FULL THROTTLE GROWTH: The Women of FWA and The Fence Show Education

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All right. First off, I'd like to thank everybody for Wait a minute. This isn't my podcast, is it? No, this isn't yours. How's this? This is the live Women of FWA. Veronica, take it away. Hey guys. Um, it is April 14th and you guys are probably wondering why we let him on our channel. Um, I'm on this side. Yeah, whatever side you're on. So, we've actually got some really cool stuff that we're going to announce, not only for women of FWA. Um, and some stuff that we have going on, but a whole new direction and some major announcements for FWA as a whole. I mean, we have a lot of stuff going on this year. Um, and so I asked Brian to join with me um on the live tonight to kind of go over that and make the announcement because you're going to hear it here first. Um, we did not let Brian let loose and go post it on all his other social media accounts. Um, Susan and I had our hands and Michaela just, you know, we had him tied down and and really just made sure that we kept this kind of under wraps and made it live here first. So, one of the things we're going to do in a new direction and something that we all feel so near and dear to our heart is what, Brian? Full throttle. What? I can't say it yet. Not yet. Small businesses. That I mean I mean that's it. I mean, this whole thing was started because we're we're small businesses and and honestly, I I I I want to almost say 100% of our industry is a small business. I mean, unless you're a one or two manufacturers that are out there globally or something, can you consider yourself a um anything other than a small business? So, I guess small businesses we hold dear to our heart. Absolutely. and those of all sizes and making sure things that are readily available and resources and networking. I mean, networking for women in the industry was why this whole page was created. This whole group of women that have managed to come out of everywhere, which is super weird. Um, and I love it. That's why we're here. So, um, we do have another person that's going to be behind stage, um, I think for just another second. Are you going to bring him on? Ah, we'll leave him back there. Okay. Yeah, we'll be back until we're ready. We have in June the women of FWA retreat coming up. Um, and this is something that the entire leadership team has worked so hard on. And one of the things that we've really really focused on is the education. Um, and keeping the retreat small. You know, we could have easily opened this up and had, you know, an ungodly amount of women attend this event, but we really wanted to keep it small and make sure that good quality education and content um was going to be there. So, Brian, did you know that the ladies are going to install some fence? Oh, I did not. You didn't? I did not. Weird. I did. I heard that you guys have um Bailey's coming too, right? She's going to be installing fence. Yep. Um, you guys are taking that to the next level. I mean, this is not just a bunch of women getting together, uh, baking. I guess you guys are actually getting down and dirty, huh? No, but there better be muffins when we all get home. You can do the baking at home. So, we really the education is really on a wide wide variety of topics from um the digital marketing, you know, digital day and age with social media and the marketing is such a huge thing. Um, Michaela's teaching a class on that. Susan's going to be teaching classes on um sales relationships, getting to know your customers and gate operators and um Yadira is going to be on all different types of billing and lean waiverss and how to protect your rights um which is important and I've got um job overflow safety uh the amount of education. So if you go to offens.com which is what we have pulled up on the screen right now um you can read all about this event. why it's so important what um you know you invest in your team when you you send them to events like this or you attend yourself and this will really touch base on on our foundation and what we're about. Um so it is very hands-on very roundt all the questions you could possibly ask and scenarios to go through and I'm sure quite a few of nightmare stories are going to come up too because

That that's just the nature of the beast. Yep. And speaking of women of FWA, let's bring uh Brooks on here for a second. Brooks, what's going on, man? What's up? No, it's it's the fence industry. It has nothing to do with the gay industry. Give me one second. Hey, what's up, guys? Oh, man. Is he frozen your end? He is. Oh. Oh, no. Oh, we're gonna we're gonna take you off on Wi-Fi. We're gonna take you off for a second, Brooks, and bring it back on. Okay. So, just so everybody knows, Brian knew he had to go live with me. He felt like he needed reinforcements. He immediately called Brooks, which is why we're late. And then you got two of us trying to send a link. Uh, normally, uh, Susan is handling the back end, everybody. So, you've got, uh, you've got me and Veronica back here doing it. So, Andrea says she's ready for the retreat. Woo! Yes, we are so stoked um about just getting to hang out and and be with everybody and of course, you know, our cup gets filled just as much as we try to fill other women's in the industry. So, the leadership team is super stoked with everything that we have in the works. So, how many people you got coming? I know there was some uh like you have a room or two available, but not a lot, right? Room for So, space is limited. We do have some openings still. The whole event size is 27 ladies. Okay. Wow. So, it is really important. The class registration starts at $50. It really depends on your room type um that you're that you get to select on the registration. So, again, go to fencow.com under events the women's retreat and then when you click on register now down towards the bottom, see if Brian can get it to work. Oh, do you want me to scroll down? I got you. Yeah. Okay. Uh, scroll down and click on register now. That'll actually take you to the list um of different types of rooms available and what's included in that and the registration costs. So, if you actually keep scrolling down for me down here under what to expect, you're going to see the education that we're actually going to be providing. So you see in there gate operator layouts, visuals, social media content 101, operations workflow. I mean there's there's a lot of different topics that are on the agenda. They're all under that leadership operation, professional skills education. Um, and it's not just us ladies, like everybody in the industry. It's not just us teaching. some of the best education that I've ever received is I've been the one at the front of the class and I've learned more than the content I was trying to share. So, we are super super excited to announce that. Yeah. So, that's cool. I mean, I'm excited to see the I know I'm not going, but um not that you're sad and that you have FOMO or anything, but you do. But, but I I think I have enough events that I go to where I can skip one. But, uh, I'm excited to get the to see the videos and images and hopefully you guys get some good content to share with all of us, um, while you're there because I'm sure, um, once everybody sees how in-depth you guys go, it's going to be pretty cool. Yeah, it's I mean, it's something that industry has never been done. And FWA as a whole, we ask ourselves, Brian, this question how many times in one week? You know, what are we not doing or what's not already out there in the industry that needs to be done? You know, what resources do What do we need first of all, you know, and then what do other contractors need? What do other people out there need? Or what do we wish we had when first getting into the industry or or two years in or three years in or five years in or 10 years in? Um, you know, it's a constant question we ask ourselves. Which kind of brings us up to your big announcement because now now I can talk now I can talk about it now. six. What is our theme this year that actually goes in for the retreat as well as for the fun show in October? You know, we looked at demo days, right?

And we're, you know, I think, you know, what things great about FWA is, you know, why we don't worry about anybody, you know, some people are always worried somebody's copying this or copying that. they did, you know, you're doing this and you tried this, you launched this and somebody's copying it because um if you are copying something that we did last year and you managed to get around to it this year, you're already behind because we're moving on to two or three other things we've got. Yeah. You know, I mean, if you try to if you try to look at anything that FWA or me or you or anybody in the organization is doing right now, thinking by the time you figured out how to organize it and and and get behind and and and actually copy what we're doing, we're already on to the next thing. So that's why and everything we're doing is because we want people to copy it. We want, you know, we want the whole industry doing um what we're doing to connect with build more family-friendly events. I mean, think about it. The fence show was groundbreaking. We we helped open up the gates for small businesses and and some some exhibitors and stuff that said they've been trying to break into our industry for a long time. And we brought fence companies and small companies uh to come that have never been to a show before. And now, um, the forgotten fence companies, the ones that it felt like nobody cared about before, um, and it was just numbers to get people to attendance, now everybody's chasing them. Now, open up your mail and there's a flyer for another expo or something going on, right? Because obviously we started doing that. Now, um, we went full bo we went full board on hand, you know, hands-on for the training for the gate operators and and things like this as well. And next thing you know that you I mean throw a rock and there's somebody doing hands-on gate operator training now that are that are that's built not just where you're sitting in a classroom flipping through a book learning about um you know the safety features that you know and things like this and you still know how to hook the operator up. So it's no more the classes that it's going to be long gone where you you spend thousands of dollars and you spend a week sitting in a classroom. Now it's hands-on and people are craving it. So people are doing that. That's great. Now we're we we then after that we went and we did um you know we did demo days. We we launched the very first truly family-friendly event where I mean you had the kids. What was the stuff they were doing? We had bouncy rooms and slides and fishing and racing and basketball and I mean and they were riding that the the train around. I mean truly family friendly. I mean we we like to say it's family friendly and and you know just because you can bring your kid. Well uh you know I mean you can bring your kid to the police station with you, right? But I mean it's not like it's still not family friendly, right? But, you know, nonetheless, you'll see now a rush in the industry to to build truly family-friendly events, and that's what we want. So, you know, we're not discouraged by it when they do it. So, but now we want to take everything to the next level. We want to go full throttle. So, this is going to be the fence show and the fence university full throttle. We're talking about everything that we've managed to do in the last four years all wrapped up into one. our biggest event that we've ever done. It's we're talking about not just the exhibitors, not just more exhibitors you ever seen at one of our shows. We're talking about more attendees, more new fence companies. We're talking about over 2,800 available seats at o across 54 classes with 80 instructors. 54 classes. Hold on. Who? What? Yeah. And it we're talking about built for small businesses. And we're not talking about stuff that's only uh you know where you send your people and they and they they sit there for eight hours again and they just they walk away still not knowing how to do anything. We're talking about gamechanging industry event. And this will set the pace for the rest of the industry when we're done. It'll be your shows will never be the same across the country. And we want that because you know what? We're already thinking about what we're going to do after this. But this is going to be the biggest and the baddest show that we've ever seen. So, we're super excited and um the it just continues on. I mean, it's it's going on

Again 2,850 seats once if all these seats were full. October 5th to the 9th, so it's a full week. Classes start uh Monday and Tuesday, right? While setup's being done in the expo hall, we've got um a massive if you remember our gate operator class we had um last year, there was I don't knowund and some people in there. It was massive and we couldn't even with the the five six trainers we had, it was still rough. So now we're going to be cramming that room full of trainers so everybody gets a little bit better experience. 150 students hopefully in that thing at least um going on and then we're going to have what do we got going on on um on Monday Tuesday. What are the classes? I know you you're and what we've never had is you Veronica. I know I'm talking a lot but we never had you. You're you have completely taken everything we've done and managed to get it on paper and organize it and make sure these classes and booklets and stuff. So we're super excited. Tell us you tell us about Monday and Tuesday. So, I'll tell you, we really started out and went back to the basics of education. We went back to what have we seen repetitive in our experience and talking to other contractors um as far as like the the foundation and the education that's needed. Let's talk about bridging the gap between your sales team and your installation team because we have like two full days worth of training um on one-hour class increments that are broke down in bridging that gap and making that that flow and that process run smooth. Um so we've got that team building, we've got, you know, culture building. Another huge one that we're doing is knowing your customers. Like what does that mean? Does that mean you need to go have dinner with Mrs. Jones? No. No, that's not what that means. But we actually get into how to identify different personalities. How do you approach upsales? How do you make sure that you are really legitimately listening to her and her concerns? Because if they're calling you, it's a security issue, right? We can all agree on that. Whether if it's keeping something in or keeping something out, there's security. So this is something you know that you really need to focus on and how to build that trust with your customers. Um we also get into over the week um how about commercial bidding? How about what do you need to know and what do you need to have before you even look at a commercial job to bid because there's a list of requirements. So let's go over the passes though for a second and then I want to pull up the actual um you put a lot of work into this uh the classes coming up. So before I go go to the classes, I want to go let's pull up the passes we've got going on this year. So it's a little bit different, right? A little bit different than we've done in the past. Usually it's just a hall pass and a VIP pass. It's a little confusing. Uh everybody's all over the place. Yeah. So it's a full throttle all access pass um is what it is. And you get access to what? What do you get with that? So you actually get access to all of the education sessions that are going to be listed. You are going to get access to the Full Throttle Food Lounge. Um, which, you know, we're going to have some lunch in there, have some snacks in there, have some drinks in there. Um, I heard a rumor that there was like some Full Throttle beer cakes going to be floating around. That's what I heard. Look for the full throttle experience signs everywhere because you see a full throttle experience sign, your badge gets you in with the full F full throttle access pass. So, there's going to be some really cool stuff. Um, we've got some amazing sponsors and stuff that are going to be coming in helping with some of that, too. So, um, wherever you see a full throttle experience, um, a full throttle experience sign, go in there and see what's going on because there's going to be everything from, uh, beer, food, uh, some giveaways, uh, classes, education. I mean, it just goes on and on. Um, so it's definitely worth checking out. And then, but that doesn't mean that not everybody comes for that, right? Not everybody came true for food, beer, and and education, right? I don't know. I don't know how that I don't know how all that combined, right? But did you learn best when you're eating and have a beer? I don't know. It's the industry. Some came for the um expo hall pass,

Right? So, they want to come in and get that. So, expo hall, which is cool. You're going to be able to come in Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and visit the expo hall. And then we've got some media passes um as well. So, if you are a media um influencer or a media um then reach out to um I would reach out to supportfshow.com or if you already know Susan, reach out to Susanfenshow.com and uh let her know you're interested in that because that's going to get you um basically all the perks of a full throttle pass. um except you'll be able to come in a little bit earlier with exhibitors and um get some videos and pictures if if they'll if they want something photographed but and full access to take videos and images which is really cool. But um any any did you have any feedback on these things? I know uh you did a lot of work on this that you wanted to tell people. I did absolutely. So right now we are running a special on all of the between the expo hall access pass only as well as the full throttle experience pass. Um, we are running sales right now. So, I will tell you that if you get in there and you do just the expo hall only pass, um, there might be some discounts going on around here, there are some also some um, codes that are floating around. Um, so if you keep an eye on our social media, you'll definitely be able to find those for the expo hall pass. Um, and then also as far as Full Throttle All Access, um, there is a limited quantity of Full Throttle shirts that are actually going to be included in your pass if you register early. Um, those are also on sale right now and, uh, the price on those will actually be going up. Nice. So, I'm excited. I mean, I I was I I know I've been excited watching all this stuff being created since, uh, even before demo days and, uh, wasn't allowed to get out there and tell everybody. So full throttle, we're going and that's why we're doing the show. It's going to be the most exciting. If you've been to any of our shows, it's already exciting. I mean, it's already exciting if you go to a fence show in Las Vegas, but we're going to take it to the next level. So, if you were there in 23, 24, 25 and you thought that was fun, you thought that was uh educational, get ready for this because uh hold my beer. I got something for you. Yeah, you better you better bring a hat with those beer holders right here because you're going to be too busy shaking hands. Maybe maybe using both. I don't know. Yeah. you know. So, let's uh I'm going to have you go over some of the classes, though. So, um and I'm just going to pull them up. And I know I didn't tell you I was going to pull these things up, but I think people need to see it. So, so we actually have not only two full days, there's certifications for the Monday Tuesday class. It is a combined class, but you can attend just Monday or just Tuesday. So, when you actually go to register, it'll kind of give you a breakdown um of what's in each class. So, you can get a certificate for just those items if you attend one day or you can get the two-day certificate to attend both. Now, not only that, but we also have what we call gate operator quick starts that are going to be available Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So, you know, to go over photo wise and workshops, what about hands-on? Um, I can tell you everybody that I have met in this industry is very hands-on people, right? They got to see it, touch it, feel it. They have to do it themselves. So, we know that. So, that's how we're going to teach. That's how we're going to do this. That's what the full throttle experience is about. And I think what's really cool is that that, you know, it is basically a full throttle class that Monday, Tuesday. If you wanted to send something, if you've been to any of our um gate operator access control classes and we're talking about this is going to be a combined um effort using um obviously our normal fence university staff with um at least two or three uh smaller distributors coming in as well all the way up to some larger distributors. So, not only are you going to get a chance to learn, you're going to get a chance to connect with distributors and um people that are going to be able to sell you the equipment because that's a big deal. If you know anything about how, you know, how we operate here at FWA is we are really big on, hey, if you're going to come

Um help us do the training and what's the point of you coming and and talking to all these people if you're not willing to sell to them because you know, we we we both we understand both sides. We understand that it's a lot of work and it's a lot for manufacturers and distributors and stuff to take time off work and come set these booths up and um it's a lot of money and time and commitment and stuff, but it's same thing for the people attending. I mean, some of these these fence companies have shut down for three, four, five days. So, to come here, we need them to get something um out of it, and that's relationships. That's uh be able to learn something and relationships. So, um you're going to be able to actually talk to the people that are going to sell you the equipment, you know, and that's really kind of that's really unique, I think, about our um you know, our classes. So, I have a question for you on that because this really boils down to as we dig into these education classes, you've obviously attended more expos than probably several of us combined over the years. Um, when you sit into in the past and you've sat down at an education room, what was your biggest pet peeve or what was that moment, you know, that you're just like, h, I'm glad you asked. Oh, we can make you big when Let me put the spotlight on you. You know what my pet peeve is? I feel like um I think that it I think over the decades or you know it turned into hey let's just get as many people in the seats as we can right and if you get 30 you know sometimes it's done by places where if you get 30 people in this classroom um you think that's great and if you can turn sometimes it's almost like a complimentary class right but they don't realize it's not complimentary for that person that sent two of their employees that could have been working making money to your your course and sat through it and you're thinking well if I get 30 of these uh people in this classroom and two of them turn into either more um business or more classes I can sell them or more certificates I can sell them and one of those people turns into somebody that can buy something it was a success and I look at a little differently if I held a class or Fence University held a class and I hate to say I I know I say it a lot but uh if you know if Fence University holds a class or FWA holds a class and 28 people walked out and didn't get anything out of it I don't look at it as a in because only two or three people are going to continue on and get more classes or um got something out of it or or turned into a customer. I think that that's a failure on the side of the people either the association or the university or whoever that threw the class on. So I think that is one of my pet peeves. My biggest pet peeve is how we take for granted those people sitting in those seats that that came all the way down there to take that class. You know, and the industry overall is full of very polite people. So even, you know, the title of the class says something and they're gung-ho that they're going to learn about this and then they sit down, it might, you know, a sales pitch or not anything what the description was. I will tell you that I have left plenty of classes after it's over going, I just wasted an hour and now I'm two hours behind on the work I still need to do. Um, you know, because now I've doubled up. So that's really the approach that we took going into setting up this education is every single class is going to have a full curriculum with a workbook for your notes for your details as well as you know the instructors to be able to hit on this really important information and knowledge that they have. So let's talk about sales and marketing. Um, so lead generations, you know, how do you make sure that you you've got good quality leads, that you're not out there wasting time or your sales time sales team. Um, we've got controlling the sales process. How many times, Bride, over the years have you went out and talked to a customer to sell them a job and then all of a sudden your whole process goes haywire? Right. Yeah. I mean, all the time. Yeah. And and I think we're going to have different points of view, too, because for some people, they would rather um have everything be more automated, and that's fine, but that requires more leads. So, now you need help on lead

Generation and less on closing the sale in the field, right? So, I think that what's going to be unique about this is it truly does fit small businesses. We're not just uh it's not just either, you know, somebody trying to sell you something is standing up here uh and and trying to teach you to do it a certain way saying this is the only way to do it because two different companies need two different things. one needs better salespeople and one needs better order takers. So, um I think that we're um we're going to be hitting that a lot harder than we've ever hit in the past because it's going to be more structured and it's going to be um it's not going to be just hey here's this class. We'd like you to teach it and teach whatever you want. It's literally built around small businesses and um at the same time you're going to meet some great manufacturers and you're gonna meet some great um consulting people and you're going to meet some great uh distributors. So, um it's going to I think it's going to truly it's going to truly help that bond you get with the manufacturers and the suppliers and the um even the consultants in our industry when you realize that um they are here to help you. It's not just here to sell you something because again, we're going to be hitting that up. Hey, if it's a consultant that's in here helping us teach some of these classes, it's not about getting three sales out of that 30 people in the class. It's about um as many of those people leaving with something to take back because sometimes you're sending your employees down there and you know you need them to come back with some knowledge and um you know we're going to make sure that happens. And how many times Brian have you walked into a class you know a class over the years and you're like oh I really got a lot of information out of that but it's a whole week before you get back to the office and then all of a sudden you're like I don't remember anything because now I'm so overwhelmed and I'm so inundated. I'm so behind. I'm, you know, I'm trying to recover from the week being gone physically and then mentally, you know, so you're going through this. So, we've really worked really, really hard that there's printed material there. There's there are nuggets that you're going to take home regardless of what class you attend in the full throttle experience for education. Um, when you walk in, you're going to have that paper and a pen and all the information right there. So, you can jot those notes and keep that stuff. And then when you go back in, you know, two weeks when things kind of the dust settles and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I remember being in this class and they talked about X, Y, and Z." You grab that book, you open it up, and you've got all your notes right there and the full outline of the curriculum that actually was taught in the class. So, take it, you guys. Take it. Copy it. Create your own classes. I mean, everything we do, there's a reason that um we don't copyright all of our materials when it comes to education and stuff because we truly believe right down to the gate safety standards at gatesafety.com, all of that because you can't, you know, you can't grow this industry and for small businesses by um making it so nobody else can teach and and things like that. I mean, everything's going to be taught by people in our industry. Like I said, we're we're working on over 80 instructors. Um so, if you're interested in any of these, please reach out. Um, you can reach out to us at supportfenshow.com. You can email me at vereroniclo vegasfence.com. Um, you can get on our fence website and submit a ticket through the chat um that we get. Please, if you're interested, this also I do want to have a disclaimer. This is not all the classes. No, this is not it, Brian. Um, and we're just a couple of these through. We've got a whole thing on team building that bridging the gap between sales and your operations. Not only that, but how about setting up a leadership team within your organization? And what about an action plan? And what about, you know, SOPs? Brian will roll his eyes like Susan does every time I say SOP, which is standard operating procedures. How many times have you seen somebody's got an SOP? It sits in a binder on the black back shelf. That's it. You say SOP, I say so. I'm calling in. So, you know, these are all things and trying to break these down into these

Tracks or these categories um was probably harder than putting together the the classes. I love I love that you said tracks because, you know, um Jared Twist, you know Jared Twist from Rance Spence and stuff. Um, I mean, love talking to him and I always and I I you know, I I remember stuff he said to me years ago, right? Because it's always just I feel like everything he says is truly he means it and it's from his heart. So, um, I remember he talked about he's like, "Man, you got to get these tracks in line. You got to get, you know, you got to have tracks where, you know, you got people coming in for sales, people coming in for gate operators, people coming, you know, and you got to be able to get that out there so they know at, you know, this uh on Tuesday at 10 a.m. you got to be here. at uh Wednesday from uh you know this this time to this time you got to be here this if you're trying to hit all the um classes um regarding sales or all the classes for team building. So um I love that you said tracks because there's going to be tracks on this and that's where we're we're um obviously this has all been around. That's why you see team building, you see sales and then we're going to get into some of those and it's going to be the easiest time you've ever had navigating um education at any expo you've ever been to. And the energy is going to be through the roof. through the roof on these classes. So, um we're excited about that. But team building um was really cool. I know we've had a million conversations about team building and this isn't um this isn't where you just put someone on a chair and they fall backwards and hope somebody catches them. Is that what is that? How about you first? Can we do that? You go first. We've seen all those videos where the guy walks around and that's why you don't trust anybody, right? No. So, so true. I mean, but we could put you on that chair first. Yeah. So I don't want to do that. But yeah, so these are going to be true team building experiences. And really it was built around um field and office, whether you want to call it the installers or the helpers or or even uh you know sometimes your sales field people, whatever you want to call it, the field and the office. So, how do you um get those two to understand that it's all a team and different ways and strategies to bring your team together using team building and about and and the office might be um it might be the guy that answers the phone or the girl that answers the phone. It might be your sales staff. It might be the owner of the company that can't communicate. I mean, I have a hard time. So, I mean, I'm going to be sitting in on some of these things. I, you know, I'm still have a hard time dealing with a guy calling up saying his tummy hurts because he ate some a bad burrito. I mean, how many fat burritos? Where do they get their Mexican food? I don't know. I mean, but you know, stop eating there. It's like your eighth eighth time you had a bad burrito. Stop. I mean, I eat burritos like three times a week. Where are you eating? Right. So, and and I just have a hard time relating to it. So, I need I've helped, you know, I needed help within, you know, our staff sometimes. Okay. Go see if he's okay because I mean, I don't know. He's telling me his stomach hurt. I don't want to talk to him, right? Yeah. I mean, I walk it off, man. Walk it off. Rub some dirt in it. You don't have no electrical tape to wrap around your stomach or something? I don't know. But so it really is about bridging that gap and and we've talked about this on an experience standpoint in both of our careers of where that biggest gap tends to be and this is what we see and a lot of things that I've seen over the years is that the internal team, right? So your sales team, your administrative team, your owners, all of that, they're all in the office a lot together. And then there's the installation out in the field and they don't really see all the before that happens in a project nor what happens at the end after they're done with the installation. So we're working on team building and joining those gaps in that as well. Not just hey you have to get along with you know Mrs. Jones or you have to get along with Sarah because she's down the street or in the next office over. That's not the case. So, we're actually providing legitimate educ education on actually

How to bring your members together and open those lines of communication. And this is tough because you guys in the office don't do nothing. So, you know what I mean? You know, it's like lunch and golf and and things like this. It's like, you know, I mean, I mean, Starbucks, YouTube videos and Facebook and I mean, so now we got to somehow make it look like they're busy. And that's what we're going to do in this class, you guys. So, if you're in the office and you want to convince the installers that you're doing something, this is the class. No, we're kidding. But yeah, everybody we know how hard it is on both sides and a lot of us have been on both. Most business owners started off in the field and stuff and maybe that's why we're not um you know, we're not as critiquing the office staff and and stuff like because it's a different type of stress. It's a different type of pressure and the field has its own stress and pressure and the office has their own stress and pressure. So, we're going to help bridge that. And I know you did a really good job. I happen to have seen a lot of the packets and everything um that's going to be um out for these classes. you've got and you didn't just say let's figure out how we can do team building exercises where we all stand around and do you know pass a ball or I don't even know what all those are but or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Singing songs and stuff holding hands. It's you know we're talking about uh project hands off handoff. We're talking about um you know systems and accountability and because it's more team building isn't always just telling everybody how great they're doing. It's it's no, you know, sometimes it comes with the harsh stuff and the accountability that people don't want, but in the end, you build a stronger team. So, I'm super excited to see um your final your final on this stuff, and I know you've been working hard on it, and everybody's going to get to see it um at the show this October. Yeah. So, but you've got now we've got commercial estimating. Now, our commercial class was a big hit, right, last year. Um a lot of I mean, it was one of the busiest classes we had. So, we're taking that and we're super organizing it and it's gonna I think it's going to be twice the size and uh you're going to see some of the same instructors plus some more that we're going to bring in because we we really did figure that out. So, tell us a little bit about that though. So, we break it down from the foundation. I mean, if you're thinking about getting out into the com commercial project world, which is a whole new world, I will tell you it's it's not it's not anything like the residential world. Um, and we took it back to the very beginning. if this is something you're interested in, there is a list of things that you should have in place before you begin looking at projects. Um, you know, everywhere from insurance to certain financials to um, you know, field requirements to I mean there it's ungodly the amount of things that you should have in place. So to protect yourself, to protect your organization, wait, that's a class. what should you know before you start bidding these projects and obligate? And then if you're awarded a project, then we start talking about contract terms that you should be aware of, you know, how to properly go through that, make sure you're in compliance and you're not in breach before you've even signed, you know, before you just when you sign the contract. Um, and then we get into the actual submitting numbers and takeoffs and plans and specs and lean waiverss and I mean there is just so much that's back and forth um of what you need to know um HR requirements for commercial estimating and bidding. When you get into a commercial project, there are more HR requirements and OSHA requirements and stuff that you should be aware of. Um, and then we break it down all the way to the end at completion. What lean waiverss are they going to ask you for? How do you make sure that you're still going to get paid? How do you know that you didn't lose your butt halfway through this project and now you're trying to survive or you have 15 unsigned change orders and you don't have a leg to stand on because you did the work. And you're never going to get paid for it. Yeah. And speaking of breach of contract, um, have you been following

That? You're like, what's he gonna say after that? Right. So great. Have you been following? I've been um actually posting stuff about subcontracting uh on my personal page. So, go to my page on Facebook if you're curious or LinkedIn or whichever one you're following me on. Um not that I'm assuming everybody's following me, but if you're not, follow me on tech. That's our page, but but I've been doing some stuff on there. It's 10 steps to subcontracting and and that's just a teaser of what you're going to get in this class. This it's going to be it's going to be that kind of information uh you know, times 100. So, um definitely super excited about that. It's going to be fun. I know. Um this is a mammoth project that uh we're taking on and you're uh really organizing the education and uh it's going to be something like we've never had. We've got digital displays everywhere. The show is going to be off the hook this year. So, we'll give them kind of a little sneak peek. Brian, do you have the Excel sheet open on your computer? No. It's a big old thing. So, I don't and I have a feeling that yeah, if I start pulling stuff up, I'm gonna be like I'm gonna be closing this out trying to access that. It'll just be a disaster. Yeah. Um, there'll be there'll be way more of these because we haven't even scratched really the surface of the full throttle experience on the education part of it. We have not scratched on the full throttle experience as a whole or general. Um, we're just really wanting to bring this news out and bring it to Women of FWA pages first that all these changes, why this is so important and what we've been up to because I'm sure a lot of people are like, "What are they doing this year?" Like, what's going on? They're being kind of quiet after demo days happened. Everybody like, you know, went in their little hidey-holes and are hanging out. And so, this is this is something we're bringing to you. Brand new energy, brand new everything, different passes. We want you guys to come hang out with us, come learn with us, come teach with us, come be a part of all of it. And for the women in the industry, do not forget to sign up for the women of FWA retreat. We want to see everybody there. Make sure that you get your passes soon because they're going to fill up. They are limited. Um, we do everybody that has registered so far. I am so excited to be able to sit down and roundt with them and troubleshoot with them and learn from them. um because it's such a wide variety of people from all different walks of life. Um and of course JC Gary, there's some good Mexican food and so weird. I wonder where their office is located. That's odd. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out for one of our sponsors, JC Gir. That's Yeah, absolutely. So, um I want to thank you, Brian, for coming on and let finally letting the cat out of the bag with the women of FWA Live. Um it was hard to kind of keep your wrangles, but full throttles. what it's about this year. The rest, let's go full throttle, everybody. If you guys think that this is a lot of content and a lot of stuff to go over, you haven't seen nothing yet. We're just getting started. So, uh, come along with us. See you guys. See you.