The Huddle - Episode 153 - Training that Sticks: How to Build a Culture of Continuous Learning

In this episode of The Huddle, Paul, Daniel, and Jose dive into what it really takes to create a crew that doesn’t just get the job done—but gets better with every job. We’re talking about building a culture of continuous learning in the flooring industry, from mentorship and onboarding to training that actually sticks.

If you're trying to scale, train better, or future-proof your business, this one’s for you. 💥

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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 guys win Our new new viewers welcome to the

team And for the guys on this call welcome back fellas What's happening

How's it going How's it going Paul Got Jorge and as always Mr Daniel and

Jose Gonzalez out of Grand Rapids Jorge you're in Texas Where at San Antonio San

Antonio Jorge Uh extraordinaire

Perfect weather right now Is it Yeah It's pretty nice up here in Kansas City Um I'm up at our Kansas City this uh

office today so little different scenery

for everybody Please give us a like subscribe give us ideas for your topics

and uh keep keep that uh algorithm churning over on YouTube and Facebook

and on wherever you watch this podcast Let us know you're listening Get on here live and communicate with us

Let us know what you're thinking Today's topic is training that sticks It's kind of a continuence from last week's

podcast but uh we're kind of going to dive into building a culture of

continuous learning And um so like I said if you was with us

last week this is going to be a little bit of a continuation of that Um

uh you know building a culture of continuous learning Uh as you can see

two of the guys got CFI shirts on and uh no better place to get trained and

certified than CFI if you're in the carpet vinyl uh arena Uh they do some

ceramic tile training but they're really were uh I should say we are really strong in the carpet and resilient world

So uh our episode is sponsored today by Shag Tools So you'll be seeing a little

uh info from them Reach out to Shag and use them Buy some materials buy some

tools buy some stuff Make sure they know that the uh huddle sent you And with

that we'll get started So gentlemen continuous learning uh training those

are things that we talk about all the time on this podcast and how important it is I'm sure that people think we're a

broken record because it always comes up but the truth is it's the only way that

we are going to get better Um I uh we'll go around and and kind of talk about

some of the some of the successes and failures we've had in both maybe being

trained as well as uh you know last week we were talking about mentorship Um but

being trained or uh you know some we I'm sure we all have been in this long

enough to have a few horror stories of training others and uh some of the difficulties there but you know there

there's no replacement for it Uh if you learn from a friend on the job doing a a

skilled trade there's still no replacement for for ver like industry

training Um I know that a lot of people think they don't need it I think Jorge

could probably speak up here I'd love to get your guys's take on that The the the

people who you know just kind of learn as they go and

go to or think they know everything already Yeah And they go to their first

training And I've heard this from just about anybody that's went through

their first certification or their first training I should say their first class their first course Um Jorge did how did

you do um let's start with you sir when you you weren't CFI from the beginning

you didn't come up and uh you know be in the industry for three

months and say you know what I'm going to go get CFI trained Is that how how did your career get going

Well I've always done flooring with my father and uh he learned off of other people um throughout the years He was

never certified until we ended up getting a certification through Lowe's And uh I'm one of those guys I came

through Lowe's right Some people always say "Oh the guys from Lowe's." And there's very few installers that are out

there that are actually good really really good and and clean and do things

And yes they work for all kinds of entities right Uh but I was one that stuck with it And in 2013 we got our

certification Robert Varden and Jonathan Varden came through at that time with CFI and we got our certification and you

know we had we had clean installations Uh I would still read all my information from the CRI uh info and uh I would try

to follow it as much as I can Um but yeah once they came through um we

learned a bunch of stuff through them went through the training process and uh scored pretty pretty pretty well and uh

after that I didn't do anything for a long time Um I didn't do end up doing anything till like COVID I got back on

track with CFI and and stuff for a while I just it it wasn't in my my my agenda

to seek out CFI for anything because I didn't know there was anything going on at the time Um so after COVID I said you

know what let me go back on online LinkedIn Maybe I need to find another job And then when I was looking on there

I I found uh people from CFI doing training stuff there was a lot of free classes uh courses for stuff online not

through them but through other entities where you could learn a bunch of stuff at home during that time So I just

started networking and getting back on it And uh one thing that I had a challenge was on a lot of the natural

fiber stuff I was getting a lot of the natural fiber stuff and I really was looking at it the same as regular tufted

carpets regular uh standard action back stuff soft bag But once I got into the

natural goods I was a little bit lost And that's where I started asking the questions later during that co time Uh

just how do I do this How do I how do I be better at at cutting the seam And uh

people like Chris Cessum were people that uh I reached out to and uh they were real good at just giving feedback

and just telling me "Hey you know what You need to come out here and and learn some of that stuff uh through NFIC." And

eventually I ended up meeting all you guys all you cool guys at convention and that's how it started So it it took one

person to let me know hey you know maybe you need help somewhere in in in this section of your of your work and and you

know this is the the way to go about it Yeah that's did you did you have that uh

eye opening moment as well during after your first training like dude I actually

learned some stuff I kind of thought yeah I was like man I actually I learned something and I I I was like man I

really sucked at doing that seam that a couple times and and you don't sometimes you don't know because you don't get the feedback The the clients will just never

hire you again And you don't you don't know if you did a good job bad job Of course in the beginning they're going to say "Oh great job." But what really

happens to that carpet after years you know 2 three years down the line somebody vacuums it Maybe I didn't seal

it correctly I didn't do the right process And you know some of these things you don't hear later on but it was an eye openener for me because I I

realized I'm I need to do things a little bit different to make That's a really good point That's a really good

point talking about you know how customers and frankly

you know how customers will will deal with those things If they're not completely satisfied they just won't

hire you again So you don't get that that immediate feedback like you do in training Hey that's not right And what I

was going to say is frankly that you know that the install a lot of times can be done incorrectly and still look good

day one through day 60 I mean like a lot of uh the problems

that we we had when we back when we did a fair amount of residential

uh we would get calls to go restretch people's jobs and it'd be only 6 months

ago that it got installed or a seam's coming apart and it was just installed

Well they they didn't find out until they did their first steam cleaning or their first hot water extraction and

then all of a sudden the problems Well a good quality st you know industry

standard like proper installation that a cleaning is not going to hurt it

Uh it actually helps it you know Um but if it's not installed correctly a cleaning can cause problems And um

that's a lot of what I seen And we don't do a lot of uh residential now but we

had a stint there back in the early 2000s We did a fair amount And that was

one of the uh one of the things that came back And so I wanted to point out that your customer is not it's not a

good way to learn going out and getting uh you know a happy customer because a

lot of times they don't know what they're looking for and they don't know the problem's going to be there for you know months if not a couple of years

down the road Yeah It's funny you say that about the rest Sorry Go ahead bro

Oh it's funny you say that about the restretch because I just uh picked up a a custom builder and uh a couple years

ago and I've been going back to do the restretches on some of the homes and I did one recently and the guy was like

"I've always gone to a home that already had carpet So I've never experienced an installation where somebody came at that

time and installed something and they didn't use that thing with the poles that you're using and they just used their knee and they were so yeah this

guy had big ripples in his carpet and they were starting to crease and he goes "I don't know what to do Should I you

know just change out all my carpet?" I go "No." I go "Your carpet's six seven years old." And I mean he makes that's a

family that makes you take your shoes off when you get in that home So it looks pretty much brand new the carpet

And uh I was like "No I'll stretch those wrinkles out." And your whole house it was like 1,600 ft upstairs right

everything connected and we ended up taking the ripples out and he was just wow it looks like it's brand new again

and uh I was like yeah somebody just didn't do what they were supposed to and I go you do you clean it you're you know

because some manufacturers require for you to clean it so many times a year due to warranty purposes maybe um and he's

like no I've never really done anything because I think the water might hurt it and I was like wow it looks like it's

fantastic for that those stains or anything yeah so um yeah something as simple as Maybe doing it while the

carpet's ugly like that and unstretched and wrinkled might hurt it But once we

stretched it out with a stretcher I mean you can clean it and do whatever you need to do and it should be fine If it keeps on doing it after that then it's

going to be a manufacturing defect because I stretched at least two inches

out of it in some spots So or damination or something like that You never know

right Something Yeah Yeah that that immediate feedback on training is like key That's key to

learning Like no that's not the right way to do it Do it this way That's automatic feedback And you just don't

get that from from the field a lot of times anyway unless you have a mechanic

right over you or a master installer that you're working with and know that's teaching you you know and there's plenty

of those people that were came up and and learned on the job and do good work

but there's always something you're going to pick up at training Always 100%

accurate And I just wanted to add to what Jorge or was saying about uh the

I didn't hear anything from the clients right And you know you hear it a lot no news is good news right Sometimes

sometimes that's not always the case Like and this is a prime example where

no news probably not good news That means that they didn't tell anybody how well you did That means that no one's calling you

saying "Hey I my friend's name is Susie you did her flooring and she loved it

And so I'm calling you because I want a similar thing done That that's no news

is not always good news True That that means no referral and that means it

could be something that's not great that they're just not telling you to

Right Kevin says right here I'll pop it up again The best thing he saw on a sign

in a work room was and I think we we've said this before what if we train them and they leave

What if we don't train them and they stay Mhm

That's the That's the key is having untrained staff out there installing for

you So it gets back to the topic that training that sticks is training that's frequent Uh that's kind of where uh I

think is important One of the things um install-wise that helps is if you you

you do you learn almost every skill somewhat similar You learn it someone

teaches you or uh sometimes you you learn the hard way But let's say you go

through education and then you go apply it And a lot of people are like I've got to do the thing to get better at it And

that's most of us you know you got to actually go do the thing Sitting in a classroom by itself is not the thing but

you get that knowledge you get some of those hand skills through your your hands-on training and then you go out

into the field and apply it And then you go back to training and you do a little

bit of reinforcement That's where I think some of our training entities

could could build some CEU classes that would be super affordable to go you know

some affordable CU classes would be nice like refresher type things

Yeah I I think um looking at just like simple stuff like seam sealing

residential carpet like we still run into guys that are like you don't have to seam seal carpet and and then you

have to explain to them the reason why you seam seal It's not to hold the seam together man It's to hold the carpet

together at the seam Yeah we're talking residential but I I

still am amazed I got a big job going on now that I'm amazed at how much carpet

tile gets just stuck over old broad loom glue You know I I I just did a demo and

I was like how did this there I you know it looks like hell anyway but

you assume that it looks like hell because uh the age and we're going in to

replace it obviously Um but who knows how long it looked that

bad Curled and just gnarly And hey bro glue's glue's glue right That's what

they say Glue's glue Oh it's fixed It's It's good Yeah my Dave

Bond That's Yeah because you I mean even online you see all these guys that are

like like posting pictures and then they're like "Hey do I need to remove this?" And

then you know a lot of us are like "Yes." But then you got those guys that are like just skim it and go And it's like

if you what we say all the time is read the instructions right And on every

instruction it says to remove the adhesive So yeah we pretty much have a standard

just don't know how to read We pretty much just have a standard like if you don't as a company if you don't um

if you don't reinforce the industry standards it can be a problem You know

people guys will try to get away with stuff and even when you do your best guys will try to get away with stuff I

had a a project a few years back with a bunch of mohawk that curled up everywhere and we pulled it back and the

sub had freaking got paid to remove the adhesive and didn't remove it

You know night job that kind of thing Like

we we are very clear about it and still sometimes fail But the truth is we our

company standard is get down to concrete clean porous dry concrete

Oh yeah we have a the standard as well and we do our very best to 100% of the

time follow specs and everything to a tea Sometimes obviously it doesn't

always happen like that You gota gota you get a curveball You got to figure it out You got to go with the flow But for

the most part all adhesive comes out wrong with it

Yeah I mean I won't lie there's times when a con when when the

the uh customer just does not want to the dust or the issue or whatever it's a

remodel and we just let them know you know we can we definitely are going to

skim it And I've skimmed a lot of floors over the years Um one of the reasons I I sell a certain

particular brand of carpet is because the the adhesive situation where I don't

have to you know necessarily get every every bit of it off uh particularly on

the remodel work but there's really only one one brand that'll let you do that So

um truth is is it's just better to get to concrete if you can but you can't always But that's also where that

knowledge Oh we lost Jorge He probably got a phone

Where uh that knowledge of what you can and when you can get away with something

It's it's it's the exception becoming the rule that we have to not do Like

guys go in and see broad loom adhesive and they automatically think skimming

You should first be automatically think removal you know and know when you can

get away with skimming and and when you absolut when it has to be done or something Um and then obviously how to

do it and which it which patch to use and which additives There you go Uh in your patch to use Um and then there's

there's times uh where and I know you guys have these situations too but there's times where even with a carpet

that can be installed over or a carpet tile that can be installed over old broad adhesive

the adhesive might be too thick And we just tell them there's no way we can't go

over it It's too thick This is three layers of broad loom that's been put

down Back in the day when we did broad loom you never removed the glue You just tore out the old broad loom vacuum the

floor and put down new I just I just went and looked at one um downtown over here not too long ago into you know a

hundred-y old building And I mean it's been remodeled right So they did put underllayment and stuff down at one

point but then it was broad loom adhesive and then a layer of patch and then more broad loom adhesive and then

the layer of patch and then pressure sensitive adhesive and then a layer of patch and then another pressure

sensitive and it's like it's like a half inch of stuff

And u you said uh the exception becomes the rule right But there

for each rule there are also exceptions and manufacturers who created systems in

order to help you out to where you I don't want to say don't have to remove

everything but they definitely save some time and some muscle They put you in a position of success Yeah that's the

point though You got to know what the rule is to know when you're doing the exception

But and that's where you know some of these trainings come into play too or just getting to know your reps in

general because then you can you know contact the rep and we've been on one where you know they were like u it was a

time crunch type thing and it's like hey can can we go over this adhesive and

then sometimes they go in their their records and they're like you know what the last time that was installed that's our product that's our adhesive the new

one's still compatible so just do it you can go right over it if you wanted

Yeah Knowing assume and knowing that having people that you can get in touch

with Um I mean all else fails for all the installers out there Never be scared

to look up a a um look up a manufacturer

and call their tech department Right It's it's either that or you talk to people like Chad after the fact when

he's inspecting your stuff Right saying the scene talk to you though He

he prefer not to talk to you Yeah the Oh here's a reply from from

from Kevin from Raul Uh train people well enough so they can leave Treat them well

enough they don't want to That's another great saying

Sure is Yeah And part of that you know when you do uh when people do studies you you've probably read these studies

where um there is um

sorry I just was reading something But you've you've read these studies Sorry about that

You've read these studies where people are not just they don't just stay at a place for money They stayed a place for

the culture for the training for the advancement opportunities Those are things people stay around for Um you

know for for the opportunity to to grow And speaking of opportunities have we got one for you Shag Tools is our

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Sweet Um so yeah speaking of training and and

all the tools and stuff as those things change every day and the adhesives change and and systems change and you

get new products that's another reason why that consistent training that we talked about um you know is so important

and and people will stay around if they show you invest in them you know in

training And I'm every every Monday we have a a

meeting with everyone right And that's what I continuously tell them It's

you got to train yourself And it doesn't have to be anything big But the more knowledge that you gain the better off

you are when you can't be on the floor anymore You can't just think that you're going to do this until you retire right

Because all it takes is that you know something to happen to your knee and then you're done And what are you going to do in order to uh keep keep up Yeah

And that knowledge comes from from learning uh and training And you don't

get um you know a lot of the guys that have the hardest time in um in the industry

to transfer over or to um you know convert over to say a sales rep or

something like that is the ones who they only learned from say an uncle or something like that They don't know the

industry lango They don't know the industry standards And so a lot of times those are the guys that get you know

they they install till they're like 75 Yeah And then I mean he can be like Chad

and I'm pretty sure he used to be an installer you know talking to him and now he's an inspector and he says that

installers don't like talking to him for some reason but he likes talking to

installers And that's crazy to me because anytime an inspector gets on my

job I'm like right there with them asking them questions as as they're inspecting And the the last few times um

it was different inspectors but they were like "Can I take you out to lunch?" I was like "Absolutely I'm fat

I like tacos Takquitos burritos all of them All of

the ethos Yeah But hey some people some people want to work forever They don't

want to get another job with you know be a sales rep or an inspector or You're

right People want some people want to die on their knees I know a lot of these guys are like "No I'll never do that."

And you're right You know what It comes with a little bit of more training They They only know so much and they want to stay there But they're comfortable

That's fine And I I'm down with that to be honest with you But the truth is is that you you still want to give yourself

opportunities You know what I'm saying Like give yourself as many opportunities

as possible And to do that is getting trained getting educated I I'm not I'm

still blown away by like our a lot of our the the community's adverse

um attitude towards training towards certifications like it's nowhere else

It's in no other trade You know part of that might be because the um the agenda through the

educational system has always been push pushing higher education right But you're like I made a living in the

trades without having to go to college I don't know what you're talking about And I think even I had that mindset you know

years ago where I don't want to go to school I don't want to learn anymore I didn't I didn't

flourish in school I mean I did to a point but you survived This is this is

this is my own terms now When I do my terms it have to include more education

The fact of the matter is it doesn't matter where you go or what you do If you're not learning how to be better at

what you're doing you're stagnant You're never going to move up It doesn't matter if you're at a gas station at McDonald's

at a flooring company and you're a drywaller You It doesn't matter what you do at um if you're working a line at a

factory right Like there's more than one line you want to stay Yeah Yeah Continuing education no matter what

you're doing is is key And uh I don't know if everybody heard you was a little

bit echoey but just to to reiterate you were you were talking about how

important it is that no matter where you're at in the thing you can still get better That's that's what I see a lot of

the really good guys is they just feel like they can always be better It's a strive to be really really good and not

just good enough like not just good enough to get pay at the end of the job or at the end of the week but to be the

best at what you're doing to be one of the really good ones Right So I brought up Simon Synynic a few times here right

Because I I constantly listen to this guy His books are amazing but I was listening to one of his podcasts um

last week and he was saying that he was talking about leadership right So I'm

and he said the best leaders out there don't say that they're the best They're

actually students of leadership They're always constantly trying to learn They're listening to the podcast

listening to books and always trying to learn And I think that's what we need to kind of translate over into the field

more It's like it's it's not a bad thing that you're trying to learn It can only make you better And then I was talking

to someone I forget who a few weeks ago and they were like um like over here

when like Home Depot and I think it was just Home Depot or

something was trying to get all the guys to come together and do a certification right Bring CFI in And then they said

that Home Depot put an end to it And they were like why They said because the installers were talking about we're

going to need more money if we're certified Jeez

Well that's like a catch 22 They should get

paid more money but you know until the industry that's a that's a really terrible way to

look at things in my opinion Um well especially one one thing I'm going to stop you right there One thing is

especially if they want more money it depends if you invest in yourself or if the company's is investing in you So if

the company's going to turn around and say "Hey you know what We're going to pay so much ahead and we got 30 heads to

go take the certification We're going to pick up the taffer so you guys can learn something." Automatically you can't say

"Well I deserve to get a whole lot more money or so much more money because of this." And maybe you should right But

the thing is did you actually pay for that because somebody else is paying for your tab I think eventually eventually

you should but even if somebody picks up your tab but you can't just go get certified and then the next day think

especially like you just stated or hey if the store is paying for it um and

then just say hey thanks for the the free education now pay me more money I

mean because every other trade every other trade like if you're an electric an electrician and plumbing you know you

got to go up that tier till you get to where you need to so you make more money Yeah Everybody even doctors got to go

through residency and do all that stuff making 40 50 60,000 a year as a as a

doctor uh until they get through their residency I mean you got to go through the the the proof You got to go through

and be a good doctor or be a good carpet layer be a good tile setter I just feel

it's more valuable when you It's like when you your parents buy your pair of shoes for you or you buy your own pair

of shoes which ones are you going to take care of more Usually you're going to take care of the ones you bought cuz it hurt you to get that money right and

spend it So it's the same thing That's the way I feel like when I paid for my things I was like man this I really got

to go and learn uh versus like when I was younger and somebody else is paying for my stuff I was just like nah you

know what I'll just sleep late today and if I So I think there is a mindset that's a little different And maybe

that's just me but I feel that if when you pay for things they're a little bit more valuable right Uh to you because

you you spent your You got skin in the game Yeah To get that I feel that in my

soul brother Did you guys hear that Okay Now Yes

Yeah I agree with you And and I also think that um

to to go back to what you were saying Daniel

just because or I guess it was you Jose just because you didn't want to go to school or you you chose not to go to to

um you know secondary education and you chose the trades that doesn't mean you

don't get educated right That doesn't mean that education is now gone because you're in the trades That's a really

that we could be taking it too far the other way because you got college and you got the trades I mean that's kind of

how it's been posed And with college you go incur debt for four five six 12 years

depending on what your your uh profession is going to be And then in the trade the difference is not that you

don't get educated it's just you're getting you're typically learning on the job and then you go get educated Then

you're learning on the job and you go get educated you're learning on so it's like shorter time frames and you're a

lot of your actual application of your knowledge is being um being paid I mean

you're getting paid to do it Uh that's that's the you know apprenticeships in in in the trades of while we don't have

great you know like you know outside the unions we don't have a great

apprenticeship style thing but you can work towards increasing your knowledge

base um if you're on trade tap well go Carrera which is uh soon to be known as

trade tap uh your your score is going to always continue to get higher as you get

more training and you get more education and more years of experience so trying to incre that's just a a a metric that's

applied to the same thing we're talking about which is becoming you know continuous education continuously

learning and how that goes into um this this side effect I think that guys find

is the confidence and and not just in applying the products but the confidence

in going ahead and asking for a little bit more money or bidding that job a little higher and marketing yourself is

hey I know I may be a little bit higher but to tell you the truth I've been through you know four certifications or

whatever the situation is and you know I've taken you know uh multiple training

courses and I do everything per industry standard and I offer instead of just a one-year warranty a two-year warranty

I'm so confident in my work that's a simple that's a simple

marketing uh program right there I mean there's nothing uncomfortable about what you just

Yeah you just got to do it to Yeah people want to work with um you know we

did a podcast that showed that 33% uh or 30% something like that of homeowners

are willing to hire a questionable um trades person uh for a cheaper price

And we thought wow that's crazy That means 70% 70% Yeah you don't look at the flip side That means 70% of your

customers are willing to pay more for the right person to do the job for them All you have to do is prove that you're

the right person Either keep your certifications put them on your cards or

get a profile on Go Carrera soon to be like I said trade tap and and use that

to market yourself Say you know it's all of the above do all of the above because the credibility you have in anywhere

they search for you right If like you just put your name in there and they search for your name what's going to pop

up Yeah Yep I would say that I'm part of that

70% in a lot of different aspects only because I was part of the 30% for a long

time And do you get sick of Well I thought I was doing it the right

way I thought this was what you were expecting I guess we misunderstood each other Or no I didn't really have a lot

of experience in that I just figured I could do it It so that's what pushed me to the 70% side

Um yeah I'd much rather know I mean if we apply it and of course it's not life or death when you're getting tile

installed but if you apply it to like your doctor I mean I if you're going to

be operating on me dude I want to know that you did your stuff like that you went through the class you was taught

and that I mean someone was your first surgery I know that I just don't want to be How many frogs did you dissect in

middle school Yeah I want to know your stuff Walking into Rollins's office with

his uh all the plaques onwards law Yeah Yeah Yeah Roll you know he he's not only

such an advocate for the training industry overall but a great advocate

for CFI and you know he's spearheading all of the chapters and that's another

good way to get involved and get into trainings that you wouldn't typically know about is see if you got a local

chapter of CFI Um those are those pay dividends past just training because you

get into a community of guys and um you know you can help one another out

There's nothing better than being able to pick up the phone and call someone and say "Hey man I've been doing this a

long time but I'm in a pickle and I don't know what to do here." And we've all gotten in those situations We just

all didn't have that that contact to call right I got a call this morning from someone that you know we we haven't

really worked with him right We we've known him for a long time but then he he

calls us you know he called me and he's like you know I just got to pick your brain a little bit

And it was about pricing and stuff because he's like I don't do this all the time and I know you guys do

Yeah I can't count how many times I've gotten calls about you know hey I just need to pick your

brain And I like it after you've been the doing it for a lot of years and your

architects or your designers or builders start calling you to ask you how to get

something uh done correctly even though you may not be able to do you may not be

the one doing the job Uh I know you guys have been there too but it's somewhat

rewarding to know that they trust your opinion on the right way to get a

project done uh and the right products to put in the right areas and how to do that and make sure that you're budget

friendly but at the same time giving them a great product

So Jeremy says he picks his brain through his nose like Ralph Wiggum

Skinny finger fingers And then the more man the more knowledge you get you know

you you you will have more people calling you right You'll have tech guys calling you You know I get tech guys calling me I have in um in inspectors

calling me ju because they're like "Man I just have never seen this before." And a majority of the time it's like yes

I've ran into that before because it's I was on my knees for 25 years So well see

a lot That's it That's the thing That's it That's the thing like a lot of the

tech guys um you know they may not have been down on the floor for as many years

you know installing uh some of them not at all And the truth is is that you we

run across things on a uh I'm sure on a monthly basis that is outside of what's

on that piece of paper telling you how to install and you got to be able to know have years of experience and the

education a lot of the education courses will talk about hey when you run into this scenario what do you do and they

teach you how to deal with that Um I know the floor prep you know that's a the NFIC

don't they do a a good job of that kind of uh um you know situational or project

awareness stuff when you're doing your floor prep Not

necessarily I was going to say NFCT NFCT My bad Too

many acronyms My eye was my twitching like uh I don't I think he's talking about I was gonna correct you because I

was gonna say I don't know about NFIC but NFCT has a really good substrate and

subfloor program and it's like it's very I want to say it's entry level right

because that's the way it's marketed but it goes really ind depth on the science behind things and why you have to why

you should know it Yeah And just as a reminder to everybody

today's episode is sponsored by Shag Tools I'm going to pop up their QR code

Get on Shag Tools and go get yourself 10% off all your floor prep materials

your your your tools Uh make sure to show them some love But yeah I mean I

think that wh when when you understand that like

knowledge is power I know that's a cliche saying but it's true Later on in

your career what we were talking about earlier yeah maybe you do want to leave on your knees so to speak but the truth

is opening up those doors you at least have some options because you never know

what's gonna happen I mean I did have an installer that installed till he was probably 80 His name was Dwayne His

nickname was Cowboy And he was an old tile installer And he he he installed

till he's probably 80 you know Um he was also one of the most financially

uh responsible installers I knew He had taken almost every dime he made He he

invested uh in classic cars or stock market I mean he was just one of those

guys And that's another thing we can learn as installers is like invest your money don't spend it all That's all

We've dealt with that in other episodes But yeah I think the older guys it's always good to save 10% from Shag Tools

too guys So the older guys that I've seen in it have been the same way It's they work for like the insurance or

something because they're like technically I don't need but I need the insurance So

yep And I remember the gentleman that I I'm visioning I worked with years ago

and he was 77 at the time and it's just like

why are you still here He's like I need something to do I need insurance My wife needs insurance and I like you guys

There's not so much of that not so much of that with the sub community these days you know everybody subcontracts And

so I mean that's one of the things um that you got to consider when you are

doing your like when you're doing projects is you need to make sure you're making enough money to buy health

insurance and take care of yourself and and uh that's why you know a lot of the

guys that that's why I'm such a big pusher for training A lot of the guys get out there and they they want to make

this big money and they learn for six months and they go out and they fail their way to money Uh but you know

they're not really operating as a business They're not really treating their profession as a profession And uh

that's what the huddle is all about is trying to encourage you guys to take that next step And uh training is just a

huge part of that as well And when we talk about training and learning we've talked a lot about the hand skills and

stuff but as for all you subs out there you got to be educated when it comes to taxes and and and finances as well I've

seen more guys go down because of taxes and finances um than anything That and

frankly sad to say drugs Those those three things have taken out more good

installers than than uh than anything So or the sauce About drugs The sauce The

sauce Yeah the sauce will get you too Yeah I'm lucky Uh I I I got insurance

too but I got it through my wife so it's not through my work Um I made her fill out a form when we were first dating and

I asked her what kind of insurance she had and she filled out PO and I was like she has a PO She's a keeper So yeah I I

I branch off of her So I paid her for my PO insurance So I was like if she has an

HMO I don't know make sure she wakes up early in the morning I got to make sure she goes to work on time cooking her

breakfast Get that in She'll be like "I'm sick today." And you'll be like "I don't know

I think you should still go in Got make you some chicken soup How sick are

you?" I think one of the things that a lot of people don't really think about is like literacy in the bluecollar work

right It's you know I just looked it up is saying that you know close to 21% of

bluecollar workers have issues with literacy and you you can definitely

see that So it's like if some sometimes it's as simple as just picking up a magazine and starting to read because

it's just like anything else If you don't do it you're not going to get better at it

Yeah Train that brain It's part of this too I think maybe sometimes especially

like sometimes that's why people don't want to do it because they don't want to see that embarrassment of people knowing that they're they don't know how to read

or something And you see that you know especially on the the Spanish speaking

side is they don't want to do it because it's not in my language or I mean sometimes even even then um they can't

read read or write in their own language So it doesn't matter what it is It's but

there's you just have to do it and you're not people people on the Spanish

side are brutal though bro Like it's it's the culture is different They'll just like knock on you all day versus

like there's a lot of people that speak English language We bring that to the side of things There's more nice people

Spanish is brutal So well the thing is the difference is is that the Spanish side they're going to knock you to your

face the English side is they're gonna wait till you can't see or hear them I will tell you that So we get the best of

both worlds bro I just want to throw that in there But

you're right Daniel Um a long time ago I think I was probably 17 18 years old and

I started realizing even the people that I didn't feel were were very intellectual

They weren't dumb but every every day they would read the newspaper they would read uh they were involved in reading

They were very literate and they knew how to articulate themselves even better than I did Even though they

might not have had the best job the best career but they can talk and they can read and they can flow and they were

comfortable because they practiced it every day Well that's I mean at the at

the root of all this that's what we're talking about is being self-motivated for your training for your for your

education whether that's I mean there's no more valuable asset you have in your

life than yourself So invest there you know like you can't do your family any

good You can't do your friends any good You can't do any charities any good You can't do anybody any good if you

yourself uh if you're not taking care of yourself So we've had mental health um

episodes on here um you know because of that because we we we understand we

believe that you got to take care of yourself and one of those things is being self-educated So I just encourage

everybody reach out to CFI uh reach out to uh NASCT

reach out to uh CTEF CTEF NWF like you

can literally just Google flooring trainings and you're going to flooring certifications and you will find these

people Um if you're in the wood it's the NWFA If you want to do hardwood those

kinds of things go get educated Do not sleep on yourself make yourself the best

you can be and you'll you'll be in high demand There's no doubt about it Everybody that I know that's done really

well in this industry uh that was really in high demand had had took their career

seriously Like they went and they got the education they got the certifications they got the trainings

they they invested in themselves So I encourage everybody to do that

And I know you if you're going to be in this if you're going to be in this business for the rest of your life you might as well make something of it So

Amen Just keep on trucking Keep on trucking FCITS for inspectors There you

go Yes Yeah It's another great um avenue for installers who may want to move to a

different aspect of the business is inspecting So you can look that up as well you know frankly um you know when I

was installing on everyday basis I wish I would have went to some inspector courses to to learn that side of it just

I think it would have made me a better installer And I think that's kind of a common um common thought today is that

you know installers ought to look at uh getting in if you've gotten certified or

in uh you've went through different uh installation courses um you know

checking out the uh in the uh inspector side of the world u wouldn't hurt you So

all right well we've come to the end I want to thank uh Shag Tools for sponsoring this episode I want to thank

all of our participants in the chat Sorry we didn't get to all of you guys but uh we got the flowing here So uh if

you have any um topics you'd like for us to cover we're coming up on the end of

our topic list and so we'd love to get your feedback You know jump on um jump

on Facebook you know hit us up on there and let us know what you'd like to see

um what you'd like for us to talk about any experts you'd like us to bring in that kind of thing We're here for you

guys We want to help you uh in your careers I don't care even if you're a drywaller watching this Um but you know

all the trades are welcome Uh we are flooring trade here but all the trades this stuff is like not trade specific

you know Uh so I want to thank everybody for joining us today Give us a like Give

us a subscribe Thumbs up thumbs down Like Jose always says we don't care Just

uh interact with us and let us know what we're doing uh that you love and maybe that you don't

Yeah Thanks guys All right guys Appreciate you We'll see you guys next

week Thanks Kevin Hi to Kevin