The Huddle - Episode 139 - Breaking Barriers: Supporting Women and Minorities in Flooring
The flooring industry is evolving, and creating more opportunities for women and minorities is essential for its future success. In this episode of The Huddle, Paul, Daniel, and Jose discuss Breaking Barriers: Supporting Women and Minorities in Flooring—diving into the challenges, progress, and solutions for fostering a more inclusive industry.
💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode: Breaking Stereotypes: Addressing the misconceptions and challenges faced by underrepresented groups in flooring. Opportunities for Growth: Exploring career paths, training programs, and mentorship initiatives that support diversity. Success Stories: Highlighting industry leaders and professionals who are paving the way for future generations.
How You Can Help: Practical ways to support a more inclusive and thriving flooring industry. Why This Episode Matters: At The Huddle, we believe that a stronger, more diverse workforce benefits the entire industry. By supporting women and minorities in flooring, we help open doors, create opportunities, and build a trade that’s more accessible to all.
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hey what's up floring family welcome to the Huddle your weekly Playbook where
when Paul's gone I don't know what to say because I don't have it in front of me but uh thanks for joining us today
Paul is on a plane on his way back from one of the conventions fuse maybe I
think Ashlin said so hoping that he's uh doing all right in the in the air there
and uh she's going to be us today unless you want to join in let me know we can send a link and uh you can get in here
and start talking to us we're going to be talking about breaking barriers and
supporting women and minorities in flooring so this week is actually uh women in construction week so that is
why we are talking about this today and uh
we actually preferred floring had
some apparently there's the wrong title on LinkedIn too but I didn't make
it blame that one on Ashlin uh preferred floring had a post today you know just
highlighting Crystal and how amazing she is in the
industry she uh she's out on a a project right now over at a church that we've been working on
for a while and uh our nie ad I went over there and you know took some some
videos and some pictures of her just because how uh how dedicated she is to
her craft and and we wanted to Showcase that because she's just awesome and not
only her there's plenty of other women I mean ashin behind the scenes here is whether she she knows it or not she's
a huge part of the industry as well just with the things that she does even though she never wants to be on
camera sometimes it's hard to and have to turn your gain up again it sounds
horrible again no idea there is it loud
enough no a little bit louder boom boom boom that sounds better
there we go oh that's way up way up got that add microphone here that doesn't
work all right same way Kevin said that he can join so I'm going
to send him a link here um got H Rollin jusan all saying hi
what's up guys let me get this link sent over to
this guy so we're were you about to say
before I told you to turn your gain up I said it's it's hard to get her to to commit to try to even come on and and
say hello to anybody before before we even uh go on air she's like peace
before even put the the two-minute countdown
um but you know she's a a big part of of the flooring industry whether she knows it or
not you know I wonder how many uh other uh flooring companies or or just Construction in general have uh have
women in a leadership position and uh if if so um what are the challenges that
everybody else faces and and what can we do better as an industry to to be more inviting to
that well Helena is on here she's a strong leader in the industry always uh
doing things holding these uh week-long classes for CFI she's a she's a great
trainer uh she's definitely dedicated very involved um there's a lot of passion a
lot of passion that comes out of her teachings so if you guys are are lucky enough to to sit down and and have her
as a trainer certifier um count your blessings H she probably loves the
industry and and everyone else she teaches uh more than more than uh what
she lets you guys to believe I'll tell you that just from the conversations I've had with her
are you about to send that over to to C yeah I texted it over to him already see if
uh he gets
it sorry a little bit of a delay on a lot of this today guys we went in a scramble mode once we knew Paul wasn't
going to be
here so even you know the other day uh we we took Crystal and had an employee
highlight so she she's been in the the industry for 13 years and then it wasn't until really we got her and pushed her
uh pushed her over to compete in ties is where uh she really
started I want to say her leadership Journey even though she was on it before
then but that's kind of what pushed her into uh
actually realizing how big of a part of the industry she is even though she
didn't realize it well nobody ever really takes into consideration
let me let me take that back when you're trying to do something and you're you're on a path you don't
there's not a there's not a lot of people who openly say I want to be in a
leadership role or openly um attack a leadership role the a true
leadership role is kind of bestowed upon you and that's kind of what it was with her is that um her hand skills and her
people skills went hand inand and that's what put her in in that position I would say is more of a natural role than
leadership role um but you don't leaders are humble when it comes
to stuff like that right they'll take it and stride as it's as it's given to them and that's kind of what she did um and
you know there's a lot of uh there's a lot of comparisons uh in
construction period you know a lot of the lot of the the gentlemen a lot of the the women a lot of people who are in
a leadership role uh didn't necessarily ask for it it was kind of like oh well
you did that already no problem well here you go can you handle more people can you handle a bigger job can you
handle more complex projects um and some people rise to the occasion some people don't
um it's just kind of my little two cents on it but like Elena says you know the
passion comes from the family business that she uh grew up in herself and then through
CFI and just I think there's a that turning point in everyone where even you
know crystal says you know you start something out of a NE necessity we all started out of a necessity and then we grew into the roles that we're in now um
almost not by choice it's you you got to do something and then and then roll with
it but you know we're all here for a reason and
uh I think it's just to celebrate the women that are in the industry because
in construction as a whole uh women only make up about 10% of people in construction right
so to to be in a leadership position I mean look at Deb degraph she's in our
hometown over here at uh degraph interiors and the things that she's been doing with you know being part of the
the the board of the FCF and and you know her actually inviting people over
to her space saying hey you can hold classes here let's go that's huge in the industry so thank you uh Deb degraph for
for doing that we got Kevin on what's going on gentlemen what's up
Kevin how you doing today you might have to kill feel like feel like a novice I was making some sample boards up for a
show in my garage and I was cleaning my patch trial and as I was thinking about
how darn sharp those things get I mean l literally thinking about it as I sliced
through three layers of uh rag right into my finger yeah so other than that
lesson here lesson here is get a brush not a rag you know I sponge I think QE sells
those I only had 500 right above me but uh oh my goodness yeah I wasn't thinking
you know but anyway that's that that's that Comfort level right you get comfortable
with the tools that you work with every day you you for get how dangerous they actually are even something simple as a
tri or it's just been a while since I cleaned a patch Tri right one of the two and Rollin says that uh every every
installer's wife is part of the industry whether they realize it or not you know what he's absolutely
correct I I didn't even think about that but yes you know you I heard you mention
Elena I was actually had the pleasure to to do a class with her last week and
she's a she is she's an amazing talented uh lady in this industry for
sure sometimes yeah sometimes I don't think they people realize what they'd be
doing without or like it's just uh to take a weak block of time all the time
to to teach a class that's huge yeah
and I think I don't necessarily think she's making a career of it right but the industry is definitely uh um
reaching out to her a lot more because of how uh how passionate she
is you know speaking of other ladies in the industry Leslie Delo I was gonna
bring Leslie up too man she's a staple right now anywhere allar she's got us working
with all sorts of different individual and unions and um what we're going to be doing
build your future event here coming up pretty quick awesome I don't know if you guys
are familiar with that but uh is that the one down down in um this one's Kansas this one's in St
right they they're all over the place now but uh originally I believe it started in Missouri and that's the one
we go to but I I think this will be our fourth year and we see probably over
4,000 students that come through just bust into get educated about different
trades and uh things that are out there other than College after after high school I mean it's perfect timing for
these right for these young uh men and women and we'll do we'll do seams all
day right we'll have them cutting seams and putting seams together just give them a little taste of you know the art
and creativity in the industry and and I tell you you know the girls
speaking of the ladies in the industry the girls seams are always better than the guys seems at bu future hands down
because because uh you know guys are are built for a competitive level who gets
done the fastest they're not necessarily looking at the detail you know what I mean and women are so detail oriented
that it is kind of it's hard to compete with someone who looks at the fine detail right away
first time versus someone who looks at let me get it done as fast as possible and when they they have a finesse to it
right they really do it's just a natural act for them to to mend things where
guys are really good at the demolition part of uh the industry I feel they just want to rip into it and let some
frustration out the women installers there's a there's a there's a very
beautiful uh way they they go about it and it's a it's a you know tender
mending of of the floor right and some of the best seams for
sure you I got a question what is it what does it take for one of those events to be held what what are you
looking for as far as like a venue or something like that you know I have a I have a contact
I can give you guys because they are popping all up over other areas and the
more we can get them the more people we can educate about uh the flooring industry and how it's a lucrative path
in life and um I can get you a contact for that though but I know Nate Hall's
on here he did one in Wisconsin last year I was a booked that week so I was
kind of hoping to do one in my own state but usually we'll take along with another flooring place that has uh you
know they'll have like a booth there right they already got something set up and we can come in as a training
organization or just individuals trying to spread the word and you know bring in
some material and some tools and have some fun gotcha I'll look into that and what
was the name of that again build your future build your
future I'm gonna look it up right now so I'm a little surprised that your sister's not on this episode since
it's you know women in flooring week right yeah she didn't uh she declined
the invite actually I don't know I'm just making stuff up now another another lady I'd
like to mention since we're talking about it I talked to uh Beth Miller today this morning for a little bit yeah
for sure I mean you want to talk to somebody that you know didn't grow up in
the flooring industry such a say but man she knows everything there is about it now
um really great job with just educating herself on on the stuff that she's
covering out there getting to know the people having the right conversations
asking the right questions uh she's great to work with she's great to work
with dude I don't yeah I didn't realize that I don't think she has like a
background prior to her role in being in flooring right and the amount of knowledge that she's gained just hanging
around everyone is crazy because you know we've been on meetings with her and the way that she talks she knows more
about the industry than a lot of the installers out there well you kind of think about it
she's at she's at more educational events than any of us because I mean
that's her job to cover this stuff and and uh she gets more knowledge than the
than than most the installers out there that's what I mean and it's it's not something that she has to know like all
the technical stuff it's just things that she catches on to and grasps and I
guess that's part of uh maybe her not being in it for so for so long because
the guys that have that mentality of this is how I've done it right so this is how I'm always going to do it and she
has that fresh perspective as to where you can tell her something and it's like okay that's locked
in she doesn't know anything else now but she's she's been great she's been
great sorry about all the EX so at these um build my future events do you see
like a lot of diversity as well like like a lot of more more women and uh minorities coming through there or I
mean they're B they're busting entire schools in around that age right where they're transitioning from high school
to I got to get a job or or take a career path at uh College whether it be
a two-year four year whatever um you know the nice thing about this thing it's just all trades so
you'll see as far as women and and uh men that call my I mean it's it's it's
antire I think these guys are getting bust in so you know whatever 5050 or or
whatnot but uh you know there's everything there there's welding there electric electricians
plumbers uh just about everything you can think of and you know it's just nice
like a a a career fair um it's a career fair for the
trades so you know most likely you could probably get a job with the people that are out
there trying to recruit said that Beth used to work on cars so if you need your car fixed you
can handle it nice it's more than I can do I don't work on
cars I just work on resilient flooring that's where you call me so so how's
business going in uh Michigan guys everything uh going good up there there
seeing a pickup um I don't I don't think we've seen a Slowdown I think we've been
pretty fortunate compared to um some of the other contractors that I've talked to even the bigger ones in town I we
were at a meeting for there's a soccer stadium going up here um they're getting ready that one is getting ready to bid
so I went to one of their pre-bids and you know two of the other bigger guys in town and they they both
said the same thing you know they seen a huge slowdown but at the same time like it
was slow in the field but it's been very steady in the office as far as people
wanting work done so there's going to be a point where everyone is super busy again but you know you kind of you kind
of plan for that during the summertime every year I think we've had a couple lulls in the
schedule right but that doesn't mean that we're slow because when when there's nothing out there to
install if we have a couple days of let's call it fluff days then the guys are in here getting some practice in and
working on some um some hand skills or working with materials that they're not necessarily comfortable with uh just to
kind of get that experience under their belt a little bit so it's hard to say slow time right
like there's always something to do dude there's always something to do and if you follow like social medias there
there's been a lot of people on there that were talking about how slow they were we we were getting calls you know
on a daily basis from installers around the area like I got nothing like can you throw me anything and it's like man I'm
just I need to keep my guys busy um there there are number one priority and by guys I don't mean just
guys I mean our people do you guys have any do you guys
have any training scheduled out there in the near future uh we we were supposed to there was CFI was supposed to come
out here and there was only you know three people signed up but that's where we always tell people that it's an
investment and and you got to take advantage of these things in your in the slow time and that's what people were
not doing like it was a perfect time for people to get in there and up their
skills and it just didn't happen right and um you know I would say
that that josia made a visit down here a couple weeks ago um at some of the or
one of the the local companies and and definitely mentioned something there and
it was nice that he did because the owner who's a friend of mine um it
brought it brought awareness back to him the importance of the training and there was a lot of young guys that were there
doing the they had a training with uh one of the local Distributors uh and
joia was was one of the gentlemen um offering the training there and he had
mentioned CFI on his way out um and it always Sparks interest but the follow
through has got to be has got to be intentional and I think that uh hearing it from another installer or
another company might not always resonate as well with uh some of the the business owners but it's you know we're
trying to make an industry better and I think that he kind of understood that now versus when we were trying to
schedule some trainings here before where there's always the worry that oh
you're gonna get a training come in here and then my people are going to be available to you we're trying to make
them better for you too I don't I don't really care how you how you run it we just want to make our industry better
overall and having more consistent installs out there makes us all look better not just one company or the other
makes it easier for people to look at the um the purchase of material and
labor as an investment versus just a purchase so I want to go through a few
of these comments right Rollin says that he has a CTI certification
happening down in Florida 13 ladies going through it and this is I've seen
it on social media it's a big deal this took an entire year to plan to where it's an allom
certification that is fantastic talk about you know being
comfortable right there's no other way that to be more comfortable as a woman in the industry than to do it with all
other women especially when you're talking about very talented women right because that leads me back to Elena
let's do this one first when she was you know she finds male and female students
learn differently and are equally detail focused it's just changes person to person not necessarily their sex which
is true because there's a lot of detail oriented people out there where you can you know have a perfectionist or
something but then that's where this comment comes in right where a lot of the challenges with females in the
industry is being lowed of voice they get they spend a lot of their days being mansplain to
and you're gonna have to explain that one to me you're gonna have to man explain that one you have to man explain
that to me I don't know about you I I I didn't
see a whole lot of women you know working out there in the industry in my
area when I was coming up I feel like I see more now in the last like five years
out there in the field than I have but uh do you think that women prefer one
aspect of the floring industry more than the others that that was a question I was going to ask like I absolutely do I
I see them more heavily involved on the tile side on the you know the the
mosaics the pools you know the all the stuff that requires an an actual artist
to do I think now is that um you think that's because of the structure right
like women um I don't say women but I I I feel like they're going to be looking
more more for um a structure and health coverage and longterm for a family right
like when guys are like oh you pay me more I'm gone you pay me more I'm there um and you know and that's just going
from talking with people that I know not trying to like classify uh male or female right I'm just trying to think
out outside the box and talk to what I've observed but I wonder if that's because of the structure that the hard
surface uh provides versus soft surface well is it the structure or the freedom
because you see a lot of them and it's basically they just give give them a canvas and they work I mean and it's not
just females either I mean you look at Ken Balon he does the same thing right it's more of a trust thing and you uh a
name you built up to where people trust you with just a blank
canvas go in there and design it um I think a lot of that has to do with the women in there is a lot of the designers
that you see working with the Architects are females as well you go into a showroom and you
ask for a designer it's more likely than not that it's going to be a female and
that's where those these numbers come in where it's only 10% of the construction industry is female but then of that 10%
how many are actually in the field opposed to in a a sales position or
designer position and Elena says that that you
know female students competing programs are not having doors opened and I think
um like how do they get those doors open
for them without a because a guy can come in and
have an attitude and he's just being a boss right but when a female does it
she's being that other word that we're not going to say on air but it shouldn't be like that it should be women can be
asserted just as assertive as a man and come into places and run it and I've I know
this because my mother's this way and growing up you know the stories that she's told of going into male male
dominated fields and essentially becoming their boss and people not liking it and what do they call her that
that name and it's not necessarily that it's that it's just that she was good at what she
did I don't know about you guys but I to me it doesn't matter if somebody comes
applies for a job you right I'm looking at their past work history
qualifications I mean having somebody on site every day is way more important
than a lot of other attributes that come in a job interview right having somebody
that's going to be there and not call in sick three days a week or you know um
I'm surprised that women have a hard time getting into this field right now in today's day and age I
mean every person I talk to is looking for somebody that's gonna show up every day with a good attitude right and
that's it and they're willing to open their pocketbooks for for somebody that's just not going to cause them more
problems than then they add to uh you know the positive aspect of of job
completions right and you know Nate says that women are rare in other trades too
he remember seeing a female electrician back in the 80s and she stood out and I was on a
project this was you know we were doing a hospital through covid and there was a
female plumber on there and it I posted a Tik Tok I don't
remember if it's still on there or not but a pipe end up bursting right it was one of the the main water lines and
every every plumber there they was like she was the scapegoat everyone just blamed it on her automatically and I
don't even know if she was the one that actually worked on that but it was like anytime you talk to someone they were
like boom it was her fault that's that's just sad right there
um you know and it's accountability too right like everybody's I'm sure that if it was her fault if she would probably
be the the first one to say that's my bad um
and for that to for that to be every everyone's scapegoat that's just that's that's sad from um from any any person
male or female you just just accountability is huge um and no wonder why women only make up 10% and whatever
percentage it is in the the workforce no wonder no wonder why it's so low
down for a little bit oh your boss right there that's my boss yeah
sorry um you know I just recently took a mill tour
and there was a lot more women in the in the mill than there was
men I believe it I mean it's a f Factory type setting I'm sure right
production line type setting oh they're run massive Machinery some of them on the front
lines I mean you ever see the video from nfic and they're just like yep throwing
that needle retting reweaving Yarns into into the carpet that were flawed or C
caught somewhere it's impressive man I mean quick quick so Elena says that you
know saying one thing but when it come comes down to it people have a preference and will hire off that
preference and that's what we talk about all the time is um the unconscious bias that people have whether you say you do
or or you do not that's why it's unconscious right and there's things that you there's
programs that you can go through to actually realize or you can just sit back and and take a look at yourself in
general and realize that you do have unconscious bias because we all
do but it's 100% it's being able to look past that and being like you know
what I mean at this point we all need someone in the field right so it's like
let's hire anyone we've actually tried to hire a few females before one of them was like Hey I'm we were like all right
let's go she was like I'm gonna just drive to the job site in the morning can I take these tools with me we were like
heck yeah let's go and then she took our tools and never showed [Laughter]
up oh I'm sorry real real talk that really happened I I was like
wow I guess we just lost a pouch full of tools and some knee pads and they were prones
too tell you what Joe Rogan that's all I could think about
like really what you get what like what what are you gonna benefit from that um another time is we we we
found um this young lady who appeared to have really great work
out but then ended up moving away like very like the next week like oh my family's moving to Florida
now talk about another P another woman in the industry that's a rock star right
here why not have a female on the show Jen if you want me to send you an invite
I will let you pop on right now I think this is just something that uh I was just going to ask you this is probably
the worst show for me to hop on like you should have had we we know so many women in this industry that could just make
this episode pop but I'm sitting here at a standstill like what do I got to say about this we should ask someone women
we're all these I think we're the cheerleaders for these women to be honest with you and that's that's rare
to see is guys on the other side saying all these women are better than me like
when Jen uh when I first met Jen it was at the first CFI convention we went to right and she started talking all this
technical stuff and I was like she knows her stuff man like she knows more than I do
and she's she's been rocking it ever since she can build some modules some
training modules she's an Allstar I want to push back on what you just said there
is no bigger compliment than for your peers to mention you and to talk about you and to build you up right even when
they're not being asked you you all three of us here know a lot of women in the flooring industry and we know the
things that they have done and I think uh from from the perspective of what am I doing here is you're here because you
know some some women in the Florida industry that have made an impact on the industry and on you and it's it's up to
us to share that information regardless if they're here or they're
not but I mean you know it's women in construction week it's women in construction month um but not only that
you know this was a a two-p parted thing where it's not just being cheerleaders
for women but also um you know shining a light on some diversity and you know
talking about J Jesus Jose everyone that gets on on the Spanish side of the
Huddle um to to let them know that you know they have a voice as well and it's
it's not just women on this episode and it's kind
of been that up until this point but I do want to you know say thank you to hodad and everything that he does um
because I can't understand it so I just have to I just have to trust that he's talking about flooring and stuff when
he's on on the hudle and espanol I don't know what he's saying but mean it sounds good I mean I watch I
listen to the shows I'm not I'm not quite sure why because I don't understand the darn thing either but uh
I still pretty good though it's got good energy that's all that's all it is right
the energy um you know and and you know Daniel's right as far as uh minorities
right it's not just Hispanics right it's it's all across the board minorities just um anyone with an ethnic background
that that can be traced back to to not starting here in the US I guess is is really what it amounts to um whether
it's first generation American um or or second or third I mean everybody started
somewhere somebody had a vision somebody had a dream and they ended up here and and now they're making a living and you know the the floring industry is very
inviting to whomever um wants to put forth some effort to to make a good
living you know the nice thing about flooring is it's not seasonal
right you know it's got great design and creativity it's got an outlet for that
for your art um I mean I I enjoy I enjoyed it man 30 years
in this industry now I've enjoyed every of it dang 30 Years bro holy smokes we've
been in it for almost that long too it's a long road Kevin you look
younger than I do so you're all good and they they they are mentioning
Susie nambo right here too she's awesome every time I see her she's
excited just seeing um the trainings that they've been doing lately they they've been having some pretty pretty
big classes their classes always have some good numbers they bring a lot to the you
know a lot to the field a lot to the uh to the table between the two of those uh the
nambas man there's so much knowledge packed in there and and that's where I I you know
talk to CFI and tell them that they need to start announcing what instructors are
going to be there that way way people are more apt to sign up like if someone
knows that you know Jen zern is going to be there suie Namba John Namba if
Kevin's gonna be there hey I'm gonna go because I want to I want to meet these
people that's a good idea you know it's a good idea we'll have to
uh we'll have to throw that out there speaking of we got an NFI we're GNA have
an nfic training coming up so anybody interested and uh getting that
certification we're going to have one coming up down in Fort Wayne Indiana myself Tony
buckhart I'm not sure who else is going to all be there but
uh when is that training we had it scheduled we had to push it
um it'll probably be early early spring at some point here but we'll be we'll be
not too far out not too far out I think we had it scheduled for the 20th but it was just
way too way too soon so we want to allow some more people to get signed up it's good
location okay Jen I need that date I gotta we got to get that date but
uh we'll get Jen that date and she can share it with everybody yeah I mean and the people
that are on the fence um if you want to go to this because I I'm not going to
lie I was on the fence I was like I'm probably never going to be working with any of these
materials and then we go to this class and then guess what we get a wo job and
then guess what I figured out that the last W job we did we did not do correctly so and you got to be you got
kind of gotta let yourself know that you don't know everything and there's a lot of
information in these classes man like you know can I yes it did it look good
the first time no I still need practice you know the the thing about
nfic uh class is that even if you don't plan on working with wovens ever right
or any type of natural fiber it will strengthen your skills as
an installer tenfold just by working with those types of carpeting right um
um you know I never used to do outside I never used to sew outside corners I got that knowledge it's a no-brainer every
outside corner should be sewing right it looks way better I would have never known that and even if I never worked
with that type of carpeting again after that class I still walk away Way sharper
of an installer with so much knowledge gained and the ability to go to or even
have the courage to go take on a job like that after that certification right there's been a few
times where people got a hold the bus right and they're like hey I got this
carpet they said that I need to go to this list of installers you guys are the only ones in the area can you come do
this or you get a call like he got not too long ago where hey these installers
walked off the job can you come Salvage this mess and then you go in there and there's all the wrong pad
down you know as Nate said too you know you get your uh you get your name and location listed with these big Mills
right that's you know some of these guys require that certification and we all know somebody
I'm not going to put his business out there but just got a very pretty big theater okay off of just being an nfic
installer in that area you know and it's just a domino effect from that job you
know another job just came so right it's not just it's not just C or nfic you
know CFI by it's NCT um nwfa listed you're listed on all
these sites man and then people can actually go find you if they just search for someone in their area you're going
to be the one that they're looking at well the public is getting a lot smarter right they're they want to make sure
that their their dollar is not being overlooked and and that there's long-term value and and their investment
and you know you don't there's certain things you don't take your you don't take your car uh to any hole-in the wall
mechanic right like oh it's got one Google review like you know no you're gonna take it to a reputable mechanic if
you have a transmission issue or something like that you just you don't take it anywhere right you do a little bit of research and make sure that
you're going to someone who's reputable who who's got a good track record and who's got the um accolades who that
shows that they put the work into their craft you don't oh you don't take it to Jose on the weekend hey I could do a
transmission I can't I I can but I'm not going to do it right I must stuck the linkage on the
first one I ever did by myself well but yeah I mean you there's
there's value in it for sure I mean I know we guys you guys preach that every week but yeah and I mean wouldn't it be
awesome Jen I know you're listening to get an all female certification going
for like CFI or nfic and doing the the same thing that
they're doing on the tile side that would be amazing but how do we draw in people because a lot of the like we had
um a couple come in last week and talk to us and it was you know there was a
language barrier so we're it kind of covers you know the the minorities and
the women right because she was translating he didn't speak much well he he knows English he just doesn't like to
speak it because he probably thinks it sound funny the same way I don't want to speak Spanish
but it's like there's a lot there but they just don't know where to go so how
can we make it more comfortable for them to get there and I told him I said never
you should never feel embarrassed because you don't speak a language you should still be in there trying to see
where you can fit in because even though I don't speak Spanish I'm still willing to work with you because that's
every every industry needs them workers right
now we got to we got to make it so that way everyone seems comfortable coming in
and just talking regardless of their background or their sex you know just
come on we need you let's get in here and do it especially on the certification side because I mean there
we we all see it we're all in it how you could we could have way more instructors
out there even and and still not teach enough people to uh to be comfortable
within our our lifetime I
think Certified mechanic working on your vehicle who do you want working on your floor if you look around Facebook they
just want the cheapest person yeah that's Facebook
though they're G they may try and hold of all women technical certification at
convention needs to be taught by all women
certifiers yep Jen Susie Crystal let's get everyone in there I I think it would
be way smarter to hold it before the convention that way you can attract more people to the convention bring awareness
to the convention by hosting it prior to don't don't use it as a gimmick to bring people to the convention right do it
prior to then you get more traction for the convention right because I mean Jos mulad has been doing traveling around
and Jesus you know doing the Spanish side of things which is awesome because
um you know just like the the hudle they seen that need as
well right where it's like they're here already let's just cater to them and
then that'll get them over here and it's like it's it's just that language barrier they they feel uncomfortable so
they don't even want to ask someone about it and then the carpet guys in Michigan
is having another five week in April she's bringing a young lady to the class that helped on a job recently
that's awesome very nice yes it
is now for that class that that five week class are there are there any type of programs that that help offset the
expenses for that I believe that's where FC comes in the Floor Covering Education
Foundation I believe you are correct so she already completed welder
school had no idea about uh flooring was an option she would she would have saw
it first I mean you don't know what's out there
until you come across it so maybe we got to do better as an industry for for advocating for our industry and and
maybe getting the word out uh making sure that everything's
intentional and I think like this group here that we've got you know Kevin does does a good job
on on his end and on drawing people in and we try and do that on our end
there's Wi-Fi scholarships for women you know and there there is a lot of avenues
out there it's just how do PE how do we as a trade get a seat at the table with
everyone else that had you know when they they think about getting into a trade they their brain automatically
goes to someone who kind of is certified right you're looking at electrician
plumber um they don't necessarily think flooring
until you tell them that's what you do yeah I mean I stumbled into this you
know most guys I I I took a uh what was it it was like there was some type of
valuation at one of these shows and they said it was such an out outrageous
number of people that are in this industry are because of family so whether it's like the dad was
in the flooring business brother whatever I mean when I heard that number I said there's no way right whoever
whoever did this must been must have calculated this wrong because it was such an astronomical number but U it's
family right it's family um it's it's one of those trades were like you said
you stumble on it right but then it's a it's an inside secret you can make really good money in this
profession in the flooring industry it it's just might be a little bit harder than what most people are willing to do
uh but it is very gratifying at the end of the day you know the problem I think the problem lies in the fact that you
know there was floring installers didn't make a whole lot of money compared to some of these other other trades right
at one time I'm not saying that's that's the same today I think that's changed quite a bit but you know years ago
trying to get people turned onto this industry if I'm telling a young guy hey you can carry this roll of carpet up the
stairs and I'm gonna pay you five bucks an hour let's say and the electrician guy that's carrying a you know what I'm
visioning is like you know roll of wire and a screwdriver in to switch out stuff
and he's getting paid 10 bucks an hour um that's how I saw it I mean I when I
first got in this industry I felt like I felt like I was getting punished for something I'm like why you know I'm
sitting what am I doing here but uh till I got educated about what the flooring
industry has to offer and there's so many different Avenues and paths you can take in this
industry that uh you know once I found that out you know it's like it was great
but trying to get trying to get the word for sure to get these guys in there that's that's the problem trying to find
organizations like build my future you know when other what other chance do you have to speak to 4,000 students ready to
make that decision in their life of what direction they're going to they're going to go right and I mean just the the
progression of actually getting somewhere in the
industry I think is where we're lacking because there's no clear guidance from you're going to start here if you learn
this in six months this is what you're going to do and then you're going to bump up and then and then another six
months you know and that's what we talked about it when um we had my electrician friend down here and that
that's kind of what they have it's like every six months they they hit a milestone and they actually have to take a test and prove that they know what
they're doing in order to to move on to that next step and that's kind of what we're missing on this side and I think
that's where you know Paul is um trying to bridge that Gap with go Carrera and
actually you know the the rating system where it's all right this is where you're starting and then you have to
progress and doing these different certifications and trainings is how you
get there and I mean all of us are kind of examples of that right because we
didn't just sit back and be like oh I know enough I'm going to uh just keep on
coasting it was that that thirst for more knowledge and saying what don't I know where can I move
to I mean just just look at your yourself Kevin I mean you've you you're in a a pretty good spot over there at
QEP and congratulations on everything you've done man I mean a lot of people don't just look at you and be like you
know you used to be an installer and stuff like that they're like hey this guy's over here running stuff so I mean
kudos to you for for being in the the position you're in and actually taking it as far as you had because I don't I
don't think a lot of people come into the indust hisory thinking that that's where they'll land eventually I don't know if you did or not can you can you
you know just kind of go I I we never even really you've been on before but
can you kind of give us uh where you're at right now and how you how you got there just real quick yeah uh so I'm the
director of Technical Services for QE and Roberts now um going on my seventh
year with them started off flooring laying carpet for a high-end carpet uh
inst ation house um basically as a
teenager and just got introduced to CFI actually um got it got introduced to Mr
Walker for the caristan I was my first certification we were laying a lot of care stand my boss was really at you
know wanted to be known as the best around and so he wanted his guys to be top-notch so he start sending us to
everything he could CRI uh caristan we got into CFI
early um met Jerry Miller you know guys like
that um motivated me in different ways whether it been failing me on something I didn't do properly or didn't know at
the time and pushed me harder to come back or just you know being there and being a role model kept pushing me right
and you know if you work hard at something and you gain that knowledge and you put the time in and uh you know
good things are going to come out of it but I mean yeah I mean I knew at a I knew probably in my late 20s that you
know I kind of had started figuring out this the flooring industry and how much money was there out there to be made and
how to make it and the things the tools I needed to go out and acquire to do so
and you know you got to Market yourself too right just because you're doing all this stuff on the sideline if you're not
selling it right if you're not selling the fact that you went out there and achieved this or got that well you know
how are you going to ever make money or how are you going to let people know that you you're you're qualified or and
have uh all this knowledge and certifications to back it up you got to be able to Market that a little bit um I
think I did that pretty well coming up so you know there's a lot of opportunities out there I mean this is
multi-billion dollar industry right every everywhere there is is floors
There's jobs of every shape short shape and fashion in this industry you know so
you can really find something you enjoy I mean there's there's something in there there's that many jobs there's something in there and there's J there's
great jobs for people that are that that have gone out and put the work in and have that knowledge and then the real
life experience to back it up that's priceless right times are most valuable thing you have and that's what you
dedicated this industry to so
yeah lost Daniel that's all right I must have B
been boring him yeah but you're absolutely right there there's um there's more than just installing in
sales in flooring stor there's sales there's manufacturing
there's design there's uh you know management there's HR there's I mean
there's there is so much so many different Avenues you can take in this industry uh you know I'd Point anybody
at the flooring industry for for a way of you know finances throughout their
life for sure yeah 100% And I think I think you
know to because I know we're running out of time here we're we're over a little bit but
um the the flooring industry has a lot to offer no matter what Walk of Life you are male female whatever pronouns you go
by there there is a if you want to be creative um if you want to have a
structure if uh you want to have freedom there's a spot for you in the industry
somewhere and and we just got to figure out a way to uh uh showcase that um and
it's it's gonna be it is it is long journey I know that the journey started years ago but um in order for to bring
awareness we we all got to work together and and see what we can do to uplift and everybody do just a small part um really
all it's going to take sounds
simple it is simple right and what it
sounds simple but not easy there's nothing easy what's what's
that saying you can have you can have three things you can have it fast you can have it cheap or you can have it
good but you can't you can have two of them but not all three of them yeah it's good if it's if it's cheap and it's good
it's not going to be fast if it's fast and it's cheap it's not going to be good you know same
thing um but no I mean it's a journey you know you got to work at
something every day to get somewhere but nice thing about the flooring industry there's so many opportunities out there
you just got to keep keep keep pushing forward it's you got to keep on learning man that's the only way to put it it's
if you're not man I learned something so cool last week I'm like I I've been
itching to like I came home and I got carpet out and started messing with it because I wanted to like I wanted to
have this down right but I saw it from Kenny miles taught me something and uh
man unbelievable it's so cool right I'm like it's it was his technique that he
came up with years ago been using it for years I've never seen it anywhere right
but that's the kind of stuff it gets you excited that takes you to the next level right now I know I can do something that
probably most people never even saw right and I mean I'm the same way I was
at a doing a certification um in Ohio and one of the the guys in there was like oh I you know tilt tilt my tip this
way when I'm welding corners and then the next time I was welding the corner I was like I'm GNA try that and I'll never go
back yeah it's just learning learning something new every single day making
sure that you got to be humble and know that
you don't know everything right those yeah that's those guys that
come to your class that say you know I know everything I've been doing this for 40 years my company's forcing me to be
here man those guys are done right it's that kid that's just showing up every
day half hour early just eager asking to use something or asking to do something
different those are the guys man get excited about right those are the guys I want or women right either or that's
it's the attitude it's that it's that desire to to succeed and and strive for
excellence right that's what it's about thanks thanks for coming on with us today Kevin I know we probably should
have got a female or minority on here I mean we are minority so I just felt bad for you since Paul wasn't there I was
like I just talk I didn't know what we were talking about I just hopped on I we
needed a white guy on here to be the minority on the podcast and Ash says that she's she's a
minority and a female and she's still not gonna get on here so thanks
Ashlin all right guys thanks for having me yeah we appreciate you um Robert's Q
you know in the house all the time and we do we just like like Rin said you
know shout out to to all the ladies in the industry um from the the installers to the office
staff that you know there's no nothing that we can do to to thank you more than
what what we already did I mean I probably could but there's no denying that without you
you guys helping we we couldn't do what we do right and you know the the shout outs that we had earlier you know we had
Jen zern Elena on here we talked about you know Leslie how huge she is
Crystal uh Beth Miller uh Suzy Namba it's just the list goes on and on and
then you know J Jesus Jos for you know putting up with us and doing the Spanish
huddle and uh it's just getting everyone's voice out there everyone's a huge part of the industry and whether
you know it or not you know just keep on doing what you do because people are watching and people love seeing what's
going on and and keeping the diversity in into the the workforce because I
don't think it's going away anytime soon I mean there there's so many diverse
people in the industry we just want to to cater to everyone so um if if you like our content make sure you're you're
subscribing you're sharing uh we just want to get the word out there and we we thank everyone for for being a part of
this it's not just us up here talking it's it's a collective without you guys
we'd be nothing we're also listening guys we're also listening so yeah like there's anything you guys feel that we
need to talk about or any issues that that need to be addressed by all means drop us a
line and if you need anything gentlemen Roberts and QEP hit Kevin up he said
that he'll give you a discount I can't we don't know what percentage yet but that's right that's right it might
be zero but at least it's something at least you get to talk to Kevin you get my time how about that hey that's that's
all someone needs sometimes but we definitely appreciate it thanks for coming and remember you know Roberts QEP
leader of you know helping education out man we do this because we're we're trying to help the industry so take
advantage get out there I don't care who it's with get out there you know push
forward succeed that's why we say forward progress man it's right in it's our tagline so thanks everyone and uh
we'll see you next week
