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S2-85: Storm Day Review with some Minnesota guys!
777 Plays2 months ago
The guys welcome Joe Uran of Nordic, Brandon Reilly of LADC, and Jordan Smith of Storm Equipment to talk about Storm Day 2024 and get honest feedback on the day, as well as what can be improved on for next year's event. We also wrap up with a little bit about how bid proposals are going in Minnesota so far
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Transcript
Relaxed Podcasting Approach
00:00:39
snowjobspodcast
All right. Here we go. Snow jobs nation. No longer giving episode numbers. Jeremy's requested no more episode numbers. So we're just back.
00:00:47
RICK JAMES
na but No, while we couldn't do it, we were recording a bunch because we didn't know which order they were going.
00:00:51
snowjobspodcast
I know.
00:00:52
RICK JAMES
so got
00:00:54
snowjobspodcast
I know we're back. It's probably episode 85 of the snow jobs podcast powered by top gun backblades. And we are off and running guys as always. I'm Steve.
00:01:06
snowjobspodcast
And you know, who's with me. He's got the t-shirt to prove it now.
00:01:09
RICK JAMES
so
00:01:10
snowjobspodcast
The Rick James of snow management. Mr. Jeremy Lindstrom.
00:01:20
snowjobspodcast
What's up buddy?
00:01:21
RICK JAMES
What's shakin'?
00:01:22
snowjobspodcast
How we doing?
00:01:23
RICK JAMES
Doin' great, doin' great.
00:01:24
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
Early Snow Forecast Challenges
00:01:25
snowjobspodcast
Spraying.
00:01:27
RICK JAMES
Little bit, kinda winded down, got one month left here or so and we'll be done, but yeah, just tryin' to get rid of all the juice.
00:01:28
snowjobspodcast
That's good.
00:01:35
snowjobspodcast
Dude, i heard I heard early snow for Fargo.
00:01:40
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah, who'd you hear that from?
00:01:40
snowjobspodcast
I heard it's coming. I heard October snow and Fargo.
00:01:44
RICK JAMES
That's, I wouldn't.
00:01:44
snowjobspodcast
Equip may be in jeopardy. We might have to have to be doing storm chasing.
00:01:48
RICK JAMES
oh boy yeah i wouldn't be unheard of but that's nothing i was going to stick around wow we don't need it in october i
00:01:52
snowjobspodcast
You guys are due. that You guys are due, though. You're due for a big winner, so don't complain if you get it.
Disney Vacation Insights
00:02:01
RICK JAMES
never complain about it yeah yeah guys are still farming you know they they say we're farming i'm like well you're you're really not farming if it's stolen but
00:02:03
snowjobspodcast
That's a problem for you guys though, right? Cause all the guys are still in the fields.
00:02:13
snowjobspodcast
Exactly. They do. You told me that one time, like they're farming in the snow.
00:02:15
RICK JAMES
I don't, I um don't get it. I don't, I don't, I don't understand that excuse, but it is whatever there they are. Here they are.
00:02:24
snowjobspodcast
All right. Good enough. Well, we are back.
00:02:26
RICK JAMES
How was, uh, how was, how was your vacation? Disney world. Did you see Mickey mini goofy?
00:02:31
snowjobspodcast
Well, I can't tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth because my wife and kids may be listening at some point to this. So we'll just say it was okay.
00:02:39
RICK JAMES
Wow. Oh, you were, you were pretty quiet on the old, your client or down. He wants to block us all that week.
00:02:46
snowjobspodcast
I had everything on mute. Family time was going to be family time. So I actually disconnected from most stuff. I, uh, I didn't really do anything. And by the time I got back to the room at the end of the night, I was too frustrated and tired to do anything.
00:02:59
snowjobspodcast
So, uh, yeah, well,
00:03:00
RICK JAMES
No, that's a, that's a lie. I saw my phone going off. You remember we share that account and you were messaging guys all week long on that Instagram.
00:03:07
snowjobspodcast
Oh, I would still do it at night. Yeah. For a little bit, but it wasn't a lot. It wasn't, it was a quarter of what I normally get done in a day, but it was, uh,
00:03:14
RICK JAMES
Was relaxing though, it was
Midwest Trip Reflections
00:03:16
RICK JAMES
relaxing. I mean for me for me Yeah, I don't mind recording no I was relaxing from missing you I'm just come on just teasing you I
00:03:16
snowjobspodcast
it was getting a couple of weeks off of not recording.
00:03:22
snowjobspodcast
It was good. Did you miss it at all?
00:03:28
snowjobspodcast
All right. Well, that's fine. I don't have to call you.
00:03:34
snowjobspodcast
I know. No, I know. It was, ah it was good. Um, I had a lot of fun at, uh, at storm, had a lot of fun in Minnesota. That was a great time hanging out with all the boys, seeing all the guys, meeting all the new guys that we met. Um, and then right from Minnesota to Disney. And that was, uh, interesting. It was a hot, rainy and, uh, kids and wife at each other's throats most of the time. So it was, uh, it was fun.
00:03:59
RICK JAMES
Oh, it's fun. You guys got out to the Midwest for a change, so that was nice.
00:04:04
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, dude, it was great. ah You know, we, we didn't turn the steering wheel. I don't think since we left the airport, we turned the steering wheel about 20 degrees one time. And then we didn't turn the wheel for 45 minutes straight as an arrow.
00:04:16
RICK JAMES
Isn't that great? Isn't that great?
00:04:18
snowjobspodcast
Dude, i could have I could have locked the steering wheel between my knees, set the cruise control and taken a nap and been okay. No traffic lights, no
00:04:22
RICK JAMES
I
Storm Day Review Introduction
00:04:24
snowjobspodcast
stop signs.
00:04:24
snowjobspodcast
It was amazing. It was great, dude. I yeah i can't complain. it was I liked Minnesota. it was It was a good time. The people out there were very, very nice.
00:04:26
RICK JAMES
do that every day.
00:04:35
snowjobspodcast
We had a good day at Sanco in the sandbox there.
00:04:38
RICK JAMES
That was fun.
00:04:38
snowjobspodcast
That was a good day.
00:04:39
RICK JAMES
That was fun.
00:04:40
snowjobspodcast
And then ah all the events around the storm storm day that was uh, it was a great time. Can't complain. I uh, I missed it It was good. it It actually sucked to leave. So I love that that hockey rink in the bar That was freaking phenomenal.
00:04:53
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah, that was pretty cool.
00:04:55
snowjobspodcast
What a facility. That's uh, what was that the pond?
00:04:56
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:04:58
snowjobspodcast
I believe they called the the the unreal pond
00:05:01
RICK JAMES
Unreal, Unreal pond. Yeah, it was in what?
00:05:02
snowjobspodcast
That's pretty cool. And I did buy some of their clothes, too. So I happen to like the brand now, Unreal.
00:05:07
RICK JAMES
I told you that's a good brand.
00:05:08
snowjobspodcast
Dude, it's great.
00:05:08
RICK JAMES
I told you that's a good brand.
00:05:09
snowjobspodcast
I went to my first shields.
00:05:10
RICK JAMES
You always, you always give me, you always give me shit about the, my, the brands I tell you about.
00:05:15
snowjobspodcast
Because they don't they don't exist here.
00:05:15
RICK JAMES
Cause they're, you said that you said they're bougie or something and like whatever.
00:05:17
snowjobspodcast
like You can't find Unreal here.
00:05:21
snowjobspodcast
Well, Travis Matthew is a little bougie. like nothing Nothing touches that body but velvet.
00:05:23
RICK JAMES
That's no.
00:05:25
snowjobspodcast
you know That's Rick James.
00:05:28
RICK JAMES
That's not Travis, Matthew, the theory, the army.
00:05:29
snowjobspodcast
Very soft, bougie.
00:05:32
RICK JAMES
That's good stuff.
00:05:34
snowjobspodcast
ah Oh man, but yeah, I went, I went to, I got to go to my first shields. So that's a, I love that store.
00:05:38
RICK JAMES
Yeah, skills. no
00:05:40
snowjobspodcast
There you go. He's wearing the t-shirt.
00:05:42
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:05:43
snowjobspodcast
That was great. Me and Sean, a couple of Northeasterners going to our first shield store. That was, it was pretty cool. It's like a big Cabela's almost.
00:05:49
RICK JAMES
But better.
00:05:51
snowjobspodcast
It was cool, dude. They literally had everything there. Got to ah pick up a couple of gifts for the kids.
00:05:54
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:05:57
snowjobspodcast
Go to Minnesota, Minnesota hockey hat for my son there. That was cool. But yeah, it was a good time, man. The hotel was great. I can't say enough about, what was that? Courtyard Mankato.
00:06:07
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that's good.
00:06:08
snowjobspodcast
That staff was awesome.
00:06:08
RICK JAMES
Nice hotel.
00:06:08
snowjobspodcast
That hotel was great.
00:06:10
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:06:10
snowjobspodcast
It was a great time. ah But yeah, anything else?
00:06:13
RICK JAMES
I don't think so.
00:06:16
snowjobspodcast
All right, well, then let's get it going here. So guys, today we're talking all things Storm Day review. All right. Storm day was August 22nd, as we just mentioned, and we wanted to get a few of the Minnesota guys that attended on with us tonight to talk about what they thought, get the, what the vibe was like and what they think storm nailed and what they think they could have done better.
00:06:35
snowjobspodcast
Uh, and then there, you know, if there is time left over, we want to talk about, talk to them. The Minnesota guys are coming off a very low snow winner. So we want to see contract wise, you know, in Minnesota this year, how the proposals are coming back. If people are haggling over price, cause they got no snow last year, if they're trying to negotiate it down and what they're doing about that. So, uh, that's but what we got for you today. But before we do that, let's hear from team Top Gun.
Upcoming Events Announcement
00:07:00
snowjobspodcast
We'll be back to do our week in review.
00:07:33
snowjobspodcast
Alright gang we're back so week in review last week we had the coastal crew from Rhode Island on with us. Alright Jack and Megan took us through their operation and ah the transition their business has gone through in recent years. um from They started residential then they rebranded and they went industrial commercial and ah they've been growing ever since so we want to thank them for coming on with us and giving us time and wishing them all the best this coming winter and good luck with their new ah brine operation, pulling, using seawater to make brine.
00:08:01
snowjobspodcast
That should be interesting, interesting experiment.
00:08:02
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that'd be cool, yeah.
00:08:05
snowjobspodcast
Curious to see how that goes. Save a couple bucks on salt, maybe.
00:08:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah, little dolphin blood or shark blood in there, maker.
00:08:11
snowjobspodcast
There you go. Yeah. Couple jellyfish mixed in. It'll be good. It'll be all good. Oh, man. ah We got some stuff for the upcoming events, guys, just to to get through to everybody here. So as we've said in a couple of previous episodes, S and&S Field Day. That's going to be Thursday, September 19th in taylor Pennsylvania. If you're in the Northeast, guys, come out.
00:08:32
snowjobspodcast
Come on out, join us. It's going to be a great day of networking, learning, um, all that stuff. Uh, they did a great job last year. Tony, his wife and their whole team did a fantastic job. It was, it was a great event for a first year event.
00:08:44
snowjobspodcast
And, uh, you know, knowing Tony, this is going to be even better this year. Uh, so if you're in the Northeast, come on out and, uh, and hang out with us.
00:08:48
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:08:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah. I got to hang out with, uh, I got, I got to meet, sorry to interrupt, but yeah, I met, I met Tony's wife at storm day and they're great people.
00:08:54
snowjobspodcast
Good.
00:08:58
snowjobspodcast
Awesome people.
00:08:58
RICK JAMES
Seemed like a, something like it's gonna be a fun time at this place and I'm looking forward to it.
00:08:59
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:09:02
RICK JAMES
So it's booked.
00:09:03
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, you're making the trip. Flight is booked. You're in the bougie section.
00:09:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Like that's me.
00:09:10
snowjobspodcast
That's it, baby. Rick James, you got to put the pimp coat and hat on and walk onto the plane. Dude, do that. where Wear the blue fur coat, please, on the plane and get some video.
00:09:15
RICK JAMES
No. no
00:09:19
RICK JAMES
I will say if that's a storm chasing.
00:09:22
snowjobspodcast
that is good That'd be great if we want to get that picked up by a TV network. That'd be awesome. They want drama. There you go. There's drama.
00:09:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:09:30
snowjobspodcast
Blue fur pimp coat.
00:09:30
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:09:31
snowjobspodcast
What else we got storks storks plows had a couple requests that we related guys. ah They asked us to announce two events for them ah They are also doing an event September 18th and 19th on the 18th. They're gonna be running their plow technician Sorry, I can't talk right now their plow technician school at storks All right So the 18th is gonna be repair classes with both hands-on and classroom sessions and that's gonna walk you through repairing Excuse me, all sorts of situations that you can encounter with today's truck plows. Then on the 19th, they're going to be doing an installation school where they're going to teach you how to properly assemble and install today's plows and spreaders. So that's two good days of knowledge being brought to you by Gene and the Storks team. Sorry, man, I got some cat in my throat here, something, furball. But i this is awesome. like Think about it. like What plow dealer is going to teach you how to fix the stuff and install the stuff yourself?
00:10:26
RICK JAMES
Starks.
00:10:27
snowjobspodcast
yeah yeah like I know they wouldn't do it around here. They're not going to show you how to do it and and not pay them to do it. That's pretty awesome. So good for storks continuing to elevate the industry, make guys self-sufficient.
00:10:40
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome. Love it. So ah good for Eugene and good for storks. And that's a great team out there. theyre Everybody that worked there for the Snow Alliance event, they're their people were just awesome.
00:10:48
RICK JAMES
um They were great.
00:10:51
snowjobspodcast
absolutely Absolutely. So hats off to you guys. Keep that going.
Panel Discussion on Storm Day
00:10:55
snowjobspodcast
ah The 19th does conflict with S&S's day this year, which it's definitely unfortunate and to no fault of either of them. It just worked out that way. um But we' we're going to make sure that Gene and Tony talk about scheduling going in the next year so that, you know, guys won't have to choose between the two great events and, you know, they're both being put on by two great guys. So.
00:11:13
snowjobspodcast
Not making guys choose between them is, uh, is ideal. So both, they both deserve to be heavily attended because of the value for both, you know, for the snow guys, it's immense. And, uh, we want them both heavily attended. So maybe do it like the day before. And that way you can get, uh, you know, two days and relatively, I think once they're an hour apart, those two.
00:11:33
RICK JAMES
No idea.
00:11:35
snowjobspodcast
the casino to to Storks was how long, how long it take us about an hour maybe to get there.
00:11:39
RICK JAMES
Probably, yeah.
00:11:40
snowjobspodcast
So yeah, so that can be a nice little, a nice little couple day trip if we get those events on, on days consecutively.
00:11:40
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:11:47
snowjobspodcast
What else? They also announced that Storks Snow Alliance for next year for 2025. That's going to be April 26th and they're going to have a welcome reception party the night before on April 25th.
00:11:58
snowjobspodcast
So Jean and the Storks gang continuing to grow that event and push the industry forward. I love the party idea. You know gets everybody there were a lot of guys there from out of town There were a lot of guys that came in for that event So getting everybody there the night before get them together get them talking and networking hanging out It's ah it's just gonna make the next day even better.
00:12:15
snowjobspodcast
So ah you got anything else Jay?
00:12:17
RICK JAMES
I don't think so
00:12:19
snowjobspodcast
All right, then that's it that's all I got so let's hear from our amazing partners All right, and we're gonna be back to talk to all these guys. We'll tell you who we got.
00:12:32
snowjobspodcast
I
00:13:56
snowjobspodcast
All right, guys, we're back. So let's welcome to the show. Joe, you ran from Nordic, Brandon Mickey mouse, Snuggie Riley from l LA DC and Jordan Smith from VSI and storm equipment.
00:14:10
snowjobspodcast
How are you boys?
00:14:12
Brandon Reilly
Good you Gotta
00:14:13
snowjobspodcast
Oh, doing good. Doing good. Love the Snuggie stay warm.
00:14:16
RICK JAMES
I should have, I should grab mine.
00:14:16
Brandon Reilly
stay warm Yeah, it has been a while
00:14:18
snowjobspodcast
and There you go.
00:14:19
RICK JAMES
I should grab mine, Brandon, so we match, but if we were in video, I probably would, but nah.
00:14:22
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:14:24
snowjobspodcast
ah Ugh, everybody's good, long time no see.
00:14:30
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, like two weeks.
00:14:32
Jordan Smith
to all weeks.
00:14:33
RICK JAMES
ah
00:14:35
snowjobspodcast
Oh, man. So we're, we're going to talk about storm day tonight. We got Jordan here so he can absorb it all. And, uh, you know, Joe and Brandon, you guys were both there. So, uh, let's just go around the room. Jeremy was there. We were all there. So what did you guys feel? How did you feel about the overall vibe of the day? What did you think it was amongst the guys who attended? You know, how, how was the vibe? Uh, you know, start with Brandon.
00:14:57
Brandon Reilly
and Thought it was awesome um Obviously for me the biggest part of it was networking um Just with other guys around and seeing how they're doing things and talking with them and catching up with some Some names just you know from people that we've talked to on social media then to actually meet them in person. It's pretty awesome um Loved how you guys had the stations of set up throughout the day and kind of broke people up and kind of put them into their kind of different elements, you know separating set separating people from who they knew.
00:15:23
snowjobspodcast
Mm-hmm.
00:15:25
Brandon Reilly
So you had to kind of force yourself to be um you know talkative to others.
00:15:28
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:15:32
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, absolutely.
00:15:33
RICK JAMES
I like that.
00:15:34
snowjobspodcast
I thought that was great. That was awesome. that And that I believe that started with check-in, right? Everybody got a different color piece of paper on check-in, and that's what group you went to.
00:15:43
Brandon Reilly
Yep.
00:15:43
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:15:43
snowjobspodcast
So that was pretty cool. They didn't tell you what that was going to be about, though, that they were smart about it, so guys wouldn't start trading papers. but Joe, what did you think of how was the overall vibe of the day for you?
00:15:56
Joe
Yeah, I thought it was great. Kind kind of the same as Brandon, it's nice to like connect faces with the people you talk to on the internet, because my wife refers to my internet friends, but it's nice to it's nice just to meet people.
00:16:09
Joe
and put a face to it, it just gives us more validity. But overall, um the the event was like well planned, it flowed well. Like you've been to events where it's kind of just like, what are we doing?
00:16:20
Joe
What do we do next? And it's kind of like, it's hurting cattle from one spot to another.
00:16:21
snowjobspodcast
Yup.
00:16:24
Joe
So back, I mean, back to just the four colors of paper, like super simple, but like, if you've ever watched people count off, like, okay, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, it it just doesn't like, you know, it just, it worked, right?
00:16:24
snowjobspodcast
Yup.
00:16:32
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah.
00:16:36
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, you still end up with 45 ones out of 50 people.
00:16:37
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:16:40
Joe
Yeah, so I thought it was great. And then, you know, after hours, the food, ah Jordan hosting everybody, it it was good.
00:16:46
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, it was a good time.
00:16:46
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:16:47
snowjobspodcast
What about you, Jeremy? What'd you think the overall vibe of the day for you?
00:16:50
RICK JAMES
Oh, I love that. I mean, it was a lot of excitement. I mean, you just walked in, guys are already networking, you know, a lot of, it was a lot, I mean, it was loud because everybody was talking to each other. It was, you just got it. Once you walked in there, you just got the vibe that it was, it was going to be a good time. Honestly, it's, that's what, that's what I got when I walked in. And I don't know. And that's what it was the rest of the day. It was just fun talking to guys. You haven't even talked to on the internet or whatever. We just random guys just talked to him.
00:17:18
RICK JAMES
Yeah, I don't have nothing but good things to say, but to be honest, I'd do it tonight. Let's go.
00:17:24
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, I was
Vendor Integration at Storm Day
00:17:25
snowjobspodcast
kind of shocked. We got there late, um shockingly because of Sean ah not being able to get his ass out of bed. So we got there like right at the start time. And when we walked around the corner and saw how many people were actually there, it was like, holy shit, like this place is packed.
00:17:40
snowjobspodcast
It was like standing room only in the back. It was ah it was pretty awesome.
00:17:43
RICK JAMES
Yeah. I had to park like a mile away.
00:17:45
RICK JAMES
I had to park, I had to park down my Jordan's house and I looked up where the hell are you? Cause you were behind me and I'm like, Oh, you parked right up front. How the he does that work?
00:17:45
snowjobspodcast
I know you did.
00:17:51
snowjobspodcast
I got that and very nice lady was like, I don't know. You must've been standoffish weather. Cause she just said, Oh honey, where do you want to park? I'm like as close as possible. She said, Oh, just pull right here. I'm like, she's a saint lover.
00:18:03
RICK JAMES
ah
00:18:03
snowjobspodcast
That's great. Cause I don't think Sean would have made the walk.
00:18:04
RICK JAMES
Well, that went to happen.
00:18:06
snowjobspodcast
Honestly, he was, uh, I think he was still stumbling a little bit at that point.
00:18:10
RICK JAMES
Uh,
00:18:13
snowjobspodcast
So it was a, it was a rough night the night before.
00:18:13
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:18:16
snowjobspodcast
Uh, yeah, I, I had a great time. I thought the overall vibe, like it was buzzing when you walked in in the morning, like everybody was excited to be there. Um, they, I think there was a lot of anticipation in what the day was. And I, I, I almost felt like guys expected it to be good because that's kind of the reputation storm has now where they don't really do anything half ass. So guys weren't like.
00:18:40
snowjobspodcast
Apprehensive if that's the right word that, you know, because you like Joe said you go to some of these events and you're just like, what the fuck am I doing here? Like this is not going to be a good day. But that was the opposite feeling that you got there. It was really, really cool to see. And there were.
00:18:55
snowjobspodcast
And everybody was cool. Like everybody was talking to people like, like the guy said that they didn't know and they were introducing themselves around. Nobody was off in a corner, you know, on their own kind of standoffish. It it was very community based, very family oriented. it It was a great, great time. Great vibe.
00:19:10
RICK JAMES
A lot of energy, a lot of energy. I mean, that's what I got.
00:19:13
snowjobspodcast
Tons.
00:19:14
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:19:14
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, no, that's a good word for it. A lot of energy, a lot of positive energy there. Everybody was there for the same reason. And ah like ah like Brandon said, it was great to put names to faces. ah That was the first time we got to meet Mr. LADC in person.
00:19:26
Brandon Reilly
It was.
00:19:27
snowjobspodcast
So that was pretty cool. you know it was it was Yeah, it was was all good.
00:19:29
RICK JAMES
But I've had them before.
00:19:31
snowjobspodcast
Well, you've met him before. I haven't. So that was that was exciting. you know Meet Mickey Mouse in person. That was great.
00:19:38
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:19:38
snowjobspodcast
Uh, Jordan from the storm point of view, what was like you guys, before we started in the morning, when it started to fill up, like what was, what was going through the storm team? How did, how were they feeling?
00:19:49
Jordan Smith
Good. I mean, you know, to be honest, I think, I think we're all a little bit tired and a lot, a lot of prep work goes into that.
00:19:55
snowjobspodcast
Oh yeah.
00:19:56
Jordan Smith
Um, but you know, they they were ready, they were prepared. We, it's not like we just winged it the week before we'd been planning it for a couple months. We got enough staff to do that. Um, but yeah, overall the, the energy was great.
00:20:08
Jordan Smith
the attendees were great. I mean, like I said, pre-show, like the snow jobs effect was in in full force. A lot of new faces, a lot of new names, a lot of young guys, um which is super awesome. I mean, at an event like this, that's really what you want. You want a good mix of OGs and new guys and get them all together and get them talking and Yeah. I mean, the energy was great. The room was buzzing for sure. um And yeah, I mean, the team knocked it out of the park. I can't take credit. My team did a really great job and there's a lot of stuff we're going to improve on.
00:20:40
Jordan Smith
Um, so feel free, uh, all of you guys to to roast us a little bit. Cause that's the only way we're going to get better. We, uh, we did send out a survey. I think we're emailing it out again later this week, but then shocked at how many awesome responses we've got. And that's going to make the event really, really awesome next year. And I thought it was great this year too, but we're already looking towards next year.
00:20:58
snowjobspodcast
Can it be bigger next year without having to move it off site?
00:21:02
Jordan Smith
Yes, we have we have some plans to to to to create more capacity by splitting the group. and know I'll just jump right into some of the feedback. Some of the main feedback was people really wanted to be more hands-on with equipment, which of course you of course they do.
00:21:16
Jordan Smith
We're obviously going to have the Storm Academy set up, which is at a separate site.
00:21:18
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:21:20
Jordan Smith
Um, so, you know, we talked about getting like a coach bus and and we can have everyone meet at, uh, two separate places where we have enough parking and coach bus and back and forth. You know, you can do the hands on stuff at the storm Academy site, do more of the hand, uh, more of the hands off, uh, networking, learning stuff on site.
00:21:37
Jordan Smith
And that will allow us more capacity and give people what they want. I mean, one of the main feedback things we got was let us play with some equipment.
00:21:41
RICK JAMES
All
00:21:44
Jordan Smith
So we're going to be set up for that.
00:21:44
snowjobspodcast
Okay. and Yeah.
00:21:45
Jordan Smith
So why not?
00:21:46
RICK JAMES
right.
00:21:47
snowjobspodcast
Let us
Merchandise and After-party Recap
00:21:48
Jordan Smith
There won't be snow in the summertime, but you know, we'll be able to push some sand around or something like that.
00:21:48
snowjobspodcast
blow some hoses.
00:21:52
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Let us blow some hoses. ah Absolutely.
00:21:54
Jordan Smith
Oh, come on.
00:21:55
snowjobspodcast
Definitely.
00:21:55
RICK JAMES
ah I love that. It's always, oh, come on. ah
00:22:01
snowjobspodcast
Uh, yeah, you, your guys really, they, they crushed it again. They, uh, they did a great job.
00:22:05
RICK JAMES
um
00:22:06
snowjobspodcast
Steve did a great job with that. I know he had a lot to do with that event. He crushed it. Um, Darcy, uh, you know, she runs a tight ship.
00:22:11
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:22:13
snowjobspodcast
You can tell like she's got everything covered down to, down to getting us sweatshirts. Cause we didn't expect how chilly it was going to be with the wind in the morning there.
00:22:21
Jordan Smith
It was cool.
00:22:22
snowjobspodcast
It got cool.
00:22:22
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:22:22
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:22:23
Brandon Reilly
Yeah, I think I just bought stuff to sell there.
00:22:23
snowjobspodcast
And Jeremy. Oh, Jeremy crushed it, bro.
00:22:26
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:22:27
Brandon Reilly
but
00:22:28
snowjobspodcast
He's like, I think I'm going to bring like three tubs since I'm driving to just throw stuff in a tub.
00:22:28
RICK JAMES
that
00:22:32
snowjobspodcast
I'm like, all right, dude. Yeah. I mean, we could try and sell some dude.
00:22:33
RICK JAMES
I wish I'd have brought more.
00:22:34
Jordan Smith
You should have instantly.
00:22:36
snowjobspodcast
We sold out, right?
00:22:36
RICK JAMES
have brought more.
00:22:37
snowjobspodcast
Didn't you sell out of every sweatshirt you had?
00:22:39
RICK JAMES
We sold out quite a bit of stuff.
00:22:40
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:22:40
Brandon Reilly
and And your pricing was like perfect.
00:22:41
RICK JAMES
yeah i it was i and know and never I wasn't that smart to think about that.
00:22:43
Brandon Reilly
Say, hey, it's 95 bucks, but we don't have cash, so you just you just have to pay over.
00:22:49
RICK JAMES
so
00:22:49
snowjobspodcast
That's the Disney effect. That's that's the Disney effect.
00:22:51
RICK JAMES
ah
00:22:52
snowjobspodcast
You just use the magic band. You don't realize how much you're actually paying.
00:22:56
RICK JAMES
Uh,
00:22:56
snowjobspodcast
Oh, yeah. But that yeah, I think we sold out of everything with a long sleeve on it.
00:23:00
RICK JAMES
yeah, well, yeah, I could, we could have sold more.
00:23:02
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:23:03
Brandon Reilly
I got a sweatshirt.
00:23:05
RICK JAMES
I think, I think, uh, Darcy's daughter forget, didn't know there's a bunch in that other tub or something, but whatever is what it is.
00:23:06
snowjobspodcast
Oh, it's all good.
00:23:11
RICK JAMES
But I don't care.
00:23:11
snowjobspodcast
She did. She did serious work for us.
00:23:12
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:23:12
RICK JAMES
Yeah, it was fun.
00:23:14
RICK JAMES
I would, uh,
00:23:14
Brandon Reilly
And of course it all warms up when we get to Jordan's house.
00:23:16
Brandon Reilly
The sun comes back out.
00:23:18
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:23:19
snowjobspodcast
ah funny's Taking it off. Oh my God.
00:23:21
RICK JAMES
enough
00:23:22
snowjobspodcast
It was, uh, yeah, it was great though. Um, what did you yeah Mark called it.
00:23:24
RICK JAMES
I teamed up with Shannon Burger beforehand, so we knew what to do.
00:23:30
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:23:30
snowjobspodcast
ah I'm going to make it chilly at the event so you can sell some sweatshirts, but I saw a lot of guys out there with the, uh, your girl is on my plow list shirts.
00:23:34
RICK JAMES
Thanks, Mark.
00:23:39
snowjobspodcast
We sold a bunch of those. That was great.
00:23:41
RICK JAMES
um Finally.
00:23:42
snowjobspodcast
That was funny.
00:23:42
RICK JAMES
Finally.
00:23:45
snowjobspodcast
I've heard the same thing. A lot of guys wives won't let them buy it.
00:23:50
snowjobspodcast
Oh man, but yet there were.
00:23:51
Jordan Smith
Hey, you guys got to bring merch, bring merch to every event. Cause you'd sell it at every event. I mean, people, ah a website's great, but people don't think to just go on your website and buy merch.
00:23:56
RICK JAMES
It was hard to.
00:24:00
Jordan Smith
You get it in front of people on a table they're in.
00:24:00
snowjobspodcast
Oh.
00:24:02
Jordan Smith
I mean, especially if you get a a credit card swipe or a tap to pay set up.
00:24:02
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:24:06
Jordan Smith
I mean, you'll sell so much of that stuff.
00:24:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:24:09
snowjobspodcast
Got it.
00:24:09
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that Jeremy will have to get like a what it what do they call those things, the chimes or whatever.
00:24:10
Jordan Smith
It's sweet merch.
00:24:12
Brandon Reilly
Just get a square reader.
00:24:14
snowjobspodcast
but What is it?
00:24:14
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:24:15
Brandon Reilly
A square reader.
00:24:16
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:24:16
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:24:16
snowjobspodcast
There you go.
00:24:16
RICK JAMES
Square reader.
00:24:17
Jordan Smith
You're free. You can get them for free.
00:24:17
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:24:18
Brandon Reilly
yeah yeah You don't need to bring a change of clothes.
00:24:18
RICK JAMES
yeah ye What am I going to do?
00:24:18
snowjobspodcast
There you go, Jeremy. get it Get it done there. Make your life easier.
00:24:21
RICK JAMES
Throw all this stuff on a plane with me or what?
00:24:23
snowjobspodcast
We'll ship it.
00:24:24
Jordan Smith
but Put in a big, yeah, or ship it or put it in a big check bag.
00:24:29
snowjobspodcast
There you go.
00:24:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:24:31
snowjobspodcast
There you go. Done. We'll take care of it. that He just wears snow job stuff all week and then sell it.
00:24:34
RICK JAMES
yeah Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:38
snowjobspodcast
It's Jeremy Lindstrom Warren.
00:24:40
RICK JAMES
God.
00:24:40
Jordan Smith
There you go.
00:24:41
snowjobspodcast
back 10 bucks on.
00:24:41
RICK JAMES
like
00:24:42
snowjobspodcast
oh But yeah, it was a it was a great great vibe when it kicked off.
00:24:43
Jordan Smith
Autograph it.
00:24:44
RICK JAMES
have to be out
00:24:47
snowjobspodcast
um What did you guys think was the best part of the day, like the best single part of the day for you guys? So Brandon, start with you.
00:24:56
Brandon Reilly
Um, I'd say getting into the, right before kind of the kickoff, just sitting at a table with people you didn't know and, or people coming up to you and, and introducing themselves and just that, I mean, the Vroom Vroom, I mean, learning about that and, and then being there, like just all of that part of it was just awesome.
00:25:14
Brandon Reilly
Cause it was just like, Hey, we're, we're waiting for this thing to kick off. The donuts were amazing. Um, and so you're just like, you know, and, and.
00:25:19
snowjobspodcast
They were holy shit. They were. Yeah.
00:25:23
Brandon Reilly
It's crazy to have this many people, especially there's a lot of Minnesota people there, but you know, competition, whether whatever you want to call them, but everyone's talking like they're friends and they're all dealing with the same things and you're able to just talk about snow.
00:25:35
snowjobspodcast
Yup. Amen. What about you, Joe? Single best thing about the day for you.
00:25:35
Brandon Reilly
It's pretty awesome.
00:25:41
Joe
um and Weirdly, like you guys both mentioned it, but the morning when you got there, like the energy was but just better than normal. Like you go to a lot of events and like, especially the morning, it's like, hey, come talk to those random people you don't know.
00:25:55
Joe
And it's like, I don't want to do this right now. um But it's like, everybody, you know, like 9am, like everybody was just kind of ready to go.
00:25:59
snowjobspodcast
ah
00:26:04
Joe
And like I sat at a table, didn't know anybody, like started talking to about instantly, like great group of people. And then just, just afterwards, like hanging out, like everybody had the whole day to now calm down and then everybody gets down like by Jordan's house, same tables, round tables, great groups of people, like fantastic conversations down there.
00:26:21
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that's awesome. What about you, Jake?
00:26:25
RICK JAMES
It's always a network around me just talking to all the guys. It's just exciting and getting to talk to different guys. I didn't even know there were tables up by the garage at Jordan's. I was like, I didn't even know you go through the back of the garage and there were more people up there. I was like, oh shit.
00:26:40
RICK JAMES
i
00:26:40
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, somebody said that. Jeremy's looking for you. I'm like, where is he looking? Cause I mean, we're, we're right freaking here.
00:26:44
RICK JAMES
oh
00:26:45
snowjobspodcast
We're sitting outside of Jordan's garage.
00:26:47
RICK JAMES
ah I thought there were more people. I'm like, where are all the people? im like ah there's so i've i didn't I didn't get very far.
00:26:52
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:26:53
RICK JAMES
I like got stopped and then you just start talking and then that's what happens.
00:26:54
Jordan Smith
We, we didn't, we didn't do a great job of showing people, yeah, the bar.
00:26:57
Brandon Reilly
You just stop right at the bar.
00:27:00
Jordan Smith
We didn't do a great job of showing people all the space. We had tables and chairs and Adirondack chairs set up around a fire pit. We had nice,
Vendor Feedback and Future Improvements
00:27:07
Jordan Smith
nice spots to sit and chat, but everyone just was by the bar and that just kind of the way it went, but it's still working.
00:27:11
snowjobspodcast
15 foot radius, 15 foot radius.
00:27:12
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:27:12
Jordan Smith
That's right. Yep. That's right.
00:27:14
snowjobspodcast
Got to secure the bar. Uh, honestly, you want to know what I thought the coolest part was of the whole day. Um, the way you handled the vendor portion, because that has not to my knowledge has not been done before that way.
00:27:24
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:27:27
snowjobspodcast
And for them to buy in, because it was reasonable for them to buy into my knowledge. All they had to do was have a kick-ass gift. Correct.
00:27:34
Jordan Smith
Yep, no no fee for them to be a part of it, just a gift.
00:27:35
snowjobspodcast
So.
00:27:37
snowjobspodcast
And I think that was important because you go to some of these, these shows or these like smaller events where they have vendor tables set up and the vendors are kind of standing there, why the education portions are going on. And they're, they, they indirectly, if there's boots set up, guys are going to wander. Their vision is going to wander. Their concentration is going to wander and they're paying attention to the booth and looking at, you know, the, the cool booth displays and maybe not paying it, but having them all get 10 minutes of airtime and just be able to talk directly to everybody at the end.
00:28:07
snowjobspodcast
I thought that was, I thought it went over great. I know that all the vendor feedback from the guys I've talked to that was there was like, that was, that was better than having a booth.
00:28:09
RICK JAMES
all
00:28:14
snowjobspodcast
Cause that was guaranteed captive audience. And, uh, I thought that was a great idea. And if, you know, if we start doing stuff like that, I think that's the way we'll do it too. Cause that, I think that worked out great for the vendors and it definitely, I think worked out better for everybody attending as far as attention.
00:28:30
Brandon Reilly
and actually having them in the groups, you know, so they're kind of forced in the environment to to like, you know, like we, I talked to a couple of like, wow, I didn't know that, you know, like they're learning stuff just alongside of, of other people in these courses.
00:28:33
snowjobspodcast
Yes.
00:28:35
RICK JAMES
year
00:28:43
snowjobspodcast
but And they should be in those groups.
00:28:44
Brandon Reilly
well
00:28:44
snowjobspodcast
They should be learning alongside the guys they're trying to sell to. That's just good business. That's just you know being smart. So I thought that was great. And hats off to you guys, Jordan, for for thinking of doing it that way.
00:28:55
snowjobspodcast
I think it was like an idea born out of necessity, but it fucking worked.
00:28:59
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:29:00
snowjobspodcast
It was perfect.
00:29:01
Jordan Smith
yeah know i think I agree. and and And honestly, the vendors were kind of a late ad.
00:29:05
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:29:05
Jordan Smith
we just we had We had vendors signing up as attendees. And I'm like, well, we have all these vendors signing up. we We might as well give them an opportunity to add value to the event and to get value for themselves.
00:29:16
Jordan Smith
So we kind of just winged that part of it. And I think it went well. But we have more we're going to do next year to give them more more chance for exposure. We want them to be in the groups. We want them to be interacting like that work perfectly for them to be a part of the day instead of standing at a trade show booth all day.
00:29:31
Jordan Smith
um Because if they have a booth set up or if they have equipment set up, they're just going to stand by it all day, right?
00:29:35
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. A hundred percent.
00:29:36
Brandon Reilly
Yep.
00:29:36
Jordan Smith
So getting them in the groups is awesome.
00:29:36
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:29:37
Jordan Smith
But then I think what we want to do is get them a little more exposure where they get a little more than just mic time. Some of the guys weren't super comfortable on the mic and they did they did great. they They felt like some of them felt like they didn't, but I i thought they all did great.
00:29:48
snowjobspodcast
You couldn't tell everybody they got through it.
00:29:48
Jordan Smith
um Yeah, I agree. Yeah, yeah, I thought they did great.
00:29:50
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:29:52
Jordan Smith
um So, you know, we'll give them an opportunity to hand out ah hand out some some gift bags with some of the, what I call the cheaper merch, you know, hat shirts and and and flyers, pamphlets, and every attendee will just get a bag of of merch, basic merch and and flyers and stuff from all the vendors.
00:29:59
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:30:08
Jordan Smith
Um, and then we're still going to give them all social media shout out and stuff, but yeah, we, we thought it worked great to have them integrated with the group.
00:30:08
Brandon Reilly
I begin.
00:30:14
Jordan Smith
And then, you know, the little shout out session was was cool. I will definitely do it that way again, with just a little bit of additional stuff to give them a little more exposure.
00:30:22
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. And it was great because like if they had a laptop and they needed internet to do it, you didn't charge them $20,000 for internet.
00:30:23
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Right.
00:30:29
snowjobspodcast
So that was, you know, bonus.
00:30:29
Jordan Smith
That's right.
00:30:29
RICK JAMES
Right. Right. right i I thought it was great. Like you said, it was just those guys, they got all eyes on them for 10, 15 minutes. later All the guys, you know, if you have booths set up, guys are probably just, some guys might not think they're interested in that and it might actually be something they're interested in.
00:30:45
RICK JAMES
That's, you know, they just got, they got their message out to everybody and I don't think they got the one-on-one time, honestly, is what,
Storm Equipment Innovations
00:30:51
RICK JAMES
what it was.
00:30:51
RICK JAMES
So.
00:30:51
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, because we've all been to shows and how many times have all of us each individually said, shit, I didn't get to that booth.
00:30:58
snowjobspodcast
I i wanted to get to there. I didn't get to there.
00:31:00
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:31:00
snowjobspodcast
And you don't have enough time to to do everything. And that was great because you had a captive audience for 10 minutes, which is basically the average of what we're going to spend at those boots anyway.
00:31:09
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:31:09
snowjobspodcast
But this way, you know, you're talking to the group as a whole.
00:31:09
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:31:11
snowjobspodcast
So I thought that was phenomenal. ah You know, whether it was whether it was by necessity or not, I think that's the new norm.
00:31:13
RICK JAMES
Oh.
00:31:17
snowjobspodcast
I think it worked you're beautiful. You could tweak it a little bit, but I think that system was perfect. It really, really was good.
00:31:22
RICK JAMES
no
00:31:23
snowjobspodcast
And everybody got to learn about some cool shit like the that was the was that the debut of the Vroom Vroom there, Jeremy?
00:31:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yep. It was, uh, the, you know, putts putts has him. I think Mitchell had a couple, but honestly, that was, uh, that was his coming out party.
00:31:34
Brandon Reilly
Yeah.
00:31:37
RICK JAMES
And I think he's going to do, great I think he's going to do.
00:31:38
snowjobspodcast
And that is the, that is the new thing.
00:31:39
Brandon Reilly
Yeah.
00:31:39
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Right.
00:31:40
RICK JAMES
Yeah. I think he's going to do well with it because I know we're going to get a couple and stuff. So yeah.
00:31:45
Jordan Smith
They're sweet, they're built really well.
00:31:47
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Like I'm not a broom guy, but he, I was listening to him when he was talking to guys that have John Deere, you know, equipment and those brooms.
00:31:47
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:31:54
snowjobspodcast
And they were talking about 200 hours of testing and like ridiculously little bristleware.
00:31:58
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah.
00:31:59
snowjobspodcast
So that was like, guys were like, no way.
00:32:00
Brandon Reilly
Yeah.
00:32:00
RICK JAMES
And but just a gearbox is that grenade.
00:32:01
snowjobspodcast
And you're like, no, we.
00:32:03
Brandon Reilly
said like 200 hours a month into something crazy I was like what yeah you know it was like minimal yeah crazy he doesn't have an Instagram
00:32:07
snowjobspodcast
It was, I think they said 200 hours was their test.
00:32:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah.
00:32:10
snowjobspodcast
And they had like next to nowhere.
00:32:12
Jordan Smith
Like a quarter inch aware. Yeah, that's crazy.
00:32:14
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that's insane.
00:32:14
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:32:15
Jordan Smith
We, we go through bristles like two or three times a year.
00:32:16
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:32:19
RICK JAMES
Yeah. All right. I think he finally got himself a Facebook because he was, he just got a Facebook just the other day.
00:32:23
Jordan Smith
You did. Yeah.
00:32:24
RICK JAMES
Tommy, Tommy did. So yeah, I was looking on Instagram. Like Tommy, you got to get Instagram now too, bud. So yeah, I'll have to get on him about that.
00:32:29
Brandon Reilly
I tried to tag him on Instagram and I was like, oh, there's the one side to go back and retake through Facebook.
00:32:35
RICK JAMES
So.
00:32:36
snowjobspodcast
Oh, man, what do you got for these guys?
00:32:37
Jordan Smith
No, but just just just just just one more thing, just generally, i just love I just love the collaborative environment, not just the contractors, but vendor to vendor.
00:32:38
snowjobspodcast
Oh, sorry, go ahead. Yeah.
00:32:47
Jordan Smith
like There's a lot of vendors there who would never talk to each other to show because they live at their booths and they just hang out there and they hang out with the people at their booths and then they go to dinner with the people from their booth.
00:32:56
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:32:56
Jordan Smith
and maybe a few key customers and that's it. Like getting vendors interacting with vendors is valuable too. the and we had We had competing vendors there who were hanging out and and having productive conversations and that's only going to be good for the industry and for everyone's company.
00:33:09
Jordan Smith
So I thought that worked really well and again, just mixing them in with the contractors.
00:33:09
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:33:13
Jordan Smith
That's where they need to be. And so many vendors are so poor at at mingling with contractors outside of just their own booth space. And I just, I think that worked really good.
00:33:20
snowjobspodcast
yeah And I think.
00:33:21
Brandon Reilly
Well, in the creative gift ideas, like it was all you know it was all over the place.
00:33:22
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:33:24
Brandon Reilly
It wasn't you know like you have to spend this to get this. It was like you have coolers, you have grills, you have products, you have like just... It was way different things that yeah that they were each handing out.
00:33:32
RICK JAMES
Twins tickets.
00:33:34
Brandon Reilly
It wasn't you know specifically snow things. That was pretty cool.
00:33:38
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. No, I thought that was awesome.
00:33:39
Joe
Yeah, I mean, they they gave away a couple of thousand dollars in cash.
00:33:41
RICK JAMES
ah ho it Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:44
Jordan Smith
yeah
00:33:44
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Cash always King.
00:33:44
Brandon Reilly
ah
00:33:44
Joe
I mean, I forgot who it was.
00:33:45
snowjobspodcast
You know,
00:33:45
Joe
And
Networking and Collaboration Importance
00:33:46
snowjobspodcast
I'll take that.
00:33:46
Joe
then, yeah, and then i Rob, Rob from Top Gun, I think it was Rob was just like, here's this bag of cash.
00:33:46
RICK JAMES
Yeah. How nervous were you? but
00:33:52
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:33:53
Joe
Give this away. I don't know what it was.
00:33:55
Brandon Reilly
But.
00:33:56
Joe
It's like, here's a bag.
00:33:56
RICK JAMES
it's
00:33:57
Joe
Have it.
00:33:58
Joe
Give it away.
00:33:58
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:33:58
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:33:59
RICK JAMES
Like you said, it would have been better if it would have been Canadian.
00:34:02
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:34:02
snowjobspodcast
That would've been great, yeah, Canadian cash. ah
00:34:05
RICK JAMES
Ah, shit.
00:34:07
Jordan Smith
Worth almost nothing. Worth almost nothing.
00:34:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:34:08
snowjobspodcast
That's it.
00:34:09
snowjobspodcast
Oh, God. I give it to my kids to play with in their kitchen.
00:34:14
RICK JAMES
How nervous was Jordan? How nervous were you when when they gave away the twins tickets?
00:34:20
Jordan Smith
Yeah. That one.
00:34:21
RICK JAMES
She was like, oh, better be somewhere from Minnesota.
00:34:24
Jordan Smith
And honestly, if it wasn't, I was just going to do a redraw, but I legitimately drew the guy. Um, I think he was from, from interstate companies.
00:34:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:34:32
Jordan Smith
but Um, that was the name of drew. And I'm like, Oh, perfect. I know. I know they're from the cities. So that should work.
00:34:37
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. And that was like, just to touch what you guys were, what you were just saying, Jordan, how you got vendors that, you know, are competitive, you know, competing with each other and they were hanging out talking like that's how really it should be vendors.
00:34:39
Jordan Smith
North.
00:34:50
snowjobspodcast
Different manufacturers should not be enemies anymore. Cause it doesn't do anybody any good. Cause if manufacturers are fighting and they're doing their little nitpicky disinformation crap against the, uh, the competing product, it taints everything.
00:35:02
snowjobspodcast
It taints everybody and it gives every it it creates this us versus them shit, which nobody wins in that. If everybody you know gets better together, you know we can't lose. It's it's good for everybody. so I think that was great. Again, you like you said, it forced it didn't force them. They were willing to do it, but it made them have an environment that they could do it.
00:35:23
snowjobspodcast
And they could say, hey, these guys aren't bad guys. Like these are actually good dudes and they make a good product. There's no reason to be ah at each other's throats type thing or taking pot shots. So I thought that was awesome. Like I said, I was, I was extremely impressed with how the vendor stuff went. Uh, the only thing I would say is it would have been a little bit better for the guys. And I think they would have had a little more focus after an hour to hear the last two or three vendors. If we were sitting.
00:35:46
Jordan Smith
Totally. Yep.
00:35:47
RICK JAMES
Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
00:35:47
Jordan Smith
That, that was, that was a miss honestly.
00:35:49
snowjobspodcast
I'm just saying we're calling it out. We're being fair. you know
00:35:52
Jordan Smith
No, no, you know you should. and And honestly, like I said earlier, like we can't get better if we don't get feedback. That was, that was an obvious miss in hindsight. I didn't even realize it until the moment that Darcy said, you guys need to get the chairs out of here. I'm like,
00:36:05
Jordan Smith
Oh boy.
00:36:05
snowjobspodcast
Crap.
00:36:06
RICK JAMES
ah
00:36:06
Jordan Smith
Uh, well, and again, when it was, when it was going to be like five vendors, it would have been like 20 minutes, 30 minutes would have been fine.
00:36:11
Brandon Reilly
Yeah.
00:36:12
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:36:12
RICK JAMES
right yep
00:36:13
Jordan Smith
But when all of a sudden we had 11 vendors stack up, like, you know, the last couple of days we had five more vendors, like ah this is going to get long. Um, so yeah, we, we will absolutely fix that for next year. i I made a joke about not wanting to pay to rent chairs.
00:36:24
Jordan Smith
I was kidding about that. It turned out to kind of backfire because people did have to stand for like an hour and a half and that got a little long.
00:36:25
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:36:29
RICK JAMES
ah
00:36:30
snowjobspodcast
It was all good Yeah, do a couple here and then a couple at the end Because lunch you definitely had a captive audience because that was there were some great great food.
00:36:30
Brandon Reilly
I mean, or you can break it up, even like when lunch was going on, right?
00:36:33
Brandon Reilly
When, you know, if it was that big, you could have, I, you know, five here and five here and.
00:36:34
Jordan Smith
Exactly.
00:36:38
Jordan Smith
Yep. Yep. Absolutely.
00:36:40
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:36:45
snowjobspodcast
That was really yeah, I There you go, buddy first event Jeremy's ever eaten anything at It was good, yeah, everything was great.
00:36:46
RICK JAMES
That was really good. I eat this time. I eat this time. So yeah.
00:36:50
Jordan Smith
Nice job.
00:36:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah It was you damn good.
00:36:57
snowjobspodcast
So what do you got any questions for these guys Jay about the day?
00:37:01
RICK JAMES
No, I mean, I think everybody's kind of answered what what we are.
00:37:04
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:37:04
RICK JAMES
Are you talking about something different?
00:37:06
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, something different.
00:37:06
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:37:07
snowjobspodcast
Anything else?
00:37:08
RICK JAMES
I mean, what do you guys think of the after party?
00:37:12
Brandon Reilly
It was awesome.
00:37:13
RICK JAMES
Don't. but
00:37:14
Brandon Reilly
So does everyone have to drive through your company to get to the compound? I just, where do we walk down and up, how do people get to those houses besides driving through your movement?
00:37:23
snowjobspodcast
There's another way in. I think there's another.
00:37:24
Brandon Reilly
Okay.
00:37:24
Jordan Smith
Yeah, so that yeah so that so that is a road that I put in.
00:37:25
Brandon Reilly
Okay.
00:37:29
Jordan Smith
um ah My house is actually on a gravel road and I got real tired of driving on a gravel road
Panel Format Evaluation
00:37:35
Jordan Smith
all the time. So I just made my own road and it connects through my shop or through my office.
00:37:41
Jordan Smith
um Yeah, it's more of a trail than a road. I mean, it's like 10 feet wide.
00:37:43
snowjobspodcast
Need a permit for that or you just did it?
00:37:46
Jordan Smith
I just did it. I got to stop incriminating my stuff.
00:37:47
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:37:49
Jordan Smith
I keep incriminating myself in this podcast with the blue earth County.
00:37:50
snowjobspodcast
ah
00:37:53
Jordan Smith
Um, numerous times now I've incriminated myself with, with violating rules, but yeah, no, I, we just did it.
00:37:57
RICK JAMES
ah Yeah.
00:37:58
snowjobspodcast
I don't think anybody cares out there. That's some really beautiful country.
00:38:00
Jordan Smith
Nah. Yeah.
00:38:02
snowjobspodcast
It's, uh, it's pretty awesome. I will dispute the 10,000 lakes because most of those lakes that I saw were ponds in the Northeast.
00:38:10
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
00:38:10
snowjobspodcast
So you can't really call them lakes.
00:38:12
Brandon Reilly
I feel like you could go a north to get to the bigger lakes.
00:38:12
Jordan Smith
I told you that.
00:38:12
RICK JAMES
ah
00:38:15
snowjobspodcast
Uh, they're like puddles, but no, it was, I'll tell you, it was beautiful.
00:38:16
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:38:19
snowjobspodcast
It was beautiful country. And, uh, the, the great thing was you can see storms coming from a long way out, like a long way out. Like, I'm like, holy crap, it's going to rain.
00:38:30
snowjobspodcast
Normally when we see clouds like that, we're about five minutes from getting dumped on. Cause by the time they come over the mountains, you know, that's when you see them that you can see. I'm like, I think I told somebody, I'm like, yeah, we're going to get dumped on here in a couple minutes.
00:38:42
snowjobspodcast
No, that's like three hours away, bro. Like that's not coming anywhere near us for a long time. Like, holy shit, you can really see weather from that far out. And sure enough, it was a long time before it started raining on us. But ah yeah, the the party, the after party.
00:38:59
snowjobspodcast
I like that. Um, the food was exceptional. Like that was about as authentic as you can get. I love the Mexican food. That was awesome. Um, a lot of, it was a lot of food. It was really good. The quesadillas were outstanding. That was a, and that, that's somebody that works for you, Jordan, their family.
00:39:18
Jordan Smith
Yeah, it's ah it's ah it's a family member of one of our employees and they've they've catered some of our internal team events.
00:39:23
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:39:27
Jordan Smith
We had them cater our last you know sort of internal team building get together um and the food is so good. It's like, we we have to have this for the party.
00:39:37
Jordan Smith
So Darcy lined them up for the party and it was a good call because it was really good food.
00:39:40
snowjobspodcast
They actually have a business catering business.
00:39:43
Jordan Smith
I don't know.
00:39:44
snowjobspodcast
All right.
00:39:44
Jordan Smith
They must, they they must.
00:39:44
snowjobspodcast
I was going to say, give them a shout out, give them a shout out.
00:39:45
Brandon Reilly
but
00:39:47
snowjobspodcast
If you know the name of it.
00:39:47
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I should have known that ah Darcy's going to kick me for that.
00:39:49
Jordan Smith
I don't know who, I don't know the name, but, um, they do a great job.
00:39:51
snowjobspodcast
They were phenomenal.
00:39:52
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:39:53
snowjobspodcast
They got to make guac quicker though.
00:39:53
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:39:54
snowjobspodcast
The guacamole was so good and it went so quick.
00:39:55
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:39:57
snowjobspodcast
We we needed a refill on that.
00:39:57
Jordan Smith
I didn't get any.
00:39:59
snowjobspodcast
It took a little bit to get a refill, but it was, uh, the food was great though.
00:39:59
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:40:03
snowjobspodcast
I could eat Mexican all day, every day. That's that's great.
00:40:06
Jordan Smith
Well, just a, just a quick note about the after party.
00:40:06
snowjobspodcast
And that.
00:40:09
Jordan Smith
I know I told a few people, but our original after party was planned for downtown Mankato. So we were going to have it on the seventh floor, which to Mankato that's a skyscraper, right?
00:40:19
Jordan Smith
So the top floor of a skyscraper Mankato seven stories up.
00:40:19
snowjobspodcast
Mm
00:40:22
Jordan Smith
Um, cool, cool spot with a into inside space and a balcony overlooking, you know, downtown Mankato with the river. And, uh, they, that venue, first of all, Darcy thought it was a little too small, which she she was right.
00:40:34
Jordan Smith
It probably would have been for that many people. Um, but second of all, they had a water main in that break in that building. So it kind of forced us to pivot. And, uh, you know, we have plenty of space at our house. We have parties all the time and it actually worked out pretty nice to just be able to kind of walk down there and no one had to park downtown, trying to go into a parking ramp.
00:40:45
snowjobspodcast
-hmm
00:40:51
Jordan Smith
Like, I think we'll actually probably do that again.
00:40:52
RICK JAMES
okay
00:40:53
Jordan Smith
Cause it worked well. And we had, we had room for a ton more people. I mean, we only used half the tables and chairs, not even.
00:41:00
snowjobspodcast
It was more intimate too.
00:41:00
RICK JAMES
Yeah, it was great.
00:41:01
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:41:02
Brandon Reilly
Yeah.
00:41:02
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:41:03
RICK JAMES
Yeah, it was great. I think Rick went walking around with $100,000 for the silver on his shoulder.
00:41:08
Jordan Smith
At least, yeah.
00:41:10
snowjobspodcast
That man needs a security detail. He walks around with way too much money.
00:41:13
RICK JAMES
ah i was I was going to follow him home in case he fell asleep or something.
00:41:14
Jordan Smith
nu not Not only a box full of silver, I open the box and there's just wads of cash in there too. I'm like, Rick, you should probably lock this down, bud.
00:41:27
RICK JAMES
Oh, I love that guy.
00:41:27
snowjobspodcast
He is something else. He is some, he's the best.
00:41:30
snowjobspodcast
Oh my God.
00:41:30
Jordan Smith
He is the best.
00:41:30
RICK JAMES
He is awesome.
00:41:31
snowjobspodcast
He's the best.
00:41:31
Jordan Smith
He is a lot of fun.
00:41:32
snowjobspodcast
Oh man. I saw some snow powers at a storm day. I saw a whole bunch of brand new ones sitting there.
00:41:39
Jordan Smith
Yeah, we're going to, we haven't plowed with trucks for years, but we're going to, we're going to throw a couple of those into our snow fleet this winter and see how we like them. You know, Rick, Rick keeps saying that can replace a mini loader. Let's see if he's right.
00:41:49
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, absolutely.
00:41:50
Jordan Smith
I mean, we we haven't run truck plows for many, many years, so it'll be the first time in a long time, but we're excited between the scrape quality and and the production rates that Rick keeps talking about and the obvious durability based on the ridiculous videos.
00:42:02
Jordan Smith
They posted in curbs at 20 miles an hour.
00:42:03
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:42:04
Brandon Reilly
well
00:42:05
Jordan Smith
We're going to, we're going to give them a try. We got enough 14 and a V, so we're going to give them a try.
00:42:09
snowjobspodcast
Plows okay, truck's destroyed, but plows okay.
00:42:09
RICK JAMES
I ordered it.
00:42:11
Jordan Smith
yeah
00:42:12
RICK JAMES
No, not on the plot.
00:42:13
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:42:13
RICK JAMES
That truck's fine. Truck's fine.
00:42:15
snowjobspodcast
ah That one video I saw the hood come up.
00:42:17
Jordan Smith
It did.
00:42:17
RICK JAMES
Yeah, the hood. Well, the hood, yeah, yeah definitely did. We ordered a V this last week, two films, so yeah.
00:42:24
snowjobspodcast
through there, they're phenomenal. And I tell you that as far as the production rates, I said the same thing, like it's so, cause it's a different height mold board than what you're used to on a truck plow. It's a much lower mold board and you're like, all right, I can see pushing a little bit of snow, but I'm thinking ah these nor'easters where we're trying to push in six, eight inches at a time, if they really dump on us.
00:42:25
Jordan Smith
Awesome.
00:42:46
snowjobspodcast
And it's just going to come over the plow. And then I saw the videos that that company from Iowa, I think it was that they were posting where they were bulking out some serious snow with, with the truck.
00:42:56
snowjobspodcast
I was like, holy crap. Like that is now I can understand the, the the rates they're talking about as far as production, they were moving some serious volume. That's awesome.
00:43:06
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:43:07
snowjobspodcast
That's going to kill it.
00:43:07
Jordan Smith
Yeah, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to throw a, throw a couple of storm vision units on them to try to track some of that productivity time and compare them to a mini loader. I mean, you know, we run nine Oh sixes with 13 foot, um, wing plows.
00:43:20
Jordan Smith
That should be a pretty fair comparison to an F 14. I mean, if, if the F 14 is productive, we'll, we'll see the numbers we'll know.
00:43:22
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:43:23
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah, definitely.
00:43:27
snowjobspodcast
You're gonna track gallons of hydraulic fluid lost on both, uh, both machines too.
00:43:28
RICK JAMES
I love that.
00:43:30
Jordan Smith
Oh, you got to stop.
00:43:34
snowjobspodcast
ah ah Uh, Joe, what did you think of the after party buddy?
00:43:36
RICK JAMES
ah
00:43:39
Joe
I was good. I didn't stay super long, um but I was pretty lucky. we We got down there. I sat at a table with all the experts. I had myself, Jordan, Steve, Darcy came down for a little bit.
00:43:53
Joe
um We had, I got him Andre from Snow Pros here in in the cities, Rob from Top Gun. and we I mean, we had a great conversation for quite a while.
00:44:01
Jordan Smith
We did.
00:44:01
RICK JAMES
Uh-hmm.
00:44:02
Jordan Smith
It was awesome.
00:44:02
snowjobspodcast
That's good.
00:44:03
Jordan Smith
Super good conversation.
00:44:04
Joe
Yeah, and the food, I mean, it was it was it was just fantastic.
00:44:04
RICK JAMES
Wow.
00:44:08
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, it was definitely was. What about you, Brandon? After party was good.
00:44:13
Brandon Reilly
Yeah, it was awesome. Every time I tried to leave it, find someone new and then before you know it, it's like, it's 11. It's an hour and 45 back to the city.
00:44:19
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:44:22
snowjobspodcast
Yup. Yeah. I finally just said, all right, fuck it.
00:44:24
Brandon Reilly
I think you two are my last two and then.
00:44:25
snowjobspodcast
I'm leaving. Bye. Like I try. I said goodbye to the same people like three times. You made the rounds and then you got back to the front and you were almost gone and somebody else stopped you.
00:44:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:44:37
Brandon Reilly
Ran into curbside again and talked to them for a little bit and I was like, okay, now I gotta go.
00:44:39
snowjobspodcast
Yes, exactly. he kept yeah Oh, hey, come over here and just talk to this guy for a second. That that went on for a while.
00:44:48
Brandon Reilly
i
00:44:48
RICK JAMES
Hi.
00:44:48
Brandon Reilly
no it was ah
00:44:49
Joe
That's called a Minnesota goodbye.
00:44:51
Joe
That's that's um that's a Minnesota thing.
00:44:51
snowjobspodcast
so goodli
00:44:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah, that's what it is.
00:44:53
Brandon Reilly
yeah
00:44:53
snowjobspodcast
but
00:44:54
RICK JAMES
I did the, I actually got a phone call and I just kind of wandered back to my truck and got our, I was like, I just disappeared.
00:44:59
Jordan Smith
He did disappeared.
00:45:01
RICK JAMES
I was like, ah, I'm gonna, it's probably a good time to leave.
00:45:04
Jordan Smith
What do they call it an Irish goodbye?
00:45:04
snowjobspodcast
ah Yeah, no Irish exit yep
00:45:05
Jordan Smith
Is that what it's called?
00:45:06
RICK JAMES
Yeah, I think that's what that's called.
00:45:06
Brandon Reilly
no
00:45:06
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:45:07
Joe
Yeah, we just walk out.
00:45:08
RICK JAMES
I was on the phone. I was like, well, I must just start walking. I think it was starting to wind down. So how was the cleanup?
00:45:13
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:45:14
snowjobspodcast
As yeah Who did the bartending was that your people as well
00:45:15
RICK JAMES
How was the cleanup?
00:45:17
Jordan Smith
It was, it was fast, easy, not bad at all.
00:45:22
Jordan Smith
Yeah, that was, um, uh, one of them was Adam Hansen's older brother.
00:45:26
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:45:27
Jordan Smith
Uh, and then the other two were Eric. So I don't remember if you guys met Eric at SEMA.
00:45:33
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:45:33
Jordan Smith
Eric is on the storm team. It was his sister and brother in law or the other two.
00:45:37
snowjobspodcast
Okay, cool.
00:45:38
Jordan Smith
So we had a lot of, a lot of good volunteers pitching in.
00:45:38
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, everybody was.
00:45:38
Brandon Reilly
But there was there was no bar, guys. There was no bar. Liquor license.
00:45:43
snowjobspodcast
That was, we had Kool-Aid, we had Capri Suns, Coca-Cola.
00:45:46
RICK JAMES
No.
00:45:46
Brandon Reilly
Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:47
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:45:48
Brandon Reilly
Knocktails.
00:45:48
Jordan Smith
And a beer. Yeah.
00:45:51
snowjobspodcast
Oh man.
00:45:51
Jordan Smith
Cherry temples, yeah, we're we're good.
00:45:53
snowjobspodcast
Yep. That's it. Oh, geez. Um, what did you guys, what, what was the most, I don't know, rewarding part or what did you guys like the most educationally? Like, did you learn anything that you didn't know or that you, they was that you knew, but it expanded upon. So what about you, Brandon?
00:46:10
Brandon Reilly
Uh, sitting in on the liquids. Um, we're not a big liquid company. Um, so just kind of to sit in, listen, talk with other people, um, see how they're doing it. And you know, we used it a little bit and haven't had success, um, at least not to what we we were hoping for. So to talk to other guys that have fully switched over and, and, and see why and how and try to implement that and, and see how we could possibly, you know, try again for this winter. We'll see. I mean, just, it's really hard when.
00:46:40
Brandon Reilly
Last winter, every time we tried it, it rained. So then it's like, it's not a true test of what's going on.
00:46:45
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:46:46
Brandon Reilly
And it just kept, there was no good chance cause it would rain, rain, rain. And then we'd get, you know, six inches of snow and it's like, okay, well that was pointless.
00:46:55
snowjobspodcast
Basically. Uh, what about you, Joe? Most, and most educationally important part.
00:46:58
Joe
Um, yeah, I mean, I thought the storm vision, um, ah where it's at today is cool, but kind of like the, uh, the vision for the future. Um, I like data and analytics.
00:47:10
Joe
So understanding what, what it can do today and then what it can do in the future or the kind of the idea of what they want to do within the future. And then my mind started going into, well, if we can do that, we can do this and it could do this.
00:47:21
Joe
And, um, I pretty excited about where that could go.
00:47:22
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:47:25
snowjobspodcast
Cool. Yeah, I hear you on that. i Me too.
00:47:27
Jordan Smith
We might have to put you on the development team there, Joe.
00:47:31
Joe
I'm local.
00:47:31
snowjobspodcast
He'll do it. He'll do it.
00:47:33
Jordan Smith
Let's do it.
00:47:34
snowjobspodcast
What about you, Jay? Did you actually make it to the stations or were you?
00:47:37
RICK JAMES
well
00:47:38
snowjobspodcast
I didn't.
00:47:38
RICK JAMES
Well, I was, I was, uh, I made it to the storm vision, which I love that.
00:47:39
snowjobspodcast
I honestly didn't make it to half the stations.
00:47:44
RICK JAMES
I i love learning more about that. Cause that's, that just excites me and I'm kind of mad. I didn't make it to the, I want to. go to the Jordan's booth, you know, his, but I, once again, I got stuck talking and I was talking and I was talking.
00:47:59
RICK JAMES
I was like, then it was lunchtime. I'm like, Oh fuck, I missed the other three.
00:48:02
snowjobspodcast
Yes, I know, I did the same thing.
00:48:02
RICK JAMES
I was like, God dang it. I really wanted to, but I was like, I, some person would come up and he started talking about some other stuff. And you know, time just flies. Kind of disappointed myself for that, but, uh, I'm guessing I can just call Jordan to find out too.
00:48:15
RICK JAMES
So.
00:48:15
snowjobspodcast
There you go.
00:48:16
Jordan Smith
Sure.
00:48:16
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, I was a little disappointed. I wanted to go to Christian station and just chirp the whole time. Just break his balls and fluster them. But ah I didn't make it over there. I got stuck and that was kind of it.
00:48:28
snowjobspodcast
But yeah, that's ah everybody we've talked to said that they they all took stuff away from every station. So it was ah for so hats off to you guys for for doing that. And everybody had their stuff together.
00:48:39
snowjobspodcast
It was well rehearsed. You know, it wasn't like they were winging it or anything. They knew what they were going to say. I think it was great.
00:48:46
RICK JAMES
oh
00:48:46
snowjobspodcast
It was great.
00:48:47
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I think the the the main feedback we got on it, and I agree with this as a presenter and just kind of watching the engagement of the group flowing through is doing four straight 45 minute rotations with no breaks was too much.
00:49:00
Jordan Smith
Like I could see it in my station where group one was super engaged. Group two is still very engaged. Group three engagement was dropping off in group four.
00:49:07
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:49:08
Jordan Smith
Like they just couldn't wait to go to lunch. And honestly, as a presenter, too, I was wiped out after after three hours of straight presenting with no breaks.
00:49:16
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
00:49:17
Jordan Smith
It was it was too much. So one of the feedback items we got is, hey, they were cool, but not all of them are applicable to everyone. Like give us the option to sign up for the ones we want. Maybe have like six or eight stations will pick the ones you want.
00:49:28
Jordan Smith
I think that's one thing that Storks does really well is you sign up for the stuff you want to go to.
00:49:33
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:49:33
RICK JAMES
Oh
00:49:34
Jordan Smith
And if you don't want to go to one, like we we want some element of making you get outside of your comfort zone and going to stuff. But like if you want to sit at a table and network, like let's leave space for that too. um So that's something we're going to implement for next year. And I think, again, breaking the event up and having some hands-on time will help that.
00:49:49
Jordan Smith
but three hours straight of of rotating sessions. It sounded good on paper. It might've been a little too much. And honestly, it was one of the main feedback items we got is like, they were cool. I liked them, but I would have rather had some networking time.
00:49:59
RICK JAMES
yeah.
00:50:01
Jordan Smith
Instead of going to all four, I would have just gone to these two and then I would have networked for for an hour and a half instead. And I think that's great feedback and that's something we'll definitely implement.
00:50:09
snowjobspodcast
Cool.
00:50:09
Brandon Reilly
But you guys also did a good job of keeping people engaged, even if it was kind of a topic that a lot of people are used to.
00:50:14
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:50:14
Brandon Reilly
So for example, like Steve's topic of wing plow versus box plow. Obviously there's a lot of people that have already had that conversation or they already know what they want, but there was also new guys there that didn't know.
00:50:25
Brandon Reilly
And so then their questions and they could actually lay off of people in the crowd. This is our experience. You're bringing in the crowd with your presenters, which kind of just made it flow a little bit faster.
00:50:35
Brandon Reilly
And even on a topic, like I said, that's, I mean, We're a couple, we already have our box plows. We have our wing plows. And did I learn anything new from that? Not necessarily, but just being able to interact and um talk with people. I think it helps even you know young guys coming up or people that don't know. So it was kind of great to have that experience.
00:50:55
snowjobspodcast
There were a lot of young guys.
00:50:56
Jordan Smith
But by the, yes, there were, yep.
00:50:57
snowjobspodcast
There were a lot of young guys there, which is awesome.
00:51:00
Jordan Smith
There were, and and honestly, that was, you know, again, we did the survey, a lot of great feedback. Like there was a number of people, we didn't, it was anonymous feedbacks. We didn't collect names. That was on purpose because we want honest feedback. Like we were actually hoping there would be constructive criticism, not just all positive.
00:51:15
Jordan Smith
There was a lot of positive, but we got some great constructive feedback. And a bunch of them were young guys saying, hey, I'm really young. I'm just starting out. Some of this stuff was way over my head.
00:51:24
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
00:51:24
Jordan Smith
Like the panel discussion was cool, but like I'm doing strip malls or I'm doing Starbucks. I'm not doing mega malls. And it would have been nice to be able to sit at a round table and like talk about an RFP. That would have been a little more relevant to me and then gone to the panel with questions. So that was some other cool feedback. Like I thought the panel was great, but again, just, I think with how young the crowd was, we could have had some, some valuable time for them to interact with more veteran snow pros. Um, and obviously that happened during networking time, but we're going to be more intentional about allowing that to happen ah for next year.
00:51:58
snowjobspodcast
That is an indirect segue into the next. What did you guys think of the panel discussion, Brandon?
00:52:02
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:52:05
Brandon Reilly
I thought it was great. Um, obviously there's a lot into that whole complex itself. So whether you're new, whether you're experienced, everyone's going to look at that properly property differently and to have, you know,
00:52:20
Brandon Reilly
four different minds up there to be like, Hey, I'm going about it this way. I've actually plowed that. So this is how I did it. You know, there's a lot that, went like I mean, yeah, a young guy would be overwhelmed, but that is also an experience you won't get anywhere else to be able to look and see how someone that is doing, you know, a very expensive property and how they came up with how they would go at it. That's, that's kind of priceless.
00:52:45
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. What about you, Joe?
00:52:47
Joe
Um, yeah, I thought the, uh, I thought the panel was good. Um, uniquely, I was part of the team that used to plow that before Steve did. So I had info and I was really curious to see how they would talk about it compared to how we did it.
00:52:55
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:52:59
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
00:53:00
Joe
Uh, we were just a subcontractor on site, but having been there a couple of years and seeing what they did. Um, so that was interesting. Um, Jordan pretty much read my anonymous response word for word there.
00:53:11
Joe
Cause I was the one, one of the ones that said, I thought it would have been really interesting to take the. I thought there was a ton of value in the in the group discussion or the panel.
00:53:22
Joe
But I think to take those concepts and break them down into small tabletop groups it would have been super beneficial. And I think one problem like where our industry struggles is is the guy starting out.
00:53:35
Joe
Like, how do I price stuff? How do I do this?
00:53:37
snowjobspodcast
Yes.
00:53:37
Joe
I'm just really trying to find an understanding of that.
00:53:38
snowjobspodcast
Amen.
00:53:40
Joe
And I think if you got to sit at a table and do that workshop that we did, as like five to ten people at your table people can be really like a lot of us aren't competition right even the people that are next door to each other you could really be honest about a lot of that and I think especially the young guys would have a ton of education in that moment and and everybody would and then I was the one that said like that was Southdale Mall were reviewed but it's a huge it's a big site and A lot of people just are never going to do a site like that.
00:54:09
Joe
So it takes, take something like ah a four acre grocery store or a Walmart, right? Walmart's everywhere. And then and break it down that way. And I think that would maybe better hit a lot of people, but in a more intimate group of five to 10 people or something like that.
00:54:23
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, I I think I actually said that to Jordan like next year if you're doing it, I would do away with the panel discussion. I would have breakout groups with a facilitator in each group and just each table you can rotate to different facilitators and he's going to have. OK, this is an RFP. how to How do we approach an RFP for a small Plaza ah medical office stuff like that that you can help? Because like you said, there were a lot of young guys there that may never do something. I mean, I think the original plan was for me to be on the panel and I told Steve, like,
00:54:52
snowjobspodcast
Dude, that's not me. Like, that's not my type of property. That's not my wheelhouse. Anything I would be saying would be winging it and not actual information learned from, you know, hard knocks. So I am not bringing any value on that panel. I'll moderate it for you. But, you know, you you need to seek somewhere else because that's not my wheelhouse.
00:55:10
snowjobspodcast
And I think that was a lot of the young guys too. And even some of the older guys, that might just not be their company setup. That's not what they excel at. That's you know i'm not their
Breakout Group Suggestions
00:55:19
snowjobspodcast
wheelhouse. So I think having the smaller breakout groups covering a lot of different type properties would probably bring more value to a larger section of that audience.
00:55:29
snowjobspodcast
Just my thought.
00:55:30
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I love that.
00:55:30
snowjobspodcast
What do you think?
00:55:31
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:55:31
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I love that. I think that's a a great idea. You could even have tables labeled like, you know, small, small startup type stuff. And again, put a facilitator there who has experience with that, you know, big industrial sites, big retail, like you could break it out by category.
00:55:47
Jordan Smith
And I think that'd be really, really cool to to get groups together to discuss that stuff.
00:55:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:55:51
Jordan Smith
Sorry to interrupt, but I love that idea.
00:55:52
snowjobspodcast
No, it's all good. What did you think about the panel, Jeremy?
00:55:53
RICK JAMES
You know? Uh, I mean, I feel like I dropped the ball on it too. Cause it was, I was, you know, where we do all our outwork here. And I mean, it's not a site that we couldn't handle, but I didn't break it down enough to, I mean, I, obviously I didn't even talk about sidewalks because I thought we're going to talk about pushing it and then I thought we're going to go to the sidewalks or whatever, but that's on me anyway, but I kind of dropped the ball on that myself. So it's, I mean, that place wouldn't scare me at all, but it just doesn't.
00:56:22
RICK JAMES
Apply to how we do things here, not saying that it was anything wrong with it.
00:56:24
snowjobspodcast
Mm-hmm.
00:56:26
RICK JAMES
It was just, we just do route work and like a place like that. Uh, I'm not lying. We would, we would bomb that. We would bomb that thing. We'd bring all the, all the shit in and knock it out in a hurry.
00:56:34
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:56:36
RICK JAMES
That's kind of how we. man
00:56:38
snowjobspodcast
25 loaders crisscrossing for a half an hour.
00:56:39
RICK JAMES
I mean, I mean that's just I mean if it worked that way if if if it if it worked that way we'd do it that way but you know i'm not saying that's the way it works every time but you know something like Steve was saying they always that's how they kind of did it we're at the end everybody you would meet there and just knock it out so I'm like that's kind of how we would probably do it too you know but I don't know I obviously didn't break down the sidewalk things like I kind of thought we're gonna roll back around when I was like oh fuck I forgot all about sidewalks that was kind of stupid but
00:56:40
snowjobspodcast
Done.
00:56:43
snowjobspodcast
That's how you do it. That's what you do.
00:56:55
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:57:00
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:57:08
snowjobspodcast
I think I didn't steer it back to the sidewalk because I got the cut down the time.
00:57:12
RICK JAMES
Then the salting, the salting too. I was like, uh, you know how we would have, you know, salted, but whatever it is, what it is. I mean, those other guys have great, Paul broke it down to the minute. So I don't know how you can't, I can't, I can't, I can't compete with that.
00:57:22
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, yeah.
00:57:25
RICK JAMES
So, but
00:57:26
snowjobspodcast
You could have just had Paul up there. Like he kind of took everybody's thunder. Like here it is to the gallon of fuel, to the, the minute, the, the molecule of salt.
00:57:33
RICK JAMES
uh,
00:57:35
snowjobspodcast
And like, it was like, holy shit.
00:57:37
RICK JAMES
ah
00:57:37
snowjobspodcast
He did his homework on this.
00:57:39
RICK JAMES
I was like, Oh, that's impressive. It really, it really was, but that's just not, yeah, that's all I got.
00:57:42
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
00:57:47
snowjobspodcast
I thought it was, I thought it was moderated. Awesome. Like I thought that it went very well.
00:57:49
RICK JAMES
Well, yeah, that was great.
00:57:53
snowjobspodcast
No, you know what? I did learn something about if I do have to moderate one of those in the future. um I need to take the talk points that they want to hit and I need to rewrite.
00:58:06
snowjobspodcast
so it flows a little better because there were a couple times where i so I'm looking at it and I read it over the night before and I'm going through and I'm like, okay, I'm going to switch this with this. And then when we got up there on stage, I'm looking at Paul's computer and I'm looking at ah Chris's notes and stuff. And I'm like, oh, they literally went line for line off of this and prepared their answers. If I start jumping them around to put it in better order, they're going to get screwed up.
00:58:31
snowjobspodcast
So I'm like, all right, we'll just we're just going to go in order. So i I learned something even on that end of it. So I thought it was good. I thought it was good. But I think if if you're asking me my personal opinion, I would refer back to I think there would be more value across the board if we did smaller breakout groups for and then guys could rotate, you know, every half hour. And it doesn't even have to be like a facilitator taking the lead on it. It can literally just be like Boys, we're just going to sit here and bullshit about RFPs like you get an ah RFP like this.
00:59:02
snowjobspodcast
How's everybody? How's everybody doing it differently? You know, what's what? What are you guys doing?
00:59:05
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:59:06
snowjobspodcast
And I find that after one or two guys go and say their piece, everybody's going to add something on. Everybody's either going to have a follow up question or a follow up piece of information that by the time you're done with that 25 minutes, even half an hour, hour, whatever you're going to do it for.
00:59:20
snowjobspodcast
I think
Team Efforts in Snow Removal
00:59:21
snowjobspodcast
everybody comes away from that with at least two or three things that they can, you know, kind of tailored to use.
00:59:26
RICK JAMES
Great. I agree.
00:59:28
Jordan Smith
I completely agree.
00:59:28
RICK JAMES
I'm not.
00:59:29
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:59:29
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:59:30
Jordan Smith
Go ahead Jeremy.
00:59:30
RICK JAMES
And to put this out there, we don't, we don't bomb every, I know everybody thinks that's what we do every, every, every lot. Cause that's, that's, that's what looks cool. So we Instagram that, but but I mean, we, we don't, we, we push normal too, but it's just more fun to get all the guys together and I don't know. Got to keep you guys having fun to keep them around, I guess.
00:59:49
snowjobspodcast
I hear you. No, it always I always love those videos, man. See seven, eight loaders pushing. It's great. i like I like the ones even better than your team pushes all go in the same direction. I love when they're crisscrossing each other, going back and forth against each other.
01:00:02
snowjobspodcast
That just looks so cool when one guy's picking up the other guy's win row and they're passing each other at like six inches going in opposite direction. like that's That's a pretty cool sight to see.
01:00:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:00:12
snowjobspodcast
But i got off topic there a little bit. But what like no holds barred.
01:00:14
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:00:16
snowjobspodcast
And everybody's got to come up with something and no, no offense, but this is what Jordan wants. He wants to know honest feedback. What can storm do one thing? What can they do one thing better to improve this event for next year? Brandon.
01:00:32
Brandon Reilly
start with someone else
01:00:34
snowjobspodcast
Okay, Joe.
01:00:35
Brandon Reilly
which
01:00:36
Joe
yeah I mean, I kind of already said it, but I think, I think the problem was that you split up like Jordan kind of mentioned it too.
01:00:39
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
01:00:43
Joe
You split up into four groups. The groups weren't totally app applicable. I can't say that, but
01:00:48
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, applicable.
01:00:48
Joe
you get it, to everybody.
01:00:49
snowjobspodcast
Yep. Got it.
01:00:50
Joe
um So you think in three hours of that with some stuff that people didn't necessarily care about, I think you start to see people zone out. And then we had lunch, and lunch was fantastic. um But after that, then we all sat and listened to a panel talk for a long time.
01:01:07
Joe
And I and like i stood for three hours, I ate lunch, I don't really want, I'm going to take a nap, right? So then you're listening to guys talk.
01:01:13
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:01:15
Joe
And if if if that wasn't, if that didn't speak to you, I saw a lot of guys kind of zone out and they kind of start mumbling.
01:01:21
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:01:21
Joe
Like, they just weren't that interested. Because it was like, i I don't plow this. Like, this has nothing to do with me.
01:01:27
snowjobspodcast
Yes.
01:01:27
Joe
So they weren't that interested. um So I really think if you if you flipped it, if you did in the morning, you did that tabletop, like, let's break these sites down together. Let's talk about it.
01:01:37
Joe
How do you do it? How do I do it, etc. And then you had lunch and then you got to go stretch your legs after lunch and walk around and go to the groups. I think that would just work better. So it's not a huge change. And then just for the groups, um again, storm vision was great. The, the wing plow. um It doesn't necessarily apply to us. It was good. for Like we don't run them, but it was good to understand them better and kind of get up close and personal. So as much as at first, I was like, I could skip this. It was, it was good to listen to at least part of it. Um, Steve and Paul, I wrote this down. Like I, I feel terrible. Like I have no idea what they talked about. And the problem with that is like, I just zoned out. But, but, but Steve and Paul are like the knowledge between those two and the snow industry is like.
01:02:25
Joe
Yeah, I mean, you could have a whole day. They can teach it. I mean, they can teach a semester class at a college about snow removal, right? So
Unexpected Event Value
01:02:30
Joe
I kind of feel bad, but like, I just, I have no idea what they talked about.
01:02:30
snowjobspodcast
hey
01:02:36
snowjobspodcast
That's honest, I love it.
01:02:37
Joe
And then I was, I was, I was group four with Jordan.
01:02:38
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:02:38
snowjobspodcast
What about you ready now, Brandon?
01:02:39
Brandon Reilly
Yeah.
01:02:41
Joe
And again, like, it's just, it I got bored.
01:02:45
Brandon Reilly
Yeah. I will like, I mean, the groups obviously and picking what you wanted to kind of go to, like that was obviously the biggest way.
01:02:45
snowjobspodcast
I hear you.
01:02:53
Brandon Reilly
I mean, I started off right with a box pile and wing plow. Um, so for me, there's nothing, I didn't learn anything new. It was just a great kind of group conversation, but wasn't really like.
01:03:07
Brandon Reilly
overly like I'm learning something new. um And then I got to the liquid side. um And, you know, just listening in on that and was kind of in and out of that, just because again, I want to know more, but it's kind of hard in that kind of group setting to know where I want to go with that.
01:03:25
Brandon Reilly
Um, and then storm vision was great. And then when we got to our final group, I mean, he was like, wow, you guys took five minutes to walk around this whole metal plus max pro 20 foot plow on maintenance.
01:03:37
Brandon Reilly
My other group had 50 questions. You guys have two. Um, and I did learn something. Um, I thought that was kind of, I didn't think I was going to care too much about that final stage.
01:03:47
Brandon Reilly
Cause it was just like lunches around the corner.
01:03:50
snowjobspodcast
Nope.
01:03:50
Brandon Reilly
Like. We've you know been walking around standing. It's windy. It's cold. you know You're just kind of moving around. And then all of a sudden it was like, oh, I didn't know that. Okay. Take a note on that. I got to maintenance that thing on the metal plus plow. And and then it was like, oh, okay. Now this, oh, no one's ever told me about that. So then it, then it drew me back in and then it was like two more questions. And then, you know, we were in for lunch. um I will agree that the panel discussion discussion was awesome. um Just because I, I love those big projects. I love to think about how.
01:04:22
Brandon Reilly
that would go down um and how you would kind of conquer that. and And everyone's mind and business works differently. Like the way I would look at that if I was, it's an each lot would be its own property, right?
01:04:33
Brandon Reilly
So I'm going to go this, this, this, and that, right?
01:04:34
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:04:35
Brandon Reilly
And then figuring out the sidewalks to go with that. But it did draw out to be very long. And and I mean, like you said, you just had lunch. You're kind of sitting there.
01:04:45
Brandon Reilly
People are starting to like, you know, they woke up early. It was, you know, I, depending on if they had to drive in or maybe they ran Mankato already, you know, it was still an early morning.
01:04:49
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:04:54
Brandon Reilly
So it's like, you already got an early morning. You had lunch.
01:04:57
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:04:58
Brandon Reilly
Like you said, it's like time for a nap.
01:05:00
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, it was long doing it.
01:05:02
Brandon Reilly
Yeah.
01:05:02
snowjobspodcast
It was long doing it.
01:05:03
RICK JAMES
yeah Yeah.
01:05:04
Brandon Reilly
Yeah. So, so yeah, people were just, I mean, you can, you can see it in people's faces. you know, some people are closing their eyes, taking, you know, trying to sit back and and whatnot, but there's still so much great knowledge within that that panel that was, I thought it was awesome, but yeah, just kind of shorten up some of that stuff a little bit, maybe give them a timer on their response, you know, cause some could rattle on forever and some had a very quick to the point.
01:05:24
RICK JAMES
yeah Shut the mics off.
01:05:27
snowjobspodcast
pulls out. but ah
01:05:30
RICK JAMES
ah
01:05:31
snowjobspodcast
He's got so much information.
01:05:33
Brandon Reilly
You guys,
01:05:33
snowjobspodcast
Like he's got so many.
01:05:34
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:05:34
snowjobspodcast
you You think about how much experience, how many years, like he wrote a lot of the books that guys are operating off of. So he's getting it all out there and he's doing, he's doing it efficiently. But like, I think that's actually a really good point.
01:05:46
snowjobspodcast
And that's probably, that's probably my fault as a moderator for not you know keeping guys to, you know, maybe a two minute response each and moving on to the next thing. You know, maybe, maybe
Managing Panel Discussions
01:05:56
snowjobspodcast
some ising, but you know, like that, but that was their marching orders.
01:05:59
snowjobspodcast
Honestly, to be fair, they wanted in great detail how they would go through this ah RFP.
01:06:02
Brandon Reilly
Yep.
01:06:04
snowjobspodcast
So they did, they, they followed their orders. That was what they wanted. Um, but yeah, I think, and if you, if you sense that Brandon, cause that's your wheelhouse, though, that, that property is in LA DC's wheelhouse.
01:06:16
snowjobspodcast
That's something you guys would do, right?
01:06:18
Brandon Reilly
Yeah.
01:06:18
snowjobspodcast
So I mean, if you if you felt it drawing out, then imagine guys that were not, you know, that was not a property they would ever tackle or don't tackle, then yeah, it was probably a tough thing to ah to keep on that long.
01:06:32
snowjobspodcast
but
01:06:32
Brandon Reilly
Well, I know like our table of, I think we had six or seven guys at our table. I mean, everyone would like right when you put the papers down, everyone was like, okay, well, okay. You're looking at it. It's got all the numbers on it for the square footage. Okay. So you're looking at that and you're going, okay, how would you break this down?
01:06:44
Brandon Reilly
You know, so just as a little group of, of six. And then obviously the panel discussion stop started and everyone, you know, quiet down and listen. So even if, you know, like you said, like, I think one of, the one of, one of you said, just look at it like six different properties all in one spot.
01:06:51
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
01:07:00
Brandon Reilly
have one four-acre lot, one four-acre lot, one five-acre lot, and you're breaking it down ah on how you would build this thing together. um So even if you're a smaller guy, you can still get some information from it.
01:07:11
snowjobspodcast
Yup.
01:07:12
Brandon Reilly
It's just it's just you know six properties in one.
01:07:12
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:07:16
snowjobspodcast
Cool. All right. Um, anybody have anything to add to that?
01:07:22
RICK JAMES
I, I just pretty much echo what Brandon said. You know, it's, I mean, obviously I could have done a better job of that panel myself and being up on a panel. It was, it was great. I and i enjoyed it, but it got long being up there as well.
01:07:32
RICK JAMES
And it just, I mean, you could tell as well. I sent you a couple texts and me and Steve were like, you gotta, we gotta hurry this up.
01:07:36
snowjobspodcast
Yep. Yeah. I trim it,
01:07:38
RICK JAMES
We're,
Logistical Challenges with Event Growth
01:07:39
snowjobspodcast
trim it.
01:07:39
RICK JAMES
we're, we're losing people. Like, I think that's what I said. We're losing the guys. We need to somehow speed this up and you're like, how am I supposed to do that?
01:07:43
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:07:46
RICK JAMES
I'm like, I don't know. that's like I don't know.
01:07:47
snowjobspodcast
Well, I'm like, I'm only a halfway through the stuff they want to talk about. I'm like, there's no way I can speed this up much unless I skip stuff.
01:07:53
RICK JAMES
No, I know, but ah we were, I could just feel it and he could see it, but it is what it is.
01:07:57
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:07:57
RICK JAMES
I mean, whatever. And I'd say if I, if I'd get a few more porta potties, you know, that'd be one thing I would, I would suggest probably do them a little bit more of that.
01:08:07
RICK JAMES
Cause it seemed like a lot of guys are waiting in line for that. So.
01:08:10
snowjobspodcast
Well, and to be fair, last year, Jordan was how many guys 40 the first year and this year was how many 100 and what?
01:08:14
Jordan Smith
I think it was about 40. Yeah. 150 ish.
01:08:18
snowjobspodcast
Okay. So tripled in size.
01:08:18
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:08:18
Jordan Smith
yeah
01:08:20
snowjobspodcast
So yeah. Um, and the other thing to echo Jeremy there, now that you know, this is a ah legit, this is going to be a ah heavily attended event now from now on and probably more guys, even next year, um, you have enough attendance from out of town now that you can block rooms at hotels and get guys, you know, group rates, stuff like that.
01:08:36
Jordan Smith
Yep. Yep.
01:08:37
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:08:38
Jordan Smith
Absolutely.
01:08:39
snowjobspodcast
That would help. Um, but yeah, I i thought you guys knocked it out of the park as you do with most stuff you do.
01:08:40
RICK JAMES
um Right.
01:08:45
snowjobspodcast
Um, Everybody had a great time. I think, you know, like this is all nitpicky stuff. Like we had to actually work to come up with shit. ah You know, that's what you want. You want it. You want honest feedback and every little detail matters to you.
01:08:57
snowjobspodcast
So, you know, that's what, that's what we came up with, but I had a great time.
01:09:00
Brandon Reilly
I mean, the metal plus dealership had Arctic there.
01:09:02
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:09:03
Brandon Reilly
I mean, name of the world where that happens.
01:09:05
snowjobspodcast
Yes.
01:09:05
Jordan Smith
Yep.
01:09:06
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:09:06
Jordan Smith
Yep.
01:09:07
RICK JAMES
right
01:09:07
Jordan Smith
That's what we want.
01:09:07
Brandon Reilly
So that, well, it's pretty great that, and even competing, yep, I think it was awesome.
01:09:07
snowjobspodcast
oh And they were happy to be there. You had a great time.
01:09:15
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:09:16
Brandon Reilly
So you just, you don't see that.
01:09:16
snowjobspodcast
it's ah It's great.
01:09:17
Brandon Reilly
So that's pretty cool that you're able to put all these people in one room and not have a battle. I mean, you had different carbide edges companies there. You had, you know, different plot manufacturers there, you know,
01:09:29
Brandon Reilly
It was just, yeah, and everyone got along. It was awesome.
01:09:32
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, no, I think you hit the nail on the head.
01:09:33
RICK JAMES
Yeah. I mean,
01:09:35
snowjobspodcast
I think it was all very, like you guys said from the get go, the energy was different. You know, it was a very collaborative, exciting energy amongst everybody there. Young guys, old guys, everybody was happy.
01:09:45
snowjobspodcast
Nobody. I didn't see anybody. I didn't hear it. Like normally you walk around these events and you'll hear guys like talking off to the side. They're chirping about this guy or that guy. Oh, look at That guy is over there. He's a jerk, you know whatever.
01:09:57
snowjobspodcast
You didn't hear any of that. like At least I didn't. And I was walking around like trying to find stuff like that to just see if guys were really legit. And everybody there was happy to be there.
01:10:07
snowjobspodcast
they I saw guys you know constantly talking to new people. And it was awesome. And I think it was really awesome for the young guys who, when you start out in snow, I mean, we were all there once. like You meet guys that have been doing it 20, 25 years and are successful doing it.
01:10:19
snowjobspodcast
It's kind of overwhelming and maybe a little intimidating. and For everybody there to be as cool as they were to the younger guys and welcoming. I think that was extremely important to to the younger guys that maybe have a year or two under their belts and are new to the industry. So I thought that was great.
01:10:35
Jordan Smith
And I think it's important to define, we call it Storm Day or Storm Field Day.
01:10:35
RICK JAMES
Hi.
01:10:41
Jordan Smith
Storm Day really caught on, so we'll probably just call it Storm Day in the future, thanks to Snow Jobs.
01:10:44
snowjobspodcast
That was Jeremy.
01:10:46
Jordan Smith
um like it
01:10:48
snowjobspodcast
ah
01:10:49
Jordan Smith
it's It's technically our event. Obviously, we're putting it on. you know we're We're organizing it, but it's a platform to bring people together to get what they want to get out of it. And and that's why, again, when when we sent out the survey, when we asked for feedback from you guys,
01:11:04
Jordan Smith
we We just want to make it the best possible for everyone that's there and and yeah our names on it, but it's not about us. It's about everyone else. It's about collaborative industry advancement. It's about setting the future standard in snow. And again, like we talked about at the event, like we can't do that alone. There's not a single company on earth that can set the future standard of any industry. It takes a whole bunch of people coming together and doing it together. and We just want to create the best platform for that to happen in. And and so that's why like we we have no pride when it comes to the way things are organized. like We just want it to be right for the guys that are there. We want it to be beneficial. We want people to walk away saying, like that actually changed my business. That made my business better. And whatever that is is what it needs to be. And
Networking and Partnerships at Storm Day
01:11:46
Jordan Smith
and that's why the amount of feedback we've gotten has been just phenomenal because that's what's going to make that happen. and
01:11:52
Jordan Smith
One of the main things we keep seeing and we talked about here and we you know, all of us agreed on like we need more specific space for certain breakout discussion and and Part of that's not working like in the in the survey the number one word that comes up is networking People's favorite thing was the networking the talking the morning the lunchtime and the after-party They liked the structured stuff too.
01:12:11
Jordan Smith
You got to have some of that otherwise people would just drink all day and and you know BS all day, but you
01:12:13
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm. Water, drink water.
01:12:17
Jordan Smith
Yeah, water, of course.
01:12:18
snowjobspodcast
yeah
01:12:19
Jordan Smith
Um, so you gotta have some structure, but like we we want to create a collaborative environment where people can legitimately get value from other people. And you know, the young guys coming in and just start and can talk to the 30 year vets and the 30 year vets can, can hear how the new guys are doing things.
01:12:33
Jordan Smith
Cause that's valuable too. Like that's the whole idea. and And that's why I think we're off to a good start, but you know, nothing's ever good enough for us. We're going to make it better next year and we're excited for it.
01:12:43
snowjobspodcast
No, you guys killed it.
01:12:44
RICK JAMES
It's great.
01:12:44
Brandon Reilly
Yeah, it was fun.
01:12:44
snowjobspodcast
You guys killed it.
01:12:45
RICK JAMES
And as being the snow jobs here, podcasts, it was nice seeing a lot of our sponsors there. I mean, great to see like Chris and Pat and those guys review and Arctic and TiVo and hopefully maybe we'll get a few more, you know, maybe winner will come on board.
01:12:52
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely.
01:12:59
RICK JAMES
I'm i'm just plugging here, but i'm I'm just like, I mean, those are the.
01:13:02
snowjobspodcast
They should for as many a blades if you sold for them.
01:13:03
RICK JAMES
oh you see Yeah, those guys are they're they're great. I mean they're just they were all great companies room broom I mean all all those saber all those I mean I like Shouldn't a mom Shannon burger true weather everybody.
01:13:16
RICK JAMES
I mean they were just it was I'm like a NASCAR guy now
01:13:19
snowjobspodcast
yeah Your tires were super car was super. but but
01:13:24
RICK JAMES
But no, it's just it was fun is actually seeing the guys again that like sponsor a show and you know and And they're just great guys and for them to come to Mankato. That was pretty sweet. So I mean Yeah, go go
01:13:35
snowjobspodcast
Jeremy's going to have a giant fig Newton sticker on his front windshield next week. Ricky Bobby. Oh, man. No, you're absolutely right. i And I think that's that's part of what Jordan was talking about, the community that it takes a lot of people to move forward. And I think that's the cool thing that all of our partners in this show have in common is everybody has the same goal.
01:14:00
snowjobspodcast
They're all whether they're you know manufacturers doesn't matter what they're manufacturing their products are good and they're good people that's why they're involved with the show and they're all looking to get to the same point they're all looking to elevate everybody's game.
01:14:12
snowjobspodcast
because they understand that everybody wins then. If we all do better, you know everybody's winning. and And there's plenty of room for everybody. it's It's a good thing. And I'm glad they, yeah, I'm glad they came. It was it was a great time.
01:14:22
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:14:23
snowjobspodcast
And I'm glad ah i glad I got to meet John and talk to him from Arctic for a while, because he is a character, dude.
01:14:29
RICK JAMES
oh
01:14:29
snowjobspodcast
I can't wait to get him on this show.
01:14:29
RICK JAMES
He's, he's, he's the great, yeah. He's, he's coming on.
01:14:33
snowjobspodcast
That is, oh, he's coming.
01:14:34
RICK JAMES
He's coming. That's going to be, ah that's going to be a long show.
01:14:35
snowjobspodcast
Oh, he's coming.
01:14:36
Brandon Reilly
You better block two hours.
01:14:36
RICK JAMES
That's going to be a long.
01:14:36
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely. That's another one where we just have to press record.
01:14:38
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah
01:14:40
snowjobspodcast
That's it. i'm Okay. John, take it away. Boom.
01:14:44
RICK JAMES
but ah Yeah.
01:14:46
snowjobspodcast
Oh, but yeah, that's a, you know, do we want to, do we want to spend 10 minutes talking about Minnesota, ah how it's going for you guys with your bids?
01:14:54
Brandon Reilly
Sure.
01:14:55
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. All right. So let's hit, let's hit our 15 second commercials, guys. We're going to give these guys a break and we'll be back in a minute.
Snow Season Bidding Trends
01:16:05
snowjobspodcast
Brandon, did you record that commercial for Plowwright?
01:16:08
snowjobspodcast
Tell me, everybody here, tell me that's not his voice.
01:16:08
Brandon Reilly
Yes, I did.
01:16:10
Brandon Reilly
ah
01:16:12
snowjobspodcast
I mean, God, that sounds just like you, dude.
01:16:14
Brandon Reilly
It does. The first time I heard it, I was like, wow, someone sounds like me and I hear my voice on on recordings.
01:16:16
snowjobspodcast
I don't even remember doing that.
01:16:22
snowjobspodcast
I don't even remember doing that. Shit. No, dude, that was, uh, I said it sounds so much like Brandon. Holy crap. It's pretty funny. And this is the first time you've been on here in that commercial. So now you like, guys, you can go back 30 seconds before that commercial aired and listen and tell me it doesn't sound like the same person.
01:16:38
snowjobspodcast
It's crazy. So I know we all did.
01:16:39
Jordan Smith
I thought it was. Honestly, I thought it actually was.
01:16:42
snowjobspodcast
We heard it. And we're like, is that Brandon?
01:16:42
Brandon Reilly
I thought it was me when I first heard it.
01:16:48
snowjobspodcast
ah Oh shit. So to talk about your upcoming snow season here and how it's going, as far as the proposals, you're coming out, you guys in Minnesota, you're coming off ah a low winner. Um, you got it's the time of season bids are going out proposals, RFPs. Um, have you guys gotten proposal or RFP bids back yet? And if so, what's the feedback been of the, are the customers trying to you know knock down the prices coming off the bed winner? Or what are you seeing out there, Brandon?
01:17:15
Brandon Reilly
I haven't had too much knock on the price, i trying to get it down or anything like that.
01:17:18
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
01:17:21
Brandon Reilly
Obviously, I think a lot of people are price checking this year for sure. um So stuff that has been locked down for a long time, they're either open it back up for bid just to check numbers to make sure that they're they're in line with what everyone's at.
01:17:32
Brandon Reilly
And it's hard to say that, you know okay, so we 30, 32 inches of snow last year um in the Twin Cities. And so, still okay winter. I mean, it all came in two weekends.
01:17:42
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:17:46
Brandon Reilly
um But you know, before that, obviously, we had a monster winter before that winter was also a really good winter, we've been above average for that before the big winter, like the first like what, like three winters.
01:17:57
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:17:58
Brandon Reilly
And then all of a sudden, now we have that cut. And they're saying that we're going to be above average again, um coming into this winter as of right now. So yeah, I haven't heard much squawk on price. I just know that there are people that are worried about price are, it's always going to happen.
01:18:16
Brandon Reilly
And I feel like the ones that just know that they're getting good service, just like they signed their stuff up and got it locked in locked in early.
01:18:21
snowjobspodcast
They ride it out.
01:18:22
Brandon Reilly
And then there's ones out there like, I'm going to wait. Like, I mean, there's RFPs that aren't going to be decided to. end of September like it happens every year and even big places that I can't believe are waiting this long to make the decision on um big facilities and um obviously there's a lot that goes into those kind of properties and and things like that but yeah in terms of squawking on price I i haven't heard anyone say this is really expensive um or you're you're out of line um but you know if you raise your rates last year and you just did a modest increase this year there really wasn't much to fight over.
01:18:55
snowjobspodcast
And Minnesota's you gotta like people in Minnesota got to expect that, you know, 30 inches is not the norm. You guys are going to obviously go at least back up to 55 this year, you know, probably bigger.
01:19:05
Brandon Reilly
yeah
01:19:07
snowjobspodcast
But, uh, so yeah, I think they're smart enough to know that I know after a low winner here. Is usually the greatest time because if you can just keep your price where it is Everybody's looking like this is where you get if you come off a low lower winner in New York everybody tends to want to go from seasonal to per push and then we follow it up with a monster and Then they're like we want to go back to seasonal and then you okay well and we keep like you if you if you time it right you keep winning
01:19:32
Brandon Reilly
Yeah. Yep.
01:19:34
snowjobspodcast
Like you keep telling them like, don't, don't go away from the seasonal. It will average out, you know, it's planned to average out your, if you stay the course, it will be the same. Don't try and and roll the dice. Cause that you're going to ultimately one year you're going to lose big. And, uh, we had a couple in that 92 inch winter, a couple of guys went away from, from seasonals. Cause we got, I think we were below average by six or seven inches. But again, I think it all came in two or three storms.
01:20:01
snowjobspodcast
So guys were like, Oh, barely snowed last winter. Well, no, we still got 35 inches of snow. It was just a little lower than average. And they wanted to get away from the seasonal go to per push and but against our advice, they did. And they got clobbered. We had 92 inches. We had two storms that were 55 inches and then we had 40 inches on top of it. So they got absolutely mauled. So we keep telling guys, just stay the course. So yeah, I didn't know. I didn't know what the feeling was out there in Minnesota. If people were coming off a lower winner and they were trying to Say, Oh, you know, we, we got, we paid a lot of money for, for very little response last year. We're going to try and get some money off.
01:20:36
Brandon Reilly
Yeah, there I mean, there was a lot of ah educational parts on like, what, you know, for us, like, you know, ah putting a cap on there,
Economic Impact on Contracts
01:20:44
Brandon Reilly
why are you doing that? You know, why is it just not encompassing everything and And it's your, well, my price is based off of, you know, let's say 60 inches of snow for the season. So I'm going above our seasonal average. So you're getting a perk that way.
01:20:55
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:20:56
Brandon Reilly
I'm building it based off of that amount of snow for your facility on that many acreage with this much removal. This is how the price is built. And then they're like, Oh, okay. That's starting to make sense. And just educating on why we did it the way that we did it.
01:21:08
Brandon Reilly
First, just like, I'm just picking this number because I'm getting screwed every year.
01:21:08
snowjobspodcast
gotcha
01:21:11
Brandon Reilly
No, it's the snow is built this way.
01:21:12
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha.
01:21:13
Brandon Reilly
I can give you a full encompassing, no cap trigger, but then I'm going to be blowing my numbers out of the water and then I'm i'm not competitive with the next guy because he's not going to do that. or
01:21:23
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:21:23
Brandon Reilly
And maybe he will, I don't know, but it's just, it's a way to keep it kind of somewhat flat line and say, Hey, it's based off of this much snow. That's where this number is coming from.
01:21:31
snowjobspodcast
Amen. Or why are you doing the ceiling? Well, because you want a floor.
01:21:35
Brandon Reilly
Correct.
01:21:35
snowjobspodcast
You know, we gotta keep it fair.
01:21:36
Brandon Reilly
Yeah.
01:21:36
snowjobspodcast
If you want a floor, we're going to have a ceiling too.
01:21:38
Brandon Reilly
Yep.
01:21:39
snowjobspodcast
But what about you, Joe? Are you, you seeing any, uh, any pushback or anything on pricing this year?
01:21:44
Joe
Not a ton surprisingly we expected to um But for the most part it hasn't been bad. i I know of some people Other friends of ours that have have lost some pretty good accounts for price and I know of one a really large contract the guy's done it for over 20 years and he lost it to a national this year because they They wanted to save money
01:22:05
snowjobspodcast
Oh geez.
01:22:07
Joe
um ah multiple reasons, right? Like the economy is not the best, right?
01:22:10
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
01:22:11
Joe
So people are looking to save money. And I don't know if it's so much has to do with the low snow year, but whatever it is. um I think the advantage we had, though, was we had we had a record high year, a year ago, um and then essentially record low.
01:22:17
Brandon Reilly
Thank you.
01:22:20
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:22:25
Joe
But I think it definitely helped to have that really big year prior, if we would have had an average year followed by a record low, I think the money would be a bigger conversation. You know, for us, we do we do most of them in three year contracts.
01:22:35
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha. Good point.
01:22:38
Joe
So a lot of people were in that window. It just so happened year one and a lot, like 70% of our contracts year one was the record year. And then we had the lower year and now now we're talking to people on year three and it's like, hey, we're probably going to be average.
01:22:52
Joe
at Everything says we're going to be slightly above for whatever that's worth.
01:22:54
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:22:57
Joe
But, um you know, i I actually, I have the weather pros thing on my phone. I just got it today. They said we're going to be 27 inches above normal.
01:23:05
Brandon Reilly
Yup.
01:23:05
Joe
So yeah, I print all these out and put them on our whiteboard at work to see who gets remotely close.
01:23:06
snowjobspodcast
Really?
01:23:11
Joe
Um, but, uh, but, uh, no, I mean, I think it helped that we had that big year though.
01:23:12
snowjobspodcast
Just fodder.
01:23:16
Joe
Like everybody saw how much work went into that and how much they came out ahead. And then, so the, the low year wasn't as big of a deal. The only thing I'll say, my biggest concern is when you have a really big year.
01:23:27
Joe
guys make good money for the most part. And then they go, Hey, I'm going to, I ran 10 trucks or 10 pieces of equipment. What if I would have had 15 and I have money now. So they go buy new equipment or they buy more equipment and then the low year hits and they go, Holy shit, I'm barely making my payments.
01:23:40
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:23:40
RICK JAMES
Mhm.
01:23:45
Joe
And now they come to this year and they're like, well, I gotta make sure I don't go out of business basically. And they start to undercut pricing to cover their payments.
01:23:52
snowjobspodcast
Yes.
01:23:52
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:23:53
Joe
Cause it's like, I got, you know, I gotta pay X a month.
01:23:53
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:23:57
Joe
You know, I don't I would normally do the site.
01:23:58
snowjobspodcast
I have to make sure I get certain amount of contracts.
01:23:59
Joe
Yeah Yeah, so it's like I'd normally do this site for 10 grand a month, but I got to pay my payment So I'll do it for eight just to make sure I can get my through my payments and then eventually next year I'll catch up, you know And they're just chasing the dog the whole way um So that's the only like that's the concern I have and you see these years line up like this I would have I would have had the low year then the big year would have knocked a bunch of people out.
01:24:01
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:24:11
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:24:16
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:24:16
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
01:24:19
Joe
I think
01:24:21
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha. Yeah. Jeremy, I can't count the amount of times I've heard Jeremy say that, like his guys will be coming off a big year and they'll, they'll want to buy more equipment to sub on with him. He's like, it ain't always like this, dude.
01:24:31
snowjobspodcast
You know, it all averages out.
01:24:32
RICK JAMES
No.
01:24:34
snowjobspodcast
Don't go breaking the bank.
01:24:34
RICK JAMES
No. Not much.
01:24:36
snowjobspodcast
um And then look what, yeah. Look what happened to you last year. Not much. Exactly. Jordan, what do you what's storm snow seeing out there? Are you guys ah getting any pushback on pricing this year?
01:24:49
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I mean, we, so I think I've talked about it on here before, but we we implemented a ah floor and ceiling contract structure a couple of years ago. Obviously two years ago, we we shattered the ceiling and last year we fell through the floor. um You know, I think
Business Strategies during Economic Changes
01:25:05
Jordan Smith
Minneapolis, St. Paul Metro had like close to 30 inches. we We had like nine inches in Mankato. So, you know, just an hour and a half south, we got no, like literally, I think we pushed no three times.
01:25:16
snowjobspodcast
wow
01:25:16
Jordan Smith
A little more de-icing, but not not great. The way our floor structure works is we don't give the money back. That year, we forward a credit to the next year if they keep the contract in place.
01:25:29
Jordan Smith
So it incentivizes them to come back because they only get their money if they come back.
01:25:31
snowjobspodcast
Smart.
01:25:34
Jordan Smith
Um, and you know, they, they agreed to that and the way we set the floor, like we never should hit it. I think our floor was 17 inches, which we, you know, we hit like one time every 25 years.
01:25:41
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:25:44
Jordan Smith
Well, of course we hit it.
01:25:45
snowjobspodcast
ah
01:25:45
Jordan Smith
So, so we, we got everything back and you know, I prefaced that by saying we're we're pretty small. So for us to get everything back in this small market is not surprising. Um. But I think to hit on Joe's point, I think you nailed an important topic.
01:25:56
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:25:58
Jordan Smith
And I think this is relevant to all of Snow Jobs Nation. um Wall Street's not reflecting it. I talked about this at the kickoff at the Storm Day a little bit. But like but but Main Street's hurting a little bit.
01:26:09
Jordan Smith
like The small business is hurting right now with cost of capital, cost of labor inflation, um the days of free money have have passed.
01:26:10
snowjobspodcast
Oh yeah.
01:26:17
Jordan Smith
And like People may not be super open about talking about it, but I'm in a couple small business entrepreneur community groups and and people that have never been hurting are are hurting.
01:26:21
snowjobspodcast
Yup.
01:26:27
Jordan Smith
So just just be be careful about that because you might be signing on with people who can't pay their bills, so know who you're working for. And even if they're not small, there's I mean, we're seeing it in the news.
01:26:34
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:26:37
Jordan Smith
There's some big companies now that are doing huge layoffs in their closing locations and restaurants, specifically entertainment, you know, kind of the first things that start falling off when and the economy starts to slow down.
01:26:49
Jordan Smith
And of course it's an election year. So the media is not talking about it.
01:26:53
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
01:26:53
Jordan Smith
They're avoiding the topic because I won't get into politics too much, but they're avoiding the topic because they don't want to show the economy is bad because that
01:26:57
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, for a reason.
01:27:00
Jordan Smith
doesn't fit the media's narrative right now. And I think that if you talk to small business, don't get me wrong. There's there's there's guys that are starting up and thriving um because they're lean and mean. But you know like like you said, Joe, like guys that went out and bought a bunch of equipment after the 100 inch winter in Minnesota in the Midwest,
01:27:19
Jordan Smith
Uh, they can't pay for that stuff after last winter and, and when they're paying 10% interest compared to the two or 3% they're used to paying. So I think there's a shift coming here and.
01:27:27
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:27:31
Jordan Smith
You know, anytime that there's something negative, there's opportunity for those that are, are set up for it and, uh, just be prepared for that. Cause I think there'll be opportunity and there is opportunity.
01:27:41
Jordan Smith
Uh, but, but yeah, I think it's not the same economy we've been used for, used to for the last 15 years. So just be aware of that.
01:27:48
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. um Be careful, be financially careful as a snow company, because there is, uh, I would say.
01:27:48
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:27:56
snowjobspodcast
Cause I look, I look all over the place trying to see who's, who's doing what. And, uh, there are a lot of fire sales for snow companies right now. like there it's Like everybody says it, there's that period of time where guys that do large amounts of snow, that money carries them through to about August, September, and then that money runs out and the new contract payments haven't started yet in November and their bills are still due and they're it's like the last month has been fire sale after fire sale, companies selling 15 machines, 20 machines, tons of stuff on the market.
01:28:33
snowjobspodcast
so
01:28:34
Jordan Smith
And it's selling cheap, I mean, low loader and truck pricing, yeah, loader and truck pricing compared to two years ago is way down.
01:28:35
snowjobspodcast
It's selling a cheap.
01:28:35
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:28:36
snowjobspodcast
So what, what's that tell you? What does that tell you?
01:28:41
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. That tells you that they're just looking to offload it. Just a they, they need to get something.
01:28:44
Jordan Smith
Yep.
01:28:44
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:28:45
snowjobspodcast
They don't mind taking a loss on it, but they they got to get out from under it.
01:28:49
Jordan Smith
Yep.
01:28:49
snowjobspodcast
So yeah, it's scary.
01:28:50
RICK JAMES
oh How how storm doing themselves you plow sales if you want to elaborate on that any
01:28:56
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I mean, we to be to be honest, like we we entered this year, um I would say conservative, but we're we're not conservative by nature. We're pretty aggressive, but but more conservative than our usual maximum aggression level. um you know In some of the VSI days, we were we were doubling every year and we we did not project to double this year because of the economy and because of the snow snow economy in particular.
01:29:20
Jordan Smith
um we We haven't seen a slowdown in our sales at all, um but we also haven't seen a huge increase. So I think for us, a company that's used to to fairly substantial increases every year, for us, not increasing substantially is is ah is kind of a decrease. but you know we're We're holding strong.
01:29:38
Jordan Smith
I mean, I think a lot of that has to do with the brand reputation we've built and just the fact
01:29:41
RICK JAMES
Great.
Equipment Sales Dynamics
01:29:42
Jordan Smith
that, you know, there are a lot of contracts turning over.
01:29:44
Jordan Smith
So anytime you have contracts turning over, like we feel bad for our customers to lose stuff, but the new ones need equipment.
01:29:50
snowjobspodcast
Need to buy it.
01:29:50
Jordan Smith
So, um, there is a lot of contract turnover happening.
01:29:51
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:29:54
Jordan Smith
I don't see it as much in the Midwest, but, um, and in the, in the Great Plains in the Northeast, we're seeing quite a bit of a account turnover.
01:30:01
snowjobspodcast
And you have a fair amount, a fair amount of your customers are what we call the so-called unicorn companies like that. You know, they're not buying one metal plus at a time. They're buying 20.
01:30:10
Jordan Smith
They're buying a lot, yeah.
01:30:10
snowjobspodcast
Uh, those, those companies are probably still on pace doing their normal purchasing.
01:30:11
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:30:15
snowjobspodcast
Are you seeing a lot less one-offs?
01:30:19
Jordan Smith
ah You know what, it's not the one-offs. The one-offs haven't slowed down.
01:30:20
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
01:30:21
Jordan Smith
We're seeing onesies, twosies.
01:30:23
snowjobspodcast
Interesting.
01:30:23
Jordan Smith
I just talked to someone about this the other day. It's more the ah like the five to 10 range guys that we're seeing slow down.
01:30:28
snowjobspodcast
Okay.
01:30:30
Jordan Smith
So those would be like your mid-size, I'd say like three to $8 million dollars snow businesses that we're buying
01:30:30
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:30:36
Jordan Smith
you know maybe six five five to 10, six to 11 at a time. We're not really seeing those this year. We're seeing onesies, twosies, threesies, and we're seeing the 20 plus. That kind of mid-range is maybe what's disappeared a little more. And I think part of that's because of what you said, like these big companies are getting these huge contracts with these huge blue chip companies like Amazon, obviously just had a big RFP that went out.
01:30:57
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
01:30:58
Jordan Smith
um and and And your smaller guys are just organically growing because they're small and lean and mean. Your mid-sized guys who aren't set up for the big ah RFP stuff, like they're they're the ones who are probably hurting the worst right now. And in general, and in business like that, you could argue what the range is with inflation now, but that three to $8 million dollar range is a challenging size business when the economy gets stuffed because your overhead is high enough to be dangerous.
01:31:23
Jordan Smith
but it's um you know But it's not so low that you lean to mean. like You're kind of in that middle ground, and it can be kind of a dangerous spot in in a bad economy.
01:31:31
snowjobspodcast
Got it.
01:31:32
RICK JAMES
no
01:31:33
snowjobspodcast
Cool. Brandon, last thing. Did you buy that Hyundai?
01:31:38
Brandon Reilly
No, it was know Salesman brought it in and gave it to us for a couple days to demo.
01:31:38
snowjobspodcast
Oh, okay. You didn't buy it. You just posted it.
01:31:43
Brandon Reilly
so um I didn't get to drive it all that much.
01:31:43
snowjobspodcast
What'd you think?
01:31:47
Brandon Reilly
I only put ah probably 10, 15 miles on it, just driving down the roads, checking it out. Obviously, I didn't really have any... ah There's no snow to push, so hard to really truly get it to spec, but I thought it was pretty nice.
01:31:54
RICK JAMES
Cool.
01:31:55
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
01:31:59
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:32:00
Brandon Reilly
Price was great. um it Threw me off that a 25,000 pound loader had skinny tires. um Normally 25.5 hours or what they have on them and they said like 17.5.
01:32:14
RICK JAMES
All right. Really?
01:32:16
Brandon Reilly
And so that threw me off a little bit. um Love that it had the scale built into it just like the ICMG.
01:32:21
RICK JAMES
It seems, yeah.
01:32:23
snowjobspodcast
XCMG. Yep.
01:32:25
Brandon Reilly
um I thought it drove better than the XCMG when I, when I demoed that. um But it's roomy in the cab. ah The technology side's pretty cool. I don't know if that's a huge factor for a lot of people, but I liked the computer screen ah screen on it and how ah it works and how you can control the settings and the functions of the machine all from right there in touch di um and whatnot. Great visibility. So, I mean, yeah, it's a it's a nice machine. I've heard guys love them um from the feedback that I got from just the stuff that I've posted about it, but
01:32:57
Brandon Reilly
um
01:32:58
snowjobspodcast
they're There's a dealer about 40 minutes north of us, and they they push a lot of them up in like Matt Young's neck of the woods Albany area, and those guys up there love them. ah for that They say the value machines, they're they're like, I don't know, they're not quite a throwaway machine, but they're Cummins powered, they they have all the right parts in all the right places, and but their price is somehow inexplicably low.
01:33:23
snowjobspodcast
Like ah when we looked at it at Simon last year, right Jeremy?
01:33:23
Brandon Reilly
If you go, like if I, if I remember it, like your lease payment was 2,100 a month or 4,200 for the sixmon six months, six off.
01:33:23
RICK JAMES
Yep, yep, yep,
01:33:26
snowjobspodcast
That was the one that we looked at and yeah they handed me the price sheet and I'm like, wow, that's phenomenal. And Jeremy's like, that's Canadian dude.
01:33:31
RICK JAMES
yep, yep,
01:33:32
snowjobspodcast
Like, I'm like, wow, that was good at Canadian pricing. Now it's really good at American. Holy crap.
01:33:36
RICK JAMES
yep, yep.
01:33:42
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:33:45
Brandon Reilly
So, I mean, that's pretty awesome.
01:33:45
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:33:45
RICK JAMES
yeah
01:33:48
Brandon Reilly
Um, what other things are at right now?
01:33:48
snowjobspodcast
Pretty awesome. Are you going to try one?
01:33:51
Brandon Reilly
No.
01:33:52
snowjobspodcast
Come on, Brandon. I don't want to buy one myself. I wanted somebody else to buy it and tell me how it is. So Jordan, you got to get a Hyundai too.
01:33:59
Brandon Reilly
I don't know.
01:34:02
Jordan Smith
Got it.
01:34:03
snowjobspodcast
Put it, put it next to the XCMG and try them out. See how, uh, save us from deer and cat and that pricing that price point.
01:34:06
Brandon Reilly
Now, and we want some 3.44s.
01:34:06
Jordan Smith
We will.
01:34:12
snowjobspodcast
Did you?
01:34:13
Brandon Reilly
No, that's what we want. We're pricing out right now.
01:34:14
snowjobspodcast
Oh, you want a lot of bad speed controllers and stuff.
01:34:17
Brandon Reilly
We're going to dump our designs and go with 3.44s.
01:34:17
RICK JAMES
Uh, yeah. Yeah.
01:34:20
snowjobspodcast
hu
01:34:20
RICK JAMES
That's what a three 44 is an known for.
01:34:22
snowjobspodcast
ah
01:34:23
RICK JAMES
I don't, I just don't care for a three 44 is I just, I don't know. I just, I like the bigger ones.
01:34:27
Brandon Reilly
Well, I just don't want to go to RDO. So if
Conclusion and Reflections
01:34:30
Brandon Reilly
I stay ah stay below the 444, the 544, 444 is what I get.
01:34:30
RICK JAMES
I don't blame it.
01:34:34
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha. Gotcha. All right, boys. Anybody got anything else?
01:34:41
RICK JAMES
Oh, it's not a good one.
01:34:41
snowjobspodcast
No?
01:34:43
snowjobspodcast
All right. Well, then we'll wrap it. All right. Well, thanks for coming on, guys. As always, great to see you guys again.
01:34:48
Brandon Reilly
Thank you for having us.
01:34:51
snowjobspodcast
It's always a good time talking to you, and we'll wrap it there then. So that's going to do it for possibly episode 85 if we're numbering.
01:34:58
RICK JAMES
Yup.
01:34:59
snowjobspodcast
All right. As always, thanks so much to Joe, Brandon, and Jordan for coming on, giving us the time. Great discussion. These guys got a lot of knowledge, and yeah um I hope we could help storm you know with their critique on their field day.
01:35:12
snowjobspodcast
It was a phenomenal time. We had a blast. ah The guys that we were able to meet were, you know that was awesome. I know Jeremy had a great time. I had a great time. Our whole crew did was good.
01:35:23
snowjobspodcast
You know, we we were able to get Sean out of bed and get him to the event. So that's a win.
01:35:28
RICK JAMES
Yeah, it is wind.
01:35:28
snowjobspodcast
That's a win. Anytime you get to wake the grizzly bear in the morning, it's always a challenge. So that's storm day, baby.
01:35:33
RICK JAMES
Storm day.
01:35:36
snowjobspodcast
But that's going to do it, guys. We are out. Everybody have a great week. All right. Be safe out there. Keep pushing.