Latest / Inside Integration / Episode 111: After Dark: Marlon ReBrando

Transcript

Episode 111: After Dark: Marlon ReBrando · Inside Integration

0:00
Welcome to the Inside Integration Podcast.
0:01
My name is Chris. I am joined, as always, by my
0:04
partner Jason. What's up, everybody?
0:07
And welcome to inside integration after dark.
0:10
This just happens to be the time that we can both do it.
0:14
If it was going out live, it would definitely be be a vibe
0:17
here. Jason literally sitting in the
0:19
dark and. Yeah, literally if there was a
0:21
video component to this podcast anymore, it's just I'm
0:25
silhouetted like the year 2000 from Time.
0:30
Yes, I have a. Flashlight under my face and my
0:35
the hollows of my eyes are lit up by a cheap Maglite.
0:38
We're, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to tell a
0:41
story, we're going to tell horror stories of, of
0:43
rebranding. And yeah, absolutely.
0:47
But no, the, the focus of this one is, is there's been a lot
0:51
of, you know, maybe you've seen it, maybe you've, you know, been
0:54
a part of it. Maybe it's been you, for God's
0:56
sake. A lot of rebranding we're seeing
0:59
in this industry, especially, you know, with integrators who
1:02
are, you know, maybe eliminating.
1:04
I mean, for years and years and years everybody was like AV this
1:08
or audio video that or, you know, technology this.
1:11
Theater. This.
1:12
Yeah. Yep.
1:13
And, and we're, we're really starting to see a lot, a lot of
1:17
just the kind of dropping of the AV part of that.
1:20
And, and more, you know, maybe a broader thing, maybe a name that
1:24
really doesn't mean anything unless you, you know, kind of do
1:28
a little bit of digging. And, you know, it seems to be a
1:31
bit of a trend. So we're, we're going to, we're
1:33
going to dig into it a little bit.
1:34
Is it, is it right for you? Is it the right thing to do?
1:37
You know, what do you, what do you think?
1:39
And. Yeah.
1:39
What do you see out there? I think that's, you know, that's
1:42
all part of this. I know I I had seen some posts
1:46
online about, you know, this company has opened another wing
1:52
of their company and it's called this.
1:53
And then all of a sudden it's kind of like the days of Datsun
1:57
and Nissan, you know, like Datsun was this approved brand
2:01
in the United States. And then, you know, finally the
2:04
the Japanese are like, you know what, we don't need a separate
2:06
name brand for this other thing that we're doing.
2:08
We're going to just call it all right, Nissan, right?
2:11
So the the same kind of thing applies like.
2:14
Yeah, Lexus, Honda, Acura. Yeah.
2:17
You're this, yeah, you're this, you know, you're this
2:19
whippersnapper, you know, AV integration firm.
2:22
But it doesn't really seem like you're the right person to be,
2:27
you know, maybe just based on your branding, you're the right
2:31
guy to be talking to about lighting.
2:32
Are you the right talking to about shading or outdoor audio?
2:36
Like, how does the home theater guy fit into the lighting
2:40
consulting perception of of customers out there?
2:43
And I, I mean, I kind of hadn't really thought a whole lot about
2:47
that. And I mean we, we've certainly
2:48
talked about, you know, when is the time to change the focus of
2:51
your business or when is the time to completely get out of AV
2:54
and do nothing and. Bring new stuff in and embrace
2:57
it, right? Sure.
2:59
When does you know, when does your imaging for your company or
3:02
the branding of your company start to emulate or or follow
3:05
that line of thinking? Because all of a sudden, I mean,
3:10
I know I'm personally witnessing several integrators at the same
3:15
time all making changes for rebranding.
3:19
They, they don't want to be the last person on the job or they
3:21
don't want to have the perception of, Oh yeah, he's
3:24
just the AV guy. So he's going to get right the
3:28
the last turn at, you know, the client's wallet When when the
3:33
time comes around and the scope of work just got swallowed up by
3:36
the hot tub and the pool guy, he might.
3:38
He might as well be the bounce house salesman.
3:39
Or, you know, whatever extreme, right?
3:41
Exactly. Yeah, You're, you're you're like
3:44
the guy in the ice cream truck. Lure the customer out to the
3:47
street to get some get some rocket pops or whatever, right?
3:53
Like, no, you want to get these speakers from me, but well, I
3:57
mean, yeah, just. At it's at it's most basic
4:00
level, I mean we, you know, I, I think I kind of started to take
4:03
notice of this, you know, a while ago where you know,
4:07
networking really became part of our business.
4:09
I would say even, you know, maybe even before you know,
4:13
lighting and shades and that kind of thing.
4:14
Like once once you know, to be a stereo guy, to be a home theatre
4:17
guy, like you had to have a decent grasp of networking,
4:20
right, to be able to hook up gear, you know, make sure their
4:23
FiOS is working right and that kind of thing.
4:25
And you know, if somebody is just kind of looking you up, if
4:28
they're looking on next door or, or, you know, house or or
4:31
whatever, you know, wherever they're going to get your
4:33
referral from, if you're just the theatre guy, if you're just
4:36
the AV guy, then that doesn't really encompass everything,
4:40
right? So somebody might just if they
4:41
don't know you from anybody and it's not a warm referral or, or
4:44
anything like that, you know, if they're just looking at a list
4:47
and it's, you know, Bob's home theater in theater spelt, you
4:51
know, in the traditional English way, which by the way, if that's
4:53
how you spell theater, you need to change that right now.
4:56
Rebrand yourself immediately. No, not singling out anybody in
4:59
particular, but God that's a pet peeve of mine.
5:01
Theatre. Theatre like what?
5:04
Come on, stop. Like we highbrow now.
5:09
Like what are we doing? But you know, it, it's, it's
5:12
definitely it, it's a smart thing because now you're not
5:16
limiting yourself, you know, and, and it's not too far the
5:19
other way in the spectrum where if you're just, you know, some,
5:21
some phrase like, you know, enlightenment technologies or
5:25
something like that, like people think they're going to, you're
5:28
going to maybe fix their computer or, or whatever.
5:32
It could absolutely go the other way, right?
5:36
I mean, I think there's some, there's something to be said for
5:39
trying to put a name on your business for what your business
5:41
represents. You know, and I think, you know,
5:43
we've certainly talked to think in the past or, I don't know,
5:47
we've had a lot of conversations about trying to, you know, image
5:51
yourself or brand yourself in a way that crosses as many
5:55
boundaries as possible. And you know, you don't want to
5:58
define your business by necessarily just the services or
6:02
the, you know, the products that you offer.
6:05
You know, I think there's a bigger story to be told.
6:08
And so many people, you know, would just be honest, right?
6:11
A lot of people fail upwards. They're successful through
6:16
attrition or, you know, that they, you know, they, they, they
6:20
know they tried and they failed, but they learned.
6:22
But you know, the one thing that never really changes is the name
6:25
of that business. And maybe that works for a
6:27
little while, but for new customers or outside interests,
6:30
like you're talking about, somebody just does a cold call
6:33
or does some research on you and it's just like, oh, you know,
6:37
home theater solutions or home theater, blah, blah, blah.
6:39
It's like, I don't want a home theater.
6:41
I want I want shading and lighting.
6:43
I want a nice network in my house.
6:45
I want T VS That doesn't really sound like my guy, you know, as
6:48
opposed to, you know, I've heard some really cool names out
6:53
there, like 5 smooth stones and why clients and some of these
6:57
other names where you're just like, what is that business?
7:00
Like tell I'm I'm interested in in what this imaging is or I'm
7:04
interested in what that name brand means.
7:06
So it draws you in and I think, you know, making a business name
7:11
that's mass appeal or sure. And I I know you don't want to
7:16
call it Bob's, you know, used cars and start start slinging
7:20
lighting in control. You can fit so many.
7:22
Wires in this state, Yeah, Oh my God.
7:25
It's got ice cold, ice cold AC leather.
7:27
And a rich, cold leather, Yeah. But the, the, the reality is, I
7:34
think, you know, imaging and branding is so much more
7:37
important because customers now are more savvy.
7:41
The, they know they're using AI to scrape for things.
7:45
And you need to be thinking about, I mean, sadly, maybe you
7:50
need to be thinking about SEO when you come up with a business
7:54
name title in, in my opinion, in 2026 and beyond, I mean, we're
7:58
too old then going to the Internet.
8:00
So this is probably old news to a lot to a lot of marketers out
8:04
there, but to to folks that are grinding it out and still
8:10
selling and installing and designing and dealing with
8:13
customers, maybe they're all the same person.
8:16
You know, your corporate branding, maybe not the first
8:20
thing that that jumps off of the page in your mind and you're
8:24
thinking, yeah, I'm just I'm really good at doing home
8:27
theaters or home entertainment. So that's what I'm going to ran
8:29
my company as so and. And and that, you know, again,
8:33
in, in, in their in, in those folks defense, like when you're
8:36
just starting out, you are just trying to make sure that you've
8:39
got enough jobs booked and that you're doing them well enough
8:41
and you're getting back to people and whatever.
8:44
And it's kind of a secondary thing, you know, like that.
8:46
We're what we're telling you is take the time, you know, make
8:50
sure you bring somebody else and and absolutely make the time,
8:54
you know. It it's OK to consult with your
8:56
betters. I think it's OK to look around
9:00
and not just immediately jump on, you know, Jason's home
9:03
theater like that might be the easiest, that might be the
9:08
easiest, most obvious thing that you're known for or you're aware
9:11
of. But again, I think if you're
9:13
talking about a builder schedule, if you're talking
9:16
about an architect schedule, the AV people are way down on that
9:21
list for, for opportunities or priority.
9:24
If you're in there as maybe the electrician, maybe you're in
9:27
there as the the lighting guy or something like that.
9:31
And you can also tag in some AV. You know, I think there is the,
9:37
the move me up the priority list.
9:39
Well, we're kind of opportunity that most customers are, you
9:43
know, at least most dealers I that I'm dealing with these days
9:45
are, are fighting against. Sure.
9:46
And and we're kind of, you know, we're we're, we're in a place
9:49
where we're we're sort of backwards, right.
9:51
Like if you're if you're putting AV on air, that is absolutely
9:55
going to limit you at this point, you know, and because,
9:59
you know, theaters are, I mean, we've thought about it ad
10:01
nauseam here, but you know, theaters are definitely kind of
10:04
going in the wrong direction, right?
10:06
Big projection and big rooms and dedicated spaces and that sort
10:09
of thing. We're, you know, we just don't
10:10
live in the same size houses at this point.
10:13
To have a dedicated theater, unless you're really into it and
10:16
you know, to be able to not limit yourself is, is a good
10:18
thing to think about. When, when my partner and I
10:21
started doing this thing, when my partner got it off the ground
10:24
before I, you know, came in and wrote his coattails, you know,
10:27
he, he called our business HTE and it didn't even stand for
10:31
anything. It was just like, you know what,
10:32
I just like the sound of it. I like how the letters look.
10:34
It's HTE. And we came, we came up with
10:36
like a dozen different acronyms that would fit, you know,
10:39
whatever, whatever we needed it to, you know, And most, most
10:43
often it was like, you know, home technology experts or
10:46
whatever. But it was, we started with the
10:48
acronym just because you like the way it looks.
10:50
Sure. It was small fit on a card.
10:54
There's nothing wrong. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with
10:56
some ambiguity in your, in your naming.
10:59
But you know, I think it comes down to when you, when you think
11:03
about how you're promoting yourself again, are you
11:05
promoting yourself as a person, right?
11:07
Are you promoting yourself from the quality work that you do or
11:11
are you promoting just the products and the services that
11:14
you offer? And as soon as you put those and
11:17
define those things, you've done two things, right?
11:20
You put, you told the world what you're kind of all about, but
11:23
you've also just set up the guardrails for what people
11:26
perceive your company to be. And that I think is a, is
11:30
something that more people should take the time to, to
11:33
consider when, when they do set up shop, I mean, create an LLC
11:38
and then make a DVA or whatever. Like do do some things to to,
11:43
you know, to not only insulate yourself and protect your
11:47
personal assets from, you know, the, the, the greedy corporate
11:50
over lawyers of the world. Out there.
11:53
And legal. Overlord, talk to a lawyer, talk
11:55
to an MBA. Don't just, if you're going to
11:58
go strike out on your own, talk to those people first.
12:00
It's worth the money and it's worth the time.
12:02
Don't talk to ChatGPT and get your business advice from AI
12:06
because it will lie to you to begin with.
12:07
But then I. Can gaslight you and make you
12:09
think they get fun of this right?
12:11
Exactly. It's like I'll never do that
12:13
again. Oh yes you will.
12:15
You'll lie in. 10 minutes now, right?
12:19
But the, you know, the idea that again, you don't want to limit
12:23
yourself, but I do think that more people should be taking the
12:26
time when they do think about branding and they do think about
12:30
marketing themselves to not limit yourself by just the
12:34
services or the products that you sell.
12:36
You know, like, oh, I'm the Sony guy.
12:38
OK, great. Well, Sony, Sony already has the
12:41
Sony guy taken, right? So like what?
12:45
Actually is the Sony guy and technically.
12:49
Are are you the are you the TV installer guy?
12:51
Are you the you know the the the chief.
12:55
Let me make your you know, DIY technology happen for you just
12:59
to do it for me crowd like and again, I'm not here to knock
13:02
anybody for making a living out there and and do what makes the
13:06
most sense. But if you are trying to grow
13:10
and and build your mass appeal, again, not limiting yourself to
13:15
products or services alone and maybe not calling that out.
13:19
So like comma, comma, comma, comma.
13:23
Yeah, it's got to fit in a bit. It's got to be.
13:25
It's got to just roll off the tongue.
13:26
It can't be. Yeah, I I agree.
13:28
Dance High 5 Video audio. That that's, that's worth
13:33
consulting with, with experts going to trade shows, that kind
13:39
of thing. Consulting with the branding
13:41
expert or marketing expert. I mean, not for nothing, reach
13:45
out to the reps in your local area, you know, like you say,
13:48
hey, Mr. or Miss Rep, why don't you Take Me Out to lunch and
13:53
just tell me about what some of the other folks around town are
13:57
doing, You know, give me some of your thoughts.
13:59
Maybe you've got more experiences in this that I do,
14:03
you know what, like what's a wild name for a business or
14:06
what's something that you hadn't thought about?
14:08
I mean, I, I think there's a lot of bridges to be built between
14:13
people and, and companies when you do, you know, some
14:17
consultative outreach and you do, you know, and you, you ask
14:21
for somebody to be your Tom Hagan, You know what I mean?
14:25
Like just to make a Robert Duvall reference, because I, I,
14:28
I RIP Robert Duvall and the best, best consoleri and, and
14:34
all of the mafia as far as I know.
14:36
But we all, we all need our Tom Hagan out there, right?
14:40
Like we all need somebody to to give us the kick down the reel I
14:44
guess, as he'd say. I mean, that's, that's a good,
14:47
you know, that's, that's a good plug for reps And even though
14:49
neither one of us are reps anymore recently, you know, it's
14:53
absolutely, and I will tell you from first hand experience, like
14:55
your Rep would be more than happy to talk to you about this
14:58
kind of stuff and not about problems you're having with a
15:01
manufacturer, right? Like we would have this
15:03
conversation any day, all day. And, and we will, you know,
15:06
we'll take you to lunch for sure.
15:08
Your Rep would love to, to, you know, to help you with this kind
15:11
of thing. And, and that's a, that's a
15:13
really good, valuable source of Intel.
15:15
Man. He's like, hey, what's the guy
15:16
across the street though? And like, what's, what's
15:17
working? What's working for this guy?
15:19
Like man, reps share that in a heartbeat.
15:20
Like no problem. Yeah, speaking as a former Rep,
15:24
you do have to lock, and I guess I'm still a Rep in a way, but
15:29
you do have to sort of lock away some of the, you know, the
15:32
minutia or some of those sneaky details where it's like, hey, I
15:35
don't need anybody else to know this and you need to keep that
15:38
kind of locked away. But I do think that there's
15:41
enough sharing that you could do that's above the line where you
15:45
could say, yeah, you know, I don't know if I would brand
15:48
myself as blah, blah, blah. You know, I, I wouldn't, I don't
15:52
think, you know, sure, the speaker guy is the right, is the
15:59
right branding for you because what do you sell these days?
16:01
Do you sell speakers anymore? No, I just sell shades and.
16:05
You're so much better off being the technology guy or the, you
16:08
know, like that's where concierge of cool, like beat at
16:11
the Yeah. Let's get it.
16:12
I mean, yeah, we, you know, you didn't like my imaging for that
16:15
because I made it to a, you know, a old big bamboo rolling
16:20
paper aesthetic. I think you know.
16:25
Because I was stuck on that for a minute.
16:27
I think I think there's a future for podcast merch that's
16:31
concierge of cool, like rolling trays.
16:33
I think we can make that you. Know.
16:34
I mean, there has to be. Don't use an album cover.
16:37
Use this specially designed inside.
16:40
Don't get concierge of. Don't get Cheech and Chong up in
16:43
smoke on LP with a giant bamboo paper in it.
16:47
Let's up the let's run into something else.
16:51
Oh my God, yeah. Gotta gotta love it.
16:54
But you're right. I think, I think there's some
16:58
consultative things that you can just add a simple conversation
17:02
with people that are exposed to more businesses.
17:06
They're talking to different guys.
17:08
There's absolutely, I mean, shit, take your Rep out to lunch
17:11
and just say hey, like I want to.
17:13
I want to pick. Your brains a couple of things
17:16
it, well, it, I don't know, had that happened for me before It
17:20
wasn't it wasn't anything nefarious.
17:22
It was just like, hey, you know, you bought me lunch a million
17:24
times, so I'm going to buy you lunch.
17:25
Hey, that's great, of course, but the, the flip side of that
17:28
is like, I think there's a return on that investment that
17:32
goes beyond just, you know, a pastrami sandwich and you know,
17:37
with extra coleslaw and stuff on it or sauerkraut, whatever
17:40
you're into. And just being able to, to, to
17:45
pick the brain of, of people that see a broader cross section
17:48
of the market than you. And, and I don't know how we got
17:52
from rebranding to talk to your reps about what your branding
17:55
should be, but I think they're, you know, there's outreach
17:58
there, there's pathways to, to information to help you make a,
18:01
a good choice on, on imaging. I.
18:03
Mean one of the themes that runs through every single episode,
18:06
every single you're probably tired of this now is that there
18:09
is an entire community of us that are, you know, that are out
18:12
here, there's fellow dealers, there's manufacturers, there's
18:15
there's reps. And again, you know, we're kind
18:16
of giving reps their time in the barrel here.
18:18
But that's a good again, man, that's, you know, every
18:21
territory has reps Every integrator has probably dealt
18:25
with a Rep at one point or another.
18:26
Yeah, that's somebody with some good insight on what might be
18:29
happening in your local market. You know, you're the
18:31
manufacturer might not give a shit about what's going on in
18:34
Peoria or wherever, you know, if they're based in whatever.
18:37
But like your local Rep, that guy probably knows, you know, he
18:40
knows which way the wind blows, you know, that's, that's that's
18:42
his business. And.
18:43
He probably knows we're a good lunch that doesn't know where
18:48
something good to eat is in your neck of the woods.
18:51
That's a failure as a Rep Sorry guys.
18:53
Yeah, or he's a new guy. I got to show him what's up, you
18:56
know what I mean? Like, I know it's, it's, I mean,
19:01
you got to take him to a diner for $28.00 omelette these days
19:04
because, you know, diners are a thing of the past now,
19:06
apparently. But it's just one of those
19:10
situations where, you know, I think if if you're looking to
19:13
reimage yourself, you should be trying to turn over as many
19:17
rocks as you can to try to make a solid choice on on imaging,
19:22
you know, whether that's a Rep, whether that's a marketing
19:25
agency, a branding agency, whatever that looks like.
19:30
Don't just lean on ChatGPT and go, hey, you know, I need to
19:35
train a virtual agent that's a marketing consultant.
19:38
That's not. That's not.
19:40
Really. OK, now I feel personally
19:41
attacked now. Now I feel like you're getting a
19:44
little. Maybe it's it's because it's
19:46
late at night. And yeah, just.
19:48
I mean, I haven't had a drink in weeks.
19:51
So this is pure. This is pure sobriety.
19:56
Well, I mean, you know that that that champagne that you were
19:58
saving for Canada's victory, that'll you can just take that
20:01
one quicked buddy. Wow, I feel attacked.
20:04
USA and the fact and the fact that it was one of my boys that
20:09
did it and lost all of his front teeth in the process.
20:12
Yeah, but. Wow, he deserved to lose them
20:14
all for playing three on three for overtime.
20:16
I I fully listen, you'll hear no argument and I don't know how we
20:21
got on hockey talk, but you will hear no argument from me that
20:24
Canada was absolutely the better team.
20:27
Canada 100% got got goalied like the performance of hella best
20:32
career like I'm so sorry, but at the same time like USA yeah like
20:39
we need something to be proud of because it certainly ain't most
20:41
of it down here yeah. Well, hey, come on, you can't.
20:45
You can't have everything. So what?
20:47
What can you do? Or can.
20:48
You do or anything but but yeah, you know, it's it goes back to
20:56
this. This is a this is a great
20:57
community, you know, and I would say if you're, you know, if
21:02
you're at the spot now where you're so and so AV or whatever
21:05
and you don't want to be pigeonholed into it.
21:06
And, and again, that's the other part of this conversation.
21:09
Maybe you want theater to be your specialty, right?
21:11
Like maybe that's that's all you want to do.
21:13
And man, that's great. Be that guy, be that you know,
21:18
Be that my. God, take me back.
21:21
Take me back to what? 2000?
21:24
What 2000? Well, no, probably more like
21:27
1999 nineteen 98 to 2004, 2005. Like dude, like all I did was
21:35
home theaters. I don't know how.
21:37
I mean, I don't know how many rooms.
21:40
I honestly lost count. I have no idea how many rooms I
21:43
hung screens and projectors and hundreds stuff in.
21:46
Hundreds. For for sure like that, there's
21:48
there's no question that. That miles and screens, yeah.
21:51
Couple couple hundreds for for sure over that span of time.
21:56
I mean, could you say that a business that started in, let's
22:01
just say 2015, do you think they've even done 100 theaters
22:04
since then? Probably.
22:06
I mean, probably not, you know, like, you know, yeah, I don't
22:09
know. I mean, you're talking 11 years,
22:13
you're talking 10/10 a year. 10A year, I think that's a high
22:17
number for these for these days my.
22:19
Man, so as it stands as the economy is right now and how
22:22
everything's going, yeah. In this economy.
22:24
Economy. Yeah, right.
22:27
Localized in your kitchen anyway, I'm.
22:30
Sorry. Yeah.
22:31
So I mean, I think it it again, it just kind of circles back to
22:35
the the struggles that I've been hearing about and you know,
22:40
maybe the approach that some different businesses are taking.
22:43
I know for me personally, if I was an established so and so AV
22:47
company that was legacy, I would be looking to spin up a company
22:51
that was maybe associated with that branding, you know, what is
22:56
called The Shade House or The Lighthouse or whatever.
22:58
It's going to be, you know, LLC trademark Jason Savage, 2020.
23:05
Stamped. But that's where you do the the
23:09
redneck patent, where you write it on a piece of paper and you
23:12
mail it to yourself so that you've got a.
23:15
Wow, I haven't I haven't thought of Olympic patent.
23:19
You know how many letters I sent to myself when I was young and
23:22
didn't know any better? Like, yes, that was stupid.
23:26
Oh yeah, that post Mark is really going to be.
23:28
Really going to legitimize everything that you've just done
23:31
here, son. Wait, way to go.
23:35
But yeah, I think it's, I think it, it bears, it bears some
23:42
deeper thought when you're making an approach to rebrand
23:45
yourself again, I think consulting with other people, I
23:48
think again, trying to build a sub brand within your brand that
23:52
becomes the new brand is probably the right move.
23:57
And I don't, I'm not the expert on this.
23:59
I don't know how you pull something like that off.
24:01
I don't know what the, the duty cycle for executing something
24:05
like that is. But it is pretty exciting to
24:09
think that, you know, you've been in business long enough
24:12
that you've outgrown your name kind of, or maybe the the
24:16
business that you started in is evolved into something new.
24:20
So. That's a bit of a badge of
24:21
honor, you. Know why not take a new
24:23
approach? Yeah.
24:24
Why not take a different step and and try to to pass that
24:27
legacy on and again have your business be something you can
24:31
sell to somebody else? Well, I mean, that is the end
24:33
goal. That's where everybody's really,
24:34
but like that's a great again, my marketing brain going to take
24:39
over for a second. But like that's a great
24:41
opportunity to reconnect with people that you might already be
24:44
connected to and get them to see you in a new light, right?
24:46
Like here's, hey, this is exciting news.
24:49
You know, we are rebranding. You know, Ted's home theatre is
24:51
not Ted's technology, right? Like that's, that's pretty good.
24:55
And you know, Ted's technology, this reflects our, you know,
24:58
our, our, our focus on all things technology.
25:02
And you know, you can, you know, you can say things a little bit
25:06
by omission, right? Like you can say that And, and
25:09
you know, not specifically say like, we don't really want to do
25:11
too many home theatres anymore, but you know, we're branching
25:15
off into, you know, technology, right?
25:17
Like, and we can be your shade person, we could be your
25:19
lighting person, we could be your, you know, whatever, pool
25:23
control guy or, or landscape light guy or whatever.
25:26
And that's perfectly fine. And it's exciting.
25:29
You know, like you can, again, this opens the door to a lot of
25:32
things, right? Like have an open house.
25:34
Maybe you've been in the same location for 20 years, right?
25:36
You go out there, you drop a little bit of coin, you change
25:38
your name, you put it all over social media, you put a new sign
25:41
out front. You have an open house.
25:42
And, you know, now you got people maybe coming in your door
25:46
who might not have even known that you existed or saw your
25:50
sign and said, oh, it's, you know, AV like, I'm not
25:53
interested in that. I'm not an AV guy.
25:55
And hey, now it's we're a lot broader, right?
25:58
So there's your, there's your opportunity.
26:02
Yeah, I think it's important to to always be trying to evolve
26:08
and be, you know, not to change just for the sake of change, but
26:13
to absolutely kind of keep your eye out for what it's happening
26:17
on the on the broader stage. And you know, I think it's no
26:21
secret that in our business AV is not the the primary focus of
26:27
of what we're doing anymore. You know, it's very clear that
26:31
there's been a shift to lifestyle and to make my home
26:35
more comfortable. I mean, I think it's going to be
26:37
a hangover from COVID that's going to last, you know, for for
26:41
decades. You know, that that whole
26:42
cocooning thing. You know, there's more people
26:44
that have swankier pads now than they than they had prior to 20.
26:49
19 as much as as much as employers are trying to claw us
26:52
back into offices and and that's, that's a real, you know,
26:55
that's a real big push. Like, you know, maybe that's
26:57
changed. Maybe that has been, you know,
27:00
maybe we've kind of turned a corner on that where it's a lot
27:02
more acceptable to work remotely now than it was six years ago,
27:07
right? Like in, you know, it took us
27:08
forever to get here and it took, I had to lose millions of people
27:12
in the process. But maybe we're maybe we're
27:14
finally at the point where everybody realizes how stupid it
27:17
is to get in a car every morning and drive 40 miles and, you
27:19
know, spend that chunk of time of your life doing it like, hey,
27:22
you know, maybe that's where we're at the.
27:24
Police. The police.
27:25
Synchronistic too, you know, It's like packed lemmings packed
27:29
into shiny metal boxes. It's like that's us the.
27:32
Whole the whole idea of, you know, obviously you can't do
27:38
remote work from your home if you're doing pre wires and stuff
27:42
like that. It's actually work remotely
27:47
until they got AI robot drones that you're pre wiring the house
27:50
from your from your bedroom or something like that and.
27:53
That would be some dope shit. Like everybody knew the guy who
27:56
had the remote control car who used to put it above the
27:57
suspended ceiling and run the zip line with it, right?
28:00
Like the I'm sure you had somebody you worked, but at one
28:02
point who who was that guy, right or no?
28:05
I heard about We're going to train.
28:07
Mini drones. Ferrets.
28:09
Ferrets. Ferrets is always my favorite.
28:12
It's like I can rock a ferret in a van no problem.
28:15
Like you're prewire? Ferret, Yeah.
28:18
Prewire Ferret. Yeah.
28:22
Oh man, these. These ideas are all free, just
28:25
by the way. Yeah, we've.
28:27
Got we've got the buffet badger, we've got the pre wire ferret
28:31
and we've got a new sticker coming.
28:33
I can. Feel it.
28:34
If it's truly a pre wire ferret, it's got to be a It's got to be
28:37
a guy who's got a distinct Probably reeks of CK1.
28:42
Probably, you know, he's it's it's a ferret that could take 16
28:48
Red Bulls on the way to the job site, right?
28:49
Like that's, that's going to be your pre wire ferret, right?
28:52
Like, that's right, guy. You know, when I I it's funny,
28:56
like I had I had not to completely flip away from pre
29:00
wire ferret because I I want to know more about him.
29:03
But I was when I was thinking about pre wired drone, because
29:07
we were talking about that in in a recent call I was on and my
29:12
immediate mental image, because I'm so 1980s is Gene Simmons and
29:17
runaway those little spiders. Wow, crawling through the attic
29:23
or whatever. Like I just imagine somebody'd,
29:26
you know, black electrical taping a couple of, you know, 16
29:32
fours and a CAT5 to the back of a, a runaway robot spider to
29:37
crawl through the attic or something like that.
29:39
So I mean, again, if you don't know what I'm talking about,
29:42
just just Google 1980 fours runaway with Gene Simmons from
29:48
KISS and oh, also featuring Tom Selleck.
29:51
So you get a you get a mustache and you get Gene Simmons with
29:55
short hair and no kiss makeup on.
29:57
So it's a real, it's a real 2 Fer for anybody out there that
30:01
loves classic 80s sci-fi and machines that run amok.
30:07
So it's fantastic. It's stellar.
30:10
Fantastic. It's better than them at the
30:12
amusement park or whatever. The haunted amusement park.
30:18
You know, the obscure references really come out the later it
30:21
gets the. Yeah, beauty.
30:24
That's just that's that's the way my brain works.
30:26
It's it's been a long, it's been a long week and it's only what,
30:29
Tuesday? Yeah, we're.
30:31
Not we're not even no. As we record this.
30:35
So yeah, it's a good time, yeah. I mean, what does in your mind,
30:40
what does a prewire robot look like?
30:42
Just I mean, is it, is it a spider?
30:45
Is it a skinny little dude with, you know, shorts on and a shaped
30:49
head? Like what, what, what actually
30:51
does he look like? I mean what?
30:52
Does that look like my, my, my knee jerk is that it's got to be
30:55
like the, the, the, the bad robot from RoboCop where it's
30:57
like you have 6 seconds to comply and it's and it's
31:01
ultimately. Two O 9 you mean?
31:03
Yeah. That's the one.
31:04
Yep, it's ultimately defeated by stairs.
31:06
Right? Like that screams pre wired guy
31:08
to me, but you know, more honestly, more, you know, more
31:15
more apropos. Probably just something that's
31:17
small enough to get a pull, you know, to get a zip string or a
31:20
pull string where you need it to right, like, you know, and it
31:24
should probably be something that's, you know, I mean, I
31:27
would say like Mars Rover, but tiny right where it can, you
31:30
know, get over some bumps and, you know, some Wawa cups that
31:33
somebody might have left in the ceiling or whatever it is.
31:36
You know, that's, I mean, I don't know, right, but that
31:39
that'd be more of a retrofit robot.
31:41
You you need for for a pre wire robot.
31:43
It's got to be, it's got to be something that can, you know,
31:47
like anchor itself somehow to the floor and staple wires in
31:50
without totally mashing it. I mean, that would make it
31:52
better than at least half of the pre wire guys I've met, you
31:56
know, maybe. You mean you mean dragging wires
31:59
over the outside of a 2 by 4 as opposed to drilling top plates?
32:02
That would think. That would be the guy that would
32:04
be how are how are we supposed to sheetrock this?
32:06
Those wires like going through the middle of the room?
32:08
Hold on, they told me. To put this thing, you know,
32:11
that's where he told me to put it.
32:12
Make those make those boxes level and make a match up with
32:15
the electrician. You know, it'd have to be
32:16
something it it would have to be equipped with a nail gun for
32:18
sure, but you know, nail gun, stable gun, whatever.
32:22
And you know, it would, I mean it, it depends.
32:26
Do you want this to be the ideal pre wire guy or do you want this
32:29
to be like your typical pre wire guy?
32:30
Because if we are, it would have like some kind of laser level
32:33
and label laser sight that could line up where that wire run is
32:36
going to go. But it's got a constant like 5°
32:40
error that just makes it just zig and zag and make make it
32:46
next to impossible to run. And then when you walk through
32:48
it to check it, you're like, was this fucker drunk when he did
32:51
this? Like how?
32:52
You know. If if you could rig something
32:55
like that up, I don't think there'd be any difference
32:56
between you know, you wouldn't, you wouldn't know what got
32:58
prewired by a human or not. But but realistically, you know,
33:03
you'd need, you'd need some sort of humanoid thing.
33:06
Quit again with a, you know, with a nail gun and a level and,
33:10
and whatever else you'd need. A hand that just switches out
33:13
between like Milwaukee bits and Auger bits.
33:17
And well, so yeah. Staple gun.
33:20
So that would be the thing, right?
33:21
Like you would need a teal robot, you'd need a yellow
33:23
robot, you need a red robot, and then that robot wouldn't be able
33:26
to work with other Hadn't. Even thought about that, what
33:31
are the what are the what do those different robots listen to
33:35
on the job site? I mean, you have the Ryobi, you
33:37
have the Ryobi robot with one eye looking in One Direction and
33:40
the other eye looking in the other one with.
33:42
The colour hat. Shit's halfway, the battery's
33:45
going to die on that one middle of the job anyway, so don't
33:47
worry about. That it's also a pressure kicker
33:50
and a garage door opener. And it'll play your tune's
33:53
Bluetooth. And a job site radio.
33:55
It's fine, no big deal. Yeah, and there's only, I mean,
33:58
for these robots, you, you were getting it before I totally
34:00
stepped on your joke. But you know, what would the
34:02
what would the theme song be? The theme music?
34:04
I mean, it would have to be, you know, that one Mexican song with
34:08
the accordion, right? Like the one.
34:14
It's the one that's about murder.
34:16
It's. The only no, no, it can't be
34:17
about murder because he says chorus on like every 50.
34:20
Yeah, well, that's true it. Would have to be that one song
34:24
that you just hear playing on every job site, you know, like,
34:27
that's that's the thing. You got to be there.
34:30
There's going to be a lot of whooping and hollering and some
34:34
some tuba and a lot. Of rolled Rs right?
34:38
A lot of accordion in there. Fuck yeah, let's go.
34:40
I'm here for it, honestly. I mean, what does the Roach
34:43
coach feed the the robots? They go up and get fresh
34:47
batteries like when you're on a job site, like did they go to
34:52
711 like a bunch of landscapers and just like grab slurpees and
34:57
big bites? I think, I think we're right in
35:00
a movie. I might be wrong, but I think
35:02
we're writing a movie right now where, where those service
35:05
robots rise up. But there's all kinds of inside
35:07
jokes in them. Like, yeah, like the Roach coach
35:09
rolls up and you know, or you got the one guy in a job site
35:13
and he pops open a microwave and there's like, you know, 5 amp
35:16
hour batteries in it and he's just handed them out.
35:19
Hell yeah, those aren't burritos, dude.
35:20
Those are fucking 18 volts, right?
35:22
Fucking mega charged fresh juice for you there, Mr. Robot.
35:30
Oh yeah, we can. We can put those batteries on a
35:32
layaway plan for you, don't you worry.
35:33
So. Now they still find the shadiest
35:36
tree in the yard and take a nap under it though after.
35:38
Yeah, the the Roach coach. Yeah, well, when does ice come
35:41
to round them up? That's the fucking problem.
35:44
I want to see ice versus ED2O4 robot.
35:48
I want to see that that's. Where?
35:50
Sign me up. Sign me.
35:51
Up. You have 10 seconds to comply.
35:53
Oh fuck. Yeah, I'm a federal agent.
35:58
Not today. Oh, no stairs, right?
36:04
Yeah, right. Oh fucking.
36:05
Stairs. Yeah.
36:05
Plot hole. But yeah, there you go.
36:07
What are you going to do? Yeah, this, this is a whole
36:10
different show when it's late. Yeah, well, we should do more
36:14
late shows because we have we have weird, we have weird
36:16
stories to tell. We have bad jokes to to pull on
36:20
each other and and see how it goes.
36:21
Inside integration after dark. I mean, send us your send us
36:24
your show ideas. Maybe, maybe maybe the after
36:27
dark version is the one where we like just we just spill the tea.
36:30
We just talk about, you know, specific.
36:34
Yeah, just name drop, yes. Specific guys?
36:39
Oh boy. Oh man, where'd you get those
36:42
shoes from? Goodwill?
36:43
Cool. They're very red, I just thought
36:48
I should point that out. They look fast.
36:51
You are not feisty. You are not.
36:53
Yeah, those shoes will run faster than you.
36:57
Those are cool. Even though.
36:58
What that means? That's right.
37:02
Too soon. That's right.
37:04
Wow. All right.
37:05
I think that's a good time to wrap up.
37:07
Yeah, well, we can end on a dark joke, yeah.
37:09
Let's end on a dark joke that one person besides us maybe
37:12
gets. Or not.
37:13
Yeah, that's fine. If you got that one, send us an
37:15
e-mail. Or you have.
37:17
Some message our the next guest on You were the new third mics
37:22
on this podcast if you got that joke.
37:24
That's how we recruit, that's what we do.
37:27
But but yeah, you don't hit us up man.
37:29
Instagram at inside_integrationorviagmail.insideintegration@gmail.com
37:34
and. Thanks for joining us for inside
37:36
Integration After Dark We. Hope hope you enjoyed it.
37:40
Take care everybody. Bye bye.