The Huddle - Episode 167 - Live from Synergy Convention & Expo

Paul and Jose hit the stage at the 2025 Synergy Convention and Expo for a special live edition of The Huddle! With a fantastic in-person audience, they shared laughs, had some real conversations, and dove into:

• What’s happening at Synergy this year

• How the event has evolved from last year

• The industry shifts and changes they see coming

• Stories and perspectives from the floor of the show

It’s a one-of-a-kind episode packed with insights, energy, and the fun of being together at Synergy. Tune in and feel like you’re right there in Nashville with us!

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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? Live from CFI FCIA Synergy Convention in

Nashville. Welcome back to the huddle. We're your weekly playbook helping you gain forward progress in your career.

Simply put, we're here to help you win. For all our new viewers and viewers at

home, welcome to the team. So, today is our first

live from the stage uh podcast for the huddle. Yeah. Give some love back at home.

Chiefs. Go Chiefs. We need it. We need some help.

Boo. Yeah. Birds. Uh, wait a second. What's this podcast about?

All right. I mentioned to all of our sponsors, special thank you to Shack Tools, Divergent Adhesives, NFCT, Trade

Tap, featuring the BTI. I've talked about that a bit here. And um give a

warm round of applause for all the sponsors. They're the only reason we're able to do this. So,

we're going to kick this thing off about pretty much the uh the convention here.

So, you know, every year I come to this, I go to CFI. I'm I'm really happy to see

again CFI and FCICA joined together in this convention. It's it's like it adds

a new level of of people and a new level of um energy to the show. I love it and

I hope they continue to do it. Um and uh they got my vote for dog on sure.

It's almost like it was supposed to happen right since the first time. and it just kind of connected the dots and put the right people together in the

right places at the right time. Yeah. So, I mean that's that's our question to

the audience and to the audience back at home is, you know, what do you come to

the show for or what was you what are you what are you hoping to get out of the show? We got, you know, CFI, FCICA,

also the FCITS and the FCB T2B 3 days gathering

uh se you know the 16th to the 18th. What they you know the the goal of this

is to put together uh inspectors, installers, manufacturers, companies,

contractors all in the same thing with different tech partners. So, you know,

what are you wanting to get out of the show and

what what made you make the trip to Nashville here? Here you can see on the live screen here like some of the stuff

that's already went together. It's been an awesome show to start. Anyway, you know, it's been a very busy time uh

trying to make it to all the events that are starting it because technically we haven't really started yet. This is just

the opening, right? We have a lot of day one a lot of uh um individual opportunities

for people to take uh training and certification and and get some more knowledge in their toolbox is what's

been happening um separate from what I would say was an open invite like

anybody else could sign up for for the event but there was some some private events going on there was some meetings

some behind the scenes uh to where information is being shared and spread so that way everybody knows what's going

on in the industry. Yeah, there was uh you know it got kicked off with the golf tournament this

morning. And who won who won that? Who's winning? Yeah. No one.

Nobody in this room.

Everyone's a winner for showing up. Y participation. Everybody gets a participation trophy.

Just kidding. Um yeah. So I think one of the things that I always come for is the

networking. In fact, that's probably the main thing I come for. I love the seminars. I love learning. But more than

anything, I like coming and seeing people that I only see once or twice a year. Maybe three times a year at the

show. And uh that's always a special thing for me cuz you know I mean you

only get to see people a couple times a year you catch up but you get to see like that that's hanging out with

friends essentially like Mr. John Stair out in the audience.

Yeah. Shoot baby. We have a microphone. Hold on. Hold on one second. We got a microphone coming out to you brother.

And it's odd that you guys can actually hear me this time, right? Yes. And it sound it's you sound fantastic. Hey, so um one of this is my

third time being here and and the reason I enjoy coming is is exactly what you said, the networking, but I feel like

everybody that comes here is is at like that like high performance level of installation. We nerd out on it. We're

constantly go go go go. And believe it or not, I don't know that, you know, burnt out's the right word, but I feel

like we all need like a little battery recharge every once in a while. And so when you get to network with like-minded

people, you're come you're going home with information, excitement,

uh new techniques, and and and I think for all of us, it's actually uh healthy

for all of us to get together like this, you know, because we can get all the answers off social media and online, but

to get together and and and talk about something maybe other than flooring for just a little bit, it really really

brings us like that family togetherness much floor. John, I think you said it just right and I

think Nate had said it yesterday in one of the meetings about uh uh we're all floor nerds and these are our people, right? And and that's really what what

it's all about. Networking is one thing, but this is where I get to talk to somebody. Hey, how's life going? Hey,

how's how's the family doing? This is the where you get to know everyone more on a personal level as well as get some

resolution to some issues you might have whether it be with employee subcontractors or installation

techniques tooling. Um you get to hear it from from a firsthand experience.

When's the trade show? When? Yeah, tomorrow. Tomorrow.

Tomorrow. I'm used to having my computer in front of me guys, so bear with us while I flip through this paper and make all this noise.

Yeah, that's all good. Uh yeah. So the

the real heart of this whole thing is that we are a big family and be honest with you, you do get around like-minded

people and at the when you're back at your office and you're working away and you're doing your thing or you're

dealing with the hard dayto-day things of getting crews on jobs or if you're a crew yourself getting the project

completed. this, if you've watched the huddle, we are always promoting for

installers to get to this event and it's because that networking thing and I I've

learned that uh I'm not the smartest guy in the room and so I get to pick up the

phone and call other people when I have whether it's technical questions, business questions, uh whatever it may

be. my these connections that you make at these shows uh is invaluable. So, we

love the fact that when you come here, you make new connections, you get to see

your friends. So, that's my favorite part. I mean, by far. All right, so

let's uh let's find out what your favorite part is. John, thanks for, you know, bringing that to the show. the

It's a little bit odd sitting up here talking like we're doing a seminar. So, forgive me if I stumble a bit. I'm a lot

more uh stupid on the actual podcast. Actually, we work out all the bugs before the

before we go on air. We didn't really have that opportunity today. Yeah, technology as far as uh IT work is

not our strong suit. But thank you for everybody who did get it going. The the IT team back in the back of the room got

us got us up and live. Sorry to anybody who was next door that that had to hear

us over here. Sorry for everybody next door that heard me say dusty ass voice. I was like glad they

heard me. Yeah, Jorge is going to be joining us here in a bit. I do want to give a shout out to Jorge for running the Spanish

version of the huddle. He does a great job over there and it's really, you know, engaging uh uh the Spanish

speaking community. I think that's some lowhanging fruit for the training

entities. Uh I know that's being worked on, but also that that's the outreach of

the huddle is to try to get that voice of that community into um you know what

their needs are. where do they see shortfalls and making sure that we at the end of the day the goal is like

higher training, you know, higher um professionalism, increase our ability to

perform out in the field. Installation is tough. We have to

continue to drive that narrative that we need new blood, but we also want the old

blood. The old blood has to lead the way. And that's how that this right here is how you do it is coming to these

shows. So, one of the things uh one of the questions,

how do you separate yourself? So, I'll talk on it and I'd love some

audience participation on this, but you know, separating yourself for me is knowing that knowing my shortfalls first

off and then trying to double down on getting a little bit better at them. But read the market, man. Like, read the

market. Uh, one of the biggest things that always comes to our table from our

general contractors or our customers is the need for our installers to be professional. The fact of showing up on

time, being pleasant to deal with, and being, you know, first quality installers. That is my rally cry every

single week at the huddle. get trained, get certified, and get noticed. So, that

that's probably my answer. Well, the thing is, too, is if you think about all the other um careers out

there, everybody is uniformed, right? The the people you view as professionals

and whether it's an auto mechanic all the way to a grocery store, everybody's always uniformed. They're always

representing uh the entity that they're working for. And that's part of the

plan, right? That's part of the plan and that's part of their succession plan. Why can't it be part of ours? Um, and

you know, I speak firsthand experience as to talking about uniforms on

about uniforms, uniforms on installers, uniforms, and just being consistent uh

all across the board. Um, firsthand experiences. We had very unpleasant

experiences at the beginning of preferred flooring and then once once a gentleman said to me that if you're not

willing to put your brand on your employees, why should I be willing to hire them? Um, and I think that's the

same thing, right? Not saying you got to be branded when you go to a residential home or anything like that, but

doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt, but but be professional. there's a level of professionalism that brings comfort to a

client uh to a contractor and and I think that is across the board. I and me

as a consumer I feel the same way. Um you know if we say that we don't judge a book by its cover we'd be lying because

the cover is the first thing we see. Uh representation of an individual or a company is huge in

any market. Yeah. So how do you guys set yourselves apart? Right. How does a training entity

set itself apart? How does man how do manufacturers set themselves apart?

Typically that's like engineering new new products that we get

to come here and learn about. But you know there the everybody's at a race to

get noticed and I think the you know another way not me personally but from a

business owner's perspective setting ourselves apart in my flooring company is our crews. We had our uh

installer appreciation event this last week. We had food trucks and and games

and prizes and all this stuff. We had 110 installers show up and

that type of stuff is what gets the uh get kind of connects the office with the

installers. I installed for many years so I don't have a problem connecting with them. But there's a lot of times uh

a lot of our staff inside the office, you know, they need to make that personal connection. And uh so, you

know, that's that's one way for companies. If you don't show your installers appreciation, someone else

will. I want to add to the the whole um

representation and some of what I learned was through CFI and the way that

they drive that bus and and the teachings is about being professional and cordial and uh on time and and

having what's the word I'm looking for? Pizzazz. Professional. No, not pizzazz. I'm not going to show

up in sparkly sparkly boots or anything like that, but um

just putting like separating yourself, putting yourself in a situation to stand out a little bit and uh the level

there's so many definitions of professionalism, but I think when you use your education and you meet everyone

at these events, you start learning that the different levels that everyone has put themselves through and you try to do

your best to replicate what they're doing because they found success, right? If they found

success doing those small little steps, then why can't I? And and I think that

any candidate training group CFI was was one of the first to bring that to my attention, what I was missing um and how

to approach it moving forward. Yeah, this is uh this is

the the best place to come is this actual convention though versus say not

that all the shows aren't valuable, but this one seems to be a little bit more um family as John said.

Okay, so this is way harder than doing it like at home. by the way, having you guys look look up up here and and I'm

like stumbling and falling around. All right, let's get I want to bring up a a

webinar series that we're going to be producing from the huddle. Looks like our There we go. Uh we are we are

working on a how to start your business as an installer. So taking a you know from an installer to like

a lot of them trying to make them understand that they are a business. If they are a sub they are a business what

to uh expect and how to carry themselves in the marketplace. But that webinar

series is going to be produced by the huddle. We have experts on each of the major topics.

It's not us. We're not we're not the experts guys just so you know. We're just putting it together. Um but

it goes everything from setting your business up we call it legal uh the

that's your you know kind of uh the right corporate entity or right business

entity I should say for your for your business. Uh we'll have accountants on

for each one of these, but we want to give an actionable step for installers to go from just, you know, installing as

a individual to building their business. Uh it's been one of the topics that

every time we whether we have the huddle or we're talking to somebody live, it's

like the biggest problem they have. In fact, one year a guy teared up over this

situation where, you know, someone in his family um ended their own life

because of taxes and they were an installer that had, you know, produced a

large amount of money income-wise, but never really learned how to uh manage

their business or manage their employees. And so, we're bringing this this series. It's going to be everything

from that into Someone turn Daniel's mic on. What's that?

We're uh gonna We got technical difficulties with Daniel back home.

Go ahead. Try it out, D. Can you hear me now? Yes, sir.

There he is. Oh, hey everybody. Daniel's still here, too. I I was trying to ask a question a

little bit ago. Well, ask away if it's still still a question. you were talking about

the show and what goes on over there. And we have a question over here on Instagram just like what what kind of

certifications or classes are going on over there that you know people would benefit from cuz you keep on talking

about you know how how how education is key right? What what kind of classes are

going on over there so so people get an idea of what's going on? Well, I do know that SIM had their two

days to SIM. So, FCICA had their two days to SIM. I think it goes on started

yesterday and today. So, it's over now, but two days to Sim if you've, you know, SIM

training is super valuable for anybody in the flooring business. But yeah, they had

their two days to sim. That's sometimes it's three days. They got it to two here.

Yeah. So, uh I know that also there was a lot of demos. I wouldn't say there are

certifications, but I know there was some demo de demos. Navalis did one. Was

there other certifications you know about? Do you guys know about any certifications at the to to help answer

that question? Was there Well, I think there was education classes going on. I don't know if they were labeled as certifications, but they

had the the FCB. Did did CFI used to do

uh I know someone's in the audience that can answer this. Did they used to do any certifications at say convention or any

anything like that that you can remember Rob? We had a pattern match class at TIC a

few years back. We had a written master 2 test here at convention. It's only an hour or so. So didn't detract from the

convention at all. But more importantly than that, we had Mohawk at our certification team meeting uh reviewing

their trims and picking our brains. So we had input, real input from installers

to the industry. We've had in the past JetTech come to test and field test their product years before it went on

the market. Persona, when they expanded from blades into tools, they picked our brain here at convention about that.

It's a place where installers when we're normally shoved in the back and silenced, we can be heard. Yeah. Use this tool.

A big deal at this convention. So you got some You were able to give the installers in that was it was that

like a a meeting here? Yeah, we had a certification team meeting and then at the end of that

meeting, Mohawk came in with their team of people to pick our brain. That's freaking awesome. As a group for input on their

transitions, which is a big deal because most installers know transitions are the big we tie our job into anything and

everything that touches that floor and it's a big deal. They were asking what they can do to be better and what were some of the issues

that we were seeing in the field so they could find some resolve. Yeah. Right. What are the headaches? What are the problems? What can we do? It was

exactly what they wanted to know. That's fantastic because because a manufacturer who is open to want they

want to hear real life feedback. They wanted to hear a a story, a nightmare, so that way they could find some resolve. And that's that's hard, right?

That's hard to go and say, "Hey, we know that we're not perfect. What can we do to be better?" That was awesome. I did

have to leave that a little bit early because they had a lot of things planned and we ran a little over, but um I thought that that was great that they

were they were being vulnerable. They were asking for for real life feedback

and input and that's awesome. They're probably going to use that information and put something really sweet out on

the market. Has her hand up because she does a lot of this. We have we have a question.

So, as as a manufacturer, I will say for many years, we came to convention, but

we showed up the day of the trade show, set up, did the trade show, and then left. um not really understanding how

valuable it is to connect with the installers and um you can call it

networking, but it really is connecting and understanding what they need and listening and making sure that they know

their voice matters. Yeah, that's a great point. And what

manufacturer? Robert's QEP. There you go. Yeah. So, it sounds like connections

from manufacturers to installers. There's not very many opportunities for that to happen, especially when you're

talking about the installer influencing design or influencing the actual in the

field product that you're going to have to deal with. So, that's pretty cool. I think that answers the question, Daniel.

All right, let me pull up.

Okay. This is really how we are in real life. Like usually Yeah. Usually we have this stuff kind of a little it's you've been on the huddle,

you know, that's it's a little bit different being up on stage at the event, but we are blessed to be here.

So yeah, this is talking about plenty of uh business operations stuff. I did a talk earlier about hey how AI is going

to be affecting the flooring industry. uh we did a lot of research and with trade tap and the uh VTI and these

things we we work with a lot of um well our developers are AI first developers

and um so that was pretty cool to give that talk. It was a really quiet room, almost a little more quiet than this

one. But, uh, it it was a pretty quiet room, but at the end of the day, I think

people understood that that movement, that kind of stuff is happening and

we're going to be um looking to the flooring ind as the flooring industry, we're going to be looking to the

installers to help sell work in the future. That's that's our hypothesis on that thing. But yeah, there's some other

um business operations. Um do you have to list? Jorge is going

to be here soon, it looks like. So hopefully he brings some

pizzazz. He brings a sparkle. He's our pizzazz guy.

So maybe maybe tell the people who weren't there this morning a little bit about about trade taps rebranding or go Carrera's

rebranding into trade tap and the ver verified trade index. Thought you might want to mention that for a minute.

Yeah I um so as many of you know about go Carrera

we have rebranded go Carrera to trade tap. Uh, trade tap is just actually go

Carrera will become trade tap pro and in 26 we will be doing the BTOC version of

trade tap. So it'll be um the consumer homeowners they buy their products uh at

various places whether it's Florida core or online. Uh I gave a stat earlier that

is 23 to 40% of increase in online flooring purchases

which is kind of crazy. Um but these people have to have their flooring installed and you're not going to go to

Angie's list to get a good installer and unfortunately that I don't know

deplatform me for putting that on the interwebs but but

what about Facebook Marketplace? Come on. Yeah, that's so so connecting homeowners with highquality installers.

Um I'm not sure where that goes with everybody and specifically with, you

know, how retailers are going to deal with that trend, but um that's why we're creating uh trade tap as a consumer

product in 26. And then the VTI is the old hammer rating. It's essentially just

rebranded and we're not going 0 to five on the rating score. It goes from proficient to floor god. Um

so we're we're just rebranding stuff, freshening stuff up, making it more um

you know, we've learned a lot over the last four years at Go Carrera, uh or I should say with the global platform.

So that all those all that rebranding efforts coming to fruition now and uh

yeah, we're excited.

Daniel, we got any other questions coming up? No, I was I just keep

everybody's here. We do have some people watching us

though over there, so that's the good thing. Yeah. Yep. Oh, look here. Hey just come from Jorge.

Hipip hip Jorge. Yeah, Jorge. Woo. Let's start a Jorge chant.

Yeah. So, I just came from the I4F uh meetup and uh they got they're unveiling

some new products for their stairs. Uh herring bone also product for the floor.

So, they were just showing us a little bit about it. Uh how it comes together uh when they plan to kind of unveil it

in the future. So, we're getting the first look at that. So that's something that you can only see here. They're not

Is that another example of them like asking the installers for input and stuff?

Yeah, they want input from everyone and uh we get to see we get first dibs at looking at this stuff and kind of giving

our feedback on it. So it was good to see the new products that they're going to unveil pretty soon. Um so that's

that's awesome. And and they have great food and drinks out there. So nice. Yes.

Sure. way to get an installer to do something. Free food. Hey, you got nachos? I'm there.

Here's another uh another question from the audience. Hi there. Uh just wondering if you could

give a little bit of history on the huddle, how it started, a little bit about yourself, um how long has been

going on, that sort of thing. Easy question. Sure. Appreciate it. Uh so Daniel, Jose

and I started the huddle what three almost three years ago I believe.

The the whole idea was just giving similar to what we were talking about giving the installer voice to go to the

industry and try to promote things that are uh going to help them in their

career. Uh I come I was an installer. I built a flooring company and then I

launched I moved over into the you know technology world as I said in my talk

earlier that true nerd that that was uh you know coming from

the installation world I I really want to find a way to reinvigorate our

um our industry. I mean, I'm I don't know about you guys in the if there's any uh residential people, but in the

commercial world, we show up on a job site. We're not the most respected trade. And I would love to get back to

being that respected trade that some of the old-timers I've talked to tell me about in the 40s, 50s, and uh you know,

how people got out of your way. You know, you you actually got the job and it was it was uh actually ready for you,

that kind of thing. Um, but yeah, we decided to launch the huddle to just be

a voice. I love this guy and his brother and Jorge. And so it's an hour of time

every week that we get to just come together and chat about, nerd out on flooring and mostly flooring. Sometimes

we bring some other stuff in, but um, so that was the original uh, idea. We've

kept with it. our sponsors have helped us uh be able to continue. Um and uh

yeah, that was the that was kind of the beginning of it. Yeah, I think just trying to help

someone not fail really. We didn't have a lot of leadership and we didn't have a lot of guidance when Daniel and I

started. So, um to be able to say, "Hey, this is where we messed up. Uh let's see

what we can do about helping someone not go through that." And and that's really what what pushed it. Um, I don't know if

the industry really needed it because there's there's a lot of leadership in this room. There's a lot of people that I can call on um where I don't need to

watch a podcast or anything like that, but it was more or less trying to get people together on one platform to share

information and ideas um just to help one another out. Yeah. But you get to have the chance to

uh you know to connect with other people. What the huddle gives you that a phone

call doesn't is your experience gets shared with other people. Like other people get to see it. We're pretty

vulnerable on the on the huddle. We tell stories of of uh you know our mistakes

and our failures. um and so will our our audience and they'll chime in and we've

had some really crazy huddles and and um you know now we're live on stage and and

uh trying to make the best of the opportunity we have to bring the installers's voice up. That's really the

big deal. And another thing is that we know the leadership, we know who to call, but

there's people out there that are watching us. They don't know who to call. I mean, I was that person at some point. I didn't I didn't get any

information till I met most of you guys out here, most of the professionals out here. And that's where I got

information. But not everybody knows that we're here. Sometimes what drove you to go start

your certification journey and stuff, wasn't it? Yeah. That's what drove me to get my uh

NFIC, which was what I really really wanted because that's what I wanted to do.

Yeah. So that was I found it here at one of the conventions. There you go, a hub, right? So, and

that's essentially what we created was kind of a hub to where there's information and a lot of links that we share on the website and and live for

for everyone to take advantage of it. Yeah, it's a great testing ground. I

figure uh we'll spin some ideas, get feedback, and be like, "That was stupid." Uh or or find out, get some

validation on some ideas. Um we're on number

What number is this? Something 167. 167. And I don't think I

think we've only missed like one week. And it's it's a um it's a grind

sometimes to just get on and keep the conversation going. There's been plenty

of episodes where we had really low engagement, really low uh participation

from the uh from the audience and we just kind of drudged through it. And I

say the online audience, that's not to impute on any of you good people, but um

yeah, so 167 episodes in and we're still here. So we're looking forward to uh continuing

it. We we really think the webinar series and anybody who wants to um you

know kind of have something that we can gather some uh experts together for and

put a webinar series together. We are doing we're committed to doing uh three

major webinar series next year. We're going to produce it, get the the right

people in the right place. Um and like I said, it's about starting and running a business as the first one. So

yeah, and we started doing the Spanish podcast last year. So I think I'm five episodes in on the Spanish one. So we're

trying to get to that as well, so we can have different types of viewers in a different language. Also, check us out.

Sorry, we're looking at my phone here, you guys. We're not trying to like avoid anybody. Just having some technical issues with uh Daniel. Every time he

tries to speak, it's not letting him uh go on. Um, hey Jorge, how often do you do the

Spanish uh uh products? How often do they come out? We do it uh every quarter, once every

quarter. It's a little bit more difficult to get people in the industry that speak Spanish to do to help out on

stuff like that. We do have Spanish speakers that are installers. We do have people that are in manufacturing.

Uh uh but it's it's tough finding Spanish speakers to come out. Yeah. So, anybody who's bilingual and in

the industry and wants to join, let us know. Bring new insight, new problems, new solutions, right?

Yeah. We want to make sure everybody's aware that we're here to help them out and CFI, NFIC, and all these other uh

organizations are here to help everybody out. Yeah. So, Daniel did want me to mention

about the the podcast and the webinar on the you got the QR code up there. Make sure to pull out your phones and and QR

that. And it's also on the stickers, I believe, on the table. Yeah. And yeah, I forgot about Take the

stickers, please. So, I was in I was in uh Chicago teaching some hand

sewing techniques to a Hispanic crew. I told them about the Huddle podcast and they translated that to the crew. They

could not get their phones out fast enough to start downloading the Huddle. They really There is a hunger for this and like uh Jorge said, not everybody

knows, not everybody knows that CFI is out there. Not everybody knows that NFIC is out there and uh and help is

available and and so it's really hard. It's an uphill battle, but we have to keep climbing.

Yeah, it's amazing. And that we we're in our own little box and we think everyone knows. I mean, we because we're all

engaged with one another. We think that everybody knows and really the huddle is trying to get the word out there. That's

really the the the goal. uh we're going to start pushing a little bit more of a

a marketing budget to uh get paid advertising, not for the huddle,

but paying for advertising to get the huddle recognized and and uh get in the

hands of people that can help because uh every show I go to, I talk to somebody

and they they tell me how much they appreciate the huddle and these guys input, their their expertise.

If you just look back when we first started and where PF or where my company

was, you can see the growth. I mean, these are PE these are guys you want to listen

to. You want to um you know, give some credence to and and our audience is awesome as well that there's so much

knowledge out there, but we just it's it's almost like trying to break through a brick wall to get it to the right

people. It's like everybody who values training, who cares about installation,

who cares about the customer's experience with the installer, they're all in this room. They're all here. Like

all seven of you guys. Yeah. But they're they're all here. There it's

it's um you know, I I just said about my uh installer appreciation event. There

was 110 uh installers at that event and

you know maybe a half of them knew about the huddle tops that would be that's

kind of generous even and that's right there in my hometown as much. So all you

can do we we dedicated to just being consistent

being there every Tuesday and doing the doing the job every single week. And so,

uh, we appreciate the the people who do appreciate that and keep coming back.

And the people who, uh, participate weekly out in the audience, they're they're awesome. John, you're always

good. We've got a handful of probably 8 to 10, I'd almost call them commentators

at this point of the huddle. We we appreciate it. Even the the funny stuff, we like that stuff, too. And to

get back at uh Nate and Ben's question kind of, we're going to have another

Haro and espanol and it's going to be September 30th and it's going to be implementing implementing effective

quality control measures. So that'll be this month. So tell your guys to check us out.

I'm going back there next week. If not Spotify or something, I usually go back because I missed a lot of

episodes before I met these guys. I'll go back and it sounds cheesy, but in the morning when I'm going to work, I'll

actually put them on. It's like I'm talking to them, but I'm just checking out the show. Yeah. The there's a lot of We're on all

the major podcasts. We've got several um several of our videos and our our shorts

and different things where the backend people have cut it up and put it out have reached well in excess of a million

views. Uh, one of them is reaching close to 2 million views and downloads and all

that is up. So, the huddle's doing well. We're starting to gain some steam where

people outside of the people that already know us uh are are starting to

watch. We get new uh new viewership every week. So, yeah, we appreciate everyone and all the

support is what he's trying to say. Yeah. Amen. All right. Well, we're going to

start wrapping this thing up. We did not come in the the one difference with this

this particular uh huddle, this particular podcast this week. We did not

bring our topics. We wanted to see if we could get audience engagement if people

would like go back and forth. So, we do appreciate that. But, we didn't bring a topic that we talk about and we did that

intentionally. we wanted to just kind of wrap with everybody. Uh so there's not

um you know a particular topic we are we've done research on and that we're drilling down on. So uh we're going to

cut it a little bit shorter this week. Um yeah, Daniel's mic's not working, but

we appreciate everybody's participation and the people who watch the huddle. We

we cannot give you enough thanks for for being there uh on our other platforms,

the comments and the uh we get most of our topics from our audience. So, hey, just one more to to throw out. I

David Zach, I think, is going to be on on October 28th. Yeah,

David, I'll have to meet him, right? And he's going to be talking about uh uh

the art of handling customer claims and inspections. So, that's something that's coming up.

of interest. Maybe run the mic over to David and let's hear a little bit about uh maybe a

prelude to that to that uh particular podcast. This just goes to show too everyone that

you know the input that we receive from our audience here and at home um is very important. It gives us the topics and

the information that we need to make connections. Uh sometimes some of the people that we have in the room, we

don't even understand who's around us, who's watching, and who we're going to have on the future or on a future podcast because we don't get to meet

everyone. It's usually a simple short conversation or a I know a guy and then

the connections are made. Yeah. He's like, I'm not even prepared. And he has it written on his hand.

Well, I am not exactly sure what we're going to talk about because we haven't had a pre-con conversation about it. Um,

I think we're going to probably talk a little bit about Floor Detective, which is my website, um, which is used

throughout the industry, and it can definitely be utilized by installers, and we'll show you a little bit about

how you can use the defect pages within floor detective so that you can

recognize when you see something out there, you can recognize or at least know the name of it, right? So, we'll

probably have some pictures of different claims, defects, things like that. Um,

we'll show you that. We'll show you a new photo app we've created, I think. And, uh, whatever else comes up.

Nice. Photo app. Photo. Like technology is just going to be taking over. If we're

not utilizing it, we're falling behind. So, right after that, I think Dwayne's going to be your guest, isn't he? Is

Dwayne Prewer going to be on? Well, he he might. Depends on what he says right now.

Uh, sorry. Sorry. Dwayne isn't uh comfortable articulating in public.

Um, have you guys had any luck getting uh major manufacturers involved in the

uh in the Huddle podcast? And if so, who and when can we expect to see anything?

Yeah. So, we we have talked to uh several of the manufacturers,

a lot of the um as well as other companies that support the flooring

industry. uh the podcast world is a little bit of a you know it's it's like

a wild wild west and they when they put their brand on something it's it's like

they're or they'll show up as a guest and we do have like you know I think

we'll we'll end up having like Mohawk on um but as anything more than that the

they they want a large sample of of the podcast So like like federated

just being not actually sponsoring but you know

what sort of interactions to help installation or what products are coming

out or how they know the installation you know you bring up a good point I think um with

we do have one podcast where manufacturers I I don't know which ones we have on but it's about how

manufacturers can better support the installation community. I forget which one that is. The the the hard part is the hard part

is is that we're kind of fireside chat, right? Anything can be said, anything can be asked, and people kind of veer

away from that. People are a little bit Larry. Yeah. So, there's a little Don't be scared.

Yeah. Don't be scared. We're we're not we're not here to shame anyone or put anyone in a bad position, right? We want manufacturers to come on

and feel comfortable talking about the the situations and maybe the progression and the future of the industry. And I

think that that's maybe something that you were kind of alluding to is when are we going to have someone on here from a manufacturer representing the

manufacturer side being willing and able to talk to us from the installer perspective so we can get some of the

answers maybe clear up some gray area. And if not, that does sound like a good episode. Well, we do have the uh manufacturer

um what they can do to better support the installation community. That's one

of the topics in the that's on our backlog or come up up upcoming episodes

and I'm not sure but we do have a manufacturer that supports the show Divergent Adhesives and they're a great

sponsor as you know Sunny Mr. Divergent

so we appreciate that too. Go Sunny. Yeah, we definitely enjoy, you know, sponsoring the podcast, but you know how

that relates back to what we were talking about earlier is when you come to these events like this, you get to

meet the technical folks and you're not meeting the person on the other end of the 800 line, right? You're meeting

someone that you can call and talk to and have a a live conversation. Who are you going to call when you're on a job?

You going to call the salesperson? No, you're not. So if you call a technical person and you have this relationship

with them, what does that do? That gets the job done so you make more money, right? And

and we can all say, you know, it's great to come to these things. You meet people, you take classes, but it's so

much more than that. I've been doing this for 25 years coming to these things.

I can't walk down the hall without seeing somebody I know. Give them a hug. We have relationships that we've had for

20 plus years that I know I can call them and they can call me. And that's really what it's about.

Yeah. And we we super appreciate the support. And I think one one thing to drill down on just a little bit is that

what once you've created a a personal relationship with someone in tech, it's

amaz I mean you get you you could Google you know XYZ manufacturers technical and

and yeah I mean you can get the person or get to a technical person but if you

know the guy uh you get a lot it's just a different experience and and uh it

seems Obviously there it's a little more helpful when your buddy calls you and says, "Hey man, I need some help." And

because you know him from convention. Um Daniel did uh so I got my little text message thread going right here. Uh

Daniel did mention that uh uh Roland shaping installer success. We still need to try to get the WFCA involved in at a

potential episode. We got kind of an outline and it be a complimentary uh episode to the CFI one that we had uh

um about 10 episodes ago, something like that. Um, so we have a lot of things on

our radar and and and maybe we should be better at kind of uh putting what's

available out there. Help if we put out the upcoming episodes somewhere. That might that might help

out. So that that's uh maybe a little bit of feedback and then we can get some people who are

considered professionals in in that portion of the industry because otherwise you just get us talking about

what we think we know instead of instead of the truth up there. But uh uh I'm not

bashing you guys. Pretty knowledgeable. I I think uh we we do our best to bring facts. I have another question.

Have a microphone, but a simple share of the podcast goes a long way. It really does.

Just a simple share, a like, get it out there. People in your feed can see it. That's how it grows.

Yeah. Like and subscribing. Uh but a a share. Maybe at the end of each podcast

I should I should say like and share because that's as important as a as a

subscription because that gets it out to the people and if you have a you know a

a decent friend group or following on any social media platform it really does

help get it to the installers who are not coming to the shows all the time and doing that stuff. So

yeah. Don, do you have a question? Uh no I I don't have a question. And I just wanted to uh add to what Sony was

saying. Uh something that happened to me a few years ago. Um and as a result of

being a being at convention and going to uh other conventions, um we had a

problem with a very specialized manufacturer and because of coming to

the convention and making those connections with the uh the the tech guys and the guys that are more uh

knowledgeable about things. uh when we ran into the pro a problem with a product

a flaw uh he called the rep, he called the mill, and he had to wait for the tech guy to call him back. And I just

reached in my pocket, grabbed my phone, and I called the tech guy. And he's spend he he spent thousands and

thousands of dollars a year with this company. And with just a swipe of my finger, I was able to call the tech guy

directly. and he's standing there completely flabbergasted as to how this basically lowly installer has more

direct access to a tech guy than he does. And it's all because of coming and making those connections. So if

anybody's actually out there listening and questions why they should come to these sort of events, it's because you

can make those connections with somebody, you know, that the people that are giving them the projects don't

necessarily have. they have to go through the rep and they have to go through that rep has to call someone that has to call somebody whereas if you

come here you can just find those people and just have that number like Sony was

saying have that personal connection. Yeah, that brings up like the flooring

industry is probably the biggest smallest industry that I know of. Literally the installation value of what

is installed on an annual basis is as it's more than the the material value in

a lot of ways. It's estimated between uh 22 and 29 billion a year of labor value

goes into the industry. So when you see the the reports in the magazines that

it's you know $29 billion of sales and and how it breaks up between the major

major areas right on the other side of that $25 billion is 25 or 29 billion of

installation and this convention it knowing that

something like this convention should be absolutely packed with installers

like 29 9 billion of installation value annually.

That's crazy to think about. And we do have a hard stop, you guys. We got about two minutes left and then we're going to get they're going to shut off the

lights. Well, I'll start shutting this down. I want to thank everybody for coming. All the uh anybody in the audience and uh

Daniel, thank you for giving it your best go on the tech side over there,

brother. Daniel's mentioned uh everyone talks about going to class but heat weld

and flashcope class. He's also saying call Jayzern out about answering about

being on the podcast. Uh so I've been called out. I know he's not in here. Um

and I see a lot of other people in here too that we should probably have on as guests as long as the topic is in your comfort zone. Um

yeah, that flash cove heat weld event coming up too. Um, and I want to add 10

seconds to add on to dots. Uh, by the way, sorry, just take a picture of that and send it to other people. So, if you are if you have a

crew that could use um, you know, some better skills in the heat welding, flash

coing, you know, uh, world, take a picture of that and send it to them, uh,

so they have the, uh, QR to get to the link. And, um, with that, we are just a

couple of minutes shy. I want to thank the guests or the I should say co-hosts. I'm a guest.

Uh yeah, every week he won't go away. Um tacos last day.

I paid with tacos. All right. So, thanks everybody for coming and hanging out with us a little bit. Uh we'll get

better at this uh on stage thing because this is not the first uh time we're going to do it. And so,

this is the first time. It's not the last. That's right. This is not the last. That's what I meant. See, that's what

the stage does. Teamwork makes the dream work, brother. All right. Well, thanks everybody for the audience out or anybody that catches

this on one of the recordings. Thanks for joining us everyone. Thank you everybody. Gracias.

Give us a like and a share and maybe a subscribe and a like and a share and get

this podcast out there. Thanks guys. We'll see you guys next Tuesday. Thank you. I shouldn't have said that.