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 it could quite literally be everything in between. Who am I? Well, I'm your host, Merv Campbell. It's an absolute pleasure to have you with us.
Obviously, the accent gives it away, so if you need subtitles, now's the time to turn them on for me.
But what's this podcast all about? Well, it's about celebrating pros, installers, experts, and game changers. And my guest today is basically Ticks pretty much all of those boxes.
I'm not going to steal his thunder in any way, but it's an absolute pleasure to have him on here. We're going to dive into stories, we're going to get his insight on things, and we're going to have fun. Some podcasts, it's a good time to have your eyes closed and take a rest. Not this one. This is sharp, cutting edge, and we're going to have some fun. And if Irish know how to have fun, then that's definitely where you've come to the right place. So whether you're on the job, whether you're on the road, or you're looking to stay sharp, you have come to the right place. So we're going to get cracking.
Josiah, it's awesome to have you on here. It's an absolute privilege. I've watched you from afar for a while, really loved everything you do in the social media sphere and everything. But for those who don't know you are listening to you or seeing you for the first time, tell us a little bit about yourself and what do you do at Epic Ceramic Stone.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: I'm so bummed, you know, because I also have an Irish background, but I don't.
I don't have near the cool accent.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: So there you are.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: It sucks to hear myself now after listening to you talk, I'm like, gosh, man, you sound so much cooler than I ever will.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Oh, stop, stop. It's all good. It's all good.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So my name is Josiah Lilly. I am the CEO, which I say stands for the Creative Energy Office.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Epic Ceramic and stone.
Yeah. And my role there is, gosh, it's been a lot of things over the years, but currently, yeah, just acting as a CEO, kind of creating the vision for the company.
Trying to create the right.
Really work on the culture, the passion that the team creates, and kind of help guide and guide them to the best of my abilities.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Awesome. Wonderful. Well, there you are. Now you've Gotten to know him a little bit better.
Kind of going back a little bit in time, not through a DeLorean, but just in our minds.
Tell us a bit about your journey, how you began, what led you into this industry, what led you into tile and stone specifically. And just a little bit about how that all got started.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: So I was 16 years old and my kind of grew up in a construction background. My dad had done construction, my grandfather was an architect. So kind of construction kind of ran in my blood.
We had moved to California. My, I was born in Tennessee. We moved to California when I was 11. So I was about 16. My parents didn't have a lot of money.
Went to a normal school. Up until about high school and high school I actually went, started doing homeschool place in Huntington Beach. I'd go in once a week and get work, get, get my work for the, for the week and actually start working. So I started working really young.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: When I was 16, I got a job doing sucko. Not because I wanted to succo, but it was someone my father knew got me a job.
And the second day on the job, the sucko guy approached me and said, hey, can you read a tape measure? I was like, of course. Who can't read a tape measure? So he said, well, my helper can't. So why don't you quit doing stucco, come back and start. Start doing tiles. Uh huh. And I've always been really creative. I love art, I love design. It's always been kind of like something I've been passionate about. And so the idea of doing tile seemed like a much better fit for what I enjoyed compared to doing stucco. Nothing against any stucco people out there, but this wasn't my jam.
So I said okay. So I quit doing stucco that day, came back to work at the same house in Dana Point that we were working on. And that's when my journey in tile started.
Worked with him as an apprentice. I've always been very entrepreneurial.
When I was probably like 11 years old, I started cutting people's lawns, delivering newspaper. I've always been a hustler and always trying to see what kind of do I could do, what kind of business I could create to generate some money.
So at 16, started working for him as an apprentice and with the entrepreneurial spirit. Just wanted to know, why are you doing this? What's this purpose of this? Why are we starting here? And kind of asking a lot of questions.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: And after about a year, I was taking lots of mental notes, trying to figure out the business and kind of like more of the theories behind what we were doing.
At 17, I decided I was ready to start my own business. So that's when I was 17 years old, I started Epic.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: Wow, that's unbelievable. So at 17, that does seem crazy. But hey, go for it if you can. Absolutely.
When you were set, when you're.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Sorry, go ahead.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Yeah, no, you go ahead.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Because at the time, I look back on now and I hear like, 17, like, God seems, I mean, if I see 17 year olds right now, like they're nowhere near, you know, starting a business. But at that time, just being the person I was, it just made sense to me. Like, I learned what I thought was enough to get me going. I knew I didn't know everything. I just. But I knew I had enough where I could kind of, you know, get, get the ball rolling. And so I just. It kind of made sense to me at the time. And, you know, never, never look back.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: That's awesome. So that, that young 17 year old, when you take, when you think back then, did you have like a thought or an image of what that, of what Epic could become? And even thinking to now, you know, number of years later, what's different even from that vision to what it is today?
[00:06:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, at that time I didn't have a, like a roadmap or a specific plan, but I always wanted to do things the right way. My father was a bit of a perfectionist and he's always taught if you're going to do something, like do it right or don't do it. So from a young age, I've always been very detail oriented, wanted to do things at a high level. So when I started doing tile, I wasn't interested in doing, you know, getting into like commercial work or doing more like production. I always wanted to focus on the more intricate type of work, the more custom work. That's what I always gravitated to because I found like inspiration and connection in the artistry of that kind of work.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. Well, if anyone's seen you online and kind of what you are now, they'll have noticed that you guys handle some material that are going into just extraordinary homes. It's like, wow, that's pretty legit.
What's some of the most sort of irreplaceable, expensive material that your team's been responsible for? And yeah, how did, how did those installs go for you?
[00:07:11] Speaker B: So Epic, I should probably should have said. So Epic does. We do slab fabrication and we do tile installation so we can have anything that is tile or stone related, from facades of home, mechanically attached stone, to glass tile showers, or, you know, onyx countertops, anything.
So when it comes, like let's say the slab side of it, we've dealt with, you know, we installed projects where we use the semi precious materials that can be $20,000 a slab.
You know, we've done lots of projects where we use, you know, extremely expensive, you know, glass mosaics or water jet mosaics that are 250, $300 a square foot. Stuff that's been, you know, silver leaf, gold leaf, the. That's just crazy expensive. So I mean, the homes we're doing, you know, range from, I would say the low end is probably like around maybe a $10 million house. And we just finished in the last year and a half, we finished, I think, two or $300 million houses. So we've done some pretty, pretty crazy, crazy homes.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: That's unreal.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, if you told that 17 year old kid he'd be doing $100 million homes and that people would be, people would be choosing them. That's the craziest part. People are choosing us to do it. I've been like, man, you're crazy. But it's getting.
Yeah, it's happening.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Yep. Oh, it sure does. It's happening all right. And those homes are right there. So hey, might as well take it when you can get it.
A lot of people see social media and they see kind of finished products. Like they see the end.
One thing you do really well, I believe, is you kind of walk us through a project. Like it's not always just the end result. Like, here's a bare room, here's the end result. You kind of take a step through it. But what do people not see behind the scenes that determines whether an installation is actually a success or not?
[00:09:05] Speaker B: So much planning goes into it. And that's something that we have even developed, even specifically over the last. I mean, we're still fine tuning our processes.
I'm a believer that you should always be evolving. I think as a human being, I'll always show you. Hopefully I'll be a better man next year than I am this year. I'll tell you the same thing next year. I'll tell you the same thing about Epic. We'll be a better company next year. I think we're a great company now. But I'll never be happy. And I mean happy. I'll never, I will always challenge myself and my team to do better and to figure out ways. And as Life evolves, technology evolves.
You know, you got to evolve with it, right? So we're always challenging ourselves to fine tune our processes and like, say even over the last like five years, the way we do shop drawings, I mean, a lot of times we're meeting with, at this point, when we sign a contract, as soon as the contract signed and we basically do almost all new construction, remodels are probably less than 10%, maybe 5%. It's almost all ground up new homes. So once the contract is signed and the house is framed, that our guy who's, we call him a project engineer, he goes in, meets with the superintendent, looks, and he has the drawings from the designer and goes, okay, this is porcelain slab. This header's not going to work. You got to, you know, recess the shower drain. You know, starts troubleshooting with him. He'll make those changes. Then we create a new set of CAD drawings based on the as built dimensions of the shower. Then we create a layout on the exact tile. So if it says it's 12 by 24, but it's, but it's 11 and 78 by 23 and a half. We recreate that, that layout, the designer's layout with the exact tile, the exact grout based on the exact size of the shower. So they know that this cut on the end is going to be 14 and 38 of an inch. So we can plan all that out, but they might want to move their shower niche because it's not centered. We did a job, we did our initial drawings and the builder realized all of his plumbing was a half inch out of center. So he, before we laugh, before we went and started prepping the showers, he was able to go in and adjust all of the plumbing. So it all was, was dead center. So those kind of things are really critical, but they take a lot of planning. Right? So there's, there's, there's hours and hours and hours and hours of work that are going into our projects before we ever step foot on the actual job.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: Not on the job. When I say as far as on job, I mean as far as installation, perspective, correct tiles on the job. We've done hours and hours of work to get everything ready.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah.
Planning is key. It's so as like you gotta basically step by step. And then the other part is you've gotta win the homeowner over as well. So like they wanna see where everything's led out. And are my grout lines where I want them to be? Because we've been in an Install recently where? Nope. Well, they didn't like it. And so flooring had to come up and. Oh, what a nightmare.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: But at the end of the day, we're trying to execute the designer's vision that they've conveyed to the homeowner. Right. So our job isn't going in and doing what we want. Our job is going, okay, here's your tile size. Here's you. We can center it on the tile. We can center it on the grout joint. We can get all the options. So they can now look at it, figure it out.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Go.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: Okay, cool. This works. And then our team isn't laying out the tile on the floor, having the designer come in. We already have, like, a blueprint that's been created totally. And we can build off that. But we didn't used to. We didn't used to do that. You know, 10 years ago we didn't. We went to this length. So now we are. But it creates so much more value and connection for the homeowner. They feel the transparency and the thoroughness of the company. Who's gonna execute that vision?
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And they're engaged in it as well. And they feel like it's not. You're not always fearful of the final inspection. It's like, yeah, this is what they signed up for. This is what they've got. So your head can hit the pillow softer at night for sure.
Talking about projects and, you know, obviously high end, lower end stuff, but is there. Is there. Was there ever a project that did give you sleepless nights that was, like, really complicated or whatever that you want to tell us about here?
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Well, we did. We had a. We're actually doing a couple of jobs right now that are pretty tricky. They're vein match. We just finished one home. We just finished another one. They're both vein match facades. Okay. So what's tricky about that is, you know, the designer laid it out so it's supposed to look like it's a silver vein travertine.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: And it is all lineal. Lineal. So all the veins connect. So the designer drew it. We have to. Now it's all being cut overseas. So they're, you know, pulling out blocks, cutting up slabs, cutting them in line, numbering them. So we have to create a CAD drawing on the outside of the house. We number every single piece. The factory has to cut it. Exactly. It's like making a big puzzle. Right. So they're cutting it in place, putting every piece together, sending us pictures and videos of it, making sure. Then we get. When it gets Here. Now we've got to wrap the house piece by piece and make sure that we did it right. Because if they don't line up or we miscalculated, you could be talking about three, four months of time delay. If they're going to remake it all. Not only the cost, the time, the client could be out there. I mean, it could be an array of problems. So both of those, we finished and they, they were, they went out, you know, went off pretty much without any issues.
But it was really tricky. I was, There was definitely. I sleep pretty well. I've been doing it for so long. I don't, I don't lose a lot of sleep. But it was at the back of my mind like, this needs, this needs to go well. This needs to go well. Because if it does, it could be a catastrophe. If it looks, if we execute like we should, it's going to look incredible. If we don't, there's going to be issues.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Totally, Absolutely, man. Well, you guys are. The work you produce is absolutely stellar.
And like a project doesn't complete until it's perfect from you guys. But was there ever a time when doing the right thing actually cost you time and money?
But, you know, obviously you guys go and compromise on quality. So was there ever a time that that came up?
[00:15:19] Speaker B: So I'm a. Yeah, we don't ever compromise on quality. I, I'm such a, such a. I'm so hard about, hardcore about that. I mean, for me, my reputation is everything. I don't walk on a job and go, how much money we make? I'm like, wow, there's been many times I've walked onto a project and literally gotten emotional because I'm like, wow, our guys did that. That's so crazy and complex.
And what's, what's tricky about what we do is, is every job is unique.
So it's not like you were. It's not like rinse and repeat. We do this, we know this. So everyone has its own nuances and its own challenges. So you, some oftentimes you figure, you know, whether it's like we do a lot of pedestal installations now, you know, whether it's all these really large format porcelain installations, you know, you gotta make sure you use the right thinset. Thinset's really expensive. The really good thinset is very expensive.
So making sure all of these different technical components to what we do are done right. And if we miss something, you can't really go back to the builder or the client. Like, hey, it's an extra 40 grand for these extra materials.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Sorry.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Yeah, no, no, we hired you guys because you're the experts. You should have known that. And that's what we just accept and go, all right, well, we learn this has got to go into our library as far as this type of installation requires these type of materials and because if you, you can't. You just compromising is not even an option ever.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: No, it's not for sure. Yeah, no, that's, that's helpful to the fact of.
Sadly, there are a lot of. There are a lot of cowboy builders out there as, as the UK like to call them.
And it's.
People are always drawn to the bottom right hand corner and the price, but you can't, you can't buy quality. You can't. Like that doesn't.
Most times the guy who has the lower bit in the bottom corner is there's something missing somewhere and you've got to ask yourself what is that? And suss them out before you give the green light to go on a job. Because it might look good for a day or two, but eventually something will feel somewhere and it's. That's a whole other escapade of redos.
So, yes, mental and that.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: And that costs a lot more. And we had a client once where we gave him a bid. They said, hey, someone else was lower than us. And they weren't. It wasn't a crazy amount. Maybe they're like 15% lower or something.
They hired them.
Fast forward two months, they're calling us up. Can you guys come tear it out?
Now they're paying us to demo it. They're buying all the material again and they're paying for our installation. Yeah. Right. So listen, we try and we don't ever go in thinking we can write whatever check we, we want or any bid we want. We know, like, we try, we try and be really competitive, but if you're just looking for the cheapest price, then we're not you, we're not your team because we're looking to do things not the cheapest way. We're looking to do things the best way. We're looking for things that is going to last, you know, outlast that house. Right. We're not looking to, to, to cut corners and to see how quick we can get in and out. We just wanted something that we're proud of, that our name goes on and that we can walk in and go, yep, that looks epic.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Yep, hence the name.
So there you go. Hence the name. So 17 year old starting out. Obviously things were done a Lot different back then.
So how would you juggle? Or how do you have your team juggle? Because I'm sure there's maybe some.
Some guys who were installing then, you know, with the likes of digital templating, with all the slab scanning, with 3D layouts and even modern equipment that we have. Like, how do you balance those two?
[00:18:59] Speaker B: You know, my passion for doing things the right way is I feel more old school.
So I think that is kind of like the foundation of what we do. We got. We got to do it right, that handcrafted quality.
But technology has allowed us to be more efficient, to be more creative.
For me, one of the most important things is it connects us to the client. I mean, we used to. I mean, some of our competition today, a good amount of them, still do wood templates. We've been doing digital templates for 15 years. Yeah, right. And we also did old school. But if you're doing a 25 million, $30 million house and you're taping up wood templates to some slabs in your yard, saying, these veins are going to match here, it can be done. And guys do great job. I'm not saying it can't be done. Let's get that clear. However, if a client can instead be sitting in her kitchen, having a glass of wine or some coffee or whatever and sends an email that shows her 3D layout of her exact kitchen that she can move around. Look, and she's like, now she feels more comfortable. She's not in the hot sun, trying to. Hoping this turns out right. It also covers our butt because it's not like she goes, oh, it wasn't going to look like that. No. We sent you a rendering. You saw it, you approved it. We don't ever cut anything until you've seen that layout and you approve it, prove it.
I want the clients to feel connected because, you know, specifically the tile and the stone space. You're working in what I believe to be the most important parts of the home, right? It's the kitchen. The kitchen where you're going to feed your family, you're going to entertain your friends. The bathroom where you might give your baby its first bath. Like, these are parts of your home where memories are made. Right? They're integral parts of the human experience. And we're putting on the finishing touches of the areas that kind of define those moments in life.
So it's really important that it's done right and that you understand what you're getting and make sure you're comfortable with it. And. And that Creates value, I think, to people. So I wanted to spend the money and invest back in the company to use technology to a. Make us more efficient and to make us more creative. I love challenging myself to do. Be more creative and set ourselves apart. But equally as important, or maybe more important, is that the client feels connected and understands the process and what we're doing.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: Yeah, a hundred percent. No, that's so good to hear because it's.
At the end of the day, it's the client that's going to sit in that kitchen with their friends, and they're going to. Their friends are going to look at it and go, wow, this is legit. This is awesome. Who did this for you? And then it's word of mouth, and then it's just that domino and snowball effect that just keeps gaining momentum.
So. Pretty awesome.
[00:21:51] Speaker B: Yeah, we don't have, like a salesperson. We don't have. Yeah, if we have a salesperson, I guess it's me. But we don't have a dedicated salesperson. Our. All of our work over the years has just been built on reputation and word of mouth. So it's really important that our clients feel that. Want to go. Yeah, I had the best experience with Epic. I knew exactly what my kitchen was going to look like, it turned out. Exactly. If there was any concerns or I went to their shop and I could be. We have a whole area of our shop dedicated with a big tv and they can actually be a part of the layout if they want to come, and they can manipulate their slabs and see how they can change the vein matching this way or that way, you know, so we want them to once again be engaged and to be part of that process.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: That's so cool. That's awesome. And then kind of on that point, customers, they go online, they see everything. They want things to be larger. They want, you know, the least amount of, you know, seams and stuff on large countertops and all the rest. But with that things becoming larger and material is obviously thinner and obviously there's more expense involved. How's that changed with you guys in regards to how you handle or transport or even install some of that material?
[00:23:05] Speaker B: It's tricky because sometimes people, oftentimes people, the homeowners specifically, and not so much the builders, they don't understand that this island weighs, you know, 800, 900 pounds. And if you. And you're on the third floor and you've got a spiral staircase and it's like, no, no, it has to work. Like, I can't risk my guy's life.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Yeah, totally.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: I mean we've, we've, we've rented cranes, we've had things lifted over homes. We've done all kinds of stuff to try and I hate saying no. I personally really, I want, I want to be challenged. I'm going to do my best to figure out a way to make it happen.
And if it's going to put my guy's health at risk in any way, then it's a no go period. But if we can figure out a way to handle those heavy pieces and not it might require some more manpower, then I want to try to make it happen. But that's where companies like you guys have become so key to us using your guys tools, your guys carts, all the different tools that we use. We've used your guys ramp, your tables. We do a lot of large format porcelain. We did like a 7,000 foot floor that was all neolith solid, like 10 foot by 5 foot pieces. And we use your tables, all your transport, your sink savers. I mean those kind of things are so valuable because they make where you could have one small twist of a slab and it's going to snap. You now have something securing it which gives you a lot more comfort when you're moving that material.
Yeah, modern material handling like companies like Omnicube has changed the game for us.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's encouraging to hear.
It's also we do it because we want, you said it at the beginning, it's to protect your crew.
Like your crew is your most valuable asset at the end of the day.
And to replace a guy on a crew is, it takes a lot of work, a lot of effort and you may never get the same sort of standard as before. And so if there's a way you can protect them with either just rolling instead of lifting, if it's protecting material so it doesn't snap and you know, wreck a guy or whatever.
It's vital, vitally important for people to understand that the Egyptians had it right when they were moving large stones where they used little round logs and they would roll it along and it's like, hello, if it's good enough for the Egyptians, why can't it work for us? So yeah, no, it's vitally important to understand that. So that's helpful, that's good. So obviously you guys are innovating, you're obviously coming out with how you do things new.
And I've seen you at tice, seen your coverings, I've seen you at these shows.
How do you decide when Sort of that major piece of equipment or that huge investment is actually worth it and it's worth taking the risk on.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: So it's either something that it solves a problem that we have now or it gives us a competitive advantage over competition. Right now, I've invested maybe the largest amount of money I've invested on one piece of machinery. It's going to be installed in our shop and it hits support in a week. I'm really excited about it. It's a hydro finish machine, so it uses water to create these crazy finishes on stone.
No one on the west coast has this machine. We will be the first.
But what it will allow us to do, we'll do these extremely like, beyond just like a brush finish or a bush hammered finish, we can create crazy finishes using water. These textures look almost like fabric. We can create dimensional finishes. It will also take slabs that might have like a stain on or something. And we can go through this really soft, this finish that will kind of take that away. I'm really. I haven't been this excited about a piece of equipment in a long time. I think it's going to allow us to do things for clients that. I think it's one of those things for us that once you show this really cool, unique finish to some designers, to some important builders and maybe some other showrooms, and they're looking at it going, wow, this is really cool. Now all of a sudden, once they see that and have this emotional moment with it, then they sell it to their clients. And if you take that someone else and go, hey, can you do this finished? And they're like, no, we don't have that machine.
[00:27:23] Speaker A: Or if we try and do it,
[00:27:24] Speaker B: it's going to be like, by hand. I don't know, where would it even start? It gives us an advantage, right? So I'm really, really excited about this. I think this one's going to be specifically. It's not so much that we need it, but I think it's going to give us the ability to be creative. I love being creative. I want to. I always just want to create design that's in my DNA. And so this is gonna give me a lot.
It's a new toy I can play with and kind of create all kinds of cool stuff. So I'm super excited just to get it here. I've been waiting. It's like two weeks late. So I'm not chomping at the bit.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: Oh, man. Chomping at the bit together.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, it's either something that it's a need that will make us more efficient or something that will allow us to do something that creates a competitive advantage.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: See, that's so cool.
That's where going. And even on that note, like trade shows, they get a little bit of a knock, they get a little bit of a ding. But there's a lot of times going to those opens your eyes to what's out there.
We're all busy. Sometimes it's hard to stop and Google search stuff or nowadays stick it in AI or whatever.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: I think you have to also have the vision. I think one of the things I've been good about, I'm not good at a lot of things, but I think one thing I have done well is that I, I've had a strong vision and I understand that. I don't see a price tag on a machine and go, oh, that's $350,000. There's no way, no, it's a large amount of money. You put a down payment down and then it's a $7,000 a month payment. But if it allows you to eliminate three guys doing something, only have one guy doing it now those two can be doing something else or I mean if it gives you an ability to do something you can't currently do that $7,000 is probably going to create you $20,000 in a month. Right. But so don't let that big number necessarily kill the deal. And even though when it came to like techn to digital templating, I think certain people saw I don't spend the money, I don't, I don't want to learn this. Like my, my guys didn't want to learn it either. No one did. When we did all, all the debt, no one did. But I knew that was the future and the way we, we had to go. And I knew it would. It's one of those things too. Once you cross that threshold, when you look back you're like, wait, we used to templates with wood sticks like I know crazy, right? Everything seems once you start implementing the new, you're like, I could never go back. And I think once you have this machine, it's going to be another one of those moments where like how do we ever create this cool stuff without it?
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%.
Talking then about equipment and equipment manufacturers. Is there anything you wish that they would understand better about the real challenges that you guys face either in the shop or either on the job site?
[00:30:05] Speaker B: I think, you know, the biggest thing for us is getting slabs inside the house and getting up on islands and stuff. And what's one of the challenges we specifically face that some trick because some of the machinery out there works well with 3cm, right. So you've got a solid piece of stone. Some of them though, when you're working with a laminated edge, it's a little more delicate and you can't put as much pressure on that as you could a solid piece of stone. So there's challenges that we face in the 2cm market with these laminated edges that are a little different.
But yeah, this is the handling and you always want to take care of your. You always worry about, you know, having eight guys move the slab and if something was to happen, it comes down on someone's leg, that's the biggest thing. It's just, just the weight of the stones will always be a challenge. There are some cool new machines we thought about investing in those pneumatic lifters.
So I don't know, we're looking at investing some money on one of those. Just been a matter of seeing how, how easy that'd be to get those into, into the houses. Sometimes the houses have got stairs going up. Other challenges to it. So, oh yeah, at the end of the day you gotta have some big strong men who can do a good job. And fortunately we have that. And you've gotta have companies like Omni Cube who are doing, you know, creating these carts and these, these sink savers, these other, you know, elements that help us do our job as safely as possible. But it's an old school heavy job I think.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: Sure is.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: We don't have to worry about robots replacing us quite yet. So that's a good thing.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: That's always a blessing for sure.
On that note, we make new tools, we try to listen to people as best we can. And I'm kind of putting us on the spot here when I ask this. But if you could challenge us to develop something that would help a situation or a solution for a problem that you have, what would it be that Omni Cubed could create to help?
What's your biggest hurdle?
[00:32:10] Speaker B: I think it's that, I think it's in California. We do so many of these big islands, like every house has got a massive island that sells 7 and 800 pound carrying it in. And I think that's the biggest challenge.
What I'm actually going to do this year for Tice, I'm bringing about six of my key. It's usually I go there with two or three of my managers, my supervisors, but I'm taking six of my foremen. With us. So I'm going to have a whole little Epic team with me. So we're going to come to the booth and I'm going to have them bombard you with.
[00:32:43] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: That's what we want.
We'll come with a bible of challenges for you.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: Yeah, please go easy on us. But we're willing to listen. And that's one thing, though.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: I love that. I love you. I said that you asked that, that question because that's like, that's what a collaboration is about. Right?
You want to hear what say, guys, with the builders? What is the. What is your challenge in executing your tile installations that Epic can help you solve? And that's kind of the same approach that you guys have, which I think is what creates the harmony of these relationships.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Totally. And it's like, for us, going out on installs with. With people like yourself or others is a real blessing to us in regards to. We get to see real life problems when they happen.
And learning from that and growing from that and seeing, okay, we have a tool, but if we tweaked it a certain way, it would help that situation.
And always evolving our tools. Like, we don't sit on it and just be like, well, that's it. That's it to the day we die. We're all good. We're constantly, like, tweaking and innovating and changing and helping. And, you know, right now we're in the middle of a launch or beginning of a launch for, like, a whole new cart line to, like, help with things and improve and greater weights and all that sort of stuff. I can't say too much, but it's coming.
But talking, just talking to people and listening. I think too often companies think they know what the answer is and they develop a product, but they've never really spoken to anyone.
Like, I want to talk to the guy who's, you know, rough and tough and on the ground each and every day. What's his problems?
Someone in the office who's just, you know, thinks they know what the problem is. That's not the guy to talk to. So even back to what we started, this whole thing about, like, good communication is key. It's needed both ways, both, you know, you guys and us who make the tools. So, no, it's, yeah, come see us, Lord. We'll be there.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: Yeah, those guys are boots on the ground. These are the guys who are actually doing the work. And so they'll give you some really good feedback, Some things that I'm sure they'll Challenge you.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, no, that's good. That's what we want. Challenge away.
Epic has been built around family. It's obviously, you're very passionate about what you do, and it's also built around excellence. Like, the work is phenomenal. If you're listening to this and you've never seen Epic before online, please go find them. They're on Instagram, the social platforms, see the work they do. Absolutely phenomenal. But how do you hold your people? So obviously you can't be all places at all times. Various jobs are going on. But how do you hold your people to that exceptionally high standard and yet still give them the confidence day to day to just do. Just make decisions to grow themselves and basically at the end of the day, to take pride in their craft?
[00:35:44] Speaker B: I try really hard to empower. Well, I try. Sorry. I try, you know, I've worked hard to create the vision. Everyone knows what, you know, are, you know, the family, the passion, excellence being the three things that we, that we live by.
And we don't try and just say it, but we try it, we try to deliver it. And we operate as a family. We get together several times a year and we have. We have a really strong team. I've had many employees say, I've never been around a company like this where they actually operate like a family. Whether it's, you know, helping, loaning the money, helping them with some paper, whatever it is that comes. Comes on across our. The opportunity presents itself. We. We try with, if it's within our means to. To help. And so I think that's where it starts creating that, that tight family. And I think having built a culture of excellence, everyone understands that. And we have a, you know, we have several guys that help, that help manage the team so they go out, keep an eye on the quality. When we have these meetings, we. We reiterate that they see the. The links we're going to. To set ourselves apart. And they take a lot of pride in their work. I had a builder once tell me, he said, I've never seen so many guys, when they were done with their. Their installation, step back and take pictures. And I was like, yeah, they're proud. They're artisans, because they're proud of what they did. They want to show their wife, they want to show their kids, they want to whatever. Like they built this incredible shower, incredible bathroom, whatever it is. So they have a lot of pride. And I try to empower them. When they come to me with maybe some challenges or some questions, I always try and ask Them first. What do you think we should do as opposed to coming to me and me being the answer man. I want to hear your thoughts on it, give me your feedback. You probably know more about that situation than I even do. So I'd like to get your feedback and teaches them to be able to kind of solve some of their own problems, to think for themselves in the situation, which is, which is empowering that I trust them. I want their, I value their opinion. Right. I don't think some companies, it's kind of, maybe it's the boss's way, so to speak, or the highway. And it's definitely not that way at Epic. I want their feedback. A lot of guys have way more experience in certain aspects than I do know way more than I ever will. I don't pretend to know those things. I rely on them. I, I say, hey, people ask me a question about something, I say, I'll be honest with you, I don't know the answer to that. But I have a guy on my team who does and I'll get you that answer because his expertise. Right. You know, so we just try and have that collaborative energy and that support system and we all know that we have the same vision. If you go into our office, those three words are throughout the office.
So everyone, everyone believes it. It's on the shirts they wear. It's in our office. It's kind of in. At this point, I think it's in our DNA. I put a little something in their coffee.
[00:38:26] Speaker A: There you go. That's so cool. Yep. Sprinkle it on, sprinkle it on.
If. Sorry, I'm about to sneeze.
If someone, a 17 year old young fella, is possibly thinking about starting his own company, getting things going, what's one bit of advice that you would give them before they start that journey?
[00:38:55] Speaker B: I would say find what you're passionate about and then be true to it. Like, I've never veered off the path. There have been plenty of times I could have gone into, try and go into production work or commercial or doing this or that, but I always knew that wasn't my strength. I knew that I was really passionate about doing incredible work at the highest level. And I love working with people. I love the human. Ultimately, it's the human connection that I love the most. Right. I love with my employees, I love it with my, the relationships I've built with designers, builders, the homeowners.
But you got to find what really carries meaning and purpose for you, what truly, truly does, and then stick to that. Because if you do that, you're going to enjoy. What you do is you're going to have less negative days and way more positive ones. And you'll always be able to find that purpose which motivates you to keep going through those tough days.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: Thank you. That's an honest answer.
And if you are 17 and you're thinking about something, ask questions like, learn, be a learner.
My dad always told me, be the stupidest guy in the room, because you'll ask questions and you'll actually learn a lot more than if you just sit there and say nothing and just be a nodding dog. No use, no good. So, yeah, be a learner and be. Find something that makes you want to get up out of your bed every morning and go for it.
[00:40:27] Speaker B: That's a great point, learning, because Andrea kind of cut you off. Sorry about that. No, you're right.
Being willing at 17, I didn't think I knew everything.
I just knew I knew enough to get started. And if you think you have to know everything to be able to start your company, you're never going to start anything because you're never going to know everything. So you have to be willing. To this day, I'm still learning. Like, I said a lot. There's things I don't know. There's certain things, honestly, in my industry and what we do, I don't care to know. I've had people try and sell me machinery and say, hey, this is how it works. And this is the bear. I'm like, hey, like, no offense. That goes in this year. Now this one, I need to know, can it do the texture I want? I don't really care about the mechanics, just not because it's not important, but because someone else is. That's important to them. I want the creative aspect, right. So I know what my strengths are and what speaks to me. So I just don't want you to spend time explaining something that I'm not going to even remember. So, no, you know, you don't have to know everything. Certain parts of it are going to appeal to you more than others. But yes, be willing to ask questions. Be willing to learn and know that you don't have to know everything to get started.
[00:41:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And put yourself out there.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: Like, absolutely.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Don't be afraid to do that. Like, if you want to. If you're waiting until all the stars align, they'll never align. You just got to go for it, get it. Just go and do it. So now that's really cool. Awesome. Well, kind of. Last. Last question. To wrap it all up then. So, you know, Epic has been around a while.
What's the plans for the next year? 5 years, 10 years? Where do you see the company? Where do you see yourself?
How do you see it growing?
Just to kind of. To round out this podcast, as we've
[00:42:12] Speaker B: really kind of fine tuned some of our processes, specifically over the last five to 10 years, I've had a couple of people approach me about other opportunities to expand Epic into other areas. Palmer Springs being one of them.
Some other companies are kind of maybe looking to sell and are kind of a little more, a little more old school and have said we would love to see you implement Epic's processes there. So I think as we, we spent a lot of time really developing this processes to a degree I don't think most Stone companies have because we really want to fine tune it and make that client experience really connected.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: So I think finding opportunities to implement that potentially in some other businesses, expand to other areas.
I'm really excited to see what this new stone refinishing can do for us.
So, you know, I just think we're going to try and continue doing what we do. Bring it to life, people, reach out to us on, you know, social media. It's crazy. And be like, I wish you were in Texas. I wish you were in this city. I wish you were in that city. And you know, we don't. That'd be amazing. You know how I reached that, that far.
But I think we're looking into opening up in maybe one or two other cities in the next maybe six to 12 months and see we can continue building the Epic brand and keep taking that quality and passion to new areas.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: Oh, that's so cool. That's awesome. Well, everyone at Omni wishes you all the best in those endeavors.
It's cool that Epic uses our tools and we get to see them being used and it's helping people out and what a blessing it is to see wonderful craftsmen do what they've been given, a wonderful talent that they've been blessed with, and then executing that and then seeing kind of the finished article, it's quite inspiring. I can tell you, my friend, from a distance watching, I'm sure many a project you walked into and you're like, you put the old shoulders and the chest out and you're like, yeah, we did this. This is legit. So it's the best feeling.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: It's an incredible. I told my guys, I said, you know, we live in the, in Orange County. We live in the 1% of the world when it comes to like wealth. And of that we're doing the 1% of the 1%'s home. So when you think about it, we're putting the finishing touches on the finest homes on planet earth.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Yep. Pretty.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: If you told some 17 year old kid that people, people will be coming looking for you to put the fin touches on the nicest homes in the world like you, you're crazy.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: You're crazy.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: You look nuts. And so it's super humbling.
I've had people say that what they seeing our videos inspired them. I never started doing social media thinking that was even a possibility. That's super, super humbling. I'm really glad that we can kind of try and show other people the passion of what we do, the passion for taking care of our people. Because our employees are our family. They're the ones who do the work.
I'm just a dreamer without their execution. So it's really happy part of it. And be able to have relationships with people like your company and you and make amazing things together.
[00:45:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it's awesome. Well, thank you my friend. This has been insightful. It's been a wonderful time getting to see you on this way rather than as just one way of looking at you on a screen. But it's absolutely awesome and we at Omni Cube wish you all the best. And that's a wrap. That's a wrap on this episode of the Cutting Edge Install podcast. If you've enjoyed it, be sure to follow us, subscribe, leave a quick review if you would like to be a guest on it, by all means, shoot an email. Leave a comment on there. These go out every other Thursday at 8am for more about Omni Cubes, you can check us out about the tools we design, the way we help people, we listen to people.
You can go on our website, omnicube.com check out all the tools and until the next time you see me all take care, cheerio and stay safe.
