What Builders Want from Partners: Quality, Communication, Corvin’s

Jesse Sampley (00:00.334)

Welcome back to the Meridian Pursuit Builders Podcast. I'm your host Jesse Sampley, and this is where we sit down with home builders, developers, real estate professionals, and industry leaders who are out there doing the work. You'll hear real conversations about markets, design, mistakes, and lessons learned, and how builders can position themselves in a way that brings more customers to the table. Let's dive in.

Jesse Sampley (00:32.142)

I am Tony McPeak. I'm Megan McPeak. We are third generation owners of a family owned business. Our business started about a little bit over 50 years ago in the Hardin County area. My grandfather was military and was stationed here at Fort Knox and on his second or third tour of Vietnam.

My grandmother, which is Japanese, they were married and she was wanting something for her and her kids to have in case something happened to my grandfather in Vietnam. Because you know, you go one tour, two tours, there's not a promise on anything. So they stopped in to this little grocery store, had it for sale by owner, little general store, and it was in Vine Grove. And they went in there, my grandfather.

asked the gentleman, says, place for sale? And he said, yes. So the guy was gracious enough to own or finance it. And when my grandfather was off to war, that's what my mother and her siblings, and there was four kids, my mom's Joni, she's the oldest, and then there was Mark Corvin, and then Carl Corvin, and then Nancy Corvin. And from there, that's where Corvin's general store kind of stemmed from.

I think the reason why the grocery store was just faked is because when my grandfather was growing up, his mother had a grocery store in Oak Hill, Ohio. And so as a young child, he grew up in a general store. So it was kind of a comfortable, natural fit, which I don't know if taking on debt is ever comfortable or risking something like that.

That's kind of like how everything originated. And today we're blessed to have, you know, you know, going in, I'm third generation owner, but you have my mom, which was active in the business. My uncle Mark has two stores, one in Barstown and Lexington. My aunt Nancy, she has a nice furniture store here in Hardin County. And then my uncle has a furniture and moving company that we started in Radcliffe.

Jesse Sampley (02:57.046)

So that's kind of the back story. grandpa returned from Vietnam. You know, they are, were entrepreneurs at an early state, you know, so they started in that grocery store and then, you know, my grandfather got his real estate license, was able to, to come across some different real estate opportunities. And then they ended up selling, my grandmother sold. And that was something that

she was very good at and then that kind of got us in the textile business in the carpet. They sold some used furniture and that's how we got into furniture business. And now, I mean, we, deal with on my side, we have, you know, a floor covering and cabinetry here and we have the furniture business. it's something that kind of like we just kind of stayed with, know, from the general store to the furniture side.

to the textiles and the flooring, did it just, did one big thing happen or did it just kind of come naturally? No, it was, mean, I remember, you know, growing up very modest. You know, when I grew up, I was growing up in a trailer park. It was just a lot of hard work. And I think that with all of us working as a family, we weren't give up on each other.

And I think that was the most important thing. My grandfather really instilled a hard work ethic that we still carry on to me and Megan's children. Me and Megan will be married for 30 years next year. We have another generation that's working with us here at the store, but them being able to hear the stories and the struggles and my family, they've been in all kinds of businesses and they successful to the point, yes,

Did it work? But was it a work? Yes. And some of them just it was so hard to where we just couldn't do it anymore. Like we ventured into my dad. No, even my dad. His name is Mike and that's where the McPeak comes from. My dad, he I can remember as a kid, he used to pump gas out of gas station and he would.

Jesse Sampley (05:20.014)

worked there at nights and then he had an agricultural degree and he had a lawn carrying business that he started and he sprayed lawns during the day. My mom would help him and then come to the furniture store and work in the afternoon. And at one point we ended up getting into the restaurant business, which was a disaster. The only thing that I can take away from that was good from the restaurant business is I remember being in middle school and being able to watch the Arsenal Hall show because

That's what time I got home at night. know, so, you know, there was just, there were sacrifices, but the sacrifices kept us close as a family. You know, it's kind of, you work together, you break bread together. You're going to have, you're going to be successful. That's a testament to the family character that you guys have being, it sounds like five generations in, you know, not, not only sustain what you guys had, but also grow.

you know, with your family right there. That's, that's pretty amazing. have a sister, you know, she has a store in Texas. So the things that were, that were taught to us at a young age, you know, I didn't, did not. And, know, I spent a little bit of time at a community college, but I was learning and being educated by my grandfather and my parents from a early age of, you know, treat people like how you want to be treated, you know,

It may cost you to do the right thing, but do the right thing. You know, it's just those values, somehow we've lost that a little bit. And I'm just fortunate that I was able to grasp and keep a hold of that and be able to pass that down to my kids. I would not let my kids have a job unless I knew they had to work. So they had to work for me first. So at an early age, they were working for us. Yeah. My dad, he was the same. So my dad was a home builder.

And he, were on his job sites from as early as I can remember. And he did something that was pretty cool is he, if the project allowed for it, then he would say, Hey, instead of hiring a framing crew, I'll let you guys do this. And he said, I'll let you guys take over framing. I'm not going to pay you as much as I was going to pay the real contractors to come in and do it, but it's going to give you an opportunity to, learn. it was.

Jesse Sampley (07:44.48)

It was really, really hard work and we did that, you know, all the way up until high school, but really taught us, you know, really strong work ethic and to have pride in your work. She, she, she gets on me like, so we'll go on vacation and after three days I'm climbing the walls. I can't wait to get back to do this. You know, I am fortunate. get to, you know, wake up every day and not only do I get to do what I love, I get to.

opportunity to help so many people, not just customers, but the people that I've been blessed to be a steward of that worked for me. when you can see people's lives transformed and change, that is really fulfilling. And you guys work a lot with just homeowners or you work with primarily builders or what is, what does that ratio look like?

It's I mean We work with both honestly I would say probably percentage as we're probably 60 % homeowner and 40 % builder right now 2008 2009 changed a lot of that we used to be primarily a of building business and It just unfortunately that time period Cost a lot of livelihoods for a lot of builders and then

There was just some people or some builders that were on the roster that really it wasn't good for our company to keep. So we built strong relationships with the builders that we do work for and it's an ongoing relationship. They know that if I tell them something, it's going to get done. They don't have to worry about the pricing with me. I'm not trying to.

to take advantage of any situations. It's a lot of trust there. you know, and then the homeowner side, you know, we get, that's the nice thing with us. We are able to kind of play both areas of that market because we have a lot of salespeople and then me and Megan too, I mean, we have a lot of design backgrounds for doing this for so many years that we can help the woman or the gentleman that.

Jesse Sampley (10:07.48)

that needs that attention to help them just pick out colors. I help them pick out paint colors and I don't sell paint, but I want to make sure that their project turns out just exactly how they want it to. Yeah. What other kind of assets do you think you bring to the table from even a builder side? Because it sounds like you could alleviate a lot of stress or decisions just by your expertise that you guys have. I like it for my builders and I hope they feel this way, but

I like it when they send their homeowner in, they have the confidence that one, I'm going to try to find something for that customer within their budget. And then two, I'm going to discuss like the differences between a budget and what they want. A lot of times homeowners have a hard time realizing that when a builder is, they're in competition with other builders in their area.

So if they give you a budget that is 50 % higher than the next builder, then they may have not even got the opportunity to build that home for them. So we take an approach to where we take the budget in consideration, but we also with Pinterest and Howes and all these different apps that are available for people, we go and try to educate them on this is not what you standardly look at in a home, even in a custom.

You know, we're doing a home right now that is it's in the Wolf area and so we're $5 million. And even their expectations on their budgets wasn't what they thought it was going to be. But until a homeowner shops for something, they really don't know what it's going to cost them. They just know that why get by when they see it. But to say what, why do you think that is? I think it's perception and,

of what they're seeing on social media. And I think that a lot of times social media and networking on like HGTV and these programs, they will show a product, a finished product. And, you know, I've seen it many times on TV where they'll say this floor cost $1.50 a square foot. Well, I know for a fact that floor is $7 a square foot. it's just

Jesse Sampley (12:25.612)

But again, you know that their job is entertainment too. Here's Obi. This is our grand dog. You can't leave him out. our grand dog. But we, you know, it's just what people see. They don't realize the cost of what that's going to be. And that's where we come in because we don't want it to look like the builder did anything wrong when he was budgeting their home because he has no idea what you want when he's

pricing two by fours and mills and concrete. mean, finishes in our market finishes just changed. Yeah, so much. Right now is a very challenging part because of the tariff situation. know, carpet is manufactured in the US. So you can control a lot of cost with carpet. But the hardwoods

The hardwood manufacturers, a lot of them come out of Canada. A lot of them are even overseas in China and different in Vietnam. And with the tariffs, I mean, prices fluctuate. Fuel surcharges cause things to fluctuate. Tile business, tile comes from Italy. Even though that, you're shopping in a store in Hardin County, Kentucky, that product has came by ship, plane or rail. And there's a cost to that.

And I think that's the perception. we just, we just this year we invested about 1.2 million in our own business for infrastructure to kind of help the consumers in our area. And what I mean by that is we did a huge warehouse expansion to where my warehouse is a 75 by 150 and we upped our stocking. So

Like right now, I may have 15 different SKUs of different hardwoods that people can choose from. I may have 30 different types of click together vinyl, and we have probably over 200 rolls of carpet to select from in stock. See, when I can do that and use my buying power by buying truckloads, it helps the person coming in looking for a 12 by 17 bedroom. How much extra time does that give you to be able to control

Jesse Sampley (14:45.986)

the pricing by having so much bulk. Well, what it does is it helps us control the installation factor because we can, if someone comes in, you know, we are a buy it, receive it now type of generation or even mindset in America. If we see it, we want it, we buy it. I want to take it home with me. The carpet and floor covering is still a touch and fill a purchase. You want to touch it, you want to feel it, you want to experience it.

So what that helps us do is we don't have to wait five to seven days for shipments to come in on ordering. If we have it here and now, then we could put it in in three days. We put it in before they special order would even think about coming in. So we order by the truckload. We get a discount for that for quantity. And then also instead of paying for one pallet of tile on a freight.

we pay for 15 pallets of tile at one time and we can split that cost up between the 15 pallets. So it saves the end user money as well. Yeah, the cost will, you know, there's no, just because we're buying that much, it's not like we're making more money. We're extending those prices because we're in competition just like anybody else. So we keep our products in stock at very, very good margin.

buy a truckload of something, you know, it could last us six months. But usually I will barter or bargain that pricing structure for that year. Yeah. So we'll say if we're going to buy this truckload, then we want to lock in this price for the entire year. So that way, if I have to, and I'm usually then I'll go in and I'll buy quantities of three pallets instead of just one pallet. And if you're buying that far in advance, are there trends that you're keeping up with?

Yeah, we try to stay neutral. You know, we don't tend to go very exotic on one thing or the other and trends tend to be around for three to five years before they're going to change again. know, grays were like the craze, you know, five or six years ago. And now it's, it's coming back into the beige tones. Yeah. Have has the black and white has that gotten, is that trend over?

Jesse Sampley (17:02.51)

The farmhouse. No, it's still out there. I think it's still out there, but I think you're starting to see a little of it fading. People are going instead of whites. They're going to more creams, creams. Yes. We're gosh, we're seeing brass come back in chrome. You know, so if you keep it long enough, it'll come back. But you know, like I think with us like on carpeting back in the 80s.

some of the carpets that manufacturers came out with with last 15 to 20 years. And so the repurchase of carpet, didn't have to happen that much. just, some of those carpets, they're just don't, with the surgence of hard surface, carpets just don't last that long anymore. Man. So we probably see people changing out their room every three to five years. And what's as nice is,

I mean, how often does a woman keep her hairstyle for three years? How often do I keep a set of golf clubs? Probably every two years. So I get tired of things just like everyone else. So it gives you the opportunity to change something. Knowing that, what advice would you give someone that's building a custom home? They're at the part to where they've been given an allowance and they're choosing different products. Would you pass that on to them?

Usually we'll start that by kind of getting to know them, seeing what their lifestyle is like. Do they have children? Do they have pets? What is their daily activity? What's your expectations on the flooring? Is it just a temporary until you want to put something in when your kids are older and they move out? You all those questions we kind of take into consideration. And then you have clients that

they are dead set on, they want something that is, wears like steel. And then, you know, a lot of times we'll show them that and price it to them. Then they're like, okay, let's, let's kind of back off a little bit. But you know, with today, what the late finishes are on hardwood, the way they finished the pre-finished hardwoods and some of these new, innovative products on the vinyl, vinyl lines, they are very durable.

Jesse Sampley (19:21.78)

And I think that people would be shocked of what they have to spend just to get to get a good product. They don't have to reinvent the wheel or go pull a separate mortgage on something to buy a nice flooring. What's the most important spec that you're looking for with a good flooring? it millware or there's something different people should look at? Well, I think wear layer has a lot to do with it and what type of wear layer it is. You know, a lot of

You know, like when people do a lot of sand and finish hardwood, that urethane is going on that floor only to the temperature and the environment that it is installed in. When you go with a pre-finished hardwood, and normally sand finish, they can only put three coats of poly on it, and it's just straight urethane. So it's softer. On these pre-finished hardwoods, these engineered hardwoods, or even if it's a solid, manufactured hardwood,

They're putting seven to 10 coats of sprayed finish on it with aluminum oxide, which is very scratch resistant. It's better for UV lights. So it's a lot more durable. On the LVPs, if it was me, I probably wouldn't buy an LVP product if it was under eight millimeters thick total thickness. And I would try to find something with a 20 mil layer minimum.

We've had a surge of inexpensive LVP and a lot of that has been stemmed from the box stores and you'll have these vinyl clicked products that are $1.99 and you have to, I sell, I have to carry them because I have people looking for them, but I can guarantee you within three years those products will fail and they will come apart. It may not even take three years. And that's probably not even factoring in

And if you have a poor, a more poor installation job than another, then there may be a defect on the floor from me from the very first time it was installed, you know, a little buck or something like that, that yeah, the lock and fold floors, there's so many, they, if you read the instructions and the limited warranty on the instructions of the lock and fold floor, there is not a floor.

Jesse Sampley (21:42.624)

in the building industry that is within tolerance. You only way to get that floor within tolerance is a poor self-leveler because I don't know anything that can be within a sixteenth of and four foot. So it has to be almost level. So manufacturers and that goes to like manufacturers will warranty a product, but your warranty is only as good as the store you buy it from. If you buy it from a reputable store and something

Preferably probably a small business instead of a box stores just going to give you a way I'm to call and try to get your problem. Take care Like you come to us you're dealing with one of our sales representatives a manager or if it gets to a point you let you'll talk to me the owner or Megan the owner Warranties are only as good as the store you buy it from on the carpet side You know carpet is changed a bunch and the carpet today is softer

It's more stain resistant. We have carpet that's in this display sitting behind us. You could spill bleach on it and it won't take the color out of it. So some of the products that are out there are just amazing, especially for an active household that even has pets. You know, these carpets now, they're the pet proof ones. It is very hard to stain them. So it is, you know, I'm a carpet guy. I like.

you know, stepping on carpet versus something hard. Now she wins and we put hardwood in our house. then rugs on top of Put rugs on top of it. So we also sell a lot of area rugs and Oriental rugs as well. Okay. You guys do installation? Yes. We do. Everything we sell, we install. I would imagine that the relationship is pretty well with builders to say, Hey, you guys are going to, I'm going to send my customer in. You're going to help them pick out the product.

And then after they pick the product out, then I'm just going to coordinate with you guys to come and install it. And I don't know if this factors into it or not, but since you also have the furniture side, it seems like you've got your position so perfectly for a builder to say, Hey, you can take care of so much for us all in one time and under one umbrella. Tell me about a little bit of the relationship that you have with builders from all of that. think the builders.

Jesse Sampley (24:05.184)

Some of the builders choose to just do flooring with us. And you know, we're happy to have that business. And then more and more than we've over the years that we've done custom cabinetry, we have a lot of builders that we handle with the cabinetry, the countertops and the flooring. And what's nice about that is you can send a homeowner to one location and they can pick out their flooring and cabinetry without having to look samples around everywhere. And you're going to have

direct attention to that customer, full service to where we're going to try to meet every need that they possibly have, spend time with them and educate them on all the products. do, we probably are, about 60 % of our builders are using our cabinetry lines now. So it's really nice. And I think the builders, I don't want to speak for them, but there has to be a sense of relief whenever

Because look, they're building more than one house and they can't walk around and hold a customer's hand on every decision they make. They are relying on us as professionals to kind of lead their customers and to help their customers in that particular area. Maybe lighting, cabinetry, whatever it may be, the different professions. We need to take that responsibility so the builder can go on to the next thing he needs to do. And then.

What happens is, is after we get down to that customer, we send our quotes and let the builders know what the homeowners have selected. And if there's any, what we like to do, if there's any kind of upgrade experience or anything, we have those conversations upfront with the builder first and then discuss it with the homeowner. And then we try to get those upgrades done here at the store directly instead of it being a bargaining chip at a closing table for the billable. Yeah. Now that makes sense.

You guys, how do you coordinate with other subcontractors? You know, I know a lot of these builders are on, you know, tight schedules. The person purchasing the home is always wanting to, you know, get in by a certain date. And it's always a, the schedule is always something that's being juggled. How do you guys work with other subcontractors and make sure that when you're actually complete, you know, you don't have the wrong subcontractor right behind you guys that are, you know, maybe messing up what you guys just did. A lot of that scheduling responsibility is on the

Jesse Sampley (26:30.818)

the builder. So he looks at his house and determines what stage it's in and what it needs next. in a lot of times it's several weeks out because he knows what's going to need to happen right after that. And we live in a small community. So a lot of the subs are used to working together on even if it's even if the builder changes, the subs are still the same a lot of times. So they have the same painters, they may have the same trim guys. So they're used to working together.

And then when it's time for us to come in and lay the flooring and the cabinets or vice versa, then we schedule that with the builder. We will not alter schedules by talking with another sub because the builder, the one that's putting the footers in and finishing that house.

ultimately has their name on the outs. So everything is scheduled directly through the builder because another sub may ask us to do something to make something easier on his life, but it's not what the builder wanted. So everything's directed back to Now tell me, you guys have warranties on some product or all products? All products. Do you have any stories that you've had to use that and use the warranty? Yeah, I mean, they're

You know, in a perfect world, you'd never have problems. you know, you don't want problems, but sometimes, you know, either the installer wasn't having a good day that day, or you may have had something wrong with an actual manufacturer defect in a product and you didn't catch it. Unfortunately, in our world, if we lay it, we own it. So if we put it down, there was a manufacturer defect, the manufacturer

will turn its back on the homeowner and void the warranty and says it's installation related. It's not the homeowner's fault that the product was defected or it wouldn't be the fault of the homeowner if the product was installed improperly. And I've had times to where I thought 100 % for certain that everything looked great and it was performing good until something was brought to my attention and then we've ended up replacing. I just

Jesse Sampley (28:49.678)

You know, I will always kind of side with my homeowners before I will side with the manufacturer because my homeowners are my repeat customers. My relationship with the manufacturers, it's a transactional relationship. I don't have to see a manufacturer in a grocery store or shopping at Target, you know, where I sometimes will see homeowners and a lot of times we'll see them at ballparks or wherever it may be. And I want

to have a good name behind our business. We've been here, like I said, for over 50 years and that means a lot to me. Now, I can tell you not every customer probably would hear that and say, I'm speaking hogwash. But I'm telling you, the times that we have found something and no one wants to be wrong, right? But the thing is, is when you look at something black and white,

And if something's brought to me, I know that we didn't fulfill the things on our side. And if it was something that was manufacturer related, that they found a reason to claim it on us, then we're going to take care of those issues. You can't fake your reputation. You can for a little bit, but over time.

And you said this earlier, but it goes back to your values and how you treat people. And you want to be honest by people. You want to help those people and you can never fake that stuff. I see on a, on a digital side, you know, those are Google reviews. Those are Facebook reviews. That's kind of the social proof that, you know, people can air whatever they want about a company online and Facebook and all these places. They really love it to see that interaction and to say, Hey, if someone

left you really good review. Take the time to appreciate that, respond to that person. If someone leaves you a bad review, respond to that person, hear that person out and see how you can mitigate that. And then on just the social proof, it just shows people too, like, hey, these people are going out of their way. Obviously everything's not going to be perfect, but these people are going out of their way to try to resolve this. And when someone's in the market for something, you know, those reviews really do play a crucial role. Yeah, I think what

Jesse Sampley (31:06.434)

where we're fortunate is our son, Braden, he's a twin. He's here at the store with us and his wife, Maura, she graduated from Western with a degree in marketing. am not the best Facebook user. like going through, everyone's like photos. I don't like seeing all the negative stuff. She's really good at our marketing side and it's kind of really helped us.

You know, before more was here, we were fortunate to have a lady by the name of Debbie Andrews. She really helped us on marketing campaigns. And it's just, you know, even though Debbie was older than us, but that was kind of her niche. It's like, wouldn't know what to do with the video camera. Yeah. But you give me a piece of flooring. I can do just about anything you want with it. So we just like anybody else, like the builders rely on us for our profession.

We rely on people that are professional in their fields, in the marketing and commercials and stuff. have you guys seen work well on the marketing side? Really a lot of social media, but not just, regular content. People really like to interact when it comes to do something with the dogs. They really like seeing the reviews, testimonials. So we're fortunate enough to have those to be able to put on our

on our webpage and on our social media feeds. And then more in Braden, I think they did a Harry Potter thing, TikTok, and it had tons of views of people who weren't even in the state of Kentucky. You know, it's just those things there, I think, is really going to be important. The social media side of business for any small business to be successful, they're really going to have to learn how to do that. And with AI coming out.

It's changing even faster. And I feel like advertising is more than just your social media and your TV. It's also your community. Every school in the area comes to us several times a year wanting us to sponsor something, whether it be the ball-filled sign or for their jerseys or cross-country teams. So that's a way of advertising. We recently just donated a big piece of carpet.

Jesse Sampley (33:29.486)

for a cross country. They had a big meat going on. They needed some carpet to walk on. So we donated that. We give away free remnants to teachers. Yeah, we give away free remnants to teachers every year after their classrooms. So it's really, it's about putting yourself out there, giving those dollars where you can. And people appreciate it. Yeah, I think people do appreciate it. And I think that when it comes down to them making a decision on trying to buy something at a box store,

or buying something from a small business that may make the difference. You know, hey, look, Corvin's has supported my kids' basketball team or whatever it may be, baseball. So I think that does make a difference. Well, people like to buy from people that they love and there's no better way to showcase what a business's personality is. I mean, you say business, but really it's the owners, it's the company culture, and there's no better way to show that than on social media. You can see a very polished commercial.

And you can run that same commercial as a Facebook ad or an Instagram ad, but you know, the ad that's going to work a lot better on social media is someone holding a phone, talking to the camera and showing them maybe some different flooring options and just being real and authentic. And this is what I've seen over the years is that, you know, so much time and effort and thought goes into this, a most amazing commercial. And then you pair that up against someone recorded on their phone and.

took them 15 minutes to do and it just will get way more views, way more clicks, gets tons more leads. That's the thing that you see all these different people on social media and they just want to relate. Customers want to relate to who they're buying from. Yeah. And also be educated. If you're the leader, then you can educate people and say, hey, if you're going to buy flooring, here are the three things that I would do that I would check before you buy flooring. Hey, that's a great nugget that

I can, wherever I shop, but I know that, Corvin's gave me a piece of advice that I'm going to use now while I'm in the market for shopping. Yeah. I think the more and more we're getting into that digital world, people, when you see the more personal ads on social media, like Megan said, it allows them to connect in a personal way instead of just a thumb click. You know, such a habit of just moving that finger.

Jesse Sampley (35:53.272)

that when someone can relate to you on a personal level of, you know, of what your home, because your home, you know, it's every man's castle. Yeah. It may not be the 5.5 million. It may not be the 150. It may be a $30,000, but it's still their castle and it's kind of their sanctuary. So we try to give everyone the same attention, no matter what their pocketbook can spin.

Well, tell me what's next for Corbin's. You guys are doing a whole lot now, but what's next? Well, hopefully we just got we just got done remodeling two of our showrooms. We remodel every couple of years. Yeah. And we're getting ready to expand our cabinetry showroom. Our cabinets are doing well. And so we're getting ready to start that here. January 1. January. And then after we get done with those remodels, we'll probably remodel the tile room next year.

And then from there, we should be good for a little bit. If there's any expansions that are going to be done, hopefully it's Brighton's expansion. Well, that is awesome. Well, as we wrap up here, do you guys have some key relationships that are real important for you and your business to grow? Yeah, our our builders are definitely a really important part of our relationships with the community. You know, when we have a homeowner that shops.

We may see them every couple of years, but a builder will see them, you know, at least, you know, once or twice a month or something like that. But that relationship is really strong. think with us, we've done a really good job from the beginning, from what my grandfather had, was minimizing debt. So we don't carry a huge debt ceiling, but when we do need something from a local bank.

we're able to go in there and have a good relationship with them as well. And then, you know, really my people here, the people that work for me directly, my sales staff, my water processors, and my guys in the warehouse in the back. mean, and the installers, installers are crucial. They are probably what drives our industry the most because that is the, was a guy that wrote a book. What is your

Jesse Sampley (38:15.49)

What is your shrinking iceberg? And installers is our shrinking iceberg. The more that melts, we just don't have very many people there in that trade. And that trade is not taught in a school. It's taught by hard work. It's taught by dedication. And a lot of times it's passed down from generations. you know, that is just a very important side of our relationship with our installers. Cause ultimately, you know, we're putting

installers in homeowners homes, not houses, they're in their homes. And we have to trust our people that they are out there getting 100 % every day. And that customer is going to be satisfied with the from the install to you greeting her at the door to when you're leaving your truck and you're going to your next job. The installers is a crucial, crucial role for our business.

ones that the homeowners see often before they come in here. we have to make sure that they're going to represent corporate's wealth. People remember the last touch point. Yeah. Yeah. And we've been fortunate. We have, we have good, good people working for us. All right. That's a wrap for this conversation. If you know someone who should be on this podcast, send us an email at info at Brady and pursuit.com and nominate them. We're always looking for great stories to share. And if you got something out of this episode,

Please leave us a quick review on the show and if you're watching on YouTube, tap like and subscribe so we can share this with more people. I'm Jesse Sampley, thanks for listening and I'll see you on the next one.