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 I've said this before, but I'll say it again, there quite literally could be anything in between. Even today, who knows what's going to happen, but it'll be good. I'm your host, Merv Campbell, and it's an absolute pleasure to have you with us. What's this podcast all about? Well, it's about celebrating the pros, celebrating installers, experts and game changers. You've already seen his picture, so you already know who this guy is. Many of you will know that this guy is top notch caliber. So we don't have anybody on this podcast. We have the creme de la creme. We're going to dive into stories, we're going to share insights and we are going to have fun. My accent gives it away. And if you're thinking, is he Australian, is he English? No, I'm Irish. And the Irish know how to have fun. At least I think they do anyway. So whether you're on the job, whether you're on the road, or whether you're just looking to stay sharp, you have come to the right place. So we're going to get cracking. Brian, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on this podcast. It's a privilege for me. I've gotten to know you over the years of coming to America, getting in the stone industry and seeing you at different events. But I'm not going to steal your thunder. I'm going to leave the floor to you right now and just basically explain how you got into where you are right now.
What makes you want to stay in the stolen tile industry? And we're going to get cracking on some stories.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Fantastic. Thanks for so much for having me on. It's really fun and it's. I've seen you around for many years. We've been competitors for most of those years and yeah, every time I see you, we always give each other hugs and see how you're doing and see how the family is and so.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: We love about the industry is this is such a unique industry and there's no, there's no competitors, just us having fun in this town industry.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: Totally, totally. There's enough for everyone around here. Absolutely.
So career wise, you've been around.
When did you imagine that this almost 30 year career was something that you wanted to get into or was it something that you kind of just fell into and you began to love it?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I was a young kid, got Married young and my, my parents gave me a little craft store. So we were selling whatnots and printing T shirts and making flowers and we had the, the business for the one year.
And then my CPA accountant come in to me after the first year and says, Brian, you're not making money. This isn't working.
He says, he says, I have an interview set up for you on Monday morning with a new company. They're just starting. We think they're going to be a pretty good company and you're going to be there 8 o' clock in the morning. And the company was called Braxton Bragg.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: And so I said, okay. I sheepishly drove to Knoxville, Tennessee, had an interview with the two owners, Doug Slocum and Ron, at the time, and they hired me. So I was the second employee at Braxton Bragg. There was one warehouse person and I was the first office person.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: So there you go.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: It wasn't planned. It just I needed a job. And I was a young 21 year old kid looking for a paycheck in an industry that had didn't even know existed. Wow. And so that was kind of how I fell into it, to be honest.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: That's so cool.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: So this was, this was back in 1996.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: 1996.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Wow. 1996. Wow. That's awesome.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: 30 years. It's crazy how fast 30 years can go by.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Oh, it so does. It so does. It's like, man, like I've been in the States now for over 10 years and it feels like a month and it's like, wow, it's over 10 years. It's crazy. But kind of going back to those early days, what were some of the things that you had to learn fairly quick, obviously, coming from where you were until a brand new industry with new people and everything's kind of brand new to you. Like, what did you learn in those early years?
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Everything. I mean, it was a new industry that you're trying to learn. And also, you got to remember if you go back to the 90s, 90s was all Corian, solid surface.
That was the better Homes and Gardens magazine, if anyone can remember those. And it was all tile on the countertops. And so there was this transition that was taking place of where there was this new thing called granite and it started making some headway. And so I would give a lot of credit to the old companies, Vic International and Grand Courts, who were brand new in the industries at the time.
And so it was really interesting to say that there was so limited number of product.
Everything was, was Wood, you know, Omni Cube product didn't even. Wasn't even the concept of the mind of the times.
And so what I learned in the beginning of those early years was be creative, think outside the box. Because the industry was in its infancy. And so everything. You go into a shop, you say, oh, why are they doing it this way? Well, I think I can build something that way. Or do you remember the duck butter? Well, what's a duck butter? And it was, it was a wax that they used to do these things. So the polishing pads, the diamonds wasn't there. None of this was really hot. You're talking about VIC International, which was the main distributor at the time, along with Grand Courts. They were going out of the back of their truck. That was as much stuff that you could have. So, wow. It was really the amazing time to be able to be creative and think and design in and to build. It was a lot of fun at the times.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: That's awesome. So kind of thinking around those times, obviously we're looking at innovative things, new products that they're trying to bring to market. Obviously companies are expanding to, well, mega corporations of what they are right now. But in those early days, is there any one or any particular group of people who kind of invested in you, whether that be in seals, whether that be in service, even customer service and treating people properly? Was there like a. Was there a man or a woman or even a group of people that you could kind of think back and go, I remember that dude. He was really helpful.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Yeah. I think there's two people that really were critical.
One, I had to give it to my dad. My. My. My dad, Cecil was, was the most. Had the grows greatest and strongest work ethic I've ever seen in my life. He was there working, providing for. For me and mom and, and then working. And not only working, but showing how to sell, how to be respectful, how to be kind, how to listen, how to pay attention of what was being said and then finding ways to. To accommodate that, basically being a nice person.
And so that was really where I think my work ethic came into play.
From Abrax to Brag, the. The president of the company, the CEO, was Doug Slocum. And he was truly a mentor of business.
He gave me an open book. So he would tell me in the early days of saying, okay, I have an idea. Okay. He would say, what is the idea? Okay, I'm going to build it. Okay, great. You can build it now. What happens if it doesn't work?
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: And so he would Allow me to go through those successes and the failures.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: And he would never be upset or say, okay, this has worked. This one didn't.
Great, now how do you get rid of it? And so those were the things. That was really great. And so he really gave me a master's degree in business distribution because he just allowed me to be, to take the chances and learn.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's so cool. And it's even good for any younger listeners who are on here or even any dads who are listening.
Like, pour into your kids because if you don't, someone else. Well, and who knows what they'll teach them? And, and that work ethic. Like I have a 15 year old boy who, you know, watches my every move.
And so if dad's lazy, guess what? So is he. So we're talking about, you know, the next generation and where are they all going to come from?
We kind of got to look at ourselves and be like, hey, we got to step up here and be like, you know, they're going to make mistakes, they're going to mess up, that's okay. But learn from it and then kind of grow. But no, that's, that's awesome, dude. That's so cool.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Well, I've had a very good, a very good life from that same point of view, so I've been, been very, very blessed.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: That's awesome, Brian. That's so cool to hear. And it's, it's a treasure to have those, Some of the, some of the industry, well, a lot of the industries changed from 96 till now, but some of those old school ways of doing business, like you never want to lose those. What are, in your opinion, what are some of those that we need to be teaching this next generation because it's going to die out with us if we don't teach them.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's, that's really important and it is.
If you go back to those early years, what you found was they were small family businesses that worked together as a family and everyone was helping each other. And I am so thankful for the SFA Self Fabricators Alliance. All Slab Fabers, the forums, Facebook is doing a really good job of those things. And I think what we should never lose in our industry is the collaboration, the support, the sharing of knowledge.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: You know, we talked about, you know, with you and I, is that we've, we've competed, but we're, we're not the enemy. We're here to help each other and see.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: And I see this in, especially in the forums, the groups where someone asks, hey, I'm doing a marvel job and how do I do it? And you have all of the fabricators coming in and discussing it. Yeah. Or you were having these workshops and they're in a workshop.
A fabricator is inviting their competition from their same area into their shop to see how they're doing it.
I've seen so many forums where the guys say, hey, I'm learning how to do this. And people say, come into my shop, spend the week, no problems. Yeah, I think that's something that makes one. It makes our industry much stronger.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: It makes us better at what we do and also it gives us that collaboration and that the ability to make sure that our standards of fabrication and work ethic and how you're going to the market stays very, very strong.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Where you see it is that in other industries, in the H vac industry or in the other industries, there are standards, there's things that are being documented. Unfortunately, in the sewing industry we have very little of that.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: We've little to none.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: And so we have to hold each other accountable and making sure that we all keep our industry in a positive way, in a postal way.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Yep, absolutely. Yeah. We have a saying around here that you never see a U haul behind a hearse, so you can't like, you're not going to take your stuff with you. And what a lot of people don't realize is stuff is only a part when you die, but what's in between your ears is the biggest part that people lose out on. So the more like you can invest in people, the more that you can give that knowledge away, actually the greater blessing you are and the more you learn because you start to like push each other in these really good directions. We have a couple of engineers who are fantastic, phenomenal. One in particular who does an outstanding job of just. Well, the guy beside me, I'm going to give him all the knowledge I know I'm not fearful, I'm going to lose my job, I'm needed. But I'm going to teach him. So he has it and he's younger and he soaked it all in and, and that's, that's what I love about the sfa, the all slab fabbers is like they go there, it's not just to shoot the breeze. They're actually teaching like these guys are teaching other fabricators how to do something that's complex, difficult, but they figured out and they're not holding it and going, haha, I've got all the cards it's like, oh, come over here. Like, like I'll teach you. I don't like, to your point, come and spend a week. That, that is like key to this industry staying the way it is. Because in my opinion right now it's probably the best that it's been from what I've seen, Even in the 10 years I've been in it, like right now, it's hard, it's difficult, the economy's down. But the quality of work that people are producing is like way above what it was 20, 30 years ago simply because they're teaching and they're helping one another.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: And you know, and you, you said something really nice that I, I appreciate is that, you know, the industry, we may not be as busy as we were two years ago, three years ago.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: But all this does is gives us time to, to train, to educate, to invest in our young ones. There was a post just a week or so ago in the forum that was a guy was saying, hey, I've got someone young here. How do I invest in him? How do I keep him in this industry? And it was, there was this, a plethora of conversations.
Take him to Italy, take him to see his heritage, take him to the quarries, let him go to a trade show, take him to Marmo Mac. There's a lot of ways that we can do those. Even one of the guys said, send him to my shop, let him see what they're doing. Right. And I think that's really smart for fabricators to invest in their employees. And you, you know those employees, the fabricators will know the ones who are good. Who knows who's going to be, who has potential? We said that the potential is there. And how do you keep him in the industry? Not slamming them in the back, but more of letting him grow into the next generation of fabricators.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Because you think about it, Merv, when I came in the industry back in 96, young, 21 year old kid, and I remember looking at these, these mentors, these, you know, the Peter De Kock or Ronnie Benton from Grand Courts and Doug Slocum of Braxton and you had Anthony from Stone Boss, and you've got Ben Levy from, from region, and you look at these guys saying, oh my gosh, you know, like these people, you know, I'm not worthy.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: Yeah, totally.
[00:13:57] Speaker B: Right. Because these people have the knowledge.
Well, now if you go 30 years ahead, now we're kind of those people that have been around this industry for a long time.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: Well, who's the next generation? Who's going to be coming behind us. And that's where we have to try to invest, all of us in our education, training, to be able to invest in the next generation of people who's going to be in our stone industry.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Exactly. Because it's, there's a void and we gotta help fill it. So, yeah, to that one guy who's like, hey, how do I keep this employee? That's the type of boss you want.
Like, that's like, he's gonna, he's gonna educate, he's gonna push you. He's not just gonna give you a brim and say, you know, brush the floor. He's actually gonna teach you that the trip ticks and are all the different things that happen.
Yeah.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: So important.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: Yeah, but, yeah, vitally important. But. Okay, so you've spent many years in sales and marketing before you moved into sort of the C suite leadership area.
How did that, how did that time and those like sales and marketing areas and speaking to people and talking to customers help you when you began to lead a company, so to speak?
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Perspective. I think it gives you great perspective when you can go into a shop, whether it's a small shop that's got just a couple of guys, or you're talking to the owner, or you go into a larger shop where you have managers and you see what's taking place, you see the process, you understand and learn the process.
And so when you can have the, when you know how it's being processed, you know, you know how it's being fabricated, you go to an installation, you see it's been installations, and then you've, you're looking to find ways to help the, the fabricator do the, the fabrication, to do the installation process.
It gives you a reason to have, not to sell something, but to educate, to train and to help them grow into growing their business. Right?
[00:15:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: And so I think having that sales, the marketing behind it, and what I love about marketing is it's tangible, is that, you know, if you're, if you're building a home, you. There was a just land and then at some point all the steps happen. Then you can look back at a, you know, in six months to a year and you have a physical house and you see the work that you've done.
Marketing is exactly the same way.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: And you know, you know this really well. You know, you, you, you're going to create something new. You're designing a new idea. You see something, you go into a fab shop and you say, why are they doing it this way? That looked really hard. How can we make it easier for them? How can we make it safer for them? And then your brain starts going and all of a sudden through research and time testing, you end up having a product that you can be proud of. And now you've created something. And so I think that's the fun part, part of it. And so that was really my luxury of having the sales and the marketing and being able to be creative in my early years.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Awesome. So you've been, you've seen it from different angles. You've been in the industry, you've seen it whether it's selling directly, whether it's working with distributors, whether it's representing manufacturers. How did each side of those things change, kind of what customers were looking for?
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Oh, that's a good question.
When you go through having the, the job at 10x is, was a real blessing for me because you go from quarry to countertop and you get to see the, how it's blocked and how it's cut from the mountain and then you see how it's processed and then you go to a fabricator and how it's being sold and then cut. And then when you see this whole process.
Yes. And then you sell directly to fabricators or from a manufacturing side or from a distribution side, you really get a very well rounded picture of what the industry is doing and how it's moving. You know, and this industry is a, it's a living, breathing thing. It moves in and out and it's going and it changes every, every year. And so having the full loop, you get a full picture of our industry.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: Yeah, the.
That's pretty cool. To have that whole kind of perspective and that whole picture to be able to pull from. That's really, really awesome.
So 10x, obviously you are the CEO there.
What did you learn about taking like a company that was established, that international brand and translating those products and that message for sort of a practical needs of North America?
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I've sold. I was selling to 10x when I was at Braxton Bragg BBI now and then when I come to work for 10x, I didn't realize the scope of the brand of how many products. A lot of us would know 10x as ager or pro, so nan or sealer product. But when you peel back and you open the doors of what's really there. There's hundreds of product. There's four different divisions of abrasives and diamonds and resins and epoxies and chemicals and sealers. So it's a Big, wide variety of things. And really, Tenex is a chemical company. They're. They're a manufacturer, and they do that so very, very well.
One of the things that I found with them was when I came in is that they were. They were doing business in the United States the Italian way. And so we had to Americanize them a little bit more and to get into the minds of the fabricators, selling in in different ways, marketing in different ways, advertising different ways, and really showing the fabricators, really everything that 10x has and finding solutions. And so that was a lot of fun. So we created catalogs, and we built the website, and we joined the sfa and we had trade shows. And so it was really. It was a way to find a way to get into the market. Okay. Fabricators see truly what 10x was, and.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool. No, that's awesome. So it's not on my script, but one thing that always gets me, I'm European.
I was born in Ireland, duh. Obviously. But when I go to a American trade show and I go to Marmac, the difference in the clientele of people and how they do business is night and day difference.
So in Europe, you have a lot of.
They're not tire kickers. I hate to call them that, but they are slow burners. Oh, my word. It's like, seriously, I had one guy who would come. I think he came five years in a row to look at a tool before he actually bought it. I'm like, man, the five years that you've just wasted off your life. Seriously, what's going on?
But then you talk about the American.
The American stuff that go into the American trade shows, and everyone's just like, yep, I'll buy it right now. I'll buy it now. I'll buy it now.
In your perspective, like, how difficult is that to take kind of a European sort of standpoint and then bring it to an American side and then tell, like, the people at the top, like, they're not like Americans. Like, it's really difficult to make sales sometimes with Europeans.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Mm. Yeah, that's a. That's a good point. And I think one of the things that I learned and I use as an illustration and show them was in Europe, in Germany, Italy, when you have a diamond blade, they will want it for Life. They want 20,000, 30,000ft, 50,000ft. They don't. If it goes two feet a minute, that's more than okay, because we want longevity.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: And now in the U.S. if it's not going 10, 15ft, a minute.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Who wants to get about it? We don't want that.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: So the bond to change the mentality of how that blade is produced is completely different. And so it's a way to understand is like how we want things, we want it fast. We want, you know, Europeans just take your time and, and it's a culture and I absolutely love it. Wish we would actually have some of that more here in the usa.
But it's just a different way of selling. It's a different way of understanding it and moving things much faster. And you're right. You know, in, in Italy, everything, when you go to Marmal Mac, everyone's in suits and everyone's dressed nice.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: In Las Vegas you get people running in at 11 o' clock in their flip flops. So, yeah, it's a different mentality, it's a different way of doing business, but it's not better, it's not worse, it's just different. And so it's just a matter of helping people understand that and getting the mentality converted. Our products converted into American mentality.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Yeah, totally. And it is, it, it is, it is fun.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: It's.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: It always excites me when I go to marmac in Italy. It's like, it's a challenge. Okay, I am going to sell something today to some one person. And it's awesome when it happens because a lot of them are like, no, I'll just bide my time.
Anyways, good stuff. That was totally off script. But anyways, okay, so you're the CEO of a company.
A lot of people don't get it. They look at the guy at the top and they go, oh, he's got it all. Like the world's his oyster. He's got the easiest job around here.
As someone who's a coo, I can attest it's not.
I'm not going to tell you my perspective, but I'm going to ask you yours.
What outside of that kind of like, oh, you've got a title behind your name. Do people not realize? Do they not see? Do they not appreciate from where you are?
[00:23:21] Speaker B: I like football, so I'm a big Nick Saban fan. And even though I'm a Tennessee Vols. But I love his, his mentality.
Georgia. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart says saw. I saw him interviewing and he said he was discussing the. Regarding the. The true cost of leadership. And he said something to. The fact is that making decisions that negatively affect people, they care about being disliked despite best intentions. Yeah. And being misunderstood is always the most difficult Part of a job.
We're responsible for the livelihood of the employees, responsible for their families. You feel this weight of. Of all the people there. You feel the weight of a company, especially a larger company of 10x that you want to represent it proudly. You want to make it grow. You want to do the right things.
So when there are challenges, you have to make decisions that you don't want to make.
And those, Some of those decisions, people won't understand. They will never understand.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: No.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: And you'll be judged for those. And there's no way to defend yourself. And so that's. There's amazingly great perks, and there's amazingly good things, and there's a great. That you can have a vision and you can fill that vision and with where you want it to go.
But it's not always.
Not always. Not roses and, and flowers, you know.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: No, it's not. It's not.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: But, you know, that's what you. That's what you step into, and that's what you. Is asked for and it has to be done. And if you want to make the company grow, you got to make those tough decisions.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
Many of you will never have been in my office, so I don't know why I'm telling you this, but in my office, there is a huge canvas print of a lion.
I love lions.
And there are times when I have to look at that picture and have courage, when all I really want to do is crawl onto the table and be like, oh, no, why me? But that's where at times, as leaders, a lot of people, to your point, they don't understand the decisions that have to be made that are difficult and hard. One other thing they don't realize is, I don't know if you're like me, but how many sleepless nights there are, or you wake up at 1:32 in the morning and your mind begins to race. Like, was that a right decision? Like, should I make this one? And then you're up the rest of the night. Like, there are wonderful perks, don't get me wrong.
But there's a lot of stress that's involved when you're dealing with people and livelihoods and people you care about. Like, they're a family.
And like, no one wants to disappoint family. No one wants to have to tell them hard things. Like, that's really difficult. So not to put people off if they aspire to those jobs, but just way up, weigh it up. And it takes a toll on your family as well. Like, you're away from people.
Your mind is like, even though you maybe be at home, your mind is like thinking upon other things and your body's present but you're not there. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of things to weigh up before going, yeah, I'll take that job, let's do it.
Yeah.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: You don't clock in and clock out.
Especially in our business when you have European, Asian companies, you deal with you. I mean most of the things. So usually your day starts at 4:35 o' clock in the morning and you're answering Europe and Italy and Germany and all the other companies. And then usually at night by the time you're ready for bed, you're it's morning somewhere else.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: And so yeah, you're working again. Yep.
[00:26:51] Speaker B: It's not a nine to five and so you're.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: No, it's not.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: So you know, those are, those are things of challenges and there's a lot of weight that goes with that.
But you know what, it's also the, the privilege that you have of being able to, to represent your company and to be that, you know that you need to be for, for your organization.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Being the F and the sort of the ambassador for it and you know, doing that's that is that outweighs all the hard stuff.
And when it's a company you really love and care for, you wear that kind of badge on your, on your chest with pride and you go to fight like you fight for the company. You're like, yeah, I'm not going to let people walk over us or whatever. So yeah. But what's, what's one decision in that sort of higher level land that you're really proud of and then on the flip side, what's one that you're going. That was a lesson that I learned and how to learn the hard way.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: Doug Slocum, I go back to my younger Braxton days is he told me, he says, Brian, I want to take as many to the, he said I want to go to the top and I want to take as many people with me as possible.
And I always loved that and I always stuck with it is that he was the mentor. He always trained and he always helped me. And so I always want to do the same is to, I want to teach, educate, train, get everyone involved and I want everyone to do, to be in their best position for, for their, their job. And it could be a warehouse, it could be purchasing, it could be whatever the case may be inside the organization is we want them to be respected. We always wanted them to do, to, to feel they've, they've earned their spot and that they are heard, they're listened to. And I always wanted to do that as to, as the company grew is to bring people inside the company and grow with them. That's really what I, what I always really appreciated and what I learned through my, through my leadership journey.
[00:28:39] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: That's so cool.
The hard lessons, I would say, and you mentioned it, is balanced life between work and family. That's always the hard part, is that, you know, and the hard part too is I love our industry. I love what we do. I love my job. Yeah. And it's not really a work I say I never want to, I never want to work for a living is. I want to enjoy my, like, not every day is a holiday, clearly.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: Yeah, totally.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: But I love what I do. I want, I love getting out of bed, I love going to my office. And so sometimes that life balance, that life work balance can become blurred. And so we tend to put more time into our work than we do our own families. Yeah, I'm sure you're the same way as, you know, you have, you have kids and you're going, you want to take a vacation.
And we're texting and we're emailing when we're on vacation. Yeah, when you're on vacation. And what we're doing is we're stealing our family time.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: And that's really hard. And so I think that, you know, the people listening, especially if you are in that position to where your phone never turns off when you have your family time is please take the time that's really important in the end, whether you have this job or the next job, what in the end of the year in your life. And they're going to say, man, I could have worked a little extra more.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:29:56] Speaker B: You're going to say, I wish I had. Who do you want around your, your co workers or your family?
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Your family. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I saw that's a, a meme that someone put up one time where no one on their deathbed ever said, oh, I wished I had worked an extra hour or I should have worked that weekend. What they're, what they're saying is, oh, I wish I had took that extra family vacation or, you know, put the phone away or whatever. One thing I love, I love about this company here, we have a thing where we call, it's called going black.
It's dark out. So when we go on vacation, we've trained our people well. Enough that when we are gone, we're not really missed.
And we've set ourselves up as a company to do that. And talk about a blessing where if I take a week off, I know if my phone rings it's a code red emergency.
But everything else, like our people here, who are absolutely fantastic, have been trained and know, okay, that's not that urgent, that can wait until he comes back. Or, you know what, we'll talk to someone else. You know, many counselors, gives great wisdom, and we'll make a decision and we'll go with it.
And it's like my boss, who I love dearly, would always tell me that when you're gone from the company, like when you go on vacation, things should actually go better and you should not be afraid of that. And when I first heard that, Brian, I was like, that's nuts. That means you don't need me. Like, I'm not needed. Like, you are needed, but it means you're training those next people and it actually gives a weight off your back that you can go on vacation or you can do these family, family things. And the phone's not constantly going. So, yeah. Anyone listening? Balance of life is so important. I recently went through a health scare. Some of you may have seen it on LinkedIn.
And it's really taught me that family is most important.
My wife, my kids, like, I have to say no to people, which I hate doing.
You're like me, Brian, where it's like, whatever you need, you know, I'll move heaven and earth for you. I'll do whatever. But at some point you have to say, look, I'm really sorry, but I don't have time for that. Or let me direct you to someone else. That's really difficult. That's so hard.
[00:32:27] Speaker B: It's hard to murph to. It's hard to set priorities and maintain them and actually do them.
It's hard to maintain them. Right? You say, I'm going to do this. I'm not more important. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to let my time slip. And yet something throws in, I'm just going to throw the damage. And so I love that with omnicube. If you guys have built that to where we always say you should work yourself out of a job, meaning that someone should be asked to be able to do your job. And if it's only a week, we're not saying that we're not important, but I love that is that if you have the internal training where you can Rotate those jobs and people can fill in for you. It definitely makes the company more healthy. Oh, totally. And it makes weight off of your shoulders much less. Oh, yeah. And it will make the company run more smoothly, for sure.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: More, more efficient. We're a, we're a well oiled machine over here, I can tell you. We've got superb employees who I love dearly. And yeah, each one of them has gifts and talents that I don't have. So let's use them. So, yeah, okay.
Your new, your new position, your new company.
Do you want to give a shout out to that right now before we go any further?
[00:33:37] Speaker B: Sure. I mean, I, I, I got a new gig.
It's time for a Pro Tool House is a new company that we started very, very recently, as in the last month or so.
And it's a, it's an opportunity for me to do something a little bit different. It's something that I want a new challenge in my life. And you know, I've only had two major jobs in my whole life. Braxton. I was there for 12, 13 years, 10x for 18 years.
So, you know, let's, let's try something different, something new.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Why, why the name, like, where did that neem come from?
[00:34:15] Speaker B: Well, you know, I have to say that my daughter, my daughter was my inspiration for Pro Tool House. Is that my daughter Madison? If you've been at a trade show in the last couple of years, you've seen her, she's, she was around and she was doing some of her marketing things and she wanted to, to do her own thing. So she went and she wanted to be an esthetician.
And so there's, so she was doing that, all those things. And then she says, well, you know, I have an opportunity to have my own little spot, my own salon, rather work for someone.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:44] Speaker B: And I said, and I said, madison. And a friend of mine, Rich, he gave me an illustration. He says, imagine a huge lake and you can't swim across it in your mind, but you never put a foot in the water because the water is only this deep. It's only six inches deep. So you had this obstacle that is so strong that you think is so heavy that you can't do it. And so I told her that and I said, madison, if you don't take a chance on doing something for yourself, then, you know, be strong and do it. So she thought about it, she said, dad, you know, I think that's a really good idea. And she did it.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: But you know what the old dad do as I say, not as I do.
And I really thought about that and I thought, you know what, I'm 51 years old. As if I'm, if I'm going to do something, now is the time to do it and let's try and let me put my own flavor of something and, and just try something different and, and to see and to do something different than what everyone else is doing.
[00:35:39] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: And so that's kind of how we created the, the Pro tool house is that I want, I don't want to be another Grand Court or BBI or another distributor. And those guys do amazingly good job and I love everyone. They have great friends, all those.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Totally. We all do.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: Yeah. So I, I want that. But we want to do is. I want to be able to educate, I want to train, I want to be able to target professionals who use tools every day to make them and their families a living. Right. So the out Pro is the professionalism that we want to bring in tools.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: You got to have tools.
[00:36:12] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: And so that's kind of where we're going. What we're going is we're not going to offer products that just fill a hole. We're going to be very specific in what we bring in.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: That's awesome. So when you're thinking upon that, when you're thinking of sort of a new line or a product line, because you're going to put your reputation behind it, like what are you looking for to make it fit into your sort of like your form of where you're at right now?
[00:36:40] Speaker B: Well, again, we're not going to be the Walmart. We want to be able to, to offer something that works every time the way it's supposed to work.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:36:48] Speaker B: And so what we want to do is it, we're, there's, there's a list of things that go through my, through my brain. Is it safe?
[00:36:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Does it do what I say it's going to do?
Is the product consistent? Does it work exactly the same every single time with every single product?
[00:37:01] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Is there, is, is the company behind it? Is it a good to have a good reputation?
Is there a warranty? Do they support the warranty, the support, the claims? Do they have technical support?
And so more importantly, honestly, do I like the people at the company?
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah. There you go.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: Really important is either you're going to get along, you're going to have a relationship. Because I totally, I don't randomly bring in companies. It's. Each company must fill a very specific need. Yep. And they must be willing to have a strategic partnership is that this is never one one sided street is, you know, we're going to learn it's tool, it could fit some machine, it could break, it can be dropped out of the back of a truck. And what's going to happen from that point?
[00:37:41] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: We're going to be very strategic about we do that. It goes back to the products that Pro Tools carry will be very, very specific. Not every product is going to make it and not every company will make the list.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: We're being very clear in what we're doing. Very, very strategic in how we're going to the market.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: Yeah, we're the same over here where we have a lot of people who want to like distribute the tools. But for us it's that personal relationship with people that's key because when things get hard and you have to have a difficult conversation sometimes it's that, that you fall back on and then there's no like weirdness or tension or any of that stuff. So yeah, now that's, that's helpful. So you've just started, it's in its infancy but obviously you're a thinker, you're a planner.
Sort of three, three to five years from now.
Where would you like to be at? Like where would you like to see Pro Tool Haas like really succeed?
[00:38:39] Speaker B: Another really good question.
It's not about sales, it's not about.
I've sold many, many, many blades in my life.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:50] Speaker B: I think it's about reputation with fabricators, tile installers, when they talk among themselves or something is mentioned in one of the forums.
I want them to think about Pro Tool loss and say, you know man, they, they educated me.
They talked me through a situation. We went above and beyond being helpful.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: You know what I called them and they knew exactly what I was talking about and they gave me the product that really was supposed to get the job done and it worked.
I, I hope they say in three to five years that, that we've developed all new product brands and all new things coming in and always innovative. And that's what I, what I love, that's really what I want from Pro Tool House is that I can get back into my creative side. Is when you're a CEO you sit behind the desk and you do a lot of desk things.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: And I miss getting my hands dirty. I miss creating and getting back into those, into the shops and designing. And just in the last couple of months we've, I'm feeling it again. So it's, that's what you want to do is say it's not about the sales, it's about the customer service relationship.
30 years in industry, you learn a couple things at least. Yeah, you do. At least you think you do.
[00:39:54] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: I'd like to find a way to pass that on is to I want to do more education, more training, more consulting. That's things that I wanted I want to do because that's awesome. People can fake it till you make it, until you really get into the nuts and bolts. And so we want to be able to show that we're doing a helping our industry, furthering our industry, furthering education. That's what I hope they say in three to five years.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: Yeah, stand behind everything. And on that point, standing behind stuff kind of takes us into a sort of new realm of you guys are bringing in the best tools, like they're top quality. They're like the best that people can get.
Obviously everyone's looking kind of that bottom right hand corner of how much does this cost? But how do you help people understand that sometimes what looks identical isn't actually the same thing. Like one's obviously superior to the other and obviously you guys are going to have the superior tools. So how do you, like you're talking about education. How do you educate an end user on this is the tool you need. This one looks like its twin brother right over here. But the difference is you need to know.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
Warren Buffett famously said, price is what you pay, value is what you get.
How much you spend on something is not the same as it's worth.
And so I think when you look at different manufacturers, a different product, and it goes back to education too. I think it's going, making sure that we do the things that we need to do to explain the product in more details, the specs being out there. And I think the rule isn't by expensive either. You know, Omni Cubed isn't the lowest cost thing in the market, you know, but no one or no one have I ever heard someone say, hey, mommy, cube is too expensive.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Why?
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Because it does what it says it's going to do.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:41:45] Speaker B: And it's reliable and it's never going to say, yeah. And I see posts all the time in, in some of the forums where somebody says, hey, I'm looking for a CNC machine or I'm looking for a bridge saw.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: No one ever says, oh well, do it this because it's cheap.
[00:42:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: They say customer service, how the parts are available. Yeah, it's all about the delivery and what's behind it? Totally never about the money, never about the machines.
[00:42:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: So the rule isn't buy expensive. It's never going cheap.
Going cheap is, is not the way that you want to go. It's.
[00:42:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: For example, a Tyler or you're mixing mud and you have margin trial. Does it have to be a $50 margin trial? No, it's not going. It's. It's a margin trial. Clean it up, you throw it away, whatever the case may be.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: Totally. Yep.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: But.
But if you're going to use something that costs you a lost customer, cause a serious accident, as you know, there's deaths in our industry.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: Oh yeah. Big time.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: So how much different is that? And you think about it from a tool standpoint of view is that you buy an Omni Cube thing, a thousand, two thousand, three thousand dollars.
[00:42:53] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: Or you can buy a cheap one for half the price, a quarter of the price.
[00:42:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: But if something gets damaged, if something fails, it's not a little fix. Even if it's just something happens in the home and you damage a hardwood floor.
It's really important.
And from a tools manufacturer and hope fabricators will. Can make the numbers and you can adjust it a little bit as you go along. But typically in a kitchen install, only about 3% of the costs are tools.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:24] Speaker B: 3%. Yep. It's going to be labor. It's going to be your stone. It's those pieces. And so when you're doing something and you're talking about doing it doing a seam of marble and you can choose three different glue, you know, there's five different types of. He says in our industry.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:38] Speaker B: Well, one is cheap, the other one is more expensive.
But if you, if you choose one over $5, really, it's probably going to cost you maximum $1 for the, for the better quality product for that job.
And you create a line in those and you rip the countertop out, you just lost $1,000. Just like not in county.
[00:43:56] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:43:56] Speaker B: So not even again. It's, it's the value versus the worth. And so understanding what that means is you don't have to buy premium every time, but just be conscious on what you do buy and the application you're going to use it for.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: Totally. Absolutely. No, that's, that's really helpful. And one of the, one of the things that like really strikes me with people is they want to do it. Some people, not everyone. But there's a growing trend of let's do it the cheapest way possible. Okay. So that's fair. And, well, everyone's trying to protect their pennies, but you get some novice who comes into your house who's some rookie guy who's cheap and doesn't have the proper tools, is doing seams with silicone rather than what he's supposed to do it with. He does a hodgepodge job, he walks out of the job, you pay him, and six months later, you're standing at your sink and your seam has popped.
And you call the guy and he's like, well, it's bought and paid for. What are you doing? That's where for us, our customer service is our number one marketing tool. So we have Tyler.
Love the guy. He is phenomenal at what he does. If anyone's ever having a bad day, just call him up, talk about the weather, talk about the Diamondbacks, you know, and he'll. He'll chat to you and then he'll help you out. But having that where one, someone picks up the phone. Two, it's actually a person, not a robot, because that's basically where everyone's going, is all AI integrated stuff. And we're like, no, it's got to be a person. And three, somebody actually cares about the industry that is going to set you apart from anybody else. So, yes, Omni Cube tools are. They're more expensive, but the warranty you get and the customer service, that someone will actually say, hello, this is Tyler. How can I help you?
You don't get that anywhere anymore. It's so hard.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: Yeah, and it's. It's sad. It's really sad that that has come to that. And, yeah, we want to be again, we want to be the problem solver, hopefully. I say the problem is never the problem. The problem is how you handle the problem.
And again, things break things, things happen. It's life. It's all.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: It goes.
[00:46:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it goes. But if you are dealing with a problem the right way, then it's not really. Problem actually turns out to be. To be a positive thing because you build relationships, right?
[00:46:31] Speaker A: Yep, totally. And that's. It's back to that communication and relationship building and that's where it's at. So, you know, any installer who's listening, and they're always like, fighting the pennies, you know, think of. You fight the pennies, but think of the problems that come with fighting those.
Because you're. You're constantly like, this thing's breaking or I've got to fix it, or, you know, whereas other companies, like yours or like Omni Cubed here, will help you. We're only willing to help. Like we're, we're willing to help you. Other people tell you to the crowd, forget about it. So, no, it's, yeah, it's key to factor all those things in when you're buying something and we all do it, like our cars, how many years warranties on it, you know what's covered, what's not covered, finding all that out. So. Yeah, yeah.
[00:47:22] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:47:23] Speaker A: Rant over on those things.
So you are, you're starting up this company. Things are progressing well.
How important to you is it that you know the tools that you're selling, that the manufacturers are being honest in what, how they're presenting the tools? Because there's so much happening right now where people are like, they're selling tools and like warning readings are wrong. Testing's never happened. The QC's horrible replacement parts aren't available for any of these things. How important are those things to like yourself when you're thinking of bringing on a supplier?
[00:48:07] Speaker B: It's not important. It's critical.
It's critical.
[00:48:11] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:48:11] Speaker B: It's, it's there. It's inexcusable for a manufacturer to inflate a rating just to sell a product. Yep. It's to, to push a product just to have into the market. And we talk about the pricing, the costs.
It costs. Steel is expensive.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: Chemicals is expensive. Things are expensive. And we all have seen it. We all, we all have experienced it. And so if you're going to build a good quality product that meets the capacity ratings, that does what it says it's going to do, that is truly safe. Again, we're dealing with people's lives. You know, we go back to material handling because this is really critical in our industry.
You know, if, if, if a seam fails. Okay. Well, you know, we just go back and put it on to replace the stone.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:48:57] Speaker B: If an a frame fails, if a slab rack fails, you cost people's lives. There is no, it's inexcusable in my opinion. So it's important that you do buy from a company that can support it, that does have the rating testings. They show that they're, they had knowledge of technical support also that is reputable in the industry that have had these things in the market for a number of years.
So when we look at, from our standpoint of view, I'm never going to sell something to anyone if I do not think it meets those standards. Good. And because I don't have to.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: I don't, I don't have to. And I, I won't do those IT ones from my own, my own self ethics. Yeah, I'm never going to do that. I would never ever put another worker in a compromising situation knowing that something could happen. I wouldn't want that on my conscience. And I'm not going to sell it.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: No, definitely not. And that's what's hard for us.
We actually just started a campaign this morning about copycats. Like our products are copied like left, right and center.
What the problem is the people who copy it, they don't realize the key functions and different things that are in those products. Like our engineers, like our top engineer here, he will spend hours, and I mean literally hours, days.
This last products that we're about to launch, like weeks, testing, evaluating, making sure that it's going to do what we say it's going to do.
That's where a lot of time and effort and money from our standpoint is pumped into. And then it's really frustrating for us.
Some people say it's flattering that people copy. For me, I'm like, oh, I get that. But seriously. And then they copy it and they've no idea what they're copying. They use inferior materials, they leave things out that are actually critical.
And then they pump up the weight values and different things at these carts. Like I'm looking at a cart right now because it's right in front of me, like what a card can handle. And you're going to, this is lives that people are messing with. And you're going, really?
And then you get the guy who's like, I'll just buy the cheap knockoff card. You're like, dude, you're literally putting your life in danger and you don't even realize.
Like to your point, if one of those caster wheels. Because I'm looking right at the caster wheel. If one of those caster wheels was inferior and the whale broke and you've got a thousand pound slab and you're either going upstairs or you're rolling over rough terrain.
You've killed someone. I don't care how quick you are, but once that stone begins to go.
Yeah.
You're in big, big trouble. So it's like telling people like American mead, like your stuff and our stuff, we stand by it, we're passionate about it.
Yeah. Just trying to get that into people's minds at the minute, it's hard. I get it. People are tension pennies.
[00:52:01] Speaker B: And also when you think about it too, Aaron Crowley, you know, you know Aaron.
[00:52:06] Speaker A: Yep, totally.
[00:52:07] Speaker B: So the, the, the no left, no lift yeah. Great product. One. I love Aaron. He's. He was, he's a great guy. Yeah. Builds a good thing. A fabricator. So he built it for himself.
[00:52:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: Right. And he and I was, we were at a, at an event, at a, a forum or at a sponsorship agreement and he was giving these numbers like so your workers, how many, how many pounds do they lift in their career? Yeah. Millions of pounds. Yeah. Millions of pounds that a worker will go. And you got to think about his longevity, his health too is when absolutely 60 years old, if you don't give him the right material handling equipment, the right installation equipment, one, you're making his life much harder. You have a greater chance of breaking materials. Much longer installation times.
If you just do the right equipment, get it, get the right product for the right application, it goes in smooth, easy, no problems, no damages, everything.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:52:59] Speaker B: The guy still has a life when he's 50 years old.
[00:53:01] Speaker A: I know. Yeah. He's not crippled. Like, how many guys have you seen a trade shows whose biceps are down now by their wrist because, oh, I was big and strong and I just left at the stone and then it rips off.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I know of a couple of shops that the majority of the. Of the workers in the shop are women.
[00:53:20] Speaker A: Huh.
[00:53:22] Speaker B: And so that was a really good thought process for me is that one, the, the attention to detail is amazing.
[00:53:29] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
[00:53:30] Speaker B: But two, they do nothing by hand. Everything is supported. There's no back in labor to themselves. Their process, their flow is they're using material handling to move the pieces from. From saw to CNC to workstations to loading. And by doing this, what a great example they're setting to whether it's a men's shop or a woman's shop, it doesn't matter. But absolutely, things the easiest way and
[00:53:53] Speaker A: the safest way, do it the right way. There's a right way to do it. And it's absolutely. It may cost you up front, but in the end it's, it's, it's a lifesaver like work. One workers comp claim. I always remember my very first trade show.
I had a guy walk up to me and we were showing the pro lift and we were talking through it and he started to cry. And I'm thinking, what the heck did I say? But he started to cry and he was like, five years ago, I almost lost my company because one of my employees put their back out and sued us. And it almost crippled us. They lost all their employees, they lost their building.
It was just him and his wife that Ended up running the business. And I'll never forget that to the day I die. To the fact of it only takes one slip up or one feel or doing something the foolish way.
I'm big and strong. I can carry it. Guys, seriously. We say roll when you can. Like the Egyptians did it with the pyramids and large stones, for Pete's sake. Why can't we twig onto these things? So, but no, it's, it's definitely, you know, think. And it's the same with you. Like the tools you're going to offer, they're going to help. They're for. To help people. Yeah, that's what we're all about. We're helping people. Yeah. We're here to make money, but a huge part of it is we're here to help, so.
[00:55:18] Speaker B: Exactly. Work smarter, not harder.
[00:55:20] Speaker A: Amen to that. So kind of last question to wrap everything up.
You've had a long career, you're well known in the industry.
You've started a new company.
Now is the time to plug it. Where can people find you? Like how can they contact you now? If they've, you know, lost, you know, information or emails or whatever, you know, how can they find you and how can they reach out to you?
[00:55:47] Speaker B: Pro toolhouse.com and either it's how you spell it, P R O T O, O, L, H A U s or H O U S. It all comes back to me.
Good. Yeah. We also have a D star which is a great. So the porcelain panel is coming in strong. So we have another website, dstarusa.com that's, that's supporting that end. And of course I'm on Facebook, social media.
So usually if you're in a forum, you. I'm usually around somewhere.
[00:56:14] Speaker A: Yeah, you can find them somewhere. Awesome. Well, Brian, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on. This was a great. Wow. We've done an hour in three minutes. Man, it's went like that. It's conversational, it's learning. We're growing.
So thank you very much. I appreciate it.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: Always a pleasure seeing you, Merv and look forward to seeing you soon.
[00:56:33] Speaker A: Yeah. That's a wrap on this episode of the Cutting Edge Installs. If you've enjoyed this, be sure to follow subscribe like it. If you would like to be a guest, leave me a comment. If you want to be on the other side of the camera, by all means, let me know. These episodes drop every other Thursday at 8:00am Pacific State Time. For more about Omni Cubed, go on website omnicube.com to learn how we help fabricators and installers do their work safer and more efficient every day. And until we see you all stay safe and cheerio.
