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.

Create your FREE Installer profile at https://gocarrera.com and become part of the future of the industry TODAY!

GET TRAINED! Find a list of training dates here: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/

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

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

ads we don't plan on running any ads anytime soon uh you know consider giving

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