue hoy estás buscando el que va a llegar en

cu 5 meses 6 meses en el futuro no Wow ya y no sé no sé cómo se trabaja si

han hecho ustedes proyectos del gobierno porque yo sé que también tienen una página en el internet y luego todos

comienzan a ver todos los clases de trabajos que hay y comienzan a poner sus estimados y pues ahorita está en el

suelo verdad el proyecto no se ha levantado nada Solo que es como dices tú se va a tardar en veces un año o un

poquito más hasta que uno de los pisos que somos los últimos Ah hasta ese

tiempo nos vamos a tener que tardar y de De antemano tienes que estar tú De antemano dando los bids verdad los

estimados cotizaciones para que ojalá que en el futuro tengas ese ese trabajito es muy diferente a lo

Residencial en en residencial pues estoy en una casa dos tres días a lo más una

semana y lo más que me he tardado son dos semanas en una casa que son grandísimas

de 10,000 pies cuadrados las casas verdad Ah pero es muy diferente porque uno en en el aspecto Residencial pues

uno obtiene sus fondos más rápido no como comercial y es una cosa que no me a mí no me atraía eso no quiero estar yo

batallando no quiero estar yo con batallando con dinero porque mis biles pues llegan bien rápido y yo no soy muy

frugal y me gusta gastar me gusta comprar muchas cositas y pues ahí se me va la feria de volada No soy como otras

personas que tienen que detenerse verdad cuando tienen esos Ah trabajos comerciales donde tienen que estar

mandando dinero para allá y para acá fierros materiales empleados muy diferente

aseguranzas todo eso que es mucho dinero es mucho más dinero Ah me gusta hacer mi

dinero rapidito Solo que es muy diferente por eso yo personalmente me quedo pero es como muchos tienen que ver

Hay personas que ha hablado Ah con ellos que son instaladores que dicen sabes que ya no quiero Jorge hacer Residencial yo

quiero estar estable estar en un lugar por unos cuantos meses estar poniendo pisos en una un ambiente comercial y

después que se meten tuve uno que me dijo el otro día Seth ferson Me dijo

Mira sabes que esos son los pros y estos son los cons y la cosa es que siempre voy a estar trabajando voy a estar en un

lugar por mucho tiempo pero la cosa es que en veces cositas muy chiquitas como voy y soy el último y me dejan mucho

mugrero atrás y no y tengo que andar limpiando cada rato porque vienen los electricistas los que ponen el emplaste

todos me dejan un mugrero y pues tengo que andar volviendo a limpiar Ah porque en veces unos están arriba de otros no

saben cómo ellos poner un un sked bien donde dicen sabes que tú vas a venir tal

día tal día y unos Sí verdad unos te dicen sabes que ustedes se tienen que salir y van a entrar otros Pero en veces

están todos unos arriba amontonados arriba de otros Ah y pasa también en el lado en el lado Residencial verdad no

voy a decir que no yo sé que yo soy el último y al final del día es para si yo

no acabo el trabajo en esos en ese tiempo pues me van a llamar la atención de decir sabes qué así y no nos nos

toman tantos días para poder acabar y en veces tengo que decirles e no es algo

razonable el tiempo que me estás dando y no tienes que tienes que pensar de que se tiene que aplicar ciertas cosas para

este proyecto y pues se va a demorar un poquito más oye oye Jorge y eso es un

buen punto la mira verdad y te voy a decir porque porque el el Punch list de

un buen instalador y digo buen instalador refiriéndome a que siga todos sus lineamientos y haga todo lo que

tiene que ser como se debe de hacer acuerdo a los manufactur guidelines es si es grande termina siendo por terceras

personas porque el electricista hizo esto y y estas personas hicieron esto y Y así se va es una cadenita Entonces

nosotros terminamos siendo lo último de lo último otra vez Entonces a veces a

veces los Punch list vienen siendo de de como digo de un buen instalador vienen siendo por por terceras personas porque

el el el electricista tiró sus pinzas y se hizo un hoyo en el piso y pues quién

baila el instalador tiene que volverlo a arreglar Entonces eso no es culpa del electricista tiene que ir el instalador

otra vez Entonces es es redondo otra vez ese es un buen punto por poner en

perspectiva los tiempos del platicamos ahorita tengo un proyecto yo de apartamentos yo mandé contratos en julio

de este año el primer edificio se se está frando ahorita los pisos no se van

a instalar hasta por ahí de abril o mayo del siguiente año del primer edificio el

proyecto es de 2 años qué Qué quiere decir que lo que lo que esa empresa a la que le di el contrato vendió este año en

julio va a instalar hasta el siguiente año por allá en mayo por ahí y luego va a seguir instalando tal vez después en

agosto el siguiente edificio y luego después en noviembre y luego todavía en el 2026 va a instalar en por ahí en

febrero marzo por ahí Entonces el los la diferencia en en la longitud de tiempos

de cuando vendes a cuando trabajas y puedes cobrar puede ser bastante amplia

no dependiendo del tamaño del proyecto y no te dicen por ejemplo Hey este este estimado no más es para tanto tiempo

porque puede Que suba inflación las cosas verdad no no te dicen he es No más un año o 90 días Este estimado no te ha

tocado eso que te pasa así sí cuando cotizan Sí pero ya que entras al contrato ya ahí es don donde te amarras

a algo ya fijo Y ya tú es donde decides cuál es tu estrategia No si quieres

comprar algo de los materiales ahorita y luego mandar un estimado por para cobrar parte de ellos lo puedes hacer o si te

quieres esperar porque no tienes donde hacer el storage del material y te quieres esperar y lo dices Bueno si sube el material 5% lo lo absorvo o ya lo

incluí en el precio porque sé que es un proyecto de 2 años ya incluí algún tipo de cambio de precios de 2 3 4

5% perfecto algo más que quieran agregar estamos llegando a la conclusión del

podcast no sé si quieran decir algo rapidito antes de cerrar este podcast el día de

hoy y si no tiene nada que decir ah le queremos decir gracias a comenzar para

preferred flooring y Go carrera por prestarnos este este esta plataforma

verdad para nosotros los de habla español a hispanos verdad y darnos una chancita de poder expresarnos y para que

todos puedan oír Qué clases de cosas nos enfrentamos a diario día a día verdad le

queremos dar gracias También a nuestros patrocinadores que son floor Cloud Y les

queremos dar gracias También a ellos Ah les quiero dar gracias a ustedes y a los

otros invitados que lamentablemente el la señal No les no les llegó bien

ahorita y se tuvieron que tuvieron que ir pero a ustedes dos que permanecieron

les quiero dar muchas gracias por llenar este este día con su información

instructiva y su inteligencia su sabiduría verdad Ah Gracias Jorge y

cualquiera que quiera aprender más sobre trabajos comerciales y que tenga dudas o lo que sea eh Estoy compartiendo mis

redes sociales en creo que en el Live eh con mucho gusto Síganme háganme preguntas y con con gusto Ah les puedo

les puedo ayudar a cualquier otras preguntas que tal vez no no no tomamos

ahorita podemos tocarlas en el futuro sí perfecto Gracias José y gracias Daniel

Gracias Eduardo y Gracias Jesús Thank you for joining Us today Appreciate you

very much and we Are at conclusion of this podcast and ibody who's watching

out there Because without you we can't H You are soate you and We Will see you

next Thank you very much guys thank you thank you

Daniel Gonzalez 12/18/24 Daniel Gonzalez 12/18/24

The Huddle - Episode 127 - Surviving Slow Seasons: Tips for Staying Profitable Year-Round

In this episode we explore strategies for maintaining profitability in the flooring installation industry, even during off-peak times. Discover how diversifying services, improving operational efficiencies, and investing in marketing can keep your business robust. We’ll also discuss the importance of budget management and proactive planning to smooth out seasonal fluctuations. Tune in for practical advice and actionable tips from industry experts on how to not just survive, but thrive, during the slower seasons.

Hop aboard and stay informed about what’s shaping the industry—don’t miss this exciting journey!

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

welcome back to the Huddle everybody we're your weekly Playbook to help you gain forward progress in your flooring

career for our new viewers welcome to the team what's up fellas what's going on

sir how was your uh Thanksgiving what it do you know it was pretty fantastic it

was uh nice to have a few extra days off and

little little family time it was it was nice I did I did the same I did uh

unplug which I'm not used to doing um good for you though every every now and

again I mean I worked a little bit over the weekend but it was pretty low pressure because you had that extra day

so was like I came in for a few hours four or five hours and you know just doodled around and got some stuff done

it was nice I like how anytime we say that we're working and you're like just a just a few you know like five between

five and 10 hours so so I was gonna I was gonna add to that I unplugged from technology but I still

came to the office and built some shelves and I still claimed the warehouse and did some or like that's

good that's good stuff though just get your mind off things I don't know put on a good book or some music

and that I just you lose yourself and creativity like that man well that rolls

right into our topic of the day surviving the slow season uh tips for

you know kind of how to maneuver and and uh position yourself during the slow

season and uh what we can do is installers at flooring companies uh I

know what a lot of uh Architects and designers do at this time um wanted to

bring let everyone know today's episode is sponsored by floor Cloud floor cloud

is the number one offsite project monitoring system you

can get your hands on by far the um it's the only really the only system I know

about that you can read your moisture meters you can read uh with the right you know with the connector you can read

your Wagner meters so you can get your moisture testing your ambient temperatures you can get all of your um

site conditions right from your office so you don't need to be uh making extra trips you know we're in

Kansas and sometimes our projects can be hours away and being able to monitor it

and uh not have to take a separate trip out there just to find out the job's not ready so you know mobilize your cruise

with confidence uh with floor Cloud if Ashlin is on you want to play

the floor Cloud go ahead and play the floor Cloud video Ashlin let's floor Cloud enables realtime monitoring of

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floor cloud bring it up every time every time I

watch that video you know it reminds me of a few things but one of the big things is the need the need the lack of

the need for like you know uh connection or or some box that you got to put

somewhere uh it's cell driven so use cell towers and um because it is mobile

if you have a installation manager you know in one part of the

state and the job's in another and he's in charge of that it it is an incredible

Tool uh to help you with deficiency so absolutely we're still we still got it

rocking on a couple job sites right now just so that way uh if anything goes wrong and it's I mean it's snowing now

so if that temperature starts dipping we'll know about it as temperature starts dipping Daniel's flork started

tripping he does too well another a funny thing is is that um

and a lot of the guys on here do commercial work they know but um I want to make sure I'm

doing a little housekeeping little systems check are we live I'm not showing we're live on my side we are

live yeah we're live all right just making sure um but uh the you know the before and

after and the the the temperature and humidity and everything that you're

supposed to maintain on a project uh we've had it get there get a call you

get there they keep it that way until you leave and then they do whatever they

want again and then they do whatever they want to do and in these temperatures uh it's not super cold but

we're in the low mid 20s uh lower 40s as a high and it doesn't take long for a

70° uh job site to cool off real quick when they pull the you know the temporary windows out or whatever the

situation is so it's uh it's smart that you're you're leaving it up even after you're done with your installation show

those fluctuations and you guys use it a lot uh tell tell the the audience do you

get a graph uh over time the history of yeah

it kind of does this thing right here so it just gives you can you show the screen

uh I might be able to without up to do that but we're kind of throwing you out

there but the the key is that you can go back and look at times uh I want to just your guys's um

you know input on that because the way you guys uh utilize it uh I I know that

you know you can go back and see you know on a certain date when the

temperature drops or the humidity goes up or whatever and you can see that kind of stuff and and of course it alerts you

when if you'll load your products in on the project that you're doing it'll alert you when those products are out of

their specification so if a spec calls for it to be 65 to 70 degrees or

705 degrees in a certain humidity Point uh floor Cloud knows all that all you

got to do is tell it what product you have on there and it'll let you know if falls out of sorry Daniel out of

spec Daniel's back looks like so guys you know we're talking about this at a

very timely uh you know point in the year this is typically when projects

unless you do a lot of like um even school work will kind of start

to happen over Christmas break but right now this is the deadest time usually for

us is between Thanksgiving and Christmas you're not to Christmas break yet so you don't have your shutdowns at your plants

in commercial world that it can be a busy time actually during Christmas

shutdown but after Thanksgiving and before Christmas it's like it's just

there's no work there's no I mean there's work but it just the activity is

so much lower uh at least that's our experience for 20 plus years

and consistent so what do you guys do in

these times what what are some ways that you can uh you know I I kind of looked at this as as how can we improve our

business practices and processes during the time of slowdown how can you reeval

re-evaluate your budget if you're a flooring company uh and even an

installer if you have you know a few Crews evaluating uh your team members and and these kinds

of things and understanding where you're at uh for the year even you're close enough to the end of the year you can

kind of see what the picture is going to look like do you do some of that activity what do you do during this time

so um historically we've always I don't say historically in past

years let's just say the last 10 years we've uh kind of prepped ourselves for

uh during this time is when we get our vehicles in get the maintenance done catch up on all the stuff that we need

to catch up on uh trailer maintenance uh vehicle maintenance um maintenance

around the office just because we know that we're not utilizing everything to a full capacity right now um you know you

start checking the tools making sure that all the Grinders are working properly the vacuums are are good the

filters like you know all the behind the scenes stuff that nobody ever really thinks about you don't you don't

really tackle those unless you have to right during the year but the slow time is uh is our time to prep for the busy

time I would say is is how we've been looking at it for a while um you know we

I mean there's a there's a lot of different things what we're doing right now pretty much starting that process with reorganizing the the warehouse and

creating more storage space um we do see some training and some Hands-On uh

coming up in the near future um try to utilize it as prep time instead of slow

time right uh mindset I think is is key uh but that's about it Daniel can add to

that if you'd like yeah I mean we got one of our vans in there today uh just going over everything

making sure everything is all good with it so that way it's I mean we get a bunch of snow so we need to make sure

everything's ready for the winter time right the last thing you want to do is break down and and start freezing

especially if you got like one of our machines or a bunch of material in

there and uh basically we've been you know talking with uh Mr garden over at

CFI and seeing what's uh going on with some trainings over here and then also

um Sunny with the the NCT and trying to get something over here

sweet yeah I I like the idea of like the these are the times when we can get

ready for like next W increase our skill set

you know uh do some training you're not going to miss out on as much work if

you're slow you ought to be uh searching out some trainings uh in my opinion as an installer it's one of the things I

wish I would have done more of when I was just installing um but yeah just getting

ready for that next year another thing that a lot of uh companies you know this

is a good time for sales activity from you know making some phone calls and and

hitting the beating the streets a little bit um we do we tend to have a quite a

full plate of estimating going on at this time just not a lot of job starts

or you know uh some of the projects if if it's getting cold and they're they're

not quite we have a project right now it's got a ton of protect all on it and it's

you know it's not closed in yet and it's you know not acclimated you know three

months ago acclimation was outside it was 68 to 75 degrees all day every day

and it was perfect but uh this time of the year you start getting really extreme temperatures either up or down

you know your projects just can't start if you're doing if you're following the instructions um your projects just can't

start because no you just said they're not quite closed up you said um this time of year right and

I'm looking at uh hor has comment on there it says weather's perfect down here so we we're still slammed I'm

wondering if the region dictates the slow time right do the hotter States

slow down at the hottest part of the year and you know the colder State slowed down during the coldest part like

that's a question for the audience if you guys can give me some ins I wonder also if it's not a residential uh

commercial thing a little bit more I do think that probably I'm guessing and

Jorge be a perfect person to kind of chime in here but um I'm guessing that

residentially you got some people trying to get you know their new floors in or finish a

remodel holiday before the big you know Christmas and that's that's one thing you can do too like like because we're

mainly commercial right but it's it is around this time of year where we start getting those phone calls and where all

the the the stores you know the residential stores are super jam-packed I mean we got a phone call um a couple

weeks ago now and Jeremy's in here right now he went and helped us out on this project but they called on like a

Thursday and we was like this company was supposed to be here tomorrow and just emailed me and said that they are a

month out now and this was something that was already scheduled and they push them another month out so it's like yeah

we had a couple of residential uh jobs their their big uh like a big outside uh

tile project were just polishing off we just polished off really we got a few more little details to do but you know

they wanted to have Thanksgiving they got a lot of family coming in for Thanksgiving and wanted us out of there

and so there's big push up to Thanksgiving and then you know I would imagine going into uh these other

holidays you'll have a big push on the residential stuff we we do just a very amount from a revenue percentage but you

know four or five six projects a year um of size and then maybe another handful

that are a little bit smaller but everybody wants to get you in and and

and like have their uh their remodels and their floors done before their family comes into town

so there are people now trying to get on before Christmas but we have yet but we

have to tell them they are not going to get it till the new year yeah it's

always nobody ever wants to hear that right and sometimes people don't think about like oh we're running out of time

we got to get this done and then they'll call and have we've we've definitely uh fudged

our schedule more often than not around the holidays um I would say probably more so for the residential because

they're smaller projects um hard to do it in the commercial industry right because you kind of plan to be done

before the holidays because your schedule's a lot a lot uh further out um

than than the the popup residential but it's just one of those things where you just expect it you expect those calls

you got to be ready for it um and you know a lot of the residential guys around here are jammed right now they're

slammed and it's uh that's a great problem to have right and some of the commercial guys are still calling us

looking for work so it's that that mixture right there that's where you know diversifying and hey if I'm not

getting it over here let me go over here for a little bit just to so you don't have any any spots

that are that have nothing in the schedule yep yeah and that's

a that's a great segue to what one of our previous podcast about diversifying

and getting a little bit if you can at least be proficient in uh one or the other and you live in say commercial for

most of the time but you're proficient in you know the residential um Vinyl

Products or car carpet or whatever you can pick up some work in those slow

times I know that when residential gets slow man we got guys just beating our

doors down for looking for work and we always you know if if we've worked with

them before you know you might give them some some work but a lot of times in the commercial it's such a big commitment

it's easier to go from commercial and pick up a few smaller residential job is

to go from residential and then pick up a commercial job because you know a new hospital could be a three-month project

for an installer right and if you're looking and the same thing if you're looking at like a basic residential

project not anything specialty like you know hardhead takes care of but from a

basic standpoint the knowledge that you need to to transfer from a residential

to a commercial project is substantially different so m where're

um transitioning from commercial to residential is a little bit of an easier uh move I would say in my opinion but

you know I might be a little biased because that's what we do what we've done um but I know a lot of residential

guys that are a one a one uh one product

installation um company so in commercial it's you can't do that um you can try

but you're not going to flourish so when's the uh Rollins like you know

indicating that he's pretty busy during this time of year like uh so when is the

residential guys uh downtime and do they have downtime like Jorge is in a good

climate and mainly residential so does he ever have downtime do you ever have downtime

hor he says we're right it's easier to do residential commercial has more

factors in play yeah well definitely I think there's a lot more people uh

sitting there making the you know that you have no downtime for this pleas uh

superintendent and other project managers and such no downtime all right well Jorge this isn't for

[Laughter] you but you know what he keeps himself busy too right like he goes out there he

networks and and he does the same thing if he's not working on a project he's working on the company or or staging uh

his next project for the next week um and that's a lot of the behind the scenes that a lot of people don't do and

or won't do um if you're an employee you don't do that um but if you're um a

proprietor subcontractor trade contractor you probably do a little bit of that but it might be like cleaning

the van or something like that but well Jeremy brings up a good point here too you know he really did hit on something you

know people save up for flooring to get done in time for the seasons whereas

budgets are running out on Commercial jobs for the year like you know your your big you know around here we have a

lot of um Aerospace you know aircraft manufacturing and a lot of those places

they're they capital budget for the year's pretty much done um yep so you

know they they may not have you come and replace carpet we are lucky to have a few that have a different fiscal year so

their budgeting year is different than the fiscal year uh so they um don't run

into that problem but that's a good point as well I think overall you know it's about taking that downtime and

getting trained up getting your stuff geared up it's you know getting your

stuff ready and uh and then hunting like call some people that you haven't done

work for in a while and and touch base with them what they're up to go grab a cup of coffee with with

someone kind of uh let them know that you're still there plan maybe some people want to reach out to you and and

like Jeremy says right here it's all about the clients you're going after right so if you're going after a bunch

of the lower end stuff that's when even their budgets right around this time are kind of closed up it's like nope I'm

only going to be spending money on the holidays I'm not going to do anything and then the higher in is the exact

opposite it's hey I'm having family come over I can't have my house look like this I need this replace before they get

here yeah I can't let know that I peed in the carpet in the living room when I was drunk we gota rid of

that yeah think the clientele tell matters but I think we all have some

downtime it just is a different time except for Jorge it sounds like he has no

downtime and it I would imagine that he has to make his own I guess yeah like

you get planned his wedding right yeah oh yeah congratulations uh publicly to

Jorge for getting married it's been a few weeks back now but uh congrats my

brother um yeah so it just it gives you time to

to do things that you don't really have the time for during your busy season right like I'll I'll be honest like

especially for these past few months where I'm in the field and I've been you know doing trying to do the office

anyways and bye Daniel um so Daniel has been spending a little bit more time

yeah I don't know what he's doing over there usually my guess is that he was going down that path of saying you know

this is also a really good I mean it is a lot about family and it's a really good time to reconnect you know spend

some of that extra time with family because a lot of us during the busy times are working some crazy hours doing

some crazy things uh we travel a bit so I travel and you know if I'm wearing my

project manager hat I'm out there on a job you know trying to make sure it goes right and I I also have that old

installer blood so I jump down and help heat weld or lay lace and floor

sometimes it's just um you know when you're running as hard is what I think

Daniel was alluding to now he's back I'll let him take over but I think that's kind of where he was going keep

on calling me and I have it on do not disturb and it still just cuts everything out I don't understand I've

gotten like 10 phone calls and they it's the same number must be an emergency that they can wait

on turn your Bluetooth off on your phone it's G to be some residential client needing some work done right now uh no

that's through a text message though they did text me while we were on here um but yeah it's it's getting the stuff

like I've been slacking on social media like what can I do in order to get up our social media presence right because

it always goes back to what we learned at the chamber and it's it's not who you

know it's who knows you so keep on getting your name out there the the the more they see you the

more they are to be like hey I remember that name just like our vans you know we got them wrapped four years ago and

almost five years ago now and everyone thinks we have like 20 Vans but we don't

we have two two yeah like I will say that like in in a

two-day span um one of the one of the two Vans was on the east side of the

state on our side of the state north uh South like we were everywhere doing a

lot of different things they're like I just seen your manand here and then here and they're like you guys are everywhere like no you probably seen the same

person they were probably mad that they to go deliver stuff well that's good that still Falls

right in line with learning you know improving taking that time to find those

things it's just in a different manner than maybe a a hand skill but learning a

little bit of a new um approach to your social media like you were just talking

about or you know up in it find a way to get and we can tie this into you know

the the whole AI aspect of what we talk about bring AI into it ask them what you need to be doing better what you know

get a calendar going or something yeah yeah I think it's a good time for

improvement reconnection I like to use the time to connect with old clients that I haven't done work with you just

kind of look back and you're like hey I haven't heard from them in a several months connect with them like you said

Jose go grab some coffee y you know yeah just reconnect plant some seeds and

you got a little bit of it little bit of time I I will I will add this though and

um this goes for all year round just because it's slow and there isn't physical work for some of the

smaller companies uh at during some of these times does it mean that the office is not busy because you we can see those

gaps coming in the schedule and as we get closer we are grinding we are trying to fill th those voids um and this year

we got really busy and with both of us being out of the office and um filling

in on projects you know that that's part of uh that can create a gap in the schedule as well

and actually shout out to our mom because she man the office while both of us were gone basically the entire time

wow shout out to Mama Gonzalez she didn't she's still here yelling at

everybody and their organization skills in the warehouse what the why they put it right here let's let's

back it up to when we were talking about it's easier to move from commercial to residential because Rollin says that's

not the case with like Custom Homes and dealing with clients and we weren't talking about about that right I think

we were just talking more of like the timelines and stuff like that it's easier to go from from a six-month

project and then catch a couple you know two three day projects than it is to go from someone that's constantly doing two

or three days to go to something that you're on the same project for six months it's

just it's not yeah it's a it's a Comm certainly was not talking about the

skill set because I think both I said that I said basic I said basic installer

I didn't say like highend is different but yeah the the basic yeah it's it's I I certainly was

referring to the fact that you know commercial projects are typically longer

term even a smaller commercial job will take you can take you a week or two you

know uh what would be considered small in the commercial world you know A3 $40,000 project with say $110,000 of

Labor that could take two weeks to do the same type of uh you know and I'm

not saying I know there's always outliers heck there's commercial projects that are by far take longer but

in general you can go pick up a uh you know a

u living room and hallway and a restroom lvp job and fit that into your

commercial schedule and it's just harder to fit you know the four o rooms in a

residential guy schedule even if he does have the skill set to do it and vice versa so yeah it's certainly not a skill

set thing from from my perspective it's more of just like like you know when I was installing I was mainly commercial

but I'd pick up I picked up jobs all the time and I I have residential mainly

Dwayne pret mainly does residential it's harder to get him to pick up some of my

commercial work than it is for one of our commercial guys to go pick up a

little bit of residential work unless he's just doing the demo right unless he's doing the demo then he'll drop

everything jump on he'll drop everything jump on the machine come to your place

cuz he loves doing demo and I don't blame him it's pretty uh pretty easy and fun work if you can

ride the machine Easy's relative uh that YMCA that we just did ripping that

rubber out like where the machine couldn't go that was uh was that 3/4

inch rubber that was down no it was just under a half inch was it oh it must have

been with the the the prep material so is it Mondo the old Mondo brother about Mondo yeah

yeah yeah well that used to when we installed it and I installed it in a lot

of gym floor uh like running tracks and stuff at different high schools and I was put down with the

two-part epoxy adhesive and not much change what it is uh then you have to

Brick everything down every single scam yep but taking it up

is a bear taking it up as a bear that

that yeah B doesn't break a break up it made us replace the motor in our ride on

machine yeah are you serious yeah which one is it what what uh machine you guys

got right on National 5700 gas or electric electric electric

oh that's the same one one of I mean that's one of that's ours yep so we had to replace the

motor yeah good thing we had one just hanging

out holy moly I had to replace the batteries in ours not long ago that was an expensive ordeal yeah how much did

you pay the last time we did it I think it was just under 10 grand it was like uh it was right around there eight or 10

grand okay we got the Blue River uh batteries I think that's what they're

called but yeah it would I mean we had to have electrician come and put them all in and wire it all together got to

sequence looks like yeah I didn't want to touch it see it looks like fun to me like I

like that stuff so how you get electrocuted with 48 volts yeah yeah

that'll do it yeah yeah so um that's what we gotta come up with an

adapter this is true what Jorge says that's why I bought the electric was

yeah a lot of Hospital work yeah do too much enclosed space

work and you can't you just can't run the uh the propane on those projects if

you have a construction site it's easier but if you're just got icro walls up on

uh hospital or you're doing a partial remodel of even a y or something like

that you just can't run them inside like that yeah they wouldn't even let us open

um cuz we were having trouble getting some um the rubber to stick on the

risers and we brought a a gallon of contact and we ask them hey is this okay

and you know they go back with the SDS to their safety guy and he says it's okay if you do it at night said I will

use the waterbased stuff thank you yeah but I mean all this you know talking

about the machines and breakdowns and stuff this also gives this downtime gives you a chance to catch up

on your Machinery too not just the vehicles but your tools like what can you clean and get ready you know take

some stuff apart and get all the dust out so that way when things start ramping up again because you know

they're going to everything is all good and ready to go ready to rock replace some cord ends update some cords um

sweep out your van re rearrange your uh your setup so that way uh it's more

suited for for now because everybody workload evolves right um you know what you need every day you know what you

don't need every day and you know this is just my perspective right like I'm just repeating or I'm just letting you

guys know how what we did and how we started and when we started progressing that that's how it happen um just like

oh we need to be better at this oh look at these tools keep breaking because we're not taking care of them so what if

we have to build a shelf and have its own compartment to protect our investment so yeah so what Joselyn says

right here is actually pretty nice it's including things and operating expenses right so essentially what we do is

there's every week I have money going into three different

accounts right and it just automatically goes in there so that way if anything happens and it just did happen because

one of our lines of credit the the bank is no

more so once we started getting these bigger projects it's like man what am I going to do and we had we had to sell

fund so that was that was the kicker there but I mean

ju straight up just take some of that money that you're making and get it out

of your account into another account so that way you're not going to touch it so when things come up when you you need to

afford something you can yeah the hardest part is

yeah I uh I can't say that we do that so that's a great great piece of uh advice

there like a Jeremy Jeremy you're only because you

use that's that's in general I tell you what we um when you start talking about tools

and allowing people to utilize them uh it's it's tough letting you know we we

have some of our subs that we allow to use our tools and then you get them back and you don't know anything's wrong with

them we're our guys are supposed to test them in and out but you know things get

overlooked and next thing you know you go to take a tool out and it's broken down you're like son of a gun I'm supposed to be doing this XYZ thing

today and I don't have the tool to do it so it's just a good time to bust it down

and and take out each tool make sure everything's running well and and uh you

know go through actually can be like everything is tyed together right so I'm going to tie this back to the networking

aspect because when our machine did break down we were like well broke down

on a job site what are we going to do now and it's like I met this guy at the

gym he works for this place let's give him a call they had someone there I

think that day or the next day to check it out that day said this is what it is

and then good thing we had the motor right because we replaced the motor in our other one which it wasn't the

motor and then we rep the batteries they then they said it wasn't the batteries turns out it was the charger but that's

a whole another story but I mean they had this machine back up and running in

a couple days like two days so definitely like networking is huge I

know um the chamber has an event tomorrow uh the year end event I don't know if you're going to

that I can't go my son has wrestling tomorrow it's his first wrestling meet oh

Sweet It Is That season wrestling the cool Glide needs to be

looked at because only half of it's working I already got a new one because that happened and I think it's just an

ongoing I hope someone watches this um so part of that is because of the amp

right if he's plugged into an outlet it isn't pushing out the amps it's not going to work properly onging issue with this speci

model a dedicated 20 amp circuit oh really yeah it requires a dedicated 20

amp circuit holy crap that's more in the microwave that's

the same as the vacuum yes you know the problem is is that if

you look at the the I'm a nerd guys if you look at the the the way that they have the capacitor set up it's not

storing enough energy consistently to keep that going so they either got to do a better series of capacitors or up

their game well makes cool

Glide tracks yeah tracks oh nobody remembers those

commercials who works for tracks they need to be watching this so they can give me a new cool again that would be our

maybe they'll chime in so that's a good point though you know talking about how

networking benefits you in the long run on multiple different fronts but that's

one good example of just having that you know you got a problem and get it taken care of so my

best what we do and I I really you know I sent my uh um coo email while we were

on this call cuz I was like you know what somebody said clean out filters I was like hey man I seen our guy you know

see our guys's got a little capacity you know keeping busy uh have we checked all the filters and all of our vacuums and

all of our equipment to clean them out make sure so I sent that literally while I was on this uh podcast so you know

just trying to get things um ready for the season man and so K says that's that's why he uses his regular seam iron

but I think that's just because he's old and he doesn't like new technology

true you know I do have a question for every anybody out there who utilizes a van does has anybody have any experience

with uh the diesel heaters like the external smaller diesel heaters to keep

the back ofes that are all on Tik Tok right now well those well just in general um I

know they have the smaller you know little ones like that I've never I have

no idea just if anybody's listening has experience I'd like to hear

it so Jocelyn says she sees networking work well when you stay consistent

following up with people that's 100% right and that's why um once you start

going to some of these events like I would love to make it to the the chamber one tomorrow but I can't but we do a lot

of um minority contractor events and you do you see the same people over and over

again and then they be it's just like anything else they become top of mind hey I need like an electrician I got you

hey I need a drywaller I got you hey I need this I need a painter right here

and that's that's what it's all about right and then the same thing with them is hey I do flooring so they're going to

send whoever my way yeah yeah and you can yeah I think it's just a good time

to to you know get your stuff ready and uh Rec connect with people spend some

time with family and uh I it sounds like not everybody has these same down times but I will tell you there there are down

times and in these slow times is regardless of whether it's now or at some point you definitely want to have

uh some time uh to you know kind of

connect um you know re redo your stuff

um Eduardo how do I uh uh send a email

to support atgo cara.com Eduardo and they'll get your profile

tell them uh where you're at and getting your profile active and they'll get you

get you all active and coming soon we'll have a profile only so that'll be just a

you'll get a card with your profile you don't have to connect your bank account you won't have to have a w we don't care

if you're a business or not or it's just going to be a installer uh profile only

and you'll have your score and uh you'll be able to utilize that go up to your

homeowner whoever you're working for give them your card you know show them your card they can QR it look at your

public profile see how you stack up against or uh Elevate above uh other

installs come over to their house giving them bids and hopefully help a lot of people uh get paid what they're worth

yeah and this is a a great time you know we're talking about Slow Time get Ong go Carrera get your stuff

updated activated all that good stuff because I was on LinkedIn earlier and you guys posted something about um you

know what features do you want to see because go career is about working

for you right so what do you want to see on here so that way things can be incorporated later sup cool

Kev yeah so I'm gonna do uh get an episode in to kind of give an update on

what we're doing we're doing some rebranding working on to getting the uh rating system renamed out it won't be

called The Hammer rating in the future uh but um it's going to be more applicable to what the the score

actually does and is and working on getting um getting that accredited and

doing some of those things and really all we care about is providing the

installer uh a way to separate themselves and make more money and uh we

if if you're really great you ought to be paid like you're really great if you need some work at least you know it and

you can take the the necessary steps to become great um and then you know

ultimately it it serves our industry and the consumers the people who buy our

products and services uh better when they are able to um you know know why is

your price 12,000 and this other guy that you know XYZ that says he's awesome

but has no proof of how awesome he is uh is 9,000 well if you can clear clearly

show uh that you are you know a a superior uh superiorly trained and you

have a great reputation and all these things that go careera can prove to your customer well then you are um you're

going to be able to get that extra money and uh there's there's a lot of uh proof

out there in the uh industry a lot of uh proof from consumer uh reports that con

the the people will pay you a little extra they'll pay you a lot of extra if they know you're great um I know that

I've been paid more than other guys plenty of times uh because of the the

fact that I I was good and if I had a go- career profile back in the day when

I was installing all the time that would have been my number one goal would have been to get my rating up as high as POS

possible and uh use that to get me more work so more news coming down the pipe

uh join jumpstart to hire the new guys coming out of the fcef and the introductory trainings let's get these

guys to work uh it's a good time to evaluate your Crews and your processes procedures your equipment connect with

family and uh obviously jump on the uh huddle here and and uh conversate with

your friends we're here every Tuesday 3 pm Central if you're catching Us on YouTube uh give us some some love on

there give us a like a subscribe you know give us a follow if you're on one of the social channels uh engage with us

let us know what we can do better uh here at the Huddle what what topics you

want us to research uh we have some capacity to do research and and find out answers on things um everything from

labor to products uh bring your bring your questions I would say that uh we do

tend to get the ear of some of the industry and uh able to make some

changes if we know what those changes uh you foresee uh would be beneficial for the

industry so get on here and conversate join the community join the the the movement we are still here uh what's

what episode number is this guys 120 something dang I think we've missed one

or two weeks the entire time that we've started so 126 it looks like is

127 127 she lied so 127 Weeks so that's over two

years of constant content and we have uh

committed ourselves to this uh we like doing it I enjoy always connecting with my two very good friends in the industry

and I love all you guys' comments so continue to engage you wanted to say homies but you didn't want to put us out

like that so continue to engage and I look forward

to um seeing you guys next week don't forget we have if you are a Spanish speaker don't forget Spanish oh is next

next week is Spanish okay has says two of the the other episodes were Spanish I mean one of bilingual I'm I'm gonna be

ready for it I bought some uh I bought those trans translating headphon headphones from the tiktock shop I want

to see if it's get nice well I want to thank Jorge for hosting the Spanish uh huddle the

Spanish speaking huddle and uh you're doing a great job uh please everybody if

you speak Spanish and you you know you like uh our content or you hear about it

you know jump on and join Jorge give him some love give him some um give him some

uh comments and and let him know what you know what you want to hear uh we we

uh we want to really uh try to engage the Hispanic Community the all the

Spanish speaking Community to help um a get plugged into trainings a lot of

times those those things are uh uh not known and I know that Jorge and I are on

a community together at CFI that is aimed and by the way Jorge you and I

need to get on the phone about this but uh engaged in trying to increase the uh

Spanish speakers in the uh CFI membership and training um uh you know

family so yeah join along love you guys and thanks for join in the industry

right now either right a few weeks ago um my mom and I went to one of the elementary schools and they had this

event for the English as a second language people and I don't really know all the

ins and outs of it but it was they had a bunch of vendors there you know and it it wasn't like geared towards anything

it wasn't hey come buy for me it's hey what can we help you guys do to succeed in what you guys got going on and I mean

a lot of them were like you can really tell the kids that are interested in it like later on

so not only can you use it for like later employment but even some of the

the people that were there they're like hey I do flooring already so what can I do to to get with you guys

yeah yeah one of the things I want to do at go career is create a career path a

really clear career path and how you can uh leverage your profile to uh to do

that it doesn't matter if you work by the hour for somebody or you know uh

you're an employee company uh that hires all nothing but employees uh it's a

great way to incentivize your employees to get better and perform great and and

um you know is the higher Hammer rated at this point Hammer rating um the

higher Hammer rated guys you know you can have a a scale in which you can reward off of

so yeah thanks for all the love uh you know we're ending the uh year of 2024

and uh I just want to tell everybody how grateful I am that you've joined us on this journey and we hope to see you

again next week and uh um don't speak Spanish go on there and talk crap to him

in English throw for a loop can somebody

tell Mr King to give me a call back Jeff King yes

sir Mr Jeff I think I've got his number I'll see if I can text him too I'm just gonna start texting him

every day if you don't call me back you're gonna get a day I don't know if PR's on

here but he sure uh he's he's uh communicated with Jeff quite often so maybe he'll get with

you all right guys well another great episode I appreciate it uh this is just

a lot of our opinions sometimes you're going to get on here and get a lot of deep technical knowledge sometimes

you're just going to get three guys opinions about how to do X Y or Z and this was uh you know uh obviously a

timely um podcast with a lot of places do uh look at this time of year and uh

it slows down to you residential guys I'm kind of jealous and uh you're you're

all swamped and and we're we're over here putting out bids but we're um a lot of these Concepts we talked about we're

implementing I learned some stuff today so I'm GNA go uh go Implement yeah that's that's one of the

main things that you can do just take something away like taking that chunk of money out every week having it go

somewhere where you don't touch it that way when you do run into the slow time it's like you know what I can just hang

out for a little bit you know do a few things but I mean we all need a break

sometimes right yeah all right fellas love you good

seeing you again we'll catch you guys next week see you guys all right bye

Daniel Gonzalez 12/18/24 Daniel Gonzalez 12/18/24

The Huddle - Episode 126 - Blue Collar Cruise #5

It’s time for the fifth installment of Blue Collar Cruise! Join Paul, Daniel, and Jose tomorrow as they explore the latest news, trends, and innovations in the flooring and construction industries. From groundbreaking technologies to big projects making headlines, this episode is packed with valuable insights for blue-collar pros like you.

Hop aboard and stay informed about what’s shaping the industry—don’t miss this exciting journey!

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up everybody welcome back to the Huddle your weekly Playbook to help you gain forward progress in your flooring

career to all our new viewers out there welcome to the team what's up my man

what's going on don't mind my sunglasses my future's

bright where's your brother Mr technical difficulty

he Mr technical difficulty well he will

um join us soon enough good to have you on again brother how's your week going

you ready for some Thanksgiving yeah but I don't eat turkey so I'm trying to figure out what else

I'm going to eat well you were eating birthday cake earlier just eat that eting birthday

K I ain't gonna it ain't gon to make it till Thanksgiving

no nah your birthday was yesterday right yeah well happy birthday and look the

man himself Mr technical difficulty always I turned 50

yesterday yeah you didn't I believe that about as far as I

can throw you all right what's up fellas everything good so far

good get the energy up all right what's up

Jorge all right well everybody out there this week is another episode of the blue

collar cruise I got my sunglasses on go cruising on a boat

maybe cruising around town you know they are polarized yeah I told your brother my

future's bright that's why I got some eye issues I'll leave it at

that moving on Okay so so um the blue

color cruise this week's pretty diverse so hopefully some people get on this is

a kind of a pretty cool one uh it deals with uh everything from labor shortage

in the news and and uh immigration

to uh recycled products as usual it's it's hard to uh you know peruse the

world of construction with without finding sustainability still is up there

you know that thing went it was like the most important thing for a while then it kind of Dove off it seems like it's like

coming right back well it has to because people realize how much it costs and then you start getting all this waste

and then people start complaining again and it's like hey let's uh they get used get used to the cost a little bit and

then back on to the uh bandwagon so to speak all right I'm going to go go over

a couple topics and then we'll jump in uh to some

of the um content about these topics but yeah so we got

some news and uh sustainability talking about taking rubber

flooring um you know like your rubber gem floors that you guys work out in

like you Jose all the time you you Daniel you guys be

pump what's that his microphone's not working Mr technical

difficulty of course anyway so we've got some sustainability from gy

flooring being repurposed so it's it's uh it's kind of a true you know kind of

cradle to grave I think they call it true Singularity uh with this manufacturer

we're going to go over the fact that a fifth of the construction workers a

fifth of construction workers lack permanent legal status and see if the

new administration's going to change that or what they plan on doing about that this is interesting one being uh

the founder of go Carrera and always the the whole purpose of the the uh scoring

system that's algorithmically driven and all the the beauty behind it is to make

sure that you know homeowners and business owners and cons and

contractors um get the right level of skill on their jobs and this says a 33%

of homeowners uh surveyed would hire a questionable contractor just to save

money we're going to dive into that one and then if we have some time

transforming uh construction uh the shift from compliance to compassion this is

someone's um this is kind of a opinion piece at a construction dive uh the last

thing that I really want to make sure we fit in is the fcef announces a PO a

pilot cohort of flooring installation technicians course so for all you out

there who want to be flooring technicians um and uh fcef has been

doing a lot of good stuff out there so uh oh he's gone is now his his uh video

is not working huh we're gonna keep trucking well we can hear you you can

hear me all right yep barely boom how about now we can hear you you can't see

you I turned the video off all right I'm going to get going on this uh so on the

sustainability makeover over um or the news and sustainability it says the

topic reads La playgrounds get a sustainable makeover with Encore upcycle

gym flooring so in this article from floor covering weekly it talks about

repurposing old gym floors into durable playgrounds I'm sure you guys have been on some of those have you actually I

should just ask have you guys been on some of those like rubber playgrounds yeah they're awesome

dude they have such high safety ratings it's crazy so this particular Pro uh

program is Encore or ecore uh sorry ecore true Singularity uh

program we sell a lot of eore rubber flooring but this program focuses on

reaiming and recycle rubber flooring surfaces so approximately 27,00 600

square foot of flooring has been uh recycled in this program so far and it's

transformed uh the surfaces of over 18 playgrounds in Southern

California so this is really to uh highlight how businesses can join forces

and Tackle environmental changes it's kind of you know it's a it's a pretty

cool thing now what is the number one thing we always talk about when we we get into this recycle is picking up the

H how do you get it over to right to do the stuff right remember that's always a

challenging one can you guys hear me okay now yeah just eat them want make

sure yeah you got to get

close yeah the last time we we had a whole uh podcast on this the the biggest

problem we actually had had somebody on who was with the manufacturer talking

about recycled uh materials and how to get it sent back to the

mill that's always been one of the biggest problems was getting it

back I think it still is Freight's not cheap right yeah Freight's not cheap

Labor's not cheap um you know the processes uh are are costly when you're

on site you got to find places to start while you're on site until a pickup

arrives I mean there's a lot of logistics involved as well yeah you got to have somebody who wants to do it then

you got to have the backside of it you know I can applaud the program and its

aims to you know keep rubber uh products out of the landfills I'm all for it um but we got

to have some easy ways to get the product back I mean it has to happen for any of

these programs to you know have an impactful business model you got to have

the the the the Recycled product have a a I don't know a systematic way to get

it back to the people that's my my opinion there's some um their model eor

model shows how um end of life materials can be reused because you know flooring

gets ugly or it gets rep it gets ugly colored whatever this this is

a good way to take that product at the end of its life cycle of flooring and

turn it into something that can last another 15 20 years not like the rubber's going bad usually ugli out more than a little

bit right but then that's when you just [ __ ] repurpose it grind it up make it

a make it a baby catcher out at the playground making some soup so that way

you could catch the kids yeah that's a yeah you know that stuff is um it is pretty sweet you you I do find

uh not anymore but rough housing on top of it it's like man they should install this everywhere on the inside of

buildings and outside anywhere where kids go and then uh you don't got to worry about those wood chips uh being

displaced and the swing sets getting the six foot hole underneath a swing that a toddler is supposed to be playing on

yeah yeah this this is a porable Surface they call it eor Spectra por uh Spectra

pore surfacing it's used in Bader

Park but beyond playgrounds the success of oh you've seen it there locally yeah

so some of the renovations that they've been doing to the parks over the past couple years that's what they've been

replacing um and even some of the baseball parks that we travel to um

they've been using it that's pretty sweet yeah this is it

seems like a pretty big initiative the success of the project highlights on uh eor plans to expand uh this whole

program Nationwide and um you know as seen in

models for the future sustainable for future sustainability efforts it demonstrates how collaborative efforts

in business sector can drive sustainability sustainable community and

environmentally beneficial ways you know sustain Paving ways for sustainable

future we do got to figure this stuff out I just uh I think that the more that the manufacturers kind of get involved

uh with helping retailers and dealers to be able to reclaim that product and get it out is is

huge hey Sue says uh Houston has two big recy recycling store for pad and they

have ton tons of stock they can't send

nowhere yeah well maybe they can figure out how to help how how to add carpet pad into this

program I know I've been on PL plenty of freaking uh playgrounds that could use

some of this stuff so that's pretty cool yeah all

right I don't know man it's just hard getting talking people into spending

more money sometimes I wonder what the cost of this is compared to you know

say you know some some other playground surfacing material I see rubber a lot I

just didn't know that it was all that it whether I guess I don't know whether it's recycled or not the ones that I've

seen yeah I guess I could say that I'm assuming that the colorful ones are probably less likely to be recycled than

all the the OD black playgrounds but I don't know what the the dying or or

coloring process is of the recycled material

yeah all right let's move on to the next this says uh this is under State of

Affairs a fifth of construction workers lack permanent legal

status it goes on to ask can the next president change that I would say the

next Administration whether or not that's true so so let's read through some of

this together says the US uh construction industry is grappling with a major labor shortage we've talked

about that plenty and talked about all the issues around that uh it's

exasperated by immigration issues particularly in the 20 uh as the 2024

election uh brings immigration policy to the Forefront I mean that was the you

know one of the biggest um I would say battling ideal

in the uh uh election an estimated 15 to 23% of construction workers lack

permanent legal status creating both in a um Open

Secret I would say that's an understatement and a complex dilemma for contractor so you know the funny thing

is you can't we can't hire illegal um

undocumented people you know any other jobs we do or most of the particularly

government work we have to provide a I9 and all this documentation that they are

of legal status now this isn't saying they're of illegal status it's saying they don't have permanent

documentation but either way um do you guys hire have you guys hired any any

people or tried to work with any people that they're uh undocumented

or lack permanent legal status I think that the the paperwork is going to be

way too confusing for us to even try to mess around with that so um Daniel

handles all of uh the employee documents so that that's a a better question for

him but it we're so small I can tell you that we don't we don't have the capability of doing so nor do we want to

try to yeah I know the answer the answer is no because you're not going to get in trouble for hiring UND doed people you

can't right on our application that's one of the questions is are you able to work in the United

States right and like legally and to be honest with you like they they answer

truthfully and some people are like no I'm not but that's where our industry is

you know um that that 1099 culture that's where that's where our law slipped

through I think it's also where where where it pushes a lot of people that

direction yeah because I I've seen it you know and it's not even just a legals that want to keep it that way or the

people that can't you know work here legally it's people that don't want to

pay child support and are trying to hide from something it's always someone that's trying to hide from something

yeah that whole 1099 thing I don't know quite how to deal how how to deal with

that I mean it has to stop at some point but it doesn't at

right now you can 1099 your Hardway you know well I believe um based

off of what I've been told there's gonna there may be they're talking about doing some revisions um to like employee

classifications because of uh some of the policies that are going to be

implemented here after the turn of the year um so they're going to be looking at the 1099 to see if they can

revise uh and recategorize uh employee versus 1099

um but I will add to that you know I did have an instance where a gentleman who was going to school here as a full-time

student was using a travel visa um but it wasn't a work visa it was a student

visa so there was some some weird red tape there that it was just very

confusing and we didn't want to get in trouble or we can't get in trouble um but he was like no I can still work and

but the documents in the college set otherwise yeah well the the article

calls it a complex dilemma I I couldn't agree with that

statement more and it's certainly complex and the

Dilemma is where short workers in a lot of a lot of areas across United States

and it's gonna you know if if the economy kind of revs back up

and gets going crazy again uh it's going to be a real problem this n next

business cycle I could see all this stuff we've talked about being short Workforce really coming to

roost um but it goes on to say that many in the industry are calling for reform

that would allow undocumented workers to participate lawfully in the workforce what do you guys think about

that like if there was a way to uh let allow them to participate

lawfully in the workforce um I would say if they don't fill out a census report then that would exclude

them I mean at least fill out the census so that way documentation can start being correct there um I don't know what

else to add to that besides that if there was a lawful way that that means that they're still entered into the

system in some way shape or form which excludes should exclude employers from

any risk and I think that that's well they're talking about it

because they want to reduce they're saying that the purpose of figuring out

how to uh allow undocumented workers to participate lawfully in the workforce is

aimed at reduction of uh reducing the exploitation and creating a more fair

bid envirment says as the workforce uh demand grows contractors are advocating

for Clear immigration Pathways to bridge the labor Gap that's out a construction

dive I personally think that you know

training is important as well and I know we harp on this every single week but

putting a bunch of uh workers into the market place all with a unknown skill

level and unknown you know education level from

like a technical education level uh how do you figure that out like it's hard

enough for us here in America to talk about this right uh the hammer rating

the our scoring system a go Carrera e that that solves the problem

if it gets adopted or as it is adopted here in the US the problem is what what

about trainings elsewhere we have no idea how good or any of the

background um there's a lot of people who are spot setting uh tile stuff like

that you know and it it's from like India and and you know the Middle East

and different areas where they spot set tile and stuff yeah they that's how they were trained yeah and that that's just

how they do it over there yeah it's not that it's bad it's just it's not the way that the ntca or our our

um you know the ceramic tile Education Foundation any of the uh uh tcna

standards that America runs off of for uh proper uh tile installation it's just

not you know not done so business knowhow would help eliminate

workers being taken advantage of or zaken advantage of I think that's being

really taken advantage of you made a good point there though so like if if

they go back and and say this thing does get imped and people do get allowed to participate right in some way shape or

form what they're going to have to do is they're going to have to put some kind of process in place in order to give them that that rating that scale so they

know their placement in the workforce which in turn is going to require more on our end as well because we're already

involved um and and we should all be subject to the same guidelines um and if

they are creating additional guidelines especially for the flooring industry that could definitely help us

uh in the long run but it is going to flood the market with with uh individuals who are capable and who have

at education but it's going to help us in the long run because it's actually implementing the kind of structure that

we've been lacking I personally think that you know the yeah it'll help in the

the you know the rating system uh we are going to be uh renaming the hammer

rating but uh more to come on that in the future but um

that it's going to flood the market with plenty of lower skilled workers that means you uh guys who are on here

watching this podcast or partake of it on YouTube later or whatever uh you

better understand that you're going to have to be able to prove that you know the difference between you and somebody

else and that is the entire purpose of the the rating system and um so I would

encourage everybody to get your Hammer rating uh will be uh again it'll be

rebranded in the future but at the uh end of the day it's the same exact rating um this here says the industry

faces a dauny need for nearly 44,000 additional workers in 20 uh 25

alone the uh Associated builders and contractors chief economic

Economist sorry uh argues that programs allowing

undocumented workers to obtain work feces will help fill this short this shortage additionally construction

organizations like the ABC and the AGC are pushing for the expansion of the H2

h2b Visa program which provides temporary work visas the current uh gap

of 66,000 annual visas is uh seen as insufficient especially since the US

construction activity is projected to increase and I believe at the previous blue uh color cruise when we were

talking about the increases it was like a 7% increase so that would exasperate

this problem um personally I think that we we need to

uh bring them in get them trained and let's go that's that's my stance at the

end of the day there's there's uh there's a lot of work there's a lot of

uh citizens that are in uh even here in the US that just don't have any

technical skills they couldn't turn a wrench if you made them and uh people

who are willing to learn a trade are often uh your immigrant uh population

and I say let's get them in here and get them trained and I don't think they're going to drive I think I seen a note said some somebody said it's drive drive

labor pay down not a good thing I don't know they still have to do good work if we train them and we

incorporate them into um into our you

know qual standards of quality I guess is the best way to put it like people

you know although we are getting ready to talk about 33% of homeowners who will

hire questionable contractors to save money so maybe maybe he's right

and I'm completely wrong on that but well if it follows some kind of structure then it could be beneficial

right but if it's just free willy-nilly they can do whatever ever they want and they don't have to follow the same

guidelines that everybody else does then it's going to be a problem and and it gets well that's a problem I do see with

the way that the AGC and the the this H uh the h2b program is literally just

like get them in here and get them put to work and let the compan figure out how to use them there's there's no

um is is there a path of progression for it you must start at Point a and then

point B and then point C and then at Point D we let you free you that's what I gonna say because even locally we've

had meetings and not just like this issue but just the labor in general and

there's too many of our competitors around here right are

they don't care they're just like just give me a body on the floor I don't care about their training yeah that's that's where the

problem is people have to care more about the deal and you know these this

this article will be going through here shortly

uh kind of highlights the entire problem as I see it um and I'm not the expert

here I'm one of but I would say I've studied this stuff pretty deeply uh so

I'm not the sole sole voice but I do believe I got a pretty good thumb on it um you know even

here in this article it says many of the immigrants arriving in the US uh lack

specialized skills needed needed in today's modern tech uh modern

construction industry this highlights the need for a more robust or for more

robust training programs the AGC partnered with uh Congressional members on a bar bipartisan proposal to double

the f funing for vocational programs and Career Technical education now that part

of it coming in could really help um you know especially if you're thinking about

high schoolers because it's not like all these imig all the immigrants coming in are just adults you know what I mean

right and so having uh more funding doubling the funding for vocational

programs and Career Technical education it's kind of funny when you think about we I went to shop class in Middle school

and uh it was called Junior High back then and uh the the absolute de

demolishing of all that and now they're talking about doubling the money for those types of programs we we just swing

the pendulum so far one way when we do stuff it's like to get rid of shop and I

mean like you couldn't find a saw in class anywhere now they want to double it well and just like college you have

to go to college and I was like you don't have to go to college at all yeah you must go to college to

well absolutely college is a waste of time Public public uh stats and and um

public information uh prove that you don't have to to go to be successful um

as long as you're still putting in the work um and and no college no University

no matter how many meetings I've been to will ever give you the metrics on success rate versus

failure rate of their graduates and they'll never give that to you no matter how you ask so that's they're keeping

some Secrets there for that one Walter is the floring scientist and he he's he

uh does floring inspections kind of on a a a really scientific based uh approach

but he says the poor quality of contractors working in commercial and Industrial flooring is keeping him busy

well you're going to get busier if uh if if we do this without proper training

the question I have is It's seems to be hard enough and do you guys think that

it'll be easier to convince incoming uh citizens to take H the

career seriously and get trained versus you know I just I still talk to guys all

the time they're like I don't they're I don't see any reason to get trained

nobody hires based on this and nobody cares and I'm like yeah you're right I

mean I I've been sounding the the alarm and and tooting the horn for going on

five years now to the industry how important this stuff is and they'll talk about it at the conventions and I'll

probably ruffle some feathers here but you know all of them are full of crap like everybody at the conventions love

you guys uh close comrades with a lot of the train entities and the the

manufacturers but you guys are all full of crap nobody does anything about it when there is a solution out there they

turn their nose up at it or they want to evaluate it for 15,000 hours it's like nothing gets done

so if this happens and people go to vocational schools and they go to vocational programs and they go through

the the old way of doing things through our education system and maybe we can get some you

know technical colleges back up and running with you know shop class and flooring uh flooring techniques in those

classes um then maybe that would uh you know help save the US uh flooring

installation industry yeah and just um just to add to what you started saying about do you

think that they would come in and find success or be more Su successful or want

to learn um an interesting stat that was brought brought up and I can't say for sure what it is but the the percentages

of immigrants or people working here on a Visa uh entrepreneurs percentage of

them is substantially higher than entrepreneurs in our own country so they

they come here with that mindset of being an entrepreneur versus waiting for

someone to to guide them to their uh uh to their destination they come here trying to make it um and it's a

different mindset and I think that if they're given a path they're going to find success a lot more than someone who

is uh been living in in our system a lot longer where everything's kind lot less

uh lot less spoiled yes that's for sure spoiled that's for sure they're going to take that opportunity this this article

ends with as construction demand Rises industry leaders stress that pragma a

pragmatic immigration reform uh or that pragmatic IM

immigration reform Work Force training and lawful work

status options will be a crit will be critical to meeting the nation's future

building and infrastructure needs so you know I'm I'm all good with uh that last

statement a good you know a pragmatic approach and with Workforce training uh

could you imagine if they had to go you know they kind of pick their deal as they're coming in and they go through 8

10 12 14 weeks I would think the fcef should um you know one of the uh in my

in my mind one of the shining stars out there trying to do as much as they can possibly do in the workforce training

world uh if they hear this uh I certainly hope they reach out to the

seniors at the AGC and the ABC and see how they can get involved with maybe putting a imigration Workforce training

program together for for flooring because if we've gotten 20 million new

uh immigrants into the United States and who knows how the current admin or the new incoming Administration is going to

deal with all that we've all heard the uh sound bites but you know reality is

often a little bit different than uh what people say on camera or on

TV uh but man if we could get get guys who are like on fire to get trained and

and earn a living in this business it would be Fant fantastic yes it

would so I I set this up particularly in this manner because the very next thing

the very next article folks 33% of homeowners would likely

hire a questionable contractor just to save money report

fins I'll leave it there I'll leave it there that's like so

it says a recent report reveals that about onethird of homeowners surveyed are willing to hire contractors with

questionable reputations to save money on home renovations and repairs that

means people 33 one out of every third per three people are willing with a

questionable contractor to let this person in their home that blows my mind it blows my mind

so so it definitely blows my mind because of you know the industry that that we're in right I think homeowners

should know exactly who's in their home how good they are and that they're going to do a good project good product form

if if I were to tell you that I didn't look at teu and entertain purchasing some of the items I've seen off of there because of the cost I'd be lying uh have

I purchased anything no but are you talking about manufactured goods versus letting somebody into your home in

comparison brother in comparison I'm Jud judgment calls I'm not talking about you

know apples apples well this goes on to say that uh and and questionable

contractor so let's define that as somebody who may not be honest about

pricing overstates their skills that's number two on this list delivers poor

quality of work number three or fails to show up for jobs number four like these

are all the things that we have been aiming to uh to rid this industry

of like I don't know what honesty uh you know being honest about pricing maybe

that is uh given a low price and then coming back with a bunch of change orders or something like that is what

I'm assuming um that is probably not the best

business practice for sure however I would say that that is derived from guys

that is um uh it's made worse by people who good

guys having to compete about against crappy guys or crappy C crappy

contractors so the good contractor has to beat this guy's price and then the

only way he can beat that guy's price is to Bare Bones it and then change order

anything that is unforeseen they can't use you know if you're watching this and

you're a homeowner or you're a a Commercial contractor you must understand that people cannot use their

expertise in their industry to put your bid together if they're having to bid

against somebody who has no industry expertise or standards they might have

all the knowledge but not the standards or the required uh requirement by their

employer well the point you get my point like if you don't know how to do it you're G to bid it crappy if I'm bidding

against you and I do know how to do it I can't use that knowledge if I do I'm I might as well just sit at home and pet

my dog because I'm never going to win any work so I can't use my expertise

against a contractor that has none because I will blow my I I will I might

as well not bid the job if I start thinking like okay this a second floor bathroom all second floor bathroom

should have waterproofing under ceramic tile for example

uh well the specs don't call for it you know what I mean I waterproof my

my I just put lvt in there you get my point though like it's

all exasperated by by the the the problem Builds on itself well then I

mean commercially and residentially too everyone thinks that we are all bid in the same exact thing when it's that's

not the case nope I can assure it very often is

exactly not the case actually you know it's very often that guys like you go in and you're thinking ahead of things and

you you want to you know a lot of our bids we we line it them out voluntary

alternates of stuff that we know has to happen that's not in the drawings just to try to say hey here's our base bid

based on the drawings and specs uh and but if you want our expert opinion

or recommendation you need to do these additional things to do your project right that's a great and we usually

usually you'll lose the job anyway because of it but just because of that number yeah they're like oh these guys

are trying to do it way too right we're one of these 33 percenters here you know

and it and it sucks too when it comes down to a difference of like 800 bucks um you know something so minor like

that yeah well the guy that wrote this say that the uh he goes on to say that

the decision can pose significant risks for homeowners especially given the high

cost associated with repairs and Renovations I will add to that resulting damage uh somebody not knowing what

they're doing uh causing additional damage to your home that would not have been done

otherwise the survey found that the reputation that reputation uh go career has a reputation

score by the way let me just uh Shameless plug that in there is the top

Factor homeowners consider when hiring contractors with it with 25%

prioritizing it so look at all these like figures 33% of people will hire a

questionable contractor to save money but then they in that same survey uh

reputation is you know one out of four people prioritize it then followed by

experience then cost personal recommendations availability and and

then estimated timeline so all these metrics are are

should be tracked on a on a contractor in my opinion on how well they're doing

and somebody ought to be able to go to a public uh you know uh centralized place

to see how someone's uh performing in those areas but um yeah it's kind of

contradictory if you say uh that 25% of homeowners prioritize reputation but

then uh you're a questionable contractor yeah so maybe his reputation that gets

the company in the door and not knowing what cont well I think it's the Yen and I think it's the Yen and yang of the uh

of the um of the argument well that like John

says he says his client got three bids from electrical companies the big

company with you know 20 plus employees was around two grand a small man in a van guy was 800 bucks and

I mean overhead is real guys like it's a thing and that that's kind of what you

get though you're getting that reputation and you know that this company isn't going to go anywhere and

if anything goes wrong you can still go back to him and be like hey this isn't right that guy that's charging 800 bucks

could he do it right absolutely but if anything happens to go wrong is he GNA stand behind his work or is he already

you know that that tail light warranty type of person you you never know

does he have the same phone number I was talking to somebody earlier uh going through some uh some list on go carera

and noticing guys that had changed their phone numbers like just different phone numbers I'm like you know in my

experience the guys that the better guys have their number since 19 you know 95 or so like they keep the

same phone number guys who when he had a next toe

yeah if you a different phone number all the time uh any of my uh fellow flooring

contractors out there listening uh if you're s if you got a sub that's always changing his number he's probably

changing it for a reason well this this is a you know this

topic runs deep I think I think there's a lot of stuff that can be derived from it but Angie Hicks who's the co-founder

of Angie you know the old Angie's List this is this kind of cracks me up says

she suggests that homeowners would be better off hiring a new contractor than one with the dubious

reputation yeah yeah I mean no no doubt

no I mean there's a lot of common sense in that sentence right [Laughter]

there just gonna throw that out there yeah

well I get it you want the best deal but really that's what uh you know you're

trying to get most people want to want the best deal to get the best deal you

got to know that you got the same thing what's he say burner I got two one for work and one for play hey bro you know

where I came from burner mean something

else as communities grapple with recovery and efforts from all these storms so we all know about all the

Hurricanes and stuff homeowners are advised to be particularly cautious when hiring

contractors the importance of selecting a reputable Local Company especially for critical repairs like

ruffine uh that must withstand the test of time

it is crucial for homeowners to conduct thorough due diligence ensuring the contractors that they consider are

certified and have solid reputation in the industry I'm telling you what let's go

this is all preach preach the word their article

we've been saying this for how long on the Huddle by taking these precautions homeowners can reduce their uh risk of

fing falling victim to contractor F fraud secure reliable uh services for

their renovation and their repair needs you know yeah yeah that ties into

a couple years ago in our area there was a lot of fraud going on where contract were taking down payments and then

running and you know they were being hired off of the list place and then uh

both Craigs and Angie um and then I I think I see things now on like Facebook

Marketplace but there was a there was a lot of that going on and they were doing like the Fox 17 problem solvers over

here and they would go to knock on these people's hous like hey you took money from so- and so how come you haven't done the work are you gonna money back

why come you haven't been there and it was like that was crazy to me like I can't believe that that was being done it

happens all the time I know I know and homeowners the the uh fact is is that

the construction industry used to be able to tell when somebody was good really we were a a

country of builders in the first place like if you you know people grew up on farms had to build their own stuff and

like that's just not where we're at anymore not everybody can pick up a hammer and and uh build something and

I'm going back to Facebook Marketplace because just like some of these it's like in the garage sale

groups right around the area and someone goes on there and it's like and people tag me in it it's like hey does anyone

know anyone that does any flooring I'm looking for this and then there will be like 150 comments and there'll be two

flooring floor actual flooring people like exploring installers or contractors and then everyone else is a

handyman yeah that was um if you go back to co that was the rise of the

DIY and kept a lot of inspectors busy and then they went back we had some fun with the DIY episode if you guys are

watching next next one you should get you should get on and watch it that was fun I

could all right so I am gonna this next when we're running short on time is

transforming construction safety the shift from compliance to compassion I'm going to skip that one we'll bring that

up in a future episode because I want to get to a another flooring specific a

little more flooring specific one and this is about the FC an fcef announces

first pilot cohort of floring installation technicians course so the

Floor Covering Education Foundation has announced the successful completion of its inaugural pilot cohort for the

flooring installation technician course developed in collaboration with the Alabama Community College

system Innovation Center I didn't even finish it and I it was a mouthful uh

Drake State Community College and the industry task force the significant

Milestone marks the culmination of 2-year effort to create a training program that raises awareness and

preparation and prepares the Next Generation for uh careers in flooring

installation they had their graduation ceremony at Drake State uh on October

11th the achievements of five students who completed the skills for Success floran installation technician course

the program combines online inst in education with Hands-On uh training and

a lab environment so like in modules providing participants with particular skills recognized credentials that equip

them for in demand jobs there's no doubt the jobs are in demand and hopefully you guys get on um

you know get on the uh the jump start and hire some of these people as they

come in John like that need to have the shenanigans

declare everyone needs to get them and beat them down with r sticks all right John is getting down and then he follows

up with the hell yes I helped with this well it was the that the other the first one was on the other topic that we were

on yeah yeah it's not the same topic any any of these uh kids down with

broomsticks yeah no but like I said earlier on it's pretty cool for the FCF to continue to

push and try I mean he just got to keep pushing pushing keep trying new things

uh I think Rand is 100% uh correct here you need to help them to uh get more

funding uh we also need to help get the students placed because that's the throughput on the on the promise once

you start doing that and you get people trained and then they get a job in the industry now we're talking about a way

that uh uh you know people can see a future and uh funding is always going to

be a a a a topic of discussion it's one of those things that is really difficult

to solve um you know the the the industry is about a 20 26 to 28 billion

dollar industry from a wholesale flooring perspective so around I guess

uh that's arguable uh as well but essentially there's about 20 mid2 to to

high to high uh you know or mid 20s to

high 20s uh in the billions of dollars of material sold in the US every year so there's no doubt that we're the

bulk of the and when you consider this is predominantly with say five or 10

manufacturers not like it's spread out across hundreds or thousands this is

your these big entities and I've worked with some of them and they're really hard to work with I mean it's hard to

get anything done um and for them to take a step forward in um improving the

industry everybody talks a big talk uh very few people walk a big walk I mean

it's always talking and oh I got you get you with this person or get you with the it's all it's just you go down a rabbit

hole for a year with with people and um you know uh our industry just really I

feel like lacks um accountability and leadership in those in those areas but

um that just I thought what the FCF you know announced uh was that two years ago

now right when it was people some of these manufacturers given a penny a

square foot and that stuff adds up I mean if if every manufacturer did

that yeah a penny a square foot I think would that there's a manufactur

that is doing that and that I think could could change the industry if

everybody would just do a penny a foot they have no problem charging his extra fuel SE

charges no kid you know right we all know what that was like or is like but I mean you know Rin

is referring to uh you know people hiring everyone says that they need installers but then don't hire them and

uh like even even with us we see that too and they will call us hey man I'm in a

pinch can you do this and then they lay out some pricing and it's like I can do it for this and they're like okay never

mind we'll find someone else I think the big problem about the hiring part is there's just no

the I've said it a thousand times if I've said it once like you got to know that you're getting a superior product

like you buy a Mercedes-Benz you're expecting to spend more than if you buy a

Hyundai period yeah you just are expecting to pay more and it's because

you know the reputation the cloud all the stuff that goes along with it uh with having it the

the the superior quality of having that vehicle the same thing has to be done in

most Industries and most Industries have you know in the construction World a lot

of the ones we all talk about in respect have licensing or certifications or

schooling or J you have to have certain statuses for you to be able to do that

job and bottom line is there's not much uh there's not a um barrier of entry

into flooring and so there has to be some scale of measurement um but of

course people have to adopt the scale people have to uh and uh if not one

that's out there make one do do something like if you don't want if if

the one that's been and not only that we need to start stop pushing the whole uh 1099 on

everyone and realize that there's a a place for this the actual W2 employee

that it's that's the only employee that is legit right there is no such thing as a 1099 employee and then not statement

to you know being their own boss if they want to but it's developing those skills

from an indust or from a something like the FCF going through that working with

someone and then you know after a few years maybe it's like hey I want to try my hand at this and it's like I mean no

one's ever gonna I I don't know if knowing but we wouldn't we wouldn't be like hey no you got to you got to stay

Putman unless they really needed to like we'll be honest with you we've helped we've helped uh hourly guys go uh

subcontractor um the the bottom line is they need to be prepared there should be a stair stepping of this deal um if

you're going to be a flooring uh installer you should work for somebody for quite a while and uh learn the skill

um there's a again a very effective uh

way of of gauging skill level out there uh everybody knows about go career's

hammer rating uh it's just not widely adopted by manufacturers but the bottom

line is at some level of that skill and I've I've personally invited

manufacturers to State like let's come up with what level if it's a a two

rating or a three rating says I'm a journeyman or I'm an apprentice at that

point I'm a full Apprentice I'm past helper I'm an apprentice at this level I'm an journeyman at this level I'm a

master at this level and you you could easily do that and solve the first part

at then you you what's that and then you could if you wanted to go be a

subcontractor we lost uh uh one of our cohorts here Daniel um but if you wanted

to be a subcontractor after that then you go through some type of business uh

training and uh or go to school go to you know one of the things college is pretty good at is treat teaching some

business courses uh you can take a business administration business Administration

you know some level that you have to prove that you are that to uh get a

business license or something then that would solve it but we don't want to put these parameters in um as an industry uh

it's clear to me there's a a bunch of talk about it but not a lot of doing so that's my rant John's comment right here

it just kicked me off and made me sign in again for some reason so I don't like you what's he say he says with

subcontract model there is no motivation to train new installers and I I think what what you

look at in an industry is that it's the way it is because of most of these installers want to work by themselves or

no one wants to work with them yes yeah the the subcontract model

is there because of multiple reasons one is risk uh on the company you can diver

you can um you can uh not eliminate but you can share risk on multiple insurance

policies so that's one reason subcontractor uh model Works uh the

second reason is you you know it's it's more I wouldn't even say coste effective

if you have a good in employee installer they're going to make you more money than a sub ever will but the fact is you

already kind of know you can project your costs better that's why those models work that's why and then in

downtimes when a retailer for example that sells to you know s sells retail

flooring when they hit a low point in the season they don't have that they don't have to lay off and they have this

big Workforce that they're trying to keep busy and and so it can be

beneficial it's just the the individual installer should be skill tested period

and then they should be hired based off of those skills it's real simple like and I understand where John's coming

from from too because I don't go run a car then go buy new tires for the car I don't I don't do that but at the same

hand on the other hand it's uh you're borrowing a car and you know that those tires aren't going to last the three

days you need it you have no choice you gotta make sure you get to point A and B

that's probably the worst analogy ever but couldn't think of anything

else well that is gonna do it for the blue collar cruise this week uh there

were some really cool topics hit us up on spot SP ify YouTube and apple podcast

or anywhere you get your podcast if you catch us please give us a like subscribe give us a thumbs up we're the highest R

rated flooring podcast in the industry uh went through the metrics

earlier and I'm proud to say that with the guys here we're here every single

week and uh putting in the work trying to to help you guys stay educated as

best as we can open up the conversation more so than anything and have have uh

you know meaningful talks so to me that's uh that's what we've been successful at and and really proud of

here at the at the Huddle and I would say that these gentlemen are a stone

when it comes to this podcast and I can't say how much I appreciate you and Jorge for always coming through on the

Hispanic uh well I should say Spanish speak uh Spanish version of the Huddle

he is a stud make sure to grab his uh you know episodes when he's up on on the

Spanish speaking podcast uh for the Huddle uh in fact warge just says

sometimes you need uh you need for things to fall in order for the

manufacturers to be pressed with uh the problem if retailers can't hire more

guys to push they will close down and no carpet comes out of the mill

uh the I think at the end of the day what he's trying to say is that you know

it it's tough to keep everybody busy all the time uh retailers we we have to put in good

quality product for people to still want to buy the product I forget who said it

but you know floran has no value until we touch it and when I say we I mean the

installer till we put it in it has zero value it doesn't do no good in the rack

it does no good out in the driveway it only becomes valuable when it's in your

bedroom or your house and uh or in your facility of some sort so we are the

value creators and we need to start acting like it as an industry of installers we need to start acting like

it and uh hold each other accountable that way so I appreciate everybody

coming on and and all of the uh interactions and live viewers we had a

lot of live viewers today so uh again if you catch us on any platform make comment let us know we're

doing great let us know share everyone you know share share it to everybody you know even if they are a flooring

guy especially if they're fling thumbs down guys I got a bum shoulder thumbs

down thumbs up all right guys well thanks again love you guys it was a

pleasure hanging out and uh for the audience we will catch you guys next

week right oh wait a second Happy Thanksgiving everybody oh yeah aiv

everybody have a great Thanksgiving see you guys

Daniel Gonzalez 11/26/24 Daniel Gonzalez 11/26/24

The Huddle - Episode 125 - The Importance of Continuing Education in the Flooring Industry

In this episode of The Huddle, Daniel and Jose are joined by special guest Mark Herakovic to discuss why continuing education is essential in the flooring industry. With new technologies, techniques, and trends constantly emerging, staying informed and up-to-date can set you apart as an installer or business owner.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

hey we got mark back we lost you for a second yeah I got a phone call from my warehouse guy

so all good now yeah all right hey what's up everyone

welcome to the Huddle your weekly Playbook where I tell my brother that I can still hear myself in his

microphone stop talking loud I'm talking

normal uh Paul's not here he had some emergency stuff to do with uh one of the

project that he's on so it's just us today Mark not a problem I'm sure I

could rattle on enough oh that's I figured that much that's why I invited

you good that no uh cuz uh we we didn't want to

do the the same topic that we were going to do because PA kind of runs the the blueco collar Cruise right so I

was like Hey the last time we talked uh well I seen you on Facebook you were talking about trying to get

everyone from the the training organizations so that way you can talk to them

about just in general like who is even out there I think right

trying to get a list together yeah I was um writing an article for the CFI

magazine uh I'll probably give it the Beth also at floor Trends and

installation um about the need for trainings but also to list what's out

there so guys have an idea of what's actually out there um to make it easier on them to

find all that information right because I mean how are you going to get trained if you don't

know what's out there right exactly and it's not even just like all your

organizations like uh CFI n wfas uh the ntca uh but the free stuff the

manufacturers off offer also yeah and that's what I was going to kind of get at too it's like when we talk about

education it's not just going to a certification or anything education comes in many forms right and you

already mentioned a couple of the magazines you I mean you talk about just educating yourself from those it's

better than not reading anything and thinking that you know everything yeah

yeah my wife yells at me all the time I'm on my phone all the time but it's

I'm reading those magazines and you know articles and everything related to our

industry um you know she thinks I'm into it too much but it's what makes you

professional you know that is what it is what makes you a professional it's also what separates you when you when you

care about what you do and you care about just you just care period you're gonna investigate you're G to find

something that you like like an article you're gonna read it and then you're gonna come up with your own uh ideas

from that article or from somebody's information yeah does relate yeah because a lot of the people

who do know me and you know when we go to uh trainings or uh the conventions or

anything like that you know you're always going to have questions you know

and with the you know products and materials and everything rapidly

changing you got to have questions and who are you going to ask you know it's

you know and that's where all these trainings do come in handy you know it just elevates you and you know the

industry in itself right and even as like uh we're in sales too right so as a salesperson

anytime there's an issue that comes up I can actually go and just talk to these

reps and be like hey this is kind of what's happening what should I be

doing yeah and and that's the other thing I'm trying to get to also in this

article is you got to get to know your reps you know because you could call the

800 number to a tech department or whatever for a manufacturer you'll be lucky to get a call in a couple of days

and by then it's too late you know knowing your reps they're going to get information

for you a lot quicker yeah a couple days how about a couple weeks got a phone call into I'll

just I don't know if I should throw them under the bus or not but uh a German company who hasn't returned phone call

or email really yeah yeah because I I I and

that's what I did last weekend I put out um you know I messaged uh a bunch of the

organizations and the people I know um it's like hey I'm doing

this questionnaire you know five questions of what they offer and you

know when it's available or can they just call up and you know schedule something and I'm still waiting on those

responses you know it's like you want us to do these trainings

but you're not getting back to people quick enough and you know with the podcast like the Huddle and everything

um just you know doing the research yourself you know it's going to make it

a little easier to have it out there in print where it's a little more accessible than trying to contact

someone you know that's already you know trying to contact the manufacturer sometimes your reps are

real busy or whatever you know you don't get a call back or they forget to call you back at least this will be in one

one or two spots in a couple magazines where um you know you'll have something

to reference back to and have the you know an email link or something like that to make it a little bit

easier you had mentioned about uh researching yourself so um I'm one who

likes to do that right and the benefit of that is now you're just don't have someone talking at you or telling you

you're absorbing it interpreting it yourself you're going to retain it a lot easier U not only that is if you do

research and then still need help from a rep now you're at least on the same page and speaking the same language or or

closer to um and that helps uh come up with a solution a lot faster than uh

than just calling them say hey I got this floor is going bad I got this product is not working well what's the

locking mechanism or what adhesive are using uh whatever they sent yeah you know yeah that that doesn't help them

answer a question you know no and that's the thing I'm I'm self-taught in my

career and I I I do stuff pick things up you know everybody has their failures as

they're starting out and everything and you learn from that but you do your research because yeah you don't want to

have to Shell out the money to replace something or repair something you know

but you got to do that research so that doesn't happen again you know and if if

you don't know the the correct product to use you could be like um okay I'm

going to use this specific adhesive for this product well it might not be the

for the correct application if you don't know their products and get trained on how to use

their products correctly they're not going to be able not even getting trained right he just

educating yourself and knowing that hey uh so story Chris Koo texted me the other

day and he's like hey I'm doing some of this sheet vinyl they sent this adhesive I don't think it's the right

stuff so I'm like yeah you're right it's not the right stuff it should be this

and he's like all right I'm going to go and tell them and then they came back and said no talk to the salespeople they

said it's the right stuff and he's like man I'm just I don't know what to do so he I was like dude just contact the

manufacturer and see what's up and sure enough they said that I mean down to the material that he was installing and

wasn't the right stuff for the application so it's it's just doing the the research like that

like knowing enough education to know that hey something ain't right it starts

with one thing and then it kind of just balloons to everything else and then you're just essentially protecting

yourself and making sure that you're not going to have project failures yeah

uh same kind of same instance last Saturday you know Saturday morning and I

was just sitting drinking my coffee and I got a call from a guy out in Texas cuz he saw I just did the uh lob bakle uh

training and uh he called me up he's like well we're using this product but we're having an

issue I'm like well it sounds like you didn't follow directions correctly or

use the correct you know he used their moisture

barrier but then was using a different leveler over the top of it and he didn't

use the correct primer for it you know so he called me you know and I had an answer for him but yeah I called I I I

called my rep and The Tech Guy um just to verify before I gave that information

out I didn't want to give them the wrong information you know but that's where it

good to know your reps or your field tech or you know even the guys who work in the in the lab in the tech department

or something is because then they can give you that correct information you know and then you know he was able to go

ahead redo everything and not have an issue from that point you know so it's

trainings isn't just about learning the information it's also building those

relationships with those companies you know and you're going to be more

confident as an installer also instead of you know like me I have questions all

the time you know I I do trainings I know a lot of the information but it's

more of is this correct you know it's it knowing

that you don't know everything right and like you said the technology changes so much that it could change from one pale

to the other and you don't know until you start reading into it yeah and and that's the most aggravating thing is you

know the old saying I've done it this way 30 years with no problems you can't

say that because just in the past two years look at the the changes in adhesives and the multiple different

kinds of adhesives that are out there you know whether it's a urethane base

waterborne Ms technology um an acrylic uh you know

there's so many different products out there you got to keep up on it you know and mate is

correct right sometimes their correct answer is I don't know but I'll find out and get back to

you yeah yeah and and a homeowner is going to be a lot more um understanding

and have a lot more confidence in their installer um when you do say something

like that or it's like well I've never run across this let me contact this person or whatever you know

because a lot of homeowners are seeing what's done on on like HG TV watching YouTube videos which are that's a whole

another conversation right there right and then they get mad when you don't just go in there and get their stuff

done in a half hour because that's how long their show is yeah they Bas it off that commercial where the guy just rolls

out a floating floor and the couch levitates and lands back on it right and

then once you once you do start getting that education and then knowing your reps it at least on the commercial side

it it helps out a lot because sometimes they'll just be like give me their information it's a hands-off approach

just like I'll say hey they want they're asking about this I told them that and

they're still not really grasping the idea you can contact them and then they

go through everything for them and sometimes even go to you know to job sites and stuff like that to to handle

it where you don't have to even do anything and I mean that's more time for you to do something else and that's

what's nice about a lot of the manufacturer trainings too um they're

not just like either at their at their Factory or at a distributor or anything

a lot of your reps will go to job sites they won't do the work for you but they

will make sure you are set up and doing it correctly and they will have they're also there to answer those

questions while you're doing it um I've seen a big over the past couple of years

I've definitely seen um a huge availability be in uh a lot of your

technical sales reps and everything for companies being out more on job sites

than they are doing uh the counter days at the distributors or doing just the

trainings at a factory or something like that um which I think is better because

now you're hands on using their product and learning it um as opposed to just

sitting there watching them use the product and just telling you about the product because you got to have the feel

for each product you know it's not just oh I have the I have the knowledge on

how to do this but there's a feel to it at least in my mind there you know

like the when I did that training in Cincinnati uh three weeks ago you know

it was the adhesive side and also the um stains and finishes and you know know

you were Hands-On sanding and everything and all these guys are sitting there putting headphones in you know to do the

sanding I'm like you got to hear that machine you got to feel that machine so

I don't understand how they're doing it you know with with headphones in where

you got to be able to hear that machine to make sure it's running correctly you know is it creating the chatter in the

floor you know is something clogged or you know there's a feel and a sound that

you gota you know get to and it's the same as on the adhesive side when you're spreading

adhesive you know there's a feel to each different adhesive you know so you know and that's

where a lot of these Hands-On trainings and everything come into play I

think I get I get exactly what you're saying about that the hear the feeli right so it's not hear about hearing it

it's more about learning it you're learning what is a regular normal sound if it's operating efficiently versus is

when it starts to uh get clogged or you know the RPMs are going up or low or

maybe you're losing power somewhere I I get I get that aspect um and to go Backtrack on the the Reps getting out

more you're absolutely right like they have almost all the answers for every

question you might have from a technical standpoint and application standpoint

yeah and I will say that like uh the first time I had a rep come out and get

down and dirty with us on a night job uh was was Jared from udine and that dude

that was the I never expected it and not only that our sales rep was there too which was awesome

like I mean I wasn't looking at it like free labor I was looking I asked as many

questions like yeah and that's that's the thing

I've noticed too is like even going to do the trainings or whatever people

don't ask questions it's like they're afraid to yeah or and that's why you know during a lot

of those education sessions at the uh convention or at trainings or whatever I

will ask questions I'll ask a difficult question I'll ask a question I already know the answer to 100 he that's what he

does all the time he's like I already like like you were saying right I already know the answer to this but I'm going to ask it anyways because it was a

question that you had at one point and you know someone else has that question and every like even when I do the

trainings it's like does anyone have any questions and everyone is like no and then sometimes they'll approach you

later on and it's like hey and then they'll ask a question it's like man like just if you would just ask it in

front of everyone no one's going to be like I can't believe you're asking that question it's like someone else has that

question too well yeah because like at that last one I did you know I I was asking my questions

I already knew all the answers to it and we took a break and uh one guy came

up to me he's like dude I wouldn't have even thought of asking those questions I was like to me they seemed

like pretty basic yeah simple questions but you know you got other guys who have

been doing it 15 20 years according to them that they're like I wouldn't have

even thought of asking that and that's why I ask him you know and it's especially at con ition or whatever you

know everybody's like you know always stared at me like you got any questions mark and I'm not trying to start

arguments or anything it's just more of a clarification you know and that's what's

good with you know especially attending conventions it's not just the networking

but now you can get clarification of instructions from the manufacturers

themselves you know because there is a disconnect between what we're told

by a manufacturer rep and what's actually listed in their instructions and I was actually just having a a

discussion yesterday about a post I made on one of the forums about H

joints and I'm like it's it's a weak spot it creates a weak spot in a floor

yes and this guy kept arguing with me he's like well it's listed in their

instructions and like they show the picture of you know staggers and stuff and they have H joints in there and

stair steps and stuff like that so just to clarify my stance on it I messaged a

manufacturer uh head of the technical department for one of the manufacturer and I I I took a screenshot

of his answer and I posted it and the guy was still arguing with me I was like this is straight from the manufacturer

yeah it's so so and I think that that's the confusion too right like um because this has come up in one of the certification classes that we did and it

was um it is an approved install but it's not a preferred install like and there's

reasons why like like you just said the the the integrity and the strength of the Locking mechanisms is compromised

because now you're creating more linear weak points instead of it being yeah and

from the answer that I've got that I got from uh this particular rep was um it

creates a lot more stress on those joints when you is because you figure

you got this movement now it gives it a direct line straight across and it does

it does create a lot more stress in that specific area so it is going to end up

creating gaps in the floor and it's going to start to fail um just the same with uh stair steps it creates a fault

line where it's putting stress on that pattern um as opposed to a random

stagger whether it's a floating Flor a a uh nailed down hardwood something like

that not only is it more aesthetically pleasing having a random p uh stagger

but it actually Keys it and locks it in better and Tighter now you're not just relying on a locking system now you have

the full board itself acting as a locking system as opposed to just that that

small Locking System all right and um so so if some people don't understand that

aspect you got to look at it like like I try to find something to compare it to right like a control joint there's a

reason why they they go and they strategically cut at the columns instead of letting it crack everywhere right

it's strategic and um I know that the H joints lining them up like that

essentially is the same concept as a control joint in my eyes I mean that's the way to explain it to someone it's

like there that's an intentional weak spot you don't want to do that you can avoid that doing the

install that's where they brought up the uh the tile look like floating lvp the

tile look and my thought on that is and I haven't discussed it with any reps or

anything like that but at least on the tile those are a wider board you know you're looking at 12 18 16 inches wide

by two foot uh in some instances anymore they're three foot um but that wider plank or

that wider board it's going to dissipate some of that energy a little bit more but I think what that does then too is

it could create some of that cing that you know everybody says it's moisture but I think it's pressure you know where

a lot of that movement happening in a wider board dissipates more towards the center

causing your edges to kind of curl up a little bit again that's you know that's just my

thought education kind of uh backfires a little bit right because we know enough

to start making our own assumptions but then we don't know the actual cause of

it and then you get just kind of got to rely on what the manufacturer tells you and this is where a lot of the

installers will have push back right well they're saying that it's failing because of this when think it's this

but dependent inspectors out there too right and that's where um educating

yourself and going to these events helps out because you can actually talk to

these inspectors you talk to these manufacturers you talk to these Tech guys and then you get stories where I

mean I talked to them where they said that they were they had

failures because in the middle of you know they they sell

and it was a click together plank they were selling a bunch of it and then they switched

manufacturers or they switched not the manufacturers but the locking mechanism so they went from one to the other

without even telling anyone without telling any of the tech reps or anything

and I was like man they didn't even update the the installation instructions or nothing he said Daniel nothing I

didn't know anything no one knew anything and it wasn't until they started having issues is when they found

out yeah yeah and you you run into that quite often but that's where you know

the education part as an installer come into

play you know because a lot of these everybody always complains about drop lock uh lvps or laminet or whatever

they're actually really good I'll complain about them too well thing is they're really good and strong you know

but it's only as good it doesn't matter if it's the i4f the uh valinge or the UN

The unilin unic Click system you know if your floor is not within proper

tolerance they're all going to fail you know and that is it right there

where education is going to come in because you know we everybody knows 316

in 10t radius or whatever 8 in and 6 foot 8 foot whatever it whatever it is

you know but doing the trainings you're actually Hands-On doing it then you know

you're you're tested on it you're doing it yourself not just being told this is

what it needs to be now you have an idea how it needs to be done and what proper

steps to take to do that and what's acceptable and what's not acceptable and what's going going to be your best

course of action for the application um you know so you know and

and that's that's the one thing I get tired of is you know everyone I'm tired

of the complaining from everyone you know it's like why failed this inspection because they said it's in

solar area they're full of crap well dude deal with it you screwed

up because you don't know what you didn't do it correctly that's where the educ comes in and the

education is there and I've heard it from all the certification boards the training sessions uh manufacturers

themselves you know it that they're getting a lot more involved over the

past few years so they don't want you to fail

they don't want to have the installer show out the money for these Replacements they want to see it done

correctly and that's where the training and the education comes into play right

and that like I said you know in the beginning it's not just the training trainings that you have to go to right

there's multiple Avenues where you can get education you can educate yourself just think in terms of like the CRI 104

105 right it's right online for anyone to read they have documents out there

that are free and yet people still don't know that they're there's standards out

there that you have to follow if you're just had that conversation if you're a a commercial

installer and you don't know what you know f710 is ASM f710 then you're

already behind and I mean granted these documents you do have to pay for right

but you pay a small fee and you get access to basically any any document in

that in that one vertical Market that you need right so if you do want to know

what ASM f710 is then you have 18 you what is it 1869 2170 on all these

moistures and like there's so much information out there that all you have

to do is look for it yeah because I think the ASM I think

it's uh $60 to get access I think it's 75 now that's

and I think it's like 125 to have access to all of them for the

year uh something like that something like that I I like I said I don't know

but I mean if if you join then you have access to all of them right and I mean

and that way you have that information to go back on you know whether it's you

know especially if you're a subcontractor um and you're subing out to a store or something now you have

that information you're not just fighting with the salesman or the owner of the store it's like hey this isn't

correct and here's my backing of it you know and then once you start getting into you know more levels there's

actually softwares out there that keep track of everything for you because uh we've been using floor Cloud for a while

and we actually you can go through and there's what products are you using on this project and then you don't even

have to know like you just input the product and they keep track of it for you it's like once you're you have it in

there you start getting alerts all the time and it's like temperature humidity

Doo like these things are not inspect for this product and you can go on there and see what that product calls for yeah

and Flor Cloud's nice because it automatically updates itself uh when there's changes or

updates to products um it's a great great system I

think it's what it's it's not that bad if like for me if I was working by

myself it would be a little pricey for me but if you're a larger especially if you do a lot of commercial work um or if

you do a lot of uh new construction um and you have GRS out there wood flooring

even wood even even in the residential setting dude yes yeah for wood floors

because you you especially wood floors if you if you uh deliver your material

ahead of time like your supposed to for acclamation but say it's delivered and it's in the house and they paint it they

get all the painting done man that change moisture content real quickly

yeah a lot of people don't think about that I mean just think of in terms of getting it in there to acclimate right then you show up and start doing a bunch

of self-loving that H that that water's got to go somewhere yep yeah and you

know uh uh back to the ASM standards how many people know that there was a newm

standard uh put out there I think it was like three months ago four months ago uh

allowing testing no for uh approval of roll on moisture barriers under

lvps they actually made ANM standard about that and people just don't know

but I am going to play a Flor Cloud video right now so it is a great product and like I said we have it on a few

projectss right now and it's definitely worth its weight in gold man oh

definitely time monitoring of your jobsite conditions via desktop or mobile

device no more manual checking for temperature humidity or even dueo no

need for base stations Wi-Fi or external power sources simply scan the QR code on

the front of your sensors and you're up and running with the most accurate and Innovative sight monitoring system in

the flooring industry dispatch your Crews with confidence and reduce your climate related installation

issues floor Cloud now you know yeah so we're on a project right

now where um the it's right in the manufacturer's documents I said you have

to keep track of the ambient conditions throughout the entire project or else

basically I mean if you don't your warranty is not there right

yeah you know some people have the uh the ability like we have in our warehouse right now the the censor out

there that will shoot it back to us in here right um but that was the the the

ba the basis of floor cloud is that you don't have to visit the site you can log on and get all that information right

but anything is better than nothing but yeah the money that saves a company too

of sending a crew out there and they can't do anything because the conditions

you know that's a lot of wasted money and now you have guys complaining because they're not making any money because they're not working that day you

know so it's it it was it's a very ingenious idea right so Mark based off of uh cell

phone services or something or cellone yeah it's got its own you know SIM card and stuff in there and it shoots

everything out all by itself but you know we're we're talking about education and you said that you're selftaught so

what was your kind of uh turning point where you were like I'm going to start getting the most education that I

can uh so it's actually kind of funny because it was uh a little over two

years ago when I actually went and got certified myself um because for the longest time I

was against certifications because I I I'd run into a lot of guys that were certified and I'm like well that doesn't

seem right what you're doing you know but it it got to a point where

you know I was rounding 30 years at that time of installing

and I I I heard it pretty much throughout my career is like am I as

good as everybody says I am and do what I know is it accurate and

that's why I went and did it was more to test myself and challenge myself and

then when I actually went to that certification I learned quite a bit you

know and it it was kind of humbling when we did the the hand skills and everything like that it was pretty

humbling um but the amount of information that I didn't know um really up my game over the last

few years and but now I take that information and now I go back and talk

with all our other installers and Subs uh when I show up at the warehouse because they come to me and they ask me

hey what would you do with this well well here's why you need to do it this way you know you know it it's passing

that education on also you know and and that's why I ended up doing it you know

like you said passing it on and that's one of the things too about certification and training and getting

out there is it's one thing to be credible because you are uh you know

coined a good installer decent at a certain discipline in your area but it's another thing when it's recognized by a

commit or or national program where you're uh you have your certificate of

completion or certification that is more validated by the industry instead of the people that

you surround yourself with and uh that's a yeah it sounds weird but but it gives

you that sense of completion as well right like like it it totally did and it it really

changed my outlook on what I do and what I've spent you know my entire I I've

been doing this more than half my life now and I was getting burned out on the

install side for many many years and that kind of rejuvenated me and now it's

like okay everybody said I was good now let's be better you know it kind of gave

me that let's get more involved let's get this education out there and

and it's not I I always said it was an arrogance thing at at one point and it's

not necessarily an arrogance thing but like you said it's more of a sense of uh

accomplishment um than anything but it did kind of rejuvenate my

uh I guess it's a passion still well you talk about arrogance right and that's

what Dwayne told me he said I thought you were really arrogant when I first met you and and then I got to know you

and I realized that it wasn't that right and it's it was never meant to I was never meant to come off as arrogant

because I'm not the one that was saying that I was really good or the best at anything like you said it was everyone

else that was kind of pushing that validation on to me and then once you

realize you're like man maybe I am kind of good and then it's like uh where else can we go with this right and it's

that's why that's why you know in the in the classes for the NCT and the last one

when we met down there when you came over there to uh what's he was that in

Columbus right columus yeah uh they asked me you know why why are you doing

this why are you teaching this class and it's like man I got I got to get this stuff out of my head

because Flash cob and heat weld is that dying art and people need to know how to

do it because you're talking life and death situations sometimes if there's a bunch of stuff that's getting underneath

something something in a surgery room and all it takes is you know that being

pushed into the air and now it's in someone's body yeah the bacteria yeah

and and actually what I I when I stopped and and talked to you and sunny

there I I I love that class one because yes as you said it it is a dying skill

there's not much around it but what I liked about that class is you had two

guys from the manufacturer you had another guy who's been doing flashco for

many many years but wanted to you know uh up his skills because he had a big

job coming up plus he had some younger kids there um you know that was the

perfect scenario to push some kind of Education and Training

and right there is the perfect example of it you know cuz you have guys who

work for the manufacturer but needs to know how to actually install it a guy who's just uh you know redoing his skill

set after doing it for so many times and then the new the the younger kids you

know who there's money to be made in Flash Co now because nobody does it you

know so that was I I really enjoy people do it they just they they don't do it correctly ly

and that's where that's where things need to change right it's educating yourself and knowing you're not just

going in into the the building and throwing a floor down it's hey like this

is a really sensitive area and if this isn't right I could potentially cause

issues in someone's life and it's looking at it like that and that's what I kind of drive to people when I'm

talking to them and it's like it's not just going in and slapping something in it's talking to infection control and

knowing that you know so many deaths happen because of just sweeping and the

the air you know getting dust in the air and then then traveling through the HVAC it's knowing things like that so when

we're talking education we're not just talking about how to install the flooring we're also talking about what

are you affecting when you're going into these places I mean just look at you know in residential too you go in there

and you start sanding something and it's like that dust is going to settle somewhere

and knowing that you know everything that you do

affects someone else exactly and it that's what's funny

about you know like even on you know any of the multiple forums that are out

there you know listen to some of these guys talk and I I don't comment much or

anything but it's like man this is why we need training you know they don't

realize you know lvps and laminates were pushed for many many years as a DIY

homeowner friendly to install and everything but why are the so-called professionals having such an issue with

it that's where the training comes in handy you know it's like are you just a

y homeowner who's making money on this how about you do it correctly you're not going to have the issues that

everybody's having lately do it correctly How You Gonna know how to do it correctly unless you

do some of the trainings we got Jesus and Jor on here I do want to shout out

to Jor because this guy just got married over the weekend congratulations

bro so um you just mentioned about the DIY and I just had a conversation with a

with a client um about about a week ago week and a half ago and uh she had me on

I was in speaker phone with her and her husband and she was talking about they did she said the bathroom was just

installed not too long ago and it's failing and blah blah blah and I didn't at that point I didn't know

the husband was the one who did it so I was threw him under the bus a little bit right but not like in a bad way it's

just that we're diyers home on owners are still subject to the same standards

as their professional yes and what separates a DIY from a professional is

the fact that they are willing to educate themselves they are willing to ask the questions they are willing to

practice with material before they install it they're willing to go through all of that additional work to educate

themselves to be better for you at the end of the day and um and if you're one of the installers that just kind of you

just kind of do it as you go right you're doing yourselves any any favors you're keeping your close mind and and

and you could be better you could be more efficient they're not separating themselves from the DIY crowd correct

you know and and that's to me that's not a professional you know and and that's

where I get hypocritical sometimes is if you don't keep educating yourself

and trying to do better and keeping up with the changes in the industry to me that's not professional but yet

the hypocritical part is I will never call myself a professional I I think it changes a

little bit too much yeah I think I think the information I think that some of these homeowners actually educate

themselves better than some of these installers to be honest with you because the information is out there and they do

so much research before they get anyone in there that they already kind of know what is going on before you even

step foot in there right yes but the downfall of that also is homeowners

think they know it all then um you know because again they are watching the

YouTube videos and the and stuff like that where

there's a lot of companies out there making videos and everything and I just shake my head because they're doing

pressure sensitive adhesive over a sheet vinyl with no kind of prep or you know

they're uh spreading adhesive over all the paint and everything that's all over

the floor and drywall I'm like and there there's some of the biggest influencers out there

like on social media that are doing stuff like that and they're making a bunch of money by putting these videos

out and they're making even more money because they're getting these jobs done all super fast and people think that

they're doing a great job and it it's normalized right but that's where when

things like this happen you have to be educated enough to know that you can go

in there and say hey this is what's going on I can provide you with these documents yeah and that's where it's not

just the education of you know proper subor prep how to install a product correctly anything like that it's also

being able to talk with a homeowner uh and that's where I think you know some

other uh training needs done for a lot of contractors is being able to go in

you know you know be able to talk to a homeowner keep their mind at ease but

like I go into a job on the first day I'll look around you know couple

questions I have here or there but then it's like all right here's what I'm going to do today you know today's going

to be demo and prep here's how I'm going to prep here's what I'm going to do because we need flat we don't need level

we need flat because everybody's always like well the floor is not level doesn't need to be level I need flat you know

and then having that discussion with them it does put a lot of homeowners more at ease when you could take some of

this education that you're learning and all this information that's correct and pass that on to a

homeowner um that does put their their their mind at ease and more confident

and comfortable of having you in their house um you know because like I go into jobs where people are spending 40 50

$60,000 on a brand new floor and install you know it it does make it a

little easier for them to you know to spend that kind of money knowing that's

going to be installed correctly that's that value the value that's added to it

and the prevention and you just said something that separates I I feel it

separates us a little bit from some of the other install around now I'm saying installers because some of the other companies have all the literature

already in place right it's you are already presenting solutions for issues

or problems that haven't even arose yet right you're you're preventing because you understand what you might hit and

and you're explaining everything up front um and you're right some people it's hard to do that right because they

just look at the overall dollar amount but if yeah if they understand that

their investment is in your is is also your best interest then it's a different story they they they do accept the um

the understanding I don't want to say higher charge right because sometimes you don't even need it right it's just if I hit the scenario this is what could

happen um don't mean to scare people away but at the same time I want to be transparent right because that you're

educating them based on the education that you have right and it's like it I'm not giving you this education so you

pick me I'm giving you this education so that you know and your project doesn't fail whether you go with me or not yeah

exactly saying that that he talked to you about something last week when uh

yeah I I actually mentioned it earlier he was the one who contacted me last Saturday uh about a

product and uh yeah I I called my I called I called the rep you know and he

answered Saturday morning he was sitting at breakfast with his uh wife I was like

sorry to bother you but they answer you know know if you and that's the relationship you got to build with your

reps um you know it's I called him with a question at nine o'clock on a Saturday

morning he answered and gave me the information I needed so I could pass that on you know if I didn't know that

rep and I just happen to have his number because I met him at a a a counter day

or something they might not necessarily answer they're like I don't remember this guy or something you know sometimes

they still answer and then sometimes you have a rep that you know moves to a different position or a different

territory and then you just contact them anyways because you you've got that relationship you know they're yeah

they're they're a rep but they're a friend still right oh yeah yeah and it

it that's the importance of knowing your reps and the technical guys and

everything um is you do have that Saturday Sunday

job or something that you know you might need an answer right then and there because it is a weekend you know that

things may not be open or it's like oh did I just really screw the pooch on

this one and you know what's this going to cost me those guys can give you that

answer on how to correct that you know without having the delay in a job or

something that's going to end up costing you a lot of money and

if you're contacting your rep that means you probably already tried to do some research and you're just trying to get clarification so you are educating

yourself and that's really all we try and say and and put out there is you got to start somewhere you don't

know everything and the importance of education is knowing that you are doing

everything so that way if an inspector is called in on that project all they can do is say no everything looks good

must be our stuff yeah y if you're not learning you're lying to yourself that's

for sure oh definitely you know and that's why I hate that I've been doing

that this way for 30 years that D that drives me up a wall and not only that right it's

uh I haven't done it the same way for 30 years well and just with tooling itself

right and I mean do tools from 30 years ago still work amazing absolutely but

there's new tools out to make everything easier

so and the same thing with adhesives and things like that I mean um I was on a

project the other day and there's a there's a carpenter he was like I used to do I did flooring for like eight

years back in the day and he he used to do a bunch of sheet Vining he's like do they still do the two-part epoxy stuff

underneath all the seams and it's like man that hasn't been a thing for a while now he was like yeah you can see how

long ago it was what's that adhesive that adhesive it was Armstrong thing

right no whatever whatever be Weezy used to say all the time oh monobond

monobond I haven't heard that in a long time just maab Bond and we're

good yeah because actually when I was at convention this year during the trade show just talking with all the

manufacturers and the and the uh the tool guys and everything they are starting to listen

to installers and they're changing stuff to make it

easier and if you don't know what those changes are that they're

making like I said man you got to educate yourself on those changes you

know and they are starting to listen and they're making good Headway like some of

the new tools that Roberts come out with uh Crane's come out with some good ones

uh our good friend Ray naap man some of his stuff that's

ingenious but if I if you don't educate yourself on those new tools you're going

to do more harm to yourself than and than what they're used for you know

it's it's I just don't understand why guys aren't doing it well well it's one

of those things too where right like it it C cost us as installers more money to

do things the right way and to keep up with all the trends and the changes and that's what the manufacturers are

starting to do with the tooling is they want us to make more money so they got to put more thought into the process

what better way to get answers and better tooling than to ask the installers why aren't you using my tools

yeah they go ahead they try and make things more user friendly right and make it so

that you're you're more efficient but a lot of people just think that they're trying to make it so that way everything

is geared more towards the diyers which it kind of is because when you don't

educate yourself that basically all you are is a diyer yeah yeah and it's like I talking with

some of those reps at at the convention yeah they are tired of

denying claims because it's not installed correctly you know it's

because that ends up costing them money too you know they are dumping a ton of

money into trainings and certifications and stuff like that

and I heard one rep down at the summit back in March or February whenever uh

Sunny had that it was like we don't have

to but they're dumping more and more money and

more and more manufacturers are starting to do it because they see a need for it and you know it it's available a lot

of guys are too busy working they come home at night they're still doing estimates they're doing outdoing

measures um they're working late hours so last thing they want to do is sit on a computer so that's why I'm writing

this articles to make it easy so now you have all that information right there in one spot you know and all you have to do

then is just click a a web page link or something and it's and these you know

magazines are free subscriptions guys like CFI uh what is there there's flooring

specialist floor Trends and installation uh inst

uh ntca does some stuff uh they have their

uh was a tile letter um plus you have all the P the different podcasts you know got your you got Kyle's you got the

UHA has a few of them yeah yeah there's a floor Talk there's uh ntca I can't

remember what theirs is called um but yeah there's there's so many resources

out there it's not even necessarily just reading something you know it it's like

a lot of these guys sit there and you know make their comments and go on the flooring forums and stuff on Facebook

book take some of that time and go to one of these magazines they're online

you know they're all online go and read those articles and actually learn something instead of you know getting a

lot he's gonna make his own magazine and all is gonna it's going to be called floor hack

magazine yeah all they at work that one will

probably get r that that 100

that well there's that uh uh there's one of those forums uh

floor hacks or something like that I actually got put on it once because I was doing a bathroom at my own house

that I was renting and uh the toilet they 3/4 sub floored around the

toilet and it was old cast iron so there was an old cast iron pipe

and I'm like I don't no Plumbing I'm not raising that pipe up so I just floored

around the toilet put a transition around it it looked good but you're

looking at it all wrong that's all right you're looking at it wrong they didn't three4 subfloor around it they recessed

the toilet that's what they did pretty much because I think they did take the toilet set it on the plywood because

there was no scene they traced it they traced it I was like that's pretty

impressive you know sometimes and and that's the education thing too right like some of the education that

you get comes with experience yeah and we're not plumbers but I do know that

there are other ways and to go about adding height to the flange right they

there are a lot of other ways to do that and if yeah yeah I just know you call

somebody just call for that yeah the plumber yeah it was it was a rental so I

didn't really care they got a new floor for free so but you just you got to recess it like that but you got to bring

it back a little bit and then make sure you put a black light around the Ring of the recess that way when bacteria builds

up you see it and you know when to clean the bathroom I was just figuring so I

could see when I go to at night when I wake up in the middle of the night well

we're about at at the end of this man I I appreciate you being on today um and talking and you know I mean a lot of us

started off with our education kind of the same way you did and just there's a

point where you got to know that you don't know everything and that the information is out there and a lot of it

is at no cost right and that just pushes you into actually going out and

venturing and actually paying for some of this other education but you got to start somewhere and I mean education is

there man CRI like I said the CRI 104 4 105 is free and a lot of these carpet

guys don't even know it that it exists yeah yeah there's uh ardx theirs

is free they put you up they feed you everything uh Lobo vacle there's is free

they put you up I think a lot of the manufacturers if you just want to do their stuff a lot of it is actually free

a matter of is just getting there well a lot well that's with like your adhesives

and your finishes stains and stuff uh stuff like Mohawk and

taret if you have a bunch of issues you know if you're struggling with their

certain products um you would actually have to go through the distributor um

where you buy their product from but they'll send a rep out and do like I

talked to Phil gliden uh during our uh meeting the other day um it's like an

eight hour class and they go over all of their products on how to correctly install it and everything like

that I mean even the Distributors get on their mailing list so that way when they are having something you can go do it

and stop saying I can't do it that day because I'm I'll be working it's you

know what yeah I have to be there that day like I said it's you you have to start looking at it like I can't afford

to do this and start saying I can't afford not to do this yeah because it's it's cheaper even

if you got to pay for a training that's still cheaper than having to replace a job

well not only that it's the the value in it it's still cheaper than losing a client that could be with

you for years than losing every customer and that's the same thing with manufacturers right like offering the

training and education they don't want to keep getting respect and losing uh potential

uh contract with with A&E they'd rather stay relevant one bad installer giv a

product a bad name they remove it from their library and they move on to the next thing so yeah help help yourself

out um but yeah we should probably close this out um and I guess uh my closing statement for today would be is

um piggybacking off why Daniel said but instead of looking at it like um do it for your it's that you can't not you you

you can't afford not to do it it's just you know what do it for your clients do it for the end users do it for the

people if you're invested and you're all in then be invested be all in do it for

for the life of your business your company your family you know it's going to give you a lot more in return than

what you're ever going to pay out for the education Mark you got anything to close

this out no just appreciate you guys asking me to come on man it was a good time yeah don't get off when uh when we

end the live stream just talk for a second we always forget to say that beforehand uh if you guys found this you

know podcast helpful definitely share it around give us a like give us a dislike we don't care what you do as long as

you're interacting with us because if we're doing something that you don't like we need to know so that way we can be better just like uh the education

right it's you don't know what you don't know so let us know and uh we will see

you guys next week

Daniel Gonzalez 11/25/24 Daniel Gonzalez 11/25/24

The Huddle - Episode 124 - Global Flooring Trends: Insights from Across the Pond

In this special episode of The Huddle, we’re excited to welcome back Tom Cockerill from the UK to dive into Global Flooring Trends. Join Paul and Jose as they explore what’s happening in the world of flooring across the Atlantic. From innovative technologies and styles gaining popularity in the UK to trends shaping the industry globally, Tom provides a unique international perspective on where flooring is headed.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up team welcome back to the Huddle we are your weekly Playbook to

help G you gain forward progress in your flooring career to our new viewers

welcome to the team what's up guys how's it going

today I want to introduce uh Tom cockro who has been uh on the podcast before

and uh Tom is from the UK so we are going to be talking Global flooring

Trends kind of a little bit about installation probably get into some training stuff uh just a myriad of of

topics that we go over here at the huddle with me is as usual Mr Jose Gonzalez we are void Mr Daniel today

he's again out on a job site trying to uh complete some work so yeah get some

stuff done yeah never stops Tom you ever you ever get down on your knees anymore

and put some floors in I would simply know um last time last time

was covid was 100 square meters of flooring and that that was it so

probably 100 meters in the last 10 years on my knees well lucky you uh for for our

viewers out there that didn't catch you on the first podcast uh won't you give us a introduction kind of tell us you

know how you got into flooring what you're up to today and a little bit about Tom yeah no problem um so 20 years

in the flooring industry started on my knees floor sanding then developed into

floor fitting predominantly Uh Wood hardwood um then went into um little bit

of lvt a little bit of lam PR predominantly would um and then fast

forward to now we run a business consultancy um training provider uh for

the flooring industry so we train um anything from contractors to one man in

all lady in a van uh all the way up to multi7 figure retailers um predominantly

or only really on the business side of things so we don't cover installation um

anything of that nature um um it's all to do with the business side um and then

from there the training we offer mentorship and additional training and then we work on predom on my side of the

business we work with some of the manufacturers to deliver bigger projects that's similar to mentoring but but not

quite we we get them from A to B so that that's us in a in a couple of sentences

if that Mak nice so do you do um when you're doing business training you got any us uh company you work with or is it

all in the UK all UK all UK we've just done a course today that's why I'm a

little bit star eyed um for everybody out there it's nine o'clock for Tom it's 3 o'clock for us it's four o'clock for

Jose so Tom's on the back side of a long day so yeah we we've had flowing

contractors with us for two days um today was day two um so we've been right

in the thick of it all day um and day two is sales marketing acquisition

things like that and that's my my piece so yesterday I didn't do as much but today was was mine so hence why nine

o'clock I'm smoked so what is um what is the uh the primary experience level of

uh of companies or individuals that that are taking the courses you offer how do you mean so the what would

you mean by the experience experience do we have a new businesses starting up do you have people who have been in the

business for a while that are getting the Consulting is it a wide range

literally every single variety we had um on the course today on yesterday we had

someone that had worked for a shop for a couple of years and then set up on their own so they're in their first year

trading and then we had commercial contractors that have been in the business 44 years um one of them so it

big variety you know um multi-team um commercial and then just single

operative out on the T fitting carpet so complete there isn't a niche flowing

contractor as long as they're either in a retail environment or on the knees um

the cost covers it so it's you don't discriminate you appreciate I got

it yeah so yeah it's um it really does cover um the basics the higher level all

the way up to the higher level so people get completely different items and we're always really deep dive into that you

know what is the biggest take HS they're getting and they're all completely different completely different for the

companies over um here in the US that do some similar things uh I'm curious what

what what do you find like most

um most of these stores like what is the

like if you had a number one thing that most of them ignore or are not like really paying attention to or where do

where do you provide the most value throughout your course obviously your whole course is valuable but is there

one thing that or a couple of things that most people are

missing so predominantly I would say of the industry um I don't cover it Sarah

covers it but the financial side so completely

comprehending your numbers from start to finish not sort of freestyling not a

little bit of guessing maybe adding some you know exact measurement of where you

are now where you might be in the future and you know and things like that exact

not sort of It's Always most of it is made up from the ground and then work up

and if there's money in the bank that's okay not done on any sort of teed measurement so that's

normally um right across from the the smaller turnovers to the bigger turnover

um a lot still don't know where they are um and it's just because there's an

education around that you know we all and where do we find this information you know it's we yeah yeah

that lines up that's I would say that's probably the number one

uh that and uh in a second place I would say is truly

valuing uh your craft like not not just getting into it cuz you worked somewhere

for a for a guy for a year and then you think you can do it so you go out on

your own you don't go and seek out any formalized standardized training or

anything just go out and start putting stuff in those are probably two biggest problems that get that need solved over

here because hey if guys don't know that they're making a profit or not and you

don't know where you're numbers are you don't know you know any Baseline of Break Even

for your for your business then that's a problem I mean that's you you literally

don't have a business you're kind of doing a hobby if you don't know that stuff yeah you're just second yeah and

then secondly is um truly valuing the uh

uh some type of uh standardized uh in station standards

seeking out the craft you know trying to be the best that you can absolutely be

uh trying to obviously change that here but that's interesting I wanted to ask you that and see if it lined up so we

are going to jump into a couple of product topics I was curious you know we

have the title Global flooring Trends I was curious what's rocking over there in the UK what do you guys uh primarily

still you know in stalling both maybe residential if you have any uh Insight in the commercial world uh Jose does

some residential over here in the US side uh I do all commercial so I can I

was going to kind of compare where what what what's trending I was so I've got

three different elements this one is selfish one is trendy and then I'll

cover commercial as well so okay I'll go I'll go with the selfish one first selfish one being uh hardwood um because

that's my background that's my passion still get excited about even though it may be a little bit sad about Timber

floring um and over the years the um especially since covid the price has

gone significantly up transport is up um so it became a point where it it really

got expensive when lvt lvp was up um also coming into the market so that

seemed a better option what I'm now seeing that manufacturers have lowered the price of Entry a little bit and

there seems to be a little bit more of a buzz around wood it may be me because I did feel like there was a dip and I feel

like we're at the end of that dip and we're coming back out and people are really s we're seeing the carpet guys

saying I want to learn more about wood I need wood in my retail store a little

bit more excited about it so I'm seeing that um I see it firsthand so that's a

selfish piece um the main thing that I think is getting other people excited is

the um lvt that's got the basket weave Chevron um we would call them Victorian

tiles so very small intricate tiles and replicating something in the Victorian

time and things like that and the manufacturers are bringing out better and better replications of this sort of

real Specialty Flooring um and that seems to be a buzz that's the trendy um

and then probably could deep dive much more into these so please feel free to dig back into them um commercial side

people seem to be start on the environmental piece of you know saving

the whales and saving the the the um plastic straws and all of this they want

to start the journey but then they end up where actually looks like and we'll

end up possibly with a different hardwood or an lvt or something like that but they start we saving the whales

and it's yeah and and that's what the Architects and the designers seem to want him to speak about but then we work

back and then then look at price and product and look secondary so that's a

an overview so you guys can outow maybe something at me with any of those point but that's my overview of what I feel

2024 is produced in the UK I I would say on on the commercial

side uh your lvt they have gotten a little bit fancier with uh I would call

it with um some designer friendly uh product lines that that um

bring some of that Chevron patterns and and different patterns into uh the lvt

and they they seem to be pretty much Limitless with their ability to create imagery so um lvt is still just a

juggernaut in the commercial uh atmosphere along with carpet tole on the uh the other side in

in um commercial is there's a lot of

products that are coming out that are environmentally friendly that actually

uh Shaws come out with one here uh that is an lvt that's in Cradle to cradle

Cradle to grave and um has a good price point because like

you said what typically happens is we get designers or Architects that are really gung-ho about the green uh you

know products but you know you get you get into the pricing and before you know it it's 35 40% higher and they start

asking for Value engineering ideas and before you know it they're they're just using good oldfashioned lvt so here the

last month or two we've been shown multiple products at my uh

office um that are environmentally friendly PVC free uh good imagery good

good testing all that stuff so that's starting to hit the market it not quite so much in 24 but I can see it going

haywire in 25 so that's the commercial side I don't do enough residential to uh other than

tile to really have a opinion but I know does what are your what are your thoughts Jose um how does it compare

well so far spot on with the commercial right everybody want something that appears to be custom and one-of aind for

their facilities their their hospitals their schools so there's there is a lot of custom high-end work going on in the

commercial world and everything is modular unless like you said unless value engineering is in play then you

start getting like some broad looms and some yeah some lower end uh wear layers

and materials but um for the residential side you know honestly where where I'm

at in our location is hit or miss right it depends on the age of the demographic uh the older um demographic is still

wanting some of that uh nostalgic feeling I mean there's no more carpet around toilets I will say that like

thank God that's that's going that's going away and if they request it we we explain to them the implications that

that come along with that um but uh you know for for a while there it was um it

was a laminate but then you know that shifted over to the rigid core spcs were

getting very popular because of of uh the the we didn't have to put an

expansion every so many square feet right so spc's got popular but then that

is actually fading fading out now and it's more spcs and uh items like that um

the DIY uh thing is kind of fading away a little bit because of all the failures

that everybody is seeing um and I think that's where the spcs and the drop block systems came into play um well they were

they were positioned in the market and I don't know I'd love to hear your opinion or how it worked over in the UK but they

were all the DIY products were positioned as like you don't have to know anything to put this down you don't

have to have any like it the it the we did a podcast where we got on Tik Tok

and looked at some of these things and it was hilarious they they did very good at their marketing they were very very

good at their marketing yeah they just made it like the the stay-at-home mom can put it in you know and and Truth is

is you still have to have the floor prepped correctly and all these things and I I um uh so I think that that

caused a lot of the failures um you know both

mainly in residential but even a little bit in commercial where uh property managers were starting to do some of

their own stuff because they thought that it was no problem it's just carpati how how hard can it be so do you have

did you guys experience that same thing over there exactly the exactly the same where the the Die Hard installers sort

of tried it and then avoided it and realized you may as well just you know most of the real spe well the normal

contractors are sticking and everything down with the lvt um so then when they see in the DIY Market you've got

something know fully waterprof can supposedly fit together as well as a 12

mil laminate um you know go over an unlevel subf and then when it gets to it it fall you know it just snaps and comes

apart yeah yeah um so yeah it's very quickly seems to have swerved and possibly even

I haven't seen it but there was talk more of um either a lot thicker sort of up to 14 mil versions and then also back

to a a laminate to Swerve back into that DIY easy click easy install if the

subflow isn't quite right it'll take it um I did see on a on a flooring display

in a in a in a showroom H and it said suitable like it was on the um point of sale and it said

product is suitable for unlevel subf flaws and just that just didn't resonate

I'm thinking how you've never heard those two things

put together in the same sentence they didn't have a picture of it because they had a transition every third piece every

third row there was a transition that's what they didn't tell you um so going back to that conversation so I we just

had a a potential client call and I went out measured and she was talking me on her phone next to her husband and she's

like well you know we did the DIY thing but now since all of that failed we wanted to call a professional to install

it and I was like oh yeah you know they advertise as DIY unfortunately the

homeowners are still subject to the same standards as a professional and if you don't know those standards or you don't

abide by them and something goes wrong um the there's no coverage um so I mean

I wasn't trying to sell anything but I was just explaining and yeah but I'm glad well you should try to sell because

many many diyers they they don't understand the fact is is read the

install instructions I guarantee you the somewhere it's going to have ANM standard somewhere uh which is the

American testing uh testing of standard measurements or whatever um you know

it's going to have these standards that you got to know uh you know whether it's f710 or 1869 for moisture and all these

things and then on top of that when when you both you both mentioned moisture

proof uh or waterproof yeah waterproof that is such a misleading way to sell something

that is not truly I mean yeah if you spill a cup of water in the middle of the slat of the the properly installed

tile it's it's probably not going to cause you a problem if you get it around

the edges and underneath of it you got yourself an issue and um anyway that's

funny same same same kind of uh challenges no matter where you go yeah

well I think failure is failure no matter what right a a bad installation in in the US is still be a bad

installation in the UK I don't think that that really separates us from them I think U well but they have different

products I was talking to uh Johnny which is u a associate with Tom and and

Sarah and and they have like flat weaves

and things and we have flat weaves but it sounds like you could get certified in just flatweaves and stay busy almost

yeah yeah there is guys that are just simply Car Guys there's people that simply just wood guys just sanding guys

um and there's very very few that can do most items I probably know two or three

contractors across the country that have got a skill set in multiple different fields so you know we're not um the VT

guys tend to stick with a carpet and then the wood um tend to stay together

um and both there is some crossover but that's they seem to be the the channels

but yeah you can um I I know people that um look at the sizes and Naturals um and

do more of that so and then you've got the I'm not going to call them

enthusiastic diyers but the handy men that can do the laminates um but don't

do any stick down you know they so it's they're not really they're few far

between what I would see but they definitely exist do do you guys have uh

so like over here if you're in the natural fiber that's where you live in flatweaves as well like they don't those

guys are usually you know natural fiber Cil and seag grasses and or saw grass or

whatever you know that's a whole different world from me but they kind of the train is kind of formatted that way um as well

but uh so yeah it's it's funny when I was talking to Johnny how it it seemed

like you know there's such it's more Niche even you know what I mean it's

more Niche over there I over here you gotta have you gotta do more than just

carpet to stay alive and lvt and carpet guys they do tend to um that that is

kind of where if you're a good carpet ler you probably know how to do lvt or vice versa so interesting it is I like I

like the the idea that people are still taking the Artistry portion of the

industry a little more serious somewhere um and the way you explained it that's how I interpreted it so I'm just gonna

leave it like that if it's not like that nobody tell me please I just want to appreciate that for a moment so tell Tom do you guys have you

were talking about kind of that Victorian um did you say

Victorian tiles very small tiles soang and pattern flaw that type of very

very intricate patterns in your lvts yes oh really and they replicate old

Victorian Georgian UK house tows that you would have found in the hallway

predominantly um so yes really sort of nice tile effect

um that's what it is it's very very small like Mosaic tiles basically is is

that in the in the sort of Victorian that seems to really sort of K quite an

expensive but it's still not any of the same prices doing in tile um so it's a modern twist and they're just getting

better and better and better um but they probably retail around 100 pound square

meter I would say um plus your install which tends to be more but but the

finished result is something completely different yeah yeah

yeah really cool I just uh I I think your Victorian era is probably way

fancier than ours so well I I'd never heard of course I'm not in the residential world but um

we you know I've seen some of the uh medallions that are like preut together

they water they just basically water jet the stuff out and it's kind of preut together together and you just put it

together like a puzzle out so I've seen some of the Medallion stuff but um not

where there's any uh overall floor like designed to

the individual lvt that the installer puts in himself I mean it's just kind it's a

medallion in a box and you slap it together and put it together you know cut into it basically

so they brought out um like boed edges that have got complete Curves in sort of 90 Dee curves so you not how so it looks

like they've bent the lvt around the staircase or around a curved wall um you

know that's one piece um but then it's cut in I mean I I wouldn't even know where to start to install it but it's

but the the lvt guys you know it's getting more and more intricate and the

borders seem to be the things that really sort of set things off um

I see the point of sale of it a lot but it again it's the point of sale in the showroom works much better actually on

the floor on the deck um because you can show the borders and things like that on a sample board doesn't quite do it

justice yeah yeah how do you guys are are there um additional skill sets

needed with that or is it literally like kind of putting things together if you're a good lvt guy or they able to do

this without any additional training I think a lot of people are willing to give it a goal because

they've done the borders they've done the sort of detail strips and it's just a little step up from that but there is

training providers that will Deep dive three days just into design work um so

yeah you you can do there's multiple courses in the UK you could you know if you want to really focus on the design

work that you would go and sit to to but it's definitely not mandatory and it's

definitely not something you would get asked in a retail environment have you sat the C it's more to get that skill

set up to say you know to just like anything just get that your level of skill set up

so um so yeah there there is there is multiple training cses for it gotcha now

um awesome do um is there a big need for continued education in the training

there both on the business side and uh the installation side like uh do do more

people lean towards um consulting or uh receiving Consulting and then educating

themselves forther discipline we're the only training provider for business in the UK there is

no one else um you can go and do generic business training um but there is no one that focuses only on the floring

industry um so we're kept busy enough thankfully um but I definitely have seen

a huge increase in the last three three or four years of manufacturer training other training providers setting up um

when I was out on the tools you know you were lucky to get training maybe once every three or five

years with something and it would be a I don't know like um more like a not even

a club but like you know an accreditation you needed to do some commercial work to to do Sports flaws or

things to to do okay operations and that you needed the badge that was approved by the um manufacturer now you could

ring up 10 UK manufacturers tomorrow and say

I'd really like to bring the guys down to do some training um and they would do it they would take out to dinner they

would show you the products and really give you um yes it's a sales ploy to get

you to buy more of that product but it's based on education so they're not going to try and sell you anything what

they're going to show you is the technology behind their product and then you can do your own due diligence and

choose the best suppliers but the education they're doing is is by real guys that have been on the knees um

so and I think it's completely underutilized um where yes the sales

reps the area sales managers are trying to get people on these training they're free um but I think the contractors

should be taking time out of their day their month to do a couple of these because I've done quite a few and every

time I've learned something new um and I've got an alterior motive because I'll go and try them and then recommend them

to my clients and things why don't you take you guys on this but I want to go and sit because I won't refer it if I've

not done it myself but every time I've been to a different one there's something else I thought that was worth

coming for you know these are two and three hour um Journeys to go it's not huge maybe

compared to the state you know going right across the one side the other but you know most of these are in reach two

to three hours of people in the UK um so yeah so it's we we we no no but and

manufacturer yes we talk about this all the time

how how often we we find that people do not take

trainings and there are some free ones from similar situation where you got uh

manufacturers that will do it but again you got days off

travel hotel and and not producing seems to be the biggest thing so having a

merit-based or accredited based um uh reward system uh which is what go

Carrera and the hammer in which we're doing some kind of uh overhauling on all

this but that's where that all comes from is like really good guys that have

good Hammer ratings uh or good scores um should should get paid more and they

should be able to display to the end user why they're worth more and that

that might solve that problem of taking off a day or two because it does have a

future reward Bo in you being able to get more money from the marketplace yeah and

that's there's no way of that in in the UK where you could have done every course and you could have someone that's

done no courses and never been to any sort of education and they could be expected to be paid the same maybe well

and and how would the anybody know like how's the end user know you got you and

me standing next to each other I've never taken a course in my life but I worked for this guy for six months and

think I know what I'm doing and you've taken every course there is and have the certifications and you even got a

certification badge on your van unfortunately the enduser or the purchaser often doesn't

know anything about it like that I know plenty of flooring guys that are on our Network that don't even know where to go

get certified or go get different trainings let alone a homeowner or a general contractor or somebody trying to

hire you to do a job they just don't know so how do you tell and uh so having a way to Market

yourself from a skills perspective and provable that you're a higher quality um

installer than this other guy can validate why you are 20 30 40 whatever

percent higher than him and um we're hoping that that we can with some of our

marketing and and rebranding um and and kind of a new approach at it uh really start to create

this atmosphere where the really good guys get not that when you first get in you shouldn't make money you should but

it should be tied to your skills and experience I mean a doctor is no there's

almost no other trade or skill I don't care if you're a doctor a lawyer

whatever that doesn't get paid as you get more experience and more training if you're a you know a family phys I versus

a brain surgeon we know which one makes more money uh attorneys same thing if you're

a you know intern if you're a a a um the

difference between being a a lawyer and a partner at a firm or somebody who's in

corporate a corporate attorney versus you know a family attorney a family law

like these things have levels to them and so does any trade any skill I think

and uh we're attempting to and you know we've obviously been in talks with you guys about this stuff um but in in an

attempt to get the good guys paid what they're worth and have homeowners and

property managers and contractors know the difference of the the installation

they're paying for uh they may be able we we all may be able to get out of this

low bid guy gets the job kind of scenario I think it's very similar to the not not

the hammer but the the business training we do is not something revolutionary

it's not a golden key it's not a you know big bag of cash what what it is is

making you stand out from the crowd it's making you systemize your sales your marketing your recruitment um your

finances because we all start promly maybe on our knees with one person or on

our own and then we basically guess our way through the business you know yes we

if we train get do training or we learn from other people we can fast forward that but if some quite a lot of guys

literally just get a van and go okay I'm now going to make this up for the next five years and and then we wonder well

why is that company doing better and it could be down to you know um I don't

know like um passing down from family like learning from people that have done it but if you haven't got anyone to

learn from it it's so that coupled with accreditation would you know would get

you let's say a startup business from zero to five years if you worked let's

say your Hammer rating up but then also took the education on the business side um because I remember when you would

first set up you would charge a reasonable rate to win the work because

you feel your your standard is well I'm just learning so I'll just charge this but if if you changed your mindset to a

fiveyear 10e mindset at at year one the cash will start to come in a lot quicker

um and that's it most of the gap between the guys that are earning or not his mindset not quite a lot of the time not

skill set I mean yes fair enough sometimes it is definitely skill set yeah but quite a lot of the time it is

literally there they're getting in their own way that they're incredible installers but they're still charging

what they charge through years ago and yeah it just doesn't make well it does make sense but it's but they get stuck

on this wheel of like just continuously doing the same thing but getting the same results that's why that that you

got to know how to Market yourself and bring your skills out into the to the

Forefront whether it's your marketing skills your business skills your installation skills and be able to pred

present that hey I am I am a better option than the other guy and we have

the same thing that happens all the time guys just they literally it's like two

two guys talk to talk uh over the weekend and jump in a van on Monday and

say we're lnl floor covering

installation give us work and they don't set up a company they don't have a bank account they don't know how um you know

the the the rules for insurance like all the these things and you they just fumble one thing after another until

they figure it out you could Short change this learning curve by getting

with companies like yourself and short shorten the learning curve down to where

you're operating in a high level and that's what that's what I really get excited about when I start thinking

about you know whether it's accreditation and training or business uh teachings is you can it will pay for

itself guys like you can shorten this this learning curve down much shorter if

you get properly trained on both business and the the technical skill I just I just want to just want to butt in

and add to your um your scenario you just explained Paul is you just explained exactly how preferred flooring

got started yeah got got got let go on a Monday Daniel got let go on a Tuesday we

had a van on a Wednesday had our first project on a Friday like like that you just explained it to a tea like

uh what do we gotta do and how many pitfalls did you fall into very very

many yeah very many it wasn't that much different for myself yeah

like I was a installer that decided to go out and give it a go and um I did a

few things different than most installers I paid my I opened a company and I paid myself a salary every week

every bit that made I made over my salary went to the bank account and

that's how I built the business up an actual business uh but not everybody

does that in fact most installers I know they take a job they have no idea if

they're going to make money on it they do the job they pay their help and then

they hope that there's some money left over at the end of the day and if there is great if there's not they gripe that

the market doesn't pay enough you know as opposed to what you're talking about

Tom is like actually setting yourself apart so that you can clearly identify

so that your customer can clearly identify why you're worth more money uh if you're charging the same today as you

did three years ago there then you there's another way there's a better way

and you should you should search that out that's my opinion that's pretty spot on and I I

think if it could be accredited I think it could probably one give this call

more or the commercial more um you have to do it with Gas and

Electric in the UK so why you know why not do it with floring um but even on even a smaller scale which I think um

was a real sort of real take on for me we do very similar training for the last

three or four years and then we did some uh pre-qualification on the telephone so

a client rings in to your shop or to you or while you're out in the van and most

people just pick the phone up and just and and just answer it like a normal um

and what we actually did was we did 40 minutes training H but what I did was we

uh one of our clients led the training and what she was a um husband and wife

team so she ran the office and he went out installing um and so she would answer the phone take a couple of

details go out with some carpet books in her car and and then say choose your

samples and then they would then do a quote and that was it that was the system because what else do you do but

in four year Well since then she's been working with those and took other training um even like from different

business training and she's formalized this complete structure how to on aor

how to work out if the client really is that client for you Shaw's value on the

phone shows interest in the client and probably only goes out to 60% of the

people that have called through um sometimes gives prices over the phone if she thinks it's relevant but now all of

the work she is doing is at this higher level her husbands over the moon because all the clients pay really quick there

never any confusion about product choice or anything like that and it's just so

simple she uses a prompt sheet on every single call that's it so it's again

there's no golden key no magical wand it's a prompt sheet um and that's every

single and this is just residential install um so if there could be like you know if just fling contractors went

through that training that's a tiny 45 minute one hour training but it

literally could change your financial position uh it's change hers it's change of people within our Network that have

done it and the thing that's great is she led the training not me H we discussed it beforeand

the key key birs but but she now is impacting others by a simple piece of

paper so it it we don't need to change the world I think we just need to change a little bit more education rather than

freestyling it um and guessing um because guessing doesn't work all the time I think well and like you started

off it's it's a it's a type of pre-qualification yeah you're you're

pre-qualifying your customer and if you as a premium installer would do that and

just don't take the clients that are not willing to pay for a little uh you know for the extra work or the extra um not

even extra the the the premium type installation where with a company or

with a flooring installer who is going to be there in six months that's another big problem like that plagues I would

say the industry's um visual from like we don't

have the best Optics because people you know an installer will do a job and in

six months he's nowhere to be found not it doesn't have the same number doesn't have the same van doesn't have the same

business name may not even be around at all or if he is he may not be under the

same name or like it's just and and a lot of that comes from just not getting

proper business training on because that's what you're doing you're starting a business even if you're just

installing you're starting a business so understanding your metrics and then really being a professional at what you

are you're a technician a lot of times in the beginning be a pro at being that

you know and take pride in it and uh I think the more we can push as an

industry towards that the the more the healthier the industry gets and I like the the way you you

formatted all that too because what she did was she stumbled Upon a structure that vetted like you said uh prequal or

vetted her client and it slowly as as she went down her sheet is slowly put

them into a category client no client and that was I like

that is you just get better clients is that the bottom line Tom she got better clients she just gets better clients she

just gets better and better clients and she's even gone even one step to the out of comfort zone asking questions such as

have you received any other quot quotes for this job and that's not not so bad

um and that's so that's the first piece of it but then the second piece of what

are you looking to get from me that the others haven't given you like questions like that at the first you know

brilliant sales question but who you know which cont contractors ask that type of question you know so at that

point Mrs Jones would be saying well the first guy didn't turn up to come and look around the second guy didn't even

price the job and the third guy came back with a price for something exorbitant like 10,000 and didn't ask me

any good questions so she said so if I can come within your budget with the right product are we going to be you

know we should be a work together absolutely and she's never met this person so she's getting really sort of

building Rapport and it's not St she's using her personality her sort of

professionalism none of it staged um she just has the prompt sheet so she doesn't forget um and then she also has the

technical side and things like that so she can refer back to the sheet and it's every single call one piece of paper um

and it's worked multiple times for other people but I think it was just great that we deep dived in it on on a zoom

like this with all of our clients across country and it was like everyone's took something from I've took something from

this St yeah well that's a that's a beauty of a training and you mention mened it

earlier is you're probably going to learn something a lot of the other

stigma around uh flooring guys is like they think they already know it and I always tell this story we have a uh two

guys uh that have subbed from us for a long time one of them's now uh out of the

industry but him and his brother they were called the McDaniel uh Brothers one of them still works for us but they had

been doing carpet for a lot of years and we we ended up having a course here in

uh witto and they went to R1 R1 R2 and

then C1 uh so three courses with CFI and

these guys have been doing it for a lot of years but they were the same type they learned from their uncle and thought they both of them came back

raving about how much they learn all these little tricks and and ways to not

have to go back and ways that would make the client happier and just all these

little details and that was a technical training so um yeah I I I'm blown away

when I go to to a course of any sort you're always probably going to learn

something I was gon to say I don't think I've done a course that I've not Come Away with something I really don't think

I've done any and I've done multiple um installer um education business mindset

um emotional every single type of training I've done I don't think I've ever come away and

thought no um you some of it you know may have not been relevant but I still came away with something and thought I'm

going to I'm going to use that so it's yeah it's I yeah I think I'm sure they do

exist but I not ever experienced and I've done lots of training so yeah the roller coaster you just talked about

sometimes that all happens in the same day on the same project yeah it sure

does well we're already nearing our time and as a reminder for the audience Tom is uh

pushing 9:30 probably at this point what time is it there Tom almost 10 almost 10

nearly 10 nearly 10 nearly 10 okay well we're gonna cut it a little bit short today um and thank thank you Tom for

joining us it's always it's always awesome to kind of get you on and and

and hear your guys' mind uh mindset about the industry because not only are

are did did you come from the flooring technical side you guys run a training

program um if that ever gets uh fully online where some us people can uh

partake make sure to let us know because I think that would be amazing absolutely we we can certainly

do things on Zoom we do a lot on Zoom but most of our trains in person at training center both said we do a mini

ones all the time so yeah it's we' love how can uh everybody find that

um there's nothing available I mean the website cockren co.co.com

reached out to us and said look I'm I'm struggling with this I'm sure we could probably help you know or or certainly

invite them into a group environment where we've got other contractors that um and that's what we're kind of doing

probably focusing next year is bringing our high level clients that have been through all the trend to help others

because there's only one me and one of Sarah so the more the more people we can

impact more families we can impact that's what we're there trying to do so you know well if anybody in the audience

if you if this is resonating uh you know let us know and we can definitely get you hooked up with

Tom uh it's cockal uh c c k r i l l yeah

c c e r i l l okay e r i l l and then

okay Co okay cockroll and co.uk right.

co.uk do co.uk all right so hook up with those uh

I'm in contact with cockroll and uh Sarah and I talk to Tom every once in a

while I think I talk to your wife more often but uh we can get you guys hooked up if you want to look into their

trainings one thing I would say is you're you you you you never know what

you might learn from somebody across the pond about how you guys might do a business just a little bit different

than we do that could be a really big benefit so if anybody uh just reach out

to me Paulo cara.com and uh or you can uh reach out to Jose

he'll get in touch with us anybody uh Rand says uh I always say if I'm the

smartest person in the room I'm in the wrong room that's particularly true for you I'm just kidding

buddy all right Tom hey thanks for joining us today man it's a pleasure and thank you for staying up and and uh

having a great conversation Jose thanks again for always being here my man and

uh with that we will uh catch you the next time you're on the Huddle thanks

everyone all right thanks guys peace

Daniel Gonzalez 11/13/24 Daniel Gonzalez 11/13/24

The Huddle - Episode 123 - Managing Time and Resources Effectively on Installations

In this episode of The Huddle, Paul, Daniel, and Jose dive into the essentials of managing your time and resources effectively in the flooring industry. From prioritizing tasks to optimizing your workflow, they share practical strategies to help you make the most of your day and get the best results with the resources you have. Whether you’re running a flooring business or working as an installer, these tips are key to boosting productivity and reducing stress.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up team welcome back to the Huddle or your weekly Playbook to help you gain forward progress in your

flooring career for our new viewers welcome to the team today I am joined with a blank

screen and hopefully Jose Gonzalez uh Daniel is out on a job site and

hopefully he can join as well we're talking about managing your time and

resources for installation this has been um you know

one of the key factors I think in uh a lot of of different installer success

and um the best installer subcontracting Crews that we have here are really uh

really really good at this um across the industry I know that one of the things

that that uh you know comes from go carrera's

clients is the uh the desire for the the the crew leader to be able to manage his

time and resources including the employees that he has um to you know

best serve the overall uh customer which is you know whoever we're we're all

doing the project for so Mr Jose are you around my man I am can you guys hear me

at all I can I can hear you wonderfully I can't see you yeah just uh I think my

camera just wants to malfunction today I've I've already reset my computer like three times um it just to turn on so but if

you can hear me that's fine I don't have a face for a for TV anyway I was I was hoping

um I could uh throw a avatar of your face on on the screen

but I can't so we'll we'll live with your uh with your name and and uh the

blank screen knowing that you're in the background listening so happy election

day everybody I hope everybody got out and voted and and voiced their uh you

know cast their vote and and vo their their support for whichever candidate

you guys are going for and your any local um elections going on as well I

got voted uh voting done earlier so should

be hopefully a um a smooth evening but uh I don't know I I'm

I'm a bit concerned that either direction it's G to be a little bit crazy

so I don't think it matters you're right either way the this ele so many people

against one another Jose would it be possible for you to join from your phone I

wonder for um that might be better than having a blank

screen yep all right I'm gonna I'm gonna disconnect here and I'll join on my phone

okay well right now you guys got me uh where trying to get Jose uh geared back

in and Daniel's out on job site so today again we're going to be talking about managing your time and resources on

installation so uh get active in the chat and uh let me know what you you

guys' secrets are out there as I said early on um our best

Crews um are the ones who manage their time and resources the best and there's

no better way to to do that than having floor Cloud on your project so when you

are uh you know wondering if the job site's ready for you or the company that

you may be working for maybe you yourself have floor Cloud uh you can you

know uh know what the job site conditions are ahead of time uh so right

now while we're waiting on Jose let's discover how floor Cloud can transport your project side conditions right to

your fingertips you can increase both profitability and efficiency with floor Cloud Let's uh

let's take a watch of the floor Cloud video here abl realtime monitoring of your job

site conditions via desktop or mobile device no more manual checking for

temperature humidity or even dupoint no need for base stations Wi-Fi or external

power sources simply scan the QR code on the front of your sensors and you're up and running with the most accurate and

Innovative sight monitoring system in the flooring industry dispatch your Crews with confidence and reduce your

climate related installation issues floor Cloud now you

know yeah another thing I'll tell you about floor Cloud that's really pretty cool is if you load up into Flor Cloud

whatever products you're installing it'll give you alerts when uh the site

conditions do not match that particular ular product as we all know there's different flooring products that have different sight condition requirements

and having floor Cloud on there with your products loaded in will give you

the uh alert if the site condition is out of spec for that particular product

so it's a really big timesaver um you know like us a lot of our projects are

hours away and being able to get the site conditions from four hours away and not have to send somebody out is a real

game changer and if you uh connect your Wagner moisture meters to the uh device

then you can even get your moisture readings from there so Jose has joined us what's up I love the shirt brother oh

yeah represent all day well it's election day and we are

here talking about maximizing our time and resources on

installations one of the uh things I I talked about while you were off uh not

on was how much uh we appreciate the crews that really you know manage their

employees manage their their tools their they always seem to have what is needed

for the job now go career helps with that because they know ahead of time what the job requirements are they don't

come into the the shop that morning and get their work order and find out what they're doing they've known for quite

some time what the uh requirements of that job is so there's Mr

Daniel looks like he's in a van yes sir can you hear me all right

all right uh yeah we can hear you great and it's perfect timing for you to be in

this situation because we're talking about managing time and resources uh on our installations and I was just telling

Jose how for us the Cru When We Get slow we're in a little bit of a slower time

right now but when we get slow it's those Crews that really do good at this

that always stay busy with us they never seem to have a slow time even though we do they never recognize it because it's

the crews that are less um capable in this Arena because we want you know the

guys who manage their Crews and their employees and their their equipment correctly they always just seem to like

I said have the the right tools on the on the truck and uh you know able to to

the job site in a timely manner and take care of the project so you know it's it's funny because I just had a

conversation with um a custom builder today about about this about this

subject he was like man you just you're making my life so easy right now and I

really appreciate it and I would I look forward to doing more work with you um and I was like well well buddy like

we're just getting started man don't be putting that on me yet and he started laughing and uh um and you know he just

asked a bunch of questions and and said look it's um it's been my experience that you know

I am starting labor only than doing what we're doing now it I've experienced more

success and built better Relationships by taking stuff off of someone else's plate absorbing it

handling it and then just reporting back I make their job easier they appreciate

me more when they appreciate you more you get more steady workflow um on the

installation side and that was that was the conversation in a nutshell and um he

just appreciated the the communication as well yeah I I think communication is

part of that what what is your um you know Daniel you've been out and about

and working out in the in the field but you guys also subw work when you when you need to what's what's kind of the

key um takeaways from for you guys that you can share that really allow you to

you know have that comfortability level when you're working with

subcontractors uh essentially just babysitting them a little bit at first making

sure and it it is just telling them hey we need more communication hey we need

pictures every day

yeah so do you guys um when when you're talking when when a sub is or when a

crew I'll just say a crew when a crew is showing up to your job site um managing

their people their their installers or their their employees how important is

that oh that's super important dude like the last thing you want to do is uh

regardless if it's your in-house crew or a a a trade contractor that you hired to

help out the last thing you want to do is is is go in and start micromanaging

their responsibilities or even even if that's what you're used to doing you

don't want to be that guy that goes in there and tries to micromanage somebody else's company um you know

it's as much as we could appreciate someone who takes care of everything and

makes life easier I'm sure they can appreciate and when I say they I refer to us back in the day too is we can

appreciate someone who isn't micromanaging what we're doing either it's a a trust uh you got to trust the

whole process right every I trust every everybody and everything until until I I have a reason

not to that's a good point a lot of guy a lot of Crews they want they they

really need you to to give them that leeway to operate the job I mean legally

you're you have to give them that leway to operate the job and do their job but

um you know the ones that really tend to have uh all the questions like you know

there's a there's a lot of guys that they'll get a work order from and then when they have questions they

we'll still have a face-to-face meeting on site prior to the installation starting to make sure that layouts are

all talk through any floor prep stuff anything that's got to do with that job

and we super appreciate when there's when a work order is accepted by somebody but they don't have all the

information that they reach out to us and ask us a lot of times we try to do

that and make sure that you know our managers are responsible for providing good information but sometimes it takes

that installer's eye looking at the job and like hey but what about this oh hey I noticed that the LBT is 5 millimeter

and your sheet vinyls three are we putting a transition there we leveling it up that kind those kinds of questions

man that those are that's managing that information that's part of managing the job as a as a crew leader as an

installer back to to the the crews too because

we've always been the ones that are like we need this information like so that way we know how to plan uh and and be

efficient at the project when the reality is that a lot of guys tell us

even today that they just show up and then get a work order and they're surprised with whatever they're doing

that day which is not how things should be rain yeah I was uh menting earlier I

think you may have been on Daniel that you know that's one of the things we really appreciate when we use go career

is the fact that you know our guys typically we publish the work order and it's accepted weeks uh at least days

ahead of time and gives them a chance to check up you know look at the drawings

look at the documents any installation instructions we've put on there and

really uh let you you know they reach out to us and ask us those questions and

that that's ideal is to get all those questions answered ahead of time uh you

know make sure that everybody's comfortable with the project scope another key uh key thing is knowledge

knowing that you know I know that when we talk about managing resources and time but knowledge of how construction

works and knowledge about hey they get in there and they notice you know

different trades in the way or what have you um that can be a real pain in the old

rear end for both the installation crew as well as the company that's uh the

flooring company and sometimes obviously the installation crew is the flooring company um but neither Direction like

having that knowledge of what um sequence of construction should be you

know what I mean you go in you got lights but you don't have any HVAC on if

you don't have floor Cloud on your job and you don't know that well the installer had better know that and

report that back to you so that you know they're not installing outside sight conditions what's up hor hey thanks for

joining brother yeah and then you know some of the um the knowledge of the

process in construction period um you know that the experience it comes over with time um but then you can also get

some literature together and you you can kind of set expectations when you're discussing a

project you can ask some of those questions to be proactive or or listed in um your proposal your quote however

your relationship is with with whomever you work with um you know like we as

when we were labor only we still had our own set of terms um that we submitted with with a labor numbers and in those

set of terms depending on what we were installing had specific it they weren't requests right we weren't being

demanding either we were you almost have to be in some cases though they were

they were necessary it it was they were necessary items so I don't want to say they were requests that you know and we

weren't being pushy but they were definitely necessary um for that project or for

that specific material in order for it to uh perform properly and for us to install it

properly yeah yeah another another uh key key point to that i' I made in

the past when I was installing I was pretty eff I was fast but I wasn't fast

because I could spread glue faster than the other guy or because I could cut in faster because I knew how to you know

pattern scribe faster you know what I mean it was because I set the job up in

a way that allowed me to go from step to step to step in a very efficient manner

and you know know you you are the one in control of that as the guy on site you're you know you're setting up things

talking to other trades is another key Point having a good relationship if

anybody's on here that uh does commercial projects I mean residential

as well especially new builds but commercial it's it's imperative that you

get to know the other trades uh if you work in the same kind of municipality all the time you kind of get to know the

guys anyway because you're always on job sites with them but um getting to know the other trades and being able to work

with them a little bit because the gc's these days expect I think they

expect more of that than they ever have you know there they want you to kind of

coordinate with the other trades um and it's super effective for you to get what

you need to be a highly efficient and thus profitable uh installer

and you know the generals uh are also trying to keep certain groups together

um once they find a group of people that communicate well with one another work well with one another and they you know

like you said those relationships are created yeah that creates a Synergy on the job site you know if you're working

with you know the same drywalling company the same electricians the the same

HVAC uh like you get used to working with with guys you know what to expect

out of their crew you know that you know you know that GC knows you know how to communicate together and they're more

likely to to to use you even if you're not the low guy they make more hands off

hands off approach yeah and um well just like you said earlier your your customer

of you make their life easier if you make can make your client's life easier

you're going to be uh you're going to be successful no matter what level of this flooring whether you're uh you provide

and sell flooring and and installation or if you're just a flooring uh

installer or you're just a cells of materials I mean either way no matter

where you're at in the the uh sequence of that of that uh process the fact is

is if you make your client's life more uh you know just simpler um it's I mean

we've lost jobs because I've had managers in the past where I'd get a call from GC and he's like hey man I

like you but your manager is making my life hell he just he makes every everything's an

argument you know that guy's no longer with us that's that's the

truth and I think everybody goes through that depending on personality everybody goes through that that stage right where

you know as a floor guy you need the floor to do the floor and everybody always seems to want to be in the area that you're working when you're trying

to be the most duct that you could be well we take up a bunch of space yeah we

do we do we we we um we we command real estate on the project and um

unfortunately it's the way it has to be for us to get certain things done but

there is certain materials we can work with where we can part it out without putting us in a bad spot but at the same

time that shouldn't be the expectation um you know and I think the frustration kicks in

uh and I know it has kicked in with me when it's a repetitive question hey can you only do this much today can you only

do this much today right like I can do a th000 square feet the same amount of time it takes me to do 700 square feet

except for the reward is a lot different like I'm I I I want to make more you

know every day I'm I'm well and you want to make their job get done you know you

want to get project completed too so it's not just about you you you I mean it's it's a benefit to everybody

involved if you can get in and get the project done the faster you can turn it over the better faster we can get paid

and then we can get that money and then once you like working with other trades

majority like a lot I was on a project yesterday where

the electrician just called me and he's like hey where are you guys going to be at so that way you know my guy I know

where my I can put my guys and it's like that's the kind of relationships you have to build like long term so that way

you just skip the middleman and just communicate with each other yeah and

that's that's honestly that's that's um you know communication we talk about a

lot on the Huddle is how important communication is and building the relationship is part of communicating

you know what I mean like you got to take step one first and that's communica and then you can build that relationship

with each other now you're on another level when you can look across the room at somebody

else and just do a couple nods sh shrug your shoulders and you guys are on the same page and you both give each other

the thumbs up and just go to work like yeah that's the that's the kind of work relationship I want to have that those

are those are good ones that's when the beauty happens when the magic happens you know I think uh another part of

managing your resources you can't you know we just got to the money and that's the next part is managing that part

um managing your money and resources and one of the other things I would say

about a lot of the good Subs is they invest in themselves not just in training and education which we talk

about a lot but also in their equipment and their their tools and their vehicle

and vehicles sometimes uh you know some of our subs are a little bit bigger and

they have several vehicles that are all wrapped in their name and you know they're they're uh they look very

professional and they they invest or manage that

resource maybe your number one resource at the end of a job is the money you make and managing that um it can be

tricky we know I know for a fact through experience that it's one of the uh

toughest things to do is manage that resource uh but reinvesting back into yourself back into your company back

into your employees back into your equipment and uh making yourself that much more um valuable but also efficient

yeah efficient that so that that's what it is right like and some some of the things that you mentioned too are are

are purchases that when you're not generating the revenue that you'd like to generate in order to invest in some

of that that you can't see the benefit uh but this I'll just give a flat out scenario real life scenario and how we

got to a point where we're just like we're just gonna buy brand new vehicles if we were buying used vehicles dumping

money into them the amount of money that we were putting into our vehicles to maintain them on a monthly basis on

average we could have probably bought a couple brand new vehicles at the end of a year or two years if you look at it

and it was just like like you know but there's things that you got to build up to get to that

point um but the money and the resource part like you're right that that is that

is kind of that dance that you have to find you gotta you got to find your sweet spot on pricing you got to find

your sweet spot on production on efficiency you got to find all these sweet spots for for it to to look really

good at the end of a quarter um or be acceptable at the end of a quarter I mean so some quarters don't look really

good but then the next quarter is when that overflow comes in and like oh there it is there it is I thought I lost you

but no you're there you're there I see you yeah and understanding some of that

too well a lot of people think just just charging more charging what you're worth

well first off you have to really know what you're worth and that's that can be

subjective but efficiency is a Sure Fire weight

quality like understanding being educated in the flooring that you're doing and then being efficient at that

at that product uh or those products that series of products uh that is where

from an installer standpoint when I installed on a daily basis that's where I made the most money was understanding

the the processes the the sequences on the job site as

well as knowing what I'm do I was doing you know um I didn't always know what I

was doing and and so I had a good comparison um you know for for a

while it wasn't as profitable I mean the bottom line is you buy a new piece of equipment that makes you uh that you

know how to use well that increases your efficiency increases your profit you can get a job that would have taken you two

days to do you can get it done in a day and demo machines are a good example of

that they're they're a lifesaver you know we got yeah we got a big tile demo

coming up and I'll tell you what like it would have taken days on days on days to

remove 3,000 feet of tile uh you know we're g to probably get that done in a

day and a half and it would took in a week or more who knew who knows you know and how many other pieces of equipment

and uh that we would have needed on jobsite now we'll just have one chip and Hammer and

demo the main demo machine and you know some shovels and wheelbarrows and knock

it out of the park yeah the the demo machines are work wores that um until you get one and you utilize it

you don't really understand what you've been missing as far as getting your time back on a project um unless you unless

you find someone with one and you hire it out and you do understand uh it's one of those Investments that are hard to

pull the trigger at first but once you do you're like I'm so dumb I should have did

this just look at the YMCA the YMCA project we're on right now like if we

didn't have the ride on machines like all of our guys probably would have quit on

us right here that that's a great example there

because yeah what I mean that's a good point to bring up as well is like the the wear and tear that you save on uh

other people's you know on your employees bodies or your own body from from uh using equipment do you guys have

an automatic welder yes sir H how is that for you

guys uh on some of the projects that we have that have a lot of scen that works

out great but majority of the time long run obviously well even like um doing Nora

right because it's only four foot and if you got one room with like

15 seams in it it it's already worth it yeah yeah and then and then the length of the

seene right like trying to stay cons like say you only have two seams but they're 120 foot you know and then you

have five cross seams for five head seams to do right the head seams are fine but you go do them long seams 100

and something 100 plus feet I could tell you what like staying consistent through

that whole thing and the same pitch the same speed all by hand is it impossible

no after that one seam I tell you you're taking a break you're doing all of this and then you're gonna go and and do a

pass and like oh gotta retouch that gotta retouch that that's why I brought it up is um a a lot of the crews that do

our Terror Flex in our in like our athletic you know multi-purpose rooms and stuff they use automatic welders

because not not necessarily is it that much faster really

um the the but you save you just save your body that at the end of the day an

eight hour day of welding um man the consistency and the the the wear and

tear on the guy is is night and day yeah I I um so you talking about uh Teraflex

right in all the sports floor they have that that super high Sheen finish or the finish that will it's very finicky it's

gonna burn if you're just tilted the wrong way yeah the consistency you can create with

the right robot you put it it's not a set it and forget it like we make jokes about just

turn it on turn the light off walk away come back right like with self lover and the robots it just doeses it itself I

just set it in the room I come back and everything's welding make jokes like that

but just the it just looks perfect when you're

done like if you do everything right and you're prepping and taking that time and you invest in the right the right

accessories to go with that tool man it's just you don't have to go back I love it

yeah yeah it's it's uh it's a real game changer when you find those those little

pieces of tools and going the opposite direction from a from a um uh automatic welder we bought I in

fact I bought four of them the small welders 90 degree oh my goodness when

you're doing a ton of Cove seams oh yeah inside outside corners those just having

the smaller welder in your hand it's amazing the difference that it

makes and it just it's a smaller tool and it actually welds a little slower but it's so much more um

favorable to yeah to doing it you don't have to rush yourself out yeah this one

right did you get the turbo tools yeah this one right here was a gift from

Ray it's a butane it's a butane

welder I don't know how efficient it is the idea is cool but just to have one that's this small um and and portable

say I don't have no power say something happen I got a little repair to do yeah

I'm still calling D to do it or you do have power but the dog on closest Outlets 100 foot away and you ain't got

a 100 foot cord yeah yeah all those types of things so

uh you know we got tools education and knowhow

you know tools and equipment rein employees we talked about you know uh

managing their time and resources because they're going to go where you tell them to go and how you know kind of

Follow Your guidelines so what other resources because you know we talked

about money and I think that's the at the end of the day we're all doing this to make an income to make a living and

at the end of the day when you have that resource spending it

wisely um you know I'm no tax accountant I don't want to act like I'm a business

coach or anything like that but I'll tell you taking care of your taxes as a

installer and taking care of your employees making sure that everybody's paid and that your your taxes are

covered those are very important things that um anybody on here watching you

know don't skip that over a lot of installers I I know many many good

installers have gotten caught up on that not manag tell you I wasn't guilty of that back in the day I'd be lying right

so that I think I think that's a matter of uh approaching approaching uh some your finances with responsibility right

like understand what should be priority or what is priority

because even though you put it at something like that on the back burner and it seems okay right in the long

run because remember the government can go back a lot further than you can so

you don't want to put yourself in a situation where you owe uh bad cxes and

then penalties and then late fees and then interests right yeah it's all

gonna it's all gonna build up so take take care of that resource lastly and

this this you know the the we we hit on so much of this stuff that uh it's why

this is a very icient podcast um but the your time so one of the things that I

got into uh doing was Chad Holmes International which was a business coach

I followed in when I first got into business but he talked really heavily

about having a you know a to-do list but it was it was called a D6 and I still do

it today and it's I I write down I have a master list and write down the six

most important things I need to do that day you know at the office and that's what keeps me reminded what I need to be

doing next because whether you're out in the field or you know it could your D6 might look

a little bit different but just realizing the most important things and don't forget family and all

that and yeah you're right so I didn't take any classes like that and but I do

have lists upon lists and I do have big lists that filter down through smaller

lists to help help me manage my task at a glance now I might not be as good as

you or Daniel at taking care of that and knocking that out because I do get distracted rather easily right like soon

as I get a phone call about an issue or a phone call about something you know I I I do tend to get a little sidetracked

with that um and try to fit some of that information in before I lose it lose it

um but fortunately for for for me I have my computer so we have uh a teams that we

use Microsoft teams and then I just got good oldfashioned you know little notepads um for my daily tests and

reminders and items like it's one of the things install-wise that I didn't do

very often or very well but just remembering uh hey I've got to touch up

this or touch up that once I you kind of start doing that then you don't forget these things and when you're in that

part of the school you know for example and you got some base that you need to

finish up or some you know it's just these things that you forget about on job sites and and of course I'm very

skewed commercially because as you can tell in the background we're a commercial flooring company um but it it

works no matter what you're doing you know remembering that you know there's been several times I'm sure you guys

have experienced this on job sites where the mill work or the the the case work was not in yet everything else is done

in the room all the Bas base it and you gotta go back and base the casework well

remembering to do that when you're on that wing of that job and being efficient with that just comes from

managing your time well and uh you know those it's those types of things that I

appreciate about really good installers good Subs that we have and it's also what I wish I would have been better at

when I was installing and uh you know to when when I was installing full-time before

preferred flooring um I did make it a habit of I carried a journal like you know those old journals um the the

composition notebooks I carried those around all the time and like I wrote

down what I did every day I was never asked to do that I did it for me for my

record so that way I could learn um so I could learn my my I wanted to

know where I where I was not efficient at is what it was and I wanted to compare you know my February to my to my

um November if I'm working with the same material out to see if I were if I was

progressing if I was getting better um so that's why I did that umal Walter makes a comment here about

quality control including punch list and that's that's what I'm talking about like it's and sometimes it's not real

punch list items it's like the example I gave earlier is not really a punch list

I didn't it's not a faulty install it's just something you got to get back and do but yeah writing those things down

you know tile guys uh one of our tile guys that is really good like he'll when

he writes up his own punch list he's he he's in effect reminding himself hey when I when I go to mix another uh

especially with epoxy grout when I go to mix another uh uh unit of epoxy grat a

couple I got a couple of voids over in this room over here and he he knows that you know what I mean it it's not like

you leave the job and that becomes a a punch list item he just takes care of it because he

remembers uh to write it down and to follow up and do that and it's like that's that's that

is when you start talking about being efficient on

I'm just getting to the shop we heard Chuck so we just wanted to hear what he had to say we thought he

oh we're trying to ease drop yeah yeah

um you're right about that that that's one of those uh that's one of those things where if some people just have it

like that they just understand they know their limitations and they understand that they need to write it down as a

reminder and then it becomes habit and once becomes well just as better free up that free up that head space to to work

on being doing what you're doing and and and you just go back and it's written

down and you can go back and and this goes epoxy grout was the example I gave

earlier but it doesn't matter you could have a a seam that needs um you know

reworked on a on on um a heat weld or something like that and it's best to do

that when you're heat welding and so you know all these types of things they there sequences to it and it's just

about managing your time effectively so you know you gota you'll end up being a

master at it if you worked at it so that's what I would you know implore

everybody to do you know work on your time management it gets a lot easier and you

know me me being the person I am uh you know my my my kids are 11 eight and

seven they have notebooks do they use them yet no but they have them there and I tell them hey write down what you did

every day when you remember write down what you did today write down what you learned you know I'm not asking you to

keep a journal of your life and your feelings write down hey today I went to school I did I did math uh you know I

broke my shoelace you know what I calculus right just just write down what you did because I wanted for them I

wanted to be second nature to have a notebook and understand the importance of note taking yeah

well that's all I got for you guys today what you guys got anything else to uh any words of wisdom as we close this uh

episode of the huddle out words of wisdom um you know what I don't really have any

words of wisdom but I will say where I fall short on would be time management so if you guys can find a way or if you

guys know ways of time management that is useful and kind of universal for everybody that D6 that Paul was talking

about right he me that could yeah we can hear you uh that would would help out

and I I did I wrote that I wrote that down and I I written that down like three or four times already when fall

said it I think it's just a matter of uh put it on the the other

notebook yeah I have a master I I have a master list of things that everything

from looking at a budget for the company to to buying a

new piece of equipment to a a bid that has to be done I mean it's

all kinds of things that are on that Master list and I just transfer them I look at that and I say what's most

important today and that's what I try to try to put you know for that day and

it's not always perfect but it's covered with microphone stuff right now but

these are my lists that I work off of there's my master that I use it's nothing fancy right but then I also have

a duplicate of that on the computer I like what Justin says here he says think ahead until you're convin till you

convince yourself that you're predicting the future and and Walter says you

know Walter says uh you know job notes that you were talking about taking was

critical if there's a failure or a problem so all that stuff you wrote down you know that's another good point and

take pictures of everything yeah yeah yeah you're ahead SCH do not take a

break or a long lunch stay ahead what are breaks people take breaks still what

does that mean that thing it's that thing that your body does when you work too [Laughter]

much all right guys well um I appreciate you guys uh thank you to everybody

that's on uh live if you catch us on YouTube give us a like a subscribe a

comment thumbs up thumbs down as the guys like to say whichever direction and

um we like and appreciate them all industry part of getting involved in the industry uh is and this is uh maybe a

little bit biased is getting involved in the Huddle uh we like to go to uh conventions and things and the stuff we

learn from you guys is what we take back to uh powers to be a lot of times and um

it's just part of what we we want to know what the struggles are out there in the community in the installer community

and be able to uh pass those along so uh we appreciate all of our fans we appreciate appreciate all of the uh

comments and hopefully if you catch us on Facebook or or any of our shorts give

us a give us a little love and we will uh replying to Nate I usually eat every

other day to save time what that's called

fasting so no it's like I already ate yesterday why do I need to eat today it's ridiculous

yeah that's um all right

fellas we'll catch you guys next week and uh hope you guys have a great

evening and we'll we'll talk to you later see you all right bye

Daniel Gonzalez 11/8/24 Daniel Gonzalez 11/8/24

The Huddle - Episode 122 - Turning Off-Peak Times Into Learning Opportunities

In this episode of The Huddle, Daniel and Jose are joined by special guests John Steier and Jorge Orta to discuss how flooring professionals can make the most of the slower winter season. From training programs to skill-building opportunities, they dive into ways to turn off-peak times into a period of growth and learning. Discover the top available training options for the rest of the year and hear practical advice on how to invest in your education during downtime. Don’t let the slow season slow you down!

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

hey everyone how's it going welcome to the Huddle Paul usually does this and again uh I don't have anything written

down so I don't know exactly what he says and every time he's not here it throws us way

off but we're here today to to just talk we have some special

guests that might be uh popping in having some technical difficulties but hey at least we're here

here he goes right here one of them I got on the

Wi-Fi he got on the Wi-Fi I was gonna go out my van and I

came in and I'm like uh is there any way I can just use your WiFi because it ain't gonna work that seems to be the

thing to do nowadays everybody's almost everybody's got Wi-Fi available and seems that the cell

signals don't really hold anymore no not especially with like anything stre I can

stream music uh but I'm trying to like even like watch Netflix stream Netflix

somewhere that's not really a great location it just don't

work no well we're glad you're here man this is uh Mr John Styer aka the Florin

nator for people that don't know I think everyone knows you on these groups though if they don't they should by now

may they should I mean where have you been living under a rock right I mean earlier what were you live for like

three hours or something 50 it was like 56 minutes here's the and here's the

bedroom I just finished earlier guys yeah we we were we were watching I went

on Facebook and I said I was like he's live right now working on steps now working on

those are the worst man steps are the worst they're also very gratifying though when you're done yeah yeah I I I

enjoy working with them for the simple fact they tie they make everything finished right like a good set of steps

espec you're working residential it's like the first thing you learn to do really is put a set of steps on but it's

also one of the most important things you do when when you're on a when you're on a project because again it ties the

whole project together your steps look like crap it just kind of makes everything look like crap yeah the same

way in uh commercial right everyone typically starts on bass but if the Basse looks like crap everything else

looks like crap it gives them it gives people um oh I I put this on screen I'll

send I'll send you a link in a second like it it makes everyone just

take a look at things and be like hey this don't look right so let me kind of inspect everything else yep yeah well

how many times have you guys you know gone in and and uh I get a kick out of the beaste that um uh you know I I love

when I look at a corner and it's perfect 90 nice and tight but once you notice

one of those that's not like that everything everything you

know every you're right it's just it it jumps out at you you just your brain

just starts looking for similar items or things out of place oh I appreciate you joining us on

short notice today we we did pull an audible today and change we had to change the episode so I I think it's a

great topic because uh I had a whole bunch of crap on my head and I was talking about it when I went live but I

I thought another chance to share some more of my um I call them my deep my

deep carpet thoughts you know on your deep deep carpet thoughts yeah I need to carry a notebook around with me like you

do Jose and start writing this [ __ ] down like I gotta write stuff down because of

ADHD it just leads to other things right like it's helpful in more ways than one yeah yeah but I I uh

um what I was you know it's always like how do we reach how do we get education on the

Forefront and for me it's it's it's about teaching you know the trade teaching how to do it teaching how to

install the material and you know it's it's you know we've got trade

organizations we now have the Floor Covering Education Foundation and you know we have I mean all over

Facebook all over YouTube you can't not see an ad on somebody that wants to make

your business better too right like oh my goodness yeah all you know uh

basically follow this Playbook and you're going to have great success and uh so then you know here I'm always

thinking like gez you know us in the carpet I should say the Floor Covering

Community when we want to get our word out of we want to help we got so much

noise to go up against you know what what do we do to put our message out

there and uh it hit me today I'm like yeah why aren't we why aren't uh you

seeing more training done with with the Facebook groups you know that was that was a

question asked and it's not that I would say I want to spam people and have them

you know hey I'd give you this you know 15 minutes session and then now come to a class it's more like no I mean I I I

think you could I think you can legitimately do a one hour session on a Facebook live and I'll just use I'm on a

carpet job so we could probably use carpet seams and we could cover uh

conventional cool uh seam iron seam ceiling

um the cool Glide right and and you break that up into multiple different

sessions right like today it's just going to be this and you know that's that's you think about it in terms of VI

the videos online that's what they do anyways right they make things a certain amount of time because it engages people

it it makes it makes it so that way their interest is there the whole time and then you're just like all right we'll take on tackle something else the

next time yeah yeah and so I I kind of thought that would be a great way engage

because videos I think really are I mean I I would rather watch a video on how to

learn to do something then try to read a 40 page manual on it right oh yeah

nobody nobody's I mean I just don't think these instructions you know I mean

sometimes you almost have to be uh uh you need a master's degree in language

to even understand what what it's what they're trying to say a lot of that too is is how does an individual interpret

what they read right can they absorb it can they interpret it can they retain it right and and um Everybody learns that

at different rates and and when there's you know one person writing it is almost

robotic that one way does not apply to everybody else and the videos that you

put like you're talking through it and then you're like oh hold on let me let me do this oh and then you you pause for

like it's real time and you know it gives people time to process but when you're explaining it you you don't you

and I and Daniel we don't explain it the way it says it in a book right we're going through it we're going step by

step and experience like and I remember one time when I did it like this I did try this and it didn't really work you

know and yeah that helps a lot well I sure yeah people love I I I love it I'm

sure everybody else loves it they love when you share something and it's genuine you know you're there's not a

back angle to it that you're trying to you know scam them out of something or or set them up for failure when it's a

genuine yeah that's exactly right like hey for 15 years I did this wrong and

then somebody showed me the correct way my life has been so easy there's no reason for you guys to do it that other

way please do it this way you know um and I I I think those might be you know

uh with being involved in CFI now and having that strong passion for like how

do we get out there you know um just hosting an event putting a flyer out

there isn't going to cut it anymore and that that goes for everybody so what can we do to to make this to where you know

we're sought after but we're also getting good information out there that that actually helps uh you know I'm

biased here I'll say CFI but how do we get that good information that makes us at CFI look good and and a lot of it is

through the the videos that are kind of already out there I think you know uh floors by Southern Boys has some

fantastic videos I you know his videos were some of the first first ones I've ever watched like because he he was

engaging it was a real person real time it wasn't cut and chopped up he I mean a

little bit right but as he got better it got like that but it was real time real progress 45

minutes of trial and error let's just say it that way even though it was less error but he's like explaining the whole

thing so what are what are your guys' thoughts with that too because like

versus uh a a 13 or 15 minute video of just somebody holding a camera as

opposed to that you know expensive over edited you know it really looks

good um video uh I mean what are your guys's

thoughts on that I mean is isn't even necessary to put those videos out anymore um yes and no right because

you're going to have the audience for both of them but like you were saying it engages people so people are seeing it

in real time they're they're with you from the time you start and then say you run into an issue and it's not like oh

let me just cut this and then come back when something happens it's like oh we ran into this what are we going to do to

fix it and in certification is like um with the nfct that's kind of what I do

I'm like you guys there's there's going to be mess ups you're gonna end up burning seams you're G to end up burning

Corners I said the the fact of the matter is is this is real word scenario we don't

have any more vinyl job site you have to make that pass in order to to get

certified so what are we going to do to make it pass and then it's like you can ask me

questions and you like a few gonna hold your hand through it it's like hey you

just messed that up that means you got to you gotta double booted or something right it it this is real word scenarios

we don't have any more material what are we going to do now yeah yeah 100% um you know I I do want

to say something about what you said though about the the video versus like that big edited one yeah uh when I when

I watch a one that's like an hour long on a specific item like just you know like a DIY something or I'm learning how

to do something I do tend to fast forward through the edited videos to the points that I need to get to but when

it's like a live video and someone's recording the process and there is no edit I am more engaged in that through

that entire video than I am off of one that is structured through and through um I don't know if that even makes sense

or if anybody else is like that but I will fast forward to all the points I need in the structured video but the

other one I'm I'm getting personality I'm getting I'm getting good feedback I'm getting oh well see what I just did

there yeah don't do that don't do that let me show you what not to do and then Walter here says you know there is not a

textbook standard for our industry for consistent consistency in teaching and I don't think it's just our industry I

think that's just teaching in general enal because you can have everything you know given to you and then each teacher

is going to teach a different way especially knowing that they didn't learn all learn the

same way so they had different teachers and that just kind of gets passed on and you kind of just mimic what you were taught right so you probably find

that that favorite teacher that you had and you're like I'm kind of going to mimic them so I mean that's the same all

the way around that is uh uh that is a 100% I would say with trades to how we

are are teaching teaching um trade is

through our past experience with it you know I I I find myself a lot when I'm uh

teaching or explaining is I'm relating to a lot of my experience of what I had

so if you have a teacher that had a lot of bad experiences

probably gonna they're going to relate to a lot of those those maybe those negative to where if the experiences

were better um for that teacher probably gonna come across and and think about

going through high school you know what teachers did you like you know probably the ones that tended to have a better

attitude towards you could relate to you as a person but then whatever even even

though the the the topic was nothing that you cared about they were still able to to make it um enjoyable for you

so engaging they were engaging right like um if you got a room full of 20 people they're all there to learn

they're all gonna expect different things but they're all gonna find different items funny the humor is

g to be different the deliver is going to be different and and I think it's uh

someone who is teaching who can relate to everyone even if they don't at first but

they make the time to go through and and and find you know one relation with with everybody as far as uh or one thing in

common uh that's those are those are the best teachers and then like you talk about going to

school those are the the ones that resonated with me the most were the ones

that didn't take anything um because they expected more out of me and

until I realized that right myself they were hard on me but once I did realize that and I did I I I did execute to

their expectations as well then then everything was a lot better yeah Mario's

on here he was actually supposed to join us today but he can't figure out his sound like his microphone wasn't even

registering on the software get a new phone Mario time for

a new phone and then since we are talking about um you know in the slow

time what you can do invest in yourself invest in some training but Elena says

that installers don't invest because they see no reward on the financial

side and then they will put other installers down before they they support

them right and you you see that all the time on the groups where people just get on on there to talk crap and um I've

gone as far as I just like to start private messaging for the mo for the

most part instead of like commenting because some is going to try and discredit me right away and typically

that it's someone that just doesn't like me because I'm me which is fine whatever I don't care if you like me or not I go

on there and act like somebody else and make comments to Daniel I'm gonna do that now because I

like St guys I I truthfully I I make post get reactions sometimes and it's

not it's not to not to bring negativity but it's just you know kind of like it's

social media but I think Daniel made a great point you know for those of us

that want to make things better when you see that post and it's a blatant like oh

boy that's bad like how many times have we seen pictures and they're and they're showing the 35 fans sitting trying to

trying to dry out a floor the glue so they can get on it and you've got all the hate coming that's a great scenario

right there that's a PM private message all day hey like dude like hey I just just wanted you to know I'm not going to

post this and call you out but I think that's just the inherit nature of social

media is it makes it to where we can do that and you're never

really I mean we we joke because we say all people get all butt hurt all the time about stuff but like and and it's

usually the generation above us that's talking about my generation oh you guys get all butt always always dude they're

the ones that'll post something stupid dude get torn up and then they're just done they won't even get back on

Facebook you know what because there is there is a a point when you reach a certain age where you just don't really

give a [ __ ] what you say I'm just gonna say this because this how I feel right now let me not think about it just do it

what's up H H welcome what's up everybody how's everybody doing today doing doing good brother you can

you'all hear me yeah we can hear you great awesome awesome yeah man uh good

stuff here on the video stuff uh I know I had talked to John uh in Dalton and we

had talked about videos man how important videos are uh for people because some people just learn off of

visualization what they can see they don't like you were saying they don't read a 40 page book you know uh but yeah

that's super awesome videos I think are are are a way to grasp people's

attention and uh just let them know what we're doing you know it might be something different that they haven't

seen and that's gonna push him to to want to maybe take some training right

you know you just made a really good point by the way how many people a like

if you don't if you think about like this how many people still look for a picture on a menu to order their

food versus looking looking at a menu and just ordering like that like I that

I look at the picture dude if the picture don't look good no like unless I know what it is I love I love our

Mexican restaurant but I can't pronounce a lot of the stuff on it so yes I am

that I'm like that looks just point at the menu this this right here that's what I want yeah yeah I like the Asian

restaurants I want uh the number 15 extra spicy yeah so the the other part

of Elena's statement that she made is they don't see a Financial reward right for going through a certification which

is why they don't do it so uh the thing that I tell people is it's it's not like

it's gonna it's night and day right you have to what are you going to do to Market it and I put it in terms of just

a doctor going through college you know they go out through all that schooling and then you have all types of doctors

you specialize in stuff how are you going to Market it a doctor doesn't just open up their own shop and then be like

all right all the customers come rolling in no it's all about marketing how are you going to Market Market what you just went and got and let people know that

hey this is this is me I'm getting trained I'm worth it because of this and

it to it takes a long time for people to see that worth but I mean we got clients now where it's like they'll they'll text

me after the project and they're they're like it's just a blessing every time we have you guys on our job site and it

took a long time to get to that point but people know now that you know we don't just go out and work and then go

home it's it's a constant reinvestment in our education we have to remember too that

you know it's not just unique to the flooring installers oh you certified and

you're going to get more money I mean there is every other trade you have to

you know to to be an electrician you know you've got to reach certain levels of education and you're not

automatically paid more right away you're just you're available for those

uh promotions and and and the thing is is with them that education is a

requirement so my buddy owns an electric like a electric outfit over here and his

guys have to go once a week on their own time too it's not even during work so you got to go on your own time and go to

school make sure you're doing it because if you don't then you're not gonna you're you'll never move up yeah one

thing I wish that you'd see more of and I know uh um Kyle Haden with four

covering the Floor Covering or floor Academy podcast was really focusing on is making

uh because we're predominantly subcontractors making us smarter in business because uh just like you said

Daniel it's about marketing not only your certification but just marketing yourself making

yourself uh more valuable and how do how do you do that well you you've got to

actually look at yourself like a business and not a job one that that's just that's it um if you are working out

of stores and that's all you want to do that's fine too there's I don't think there's anything about you know um at

least in my area I know what some of these guys are getting paid now it's way better than what it used to be you know

and they're it's because they're bringing attention to the things they're reading on these Facebook groups that they're seeing that oh man there's not a

whole lot of carpet installers why am I still installing carpet for next to nothing you know they're learning how to

say no and that is part of the the education is that we need to teach how

to you know you need education is going to help you realize that you are a

valuable person you know quicker than just going to work every day getting

around people that can that are like-minded that can motivate you are going to make you see things way

different and challenge yourself for the better they'll help you see things different I think is what it is because

they have experiences that you didn't all these things are just you know another tool right another tool to add

to your toolbox what are you going to do with it and uh you know we we partner with with many people and one of our

partners is actually floor cloud and uh we've been using Flor Cloud pretty extensively on these these projects that

we've been on and they've been amazing uh I'm going to play a short video here to show you guys something about floor

cloud realtime monitoring of your job site

conditions via desktop or mobile device no more manual checking for temperature

humidity or even dupoint no need for base stations Wi-Fi or external power

sources simply scan the QR code on the front of your sensors and you're up and running with the most accurate and

Innovative sight monitoring system in the flooring industry dispatch your Crews with confidence and reduce your

climate related installation issues floor Cloud now you know and now you know and that's how

that's what I tell the gc's on the job sites it's like hey you got to turn this temperature up hey you got to get a

dehumidifier in there sometimes they don't understand to what what um specs their contract States

either right so so not just teaching your crew you're teaching other people too Walter's in here um

and I I love this engagement because he says as an industry too many trainings and certifications aren't legit right

I'll pop this on screen while I'm reading it so those that don't know the

inner workings don't always know the good ones so I mean how how are we going to

tell do we actually have to go through these things or is it based on just what what you're

hearing how would you that's a great that's a I mean that's a I think I

always go anybody there's I mean there's nothing stopping anybody from going out

um and and teaching and and saying I want to open up the school of carpet

excellence and teaching how to install carpet not write that down we don't yeah

we don't we don't have we don't have like this book this big Bible standard

that we got to obey and hey guess what you might be good enough you can it's America you can get paid for it you know

if you could pull it off pull it off uh I mean Walter makes a great point

there but uh his his other main point is nothing is

credentialing and accredited to differentiate but there are some accredited programs that are starting to

roll out right now so this is not necessarily true um right now because of what's

going on and the thing is is that a lot of the the bigger certifying entities

have their hand in these ones that are becoming accredited right and and and that

process is a little bit lengthy too right like it's got to get approved by the board it's got to go to a university

that's reputable that could accredited the training program has got to have the right curriculum It's gotta you know

there's a lot to it um at FC's uh you know their Apprentice

program they can put in through it it's it's recognized in in throughout theout the nation as an accredited program and

it uses ctef CFI uh nwfa it's using all these

standards that they have that they have written uh to teach the class and

they're popping up everywhere Right add to his first comment I'm sorry hold is

um you know and and which which ones to to each their own if you have three

people go to three different trainings a b and c right each person is going to gain something different from program a

program B program C they're going to find successes in three different areas they're not you know so how do you how

do you rate them if even if in the accredit if a a training is accredited

how do you rate it in terms of a successful or legitimate training do you rate it on the success of the people who

have taken the certification passed and done well or do you rate it on

the the the amount of failures or lack of failures after they've taken the

class but not necessarily the dollar amount that they're making afterwards right like how how do you do

that it's gonna take time too because if these programs are barely rolling out

how much time till you can actually say hey this is a successful rate or a

failure right is as long as those metrics are tracked you know it's only a matter of time he says

so Kevin and Corey both said what's up guys what's up and then he says that

standards and accreditation are different which yes there I love that language right there that is a way

better way to explain that right and then so when you start

getting into you know accreditation and stuff like that going through the schools making sure everything is

legit and I think the issue with just standards are is not even many

installers know that there's standards out there that they're supposed to be following look at look at I I'll give

you guys a great example A lot of these ASM with moisture come on man I would say the

majority of us have no clue you you guys probably do because of of the world you

live in but I I read stuff weekly that just blows my mind that I'm supposed to

know about vinyl T and moisture and well Concrete in general just concrete yeah

what it is is come on and I gotta be responsible for all

this like you try to take two steps forward but you're taking four steps back exactly that's the way I feel

sometimes I'm like man I didn't know that and now that I know that I'm like ah just makes it more

complicated I'm like I'm seeking to carpet if you read just read the manufacturer specifications right a lot

of the resilient is to say hey guys you got have to followm f710 and then guys

just read that and they're like okay and then you you get a group of guys together and you're like Hey guys does

anyone know what ASM f710 is and no one raises their hand and it's like you guys

this is like beginner stuff here this is what everything is based on yeah so Justin

wants to know how we feel about install but install a great program they don't

let us into it because we are not Union which is totally fine you know how about

how about they make it public they make it available to the public and then then they will be able to grade it I can't I can't rate something I don't know that

how it works but if if there's a basis in which they have the install base off of right like all the training entities

and they kind of put everything together and made their own system um tell me what systems they use to create theirs

and then I'll let you know I like it yeah I I've met a couple of the Union

guys uh they're all good dudes they're cool dudes you know yeah same very

knowled we we went to one of the um locally here yeah we went and checked it

out and and yeah we understand right but like had I known about the union and all

that years ago before I had kids before you know I was married then maybe things would be different right now but

unfortunately we live in a part of the state where where there's a divide there is no Union on our side of the state I

don't have a use for it and there's plenty of work without having to to be part of a union and and not only that

the people on the other side of the state are kind of saying that the the unions are struggling a little bit

so yeah there there is a struggle and and probably more more so maybe in the flooring industry right because Le let's

let's be clear a lot of our friends are in the flooring industry so we hear some things um but you know without the proof

we don't know um I just uh I guess I don't know enough about what program install has to to to

say it for sure but if it's a great program and it's proven please patent it share it make the world

a better place to back up to Walter's question about you know who's who and what's what that is a tough question but

I guess if we're looking at what's going on right now we can see the the organizations and what they're doing and

what they're put out and when you're having support from the inspection

Community with your organization you're having support with the manufacturing

community and you're having support from the installation Community I would say that's a success I would say if you

belong to any organization that is that's receiving those three things or

you're getting input from those three things then you I I think you should be able to hold your head up pretty high

and say look it's not a one-sided conversation we're here we've got man ufacturers giving us input we have

inspectors giving us input we have these people over here telling us that we know nothing about concrete giving us their

input I mean there's just so much that that that there is out there but if you're able to uh educate in a way that

appeases kind of all those I think you're doing great well it's less lumps on the road too you know because

everybody I mean at this point everybody's doing their part uh on all sides uh less claims more knowledge

uh you know it just makes the machine run a lot smoother um so yeah people should if people don't think they should

take advantage of it any kind of training I mean anything from a simple sewing class with a couple old ladies

you know it'll help you out anything um right it helps me I do stuff like that

so right here Corey says uh you know quick question when a manufacturer has a

certified training for installing their product how does that specified training affect prior training for like products

or is that even an issue and I think uh Walter kind of answered it right here a

little bit too right the difference in certification is that it's for their products only compared to the General

Flooring industry certification but you have to start looking at things like I can

take just talking about sheet vinyl right because we we love resilience so

just talking about sheet vinyl I can take what I learned from this sheep vinyl manufacturer and kind of translate

it everywhere it's just just the specifics that you have to worry about so what adhesive am I using what what

things like that it's nothing like super huge sometimes but it's just the little

things like that so you can actually transfer that over to more than just one manufacturer and I think that's what

these training entities kind of that's where the value is because you're not just learning one you're like it's a

broad knowledge so you can translate these things over multiple manufacturers

but you always have to refer to manufacturer specifications right because if you try and do it just like I

showed you and then something is different with that adhesive then that automatically makes that installation

wrong yeah that's the warranty right yeah like materials like materials might

go down the same path as far as the process and dos and don'ts but they're just like materials that's where the

manufacturer specs come into play where it's manufacturer specific so that way

if there is something a little bit different if they did add something a little bit different into their material

um you're prepared for that by by reading their literature or referencing their literature versus the general

literature of a type of product the nuances guys yeah it really

is that's I mean that's what training understanding that you you guys

I think uh Daniel you hit it best is you know let's let's P we'll say Armstrong

resilient wrote this whenever and then tarat took a little bit of it they kind

of liked it they tweaked it a little bit to make their own and we as installers have to be able to distinguish between

the two of those or the or however many different products we work with and and when we're just talking training on

installation techniques that's all it is is a technique right there's many techniques to get the same end result

and you just have to take EV all the information and you make it your own because I do things different than Jose

does and he does things different than Crystal does but if you put us all in

three separate rooms we do all we all do our own room that end result is going to

be almost indistinguishable right you you're going to go in there and just it's just going to be like oh preferred

flooring was in here that's it it's not and that's how it should be and that's because of that what what Walter had

said the standard that's the difference between a standard or just a certification or a training right like

yeah yeah the equation's just a little different for everybody right and the

same instance too like we hit this horad and I have been talking like over the weekend and at the end of last week

about a product like I could have gave you know we got a referral from him all

the way from Texas all the way over here wherever he's at whoever called him he referred us and I'm help the gentleman

and there's some installers that walked away from a product and I kind of know what path we should

go down for it right but I couldn't find the right information and he was gracious enough to send me some video

and some screenshots of some literature that helped clear clarify everything because the rep wasn't getting back to

me the sales rep or the tech rep um uh it I could have just went in and banged

it out and acted like I knew exactly what I was doing and that's where that networking aspect comes in right like

you you need to have this network of people that you can lean on because you don't know everything and that's one

thing that like if you think you do right now you don't and remember earlier

when I was talking about having haters and I don't care what you think about me there's guys that put stuff like this

apparently looks like my mother made love to a garden gome and I think that is hilarious so I'm gonna put that that

is hilarious because his dad does look like a garden gnome and then he said uh

Daniel goes to the bar and orders a glass of warm milk actually I don't like warm milk I prefer cold milk but thank

you with ice milk with ice ice in it Paul the hater hey that's fine I'm

pretty sure that his real name's not Paul but we we get the gist so Kevin says not not a bad idea to check with

the flooring and glue manufacturer before moving forward with any job so much changes so rapidly make sure you

get the most updated data sheets and there's stories like this where online it has something and then on the bucket

it has something El it's just like which one do I follow yeah that's Paul Paul Stewart's got the best story about that

one where one said install with this side up the other one said this side down

and he's confused and had to make a phone call and they said yep it's updated on the website but not the

product my girlfriend is a jar of peanut butter I'm just gonna I'll stop now I'll

let him just keep on talk yeah but getting back to that product that Jose and I talked about I had to

reach out to other people as well so Charlene Collins David Hunt I mean uh I try to reach out to the people who have

done it way longer than I have and do it on a regular so I I I believe he has a

library of information cuz he went and he checked it out and in a matter of minutes he came back and he was like hey

man this is what I got let me know if you need anything else and dude that's some people just say every piece of

paper every year and probably put it in a book somewhere and just back because it changes right everything changes that

I know people like that and it's good it's good to have it so you know hey you know this year they had it like this and they changed it up you know this year we

got another Superstar joining us guys Mr Rin shut it off shut it off he

made it show's over that's probably the best gear ship

probably the best gear shift I've ever seen oh he's driving through New York he says yeah heading towards Pennsylvania

then back home I just I was up with Don Perkins and uh putting on a tech

certification oh yeah for last couple days and his his his wife got her Tech

certification nice yeah so so if I go in and out that I'll be like John sty and

and blame it on somebody else no he blames it on himself he blames it on his signal a millennial I can do that you're

an old man you can't do that oh I can H all right anyway so yeah it was really

you know I was really encouraged with it because uh I had you know uh we only had seven and

and uh five of them were 30 and under I had to thre it to learn

had uh probably uh uh uh one 31 so that's

nice man you're kind of breaking up a little bit Rin

yeah can you hear me now we can hear you see you now but can you see me at all yeah Jeremy

says that you need to put on your uh reading glasses if you're driving

no I'm not that old yet yeah you're only like what 150 right

now so so what do you guys got on the agenda what what's coming up that everybody

needs to know about like uh as far as well I'll sort of give you I'll sort of give you a rundown real quick and

and I don't know if that rund Down's coming guys because he's paused now I

think your I think your signal is run down but as far as like uh with with u

with CFI we got some great uh opportunities coming up in the midwest St Louis Fargo North Dakota Minnesota

Wisconsin so so right now we want to kind of know and I got I got it pulled up right here too we're kind of looking

at this this downtime right because um historically this has been around the

time where things start slowing down a little bit and gives people more opportunities to actually

get out and do something and you can't have that scarcity mindset like um I'm

not making any money right now so I'm just not going to do anything right this is actually a perfect time for you to go

out there and and do some training because when you're too busy you're like I can't do it right now because I'm

working yeah no that's a great way to that's that's actually fantastic uh advice right there because you'll never

if you're busy I it's just hard for me to convince install when they're busy to take time off work it just it all they

see is that work ahead of them and if they don't do it somebody else is gonna do it and for whatever reason they're

they're prime example is is we actually did not make it down to the CFI event because we had too much work on on our

our plate like yeah we had too much work you guys that we had deadlines that we weren't

going to make and that's just one of the things we had to do right so like I get it running a business I mean and that's

just what it is because most of the stuff you're gonna have to take off work you're going to have to travel you're going to have to spend money um and none

of that stuff installers really like doing all at one time you know right hey

Rin people are saying maybe if you turn or sunny it was actually Sunny said if you turn off your screen your camera and

just do the audio it might work better I can hear you right now might work better if you just don't do

it it's probably a better idea driving

just I would say stay off the stay off the phone if you're

driving I'm not driving that's why he has it down there no one can see it yeah

no yeah not illegal that's so it looks like uh November

November 12th there's a nfic certification in Dalton and then we have

December 9th um intro to residential carpet in St

Louis and then around that same time is the carpet residential Carpet One

certification and then we we're into next year unless something gets added but I

mean uh we're working on one she wants it a a lvp laminate in uh at at Kim's

carbet in uh North Carolina it's just me and her getting a date plugged in she'd

still like it this year um but there again it's it's uh me and her connecting

uh on what days so we still could have another one yet this year of lvp and and

laminate um then we're going to follow up with a carpet one at her place

probably uh first part of of next year so we got more into making I know we

have some in Wisconsin that's in the making y um you know that that's being

worked on so we got a lot a lot on on the agenda that we're working on and and

hopefully get out but like I said you already I heard you were saying about the nfic one uh uh that's next month and

uh it's both a train the trainer and a certification and you're going to be

theread no I'm sad I'm going to miss it I get married on the 16th so that whole week I have family coming in and Friends

uh Jus and Jose are going to be at it but they're leaving that Saturday I think uh they're flying over here

so to make the wedding well congratulations brother thanks that's right I thought you G have a dumb excuse

like having too much work to not make it no man I I was really bummed out I really wanted to go to that

one he really moved his wedding it was scheduled for during the CFI back and

his medication dude is told his told his fiance that they were moving it because

he was going to the convention that's legit too I probably I

probably would not have had a fiance after that what about um what about like you

know something we don't talk about too much on here on certification what about like or Paul does typically is a hard

surface um and you know and what about like uh codings resonance codings do we

have anybody out there that that that does any of that I mean we've been getting a lot of that across our desk as

well so if if you are just Reach Out Daniel Jose you guys doing

codings we we personally are not but but no we have a guy that that we use to

take care of all of our codings yeah but as far as like the hard surface you know and and wood nwfa has a

few classes uh from now until the end of the year looks like every

I mean we're at the tail end of October so November 5th they have something in

Missouri they just got some stuff in Tennessee coming up and then the the

CTI they got their their calendar I mean just go

to their websites and make sure you're checking on these dates and then the the nfct has

uh in alqua with uh RX some floor prep

stuff on November 6 so you know there there's plenty of stuff out there and if you have you know some stuff on codings

definitely let us know so that we can pass along the information right and which ones you are

worth taking like I I get extreme polishing systems I think I talked to them they were going to be in Vegas one of the same times we were so I was gonna

try to like overlap but our schedule was way too busy so yeah we need some R2 c2s

actually cuz we haven't seen some of those in a while I need my R2 I'm still R1 R same

yeah or we can just do a private event yeah we could do that uh but uh I

know down if I do the carpet one at at Kimmy's I I've done the carpet one there

two years ago so it's going to have our ones in our R2 so we can do both it's

called All Surface one we we could plug getting that if we don't get enough up there uh we can get you to come down

there talking about it more no that's down in North Carolina oh okay awesome

and you're saying something about Jeremy had something Daniel so a couple things first we're gonna address this one right

here why didn't John Styer compete like he said he was going

to John Styer did not make the time to get down there that's why and then he he

he wanted to make sure I seen it because he said the people want to know why John Styer wasn't in Delon last

weekend that is why you know what people who are asking that

question you just don't want him to be there his name isn't the Florin nator for no reason he gave you guys a chance

it so and and and I don't like excuses right like I'm not like but it is it is tough when you want to do a lot of

things you run your own business you know Dalton for me it's an expensive trip trip

um I know it is but uh you know they have Phoenix they got Phoenix coming up

and I it's even further I've got yeah I've got my November filled up but uh

I'll keep it on the radar because I I think it's I I think it's something that we all need to do at some point is just

get out there and and actually do it now say I will say that I don't want to do

it because then I know when I do make it to ties or something like that I will not be able to enjoy my time

there that is it's just all work all work yeah I I talk too much to to do all

that to do the competition now this next comment is legit right because Jeremy's

asking why aren't there and Rin maybe you can weigh in because you're pretty deep into this why aren't there more

scholarships for classes to help get certifications he's always been a W2 employee but not being his own boss or

being a sub he can't really afford to attend those classes um the scholarships they have

out now are geared more towards the guys that are new to the industry rather than

the guys that want to further their education that are already in the industry and and I I agree with what

he's saying that they are Geared for new people in for people taken but because

the FCF is the one that does that not CFI um uh you know because we're being

nonprofit We Can't offer scholarships to it but FCF H has to show a career

path and and so that it has to be at least the one week and more for them to

to put the money in and you'll find that

much with any uh organization that path and not just for a couple day

training right so and then he says uh Jeremy was trying to compete in Chicago

but he got hit in the face with a softball then he says uh he

realized he's one of the few W2 employees who actually takes pride and wants to build his knowledge and hand

skills but it's just his hands are tied when it comes to that financially and

then you're talking about career path and the fcef but what career path is there when you're bringing so many new

people in with not many places to put

them and that's where um if I could answer Jeremy is Jeremy able to talk to

his employer about sponsoring him to go um because there are quite a few you

know I um uh I know a lot of companies around here here that that hire young um

uh mechanics or um Machinery operators and they'll put them through school they

just have them sign like a two-year contract hey for the next two years you know I need you to work here and uh I

I'll tooling so Jeremy if you're interested uh I would have a serious conversation with your with your

employer and say Hey you know this is what I'm I'm serious about this I want to do this uh I just I can't front the

money here's what come up with a plan for him hey this is what it's going to cost me

uh you know what can I do to to make this enticing for you to want to send me to something like right and he says that

they'll have them go but sometimes they're just too busy and then the times where he does have time is when there's

no certifications going on probably yeah and then miss Perkins says that uh WiFi the

women in the Floor Covering industry has scholarships right now so tomorrow is the deadline so if you're interested in

that make sure you're you're going to get on and and see if that's something that you can

do where's Jeremy live here in Grand Rapids with us

okay they are also his employers no I'm messing with you that would have been good oh man

we're also his employers he used to be

but yeah it's it's a it's an expense so I mean they need to put CS at

Dalton hey guys I'm I'm hitting the uh po poo mountains and

that R yeah you're breaking up so thanks for for jumping on Rin we'll talk to you

next time bud thank you Rin yeah so they need a like in Dalton they should have a bunch of Cs that way

we can all go and just sleep there we don't have to have a hotel yeah you know it's cheaper but if you if

anybody the the that would be fantastic I know horge has been down there to see

that facility and anybody else that's been there I think that would be you know anybody watching this uh maybe in

wfca CFI the upper s the upper um really

look at making that into a training center you've got I mean you are right in the hub of everything down there you

have access to um all the Mills you have access to uh

materials um man I I would just I would love to see that I know it's going to come down to a lot of other things too

but you know guys that would be fantastic if if something like that could happen in the future you know

Danny you mentioned something about career path and I think that's where um you know Paul Stewart and go carer has got that Jump Start program um to help

uh individuals hopefully find placement after they take their initial classes with the fcef and and and get through

those courses that they have that that's um you know just another add-on for the career path um and then also as far as

like the the grants and all that Jeremy you know Jeremy's got a he's got a great point there right because there are grants available for um uh Corporate

America to utilize utiliz and it isn't geared and we tried to qualify for some

of we did qualify but we weren't able to use it um to its full potential because

our trainings are out of state they want in-house or instate training and there's

a lot of you know there's a lot of red tape right but maybe maybe some of these

uh the FCF and um some of these other entities have the ability to talk to

some of the grant Underwriters and figure out a way to get the verbage right on there for them to make it more

tailored to to the construction industry industry but

correct I like that yeah right like we can take a little like Daniel and I took

a 10we course on Advanced estimating or something like that I forget what it was called um um you know but that was like

one day a week or 10 weeks you know and they have some of that uh going on um

and I think a lot of those programs are still running through some type of University or the higher education programs and that's what kind of sucks

too because that that comes with um a dollar amount um and to be honest with with you man we're in the trades man the

last thing that I want is is for um a university or a college to have full authority over what education we're able

to receive and what certifications I understand that they got to give it a rating to get it accredited but you we

don't want to give them full power of of what we have right we don't well just think about it in the long run though

it's those kind of classes that actually become more affordable and you're not paying just $600 for two

days yeah and if we can get them you get them into you know the colleges and the

universities it's going to open things up to financial aid I mean because what you're saying you're 100% right you know

right now some of these programs you can go to these community colleges for for nothing you know absolutely nothing if

you're willing to do the the program and you're willing to go put the work in it do got to cost you a dime and yeah I

would love to see our trades just I I know they're do like II know they're doing stuff like that you can qualify

you can get certain amounts of money it sounds like the same thing as like Michigan right but the money has to stay

inhouse it has to go towards training you have to show The Apprentice type

program that you have in place with the training um and that's where the programs like

install have an upper leg because they have all of those docks in place and that's why they're able to flourish W

with within the uh the union and you know and you know that is that is one of the benefits to being part of the unit

they have all of that stuff they created the structure yeah well let's just face it anything anything that you know needs to

happen or should happen in the Floor Covering Community it's going to cost money and it's a lot of money right and

sunny says to check with your local labor department for a available funds they are out there and yes they are but

a lot of the the flooring installers around aren't set up to actually receive

those funds like we've been lucky enough to be set up to

actually provide all the information that they need and because when when they're when you're talking about grants

they want to know your entire business history man it's like if you don't keep track of stuff then you're just already

behind and unfortunately most of the guys that are out doing it are just

doing it and keeping receipts in a box and they're not using the right stuff right so that's kind of another hurdle

that we have to get over and I think that that's the also one of the downfalls of U you know the percentage

of 1099 versus W2 um in our industry it's yeah you know what I mean if you're

1099 you know you there you have to have all the right information in place in

order to even come close to having um a chance at a grant so and that's where

the W2 yeah like luckily we have a Daniel Daniel tracks everything and we got the programs and it's evolved into

what it is right now but it's taking us a long time to be be able to understand the importance of retaining information

and and creating a structure and that's a great Point Jose about being able to

keep track of that because that is there's a difference between you're a 1099 then you have an uh you're you're

some sort of Corporation or LLC there's just and let's face it I'm if I had to

guess most of the guys that I know are just quote unquote self-employed 1099 that's it so Proprietors so

Proprietors it's like those are you're gonna have a hard time probably showing

how you you know for grant money how you want thousands of dollars you're gonna use it so there you go Grant

Underwriters we need a program to help out 1099 individuals yeah right that's a

great that's a point though because that is the majority of of if you're

especially if you're working out of a store um yeah you're probably just showing up $199 at the end of the year

that's what it is Y and Jeremy says he wants to get more certifications so he can teach the more

people he can teach the sooner he can get off his knees and that's 100% I think uh H and I I mean I talk about it

with everyone probably but it's a matter of uh it needs to become a viable career

path in order to just be an instructor and just teach people fulltime oh I think we could have a

podcast just on that because I oh I know I am so G to be very vocal here I am so

tired of saying oh there's no money in education there's no money teaching Floor Covering that means we're doing

something wrong because all these damn colleges all these universities any

anything uh I'll even say even um uh the other trades that are doing stuff with

education the centers in which they have like I was just at one for electrical down in waterl my God it was millions

and millions of dollars okay that's real money that means so we just

the right people need to figure this out because you're right like this is if we get the right people teaching this they

need to make a career off it you should not have to install carpet and then go

every go on a weekend and then do some training I mean it's fun to do but man it's it's not something you're gonna be

able to do all the time you so that that's a good idea you know for any of you guys out there in the flooring

industry that just have some money that they want to invest into the training uh preferred flooring is willing to host a

satellite training facility for you if you provide the the location and we'll take care of the facility for you while

utilizing it for our business and anytime you need to host the training we'll make sure that that space is available since it is

yours I like it yeah so kind of reel us back in because we're running a overtime

already and I know it's hard because we got all these topics and it's just it's

just something that you like you said we could talk about this for for days oh that's a good because there's

there is some very talented um within within nwfa ctef there are some very

talented individuals within those organizations that I would love to see him just teaching full-time you know and

make a career out of it and that's what Jeremy says right here you know that's his ultimate goal is to to be teaching fulltime and that would be awesome

because that dude has has some hand skills for real and uh so I I would last week um we did we were at the NCT event

over in America's Flor Source in Columbus Ohio amazing facility this thing is ridiculous right and um you

know I get up there and I introduce myself and some of these guys you can you never

know what you're going to get because you have those guys that are like I already know everything so that's the

attitude they have but one of the the first questions that someone asked me and it was legitimate like he was like

why are you here teaching this class and I said because man I have all this knowledge in here that if it just stays

in here it's not going to do anyone any good later on in life so the more knowledge that I can pass down to

everyone make sure everyone knows what I know and knows how to do things the right way that's what I want like it's

I'm not here to just make a bunch of money because I'm a certifier right

everyone that's a certifier knows that's not the case that's not why we do it it's usually pro

bono you lose money you tend to lose money it's not like oh I could have made

2,000 bucks this week you but that's why we do it right it's because we enjoy showing people the right way to do

things you know having someone go from um we went out there and you know that

first theme that they did and it was so scorched and then fast forward three

hours later and then they're like hey I need you to come check this out because they did man they they got it and and

then they feel so proud of themselves and you you just look at it and you're like man I I can't believe that it just

takes this amount of time for someone to get this much better and then like you

build them up that's the go you build them up with all this flatlay world and

then you make them do flash cove and it tears them right back down it's like anything else you guys

right like if you guys grew up uh competitive at all and played sports or even were part of a band or anything in

school you didn't you didn't jump in band and and take first chair you didn't

jump on a baseball team and you were starting shortstop and and uh you know or starting pitcher you know what I mean

there's there's a lot of things that you didn't do unless they didn't have a choice but you had to practice you had

to go out and do work on your own and and you know and the the individuals that succeeded in all of that took it

upon themselves to take their own time to get better you know not just when they were at baseball practice not when

they were just you don't go to a game and just that's all you get you don't go to one practice and that's all you get it's continuous and and and I think that

that's where where we fall short uh not just in flooring but uh construction period that's why the the the the road

to success is seems so long to so many because they don't put in the work that is really needed yeah no

it's I don't know why some people act all hard like when they go in there thinking they know everything at the end of the at the end of the whole thing

we're probably going to be friends right because you're going to make like three four friends in the next training and

they're always going to talk to you and you're always going to talk to them and your your circle just gets bigger so you

know that whole attitude at the end of the day once people start talking about what they do and they start loving the

talk you know at the end of the day you're going to leave there and you're going to build a new friend and I I think the best the best thing about us

right because that's why we all get on so much and you go to these classes and you're open-minded because you're not

there to just teach you're there to hey if you guys know something that I don't let me know because I'm constantly

looking for for that too and and I'll tell them guys that and it's like I need

to learn from you as much as you need to learn from me so I'm looking for Victoria's Secret man

I'm looking for that secret go to class and and and ask the dumb question yes

yeah because like I told you get far asking Dum questions I told one of the guys last week I said you know they say

there's no such thing as a dumb question they're 100% is but ask it anyways because it needs to be

asked yeah maybe just don't do it in front of everybody if you really think it's

come so is there anything that we need to cover guys you guys want to do some some close outs right now we're we're at

our time we're over our time so let's just close this thing out and uh I got one thing I want to say and and I'm sure

and Jorge is on here but um guys you know if there's anything you know and I'll put my plug in for CFI I'm here for

uh um I we want to do we want to do things for the the floor industry the

floring community right so you know we need the input back so I'm on social media a lot Jorge is on social media the

Gonzalez boys are on social media let us know I mean I I'm uh I'm open-minded to

it and if you want to have a real talk I'm I'm more than happy to talk about it you know it's not just me or or or Jorge or

Jose or whoever going online and just writing a couple things I mean we want to know what we can do better and we

want to know what we're doing good too yeah or yeah bad good it's all good

feedback it's all great feedback definitely go

ahead I'm sorry what go ahead just closing it out if you have anything oh just closing it out yeah I mean just

basically hey uh go get go get your training done and and make some new

friends those friends are going to have more friends that know stuff and then just like in Jos I's CA and and our case

uh I'm going to know somebody that knows something that he needs to know and it's the triangle a triangle that's all

that's gonna a circle it's gonna circle around knowledge it's a circle it's a triangle of love no it's a circle you

know it's going to come back around and uh at some at some point you know somebody's going to know the answer to

that question and that's what we need we need the collective of Minds together that way we can make our jobs easier man

because we have hard jobs it's not easy uh so we need to make our jobs easier make everybody else's life easier too

you know less claims less this and that and just we need to run that machine nicely well oiled and and get ahead man

cuz it's a tough job you know not everybody's just leaping to this uh to

this type of trade you know slowly they're starting to get in there but you know not everybody wakes up wanting to

be a flooring installer they want to wake up being a police officer a doctor an uh an artist of some sort you know

we're we're way down here but we can do great things and that's what people don't realize you know they just walk

all over our floors every day but they don't realize that somebody actually did that and took a lot of time and sweat so

um that's all I can say as far as me yeah and then um for me um so first

uh Walter said remind everyone about the podcast and I'll let Daniel close it out with that but um I would say

um become a solutionist by trade right like um if you're not preparing for

failure you're not really preparing uh for the industry or for anything not

preparing for failure is set yourself up for Doom and by preparing for failure I mean just educate yourself right take a

class make a phone call um read a book watch a even watch a YouTube video I I anything is better

than nothing so set yourself up for Success uh be part of the solution before it becomes a problem yeah and

since you know that's what we're talking about is training in the downtime right if you do have some time right now check

out what's going on check out CFI check out nfct nwfa ctef like any of these

training entities like every training that you go to you'll learn something different you can take the same class

three times and I guarantee you'll pick up something different every single time it's just like watching a movie right like oh I didn't see that last time but

you picked it up that next time so just get out there and uh Walter says you know remind people that we're live on

here and and social media posts and stuff it's just if if you guys like what we do like

subscribe give us a thumbs down if you don't like it tell us what we can do better we're all about this criticism

man like in in everyday life that's what we strive for if we can do something better we all need to know and then uh

Sunny says the training is great but the relationships you build will be what brings you back and that is so true 100%

yep hanging hanging out with with some of these guys it you don't realize how much someone else loves the same

industry you're in until you get around a group of these guys and we've all hung out together and it's just crazy like

most of the time yeah we do we talk about flooring right but when we get into into conversations you know I'll

call H sometimes and just talk to him for a little bit or he'll call me and it's like you need that sometimes right

just we become friends we really do and it's it's a Brotherhood right but we got

sisters in there too so it's just a community of like-minded

individuals that's all we need and it's weird that it has it's weird that most of the people that I am pretty good and

have good relationships they don't live around me they live in other places so yeah anytime there's a training event or

something like that anything I want to go because I want to see my my friends that I haven't talked to in a while or

you know we might might just talk to each other on the phone but sometimes it's good to you know get a dinner somewhere breakfast something and just

catch up on on stuff you can't talk on the phone sometimes or just anything talk crap about one another just talk

crap about each other that's it [Laughter]

but we appreciate you guys thanks for for joining us and uh we'll see you on the next one thank you everyone yes

thank you for having me

Daniel Gonzalez 11/8/24 Daniel Gonzalez 11/8/24

The Huddle - Episode 121 - NAFCT Event 10/2024

In this special episode of The Huddle, Daniel goes live from the NAFCT Heat Weld & Flash Cove event, while Jose and Paul join in remotely to experience the latest techniques, education, and hands-on demonstrations from afar. They’re also joined by special guest Sonny Callaham to dive deeper into the insights from the event and discuss the future of heat welding and flash cove installation. Whether you're new to these skills or a seasoned installer, this episode is filled with valuable takeaways!

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up team welcome to welcome back to the Huddle where you we Playbook get

everything in your flooring career on the right path for you newcomers welcome

to the team for everybody else welcome back with

me this week and usually is Mr Daniel and Jose Gonzalez preferred flooring out

of grand rap it's Michigan also with us today is Mr Sunny

callaham hello hello we are on site for a sheet vinyl training I think it's heat

welding training I'm gonna let the guys talk a little bit more about that but uh it's an exciting day anytime you can

kind of Deep dive into training talk about the the um well obviously probably

end up talking about how this impacts our industry So Daniel Jose sunny how's

it going my man good Jose watching Daniel

work about time this dude's been out in the field

working for the last uh several weeks so you should be in good practice

Daniel uh I only did one Flash Cove job between uh I don't know it's probably

been a couple years and then I did one job and then came over here but everyone says that it looks like I know what I'm

doing so I should be fine I think one time you learned a lot yeah

just don't shake yourself no we've got a great group of guys here man uh a lot of learning going

on uh there's a couple pretty experienced guys here so that's uh that's great that way uh because I'm not

only here to teach some of these guys man if some of these guys know something that I don't I'm here to learn too and

that's what we constantly preach right it's not all about um me or us giving our knowledge away it's all about us

learning as much as we can at the same time so I'm learning here at the same time as these these guys are learning so

it's been a great time um we're actually working onto the The Flash C portion right now and uh they're they're cutting

out some some of the vinyl we just got over the the pattern scribing on the

flash Co so a wealth of of knowledge going on over here that's awesome you

know I've heard it said that if you really want to learn something teach it like driving at home that's probably

just as true in flooring as it is teaching other items you know you get down and you start teaching someone you

you almost learn little tricks yourself and teach yourself little things maybe pick something up from another guy I

think that's what's pretty awesome about our industry um is that that knowledge is

it's out there if anybody anybody on this podcast wants to get trained there

are so many people that want to pass on their knowledge and teach um I think

it's uh you know pretty special part of our industry in general and and they ask

me you know why I do this right they're like why why are you here teaching and and the answer is I'm not trying to get

Keep information like the previous generations have it's like I'm only going to be here for so long I need to

start getting some of this knowledge out of my head if I don't get it out of my head and pass on to the next person then

I really didn't do the industry a favor yeah it's one of the more honorable things you can do as an installer is

teach other people any skilled trade really I mean we're talking about flooring obviously but uh any skilled

trade I believe passing on that knowledge that's how our that's how we got where we were when installation was

really good is that we had kind of an apprenticeship uh atmosphere in flooring

and gaining that back a little bit and and getting the knowledge from guys like you and others in the industry to share

it is uh pretty special I want to uh I've got to jump off here early so I'm

gonna let Jose Daniel and sunny run the the rest of the podcast I want to come

on and thank everybody if you're catching us on any of our socials please you know comment like subscribe to us if

you catch us on YouTube later and for our live audience I I think you're in for a special treats today just kind of

getting a um inside view of of what a training um in our industry looks like

this is very specific and kind of an advanced training but um it's pretty special so I want to thank everybody for

being here sorry that I cannot uh stay the entire podcast but everybody enjoy

and uh yeah fellas you guys gonna take it from here I appreciate you guys all right Paul thanks foring on for a little

bit thanks guys all right gentlemen so so walk us through a little bit of of what we can expect today during today's

episode with uh Paul jumping off and and Daniel kind of playing both sides doing

the instructing and the podcast same time so so right now I think the the big

goal is to just give people an Insight on what happens in these trainings and how um how they run right because not

everyone actually goes to these trainings because they think something can't be learned

and we just need to get over that right away because uh I'm learning here people

that are have uh 15 20 years of experience are learning over here U one of the things that that I went over was

um the quick fix on how to uh get an inside and outside corner to look good

before your vinyl goes on because none of these jobs are perfect and people just looked at each other and

one of the guys was like that right there is worth this this class like just learning that one tidbit of information

that small idiosyncrasy that someone learns it's worth it right because we can all learn can all learn yeah 100% I

know what you're talking about already D and and yeah you're right I remember the first time that that was presented to us

and we were like what the is that easy huh something so simple that easy something that you wouldn't even think

about but then once you see it it's like that would have been the best thing to know you know 10 years ago when when I

was on this project that was that was from a a roofing aspect right from a roofing um the roofing section in a

store they asked me where I learned it and I was like man I don't even remember all I know is that we've been we put it

in practice right away and been using it ever since it was from a roofing guy wow

very nice yeah I'm looking at the comment here where Rollins said teaching make me happy couldn't agree more

couldn't agree more and you know he's probably like me you know I like doing it for selfish reasons because it makes

me feel good right I love passing along information that that I have stored in

this melan of mine that you know if I don't give it away Jer if I don't give it away now then you know who's gonna

have it right so I'm gonna just going to walk over here I'm going to switch my camera around so you guys can see get a

glimpse of what's kind of going on in the background as soon as I figure out how to do it we'll let you do your thing

and then we'll let Sunny uh kind of paint a picture of what led us to to this moment right here that sound fair

yeah works for me so we've got everyone over here um we

like I said we just went over the pattern scribing so he's over here cutting his

his piece out um showing everyone how he does

it and this this training facility is amazing man it's like look how we've got

all this room over here some tables out here if we need to over um Sunny's

actually sitting in the the presentation room where I mean we go in there and we have lunch he gives his lunch and learn

type of of stuff going on yeah we're here at America's Floor

Source in Columbus Ohio and uh honestly I've never seen another place like this

it's beautiful over here man they're so committed to we got all of our stations set up um this station right here with

all the tools is the one that we kind of congregate at and this is where um we do

the demonstrations hey this is how we do this and then they move on to okay we

learned how to do it let's go do it we have some practice welds going on over here with some circles a bunch of uh

straight lines and it's just the amount of progression in this little area from

starting on the first seam and then you get comfortable with with a straight

seam and then you start doing circles and just the quality from the first one to the last one is amazing and just that

I mean we probably this was just this morning I mean it was probably the first couple hours and people are already way

more comfortable than than when they started yesterday that's good get hands on get a

little bit more comfortable that uh and that's where being able to set yourself apart

by going to a class like this and you should be wanting to make a mistake here in front of in front of your peers right

you you want to absolutely and and I told Lear yeah that's the whole goal for for trainings like this I'm not here

telling everyone that they have to be 100% perfect on everything I said this is where you want to make a mistake I

don't want you to make a mistake on a job site I'm trying to hey let's make the mistake here let's learn how to fix

it so that way when you're out in the field you're not in a in a panic right and that's the thing like like Sunny

said earlier too it's like I'm gonna give you my number call me whenever you have any

questions that's right you want to learn something new you want to try something new this is the time to do it we we one

of the one of the more talented guys who were there is a really good installer he was trying a new tool and guess what

that last inch it went off a little bit it's like he never used that tool before now and I'm trying to talk into right

now and just make it's still one of the best tools to use yeah and then we we actually have uh Winkleman Don winlan

here from Winkleman sales um they I I tell everyone over here they take a

bunch of our money throughout the years so definitely make sure you give them a visit Donna is is going to do some

demonstrations for us um he's going to be taking off tomorrow afternoon so first thing in the morning we're going to come here and we're going to do some

demonstrations on some of his tools that way uh guys can the the biggest thing is getting using a tool now so that way you

know if you want to purchase it and use it fulltime right it's the best time

when you don't have to pay for it but you can still use that tool yeah you can listen to everybody

until you're blue in the face saying what one they like the best but you know the best tool for you is the one that

you perform the best with the one you're comfortable with um but this is a great opportunity to see some other hand tools

at work so that way you can find find out if you're comfortable or see if you like the outcome right that's that's exactly what

we were saying that everybody's got their way to do it you know and this is the time to try new things and see what

works better you make you're going to pick up something that uh Daniel does that some of the other guys they don't

do and it's going to make your bet make you better right that's what we're all here for right and I mean and I and I

told them the guys right and it's all these are our our personal tools that we use on a a daily basis on job sites and

the these guys are taking great care of them I'm really happy with uh the turnout that we have here oh yeah we we

have some tools out there today don't we this week oh yeah I mean this right here is a every that's all the stuff that I

brought say we do we we have a good mix in the class though we've got uh folks

who had never done it before we one guy this is first week we have three at

least three guys who do this for a living and they're super talented um we have some manufacturer reps we

have Don Winkleman with the tools I mean it's just a good mix that we can have these conversations about how do you do

this why do you do it that way and everyone seems to be picking up on

it that's awesome you know and when you guys are problem solving and or troubleshooting or explaining and

there's that many people there that are either for one showing a bunch of Interest or to have the experience I'd

just love to be a fly on the wall just to listen to the feedback that everybody is getting from all different facets

like someone who's been doing for 15 years versus 10 versus five and just to see the information and teachings

bouncing off one another and everyone having an aha moment I know we've said that a lot of times too but I just I

love listening to the way everyone interprets the training and the process

and and that's where the learning comes in yeah and and it's great when we get to see those aha moments but there's

even more of those aha moments that people don't communicate right they Clicks in their brain we don't even know

about that's what makes it so great when you're doing training like this because you know they're they're taking it

in 100% The Quiet One are the ones that having the everything's going click click click click oh man I want to say

this but I don't want to sound dumb hey there is sound dumb right now yeah there

is none this the time when you when you get it out because it might it might just make someone's uh final

installation one day right that well that's the thing it's if you have a question in your head that means more

than likely someone else in the class has that same question so no one's asking it no one's getting the answers

that they need and uh I told one of the gentlemen yesterday I said uh I would

say that there's no dumb question but there's absolutely some dumb questions but if you have that dumb question get

it out of your head now because we need those questions answered regardless no for sure for sure it's only classified

as a dumb question if the answer has already been given three times in three

ways no um there there's been plenty of questions here and I we try to do our

our best to to answer them and what I like best about um this group of guys is you know you you do have that range in

there and if if I'm giving an answer I'm like this is the way that we do it hey guys how do you do it that way you know

gives people options and then gives you um a way to to get your own way to it

hey I kind of want to combine these two and that's what needs to be done sometimes because like some of these

guys are like hey I want to do it the way that you do it well I was like how how how do you guys do it and they're like this way and I'm like all right it

doesn't matter which way you do it because um and I explained it in terms of you and I I say it's a we learned

together you know you started you then you taught me and then what I did was I took it and I was like all right I'm going to start doing it this way and I

said but the the main thing is is that what what's going to end upen happening is we're going to if you were in a a

room over here and I was in a room over here we would do it completely different but that end result would be almost the

exact same like you wouldn't be able to differentiate who did what room and that's really the goal right I don't

care how you do it just get it done and make it look the best that you can and

what I've been really driving home with these guys is is that it's it doesn't matter about anything other than what

the the client or end user thinks and we're trying to give them the best product that we can I think well not to mention that

every job is going to be different right you may have to use a different method to get something done and more tools you

have in your tool belt the better it's gonna go and that's why we're focusing on pattern scribing right now um there

was some newer gentleman that didn't know how to pattern scribe flatlay and that's not that wasn't going to be one

of the focuses that I wanted it to do but it's one of the focuses that we had to do in order to teach these guys the

right way to do things sometimes you you know you you get thrown a curveball and you just roll with it it's okay you guys

don't know how to do this this is what we're going to focus on today so that way later on when we're working on the

the stuff that's even harder to pattern scribe you already have an idea of what's going on well not only does it

help the people who need to learn it a little bit but it's also a quick refresher course for some of the other gentlemen who who might not have done it

in a while um I mean some of those guys you said they do it every day right so that's probably like right on their mind

but that's a great opportunity for them to chime in and give some advice and some pointers during that process too

and there you know there we like he Sunny was saying we have some manufacturer reps here that are are

taking the class and they have done they have done you know some resilient over

the years and then you get into that role and it's like sometimes you do you end up getting a little rusty or you

just want to come to the training and say hey what is the new stuff that's going on right now what is it that I

don't know and it's awesome to see these these guys here doing that and

being open to um not only new tools but new techniques and that's what it's all

about it's all about constantly learning I everyone here knows that they don't know everything and that's been made

clear by myself and and even all the other guys that have experience the best kind of class

whenever there's some great guys how many how many attendees you get for this class total 14 14 14 oh so a pretty big

pretty big uh classroom then with all their on and yeah so and one other group that we failed to mention is we have a

couple of salespeople one that's taking a class and multiple that pop in and out during the week so they can understand

what they need to do when they're bidding these jobs they go out to a job what they can talk to their customer

customer about managing their expectations I think it's great it's just it's it's really a testament to how

Jason does things here at America's world yeah and I was talking to one of the salesmen right he was like he's down

there working in the box and then uh you know we go to lunch and he was like dude this I had no idea this much went into

something that I thought was so simple it's it's a lot simpler on paper

than it is when you're getting down to the nitty-gritty um especially when you're having to flash cove at hospitals

with fixtures already hanging off the walls and you know it's a renovation and they're not moving anything anymore and

you got to start doing the belly method like upside down and that's where the pattern

scrib is going to come and and help out but there are still some instances where you are in the most awkward most

uncomfortable positions uh to get that done and where doing installer of the

year we have pictures of me laying on my belly and we just say that that's the The Flash

Coan stance right that's that's what we do crystal as well

system I have a I have a picture of my camera roll of her laying I mean spread out like

Superman excuse me that's hilarious there's sometimes there's no other alternative sometimes you just got to

figure it out but if you look at this group right now through Daniel's phone look at them all they're all engaged they're all

committed they all want to see what's going on and it's just just a great class now who else is instructing there

with you Daniel so that young man in the box works here um his name is Chris he works

for America's Floor Source and he's got some crazy hand skills he knows what

he's talking about he's been a great um helper for the uh for Daniel to teach

this class because he certainly knows what he's doing and he's teaching it the right way I see he knows how to do that

Flor guy Shuffle yeah the Flor guy Shuffle yeah yeah

yeah no he he definitely um we we've talked a few times and I was like hey um

when I was at a certification one time uh it was you know with

uh William thoron and he looked at me and just the knowledge that I had and he

was like you know what you're not going to take this class you're going to help me and uh we kind of needed some help

and I asked him and he was like yeah man I'm I'll help you with whatever you need and he's been doing a great job he has

different techniques than than we do and uh like I said I'm learning at the same time he's teaching me um just as much as

I'm hopefully teaching him yeah you talk about people with a lot of knowledge William Thorton is one and he's more

than willing to share it with you but when you talk about old school that man is old school so I've only I've only had

the pleasure of talking to him on the phone a couple times here and there about some some projects I never really

talked to him in person or or had the pleasure of working with him but great he did uh he did uh men Daniel's name a

lot and we we did a little bit of Daniel bashing hilarious Good Humor of course more more about how tall he was

but then anything else but hey look we don't talk about how tall people are around here all right tell them you know

what as long as that stack of Milwaukee isn't taller than you we're good that is probably is taller than me I cannot I

cannot confirm or deny that [Laughter]

statement so Mr Sunny what what's what what led to to this where we're at right now what what part of um the industry

struck you as this there was a hole um in the the industry needed to be filled and this is where you're at now I know

that we could go down a long road and there's a lot of different ways but I just want to know like C you know from

from installer to installer what led to this point right here and you could take your time or

shorten it up I know that's putting you on the spot but I apologize that we Paul

and I realized this before we even started in afct as a nonprofit um we saw

the shortage of people who knew how to do it quite frankly that that's what it was you know we were finding in the

larger markets there were people who would just go around and do the flash cove and heat well that's all they would

do because the the new people coming into the industry just didn't know how to do it and like anything else we just

didn't want that that art to die right we wanted to make sure that the Next Generation knew how to do it uh we did

the first class Daniel and and Mike pigeon taught the class it was in February of 2020 so what happened in

March of 2020 we all shut down so we weren't able to do it remember do it again there pretty quick but what it did

allow us to do was go through the class and make it even better now that we had done it one time you know we picked it

apart we all put her input in and we made it better and here we are

now gotcha and then so is there um I mean I kind of know some of the answers

to this but for people watching is there a progression that is expected in order to be able to take the training portion

or certification portion because it's my understanding that this is not only just a training but a certification right but

it's based around certifying individuals who have some prior experience but it's still open to others who want the

training portion as well the education portion of it well that's what makes it it's so great with the folks that we

have here because the first three days are training right we're showing people how to do it the last two days are the

people who have been doing it for years and they want to show off their skills and get certified right so the first

three days has literally taken people who haven't done it before or done very limited number of of flash code jobs and

teach them how to do it will they all necessarily be certified at the end of the week probably not but it's it's

training and certification mixed into one and we have some just coming for 3 days we have some that are just coming

for the certification it just depends on what level you are in your

experience but of 14 hopefully the turnout's pretty good man I never never

go to a class hoping that uh you know oh hopefully I'm the only one that passes no way always go take a take one of

those classes and hopefully everyone you know what hits their goal let's think about our classes not everybody passes

some people get mad about that but if everyone passed then we're not doing it right right yeah you have to make it

challenging right and that's right it's got to be challenging everyone can write a piece of paper that says you're

certified but if you don't know what you're doing that certification doesn't mean anything right essentially you're

putting your stamp on on these individuals that passed at the end of the the course and if someone's gonna

carry around your brand you want to make sure that they're carrying it around that's right in the manner in which you

uh we intended created the class yeah and intended correct yeah so we have eight folks that are going to stay for

the certification um out of the 14 so that that's a good turnout we'll get them

certified and have them go through the process and hopefully they'll be certified I should say no I think the guys that are going

to stay have a have a great chance they've been asking the right questions um they've been you know when something

doesn't look right hey can you come and look at this what should I do here and that's the biggest thing is that I like

to have my trainings be as real world as POS possible and I said I'm not in here looking for Perfection I don't want you

to go in here and be like this is a oneand done this this is we're we're

learning ask the questions I want this to be like all right I'm on a job site

um I just messed this up what am I going to do to fix this and have it pass for

the client that's really what we're looking for like if if you mess something up let's talk about it let's

go over our options um real world scenarios well that's why Paul and I

built the assemblies there's nothing Square on those things so they got to really work

around you guys tried your hardest and still failed and that's what we needed that's right we need a certification

course on how to build assemblies well you like he said real world problems right you can't you can't

have a perfectly square one and even if you guys did make it perfectly Square chances are that by the time you're ready to use it you know the the wood

products are going to warp and move and it won't be square anymore anyway that's right

they have these uh America Flor Source buckets that I'm trying to to get my hands on because they're super

sweet so I um another question for for you guys is uh through the certification

process are there is there anything that that you guys are learning that that can be adopted into the next class do you

guys feel that there are some items that the students offer that are very educational informational that that

could be incorporated into future trainings I know this is only a couple trainings in but yeah I mean we're we're

learning just as much as they are I mean we're going to take all these things that we hear and the questions that we ask and we'll incorporate it I'm sure

Daniel's ran into a lot of things is like yeah you know what I need to cover that more same with the PowerPoint same

with what we're doing for the lunch and learns just what what else can we do to make it better because you know we can

always get better just in flooring and then our training and everything else and when we got here this morning too

right that the guys are like are we going to go in the and do another presentation or anything I said no sir

I'm uh I'm mostly hands on like you got the introduction we talked about the things that we were going to work on out

here and with the the tools that we were going to work on and what we kind of expect now it's mostly handson and the

biggest thing like I said earlier is um knowing where our skill levels are at

and that's what I kind of started with um first thing yesterday morning I'm like this is who I am this is um you

know kind of my credentials and and how long I've been doing things I want to go around the room so I can gauge what

we're working with and that's kind of when I knew we were going to have to add

a little bit more than we thought we were but that's the versatility of this class is if there's people that don't

know what they're doing we're going to make sure that they know what they're doing before we send them out of here um whether they they pass or fail the

certification that that's irrelevant because they're going to get out of here knowing more than when they came yep

that's awesome and then uh you had mentioned that some of the sales team that that are popping in and out now are

they just popping in and out um sporadically or do you have any is there

any literature or any kind of guidelines that you have that is specifically Geared for them um as far as information

or or questions they might have or is they just popping in absorbing at what

point you guys are are are at the the class I think we have we have two taking the class right I know at least one here

full time I think there's two actually taking it Monday through you know Monday through Wednesday the others are just

kind of coming in and watching Daniel uh when he's doing his thing to kind of just pick up a tip here and there

because you know we can't have all the sales people in there right right got Somebody's gotta be selling something

that's right the guys that are in here you know um one of them is doing everything the other one is in here just

taking it all in because he does have some knee problems and um he said that

he was in the military he's got some knee problems he's like man if I get down on my knees I'm going to be on walking with a cane for the for a few

weeks and that's just not something that I'm trying to do and I was like I totally get that man but that he he's

been walking around he's been asking questions um the Gent yeah the gentleman

that's actually doing it um he brought his computer this morning because I mean we all know how you can get behind

really quick so he brought his computer in he was working and then once he was was got to a point where he felt he was

comfortable he was like all right I'm going to get down here and start welding some stuff now and that that's the one

that you know he was like I can't believe how much actually goes into just something that's in this little box um

now I know that when I'm selling these jobs how much labor actually goes into I

mean you're you're looking at you know a surgery room as opposed to this little box and this little box is taking you

this long to well you know 12 feet yeah I mean there's a there's a lot

of um there's a lot of different parts and pieces when it comes into getting the from start to finish on an

installation of flash Co um now from you're looking from the sales side you got to get all the components um and and

then from the installation side is you got to have all the techniques and the proper tooling the tooling is huge right

because we we came in here with all the tooling and one of the the guys was saying earlier too he was like yeah they

they don't understand how much these things actually cost and when you're only want to pay x amount for heat

welding and then he he looked at the table he was like just look at your tools there's like 20 $30,000 there and

these are the things that we have to invest in and I said yeah but you have to realize that it took a long time to

get that 20 to $30,000 worth of heat welding equipment and it didn't just

happen overnight and that's where why we have um all the tools and I tell the guys you know you can start with this

entry level stuff and work your way up just like anything else yeah it's one of

those things where you can't invest your the most money in the top dollar in something that you don't know is going

to take off for you or not um I mean you may not like that tool you may want a different tool yeah that's the biggest

thing about these trainings and having Don here using Don's tools um I come

here using my tools hey I've never used this tool before I've only heard about it this is your chance man start getting

the hang of it that's right um we got fr's new Grover here we got turbo tools

um was generous and gave us a bunch of stuff on the last class we we're using all that stuff today um we talk about

Leo one of the the manufacturer reps here was like yeah he goes over to Leo's shop and just talks to him all the time

and I'm like yeah Leo's got some great stuff man we've been using all his stuff for years and we'll never stop using

them yep I got to shake that man's hand in it doesn't mean that that's the only

tool out there that you can use um like Crane's new

groover like I I got to get a hold of Darwin because a lot of these guys here are like I love this groover and I'm

like I got just gotta let Darwin know hey man people love your groover keep on selling

it CL this this three-day class could easily be five days because it's all

about repetition it's trying the new tools what works for you what doesn't work for you um but I mean it's like

anything in life the way you get better is just keep doing it over over and and I was talking to Chris earlier and he's

he's just looking at the boxes and he was like man this is a lot to cover in five days you can like you said I said I

know and you really don't think about it in those terms because you're you're so proficient at it but to teach someone

from zero how to be Prof like somewhat proficient at it in five days is a challenge and these

guys are are up to that challenge though and they're doing a great job I can't wait to see what some of these test boots look

like yeah I'm very curious on that are you gonna are you gonna take pictures and document the process to to share

later on oh yeah I'm pretty sure everything is going to be up on ncts uh social medias and stuff like that not

too long after everything is done that's right that's good one day

you know mess something up that you'll learn real quick oh real fast like the last certification we did when we were

down in Georgia and Andy was like hey are we gonna go over repairs and I was like oh there's going to be stuff to

repair don't worry we have plenty to go over you know what I will I will say

that I will say that the the reason that that I think that that we got really good at um resilient and shine and

Welding was the amount of repairs that we came in behind installers and and ourselves to do learning how to

deconstruct reconstruct and try to put it back together that's that made us

better um at in the resilient field and only because we learned what we learned

how to mitigate that right by deconstructing some of the the failures from from ourselves and other installers

and also um we had to get better at hand skills and hand techniques and and other

outside the box thinking to um I say hide mistakes right but let's just say

mask make it look like it was an intentional design I had a great moment out here

with one of the guys e the first three inches of his seam was just completely

burnt so I'm looking at him he's down there and he starts a little bit past it

I I pointed to I said what happened there he goes well I'm having trouble with getting it in here and and starting

with it you know without burning it and sure enough he asked somebody else they came over and helped them and he figured

it out you know he screwed it up he asked the question how to fix it and I haven't seen him do it ever again right

everything else has been great and there that's you know it's those Comfort

things too like you're if you're afraid to burn yourself you're afraid to cut yourself you're afraid to do a lot of

things you're gonna you're G to be a little apprehensive on trying new techniques that's right um and I think

after a while you you become so used to the motions that become second nature

like you know the heat gun's GNA or the the welder is going to be there for a second if you can bear the heat for one

second you get there and start it against the wall with no you know instead of starting away from the wall getting that Cur like anything it is

muscle memory you learn what different uh welds and materials you're able to

manipulate before you stick it in the gun uh to go ahead and get started um you learn a lot of dos and don'ts the

the more you work with certain materials and I think that's that's where Daniels had the luxury and where

it comes in handy where he's been able to work with many many different manufacturers over and over again to

learn little shortcuts for himself here and there but then also uh meeting like

Mike pigeon and taking other classes with other people and and adopting some of their techniques and their their

information to make him a better installer as well like that's that's where you learn a lot that's where those

moments come into play yeah what one of the things they had to do today was was do a circle heat weld a circle and and

Daniel was just awesome with it he said look you're gonna burn yourself get that mindset out of the way you are gonna

burn yourself but this is what we're gonna do and you know what everyone was able to do it so yeah as long as you're

prepared I guess is this is going to hurt a little bit guys like right here this part right here you might as well

kiss it gone or you know or put some tape around it if you have just to to bear that heat a little bit more but

doing enough times you'll be okay with it yeah yeah you develop a little bit of a callous so it it's good times and I

miss uh I I miss getting down to the nitty greeny being being able to do that

fulltime um some people are like oh I don't want to be on the floor my whole life like you're right you don't right

your body can't withstand that type of abuse but at the same time it's if you learn how to do something efficient

proficient when it's your turn to teach and it's your turn to look at it from a sales perspective there's a lot of parts

that you won't miss that somebody else will and you can appreciate from start to finish the sales part and the

installation part yeah and when we get to meet those people all the time that

you know they're not going to install forever right I'll give you the perfect example Andy McWilliams we met at an

nfic event with PJ um and the day I met him I knew you know

what you're going to be a manufacturer's rep and you're going to do training and we made it happen right and he's one of

the best that's out there right now but you can just tell that people want to

share the information some people don't but the people who want to share the information and their passionate about

flooring they can make a difference right that's all we're trying to do and you talk about hand skills you know what

I what I tell people is you know I kind of liken myself to Bobby Cox right Bobby

Cox was not a great baseball player but he was a really good coach and I'm kind

of the same way I'm not going to get down on the floor and out install many people right my skills were average at

best right but I can teach anybody on how how to install the floor right I can

read a book you know but I still have experience behind it to teach people how to install the floor and when you enjoy

that there's nothing better there's nothing better well that goes to the the

point where um you know somebody had uh you could take this for what it what it is uh those who can't do teach right

yeah get the time I don't think that that's the case at all it's um you

know sometimes you can understand something from a scientific perspective you can understand it from uh start to

finish on the process but your your skill set that's required Hands-On just

can't achieve that level right but you can definitely explain it to someone who has better hand skills um and that's the

coaching perspective is someone might have the someone's abilities will supersede yours but they

might not have the the ability to absorb the the knowledge um the way you do and

if you can somehow click uh and find that common ground to help their ability

match your your knowledge man that's teaching just watching someone learn something that that you can never take

away from them and achieve it and then at a higher level than what they've done before that's that's one of those

fantastic things that you can't you walk away and you smile when when you do it for selfish reasons it makes you feel

good yeah well I tell you one one example of that and and by the way I just noticed where I can see people

chiming in so you guys have been saying hi so I I I forgive me for not answering

you but hello to everyone that's out there but I I used to wear khaki pants when I would go do demos and talking to

people I realized I couldn't do that right I had to wear jeans because there

was always that one guy in the back who would call you out and say you can't do it you can't I'd get on the floor and do

it they're like oh okay this guy knows what he's talking about he's just not a Salesman or a guy who knows nothing

about it sometimes you just got to put your money where your mouth is and that's it too and we got a couple

comments on here too um Ryman it always depends on the person you are teaching

is ready for the knowledge and you know what what I mean he's right but uh there

there's a if you if you are able to get people excited about the learning process and

help them understand that this is something that they'll take with them for the rest of their life and they can pass it on to whomever they'll be

excited they'll be ready to learn yeah even Sunny lunch and learns that we've been going you know we're eating lunch

and um he's going over presentations that he has and like I'm learning stuff

over here from Sunny to even today he was talking about adhesives like it's things that you

don't even realize that the the science behind everything and that's what I'm always going to push right there's still

salesmen that are like no our project managers handle all the science behind everything and they don't need to know

the installers don't need to know about this which is it sounds good in theory

but we're your last the installer is your last line of defense on that project they're the ones that are on the

ground running so if they don't know that hey this is what um what

moisture will will possibly look like this is what e florescence is you know

just simple things like that then they're not set up for Success we need

to know as installers the science um basically start to finish behind

everything in order to to have a successful project because if anything

goes wrong wrong we as installers know what do they say we are the professional

we're the professional yeah yep so it doesn't matter who sells the material at the end of the day the installer is like

Daniel said the the last line of defense right and and sometimes you're right sometimes a salesperson does they do

have an extensive knowledge of the science science behind a a product um

but their knowledge might stop at at X and you got to explain Y and Z to them

um and and that where uh working with um companies where

they're they're not as reluctant to listen to the installer right they listen to your information they take

their information they go back and and they put it together uh to make sense of everything and those are the people that

I want to work for um the the companies and individuals that understand like

Daniel said earlier they don't know everything and sometimes you do have to listen to the installer uh sometimes you

do have to listen to the salesperson put your heads together you know make sure you you are doing your best possible um

the best make sure you're doing your best that you could possibly do to for a successful installation um and that

might be being that that thorn in the sight of the the salesperson or the

installer and say hey this is what I'm seeing man what can we do to find out

what's going on here I'm just a little nervous that we're missing something okay yeah so so today we

talked about adhesives like Daniel said we talked about all the different types of chemistries the wet set PSAs modified

whatever you want call it well but yesterday we talked

standards Oh I thought so it it just amazes me when I talk to these groups of

people and I bring up ASM standards how little of them even know what they are much less be a member um you know I

always say that when when there's a problem on a job site and the manufacturer comes out be it adhesive

underlayment mitigation the flooring itself whatever you're going to be judged by one or three ASM standards on

day one the first thing they're going to look at ASM f710 1869 or 2170 which those two are

for moisture right and if you don't know what those documents are and how to make sure that you abide by those guides or

practice I should say and test method how you going to win right you're not going to win the game you're to lose

because you don't know the rules so every manufacturer is going to have that in their literature that you need to

abide by these standards and they'll spell it out for you and that's where you have to start looking hey if you're

reading manufacturers instructions you should be seeing these standards and you should be you know at least getting them

so you can start having an understanding of what they contain right every one are going to say ASM

f710 and people don't know what that is they just go okay I'll sweep the floor yeah so I wanna I want to break it down

for some individuals who who might not understand what that is that the ASM standards that that um sunny and Daniel

are talking about are pretty much the foundation in which the specifications are built on top of uh from these

manufacturers so let's just call it a starting point right like it this is a a

requirement in order for these specs um to to be properly adhere to the uh

product in which you're working with so like I it took me a while to understand that years ago once somebody broke it down to me and

said look this is the foundation of what these specs were built on if it doesn't pass this right here

this is this is your ground zero and and we we've built on top of that that's right this is you should pay attention

to this bottom line right here because that's GNA let you know yeah ASM f710

how to prepare a concrete substrate to receive resilient floring that should

tell you right there there's going to be a lot of information in there right what do you need to do

I'll let you know I was a copy paste King when it came down to some of that on a couple projects recently where they

were trying to have us go outside of that if you bid work it's going to say

in that bid packet to prepare the job site install according to asmf 710 and

you're bidding jobs and you don't even know what that means when when in reality if you come to a job site and

there's something that doesn't con uh conform for to ASM f710 you've got that

document to take back to the contract say look you're the one who told me to do it this way but now I don't have it

on the job right here's a change order this is what it's going to cost it's an advocate for the installer right it

helps back you up it's not just you saying no to somebody here's why right

and that that's what we've been through plenty of times where it's like they they're like hey just do this and you're like no in your contract you spelled it

out what I have to follow yep and that's that's when I touched um yesterday too

when I was like doing our introduction and I you know Daniel from preferred flooring this is what we do um a lot of

what we do is you know with with these standards and what you need to realize about the standards is that's the bare

minimum you should be doing there's always things that you you can do better and that's why our our slogan is setting

the standard one installation at a time it's we we take those standards and then we're like okay well what can we still

do better what what can we do that's on top of these standards that will make this last longer for that client that's

right it's all about adding long-term value Mr Churchill it's much more than

clean dry flat and sound there's a lot more to that's a starting point yeah exactly

I do know that we're getting pretty close to our time guys so if not if we've already exceeded it but yeah um

I'm GNA I just want yeah we can keep going forever but absolutely man this training and the

the feedback that we've gotten so far is um is great and I I'm loving

it no I think it's going really good man I appreciate you being here um if you

guys haven't seen Daniel install he's just phenomenal so and he's a great instructor so I appreciate you man no I

appreciate you Sunny for uh for putting this on and definitely America's Floor Source for for letting us use this

beautiful space and uh you know the the vendors that we have here that are Don

Winkleman you know he's he's got a bunch of tools here he's like use whatever you need um that's that's amazing uh and

then you know our our other vendors that are not necessarily here but we have tools here that that are from them wolf

turbo tools um crane thanks for generously you know giving stuff to us

um and and letting us use these tools not necessarily just for this class I mean I'm using them on job sites too so

thanks for that yeah we get the we get a demo tomorrow as a matter of fact for for a machine from Wolf so yeah Cory

Dickerson is gonna be on one of our job sites um demoing a their ride on demo

machine so thanks Wolf for for being able to do that if if you guys don't

know yeah if you guys don't know contact your reps there's plenty of sources out there where if you need something

they're more than happy to provide it um are they going to sell you a tool probably that's the whole goal yep

there's plenty of Technical Resources out there for manufacturers that you as an installer need to develop those

relationships that will make your life a lot easier Daniel Jose and myself I call

people all the time right to have those people on speed dial in your phone saves a lot of time and money and that's where

these associations come in to play right the cfis the FCI nact all these groups

you get to meet these technical based people for the manufacturer for the products that you use every day right

it's just it's it's Priceless and a huge shout out Sarah do you mind being on camera do you mind being on camera you

don't want she don't want to be on camera but she's been taking a great care of us these last Sarah's the goat

she's the best she is absolutely the best she's

shy but thank thanks guys I think uh we're going to end it there we're going to finish up today and uh get ready for

tomorrow over here and then I mean tomorrow like they thought the these last couple days were were something but

once you get into that flash fold welding it's a totally different know I can't wait to hear

about that well stay tuned on on social media we'll have more pictures and Det details and we'll keep you up to date

and hopefully we'll see you at the next class don't just follow the Huddle on social media follow nfct follow

America's Floor Source all these people are in the industry to to not only help

you be better but to help the industry be better as a whole so let's all be part of that progress if you guys like

what you hear let us know uh share it uh like it dislike it whatever you want

check out the other platforms um share that like it dislike it whatever

whatever floats your boat you have if you have anything else that you want to add or you want to hear something um as

far as content that we haven't covered please chime in let us know we're we're all ears but I think with with that

we're going to take off we really appreciate you guys' time Daniel thanks for taking time away from the class uh

to talk with us today and sunny you as well we really appreciate both you guys thanks for having me on I appreciate all

the support from the Huddle all right thanks guys we'll see you guys next time and we'll see you next Tuesday at 4 p.m.

Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24 Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24

The Huddle - Episode 120 - Blue Collar Cruise #4

All aboard for the fourth installment of Blue Collar Cruise with Paul, Daniel, and Jose! In this episode, the crew dives into the latest trends in flooring and construction, exciting innovations, and big news shaping the industry. From new technologies to upcoming projects, they’ve got everything you need to stay ahead of the curve in the blue-collar world. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just curious about what's next, this episode is packed with valuable insights!

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up team welcome back to the Huddle your weekly Playbook to get forward progress in your flooring

career I got a little feedback going but this is where you belong welcome to the

team with me today Mr Jose Lake Gonzalez and Daniel Gonzalez from

preferred flooring out of Grand Rapids Michigan this is our Blue Collar cruise

week so we're going to be cruising topics that uh are in the construction or blueco collar industries that we

thought might be a little bit entertaining and or um informative you

know wrap a little bit how you guys doing today nice to have you both on the on the back with us you know it's it's

exciting I know about time right kidding I understand I mean like

you guys are out there making it happen and that's that's what the Huddle's all about anyway so you guys are living what

we preach on here and and that's absolutely uh amazing but it doesn't

take away from the fact that the the audience and myself has missed

you thanks for having us back feel like we were on vacation for a

second all right well you guys are both in the vehicles you guys look alike I do

like the uh the uh Paul learned how to play okay so there's a little story about Paul

learning how to play Fantasy Football this is this is Mo mostly true I I was 0

and five and and Kevin was like dude come on like make some trades or do something because do something you your

your whole team is like on bye this week I said all right so I got in there did a

little magic and won I was like there's my first win look at me go Kevin now you

gota get a spreadsheet you gotta get a spreadsheet to see how that happened oh bro I would I would go nuts if I got too

involved in it I'd be I'd be doing nothing but watching ESPN trying to win win win if I get too involved I'm I'm

trying to win the thing I know a lot of guys are already that way but um I've never participated it's been fun I can't

calls from from uh different guys that that are on the uh in the league asking

for trades and well you're not doing nothing anyway why don't you give me your kicker and your quarterback and I'm

like dude come on now I might I might get back in it and look at me I think I scored 111 points this week

so this is Tanya's first was it too and she

uh she goes and follows some people that are supposed to be professionals and then they give her the wrong advice and

then she ends up getting all mad and watching her phone all day bro I Kevin

says uh told me he's like yeah I forget the which team it was but he's like he

got autod drafted and hasn't really done much but just make sure he has players and he's like undefeated so all you

professionals out there that that that think we know what to do because I actually took the draft pretty seriously

and was looking at it and doing all this making sure I had guys for the bye but then just like a GM of a real football

team I had to figure out how to handle all the injuries and all that crap so

anyway enough about fantasy football we we're going to start the blue color cruise off this

week with a little story um about how the

US how how the US construction has left the World Behind

so give you an overview the US has been really strong

in uh construction versus the rest of the world so the article cites that um

the industry has faced its share of challenges here recently with construction uh costs still sitting

close at 40% higher than February 2024 which was you know pre

pandemic but while you know other countries uh didn't like China Germany

United Kingdom South Korea um all of them are down in their uh Construction

and some of them you know that's a big part of their GDP so uh China's construction sector is

sluggish uh with declining demand due to property Market downturn uh reduced infr infrastructure

investment that's because you know uh a lot of people talked about this is that you know China really uh government

funded a ton of infrastructure so you go over there it's awesome but there's just not a lot of business happening it's

almost like a like a really nice painting uh Germany the take a look at

it looks Co yeah it's like a really nice building that doesn't have anyone in it you know what I mean or or awesome

highways but no one can afford to drive from place to place uh it's that kind of

stuff uh yeah so it says Germany which is Europe's largest uh

economy uh ALS o contracted did a deep uh a very steep drop in housing and

Commercial projects alike um looks like it's still a pessimistic outlook for

them the bottom line is uh the US had kind of a construction surge many of the

factors causing the slowdowns in other nations like Rising material cost and

economic uncertainty are still present here but some of the issues are just um

well even I guess some of the issues are even more pronounced in the us but we just kind of handled it differently uh

in 2024 it says a market survey from Turner and Townsen a global real estate

infrastructure consultancy based in the UK reported data from 91 markets and we

uh the the um us constructions spending in this

same time frame has grown more than 41% now that's interesting this is where I wanted to get to to talk about it grew

41% but construction costs are up 40% so is that growth because everything

just costs more and so because they're they're calculating this based on the dollar

amount yeah yeah yeah so so they're saying they're saying the increase in

dollars spent is growth right but growth is not dollars spent you know like how

how many new businesses are coming up dollar spent but it's not Mo it's not more square footage or more more

construction less square footage might be less square footage but more dollars spent because of the cost that's uh

that's crazy to think about it like that isn't it holy smokes yeah it seems like it seems like they they presented this

and this is from constru Ru dive uh if you guys are interested in checking out

the article but construction spending grew 41%

construction cost are up 40% over the same time frame so uh does that to me that means we

really only grew somewhere you know I mean this isn't perfect math but let's say one% so which is

still uh still growth but I I think there also the other side of that to

look at is that um in comparison with other countries their construction cost

Rose as well but they did not keep up you know what I mean their

construction growth slowed because of the uh increased cost to me it seems

like we maintained Uh current let's call it

projects out of the ground or remodels or whatever

um but just at a higher cost it's what it seems like so we're still stronger than other

countries in the world at the end of the day the other leading construction

companies of the world or construction countries of the world but so we're staying steady we're staying steady but

we're not necessarily making more money we're just staying consistent we're

we're staying busy yeah yeah seems like we're staying

at a even kill through the the that whole time frame uh but not not really

growth the way you think of growth like it's almost like you know I don't know

measuring your kid when he's in a hole and then having him stand up and me when he's not a hole and saying

yeah he grew man this um Jorge say says you know

also fuel costs and that's part of I'm sure in the calculation of the construction cost is the fuel cost but

you know if you if if um and I'm sure you do too but if you look back at at what you're spending um for the for the

business in 2018 to 2019 for a very similar project right about now I'm

pretty sure you can calculate the percentage of increase and then the loss of I don't want to say Revenue right

because it with that 40% increase and everything you're still

generating Revenue but the profit what does the profit look like on that that's

that's what I don't think they're they're really talking about they're looking at the the revenue the dollars

and cents going out they're not looking at how profitable companies are at uh

that percentage of increase yeah and we talked about this

before there's there were some major drivers on this initiatives uh like the

$1.2 trillion infrastructure investment and jobs act and then the uh you know

inflation reduction act that was 369 billion and then the 52 billion chips

act so all that was like federally funded growth uh and you know this article even

points out that that's that's played a significant role in the in the US construction industry success so

well stay it's success it depends on how you gauge success if you're uh if you're

doing it based on um if you're doing it based on

comparison so like is success in a football game is only in comparison to

the other team you know you can score three three points but if the only if the other team only scores Z doesn't

score any points you still win you know it's still a success so I think from that perspective it's a success but from

the health of the industry I'm hoping that you know at the end of the day that what this you know

kind of signals and seems like where this article's leading is that the strength of that should could carry

through when the economy uh when the construction economy kind of recovers on

privatized spending because like I said the article points out very

clearly there's there's three significant bills that have added you

know well in excess of a a trillion a half dollars to the to the construction

of you know to that construction number

so man that just burns go ahead go ahead I'm saying bring

me a little bit because the um so so when you when you said federally funded right right I think and in comparison if

I'm going to relate it to something that I did for a while you know related related to softball when we used play

ball we used to get penalized for um home runs and when we did hit too many home runs we used to have to award the

other team um runs it was called Progressive runs so if we were only

allowed two home runs or three home runs a game and we went over that the first home run gave the other team one run the

second home run gave him two runs the third home home run gave them four runs

and then it doubled every time and that's almost like when somebody says ferally funded right I think about where

are those funds coming from and how are they going to replenish that stock um so every time I hear that I think about

where is it coming from and how are they gonna get it back and and if they federally fund it today that means that

in the next the next uh two years they're going to figure out how to get that back in there so that way they can

federally fund some more to get that back in there so it almost yeah that that goes all the way into the

government the government spending thing this is that that machine is not going to be stopping if you think that we're

gonna quit quit spending this this machine is just gotten going uh there's

there's no nothing stopping the this increase in spending

we just print more dollars tax heavier uh and I mean find more things

to tax on yeah I mean but that also is what other countries are doing too so

you're you're talking about when you start comparing comparing these things you're like if the whole world's doing

it then where wh you have to have something that's going to be like the

Baseline to that brings the uh Legos down so to speak I don't know the House

of Cards down I don't know if there is anything uh even the venture Capital

money that's really invested in construction Innovation was uh about 80%

of all of that uh available funds from Venture Capital so private money 80% of

that was invested in the US and that's because you know we can be very proud as Americans

that we still are the uh Innovation capital of the world like we're the

money goes that money is particular going to go to where Innovation is being

you know where it's thriving where their money can thrive in Innovation and that's that's the I have noticed I have

noticed that the US is getting pretty good at taking products built outside of the country into the US and figuring out

better ways to to use them I'm well pretty Innovative it's been done it's been done to us

for you know decades and decades so says yeah R says the building going C

going crazy in his area big warehouse and office space setting empty sooner or

later they will have to stop yeah I don't know when they Rolland I don't know how they're going to do it that

China just keeps building uh empty buildings um I hope we don't do that I

hope we build based off demand but you just never know well we're seeing a lot

of it turned into a affordable housing yeah yeah D we just had a project here

you guys got projects there that we had a project here that was stacked for um

it was it was slated really for like condos it's a nice building downtown and it just got from my understanding uh got

approved for affordable housing today or this you know recently I should say you guys got that too yeah they're

groups over here that that's all they do is that's their specialty is going and

trying to get as much grants and government money as they can in order to build more housing because it is crazy

how much I don't know that it's necessarily a shortage but since like airbnbs and

stuff there's a lot of houses that no one lives in that they just run up same

thing with the hotels and and um you know part of that Daniel is the the census right the population they're

trying to increase population because you increase population it increases tax revenue you increase tax revenue then

you can po lower taxes in those areas um and in Michigan we have more people leaving than we have coming now and it

never used to be like that um you know one of the that's why they're like over here they're working on like they're

building a new Ampitheater and a new soccer stadium and they're allocating a

bunch of uh these taxes to to these spots to try and get more people

here I'm just trying to figure out what you're doing bro looks like he's picking up some mail we

got we got we got so we don't so you don't hear both of

us yeah the um I'll tell you the truth is a lot of this uh the way that taxes

and the influx of of um populations if they would reduce taxes

eventually that'd be nice but I've yet to see that happen it's always you know they get more people it really they just

spend more so you know at the end of the day I don't know if you guys have it there but

you know we have Bridges and things that really need some attention so some of

that um infrastructure spending is necessary it's one of the things the

interstate highways and stuff that the federal government should be taking care of but all right so on to the next topic

after we discussed um no you're good we can talk on one topic the whole time but

right government spending that's a that's a whole episode right there that's right and deep deep dive

yeah mean we do know people that we have meetings with that that's all they do is government work that's it that's it yeah

like it's it could be lucrative but you um if you can get used to if you're a

flooring company or any specialty contractor you get used to doing all that you'd have to like we do a fair

amount of government work but to we don't like the paperwork

uh or hey we we should we should do an episode on I'm try I'm trying to see

this I'm um but yeah that government work is

I mean you can get a lot of it if you specialize in it but that's the key is you really have to for it to make a big

difference um for us we've done several projects and we we have several projects

at the moment going on the Air Force spacee here but I'll tell you what the

paperwork all the regulation all the labor requirements on the jobs they have

it's been taxing to make sure I know on our manager to make sure that um I don't

know who keeps clicking these my brother is clicking buttons me that's me just

I'm trying not to do that my screen keep You're Gonna Do It um but the

um specializing in government work will will uh keep you busy and especially the

next the next foreseeable future this money's already been allocated so if you if you're doing that then you're going

to have uh you know a pretty good stream of of of projects to look at

moving on to talking about construction and Specialty kind of stuff we

have I thought it'd be interesting to talk about a a large uh company that

does specialy construction like flooring contractor specialty construction so

these guys are uh it's Apache industrial and they're one of the leading specialty

services companies in America for uh construction and maintenance so they had

originally I'll just read this it says since its Inception in 1967 Apache has evolved from a modest

single location industrial painting contractor into a leading industrial services provider with strong presence

in petrochemical energy sectors across United States of

Canada essentially they they're they evolve their services and I thought this

was interesting because we talked about this in flooring not too long ago about expanding your services to to grow your

company and they've expanded into um

softcraft Services which I'm not entirely sure what that means uh

scaffolding insulation fireproofing uh abatement uh Coatings

Linings all kinds of things so they've turned their their little business into

this pretty good s like massive company and it's all from the

commitment as their uh CEO says to delivering Superior Services and

long-term value to their clients uh understanding technology another thing we talk about a

lot on the Huddle plays a pivotal role in modern construction they we've invested in the latest Technologies to

effect uh effectively address our clients needs uh that can that goes all

the way from embracing the principle that you're only as good as your people so this comes into making sure you have

the in flooring in any business but in flooring

that means making sure you have the best uh guys and gals out there putting the flooring uh flooring products in and

providing awesome quality but anyway what do you guys think about that this company's massive Nationwide company out

of a a small single single s Painting Company in 1967 F first off I want to say good for

the the owner the yeah good for them for for finding a a need in their area and

then taking advantage of of every opportunity they came their way because that you can plan for something like

that the best you as as good as possible and and not end up like that that's

that's just like a a series of events that he was they were able to capitalize on through and through and to evolve

from from the startup to to where they're at now that's that's an amazing story I don't I don't care who you are

that's that that that used to be what the the American dream that was the American dream that I was told when I was a little kid how things could happen

and how businesses started um and now you know it's you have to have a it's

pretty inspiring it is it is it it could it still happen yeah does it still happen 100% but those are the people

that have the for and understand what what bucket they're dipping their toe in uh for for that moment right and when to

change those smart people yeah and you know they they put a

lot of emphasis on technology and people as their uh you

know as what plays into their growth they got 40 locations across North

America so that's a lot of yeah you got be well

um hold on like boxes like PO boxes or I don't think so man uh man that's

amazing yeah pretty cool pretty cool and they they're their

growth um you know like anytime you're growing uh Stephen concludes the CEO

that you know Apache is in is still in a growth uh period this year it's been

exciting and challenging at the same time so you know also that growth uh a lot of times

people forget what type of work is behind the growth um yeah the you ever

hear that saying that like you work 15 years to be an overnight success it's

because like people don't see the background work and then all of a sudden you get noticed and it's like oh this

great company what what a great job they're doing but all the hard work and

challenges of growth um and I tell you what you know with with all kinds of

changing regulations and employment stuff it's it's uh that's a hell of a

feat for them to have reached um so I thought that was pretty cool being in special contractors

ourselves hey I think um it gives you it gives you hope right like

uh how do you approach something like that what what's the next steps what do you do is it worth it um when's the

right time to make moves yeah this is this article is in construction today and you can kind of

read even deeper into where they Place their values um and the workforce

quality they've doubled down on I know that we've talked about that a lot on the Huddle here and that the quality of

the people you hire and that you train them up and all this stuff is is so Ultra important and sometimes you can

find fall behind and not quite get there uh I know the struggles of growing a

business so do you guys and so someone to do that and have the foresight to be

able to um execute on that level I mean we got two locations and it drives me

crazy yeah it kind of reminds me when we were talking to Joey AO when

we were down over in uh Detroit right and the from the carpet guys and he was

like he started you know going and selling door too and now he's got I don't know how many locations he's got

but he's got a pretty big setup down there over in Detroit now and it's just got what did they

do uh it's the the floor guys oh gotcha the carpet guys the

carpet the carpet guys I'm sorry the carpet guys think I got his hat over here somewhere yeah the carpet guys Joey Zago and um he was down at ties the last

time I think we've seen bumped into him a few other times we went down there for a train the trainer um class uh and he

hosted and that was the first time meeting him and just hearing the back story it's right people

like he take it he to he took a chance on himself as what it was and it worked

out so let's let's uh promote him a little bit if he's knocking out of the

park what did he um what did he what what's his is he a floring installer

crew be wise call the C guys so or are they a store that he's a flooring

retailer down there and he's got an entire team like when we were at his building it was

uh it was huge and he's got his own setup for training there now too so that way his guys can host um training CFI

too yeah that's that's awesome need more of

that full on St fullon store he got commercial residential but like his showroom like

his whole building is a showroom it it was it was beautiful pay your phone bill

Dwayne probably in the area where he lives no doubt he lives out in the

boonies have you guys been there we were there with you oh that's right I forgot about that we were there

we were there together yeah I've been out there a few times few few times him blowing stuff up

and and uh riding uh four-wheelers and going crazy out on Dwayne's property and

other people's Pro property around there too awesome place and he supports

education that's one of the most important things is supporting the education of our industry and um there's

a lot of movement I'm really excited about how things are starting to progress with uh jump start we're about

to add a couple hundred new jump starters uh that's going to be I just got my email this morning

yeah there's going to be a lot more uh so yeah I've got a I've got a ton of um

good news once we were getting them loaded and interviewed and I I could not

agree more with that statement right like me next week I'll be going down to

uh to America's Floor Source with the nctt and we've got I think 12 or 13

people signed up to do the heat Welden Flash Cove training down there where's

that at America's Floor Source in Columbus Ohio Columbus Ohio yeah that's uh

Goldberg's place right yeah and that's another guy that you can talk about about expanding right because I don't

even know how many places he's got I know he's got a lot like he was buying

stuff up left and right not long ago yeah yeah he's got a lot of

places um is that to anybody if someone's on the in the audience and

wants go and is in the Columbus Ohio area are they able to to join or think

that you can try nfc.com but I think the signups ended on last week Friday or

Saturday B man they'll let you in they'll let you in but there is a you have to have a prerequisite for for that

class right Daniel or is this uh uh no because it's it's a training too so you

can either you can op to do the training or a certification sweet

awesome well if if there's any of them that uh are just training and they they

uh don't have jobs get them on jump start hand them out of flyer I think we

did we send you guys a flyer too no but I'll print some and I'll take them with me though I'll look right now I was

trying to log you should have got a flyer that's got a QR code on it so uh flooring companies can hang them up in

their in their uh location and the subs that work for that

company that need help as well can hire off a jump start just the same so 21

jumpstart I love it all right well one uh sweet well you can print that off and

put it in your in your place so I was going to share a photo this came this

article comes from from wood flooring uh wood floor business article I thought it

was pretty cool to to we were talking about um we were talking about Innovation

check this out this is a I'm gonna I'm going to

kind of read this article a little bit but this was taken in 1921 and uh this gentleman had the the

picture but this is how they used to scrape floors by hand wood floors and get them prepped for uh you know to to

uh re uh refinish a floor or even a new floor and it's I guess a pretty famous

article or a pretty famous photo uh from

1921 so it says by 1930 I'm not even going to try to uh

pronounce Lewis's name there but lisis Floor Service which operated in Cleveland for 50

years uh he told the magazine that he started working for his father pushing a broom when he was eight years old I

think a lot of us have that story that we started pushing a broom when we first got into floring I don't know about

eight years old and how the labor laws would um uh go for that I even my butt

could even wipe my butt right at eight years old it's your kid it doesn't matter if it's your kid it doesn't matter how old they are just put them to

work yeah I thought it was a pretty cool uh story about how this this company

grew but it's really a testament to technology we now have machines they

have heck they got they're I've seen robotic machines that are starting to um

you know for sanding wood floors that do it on their own like that

part of the business I don't know about the application of the Finish but that part of the business is getting uh

faster probably than most uh getting uh

robotics anyway so that is the cruise for the day if I start another article we'll probably run over hopefully

everybody enjoyed some articles if you would like to see any additional

different types of Articles we have a staff that uh uh you know kind of scour

all the construction uh Publications and tries to find really

cool articles there is another one that I did not actually now I I have to do

this one I forgot about this uh I started off on um on um I've gotta find

it real quick I started off on how we kind of left the World Behind oh by the way you know uh thank goodness that long

shoran strikes over e it didn't last very long I mean I mean

they got it taken care of they got it taken care of but this article talks

about and I'm just gonna play

um I am gonna the Huddle's on at 4M Eastern every Tuesday just answering

this question oh he had another one too about keeping trainings in uh was more of a

statement training keeping them separate yeah it was it was a statement but that's why we have a three-day training

and then a two-day certification yeah I mean our the go career Hammer rating tracks all that

anyway whether it's a training or certification so it is separated but from an efficiency standpoint it makes

sense to have the training and then if you want to extend it for the certification you can

so uh that's that's my my view I'm I'm not the uh

full Authority on it but that's my opinion is that it certainly helps from an efficiency

standpoint um oh he's saying that they need to be separate organizations yeah I think his stance is

that uh there needs to be a creditation uh around certifications um him we we have a u

phone call coming up or a meeting coming up here in the near future kind of talk about what he um

is envisioning there but okay um having a a an accrediting

accrediting company or organization putting accreditation on a

certification so that it's uh you know true yeah it's a true

certification there's plenty of discussion around that and we can like get deep because one of the problems is

that we need more training and not less

and the the cash crunch on being able to train requires because installers don't

just have the money uh or at least has not seen the value and he's talking

about ANC andm standards for training and credit credentialing um but in we we already

struggle with getting installers to see the value in training and um take taking

time away from their skill that earns them money then paying a fee to get the

education um and then travel to wherever the training or certification is uh

located and with all those things that uh the industry has to deal with I think

some people are doing really good jobs um uh in in attacking this and um you

know I think Forward Motion is most appropriate and let the cream rise to the top you know if trainings and

certifications did get uh specifically certifications get credentialing around

them and the industry the installer base seen more value in them uh regardless of

cost then that's going to be where people go you know the market will tell when you start talking about cost that's

what you have to start looking at like I know we've touched on it before but my buddy owns an electrical business and

they go to the local community college for classes so they pay $800 per

semester so they can do continuous learning and they're there um I think

once or twice a week on their own time when you look at what we have now it's like the installers got to pay for 100%

of everything plus they have to travel and then you're losing

money and it's one of our certifications is is a lot of money so

if we can start getting accreditation like through colleges and stuff and it it cuts the cost down that's really the

direction that that it should go and there's there's a lot of talk about that on social media right now right well the

bottom line is SE plenty of posts yeah because it's primarily our our our labor

forces subcontract labor it's independent labor that means when you're not working

you're not getting paid it's not like working for an employee as an employee somewhere where your boss pays you to go

get trained and that is probably the largest hurdle to jump in our industry

we either have to build we've talked about this before we either have to build more value into the training and

make it clear that you get these the this certification or these you bump up

your skill level that you're going to make more money and that it's provable you either have to do that or

you're going to have to figure out how to get every sub to quit being a sub in every company to start hiring employees

now I don't know how to do that one but I do know luck if you if you format the

industry around a skill around the level of skill that you're paid based off of

your skill level uh then you you have a better chance of making it work um cred

Ving the and these types of deals to the trainings would just

um uh I agree he says it would legitimate legitimize the the um the uh

trainings but someone still has to do the grants for the financial aid and the

uh the stuff and someone if you know maybe he's uh talking about doing this

but someone has to do it you know what I mean uh we formulated our approach uh

and I you guys know everything about go careera that that approach was let's just weigh the trainings based off of

their Merit to improve the uh installers ability and then give them that credit on the on a easy to understand score

that's basically um you know a lesser training gets

lesser weight results in lesser Hammer rating MH for each each one so I mean

that system works really well uh it's in place and um we're obviously big

proponents of it but um the the fact is is that that we can't get away from is

that out of the installer base and it's over a thousand I think Ben told me La last

count of active people on the Network less I would say 80% I think is

uh pretty close are under a hammer so we have to see the value in training first

because it's obvious that a large portion of our labor force does not see the value in getting the education

they'll work for someone and I know you guys probably dealt you know witnessed this yourself but I've witnessed guys

that work for somebody for 6 eight months and they're like I want to be a sub or I'm gonna go do my own thing and I'm

like whoa yeah whoa take it take it back and not BR I know you learned how to cut

tile and put it in thin set but did you do layout did you consider grout joints

what about the substrate did you consider waterproofing did you have to do all this or did the mechanic that you're working for do all of that and

then you learned the hand skill portion there's a mind skill that comes after the hand skill I mean I learned how to

cut in C long before I knew how to lay out broadloom carpet you know so agreed

there there's a lot more to it and you're right and then even even now when we venture out

and try to make do something different or make a change or or Implement something you're always like are we

doing it right can we do it right but who can we call to ask you know how do

we what do I don't I don't want to mess up and a lot of people just don't they

just I want that that big check they don't think about how that check has

divied up and all of the all the science and experience that comes with that

person that they were working under for those eight nine months that made those projects run

smoothly um that's it's hard to

recognize what that I agree I was just gonna comment on Jesus's comment that I

think what he's saying is he sacrifices now and for delayed gratification yeah

we talked about this quite a bit you know throughout the the podcast and it's delayed gratification it's I'm going to

do this now so that way later on you're comfortable right I know I'm doing

everything right instead of having to question it and we've had guys come full circle where you know we worked at a

company together they came to work with us um a couple years later and then

they're like all right I'm going to go do my own thing and it's like they do know what they're doing but you know and

you you ask him it's like well what what happened he was like man I thought you guys were making money hand over fist

and then I started and I'm like dang all these expenses and that's what no one really prepares themselves for I think

and that's why you have guys that are on on some of these groups and they're like my this person is supposed to pay me and

they haven't paid me in two weeks and it's like yeah because that money sometimes takes that long to get well

that too it's the continued education right like it you can't only learn in your eight hours at work you can't only

learn in that 40 hour work week right if you don't apply yourself and try to to learn on your own time you're never if

you can't learn on your own time and educate yourself on your own time chances are you're not gonna be that

focused when you're getting paid from someone else to do it um you know you you obsorb

better and and apply and Implement better when you do a little bit on your own and that's the

that um you know the best of the best the best of the best in in most

Industries put in work on their own like football players I mean oh yeah if you

look at any sport the the best of the best they're not just going to training camp man you know they're going to

that's a good way to put it they're doing you know offseason workouts and working with running back coaches and

quarterback coaches and physical therapy coaches and that's their craft and our

craft is flooring and yeah it's it's been more of an uphill battle than I

ever thought it would be to get installers to really like embrace it but

eventually I believe that the Market's going to start doing that the the the

homeowners the the general contractors are going to start requiring like you

know they want to know that the guys on their job are qualified to do their job and um you know I think that's starting

to make a little bit of Headway in the industry you just see some chirpings about like if we knew how good you know

if the guy was qualified or not it would have saved us a ton of money in all this replacement and failure which you know

failure flooring failures in the US are somewhere around $3.5 billion dollars so

this is not a insignificant number I was going to show this other I was going to show this video but uh we got on this

topic and we this topic and we're gonna finish it off with this topic yeah all

right I'm wna kind of touch on this right here because he's still talking about you know that you can get the

financial aid from all these places but then that just defers back to how every

business is ran and it's all subcontractor based and I don't want to throw a number out

there but I think the vast majority of you know subcontract businesses like in

the flooring industry don't keep track of their stuff the way that they need to and in order to get one of these grants

they want to know all your history basically hey I want to know from your

Inception like where did all this money go and and another thing and I want to add to what Daniel just said too and

because we went through this um another thing is that the way that those grants are structured and the way you have to

keep submitting information in order for you to get refunded because they don't just give you money right they reimburse

you as you as you turn uh your spendings and um and a lot of it is not structured

for construction America it's structured as if you were a corporation and um even

some of the uh some of the businesses that are pretty well-run don't have all

those systems in place to to be able to to give them the information in the format that they're requesting it after

they even qualify and that would be us us as one of them and you know well that's one of the things that's that's

the hardest thing with grants and this this that approach and I'm not saying it's not a worthy approach I'm just

saying it's not the end all Beall there has to be multiple facets of attack um

because the the financial aid and the grants and all of this stuff require

somebody to track file uh for these grants and I know just working with some

of the training entities like the fcef for example you know it's not easy guys

for that to get a grant you have there's professional grant writers for a reason

like it's it can be a tough a tough go so I'm not saying it's not possible and

I know there's some training entities out there that are working with us on jumpstart right now

that um that that will sorry that comic I started

reading but there's there's um that are working with the uh Juvenile Detention

uh facilities which I think is a great outlet for all I think all trades I

don't this isn't just like yeah they're very young men and

women in juvenile programs that are being trained and florine's one of them

and kudos to those people doing that work getting out there and putting these programs together but it doesn't just

happen someone has to take the Reign and go do it right so that's why it's easy

to talk about but it's hard to implement everything because it takes so much effort to make it happen and someone's

really got to have the financial capabilities to just do something like

that you don't make a ton of money doing that like having a training that's thing like we we always we talk about working

on your business instead of in your business right and it kind of you can really see it these past few weeks when

I've been in the field because I hadn't been able to focus on any bids or anything because I've been too busy and

then we're we we are going to see a law in work where things weren't bid right and

that's just the nature of it but it's you have to be able to step out of that seat and a lot of people just don't have

that luxury yeah yeah well I'll tell you what I I've stepped back from my

flooring company uh before and it it takes you it takes a lot of of kudos to

all the flooring companies out there the owners that are able to like structure their business to run pseudo without

them and they work on the business all the time I have to kind of jump in jump out it's almost like Hopscotch

you know work on the business work in the business on the business in the business on the business in the business

but um yeah so we have closed out the the hour with our favorite topic of of

Labor and our our Industries uh crazy thing is you were like I want to just do

one more thing real quick and then this topic came up and then we spent like 25 minutes on it yeah well it's easy to

spend and we we talk it it always comes up because what we have to realize in the

audience everybody watching uh everybody at home everybody at a flooring company

or an installer watching this is you you have to realize that this is always coming up on the

Huddle in different ways and a lot of times it's spurred on by the comments

why is that it's because it's a root problem and yes uh I I I have what I

believe not just me but multiple people uh a lot of people believe is a uh

antidote but not a full-on it's not a cure um in go Carrera I believe that

that program allows individuals to thrive in their industry in in flooring

and promote themselves from within and jump starts just one of our initiatives

where it allows for both flooring installers retailers flooring compan IES

to get on look at the new recruits that are coming out of the training entities and let's get them placed in our

industry so we're about to add a lot you know a uh a a lot of um

new jump starters are are getting ready to get added to the program and jump on check them out subscribe and hire your

next Talent these guys are showing these guys and gals both are showing initiative that they want to be in

flooring so let's pick them up they're not all going to work out but you can also go on Craigslist and siphon through

30 line Cooks if you want yeah so all

right fellas as always it was a pleasure uh the blue collar Cruise uh continues

to sell the the last video I was going to share was about uh it was an

innovation topic as well and it was this company in Switzerland built a bridge

like a full-on bridge bridge for a highway that comes uh that diverts

traffic over them redoing the road underneath uh it was a pretty cool video you can check it out on uh construction

briefing.com and the topic is uh traffic avoids road

work uh thanks to a mobile construction site bridge and it's pretty cool it's a

literally like a mobile bridge I think it's like a mile along and they just

move this bridge along as they re as they redo this they just move that bridge along as they redo the road

underneath it's uh pretty cool if you're ever stuck in construction traffic you know that that that's uh that would be a

blessing here in in our area it just you just get detours but um anyway they

close the detours yeah then they close the detours Jose Lake Gonzalez thank you

for joining you weren't that late brother so it was a it was a pleasure talking to you and Daniel again and and

having you on the Huddle this is this is uh one of my favorite days so appreciate you guys appreciate the um audience if

you are catching us on Facebook comment like give us some some love there if you

catch us later on YouTube give us a like subscribe a dislike whatever you want uh

but let us know what we're doing that you love and uh where you would like to

see this go so yeah yeah love or hate us just comment and let us know what's

going on and we will uh do our best to bring you the best uh topics in our

industry from there gentlemen I will catch you guys next week and again it's

Tuesday 3 uh Central and two what is it

four o'clock Eastern yep

yep yeah he's done a lot of research I I'm really interested in chatting with him and seeing seeing what uh what what

um where he sees that you can like implement it in a big way it'd be an

interesting conversation maybe we'll have him on the Huddle and uh continue this topic I'm sure we're gonna have it

again so awesome guys well we will see you next week thanks for joining and

we'll see everybody in the audience thank you everyone until next time

Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24 Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24

The Huddle - Episode 119 - CFI/FCICA 2024 Recap

In this episode of The Huddle, Paul and Ben Walker from Go Carrera recap their experience at the CFI/FCICA 2024 convention in Orlando with the help of Jose! From the latest flooring trends to cutting-edge technologies and industry innovations, Paul and Ben share all the key takeaways from this year’s event. Whether you were there or couldn’t make it, this episode will get you up to speed on what’s shaping the flooring industry in 2024!

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up guys welcome to the Huddle we're your weekly playbook for not only

strategize on playing the game but changing it for mastering the fundamentals of the craft to

distinguishing ourselves in the marketplace we're here to give the installer a voice and ensure that you

are equipped with everything you need let's band together and Forge a new Legacy in flooring this is where you

belong welcome to the team what's up Jose and Ben what's going on sir how are you this

afternoon awesome well with me today as you know

uh Jose is back on the Huddle thank goodness good to have you back brother I

know you've been out in the field grinding Ben Walker our coo over at go Carrera and

um I'd say pretty frequent huddle um huddle uh attendee and and uh guest he

was at the CFI convention with me um this last week and so as we recap Ben

will have some some good input there how's how's your brother dude Mr Jose

how's your brother doing I think uh I think he's doing okay he's grinding out there still he's out there yeah he's out

out getting stuff done right now because said that's why we missed the event we couldn't make it we just had a little

more on our plate than than the the typical U October I would

say well I tell you what we sure missed you you guys were brought up a lot at the convention

people is so much more Jose and Daniel can't believe how much fun we're having without these guys man they should just

not come ever it was more like where are those lit up backpacks with all the messages on there it was stuff like that

everybody wondered where you were it was somebody else's opportunity to shine brother they could have uh could a took

a backpack and did it up well it was a it was a fun event I gotta say a few uh like notable things I

would say is the um the food was fantastic this year I I

don't know if it changed or what but there was a lot of comments on that uh it was a lot of really good uh seminars

and and uh trainings and I was there I mean I flew in hit the

trade show which was much bigger this year than it normally is

um I don't know if there was more people in the trade show but um it was

certainly a bigger trade show there's a lot more uh vendors so that could have made it feel like it was a little less

um you know uh packed but it was it was

pretty packed with you go there was one seminar or or version after another from

learning how to look at a set of drawings to um understanding how AI is

starting to affect I'd say starting to make some

pretty major impacts on oh yeah on uh you know bidding practices and and um to

product demos and so it was pretty cool what yeah the layout of the the layout

of the trade show was really different this year right I mean the room was a lot bigger I know there were more booze

I think there was upward close to uh 70 booths but because they had dinner in

there on what was that Tuesday night uh yeah or Wednesday trying to remember I

guess it was Wednesday uh and then the breaks and there the the trade show just went on a little bit longer and uh

uh it seemed more active there were just lot going on in the trade show I think overall attendance was something in the

uh something in the neighborhood of 360 is what is what I was told which is uh

maybe a 15% bump over last year so I think it grew both on the attendees side and it grew on the exhibitor side

also yeah I think I was I was following on social media and and there was a lot of people installers saying that it was

probably one of the best ones one of their favorites so far um and and I

think that's both for CFI and fcica since the joint venture started uh with

them I think they they're working well together um they're they're create

they're closing that Gap that communication gap right they're finding relatable interest from both sides and

and meeting in the middle and I I think that that's uh I'm always gonna say that's awesome no matter what yeah it

was good I I I enjoyed it um and particularly enjoyed hanging out and

talking to you know all the installers and and um

getting like the um their perspective on the

industry we preach it all the time about getting to to uh convention but you know

a lot of the um followup stuff that's been on social

media sense convention is that they need to make it more affordable and more accessible to installers so I thought

that'd be a a a good topic uh to of discussion today as well as as we kind

of recap um you know the the events of it

Ben what was your favorite uh event what was your favorite part of it do you have

one well as I sit there and think about it you know I definitely like the social the networking opportunities I'm I mean

I'm still building my own uh uh Circle my own you know setup my own network in

uh in the flooring industry and I appreciate each and every one of the opportunities to do that you miss the uh

uh closing ceremony because I know you had to get back for work but uh it again was good uh the room was really big uh

for it um but it it was still worthwhile and and um AIT karaoke singing that

happened before it was over that was kind of toward the end you say karoke there was karaoke for

sure yeah there was and the food was great there too uh you know I just they

had all those stations all the way around the outside of the room with different kinds of food at each one and

and the food was good from Shark finish uh you know no doubt about it um I

probably if I had to pick just one thing it's the trade show I mean since you and

I were both there and the hours were longer I mean I think we both had the opportunity to uh you know to to walk

around in addition to just working at our booth and I really uh you know like

that opportunity going to uh uh building our contacts with Federated insurance was a really big opportunity for us

there and same thing with commercial USA so uh uh I think the trade show added a

lot of value for me yeah that that was it I like the trade show there was a lot of uh

people um well you know how trade shows go it it gets pretty busy and and it was

pretty cool I liked the um I'd say my favorite like

educational portion of this was discussing estimating and listening to

other estimators talk about problems they have with drawing is the one I wanted to be

at and just being like yeah I've I've been there uh been there checking these

boxes like we're not the only ones and uh that and realizing that AI is not

too far it seems like I mean there's I I I feel like I've done a a

fairly Deep dive into some of that but not I still didn't realize how how close

it's getting um for being able to essentially take off the drawings I mean

yeah another couple years and I could see just loading a set of specs as a

first step to your to your uh uh system and then um it coming up

with the list of rfis for you to send out pre-written and you send them out what and then what goodness and uh you

know drawings and specifications and they compare and come up with the rfis and you'd review those rfis and decide

which ones you're going to send and send them on and I could see that being in the next couple years and then once

those rfis are back you'd feed the answer in to the the system and it it

would take it off uh with all the pertinent information that is provided

seems like that's going to be pretty soon um yeah Anastasia you know went into some detail on that uh from

diversify and it was it was it sounds kind of magical to be honest both both

she and Kathy did a good job at that seminar and I think that uh uh

that probably you know might have been the biggest takeaway of just how much AI is going to continue to change the

estimating portion of our of our industry it almost sounds like AI I mean

it probably already did or is in some Industries but uh taking over

the um the clerical portion of a a manager or an estimator or you know was

taking over some of some of that I think uh a lot of things are going to be

automated here pretty soon um yeah and you're going to be paying automation is going to be the same cost as a full-time

employee if not a little bit more but I think it it'll probably do more than what one employee can do without getting

a migraine well and then you got to wonder where where are you going to place your

resources um and I'm not playing on my phone I'm looking up some social posts for the that I want to bring up during

this for uh the from the convention

so but um another determine where you place

your um where you place your resources because you you won't

need uh resources and takeoff so what kind of you know it's going to change

the way that we do business it's gonna it's I think

yeah I was looking for some of those posts too but there's been so one of the posts uh from John sty he's uh a uh

awesome dude wonderful guy actually and uh brought up that there you know that

it was a successful week passionate installers around the world collectively sharing ideas

conversations and participating in uh education

there's a lot of pictures that were shared and but but to get to the Crux of

this it was basically uh CFI convention is for the

installer having a special event for the sole purpose of lifting the skill

confidence and awareness of the flooring installer moving forward I'd love to see this event grow I would encourage you to

share your thoughts and ideas about CFI with me as a member of the Advisory

Board want to know what CFI can do for you so anybody out there uh

obviously um you know the convention is built

around the installer and it's uh also intended for professional installers to

get plugged into CFI and th and those guys there's very few skills if any that

you won't find if you'll plug in um so if you're in the audience and you're watching and you're you're an installer

that really hasn't plugged in that's the first thing you want to do is plug into uh you know some of the the uh industry

organizations one of them being CFI uh and I think CFI is maybe you know

it's certainly one of the oldest and most reputable training entities but they you had an interesting Insight

earlier B kind of about that what they do really well at these conventions would you like

to well one thing I noticed is that you said off air one thing I noticed was during the

awards ceremonies I I I just felt myself really uh uh interested in and moved by

the CFI Awards I I think CFI has a has a core competency at finding the right

Awards to give finding the right people to give them to and and and making these Awards in a way that people really

respond to I think maybe some of that is Dave garden and uh you know his his

passion and his poose familiarity and his his personal style so that probably

has a lot to do with it but I just notice on on all of the CFI Awards

consistently that they just they just seem like really big deals and I I find

myself really appreciative of the people who've won these Awards because I'm just learning a lot about all they've

contributed um I think CFI is great at awarding that rewarding you know that

kind of contribution to the industry I think it's one of those things too where you know

um as flooring installers a lot of what we do I'm not saying all the time but a lot of what we do gets overlooked right

because we essentially in the day-to-day what we do is background noise um you

know um people who aren't in the trades don't necessarily pay attention to the details that and the effort that we put

in and for someone to to get right ignition in front of their peers um is

heartfelt right and it's it's not I don't think anybody in the industry that from the installation standpoint does

any of what we do for recognition we just do it because we're trying to make a living um but I think that that's why

it's probably more heartfelt or the way it feels heartfelt anyway because you know it's coming from installers uh from

installers by installers for installers I think that that's what what drives that bus and um always

um always appreciate sitting in and and hearing a backstory on on why someone was nominated or why someone won it's uh

it's always great to hear some of that because it's something that you might not know um a lot of the behind the

scenes yeah I I think the more we've brought this up before but of

all the installers on our Network at go Carrera there is a ton

that are under a 0.53 or 0.53 or under uh on a hammer

rating and that indicates just really low amount of

training um it was it it's it's abundantly clear that

that we have to get people plugged into the the into the industry installers in

general uh we have we're disconnected there's no licensing or annual thing

other than something like this uh so two really key points that kind of came out

of I'd say so Social Media stuff as well as on site is one of the um panel

discussions that I really enjoyed but it was a bit redundant from

previous discussions is how do we increase the pay of the installer um you

know how do you increase the efficiencies and make companies better

with better Crews and all of these things um how do you overall impact the

installation Community from a quality and professionalism standpoint on a large scale that was basically the the

panel discussion multiple different questions one way or the other and the there was

some good guys up there uh on the panel um you know that that uh were helping uh

um you know answer some of those questions but that has always been to me

like how do we align the in the installers goals with the company's

incentives and and vice versa so really that seems to be the biggest disconnect

because one of the biggest problems I see is

that you can't be an electrician without going and doing the the education piece

you just can't do it you have to get the certifications or the or

certificates for you to even touch a train um you know hbac system for

example to service it by by Parts anything you have to prove that you've

been certified or uh or or you're a licensed HVAC guy same thing with

electrical you don't get to go be an electrician without taking and getting

the education piece so

um the um lining the incentives with a

flooring provider of some sort whether it's a retail shop a box or whatever a

flooring contractor like you guys uh you know preferred flooring or Stewart Associates with the installers goals of

Performing and making money making money being the number one thing so how do you

align those deals together and you know the the union had a good way of doing

that um but unions are just not everywhere so there's the problem I mean you know a certain year Apprentice makes

a certain amount of money and a certain journeyman once you hit journeyman and

you keep going uh you you make a certain amount of money well most of those guys

are employee employees of an electrical company electrical contractor in floring

we have primarily we use subcontractors and so anyway that was

one and then Daniel uh you know Mr Daniel Gonzalez uh he brought up on a post he

says we got to get the cost down to make it so that the average installer can

afford it and then that created a whole kind of Whirlwind of discussion so yeah

you know do you think um I'll just kind of hit some highlights here Rand uh said

you know we agree and are always looking on ways that we can do that I I can attest that that is a goal for CFI they

they want to get it down so that more people can uh attend but there are hard cost I mean

there's food and place and the setup and like there's hard cost to it so well not

only the cost of that around that fixed cost and how you can make it more

affordable or maybe you just have some breakout sessions where you don't have food but I'd love to hear some thoughts

on how we can um lower the cost of convention because one of the things

that I think get you involved with CFI is if you go to convention you're kind of going to be going down that path of

you get sort of and then you might even expand your um Horizons to other

trainings you know what I'm saying uh you might uh as most people

know um what's up Kevin um as most people know CFI purchased nfic so now

they have the natural fiber portion uh as well in training well with that you

got you have all these opportunities to get better right and so a lot of people

when you go to that that uh convention you kind of get hooked and you start going into other trainings uh be it in

the past it would have been separately going to PJ and getting your you know some natural fiber training or you may

go to in uh you may like the tile portion of the world and decide to get with CTF and and that you know part of

the universe but once you it's like CFI convention is a big conduit for people I

think and so I think this is an awesome discussion is how do we get the price

down so that more people can show up and then how do you get the word out so that

um more installers know about it your average installer B that we talk to that

is you know just out doing the thing we're so plugged in we think other people watch and and search out

like knowledge and they don't a lot of them are just doing their thing every

day picking up materials going to a job site installing and get feeding their

family you know taking care of their responsibilities and I think that it is super easy to get you know caught up in

that when you know it's everyone's first priority and and I and so it's you have

to have some either some money or some time you know beyond doing that in order

to get involved in the industry and many many people never get to that point and you know Joan puit said we should have

CFI at his house and maybe we should maybe we shouldn't but but I think it does bring up an interesting point and

that is that uh a big part of the cost is getting there and and uh I know that

at least for the past few years this this has been in Orlando I think there's some conversation about moving moving it

around geographically as well isn't that right I think there's always discussions

about how to make it most uh attainable um I think

CFI one thing is having it in a populated area that that and and getting

the local people to go the local installers I mean you know

now there's some Geographic um pieces to that as well

like that you're down in Florida where they do a lot of tile in homes and a lot less carpet in homes and so getting in

an area where cfis where you got carpet and vinyl and and that's primarily the uh the flooring

put in those communities you know that might be uh one part of that

but cost is always going to be the thing and you have three costs you got the cost of the convention the cost of

getting there and then the cost of not working and this is the same

conversation that we have about training yes and that's that's that's the thing that that makes it hard is uh

not only do you have to have the time and the funds available to go down and

and enjoy yourself right because you're you're you're not gonna go down there just to go sit at a um a convention and

then leave and then go to your hotel room and sit around you're down there to network you're gonna spend some time

you're gonna spend a couple bucks out uh um mingling with people but at the same time what's at home what are you leaving on

the table at home what are you sacrificing at home for work um and

unfortunately that's why we didn't make it down it's we couldn't sacrifice at that time because we were just a

little still overwhelmed with you had Demand right you had demand

yeah in past years though you still had work that would have produced money you

you chose to go in lie of doing work back at your business that would have produced money

and so it's even that part even if an installer could put off you know a job

for a few days to go to it a lot of them do not see the value in

going whether it's again I think the problem with getting installers to convention is the same problem is

getting installers to trainings is the cost of getting there the cost of the class or the cost of the convention and

then the cost of not doing work I mean if you're a good installer you're producing a th000 bucks a day for

yourself and and upwards of that but I mean you know kind of if you wanted to

use a baseline number well if you're creating a, dollar of of money for

yourself in a day every day or close to it and you go take three days off where

you just that's three grand plus the cost of the convention plus the um you

know the other stuff so uh it's I I

believe it's those those things are what we got to kind of try to we really have

to figure it out what where can you get and consider this there's two options

you lower cost or you increase value so how do we value to where the installer actually

earns more that's one possibility where it's like I can't not go to this or because I'm it's

like a doctor going to getting another thing uh if they if they go get this

they're going to be able to do this XYZ procedure and make so much more money

that like you can't afford not to go so how do you do it how you either create

it to where you can't afford not to go to this um

or yes we will hey Zeus but calling them out well you got

you know you gotta get you gotta get the I think he lost his password and and we got to get it reset and go through and

the security features on go career doesn't allow us to just go get in his account which is a good thing right try

be Jose Galas holy smokes can't get anything no PayPal no nothing uh have

two events a year uh bang for the buck in education that's

possible um that that's that's adding value so you got that option you either add a ton

of value where you're like I can't afford not to go and I look at like going to fuse conference like that for

my business when I I'm a fuse member and when I go to conference it literally I

find things there that make make us more money or make us more profitable or make

us more efficient or better at hiring or whatever and so I look at like I can't

really miss this or else I'm GNA miss a a nugget or a thing that will make my

business more successful we have to have either that or you're going to have to

lower it to where it's basically free at a very populated area and do a

really good job marketing so that what what do you think which what what what type of uh of uh approach

do you think I mean what's your guys's opinions on those and am I am I missing something

is there another uh option no yeah I think you're pretty spot on is

uh trying to increase the value right but it's and I think Kevin had mentioned he

says one issue at a time right and he's and he's right can't tackle too much at one time but

it's one of those things where well what is that issue what what

is the first biggest most important issue to hit you know um the first most

the biggest issue with it all is that we are not required to carry any type of

certification qualification or anything like that so that I mean that's the biggest issue because if we were

required to do that like you said the doctors got to go back to school teachers got to go back for their masters continue

education is a is mandatory in almost every other career well and if you think

about the amount of stuff we talk about it a lot on the on the podcast about we have to be you know environmentalists we

got to be chemist we got to know site conditions and floor and the products

and all that and and speaking of of of that you know one of our sponsors Flor

Cloud helps us to get that information right at our

fingertips uh you know floor Cloud allows us to discover uh what the

job site's telling us and makes us more productive that's one of the Technologies uh that have come out and

so we've talked about adopting technology as well on this and so getting your your project site

conditions right at your fingertips will increase your efficiency and profitability with floor cloud and guess

where I found floor Cloud at a convention right so same you know that's

one of the things that uh can also help let's watch a quick video from floor

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your that information right at your fingertips no matter how far away from your project uh you are and if you're a

flooring company being able to dispatch your Crews knowing that the job site is ready uh at least from an environmental

standpoint is huge I know you guys use it up there Daniel or you and Daniel and

you guys have had uh great success with it so look into floor Cloud um yeah so some of the feedback

here is that you know we need to change the sorry one of us uh we need to change

the location to more of a central area and it looks like there's a lot of uh of

support for that um centralized area with an airport Hub uh Dallas makes a

lot of sense to be honest with you just because it's got such a large population

that can get there and it's got a large population around it they do all flooring there that would be probably

somewhere that isn't going or can't typically get affected by a hurricane or something like that right there you go

it does not most times most times you know I really I really noticed that

there were quite a few people who drive and and uh you know clearly if you're in

Salt Lake City or Denver or or San Diego or or even Kansas City it's it's hard to

drive uh as far away as uh I'm with you on that Jus by the way no Dallas but

anyway uh uh having it in Orlando let C lets a certain number of people drive

and having it in some other places that are geographically wet would give a

different set of people an opportunity to drive and there was definitely a lot of conversation among the leadership

there and Orlando about having it in some other places you know the other thing back hold on there just a quick

second uh back to that one let let let me so one of the things that Jorge is

suggesting here is that we have all flooring installation events together and he follows that up

with uh for example if Ty is free then we would have we should also have

something at that point so people go and uh don't have to spend the money and you

B but but your Mills so I believe what he's saying is

that having convention at Ty or something like that you're already going

to one so having the a whole you know getting a part of and correct me if I'm

wrong here Jorge but having part you know CFI Convention as part of TI like

your own the whole convention being at the same time maybe even in the same

building because you know Mandalay as big as Ty is it doesn't take up the whole thing then you have the convention

you have the uh the the uh installer competition all that kind of in that

weekend um that's something to consider and we're not making any determinations I'm just throwing stuff out there and

getting our audience to throw some stuff out there because that's not a bad idea this is what everybody wants is to incre

that's part of CFI or in the installation community at all I I would say even you know whether you're with

CFI or AF or uh fcic or any of the

training entities ctef any of them if you could imagine all of them are going to be there anyway and then you have a

separate convention just f a separate part of the convention not the inst row

where it's just tools and stuff but an actual convention that's installer

focused and it'd be really nice if a lot of these training entities could get together and do some some um collab

collaboratively together on that but you know that's that's uh just another

idea uh Jesus says uh Houston Texas has more installers that need help so I'm

not sure if I've ever done a um a um survey or anything on that but I think

installers need help everywhere every every time we get new installers on the

uh application it is um it is clear that we need more

training and we've got to figure out how to do this um one interesting thought

was could some of that you know from a training perspective could you do some of that remotely uh that's been brought

up before as well Kevin says you wouldn't have uh you wouldn't have the money from vendors at

Ty true yeah like when you start digging into all this stuff like tradeoffs each

thing gets its own compensation now could you tell the vendors hey you're double doing this thing you'd spend it

anyway later on in the year this put your more focused uh efforts for

installer Focus stuff in this area over in the other convention hall with the uh

installation Community I don't know what thoughts on that

Kevin you know another thing I noticed Roberts so he knows from the the

sponsorship side you know I noticed that sorry go go

ahead well I was just gonna say one of the things I noticed that at at last week is you know with the SIM

program FC FCC has you know people getting their continuing education

credits all through the the conference that we had last week I don't know if there's any opportunity on the installer

side on the CFI side for there to be uh you know some some installer training

that could be happening at the same time that you would actually get some sort of accreditation for that may be an

opportunity to add some value to the meeting yeah and then Kevin C with the

certification right and I think that that's the hard thing too right like so you go to event

like uh the convention or ties but then you throw in a certification in there

um you eliminate the networking aspect of the convention because now you're

confined to um training class and but however if that is your sole purpose is

to get a certification or some kind of training and then you can add in the the networking opportunities after class

before class or lunchtime um you know you if if that's what you went for and

you can add that then that's another way to look at it as well um but I was gonna say when I when I interrupted you so

rudely interrupted you Ben is um I wonder if there's a metric to see um the

dollars and cents that are actually being spent from like no not necessarily the vendors but the installation side of

of somewhere at ties and to see if there's a return on that and Roi that

and and well they would you mean from the vendors or uh not necessarily the

vendors but like from the installers that are attending how much of it is focused towards attracting installers to

a product versus attracting a store or a sales company to a product well you know

that's primarily what Ty is for yes I mean you know and that's why if you did

do it a dual Convention as proposed and just my thoughts on it is you'd have to

have the installer convention like separate in a separate area um but you

know one of the um I could let me uh just hide that for

just a second uh to finish this one thought you're cool uh is one of the things is if you did do that would would

vendors see a return on investment the vendors wouldn't be there if they don't see something I can tell you that

companies they they see something we have to get that same kind of thing going with the installer like and the

attendees go why does why do people go to Ty well partially probably to get a a

couple days away where you're working but you're also connecting with industry people that you get to see once a year

uh and have some fun you're probably looking for new product lines some people are there buying like their next

year's worth of stuff you know big big retailers and such um education is a

piece of it it's always well attended um you know so we have to create that same

kind of uh thing for installers it has to prove one of the points and this goes

right with this is in this uh thread here on Facebook is that you know

essentially the cost of going is somewhere uh around what we talked about say a th000 bucks and then uh one of the

things that got brought up is you're not you're not talking about the loss of of

profit or the loss of your your production for those days um but Matt

Garcia uh chimes in and says he knows many industries that charge five to 10ks

for events like this it's all about and I'm paraphrasing so this is not a quote

but essentially uh if the k is making sure the convention has real

value for the attendee that they're going to make more for going than than

they spent on it and that's what we were talking about earlier is adding that value to where it it's yes it's costly

to go but you almost can't afford not to go

um it and you know and and value might not you might not walk away from from

the convention in in two weeks make your money back right but it's the connection that you find out there from networking

that could uh potentially save you um on not in improper installation save you

with some new tooling that you find that that speeds up the installation process over the next year um material that you

find to replace other things that you might been might have been installing uh that you're not too happy with I mean

there's a a lot of ways to get you return um on on your investment on

attending I think it's just a matter of how you want to approach it what is like we said ear what's your purpose that's

the thing that Kevin said earlier is focus on one thing at a time I think Focus focusing on one big thing at a

time like do you add value or do you make it cheaper to me you have to add value that's just my opinion feel free

to disagree with that but I think not making it CH making it cheaper is just

trying to drive it down the experience what else can be done that makes it

Irreplaceable and a must go that's adding value like what what

Dwayne said when you start talking about lowering the price and this is what you shared earlier Jose is you know a lot of

it takes so much to just set up for Ty for the installation competition that

you're they the guys that helps with the setup and I've I've talked to Dwayne during that week when they set that up

when he was really involved in that and it he's just exhausted he's he's worn

out and ready to like go home afterwards you know and so if you had a dual

convention how much more complicated would that be and Kevin brought up the same problem from the vendor perspective

so maybe that's a tough one maybe it is there again just adding

value seems to be easy not easier not easy but easier or a better value

proposition a better long-term solution than cutting cutting the cost down to nothing to make it free or cheap super

cheap well and it's one thing too it's uh you add value to it right and word gets out the value that was added um

more people are going to show interest with in turn more people are going to want to attend and if they get value out

of it on the next go around they're going to spread the word and that's I mean that's the what business 101 right

that's an organic way of of getting the attendance that that you need in order

to make it more affordable by volume versus value so I guess uh you feed it

uh uh the fuel for the the value fire and uh next you know you got more people

showing up with buckets to put it out buckets of water to put that fire out and they just make the fire bigger the

next year you know for sure with such a big percentage of the insulation Community

not going to these conventions and you know not seeking out formal training but people aren't seeing that value right or

else or else they just they have not reached a level where they can a afford to seek out that value but there's a lot

more opportunity to make more value in these meetings and make more value out of the training than there is to make it

cheaper I mean if you work super hard to make it cheaper you lower it a few bucks and that's about it and maybe you still

didn't make it more affordable for someone but if you add value to it you can you can just have a much bigger have

a much bigger impact and you know maybe one way to do that is with some training at the at the actual

conventions yeah our certification you know uh Jorge makes a good point everybody honestly everyone just needs

to make more money Work Hard Play Harder that also goes right into uh another

Facebook uh comment that says how about we uh get the average installer making

more money no installer should need financial assistance because there was some suggestion about financial

assistance to get there like if we're all running businesses and installation businesses and making uh money uh and

I've proposed and I am Shameless in proposing that you know paying installers based on their their skill

score uh based on the level of skill they they possess and then how they

provide that skill to the marketplace which is what go Carrera is all about the hammer r is all

about your years of experience your certifications your trainings from all

entities I am a huge proponent obviously that that is a mechanism in which

installers can get paid more because they're higher trained and you separate the oil and water so to speak from the 0

53s that really plague uh are I shouldn't say plague but make a large

part of a large part of the industry is is that 15year 20y year guy that's never

had any industry training that is a large portion of our installation Community we need to get that to where

the average is not you know a 045 or 053 or something Hammer rating but a 1.5 or

something and then you have a robust uh installation Community

um so I I I still believe that

what Matt says here is true how about let's figure out how to make the installer more money and uh you know

higher skill higher uh execution equals higher pay and that if we can get adopt

a format that is there by the way industry um that you're a higher skill

level with a higher execution of the the skill set equals higher pay then you get

this machine running where people want to get the industry training to increase their their rating um and if anybody had

another rating I don't care it's just if you have a way to to score the installer

that then allows them to compete based off of that score they're going to want to have a higher score I mean it's

gamification of our installation uh skills and what you're saying it works

there a universal rating scale that could be recognized by the industry worldwide that could give us a

foundation to base this on then the world would be a lot happier place

because the installers would be happier but would give you better floors yeah that's what I'm hearing that's what I'm

that's what I'm that's what I'm saying I wonder where you can get something like that where where could a

person go to find something like that man you so the there's obviously there's

always um stuff with um technology

that's new and difficult uh you have the application of the technology but you have the concept of the technology uh

use use uh use something that's been that that's that was like this

ridiculous thought and is now uh the reason we're able to sit at our

computers and talk and that's the internet in the 80s late ' 80s through the 90s people thought this was the

stupidest thing since you know ever and had no way to think outside the box and

that is the thing I feel like we're there where we we have a solution we do have ways to do this as an industry and

adopting those ways it's it's free to do so just you just adopt it and Y uh and

you don't even for anybody on here you don't have to have you don't have to do

work or have an account on go career to do that part you can have a profile only

and U so long long and short of it is increasing value um so in uh Elena says

uh enforce an industry standard that support the manufact that has the support of the

manufacturer is the only way in her eyes uh that's going to bring the installer

pay increase I agree that that is a piece of it I don't know that

it's the only way I think the consumer demanding I want to know what level of person uh of installer Mr retailer that

you're providing me they don't know they would love to know uh it's kind of like a Carfax you want to you want the Carfax

when you buy a used car now when you buy a car with experience you want the Carfax you want to know what that you

want to know what that car's been through so you can predict how it's going to behave in the future that's what the hammer rating does for the

installation community and we have talked a lot about the uh with a lot of Manufacturers

about adopting it I'm not sure what the I still cannot put my finger on what the

reluctancy is to in in the manufacturer Community I don't I don't understand it

and I don't quite know how to how to say it there is a system a free system

that will allow the installer to have a graded a a a datadriven score skill

score that then can be leveraged by them to make more money and say hey I'm worth

more money and manufacturers to adopt and say you need to uh have XYZ level uh

you need to be XYZ level of installer to install this product that's already

there um Elena says the consumer needs to see the

value in the installer we have to Market it that way we are more than installer

we are the professional 100% And in the commercial world it's it's actually more

so we've won work because of certain installers who are certified

or really really really good on our team I literally have gotten contracts

because they said hey if XYZ guys on promised on my job I'll I'll give you

the contract same so the consumer just has to be aware that there's different

levels of installer that's really the deal and um it you know becomes more and

more clear to me that we need to Market and make it clear the to the to the

homeowners that are buying products that there is a way and to demand it if every

consumer did demand a hammer rating and to know the level of the installer coming into their home to install their

floors uh it would change the industry and and force uh the the labor which is by all

accounts you go to any convention you talk to even most manufacturers and they'll tell you it's the most important

part of the the deal so how do we get uh the the the skill score the hammer

rating um to be part of everyday conversation like Ms RP or like the

ingredients and nutrition facts on a label for food how yeah that that is

that's what that needs to become more public knowledge instead of Industry

knowledge um yeah I think a marketing campaign for us uh to uh inform the the

consumer uh you know we're we're talking to the UK um people over in the UK about

licensing go carera and that's how they're going to do it they're they're just

like you you as a consumer you should know the level of of the quality of the

person coming into your home both from a skills standpoint and how they perform their work that would hold all of the

installers more accountable uh now the really good guys before I get bombarded

and jumped on here the really good guys hold themselves accountable anyway most of the people that are at CFI convention

or are on the the podcast here commenting they hold themselves

accountable I'm talking about the 0. 53s and the under one uh hammer rated people

those people they need to be held accountable to a higher level and have

an incentive package that then uh inherently incentivizes them to go um

and and and and get the industry training and increase their Hammer rating increase their skill set and

become industry uh trained installers you know Factory trained so to speak

well industry trained there you go we don't have Factory training anymore so I agree with

um Elena a ton on all these points like

you do have to have the manufacturer say we need this level it's been

talked like we beat the dead horse about um the fact that yes it needs to be

talked about or the uh the manufacturers need to have some level whether it's saying you got to be certified the

problem is then they they have to there's so many

different levels of training that are called certifications um

so you know that that's that is pro gez we ran through an hour on these two I

know I know dude uh so CFI convention was awesome for any of you that did not make it down it was really cool uh those

are two of the biggest takeaways uh that kind of came out of it was like that I

seen on social media afterwards is making it more affordable the counterargument to that is just make the

installer more money and make it more valuable if you make it more valuable

where the installer cannot can't afford not to go and they're making more money

because of it and you have a system behind all that that makes them more money as they get higher higher trained

and you add a certification to the convention some level some mix of those

items would start to create like a juggernaut in our industry it make a real change in our in our install

Community man it sounds uh it sounds really easy to the people that love what they do and look forward to to the

progression of our industry and do someone who might be starting out out there listening or someone who's been in

business for a while and doesn't see the value in the training or certification because you're doing okay you're doing just fine just imagine doing better than

just fine or doing okay can be the start of it well it's

it's um it seems like you said it seems like it's it's uh it almost seems like duh kind of

thing but getting the getting the manufacturers to jump on board any manufacturers that watch this

you guys that it blows my mind I don't understand you want your products

installed by high quality people at every convention they're talking about how much they care about the installer

well enact a mechanism that requires certain level installers for certain parts of your products that has nothing

to do with you so you're not on the hook for a um uh you know uh you know they quit

doing certifications because they the the the risk factor right like most of

the Mills don't do their own certifications anymore this is totally separate from you all you have to do is

adopt it and and start using it and um yeah it's it's tough It's a tough deal

it's it's like we're screaming from the rooftops and Elena says the difference between preaching to the C choir right

yeah I feel like that's what we we do every week is preach to the best when how do we reach the ones that really

need our help um but uh any manufacturers out there any big dogs in

the manufacturing company that want to come on the podcast and talk about this we can black your screen out you can

voice we can do a voiceover but if you want to express some some internal concerns on why this can't work from a

manufacture standpoint and why you think it won't work or if a metric you have that shows that it won't work would'

love to hear from you like is that you get Anonymous we'll put a silhouette with a question mark and we'll make you

sound like Corey from Wolf like what voice sound like the State Farm guy or

whatever whatever insurance that is but yeah let's do whatever so the the

topic would be uh Kevin says he's in so Ashlin take that down Kevin said he's in

let's get some manufacturers on here to have a real conversation about how do we

actually increase install our pay how do we um affect our installation

community in a positive manner but through what everybody believes it

happens in every other industry that we we talk about is we have grading of of

the of the labor pool and um what ideas are out there what is available now that

works and has proven to work by the way uh on the go career Network on the installers that do work on the go career

Network the higher Hammer rated guys make more money period we've processed 30ish million

dollars in payments the higher Hammer rated guys make more money by far so

that is not I I can stand behind that the data proves it um but there's if

other people have other ideas other thoughts bring them to the table like

Solutions we talk about the problem a lot but we don't dive down on a solution

and say okay this solution won't work because XYZ and start to really try to

find the root solution for the problem uh that would increase attendance at CFI

uh convention why because they're going to have a certification there I'm not saying they will I'm saying if they did

that that would be a great add-on and you would go your Hammer rating would increase you go out into the marketplace

with your calling card that has your Hammer rating on your public profile and be able to upsell your client and make

more money than an average installer that does not have uh the same uh level

of skill that you do you actually can can can can separate yourself from a skill

standpoint very clearly right in in like in writing in black and white black and

white thank you you saved me again Jose thank you it's exactly what I was trying to

say so yeah Ashlin let's start planning to try to reach out to manufacturers and

come up with the topic name uh great topic this week I feel uh we should run

it back [Laughter] next Kevin thank you so much buddy for

always uh uh lots of really good comments and uh was a lot that we didn't

click on I didn't want to I didn't want to I kept overlaying his convers or what Paul was talking about whenever he was talking and then I stopped paying

attention to what you're saying I started reading it so I just I left it that's what I was doing super interactive today super

interactive lots of good input and suggestions well uh so that is it for

the Huddle this week thank you everybody for joining us if you're catching us on Facebook comment about these couple of

topics do we you know the the here's the the bottom line make convention and

events and training cheaper or make it more valuable how do

you um how do you require a how can a manufacturer require a higher level of

installer and how do you know an installer's higher level um and and uh

let's have a great conversation about this and um we we'll run this back Kevin and have

you guys on I can't wait uh it's it's awesome everybody uh that joined us

today if you if you like I said if you're cat one of the social channels make a comment give us a like give us a

a dislike whatever you like um if you catches on uh the recording of This that

goes on uh YouTube you know like And subscribe is on there follow us give us

some love gentlemen this was an awesome podcast I enjoyed it what's up

Ben hey s just so you know Jus I've been talking to Raquel we're gonna be in touch with you in the morning and get

you straightened out yeah he did he Ben's alter ego name is

Kevin just so that just so that's out there for the whole inner webs to know

maybe one day we'll tell you guys how that came about yeah Jose Poss brother we missed him at not only

at convention but on the podcast and hopefully we can um we'll see him this next week love you guys keep up the good

fight thanks everybody for all the great comments it was a really busy podcast and love to see it and we'll catch you

guys next week give us a thumbs up thumbs down uh help us increase the audience of this show we love you all

right thanks everyone thank you

Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24 Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24

The Huddle - Episode 118 - Live from CFI/FCICA 2024

Join Paul, Daniel, Jose, and special guest Ben Walker from Go Carrera who will be joining us LIVE from this year's CFI FCICA convention to talk about what to expect this year.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up team welcome to the Huddle

your weekly Playbook where we strategize

not only playing the game but changing

it we're here to master the fundamentals

of The Craft and distinguish ourselves

in the marketplace we're here to give

the installer a voice and ensure that

you're equipped with everything you need

let's start a new Legacy in

flooring welcome to the

Huddle on site

today uh from fcic CFI convention we got

Ben I joined him tomorrow morning but uh

Unfortunately today we're going to be

missing our our Staples uh for the

Huddle Daniel and Jose they are out on

site installing some floors I believe

and they may chime in and and

uh talk a little trash on the

on the chat we'll find out but Ben how's

it going how was your trip down well it

was a good trip I left uh at the crack

of dawn this morning uh around 6:00 a.m.

uh uh got here around 100 p.m. flights

were good uh everything actually worked

out pretty well got uh all the go

Carrera gear here with me and uh looking

forward to having a great time over the

next few days

sweet so you nobody's nobody's going to

hate the weather here that's for sure

it's uh bright sunshiny uh a little warm

but but beautiful Perfect Pool weather

uh I think probably a lot of people are

out there right now awesome well you

guys come join us uh this week at uh the

Orlando uh convention we are at oh look

at our

coh how's it

going all right hey Mr what's up brother

how you doing is going so far

everything's good uh we had our two uh

we had nfic and uni click today so we're

just finishing up with that and we got a

lot more to go as far as meetings and uh

invitations meetings are going on I

should be there but I'm here with the

Huddle because I needed to check you out

guys first things first awesome well I

saw you out at the pool or at least I

saw on social media you were out at the

pool yeah the pool's one thing that I uh

need to get on because I never take

advantage of it so uh uh you got to

unwind every once in a while and just

take a little dip for sure nice it's

good to see you we'll be I'm sure

checking in with each other for the next

few days Paul gets here tomorrow around

noon so we'll all uh uh get together

then can't wait to see you guys all

right everybody tomorrow all right we'll

see you see you

brother see there's you know action all

around uh people are getting settled in

I think uh most most people have gotten

here today like he said there's been a

couple of training sessions uh earlier

today and right now uh the board

meetings are are in progress so uh it

quieted down just a little bit uh

because of that I

think makes sense makes sense so uh what

have you had a chance to talk to anybody

a lot of times we'll grab some people

and have them join in so I'm glad Jorge

came and said hi to

everybody um have you had any

discussions about the event itself how

it's being attended that kind of uh

information so I have I've talked to

some leaders of both CF uh CFI and FC

and and I guess the general uh feeling

that that everybody's talking about is

that this partnership meeting really

works out uh uh you know this is the

second time it's happened this way and

and uh you know no one said this to me

as a policy statement but the feeling

I'm getting is that everybody's very

glad it's happening you know on one side

you got all the people who who have the

work on other side the people that that

do the work and and this meeting really

gives a chance to build those build

those kinds of relationships uh to make

our industry function better and to make

sure that it's uh you know winning and

winning for for all sides and everything

uh from the owner and the consumer you

know back to uh uh uh our own industry

and just making sure that that

installers are are getting what they

need out of the deal and that flooring

companies are making their own way too

and I think uh leaders of both

organizations seem to feel like this

meeting is instrumental and and and

making that

happen yeah I mean previous years it's

been

really uh either just CFI or FC and last

year when they came together it was I

loved it uh I really thought it was

awesome and I got a lot of good feedback

from everybody so you know it's not

surprising to me that leadership feels

that way

um go ahead I was just G to say you and

I were here last year and and we both

felt like we got just uh a lot more

value for our money than than it if it

just been one side or the other I think

it's really efficient for uh vendors to

the trade to you know to have this

opportunity to to meet up with uh uh

everybody uh in one

yeah yeah uh our our preferred flooring

Jose and Daniel won't be able to make it

this year so it's going to be a little

bit different I haven't been to a

conference without those guys in a long

time so uh but kudos to them on all

their success and moving moving

forward last year and this year uh you

know I I love the the the I I love these

things these Zips and and I know you

like them a lot too and the one they got

they gave us last year was a really good

one and uh this look at what we're

getting this year it's a a jacket

instead but it's a little bit lighter

weight I think it fits the weather uh

perfectly and it it just looks fantastic

so we're going to be looking sharp as

well that's pretty awesome yeah that

looks like a good some good golf attire

right there well if you guys are out and

about and you can make it over to uh

hang out at the convention if you've not

signed up I am sure they'll figure out a

way uh but if you're in the Orlando area

I know there's been a lot of Outreach

come by uh check it out and uh come see

is if you are planning on being at the

conven we'll be at the um at the trade

show with go Carrera there to answer any

questions uh talk about go Carrera core

as well as our newest um initiative

which is JumpStart JumpStart being a

single location where both companies and

uh subcontract installers can find good

helpers uh coming straight out of

schooling uh they've got some knowledge

they've got uh you know some desire to

be in the industry and our goal with

jump start is make that connection easy

uh allow companies and uh floring

installers to uh you know facilitate a

an interview and the hiring process and

allow you guys to get these guys put to

work and and help improve our industry

in a real way by putting uh the the

newly trained to you know help and um

we'll call them you know digital

Apprentice uh people uh getting them to

work so Ben tell me me a little bit

about the uh speaking of the trade show

that will be at tomorrow afternoon and

um how many vendors are

yeah when Jen zern and I were talking

earlier she really kind of focused in on

the trade show and first of all 70

vendors which is 20 more than last year

20 more wow a huge increase and uh

they've extended the trade show hours uh

both to for both tomorrow and Thursday

so there'll be more opportunities for uh

for everybody to to chat I think that

makes sense to extend the hours since

there's so many more vendors you know to

talk to so uh I think that'll be a big a

big plus uh uh tomorrow night the dinner

is in the trade show so I've been to

other trade shows where they did it that

way and I always like it because people

it it it kind of gets a little more

social a little bit less structured and

people kind of let their hair down some

and you end up having more productive

conversations uh I I think when the the

social stuff and the the work stuff is

combined like that so 70 vendors 20 more

than last year extended hours better

networking opportunities uh uh the

dinner is going to be right there in the

trade show so a lot of good stuff I like

that yeah that's pretty cool I like I

like the dinner at the trade show too uh

people tend to congregate around food

and have meaningful conversation so it's

it's pretty cool um what about a 10

how how's

attendance uh expected to be this year

the show has grown from last year 360 uh

registrant to date uh and uh uh

everybody's happy with that um good

attendance uh uh and a couple more

things that that Jen really you know uh

focused in on one is uh Shaw and Mohawk

are again the two Platinum sponsors uh

and she said just every year those guys

continue to uh extend their support and

find new ways to help make this

successful so Shaw and Mohawk have you

know really stepped up to the plate and

I know everybody in the industry

appreciates that uh

yeah you know when you talked about jump

start a while ago this is the thing that

really you know jumped out in my mind

and that is training and and uh training

is a focus here at this conference and

and more than ever and you know I'm not

sure what you think about this Paul but

to me it seems like our industry is

focused more on training and devoting

more resources to training than

certainly more than any time I've ever

known about in my what 12 years in in

the in the flooring industry and you've

got a lot more a lot longer experience

than that I'm curious if you

agree I do I think that the industry is

realizing and I won't say too late but

certainly right on time not too early

yeah like that we we've got to get some

influx and some inflow of new people and

have them people uh th those new that

new blood in the industry to get with

some of the um outgoing great installers

this industry has produced and those

Craftsmen passing on their knowledge to

the next generation is so important and

uh so I think training is a part of that

I see a lot of new like training

entities as well as uh more people

getting involved in training it's more

of a topic than I've ever uh remembered

uh it being and there's just some great

ambassadors out there for teaching the

new uh the new blood coming into the

industry and I I I can't thank the fcef

and CFI enough for kind of leading the

charge and other entities out there like

aft and Robert Varden and what they're

doing and flooring Basics with Mark

farnworth and just all these people

jumping into do something uh there's so

much that needs done that there's no

room for just one entity to handle at

all uh in my opinion we have to like

open up the floodgates uh which is what

we did with jump startart you know jump

start used to have some Shackles on it

and our new Resurgence of that is

removing all the shackles so you don't

have to be a member of go Carrera to

hire off a jump start any installer in

the industry you don't need to join go

Carrera uh you can you can get a

subscription to jump for 99 bucks a year

a year and and peruse the new blood and

hire some people get to conference I

can't say that enough I I think that uh

this this last um block of episodes

we've done on the Huddle I probably

haven't mentioned it enough on how

important it is to get involved in the

industry and get out and uh get to know

new people that's where I met many uh

good friends in this business and yeah I

would have to agree with you training

has kind of risen to the top as uh both

a topic and an initiative in the

industry you know when I was running uh

a sort of a small midsize commercial

flooring contractor for about 10

years hiring people was was the hardest

thing and hiring people who actually

worked out uh was the hardest thing and

I did not even aspire to finding new

folks with some training I I that that

was just beyond uh uh some anything I

thought that that could happen and you

know now with jump uh though we are

bringing those kinds of opportunities to

people both uh flooring companies who

hire employers or for them to

to make sure their installers who hire

employees know that you know they can

actually get people headed down the

apprenticeship path who have two five 10

weeks of basic training under their belt

so you know they've made that commitment

to their career and you also know that

that're they're not walking out there

not knowing how to R the tape measure

for example you know they've got some

basic skills that are going to give them

a a a huge Head Start uh so I I think

with jump start sort of bridging that

gap between all these new training

opportunities and with the huge number

of jobs that we know are out there and

are coming that you know jump starts

really hitting it at the right time so I

know we're going to be talking about

about jump start all week and may

haven't just kind of practicing on that

a little bit right now but I think it's

really the big step that needs to be

taken yeah I agree well and another big

step is like uh you know the existing

installers in the industry get involved

in the industry I think that's important

get involved with your local Chapters at

CFI um I know that Rand has done a lot

of work on that uh I think we we bring

that up pretty often here on the Huddle

uh but that's getting involved on a

local kind of Grassroots level with

training and sharing of ideas and then

getting to a conference uh whether it's

fcic and cfi's Conference or getting to

surfaces or any of these opportunities

to get to know some uh some other

installers um you know one of the big

things is if you're wanting to grow in

your in any anything you do any

profession the best thing you can do is

get to know people who have done what

you want to do in that profession so if

you're wanting to build a flooring

company and you're wanting to get off

your knees get around people who' have

done that I'm happy to talk to people in

fact I've mentored many uh many guys in

in this regard is if you're wanting to

start your own flooring company and kind

of get your wheels turning and get first

steps um you know I'm happy to chat with

you so as Daniel and Jose they've uh had

those same conversations and you you'll

find multiples of those people I mean

you've done it Ben as well you went

through that uh or if you're just

wanting to build one of the larger uh

labor Shops and and be a labor provider

or be a successful subcontractor many uh

people out there Jorge was on earlier

he's very successful subcontractor does

very well for himself found his Niche

and knocks it out of the park and those

are the types of caliber people you'll

get to know when you get to conference

so you know today was is really a little

bit of a shorter version I just wanted

to kind of show people uh what what uh

CFI and FC have put on um would you be

able to like just kind of give us a 360

of the atmosphere there I know it's died

down because there's a lot of board

movings but yeah so things have

definitely quieted down uh if you go up

those stairs and go to the left that's

where all the training sessions are

whole bunch of signage there at the top

of those stairs and then you know over

here you can see all the uh uh seminars

and workshops that are happening over

the next couple of days people are still

getting registered and getting all their

cool swag over at the registration desk

uh you know this is a big place I think

there's what something like eight or 9

rooms here probably and uh so 360 people

doesn't fill it up but we're sure

filling up this part of it and it's just

a little bit quieter right now because

of because of all the meetings that are

going on any uh any seminars or uh

breakout sessions or anything that come

to mind that you're kind of excited

about have you had a chance to uh look

at any of

the well you know for me uh the training

or the uh the networking sessions always

uh uh probably top of mind but you know

tomorrow for example people are going to

be uh uh learning how to install modular

products uh there's also a contract

session to uh that's one of the things

you taught me Paul that you know all

contracts are not created equal and

having an understanding of the contract

between the installer and the uh the

flooring contractor between the foreign

contractor and the GC really does make

uh understanding that and be being able

to negotiate those things effectively

changes your whole company and so

there's a seminar on that on that is

Jeff doing that

one uh yeah

so Sloan Bailey is doing it yeah okay

awesome and I met him last year and he's

clearly an expert on the subject no

question

about yeah that's another great thing

you guys get when you go to to

conferences these are trainings put on

by worldclass people that you get to

benefit whether it's contract reading

hand skills there I know there's a

various uh number of manufacturer uh

product demonstrations and and all of

this going on yeah I was just getting

ready to talk about product

demonstrations you know uh uh that's the

other element of the of the trade show

both inside the trade show and I think

in some other rooms as well but focus on

inside the trade show there's going to

be product demos going on pretty much

the whole time so you know these things

do not stay the same you know even in my

you know 12 year uh history in flooring

products have changed dramatically even

in that small amount of time and and uh

coming to these conferences really gets

you ahead of the game these

opportunities to use these new products

and to use them effectively uh uh and to

use them uh to make money well like one

like Daniel just uh chimed in probably

from the job side at the moment but uh

you know he said lots to learn and

certainly is uh and the cool thing

is that's that those are often the

Stepping Stones to take you to the next

level where you're want to be um whether

it's product knowledge or learn how to

read a contract that's one of the things

that I talk to to guys who want to get

out on their own is that you're now

falling under the flooring company's

contract that you are uh doing so when

you if you go do a project for a

flooring contract

it behooves you to ask them about the

contract and are the terms and

conditions that you as the installer are

going to fall under so uh all that kind

of stuff is just knowledge that that

invaluable and you get it for free and a

lot of these people if you were to sit

across a desk from them would charge you

$350 an hour to tell you this that's the

thing right I mean uh uh one of the ways

to really leverage your uh uh your your

training dollars or your own development

dollars is a come to conferences like

this because uh like you just said I

mean you get access to these industry

leaders and very experienced people and

you can pick their brain for free uh

instead of paying a big dollar amount uh

hourly so it's a huge way to to get the

most out of your uh uh your development

budget I think uh Additionally you know

there's uh uh estimating uh Kathy case

is uh going to be uh here on Thursday

and she'll be talking about estimating

and uh she's Cly an industry leader

there uh blueprint blueprint reading

another uh also Kathy with some Partners

so there are hand skills seminars and

training and there are also you know

estimating and administrative and office

skill uh kind of training so here uh

because of this partnership you really

you really kind of get it all yeah

that's pretty

awesome and you you were there early

enough did uh you kind of touched on it

there for a minute but you were there

probably early enough to kind of get a a

feel for the energy in the building does

it feel like uh like you said

everybody's excited for for this year's

convention yeah people are people are

happy and uh uh you know I really like

to see like Jorge I I saw it on Facebook

where he was getting some pool time

yesterday and you know there is nothing

wrong with that I I think that uh who

knows who who he might have met at the

pool uh that helps him career-wise and

on top of that it gives you a chance to

to kind of slow things down a little bit

the energy is good I think people are

here to uh both to learn and to have a

good time so uh I I think it's going to

be a great few days uh with uh have a

good time part you know I'm certainly

old enough and probably a lot of our

listeners are old enough to remember

cheers and so uh uh the Thursday night

uh uh celebration dinner the whole theme

is cheers and sports bars be a whole

bunch of different you know kind of

games that you find at sports bars

people are going to be playing that and

uh and and get some cheers themed stuff

going along with it that's

cool all right well guys getting out to

uh the convention this one in particular

is very installer focused and so for the

installers that watch us on a week uh

week in and week out basis the the

getting out there is it's fun I I'd love

to meet people I'll probably go live a

few times while I'm there uh on the

huddles uh Facebook page as well as go

career's Facebook page and kind of show

you guys some stuff that's going on out

there live uh hopefully bring some of

the convention to your uh to your

fingertips and uh give you a little bit

of the experience and of course I'd love

to meet you in person so with that we're

going to cut this we're going to cut

this uh a little uh shorter than normal

and uh come out and see Ben and I at the

convention and at the trade show uh

we're going to you

know Daniel says

uh hi to everybody and he's sorry that

they are GNA Miss uh I think they're

sorry they're missing uh maybe the

Huddle as well as the convention or one

or the other to be fair these events are

really not quite the same when Daniel

and Jose are not here with with uh you

know lit up backpacks and everything

else that that they table so that will

be something we'll all Miss for sure but

uh yeah we're definitely going to miss

you

guys well hey man thank you everybody

for joining us and uh thank you to all

of our sponsors we didn't have a

sponsorship video this week but just a

special Cloud shout out to floor cloud

and wanted to

um Paul and Kevin holding down the fort

yes we will and we are still going to

miss you guys hope that uh maybe you

maybe you can jump on a few of the lives

and and uh uh get a feel that being said

everybody have a great week we'll catch

you guys next week we're committed to uh

being here bringing you uh industry news

with the blue collar Cruise uh bringing

you uh on location uh when we're at

convention and then our weekly topics

mentioning topics if you're catching us

on Facebook or Instagram or uh uh

YouTube leave us a comment about any uh

topics that you'd like for us to dive

into get deep on uh do research on we

have a a good research team that can

really find some uh you know answers to

our questions and with that being said

we'll catch you guys next week and Ben

I'll see you tomorrow around noon sir

safe travels all right thank you

Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24 Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24

The Huddle - Episode 117 - The Huddle En Español

En nuestra nueva serie "The Huddle En Español" estamos emocionados de presentar nuestros episodios en español. Esta serie está diseñada para involucrar de manera más completa a nuestra audiencia de habla hispana, permitiendo a los oyentes explorar temas relacionados con la industria del piso, consejos profesionales, y mucho más, todo en español. Sintonízanos para disfrutar del mismo excelente contenido, ahora accesible a una comunidad más amplia. Únete a nosotros mientras expandimos nuestras discusiones e ideas en el vibrante mundo de los pisos, ofreciendo una plataforma inclusiva para que todos nuestros oyentes aprendan y participen.

The Huddle fue creado por Paul Stuart de Stuart & Associates y Go Carrera, junto con José y Daniel González de Preferred Flooring. Su objetivo es ayudarte a mantener un progreso constante en tu carrera en la industria del piso, abarcando temas que van desde el crecimiento personal y empresarial hasta consejos y trucos de instalación y todo lo demás.

¿Quieres ser invitado en The Huddle? ¡Envía un correo electrónico a thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com hoy mismo!

Crea tu perfil de instalador GRATIS en https://gocarrera.com y sé parte del futuro de la industria HOY!
¡CAPACÍTATE! Encuentra una lista de fechas de capacitación aquí: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/
https://www.preferredflooringmi.com
https://www.stuartandassociates.com
Podcasts
Apple
https://podcasts.apple.com/.../the-huddle/id1650798957
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/4M9FzJdfB1WCVfv5A3H1sU
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@thehuddleforwardprogress
https://www.youtube.com/preferredflooringmi

Buenas tardes damas y caballeros Yo soy Jorge orta y gracias por sintonizarse a

the hle en español somos un libro semanal donde no solo formulamos

estrategias sobre Cómo jugar el juego sino que también lo cambiamos desde

dominar los fundamentos del oficio hasta distinguirnos en el mercado estamos aquí para darle una voz al instalador y

asegurarle de que están equipados con todo lo que necesitan forjemos un nuevo

legado estamos aquí para ayudarles Bienvenidos a d hle Cómo están el día de

hoy Ah buenas tardes Mi nombre es Jesús aquí hablamos de Houston y todo bien Jorgito

Cómo está Efren Lamas tenemos al maestro efen Lamas aquí el día de hoy Efren Lamas Junior y a Jesús García y en un

poquito va a entrar José molar y Espero que estén teniendo unas buenas tardes el

día de hoy Claro claro que sí queremos comenzar que muy bien bien bien Efren

este queremos comenzar primero en cómo están Cómo están por allá y

este si todo está bien con ustedes Ah queremos comenzar en unas cuantas

preguntitas que tenemos el día de hoy en en tocante ao Cómo ustedes decidieron

estar en este oficio verdad porque es un oficio que nosotros hamos tomado en serio Y es de todos los

días y nos dedicamos a los pisos A diario solo que me gustaría hacer unas preguntas a usted Efren si me

permite claro la primer pregunta es Quién fue la influencia en su vida Ah

Quién hizo que usted decidiera que usted quería estar en este oficio

pues era negocio de nuestra familia mi mi papá mi tío Jorge ya sabes y y pues

trabajo de familia empecé joven y pues nos gustó Y el más grande A cuántos años

comenzó a cuántos años comenzó usted dicho que desde pequeño pero

empecé que como los 1 años juntando basura

igual que todos nosotros tú Jesús A qué edad comenzaste a los 12 viejo a los 12

también Sí parece que todos estamos igual a la misma edad

y cómo cómo es que usted decidió quedarse en este oficio qué es lo que le fascinó de este oficio que dijo sabes

que yo quiero hacer esto el resto de mi vida cualquiera de los dos Oh yo puedo

dejar Queen conteste primero para darle no pu pase

él no a mí me gustó desde pequeño porque me gustó la libertad y el tipo de

trabajo que siempre ha sido de ahí siempre me gustó pues y

mirando todo lo que andaba dejando

puesto tú jesusín cuando dijiste sabes qué yo quiero quedarme en este oficio no

quiero hacer lo que hacía A lo mejor en otros tiempos quiero quedarme aquí haciendo que es qué es lo que te que

fascinó a ti dedicarte a este oficio a mí me me gustó mucho me

impresionó mucho el tipo de herramienta que se usaba para hacer las carpetas y los pisos Nunca había mirado algo es muy

tú vas a otro trabajo y es puro martillo y martillos y desarmadores taladros Aquí

no aquí es diferente usamos mucha la herramienta diferente y pues la verdad

me me gustó lo Cómo ganaba el dinero más fácil también más rápido mucho más

rápido y y es lo que me gustó mucho la la herramienta y el tipo de trabajo que

era diferente es me gustó y pues por eso me quedé Pero hay otras más cosas que a

lo mejor yo cre que va a hacer más preguntas y vamos a ir contestando poco a poco ya es por la manera que me gustó

quedarme por eso poco Gan poco más rápido el dinero y la herramienta me gustó mucho la herramienta era muy muy

diferente yo nunca había visto algo me sorprendí ya Y luego que no te no te

asustó la la kica Ah no lo que me asustó es cargar los rollos para el quinto piso

bl down rollos de 50 pies Ah en ese tiempo no teníamos unos Y fíjate que

todo a través del tiempo cambié verdad porque ahora pues ya hace unos 10 años atrás ya encontraba los dois para para

los pasillos de de hoteles pues ya tienes el dolis es de dos llantas no más y Y antes no era tenid que cargarlo o

con el ese de cuatos no más abajo es muy difícil el tiempo va cambiando la

herramienta va evolucionando también y es muy importante que estemos este al

día verdad con eso porque así nos destruyes mucho tu cuerpo uno se daña bastante con eso si no tiene uno la

herramienta correcta sí se puede hacer muy buen dinero en este oficio

y cuándo se certificaron ustedes comenzando conen a qué edad decidió

dedicarse a ser un instalador certificado sera

1998 porque yo ya había tomado una clase de Armstrong vino y me gustó y Cuando

agarré la primera de cfi en 1998 miré todo lo que no sabía Y pues de

ahí me aprendió el foco quería saber más y mejorar mis propias mi talento y de

ahí siguiendo más para adelante hasta logar el de maestro y sabes cada clase

cada grupo más y más si hayo dicho que dice no sabes lo que no sabes verdad

Porque si uno no Se involucra en esto no vas a saber qué hay más adelante en este

oficio tú Jesús A qué edad decidiste dedicarte a hacer un certificado un

instalador certificado Ah lo voy a hacer un poquito corto pero es buena historia

una buena pregunta y es muy importante para los instaladores que a lo mejor nos van a ver en vivo y lo van a ver

Reproducir el video Ah es muy importante que si ellos ya saben ahorita que hay un

lugar donde pueden aprender más donde hay un lugar donde se pueden certificar y pueden crecer su sus esqu su su manera

de trabajar diferente mucho mejor y mejorarla es ahora el tiempo porque fíjate que yo ya sabía desde el 2000

cuando yo empecé 2001 2003 2004 yo ya sabía de cfi pero yo pensé que no era

importante para mí Dije No poda hacer lo que tengo que trabajar s kickar s streamear s hacer las posturas echar

glue se poner ship vin tengo que vin y nunca me interesó ir a a a certificarme

verdad por cfi entonces a través del tiempo me hizo llegar a cfi por los

errores del trabajo que yo hacía le estoy diciendo la verdad errores Porque si tú no sabes algo que no has mirado

antes cómo hacerlo un tipo de de piso o carpeta vas a cometer un error y yo los llegué a cometer entonces a través de

tiempo yo no sabía qui me podía enseñar mejor aquí nad nadie sabía Y yo miraba que ellos hacían lo mismo los mismos

errores so en el 2000 bueno 2009 2012 me

dijeron que fuera y cuando yo hice la reservación no fui lo cancelé n más y

hasta el 2019 apenas es cuando fui 2019

fui a a cfi y me certifié con cfi Y fíjate que desde el primer día que yo

llegué a cf y llegué a mi casa y el otro día llegué a la compañía a trabajar ya no era el mismo instalador ya miraba

cada detalle Ahora hasta des Entonces hasta ahora les les les hablo de el Dr

que quede limpio ahora ya te cambia mucho te cambia mucho y cuando llegué y

después me encontré con con este en y pues Y ahí ya llegó otro cambio muy muy

mucho más grande para mí y cambió mi vida de instalador de Cómo llegar a los trabajos Pues fíjate que tardó mucho

tiempo después de 20 años para llegar a certificarme 18 algo así te imaginas

Cuántos cuántos Cuántos años no hice errores sí Cuánto cuánto tiempo perdiste verdad en en no aprender más de lo que

deberías de haber aprendido Ah y no eran errores en veces son horrores verdad

dices ahy es un horror lo que dice pero Ah yo también Necesitaba alguien que que

me enseñara y en veces no es igual a ver las instrucciones en un en un libro verdad no es igual como yendo a las

clases aprendiendo de las personas yo sé que ahorita en el momento Efren está con

un capítulo en California chapter California chapter y dime Efren qué es

lo que ustedes hacen en el chapter Cómo es que enseñan la educación que se

intitula en en es chapter en ese capítulo lo que andamos tratando de

hacer es introducir nuestro programa de parte de c

damos se cortó la línea un poquito

Efren Ah ahorita vamos a ver sien se sale

de de esa de ese congelamiento

pero vamos a

ver Bueno estamos tú y yo Jesús Bueno yo también este

nfic cfi muy importante para mí aquí estamos

otra vez gracias por estar otra vez con nosotros bueno Vamos a continuar el chapter el capítulo

nos tratamos de juntar una vez al mes siempre cambiamos la tema y son de de

dos a 4 horas Dependiendo los instaladores Cómo ponen ellos su parte también porque yo puedo hacer

demostraciones Y tratar de llamar atención Pero si ellos no ponen nada no ganan nada eso y es gratis también para

enseñarles lo que no saben o lo que haya falta ya sabes porque todos sabemos algo y como dijo los errores que hos hecho y

de ahí oj miren Okay okay Ahora sí entiendo a lo que vamos y ojalá de ahí

quieran seguir para adelante you No ya yo yo vi que estabas enseñando técnicas

de cómo hacer pegasones verdad Sims en las alfombras

Ah también como coser a mano Ah Solo que

miro que estás dando muy buena información y si uno no toma ventaja de esa información que es gratis digo yo

tengo que pagar cuando voy a las clases yo soy esa persona que no tengo a nadie alrededor como usted de maestro aquí en

esta área yo tengo que viajar super lejos para tratar de agarrar la misma

información que usted está dando gratis se imagina digo si está ahí enfrente de

usted la información no sé como personas no toman ventaja de esa educación

verdad Ah Me gustaría que aquí hubiera algo así también

dependiendo en su lugar pero no no hay nada así porque hay varios lugares sigue

Perdón enfes lugares sí hay

chapters sí no más que ahorita hay uno en California hay uno Wisconsin está el

del marva y más y más están haciendo capítulos en Colorado están haciendo uno

se ha que tiene uno allá con r Bush Ah en Kentucky so poquito a poquito la

educación se está esparciendo verdad se está comenzando a levantar capítulos para que la industria de de pisos pueda

comenzar a avanzar porque estamos teniendo muchos reclamos a diario hay reclamos en cosas que no están haciendo

los instaladores no están algo tan simple como poniéndole SIM sealer muy

importante verdad Ah es son cosas

que exactamente qué clase de SIM sealer se puede usar En qué clases de alfombras

verdad porque todas son diferentes en veces unas requieren algo diferente dependiendo en el en el s tap que uno va

a usar pero son cosas muy importantes

digo sí sí por supuesto solo

que enseñarles las diferentes razones por qué Sí y Qué adv ventaja hay de ser un

Qué es la ventaja vamos a suponer ser un instalador que está certificado en comparación a uno que no está

certificado qué dirías porque hay una diferencia en enseñarles los individuos

los instaladores cómo hacerlo pero no se han certificado verdad qué tan importante es la certificación de

cfi Don para m siempre ha sido porque yo yo puedo traigo Cómo poder verificar que

yo soy más que no más un instalador cualquiera yo soy uno que está professionally train esty entrenado

profesionalmente que tomé el tiempo para educarme bien cómo es mi trabajo Sí en veces también tiene uno

más credibilidad verdad Porque tienes esa certificación esa numeración la persona ha ido a las

clases para entrenar y ahora tiene alguna credibilidad y y lo digo por experiencia porque tuve un reclamo el

otro día en una carpet una una una alfombra y algo tan simple como Cómo saber medir

el el arco de para mí er un arco tenía un arco la yo le digo carpeta porque soy

Tex Max verdad no se dice carpeta es alfombra pero como soy texmex yo le digo carpeta Pero tenía tenía un arco tenía

un arco y y es algo tan simple en saber Cómo medir ese arco verdad qué tanto es

la tolerancia que le dan en pulgadas para poder decir sabes qué no la debo de

instalar esta alfombra verdad debo de primero hablar y ver si la tengo que

regresar si está bien con los retratos que voy a mandarles para que digan Okay

sigue te mandamos otro pedazo Yo pienso que hay una credibilidad muy grande cuando uno sabe de esas instrucciones

porque las instrucciones están ahí con los fabricantes los fabricantes van a decir Hey esto es la tolerancia que

tiene un skw un arco un bow Ah tress Edge Ah Ed tress hay muchas diferentes

cosas que pueden pasar verdad cuando llega el material y uno tiene que chequear esos esas cosas antes de

antemano cu uno desarrolla el el rol verdad Ay en veces miras algo y dices

Wow tengo que parar aquí y en veces está todo bien y en veces tiene que saber uno

Puedo trabajar con el producto bien Solo que yo pienso que es algo para para mí especialmente es algo importante

verdad sí este no y es lo bueno Esto de parte

de cfi que les enseñamos a todos los muchachos cómo protegerse contra cosas así que no más en veces uno de

instalador n más lo pone lo que caiga y no así podemos saber las tolerancias Y

qué se puede trabajar para que no nos toquen los reclamos Sí a mí me tocó uno el otro día

como les estaba diciendo y y hice todo lo que me dijeron y al final mandamos

los resultados como quiera mandaron un inspector para que chequeara para que se fijara en mi en mi trabajo ya cuando

vino el inspector dijo Bueno sabes que si está si está mal vamos a volver a mandar algo lo que yo sentí un alivio

verdad porque Wow el cliente va no quiero que el cliente tenga un producto mal quiero que tengan un un trabajo

satisfactorio y después digan sabes qué esa compañía hizo algo para darme algo

de nuevo ya estoy satisfecho verdad puedo dormir bien yo también y el cliente Ah pero son n más cositas muy pequeñas

que uno nota cuando es certificado antes cuando yo no estaba certificado pues uno

en veces uno dice sabes queé no me importa Especialmente cuando estás joven dices Ay Entras y sales voy a hacer este

trabajo de volada y voy a entrar y salir voy a hacer mi dinero pero ya cuando uno

tiene esa certificación Yo pienso que e yo pagué Dinero por esta certificación

no quiero que me vayan a llamar la atención y hablarle a ya Dave Garden o algo para que me manden la atención y

digan Hey no están haciendo el trabajo bien como debe de ser you no so uno

tiene que tomar responsabilidad en veces por estas cosas y es lo que estas certificaciones en veces hacen a uno que

sea un poquito más responsable verdad porque hay diferentes niveles de las

certificaciones Oh ahora ahora yo estoy un poquito celoso de que

están en California teniendo estas capítulos y miro los retratos de cuando

están allá Y usted está enseñando y me gustaría estar ahí con usted porque usted es un maestro y sabe Mucho más que

nosotros nosotros todavía estamos aprendiendo yo José Jesús todos estamos

aprendiendo y queremos estar en ese en ese nivel y como quiera Aún estando en ese nivel todavía hay mucho más que

aprender porque siempre va a haber productos nuevos que van a salir Ya solo que yo sé que

Ah este Jesús en particular está haciendo muy bien porque últimamente Jesús fue a

el la competición a la competición regional en Chicago Ah para ser parte de

la competición de ta qué tan difícil fue para ti Jesús esa Esa esa Cómo se llama

esa es esa competencia hiciste fue difícil o no fue difícil tenías nervios

Cómo te sentías no no Sí pues estaba un poco nervioso especialmente tenía al

famoso ahí conmigo Yo lo conocí Wisconsin un

certificado que hicimos grande con tj ahí lo conocí a él y cuando lo miré que

pensé que iba a competir dije no pues é va a ganar pens que iba a ganar viejo es buen buen instructor sabe cer

mucho Bueno este mejor pero no sí estaba un poco nervioso estaba nervioso ya

había pasado la primera ahí en en ras Last year y quedé como en segundo lugar

y esta vez fui pero después me calmé después se acercó un instructor de ahí

de los que estaban ese día y me vino y me dijo se acercó y se incó y me dijo e

estás Estás muy calmado Estás demasiado calmado estás muy relajado dijo Yo

estaba yo estaba confidente en mí mismo de todo lo que he aprendido en cfi y

nfic lo tuve que poner a prueba ahí y en t voy a poner mucho más a prueba eso y

ahí vamos a ver si me está sirviendo los certificados o lo estoy poniendo a prueba o no más Fu sacar certificados

más porque los quería tener Sí pues el nfic el nfic no es nada simple digo

cuando uno toma la clase de nfic Wow es difícil y todas las pruebas que están

poniendo en frente de ti las tienes que hacer rápido y ya debes de saber cómo hacer estas cosas verdad no es nada

fácil yo sé porque yo tomé la clase y estaba super nervioso las personas que estaban ahí estaba Ah Kevin de Roberts

estaba nate estaban estaba cómo se llama este Jonathan

Ah había muchas personas ahí que estaban instruyendo rollen estaba ahí Solo que

muchas cabezas de instrucción que estaban ahí para enseñarnos y yo me puse super

nervioso Pero al final del día estuve confidente y pasó el tiempo pasaron los

tres días y agarré mi certificación pasé con un 100 En mi en mi en mi examen

escrito y luego ya en en manos también pasé muy bien casi nadie pasa con un 100

pero digo me puse a estudiar por meses y día tras día estaba estudiando porque yo

no quería fallar en frente de estas de estas personas dije no quiero ser el más tonto ahí verdad solo que es muy serio

la clase también pues cuesta dinero y no quieres ir a fallar quieres quieres

pasar Dj muy buen instructor también PJ ar déjame decir esto una cosita hace dos

semanas dos semanas o tres creo que hiz un un saizo verdad era un cuarto de 18 por 20 y la cost era de 18 y no lo van a

querer Pero si yo lo si yo no hubiera tomado ese certificado hace tiempo hace los años atrás Ah yo creo que lo huía

seguido trabajando como antes no más r caren el SIM se iba a abrir y ahora yo

en los isos yo les digo a los clientes de hacer un s tal vez no te haga un un s bonito pero va a estar strong va a estar

fuerte que no se va a abrir Es lo que te voy a garantizar y y ya los manufactor ya saben se los clientes ya saben que se

va a ver un poco la línea pero no se va a abrir no lo vas a creer eso 17 pies me

tardé de 7 de la mañana a 7 de la noche para terminar ese cuarto Wow sí y en

veces tienes que tomar tu tiempo no puedes no puedes irte rápido en esos trabajos porque una cosita que salga mal

y tienes que comenzar otra vez de nuevo y en veces es mucho tiempo preparar un SIM otra vez de nuevo especialmente de

algo que es regular una una alfombra standard action y tienes wiltons tienes

AX miners esas son diferentes Qué es la diferencia entre las dos ustedes enseñan

la diferencia entre las dos en el capítulo cuando están allá en el en California

chapter les trato de enseñar Cómo identificar las diferentes alfombras Cómo trabajarlas diferentes para que

entiendan Porque muchos también dicen pu a los burb solamente se le echan s sealer a

regular esas no y les trato de enseñar Por qué dicen lasers deand que esto que

lo otro Porque no sell ases también como los isos también como trabajarlas a

minster esas se desfilan no más se estiran para un lado Les explico a los muchachos you know porque me han dicho e

donf por qué esta no más se estira para un lado eso debes de saber en cuanto está en tu

troca Open del plástico ya sabes cómo te vaar tu día Muchos tratan todas las

alfombras iguales y es es el problema much las

tratan igual sí Lo principal es viendo el

material Si vas a saber lo que vas a instalar y tienes las especificaciones

del material de la alfombra todos los fabricantes vas a su página te van a decir eh Si es como se instala esta

alfombra verdad van a tener especificaciones directamente en ese material en particular yo sé porque los

wilon Ay n más le cortas algo le cortas uno de los hilitos blancos verdad el

Chain Stitch ahí se lo cortas y ya valió verdad y y no la puedes en veces no más

correr un no puedes correr tu Patito aquí el pato no no en veces tienes que

cortarlo a pura pura tijerazos verdad o en veces no puedes correr el Nosotros le

hicimos el pato aquí pero hay la raza mexicana verdad le Pon sobrenombres a

todo y e tráeme el pato y que tráeme el tráeme esto y este es el pato el Row Row

Rut pero pero digo algo tan simple como teniendo diferentes diferentes cosas en

Cómo abrir ahí verdad uno tiene que tener todos los los la herramienta

específica para trabajar diferentes alfombras Ah porque no son fáciles una

son muy difíciles Perdón no lo

oí y no n más con las diferentes herramientas sino también como decía

diferentes carpet backings có saber identificar las alfombras también eso ayuda mucho a identificar cuál s vas a

usar porque hay que dijéramos un k50 y puede ser mucho pegamento para una

regular que va a ser más profile que no es necesario tanto

pegamento muchos muchachos me han dicho en esta alfombra siempre s mucha la

burbuja y no Simplemente en las barbers muchos piensan porque tienen el el el

Loop verdad que esas son las únicas que se tienen que sellar pero también las Cut piles

freses todas las diferentes alfombras Todas se les va a caer el pelito ya cuando le dan con la vacum por arriba

qué va a pasar Se va se va se van a venir pelitos como quiera y con el tiempo van a ir corriendo tienen hilitos

también igual que las otras Solo que algo que sí sé es de que la mayoría

casi el 100% de todas las alfombras se tienen que exiliar algo muy importante

verdad Y ahora no sé si ustedes van a ir a ti este año pero yo sé que yo voy a

estar ahí con Jesús porque él va a estar compitiendo no sé si van va a participar

usted Yo sé que está más cerquitas que Florida verdad en el cfi convención que

vamos a tener pero van a estar en en t también tayor verdad usted está con

tayor bueno perfecto ya vamos a ir a echarle porras al Jesús allá verlo y y

ver cómo va Ojalá que gane Jesús y hay que apoyarlo pero la semana que viene no

sé si van a estar en la convención de cfi muy bonito lugar rosen

cre res que en Orlando edes van acipar que Jesús va a ir no no

sé si usted va a participar en eso

también el domingo estar ahí Okay perfecto y qué diría Qué es lo

más instruccional para usted o qué son los beneficios de ir al cfi Convention

qué diría usted e que sería algo beneficial para una persona que no ha atendido

esa convención qué diría usted que es lo más mejor y por qué deberíamos

participar en esa en esa convención una que me gusta de eso es de

networking conocer todos porque es como familia número dos que siempre me ha

gustado todos los grupos que están ahí a L

education todo está Gear para pura educación cuando vas ahí no no más vamos

a ir a una convención No traes para escoger dónde te quieres ir a tomar unas clases todo eso es parte de eso y te

conectas con todos tus amigos de vuelta es es a family gaing En mi opinión y

educación al mismo tiempo Sí por supuesto yo la primera vez

que fui no conocía a nadie Ahí Ah Le hablé a varias personas en el

internet porque era un poquito después del covid verdad solo que tenía mucho

muchas cosas que yo quería aprender y comencé a mandarle mensajes a personas a Chris samam dije e te voy a ver ahí me

gustaría conocerte Yo sé que has ganado la competencia de T varias veces y

personas así verdad yo Brian roli y todas las personas que yo conozco dije

sabes qué los quiero conocer ahí y fue una experiencia muy bonita Porque con

brazos abiertos todos te aceptan si es como una hermand Yo pienso que es super interesante Ah

las redes que uno hace ahí networking verdad las redes son muy importantes

desde que yo fui a la convención ha conocido personas que saben mucho más que yo y me han me han levantado en mi

en mi vida personal en mi negocio en mi oficio Solo que para mí es algo muy

bonito Ah yo sé que ahí conocí a Jesús también y a José

nos conocimos Nosotros somos nos hicimos Los tres amigos porque somos los aparte de ustedes no conozco a otros hispanos

que van ahí somos los únicos de habla español Ah pero yo sé que cuando vamos tenemos un buen tiempo y no nos vemos A

lo menos que sea en video o pero yo sé que me gusta verlos a ustedes y

participar en todas las clases de Educación que tiene la convención muy bonito que

es sé que va a haber unas personas va ha personas este año que me gustaría

aprender de lo que van a tener que decir de los productos Solo que yo voy a atender la otra semana también vamos a

estar ahí espero verlos la otra semana y y sé que va a ser algo muy bonito verdad

especialmente la comida tiene muy buena comida y también me gusta la comida del Hotel Ah pero no es muy bonito el el

lugar tú Jesús qué piensas Cómo cómo te sientes tú cuando vas a la convención de

C no este la les voy a contar poquito rápido estamos cortos en tiempo pero la

primera vez que yo fui desde que llegué a cfi a certificarme yo llegué solo yo

fui solo nadie me dijo yo quería porque ya tenía errores con ciertas carpetas no todas pero con ciertas carpetas ciertas

cosas tuve que llegar así falla fuerza forzado por mí mismo porque yo quería superarme ya cuando llego a a

certificarme me encuentro a Jonathan y Way dos loquillos como yo igual so me

invitan a a la convención dice e el next va a serc una convención también dije Oh

está bien pues páseme la información y llegué solo viejo y cuando llegué por primera vez fue fue

una impresión para mí Ver todos que había pocos de manufacturers y los los de las herramientas y conocer gente

nueva y ver instaladores y estaban dando las clases la educación que estaba hablando de fren me quedé sorprendido dije de aquí

soy de aquí no me voy a mover y aquí voy a estar y gracias a Dios aquí sigo y vamos a seguir para adelante dio no

vamos a parar esto es mi mi mundo Pues de alfombras y pisos y aquí estamos de

eso vivo tengo que seguir algo mejor para que yo pueda seguir viviendo también mejor y pues es muy muy muy

grato estar ahí en cfi es esas convenciones es muy importante yo he hablado con mucha gente aquí de la

hispana pero ya sabe cómo somos los mexicanos y orgullosos o los latinos y

son cabezones no entienden ellos ya saben ellos ya saben todo no quieren saber nada más y les voy a contar esto

un poquito rápido Apenas acabo de llegar de la regional verdad gané y me vieron y esta compañía me llamó yo trabajaba para

ellos antes pero me llamaron porque gané y ahora fui darles instrucciones a 15

instaladores pero tienen muchos más y les fui a dar una poquita demostración no caban las carpetas no usan el power

stretcher te imaginas Cuántos errores no están haciendo ahora me quieren me quieren me quieren compartir las otras

tiendas que tienen Austin Dallas Luciana y no más aquí round pero dicen que me quieren sacar para afuera también so y

ojalá si ganamos el el el size lo vamos a traer para Texas y vamos a hacer un

chapter en abril eso es mi mi mi goal que quiero hacer pero vamos a hacer grande viejos ojalá primero Dios primero

Dios y mucha suerte en eso así para que pues si ganas Pues nos sacas a una cita

allá Claro pero siendo ceric siendo

certificado uno no quiere decir que lo sabe todo verdad yo también hago errores yo hago errores al diario y lo que sí s

cuando soy certificado es más fácil para para mí poder hablarle a Efren poder

hablarle a nate poder hablarle a Dave a cualquier persona que sea certificado que sepa más de que lo que yo sé y me

puede dar instrucción verdad está la está ahí cuando uno es certificado

cuando Se involucra en en en en todo lo que se ofrece por medio de estas

organizaciones es sé que cuando estás certificado puedes hacer errores como

quiera verdad pero la cosa es que tenemos a personas que nos respaldan

siempre y podemos hacerles preguntas y lo que sé es que yo cuando tengo

preguntas nunca me dicen he no te puedo contestar Ahorita no no ellos me van a

decir he sabes qué Dame una chancita déjame agarro la información así para poder este darte la información adecuada

o en veces algo tan simple como yo sé que veces le hablo a Chris sesam y me le

digo e esto y esto pasó y me dice Has leído las instrucciones del fabricante Ah sabes queé no la leí déjame voy al

leado de volar algo tan simple y luego ahí uno mismo se contesta la pregunta que tiene Solo que cuando uno no Busca

la información está mer enfrente de ti este solo que yo sé que la organización

ha sido muy buena Ah no tengo nada mal que decir porque todas las cosas que han

pasado en mi vida personal han sido cosas buenas Me me ha elevado a estar en

otro lugar también déjame decirte algo Jorgito lo que estaba diciendo de los de los errores que Ah cuando yo llego al

certificado de cfi nfic como les dije desde el primer día al otro día que llegué a trabajar yo ya no he tenido

errores ya no se han hecho errores porque ahora ya sabes que Dn las respuestas nuestros amigos ahí está e

cuando le he llamado cuando he hecho el hotel aquí el Mario esta muy grande y era trabajo muy importante lo mandamos a

traer por el glue a a lo mandamos a traer por las máquinas la herramienta que yo no tenía a Chris lo mandé a traer

porque era un máster y yo no soy un máster ya no puedes como les digo ya cuando llega su certificarte tú ya no

puedes hacer errores ya no los puedes cometer como antes ahora ya estás trabajando tú y los certificados so

Tienes toda la herramienta ahora y no puede haber errores ya cuando tú llegas a certificarte ya si lo llegas ha un

error pues yo creo que pues ya sería un problema de uno ver pero te imaginas si yo no hubiera llamado en ese hotel a

a por el club el técnico yo creo que no hubiera hecho el trabajo correcto si son

tres maestros son tres maestros los que tienes ahí porque tienen mucha sabiduría

yo tenía Yo tenía 10 trabajadores ahí conmigo pero ni uno está certificado todos tienen 30 años de instalar carpeta

arriba de 20 todos se quedaban sorprendidos cuando miraron a ch trabajando cuando me miraron trabajando a mí cuando llegó Efren con Tony llegó

Tony también te acuerdas Efren Ah con las las máquinas grandes de Los Broncos

teníamos tres máquinas Broncos ahí te imaginas y y los chavos que yo traía que

según tienen años trabajando quedaron sorprendidos pero no más no quieren invertir en su educación es lo único que

no quieren y es bien duro obligarlos también si no quieren pues pero la información Ya se las he pasado a

bastantes instaladores muchos aquí más de 5000 y ya como unos que yo creo que

unos 2000 ya ya hablé con ellos y compañías también pero ellos los quieren

tener abajo yo mi mensaje es para ellos también como les dije en saes el año pasado es un mensaje para los

contratistas compañías vendedores lo que sea dejen certificar instalador

vamos a robar lo que queremos que ellos se se certifiquen para que sean mejores y les funcione más en sus compañías

nosotros no los necesitamos y nosotros necesitamos que ellos aprendan mucho más lo que nosotros lo que yo aprendí y lo

que sigo aprendiendo porque como decía Jorge seguimos aprendiendo Ah están los de 40 años 50 años que dicen siguen

aprendiendo pero de nosotros y nosotros seguimos aprendiendo de ellos también ya s una cosa también es uno lo

puede uno lo puede verdad en el en el jale verdad Pero es en veces cómo lo

vo a arreglar porque alguien en veces tienen que traer a alguien de otro lugar y decir sabes queé si tú no lo puedes hacer muévete un lado Déjame lo arreglo

y en veces se tiene que quitar todo el material verdad Pero en veces no es cómo

hacerlo pero en veces también cómo arreglarlo cuando uno falla verdad y tiene arreglo o no tiene arreglo y luego

la inversión también hablando de la inversión en uno en estas clases uno invierte Y aunque vayas irte

una semana verdad vas a perder una semana de trabajo vas a tener que pagar hotel vas a tener que pagar la clase

carro ira avión donde vas a ir pero la cosa es que eso después se te regresa te

regresa otra vez 10 veces porque sabes que después no te van a quitar el retainer hay muchas personas que tienen

retainers en las compañías verdad y te quitan un porcentaje y ya cuando y Y aunque sean porcentajes bien chicos como

quiera si te quita en los 2000 3000 que tienes ahí 5000 y estás en cero otra vez

tienes que volver a sacar de tu cheque cada semana o cada dos semanas y te van

a sacar un porcentaje y volver a rellenarlo y en veces lo vuelves a a bajar hasta abajo pero si uno después

aprende menos errores menos reclamos y no puede seguir adelante no quemar tus

puentes porque una cosa es Sigues en el mismo lugar quemando tu puente Endo mal trabajo qué va a pasar ya no te van a

dar trabajo le van a dar trabajo a alguien más verdad van a decir esta persona no porque ya no no sabe este

material es un problema que tuve aquí últimamente esta semana me hablaron para volver a arreglar unas escaleras unos

staircase runners y la persona que los hizo n más fue no le metió

t una tecla no le metió nada No más pum pum pum con las con la kicker y meterle

stap de volada pues tenía líneas y se miraba así el material chue y me hablan es un material caro

verdad un pedazo de stant y es una pieza como de unos 1500

2000 no más no más la alfombra yo miro los retratos voy

directamente le digo Hey lo voy a quitar es una flatweave se va a destruir el material se va a

romper todo porque ya cuando le metieron grampas pues ya no puedo quitar el

material y volverlo a poner igual ual se va a tener que comprar otro pedazo y esta persona hizo dos escaleras así las

hizo rápido entrar y salir Yo entiendo que quieres hacer dinero rápido pero también tienes que tener una tener un

producto bien sí solo que ahora tengo que ir arreglarlo verdad vamos a tener

que quitar la la escalera otra vez de nuevo la alfombra y volver a hacer el surging de nuevo y volver a ponerlo

ahora eso le costó a alguien le costó a la compañía que me está contratando y le

va a costar a la persona también porque uno no sabe si tienen el retainer o no y

Alguien tiene que pagar verdad al final del día porque yo no trabajo gratis tampoco Solo que verdad es es Es muy

importante esta educación Ah vamos a

ver Tienen alguna preguntas en tocante a lo que hemos hablado el día de hoy Yo sé

que tenemos a una buena audiencia el día de hoy ellos son the hle Ah todos

nosotros nos juntamos nos unimos tenemos a muchas personas Ah yo sé que Danny Ah

nos dijo Hola Kevin tenemos a José dan dan Churchill Daniel les quiero

decir hola y muchas gracias por estar aquí el día de hoy con con

nosotros verdad porque ustedes son los que nos elevan también nos dan mucha información

Ah usted Don Efren qué piensa de todo lo que hemos hablado el día de

hoy no me ha gustado la tema eh tratando de avisarles a todos el beneficio de

agarrar un certificado para la educación que está disponible para que se puedan levantar mira como dijo Jesús mismo ya

antes como como sal los trabajos ahas educándose enseñándose diferentes cosas

Cómo se ha podido mejorar su trabajo así como tú también Jorge te has puedo enseñar la familia que ha tenido con

cuando ha hecho sus trabajos conociendo a dwayne conociendo a diferentes personas que les puedan ayudar a sacar

estos trabajos grandes al Chris s que le apoyó bastante en el hotel ya sabes

somos una familia grande que podemos seguir para adelante

sí los mejores instaladores de la nación están ahí la semana que viene en la

convención de cfi en Orlando Yo sé que los vo a ver a todos Ah unos A lo mejor van a fallar pero yo sé que van a ir a

ti en Las Vegas el año que viene y este espero verlos a todos ustedes

Ah y y este una cosa muy bonita bueno

con eso vamos a concluir a lo menos que tengan algo más que decir el día de hoy no sé si

tienen alguna experiencia que gustarían platicarnos algo algo para

instrucción Jesús algo que nos quieras decir algo este A lo mejor ustedes ya no

les voy a decir nada pero este mensaje como siempre para para la gente hispana este americana mexicanos de donde sean

vengan y certif les va a cambiar su vida su no su vida de mejor rápido pero de que les va

a cambiar su vida de instalación al otro día van a ser totalmente diferentes van a ser mucho

mejor y créamelo cré yo se los garantizo que sí y y ojalá sigan este si llegan a

certificarse no no más se certifiquen que sigan adelante y y sigan apoyando a la convención que vamos a tener de cfi

que es mucho es muy importante que cada año los materiales como decía Jorge hace rato siguen saliendo nuevos no nos vamos

a quedar con lo mismo siguen saliendo nuevos Mater de piso carpetas y pues ese es el

mensaje que que traten de venir certificarse que no sean este cabezon esa raza es cabezon no entienden di que

ya saben todo pero no yo siempre les he dicho Mira si te ponemos un test Sí digo si te ponemos un test hacer lo que

aunque tú tengas 50 años 40 años haciendo carpeta te ponemos a hacer un test lo vas a hacer mal primeramente no

lo silean ya están descalificados ahí hay errores hay muchos errores Ese es el

es la invitación que se les hace nada más que vengan a certificarse Ahí está cfi o están otras compañías que están

certificando pueden ir a donde sea el problema es que se eduquen ese sería mi mensaje para ellos es mi mensaje para

ellos porque pues tampoco podemos tenerlos obligados a un lado verdad pero ahí está la la solución la tienen en sus

manos y este mensaje Yo creo que ojalá les llegue y ojalá los amigos todos lo compartan y y y les llegue este mensaje

a ellos especialmente a las compañías que no más quieren tener sus instaladores ahí encerrados dejenos que certifiquen déjenos denle chance les va

a beneficiar a ellos también no no más al instalador a la compañía donde trabajen les va a beneficiar

bastante sí menos pérdidas es menos pérdidas verdad y y yo sé es es Es

difícil porque mira corrí si estoy mal pero yo sé que centro Centroamérica

México Centroamérica Suramérica ahora pal el T muy bien pero yo no sé de un

fabricante de alfombras que esté sur de nosotros casi todas las alfombras se hacen de de T y standard action aquí en

los Estados Unidos en Georgia tenemos muchas fabricantes en California tenemos otros unos arriba para para New York

esas áreas de allá hay una una que hace witon no me recuerdo Cuál es ahorita en el momento pero en México y en otras

partes no se usa la la alfombra se usa más pisos

cerámica Salt Solo que es raro cuando miras un

instalador que viene de ella que ya tiene esa experiencia casi esa experiencia cuando uno viene a este país

igual que mi papá verdad mi papá llegó aquí trabajó en construcción un rato y

después alguien lo invitó a hacer alfombras y dijo sabes qué me gusta este oficio porque es adentro si llueve

trabajo como quiera no más con que un lugar donde cortar verdad y sé que no me

voy a ir para la casa y voy a hacer un chequecito solo que es muy diferente cuando uno está aquí llega aquí a este

país y comienza en alfombra verdad si vas a comenzar en alfombra la única

sugerencia que yo diría es educación igual como dijo Jesús verdad edúquese

hacer algo bien en veces hay personas que yo hablo con ellos y dicen no yo no

hago dinero en la alfombra no hay dinero en eso y yo diría y ha más dinero en la alfombra en veces

que en cualquier otro piso muchas personas se fueron obp obt y yo me

recuerdo hace unos 10 15 20 años cuando salió laminado y mucha gente dejó de

hacer las alfombras y se movieron a hacer esos clases de pisos y dijeron sabes qué pues me están pagando más por

hacer esto por el pie Pues sí pero también tienes que preparar el piso verdad tienes que estar seguro que de

que esté bien derechito bien flat para que no se haga para que no se vaya a quebrar las las

este las entradas verdad muchas cosas sí solo que mucha

gente yo me recuerdo instaladores se movieron a hacer eso solo que hubo menos y menos personas dedicándose a hacer

alfombras Ah pero yo yo diría lo contrario a mí y a mi papá por ejemplo

nos ha ido muy bien en alfombra porque cuando se salieron todas esas personas a hacer algo diferente nosotros dijimos

vamos a hacer este vamos a quedarnos en las alfombras porque es para mí es más

fácil la alfombra Ah yo sé que hay unos las personas les gustan AVP obt glue

down a unas personas le gustan comercial alfombra Ah yo no tengo las personas los

empleados para tener comercial como Jesús Ah porque no más somos dos Ah mi

mi papá y yo verdad Ah y mi papá ya es grande están tiene como 63 64 años y

pues ya ya está llegando a la etapa donde Todavía es muy fuerte pero está llegando al punto donde Ay no está Yo yo

me preocupo por él porque yo no quiero que cargue algo y se vaya De por sí que ya estamos con los dolores de la espalda

verdad no quiero que se vaya a quebrar el Solo que yo sé que es muy importante

de que de que uno haga el trabajo bien Ahora ahora no se nos no se nos hizo de

que estuviera José aquí el jí José molar es muy bueno para

elpt es un cerebro él yo le hago preguntas a él le hablo en veces le digo he sabes qué tengo una pregunta de esto

y él de volada me e lo tienes que hacer así así y asá Y lamentablemente no nos

pudo acompañar el día de hoy a lo mejor no tenía buena señal pero esa es otra

persona que yo miro también que es una un individuo joven que va a crecer a ser

alguien alguien muy importante en el futuro Ah otra cosa le quiero decir gracias

También a todas las todas las fabricantes las compañías que nos ayudan

que nos apoyan Roberts nos apoya siempre con la herramienta que uno necesita para

poder hacer las clases de Educación crin también nos ayuda especialmente ustedes allá en el

capítulo del capítulo de California Yo sé que cran está ahí con usted Efren ah

Solo que le quiero pedir Muchas gracias a a a todos ellos Taylor a

gunlock muchas compañías hasta las compañías de ardex shx uzen todos ellos

tienen clases algo que no hablamos también esas compañías tienen clases gratis uno no más te tiene que aplicar

para ir ellos te te enseñan Cómo hacer todo gratis porque ellos quieren que usen el producto de ellos también Ah yo

sé que ustedes han tenido esas clases Qué opinan de esas clases de de ardex

uzen shx No sé qué está en California Pero qué opinan de esas clases que nos

enseñan Ah esas clases gratis es parte de nuestras juntas

también que hemos hecho tenemos usin que viene nos hace las clases nos Explica

cómo usar los productos de ellos porque ellos no quieren fallar tampoco tomando las clases amos Cómo

mezclar todo bien y ellos también incluso siguen usando productos

mejor sí muy bonitos productos también muy buenos para trabajar ya cuando te enseñan a cómo hacerlo es fácil pero en

veces al principio uno se se asusta dice ay necesito esto necesito lo otro pero ya después haciéndolo bien queda bien el

el el trabajo y seguimos adelante al que sigue y el que sigue el que sigue después Ah sí solo que le quiero pedir

las gracias a los dos ustedes no sé si tienen algo más que gustarían decir ah pero si no vamos a concluir el día de

hoy el podcast de The hle y les quiero dar las gracias a los dos por estar aquí

conmigo el día de hoy no parece que es todoo Saludos saludos saludos saludos a

la audiencia ahí a todos c guys happ

Keep yes

We want to Thank you for Being here And I know I will see most of you guys next we at the Convention And I

hope safe and and Will to

andate thank much today Gracias y

jes for

Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24 Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24

The Huddle - Episode 116 - Blue Collar Cruise #3

In our engaging series "Blue Collar Cruise #3," we continue to sift through the internet and publications to spotlight and debate even more controversial topics that are crucial for the blue-collar community. This episode extends our commitment to bringing to light the challenging, often overlooked issues that touch on the everyday lives and work of blue-collar professionals. By discussing these pivotal subjects, we aim to inform, empower, and inspire our listeners to think critically and advocate for meaningful changes in the industry. Tune in to hear the discussions that everyone in the blue-collar sector needs to be part of.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up team welcome to the Huddle welcome back welcome back good to

see everybody we are going to have a little shorter version today uh I've got a

board meeting that I got to get to in um at about four o'clock so about an

hour from now um I'm on the board of a children's home and once a month we have

board meeting so that's that we are doing our third edition of the bluecar

cruise I'm gonna ask the audience for a special favor please let us know if you enjoy

this this was a test it was kind of like figuring out if you guys want to hear

industry news as we dig him up uh we put a lot of effort into finding topics and

articles out there in the industry of construction that might be interesting

to everybody and um if you guys love it we'll keep doing it and if not we will

uh not keep doing it we'll figure it out yeah so um mainly

it takes a lot of effort to uh find interesting topics that are not just you

know run-of-the-mill stuff and digging through all the websites and the uh

intro webs to find stuff so if you guys like the blue collar Cruise please make

sure to comment in the chat that you do and uh that'll give us an indication on

on um you know whether we keep uh this effort rolling forward so Mr Jose

Gonzalez is with me today out of Grand Rapids Michigan with preferred

flooring as always uh either him or his brother or both of them are on here and

uh no worries because they fill in for me when I'm gone so uh and like next week I

won't be here you guys will be carrying the show no I'm going to sales training

with Milik and up in down in Georgia so awesome gotta gotta keep that education

going man see look at that sales training it is a sales training uh

awesome so yeah it's uh you know you want to keep on The Cutting Edge and the

front line of figureing out how to provide the best for your customers so that being

said we are going to be talking about several different topics today but uh a

few of them that are really they it's pretty cool it's it's

you know as I dig through all this stuff I always find like similarities and the problems out there and labor is always

an issue um so we're going to go over some stuff at the elevator World um and and

ex explore what they're doing in training um talk about wage theft on job

sites and a little bit of uh you know

flooring the future flooring focused uh items and this this actually comes I

believe from flooring Focus Magazine and then maybe if we can get to it I I

there's a really cool one uh where Ukraine is printing 3D

houses uh as they recover from the war efforts War efforts the tragedy I should

say of the war over there um I I don't care where you land on the political

front that thing shouldn't be happening uh nuclear bombs uh this is probably my

favorite one I hope we get to it but comes right on the back side of that Ukraine thing so it's kind of untimely

so I might skip one of these not to add a lot of bad juju to the conversation

but there are companies utilizing nuclear testing and working on uh

utilizing old nuclear weaponry as um excavation

tools that's so they're they're blowing up to you know we used use Dynamite now

we're talking about using nuclear weapon and you can all uh you can kind of uh

just imagine all the uh concerns and problems around that so what's up Jorge

good to see you brother I don't understand man uh so comment again as we're getting

more people joining if you like the blueco collar Cruise if you want um

maybe some different content in it uh but we as I stated before put a lot of

effort in it and it takes a lot of time so we love doing it but uh want to make

sure it's uh it's Landing well with the audience so let us know if you're on YouTube you know tell us you like it you

don't yeah Thumb Thumbs Up thumbs down say what you want what do you want to know about what do you want to hear about I mean that really does help out a

ton yeah we do a lot of research I have other I mean there's a lot of people involved in just uh or I shouldn't say a

lot but several people involved in in uh finding these topics and uh

trying to determine whether or not they are um you know

interesting so let's just jump into the first topic the headline reads how

regulation and immigration shape the future of elevator construction now it's kind of funny

immigration uh I maybe plays less of a role in the actual article but I it's

talking about the influx of of uh

population into other areas and the fact is is we're building up a few episodes

ago of the blue collar cruise we were talking about that highrise the tallest building

in the nation going in in Oklahoma City right y that means they was there but I

I listened to it I wasn't there but I listened to it yeah we need elevators right and so uh we're elevator side of

the construction industry uh are really struggling like the rest of us and have

significant growth in fact uh their growth is projected to grow 7% I think

Year over-year from uh between the years 2020 and 2030

so uh you know we're a quarter of the way through that at the this moment maybe a

little bit further but it's that's what highlights the the urgent need for

skilled labor so I thought one of the interesting topics or parts of this was

there's companies that are now integrating uh virtual reality and

augmented reality in the apprenticeship program so you can come out of these as

a low low-level apprenticeship um before you ever start

working and that's to attract you know people love that stuff uh the younger

younger uh population loves this stuff and you know if you can learn through a

device and some some sort look all of his old folks are like that's BS but

that's the truth I mean dang I'm one of the folks now I'm one of the old folks

now bro I know I'd rather learn hands too but I'm just saying like uh my son's

plays football and I guarant I tell you he he learned most of

the like stuff the the core principles of football from freaking Madden so um

and he's a he's an excellent little you know freshman football player so that's

it builds IQ you're right right I mean through it can I see a lot of benefits

for through the augmented it and all that only because it makes training more

convenient right like if you're set up and if it's pretty basic generic like on

a laptop you can do majority on a laptop um without the augmented reality portion

where you're wearing because I'm always thinking of uh like the goggles that you're kind of IM immersing yourself

into that reality yeah that's augment I mean you're pretty much there you don't

get to actually touch it and fill it but you're pretty much there you know what I mean yeah come a

long way since uh the one thing that Nintendo had back in the day where it was only like red lines the Mario I

forget I forget the name of it but um well this is where I think you know we

can learn in the flooring world there's a lot of what we do that could be taught this way I think that you're absolutely

right and you can program scenarios into it right like yeah any scenario you want

yeah so it's that I I think that's interesting we're uh you know after reading this we being in the tech world

uh with go Carrera but on the application world with my flooring

company uh this is really interesting to me if we could get people trained faster

that's one of our core uh initiatives with go career's encourage training to

increase Hammer rating to increase job performance and so you know we'll look into it but these initiatives they say

are crucial in addressing the skill Gap and and ensuring a steady supply of

qualified workers and that's what I was just talking about getting a steady supply means you got to make it easier

uh build easier onramps um that that's what we need to

do so I thought that was real interested in the the fact of uh you know

Construction is still like the the outlook for construction is still good we still have

people we still need businesses and buildings and and uh homes uh if you're

experiencing like I am looking for a new house you realize the market doesn't

have uh the the supply that it used to and Builders are working to increase

that Supply but um as the industry of Eves and continues to evolve uh you know

I think we need to think through uh some of these Innovative

companies approach I mean seems pretty cool to me yeah I like it you know you

mentioned this thing about the elevators and you know I I can remember as far

back as me starting in construction period that there was never enough to

begin with um as is a you said we're

build America's building up right now right and you need these guys I'm looking at some of the article right here and I'm realizing you had to wait

like two months for these guys to come in and shut it down or a month for for them to come in look at the floor and

say you can't touch that or yep you can do that one it's like okay yeah and there's a lot of

Regulation around elevators so I mean it's essentially uh you know a personnel

carrier so so uh there's a lot of Regulation around that and so getting in

you know this makes me think about safety and all of these things and how augmented reality could really double

down on that I could see uh you know you could have a safety course with augmented reality and I think in those

cases it's almost like why would you do that in person anyway it's not like

you're going to drop a hammer on someone's literally on their helmet in a

safety training so everything you're going to learn is intellectual anyway

and OSHA does and they do it like OSHA 10 OSHA 30 classes or you do them online

and so why not you know add some a boost to that through augmented

reality anyway it just shows that all of us have the same problems and we're trying to

find creative ideas and and you can clearly see that a lot of people are

trying to um you know focus on the younger crowd who are very digitally

oriented so yeah that that doesn't happen to be

me I would say yeah all right well that's that topic is

brought to you through con construction today uh if you want to check it out you

know we may start leaving links and descriptions uh in the YouTube channel

uh for you guys to go really dive deep on some of these topics uh if you if you

like them so on to the next

headline well actually what do you got on that do you think that uh that I mean

you said you like it do do you think it's it can be an effective way to train I think that it's a more efficient way

to get knowledge to an individual or a crew on a specific product or just

general broad terms of that line of work before they start um you

can you can program it however you want you can consolidate uh the teaching right

like even if it's an installer an old dog and you're teaching them a new trick he's going to be able to relate a lot

quicker a lot sooner say we have someone who does a residential we're trying to transition over to commercial flooring

um you know you start with the the items that they relate to and then you then you start peppering and everything else

that you need them to understand and know and you can show them the difference explain the difference all in one shot um like this is I just picture

like I like to listen to podcasts I like to watch uh uh videos on different on

how to do different things like YouTube videos right like DIY stuff this is no different for me um I know I might be a

little bit different than most people but I would I would love to learn that way on my own time when my house is

quiet and nobody else is bothering me and my phone's not not on for work or

you know I would that would be the time that I would Dive Right into something like that um and I I mean I'm a I like

to be in a class in person I do but I also like my quiet time and I would absorb a lot more in in a a more

intimate setting like that I would say um yeah maybe maybe it's something where

it's like you personally I'd love to try it out and see you know try something

like that out and see how it can apply I mean I've done some there's a company

locally here that did some virtual walkthroughs of a project so they take

your Blueprints and turn them into a virtual walkthrough for

and that it was it felt pretty real so with the technology I I could

see it actually working I think uh pretty amazing I think that's where I'm

hopeful that that's probably where the direction everything's gonna go you know pretty soon you're GNA have the literature on installation instructions

uh accompanied with a QR code that sends you to a uh augmented or virtual reality

if you will that will give you a walkthrough on a scenario on a job site so you can can visually you can put the

words together with the visuals so you understand exactly what they're talking about so there's nothing Lost in

Translation um terminology is huge and um I was just reading some installation

instructions yesterday I'm trying to help Eduardo out and it was very open to

interpretation and I didn't like that I didn't like that I could read that three

different times and view it three different ways when all it would take is a picture or a short video to explain

exactly what they were trying to say yeah yep imagine a product if they had a

video that could be uh stream to virtual reality and you went to uh you know you

put on a headset and you were able to like see it put in all angles uh in the

room that you are going to be putting it in y you know what I mean that's pretty

cool teaching how to do a layout you know just and then you can whoever's instructing it will talk their way

through it and yeah if you're like hey the layout starts right here and you're I it's it's pretty cool it's very

futuristic in my head but it's here it is it is I'm sure that somebody's working on that somebody a lot smarter

than me is working on it right now and I'm jealous well speaking of um Labor uh our

next topic is uh talking about wage theft on job sites and this is both

directions so a quick overview here is uh you know about $35 million in 2023

alone was uh secured for back wages for over well for nearly 18,000 construction

workers here in the US so this wage theft is typically

uh unpaid overtime uh failure to pay union dues uh

misclassification of full-time employees as independent contractors and we've

talked about this a lot and I'll bet that's the biggest one if if I'm a

guessing man that's probably the biggest one out of those three um obviously this creates

challenges for the gc's and you know when sub contractors

have this problem and gc's you know they're not above everybody they're just

in the first line of of payment on projects but it doesn't necessarily mean

they they don't do some of these uh um you know problems you know or cause

some of these problems and Jorge by the way I think it was Otis who built the

Willie Wonka Chocolate Factory elevator if I'm a guessing man

anyway um so the the the the wage theft that they're

talking about is uh you know really from the employee side um at this

point now here later in the article it talks about first off how how these um

these General Contractors become unknown uh liable for these wages ultimately

from their subcontractor so in an effort to stifle that first

thing I would say you know mobile timekeeping is a thing and it's the best

way to combat this um and keep yourself legal there's also U I would assume a

good amount of false claims in here uh where people are saying they weren't uh

paid enough or paid what they think they should be paid or what have you but the

the the fact they cover recover 35 million bucks is uh you know shows

pretty substantial Miss Miss uh Miss

mismanagement and ultimately really poor leadership in the companies that are doing that kind of thing so I've been

I've been part of and Daniel too we've been part of a couple different angles on this um as an employee not 1099 as an

employee um I was on projects that you know because we don't ask right we just go do our job show up our paperwork been

approached by the the GC and he's like are you receiving your prevailing rates

like no idea what you're talking about said I'm just showing up he's like well come with me um you know and and here

in in Michigan a lot of the projects you have to have it posted on a job box like you have to have it like they're a

little extra in some places like they have everybody's breakdown the classifications of the disciplines that

you're doing U from electrician plumber to um fortunately flurrying is a little

weird because we don't always have our own um our own name right wage wage

determination right right so but yeah as and all of a sudden they went

from hey boss they just let you know like this guy approached me and you know

sometimes whether they knew it or not I don't know but we had to be compensated for that um they had to show um when

they submitted their uh the wages what do they call it um certified payroll

certified payroll yep they had to do all of that and then on the other side as a 1099 when we were um brand new as

preferred flooring we went and did work for a company they gave us some rates you know this is you know we're

obviously trying to create and generate relationships and we're you know a

couple week a week or two on this project and we got approach like all right we need to see your uh your

certified payroll we're like uh what are you talking about oh yeah this is prevailing rates we need to see you and

we call like you guys didn't even tell us like why why is there no information

on this you know and that goes for the past three projects that we were on

there we didn't we're not trying to get anybody in trouble but at that point we were in trouble so we ended up having

done yeah you got you got to know that in fact every work order that goes out from our company that's prevailing wage

we post it at if it's going to go to a subcontractor that it's prevailing wage

they must uh keep track of all their payments and and turn in their uh

certified payroll and we uh add the wage

determination into the work order as well so that it's all up and up and

clear because yeah really I don't know how a company could get away with it I mean we have to prove and we do a lot of

certified payroll projects and we have to prove that we're paying the amount or

more than even with Subs I mean the subcontractor has to make at least a

certified payroll amount so at the end of the day um you know it's it's really

important to uh to know that yeah we I at my first employer in floring we

really got more so um our wage theft was just you didn't

get paid at the end of the week and and sometimes hold five checks until it would clear so yeah interesting

yeah interestingly in this uh conversation here there's also

some uh that it takes the other side where 1099 workers are making false

claims on W for wages on projects so they'll demand you know they'll they'll

basically say that they haven't been paid when they have or they had some other agreement because there's often

times when people are subbing they don't have any proof they don't have a

contract there's a lot of flooring companies out there that don't have contracts that they're sub sign and um

you know like at Stuart Associates we have a master subcontract agreement and then list very clearly in there that

every work order you accept through go Carrera falls under that agreement and

but there's a lot of companies that don't have uh have that and that exposes

you as a flooring contractor and if you're subbing it out to people making

false claims and de or they'll demand full PL full payment upfront and

um not show up and then demand the rest of the contract uh but this verbal

agreement is the big problem and you need to put in there quality assurance stuff to prevent yeah from having to

deal with shotty work and you know substandard materials being used

but again this is as a general contractor not me as a general

contractor but the general contractors are exposed here as

well a question from Mr Kendall there why is there a prevailing wage is it because the project govern is government

funded I've heard of the highway workers being paid a prevailing wage on Highway projects um yeah prevailing wage is

really just a a governmental act called the Davis bacon act and that is uh that

was I think it was 1970 something that that act came through and it's a federal guideline for federal projects or

federally funded projects so it doesn't have to be a federal a job for the federal government but a federally

funded or um and not all federally funded uh projects have prevailing wage

but most of your true federal government projects um is a prevailing wage and

what that does is they set the prevailing wage on a job meaning you must pay these guys pay your employees

this amount for being on the job for the different classifications so we've had

projects where tile Setter makes everything anywhere from 32 bucks an hour with fringes to $69

with fringes uh we were just talking about the elevator guy and I was looking at a prevailing wage job the other day

they make a on this job that we just bid uh they're prevailing wages $100 an

hour just just just over a hundred bucks with all the fringes and benefits so and

I think the highest I've ever seen was 150 and that was for a pipe fitter right so yeah Pipe Fitters are are high up

there as well but um but yeah the the that's what

prevailing wage is and they do that to make sure that they the the federal tax

dollars going to projects is going back into the people's hands at least this is

what they say back into the workers hands and making sure that they uh that the

government uh anybody working on the government's job that there is nobody

unpaid and so they have sort of certified payroll forms have to be filled out weekly and submitted

notorized and sent in and so it's a whole thing and it's also so that way

when a union comes in and it is part of that project they it's their wages are pretty close

to well they subsidize that's a whole that's a deep deep poll there it's

always a deep hole Yeah I was just talking about that with some people the other day it's do some research because

all it is is a after you do the research is how you uh interpret it

yeah so I am going to uh I've got to get going here pretty quick so I'm gonna

spend this last five minutes talking about uh the one that is like the the

craziest one to me is the topic reads project plow share nuclear bombs used as

construction tools so early in the sometime in the 1950s after the nuclear

arms race or kind of in the the midst of it the atomic energy act launched uh

project plow share exploring the use of nuclear weapons for large large scale

Earth moving projects uh there was a project called Project Chariot

aimed to use nuclear blast to create a harbor in Cape Thompson uh Alaska Harbor

holy smoked yeah uh this ambitious plan uh

involved deating multiple thermonuclear bombs to excavate a channel and and

turning the Basin into or and turning into a basin uh with combined explosives

yield significantly this was crazy the combined explosive yield significantly

greater than that of the hirosima bomb

so yeah uh so there was a lot of enthusiasm

early on for project plowshare and project uh or the initiative plow share

and project sharot but obviously all these concerns about nuclear

fallout um you know harmful effects on distant locations

all these public health concerns H sparked WID widespread criticism from

all kinds of scientists who link the new uh who link radioactive fallout to

cancer and other diseases so obviously this was

um probably well before its time uh back then but they're they're kind of looking

at will this work they're still kind of looking at this and the uh budget cuts and all and and

the you know kind of led to the fall of project plowshare uh but there were some

successes um really yeah like project sedan and gats buy gas buy I guess is

how it's pronounced which probably still saying it wrong but it sounds cool yeah

yeah yeah I'm definitely saying it but you get the you can uh it sound it's

spelled just like it sounds gas buggy so um it's probably said completely

different uh it they did demonstrate the feasibility of using nuclear explosions

for gas field expansion uh these projects uh were

really um you know overcame

insurmountable uh which doesn't make sense if it's insurmountable but they were surmountable uh uh obstacles and so

they did have some success with some things but ultimately at the end of the day this has all kind of fell on deaf

ears I mean if we're scared of nuclear power plants I can't imagine us being as

a society real uh happy with harnessing the nuclear technology for non-military

purposes and Earth moving but I thought it was absolutely a crazy

story that I could end on and really nuts I'll be honest like you know like

think about that dude hey we're gonna excavate you your your your Harbor with

nuclear weapons well you're yeah I'm thinking like that but I'm thinking in terms of you know it's instead of hey

dude somebody walked off with our job box today I don't know where it is I know I locked it up can you imagine hey

dude somebody just yesterday I don't know I turned the lights off all the nuclear bomb morning they're gone I don't know

what to do you want me call somebody the security around that and everything yeah

I I thought that was pretty crazy I mean we've used TNT dynamite for a lot of

years uh but man

more yeah Hazard pay Ren uh probably got him more than 150 bucks an hour for

doing that I think what they did is they wrote checks to the families just in case something went

wrong um that's that's who got paid was the

families what is pronounced Kendall told me it's it's it's pronounced Gatsby well

thank you Kendall because I couldn't have figured that one out on my own I I appreciate that you know what I'm just

more impressed that Kendall knew how to use Google to figure that out so

all right guys well I really I really um

oops I keep going back and forth here I really appreciate everybody this is GNA be a as stated right when we got going

today's gonna be a little bit shorter uh a lot a bit shorter than normal we uh we

have been going crazy um with longer

episodes so this is a nice short one I do want to mention to everyone that we are um that next

week we are gonna be having the Spanish

episode hey check this out what' he say gets free tequila shots and nachos

at the CFI convention hey dude like he's gonna who's viewership we're gonna have

to step it up over here we're have to get something genius Jorge's got ideas

bro that's awesome all right guys well thanks everybody for joining us

today I know it's shorter episode I hope maybe uh you guys loved it please

remember if you're on YouTube or you're watching this live or you catch us on Facebook let us know if you like the

blue collar cruise I only got through a few topics today but uh they were all pretty cool topics I I enjoyed talking

about and I love doing this because it really gets us out of just this flooring

bubble and makes us think outside the box a little bit and so I love it um if

you love it let us know if you don't love it let us know let us know either

way please do let us know because one way or another we we would love your guidance on whether or not to continue

with the blue collar Cruise after our initial 10 episodes that we have planned so looking forward to next Tuesday uh

that I won't be here but I'm still looking forward to it Jose and Daniel are going to be your hosts next Tuesday

I'll be gone on sales training uh and maybe it's just Jose or just Daniel but

one of us will be on here you can depend on us three o'clock Central every

Tuesday One Way Or Another We're GNA make it so next week uh is the Spanish

episode hey Ashton is is is it in place of or is it uh

overtime in place of all right perfect so to be honest with you you're going to

get Jorge next week and that is absolutely fantastic that dude is a host

of the mostest the hostess that has the mostest so if you uh speak Spanish

understand Spanish or love uh you know learning new languages get on there and

uh transcribe it and learn some a new language but Jorge is going to be the host for next uh week's huddle and uh

best of luck to you guys and uh have a great day guys everybody out there love

you appreciate all the uh interaction and uh it's been a blast so

we will catch you guys the Tuesday after next for us and enjoy next week next

week's Spanish episode

Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24 Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24

The Huddle - Episode 115 - The Role of AI in Flooring Solutions

In this episode with special guest Ken Ballin (Skyro Floors, Ballin Knows Best - https://ballinknowsbest.com) we once again delve into how AI is revolutionizing the flooring industry. This episode discusses innovative platforms like Ballin Knows Best (https://ballinknowsbest.com), which leverage AI to offer predictive analytics, enhanced design simulations, and optimized material usage. We explore how AI tools can streamline operations, improve accuracy in project planning, and offer personalized recommendations for clients. Tune in to learn about the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on the flooring industry, enhancing efficiency and driving forward-thinking solutions.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up team welcome to the Huddle we're your weekly Playbook where we not only strategize on playing the game but

changing it from mastering the fundamentals of the craft to distinguishing ourselves in the market

place we're here to give you the installer a voice and ensure you're equipped with everything you need let's

band together in forun New Legacy in flooring this is where you belong welcome to the team Mr Ken Ballin

hi guys what's guys how's everybody how's everybody doing is

it is it Ballin or Balon like like like come on so everybody knows we're still

answering that huh it is but like like I different single

time I guarantee he answers either way yeah like it's like one of them names

that you know so many people are going to mess up you can't get to well I I think I think Ballin sounds pretty

awesome I'm balling all right so welcome everybody

uh to this week's episode of the Huddle we are going to be talking about artificial intelligence again uh

AI uh augmented reality is probably one of the bigger use cases in INF floring

sales but Ken's got uh some some stuff he's been doing over the last year I

believe maybe even a little longer at this point uh that is you know leveraging AI for Education

basically um and then there's some goofy AI robots out there trying to do our job not doing

a good job but still trying to do our job so I bet their back don't hurt as

much as mine I was gonna say with me as always

is Mr Daniel and Jose Gonzalez but in two separate locations Daniel's

obviously out on a job site although I got to say it almost looks like one of them backgrounds that Zoom gives you

it's it's like perfect it's the flooring background Perfection right there it's a

great idea we should do backgrounds of job sites instead of just the office like that right that's right then you

always can then you always look like you're working for real it's AI generated right yeah

so as mentioned with us today is Ken Ballin in for another episode it's

pleasure to have you here sir hope things have been going well tell us a little bit about what you've been doing

this last though I don't know 100 episodes or 80 episodes whatever it's

been yeah so I mean you know we we started the um online uh Community B

knows best um it's based it's got AI integrated technology it's based around

AI where installers can ask questions from the job site technical questions and get answers in real time

um aside from the bot you know the the the bot is does seem to be a focal point

that everybody talks about AI is the Hot Topic um but you know the real the real focus is the community behind it and

while we do have the AI integrated into the community we also have other resources that installers can use from

you know um job postings within the industry uh resources for um

purchasing um we've got other kind of tech-based um aspects of the APT as well um where

we'll be developing our own you know social media platform for installers um a there's a a measure it

app that's part of it that um uses utilizes the the light R sensors on some

of the newer phones uh where you're waving your phone across you know the camera spans the room and it'll measure

it in real time for you uh we're developing a species checker for hardwood floors that it will you know be

able to sort between red oak White Oak Ash Maple nice so yeah a layout tool where you can

have you know let's say a floor plan and you can um enter the specs and the size

of the planks you're installing or the tiles and you can you know move it around so you can modify you know avoid

slivers in your installs and same thing with like tile shower layouts where you can take this layout you punch in the

size of the tile and your grout joint and your size of the you know the space available and you can kind of move it

around to um adjust your layout you know according to what you enter into the

app well cool so the the um the community is always a big part of

flooring especially in the installation world and providing them tools it sounds

like the measure uh that is using in the lar uh cameras is that that's what is

that iPhone only um no I mean it was orally um

iPhone only but it it will work on the newer phones the Android phones that have the light R sensor um so that that

sensor is key though like my phone doesn't have the light R sensor so doesn't work on M but um Jason my

partner is he's a he's an iPhone guy and it works on his and I think the the

newer um Samsungs and the Google phones have the Light Art now so it'll be

working in there um but yeah uh you know for us dinosaurs who don't have that

updated technology on our phone gota upgrade hey the new iPhone just got

announced so you can you know get one right now yeah I think I might stick with the

Android it does it does all the same things as the other iPhone except for it's newer

yeah all right so um getting into some AI talk I I I

realize that the bot is um you know AI driven um what kind

of it's it's obviously a really good tool for installers out field what other

aspects or applications are you seeing with that kind of Technology with you

know um whether it's AI generated you know I guess that'd be more augmented

reality almost what you were talking about where you're uh kind of laying out a wall or you're taking a picture of

your house and getting your your desired flooring kind of showing in it but uh

from the AI perspective what kind of other technology can this do this is a language model right what other dreams

do you have for this chat bot I'm sorry what was that last part I missed you like what other goals or

dreams or ideas are you you guys playing with with this chat bot so um aside from

the the actual you know the Tex thing bot itself that's on the that's integrated onto the website that you can

go to um we've actually gone ahead and I

can't believe I'm saying this like I I there was a time in my life where if I you told me these words would be coming

out of my mouth I would have laughed but we've um gone ahead and essentially cloned me and we'll be importing

importing my voice into the text you can talk to it and it's me responding to you

know your questions and everything um and that you know like so I can ask this

bot a question and you'll answer me I will answer you yes that's that's one way to get someone's to answer a phone

you put more of the that Jersey accent on it though please like just like I just want to hear more so funny enough

like I to actually talk to it for a few minutes for it to pick up my voice and you know kind of plug it into the

technology but um but yeah that that's kind of the uh you know the the next

step in the process I guess from the basic you know texting bot um but the

the idea behind that is that um you know we really want this to

be allinclusive you know we want it to be a resource for installers across the industry and um you know not every

installer is quick with you know the typing or you know being on the phone and you know plugging and you know some

are have better grammar than others some are have better vocabularies and um so

having the option to be able to just talk directly to it instead of typing um it kind of opens it up to a little more

uh usability with you know it's not just um you know it's not just going through

the entering text and receiving messages and like that uh some might feel like it's faster to just talk to it and have

it you know respond back um so it it's really my my hope is that it turns into

something that everybody wants to use and everybody will get benefits from and um you know the going back to the

community side of things I um My Hope Is that installers across the uh industry

and you know on all sides of the industry really find the benefits in in using it as a resource in their you know

day-to-day installation career that's pretty cool there I I I

know it almost seems silly that you text um or or talk into a text bot but you

know that's I've got an employee that all he does is talk to his iPhone for

every single text message everything it just you know people find it easier they

can get their point across faster so there's obviously it's being used um and

you're right sometimes you just I don't care maybe you got gloves on and you're you're cutting tile or whatever and like

texting if you can just uh talk into it could be a a potential time SA and

certainly probably get now do you hear that I guess does anybody get to catch the tone of the uh person on the other

side so as as of right now it it would be like a phone call so like I can't

hear I can hear you talking to me um but I wouldn't be able to I mean I can hear

myself talking but I I wouldn't you know like your voice sounds different to you than it does to everyone else at least

your yeah so like thing where you know you're you're not going to get be able to hear us giving the

response um but you know we would hear the the interaction

gotcha yeah so a lot of you know we talk about AI because it's you know it's kind

of one of them most popular uh it's the end thing to talk about right now in

flooring though you know it's mainly been um

the the main applications anyway have been through sensors and monitoring systems there's a uh you know there's a

company that is launching a like a a

hard hat sensor camera along with the safety vest sensor camera for all their

workers on this job site and it's for monitoring and the the AI will uh

establish like all kinds of this kind of scary but but it monitors and points out

potential safety hazards potential Savings in in

um uh time and effort it always makes me think a Demolition Man have you seen

that movie with Sylvester Stallone like you're just getting tickets when you as you walk down the street because you

said the f bomb or something you know it's kind of that it's very reminiscent

of that like you'll be walking through a job site and all of a sudden it's

like Ken Ballin said the f word or Ken Bolan doesn't have his hard hat on or

Paul Stewart didn't have his safety vest zipped up I don't know how far they'll take that but it is a real thing and

it's going to be started um I think they've already kind of started testing it uh but it they're going to be doing

that here uh on like a several job sites

and um I'm trying to find where they said the job sites were going to be I'll I'll look into that but it's kind of

crazy if you think about it that type of stuff and All Those sensors and monitors

that's really where the bulk of this uh this

Technology's been applied like you know one of our good friends over at Flor Cloud they they use sensors and and

their sensors are uh you know designed designed to um measure the ambient

temperature RH all this like your complete environment on the job site if

you have their sensor attached to your moisture testing on commercial job sites

anyway you can even get your get that reading your moisture reading from you

know Jose could have the the reading from Daniel's job site right now at a at

an instant so I'm have the rating from this job site well there you go so floor Cloud's

been a a game changer for our industry I can't think of another uh company that's

come into our industry and kind of caused uh such a wave and such a splash

uh my go career side is very jealous of that they've done such a great job of of

providing a very needed uh service to the industry I know I'm a Commercial

contractor sitting at my desk if I can get the information of a job site that's

four hours away and understand what the job site conditions are and I know

they're working on some other things to even obviously companies like that continue to improve and they're going to

continue so watch a short video ashon if you don't mind playing that about floor

clouds fulltime monitoring of your job site conditions via desktop or mobile

device no more manual check checking for temperature humidity or even dupoint no

need for base stations Wi-Fi or external power sources simply scan the QR code on

the front of your sensors and you're up and running with the most accurate and Innovative sight monitoring system in

the flooring industry dispatch your Crews with confidence and reduce your climate related installation issues

floor Cloud now you know now you know yeah one of the cool things that

floor cloud does uh is and I I don't know how much AI comes

into this but if you give uh you tell the application what products you're using on job site similar to what you

were talking about earlier um you you tell it but instead of like uh the layout stuff what it's

really going to alert you to is when the site conditions are out of spec for any

of those materials so if you have a list of your adhesives your patching materials your thin sets you know your

lvts all your products that you have on the job site it's going to tell you when those products or when the site

conditions are out of spec for those products which is a freaking

GameChanger uh when you have especially when you have you know larger commercial sites even the residential uh I'm

hearing guys uh talk about it so anyway that's that's one industry technology

that is currently like actively using Ai and sensors and all of this stuff so I'd

like to see start testing for moisture to begin with just test at

all what's that what what was that Ken I said i'

I'd rather I'd like to see installers as a whole actually start testing for

moisture you know period to start and then you know go to the upgrade with the technology we know how how hard it is

getting just tested to begin with well yeah most of the time at least

in the commercial world it's driven by the the store or the whoever's holding the contract and we have to just make

sure a lot of times we'll do the testing ourselves provide that information to

the installer that they're good to install the job that it's been moisture tested um but yeah I do do your

installers moisture test Jose Daniel yeah we yeah yeah we would um

require it we do too much resilient to not have that on our um on our agenda

yeah all of our hourlies know how to do it some of the subs just don't they just don't know so we have our install

manager you know take care of that of course if if we got a job that requires

floor Cloud you got the answer right there but you still got to set them still got to know what you're doing with them

it's probably a little bit different in have you looked into floor Cloud at all Ken and what they do and how that

applies in the residential world I don't I don't know how it would in a huge way except for on maybe a massive house but

well they have the the sensor that goes into the wood oh there you go you know for any install on a on a large scale um

I think the majority of residential installers have their you know their moisture meter their pin meter and their

scanner whatever you know maybe the um like a total check or something like that and you know they're doing their be

the best they can and they're they're being mindful of it but there's always you know upgrades to technology upgrades

to tools um there's always better options that will give better results so

you know I absolutely love the idea of being able to check your job site remotely is everybody GNA do it on every

job site I go back to my joke about getting them to test it all but yeah you

know what I think you know any any sort of um any sort of progression any step

forward is a good step you know many small time make big time I am

waiting waiting to buy my first AI my first install robot but um they are not

around yet the the most uh the the most used way with AI is stuff like what you

talked about about you know the chat Bots that's one thing uh automated

design tools that's another that's more of a big piece that's where broadloom

and and rfms and their they kind of Suite of tools uh predictive maintenance

which is kind of a cool idea to um sensors embedded into different

Machinery or different uh maintenance uh

like there's sensors you can put in wax I'm hearing that will tell you when the

wax is about to uh need to be redone or the maintenance particularly in

healthcare this sounds like nuts but if you start thinking about the application in health care and uh uh Infectious

Disease Control and things like that um that

is that is the uh let's see another one that I looked up that you know all of us

know the manufacturers are are using some of this stuff in supply chain and

inventory management although I don't know if there's a huge uh uh uh uptick

in Inventory management uh from a quality perspective I get told products

and stock and it takes like six weeks still to get it in but um but uh we got

square feet but you gotta give us like six and a half weeks yeah six to eight weeks out though how's that man it's in

Jersey I'll have Ken drive it down you know you just said something

about the the wax and all that so it almost sounds like AI in our industry is

getting ready to integrate itself with the end user and the maintenance portion of it um so it almost sounds like it's

going to be a lot easier to Cipher what the failure is right away if it's a

maintenance issue versus installation issue um well that's an interesting take

on it right yeah now now that that means that um that the gray area for warranty

for limited liability warranties right are about to be you are you are dream he's dreaming right now Jose hey Daniel

Jose is dreaming right now he just sees this day when they go he pulls up a censor he's like yeah look you guys had

you mess clear water damage on the 14th of June of last year the sensor says it

man I was I we watched it happen actually he's dreaming right now I can

see his his gears turning upstairs Ken are you guys more focused on just the installer base then or are you trying to

get into uh the end user for that reason so they can know like maintenance

information and stuff like that or even like check in and install on their job

site or something I could see a a application there where it's like hey are you supposed to you know blah blah

blah whatever they say you know um my my personal goal with you

know with the B no's best platform is to be a resource for install I want to have

this online community you know we've spent the last 10 years or so building these online communities on on Facebook

right so that we had the ability to interact with each other share pictures ask questions get help make contact with

reps and all of that is dependent on Facebook

working you know if something happens and Facebook you know goes away tomorrow

or Facebook evolves into something else um you know all this effort that we've put into building this online community

goes away and what happens to all those installers that you know need that help

on their job sites you know there there are obviously those of us who you know don't need as much assistance dayto day

but like I want to have a platform that is a resource for installers to go

through all the stages of their career from asking questions about job sites about layouts to having you know vendors

that um are you know are are partnering with us to to uh make their products

available to installers to having a an area where you know manufacturers can

post jobs for installers coming to the end of their career and looking to take that next step you know and become a rep

or become you know involved in the tech excuse me side of things um you know

just anything that we might need I'd love to see enough users to have buying power with insurance where we can have

you know get installers covered and have good coverage you know I I know that's

might be a bit of a pipe dream but you know I just see this with so much potential to help the installers and be

a resource that I didn't have when I started you know I didn't I didn't start working for somebody else I just went

out on my own and you know here in New Jersey we have no there's no sort of

Licensing for flooring or tile installers there's you know you register your business you give the state 90

bucks and you're on your own you're in people's houses putting floors down and

you know I I just wanted to be able to have that information about certifications and letting people know

that there is an industry to get involved in you're not by yourselves you know there's so much potential for us to

do good and you know yes it's integrated with AI and as technology

evolved we will you know obviously Embrace that and use that to you know

help more installers but I just think that you know the the focus on

installers for me is always been key so that's you know the subject that's close to my heart um but you know the the the

installers that feel like they're stuck subcontracting for stores you know that

that kind of strikes a nerve with me because I went through a phrase where I was a sub and you know I had all my eggs in one basket and I just want those guys

and girls to know that there's more out there and we can help you develop your business you know there are those of us

involved that's it right there you know they they have experience throughout and

you know our team of mentors especially have experience in different fields of the industry and you know they might

have certifications in this flooring category um they might have you know education in this you know other spots

that can help you know I have my Bachelor's in Business Administration with a marketing concentration from M

I'm always I'm constantly you know answering questions about business marketing and marketing in the flooring

industry and you know just to have these resources available I think huge for

install yeah I think it's good for installers to have a have the option one

of the things that is is you know you you talk about installers that got stuck

or feel like they maybe a sub stuck at a store there's also uh you know one of

the things that I think as an industry we learning and why for example what go career does is open you up to other

stores and other opportunities out there and then what you're doing is saying hey you don't have to work for stores if you

don't you know if you want to get in I mean if you're going to do big commercial work you're gonna be working for a store like it's very hard for a

sub to go get a $8 million insurance policy and and do a a u hospital but if

you're talented in that there's other you can work for other stores that

sharing of that that that just opening up the options you know go ahead I'm sorry no no no I

was just saying every everybody works differently everybody has different things that um you know fulfill them and

if you know if Joe is great installer and doesn't want to deal with owning a

business and he wants to work for somebody else and that makes him happy and his bills are paid then that's

absolutely what he should do I don't ever want anybody to think that I'm talking down um to a certain style of

installation because you know there's so many different flavors and whatever you like

whatever makes you successful you know in your everyday life is absolutely the way you should go if you enjoy subbing

and you know that does it for you that's awesome I want to help you be the best subcontractor you can be if you're

miserable of subcontracting and you want to own your own business I want to help you be the best business owner you can

be if you're looking to join a commercial crew and be part of a a union

shop that's not really my area of expertise but you know what I'm gonna find you that person that will help you be the

best you can be on that path you know we need to really focus on looking out for

each other and helping the installers as a whole and you know helping them find the right fit for them because what

works for me might not work for you and you know what makes me happy might not make you happy yeah so so you need a

side on here B knows best and then you got to have a hashtag or uh was it

forward slash I know a guy I know I like that well there's

there's a I like what you said there there's certainly Different Strokes for

different installers like the way that you you know want to go about things I

mean I want to make it clear make no you know uh mistake about it a sub is a

business like if you're subbing from companies you better have some business Acumen to you as well

but if you I think what you're talking about is if you want to go out and start supplying your own materials or kind of

working directly with uh contractors or doing your own thing that way and not

subbing from a company that you'd like to be able to be a resource for those folks be a resource yeah be a resource

for the sub that's wanting to know how to put the best sub crew together um and speaking of that I want to kick up a our

QR code for Jumpstart as a quick note here here um jump is a a new initiative

by go Carrera I say new but we've really just uh launched it uh the version two

of it here recently and this is all the new guys coming into the industry are

going on jumpstart we're working with the fcef uh working with CFI working with

you know we're I've talked to the ntca and we're going to find ways to work with all the training entities out there

so that we can all as installers companies all of us can have

a single source to be able to go to find the new guys because we've got to get these new guys to work Ken Ballin as a

as an installer needs to hire people you need to have helpers and one of the

biggest complaints we see in the industry especially on the Facebook post is how hard it is to find helpers and

that is the that is obviously a very gentle way to say it it's much more colorful than that if you get on the

different everyone everyone besides me is lazy is basically what everyone says

yeah and and doesn't show up to work or doesn't really want to be in flooring blah blah blah well these guys have went

through some level of training whether it's a 10-week course through the fcef or it's a five-week introduction through

CFI or an introduction of flooring uh aft has a two- we and a onewe course and

so these types of things that uh you know these young guys and

and men and women both are saying Hey I want to be I've I've gotten training now

I want to be hired we have to find a way to place them and hire them and that's that's what jump start does so if you're

on here and you're a company or a subcontractor that's looking for good help get on get a subscription it's

cheap as you could ever imagine it's 99 bucks for the entire year you can schedule interviews and meet with people

and hire people as many as you want and we'll also we're always uh on the watch

for uh areas that really need help and we get with the training entities about

getting some trainings put in those areas FCF let's get a college uh course

put in that area so are you familiar with the FCF Ken I know you are because I've seen your picture on

there I've been on a few other a coule

so that that is uh we're we're attemp we're our attempt is to place the

individual it's it's very cheap to get involved and hire off a jump start and

you know I I've got a real passion for trying to get people placed like like

you know all the training we do if you talk to a lot of the training entities one of their biggest heartbreaks is that

the people they're training are not getting jobs in flor in and that's what

our goal at Jump Start is so we'd love your participation your support and your help uh if you don't have anybody in

your area it's 99 bucks for an entire year so only 27 cents a day yeah

27 that's right you can support getting the new guys placed uh this helps all of

the background stuff that has to happen to get the individuals put on uh We've teamed up we're teaming up with some

some municipalities uh the state of Ohio is working with us and so through their

programs and like flooring Basics is another training entity that is bringing

um disadvantage you through the you know Juvenile Detention uh they're getting

training and then they're coming out and we're trying to catch them when they're young turn their lives around give them

a I needed a second chance when I was when I was young and uh so I got a real

heart for that to be honest with you I'm hoping that a lot of people a lot of these uh young kids get get jobs through

jump start I was also stupid well we've

we've there's a lot of us that have been in that in that realm and needed a second chance and Florence's given us

that second chance um so the uh I'd

rather I'd rather my floor I'd rather rather have my new hire pay me for training course five weeks free of work

yeah well I think that that uh you

know lot is the opposite of apprenticeship yeah good helpers and get them trained

up though get them plugged in um you know that's a big part of like our

future flooring success a big part of it is getting the new hirers hired like the

new people in our industry re hired so uh I don't know maybe we can work together Ken it's always fun when you

you get on these podcasts and you're like hey Ken's doing this thing maybe

one of the things that Ken can do uh is help help people get hired and as well

as help your any of your clients you know find the new talent coming in the

industry right all these things tie together too it's just like you know this is if if were to all work together

very fluidly I bet you this would lift the industry fairly quickly everyone can feed off of each other's programs and

feed into it and plug each others in and and it would well it takes a little time because we all what happens is we all

start these things and we we meet at conferences I know Ken and I have had a few conversations and it's been really

positive but you know you get back to work and you get to work um I think that it'll start to Jael what Ken's doing is

awesome the installers absolutely need a resource of someone uh you know that's

gonna yeah I know you you're you're closed lip about the ideas anymore but

um you know helping installers to pick the right path even um and and giving

them the resources to where they can possibly start their own business start buying materials because you have vendor

connections these kinds of things um you know I anything for entrepreneurship for

me is a positive and anything that's going to make an installer uh a better

installer uh is is another one and I think hiring the new guys getting people who want to be in floring is a is a

decent start definitely definitely oh and you know what like we we we joke around

about you know how people interact with everybody and everybody's concerned about their competition but you know I

made this comment earlier this week I said the people at the top are collaborating not competing compete

competition for the bottom theaters and that kind of sent some waves over the uh

Facebook Airwaves earlier I missed that that's that is true man very very

true I I missed that post that was uh that probably did send some some Shock

waves through you know the the the funny part is is if it's factual is when

people get offended when they should be appreciated you know facts and people get offended because

nobody likes to hear it like that I guess but that's the way you said that is absolutely true like you're right

they're collaborating not competing well why look at look at the top flooring companies in the nation they're all part

of either starnet or or fuse Alliance uh the top retailers are either part of CCA

Global or sha floring like they're all part of something they get together in annual events and they collaborate they

talk like at fuse conferen says we don't we don't if someone says hey what do you

got going on what kind of jobs you doing we're not like oh well I got this National job I'm working on no we share

all that and we we all interact and work together to try to get better you know it's funny to mention that because we it

that travels through to all the way down to installers single installers you know

every every summer every you know mid July um I host something here called we

call Jersey night and we invite anybody in the industry whether it's in Star

Wars rips you know if you're in the area you're in South Jersey M Jersey night um

you know we just we have it at a local Irish pub and we sit around and have food and drink beer and we just talk

shop and there's no you know you don't have to present you don't like we're

just sitting around like it was just a bunch of this of barbecue and you know the number of installers that what in

any other space would call themselves competition um you know here for some

reason if you're inside this circle you're just part of the network you're part of the family and you know I can

reach out if I need help or you know people have reach out to me and you know even the Reps will come out and you know

we'll talk shop with them and it's just a totally different vibe when

everybody's on the same page you know well it does it does give the better

Vibe when everybody's sitting there communicating and sharing War Stories and sharing Solutions and and and and

that's what helps the industry grow it doesn't matter what part of the industry you're in but that's that's what everyone needs everyone needs to hear

what they experience and what they've done because it's going to relate to someone who's currently going through

all of that and that's where everything that you're doing comes in handy because it's at someone's

fingertips they don't have to find uh failure in order to find that path to

success right they can no there there's around it a little bit yeah we're out

here we're looking to help like we want to see people I want to see everybody succeed I want to see every installer on

every job site never have a failure never have an obstacle they can't reach

I want them to know that we're here and we have the resources to

help yeah and getting together is important in one way or another and it

goes back to your collaboration um you know getting together and collaborating means you're talking about things that can benefit

another person and so you're telling someone good information that might help

them become uh a better flooring installer a better contractor a better

rep if reps are coming to it so that collaboration and and freedom of of

speech I would say you know like freedom of of talking where you're not feeling like you have to govern everything is

that's really cool Jersey nights well if you're in Jersey in June is it July mid

July ju mid July in Jersey stop by and and uh hook up with Ken but you know

what we have I've had reps come from across the country just for Jersey night we had Chris from came all the way here

for Jersey night we had uh the Bostic guys out from wossa come in to Jersey

night like people people travel for it man it's it's it's a special thing um I

I all I always get excited I'm glad to hear that that's that collaboration that

getting together is kind of the core of what CFI is doing with their local

chapters again trying to reignite the local chapters I shouldn't say try and Rollins doing a great job of like

placing and getting the local chapters back up and running and I think that's a you know all of those types of things

are uh going to be positive influence to the industry um you

know big big part of of what we do over at go career is just try to separate the

oil and the water and neither one is bad but you do need to know if you're working with a a really really high

quality highly certified kind of installer if you're working with a more maybe a newer guy into the industry and

um you know all of those types of deals all of this stuff is going to gel I'm not sure when uh it's it's all going to

kind of come together but uh the industry's been screaming for stuff like what you're doing Ken and what what

we're doing at go career and what you guys do all the time Daniel and Jose and getting out and training and teaching

and giving your knowledge away um I like getting on the podcast and talking to people trying to do positive stuff in

the industry and so it's pretty cool Rollin said he's got 10 up and running with more being talked with so yeah

yeah he's he's a rock star uh thank you Rand for doing that he's he's getting

them together and and I know that there's some others I know we're trying to um

witcha one CF CFI guys should be reaching out to you Rin about getting

the local chapter fired back up here too so uh what else we got guys we got about

13 minutes and we can cut her off early but if you uh if you have some really

cool stuff to talk about or not I was gonna ask if he if he's had anyone like

talk to talk to you about not trusting AI still so you know I and it it does it

does come up um but you know as as far as as far as the B's best site is

concerned and our specific technology um you know I said from the start it's a guided text so every

question that comes through we see and I can jump in and I have the ability to

like give it feedback give the bot feedback you know give it a yes or a no that's a good answer it's a bad answer

and I can respond to the user directly you know with the correct answer um but

it's a resource it's like anything else any other form of technology that we've seen you know from the initial um

introduction of the internet to you know the search engines the first you know the Yahoo the sges the Google as they

came along you know you're going to learn how to use this technology and use

it properly are there glitches are there thing like have you ever plugged in a Google Search and it didn't really give

you what you were looking for the AI search Bots do the exact same thing and

you do have to kind of you know tweak your question a little bit and you can kind of guide it to give you the right

answer but it's the more you use it the more you integrate it integrate into the

technology the easier it becomes it's like anything the first first time you use it it's going to be a little quirky

but the more you use it the more you get used to it the more you can make it useful for

you yeah one of the like just for emails I was talking

to Jose yesterday and he's like I had to put this email in there because I sounded like an a-hole and I need to we

we don't call it chat GPT we call it Chad Chad well you know and it's even with

this short am of time that we've had chat GTP um you know you find different

uses for it that you didn't really know it could do like I was um oh I was

trying to change the belt on my lawn mower over here and I don't know anything about that stuff so like I'm

going through YouTube videos and you know trying to get this and like something I couldn't find this this one

little aspect that was holding me up and um bro it's called attenion pul so I

took a picture of it I plugged it into J chat dtp and I I typed in how is the

belt supposed to fit around this one part and sure enough it spit it out

right like that and I was like huah to take that picture that I sent it

Point like it was literally my finger pointing to this part and it knew like how to help me and

like it wasn't so it wasn't just answering a question it wasn't like asking you know for the correct

terminology it was able to pick up on that silly little picture that I took

and you know I got the job done I was able to do it and it's not anything I mean I'm not going to go start a

lawnmower repair company by any means but like it got the job done it helped me and I you know I had to learn how to

kind of tweak my question to get the response that I needed you know yeah I

get cool that's I totally understand that you're right and and sometimes you said tweak your question right like you

were talking about the Google sometimes your question has to evolve right you start finding uh better terminology to

plug in through your Google searches until you just get really like well that's that's how chat GPT works I mean

you you you've got to train it a little bit before it's going to actually if you're using it for a specific manner uh

you can train it a little bit to to to talk more like you or do do

to give you the right answer even if you don't know what you're looking for you can ask and you can change how you ask

um and the same is the same as with arbot and I mean yeah it's based off of the latest GTP but I mean it's kind of

you can kind of input additional queries we'll say what to um kind of modify the

response yeah and you know I've asked chat GPT how to ask

something or what's the best prompt to use for XYZ or whatever so there's a lot

of there's a lot of uh a lot of that technology used in like information

technology like using Gathering the information in a way that's palatable to the user and um I'm a I'm a big

proponent of that kind of stuff I I uh I've saved a lot of time uh writing you

know emails or or responses legal resp responses to to different things that

come across and happens in business so yeah that it's evolving for sure and I'm

sure it's the same with your your um you know your chatbot being it's it's

learning as it goes I'm sure that as you give a right answer it's considering that right answer if it's giving the

wrong one and you have to step in that it it's learning from that stuff so it's

kind of crazy for sure for sure all right guys well we have come to the

end here Mr Daniel and Jose thanks as always for joining even out on job sites

with that beautiful background Ken thanks for joining us

again it's a it's always a pleasure to chat with you man I love think like getting in your brain a little bit and

and hearing what you got going on well careful that could be a scary place

that's that's why Daniel hasn't answered yet if he if he didn't already because been doing that right

there yeah so how much longer you got out there Daniel

forever no everything should be done as much as it can this week but then we

start um another big one next week so right back

at yeah all right well that's that's uh that's your man right there out on the

field preaching what he teaches or teaching what he preaches or whatever

way that goes practicing practicing do doing what I do doing what he do all

right guys hey it was a pleasure chatting with you guys today and for all the audience thank you for joining us

and Rolland had to run and get chicken dinner so he said have a great night guys can buy those fire bro the

rotisserie rotisserie we will chat with you guys next week every Tuesday at 3 pm

Central thanks everyone see you a

Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24 Daniel Gonzalez 10/28/24

The Huddle - Episode 114 - DIY Gone Wrong

In this episode we explore the comical yet instructive world of DIY flooring projects that go hilariously off course. This episode illustrates how seemingly straightforward tasks can lead to dramatic failures without a solid grasp of the necessary materials and techniques. We uncover the pitfalls of underestimating the complexities behind flooring installation. Tune in for an entertaining look at these DIY missteps and discover why professional insight is essential for perfect, enduring results.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

what's up team welcome back to the Huddle we're your weekly Playbook where we not only strategize on playing the

game but changing it for mastering the fundamentals of the craft to distinguishing ourselves in the

marketplace we're here to give you the installer of voice and ensure you're equipped with everything you need so

band together with us let's start a new Legacy in Florine this is where you belong welcome to the team team speaking

of team we're a little shy on the teams today we uh it's Mr Jose Lake Gonzalez

and Paul Stewart with you here and I'm I'm the reason why we're

logging in late my bad well this episode uh kind of relies on more than

one person so I'm not going to lie I was like well we may have to postpone be the

first time we've done that in a long long time but uh so who's with us today chat us up let

us know who's out there um unfortunately Mr Daniel Gonzalez have

preferred Florine is not able to join us but it's for a good reason he's out in

the field running and gunning and trying to uh get the get the uh client taken

care of what's what's up peeps what's up horge Hey Kevin what's going on man

what's going on gentl Kevin is um with Roberts and one I I would imagine

preparing to go Musky fishing here pretty soon I just got back from a trip uh last

week from from uh Canada doing some pike fishing it was pretty

fantastic and uh musky and Pike are in the same family I don't know did you

know that Kevin I was taught that one has six sensors and one has four or

something like that on their face speaking of face there's a little pie on

some people's face today we're going to be looking at some DIY yeah fails um this makes me smile I

I want to be clear we're not just here to poop on or Uh crap on the diyers out

there uh but we're going to show some videos and and just kind of chat about

them at the end of the day it's all for fun but at the same time if you are a

DIY out there and uh you're curious on um how to

do things right uh watch this

podcast Kevin says Ready Go judge the Midwest Regional competition that's

where the pros are at right now yeah that's the one our indust

where's that at I think it's in Illinois um I don't know exactly where yeah but

um I do know that uh our friend Jeremy Glover was supposed to go there but just recently had a accident in a softball

tournament so he will no longer be able to compete at the

Regionals ah what' he do uh took a took a ball to the face oh

c are you last straight straight line drive third baseman or oh no he was just

coaching the base but I told him not to tell anybody that told him you gotta have a cool story behind that bro you

can't just get hit in the face and get bones broken and say I was I was just

not paying attention H well I took a line drive to

the shin once when I played on the construction League of softball and uh then everybody

started making fun of me because I started wearing soccer shin pads to play

cuz I was a third baseman man one line drive to the shin and I had enough yeah

I mean and I didn't grow up playing uh baseball or anything like that I could throw the ball hit the ball you know but

pretty construction League level player here yeah so so just just a wreck ball

player mean just that's it just wreck yeah that's um

it's fun until you get hit with the ball yeah no doubt so I never did

mind I was stupid though I thought a good play you were

stupid for what because I didn't I wasn't scared of the ball but then again I wore a mask

and a helmet so yeah you were a catcher or what no I was a pitcher for for pitch

and yeah I just I got geared up I wore lacrosse shinguards I

wor you're man after my own soul then oh yeah yeah I wore a mask and then a full

helmet um yeah I was uh Good Times all right well power to

the pros out there in softball and in floring uh we're going to watch a few uh

DIY videos I'm going to share and we'll just comment now let me set this up we

can pick apart everything uh but I also would like to see if we can pick out

some things they did right or that we can appreciate yeah so we'll start with

this first one uh here's how easy it is to install your

own flooring here's how easy is for you to

install flooring all by yourself in your own home that's clever hey I'm Alex I'm a diyer and my mother-in-law and I are

teaching my friends how to renovate their basement themselves as you can see we've come a long way and today we're

teaching them and you how easy it is to install H Flooring in your own home the first thing you need to know is that no

wall in your house is ever straight so the first thing you got to do is snap a straight line down the center of your room and you're going to use this as a

reference and these spacers along with some shims to make sure that that first row lines up exactly he's trying to square

every single piece of flooring you lay will slowly get more crooked and once you have that down here's how easy it is

to install H Flooring I mean just right here you can see how it just goes together like a puzzle piece they're also really easy to cut you just need to

squirt with their knife and then don't do this like I said super easy now I know what you're thinking what about the hard

cuts and this part doesn't need to scare you it's really simple just use a jigsaw even Sophie can do this she's never done

this before and look at that cut now once you hit the open field you're going to get on a roll and you're going to feel like nothing can stop you and even

these little cuts that annoyed you before are just going to be become trivial honestly I think my favorite thing about flooring is you don't need a

ton of tools to pull this off here I am using the multi-tool to make this cut you can honestly use whatever floats your boat but just crank it out and

eventually last pieces which you might have to do a little sliver cut but that's no big deal cuz once you finish

it off let me tell you you're going to feel like you're on top of the world and you just completely transform your room I mean look at where we started and look

at where we are now this B all right so Florine man was a disaster three months

ago one thing about floring is it makes a a huge difference in your your house

there's no doubt about it it doesn't matter where where you are your your home your

office yeah like you know in all the the videos

watching it I couldn't help but think I wish my my installers were this happy

putting this stuff in every person I know it's a video but every person's like hey look how easy this is and

they're putting stuff together of course a lot of you know a lot of uh rookie kind of

mistakes sure uh like you know like just going you end up

with the sliver because you didn't do anything to lay out yeah there you know what I mean so you know there's a couple

couple red flags in there that's for sure just like yeah how you gonna hurt your body ripping the carpet up like

that cut it um the layout at least he did say snap a line because nothing's

straight he did say that yep I I I thought that was good he

at least thought he at least made a true statement no wall in your house is going to be straight that's usually pretty

true you know even new homes I I don't want to bash him too too bad on there

right like it's there just a little bit more to it than that everyone it's just uh you know know that that the wood

floor like I didn't see them cleaning it like but it's a video right so they might skip that part um I was I would

have been looking at all that paint and all the the joints and well there

there's the key with uh with all this DIY is there's no one to hold responsible so it's easy to skip steps

and boy you have those same people pay somebody do it and they they

are you know what I mean like hey why aren't you catching that little crack or

what now this was a floating floor with a cork back looks somewhat similar not to say it is Shaw's core Tech I'm not

saying that whatsoever I'm just saying something similar to that um but like

Roland said he'll wait for the inspection to come his way there's been a few times I've had uh customers like

general contractors who actually kind of have some construction knowledge you know uh they'll install their own floor

and I had one I don't know it's been a couple years back but uh you know he had

major problems with it it was only because he was a GC that the store ended up replacing it for him but he had

bought the materials from a store and installed it himself and it completely failed some of it's due to stuff like

that so that one that one was pretty funny I'm gonna I'm gonna play he was he was really happy though you're you're

absolutely right like look how look how much fun they were having oh one more thing just super quick if you're going

to glue down your floor that was a floating floor I'm not sure Rand might be able to actually answer this but um

you know Paint Marker these kinds of things on the floor even on a wood floor I found

out uh can bleed through your Vinyl Products now that's a little bit

different with the floating SPC but if you are gluing down a vinyl and you have you know markers or paint and then you

put down a glue or even spray spray spray paint guys like spray paint will come through yeah the adhesive through

what plasticizer migration will draw that through the material to the surface because right to the surface I was just

on a job I suspect is the same thing it's got these circles and it's kind of orangish color and I thought I

thought did they spill iodine she's like we don't use iodine like oh okay well

that that explains why it's not a puddle look and it's like a circle look and then I've seen some other like designs

and it's always in like a circle or something it was almost like whe whether it's a flooring guy or someone else you

know was marking something out like that sounds like a sounds like they're marking out the sprinkler heads is what

that sounds like with the circle yeah we got a head right there Circle got a head right there yeah

so don't do that last thing you want is some guy uh spray

painting on your floor working its way through your flooring now again that was a floating floor so probably no no worry

but Rolland just says yep it can bleed through a vinyl floor even if it's a glue down lower Mill plank no my my

question is can it move through an SPC or a floating plank rolling uh glue down

uh I know for a fact can but uh let's go to the next let's go

to let's see this

okay oh let me I've gotta do a share here let me

share this one yeah I'm glad I'm glad you're here see Daniel this is why we need you Daniel where you at bro

yeah no idea well at least she admits she never research multiple YouTube

videos we're going to try this what I did first was vacuum all of the leftover debris from the carpet and I had no idea

if I wanted the floors horizontal or vertical but thank God I chose horizontal I don't know I just think it

looks better everything that I have here I ordered off of Amazon was great these is their peeling stick so it makes

everything 10 times easier and supposedly they're waterproof and SC I started with the closet first and what I

did was work in sections I had to cut some strips in order for it to fit lined everything up as perfectly as I could

could so that way the lines on the floor were straight and even there is a little gap between the baseboard and the floor

itself there was carpet in here it doesn't look terrible but a lot of stuff gets underneath there so I don't know

after I was done I swept everything moved her dresser back this is how it looked before I put in the flooring and this is how it looks now I think this

looks amazing and I love it don't be mad at me cuz I only did the closet I'm a mom of two okay so come back for part

three to see the results and come back for part four to see the failure okay

dude uh kudos to her for

uh for trying for setting that up that she is not a uh she had never done

floors before but couldn't tell couldn't tell couldn't tell look Pro to

me so rolland's uh answer is no it will not move through a floating floor so

there's your your answer I I suspect it as such although

maybe without completely crapping on that previous chick um and hey these V

these videos nine million times the amount of views our podcast gets so I

know I know dude dude whatever uh maybe making a ton of mistakes and and and uh

doing something fun hey same thing look she looked like she had a smile on her face the job did look better at least

for the time being um she was living her best life yeah

carpet like Jorge said an e for effort ah man hey I so she did she did

good by by putting forth effort and her Cuts did look pretty good against that trim she didn't put any shoe down um so

there's a couple scissors too dude she was using scissors come on you guys you know you know

because her hands probably from using a a utility knife I don't know um she did use a square right

did I see a square there I don't know I'll I don't know it may be better that

you use a pair of scissors if you've never laid flooring you don't want to end up cutting your finger

off yeah I don't know how long the scissors are going to last but

when when they go dull from cutting like this you can always just turn them and and just scribe on it and snap I guess

whatever works Jorge says that I feel that woman that women actually do more

DIY stuff than guys and since they're always right this is a good installation oh I agreed that was pretty

funny though I'll tell you you might want to Prime stagger your joints and um

put a a better subfloor down for one that that's yeah I mean what happens uh

for any diyers that may be watching which I doubt but if you watch this on YouTube and run across it uh because

we'll hashtag this Tik Tok maybe uh what happens is the she she at least vacuumed

I'll give her that you get the dirt out from in the in the um the crevices you know the so yeah uh

if she would have primed and staggered her joints um I I forgive the the

scissors I think you use what you can and kudos to her for getting it done um

like like Jorge said a lot of guys won't even touch stuff and so if the if the

women are in there actually giving it a shot hey yeah yeah he's got a point there um

for for anyone out there who who is listening and thinking about it though make if you read the instructions that

come along with that there's a lot of things that she didn't do that are like right on that piece of paper that's

inside in between all of that plank um and that's gonna make her break that

like the stuff already the peeling stick not my cup of tea I would

always Veer away from that personally um well but I mean you can say it straight

pilling stick is not I mean it is a DIY product um because they want to take the

trial and the adhesive out of the issue anybody can paint so you paint on a primer peel and stick it down there

there are some commercial grade peel and stick though where the system is very aggressive as long as you're following that system correctly um I I will say

that and uh those are okay yeah well uh pill and stick vinyls

I'm not a fan of I don't care I don't care if it's commercial or not now there some pill and stick carpets that I know

that you'd lose your mind but that like Collins and Aman is now tandis they're pill and stick I mean it works you use

seam weld but um jge said it's monolithic bro it was monolithic well

kudos to her for giving it a shot let's see if we I bet you she could

become a really good weekend warrior if you give her just a little bit of time a little bit of your time and education I

bet you that uh she'll get better quick you she checked two boxes yeah she was

happy doing it uh and she put in the effort

yep so check two of my boxes that I'd love my guys to

do let's check this next one out this

[Music]

[Music] he seems so happy man I love

these it's just that that looked pretty dangerous look he didn't have to use a

square

[Music] okay what's going on

[Laughter] here oh is that what those things are for

that's he is so happy put a little transition

in I mean on a wood floor

um oh my goodness well that's a guy dude you know

I'm not gonna say he did uh I'm not gonna say you're happy so it's

acceptable um so same same issues as the other one

right no primer no nothing the uh the freehand thing and that's he used the

utility knife though he he did you know and um he used one of the uh the the

foldable ones with the quick detach blade yeah I mean that's hey some of

those are made pretty well two things what was the marks on the second

run the marks I I must have missed that one I think something and he marked down

the second one and then I I wasn't real sure why why that was done but you know

if you just if you have a full plank in the back of the of your of that closet just start off with a nine incher and

then take a new piece cut it and then start start running your random yeah uh

random floor for all the kids out there are better looking floors which means

each row whatever you cut off you start with and then run to the next one as long as it's not within the your seams

do not line up within the width of the plank so if you got a seven inch plank you want your butt joints at least seven

inches apart not all seven inches apart though you got to create the not all

juster yeah yeah then you run that row and you know you you can you can do it

random other ways but um random is a good way to save

materials and Rolland said he thinks she is a on Hammer [Laughter]

installer one scissor she's one there you go hey this

uh another I another happy installer right there so there's a a check boox

for that guy for being so happy uh I would say you can undercut your door jams with a

multi-tool and get look yeah uh for the diyers use a jamsa

or don't use a jamsa use a multi-tool please yeah that's all we use now we have the big Jam saws the powerful ones

we have the old school jam saw where the blade you know you can flip it they're

dangerous they they're dangerous if you don't know what you're doing uh yes they are or if you catch a

16 penny nail uh as you're trying to undercut your jam so you know no harm no foul

with an oscillating tool like a multi-tool yeah use that set a piece of

scrap material run your multi-tool on top of it to cut your your jam and it

works in tight Corners like that closet yeah and uh chip out the little pieces

your material slide right in you can just make a little L cut you will never see it it'll be up under the jam it'll

look like the the jam was built on top of your flooring there you go I I will

say that one of the tricks that that we've learned over time is once you get the initial cut and you take your piece

out slide your template piece piece under there or your sa piece under there and then use the oscillating tool again

to get that because sometimes it it does push it down at an angle a little bit um

Square it up nice with your piece and then you can slide your cut piece in there really super

easy yeah so there's some DIY

tips for the uh for the gentleman and then he I don't know what kind of transition that was but he he was very

happy gluing that sucker down down um I wonder why it didn't start right off of

that it looked like it may it was probably uh you know the same thickness

it appeared so uh I don't know um and I know that

they do make tracks that you secure to the the floor especially Overwood that you could snap that transition right

into um that makes life a lot easier you could put the track in first and build off the track I am noticing that theying

off of it they're working off like they're working away from themselves in every video so far um so so far they're

they're not uh you know of course we all may be doing that if if the standards

change on sheep on vinyl plank to a semi or a full wet

set or yeah working on on uh this

dispersement boards or you know working off the material

pushing Jorge says when peeps do uh our DIY feel that at the end of the day they

feel happy they did their own install but they are also willing to accept failure and live with it I think for the

most part you're probably right uh I don't know about the failure they're

going to accept it more than if we go install it and they and they have a failure for sure but it's pretty

um I think it's pretty satisfying most of these jobs we're looking at we can

laugh all we want the fact is the room does look better with new yeah than it does with with uh you know

the old rusty carpet uh you know messed up floor I

would say just about every DIY is vinyl

plank I have yet to find a DIY doing sheet vinyl just yeah I'd like to see that I

would I'm I'm hoping that we run across one

uh but we'll see look at there's a [ __ ] guy right there Mr Jeremy Glover what's up

Jeremy made a little comment right there look at that Jeremy I'm not a fan of what's he

say here what he say a fan of the plastic track I'm not a fan of the plastic track system I I like the screw

down ones fair enough fair enough I'm glad you're alive

Jeremy I heard you took a softball to the Dome dude right to the

cheekbone you know what though I will say that through all the trauma he's had

it still hasn't shut him up that's a talent that's the talent you got there

that's the determination that's check mark three we watch all these videos and all the

comments and we might have an installer all right let's let's check

out this next video I'll try to keep the facial expressions to a minimal this time

well that's part of the sun okay I'm using a fi installed new

flooring in our daughter's room for under 180 bucks first we ripped out all the old slime covered carpet and the

tack strip using a pie bar and a hammer and the Builder that also put the tacking on top of the threshold so I had to cut the vinyl back straight and

scraped all the glue residual paint and texture that was left over on the concrete I used this fible floor pad

from dap to fill in all the nail holes from the tack strip it dries fast and you can just scrape it to make sure that

it's nice and level and to prep the floors I mopped it really really good and then I used a self-stick tole primer

which is a latex coating that you apply to the concrete to make sure the ties stick firmly then I found the center of

the room and laid a chalk line down so that I could start laying my tile out from the center of the room from that

line we have vinyl flooring throughout our house and love the durability but a dollar a square foot for this peeling

stick we just couldn't pass that up and the install was so easy Emily actually did most of it so make sure you're

following us for the final room reveal you're not going to want to miss it all right so I will say

um that dude did a lot of things right might not have finished

them to to the level of acceptance that that we'd like to see but man he was

definitely a lot closer yeah well he he cleaned up the uh

cleaned the floor he freaking mopped it got it all clean

patched his holes I mean he used he used that but I mean he patched the holes

scraped it so that it was level with the concrete scraped up the glue and the I

mean he he did some paint yeah I mean did some can't knock the guy on that uh the

primer right is that I'm pretty sure that's what that was he encapsulated the floor um yeah so that way I'll give I'll

give him one tip you can take your Center Line and transfer it over to your doorway so you don't have to walk and

and contaminate all your primer and then you can just lay right out of your

hallway doorway right into the room and uh you know not have to have so much

traffic on your primer but that was that's all right man I I I'll give him a on a DIY level I need to find out how I

can do this now because I think I just screwed something up I'm like okay but on a DIY level I'll give

him a I'll give him an eight yeah he did pretty good man and um I will say hopefully he waited

for the floor to dry after he bopped it hopefully he did so I would say diyers

if you're going to if you're going to put introduce moisture into the concrete like that you you have to wait for that

to disappear before you do anything else especially that primer

yeah yep I think I may have found something that we can play with

some sheep on and we'll find out yeah I don't even know what you're on right now so I'm these are all my first time

seeing it so if this is your first time seeing all yeah yeah I I I've pre- just loaded like

three or four okay yeah and then uh most of them I haven't seen before

so oops I wonder why that's doing that let me see here oh I know

why they got better music than what what uh what I got going to

their music is on par with our start music all right let's watch another one you guys got some DIYs put them on the

comments too we like to like a link to a video all right this says shout out to my roomie and the Lowe's people I don't

know what this means now I'm wondering if you lost this

St oo baby I am see you deliver I'm your

oo back that time goodbye now I'm back andh to cry oo baby

if I am time SE deliver on [Music]

your I can see signed bubbled

delivered yikes well uh

there is a sheet vinyl install

okay all right there's a lot to unpack there but there there is I want to point

out that there was another female doing it what's up dudes where's all your DIY

stuff but uh and she seemed really really happy

um she is going to be replacing that floor pretty soon with all those bubbles

yeah uh yeah so I'm

confused was she full spreading was she full spreading or or perimeter it looked

like it started as perimeter and then ended that last bit was maybe full full

spread where all the bubbles were so give her some feedback I mean um what

what could she had done next time next time do all the prep and all the cleaning before you put your vinyl down

um I would say that that looked like that didn't happen that she was like cleaning and gluing as she

went um uh how important is it to make sure you

roll the floor with some weight one hand in that that exension

one hand yeah yeah like get down on that thing and push those you know get so all

diyers out there if you're using adhesive like you H the the purpose of it is not just to have the pleasure of

spreading it the truth is is you

must you must get the adhesive and the floor to make good contact at the right

time yeah your will tell you that time maybe it's a semi wet set or a full PSA

or pressure sensitive adhesive either way you're trying to get that

floor bonded with the adhesive at the right timing yeah did look almost look

like some type of under layment that was a weird uh yeah it did too didn't it like

they put a bunch of Dependable or something or DAP in in the joints every two feet I don't know maybe what would

they were little squares of so I've ran into that in a couple places where they

built the home and and say we're going to an upper level like say they're converting an attic or something like

that and you can't get a full board up there so I've been to places where

they've had you know what I mean like that is you're

like taking it in your SUV and you ain't got room for a 4 by8 sheet and so it's all ripped smaller pieces or something

or the or the path to the room isn't big enough to make a turn with the long sheet uh I mean it's I've been to some

pretty weird installs uh you know like they used to make drywall back in the day drywall used to be two foot uh two

foot strips right and that's how you used to put it up um

but now now they got well what what what else I mean rolling

the floor was probably the reason so if she didn't depending on the flashing or

cure time of the of the of the product maybe it over maybe it wasn't a a full

PSA and it should have went in somewhat wet or poor poor substrate that was a

full PSA brother that I I there was the so you could save it heat that heat

those seams up or heat those uh bubbles up you might be able to save it a little bit make it look a little better anyway

yeah and I would say um the easiest way for me to explain here let me see if I can get this I'll

just do it do with a piece of paper a vinyl if you're you're rolling

it you're setting it down make sure that you're rolling into place and not flop

in it yeah don't pick it up and flop it that's how she got those those wrinkles in there because if if it is a PSA she

flopped it in and it touched right there that bubble is gonna be there you could try to massage it out but I would say

rolling it into place like that is a lot better than flopping it sometimes you

have to flop it make sure you have help yes very strategic and laying it in as

they say as opposed to flopping it is uh you're not putting carpet in so yeah all

right well that that was fun she see she didn't seem like she was having as good a time I must say and I don't blame

her I don't know what I don't know what these are gonna bring up dude so whatever she tried it though right like

she Vino like that you have one shot one one opportunity are we going to start

rapping are we going to Eminem right now Eminem

good so this guy at that he he does a bunch of stuff so he

was one that that uh this was the one I was going to show

a few of that uh was interesting was this one right

here which one which one am I looking at the one that's that's playing

oh [ __ ] did I Los us no can you can you I'm

I'm here oh I I shared the wrong screen that's the problem oh let me

do this hold on a second I'm gonna go find it and then I'll fix

it so through the technical difficulties thank you for sticking with us here guys as we learn how to do uh um screen

share we are deficient today yeah yeah

yeah okay I know which one it is I think and try this again

yeah now what am I doing why am I doing it like this look at that

Perfection that looks legit all right woo good job

Lauren wo good job

Lauren Lin oh please yeah put putting the laminate on

a ceiling and then nailing it it looked like she was holding it up for some glue too that that looks like a disaster to

me yeah I mean if it's actual laminate I I mean I guess if she treats it like

real wood and trim and give that room for expansion puts up some nice crown or

something like that it'll work but I sense that it's gonna fall down and hit somebody in the head we put we had a job

where we put uh engineered hardwood on a ceiling and

full glue nail assist but we we we made sure that the we were going we were

actually going with the metal studs and so we had them put every two feet a

furing strip maybe it was 18 inches a wood fur strip across okay the so that

we had something to nail assist into yeah to hold it up while the glue was

drying so we didn't like you know this was F 15 feet in the air you're trying I

mean how are you going to like hold it until the adhesive dries so it had to be a a staple assist actually it

was 716 I think engineered on a ceiling so that's the closest I've ever done to

that um we we've installed some uh uh LV lvt or plank right on the walls too

right but some manufacturers do have it listed on there that it can be used for a vertical

installation um if it doesn't say that chances are they just don't have the rate adhesive for that

application I guess that's where uh the brad nailer comes in she was shooting right through the face but hey in her

defense who in the heck's gonna see that from the ground if you're using a brad meiller so uh I don't know so you can always

fill it too I mean looking up the ceiling it's a laminate bro you put bro it l good when

it was done it looked good she's not shooting into into the right backing backer board or anything structural say

she shooting right the drywall that that Brad nail is not doing anything that's why I say that looks like a disaster

waiting to happen let's get hit somebody in the head like that stuff is I mean

that's a lot of weight up on the ceiling it looked like it was staying at the end of the video I would love her toout

happy she is happy I'd love her to shout out if that if that actually stayed these women are absolutely happy

doing this work yes and well here we only got eight minutes

left on this we we watched a few videos and got to have some fun but truth is

man kudos to everybody out there trying to do you know put put down a new floor

make your house look a little nicer kudos for jumping in and just giving it a shot I would

say to be careful that ceiling looks dangerous I'm just being honest like if

that glue those brad nails AR not going to like you were alluding to they're not going to stay not they're going to work

their way out of she Rock now she had the mindfulness to make sure she was hitting studs all right a little bit

different I mean you could also maybe angle them different ways every shot to pinch them in there create that tension

but but that's but through laminate at least it said laminate it could have been

anything but um I don't know that you're going to get a brad nail through laminate actually so it's probably more

like a click together vinyl plank on the ceiling I couldn't tell but Kudos

everybody giving it a shot the ones out there that do this for a living you could learn one thing they

people are having fun doing this job you can have fun doing your job you can enjoy what you do we don't have to have

a negative attitude about doing what we do there's a saying that says

um I don't I don't try to find passion in my work I bring passion to my

work B and right there is the key for all of us these people I I know it's fun

to do stuff you don't do all the time and you get that satisfaction that same

satisfaction they're getting is why I love floring when I'm done with something or I've finished something

that satisfaction of doing it is why I enjoy flooring so much it's what hooked

me from the very beginning and you can see why people enjoy doing this stuff

and we can too because we get paid for it on top of that so enjoy what you do

put a smile on bring your passion to work with you um and at the end of the

day uh all the diyers out there they I think that Jorge is right like they love

the satisfaction of doing something for themselves and more power to them if you do need professionals reach out to one

of your Prof you know a professional to uh do your floor and uh no better way to

know if they're professional or not and except with the go career Hammer rating

which can tell you whether or not they are actually a qualified installer uh we

are growing Leaps and Bounds the the network um but some interesting stats

out there some of these diyers might have as big as high a hammer ratings as some of the people on the network it's

incredibly insightful to take a a sample that size and see how low

trained we really are I don't think we really understand the level of um of Def

efficiency and trainings and proper education and flooring and we because we do it as a career and we get paid for we

got to make sure we're doing it right so make sure to reach out to CFI aft ntca

ctef uh the the organizations out there you can go to go career's training page and find a bunch of these organizations

and get your training get your um get your Hammer raing up bro yeah don't let

the diyers out out Hammer you yeah no doubt uh although scissors may may be a

deduction um and then shout out to jumpstart which

is uh the placement tool for the industry if any installer on here if you guys are installers this week we're

going live with jumpstart and jumpstart is at go cara.com

jumpstart you'll be able to schedule interviews and hire your next great helper hopefully the industry's next

great rate installer these guys and gals have been through some initial industry

training whether it be a 10 we five week type course uh a lot of it's

Hands-On um CFI runs a lot of it uh so I know aft does some ntca we're reaching

out to them to get some of their graduates uh through the ntca university see if we can get some of these folks um

in the ceramic tower War World on jump start as well right now it's

predominantly soft goods and you can hire somebody who's saying Hey I want to be in flooring so we are asking you to

participate with jumpstart I don't ask a lot of things I'm asking you to help the

industry get the new recruits placed and you can do so by going to go career.com

jump start so I'm gonna I'm going to go look

I'm going to see if we can get some people I mean like where else why not

where else would you hire from this we're we're so used to in our industry hiring from

uh working some customers what not much Rin some of the same hey we did put l we

did watch laminate get put on a ceiling but jump start is you know a

replacement for the way we've always done it we've always looked at our nephews and our sons and our grandsons

to get into the industry we've skipped a few generations of that the industry is filling it we're short Manpower now it's

going to get worse I know we keep saying that but it we've been on the we've been running uh the Huddle for going on two

years now and the the fact is is that the

the we can see the problem getting worse it's just it's a slow burn each year

people are retiring and we're not replacing them so what we're trying to do with jumpstart is put new recruits

out in front of uh installers new recruits out in front of flooring

companies and have you hire them they they went through some level of training they're saying I want to be in flooring

let's give them a shot let's get them recruited trained um and then Advance their work

really hard to advance their skills that's how we save this industry in my opinion

yep you gotta get gotta get outside that comfort zone right and uh I think uh we're feeling that heat right now too

because that that that Circle you said that that we're used to staying in you know that Circle can only go so

far it only lasts so long and um need to expand our Horizons over here as well we

all do I mean I'm as guilty as anybody I I created jump start a lot of what goers

created has been because of my own problems but jump start was it's clear

to me the number one problem with the industry uh this industry labor issue

the the singular like biggest Gap is placement yeah I mean where do the new

fcef graduates go to where do uh people that go through the five week initial

you know introduction to flor CFI where do they go where are they

going and if we're going to place them we have to have a mechanism to place

them help them be placed with installers with other subcontractors because they

install the most of our flooring most retailers don't hire employees and those who do have a pretty small staff of

employees and still supplement with subcontractors so if you're a sub out there the later later on this week you

can check check back anytime um uh get on go career.com

jumpstart let's say Monday of next week um and get on there schedule an interview

and let's get these folks hired yep everybody needs a place to go right and uh this is probably one of the

first times we've ever had a pool that we can look into and say all right who's in my area who's hungry who's interested

who's willing to relocate yeah for a good job you know I

mean um look if you're going the Craigslist

way and you're you're siphoning through 30 applications of cook line cooks and

people who have never touched flooring and never shown any interest but they just want out of what they are are doing

now that's one way to hire like find people who don't want to be in the situation they're in anymore I would

rather hire from people are raising their hand saying I want to be in this industry the the FCF and I know I keep

naming off the acronym companies but uh CFI AF all of them are putting in work

to recruit and train we just need to step up and get them placed put them with people right who will you know what

I'm saying if you get a new helper it's been doing uh went through a 10-week training course and you can move him

along that is no different in the way you do with your niece or nephew or if you're looking for a decent helper on

Craigslist which if you get on on Facebook and read the comments there's nobody happy with that like it's it's

this major problem so get on go career.com jumpstart and

support the industry it's our effort it's very very cheap it's 99 bucks for the entire year higher schedule

interviews 99 bucks is less than the sugar in your coffee let alone the C

it's not a coffee a day it's the sugar in your coffee a day and and you support the industry

we'll put your um we'll put your logo on our website um we have manufacturers who

are supporting us as well and what we're we're really looking at doing is opening

the floodgates of the new recruits to have them have jobs have them have a

place where they feel like they're going to get jobs so some of them have been uh

trained by Jonathan Bon some of them by Dwayne puit some of them by other people but the fact is there's plenty of

quality trainers out there that are are training I know Dave Garden does a lot

of the fcef I mean you're talking about Juggernaut daeve Garden come on yeah I mean the guy's awesome for only for only

27 cents a day you two can support the flooring industry yeah 27 cents a day I

mean it's cheap dude for that's is that even the right amount I mean

like9 divided by 365 it you know just over 2 27 cents man so round up for only

28 cents a day you could help a flooring installer who wants to create a career yeah and that's the truth these these uh

are you gonna have some you know people who don't work out of course we're all

going to have them but the key that we're trying to figure get started the the momentum we want to have happen is

people are getting placed and maybe we can give feedback to the training Community the training entities that

hey we need to add a profession uh you need to add a professionalism piece to your training because your placements

are are not staying very longer they're they're the the people hiring them are

saying they're underqualified even as a helper or something like that any of the feedback gets fed back to the entity

that can actually make the change so it'll create the metrics for them to hone their system for yield a better

outcome I mean that's yeah could said it better

myself all right brother well we are at that point yes we are the sign off well

it was a pleasure that was pretty fun I I um I know we walk the line of like crapping on people but also just kind of

talking about regular uh flooring topics and and the fact is uh the number one

lesson I can I can delve out of all that is how happy everybody was to do it and the satisfaction they get from

installing Great Floors so or installing floors I'll leave the grade off there for my Pros out there but you guys too

can be just happy and um I know that this business can be tough but um that's

that's the part we get paid for is the tough part let's put a smile on uh as we're doing it and bring our passion

with us there you go we'll see you next week my brother thanks for thank you everyone your time thank you to the

audience and the commenters I know we didn't get to all the commenters but appreciate your your uh participation

and we'll see you guys next week have a good one