Latest / The Electrical Show / Thomas Nagy and Paul Meenan talk to Louise & John about smart home installs
Transcript
- 0:01The Electrical Show with Thomas Naji sponsored by Bosch Professional Powerful power tools for measuring
- 0:07tools and experts accessories. Welcome to the Electrical Show with Bosch Professional here on
- 0:16Fix Radio on Thomas Naji and with me as always right hand man here,
- 0:20mister Meanan, Yeah, back here. Now, over the past few weeks,
- 0:25you've heard us talk about isms or specialisms, and on today's show,
- 0:30we're going to be talking to Louise Tarling and John Vauxhall. Now they are
- 0:34a husband and wife team and they do smart home specialisms. So we're going
- 0:39to be talking to both Louise and John in the next went out there here,
- 0:44Now, why don't we introduce Louise and John here? Now, Hi,
- 0:49it's fantastic you're here. Thank you really didn't make it. Your name
- 0:53actually cropped up week? Wasn't it your name cropped up weeks ago? I
- 0:56think it was Paul you mentioned it. Yeah, so unashamedly, I'm just
- 0:59gonna introduced some the greatest Instagram account on Instagram. I don't know whether that's
- 1:04because of my absolute incompetence at using the platform or just they're really much better
- 1:10at most things than me. He's the most modest person on social media.
- 1:12I can assure you yeah, well, we did look at smart home installs
- 1:18a month or two ago. But having Louise and John in the studio will
- 1:21allow us to dig a little bit deeper and find out more about this specialism
- 1:25because it is a very very niche area and you've got to know exactly what
- 1:27you're doing. The Electrical Show on Fixed Radio. You're listening to the Electrical
- 1:34Show with Bosch Professional here on Fixed Radio. I'm Thomas Nagie and in the
- 1:38hot seat here is Paul Meanlan. Now on today's show. If you've just
- 1:41tuned in, don't worry. We're just getting started. We are going to
- 1:44be chatting with Louise and well Louise Tarling and John Vauxhall about their experiences working
- 1:51together in our trade and offering smart home installations to their clients in Essex.
- 1:57Now, welcome to both of you. It's it's wonderful to have you humble
- 2:02our little show here. So tell me how did your pass first cross because
- 2:08it is unusual to have a husband and wife outfit. Well, John was
- 2:14a licensed London taxi driver and I was going on holiday with my friend and
- 2:20he took us to the airport. Basically, that's how we met. No
- 2:24public cool okay, yea years ago I was uncapped you over here. I
- 2:30mean I could literally I could take this down to complete. But you've done
- 2:34the knowledge test that yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it really as hard
- 2:37as people say? This is the illogical show? But I want to go
- 2:39off tangent here. It's the hardest thing, breaks people. Yeah, it's
- 2:44the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. No way. Yeah,
- 2:47it looks it looks so antiquaid from the outside. Yeah, if I want,
- 2:52it's some of the paper I'll see driving tax Do you think how do
- 2:55you ready scatter bed in the morning and dress yourself? You know? So
- 2:59that's smart switched to me. One of the most complicated things on the planet.
- 3:02You're telling me is nothing based on your Instagram account compared to the knowledge
- 3:07of driving a black cab, oh or industries in a bad way? I
- 3:10have heard that is like it is supposed to be possibly hard and it takes
- 3:15years, apparently to the training for it. It took me two years,
- 3:17six months, five days. I was counting you pulled your clients, yeah,
- 3:23basically, yeah, I always met over review mirror. Okay, I
- 3:28mean, that's a cool way to me. It's cool. But Louise said
- 3:31to me some months after we'd first met, and when my friend said,
- 3:37oh, I now a taxi driver. He'll take us to the airport,
- 3:39she said, I thought you'd be like fat Graham Bold about sixty years old.
- 3:46But how did you end up getting into this trade? Then? So
- 3:51you met each other, but how did this trade come about? Well,
- 3:54while Strong was driving a taxi, he was also refurbishing houses. And okay,
- 4:00as you do when you meet somebody, now, you start getting involved
- 4:02in what they're doing. So yeah, I started in helping out bits and
- 4:05pieces here and there, and we got let down a couple of times by
- 4:10our electrician and done my electrical qualifications years and years ago. So I said,
- 4:17I'll bring them up to speed. And between flipping houses, I'll go
- 4:21and change light bowls and drink cups of tea with old ladies. That was
- 4:26the business plan. That was the business plane. That's that's not a bad
- 4:29plan. Didn't we didn't happen. It happened literally, I think three weeks
- 4:34after I officially started the business, I picked up afore I've been rewire and
- 4:40dragged John at the taxa and said like, I need a help. I
- 4:43can't do it on my own. And that was that. It's just you
- 4:46did say I need help with this one. Then you can go you can
- 4:49go back here. Wow, it still parked up with the side of the
- 4:56road hazards on. I returned it to the garagement. I'll be back in
- 5:00four weeks. He's I've not seen him since, bless him. Wow.
- 5:04Okay, that was it. Yeah, and it kind of just went from
- 5:06there and it just, I mean, it just exploded. It just the
- 5:11female bit clearly helped for sure, because we've spoken about that, haven't we.
- 5:15Yeah, we have. I almost cringe when you see the industry promoting
- 5:21in what they believe is a positive light but ends up quite the opposite of
- 5:26the positive light. It becomes quite toxic, very easily. Whereas were you
- 5:29guys, it doesn't matter your business the way you approach your Instagram. It's
- 5:33not about oh look here's a leading lady. The quality and the excellence of
- 5:38it overshadows whatever, male or female. It's phenomenal. And this is one
- 5:43when people turn around to me and they go, who's your favorite Instagram account,
- 5:46I'll always say Louise Tarlin. She's one of the best female electricits out
- 5:49there, and I don't really want to use the word female, because she's
- 5:51the best electrician out there on Instagram period. The only other account that comes
- 5:56near not Tom's, by the way, he's one chord or taken EGW Electrical,
- 6:01And that's because he's so good at what he does. He's a sarcastic
- 6:04baby one. I love him for it. He will, you know,
- 6:09mock and rib the industry when his work speaks yourself. And I think your
- 6:12work speaks for yourself. But can you tell me what some of the pros
- 6:15and cons? Because if I work with my brother who's I would fall out.
- 6:17We would end up murdering each other by the end of day one.
- 6:20If I worked with my missus, I would probably get shot by the end
- 6:24of day one. And what are the pros and cons of working together as
- 6:27husband and wife? The same thing? Really? Time together and time together.
- 6:31It took a while. It's really sweet, lovely. How have you
- 6:38managed it? I mean, I say it's like in a shark phase because
- 6:41like, yeah, I had to say, Louise is very easy going and
- 6:46placid. Patient patients throw me toys out a Pram regularly. I resigned weekly
- 6:55a week a while, because we've obviously got different strengths. Louie's very my
- 7:00be cool, she'll sit down, whereas I really like the construction bit.
- 7:02And so it took it took years, didn't it. Yeah, and we've
- 7:06we do. We do work to West Ronts. Yeah, but then sometimes
- 7:10you just know you have to get involved together and yeah, well we Louis
- 7:17is charged from nine till I'm charged from five till nine. Really in charge
- 7:27of the TV might control a him though, Oh you know that is bashing
- 7:30the book a man. Yeah, I'm writing this so called the book a
- 7:34Man. It's never going to get published. But he the electrical show on
- 7:39Fixed Radio. This is the electrical show. I'm Thomas Najie with Paul Mean
- 7:44and and we are talking about smart home installations with Louise Tarling and John Vauxhall.
- 7:49Now when did the fascination for smart homes? I mean you got together
- 7:55and then you started working together, But when did the smart home side of
- 7:58it? Where did that come into play? It was one of those things.
- 8:01It almost by accident. We had a client who has some tennis courts
- 8:07in his garden. As you do, and he had a supply cable out
- 8:13there, didn't he but he wanted to be able to switch the lights from
- 8:18the house, but there was no there was no cable going to the house.
- 8:20He just said, well, can't you do something like without wires?
- 8:24And no, you can't. But then we just went home and googled it
- 8:28and who was it? It was? Was it? Skullmore had a what
- 8:33is now a very very basic wireless switch in Connecticut. Switch is it's not
- 8:37as clone key, but yet the same sort of thing. And we were
- 8:41like, oh, you can hang on. So we did that. But
- 8:43you know, it's like once you start googling something and then the rabbit hole
- 8:46opens up and then before you know it, you're like, oh, wow,
- 8:50hang on a minute, there's we'd never heard of that kind of thing.
- 8:54And I think the term smart home was almost done a little bit of
- 8:58a do you remember when the iPhone came out everyone put in front of the
- 9:01mid So every bit of home tech is now a smart home. But that's
- 9:03when it started, and it just kind of goes on from there. And
- 9:07you know, when you do a job and then they tell a friend and
- 9:09then it just gets around like that and that's how it happened. We just
- 9:13sort of discovered this whole new industry and then just started researching more and more
- 9:18into it, looking into it deeper, finding out what's available, where you
- 9:22get it from suppliers, distributors, and then yeah, this is kind of
- 9:26history. Embarked on like every single training course going, which was just like
- 9:31the darkest thing to do, looking back on it. So you literally fell
- 9:35into it. Yeah, effectually bland away through your first job and then just
- 9:37started to go and train like mad. That's the secret as people need to
- 9:43know. A little wireless control unit upper tree. I'm thinking, what this
- 9:46He's not very glamorous, is it? Because he looks very glaus. Many
- 9:48years ago, I went to one of the very early seedier conferences and I
- 9:54sat. I walked into an Eca were there and all the hobknobs, and
- 9:56I just went, what is this dark magic they're talking about? I just
- 10:01felt so stupid and I left it and I was I was literally I was
- 10:03like, I'm not looking into this. This looks way too hard. This
- 10:05is for like scientists, NASA level stuff. I'll just stick with mid twin
- 10:09and earnest with you. I was going to say, actually, can I
- 10:11just add a question there? So when did NASA train you? Yeah?
- 10:18I mean actually sometimes that you would say to me, why don't you going
- 10:20to be an astronaut? Because I mean, you can't change I quite in
- 10:24change my minding. I think we do this now, and we'll do this,
- 10:26and we'll do this, And why are you going to be an astronaut?
- 10:28Because I think they're training something like six years and then golden the mission
- 10:31to and you won't be able to do anything. So just on that.
- 10:35How do you guys? I mean, I know you've done loads of training,
- 10:37but I find with I mean I last year I did eight hundred and
- 10:41sixty hours of CPD and I still feel like an idiot. How do you
- 10:45guys keep up with all the latest changes? Because I struggle like mad.
- 10:48I don't know how you guys find because every time I look on your Instagram
- 10:52account, there's a new I didn't know you could bury subwoofers in the ground.
- 10:56I didn't know you get all this out. I sit there and I
- 10:58go my smart hotel. I'm just going to look at Louise's Instagram and learn
- 11:01from that. I didn't know you could get half this stuff. But how
- 11:05do you guys come across it. Well, we've been to quite a lot
- 11:09of distributors and they they're very good at putting on open days that we should
- 11:13explain to you all the different kit that they offer pretty much how it works,
- 11:18not necessarily how it all goes together, but pretty much how it works,
- 11:20and then you just sort of take a piece, go and do something
- 11:24with it. No, you know, when you're interested in something, you
- 11:26try it out. You're sitting there, I'm having to look at this and
- 11:31look at that. It's not forced. So you know, there's that saying,
- 11:35if you enjoy what you would do, we genuinely enjoy you do it.
- 11:37It's not forced. It's like oh wow, like you said, oh
- 11:41Bury the sub normally diging a hole. You think I was a neighbor,
- 11:45I'd be like, I am rying to object. I couldn't believe it.
- 11:46I was just like, why much technology? We won't want to be their
- 11:50neighbor. And well, I know the job you're talking about the way they're
- 11:56designing is they don't really interfere with the neighbors because of all the little satellites
- 11:58move, you point them in. So if you almost d to go out
- 12:03of that zone. You can hear it, but it's not it's not in
- 12:05their face. It's clever stuff. So they do targeted CPD, which is
- 12:09cool. And if you love your job, it's notart odd. You just
- 12:11do it. You just do it. So we quite often like there's your
- 12:16hard core bit of the electrical game, so you might we twin on Earth.
- 12:18We consume units with you know, double sockets, that kind of thing.
- 12:22Whereas the smart home thing, like every project is different and you kit
- 12:26list is massive. You know. The van used to be set out for
- 12:31just being an electrician. Now it's like Craig, you hang on, this
- 12:33box has got this in it, and this and it and this has got
- 12:35this in all ten different sizes because you need it, and that little bit
- 12:39might just stop bas you know where we're coming from. That. Yeah,
- 12:45well, and that's the weird thing. You know. Lou started with a
- 12:48small van and now we think, actually we need long weelway strands because we
- 12:50need to get another couple of tubs in that couple of tubs. So you
- 12:56you do learn to you're aware of them things like you learn to block things
- 13:01out. You know. There's quite a few different control system manufacturers, you
- 13:05know, we won't be dealing with this one and this one at all because
- 13:07it just doesn't fit with what we do. So that kind of reduces it
- 13:11a bit. But you are still you know, you you know, you
- 13:13know, screwed. We're right there, screws or others, aren't we?
- 13:16You know, we're And you're like, oh, hang on, there's a
- 13:18new RJ forty five crymptool out. You don't need one. You've got four
- 13:22and the one you started is still absolutely fine. This one's got a different
- 13:26spring action, you know, and even you get like that and now don't
- 13:31you feel that? And we say to it and feel that feel that.
- 13:33I mean sometimes we do. You know, I feel so old times because
- 13:35I say to you, don't know you're born when we started out, you
- 13:39needed both arms to crypt and RJ forty five name you can just do it
- 13:43like that. Yeah, it's yeah, it's it's good fun. But it's
- 13:48kind of we say, it takes over your life, but you are constantly
- 13:52doing it. Yeah. And again, I think some people that work for
- 13:54companies, they might have a programmer, so they kind of just need to
- 13:58content out on the program and we have an install team and that kind of
- 14:01thing. Because we do everything. There's so much more to keep on top
- 14:05of, and you've got to keep on top of it. You got to.
- 14:07Yeah, And when John says we do everything, literally from start to
- 14:11finish, we do everything. In fact, we do everything except for plumbing
- 14:13and don't you plumbing? Don't you plumbing? Or wall paper paper plumb.
- 14:18But it's not really skill is It's not gonna like that? Sorry? Did
- 14:26you know what you said the other day on one of the shows the Electricians,
- 14:28we wake up and we we paint our nails every day. And I
- 14:31text him and said, no, we don't. We use gels before or
- 14:35after we count the fifte before we get us the next link. Are only
- 14:41misconceptions that customers have with smart home stuff. The thing I think we hear
- 14:48most is it's all wireless, isn't it. Yeah, it's all Alexa and
- 14:54yeah, up to a point. Some of it is it's becoming a lot
- 14:58more affordable that there are some people that think it's like I've got two hundred
- 15:03quick to spend and that's the whole house. They think it's a couple of
- 15:09les. And I've actually said to my missus, I'd love some cinemas speakers
- 15:13in the roof home. And then I go on your Instagram and I go,
- 15:16I haven't got the money for them, and I'm not going to ask
- 15:18her to do it for free because that would be wrong. But I'll just
- 15:20stick with me a little bar under the telly, just go out of the
- 15:24people. Yeah, yeah, those are the clients. We're a bit busy
- 15:28at the moment. Yeah, any misconceptions. Some people think it's a bit
- 15:31scary because obviously there's quite a lot. They can be quite a lot to
- 15:35it. And when you mentioned that most things we'll sit on a network,
- 15:39so you need a good network infrastructure. Or if I'll lose my internet,
- 15:43then where that men it all fails and I won't be able to turn my
- 15:46lights on. No, because what's in your house is an enclosed system.
- 15:50If your internet fails, it just means you can't turn your lights on from
- 15:52outside. Fix Radio. Welcome back to the Electrical Show. I'm Paul Meaning
- 15:56with Thomas Naji, and we are here talking to Louis and John talking smart
- 16:02home installations. And there's specialism because we do love talking specialisms. We love
- 16:06a good special when you do indeed, so next question for you is what
- 16:10kind of customers are you working for with smart home installs? And what some
- 16:12of the common questions that they put you other than can you do it for
- 16:15two hundred quid? Yeah, so we are all done in the afternoon if
- 16:18we can about two hundred and fifty and if we can get it cheaper than
- 16:22that, even if you're Harry Potter wand and you're wireless electricity. Yeah,
- 16:30and they've normally just decorated as well, so you can't get into the walls.
- 16:33So do you have like a client base that you will work for and
- 16:34not work for sort of thing? Yeah, And I know that nitty might
- 16:38come across a bit arrogant. No, we genuinely we accepted years ago we're
- 16:44never going to be millionaires. And we do just look at a job and
- 16:48go are we going to enjoy doing that one? And if we are,
- 16:51that kind of decide whether and then we go, oh, okay, right,
- 16:53we better price it now. We'll look at it. That's going to
- 16:56be fun, exciting, or sometimes it's just the challenge, you know,
- 17:00it's it's a bit new, that's the update, or they want to do
- 17:03that and we've only done that one before, so we'll sit down I say
- 17:07we lou will sit down work it all out. But clients, honestly,
- 17:12it's across the board now because I think more people are here in the term
- 17:17smart home, I think initially and I get an impression sort of you know,
- 17:19ten years ago, you know you need to have a serious budget,
- 17:22whereas now it's getting a lot more accessible. So just thinking about it,
- 17:26I mean, we've worked for some amazing people who've clearly done very well,
- 17:32and I would say just people like us, you know, they just want
- 17:34some smart lighting or some multi zone and audio that kind of thing. So
- 17:40it's everyone whether it's going to be exciting for us, and we're really fortunate
- 17:45that we just seem to work for nice people. Nice people recommend nice people
- 17:48generally. It's it's I think we are aware we're in a very nice situation.
- 17:55You know, it gets pick and choose. They're always nice people.
- 17:56They've always got biscuits. I used to work in Northeast London when I was
- 18:02on gas board and every single person's home I went into an absolute sort of
- 18:06the earth, wonderful, lovely, absolutely and that's one of the things that
- 18:08I do I miss about going in the domestic sector to different people's phones and
- 18:12seeing that there is so many wonderful people left in society. When you see
- 18:17everything on the news, you think, oh it's society. It's not a
- 18:19good place, but there's lots of good, hard working, decent people out
- 18:22there. Yeah, it's just the picture society paints. I think there is
- 18:26one story. I mean, this one always makes his laugh. We rate
- 18:30our clients on their cups of tea genuinely, you know, well, that's
- 18:34me absolutely scroud then and we had one client, I mean he was number
- 18:38one for like Matt was one of your first they were clients. He'd been
- 18:41number one for years and we've done it job this year. As like you
- 18:45say, people the Eastend just really nice. Family had done really well,
- 18:49but they were grafters and this was the Sun and he was just proper Eastender.
- 18:55They've obviously done very well. The house was just amazing and he always
- 19:00made everyone inside a cap of tea and we were there for what a week,
- 19:03were a bit more. Every cap of tea was just perfect and it
- 19:07was so consistent, and on the last day we just said him, look,
- 19:11we've got to ask you what we're expecting him to say, Oh,
- 19:19well, we actually have it flown in. You know, they done very
- 19:22very well, and he said, I was PG tips, but my first
- 19:27ever job was a t boy and it was for his parents business. And
- 19:30he said, you've got to make people in the nice cap of tea.
- 19:34And he's just gone on from there. And honestly, I even now I
- 19:38can almost taste it. It was just have you ever had clients where you've
- 19:41like you've gone in and to give a quote or saying and then like both
- 19:47of you, you've had mixed opinions, like maybe you wanted to do it
- 19:51and you said actually no, like where you've disagreed on whether you should do
- 19:53the job. Funny enough, we've never had a mixed opinion. We've both
- 19:57ever walked away saying okay, no, we don't want to do this one.
- 20:02Yeah I love people watching, you know when you go on holiday.
- 20:07Yeah, I just I love it. So I don't know, and I
- 20:10can't everything of the time we've ever disagreed on working for a client, just
- 20:14we've always if we've always walked away either these ones are well not these ones
- 20:18are okay, I don't meet it that way, but yeah, if one's
- 20:19okay. Apart from we walk away from one night. Don't want to do
- 20:23that. I don't want to work for that person. Just get that feeling.
- 20:26Sometimes you can't quite pin it down, but you know you just just
- 20:30sorry, as I say, bullet dodge to wherever it is and you just
- 20:34now and again you do question it, don't you? You go back going?
- 20:37Was it a bit harsh? There? No, Just stick with your
- 20:40gut. Time I attend you're right, I wan't your first one. It
- 20:42doesn't happen very often. Last time it did happen. Again it's you know,
- 20:45nice people know nice. The radio just on that. So can you
- 20:52think of any jobs a spring to mind where your workers transformed the customers home,
- 21:00seen the house transform over years. We've worked for this guy for probably
- 21:03want four or five years Tennis called guy. Yeah, and we've just gradually
- 21:08done it. And so we've seen the house continually change. And that's probably
- 21:14the whole house we've seen. But yeah, there's one that springs to mind.
- 21:18Well, one of our clients want it is. In fact, he's
- 21:21he's saw our Instagram page and we've done somebody's media wall. When he said,
- 21:25I want that wall in that whole room, but I want shelf down
- 21:27the bottom it's my oasis to be away from my family. I want it
- 21:32dark, cool, relaxing. And when we'd finished it, he walked in
- 21:37and he was just like he was actually speaking. This wasn't me, He's
- 21:41he opened his mouth to say so, and no words came out. It
- 21:42was it was quite let's quite a nice compliment. Really. Yeah. Sometimes
- 21:48we you know you've got it right when the clients will do a double take
- 21:52and you know they're walking in the room and you kind of do the ribbon
- 21:55cutting is where you called it and they're like oh or you know, they
- 21:59will go, oh wow, but this one And weirdly it's not the biggest
- 22:06or the most expensive or the poshest. It's our favorite room as well.
- 22:10You know, he said, I want it to be my oasis. And
- 22:12it's technically it's probably not perfect. It's got a soundbar which is maybe slightly
- 22:18at the wrong height, and the surround speakers maybe the left one should be
- 22:21there, but you know, you just it's calm in and we sort of
- 22:25go in there and we'll just sit on the sofa and go it's just a
- 22:27nice room. It just feels really nice and he's really happy with it,
- 22:33you know, and he's just like he said, it's his oasis. I
- 22:36think the family are allowed in there now and again not very often, but
- 22:40yeah, it's yeah, it's not the hate. It's weird. The probably
- 22:42the one that's transformed the most most is actually just a single room in the
- 22:48house. But it's just it worked brilliantly. Do you find you have to
- 22:51work with other contracts as much on side depending on the job, because electrics
- 22:56obviously do yourself. Yeah, we do like to own the job, if
- 23:00you know what I mean. And again sometimes it might come woks a little
- 23:02bit selfish, but you just it's to control the quality, isn't it so?
- 23:06And it is quite difficult to find other trades that share that same view.
- 23:11I know exactly what you're talking about. It's very difficult. I mean,
- 23:15there's some great trades out there, but you you know, you need
- 23:18to explain this is what we're doing, this is what needs to look like
- 23:19at the end. And over the years we have got to pick up and
- 23:25we always recommend to say, do you know a plumber yet when we know
- 23:27a great guy looks an absolute thug, but he's just but his works.
- 23:32But yeah, but he's very you know, you'll get a call from him.
- 23:36Is that Okay, if I do this bit here, that's not going
- 23:37to gain your way. And you're brilliant, you know, things like that.
- 23:41So yeah, we do. Sometimes we have to seeah, we will
- 23:44have to get plumbering decorators, garden designers, an interview designers. Quiet,
- 23:48Yeah, probably more can be quite challenging to deal with. Sometimes kitchen fitters
- 23:52as well. Kitchen fitters. Yeah, but again the guy we would recommend
- 23:56a kitchen fitter, he gets it. You know, they all know.
- 23:59The end the game the Electrical Show with Thomas Nagi. It is the end
- 24:10of the Electrical Show where we have been speaking to Louise and John about smart
- 24:14home installations. Now, what are some of the challenges you've faced just before
- 24:18we end the show? Any major challenges you've faced. Its bound to be
- 24:22some because we're so boringly prepared always we don't really have sort of cock ups.
- 24:33I think it's not a technical challenge. It was a physical challenge,
- 24:37physical challenge. We were building a cinema for a client and it's the second
- 24:41floor. Yeah, it was on the second floor of his house and he
- 24:45said, so, I'll have all the materials here for you on Monday,
- 24:48so Paul knows what's coming here. So eight my four sheets supply and yet
- 24:59on couple of palettes the driveway. And this was this year in summer,
- 25:06thirty degrees thirty degrees up a narrow staircame where you were melting, I mean
- 25:12melting it was. I mean, you know, we're going to build a
- 25:17cinema. That would be good fun, just like two days humping cheets,
- 25:21supply and plaster all up the stairs. That was not a technical challenge,
- 25:23of physical challenge. Technical challenge was the time the client asked us to fabric
- 25:30that round window and fabric goes on very very straight, hard plastic track.
- 25:34So how'd you make hard plastic track which is dead straight go round a round
- 25:38window? That the guy that trained us to do fabric work said, and
- 25:42you can't do round windows. That's the worst thing you can say to join.
- 25:49I'm not sure that's technically right. Let's give it. We did it,
- 25:52but yeah, it came out brilliantly perfect. But yeah, so unfortunately,
- 25:56no real technical challenges because it just takes some thought, just some thought.
- 26:03It's I think one thing that really helps coming from the electrical industry is
- 26:11we can be quite blunt and savage, can't We Oh, yes, and
- 26:14we'll look at something and go as stupid yep. And I think it's really
- 26:18helped us going into this smart home industry because a lot of electricians are kind
- 26:22of making that transition. We will look at something and go, it's very
- 26:26clever, but that's if it goes wrong, it's going to be a disaster,
- 26:30or you're going to have a client on the phone at mid day.
- 26:32And we learned that very early on, coming from the electrical industry, and
- 26:36go, that's staff, that's stupid, don't do it. We went,
- 26:38Okay, so we don't really have I shouldn't be saying this, should I
- 26:42the technique clock cuts and challenges yet cool? Do you plan to expand any
- 26:49further than the two of you or I mean you've got Lauren. Do do
- 26:53you have any plans to expand further? Or we had no intention of expanding
- 26:59even today Lauren on to be fair, which is not a great thing to
- 27:02say in front of Lauren, but there we hadn't planned to. But Lauren's
- 27:04open their eyes and we need to Yes, She's really open their eyes.
- 27:10It is a wise investment to invest in apprentices. I have as many as
- 27:14I can. You're never going to have a future if you don't invest in
- 27:15others. I know it's painful, but you just have to do it.
- 27:18We didn't realize how much we knew. You know, you learn from the
- 27:22book, don't you, But then you guys know, it's just the things
- 27:26you pick up over the years. The book says this, but we have
- 27:30to do it that way around, not that way around. And especially with
- 27:33someone like Lauren, you can see she's she's listening, she's interested and keen,
- 27:37and it goes in because the next time you do that, she goes
- 27:41And we're doing that because of that. And then you'll say, and you
- 27:42want me to use crymptal number three because you know number ones like two years
- 27:48old or something that kind of thing. So yes, we will definitely look
- 27:52at that. When Louise, say Louis started the business, we had no
- 27:56plans of expanding any way. I've managed people. I hated every minute of
- 27:59it. I've many used to run jobs is in East London, so I've
- 28:03managed lots of people and yeah, we again quite happy doing our own thing
- 28:10and it kind of changed, but it's been good. Well, look very
- 28:12quickly before the show ends. Just one last question, how do you see
- 28:17smart homes evolving? I'm not in it at all, so I don't know,
- 28:18but I'm guessing that's an area which is rapidly. How do you see
- 28:22it changing in the next sort of three, four or five years. I
- 28:26see tech becoming more end user friendly and more control by the end user.
- 28:34I think Paul said earlier on it looked like a dark art. I think
- 28:38that will disappear, so at the moment it still does look a little bit
- 28:41mysterious. I think it will become a lot more affordable, a lot more
- 28:47commonplace, and I think we'll see a lot more out of the box ready
- 28:52to go, especially with the artificial intelligence. It's on us now, so
- 28:56I think whereas now comes out of the box to set up an Alexa.
- 29:00So what you're saying is is you don't have to go to Hogwarts school of
- 29:03which class and wizardry. Basically you won't, folks. And smart home is
- 29:08definitely going to help with assisted live in helping people stay independent in the home
- 29:11is so longer. Yeah, that that that will definitely happen. So I
- 29:15think it will become a lot more user friendly, a lot more affordable.
- 29:18There will still be this amazing thing that you know you can make it do
- 29:21crazy stuff because you want to. But I think every day lights once the
- 29:26new build pick it up, I think then we'll start to see it really
- 29:30gain in and it will go in you know standard say, you will will
- 29:34have some form of light and control with some form of audio. You know,
- 29:37we will all have video doorbells, that kind of thing. So a
- 29:41lot more commonplace, a lot more affordable. I think you will just open
- 29:44the box and go turn my lights on at six o'clock and that will happen.
- 29:48Well, there you go. You can hear this show. Oh no
- 29:53show, but no ash we are not letting them get away with this.
- 29:56So in case anybody's wondering, there is a technical takeaway from this podcast,
- 30:00and it's one of the key points if you've listened all the way through.
- 30:03In case anybody's wondering and they want to text in to fix what is the
- 30:07international standard for teammaking is IO thirty one h three or BS six zero zero
- 30:12eight. So there are two stands for teammaking. I've actually read the British
- 30:15standard one it's embarrassing. And in case anybody wants to know how we originally
- 30:21know these fine folks we actually met physically by them nearly crashing into us on
- 30:26the back roads of Essex. When me is actually true. We're driving one
- 30:30day a while back. Yes, then remember you that's Louise Tarling's van round
- 30:38for Instagram nine percent at the time. I'm not driving. Okay, there
- 30:45you go. Anyway, I'm done now. Well, you can text an
- 30:48in pool a too, one four hundred, don't forget started, message with
- 30:51the word fix. You can hear the show again from ten pm with more
- 30:55great music, and you can download it as a podcast from wherever you hit
- 30:59your podcast us online, m