Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Game-Changing Takeaways from Equip Expo 2024 in Louisville, KY: Battery-Powered Tools, Robotics, and more
59 Plays6 months ago
We’re back from Equip Expo with exciting insights into the future of landscaping! This year’s Expo showcased the latest in tech, from high-performance battery-powered equipment to cutting-edge robotics designed to simplify and elevate daily tasks. In this episode of TBC, we’re unpacking what these advancements mean for contractors and how they’ll impact the way we do business. Our goal is to help you stay ahead of the curve with equipment that’s built for efficiency, sustainability, and power.
Plus, we reveal the winner of our Yeti giveaway from the Expo—congratulations to Anthony Hardin from Brothers Lawn Service! Don’t miss out on this episode!
#EquipExpo #LandscapingInnovation #BatteryPoweredTools #ContractorTech #TheBetterContractor #FutureOfLandscaping
Recommended
Transcript
Travis Returns as the Professor
00:00:13
Speaker
fros Alright, welcome back to another edition of The Better Contractor. Today, I'm joined by the professor again. Travis, it's been a few episodes, man. Where you been? has reading copy of books of your forfesing
00:00:30
Speaker
I haven't fully finished two of them. So I think I mentioned on a prior episode that I typically read several at once, so it takes me longer. But it allows me to not all the time, most of them are nonfiction, 99% of them. So not all the time you're in the mood for OK, for me, I'm not in the mood to necessarily one specific topic. So the um in order to add diversity in there and make sure that I'm actually interested, it's typically a handful of books at once. It just takes me a lot longer to read. but
00:01:08
Speaker
Well, three books in bed. It's not been that long, but that three books is pretty good. I respect that.
The Better Contractor at Equip Expo
00:01:13
Speaker
So the day we'll talk about, so last week, uh, TBC went to the equip expo in Louisville, Kentucky. Uh, we had a booth there and then we went around and interviewed a few different places and, and, uh, checked out all the different product lines and service lines that are there. So this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about that kind of our takeaways from it.
00:01:32
Speaker
innovations that we saw there. And then if you were at equip expo or saw our ads, you also saw that we were giving it away a Yeti and we'll announce the winner on this podcast as well. So, uh, to kind of get started on the equip
Dominance of Battery-Powered Equipment
00:01:46
Speaker
expo. So the first one I went to, I think was around 2010. And then I skipped a few. And then since the launch of the better contractor have been back a few times lately.
00:01:59
Speaker
The biggest thing I noticed last year and this year was the amount of battery powered equipment and handhelds that were there, like tons. Um, I'm not seeing that a lot. So we're out of St. Louis, Missouri area. I'm not seeing a a lot in the commercial space yet, but I've seen a lot of it in the residential space. I, I have an ego brand push more than I use for just a small area of my yard. I think Travis, you have ego as well, right? Yeah.
00:02:27
Speaker
yeah And then, but what I've noticed this year was a little bit of a push more to the commercial side, which I think really has to do with trying to get the battery, the power, the longevity, the charging abilities to be able to do the commercial side. So this year I noticed that even more so than I did last year. Crest, Ego both had like these different charging packs.
00:02:51
Speaker
that can charge multiple batteries in a relatively short amount of time, which if you're doing this on the commercial side, it kind of has to be that way. And I think that was one of the hindrances to using the battery power stuff in the beginning was simply not having enough batteries. They were expensive. It took overnight charges. And when you do this for a living all day long, it just wasn't feasible. But now I feel like that is changing. But then the neat part of some of the battery stuff,
00:03:17
Speaker
ah to me is just simply the power. ah You look like some of the leaf blowers. Like, man, those things produce some power because it's instant distant power. The other thing I noticed was robotics and more remote control stuff as well. There was several robotic or you know mowers that are getting bigger and bigger. you know I think originally, I think Steel and Husqvarna had like really, really small ones for backyards. And now I've noticed like Cress and a few others, they've got a lot more stuff that's
00:03:47
Speaker
sizable to most several acres, you know, per week. So anyway, what, what kind of did you see Travis or what was some of your take away? Yeah. So I didn't get to fully explore. I mean, that, that, that entire show is massive. Um, but, uh, sorry for what I did explore as well as, uh, talking to people that were coming by the booth, uh, they're saying there wasn't just like start contrast between last year and this year, there was no.
00:04:14
Speaker
in their mind just revolutionary product technology service that was just completely game changing from last year to this year. But I agree with you seeing more the expansion of the battery powered stuff and Like it might be more of we're leveling out. so So at least between last year and this year, that there's been more focus on maybe there was an acute innovation cycle where a bunch of robotics and drones and battery powered AI and vision type stuff ah all hit the market over the last couple of years. And now it's kind of a leveling out in that now we're trying to refine it, expand the product lines, bring the
00:04:56
Speaker
yeah to bring the cost down.
Brand Ecosystems and Consumer Loyalty
00:04:59
Speaker
And then also just efficiencies, making sure that it's actually got applicability in the marketplace. But the ego is one that I absolutely love. And it might be part of, it's because the brand that I've got, but but to be honest, the the things that I've gotten from them have been solid, they've been quality. And it's interesting the ecosystem that they're building, they've really done a great job of last year. So expanding the product line for things that you would actually use in your your daily life and the things that you said that they had a lot of the lawn equipment out, but like a portable misting fan to go in your backyard in Texas to get taught and misting makes a big difference.
00:05:47
Speaker
But something you can drag around anywhere and have a missing fan. I know we got one. and it It's been amazing. out But to shop vacs, to pressure washers, to a lot of the just the product lines expanding into things that you would actually want to need. And the more they do that, so as soon as you buy a handful of these batteries, and it could be probably the the same with like crests, or some of these as soon as whoever gets their first wins, essentially,
00:06:17
Speaker
in that if they can get you sold on their battery and they're at least get you into their ecosystem, it only makes sense that you stick with that brand. Well, I've already got the battery, so I might as well get the other five things if I'm considering, as opposed to you have to go to a whole other brand to get a whole new battery and and base system. So I think it's really smart of them to expand rapidly. um It'll be interesting if if they they expand too fast trying to capture that market and suck you into that ecosystem and sacrifice quality, um that would be maybe their only downfall. But I know we we got a chance to speak with their product innovation team. They seem completely on the ball and they've got good software coming out to you to manage a lot of the stuff. And that's a whole other aspect that I think you're seeing too is the software components. There's, and I go back to the quote master,
00:07:14
Speaker
There's a quote that, well, to to qualify the quote is, ever since we went digital with everything in our lives, we used to not have insights into the way we behaved as human beings in our daily lives and the things we did. And now when we slap technology on everything, whether it's just smartwatch or smartphone or email or computers in our lives have very much attached to these digital platforms.
00:07:41
Speaker
Now we've got tons and tons and tons of data, which is a whole other problem. And so where the quote was, an abundance of data typically results in a poverty of attention. So now I've got these mountains of data, and it's so overwhelming that now it makes like no sense. and And nobody pays attention to it. We're in the early stages. um It was data and metrics, and we're awesome.
00:08:05
Speaker
so As much insights as we potentially have now where we got data capturing tools, there has to be smart dashboards and metrics and things that help make sense of all of this data that's actionable intelligence, actionable insights.
00:08:22
Speaker
things that make sense to you and we're starting to see more of that where like ego and they're not the only ones which we were just talking about them. is They've really invested heavily into their dashboards and their analytics which I think is going to be super powerful and for any brands that aren't doing that yet, I think that will be a natural complement to being able to see the health and life and ah managing all your devices and and seeing the use of them. And then as like EAGLE gets more into the commercial line, which I know that was what they were saying is a heavy focus maybe for them for this next year is to get into the commercial side. This can be even more powerful and more relevant for them to have those dashboards and those tools. because It just allows you to manage that equipment unlike we've ever been able to do preventative maintenance, seeing how it's being used and then tying that back into
00:09:19
Speaker
financials too in that yeah profit and loss statements and all your equipment and is it actually per kilowatt hour or whatever, making you money or is it not? And how can you manage that? And that might be a whole other bolt on software suite that they can do. So it just, that type of stuff is fascinating. I love to see the expansion of the battery powered and software. Oh yeah.
00:09:43
Speaker
I think it'll go somewhere. I was a little hesitant in the beginning, but if you look at other industries in the past, so you look at like the general contracting industry, we don't think anything now at all of a cordless drill or cordless, whatever in that space. But there was a time with about the only thing that was really cordless was the drills, the smaller items, your impact drivers, your stuff that required more juice was usually still electric.
00:10:07
Speaker
I'm shocked at how much stuff is electric that you can buy from Milwaukee or DeWalt, which is the two big brands that most people use. by Like you said earlier with like Ego, like there's so much, like with Milwaukee is what we use at home. Like you can buy ah lights, you can buy
Challenges of Battery Adoption
00:10:25
Speaker
you know radios, you can buy, like you said, Shopvax, there's just just a whole line. And it all takes the same battery for the most part. To your point, and we don't... we don't we don't think about necessarily, but that evolution. So we are going through the miniaturization and the cost effectiveness phase and the expansion of usable things. So with what you're just saying, because that's still, that's still a concern for a lot of people is the price for the batteries, egos batteries for a majority of them, they're like 400 bucks ish. Um, so they're not cheap and you're, you're essentially paying for convenience, but at the same time as those things are powering massive pieces of equipment that traditionally you wouldn't have had.
00:11:03
Speaker
But right, you we don't even think twice about it. It would be an oddity to see a corded drill now. And so yeah ah we're probably not far away from that. I mean, we're probably a year or two unless there's some breakthrough in battery technology, which everybody's looking at. And so it's very possible with that makes it much more powerful, more and much more cost effective. But yeah, maybe a couple of years, you won't even think twice about maybe gas powered or corded anything for the for the major equipment. Oh yeah. And the nice thing too, I think for the workers, I was thinking about this because they had some of the stuff running inside the expo, which normally you wouldn't have done because of just you know loud. um So what I noticed at the expo was like how quiet that stuff was. So if you put your worker hat on, it is nice to run. If you're going to run a handheld all day,
00:11:58
Speaker
like a chainsaw, a weed trimmer, whatever, to not have that constant noise in having to wear earplugs all day. And there's some pieces like chainsaws, you know, weed eaters. You kind of got to let those warm up a little bit still yet today. There's not that, you know, you don't just fire it up and you instantly have perfect 100% power. I think Crest has a new top hand saw to use in a bucket truck. Very small top handle. That'd be awesome being electric.
00:12:25
Speaker
You know what I mean? There's no noise. You can still hear people on the ground. You don't have that noise up in the bucket with you. So there's a lot of advantages, I think, to the electric stuff, this especially in those kind of applications. We talked about it last year. It didn't come up this year in the conversations about changing behavior out in the field based off of the sound it produces or doesn't produce in that when somebody's running a chainsaw or equipment Cisco brought up last year. I think it's one of the other conferences, but that that was usually an indicator that somebody's running a piece of an equipment and you heard it and so people but essentially had the writer up and they're looking around versus these things are so quiet that you might not know that they're cutting limbs if you're not paying attention but or that you're so used to the audible sound of it and so having to really re-shift your focus and how you perform out in the field when you're starting to incorporate these quiet machines
00:13:23
Speaker
I think it's a disadvantage in a way because like you just said, we're trained if you're a chainsaw star in the air, if there's a bucket truck, you know to stay away. On the on the other side, now I'm an operator in the bucket, nobody can communicate with me when I'm running unless I have a headpiece in the your ear set on. um So then all of a sudden now I have the ability to maybe hear someone yell. So it's kind of a give and take there just a little bit. So while we're in this period where we're mixing the equipment,
00:13:53
Speaker
it might ah almost be better to have totally powered crews, battery powered crews versus it like, I don't know, yeah I definitely see it being an issue as you're mixing and integrating at different points. Or just you have to completely change the safety protocol on the ground that would apply to both. ah but If it would apply, yeah. It's interesting dynamics that as the real world meets up with some of these innovations, the unintended consequences or unintended challenges or benefits just coming to realization as you're using it, not something necessarily that you forced off.
Quiet Advantages of Battery Tools
00:14:35
Speaker
I definitely see some advantages. I was talking to somebody at the expo or heard somebody by talking about it. ah Commercial crews, like let's say you do a lot of apartment buildings or like hotels, places where you need to start mowing or or doing your work somewhat early.
00:14:49
Speaker
and sound is an issue potentially, or it can be a complaint. Now you do have the ability to go in there and start working. People probably are not going to hear it. um That's actually i kind of a big plus, in my opinion. So I think for the commercial guys, as these commercial batteries and and their charging abilities take off, I think it's going to be a pretty big thing for them. And just in areas like that, I think that's actually a marketing selling point. yeah You know, you have the environmental side, you have the quiet,
00:15:17
Speaker
You have the worker safety from the hearing perspective because a lot of companies don't wear earplugs and they really should especially operate this equipment because if you do this for a living, you do day in and day out, it is going to have an impact.
00:15:28
Speaker
so that there was Ultimately, that's why I got the ego or is I had to tend to wake up really early and instead of going and running or something, they were working out. Now you can still cut your grass. That's essentially what I was going for. I still got worried because it used to get a little bit of a hum. I was asking the neighbor, did you hear it? They heard nothing. 4.30, 5 o'clock in the morning, still dark. It was genius.
00:15:59
Speaker
So the robotic mowers too. So we i had seen one in our neighborhood as we were driving past like about a month ago. But the autonomous robotic like Roomba style where it goes out and just like and that was the first time I'd actually seen
Autonomous Mowers: Opportunities and Challenges
00:16:15
Speaker
it out in the wild. Nobody monitoring just cutting.
00:16:18
Speaker
and We came back about an hour later and it was still in the same spot, stuck on something. There's obviously still challenges, but um I think we we talked we had somebody on the podcast to you that they were doing it commercially and dropping these things off at night yeah at their next spot while the cruise went home and it was mowing. So yeah, that unlocks whole new ways and systems and you can rethink about how you actually conduct business. because of the stuff That was my next point was the robotics and kind of that going forward is exactly that point. If this labor market does stay tight for extended period of time, if I own the commercial lawn care, especially in more of a, you know, doing larger spaces to really small ones, I would definitely come through and have, you know, that kind of equipment because and I think this equipment is going to come a long way in a short amount of time yeah too. um It's not there in my opinion,
00:17:13
Speaker
yet for massive deployment. But I think it's so close where I can have a trailer of three mowers in a bigger commercial spot. I can deploy all of those, get them going. I can go be the weed trimmer. I can do some landscape maintenance while those three mowers take off and do their thing and then load them back up. And I'm on um on the road and that's one person, you know, instead of having four people. So I've reduced, you know, my crew of four down to to one. So I do see a lot of advantages there.
00:17:42
Speaker
And then the ones you're talking about that are more stationary, where they stay at, you know, that, that specific facility, they're mowing every day. yeah the residential So I want to say, it seemed like there was a lot more residential ones this year than it was. There is. Yeah. And and they, and they're growing in size. I know crests were bigger and different models now that one goes for you having acres a week. But the nice thing about those and commercially you can sell those and have a business selling those and, you know, maintenance them.
00:18:12
Speaker
up keeping them doing the the landscape maintenance instead. But the nice thing about those is they deploy every day. So your yard, I think Chris said what, maximum of an inch difference is kind of the goal. So you're not, so usually you mow every week in most climates and you're taking off what, a couple, two to three inches of grass on average. Well, this here, you're mowing pretty much every single day and you're going through and your yard always looks mowed that way. So it's kind of a,
00:18:39
Speaker
That's cool, that your yard would always look mowed. How long before the serious HOA start requiring that? yeah Yeah, you must have a e-mower mowing every single week for every day, yeah. I mean, for noise abatement and for standard beautification across, like I could see where they would try and make arguments. Yeah, I was seriously considering the caress one this year, but our yarder house is Man, it's hilly. It's got crevices and wash outs. And I don't think it's quite there yet for my yard. So I think it would get stuck constantly. it I don't know, I don't know, um, which booth it was or which which brand it was, but they had their little autonomous mowers like going through their, their little courses and they were just kind of operating, but it was, uh, they had the Terminator that speakers and they had the like blasting.
00:19:35
Speaker
I think I made a comment to you. I mean, I get what they're saying as far as like advanced robotics, but that might not be the the connotation they they want to impart is that these autonomous mowers with a terminator type feel, they're already, the the population is already leery about these things taking over the world. but Maybe you don't put the terminator soundtrack to you something you're trying to sell. just bla jeff Yeah.
00:20:03
Speaker
um The other thing I noticed, this is the last one I've got, you can add to this Travis if you want, hardscaping the last few years, it seems to be getting that area of the equip expo keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And to me, I think it's awesome for these companies to be able to keep their employees busy year round. I think it's, I think, you know, if you look at it from a business owner perspective, a lot of times if you partner with the right people, you can offer your customers financing. So now you're able to sell those larger ticket items.
00:20:33
Speaker
Um, you can offer them financing to help them do it. You get paid and then they're, they're just simply larger dollar jobs. So instead of doing all these tiny jobs, if you land a few of these over the winter or a few during the year, whatever you've increased your, your revenues per year by quite a bit, by adding this new service. And it's something that's kind of blown up ever since. Well, it happened pre-COVID, but COVID has seemed to greatly help the outdoor living space. So the hardscaping thing is something that if I was in the long landscape industry. If you're not doing it already, I would definitely be doing it. um To me, it's a no brainer. It's almost a snowball effect. I think COVID might have highlighted even more as people internalized their focus where they had to staycation or stay at home.
Rise of Hardscaping and Year-Round Work
00:21:20
Speaker
And once you started to see a handful of people do something really nice in their backyard with hardscaping,
00:21:28
Speaker
you then all whether whether it was a competition thing where now I have to keep up with the neighbor or you just saw how you could potentially transform your space into something more. And they almost leapfrogged it as far as those that were wanting it now put money into the industry that allowed them to those that were in the space building to be profitable. So now they're focusing more on innovative things or designs or And so now it's gotten into a much broader space where you see a lot cooler things being done and really pushing the bounds, I think, beyond just a piece of pavers and fireplace out there to just really elaborate backyards and landscaping. And app I want to say this year, there are a lot of the crews coming by the booth too.
00:22:23
Speaker
especially when one's up north. So last year we were talking to several that like hey this as the season's winding down four years we're getting to fall. What do you guys got going on? There was a bunch of random yeah things that they were engaged in to try and keep their crews either they they were laying off the crews for the winter or there was just it seemed like a bunch of random things to try and keep the crews busy. It was pretty much overwhelmingly, most of them were doing some form of hardscaping throughout tab throughout the season. And it was a new focus for a lot of them in that it wasn't something they were heavily involved in or weren't involved in at all in years prior and either adopted it or expanded it throughout the winter season. and So definitely think it's a what way more natural fit than going and doing Christmas tree lights or
00:23:17
Speaker
Uber, whatever the the crazy off season stuff was. But yeah, I'm with you. Definitely saw a kind of a much more concerted focus on hardscaping and doing more with it. Yeah. The question I had for you, because you keep up on this stuff more than I do, is so if I'm in this industry, working in this industry, and let's say I operate equipment, let's say it's lawn landscape, let's say it's some other, ah you know, operating equipment on more of a construction site.
00:23:48
Speaker
What do you think of robotics? How far out do you think that is? And do you think that'll have a ah role? Cause I know like it's there. A lot of this equipment can do it. Um, it's just not perfected quite yet to be able to turn it loose. Cost has to come down in quality, but just the, I think the market's going to push it. I think just seeing the expansion from last year to this year where people and brands feel that they have to be, so ah parallel is COVID. So a lot of companies were going remote to work prior, especially if they're a global company, you're you're doing kind of remote
Future of Robotics and Automation
00:24:30
Speaker
style. And it was even though people will come into the office, they'd sit at their desk and do video chats or phone calls all day, and they wouldn't even really engage with the people around them. So it was already kind of
00:24:44
Speaker
migrating to a style where it was remote-esque. You were operating or functioning. You could basically have taken those phone calls anywhere. um we there was Skype was predominant. Microsoft Teams didn't really exist. Google Meet didn't really exist. Zoom well was kind of fledgling. It wasn't massive the way it is now. And just all of a sudden, so they all existed. or i say A lot of them existed.
00:25:13
Speaker
And people were using in the very degrees. But when the whole world went remote and there was a trigger where mass adoption, you have forced. So one, you forced everybody to become familiar with these digital platforms and normalization of it. And then two is now there was a huge influx of cash and capital into these industries that shored up all of the software and systems to make them more viable because everybody had to use them.
00:25:43
Speaker
So whether we see a catalyst, so it would have probably happened anyway. and We were all going towards those tools anyway. It would just make a much more protracted timeline. And we just had a catalyst that forced everything to be adopted much faster, which allowed them to innovate and and ensure this platform's up. So whether we see a catalyst that occurs ah that forces mass adoption a lot faster and that could be regulation, that could be is safety issues. throughout legacy There could be a whole host of things that force adoption of robotics or more autonomous or digital type solutions. I think it's coming regardless. It'll just be
00:26:32
Speaker
It'll be slow capital injection into these systems. And then somebody will break through and you'll kind of see a cs snowball. So it depends. Like I think just the adoption, the more we've seen robotics, the show where it was more on the residential side. If you take a doubling or a compound effect from this year to next year, um there is a heavy interest in it, a need from both consumer side and from the the product development teams and the companies that they want to develop these and make these successful. So it's the miniaturization and the cost reduction and efficiency that everybody's going through right now. So I think it will happen year two or three yeah where we're probably three years out. If if nothing
00:27:29
Speaker
If nothing happens, that's a major catalyst, a breakthrough. a AI technology just ah enhances something significantly, or there's a massive breakthrough in battery technology, because the battery component is another limiting factor of the robotics in that if you're expecting it to do, you're it's a trade-off of either longevity, endurance, or power, and you're either eating up all your power and the battery,
00:27:59
Speaker
because you need it to to be more on the power side and and the torque versus it's going to go mow the half or quarter inch all day long ah and the battery charging. So if there's a breakthrough in battery technology, that alone and And the footprint of these products too is largely dictated by the battery. So that that one thing alone, if there's a breakthrough in battery technology, I think you would see a massive increase in people adopting those in innovation, in product development, in changing the design and the style and the capabilities. I mean, so
00:28:44
Speaker
Yeah. There's always a possibility that in next year, just something skyrockets, but we're probably three years. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's close. And I think too, from a business owner perspective, if the labor market doesn't correct and kind of give a little bit of breathing room, I think this will make it more appealing when this is available, you know, because I think there is some hindrance to growth right now because of the labor market for a lot of contractors and people in this industry.
00:29:13
Speaker
And I think if this gives them an out to that and frees up some stuff and allows them to grow and scale a little faster, I think you'll see more of it, which leads me to my final point. I like these yeah expos for like this industry's construction, whatever, for owners and employees. For owners, I think this is a great opportunity for you to get out there, stay in front you know in in your industry, see what innovation's coming, see what technology's coming.
00:29:39
Speaker
um Be at that forefront if there's new services you can offer. To me this is the way you kind of stay in front of your competition hopefully a little bit and keep your mind open to new services, new ideas, ways of doing things differently so the way it's always been done. I think for employees a lot of times I think they think that this is only for the owners. To me it's not. I think you should go these expos and study them a little bit. Look at trends.
00:30:03
Speaker
If you see what you're doing you know as your main job currently, may have some changes in the near future, meaning maybe you're not tech savvy now, but the industry looks like it may be bringing some tech into an industry that didn't have it before.
00:30:16
Speaker
I think now is the time that you do need to probably hone in your skills and learn some of this tech and not be quite so anti-tech because there's a chance it's coming to your industry soon. And I think if you want to keep your job and keep being relevant, I think you're going to have to learn it. So I think for employees just need to be able to look at this and say, Hey, this is where I think things may be going. This is probably what I need to be learning now for if this does indeed come. Paradigm shifts, the open-minded to it might be radically different. It might not be ready right now.
00:30:47
Speaker
but look at it for the possibilities. If it continues to evolve, what will it be in a year or two? And it doesn't mean that you necessarily get... So you go back to the Industrial Revolution and from belts and yeah and steam engines to electric engines, um electric engines weren't completely right. And there were varying ways of adopting that into the factories, but A lot of the factories didn't just automatically adopt all the electric engines for a variety of reasons, but one of them being that maybe they they had a lot of systems and steam engines that were completely fine the way they were, and or they just invested in a bunch of steam engines. And even though the electric engines showed a lot of possibility, they didn't just rip and replace everything. It just economically didn't make sense. and so that yeah But for all of those that survived,
00:31:40
Speaker
They had an open mind and it's been with every innovation looking at it for where where is the industry going to be? What's the possibilities with it? Can we start in injecting some of this now and so that we're ready and it's not we're not trying to adopt something cold in that now something's crashed and it's forcing us to react to it. That's probably the worst way because you're going to spend a lot of money, a lot of time and a lot of effort.
00:32:05
Speaker
trying to adopt something that you're completely unfamiliar with if you survive at all ah through that. It's much more economical and you'll be better positioned by adopting, slowly adopting, integrating, testing, learning. It's either ready for you right now and you're going to put it into your operation or it's maybe not ready, whether you're not ready or the technology is not ready and you shelve it in that We're going to relook at this, uh, in about a year or it's it's not ready at all, but you need to be looking at everything now, especially with, with everything that's happening with the innovations and technology and everything in the labor market. You have to start looking at it. You have to start understanding you have to, what does this
Advent of Airless Tires
00:32:49
Speaker
mean? Um, the, uh, twill tires or is that what, yeah, I think so. air I think that's something worth watching, uh, of, um,
00:33:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's been around for a little while, but I noticed every single mower there for the most part had those, the airless tires. Well, John Deere went all in. I think all their stuff. They're nice. I mean, they don't go flat. They have a wider square inch you know surface area. I think they hold slopes a little better, stuff like that. But like whether whether that's completely like, all right, I'm replacing everything, all my equipment to this, probably not. But it might be worth watching or adopting it on any piece of equipment or or to you.
00:33:30
Speaker
that stuff like that where that's not heavy, that's not technology and battery power or whatever. But the best approach is to learn about it and stay plugged into it. And if that's not you find somebody on your team that has a passion, the interest or the capability to, to dig into that stuff and you put it on your roadmap. So your timeline horizons are a lot shorter than what you think they are as far as innovation. Start looking at that, put it in a, heat We've got equipment that's aging out in two years. Let's start looking at what's on the market now as far as technology. Let's start studying it, learning about it and have an adoption plan in place, whether you're adopting it now in, in peace or next year, we're going to look at this. So I think it's super critical for everybody, especially in this day and age, you got to pay attention to learn. Yeah. No, I think this is a good expo overall. Um, we had a lot of people stop by the booth, you know, a lot of interest in the services we provide.
Equip Expo's Record Attendance
00:34:27
Speaker
I don't know how many people came to the Expo this year, but it was it was a bunch. The outdoor area was awesome as well. So I think I saw an email that said that it was record number. There's a lot of people. Yeah, I was impressed with the attendance and engagement. All right, Travis, I'm going to let you announce the winner of the Yeti drawing. All right. So Yeti drawing that we had there at the Expo, we have Brothers Lawn Service and it was Anthony Hardin from Brothers Lawn Service.
00:34:57
Speaker
And, uh, I think, uh, he had on there for his title, uh, the lawn commander. So Anthony, the lawn commander, uh, brothers lawn service, you guys are the proud new owner of a pretty amazing orange color, just in time deer season, orange color or Tennessee color or Halloween or safety. We got you covered up. So there's a lot of interest. Everybody loved that thing. And there's going to be a lot of people that were jealous, but, uh,
00:35:24
Speaker
Anthony and the Brothers Lawn Service. You guys are the winners. Awesome. Congratulations, Anthony. Travis, any closing thoughts? Are you good, man? Yeah, I'm good. All right. We've had a nice little uptick in subscribes and listens on the podcast. So thank you to all of you who are doing that. Hopefully you're finding this podcast interesting. We're trying a few different topics and titles out and It looks like it's it's working well. So thank you for that. Travis, good to have you back on. I expect a a book report next podcast. We'll see what we can do. All right. See ya. Thank you guys.