The Huddle - Episode 191. The Next Generation: Encouraging Women to Choose the Trades – Women’s History Month
The future of the trades depends on the next generation — and that future includes more women choosing careers in skilled trades.
This week on The Huddle, Paul, Daniel, and Jose are joined by Rachel Lesczynski from TISE for an important conversation in recognition of Women’s History Month. Together, they explore how the flooring and construction industries can do a better job of encouraging, supporting, and creating opportunities for women to thrive in the trades.
From mentorship and visibility to breaking outdated stereotypes, this episode highlights the role the entire industry plays in opening doors for the next generation.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Why encouraging women in the trades matters for the industry's future
Challenges women still face entering skilled trades
How events like TISE are helping support women in flooring
The importance of mentorship, representation, and leadership
Practical ways companies and leaders can create more inclusive opportunities
This conversation is about strengthening the industry by welcoming new voices, perspectives, and talent into the trades.
Why This Episode Matters: At The Huddle Podcast, we believe Forward Progress means building a stronger industry for everyone — and that starts by supporting the next generation of skilled professionals.
⬇️ Don’t miss our sponsors who help make The Huddle possible:
🔧 ShagTools.com
Your go-to source for professional flooring tools, supplies, and accessories.
🛒 Use code HUDDLE10 for 10% off your first order!
👉 Shop ShagTools.com
🚀 Go Carrera
Build your profile, prove your skills, and connect with contractors—all in one place.
👉 Learn more at GoCarrera.com
🛠️ Stubbi Tools by Preferred Flooring
Installer-designed tools that work as hard as you do.
👉 Check out Stubbi Tools
NAFCT
NAFCT is a leading provider of flooring solutions, offering top-quality training, certifications, and support to elevate the industry.
👉 Learn more: https://www.nafct.com
🔹 Divergent Adhesives
Innovative adhesive solutions crafted for performance and reliability in the flooring industry.
👉 Check them out: https://www.divergentadhesives.com
🔗 Meet all our sponsors & partners: https://thehuddle.team/sponsors
Stay Connected & Join the Conversation!
The Huddle Podcast is where the flooring industry comes together to connect, learn, and thrive! Recognized as the #1 podcast in the flooring community, we provide an unmatched platform for professionals to discuss everything from installation techniques to industry trends.
At The Huddle, we’re all about driving Forward Progress—empowering seasoned installers, contractors, and flooring enthusiasts to grow, innovate, and lead in their craft. Whether you’re looking for real conversations, actionable insights, or inspiration to take your career to the next level, The Huddle is your home for real discussions that matter.
Want to be a guest on The Huddle? Email forwardprogress@thehuddle.team
We want to send a special shoutout to our sponsors!
FloorCloud
FloorCloud revolutionizes jobsite management with its cutting-edge platform, allowing contractors to remotely monitor ambient conditions like temperature and humidity in real-time. Paired with rugged sensors and instant mobile alerts, their technology ensures installations meet manufacturer specifications, reducing liability and enhancing quality control. Learn more at https://floorcloud.com
Go Carrera
Create your FREE Installer profile at https://gocarrera.com and become part of the future of the industry TODAY!
GET TRAINED! Find a list of training dates here: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/
Preferred Flooring
Preferred Flooring proudly introduces Stubbi Flooring Tools—designed by installers for installers. Stubbi tools are crafted for precision, durability, and ease of use, helping flooring professionals tackle any project with confidence. Explore the full Stubbi line at https://preferredflooringmi.com/stubbi
Please visit our new website! https://thehuddle.team
What is up, guys? Welcome back to the Huddle, the number one podcast in flooring. We are here every week to help
you guys gain forward progress in your career. Simply put, we're here to help you win. For all our new viewers,
welcome to the team. What's up, everybody?
What's going on? First comment with George. Um,
Jorge Georgie, he's already commenting. Thank you, Georgie. Um, all right. So,
this week's topic is next generation encouraging women to choose the trades.
With me as always, Jose and Daniel Gonzalez in their new office in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Preferred Floring. If
you don't know, now you know. Uh we got Rachel with us from Ty. And so
we got a really special guest today to uh you know kind of guide us in this
conversation and and help you know snap us back into reality when one of those
dumb dudes say something wrong. Keep us in check. Um, for all of you that didn't make it
to TIC, uh, we did a Wi-Fi uh, power hour, the women in floor covering uh,
power hour and we hosted that as the huddle and Rachel was uh, instrumental and and kind of coordinating all that
with our team and and so thank you for that opportunity. We had a great time. It sounded like you guys en enjoyed it
and and had some fun as well. Oh, for sure. Absolutely. It was one of
one of the highlights of the week for sure. Good. Good. I hope I seen everybody got over their
nerves really quick, too. I thought I just want to add to that that I thought it was really
I get it. But I thought it was pretty humorous how nervous everyone actually was. And it's like, well, what if I say
the wrong thing? How's that going to go? And then all of a sudden when it started, it just it just went.
It did. Everybody did really, really awesome. Um,
so real quick shout out to Divergent Adhesives. Sunny, Mr. Sunny, the
divergent himself, uh, is our sponsor of the day. If you have a tough project
that needs a tough adhesive, reach out to Sunny and go over and check out DG
Adhesives. Uh, they also have a really awesome one coat uh, system for moisture
mitigation. So, if you're dealing with that and you don't you don't uh you know your mitigation pro uh project does not
require a two-part, you know, epoxy mitigation system, give Sunny a call. QR
it right here and check out Divergent Adhesives. They are excellent and a great sponsor of the show. So, thank you
uh Divergent for sponsoring today's episode. All that said, Rachel, tell us a little
bit about you and and how you uh kind of got into flooring, what your role at
TICE is, all that good jazz. All right. So, first off, I'm the
conference manager for TIC. Um, this is I'm going into my third uh rendition of
the show, so learning something new still every day. uh which is really
exciting for me since I didn't come from the flooring industry. Um I have worked
on previously um different shows and events mostly within conference and so
program planning and uh that's kind of how you know moving my way
through the different industries whether it be started out in firefighting uh
Oh really? Yeah. To Yeah. to um like uh planning for
facilities. So again, using flooring uh within athletic facilities, parks and
wreck. Um, so a lot of very different very different areas, but it's funny the
things you carry from from one to the next and you see, you know, the little
similarities that are are with each industry. So I'm lucky I'm lucky to have
been with each. So So what is the um uh and jump in if
you guys have a question, but I had one for you. what is the um kind of biggest
I don't know um revelation maybe of or difference would
be probably be the best way to say it between previous conferences and did the flooring industry bring any particular
challenges or is it all about the same because you've been from firefighting to flooring uh I'm going to use that at
some point because uh we are firefighters in flooring um But what
what is the biggest differences or revelation or or whatever um in that
trans you know that Mhm. progression. Uh I would say the one
of the biggest ones or similarities I would say would be you know and this
topic of today's podcast is a big similarity you know
finding um the females in you know to break that
mold and get into the industry very similar uh differences are
I would say the educ For me, the biggest ones are the educational differences.
Uh, a lot of firefighters, EMTs need a lot of credits for continuing education.
And a lot of times in flooring, you don't see it as a necessity, which it
absolutely is, especially as you get into installation. And you know a lot of
people don't see that as um important or you know a top priority
but once they know you know how that can progress your career and and really
escalate your skill that you know
particularly with the installer but you know I mean manufacturers you would think um this would be like one of their
number one uh objectives. It kind of surprised me, does it not
you, Daniel, how uh I mean they they get involved like just enough. It's kind of
like the person just kind of dipping their toes into into the water,
but I mean 3 billion in failures a year. And some
of them do try and they'll have their own, you know, trainings and stuff like that, but it's like it's
it's one of those things where, like Rachel said, it's just too many people don't see the need. So, you can have
everything put together and then still people just not showing up. And I think that may deter them too from
just keeping keep doing it. I mean, it I know it sucks when you try to set stuff up and then people just don't show up.
Yeah. Well, like Rachel said, I mean, firefighters have CEUs. They have to
check the box or, you know, there's other trades, uh, other industries that
you have to have a certain amount of educational credits or you're not going
to be a firefighter next year or whatever it may be. Um, and that that
changing that in industry culture is, you know, kind of falls in in line with
today's topic as well about getting women into flooring, removing stereotypes and changing culture. Well,
changing the industry culture around needing to be trained and properly
educated to apply the the products in our industry. And making that, you know,
way up here on the the level of importance uh is one of the things us at
the huddle we tout and teach and preach all every week. Every week it comes up.
And and you know what blows my mind and not surprising to come from you, but is
that someone with no installation background just said how important it is to get
educated in order to to to progress in your career. Like
that that portion those couple sentences you put together right there where
they don't see how important it is that like I wrote that down because that just blew my mind, right? Like you see it
from watching everybody interact and and watching the and and listening to
conversations outside of just the installer network and you put that
together pretty yeah it's pretty funny how that came right out, didn't it?
It's just Yeah, I know. I'm I'm over here smiling like so you as a question. So you have no flooring background yet
you came up with that uh uh she recognized it. Yeah. Yeah. She recognized it's like
our own our own industry can't can't recognize it that fast. And it's like
yeah people who are 10 years in who still are in denial that education is
even needed let alone see continued education. Yeah.
Mhm. it it's and it's something it's a complete mind shift of the industry that
needs to happen to acknowledge that or recognize it or you know start prioritizing.
So yeah, I think it, you know, it does start from hearing it from other people, but also,
you know, it a lot of times it comes from the top down and a little bit of it is having some of
the guard rails and systems in place to uh have that, you know, have it to have
there be a system in place that can even make it happen. So, you know, us at the
huddle, we're we're working hard to to be purveyors of that and work uh towards
promote continuous promotion of the need. Uh and hopefully over time our
efforts turn into a requirement because I think it being a requirement is our ultimate goal is that you're you know
and it benefits us as installers. Like if you're a if you're a good installer and you're trained like
you don't want to be competing with handymen and two guys in a truck that
just started three months ago installing floors. But if they can present themselves where well that's who you're
competing against because without a mechanism to really be able to differentiate yourself in education. Uh
if you don't double down on that then you don't have a differentiating factor. It's just you're a good guy and they say
they're a good guy and you're telling both telling the general contractor or the homeowner, hey, we're both good.
Mhm. It's confusing to the consumer and hard for them to make good decisions on who
to have do their their flooring projects. So, yeah.
You know, I just got beat out by a volunteer. Actually, I just found out uh for a
nonprofit. They found a an affiliate who used to do flooring but is volunteering
their labor to do the install. Um substantially hard than us.
This is like because if if it all goes wrong there's uh they didn't lose uh lose a heck of a
lot. So Rachel, on the topic as we're talking about encouraging women here,
you've been involved with Wi-Fi, uh, as I I'm assuming even deeper than just
setting up for TIC, correct? I mean, you're are you on you're involved with Wi-Fi in a
deeper level? Is that correct? Yes. Yes, I've been on um last year or
this past year I was on their I was included in the mentorship program um
which is one of the uh
super important pieces that as women we need to, you
know, take advantage of and really get involved with because that's
how that's how you get new people into into the industry. Um, mentorship is
just huge. So, I was lucky enough to be a mentor
um this year and was also included in on
um a couple of the subcommittees for for Wi-Fi. So, yeah, getting to know all the
people, all the committees, and there's a lot going on.
Yeah, I figured that would set up a good question like what what are the biggest hurdles that wifi and tice and your role
in both of those see for like what is the hurdles for women to get into
flooring and and to be clear Wi-Fi is not promoting just installation in flooring but although
you know we could use more of that I mean the guys here have a sister that everybody knows uh Crystal that that is
just a fantastic installer. Um, and has an eye for detail and attention to
detail and and cares a lot about her quality. Um,
more of that could be you. I mean, you know, we we need more of that for sure. Um, but what do you see in your role
that's like big hurdles or big, you know, stepping stones for for women to
get into flooring? Is it, you know, just knowing about it or is it bigger than
that? I do think it's bigger than that. Honestly, I I I
think it's it's I think it's a culmination of, you know, that hurdle of getting into
it, not knowing um not having the confidence to get into it. Um
but also not having a lot of people don't see it as okay well my you know
it's it's not something that comes down the family line as far you know
a lot of girls don't grow up watching their mom install floors designing
maybe. Yeah. Um but you know it's not a lot of you know
there's not that mentor um like generational progression from the
dad or the uncle to the nephew or son. It's like yeah the mom probably wasn't
laying floors and the dad's probably not yanking his little girl out to the field.
Uh right. I I can attest that my daughter is involved in trade tap, but my son at
my flooring company runs one of our locations. Uh, and he's a team lead up
there. Um, and you know, he's been out in the field and working and doing
flooring, like getting his hands dirty since he was 13. My daughter, no, not so
much. Right. So, yeah, I can see that.
So what what can um can we attribute that because of
traditional roles like I don't want to try to get like oh like 1950s 1960s
where the traditional male role traditional female role but um are we
still in a place where now that that women are everywhere are
we still in a place where they're getting pushed towards certain portions of each industry still as far as like you said the design the sales are like
we're trying to be more inviting on the installation side right cuz the the attention to detail like Paul had said
that that uh baby sister offers is there and we we do know that there is a place
for that that type of detailed work what are what are we missing as far as being
able to attract women to that portion I mean you said there's no big push right
like the the the women aren't adopting the installation because they're not seeing their mother
do it right. Um, we watched our mother work hard so we adopt her adopted hard
work and so did my sister. So it was no big it was normal. Um, I can see that disconnect that
you're talking about but what are we missing to attract the first generation
uh of women installers who might not have been exposed to construction at all.
I think it it does start from that push of getting, you know, I I think a lot of
a lot of women are pushed into those traditional roles, whether it be sales or marketing or design within flooring.
um until they see that they can do
the installation, the estimate, the whatever whatever it may
be that isn't a traditional role for them. Um
and getting that push from, you know, male colleagues saying, "Hey, try this
out. Hey, I bet you'd be good at this." A lot of people make that first jump
into a new piece of their career from somebody saying, "Hey, you know what? I think you'd be really good at this."
Uh I wonder if there's some uh if if there's any manufacturers uh watching if
they want to comment, but is there any way to like offer free scholarship
to I I know there's scholarships for training in general, but is there any way that the scholarships could be
utilized to uh really attract uh you know women? um that just posed out
there, thrown out into the interwebs to see if uh any manufacturer wants to
chime in on that. But um it'd be interesting to me if because it's not
all I I realize it's not just a funding thing or something. It's like knowing that the opportunity is there. So, if
you did have a specific program that you could market to and and advertise that,
hey, if you're a woman looking to get in the trades, uh, or just want a rewarding career that can, you know, uh, support
you and your family, consider Floring, you know, and here, just apply to this scholarship here. It's really low line
like, do you want to be involved? Yes. and pick your course and go go claim
your scholarship and go to the course, right? And I think there's yes, a lot of
getting that new generation or that next generation of
um gals into flooring. You know, it does start at a young age um when they're
thinking they're in high school, they're in, you know, getting exposed to a lot
more of their next steps or next
opportunities for steps. Um, but also
people are changing their careers so much now. Um, they're changing
like every 3 to five years or something. Is that right? Like it seems like uh I
read that somewhere like it's every three to five years and a career change. Not just a job. It's like that's
different. It's like changing complete career path every 3 to five or
something. Yeah. I think so I I think there's
an opportunity to strike on that with you know just because somebody's not in
in flooring now doesn't mean now is not a good time. So,
and that that's what we always say too, Ray, is because people don't look at all the different things that you can do in
flooring. They just think, "Oh, it's just installation when there's so much more to do than just installing to be
part of the industry, you know, and like like we, you know, Paul was saying earlier, there it almost seems like
women are pushed into a sales or administrative role, right? And don't
get me wrong, those are needed, too." and they're muted and there there's just so much to do.
But I mean, a guy can do the administrative stuff, too. Women can install. And it's
like like how do we get this more balanced, right? And
yeah, you you probably never because of the generational thing that you mentioned earlier get to a 50/50 kind of
thing, but it would be nice to to try to find where the barriers are. um and
see if there can be some joint effort into um you know attracting them. I I
would say that the FCEF I've noticed on a lot of their stuff there there seems
to be a a fair representation of females coming through the the at that
very introduction level. And so that would kind of hearken back to what you said earlier about high school and or
and or collegeaged um individuals like you got to get in
front of them somehow and the FCEF might be doing that but there's I feel like there needs to be possibly a
wider acknowledgment because one of the other things you said was knowledge that it even exists. I mean we struggle that
I think we struggle with that as an industry overall don't you guys? Like yeah 100%
that I mean even with guys we're as an industry we don't do the best job of
saying hey this is a career path for you. I mean we were in a meeting last week where even the we talked about the
unions right and how we're partnered up with someone else. It's not just the floor layers. It's oh we're the painters
and floor layers or we're the carpenters and the floor layers right? and just looking at the like um
prevailing wage over here to get the rates. It's like you go on there and you can never find the rates. It always has
to be a question that's asked. It's like what do we what do we even pay the guys?
Yeah. like on your wage determination sheets on a government project. Um it often doesn't even have a like
it'll have painters on there, but it won't have uh you know floor layers. A
lot of times we have to do uh a uh a a filing to get what our wage
determination is. And then by the way, it's a very high wage
determination most of the time, which is crazy to me. It's great, but I'm just
saying that it's not on there and then you get it. Uh we did a job last year that the the tile guys were 62 something
an hour uh for their wage determination. Well, I mean that's that's you know
every one of our tile setters wanted to be on the job and we pay close to union wages already but then the prevailing
wage was even that plus. So, it it is I guess the bottom line is it's a good
career, but it's under represented in the trades, which is crazy because we've talked
about the numbers before. But, um, and you may know this too, Rachel, but Floor Covering Weekly puts out their annual,
you know, sales of what the industry's uh, sales were. And I think it's usually
around 25ish, give or take a billion uh, billion
dollars annually. What we do over at Trade Tap is we then take those take the
the the average pay that we uh know uh across the United States. We'll take all
the wages or all the price per square foot that's been paid out for that particular product, average it out, and
then we attach that and come up with what the wage value is, what what the
labor value of that material is. And so that I think it was uh 24 numbers, but I
think that was like $21 billion excluding epoxy
and excluding uh natural stone. So
suffice to say, our industry is probably 60 billion if or or more if you took
those two. That's a big industry to have this problem. That is huge, dude. That's
you know what I mean? Yeah. Um, we often say on here we kind of operate almost like a a mom and pop
industry. Did you get that feel? That was one of the things I was seeing if you would say that uh as going from
industry to industry setting up TC. Uh would you say that is the feeling?
There is definitely that that mom and pop feel. Um,
I know it's changed over the course of, you know, the past decadeish, but I I
there definitely is that. And I think that's how it'll always be,
you know, but there is something very uh there's comfort in that.
Yeah. As well. And it's a bit of family. And I I I don't say that we're not made up of a
bunch of mom and pop, so to speak, or small business owners in Florine. I
mean, I'm I'm one of them. Daniel and Jose own prefer flooring and Grand
Rapids and they're one of them. And we're so as a industry though I feel
like if if if we just operate we just act as though we're we're uh we don't
have to act that way as an industry. It's too big. We got to have better programs and better approaches to
um labor in particular because that's going to one thing um how how uhversed
are you in AI? not necessarily how to use it, but kind of how it's a affecting the economy and such a little bit.
I I think I'm well verssed and then something new happens and I'm not. So,
yeah, I feel the same way. I think I'm well verssed and then next week comes and AI changed again.
Yep. What one of the things and I've mentioned it on the podcast here plenty of times, but that it was last year was
the first year that um our GDP went up, but our jobs went down. So as a country
and it's just yeah I mean it's obvious that it was an AI influenced thing
but one of the things that was really uh particular um in an article I read that was kind of
hit me particularly was that the things that aren't going away people still even
though a lot of the stuff is automated people are going to still want to have nice things right they're going to want
to have a nice place a nice home a nice finishing a nice whatever And so what we do isn't going away just
because of all that. What we do is going to become more important. The I think
what AI is going to bring is a more advanced um and more
uh educated purchaser which is where we should be doubling
down on installation talent and our industry, our labor side of our
industry. um they're going to be able to select materials
in a different manner. Like sales I could see being one of those things that get hit a little hard in the retail
industry just as this just my opinion. I have nothing to back this up other than just working through it in my head. But
the more and more the and the reason I say that is there's evidence that more and more owners or homeowners or
business owners are going to the store already knowing what they want or
already having a good idea of what they want. Are you guys do you guys think that too?
Oh, it's happening in real time right now. Um you get a phone call and say, "Hey, I'd
like to get an estimate on my flooring." uh this is what we selected. This is what we want.
We were thinking about 10 years ago, dude. That never happened. They may have done a Google search and said, "Hey, I I kind of think this looks
cool or that looks cool, but not as this product and this color and
that's it." Well, it is knowing the average prices. Yeah, that's another thing. Pricing.
Well, the one thing that surprised me was knowing the failures that and the troubles that they were h that the
industry is having with specific materials. That was the biggest thing. It's like I really like the color of
this SPC, but I really don't want to deal with all the issues that have been going on with it. So, this WPC is the
closest that I found. And it's like, is somebody like undercover like trying
to call me right now like trying to do some some work? No, it's real client. Like they're
they're literally walking around with their phone like I do and saying, "Hey, Chad, what do you think the best flooring is?"
That's what we call Chad GPT Chad over here. Yeah. His name
You need to know that he's not asking person. We named it before naming your AI was
the thing. Yeah. So, you know, and then then Chad will spit out all that information and
say, "Hey, these are things to look for. this is the, you know, and it's awesome that that's happening. And I think that
that's um something to build on for anybody in the flooring industry. Just
well, it shows you where we need to be differentiating ourselves from someone else. And it's our labor ability and our
our labor quality and our professionalism and things like this.
That's that's where we have the ability to separate ourselves and win win work.
And that only happens with training with women coming into flooring and showing
that that that it's not this, you know, I I know that who is we talking to? I
forget the lady that we were talking to, but she had a woman floor uh on the podcast. It was around marketing, but
she had said something about having uh a woman come to her house uh to give her a
quote on something. And she was like, I I'm a single
like a single mom and I just prefer to have uh a woman doing my work. And I I
it's such a a a there's so much opportunity around that just that one
thing that how how we can get that to be fulfilled is is part of like a great um
I think a great passion of us here at the huddle is like how do we bring more people in uh and at the same time
require you know keep it equitable of not just
like you're a woman so you get the same equality quality from that standpoint, but like equitable in the way that the
training is available, the opportunities are there, and that you can compete with
guys as long as you are and baby sister. I adopted her as baby sister.
Everyone adopted her as baby sister. Yeah. Um, you know, she's proven it like
she's competed on the biggest stage with with men. So, it's it's possible uh for
that to be a reality. And um yeah, so I I would love if if
there was some some programs that could make that happen, but still keep the you
know, the installation quality the the main objective. And and I think that's why, you know,
the women in flooring and their mentorship program is so key, right?
Because uh when we'll be honest, when Crystal competed,
Baby Sister, she did not want to. And it's like, you're ready. Like, I decided I signed you up already. I already know.
I was going to say one of you guys signed her up or something, didn't you? Uh yeah. Well, she wasn't signed up at
the time that Daniel told her she was, but she was mentally signed up because Daniel did it in his head first
and never told her that he didn't. But you signed her up, right?
you just kind of signed her up and at the end of the day, she went and competed and did well.
Well, sometime that that's what it takes sometimes and maybe that's maybe that's the point that we're missing, right? And and to get back on to the uh the women
and what we doing to attract them. Like, dude, I started thinking about that and I wrote a couple things down. I was like, most women by the time they hit
middle school, not high school, already know what their colors they're going to have for their wedding. They know what type of life lifestyle they're they're
they want to live. they know what type of career they're going into, right? And
maybe that little push that Daniel's talking about, he did with Crystal is what is needed um at some of the younger
uh stages in life or even some of the older, I guess, to kind of divert some attention to the flooring industry. Um
maybe they have some hand skills that that that they don't know they have. Yeah.
Yeah. And um Well, that's a good question to In your guys's experience, did Crystal like did
she have like undiscovered hand skill? Was that a reality for you guys or was
it like we knew who she was right out of the gate?
It was um so she's pretty competitive too, right?
And she grew up with a couple of brothers that were like, "Haha, I'm better than you. Haha." So that you know
she had to prove something and uh h having growing up in sports and having that competitive nature um naturally
helps anyone become better and you know you'll find some hand skills if you're
competitive and you don't want your big brothers saying haha you can't do this you and so that that's what pushes
anyone and yes she had natural abilities um visually and on the technical side
with the hand skills Um, but it's still it's still an ability that you have to practice. You got to
hone. Um, you know, just like, well, she'd have never known it without I mean, I guess I don't really know the
origin story, so I don't want to hijack it for that, but how did she get in? Was
she just following you guys or how did Crystal get into Florida? She also started as a temporary. It was
like a hey, um, I don't have a job right now. Do you guys need some help? And we
were like, yeah. and she was and then uh she she stuck around and then she got
pregnant and she was like, "All right, I'm going to have a baby, so I'm going to stop doing this and then I'm going to
go work at a gas station." And then I think uh she pretty much worked up until
like month eight of her pregnancy. Yeah. Well, she'd stayed an extra week
too long because she ended up cutting herself pretty bad after we told her not to come to work.
And then uh she was like, "Yeah, I'm going to take this job over here at this gas station." I think she worked there
for a couple days. I don't even know if she remember if she worked there or not, but she was like, "Yeah, can I just come
back?" Well, she sounds like just like the way
most uh people get into flooring, which is like, "Oh, I just want went to work
for my uncle over the weekend, try to earn a couple of extra bucks and did
that for a few weeks and then doing it for 30 years. Yeah, I've been helping him out for 25
years now." You know what? And you just made me realize too and to add to like the the
mom pop type uh nostalgia if you will the flexibility um of
working in this industry, right? Like some some roles have more flexibility than others, but if we're a smaller Mod
Podge shop, there's a lot more flexibility through some aspects uh here than there would be
at a gas station or a fast food or a a factory. Um, so that that is real and
that's also attractive that could be used to attract other talent as well.
Yeah. One of the things I just wanted to real quick uh Kevin, I'll get you a
huddle t-shirt, brother. We'll get you one of them awesome huddle t-shirts. I've got a few.
Um, yeah. So when when you're doing the setup for Ty and you're you're involved
in that obviously that's a really big deal. I mean that's a big show. Um
is is your side of it so is on the Ty side when you're setting it up are you
guys and I mean you guys are women well are they involved in the the that
industry the event setup seems like something they'd be pretty involved with. It is. Yes. Uh our team is primarily
made up of of women. Um and we're very
fortunate to have, you know, some of our our biggest or our longest employees on
the show have been with the with the show for, you know, 20 25 years. Like
they are very seasoned. um and ingrained in you know the Tyson
surfaces brand um which is a huge
benefit for us uh but it
me personally I've learned so much from them because they've been around
flooring so long and you know this side of flooring so here's here's how things
have changed you know on we're kind of on the outside, but kind of on the
outside, kind of on the inside. So, we've got like this nice little dichotomy there. But having uh
having that role is it's a it's an interesting interesting
thing for us. But well, it's interesting to know that what we go and enjoy every year is primarily
kind of put together by women and and assembled and and organized. And that's pretty cool. Uh yeah,
it kind of shows you that something it there's really no limits. That's the thing. And so it seems to me that
knowledge, opportunity, and uh knowledge, opportunity, confidence,
and generational progression are the hurdles that we've kind of identified.
Like, yeah, you're not taking your little girl to the job site very often.
I've seen some videos of little dudes out there with kickers. Uh I don't know that I've seen any videos with little
ladies out there with kickers. Get some of those. Oh, you got Yeah. Well, I mean, if you
have them, shoot them to me. But, uh I've seen a few of the videos with, you know, a dad takes his son and get him
kicker and he's teaching him how to kick carpet in or or what have you. Um so
cute. But that generational progression is probably one. Well, certainly one I
had never thought of and is is always going to be there, I think.
And so that's just part of the uh I wouldn't say it's part of the problem. It just is a one of the reasons why the
knowledge isn't there that it's possible to be a flooring uh installer. I would
argue myself that if woman or man, if
you can spend just a little time learning how to install before you go to any other portion of the flooring
industry, you will be greatly rewarded for that. Like you'll know things,
you'll sell better, you'll estimate better. Uh, one of our estimators back in um, mid 2000s was a a
female who uh, she was out in the field working with her husband at a subcontracting crew uh, for a few years
prior to um, getting into the estimating field and she was a better estimator for
it. Much better estimator for it. Understanding the process helps a ton.
Yeah. I will say for from my end having
like going to each of our regional installation competitions and then being
very heavily involved in the on-site competition and putting that together.
I think it was my right after the first one I went regional I went to I thought
man I I want to know more. I want I want to do this and uh you know it just got
me wanting to learn more. Am I going to you
I don't know but it it you see that uh the passion and the perfection and the
skill that people have and you want to be a part of it. And that's the thing too, right? it it
you don't necessarily have to be hands-on with it and installing, but you're still learning, right? And you're
still one of the biggest cheerleaders for the flooring industry. And that's
one of the the biggest things is you don't have to be on your hands and knees, but you're still like, you see
that need and you're still cheering for it. You're like, I see this, you know, putting my eyes on it. And it is it's
Yeah, we got to get out there, get it out there more. Even the regionals, get that exposed more. I think we've talked
offline about this. Uh, you know, the huddle like bringing it live and and
commentating at some regionals would maybe help get some additional exposure to that skill set. And the a lot of uh
the like influencer females that do flooring or any of the trades, there's
um um women on there that are, you know, doing drywall and painting and different
stuff. But the ones that are in flooring or any of the trades, like I said, um they they
learned it. They got introduced maybe the way the crystal did, but they love
the detail. I see them in tile the most. Like they really love the detail and the artisansship, the the artistry that goes
into it. And I I can't help but think that that's attractive. And uh we just
got to get it out there a little bit more. like the the uh you know
a lot of times my experience and I have not had the pleasure of like working
you know tool belt to tool belt with a female in the field but um
most of the guys we want to like just push forward on like all this quantity
and all this and um you know that attention attention
to detail comes through if you watch some of these gals online. Yeah, I think um so next week is the
Spanish episode of the podcast and Jorge is supposed to have on U Melinda
Rodriguez which is one of the the tile influencers, right? She does some amazing work and
and like you said, a lot of them primarily are in the tile field when you're talking about the flooring
industry, but like you said, there's the the drywall or the painters. It's you don't really see a lot of them in the
carpet resilient world like you do everywhere else. And well, that that might that might be
because tile is not a it's not one of the things you can hurry up and go. That is true artistry when you start getting
into the the detailed formats um and designs and
I just well you know we're when you're talking about somebody who does artistry work I
mean Kevin uh he he could attest to that. I also think that, you
know, Jorge and what he does with area rugs and things like that, that is like
we're going to do some some stuff with Jorge to help expose what he does. I hope. Um because I think females would
love that side of things, creating area rugs and learning how to surge them and put them in and and all of that stuff
and and runners and and the stuff that that Jorge does. Now the none of us want
to I'm thankful that the industry at least in the commercial world has the
carpet side of the world has went to modular products so much compared to roll goods. I mean, I about broke my
back a thousand times carrying, you know, carpet that that doesn't belong on
a human shoulder to to up two flights of stairs, you know. So,
just a it's one of those deals that I don't think anybody wants to do that. So, but
it does make sense that that's why they're in the the tile. And I I think the resilient world, you get into flash
coing, heat weld, and even just some inlays and all that, you could see that detail and that artistry coming through
in those products and and I think perfectly suits a female's demeanor in
that, especially the welding part. I will say that she did get better at the welding
very quickly. Uh, and she was coming behind doing all of the welds at one point and
the attention to detail for that was there. Yeah. So, Kevin's talking about
promoting regionals now. And Kevin, I I I think one of the things we're we're
hoping to do with the huddle is team up with Ty to bring as much exposure as possible to the regional events. and uh
we'll we'll keep you uh in touch here on the huddle to let you know how that that effort is going.
Uh Rollins says, "I started to see more women start working in the industry when laminates came out. They were working
with their husbands or a boyfriend." So, you know, I have seen a few teams that's
even worked for us that are uh brother sister and husband and and wife kind of
teams. Um, that's interesting. He says when laminants came out. I mean,
they're coming out again. Yeah, they are. I mean, I guess from a installation standpoint, there's
obviously some technical diff differences between them, but essentially modular,
you know, I don't know the biggest category I can put, but like modular
wood or modular uh resilient products is probably the easiest way to say it. But
peel and stick LBT, brother.
Well, and I also know that one other thing that if you watch a lot of the DIY shows, there's a lot of husband and
wives in there and a lot of the the representation, women are doing the tile
work and the bathrooms and things of this nature. It does seem to be tile pretty heavy, frankly. But
it's still flooring. Let's get them in. the the husband and u and wife dynamic
works great because one's design and one is construction. Well, in some of those though, the the
woman is not just designing, which I can appreciate, makes her better designer. Again, I think that a little bit of
installation knowledge and background makes you better at the other parts that
you may be good at already, but you can just become phenomenal at it. I gave you
the example of my estimator. She her name was Tina and she was she was a good estimator and she I think was much
better suited because she did install for several years. I got asked today by the owner of the
building who did our our color scheme. There you go. I was like uh
little does she know it's just what we had on the shelf.
Yeah. With the paint and everything. Yeah. Well, as we're wrapping up and kind of uh closing out the topic, um I
think that, you know, as many eyes as we can get on the opportunities is our is
what we can do here at the huddle and TIC continues to do. Um you know, show
up, go to TIC. If you're a female and you're just even curious, go check it out. Go to Ty. Uh, I'll bet you could
get a hold of Rachel and get get some some uh, you know, get into the show. I
mean, the show's not expensive to go to. You can get shown around. Uh, you get
hooked up with Wi-Fi and they'll they'll take you around and show you all the opportunities. And the opportunities
um they span from you know everything from design manufacturing
a lot of women influence what we put in. That's one place where they're they're
pretty heavily represented. They influence what we're what we're installing. Um, so from manufacturing
and all the way through into actually putting this these beautiful products on the floor.
So, you know, check out Ty and uh yeah, come see us next year at Ty. We're
always there and Wi-Fi is always there and so it it's a it's a great opportunity kind of explore.
What's that said? Rachel was for sure going to be there. We were just talking about how you you end one show and then
it's like, all right, what's happening next year? All right, let's talk about 27 and 28 and
yeah, we're constantly thinking in the future. Let's close it out with that. What is
the uh progression of the show? I'd love to know um like as soon as the show's
over, are you guys already taking notes during that show? like, hey, we should do this next year and and taking notes
or how does that even before we step on to or into Mandalay Bay, we're already planning for
2020 for the next year. So, it's it happens
sooner than you think. It sneaks up on you every year, but it
it's like, all right, well, what what are some of the key components you guys look for in a successful show?
The energy plays into the a successful show, you know, whether that be
manufacturer or exhibitor or attendee energy. If people are engaged and, you
know, talking and happy and you can tell, you can just feel a good energy
when you step onto a show floor or in the classroom or, you know, even beforehand.
Um, I I think what we send out has, you know, it we want to portray, you know,
good energy and good. It sounds a little woo woo, but, you know, it's
Well, yeah. Nobody wants to go to some somber show, so you got to keep the the energy high. Do you guys like have a
rating at the end of a show or anything like that that says this show was a eight out of 10 or a nine out of 10 or a
four out of 10 or whatever? Yeah, we do actually. We have so the day
after the show we send out uh a survey to all attendees, all exhibitors and
on that that's what we get our ratings.
So uh this past year was we rated very
highly um over the year prior. So, it's always kind of moving up and that's it's
it's exciting to see and uh you know I went the year after COVID when it
first opened back up. That was a small kind of somber filling show. I'll tell you that that's a that's a tough year
and it was like 114 degrees 117.
and and kind of just it did open up opportunities to have,
you know, longer one-on-one conversations cuz busy shows you are lucky to talk to somebody you may want
to talk to for 10 minutes. Yeah. So, it did present some opportunity
there, but it was definitely one of them you could just feel the energy. So, it's not woo woo. You can It's something you
can feel when you're at the show. if it's an exciting show, things are happening. We had a a wonderful I
enjoyed the show a lot this year. So, um I'm I'm glad that everybody else seemed
to uh it sounds like from your surveys and from what you guys feel.
I was there. I didn't get a survey and I just thought about the reason why is that those emails that that we had were
were discontinued. probably got cancelled. I just thought about that.
Um, but no, so make sure your email is up to date with Ty. Yeah,
I'll send it to you. Okay, fair enough. Beautiful. Well, Rachel, it was a
pleasure to have you on today and talk about this topic and and kind of help guide us through what you see. You you
have a lot of visibility in in the position that you're in. And I will echo
one more time what Jose uh noticed is it's incredible that you're able to
notice one of our biggest deficiencies in our industry right out of the gate
like that. And I think it's a call to all of us to make sure that we're doing everything we can to take steps to
improve our industry. And that's a big blanket term that means we need to be
more professional. We need to be more dependable. We need to be more uh
educated on the installation techniques so that we can execute our projects and our jobs with the utmost of
professionalism and quality. And that's what's going to improve our industry's visual from uh at least in the
commercial world. A lot of times we're looked at as, and this is changing a bit, but uh you know, we could be looked
at as the lowest trade on the totem pole in some on some projects. Um in
residential, I don't know how much that plays in, but uh the few residential jobs I do, the homeowners seem to be
much more uh appreciative of us being there and love the fact that we're
improving their home. commercial. They're like, "Just get it done and get out of our way." You were supposed to be done last week.
Well, you just hired me. You were supposed to be done two weeks ago. We just started yesterday.
All right. Well, thanks everybody for joining us today. Another shout out to uh Divergent Adhesives. Make sure to
give Sunny some love and Divergent Adhesives. Check them out. Uh they got a
wonderful adhesive line and they are there to tackle your your hardest projects. Um, look, I have
time frames that we were just talking about, that kind of stuff. A gallon right behind me. I didn't even
try and set that up. That's why I moved the thing because it was like we were I was just using it yesterday and then it
just stayed there and it's like perfect place. Beautiful.
Okay. Well, thank you guys for all the comments and if you guys are catching us live, we appreciate you so much for
joining us live. we it helps with uh keep the conversation going when you guys are commenting and we really
appreciate that. Um like Jorge and Daniel pointed out it
next week if you are Spanish speaker please join the huddle uh in espanol for
uh a great conversation. Jorge does a great job of leading that uh podcast and
uh bringing our Spanish speakers into the fold of the huddle. uh Melinda Rodriguez,
as you see on the screen here, ceramic tile and stone influencer will be there with him. So, make sure to get in, chime
in, and uh support the uh the huddle in in Spanish. So, with that, guys, uh
we're going to close it out this week. We appreciate it. Uh make sure to give us a like and subscribe.
Remember that that is the fuel to our fire and keeps us going every week. Thank you again, Rachel, for joining us
and uh participating in the huddle. We really love it. I still can't get that
to happen on my screen. Uh but we really appreciate you uh attending today and
and helping us out with this great conversation. You bet. Thank you. All right. Thanks everybody. We'll see
you guys next week. Thank you.
