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Hi, today we are celebrating

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Eric and Rachel Rivera of

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Artistic Flooring and Tile.

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Hi guys!

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Hey, how are you?

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Thanks for joining us.

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Thank you.

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Our podcast.

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Thanks for having us.

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We're so excited to have you too.

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I'm excited to be here.

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Yeah, we want to hear all about your life.

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So how did your business get started?

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How did you get into flooring and tile?

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Honestly, I started doing it

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when I was a young teenager.

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I always wanted to find a way to, to make

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money when I was young, because I always

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liked to, , have my own money and, , my

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grandmother used to insist on shoveling

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driveways, but she also used to want me

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to do it for free, so I said, grandma, you

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got to have some better ideas than that.

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She eventually, , put me with

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her son, my uncle, and, , I would

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spend the summers of middle school.

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I think I started right

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around middle school.

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, like sixth, seventh grade, I would do

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it during the summertime, at least a few

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days a week, or at least on the weekends.

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And even though it was hard work, yeah,

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even though it was hard work, I really,

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I really, really seem to enjoy it.

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Even as a young kid, I

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really, I really enjoyed it.

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So, , I started off as...

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Was it a kind of an apprenticeship?

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Pretty much, pretty much,

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I started off hard too.

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I started off carpet.

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First, which, , some people think

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that ceramic tile has got to be

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the most strenuous, but it's not.

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Carpet is, carpet will wear you out.

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It'll have you hunched over.

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I mean, it'll ruin your

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knees, your back for sure.

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Early.

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I'm already 44 and I feel okay.

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, from, , predominantly doing hard

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surfaces, tile, laminate, stuff, stuff.

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You can carry one box at a time

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instead of a whole, a whole giant

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roll of carpet on your neck.

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Well, and that thing that they use

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to, to put to carpet in place, that

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knee that you kick with your knee,

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the kicker, it's got a pad, but that

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looks like it hurts like the dickens.

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And especially, , the first time

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I heard my uncle say, , to do

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it right, , you gotta feel it.

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I was like, yeah, that's, this

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isn't, this isn't going to be for me.

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I promise you, I'll put all your

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patent tax drip down real quick.

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Smart boy.

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That's right.

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He Work smarter, not harder.

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Than I made sure I was so

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good at it that he would never

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want me to install any carpet.

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So you really started

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in a family business.

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I mean, you were, even though it

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was your uncle, you were second

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generation in a family business.

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Did you have like cousins

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that were his sons that worked

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for him as well or daughter?

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Yep.

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Yep.

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His son, Jason he was younger than me.

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So he came.

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See, it's crazy because before me,

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there was one of my second cousins

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who was four years older than me.

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And he actually started

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with my uncle first.

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And then went on to

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become an auto mechanic.

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That's when I weaseled my way in like,

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okay cousin guy is out of the way.

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So.

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, what about me?

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And, , then he's, he's my uncle,

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Mike has spent time with a few of us.

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There's a couple other cousins that

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actually have learned the trade from him.

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Some of them went off to have, , to make

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wiser decisions from the experience and

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some of us are just, I don't know, built,

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I mean, I appreciate it, I appreciate

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using my hands and being able to be.

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Artsy in a way, , pay my

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bills at the same time.

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And art, , art's always been my thing.

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So, art's always been my thing.

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So, , I mean, what we do here at Artistic

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Surface, Artistic, I say Artistic

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Surface, that's my old business name.

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Back in New York, yeah.

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I had to switch it.

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So at Artistic Flooring and Tile, , we

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we pride ourselves on doing high end

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work and taking on, , those, those

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very, very detailed projects that, , can

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go wrong with one, one false move.

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And that's the artsy side of me that,

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that I'm allowed to I don't know, utilize

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through my, through my flooring skills.

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So and also that's the thing that divided

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you from, from some of the cousins that

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went in a different direction is that

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they, I think, I think I loved it more

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because there is, there is a lot of, there

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is a lot of strain, , there is, you do,

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it is a lot of manual and physical labor.

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It really is, I think math wise to,

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to be honest with you, Eric really is

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a numbers guy and likes to calculate

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and, , a lot of like layouts and

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like how you do on the job site.

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A lot of it has to do with.

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Measurements and calculations

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and stuff like that.

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And you have to do a lot of math and,

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and, and adjusting and stuff like that.

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So I think that's a strong suit for

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him also, and something he likes to do.

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So putting those two together for him, I

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think is what makes him really enjoy it.

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Yeah.

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It makes me, makes me want to stay focused

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and, , you fight through the pain because

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you, you can't think about the pain

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as much when you're thinking about the

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details and the measurements all at once.

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The challenge behind that

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makes the day go by so quickly.

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, I believe there's two different

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types of people in this world when

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it comes to work in the workforce.

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And I think a lot of us will agree

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that there's, there's the person that

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there's never enough time in a day.

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You say it all the time.

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You say it to people that you

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work, you work amongst, you say

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it to yourself, Oh my God, there's

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never enough time in the day.

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It's because you're, you're trying

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to get so much accomplished that

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your days go by really quick.

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There's that person, and then there's

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the type of person that shows up 10

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minutes late every day, is supposed

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to be working from 7 to 3:30.

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30, he's pretending to sweep the

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same area he was sweeping a half hour ago.

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That type of person tends

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to have very long work days.

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And could you imagine

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having that skill set?

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And being a construction

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worker at the same time.

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I mean, that's a torturous life.

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I would, I would think, , for some.

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Where for me I don't, I never feel

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like there's enough time, , I've

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had customers, I've had customers.

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Tell me it's getting late and that

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they want to sit down and have dinner.

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Oh, you can come back tomorrow.

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That'd be great.

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So it that that level of engagement

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and getting engrossed in the work and

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really, , just kind of losing yourself

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getting into a they call that flow

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state, , where you you're just so in it,

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you're you kind of lose track of time.

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All of a sudden you look at the clock

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and you're like, it's time to go.

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And weirdly, you're like, not yet.

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I should want to go.

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I've been working for nine hours now.

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I should really, really want to go home.

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Wow.

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If you could bottle that, I can tell,

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I can tell you could sell a lot of it.

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Oh, yeah.

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We need a wrench.

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That's our new business.

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model.

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How many years in tile now?

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You said 44 and you started

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when you were in middle school.

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So what?

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30 plus years.

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I don't know.

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That's a good question because

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tile I've only been doing tile for.

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12, 12 years.

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When you moved to here,

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when you moved to Florida?

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No I've, we've been here two years now.

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Oh, okay.

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Yeah.

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So about 10 years back in New York and

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then two so far since I've been here.

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Okay.

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Yeah, I moved on from carpet in

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my, when I, right around when I

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met Rachel, actually, because when

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I met Rachel, I was still living

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around the corner from my uncle.

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As a matter of fact.

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Yeah.

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So that's kind of when I left it.

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, I didn't, I never wanted to buy a van

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or have to maintain a van and a van is a

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necessity when you're doing carpet, a van

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or a cube truck, you have to have room

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for goods rolls up to 15 feet longer.

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No, there's 12 and 15 foot goods when

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it comes to carpet, you gotta be able

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to lug either one of those sizes around.

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So I'm more of a pickup truck,

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, toolboxes on the back of it.

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Kind of guy.

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So did you go through the wood floor?

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I'm guessing in New York, there's a

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lot of old buildings that have got a

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lot of nice, , wood, hardwood floors.

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Did you also do that?

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A lot more than here.

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So we're, even as a laminate guy,

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which is where I started, laminate is

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like, It's the new version of hardwood.

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Hardwood's an entirely different animal.

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There's a lot more, a lot of more

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responsibilities to come with it too.

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You have to pay, it's, it's, it's real.

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You know what I mean?

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It's a live material.

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, it won't quite, it expands and contracts.

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, where sometimes laminates

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only expand if they get wet.

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Which has been a problem for a lot of

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people in the last 20 to 30 years, which

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is why they've switched to the vinyl

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tile, which also looks like laminate.

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So I've progressed with time, where

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I put in miles and miles and miles,

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let alone square feet of laminate.

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And then eventually ventured on

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to hardwood, whether it be nailing

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it down over subfloors, because we

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don't have only or predominantly

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concrete substrates up north.

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And then eventually, , ventured

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over to even gluing it down over

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concrete, which was good to get that

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experience, not knowing that I was

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going to eventually live in Florida.

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But even with that, there's a lot

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to pay attention to, , you have

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to make sure that the concrete.

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, moisture levels are at a certain, at a

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certain level before you can install it.

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So everything was like a

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more of a slow progression.

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I went from easy to, to a difficult

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level over time with my, my floor

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coverings is what they refer to them.

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All lands that, that can, when you

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say floor coverings, that pretty much

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refers to all, , which was always.

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Which is always very beneficial to me

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because I was able to be a lot more

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versatile than just any other floor guy.

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, you have your tile setters, you

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have your hardwood men, , and they

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usually, , hardwood guys usually do a

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little bit of laminate, so on and so

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forth, but they really don't do tile.

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And I've never really heard

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yet of people that specialize.

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In tile, but could do carpet if they had.

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Those are, those are like two very

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opposite ends of the spectrum.

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Yeah.

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It's so full.

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Maybe I put you in a, , a more

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fluid or flexible category, I guess.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And it's in regards to the surface that

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you could have, that you could have us

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install or help provide materials for,

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we are very knowledgeable that because

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we have hands on experience installing.

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So, , it's, it's kind of cool

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because it allows me to be, , the

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measure guy at the salesperson.

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The decorator, the installer, the

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accountant, the, , the marketer,

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the networker,, between the two

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of us, we're able to conquer what

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some store owners pay five to 10

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different people to do even more.

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, if they have numerous locations.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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So that gives you, that gives

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you the ability to, to, , stay

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small and get it all done.

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Yeah.

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Correct.

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Yeah.

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Because I would imagine that'll

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become a ceiling of, for growth.

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You'll have to, , , I feel like

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I really have to get to the

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point where I'm bored of it.

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I think I've restricted myself

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and it's almost intention.

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I love doing it too much.

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I'm not ready to just go around and

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do quality control and, , measure

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and estimate, , maybe you have

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to wear more than a t shirt.

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I don't know if I want to do all that yet.

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, I don't care to look that important.

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I still enjoy just being my

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own employee at this point, and

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I can always rely on myself.

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What some family businesses do,

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and I know we're, we kind of, we're

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not off the family, but what, what

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some businesses do is, is decide

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on bringing in outside management.

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, as they're growing, at some point,

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they decide, I've got a friend

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who, they, they had to do that.

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And So, , as you're saying that I'm

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thinking, well, one possibility is you

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could find somebody that that loves

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doing all that stuff and and put them in

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charge, knowing that, , they're working

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for you still and you're still in the

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field and still doing, , doing the work.

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Yeah, after the, there'd have to be

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a lot of trust there because yeah,

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doing the work now, now you need

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really, , the eye of the owner on it.

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I remember you mentioned before about

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not, not only explaining or going

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into detail into what it is that I

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love about what I do, but what else

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I could learn,, what else I could,

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, that I would like to get out of it.

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Which is, , in my mid 40s now, I mean,

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that's something I think about every day.

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How do I eventually progress?

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We believed, Rachel and I, that

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moving down here, not that it was

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our main reason, because it wasn't.

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It wasn't even in the top ten of

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lists of importance, , things that we

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wanted to accomplish when we got down

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here, is there's a lot more down here.

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It's a bigger city.

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And where we're from, we felt like not

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only could we get away from the people

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that helped us grow to who we are today.

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So we didn't have to

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become their competitors.

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I wouldn't want to compete with

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friends or family, limit them.

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Yes.

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Restrict or limit or anything like that,

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or negotiate against so separating myself

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from the people that helped me get.

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Here, which I love and thank all of

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them because majority of them sent

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me down here with very good, , very,

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very nice referral, like two, three

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page letter referrals, explained their

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experience with me over long periods

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of time, which was necessary when it

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came to licensing and stuff like that.

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Test for licensing.

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They wanted you to have, , a lot of

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referrals from well known people.

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So they not only, , gave me opportunities

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to build myself through their

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companies, but sent me off with a

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very nice farewell referrals as well.

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So moving down here, Rachel and I

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believe that we, we would be able to

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take it to that next level and still do.

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It's just synchronizing.

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I guess my question and something that

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I would love to learn is how, how do

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you synchronize having enough work?

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Where you can, this has been

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the biggest thing for me and it

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probably restricts a lot of people.

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How do you get to the point where you

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can synchronize having more than enough

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work coming in, where you can guarantee

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people that you're interviewing and

By 2 00:14:48

hiring at least a 40 hour week, right?

By 2 00:14:53

And there's always enough work for

By 2 00:14:55

in house people, Rachel and I have

By 2 00:14:57

had a few employees and still have

By 2 00:14:59

one as, as we speak right now, but

By 2 00:15:03

how do you attract enough other?

By 2 00:15:08

Reputable companies that want to work

By 2 00:15:10

with you, whether it be subcontracting

By 2 00:15:12

through you or just , conquering

By 2 00:15:15

larger projects like hotels, , we

By 2 00:15:18

used to do them up north and hotels.

By 2 00:15:20

There would be a handful of

By 2 00:15:24

us, , that we're helping.

By 2 00:15:26

Knock that hotel out over

By 2 00:15:28

a projected period of time.

By 2 00:15:32

So otherwise competitors that

By 2 00:15:33

were for this pro for that project

By 2 00:15:36

brought in and all working as a team.

By 2 00:15:38

Yeah.

By 2 00:15:39

Yeah.

By 2 00:15:40

There'd be like eight floors on a hotel.

By 2 00:15:42

So they put team a team B team C and

By 2 00:15:46

the team that finished first and passed.

By 2 00:15:48

Inspection would be able to move down

By 2 00:15:50

to four or five and so on and so forth.

By 2 00:15:53

What I mean?

By 2 00:15:54

And I always beat them

By 2 00:15:55

to the, to the lobby.

By 2 00:15:58

That's where all the state was

By 2 00:16:02

all the filet mignon, , the,

By 2 00:16:03

the floors, all the units.

By 2 00:16:06

We're just salad guys would like, , you

By 2 00:16:09

got those guys that like to smoke

By 2 00:16:10

off the, the open window area when

By 2 00:16:12

nobody's looking, they can hide

By 2 00:16:15

silly stuff that they got going on.

By 2 00:16:16

My focus was, if I get to two floors

By 2 00:16:19

done before they do I get the entire lot.

By 2 00:16:23

And that's where I really get to

By 2 00:16:24

showcase my talent is in lobby.

By 2 00:16:28

So I have.

By 2 00:16:29

I have infinite pictures of

By 2 00:16:31

hotel remodels that I've done.

By 2 00:16:33

Wow.

By 2 00:16:34

So yeah, you, I mean, I'm hearing,

By 2 00:16:36

you really think like an entrepreneur,

By 2 00:16:40

so we got to get to the family part.

By 2 00:16:42

Oh, you do.

By 2 00:16:45

Yeah.

By 2 00:16:45

I mean, you're, you're thinking like

By 2 00:16:47

a business owner and like Yeah.

By 2 00:16:50

Growth.

By 2 00:16:51

Growth.

By 2 00:16:52

Yeah.

By 2 00:16:53

So long, long term thinking.

By 2 00:16:54

, that's, that's, that's right.

By 2 00:16:57

I love to hear that.

By 2 00:16:58

Thank you.

By 2 00:16:58

So you work with your

By 2 00:16:59

uncle for years and years.

By 2 00:17:02

That was a family.

By 2 00:17:04

So there was family dynamics there.

By 2 00:17:05

What do you, so, , one of the

By 2 00:17:07

questions I like, what do you love

By 2 00:17:08

most about working with family?

By 2 00:17:10

I mean, I know the two of

By 2 00:17:11

you are working together.

By 2 00:17:13

Yeah.

By 2 00:17:14

How's that?

By 2 00:17:15

How does that?

By 2 00:17:15

How did you figure that out?

By 2 00:17:17

And and what do you love most about that?

By 2 00:17:20

And also about just having

By 2 00:17:22

worked with with family?

By 2 00:17:23

Well, basically your whole life.

By 2 00:17:25

Well, I know that coming from, like my

By 2 00:17:28

end, so it works well with the two of

By 2 00:17:31

us because we're on different spectrums.

By 2 00:17:33

He's good on the installation,

By 2 00:17:34

he knows how to do all that part.

By 2 00:17:36

And my background is

By 2 00:17:37

accounting and business.

By 2 00:17:39

So I've always worked for

By 2 00:17:40

the years doing bookkeeping.

By 2 00:17:42

And the business side of business.

By 2 00:17:45

So when we decided to come together,

By 2 00:17:47

it just made sense that we knew how

By 2 00:17:49

to operate the whole business between

By 2 00:17:51

the two of us, because we both had the

By 2 00:17:54

experience, a lot of bad, a lot of bad

By 2 00:17:56

days at the, at the job, , where you

By 2 00:17:59

come home and you settle in, you get

By 2 00:18:01

to sit down and have dinner and stuff.

By 2 00:18:02

And you look each other in the face

By 2 00:18:04

and say, , what point do we just

By 2 00:18:05

get up and do this for ourselves?

By 2 00:18:07

Why am I subcontracting?

By 2 00:18:08

And why are you working?

By 2 00:18:10

And being unappreciated by the

By 2 00:18:11

person that you're working for.

By 2 00:18:14

Yeah.

By 2 00:18:14

Because we kind of, , we know how

By 2 00:18:16

to do the, like I said, the whole

By 2 00:18:17

business aspect between the two of us.

By 2 00:18:19

So it made sense that eventually we would

By 2 00:18:22

really partner up and do it for ourselves.

By 2 00:18:25

I think one of the benefits working

By 2 00:18:27

together as a married couple, also in

By 2 00:18:28

being family, I think just the I don't

By 2 00:18:31

know if excitement is the word, but just.

By 2 00:18:35

Or being proud just that we're

By 2 00:18:38

accomplishing that as, , as a

By 2 00:18:40

family, you don't really get to share

By 2 00:18:43

that, , if you're just working in

By 2 00:18:44

an office with other people coming

By 2 00:18:46

home and, , being excited about

By 2 00:18:47

what you did or anything like that.

By 2 00:18:49

So with us, it's that you

By 2 00:18:50

can enjoy that together.

By 2 00:18:52

I think, I think for not only that,

By 2 00:18:54

it really, for me, I guess, maybe.

By 2 00:18:59

I'm not going to say as a father because

By 2 00:19:00

I don't, I don't want to, I'm not going

By 2 00:19:02

to say that Rachel doesn't feel the same

By 2 00:19:03

way, but no matter what we led by example

By 2 00:19:08

for our kids, no matter what they see it

By 2 00:19:12

every single day, they're witnessing it.

By 2 00:19:14

We're not talking about

By 2 00:19:16

it in front of them.

By 2 00:19:17

We're doing it.

By 2 00:19:20

And at the end of the day, if that's

By 2 00:19:22

all we leave, we leave is, , they'll

By 2 00:19:25

remember me and Rachel for that.

By 2 00:19:27

On top of probably a larger list

By 2 00:19:30

of things, they'll always be able

By 2 00:19:31

to say that their parents worked

By 2 00:19:33

really hard and they really tried

By 2 00:19:36

as hard as they possibly could.

By 2 00:19:37

I think too with that is that they

By 2 00:19:38

get to experience a lot of stuff.

By 2 00:19:40

Like, for instance, in the family,

By 2 00:19:42

like my father growing up, he owned a

By 2 00:19:44

plumbing HVAC company my whole life.

By 2 00:19:47

I did work for him back

By 2 00:19:49

in New York as well.

By 2 00:19:50

, doing some things for him because

By 2 00:19:51

he's a small business as well.

By 2 00:19:53

But just being able to experience

By 2 00:19:56

what it's like to own a business.

By 2 00:19:57

They see me on the phone at night.

By 2 00:19:59

, we, I talk to them about

By 2 00:20:01

what it really takes.

By 2 00:20:02

, being the difference between an

By 2 00:20:03

employee and what it takes to

By 2 00:20:05

actually like own a business.

By 2 00:20:06

And they get to see that all

By 2 00:20:08

the sacrifices you really

By 2 00:20:10

have to make for that.

By 2 00:20:12

Yeah.

By 2 00:20:12

I guess it takes a long time being

By 2 00:20:14

a really good follower before you

By 2 00:20:17

can be a really good leader too.

By 2 00:20:19

And that's something that we'll be

By 2 00:20:20

able to pass on to them is don't

By 2 00:20:21

think that anything can happen

By 2 00:20:22

overnight because it doesn't.

By 2 00:20:24

You have to struggle and you have to

By 2 00:20:27

encounter the trials and tribulations

By 2 00:20:29

of life and whatever it is that

By 2 00:20:31

you want to acquire as a career.

By 2 00:20:34

, along the way, it just everything that you

By 2 00:20:36

experience along the way builds character.

By 2 00:20:38

It's necessary to have really bad days and

By 2 00:20:40

really feel unappreciated and let down.

By 2 00:20:43

It really is.

By 2 00:20:43

That is so wise.

By 2 00:20:47

Oh my God.

By 2 00:20:48

Everybody wants instant everything.

By 2 00:20:50

Yeah.

By 2 00:20:51

Yeah.

By 2 00:20:51

Instant gratification.

By 2 00:20:52

We want to hit that easy button.

By 2 00:20:54

We want to do that.

By 2 00:20:56

That's why they're all in credit debt.

By 2 00:20:57

You know what I mean?

By 2 00:20:58

You don't want to save up

By 2 00:20:59

for anything anymore, man.

By 2 00:21:00

I got two years, no interest on this card.

By 2 00:21:03

Swipe it already.

By 2 00:21:06

And that becomes the mentality.

By 2 00:21:09

Are your kids interested

By 2 00:21:10

in, in the business at all?

By 2 00:21:11

Or have they shown signs or?

By 2 00:21:14

I mean, my daughter's artsy, but

By 2 00:21:17

unlike some, some parents in the

By 2 00:21:20

past, hope their kids take after them.

By 2 00:21:25

You know, all of that.

By 2 00:21:27

I've never been that.

By 2 00:21:28

I actually try to guide them

By 2 00:21:30

in, , to make better decisions

By 2 00:21:32

and not that I made bad decisions.

By 2 00:21:34

It's just, , I'm not a millionaire yet.

By 2 00:21:37

So somewhere along the lines, I

By 2 00:21:38

haven't made all the best decisions

By 2 00:21:40

because I am 44 years old.

By 2 00:21:42

So I like to encourage them to do

By 2 00:21:45

whatever it is that they want to do.

By 2 00:21:48

Yeah.

By 2 00:21:48

And then God forbid.

By 2 00:21:50

This could be a scapegoat for any

By 2 00:21:52

one of the kids, if not all of them.

By 2 00:21:55

And a lot of them have the, like

By 2 00:21:56

I, my artsy, the my art skills.

By 2 00:21:59

Mm-Hmm.

By 2 00:22:00

were passed on by my father.

By 2 00:22:01

My sister has it.

By 2 00:22:02

She owns her own fabulous cake

By 2 00:22:05

making business back in Rochester,

By 2 00:22:07

New York, where people call her.

By 2 00:22:08

And she's getting a hundred, 200.

By 2 00:22:11

sometimes a cake, , and it's

By 2 00:22:13

like, she loves doing it.

By 2 00:22:15

So, , my daughter, she's got that.

By 2 00:22:19

Well, yeah, but so she can see in the

By 2 00:22:21

example of the family, how art is a lot

By 2 00:22:25

more than just, , drawing or painting.

By 2 00:22:26

I mean, art can be.

By 2 00:22:29

In, in laying out a, a tile

By 2 00:22:30

floor and figuring out a pattern.

By 2 00:22:32

Art can be, , decorating, making cakes,

By 2 00:22:35

art, , it's, I guess in the H-V-A-C-I

By 2 00:22:39

mean, , if you were building, , just

By 2 00:22:40

laying out the duct work through a big

By 2 00:22:42

building that could be, , form of art.

By 2 00:22:45

Yeah.

By 2 00:22:45

Yeah.

By 2 00:22:46

You gotta, yeah, absolutely.

By 2 00:22:47

Ken.

By 2 00:22:47

Ken, you gotta really follow that

By 2 00:22:49

blueprint or everything can go wrong.

By 2 00:22:51

Like, I've had large warehouses

By 2 00:22:54

that I was tiling and it's like.

By 2 00:22:57

I have four or five different

By 2 00:22:59

doorways going down a hallway.

By 2 00:23:00

If I start installing my tile, once

By 2 00:23:02

I come around this way and go all the

By 2 00:23:06

way down that hallway and come back,

By 2 00:23:08

I got to tie back in back over here.

By 2 00:23:11

You miss by even a hair

By 2 00:23:15

and your roles are off.

By 2 00:23:17

So there's no room for

By 2 00:23:18

failure on some of these jobs.

By 2 00:23:21

You know what I mean?

By 2 00:23:22

Because you can read a blueprint

By 2 00:23:23

until you're blue in the face,

By 2 00:23:24

, you can stare and stare at it.

By 2 00:23:26

If you can't lay those dimensions

By 2 00:23:28

down and put that grid down

By 2 00:23:30

on the floor, it's over.

By 2 00:23:35

You might put, I, we know why I don't tile

By 2 00:23:38

I mean, you might, you might put

By 2 00:23:39

down a thousand feet, might put

By 2 00:23:41

down a thousand feet of material.

By 2 00:23:43

That's.

By 2 00:23:48

Go to tie back in and fail.

By 2 00:23:49

Oh my God.

By 2 00:23:50

It's something that I think of.

By 2 00:23:52

It's almost like a, like a

By 2 00:23:53

nightmare during the day.

By 2 00:23:55

. Yeah.

By 2 00:23:56

, on those larger projects.

By 2 00:23:57

But the crazy part about it is when I see

By 2 00:23:59

those projects, it's like I gotta have it.

By 2 00:24:02

You know what I mean?

By 2 00:24:03

And that's, that goes back to what we

By 2 00:24:05

were talking about earlier, , with the

By 2 00:24:07

daily challenges that just keep going

By 2 00:24:09

your head, oh my God, it's spend 10 hours.

By 2 00:24:12

, all I was thinking about was how I

By 2 00:24:13

need to get down that hallway and tie

By 2 00:24:14

it back in over here without missing.

By 2 00:24:16

And all of a sudden, 10 hours have gone.

By 2 00:24:20

I mean, you're, this is not about us, but

By 2 00:24:23

you're so in tune with what we, the way we

By 2 00:24:26

work, because we're, we're all about how

By 2 00:24:28

people think, and , how you're thinking

By 2 00:24:30

is, is working very effectively for you.

By 2 00:24:33

And the, , that idea of setting

By 2 00:24:35

yourself a challenge, they, , in, in

By 2 00:24:36

the learning industry, they call it

By 2 00:24:38

gamification, , trying to make somehow.

By 2 00:24:41

Make the learning of material putting

By 2 00:24:44

a gaming aspect into it, whether

By 2 00:24:46

it's earning points or, , setting

By 2 00:24:48

small achievements so that you're,

By 2 00:24:49

you're constantly competing against

By 2 00:24:51

yourself and, , kind of keeping

By 2 00:24:53

score in a, in a very positive way.

By 2 00:24:56

You know, it's, it, it makes,

By 2 00:24:58

it makes all the difference.

By 2 00:24:59

Like you're talking about, I've told

By 2 00:25:01

customers in there, , in their home,

By 2 00:25:03

as I'm trying to close a deal that

By 2 00:25:06

I see there, I see their project.

By 2 00:25:09

As an, as an art project for

By 2 00:25:11

me, it's, it's an art project.

By 2 00:25:13

It's a game that I'm going to be

By 2 00:25:16

there enjoying until it's finished.

By 2 00:25:19

It's a little bit more than just

By 2 00:25:21

finishing it at the time you need me

By 2 00:25:24

to finish it and getting it installed.

By 2 00:25:27

It's so much more than that.

By 2 00:25:29

And it'll show in the end, , and that's,

By 2 00:25:31

that alone is, is closes for me and

By 2 00:25:34

it's the sincere thing to say, , which

By 2 00:25:36

the best part for me is it's like,

By 2 00:25:38

I, I can't, I can't imagine how many

By 2 00:25:40

customers have probably looked me in

By 2 00:25:42

the face and thought maybe there's a

By 2 00:25:44

good chance that he's either a real

By 2 00:25:46

good salesman or he's blowing smoke.

By 2 00:25:49

You know, and I'm telling you, I've

By 2 00:25:50

had, and I've had those, I've had those

By 2 00:25:52

customers that want to put me to the

By 2 00:25:54

challenge too, you know what I mean?

By 2 00:25:55

Like, they're like, Oh yeah, we said

By 2 00:25:57

we were going to do this, but now

By 2 00:25:58

it's going to be on a diagonal and

By 2 00:26:00

it's going to have flowers and it's

By 2 00:26:02

going to be, and it's like, that's

By 2 00:26:05

not what we agreed upon, but okay.

By 2 00:26:07

All right.

By 2 00:26:07

I see where you're going with this.

By 2 00:26:09

You want to try and you want

By 2 00:26:10

to, you want me to put my foot

By 2 00:26:12

in my mouth is what you want.

By 2 00:26:16

You're going to love it.

By 2 00:26:17

Whether you like it or not.

By 2 00:26:19

Are you guys cultivating

By 2 00:26:21

relationships with architects?

By 2 00:26:25

Because I'm hearing the

By 2 00:26:27

stuff you're talking about.

By 2 00:26:28

That's the kind of stuff that

By 2 00:26:29

makes architects just, I want

By 2 00:26:32

to say, wet their pants, right?

By 2 00:26:35

They, they envision these

By 2 00:26:36

things that they, they probably

By 2 00:26:38

can't get somebody to do.

By 2 00:26:40

I mean, I did see one shower

By 2 00:26:41

that, , was incredibly complex.

By 2 00:26:44

And, and it, , the I

By 2 00:26:47

can't describe it all.

By 2 00:26:47

I can't remember it, but it

By 2 00:26:49

it really captured it was art.

By 2 00:26:51

I mean, it captured the idea of

By 2 00:26:52

waves and rain and and and then there

By 2 00:26:55

were pebbles in the in the base.

By 2 00:26:56

, it was it was brilliant and beautiful.

By 2 00:26:59

I know it was somebody a

By 2 00:27:00

lot of work to do that.

By 2 00:27:02

And I'm just thinking with

By 2 00:27:03

what you're describing.

By 2 00:27:05

It seems like architects, , getting

By 2 00:27:06

in there, getting in their head.

By 2 00:27:09

Yeah, because they are

By 2 00:27:11

the ones who do the work.

By 2 00:27:13

They are initially the decorator too.

By 2 00:27:16

So I've always had great relationships

By 2 00:27:18

with people like that back home because

By 2 00:27:20

they, I was one, , of, of others too,

By 2 00:27:23

that could see through their vision

By 2 00:27:24

through, , I could be the hands to

By 2 00:27:29

see out their vision and they can stay

By 2 00:27:31

all clean and dress nice, , keep their

By 2 00:27:34

heads in the books and everything.

By 2 00:27:36

I'm pointing out to you,

By 2 00:27:36

Rachel, is that, are you, are

By 2 00:27:38

you getting to know architects?

By 2 00:27:39

Is that what that meant?

By 2 00:27:41

We have not.

By 2 00:27:41

Not an architect.

By 2 00:27:42

Not architects in particular.

By 2 00:27:43

Designers.

By 2 00:27:44

Yeah.

By 2 00:27:45

Like designers in the construction,

By 2 00:27:47

, designers would be more up our

By 2 00:27:48

speed, I think, because they do

By 2 00:27:50

work with the clients and they do

By 2 00:27:51

make, , obviously they design stuff and

By 2 00:27:53

then we have to, , bring it to life.

By 2 00:27:55

So designers are good.

By 2 00:27:56

I haven't really thought about architects.

By 2 00:27:58

architecture in particular.

By 2 00:28:00

They're more on the building

By 2 00:28:02

side of it, like the framing.

By 2 00:28:04

Yeah, we'll eventually, we'll

By 2 00:28:06

eventually encounter them.

By 2 00:28:08

But that's a good, actually

By 2 00:28:09

look, I could look into that.

By 2 00:28:10

Actually, we worked with an architect.

By 2 00:28:12

We built a house with an architect

By 2 00:28:13

and I mean, he did, he did go

By 2 00:28:15

so far as to lay out the, in the

By 2 00:28:18

plans, the tile in our shower.

By 2 00:28:20

You know, he had these

By 2 00:28:21

little, , art look patterns.

By 2 00:28:24

Oh, I think you call them

By 2 00:28:25

returns or something like it.

By 2 00:28:27

There would be a basic pattern and then

By 2 00:28:28

a hint of that pattern somewhere else.

By 2 00:28:30

I mean, he was, yeah, he was

By 2 00:28:32

in charge of every detail.

By 2 00:28:34

There was no decorator involved.

By 2 00:28:36

Oh, no.

By 2 00:28:36

Yeah.

By 2 00:28:36

Okay.

By 2 00:28:37

That's interesting to know.

By 2 00:28:38

With all due respects to decorators,

By 2 00:28:39

if you have an architect.

By 2 00:28:41

Really don't need a doctor.

By 2 00:28:43

No disrespect to decorators because I

By 2 00:28:45

know you guys are going to say otherwise.

By 2 00:28:46

Yeah, it's a different level if you know,

By 2 00:28:49

it depends on what kind of architect too.

By 2 00:28:51

I don't want to disrespect any decorators.

By 2 00:28:53

And there's some that only

By 2 00:28:54

want to do the big picture.

By 2 00:28:55

Yeah, right.

By 2 00:28:56

Yeah, they're not is art, they're,

By 2 00:29:00

they're, they're book smart,

By 2 00:29:01

they're blueprint smart, they're

By 2 00:29:04

not, , necessary engineering smarts,

By 2 00:29:06

they're not Yeah, actual detail work.

By 2 00:29:09

Yeah.

By 2 00:29:10

Yeah, I guess I that's

By 2 00:29:11

what I was thinking.

By 2 00:29:11

I guess I didn't realize that they did.

By 2 00:29:13

Oh, yeah, and I could say There's a

By 2 00:29:16

commercial and residential too, and

By 2 00:29:18

they may be Commercials gonna tend

By 2 00:29:20

to be a little more cookie cutter.

By 2 00:29:22

I think yeah, I'm I think I'm it is

By 2 00:29:24

commercial and the worst part about

By 2 00:29:27

commercial and it's why I try to stay

By 2 00:29:29

away from it is There's there's no

By 2 00:29:32

appreciation for quality Until the owner

By 2 00:29:38

wants to know why it looks like that.

By 2 00:29:43

Does that sum it all up?

By 2 00:29:44

Can you put everything that comes all

By 2 00:29:47

the meaning where everybody's throwing

By 2 00:29:49

each other under the bus and everything

By 2 00:29:51

that comes with what I just said,

By 2 00:29:53

basically in a nutshell, just broke

By 2 00:29:55

it down in one sentence where I've

By 2 00:29:56

got paragraphs, explaining what I mean

By 2 00:30:00

behind that and how I got to that theory.

By 2 00:30:03

There's and they're always in a hurry.

By 2 00:30:05

They're always in a hurry.

By 2 00:30:06

That might be really close to that.

By 2 00:30:08

The next question I had, which was, you

By 2 00:30:10

know, is there, is there something about

By 2 00:30:11

being in a family business that you

By 2 00:30:12

know now that you wish you'd known then?

By 2 00:30:16

Back in, you know, when you started?

By 2 00:30:17

I mean, I'll let Rachel touch on that.

By 2 00:30:19

know

By 2 00:30:24

how much, how hard it is to work for

By 2 00:30:25

her husband or with, that's not a joke.

By 2 00:30:31

I think we're in a different

By 2 00:30:32

dynamic back in New York.

By 2 00:30:33

You did technically work together in

By 2 00:30:37

a different aspect as in I wasn't full

By 2 00:30:39

on in the business back in New York.

By 2 00:30:41

When Eric decided to be a business

By 2 00:30:43

owner, so many years ago me doing

By 2 00:30:46

already what I did, , I took that

By 2 00:30:48

on, but I also had my own career and

By 2 00:30:51

he was already established there.

By 2 00:30:52

He knew people, everyone, , knew him.

By 2 00:30:54

So he didn't really have to, he

By 2 00:30:56

wasn't starting from scratch, right.

By 2 00:30:58

He just was.

By 2 00:30:59

Everything just came my way.

By 2 00:31:01

Stepping into the business itself.

By 2 00:31:03

But, already had all the

By 2 00:31:04

contacts in that stuff.

By 2 00:31:06

So coming down here to Florida,

By 2 00:31:08

once we paired up We had to

By 2 00:31:09

start all over in getting to...

By 2 00:31:12

Meet people and get, , clients really

By 2 00:31:15

and ourselves, not only start over,

By 2 00:31:18

but more than start over because I grew

By 2 00:31:22

up where I, where I was successful.

By 2 00:31:24

Yeah.

By 2 00:31:25

So, oh, you're Mike's nephew.

By 2 00:31:27

Oh yeah.

By 2 00:31:28

, and then you get that from the

By 2 00:31:29

distributors and now you're getting

By 2 00:31:30

that from the business owners.

By 2 00:31:32

And there were numerous places and

By 2 00:31:34

locations that he was contracting through.

By 2 00:31:36

So once he moved out of the

By 2 00:31:38

way and moved out of town.

By 2 00:31:39

I mean, it was just already

By 2 00:31:40

kind of there for me.

By 2 00:31:42

So we, moving here, we had to acquire

By 2 00:31:45

things that kind of were given.

By 2 00:31:48

And also having to work closer together

By 2 00:31:50

because now I have to, , back, back in

By 2 00:31:53

New York, he kind of handled everything.

By 2 00:31:56

I didn't.

By 2 00:31:56

Have really much I don't decision

By 2 00:31:59

making I would say I was just doing

By 2 00:32:00

the business side, but now I do deal.

By 2 00:32:03

I'm in the field now also dealing

By 2 00:32:04

with clients and talking to them.

By 2 00:32:06

So then now we have to

By 2 00:32:07

really work closer together.

By 2 00:32:09

As business owners together.

By 2 00:32:11

So I think that's been a different

By 2 00:32:13

dynamic for us, but I think we get along.

By 2 00:32:15

Everyone always says how I, I knew, I

By 2 00:32:17

met somebody and they actually knew a

By 2 00:32:18

client that we worked for and he had

By 2 00:32:20

said to, to this other person how well

By 2 00:32:23

we had worked together on the job site.

By 2 00:32:25

Like that was one of his

By 2 00:32:26

things and he had told me that.

By 2 00:32:28

And I think that's one thing for

By 2 00:32:29

us is that even, no matter how

By 2 00:32:31

things are at home or whatever in

By 2 00:32:33

our relationship, we always work

By 2 00:32:35

very well together and we never, we

By 2 00:32:37

never bring that To the job site.

By 2 00:32:40

So we really enjoy.

By 2 00:32:40

I think we enjoy working.

By 2 00:32:42

I definitely enjoy working.

By 2 00:32:44

Yeah.

By 2 00:32:44

So we, we were together before he decided

By 2 00:32:46

to be his own business owner, really.

By 2 00:32:48

Yeah.

By 2 00:32:49

Okay.

By 2 00:32:49

And me doing what I had done already.

By 2 00:32:51

It was an easy conversion for him.

By 2 00:32:54

He just looked at me and was like,

By 2 00:32:55

I want to own my own business.

By 2 00:32:56

So I knew what that meant for me.

By 2 00:32:59

So, yeah, so that meant for me.

By 2 00:33:01

You knew what you were

By 2 00:33:01

getting into right away.

By 2 00:33:03

Yeah.

By 2 00:33:04

I mean, I had already been

By 2 00:33:05

doing it for other people.

By 2 00:33:06

So I knew all the steps and

By 2 00:33:08

how to really do all that.

By 2 00:33:09

So the, the, the biggest switch for

By 2 00:33:12

me to become a, and I'll be quick on

By 2 00:33:14

this, cause I know this isn't one of

By 2 00:33:15

your questions, what made me convert

By 2 00:33:18

to the business owner was how many

By 2 00:33:21

times I took on a subcontract job in

By 2 00:33:24

which the customer would say that they

By 2 00:33:26

really didn't care for the salesperson.

By 2 00:33:29

Some of the stuff that the salesperson

By 2 00:33:31

had promised them, the measure guy or

By 2 00:33:34

the the estimator, , you're dealing

By 2 00:33:36

with too many different people.

By 2 00:33:37

Leading up to the installation and only

By 2 00:33:39

the installation and the person with

By 2 00:33:41

experience installing can really explain

By 2 00:33:43

how the install Installation is gonna

By 2 00:33:45

go and how well the material wears and

By 2 00:33:48

everything else a salesperson's knowledge

By 2 00:33:50

is only the knowledge that he's receiving

By 2 00:33:52

from a distributor A distributor is always

By 2 00:33:55

gonna talk something up vinyl plank the

By 2 00:33:59

vinyl plank that's flooring Flooring

By 2 00:34:01

that's been going in strong for like the

By 2 00:34:02

last 20 years The stuff they were telling

By 2 00:34:06

the people that were buying it 20 years

By 2 00:34:07

ago, how did they really know for sure?

By 2 00:34:11

How did they really know for

By 2 00:34:12

sure that it was waterproof or

By 2 00:34:15

whether it needed a vapor barrier

By 2 00:34:17

underneath it and so on and so forth.

By 2 00:34:19

So I was like, , these

By 2 00:34:21

customers never seemed to like.

By 2 00:34:23

Any of the experience, except for the

By 2 00:34:25

installation that I had been providing.

By 2 00:34:29

Let me see if I could do a better,

By 2 00:34:33

nice, nice customer experience.

By 2 00:34:38

I mean, that's what I'm hearing that

By 2 00:34:39

you guys are really focused on, on the

By 2 00:34:42

full customer experience end to end.

By 2 00:34:45

Yeah, that's a, that's also a, it sounds

By 2 00:34:47

like a differentiator for you guys.

By 2 00:34:51

Actually, we've, we've heard from

By 2 00:34:53

different people or just, we, , try and

By 2 00:34:56

relate to people just how a different

By 2 00:34:58

experience is with us because we are

By 2 00:35:01

in the beginning to the end , and I've

By 2 00:35:03

already done the majority of things

By 2 00:35:05

wrong too, just to show that I am humble.

By 2 00:35:08

That's a fact I tell, I tell people

By 2 00:35:10

that work for me all the time too.

By 2 00:35:12

Please just hear me out because

By 2 00:35:13

I've already done everything wrong.

By 2 00:35:15

, there's.

By 2 00:35:16

You, you learn by stumbling and struggling

By 2 00:35:19

sometimes, , so not just, not just my

By 2 00:35:21

experience with the customers and stuff.

By 2 00:35:23

I mean, the most exciting part for me

By 2 00:35:25

is that inside and out the flooring

By 2 00:35:28

business, I've experienced every single

By 2 00:35:31

position that would need to be had to run

By 2 00:35:37

a storefront, sell materials and labor.

By 2 00:35:40

The expectations of the customer,

By 2 00:35:43

the expectations of the salesperson,

By 2 00:35:46

everybody from top to bottom,

By 2 00:35:47

because I am now all of those.

By 2 00:35:52

So it's really cool to know,

By 2 00:35:53

, sometimes I do credit myself on that.

By 2 00:35:55

As you've really put

By 2 00:35:57

your time in every area.

By 2 00:35:58

I've even worked the backend, the

By 2 00:36:00

warehouse and helped load up other

By 2 00:36:03

installers for 13 months, one

By 2 00:36:04

time, just to do it for extra work.

By 2 00:36:07

So really cool job.

By 2 00:36:11

, you could sell, you could sell

By 2 00:36:12

flooring for 40 years and really

By 2 00:36:15

not know how to install it.

By 2 00:36:16

Sure.

By 2 00:36:17

Not know what it, , how it wears in

By 2 00:36:19

someone's home , outside of, , life

By 2 00:36:23

experience, yeah, because they're,

By 2 00:36:25

, even a, even a salesperson is a, is

By 2 00:36:27

a, is a customer sometimes in life.

By 2 00:36:29

Yeah.

By 2 00:36:30

Right.

By 2 00:36:30

So you know how to treat somebody because

By 2 00:36:32

you know what your expectations are.

By 2 00:36:35

If somebody promises you,

By 2 00:36:36

everything's going to go well and

By 2 00:36:38

everything's going to be beautiful.

By 2 00:36:41

You promised.

By 2 00:36:42

You know, so we'd like to follow

By 2 00:36:46

through with your promise.

By 2 00:36:47

Yeah, you take that seriously.

By 2 00:36:49

Yeah, we do.

By 2 00:36:49

Yeah.

By 2 00:36:50

Because it's your name on the business.

By 2 00:36:51

That's a, yeah, that's, that's one of

By 2 00:36:55

the challenges for family businesses.

By 2 00:36:57

I think is that , you've got that

By 2 00:36:58

founder like, like you, that, you know,

By 2 00:37:01

has done it, been there, it's their

By 2 00:37:04

name on it, and the challenge they face

By 2 00:37:07

is as they grow, or if they're going

By 2 00:37:09

to transition to the next generation,

By 2 00:37:12

they're, they're afraid that, , when

By 2 00:37:15

they, when they, , hand the reins over to

By 2 00:37:17

someone else, or, or they just grow and,

By 2 00:37:20

and, , put other people in the field,

By 2 00:37:22

that they're not going to be doing it,

By 2 00:37:23

and they're not going to be doing it.

By 2 00:37:24

No, I know, that's true.

By 2 00:37:26

But that training aspect and, and, , the

By 2 00:37:28

trusting and also letting people make

By 2 00:37:31

their own mistakes, that, that becomes

By 2 00:37:33

a real challenge for some people.

By 2 00:37:35

And I mean, I mean this, I mean this

By 2 00:37:37

with a hundred percent sincerity.

By 2 00:37:40

If you put the money that you could

By 2 00:37:42

potentially make off of a project on

By 2 00:37:45

the very bottom of the list and switch

By 2 00:37:49

the order of the thought, , like.

By 2 00:37:51

Most, , entrepreneurs or business owner,

By 2 00:37:55

I think from my experience working

By 2 00:37:58

under them, I think they sometimes put

By 2 00:38:01

money in the top three of top 10 for a

By 2 00:38:07

customer, for a consumer's experience.

By 2 00:38:09

Like, if that's what you're thinking

By 2 00:38:11

about most, it makes no sense to

By 2 00:38:13

even think about the money because

By 2 00:38:15

the money you can put last, because

By 2 00:38:17

as long as you cover everything

By 2 00:38:19

else that comes before the money.

By 2 00:38:22

The money's going to be there.

By 2 00:38:23

So why would you ever, during

By 2 00:38:26

any point in someone's project,

By 2 00:38:27

think about money at all?

By 2 00:38:30

It doesn't even make any sense.

By 2 00:38:31

It's a wasted thought.

By 2 00:38:33

You're thinking about something that

By 2 00:38:34

is going to be there, no matter what.

By 2 00:38:37

As long as you accomplish everything

By 2 00:38:38

else, from point A all the way down.

By 2 00:38:42

I told you it was going

By 2 00:38:43

to be a good experience.

By 2 00:38:44

I told you the price

By 2 00:38:45

was going to be right.

By 2 00:38:46

I told you it was insured.

By 2 00:38:48

I told you the installation

By 2 00:38:49

was going to be perfect.

By 2 00:38:51

I told you it was going to

By 2 00:38:52

be done in this many days.

By 2 00:38:54

When all of that stuff happens, they're

By 2 00:38:56

not only paying you what you initially

By 2 00:38:57

agreed upon, you're getting gift cards

By 2 00:38:59

to Publix, you're getting gas cards,

By 2 00:39:03

you're getting, oh my god, can you do my

By 2 00:39:05

daughter's entire inside of her house,

By 2 00:39:08

you're getting, you see what I mean?

By 2 00:39:11

Way more than money that you could have

By 2 00:39:13

made off that project just accomplish

By 2 00:39:16

everything else That's important to

By 2 00:39:17

the to the client first and then the

By 2 00:39:20

money comes naturally man You just

By 2 00:39:23

looks like you're reading my mind.

By 2 00:39:24

This is yeah, I like to say that

By 2 00:39:26

money is a side effect it's a natural

By 2 00:39:28

result of doing doing things the right

By 2 00:39:31

way Yeah doing it the right way and

By 2 00:39:34

doing it as best as you can the way

By 2 00:39:36

you explained it was gonna be Right,

By 2 00:39:39

, that's yeah, that's really important.

By 2 00:39:40

, you manage expectations, you create an

By 2 00:39:42

expectation, then you need to fulfill that

By 2 00:39:45

expectation promise that that sales thing

By 2 00:39:48

of, , over promising and yeah, . Yeah, I

By 2 00:39:52

mean, I would say one thing, yeah, benefit

By 2 00:39:55

from us is like when I people call, , I

By 2 00:39:57

explained to them, the estimator is

By 2 00:39:59

also, , our master installer, he's going

By 2 00:40:02

to be installing also, and people get

By 2 00:40:04

really enjoy that because they know that,

By 2 00:40:06

, they're getting frustrated, they're not

By 2 00:40:07

getting somebody who's just coming in.

By 2 00:40:08

And then later on, just

By 2 00:40:10

sending somebody in.

By 2 00:40:11

, and there's no communication and, , the

By 2 00:40:13

work isn't as good as they were expecting.

By 2 00:40:15

Yeah, I mean, it'd be like going

By 2 00:40:17

to a fancy restaurant and having

By 2 00:40:18

the, , the chef not only cook your

By 2 00:40:21

meal, but bring it and serve it to you.

By 2 00:40:24

, , another thing too is a lot of these

By 2 00:40:26

businesses, especially the ones that

By 2 00:40:28

demand half down, which is the majority

By 2 00:40:31

of business, it's just the way it is.

By 2 00:40:33

Sometimes they're trying to close you and

By 2 00:40:35

book you and schedule your installation.

By 2 00:40:38

And they, they can't guarantee that the

By 2 00:40:41

material is even going to be in on time.

By 2 00:40:44

So that ends up being the initial prop.

By 2 00:40:47

The first thing that affects the customer

By 2 00:40:51

negatively is that the salesperson,

By 2 00:40:55

cause he wants them to close and he

By 2 00:40:56

wants them to put half down today.

By 2 00:40:58

Cause that's part of what he's told

By 2 00:40:59

to do by the person above who's.

By 2 00:41:01

thinking about money all the time.

By 2 00:41:05

That's the first thing that goes wrong.

By 2 00:41:07

, they, Rachel, sometimes this is

By 2 00:41:10

a, for instance, Rachel sometimes

By 2 00:41:12

has some of these designers.

By 2 00:41:15

They send us blueprints

By 2 00:41:16

and stuff like that.

By 2 00:41:16

And they want to give, they

By 2 00:41:17

want me to give them a quote.

By 2 00:41:19

I'm not willing to give you a quote

By 2 00:41:21

based on, I can read the measurements.

By 2 00:41:23

I can read the blueprint.

By 2 00:41:24

No problem.

By 2 00:41:25

I might, I was an apprentice

By 2 00:41:28

to a technology grad.

By 2 00:41:31

So I learned how to read

By 2 00:41:34

blueprints without any schooling.

By 2 00:41:36

It was just given to me because he

By 2 00:41:38

appreciated me and I appreciated him.

By 2 00:41:41

I can, is it gonna be diagonal?

By 2 00:41:44

Are the pieces three by six

By 2 00:41:45

inch or are they 12 by 24 inch?

By 2 00:41:48

Are they, you know what I mean?

By 2 00:41:49

Are there, is there any inserts?

By 2 00:41:52

Are there, is there any detail?

By 2 00:41:55

We're we're visual people?

By 2 00:41:56

Is it glass?

By 2 00:41:57

Is it porcelain?

By 2 00:41:58

It's more of a visual person.

By 2 00:41:59

Is it cords?

By 2 00:42:00

A backsplash could be made out numerous.

By 2 00:42:02

Is it stone?

By 2 00:42:03

It could be made outta

By 2 00:42:04

numerous different materials.

By 2 00:42:05

That's one I need to walk through.

By 2 00:42:09

I need to see before I can be as fair

By 2 00:42:11

to the customers the customer deserves.

By 2 00:42:14

, to give them the best, best

By 2 00:42:16

estimate that I possibly could.

By 2 00:42:17

It's not only going to be fair to them,

By 2 00:42:19

but fair to me too, , because one thing I

By 2 00:42:21

don't do is, , agree to something and then

By 2 00:42:23

tell the customer later that , especially

By 2 00:42:25

if it's not something that's unforeseen,

By 2 00:42:26

if it's something that I should have,

By 2 00:42:27

if I would have done a walkthrough,

By 2 00:42:29

I would have noticed right away.

By 2 00:42:31

I would have been able to account for it.

By 2 00:42:32

I eat those things.

By 2 00:42:34

Those are the things where I don't

By 2 00:42:35

even mention it to the customer.

By 2 00:42:36

I just reach in my pocket, make it right.

By 2 00:42:40

And that's it.

By 2 00:42:42

But, , you can't

By 2 00:42:43

guarantee stuff like that.

By 2 00:42:46

If you're just looking at a blueprint and

By 2 00:42:47

shouting them out, an estimate, , over

By 2 00:42:49

the phone or through an email, yeah,

By 2 00:42:53

because those are, that's where it starts.

By 2 00:42:56

That's where the headache starts.

By 2 00:42:57

That's where your five stars goes

By 2 00:42:59

to four and then three and so

By 2 00:43:02

on and so forth because you're

By 2 00:43:03

just putting the money up here.

By 2 00:43:06

, all you want is you

By 2 00:43:06

just want them to close.

By 2 00:43:07

You don't know when they're going

By 2 00:43:08

to get that material from Asia, but

By 2 00:43:11

as long as they give me half today.

By 2 00:43:13

We're in business, right?

By 2 00:43:16

Okay.

By 2 00:43:16

So advice that you would give

By 2 00:43:18

others, family businesses, small

By 2 00:43:19

businesses, it sounds like number one

By 2 00:43:21

is, , don't put the money first thing.

By 2 00:43:22

Don't think about the money.

By 2 00:43:24

Think about the customer experience.

By 2 00:43:25

Yeah.

By 2 00:43:26

What, what don't over

By 2 00:43:27

promise, , don't get in a hurry.

By 2 00:43:28

Maybe is that, is that another one?

By 2 00:43:30

Don't rush it by don't rush into the deal.

By 2 00:43:33

No, if someone that's selling

By 2 00:43:35

high end installation.

By 2 00:43:38

Isn't capable of knowing when they

By 2 00:43:41

can go fast and when they can go slow.

By 2 00:43:45

They don't have enough experience.

By 2 00:43:47

There's moments when you're installing

By 2 00:43:49

Tile where you can go really fast.

By 2 00:43:51

And then there's times when you have to

By 2 00:43:53

slow down or you're going to cut yourself,

By 2 00:43:55

you're going to make more mistakes,

By 2 00:43:58

you're going to start wasting material

By 2 00:44:00

because you're making mistakes and because

By 2 00:44:02

you're now frustrated because you were,

By 2 00:44:04

which all stems from going too fast.

By 2 00:44:08

I'm telling you when I got something

By 2 00:44:10

planned on a Friday or something

By 2 00:44:11

like that, especially when I was

By 2 00:44:12

younger, when I actually used to

By 2 00:44:13

have a lot of fun on Friday and

By 2 00:44:15

Saturday before I was raising kids.

By 2 00:44:17

Not that I don't love and , movie

By 2 00:44:19

nights and stuff like that.

By 2 00:44:20

Cause I do.

By 2 00:44:21

But I mean, when I was

By 2 00:44:21

young, , when it was beer 30.

By 2 00:44:23

, cut my finger, shoot myself with a

By 2 00:44:27

Brad now all the time at like three,

By 2 00:44:29

four o'clock in the afternoon.

By 2 00:44:30

Why?

By 2 00:44:32

Because I'm in a hurry, which also, , like

By 2 00:44:34

I said, I've already done everything

By 2 00:44:36

wrong, young man, slow down, you're going

By 2 00:44:38

to shoot yourself with that Brad now.

By 2 00:44:42

Definitely going fast.

By 2 00:44:43

Never, never, never

By 2 00:44:44

helps the project at all.

By 2 00:44:46

I think too, one thing that's big to

By 2 00:44:48

working with family, that's a little

By 2 00:44:50

bit harder than working with people

By 2 00:44:52

that, , that you're just coworkers

By 2 00:44:54

with and setting boundaries, as

By 2 00:44:56

everybody knows, , have managing

By 2 00:44:59

expectations on what one person

By 2 00:45:01

does and what the other person does.

By 2 00:45:03

And kind of just, and also collaborating,

By 2 00:45:05

like we always talk about, just

By 2 00:45:07

making sure that everyone has.

By 2 00:45:10

Some input, I guess, like Eric's,

By 2 00:45:12

like, we're very clear on like what our

By 2 00:45:16

expectations are, like what he's good

By 2 00:45:18

at and what it is that I'm good at.

By 2 00:45:20

Okay.

By 2 00:45:20

I want to, I want to dig in

By 2 00:45:21

on that just a little bit.

By 2 00:45:22

Cause I, this is, this is a key you, you

By 2 00:45:24

said everybody knows and yeah, everybody

By 2 00:45:27

knows that in families, boundaries tend

By 2 00:45:30

to get lax or not, they're not, they're

By 2 00:45:33

not respected and so everybody knows that.

By 2 00:45:35

So it's obvious, but

By 2 00:45:36

what's not obvious is.

By 2 00:45:38

What do you do about it?

By 2 00:45:39

How do you overcome that?

By 2 00:45:40

And I'll just live with, , the, the,

By 2 00:45:43

the frustrations and the problem

By 2 00:45:44

getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

By 2 00:45:46

So what's, what's a key that

By 2 00:45:48

you could share about how you

By 2 00:45:50

guys keep the boundary, set the

By 2 00:45:52

boundaries and keep them clear.

By 2 00:45:54

Yeah, I know for us, we

By 2 00:45:56

know what we're good at.

By 2 00:45:58

I don't try and tell him in any

By 2 00:46:01

way, shape, or form like what to

By 2 00:46:02

do or how to do it or think that I

By 2 00:46:04

have a great idea because I don't

By 2 00:46:06

know, like that's his experience.

By 2 00:46:08

So, and same thing him with me

By 2 00:46:11

like, , he doesn't micromanage

By 2 00:46:12

like my experience and what I do.

By 2 00:46:15

So I think just, just letting the

By 2 00:46:17

people who are good at what they do

By 2 00:46:19

in the business because everybody has

By 2 00:46:20

their, , a little specialty or whatever

By 2 00:46:22

it is, just letting them really take

By 2 00:46:25

charge of what it is that they do.

By 2 00:46:27

I mean, I don't know, it might be

By 2 00:46:29

different dynamics depending on like

By 2 00:46:30

what type of business it is or kind of

By 2 00:46:32

like what everybody's experience is.

By 2 00:46:34

But for us in particular, we're just,

By 2 00:46:37

it's very clear what our roles and like

By 2 00:46:39

what we know and what we don't know and we

By 2 00:46:41

don't try and just overstep that I think.

By 2 00:46:45

I think you just hit on a principle.

By 2 00:46:47

I mean, yeah, the details are going

By 2 00:46:48

to be different, different businesses,

By 2 00:46:49

but I think the principle of going

By 2 00:46:51

with your strengths, knowing your

By 2 00:46:53

strengths or finding people's

By 2 00:46:55

strengths and then letting them work

By 2 00:46:56

to their strengths and not trying to

By 2 00:46:57

make them overcome their weaknesses.

By 2 00:46:59

Yeah.

By 2 00:47:00

Huge.

By 2 00:47:01

And I think that principle is

By 2 00:47:02

applicable just about everywhere.

By 2 00:47:04

Yeah.

By 2 00:47:04

I think too though, having to, like

By 2 00:47:06

I have worked, , we've both worked

By 2 00:47:07

with family before, but we don't

By 2 00:47:09

have the dynamic where we have

By 2 00:47:11

somebody who really wants to try and

By 2 00:47:13

like be the boss of everybody else.

By 2 00:47:15

So, that gets a little hairy,

By 2 00:47:16

I know, and as I've experienced

By 2 00:47:18

before, but, that doesn't really,

By 2 00:47:20

we don't have that dynamic.

By 2 00:47:22

I think, I think, I think I make it

By 2 00:47:24

easy because I know I need her help.

By 2 00:47:27

And I need to make her miserable.

By 2 00:47:30

That's really not going to make any sense.

By 2 00:47:32

I need her.

By 2 00:47:33

She needs me to do the installation

By 2 00:47:35

and do a good job because she's

By 2 00:47:36

continuously building us up

By 2 00:47:38

as good quality installation.

By 2 00:47:40

So if I don't continue to provide

By 2 00:47:42

good quality installation.

By 2 00:47:44

It's not making her job.

By 2 00:47:46

It's making her out to be a liar.

By 2 00:47:48

, it's making her job, , so she

By 2 00:47:49

doesn't ruffle my feathers.

By 2 00:47:50

I don't ruffle hers because it's not

By 2 00:47:52

gonna benefit us in any kind of way.

By 2 00:47:56

Well, it's working because I had

By 2 00:47:58

a floor contractor that I met in a

By 2 00:48:00

networking group, , tell me, Basically

By 2 00:48:05

a competitor of yours in a way, but

By 2 00:48:06

tell me that you are, , true artists.

By 2 00:48:09

I mean, it's just, it's

By 2 00:48:10

really high quality work.

By 2 00:48:12

So, I mean, that's, by

By 2 00:48:15

another , person in your field.

By 2 00:48:18

Yeah.

By 2 00:48:18

That's, that's, you're doing something.

By 2 00:48:21

Eric's amazing.

By 2 00:48:22

And that's one reason it makes it

By 2 00:48:23

easier for me to go out there and

By 2 00:48:24

promote him is because I know he's doing

By 2 00:48:26

such a good job and I totally trust.

By 2 00:48:29

Has capabilities and, , what he,

By 2 00:48:31

what he can, what he can provide.

By 2 00:48:33

So I, I think it's, I drive to get

By 2 00:48:37

stuff perfect, even stuff that's not

By 2 00:48:39

going to turn out perfect no matter

By 2 00:48:40

how hard I try, I just don't know

By 2 00:48:43

when to leave well enough alone.

By 2 00:48:46

I really don't like you and gosh,

By 2 00:48:48

we're going to, we're going to

By 2 00:48:49

need to wrap this up, but I know.

By 2 00:48:50

Yes, sir.

By 2 00:48:52

I'm looking forward to

By 2 00:48:53

getting to know you more.

By 2 00:48:54

But it sounds like you have learned to

By 2 00:48:56

apply perfectionism intentionally where,

By 2 00:48:59

where it fits and where it's effective and

By 2 00:49:02

not in all areas of your life and isn't.

By 2 00:49:07

isn't necessary and isn't reasonable.

By 2 00:49:10

Yeah.

By 2 00:49:10

No, I think that's true.

By 2 00:49:11

Coming, coming, as I call myself

By 2 00:49:13

a recovering perfectionist.

By 2 00:49:14

Yeah, you can spot that.

By 2 00:49:17

Yeah, I've got a lot of

By 2 00:49:18

recovering yet to do.

By 2 00:49:20

, it's, , what really does stink though,

By 2 00:49:21

the honest truth is I don't know that

By 2 00:49:23

any perfectionists, I mean, unless

By 2 00:49:26

they're athletes or musicians, really

By 2 00:49:30

ever become wealthy because honestly,

By 2 00:49:33

I would need at least 10 of me.

By 2 00:49:37

10 people that think just like me

By 2 00:49:39

and love it as much as I do to really

By 2 00:49:43

be able to, to grow and expand in

By 2 00:49:46

a way where I would acquire wealth.

By 2 00:49:49

So I have wealth in family

By 2 00:49:53

and I have wealth in pride.

By 2 00:49:55

And yes, and that is part.

By 2 00:49:57

Wealth is not just money.

By 2 00:49:59

I mean, that's another whole thing.

By 2 00:50:00

But yeah, the debt lets us retire though.

By 2 00:50:04

Our kids, the better college

By 2 00:50:05

is, it lets us afford this gas.

By 2 00:50:07

Yes,

By 2 00:50:12

yes, it's, it's, it's

By 2 00:50:15

money and, and, and yeah.

By 2 00:50:17

Yeah.

By 2 00:50:18

Well, so so we can maybe have

By 2 00:50:21

somebody that wants to, that thinks

By 2 00:50:23

like you, find you and reach you.

By 2 00:50:25

How can people who are listening

By 2 00:50:27

to this podcast or watching this

By 2 00:50:28

video how can they find you?

By 2 00:50:30

Where do you like to be found?

By 2 00:50:31

I know you have a Facebook page, right?

By 2 00:50:33

We do have a Facebook page.

By 2 00:50:35

It is our business artistic flooring

By 2 00:50:36

and tile LLC, and we are actually

By 2 00:50:39

currently building our website.

By 2 00:50:40

So that will be coming soon.

By 2 00:50:42

Yeah, or they can call me.

By 2 00:50:43

We do post everything on Facebook so

By 2 00:50:45

they can take a look at a lot of years

By 2 00:50:47

of experience and everything that's

By 2 00:50:49

on there, Eric has personally built.

By 2 00:50:51

So it's, yeah, so that

By 2 00:50:53

that's your portfolio.

By 2 00:50:54

That's your for now.

By 2 00:50:56

It's your website.

By 2 00:50:57

That's right.

By 2 00:50:58

And we don't we don't we don't

By 2 00:51:00

necessarily need, , employees either.

By 2 00:51:03

, anybody that hears this podcast,

By 2 00:51:05

it feels the way I do by all

By 2 00:51:07

means, please reach out to us.

By 2 00:51:09

I'm sure that we can come up to

By 2 00:51:10

some, , some, some sort of negotiation

By 2 00:51:13

that'll make both parties happy.

By 2 00:51:15

They don't have to work for me, but

By 2 00:51:16

they could, maybe I can help them fill

By 2 00:51:18

some voids in their yearly schedule.

By 2 00:51:20

And, and, and vice versa.

By 2 00:51:23

Yeah.

By 2 00:51:23

Collaboration.

By 2 00:51:24

I love it.

By 2 00:51:24

Collaboration, yeah.

By 2 00:51:25

Absolutely.

By 2 00:51:26

Yeah.

By 2 00:51:26

I love it.

By 2 00:51:26

Yeah.

By 2 00:51:27

Thank you so much for

By 2 00:51:28

spending this time with us.

By 2 00:51:29

This Yeah.

By 2 00:51:29

Thank y'all opportunity to let us, let

By 2 00:51:32

us our, and we hope to get to do this

By 2 00:51:35

again on another area absolutely.

By 2 00:51:37

I was just getting warmed up.

By 2 00:51:40

All right.

By 2 00:51:41

I haven't even cracked the surface.

By 2 00:51:44

This is me with a headache.

By 2 00:51:45

Can you imagine?

By 2 00:51:46

I didn't see that coming yet.

By 2 00:51:48

Could you imagine if I had a

By 2 00:51:50

cerveza or something like that?

By 2 00:51:52

We'd be here all night.

By 2 00:51:53

You'd be like, Eric, it's over.

By 2 00:51:54

Yeah.

By 2 00:51:54

They're like, it's bedtime.

By 2 00:51:57

It's eight o'clock.

By 2 00:51:57

Thank you guys very much.

By 2 00:51:59

Thanks again.

By 2 00:51:59

Oh, thank you.