The New Addition: A Podcast!
I am excited to announce a new addition to the “From the Fabricator” family. I have launched a new monthly podcast! Yes, as if once a week my writing was not enough, now once a month you can see/hear me talking up the industry.
The podcast is going to have a similar feel to what I do here but featuring several segments and short interviews. Each episode will have industry folks talking about products, projects, events and so on. For my first episode I was honored to have on Tim Kelley, president at Tristar Glass, talking about the amazing culture at his company, challenges from 2020 and what’s ahead in the new year.
Then Tom O’Malley, managing partner at Clover Architectural joined me and took an awesome dive into two neat projects. Finally, Urmilla Sowell, technical director/czar at the National Glass Association stopped in and we previewed the NGA Glass Conference. At the beginning, I give some thoughts on our world and at the end, “Fun stuff,” including a must watch documentary…
The debut episode has some minor kinks to work out, but I think for a maiden voyage it turned out ok. It is in video form here, or you can find its podcast form by searching in your phone in the Podcast section, in Apple, Spotify and many others.
I am excited to say that I have already lined up some awesome guests for next month, so we are off and rolling. I welcome any and all thoughts and suggestions, and appreciate you adding it to your listening or watching cycle. Thank you.
And before I move on, thanks to Andrew Haring and John Wheaton for giving me the push and inspiration to do this. John’s “Creating Structure” pod is the gold standard and I will always be pushing that here too. And speaking of John’s podcast, his latest with the awesome Jerry Schwabauer of Azon is out now. Incredible talk and the “iceberg” theme is a meaningful one amongst an excellent discussion. Check it out here.
Elsewhere…
Architectural Billings Index
As predicted, the December Architectural Billings Index came in with a rough score. The index dipped 3.7 points to come in at 42.6. Brutal score, but honestly expected. Everything else stayed flat, including new project inquiries which have been solid at 52.4 (50 is the break-even score on all). The good news is inquiries keep happening, which is something to hang your hat on at least for a little bit of hope. The index being down is something that continues to be a worry, especially if it doesn’t show some better signs of life in the next few months. Again, we knew we had some valleys coming our way, question continues to be how long it will take us to traverse them.
NGA Glass Conference
Do not forget to sign up for the NGA Glass Conference; it is coming up on Feb. 9. Everyone always talks about getting government work. Well, one of the main sessions is a great piece on the innerworkings of the GSA. If you truly want to know what makes that segment tick you will sign up for this. Here’s the link, and oh by the way, check out that company rate: one flat rate and you can have a bunch of people from your organization take part. Incredible deal.
FHC Welcomes Danny Donahue
Nice move from the team at Frameless Hardware Co. with the addition of Danny Donahue as brand manager for Frameless Shower Hardware. Danny is major influential force amongst the shower door community (I think only Chris Phillips may be bigger) so it’s a great add. I also like it because Danny has always been active in helping the industry by being involved at the NGA level, and volunteering his time and insight. I assume that approach will continue in his new role too. Congrats, Danny and FHC!
New Logo for General Motors
Last this week; did you know that General Motors is debuting a new logo? I did not, until I saw a post from Alex Buechel of Learn Glazing. He posted them, and there was some good give and take amongst a bunch of commenters. I personally do not like it; I am a traditionalist, and there’s certain logos and looks you just don’t mess with it (Like my pal Steve Cohen and his Penn State Nittany Lions; imagine if they added a logo on the helmets or came out with new uniforms. Wouldn’t work). Anyway, if you are on LinkedIn, check this link out and add your thoughts.
