Following Up & Catching Up

A few weeks ago, I posted a blurb about an article in the Wall Street Journal about bullet-resistant glass, the confusion in the marketplaces, and misuses of the product and segment.

It was a powerful piece and very eye-opening; hopefully, schools and institutions will pay closer attention to what they’re doing with the glass/doors/windows. One comment under my post caught my eye and may have been missed because of my brother’s immense popularity, but his retirement announcement dominated that section. The comment was this one from Chris McGrory of McGrory Glass, and I think he brought the A game here:

“In terms of the WSJ article, they had good intentions but the article lacked pointed statements. The fact is there are characters who have promoted what film can do in a scrupulous fashion. The bottom line is the glass needs to be tested and pass that test by a recognized National Testing Lab. Trick phrases include : “tested according to” ; “observed by” or “modified testing performed”. I could go on and on but there is simply too much at stake for the industry to turn a blind eye to the people who cut corners or try to sell by sensualizing a product that has not passed any national test.”

Thank you, Chris. This sort of thing will be covered at the NGA Glass Conference: Carlsbad at the start of February. Plus legislation, codes, and support will get time too.  Huge all of it. I am looking forward to seeing what comes of it and will report back here.

Elsewhere…

NGA Board of Directors

I teased it last week with Aragon Construction in my Project of the Week- so here goes! Congrats to Joey Aragon for being named to NGA’s Board of Directors! Joey is a tremendous guy, and his knowledge and drive will add a ton to an already stacked board. Very cool!

2024 podcast stats

The 2024 rundown of my podcast stats and info really blew me away. Thank you again to all who listened and downloaded throughout the year. This cast keeps growing like crazy. Overall, the listens/downloads were up 50% from 2023!  Awesome. The number of pitches I’m getting from non-traditional industry outlets to appear on the show has been comical (and humbling really).

Anyway, on to the stats!

Cities with most listens/downloads:

1.     Tampa/St. Pete- Stunned. I don’t think I even had a guest from that area that could drive it. 

2.     LA- Every year SoCal represents!

3.     Minneapolis- Same thing here. "Minnesota nice" comes through again.

4.     Frankfurt, Germany- Ummmmm. I legitimately have no idea about this one. Seriously, it doesn’t add up. But hey, if people are there listening, I’ll take it.

5.     Dallas/Fort Worth- I love the support! Can’t wait to speak at the TGA-North Texas meeting on 2/19 in Dallas.

Overall, 29 countries listened!

Top episodes of the year were:

1.     Neil Chrisman III (Picura) & Chris Incorvaia (Edge Facades) and Tom Donovan (Thompson Innovative Glass)- I’ll admit I was surprised here- but all 3 are good, active people in our space and Tom’s connections in Hollywood and New Guinea obviously came through.

2.     Jason Isackson (Sentinel) Michael & Carolyn Spellman (IGE)- The hockey jersey curiosity (Jason) was helpful as is folks always want to hear from the Spellmans.

3.     Aaron Pine (Specifier Extraordinaire) and  Christina Elia & Brad Leamon (The Shower Guy/Shower Door Pros)- Getting that spec insight was great, and the good stuff Christina and Brad continue to do obviously attracted folks.

4.     Tom O'Malley (Clover) & Kevin Mayer (PurOptima) + Travis Nevins & Matt Fox (IUPAT)- Tom is the nicest guy in our industry- so his following is huge.  Kevin is whip smart.  And the dynamic duo on Travis and Matt were just taking off then- now those two are everywhere and doing great & important things.

5.     Kyle Sharp (Sharp Glass) and Chris Giovannielli (Kawneer)- I knew Texas would represent with Kyle and Chris was brilliant- the word of mouth here probably spurred this one higher.

But in reality, there wasn’t a huge gap between the rankings of 1 to 17. The audience is pretty consistent, and great. Thank you!

MyGlassClass webinar

If you don’t know yet, if you are a member of the National Glass Association (and if not let me know because we need to get you there) you get access to MyGlassClass for free! To help you understand that incredible value, there’s a webinar on 1/30 to go over it all. There are a lot of new things happening now and in the future, so make time for this webinar to learn more. We must keep growing and educating, this is a major step towards that!

Industry promotion

Thrilled to see a good guy get a bump up the ladder. David Nelson from CRL was promoted to Director of Operations, East Coast recently and I was pumped to see it. David has always been a great person and has treated me extremely well over the years. Always grateful for his smiling face at whatever event we run into each other at. Congrats David and CRL on a great move!

SoCal fires

Last this week… The fires in Southern California continue. So heartbreaking. I did hear of one glass company that was affected by it all. Rafael Calvo and his company Tico Tech, a high-end shower door player lost everything in the fire, and they have a GoFundMe going. Support if you can. I have a feeling we’re going to hear of others, sadly. Thank you to the always incredible Dan Pompeo (Architectural Glazing Solutions) along with Vic Purunjian (Glasswerks) for the heads up on this. Here’s hoping for the best for Rafael and family.