Transcript
Speaker: Get ready to go. She ain't moving slow. She's taking control. Pushing the pedal through the floor. I'm begging for more. You better hold
Speaker: Here we go, Snow Jaws Nation. We are back again bringing you another dusting episode on the Snow Jaws podcast. You know who I am. is a juicebox guy You know who's with me. one of the baddest motherfuckers of all time.
Speaker: One of the best singers. One of the best looking motherfuckers you've ever seen. hold my drink, bitch. Steve and Jeremy back again as always doing a dustings, but something different today. Our normal dustings co-host Jordan Smith. He is wearing multiple hats at the moment and ah very, very busy these days, extremely short on time.
Speaker: So to take Jordan's place today, we have two other storm equipment legends here. We have Dan burnt and Eric Westfall storm equipment. How are you boys? Doing good, man. Thanks.
Speaker: We're good. Thanks for having us on. No problem. No problem. So Jordan said, ah, yeah, I can't do it. You know, I'm going to send two two other heavy hitters from Storm here to get this done today. So we said, all right, let's let's roll. let's Let's go into it. So why don't you guys tell everybody, ah you guys, I think Dan's been on the show once or twice ah talking about maybe a Storm Day review or something, but I don't know ah i don't know if Eric's ever been. So why don't you guys introduce yourselves to the audience, tell them what you do at Storm and ah and how you guys came to be there.
Speaker: Yeah, um so Dan Berent, I've been with Storm basically since the inception of it. um Started with Jordan a long time ago, back when we still landscaped as a landscape foreman.
Speaker: um And just really as I've grown, I really enjoyed snow, so it was just a natural fit when Storm came to be. um and my role primarily within the company is I'm the customer experience manager here.
Speaker: Um, and essentially that just manages the day to day, customer support and service, um, primarily and the past, it's been with metal plus service and support.
Speaker: Um, and obviously that's expanded here, within the last year. So happy to be here. What's, what's more difficult when you were dealing with the customer service and the metal plus, or now that you guys are rolling out your own thing.
Speaker: Um, you know, to be determined, I think that's just with some of the metal plus stuff, you know, there's a language barrier, um you know, us versus Canada type stuff.
Speaker: Um, so definitely there was a large learning curve with some of that stuff. Um, but just have kind of learned to take it in stride and go day by day. And, uh, it's been good overall.
Speaker: Sweet. And Eric, how about you? Awesome. Yeah, no, this is the first time that I've gotten to join you guys. So one of those longtime listener, first time caller moments.
Speaker: i've I've been a part of the storm team for about two and a half years now. So I, for this is the third time that I've worked for Jordan, actually. have never gotten fired any of the times one of those just career progression. Okay. um It's, ah it's one of those where I was landscaping in college with him and then did work on the snow outside of the things a little bit doing, um,
Speaker: doing some sidewalks. And then from there, I was the one and only VSI intern that they ever had when they were making those things in-house back in the day. yeah A little bit of knowledge in sprayers and then went and got my degree in mechanical engineering um for for college.
Speaker: Went and worked heavy construction for five years. so I was a foreman for sewer, water, storm sewer site development. So my ah my passion is sitting in the equipment. I've driven just about everything in one form or another.
Speaker: Um, and then came back around and they were looking for some help. I was looking for a bit of a change. So now I am a part of the storm team wearing a lot of different hats as most of us do. um but the two primary roles I have are associate design engineer and then a customer experience. So that's kind of where Dan and I team up most the times in the customer experience side of the house. And we love, uh, you know, helping support our various products, whatever it is. And and we're we're less on the sales side, more on the, we help solve your problems.
Speaker: Very cool. Very cool. So, i mean, since you two guys are the customer experience guys, ah why don't we just, ah we get a lot of guys asking, and and especially with you guys rolling out your own product now, ah there's a lot of guys out there that ask about, you know, you guys were the biggest Metal Plus dealer going in in the U.S., and they're asking, like, if they if you guys are still supporting the Metal Plus product at all. So you guys want to touch on that at all? Put the ah put any rumors to rest and all these guys asking questions. They can hear here.
Speaker: Sure. yeah's It's an easy answer. It's an easy answer of 100%. We are still a metal plus dealer and supporting the metal plus product. Okay. Perfect. So they can still get everything they used to get through you guys. They can still do it.
Speaker: Yeah. We still think sosh perfect have a large, large stock of parts. um You know, internally, I like to say that we have ah probably some of the most knowledge
Speaker: in the U so, um, yeah, really looking forward to, and you speak English. I i do Yeah. as Casey does. Uh, we're all, uh, really happy to, to talk to you guys. If,
Speaker: You know, anybody who needs anything Metal Plus related, we are still here um without a doubt to help you guys. Everybody got that out there? Stop asking. They're still the same deal. If you have Metal Plus, they will still support you. They will still help you out. It's still the the same storm with that. All right? So everybody can put that to bed.
Speaker: You guys are doing the Phantom, Metal Plus. What else? that That's your two main ones, or that's what you guys are doing? Yeah, so we we have Phantom Plows, we have Metal Plus, and then we also um we can help you out with some Arctic sectional ah parts and services as well.
Speaker: One stop tier one shopping right there. That's the ah ah so now you guys are rolling out your own product this year. ah Probably you know the worst timing you could possibly expect ah for a product made of steel because the pricing has just gone bonkers. so That's got to be frustrating as hell for you guys to you you come out with a product, you you market it, you you price it, and then it's happening quarterly that the prices are going up with the steel. How do you guys overcome that? How do you adjust for that?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, realistically, quarterly is probably generous as far as how often we have to address it. um Just with the materials and inputs that we've had, not just like the raw steel, but really all components are pretty volatile right now.
Speaker: And so we're addressing it. We get weekly updates in our in our manufacturing meetings of what's the cost of steel, where are we sitting for the different types? Because, you know, you get your your mild steel one, your AR steel is another cost, even the components that we purchase that are made out of steel outside of the stuff we fabricate. um and And it's given us not only a greater appreciation for maybe how we had it in the past before some of this craziness that's going on in the world, but also an appreciation for the other manufacturers that are within our space and how they handle the same thing, because it's not something that's just impacting us. It really is, in fact, impacting the industry as a whole. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: And so for us, it's been that we've come out and we've set what pricing is going to be for the year. um You can talk to our sales guys and whatnot. They would know what that is. But having the implementation of ah of a steel surcharge on top of what we set as the base price is not something that any of us wanna do, any of us enjoy doing, but realistically to make to to make it be where there's a product that is, you know like not, not even profitable, but reasonable for us to make on top of it. We're not in the game to necessarily make these things for free or to lose money as, as fun as that would be.
Speaker: um and so we, uh, we really are looking at it as something that we would implement as a temporary thing that would come into play. And that's why we're not upping the base charge when we do this. It's that, Hey, here's that base charge. Here's a steel surcharge that as soon as those raw material costs would come back down to a reasonable rate,
Speaker: it'd be something that we could then take off to go back to where we're at. But we know that timing is everything, especially in snow. It's when contracts come through, when you secure that plow. And so making sure that we're realistic with ourselves, but also being transparent and honest with our customers on things.
Speaker: so and like you said, this is ah this an industry-wide problem. This isn't a storm-only problem. Every OEM that produces plows is having the same deal. I mean, there's not last time I checked, there's not too many wood plows out there.
Speaker: you know Everything's made of steel. Correct. It's steel and it's various components of steel and it's all those things that come together to to make that up. And right now it's not just one small or even one singular component that's going up in price. It seems like everything is jumping around quite a bit, as much as 60 to 70% of an increase within a six month span, which is pretty crazy when you talk about that being the primary driving factor from an input cost from a material standpoint.
Speaker: Is there a problem getting materials? Like, is there supply chain issues right now as well? Or is it just super expensive? You can get them, but they're super expensive. ah There really isn't, I'd say, an issue in supply chain from what we've experienced historically, or I guess what we've projected from a historical, because again, this is our first year really getting into this.
Speaker: um the The cost has definitely increased, but what we've also experienced is that that previously you've been able to expedite things to some extent if you needed to. that's really going away. a lot of times what you set as far as the lead time for something, especially some of our longer lead time items, you can still get them, but you are either unable to expedite them, so you're stuck at that. If 16 weeks, it's still 16 weeks. So if you want to try and make more or you've outsold where you're at, trying to get your hands on more of those in in quick fashion, A is going to cost you more than you originally thought it was.
Speaker: And B is not something you can pivot towards in a quick manner. In other words, don't wait. 16 weeks. yeah that's ah And that's not that crazy of a number for stuff. 12 to 16 weeks for some of the stuff that you have to get either machined or comes from other parts of the country, you're getting in their production schedule and then getting it shipped to then get implemented and built into our plow. So.
Speaker: it's pretty wild when you start to look at the big timeline on things. I wish it was as simple as, hey, we could cut all the stuff and weld it and put it together. And there is a lot of it that we do. Like that is a large portion of how our plow is put together.
Speaker: But there's other things and other components. Like when you start getting into hydraulics and blocks and some of those other things that that stuff is, you go to the experts and you get in their schedule and you're at the mercy of what they can do for you.
Speaker: So for all the snow guys out there, 16 weeks is four months. i'm just Just to break down some math. but That's crazy. It's your winter season.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a season. My gosh. Wow, for lot guys. my gosh did it for a lot of guys yeah i mean But the paint is widespread. It's not just not just storm. Every manufacturer is feeling it.
Speaker: No, it's everybody out there that's building anything way it sounds. so and it says It's everyday. It's some sort of pricing. It's either fuel or it's metal or it's and all it's it's ridiculous.
Speaker: what the hell we're going to here. It's every, it's so funny. Like we, we talked about it We kind of did an episode last night where we kind of just ranted about like stuff. We can't stand about what we have to go through and snow. And it's like, I don't know another industry that constantly has the deck. So stacked against it.
Speaker: It's out of control. Everything we need to do to to do snow, ah they're going to either have a shortage or it's going to be so expensive it's almost unattainable. You know, the steel, the salt, the diesel. It's like Jesus Christmas. This is ah this is getting quite ridiculous. i mean, snow guys are the most resilient guys on the planet. We have to deal with so much crap and overcome it before we even push snow.
Speaker: it's It's nuts. Yeah, for sure. Donald, what do you see for your, uh, preseason? ah Are you doing preseason plow prep, any sales or anything like that for anybody? Or what what do we have?
Speaker: Like 20, 50% off, 80% off parts. Are we doing anything? Yeah, for sure. With the, uh, carbide surcharge we're currently dealing with, there's, there's no, no discounts.
Speaker: yeah harite search I mean, really what, what we just talked about, um and, you know, kind of where we're at. Like the biggest thing is that like just being prepared,
Speaker: um um you know, that's like the really biggest thing as far as prepping. motion So you're used to the snow guys waiting storms in a forecast and we're going to check. my yeah you tell Are you telling the snow guys that they should maybe go and check your stuff before the season so you can get parts and everything needed?
Speaker: I mean, hopefully hearing Eric say that, you know, there's a six week lead time on, on certain things. Like obviously from like a parts and service aspect, it's not that bad. um But you know, like if there was ever a time to start looking at your snow equipment, I would encourage you to do it right now.
Speaker: um you know simple things go check your your cutting edges um you know wear shoes um look at your hydraulics if you have wing plows any electrical stuff because that's all stuff really easy that we can help you with right now so that way when it does snow you don't have to worry about it and you can just go drop your blades and uh do what you need to so yeah Don't be the guy that is going to be with the other 250 guys that call the dealers the day before a storm gets announced in late October. Like, don't be that guy. You know, get it now. It just makes sense. We're getting down to the nitty-gritty here because, I mean, a lot of a lot of areas that listen to the show, October is a realistic expectation for snow.
Speaker: Yeah. So we're almost there. We're almost in battle mode. We're a little... Crazy here at Storm, like we we kind of watched the weather a little too much perhaps.
Speaker: um And last week there were a lot of places out west where it was snowing and accumulating for the first time and internally at Storm we were all like cheering and celebrating so it was pretty cool.
Speaker: Steve's like a kid in the candy store. As long as he sees snow, like real, like current snow somewhere on a timeline, he just goes nuts and everyone knows it. So they all tag him in it. It's great. But even within our own company, like we're seeing not only ourselves, like I was at our storage facility for our for our own contractors and they've got everything pulled out of there. Again, it might not be ready yet, but they've at least started the motion of going through the stuff, making sure that it's ready to go because It won't be long where fall cleanups are done and all of a sudden it's snow mode and if you got to order parts.
Speaker: And it's not just us, even seeing other snow contractors just around our area doing the same. And it's one of those, even if you know, especially depending on like, again, like we're talking about carbide at this point, like the costs are just even way worse than what steel. We're talking 3X on what some of this stuff has been, especially when you top tariffs on top of that, it it gets to be pretty pretty wild what those are. so but still managing with a lifespan of what those look like. And especially standard edge stuff. Like if, if we get, you know, one or two storms here before Christmas, knowing, Hey, these got a little bit of light left in them. So don't be afraid to keep running them. But if you know, it's coming, don't be afraid to reach out and get those on the way rather than in the middle of the snowstorm. Hey, I need them here in 18 hours. Cause they're, they're totally out. It's, you know, you're going to need them feel free. Cause
Speaker: we experienced last year more than ever that the stuff that we never thought we would sell out of because of like timeline of when we get it. And we were, we were selling out of stuff like not quite like out, out where we couldn't get it. But normally we always have some on the shelf. There was times where we'd get parts orders coming in and they wouldn't even make it to the shelf. They were going right on pallets to get shipped out. So if there's certain things that you know, you're going to wear through, don't be afraid to maybe, you know, carry a set on hand. I know that seems silly, but it'll make everyone's life faster and hopefully, Oh, go ahead. How is your, how, how is your guys' a stock? Like for edges, you pretty, pretty stocked up or are you guys waiting on them too? Or you guys got plenty on hand?
Speaker: Yeah. we had but Go ahead. general You got this. No, uh, for, for the most part, um, I would say we are in really in good shape as far as supply goes.
Speaker: Um, Eric was mentioning the carbide surcharge, um, just so everybody's aware carbides up currently, uh, like 300%. Uh, yeah,
Speaker: yeah it's, it's honestly kind of absurd at this point. Um, so from my perspective, uh, we're probably on the lower end of what I'd feel comfortable stocking.
Speaker: Um, but a lot of that just mainly becomes like the cost to carry it is so expensive. ye Um, we're, we're just like in more of a, Um, you know, as people need it, we're ordering stuff, um, which is a little unfortunate because I think, you know, as, as we've grown and, uh, you know we've had such success here at storm is just always having, um everything that people need on hand.
Speaker: Um, that's where we're really just trying to encourage people to kind of like get ahead of the game. So it buys us some time to serve, of um, you know, our customers and and people in the snow industry as best as we can.
Speaker: I got one more question about parts, white stuff for, I haven't heard a lot. What's going on storm vision? Is that still a thing or what what are we doing with that? So yeah, I've been kind of like, I haven't heard much about it lately. I liked it. i like i liked it. I like it. I think it's a great, great tool and I'd love to have them all. So yeah, they're,
Speaker: They're definitely in play. Yeah. You start with it, Daniel, because we're, we're excited. We've not that we haven't been pushing it, but it's, it's coming back for sure this year. Yeah. So, um you know, we had a huge amount of um engagement and, and, you know, we moved a lot of units out in the field two winters ago.
Speaker: um And just the idea behind it, this has been great. You know, obviously ah wiring is, is one of like the, hot button topics people talk about with hydraulic wing plows.
Speaker: um And essentially what we've done is like with Storm Vision, we're on our Gen 2. And the idea behind that is obviously to make it fit our phantom plows and other various wing plows. And essentially what we've done is we've shrank the footprint.
Speaker: um We've addressed some of our battery issues. um you know which is one of the main things that led us into going with a gen 2 and redeveloping some of it um and uh we're we're actively working and building those now um again with kind of supply chain stuff like boards and other components um take longer than what i would say would have been normal in the past um
Speaker: So I think right now the general timeline is is we should have those available um for people towards the beginning of November. So anything that I missed there, Westy?
Speaker: No, just that we're we're excited to have them back in stock. I mean, we had a few towards the that trickled into last year, but realistically the the ordering process just didn't quite hit for when we wanted to make sure we had all of our issues addressed. so That was definitely something we wanted to focus on this year. And we did is validating that gen two and then making sure that we can get them ready and get them back into people's hands because um a lot of people have been asking for it. And a lot of people have been asking how it can be attached to phantom and it's not standard on there, but it is an option that you can, that you can add on.
Speaker: And again, still works with your, your metal plus plow like it has in the past. So it's a, It's something that makes life really easy when you are leasing equipment or if you're adding a plow and you don't want to deal with a harness to be able to have it on there and be up and going as soon as you you spin your couplers on within 10 minutes is is pretty sweet versus having to deal with the whole wiring harness and getting that installed.
Speaker: Absolutely. Yep. Very cool. Glad to hear that's still on board. um As far as your other, you know, major, major thing this year, um I just lost power for a second. Oh, crap. We're in it right now. We're in a great and big nor'easter right now. So we're getting like 65 mile an hour wind and driving rain. So it's ah it's definitely interesting. So,
Speaker: But you got, you know, the Phantom is obviously the big focus for this year. You got a whole world tour that's been going on the last couple months of the summer and the spring, starting with Storks in April. um where if if If you're one of the three or four snow guys out there that still hasn't seen this thing somewhere, where in ah October is it going to be?
Speaker: Yeah. um So I am making the trip out to Massachusetts to go to Patrick's event for DIC Day. Oh, nice. Um, so myself and then Nathan, um, our East coast sales rep is going to join me out there.
Speaker: So we'll be out there here very quickly. Um, and then other than that, the big one, I guess the second biggest trade show we do all year is coming up and that's a equip expo down in Louisville towards the end of October. cool That's Louisville. That's not Louisville. We were correct though. Louisville.
Speaker: yeah the locals corrected us on that you guys say it weird is low hill yeah oh man that's cool so we'll be at both of those obviously patty salmon's event is uh this week and then uh you know what equip is what two weeks after that three weeks after that yeah 20th to the 23rd so both are coming up fast coming up fast cool So I think it is important like for guys that you saw it at S&S where there was a lot of guys looking at the plow. But then once we threw it on a loader and they started tooling around the parking lot with it, it gave them a totally different perspective of the plow, um how a machine handles it, stuff like that. So I think it is important to see the thing in person and and maybe be be able to see it on a machine. So that's good that they're going to have opportunities to do it. ah Is there going to be one ah at the outdoor arena at Equip?
Speaker: Yeah. We're going to actually be in three different locations at Equip. So we're going to be busy. Our guys are going to be spread, not thin, but we're going to be all over the place with chances to people to come and talk. We're going to have an outdoor booth. So we're going to have an XL out there a machine, being able to move that around and function it so people can look at it out there.
Speaker: And then we'll have our indoor booth similar to what we had at Syma. So we'll have an Arctic in there along with a Phantom. And then we're also having our what I like to call our brand independent booth or our like our industry initiatives booth.
Speaker: So that's Storm Academy. Storm Chasing is a separate booth that's close to that as well. So that way we can talk all different portions of the things we're involved in. very cool i think everybody that's seen it so far has been extremely impressed i mean it's just uh the quality of it is off the chart it's just a very beefy well-built plow uh minimal hydraulics to worry about and the thing's great if you if you were lucky enough to have uh one of the r and d units last year uh you know how much it scrapes it's uh
Speaker: it's wild that, you know, the biggest thing I noticed was I could not tell where the wings ended and the moldboard began. And that is something on previous, uh, wing plows that I used. You could definitely tell where the wings ended in the moldboard began.
Speaker: Yeah. That's just been one of the the cool things to, you know, get to witness and be a part of on, on the daily here at storm is just, um from the get-go, the things that we've, you know, wanted to achieve with the plow, um like you just said, Steve, just with scraping cleaner, um you know, easier to operate. Essentially, it's simpler to maintain with hydraulics. Like, those are all, you know, firsthand user experiences that we've heard over the years that we've really implemented into the plow.
Speaker: um and And we're just super happy of, you know, kind of what we we've came out with. so It's going to be great. Definitely going to be great. So what else you guys, you guys like as if you're not busy enough ah with everything you got going on, you still you still running Storm Academy this winter. So that's ah that's going to be full speed ahead with that in another. When can you start making snow for that? The end of this month?
Speaker: So realistic, realistically, it's it's got to be. um probably the middle to end of November because ground temps are still too warm with us constantly making snow on top of black asphalt. those ah Those ground temps really eat into how much we can make. So the the driving factor with snow, not to get too nerdy about it like we like to do on here, is is wet bulb. And that's a combination of both humidity and temperature.
Speaker: So if that wet bulb drops below about 25, 26 degrees, that's when we can actually get some some accumulation on the pavement. But with it being so warm during the day, um it it just doesn't like to it doesn't like to stick. It's the ah the opposite of what we normally like to happen. Normally you like it all to go away as soon as you hit the ground. For us, it's as soon as we hit the ground, we want to start seeing some pileups. That way we can we can push.
Speaker: yeah its a sc discrimination emotion It's a school, Eric. Go to night school. Do it at night. and We do. That is what we do. yeah Yeah, we make overnight.
Speaker: We do a few groups cycling through even before winter hits and we've seen like, well, that's kind of what we did for field day where we had mulch piles out there to push. um Nothing recreates real snow, but the mulch actually does a pretty good job. And so we've shown that that'll that'll do the same thing and allow you a little bit of a faster reset. Cause with snow, you got to wait that time for it to accumulate again, unless you're going try and spread it out.
Speaker: The mulch, they push into a pile and three minutes later you you spread it back out. So we're we're still getting training in, even though it's not quite cold enough yet, which is, which is good. Very cool.
Speaker: And, uh, are you running any, uh, storm Academy like special events this winter or you got anything planned or no? Yeah. So, we, we were going to try doing one last year, but similar to how we do our, our field day, in summertime, um this, this winter, we're going to attempt to do, what we're terming our snow box day, um, which is going to be held in early February.
Speaker: Um, I don't know that we've settled on an exact date yet. Um, just, you know, it's one of those things that's really tough to try to plan a like event in the winter time, because obviously we live and die by what the weather forecast does, but we've, we've kind of determined that this is something that, um, we want to do.
Speaker: Um, so we just have to pick a time and roll with it and be happy if, you know, we end up getting 10 people or a hundred. Um, yep so look look for some more information to come on that but uh um you know the real punch line is essentially um the feedback we've kind of gotten from field day is like it'd be awesome to kind of do something um guys could come and you know push real snow and um all that stuff so that's the idea is you know everybody will be able to come um see the snow makers in action you know we'll have fire pits outside food um you know just
Speaker: good times with with fellow snow contractors. So nice behind that should be fun. Yeah. it's bold and If they're interested in doing something at storm Academy, who who do they get ahold of over at storm?
Speaker: Yeah. I'd say, um, just generally reach out to anyone at storm equipment. Uh, but between Eric, myself, Steve, um, those those would be the the primary contacts to get something scheduled or set up. Or if, Even if you have more questions, you know, we're, we're always here and willing to to chat with people about snow.
Speaker: Cool. All right. Sounds good. What else we got? We got, we're to talk storm chasing at all. Yeah, we can talk. So votes voting close end of last week. So the votes are in, they've been cast. um I was, I talked with Alex a little bit and he said that we had a little shorter window to vote this year than we did last year overall. um But with that, we so we received pretty much the same number of total votes. So the people still came out in droves, which is awesome.
Speaker: um We had a few, again, we're not going to do any kind of release or anything like that. we'll We'll save that one for a little bit to make those announcements. But the votes are in. The winners are clear. There were a few close ones towards the top, but I think he said probably the top four.
Speaker: there was definitely an echelon that received a substantial amount of votes. But it was ah he was really happy with how that all went. So we thank you guys for coming out and voting. And we're we're excited to to get those companies announced and to start the the true planning already for for next season. Because like we said, it's it's October and the the the runway to get that, as you guys know,
Speaker: To get that set up and established and get everything, you know, T's crossed and I's dotted is, it takes a little bit of time to get those ready and get camera crews ready to roll. Oh, hell yeah. oh yeah Oh, yeah. It's easier if we're not burying people in releases.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. For sure. we do have to We do have to reiterate, though, i to Alex and Tyler. I mean, last year, they were not planning on having to do the bulk of the editing and the producing on those episodes. And, ah you know, what we had set up but kind of just imploded. ah You know, the guy couldn't handle it, had a whatever, i don't know, breakdown something. he quit on us and Alex and Tyler picked up that ball seamlessly and did a bang up job for not being prepared for not having experience doing that. ah They did an absolute fantastic job on that. So, you know, we got to ah again, mention them and they kind of saved the season, honestly.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. um We're, we're spoiled with, with having them. They do just an amazing job with you know, our our own media for storm and just all the content that's out there. um And then, you know, being able to ask them to carry that load. And like you said, Steve, just do a really great job with the episodes that they were involved with, you know, props to them guys.
Speaker: Cool. Yeah. I don't know if you guys have taken a peek recently, but it's, it's pretty wild that that last episode, top dogs, we we knew it was probably going to be good coming into it. And you, everyone did, were Over 50,000 views on the full episode for Top Dog on YouTube. And that's that's pretty wild. That even topped, I think, that might be the fastest like progression of views we've ever had. So really ending the season strong.
Speaker: It's a Jeremy Lindstrom thing. It seems like any any episode he's in goes freaking triple platinum. Yeah. Oh, shit. Yeah. No, top dog was. i mean, I think you're always going to have interest in something like that. I mean, airports are not something we see on a daily basis and the general public. I mean, if you give a person a choice of watching a load or plow parking lot or watching a machine they've never seen before go flying down a row, you know, next to a runway with planes everywhere, you know, what's going to be more eye grabbing?
Speaker: yeah that's I think the airport's a very interesting angle. It's got all new equipment that you know we don't see on a daily basis in this industry. so it's ah It's a pretty cool thing to see. and I kind of knew the top dog would that would be a great episode. so and It has. It's proven to be.
Speaker: that's That's one of the coolest things about storm chasing is you know um just where and how and when people do snow removal is such a ah fun thing to you know, be a part of an experience and it's just shedding light on, on what we're all doing out there on a, on a nightly basis.
Speaker: Amen. Amen. What else boys, is anything else?
Speaker: I mean, I think we could collectively probably talk about whatever we wanted for a lot longer, but, uh, you know, that that's the biggest thing is we we've hit on our initiatives. Um, you know, what we're doing with phantom, um,
Speaker: We're obviously we're here for Metal Plus stuff and Arctic as well. But just encourage everybody as as we're ramping up to the season here. If you need anything from us at Storm, just... ah letting everyone know we're, we're here to Don't wait.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Don't wait. Better to do it sooner than later. For sure. Oh, all right, cool. All right, boys. Well, if you got nothing else, then that seems like a pretty good place to wrap it.
Speaker: So thank you very much, Dan and Eric for the time. Appreciate it. It's good to having you guys on, and thank you for ah for putting that Metal Plus question of whether or not you guys are still supporting that because we must get that two or three times a week from people. Like, hey, is a storm still do can I still get parts for Metal Plus from Storm?
Speaker: There you go. Yes, yeah you absolutely can. So stop asking me. ah Definitely going to need them. It means it's going to snow this year. That's that's a good thing. yeah It's going to snow somewhere. Definitely. but That's right. All right, boys. Well, thanks for coming on, man. We appreciate the time.
Speaker: Awesome. Thank you, guys. Thanks, you guys Appreciate it. I appreciate it. All right. Well, we'll wrap it there for this episode of Dustings. Again, thanks to Dan and Eric for the time. Everybody out there, have a great week. If you're traveling to Northeast de-icing, have a safe trip, have a safe flight, drive, whatever you're doing, and we'll see you out there. Everybody else, you guys be safe out there.
Speaker: Keep pushing.
