This week on The Huddle Paul, Daniel, Jose continue their 4-part series on relationships, this week on General Contractors.

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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

what's up everybody and welcome to the

Huddle where we come at you every week to discuss maintaining forward progress in your flooring career with me as

always Mr Daniel and Mr Jose Gonzalez out of Michigan

and uh this week you spell it h-o-s-a

yes Jose with an H no uh this week we are continuing a

series on relationships and this week is on General Contractors so uh we're gonna

kick this thing off um with a question

when you guys have started your your uh dealing with general contractors in the

in the past how was the beginning of the relationship and did you ever experience

happen to um maintain that relationship you know a little bit differently I say

that because you know maintaining that relationship with general contractor if you're doing

a lot of work for a particular GC um it's not if you're going to have have

a conflict it's when and when you have that first conflict maybe your buddies and you formed a good

relationship and then you got a problem and this is the first problem you've come up against

how has that worked for you guys in the past and uh I've got some stories on it as well so

um yeah when we start with that how do you guys start your relate you know pick a

relationship you've got with the GC and how did it get started and then how did you maintain a good relationship with

them so um I'm just going to start out with fortunately for us the relationship with

these generals started uh prior to Preferred flooring so we were able to

establish a relationship with them and it wasn't always

um easy or nice right because we kind of had to follow behind other installers that

always made promises but didn't perform so they just kind of you know whatever you say they're not going to respect it

um but after after we started preferred flooring we had uh a better reputation

um then so it was a lot easier to ask for certain

areas a lot easier I don't want to say favors right because we were a little bit smarter a little bit older more patient

we're able to fill out the situation and understand what direction the

conversation should go so that way we could meet their deadlines and we can get the areas that we felt we needed and

that the areas that we felt we could um have complete by uh the deadline that

they set forth or exceed their deadline so specifically what was

some of those I mean you guys obviously like you just said Jose is you already

had some they already had no good knowledge of how you guys work and how you guys uh operate ahead of time

um so they kind of understood you before they started writing you before you got

into the position where they're writing new contracts is that what you're saying correct gotcha as far as like the

troubles like all right guys man we're cleanup crew right we get stuck with everybody's

stuff Gotta Move It gotta clean it the electricians are our favorite people um

drywallers painters I mean you you name it no we have to deal with it um so some

of the common problems that we deal with is obviously rooms not being ready like

people's stuff in there and I always say that you know every trade thinks they have it

bad but flooring does have it a little tougher because everybody walks on the

floor right you don't walk on the walls you can have two or three painters in one room and and a ceiling an

electrician putting in outlets and no problem but we take up an entire floor space so

a little bit more difficult so getting areas cleaned out and ready for the cruise that's been a problem uh another

problem is overspray from painters and who's going to clean that up and and drywallers as well uh all excessive

drywall mud you know if it's a little bit it's going to come up sander if it's excessive you know it doesn't and or it does but

it takes videos of like piles and it wasn't even drywall it was like the

fireproofing from them spraying yeah like dry fall and stuff like that and

it's like protecting the substrate from other people working you know we we fight a

lot with the painters especially if we're doing like if a lot of our Assisted Living projects have painted

wood base and they just go through and paint and there's this thick thing of

of paint you know uh foot off of the out onto the concrete and

it's got to come up and instead of taking a 10 foot piece of cardboard with them to protect it as they spray

you get that Now setting those expectations early is is uh good and

pre-construction meetings and such but uh and then cleaning out having rooms

cleaned out I you mentioned electricians they're like notorious for coming in after we've cleaned a room and putting

in Outlets or something and you can wire nuts and little pieces of electrical

crap everywhere and then they're gone took them three minutes

they're in and out before we're even we even notice it and then we got to re-clean the room

so those are some of the common problems but that's with other trades but it is the gc's you know it's their project so

that's who we deal with in those matters mostly I think you know like especially since we're some of the last ones in

there what we don't really take into consideration when you know talking to GCS is how much they actually have to

deal with like we only have to worry about the floors but they're in there and they're worrying about everything

so and to go in there and be like all right I understand that

you have to deal with everything but I still need my stuff done and just

showing them that understanding can actually go a long way yeah okay and you had mentioned uh the

painters in the overspray and you know some of that too like understanding the

product that's going down and then relaying that to the general prior to that area being painted primed or if you

walk through on a progress meeting you're doing a walkthrough you notice that they're priming and they're spraying and it's everywhere you say hey

this can't happen like I have to remove that and if some of them's like just spill over like

here's uh here's the information I'm just going to send it over to you go ahead and read that if uh if you can't

you can't defer responsibility right because you're telling them what can't be done yeah and and that's where

being up front in your delivery um can go a long way um with with a general

well and you start to form those relationships as well if you're in commercial you'll see the same painters

on jobs and the same electricians and and eventually you form relationships

with those people too and and that's why relationships to us is so important like

I just go up to the head painter I'm like hey man remember on that last job he left me a bunch of overspray don't be

doing that on this one okay man you know or whatever so it's like having relationships with the other

subcontractors on the project is important as well I think that that tends to help as much as how you deal

with your GC because your GC sees that you're working with the other trades to work through problems and not always

just going and attacking them on everything and they tend to appreciate that a lot when you can work together

more important actually because I've been seeing that a lot in the the

the bids that come through is them pretty much saying that you you're you

on it's your responsibility to get with the other trades to make sure that everyone's going to be working together like they just

I guess they're sick of dealing with it and rightfully so like I said they got a lot on their plate

yeah um they still are the general contractor and they are still you know

you still there's a level of holding them accountable to to and I think that's the biggest

dichotomy of this relationship thing with the GC is holding them accountable to doing their job so that you're not

you know tasked with doing it um every single project but at the same

time doing enough that they know that they're valuable to you

that you that that is the problem with the that relationship with the GC as a

client is you want your client to know that you care about them and you give

them a good experience but at the same time you have these these dichotomies these other things that you can't go

above and and Beyond every single time or else it's expected and you're gonna have to start figuring some some extra

money to cover all these additional costs you incur for cleaning out rooms or scraping you know what I mean so how

do you guys deal with that with that Balancing Act I think it's just a matter of

communication [Music] um if if we're not happy with something or we

we're able to have the foresight on a situation um going in because we recognize a

certain crew or we've worked with um ex-company a few times that we understand the nature in which

their supervisors have them operate it makes it a lot easier to uh to

to foresee some issues and to bring them up in a professional manner also is

making sure that there is a representative from the flooring side um during some of the earlier progress

meetings on some of the larger projects or even the smaller ones so that way you can speak your piece in the beginning so

that way it's not a shock you know there are four meetings in and nobody from the

flooring has shown up and and represented themselves

uh so they've already prepped around all of that and we haven't had a say so I think

it's a matter of communication representation uh that kind of falls into play so being being involved in the

meetings a lot of flooring people have bad reputation for that I think flooring

overall does uh I know that even we struggle to get to every job meeting we

do between four and five hundred projects a year and we struggle to get to every job meeting and so trying to

get to a pre-con meeting at least to set expectations uh is the very minimum we

try to get done and then we go you know there are certain jobs you kind of know

where it's going to be an easy project it's running smooth it's all set up real

nice there's not a lot of dependencies you know maybe it's new construction and you had a real good progress or a

pre-con meeting and it runs well and you don't have to go to every job meeting and then there's those ones you got to

babysit and uh be at every single job meeting so sometimes it can be tough and

I find that The Balancing Act is something we may have talked about offline which is once you kind of do

something for them just don't do it and let it go right you said something about

that Daniel like you follow it up with an email or something like hey we clean

this area out or we scrape this and pictures are worth their weight in gold I'm I'm dealing

with uh something right now on a project where you know there's there's moisture coming

through and I took pictures and stuff early on because I'm like hey guys there's some

moisture issues going on here and you know we're using something that or they use something that you don't

need to do moisture testing so it's like all right if you guys are gonna be

saying all that I'm gonna do it and I'm just letting you know that this is what's going to happen and

now it's happening so the conversation isn't I told you so

it's I have pictures you know you can't really just blame it on me because I

told you it was gonna happen but also what can we do in order to remedy the

situation what does you know the client want are we going to be able to get in there at certain times do they want a

moisture test now and it's is becoming a partner in every aspect of

you know the job it's you're a partner with the

GC you're a partner with you know all the other trades because everyone it all boils down to everyone

is there to make money the GC is there to make money and we keep on calling it GC but it could be a CM you know

construction manager but we're it's a broad term that we use we call everyone gc's because that's what that's what

we've always called them but it's it's a partnership because if if I know they're making money

I know I can make money we know they can make money as long as everyone's working together

yeah so those Partnerships what what makes it a partnership is the fact

that you guys have that we all have a common goal right like we the common

goal is to get the job done in an efficient manner and make money like most of what matters the most and I I

this is another point I had written down what's important to your general

contractor or your construction manager or whoever you are working with in this conversation we'll keep that to CMS and

ngcs construction managers and general contractors or see them at risk as a

overall you know Builder to commercial builders

um what is important to them I can tell you on most jobs and each one will have

some other things but on every job it's going to be schedule and budget yes

right you're not going to get away from those two and then others will add some more

to it but those two if you know your gc's biggest especially your on-site

contact so your superintendent or project Foreman their main goal man is

to get the job done they they don't care about much else how do they get the job done efficiently

and if you compose your problem as a almost as a solution meaning hey

man if you can make sure that the painter protects the concrete it's going to make us come in and out we can get

done with this area in two days in and out and you can turn it back we can turn it back over to you but if we have to

spend two or three days removing paint it's just going to make this longer

and then they're you're kind of giving them a benefit to take care of the problem so that you knowing that

schedule is their big concern um that's worked well for us in the past

uh I think that also working with the other trades that we

mentioned earlier you know if you can go up to the painter and make him aware and then you're still able to turn over that

area in two days and they you know a lot of times uh we've worked with G season

they're like man I would I didn't think it would go this fast you know it's sometimes you just don't realize how

much you can get down in a day if you're a high quality if you have high quality Crews on it and uh so a lot of that's

communication like you mentioned earlier but it's communicating the right message right and it's always

it's communicating letting them know what you're going to have done and also getting done what you say you're going

to have done yeah under promise and over deliver that's uh for sure the best way to

um when you over deliver you th project that they'll see you on but

you like I don't say you but I like to go back and say hey I don't want to

promise that because there's variables in there that we just can't factor in yet so I'm still going to say this is a

seven Working Day project knowing in my head that I want to try to get it done in five six or five still going to be

seven days in my head but the goal is to get it done before that seven then then you're the uh

you're the Savior you've done you've gone above and beyond but you've really

done nothing but stay on task

yeah and so when you guys we talked about the day-to-day interaction as a

relationship what do you guys do for GCS to show them you appreciate them

yeah we've taken them out to lunch um

I think just general conversation man it can't always be about work um if you're a people person you're

going to be able to read um a little bit of the energy that they're pushing out right if they're

under a little bit of stress when you're having a conversation um I like to just Comfort them a little bit not like you know give them a hug

and cry on my shoulder man though it's more like hey dude hey I know you're under a lot of stress I see it so don't

worry man let's work together we got this we're here to have your back so that way we can make you look good we

want to make sure that your client loves what you're doing we want to make sure that everybody else here is happy with you but in order to do that these are

the steps that we need and this is what we would like to see in order for us to

be more efficient if you're going to use me to push everybody then just know that

I need the floor to do the floor and once I get it done you can cover it up you can have it back you know depending

on what material you can have it back pretty quick um but just give me this area and then

you can store whatever you want in here just just and let it sit and that goes back to the relationships too right because

you said what do we do for them to show them that we appreciate them we were uh we were on this project and it's the

first time we ever worked with this guy you know we've worked with numerous other people within the construction company but it was like

he had a lot of pushback and as at one point he was like can you just do this

and I said No and then he was like no you're gonna do this and then walked away so what did I do what I wanted to

do and I closed off an entire area and this was you know first thing in the morning and by three o'clock he came

back over there he was like you really got all that done I said I told you I was going to get it done

and that that was you know the building of that relationship and then the last project we were on with him and you know

I had we had regular meetings in it in the meetings he he pretty much you know

he started with me Daniel what do you need let everyone know because you're pushing like you're running this project

yeah that's that's both okay good and bad to that too you being

the driver um because then execution like you have to execute nice so you

know you get a crew that gets sick or you get a an installer that doesn't show up it was during covet so it was okay

[Laughter] you did

so um yeah just to touch a bit on one thing

with General Contractors if anybody that's watching this hasn't dealt with General Contractors on construct on

contract projects so you get a contract from a GC

contractually you know there's there's um rules to you know bid rigging or that

what they feel might be uh encroaching on ethics and such

um so just remember that if if you offer something to a general contractor and

they refuse it doesn't always mean that they um don't want it just they don't want to

appear to be uh being bribed or something like that to give you work uh

We've ran across that a few times on some larger General Contractors where you know we drop off gifts so during

Christmas and stuff and we've actually had them say hey we don't we don't accept gifts from subcontractors

and we're like okay we get it you know you just got to understand they don't want to have any perception that they're

you know that you're bribing them for work and that's not a bad thing but we

have had that happen and so as you're building the best way to build a relationship and the reason I asked that

question earlier is there's not a lot you can do with them outside of just

being authentically building a relationship with them like you mentioned Jose like actually talking to

him about stuff other than work and um you know performing and and the

day-to-day work that you have with them on a project showing them you care and

those things and that that you're executing and over delivering and under promising as you mentioned but sometimes

you can't gift them sometimes you can't um we used to do this thing I think I've mentioned it prior uh podcast at some

point but we used to this thing called uh like it was called Wichita trivia and so we'd send out an email every single

week to all of our general contractors and it'd be a simple question about Wichita

our hometown and its history and whoever won would get uh one of our season

tickets to the Kansas City Chiefs game for the the next home game

um we added GC call us one of his project managers had participated the owner

calls me and says hey we don't do this it's not allowed I said that's fine we'll take them up

we understand we're not doing any but I do want to point out this is everybody has equal chance this is a trivia and

not a gift so the only way he wins is if he has the right answer and he's the first one but he still didn't want to cross any

lines so you'll you'll run across some of that stuff uh that program died because the Kansas

City Chiefs at the time were terrible and people started saying hey uh we don't really want to go to that game

at the time we were like four and twelve so yeah anyway no and I I guess I didn't

realize that we have gifted quite a bit of you know our merchandise to to everyone and it's

typically usually around the holidays and stuff like that or you know just randomly on different projects we're

working with this guy bring him a hat and uh and a cup

um stuff like that someone is always like oh man your guys's

hoodies are so awesome and then you just lock that in there so that way in the next next project here goes the hoodie

yeah you know um and I don't I don't really think about it as bright

because uh for me from a personal perspective um you know playing softball I've gifted

umpires some of my knucklehead apparel you know hats and stuff like that shirts

uh even some of uh of the other jerseys that I've designed and

not with any expectation that I'm going to get any type of a preferential treatment because if anything they

actually they're harder on me after that because they don't want anybody to think that there is a special treatment there

but just because they like it and like you said you remember that oh you know they

like this hat they like this this jersey I just happen to have an extra one here you go I don't need it I mean yeah for

the most part I think it's most of the time it's accepted I just wanted to kind of throw it out there sometimes it's not

if you get shun don't take it personally is my point the very large GCS uh like our other

negotiated GCS they're like take me to take me golfing and take me out to dinner I'm good with it you know and

that's all cool too but uh just if you try to gift a general contractor and

they turn you down I I would recommend not doing that out of the gate like the first time you meet him don't

do that there's another relationship and then figure it out but uh at the end of

the day if they deny it for for that reason just don't take it personally just understand that there are General

Contractors that want to keep crisp lines uh their fiduciary duty to the

owner when they sign a contract with the owner to give them the best value of their project they want to make sure

they're not crossing any of those lines so don't just don't take it personal and I can see from uh from my work

perspective too that it does when you don't feel like you're uh personally invested in someone or a

company or emotionally invested it's a lot easier to make the logical decision

um or to uh stand your ground on on something you need to any issues or potential issues

um when when you don't feel that there's a a relationship that could be ruined uh

there as well so I get it yeah I mean floor guys like swag right

you guys got some of the best swag in the business I just got a question texted to me

uh I don't know if they're unable to comment but it's hold on a second

yeah any questions what about when the GC is asking you to

do something that's not best long term for the owner foreign

I'm reading into this as hey just install it or just do it type stuff and

you know you can't because in three to five years it's gonna fail maybe it gets you past your warranty but you know at

our company we care about the end user because we know if we care about them enough it it's taking care of the GC but

they're sometimes a conflict there so I think that's where the question kind of comes from is you know what what if the

what the GC is asking you to do is not the best long term for the owner of the

building that's going to be occupying the facility We've ran into this a lot right and um

early on uh as we were you know a subcontractor to other flooring stores

so we were you know subbing down only we weren't full service it was always them pushing us probably

because the GC was pushing them and it was it was then when we were like

there's when you know something isn't gonna perform the way that it needs to

that's your name on the line that's no one else's name on the line right so

you we've been through it to where even though the flooring store told us

to do it we're getting thrown under the bus so that was kind of the end of that

where it was like all right if I know it's not gonna perform the way it needs to I'm not gonna do it and then when we

started getting pushed back from that it's when you start expanding your knowledge even more it's like I'm not

gonna do it and this is why and this is where you can find the information so

um we so how have you specifically dealt with that like

you don't have to name names but a specific scenario where we do quite a

bit of work in hospitals right so it's it's like look man if we do not do this

you have to start looking at the patients that are in here and the

health and their health right because um going back to moisture we we were on

a project where there was a moisture issue and you can tell like it has resilient on it now you rip it up

patch is all crumbling and stuff like that right and then it's like

they're they always come with well it looked fine before why can't you just make it look like that again yeah and

it's like listen that's my most dreaded response

it looked good before why do you have to remove this pressure sensitive glute that's over broad Loom

adhesive the file did just fine and and you just have to look at them and it's

like think about like money aside it's doing the right thing

man you got to have some Integrity sometimes and then like in the hospitals it's like this moisture

is going to affect the air quality because hospitals HVAC is running 24 7 and all it's going to do is keep on

moving that stuff around everywhere so you want to remedy the situation now or

really you're looking at if lawsuits can be spawned at any time

right and if they the more you dig the more you're going to find out so yeah certainly for neglect

it's just a matter of educating them the implications that they're putting

themselves under right is going to last you this window or you don't have to worry

about it anymore because we're gambling now you're going to be here and you want to gamble or we can just take care of it

and there is no Gamble and and the biggest thing is you know they they're

always like well are you gonna do it and especially you know these past few

years we're like no like this is where our contract ends and then you can find

someone else yeah I remember the exact job that started out like the very

I remember when we decided that that was going to be our we're not doing it and then Daniel never

lost a dime on the job I didn't take I think I think what you mentioned earlier the why is a big piece to this I

had a job where going into an area that's that was an old kitchen so it had drains and you

know slopes to drains and and it's being turned into an area it's going to have cubicles and carpet tile

and I I told him that we would have to level out every drain so that it's good

and level and they they the response was uh just patch it and we're okay that

we're gonna because I said you know you're gonna see some gaps and

you know because when you go down into a valley it's going to you're you're covering more square inches so it's

going to gap on you and so we explained that that wasn't enough and they were like well that that'll

we're fine with that and so would the owner bee so I got the furniture plan looked at that and there's going to be

people sitting where these drains are and I was like do you realize if we do this people are going to be like going

this way but their their cherries are going to be just moving around

and uh you know after they got that why it's like getting the right why uh they

were like okay well let me go present it to the owner I think part of the why and why the reason

I I and Drew that all out was because the why is what they need to go to the owner

and feel confident and asking for more money under given circumstances as well so it's not always the GC is just going

to pay you out of their pocket they're they're trying to recoup the money right from the owner so they need your why and

and you know there there's been projects lately where that's that's happened and it's like they're like all right we need

you to kind of dumb it down for us and then once I do that they're like okay this is something we could take to

the owner and and that's how that that conversation is all right now we can go talk to him

she brought up a few times [Music]

well let's just have a meeting let's get the owner involved let's all have a sit down and let's explain to them because

if you want me to explain it to them so that way you're not the bad guy you're not the messenger I have no problem

doing that um because I don't know how many owners of large buildings or any facilities are going to cut some of those small Corners

if they're not getting the full value out of their install they're not going to want to hear

it could fail or it is going to fail well and later it's all excuses now it's

you know on the front side it's it's the why on the back side it's an excuse so

if you do it and it fails or you do it and the end user has a bad experience

with what you did then everything you say seems like an excuse as opposed to

presenting it on the front side it's the reason why you want to do it a certain way

and sometimes it's not always money it could be just a scheduled situation they

don't they don't want you to do it because they want you done tomorrow and what you're proposing is going to take an extra two days or something

but that's where it's nice to have multiple things in the toolbox and not be so set on you know one manufacturer

or something like that because there's plenty of times where like this can this is available and this can

work right now they it's right here you know it does it cost more yeah but

we're gonna stick to that schedule yeah yeah being creative with that that

brings up a good point being creative with solutions to the problems that are inevitably going to come up on projects

uh the GC really any general contractor will appreciate your efforts in being

creative with your with Solutions when it comes to either budget or schedule

um many times I'm sure you guys have been through value engineering on projects and sometimes it's schedule

sometimes it's you know trying to get the cost down and either way when you

come with Creative Solutions um you know they certainly appreciate

those types of deals too especially when it's both when it's this carpet is in stock and it's going to save you 8 500

yeah that's that one yeah that's what we like to call a win-win that's what you like to call the

building blocks of a great relationship yeah and that's pretty you know those are those are it's

awesome when you get into those scenarios where you can provide a true win-win cheaper

are more affordable I hate using that word cheaper but it's more affordable and

it's going to save you it's available right now yeah it's good to know your options

especially now with all the uh shipping issues

religious and yeah options so if you had a GC sitting across from

you right now that you did not know what would you guys say about yourself to kick off a

good relationship with them I guess this happens quite a bit we just

had a meeting a couple weeks ago with uh someone that called us and

we we try and and say that we're transparent right and we're

We're not gonna try nickel and Diamond because we've been on the other side of

that when that's what that company's doing and we're trying to tell you how to do it right it's this is my number man this is pretty pretty close to where

it's going to be if not a little cheaper for you and and that's what you get with us

um not only that it's our work really speaks for ourselves so

it's not going and hey let me get this huge project this

like uh you know our buddy Brian westmas told us you know a few years ago he's

like man I don't need the whole job just give me a closet let me let me do that closet let me go

blow your mind with this closet then then we can talk about something else but let me start out with getting my foot in the door give me at

least something so that way we can we can start out a relationship yep so I I've actually had

excuse me I've actually had uh conversations with general contractor before

that what went something to this extent you

guys that them talking to me they they say you guys your quality is excellent but you're difficult to deal with

yeah and I I said well in what regard well you guys are always all there's

always a problem on a job and with other contract flooring companies we don't have those problems and it typically

comes from we moisture test everything and there's a moisture problem or and here's the solution we try not to bring

a problem without some solutions um or this needs leveled or this needs

skim coated or this needs floated out this is not in the bid this is and

I said I can't speak to what the other flooring companies are doing I can only tell you that we are

Factory trained people where where we understand flooring we've been in this a

long time and we just want what's best for your owner we don't want to shortchange the job and this is the

reason why and you know they they tend to understand that but

somehow you have to make it Pleasant for them to to deal with you in

some ways so we've loosened up um softened the message it some of it

was our delivery some of it was our guys our field staff being too blunt like

nope we're not doing it until we do this yeah there's definitely definitely a way

to deliver that yeah just soften the message a bit a little bit differently and and

understand that what their what they care about they care about their schedule and you're trying to blow it up or they care about their budget and

you're trying to blow it up so you got to recognize what you're doing and then deliver uh appropriately

no we're just Messengers man the the floor they also don't they also don't like feeling like you're

uh you know holding their job hostage right and you're not trying to but it

can feel that way to him sometimes so I don't know it's a those scenarios are

a lot of uh case-by-case matters on how you deal with them but you know

uh sometimes you gotta put your foot down and do do the right thing for the

project even in conflict with your GC sometimes

in my experience uh through that scenario right there um someone who's been in charge of

projects a little bit [Music] a little bit push that like hurry up hurry up get it done I don't care it is

I had that experience with um not just flooring installers but contractors who are saying just say okay

you know the yes contractors yes sir right away I'll just go ahead and do it wrong for you because you're asking me

um they've already had their fair share of failures and as they get older and

smarter they understand stop all right let's explain this a little bit more like Daniel said not

necessarily dumb it down but let's put it in terminology that can be expressed across this boardroom so everyone can

understand it um but then you get the new guys who have just been put in the position of leadership and they're trying to

Flex their muscles a certain dominance yeah they're trying to try not trying to um you know make a name for themselves

they're just like no no no my way or the highway um

but at the end they they are going to still no matter if they are going to dinner with you three

nights a week and shaking your hand when when they're put underneath uh that much pressure you know they're gonna bust and

they're gonna they're gonna put it on whoever is whoever's in that trade it's not gonna be like I told them

the issue was brought up they never came with a solution so I figured that everything was taken care of you know there's a way to there's always a

workaround uh as far as verbalizing uh somebody else's responsibilities yeah

well I like your guys's um attitude towards gc's as being a partner

um as understanding their needs and you try to you know make life as easy for

them as possible but not at your own demise I mean that's kind of how we look

at it we try really hard um you know not too long ago

um a specific situation has come up you know a couple years ago when all

manufacturers used to have uh if you're chemically if you're abating a

uh asbestos floor and you use chemicals they would have different ways you could

skim coat and that well they've all completely like Mohawk the big the big

manufacturers completely said do not install our product over chemically abated floors

they don't have a solution so now you got to go search for a solution and we had this situation come up when Mohawk

uh this was a mohawk project uh had first basically said

that year that no more of our products can be uh installed over chemically

evaded floors period they didn't really have a solution but that was the problem we ended up

finding some different solutions through uh multiple manufacturers from pay and

some others scouring agent with a uh you know a primer system

uh uh we came up with Solutions and now there's more solutions as the as that

goes on but it reminds me of what you said earlier that like it looked good before and so I I've I that's what I got

told is we've done this plenty of times and I've been doing this for 20 years and we've done it this way I understand

sir and I understand that maybe a lot of your projects haven't had failures but

Mohawk or these other big manufacturers have had and it's not just Mohawk all

the big boys did this but they've had enough failures from this

that now they've separated themselves from the problem entirely so it does fail uh it can fail and so here are some

solutions and we had to work through that as a church project with a very good GC of ours and it kind of was a

tough one man because we had to explain to them why this has always been okay in the past

and now it's not and so those scenarios come up and it only it only works

um I shouldn't say it only works it works best if you have a good relationship with them and you show them

and you have shown them in the past that you're only trying to do the right thing and not make an extra dollar off the

thing you're just trying to do what's right for the owner right and I think that's where a lot of the

the training comes in right because you're you're constantly educating yourself and then you're taking that

education to the GCS um one of the the GCS that we work with if you look in their quality standards

manual they contacted me to kind of go over it and before before they published it and

every single flooring picture in there was one of our projects something that

we did and then you know for them to reach out to us and say hey can you you know

in division nine to make sure that you know that this pertains to what you guys are pushing out there and not only that

it's like this this other project that we're

on it and we're having issues now we're with the moisture and it's like well how do you know that's what it is

I'm certified I'm certified to test this the the concrete because my job to know

and then they're like oh we didn't know that well yeah so when I tell you that

you know these things are going to be happening and stuff like that I'm not doing it just to like you said I'm not trying to just pad my pocket and nickel

and dime you it's man this is we can remedy this situation now and not have

to worry about it later any GCS or CMS out there that are that join us or see it later on just to let you guys know no

flooring installer wants to add more onto their list when they're going in so if you're like mad at them because you

feel they're pickle and diming you trust me they do not want to do any mitigation systems they do not want to go I tell

extra work like we don't want to do that it's just a matter of protecting ourselves our livelihood is at risk I

tell them all the time we would love it nothing more than if we just come in and the job's ready and the concrete's fine

and everything's hunky-dory and we come in and knock it out that is our ideal

solution or our ideal situation adding three days of that they don't have in

their schedule of mitigation and leveling is not ideal for us that's not we don't want the added pressure it's

not worth the little bit of money that you do make I'd rather go in and be ready and everything be perfect

sometimes you know you the the little bit of money you make doing that still costs you a bunch of money that you

could be making on a different project yeah exactly and and I'm glad you you

guys said that I'm glad you actually talked to the GCS there uh Jose and told

them I mean the the fact is we're not we don't want that we just soon it be ready

and we come in we're most efficient make the most money when we sell you product and go install it efficiently and we

bill you and right ideally if we could walk in a job site and start installing

we'd be happy yeah you mentioned training earlier and I I

think that's a good uh spot to throw out that a lot of what you guys

have said and a lot of what I speak to is the stuff that's in the cim

right yeah a lot of that how you deal with people and building relationships there's good aspects of that in the cim

training so again just to remind the audience we have uh the Ford progress

scholarship for uh the fcica's cim program and that stands for certified

installation manager but it's really great for project managers install managers and

installers if you guys can get that go I wish I I'm hoping that a ton of

installers go and apply because you understanding what you the field people

are thinking or the office people are thinking a lot of them have been through similar training or that training so you

understanding how they've been trained will help you deal with a store that you may be a southern work out of or what

have you so everybody go go and um sign up for the Ford progress

scholarship it's a 1300 ish dollar value and it's a great program so

and it's uh and just to shed a little bit of light on that too it's like a bird's eye view of someone else's

responsibilities it it puts you in someone else's shoes for a little bit so you're like kind of like the Ghost of

Christmas Past right you're up here watching it and you're learning what's going on and you can you can see where

some corrections could be made or you can go about things a little bit differently to help yourself and and

help the company be more profitable help yourself be more uh efficient there's just a it's just a good program yeah and

and it's no different than the reason why you guys may uh an office person may

go get trained on the actual installation uh methods or go through a training to

install something because we want to know how it happens this is the installer's uh uh opportunity to do the

same like go and figure that out who you got with you there this is Macy my

youngest Macy hi Macy she has no chill she don't care that we're live right now

this is Voltron right here come say hi Voltron my son Caleb hey Caleb

uh nice to meet you welcome to the Huddle guys this is the true huddle now we have a

big team to get right then we did um Dirk did ask a question about giving away his some of his

apparel but he's a residential installer and he's been thinking about giving his t-shirts to his clients he doesn't know

if that's a good idea or not but I think it all depends on you know if your clients actually want

one it depends on how good of a job you do too dirt like if you if you didn't do a good job don't give it to them but

well I think that in general it's um

you got to give them something that they're going to value and not something that you value so

um you know sometimes giving away your swag with some some generals or some

clients I should say it's you know absolutely you know something they want

and then some may not so I think that's where a lot of this stuff comes in right yeah

something like this that's useful for everyone that they're going to use and then not necessarily a shirt that

they're gonna have in their claws that are just give away at some point so if they say that they want a shirt

definitely give them a shirt but something like this that's going to be useful to them you know on a daily basis

is more valuable um with as far as the shirts and stuff I'll take a shirt I'll represent me too

I'll tell you one little trick that I've seen um I didn't do it but I'm gonna steal it

so I noticed uh a GC wearing a Carhartt with his logo with the general

contractor's logo and then real small on the sleeve is the subs name

hmm so he made it for him with his logo on

it and then he put their their the supplier put their name

on the side here just real small not so small personal take their yeah I thought

that was kind of clever John right in front of them just sew it on

yeah I thought that was pretty clever all right well guys we have come to the end of the podcast again I want to tell

you both I appreciate you guys coming on and and sharing your experience I hope the audience got some um

some valuable little nuggets I mean a lot of this stuff is find that one nugget that might help you in your next

interaction with your client and if so it was worth your uh half hour or hour

that you spent on this podcast I can guarantee you that so all right I think

that you know if they look at it as everything that they do is a partnership they're not ruler of the world they're

not the almighty it's all right what how can I help you help me like how can we

do this together I think that that'll open things up to um

better opportunities later on when when they're working with GCS because that's 100 what's happened to us and it makes

it so that way they know that you're not just there to let me just do everything I have to do real quick and run over

everyone it's like let's make this a machine how can I be part of that machine yeah another another takeaway for me for

an experience and I just wanted to share this real quick is um we were on a project one time and the

this was uh through another flooring company and the guy who hired us

um I was letting them know the issues and the potential Solutions and when he told me kind of stuck with me he said

you're always trying to give someone gold when they can only afford bronze and my

my um rebutter to that was if bronze is all they can afford it's

still their investment no matter what right now we didn't do very well on that

job labor only we didn't do very well we didn't come out on top and hit a number

that that we needed to hit to appear profitable however we over delivered we

went above and beyond for the client and regardless of the company that introduced us to them

those people remembered that and that that company that could only afford bronze can now afford platinum and we

are a preferred vendor for them so it's just some of those little things right there that can go a long way you're

building relationships now that might not help you for two years but you're

still building it well there you go that's an investment on that's your gold investment on your side right I mean

that's the investment you put into your to your client for long term uh relationships

and uh they're asking for the link for the the program I think I'll go ahead

and copy and paste it on um on the streams that are live right now

so that way people can do it and I mean Google career has been blasting out some

stuff so it if what's the best we would love to see more people actually on here

and and talking and asking questions I mean live is great too but

um once you get on you know the mailing list for go Carrera then you're gonna get these they get

reminders hey don't forget sign up for this scholarship yeah so I get them even

though I can't there you go me either so

um in most of our social media it's in our bio so on our Instagram uh right even on

my mailing list you could we'll get it that way um if you uh let's see so we got one more podcast

before the comp but before it closes on the 15th I think is that correct Ashland

so we have one more uh maybe we'll start it with uh tossing uh tossing it up

somewhere maybe we can change your screen your screen image and put the link on as your screen image and

everybody can see ICA emails they're even sending it

out so yeah but look for that um on the podcast platforms ad I put it

out on two I have a link in there as well yeah so even if you don't watch us live

like some of these guys you know we see a lot of the same guys every week but it's out there yeah well people are

watching it maybe we'll put in our bio and on YouTube as well because I know

that some people are going there and watching it later so we'll we'll add that we'll add the link to our YouTube

uh Channel today so hopefully that helps some people out to

get uh get on and and uh sign up for that scholarship guys so

all right guys I appreciate you again we'll see you next week and uh I feel like with the uh the the

Huddle we ought to at the end go ready great

all right see you guys next week all right take it easy bye