Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Well, good day, everyone, and welcome to the Cutting Edge Install Podcast brought to you by Omni Cubed, where innovation meets installation, and quite literally between those two, everything in between. I am your host, Merv Campbell, and it's an absolute pleasure to have you with us. Whether you're listening, whether you're watching, wherever you are, it's good to have you here. What is this podcast all about? Well, if you've never listened before, shame on you. Go back and do it. But this podcast is about our celebrities. For Celebrating Pro, for those who are the movers and the shakers and the experts in their field, we dive into stories, we share content, we have insight from them, and we tend to have a laugh along the way if we possibly can. Obviously, the accent gives it away. The Irish know how to have fun. So you're on for a pretty good time. Whether you're on the job, whether you're on the road, whether you're looking to stay sharp, you have come to the right place. So let's get cracking. I have Andrew with me today.
Andrea, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on our podcast.
Basically. First question for listeners who maybe don't know you, who are you? How did your journey start in glass? And what on earth put you in the world of custom design and fabrication?
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Well, thank you for having me. It's great to be on and yeah, definitely interested in what you're doing here.
Yeah, I've been in the business for this will be year five.
Before that I was in fire protection.
I went to school and somehow ended up in construction, just like my great grandpa, my grandpa and my dad, even though I said I wasn't going to pulls you back in because somehow it's in your blood and you don't even realize it.
The construction when I was 20 years old didn't sound very cool, but it's kind of where I'm at now and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.
But yeah, so I was in actually in New Orleans doing fire protection. I opened up a branch down there, fire sprinklers and alarms, and had a couple kids down there and born and raised in Minnesota. And in the meantime, my dad had retired and bought a business and he kind of saw it as this custom glass kind of a hobby business. And he realized pretty quickly that it was a bigger business than that and he needed some help.
So he pulled me on as general manager and then later president to kind of oversee that company. And yeah, it was, I think custom glass is how it always was, but it was you know, kind of a focus on the fabrication side of it. You know, these are artisans that were, you know, went to school for glass fusing and graphic design. And, you know, they were coming together with the most know, cutting edge techniques to really, you know, dig into, you know, a creative way to come up with a new product or some project that's never been done before. And that was kind of, you know, 1984, I think, is when it was created by two artisans. And it kind of grew in reputation in the, in the Minnesota and the Twin Cities area as these guys will tackle anything. And as that went on, we'll tackle different hardware, we'll tackle different projects, big, small, whatever.
And you know, over the years, we just kind of started getting the attention of residential contractors more than anything because they had the appreciation for the quality installation a little bit more than, you know, some of the commercial. Not that that doesn't exist, but there's, you know, a high end residential luxury home. They've got someone looking very closely as opposed to maybe an apartment building or a hotel. It's not quite the same degree.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: That is quite. That totally. Yeah. You get the high end with the old magnifying glass side checking every little thing.
Oh, man, that can be very intimidating.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: No, I can't see it from 12 inches away because I'm in the shower and I see a little scratch there.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Oh. And you're like, no, don't look at it. No. That's funny. That is funny. So basically got pulled in was part of the wider scheme. But was there ever a moment or was there ever a project where it really confirmed, right. This is where I need to be is what I really need to do.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I think, you know, as an fire sprinklers, fire alarms, fire extinguishers, there's not something that my wife was interested in hearing about at the dinner table. It wasn't very exciting or sexy or anything like that.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: And by nature, I mean, it's a, it's a good business. It's a solid recurring revenue business.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: And I like that side of it. So, you know, I was chasing oil refineries and hotels and I thought that was kind of cool.
But the actual business, you know, the, the product wasn't very interesting. And you know, the first week I started here, probably the first month, I just am like, man, we're inventing new ways of doing things and new products every.
Almost every day.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: Which is, it's like, you know, not, not something maybe we could patent, but you know, a Better way of doing something or a new way, or a new, just a completely new design.
And I thought that was pretty interesting. And, you know, as the projects got bigger and more complex, it was kind of cool to see everyone collaborate. And, you know, I'm kind of more of a people person. I like to get everyone together and, you know, make decisions and think through. I kind of like when there's a really hard problem to solve, really, really complex thing. And, you know, I think that's what really gets me going. And, you know, as I got more into the industry, I just made more relationships and, you know, met more of the, the actual builders, the contractors.
And as you start to do that, it becomes part of you and you become part of the industry. And I think at that point, probably a year or two in, that's when I really got sucked in. And I think it's the relationships.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. It so is. And this industry and the glass industry is, it's renowned for it. And people on the outside, they think they know what it's like when you're actually in the midst of it, but until you're in it, then you realize, wow, there's something special about these group of people. And to your point, it is the. Every day there are new challenges, there are difficulties, and you can either stick your head in the sand and hope it goes away, or like you pull everyone together and be like, right, let's sort this out.
And what's sad is the type of you is getting less and less and the more of the, well, that's not my job, let's just push it onto someone else. It's becoming more and more. So what's really cool is people like yourself, they kind of of stand like a sore thumb and suddenly like this podcast like on LinkedIn or I've heard of like WhatsApp groups where there's a guy like yourself who's the so called, like, expert because they've been there, kind of done it and seen it and who love to problem solve and they're helping a group of other people, like, how do I do this? Has anyone got any tips? And then the next thing, boom.
Andrew chimes in with, hey, have you tried this? Which is phenomenal because you're not taking it to your grave, you're not holding onto it. It's like, hey, we're in this together, let's sort it out. So, yeah, that's pretty darn cool.
Keep doing what you're doing.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you're right. No, I mean, it's at the point where it's like you're not sharing trade secrets or anything, but it's an instance of something that we ran into that we want to help. And it's. I don't know what it's like in other industries. I only know, you know, Minnesota. But everyone's very helpful and collaborative and, you know, hey, I. We broke a piece of glass. Do you have any in stock that you could help us out with? And I think everyone here is really, really helpful in that regard. You know, we've got a lot of industry peers that are, you know, more than interested in helping each other out.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Totally. We, obviously, California is where Omnicube does, and we have the California Glass association, which is an awesome gathering of people, because what's cool is there's so many different shops, so many different people, so many different experts.
And what they do is they tend to have, like, nights out. Like, they'll go to topgolf or they'll do these different events. And it's not like everyone's on the same level.
And so they're like. You hear conversations of, well, I ran into this issue and someone will chime in with, well, did you think of this?
And so, yeah, it's phenomenal to see that sort of teamwork and camaraderie, not just in one company, but kind of in the collective group of all things glazing. So, yeah, no, it's a remarkable industry. But sort of getting back to you, then, you kind of blend sort of technical craftsmanship with design.
But what makes your shop different from, say, a traditional glass fabrication business?
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think maybe I'll explain, you know, what we do a little bit, and then I'll kind of go into that question. So, I mean, glassware design, we've been around, like I said, it was two, you know, glass artisans who started a business in 1984, and they just wanted cool stuff for the casinos and the hotels and the fused glass. And, you know, we've got, you know, we've got stained glass, we have carving, we have painting.
You know, we do. We do a really unique carving where we've got, like, dunes in the glass and, you know, all that kind of stuff where you can light it up. And we've got kilns, so we've got big four by eight kilns, which, you know, is pretty unique. So we're able to slump. You know, big doors, big, big glass panels in there. Any design we want, any shape, any, any. Any texture, all hand down. And then we do fusing too. So any colors we can actually fuse. We have like four. Four layers of quarter inch glass, you know, shattered. And then we can fuse it together to a 1 inch countertop.
We do, you know, we. We stock a lot of antique mirror and pattern glass. So that's kind of, you know, we have a lot of customer like cabinet companies come to us a lot. That's a big kind of known. They've known about us for 40 years.
But you know, beyond all that, I mean there's, you know, we do metal, you know, like different things with metal and glass and paint, sandblasting and you know, gradients and you know, all that kind of unique stuff. But it's because of that we attract creative people who know a lot about all these different. And everything every day is different. So there's always a new thing, a new project and how do we have it all come together.
And because of that, you know, we. We just say yes to everything. And so the.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Which be careful.
[00:10:53] Speaker A: That could be good. Our vibes.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: So, you know. Yeah, you got to create a.
A minimum, you know, amount about.
You're not just putting mirror on a cabinet door. You know, like whatever you got to do A little bit bigger than that.
Yes to a lot of the big projects. And it gets us into some pretty cool places. And you know, the, the secret weapon is that I am willing to take on any project because I am so confident in the knowledge that we have of people with. I mean, you know, some guys have 30 years experience, some guys have 20.
You know, some guys, they came from stained glass and then they came into, you know, custom fab. You know, and there's all these different people that all come from different, different areas. I mean, we've got someone.
She went to school for University of Wisconsin. River Falls is a, you know, very prominent. It's like a glass. Like a glass program. So she has a bachelor in fine arts in glass. So it's kind of glass blowing and fusing.
But now she does it on a large scale with these big kilns. And when she's done here, she'll go to her other job, which is to teach people how to fuse glass. It's just like no way in the blood. And you know, you've got all this experience, dude. We've been able to just really take advantage of that. And I mean there's true artisans. It's not just.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: To make a big fused panel, you have to know like, okay, with this size and this co. You know, this coe of glass and how it's going to fuse over a certain time, has to be 1500 degrees, but then cool down for two weeks to this. That's all technical, but then actually have the creative artist, layer artistry to be able to make it pretty. And yeah, about the quality and the detail is a very unique skill.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: That's legit, man. Dang, that's so cool. I love the fact that, you know, day job. Yeah, let's get that done, but then let's teach some other people. That's, that's because what that does is it cements everything that's in your brain because you can't teach something you don't know alone. I say that, but that's actually happening a lot these days. So maybe scrap that out of this.
Yeah. Oh my word, it's everywhere. But to be able to do that, that's one thing that's so cool because we try to do that here in our machine shop where we have two phenomenal engineers who are legit, but they're not going to be around forever.
And the skills they have pass it on. It's so cool to see. That's awesome.
So you kind of talked a little bit about your employees.
Obviously you've got a lot of trust in taking on a ton of jobs because you know what they're able to accomplish. But as a company, how did you build that trust and that level of reputation in a market in Minneapolis? That's like pretty difficult.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think part of it is just, you know, that we would say yes to everything, you know, and I think, you know, you've got these fabricators and you've been able to attract good people over the years.
And there's always been this, you know, when, when you do custom stuff like this a lot, you have to, you really have to, you know, dot your I's and cross your T's and you, you learn pretty quickly, oh, I'm going to do this really unique thing. But, you know, we forgot about this, you know, one type of hardware that we need and now the whole thing doesn't work.
And so like what we do is, you know, we've got quality checks so we, you know, we check in every piece of glass. We have buffet edge it or reject it. And we reject, we reject a lot of glass. And you know, the temporary, the tempering plants know that. They just know that they're going to reject a lot of, you know, and you know, the, the upside of that is that we've developed trust for quality with all these high end luxury Builders. So, you know, over years, over, you know, 20 years of us delivering on, you know, big atriums and partitions and, you know, shower doors and mirrors and, you know, everyone's trying to push the bounds that we're always saying yes and meeting the demand and being able to, being able to do it.
At some point you've developed that reputation. So, you know, when I came aboard, you know, we were kind of known like in, in everyone's mind was that we're a fabrication shop that really does really unique, cool things. We give pattern glass to the cabinet companies and we give antique mirror and we'll, we'll do all types of whatever holes you want, whatever shapes you want, you know, and like, you know, that was kind of the perception. But I looked at the top customers every year and it's, you know, like the top three are all custom builders. And I'm like, are we really a fab shop or are we a fab shop on an installation shop? And for, for us to, you know, really grow that. It was, you know, it took a lot of legwork, took a lot of work. But, yeah, what helped is I had the, the wind at my sails is, you know, I could walk in and say, I'm with glass art design.
And they already knew who I was and they knew I had a reputation for high quality working with the top luxury builders. And that trust factor was already there a little bit. So that helped a big, A big degree and, you know, consistency over decades.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah. It's only.
You're only kind of as good as your last job, some people would say. And it's important to have that, you know, attention to detail like it seems like your crew definitely has, because if you're rejecting a lot of grass, clearly it sits.
Oh, man. Yep. That's funny. But Kay, obviously clients, we know who you're after. You don't really say no to any work. But how does getting into the work then? How does innovation or technology play into your work from sort of day to day? Do you have like specific software? You don't have to say what it is, obviously, but, you know, maybe you do. Is there any machines, tooling, whatever, that kind of helps the day to day running of what you do?
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I'd say on the machine side, the equipment side, we're a little bit, you know, traditional. We're not very, we're not very modern. You know, we've got, you know, we paint by hand, we do the stained glass by hand. We do a lot of our cutting by hand. You know, we don't. We, you know, the, the most used machine in our, in our shop is the edger, you know, just polishing that, polishing the edges, you know, and, you know, a lot of belt sanders. We have a, a mistral and, you know, we've got the kilns and then. But, you know, that's kind of, that's. Those are our main machines and you know, a drill press and a beveler, which don't get me started on beveling machines, they're always down. I'm sure everyone in the glass industry knows that.
But. Yeah, I mean, I think when I came aboard I thought, okay, I'm coming from fire sprinklers, bunch of pipe fitters. And they were not into technology.
I come here and it's stained glass artists who use paper, you know, stacks of paper for every job. And it was, it was a bit of a change.
The, the accounting system was not lined up with the, the, the ERP system. There's no CRM system. There was, you know, there was no, it was like the ERP system was just, this is how we write up the work orders. But, you know, you're not going to be able to use QuickBooks. That's just for accounting. And yeah, I think within the first year I integrated all that because it was, you know, turn it into something we could scale up. Yeah, we've reached the point where we've almost, we've almost reached its capacity. I mean, QuickBooks is really meant for that. QuickBooks enterprise, you know. Oh, it's an enterprise software, but not the way we're using that.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: No, that's our data files limited.
Yeah.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: So we're trying to get more of a field software. We got some tablets and that's kind of our 2026 goal is to put, you know, all. To get rid of all paper. I mean, we'll never, we'll never get rid of all paper. No, but, no, but it's the idea of get rid of paper is kind of the bigger theme. And yeah, it gets, it's so much better if you can, you know, attach everything to this tablet. They can go through, scroll through notes in real time, scheduling, all that kind of dispatching that can happen in real time that right now has happened. It's Outlook Calendar and phone calls and QuickBooks and that's our system. But we're trying to integrate and upgrade a little bit.
[00:19:32] Speaker A: That's awesome. Yeah, it can be a fearful thing.
And a lot of these systems nowadays, because, funny, you Say that we're looking at improving some even for us as well.
And it's garbage in, garbage out.
And it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort by someone or a group of people to make it. Cause it doesn't come out of the box specifically for you.
Funnily enough, even though on the first call they're saying, listen, this will do whatever you want. We can make it work. And then you're like 20 phone calls deep going, this doesn't do what you told me it would do. Come on.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah, they were trying to change the way you do business in the process.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Yeah, totally this way.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Because it fits our software better.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Yeah, totally. You're like, excuse me, who's paying who here? But, you know, you're kind of at one point stuck to it. But it is good to automate as much as possible.
Here we have a company that supplies us with vending machines. Not for sodas or chips or nuts. It's actually for tooling.
And it takes a lot of pressure off the like of myself or our assembly manager for, for instance, a little bottle of Loctite to like, Loctite, screws and bolts in place.
We used to always have to be like, okay, we're down to a couple of bottles. I'd need a reorder. And what's cool is on the vending machine, you just. You pull one out, you pull two out, and there's a max min level. When it gets to there's only three left. The guy shows up, fills it up, and boom. You don't have to think about it.
And that even in itself, just taking some of the pressure off. And then you can focus time and energy somewhere else.
You go, really? And you're going, actually, when you do it, you realize every minute is very valuable. And you've gotta make every minute count.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that's someone spending like two hours a week trying to do that, probably otherwise.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Exactly. Running around. And then suddenly you find a bottle and you're like, oh, I didn't need to order it. And it's like, oh, let's get rid of that. So, yeah, automation is a key to a certain point. And then it gets too much and you're like, okay, whoa, let's just hold back a little bit. So, yeah, no, it's good. So obviously you've got some real flare people in your building, people who are artistic in all they do. But how do you keep. Like, how do you reign those people in? Because obviously it needs to be precise. It needs to have functionality, you know, there's complex installs, there's like custom pieces. How do you let people have flair but also be like, hey, it's gotta fit inside this parameter?
[00:22:19] Speaker B: That's a good question. I mean, I think, you know, a lot of the flare happens on the front end. You know, with we've got a graphic designer and you know, I think some of that stuff happens. We create samples and you know, people have inspiration images.
So at the end of the day, you know, this, this work order that they're being handed, it's very specific. It needs to be this size exactly. It needs to be this match, this color sample exactly. It needs to match this design exactly.
So, you know, in the process, there's not much happening on that level.
I think where it really shines is the creativity is when you say, you know, like, we spent a ton of time, years trying to come up with a recycled glass countertop. You know, we take, we've got all these leftover shower doors that, you know, for whatever reason the hole was in the wrong place or we got the wrong size, we had to reject it, what do we do with it? And we thought we could shatter that and fuse it back together into an inch thick countertop. You know, it's completely sustainable local countertop.
And we beat ourselves to death trying to figure this thing out. And a lot of creativity, a lot of understanding the processes. And at the end of the day, it was, you know, they don't, tempered glass doesn't fuse very well, so the quality wasn't great. But in that we learned a lot. And then we came up with a better product which is, it's annealed glass, it's not tempered, so it's not 100% recycled. But you know, we can use waste cutoffs. So it's a little bit recycled.
But we now came up with a completely unique customizable countertop product. And that was, you know, that technical skill, but also that creativity to come up. Well, we could do it this way. And you got five people coming together and poking holes in the idea and doing trial and error. And I mean, there's a lot of creativity there where people are coming up with better ways to do things. And yeah, you know, I think that's kind of where we shine a little bit on our, you know, our, I guess our product development. You know, we don't have a formal thing, but it's like the market wants this, our customers want this. How do we meet the demand?
And we always try and sometimes we determine, oh, well, we can't do 100% recycled countertops, which is not possible, but maybe we can do this instead.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Yeah, it's so important.
Even anyone who's listening to this product development takes time.
And a lot of people rush into things and they are like, oh, we've made the best that it could be.
We've even found this out as a company ourselves. Like taking and getting a project where you think it's the end and then giving it a week to two weeks just to mail in people's minds and let them think and ponder.
And then you come back with fresh eyes and you maybe go, oh, what were we thinking? That's never going to work. But at the spur of the moment, you're like, oh, we've hit the jackpot. This is it. And then you realize, oh, my goodness, how foolish we were.
And so a lot of times, creativity and engineers and product developers, they need a little bit of time, and that's okay, because for you, it's the same as us. We want to make sure that the best possible tooling or glass is the best that it can possibly be. We don't wanna send out something shoddy or it's not right.
And so, yeah, giving these people a little bit of bandwidth and a little bit of freedom can. In the end, to begin with, you're going, would you please just hurry up?
But then in the long term, you realize, okay, I'm glad that we waited a week or two and we figured this out and we had multiple meetings, and now it's like, okay, we've nailed it.
And it's like, there's always tweaks to things.
Like, what was good a year ago, boom. It needs a slight tweak to make it better here because everything changes.
And you guys are awesome at adapting and moving with times and changes and demands and everything else. A lot of people get stuck in the rut and it's like, no, we're not changing anything.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: And then it's like, well, we're not a countertop company.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: We don't do this. Yeah, you're like, come on, you gotta adopt people.
But no, that's pretty cool. So projects, obviously you take on anything, which seems to be a glutton for punishment, but that's okay. That's good.
That makes you stand out.
You're like me. It's hard to say no, but is there any project or any install that you've completed or done or been a part of that one really challenged you? And then two, you stood back and went, I am so glad I do what I Do?
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a few. I mean, I think there's two that kind of pop to mind.
One, you know, I think we had a. It was a nice house on a, you know, probably a. I don't know, let's call it a $10 million house on the lake. Nice big house. Everything's custom, highest end finishes, best stone, best woodworking, best flooring, best everything.
And a portion of it was showers and mirrors and maybe a painted backsplash.
Nothing too unique.
And then for the.
The fitness, the gym in the house, there is just going to be seven door, you know, two doors and you know, five panels, five glass panels.
And she comes in to pick out her antique mirror sample. You know, I want to see what the antique mirror looks like and should be the ones I want.
And our front entry doors are these two big fire molded glass doors with these like, you know, kind of hor. Diagonal patterns to them. And she said, you know what, I want to change those glass doors to this. And so it was these diagonal, just like this heavy texture, fire molded. And there was the two doors and then the seven panels and like a herringbone pattern.
And it's. That kind of stuff is, you know, when. When it takes something that is this really nice house, everything's nice.
But now this is the showpiece of the entire house. Because there's no one doing something like that. No, that. That's one that comes to mind.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: Other one is this.
This couple. And this.
There's some people that won national awards for this. And we were a small part of it. Obviously the architects were a big part of it and the builder and the designer.
Yeah. But you know, I think our collaboration and this is what you can do with the glass. This is the colors, this is the scheme. This design would look better.
You know, I think we were a big part of that was a big solarium in an apartment by the river, like a really nice apartment. And it was just this complete, you know, I'd say 20 foot metal structure with I think 40 leaded glass panels on the top of all these different colorful rondels. Then another big layer with like a big beveled circles and winter like pattern glass wrapped around that and then big clear glass coming down. And the idea was that they're moving from the country to the city and they had all the sun and they are in this apartment now.
But we want that sun to come in and have it open and airy, but have a living space where we can have our plan plants. It's almost a greenhouse But a big solarium and it, it was one of the coolest projects we've ever done.
[00:30:06] Speaker A: It's awesome.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: And the light panels on the ceiling, it was. I mean, it's. I think it's on the front page of our website too. It's. It's okay. It's a pretty cool project.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Uhhuh.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: That's so cool. Yeah, that's amusing.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: I think he worked for two months putting all that. I mean, there's so many pieces. Just, just doing glasses, just putting these pieces together.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: It's like a jigsaw, but on like the proper skill.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Oh my word.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: And some people, I would go, I would probably go crazy if I do that for two months, doing the same thing over and over again. Some people, it's like they just want to get in the zone and it's like meditators.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Let me do it.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: I'm just, you know, and you're getting quick at it and I am where I am and I'm going to be here for the next two months doing the same thing and that's all I want to do.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: That's okay. That's. I'll do it. That's. Happy days.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: My attention span's going 10 different directions. I'd be lost in, you know, an hour.
[00:31:00] Speaker A: Yep.
Get me out of here. Yeah, totally. Oh man.
What are.
Just keeping going here. What are some of the biggest sort of shifts or trends that you are seeing in custom glass design or even in specialty installs at the minute or even in the future to come?
[00:31:18] Speaker B: You know, it's weird. It's. I think it is a very trend driven industry, especially in the residential homes.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: But you know, I think on the residential side we're seeing a lot more of the, the, the metal, like the metal grids, like the black metal, kind of a more modern, sleek look. So we've got a few products that meet that demand.
Both one sided, where you can, you know, you can squeegee it. Let's still have the metal on it.
And then a two sided version. A lot of partitions and wine enclosures.
You know, those countertops, they're slowly taking off. We're still trying to get that off the ground. And I think we basically need a big marketing budget to really get those to go.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: I think it's, it's very unique. You know, people are like, oh, is a glass countertop. Do I want that in my house? And you know, that kind of thing. And there's some element to that. Even though they've been Eating on, you know, a glass dining table or, you know, for years.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
We're seeing more trends with that. Just color, I think a lot of color and different unique stuff like that.
But stained glasses, back in fuse glass is coming back in. And antique mirror, you know, it's like antique mirror, it seemed to go out in the 70s, and now it's back in full force.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: Back with the bank.
[00:32:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So we're seeing a lot of that. But stained glass, oddly enough, has just really been taken off lately.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
Where I'm from in Ireland, we have some of the most amazing stained glass windows that, like, I have ever seen. I have no idea how the heck these guys did it. Like these. I'm talking like, you know, hundreds of years ago.
[00:33:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: And the craftsmanship and what's really cool is apart from a little bit of touching up, they've never been. They've never had to be replaced. They've never had to, like, change anything.
But the.
When you look at it and the light shining through, it's really. It's actually. It's really hard to explain right now because it's like unless you actually stand there and you see it, it's hard to take it in. But I remember going into one, there's a church in my local town, and they actually had taken and hired a guy to come in and clean them all. They were pretty dirty and they had to be hand cleaned. And so they had this opening event and they were showing people, hey, this is what it looks like when it's done. And I was like, I'm just gonna go have a look at it. Oh, my word. I swear, it almost took my breath away.
There was one that was particular because the sun was coming in at a certain angle, and the color and the light that it was throwing out throughout the rest of the church building was like, phenomenal. I was like, it's almost like goosebumps trying to explain it. Yeah, it's really cool.
If no one's ever experienced something like that, just Google it or, I don't know, fly to Ireland and go see them.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: Well, it's naturally beautiful. And I think people go.
Let's say they go to Europe to go vacation and see the sites. They go to all the churches because it has beautiful stained glass in it and it's not ironic.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Yeah, there's something about it.
[00:34:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're going to love this. So there's a Irish pub in town and they. It's called McCormick's and they're great, great establishment.
Good you like it? It's actually very authentic. And they're awesome. They do very well. But they had gotten some. Some stained glass from a pub in Ireland, and they had about, like, I think they only had two pieces, but they wanted to replicate it. The whole thing. We replicated at times 20 and no way. The whole restaurant. So it looks exactly like the originals, but it's, you know, throughout all their windows.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: That's so cool. Yeah, that's awesome. I might have to come visit you. Yeah, yeah, that's.
Come see it and be like, look at this. They can help me with it. That's so cool. Yeah, there's.
Dude, it's. I. It's really hard because you want to, like. I kind of want to shake some people and be like, when you. When you walk around and you look around, like, open your eyes and see, like, because people go, ah, it's a pan of glass. Okay, fair enough. Pane of glass and a door. Whoop. Dee Dee. But, like, when you go see things like that, you're going, stop. And just how, like, how would you do it? Like, how would you even start to do this? I don't know.
Well, think about it. That's like, sheer craftsmanship. It's like talent. It's unreal. It's so cool. But, yeah, stained glass, I have a very soft spot for it. And actually this Christmas, I got my daughter a stained glass kit.
So she started to get into that.
And so it's just from. It's like, what, hobby lobby or something. But I wanted to get into it just because she's very artsy and crafty and crafty in both sense of the words, but. And she's got ginger hair and she was bought in Ireland and she's got dark blue eyes. So it's like, I am. I am on a no win situation here. But she started it, and it just came in a kit and a soldering iron and she went at it and she loved it. Like, thoroughly loved it. So now I have to go take her and get more stuff and get like, cutters and different things and have Annie, because she wants to do this.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: Expensive hobby that you're paying for now.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: Dude, tell me all about it. I'm like, you're 16.
Let's get schooling, dud. Let's get you a job. You can pay for these things.
Kind of on that topic about getting people into it, we talked a little bit before we came on air about getting employees and holding onto them and how difficult it is. In your opinion, what makes sort of a Good glazer or installer, especially in the work that you do. Maybe not so much like commercial, like a lot of just the same old, same old, but kind of that fine niche. Like what makes a good installer Glazer today?
[00:37:27] Speaker B: You know, I think it's an element of being detailed, you know. Yeah, but, you know, I think it's. That's a sub.
A sub trade of just being. Taking pride in your work and, you know, I think people take pride in their work and pride of, you know, the project's going well and, you know, that they, they looked at all the details and didn't just, you know, we grabbed, you know, Chrome U Channel when it should have been black, you know, like checking the paperwork and looking, you know, but it, like that goes towards everything because you do that once and, oh, I made a mistake. But you do it every week and it's like, do you care about it? Like, yeah, it reflects on you that you're. You're doing that. And it's. It's an element of being detail oriented, I think. But to take pride in your work and, you know, obviously, just like in every profession, I mean, I think, you know, working hard and, you know, showing up and, you know, getting along with people is all important, but. But really separates that the people who really excel and kind of take into that next level versus the, you know, the people that kind of stay at the same level is really just that, that detail and the pride in their work that, you know, they can try to do better every time and try to put out something that they're proud of and that they know that will be proud of as a company.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's. That's really cool. It's sad when, you know, doing a lot of these podcasts and you talk to people. One of the, One of the guys said, well, if they have a pulse and they show up on time, that's a first start in today's society. And I went, how sad. Like, when we actually say that and it's like it's a joke, but it's actually, there's truth in it too.
Like, we have my son who's 14, and the boss's son.
They come in and they do some work with us here, you know, a couple hours, and just trying to get that work sort of ethic built into them at a young age is like, for me, so key. And I know, speaking for myself, my young boy, I'm pushing him into a tree to the fact of no one wants to get their hands dirty.
No one Wants to like, all they want to do is either play computer games or write code.
And there's no one willing to do the sort of like a plumber. Good luck getting a plumber these days. It's like, oh yeah, I'm four weeks out and you're going, dude, my hot water tank's leaking all through the roof here. And you're telling me four weeks, what the heck? But it's true. And then he's like, you know, it's not that you be snarky to him, but you're like, dude, I'm in an emergency. And he goes, so is the other 65 people that's in front of you get in line because there's no one out there. Same as electricians and same as glazers. It's like these trades sadly are. There's a void happening that I'm very passionate about and trying to promote and help and bring young people along. And you know, college isn't the be all and end all that it used to be. And in fact, it's actually the, I think it's the. Actually the opposite where, you know, hands on work is like so key and critical.
Yeah. Learning and teaching these guys and helping them and equipping them and being patient with them because sometimes it can be quite challenging.
[00:40:49] Speaker B: But yeah, the computers and video games and all that. But I think another element too is that, you know, there's under this belief that everyone to get a good job has to go to university and get a, you know, a college degree. Didn't always used to be that way. You know, like my grandpa, my grandpa decided he was gonna go and be a welder, you know, and you know, and he became very successful, you know, you know, having his own weld, you know, steel business. And you know, that, that, that was every generation. Not to say that one is more success, more, less successful than the other than the other.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: You get guys, you got kids in class who, you know, they used to go to shop class and they turned that into a trade and they turned that into a good career and they could raise a family.
Now it's like, no, everyone needs to go to university and go. It's like, you know, those are academic, you know, that's an academic pursuit. Or maybe you're studying business and there's, there's a value in that. But at the end of the day, even if you go to business degree, really don't know what you're doing at a company, you learn it on the job, you have that little bit to show that, you know, I can do the work and I can show up and I can get good grades and I can work hard. There's other ways to evaluate that. And I think as a society, that maybe that's something that, you know, we're starting to learn a little bit. People realize the value of the university isn't quite what we all thought.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: Yeah, totally. And what's hard is it's like, there's 60 kids in a class and there's only one job.
So what do the other 59 do? It's like, hello.
[00:42:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: And by then it's too late. And it's like, oh, I'm in my 30s and a ton of debt. And it's like, oh, my word.
[00:42:31] Speaker B: Be an apprentice and have no debt and, you know, be making just as much, you know, whatever I end up at.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: Totally.
We have. I always like to bum and blow about a young lad. And we have in our company.
I won't mention his name, but he's a success story that I would love to replicate everywhere. He came to us, he was a painter and a fixer upper in apartment blocks, and he came to us with zero experience in a machine shop. I mean, like, this guy, there was nothing on paper, but there was something about him that I'm like, oh, I want to give this guy a shot. Give him a shot. Came in on the saw, worked his butt off on the saw, was the best saw operator.
Then he was like.
He was pushing, saying, hey, I'd like to go run the CNC machines. Great, let's get you over there. Run those, mastered those.
Then he was like, oh, I'd like to try my hand at programming.
Tried his hand at programming, Mastered that.
And anything you throw at this guy is, like, no issue. Yeah, I'll take it. I'll do it. You know, I'll have at it. He's now the machine shop manager.
So he came in as a saw operator, and now he runs the whole machine shop. He is, like, phenomenal, this young lad. Just a work ethic and a willingness and a. Nothing is too hard. We'll figure it out.
It's unreal. But he stands out like a sore thumb because 99.9% of everybody else is like, I don't want to do that. That's too difficult.
So tough, man.
Yeah, something like that. Who knows? But obviously with young people, there can be a lot of trial and error. That goes for us, too. There's not a day around this place here that Mr. Merv doesn't make a mistake or A bit of a boo boo somewhere. But that's okay. We own it.
There's a lot of trial and errors. But what's one lesson that you've had to learn, sadly, the hard way that you pass on to others?
[00:44:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of hard to say. I mean, obviously like you said, there's so many of them that like, you know, especially if you're trying to grow and do new things, there's going to be lots of trial and error.
But I think, you know, for us we really jumped. You know, when I got here it was like we could do everything but there weren't guardrails. You know, there weren't, there weren't these meetings and you know, something that we, we kind of implemented was just a cross functional team to talk about like these complex jobs that we have that, you know, the, the guy who's, you know, going to use the belt sander to size the glass is different than the guy who's going to be applying the metal to the glass, is different than the graphic designer who's coming up with the design, is different than the installer, is different than, you know, the shop manager who knows when the glass comes in, how long it's going to take to fabricate, how long it's going to take to do all that.
And before that we had someone who'd been here for years and years and they just, well, this is the way we've always done it.
And it was like, you know, here you go, you guys all figure it out, you know, and now it's up to everyone on the back end to figure out this whole project versus the front end, where you get all your ducks in a row and determine how long is this going to take, you know, what do we need, what you don't need to go to Home Depot and buy a bunch of parts on the way to the job, you know.
[00:46:10] Speaker A: All that kind of stuff.
[00:46:11] Speaker B: Yeah, so I think that that was something that, you know, it's kind of having all the ducks in a row and being hyper vigilant about it, which it's kind of easy to just think that everyone understands exactly what you're thinking, how it needs to be done, or you know, how the salesperson thinks it's going to be done. But that's not the case. Everyone thinks everyone is completely on the same page and they rarely, rarely, rarely are.
Yeah, those cross functional meetings are kind of key for that. And that's, I mean that's helped us a lot to eliminate a lot of Those mistakes and errors. I mean, not to say that we don't do it still, but we track it. We tracked, it's called waste, you know, areas of waste. And we literally assign a dollar value to that.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:46:58] Speaker B: Every. And it's tied to, you know, everyone's bonus. And you know, that, you know, based on revenue.
And you know, we always try to do less every year.
[00:47:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:47:09] Speaker B: And you know, a part of that is to have those meetings and to really, you know, try to eliminate all those errors. And some of them are. You can eliminate them, some of them are, you know, the vendor sends you the wrong thing and you know, that's not really something that you had control over.
Yeah, but yeah, that's, I mean, I think something, you know, to just take that extra time not to, you know, we want to do, do, do, do, do, do all this stuff.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:47:33] Speaker B: And you know, crank it out. But, you know, to take that extra time I think has been something that we've all really had to embrace.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Totally. No, that's helpful. Yeah. Just slow down and to your point, good communication is key in a business.
If you're not communicating, there will be issues and you can't, you can't kind of over communicate. And one thing, like, I like emails and texts and stuff, but there's nothing like a face to face for getting stuff figured out and sorting it out. And sometimes that involves, right, get the, get the appropriate people in a room, in a meeting and let's hash it out and be done and everyone knows what they're doing rather than back and forth with 25 million emails. And you're like, where, sorry, where are we at with this project again?
[00:48:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I've been on chains before where there's 12 emails back and forth and people still can't figure out what the hell we're doing.
[00:48:26] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: I said, and I'll say to my people, sometimes a phone is your friend.
[00:48:35] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:48:35] Speaker B: And I'll call them right there in my office and say, what are we doing here? And they said, well, I meant this. I'm like, oh, all right. Well, you know, that was a 30 second conversation. Get to the crux of it and then we move on. And now get her done, get going. And everyone's happy and everyone's on the same page. And that's. Yeah, I think you kind of lose something with all these emails, to be honest.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: Yeah, you do.
[00:48:54] Speaker B: You know, a phone call solves so much of it.
[00:48:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:57] Speaker B: I don't know what it is. People are, they'd rather, they'd Rather email than pick up the phone.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: I know. It's like, are you afraid of someone's voice?
[00:49:04] Speaker B: Like, hello.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: You're going to have to talk to them at some point. Communicating. Yeah, exactly. It's just a different way. Yeah, I think it's the.
It's the technology in the age that we live in where, you know, text messaging is so quick, like, AI can send a darn text now for you. It's like, are they reading my mind? Do they know what I want in this thing? Like, even your emails now, it has like this weird automatic reply, and you're going, that doesn't sound like me, but how many people use it? And it's just generic and it's like, boop. But there's no accountability for it because it really wasn't you that sent it. And it's. Oh, anyways, we could be here all day talking about that.
[00:49:43] Speaker B: Anyways, go ahead.
[00:49:44] Speaker A: Yeah, back to you.
Kind of a couple of last questions here. Are there any speaking about you personally? Are there any books, any podcasts, even? Any people that you look to for inspiration or just, you know, guidance and help?
[00:50:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I, you know, books. I'm kind of into history books, you know, so there's maybe not. I don't know if that's inspirational. That's more of, like a hobby. But I think the podcast, I definitely get inspiration from that. Good.
Kind of more business focus. One maybe listen to some history ones. But, like, business focus would be like, you know, the all in podcast. I think those are a lot of California guys, got a lot of technology and that kind of thing.
Founders. Have you ever heard of founders?
[00:50:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:30] Speaker B: That is excellent. And you listen to that, and you listen to what these guys did to get their business going, and you know how obsessive they were about cost or quality. And, you know, all these guys, and, you know, some of them are real.
[00:50:44] Speaker A: I know you're like. You're like, why is this person all here?
[00:50:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And. But, like, you know, they. They really did. They achieved something that probably wouldn't be able to achieve without being that way.
But, you know, I think they're just very driven, ambitious people. And I always learned something from one of those podcasts. I mean, it's a guy who, you know, came over on the boat from Scotland and built a steel empire and, you know, because he was obsessive about his trade and, you know, technology and, you know, just really grinding it out.
[00:51:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, totally. No, that's cool. Awesome. Yeah, there's.
I love my history, too.
Yeah, we may have another podcast about our history, things that we like, but that's for another day.
Last question.
Kind of wrapping this all up. It's 2026. It's the beginning of the year.
Are there any big goals, any visions that you have, any. Anything you're chasing after in this year or the years to come that you want to share with us?
[00:51:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we. We've got a lot going on on the. The residential side, and I think, you know, I think we're the.
I think we're. I mean, the biggest, you know, for custom builders and remodelers in terms of interior glass.
So, I mean, I'd love to grow that presence, but we've also grown into, you know, we also do the commodity side, which we have another business, which is apartments, you know, tract homes.
[00:52:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:16] Speaker B: And that's really been growing. So, you know, that's kind of a big. A big goal for us is to really dive into that and grow it. And it's kind of. We started at this, and now it's kind of taking off. And, yeah, it's kind of a snowball that keeps getting bigger, and, you know, it's being able to handle that. But, you know, the other big goal I think is, like I kind of referenced earlier, was that you get those tablets going and that new technology and try to get that. Get that rolling, and people who've been, you know, working with paper for 20 years to completely embrace that. That technology.
It'll be an uphill battle, but I think everyone will appreciate it.
[00:52:54] Speaker A: Will be, but you'll get there. Hey, you take on any challenges? Come on.
That's the theme of this whole podcast. There's not a challenge that Andrew will not take and crack. So, yeah, your people better beware. Just embrace it now. Don't kick against it. You're gonna have to embrace it, no matter what the consequences.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: It's happening. It's happening.
[00:53:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's happening. It's going down whether you like it or not. Well, Andrew, thank you so much for being on this podcast. I really appreciate your time and your insight and your talents.
It's an absolute privilege. If anybody wanted to find out who you are, your company, now's your time to plug it.
[00:53:35] Speaker B: Yeah, so company is Glassart Design.
You know, glassartdesign.com we're on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, all the socials. And, yeah, friend me on LinkedIn and look up our company. And if you want some custom glass, send an email.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: Here's your man, big time. Well, that is a wrap on this episode of the Cutting Edge Install. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow and subscribe that you don't miss any going forward. And if you haven't listened to the previous ones, by all means go on and listen to them. Leave us a quick review or share it with your crew. Keep an eye out. We drop them every other Thursday at 8am Pacific Time. For more about Omni Cubed where I am, go on our website, omnicubed.com and check it all out. And we make tools to help fabricators, installers and everyone else. So please go check that out. And until the next time I see you all or you hear my dulcet tones, cheerio. Stay safe and be good. Take care.
