The Huddle - Episode 7 - Trade Shows; What Attracts Installers

This week Paul talks with Jose and Daniel Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring discuss upcoming Trade Shows, and how they benefit the Installer.

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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

welcome everybody to this week's um

huddle

it's episode seven

and um

every week we come to you as usual with

daniel and jose

and the whole goal here is to move your

flooring uh business or career forward

so we like to call it forward progress

uh today's a pretty light-hearted show

uh or huddle we're really wanting to

just kind of talk about experiences at

trade shows and what attracts installers

um i know you guys go to these uh to a

lot of different trade shows just

wanted to chat super quick uh it's day

after holiday so it's kind of a short

week we're gonna keep this hu this

huddle short as well

but uh

i think it'd be beneficial the more

installers i found a ton of value going

to the to the different shows and uh i

thought we'd maybe just chat about that

a little bit

anybody feel like jumping in

uh and as a note we're right on the

on the cusp of uh cfi convention so

that's coming around the corner here at

the first of next month a little less

than a month away so it's probably good

timing to talk about you know what are

the goods uh out there

um that that can attract installers to

get to some of these shows uh you know a

lot of companies go but what about the

what about us

right

i think uh

when we started going it was really for

the installation competition which

they're also doing

the the preliminary installation

competition i think they have like three

or four different um

kind of regional

deals that they're trying to do and to

to get people to go to um surfaces this

year and competing in installer of the

year but

um before that i mean we never really

did anything and then i i signed up i

got in and

you know once you

actually walk into one of these places

and see how

huge it is and how many people are there

and

the p the people that are there it's

like man i never thought i'd be talking

to this guy and him over here shaking

his hand and

talking to him and it's just

just amazing um then you know once you

get your your first one under the belt

and then you start going to more and

more you realize how many um different

like education events and stuff like

that that

that they have so it's not just going

there

to network and hang out but i mean

there's actual classes and seminars that

you can attend and

uh you can pick and choose which ones

you go to but it's like

so much information jam-packed into the

couple days that you're there

so what what's the

you know like you mentioned the

the installation

competition the preliminaries are at cfi

generally and then the main events at

tice

and yeah so

tell me a bit more about that because

you have some you guys got some

some skin in the game there

yeah

i mean

the competition was amazing i they just

brought it back after you know what was

it like almost 20 years that they didn't

have it

and

when i signed up right because

i'm not like

a lot of the the other flooring guys

it's like yeah i'm good but i know there

are people better than me out there so i

was super nervous to sign up

but then

it was actually like

my brother my sister

uh jeremy got chuck that used to work

with us they all like hype me up they're

like man you're you are good you got to

do it so i signed up and

got in and just being in there it's it's

pretty nerve-wracking because you got

all these eyes on you but it's a it's a

great time it's almost

a lot of these people always talk about

how good they are

but none of them ever like

show up to show us how good they are

yeah

yeah it's

the whole the whole journey just as far

as getting involved that was

amazing too and i'm sorry if i if i'm

cutting in a little bit but um

like daniel said when he entered we

didn't know what to expect that was my

first time

ever going um the two

ties and

you know obviously i i went because to

support my brother but

it definitely

opened up

both of our perspectives as far as

understanding that there is

a lot more people out there

with similar

uh goals some similar interests and it

puts you in front of

people in your industry um and like

daniel said knowing that

we're pretty good he's pretty good at

installing you know we all have our

little niche

but

doing the installer of the year and

having him compete and kind of

gaining that much more knowledge because

that that place fuels you right like it

you feed off of the

the vibes that you get while you're in

there and it does help boost you

this is so the installer

competition obviously has

is was the kind of catalyst to get you

guys going

um

i think it's great that they brought it

back

is there you know what about some of the

other shows like coverings um i i would

also say it's a heck of a good time when

you go

you know daniel had mentioned about

you know all the education which is is

you know obviously it is there

uh different

oh how do i say it it's it's not all

just so installer focused or anything

but you can learn some new stuff about

the industry as a whole

the economics of the industry they

usually have like a you know a

state of the uh the industry type deal

there at tice i know

um

but point being is it's also pretty fun

you end up meeting people that you see

on social media or you might meet the

president of shaw or

ef contract or mohawk i mean literally

those guys are just kind of hanging out

there

so it's kind of neat to go meet

you know one of the ceos of a

multi-billion dollar

uh corporation right there hanging

hanging at the same same place that we

are

you have the opportunity to break bread

with some of these people too and you

know as

um

everybody is so down to earth and so

welcoming that it's

it's hard to view

to view it like the outsider looking in

right like

like you said you go meet these people

that hey this guy's on the email i've

been getting for the past three years

and he's like sitting right next to me

and we're talking about

life in general we're not talking about

work right i mean obviously work is

related in there and all ties in but to

be able to to sit there and get to to

learn who everyone is know everyone is

more on a personal level

um

like i said it just feeds to that that

fire inside of you it's that fuel that

you're looking for

that everyone started at some point

worked their way up

um and you know it's not just ties like

i've been into a few other events um and

every single one is the same thing

you go there with an open mind knowing

knowing that you're going to learn

something it's not whether or not yes i

i wonder if i'm going to learn anything

i wonder if i'm going to take something

away it's

100 facts that you're going to learn

something you're going to take something

away it doesn't matter how small or how

big

yeah i mean

i guess i want to spread the word and

try to get more guys there

uh you know even at

i did

kind of a

i wouldn't i wouldn't call it a survey

or anything

uh really um

just a a

overview of of the amount of installers

going appears to be somewhere in the

200 range and it appears i see the same

guys at the same shows

so

my thought

here is like how

the and most of the guys that go to the

shows are some of the guys that you you

see and recognize as some of the the

better installers out there

um

so how do you get more guys to go i

guess uh if if uh

the the thais people and

coverings

uh tsp

uh

cfi convention if they were watching

this what what what got you there is the

competition is there other things that

that these uh you know i go for

networking i go to learn about new

products

i also enjoy just getting around the

rest of the people in the industry

the way you were talking about jose and

what i was

speaking to about you know you you're

you're getting to meet the ceo of say

mohawk or what have you um

we're kind of like a

the biggest small industry there is it

seems to me like

everybody kind of congregates at these

uh conventions and there's

there's a lot to be had and a lot to

learn from the installer standpoint but

it's also a hell of a lot of fun so if

you get out there you start networking

you go have drinks with guys uh you know

i went to a great after party that that

uh

that tile nation put on

uh that was a a great

great uh

event afterwards it was fun to hang out

with everybody so it's a it's a fun

thing

uh

yeah i i see

he'll probably be back in a minute

but uh we got like dwayne pruitt just uh

a few minutes ago said that the new

tools from the vendors is one of his

favorites and then you that that is huge

right because you go to like ties and

they got two alley and you go there and

you see

and the countertops and stuff and it's

like these huge machines it's like man

some of these tools are

are crazy and then you get and they're

doing this

they're doing you know displays or

showing how the tools work it's really

cool jim aaron just chimed in and said

big industry small community

i think that sums it up pretty well

very big industry small community that

that um you know it's got that small

community feel so

if you guys you know

yeah we've seen you go

uh but if the install

competition got people there

um

how what other ways

you know that that competition obviously

brought some installers in

uh you know

just speaking from experience like i

said i like networking getting to know

the the heads of our industry

most people are very

open with their comm their uh contact

information as well and so emailing them

later when i have a question

i got this really talented guy at mapei

that i got his email and i know most of

the people have my pay and this guy just

has a certain specific knowledge that

i'm able to email him and ask him

specific questions and he's not even

necessarily my rep so you get some of

that stuff too

but yeah go go

go into the shows it for me is

a little bit away

from work but it's still enough work

that i feel like i'm being productive

and i can have a good time so

and then once you start looking at it

from like how do we get guys to go there

right that's what we're talking about

and it's like you have to look at it

like these are more um

or have been

in the past more like dealer focused so

you get the guy going out there and and

ladies going out there looking for the

new materials and what's trending and

all that and then

uh to get more installers out there

actually gives us a bigger spot in the

industry for them to be like okay well

it's not just us that's going to these

shows we've got tons of installers here

now and it's kind of like

maybe we we do have to start

communicating better as an industry and

not just

we're storers and we're installers

that's everyone is is here together

let's start talking about that i think

that's one of the biggest things on

why more people need to start going to

these things

yeah i think the more installers to go

the more they're going to do some stuff

to cater

they have always been pretty dealer

focused

but

with the amount of

independent installers that are not

working for a company

there has to be something that draws

them there

um

so

i think the competition is a high level

and i also want to thank you

go ahead

go ahead jose

the competition is what initially

brought us to our first let's quote

unquote convention

that was the that was the driving force

behind it um but

the people that we met and the

connections that were made

is what keeps our engine

and what brings more interest is knowing

that they're going to have technical

reps that they're going to have

marketing rights that they're going to

have um

you know other reps from other

manufacturers offer other aspects of the

industry

that

really keep our interest in returning to

any one of these and not only that is if

you find something that draws your

attention

then go there with a goal like find

someone that you want to connect and

find

something that you need to connect with

and try to connect those dots right like

sign up for it and go when you get there

ask a question maybe

you know i mean i'm going to revert back

to the meeting that we had there in

kansas we said hey this is our this is

where we're falling short as a business

this is where we need help

but

if it wasn't for us continuing to go and

for one uh further our education to

increase our social capital uh and three

just try to be as much of a flooring

nerd as possible in our industry

um we never would have connected because

me and you bumped into each other

multiple times over the course of two

years and yeah we met we met at the show

at different at you know multiple

different times but we met at shows so

that shows you the value i mean i've

grown

go ahead let's say it's just

it's just ongoing like yeah

there's somebody there

for any questions you might have there

is somebody that can help you out

and that's not a place to be shy or

embarrassed or

or anything like that like seriously

everyone there wants to see you succeed

as a sales person as an installer as a

new company as an aspiring company

they want to see your growth you know

everybody there pushes for that and

it's just a matter of asking

the question if someone doesn't know the

answer

they will lead you to the person's guts

well and i think that some of the events

i'll i'll bring up tile nation again

because they did a a really cool

uh booth at theis this last um

event and that was fun it was cool to go

hang out with those guys

cool to watch their approach they made

it fun

uh let you participate

i think if more of that the more that

stuff happens

they seem to draw a pretty good crowd

too

so that was cool

so shout out to them and

hopefully the industry can continue to

do some things that'll kind of

attract installers to the shows i just

think there's such a benefit i know that

we

you know we talk about training and

everything but there's some cool

trainings that are there as well

uh

but there's more than just

you know there's more to this industry

than just

installation training and all that

there's also a good camaraderie amongst

installers when you gather together

and

i think you find

less guys that are

this

you know six month or one year guys that

think they're the the best already uh

you have true professionals showing up

there so

um i've always enjoyed hanging out and

getting to getting to know other

installers we've gotten jobs covered

there

we've formed other relationships there

and so i

i think it's something that if you have

not been to a convention cfi convention

is august

2nd i believe

is that correct

anyone yeah second to the second to the

fourth yeah so go to that that's that's

coming up um

in less than a month

sign up go to that that it's pretty fun

i should i mean it's really installer

focused and and get to know some other

people out there

i know we'll be there go carrera will be

exhibiting there

come by our booth

i know that preferred flooring will be

there

you can get to know some of the other

industries uh people likes

um

you know

uh what was

see obviously cfi but the ceramic tile

education foundation i'm not sure if

they'll be there but

jim aaron and the floor covering

education foundation will be there

um

so get to you can get to know some

people uh and there's also uh

great speakers that got brought up

great great speakers and and um yeah so

he might have been referring to himself

just just throwing that out there

danny wants

everyone to know that wolfe is going to

be there

wolf will be there as well yeah

my brother

your twin

my twin brother

so yeah everybody i mean um this is a

pretty short podcast uh huddle

um but

you know really it's about trying to

encourage people to go to cfi it's right

around the corner and then go to some

other shows as well depending on which

discipline you're in like

uh there's more specific shows like tsp

is really tile focused um but

we may put a link on our uh website in

fact for each one of the shows that you

can go to

um and we'll we'll put that

so if you have any questions go to

goquerrer.com

we'll have that up here in the next i

don't know 48 hours or something it

shouldn't take too long to put something

like that up and we'll

we'll give you the links to the shows

where you can go sign up and and uh show

up i mean

give it a chance if you haven't been

you're going to have a heck of a good

time and you're going to learn a lot

yeah

yeah

when you look at it like cfi

convention that's coming up is pretty

small compared to some of these other

ones where

when you walk into ties and it's like

as far as the eye can see

that you have to walk through

and you know see if i convention is

smaller you you get to actually

network more one-on-one with a lot of

people because it's so close together

and

it's it's just awesome you know we went

for the first time

just last year and it is it's one of

those things that you

don't know how beneficial it actually is

until you go

and then you realize man just like you

said just the networking aspect uh you

can ask any question you want

well and generally

they're they're really everyone's really

helpful so

go enjoy the show that's my ploy to

everybody like let's let's get as many

people to cfi as possible uh cfi

convention and then follow up with you

know

uh another show there's probably

five or six good shows a year good

conventions you can go to a year so

right

and the other thing is don't think that

you have to go to every single one of

them because you'll be gone for a long

time yeah yeah yeah you know and that's

another thing too is like daniel said

this uh this actual cfi convention or

anyone because this is on a smaller

scale compared to

uh ties or any of the the other larger

ones you can actually ask people um a

more direct question on what conventions

do you think would be more beneficial

for me and my company and they'll tell

you hey i went to this one and you know

this one was over my head or i went here

and i got a lot of information that i

could use

um

you know and ask them about all the

group affiliations as well yeah um which

ones could could

uh help you grow which ones could could

uh benefit you as far as a learning

capacity there's just a lot

yeah there is a lot of opportunity to

get involved once you're at the show

you'll find different opportunities if

you want to be

on the advisory board for something or

do something

we got a celebrity in here hey crystal

how you doing good how are you she wants

to plug her her thing that's going on at

cfi is why she's over here right now

awesome plug away

and i are doing a round table discussion

uh with women in chair covering

on uh wednesday august 3rd

come see us come talk with us at what

time at 9am

sweet hey is there a hands-on that's

going on everyone can

what's

that uh crystal is there a hands-on that

you said that you're gonna be

participating in is there any more

information on that that's on tuesday

elliptical stars

yeah so if you're if you're

a woman in

industry installation

uh

go meet crystal and and get to know her

journey it's been pretty cool to to get

to know that and

obviously she's done some pretty cool

stuff

i i got to personally watch her install

a tice and it was it was it was awesome

so

uh go check her out and and

will you be speaking crystal or

is it jen vern and i are leading the

round table discussion sweet

yeah so go go listen and and um

and participate in that as well

is that about women in the floor

recovery industry um just

general conversation general

conversation but the one of the biggest

things

especially the takeaway from last year's

ties is that

the industry is growing and there's more

and more women in here and they need to

start feeling comfortable in the

industry as well so this is an actual

actually a great time for them to come

and network

hang out with crystal

hang out with everyone

yeah

yeah get to the show guys it's going to

be fun

i actually had a dream that someone uh

there was another female that

signed up for installer of the year

competition

good

well hope that comes true

yeah hopefully that'll be reality

yeah

all right guys anything else crystal you

want to say anything else

we're talking about trade shows uh so

what did you think about trade shows

like before you actually went to your

first one

and then how do you feel about them now

since

you know we're going on a pretty regular

basis now i didn't even know they were a

thing until

they went to

ties the first year and i was like they

have nerd conventions for flooring

but uh

once once i went last year

to cfi convention that was my first

convention that i attended and

it's it's game changer it really is to

be around all of the like-minded people

and

just getting to know people on a

personal level instead of just on

facebook or you know over zoom and stuff

it's

it really is a game changer and

you can't afford not to attend these

things

that's a good point

well that's that's pretty encouraging to

hear so if if anybody's

watching and wondering if there's any

value

what you just heard was after the first

one it's a game changer so you like

if that doesn't speak volumes to what

you can learn

both beneficial to your business plus

like on the personal level getting to

know other people at the that's in the

industry and having some fun

you're you're working but you're still

having a good time

that's what's

pretty cool to me i've actually been

told that

uh

like online and just you know meeting

without talking to me like on a personal

level i seem pretty arrogant and i'm an

a-hole or something

but this this person has

since

whatever you know

they told me that you know you get to

know someone and it's like man you're

not even like that at all it's

well you might find personal level thing

yeah you get to

get to actually know somebody

uh you get the joke around man

personality comes out it's it's totally

different when it's all about work

versus in person right because

yeah when it's about work anybody can

come off a little monotone a little

repetitive but as soon as you let your

hair down

you know

there's no rules when it comes to that

you can be

you can be

you you don't have to be the person that

you think everyone wants you to be you

can be yourself and that opens

that you know makes you vulnerable right

it it it brings

it brings to everyone's attention that

yeah this is a real person and that's me

looking at other people and maybe how

people view me i don't know i mean i i

don't do as much

as daniel or crystal have done in front

of the spotlight but

most of what i do is just talking person

to person like like we have in the past

and

it's hard not to be yourself

yeah

yeah we certainly get to let your hair

down if you had any

and

have a good time

crystal knows about letting the hair

down i i'm not so blessed but

uh

so yeah go to convention give it a shot

guys i'd love to see you there

and

um

daniel

jose crystal thanks for joining today

and we look forward to seeing you in

august

and

we'll all be there if you guys want to

come hang out come buy us a drink

yeah yeah we don't we will only probably

drink one drink a piece so we're

lightweight

hey that's gonna be one of my five this

year

so come enjoy i hope to see uh

some new faces and at the very least

i'll get to see some old friends so

that's what i look forward to every year

so um hope everybody makes it uh we

don't have a lot of questions or

anything that came through

today so

we got any questions we do

well anyway hey just just to fill dead

space i i have a baseball game today

with this guy right here

can you tell he's ready for ball

that's why i had to leave early and be

on the phone so

yeah he looked pretty

yeah

okay we have a question of

why would i pay money to attend a trade

show that doesn't have a direct effect

on my abilities

i think that's that's almost like the

same thing as when people say that

certifications don't have an effect on

them because they already know what

they're

they're doing why would they pay for

someone to tell them what they already

know and it's you got to have a

different mindset than that you have to

have

the mindset of you know it's is it going

to directly affect you it all depends on

what you do with the information that

you gather from these shows yes

yeah that's that's a really good way to

put it because

you are going to take something away you

100 are going to take something away and

if

if you go there and you just meet one

person and that one person helps you

with the project or you go help them

with the project or you network and you

go work out of

your comfort zone out of your radius and

you go learn something from somebody

that's i mean that's still

a takeaway you never know what you're

going to learn is the key i mean it's

pretty presumptive

no no offense to the

person asking

it's just presumptive that you're not

going to learn

that it's not going to advance you in

some manner also if you go with the mind

of if you're that good you have

something to give so go and give yeah go

participate and and help other people

then i that's a a bit lacking sometimes

in our industry

if it doesn't benefit you then maybe you

can benefit someone else so be a little

unselfish about it

and and go and you will have a good time

i'll promise you that if you participate

um and then you know

if you're if you know so much that you

may not learn which i would challenge

that for just about anybody but if you

are that guy or that lady

go and give give your knowledge

there there is again

go career is going to be there so

you can go and learn all about what go

prayer is all about and kind of you guys

are going to have like some screens kind

of showing what's going on or

yeah we're going to take we'll have some

screens we'll show you the the platform

show you how it works show you how it

can benefit you as an independent

installer

how it can benefit companies and kind of

the win-win

between you know

companies

uh installers

as well as the industry that has uh you

know

supported us and we're really excited to

be at convention here so thank you for

that daniel

come see us at convention at the very

least you can you can learn a bit a bit

more about go career and see see it live

happening in front of you yeah we're

going to be hanging out at your booth

for a little bit too so word on the

street is that we're going to help you

when needed yeah absolutely that's a

word

all right guys hey thanks for joining

everybody that's we're gonna close it

out with that and um we'll see you next

week and see everybody at convention

all right that sounds good thanks guys

thanks guys see ya thanks for joining

crystal

thanks for letting me crash the party

anytime