The Huddle - Episode 152 - Pass the Torch: Mentorship in Flooring

In this episode of The Huddle, our full crew — Paul, Daniel, and Jose — reunites for a conversation that hits at the heart of what builds a strong flooring industry: mentorship.

Whether you’re a veteran installer who's seen it all or a rising talent looking for guidance, mentorship shapes careers, culture, and the future of the trade.

We’re breaking down: 🔥 Why mentorship matters now more than ever 🛠️ How mentoring improves both skill and confidence 📈 Real-life stories of impact from the field 🤝 How companies can build a mentorship-driven culture If you've ever had someone take you under their wing—or you’ve been that person to someone else—this episode is for you.

Let’s pass the torch and grow the future of flooring together.

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

Simply put we're here to help you win To our new viewers welcome to the team

Don't forget forget to give us a like and subscribe you know no matter where

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guys So today's topic is passing the torch Really

mentorship So one of the big things um well shoot before I get going how's my

fellas doing Good What's up dolls We're back Yeah everyone's back together We're

all back together Jose held it down last week Thank you sir That was pretty awesome The best I

could brother I did the best I could Well I think you did great Sounds like you did great I don't know I think it's

the lowest rated episode ever The low It's been It's the lowest EP

lowest rated episode in the last week bro I know

Yeah So um mentorship I know you guys are a product of mentorship You've

mentored people You guys believe in this stuff Uh but I thought a good way to

kick this off would be just to kind of set a little framework Uh mentorship

isn't necessarily you know training from the

general aspect of showing somebody a skill That's not you know complete

That's to me a piece of mentorship or can be a piece of mentorship Uh nor is

it you know barking orders at somebody or or supervision Mentorship is teaching

others how to uh be more successful through your your experience And this

takes a lot of different you know flavors um in the skilled trades It

there obviously is a large component of it that has to do with training and um

so some mentorship fails uh to start it off nice and and crisp is in our

industry I don't know about you guys but I started as an hourly employee helper I

worked for a flooring company that hired employee installers Uh very little subcontractors at the time although

later on with the company uh they increased that Um

but hazing was a huge thing every single person that started there got you know

set up to get made fun of or had something happen And while that could be

uh a fun little thing um and I'm not even necessarily discouraging uh

good-heartedness around that but from the standpoint of doing that

um and trying to gain somebody's trust and respect is is kind of

counterproductive So I uh you know when I first started it was like every trick

that could be played hiding keys like just messing with you all the time was

the flavor of the day Uh later on um I got with somebody an older

gentleman that was not like he didn't play those games He was just like all business But this dude was the

best for for that stage of my career the best teacher mentor I could have

Teaching me how to act on a job site teaching me how to respect other people

teach me how to get my way Meaning um in flooring you got to know how to get

floor space In commercial in particular but I'm sure there's a piece of this in

new build residential and probably even residential remodel But in commercial

you got to learn how to uh sweet talk people uh and get floor space because we

take up the most area of do the floor

Yeah And so he taught me the art of like getting what you want on a job you know

getting your your floor space talking to people making deals It helped me learn

how to negotiate with people I I was 19 and he was teaching me how to negotiate with other trades um to you know hey man

if I get in here can can you come in here later And just kind of coordinating

but it's really was big negotiation to get what I wanted And um I took that

with me for forever I mean I I I got better and better and better at it And

uh sooner or later I became a really effective installer because of my ability to get what I needed on a job

get the GC I still use these skills today getting GCs to make sure that they

have the project ready all these things conditions spaces all the fights that we

know about But that early mentorship was uh was key for me It was uh and showing

me how to be a responsible uh person I think that we've missed a lot in our

industry It it 100% is and you know you said a couple things looking back and

you don't look at it like the hazing right But some of the the hazing like what it does is eliminates the

people who don't fit the culture that is already there right Or it opens up that floodgate for individuals who might be a

little shy to say you know what I think that's pretty hilarious or hey you know I'm with it Um I know we didn't always

do it the right way There was some things that we did that were pretty stupid You look at it now but uh yeah

Hazing for sure Uh that that was it And I'm very thankful for uh the gentleman

that I started with like he was all the extremes He was a professional right He

was a hazer He was a a funny guy He was a bully He was their friend You know he was everything It was it was a weird

dynamic Um so you mentioned negotiations that that right there like

art of conversation Uh that's a very important one to me

I don't know I'm I'm on the opposite side of the fence when he's talking about the guy that he started with

because coming from someone younger all that hazing made me want to quit every single day

Look at Well I I tell you what you have to be pretty thick skinned if someone's always

messing with you and you're just trying to go do your job So I I think that you

know if you're in a leadership position meaning you're a crew lead you should

you know it doesn't mean you can't have fun It just doing it with a good-hearted

uh manner is is you know you you I get it You want to see if your if your new

guy can take a little bit of rasin and such And that's all fine fine and dandy

but you also have to teach them the good stuff And you got to have the patience Um you know the the

the the mentorship that we need in skilled trades in general is

like you know one of the notes uh say backbone of the flooring industry Well I

think it's the backbone of almost any trade like teaching people how to uh act

properly but also you know like I said get what they want

negotiate teaching them the actual skill itself I mean you get better when you

teach people when you show people when you train Um many authors will talk about

this that after they write the book is when the concepts that they wrote about

you would think they're already experts but a lot of times they're they're they're really good at it They write it

down and they get even better after they have published a book about it You know

these things are the teach and apply kind of situation And when you're out

there mentoring people you're you're also held accountable to whatever you're mentoring If you're telling somebody to

be honest and you're a big liar I mean right So

that's a that's one of those things Do as I say not as I do right You can't be

a mentor And uh so my dad used to tell me Yeah I mean come on Like you know I'm

a I'm a father and a parent Someone that is true to it to an extent right You you

do as I say not as I've done I've done it all So that way you don't have to Still gonna do it get people to want to

go their way Yeah Yeah And I I think that it begs the

question of like you know how do you build a um a culture of mentorship And

and you know I think it's important to to realize that um we have to do a good

job as lead installers of of training the next generation You I I've trained

multiple installers Um one of the guys I I worked with back in the day came in today for uh to look for some work Um so

you'll be around these people for a long time Um one of the you know it's my son

but it's still a great story of mentorship was teaching him the flooring industry and how to interact with people

and talk to people since he was 13 years old And when he went to college he landed a uh a subj job uh 1099 job uh

doing student housing and he made you know between three around 300 bucks per unit and he'd get two to three of those

done a week Well that's pretty damn good money for a college kid And he could work on his own terms From a time frame

standpoint they just wanted him to get a couple of them done a week And as long as he was in that realm he could go

there when he needed to uh around his class schedule And uh you know that that

was a big help for him his freshman year at college

Yeah And he he's running our Kansas City division now And you know now he's in the position where he's going to have to

mentor people And I think sometimes you just don't know that you're mentoring someone until later on when they're like

everything just finally clicks like working with this guy back in the day And then you know one of those things

that still stands out in my head when is when I was angry because I felt like I was undervalued right And then that's

when when he said that it's like if you only work like you're worth this much that's all you're ever going to get So

it's it's not until you start you know putting forth that effort And I think that was around the the time that my

mindset started changing towards uh it's not just I only get paid you know $15 an

hour so that's all I'm going to do It's if I only work like that that's all I'm ever going to get That's all you'll ever

get Yeah that's a very good point A lot of guys think that way You know I'm

getting paid XYZ that's what I'm going to perform to If you perform to your pay

then what incentive does your your lead or your boss or your the owner of a

company have to ever move you up like ever give you an increase Um I you

because this is the huddle we use a lot of uh you know sports analogies football

in particular Uh one thing that comes to mind is remember Devin Hester with the

Chicago Bears You guys remember him He he was a return man

and a return man I mean extraordinaire He was fantastic Dante Hall with the KC Chiefs

was this way as well They both wanted to uh you know become wide receivers Not be

just because you know obviously wide receivers you get more ball time but

hell of a lot different pay structure for a wide receiver than a punt returner or a kickoff return guy Well they both

had to prove themselves in that position go play the position before they got signed to that position And um you know

it just makes me think like that's what we have to do in business and in the trade is you have to do that extra If

you're a carpet guy and you start doing LVP this probably a really bad example but

um if you're good enough to do it and you've taken some training just do it Um

and of course I'm I'm speaking from more of a out by the hour standpoint but if

you can show that you're worth more then they then you will make more But performing to your current level of pay

is uh obviously just doesn't give much reason to uh you know pass that increase

on So that's a great point Daniel I want I want to add to that a little bit and

and just so like some of the viewers out there understand that it is not just

showing up at work and doing it right It's you don't you can go to work and do everything they ask and that's it But

it's what you do at home on your own time is is what you're doing to better yourself uh that shows at work If you go

home and practice a little bit you you get you've improved for work for the workforce for your team Um and you know

sports you go to practice two or three days a week but those days that you have

off and you put in a little bit of work that's going to show You have additional swings you have additional grounders

We're coaching baseball this year so that's that's what I got to to for comparison is you got to put in some

work on your own and it will show Yeah And working hard you know being willing

to go that extra mile goes a long way Uh when you're when

you're when you show you're interested for the people who need mentorship your responsibility is show

that you're a sponge show that you're willing to be taught that you're coachable and you're trainable Um you

know a lot of times guys will try to mentor somebody and if they're not open-minded or they they don't want to

learn or they they seem to be adverse to being uh explained to uh

I've heard uh and sometimes it may be my style but I've heard that said about me is that he explained it he you know

explaining to me uh well sometimes that's part of mentorship is teaching in

different uh different ways Now that could be a a uh stylistic problem on my

part but at the end of the day you as the men mentor or mentee how do you how

how you would say that in the uh singular way but

um you got to be coachable And I that's one of the number one things we look for

when we're hiring somebody is are they coachable You have to do they want to be coached

Yeah there you go Yeah I think that that's what it is Do they really want something more than what they have or

what they are That's um that's hard to to decipher right away

right Because it takes time and over time they show you Everyone does

Everyone shows you who they really are over time is you can pick up on you know some bit

here and there but I don't think it's one of those things where the truth really comes out until time has passed And sometimes time is the past with you

not being present You know there's a gap and maybe you gave some advice or maybe you said a

couple things that really stuck and you know a year or two years go by you come back you meet up and you see the

progress Yeah And you know from a from a position

of not just thinking about yourself and what you're going to get out of it if as a mentor think uh Rand just said you

know there's no better feeling than mentoring somebody and then make it Uh there's a lot of guys that may have made

livingings because of what I taught them Um that's a that is a really good

feeling when you know that a man puts food on his table because of a skill that you were uh able to transfer over

to him That's uh that's how we have to look at it is that you're building the

next generation of leaders if you're an older guy But you don't have to be old to mentor somebody You just have to have

something of value to offer to that person I mean there's a lot of things that you can learn from a mentee as a

mentor as well right Because there's been you know some of the guys that I've talked to and they have they take what I

say and then they're like "Man I never heard it put that way before." But it's everyone has a different perspective So

it's it's that back and forth And like even you guys were talking

about you know seeing it afterwards right you're you're talking to them and then one of

the the best things for me is when you don't have to say anything to them They come to you with the questions like why

do we do it like this and it's like let me explain why we do it and then they they lock that stuff in

You know another another cool thing about it is um that when you're you know

we kind of hit on it earlier but when you're showing somebody or you're teaching someone and and you know this

uh both of you guys from teaching classes that you've learned from the guys you're teaching something like

they'll they'll do something you're like "I've never seen it done that way." And you're like "Shit that's a great way to let me let me try that next time." But

you you actually do learn and you get better at what you're teaching as you're teaching it It's a really weird thing

but as you teach something you actually get better at doing that thing yourself

It's amazing isn't it Yeah it's super cool You know funny part about that is

most of the time when I'm teaching something and it's hands-on I usually mess it up the first time when I'm

showing somebody or cut yourself or cut myself That's not what you're supposed to do guys Let me come back Let me come

back and redo this Show them what not to do Yeah Yeah Yeah

That's always That's always the line right And this is exactly what you're not supposed to do So let's start all

over and do it right So in your company when you guys were um

early on did you think about mentorship Did you have any place No

never never thought about it and then it just like I said sometimes you don't know what's happening until later on and

you're like oh I guess that kind of is and that's why the same reason why we tell people that we were accidentally

successful in what we do right it's everything has been happening by accident and it just happened that we

were doing the right thing without actually knowing it was the right thing at that time

yeah there's something to that like you don't always know that you're mentoring You're kind of you're kind of

uh just showing people but giving a good example is a form of mentorship You

don't it this doesn't have to be a handshake arrangement right It's like do

the things teach well respect the other person and think about what you're doing for that person no matter who they are

Right Chad says that choosing the correct mentor for you is important as well He's had the privilege from a young

age having a band director that taught him hard work and dedication pays off Now having two pillars in the inspection

world that were he worked close by um in the beginning of his career you know

once you reach that point in your own career it's important to pay it forward to the next

generation and 100% And I I'll still go back to he you know he mentioned his

band director and one of my band directors uh passed away when I was in like 11th grade or something like that

And we did he I would sit in his office and we would just talk And you don't

realize some things until years later you know when I look back and it's like those teachers that told me when I

didn't have I didn't think I was going to amount to anything and they pulled me to the side and was like "Dude you're

smarter than you think you are." And me just being like "No dude I'm just I'm just dumb." They're like "No." Yeah Like

the the choices you're making are dumb but you're not dumb And that didn't resonate until years later when you look

back at it and it was like man I was dumb because I Yes he was I I could have been somewhere else But I mean that's

that's life right It takes you to where you need to go not necessarily where you want to go sometimes Well we're glad

you're here because you wouldn't be sitting on this podcast right now helping others understand the importance

of mentorship if you weren't Yeah It's uh I think we all

probably have stories of like our teachers being our mentors or some some

form of that To me the the the coolest mentorships were not the ones I paid for

because I've paid hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to be mentored by I'll be your mentor for hundreds of

thousands of dollars for different business uh you know

coaching classes or courses over the last 25 years

Those are important and I would not discourage anybody from paying somebody

to be a mentor or a coach But some of the coolest ones are just that guy that

you are friends with that's a good businessman Uh in my case he was a

really good businessman and he just had these little quips in regular conversation that was

like you know gold nuggets just tossed in my wallet You know what I mean I

didn't know it at the time necessarily but they they turned out to be so valuable

Um it it made me you know one time in particular we were at a Christian men's

conference together and I was in the bathroom washing up and and he hears me on the phone I'm doing this number with

the phone on my head and he says um uh cuz I was doing a job for a

general the president of a general contractor's house and it was a nightmare and I was doing it for free

essentially for free because I was just trying to smooge up to the guy and he was like he's he he straight up said look

doing a favor is one thing but doing what you're doing is you should charge every single time first off not because

you need to make money on that certain thing but it shows them that you know your worth not that you're not free The

things you know and he he he he continued on but it hit me then It's not

like you can't do a favor for somebody or help somebody out That's not what he was saying He was saying that you know

doing doing something for free to get future work essentially is not a good

model Now I've taken that to the bank I don't care what I do for you If you're a

client of mine I'm going to give you I'm going to make you want to pay me That's where I ended up getting is like I want

to do such a good job Go over like overboard with service overboard with

communication that you want you want me you want to give me money And that's

paid dividends over the years you know and and uh it all came from a pretty simple conversation uh from a guy that I

didn't even ask to be my mentor But uh you know in 2009 I was one of the 40

under 40 which is from the Witchaw Business Journal in a community They'll do a 40 under 40 and I was a one of the

40 under 40s and uh I he went to my banquet to the banquet for it but I listed him in there

as a mentor and somebody I super appreciated and he didn't even know it until that day That's awesome Give him a

shout out and it's you know looking back you think about all the like you said the the small the short little convers

conversations where you didn't know that you needed to hear it You didn't know if you wanted to

hear it but you heard it and you couldn't let it go Right It resonated no matter how small how quick And it's it's

weird how those are the cool ones Those are those are the they apply to so much

Like they just apply to so much I don't like you had mentioned that about doing it for free There was a point when me

and Daniel were like "Dude they're not tied to us They're just going to keep calling saying "Can

you do me a favor Can you do me a favor?" Finally it's like "No can you do

me a favor?" and start calling me more than three times a year when you're in a bind

Like you know it's just Yeah it's one of those things you the you come to the realization that not you're the only one

that looks out for you And that's really where I was going with that whole thing

Yeah for sure And there's also this um you know like I was talking about

earlier you can you can pay for coaching and stuff the the value in that and I I

encourage it even though you know I'm not a coach I don't charge anybody for any advice I've ever given them Um but I

encourage it because then you have some skin in the game as the mentee Like you you've put some skin in the game and so

you learning something is almost guaranteed if you pay somebody to teach it to you right And if you're not

looking at paying someone there are some programs out there that you can actually get a mentor assigned to you

um through the a program I think it's called SCORE right Oh yeah Local one

here Yeah Yeah So I mean is that through the chamber It this one is through the

chamber Well I don't know if it's through the chamber I think it's another program that's out there that that the chamber highlights when the questions

come up Um and and then they're affiliates with the chamber Yeah So it's just um

score.org and it's a nonprofit I'm guessing because theorg but you just you

know you you go in there and you start talking to someone They assign you someone and I

mean I guess I hope that they're a good fit but I think they assign them based on your specific needs

Yeah And there's also um if you get involved in the industry there's quite a

few opportunities to be mentored as well If you uh you know get involved with CFI

or one of the training entities um there's there's typically a mentorship

style uh to that Uh there's a lot of really great guys in CFI that'll kind of

pull you along If you guys know John Steiner he's like you know one of the coolest dudes ever Um and I don't know

how many people he's taught but he's in small town what Iowa I think Yeah And he

just constantly is trying to help other other guys um either get into the

industry um or or uh you know improve their status in the industry as it is

And I think that's really cool He'll he'll leave this guy right here or send him voice messages or leave him

voicemails that are like five minutes long sometimes I know dude I love it dude I wouldn't change He loves the the

uh text mail like the voice to text Yeah I always I always respond back with I

don't have nothing to say to this I'm just sending you a little voice message so I feel cool too

Yeah So I mean mentorship can is rewarding on both sides you know It it's it's helping the other person but it is

like Wallen said earlier super rewarding when you help somebody achieve a goal

that they're they're striving for whether that's in professional uh

marriage you know relationships business jobs you know uh

kids God oh kids Oh man That's that that's the tough one right now And you

know especially when you have different parenting style as your significant other and then it's like they say

something and you're like you know what I don't I'm not trying to be his best friend right now I'm trying to be his parent And like I like I said earlier

it's one of those things where he may not realize it right now but in in you know 15 years when he looks back on it

and he remembers this moment I'm fine with that if he hates me right now

Yeah Not to get into parenting advice but I would tell you after raising two children and I work with both of them

now they both uh growing up thought you know it was like I'm I'm

trying to raise productive members of society not you know have a best friend at the

moment And man kids just they're in that zone especially from about you know our

current our current kid probably from about 14 till you know he's going to

eventually see it I think Um but my son was the same way And it wasn't until he

was probably 22 or 23 maybe even 24 before he was like "Man I I like he

actively make sure I know that he appreciates me as a father." Fingers

crossed on that one for me That's for sure That that wasn't the It was nothing like that when he was a teenager You

know he already knew everything back then Yeah he knew it all for sure and uh

you know our current children that are in the house I've got a 15-year-old and

um you know he is the same way He knows everything And I just got to keep

remembering that hey eventually it helps them be provide for themselves later

you're doing them a disservice by trying to be buddy buddy with them and not

teach them the skill of being an adult and the skill of you know I like I talk

to my kids I'm like look there's constant you'll answer to somebody for the rest of your life when you get out

of this house you're done answering to me but you got to answer to the law you got to answer to your boss you got to

answer to your customers if you are the boss you got to answer to some guy's wife who's picking out the materials

like it's going to happen You know you you have to answer to somebody So accountability you might as well learn

it now as a teenager because you're going to be accountable to somebody for the rest of your life Your wife your

parents your your children your your clients whoever And um you know it it's

funny you say that right Like you think about the the whole mentor thing and my son literally having conversations with

him right now Like dude you love me right now and I'm your best friend right now but you know like two years you're

going to hate my guts No I'm not Dad I can I said look I'm I'm just I know it's going to happen You don't yet but I do I

said just know that when you hate me because of what I'm saying and what I'm doing I'm doing it because I love you

and that's all you need to know Um and you know he's he's a pretty good kid but

pretty dumb stuff It may not be the same right when you're mentoring someone else

meaning the love piece but it could be I mean you should you know

care about the other person enough to teach them the right way of doing things whether that's a flooring you know an

actual handkilled technique or if that's you know some of the soft skills And

that's one of the places I think we struggle the most in flooring is soft skills I mentor with several of our uh

subcontractors about hiring and and how to deal with you know like employees you

know they got to hire people they got to hire helpers or part you know they they hire other uh installers and uh you know

understanding how to deal with people and do those things Um you know to me

it's it's it's not a a tough thing at all I enjoy talking to the guys but you

you're always going to have to do it Always And everybody's a little bit different

Um you know I don't ever look at it To me I've never been a mentor I'll be

honest I've never tried like the only thing I do is I just give I give opinions to questions that are asked

That's all that I have to offer and um is dealing with like employees

and people Daniel has definitely helped me calm down a lot and so has baby

sister right Because you know you kind of they're two different people as well

But when they when they're both together they both come to an agreement it's a realization that I'm the odd one out All

right let me change something try to um and I think that that goes uh with

anybody in their group as a group You're all each other's mentor right Is that what it is You're all learning from each

other Um and you evolve together And I think that the flooring industry is

doing that right now as well And you got people like John you got Daniel you

myself we're all out here trying to help someone by giving opinions and saying "This is where I messed up." you know so

inadvertently we're we're doing our best and accidentally mentoring maybe one

person Who knows It's all it takes is one person Yeah Well

and again I mean just being on the podcast you know when we first started

this I was nervous as I could be just to get in front of a camera And you know

over the I mean it's been a while but we've been doing this for a little bit now And I can't say that you know it's

not uh still nerve-wracking sometimes knowing that all your thoughts and what you say is going to be live on the

internet for a for eternity if somebody wants to find it Uh but the the truth is

is that you grow when you mentor when you challenge each other And that's what

getting involved and um you know being a mentor is about I think is getting

around other guys Um you know it's not like you have this mentor and then there's nobody around him He's learning

from somebody too I guarantee it If he's good at you he learned from somebody else as well If he's a good mentor he's

probably was mentored Um that's just the way it goes Uh oh Chad who's one of our

best friends here on the huddle he says that you know mentorship um you know

being an effective member is about patience leading by example investing your time and tough love I think we've

talked about every single one of those things It's a Isn't it that's part of the

conversation all the time right Everything always goes into some of that It's a every day is a is a little bit of

a example of tough love Yeah Every Well we talk about it with

our kids but you also have to do it with with work And it often shows through at

work in the form of accountability You know it's harder a

lot of times to call somebody out or tell them the right way to do something than to just let it slide But your

business will suffer if you do not correct bad behavior And so that's where

you know accountability comes in Our leadership team um at at my flooring company we talk a

lot about accountability and and how to hold each other accountable Um it's something that is nearly in every week's

uh you know conversation So you know that's that's part of

mentorship too is holding each other accountable uh when you have somebody that's that's one great thing about

being a an an actual mentor is it it adds this layer of accountability to

what you say and to how you carry yourself Um this podcast is another uh

you know I would say another mechanism of accountability as well I mean we get on here and we talk if we're not acting

the way that we're trying to tell people that we think is best I mean you know so

I know that for me when I'm out here talking I I I want to put the best foot forward but I also want to make sure

that I'm acting appropriately and and running my business the way that I talk about

Practice what you preach brother Yeah boy Was that um I forget the singer's name that sang

that song Jorge has joined Let's have Jorge in Let's see what he's got to say with the

mentorship What up brother Uh oh

Yeah you are No you don't have a signal right now bro

You're like AI You're like AI Georgie

It's not pronounced AI It's pronounced I

I'm gonna remove him until he gets better signal But yeah

so to me it's always uh um it's it's uh one of those things

where being a mentor you like I said earlier you probably have been mentored

and I've got a lot of people that I have um a lot of respect for that's walked me

through my career walked with me and and taught me a lot of things and I try to pass that on

Yeah his signal sucks That's Texas for you We know Well we're right in the middle

of a flash flood here in Kansas So I hope it's good there Are you safe Are

you brother Like yep Yeah everyone's safe My my my wife had to go pick up my

kid my grandchild from um from the daycare because or from school I guess

because my daughter who helps run this podcast is stuck like flooded in out of

house I mean she can't get out to be dude Yeah it's nuts It's been raining for seems like 10 15 hours straight Good

heavy rains All right

Hopefully not too much damage is done Floods can be something else I know just

right down the street I mean it was coming up to the doors on some cars So out in the country where my daughter's

at she is uh you know they ain't got great drainage systems It's just

whatever nature gives you out there And so she is probably going to be there for

for a while I like to say that it's it it dissipates pretty quickly Oh I'll

probably go get her in my big old Dodge truck and and uh I should be able to make it through

man You got to take some pictures of that Like I know it sucks and you think I should have took one earlier man I

live there We don't see that here like at the roads maybe like oh the bridge over by Division Avenue is flooded again

128 street that's really all we get and then there's always a car that tries to go through and everyone it's always like

an Audi that thinks that they can go through four feet of water Yeah there's a little town just north of us And when

I say just north I mean it's attached to Witchaw So it's essentially Witchaw But

it had flooded so bad up there cars were like the water was moving cars like

floating cars away So yeah stay away from the floods So in real world

mentorship to close this out as we're coming upon our our uh the end of our

time together as a mentor be giving right Be

patient uh and giving I mean you're giving your time and and giving though in this the

case that in the sense that you actually care about the person that you're teaching Uh I think that is one of the

things that I can do better at myself Um and then as a mentee or somebody

learning you got to be coachable man You got to be willing to learn You got to be willing to drop the ego and know that

there's other people that know things that you don't know And you're going to learn a lot if you can just drop that

ego and listen and learn And don't look for the perfect mentor

That's the other thing Don't look for somebody who's perfect because there is nobody who's perfect Find some a mentor

that that kind of fits your um your style um and your your way of comm Yeah

Your personality your way of communicating right Yeah

Um I don't know what to add to that besides that if you're going to depending on no

matter what side of the coin you are just know that you're going to hear some things

you agree with some things you don't agree with and just take it for what it is And that thing you don't agree with

might resonate with someone else later on in life that you're helping out And you don't even know that you're helping out

True Yeah we're strong proponents for uh you know the certifications and stuff

like that That's no no question And that's what Chad was saying earlier too It's you know go to the certifications

and meet other like-minded people And then I mean just just go from there Um

like you said John that's where we met all met John And then you know just the

actual instructors and the people that are in charge I mean look at Dave Garden This guy over there talks to Dave Garden

quite a bit I know you talk to him too You sit on the board and uh you know with Sunny and Paul I talk to them you

know every few weeks just to um just to keep in touch and make sure things are are going good But it's it's

stuff like that that you don't think that you need but just to have those people in the industry the same industry

that you're in to reach out to with any questions is huge

Yeah I like it get around like-minded people You'll find a mentor there that

in fact a lot of times you just kind of get adopted You you know like you're a lost puppy and and they just get kind of

picked up that you don't sometimes it just happens on accident right

So um I know a few years ago at CFI convention they had like assigned

mentors like you you showed up and you're like "Oh I was like "Oh Kelly is my mentor." I had no idea who Kelly was

And then and then I seen him and I was like "Oh I know you from Facebook." And then he's like "Yeah we're having this meeting right now Come in here." And

then he took me in the meeting And then they shut the meeting down because I was in the meeting Yeah

Hey you know what Your mentor was trying to break some rules for you That's a good mentor He's trying to get you in in

the room That's what a good get you in the room

All right guys Well we are closing up and I want to tell everybody thank you very much We still have 10 minutes but I

I personally uh just want to take a quick chance and and tell the audience

how much we appreciate your guys's participation your um affluence for the

huddle has been freaking awesome We truly appreciate it We we love seeing

you guys at conventions and and gatherings So make sure if you see us uh

you know this year anywhere come up and say hi And heck we're probably going to be shooting a podcast wherever we're at

So come jump on Uh just a quick uh momentto of my appreciation to everybody

It's been really awesome and we're going to continue to grow the channel We're going to continue to work hard That's

consistent some some weeks we have zero comments back not not so often anymore but we've endured the zero comment zero

likes zero you know comm you know interaction with something um and it's

all timing too right because sometimes you know we won't get anything during it but then people be watching after and

we'll get comments you know up to two weeks after the podcast is done so we definitely appreciate you guys still

chiming in and watching even after we're not live man hey and That's the audience helping

us and mentoring us right Because we can't answer questions that aren't asked

And when they they're asked it gives us something to talk about Gives us something to think about And and that's

what it's all about helping each other out Yeah Yeah I wouldn't have got to meet all the people Um I'll tell you

someone who is a friend He's crazier than hell but one of the guys that got me like just no matter where I was at he

was introducing me to someone in when I first started getting involved with the industry and I've been in the flooring

industry since I was 19 years old But getting involved in

the industry and then being an installer is two different things But when I first started going to like CFI convention or

I'd go to hang out around the CFI area or one of the training entities

um the guy that would always make sure to grab me and go take me to see someone was Dwayne Puit That guy would take me

no matter what He just wanted to introduce And I remember one year we were shooting live from CFI conference

and he was he was just going and grabbing that was our our first time when we did

anything live at a at an event like that It was and we tried bringing him on He was like "No let me go get you some

people I'll get you people but I'm not getting on." And he has been on once I believe since So yeah Shout out to all

the great CFI people out there all the great uh training entities AFT

NFCT Natural Fiber which is part of CFI Uh shout out to everybody Um keep up the

good work keep training keep working hard showing people the right way to to do our um you know do this business Um

it's been a dream of mine in building Go Career to to create a community where

subcontractors are held accountable and rewarded both based off their skill set

and their reputation And that's what my commitment to this industry still is

I'll continue to keep doing that trade tap is coming down the pipe and we're going to be doing some some different um

different things in the coming coming year Uh really excited about some of the changes but the skill score is still

there still doing its job And uh you know I think that accountability is is

one of the the key points I said there is being accountable like um as as an

installer we don't have anything that that we can shout from the rooftops a

lot of times and that other people understand And um I'm hoping that in the

future we're able as a community to embrace something uh where we can all build each other up and um you know

reward you reap the rewards I should say of being great installers So keep it up

there training entities You two are always you know look at look at Jose

last week running the show on his own Thank you for that That was pretty freaking awesome too Uh but uh I took a

very low vacation Oh yeah Well probably setting it up but

I know you you get in front of a mic you're just fine Yeah I had to miss last week It was my

son's last um JV ball game of the season so he was pitching

and we did not pull off the win but he kept them to one run two runs I think we

lost one to two Sweet That sounds like an offensive issue

or just a p or a pitcher duo That's all it was right It it was both I mean you know when when they put someone in your

if if someone views that as your best pitcher they're going to be like "All right well my best pitcher is going in

too." And then it's a battle of the pitchers Who could last the longest But you know

he's got the bats I got to give kudos up to that dude He did uh get pulled up to varsity to pitch So he's his season is

still going Makes him sad that he can't do his travel ball but I mean he's part

of the team They they just won districts Good job young man And his travel team just won a tournament and for the first

time ever my son and his son's team were at the same tournament and won their division Nice Boom On the field on the

field right next to each other I was on the bleachers watching my son stood up to watch his son

Couldn't happen any more perfect That is freaking cool All right guys Well I appreciate you

guys as always to our audience Thank you so much for joining us today Again as a reminder give us a like subscribe Uh we

it really does help us out and uh you know keeps us going So until next week

we will see you later We're out Thank you everybody