Latest / CE Pro Podcast / CE Pro Podcast #179: CE Pro 100 on the CEDIA Expo 2026 Smart Stage

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CE Pro Podcast #179: CE Pro 100 on the CEDIA Expo 2026 Smart Stage · CE Pro Podcast

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_04: Hey everyone, welcome back to the CEPro podcast.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_04: My name is Zach Ricomo, Executive Editor of CEPro.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_04: If you were at CDA Expo 2026 just a few weeks ago in Denver, then you probably saw me on the Smartstage, which is of course the uh uh the forum for thought leadership and education and just some ministry insights um right on the show floor um uh at CDA Expo.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the first session that we held uh really focused on four integration firms that were represented in this year's C Pro 100.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_04: Uh those firms were Sound Vision, Restrepo Innovations, Maxicon, and Audio Command Systems.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um four uh principals from those firms joined me on the smart stage to talk about really their careers, um, how their firm developed and grew organically and what leads them to success and being, of course, being named to the CE for 100 this year.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh we hope you enjoy this and get something out of it.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_04: I know I did, you can tell that I had a good time up there talking to these folks about them, their careers, um, and what you know how they found this industry in the first place.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um so with that, um, you know, happy listening.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um and uh we will will be putting up the audio from these sessions um really throughout the next few months.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: And and they're they're really great.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um I I really think you guys are gonna get a gonna get a kick out of these these sessions.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_04: So with that, um, you know, enjoy.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh hello, good morning.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_04: And uh welcome to CDI Expo 2026.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_04: Woo! Yeah, let's go, right?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_04: Uh my name is Zach, I'm uh executive editor of CE Pro, and I'm pleased to welcome you to the first of many sessions uh planned for the smart stage uh right here in the show floor.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh this session is actually the first of its kind.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: We're uh recognizing select members of this year's CE Pro 100, and we're uh picking their brains about what makes them successful.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the CE Pro 100 are a very proud bunch.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um quick show of hands, who are uh who out there is a member of the CE Pro 100?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you guys are you guys love telling me how many how many years you've been on the list um and and you know and what it means to your company for that to get that recognition.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you tell me exactly how long you've been on the list, and uh you're you know you're always excited to see uh yourself represented in CE pro.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_04: Uh we have a truly awesome cast of characters uh up here to talk just about that.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so let's get into it.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um we go down the list, introduce yourself, and uh and uh talk about your role at the company.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Can you hear me now?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my name is Michelle Ferlato.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with Sound Vision out of Mooresville, North Carolina.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I am our COO.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Michelle.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Alright, morning, everybody.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's that one's a little hotter.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Tom Clancy, I am the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Audio Command Systems.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: ACS is celebrating our 50th year in business this year, so we're very happy to be uh be part of this and uh looking forward to a really great chat with an exceptional panel.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um Hello, my name is uh Andrés Klein.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm one of the founders and uh the marketing uh officer for uh Maxicon.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: We this year we're uh 21 years since we started, a company of two, now today 64, with uh an additional office in uh Spain, Madrid, and uh working very hard on the residential, the commercial, and the marine industry.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Very happy to be here, very humbled to be among you know big, big, big personalities and hope to have fun and uh hopefully we can uh bring back something to the community.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: Mike Restropo with uh Restrepo Innovation.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: We've been around somewhere 16 years now, uh aggressively growing this year.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: Been doing great, and uh again, very honored to be among some of the greatest in our in our industry and to be at such an amazing show.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_04: All right, yeah.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_04: Let's get into it.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so you all did represent different levels and forms of success that have led to your inclusion on uh this year's C Your Pro 100.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, what got your companies to where they are today?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_04: Start with you, Michelle.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Tom.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I would I would have to say that teamwork and the people on our team are ultimately uh what has led us to success overall under the leadership of Mark, our owner, who uh empowers us and uh gets out of the way, allows us to grow and do our jobs.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a huge uh differentiator in how our company operates versus others.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the people are what make the team and they're delivering the work on a regular basis, and we couldn't be more proud of how far we've come as a result of them.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: So if I had to say what is the what got us to where we are.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, ACS has been on this list for quite some time.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: We're very proud to be sitting at number six this year.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: How long, Tom?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_04: How many years?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_04: I actually don't know.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_04: How long is it?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_04: I said you all know how many years.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: How long has the list been around for?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, honestly.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I don't know, but in all seriousness, I mean the one thing I would say that that keeps us here and got us here is um adaptability and accountability, right?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: Being able to adapt to the changing market within the CI community.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um we've all seen the evolutions of of what this industry has become.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I think being able to stay adaptable, uh, but then also holding yourselves as a company as well as your people accountable to the beliefs and the ideals.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: So if I had to say the two things, it would be adaptability and accountability.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um in our particular case, I think you know, it's a mix of uh what you both actually said, you know, it's the team.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um our philosophy, you know, my you know, the when we were two, it was actually one of my best friends from school and me.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: So we we we've been doing you know this dreaming, you know, for a very long time.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: And what happened is we aligned everybody that came into the company is somebody that we wanted to work, that we wanted to spend the day with us, that had the same value and that had you know an idea of teamwork.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the other thing I agree, Tom, you know, it's uh you know, we live in an industry where you need to adapt not only to the technology but to the economies, to the pol to politics.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we deal with a very interesting uh individuals that change their mind continuously.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think adaptability would be probably at the top as well.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: Now, what brought us to this level, honestly, it's you know, we started as this tiny little company.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: I basically started it with no money, broke, like almost going homeless, and honestly, it was just following a dream and not caring about the outcome.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: I know that sounds like what do you mean?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: It was just the fact that I was able to live the dream, and that's what I would sell to all the employees is that every day we get to do it, we get to live our dream.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: So we are, this is everything.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: So as long as we live our dream today, tomorrow just comes.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: But tomorrow's not promise, so I live in the moment, and I instill that into all my guys, and it it breeds, and I I love hearing this accountability and all that, but like any one of us, if you live your dream, you make yourself accountable, and it inherently just brings and it drives all that.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: And that that fostering that that culture into everyone is what allowed our company to scale and to be on a stage with some of you know amazing, massive companies that I'm so humbled, and just, you know, I I look at these guys, I'm like, one day, one day I'll be like that, you know, and just sitting here.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: Again, it's living the dream.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: And that's been something that's just been so real and and has worked for us.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_04: Mike, you're gonna make me cry.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: Mike jumps out of all the hard streets, it's what he does.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, what about the the first key hire you made?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, that that really helped propel your company forward.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_04: Can you talk about that a little bit?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_04: Let's skip around.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_04: Let's maybe go to let's go to Andy first.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the the partner that I've been talking about, just sit down here in the sofa.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is Sammy, our uh chief technical officer.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And um we we did it all, okay?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: We we we saw we were selling, we were uh installing, we were doing the pre-wiring, we were we were actually active outside the office all the time.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the first hire was actually somebody in that can do logistics.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Logistics at that particular point is anything else, you know, that is not outside the office.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that was my wife, by the way, because we couldn't afford you know anybody else.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And to be honest with you, she was the right person because she was the most important people per person in my particular life that wanted me to succeed.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we aligned, you know, that person in the in the logistics department who was able to receive, to order, to uh maintain invoices, maintain the finances, and that was it.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: That was our first hire.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go to Mike.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm with you.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: My first hire, and I'm sure if she was here, she'd be like, you didn't hire me, you forced me.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: And it would be my wife, you know.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, she did everything.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: We ran wires together.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: I taught her how to program pronto, and you know, she she did everything, and that again, we we were living our dream, doing this thing, and being together, but she having that logistical thing, and I know a lot of companies are like, oh, I need to hire another tech, and that wasn't always the best idea.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: I think that backhouse logistics, because I knew I could do, or I I was my ego said I could do anything, so my wife put reality in the back end and kind of made it real.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I I tell people all the time when you're looking to scale out, your first hire probably with the best idea, and I know it goes against what you're feeling, because you're like, no, I'll get myself out, I'll have this other person working, and I'll be the big boss, and that never happens.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, having her really do the logistics and then I could be installing it allowed us to scale out and to build that back end so that no matter how deep I took us, and I took us deep, that she would have the documentation, the paperwork, and everything to keep us going and to keep us on track, and I could be lost in the dark, and she was the light.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_04: Any of your wives here?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: No, I am unsupervised at the moment.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_04: Well, round of applause for wives, everyone.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_04: Let's give a round of applause for wives.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um let's go over to Michelle.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
• 11:19
  unknown: Okay.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: I get the message.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's because I asked if you guys were a union, right?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I'll go I'll lean a different direction into a key hire.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh one of the key hires that kind of helped turn our business around was an engineer to build everything in-house and program it before we started deploying out into the field.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say it was probably a result in part of the direction we wanted to go and then a necessity uh with COVID.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a huge game changer for us.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we are constantly trying to get upstream of our installs and make sure that when we get to a customer's home, everything that is humanly possible for a more seamless transition is done in our house.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: The racks go out.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we rent a truck if they're large racks, we're walking them in, they're turnkey, but we are definitely trying to get ahead of all of the processes that take up time out in the field and ultimately provide a better customer experience.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I would definitely recommend an insight engineer for uh your racks, your networks, anything that you can get ahead, a security as well.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I would I would actually piggyback on on what Michelle said because it wasn't so much a key hire, more of a philosophical decision.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: So at some point along the lines, Audio Command decided we're no longer going to be an A V company.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: We are going to be a professional systems integration company.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: And we jumped on that earlier, and that meant in making sure that we had proper engineering, a dedicated CAD department, separated out our lighting and shades from our A V IT, dedicated programming.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: The finance of the back end side always took care of itself, and that's actually what helped us scale.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: So when we stopped thinking about us as an A V guy, right?
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: The speaker guys, once we got out of that mindset and we decided, no, the industry's maturing, we're going to mature alongside of it.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, we're gonna help lead the way on how we mature it, and that's really what so I couldn't say it's a specific hire, more of going back to my first comment about adaptability, it was a philosophy shift.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: And we made the decision that we're not going to be an A V company alone.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so what about present day?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_04: What you know defines success for you in 2026?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_04: What are you gonna what's your first move when you get back home?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_04: Andy.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_04: No, sorry, we we started with you last year.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Tom.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_04: Let's go to Tom.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: So what the f what defines success in 2026?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: If you had asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have said revenue.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Just sell more, sell more.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: If I'm thinking about it as today, it's predictability, right?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: I want to be able to predict where the business is going.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: And how do you do that?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: What are our labor needs for the next three months, six months, nine months, twelve months?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: What are our revenue, actual revenue, not rev uh uh revenue needs to be in order to hit maintain a certain margin?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: What are my procurement needs, right?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: So if I can have predictability in the business, that to me is probably the single most important thing right now moving into 2026.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Michelle, what about a Soundvision?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, what are you guys doing in 2026 and uh and where are you finding success?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we are looking ahead.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if you have time, tomorrow Mark will be on a panel about AI and expanding the technology there uh with your team.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, right here.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely worth listening to.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh AI is definitely a direction that we are, uh to your point of adaptability and moving ahead into the future, being able to plan better, uh, refine our processes.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: We've been going through all of our SOPs and redoing them and making sure that we're actually following them.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I would I would definitely say process, planning for the future with AI, figuring out how it can work in your business to save you time and actually solve problems, um, and making it a functional tool.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Mike, what about you and your little slice of uh jersey?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: So let me start with saying this.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: I've never seen a prize fighter walk into the ring and not say they're the best.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: All right?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: So there's the energy.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um we we want to totally dominate.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: We want to be the best, the number one, not the biggest, but the best company on the planet.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: We want to make it so that my no one knows who I am, but the brand Restrepo is a level.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: The same way Ferrari, Lamborghini, and pushing to that, that there's a level of quality, and when you see Restrepo innovations, you can lean in with your eyes closed, and that you will only expect excellence.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what we're looking going forward, and that that's kind of total domination, is what we want.
• 16:23
  unknown: Total world domination.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_04: Awesome, awesome answer.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe sharks with lasers.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's just I have those.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_03: I actually, you gotta there's a part number at Crestron, they'll they'll show you something new is coming out.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um for us, um, you know, all of our marketing, all of our sales uh efforts, they go towards creating relationships with the design community.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: So for us, you know, if if we have a rock, you know, that we want to work with every three months, you know, and uh it's actually to generate and cultivate a strong relationship with uh an interior designer, with uh with an architect, with a general contractor, that is um at a high level.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Those relationships that get consolidated, they have a huge impact.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: For three, four years in the in our company, we're talking about uh revenues of a half a million dollars, you know, per a per each relationship that we make.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: And for us, success is to feel you know that it needs not a transactional.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was speaking this with uh Tom before this, it needs not a transactional relationship, it is a real professional relationship where we are respected not as the guy who's installing speakers and uh and TVs, but the guy who's actually putting together all the technology along with the vision of the design community, which is who we really serve.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_04: Uh if you could point to like one business practice that that has contributed to your success, what would it be?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_04: And you can't say adaptability anymore.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um can I go first?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Discipline, discipline, Clint, discipline, process, discipline.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely uh you have to hold the line.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you want a consistent uh experience for your customer.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, that is where you're gonna get your future referrals from and feedback on the job that you're doing and successes from.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it definitely lies in discipline and process, being able to deliver the process consistently every single time.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that means on the back end, you're doing things the same way.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're in agreement, you have buy-in from your team, you all agree this is what we're going to do, and you consistently do that.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds easy, but somebody has to enforce the process.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: You ha discipline.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, do you have enough time to think of a different answer?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm not sure.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, no, honestly, so not only consistent, but I would also say authenticity, right?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Being actually true to yourself, true to your vision, right?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: Every company likes to talk about the culture, the morals, the values, all of that.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: And that's great to have those conversations, but they actually have to mean something, and you have to be authentic about it.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're not authentic about why what we're doing for our customers, right, and this is the way I always say it like we are the most intimate thing in our customers' home.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: We're the first thing they touch in the morning, we are the last thing they touch in the evening, whether that's a keypad or a remote or closing the blind.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: So when you have that level of trust and that level of intimacy, if you're not authentically ensuring a successful outcome, not only for yourself, but also the broader project team.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: So that means the interior designers, the architects, the builders, and that starts at the top and certainly works its way down.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: And that level of authenticity is probably the single biggest driving factor.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's easy to talk about, it's really hard to put it into practice.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Very true, Andy.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: A leadership team, you know, a strong, strong leadership team uh that holds itself accountable, uh, has made a huge impact in our company and uh and the way uh our partners uh see uh our employees actually see each other, you know, instead of having three owners, you know, trying to decide everything, uh, to let go of things so you can really concentrate on what you do best and to let people grow within the within the uh within the company to be true leaders and uh and to lead in the same way you want to lead, you know, for the rest of uh of the life of the company.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Legacy.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: Now, something that you know I we believe is to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and to never get comfortable.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: That's to to me almost being comfortable is like the kiss of death.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like we're we're too comfortable in the room.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: So we really push that.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're uncomfortable, and what I mean is like, no, it's not that I'm hot, that I'm I'm pushing myself to do things that I'm not sure.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: But I have the space or the the group around me that I'm safe enough to fail and they'll save me.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I push that to everybody in the team to always push yourself, always dream bigger.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: There's a new cool thing, and to even go against me.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I, you know, definitely big ego, say I can do the best, and I want to hear different.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: I want to hear it and be comfortable being in those meetings, tell your truth, you have a better process, a better way, say it.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: Be okay with trying new things and okay with failing.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Again, being completely comfortable with being completely uncomfortable with the situation.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but could you give us an example of that, Mike?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like where where did you about a time that you felt too comfortable and tried something new?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, an example.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: Beginning of the year.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: Beginning of the year, I don't know about everyone else, but I felt a major slowdown.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: I thought everything was going.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_03: We're done.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna have to get a job.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna call Tom.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm be like, hey, hire me, I can do a couple things.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I remember sitting there with her and I'll and she's like, What are you gonna do?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_03: I said, I'm gonna reinvent everything we did, I'm gonna redo everything, I'm gonna just do it, and I'm gonna do it completely against what everybody says, because that's what I do.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: And we did that.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: I redid the entire website, I wrapped AI around it.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: We we we built two websites, one for me, one for AI.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: I, and even when I started telling it, hey, I want to post this much content, the AI engine in the beginning was like, Mike, if you do that, the internet's gonna flag you as a bad person and they're gonna pull it away.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, I know a lot of other bad people, I'll be in good company.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: It'll be okay.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: So I started doing that, and it was weird, because like everything else I've done, AI out of nowhere was like, cool, total dominance, we're gonna do this with you.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, now you're my friend.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: So we're gonna go.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I gotta be honest with you, my phone has not stopped ringing.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: I have things and and normally I'm the Resi guy.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: I have, I've had more government projects come in and land on my lap than I've in in the last couple of months, than all the years before.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: I've never seen that.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: More commercial jobs come in, and even opportunities.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like, look at where I am right now.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'm on a stage with some of the largest companies, like guys that have gross countries, all kinds of amazing things, that dream at a level that some of us are like one day maybe, and I'm sitting here, and that's all from just doing whatever I think and I believe, being okay with failing, and just pushing it, just pushing it.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, anyone else want to talk about you know a time where you know you had to make a change, and and tell us what that change was and and why you had to make it had to make it.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um when you're trying to grow the company from a certain amount of revenue to the next one, uh and and you need to think, you know, okay, what is it that I'm going to let go in order to actually get in?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the first thing was to hire uh project managers, for example.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we were not used to do project managers because Sammy, you know, uh, you know, wanted to supervise his own jobs.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to supervise my own jobs.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: We wanted to make sure that everything was great, but we didn't want to have you know somebody else uh you know doing it.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and project management was one of the first uh key things, you know, that that we did uh that really changed uh the flow of things and permitted us to uh to keep on growing.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: Tom?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: So the one thing I would say is is when we kind of fundamentally made a decision to stop being the AV company, right?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: And we started leading, you know, it used to be that that TVs and speakers got us into these projects, and then lighting and shades and networks just sort of fell on our lap.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: We decided to take the exact opposite approach of that.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: And we said, you know what, let's not lead A V.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Let's think about what's the fundamental, the single most important thing that any family, any residence needs.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: And we realized it was Wi-Fi.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: If you ask a family a question, especially anyone that has young kids or has working people from home, your kids doing any kind of uh work or anything from home, would you rather have working Wi-Fi or running water?
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: And we asked this question 80% working Wi-Fi over running water.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like it was like a straw pole, but it was legitimately 80% of the people said that was what was more important to them.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: So we embraced that and we said, you know what, we're not gonna lead this TV or this pair of speakers or this control system.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: No, let's get in as as network, because that's the fundamental underlying platform for everything else we do.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: And when you do that authentically, that's when everything else just kind of falls into place.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: So it was it was truly making a fundamental shift in the way that we approached our design build partners.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_04: Show of hands, running water or wi-fi?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: Show me Wi-Fi.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: Wi-Fi?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Wi-Fi.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_04: That's I don't know if I'd say that's 80%, but uh I personally like a good sip of water.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Michelle.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna vote for running water for you guys.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I would say uh we changed also how we viewed our services.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: We identify as a service company.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we want the relationship with the customer, not just to get the job, not just to get the installed, not just to sell it.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: We want the long-term relationship.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we identify as a service company, and it is definitely a shift in ideology because once you recognize that you are a service partner, that is a long-term relationship.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: That is upgrading networks and Wi-Fi, and uh when they have their kids move out on their own, or when their parents are moving into their own place, and being able to be there for them, have a service department that's dedicated just to service, to run just service calls, um, that made a huge uh perception difference in our clients' experience because they knew that if they called us after the install, we would respond, we would respond same or next day.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they didn't have to worry about having another integrator that they called and like two weeks later it's still not working, nobody's called them back, the guy just got his money and and he's good.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the the ideology of identifying as a service company uh was definitely something that that changed.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we have said that forever.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: We are a customer service business that happens to deal in technology, and that philosophy is literally what makes all the difference in the world because it is relationship-based.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_04: Uh what would you say to a younger integration firm or someone thinking about launching their own company?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um Andy, you once told me that that you know the the kind of breaking point for you guys is when you uh went from like four to five million um and kind of broke out of out of that and kind of you know skyrocketed up.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um so how'd you do that?
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, going back to the key uh hire, um Sammy's an engineer.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I have a degree in social communications.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: None of us knew how to actually run a business.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: We had the passion, we sold it, we made it great, you know, but we didn't understand finances.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh adding our third partner, Ilan Weinstein, which is our CEO, uh, who really understood how to manage a business was uh you know the key moment where things actually started to make sense um and uh and we were able to really grow our company.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um the other thing is actually we we we tapped into a lot of people in our industry.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: This this is an amazing industry, by the way.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: All of our all of our plow, all of our problems, you know, everybody else is actually gone through.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we were at four million dollars, you know.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Thank thankfully we're we're actually part of uh an amazing purchasing group, uh Pro Source, uh free advertising.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and um we were able to tap to the people that already went through that particular you know road.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and we were giving you know all the different solutions that we were supposed to get there.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: So um I I would tell you know myself, you know, uh that the beginning, if I knew if I had somebody that understood finances from the beginning, and second, to align myself, you know, to a group of people to network within our own industry, I think we we could have actually even got you know easier uh to those particular milestones.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, that's that's why we're all here, baby.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_04: We're here at CDX for the hang out and network and look at some cool stuff.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Michelle I'm sorry, what was the question?
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um advice to a younger integration firm or someone thinking about launching their own company.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh god, there's tons of advice.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you need to be organized.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if you're gonna run chaos, uh chaos is contagious, and it is gonna burn out your team, and it is going to probably affect your personal life.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the I've worked for three integrators.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: The first two operated within the uh model of chaos, and there was not a lot of organization, which was very exciting to me when I joined because I was like, oh, I can fix this.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is so easy.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to line up all the pieces and it'll work.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh ha being organized and understanding that there's gonna be shifts that you're going to need to make in in how you perceive things and how you process things is gonna be extremely valuable.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I would definitely somebody who's just starting out needs to understand that there's a certain amount of organization that needs to occur for a work success and a personal success.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Mike?
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_03: Well, what I would tell a younger person if I was talking to me.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: Now, when I started my company, I had had a partner robbed me for six million, left me broke, my wife was pregnant, my daughter was about to get a heart operation.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: I felt like there was no rock big enough for me to hide underneath.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: And what I would have told myself is that that continued, like, be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_03: The world is gonna always sound horrible.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing will ever be as bad as you think, but it'll also not be as good as you think.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_03: But it doesn't even matter because everything is happening and just keep going.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_03: Just follow your dream and just keep going.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_03: And it there is no there is no price point that says you're a winner.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: I've I know billionaires, and there's no number that they're like, hey, I'm getting out.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like, just keep following your dream, keep doing it, and if you're happy, then don't stop.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_03: There is no scorecard, there's no, oh, you won, none of that.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_03: Just keep following your dream, do what you believe, and then you will always win.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: You got to do what you dreamed, and that's what most people dream of doing.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: So that you're living the dream.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_03: So just do it, no matter how much it hurts, whatever it is, because the reality, the more it hurts, the more the outcome will be better for you.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: The more you will appreciate it.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_03: So just embrace the suck and keep it moving.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah, Tom, as one of the larger firms on the on the CD Pro 100 list, you know, what would you say to younger folks just just starting out?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: Not all revenue is good revenue.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: So knowing when to say no sometimes is actually better than going after it, right?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: And you need to understand the difference between the two.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: So someone may be throwing this killer$250,000 job at you, and you might have the opportunity to go win that project.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're not set up for it, or if it's not in your wheelhouse, it's not your specialty, you're going to spend more resources and spin more wheels doing things that uh otherwise you could be spending those resources on profitable projects, right?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: So learning the difference between revenue and profit is probably the single biggest uh recommendation I can make.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, just to pick up of what Andy said, this industry is super, super unique, is that even though we're all quote unquote competitors, like Mike and I are in the same neighborhood, right?
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: We we both go after projects in Manhattan and in New York City and Long Island.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: But he's a phone call away, and I'm a phone call away from him, right?
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: So even though we're competitors, there's something about this industry that just kind of breeds camaraderie.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_02: There is a family element to it that I think oftentimes just goes unlucked or or unchecked and not and not embraced enough.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like an expo, a show like this, this is what this is all about.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're gonna look at some cool stuff, and it's awesome to see the vendors, but having the ability just to kind of go walk the halls, go shoot the breeze with someone you haven't seen in a while, and we are all struggling with the exact same things, right?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody has an answer, right?
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: We I certainly do not.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: We're changing and trying to find it out every single day.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: So for a younger integrator, I would say embrace this industry because I've made some of the best friends of my life through walking these halls, this and other and and and other trade shows and other things that we've done.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: This is what it's about.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: This this industry is weird, and we are a true family, and embrace that.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: Don't shy away from it.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: Great answers?
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_03: I just wanted to add to that.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: Now, I'm so into that, and both of these companies, I've brought customers to them, and don't be scared of that.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: Because think about it, little old me bringing them around.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I only bring that up because a lot of times integrators will be scared of bringing a bigger integrator because they're gonna be like, oh, they're just gonna eat up my work.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: Don't be scared of your shadow.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: We're all honorable people.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_03: And you can go again, you can work with such amazing, like I I brought, I brought MaxiCon, amazing VIP, great guy.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: If I said his name, I'm sure everybody would know who he was.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I wanted them to take their Florida stuff, and I was like, you run with it.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_03: Don't micromanage the people you asked to help.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: Let them do their magic, and again, work with them.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's I I've reached out to them, we've tried to share things.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_03: Tom, uh full disclosure, Tom actually talked to one of disgruntled customers of mine, you know, like Tom was like, yeah, you should go call Mike.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_03: And they didn't want to pay, and then they started paying.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, this is amazing.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: So that's a great idea.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if we put in our in our uh telephone uh directory, you know, if you really uh want to uh if you're really mad about something about us, hit three and transfer the call to another company.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: I got paid, it worked out.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: Can I just add one more thing?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh peer groups are invaluable.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh many of us up here have been on peer groups together, and that's how we got to know each other.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly met Michael and Andreas and Tom is in HTSA with us as well.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a peer group is so valuable so that you recognize that you're not on an island by yourself and you don't have to always figure it out all by yourself.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: There is support out there, somebody else is experiencing the pain that you are feeling at that point, and that counsel is so valuable when you're trying to grow your company.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: And just one more thing on that, if you if you guys are not familiar with Vistage, Vistage is an organization that operates on different levels.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_02: So whether it's the CEO level, emerging leaders level, um, uh the key executive group level, and they meet in all these different areas, and you're going to meet with people that are outside of your industry, but at a similar scale and size of your company.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: And they meet once a month, and not that I have any skin in the game with Vistage, but I always said that, and and Ari Supan from Sonance is the first one that turned me onto Vistage, and it was going and getting a master's degree in business administration that I did not have, right?
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a hobbyist, I'm a geek, I'm a dude that likes to turn speakers, and that's how I all got started with this whole thing 25 years ago.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: And Ari was the first one to introduce me to what a vistage peer group was, and it was absolutely fundamentally uh just life-changing for me.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have a vestige chapter in your neighborhood, your city, I would highly recommend engaging it.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_04: Unscripted question, because you just uh said something cool.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_04: How do you how did you guys get started in this industry?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um Tom, you just kind of gave us a little bit, so let's expand on that.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I actually do have a degree in audio video engineering, but I was working in the uh production side of uh uh out of college.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: I was working for small studios in Manhattan that were making commercials and doing remote shoots, and the work was cool and it was consistent, but uh inconsistent, but it it paid pretty good for a you know 21-year-old kid out of college.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'd been dating my wife for a while at that point, and we were thinking about maybe taking the next step.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I was also attending bar on the weekends to help make ends meet, and she said, Well, if you think that I'm going to marry a guy that's working part-time and tending bar on a weekend, you're out of your mind.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: So let's think about where else we could do.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so I made a phone call to uh a family member of mine that's also in the industry, and uh he brought me into audio command because we always shared this mutual love of like A V and tech and geeked outs kind of things, and he brought me into Audio Command, and I like to tell people I was hired as an entry-level wire puller, and I was making$9.27 an hour.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: So that was my initial foyer into, and I've run every facet within or worked in every facet of audio command.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I've been from an entry-level wire puller to an apprentice to uh junior tech, lead tech, project supervisor, project manager, senior project manager, and now part of the executive team and running the company.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: So you're married and dream right there.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: There you go, baby.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um Mine's messy.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I went through a divorce.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I was starting over, and I wanted to do something that was completely unrelated to my previous life.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I took a job as a receptionist for$12 an hour to just see if I liked it.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um I fell in love with the opportunity to fix things.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: There was so much that could be fixed, and it really excites me, if you can't tell.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I was still at that point getting a lot of support from my ex-husband.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: He was he was paying alimony for being honest.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I looked at it like a paid internship into a new industry.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I fell in love with the technology, I fell in love with the the the potential of this industry to grow that because previous to that I wasn't exposed to it.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when we pre-wired our house, I fought against the pre-wire of our media room.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, why are we spending six grand to have this done?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is makes no sense.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then the irony is that you know, a few years later, I'm lobbying on the other end.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that that is long, messy, short story.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_04: Also the American Dream.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Also the American Dream.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can do it.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Andy.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um in our particular case, you know, uh Sammy and I were 14 years old.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: We're at school, and uh I got for my birth, you know, a camera, video camera.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: We were filming all kinds of stuff, you know, that we could, but we wanted to share that content with everybody.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we came the idea, you know, to do uh a private channel within the school.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: We went to the head director, you know, he says, You want to do what?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: TV channel.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: So they gave us the budget to run Coaxial Cable.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: That was our first uh you know contact with uh with cable.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we we were we became you know the two guys that are actually you know into technology.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sami used to actually do all the lighting uh for the theater, you know, uh I used to do a little bit of the audio.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: But uh it it it be we became those two guys in the school.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Sami became later uh an engineer for Procter and Gamble.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: I work for Satchy and Satchi, uh, an advertising agency.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're both in the US.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and uh we want to start something up, you know.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: We said, you know, let's go back to what we used to do that would inspire us.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: We started doing you know um remote IP cameras, you know, in 2001 with uh the transition between dial up and broadband.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh IP cameras got us into we got bored, you know, let's do something else.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: What else can we do?
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's this particular company that we see that has black boxes, you know, all over the place.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: What do those black boxes do?
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was crashed on, uh and and that's how we got into smart home, and this is definitely what we aligned with what we felt, and uh that's how we got in into this industry.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_04: And Mike, if you want to make us cry again, go ahead.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I had uh an IT company.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um we were doing IT, that was kind of before everything blew up, and I at the moment I considered myself a business person.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_03: It was a little kid moving around, and I had a friend who was like, I want to do this A V stuff, and I had a couple of dollars, and I remember on Info like Infocom or InfoWeek or whatever, the magazine, it was like AV plus IT equals dollar signs, and I was like, you know what?
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_03: Let's do it.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I started a company and I had him running, and he had a vicious coke habit, and he emptied the bank account, left me broke in the Bahamas, and I was just like, wow.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I came home and I was just like, you know what?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: If uh crackhead can take us this far, imagine what I can do.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_03: So so I started running with it, and uh I'm here with you now.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_03: So love it.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_04: Nice.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, we're running out of time, so um you're all you're all obviously up here for a reason.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_04: You guys are good at what you do, you have your finger on the pulse of the industry.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: So what should be in the mind of everyone here at Expo and everyone that works in this industry?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_04: You know, uh what can they not afford to miss in 2026?
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: For us, um recurring revenue, new ways of generating uh recurring revenue is one of those things you know that we should keep you know to ourselves because uh you know we're a service uh oriented uh industry and we have so much opportunity uh beyond alarms, contracts, you know, uh to service, you know, everything that that is happening in in homes.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the other part is actually uh how we are going to harness AI to become a better industry, uh to provide better service, uh faster service, more more responsive uh, you know, uh to all the problems that our clients have.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's on the top of uh should be on the top of everybody's mind today.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_03: Now I actually completely agree with him with the AI, but and and everything he's saying.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_03: Now, the bit I just want to add on to it is to use AI.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta use it.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it is everything.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_03: But be very careful with it, because AI is this amazing set of crutches.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_03: And if you use them too much, you become weak.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_03: Let the AI make you stronger, not weaker in that it does everything.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I see a lot of people use AI and it turns into everything, and then you lose the internal knowledge to really make the magic.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_03: Let it make you be better.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_03: Use it as an amazing tool that it is, understand the problems, break it, do all that.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: And if you don't, and if you don't have your pulse on the AI, it's not even if, you're going out of business.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_03: The world is changing, everything is in flux, this is the best time, this is the equalizer where the big guys and the small guys, someone can break out and really be a game changer.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_03: So embrace when it gets hard.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's hard right now, it's probably gonna get harder.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_03: Embrace the suck.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_03: This is the moment that even the small guy can break out and become a massive company.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_03: Do something magic.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_03: So just dream big, touch that AI, really kind of push it, and and the world is your pearl.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Tom.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna pick up on the AI thing.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: The one, the one, and we have fully embraced AI at ACS, but one of the things I would recommend and I would give a little piece of advice to is use it as the tool that it is, to Michael's point, right?
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a replicate, it's not gonna take anyone's job.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_02: Go back, ask your people what are the one or two things that are the most annoying for you day in and day out that are repeatable?
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: The things that they do that are just repetitive and boring.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's start there.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because once you begin to see how much it can help your employees, not replace, it's not going to all of a sudden cut headcount, and now you're gonna have this beautiful thing that's going to take the place of people.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's not.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_02: But if you can use it to make your employees' jobs 10%, 20% easier, better, that's when you'll begin to see what some of the real benefits of it are.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: And and I would go back and just ask your people what are the things that you hate the most that are the most repetitive, the most boring?
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: Start there.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then there is an answer for that, I promise you.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: What Michelle?
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, I mean, there's I'm gonna go a different direction.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of things to look at here.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you're talking about something to take away with you, and I I would say kind of not on the note of AI, but on the note of automation, the most valuable thing that you can take away from this show or any expo that you go to are relationships.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you're gonna need relationships with vendors, especially as they grow.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna need somebody that you can contact, a human on the other end of the phone, that is going to want to help you.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: And understanding the value and how to nurture those relationships when you get back is gonna be key because regardless of the product that you're selling, at some point you're going to need service or something's gonna get screwed up, or they're not gonna have it in stock, it's not gonna work.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're operating within a uh a vacuum of me, me, me, and not branching out, and you're just another uh faceless name in the crowd to a vendor, they're just not going to help you.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I I would advise everybody here to take back vendor relationships with them, if nothing else.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: I would like to add something uh to what Michelle said.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one of the things that actually helped us uh growth initially was a relationship with AMX.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and the rep.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: Sami, what was the name of the rep?
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: Frank Will.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's not in the industry anymore.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but this is a guy who we got actually uh very close and and really helped us, you know.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_01: He saw, you know, that every problem, you know, that that was coming, you know, to uh every opportunity that that he saw that could help us actually grow, he believed in us, he helped us, he guide us, you know.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and and I I will agree.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_01: Vendor relationships are extremely important in order to uh to to grow and to uh and to really align yourself for uh for a for a great future.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's all the time we have.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_04: Uh give these guys a round of applause.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_04: And if you're on the C Pro 100, give yourself a round of applause too.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_04: All right, thanks everyone.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh stick around on Smartstage for uh a bunch of good content uh the next few days.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, eh.