Life and Business Lessons
Exciting new podcast for this month is now live! Went from coast to coast in a few different sides of our business and really walked away with a lot of insight.
- I start off with a tremendous time with Ricardo Maiz, president of Vitro Architectural Glass. Ricardo covers his amazing path to the current, Vitro’s gains in the market, the awareness of the challenges ahead and also some inspired favorite athlete choices. All of that and a ton more.
- Then to Carey Mobius, president of Garibaldi Glass. Carey and company do incredible work, and we look at one stunning job, but also talk meat and potatoes of the business and Carey dropped some seriously smart business knowledge too. (One line I am stealing for sure and using in Toronto this week at Top Glass.)
- Last but not least, a serious “power couple” in our space in Tony and Kristen Kasprzak of Seawall Architectural AP. They’ve built a great business against some seriously tough headwinds, and they’ve done it with pure teamwork. Plus, a comparison to Walt and Roy Disney comes up and it fits. Thank you to all of the guests who really were fantastic. Please go ahead and watch or download and listen. Links below, and I appreciate your support!
And available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google, etc.
Elsewhere…
Top Glass in Toronto
Reminder this week is Top Glass in Toronto. If you are in that area please come on by, this is a tremendous event with great exhibitors and networking. Plus, you can get to hear my latest presentation on the latest and greatest strategies in our space; More info can be found here and we’ll hopefully see you there!
Breakthrough at Ubiquitous Energy
Congrats to the team at Ubiquitous Energy for a huge breakthrough this week. They were able to coat 1.5-meter-wide glass in their continued scaling up of their product line. This is a great accomplishment on the way to full scale production, and it’s extremely exciting for the industry and our world overall. Keep that progress rolling folks!!
MYShowerDoor Named in Top 50 Contractors
Also, congrats to Bill Daubmann and his team on yet another nice piece of recognition. MyShowerDoor was named on the list of the Top 50 Contractors in their region (which is going bonkers with work by the way). I love anytime one of our companies get the publicity because it brings eyeballs to what we all do- and Bill and company really work hard to bring it each and every day. Kudos!
Gilbane Supply Chain report
The latest Gilbane Supply Chain report went a bit deeper this month, and aside from noting what is now obvious (that pricing is up, inventory tight, and lead times extended) it also went specific noting that things like curtain wall are running in some cases at a 10-month lead time.
Now the report did not give specific parameters on how it arrived at that time frame, but it’s surely something that we all know is an issue. Metal is especially tight, and certain aspects of it are pushed out quite a bit. As I preach here a ton, if you are not communicating consistently and thoroughly up and down the chain, you are not doing yourself any favors.
Better Call Saul is Back
Ok, last this week; one of the best shows on TV is back for their final season. “Better Call Saul” started back up, and I can’t wait to dig back in. This also led to a few lists coming out on “Best Shows of All Time” and made me think, “time for me to list my Top 10 of all-time,” so here goes, and feel free to give your two cents on where I may have gone south.
10a. Mad Men
Slow start and horrendous finish, but the middle was incredible.
10b. Friday Night Lights
Love football, the story and pace and just found out recently that Tom O'Malley of Clover Architectural was closely connected to the show—that alone makes it great!
9. Entourage
For some reason, I just loved this show.
8. ER
Best hospital show ever in my opinion, though St. Elsewhere was close.
7. The Sopranos
I am actually still watching it, but deserves on this list.
6. Seinfeld
Just always came through for me.
5. M*A*S*H
I’m old school.
4. Better Call Saul
The writers are brilliant to create a prequel from thin air.
3. Friends
Gets better with time.
2. The Americans
The first season may be best single season ever made.
1. Breaking Bad
Seriously, not even close. Amazing TV. Writing, acting, plots, love it. Only one bad episode in the entire run. (Those who have watched may be able to guess the episode I hated)
So there ya go….
