The Huddle - Episode 34 - Recap of TISE 2023
This week on The Huddle Paul, Daniel, Jose talk all things TISE and their experiences from their week in Las Vegas. They discuss things they enjoyed seeing this year, and changes that came in that they'd like to see continue.
We also would like to congratulate again our winner for the 2023 Forward Progress Scholarship, Carissa Parr.
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The HUDDLE is where the flooring industry can get together and talk about everything! Lead by Paul Stuart from Go Carerra who is joined by Daniel and Jose Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring.
what's up everybody
welcome to the huddle we're back from Tise and we got uh
Daniel and Jose with me as always and I just want to come out of the gate with
talking about how uh excited we were to uh exhibit at
Tice and kind of have an opportunity to meet some people uh you know the Huddle is all about
keeping your business your flooring business moving forward so forward progress
uh you know my intro every week's about the same but this one I just wanted to make sure it wasn't just a an intro that
gets um said and and not understood so you know
in essence we're trying to bring value to uh to our community to as installers
uh flooring professionals and really uh you know
if you find the content that we talk about and share here we don't run any
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us a like And subscribe on if you're watching this on YouTube uh otherwise if you're watching it on
one of the other platforms you know comments and likes on those platforms uh help this message get out to more
um people are on the lookout I get asked all the time for my advice and I give it
freely here um and I know these guys do too they get they get asked all the time about
certain things from other flooring professionals and we just freely give it
here so consider liking subscribing uh with that said uh again we come at
you every Tuesday uh to maintain help you maintain forward progress in your flooring career no matter where you're
at um whether you're an installer or a flooring company or you know a
manufacturer or a sales rep if you're watching this you're gonna get insight
on all the uh inner workings of we all three started installing that's
where we started so we have that knowledge we've subcontracted from other
flooring companies because we have that knowledge I believe all three of us were
or at least I know two of us were employee installers at one point so we got that that background and then we all
three own flooring companies now so and employee employee installers and
subcontractors so there's a good amount of uh experience and knowledge uh that
that we've garnered over the years and what's even more special is we have a good network of people that we tap into
and ask them questions and get feedback from them so if you have any questions uh you know participate in the in the
podcast by asking uh maybe um uh asking or commenting on the video so
that being said this week we're just you know we just got back from Tice uh it
was really exciting time it was our first time as go Carrera exhibiting at
the show so that was pretty special um really cool and
the the show was back to what I remember 2019 being really busy people being
engaged wanting to you know gain knowledge on how they can improve their
situation whether it's a like I said a manufacturer distributor we talked to the full swath of people that are are
involved in the flooring career or the flooring industry uh whether they're like I said I talked to a bunch of sales
reps that would come by uh talk to some tech reps talk to
manufacturers um it was just it was just a fun time even hanging out you know afterwards and
and just chatting it up and I know you guys you know we we we hung out a lot but what was
your guys's favorite part of dice it's always the people for me so it's uh
part of the pinpoint a favorite part because every day there's one thing that stands out right so
I like I return for the people I'll be honest I could care less for for Vegas uh because
I I mean it's super busy right but I go back for the people and
every year I go back it's something different this year there there was a lot of personal connections made all
right you go there for business but man was there a lot of personal connections made this time and and that
leads to Better Business so I I'm looking forward to see what what everything turns into yeah more busy
this year I thought since uh we weren't we didn't have anyone you know baby sister wasn't in the competition I
wasn't we were going to have more time to to like do stuff and it's like kind of neglected the competition Kevin's
saying uh that it was good talking with all of us last week and you know it was awesome um we went live for a
little bit and and showed kind of what was going on over there and I think uh in the future we'll probably do a little bit more of that kind of thing even just
walking around and maybe talking to people but um it was we were on the fence this year because
we didn't know how much we were able to show and how much they didn't want us to but after talking to them uh after this
year's it's pretty much you guys get to do whatever you want like well I think they want they they want you guys to
show I would assume they want people to show The Experience because I I you know
it's hard to explain if you're not there I know that we were gonna try during the podcast and we we cut the feed a little
early but you know if you just it was fun doing the podcast from there too that was that was pretty awesome gym and
and Ken I sent all the audio earlier I'm hoping it's good enough I kind of
listened to a little bit and I could here pretty good but uh Ashland will be the judge of that
well we'll do the best we can to clean it up and and uh but yeah that was fun
and and but what I'm getting at is it's hard to to Really experience it so
unless you get to see how massive it is and how many people are there and all
the um the different parts of the industry that are represented from importers to
to the installer like from the time the products made in Italy all or wherever
all the way to the installers and it seemed like there was a a lot more installers there too I I don't know if
that was just me uh but it seemed like uh we had the installation community so
that was awesome well then you're getting a lot more of the guys on the
technical side and stuff actually you know going over to that side so it's good to see that but also you have
like the union that um was a part of it they had four apprentices there doing
some sheet vinyl and you know one of the kids are like this this kid is only 19 years old and you've done a good job
yeah he was probably one of the best ones in there and it's like that's awesome where was that at
oh man was that was that in their Booth or was that yeah it was it was in their Booth they had like their trailer set up
and then they had four pods set up and everyone in there kind of kind of working and doing the same thing on the
sheep I know and it was like this is awesome there needs to be more of this because it's not just the unions that
are doing stuff like this right so I mean that's a conversation with you some
of the other uh organizations to maybe hey not only do
you have a competition but maybe we can bring in some newcomers and just have them you know compete against themselves
it's not even for anything it's just and it doesn't even have to be that it could be you know we could do some some
sheep sheep vinyl demonstrations and stuff like that I mean I don't we don't do hard tiles so that's always something
that kind of fascinates me so I actually went to a couple of the uh
they they had some educational classes about it and it's like oh this is about mosaics I wanna I wanna learn a little
bit about mosaics and there's you know it's it was awesome the information that
they were they were given out and it's it's something that you know it's free
yeah it's free when you're walking around I mean it's free right you're already there you paid an entry right
but there's things you've already paid to be there you might you're getting your benefits let's get let's get your
you know your money's worth let's go and and learn as much as you can and it's like some of that stuff that they were
talking about I was like man I never really thought of that because we ought to do it we ought to do like uh uh uh uh
a uh sheet vinyl floor with wall tile and just have a
um have some go career guys come in and someone on the network come in and and do the sheet vinyl and then someone on
the network do the tile live just right in our booth because I think we're going to do a 10 by 20 next year that's a good
idea you can go live and say hey guess what we're going to find somebody right now
yeah that'd be cool one of the the really cool things I thought was um see if I did put on you know a
workshop for the the sales people to go to that they can actually learn and see
what the installers are going through yeah they didn't get the traction right away I think they only ended up with four people but they didn't the idea was
materialized a little bit too late so there wasn't really a lot of time to advertise for it but but yeah they're
definitely onto something on that that was uh that was actually because there wasn't a uh there was only
four people we didn't actually have to participate which I I'm thankful that we didn't have to try to squeeze something
else in but I do feel bad that we weren't able to help everyone that we wanted to while we were there
well we're going to get more opportunity especially since CFI and and fcica's
combining their convention this year uh we mentioned it the podcast last uh last
week on on location um I cannot tell you how excited I am for that I know that
seems corny but I'm I'm serious you're getting both sides of the industry
coming together and when I say both sides I'm talking about a lot of com
more dominated company uh association with fcica and a more dominated
installer association with CFI coming together at one convention to me that
seems like a winning so you know winning equation uh so I am I'm excited for that
I hope I hope our audience some people come out and uh you know show up and
and uh you know grab some free free uh merch from go Carrera and and get to
know everybody because man that's going to be fun I know you know installers are all about the free merch I'm over here
rubbing uh the Great Alaskan flooring company you know Steve and all
them were over there this year it was nice hanging out with them what where did you uh where did they
where did they uh where did did they have a booth or they just handing out oh it was it's a you know
a group of installers well technically they're all encompassing company kind of
like us right we're like we'll still go out and install but it's their salesmen and installers if they if they need to
be yeah um it was nice talking to them and just getting with uh
the smaller companies like that because we're all going through the same thing so it's we're all feeding ideas off each
other too so it's not only are you there to Network and and stuff like that but
it's where you're like man like this is what I'm going through and someone always has an idea for everything
yeah I'll tell you one thing I kind of noticed is there's this there's a huge
uptick in the in the you know appreciation for the installer at the
event I noticed uh whether it's any there were some uh I seen some news some
press releases on you know some retailers uh you know
doing a apprenticeship style program through this right here locally I believe this uh DeGrasse interior so Deb
DeGraff was yeah yeah and I think uh Crystal was there at that uh that conference as well that release of that
news so uh one of the local companies is going to start with um I want to it's an
education program I think it's a five-week training course is that what it is they're starting with so yeah five or ten week I mean it's it's obviously
built on the criteria of of the FC yes but the and so you can still qualify for
scholarships it looks like at least from the release I've read so I mean it's just cool that people are starting to
understand I think that your your labor resources uh and as you guys say trade
Partners or employee installers the the fact is is that you have to build from
the ground up you know the stuff of building the trickle-down kind of Ideal
um you know the problem with that is you know if I'm trained as
the president of my company now I just have more work to do to try to train down right yes what if the the
Baseline the foundation of your company if you look at that as the ins your
installer resources as your foundation and it seems like that switch is starting to happen and
companies are realizing like if you win at Labor uh and you win it honoring and
and helping the install professional uh be more successful uh whether that's an
employee installer or a subcontractor or a trade partner I like that term you
know um the fact is is if you build that Foundation right you can really grow
your company because all of us know I mean it's inherently known that you're you're only going to be able to install
what you can install through your re your labor resources so you build that up most of us can sell the crud out of
flooring it's just can you get it installed in a professional manner after you've sold it yeah so after that you
know they came out with that and uh people ask us what do you think about it and we love it like
they they think that we look at it as like that's our competitor I can't believe they're doing this but uh at the
same token you know we're like what can we do to help like this is great for the industry it's not you against me it's
we're all in this together and until people start looking at it like that um nothing is going to end up healing in
our in our industry so it's like you know we're we're fortunate enough to to have the
knowledge to be like you know and part of CFI naft and stuff like that so it's like let us come help
you we can help in these classes uh we can learn in these classes yeah I mean
who knows who's going to come down and train so hey so quick shout out so Dad Dean uh Dave uh
whoever okay Jim Jim if you guys Jen you guys need some help with that I mean
we're local we're right here in the backyard um I mean given our schedule we'll do our best to make room to come and help
out or or to come and in class and learn something that's really what we we
wanted man we need that's awesome we need to leave as well so more than
willing to do that so that's the shout out so whoever right and that's where you know that that trade Partners comes
in because we're in the same trade even though we do the same thing right we we don't do as much residential as them
and they have a commercial and residential division but it's not like I'm not trying to go and take all your
work right we're that's what we're not about we're we're not fine that whole precept is is a false
narrative anyway like it's a it's a there's more work than we can get done
yeah the fact is is that there's not there's there's no no harm there's not a
lot of um downside to sharing knowledge and making our industry better overall so
helping each other out is I think a key um I also want to say that having the a
lot of the Union guys came by our booth and that was that was awesome it was so
cool to talk to those guys it was and I did not have a division it was like what
can we do to improve um I did get a question here from Paul
Turner asking was the union doing a competition or demonstration you guys
were by there I think they were just showcasing their apprentices like this is where you can be at if you're only in
here you know for a certain amount of time and they had they were in multiple levels of uh the apprenticeship program
so there might have been a gift card involved for for the one for the winner for the one who did the best I don't
want to say the winner but that might have been I gotta tell you a 19 year old dude doing cheat vinyl and impressing
you guys that's freaking awesome well he shows you what can happen just period like from a training perspective if you
get trained Young when your hands haven't gotten any bad habits or your mind got any bad habits man can you get
good fast well granted he was like a second or third generation yeah so they said that his dad uh he was like on
Christmas Eve his dad made him go in the garage and do a bunch of work and it's like you know if you're gonna get good I
mean it's good to have a coach like that right because it's no different than any any sports and it just makes sense we
always relate to sport is called the huddle man it just makes so much sense and actually when uh
I was I was talking about it to someone and they were they just looked at me and they were like I don't understand like
why is it called the Huddle yeah I overheard the conversation and it's like this is this is how you have to think of
it right you think of it in terms of sports and this is this is Paul's like he was like this is
the Huddle it's all about forward progress and then you put it in terms of of football and it's that's what you're doing man it's all right we're here
we're going for that next first down sometimes you get sacked man you get pushed back but you're always reaching
for that next verse down what what can we do to get to that yellow line that that's
all we're doing it's one yellow line at a time until you get to the end and
you gotta turn around do it all over again yeah you know the the I've watched
uh um Urban Meyer uh in at a conference
talk and and uh Peyton Manning and
um Lou Holtz even the the thing is is that there's so much
that it's why I love football is just there's so many life lessons within
there like yeah the quarterback's your your quarterback but I don't care how good he is of his offensive line sucks
right so and it's they're usually the ones that get I almost think of installers as an offensive linemen uh
because they they don't get all the Press but man they're the most important part because I it doesn't matter how
good the quarterback is it literally doesn't matter if the offensive line is terrible and so there's just so many
parallels to real life and business that you know it makes sense and and frankly
that's what we do each week we come together we talk about Solutions and what's our next play and we go try to
you know execute on it so yeah keeping that forward progress going to me
um made a lot of sense in my heart on how how we uh how we try to operate as a
company and how we try to operate as a business hey shop at the same store
so yeah um so one of the things that I found really interesting and maybe my favorite
part was the competition like every year I love
to install our competition but I went over there a couple times and the freaking catwalk was packed there was
two or three times I went over there and I couldn't get up there and so I was like well I'll come back later it was 3D
watching the wood guys or then the next thing you know it's three deep watching the uh watching the guys and I was I was
blown away with the interest was that a challenge like over
140 feet 30 feet of seams in the carpet I think yeah that carpet
oh my goodness it was more than a roll yeah of tape holy smokes yeah yeah it
was pretty uh crazy to watch and I I I think this year
um strategy your approach to that to that
uh to your pod was key like staging yeah yeah like how you approach it I've seen
some guys like you know seam everything up and then and then glue the whole the whole thing I watched some guys do it
you know um where they they did it in sequence where they they did some gluing they
glued up to their tape then they you know utilized uh their they seemed it
after the glue was done with the you know uh the cool Glide so the the the
approach seemed like super particular and anybody who hasn't been to it it had like you know
well as a probably three inch border uh and double border uh yeah double border
and three inch and then and that three inch piece they're pulling lines on them to see how straight it is right and
measuring everything and I watched some of the judging which is a piece that I hadn't really I mean I've seen in the
other competitions but I've really paid attention to how they were judging them this time and I tell you what it's it's
pretty freaking cool when you go look at it we have a assisted living client that does they'll pull a dry line down to see
if their patterns are matching all the way down a 200 foot hallway so it it is real life a lot of ways
you know a little little uh secret about me is the very first time I got a striping kit on my lawnmower I pulled a
Mason line across my yarn because I want I didn't know what I was doing I wanted to be money but after a
little bit of practice I didn't need it so that's funny just so you know how I am because I probably would be that that
guy and that wasn't or that person who pulls that line down the hall they probably put the same thing don't let him lie all right and someone that's
been in the the competition it when you look up and you see all those people
emotions get real things like your mind goes blank sometimes and it's just like
uh that's where you get you know you see them and they're just down there and he called me out on he's like you're just
there twiddling your thumbs on your leg it's like yeah because I look up and it's like what are you doing it's like like let me just try and bring this
thought back like don't pay attention don't look up but you got so many people watching yeah
uh the pressure's on oh shut up Siri so yeah that was cool that's that's what I
like kind of stood out the most to me was the the the depth of people wanting to see this
stuff happen it was it was uh so I did enjoy that let's get in trouble man it's getting trash and I like seeing the
difference I know that Colwood kind of put a damper on it and then uh nothing for 2021 but even just compared to to
last year after we had a little more freedom yeah still last year wasn't quite like
2019 but this this was very reminiscent in the 2019's kind of traffic and even
maybe more so it sounded like a lot of people that were there um
you know uh have the same feeling and a thought just
came to my head I if you didn't go one other thing that you'll realize is that like we I spent a little time with the
floor Cloud uh crew there um man you you miss out on some of these
like I've seen their presentations before at another conference which is where you
get to know this stuff yeah hey we were both there yeah exactly and and the
coolest thing it's they're coming up with some cool like hugely beneficial tech for for
commercial and J in particular where you can see and I just want to give them a
shout out because I think their products awesome but you can you can uh know the
the humidity and the ambient temperature and job site conditions of your job and
and I may have mentioned this before but it's like super cool that you can they now Bluetooth their their sensors to the
uh relative humidity sensors in the slab and you can read that four or five hours
away it doesn't matter where you're at you can get that information um so track all the changes right before
they came out with this he's talking to Jason Spangler and he's like this is what you should do and Jason's just like
yeah yeah that is what you should do like you know I
sometimes I'm a little bit behind the eight ball man but you know my intentions are pure yeah
so anyway that's one of the reasons we're we're always like touting get to to the shows and Convention because
that's where you see that kind of stuff there was also right next to me was the booth of now I don't know how far this
tile is gonna go but they take recycled plastic and they mix it in with different things and they they've made
ceramic tile poor like a obviously it's not real ceramic or porcelain but it's
got all the visuals uh it's called sustainable and that was kind of cool just to see that yeah you see these
these new ideas of people trying to approach the market uh with a solution
whether or not it's a material solution a technology solution
um or a people solution with you know the fcef uh or ntca they were doing a
bunch of you know uh that's probably where you you I would
assume went to the the mosaic yeah it was in one of the on one of the stages
it wasn't in uh I mean everything was kind of separated but the main stage being like
I walked 28 miles last week
oh and you'll get your exercise guys go to Tice and you get your exercise one
thing I do regret is I I did I I caught a back end of it but I I missed Sam's uh
presentation for for my pain like that's one dude you got to see if you're gonna go there you got to go watch out
animated that dude is and and even if you want to see Sam he's give he's doing the Naf CT class uh
coming up here in in Georgia for their subfloor and substrate yeah that that
dude man I I went and visited him because I missed his stuff too and I was like when's your next presentation he
was like uh in like 15 minutes but come check this out and then we started talking about the LBT shower and he was
like I remember you guys when it first got introduced and you know you guys are the only ones that really have one like
in your showroom right now he said but there's so much so much interest in it right now it's
crazy yeah it's a presenter man I love just
he's a communique he's such a good communicator from the stage
um it's really he's a talent for sure his passion right like it's real like
people can pick up when when you're just monotone you're reading off something but people also can pick up that
positive energy and that's just that's just all he puts out and if he's Faking It hey that's a good job dude yeah
something I still have his badge from one of the nafct events yeah yeah he he
can freaking present no doubt and but like you said it's all about you know if it wasn't authentic it
wouldn't come off that way that's why it does come off so well is he's so authentic and he's got a he really knows
what he's talking about he's not a presenter he he comes from an installer I mean the guy knows what he's talking
about when he's up there showing you how to do it it is gonna be the right way he's gonna uh give you all the backup of
what what ASTM standards and all this stuff and it's like an encyclopedia up there for him it's pretty cool
it's nice to be surrounded by a lot of uh people who are very involved and
you can find whatever answer you're struggling with if you don't have an answer and you're struggling
somebody will point the finger and lead you to the right person yeah another cool thing was I noticed uh John Namba
taking around a group of installers to different boots yeah they were doing tours yeah that was pretty cool
yeah so you know and Susie was a judge this year first female
judge that's awesome too yeah well if anybody knows what to be looking for she
does you know I I think that uh it's better than him anyway and he's the better
installer yeah he'll straight up tell you so everybody kept saying man so you know
must be true well she's uh she definitely has been
um influential and I think a lot of the women and sellers you know obviously uh
know that you know that that whole thing that's another piece that you guys went to was
the women in uh the leadership conference right women in Wi-Fi
the first one the women the women's uh conference on Monday but before it
actually opened up I had one I had so we actually did go to that and that was um
um it's just eye-opening right like it just made made me
I already realized it but it's solidified uh the different approach uh
men versus women and you know the they tied together the age Gap and the
difference in Generations a lot better than men do um coming from a different aspect and I
think we can we can learn a lot from them uh but it's just nice to be able to sit and be
a part of it be a fly on the wall and listen even though we always kind of try to sit in the front and
we're just ready to to engage in conversation at any time so well I just told them they were like you know
someone asks you know right after it was like uh I don't remember what exactly what they
said but you know why did you come to this and I I came here to learn from people smarter
than me and there's a lot of people a lot of women in here that are are smarter than I am so I'm just here to
learn yeah did you guys uh so that that was on what Friday night
was it Monday Monday morning man yes yes
my Friday since I was out of the office for that
time frame yeah so it was that was that evening how many people were there
oh like probably had been like 50 or 60 people in there and Michelle Winters aren't put a a chicken emoji because
Crystal brought a rubber chicken and like awkward silence she'd squeeze the the rubber chicken
it's a thing now we're we're the preferred flooring Rubber Chickens
that's our mascot you guys gotta own it we have to yeah
well um I know that you know this kind of a recapitize and we shot live from Tice
the cool thing is you know I I do think that uh there were
some good momentum there um it was fun to be there but you know having that installer kind of presence
was noticeable to me and uh
we say it every week come to uh do you guys remember the
fcica and cfi's uh dates I can look it up real quick yeah
get there I know that it's down in um that's in Orlando right yeah oh um
yes August so what they're doing they're doing a joint venture for the uh CFI convention
they're going to combine forces and I believe it's at the rosin Shingle Creek I know yeah I've never been at the past
few years yeah so whether you're CFI or not let's uh
you know show up to that show because you're going to learn I think a lot there uh
Tice was awesome but this will be I think you'll get to communicate and get
even closer with with uh you know more of the installer Network that you know
we all get in our bubbles in our cities but this is a chance to get out and and uh get to know some other guys and and
gals in other areas and uh share your knowledge and they'll share with you
um so Tice was fun that's pretty much what this podcast was about was uh you
know touting the the enjoyment of going to these conferences so
I can't I can't make you go but I I sure hope that seeing the podcast there and
seeing the people that are there and kind of getting to know uh that as well as kind of this quick recap of of of our
experience while we were there um you know maybe entices you a bit just to you know go check it out uh invest we
just say just come hang out with us
come hang out with us we'll hang out with you the whole time I mean it's kind
of what we've been doing right we've just been trying to make people more comfortable because it does get a little intimidating so there's a lot of people
there we like to be that that familiar face we were um
I was honored to be
to party for first-timers and there were some people there who weren't first-timers but they were first-timers
to that group that that came and joined um another Local Company uh Welsh child
marble Dan Welch uh the owner uh came and showed up and then I directed some people his way
um and it's crazy it was uh some of the people that he brought with them like we live 20 minutes away but I mean
I met him in Las Vegas so yeah yeah I seen Pruitt there and he's like I
gotta go to Las Vegas to see you right and he's right here in Wichita so it
looks like the convention except 20 September 20 20th through the 20th
thank you Paul for bringing that up so yeah yeah let's get to that
convention um again you know you can come hang out with all the
all the installers you can come see Daniel and Jose chat with them everyone
one of the things I I will tell you is once you've formed a relationship guys will help you we we we help each other
offline I've said this before but we actually talk offline sometimes uh and
and bounce ideas off of each other on how to help each other's actual flooring business outside of this this uh podcast
and outside of go career our flooring companies we talk about you know how can we help each other get better so uh I am
always happy to help a new flooring company or even a tenured foreign
company if they if they if I have anything to offer I'm willing to give it so right
to someone about that too when we were down there and they were like uh
you know pretty much what are you trying to get out of this and that that was one of the big things was connecting with
other installers and I said I like to be that that resource when people are thinking of uh I have a question with
sheet vinyl or something it's like let me call preferred flooring and they were like and and you answer I'm like yeah
man that's why we put it out there he was like you come up with the time I said most the time it's you know a 10
minute conversation it it doesn't take much but if you know someone that that
can give you that information a lot faster than you can you know try and reach out to someone especially I've gotten calls nine ten
o'clock at night and it's like I'm in a pinch I just need a couple answers real quick a couple pointers and it's like
this is what you should do yeah call me and let me tomorrow and let me know how it turned out and just so everybody
knows like we don't have all the answers we're still learning as we go you know
you know we are still but you guys are great connectors too it's like you guys have a real knack for connecting people
when when they're you know if you don't have the answer connecting them to someone who might so you know there's a
lot of value in that as well you don't always have the answer but it's cool if you know because we get out
and get to these things uh we know some ants some someone who may know the answer even if we don't
yeah Michelle Winter says that we're all amazing and thanks us for everything that we do but also Michelle she's
amazing and we gotta thank her for yeah that she does yes amen and I didn't even recognize her this time I'm not gonna
lie and I think I did tell him I'm pretty sure I told her like she said Jose and I'm like
oh my God that's Michelle Strong work strong work young lady awesome and then uh the nafd event we
were talking about with Sam Biondo and then actually Andy McWilliams and uh
Kevin from novalis are going to be doing a resilient modular training too that's
February 21st through the 23rd in Georgia so I went through that subfloor and sub
prep or substrate training hands down like
one of the best and when is that I've went to it's uh this month the 21st
through the 23rd at the new facility down in uh Georgia I believe
awesome uh and thank you oh it no it says it's at the Mapei adhesive manufacturing facility so thank you Andy
for this uh fidget spinner ink pen yeah now nothing I don't even use pen but I'm
gonna stay here and just spin it all day all day long gotta put it down I was walking around Vegas doing that people
were just like what is that noise I was at a meeting yesterday now I got to get one and the guy he was playing with his
pen the whole time and it wasn't until after I said you gotta check this out and he was like I need one
I've drawn to it that's awesome that's another thing to add to like when you're traveling and
you go to an event like this and and you surround yourself with people who are trying to
increase their knowledge and trying to make other connections you do get revitalized a bit I'm not gonna lie if
you can't tell everyone we're kind of excited to be back home and kind of tell everyone what we felt and what we learned there but
you have to find more reasons to go than more reasons not to to be honest with you like it's just you have to find a
way it's just it's hard yes we know that not everyone has that capability and
fortunately for us we've kind of made it a point to do that we try to
plan ahead a little bit but we can make it a priority yeah we make it a priority
and and this year we didn't not gonna lie we were like on the fence are we going we're not going like uh
I got this going on and then we said we gotta go see Paul there's no it's Andrew
I was happy we were able to have breakfast together on the last day man yeah that was awesome and then you know
shout out to Mohawk 2 because they did do the installer appreciation event over there at the most competition
um having Alana there has actually her talking to us and Mohawks been getting
uh really big into the install side so shout out to Alana and mohawk for for
hosting that um I'm impressed with the line I don't drink beer but thanks for
for the beer for everyone else yeah you know we did we did a little [Music]
uh presentations at the same time so you know just got to make your way
around a little further shout out I I am impressed with that um with Alana's leadership at her age
it's it's no kidding I think it's pretty impressive so
um yeah get out and meet some folks uh again I know I know that we didn't talk
a lot about the actual any any flooring install techniques or anything we'll we'll come out and have some podcasts
that uh are more in-depth on you know actual flooring techniques and
stuff but what we're trying to say is getting to convention is where you learn a lot of that stuff and and uh whether
it's Tice or the CFI FCI Cas uh combined
um convention coming up I I I'm a big believer uh that the installers that get
there um you know they they tend to just have
I'll say they tend to just have a a better beat on their business you know they yeah there was a a couple
Brothers there right and I started talking to them they're on the tile side and they they started their company about 18 months ago and um I don't
remember their names because you like hi nice to meet you forgot your name already that's me
but they they were awesome man she gave everybody name tags I'm talking to him and you know we're
just going over the business aspect of things and how you know we we started and and where we're at now and after
about an hour I said you know what I've been talking a lot and one of the brothers said he he said you know we're
not technically on the same side of the industry because you know we got these silos that we're all in but he was like
this is exactly what I came here for so like even when if they're not installing
the same things man business is business and especially when you're talking to someone else that's you know a pair of
brothers that that come in and even uh Jose and Luis too and they they said
that they they take a lot from this podcast actually they were like we they listened to the podcast and when we were
talking about like branding and putting it on your shirts and stuff he said we really took that and and you know they
showed up with hats and shirts and it's like that's awesome that's what we need you know people are
listening look I'll stand right here I I was uh I was humbled with how many
people came up and said they watched the podcast very humbling
um you know we don't always have the most attendees on the podcast and people consume in their own way but whether
it's YouTube or LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever they're they're I've I had so
many people come up and say they they love the podcast and uh we had multiple
people that we're gonna have on this year um that that want to be on and and
um you know talk about their experience in in our industry and it was it was real humbling it was cool because you
know we just get on here uh chat about the industry and chat about our experiences and it's
it's a reminder people are listening and and uh so showing up I it really
invigorated me to show up at on the podcast like be present and really try
to bring value as much as possible because there are people that that uh listen and go actually do it and they'll
change your business because of it and a little embarrassing thing for me too is uh so after the women's event on Monday
we went up to for a get-together afterwards and um a young lady came out to me was like oh hey your name's Jose I
prefer flooring but yeah she's like oh I listened to the podcast all the time and I'm like
I don't know what you're talking about she's like aren't you on the Huddle and I'm like oh
yes yes I am I am so excited I said so here here's the here's the thing is I
feel like it's just me my brother and our boy Paul get together and just talking so it doesn't really forget that
it's all out there all the time yeah so yeah that was uh so so thanks everyone for watching that's hilarious okay I'm
so sorry about that um I got her card and yeah I need to reach out to her because that brain fart moment because
it's just like this is just real talk and we're just hanging out and and it's just something we love to do so right
and even at the end like uh there there was someone that you you see there all the time right not I think I
have this card here somewhere we'll just wait yeah now you gotta wait
on me but it's you see him there and it
yeah Mike so I've seen them there you know a few
these past few years and we always say hi and everything and before he left he's like Daniel I got to give you my
card because I love everything that you guys are doing and if you're ever in the
neighborhood we want you to come visit and and I'm like yeah you know we'll make sure we bring everyone we bring the
whole family you can only come if you bring the whole family like I want to meet everyone
so there was a caveat to it yeah the whole family well it's I I think that um
you know with all that said it's it's like when we when we come on uh when you come
on and do you start like you said Jose you just kind of start rapping with each other fact is is people find Value in
authentic authenticity and that's what we do we're just talking about our
experiences and so again it was humbling and I I want to tell everybody thank you so much for participating and you know
if you do like what we the value we bring you know the best way to show us
that is like And subscribe hit that thumbs up button on whatever platform
that you're watching it on and you know help us grow the channel and get it get it out to more people yeah build that
Network even you know from here on out and come to these events and sign up for
go career because it's free for installers I mean there's no point not to that's right yeah just to build on
that like you just said Daniel I mean there is absolutely zero cost to the
installer to sign up build their profile get their Hammer rating and you know build their online presence so to speak
it's like a calling card there's nothing there's no cost the only cost is upon settled payment so I always say like the
worst thing that could do could happen is you see a work order that you really want to do you do the work and you get
paid like there's only that that's the worst that could happen if you don't you
still have that as a third party verification when you're trying to sell yourself to someone above somebody else
like there's there's a lot of clout to that and so uh and they're gonna want
these shirts they're going to want these shirts that we were talking about yes I mean even so I didn't realize right I
think you got a bag I'm gonna I'm gonna plug this shirt right here because I'm gonna have to like not only is this
shirt awesome right yes I didn't realize that it has this mesh right here
for a sweat like it's a mesh I didn't even realize that either it's see-through I'm reverse yeah that's
the most comfortable shirt I I almost uh I almost wish that all of our shirts
were that material that right is absolutely awesome this is the material we make our work shirts out of as well
but it doesn't I tell you what let me let me make an offer next week uh if
you're consuming this somewhere else if you come on the Huddle next week and just say and just uh
put in the in the Q a huddle shirt I will send you a I'll send you one of
them shirts and and we are getting ready for a giveaway at some point too yeah few
extra large guys because like just like large ran a little
bit there's this uh this stretchable material I mean it was still comfortable but visually I didn't want to scare
anybody away so I had to jump scare everyone away that is true well with that guys we're gonna wrap it
up and I want to again thank you guys for uh you know all the value you bring to
the to the flooring industry it's it's been awesome last year we wouldn't even be sitting
here talking about it right now thank you for creating I appreciate that thank you for creating that platform uh for
for all of us to do our best and and lift everyone up and help elevate it it's always a team effort that's it's a
team effort and that's why we call Partners right trade Partners we're all in it together let's all become Partners
there you go all right guys so next week Tuesday three o'clock same place same
time and we will catch you guys later all right see ya all right bye everyone