A Dynamic Duo is GlassBuild Ready!

Fun new episode of the "From the Fabricator" podcast for you. It's a dive into the upcoming GlassBuild show in Vegas with two guys who have done it all at this event. I chop it up with two Kings in our space, Andrew Haring of FHC Frameless Hardware Company and Kevin Hardman of Hardman Glazing Management and Hardman Glazing Systems. The pod became a fun round-robin about first shows, cities it could go to, tips and tricks for getting around the show, and tons and tons of name drops. If you're going to the show or still thinking about it, give it a listen/watch. If you don't have plans to go, it's still an easy listen that drops more than a few nuggets along the way.

Watch here or listen here. 

Elsewhere…

17th Annual Hale Glass Blood Drive

An important yearly tradition is coming up. The 17th Annual Hale Glass Blood Drive. If you are in or around Southern California on September 11th, stop by Hale Glass and donate. Blood is in short supply this year, so every bit helps. The event runs 7:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. with lunch provided for donors 11am - 1pm. Thank you to Gloria and Brian Hale, always classy, always caring.

Funny LinkedIn clip

A must-watch, very funny clip on LinkedIn, if people ordered fast food as they talked to contractors. Perfect.

Promotion news

The extremely talented Wade Arnold is now Vice President of Sales at Quikserv. Wade is a true-blue industry guy, and it's awesome to see him get a new position and continue the good he's done before. Congrats Wade!

Glazier certification/licensing effort

You may have seen a blurb on the dialogue in Washington, DC, about their glazier certification/licensing effort. This plan is getting pushback, and all I can say is that the detractors are off on this one. Way off. Certification is crucial. And we, as an industry, should support it with all we have. It can lift our entire space and improve what we do and how we do it. And from what I am seeing, efforts to get certified everywhere are growing, so it's kind of a "get on board now" sort of thing. If you have questions/comments about this, hit me up. Would love to chat through it.

Final Summer Catch Up

The final installment of the Summer Catch Up Series is here… this time out I touch base with Jill Read of Diamon-Fusion International (DFI). Jill has always been the dynamo of brilliance, and she's hit the ground running at DFI. But what about the time since we talked on the podcast? We catch up on that and more.

MAX: Okay. The last time I had you on the podcast was 2021, so it's been five years. I think a few things have happened in your world in that time. Do you want to take me back and how the journey's been from then till now?

JILL: Sure. Gosh, five years goes by so quickly. Yeah, so I've just been living the dream, Max.

MAX: Love it.

JILL: My family is good, with one teenager left in our nest. So, looking back over the last five years, the glass industry has helped me transition to where I am now. I was with Binswanger for over seven years and then Impact Security for two and half years. Just this March, I joined the team at Diamon-Fusion International, well known by most as DFI. So that's a snapshot of what I've been doing for the last five years.

MAX: Some cool roles though. So that has prepared you for this one.

JILL: "Oh, most definitely, Max. I've had the opportunity to work in some vastly different areas of the glass industry. I started with a focus on retail and contract glazing at Binswanger, where I worked with large national customers. From there, I moved into the security side working with ballistic and film products, which I absolutely loved. And now I've transitioned into something completely different, but still very much connected to glass - making sure the glass is protected, stays looking its best and doesn't leave the fabricator 'naked,' so to speak."

MAX: The naked glass thing. Somewhere Guillermo Seta has a huge smile on his face. One of these days we'll explain that in more detail, but I have to ask, how's it going at DFI? You've been there for a few months, settling in okay; you still got that excitement in your bones for it?

JILL: "Absolutely. A few months in, and the excitement hasn't worn off. If anything, I'm finding more reasons to be excited, Max. So, quick story, having been in the industry, I'd heard of DFI, and had a certain idea of what the products were all about. But at my first trade show of the year in New York, while sporting the DFI logo on my jacket, I quickly got introduced to DFI's reputation. What really stood out to me was that as I walked the show and talked with people, they were telling me great stories about my team members and sharing their view of the DFI brand. I remember thinking, how great is it that I'm meeting people who already have such a positive impression of the company and the team that I'm now a part of. It was a really nice feeling."

MAX: That is awesome. Congratulations again on that. You got a lot of things going on because I know Adam is always inventing something new. And so I have to ask from a similar level: I've always thought of you as kind of an old school person. You've come up through different worlds in our industry from the marketing side and so on. What's your take on AI, artificial intelligence? Do you like it, hate it, use it, avoid it? What's AI for Jill Read?

JILL: I love it. In fact, I have a good friend; she came over a couple of days ago for a quick visit, and she said, "I know a lot of folks are not really excited about this AI." She said, "But I love it." And I confess, "Me too." From a business standpoint, Max, I had a spreadsheet, which I wanted to create multiple tabs for, run calculations and incorporate filters. Old school Jill would've probably taken a good four hours to develop that and then still not been real pleased with the exact outcome. New AI Jill put that into ChatGPT, and it came out beautiful within 10 minutes. And AI made some suggestions that I hadn't even really considered. Bam, I have a project completed in my hands in ten minutes. Our industry as a whole, needs to embrace parts of AI. Reviewing drawings, completing takeoffs, building the estimate, I don't think it's going to replace our industry estimators. I think what it's going to do is help our industry become more productive. If you can have AI look at 200 pages of an architectural drawing and tell you the areas you need to bid, the glass type, the approved manufacturers in a matter of a minute – I mean, that's awesome.

MAX: It really is something else, and I've enjoyed working with it. And the last thing I have for you is GlassBuild. You'll be there, I assume. DFI always has a place in the middle of the action. The industry front man, Carl Christ, is always there front and center. What's on tap for you at GlassBuild?

JILL: I'm not supposed to talk too much about our big secret reveal, but I will tell you there is a lot of R&D going on. Adam, along with our engineers, have been extremely busy to the point where he's canceled team meetings, and Adam doesn't cancel meetings—it's because we're ramping up for GlassBuild. We want to unveil what he's been working very hard on. And I think our friends in the industry are going to be excited right along with us. So yeah, GlassBuild, our booth is #2759. And if Carl gets his way, he's going to have a large banner over our booth. He says no matter where you're standing, you'll be able to see DFI's banner from various parts of the building.

MAX: Awesome. Can't wait to see you in Las Vegas. Thanks for doing this.

JILL: No problem. Always enjoy talking with you, Max.

Thank you to everyone who connected back up with me. An audio version of these takes will be coming soon. And thanks to all reading this for going back in time with me!