Latest / Inside Integration / Episode 103: Resolutions and Recriminations

Transcript

Episode 103: Resolutions and Recriminations · Inside Integration

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Inside Integration Podcast.
• 0:01
  My name is Chris. I am joined, as always, by by my
• 0:05
  favorite resolution, Jason Savage.
• 0:08
  Welcome to 2026 everybody. It is 2026.
• 0:12
  We're about a week into it, and you know what?
• 0:15
  Doesn't really feel too much better.
• 0:17
  Doesn't really feel much different than 2020.
• 0:19
  Five. I think I said this on the last
• 0:20
  one, but like, why does the new year always offer the old year
• 0:24
  or the previous year? Like to hold my beer while I do
• 0:27
  some wild shit, you know what I mean?
• 0:28
  Like. Right.
• 0:29
  Just right off the bat, let's let's kick it off with some
• 0:33
  excitement, you know? I mean, changing the calendar,
• 0:35
  you know, you can't really, you can't really expect it to just
• 0:38
  change a whole bunch of stuff. You know, it really is just,
• 0:41
  we're just still spinning around the sun here.
• 0:43
  But yeah, you know, it's kind of funny It it's I think everybody,
• 0:49
  you know, everybody kind of slacks off of work for a couple
• 0:51
  of weeks or whatever. And then you come back and
• 0:52
  there's this like realization for the first couple days.
• 0:54
  It's like, oh, it's all the same assholes that it.
• 0:58
  Was very jarring to contact after two weeks, right?
• 1:01
  You're just like, oh, or I mean, provided that you were lucky
• 1:05
  enough to be able to F off for a couple of weeks.
• 1:08
  Because I, I know that there's people that actually have to
• 1:10
  work for a living, you know, So I mean, considering what I, you
• 1:17
  know, in my mind, what I consider work versus what I do,
• 1:19
  yes, it is work, but it ain't, it ain't like swinging a hammer.
• 1:22
  It's not like you know. It's not rocket surgery.
• 1:25
  No, I'm not standing on a cook line, I'm not digging A ditch or
• 1:28
  anything fun like that. So thank.
• 1:30
  God Certainly not, but yeah, it it and it does it just it takes
• 1:33
  a couple of days and you know, you kind of you kind of go
• 1:36
  through this break and you know, you're full of the Christmas
• 1:38
  spirit and like the the promise of New Year and everything else
• 1:42
  you're. Full.
• 1:44
  Of Ziti. A lot of processed meats and
• 1:47
  cheeses and wines and whatever else you've gotten into over the
• 1:50
  holidays. So now you got to shrug all that
• 1:52
  off and like me for my first resolution of the year, I you
• 1:56
  know I've been to the gym every day since since the beginning of
• 2:01
  the new year. So.
• 2:02
  Look at you buddy. Yeah, I'm, I'm fatter than ever.
• 2:06
  You're you're one of those, you're one of those people that
• 2:08
  prevents me from going to a gym in the first half.
• 2:11
  Yeah. Well, I mean, considering that,
• 2:13
  you know, I relied on reasonably good metabolism and all that
• 2:17
  stuff for most of my life to maintain fitness, I think you
• 2:21
  know it, it's time. So yeah, exactly.
• 2:24
  The the the clock is running out.
• 2:25
  My T is low so I'm fat. So got to got to build all that
• 2:29
  stuff back up and. Just be careful, get it going.
• 2:31
  It's like a battery, OK, You know you can't work out too much
• 2:34
  because it'll deplete your battery.
• 2:35
  And that's the thing, you know, you're when you're, when, when
• 2:38
  you're, when you're, when you're cultivating mass and you're,
• 2:40
  it's, it's a lot like a bear. You know, oh, so I've got to
• 2:45
  build up the fat layer so I can hibernate.
• 2:47
  That's right. Yes, exactly, exactly.
• 2:51
  Hey, people don't realize. I mean, the brain is mostly
• 2:53
  fatty tissue, so that's anyway. Well, that makes sense.
• 2:57
  So what we, what we were kind of kicking around talking about
• 3:00
  here are New Year's resolutions and, and this could be, you
• 3:06
  know, obviously my bent on it is, is negative.
• 3:08
  Where, where? Where?
• 3:10
  The first things I thought of was like things that we are not
• 3:12
  going to deal with. Yeah, well, but.
• 3:14
  I'm sure there's some positive. There's got to be one or two
• 3:16
  positive things out there. And I mean, I'm certainly on
• 3:19
  board with team negativity. Like, let's not, don't, don't
• 3:23
  take my stripes away just yet. But, you know, I'm trying to,
• 3:26
  you know, trying to hang on with my toenails for dear life is
• 3:29
  kind of how it feels. But yeah, I'm sore as I could
• 3:32
  possibly be, but it does feel actually pretty good to be, you
• 3:36
  know, a week or so in and getting after it.
• 3:39
  So let's see if we can build a new healthy habit here and and
• 3:42
  can continue on. If you see me looking super
• 3:44
  gaunt later on this year, I, I, you know, I'm not part of the
• 3:50
  Dallas Buyers Club. Hopefully, you know, it's just
• 3:53
  because I've reached a different level of reached a different
• 3:56
  level of fitness. That's what I'm hoping for
• 3:58
  anyway. Right on, man.
• 3:59
  It's good. It's, it's good to, it's good to
• 4:01
  have some personal improvement. That's my, my, my resolution is,
• 4:05
  is not to go to the gym despite my wife begging me to go to the
• 4:08
  gym and use the membership that I've had for years and taken
• 4:11
  advantage of. But no, I, I live in squalor and
• 4:17
  that is as well. We don't do the video part
• 4:20
  anymore, but you know, I'm basically surrounded by piles of
• 4:24
  of stuff and resolved to, to get that going, I'm going to do some
• 4:29
  organization. Here, that's what we've done
• 4:31
  this shit going. Yeah, we've we've we've emptied
• 4:35
  out the museum, the closet of ancient AV gear.
• 4:41
  I do have the bin of cables where I'm just like, you know,
• 4:44
  part of me was like, should I just get all of the copper out
• 4:46
  of there like some crackhead because there's money in this or
• 4:50
  or do I just. Just leave it on the sidewalk,
• 4:52
  it'll take care of itself. No, you're not wrong.
• 4:54
  So if we don't like my neighborhood's like dead end.
• 4:56
  So you're not coming up this way unless, you know, I mean, I have
• 4:59
  to go and physically litter somewhere to leave disabled.
• 5:06
  I mean, you could, you could do what my neighbors did.
• 5:08
  My neighbors pull this trick maybe twice a year.
• 5:12
  And basically they just put a whole bunch of stuff, you know,
• 5:15
  outside, not outside their home, you know, maybe half a block
• 5:18
  down and it's just a pile of junk and it just says free.
• 5:22
  They just put a sign on it. And as soon as you put that free
• 5:25
  sign on there, you're not littering.
• 5:26
  It's you're, you're giving it away.
• 5:28
  It's a giveaway. Yeah, now, you know, now their
• 5:31
  conscious is clean. They've greenwashed and, you
• 5:35
  know, call of the day and, you know, yeah, if you want this old
• 5:38
  mattress that's been sitting out in the rain, you can take it.
• 5:42
  I just wanted to make sure it went to a good home, right?
• 5:44
  Yeah, they've upcycled it for you.
• 5:46
  Thanks. Yeah.
• 5:47
  Sure. Thanks.
• 5:48
  Appreciate shot. Oh, man, that's it's good times.
• 5:53
  It's good times, yeah. It is so, you know, here, here
• 5:57
  we are. It's again.
• 5:58
  It's a new year full of full of promise.
• 6:01
  All the slates are wiped clean. All back to 0, all of the sales
• 6:04
  that you generated last year like they.
• 6:06
  Don't mean. Oh my God, the reports are a
• 6:08
  nightmare already. You know you're looking at it.
• 6:11
  I I was looking at some sales reporting.
• 6:12
  I was like, like, I can't go back to last year.
• 6:15
  Like let me see the, let me see the, you know, let me see 7
• 6:18
  digits here. Like that's really what I'm
• 6:20
  looking for 'cause that's what I was looking at before and now
• 6:22
  I'm looking at a zero. What the fuck?
• 6:23
  It took 12 months to build my ego up to the point where it was
• 6:26
  on December 31st. That's right, flush it all down
• 6:30
  the toilet and. Welcome to the sales game, my
• 6:32
  man. Welcome to this game.
• 6:33
  Work harder. That's right.
• 6:34
  Now we got to beat last year's numbers.
• 6:35
  Son of a bitch. Oh yeah, we only want an
• 6:37
  additional 15%, so it's no big deal, right?
• 6:41
  No, it's just nothing, just nothing.
• 6:43
  And you know, you, you remember, you remember what you went
• 6:46
  through to get to that point last year.
• 6:48
  And it's like, whoa, OK, this is not gonna be.
• 6:53
  Yeah. Anyway, so New Year's
• 6:56
  resolutions we're we're let's, let's, let's talk about CI New
• 7:01
  Year's resolutions. You know, it's it's CES this
• 7:04
  week. I haven't really seen a ton of
• 7:07
  news come out other than from like, you know, the the usual
• 7:10
  players, right? Like there's bigger TV's and now
• 7:12
  there's something called micro RGB.
• 7:14
  Right 130 inch Samsung already so we we don't even have the 115
• 7:19
  yet but let's talk about the 1:30 so we.
• 7:21
  Can put it out there. Give everybody buyer's remorse
• 7:24
  immediately before they've even bought the oh, there's a bigger
• 7:27
  one, How much is that one like? You know, yeah, that's a good,
• 7:31
  that's a really good point, right?
• 7:32
  Because yeah, you deal with that shit.
• 7:33
  I do. I've been dealing with it from,
• 7:36
  we'll just say a good stretch of my career has been, you know,
• 7:40
  oh, well, you know, there's always one better coming next
• 7:43
  year kind of thing, right? And you got to got to sell
• 7:45
  what's in stock and do do those kinds of things.
• 7:48
  But then, you know, you look at these people that are making
• 7:50
  these investments and things and you're like, I would like to
• 7:53
  tell you that I wouldn't buy that one right now.
• 7:56
  But legally or honor bound to not do that because I need the
• 8:03
  sale. I need to eat, my kids need to
• 8:05
  need to put food in their bellies.
• 8:06
  And that's right, part of the got to do it.
• 8:08
  That's all part of the program. And yeah, I think you got to
• 8:10
  sell the value of what it is that clients have bought or what
• 8:13
  they've already invested in or what you've sold them.
• 8:14
  So. Right.
• 8:16
  So, yeah, so I mean, I would say as a, you know, as a, as a
• 8:20
  resolution and how that ties in, you know, where I mean, what are
• 8:24
  we thinking here? Are we, you know, are we
• 8:26
  resolving to buy bigger TV's? I think so.
• 8:29
  I think if you're an integrator and you're still selling audio
• 8:32
  video and you're trying to live and die on 65 inch TV's, you're
• 8:36
  dying, right? Like you're not that.
• 8:39
  That's not, I mean, unless you've got an army of guys
• 8:42
  that's just kicking TV's onto the walls left, right and center
• 8:45
  out there, you know? Yeah, exactly.
• 8:50
  You're, you know, we talked about this at length and I think
• 8:53
  the TV manufacturers, certainly the, the big boys have figured
• 8:56
  it out that, you know, it's all commoditized at this point.
• 8:59
  So the only way to like generate revenue from a profit standpoint
• 9:04
  is to build products that other people don't have and to put a,
• 9:08
  a larger ticket price on it. I mean I can remember when a 65
• 9:12
  inch OLED TV was a $15,000 buy. Right.
• 9:17
  Like that was, that was a thing and we couldn't keep them in
• 9:20
  stock, didn't have enough of them.
• 9:21
  Now for roughly $5000 more, maybe $10,000 more or something
• 9:29
  like that, you can, you can do a, you can do a 115.
• 9:33
  Like that? Well, I mean, you need, you need
• 9:35
  the space, you need the space for the one. $50 You do need the
• 9:37
  space, that's fair, but. That's a big deal.
• 9:41
  You know, the larger flat panel world is really where all of the
• 9:45
  grass is green and where the money's going to be come from
• 9:47
  because, you know, 60 fives are ancillary TV sets.
• 9:50
  Now those are for bedrooms. Those are.
• 9:52
  For those are your second screens the.
• 9:54
  Flip down underneath the cabinet, you know, in the
• 9:56
  kitchen. The, the real, the, you know,
• 10:02
  the real world, the, the rest of us out here, you know, multiple
• 10:05
  TV's and homes and stuff like that.
• 10:07
  Just probably isn't the, the force majeure that you're, that
• 10:11
  you're, you know, you're influenced by, right?
• 10:13
  You don't, you're like, OK, you know, my kids have got 30 twos
• 10:15
  in their room. We've got a 65 and they're 75 in
• 10:18
  the living room and maybe we've got one in our bedroom.
• 10:20
  And that's, that's kind of it, right?
• 10:22
  The, the, the desire to have the biggest screen in the world or
• 10:26
  what have you may not be the, the primary motivation you got
• 10:30
  to have the home, as you're saying, to, to house these kinds
• 10:32
  of things. So.
• 10:34
  That's true. And then you know, you need to
• 10:35
  deal with, you know, there's a lot of other stuff you got to
• 10:37
  deal with right. So now you, you've got a screen
• 10:39
  size that's that's big. You know, how do you, what do
• 10:41
  you do for audio? So, so now you're you know,
• 10:44
  you're finding a spot for your center channel because 100 and
• 10:47
  15135 is a big ass. That's a big ass screen, right.
• 10:51
  So what are you? You know, what are you doing
• 10:53
  now? And your protector takes takes a
• 10:56
  takes a punch in the face too, right.
• 10:58
  Like that's, that's, I mean, 115 I wouldn't say would be, I
• 11:04
  wouldn't ultimately say is competitive with projection, but
• 11:06
  1:30, that's a different, that's a different world, especially if
• 11:10
  it's under 50. Grand for sure.
• 11:13
  You're I, I think, yeah, I think that's a problem.
• 11:15
  And I think one of the problems is that the perception that
• 11:19
  projection is a pain in the butt.
• 11:20
  You know, versus like, OK, now I need to mount this other thing
• 11:23
  on my ceiling. I need to dial it in.
• 11:24
  It needs to be here. It needs to be there.
• 11:26
  It needs to be somebody could cast a shadow on it.
• 11:28
  Like, you know, there's a, there's a litany of things here
• 11:31
  where, you know, just hanging a giant sheet of glass on your
• 11:34
  wall, making sure that, that you know, making sure that it's
• 11:38
  there and level is, is a pretty, pretty easy installation.
• 11:42
  Relative to. Yeah, Relative to, you know,
• 11:45
  maybe ripping out a bunch of drywall or tunneling cabling
• 11:48
  from the back of the room or the front of the room or wherever
• 11:50
  the gear is? Yeah.
• 11:51
  I mean, all of the things that I made a living doing 20 years
• 11:55
  ago. I mean, I understand that, you
• 11:57
  know, homeowners don't want that.
• 11:59
  I mean, God forbid, not for nothing, but if it's me in my
• 12:01
  house, I don't want them. I don't want channelling in the
• 12:05
  drywall. I mean, unless you can fish it
• 12:07
  up there, I don't need you guys in the attic like that.
• 12:10
  It's yeah, that and, and again, that that's the problem is that
• 12:14
  that large screen size used to be a compelling reason to to,
• 12:18
  you know, tear apart some drywall, make that happen, and
• 12:21
  then come back and patch it. Now it's just not worth it,
• 12:24
  right. Like, well, what I would pay a
• 12:26
  contractor, I'm going to pay for this extra, you know, this
• 12:29
  screen or whatever. And yeah, man, that's, it's
• 12:32
  rough. It's it's, it's, it's a rough
• 12:34
  road to hoe. Image fidelity for days on a big
• 12:36
  flat panel versus maybe some of the issues that you got with
• 12:39
  projection over time. And I, I still love projectors.
• 12:42
  I would love to have one. And it's still, I think,
• 12:44
  probably the best bang for your buck from the standpoint of
• 12:47
  screen size to dollar. Well, and the the fact that you
• 12:51
  can, you can perfect screen and you can get audio directly out
• 12:55
  of the content that you're watching instead of off to the
• 12:58
  sides and and way underneath or way above.
• 13:01
  Like, I think that makes a difference, but frankly man, I
• 13:04
  don't think the market cares enough about.
• 13:06
  It's just about to, you know, like you're, you're talking
• 13:09
  about. Swinging sound bars like
• 13:10
  nobody's business. Like who gives a shit you're.
• 13:12
  You're talking about a segment. Yeah, exactly.
• 13:14
  You're talking about a segment of customers that just probably
• 13:17
  don't care at that point. They're like, oh, I can have a
• 13:19
  movie theater anywhere because of the size of the TV.
• 13:21
  So right. Great.
• 13:23
  You know it doesn't matter 'cause I'm gonna be playing
• 13:25
  solitaire at the same time it's on the screen anyway.
• 13:28
  Well, you're not you're about that Chris or or doing split
• 13:31
  screen on my 150 and so I can watch one thing and somebody
• 13:34
  else can watch something else and use Bluetooth headphones to
• 13:36
  listen to it. Like the the tech and the and
• 13:39
  the built in and the stuff that's going on now is really.
• 13:43
  Be together without being. Yeah, really, right.
• 13:45
  Here's your there's your marketing.
• 13:47
  Passively, aggressively be connected to you.
• 13:50
  I can sit here. We can watch a show together in
• 13:54
  the same spot, but we won't watch the same show.
• 13:56
  We won't talk about it. We'll both.
• 13:57
  It's just it's just a husband and wife fulfilling their
• 14:00
  contractual obligation. To be killing each other just
• 14:03
  for a few. Hours at a time.
• 14:04
  Get out, get outside. Get out and do something.
• 14:07
  Get to the gym with your wife. Chris, come on.
• 14:09
  That's your that's your resolution.
• 14:10
  I'm going to badger you now, now that I know that you have a gym
• 14:13
  membership. It's it's over.
• 14:14
  Badger away, buddy, Badger away. This was this was the gym
• 14:17
  membership that I picked up when the gym first moved into town.
• 14:21
  And it's like, you know, a nickel a month or whatever get a
• 14:23
  ridiculous amount and I'm grandfathered in most likely
• 14:27
  because you have to go and cancel in person.
• 14:29
  And I just, that's not, I don't like personal interactions, so.
• 14:32
  I heard that about you. Here we are.
• 14:34
  That's that's who I am. But you know, yeah, yeah.
• 14:39
  Hey, believe it or not, I actually did used to work.
• 14:41
  Out. Well, see, it's not a buffet
• 14:42
  badger anymore. Now it's a workout badger.
• 14:45
  So God. That's my adventure guides name
• 14:48
  is boring Badger just based on that That's sure.
• 14:53
  So yeah, thanks. Let's.
• 14:54
  Extend the branding here. Let's draw this out a little bit
• 14:57
  more. It's all fucking Badgers, right?
• 15:00
  All right, back, back on the rails.
• 15:03
  Resolutions. What?
• 15:07
  What else are what? Are we not gonna?
• 15:10
  What are we resolving not to do in a new year besides me
• 15:13
  resolving not to go to the gym? Yeah.
• 15:16
  Well, I mean for me, I think I am not going to spend the amount
• 15:22
  of time that I spent probably in the last year or two trying to
• 15:27
  define opportunities for dealers.
• 15:31
  And what I mean from that standpoint is trying to insert
• 15:35
  myself into the business operation and say, oh, hey, hey,
• 15:40
  hey, by the way, you know, we've got this, this and this, you
• 15:42
  know, I've seen, I've seen that done, you know, with other
• 15:47
  people. And I don't think I'm
• 15:49
  necessarily, I've fallen 100% victim to that, but I've
• 15:51
  certainly walked into some places and thought, oh, this is
• 15:54
  my opportunity to say whatever. And then I realized, like, oh,
• 15:58
  that's right. That's not the thing to do.
• 16:00
  Like you're here to be a partner.
• 16:02
  You're here to be a silent guy and talk about one thing.
• 16:05
  If they ask you certainly then you're, you're, you know, all
• 16:09
  bets are off. But if you're just there to
• 16:11
  support one thing, you know, I would say the, the resolution to
• 16:15
  follow is to not just constantly be jumping up and down and
• 16:18
  saying, well, what about me? What about this?
• 16:20
  What about that? Maybe the the vendors that we
• 16:24
  know that might listen to this podcast are like, you know,
• 16:27
  that's absolutely what we want you to do.
• 16:30
  But in terms of relationship management, I've seen more what
• 16:34
  is called it dented fenders and you know, tweaked bumpers from
• 16:37
  from guys running into, you know, the sales process or
• 16:42
  saying something that tips the egg cart over for the sales
• 16:46
  pitch. Because, you know, why did you
• 16:48
  have to bring this up? Because now, you know, the
• 16:50
  client's thinking XY and Z, and we had them nailed down to this.
• 16:53
  And because of your lovely input, you know, now we're
• 16:57
  having to scramble and figure all this stuff out.
• 16:59
  So yeah. Get your script straight.
• 17:01
  My resolution is to avoid stepping on my Dick as much as
• 17:04
  possible. It's.
• 17:07
  A valid resolution. Just to, you know, just to, just
• 17:10
  to toe the toe the line for the people that were there to
• 17:13
  support, right. That's really, I think my
• 17:16
  resolution. I think I've, I've, I've held
• 17:18
  that up, but I've had it reinforced here recently and
• 17:22
  it's just a, a nice reminder to be like, yeah, you know what?
• 17:25
  Like you wouldn't give me the time of day to come into your
• 17:29
  $16,000,000 build or any of those other, you know,
• 17:31
  ridiculous sorts of money that we see thrown down on a house.
• 17:35
  If all I did was try to pitch stuff to the builder or to the
• 17:40
  home owner or whatever, right? Like I'm here to support this
• 17:42
  one aspect of your project. Give me an opportunity to talk
• 17:45
  about something else. I will.
• 17:46
  But sure, my my resolution is to not be that guy.
• 17:50
  Well, yeah, and, and, and to be more of a partner to make sure
• 17:53
  that yeah, I, I, I get that. And and, and as somebody who
• 17:56
  works for manufacturer, I'm gonna chastise you for not
• 17:59
  asking for the business because. Everything for the.
• 18:01
  Business is the only guidance I've ever been gotten in sales
• 18:05
  whatsoever. Oh, you need to ask for the
• 18:07
  business. You do I.
• 18:09
  I think there's a way to ask properly though.
• 18:10
  You don't ask in front of a customer.
• 18:12
  No, certainly not. No, definitely not.
• 18:15
  And especially if you're a Rep or manufacturer, right?
• 18:18
  Like have that conversation in private.
• 18:19
  Don't be. You know you don't want to be
• 18:21
  that. Guy, if they're an opportunity.
• 18:22
  To ever want to make right Yep. You you don't yeah, you you
• 18:26
  don't ever want to do that that's a that's a good that's a
• 18:28
  good resolution. I'm not going to ask for
• 18:30
  business anymore all right, cool.
• 18:31
  That's take that and. I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to
• 18:36
  organically, you know, through osmosis, get people to buy
• 18:40
  things cuz they'll go, Oh well, what, what else do you sell or
• 18:42
  what is that other thing that you're doing that's cool, That's
• 18:45
  my phone ringing. That's exciting.
• 18:47
  I was gonna say, you got an old BlackBerry sitting over.
• 18:48
  There I've got it on silent, but it does does vibrate so.
• 18:52
  Right, I remember. Those I have to call.
• 18:54
  I have to call that guy back. I think, I mean, I think there's
• 18:57
  definitely room in in the new year for more, more genuine
• 19:01
  partnerships, right? Like if you're, you know, if, if
• 19:04
  you're a, if you're a custom integrator, you know, having,
• 19:09
  having a nice relationship with your client, with your, you
• 19:12
  know, with your builders and whatever based on here's how I
• 19:15
  can help you. I'm not going to, you know, I'm
• 19:17
  not going to use car salesman. Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to
• 19:20
  be more of a partner in, in, in all ways.
• 19:23
  I think that's that's a big 1 and in that kind of that kind of
• 19:25
  leads into the one that I wanted to bring to the table here.
• 19:29
  And maybe it's because I'm I'm tuned in for this.
• 19:32
  But if, if you are trying to develop that authentic
• 19:36
  relationship and that authentic rapport, you know, or just be an
• 19:40
  authentic person in general, maybe stay away from the
• 19:43
  ChatGPT. You know, that's a good point.
• 19:47
  And what, what kind of hits this?
• 19:49
  I've, I've gotten a, a nice avalanche of emails.
• 19:52
  And maybe it's because like once you see the matrix, you can't
• 19:54
  Unsee the matrix. The all the tells are are in
• 19:58
  this thing. All you see is just the little
• 20:00
  green letters symbols cascading down.
• 20:03
  Yeah, it's, it's just all M dashes, drop it down from the
• 20:07
  sky. But like, you know, I think
• 20:09
  that's, I think that's something we need to really be careful on,
• 20:12
  right. Like, you know, AI and, and
• 20:14
  GPTS, they're not, they're not a silver bullet, right?
• 20:17
  Like they're no substitute for, yeah, fine, you know, run a
• 20:21
  thing through and, and, you know, correct your spelling and,
• 20:23
  and maybe some grammar or whatever.
• 20:25
  But I think in this world, you know, authenticity often times
• 20:30
  comes from that kind of stuff, right?
• 20:32
  Like, you know, just in an informal e-mail that you're
• 20:35
  sending out, right? Like you don't need to run
• 20:37
  everything through, you know, a, a, a formalizer or whatever
• 20:41
  you're using, like just talk to people like they're human beings
• 20:45
  and that is really going to count a lot, You know, be, be a
• 20:50
  human, you know, because it's, you know, it's the same thing as
• 20:54
  like I, I guess a good analogy is like if you're, you know, if,
• 20:58
  if you're an integrator or if you're a business owner and the
• 21:00
  only people you know, the only person who's contacting and, and
• 21:04
  in a sense talking to your clients is like your admin or
• 21:07
  is, is whoever right. Like that's you're not, you're
• 21:11
  not getting yourself across right?
• 21:13
  Like you're not doing it. And it's the same thing with
• 21:14
  GPT. If you're, you know, if GPT is
• 21:17
  to go between between this and you're, you know, taking, taking
• 21:20
  a response e-mail, putting it in there and being like, I need an
• 21:23
  answer for this and needs to do this.
• 21:24
  Like you're not interacting, you're you're talking.
• 21:27
  To a robot. Yeah, and I think there's way
• 21:31
  too much in that. And like, you know, I hate to
• 21:33
  get on this LinkedIn kick, but like, yeah, man, you look all
• 21:35
  over LinkedIn. It's like, wow, that's, that's,
• 21:37
  that's a lot of bullet points and emojis and whatever.
• 21:41
  And like, my first thought is like, this person is completely
• 21:44
  insincere. This is just like, oh, I need to
• 21:46
  make a LinkedIn post. It's like, well, this, there's
• 21:48
  nothing of value that you're sharing, right?
• 21:50
  You're 100%. No, you're not.
• 21:51
  You're. Really just sharing just hot air
• 21:53
  and horseshit. And you know, it's, it's even
• 21:56
  worse when you get that as an e-mail from somebody and you're
• 21:59
  like, wow, OK, this is I I get it.
• 22:02
  The content is is great and and I see, you know, OK, that's
• 22:06
  that's fine. But obviously you plug this into
• 22:09
  something to to try and get your thoughts across because maybe
• 22:14
  your thoughts weren't all there and that's a shame.
• 22:17
  Yeah. I mean, I think that
• 22:19
  automatically knocks you down a notch.
• 22:21
  Yeah, I think there's something to be said for like, I mean, not
• 22:24
  to not to name anybody too specifically here, but I, we
• 22:27
  used to work for a guy who would put on his signature, you know,
• 22:34
  answered from my mobile device, even if it was from his laptop.
• 22:38
  Because the idea really was like, hey, please excuse any
• 22:42
  grammatical or spare spelling errors, but this is a message
• 22:45
  from me, you know? Yeah.
• 22:46
  And I'm trying to get back to you as quick like it it it
• 22:49
  pushes urgency like you are important to me and I may be
• 22:52
  sitting at my kids soccer game, but.
• 22:54
  Please forgive the brevity, you know, please forgive any
• 22:57
  grammatical or spelling errors. I remember reading that as a, as
• 23:00
  a signature and I was always like, why do you do that?
• 23:03
  Like he's like, because I'm usually on my phone, He's like,
• 23:08
  I'm not lying. He's like, but he's like, it
• 23:11
  does convey to your point, it conveys some urgency and it
• 23:15
  conveys some reality to what? Like there's, there's somebody
• 23:20
  on the other end here. I care about what you have to
• 23:22
  say. I'm working on it.
• 23:24
  And even though it may not be expressly said in those words,
• 23:28
  right, but it, it does convey that, you know, assurance to the
• 23:31
  person on the other end that might be freaking out because,
• 23:34
  you know, there's a promo or God, God forbid there's 5% off
• 23:38
  and they didn't get it, whatever, right?
• 23:40
  So. Yeah.
• 23:41
  And, you know, I mean, I think, and, and I again, I think that's
• 23:44
  a good, I think that's a good way to kind of handle it.
• 23:46
  Is this this whole business and, and everything in general is,
• 23:51
  it's about interpersonal relationships, right?
• 23:53
  Like this, this is really where we where we live and die, right?
• 23:57
  Whether you're building a system for a client or trying to be,
• 24:00
  you know, trying to get into a real good place with a trade or
• 24:03
  a builder, an interior designer or whoever.
• 24:05
  Or, you know, if you're like in our situation and you're working
• 24:08
  with dealers or you're working with whoever, like, yeah, that's
• 24:12
  this is that personal touch is is probably the most important
• 24:17
  thing period. And as soon as you wreck that
• 24:20
  veil of, of you know of, of it being a, a personal
• 24:25
  conversation, like you don't get that back.
• 24:27
  No, it's it's correct. You're.
• 24:29
  Cooked. Yeah, yeah.
• 24:30
  You're done. Oh man, you're looking the
• 24:31
  you're using the the new kids slag.
• 24:33
  You're cooked. You're you're child dude.
• 24:35
  Cooked is old. OK, it Cook came back.
• 24:37
  Around OK, I don't, I don't ever remember that one, but what do
• 24:40
  I? Have my, my my.
• 24:41
  Now my newly minted 10 year old is all about telling, telling
• 24:46
  people he, he sold it and Oh yeah, he's selling it.
• 24:49
  He's selling it and like, has no idea what it what it means.
• 24:53
  Something something he heard on, I don't know, Roblox or Fortnite
• 24:56
  or whatever, who knows? Yeah, right.
• 24:59
  So you mentioned LinkedIn earlier, not to derail our
• 25:01
  conversation from all over the resolutions that we're going to
• 25:04
  do or not do, but I, I've noticed and maybe you have to
• 25:09
  the, the, the amount of open to works that hit the, that hit the
• 25:15
  airwaves here and some pretty new year, pretty stellar talent,
• 25:20
  frankly. I mean, whether it's sales
• 25:22
  related, whether it's industry related or what have you,
• 25:25
  there's some pretty heavy hitters that are open to work
• 25:27
  out there. And I was shocked actually by by
• 25:30
  some of the names that I saw. Maybe a.
• 25:32
  Lot of heavy hitters, yeah. You know.
• 25:34
  Definitely, I mean it, it kind of makes you wonder what's going
• 25:38
  on in the industry. And it's sort of like, you know,
• 25:40
  we talked about this on our last show a little bit where, you
• 25:42
  know, exit strategy and exit plan and that kind of thing.
• 25:46
  Like there, there's a very real situation where you could be in
• 25:51
  a job for 20 years and you're, you know, you're working for the
• 25:54
  same company for, you know, 20 years or 10 years or whatever it
• 25:57
  is. And you're getting, you know,
• 25:59
  incremental raises and you're moving up.
• 26:00
  You're moving up and suddenly you're at the top of this ladder
• 26:03
  and that company is not willing to compensate you any further,
• 26:08
  right? So there's no shares to give
• 26:10
  you, there's no ownership stake because maybe it's privately
• 26:13
  held thing or there's whatever the whatever the rationale is,
• 26:16
  how do I give you shares in my building that I don't own yet or
• 26:19
  whatever, right. It's shares in nothing.
• 26:22
  Yeah, like or you want shares in my goodwill, like good, good,
• 26:25
  good on you. You know, whatever, but.
• 26:29
  I'll let you sublet my casita. Yeah, what, what do you like?
• 26:32
  That's a, you know, that's a good thought exercise.
• 26:34
  Like if you're looking for a job in 2026, what are you, are you
• 26:40
  still looking in the custom install space?
• 26:42
  Are you looking outside the custom install space?
• 26:44
  Are you looking 10? You know, are you looking for an
• 26:47
  affiliated, you know, parallel field like what we talked about
• 26:50
  before? Hey, I used to be the the, you
• 26:52
  know, the audio guy and now I'm the fire alarm and security guy
• 26:55
  or, you know, like, what do you do?
• 26:58
  And I think from some of the names that I've seen on there, I
• 27:00
  mean, there we've got techs, we've got sales managers, we've
• 27:05
  got people with, you know, the resumes, you know, longer and
• 27:09
  better than mine. And I'm like, shit, are you on
• 27:12
  the West Coast? Get out of here right now.
• 27:13
  You. Should move east get.
• 27:17
  Out of here once, once you move to Ohio or something, a lot of
• 27:20
  opportunity out there to. Make brake pads or.
• 27:25
  Something, yeah. Come on, dude, let's let's get
• 27:27
  you out of down to Youngstown or something.
• 27:29
  There's there's got to be something going on.
• 27:33
  But you know, it's, and it's funny too, because you see that
• 27:36
  a lot and you also see, and maybe this goes hand in hand
• 27:40
  with that is a lot of folks going into consulting, right?
• 27:44
  So you know, you've done this, you've got this experience and
• 27:47
  now suddenly you're, you know, you're a consultant and you're,
• 27:49
  you're available for for consulting work.
• 27:51
  And maybe that's a great Ave. I don't know how I would do
• 27:55
  that. I've thought about like, you
• 27:57
  know, just pitching it all into the wind and just saying, you
• 28:00
  know, I want to put my own shingle up.
• 28:01
  Like, how do I consult? Like right, I've been giving
• 28:06
  away the note for free for so long, like.
• 28:08
  Right, How do I put this behind a paywall?
• 28:10
  How do I charge for it now right?
• 28:12
  How do I bottle all this negativity and dose it out?
• 28:16
  Really like how do I take my skeptical nature and impart it
• 28:19
  in a way that is financially beneficial to me, right and
• 28:24
  offers a a service and a solution for my for my
• 28:27
  customers. That's a great.
• 28:28
  I, you know, I, I thought about that a lot, especially over the
• 28:32
  last a couple years with, you know, with all the changes and
• 28:34
  stuff, you know, going out and, and doing, you know, doing
• 28:37
  marketing specifically for, for integrators, right?
• 28:40
  Because like that's, that's what I know, you know, and that's
• 28:44
  kind of been my history and I think I can kind of get it in
• 28:46
  there. It's, it's just a grind.
• 28:48
  I think a lot of people can't. And I mean, I can tell you in my
• 28:52
  case, like, you know, I got a mortgage to pay.
• 28:55
  Yeah, the risk from the risk. Versus reward, right?
• 28:58
  I'm not in the low cost of living area and just the idea of
• 29:03
  not, you know, kind of taking a taking a flyer for a little
• 29:06
  while while I build up a, you know, a a stable or a book of
• 29:09
  business is, is something that man, that's that's a tightrope
• 29:13
  without a net. So for me at least, you know,
• 29:16
  that was always kind of the equation is, you know, you can't
• 29:20
  you can't really do that. But if you're much better
• 29:22
  financially there's, you know, with managing your funds than I
• 29:25
  am, then hey, maybe that isn't. There's money out there.
• 29:27
  I mean, I actually had a conversation here recently
• 29:30
  about, you know, some guys and what they were planning to do.
• 29:32
  And I'm like, you know, how do you come up with the capital to
• 29:34
  buy a business? You know, how do you, you know,
• 29:37
  or how do you come up with the capital to start a business
• 29:39
  even? And the answer that came back to
• 29:42
  me and I, you know, I guess I kind of knew about this, but I
• 29:45
  hadn't really thought it all the way through or I hadn't really,
• 29:48
  you know, hold it all the way out to see what it looked like.
• 29:51
  But, you know, like an SBA loan for under half $1,000,000 is
• 29:55
  something that you can do without any collateral.
• 29:57
  You can do that on a personal guarantee.
• 30:01
  And yourself for a couple years. Or, you know, build, build
• 30:03
  yourself, you know, a couple of salaries, you know, for if it's
• 30:07
  you and another guy or if you're buying into a business or
• 30:09
  something like that, like the, you know, there's, there's
• 30:13
  mechanisms here for people to do their own thing.
• 30:16
  And I feel like, you know, that opportunity.
• 30:20
  I mean, I certainly don't have half $1,000,000 that I can do a
• 30:22
  personal guarantee on. But you know, the fact that, you
• 30:27
  know, you could actually go out to Uncle Sam's cookie jar
• 30:30
  essentially, and they would bankroll you puts, puts a
• 30:34
  different spin and a different light on what job security
• 30:38
  means. And kind of takes the yoke off
• 30:40
  of your neck for like, shit, like I've just stepped out into
• 30:43
  the, stepped out in here into the open.
• 30:45
  And now what do I do? You know, I've got a, I've got
• 30:48
  a, you know, I've now I've got a couple $100,000 that I've got to
• 30:51
  pay back in monthly installments.
• 30:54
  And I've got to hit these revenue numbers.
• 30:55
  Like you can use some of that money to pay a loan back, right?
• 30:59
  So that's, that's kind of a, it's kind of one way to look at
• 31:02
  it. You've just described, you know,
• 31:04
  starting a business one-on-one. But.
• 31:06
  I think it's more of AI don't that's.
• 31:09
  I don't think people talk enough about that though.
• 31:11
  Like I, I don't think those tools are something that are
• 31:14
  discussed freely and openly enough with a, with more people
• 31:19
  so that they understand that this is actually an option for
• 31:21
  you. Right.
• 31:22
  Like if you're, I mean, as long as you're not going out looking
• 31:25
  for $1,000,000, I mean, up to half $1,000,000, like up to 500
• 31:28
  grand unsecured. Like you can do that on a
• 31:31
  promise. Yeah.
• 31:32
  Like that's, that's pretty, that's pretty powerful, you
• 31:36
  know, and I feel like, you know, outside of, you know, going out
• 31:43
  and trying to flog LinkedIn to scrape, you know, whatever
• 31:48
  opportunities you can offer there, if you're an
• 31:50
  entrepreneurial person or you've got the drive and you, you can
• 31:53
  see an opportunity, I would encourage anybody to pursue
• 31:57
  that. I mean, I've certainly spent a
• 31:59
  little bit of time kicking it around over the holidays just
• 32:02
  because I didn't really understand how an SBA loan
• 32:05
  worked. And when it was brought up to
• 32:06
  me, I was like, well, shit, like what do you mean unsecured?
• 32:09
  Like what's, you know, there's no, you know, the SBA isn't a
• 32:12
  bank, right? You've got to go go to a real
• 32:13
  lending institution. But when you talk about
• 32:16
  favorable interest rates and you talk about pretty nice terms, I
• 32:20
  mean, OK, here's a 20 year loan on half $1,000,000.
• 32:25
  Like you can stretch these things out to some some pretty
• 32:28
  crazy terms with the right lender.
• 32:30
  So shit, like let's let's talk about why would you?
• 32:34
  Yeah, absolutely. So.
• 32:35
  Hey, resolve to let's let's start a business.
• 32:38
  Oh. Shit, man.
• 32:39
  Is that what we're resolving? I mean, maybe, you know, like
• 32:41
  again, we, we do all these planning meetings live.
• 32:45
  It's true this. Is just cash so.
• 32:47
  Just too dopes kicking it around.
• 32:49
  Yeah. But you know, I think that is
• 32:51
  something that you know, as you look to your future, anybody
• 32:55
  that's listening to this, if you're, you know, younger,
• 32:59
  bright eyed, more bushy tailed than than some of us or or maybe
• 33:03
  you're. You're the strings attached.
• 33:05
  Yeah, you're a pro already and you're just like, oh shit, I
• 33:08
  didn't even thought about getting an SBA loan.
• 33:10
  I was thinking about what kind of collateral you had to come up
• 33:12
  with. Like you're trying to buy a
• 33:13
  house or something. Like you, you can get a an SBA
• 33:17
  loan on a handshake where you know they're looking for kidneys
• 33:20
  and lungs. If if you want to buy a house,
• 33:22
  it's a down payment, right? So, well, not your lungs and not
• 33:25
  my kidneys, but anyways, the, the, the reality of all of that
• 33:31
  is. Those are in a free box down at
• 33:33
  the corner. You could put yourself, you
• 33:34
  could put yourself in a financial vehicle to drive not
• 33:38
  only professional revenue, but also provide for your family and
• 33:43
  provide for your future fairly, fairly low risk so.
• 33:48
  Yeah. And that's, hey, that is that is
• 33:51
  a great option. And you're right.
• 33:52
  You know, you look out there, you look at the world and it's
• 33:55
  like, wow, OK, well, I don't really want to be part of this.
• 33:58
  For that, what am I not going to do this year?
• 34:00
  Well, I'm not going to join a piece of shit company that I
• 34:02
  don't really have any. I'm going to do my best.
• 34:06
  But you know, it is, it is certainly an an option for
• 34:11
  people out there that again, are maybe looking to circle back to
• 34:14
  some of the consolidation and some of the other things that
• 34:16
  we're seeing out here. How do I get into the game?
• 34:21
  Uncle Sam could bankroll that for you.
• 34:23
  You you can. You can beat fear, uncertainty
• 34:25
  and doubt by betting on yourself.
• 34:27
  And passion is always the best. When you bet on yourself, you
• 34:30
  know true failures hurt really bad.
• 34:34
  And you know what I mean? Honestly, like you're, you're
• 34:36
  kind of playing the odds because you know what, what are the
• 34:39
  chances that the federal government's going to be around
• 34:40
  to collect on this loan in 20 years?
• 34:41
  I mean really great. Great question.
• 34:43
  I I don't know. Not to be that guy.
• 34:47
  But and you don't have to do it, you don't have to do a 20 year
• 34:50
  loan, right, like you could, you could pick some other terms.
• 34:52
  But I was just surprised at some of the like when I did my
• 34:56
  research, when I was shocked at some of the money that was
• 34:59
  available for seemingly fairly innocuous commitments or, you
• 35:05
  know, oversight. You know, yes, you've got to be
• 35:07
  a business. Yes, you've got to have a tax
• 35:09
  ID. Yes, you've got to have a, a
• 35:11
  business plan that you can present and you're going to be a
• 35:13
  viable thing. You can't just get 500 grand and
• 35:15
  park it in ACD and then pay it all back real quick in four
• 35:19
  months or something like that. Although the wheels are turning.
• 35:24
  Twirl that, twirl that mustache. Twirl my, twirl my.
• 35:28
  You know what does? That guy, I can't remember his
• 35:32
  name. Snidely Whiplash.
• 35:33
  There we go. Twirl that mustache.
• 35:36
  Twirl that mustache. But yeah, I mean there there's
• 35:39
  opportunities out there for for capitalism still.
• 35:42
  There's opportunities to grow yourself professionally and
• 35:45
  personally. And I think for 2026, you know,
• 35:49
  the, the tea leaves are still looking generally OK, I, I maybe
• 35:54
  I'm wrong about that, considering some of the things
• 35:56
  that are going on in the world, but.
• 35:57
  Yeah, it's not gonna. I mean, it's not gonna all come
• 35:59
  crashing down at once. I mean, maybe it will, but I you
• 36:01
  know, the odds of that are pretty.
• 36:03
  Slow. Too many rich people invested in
• 36:04
  the stock market for that shit to crash so and they got their
• 36:08
  hand on the wheel behind the scenes.
• 36:10
  So. You know, yeah.
• 36:12
  Yep. Well, good.
• 36:13
  It's it's nice to wrap up with a message of hope.
• 36:16
  Well, go out there, get an SBA loan for a couple 100 grand and
• 36:19
  and start a thing. Do a do a deal.
• 36:21
  I'll. Co sign ya, then come, come hire
• 36:24
  us. All right.
• 36:26
  Well, thanks everybody for for for joining us today.
• 36:29
  Hope your hope your first. You know 7 days of the new year
• 36:32
  has gone well and we will talk to you next time.
• 36:36
  Take care everybody. Bye bye.