The Huddle - Episode 76 - Planning for Successful Installations
This week the guys are going to talk about how companies and installers can plan for successful installations, from the accepted bid through to completion.
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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 coming at you every Tuesday 3M
Central to discuss maintaining forward progress in your flooring career with me as usual Mr Daniel and Jose Gonzalez
from preferred flooring in Grand Rapids Michigan what's up fellas how's it going going
on just um you know kind of winding down the year and looks pretty quiet behind
you today it's it's pretty quiet we've had uh I don't know about up there but
we've had a lot of uh people sick at the flooring
company and some here too so we're we're chugging along though Ashlin is uh
absent today with um her little girl my granddaughter getting
her um some teeth work done so yeah
excited to announce we're going to be in person next week up in up in Michigan with with the preferred flooring guys so
we're going to be running the podcast from up there so if you're if you're um watching this right now we're going to
be doing um some Q&A just actually more like a round table open
discussion uh surrounding go Carrera with installer input
experiences likes dislikes things you'd like to see um all the input what like anything
that they can think of hey it I was I had this idea that this app would do
this like any input is good input yeah every bit of input is
welcomed I mean I really hope we have a lot of people show up live but um if
you're not able to make it live um or we're going to be sending a zoom link
out to anybody who wants to join that discussion so email us over at support
atgo cara.com put in the in the subject line GC
Meetup and we will um send you a link so
you can join via Zoom so this week is uh kind of a fun topic
it's I I think it's from a store and installer relation standpoint probably
one of the more important topics actually is you know setting up projects for success for installer success and
what does that mean for everybody and kind of discuss different different ways
uh we've went about it in the past uh how we look at it today and you know I I
have the pleasure of getting to know a lot of different flooring companies in different parts to the nation and and
share some of of what I've heard in discussions with them um on how they how
how to properly set up an installer for Success on a job uh which
is the kind of the Crux of the topic so I'm going to kick it off to you guys
how' you used to do it let's start to the fun stuff um or how' it used to be done for
you well I we we had um a couple guys in here what maybe a month ago um
interviewing us for a new uh I think not they're a nonprofit right yeah this non
it's called construction allies in action or something like that and they're trying to get a group of contractors together that are trusted so
that way when these you know these bids come out they're like if they want that Elite group or
whatever this is who they go to and he asked uh he said how
how do you guys feel about how you became you know this to this point and I and I said really it was by accident
because we didn't have anything set up it was it like everything that's happened so far has been by
accident and and take that with with a grain of salt right like it's taking an opportunity of of
it's you guys taking action on opportunities in front of you is what it is correct and and when we say on action
and is because uh um and when I was part of uh Kyle's Mastermind um the accident
thing was only because we didn't document every step of the way in our process right so the accident thing
comes because uh if we were to hand this over tomorrow it it cannot be duplicated
um and that's where the accident comes from Happy accident don't get me wrong right strategic accident and like you
said capitalizing on on opportunities but um couldn't be duplicated if we were to end
right right now tomorrow if that was the case um we are trying to fix all of that
there's a lot there's a lot involved but there is a lot to it I I started documenting way too late myself here at
go carrer we have playbooks for everything so that when somebody's not able to be here that somebody else can
step in Follow The Playbook and and still execute so you know a lot of this
um documenting or putting together training systems and programs with
playbooks I think a lot of us who started the way we did which is just some installers who got either fed up or
had this grandiose idea of what it was like to be a business owner and decided to go out and start their own stuff uh
you know and and probably got kicked in the teeth uh I would assume like I did multiple multiple times but but you
know logging those those things we use a platform for the companies out there we
use a platform called Talent LMS and that's what every one of it's it's a
really good piece of software it's affordable it's one of the better training softwares out there and you can
document every single step of we're going through now trying to get more
granular with it um so that every step of of everything that we do is logged in
there so anybody can get in there and learn so when you new hire or if somebody needs a refresher and you can
see which courses are taken and all that so that's kind of from the company side but setting up installers for say for
project success did you guys ever put you know
how do you do that when you first started or how did you do that when you first started and what lessons have you
learned how have you gotten better so I would say when we first started it was uh Daniel or I was on the project and I
started with a notebook right like I would uh I would take notes um from the
start of the project and this is labor only right this is just me as an installer um I would I would take extra notes uh write things down while I was
uh on the phone with everyone and I would pretty much have a game plan there
right put it together hey we're going to go here this is what we have this is our start date this is our deadline you know and you know I would
say 70% of the time I went in blind on some of the projects because I didn't have time to visit projects um and we
just have to deal with it as we got there that was pretty much the best and well how did
companies deal with you because if you're doing labor only you were working for other companies so how did they set
you up for Success without you know maybe blasting anybody but like was
there's certainly some stories there on um good things that were done and and
things that could have been improved upon and and maybe some lessons you've learned I've I've I've got some stories
there too I think I learned that working for an ex
installer was way more efficient than doing projects for a salesperson who had no installation background um the
installers would set you up for the best chance of success that they possibly could with the information that they had
and the salesperson would just set you up with a sometimes not even a work order just like a handwritten note and
that was it so so go deeper what what did the what's the what did what was the good part how did they set you up for
success I knew what product I was working with right ahead of time um I
knew location of the project obviously um knew what companies we were working
with whether it was uh uh PPE required um uh
the that's pretty much it those were those were the the basics of of what we had um as far as site conditions um that
had to evolve as the relationship got got better right because I would start asking more questions uh what are we
tearing up I guess that I would have that information too if we had demo um you know or if there was extensive prep
I would have that information as well and when it was uh an ex installer like
Bob Bob would you know come in and be like hey we're this we're ripping out carpet it's this brand it's gonna be
stuck stuck make sure you got your machine with you yeah when if it's just a salesperson they'd be like you're
ripping up carpet like what's the difference carpet's carpet carpet Tower broad Moon I don't know it's carpet why
yeah why does it make a difference well because of what we're installing next like we there different steps that we
have to take um but that was all the notebook and getting better at asking the right questions and then as I got
better or annoying at asking those questions they actually got better at taking notes and delivering information
all at once at the beginning so um we helped each other get better
um but yeah when I first started um some of the stuff that was tough to
get through was because uh materials where they're at who's picking
them up like all that kind of thing um some some people I'd work for I'd
be not knowing so and you know I can't can't act as though we're not guilty of
this sometimes even still but every single job I would go to three or four
different supply houses picking stuff up because you know here in witto anyway
not all your product you know not one distributor handled all the product and
so I'd go to the store and pick up the actual flooring then I'd run over to you
know what's now EJ Welch and pick up the the tax strip if I was doing residential
or the patch that I needed and then over here to and it was like running around
and as that got better when I worked for better companies having all my stuff at the store if I'm going to deliver it
having all my stuff at the store I go pick up a pallet maybe two pallets and I'm off to the job site so having the
product staged if I'm picking up was a a big plus uh huge bonus is if it's
delivered to the job site and acclimated properly and all of that stuff and that
that wasn't as big of a concern back in the day for some reason now I I really
I'm not sure that I understand why that was it was just it's there's so much more emphasis on it since I've been in
business since you know n03 9903 um and I say that because I
actually started in 99 and bought my partner out in 03 but um back when I was subbing like that
late 90s time I'd pick up VCT from someone's warehouse and go install it that same
day you know didn't matter what the site conditions from a humidity standpoint
point of course we've we've we've talked about all the adhesive changes um so
that's certainly part of it but I think that you know the materials probably are just not as high quality when you're
talking about like VCT and stuff as it used to be but um you know huge bonuses
getting it on the job site with a written work order um back then Dynamic
work orders today are available and those are even better where you can share information back and forth and
site conditions back and forth and and have that information be live but back
then that wasn't available and you know just getting a work order with materials
on a pallet ready for me to pick up was a huge win from what I had experienced of running around to a bunch of
Distributors trying to pick up materials and takes me two hours before I get to the job site and nobody wants to pay for
that right and you know what the logistic portion of it too like that is
something that has always been a pain in the butt right it I think it always will be if there's
no communication about it because now you're getting ready to start the project and it's a large project and you're right if you have thousands upon
thousands of square feet then you would like like why didn't the semi just get routed that way and delivered right to
site like because then then they got to pay the drop fee on take them dropping
everything off on site yeah um or or the GC is not going to let you have a truckload of material on it so you got
to take it to your place but the uh picking it up
like after a couple times when I say a couple times like after a couple years of dealing with it hit and miss it it
was more or less this is what needs to happen guys if we're working with uh X material
either you guys need to get it to site or we'll do our best to get it to site before we start the project so that way when we do start it's acclimated um that
there used to be an expectation that that's what we were going to do but then um as years passed I'm like hey you know
what if you're not building in delivery into some of your margins that's not my fault like my job is to as an installer
is to get to site and try to get it installed right um yes or no yes or no guys um it's my job to make sure that
the proper steps are being taken with the final product in order for us to be
successful as well as the store um I I think I went through a different a couple different mindsets of that just
to kind of meet in the middle and figure it out yeah lot today you know and we've
gotten better at site deliveries um we try to have all the materials on site
acclimated prior to or we have an acclimation Zone at our
warehouse um where you know if it's just impossible to get the materials out
there the day before maybe it's an occupied space we'll acclimate it as
close as we can in humidity and temperature and then just a car ride over or a truck ride over to the job
site and try to you know always trying to make sure we're acclimating materials and putting the product on the job site
um you know I think another step to this in today's world is you know we all do onscreen takeoffs so making sure that
the install has accurate installation information um they don't have to you
know dig through all the drawings uh we're still get trying to get better and
better at that where if you have a huge project and you got all these drawings don't just give all the drawings whether
it's a digital format or you print them out and give them to you know give them
the whole set of architectural drawings uh we try to give them our take off and
make sure that takeoff is accurate one of the key points there is you know
making sure that if you draw lines on your takeoff that you're you're and
they're just indicator lines make sure the installer knows that doesn't mean that that's the direction that the tile
goes you know there's things like that you got to be really careful of these days with on-screen programs and uh
we've learned our lesson on some of that stuff I mean I won't tell you we're perfect we made mistakes where you know
stuff looks like it's supposed to be set on a diagonal or you know because those are just indicator
lines right and uh we set it on a diagonal and they're
like this supposed to be straightly random set lvt and that's what I started doing like in the description on the
actual product like if it calls it out in the in the print on the Finish schedule I'm putting this is you know
the manufacturer the name of the material the color and how it's supposed to be installed right on that line item yeah
the direction and everything yeah try to do our best to save time so that way people like we were stuck on the phone a
lot trying to all right glue's ready we're ready to install what direction is it you look at the paperwork nothing
right it's like oh you know what I never asked so the salesperson's got a call try to get
a hold of the GC and then the owner or the architect or designer Yeah the more we can the better
we can be as a company in relaying the
accurate information on the products the direction giving them installation
instructions making sure they know ahead of time what trial they need before they
um you know install before they go to install that day so they make sure they have the right trial notches especially
if it's a special you know 16th Square notch or something
nutty um you know having that information there ahead of time so they can already procure the the tools that
they need um those are all things where the more you can have an installing crew
doing the what they're really good at which is installing and not picking up materials and and moving stuff around
and if they do pick up materials and we still have to have that happen pretty you know frequently um you know on large
on our large projects we typically get them to the site but if you got a one- day tenant finish they're probably going
to pick it up at our warehouse uh a lot of those just don't have any space to put the the product on and let it stage
you know stick in a h a Common's hallway or something you know you can't do that so but having it ready and where
somebody can will it out put it on a on their truck and go um that that helps
the installer do what they are best at um even moving materials around on job
sites you know we do our very best to you know have a centralized location to
where they're not hauling it miles away um if it's out in the conx or something
like that we want to be able to get them in get into the building as best as possible or as close of the building but
there's still those times where it's in a conx it has to be in a conx there's no
no room on the job site and so the installer does have to kind of plan on hey I got to grab 60 boxes of wall tile
yeah out of the conx this morning right out of the gate um so it's a teamwork I
mean you know I don't want to exclude the responsibility from the installer
that you know it there's they have a a part in the team but uh the more we can
do to just have install the better that's that's my belief and and
you're right about you're right about the teamwork and that's uh what I was saying earlier about the going back and
forth like I didn't want to deal with it and it was okay never mind I will deal with the the the logistic portion or
like you said rotating material out of aonics uh for one depending on what it is so it can acreate making sure that
it's an eonxs we it's not going to get too hot and then relaying that information to everyone the team the GC
the salesperson uh your Crews that are with you like that's a lot of information right and as soon as you
don't relay information for one or two days uh everyone's gonna be in the dark on that third day and yeah you gotta
make sure that you you stay on top of it yeah there's some uh I won't name any
names but I visited with some companies who go as far as like the installer
doesn't even move materials from the conx like they will make
sure they are good if they pull this off they're really really good um and I I'd
love to get this good if I'm honest uh but if they got materials in a conx
those materials are staged that the evening before by someone at their
office I assume their warehouse people go and stage at material for the installer so the installer is literally
prepping sanding laying I mean like that is uh now if you're doing lvt
or something it's got to be got into the building so whether that's the installer or the company doing that the day before
you need to acclimate the materials but it's uh you know we try to do that in in
a week by- week basis as as opposed to a day-by-day basis um but man if you can
pull that off and just have your everything right there ready for the installer kudos to you that's that's
really tough and we have more than one warehouse guy you know we got two Warehouse guys and a manager and we we
still can't pull that off um so we're looking at systems and ways of of
getting better still um I think that from a retail standpoint I wanted to
know I know a lot of the guys pick up materials retail Wise from a from the
retailer on the way out to the job site or you know the morning of the job so
what are some have you guys dealt with that I mean when you're doing when you used to do work for retailers or how
does how does that work if you guys are doing a house yeah so the residential is a
little bit different right like a lot of people don't have the space needed to
Stage uh the material there and sometimes when we do stage material there if we're installing like an lvp or
something like that we do try to get it there a few days ahead of schedule or or if we're starting on a Monday drop it
off on a Friday um the problem is is that we aren't always able to put it in
the space where the work is going to be performed so we'll be staging in their garage um or in their basement but we're
doing the main level you know what is and that's the hard part um the majority of the carpet jobs we
are not dropping off ruls of carpet uh and and and then staging them there
we're that's going to be a just like the retail shops they come pick it up here and
then take it to the project yeah sometimes it's a matter of them going
and uh doing the demo and ripping everything out bringing the trash here
grabbing the carpet on the way back so that way it's only in you know the
elements you know in their vehicle for the drive here to the house and I think
all the houses that all the residential that we've done has been I don't know probably within 20 minutes half hour or
so yeah some some couple places a little bit over 45 minutes or around that Mark but yeah
um of course you're stretching that you don't have quite as much concern with
shrinkage and things like that if you although it's a heck of a hard stretch
I've I've been there on cold carpet but yeah you guys keep your we house heated
or yes yeah yeah 100% And and we don't keep it like you would keep your home
right we keep it you know between 55 and 62 so that way it's not too cold not too
warm no but when there is those projects like you guys have that spacing that you said like if it's you know a project
like that it's we got to have it 70 in the warehouse for a couple days yeah and and we've done that we staged the
material for a Monday on a Friday in the center of the warehouse and cranked up to heat over the whole weekend just so
that way we could keep it as close to the temperature of someone with their home or or the the facility over the
weekend try to yeah it's it's pretty tough and the manufacturers don't
understand that I don't think I I they're pretty strict on these acclamation you know time frames and you
know particularly residential but even on like I said some of the small you
know tenant you know few thousand foot of lvt and a tenant space kind of work
we're putting it we're pulling it into the office on a pallet we keep skinny
pet Jack or pallets and pet Jack for that reason get it into the office we
have this open space where we'll we've had five six pallets in there before
acclimating to get to a job site so because they they had no room so
you just kind of got to do what you got to do but right and it's communicating too like there's you know things happen if it
gets to a point where this wasn't acclimated hey you get this to the job site you open these boxes and start
spreading them M piles everywhere yep start shuffling yeah what are some other stuff that uh
you think is key for we've talked about you know getting materials to the site as best as we can if not to the site at
least having them ready or staged in one warehouse location would be you
know at least um better than running around to a bunch of Distributors with
different conditions at every distributor um and then we've talked about proper documentation so they know
what they're installing where which direction all that kind of stuff what
other things can you I think you kind of touched on a communication being available for him for questions that
kind of stuff and um having the contact that's going to be on site like like
that was really one one thing I hated when I would I would show up somewhere
and then it's like well no one's here and then you got to call the person hey who who am I supposed to call oh I don't
even I don't even know let me try and get a hold of this person it's like that's one thing that we try to put on
every work order now is the contact that's going to be on site that you have to call call them when you're on your
way call them when you get there ask them where you need to park you know things like that that way M it's not a
matter of hey I'm here where you at oh they didn't tell me you were going to be here it's hey we'll be there in a half
hour and accordingly right and then to touch on that too it's communicating
with the projects before the day you're supposed to start um it's close enough make a site visit uh talk to the GC talk
to the site contact make sure that they understand where you're starting right
because that should be pre-planned you're not just going to go there on a on a large project large very large
project and just wing it right you're gonna want like this is where I'm starting usually on a schedule for you anyway but um you know this is where I'm
starting this is the size of crew I have are you ready for that oh yes we are okay cool or no we're
not uh what do you have ready uh we have this much all right well what I'm gonna do is I'll call you back a little bit
I'm gonna downsize my crew find somewhere else for them to go we'll get you these people or this crew and uh
we'll get started on that area right here but I need to know when the rest is expected to be ready so that way I know
when to ramp back up so yeah that proper planning with your contractor your
client that's a key key Point as well maybe the most important point because
it doesn't matter how good you are delivering materials and having a crew scheduled if they get there and
nothing's ready for them because there was no planning done ahead of time and even when you do plan there's a
guarantee you guys have witnessed it like myself or at least I hope I'm not the only one that has been promised an
area uh told it's cleaned out even been sent pictures proving it's cleaned out
and you get there that next morning and not ready or there's 10 trades in
your way so yeah with with us I think that's that's the biggest thing is yeah
they'll clean it out and everything for you but then you show up and everyone else wants to work in the same area oh they just clean this clean clean
like there's nothing in my way either got all this room for activities let's let's start a
party yeah I think that it's uh production rates are another part um
we've had times where both ways where we've said we got a our crew will
be there tomorrow morning and they have way too much area expected to be done
and then we've had it to where they give them a a th000 foot Hall way and we got four guys there and we're like we could
do six of these today if you just if you get out of the way um so you
know kind of understanding the creu size like you were talking about Jose that's needed for the job that's all part of
the proper planning you remember the six PS I have a written in my book proper
planning prevents piss poor production you know that's that's that
all boils down to communication obviously and how important it is to communicate with your GC about your your
the crew you're sending capability so you can get the proper amount of space opened up for it um that's not a fail
you know fa safe I mean it's still we I can't you know I love my gc's but I
cannot count how many times we've been to a job and had enough work for a few hours and then they want to move
something and let you get this next little piece and then move something else and it's like I get it we're
disruptive but we've been doing flooring for centuries we we know we need the
whole Space so you're not new to this Mr GC please get out of our way and allow
us to do our job we did nobody figures on going in and turning a wide open room into a nine phased project right and and
I tell people all the time I need the floor to do the Flor right like if you're only give me that little bit like
now I have to do that little bit it's going to take me five hours do that little piece when I could have done this
in five hours you ever get the comeback that your contract says you got to work
with other trades it's clear in there you're gonna have to work with other trades and communicate with them and
back and forth you ever get those yep and we've also got like they say that and then they're like why don't you guys
just come in and work at night and it's like why doesn't everyone else just come in and work at night yeah that solves
that problem too why why is it always flooring guy
bottom of the barrel man just you know well the truth is I that that can be the stigma but truth is we we're we take up
the most square footage of space when we are working you know what I mean we stop
traffic is really what it is we stop traffic um and and I get it and is is
production at night could 100% be better and a lot some some installers prefer to
work at night however the the downside of that is the
wear and tear on your body on your sleep schedule on your mental when you when you transition from day to night day to
night day to night um your Crews get sick more right they're less likely to
be motivated the following night the following week production goes down you know between 15 and 20 20% on on
projects that you're fitting in well you can't just run down the store at 2 am and grab an extra bag of PCH right you
can't like your trial Notch is wore out the concrete was a little bit rougher
than normal concrete still good enough for a 5 millimeter lvt for example and
it wore through your trial and it's 2 amm like even Home Depot ain't open then
man you know so there's a lot of limiting factors that and plus you got
to remember risk I mean people getting hurt or injured on the job site at night
the risk is higher but also the to um help them at 2 am versus
two o'clock in the afternoon if if they cut themselves pretty severely or something is it's just everything's more
difficult so I know at two o'clock in the morning when somebody gets hurt I'm gonna want to take them because I don't
want to be at work at two o'clock in the morning yeah I'm your ride I'm your ride dude I'm your ride he's lying I got hurt
at that time before and I had to drive myself that's aome that's a true story huh well my
brother's like dude look how much stuff we have to do and you're doing dumb stuff like that why just duct tape go
and let me know I did I taped it up and then I went to went to the Urgent Care
and then they took it off said oh yeah we can't do nothing with that and then taped it up worse than I had it taped up
so I should just my tape on there man that was a that was a weird project we're actually working with someone who
made national headlines in a very bad way but um that was uh yeah he just
gouged his whole arm there was nothing if they stitched it it would have ripped the first time he bent his arm I was
like dude how did you do that so what' they do I'm sorry I'm going off topic what I'm curious what what had to be
done to fix your arm because it's clearly better they just pack it full of
put balls on it and then wrap it up oh wow yeah I remember I wrote a one of the
articles about safety I wrote about a time a guy had a 4-inch
scraper blade in the back of his pocket and he he just had this really bad habit of sticking it blade up in his back
pocket brand new blade reached back thought the Yin was the Yang and slit
himself across his wrist and he bled like a stuffed hog man
everywhere this was a day job so we got him in the hospital just fine but he was
um so Safety First folks yeah 100% um but it does compliment to the point it
does complicate stuff in the evening especially really late so working at nights can be difficult but getting back
on the topic of you know setting yourself setting your installer your
installation your project up for success is about if you do know that if you know
it ahead of time long enough so the sleep schedule can change and you can put some other um you know our our rule
is you got to have somebody available so if you're working a weekend or a night
someone in our company in our office needs to be alert on alert installation
manager or project manager knowing that you're doing that and uh you know don't have your phone on
silent because yeah you may be needed and and that that is one thing too like if we have a night project going on and
like when he was in the field and I was in the office I couldn't sleep at night because I always felt like if I got
comfortable went to sleep something was going to happen they were gonna need something um and I I have made myself
available to grab some come to the warehouse grab it get it out to the job site um and make sure that the guys can
keep plugging along that's uh it has happened and it will it will happen again I know it yeah I mean it's part of
part of the business a bit but if you do know it again it goes back to communication and planning and that's
kind of our mantra for this year at the flooring company is like proper planning know the job in and
out as a project manager understand all the details or at
least you've built out the project file in a way that you can easily go back and
refresh yourself on the details and you know know what know what your guys are
doing when they're on site and try to set them up for the best to keep them
installing in a safe manner as best as we can possibly do it's um makes for
happier team overall I mean the installers happier when they're producing and we're happier when they're
producing and we're also happier um you know when things are going well and so I
call it time investment because you're going to spend that time anyway at the end of the job or if you're having to
run stuff out or take phone calls or or go go out to the job site to figure
something out because you didn't properly plan on the front side if you inv you can save so much time if you
just invest it it's just like investing your money uh that that concept to me is
always kind of stuck and it's you know you can spend your money and it's gone
forever or you can invest your money and let it build on itself it's same thing with your time if you invested on the
front side properly planning for your projects you're going to have better success jobs going to go smoother and
you're going to save time in the long run um none of us are perfect at it you know I know some of our guys watch the
podcast so I'm transparent that we're not perfect but we try really hard to to
set the guys up for success that's one of the reasons for the podcast too is so we can learn as well yeah
amen I haven't even checked okay so I want to REM
um remind everybody that Monday is the last day for the Sim scholarship that is
the last day to apply if you're watching this I probably should have put that at
the beginning for the guys who watch like three minutes of our of our uh videos on YouTube uh
but last day is Monday I believe the 15th or 18th is it 15th that we we
actually name the uh who want it so for the Sim scholarship make sure that you
if you want to apply please apply between now and the end of the day Monday I again will say how good that
training is we're trying to set up a three days to sim up in our Ken City
location uh you know here in the next few months been working with fcaa to put
all the parts and pieces together on that so we clearly believe in it and I
hope that you guys will take advantage of the it's almost a $1,600 value and it's a fantastic course so right and a
lot of what we're talking about on this podcast today is actually presented in
that program it's just on module yeah yeah it is and um another
announcement is just to remind everybody as I started the podcast uh I will be up
in Michigan with at Preferred flooring's Office on Monday and Tuesday of next week we're going to be shooting the
podcast from there live so uh join us and then Monday we're going to be doing
a you know installer round table so to speak uh we call it sever different
things but it's come speak your mind the idea here is we're building a piece of technology for the industry that's
getting widely adopted by manufacturers by large flooring contractors um all the way through to
the training entities and we want to hear from you we're not just trying to
build something I I I have teamed up with with guys like uh Daniel and Jose
on the intricacies that are needed in this uh application uh early on I I used
my knowledge of being everything from an employee installer to a subcontractor and then uh you know starting my own
flooring company and and that whole uh swath of experience kind of got it going
and then I've talked to gosh hundreds of companies probably by now and so we're
trying to make it work for both sides and and when I say both sides this is
not um against each other just the companies and the installers to make
sure that it's as fruitful and uh useful and and gives you the most value
possible and it starts with the installer we know that the network is
has to be healthy you guys have to uh really want to use go Carrera and the
reasons behind that and we want to hear the reasons why you like it and we want
to really hear the reasons why you don't like it or why you uh don't use it
currently or any of the stuff maybe maybe you haven't signed up yet and we we've met four or five times at a
conference why and what do you see is it is the value not there those kinds of
things so we're going to be talking about all that um come voice your opinion uh we we also uh like to share
what the installation Community is saying to the powers to be meaning the
manufacturers you know that set Mo a lot of the rules the training entities when our our Network talks people can listen
we're pretty strong it's a large Network and the more of us there are the more our voices are going to be
heard right and none of us have any issues going up to these people and it
and explaining to them you know the feedback that we're getting because we have that same feedback to them too
right it's like if I don't like something I go to a manufact factur and I'm like I don't use you because this is
why I'm not I'm we're not the ones that are like well this is a crap product I'm never going to use this again and just
not say anything it's when we go to these conventions we go up to you know
some of these manufacturers and they're like hey have you tried this product yeah and we don't like it and this is
why yeah and this is why and we've done videos we we um it's the same thing with with with
the the go career platform right like it's G to evolve it's going to Contin to evolv same way products are out there to
become installer friendly that's why they become so installer friendly that they label them uh DIY is because of the
evolution of it and and that's I think that's what we're trying to do here is we're we're trying to advocate for the
industry more importantly advocate for the installer and put the installer on a platform that was never there for them
and and and that's what's awesome about what you guys have created so kudos to youa like that's yeah amazing I mean a
lot of the conversations that we've been having with you know the higher ups so to speak or um like some of the
installer groups that that have been getting together it's all these questions become are are getting asked
and it's like how do we fix this how do we fix that and it's like you know me and him have been talking to you for so
long and have been using the program and it's like if everyone just starts getting together and signing
up it's like this could actually fix a lot of the problems that are in the industry yeah create a community is what
it is right that's what we're doing is I was going to say that we're we're creating a community where our voices
matter and we can go and make positive change for the installing Community the
thing is how often you know we we have a couple of magazines uh you know that are out there
that are really focused on the installer but if you look at the overall Publications across the network if
they're not talking about the labor shortage and and that kind of thing how often is the concerns and the the things
that we want to see changed as the installation Community brought up in these Publications well that's what we
want to bring to the Forefront to the the people that can probably make the change or at least they're going to hear
from us and if they don't make the change the more the more growth that the
network and the community has the bigger our voices together so I encourage you
to join us it's going to be a blast we're going to have some food and drinks and and sit around it's going to be uh
kind of like a fireside chat I guess would be the best way to describe it um they at Preferred flooring's Office so
and and you you can stop by and get autographs because my brother's been putting another magazine yeah
y my man that one's a local one this time this is this is our our local chamber magazine oh that's cool congrats
bro that's we we're we're often humbled when we we get in those things but it's
still it's really cool so uh if again if
you cannot join in person and I know that not everybody's right there around Michigan to come up and join us this
could work Across the Nation if you're watching this send us a email support
goar.com and just in the subject line put GC Meetup
for go career Meetup and we'll get you a link and you can join uh via Zoom I'd
love to see the zoom just packed and the room packed and us have a really
meaningful discussion yeah I would love to see that as well we have a lot of local flooring
guys that that we know personally some that we know their names uh but it would be nice to um put a face behind the name
it'd be nice to to see meet face to face U and with a handshake or or even uh see
each other again right that that'd be nice awesome yeah and I'd love to meet
everybody up there so hope to see you and uh with that any closing remarks on
you know setting up the the projects always you're always gonna have to
explain yourself to installers more than once it becomes redundant but you got to do it and then
they'll still call you asking you the same questions again so you just had to kind of get used to explaining it
putting it on paper putting it in messages and then explaining it again because I don't know they a lot of
people don't do stuff like this so I was guilty of it dude I mean I was guilty
when I installed as a sub I'd be you get problem with paperwork orders is they
get lost and I'd lose those dog on things or if I
took notes and lost that paperwork it's it's like you know redundancies are good
having you know as text messaging I'm get I'm dating myself here but when text
messaging started coming around and and all that stuff we we were sending work
orders with pictures and stuff on text messages and reiterating in the text
message and you know whatever it took and the biggest thing is growing with that text technology right because once
it came out that was the best way and then you know more emails like people
started emailing everything and then it came to a point where it's like did you email me did you text
me like like I'm searching everywhere and I can't find it now it's to a point where
you're like okay I know he email text me or message me on some platform let me
find it so yeah make sure that you keep your communication sensory load at and I
will add to what Daniel was saying too and goes back to beginning of the conversation um start creating your your
template right like uh from an installer perspective all the way to a salesperson
make sure if they don't even have it for you make sure you're starting to create your uh your every project to-do list
right so that way you're doing the same things in systematic order so that way for one it becomes second nature for two
now you're documenting and recording your your processes and procedures um
even if you are just installing then you if something gets missed you'll know
right away at a glance instead of like oh forgot to call I forgot to check
forgot about that you'll know amen awesome yeah and and you know um if
we have some time on Monday I'll do a the installer side kind of demo of go
career and show you how that communication could be be kept on a chat accompanied with the work order for the
attorney of the job a lot of guys appreciate that when they have problems on job sites or they have you know
additional prep and they throw it in the chat and and um if you work by the by
the hour we just released the work orders to be able to work for employee installers and I'll show you guys that
when I'm there on Monday uh I fly I'll be up in in uh your neck of the woods
late Sunday and I'll see you you guys Monday morning all right sounds good we'll see you all right we're out have a
good one thanks every you [Music]
guys