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S2-82: The Official Announcement of Storm Academy!
937 Plays3 months ago
The guys sit down with Jordan Smith and Steve Smythe to talk a few minutes about the upcoming Storm day, but the BIG talk is about the launch of the new Storm Academy, the Disney World for snow pros!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Recent Activities
00:00:39
snowjobspodcast
Here we go snow jobs nation. How are we episode 82 of the snow jobs podcast powered by top gun backblades is off and running. You know who I am. You know who he is.
00:00:57
snowjobspodcast
Steven, Jeremy back again with you. What's up, Jay.
00:01:01
RICK JAMES
Not much, just another rainy weekend, Fargo.
00:01:05
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Recording a lot recently, right?
00:01:06
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:01:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah, we are.
00:01:09
snowjobspodcast
Getting ready for hiatus. We're going to have 10 days off.
00:01:12
RICK JAMES
You're the only one going to hiatus. I'm not.
00:01:14
snowjobspodcast
Well, yeah. That's good enough, though. I mean, you you want to come? Come to Disney with us.
00:01:20
RICK JAMES
a I'll pass.
00:01:22
snowjobspodcast
The kids will be thrilled. Uncle Jeremy at Disney.
00:01:25
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:01:25
snowjobspodcast
You can teach teach my son all sorts of new phrases he shouldn't know.
00:01:29
RICK JAMES
Well, in that case, I might want to come beside
00:01:29
snowjobspodcast
That's a nine-year-old. What was the last one? Poseitis?
00:01:36
RICK JAMES
us when you're taking up to the doctor.
00:01:38
snowjobspodcast
yeah what What do you got, Riley? What's the problem? You're under the weather? You got Poseidus? He's like, dadd what's Poseidus?
00:01:44
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:01:45
snowjobspodcast
Is that bad? Yes, it's it's bad for adults.
00:01:49
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:01:49
snowjobspodcast
It's not so bad for you.
00:01:49
RICK JAMES
Yeah. And then you hung up on me with my laptop other.
00:01:52
snowjobspodcast
And then I hung up.
00:01:53
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:01:54
snowjobspodcast
What did you what was the other one?
00:01:57
RICK JAMES
Oh, cause then he said, Oh yeah.
00:01:57
snowjobspodcast
Do you remember?
00:01:59
RICK JAMES
Cause he goes, Oh dad, you were, uh, sometimes you choke me, dad, blah, blah, blah.
00:02:05
snowjobspodcast
yeah Yeah, that's it.
00:02:06
RICK JAMES
Like, you know, I don't choke him. And of course I, they go, no, really. Some girls like to get choked. like
00:02:13
snowjobspodcast
click That was it. Oh yeah. I said, I said, buddy. Yeah. Choking is when your hand, the hand is on the front of the neck, not the scruff of the neck in the back. That is the difference, bud.
00:02:24
snowjobspodcast
But yeah, it was pretty funny. But yeah, uncle Jeremy has to be screened.
00:02:25
RICK JAMES
When I took it, I took it to the dumpster. Yeah.
00:02:28
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. Uncle Jeremy has to be screened for phone calls.
00:02:28
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:02:30
snowjobspodcast
I can't have them on speaker when the kids are in the car.
00:02:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Hey. Yeah. That's, that's, that's on you.
00:02:34
snowjobspodcast
It's all good. What's going on there?
00:02:36
RICK JAMES
You shouldn't me.
00:02:37
snowjobspodcast
Chuck Norris spraying.
Weather & Travel Plans
00:02:40
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:02:40
RICK JAMES
and Oh yeah.
00:02:40
snowjobspodcast
juice and
00:02:42
RICK JAMES
Yep. Choose some, sorry. Not, I was not anymore. I was supposed to do more this morning, but it's too wet. Get back after and Monday, Tuesday.
00:02:50
snowjobspodcast
Is it cold there?
00:02:50
RICK JAMES
Yep. ah No, it's like 68 this morning. So last week and Last week it was cold here.
00:02:55
snowjobspodcast
It was cold this morning here.
00:02:58
RICK JAMES
I think one morning and I took off like 44 so but The next 10 days look warm, we'll see big big week coming up here, huh?
00:03:02
snowjobspodcast
Oh, that's saying coldest fall ever. It's coming. Here we go. If you believe that. Cool.
00:03:13
snowjobspodcast
Big week, big week, travel week, heading out to, what is it? Storm day? Is that what you're calling it?
00:03:18
RICK JAMES
Storm day I'm calling a storm day
00:03:18
snowjobspodcast
Storm day, storm day. That's it.
00:03:21
RICK JAMES
Yeah, everybody loves a storm day.
00:03:23
snowjobspodcast
A lot of people traveling for that. I think there is a prize for furthest distance traveled.
00:03:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna win it.
00:03:29
snowjobspodcast
So no, I think I'll be in the running, but I think the, uh, coastal guys is raw.
00:03:34
RICK JAMES
No, Robert. Robert will win it, probably.
00:03:37
snowjobspodcast
I still can't remember where Rhode Island is in relation to Maine. Is it?
00:03:41
RICK JAMES
Maine's way up north.
00:03:42
snowjobspodcast
Maine's way up. So going to win.
00:03:43
RICK JAMES
you Do you even know what geography is?
00:03:45
snowjobspodcast
Not really, man. I'm going to bubble here.
00:03:47
RICK JAMES
Pull a map up, man. Don't get me wrong, I don't know shit about these codes, but I know Maine's higher than Rhode Island, so.
00:03:55
snowjobspodcast
Dude, once you get north of New York or east of New York, I couldn't tell you. honestly couldn't I know Connecticut is right like 20 minutes away.
00:04:00
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:04:02
snowjobspodcast
And outside of that, I think Massachusetts is a little further beyond that because I had to drive through Connecticut to get the Patty salmon outside
Snow Professionals' Journey
00:04:09
snowjobspodcast
of that. I don't know. I don't care.
00:04:11
RICK JAMES
you know it's You know what's south of me, what we call that?
00:04:11
snowjobspodcast
I don't know where it is.
00:04:15
snowjobspodcast
ah The other Dakota or lesser Dakota.
00:04:18
RICK JAMES
Lesser Dakota.
00:04:18
snowjobspodcast
Yes, I got it.
00:04:19
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:04:19
snowjobspodcast
I got it. See, I'm learning.
00:04:21
RICK JAMES
Yeah. yeah
00:04:22
snowjobspodcast
Oh, shit. Well, today, guys, we have a really good one for every snow guy. All right. Doesn't matter if you're big and small, big or small, young or old, it's going to hit with everybody because all of us got in the snow for one reason or another. But we all usually start. The story is usually the same that we all start when we're kids, just loving pushing snow around.
00:04:42
snowjobspodcast
so what better could we talk about than the disney land for snow pros alright so we have jordan smith and steve smith or steve spife uh of storm equipment here to talk with us they are going to let us know about a little bit about the storm day that's happening in a couple days that we're uh We're flying out to actually in two days. Uh, but the big talk is going to be about the new Disney world for snow pros storm academy. All right. Actually being able to control when we get snow and what we push it with in a controlled environment. Uh, I mean, I don't, I don't think it's ever been done before. Have you ever heard of that, Jeremy?
00:05:20
RICK JAMES
Nope. Nope, but I want to be there. So.
00:05:23
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely. Absolutely. Ribbon cutting ceremony, the whole nine smash some cars up, do it, do it right. But that, I mean, how exciting is that? That's, that's really awesome though, that you could actually take your cruise and go out there in October, November, before the, we really get kicking and actually train them.
00:05:34
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:05:41
RICK JAMES
Yep. And then.
00:05:44
snowjobspodcast
Like, you know, how valuable is that for a guy like you? You manage a hundred guys or whatever you manage that. And you have how many new guys every year?
00:05:52
RICK JAMES
Quite a few.
00:05:53
snowjobspodcast
So yeah to be able to get them trained before the you know big game, that's that's pretty valuable, I'd say.
00:05:54
RICK JAMES
Quite a few, yeah.
00:05:59
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah. Or you could even take them their late season if it's not snowing, if you know.
00:06:04
snowjobspodcast
There you go. like You could have been there as an instructor all last year, basically.
00:06:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah, damn right.
00:06:10
snowjobspodcast
I want to take the Jeremy Lindstrom course. that that is definitely That'll be packed, brother.
00:06:12
RICK JAMES
You should, you should.
00:06:14
snowjobspodcast
That'll be packed.
00:06:15
RICK JAMES
It'll be a waiting list, yeah. Be like ah like a private school.
00:06:21
snowjobspodcast
It'd be like the, uh, the force of driving school like but and bring some lunch money to gamble with cause Jeremy's going to bet you he can do it better.
00:06:22
RICK JAMES
Bring your tuition. Bring your tuition. Money.
00:06:31
snowjobspodcast
Oh man.
00:06:32
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:06:32
snowjobspodcast
But that it's awesome. And that's what we're going to talk about today. The boys from storm are here, Jordan and Steve. But before we do that, guys, as always, we're going to hear from team top gun and we're going to do a very short abbreviated weekend review, be back in 30.
00:07:17
snowjobspodcast
All right, guys, we're back.
Interviews & Innovations
00:07:19
snowjobspodcast
So we can review the next couple of episodes are going to be a little out of order. We're recording a bunch at a time. So last week, though, we did have Jeremy Harris of J and&H and Stacy Minnesota with us. It was great talking to Jeremy. He's a great guy, very down to earth dude, ah hearing about J and&H and how they've been doing snow for such a long time. It's great. he He's got his niche. He knows, you know, he knows where his where his strengths are and he stays there.
00:07:43
snowjobspodcast
and I think that's ah that's great. I really love hearing that because that's that's kind of how I am as well. So it resonates with me. Also loved hearing about the ah the chat group, the Facebook chat group, the MSP 2.0 group that he ah he helps run, which ah that's pretty great resource for for snow pros in that area.
00:08:01
snowjobspodcast
I know Steve Smites in there, a bunch of other Minnesota guys are in it. ah So it's great that they have a community like that that they can share info and help each other, right?
00:08:05
RICK JAMES
hit
00:08:09
RICK JAMES
Yeah, definitely.
00:08:11
snowjobspodcast
Pretty cool.
00:08:11
RICK JAMES
So I'm like thinking somebody needs to, uh, you know, they can put on a SOS somewhere and they can get help way it looks like.
00:08:17
snowjobspodcast
Yup.
00:08:19
RICK JAMES
So that's pretty cool.
00:08:20
snowjobspodcast
And if you're a good dude, you'll get helped.
00:08:22
RICK JAMES
All right.
00:08:24
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome. I love that. It's great. I also learned that I can get a dually all wheel drive Ford transit van with a high roof, which I thought that, you know, I've been looking at sprinters and sprinter don't make that.
00:08:35
snowjobspodcast
So I thought that was a dead issue. but Jeremy told me I can get a dually all wheel drive with a high roof to put some SSVs in. So we're going to try a long wheelbase. And I may explore that now. So thank you to Jeremy for coming on and chatting with us. And we wish you guys all the best out there. What else did we do last week? We had Chris and Pat from Vue. Come on, Vue Robotics. They came on Thursday. They told us about their um the system for site monitoring, the weather cameras. um That's a pretty great system. It's a pretty great platform that they have, the the portal there that you can monitor with.
00:09:07
snowjobspodcast
Um, we know some guys that do have it that they, they love it.
00:09:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:09:10
snowjobspodcast
So we got the boys on to talk about it and it was awesome. I think those guys are just, they're, they're too very down to earth guys. They're great guys. They actually spent a lot of time learning about the industry, which I thought was impressive because they said a couple of things, right?
00:09:25
snowjobspodcast
Jeremy, they said a couple of things that we actually stopped and we're like, you know, that's pretty cool that you actually have done your research and and know that that's, that's something that goes through our minds. I can't remember right now what it was, but it's pretty cool.
00:09:35
RICK JAMES
oh Yeah, they were very in knowledgeable guys. It was, they got a great product there and be fun to try one out here. so
00:09:42
snowjobspodcast
Yep. They definitely did. Um, Chris is a vet. That's awesome. So we want to help support the vets as well. We always do that. So make sure guys, if you have a need in that space for something like that, give that episode a listen and check out their product. See if it's going to be a good fit for you. Um, you got anything else, Jay, or you want to kick it off?
00:10:01
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yeah. oh but Did you want to hear your other announcements or were you ready to did that or what?
00:10:03
snowjobspodcast
All right.
00:10:07
snowjobspodcast
I wasn't, what other announcements do I have?
00:10:08
RICK JAMES
Okay.
00:10:08
snowjobspodcast
Tell me what do I got?
00:10:09
RICK JAMES
Well, I thought you're gonna do about the, what did we talk about last night? The, the SNS.
00:10:15
snowjobspodcast
S and&S? Or no? ah Well, yeah, we've beaten that horse to death.
00:10:17
RICK JAMES
No. Yeah. Okay.
00:10:20
snowjobspodcast
S and&S is September 19th in, where is it? It's in Pennsylvania. Taylor PA, that's in Scranton Wilkes Bar. And you're going to be hearing about that on the upcoming episodes as well.
00:10:31
snowjobspodcast
They they do have a flyer out with a QR code.
00:10:31
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:10:33
snowjobspodcast
So get a hold of that flyer on their socials and register for that event. It's going to be a great time. Whole storm team is going to be there, I think. I know Jordan is going to be there.
00:10:41
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:10:42
snowjobspodcast
Uh, we will both be there. Jeremy's hot air ballooning it from, uh, North Dakota. He will definitely be there. So, uh, it'll be a good day. Good day. And, uh, are we doing, we're going to do the, uh, Ruth Chris again the night before.
00:10:54
RICK JAMES
I have no idea.
00:10:55
snowjobspodcast
Nice dinner would be good.
00:10:56
RICK JAMES
I have no idea.
00:10:57
snowjobspodcast
Be good. i I shouldn't say that.
00:10:58
RICK JAMES
I just go where I'm told. I just go where I'm told.
00:11:01
snowjobspodcast
I shouldn't say that, though. There'll be all this paparazzi following you standing outside Ruth Chris trying to get a picture of you.
00:11:05
RICK JAMES
I would assume it happens.
00:11:06
snowjobspodcast
I would assume it happens. I love it. Feed into it, brother. Feed into it.
00:11:12
RICK JAMES
i am
00:11:12
snowjobspodcast
um but Yeah, S and&S is a great day. Tony and his wife and their whole team out there, they run a great show and we're looking forward to getting back out there with them. Was there something else? I already covered the the fundraising stuff is on the episode that'll drop next week.
00:11:26
snowjobspodcast
We got another fundraiser that's kind of funny, but kind of serious as well. So make sure.
00:11:30
RICK JAMES
What's that? Oh, Aaron.
00:11:31
snowjobspodcast
That's a Aaron's thing.
00:11:32
RICK JAMES
Oh yeah.
00:11:32
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:11:33
RICK JAMES
The one that Mitchell's matching.
00:11:34
snowjobspodcast
Yes. Here we go.
00:11:36
RICK JAMES
every Every donation somebody make, Mitchell's going to match.
00:11:37
snowjobspodcast
And we're off. Oh, man.
00:11:40
RICK JAMES
He hasn't got the ball yet.
00:11:42
snowjobspodcast
He doesn't apparently know about it, but yeah, no, they're selling Aaron Schrodt from, from the ground up is selling a gift cards, $20 cards basically for, to support the Northfield Raiders ah football team, high school football team, which Aaron is a coach of. um And it's, we make fun of it because we tuned in for a live stream of one of their games last year. And there was a technical glitch that showed the score is 114 to 10 in the first quarter.
00:12:08
snowjobspodcast
So we're we're making the joke that they need every penny to improve their defense. So if you can buy a couple of those cards, you know, definitely do so. But again, we're going to we're going to touch more on that in further episodes this this next couple of weeks.
00:12:17
RICK JAMES
no
00:12:21
snowjobspodcast
So anything else I missed, let's just get into this with the boys.
00:12:22
RICK JAMES
so So let's roll. Let's roll.
00:12:26
snowjobspodcast
All right. So we're going to hear from our our partners and we'll be right back, guys, to get into this with the storm boys.
Event Planning & Networking
00:13:59
snowjobspodcast
All right, gang, we're back. So let's do it. Welcome back. Jordan and Steve. How are we guys?
00:14:06
Jordan Smith
Good man, how are you guys? It's been a while.
00:14:08
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, it has too busy for us.
00:14:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:14:09
Steve Smythe
can
00:14:11
RICK JAMES
He's a busy man.
00:14:13
snowjobspodcast
He is busy. He is busy and Steve's been traveling. So he's all over the place like a ping pong ball.
00:14:18
RICK JAMES
Well, he's been trying to travel.
00:14:19
snowjobspodcast
So now you're, you're not feeling so well, Steve, are you feeling better?
00:14:22
Steve Smythe
Steve's been under covers a good part of this week. Yeah.
00:14:28
Steve Smythe
But we're on we're at the repump. What's that?
00:14:28
snowjobspodcast
Did you get injected with something?
00:14:32
snowjobspodcast
I said, did you get injected with something somewhere?
00:14:33
Steve Smythe
Something's sprayed, injected, whatever you want to look at. But we'll get we'll get this out of the way now so we're we're good to go for winter.
00:14:38
snowjobspodcast
Oh man.
00:14:41
snowjobspodcast
Atta boy. Atta boy.
00:14:43
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:14:44
snowjobspodcast
Oh, so it's been a long time, boys.
00:14:44
Jordan Smith
you You know, if, uh, you know, you know, if Steve, you know, if Steve's out of work for a couple of days, he must be pretty sick.
00:14:46
snowjobspodcast
What's the, sorry, Jordan.
00:14:50
Jordan Smith
Cause I think I've heard a rumor. He never missed a, never missed a snow start in 30 years. So, you know, you know, he must've been feeling pretty rough.
00:14:55
Steve Smythe
No.
00:14:57
Steve Smythe
I had, I had this, this spray flu earlier when we had that a hundred inch winter too, and we rolled with it. So if they want to come in Jordan and get you sick.
00:14:58
snowjobspodcast
Uh,
00:15:09
Steve Smythe
yeah
00:15:09
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:15:10
Jordan Smith
We, we appreciate that.
00:15:10
snowjobspodcast
ah I mean, there's a rumor though that there might've been multiple people out storm that we're calling in this week.
00:15:12
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:15:17
snowjobspodcast
Was there a big party or something over the weekend? And, uh, you know, they're just ah still recovering from it or something.
00:15:24
RICK JAMES
I wasn't invited.
00:15:27
snowjobspodcast
but It was Christian's party.
00:15:28
Steve Smythe
if not
00:15:29
Jordan Smith
greek we we We did have a bunch of people out.
00:15:29
snowjobspodcast
oh yeah
00:15:30
RICK JAMES
Probably.
00:15:31
Jordan Smith
I don't know. it it spread It spread from somewhere, but we did have a bunch of people out, that's for sure.
00:15:36
snowjobspodcast
It happens. It happens. So guys, it's ah it's been a long time and we got storm day coming this week. That's a big event for you guys. And ah we're, we're definitely looking forward to it. So any, either one of you want to touch on that and tell everybody what they can expect and what the ah goal is.
00:15:53
Steve Smythe
Yeah, we got our Thank field day that's gonna be on the 22nd on Thursday. We'll start it off in the morning at 8.30 with Jordan doing a kickoff you. on the state of the, you know, state of the nation for snow. And then Jeremy will be there. That's all that matters, right?
00:15:53
RICK JAMES
It's on you Steve.
00:16:07
snowjobspodcast
Mm-hmm.
00:16:09
RICK JAMES
Love it.
00:16:14
snowjobspodcast
That's it.
00:16:14
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah, you got it.
00:16:14
Jordan Smith
yes
00:16:15
snowjobspodcast
No bully in the house.
00:16:16
Steve Smythe
I mean, for paparazzi, I mean, I think think there's already some film crews set up there waiting for them, maybe.
00:16:22
Steve Smythe
air We had a few had to trim the trees because we had guys already climbing up in their weight and so Hey,
00:16:23
snowjobspodcast
I was gonna say, how many press credentials did you have to give out?
00:16:26
Jordan Smith
We ran out of printer paper.
00:16:29
snowjobspodcast
I was gonna say, do you have the roof secured?
00:16:32
RICK JAMES
hope Maybe there'll be an assassin out there for me.
00:16:34
Steve Smythe
we were checking here checking the slopes on the roughs already we're
00:16:38
snowjobspodcast
Yes.
00:16:38
Steve Smythe
You're a little steeper, steeper there. But no, it'll be a good deal. We're going to kick that off in the morning with some some donuts and this little light networking in the morning, Jordan will kick it off. And then we'll go into some breakout sessions just on some different, different techniques and equipment, a little bit of wing plow versus box plow.
00:16:55
RICK JAMES
a
00:16:58
Steve Smythe
um The new storm vision will have definitely some hands-on with that. That's going to be super super awesome to see and then just some ah kind of preseason inspections of equipment and what to look for. We'll have veteran guys there to to new people as well, but just some tips and tricks and what to ah look for. So it's a successful season. And then we'll ah break for some lunch and then go into a our panel discussion with Mr.
00:17:29
Steve Smythe
Rick James will be on that as well, but we'll have some, we have some good snow guys that'll be on the panel.
00:17:32
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
00:17:34
Steve Smythe
This the discussion and the panel will be, um, basically from ah RFP through the process of the season of, of doing snow. Uh, we picked a, uh, a large property in the Minneapolis market.
00:17:48
Steve Smythe
Um, we'll just kind of go through, you know, how, how the sales staff or yourself or however would kind of proceed to go after an account like that. And then once you do land the account, then how do you tool for it? How do you take care of it? And then once that once set account's done for the season, you ran through the season, what do you do at the end of the season as far as, you know, how do you document your repairs, um contacts, you know, with the client throughout the season and whatnot. And then basically bottom line, look at it to make sure it's profitable that you want to do it again.
00:18:22
Steve Smythe
Well, it could be a high level you know high level discussion, but I think a lot of people would grab some ah information out of it. It should be good. It's just going to be good because there's a bunch of different people with different ideas on it.
00:18:22
snowjobspodcast
Cool.
00:18:34
snowjobspodcast
Sweet. Sounds good. And Jeremy.
00:18:35
Steve Smythe
We'll wrap up. Well, yeah. I mean, that's where most of the time is going to go, right?
00:18:41
snowjobspodcast
That's right. Yeah.
00:18:42
RICK JAMES
Not at all. Zero.
00:18:42
Steve Smythe
Then we'll wrap up with that.
00:18:44
snowjobspodcast
i
00:18:45
RICK JAMES
Not at all. You see how we do it here. We just pile shit on and go.
00:18:50
Steve Smythe
we just We just roll roll out they scroll out of the shop and just go, right?
00:18:51
snowjobspodcast
ah it's
00:18:51
Jordan Smith
Thank you.
00:18:54
Steve Smythe
um Then we'll we'll wrap up with that and just have a little net you know let networking time, but then we'll have time also too, if people have purchased equipment or plows or whatnot, that there'll be some time allowed to go pick that stuff up at that time.
00:18:55
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:18:55
snowjobspodcast
Uh, nice.
00:19:07
Steve Smythe
And then we'll finish up with a really nice nice networking dinner that evening. It should be great.
00:19:13
Steve Smythe
um a
00:19:13
Jordan Smith
da Don't forget about the sweet giveaways, Steve.
00:19:16
Jordan Smith
Got some pretty sweet giveaways.
00:19:17
Steve Smythe
From vendors.
00:19:18
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:19:19
Steve Smythe
Yeah.
00:19:19
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:19:19
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:19:20
snowjobspodcast
I think I just want to touch on that for a second because I thought that was a great idea that you wanted to allow vendors there.
00:19:20
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:19:23
Steve Smythe
Okay.
00:19:28
snowjobspodcast
ah But yet you didn't you don't have the room to allow them to set up boots and stuff. So I think you want to explain how the vendors are involved because I thought that was a pretty cool idea. That's pretty innovative.
00:19:38
Steve Smythe
So we got we have we have a list of vendors that will be there. um Correct. We do not have the space to set up a normal booth size with all their products and whatnot. But what we're allowing is we're giving them time in front of everybody, mic time, to to stand up.
00:19:53
Steve Smythe
They can do a quick PowerPoint presentation or whatnot just to explain their product and whatnot. And then they are giving out some raffle prizes to the audience on site that's going to be there.
00:20:04
Steve Smythe
Each one each one was required.
00:20:04
snowjobspodcast
which are pretty cool.
00:20:06
Jordan Smith
And they're they're not t-shirts and hats. They're nice prizes.
00:20:07
Steve Smythe
Yes, we said no stickers or hats, it's it's going to be some good stuff and kind of gave them a you know ah a guideline of pricing and whatnot.
00:20:07
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, it's not a mouse pad.
00:20:09
RICK JAMES
Am I, am I eligible?
00:20:18
Steve Smythe
and It's going to be great and it's all for the guys that are right there.
00:20:22
Steve Smythe
ye mark Mark will be there, yes.
00:20:22
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:20:23
RICK JAMES
I heard, I heard true weather's gonna be there, right?
00:20:23
snowjobspodcast
That's great.
00:20:26
RICK JAMES
Mark, Mark's gonna be there, right? I heard he was putting out guarantees or snow amounts. Is that true for guaranteed
00:20:32
Jordan Smith
Yes. True. Guaranteed snow totals.
00:20:35
Steve Smythe
guaranteed, guaranteed snow totals.
00:20:36
RICK JAMES
snow totals?
00:20:36
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:20:37
Steve Smythe
Yep.
00:20:38
RICK JAMES
Can't wait for each region, right?
00:20:38
snowjobspodcast
ah
00:20:39
Steve Smythe
And then, and then zip codes.
00:20:40
Jordan Smith
Yep. Yep.
00:20:43
RICK JAMES
Yeah, we're always going to get hand zip closer.
00:20:43
snowjobspodcast
ah yeah Yeah, you gotta provide your zip codes though.
00:20:45
RICK JAMES
I like that.
00:20:46
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, you you must provide the zip code.
00:20:49
Steve Smythe
I know it should be, I'm super excited.
00:20:50
snowjobspodcast
ah Oh My goodness, it's so funny
00:20:51
RICK JAMES
well
00:20:53
Steve Smythe
This will be my first time doing this event with these guys, but it's, it's just a great group that's going to be there. And it's, it's everybody that's here for the right reasons.
00:21:00
RICK JAMES
Ew.
00:21:02
Steve Smythe
Right. So it's, I'm, I'm super excited.
00:21:04
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:21:04
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:21:05
snowjobspodcast
And are we sold out? I think we're sold out, right?
00:21:06
Steve Smythe
yeah We are sold out.
00:21:08
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
00:21:08
Steve Smythe
But there's always room if somebody comes in the last minute, right, Jordan?
00:21:09
RICK JAMES
over so long.
00:21:09
Jordan Smith
we
00:21:13
snowjobspodcast
See that? That's you guys. You guys keep doing that crap.
00:21:15
Jordan Smith
Careful, Steve. You're going to make Darcy mad.
00:21:16
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, you keep doing that crap.
00:21:17
Steve Smythe
Darcy's going to hear this Monday and I'm going to get strangled. Hey, I still have a lunch on my deal. I'm willing to give up if somebody else wants to.
00:21:18
RICK JAMES
ah
00:21:18
snowjobspodcast
Don't do that.
00:21:25
Jordan Smith
Me too. I don't need my lunch.
00:21:26
Steve Smythe
Nope.
00:21:27
snowjobspodcast
That's the storm way though.
00:21:27
RICK JAMES
Me too.
00:21:27
Jordan Smith
We're good.
00:21:28
snowjobspodcast
We're, we're standing hard at one 50, one 50 is our max. All right. Three weeks later. All right. We're going to go to 200. There's a lot of interest.
00:21:35
RICK JAMES
You can't turn people.
00:21:35
snowjobspodcast
We're going to 200. How much did we top out with two 70?
00:21:37
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:21:39
snowjobspodcast
We just kept letting them in like Jesus Christmas. Why do you set limits?
00:21:43
RICK JAMES
Well, you're
00:21:43
Jordan Smith
Yeah. Well, originally it's it's actually, it's the limit was real because our, our after party venue that we had booked had a hard like fire department limit of one 50.
00:21:54
snowjobspodcast
Oh, gotcha.
00:21:56
Jordan Smith
But that venue had a water main break and the elevators. but Oh, did I get cut off?
00:22:02
Steve Smythe
Well, I'm still there.
00:22:03
snowjobspodcast
Nope, you're good.
00:22:04
Jordan Smith
Oh, weird.
00:22:04
RICK JAMES
good.
00:22:05
Jordan Smith
Sorry about that. The elevators are out of service and it's on the seventh floor. So having everyone walk up seven stories and, uh,
00:22:10
snowjobspodcast
No problem.
00:22:12
Jordan Smith
The caterers wouldn't bring their Blackstone grill up to the seventh floor. So we, uh, we pivoted and we're actually having the after event at my house. So ah my wife is pretty excited about that.
00:22:19
RICK JAMES
Sweet.
00:22:20
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
00:22:23
snowjobspodcast
I bet.
00:22:24
RICK JAMES
ah
00:22:25
Jordan Smith
Major introvert, you know, she's, she's loving 200 strangers at her house, but it'll be good.
00:22:27
RICK JAMES
oh
00:22:29
snowjobspodcast
Chateau Smith. I love it.
00:22:31
Jordan Smith
That's right.
00:22:32
RICK JAMES
big
00:22:32
snowjobspodcast
Is there, there's a rumor that you're raffling off the shit storm.
00:22:32
RICK JAMES
You gotta look on your pictures.
00:22:35
snowjobspodcast
Is that possible? Is that true?
00:22:37
Jordan Smith
What are you calling it now?
00:22:39
snowjobspodcast
The shit storm, the shit storm, the truck, the cyber truck.
00:22:39
Jordan Smith
Come on.
00:22:41
Steve Smythe
I love you.
00:22:44
RICK JAMES
He this he got it wrapped. Looks good, actually.
00:22:45
Steve Smythe
It looks great.
00:22:46
Jordan Smith
I got it wrapped.
00:22:46
Steve Smythe
It looks great.
00:22:46
snowjobspodcast
I saw it. It actually does look better.
00:22:48
snowjobspodcast
I did see that. It looks good.
00:22:49
Jordan Smith
It looks a lot better for sure.
00:22:50
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, definitely. Oh, that's great. So at your house, that should be fun.
00:22:53
Jordan Smith
No, it's going to be, it's going to be an awesome day. You know, we're, we're always just trying to promote promote collaboration, bringing people together. And obviously there'll be some educational opportunities and learning, but, but a lot of it's just about getting everyone together and that that's vendors and contractors.
00:23:07
Jordan Smith
I think the more collaborative we can be the better.
00:23:08
snowjobspodcast
Amen Absolutely
00:23:10
Jordan Smith
And honestly, even if we had room for the trade show, I'm not saying trade shows aren't worth it. You got to have them, but there's already plenty of big national trade shows. Like our our goal is just to get vendors and contractors interacting.
00:23:21
Jordan Smith
And I think we'll accomplish that with our format here. So pretty, pretty excited about it and pretty excited for how much demand there's been for it.
00:23:25
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:23:25
snowjobspodcast
absolutely
00:23:28
Jordan Smith
And really should be a great time.
00:23:31
snowjobspodcast
i I think the demand is there because of what it's promoting, what this event and what these events that like the the smaller events are promoting, they're they're promoting a more family atmosphere of snow pros. Like, you know, everybody's everybody's calling everybody brother, welcome to the family, you know, and it's very inclusive. And I think that anytime you can be a part of something, I think everybody kind of wants to be a part of something, and especially if it's it's for the betterment of what they do.
00:23:58
snowjobspodcast
I think that's a no brainer. So I think that's why they're so popular and getting more and more popular every time. And especially if you can, if you can get them all out and you put on a fantastic event and they have a great time, you know, they're telling 10 other people and then the next one you're going to have to, you know, Jordan's going to have to build a bigger house next year because he's not going to have enough room.
00:24:14
RICK JAMES
U.S. Bank.
00:24:17
Jordan Smith
Oh, we got room buddy. We'll be all right.
00:24:19
snowjobspodcast
Good to hear. Ah, so that's storm day.
00:24:22
RICK JAMES
We're gonna
00:24:23
snowjobspodcast
That's a, we're looking forward to a couple of days. My flight is on time.
00:24:28
RICK JAMES
be fun, fun with the boys.
00:24:30
snowjobspodcast
You help?
00:24:31
RICK JAMES
I can't wait.
00:24:32
snowjobspodcast
We're coming in Tuesday.
00:24:33
Steve Smythe
Tuesday.
00:24:34
snowjobspodcast
You going to dinner with us, Steve? Tuesday night?
00:24:35
Steve Smythe
Yeah, yeah, Jeremy was Jeremy was talking about it.
00:24:37
snowjobspodcast
Sweet.
00:24:38
Steve Smythe
So yeah,
00:24:39
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:24:40
RICK JAMES
oh
00:24:40
snowjobspodcast
It's going to be a great time. there's ah There's actually a bunch of guys. I think there's four or five guys that i I've talked to, but I have not met yet that are going. So it's ah it's going to be good to finally meet those guys in person.
00:24:51
RICK JAMES
Is Jordan joining us?
00:24:51
Jordan Smith
Awesome.
00:24:52
RICK JAMES
Are you busy?
00:24:53
snowjobspodcast
Jordan said he is. Yeah. Jordan said he's making it too.
00:24:53
Jordan Smith
I am.
00:24:54
RICK JAMES
Yes.
00:24:54
Jordan Smith
yeah
00:24:55
snowjobspodcast
And Dustin's handling the arrangements. So, you know, this is not even, yeah, exactly.
00:24:57
RICK JAMES
Oh boy.
00:24:59
snowjobspodcast
We're going to be a Chuck E. Cheese or McDonald's. but
00:25:03
RICK JAMES
Doesn't matter.
00:25:03
Jordan Smith
Dustin's on it. he'll he'll do He'll do a good job.
00:25:04
snowjobspodcast
It doesn't matter.
00:25:06
Jordan Smith
He's on it.
00:25:06
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:25:06
Jordan Smith
he's on it
00:25:06
snowjobspodcast
No, Dustin's awesome. Dustin's awesome. But yeah, this should be awesome. We're looking forward to it. We're excited. The guys are excited. I know Sean and Robert are, uh, they're definitely pumped up to do it. And everybody's flights on time.
00:25:17
snowjobspodcast
So we're good. We're all, nobody's canceled yet. So should be fun.
00:25:19
Steve Smythe
Yeah, we're looking forward to seeing you guys.
00:25:21
Jordan Smith
good
00:25:23
snowjobspodcast
Yes, sir. On to the next. Now, is that you know want to say anything else about Stormdare? We covered everything.
00:25:28
Steve Smythe
We're good.
00:25:28
Jordan Smith
I think we're good.
00:25:29
snowjobspodcast
Sweet. Now the ah big one.
00:25:30
RICK JAMES
but pray oh What what prizes are given away or did we not want to say or what?
00:25:31
snowjobspodcast
Oh, go ahead, Jay. Sorry.
00:25:35
Jordan Smith
Uh, it's a C I'd say it's a secret, but, uh, I will tell you like the minimum value is like 500 bucks.
00:25:36
Steve Smythe
From the vendors?
00:25:39
RICK JAMES
OK, OK. like
00:25:42
Jordan Smith
I mean, they're in there's what five, six prizes, Steve.
00:25:44
Steve Smythe
Yes, yep, and some of them are pretty cool.
00:25:46
snowjobspodcast
eyes Nice.
00:25:46
Jordan Smith
So there's a lot of nice prizes are given away at a event that, uh, is free to come to.
00:25:47
Steve Smythe
so
00:25:48
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
00:25:53
Jordan Smith
I mean, I mean, Frida Frida, you don't have to pay to go to the event.
00:25:54
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:25:56
Jordan Smith
You might have to pay to travel, but. Some pretty nice stuff.
00:25:58
snowjobspodcast
That's really, that's really cool though. So the vendors just, they're bringing a gift of value.
00:26:02
Jordan Smith
Nope.
00:26:03
snowjobspodcast
They're not actually paying for, for being there. That's see that I love that. I absolutely, and that's great for them too.
00:26:08
Jordan Smith
Nope.
00:26:09
snowjobspodcast
And they, that probably makes them want to do better as far as their gift goes. Cause it's, you know, it's, it's basically great exposure for not much.
00:26:14
RICK JAMES
i get I guarantee, I guarantee they all sell something out of this event.
00:26:17
Jordan Smith
Oh,
00:26:20
RICK JAMES
I mean, not that, you know, just, it's going to be good for everybody.
00:26:21
Jordan Smith
absolutely.
00:26:24
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:26:24
snowjobspodcast
Look at the, look at the storm party at Simon. How much, how much product from vendors that were there got sold? Like everybody has told us they made at least one deal that night and got products sold.
00:26:33
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:26:34
snowjobspodcast
And it wasn't in a salesman, you know, customer environment.
00:26:34
Jordan Smith
Absolutely.
00:26:37
snowjobspodcast
It was, Hey, you know, I got this, you need this? Yeah, I do. ah It was awesome. You know, that that's, it's a great type of atmosphere to promote. And I love, I love that you guys are doing that. Um, anything else are we moving on to the big one here?
00:26:51
Jordan Smith
Let's do it.
00:26:52
snowjobspodcast
Storm Academy. Storm Academy, what why? what what What are you guys
Storm Academy & Industry Collaboration
00:26:57
snowjobspodcast
doing this for? I mean, we love it, obviously, but how did it come about? And tell everybody about the the goals and stuff of Storm Academy.
00:27:04
Jordan Smith
Yeah. So, you know, I think just to kind of frame it up, the, the snow industry is obviously very challenging from the standpoint that we have an unknown season duration. We have an unknown timing of when we're going to have to work. We have an unknown timing of when our customers are going to tell us we can work on their sites. There's so many things we can't control in the industry and that it's honestly one of the things that makes it so challenging and Another big challenge is that you can't really go out and practice.
00:27:36
Jordan Smith
Now I know you can do snow rodeos. Steve has talked about, and I'm sure he'll talk about how they used to push mulch around in the summertime, but it's, you know, as close as that might be, it's just, it's not the same, right?
00:27:49
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:27:50
Jordan Smith
So we we started dreaming up how to simulate something more like real life conditions, something that can be controlled ah to an extent. There's obviously still things that we'll talk about outside of our control, but How can we put people in an environment to run the type of machinery they're gonna be running? How can we put them in real snow? How can we like put that on a calendar and actually make it happen predictably, right? So sort of the why behind Storm Academy is is creating that controlled environment where we can get not only hands-on training, but again, that collaboration. Because the other thing that I think is ah is a big loss in our industry is, you know,
00:28:29
Jordan Smith
All of the owners and operations people and sales people, maybe a few operators, they go to, they go to Simon, they go to the SNS field day, Northeast D icing field day, and they get to interact with, with a few people, but not in the environment that they're working in. So with storm Academy, we're trying to create this environment where operators can come together and they can see how this other operator does things and how this guy runs this machine and why this guy prefers this attachment. It's the type of collaboration that doesn't really have the opportunity to happen in real life.
00:28:58
Jordan Smith
because the real life environment and snow is chaos and all you're trying to do is survive and get your job done. You're not focusing on mentoring, you're not focusing on collaborating with operators outside of your own organization.
00:29:04
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:29:09
Jordan Smith
So I think that's kind of the high level why and you know well we'll get through some of the actual tactical things behind that. But just to frame it up, I think that's a good way to start.
00:29:18
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome. I'm excited. I really think that's going to be fantastic. I think it's going to be great. And you have the well now. We we have water.
00:29:28
RICK JAMES
perfect
00:29:28
Jordan Smith
We do.
00:29:29
snowjobspodcast
So we have snow. Nice.
00:29:31
RICK JAMES
Not yet Is it gonna get is it gonna get cool next week where you could turn them on that at night or something?
00:29:33
snowjobspodcast
It's going to be crazy. You got any questions, Jay?
00:29:39
Jordan Smith
So, so ah asterisk to the well, the well is there. The waterline is not hooked up to the site yet.
00:29:44
snowjobspodcast
Oh, here we go.
00:29:45
RICK JAMES
Oh
00:29:46
Jordan Smith
Yup. Yup. We got to get the waterline run. We're waiting for the excavating company.
00:29:49
RICK JAMES
and
00:29:50
Jordan Smith
The excavation was too much for our little, uh, mini X to do. It's like an 800 foot, uh, 800 foot trench for the waterline. So.
00:29:58
snowjobspodcast
Oh.
00:29:59
Jordan Smith
I hired the big boys to take care of the waterline install.
00:30:03
snowjobspodcast
Jeremy's going to be there. Rent a machine. He'll take care of it.
00:30:06
RICK JAMES
I'll bring three tankers and a water that will.
00:30:10
Jordan Smith
we make We'll make snow in 74 degrees. Perfect. Sounds like a good plan.
00:30:13
RICK JAMES
Well, it'll be down to like 60 at night. We'll see what we can get.
00:30:15
Steve Smythe
That's what we can do.
00:30:15
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:30:17
snowjobspodcast
Not you, we're all snow guys. Obviously we've been doing, we've all been doing it a long time. yeah For me, I know this is going to be ah hugely impactful. You know, guys will definitely embrace this because we've said it a hundred times, being able to train your guys in game day conditions on the equipment they're actually going to be running. Cause you guys are going to have the full gamut there. That's the plan, right? To have.
00:30:40
Jordan Smith
Yep.
00:30:40
snowjobspodcast
different brands of machines, different brands of pushers, different brands of wing plows. So basically tell us your setup and we can equip it for you when you come in. and That's that's phenomenal.
00:30:51
snowjobspodcast
I love it. It's going to be great. And yeah, it's going to make a huge impact on the industry.
00:30:54
Steve Smythe
Yeah.
00:30:57
snowjobspodcast
I don't see how it can't. It's it's never been done before. And it feels a huge need.
00:31:02
Steve Smythe
And this is what's so cool ah cool about it.
00:31:03
RICK JAMES
yeah
00:31:04
Steve Smythe
it's it's It's not just about what we sell, right? It's for the industry. It's going to benefit our industry so much.
00:31:09
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:31:10
Steve Smythe
We'll have other other products from other vendors or the other plows, you know, all ah all of it's there. It's basically like, For me, it's like a big, uh, big toy store, you know, as a kid or even right now at 50 years old, I said, I'm just getting Jack thinking about all this different equipment.
00:31:21
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah.
00:31:26
Steve Smythe
That's going to be there where you can, you can watch it, use it, see the, see the differences. You know, it's like for us in sales the to say, Hey, this is this and this is that without guys using it and seeing it.
00:31:40
Steve Smythe
And then the biggest thing is guys taking it away and learning this stuff and being able to bring it back to their own teams.
00:31:47
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:31:47
Steve Smythe
and move forward and better this industry. you know you know all all of us All of us have been out there in snow.
00:31:51
snowjobspodcast
It's fantastic.
00:31:52
Jordan Smith
And.
00:31:54
Steve Smythe
I mean, we can sit there and we can have our rodeos and push mulch in the fall or or or you know line up equipment with different vendors and dealers and stuff and run through the equipment with the guys in October or whatever.
00:32:06
Steve Smythe
But like you said, you get into a real world situation and everything changes. you know It's different. You have you might have You know, the perfect snowfall doesn't always end at 10, right?
00:32:17
Steve Smythe
it It ends at three in the morning. It's always the first one. It always seems like it's ah it's a late start and you don't have a time and everybody's got new operators.
00:32:23
snowjobspodcast
Oh, yeah.
00:32:23
RICK JAMES
and Scramble.
00:32:26
snowjobspodcast
That first one is always going to be like early morning on a weekday when everything is open, it starts and it continues throughout the day and your guys are learning and now you have all these cars and all these pedestrians.
00:32:32
Steve Smythe
Yes.
00:32:35
Steve Smythe
like
00:32:39
Steve Smythe
And I've always felt terrible.
00:32:39
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that's always the way it goes.
00:32:41
Steve Smythe
It's like you try to train these guys and it's when, when the heat of the battle, it's as you don't have the time to do it, you know, with breakdowns and whatnot.
00:32:41
snowjobspodcast
so
00:32:48
snowjobspodcast
No.
00:32:48
RICK JAMES
right right
00:32:49
Steve Smythe
And this is what is so cool and unique about this is we, we, it'll be the time, right? We can schedule this. We can say, Hey, you guys are coming in on a Monday or a Tuesday and end in November or December.
00:33:00
Steve Smythe
And, you know,
00:33:03
Steve Smythe
roll with it we can We can spend a day running running the plows and in the sidewalk equipment and whatnot and firsthand you know questions and answers.
00:33:04
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:33:10
RICK JAMES
Right,
00:33:12
Steve Smythe
so
00:33:12
snowjobspodcast
So, so basically like I would call you and say, Hey, this is so-and so-so.
00:33:14
RICK JAMES
right.
00:33:18
snowjobspodcast
Um, I would like to bring three guys. This is what we use. This is what we need. And you guys will set up basically the curriculum, you know, of what you're going to train on, like. I want my guys to train on a ah case 321 with an 813 metal plus or a 13 foot Arctic.
00:33:36
snowjobspodcast
Okay, great. And what do you need them to learn? you go Are they experienced operators of the machine? Are they first time? you Like you can take it literally from every level and jump in right where they need to be and get on with it.
00:33:44
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:33:47
snowjobspodcast
I think that's phenomenal. that's You can't put a price tag on that. Imagine how much more efficiency you're gonna have with those guys, those brand new guys, if they have that kind of, you know, even Even three hours, three hours pushing snow.
00:34:00
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah, that'd be huge.
00:34:00
Steve Smythe
Yeah, just to get to get the feeling correct.
00:34:01
snowjobspodcast
Huge.
00:34:02
RICK JAMES
That'd be huge. ah be
00:34:03
Jordan Smith
Yeah, dust off those cobwebs, right? It's it's something you something you never get to do. I always hear it from our snow team too is like by the second event they're starting to hit their groove, by the third event they're grooving.
00:34:14
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:34:16
Jordan Smith
And I think we're lucky in Minnesota, we get so many snowfalls, but in a lot of markets that only get 10 to 15 a year, like By the time you dust off the cobwebs, it's time to put the equipment away, right?
00:34:25
snowjobspodcast
Yes.
00:34:26
Jordan Smith
So if we can help dust those things off, get people comfortable and and not only run, you know, Steve, you said, you know, I want a case 321 with this plow. That's great. We'll we'll let them do that.
00:34:37
Jordan Smith
But I think, you know, from from a curiosity standpoint, people want to try different stuff, but they don't necessarily want to buy it.
00:34:42
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:34:42
snowjobspodcast
Oh sure.
00:34:44
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:34:44
Jordan Smith
They don't necessarily have a dealer willing to do a demo. You know, we've talked about the demo thing like, Most dealers demo programs are a joke. It's like coming our parking lot in the middle of summer and drive it in a circle.
00:34:51
RICK JAMES
Yeah. Yep.
00:34:54
Jordan Smith
And like, that's what you get. Like a real demo is take this thing out in the snow and run it.
00:34:56
RICK JAMES
you
00:34:59
Jordan Smith
And and when I say this thing, I mean, certain brand of loader, certain type of attachment. And that's, you know, in addition to the training, dusting off the cobwebs, that the opportunity here is.
00:35:09
Jordan Smith
It's, it's like a ah ah sign and drive type event. Like you can actually use this stuff. And I'm not even saying we're selling it from the Academy. The purpose of Academy is not to sell anything.
00:35:17
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:35:19
Jordan Smith
That's why we're offering all these different brands that we don't sell.
00:35:19
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:35:22
Jordan Smith
This is truly in the, in the nature of collaborative industry advancement. I mean, that's really what we're trying to promote here. And it's, it's brand agnostic. It's whatever people want to try, whatever they want to run.
00:35:34
Jordan Smith
and And hopefully they will have that curiosity to try some new stuff and maybe that helps shape the way that they run their business going forward.
00:35:40
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:35:41
RICK JAMES
Yes, it's not gonna be like just plowing either, right? It's gonna be like, what would you do in this situation? And, you know, what would we, what would we use on this? What would be the best? What would you, you know, cause you guys are professionals, we all know.
00:35:54
RICK JAMES
So you, you yeah have your insights of what they should use for, I mean, I'm guessing we'll talk, you'll talk liquid stuff and all that stuff. So, I mean, we'll.
00:36:03
Jordan Smith
yeah Yeah, it's definitely, definitely beyond just plows. I mean, I guess we should be clear too that part of the reason we're getting this stuff out there early is we we want feedback. You know, we, no one's ever done this before. So we have an outline of what we think it could be.
00:36:19
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
00:36:20
Jordan Smith
And what we think could bring value and certainly we'll work off of that. But what we really want is that industry collaboration where the industry comes to us and says, here's what would really benefit me. It doesn't mean we can accommodate everyone's requests because that's impossible, but it does mean we're listening and it and it does mean that we'll try to provide the value people want.
00:36:32
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:36:39
Jordan Smith
And absolutely Jeremy, you're right. I mean, in terms of in terms of different modules, I mean, they'll absolutely be Liquid de-icing, how do you make brine? And not just like in a PowerPoint, how do you make brine? Like here's a brine maker. Here's a salt bin. Here's a loader. Let's make some brine. Let's do this. Let's see how it's set up.
00:36:56
Jordan Smith
Now, how do we fill the sprayer? How do we spray the brine? How do we adjust our our rates? What does it look like when we spray this much per acre? um Same goes for sidewalks. You know, we're running sidewalk equipment. Maybe it's a Snow Raider, an SSV, Ventrac tractor, all the different types of machines there and the different attachments.
00:37:13
Jordan Smith
How do they look? How does a sidewalk look when we use a broom versus a plow?
00:37:19
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:37:19
Jordan Smith
ah When does it make sense to use a broom versus a plow? I mean, all of those things are absolutely on the table in terms of possibilities here.
00:37:27
RICK JAMES
So very exciting.
00:37:27
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
00:37:28
RICK JAMES
I mean, it just sounds I'm just I just get excited thinking about you can have like hologram machines.
00:37:28
snowjobspodcast
It is.
00:37:32
RICK JAMES
So you got people like running across the parking lots so you can run them over and stuff or.
00:37:36
snowjobspodcast
ah
00:37:37
Jordan Smith
maybe Maybe we'll just hire some ah some work program people that that need some ah a job they can qualify for or something.
00:37:45
snowjobspodcast
There you go.
00:37:45
Jordan Smith
Maybe they'd be willing to do that. It's kind of a waiver and start running in front of snowcloths.
00:37:47
Steve Smythe
growled
00:37:48
RICK JAMES
It's not a waiver. Well, they didn't they didn't quite make her.
00:37:49
Steve Smythe
a We got to purchase a couple mountain bikes though to make it realistic right Jeremy?
00:37:56
snowjobspodcast
Yep, absolutely.
00:37:56
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
00:37:57
snowjobspodcast
Oh man.
00:37:58
RICK JAMES
Yeah, yeah.
00:37:58
snowjobspodcast
So how much snow can the machines produce in an hour?
00:38:03
Jordan Smith
Yeah, so I mean, to be totally honest, that that's we have the manufacturer's specs, which says they can do two to three inches an hour, but it is very condition specific.
00:38:09
snowjobspodcast
Got it.
00:38:12
snowjobspodcast
Wow.
00:38:16
Jordan Smith
It's going to depend on the the the air temperature, because just like real life, the warmer it is, the wetter the snow is, the wetter the snow is, the more water it takes to produce inches of snow.
00:38:16
snowjobspodcast
Got it.
00:38:19
snowjobspodcast
Mm hmm.
00:38:29
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:38:29
Jordan Smith
If we get a zero degree day, we're making powder. It's going to stack up fast. If it's a 31 degree day, we're making slush. It's going to pile up slow, but you know, that's one of the benefits too is as, as a snow company, we don't know what kind of snow we're going to get.
00:38:44
Jordan Smith
So when you sign up for your day, you can't sign up for powder or wet snow because it's going to be what it's going to be.
00:38:44
RICK JAMES
but
00:38:45
snowjobspodcast
True.
00:38:49
RICK JAMES
Can we, oh, I want to sign up for concrete snow.
00:38:50
Jordan Smith
Just like you can't sign up for what is coming in an event.
00:38:56
snowjobspodcast
There you go.
00:38:56
RICK JAMES
that's like
00:38:57
snowjobspodcast
Good luck. Good luck, brother. Get ready.
00:38:59
Steve Smythe
That'll be that'll be a me
00:39:02
RICK JAMES
That's just the, that's just the going, that's just the going joke.
00:39:02
snowjobspodcast
probably april
00:39:04
RICK JAMES
I always got to say that.
00:39:05
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely concrete. um Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So that it's very quick resets. So basically you could have multiple groups and all, cause I mean, we don't need to plow a foot, you know, you you want to plow in that two to three inch range.
00:39:17
RICK JAMES
If you're
00:39:20
snowjobspodcast
That's where you're actually learning the most. I think, uh, cause over a foot, you can, ah you can just bulk out, you know, two to three inches.
00:39:26
RICK JAMES
pulling a foot, if you're pulling a foot, you're fucked.
00:39:27
snowjobspodcast
You've got to be clean.
00:39:30
RICK JAMES
You're way behind.
00:39:31
snowjobspodcast
We plow a lot.
00:39:31
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:39:32
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. We plow a lot of like three inch an hour storms. And you know, if you don't, even some sites where it takes you a couple hours to get around the sites, you know, you could have a multiple inch buildup, but yeah, like two to three ah inches is a sweet spot.
00:39:46
snowjobspodcast
So if you can produce two to three inches an hour, that allows for multiple groups to cycle through and multiple operators. That's awesome. And we're what one acre right now paved.
00:39:55
Jordan Smith
We're going to be, we're going to be just under an acre this year. Um, I think I just sent Steve the map. I think it's like just over three quarters. Uh, we just, we have so much, we have so much inventory taken up space at our site that we can't, we can't pave more because we have, we have so many plows in there, unless everyone wants to buy them and we'll have more space.
00:40:05
snowjobspodcast
Cool. That's all good.
00:40:13
RICK JAMES
Yes, maybe I'll sell them all next week.
00:40:14
Steve Smythe
by those
00:40:14
Steve Smythe
clouds will make and double
00:40:15
Jordan Smith
Um, yeah.
00:40:18
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:40:18
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:40:18
snowjobspodcast
Well, you never know, but yay.
00:40:19
Steve Smythe
yeah
00:40:20
Jordan Smith
So, so it is pretty, pretty small this year. And, and obviously, you know, we want to see where this goes, but you know, the ultimate dream is when we build our new headquarters at some point, put in like a four or five acre dedicated area for, uh,
00:40:34
Jordan Smith
dedicated area for Storm Academy where we have all the different permanently built in obstacles and and plenty of space for for all kinds of activities. You know, Steve, maybe I mean, maybe Steve, you can kind of talk through, I know we we just started conceptualizing, but kind of talk through some of the ideas for stations on the pad for this year.
00:40:51
Steve Smythe
We'll have, one of the stations will be sidewalks, like Jordan mentioned, we'll have some different equipment with that. Snow Raiders, Ventracks, basically ah john you know like John Deere, 1025R, stuff like that. You guys can do the difference between blading and pushing and brooming and liquid on those.
00:41:10
Steve Smythe
And then we will have some ah situations in the parking lot for the plowing. We'll have, we'll have an area where the guys can run this, the push boxes, push boxes. You can see the difference between the different boxes and how they work and whatnot and the, uh, you know, basically how to use them correctly.
00:41:27
Steve Smythe
And then we'll have the hydraulic wing plow and we we'll set up like an obstacle course. Uh, you know, we were just talking before the show here, you know, some actual, you know, get some cars and stuff and set up there.
00:41:37
Steve Smythe
So it's like real world, uh, loading dock areas where the guys can drag, drag them out and whatnot.
00:41:43
Steve Smythe
So basically just get a hands on of, you know, kind of the environment where they'll be, um, working and just kind of get them comfortable working around some of this stuff. So.
00:41:44
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
00:41:53
snowjobspodcast
That's sick. That's so sick. And when are we looking at a launch?
00:41:55
Jordan Smith
One. and So kind of our strategy as of now, I know I mentioned earlier, like we can, we can put it on the calendar.
00:41:56
snowjobspodcast
Like when is this going to be open for open for business? Like what's the timeline on that?
00:42:08
Jordan Smith
We we can make it happen.
00:42:10
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:42:10
Jordan Smith
Um, but, but we still are at the Nate, the mercy of mother nature. So in Minnesota, uh, our weather is very enigmatic.
00:42:15
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:42:18
Jordan Smith
Uh, in, in mid, in mid November, some years we already have two feet of snow and it's, it's zero degrees out. There's been years where it's been 70 degrees on Thanksgiving. So it really depends on the year.
00:42:28
snowjobspodcast
Gotcha.
00:42:30
Jordan Smith
Right now we're targeting a mid November launch, but it's going to be like a soft launch. And what I mean by that is what Steve and I talked about is rather than having a bunch of people from across the country booking airline tickets and hotels for this soft launch, we'll probably stick to guys that are even more local or guys that are a little more crazy and willing to risk the travel.
00:42:53
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:42:56
Jordan Smith
Right.
00:42:56
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:42:57
Jordan Smith
Um, just with the.
00:42:58
snowjobspodcast
Target audience.
00:42:59
Jordan Smith
Yeah. I mean, just, just with the notion that, Hey, mid November's on the calendar, but if it's 70 degrees, it's not happening.
00:43:00
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:43:05
Jordan Smith
Right.
00:43:06
RICK JAMES
Great.
00:43:06
Jordan Smith
And I think that gives us the opportunity to, you know, again, local guys aren't going to book hotels. They're not going to book flights. So they can literally just cancel, driving cancel driving. And if the weather's not right, and they can also pivot quickly to move it one week later, because usually the 10 day forecast is pretty accurate for temperatures.
00:43:18
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:43:23
Jordan Smith
If we get to November 5th and it says it's going to be in the fifties, we'll just postpone it right then and there. These guys don't have any travel to cancel, they can just drive in. And then for that first for that first kickoff event day, the idea is to put them through what Steve is building in terms of courses and obstacle courses and competitions, but then just getting feedback like, did this work for you?
00:43:47
Jordan Smith
Was this helpful? Was this not helpful?
00:43:49
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:43:50
Jordan Smith
Because let's be real, like as much as we wanna simulate a real job site, this is not a real job site.
00:43:50
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:43:53
RICK JAMES
Yep.
00:43:55
Jordan Smith
This is a controlled environment. They are junk cars. They are bunker blocks. They are cones instead of light poles. Like it's not quite the same, but let's make it as valuable as possible.
00:44:05
Jordan Smith
So this kickoff event is like, give us the flexibility in case the weather doesn't work out that early in the season, but also give us feedback, um, on what what worked and what didn't so that when we do the real one in December.
00:44:14
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. How to make it better.
00:44:18
Jordan Smith
And I think we talked about mid December, Steve, like before Christmas, obviously that should be safe for weather should be able to make snow.
00:44:19
Steve Smythe
Yep. yeah
00:44:23
Steve Smythe
Yep.
00:44:25
Jordan Smith
um and And we're talking about a multi-day, like two or three day ah event there where we bring in three separate groups, 25 to 30 people at a time um for those days in December.
00:44:33
snowjobspodcast
awesome It's awesome.
00:44:35
RICK JAMES
I think you should do mandatory do one on Christmas. So your room, people's Christmas. That's what it usually happens.
00:44:41
snowjobspodcast
It's a real part of the job, you gotta simulate it.
00:44:43
RICK JAMES
That's a real part of the job. Awesome.
00:44:45
snowjobspodcast
but but ah Oh my god, that's funny.
00:44:45
RICK JAMES
Yeah. You're going no matter what your Christmas is screwed. So that's real world right there.
00:44:48
Steve Smythe
yeah
00:44:50
Steve Smythe
Love it. That's real world.
00:44:50
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
00:44:54
snowjobspodcast
That's really cool. that um'm I'm excited.
00:44:56
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:44:57
snowjobspodcast
That is really, really cool. Are there a lot of, like, is the infrastructure locally there, like hotels and stuff, you know, to support that?
Infrastructure & Flexibility
00:45:07
Jordan Smith
Yeah, so Mankato is a good-sized town. it's It's certainly not like Minneapolis-St. Paul, but it's also not like the center of Minnesota where our manufacturing facility is. um There's plenty of hotels, lots of restaurants.
00:45:20
Jordan Smith
It's right on the highway, easy to get to.
00:45:22
snowjobspodcast
Cool.
00:45:23
Jordan Smith
So in terms of where our Storm Academy site is located, it's you know it's five minutes from hotels and restaurants, real really easy, good access. um So it it'll work well for that.
00:45:35
snowjobspodcast
Wow.
00:45:35
RICK JAMES
nice great
00:45:35
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, this is going to be phenomenal. This is going to be big. I think, uh, I don't know. I don't even know how big this could actually get, but I just imagining like everything we do is imagining what we want.
00:45:47
snowjobspodcast
Like out of the industry, like we, oh, we wanted to talk more snow. We started a podcast. Uh, now we want to, we wanted to watch more cool snow videos of plowing snow. So storm chasing, you know, it's like, you know, this is the next step.
00:45:59
snowjobspodcast
Like what would we want if if we're 48 year old children, basically? lets Let's go out and play with our toys in the snow and get better at it. There's nothing better than that, especially being able to do it pre-season where basically it's ah it's a throwaway game.
00:46:14
snowjobspodcast
It's a pre-season game in the NFL. You can work on your technique, you know not in a game time that means anything.
00:46:15
Steve Smythe
Yep.
00:46:18
RICK JAMES
Teach the younger guys what, what you want to teach them when you can teach them, you know, not, not when you're got, you know, 20 loaders out and you're trying to answer everybody's question and still try to train somebody, you know, that's, that's real world stuff that, but I just go figure it out.
00:46:20
snowjobspodcast
It's awesome.
00:46:24
snowjobspodcast
Exactly.
00:46:36
Jordan Smith
When I, yeah, for sure. And, and I think another thing that I should mention is, you know, we talk about bringing in all these brands of equipment, attachments, loaders.
00:46:47
Jordan Smith
I mean, certainly I think, again, all of this is in the name of industry advancement collaboration. We always talk about setting the future standard and snow and what it's really going to take. Like the snow jobs podcast alone can't set the future standard and snow storm equipment alone.
00:47:01
snowjobspodcast
No.
00:47:02
Jordan Smith
Can't do that Arctic can't alone do that. But if we all work together. then we can do that. and And this is like the ultimate collaborative environment where if you're a manufacturer and you have an attachment that you think brings value to the industry, then fricking bring it there and prove it, right?
00:47:17
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, absolutely.
00:47:17
Jordan Smith
but Yes, we're a dealer.
00:47:17
RICK JAMES
right Right.
00:47:19
Jordan Smith
I understand some other manufacturers might see us as competitors, but that's that's not the collaborative spirit we're looking for. Like if if if you really believe in your stuff and you think you bring value,
00:47:26
Steve Smythe
Hello.
00:47:29
RICK JAMES
Bring it.
00:47:31
Jordan Smith
Then bring, bring the thing there.
00:47:31
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:47:32
Jordan Smith
We're not asking for you to give it to us for free or let us dissect it and do R and D on it to try to say why our product is better by metal. Plus is better, whatever the case may be like we're doing it because we want to give everyone the opportunity to run every piece of equipment they want.
00:47:47
Jordan Smith
So if you have new technology that you want to, that you want to get real feedback on, here's a guaranteed snow environment with snow professionals on the ground that can give that to you. And and we would welcome.
00:47:58
Jordan Smith
Those manufacturer representatives to come to the storm Academy and and interact with these people. Like that's the best case scenario.
00:48:02
Steve Smythe
Yep.
00:48:04
snowjobspodcast
absolutely
00:48:04
Steve Smythe
And helps.
00:48:05
Jordan Smith
Cause we're not looking just to make ourselves better.
00:48:07
Jordan Smith
We want to make everybody better.
00:48:08
Steve Smythe
Yep, events.
00:48:08
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:48:10
RICK JAMES
Have you had a lot of guys reach out?
00:48:10
snowjobspodcast
And how do you think that, how do you think that'll go over? You think they'll yeah.
00:48:14
Steve Smythe
We're here.
00:48:14
Jordan Smith
We're going to find out.
00:48:16
snowjobspodcast
I was going to say, I think you'll have some that are absolutely yes.
00:48:16
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:48:20
snowjobspodcast
We're, we're definitely in. That sounds great. And they're not like, I don't know. I don't know what the right word is.
00:48:25
RICK JAMES
I think you'll have, yeah, some guys that aren't afraid of let's, let's see, we can, cause if you're not proud of your stuff, then they won't bring it or they're scared.
00:48:26
snowjobspodcast
There you go. Afraid basically.
00:48:34
RICK JAMES
Something's going to happen to it. I don't know. That's, that's my opinion. I guess if you, if you, if you back your equipment, bring it there, let the guys try it. And you know what? If it works, you're going to sell some. If it doesn't work, you probably better go back to drawing board.
00:48:47
RICK JAMES
So.
00:48:48
Jordan Smith
Well, and again, we're not, we're not locking anyone out from participating. So like, we're not just asking you send us your attachments, give us a loader to try. Like we're inviting you to come and be part of the process.
00:49:00
Steve Smythe
Yeah.
00:49:01
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:49:01
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:49:01
Jordan Smith
So if you like, we're, we're the hosts, we're the hosts here, but we're just the host that has the infrastructure.
00:49:03
RICK JAMES
All brands.
00:49:08
Jordan Smith
We have the asphalt pad. We have the snow maker. We have the course built. We have the snow legend, uh, Steve Smith, hopefully we'll get Jeremy down there a bunch. Like we have. the hosting platform, but we need collaboration from everyone to make it happen.
00:49:22
Jordan Smith
So we'll welcome anyone and everyone to come and participate. Um, and I think the more that do the, the better it is for the industry.
00:49:27
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:49:29
Steve Smythe
hundred
00:49:30
snowjobspodcast
The good word for you guys with this project is your facilitators. You're facilitating you know everybody coming together and working to get a better product out there, regardless of what product you actually use.
00:49:35
Jordan Smith
Correct.
00:49:35
Steve Smythe
Correct.
00:49:43
snowjobspodcast
you know There's no one way to skin a cat. you know Everybody's got their own way of doing it, own own products that they prefer. But it doesn't it never hurts to to see what else is out there and how you use it.
00:49:53
snowjobspodcast
You know, I've proved that last year.
00:49:53
RICK JAMES
Great.
00:49:55
snowjobspodcast
Definitely. There were some great things ah that actually did a lot of good for me with the metal plus that we tried. So there's nothing wrong with trying and new things. And I think the the vendors should should be on board with that as well.
00:50:07
snowjobspodcast
and Honestly, it's it's just a good thing that that for the industry. It's a good thing for the guys doing the work in the industry having this. And I think the vendors will want to be part of that. I think they'll want to be part of that positive you know ah process, basically.
00:50:21
snowjobspodcast
i think you'll I think you'll have good success with that, personally. I could be wrong, though.
00:50:25
Jordan Smith
Well, not, yeah.
00:50:25
RICK JAMES
I.
00:50:27
Jordan Smith
I mean, I think Steve, obviously, uh, Steve Smythe or, or Spythe, sorry, Steve Spythe, uh, been in, been in the industry a long time and he's he's been tasked with kind of, kind of tapping on some of these vendors to see what we can do.
00:50:32
Steve Smythe
I...
00:50:32
snowjobspodcast
spy
00:50:32
Steve Smythe
I...
00:50:33
snowjobspodcast
by
00:50:41
Jordan Smith
And, you know, we have those same concerns there.
00:50:42
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
00:50:43
Jordan Smith
There's certain vendors that are going to look at storm and say, you're a competitor, you're trying to sell product. Um, and, and to some extent, the onus falls on us to prove the fact that.
00:50:55
Jordan Smith
The purpose of storm Academy is not to sell product. The purpose is, is to advance the industry. And maybe we just got to prove it for a year. So, you know, if we got to buy some attachments and stuff, we, you know, we own a lot of snow equipment already.
00:51:06
Jordan Smith
So fortunately we have, we have a bunch of stuff we can use, whether we get demo stuff or not. Um, but you know, maybe we got to prove it for a year and get feedback from people that come to this and say like, yeah, no, they didn't try to sell me anything.
00:51:19
Jordan Smith
They literally just said, what do you want to run? Didn't matter if it said Arctic on it or snow power or.
00:51:22
snowjobspodcast
Amen.
00:51:25
Jordan Smith
whatever, they let us run it because they had it.
00:51:26
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm. Hmm hmm.
00:51:28
Jordan Smith
Uh, so we're, we're pretty excited to, uh, to be able to do that. And like I said, if we got to prove it, then we got to prove it, but Steve's going to be, uh, calling on some of these vendors and already he's already got a list and we'll see who wants to play ball and who doesn't.
00:51:40
Steve Smythe
Yeah.
00:51:40
snowjobspodcast
Just in my mind.
00:51:41
RICK JAMES
um I got, our I got a rubber tire.
00:51:42
snowjobspodcast
i
00:51:42
RICK JAMES
You want me to bring that for pusher?
00:51:44
Steve Smythe
ah repair push I have never ran one of those.
00:51:44
Jordan Smith
Yes, please.
00:51:44
RICK JAMES
but You don't wanna, it's good for pushing.
00:51:45
snowjobspodcast
oh you got
00:51:46
Steve Smythe
I'd like to try that here. You can teach me.
00:51:49
snowjobspodcast
you know why
00:51:50
Jordan Smith
and
00:51:50
RICK JAMES
<unk> it's It's good for pushing water. I can tell you that.
00:51:52
Steve Smythe
yeah
00:51:53
RICK JAMES
That's about it.
00:51:55
snowjobspodcast
In my mind, I think this is really a ah huge opportunity for vendors or manufacturers that are smaller and maybe not as, maybe maybe not as household to name yet to get their product showcased by, you know, you could, so you could take, ah you guys could put a view camera.
00:52:12
snowjobspodcast
Open the parking lot you can put a muskox blower that shows them how they can do loading docks with it or back you know back blow driveways you know stuff that doesn't have a million dollar advertising budget but is a great product and needs to get more mainstream because it will actually help snow pros this is it that's a huge opportunity for companies like that.
00:52:26
Jordan Smith
Okay.
00:52:29
Steve Smythe
ah percent
00:52:31
RICK JAMES
I don't, I don't know if you thought of this, but um this isn't a shot and don't just calm down everybody.
00:52:31
Jordan Smith
Okay. Okay.
00:52:36
RICK JAMES
But are you going to like, like, even like a Arctic have a broken rubber teach guys how to replace it in the field or stuff like that, or blue holes, blue holes or yeah.
00:52:42
Steve Smythe
100%. I think something like that would be awesome if I haven't talked to Arctic yet about about equipment, but if if Arctic agreed and said, hey, we would like to do this to have those guys there you know to to show this and whatnot, I think would be awesome.
00:52:42
snowjobspodcast
Yes.
00:52:48
RICK JAMES
I mean.
00:52:58
RICK JAMES
Mm-hmm.
00:52:58
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. I think they would be into that.
00:53:00
RICK JAMES
I'm pretty good at change. I'm pretty good at changing blocks. I found a few Can be I Mean not even just change their block, but just just bolting two sections You gotta just show the guys how you can keep going.
00:53:05
snowjobspodcast
Jeremy's NASCAR pit crew with the blocks.
00:53:05
Jordan Smith
And.
00:53:08
snowjobspodcast
Eight seconds. He's back.
00:53:09
Steve Smythe
and Yeah.
00:53:12
snowjobspodcast
but No, that's valuable oh Yeah
00:53:17
RICK JAMES
You don't have to you're not done for the night You know some guys.
00:53:17
Steve Smythe
Correct.
00:53:18
Steve Smythe
and And that's, yeah, every time you think, you know, guys will think if you break when you're down and it's like, like you said, Jeremy, you can bolt the panels together and go, but there's a lot of guys that don't know that, that run some of these big snow companies and that's stuff that's going to help all of us, right?
00:53:19
RICK JAMES
Oh, I'm done i'm done Yeah
00:53:30
snowjobspodcast
yeah
00:53:33
RICK JAMES
I mean, I've seen guys that ratchet strap a metal plus wings together or something like that, you know, just to keep going from night. I mean, it's it's you got to be creative. Just so you yeah you know, you're not going to make any money with that plow sitting.
00:53:43
Steve Smythe
and they
00:53:46
RICK JAMES
You need you need to be. We don't have that many events. So when it's time to go, you got to have everything going to make them make that money.
00:53:52
Steve Smythe
And what's, what's cool too, for this is like, you know, I, obviously I've been doing this a long time and got a lot of hours behind different machines and equipment, but I'm going to learn so much just from all of the guys being here too.
00:54:02
Steve Smythe
That's what's, that's what's awesome about it.
00:54:03
RICK JAMES
Oh, yeah.
00:54:04
Steve Smythe
We all learn so much from each other just by doing this, you know, correct.
00:54:08
RICK JAMES
Everybody's got a different trick that you don't know or or how they've done it.
00:54:11
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:54:11
RICK JAMES
you're just gonna And they're like, oh, shit, never thought of that. that's Yeah, that'll help.
00:54:15
snowjobspodcast
so
00:54:15
RICK JAMES
so
00:54:15
snowjobspodcast
Anytime you collaborate with guys, everybody wins. Everybody comes out of there with something, you know, regardless of whether it's what you thought you were going to come out of it with.
00:54:18
Steve Smythe
tra
00:54:24
snowjobspodcast
Anytime you get together and sit at a table with five guys, like these breakout sessions or something, you're going to come away with something that you can use or at least adapt to to what you do.
00:54:32
Steve Smythe
Sure.
00:54:34
snowjobspodcast
So I mean, that if you don't think that's a win in the snow industry, then I don't i don't know what your thought process is because everything is valuable.
00:54:35
Jordan Smith
The one.
00:54:42
snowjobspodcast
knowledge is but Knowledge is power. Knowledge is value. It's efficiency. So picking up ideas from guys and being collaborative, that's what that's really what it means to all be about. And I think i think the the new push in the snow industry is that we're definitely seeing that.
00:54:56
snowjobspodcast
Everybody wants to be together on stuff. They all seem to want to push in the same direction, largely. Uh, with a few stragglers that are still a little old school on thinking, but you know, the new, the new blood, they all are hungry.
00:55:11
snowjobspodcast
They all these recent guys that we keep talking to that are two, three years in the snow industry. This is like perfect for them. This is what they want. This is what they keep talking about. So this is going to be, I think it's going to be huge.
00:55:22
snowjobspodcast
I really do.
00:55:23
Jordan Smith
but
00:55:23
snowjobspodcast
I think you guys are going to kill it.
00:55:25
Jordan Smith
And Jeremy, ah I'm glad you brought that up because that, that brings up a great point. I kind of alluded to earlier, but again, we we have all these events throughout the year. We get people together, but, but when we get people together, we're at a trade show or we're at a party or we're at dinner and we have great conversations, but it's usually about life. It's about high level snow business. It's about sales. It's about customer issues, employee issues. It's not until you get in your environment where you're working in snow,
00:55:55
Jordan Smith
where something does break and you're like, Oh, that's easy to fix. We just bolt these two sections together. And like, that's something you'd never talk about at dinner unless it just happened to come up. And I know specifically that thing, you guys are brought up multiple times, but you just said that example.
00:56:05
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm. Yep.
00:56:07
Jordan Smith
So I said it, but there's going to be situations where someone's running a piece of equipment and they do something and people are like, what, why do you do it like that? That, that makes really good sense. And the guys like, well, yeah, that's how I've always done it.
00:56:19
Jordan Smith
It's way faster because this, this, and this, that's something we never talk about at dinner at a trade show.
00:56:20
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
00:56:22
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:56:24
Jordan Smith
And that collaborative, engagement in a real environment where we're getting as close to simulating, working on a site as possible is where all the value is going to trickle out of this. And that, I mean, honestly, that's just where I'm the most excited. I think.
00:56:39
Jordan Smith
All of the tactical stuff that will make this happen, all of the different modules and the different types of training is cool, but it's going to be that collaboration in an environment where no one has ever collaborated substantially outside of their own business.
00:56:52
Jordan Smith
That's going to bring all the value because there's all these tips and tricks that people have learned over the years, you know, guys like Jeremy and Steve and, and like, it it's not stuff you think to talk about till it happens right in front of your face.
00:57:03
RICK JAMES
All right.
00:57:03
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, a hundred percent.
00:57:04
RICK JAMES
right
00:57:05
Jordan Smith
and And some of the stuff you can't even articulate, like some of the stuff people do, like, well, I've just always done it like that. Well, I've never seen it done like that. Well, now they just saw it happen right in front of them. So there's going to be, Steve and I talked about this.
00:57:17
Jordan Smith
There's going to be just as much learning by people watching the other people operate equipment as there is by them actually operating the equipment.
00:57:24
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, absolutely.
00:57:24
Jordan Smith
I think there's value in both, but you get a, you get a brand new guy watching a 30 year vet plowing and they're like, whoa.
00:57:24
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:57:31
Jordan Smith
i I didn't think to plow like that, but that that makes sense, right?
00:57:33
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
00:57:35
Jordan Smith
And i yeah, I'm just super excited for that.
00:57:35
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, 100%. The first time I ever saw an Arctic take two sections and go up onto the actual sidewalk and plow the sidewalk and the drive lane while clearing the the curb completely, I was like, well, that ain't dumb. like that That is awesome. like You pick something up and it's like Eureka moments. i this This could come out of this very easily.
00:57:57
snowjobspodcast
ah How are you guys gonna deal with weather over the winter with unpredictable guys are like you said making airline reservations stop is there gonna be flexibility for guys if they pick a date and then boom you know they get a storm at home. How are you gonna handle that.
00:58:12
Steve Smythe
Yeah, we'll be real flexible with that. We're all snow contractors. So we, we understand it. Um, if they, you know, someone's coming from the East coast and you guys are getting hit with a nor'easter and you're scheduled to come, we will just, we'll have, we should, I i know we will, we'll have a a waiting list for this.
00:58:27
Steve Smythe
We can just shift the deck and, and, uh, bring some other people.
00:58:31
snowjobspodcast
Find out where it's not snowing and get those guys.
00:58:31
Steve Smythe
Correct.
00:58:32
Steve Smythe
Correct. Yep. 100% flexible with it. Cause we all understand what the priority is, right?
00:58:33
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, smart.
00:58:37
RICK JAMES
Is this good?
00:58:39
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:58:39
RICK JAMES
ah We're snow guys. Is this going to be like, I know it's, are we going to do it around the clock or what are you guys thinking? I mean, obviously, obviously, obviously there's not going to be obviously ah to me.
00:58:47
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, that that was my question.
00:58:51
RICK JAMES
The shittier the better for weather wise, if it's blowing and you're in the snow is blowing and I mean, that's, that's just real world stuff. But I mean, even are you guys gonna, you know, if it's not Steve can work at night, I know, you you know, throughout the night.
00:59:04
RICK JAMES
ah I mean, what do you, what are you guys thinking for time wise?
00:59:06
Steve Smythe
Yeah.
00:59:08
Jordan Smith
Yeah, we, I mean, Steve doesn't sleep, so we're good to pretty much go four or five days straight. Um, right.
00:59:14
RICK JAMES
I love it. I love it.
00:59:15
Jordan Smith
Steve, uh, definitely we'll have a day and night, you know, it's going to be a matter of how much demand we have.
00:59:16
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
00:59:17
snowjobspodcast
24 seven.
00:59:25
RICK JAMES
Right.
00:59:25
Jordan Smith
So one thing we haven't committed to yet is how many sessions we're going to do. Like I mentioned earlier, we're going to try for like 25 to 30 people per session. Because that's what we think we can effectively get everyone enough seat time, get everyone enough engagement, kind of manage the group and the environment so in in a meaningful way where it's not too big of a group.
00:59:46
Jordan Smith
Otherwise you end up with half the group off to the side goofing around or whatever.
00:59:49
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
00:59:50
Jordan Smith
um What we haven't committed to yet is how many of those groups are going to get through. And part of that's going to be demand-based, right?
00:59:57
RICK JAMES
All right.
00:59:57
Jordan Smith
Because the weather challenge you brought up, some people might be hesitant to sign up for this.
01:00:02
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
01:00:02
Jordan Smith
Um, you're going to have your early adopters who want to go all in on being the first to do it. And that's awesome. We're excited for that. And I think once they hear the feedback, other people will will jump on, but I don't know at this point if we're doing three sessions or 15.
01:00:16
Jordan Smith
Um, but we're going to accommodate what the demand says.
01:00:17
RICK JAMES
Hmm.
01:00:19
Jordan Smith
And, and it will be day and night. I mean, obviously jokes aside, Steve does have to sleep at some point. We also have Dan, we have other people on our team that are going to help with this caffeinated Carl.
01:00:26
snowjobspodcast
it
01:00:27
RICK JAMES
Just get Carl. Yeah, Carl.
01:00:28
snowjobspodcast
Carl, caffeinated Carl.
01:00:30
Steve Smythe
yeah
01:00:30
RICK JAMES
Definitely.
01:00:30
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
01:00:31
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
01:00:31
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:00:31
snowjobspodcast
Hahaha.
01:00:33
Jordan Smith
The, the only guy on our team who hasn't plowed a lot of snow, actually.
01:00:33
RICK JAMES
but Yeah, I know. but He's not allowed. He's not allowed on there.
01:00:39
Jordan Smith
ah Yeah. He would do great, but he he's, he's a, he comes from the equipment sales world. So a little bit different background than, than Steve. Uh, and even Dan for that matter, but we're going to adapt to, uh, what demand
Community Feedback & Future Plans
01:00:53
Jordan Smith
says. and And definitely I agree, Jeremy, I think the, uh, the more real the conditions are, the better.
01:00:58
Jordan Smith
um you know, that that midnight start, that 2 a.m. start, I think that's a good simulation. And if if that's what the group that we have wants to do, then that's what we're going to do.
01:01:09
Jordan Smith
um
01:01:09
snowjobspodcast
Oh, here's even better, Jordan.
01:01:10
RICK JAMES
I got it better.
01:01:11
snowjobspodcast
Don't tell him.
01:01:11
RICK JAMES
Oh, that's not us.
01:01:12
snowjobspodcast
Don't tell him what time.
01:01:13
Steve Smythe
because everybody comes in and then we...
01:01:13
RICK JAMES
I was going.
01:01:14
snowjobspodcast
yeah yeah Don't tell him what time call home.
01:01:14
RICK JAMES
I was gonna say me like a I'd be like they're out there.
01:01:17
RICK JAMES
They're in the hotel room. You're like, holy shit. It's no you guys got to get here now.
01:01:19
snowjobspodcast
yeah
01:01:20
Steve Smythe
We'll
01:01:21
RICK JAMES
I'm like, that's what you got to do.
01:01:23
RICK JAMES
That's real world stuff right is there.
01:01:23
snowjobspodcast
Amen. Amen. Call their phone.
01:01:24
Steve Smythe
see how many of their phones are on.
01:01:27
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:01:28
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:01:29
snowjobspodcast
Oh, man.
01:01:29
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:01:29
Jordan Smith
I actually really liked that. I mean, these are the kind of ideas. So, I mean, just some of the ideas that are popping up during this conversation.
01:01:32
Steve Smythe
just Yes.
01:01:36
Jordan Smith
That's part of what we're looking for here. Like again, main reason we wanted to do this episode in August is because we want feedback and you're on snow jobs. You guys, every time I come on here, I get direct messages.
01:01:48
Jordan Smith
You guys get direct messages. We get Instagram. Uh, I'm not an Instagram guy, but whatever comments, whatever people do on Instagram. Um,
01:01:57
RICK JAMES
It's all for the grab.
01:01:58
Jordan Smith
And the more feedback we can get, the better. And again, we can't accommodate everything, but we want to hear the feedback on like, this would be hugely valuable for me, or I would really love to see this and and we'll take everything into consideration.
01:02:08
Jordan Smith
This is a collaborative effort. We are the host of the venue, but we want to build it the way that the industry wants it built.
01:02:15
snowjobspodcast
That's awesome.
01:02:16
RICK JAMES
That's all.
01:02:17
Jordan Smith
Kind of like feel the dreams, build it and they will come, right? we're We're just building the, we're building the ball field. We need people to come and play ball and and set the rules.
01:02:24
snowjobspodcast
How many machines do you see plowing at the same time on the current setup?
01:02:31
RICK JAMES
Can we touch tips?
01:02:32
Steve Smythe
can we we we can we can We can touch tips. We probably have a couple of machines out there at once, just with the space that we have currently. And then we'll have our sidewalk area and whatnot that can flow through this whole time as well.
01:02:47
snowjobspodcast
You know, the beauty of AI Steve is I now have that quote. ah we We can touch tips. have that
01:02:53
Steve Smythe
Then to make it make it real world for Jeremy, we'll just put that snow maker.
01:02:56
RICK JAMES
It's a, it's a, it's a yeah.
01:02:58
Steve Smythe
We'll take that snow maker and blow it right at the cab of the loader, because that's how it used to go.
01:02:58
snowjobspodcast
Yes.
01:03:02
RICK JAMES
Yes, yep, yep, yep.
01:03:02
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh man.
01:03:04
Steve Smythe
And then we'll have a mountain bike right across behind you.
01:03:05
snowjobspodcast
That'd be great.
01:03:08
snowjobspodcast
Oh Jesus.
01:03:09
RICK JAMES
I'll tell you what, it's very exciting.
01:03:09
snowjobspodcast
Yeah. In sandals.
01:03:13
snowjobspodcast
Yes. It is.
01:03:14
Jordan Smith
Yeah, so
01:03:15
snowjobspodcast
It's very exciting. Go ahead, Jordan.
01:03:16
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I was going to say, obviously, again, we're we're starting a little bit more reasonable in size this year, three quarters of an acre, just under an acre. So it's not huge. I mean, it it sounds big, but it's not. I mean, it sounds big to guys that do small parking lots. It's it's not big. ah So two two at a time is probably about our limit, like Steve said.
01:03:35
Jordan Smith
We'll have that sidewalk station area that can run simultaneously. And we'll also have Brian making stuff that can happen. Brian making Brian spraying salt spreading, you know, stuff that can happen simultaneously. Cause we got a five acre site there. Um, but it's not all paid a bunch of it's gravel, you know, and we, we can do some of that auxiliary work on the gravel areas. Just when we're actually plowing, not that we don't want to practice plowing gravel, but unless you're in North Dakota, we don't really have that much gravel to, to plow in this country. So.
01:04:02
Jordan Smith
So we don't need to do a lot of practice on that.
01:04:02
snowjobspodcast
Amen.
01:04:03
Jordan Smith
and You just don't get a good representation of the scrape and the traction and everything else.
01:04:06
snowjobspodcast
Nope.
01:04:07
Jordan Smith
It's just very different. So.
01:04:07
Steve Smythe
but Then we can turn this over in the summer to do dust control practicing on the gravel side.
01:04:08
RICK JAMES
Well,
01:04:11
RICK JAMES
there you go.
01:04:11
Steve Smythe
there
01:04:12
snowjobspodcast
ye So here's what you do when you build out your infrastructure, when this hits huge, which it will.
01:04:12
RICK JAMES
Yeah, we can do that.
01:04:18
snowjobspodcast
When you build out your infrastructure and you have to build a building for classrooms and stuff and you're expanding the pad. Make it two stories so you can get an indoor viewing area. If you're only going to have two, three, four loaders out there, but you're going to have 25 guys make a nice little, you know, whatever coffee bar viewing area that with a lot of windows guys can watch.
01:04:36
snowjobspodcast
And the next time you do a pad, see if you can get like glycol lines and chillers in the asphalt. That way you can cool that asphalt down and produce snow even when it's a little warmer, because it'll stick, you know, that it'll stick immediately.
01:04:50
snowjobspodcast
You'll build up a lot quicker. Like almost like I'm learning a lot about ice rinks right now.
01:04:52
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I mean...
01:04:54
snowjobspodcast
So. You can probably do the same thing with the with asphalt It's actually not that bad No Yeah
01:04:58
RICK JAMES
can do anything if you got the money.
01:04:58
Jordan Smith
Yeah, I think... Yeah, you've you've had some really... Yeah, they're not terrible. I looked into it, Steve told me about it a few months ago. I looked into it, it's it's not terrible. um But no, Steve, you that you've had some really good ideas over the last couple of months talking about this.
01:05:12
Jordan Smith
Like, I agree having having a viewing area. Now keep in mind, when we build the next facility, which which is a few years away, we're gonna we're gonna make it work with the site we have for now. Um, the, the, the pad area will be much larger.
01:05:23
Jordan Smith
Like I am thinking multiple acres of of space. So then we can get to a point where we can run five, six, seven machines, trucks, loaders at a time. Um, but then absolutely having a viewing area, but then also a really good idea that I love that you had is putting in like, uh, like a bunkhouse, uh, so that people, people can stay on site and, you know, just further grow and expand that collaborative nature of that environment.
01:05:41
snowjobspodcast
Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
01:05:48
Jordan Smith
Um, I haven't checked city zoning on, on what that, what that requires.
01:05:52
snowjobspodcast
ah hey
01:05:53
Jordan Smith
I'm guessing there's some different zoning. If people are sleeping overnight, but we'll we'll figure it out. I just love, love that idea.
01:05:57
snowjobspodcast
You'll have to make it like a mental hospital, all rubber rooms and stuff and no sharp objects or but or flammable stuff.
01:05:58
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:06:00
RICK JAMES
Well, that's that's.
01:06:04
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
01:06:04
RICK JAMES
That's a snow industry right there. Yeah.
01:06:04
Steve Smythe
Yeah.
01:06:05
snowjobspodcast
but I think it's awesome.
01:06:05
Jordan Smith
Yeah.
01:06:07
RICK JAMES
Have sponsored sponsored by Monster Energy or something there.
01:06:10
snowjobspodcast
yes they go
01:06:11
Jordan Smith
There you go.
01:06:12
RICK JAMES
Red Bull, Red Bull.
01:06:13
snowjobspodcast
One per day. One per day. That's it.
01:06:16
RICK JAMES
You got a you got a spare room in your house for me, Jordan, so I can just hang out there.
01:06:16
snowjobspodcast
Oh, man.
01:06:20
Jordan Smith
Absolutely Jeremy anytime you guys are always welcome Well,
01:06:21
RICK JAMES
All right.
01:06:23
snowjobspodcast
ah So, yeah, I don't know. Is there going to be anything as far as repetitive, like ah when this thing really gets going as far as like alumni, Storm Academy, like ah basically guys that have been there before doing it, anything like ongoing that you're looking to do?
01:06:40
Jordan Smith
yeah, so a few of the thoughts we have just in terms of long-term structure and again, we're we're shooting from the hip because no one's ever done it but you know I think as this advances, we'll we'll get to a point where we'll have like open signup days where anyone can sign up.
01:06:57
Jordan Smith
Maybe it's a limit of limit of five people per company. Because again, we want to promote that collaboration.
01:07:03
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
01:07:03
Jordan Smith
um I do think as this advances in future years, we could get to a point where if a company wants a private session where they just bring 30 of their own guys, there's there's value in that. We understand that.
01:07:13
snowjobspodcast
Yep.
01:07:14
Jordan Smith
It's a little less collaborative in nature. I think you lose some of the purpose of it, but I think that's something we'd look at offering in the future. um But then absolutely, I think there's huge opportunity for you know having real life snow rodeos with competitions, have awards, have giveaways, kind of kind of make it fun, gamify it a little bit. um Certainly you could,
01:07:39
Jordan Smith
You could look at at having like a certification program where you're, you're storm certified storm Academy certified. Um, and, and maybe it's a little bit more of a real certification than some of the existing, uh, paper test ones that exist.
01:07:51
Jordan Smith
I'm not knocking them. I'm just saying like it's sorry, but you can freaking go on there and pass that thing pretty easily.
01:07:54
snowjobspodcast
Real world.
01:07:56
Jordan Smith
Hey, look at that snowologist.
01:07:58
snowjobspodcast
There you go.
01:07:58
RICK JAMES
unless no i'll just certify
01:07:58
Steve Smythe
There you go.
01:07:58
snowjobspodcast
Jeremy's got it.
01:07:59
snowjobspodcast
Snowologist. but certified. but
01:08:04
Jordan Smith
and And I love that those programs exist, but i you know, I think you could get to the point where.
01:08:04
snowjobspodcast
ah
01:08:06
RICK JAMES
it's just
01:08:08
Jordan Smith
you know you you can graduate through certain courses and and become
Educational Initiatives & Industry Advancement
01:08:12
Jordan Smith
a graduating alumni per se of of Storm Academy.
01:08:12
snowjobspodcast
Amen.
01:08:15
Jordan Smith
I think there's a lot of cool opportunities there. And again, the whole idea is to build a community and that's those are all the different types of programs and things we can do to to help promote that.
01:08:25
snowjobspodcast
amen
01:08:25
RICK JAMES
It's just so, yeah, the snow industry is not a joke. It's not not a, you know, there's a real, real, it's a real career, real business, you know? People got to get out of that stigma that it's just ah something you do at night, you know?
01:08:38
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, you got to get that top gun designation.
01:08:40
Steve Smythe
Mm-hmm No Lindstrom board We can have patches those velcro patches like the fighter pile yep
01:08:41
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:08:42
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:08:42
snowjobspodcast
It's awesome. The Lindstrom ward. There you go. Best fighter pilot in the class.
01:08:49
RICK JAMES
There you go.
01:08:50
snowjobspodcast
the brotton, the craziest, yeah, the bullet, the the bullet award.
01:08:52
RICK JAMES
The silver bullet.
01:08:56
snowjobspodcast
Oh, man. Guys, I'm excited for this. I'm i'm happy for you guys. This is going to be awesome. I think it's great. and and i you know It just shows where your heads are at out there, Jordan especially, that This is not something that's been impossible to do.
01:09:12
snowjobspodcast
like ah Anybody could have done this in snow at any time over the last 20, 25 years and nobody's done it.
01:09:19
RICK JAMES
Uh huh.
01:09:19
snowjobspodcast
It's just like this is this is where you guys are. This is why you are who you are in this industry. because you're constantly thinking of stuff like this like how do we how do we do better how do we give these guys more of what they need to succeed. in the This industry sucks honestly i mean we're we're we're working in the worst conditions ah middle of the night often underpaid if they're not doing it right.
01:09:42
snowjobspodcast
um You know, it's it's not easy to do. So the fact that you guys keep asking that question over and over, like, what can we do to to give these guys more what they need? I just I'm excited about it.
01:09:54
snowjobspodcast
It's it's awesome. Good for you guys.
01:09:55
Jordan Smith
Well, and I think, you know, kind of around the whole thing out. Um, I apologize to Steve spice that I spent most of the time talking. I had a note on my sheet saying don't talk the whole time.
01:10:06
Jordan Smith
And I screwed that up. So sorry, Steve.
01:10:06
Steve Smythe
and That's all right.
01:10:08
snowjobspodcast
All good.
01:10:08
Jordan Smith
Um, I did my best, but you know, we are seriously like the reason that we have spent so much time with you guys on the snow jobs podcast, primarily educating, like we,
01:10:08
snowjobspodcast
He talked quite a bit, actually. More than he usually does. but oh
01:10:11
Steve Smythe
more she really
01:10:23
snowjobspodcast
yeah
01:10:23
Jordan Smith
We've rarely come on here to promote product.
01:10:24
snowjobspodcast
Oh, absolutely.
01:10:25
Jordan Smith
Yeah. We talked about storm vision. Um, yeah, we did some, some SEMA recap stuff that was, was somewhat promotional of storm equipment, but really, you know, my first three episodes are doing liquids education.
01:10:36
Jordan Smith
My other episodes were, you know, building and doing snow business, trying to equip a site with fleet.
01:10:37
snowjobspodcast
oh absolutely
01:10:42
Jordan Smith
Like we're trying to advance the industry.
01:10:43
RICK JAMES
Uh-huh.
01:10:45
Jordan Smith
That's our primary objective. And, you know, to kind of prove that if you look at Beyond the podcast, some of the things we're doing, the the storm chasing initiative we're doing with you guys.
01:10:54
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:10:55
Jordan Smith
We're not getting paid to do that.
01:10:56
snowjobspodcast
Nope.
01:10:56
Jordan Smith
We're trying to provide entertainment and education for the industry.
01:11:00
RICK JAMES
Right.
01:11:00
Jordan Smith
Storm Academy, we haven't laid out a cost structure yet. It's obviously going to cost a ton of money to put this on.
01:11:04
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:11:05
Jordan Smith
So we're probably going to have to charge something. I think for this first year, you know, we're going to ask people, obviously cover their travel and maybe their meals, but Because it's year one, we're we're probably going to be pretty easy on entry fees because we want people to be easy backed on us with the understanding of we're still feeling out how this thing's going to function and how to bring value, right?
01:11:22
snowjobspodcast
yeah That's fair.
01:11:25
Jordan Smith
Going forward, you know, we're going to have millions of dollars invested in it. We're going to have to charge something. Let's be real, but we're going to try to keep it extremely reasonable.
01:11:30
snowjobspodcast
Sure.
01:11:30
RICK JAMES
Thank you.
01:11:33
Jordan Smith
We're going to try to offer scholarships for, for young snow professionals who maybe can't afford it or for young startup companies who can't afford it. Um, just like we've done with sending people to Simon, and sending people to other events, to our storm field day, like we're giving away scholarships to people that maybe, uh, uh, wouldn't otherwise be able to come or wouldn't otherwise attend. Um, so we're very much wanting to promote industry advancement, setting that future standard in snow. And, you know, Steve's primary role at storm, yes, he does some sales. He does some outside sales, but his primary role at storm is industry advancement. It's not.
01:12:11
Jordan Smith
a position that has revenue directly tied to it. This is a position that is purely in place to help move the industry forward and create that collaborative industry environment.
01:12:21
Jordan Smith
So I think what I'm saying is we're putting our money where our mouth is because it's what we believe in.
01:12:22
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:12:27
Jordan Smith
We really want to see the industry do better, be better, and and ah just promote that collaboration wherever we can.
01:12:35
snowjobspodcast
Everybody wins if the industry gets better Everybody wins doesn't matter what product you sell doesn't matter how you do snow if we if we're all getting better than everybody wins I don't think there's anything wrong with a manufacturer or a dealer That is saying hey listen we sell this if you have a need and this is new so we're gonna explain it to you I don't see anything wrong with that because
01:12:35
Steve Smythe
Everybody wants to interact.
01:12:35
RICK JAMES
Yeah.
01:12:36
RICK JAMES
Yep. Mm hmm.
01:12:59
snowjobspodcast
If they're there for the right reason, like to educate, like guys, listen, there's more stuff out there that, you know, and, and you guys are always actually the first ones to be like, uh, this, this place has a great product.
01:13:10
snowjobspodcast
This place has a great product. They do this really well.
01:13:13
RICK JAMES
Yeah, right.
01:13:13
snowjobspodcast
They do that really well. Like, I don't think there's anything wrong with
Conclusion & Upcoming Events
01:13:17
snowjobspodcast
that. Like it's just, it's just, again, promotion of the industry. You know, you guys are the first ones to give credit to other people.
01:13:24
snowjobspodcast
So I have no problem with you saying, Hey, you know, storm vision is going to be awesome. Well, it is awesome. So you should talk about it. i mean That's just that's just what it is. But this is going to change everything. This is going to be great. And it's a shame that you can't do one like on the remote site in the Northeast or something. But I wouldn't even attempt it there. The weather and the temperature is too unpredictable.
01:13:46
Jordan Smith
yeah we Yeah, we talked about that. Uh, it'd be really cool to, to scale this across the country. But I think if we were to go to the Northeast, we'd have to go to like higher elevation, you know, Pennsylvania, Vermont, somewhere that is colder.
01:13:57
snowjobspodcast
Yeah.
01:14:00
snowjobspodcast
Uh huh.
01:14:00
Jordan Smith
Um, and it's not out of the question, but we do have a pretty ideal situation here in Minnesota. Minneapolis airport's pretty easy to get to for most places in the country. It's reasonably priced to fly here because no one wants to come here in the winter.
01:14:12
Jordan Smith
So the flights are cheap.
01:14:14
snowjobspodcast
Nice.
01:14:14
Jordan Smith
Um, But yeah, I mean, if it's scalable, we'll absolutely look at that, but let's let's start with what we have and and we'll go from there. I think it i agree, I think it's gonna be huge.
01:14:21
snowjobspodcast
Yeah, it is.
01:14:24
RICK JAMES
Mm hmm.
01:14:24
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely. You guys got anything else? Anybody got anything else?
01:14:29
Steve Smythe
I'm just looking forward to seeing you guys here next week.
01:14:30
RICK JAMES
I don't.
01:14:33
RICK JAMES
Yeah, I am, too.
01:14:34
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely. Oh, I, I covered all my questions.
01:14:35
RICK JAMES
Be a good time.
01:14:38
snowjobspodcast
I'm good. Jeremy, you got any other questions, bud?
01:14:40
RICK JAMES
No, no, I don't. It's something just looking forward to seeing everybody once again. And it'll be another fun week with the guys and learn some stuff and just I don't know. You always learn something when you always get together, so.
01:14:52
snowjobspodcast
Absolutely. Always have a good time and always learn something.
01:14:53
Jordan Smith
The whole point. That's right.
01:14:55
snowjobspodcast
That's what it's all about.
01:14:57
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:14:57
snowjobspodcast
All right. All right, boys, you good. Jordan, Steve, you got it. You're right.
01:15:00
Steve Smythe
Good.
01:15:01
Jordan Smith
We're good.
01:15:02
snowjobspodcast
All right. Oh, let's, uh, you know what, before we go, actually we got to hit our 15 second commercial. So we'll do that and then we'll get out of here. So we'll be right back.
01:16:13
snowjobspodcast
All right, we're back and I think we're just going to wrap it up, right? Everybody good?
01:16:18
RICK JAMES
I think we could do it that we get like a bunch of equipment there at the storm. We could have a silver bullet certified test.
01:16:28
snowjobspodcast
Yes, absolutely.
01:16:28
RICK JAMES
black
01:16:28
Steve Smythe
with.
01:16:28
Jordan Smith
There you go.
01:16:30
snowjobspodcast
I just said, you just got to find insurance for that.
01:16:33
RICK JAMES
ah Hey, you think your stuff is good?
01:16:36
snowjobspodcast
ah Oh yeah, we'll test it.
01:16:38
RICK JAMES
wellll Well, what we'll figure it out.
01:16:41
snowjobspodcast
It's like test track at Disney world. Absolutely. Oh, man. All right, boys. Well, we're going to see you in a couple of days, then. Thanks for ah thanks for coming on, giving us the time and thanks for doing what you're doing again. I think Storm Academy is going to be monstrous and <unk> we're definitely looking forward to Storm Day. It's going to be a great time.
01:16:57
Steve Smythe
I'll see you again next week.
01:16:57
Jordan Smith
Gonna be awesome, boys. Looking forward to it.
01:16:58
RICK JAMES
Yep.
01:16:59
snowjobspodcast
All right, we will see you guys soon. For the rest of you, that's gonna do it. Episode 82 of the Snowjaws podcast is in the book. Thanks to Jordan and Steve for all the information. We're gonna see them in a couple days and continue the good times, all right? So guys, we are out. If you're going to Storm Day this Thursday, we will see you guys all there. Also, if you're going to Storm Day and you're out in Mankato area, don't forget about Sanco's Demo Day.
01:17:22
snowjobspodcast
That's also a Mankato. It's on the day before it's Wednesday. So ah everybody, we'll see you soon. If we don't see on Thursday, have a great week. Be safe out there. Keep pushing.