This week on The Huddle Paul, Daniel and Jose talk about some resources available to you to ensure that you are able to stay up-to-date with the changes constantly happening in the industry.

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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.

https://www.preferredflooringmi.com

https://www.stuartandassociates.com

okay well welcome everybody

to uh the weekly huddle where we coming

to every tuesday

to discuss maintaining forward progress

in your business and flooring career

uh today i got daniel with me

as

as always

from pf is with me

today

we're putting together a resource kind

of guide

uh

today's podcast is about

um

or the huddle here is about

you know staying in tune with the

industry staying up to date and i'm not

just talking about new products although

many of the resources we

are going to share with you

will help keep you up to date on new

tools and new products

but

also

uh keeping you up to date on industry

developments

what's up jose

uh

industry developments

it keeps you in touch with um

you know when the conventions we always

talk about whether it's convention or a

show

whether you're in tile carpet

resilient or hardwood

so we're gonna put together a resource

guide a few of them all mention on here

and we'll share that on all of our

social later today

and we'll also

uh send out emails so if you're on our

email list

uh you'll get an email

uh with some links

and

basically this is

different publications in the industry

from floor covering weekly or

um

one of the the you know pro installer or

one of those

um also

uh i've got to give a big shout out to

the ntca if you're a go carrera member

uh you get

their education package and within that

education package

i believe it's 249 a year

uh normally it's 600

so

as a go carrera member you get it for

249

but the

that comes with one of the best

resources for tile which is the tile

letter

and that really keeps you up to date

you'll get that monthly in the mail

and that really keeps you up to date on

all things style from new developments

stories

um

it's like a reader's digest for tile

basically so

um

that's a good one

obviously we've talked about cfi before

becoming a member there is very valuable

to you but also

uh you'll be on their newsletter and

kind of stay up to date with their

trainings

you'll still be able to stay up to date

with new

uh new trainings

um

not just new

or trainings in your area but when they

come out with the new training

um

they they uh they put that in their

newsletter

um there's also

various um

the nwfa is with

uh for wood flooring um nafct

does a great job for

um training and resilient and things

like that

so we'll we'll basically share a

resource guide

uh that will allow you just to go

um

and click on that resource and and go

check out the material

the big thing here is a lot of people

that are in our industry and we've ran

surveys

uh specifically on flooring installers

surveys that

just show that many of them don't have

an idea of where to go to find trainings

or find

you know stay up to date with the

industry standards new installation

methods and techniques

so we're going to share that uh

this

this uh huddle is less conversational

than previous because

i'm going to ask you guys what resources

you have ashlynn will log that down and

if we don't already have that at go

carrera as the resource we'll add that

but um what do you guys get on uh

do you are you on newsletters how do you

stay in touch with where the industries

go and you guys have such a good thumb

on the pulse of that

uh how do you actually

keep that thumb on the industry's pulse

it's

that's exactly it it's uh our inboxes

are filled up with newsletters in the

emails um you know

cfi

uh

yeah

for covering news um

magazine

from the the distributors

even stica

sends information yeah fcica is a good

one too they they they even have like uh

monthly webinars that you can join and

there's the

guys that one's a good one i'm glad you

brought that up jose because

we're both members of fcica

and uh in our flooring companies i'm

also

go career as a member

uh as

the software company um

but

you want to talk about staying up to

date and getting opportunities to jump

on webinars and learn new product i know

rdex does it a lot um

i think i've seen

yeah i've seen almost every major

manufacturer do a webinar new product

launches

it's a fast and efficient way i many

times we look at our inbox and we're

like shoot

it's hard to say for what spam and what

isn't right so you kind of have to thumb

through it a little bit um

but even if it does come through and it

gets flagged there still is some

information in there there's a lot of

links that you could click on and just

kind of move forward through you just

have to

yeah i'd recommend if you don't know

where it's coming from don't click on it

yeah

but for sure there's a lot of

information

well

mentioning the fc ica and that's they

really focus in on

you know the soft goods side of the

industry so the you know resilient and

carpet side um

and they're they're

they're webinars we've done one for goku

air on there before

but their webinars are really

informative um

i would i would suggest uh signing up

with the fcica now i'm not sure on every

resource if you have to be a member to

be

part of it or not so you'll have to

decipher through each one

we might be able to put some some more

information

ashlynn can do that

on the resource guide but

the inboxes is full of stuff and uh

what i'm saying with the webinar is

i know when you look at it it can be

like i don't have 30 minutes but to get

the same information you got to have a

rep come into your office it's going to

take two hours so the thing is is even

like when i was in the field i would put

a webinar on and i wouldn't pay

you know i wouldn't focus 100 percent of

my attention to the webinar i'd be

working over here

leave the phone wherever i can get

signal and just listen and then once i'm

like oh let me let me pay attention to

this real quick go grab the phone look

at it

but the the information is

is very valuable i mean that's um

really where

like for an example i was working

um i don't know bronton is about an hour

and 15 minutes away from here

and uh

working out there doing a brand new

hospital and the mapei was doing one on

their

uh lbt for shower system and i was like

this is sounds interesting to me so i

listened to it came back told him and

we're like let's start talking to him

and pay

uh you know and talked to sam and biando

and uh

the other guy

craig or jeffrey jeff

you know a number of people and then we

ended up getting you know some material

and boom our office has a shower in it

out of lvt

yeah

it's actually pretty sweet looking i

prefer to take a shower here at the

office and i do it

well it's um it's stuff like that i mean

who

i seen now you go to that and then you

follow up with going to surfaces where i

seen

the lvt in the shower and you kind of

can touch and feel it so it's a good

it's good supporting documents for you

to kind of know what's going on when

when you do go to convention or to um to

a show

some of the notable shows we've

mentioned in the past but

surfaces coverings surfaces is all

things flooring

aliens a little more residential

uh coverings is all hard tile all over

the world

ceramic tile of italy of spain portugal

i mean everybody who makes manufacturers

tile

is pretty much there

you got tsp which is a another ceramic

tile

called total solutions plus

that has an annual convention as well

and that is really focused on

uh education

for

the tile industry

um you got

obviously cfi convention which is really

focused on training and

installers let's see other notable ntca

which is the national tile council of

america or association

one of the two uh

then you got um so they obviously are

very focused on tile they got a great

program called five star

um

uh

contractor which you can become as a

flooring company

if you go through certain things um it's

pretty hard to get there but it's it's

pretty valuable there's some specs out

there that require five stars

uh contractors to do uh the work

the nwfa is the national wood flooring

association and that's all things

hardwood and if you ever get a chance to

go to st louis and look at their

facility and see them see some of the

stuff that they have done with hardwood

it's absolutely amazing

and then you've got uh let's see went

through the ent oh fcef everybody that

one is um their

main goal

and they could use your your support too

um their main goal is

helping us solve the labor issues so

they're doing a lot of recruiting

they're working with a lot of uh

community colleges

uh they've got a 10 week

kind of i believe

it i know it's ten weeks i don't know

what they call it a certified program or

whatever it's a training a ten week

training program

okay

um

that is being done in a lot of

a couple of community colleges at this

point i believe um

so they're awesome to be involved with

and kind of see where that's heading

um

let's see what else i know i'm missing

several here but

um

anyway we'll have it all on the resource

list to keep the the the ideas to

you know get plugged in like daniel said

you know you're going to get this into

your inbox you get the choice of whether

to watch

read or whatever and um

and uh take advantage of that

information once you sign up for some of

these things too like the fcica

it's uh

once the webinars are pushed out there

you know you can attend it live but if

you can't make it everything's recorded

and you can get in there and watch it

later too yeah good point yeah they

record every webinar so if you miss one

like daniel said you can go back and

watch it

yeah and i mean if you really look at um

i think everyone pretty much has their

own magazine out too right and

the the information in there is actually

coming from people that are living it

we've written a few articles um i

actually haven't posted on our website

so people can

kind of click through and see what we've

written but

it's a lot of valuable information there

too and then

the the best thing about those articles

is like if you read something from one

of us and then you go to one of these

conventions and you're like hey i read

your article

can we talk about this and you know

that's what happened at tfi convention

and it was awesome to to know that

one people are reading these things and

two

they do have some input and

want to pick your brain not only about

you know what you wrote but about their

thoughts on it and how

how your views of something depending on

what you're talking about maybe you know

a little off or

you know everyone's not gonna agree on

everything but if it's definitely about

an installation method or

a standard uh those are kind of set in

stone

sure but you you bring up a good point i

mean

um you guys have written articles i

think i've written

five or six articles over the years here

uh the key what i'm saying that for is

if you're tied into the to the

organization you have a chance to write

articles too they want content so if you

you get in touch with them and discuss

and you have something important you

want to say

uh to the industry

um

and you know get get your uh research

out there or whatever it is um you know

i've written articles on the labor

shortage i've written articles on using

digital tools and how flooring's a bit

behind from construction in general is a

bit behind in technology we're catching

up honestly

but uh flooring is kind of lagging even

the construction side from a technology

standpoint we had a whole podcast about

technology and stuff you know so

um

but

whatever it is you are passionate about

uh within the industry or even just

business in general you

you will find that there are

opportunities out there to write the

articles yourself and uh you know work

with whether it's scica or whomever on

uh you know getting your article

published

yeah

and it's not that they want the articles

they need the articles right like they

need the content there there's there's

um

a lot of instances where they're just

reaching out saying hey can you just

write us something on one of these 20

subjects yeah like just your views and

it's only like dangerous it's only one

view

um and we can only speak for our

experiences but man it's

it'd be nice to see some new names and

some of these articles and read it

yeah i mean that's a great opportunity

for people to go through they typically

would send out basically an excel

spreadsheet with the different

publications and the requirements for

those publications and then some titles

they're looking to fill

and if you feel like you're an expert in

that area and you've uh you're tied in

with the organization so they know

you're an expert uh you got a good

chance of being published so

yeah what else do you guys do

hands-on man just a lot of hands-on like

um you know we don't have a very big

warehouse or a shot per se but

if there's material out there or

something that is coming across the desk

and we're

not familiar with it we'll make the

phone calls we'll call the wraps we'll

try to get some material whether

it's donated or we purchase it to get

the hands-on

and then from there you start educating

yourself like this isn't working now

let's look to see what tooling is out

there to help this or we'll reach out to

the networks and say hey who's worked

with this before what are you guys using

uh why are you using that you know and

you'll get a bunch of different answers

but it's really a comfort thing and

you get a lot of people involved in the

conversation and it starts a whole

conversation about it and then

it brings to the surface some of the

answers that some other people don't

know or wouldn't even think about asking

and they're

another

opportunity for an aha moment yeah

like we're talking about you know

staying up to date the the biggest thing

is knowing who your reps are and talking

to them about stuff um because once you

it's it's never really to the point

where they're gonna start coming to you

and being like hey

you want to start talking you you

actually have to initiate the

conversation most the time and then once

you do you establish that relationship

and then

they'll start coming to you so you know

we get two manufacturers and stuff like

that they're like hey we got this new

tool coming out can you guys uh

you know check it out and let us know

your thoughts or you know we're having a

really hard time pushing this one tool

or product will you guys work with it

and kind of give us your feedback and

you know we we do we've made videos and

i mean

we've actually made videos to the points

where we're like yeah you know what

we'll record something put it on youtube

and then once we start recording

it's like hey let's let's just stop

recording this and start recording

like something just for these people so

they can know what to tweet before

like

this product

this is i can't push this product

because there's something wrong with it

we're gonna let them know and then they

we can you know

get that next prototype and move on from

there that comes from being involved

at convention everywhere like danny and

those you know with wolf or

the taylor guys or getting in touch with

the manufacturer so that they

yeah or the tool makers in this case

so that they know to even

send you something

right they even know who you are i mean

so that's getting to convention or

getting to

the different shows where

the tool manufacturers display their

stuff and they're they love doing that

so

they love the feedback right because

if they're not making something that

you're going to use

why are they even making it so if that

something can just be tweaked a little

bit like

if we just tweak this we can sell this

much more that's really the information

that they need

you know once you establish that

relationship they'll start reaching out

hey check this out and then you know we

we're notorious for giving honest

feedback

so

it's like this is this is what's wrong

with it this is what i don't like and

this is why this isn't going to be in my

toolbox like

some sometimes it's just yeah sometimes

there's a tool that

well the same thing goes with adhesives

and stuff like that i gotta he's i know

adhesives i just don't care to use you

know i'm not gonna name anybody's name

but i'm just saying you know

you you get messing with something and

you figure out the goods and bads of it

and

report back

yeah i mean look they need content they

need feedback they need all this stuff

and they just need more

daniels and jose's and paul's to be out

there talking and

and and trying their products out and if

you really look at it like when we were

at cfi convention um

mohawk was a huge part of that and alana

was like

talking to us a lot and she's like i

need to know

you know i need

installer feedback so that way we can

know that we're engineering products

that are not only going to be look good

on the floor but be installer friendly

and and perform the way they need to be

yeah and seem and they they they look

pretty and they they seem like they'd

work uh you know

in the manufacturing plant but you got

to get them out in the field to kind of

mess with them a bit see what the

dependencies are

what the problems are

you know

that kind of stuff so

i think cool yeah i thought that her off

guard too was like she has hey what

about this product

i wouldn't even put it in in my house i

wouldn't do it why not it's just

said because i live in michigan it's

just not going to perform where i'm at

yeah i know it's going to fail i

nobody's going to take care of it the

way it's supposed to i don't want it i

don't want it to fail

but that's what started that

conversation well that's nice and deep

and uh getting to know the product but

uh

for sure

well um

so another good way is

join the huddle weekly uh we're here

every tuesday at three o'clock i think

we've

we're on episode

14 or 15 or something

we haven't we've missed uh one i believe

uh maybe two but uh for the most part

we're here um

again we're trying to create a

comprehensive

resource list for you guys so

uh we're gonna publish that like i said

ashton's gonna put it on our social here

the next uh

maybe this afternoon but more than

likely over the next day or so

and um

you know provide your feedback if you

have any questions if we're missing

anything you know just just let us know

i'll reach out to these guys and and if

i don't have the answer they you know

one of us will and we'll get a resource

for you so um

outside that

the huddle was uh a little different

this week

we weren't going real in depth on uh you

know in a topic that you you drill into

but i did want to talk about some of the

ways you can keep your thumb on the

pulse these guys do it great that's why

it's so good to have them on there they

you see them everywhere they're

always at you know conventions and shows

and they're always talking with the

right people and so that's

i guess the last point would be don't be

shy when you get to the shows and

convention come up say hi to any of us

and and

certainly

we may have been pointing to other

people yeah we made it a point at the

last conventions where

if uh if we seen someone sitting by

themselves it's like

let me go sit next to this guy and just

you know talk to him for a little bit

and

you know a lot of people

it's their first time they they have no

idea what they're even walking into yeah

so in order to

be comfortable sometimes you have to

have someone to approach you and so

that's what we did last time and

breaking the ice for him is really what

it was and

i just send wayne pruitt out there and

he breaks the ice for for well he's he's

fantastic

fantastic

but then he doesn't show up yeah that's

true too

and he knows it

uh

i love you dwayne um

but anyway

that's about it for this week guys uh

it's amazing that took almost 30 minutes

just uh going through that but

um

you guys got anything signing off

uh grab that with baby sister

this is why you gotta

get into the

magazines and stuff like that

yeah that's awesome

she put a picture of me on there because

she felt bad oh yeah

both of us are on here just to

moral support yeah basically

like

yeah and you guys basically drag little

sister into uh to her first competition

and and really getting involved herself

and

and she's emerging as not only you know

being recognized as a great installer

but also a leader from

for for females in our industry i i know

i've talked to several

uh ladies who

admire her very much

and

um

so yeah you get to meet people

um

but staying in tune i know we preach a

lot about getting the convention but

that's because this is our our

only not our only method but it's a

really good method of staying in touch

with people that can make a difference

in your business

um and so we just encourage it a lot

um

and then of course

just to recap

we'll we'll uh we'll publish this

resource uh

this resource page and hopefully it

helps everybody out a little bit so if

you got any questions feel free to email

us

um support go carrera got any questions

uh for daniel and jose you guys want to

plug your email

if they if they have any uh install

questions or do you have uh you can

email either one of us uh daniel or jose

at pfmi.team

awesome

all right guys well thanks for joining

me on this short huddle and uh it's good

seeing you guys again and we will talk

to you soon all right all right next

time

next week guys