Latest / Inside Integration / Episode 108: Jayson's MIA, Bring in the Stunt Beard

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Episode 108: Jayson's MIA, Bring in the Stunt Beard · Inside Integration

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Inside Integration Podcast.
• 0:01
  My name is Chris. I am I am joined this week by a
• 0:05
  special guest, my my, my friend for a long time, Sean Sorensen.
• 0:10
  Say hi, Sean. What's up, Chris?
• 0:12
  And we're, you know, you may be wondering where Jason is.
• 0:15
  We're we're also wondering where Jason is.
• 0:16
  He's he's too big for his britches.
• 0:18
  And he's he's he's starting a new opportunity this week.
• 0:23
  So, you know, we'd be remiss if we didn't bust his balls without
• 0:27
  him here to defend himself. So yeah, Jason's is obviously
• 0:31
  too good for the podcast, so we'll we'll we'll see if he ever
• 0:34
  comes back. But we would also bust his balls
• 0:36
  of you. Sitting right here, I mean,
• 0:37
  yeah, for sure. That's sort of what we do,
• 0:39
  right? Yeah, it's.
• 0:39
  Out of pure love for him. Yeah, it is.
• 0:42
  It's, it's, it's, it's very much out of love for sure.
• 0:46
  And, you know, keeping on theme, again, we don't do video
• 0:49
  anymore. So, you know, theater of mind,
• 0:52
  we've never had a guest on our show that doesn't have a beard.
• 0:54
  So you know. Fit right in, yeah.
• 0:57
  Here we are and we're, you know, got the opportunity today kind
• 1:02
  of great. Got to actually, you know, leave
• 1:04
  my garage and come down to Sean's space here in Costa Mesa,
• 1:10
  CA where they're, they're, they're filling out a, a pretty
• 1:13
  dope showroom here. And I should, I should also
• 1:18
  explain, which I haven't. Sean is a, a Southern California
• 1:21
  Rep for unified, unified representatives.
• 1:24
  And if you've heard of Unified, they are making some big waves,
• 1:28
  man. Kind of kind of got their own
• 1:30
  vibe going and you know, definitely getting some buzz so.
• 1:34
  Yeah, I mean we're definitely more than a pretty face.
• 1:36
  I mean, let's not shortcut that. But yeah, we we started, we
• 1:39
  started as a company on June 1st.
• 1:41
  We are Lutron decided to go back to the Rep model.
• 1:44
  So conglomerate some a couple of owners from various Rep firms,
• 1:48
  one in innovative in Arizona and then two members dug and Adam
• 1:55
  out of CET land in the Rockies all got together and created
• 1:59
  this company. So we, we start on June 1st,
• 2:01
  we're the biggest Rep firm in Southern California.
• 2:03
  We got 15 people of us now. Right out of the game.
• 2:06
  Yeah, we. Didn't mess around at all, but
• 2:08
  we, we are the Lutron reps we're we're Josh AI, we're Coastal
• 2:12
  source, we're all the Apex brands.
• 2:15
  Yeah, we recently became Monitor Audio and Amina, we also do
• 2:19
  bright Volt, which is some some battery backup, whole home
• 2:22
  battery backup. So not a lot of brands, but
• 2:25
  we're just getting our feet wet and and setting them shopping
• 2:27
  and getting ready to take over the world.
• 2:29
  That's our plan. Well, I mean, I'm.
• 2:30
  I'm sure Lutron keeps it busy. That's that's a very that's a
• 2:33
  very intense, you know, a lot of a lot of stuff going on in
• 2:37
  Lutron land for. Sure.
• 2:38
  Absolutely. General.
• 2:39
  Absolutely, Yeah. So that's that's kind of who we
• 2:42
  are. We'll talk more about this show
• 2:43
  in a minute, but that's that's who we are.
• 2:44
  We're just trying to get out there and and make an impact,
• 2:46
  make friends and then make more friends and help all our friends
• 2:48
  make money. That's that's objective.
• 2:50
  Yeah, that's and, and and I mean, that's it's kind of, you
• 2:53
  know, kind of struck me because that's that's sort of that's
• 2:54
  sort of the tone of like the show.
• 2:56
  And, and the whole thing is like, let's you know, this is a
• 2:58
  big ass pie, right? Like let's let's make it as big
• 3:00
  as we can and get as many people to know what we do and, and, and
• 3:04
  and get it out there. But yeah, I mean, I'm I'm I'm
• 3:07
  here, you know, in in the space and like I'm literally sitting
• 3:11
  here and again, we don't do videos.
• 3:13
  So this is kind of a a theater mind thing.
• 3:15
  So, Sean, you want to give us a a quick very descriptive to our.
• 3:20
  Absolutely we can. We can describe it in great
• 3:23
  detail. So we're right now we're sitting
• 3:24
  in our Costa Mesa space. We're we're about 150 yards from
• 3:27
  John Wayne Airport in Orange County.
• 3:29
  You guys are probably here on the pod here shortly.
• 3:31
  Some some planes going off. Yeah, this is.
• 3:33
  I used to work across the street here.
• 3:35
  So you here in the airplanes? Is yeah, you know, the area.
• 3:38
  So as you walk in the front door, we got about 3700 square
• 3:41
  feet, mostly one big huge open room, then a couple of small
• 3:44
  rooms in the back. But as you walk in, you'll see a
• 3:47
  a a a big video wall, odd art shaped video wall to show off
• 3:52
  that it it's not, it doesn't have to be shaped like ATV.
• 3:54
  It can be all kinds of different things.
• 3:55
  We'll have a total of five video walls in the space.
• 3:58
  SO2 art wall, 2 art walls, 2 smaller art walls and.
• 4:01
  That's, I mean, and, and not to cut you off.
• 4:03
  Yeah, like that's a reason for a showroom right there, right?
• 4:05
  Like, you can't really articulate the size of this
• 4:09
  thing until you're standing in front.
• 4:10
  And all of us have sold millions of dollars a product, you know,
• 4:13
  $100,000 projects, no problem. Never shown a single item.
• 4:17
  I've sold $1,000,000 theater, never shown a single item, no
• 4:19
  problem. There's a few things that still
• 4:21
  need to be shown. Video was so new they still need
• 4:24
  to see them. We have the whole space we.
• 4:26
  Need to see what that with that pixel pitch versus distance.
• 4:29
  Can't really describe that. And, and people get all
• 4:30
  intimidated and you know, as we know, 99% of the time, TV's off.
• 4:34
  And so they need this huge black wall.
• 4:37
  So to show off art, to show off different things.
• 4:39
  But we also have the whole place is catcher.
• 4:40
  Everything is catcher, obviously where Lutron wraps.
• 4:42
  So everywhere is catcher except one backroom is wrong.
• 4:45
  Yeah, but just to show off catcher's another example, one
• 4:47
  of those few things you got to see you got to see and doing a
• 4:50
  showroom in Southern California is really expensive really for
• 4:53
  our for our dealers. Some of the guys with across the
• 4:56
  country be a little surprised at at what things cost out here.
• 4:59
  We also have so you walk in there's there's huge video while
• 5:03
  you walk right into that'll never play video.
• 5:06
  It'll always be everything else. Digital art, digital campus.
• 5:09
  Yeah, sure. Probably just a beautiful
• 5:11
  picture of of Savage. Just Jason Savage, just on the
• 5:14
  front. Profile.
• 5:15
  In profile, well, obviously both, yeah, both.
• 5:18
  So profile vertical and horizontal.
• 5:20
  Life-size? Absolutely.
• 5:21
  Well. A bigger than life-size.
• 5:23
  That's I. Mean maybe, you know, maybe
• 5:25
  that's the thing that we need to whip this up and, and, and have
• 5:27
  a hologram, Jason. Just oh, we can mock.
• 5:29
  Reading people we. Can mock it up no problem, and
• 5:31
  then we'll just shoot it. Maybe you do go back to video
• 5:33
  for this podcast, Chris. If we have an image like that
• 5:36
  for Savage, it's the right way to go.
• 5:38
  So then you hit that video wall, you have options.
• 5:40
  You go to the right or the left, You go to the left.
• 5:41
  We have a little conference area, not a closed room by any
• 5:45
  means, but just to show off another video wall right there.
• 5:48
  A big, Our video walls here are all just video wall.
• 5:51
  That's the line we wrap. So we'll talk quite a bit about
• 5:53
  that. They'll have one of their big
• 5:55
  displays, about 150 inch display right at the conference table as
• 6:00
  you walk around. Lots and lots of space for art
• 6:02
  to show off Katra and vibrancy. So we'll have a lot of a lot of
• 6:05
  different art on the. Wall and there's a lot of things
• 6:06
  too, like I'm just kind of noticing here like you've,
• 6:09
  you've been very selective in in the showroom with things like
• 6:13
  textured surfaces to show off how linear lighting can be
• 6:15
  grazing and create like drama and effects.
• 6:18
  And, and a lot of really, you know, again, I'm just, I'm just
• 6:21
  talking about linear, but like tasteful accents, you know,
• 6:25
  highlighting certain things. You can kind of see where all
• 6:28
  the walls right now are all blank, but you can kind of see
• 6:30
  where, all right, there's going to be something here that is
• 6:33
  going to be positively affected by the lights and you know,
• 6:37
  you've got, you know, level 5 drywall with flush fixtures and
• 6:41
  that sort of thing to really kind of show.
• 6:44
  Yeah. And we had, we had an incredible
• 6:45
  lighting designer designed this whole space.
• 6:46
  There's there's I think there's 70 track headlights going around
• 6:51
  to shoot on on the walls, not to mention plenty of D2 capture
• 6:54
  lights everywhere. And even the track heads are are
• 6:56
  Catra. But that way we can show off all
• 6:58
  vibrancy. We can, we could, we could
• 7:00
  actually do a gallery situation here and do a gallery party if,
• 7:03
  if there's a certain artist or various things, just just show
• 7:05
  up. What can be done in this space?
• 7:07
  One of the nice things about setting up a showroom is like
• 7:10
  that it's not just to, you know, bring potential clients through
• 7:14
  and and show them their options for your home, although it is
• 7:17
  super important, but things like, you know, reaching out to
• 7:20
  being a part of your community, which we've sort of talked about
• 7:23
  on the show a little bit before. I mean, custom Mace is a pretty
• 7:26
  artsy area. You know, Orange County has
• 7:28
  that, you know, vibe and there's definitely some things that you
• 7:31
  could do. I mean, if you let this space
• 7:33
  out for a gallery opening, you're reaching a whole lot more
• 7:37
  potential clients that aren't necessarily looking for AV for
• 7:41
  your home. But you know that's that's a.
• 7:44
  Whole niche man well, and that's why we're we're you know,
• 7:48
  several $100,000 for budget several months, several months
• 7:51
  later, but it's it's also what what we realize the fit and
• 7:54
  finish has to be right. It has to be perfect.
• 7:57
  It has to it has to match the aesthetic of we will have tons
• 8:00
  and tons of designers here because of our Lutron
• 8:03
  relationship. We will have tons of interior
• 8:05
  designers here. We have tons and tons of
• 8:07
  builders here and various. And the whole reason we're doing
• 8:10
  the showroom is so dealers can bring their clientele through,
• 8:13
  can bring a dealer through, can bring a homeowner through.
• 8:15
  And we want to make sure it was it felt right for a homeowner to
• 8:18
  walk in and say, Hey, this is the style.
• 8:21
  This is what I live with. I'm used to this, this how nice
• 8:24
  things are and to feel comfortable in the space.
• 8:26
  We've all been in showrooms. You're like, I don't know if I
• 8:28
  want to sit down. I don't know, you know, I'm not
• 8:29
  the most boozy guy, but come on, you know, you just have to make
• 8:32
  it to a level where it's really important they feel comfortable
• 8:35
  to fit and finish. There's some incredible, I mean,
• 8:38
  in the in the kitchen area, there's an incredible tongue
• 8:40
  groove ceiling with. I mean, it's I, I coach, I coach
• 8:42
  the finish guys. There's no way that they can do
• 8:44
  square finishes in the ceiling like that.
• 8:46
  And they nailed it perfect with termless Tetra.
• 8:48
  You know, it's like, OK, so it's someone that's taking a lot of
• 8:51
  time and. Money, and it's a lot of, a lot
• 8:53
  of times with the showroom does besides that, you know #1 it's,
• 8:57
  it's great that it's, it's an asset for your local dealers
• 9:00
  where, you know, you might have somebody who's amazing at AV,
• 9:02
  but they're basically working out of a combination space where
• 9:05
  it's a couple of offices, a place to layout plans, a place
• 9:08
  to store stuff and van parking, right?
• 9:10
  Here hopefully van parking there.
• 9:12
  Some of them don't even have. That some of them don't even
• 9:13
  have that right. So you know, if you can get them
• 9:16
  here and basically, you know, with all the video walls, we
• 9:20
  were talking about this last time we walked through here with
• 9:22
  all the video walls. Essentially you can play
• 9:25
  whatever content you want absolutely and make it really
• 9:27
  look like their space. Hey, thank you for joining the
• 9:30
  ABC Stereo Experience Center, right?
• 9:34
  You know, whatever you. Want.
• 9:35
  Absolutely. These are, you know, these are
• 9:37
  really cool and and you know, just that's a great service for
• 9:41
  your dealers. Well, and even the guys who have
• 9:42
  incredible showrooms, I mean, there's there's you know, an
• 9:45
  amazing dealer 150 yards away you used to work for, there's
• 9:48
  another dealer. I mean, we're talking we're
• 9:50
  surrounded by crazy amounts of dealers.
• 9:52
  Even those guys are really excited because even if they do
• 9:55
  have a showroom, they're not putting in five video well.
• 9:56
  It's an alternate, right They're.
• 9:57
  Not going Tetra everywhere, yeah, you know, like.
• 10:00
  You may have a client that likes, you know, sparse
• 10:02
  modernism, right? Have a client who likes a lot of
• 10:05
  wood accents and go and and. Or loves art and you know with
• 10:10
  with catcher, I'm going to talk about time about catcher and
• 10:11
  Lutron today. But with catch with these with
• 10:13
  these this track lighting, we can show vibrancy on a piece of
• 10:16
  art really pull out so you got a Warhol really pull out the red
• 10:19
  and the color make that make that piece of art dance.
• 10:22
  I'm excited to deal with some local, local artists and have
• 10:24
  them bring their art. Just hold it up against the wall
• 10:26
  and show them try this out, right?
• 10:28
  That has nothing to do with AB. That has nothing to do with the
• 10:30
  dealers and everything to do with reaching out to community
• 10:33
  just to try. And we got to use the space.
• 10:35
  It's what the space is for. And that's kind of what I was
• 10:37
  getting at earlier when I said, like you guys, you guys got this
• 10:39
  vibe where it's it's not your, it's not really your typical,
• 10:43
  it's, it's a very outside the box vibe.
• 10:44
  And I'm, I'm trying to find the right words for it.
• 10:46
  I hate to overuse the word vibe, especially here talking about.
• 10:49
  Cal as Alice is a Rep for Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:51
  And that's. You know, the fact that you're
• 10:53
  talking about how, you know, how we can get products into general
• 10:58
  awareness and relating that to having an artist come in and,
• 11:03
  and show their art. So now that's another evangelist
• 11:06
  who's saying, look, art is really important and telling,
• 11:09
  you know, their circle. And then that spreads and then
• 11:11
  this goes to this and that sort of thing.
• 11:12
  And that's that's why spaces like this.
• 11:14
  And if you're a dealer, you know, your own showroom and, and
• 11:17
  opening it to the community, having an open house, having,
• 11:20
  you know, rolling up a food truck and getting people in who
• 11:23
  may not know that this world exists, right?
• 11:26
  Absolutely. Get the food truck.
• 11:27
  We were joking around about the other day about with with one of
• 11:30
  our dealers. He's like what all you can do.
• 11:31
  And I'm like, I would love to have like a master craft
• 11:35
  cocktail, a bartender come in and do a do a lesson for like 10
• 11:38
  people. Or we just find out there's a,
• 11:40
  there's a winery based across the street.
• 11:43
  Right now. My plan is to go bang on their
• 11:45
  door and be like, Hey, we want to buy a ton of your a ton of
• 11:47
  your wine. Put in our wine fridges here and
• 11:49
  do tastings and bring them over and show them and how cool for a
• 11:53
  bunch of specs for a dealer, set up an event with some some
• 11:55
  interior designers and bring them.
• 11:57
  We go do some wine, tastes come into our space, hang out, we'll
• 12:00
  talk about AVR. We won't.
• 12:02
  That's not the point. The point is just seeing it in
• 12:04
  action. Yeah.
• 12:05
  And, and for the way that you're kitting us all out like you can,
• 12:08
  you can set it to be, you know, whatever the name of that winery
• 12:11
  is. You can have the graphics and
• 12:12
  their logo on all your displays in here, and you can make it
• 12:15
  look like this is their space as much as it is your space.
• 12:19
  Well, exactly, guys just walked in the space.
• 12:21
  You'll hear people in the background doing various things
• 12:23
  here today because we're super high professional on this
• 12:25
  podcast, but. That's.
• 12:26
  What we do, but these guys will talk about these guys from just
• 12:28
  videos here measuring some things right now before the
• 12:30
  install next week. And they're the ones they'll
• 12:32
  talk about like just make that front wall, you know, change it
• 12:35
  to whatever you need to change it, whatever needs to happen,
• 12:37
  whatever, whatever's going on. And really welcome as, as
• 12:40
  various dealers bring clientele here, whether it's end users or
• 12:44
  their designers or builders. Some of them haven't seen this
• 12:46
  much catcher in one area. I mean, they're not, they're not
• 12:49
  going to do it. And we, we, we will run the
• 12:50
  whole building on Josh AI. Yeah.
• 12:52
  So with Josh AI, we can do some really cool stuff with the
• 12:55
  lighting and just make it dance. You know, what's your, what's
• 12:57
  your favorite holiday? And boom, the whole building
• 12:59
  will change those colors. And that goes back.
• 13:01
  How cool is that? We have, we have definitely
• 13:03
  brought up the TV show, the bear on the show.
• 13:06
  And that's one of those things where like if you can really
• 13:08
  make an experience special for somebody and you know, really
• 13:11
  delight them, like that's, that's what's going to stick
• 13:14
  with them, right. So if you have a potential
• 13:16
  client coming in and you have some renders of the home that
• 13:19
  they're building and you can just have that up on the screen,
• 13:23
  you know, when they walk in and then, you know, you do a little
• 13:26
  bit, you know, maybe you do a little bit more legwork or
• 13:29
  whatever. And you find out like, okay, you
• 13:30
  know, they like this sports team or they like this thing or
• 13:33
  whatever. And, you know, they come into
• 13:35
  this space and you can demonstrate not only you know,
• 13:38
  you could you could kind of wow them with your attention to
• 13:41
  detail, but you can also demonstrate as a dealer that I
• 13:45
  pay attention to details. Here's, you know, here's what I
• 13:47
  was able to in a non creepy way. This is what I was able to find
• 13:50
  out is important to you And Kit. Tell out his face to your to
• 13:54
  your. Absolutely.
• 13:56
  And the importance to to go back just to touch on the the bear,
• 13:59
  just to be clear, we are, we are two miles away from Maddie
• 14:02
  Matheson's burger joint here, Maddie's.
• 14:03
  Patty's Patty. 'S Patty's amazing so for those
• 14:06
  listening who want to visit the space, we'll take it with
• 14:08
  Maddie's Patty's because. We have talked about Maddie's
• 14:11
  patties on he's. He's the janitor.
• 14:13
  He's the only cook on the show. So exactly so and.
• 14:16
  And if you're not familiar with the Bear, not familiar with who
• 14:19
  Maddie Matheson is, he's the guy.
• 14:21
  He's what's, he's got all the tattoos.
• 14:23
  Yeah, he's, he's like the custodian.
• 14:24
  Yeah, like 5 brothers. One of his brothers is John
• 14:27
  Cena. Yeah, that's, you know, that's,
• 14:29
  I can't remember his name. Yeah, no, it's just hilarious on
• 14:32
  there where you're like, oh, we happen to be that, but you know,
• 14:34
  so. Maddie's Patties is a go to
• 14:36
  stop. Like anytime anybody flies in
• 14:37
  for anything I take them to Maddie's.
• 14:39
  You got. It you got it.
• 14:40
  But back to the show, because that's important.
• 14:42
  We got to talk about burgers too, because it's about life.
• 14:44
  No, but the whole thing like everything here being I mean
• 14:47
  invisible speakers that so super high as far as design first,
• 14:51
  design first, not audio in your face, not AV in your face,
• 14:54
  nothing that design centric. First we'll have a how all.
• 14:57
  Merges into your lifestyle. 100%, especially for our
• 14:59
  clientele and our dealers clientele and our designers
• 15:02
  clientele, it's really important that they walk in.
• 15:05
  They're like, oh, oh, this is a different level.
• 15:08
  This is, I mean, we're sitting right here where a bar will have
• 15:10
  a few 100. Bottles, I mean, that's alcohol.
• 15:12
  That's where you're right. I'm I'm just, I'm picturing the
• 15:14
  whiskey. Oh.
• 15:15
  Absolutely. And the dealers are all
• 15:17
  concerned. Well, what if somebody drinks
• 15:18
  alcohol? Great.
• 15:19
  That means they stay longer. Great.
• 15:20
  Offer them as much as they want. Sit down.
• 15:22
  Yeah. Don't over serve them.
• 15:24
  That's not. Really, we'd never do.
• 15:25
  We'd gladly call you a car, though.
• 15:27
  Pick it up, you know, come pick them up if.
• 15:28
  You can, you know, if, yeah, if you're, if you're using alcohol
• 15:31
  to create a memorable experience, obviously without
• 15:34
  getting too far, right, that's a positive.
• 15:37
  Thing, dude, but I've trained my whole life for that, you know,
• 15:40
  right there, we're here to do it.
• 15:41
  Yeah, exactly. So we're just hanging out and
• 15:43
  and, and and showing them what it can be and what's an option
• 15:46
  and what's available. So that that's part of the whole
• 15:48
  life, the whole concept here and it and is I mean, as you see,
• 15:50
  Chris, it's super high design. Yeah, that's the idea.
• 15:53
  Now, and, and, and that, that is an important thing in, in the
• 15:56
  showroom in general. And it doesn't matter if you're
• 15:58
  in Boise or in Bozeman or in Southern California, Northern
• 16:02
  California, wherever it is, right, your space kind of needs
• 16:05
  to reflect your, your clientele, right?
• 16:08
  So, and there's definitely, you know, it's, it's helpful to
• 16:12
  identify what the building trends are and whatever, if your
• 16:14
  area is, you know, all tongue and groove or it's all
• 16:19
  postmodern or it's all, you know, contemporary or whatever.
• 16:23
  That's important to, you know, to build out your showroom that
• 16:26
  way and, and, and make that, you know, show your clientele that
• 16:32
  you're able to work within these parameters and show the builder
• 16:35
  partners that you're bringing in that like, hey man, we can
• 16:37
  absolutely. We can work with you and you
• 16:40
  have to be really careful in the design not to be too polarized
• 16:43
  in one way or another. Make it neutral and cover all
• 16:45
  those aspects. You know, we go to Palm Springs,
• 16:47
  you could go ultra modern, you can go, you can go mid century
• 16:50
  modern and be fine. No problem out here.
• 16:52
  Like you got to find that middle ground.
• 16:53
  It's really tricky. It's it's our one odor from
• 16:57
  innovative in Arizona. Patrick Boyer's done an
• 16:59
  incredible job curating this place and making sure that's
• 17:01
  covered. You know, he's done he's done
• 17:03
  amazing at that to make sure he gets there and part of it's
• 17:05
  taking longer because that because making sure we nail it.
• 17:09
  We don't have a second chance of the first impression ever, ever.
• 17:11
  And so that's what's. Important and at the same time
• 17:13
  it's funny because and showroom spaces are again, they they need
• 17:16
  to be a little bit of a chameleon because you're filling
• 17:20
  so many needs, right. So we've just talked about the
• 17:23
  the public aspect, right and the, you know, dog and pony show
• 17:26
  aspect. Absolutely.
• 17:26
  But it serves a really specific thing where your vendor partners
• 17:30
  in here like you could roll in 50 people and have a coastal
• 17:34
  source training. We just had a training here last
• 17:36
  week, even though it's under construction, we had 45 people
• 17:38
  in here for Josh AI trains and everyone of them is super
• 17:41
  excited. They're like, hey, before we
• 17:42
  talk about the subject at hand and these guys have flown in,
• 17:44
  can we just talk about the space we're in and when can we start
• 17:46
  using it and things like that? So it was a good little test
• 17:49
  drive of like, OK, we just set it up over here behind me and it
• 17:52
  was, it worked out great. It worked out great.
• 17:53
  And it was like, OK, it was a little glimpse of where we're
• 17:56
  trying to get. To and that's, and I mean I'll
• 17:58
  say, you know, without, without any, any, you know, without any
• 18:04
  animosity or anything like that's what separates good reps
• 18:07
  from marginal reps, right? Like it it is the amount that
• 18:11
  you'll do for dealers to make them comfortable, to train them
• 18:14
  up on the products that you represent and to show those
• 18:17
  products in a good light. Those are probably the the
• 18:20
  paramount of it, you know, yeah, taking BOS and and and meetings
• 18:23
  and demos and that kind of thing.
• 18:24
  It's like these are these are the things that that go miles.
• 18:28
  When also, like we've all been at trainings in HH conference
• 18:32
  rooms, you know, we've done it together.
• 18:34
  The ballroom. The ballroom.
• 18:35
  Back of an ATI. Bingo Bingo.
• 18:37
  Sometimes behind Walmart in the parking lot.
• 18:39
  It's weird. Right.
• 18:40
  Yeah, no. We've all done the weird stuff,
• 18:41
  but the idea also probably the most novel concept of this
• 18:44
  showroom is we have parking and everyone across the country will
• 18:49
  be like, what the hell are you talking about, Sean?
• 18:51
  In Southern California, it's a concept to have parking for 50
• 18:55
  plus people. We had, we had that event last
• 18:56
  week. There was 62 of us with all of
• 18:58
  us, the vendor, you know, the vendors here, the food truck,
• 19:01
  all the things. We just bought a brought a big
• 19:03
  Taco truck and there's plenty of parking and like that's enough.
• 19:05
  That's with the construction. Going that's with construction
• 19:07
  out there too. And with the, there's that
• 19:09
  Ferrari repair shop down the street.
• 19:11
  So those guys fly by, which is really cool.
• 19:13
  But they what they're doing is revving their engine every time.
• 19:15
  You're like, oh, thanks guys. That's the planes landing and
• 19:18
  the Ferraris going pet. Yeah, I literally used to work
• 19:21
  across the parking lot from here and it was, there were
• 19:22
  definitely times where it was. Well, listening like, oh, poor
• 19:26
  guys, you got to listen to Ferraris and I'm like, no,
• 19:28
  there's worse things in life for sure, right, Yeah, for sure.
• 19:31
  But it's also. You know, it's certainly not a
• 19:32
  Honda Civic downshifting on your street at 2:00 in the.
• 19:35
  Morning. No.
• 19:35
  And it was, it was the first week of February is 86° outside.
• 19:39
  So I'm not complaining about any of that.
• 19:41
  But, you know, we have some, we have some novel contests with
• 19:44
  parking sounds crazy. It sounds ridiculous to anybody
• 19:46
  in various places in the country, But here it's a big
• 19:48
  deal. So we have parking we have, and
• 19:50
  that's what allows us to do it. Like, oh, it was really
• 19:52
  important. You're also a 5 minute ride from
• 19:55
  a very, you know, very exclusive airport.
• 19:58
  Absolutely you can. Fly in from Tahoe, you can.
• 20:01
  Fly from Jackson Hole, you can. Fly in from Scottsdale, you can
• 20:03
  you. Know well, it's part of like our
• 20:05
  deal with just video walls. They this will be their West
• 20:07
  Coast showroom in many ways. So they've they've talked about
• 20:11
  part of them helping put walls in here is hey, we want to fly
• 20:14
  another dealers from other parts.
• 20:16
  Of course, of course that's what it.
• 20:17
  That's what it's for. That's that is it.
• 20:19
  You know, we, we talk a lot about our friends at Sonance,
• 20:22
  Yeah, on this pod and, and it's basically, it's the same kind of
• 20:25
  concept, right? Like they've kitted out this
• 20:28
  amazing space and they've included Lutron.
• 20:30
  And a lot. Of other things.
• 20:32
  We just did. We just did a training our our
• 20:34
  Rep from the training last week in Sonance space, A Lutron Shade
• 20:37
  Essentials training. The Sonans have been nothing but
• 20:40
  amazing for us. We don't wrap them and we're
• 20:42
  good friends with them. That's that's part.
• 20:43
  Of our dealers, she's a referem. It's a big ass pie.
• 20:46
  We love, we love everybody. Yeah, we can all get along.
• 20:48
  Not everybody. We love most everybody, of
• 20:50
  course, totally say it's jokingly.
• 20:52
  We're just happy to like. We love everybody, we tolerate
• 20:54
  everybody. But no, how do we how do we
• 20:56
  like, Oh, in the future, you know that the Sonans is
• 21:00
  incredible. They do an incredible job.
• 21:01
  Lutron's all over in there. It's great.
• 21:03
  They they they sell tonic catcher.
• 21:04
  They sell a ton of ton of Lutron.
• 21:05
  But it's it's packaged as a destination.
• 21:07
  Bingo Bingo dealers. Bring the tour.
• 21:10
  Hang out, stay out. Enjoy San Clemente, Absolutely.
• 21:13
  Things, which is amazing. They, they do it.
• 21:15
  They do it as well as anybody in the industry.
• 21:16
  Yeah, They, they, they, yeah, we've, I've learned a lot.
• 21:19
  Just go in there years ago from the dealer side.
• 21:21
  Sure. It's incredible to go there.
• 21:22
  It's incredible. They're great and it is truly an
• 21:24
  experience and that's and you know the the words experience
• 21:28
  center are very much overused. This is very much an experience
• 21:31
  center that is also an. Experience and I have to get a
• 21:33
  better job and and and coaching my team.
• 21:36
  You know, everyone on our team, my, my teammates, we call it an
• 21:39
  experience center. We're calling the OCEX, though,
• 21:42
  Orange County Experience Center. It's not a show.
• 21:44
  A show would go in and you see 12 models of speaker here.
• 21:47
  You're not going to see that at all.
• 21:49
  You're not going to see hardly any speakers.
• 21:50
  You're not going to see that stuff.
• 21:51
  And that's important. It's an experience.
• 21:53
  You want to be an. Experience and that, that is the
• 21:55
  right angle to take with what we do because that is that really
• 21:59
  speaks to the products that we sell and that we represent that
• 22:02
  we manufacture and and install and, and everything else they
• 22:07
  are at at their very core, designed to enhance the
• 22:11
  experience, right. So the experience in your life
• 22:14
  and, and again, this is a this is a very overused example that
• 22:17
  I'm about to use, you know, the experience of breakfast in the
• 22:21
  morning with your family, right, with some music playing in the
• 22:24
  background and, and, and that kind of thing that is very much
• 22:27
  an experience and that's how we need to sell our stuff.
• 22:30
  It's not, you know it's not. You're not doing critical
• 22:33
  listening while your kids are eating egg or waffles or
• 22:35
  whatever. You're, you know, you are
• 22:37
  enhancing. Things right, right.
• 22:39
  And, and the last thing we want is in in a showroom.
• 22:42
  I think of like, oh, there's pricing, there's oh, now I can
• 22:45
  see eight models of speakers at once.
• 22:46
  And the customer, the the end user, I've worked in showrooms
• 22:49
  like that. They can't ever tell like, oh,
• 22:51
  you're you have in wall versus there's tower speakers.
• 22:53
  There's a place for that. Absolutely.
• 22:54
  There's a place, really a place that's just not what we're
• 22:57
  trying to do here. We are trying to do relationship
• 22:59
  relationship first and go from there.
• 23:02
  I mean, especially with neutron inspect on the on the plans
• 23:04
  before dealers can ever get involved many times.
• 23:06
  And it's like, wait, how do we deal with the spec community too
• 23:09
  and help take those jobs to our dealers and and hand those over
• 23:13
  and like it's a win win. And as a side note, we're all
• 23:17
  trying to run for profit businesses, right?
• 23:19
  You have like great, great. How do we do that?
• 23:21
  How do we? End of the day, we are all
• 23:23
  trying to make money. It's.
• 23:24
  Absolutely. It's all really cool.
• 23:26
  We are all trying to make money. I've.
• 23:27
  Still not you know there's plenty of plenty of dealers out
• 23:29
  there who run in the red non-stop, but I've still never
• 23:32
  met a non profit AV company ever.
• 23:35
  You know, like there's. NO5O1C.
• 23:36
  Three no, some seller accountants would love it if
• 23:39
  they would because then they can write more off.
• 23:40
  But right now, like no, we're we're for profit.
• 23:43
  That's the whole objective. You know, from the manufacturer
• 23:45
  is a rapid we're in a weird position.
• 23:47
  We're right in the middle of manufacturer to the dealer.
• 23:49
  We're just trying to help them. We want everybody to make money.
• 23:51
  Everybody makes. Money and I think that the, I
• 23:54
  think the approach that you guys take and there's there's other
• 23:56
  don't get me wrong, like there's other Rep firms in the country
• 23:58
  who are doing very similar things and, and doing it very
• 24:01
  well. I think that is part of because
• 24:03
  it's really easy to say, you know, that the, the, the obvious
• 24:06
  point here is like it's really easy to say that the Rep firm as
• 24:10
  it exists today is kind of it. It's one more step between a
• 24:14
  dealer and a manufacturer. And to be able to add value at
• 24:18
  that makes Rep firms indispensable, right?
• 24:21
  So if if you're a Rep firm and you're not adding that value,
• 24:24
  man, you got to think about how to do it.
• 24:26
  You know, absolutely haven't been on the dealer side for 20
• 24:29
  plus years. It's a 25 plus.
• 24:31
  It's amazing. I just want to be, I just want
• 24:34
  to be the Rep that I always wanted.
• 24:37
  And I have a couple of great examples of that of incredible
• 24:40
  reps in my life who I didn't. I can't remember what products
• 24:43
  they wrapped, but I can remember they called Jason Savage a
• 24:46
  perfect example to me. Like he was an amazing Rep to
• 24:49
  me. If I can be half the Rep he was,
• 24:51
  that's a big deal. And I say that with all
• 24:52
  sincerity. I'll bust his balls in front of
• 24:54
  his face, but behind his back, I'll be real honest about him.
• 24:56
  He was a great example, like I don't know that answer some, but
• 24:59
  I'll get back to you. And then he actually called me
• 25:01
  back. And that's all that matters.
• 25:03
  Just. Be held table stakes my man you.
• 25:05
  Know table stakes and also like reps are going to lose brands,
• 25:09
  they're going to game brands. We've said no to a lot of
• 25:10
  brands. We want to be careful.
• 25:12
  We don't need to be brand collectors at all, but just be
• 25:14
  helpful. We want to sell solutions.
• 25:16
  I don't sell products itself. We sell solutions.
• 25:18
  And even more than that, we just build relationships.
• 25:20
  And that's just here to help. And there's some incredible
• 25:22
  reference. I was at a Super Bowl party at a
• 25:24
  dealer's house on Sunday, and there's five members of another
• 25:28
  Rep firm that's fantastic plastic here.
• 25:29
  Yep. And it's like, great.
• 25:30
  We're, we can all be friends. We're all doing the same thing.
• 25:33
  We all. Want the same thing?
• 25:34
  Pie. It's a big pie, especially here
• 25:35
  in Southern. All trying to raise the boats,
• 25:37
  right? Absolutely.
• 25:38
  And I recommend, I recommend hey, call my friends over at
• 25:41
  this Rep room because that's the product you need to go with.
• 25:43
  The products I'm selling too. I don't have, we don't have
• 25:45
  everything. That's OK completely.
• 25:47
  It's just being helpful I guess. We can you guys have a glaring
• 25:50
  hole in the video distribution part of things, but we don't
• 25:52
  need to get into that. Right.
• 25:53
  No, no, I'm just. Yeah, exactly.
• 25:55
  But. Plug yourself that.
• 25:56
  Nicely done. There is.
• 25:57
  You know, there is absolutely, absolutely, you know, and, and
• 26:01
  that's kind of we've we've preached the Kumbaya angle
• 26:04
  before, right? Like absolutely there are a ton
• 26:07
  of AV dealers and many of them are very close.
• 26:09
  It's different strokes for different folks and this is a
• 26:11
  big ass pie. You know, it's a big ass pie,
• 26:13
  especially here in Southern California.
• 26:14
  But even in the in the industry, like, again, we just sell
• 26:17
  expensive toys, dealer sell expensive toys.
• 26:19
  That's all we do. Like everyone gets so tight, you
• 26:21
  know, hung up on all the details, like calm down.
• 26:24
  The only thing we really do that people need is the network.
• 26:27
  Other than that, yeah. Come on, it's not heart surgery.
• 26:29
  No, no, we're not saving it in any lives.
• 26:32
  No, you know, and I wish more dealers kind of understood that.
• 26:34
  But relax a little bit. We're just having fun.
• 26:36
  And, and yeah, and the more people that understand that, the
• 26:39
  lower everybody's blood pressure gets, right?
• 26:41
  Like there's nothing worse than, you know, being in a situation.
• 26:44
  And I'm, I'm sure a lot of dealers have been in a
• 26:45
  situation, right, Where, you know, you're, you're at a thing
• 26:48
  or you're, you know, maybe you're at an ASID event or AIA
• 26:51
  event or whatever. And like, you're there and
• 26:53
  another dealer's there, and like there's this atomosity.
• 26:56
  Right. Just.
• 26:57
  It's like there's two hot chicks at a party that are fighting
• 27:00
  with each other and it's just this Cold War going on.
• 27:02
  Sure, like let go of that. Let's just let that shit go.
• 27:07
  Absolutely. And and it's OK, it's OK.
• 27:09
  It's. Totally.
• 27:09
  Fine, yeah, I'm not. A big ass pie I'm.
• 27:11
  Not, I'm not a scientist, but I think the sun will come up in
• 27:13
  the east again tomorrow, right? You know, it's all right.
• 27:15
  It's we're. Not this is not rocket.
• 27:17
  Sir, no, we are. Just.
• 27:19
  Right. Right.
• 27:20
  And and and at the end of the day, that person on the inside a
• 27:23
  room is something who is who probably has 95% in common with
• 27:27
  you. Right.
• 27:28
  Yeah, absolutely. And you just find that common
• 27:31
  common denominator and like, oh, it doesn't mean you have to be
• 27:33
  best of friends with everybody, but just be friendly.
• 27:35
  We're hanging out. We're hanging out with other
• 27:37
  reference. We're hanging out with
• 27:37
  everybody. We're here to help.
• 27:38
  That's what we do. That's perfect.
• 27:40
  Yeah, that's a good, that's a good message to end on.
• 27:42
  I mean, I'm not keeping an eye on the clock or anything, but I
• 27:44
  would say that's it's a pretty good kumbaya.
• 27:48
  Yeah, it's, it's like kumbaya and it's, it's easy out here
• 27:50
  with the sunshine as as some of our cohorts across the country
• 27:52
  are freezing their butts off. It really does.
• 27:55
  Yeah. When you look at what's going on
• 27:56
  in the East Coast, in the middle of the country, it is a good
• 27:59
  time to be, you know, like I, I, I will pay my property tax bill
• 28:02
  with a smile just just seeing that it's my kids were in the
• 28:06
  ocean this weekend, believe it or not.
• 28:08
  And. It is.
• 28:09
  What is it today's early February and I'd have been
• 28:12
  shorts and AT shirt and not going to be a problem like like
• 28:15
  it is what it is. This is OK.
• 28:17
  This is not a podcast to to make anybody feel bad about where
• 28:20
  they live. But man, this is a pretty
• 28:21
  spectacular place. And absolutely, it makes it
• 28:24
  really easy to have that, you know, that that California
• 28:27
  attitude, right? Like everybody, you know, it's
• 28:29
  funny. Californians are flakes or
• 28:31
  they're always positive or always whatever.
• 28:33
  It's like, yeah, dude, it's the weather, honestly.
• 28:34
  It's the weather. It's the weather.
• 28:36
  Yeah, it's it's the weather. This is new for me to be on the
• 28:38
  Rep side. This holiday season was very
• 28:39
  different. Even my wife pointed out like,
• 28:41
  Hey, you're not a ball of stress.
• 28:42
  Like I'm like, no, dealers are calling me.
• 28:44
  Nobody's calling me about their Apple TV not working.
• 28:46
  Like, no, we're all good. It's real different on the
• 28:48
  dealer side, but it's, it's definitely the weather.
• 28:50
  It's definitely the we're lucky to, to, to, to be involved with
• 28:53
  it for sure. You know, it helps a lot.
• 28:55
  And also there's, there's some cool, cool homes here too.
• 28:58
  We got a lot of a. Lot of cool stuff we we've got
• 29:01
  yeah, you know, and, and not get too far off in the weeds on this
• 29:04
  territory or anything, but this is the this is the largest
• 29:07
  territory in the country. The LA metro area, which which
• 29:10
  we are a part of, is the largest by far, bigger than New York
• 29:15
  metro, bigger than whatever. And man, just the concentration
• 29:18
  of wealth in this area that is just, you know, it's all people
• 29:23
  who like to buy toys. And absolutely they.
• 29:26
  Exist and they're out here, so you know.
• 29:28
  And they? They where you are don't don't
• 29:30
  come running out here. It's not a gold rush, but.
• 29:32
  No, but it's definitely, it's definitely, it's different.
• 29:34
  As you know, projects are different things.
• 29:36
  I spent 20 years in the Park City market.
• 29:37
  It's huge homes, different homes.
• 29:40
  Homes here are very different, you know, and high design.
• 29:43
  High design, yeah, but there's plenty going on in other markets
• 29:45
  that are awesome too, you know, for sure.
• 29:47
  So. Yeah, so I think that's going to
• 29:49
  do it. Let me let me throw some plugs
• 29:51
  out here. If you're if you're so inclined,
• 29:54
  check out our Instagram. It's at Inside under score
• 29:56
  Integration. And you know, if you feel like
• 29:58
  it, drop us an e-mail on insideimmigration@gmail.com.
• 30:02
  And Sean, thanks for thanks for having me in your space.
• 30:05
  Thanks for filling in last notice when Jason just
• 30:07
  completely dropped the ball in favor of his career and.
• 30:11
  Absolutely happy, happy to do it.
• 30:13
  It's cool to do it. I did it.
• 30:14
  I don't know. It was a year and a half ago we
• 30:15
  did. About a year and a half ago and
• 30:17
  it. Was great.
• 30:17
  It was awesome. It was it was super easy just
• 30:19
  hanging out with my friends. And even today it's just there's
• 30:21
  no different than you and I having lunch last week together.
• 30:23
  It's like, oh, OK, cool. Casual.
• 30:25
  It's a hang. It's a hang.
• 30:26
  And we can make fun of Jason Sage.
• 30:28
  What else do we do? That's what we do on our
• 30:29
  personal time, too. We're.
• 30:30
  Going to spin off an entire podcast.
• 30:32
  We're going to spin off an entire series of of just what
• 30:35
  we're going to do is just make fun of people we love.
• 30:38
  And it's going to be an entire, we're just, it's, it's a roast
• 30:41
  podcast. Oh, I love it.
• 30:42
  That's where we're going. We should, we should have them
• 30:44
  like call in at the end just so they can they can banter back or
• 30:47
  they finish up like at the end of the roast and they could just
• 30:49
  get us back. I think we're onto something.
• 30:51
  Well, I, I think, I think we can make this work.
• 30:53
  I like that. Maybe, maybe we'll, you know,
• 30:54
  we'll rope in our 22 listeners. Perfect, perfect.
• 30:58
  Awesome. Awesome.
• 30:59
  Yeah, but awesome. Yeah.
• 31:01
  Thanks for joining us. No problem.
• 31:02
  All right, take it easy out there.