The Huddle - Episode 150 - Blue Collar Cruise #9

🚐 Welcome aboard the 9th installment of the Blue Collar Cruise! In this episode, hosts Paul, Daniel, and Jose take you on another ride through the world of commercial flooring and construction. From fresh industry insights to raw installer experiences, this series is all about keeping it real — and keeping you informed.

Whether you're in the field, running a crew, or managing a business, this episode brings the perspectives that matter.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode: This episode dives into how technology—especially AI like ChatGPT—is transforming the trades, from improving business operations to enhancing marketing and customer service. You'll explore the performance gap in tech adoption, learn about groundbreaking innovations like flying construction drones and steel-strong wood, and hear why embracing these tools is crucial for growth or preparing to sell your business. The team also touches on the economic impact of prison construction and the value of investing in people through training and second chances.

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The Huddle Podcast is where the flooring industry comes together to connect, learn, and thrive! Recognized as the #1 podcast in the flooring community, we provide an unmatched platform for professionals to discuss everything from installation techniques to industry trends.

At The Huddle, we’re all about driving Forward Progress—empowering seasoned installers, contractors, and flooring enthusiasts to grow, innovate, and lead in their craft. Whether you’re looking for real conversations, actionable insights, or inspiration to take your career to the next level, The Huddle is your home for real discussions that matter.

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Please visit our new website! https://thehuddle.team

what is up guys Welcome to the Huddle your weekly playbook helping you gain forward progress in your career Simply

put we're all here to help you win For our new viewers welcome to the

team Want to bring out of the gate this week to remember to give us a like a

subscribe interact with our videos and our content here helps us greatly bring

you topics every Tuesday This week's topic

is the ninth rendition of the bluecollar cruise And

with me as always Mr Daniel and Jose Gonzalez and our very good friend Jorge

What's up Georgie How's it going everyone What's going on brother Good to have you Thank you for having me

So we got a array of topics as I pull stuff up

here and turn things down Uh got an array of topics uh to go

through this week Everything from current affairs technology including we

got flying robot stories and wood that's as strong as steel and all kinds of

stuff So we were talking a little bit beforehand about what uh what we all uh

thought was really cool I thought uh you know maybe the best place to start would

uh be the last the last um topic

understanding your performance gap So it's it's kind of talking about how trade businesses and uh construction

companies in general uh have a performance gap in adapting adopting

advanced technologies and that it's threatening the long-term business value So this

performance gap is identified as the difference between a company's actual uh

results and the desired outcomes As we all know uh to go off script here we

talk about chat all the time and uh probably use chat GPT and advanced

versions of chat GPT pretty often now So uh how has that one thing changed the

way you guys approach business or I use it for everything If I think of

something I put it in there And then he makes me think of 10 more ideas that I wouldn't have thought of if I wouldn't

have have put it in there Yep I mean is it I think it's a reflex

now right Like it's an everyday thing You What's Chad say about it Oh for everybody Drag and drop and and you put

information in there and you let them do a little bit of work in the background while you start gathering more information on the next item

um you get I don't want to say you become pretty dependent on it but it's like having an assistant right

there Yeah it's pretty funny um the the amount of information that that

has and the way that it's being used how widely it's being used now is another

big I mean I know people who would not tech you know touch technology Um sorry

I'm turning off my phone ringer It's going off It's going to go off time after time if I don't turn her down time

after time But I know plenty of people who you would not I mean they don't even

necessarily use email that efficient Um starting to use chat GPT and and getting

ideas off of there I remember just a few conferences ago it was a CFI conference

I was sitting with with uh some people from the FCICA and just showing them

what a couple of bots that I had I would say trained uh hindsight I didn't they

weren't trained at all but as I have learned more but about what that really means but you know it blew them away

well I continue to be blown away by it because it keeps uh improving but that's

just one really low um kind of uh

lowhanging fruit so to speak about about the uh technology that's out there for

us to use It's because it's at everyone's fingertips and everyone can download it We're not talking about like

software that you have to pay for and everything because there's the free versions Definitely don't put your you

know sensitive information in the free versions but I mean it's out there And

the I think the best thing that about chat GBT is that you can actually ask it

what you should be asking it Yeah Well and it like Daniel said

earlier it makes you think but what another thing that chat GPT I mean it

just opened the door It's like it opened the door for all of the AI to You didn't

really hear about AI that much until Chat GPT came on board you know till it came out You didn't really hear all this

AI talk Now technology adoption is completely

reshaping not only uh construction but almost all industries everything dude Everything

goes on to say that especially among general contractors and subcontractors

that continue to invest in AI cloud-based uh platforms you guys are in

the cloud right On um with teams you guys use leverage

teams heavily Yep Yeah Um but yeah I mean whether it's moving

to the cloud uh or using AI and other productivity tools that it's helping

everybody improve cash flow reduce operational time increase profitability I know it's helped us in many uh many

forms just to draft more official like letters of collection letters things

like that when we when we're not being paid by a general contractor or something Stuff we a lot of times would

have went to an attorney and spent three four 500 bucks to get drafted I I can

give the same result which is just to hey tell them I'm not messing around that I want my money uh just you

utilizing chat GPT Yeah And also it's it's good for uh

translating over information like from English to Spanish for for me for example It's it's a bit better than

Google I would say Google's pretty good Yeah So you can use that Uh Daniel was

talking about it earlier actually and I we were talking about it and I kind of just went through it earlier and I was

like man this this is pretty good I had never used it before Uh so when he told me about it I always use Google So and

you can like be really specific too right Like hey I want it to be from this region over here or I want it to sound

like this And yep I've used it before but I

couldn't remember which one it was that I used and it was that one I' I've used it once before and I was like what did I use the last time and I forget because I

I don't use the tools as often as I should and I you know when they're there and I start playing with them then I'm

like okay that's the one I used but I always tend to revert back to Google for some reason but that one was a good one

you know too much you use it too much when you go home and you're on the phone you're having a conversation you're like

the kids are like dad who you talking to and they're somebody says oh he's having a conversation with

Chad it's like yep I sure What's up Benjamin I mean what up Ben

Kevin Yeah a lot of uh this article goes on to say that a lot of the research uh

categories into small medium and large businesses each with unique challenges

talks about lowering overhead but also it gets on as it goes on It's talking

about uh enhancing marketing operations for companies that we know like Topline

Pro Service Titan I think a lot of people know about service titan and these these firms um have found a way to

utilize the AI to enhance their customer interaction as we're rebranding uh go

Carrera and um uh moving into a new era of that we're

implementing a lot of AI into it uh we've hired a new development team which is is a AI developer to uh assist with

things like integration stuff that was almost impossible before where you know

integrating with a quickbooks or a a structure or um you know measure square

or any of these is almost impossible um to get the API the way you want it

from the the the the firm whether it's like RFMS or or job run or any of them

and uh we're utilizing AI to make that that uh integration where you can just

drop a drop a work order into from your current system right into our system and it builds out the work order and then

you just publish it So it takes away a lot of the steps and we're we're leveraging AI huge now because of all

this um all that this uh article is talking about with you know uh the the

improved um use cases the improved uh uh or

lowering overhead and improving uh operational uh efficiency So and that's why

companies like Service Titan use it You know what I mean like these care if you

invest carefully into AI systems the the risk is much lower than the reward

They're pretty cheap Um so you can get these easy tech upgrades without like

you know buying some huge piece of software And I think that's the coolest thing right And if you have

um a Microsoft account right and it's a business account you actually get co-pilot included and it's equivalent to

the paid version of chat GPT So it doesn't share your sensitive

information like the free version So if if that's something that you have already just you got to go in and enable

it and then you're you're good to go Well I didn't know that I have that

Thanks Thanks for letting me Yeah that that's why you that's why you guys jumped on that's why you see I want to

add to this right like so for everyone out there who is not adopting AI and who thinks that they don't need it I'm just

g I I share with my son I gave him a little folder for him to to progress and these are the things that he has like

he's got type chats He's got governor of Michigan These are things he's asking them Um when I'm installing parallel

should I install onto a USB drive or like these are all straight questions Airpod connection issues RC electronics

and motors uh missing air Like that's my 12-year-old son you guys

Yeah I was going to say if you know Microsoft Excel's been around for

centuries it seems like you want to have help building a formula that is damn

near an algorithm Get on chat GPT and work with it a little bit in building a

formula I've built formulas that I didn't even know were possible and I was pretty good on Excel

So and that's the thing right is you ask them like "Hey I want to build this formula can you help me out with it And

then he builds something and then you can actually take like screenshots and stuff and say "Hey it's not working." And then he'll be like "Oh my," and we

keep on calling him he cuz we call him Chad right So it's it's a thing with us and it's like you the screenshot it's

not working He he'd be like "Oh you know what Try this instead." And it's a constant back and forth until it's like

boom magic It just everything works Yeah I usually start with some formula

and say "This is what I wanted to do Here's how far I've got Show me where I'm missing And boom Like it will blow

your mind what it can do Just to continue here past chat GPT One of the

uh things this article points out is that larger contractors are already heavily invested in AI and it goes from

everything to managing the business to bidding to customer service I know

architects are utilizing it to build buildings or design buildings natively

from uh AI and then they go put their you know their their finishing touches

on it So Chad if you're talking about uh the the

really interesting part of this article to close it out to close this topic out is it says for business owners looking

to sell within the next five years understanding and closing their performance gap is vital That means um

adopting technology that will lower your overhead and increase your revenue uh by

assessing financial data peer benchmarks and industry cycles companies can better determine their competitiveness and

value Crucial for deciding whether to grow sell or step aside So if you're

looking to sell your company or you're looking to uh move into another

industry or another sector any of that stuff you've got to be really uh eyes

wide open on on you know technology in general but AI in

particular What you guys got to say about that That's 100% And it's not just

AI either right It's just any systems that you can use So I just our epoxy guys were in here earlier and they were

talking about you know submitts and stuff cuz they're pretty new to doing projects by themselves and they were

talking about um how they don't do anything on the computer They have their wives do it So I showed them how um I've

been you know making howtos and stuff with a program called Scribe And it's like step by step every mouse click it

gives you a screenshot and then you go and tell people exactly what to do and it's just building stuff like that so

that way like you say you got to have this stuff in place so that way it when

you're ready to walk away it's all the systems are there Yeah One of the coolest things you could do is have a

training platform and if you have one that's kind of enabled in some of these ways Uh we use a a product called talent

LMS and you can do videos and all this stuff uh processes procedures how to do

things how to do things in different software where to click where to go Uh when you're on boarding new employees or

you're growing your business having I don't care how small you are spending a few hundred dollars a year on a training

platform and building that out as you go You could also do that in Google Drive for example You can just um like Google

Sheets or a Microsoft product for sure You could just have a a link to an ex a

video or a link to a deal and an expla explanation That's a a poor man's way

they as they call it to do it Yeah And you do screen recording the whole

thing I'm like "Oh I'm about to you know make this invoice over here." And then it's like "Oh let me just put it into

the how-tos That way uh I'm I'm doing it already I might as well kill two birds with one stone." Yeah it really helps

when you're on boarding new people Tell you that I'm still on that old DOS

mode with the little green matrix screen and all the little things coming down

Yeah we got to get you We got to get you up to speed bro No I have to look at a lot of videos on

how to do you're ahead of most already because you are actually keep track of your income and expenses So that's

really the the first step into all this and we talk about things that need to happen but that's your number one So

getting QuickBooks or Fresh Books something an Excel spreadsheet a Google

sheet anything to track what you're what's coming in and what's going out Yeah

Yeah Well staying on the technology train even though that was a little bit more about uh how technology

um it's hard like everything is going to have a little technology feel I think but uh this is uh this next article is

talking about flying construction robots Uh they've undergone their first test in

um sightelike conditions So this new firm uh from Imperial College of London

and the University of Bristol is uh as they say pushing the boundaries of

construction technology by testing drones capable of performing midair material dis uh

depositioning a process known as aerial additive manufacturing

Essentially these they're using drones uh

to like a crane lifting materials up to

multi-level uh uh properties uh you know I don't know how big this

this is uh getting from a from a um weight standpoint but they talk about

you know that unlike the uh groundbased robots which we did an episode about the

ground groundbased robots that kind of drive around job sites and take pictures and will write up reports about uh

production from the last set of pictures that it took to the new set of pictures it's taken

Um which I thought was freaking pretty cool If you remember that episode it it was that robot that drove around and it

would take pictures and then it would say you know drywall not complete rough

in electrical looks like it's about there or whatever And the next time it drives around it's like drywall's in

electrical Uh and you can tell it things too So the somebody can be sitting at a computer programming like telling it

like we passed our electrical inspection drywall to start and it as it's driving around it's like drywall started since

electrical passed on blah blah blah I thought that was pretty cool Well this thing is like uh that's kind of what

it's talking about when it talks about groundbased robots But aerial construction drones can operate at a

height and in otherwise inaccessible spaces So like a crane can't get everywhere Um this significantly expands

the scope and flexibility of building of building operations They've also developed a ta

uh a tailored uh autonomy framework which addresses key issues such as

flight coordination uh depositioning um precision and how to scale the

technology to larger uh construction tasks So it's just fascinating Like if you

watch I was watching Terminator the other night dude And you watch that and you're like "Dude we're we're I I hope

it doesn't end up like that like the bad part of it." But from a technology

standpoint we are getting there Like that's not so farfetched anymore So when I was skimming this designing buildings

robots are designing or in artificial intelligence is they're the designing

buildings We're starting to do more building with these things It's crazy I started thinking about so when I was

skimming this uh the other day is uh of course you know old school like I don't know how many like Daniel might not

remember Terminator but right but I remember it but like Terminator and then the part of the movie the Matrix where

they have the drones are like keeping they're tending to the the

people that are in the pods but then you start thinking like old school video games

where they actually have things being delivered on on on items and and people are offloading them It's like dude I

seen the first video I've seen of them actually delivering an Amazon package

with the drones You know you've seen all the fake ones but this is an actual one and it like has a a uh it it doesn't

land on your property It stays about 20 foot up or whatever and it just drops a zip line down drops off your package and

comes back and pulls the zip line back up That's well not only to build but

there's also robots that I've seen that they can carry water and if there's a fire it'll just go and turn it off And

even there's robots that have flamethrowers I'm like that's that's crazy So one starts and the other puts

them out Yeah that's you got to sweep it before you

mop it brother Well speaking of like Terminator there's a there's a company called Partner Robotics and they offer

something called the P900 and it's a it's a robot that uses slam navigation vis visual positioning

and vibration systems for precise tile placement And so this little guy is just

putting putting uh thin set with with tiles and it's just going and and it

doesn't rest It doesn't take smoke breaks It doesn't cup It picks it up and

then just talking about this with the large tile takes talking about Terminate

He we were talking about Terminator and this dude talks about he he hears flamethrower

like I heard something about flamethrowers Mhm If anyone John Styer is the

florinator Yeah he's terminator He has too The article continues to say

that early demonstrations have already shown promise in applications like rapid

ondemand repairs and modular construction techniques The while the potential is uh

significant challenges still remain This includes ensuring material durability

uh developing reliable uh systems for outdoor environments I was thinking this

when I first read the article like what happens with a wind gust you know what I mean Uh they already self adjust Like

Daniel's had the smaller versions and it it's it's hard to self adjust when you got you know half a ton of material on

the bottom or something You know what I mean Winter Yeah winter months and all that stuff too

Yeah But anyway I thought that was pretty cool It's it's um it's just a a continuation in the

last convers or the last article but you can see where this stuff is going dude I think we talked about it when we first

started this podcast that like you'll be amazed where technology is at in a few years and here we are a couple years

ahead and it is I remember when none of us used chat GPT just on this podcast

we've only been around for a couple hundred episodes you know so I think if

back it's it's only the you know the past year or so when it's really taken off and we've started using it like

daily as part of our business operations and not playing around with it Yeah

because I played around with it a long for quite a while but it it kind of amazed me what I came up with and how

real it sounded The only flaw I see with it right now is that the you run out of memory a lot faster than you think when

you're teaching it and trying to have it reference uh uh everything that you're inputting But there's other you can

attach your Google Drive to it now and and and store and draw from that information and there's other ways to

use it to where you're not running out of storage It'll be good if it would make me breakfast tacos in the morning

The robot right That way I don't have to wake up so early

I got honey I show remember the breakfast thing That's probably already there Oh man

Yeah Rick Mor did it already bro That's true I thought what you were supposed to do is keep a George Foreman in your room

and then wake up in the you know an hour or so before you're supposed to wake up then put bacon on it and close it so

that way you can smell wake up to the smell of bacon Mhm Not that turkey bacon the real bacon

That's That's from an episode of The Office when he he burnt his turkey bacon doesn't even count bro Yo come on man

That's a party foul right there Here's some AI for you guys

Went to the moon The moon seemed like something Delta could get to if you really think about it Like you know what I'm saying Airlines Yeah Like if they

Not Southwest though right I mean they seem a little shaky Yeah it seem a little bit shaky on there Some of the

people on there wearing shorts You know what I'm saying when you get on I don't trust anybody in shorts especially at

church I find that the moon say we went to the moon The moon dude that I love

those videos That's hilarious So and I I watched the how-to on how

they do that So what they do is they take a picture you know they just the the few pictures of them and they're

like "Make this photo a prompt." And then after it makes the photo a prompt

they say "Now make it make them babies Yeah dude

I Yeah Theo Bond's one of my favorite comedians anyway so when him and Joe

Rogan start talking like babies it's even funnier you know You know what though He's not that funny live

Well maybe not He's off He's He's off the cuff kind of funny You can't I don't know I haven't seen his stand up but you

know he definitely has some quick comebacks and some odd just he'll just

come out of the blue with something like "Oh oh trust me I know he's hilarious." Right And that's why I was like "Yeah I

want to go see him." And then we went and seen him and like I don't know 40 minutes into his set I I just looked at

Tanya and I said "You ready to go?" And she was like "Yeah."

Well hey everybody has off days That's right Maybe maybe that's what it was Maybe he's having an off day All right

let's keep going here on the blue collar cruise episode nine of the blue collar

cruise Ramen said that his wife calls him a robot Ask him where his off switch

is but everyone knows he doesn't have an off switch He's been running for 150

years already That dude's hardwired There's no off switch You just got to stop his fuel He's like an old school

electrical box It's just it's hardwired in He should be the the new spokesperson

for Duracell batteries right Or is that Energizer Energizer keeps going

Energizer Bunny Yeah Folders batteries All right Now we're going to move on to

sustainability And uh this is obviously um a lot of sustainability derives from

technology So you're going to get right back into technology here In a major breakthrough for sustainable

construction scientists have developed a steel like wood by infusing it with

nanocale iron offering a renewable and eco-friendly alternative to traditional

building materials like concrete and steel by tapping into the structural potential I'm not even going to try to

say the word it Well I better try It's like

lignoselios Ask Chad how to say it Ligo cell

cellulose cellulose Yeah An abandoned plant compound found in wood Researchers

are enhancing its properties to meet modern construction demands With about a

one with about 1 point uh no that's 181 billion tons of wood produced globally

each year This in innovation leverages a widely available resource and

potentially transform how buildings and infrastructure is designed You imagine driving uh driving through the country

and uh going over a wood bridge It spans like like a concrete bridge would

They say infrastructure The only infrastructure I can think of would be bridges roller

coasters right Hey that would help the Old Town uh roller coaster that I I've rode here

at our uh local amusement park That thing was falling apart dude It needed some of this nano iron

Yeah we had the Rattler over here The Rattler at We had falling off this thing

I never got on it Never will Yeah we go to Cedar Point and they have one It's one of our favorite ones but it closes

all the time because there's always issues with it And it's wood so what do you expect Yeah And it sounds scary man

when it's it's just passing by And

that's the one We should get Adventure That one Uh I don't know if that's considered even a roller coaster anymore

because they've come a long way since that one but it's like one of the oldest wood framed roller coasters

Not unless it's made out of this nanoir iron wood brother

This says that through a cost-effective chemical process involving feric nitrate

and potassium hydroxide ferin ferah hydrate a

naturally occurring iron oxide mineral is embedded within the wood's uh cell

walls This method strengthens the wood without significantly altering its

weight or natural appearance and produces uh a material that's both both aesthetically pleasing and functionally

robust So it's almost like they're speeding up the process where you have the wood and

submerged in water for so long Right Right Where it doesn't rot

What's that In the wood Yeah They just found a way to speed it up What's it called uh drawing a blank right

now That's what happens How fast are you talking about Reclaimed wood that's been submerged for a lot of years Yeah And it

gets really super hard when they take it out and let it finally get some sunlight and dry out a little bit

Well this is it looks like it's already going They've they've already started to

uh make it suitable for like some buildings but it says bridges furniture

and flooring How How would you like to try to nail that crap down Right

Is it flammable Makes me wonder if it's flammable too If it's anti- flammable

Well it said it says it's fortified wood retains its ecological advantages

suggesting a future where sustainable architecture does not come at the cost of performance or design

versatility The ecological side of that I'm assuming it's going to you know if

they're doing it for buildings and such it's going to match the um uh flame ratings of wood for sure if

not better Somewhere between wood and steel I would imagine That's just a guess But yeah that's pretty cool dude

That is a That's wood beams as nearly as strong as steel What are they going to

do man Producing flooring out of that stuff is going to be crazy I wonder if they're going to produce the

flooring first and then introduce everything so that way they don't have to worry about cutting it right do it

beforehand and then put it but then at at some point it's like is it gonna come prefinished Because can you imagine

trying to finish something like that And the cost I would think it's going to be prefinished and glue down

Uh yeah something because Nelan threw the tongue of an iron infused wood You

know what I mean Yeah Iron infused though Like you think that that's going to have any uh bearing

on uh penetration or is it just on the deflection that it allows and how

susceptible it is to uh uh to the um uh

water rain the elements I don't know He had the elements I don't know dude Like I'm

looking things wood's already used in all this suggest it There are certain spans it

can't do and certain things it can't do because it's not as strong They they're

talking like it's going to be replacing carbon intensive materials like steel and concrete Iron infused wood could

help reduce global carbon emissions and promote cleaner construction

practices It also could potentially spur new job creation and lower building cost

Yeah What a That's like a win-win and a win You do all that You got your you got

uh your your uh environmentalists are happy People are getting lower cost

buildings like job creation There's a lot to that Oh it says red oak

Start a red oak farm huh Yeah Now's the time dude Get out ahead

of the curve Yeah Now we just got to figure out how to

grow it like bamboo Yeah bamboo or what's that other uh

arundo arundo donax is what it's called It grows like like a weed but it's super

sustainable It's used in some building materials like plywood and stuff

Oh it's above my knowledge base that's for sure Well that's what I'm here for brother bring bring that that little

that little edge knowledge All right let's move on to um

well let me ask you first Would you build a house out of that stuff if it comes out Let's do it Hurricane proof

Let's do it Depends on cost right Like is it how much more if you're in a hurricane zone You're building out of

concrete and steel Just make it nice and round Level five Come on now

Yeah Says it's supposed to be just as strong They got to start testing this stuff out Yeah You don't have you have

to put hurricane ties on your roof bro We just had a couple tornadoes over here

last week So dude we had a wind storm like crazy here last night Took down a

bunch of trees in my neighborhood Uh I I honestly thought that we was having

getting ready to pop off with the tornado I woke up about 1:00 and kicked up the uh weather app That's what we got

here in Kansas You you always got the weather app ready And uh sure enough we

were in a like what they call a hook on one of the storm systems It was hooking

around our city and dude the freaking wind was

nuts Bunch of tornadoes dropped in Oklahoma too So they just build some of these things in tornado alley and see

what's up Let's put him to the real test to an F F5 test baby Right Uh Eric uh

over on Instagram said that Japan is full of concrete buildings They got

And then over here like when when those tornadoes were over here man I didn't even wake up at all I was still at the

shop The siren is like less than a mile from the house

Doesn't matter Yeah dude You definitely need one of these then You're not even breaking up for it The

worst thing we have down here is just a bunch of mosquitoes That's it

And and 106° weather That's it We don't have any of that other stuff No scorpions

Nah not that many They're there bro They're hiding They're there but more out into the country areas like that

Rural areas Yeah Not around here We just got mosquitoes and those are they're just

annoying Hummingbird size Yeah They're pretty

big Look like horse flies man All right Next topic is

um well I'm going to skip I'm going to leave terrorists for last I think everybody's a little sick of terrorists

but we'll get into that if we have some time here We got about 15 minutes

left This is probably a little uh off the old all the uh technology uh talk

although I bet you there's plenty of technology in the prisons uh talks about how the US is uh US

states are spending billions on new prisons I know that we're doing a new prison and um there's a few we got some

pretty big uh prisons here where old Leatherface is is here in Kansas and uh

locked away Is that where he originated is in Kansas No I think it originated in Texas but we

locked him away in El Dredo Supermax and then Levvenworth and we got a lot of

prisons around here but they are bu spending billions on prisons uh could be a bit of the new

um administration but it says amid uh economic strains on and ongoing social

challenges several US states are making substantial investments into prison construction construction reigniting

debates about criminal justice priorities Alabama is leading this trend with one point almost uh 1.1 billion

dollar prison currently under construction while Georgia and Nebraska are investing 1.69 billion and 350

million respectively in similar projects State officials including Alabama

governor uh argued that these facilities are necessary to address concern issues

like overcrowding poor conditions and inadequate mental health care Yet critics question whether these costly

initiatives are the most effective or humane path forward

So who wants to talk about social because this is a little bit

leaning towards the the the social thing That's uh you know do you do you put

people away in prison All of this stuff Um I think it's

it's a little weird I'd be honest man because like now we're going from uh

rehabilitation to comfort right Like the idea of prison

is is you don't want to go there right You're supposed to want to stay out of there But now it's like how can we make

this more comfortable for prisoners and uh you know before anybody like gets mad

at me because they got family in there Trust me my family's been in and out And just so you know just so you know like

it's local prisons here in Michigan have a close place in my heart because I had to go visit many of family members in

them So but what I just don't understand like it's more of this article is

telling me it's more of a business than it is rehabbing for uh e economic growth

and you know what I mean like and I'm a

go ahead sorry I say I know there's different levels right like you have people who are serving a short sentence

people who are serving life I know that there's different levels but I think they should just have different levels and like someone who's say someone who's

a red level there should be a special place for them over somewhere else Someone who's a green who's only got a

little bit of time maybe made a couple mistakes there should be a place for them Like this is

Well that article talks about that article talks about how much it costs to just support one person that's in there

And it I think it was like 35,000 a year or something Yeah I think that's where it kind of comes out man It's it's

almost a salary Yeah people in prison more money than for the cost of housing

the the cost of the building the electric you know electric bill the heating bill the AC bill the food um all

of that stuff You know gone are the days that the prisoners actually got out and worked And I don't think they're

building too many license plates these days that kind of thing You know like back in the day you went to prison and

you also worked like you covered some of your and the the the prison In fact uh Camala Harris got in trouble for this

because she was using California prisoners u for state uh cleanup and

construction projects um and kind of got in trouble for she

got in trouble for it uh uh based on maybe the ethics behind

um turning a profit on the prisoners as opposed to you know uh having them earn

their own earn earn you know a certain part of their stay because at 35,000 a year that's not a

salary in the US but pretty close to at the lower end of probably the average

pay Maybe it's about average the average pay I don't know I haven't looked that up in a long time But

minimum wage is only $21,000 a

year I did that at 1025 an hour I think that's what minimum wage here in

Michigan is And can you imagine if everybody was just a good person and there was no

jails and we wouldn't have to spend that money on that It would go to education and other other things man Yeah Well

that would be a beautiful society I don't think we've ever been without uh you know problems in our society A lot

of this you know I I'm I'm all for humane and uh adequate mental health

because sometimes it's mental health issues Sometimes people uh like

nonviolent offenders that just steal or do those kinds of things or um they're

doing it to get off the streets and get three square meals a day Like you know

sounds bad but you're absolutely right dude I that's a fact and the the so I

think to make a meaningful impact on the on that whole thing you got to make a meaningful impact on homelessness and

that's a whole different rabbit hole and I'm an expert in carpet and flooring I'm

no expert in how to solve the homeless uh uh issue but you got to find ways to

uh even when someone's locked up they're still a human being and uh treating them

with respect and And uh you know having the condition shouldn't be like

at home or else you know it's like few places should be worse than prison but

it doesn't mean it has to be inhumane Yeah Correct I remember but they're

building the crap out of them It says the expansion of the prison system poses significant burden

uh because you're opening up they they kind of you know it's the build it and they will come kind of thing Like even a

prison you build it it's going to be full in no time And uh I think that's kind of what it's talking about So the

economics of mass incarceration demand you know some scrutiny Um and how do you

deal with rehabilitation Uh I don't know um the answers but I think some people

believe that you know having more mental health uh uh access to people uh would

be and we talk a lot about mental health on the podcast here and and how people

can get weighed down We know I mean we've had experts on here talk about it and and you can get weighed down and

make some bad decisions and so having adequate mental health uh uh access uh

could sure help um you know possibly

with the overall problem but that's just my two cents Emily says "Dang our minimum wage

in Connecticut is 1635 That's 34k a year." Yeah that's that's that's about

what it costs to house a prison Still not enough for to house a prisoner So

pretty pretty close You're almost there 17 bucks an hour probably get you there

That's pretty crazy though The the cost of housing a single individual or

incarcerating a single individual average That's just an average you guys That means there's a plus or minus right

And the only reason that that's nuts to me is because you figure say you have a prison with 10,000 people you have and

out of 10,000 50% of them are able bodies that can operate and and help

that thing operate like a machine you know Yeah Well there's about 2 I

think it said 2.1 million people that are incarcerated 2.4 That's multiply

that just at an average I know It's a lot of money Well that's why the critics

are arguing that these billions could be spent uh kind of like what you said earlier Jorge more directed towards

education healthcare and social services uh to get to the root cause of the crime

and provide a more sustainable return on investment You know people get re you

know that don't end up in prison They a don't cost society the 35k

uh B they can become productive members of society pay taxes and increase um you

know increase the return on the investment that you you spent in those those um those other areas like the

education and different social uh services and also maybe running like how-to

programs when they're in there to maybe learn something new maybe take their mind off

of of being in there and learning some type of teach them go teach them how to

do flooring right there are programs that recently came up where they're starting

to do flooring programs in in in jail systems so yeah there's been a few uh a

few of those candidates get put on Jumpstart and uh

you know I I believe Flooring Basics has done some uh Robert Varden and Puit and

um Jonath Jonathan have done some of the training So yeah it's it's I think it's

you know a lot of us need second chances in life and uh so just cuz you go to

prison doesn't make you a bad person I do I do believe that mistakes can happen

You got to uh you know having a way out is is kind of key A lot of the a lot of

people don't see a way out They only see that and the article even talks about

you know one in four children face food insecurity That's that's the early

beginning of when this this kind of like take what I need um because I need it

you know I got I need it to survive So if we can you know offset some of that stuff then uh maybe we don't have to

build such big prisons and and have so many people in in uh incarcerated So

we're coming up on the end That's a deep deep subject and we're going to finish on this subject So just so everybody

knows we're going to finish by talking about prisons how the US is building a

crap ton of them It sounds like many other states I mean we weren't even listed in there as Kansas And I know

we're building I'm doing a prison project right now So I'm sure other

states are involved You're a good boy good girl So you don't go to prison Stay out here doing flooring

That's right Learn learn how to do something productive Uh something you love Jorge is a good example of of doing

something you love The guy's always happy enjoys what he does Uh Jose and

Daniel are both the same way We're we're doing this um life thing with Florine

almost You know it becomes kind of a brotherhood Uh and uh I think it's

probably that way in a lot of different industries but flooring is pretty pretty special that way if you just get

involved So I implore every everybody watching if you're a flooring installer

get involved get involved with the huddle give us jump on comment get to know us call us uh we'll give you you

know every anytime somebody wants to reach out I'd love to talk to you and um

and uh help you get into the industry help you get plugged into different training Uh Jorge is a great resource So

is Daniel and Jose on getting plugged into different opportunities in flooring and different ways that you can earn a

really good living doing something that is with your hands uh a skill that although there's a robot that puts a

single piece of tile down uh I guarantee that thing you give them something a little more complicated like a multi-

multi-sized pattern we got a whole different issue you know Uh we're going to be around a long time putting in

floors So it's a great business to be in a great trade to learn

Yeah And stay tuned for upcoming uh we're going to be doing a couple of tours tours around Georgia some of the

facilities out there are going to and this is more for people who want to go out there and just see some of the the

products that they work with on a daily basis So we're trying to set that up directly you know through the

manufacturers so we can just see the way they want us to do it Um so reach out

We're going to probably be doing one soon in Georgia with Stanton So I know

not everybody works for those products but the people who do reach out to me and uh we're going to be doing something

soon on that So and it's just you don't have to be in in any organization Uh

it's just you know we want to go out there and check out how they want us how how they want us to do the the projects

that come along with whatever it is whether you're doing LVP LBT carpet and

we can definitely material right like you're going there you're getting a tour of how it's manufactured put together

and you might have a a better understanding like "Oh that's that's why that's why it's crooked." And then they

take out that piece and they throw it away But sometimes they might miss one or two But but no most of the time

a lot of those mill tours they'll uh back up with a right into a training you

know teaching you how to put it in So all right crew Well it was a great

episode at the blue collar cruise Thanks for joining us Uh everybody in the audience please tell us what uh you

might want us to dig up out there in the construction news What's uh what's um

interesting and uh thoughtprovoking for you Um you know I know John would love

more flamethrowers so we'll try to find some articles on uh on that for you John I want to thank

everybody for joining us this week Remember to give us a like and subscribe uh you know give us thumbs up let us

know what we're doing right let us know what we're doing wrong We'd love to hear from you guys So you're what uh you know

what makes this uh trend keep going And uh until next week we're out See you

guys Adios Adios amigos [Music]