The Huddle - Episode 11 - Live from CFI Convention
This week on The Huddle Paul, Daniel and Jose make it face-to-face in Orlando, FL at the 2022 CFI Convention. They are joined by multiple guests discussing and encouraging installers to attend conventions and get trained.
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The HUDDLE is where the flooring industry can get together and talk about everything! Lead by Paul Stuart from Go Carerra who is joined by Daniel and Jose Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring.
what's up guys and welcome to the huddle
where we come to you every tuesday to
talk about maintaining forward progress
in your flooring career
as usual
but live
i got jose and daniel from preferred
flooring in michigan
we're coming to you live from cfi
convention so we thought we'd come
chat it up we had a
episode a few weeks ago about the
importance of coming to some of this
living what we speak uh we're all here
so they know we're not messing around
right we come to these things we network
and
we get to know a lot of like-minded
people that are that are in the industry
and
uh i was actually just over here in uh
a hands-on class that i had to ditch the
person that i was helping to come and
come out here
and i wouldn't apologize real quick she
said she's okay with it forgiven yeah
anything can happen anything can happen
people are going to be uh exiting the
class here pretty soon
uh maybe maybe somebody wants to come
back
to say hi yeah there's just been a lot
of information here already today and
they were running a little bit behind
schedule which is why
i was i had to run out of there and come
out here to talk to you guys
yeah so
the basis of today's just come live
hopefully some people come through after
the classes there's a lot of
courses and uh resilient class there's a
hand sewing class right down the down
the hall here so if they get out in time
they come join us at the podcast but
what we really feel is important to
understand is that
actually getting here uh might just drop
by
hopefully he comes back by but he he
said this is his rejuvenation
and this is time to like
recharge so a lot of us
you know a lot of the talk earlier was
about
uh in the other episode about getting to
convention and getting to you know the
trade shows
is all about knowledge and
networking but
some people come to recharge and be
around other flooring guys just kind of
bouncing stuff it doesn't have to be
technical we just enjoy each other's
company yeah we have common ground to
talk about
so that's one of the biggest reasons to
come that's how we charge just to put in
perspective when we got here right he
was he got here before me and then i got
here
with uh crystal and then we we walk up
to people and then you go to shake a
hand and they just they push it away
give me a hug give me a hug man it's
been so long since i've seen you we're
like family uh that's that's how you're
treated here and it's it's awesome
because
you know it's like
forget your handshake come give me a hug
bring it in
email yeah you know social network
when you're reaching out to all these
individuals you are still maintaining a
relationship but it's
it's totally different to have that um
that virtual relationship versus the in
person right the in person is a
different experience you get to put a
face to it you get to put reaction to it
it's real
it's a real life time really motion
you know
person to person you just can't ever
beat that kind of interaction
yeah hell i've seen dwayne pruitt
he lives in wichita i've seen here
so i mean i don't see him hardly ever
he's in my hometown i mean sometimes it
gets so busy you just need a few days
away
go hang out with some people have the
like i said the common ground
you will end up working through some
problems with one another i mean that's
already happening i got here really late
i literally flew in jumped in
got the rental got set up and here we
are
right i think i just seen you what 15
minutes ago for the first time and yeah
we're like hey let's set this up let's
start talking yeah so we're going to be
here every tuesday guys
we're not here but we're going to be
home sure
so every tuesday
three o'clock central
four o'clock eastern you can do the
other math but come join us this is
gonna be a short episode i am hoping to
get some guests on but yeah uh
the whole
real purpose of this is training so they
are doing some pretty significant
training down the hall
my biggest ploy to everybody is come to
convention come join us next year come
hang out with us
i've seen
seen
[Music]
my first podcast would be like
i don't know
a guy talking sports or something but uh
thank you for uh letting me sit down
with you guys awesome great yeah chris
mckee paul stewart paul nice to meet you
daniel
pleasure nice to meet you guys chris is
the
new president new president of cfi yes
tell us a little bit about chris uh well
i have been in the flooring business for
32 years
uh it's the only career i've ever had i
started off in manufacturing
right i'm sorry you started on accident
you're right and then the truth do you
have a time limit
but yeah this is the absolute truth
people that know me know this story well
so uh
my i grew up in pittsburgh pennsylvania
went to college at georgia tech
uh my uh
high school sweetheart
was a year older than me and she went to
college in ohio
and
[Music]
you know we stayed together all through
college and she graduated obviously a
year ahead of me and got this amazing
job that center in new york city
so i'm getting ready to graduate from
tech
and i have to find a company that wants
to hire somebody that
you know will send be sent to new york
city
and uh
my old
[Music]
one of my old mentors
sent me a letter saying hey if you're
interested in a good company contact
shaw industries contact this guy shaw
and i contacted i said well i'm really
looking for a job in new york city and
he said
we always need
sales guys in new york city
so i signed on with shaw and started
january 8th uh 1990
and entered their uh training program
and that put me in new york or in dalton
for four and a half months of training
right extensive training start off in a
manufacturing plant you do sales
training product knowledge field travels
all this stuff and after four and a half
months i moved to manhattan
with my girlfriend and vice great and
three weeks later we went to lunch she
told me she thought it was never going
to amount to anything she dumped me and
that was
i've been in the industry for 31 years
ever since so
oh sure yeah
you think i'm money driven i'm revenge
but uh yeah so that's how i got the
flooring business i spent about 11 years
in manufacturing
about six plus years with the home depot
okay i started with the home depot and
business development and then became
their general manager of installed
services for decor categories so i
managed all the installations for
flooring countertops
interior exterior panning garage coney
coating and window treatments
and
uh after about six years of doing that i
decided it'd be fun to go out on my own
and i started my own work room
and uh started a work room uh
named it national installation solutions
inc you know it's a very funny story
about that
and i thought okay yeah i'm going to
start a company
your name means a lot
so i said
you gotta i want i want them to think
that i'm big
so i said national good news yeah yeah
and i wanted to be
agnostic so i don't want anything in
their flooring because i was just
starting off if you asked me to install
a garage door i'd do it so i just said
installations
and then with my experience of five or
six years
i had all these uh
uh relationships and i thought i'd use a
lot of my relationships to help me
fulfill so i'd start this partner
network so i said national installation
partners
then i wanted to tell them
you know i'm going to solve your
problems so i'm going to call it
national installation partner solutions
that's perfect
start playing around with the name doing
that room like apps
nips i said people are going to think i
own a strip club
yeah exactly so i changed it to national
installation solutions bank
and uh had that business for 11 years uh
we were primarily primarily b2b so we
did a lot of pro
fulfillment for any kind of pro
contracts that the home depot would get
okay uh that's how i started and then
uh the mortgage crisis hit right yeah
and so i started doing work for
rates who were buying up a lot of houses
and started doing work uh for fannie mae
and freddie mac
and
what turned into part of atlanta it
turned into part of georgia turned into
georgia florida alabama
and then my
the last three years before um
we moved on with the company we um
started fulfill for uh that we were the
biggest fulfiller for uh empire today in
the southeast so
that's kind of my history in that and
then uh
decided to
take an advantage of an opportunity to
move
that business somewhere else
and uh for the last five years i've done
board work and contract work for cca and
for some manufacturers
awesome then i saw this opportunity
well congrats so how long have you been
with cfi now i
joined cfi may 15th of this year and it
isn't official until right now because
he just made the announcement here
until you're on this podcast you mean
nothing you heard it now yeah
exactly the emails and stuff that we got
no nothing nothing this is the only
validation industry
i really enjoyed your welcome speech
earlier oh thank you so i appreciate
that that actually um
was broadcast as well just because
you know we want to kind of show people
um
why why you come to this these kind of
things well there's a problem with that
because you broadcast without my rights
and i mean look at this yeah tick tock
star i mean come on i need royalties
can see the the excitement that is here
and why they should
not just be a member of cfi but
participate yeah yeah and that's been
the biggest thing
we're trying to talk about it's
a lot of people have the mindset of why
am i going to go here when it's not
going to benefit me but
those are the people that don't go to
they're looking at direct benefit right
they're saying
i i give this effort and i make
i get this for it really in investing
you have to have a longer term
view of it well so so
there there's two things right there
when it comes to turning your money or
turning your investment and or your
capital right human capital
or
social capital well you know just just
let's just say capital money
there's two ways to do it
long term is investing that's where you
understand that you put a certain amount
of capital human capital sweat equity
into something knowing that down the
road you're going to put yourself in a
position to make more back
and the other way is to put your money
somewhere
where you get instant return and that's
called vegas
so
and and
and those casinos weren't built on
winners right so no when when i look at
an event like what we're doing here at
cfi
there's there's really
multiple things that you can get if you
you come here number one
you got to be a member if you if you're
in this trade
you got to become a member of cfi i
don't know if your entire audience are
members i i would reckon to say no not
the entire audience but what i'd say is
a lot of the people who comment and
participate are cfi yeah so you know if
you if you look at our industry i mean
we've got roughly what 11 000 retailers
out there i don't know that nobody knows
the exact number and who to listen to
number of installers out there whether
it's 150 000 or 550 000 but there's a
lot of people in install floors and you
know just like everything in else in
life that you do whether it's trying to
make your high school football team or
trying to get a date to the prom or
trying to get a better job you got to
find something to differentiate yourself
and the first step in differentiation
and approach like flooring installation
is becoming a member of cfi right off
the bat it tells your audience that you
care enough to be part of a professional
organization
that
in that that you want to be different
the the second thing is
getting certified you know
you get certified and what you're
telling the industry in the community
that you deal with is you understand the
value of investing in yourself to
improve the
quality of uh
of the product that you offer and these
are really great guys helping me over
here
[Laughter]
[Music]
and then watching you talk on their
phones
[Music]
and so lastly uh and what i say about
attending events like this
is
you know there
you we offer training right we offer
classes we offer exposure to vendors and
we offer camaraderie but the camaraderie
isn't just about having a good time it's
talking to people
that have more experience than you like
we've got roland off camera here who's
132 years old no that's 132 years in the
industry industry that's right
and so but i mean if you're if you're
five years into the career
sitting down and having coffee with this
guy for a half an hour is is going to
advance you in the um
intangible aspects of running a flooring
business which is which you are as an
individual your own business uh and
secondly if you're five years in and you
come here
and you meet someone who's one year in
you're going to help them right and
that's the community aspect of it that
you can only get by attending
right you really
touched on something that we've been
kind of preaching to it's not only are
you here to try and
gain some benefit yourself you're here
to
yeah you're here to give back you you
have to not you have knowledge that
other people don't have as well so why
don't you
share that so that way it's not locked
all inside right absolutely and you know
one thing that you heard me say today
and other people have heard me say
is the worst thing that we can do as an
organization the worst thing
we can do as individuals in in this
industry
is from an industry perspective if we
are irrelevant
right and irrelevant means people don't
know
what you're doing other than your
actions so so we but but when we
consolidate
and we can get together and create a
bigger movement
then we can start pulling the industry
with us
so you know for
for years
you know we've been about pushing
our members into the industry
what we need to do is you know
understand what's important to our other
stakeholders and create an opportunity
or a
situation or environment
where
the industry wants to pull us towards
them and they say okay i get it right
these guys
and gals have the right idea the right
approach they they got a plan they know
what they want to offer the industry and
the industry sees value and says come to
us
yeah one of the things that i think cfi
does well
uh
is
in my opinion what
the what what we have to do
the biggest problem that could happen is
we got a lot of
say 50 to the average age being around
55 for
up to 150. up to 100. yeah
the biggest thing we could create is to
not get the knowledge out of their head
into it's just a waste
do it and your opportunity to come and
learn from people who have done it as
long as wrong
if you just put it in a personal note
that anybody can understand that's why
we should encourage young kids to sit
down and spend time talking to older
people you know their grandparents you
go volunteer at old folk time because
there's knowledge and wisdom that you
can't learn in a book right and that
that's really conveyed um i talked to
zach stacy he did the installation
competition over here they had the
regionals and he was like man they're
like just watching these guys that have
been doing this for 40 years
was worth just coming here even if i
don't get a spot just just to see the
way that their hand skills are and the
way that they do things was worth the
investment because now i've got new
tricks in my back pocket yeah that's
just kind of zach's a phenomenal one he
is he's a young guy he's very good i
know him pretty well
and coming to this stuff his boss who i
know very well
has made sure he comes to convention he
brings his guys i mean then don't forget
there's the then there's the just the
purely personal standpoint feeling good
about yourself feeling pride competition
camaraderie those are things that you
only get by being here in person and you
know we had a great turnout this year uh
bigger than last year awesome but as i
said in the room uh if you were there
when i was talking you know this in
three years this this room needs to be
five times bigger yeah and it needs to
include
and it needs it needs to be because we
if we're going to move the needle we've
got to move the needle right i mean you
know we've got a small percentage
participating right now not a membership
but we have a small percentage in the
industry and we want to make an impact
because we need to make changes to make
the fulfillment industry your
fulfillment side of our industry better
and
but you're going to see
next year i'm hoping we have 100
retailers in here yeah right 100
retailers who show up
and become members of cfi in a different
form and they show up and by showing up
they're saying i recognize the value of
a cfi installer the amount of
information that is here and at
everyone's fingertips is ridiculous
whether it's hand skills or like you
said earlier the information
that you could use to to help raise your
business to the next level absolutely uh
the social capital that is here just to
just to help an individual realize that
there's more to it
i mean just think about this in less
than 15 minutes we start a class
with
[Music]
an insurance specialist
who's here how often do people get to
talk to somebody who's not trying to
sell them a product but is trying to
educate them on something that isn't
part of their trade but is absolutely
necessary um we also have a session
with a top-notch attorney our attorney
yeah who's going to send down and talk
to them about how to face the legal
challenges being an independent
contractor so it's it's really great
that's something that might not be
talked about in your day to day right
like everyone you're the sole proprietor
might not even think about that because
they're really leaning on the person
giving them the work to take care of all
the legal documents and they're just
well and if you have legal questions on
your own you're going to pay 500 bucks
an hour yeah right and instead you're
here getting it for free so uh and and
somebody's just dedicated to answering
your questions so yeah
please come join in absolutely
i got one last question for you yes
maybe putting you on the spot a little
bit with just being here since uh been
in the position since may but what is
your initial vision
for
kind of how the the ship for cfi is uh
sailing okay where do you see it going
in the next so
you know
you know as i said to the general
session today
it's not it's
you know it's not about change it's
about growth it's about evolution right
the
we need to grow and we need to evolve
so change means there's something that
we're doing today that we don't want to
do anymore well we are we are a great
certification
company or organization what we need to
do is expand grow and evolve so that we
become
a
excellent training organization so we we
offer training without certification
right because it's a career path right
but but
we we
you know the industry has to realize
we're not just fighting to get a young
person
to choose to do this instead of working
in the auto trade or in the you know the
framing industry or painting that we're
competing against amazon and walmart and
yeah
[Music]
you know where i live in georgia
a 17 year old kid could graduate high
school and start at 18 and 50 cents an
hour minimum wage with full benefits at
costco
right so so we need to be able to get
that person so
you know we can get them working right
away and earning a good living might not
be certification but it's a training so
that they can start to work and then
after you know they work for a little
while and say wait a minute i can invest
a little bit more of my time effort and
money and get a level one certification
and that will present a more you know
get them further along in their career
and then level two and level three so
as we look forward to cfi evolving
i think we got to continue to be the
absolute superior certification company
in the industry we also have to
uh do a great job of providing
entry-level
training
and then last but not least is we have
to work on the connectivity with the
industry and and that's the biggest part
and it truly is the biggest part because
without the industry recognizing the
value in cfi then
it will never be able to be what it
really is and we're going to do that by
really taking a hard look at you know
our four stakeholders in the industry
which are manufacturers resellers
installation professionals and consumers
right and then you have to understand
what value
uh
is there but how do they each one of
those four stakeholders you know look at
their own value proposition or what
they're looking for in a value
proposition then we need to make sure
that cfi
is meeting the needs of those values and
we got to map it and that's kind of our
vision and uh our strategy and then as
we
turn that into a strategy uh then it
becomes a plan and and that's the most
important thing going forward to now
with cfi is we've got had really solid
structured plans and processes so we
know that we're heading in the right
direction and we can
ask our great volunteers to help us get
there and not just throw them out there
and say go train people yeah so it's not
just a certification
it's more of an educational platform
but don't don't miss the connectivity
yeah right you got to get the
connectivity because that's what's going
to determine whether we really make a
difference because right now we've got
to take the use the connectivity to take
the industry to say
i get it well we have to open back up
the gap so
i read an article about
what we were talking about just a few
moments ago about retail
the gap in pay
has always been pretty substantial
between skilled labor and retail retail
can move a little bit faster because
most retails
is um
you know you mean retail flooring just
retail
uh employment retail employment yeah
they can move so fast because they're
huge companies they raise their price
take a little hit on their stock
whatever not
we as a and i'm talking not just
flooring but skilled labor in general
move slower in that
escalation of wages so
that's another key factor i think we all
need to be aware of is we need to open
that gap back up where your entry level
guy going to costco
is uh you know because we used to hire
guys at 15 bucks an hour now you got to
hire them at 22 bucks an hour and they
may not know much right right because
you got to open that yeah for them to
work hard
in a skilled trade it has to have more
value to them and we have to give them
it's got to be defined right it's got to
be defined and clearly layout right if i
if i walk into a
home depot or if i i'm not talking as an
installer right i'm just talking about
working retail if i walk into a home
depot or a costco or a target and apply
for a job and get accepted you can say
all right i'm starting at minimum wage
but they have a they have a very well
thought out hr program that says
if you do this
you can qualify for a senior associate
then a department head and then an
assistant manager and then a store
manager and then a district manager and
you know what these companies are filled
with stories of kids that started 16 and
the next thing you know you know 20
years later they're running the company
and those are real stories we we have to
build the same path that's rounded out
rounding out your vision absolutely
right there absolutely so that's that's
what we want to create and it it begins
by having the strategy and the plan and
the processes we wish you the very best
because you got a heck of a road ahead
of you yeah we did and we're here to
help you guys out too well i appreciate
it that's why we're all here i
appreciate it we want you to shut down
the damn podcast and let's get to work
it's a pleasure nice meeting you guys
thanks appreciate it absolutely i'll
talk to you soon awesome bye-bye
so well i hope you guys enjoyed that
that was pretty cool yeah
non-scripted non-scripted yeah so
we're gonna
we got a trainer coming in right now
hello he'll tell you a little bit about
himself hi hi man i'm paul hey paul i'm
paul
you guys right
so so we met all 2020 over at surfaces
and have been communicating with him
ever since he's
starting with the competition starting
with the competition speaking virtually
in person
tell us about yourself a little bit
yeah
oh you didn't know this was alive
no this is this is real this is real so
everyone knows right this is real
reaction real time all right
there's there's no hiding it and this is
what resonates with with anyone who's
tuning in they want to see the real
stuff so just let us know about you yeah
well all right you got the real me uh my
name is paul traynor i work with
informal markets i work on the
international surface event most
everyone knows of the surfaces if you
are a stone fabricator or a stone quarry
you know us for stone expo and if you're
on the tile installation or
the sundry size you probably know from
kyle expo yeah and the show's been on
since around 1990 1991 i started my
career there where when it was owned by
wfca i was trade show coordinator they
sold the show in 2000 to henley wood and
it was like a buy one get one free
package buy the show you get the trade
show coordinator free
i went off with them moved to dallas and
stayed in dallas for 15 years and worked
on surfaces for another four years
before i transitioned off onto other new
shows that were coming into the
into the company and
taking care of those and then
transitioned back coming back to about
2017. and i was working with when you
rejoined services
i rejoined services in 2018.
worked on another one of our events in
the los angeles area for about two years
before we sold it again
and that put me right back into surfaces
so
one big circle yeah
know that they're lucky to have you
because i love talking with you
you're super awesome to work with
and i appreciate everything that you've
been doing it's not gone unnoticed
you've watched you've watched a lot of
installers including
daniel maybe myself but transition from
when we were first introduced to the
events to where
where everyone sits now right like
you've seen
more action than we have we're still
fairly new we're considered new um but
what kind of transitions have you seen
and effects for
installers and individuals companies so
let me set this up just a bit a few a
few podcasts ago we were talking about
the importance of getting to
convention obviously but also like the
other trade shows getting from the
installer standpoint um some of them are
not as well attended for installers so
we're trying to encourage them to
get to services get to cover and get to
you know convention
so
a little i think that's kind of what
we're driving at here is
what type of transitions maybe have you
seen from people coming to shows and
getting more involved and then just
really loving this thing
i didn't know there was any other shows
besides ties
tell me more about these other shows
tell me about this yeah
the
transition has come
fairly frequently um i would say up
until
oh i'd probably say
five six maybe seven eight years ago
you could see almost all
and not just inside but everyone was
siloed and if you were parker you were
carpenter if you were tall you were
tired there was no blending there was no
cross-merge between each one
very much
later and very recently you started
seeing a little bit more openness and
and talking amongst each other i think
you see if i
and
installers are a little more open to it
retailers
by and far especially in the times in
the early times when i was working on
surfaces from 1997 to 2004 retailers
would know each other would be friendly
maybe in their communities but they
would not share secrets there was no
everything was a secret everything was a
trade
idea and you didn't want to share
because you didn't want your competition
to get a leg up whereas installers
100
i've always seen where installers share
their ideas and share their discoveries
and strategies to
run a better business
quicker techniques and better practices
we love sharing that stuff
and the retailers were just sitting here
like this guarding it very very tightly
even if you go back to when i competed
in 2020 um
my competitor mike he actually
i looked at his and i was like
how did you do that right and then he
had no issues with saying this is how i
did it this is where you can find some
information on it
that way you know
some of his stuff 100 look better than
mine and you know he's got that
experience and the knowledge to know
where to look for things and then just
him expanding on that and letting me
know
taught me all right this is where i can
find information anytime anyone else has
a question
i can point them in that direction as
well
and roll it back to your point where you
it all rolls back into advance because
now going back
surfaces much more deeply
i haven't come back to informa um
retailers are more open installers are
definitely more open everyone's sharing
the information everyone is now talking
and i believe that it is the trade shows
conferences events that that information
is all shared and everyone can kind of
sit down on an even playing field and
talk about what's working what's not
figuring out that together the boat can
grow right well i don't have to protect
our piece of the pie it does seem like
uh the shows are kind of like open more
open arms to installers now too you see
i mean this last year i've seen way more
than
in the past and it's like they're
welcomed more i if if you talk to an
installer 10 years ago they
one probably didn't even know about any
of the shows but if they did
they thought it was only for
the manufacturers to go make deals with
some
some distributors or something like that
and that business happens there and
that's great but
this open arm in the installation
competition and all that
really seems like it's
brought in more of the installer
community and to me that's really
important because
those guys understanding one of the best
things i ever did is went seeing how
carpet was made when i went to the mill
that was it was eye-opening
so just being involved where those
opportunities come up and and being
involved in um
tice and getting to the that show
getting here to convention
i think it's a it can really kind of
maybe not quantly that might be a big
word to use right there but elevate your
your chance for success as an installer
you know like
well that that's what it's all about
yeah
so it is true um
i recognized you for many companies
especially independent contractors but
most installers aren't getting any
contractors unless you have the luxury
of maybe a retailer who's willing to
pony up the money and send you out to an
event it that's money out of your pocket
one you're gonna pay registration fees
you're gonna have a big hotel plus the
time away from your business and all
that especially time away from the
business and not being able to do jobs
is money right out of your pocket yeah
it's a true investment it's an
investment it really is but it will pay
dividends with the connections you make
and the opportunities that you grow um
first time i ever met yet i would never
have imagined that eventually he's going
to be speaking for me and the programs
yeah and
but it all makes sense it takes those
connections and
i may not be able to find you if you if
anyone's staying home and
you got to shoot your shotgun
yeah so get to convention guys i mean
get here get the thais tice by the way
is awesome i've been going for many
years i've always enjoyed the show and
you guys do a wonderful job putting that
on so yeah it's bigger and better in
2023.
let everyone know the day too everything
january 30th january 30th and february
2nd uh is the entire show programs day
uh with our pre-show day and then the
three days of the show yeah come this
year you have six months to plan let's
do it paul's gonna be waiting for you
both paul's are gonna be waiting for you
the polls will be there and we will be
looking for you
well thanks for joining us i really
appreciate the time and getting
yeah see you around awesome all right
thank you nice always talking with you
guys see you right now
bye
i think we need to get this guy over
here roland
150 year old guy over here
he's got to grab his cane hold on
get in the walker
[Laughter]
yeah right
what's going on man how are you doing
buddy good to see you brother
man
so rollin
participates uh when we're we're
not together so it's fun having them
here when we are together too
yeah yeah we
good program guys thank you all right
yeah these guys are awesome it's great
to get on and chat with everybody and
just have a good meaningful conversation
it's about educating the industry about
getting together as
installers and people you know tell us a
bit about you because you do some pretty
interesting work
well you know
or tell to i mean for the
audience that doesn't know well you know
tell us a little bit about well you know
i have a little retail shop in frederick
maryland i was of course starting
industry as a you know subcontractor for
a lot of years and i still still get out
there doing it
uh but i have a little retail shop and
uh
but yet i i get out i do
inspections for manufacturers i
uh
teach and train it with cfi and nfic and
anybody else will let me teach it you
know
because i'm getting education
uh well giving it your knowledge is
really cool yeah a lot of information
yeah yeah i try
you know my daughter my my oldest
daughter she's a cfo for her company out
in oregon
and she was home one day and she was
looking through my portfolio
i have a portfolio
and she looked at me she's dad you know
how many years of college it would take
for somebody to get this portfolio
you know
and and and i looked at her and she says
yeah and i said yeah
i guess that's my college you know yeah
yeah you know and that's what you know i
have guys asked me today
you know they'll say what do you mean
you're going to go to this training or
go to the convention or go to a
certification
and i go listen
none of us know it all
and so
you know i'm going to go to it because i
want to know everything i can
for the industry
and whether it be a a
a seminar for a sales person you know i
want to know all aspects of the industry
there being one for the manufacturer
whether it be one for you know
a training or for a new product out
there well you i mean just you just
spoke about um
being an inspector doing inspections do
you think that would be um
it would be a good practice for
installers to
uh get an inspection
uh certificate you know to get trained
well i think i i think
you know i didn't think about that
aspect of it until towards the end of my
end of my career because
you know fortunately for me you know the
lord's been good to me and my body is
still in you know for 134 years old
you know and but you got to look at the
future
and looking at the future you know
you you're to where you get to the point
that you want to get off your knees
because you've got to look at that
you know
and so looking at the future inspections
is one of those features
you know
uh going to work for a manufacturer is
one of those futures and going into a
dealer and working in the sales is one
of those futures
so to have that future you've got to be
open to look at that at that
if you don't want to travel around and
be
a tech for a manufacturer or something
like that you want to stay local because
you have family and all that
then you want to get with the dealer or
look or learn that aspect of it
and
and that's what i did in 1995 middle of
95
you know i thought you know what
i
you know i'm pretty well versed
i was making a good living with it and
everything else but now i want to learn
more
and to learn more was going in and
learning the other aspects
learning you know i started going to
sales seminars
i actually went to the junior college
and took some customer service courses
you know yeah it's invested in yourself
right
and so i wanted to learn that in
so i would have
more i was more versatile
more valuable
and as an installer
you can start looking at that and you
can
and going to you were talking earlier
with with paul
going to
the texas going to the nwfa going to
coverings you know going going to the
cfi convention
you know that all is part of that
package
of making you
more rounded and valuable
and so as far as an inspection that's
another avenue
that you can go into well and i would
think that it also
helps
an installer to understand what
inspectors look for correct because what
you when you go through training
you say you're new and you're learning
we'll just use carpet say you're
learning carpet and you you kind of get
your
feet wet and say two years down the road
you're installing on and
it's valuable to understand what on the
other side what the manufacturer sees is
the most important pieces of that
installation
so that's where i see that getting uh
certified as an inspector even if you
don't use it right away
is valuable knowledge for you to put the
final pieces of the puzzle together and
say you know what i know they look for
steam sales
become a better installer well it helps
you know and know what to do
you know because they're again talking
about that
the inspection
portion of what i do
is small
because of what else i do
as far as my business
and all that
but i have it there and i
when i keep my foot in it and do it
we don't want to do it yeah and how
often i want to do it
who knows
you know when i went instead of being
134 when i hit 135 i might decide to
flip that around yeah all right yeah and
so well you're still crazy enough now to
get it to like
these restaurants right you know yeah
restaurant you know yeah you know and
and i do you know
when i go to do those
you know and guys like jose and ed that
come and help me i don't say you get in
there and do it and you shut back and
just drink coffee i get in there with
them yeah yeah 100 you know work circles
around me you know so
you know so you know i get in there with
them i'm not asking them to come help me
do this
and
put them in the word and say yeah make
me look good you know they do but still
you know
his
sister has a video of me making a
misconception
hasn't been published yet
i'm sitting there i'm cutting in this
piece really i'm cutting in this
groundless pillow and she come up with
the camera and i'm looking up and you
know you just say i'm and so i'm like
and as soon as i did it you knew you
know because i was looking up at her
oh crap
oh you only do stuff like that when
someone's watching she was filming you
know i'm like you know and she's said
they're filming and i'm like and i cut
to one side dropped it down like what
and as soon as i went like this
i've got to lay this down here she's got
the camera rolling
oh no
so so anyway
so i laid it down and of course she had
to come there
focus on it
she didn't go and focus on it after i
fixed it you couldn't see it but she
focused on that well you got to get some
collateral you know it's like really you
know so yeah so you know doing the
restaurant
and all that but you know what i'm going
to tell them you know talking about to
the guys and talk to them up there
you know never stop never stop going
you know oh you know i mean
i
have lifelines and part of the lifelines
is your network and networking is what
you get here yeah is what you get at you
know get in get in and even the forums
you know i mean their lifelines and
their networking there's more
opportunities that can be created and
generated from
involving yourself in the industry
instead of just working on what you
think you need to work on there's more
to it you might not know yes what else
you can work on until you come to a
place like this and you put yourself out
there you ask
questions you you make sure that you you
leave yourself vulnerable right yeah
humility you know and you know what's
nice about
with you know cfi and you know in all
the organizations
is that
you know i'll get a phone call
you know i i have this situation you
know what what am i supposed to do
there's times i don't have the answer
yeah so i don't know everything yeah you
recall all right so fortunately for me i
go okay well let me let me
let me go look at my stuff
and my stuff is i hang the phone up and
i call something
uh mr namba what do i do here
[Music]
you know and and so i you know there's
lifelines
that you get with this you know or i'll
call you know
say they called me and it was a piece of
mohawk and now he's engineered floors
but he used to be able to call me
something with mohawk and it's something
new yeah and i'm like okay
andrew smith
but you had that information yeah
it's about getting to the shows
getting to know those people and then
having those relationships to lean on
correct right yes thanks ron man i
appreciate you joining us it's been a
pleasure all right always a pleasure
guys
and thanks for participating take it
easy
1500 push-ups a day
so i'm splitting like a dog
i'll get them out of the way
200 literally i do about 5 600 today
you're the man i just did a couple
hundred dollars i wouldn't be finished
well awesome welcome to uh the huddle
thanks these guys love what you guys are
doing this is awesome platform for the
installment
yeah that's right
well trying to encourage them to get to
convention get to the
different trade shows
and just get involved yeah a lot of a
lot of the install uh community
has felt siloed over the years that i
was just talking to paul
you can see it enticed you can see more
install you can see the opening of the
arms to the installation community and i
think the guys this is the time
when our audience needs to
get to these events
invest the time in that i i know it's an
investment we all have good jobs
um but we come to these events because
we see value i've been doing this for
since i got out of high school
so
all the years of experience tells me to
get to these events each year so you
learn more here because you're
interacting with the people that live
your profession some of them have
experience where you don't have
experience
you might get that online you might get
it in a class but you can pick it up
here from word knowledge you won't get
anywhere else and if there's every time
the installation world needs to come
together because you're right we we've
lived solo maybe by accident more than
on purpose but because we didn't have an
event like this to come to cfi has been
around the reach of cfi has never been
as great as this
we got the opportunity to bring people
in from all over and say okay let's
let's combine our voice because when
you're out there individually crying hey
foul we're not getting paid enough for
whatever it may be you're one voice when
you get together with an organization
like this and you cry out they hear you
yeah it makes a big difference
definitely power numbers and in
cross-communicating between
you know foreign companies retailers
manufacturers a lot of these events
allow you to get like sit next to
uh the president of edf
contract or you know district people
have seen you know yeah
and we didn't even properly introduce
scott scott
everyone knows
ceo of wsca
listen i grew up in a 10-foot wide
trailer i don't ever see myself as a ceo
but i do realize the power
of all of us getting together and what
you're doing what you're creating with
your career the opportunity for an
installer to have a platform visibility
yeah the visibility the the necessity
for the industry to embrace what we're
doing
never happened it's the reason that when
i came over wsca i said we have to have
cfi under our realm yeah we need to
combine the voices of retail
not just retail i mean 90 of our
membership is retail independent foreign
retails it's also manufacturers
distributors vendors we get all those
voices combined with the people that are
on the front line reaching our customer
last then we can make a difference but
we got to be willing listen i tell
people all the time it's like steering
an aircraft carrier you know you turn
the wheel but you can't see anything
happen
and we all want the same thing we've
just got to come together put down the
silos and the walls and say okay let's
tackle this yeah well i see that
happening more i mean i i really see uh
the advancement in the communication
lines and your leadership live that you
do every week i believe yeah every
friday is awesome
if you guys are not on the wfca's email
list get on it and the leadership online
that's very valuable not only that the
membership is free yeah membership is
free to you unless you're a
manufacturing distributor they pay a
very minimal amount but it means it
costs you nothing right
as an installer the membership is free
why not take advantage of that yeah you
got to because the resources are there
there's so much you have access to on
our website and there's just we we think
about what are the needs of the people
that are coming to our site what are the
needs of our members and when i left
shaw and became the ceo of the wfc i
asked myself one question
what should an association do
well associations exist to solve the
problems of their members right so
what's the biggest problem in our
industry
right here installation and we had we
had tons of silos talking about it but
nobody was actually doing anything about
it everybody was saying that your
problem is your problem
and so we knew when we brought cfi under
our realm we were saying it's our
problem yeah and we want all of us to
address this together that's the reason
when we helped create fcef it was all
about before the solution well i love
that i love that talking point that you
bring it up uh fairly often is
don't just complain like get involved
yeah there's organizations uh with wfca
cfi
uh go carrera
nwm
that's available for you to get involved
and if you don't like something your
voice is more heard today than ever as
an installer you have a better chance of
making
impactful change that you see necessary
but you have to come to convention you
have to get involved become a cfi member
get if you're not certified or trained
it's very simple squeaky wheel disagrees
yeah we're really working with
manufacturers to get them to require
certification for warranties or
extension warranties taylor by the way
is doing an amazing job they double the
length of the warranty if you're cfi
certified and you use those
we hope everybody sees the common sense
in that it comes on board because when
we drive certification we drive
professionalism within the industry
which draws more people into it
[Music]
your time to increase your knowledge and
they see the value of this so they
understand that you are putting forth
the effort to understand the science
behind the product they're pushing out
so that's why it's
i want to say easy for them to extend
that warranty because they know that
you're investing the time so why not
invest back into those those individuals
but i can tell you that there's large
retailers so cfi's uh training and their
weight
that it carries in our algorithm for our
hammer rating and go carrera is one of
the heaviest trains period
so that's cool what that means is
we have we're working with several
national retailers retail chains that
are
going to be coming down the pipe as uh
full remodels of their
tens of thousands of locations and
they're they're writing in their
specifications i help them write their
specification to have a minimum handle
so that that hammer rating is directly
reflective of cfi's
trainings and certifications and all
that not only
do you have the camera ready but we tout
that it's also cfi you know
you know it's all in the profile so
point being is this is becoming more
important to retailers
the reason behind that as it was
explained to me by a very large retailer
is
we
thrive on consistency to our customers
that's what they do
if you're a automotive store you want
the same experience for your customer in
north carolina as new york
whether you eat a hamburger or buy
because the world has become very
nationalized that way right
they want the same consistency that they
provide when they get their
construction projects done and in our
field and their customers workers
they want the consistency and so now
they're starting
a very large retailer is writing in
their spec for minimum hammering because
they want that
consistency
no matter where they get their flooring
and salt any of their locations all over
the nation and that comes from getting
go career does no training we don't
train nobody you have to go to cfi you
got to get trained it carries a lot of
weight in our algorithm
that we give that gives you your skill
score and your hammer rating but you've
got to get the convention you got to get
trained
and
get the certifications as well and
there's going to be opportunities
opening up whether expected you got to
be cfi trained or cfi certified i know
cti on the ctf yeah
i hope you guys know all these
yeah
those guys are getting specified now
this is gonna mean money in your pocket
as an installer and that's what really
matters
we wouldn't be lying
you said we never got a phone call
because of our affiliations our
certifications um you know it's been a
trickle effect right like it puts your
name on a list of
qualified individuals or companies and
you never know when the phone is going
to read because of those connections
that were made we'll limit your
competition
it does what it does is it creates
separation from you and what you
consider your competition
and it puts you in a category all your
own depending on
the market in your area you might be one
of three or one of 30 but you're still
separated right you just increased your
chances
of landing a project you just increase
your chances of generating that revenue
whether it's on the sales or just the
installation side you just increase your
visibility and then not only that it's
once you elevate yourself to the point
to where you become one of the most
knowledgeable people in your particular
area
they call the other guys because they're
looking for someone and then everyone
will point their finger back at you and
you know we've been pretty fortunate so
that that has been what a blessing that
is to get to that level yeah yeah like
another your peers are referring here
it's no longer a competition that at
that point you are sharing the wealth
and you are understanding that
you as an individual have limitations
but you know what because of the network
that we've created i know someone who
can take care of it i know a company can
install it
it can be one of the relationships
again it's the reason you need to be at
these meetings you meet people that can
be a resource for you to help solve some
of the issues that are impacting your
opportunity for success yeah
very busy man yeah i'm heading down
thank
we have we have recruiters right now
that are seeing guys walk by or we only
have five minutes guys i would love to
have more
conversations
uh hopefully we can get daniel over here
back to
to say bye but look we we've had a great
time today
we're running out of time on this
podcast
what fun
has it been
oh sis
listen she went to the nap it's okay
so we're wrapping things up we're
running out of time
say hi
everybody get to convention next year
and tice again is in january i believe
he said right into january check it out
and uh thanks everybody for coming by i
didn't get to any questions we just
simply ran out of time here are we out
of time i wanted to get we got about
four minutes before four minutes we're
just talking about the importance of
trade shows and why do you think that
other installers should come over here
uh
way more important really
we've been doing this to everyone yeah
so chime in don't be shy
videos and such like that anyway this
stuff like this right here that they're
doing is super important you get all
kinds of hands-on knowledge and stuff
like that you're actually starting to
get more and more into doing teachings
here uh if you're not if you don't do
something by all means it's good just
just to come and get your feel of it i
just went through a
um
a resilient class that i've never done
before i don't do resilient but i always
wanted to check it out and do some manly
and stuff like that so i had a chance
here to go and
get a little test with that so
you get to meet people uh
learn new skills meet some new people
lots and tons of us maybe jump on a
podcast out of the blue yeah somebody
say hey come here
reuben we we appreciate it man i know we
think we're running out of time yeah no
i appreciate you guys
come join come join all right guys hey
guys thanks goodbye
foreign