The Huddle - Episode 105 - The Benefits of Specializing in Niche Flooring Markets

In this episode, with special guest Dwayne Pruitt from Pruitt Flooring (https://pruitt-flooring.com), we explore how focusing your skills on a specific niche can significantly benefit your flooring career. Specialization allows you to become an expert in a particular area, setting you apart from competitors and increasing your value to customers seeking specialized knowledge and expertise. This episode discusses the advantages of niching down, such as higher demand, the ability to command better pricing, and greater customer satisfaction. Tune in to discover how targeting a niche market can enhance your reputation and business growth.

The Huddle was created by Paul Stuart of Stuart & Associates and Go Carrera, alongside Jose and Daniel Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring. Aimed at helping you maintain forward progress in your flooring career, they cover topics from personal and business growth, to installation tips & tricks and everything in-between.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email thehuddleforwardprogress@gmail.com today!

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what's up team welcome to the Huddle we're your weekly Playbook where we not only strategize on playing the game but

changing it from mastering the fundamentals of the craft to distinguishing ourselves in the marketplace we're here to give the

installer a voice and ensure you're equipped with everything you need let's band together and Forge a new Legacy in

flooring this is where you belong welcome to the team what's up fellas what's going on welcome to the team

hello with me as always Mr Daniel and Jose Gonzalez of preferred floring and

Grand Rapids Michigan and we got a special guest here in studio today Mr

Dwayne puit often talked about now you can see Mr D

Wayne D Wayne good to be here today's topic we're be talking about Niche and

down in in uh a flooring discipline that uh and what the benefits of that

are um and mostly the benefits of doing that as a young installer or or new to

the industry uh kind of how to approach the flooring business uh oftentimes

we've seen guys go into the flooring business and flooring has a lot of it's

it's like going to school there's a lot of subjects and there's really four main disciplines but there's there's even

more than this you got a you you got carpet resilient which even in resilient

you got multiples what's up Jorge um we got hardwood ceramic towel

but you really you got epoxy floring you got you know polished concrete polish concrete you got all kinds of stuff I

mean in resilient you got vinyl base and M Works base and all these other uh

disciplines uh within them uh we call them subdisciplines at go Carrera but the point is I've seen too many guys try

to take on uh new people to the industry try to take on a white swath of flooring

and each one have their own intricacies and and details and so what I implore

you to do is pick one drive deep get good and then go wide and we we have

some some uh subject matter in that um

Arena I mean Daniel and Jose we have puit on here who

uh did the same thing I myself was a resilient and sheet vinyl guy more

than anything uh but Daniel Jose you guys jumped into it and and are well

known if I was to say what do you known for it's your sheet vinyl and it's our sheing skills and your resilient work

right yep I would have to agree and the benefit of doing

that I know you guys do more you do all almost all flooring now so what was the

benefit of going that direction uh I think the the benefit just started when we when we were told

that there wasn't very many people around that did it and did it well and so the benefit came to trying to get a

skill set so that way we can start trying to to say that's what we specialize in right so the benefit was

so we can get more of that work and we worked for other companies at the time um so I guess Technic it made us more

valuable to those companies um which in turn made that skill set valuable to us

when when we went on our own yeah and you you do end up Dwayne is

known for wearing flashy jeans from the Buckle he is you need to quit looking at

my pants he stares at your butt Dwayne that's why he

knows but the truth is is that um you guys got known for it too I mean it's

it's it's also one of those deals where you can you get sought after for doing

that particular thing when you're known for doing that thing and when you get

really really good and you drill down on it and you're not doing you know some ceramic here a little bit of carpet

there some lvt there and like this wide SWAT it's almost like how handyman

approached the flooring industry what I implore you is that Prof professionals approach it to get really good at one of

the disciplines and then start to apply the knowledge from this one because they're certainly

crossover from resilient to carpet or carpet to resilient and um or tile and

hardwood guys a lot of times you'll see those two trades cross over or really good resilient guys doing hardwood or

vice versa but get really good at something uh Jorge is on with us as

usual and you know he's very specific in what he does and he's done very well and

he's known for what he does so I wanted to ask you Dwayne um first off tell us a

little bit about you I know you're pretty well known in the industry everybody loves you but we'd like to

know a little bit about how did you get started and what was you what did you

drive deep on so when I started out you know as 19 years old first generation

just looking for a job out of high school and they hired me uh from the church said hey you want to learn how to

lay carpet and turns out he laid carpet he did vinyl he did it all and and

honestly I hated the days we did ceramic any it just did not speak to me

I mean I did it it was my job but you know the hands cracked out dried out I

just you know the ceramic never spoke to me and I just always look forward to the days that I knew we were laying carpet I

like how he said that the ceramic never spoke to me it just didn't I I just hated it I

dreaded the days that we were doing some sort of piew work you know obviously lvp and laminate at that time 1988 wasn't

popular but the sheet vinyl was there we did it a little bit not a whole lot I

knew it was tough to deal with had to be a lot more careful I'm I'm not known for a real careful guy but you a lot it's a

lot easier to put a patch in carpet than it is some sheet V I'll tell you that much absolutely and I just you know now

looking into the carpet and different fabrics and everything we have now it still just speaks to me and and I think

Paul would attest in this area I'm known as one of the best carpet guys you're

that that's the point that's one of the reasons I wanted you on today is the fact that when when we were I've known

you for probably 15 or going on 20 years um when we would have a big carpet job

that at a hotel with a Hospitality piece or a wool piece or we always called you

we it was always like let's get PR on this you know and you'd give me [ __ ] because we wouldn't give you the easy

carpet telet his reputation his reputation even

brought him over here to Kazoo to do a theater right like yeah and he didn't even call us to come say hi or

anything he did call he actually came to my kid oh he didn't call me though he came

to my kids ball game that day come on now that's right had to borrow a couple tools there that we needed but and

that's absolutely true you know it I fell into the carpet part and and I it

just spoke to me a little more and then when I kind of started going on my own and I was only 19 years old I think 20

and I got the opportunity to go a guy I was working for George ju Lan of carpet

4 I was working on my 1988 Monte Carlo and they deliver

carpet but he said hey there's these guys that are have a different way of seing up carpet and would you like to go

to the seminar I was like absolutely let's go learn something and honestly I went cocky as could be as most

installers and uh the guys walked in one of them looked like Mario and I was like

who is that like from Mario Brothers Mario Brothers Ed BR he's not he's not

oh that's that's a Luigi I was gonna say he's not a plumber well Mario's a

plumber so anyway but uh and next thing you know a guy named Jim Walker walked in you know wearing his three-piece suit

at that time and this was this has got to be 8990 was really early on and we

you know just like everybody else I learned using a straight edge and cut all my seams and these guys showed me a

row finder and a row cutter the first time and it just blew me away and I sat there I mean at launch I bugged them

after class I kept playing with it they kept let me use it went bought one and it turned out no

matter where I went and I moved around quite a bit back then everywhere from Vegas to Missouri Arkansas Kansas no

matter where I went using that rinder and rad cutter made me the best in the

area wow and it wouldn't take long before I was that first installer that

they would call on especially for the hard stuff and that just you know transpired just just learn how to run a

row and how to run a row and and because nobody was doing it and that was a big Niche for me to no matter where I

went it provided opportunities well it certainly allowed

you to to uh get get the commercial work

because you can't there's not a lot of commercial that you could straight edge so I I started out in carpet but fell in

love uh it spoke to me sheet vinyl I like the fact I liked

kind of like what you you said Jose that there was not a lot of people that did it that's what I actually liked about it

was like there was just very few people a lot of guys will try carpet you know

what I'm saying there's just guys are scared to try sheet vinyl you know what

I mean like if a she vinyl job comes up even around even today if you're not trained in it the guys are like well I

don't really do sheep VY if it's carpet they're like yeah I'll

it's because it's one of those things that they know if if they don't do it right something's they're they're GNA be

paying for something yeah you can't stick a patch in because you you or or

you know once you ruin a sheet good product

it's ruined oh you ruin that 30 foot cut guess what you need another 30 foot cut

and you better figure out where that yeah I love that that I love the pressure of it and I love the fact there

was very few people that would do it and back then it didn't it paid well

compared to the other floorings but it got it's one of the highest paying like

the biggest increases if you look back 10 years to now the increases and and

payout is the the greatest one is she vinyl it is and because more and more

people less and less people are getting trained in it more and more people are

um you know do want to just they learn lvt or

lvp and they say they're a resilient guy and but they won't touch shivon you know

they'll do the LV just like so many people will do lvp or lvt or carpti and

that's the bulk of the industry and commercial but they won't touch the sheet bottle and so it's still one of

those deals where it's it's a it's a I would say still a very uh nice niche to

be in and I love doing it when I did it um the the beauty of being done with the

sheep on a floor it's hard to match but you probably got the same thing out of a a pattern match Casino carpet because

you did a casino for me oh I love that stuff we do a lot of casinos stuff matching that pattern uh even

residentially matching those patterns I just posted here recently a a plaid job we did where we matched the pattern

going up the stairs to the floor that that stuff is where where it's at for me you know um sorry that vinyl's still

hard and ugly so not a big fan of you got that bead going every six foot across it it just still doesn't speak to

me but you know got start somewhere though right pretty soon before you know it you'll be able to do she Vino bro you

gotta give you know what I I still know some good buddies that uh some of Pao guys I call them to to have them go do

it for me so yeah yeah it's not that we run from it but I definitely don't search it

out yeah that's what we started was the carpet too so like I will add to that is

um what you had said about resilient about sheet vinyl Paul is the one shot and what Daniel said the one time you

get one shot you know we're we're pretty competitive so we like that idea like

oh testing me you're testing me I'm testing myself and that's the same thing that let us that's what led us to that

is the the high-end commercial pattern match and all the custom work and it was like what is next right like we do this

fairly well what is next and that was next on the agenda um and it actually made us better carpet installers because

of the fine details uh but that's Daniel took the the resilient part and ran with

it yeah he did and the baby sister did too yeah and then when Jeremy says uh a

little bit ago the floor prep Kings that's where you get that's what what you have to be when you're dealing with

res resilient too it's like a lot of people don't realize that the the reason

why we price resilient or sheep vinyl in particular way we do is

because four days I'm prepping one day I'm installing like it it's crazy the

amount of of prep work that goes into something like that because you'll be able to see every little thing

underneath there most of your commercial vinyls are 080 gauged yep yeah what yeah

it's like it's very can't hide anything he you can't drop a eyelash under it bro

drop a eyelash you'll see it speaking to the floor prep you know you're 100% read on that and a few years ago you know CFI

decided to come out with the book and come out with the class and they said which one of you know who all wants to

be involved in this and I jumped at it and I was incredibly selfish for the reasons why I jumped at it is I wanted

to learn what I didn't know and wow I found out how much I didn't know really

quick so you know that's another Niche you can get into is just floor prep just floor prep but the issue with that

though is is that the guys like us that are will be like well I don't know what

they did so how am I supposed to warranty my stuff on that yeah yeah absolutely yeah it's tough I mean you

can uh especially if you get into big poor projects where you're you're

pouring uh you know big big sherox pores or big yeah latr pores pumping that kind

of stuff those guys are very specialized they got pumps like some of those are huge I'm not talking B where somebody

like you are coming in to install it I'm getting calls to where this thing's two and a half inches out would you please

come up to Northern Kansas and and and level this out for us and and we can do that now and then it also leads to a to

another either tow lvp or or different job but it was really nice to learn

through that that certification that I did with CFI that wow I'm doing it right now you know

before then it was you know whatever we had in the truck we threw it in a bucket and we mixed it up yeah mixing it with a

tri it wasn't that creating the the volcano on the floor and mixing it that

way yes I've been there done that we've seen plenty of guys do the volcano

mixing method and uh if you're if you're patching a single uh nail hole that

might work but when you're prepping an actual floor that that goes across discipline

so I'm glad you brought that up you got the you know you went and got particular training through CFI I remember when um

I sent guys to you to get trained and see CFI trained for I think it was R1

and C1 what a what a uh difference they came out with they had that same thing that

you were talking about they had this attitude when they walked in like they were it was you know like they you

couldn't teach them they were good installers I mean the McDaniel boys are good installers great guys too I like

those guys awesome dudes and Dennis and those guys went there but when they left

they came out and they were like I had no idea yeah and I've said that on this

podcast a hundred times if I've said it once but just watching guys go in that

think they know something and you probably do you know enough to get it on the floor but I I think for our

profession to be Advanced we have to con care about

the longterm the person the customer the client that's have to walk on that floor long term if you care about them you

need to be doing it to last 10 or 15 years not look good for your warranty

warranty period one year like you want to care about the customers La who's

going to be on that floor long term um I preach that at our company I preach that

to our installers that you got to care about the end user who's going to be using that floor for years and years and

years right anding them when you look into even you know more specialized

training like through the manufacturers um I'm tarat Sports certified so I automatically have to

pass on a two-year warranty right off the bat like it's in the paperwork so

the the the gc's might only require that one year still but myself I'm I have to

extend that another year just because I'm certified and and through

affiliations too is they they back you on on the warranty right like they they are they do that because now you have

that knowledge base you have that skill set to comfortably offer that as long as

all all the all the ducts have were in a row and everything was set and laid down properly um as your knowledge and your

skill set uh and what you've learned and your education tells you how to do it um

teaches you how to be a a better installer it also teaches you how to be

more assertive for the requirements needed for that specific Niche that you

have you know one of the things I've I've learned most through Mo most of the trainings I've been through is process

and efficiency learn that that you don't that's why we are always promoting

training whether if you're going to get into carpet and resilient and get get CFI certified or go aft and get get with

those guys and get certified or get trained at the very

least understand what you're doing and get trained in what you're doing um the

the key to me is that you will learn

um we you will learn that the the efficiencies that you uh that

you get out of those trainings will make you more money it it always does every guy that I've talked to that goes

through training of some sort or they get certified in a certain flooring or what have you they they always come out

with I wish I'd have known this 10 years ago or whatever the time frame so if you're new and you've been flirting with

flooring a little bit uh I implore you to get Factory trained or industry

trained in the in the uh business and you'll you'll pick up efficiencies and

you'll pick up skill sets going to make more money and and let you let you be like way or these guys as as a CFI

trainer and now an AF trainer every trainning we go to everybody comes I I wouldn't say everybody but the majority

of guys come in cocky is can all be and they it always starts out that way

there's always a small chip as Jeremy just said and I was Jeremy and Jose's

trainer when see if I started fighting I wasn't cocky though that was back

Jeremy was cocky enough for both of you sure was you know what you walked away learning something I can tell he

learned it and that attitude change and as we're doing those certifications those attitudes always change which that

should speak to all the installers out there just because you think you may know it all and you've been doing it a

certain way for 30 years doesn't mean times haven't changed and and I implore all installers get out there get some

sort of certification I especially if you're going to be doing a commercial know that uh cfi's got like their

commercial um uh carpet trainings the the reason I say that is commercial you

need to understand the adhesives your trial notches how much glue your your

your um putting down supposed to be putting down I remember when I first

started man we would take a a a a tri and literally the saw we wouldn't even

use the Lacher we just used the um the the saw you B it's

hacksaw it's it's a hacksaw with a round blade on it the chainsaw that's a chainsaw sharpener it it was a round

blade I for a chainsaw blade sharpener you notches in everything that's

actually a good idea in a pinch well I mean you have trial but the the better

way is to make sure you got the proper trial and understand why you need V Notch why you need U Notch why you may

need these different types of notches it comes even more in handy if you get or

important I should say if you get into the ceramic tile side of things you get in the ceramic tile side of things and

understanding why you need Square V Moon uh there are certain notches for your gauge porcelain panels back buttering

all this stuff the this is all the knowledge you get from going through like for ceramic to B ctef and going

through and getting CTI Sur certified so proper

equipment is one of the main things that you'll also get out of training and

understanding that um you know like I just said not

not using a a raila to to cut you notches in your trials uh having the

proper equipment and understanding your site conditions all of these things that

go in with commercial work really understanding your moisture readings of your concrete these are this is what it

takes to be a flooring professional and and I should mention that one of our sponsors is floor cloud and you want to

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Cloud now you know well there you go we can let the video speak for itself all right so

um as we're talking about nich and down in flooring there's a a couple of things

there's some trainings going on um the

uh there's trainings going on here in Witchita that you can attend

um and I want to spend some time talking about the uh the competition coming up

because you want to talk about Niche some of these got this is all about Niche so there's going to be some some

trainings coming up here in Witchita that aft puts on um that is some carpet

seaming courses I believe it's in July go to uh their website and you can check

it out more oh it's coming up pretty quick coming up pretty quick

11 yep and we are fully

100% um down with trainings uh

period so kick up the um kick up the the

uh ins comp coming up

yeah so this is something really cool uh the installer of the Year competition at

Ty this is in um Las Vegas uh every year

it's in January and this is the result of guys Niche and down they this this

competition is no joke I'm gonna have Dwayne talk about a little bit he's been involved with it over the years and he's

got a one of his installers that went through it and competed um baby sister

competed I say baby sister it's

Crystal so uh it's okay man it's okay she everybody knows who you're talking

about yeah but Pro can you tell us a little bit about your experience and Zach and some

of the benefits and beauty that I mean I I've been to those competitions every

year and there's something pretty damn special to be involved with man it's a

great thing and just for my perspective of it um was a deal where I'm gonna go

on just a little bit on this cut me off if I need to but how it worked out for us was you know I was going out there

working with CFI set it's a ton of work to set up that stuff out there in Vegas

and so uh myself Jonathan Ven and uh they would always see if IID say hey

bring a couple of your guys out to help us get this stuff done so we went out there and we're working we're setting up

the competition Zach was with us and we had a this the first year I think baby sister um or Crystal ended up competing

as well and we had to set up all these boots well a couple of people dropped out and so they didn't want a couple

empty boots and so they like you know first Robert's like well Dwayne Jonathan you're gonna have to compete and I can't

repeat what Jonathan said but I said Mr ven I don't think I'm ready for that I'm

Rusty you know I can't I can't really step up and do that right now because I don't install every day anymore and you

know it's kind of if you don't use it every day you lose a little bit bit of it so anyway that said um he looked over

at Zach and said you want to do it and by the way Zach had just put in probably 40 45 hours in about four days three

days I don't you guys are insane you know what I'll do it and he jumped up

you know said he said he was willing and um went in and he competed and he and he did very well he had none of his own

tools nothing we borrowed stuff from Here There and Everywhere just to get it done I'll never forget you know I asked

him that first night I like man how you doing you know you doing all right with this he goes and his answer was just

awesome it's just another another day of work boss same crap you always taught us

and that's all it was it was just that easy to him it wasn't until later I realized that all the trainings and

everything I've done and all the teaching I've done on these guys because Zach's been with me since he was 17

18 and it was just those trainings that was able to let him compete on a level

like that yeah and that was just trainings that I've passed down let alone trainings

that he's gotten that I provided to him so that all said he competed he did well

and now he's hooked and I don't think he's gonna quit until he wins it he do you do you know what place he

took almost second the last two three years so he's he's so close dude he's so

close like he's always on track and it's always I'm always watching and then there's always like that you know these installers have to adjust on a fly right

and if it's one thing that throws you off it could mess you up and yeah if you like to

compete like if we're competitive dudes oh and we all have the ego like we are I

should just say installers because Crystal's competitive as hell uh if

you're a competitive installer you should try you don't you don't like there's you you go to a

regional and you qualify for the event uh that's pretty much how runs today so

get get involved get trained get with the uh you know training entities and

and engage with them get to conference CFI uh fcic fcica sorry up in October I

believe it is we'll be there come see us uh go carrer have a booth at that um

come check us out we can help you uh get in touch with the uh people to uh

compete in January even if there's if there's any uh regionals left by that

time but the point is man getting involved is what I read from Dwayne from

you guys I think I think there's a lot of guys or a lot of people that are

apprehensive about doing it right because they they're like yeah I'm good but I don't know if I'm that good but I

was I was that way baby sister was that way and it's like tell us a little bit about that Journey with with Crystal so

I actually kind of pushed her into it right because she she she really is like

and I we it's kind of like imposture syndrome right where you get to a certain level and

then people start becoming like your fans like all right they know her and

all this right and it's she's like I don't understand why people like me so much and it's like you don't have to

understand you just have to roll with it so it's kind of like it yeah and I and I told her I said I'm just we're just I'm

going to sign you up and you're going to do it and whatever happens happens like I know how good you are we trained you

so I know you're going to do things the right way she said no a lot guys like

she said no for months like because then we had a year off because of Co a year

off because of Co so she said no like I'm not doing it uh yes you are I'm not doing it yes you are you you know

something on this you know this whole thing is about Niche you know go into the niche that you've done you all are

installers you're all cocky as can be we all are it's your Niche go into what you know and don't go into it as I gotta

prove myself I'm not failure if for loose go in they're ready to learn something new yeah see where you're at

put yourself up against the best yeah and it was like that when when I was doing it too right you're looking at the other booth and you're like that looks

way better than mine I'm gonna ask him how he did that and I did Roy Lewis Roy Lewis says it the best when he says iron

sharpens iron yeah it's G to make you better when you go against the best and

and that's really what you're going to get out of it there's prizes there's all that and there's ego trip but you're going to come out a better installing a

better person for train for and talking to you know even Zach when he was in

there too it was the same way he was like man this you know this person's stuff looks so much better and they did

it this way and I did it that way and I probably should have did it you know a totally different way than either of us

did it to make it right but it's like man what's done is done already you only got a certain amount of time in there

and you just have to start moving on thousand of those conversations I promise you yeah well you run with the

best you know like you said you you learn and then once you learn you come

back the next year a little bit better and then next year a little bit better um and Jimmy says he wants the belt

get's gonna compete this year or next year rather Jimmy you gonna

compete to to quote to Kevin don't talk about it be about it

yeah baby don't talk about it be about

why is so bad go get it so here's the deal um again we say it every week uh I

sound like a broken record but I enjoy uh sounding that way I reckon is is get

involved in the industry get to the conferences get to cfi's Convention

coming up with uh joint with FCC in October get to Ty get in the competition

get around people we'll be there um are you going to Ty do you think you'll be

there there's a great possibility it'd be awesome to see you go uh I know you've been a staple there so I hope you

go um I'll see you there Dwayne I hope you I really do I'm rooming with you

Jose okay I got plenty of space so guys what as we wind down here

my my biggest message is always like if we if we Niche down you get really good into something then you can broaden your

horizons and it does play into the other disciplines really well I've seen that

work hundreds of times for good installers um what is

do you have the same opinion do you have an alternate opinion about that no we're

I'm I have I'm opinionated about everything right but I think that uh if I asked if you if you have a niche and

you want to learn something right and I'm not GNA say like carpati or just a standard like a square format LV lvp or

lvt or VCT or something like that right find something that is harder than the

standard to do get good at that and then what it's going to do it's going to shed the light on a lot of the other things a

lot of the other disciplines it's going to help educate you on that as well other the the ones that are already

fairly simple to do are going to become no-brainers right like now you have a niche you're specializing in something

that separates you from the crowd they get you requested right like it gets you requested but now you still have all the

other ones that you already know how to do to fall back on but now you're going to be more efficient proficient you're going to understand the science behind

it a little bit more and I wrote down that note I put a there is a certain path to being better

at more types of flooring and it's specializing in one first and then branching off from that um yes and I

will say no matter how good we got at uh at resilient when we went back and took

our first subfloor uh substrate certification class we realized that we might have learned how to do things out

of order uh and just like oh ding ding ding the light goes off you're like

that's why this failed that's why that don't work that's why this works like that it's just like dang that's one

course or one one thing I think everybody should go through a training or a certification or or whatever at

least a training and in in that subfloor prep it's Paramount and important on all

flooring and the more particular flooring you get into the more particular it gets so yeah we all know

carpet's a little bit more forgiving on the floor prep from a visual standpoint but proper installation of it it's

really not right so install it properly Jose is on point with specialty install

H specialty skill Amen to to speak to that and Jose is completely right and

your as well get find that first thing that you're good at what speaks to you

what you enjoy doing hone in on that get really good at that we we've done that

at Pro floring we've done that and it's opened up so many other doors to the floor prep to demo to you just did a

waterproofing deal we we just did a waterproofing deal I was scared to death to do 3,000 feet of waterproofing I

would have never taken out if you're going to take on something new get that training team up with the people that

can do it I I tell all my customers you know you you called me because you know I'm really good at carpet you want me to

do this lvp you want me to do this hardwood I'm G to tell you I'm going to get some subs that way better at it than I am don't expect out of me what I do

for you for carpet to do the same for hardwood C and I tell the rely on some

other people for that I tell our clients the same thing right when I go on some of these pre-bid walks and and stuff

like that and I'm like they're like you guys do this right and I said look we're really good at what we do and I find

other people that are really good at what they do and those are who I bring in I'm not just gonna you know bring in

anyone and they're like good I said that's probably what you're running into a lot right now because they just bid

bid bid bid bid and then can't find anyone here I'm just going to give it to anyone said we don't operate that way so

that's why a lot of times you know I'll pass on a bid when I don't have that solid person there for me already yeah

well and if you you can be that the the point here is to the audience is you can

be that person you can get the that gets the call from the flooring company that

does you know we all know it most of us sub out all of our work if not a lot of

it uh we probably are 70% we have in-house employee hourly installers as

well and I know you guys do is up there in Michigan but Across the Nation most of the flooring's installed by Subs

Dwayne's been a sub for me for you know going on 20 years as we spoke he's done

like the awesome carpet work that we've been proud to team up with him on the the the

point is I wouldn't I wasn't confident in doing it my my guys weren't confident

in doing it so we got the specialty guide to do it so that's you can be in that position that's the whole point

well and a big thing too on that yeah if you got that Niche and you're that specialty guy you get those phone calls

and let's face it not everything goes 100% perfect right yeah I'll never forget the guy that taught me that we

want every job to go great but when there's a problem that's when you really shine so you're going to get those other

calls I get those calls for the lvp the I get calls for heat Weld and I've called you Jose come to Kansas I still

get those calls not just because I'm a great carpet guy but they know I'm gonna stand behind whatever it is I do it's

because of your reputation know you'll take care of them absolutely that Niche will build your

reputation yeah and you're not going to run and hide when there's a problem I like that the it build your reputation

it will and and it's all encompassing too right it's not just it's not just one type of flooring when you build a

reputation like that it's all encompassing right they know that you're the best they might not know what you're really good at but they know that your

name is is their partnered up next to you know great installer great at what

they do and and that's that's the benefit of of getting a niche you do get you do get

the give at carpet but he's only going to warranty is carpet he's going to say the heck with you if something goes bad

on an lvp they know I'm still going to be there because now we're talking about character that Niche has built my

character y all right guys so we have uh beat the

niche out of this conversation and uh but I do think it's

it's valuable if you're getting into floring a lot of these our podcasts are meant to reach out to new upcoming young

installers who want to be in this industry maybe want to talk to some old dudes that have done it some wrong ways

and figured out some right ways and and hire people now and we figured out what

works and whether it's Stewart and Associates or go Carrera over the time I

can want this would hurt a lot of guy anytime I say it on like one of the um

flooring groups you get a bunch of uh butt hurt people people when I say I

would bet on a floring installer that's certified or highly trained every single

time I have hired in tile installers carpet installers all over this nation

and the ones that are certified or highly trained and it shows through on their Hammer rating I've always had a a

much higher likelihood like way higher likelihood for it to turn out right oh

yeah boy so thanks everybody for joining us today if you're not on go career get on

go career and um I appreciate your guys' input I I I love how you guys built your

business uh I still love how you guys are curious and trying to always get

better well that's same with me that's what you got to do and that's that's what we did right we we kind of

hyperfocused on one thing and then in a couple weeks we'll actually be talking about expanding your service right

because it's it's great to focus but you also have to have those things to fill in you certainly want to expand I just

don't want you to come out like a shotgun come out like a rifle and then and then and then you know spread your

wings and um like we've said this whole thing you're going to build a great

reputation a good good relationships with people who you work for and

ultimately it ends in a better uh better scenario and more money for you so all

right guys well thank you for joining it's been a great episode um I love DNE

thanks for being on video because we know how much you love it yeah I've always said I got a face for radio and a

voice for not radio well I appreciate you coming on I

I uh I I love your path and how you built built uh Pro flooring up and you

know anytime we have work this is your guy for carpet if you're in the midwest

I'm telling you uh reach out to him and and uh like you said he now offers and

has for several years offered more services than just that so if you're in MA Michigan you reach out to these guys

if you're in canas you reach out to me and PR and we'll take care of you outside that guys thank you for the

episode it's been awesome we'll catch you next week see