The Huddle - Episode 63 - Ballin Knows Best
In this week's episode of The Huddle, the guys are joined by Ken Ballin to discuss his new mobile & desktop app, Ballin Knows Best. Find Ken's web version of the app on ballinknowsbest.com
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The HUDDLE is where the flooring industry can get together and talk about everything! Lead by Paul Stuart from Go Carerra who is joined by Daniel and Jose Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring.
what's up flooring family welcome to the
huddle we come at you every Tuesday 3 P.M Central to discuss maintaining
forward progress in your flooring career sorry I was stumbling over my own words with me as always is Jose and Daniel
Gonzalez have preferred flooring out of Grand Rapids Michigan and we have a special guest today Ken Ballin of Kim
Ballin installation but uh what's the name of your company skyro floors I knew
that sorry about that um but also Ken's got a really cool uh
platform coming up we're we're gonna have the privilege to get to know in this podcast
um so one thing I want to point out is everybody on here
um if you've tuned into the Huddle in previous episodes you know we're really focused on trying to help the installer
become the best version of themselves the best installation professional they can be can has a excellent program that
he's put together it's an application AI driven that uh is really there to do
just that to give installers the answers that they need to their you know installation problems
um he's building a community around it and um sounds like some really exciting
stuff so welcome Ken as well and uh so to to start off guys uh you
guys having a successful week everybody so far so guys so far very very busy week
well you can see Jose's as usual in his uh vehicle and
not so as uh usual Daniel's out on the side it looks like and uh away from home
base so uh we got Canada's workout room I'm in my office and these guys are out making
it happen so welcome everybody uh if you enjoy the show or if you've watched
previous episodes please consider giving us a like And subscribe on our YouTube channel or on our social channels same
with preferred flooring and Ken has a great following on uh online so if you
follow here and you don't follow him please go follow and kit follow Ken you'll always recognize his logo there
on his shirt I see from far away in every show just because of that shirt so uh so let's
kick it off with uh Kim's uh new Venture first off congrats dude it's a it sounds
awesome uh I love it when guys take these leaps of Faith to try to improve
things um so I guess out of the gate I'm gonna ask you to kind of uh just give us an
overview the name and the overarching idea of your your new venture
yeah sure so um the tech is called that one knows best and essentially what it
started out as was a a text line that you could text questions in uh from the
job site and get responses to you know in real time fairly quickly as well
depending on you know the complexity of the question um the idea is that Bowen knows best
essentially becomes a hub for installers with multiple resources aside from just
the text line that they can get questions answered um we have the website that's also live
and the app that's coming very soon we're working on this week and next week to get it you know out in its final form
but um so we'll have links to sponsors and their websites and their apps we want to
have uh training and Industry events on there we want to have a board of mentors
that can guide people if you're not really getting the question answer that you that you you know you want in this
manner you can contact one of our mentors and get the question answered directly from them and have a little more personal conversation uh sometimes
you can get a little generic response from your AI so you know it kind of gives you that more in person
um feeling and then at some point we'd like to also develop our own kind of forum for installers to interact and
network with each other as well that's great yeah so Community really is what you're
building and um supporting the installer now do I have this right that it's AI driven but
it's kind of person supported it's human supported so if somebody has a complicated question
or something that the AI may not have been uh fully trained on it's got some
people support on the back in the background so you may jump in or one of your mentors jump in and help answer a
question day I may not have provided uh the clearest answer on or something is
that is that accurate well yeah yeah yeah so um I see everything that comes
in all the questions that come in and I see the answers that go back out and if I see something that um you know isn't
really what I know they're looking for or I might do something a little differently I have the ability to jump
in myself to the conversation and you know make um other different suggestions or
modifications to the answer so that we can kind of steer them a little better than they might get initially well I
think I think that's an important um uh aspect of this we've talked about Ai
and actually uh chat GPT and stuff in previous episodes uh I believe it was
the technology episode or something one of the frustrations is you know you're not always going to get those
intricate questions answered sometimes the way you're you're needing the
information and so knowing that there's some some human support behind that is
um I think much needed and I think will go a long way with your user base
oh yeah definitely definitely I mean it's you kind of see you've got people like me people like me who are just
gonna want to talk to someone too like you know you you can read all the literature or and
whatever responses but if it's too monotone it's like you know what I just I feel like there's another way I
feel like like there's just one thing missing when you get a professional like you can on the phone and he says oh yeah
dude his is all go this is what you're missing you didn't know that of course I didn't I'm not kidding I've
given the number out to um to a bunch of people to kind of test out and use and see what they think and
you know I've seen the responses come in and every time that they've asked something that you know I wasn't really
you know behind I would jump in and say you know please be patient with us while I'm still learning
um but this may be a better solution for for your problem and
um you know everybody seems to get a kick out of it when they find out that it's actually me and not uh
AI yeah yeah
oh go ahead go ahead nope we earlier uh we had we had the laundry
of having a conversation prior to start um but it almost sounds like
this uh the program in itself is going to get smarter and progress the more it
gets used did I pick that up correctly yes absolutely so it does it is a guided
Tech what it does learn as it gets used so the more you know we put into it um the more we'll get out of it and the
sooner that we can get sponsors involved to get their um you know set up questions into the
tech that's going to develop it even further so we really you know the the main focus right now is obviously
promotion but it's also getting the sponsors on board because and that's going to be that's just gonna be a game
changer for developing the tech further and it can be anything for anyone from you know setting material manufacturers
tool manufacturers anybody that is involved in the industry I I I'd even like the trade organizations to you know
get involved and have you know that access because at the end of the day the
whole point of this is to benefit the installer you know when I first started
um I didn't have the luxury of working for somebody else I didn't have the luxury of having the flooring installers
of America Facebook group where I can go and ask questions I didn't have the old time installer yelling at me that you
know I was doing stuff wrong that I could ask um you know I just went about things on my own and read the directions and hoped
for the best and you know all right well yeah that's what it was
you're reading the directions and just going you know going with the flow and I
really think we have a lot of opportunity to a lot a lot of good for the new blood coming into the industry and you know making it an attractive
career choice for even younger kids that can get involved and see
um you know so I I really the potential of this is just Limitless
and I hope it gets I hope it gets the attention that it deserves and I hope that um you know it's as successful as I
know it can be so um what what gave you the idea how did
the idea and the uh balms knows best kind of come
uh to till I so the Ballon knows best was not my idea
actually that was not me um I had uh it's on a bit of a Gary
vaynerchuk fan and um for those that don't know garyvee you know go bomb on
social media he's awesome but uh yeah we've got a little bit of a potty mouth but um so he was yeah gear discretion
advice that um he was hot on the AI in the GPT
and everything like that so that kind of piqued my interest and as soon as you know I got into it
um I I just knew like you know this could be a game changer for our industry this has a lot of potential and you know
others in the industry said well it'll probably be like five ten years before it's usable for us
um but my partner on this project is actually a Jason Potts and he is big
he's another flooring installer but he is um into the tech and writing the tech
and doing websites and all this sort of cool stuff then he came to me and he
said Hey listen y'all I'm working on this thing uh what do you think about and I was like dude I'm in like I'm
sorry I didn't even need like I'm there like I've been I've been hot on it for a
while and he was just like I was like all right it's I guess it's time to make the jump and do something because you
know I always say doing something's better than nothing so even if it's something where you're at
least moving in the right direction well typically these kinds of things
um you know they take a little bit of time to get
the the wills churning on things um you know when we started go Carrera
it's it still takes a lot of Industry education because people are are scared
of technology in our industry honestly I've ran across it multiple multiple times uh where our installation
Community is a little bit technology adverse part of that is the average age
as we all know is in the 50s depending on which which uh report you read but
overall it's somewhere around 53 to 58 as the average age of the installation
Community now we have a lot of younger guys in um but the technology any technology
piece is a little bit um slow to adoption
um so patience is always required and and being willing to almost retrain
people in understanding the benefits and and you know like like Jose said he you
know he wants to pick up the phone and talk to somebody so giving them an outlet to still be able to talk to
somebody is an awesome teacher as well and having that mentorship side of things where if you need to
really get deeper into a question or you've got a project coming up you know I can see it working for an installer as
a project coming up maybe start going to handle some materials he hasn't been used to handling yet he or she uh and
preemptively talk to a mentor on your site that could help them pre-plan for a
project even I mean those kinds of things having that human support behind AI I think is super uh important and um
yeah I think that you have something really good going
um so to clarify right now you have the text line where they can text in the
answer or the question and and the answer will come across uh in any text
um client like any messenger client or is it all do you know if it
um you know iPhone has different ones I'm going to say as as you would send a
text message any other method a text message specifically um it will respond to any phone sending
a text message uh yeah yeah anything else like from the
website or the app would be you you know typing your question directly into the
website or the app in the you know submission and the website's live now website is live right now and the app is
going to be shortly uh what is the website for anybody
watching that's bowinowsbest.com awesome
it looks like it's still being worked on because the mentors aren't here are Joe Mo and bro
yeah yeah the questions submission field is
functional um everything out is kind of just a basic layout that we'll Sub in as we kind of uh adjust the design
don't appreciate you talking crap about their name Daniel yeah
be nice to those guys they're great installers
I'm chewing on this if I were talking again I'm chewing on this right now and I can see that this this this thing
being a huge benefit uh you know not only to season installers but to to new
installers who are doing their best to go out on their own they're just not comfortable right because they don't
they don't have the information uh that someone who's been in it for 15 20 years has they don't have that that
Social Capital to lean on and I I almost feel like this is going to
create more of a comfort level for any new installers going out on their own
and they're going to have information at their their fingertips per se um
and I just see this helping everybody like you said it wasn't there when you were when you started it wasn't there
when I started that's for sure or when Paul started you know and it was kind of you know just to spin it off you know
that you're going in and what if it was Regional what if you can have satellite companies if if they can't figure out
between a a person or AI what if they're a satellite company who might be
available to help troubleshoot our project they've needed uh on there oh absolutely you know it's just it just
opens up the lines of communication to anybody and um
you know the the focus my focus has always been the installer you know I'm
an installer my first concern is always the installers having access to the information knowing where they can go
for the uh for the information and the contacts that they need and you know there's still guys out there that don't
know what product reps are or that don't know that there's Tech Guys in these manufacturers and if we can have this
kind of centralized Hub that just brings everybody together it's just gonna bring
it's just gonna be a good thing for everybody involved
yeah and and we we talk about new guys but there's often uh if you get on the
forums or if you're just in the installation Community you'll see guys that maybe do hardwood that's looking to
get into ceramic tile they they have some really good hand skills and yeah but they're jumping into a new scope uh
in the flooring industry this served them very well they they know how to use the tooling uh they they understand the
overall application of multiple floorings um products but they're gonna start
installing themselves a new flooring product and something like this because
uh as previously discussed you you're you're not just doing ceramic tile because that's what you're kind of known
for but you're you're handling resilient you're handling ceramic you're handling
carpet I assume the major disciplines
oh really um of having the mentors because I can have
one of the mentors who focuses on carpet be accessible through the app so if you have questions about carpet you're going
to scroll down here and see that I'm talking to this person about carpet and I'm going to get that personal
experience that I couldn't find with the generic question
yeah yeah I see a lot of applications where um even Integrations like even with go
Carrera where we have a video chat feature where uh I could send you a text
message to open up your camera and you may have a problem out on site and need
my expertise as the project manager for a job or something on a layout question
or whatever and I can visually see on my computer your camera and take pictures
and make markups on the the video and those kinds of things we had the idea of
adding a link is the name of that feature link a pro and that's kind of
what you're doing is like giving them access for
um uh tech for a phone call and we may even be able to do some things where you
know they they actually have can on the other side looking they're showing you
the problem and you're making markups and saying hey dude if you move this part this far over it'll help your
layout tremensely or whatever the scenario but it kind of gives the mentor the eyes out in the field
so there's a lot of ways to improve and get better and I'm and obviously you're
thinking about a lot of this stuff so I just want to commend you for for taking
the um the leap I almost said having the Boop
to take the lead you know the I've made a few slip UPS on here we're not PG but
we try to keep it about PG-13 or so but you know having the the
um wherewithal to see the problem and then the courage to go out and start something it takes a lot
um I I know when I started go Carrera several years ago it you get a lot of
pushback anytime it's technology and P people are just uh skeptical of things
right and uh we started go career in 2018 our first real launch and it took a
it's taken years for people to start to get comfortable with the idea of of
utilizing technology to uh leverage themselves and and become the best
version of their themselves as an installer so those things
um you know I always say thank God for Facebook or no 50 year old would know how to use any application but uh but uh
yours is sounds very simple which is also a huge benefit get in you know get
in the application type in your question and get an answer yeah definitely I have a question
I'll go ahead Daniel we have Rollin on Facebook with a question I don't know if he missed the
beginning or if my signal is that greater or anything but he says where are the answers coming from is it from
an expert or found on the net and I think Ken already kind of answered that uh it's a it's a learning algorithm
right so the more you put into it the more the AI learns to spit you out an
answer but then that's where we all have the mentors in the their you know respective discipline to where if the
answer isn't really there you can have someone on hand to give an answer
yeah yeah no that's exactly it yeah um so the idea is that it it does have
that kind of harvesting ability that traditional uh GPT does but with the access to seeing the
inquiries come in as you know in real time uh we do have the access to jump in
and make modifications and answer them a little more personally than you know
might be needed well like you said with with sponsors having
so another answer Rollin is uh having the sponsors come in or manufacturers
come in they're going to be providing some of those questions and answers it sounds like or answers to the most
common questions probably to kick that AI engine rolling
um I would assume something like that is happening as you said that the manufacturers with or the sponsors in
general will have some input as well right yeah and we're constantly
um inputting questions ourselves that maybe are are a little less manufacturer
and vendor driven and a little more installer driven something that I might
ask on a job site that a manufacturer isn't going to be you know I might say
oh I don't know an easier way to manipulate this plank around a door jamb
or something like that uh whereas a manufacturer of a setting material isn't really going to be interested in that
sort of you know situation tips and tricks tips and tricks
so um I have a question about about uh how old would this uh be available to to
me like the general public how how does that work out is there a membership as you uh report is it completely free to
installers um we are funded
by us currently hopefully by sponsors pretty soon I know the feeling my friend
if anybody's interested in sponsoring please reach out um but um yeah so free for installer and
that was kind of my thing I wanted to be free for installers um we do have another uh facet of the kind of the bow
knows best company where we're doing um like kind of template websites for installers
who may not have websites um but that's everything aside from that is
completely free for installers so using the tech uh you know getting the information anything like that
completely free for installers um we will be fully funded by our
sponsors and that allows us to further develop the tech further promote the tech so that we can just grow it and get
bigger where do you see
I'll go ahead got another question on Facebook from Tanner James he's asking
if uh their support for a hardwood refinishing right now
um it has been answering um hardwood refinishing questions and
actually I have a very reputable hardwood refinisher in the industry
um that likes to mess with it quite a bit so he kind of gives it the run through he's like dude that was kind of impressive it's like it's not bad right
he was like yeah that's cool yeah yeah so I mean there are those things that I
don't personally like I'm not a refinisher so I lean on others to say and I'll you know take a screenshot of
the question and the answer and say hey what do you think about that and usually the answer that I get is something like
well that makes sense I said I might do it a different way but that is correct and that seems to be the consistent uh
results throughout at least the the inquiries that I don't have 100 of
background in so so it sounds like the hardwood refinishing has been uh you know worked
on and been trained a little bit so yeah sounds like yeah I mean the the issue not issue but
like something that um I kind of see come up from time to time though is that you know the AI Tech
takes information from these vendors who have their websites so if you're asking for a something a product from a certain
vendor and they've discontinued it but haven't taken it off their website
that seems to be a uh ongoing obstacle that uh
um but you know that and that's kind of the benefit of these vendors having sponsorships because you know they can
input these questions and then we can do another you know another setup fee you know a few years down the road when you
introduce a new product line and we can do a whole new set of questions that we're inputting into the tech and it's
just going to learn and keep you know kind of feeding off what we give it
it's pretty pretty awesome I I do have a question on the text line is it a phone
number that you provide for the text line and is that on your website or yeah
so I wanted to text text uh question right now what would I do uh you can
text 609 483-4975 and
um ironically today we're doing a little maintenance but typically speaking any other day would be fun
laughs it happens one more time give me and uh
our audience that number one more time yeah yeah I'm gonna write it down I'm gonna write it down this time
the text line from Valentine 609 -483
-4975 and if you just go to the website you
can actually there's a little bubble on there it says you know ask your question you just click on that and it'll open up
messages yeah and the uh if you don't want to memorize it
go ahead Daniel's breaking up a bit because he's
out uh working in the field but you're you're basically what he's saying is you
can do it just like we uh mentioned earlier Ken mentioned earlier is you can
go to the website and use the chat bot on the website to get the answer or you can text
609-483-4975 your question just save that and your phone is Baldwin knows
best and and when you're out on site if you got a question you know send a text you might get the man himself responding
to you so maybe so Ken where do you see
um you talked about having a a kind of a forum type deal where do you see all
this coming together and what what is uh success for calling uh Baldwin's no
Ballin knows best sorry what does success look like for that that's right you know I our our goal and
you know uh my partner Jason and I have taught we talk about this pretty regularly
um the goal is to have a centralized Hub a resource for installers across the industry regardless of what flooring
type you install whether it's one or everything um you have this resource that you can
go to for anything that you need whether it's a question answered whether it's uh
links to uh vendors websites and you just have access to all the information that none of us knew was out there when
we first started
for sure is this going to be uh available internationally or is it just in the US
for right now um I would love for it to be International
um we are working towards I shouldn't even say this maybe I should
no I will whatever um so we're it's just us we're it's just us talking bro yeah yeah
so there is a push for ballon to learn Spanish
um and depending on how we see that going will lead to other things down the
road um I really just want to focus on the English version that I can understand first whoa
thank you I appreciate that foreign yeah I could see a big need for uh
Spanish honestly I mean they're so there there's well and that was the large community one of the first things that
we had talked about but um yeah you know depending on the sex the success of it in the states in
English that will kind of dictate how we evolve it uh to learn Spanish in other languages and you know hopefully at some
point go International the cool thing about uh um the AI platform is that it it can interpret uh
English Spanish and Spanish to English 42. it might miss some here and there a
little bit but I mean for the most part if they have a question in Spanish I bet
you they can translate that and bring up the literature in English
um but again that's something like with refinishing or carpet where I copped or I take a screenshot and send it to an
installer that I know speaks Spanish and can say hey what do you think about this yeah again you know when I've done that
it's been okay that makes sense um I I might do things a little
differently but that that's an acceptable answer so it's you know it's it's kind of that the more we build the
network the more we bring on more mentors um and you know that's the perfect example of having somebody that speaks
Spanish as one of the mentors you know it just makes us more accessible to
um those that can use the yeah so it sure does
as the men took from the mentor side is this a are they going to be available at
certain times or is it a callback thing is that a schedule an event how do you
see that um playing out so from our initial conversation
um it would be essentially the same thing as you're sending me a message on the job site I answer it as soon as I
can I might not see it for a few minutes but I answer and give some sort of
you know comprehensive response um it might not be a phone call it could
be a text it could be you know a message on messenger um but I I would like to think that you
know we can kind of modify it as we go along and you know
kind of increase our reach based on our needs um so I mean I I see it as an all-access
and maybe if this person isn't available right now you know we've got two or three people in that category that can
help you if you're you know really in a jam um but if you've got you know your first
choice is Jose Gonzalez and you're gonna send him a message you're going to wait for his
response because you like what he has to say oh God just don't don't do it in Spanish
guys I need help with that don't let that don't let the last name pull you or the
first name oh yeah my wife's Hispanic and so I
always tell her just tell them you're Indian honey so
[Music] um well Ken I I've got just a a couple
of other maybe a little more technical questions uh on the tech itself
um when people do get a response that they you know that doesn't make sense to
them or doesn't maybe apply directly what's the next step for them do they
re-ask the question because you know in my experience using some of the AI tools
taking part of the answer part of the original question and reformatting it can get you a better answer is that is
that kind of the guidance or is it just what's your guidance there because surely
um there's there's some of that that might happen so just give the uh potential users a a little guideline on
maybe if they don't get the perfect answer the first time oh no absolutely so I mean well very
similar to all of us learning how to use standard search engines you know when that kind of first gained in popularity
using a search engine we had Yahoo we had Hotmail we had you know um ask Jeeves remember SG I think I'm
dating myself here um you had to type a question it had to be
a question like capital letter on the front question mark on the back and that's the format that that platform
accepted um so you know AI is no different you ask it questions and you can kind of see
you're like oh you know I'm going through Google and this didn't really give me the results that I'm looking for so let me kind of tweak this question a
little bit um so I asked a question about um what and this kind of makes me crazy
when people ask at this because it's not what it's meant for at all but um I said what thinset should I use for
setting well by 24 uh marble and it it spits out this answer with a
product that I'm like uh yes but no I said you know I would change a little
bit what type of um modified thimset from this
manufacturer should I use in this shower application if this is going to be in a
a heated floor like you just kind of make it a little more specific and you
can kind of tweak out the answer like okay that makes sense um but then there's things like I I was
setting a shower a few weeks back and um I'm using flow effects drains just for an example and I was drilling through
the subfloor to make the hole for the drain and I just couldn't for the life of me remember
um what the spec was on the size of the hole that I needed to drill and I didn't have um
I couldn't get on the net for the internet for some reason so I you know text it in to the bow knows best you
know what size hole do I need for a flow effect strange did it right at me four and a half inches sweet I'm good so like
you know sometimes you get that very direct very you know exactly what you're looking for and sometimes you need to
kind of stretch the question to kind of tweak out that answer that makes sense but you know it's it's like like other
AI you can tell when it's the question when it's the answer you need and then when it's just giving that generic kind
of you know response but um you know I said right now as of today if you text in I
see the question come in I see the answer go out and I can jump in myself and say you know hold on let's switch
that recommendation up and let's do this or hold on let me confirm with this person that I know has the answer and I
will get back to you personally with the answer to your question that's awesome you know I with those
questions the way you just ask that um I I kind of see this asking questions back like the thinset
question like it was gonna say you know like say if someone doesn't specify whether it's it's stone or porcelain
maybe it's going to pop up three questions what material are you installing where is it at is it out of
what substrate you know what I mean like I can and then they start clicking makes
those modifications but yeah you're absolutely right and uh it and it would help someone
who might not have all of the terminology down they understand the hand skills but they might not have the
terminology I could see that helping them actually get better at terminology as well because because now it's kind of
I don't want to say leading them right but it's it's honing in on exactly what they need
making them aware of something they weren't thinking of before you know like we didn't know that it mattered that the
substrate is foam instead of drywall yeah or you know it we did we didn't
know that it mattered that I had to change the trowel size for a glue down installation for resilient based on the
substrate that's that's all great information
there I'm gonna be doing messages thing every day I'm testing it out I'm gonna test it
out I'm gonna ask the dumbest questions just so that way you can have some kind of algorithm oh that's probably welcomed
no I'm definitely absolutely and specifically when it gets it wrong send me a screenshot because I would love to
check it out and make that modification okay that's kind of the whole point
though you know as we it it takes it takes the community right so if we're
all working together to develop this technology we're only making it better for those that are coming in you know to
use it and you know a very smart lady instead you know it's our responsibility to hold the door for those coming in
behind us and you know I just that's kind of a just a reoccurring
thought in me every day you know what so yeah it is too like any any installers any
seasoned vets out there listening right now and you guys have access to that I think that uh uh it would probably help
tremendously for for anyone just to get on and add some some basic general questions so that way you can start
creating a database so that way you can start spitting out better answers and and more in-depth answers
um like you said it takes a village I like that if we can get it to be less of a less of
a harvester of information and more of a provider of information I mean that's the goal right there
I can't wait for you to celebrate that Tipping Point me too brother me too
so if you're if you guys are uh Curious on anything I mean using again I'm going
to repeat the number a couple more times before this is over because just using this thing is going to make it better
I've I've messed with AI quite a bit and the the key is community usage
um I've got probably a hundred different uh Bots training for different reasons
whether it's you know writing out a email letter or different use cases for
just your simple jet chat GPT but what what is key is the more information it's
fed the more it learns and learns upon it's your guys's input as well so using
this is a benefit to everybody that's the bottom line right I mean so again
the phone number to text this is the easiest way to get involved right now pull out your phone type in
609-483-47-4975 knows best and start using it and and
text in your your questions uh you'll get some from me for sure so
and the name of the app is going to be the same as the website just battling those best yep that one knows best we're
gonna keep it simple and will this be down uh available in the App Stores or will it be a web uh
web application um no it will be now I'm gonna put my
foot in my mouth no it is available for uh both Android and Apple users in the
apps awesome fingers crossed all right
fingers crossed it takes a little bit of time guys so support Cannon is in his Venture here he's just uh you know
really came up with a unique approach to helping uh the multitude of installers
that you just can't provide from a Facebook group even or a um you know and
you've done good with your Facebook group and and monitor being the moderator of those and and uh your
social presence and and and videos and stuff but it this is giving you the
information when you need it and not you putting content out and then and then someone finds the content so it's a
different model it's it's almost like on demand and that's kind of where the world's moving I mean you gotta freaking
have every streaming platform to watch your movies anymore you can't just uh have good old cable television so you
know get with the times start using this I I think it's worthwhile for any of our
listeners anybody um you know that's that's engaged with us over the years to help to Foster that
that um that technology in a way that it it becomes so user just like Ken said NADA
not a harvester of information but a provider of information and uh you guys
uh all of us have a a role in that and if we can do that then men how many
people can you help in there in a tough time I I installed since I got out of high school and I know what it's like to
be absolutely freaking frustrated at a point where you don't know what the next
step is um and you don't know what the answer to the you don't have an answer or a
solution to the problem and you with a very heavy heart and very uh fearful
um approach go ahead and do it the best you know how and often it's not the right way and so this can circumvent a
lot of those scenarios um if you've been installing any time you've been there I'm sure where you
just didn't know what to do and you did your best it didn't work out and I've had failures uh on my own stuff
especially really early on before I really got all the training certifications
um I would encourage everybody can CFI certified uh you know
I'm Nora and more on the resident or resilient side of the world that's what
I really loved when I was installing these guys are you know Jose and Daniel are both uh heavily certified in the
different resilience and floor prep so I think all of us on this show on this podcast would also uh really encourage
you guys to get to the different conventions get to CFI convention fcica
CFI joint convention is going on at the uh latter part of this month down in
Orlando uh next week you can look that up next week it is look how fast it
comes so if you can make it get down there um and get certified guys go to get CFI
certified or if your things tile give it the ctef and and get your CTI
certification or if you're really good go for the ACT we really like to see
guys engage themselves in education what Ken's doing is supporting that uh
through his platform and he's also given that Early Education that nothing is
going to completely supplement your ability to go put your hands on the product and get certified so I I I would
still I think everybody on this uh call would would support that like let's
continue to get better as an industry um and what you are doing sir is really awesome I think it's a got a great use
case uh we'll certainly support it uh you and I can have some offline conversations on how maybe we can help
you out a little bit maybe show you some pitfalls that we ran through since 2018 and uh and uh and so anything we can do
to support you and help
you guys I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt but and is taller than Daniel I just want
everyone to know that well
Daniel I'm still on the far right side of the frame of the picture then right
it's all good my friend you're my buddy closed
good deal uh any closing thoughts uh ideas uh or input here from you can
um that that may help the users any further with kind of how you're going are you keeping uh a blog or anything
like that to keep your community updated or are you sharing that on your Facebook group like how can they stay engaged
with your new videos so they kind of know the developments yeah yeah so I've
really tried to keep it off the Facebook groups I I don't like
I I don't want to kind of abuse that facet of my
um social media presence does that make sense I don't know um so um but anybody you know and I
always to everybody that I tell in the Facebook groups you know is always welcome to message me text me call me
whatever my phone number's plastered all over the Internet um I will start doing like
um I I've been on the fence with it because I'm not
overly um committed to putting my face on
camera contrary to popular popular belief but I was going to start taking the
inquiries and doing like a short video where I oh so and so asked this question and this is my answer and I'll put it on
my Tick Tock and my Instagram stories and then kind of do that sort of I don't want to just
Spam my profiles and spam the groups with it I I just I want people to come
to us uh as opposed to me spamming everyone
um well I know when they take a Blog maybe a Blog on your website that just
kind of gives the updates hey this is now live or this is now live or something yeah yeah and I'll I'll probably do
things like that on my social media um but yeah you know the goal right now
is two things it's to get people to use it and know about it and then to get the
sponsors involved so that you know we can really start teaching the tech and you know having the ability to uh use
that sponsorship to really promote and teach the tech further awesome
all right inputs yeah you know what I think um I do have
a little bit input I think once everyone starts getting their their hands in the pot so to speak
um I don't think you're gonna need to worry about social media blasting it I
think it's going to be a quick Pace yeah you know copy and paste for for people and they're gonna say go here and I
think it's going to take off another thing too is this potential sponsorship it starts getting Bleak let me know we
can start a pop can dry for you bro um we'll get it going
[Music] laughs
oh man Daniel you got anything uh any uh insights or input here
no I just look forward to using it and seeing what it spits us off back at me is there going to be uh
anything where like you can have someone like us give it information
that it can spit out oh yeah absolutely like if there's and
so and actually that's that's a great Point um yeah if you guys and it had
information specific to like a category through the installation absolutely send
me the questions and answers and we can plug them in like that that stuff for installers is gold
so if anybody on the installation side wants to help contribute to that
um that is obviously of we're not going to charge people to do that that's just that's benefiting the community
so anything from the resilience side from the carpet side from the hardwood anything epoxy whatever sort of anything
that covers the floor like we will gladly take the questions and answers to put into the tech absolutely that's
awesome awesome all right well guys uh we're gonna wrap
this thing up Ken thanks again for coming on and telling us about Allen knows best
um and uh you know kind of giving us a rundown I hope everybody stands that your input and and working
with the technology uh I do want to point out what you said it's kind of like Googling something if you don't get
the the results you wanted in the first Google search you Google search again so
yeah tweak it a little bit so so uh remember to do that use the technology
use that I'm going to save the phone number one more time
609-483-4975 and text in your questions let's see if we can uh train this thing
together and and help Ken and his mission to improve the installer's life so with that uh I want to say thank you
thank you guys as always for being a staple and the the pillars of the Huddle
and uh we'll catch you guys next week on site
even right oh yeah we'll see you guys we'll be there we'll be there Monday
you'll be there Monday I think I had to look at my flight I can't remember if I get there Tuesday or Wednesday
um it's kind of a whirlwind uh because I have a show directly after that as well
that I gotta uh I've got to go to so it's like Bing Bang from from here
through October is going to be pretty crazy but um Ken if we see you at a show uh
I look forward to you know catching up and seeing how how it's going and the progress man so absolutely um and we'll
we'll have you back on to give us an update here in the in the near future as well so no we appreciate it again thank
you guys so much for having me thank you all right guys I love it I love this idea it was an all it was an
awesome huddle I loved it and uh again if you guys like what you uh have uh the
content of this episode or any other episodes most of this uh huddle most of
our huddle episodes are really geared in improving the installer's lifestyle and giving them the tools whether it's
Financial tools or information or bringing on great people I can to uh you
know improve your installation career uh please again consider giving us a like a
subscribe comment and reach out to us on our social channels and from there we
will see you guys next week have a good one everyone see you all right see you Bellas