The Huddle - OVERTIME Training Entities

In this exclusive bonus episode, the guys are live from TISE with some of the industry's favorite faces to talk all about the importance of training and what they do to promote and entice installers to get trained.

Guests :
Steve Abernathy - COO of the WFCA & Executive Director of CFI
Paul Pleshek - Executive Director of NAFCT
CJ Church - Executive Director of FCICA
Carlos Mongalo - Program Manager of NFCAP
Scot Banda - President of FloorCloud

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 was created by Paul Stuart of Stuart & Associates and Go Carrera, alongside Jose and Daniel Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring. Aimed at helping you maintain forward progress in your flooring career, they cover topics from personal and business growth, to installation tips & tricks and everything in-between.

Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email ashlynn@gocarrera.com today!

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/
https://www.preferredflooringmi.com
https://www.stuartandassociates.com

all right what's up huddle crew welcome to to uh Ty

2024 thank you Ty for putting together a podcast booth for us this was just this

is just for the Huddle just kidding uh this is pretty awesome it's it's nice to

have a place to uh launch from on this one we're going to be talking with multiple training entities uh today

we're starting with Mr Steve abery who's with wfca and uh director I believe at

CFI is that correct or or uh you might correct my title that's pretty close

yeah I'm the chief operating officer at the wfca and executive director of CFI as

well so kind of carry two hats there in that sense well we thank you for your

service uh every single time we're on the podcast we are promoting training uh

we believe believe one of our core beliefs here is you know that a well- Tred installer is a

better installer a we all all three of us own flooring companies and we've uh

We've witnessed it uh first off secondly um you know when you talk about

the installer shortage and all this stuff there's really only one way you can shortcut um as you bring in new people

you can't you can't get better at anything without experience and education that's the that's the two

paths go hand in that's right you can't fast forward experience but you can fast

forward training right you can go get your R1 maybe you just got in it six

months later go go do your R1 go back out in the field work for a while do

your R2 so um you know we we're a big believer in training uh you know

obviously go Carrera is all about ingesting these trainings and producing Hammer rating that's easy to understand

for the uh people out there looking for labor all that being said gentlemen

welcome this is awesome so uh as always it's a pleasure Steve can you can you

give us a bit of a background on CFI kind of how we got here today and then

what what is cfi's Vision on bringing in new uh new people into the industry but

also like you know your core competencies being awesome at training so uh how does CFI continue that that

Legacy of being awesome at training great first of all let me let me thank you guys for your support of

installation training I mean it's it's a huge benefit to the industry for you to

keep carrying that torch and involving us thank you for inviting us to come on

the podcast of course it's a great honor for us to be onbody BL I mean it really is I mean we love

the opportunity we always relish the opportunity to get to talk about what our passion is and that is

you know an installation training with CFI wfca got involved in CFI about nine

years ago close to nine years ago in late late 2015 early 2016 and we

purchased CFI at the time and uh made it a division with wfca but wfca had been

involved in CFI for years and years before that big supporter I we were a huge supporter

and we had the opportunity to integrate that into wfca as a you know the division of wfca so we did that and you

know it's it's it's one of the things that we have been committed with not just of late but for years on end and we

continue that commitment to it because we believe that it's important for the industry and

so um you know we set out in that time frame to look at what what would CFI do

what would it do differently how would we you know manage the organization how would we look at the Strategic focus of

it and we really broke it out into a couple of different Tracks Of course CFI

at its core is a training organization but we also have a membership component of that which is for us it was just an

astonishing thing to see the Brotherhood of CFI when we first got exposed to I mean Sisterhood now as well I mean it's

amazing how many how many ladies we have coming into the organization so it it was just it was a different fi than you

know you you normally see as like a big family and we really love that we want

to try to keep that in the organization because I think that connection um to

each other and that networking opportunity between the members of the organization is a key part of their

experience with CFI and I think we want to we want to keep driving that so we are a membership organization and we are

very appreciative and excited to engage with our members um but at our core we are a training and

certification organization so we we we train but we also believe strongly in certification that certification is a

key component um because if you're going to train someone um you need the

credentials to go along with that those credentials establish the fact that you

have completed uh a course of study and that credential is the evidence to say

that I am proficient this and I think that's a very important thing for an installer to have so we believe not only

in training but we believe ultimately you should seek certification yeah absolutely credential so we do both of

those but there's two tracks of training that we do the first track is what sort

of the core of what CFI had done for years and that is the training and certification existing installers so

installers that have been in the field for some time we would do continuing education type of training we still do

much of L today whether that be you know floor prep whether that be um specific

you know skill sets by you know for carpet or whatever it may be um you know

a heat welding class for Brazilian you know there's there's there's specific skill sets that continue to build that

maybe didn't have to start with but you know then we also do certification

courses where we do a a certification training combination we getting some

training and they're testing for their certification and of course that testing is a is a twofold test it's a written

test for your knowledge but also a skills that test hands test you got show you

got you gotta demonstrate that you got to show what you can do uh before you get those credentials those credentials

have to have integrity about them which means you got to test you got to hold a standard by which that you issue those

so we have that track which is the continuing education leading to

certification of course to get certification we have a minimum two-year requirement to get your R1 or C1 carget

for example um and so you have to have that experience in the field typically

to be able to sit for that certification test and go through that training however we began another track which is

really um sort of trying to address the longer term need of the issue we have in

the forur the labor shortage right labor shortage I love what you guys doing here with these uh these introductory bring

them in shortterm uh courses my flooring companies had a few people go through

the two week course y I mean those kinds of things I think that's where you're leading right yes that's exactly right

and what we did is you know we started that track of Education which is designed for very very entry level no

experience necessary know you can come right out of high school and goiv programs and of course we partnered with

uh F CF wfca was instrumental in setting up fcef which is the full covering

Education Foundation which is having to fund that education yeah J yeah they're great yeah they're great

so we we partnered with them and and helped create that organization and U so

that we could have a means by which we could fund you know that education for

them because it it is an impediment you know for education education is not cheap it's not free uh somebody has to

pay for it yeah that sense of the way and this was a way for the industry to get involved in that c IFI was right

there at the very beginning of it but we we set up those courses we have we have

a now we have morphed into several different IND level courses to bring kids in either right out of high school

or maybe if they want to change careers they can get in there and learn it everything from a one week introductory

class to a two week class um all the way up to we do a five-week course which

takes them from from you know very very basic skills that might be for a helper

all the way to the point of installing glory and they can reach certification if they get 200 hours of Education over

five weeks um that's quite a bit of that's quite a bit of class that's a big training just just to

clarify uh that five-week course it doesn't mean you're going to come out you know blowing and going yeah trying

to trying to kill a allall job or but I think the kind of standard is you could go install a a hallway and two rooms off

of it very efficiently or something like that kick

still Ai No that's wonderful but just to clarify yeah they are involved in five

weeks of nothing but hands on paperwork education like I think we're gonna have a couple of our guys have been working

for a little bit they do that because the time time it saves us y do like the

way you're going the the path that this is all taken when you have this really core offering and now you're bringing in

some more introductory courses because if we're going to attack this thing uh we got to have as many entry points into

the industry as possible you gota you got you got to minimize the barriers to in so you got to take away the maybe the

cons the restraints or the the things that might impede them from from getting

involved so if they can't take a five week course they could take a one week course or two we course and and then

that credits toward their five weeks of experience that they want to do that or five weeks of they five week

time right now is a good time because you talk about installers and we've been fighting for years to up

the installer pay right so the money is a huge deal in in training and I think

um right now is is good to talk about the fcef and what they're doing right now with the 100 and

yeah so there is a promotion running right now with the full covering Education Foundation so that um for a

100 days we were going to scholarship 100 the first 100 students to apply and

get approved for scholarship uh in this period of time we're in right now it runs till about the 9th of March believe

that and so they would be able to get 100% which is it's normally 50% so

during that promotion they can get 100% coverage on the cost of the course as

long as it's $2,500 or more which is their limit um so we structured a series

of one and twoe courses that would dipped into that to be able to allow the students to come in and get 100% scholar

so that's awesome that's awesome that you guys did that because you know like I said the cost is huge when you're

talking about installers and especially when their their entry level when they

may be coming right out of high school and not have those funds that's right so it's it's it's a good program a great

program we're very excited about that we have uh I can't remember on top my head how many we've already had to go through

that but we are we are um continuing to add students to that continue to add

locations to that but the one and twoe classes are are a little bit more bite-sized for them and they can get

started I will tell you this in two weeks time for sure we can create a

pretty a pretty good helper in that time frame that has I mean you think about it I me

that's in two weeks time you're getting 80 hours of I canest in two week you can

get in two weeks time you can get to the helper level much much higher level probably a Year's worth of experience or

more for a helper in two weeks if they're intensely being trained for that two weeks they learn the trade they

learn the tools they learn some of the techniques they learn you know the terminology all of those things and they

get the safety side out it you get those first two weeks out there now you've got a helper that you can place in the field

and they can start getting experience as you said you can you can accelerate the education can't accelerate the

experience that's right they still got to get that experience but it's a good start um for

those yeah for all the companies out there look uh here's the deal I like the two-e course because it gives us

something uh to get a a real feel for so when we had uh several guys through one

of the twoe courses guys from completely different Industries and we set up this

uh program at the flooring company I own uh where we would pay for their two

weeks of being there their salary or their their wages for those two weeks as long as they completed the course and

was there all every day and then um that would be written as a loan to them if they stayed at the company for uh six

months then the loans were given in six months and we got two of them out of that deal but great but what really uh

uh the reason I like the two week the reason I mentioned that is at two weeks I was able to talk to the instructor a

little bit and and and garnered like where they one week seemed a little

tight they were they were like he seems pretty good but you know that second week I was able to get real good

feedback that's like yeah this guy's actually you know you definitely want to hire him and keep him on so you get two

weeks seems to be that freaking sweet spot for these entries it is and and you know you think about it in one week's

time you probably figure out whether this is for me or not in the first week

you know what I mean yeah which is why the third guy uh start off in week two the second week you know you figure

that out and you really start to get serious about the trade and you get serious about hey this could be a future

and it can be a future it's a phenomenal future as you guys know I mean where we

all started got started and the work is there there the career is there the

career path is there and I think that's one of the things we've been challenged with is communicating that career path

what is it you come in and you know you're not going to be on your news forever I mean look what you guys are doing yeah well even if you um you know

I I enjoy getting back down there every now and again way easier I always say that it's way easier there there's a lot

of benefits to in to the mindset that you got to be in the office and doing you know business stuff uh I I love the

just engagement into the product and stuff when I when I get the chance to install you know earlier when the panel

was on on RTI stage Jen said something uh you know about the free installation

that a lot of the um you know big boxes or push um I I don't know what can be

done on in the industry level these are private or publicly heal companies have their own own methods of sales but to

the you know if you're out there and you are thinking about getting you know flooring for your house I promise you

those guys are not working for free no so it's a gimmick quit falling for

it well you know I know that that each retailer you know makes decisions on how they how they go to market how they

price things and things like that but it does somewhat um diminish or minimize

the value of installation in the sales you know in the whole sales process the people do yeah and truth of the matter

is the most important thing is the installation yeah I mean sure you got to

have great product don't don't but great product is nothing it's in a box yeah

the experience of this is in my house that's on my floor that's the installed well I've heard it said you know a great

product installed by a bad installer or having a bad install you know that's

horrific but a a inferior product installed by a great installer and you still end up with a good floor like

that's how important installation is yeah so we're we're trying to get that message out and um you know 20 I'll just

mention this 2023 for us was a phenomenal year we had a record year in

2023 with 2023 with CFI we had a our our

membership growth was staggering attendance was up at the last our attendance and and just the whole Buzz

of convention was phenomal that was great this is one of the best conventions we've had in that day uh

message that I got um but the most important is training and we we grew

training last year huge way and you know we're coming off of that momentum in 23

and we're going to be pushing hard for 24 we are amping up our schedule of training um and the thing about it we

talking about twoe courses the twoe courses the five we courses the onee courses the certifications we bring to

the mark in other words we come to where the students are so we we we really want

to partner with retailers and dealers distributors in those marketplaces to

establish kind I have a I have a question on that right and for for any of the retail stores or any of the companies that are interested in hosting

one of these trainings whether it's the two we or the five we are are these uh

are these classes that would be kind of tailored to what they're looking for as far as uh installation needs commercial

residential or is it going to be kind of a a cookie cutter template and and maybe some room for adjustment so to customize

it we we certainly want to meet the need for the partner that we're that's hosting us if we are partnering with a

retailer they have a specific need we will we will bring that need to them um

we have a catalog quite extensive catalog of all kinds of training from every product category to residential

land commercial at all levels up and down the experience side out it so we

can we can we have something that would fit just about every need out there if there's something specific that they

want training on um that's not a problem we've got a lot of high but you do have

to have a systematized I mean you you got to have a standardized curriculum there is a stand you got to have that

stuff and then you can maybe have some add-ons or whatever we can bring this into it supplement it and we can

absolutely do that because you know we got we've got a network of trainers that are second produ just they're the best

in the business and um very proud of you very thankful for their help well as we're as we're as

we're nearing our time here I want to give you a chance to like tell us new guys watching H how do we get how

does a new guy and maybe like the guys I sent to the twoe course they weren't out

of high school but they were in a whole different trade so how do we get involved what's the lowest barrier of

entry for me to get hey I want to be imploring what's my next step so so the

the first step would be to go to to our website so we keep everything on the website all of our schedules are out

there information about the classes our cataloges are out there so if I'm an entry level installer looking to get

into the TR I would uh first go to our website CFI install. org and um at that

website you'll see a schedule of our events descriptions of all those courses you would want to look for the one or

two week one two or five week entry level courses and we host those as I say all around the country at various times

and sign up for one of those that'll get you started that'll get you into the trade and you just go beyond that you

know once you get in the door um I will say this we also have generally no problems placing people into jobs I mean

this is this is not hard to get a job in this industry right now yeah if you can get that education it's sort of you're

to kick it into the door for you know to differentiate you from somebody just walking off the street that has no

education whatsoever you go in and say hey I've been through this course so that ENT ofev a course you'll find them on our website as I said we host them in

various places it's like the appetizer I mean figure figure out if you want to be in the business you know start off with

that one two five we course Absolut you know wet your whistle and figure out if

flooring's for you because we're not acting like every single person that wants to be in the trades is going to

find floring a pilling but I loved it right right right loved it you loved it

I mean we're out there we just got to get them connected get that appetizer in you and then you know get place with the

company and and continue your education it's remarkable how many kids coming out of high school don't realize this is a

career opportunity I just don't realize it's there but if we can educate them

and that's what FCF is trying to do is trying to educate them about the opportunities in floring and uh show if

we can show them um you know how how good a career this can be uh it's a

professional career yeah and if they approach it professionally and that includes education and leave the limited

mindset away I'm going to say something here just super quick yeah you know the value if you take the all the square

footage sold flooring seems small because we're all just in this group together love each other whatever right

there's 40 billion ion dollar of Labor value done every year that's right

that's right 40 billion dollars of floring Labor value every single year so

the opportunity is there and if you're wanting to get involved in a trade where you really want to show your hand skills

and you enjoy like stepping back and seeing that finished product that was my reward I know we talked about yo there's

so much satisfaction in that uh I I challenge anybody to find a trade that

that requires more hand skills um this is the place for you so go to CFI

installers dog and I'm sure we po we popped up that on our on our live stream

here you could also give us a call too yeah or just give a call pick up the old phone we'll talk to you all about it and

tell you where you can get from what you can come into this career yeah let's get going guys uh again CI

installers Steve thanks for joining us totient our technical we got the tech

figured out now it's my fault all right thanks a lot

Steve Mr we got next I think we got Mr Paul pek stepping

up to the plate Mr Houdini himself one minute the

hello yeah you don't get to say any dirty jokes Paul we're live the entire process here so I hope run

delay you know what he does he probably has the best voice for this I four of us

that Wisconsin accent is that what it is understand well remind everybody eat the

mic and let's um let's get going Paul welcome uh I I think that you've uh been

seen the Huddle before have you been on yet have we had you on yet looking forward to it I enjoy talking to you guys nice meeting your mom last night by

the way was here a little while ago she's probably driving around she driving around Amigo learn what a CH was well welcome

chka CH all right well welcome to the Huddle

man um today's episode is all about training like if you have

uh not been on the Huddle but if you watch the Huddle at all this is is a

staple of us we believe in training we believe in uh the fact is is that we

know that uncles train nephews to us that doesn't eliminate the need for

standardized uh training and um meeting the industry standard when it comes to

that so welcome and thank you for coming I want to get your feedback on what we were talking about a

little bit earlier about bringing the new guys in and what uh the NF ncts

approach is to uh you know given the lowest barrier of Entry uh for these new

guys who and and GS looking to get into this industry yeah what we've really

approached the industry as that in order to have a successful installation you really have to start with some bottom

line is that if you don't have that perfect face to start with you're going

to have excellent hand skills you're be an excellent installer but at the end of the day likely go to that successful

installations pretty so we started with that our education overall is very incremental so on the resilient side for

example you have to come in and take the subcore course in order to go and take the LBT course a modular resilient

course um then you can move on to the seat good scores and well flash cold and

work your way through that industry on that side of it incrementally so you can grow like we talked about everybody on

career path where do you go when you get into this industry I think that really what we tried to focus on with most of

our efforts of bringing people into the industry is to make education an

expectation right I think when you look at installation if the perception of it

is that it's just a labor job it's you know in the category with uh Roofing and

drywall and painting then what's the what's your career path with that in my

opinion it's absolutely not it's a skill trade you're working with tens of thousands of dollars worth the material if you make a mistake it's going to cost

you a lot of money don't do it right and on top of that you're a Craftsman right yeah you put that Bing in and put that

Bing well it takes skill to do it prop absolutely and a lot of knowledge too

right like there a that's a discredit uh to the fling industry is that we have to

be scientists as well we have to understand and this is probably geared more towards commercial we have to understand the science behind the lot

and like you said the right start with a strong Foundation that's that's that's

everything that's yeah you don't build a house on a strong Foundation that's going to fall over right that's kind of

what the NCT is is looking at you gota you got to start at that base and work up and looking at the subfloor it's

where everyone has to start yeah and I remember when when the class became public and it came out and we had a

conversation we were like we started totally backwards we started on the top and working our way down and just like

man but this you know the the the pre it being required as a prequisite to the

the resilient class like there's like well Mak sense resilience about the most uh you know the most uh let me say the

least tolerant or most temperamental when it comes to uh subfloor uh you know discrepancies and issues so absolutely

and we we've also tried to bring in some more uh specialized areas within the industry uh some people know as as well

know it's here but we very very shortly we'll have the moisture mitigation certification so for concrete sorters

when you got to ad tested they failed but you do not there are so many options out there and there's so many ways to

address that um you put together a class that's going to teach how to identify the best process for any given failure

and for the for covering you're putting on but there's a difference between you know what you're going to do underneath

a m versus carp for example yeah so that next certification that be shortly

that'll be delivered by our education Partners like our and yeah let's walk

through that a little bit tell us about your approach to uh the education and how you guys uh go about your trainings

and certifications and uh curriculum building I mean what's your what's your

what's the nct's approach with that so one of the things that we identified early on and we' we've known growing in

the industry with co-founder uh I'm a co-founder with uh sunic we got together we

work an educational business doing training and we decided to turn it into an

association so we co-founded the nfct as National Association for governings but

what we identified in all of our work you know between the two of us we worked with and served on boards for committees

for seven or eight different industry Association and we worked with a lot of Manufacturers we've seen how much that

manufacturer training was truly technical in nature with the sales aspect right it wasn't a sales training

with a little bit of technical these were classes that we were going to that were excellent but at the end of the day you couldn't get any sort of credential

for you couldn't get any sort of uh thing you put on your business card or on your website that show that you knew

how to work with a for covering or sub so we went to

uh God forgive me if I forget any of them but we went to a pay RX donuts lree

andle and I logic was we brought them all together

and we put together the sub so now as our educational Partners now all of those companies can go teach the exact

same program across the board so it's all standardized when they give that program but we do also give them the

room to be able to say okay well we're talking about self lers well here's yeah

well that makes sense yeah that makes sense give them the ability to do a product um uh I won't

say demonstration but a product uh placement while they're doing the education right and you guys are

bringing in a lot of Manufacturers and I think that's one of the things that people look at is why would I go get

certified over here and pay this money when this certain manufacturer has a training that I can go do and sometimes

they are free right I mean most manufacturers offer the free training but when you bring

in when you bring in a handful of Manufacturers and it's recognized by all of them because you know a sheet vinyl

for instance can be translated through different manufacturers you know the

adhesive is different the notch is different but the installation method is the same and to put something together like that that is recognized by many

manufacturers is pretty awesome I think yeah it's a unique approach and um the

more the merrier absolutely right right and and these are um Niche trainings

like I say Niche I mean we're talking sheet vinyl if you're in healthcare it's like the product but what I'm getting at

is uh generalized training is your subfloor and then you build upon that

you want your modular uh resilient training boom you want to do now do you

require that before you do the sheet Goods okay you have to have that cell phone for everything no no no meant do

you have to do the modular resilient training to do sheet Goods no it's

probably best just FY but I'm just curious there's levels to the these

definitely levels to it one would make the other one easier if you had some basic knowledge and then graduating to

the next difficulty you have you do have to be experiencing the industry and take she not going to walk in as a as a new

uh so if you've had to have some time working with it U we recommend it but

more important than go with the she food's work is that you got Sol experience understand what the tools are

you know what you're doing you can ask yeah well we know you got a great

trainer well so

um hey I'll give you a shout out sunny I mean Paul

Paul no I'm just kidding um so what's the easiest way for like people to get

involved if if if I'm brand new to the industry I don't have to be high

schooler but I'm I'm in a different industry and I'm looking up trainings in flooring or flooring career uh how does

the NCT come into play to kind of yank those uh opportunities out of the market

so if somebody's looking into flooring as a business like I said I think that one of the biggest things that we can do

to draw people in is to really at the image with perception yeah

perception what I think we're working really hard on that with in an effort to try to reach people I think we've got

more modern approach to it for our sore post for example that's 6 hour worth of online training person you know so we're

trying to make it so that I grew up there wasn't anything such thing as online training but I

think everybody that comes into an industry has an expectation that that's I also think that if an industry

looks Antiquated that is kind of a turn off people that are looking for a new indry

to come into so they're looking forting Cutting Edge devices looking for

technology work on their phone go Carrera um you know yeah trying to look

the this generation if we're talking about the youth they have literally they're the first generation I believe

that they were born with the phone in their hands with the phone with internet

access with like highspeed internet access on your computer in your pocket

yes so it only makes sense that you have to have a modern approach to the way you

reach out to them way you train so I like that absolutely um we we're really

working hard to make sure that uh we're accessible in every way shap we try to

make sure that our class are affordable we pric on that s for course $100 100

bucks and it's it's a great course we've talked about it plenty of times $100 to

give yourself a great Foundation a great Stu that's worth it if you if you're just uh uh thinking about doing your

kitchen by yourself I mean yeah that's awesome so yeah we approach with that

we're also trying to give people we're doing yeah let's go that's our that's

our next topic uh but we're trying to pull people in we're trying to have portable education people together and network

and work together you know there's so many excellent organizations uh we're we're working on pursuing the

conversation that was started at FCI FCA FC CFI there's a lot of acronyms in

this business you guys so sorry it's a little confusing and uh Wagner meter is commenting on on the post too to to get

over here to the summit so we appreciate that yeah well Jason could just come and step

all yeah get to the summit so tell us a little bit about the summit the summit's uh you know more training installer

focused um give us a little bit about how that came to be and uh what what

what can we expect out of the summit because we're going to be there one of the things I love right now going on in

the industry there's a lot of areas where everybody's trying to cooperate brought up FCA and

CFI they brought that up right away um they just had their convention together

last year uh we're working with um Robert Bon as well as unite so we're

joining together to put together the something and so we each put together a day of Education we're going to have a

half a day of a trade show uh it's our first one so you know hey gotta start somewhere gotta start

somewhere uh we actually already have a DAT plan same for next year okay so I W

another announce there you go get um but yeah we're got uh so I've got

the list so I don't forget anybody this time but we've got presentations we've got concrete overview mixed designs with

Team craft from more about concrete than I've ever

known uh we've got Seth bck talking about what cus concrete slab back

to that for guardex right y y uh we got Lee Phillips I think one of he's from uh

professional testing know an adult presentation right now with so much uh

VY product that's out there there's not really you know even through inspections

if you go and you have a piece of material and can't find any installation or site disses with it doesn't always

necessarily be in the product B still have testing so I think we'll have them talking a lot about what kind of test

you can do on VI within so are these seminars will these

be like uh seminar kind of classroom settings classroom okay y uh son pal

Hampton talk about estm we got uh Scott bander talking about for cloud and

Robert Bon talking about

seaming awesome so yeah it's going to be uh uh subate subrate flooring failures

with blor that's going to be a new angle if yeah

awesome wealth of information and uh out free to talk about things that are

sometimes taboo to talk about the industry so yeah that's what we're all about amen I get lose report

man sounds like a Fountain of Knowledge a lot a lot of conversation

come join in on that conversation the more voices we can get you know the the better and that's what this podcast is

built on it's the the voice of the installer you know we're not going to be quiet anymore let's uh let's kind of

disrupt the industry and ask these hard questions especially when the manufacturers are going to be there let's let's see what they have to say

yeah let's do it so it's going to be in in Dalton correct February 22nd and 23rd

well we look forward to that Paul and thanks for for coming on with us today thank you all for having me awesome

thanks Paul

all right out with the second Paul and with CJ hi hi CJ how's it

going it's going fantastic thanks for joining us today thanks thanks for having me so CJ is with the FCI and

we'll let you tell us what that means the floor covering installation

contract Association is what it stands for uh and our tagline is um the foreign

contractors so yeah so uh heavy um focus on commercial floor covering

contractors and how they can improve their business and and and um you know

be so more successful in the marketplace yep um how do you guys look at installation training and the the things

going on how how do you guys get involved with that um so we obviously

we're doing a lot of Industry Partnerships and supporting installation training we've um last year last fall we

did our first joint convention with CFI um and we're doing it again this year was a lot of weren't there make sure you

come this year uh it's going to be starting October 1st uh back at the roseen jingle Creek in Orlando great

place it is yeah really hot but in October it's better yeah it

is um and yeah so we're going to be doing it again this year um that's kind of a big change we made supporting

installation training yeah well I knew the answer obviously because I was at FC

and CFI but uh you guys teaming up with CFI

um to me that all that can do is improve your current members and their

businesses we all rely on labor to to you know get our our products down we're

really good at selling stuff and we're really really good at like talking to designers and and scheduling stuff with

General Contractors but we are all limited by what we can get installed in

a professional manner so I'd love that the FC teamed up with CFI and did that

joint convention it was meant to be it was it was so fun it was and kind of like what Paul was getting at earlier

right you're looking at the evolution of a career and how an installer can have their career you know the next step what

is the next step and I think um the FCI is Paramount in that especially with the SIM program um I went through it he went

through it Paul's about to go through it at some point I promise great I'll sign you up but yeah I I think you know we

talk about that that career Evolution and I think that's where CFI or seica

comes in with CFI it's you know you start out as an installer and you have to see the progression of a career and I

think that's where you guys come in yeah definitely and just a little plug for for that is that is actually where where

Paul and I met so this relationship and this podcast actually came about because of well I think technically we met here

at ties but that's where you guys kind of connected yeah yeah FC yeah yeah so

fcica uh has a midyear convention and so

that will the real there be just an fcic convention this year and and the joint

convention or is it just yeah so we're going to do um we're flapping our normal

time periers for our convention so typically fci's convention is in March and then the midyear meeting which is um

similar format with like education and product demos but not a trade show and with a plant tour instead um it's

usually in the fall so we're kind we're flapping that now so this year we have our March we're calling it our spring

midyear meeting and then next year maybe we'll drop the mid year it's not really yeah Midway for the year um so that's in

Dalton and so that will be we have um some great education sessions lined up some product demos and then we'll be

touring um a shot inw while we're there gotcha what's it uh what do

you what do you think about all of the um talks did you happen to pick up or or

um uh catch the uh panel earlier that was on stage no I okay it was really

good I you know the the whole training thing because here on the Huddle I mean we we talk

about it if you've caught any of our episodes we talk about it constantly uh I'm a floor covering contractor I own a

flooring company as you know back in witto we're a member of FC we've got guys that we've sent

through uh CFI trainings and even had some Sim guys go through uh for our

managers it's all education but the real challenge that

seems to be you know being cried from the mouth mountains is not just we've

heard installation shortage forever but it seems like stuff is happening and

things are starting to actually take hold uh Steve abery earlier was talking

about how 2023 was a Paramount year for them they they trained more people they got more

members what what is fci's role

in not just teaming up with CFI but how I I know some of the answers

but how do you guys you guys encourage your your your uh members to H trained

guys and and and if you have in-house employee installers send them to training and things like that do you

have education sessions around or planned for your flooring

contractors to like really engage because I think that's the rally cry is like the flooring contractors and the

retailers need to get engaged with these training entities to start supporting the fcef and these other uh efforts out

there and send your people to the training that's what helps with the training industry right so what's your

guys' approach you got any plans for the mid year did I say that right actually one of our education

sessions at the mid year meeting is recruiting and retaining employees and installers and um another entity that we

work with another industry partner is install um and they um see the cool with

install is helping um write the or helping with the content for the education section as well as

some of our other um you know foreign contact yeah you guys also just to make

sure that this gets covered give um you have some free resources for your members to properly train their

installers in house even some curriculum stuff I know I've gotten some of it like some of the flooring um installation

training uh curriculum that you can self I mean if you're not going to do any if

you're not going to go to the training ins that was that's how I kind of took that but it's still about training the

installer right yeah fit program yeah uh that's our it's like a inhouse training

program so it has it's kind of like a train the trainer and you train employees using your materials like

train install using whatever materials on job yep y awesome yeah well thanks

for joining us today um do you have when is the next convention and how

do uh in contractors that have not engaged with the FC and one other thing

too is uh they said don't forget about the next meeting regional meeting February 16th yeah February 16th in

Stockton California at ARX um and Wagner leaders I don't know if Jason commented

that he's doing he's doing one of the education sessions there it's on um like sub prep and moer mitigation so FC we

started doing these Regional meetings um after Co in between our large imperson meetings to get our U members together

in person you know more frequently throughout the year so they're free to members and non-members um yeah and yeah

housing at different facilities so February 16th in sackton California anyone is available to go it's uh a one

day like 9 to three um type of training and yeah that'll be great and then we

have um the midyear meeting coming up in Dalton before the two days before the mid meeting we're going to be doing a

two days to send so if anyone to send people through it in person Sim you both did your Sims in person yeah he did it

when it was three days yes I got lucky and wait till it was two that's probably because the evolution again right

evolution of everything get people who areb Mur they don't need three days like that and yeah we have another

two assistant in New Jersey in April so right yeah awesome yeah so we have all our info and

what's the website FC that's easy folks fca.com CJ thanks for

joining us today I appreciate it and patient yeah thanks for your patience

anytime yeah they they can all come come right here they can set up some chairs and

stuff as long as they don't mind being on

camera what's up Carlos you guys doing D you're the first one here last I'm

sorry we had a couple technical the beginning but it's my fault I'll take the blame again well thanks for coming

welcome to the Huddle Carlos we've been talking about getting him on for a while now and he's

just a busy guy so Carlos is with the NF ACP orap yep NF n NF No Cap

though Carlos welcome man um I've talked to you a little bit gotten to know a

little bit about what you guys do tell tell the audience uh what is NFC cap I'm

gonna use that from now on by the way uh yeah so so tell me about your approach to training what's your what what's

what's going on over there what you about you know in our industry but the way that we see ourselves is we more of

a theater um you know we're out there looking for the Next Generation tap into

a youth that M doesn't know what they want to doing like so we present from the fling industry you know we do like

we intro to fling they do carpet tile with fling resilient and then from there

they choose they want to do one of those those routes and some they say no I don't want to do this I'm be trip be a f

so we're kind of helping them out make a decision in life um then after that we find a local contractor that wants to

you know hire an apprentice and follow the standards um and just keep training them for the next three to four years

that can be their you know leaden Dollar Man or they can transition to sales or marketing one day you never know right

own or owner orer I know they want some of them here want to be their own foreign contractor have their own

company absolutely well all of us started at that as an installer I was I was a Helper and moved on I became you

know the best at sheet vinyl no I mean I I was a Helper and I fell in love with you

know we did a lot of Hospital work so I fell in love with flash cove sheep vinyl and that's where I ended up getting my

certifications I know this man's the same kind of path in love this dude's a

master of disaster and does all kinds of stuff but but the point is is that there's once you get a skill like that

it really gives you the confidence that you can go do whatever within this industry but get that skill right you

know get some years of installation under you and then doors will open up absolutely and I think one of the the

key things that I'm taking away from what we were talking about is that you actually give them every segment of the

industry and you're like do you like any of these ones and then you give them that choice it's either yes I like this

one let's specialize or no I don't like any of them all right let's see what other programs work for you correct and

and we we got some communication too like I know that there's been a little bit of a gap in right like fill this out or it's not working but uh um we have

talked about customizing like hey you called me and said what is it do you need as a company what would benefit

your company the most from a training aspect and knowledge point if you were to have someone start tomorrow what

would you need them to know what would you like them to know and and being able to customize some of that like you said

introduce them to all the disciplines and then have them pick their discipline because it suits them or they just love

it and uh building on top of that that's that's something different not a lot of people are doing something like

that that's that's awesome that you guys have that in place yeah well there's a lot of different approaches to training

and and placement so you really need companies who

need helper apprentices uh level people to engage with you and then you kind of

match uh their need right like then you go out and you got some students with you here today I understand we have some

can we bring them up let's bring them all so hey you know

what bro we're still all apprentices of black man so it doesn't need to matter right we're students Ben can you uh

bring some chairs over oh you got you gota ask Kevin Ben

Ben left Ben left building

Kevin so I think it's pretty awesome that you you brought the team with you man because uh looking back like a show

like this can kind of change your mind to how big the industry is like everyone says that the flooring industry is very

very small but big at the same time and you kind of see that here where I mean

you can walk from one side to the other a mile and dude I got 10,000 steps by 10

o'clock yeah he got here at 928 all right so uh where's everybody

from Angel how about

you from Mexico oh what's your name kisten

Chavez Mrs Lopez I'll leave it at that sorry I'm not these things make it hard

hi oh Andrea welcome Britney from

Arlington Jeremy from Texas as well all right so how how' this all come to be how they in Vegas with you man um well

top they were the top students they show commitment to the trade and because they show commitment and kind want to show

them the road map to our industry it's not just being an installer opportunity to go to different you there's a lot of

Manufacturers here I met a lot of technical reps who used to have their own flooring company and I work for a

corporation so that's something that I want them to see that there's a lot of opportunity in our industry it is not

you're not just going to be installing for for the rest of your life not unless you want to yeah unless you want to because there's plenty of guys out there

that you know 60 70 years old that that we've known personally that they're like this is just what I like doing so that's

what I'm going to do yeah but you know but I I do look forward to seeing uh one one day one of them hopefully compete in

the competition here um I'd like to see all of them compete yeah what do you guys think about Crystal competing in

the uh the competition you might want to move that microphone

you're rooting for her you got some fans Crystal hey you already had fans though right who's

crystal that's baby sister yeah yeah so uh I'm glad that everybody you know gets

a chance to see like the youth coming in that's what I think is special about what you're doing uh however you're

doing it your secret sauce over there is awesome I mean all the profile that I've

looked at when you and I were talking you you tend to be able to attach

yourself or attach uh in fcap to uh the youth that's important right like you

don't have to um there's a lot of people that don't really know what path they're going to take when they get out of high

school and for you to be there or your organization to be there to help guide

them along dude that is a a piece of what's clearly missing I mean I mean you

know Steve ABY kind of T touched on it earlier as well but committing to the

youth so what what kind of what does that look like for you guys What attracted the youth and the diversity

that you guys bring to the table which I think is special yeah um I think one one of our biggest you know reasons why we

we could succeed is because our one of our partners is Job Court okay you know Job Court has like 121 locations

nationwide um and his students there you know taking carpentry or BCT which is um

fielders construction technology and so what we do is we we we target them at

the school and we present in the Ping trade and they come out to see some presentation from manufactur gr uh a

demonstration and they do an application process and they get interviewed and the ones who really want to do it you kind

of can tell after an interview and they start the 8we intro to and touch everything and and then we figure out if

they really wanted to do and is this at a given location or do you do it at multiple places how do you

how do you operate that um so they they went through Gary J cor which is in San maros Texas that's the first one we

opened up about two years ago uh but now we have Dallas which isny Texas and we

have San Francisco which is in California which are our three locations we have right now um but we're not

planning to to grow like those three locations I think we want to do now just go in do a presentation be in the theard

and then hey you want to do flooring um come to this school in in in San Marcos

do fling bring them from different parts of the country and then send them back from that's awesome yeah that's really

really cool so um what what uh level or what time frame

are are your students in currently well well you know um and I should have let you just introduce them yeah than me

trying that weird like what's your name and I can't hear him anyway because they got my dang handon on how long you been working at J eight

months J with oh that's cool yeah she's good pigs she real good

pigs and long you been there eight months so yeah eight months

and these two are currently students school they're going to graduate soon they were play in March um she made the

decision to take the wood route and she made the decision a TI Setter we place when what companies at nobody wants to

do I mean honestly if you look at social media a lot of the

female it takes that detail you know it takes there there's detail there like

the mosaicist stuff like that it's the detail work in and something like that and I I hope you you guys to go far in

your career um we talked about the evolution of of a career and I hope you can see that here how you you're not

going to be stuck um learn as much as you can now to help you in your future later and I I commend Carlos and the

program because right now um I mean over Across the Nation the flooring

installer is fighting for a seat at the table and you're presenting that so thank you for that yeah yeah it's a

great program and thanks for you know like reaching out I think that uh you

know what I I I especially like about everything that we've done here today is

that it's not about the manufacturer we're at a trade show with the the biggest manufacturers in the world and

we're sitting here talking about the most important part of all that in the world but it is it is the labor and the

training and the the opportunities that you guys are providing so it would be awesome for to get these manufacturers

involved into into talking to you guys we're GNA get there we'll get there one day we're g to get there we need that

yeah but they're listening too they're listening too right and they're moves are probably way more strategic than

ours but we're we're making moves so yeah we're throwing battle axes and they got they got drawings out and planning

but that's all right so what's the um what's next what are you guys doing at the rest of the show here uh we'll walk

around and go to the competition um see a couple more you know manufacturers

tools tools love yeah I know they want to go to some tools right now I don't

blame you and then never gonna go eat awesome yeah that's awesome man thank you for uh thank you for being on today

man we appreciate it and thanks for always reaching out I know you you're not a quiet one so you gotta be low to

make some change and that's what you're doing I mean I can't do it without you guys yeah he's got a lot of figh dude I

mean he has a Scorpio he's got awesome birthday too so you guys have the same birthday you got the same birthday how'

you forget my birthday man didn't even text me bro you on you said how you know my birthday I

look at your ID like two years ago that's funny all right well thanks

for joining and uh looks like we got one more you guys enjoy the show

ladies have fun I'm glad you guys were able to come oh hey before you run Carlos what's the easiest way for a

company that may want to get in touch with you what's the easiest way outside of like Google well you know what I I'll

give you my correct line my phone number is 305 972 2232 we told you he's

bold and we we got the link up right here too guess what you have no excuses

anymore you have his direct M yeah so Carlos get ready for your phone to blow

up yeah you think about that all right thanks brother

oopsie I got you hey thank you [Music]

hey made it I made it made it you actually been youve been hovered Mr Scott B Banda Banda Panda Scott Banda

you got it PA I fumbled every everybody else's name I figured yours is too easy I got to

Fumble it somehow so he's got welcome man what's going on today oh just uh

really chatting it up with a lot of people great a lot of activity here it's been great it's busy right it's been

busier than uh uh the past years honestly I mean think so yeah it's great

uh so Scott is with Flor Cloud if you don't know about Flor Cloud just a uh

quick overview and I'll let Scott take it from there but floor cloud is basically a remote job site monitoring

system and he'll give you more information here but uh instead of driving four hours to your job site to

see what the site conditions are and see if the uh you know concrete moisture is

uh within industry standards you know look up floor cloud and uh they you can

get it right from your desktop so Scott welcome give us a little bit of information a little little more detail

than what I just did there on floor Cloud Sure so floor Cloud uh it's a solution that we basically built for

contractors uh small large medium General Contractors really across all trades uh we started the company focused

on flooring because that's where my partner and I basically came out of and uh it allows contractors to remotely

monitor their job sites so you mentioned um the concrete moisture that's uh in

Partnership of Wagner meters yep um and those are the probes that are essentially monitoring the relative

community in the slab as well as a slab attemp but we also have sensors that I have one here for but these These are um

basically sensors that go on the wall and these measure ambient temperature humidity Vio and track GPS location so

the concept here is that these are tracking site conditions and then every hour sending out data through the

cellular network so there's no wifi involved or looking for passwords or anything like that and what we're doing

is we're measuring the site conditions against the manufacturer specification I

think this is uh just to jump in this is where magic happens go ahead so um we have a database with over

10,000 products in there we and those are the product specs so for all your flooring products the primers

self-leveling underl adhesives what we're doing is we're comparing those site conditions against those specs and

if things go out of spec uh for example if a a general contractor building owner

actually turned off controls I got too hot to you guys probably have never seen that in your life right um You will get

a notification a push notific in real time so the concept is that the contractor can take corrective action um

to avoid something really mushrooming into a big problem you know like bubbling gapping you know all that stuff

you guys yeah all the issues and you can save yourself some some time driving out to a job site and tossing a probe into

or your reader into the Wagner probe to find out that you are still not within

tolerance absolutely save yourself some time inrease like you can keep in even

after installation to monitor this uh site still yeah so um not really on the

Wagner side because once you cover up that you're gonna have issues with communication coming okay because it's

Bluetooth right correct um but with our Sensers you can still monitor the

ambient conditions and we have people doing that actually where they'll keep them behind for a month or even a couple

months um just to really help again protect the contractor I can tell you guys there's been a lot of situations

where luckily a contractor will have these on there for an another a month and then for example if a general

contractor cools the building too quickly um we get notification we've been in a situation you know because we

live in Michigan where uh we're running on temporary heat and something Happ

temp heat the propane will run out the the electricity will run will you know a Brak will pop or something then you got

nothing that's exactly right so and that that's normally what happens is we detect when that starts to change we

make it very easy for the contractor our contractor to share the data with just a click of a button they can share a graph

with their GC or then their owner and the information comes over very professional and very you know detailed

so it's really not question and then um corrective action is you can taken on behalf of GC or the owner get in there

and they'll fix the situation because no one really wants to have warranty problems and that's not at all that's

well and and they don't have to take your your word for it correct this is what happens sometimes right you're out

on a job site and you say your your moisture is high and they or or there's a you know you think the uh temperatur

is out of whack or the humidity is too high or whatever the sight condition may be the GC a lot of times we ran oh it's

all right are you sure blah blah blah blah blah or no we don't turn it off on the weekends or or I I thought it was

this or that or the other it just takes a lot of the guess work out of it I think that's one of the things I see as

huge value that and obviously automatically if you feed your your software what products you have it'll

tell you I believe it tells you in a red light or something a signal something

real easy to read yeah very easy that that hey this product is outside of or

the site conditions are outside this product's recommended level yeah that's that's freaking cool yeah so so

basically what're we're talking about here is uh is protection on all sides right now you're you're you're

protecting the Integrity of the product you're protecting the install because you have the information uh

you're protecting the end user so that way their product doesn't fail essentially exactly um and uh science

doesn't lie science doesn't lie we need him on our uh yeah website saying that

ex comment that's exactly we can talk about that right after [Laughter]

this no that's right so and and this is me probably going off but like

uh this would be beneficial like I know this is geared towards commercial but it almost be beneficial like a large wood

project for custom wood job oh I can't imagine it wouldn't be beneficial in a home even with it yeah for for an

engineer who's got to keep uh you know the our agent home within certain perameters in order for their FL to

perform well yeah you're exactly right we're actually involved with the nwfa and we have customized a couple I'm

always late good ideas man I'm always late you're right on and um we we're now you really started focused on the more

uh commercial focused contractors but but uh things are really rolling out well there so now we're really going

into more residential as well because you know there's a lot of luxury vinyl plank and and wood going into homes all

the time yeah same I mean site a site is a site yeah exactly and the conditions

the the that are needed for these floorings are I mean it doesn't matter if it's a commercial building or a house

exactly still needs it exactly yeah you know and and that's where it goes like um this is going to help people

understand that manufacturers requirements really aren't like or recommendations that really aren't

recommendations requirements yeah let's call them requirements your claim will get denied

if it's not within the recommendation I thought it was just a

recommendation it's just it's suggested that's it yeah yeah no so go ahead I was

say I talked to talked to you a little bit earlier right I don't know to what size of a

company would utilize this best or what here for as far as uh um the type of company but it almost sounds like if

you're not investing into it you're not really protecting yourself um and the

not to like put a plugin for you like that but with the whole science doesn't bu thing like that that is uh that is

something that uh probably should be talked about a little bit more and yeah bring to bring to the light the

importance of uh the temperature in the tracking of the projects well it's certainly talked about when things fail

yeah like yeah so let's talk about just preventing the failures right pre

prevent yourself from putting down flooring outside the requirements of the

floor and you guys help with that in a very economic um and efficient way so that's

right yeah what just on that point um we do have a report um that you can

generate that is really a submitt document so it gets the once you connect

the products that you're going to work with in the software it can generate a one pager that you can easily send off

to the owner of the GC about what the manufacturer specs are for each of the products that you're going to install so

that can start the conversation early about the type of conditions that you need and it doesn't make the contractor

look like they're being difficult but here the parameters specified by the manufacturer so that everybody gets the

warrantee that you know essentially the owner is looking for so so essentially they can stop blaming us installers for

being too picky and you have a document say this is what's required like it's it's not me saying it's the manufacturer

saying that this is what's required yeah often times it gets blamed on uh any number of things when it comes uh down

to it but it like they think we just don't have the Manpower or you just don't have you just don't want to you

know come to the job site for for some other reason no man like these we I've

been through failures they are very very costly and it always costs the flooring

contractor first I can't just your time even if it's a manufacturer's uh defect

or something who pays for it out of the gate like I'm not going to let my client just sit with curled LBT for six months

right until the claim gets figured out right we're going to cover it and then fight the manufacturer so like just

cover yourself on the front side and uh for Cloud's a great way to do that yeah

so what kind of training is needed from a um you know for a company like how long does it take to implement uh floor

Cloud into a company that's a great question so um we designed it to be super simple so literally our training

takes place in 15 minutes or less we love super simple is this a plug play it is as simple as download the app and you

guys have here's the sensor right but once once these come in there's a QR code on the front so you download the

app essentially charge that and then you scan the QR code on the front and it's

activated and it's basically recording data and populating that data on your phone desktop tablet within 30 minutes

and how long does the battery last on this three month battery life um you can leave it plugged in with a cord

indefinitely and then you can recharge it within like two hours back to 100% really that's Gooding with the cord can

you hard wire it in or anything just said you can leave it plugged in you can leave it plugged in so so um I mean

you're not going to wire it into the to the Building Systems there I guess you know if you really

want to cover elri maybe yeah yeah I was going to touch on one thing Paul when you mentioned about you know showing up

and pushing back when the site's ready so one of the most common uses is um the

contractors will put these on the site like a couple weeks or a month in advance and then you're getting the

readings yourself on um really the Readiness of that property so that's

where I see the best Val I mean I don't want to go set that thing when I'm supposed to start I I want to go set

this thing a month ahead of time I mean we're doing a huge Hospital in Western

Kansas and it's going to be you know it's latter part of this year maybe even

first quarter of next year before we start but it's four hours away yeah I want to set this thing in there you know

a month beforehand or two months beforehand and monitor it myself and let

the G I mean and what how much more professional you look when you tell the GC like we're only four weeks out and it

looks like you're far outside the deal you know you probably need to be really F like the ageback needs we to get the

Building closed up you know you got a month of time you become a resource or an asset to the to your GC in those

because they don't have this not I mean they can they could but chances are you're gonna be chances are you're gonna

be on a job site that you're you're GC doesn't have it and you can provide a great service exactly that's how I look

at that's where I thought the the outside the value of like monitoring and

and protecting yourself from failures just not sending Five Guys or eight guys

four hours away just to turn around and come back because it ain't ready well you can have those conversations early

too and it makes the conversation so much easier because it's not an insolar or a company making a recommendation or

shoving the process down someone's throat or just being uh pron it's these are the facts guys you have the same

information that I have that's right um let's have a so we can fix this before it becomes an issue so on that point of

having the same data we have some clients that put their general contractor on the system so essentially

they're seeing that data so if you have a good relationship with some GCS which a lot of you guys basically have your

kind of for DS you put them on the projects it's another way to get super tight with them they get the same data

you see and it just kind of brings it all I mean that actually adds more value to them as well I mean you're you're

providing them with something that they didn't have before so you're protecting yourself you're providing a benefit for

them it's a win-win situation yeah floor Cloud's got your cover when it comes to uh you know site conditions go career's

got you covered when it comes to like video on site you know once your crew does get there shoot a link video with

them walk the job site then you got two reports you got a report that's going to tell you the site conditions and then

you got a report that that downloads out a go careera that'll give you the actual video and uh you know the visual feed

proving that everything's out there so you get them both and and you got your job sites covered bro you're

totally covered yeah totally Scott we we definitely appreciate you we're kind of getting kicked out of the podcast Booth

right now dude I'm glad you got on we were running a little bit behind I'm glad you got on here for Cloud's a great

uh great service to our industry I'm glad you guys came up with it I'm a little jealous and uh but that being

said congrats for all the success I see you guys out there a lot and uh you got to be doing something right when you're

walking up on the big LED and floor clouds on there baby right made me smile Scott thanks for coming brother really

appreciate it and uh look forward to more success for you let let us know what we can do for you thank you all

right thanks Scott hey guys thanks for for joining us this was a long podcast today even though we were late and uh

make sure you're you're liking and subscribing and giving us some some feedback we'd love to to hear anything

that you got to say yeah like um we we presented a bunch of stuff

today we would love to know how you feel about each item I mean get on there tell us about floor Cloud tell us about what

you think our approach uh with training and and how we can better uh not only

the situation from a labor standpoint but how can we work together with the

industry just even deeper right we got we your installers on here he says Derek M Daniel he said that he was uh glad to

be able to watch just live and he loves the content you know and he really loves seeing the younger people getting

involved and so do we so we can't wait to to keep the conversation going and have some more younger guys on here

shout out to Derek he's a stud looks like their get their security getting their tasers we got to go before we get

handcuffed just hopefully a take away for this for anybody watching who isn't in the flooring industry or just

starting or who watchs their advancing careers uh basically my takeway is that we uh there's a lot of different

opportunities it's not just in in there's a lot of different opportun in this indry so check into it give it a

chance yeah all right all right thanks guys well see you we're out ready next one we'll see you tomorrow morning for

the installer of the Year competition announc yeah let's