Foam & Friends
The Foam & friends podcast is hosted by Todd Cook, a spray foam insulation contractor with the gift to gab. We sit and talk with real people in the SPF industry about everything from foam, to family, to life, goals, and whatever else comes to mind. Some episodes may be more serious, and some might be more lighthearted, but our goal is for all of them to give entertainment and value of your time.
Foam & Friends
#021 Dan Mothershed
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Dan and I talk about his Michigan roots, his life in Tennessee, the family business, being a tech rep, and the future of spray foam.
Flint Roots And Moving South
SPEAKER_01All right. Got another one here with uh Star of the Flint Tropics and Mothershit. I was waiting all week to say that. Uh for any of those, any of those who uh what's that movie called? Is it called Flint Tropics? What's it called? Oh, you hit me on the spot. The the Will Farrell movie where he plays basketball. Anyway, uh, because Dan, Mothershed, is from Flint originally. Is that right? That's right. That's right. Born and raised in Flint. For a long time, Flint was like, I mean, that was like the one of the worst, the one of the hardest crime places in the country with Gary Indiana, I think I remember. Yeah, you know. Not because of you, I hope. No, Flint was it was pretty it was what it was, right? There was definitely some things gonna be happening. And I left before, you know, some of the things that we're all familiar with actually took place. So the water crisis that actually took place a little bit later. I I left in 2007 when I left. Oh, you've been gone for a while then. Yeah, yeah. So we're we're approaching almost 20 years that I've been in Knoxville. Well, in the Knoxville area. I'm now in Alcoa, Tennessee. So just outside of Knoxville. Okay, directly across from the Knoxville airport. So oh, okay. So what actually brought you to Knoxville versus anywhere else? Well, I had a lifeline there. Oh, my family was there already set up, and you know, was basically recruiting me to come down. Oh he I had a cousin, I had an uncle, and there were some people down there that just really, you know, showed me, and I knew for a long time that it really looked promising in that area, and you know, there's a little bit more behind it, but that's that's basics of what all actually took place. Yeah, how old are you? 45. I just turned 45, July 30th. So just a week, yeah. Shoot, we're only like two months apart because I'll be I'll be 45 and at the end of September. So yeah, there you go. Well, let me know. Did you graduate in 2000? I did, I did. Yeah, I went to Carmen, Ainsworth in 2000, graduated. Wait, Carmen is at a high school or that is, yeah. Okay, yeah, it's just right there, right on Linden Road in Flint, and yeah, it's I like to definitely talk about that because that I believe is part of a lot of you know my blue-collaredness come from like where I came from. We also had to work, yeah. So yeah, yeah, wow. So you're 20 years now, but you it's almost 20 years, 19 anyway. Yeah, and your your wife is also from Flint. Yeah, she's from Creek. She was she uh she actually very close to Flint, Flint Township, same, you know, and she's she's just a few months behind us. She's in October. Um she turns 45, and we were very close, you know, just not really growing up, but through friends. And that's how I met her. So you guys were you you were dating in high school or no? No, it was actually happened, yeah. Okay. After sometime. Yeah. Okay. How many kids? Uh three. Three. What are their ages again? I know you bring the one around. He's always he's fun. Yeah, so McCoy is 23 in September, he's 22 right now. Uh Lena is 20 years old. Nolan is 14. 14. Yeah. Yeah. So if I I don't know if I've seen your older two older kids. I don't know if you bring them around too much if they care to be around at some of the events. It's mainly because they have their own grind. I mean, yeah. They're really getting after it. My son has just graduated college, just like within six months. He's put in multiple applications and you know, had had interviews for his job, and he is currently, you know, working through that. A little bit of a tougher time to find a job with no experience. That's really what it is for his for what he's doing. What is that? What did he learn? So he went to school to for, you know, basically to be a pro pilot. And then during that time, he realized that you know it was gonna take an incredibly long time to work through all the flight labs to get his degree that way, and you know, he didn't want to be in school that long. I kind of understand it. I don't want to be in school for seven years either. To to fly, yeah, to get his pro pilot license. So there's other ways to do it, but that's how you he would have had to do it through middle Tennessee State University. Yeah. Well, I know some people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01My my niece is uh 22. She'll be flying commercial here real soon if that's what he's looking at doing. But my so now he's he's transitioned, he's actually like I said, he's graduated, so he's uh he's more so you know related to airport management. So he'll get a task like tinker of the runway. There's more to it than that, but yeah, he he right now is you know in between that and you know, he's gonna have a job. So he is working in the foam industry as well. Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, so yeah, what about the foam industry? How
First Steps Into Spray Foam
SPEAKER_01how did you how and when did you get into it? So I got into it by lieu of a great friend, and I'll drop his name. Shout out to Dennis Dreyer. He and I knew each other by way of roofing together at Sheriff Goslin. Oh, yeah, the up is that everywhere is that just it's it's a couple states wide, but okay. Yeah, yeah, we do for sure. Right here in Michigan, and uh right off Corona Road, and and him and I that's where we had met. And you know, he he introduced me to his brother in law, and his brother-in-law had a phone company. Shout out to Mark and you know, Mark and I and a bunch of other guys there at Retro Phone Michigan. We we, you know, we had a good time building that, and you know, just just really getting after it and watching just the word of mouth travel. It was so incredible. Foam was so fresh at that time, it was 2002, 2003, you know, 2004. And you know, yes, it was tripolymer foam, and I understand that it's a tripolymer foam, but it was still incredible. And the service that was offered there, you know, was backed up, and you know, it still is. So behind that, I'm not sorry, you know, for any of that, you know, it was incredible. You know, the product, you know, served a purpose, and it got me to the next point, which was then I started to spray with them. And you know, I had sprayed with them, and then I had kind of like I said, moved to Tennessee. And foam was kind of off the table for just a second in Tennessee, yeah, in Tennessee, because it wasn't really going on like it was in Michigan at that time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, they don't have quite the extreme extreme temperatures, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so but you know, lo and behold, you know, that was the headquarters for Polymaster, which was you know retrofoam's main, you know, company, and so things all transpired. I met some other people during that time, and you know, I I I basically had had to figure out where I wanted to go, but once I did, I worked there for some time, and it just wasn't really going that well at that time. The whole construction industry in 2007 and eight was really taking hit, and it it really didn't come to a complete halt in Tennessee, but it it it it came to a creep, you know. So things really you're talking about too. Did you say 2007 and eight? Yeah, yeah. So it really did slow the whole construction industry down in that area. Like I said, it didn't come to a complete halt, but it definitely slowed down quite a bit. So I took another job just for the time being. Uh, you know, it was just just to get by, and I was in that job for probably about a year and a half, and I got a phone call, and it was somebody that I knew uh that wanted to know if I was interested in a job in Knoxville, and so I took that job, and that was with you know Pro Foam, and I went to work for Pro Foma, Tennessee for a while and really enjoyed working for them. You're talking about with uh Ted, like Ted's Pro Foam, okay, because there's a lot of Profilms. Yeah, there is. This is this is separate, you know, and I went to work for them for a while, six or seven years, and then you know, things just needed to change, primarily because me and Mike are a lot alike at Profone, Mike with Profone, and so I needed to just go my own way, and so that's what I done. And you know, there was a couple other things in there, but you know, I right around that time, 2016, you know, I I started my own company and superior spray foam systems, and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It was amazing. I enjoyed probably one of the biggest things I I I miss today is I miss sharing my work. I miss like the camaraderie between the guys on worldwide, you know. I miss that. You know, it was it was great. I I enjoyed just trying to be better every day, you know, trying to just get it a little bit better every day. That was that was always the great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, from there, you know, that take me to the next step, is where I'm at now. And I'm
Launching A Foam Company
SPEAKER_01a technical support representative at Quadrant Performance Security. Yeah, how'd that come about? So I just kind of had this wild thought that, you know, hey, why not you know try to give back to the industry? You know, there's so many, so many, there's so many people that need tax, honestly. There is regardless of what people actually see every day and what they acknowledge, there's a lot of people that really do need tax. I mean, it could be just the smallest little detail, and we've increased your production, you know, yeah, 500 board feet. And that's money that really will eventually, you know, give everybody a bonus, or you know, possibly, you know, give them some new equipment. And those are the things that I think is pretty much. Well, not only that, I mean, yeah, if you're getting an extra 500 four feet, you're probably getting a better mixture, which means you're probably getting better foam and you know, all that, right? Oh yeah, yeah.
unknownYeah.
From Installer To Technical Support
SPEAKER_01So what brings you to what brings you to Michigan this time? And how long have you been here? So I got into town last Thursday and I had uh some PTL saved up, and I used it to go see Morgan Wallen at the big house.
SPEAKER_00I saw that on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01It was pretty incredible. Um was it? Yeah, it was just a lot of people there enjoying it, having a good time. There was fireworks at the big house. If anybody doesn't know what the big house is, it is Michigan Stadium U of M, which is like Dan's second home, it sounds like. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, so it it really was good, a good time. I had had those tickets since October of last year is when I yeah, so it was long and awaiting. And so I figured, you know, while I'm up here, uh it's been a long time since I've had the chance to go canoeing and you know, go up north. There's nothing like up north. Uh, you know, up north Michigan is so unique. Yeah, it it's it's the most beautiful place, and you know, it's very beautiful. Yeah, so um went up north with the family for the weekend, and we had the chance to go get on the Sabo River, and uh so Saturday we went and it was great. Like me and Nolan, we actually were able to you know go canoeing and and you know, he had a great time doing it. It was a little he was uh he was a little nervous at first, uh, but you know, at the end of it, he you know, he was like, I had fun, you know. So then we asked him, Amber asked him the next, you know, hey, while we're here, you know, we got another day, you know, you know, it was beautiful, beautiful weather. It was beautiful weather up there. She's like, Do you want do you want to go tubing tomorrow? And he's like, Yeah, let's go, let's go to tubing. He'd rather go tubing. So oh yeah, like tubing behind a boat or down a river? Down a river. Just tubing down the river. And so we all went tubing the next day, and yeah, it was a great time. Just it was good. So you're talking like Manistee area, like in between Mayo and Glenny, Mayo and almost. Yeah, okay. So yeah. Yeah. 4001 bridge, yeah, good time. You can't you can't you can't get I mean the water in in Michigan is only like warm enough to not be freezing for like two months a year, right? It's still you gotta take advantage, yeah. It really is. So, but you know it's not freezing cold at that point, and when it's July, late July almost going into August, but it you know, it's still very cold. But but the thing of it is is it's it there's I've been to plenty of places all across the United States, and that's a special place. I've been to plenty of places all across the United States, and that's that's a special place, you know. Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's great. Gotta take advantage of the summer, man. I I do. But I was just telling Jamie before we got here, I'm like, my goodness, the summer just goes by so fast. You know, it's just like I look forward to it for like six months out of the year, and then it it just goes by so fast, it's like, man, now we're gonna get back to that stuff I don't like. Yeah, I mean that's why I moved. Yeah, I bet one of the biggest one of the biggest reasons at all. One of the biggest reasons. I I just there was plenty of times we we'd be outside working or inside, and it's just like just so cold, you know, and I was just like, yeah, I think uh so it's hotter in the summer, but it's not so bad in the winter. I think that it would be good for a change. Yeah, me and Amber actually got married down there when we got we were still living in Michigan, but we got married in the mountains. And so in the mountains, yeah, yeah, like in Silica, like in a church or just outside in the mountains. Well, you know, it was yeah, both. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it was good. What year was that? 2003. Okay. Yeah, oh yeah. Oh, so you were still living in Michigan then, yeah, yeah. I moved in 2007, yeah. Yeah, okay, yeah, nice. Well, you're looking good, man. Thanks, man. You got a nice tan going? You lost some weight? I did. I probably gained a lot back this month because all of the life, but yeah, yeah, we're gonna get back on that, back on the trek. I lost some weight too, back on the bus. Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you what, I lost some weight too. No sugar is a big deal. Yeah, man, that stuff is not meant for human consumption. Uh that's what I've realized. You know, I I think that I don't really, you know, go all in on everything. I just think that you know the better you can do there little by little, yeah. You know, I mean, I still eat it. My my daughter turned 10 last week. I had some cake, but I mean, I try, I try not to. And I've I've been doing good, yeah. But yeah, I mean, keep it going, get back on it. Yeah, I am. Yeah, I'm excited for just I think I'm gonna get a little time at home here soon. So uh I'm excited for some of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you got it, you definitely do spend some time with the family.
Family And A Family Business
SPEAKER_01So are the are you are the three kids still living there or two of them or one of them? Just one of them. McCoy is there, you know, just in between it, you know. He doesn't sure want to go too far into it, but he doesn't want to go too far into like going to get in his own place when he's probably gonna have to move to maybe Asheville or you know, he's looking at Atlanta too. There's a couple different places he's looking at, but you know, Lena, she's gone. She's she's a LPN at our local hospital there in Blunt County. Licensed practitioning nurse, really, and so she's amazing, she's killing it at such a young age, she's 20. 20. Yeah, how does she do that? Fast track program in our local Alcoa High School. So she did good, proud of her. Yeah, yeah, you should be. That's awesome. So she's got her own place and a hard worker, you know. I love it. Yeah, good. Yeah, what what is I thought her name was, I thought your wife's name was Amanda, but I knew it was an A, Amber. Yeah, okay. What does she do? Well, she actively runs Superior Spray Foam Systems. Um at it, too. Really great job. Yep. Wow, that is fantastic. Yeah, so I I know you maybe still spray every now and then, but you got someone else doing that too. So does she ever spray? She doesn't, you know. When I left, I I I really had some amazing people in play, the right people on the bus for sure. And so I don't want to say this is planned because I fully believe that you know we're not in control of it. You know, we can try to to do things a certain way, but we're not always in control of it. What happens? So we had kind of planned this, we had discussed it at least, you know, to that degree. And my brother Blake is a guy that hey came down and started working with us. I was probably year four at that point in time, but Blake is such an amazing individual, he can do so much. He's he's you know, got a degree in automotive, and he does all the automotive for the company. He is the production manager, he is the guy that fixes everything. If there's an issue, he is the guy that does all the retrofit sales of the company. Blake is a very important component of that company for sure. And so, you know, that took time for all that to take place and and for us to get to that point, and that all is that's how it all transpired. And I also have somebody else who's pretty special to Superior Spray Fump Systems, and that's Fernando Juarez, a great installer, great, just really like a brother, you know, overall, because he just has always been so good in everything he has done for the company. And what I mean by that is you know, long hours, yeah. You know, he's listened to me squawk and micromanage them, you know. Very thankful for those people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it wouldn't be the same without him, right? Yeah, 100%. That's awesome. 100%. Because I really don't have anything to do with it at all anymore. I don't, I just tech. But those people they took what I built, you know, and are doing a very good job at moving it forward. Yeah. So it's cool. Yeah, you need that. That's great. I'm glad you're able to kind of be able to keep keep that, hold on to it. You know, it's it's still alive. Your wife's, you know, still earning a living from it, and yet you can, you know, be a time. Yeah. So there's several members of my family that work for superior spray foam systems. Yeah. No. I have a cousin that he handles a lot, Brandon. You know, he he really tries a lot to, you know, help us with anything he can, honestly. You know, my father-in-law, you know, helps, you know, so it really does help to have that family side there too, because you know, that there's a bond there, and it just really is. I mean, it's there. It's it just it there's relationships there. It's like a real fan, yeah, a true family business. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah.
Michigan Sports And Concert Stories
SPEAKER_01So you find yourself up here quite a bit. You like to especially come up in the fall. Yeah, I know you gotta absolutely. You're uh you're a blue and uh blue and yellow to the heart and to the core, whatever you want to call it. And I love it. I'm not a crazy sports guy. I mean, I'm not saying you're crazy, I'm just saying I'm not crazy into it, but I do appreciate it. And I like it when you know you see someone with it's it's you know, really that puts the fanatic in fan. Yeah, that's that's one way of saying it, sure. Yeah, yeah. How many games? Obviously, U of M. If you don't know Dan, uh if you know Dan, you know you know U of M is a big thing. You also told me I think last week you went to a Tigers game. Yeah, and and it was quite a that was a big deal. Amazing Tigers game. I don't think I've ever been to a Tigers game like that before. So Yeah, what was it? Yeah, so they scored a shot in every inning. They scored in every inning, that's what it was. And it was fourteen to zero at the end of the game, and we were playing Baltimore. And that was the third time in franchise history that's ever happened. And I got to go there with my whole family. So wow. And the thing of it is, is the night before, I think they got pummeled six to four or eight to four. And then the night after, you know, Tariq took them up. They were up on Baltimore. I think it was up seven runs. And then the relief pitcher comes in and you know they they lost the game. So that was the night to go. I'm so happy we went that night. But it was a great time in Comerica. Got to ride the Ferris wheel with my family. Nice. It was good. That's good. Yeah. And then Tariq. Yeah. What do you do? What do you do? Yeah, I know. I I think I heard something that he was gonna, there was gonna be some big, big trades. Next thing you know, he's a dodger, right? Yeah, he's dodger now. He's making his DP think tonight. Oh, is that right? Yeah, at Wrigley Field. Interesting. Is it yeah? That's crazy. And you you mentioned that Morgan Wall and concert. Now, I mean, if you live in Michigan and you you know, and and this whole thing transpired, two shows at the the big house, they call it the big house because how was it hold during a football game? It's like 110,000. Is that about pretty close? I've been a hundred percent you're gonna get 111,000, 113,000 people in the big house. And then during a concert, it's is it more or do they block off one? Yeah, they blocked off half. I'd say you probably had somewhere between 80 and 100,000 people there, roughly. Yeah. Each night. So you're two nights in a row, figure, figure 90,000, you're a hundred and eighty thousand people were entertained by Morgan Wallen last weekend. This is the same weekend about that we were at in Minnesota. Yeah, and so the thing is, is if you're on Facebook, you get bombarded with like everybody you know is taking is is is there, yeah, right? You know what I mean? Yeah, if you're in Michigan, yeah, everybody is there, right? Like it seems it's like, hey, my friend of a friend, and then everybody else is there too. Yeah, if you're not if you weren't at the car, and while you were in Ann Arbor, yeah, yeah, that's pretty wild. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's cool. You know, I I I don't know if you heard of me talk about like Morgan Wall. I I appreciate everybody who likes him. For me, is I just it's not my thing, but I I again just like you know, I I can appreciate everybody, you know, things that I don't necessarily care for. It just kind of seems like it's to me, to me, and it's kind of like uh is it sort of like a is it sort of like a mumble rap means country? There's a little more there, is there? So tell me tell me Morgan for me is hometown, right? Because Knoxville, right? So Morgan is he from there? Yeah, he went to Gibbs High School. So that's just oh I didn't know that. Yeah, it's it's oh that's the hometown boy for you. So uh so he's just he's just a few minutes out of Knoxville at Gibbs High School, so so the hometown boy playing at the the hometown stadium, not you know, across the country, yeah, yeah. How could you not be there? See, yeah. Well, I seen him there in Knoxville at Nayland Stadium too. But yeah, I seen him at the big house and I enjoyed that. It it was awesome. What's your feelings on University of Tennessee then? I I I am a fan. If I would have been born in in Tennessee, I would be all in. I'd be a VFL. They call it a VFL Ball for Life. Oh I would be FL, okay. Yeah, ball for life. But you know, since you know, early 90s, you know, watching football with my dad, you know, I just became a Michigan Wolverine. I mean, the colors, the helmets, how I mean, that alone. Yeah, I mean, how can you not be a fan? History, right? Yeah, the course, the history, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah. How can you not be a fan? And and that that hat you're wearing, man. I I like it. Thanks. I actually it's I don't want to just take it off the the tracks here, but it there was a young man that played football at Alcoa that with my son, McCoy. And Alcoa's really, really well known for football. I mean, I think they have 23 state championships. Oh wow. They're they're up there. But this young man uh kind of brought my fandom full circle because he committed to University of Michigan. So I mean, it even got like more intense in that regard because now this young man, I get to go watch him. He's had me into Al Glic Field House. Just a great time. He had you in there, yeah. Me, like so after I don't know what Al Glic Field House is. It's it's just the field house where they practice, and so you've got to know somebody to get into that area. No cameras allowed. And you're you're talking about in Ann Arbor? Yeah, okay, that's where they practice. Okay, gotcha. So yeah, it was a good time. Just he got you in there, yeah. Well, so it was after the maze and blue game, spring, spring football game. Okay, and so he, you know, brought us in there. We got the autographs from the whole team. Really? Yeah, somebody pandemic just went, you know. So I expect to probably go to, you know, if everybody's like, dang, Dan's crazy. I expect to go to more games because he's playing, he's a starting fullback. So I definitely want to uh support him as much as possible. So we'll see how it all goes. But yeah. So how is he a is a freshman this year? Sophomore? He is a red shirt sophomore. Okay, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's pretty cool. It is, yeah. Yeah, after we, you know, the University of Michigan won the game 13 to 10. He actually was the commit in that in that class, and he had, you know, was at the at our place watching that game, and it was just it was cool. So enjoyed that. And like I said, so when he committed, you know, and like signed the papers, it was at Alcoa. And so it just really, you know, made things, you know, even you know, a little bit sweeter because now somebody you know is playing for your favorite college. So fan. And your your son played with them. Yeah, he played high school. Yeah, I played high school with him. Yeah, wow. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, they're they were they were pretty close. Yeah, pretty cool, pretty cool story because that's probably the biggest reason that you know you'll see me be going, you know, the next couple years, then I'll probably tone it down quite a bit for sure. But it's a good time. I went to Penn State in 2023 at that game. That was a great time. Uh, we're trying to make it out to Eugene this year. That's a trip. Yeah, we got some family out there, and we're trying to make it to that stadium to go watch them. They probably won't win, and we know that, but that's part of being a fan, just supporting the team. Yeah, Michigan's having I mean, uh coaching, man. Where are we at with coaching? We're in pretty good shape now, I hope. I feel pretty good. This coach, his name is Scott Whittingham, and I feel that you know he's gonna be he's gonna be what the team needs. But yeah, it's just what it is, you know. Oregon's a favorite to win the national championship this year. So uh they have a quarterback. Since we're in Michigan, we're talking about all this mission stuff. I'll I'll just touch on this and get off of it. He's from Detroit, his name is Dante Moore, so he is the starting quarterback for Oregon. So for Oregon. Yeah, yeah. I've heard that name.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know what? Let's uh I'm trying to think of anything else I wanted to question you about. Anything else you want to talk about while you're on this thing in particular? Because I've got some questions for you, but I don't want you to walk away from this going, I wish we would have talked about this or that.
Certification Debates And Industry Trust
SPEAKER_01You know, there's been I don't really have point to anything, but there's been so much talk. Yeah, you know, like last night. Yeah, he's referring to the spray Jones, Mike Dinah, Bill and John and Stephen Davis. Yeah, yeah. So I watched it. Yeah. And so I think you if you're in the industry and you know it doesn't matter what's going on, you've kind of felt compelled to watch that and be a part of that. Oh, yeah, I'm glad I did. Yeah, yeah. So I was telling Todd Bolton just a little bit ago that I was in the garage doing a bunch of work, just trying to organize my garage and it was on TV, and I was listening to the whole thing. It was great. Anyway, keep going. No, I just it's very interesting. Yeah, what'd you find interesting? Probably the fact that you know, we're trying to push this industry forward. We really, you know, there's a lot of people that are trying to get it to the next level as far as certification and training and and just much more than that. But you know, there was plenty of talk about that last night, and it was really interesting. The one thing that I just, you know, it's it's gonna be very difficult to do, and it's it's to get everybody on the same page. Yeah. And so, you know, it's gonna it's gonna take some sort of a miracle to do that, though. I fully believe that. Yeah, I think we got I think we got the right people. I mean, I can't imagine we for us to have people that are even better, although maybe, but we got these organizations, they all want the same thing. Yeah. And and that's just for spray foam to to continue to progress in the right way, for for less of the problems to happen. Not that there's a ton of them, but you know, I mean, Mike will talk a lot about you know the things that are going on, and I'm talking about spray drones, Mike, in Europe, and how it's like banned and you can't get you can't get loans and stuff like that. Yeah, we definitely don't want that to happen here, yeah. And I don't man, I really I personally can't I can't imagine that happening, but that's probably just my own ignorance, right? So here's where I'm going with it, just so being very transparent about it. It's like, you know, I talk to some people, right? Don't want to just go on the record with anybody's names, but they're just like, I don't want to do that. Why wouldn't you want to do that? It's gonna make us better, but yeah, they don't want to do that. Well, I think the argument is getting in government involved because the government screws everything they touch up, right? So, I mean, you look at like Social Security. Social Security was put in place for good reason, and it was a great thing, you know. Well, the government, you just you you throw some extra money at the government, they'll save it for you, and then when you're at a certain age, you you're taken care of because of all the money that you put into during your lifetime. Well, look what they did, they tap into it any chance they get any chance they give, and then you know, they told you when you started paying into it 65 years old, you can retire, 66, 67, 68, 69. And then when you do turn that age and you get you know a chance to finally get the money that you've been saving your entire life, they're like, Yeah, there's like half of it here. So that's just one example, right? And so it's like, and and don't get me wrong, and that's that's the argument that a lot of people have, and that's kind of the argument that I have because the government will get in and they'll figure out ways to make you know everything more expensive, and you'll get more for less, right? You'll I mean you'll get less for for more, you know. Honestly, I'm not sure what's gonna happen, but I don't think anybody is. I don't think anybody is sure what's gonna happen, and so that's why everybody is so on the fence about it. It's because there's no clear cut, hey, this is how it's gonna be, and we all know that it's it's all in you know phase, you know, just where we're brainstorming everything right now. I think that watching the pot the you know the the live video cast yesterday, the basically with everybody, I thought that that was a great way to get everybody's imaginations or you know their brain, you know, their thinking camp on as they used to tell us back in school, you know, that's what actually happened when that was going on. I'm sure everybody had some thoughts as it was all taking place, and that is a start. And I really do think that's the start. That's how it all starts, and then eventually it just keeps going and going. But the biggest thing that I gotta say is you got people that just don't want any part of it. So what do we do for those people? You know, how how do we how do we can convert those people? How do we change their minds for the the industry's sake, you know?
SPEAKER_00So yeah.
SPEAKER_01One thing, one thing I would like to say is that, you know, I I really fully believe this. This is one thing that I know is a fact, and it was actually you know touched on last night in that same occasion, is that you know, there's so much negative publicity out there for spray foam, you know. I think one of the first things that you would click on YouTube when you put in spray foam was, you know, my house is a disaster, right? So yeah, so there's so much of that out there. So if everybody could honestly just put together some positive videos every day, every day, just just all the young people, you know, put put put some positive videos together for spray foam. If you were to do that and and post that publicly, that would be huge for our industry. And you know, just you know, talk about building science, talk about what you're doing, you know, very, very professional, positive input, videos, short, doesn't matter, positive stuff. I believe it may start to outweigh some of it eventually, but there's so much negative that we really need everybody in the industry, young, old, whatever, to post more positive. I really do feel that's very, very critical. And uh I think this is a great place to bring that up. Well, yeah, and I think that uh we can I think we can get to a place you know, with unfortunately, maybe maybe I nobody wants to bring the government involved, but everybody knows that that is might be the only way to really, you know, for the government to require licenses, that sort of thing. And Mike was talking a lot about colored coloring phones, and I was like, but at before, you know, before I met Mike in Minneapolis, I was like, eh, whatever it is, what it is, but I got it now. I'm like, okay, yeah, that does make total sense. You know, you can kind of trace foam back by by coloring, you can trace it back to the manufacturer. Some people also you're gonna not be able to necessarily trace bad foam. So, like, if someone's buying some crap Mexican Chinese foam and they throw a color on it, let's say you're the company you work for, quadrant, let's say it's green, which other ones are green too in Canada. But like, well, they're gonna have to then, if they if the the bad actors are gonna have to put a color in it, okay? They're gonna have to put their own dye in there to say, Oh, this is quadrant, even though it's not. Uh well, that will be easily figured out in a court case because someone's gonna say, Yeah, this doesn't match our, you know, someone at quadrant's gonna, you know, one of your chemists is gonna be like, No, that there's all this other stuff. That's this is not our phone. Well, now that guy's gonna be completely exposed. So there's that. Kind of forgot where I was really going with this, but I think it's a good thing if we can figure something out that's universal, kind of like that, the color, the color scheme, something that is gonna make like a license that you have to get maybe federally, not necessarily just each individual state, but all that. And I think that if we can do that the right way, it's gonna make foam more expensive, no doubt, because guys are gonna have to pay for the licenses, they're gonna have to pay for the testing that they have to get, the code inspectors have to do some testing, whatever it is, there's gonna be more to it, right? And that's gonna cost the contractor more, which is gonna then charge cost the the home builder or the the commercial building builder more money. But I think it can really set the stage for us to use much more spray foam, less, much less, let's say fiberglass and you know, cellulose and whatever else, any other form of insulation, it's gonna kind of set the stage for spray foam to really take off because people will know that they can use spray foam comfortably and it's not gonna wreck their house because the people that are putting it in are competent of putting it in, you know what I mean? And I think that that will happen. It'll just take you know, it might take another decade. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know how that would all work out. Uh it's it would be it's quite the challenge. I'll say that it is very much a challenge because you've got some areas in Tennessee that have no codes for building except for electrical, you know, inspections. That's it. There's no plumbing, yeah. No, there's no HVAC, nothing, really, just logical. And so those are the areas that I think some people have brought up previously. Like, how would a code official inspect foam when he doesn't inspect anything else? So that does come into play. So there's there's definitely some things there when you know thinking about how all that takes place, for sure. Yeah. Well, I mean, one thing's kind of cool is that I think that you know, people like you and I are even though we can talk to some people and and feel like we're the newbies to the game, and we maybe well I'm I am, I don't know about you so much, but we're still kind of the founding fathers of this whole industry. Cause I think fiberglass has been used for 60 years. If foam's if foam's used for 60 years, well, we're well, of course, it's already been around for for 50, but not much. But it's kind of cool to be at the b it sort of feel like at least you're at the beginning of this, even though some people would maybe say we're not. Well, I know plenty of people in the industry, you know, that are you know, probably been in the industry for 25 years, 30 years almost. Good guys, they're out of it for the most part. Some are still in it, yeah. But you know, it's kind of like it takes a grab of you. Yeah, it takes a grab, it takes a hold of you, you know, this this this industry. I talked to a guy the other day that said he was in the in the in the industry for 51 years. Yeah, that's incredible. 51. I'm like, either I I don't think he was lying, but that seems like a long time 1975 or whatever. I mean, there's people that I'm sure that have been out there doing it that long. I shouldn't say that they're still doing it that long, that did it that long. Maybe they're in sales now, maybe they're just you know, I worked with a company not long ago. It was it was three generations. And so they left the the original owner, the dad, the granddad. Now he comes in and he basically just fixes things for him just so he can he can stay through something. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I can't even imagine the dinosaurs they were working with. Yeah, you know, H2s, H2000s, a Gusmer machine, you know. There's I'm sure there's other way more machines, but yeah, that's it's it's pretty cool. When I got going, I had an old H2000 for a little bit. So really, yeah. Yeah, it didn't last long. Yeah. How is what is so what's your territory with uh with quadrant? I really handle all the North Central. Okay, and but I get around to some other areas just when needed, covering for the other guys, you know. Oh, okay. Say say if Cole steps out and he's on vacation, I'll cover him. Maybe, maybe her dog covers for Cole, whatever. You know, we all cover each other, we always got got each other's backs, and uh yeah, but mainly, you know, I'm not going out to the west coast, not not often, right? Yeah, so that would be probably somebody that's a little bit closer to that area for sure. So North Central, you know, some of the southeast, uh, but mainly north central, some of the you know, northeast too. You know, I get up in that area sometimes, work with Jay, work with Andrew. Yeah, you got Jay now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I talked to him for the first time ever, actually, last week in it in Minnesota. Cool, good dude. Yeah, you guys got a good team there. Yeah, you do got to know Cole too. I didn't I never I had never met him until Vegas. So yeah. I'm I'm working my way around. Yeah. Well, I think this show is definitely it definitely caught my attention, you know, a while back. You know, I think we've been talking about this. We have been. I've been trying to try to get you while you're in Michigan. So yeah, I'm I'm glad you were able to make it. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah,
Fast Questions And Mentorship Lessons
SPEAKER_01yeah. Let's do some fast questions, huh? Okay. And they don't have to be fast. And in fact, I don't want them to be. If you if you can elaborate on some of them even better. Let me get a drink here before we do this. Okay. Yeah, yeah. All right. Have you ever won anything at a spray foam event? Of course, this would be probably when you could still win stuff. Yeah, yeah, would you win? I win uh Titan eleven eighty. I think is what it is. Heck of a pain spear. The first carnival, the first ever carnival. Yeah. Tornado year. Yeah, that was the tornado year. Yeah. Yeah, that's good memories. Really good memory. That's where I met you at that one. Yeah. I think that was Point has introduced us. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Josh, yeah. Yeah. Hosway for anybody who J-O-S-U-E. But he says just call him Josh. So that's what I call him. He's easy enough. He's been involved in working at a nuke plant on Lake Michigan. Nice. Yeah. Some some old nuke plant they're trying to get like up and running. And he has some background in that. And they they wanted him to help get this thing up and running. He's been working like a mad dog, like 70 hours a week or something, just making a fortune. So he hasn't been doing a lot of spraying. Okay. But he's a good dude. Yeah. Yeah, he is. So you want to paint. Lots of good dudes in Michigan. Lots of good dudes. There is. Yeah. No, it's a good place for good dudes in spray phone for sure. In fact, I think I feel like I've had I've had a lot of people on, but yet if I really wanted to, there's a lot more people I could get. Well, what's the best concert you ever been to? Was it the one last weekend, or was you any better ones? No, that was pretty good though. But honestly, the first Anger Management tour, it was with Papa Roach Exhibit, Limbiscuit, and then I was talking old school now. It was great. It was pretty great. Was it Pit My Ride? Pit My Ride, that's what it was. Yeah. Oh, everybody knew that show.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01What's the worst job you ever had? Probably I've had so many laborers jobs, but you know, roofing was so bad, so hard on my body. So probably shingled pitch roofs. Oh, yeah. That's tough. Yeah. Yeah, that was probably the worst. Because I I mean at first when I was 16, 17 years old, I was doing poured walls in Argentine, Michigan. And uh then, you know, like I said, kind of worked my way through whatever to get where I was at, and then eventually started roofing. I'm at a very young age and yeah, met Dennis. But that was that was very hard. I like I can still feel some of the the labor on my back today. Like it just it it put a lot of a lot of strain on. Do you do did you do any flat work when you were doing that too? No, not really. A little bit just you know, for for myself, but yeah. But man, between concrete and roofing, yeah, those are two really tough jobs. What was your first car? Um a 1985 S10, and then uh that wasn't long. We were just talking about this not long ago. Wasn't long, you know. Remember in like 99, 2000 when all the S10s hit, and you know, Jenna Motors running that special on S10s, I had one of those. So like a 99 S10, like that was your payment. Yeah, it was stupid. Oh, that was your monthly payment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was stupid. I don't remember that. I had a 99 S10. Yeah, that's a good little try. Yeah, man. Yeah, it was a little two-wheel drive four-cylinder, yeah. But that thing was good. I think I think I ran it up like 260,000 before, before actually I got a new engine for it, and then it kept going, and then I sold it. But yeah, it's a good car. You know, a lot of people might not realize throughout the rest of the country, but in Greater Detroit, let's just say the east side of Michigan. Yeah, if you're not getting the employee discount from somebody that you know, yeah, you are getting ripped off and you need to find somebody because it seems like that employee discount works for like your kids, your grandkids, you know, it doesn't even matter, your neighbor, maybe. I don't know, I'm just making it up. But like everybody gets some sort of employee. If you're an employee and you give that person your number to basically your employment number, I is there's another name for it. It's like a coupon code, whatever. Yeah, for and so then they can they can totally use your discount, and you're allowed the 12 per year, I believe. Is it 12? Yeah, oh, so it's you can just give these things away like crazy. And you're talking like you know, it can be like four or five thousand dollars off or something. It could be, yeah. Maybe yeah, I've gotten five thousand dollars off easy, yeah. Especially if you're ordering a truck or a vehicle. Oh, it's even more than if it if you don't get one on the lot. Man, you you can get a truck by far cheaper by ordering it and you you know using your discount. It's substantially different. Who who is in your who's your person to go to? 30 years at at uh Flint Metal Fab. Yeah, okay, is that the one that makes the the HDs? No, but it's same same area, same okay, yeah. Just the different plant, you know, kind of across the way. So you were raised on GM money. Yeah, is it GM, right? Yeah, yeah. Because Flint is home of Flint is Buick, right? Right, but I the first Corvette was made in Flint, pretty sure. Like the first two years or something before yeah, no, I'm I I'm a Corvette guy, so yeah. The first I think two years. Now they're down in Bowling Green, Kentucky, right? Yeah, yeah, been down there forever. Not too far from well, it's maybe a little bit of a trip for you, but not too far. But Buick and Chevrolet, I think, started in Flint. Buick, right? Yeah, Buick, the home of the first sit-down strike. Yep. Yep, everybody knows somebody that works for for the the auto industry around here, especially in Flint. So let's see here. Get a couple more. You know what? I was gonna say who helped you the most become a better sprayer, a spray. Let's let's go with that for now, and then I got a follow-up. Who helped you the most become a better spray foam installer? Fernando Warres. Really? I don't think I know that person. Yeah, yeah. From and how? I mean, just together, you know. He could see that you know, I was a pretty good sprayer, but I I lacked some technique. And so he, you know, him and I talked and I watched him, and he, you know, he he explained things to me, and eventually I got a little better, and then you know, then we were just as good and as each other, and I think he's probably surpassed me now because I haven't been on the trigger, whereas he he has, but still to this day. But yeah, it'd be Fernando.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01He's good. He won National Excellence Award in 2014 for for roofing, and I won it for the interior walls division. Okay, so yeah. You gotta have somebody, you know, that's the thing. Anybody, any anybody who's new out there, like you gotta reach out to somebody because if you know nothing, somebody will at least give you what you need to get started. It's just really, you know, so much of this is just you know, it yeah, there's training, and and I fully believe that the training is is very, very important. Yeah, you need it. You do, there's no question in my mind. But so much of this after I give you the training is experience and what you do and repetition, and and challenging yourself to get better. And and so that comes with uh taking pride in your work and just focusing on getting better. And you know, I think for some reason, for some reason, this uh this job this maybe it's like this in the other industries too. You know, I was talking with Nathan Lang, and he's he said, you know, some things are the same in other industries, but a lot of things are unique. But maybe this is unique to our industry, like where we just have you know the want uh to do better because of the way uh the chemistry works. You want to master it, you know, you want to be better than you were the day before, every day. And there's a lot of us out there that are like that, regardless. And and that's I think the the reason why we keep coming back to it every day. You have to. Robert Cockerell mentioned you on his. I I had a podcast with him, a remote podcast, probably I don't know, year ago, at least, maybe more than that, probably a year and a half ago now. And he to he, I don't know if you have you heard that one or no. Uh no. Okay, yeah, you gotta listen to it. He mentions you a couple times, and he he talks big about all the help you gave him. Robert and I go back for the simple fact that I had a very large job, and he was probably the first guy in worldwide that was kind of the hired gun that would go travel. Doesn't matter, he'd come out and help you. And Robert just has a really good heart, and he'd just do about anything for anybody. And I'm really sorry that I hadn't heard that yet. No, no, no, no, no. The first thing, first thing I do, first thing I do when I pull out of here. But but you know, I'm glad. I'm glad that you know I I've had some good times, Robert. You know, we did this uh very big facility back when I was still spraying and and and you know, on the gun. And it was a maintenance facility for a big electrical company that that serviced these big monster trucks for basically alignment, and and these trucks are monsters and they pull them in and out, and it was probably where they could have got, you know, probably 10 of those trucks in there if they parked them in there, right? So it was a pretty large area, yeah. And it was a total retrofit area. We had to remove all the insulation that was in that area. You know, it's probably about 25 feet, 26 feet up to the to the roof, you know, roughly. There's a lot of people that had such a big part in that job. But the cool thing about it is when we got done and I was spraying next to Robert. Robert, you couldn't tell who was spraying what because we were just it's just that good. So good times, good times. I had a lot of good times, Robert. He's a good guy. Yeah, he sang your praises. All right, well, we gotta get we gotta get this thing wrapped up.
Closing And Kentucky Plans
SPEAKER_01Uh studio time is almost up. So Dan, thanks, man. I really appreciate it. I know we tried and tried to you know make this happen, and you're only in Michigan for a little bit here and there, a little bit there, and you're kind of you know, they don't have a lot of time, but you made it a point to come out here, and so I appreciate that a lot. So I guess I'll maybe see you in Kentucky in a couple months. Yeah, October 9th, 10th, and 11th. That's what it is. Yeah, we'll be there. Yeah, all right, man. We have a good one. Well, thanks for having me. Absolutely. Anytime. Catch you later, Dan.