The Huddle - Episode 35 - WIFI (Women In the Flooring Industry) Mentorship Program
This week on The Huddle Paul, Daniel, Jose are joined by the Crystal Sims, Shannon Vogel, and Andrea Blackbourn from the WIFI Mentorship Program. To learn more about the FCIF or the WIFI Program, use the links below.
https://www.fcif.org - The Floor Covering Industry Foundation gets families back on their feet when battling catastrophic injuries, severe disabilities, or other life-altering medical crises.
https://www.womeninflooring.org - WIFI is here to empower, connect, support, encourage, develop, educate, inspire and attract current and future women in the floorcovering industry while playing a major role in the growth and future of the floor covering industry and the next generation of women in flooring.
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.
welcome to the huddle we're here
every Tuesday at three o'clock to discuss maintaining forward progress in your flooring career
we have some special guests with us today I'll call it the ladies of Wi-Fi
um Andrea Crystal's on uh we may have a couple more joining us as well with me
as always Mr Daniel and Jose's here I think he's getting water or something right I was gonna say in his brother
that's not there uh Jose from preferred Florida wasn't a lot of weight [Laughter]
so uh today what we're gonna go through is um you know women in flooring uh it's
been a topic here on the Huddle before and I'll introduce our guests here and
and let them tell a bit about themselves uh Andrea you want to kick us off and let us know a little bit about you
sure uh Andrea Blackburn and I'm here in Dalton Georgia the carpet capital of the
world and I am the executive director of The Floor Covering industry foundation
and I am a board member on the women in floor covering nonprofit awesome so
that's what Wi-Fi stands for women in floor covering industry industry yes
women in the Floor Covering industry yes awesome Shannon uh
welcome to the Huddle would you like to kind of tell us a little bit about yourself sure my name is Shannon Vogel
and I'm the owner of a social media company social that specializes in the flooring industry
and um I'm on here today because I think we're going to talk about mentoring and Crystal Sims is um someone that I've
been mentoring for a little over a year now and uh excited to have this conversation
awesome Crystal welcome this is not your first trip on the Huddle but uh you want to
chime in and say hi to the guests
hi sorry I'm still uh you're still on the job site right now yeah
like a true warrior yeah
um are you embarrassed about show you oh show you the job site yeah asked about your co-workers that's why you don't
want to have them on video they could probably have their butt cracks hanging out they're flying people
par for the flooring industry a standard issue
getting ready to clean up taking this on location okay sorry you can
awesome so
um a little bit about Wi-Fi maybe uh origin story how did this come to be
yeah um so Emily Finkel who who some of you
may know she is a design professional in the flooring industry and had a long
career at Shaw Industries and then retired and started her own curated
collection of flooring and Interiors called Emily Morrow home and then she recently
has taken a position as a vice president in the design area at engineered floors
but Emily started Wi-Fi was her idea and I think their first conversation was
with Tanya Kern who's one of um our friends in that's a an editor of
Fortunes magazine and they were kind of the first two that was like we you know
should start a non-profit that can really pull women together can provide opportunities for networking education
and really highlight flooring as um a fun and engaging profitable career
for women and from there they started to recruit people to join the board I had
known Emily for several years because we both are from the Dalton Georgia area and worked with her on a previous
non-profit and women's group for a different
um non-industry non-profit and she invited me to join the board along with
several other women and we started working on putting together the
organization its structure um it's 501c3 and the rest is history I
guess so it's a it's a non-profit to promote women and flooring of all different
um areas from like Crystal installer to some manufacturing reps and and uh
possibly even Tech reps and just women and flooring in general correct yeah retailers
Distributors all across the industry awesome and you guys have a mentoring
program within Wi-Fi is that is that also correct yes we just launched our
first cohort of mentoring an adult to adult match um so it's centered around professional
and personal development I think for me when I think of mentoring always think of like Big Brothers Big Sisters like
you're going to have a fifth grader you're gonna go eat lunch with this is not that this is an adult friend and
um that's why I was so glad Shannon was able to get on to talk about her relationship with Crystal
um but I think that this we've had a lot of interest um The Forum is live on the um on the
Wi-Fi website so you can sign up to be a mentor or a mentee it's a six-month match and as part of the intake process
you can specify your skills that you have to offer what you think that
um others could glean from you and then if you're a mentee what you would how
you would like to grow professionally and so we have a committee so you match on the on the on the the skill of the
mentor and the need of the mentee yes well you're you're on the right podcast
that's what we do at go Carrera with flooring installers how about that oh well here we go
so yeah um that's that's um you know with the rise of
some I'd say awareness that people like Crystal have brought to uh our industry
that it's a viable uh profession whether it's installer social running social
media for for dealers or companies um it sounds like a really good
opportunity for women to get guided through the process of maybe this industry
um in a creative but also very rewarding way so Shannon you want to give us some
background of how you met Crystal and how that all came to be and you be you're a mentor for crystal
yeah so it's kind of a cool story um I was asked to be an ambassador for Tyson and newcomers meeting and
um I came in and I think Jose actually started the conversation and planted a
seed and then Jim Aaron from fcef and I started talking about we had some
things in common being from South Carolina and something just sparked where Daniel was the third piece and he
said you really should go meet my sister um I feel like there's some synergies there and Crystal was about to
um do her competition the next day and she was struggling a little bit with public speaking and you know just all
the things that we struggle with being seen in public and being heard and using your voice and just the Stars aligned
and I was like girl sit down a minute I got 10 things I'm going to tell you right now if you remember two you're
going to do better than you did before we had this conversation I don't know where this is going so I gave her all of
these tips on public speaking and just whatever was in my heart at that moment
and um she just looked at me and she goes you know my brother told me I need a
mentor and I think you're the one would you be willing to be my mentor and um literally it was the stars aligning
for the perfect relationship that had somebody called me and said hey you need to call this girl environment tour I
would have been like yeah I probably don't have time for that right now but her energy and enthusiasm and willing to
grow and learn just lit my soul on fire and we meet um whether it's once a week once a month
however often we both can we jump on a zoom and we have what's funny is I
thought why can't be her Mentor because like I don't have a degree in that I don't have a certificate for that like I don't have a checklist for that and she
was like I'm not expecting a checklist I just want help so we Have No Agenda we
just start talking about whatever is going on and what is so crazy and cool
is that there are times where I'm the teacher and there's sometimes where she's the teacher and nine times out of
ten we are going through the exact same thing having the same experience the same struggles were different ages from
different states we do completely different jobs in the industry but we have so much in common and just watching
her growth and progress and how fast she learns and has evolved I'm in full
support of the Wi-Fi mentoring program and anything that I can do to contribute to that process because watching
watching how much crystal is grown and how much I have grown from Crystal's experience is I mean it really is one of
the greatest joys of what I do yeah it must be real satisfying to have
um not just to Mentor somebody but to have that connection like that right
outside looking in right you said that it's adults and it's not like a five-year-old sitting at a lunch table
but I've seen it they become five-year-olds sitting at them just having fun and then we try to drag you
into our lunch table and I swear I'm gonna change my last name to Vogel Gonzalez dash part Sims a family has
welcomed me in and been super vulnerable and just generous with their heart and
information and we I think we've all grown we don't know any other way to be honest
like you got to kind of wear who you are on your sleeve right if you're trying to hide something you're still trying to
hide and the idea is not to hide the idea is to to be yourself uh out in the
open wide open Full Throttle all day every day well that's a real um attribute that you guys have to be
honest with you is you open out you're you're very transparent with the way that you approach business I mean that's
what attracted me to you guys and and we became friends and it's that those when
those synergies happen it's pretty special and Crystal do you have time to chime in on what Shannon uh said about
your guys's kind of gearing up and becoming friends and the mentor uh
process with her I always have time to talk about Shannon
um yeah just like she said the the night we met it was really
I think that was the first day of the competition the day we met and uh I was just in a really tough spot mentally
because it was a lot to process that day and still to this day where I I used one of
the pieces of my advice that she gave me and that was uh when you're feeling um
scared or nervous or you know fierce in setting in write those fears down on a
piece of paper and when you walk into wherever you're going throw it in the trash and and leave it there and
for some reason I did that the next day and I came in with a whole new attitude
and ever since then it's like like she said everything the way that we connect is
extremely special and the way that she connects with my entire family and anybody she comes around to be honest
um I love Shannon too right
it's been a really neat experience to have that Mentor like I told Daniel I
think that day that I realized that he was my mentor that you know for the last eight nine years
whatever it had been and I was like I really am looking for something
I was looking for something more more deep more personal um a guidance of a woman who's strong
and powerful and when I met Shannon it was just like this is everything I need and yeah that night I asked her to be my
mentor and I think that it's extremely powerful to have someone walk alongside
you in in life and for us to be complete strangers and be completely comfortable
with each other it's been really uh life-changing for both of us I would say and tell that you guys were ever
strangers to be honest yeah we passed lives we've known each other one cool
thing to add on to that was crystal with you know one of the things we talked about early on was she was like I don't want Daniel to feel like he's not good
enough or not enough to be my mentor and I was like we're gonna put all that pressure on me go have five things to
teach you that I can't teach you I'm going to teach you things he can't teach you because he hasn't been a woman in this industry if you're lucky enough to
have five people walking alongside you and helping you more power to you it's not it's not to me versus Daniel because
we have so many different things to contribute yeah that's a good point many times just
as a note with mentoring I I went through different business coaches and
different mentors myself and oftentimes uh having a couple I couldn't I I had a
mentor teaching me how to copyright because I couldn't I couldn't write an email to save my life in my mid-20s and
I was growing my business and I so I reached out to someone who teaches
copywriting and they had a very specific skill set in a very specific way of teaching me that point is is that often
we need more than just you know that one point of view or that one angle and I
would assume that in being a woman in in the construction field flooring in
particular that comes with its own bit of challenges can you guys speak to some of those challenges that you faced and
how you overcame them oh now turn me loose I'll get on this one well you you've only got like 15 minutes
so yeah I gotta jump in a minute uh if you want I'll start um go ahead so I started in constructing
flooring in a family business in a small town and I'll never forget things and I'm not bashing guys at all I am team
you know I'm all friends with guys I'm not putting anybody down or put anybody in an off light
but I had a rep come in and I said hey I've got this big commercial project I'm really proud of it it's a ton of square
footage it was a great product I wasn't beating him up for price I was just like I need you know I need my price and I
thought oh that looked kind of high so I go to my father who I was not allowed to call Dad I had to call him Steve because
no special treatment because you know if you're in a family business it's twice as hard try to be a female family
business with you know all men in your family and the rep gave my dad
and my ex-husband a better price than he gave me and I was like do you think we don't
talk to each other so that's one one part we can talk about the second is
um when I go to a trade show like I would do everything in my power just to shake things up in general anyway so
I'll go get on stage or do whatever it is that I'm doing and I'll wear a really nice you know Fancy Pants Nordstrom suit
and really nice expensive shiny shoes and then I'll start talking and then
I'll take off my jacket and people see my tattoos and then they see my funny colored hair and then they honestly look
at my chest and they can't reconcile what's happening and they start talking to me differently and then if I've been
home recently and my Southern accent comes out then they'll start talking to me like I'm stupid and it is my superpower to flip it
around and just say like the most intelligent thing I could possibly muster to come up with and then
literally watch their brain not be able to reconcile what's happening the whole idea of talking to me like I'm less than
or Dumber because I'm a woman just makes no sense especially I've got
25 years of experience in this industry and I've done every job there is except being a rep I know my so
um yeah those are my two those are my two sub boxes to get us going well that that's a that's a good push down the
hill right there uh Andrea what about you and have you I and and I get it this is not
meant to be a man-bashing thing that's not the purpose most most of the time it's it's uh
a matter of lack of uh exposure and lack of of knowledge right they're uh not
stupid just a bit ignorant to the uh Dynamics and working with women
specifically in a construction industry you know we have a lot of general
contractors over the last 15 years you'll you'll have a you have a pretty
good chance to have a female project manager or a female project uh
engineer or you know even superintendents but uh so I feel like
you know that it's the path is getting better on this but a lot of that still
happens for sure I said it faces probably a lot of
Industries and a lot of workplaces um I have spent my career working in
fundraising and non-profits and um spend a lot of time on the board side
and um your your boards tend to be heavier male than female
and um so that you know you're dealing with executive level people who are primarily
male lots of times they're um can be significantly older than you and so I think that the Dynamics of that
is just being aware of different people's communication styles that may be related to their gender it may be
related to the area of their country uh area of the country um I've been with the Floor Covering
industry foundation for almost six years now and it was my first experience with having a board that was remote and
spread across the country and so people talk different people have different
ways that they interact than um people do in in the South
and definitely the the gender you know it can be easy to interpret something as
targeted at you in a certain way because of your gender but you but there's also
a lot of other variables that lead people um to how you experience them and so one
of the things that I have kind of as a saying in their family is always assumed
um assume somebody's doing their best and it really takes takes it off the
plate of feeling like that that you are not getting something that you deserve
it may be that someone else just has a different perspective um one of the things with women I'm sure
that y'all have heard this statistic or out there on the internet that if there's a job listing and there's 10
different criteria for that job that women feel like they have to have all 10 of them to apply for it whereas men
don't feel like they have to have two or three and they feel like they're qualified and they should apply for it and so I think that one of the things
that I thought was really interesting about Crystal and Shannon's relationship is that they're not in the same sector
and just how powerful it is to be able to realize your skill set and how it
might be transferable to a different um part of the industry and also to have
someone who's cheerleading you um you know who's in your back corner who's like you know what you could do
that you could do this you Crystal you can stand up in front of an audience and speak I just saw her do that at Tyson
she was great and I think that those connections it's kind of feeling like
that you've um with a mentor that you have a cheerleader or that you have a a
coach that you can really be honest with about your insecurities and there's some
safe space there maybe you don't want to say to your boss what you think your weaknesses are but your Mentor creates
that space where you feel like that you can be vulnerable that you can talk
about things that you want to do different where you can share experiences and how they can help be
Workshop how to make those go better next time so I don't have a ton of uh
great stories about in charity and non-profit you know people lots of times are their best selves and so I've had
some really good work environments some good folks surrounding me um but it's also been just really cool
to see this group of women launch this group and really see the
enthusiasm around it well I think it a lot of it boils down to awareness
I was talking uh I've got a friend that's a a male nurse I mean he he he's
a guy and he's not getting it's not a sexist thing it just when you see a male
nurse and he's got hairy arms and he's got really hairy arms it's like it's just it's it's not always like
uh obviously with some of the stuff you pointed out shared was clearly that way but I'm saying first perception
sometimes is just somebody in a position that we don't recognize as normal and so
we act weird about it the truth is is that humans can do a lot of different things in general and it's your own
personal like uh desire of what you want to do in the world right so if you want
to be a male nurse be a male nurse if you want to be a female Florian installer bring it on right so uh Crystal I I
wanted to ask you a question I I know that you and Shannon obviously hit it
off right away but with your you're you come off a little shy
sometimes right and you may have been how did you overcome that to ask Shannon
to be your mentor
I believe that would have taken some courage um it did and I was and I was extremely
nervous and I was shaking but but that's where I needed growth and so
I can't grow if I'm scared to even ask those simple questions and that's definitely something she's shown me
um and even family so sorry yeah we've
actually established that I'm extremely introverted uh which I didn't even know surprisingly
but um even those first couple meetings that we had together I was I was uh a
little bit hesitant to be myself I guess but
lost that pretty quick now I'm just crazy I think she would agree
crazy amazing it's cool when we do video calls and you'll watch crystal get a
light bulb and then when she gets her notebook out and she starts writing it down I'm like that sat with her that resonated that's going to come back
let's keep working on that and one of the things that we talk about when she gets one of those light bulb moments is the world's going to give you a lot of
practice opportunities once you're open to that lesson that you're about to learn so this is not all fun and games
it's not all easy it's not all you know sunshine and rainbows it's hard work but that hard work is paying off and and
really I think like I said her growth is um just incredible to watch so right
there uh Shannon you said the hard work right and I just kind of want to add a piggyback off of your guys's
um interpretation of of being a woman in the industry is you know it almost
sounds like history just keeps repeating itself over and over right uh when you come from you know the times when
segregation was coming in and and people of color were coming in because you know I I didn't live through that part right
I was on the back end of that for sure uh 80s but coming into to the flooring
industry for me was kind of the same it wasn't in the same instance right but
we still had to face diversity coming in because I wasn't respected as a leader I
wasn't respected as the guy running the crew because I was a person I was a Hispanic male and usually people of my
demographic didn't speak English and they were doing drywall they weren't leading Crews of guys twice their age
and actually better than them so it was different coming in so I think um
I think even from now into the next 20 years we're gonna have to start over with another demographic coming in and
being the first and being um the the first group to establish
himself and set presidents the way that women are starting to do I want to say women have been doing it for years but
now it's like everywhere if nobody has got uh their own individual uh platforms
to um speak their voice and to stand up for one another then I think that that's
weird to me but just so you guys know I think we're going to keep repeating this and and I love Yeah well maybe maybe not
as much as you think if we can start thinking like Andrea just spoke which is assume that people are doing their best
work and assuming that assume the good first like assume that it's a good male
nurse assume that it's a good female instructor minded right they have to be more open-minded because I even had ties when
we you know um gentlemen approached me and he's like I don't even understand saying this
whole women in flooring thing because I was like we were over here today and he's like I don't understand that like why can't everyone just be equal and
it's like you do realize that that is the entire goal so
like come on man like just have an open mind you can't say oh I respect what
they're doing but I just don't understand it and I don't want it to be like this it's like if you if just come in with an open mind
let everyone you know balance themselves out and that the only way to do that is
you know programs like this where it's it is it's you know putting people in the spotlight and saying you know we are
equal we are here let's start treating it as such so that way you know years
down the road it it doesn't have to be that way yeah IT addresses the the
um awareness part of it that's really the the whole goal if if it's not as if
you're trying to form your separate group to then segregate yourself away from Men In flooring the whole idea I
would assume is like bring awareness to the fact that hey we're just because
we're women we are really good at this too and we can you know we got an
installer that almost has has competed in installer over the year we have plenty of examples of sales reps and
leaders and and and uh people like Shannon do you own your own
uh company doing the social media do you work or something right before you leave I do I'm doing my own company I'm about
to turn into a pumpkin I have to jump off but thank you all so much for this conversation I really appreciate the
opportunity to be a part of it and um if there's another one uh sign me up I love this group tell us quickly uh how people
can find you like social wise uh you can find me anywhere on social media Shannon my maiden name is Bilby b-i-l-b-y Vogel
um I've got the same picture everywhere it's um short hair it's probably blonde I've got a full sleeve of tattoos
um Shannon reach social dot media um but yeah I'm all over the Internet so just find me anywhere and reach out
connect even if we don't know each other you can connect with me on LinkedIn or Facebook and I'm happy to probably knows
yeah she probably knows it to put you in my community awesome great thanks well thanks for joining us today thank you
for being on and uh thank you appreciate y'all take care thanks so one thing I do want to add is
um you know going to the women's portion and sitting in and watching how they
interact any men out there listening who are having a hard time accepting that we
have to as a group come together man women are so empowering of each other
but everything like all encompassing right like some of the guys out there are all women's empowerment This Woman's
empowerment that you know what no it's empowerment period because we could learn a lot from them to be honest in a
way that they they support each other when they ask me why I was there I said you know I'm here to learn from them
and there's a lot of people there that are smarter than me so I was learning a lot of stuff
yeah well I guess what I was getting at is that a lot of
times um you get men will tear each other down specifically in installation and you
know we might we might step back and learn a valuable lesson of what it's like to support one another we we
promote that a lot on this podcast the huddles of you know it's like we're a big family and a huddle and it's about
supporting one another don't there's no need to tear each other down like let's try to get better as an industry that's
gonna you know they'll uh Rising tide uh you know uh lifts offices All Ships so
like that's the attitude we should have so I also
go ahead I just wanted to kind of piggyback off of that too I was going to say that that's one of the reasons women
have these uh conferences and things because we'd like to empower each other
and like Daniel's experience how there was a gentleman who didn't understand it we
are oftentimes not understanded um on that or understand it understand
we are not understanding that's a new shirt for us
um but that and I I really thought it was cool that I think there were
maybe five guys that ended up coming to the Women's Conference in Las Vegas and
every all of the women there were super excited for that support and it would be really cool if if more men showed up to
just kind of get an idea of how we Empower each other and the things that
that we could do to make the world a better place and assume that everyone's doing their best and I
think that's a misconception right because or like it's just the information isn't out there because you
you hear a Women's Conference and you think oh this is just going to be all women but and and then like men are loud
or something small print right at the bottom everyone is invited you know so I I did I signed everyone up and we had a
great time there and we did we tried to go to the next one on the women's breakfast and they were like yeah they
were like this is for women only so I'm pretty sure I let y'all in
by the time it was like you guys can come in it's like you know what you guys want your moment we will give you your
moment just know that we're we're over here supporting YouTube for the record that's the second time I got kicked out
of one the first time my sister was in the competition I went to the it wasn't
like what what you had going up I went to the uh the women's uh event just to represent her and I walked in I'll never
forget I walk in and everybody just stops talking and stares at me I said hi
my sister Crystal she can't be here and then chatter just kind of uh commands
but I I'm really good at putting myself in uncomfortable uh situations like that just to bring awareness well frankly I
think that the guys should be able to go in and say hi and show their support I think it would it would do nothing but
help when we come together again what I said earlier I assume none of us are
really wanting to segregate ourselves away from each other I think there's too much of that in the world as we as we uh
witness if you watch enough news which I try to stay away from but fact is is
that you know coming together and learning from different cultures and different upbringings in different pasts
that's how we grow as as people it's certainly been a big influence in my
life with different people uh that I've gotten to uh you know have the pleasure of mentoring me
the whole reason you find a mentor is because of their their past experiences that they can bring you know some
knowledge and light to you I mean that's that's the whole point so uh I did want
to ask uh you Andrew the uh floor covering the fcif
tell us a bit about that what's what's that about how does that play into what
you do sure I'll be happy to shift and talk about that a little I did want to say
one thing just to figure on what y'all are talking about which is I feel like in this day and age with the labor
shortage I know myself with my team it's like we can't afford to not build up our
team members you know because if we don't they'll find somebody else who will you know and so I just feel like
it's such an important business practice to make sure that you're creating a culture that is where your people want
to be and if your people are you know people that have different skin
colors or different genders or they're people that have small children and they
whatever it is I feel like in this day and age we really have to to keep the
talent connected to our organization we have to be flexible and Make spaces
comfortable for everyone and programs like these mentoring programs or other
programs in the industry if there's not something that you feel like is really
helping you make your staff feel engaged you need to find something as a leader
they can make them feel engaged because if not they'll get going so I feel like
that I think Piggy and jumping on there too is you know training opportunities and
and helping them helping employees and staff and growth and and
um you know trying to have advancement opportunities and and those types of
deals as far as you know working with different
um individuals needs at a company you could do a there's probably podcasts
that are just dedicated to that it's such a deep subject but from a surface
level I would say uh employees are important uh the most
important piece of the business I mean the rest of it's just brick and and mortar and you know uh equipment
it's the people do have to you know they're the ones that make the wheels turn so yeah I think that all that's
important as well so kind of related to your employees and thinking about how you can help people
with whatever is going on in their life um so my day job is that I work with the
Floor Covering industry foundation and it's been around for 41 years and it is
a 501c3 that it was started to help people that have catastrophic medical
conditions who work in the Floor Covering industry um it can also be their household family members as well
and we have three criteria for assistance one uh the first one is the
your serious medical condition um it could also be an injury that takes you out of work for a couple months
could be that you have a child that was born with disabilities and you need medical equipment or special therapies
we help a lot of people that have lasage cancer sometimes families have an
elderly parent that's now living with them and maybe they need a bathroom made handicap accessible or it could just be
that their medical condition has caused them to not have the same income that
they'd had before and now they can't afford their Medical Treatments and so maybe we're helping provide medical care
or even helping pay People's rent or mortgage um so all kinds of different things the
medical assistants um the medical piece is the first criteria the second one is
um that you have to be financially stressed and we don't go by federal
poverty guidelines which is what a lot of non-profits do instead we look at the actual situation
um in the past two months for the family and if their expenses are higher than
their income then we usually can help them as long as they don't have a lot of other liquid assets and then the third
criteria is employment in the Floor Covering industry which has to be five or more years and if they're not
currently employed then they couldn't have left more than five or more years unless it was because they're retired or
their disability or injury put them out of work so does this uh does this apply to uh
1099 installers that may have you know that that's that's how they operate in
the flooring industry may not have health insurance maybe maybe not
um sure okay and this is something that you know I don't think a lot of people really know about right I'm like for my
birthday my birthday was in November and you know Facebook asks you do you want to have people donate to a cause and I'm
like yes and that's my first thought was the fcif so I put it on there and there
was actually I think I got over 300 donated by people I remember that and
it's like that that kind of stuff is awesome and I think a lot of them were actually in the industry so it's like
not only are are we coming on here talking about the industry and saying you know support each other we're
donating and and supporting each other that way too and we just have to get the word out because I think a lot of
installers they they wait too long right and it's
too late and it's like if you know about it right now you have to set your pride
aside and know that hey I need help and this is an organization that could help
me out tell us how um how does it obviously you kind of gave
the criteria how does it work I I'm an installer I I have an injury that's
going to prevent me from doing my job for the next you know two months or something I go to a website
there's our website is the acronym for our organization so it's f c i f for
Floor Covering industryfoundation.org and we have a application which is a longer form and
then we have an inquiry form which is a short one-page document and that's the best way to start a conversation with us
um so that we can learn more about your situation um see if you probably will be a good fit for the program that way we can
um make sure before you go through all the trouble of filling out a long form and sending in all of your supporting
documents that we feel like that it's going to be a good fit um and then we review your you know
income and expenses what medical bills that you have um and verify your conditions and your
employment most of our grants are for six months and then they can be renewed
and so your Grant would specify all of them are different um most commonly it's for medical care
so it would be a check for you to pay for your doctor bills and it could be yours that we anticipate coming or lots
of times people are behind at the point that we get involved so they're to help make payments on existing medical bills
that they have um and then after six months you will you would you could
turn in your paperwork showing that you spent the grant as intended and then you can reapply
um for us so it's um so we're pretty big pretty big program we'll add this to the
description in our when we post this on YouTube for the FC
if.org is that correct yes okay so we'll post that in the description of of uh
this video so there's also I assume a way for uh
individuals who have some means to go on and donate sure yep okay we um
we raised just under a million dollars every year and we have donors that are
individual people just like us to large corporate donors that are manufacturers
that are trade show trade media Distributors
um people all across the industry and so whether it's you know you give fifty dollars or you can get five thousand
every little bit helps and is going to turn around and impact a family that's
part of our flooring family do you have a number of uh you know an average or an approximate amount of
families that you guys help a year yeah I think that I didn't look at it
before I got it on the call and then we had close to 150 families applaud last
year and probably a little bit under 100 that we helped so we certainly people apply with us that you know don't meet
the qualifications for whatever reason our average Grant that's paid over six months is around nine thousand dollars
so that's going directly to a family wow so it's pretty impactful so while we you
know don't help thousands and thousands of people the families that we do assist we're really helping them in a pretty
financially transformative way yeah that's a that's a big help for someone
who you know I mean get you through six months of rent you know save your mortgage that's that's meaningful money
right and that's why I said try and get there you know if you know it's going to get to that point that's where the
inquiry form comes in right because it's like yeah start doing it before you start losing everything instead of after
everything is already gone in the audience I mean we'll again we'll
we'll have the link to the description in our description below um like support one another this is what it
looks like um if you got a few hundred extra dollars go in and donate it's helping a
family I I can tell you one thing that's I I want to say unique uh but honestly
I've been in flooring since I got out of high school so I'm not sure of other industry but you know I know there's
other organizations uh that do some of this not necessarily write your grants
but I remember being that a CFI convention wants and an installer friend
of of mine had just lost his son the day before and uh he was 18 years old and
you know there's obvious medical expenses and things that funeral costs and and stuff and you know
the CFI came up and gave me I believe if I remember like twelve hundred dollars
to give to him uh as that they had gathered at the they'd you know it just
gotten around I mean we do care about one another in our industry is what I'm getting at and this is a way if you do
care that you can support others that you may not have direct contact with but it could make a big impact in someone's
life so I encourage you to check them out in the description below and you can
kind of see some of the you know I'm is there some examples on there on people's
uh I'm actually on the website right now and they do have a link for stories right right on there so it's uh you know
they have different links you know their history give do you qualify and then
stories right there so you can go on there and see some of the stories that people have actually you know they've
gone through the process and how how it's probably helped them yeah that's awesome well
um plugging On Through To we're we're coming close on time here I do want to
make sure to you know give a special thank you to Andrea and Crystal and
Shannon who joined us it's it's um it's great to hear some of this uh
some of the relationships that get built through the industry and how we're pulling together to solve some
complicated problems uh but in closing I wanted to ask you Andrea do you know
Crystal I do so Crystal is one of our volunteers
with Wi-Fi and she is on our committee that's launching our mentoring program
and then Crystal and I and these guys we all just hung out in Shannon in Vegas together so nice is Crystal going to uh
become a mentor uh Crystal asked me if people could be a mentor and a mentee and I said you're an
overachiever aren't you I want to do both at the same time and transfer them down look yeah that's
what it's all about though I think yeah yeah so yeah I'm not sure could I'm not Chris
I'll have to speak for herself what she wants to commit to but our program is six months and then people can continue
that relationship you know however they want after that but the program is structured with
um monthly content um first this for six months and so I would suggest that people you know if they want to be a
mentor and then later be a mentee to maybe do one at a time to start out with
construction there's some structure around it initially now yeah would you
guys happen to have um a a mentor program for uh for a gentleman to be
mentored by a a female to help understand perspective well I will put
that on on the brainstorm list One Mentor program right now but we haven't
said that men are excluded I think even even if it's like a group right right like yeah I think that could be valuable
I will say that when we were at uh I forget maybe it was it was one of the comp conferences at women in flooring
kind of table a lot of guys don't know how to even interact and it's not that anybody's
trying to be sexist or anything like that just like how do you approach different scenarios I had posted the
problem to the table like well how do I run ads without yes you know what
specifically women to come in to my company and become installers how do I run ads without coming off sexist in the
very first place and so they addressed that it's those kinds of things maybe
not a mentor mentee uh uh situation but at the least almost like our message to
the industry uh you know at the end of that six months or something would be cool for for people like me that you
know I still need to learn yeah everybody needs to learn is there any way to
approach it it would be great is there a cost to the program or is everything included in the membership
so to join Wi-Fi as an individual member it's 150 a year and then lots of
companies have made large corporate donations and have chosen part of that donation to be sponsorship of their
employees um but yes anybody can can join on the website to be a member of Wi-Fi and then
the mentoring program is just one of the benefits of being a member oh sweet
good and affordable on top of that for sure all right well that's bringing
us to the end of the podcast I want to thank uh the guests again uh everybody who participated uh thank you to the
people in the background Ashlyn and I know that Daniel and Jose kind of helped you know coordinate to make this happen
so I'm glad it happened I'm glad that we were able to get everybody on and kind of uh you know further the the ball down
the field on since it's called the Huddle I'm always using uh football analogy sorry bro
he's got to be decked out today by the way so moving that that ball down the field
on um you know opening up this this dialogue on how we can you know uh
better accept I I do want to mention one more time what you said that really
stood out to me is assume people are doing their best and trying their best and that they deserve to be in the
position or what they're doing I think that goes across the board whether it
was me when I started installing at 19 or Daniel's story about looking like he
was 10 when he was installing and you know I mean the all those things just assume people
are doing their best and and uh that they deserve to be in that position so
yeah and then I just like you don't realize how much this industry
supports every like we support each other right we got fcif we got the the
Wi-Fi mentoring program now you know women supporting the women and um the like once you started talking
about that it took me back to just this last CFI convention to where um you know they have Raffles and stuff
and you see everyone putting in for these Raffles and I think almost every single prize that was won by some by you
know someone that's been in the industry for a while went to someone that was new to give yeah like like you know you see
these kids in there and they're they're like I really need a stretcher and then someone wins a stretcher and then you
see them like hand it off like right away no questions asked you need this like this is going to help you out so I
I really like that aspect of our industry is that we we do we support each other and you know I'm grateful for
everyone that that listens and you know that supports us and what we're trying to do here you know
um we got Jeremy and hold hand here they're always on and you know just it's
amazing the the support system that we have and I'm really glad that that we
have that yeah well said uh and speaking of support if you want to support this podcast if you're viewing it uh in
whatever uh platform you know consider giving us a like uh subscribing to our
YouTube channel uh follow us uh we get a lot of people that I would have never
thought was was listening to us and attending um that come up to me and said yeah I
see you guys uh I see you on the podcast I love the the show the guys are awesome and and and uh you know so if you if you
like the content that you're receiving and uh you want to support us a little bit you know just consider hitting like
And subscribe and share with everyone and then share yeah do it all
right guys well thank you guys again uh Daniel and Jose for joining Crystal
thank you for joining on location that that had to be uh an extra Challenge and
Andrea thank you so much for for being on and bringing to light a couple of these uh organizations that I think we
should all consider sporting thank you so much Paul it's been great and it's great to see everybody else again so
soon after our trip to Tice but I look forward to working with you all awesome okay well signing out we'll see you guys
later and uh thanks again thanks everyone all right bye-bye
bye Crystal okay bye