The latest episode of the “From the Fabricator” podcast is now live, and it features two incredibly genuine people. I start with the very sharp Kristina Buckett of Dallas Flat Glass and Excel Glass Systems. Fun talk that covered a lot of topics and really delivered when it comes to networking. Plus, Kristina may have dropped the line of the year when it comes to relationships in our industry. Then Joe Silva joins me. Joe is on for two reasons, one being his role at SmartLift, and we cover the massive benefits there. We then talk pizza (tremendous), and we finish with a conversation about the recent book Joe authored called “19 Days of Grace” about the unexpected health emergency and then the passing of his beloved wife Marianne. Joe was raw, and because he’s got an insatiable trait of helping people, this book has become therapy for so many. We talk through it, and you’ll come away with inspiration to move forward no matter what. I’m honored Joe was willing to talk through it all with me.
Thank you in advance for checking it out. Both of these fabulous people will be at GlassBuild too, so you may run into them and immediately be added to their networks.
AUDIO (Or search “From the Fabricator” on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts)
A huge thank you to my friends at FHC-Frameless Hardware Company for their support of this episode!
Interested in Joe’s book- click HERE to learn more and purchase.
Elsewhere…
-- The most prestigious awards in our industry have been announced, with the Glass Magazine Awards being released. Some very notable and deserving winners! If you have not seen it all yet- check it out HERE
-- Also ALERT- There is AGMT testing happening at GlassBuild, and there are a few openings. So if you have folks due for testing, this is a great opportunity to get it done. There is some subsidy to help defray costs too. If interested, let me know, or you can reach out directly to Scott Kennett at AGMT - skennett@amscert.com
Now on to part 2 of the Summer Catch-Up Series. Note: the Links of the Week and Project of the Week are below at the completion of this interview with Omar Maalouf of Momentum Glass. In this piece, we talk about Omar’s deep care for the industry, what can be done to be better, and what’s next for Momentum Glass. Tons of people read part 1, and I can tell you, part 2 is just as interesting.
MAX: A lot here to be proud of. I just have to ask, if you look back at 2011 Omar, and you look at now 2026 Omar, your mind has to be blown. I mean, the things you've come up with (See part 1), and you and your team have worked on, none of it was even a dream in 2011, right?
OMAR: No. When I started in 2011, I told myself, look, all I want to do are two or three jobs a year. I want to make this amount of money. I want to manage the growth. I just want to be a nice, just a good glass guy. And there's a real need for good glass guys. And I think when you do one or two jobs, and you're good and successful, then all of a sudden you're doing four and six jobs. And when you're still good and successful, then all of a sudden you're doing a hundred jobs, and it becomes a complete disaster. But I think it's completely different than where we started. My wife and I worked together. We did QuickBooks, and she did all the back-of-house paperwork I had nothing to do with. I hated it, and I did PMing and sales. And you go from that to where we are now, it's crazy.
And let me make sure that I reiterate this point. This isn't just me. It's an unbelievable amount of talented people that we have in this company. And from the technology guy to our accounting teams to our back-of-house, PMs, GMs. And it's easy for me to say that because it's true. It's not just wordsmithing. It's really true and it's made my life very easy. It used to be I would work in the company, and now I get to work ON the company. And those are buzzwords that I listened to in Vistage groups or peer groups that I was like, "What the hell does that really mean?” Now I understand when you're able to work on instead of in, you can create bigger and better things. The other thing that I think we've done a really good job on is our controls, our cost controls and accounting.
We struggled understanding and tracking costs. And there was a time when it was not pretty here through COVID and after COVID when we had material supply issues and triple P money, and nobody knew the costs, and it was tough. I think next to our technology, the cost controls and cost management that we've implemented have made us a very successful company.
MAX: You do care greatly for our industry. And again, what's interesting about you is that you're working on your company, you were working in your company, and some people would just be content with that, but yet you still have an eye on the industry as a whole, which somebody like me, I'm grateful for. I appreciate that you care enough. What can we be doing better, though, that the industry needs to take a look at, because otherwise we're in trouble and the other trades aren't fans of ours, that's for sure.
OMAR: I get asked these kinds of questions from a lot of people, and everybody wants to talk about training. Everybody resorts to the easy answer, which is, "Hey, we need to train. We need to train our field." I agree with that. Don't get me wrong. Training is a big deal. We've put 40-plus people through AGMT certification. We are a firm believer in training and recruiting. I think what I'm really starting to focus on is the glass associations. And let me tell you why. I think the glass associations need to work better and harder at educating general contractors. And I know the general contractors know everything. Don't get me wrong. I know they're so smart. But here's the problem.
Everybody across the contracting spectrum is hurting for people. General contractors too. So they're hiring younger people, inexperienced people, and they're putting them in leadership positions. And I understand that everybody has to learn. Don't get me wrong. I think what we need to start doing, and we did this here in Houston, and it was a great example, is we had a program where we invited three or four general contractors to come in and sit at the Houston Area Glass Association. And there was a great round table discussion. What can we, as glass companies, do to help you? To me, having glass companies and glass associations bring in general contractors and have these open, candid round table discussions, I think that's a huge thing. I think if general contractors know we don't need to be the 13th person awarded a job, we need to be in the top three, top five. I understand concrete, I understand underground utilities, I understand steel. But my God, we're the exterior envelope. We take time to build, to do the shop drawings, and so on. We need to be released earlier so we can be successful for you. That's to me educating them and educating general contractors just in that aspect is important. And that's when we're bidding work. And I mean, other companies get the benefit of negotiated work, and I get that. But even the reasons why the companies that get negotiated work are successful are because they get the head start. They get in early, they get to work with the architect and design, and show what will and will not work. That's why they're successful for the most part. So how do you create that kind of success in a bid opportunity? Get us in early after you've gotten the project. Let us work with your team. Let us start the shop drawings earlier. Let us not be behind the eight ball the minute we sign a contract. That's indicator number one in my opinion. The other thing is, we're the second- or third-riskiest trade in construction. I mean, you have a roofer, a glazier, and a waterproofer. All three of us are responsible for water management of a building. We should be prioritized ahead of most everybody else. And educating the general contractors is important. And we're not drywall guys. You can't cut a piece of glass and stretch it or cut aluminum. You have to understand what the expectations are of a glass company. And this is part of the education that I think not only mid- to top-level general contractor personnel need, but field superintendents as well. And it's not a badmouthing of the general contractor. It's trying to get on a page where we can share, educate, and work together to both be successful instead of an adversarial relationship.
I also think project management training. So everybody in the country right now is focused on recruiting or field training. I think it's great. Don't get me wrong, it needs to happen. But, we have an aging out of project managers. We have an aging out of estimators. We need to focus on recruiting people to be project managers, to understand estimating. We have to find people that know how to handle the project managers. And so for us, what we've started doing is going straight to colleges and paying a premium.
I'm competing with the general contractor salary. We've recruited kids from Texas A&M, from Texas State, from Louisiana State University. We now have a training program that we run all these college graduates through. It's a two-year program. They spend six months in the shop, three months in estimating, a year in the field, and then three months as an assistant PM. And they start to figure out a little bit of the company, and then they figure out where they want to go, what direction they like. And so we're trying to build that. And it's a costly venture because you're competing against the top-notch general contractors for these kids coming out of A&M or coming out of LSU or coming out of wherever. Everybody needs the talent. So that's to me, everybody's looking at field and training. Again, I agree with it. We have to focus not only on that, but the management side as well.
Back to the glass associations. I'm slowly but surely getting more and more involved with them. I think the other thing that all glass companies need to recognize is that we will all be more successful if it's friendly competition, not this race-to-the-bottom reverse-auction competition. And we had an issue in Dallas, and the glass groups in Dallas were super. The guys that we dealt with in the Dallas market were what I would've expected out of any glass association. And to me, being able to stick together as a group of glass contractors who know what kind of things we have to deal with, and not undercut or sabotage another, is a huge issue. And that's the kind of thing that if everybody can realize: if you're good competition, and I'm not talking about anything illegal, I'm talking about good competition. Know your costs. Know what your true cost of the job is. Don't underbid jobs just to steal it from somebody else. Good competition will make everybody successful. And I think if the glass associations can work on promoting good competition, work on educating general contractors on, "Hey, how can we both be successful? How can we create an environment where we're teaching each other and learning from each other?" I think those are the things that I’m going to start investing a lot of my time and talents in.
MAX: Where do you go from here?
OMAR: What does Momentum want to do? And what does Momentum want to be? Defining Momentum is very interesting. Five years ago I said, "I want to be a powerhouse in Texas." Well, I think we're doing a pretty good job. And we said, "Well, let's expand. Let's go to Nashville. Let's go out east and let's keep building the momentum." And so we've got some pretty sizable projects out in the Virginia area. We've got some projects out in Florida, Atlanta, Nashville, and we're establishing presence, not just remote locations. And I think it gives the contractor a little bit more comfort that this isn't a fly-by-night pop-in, pop-out type deal. It's a company that's going to plant a flag, build a shop, put the people in place, and be successful.
LINKS of the WEEK
The stories about Ryanair are classics-but THIS one may take the cake https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ryanair-passenger-sucked-through-window-37484745.amp
Dogs rock… plus a glass railing makes a tiny cameo. https://www.thedodo.com/daily-dodo/dog-shows-up-at-neighbors-door-every-day-after-learning-what-he-does-for-a-living
Some impressive kids in Colorado! https://www.upworthy.com/pn-student-built-house-construction-class-colorado/
PROJECT of the WEEK
Out to LA to a pair of super cool buildings via Walters & Wolf! This is the Vermont Corridor, and it has two buildings that complement each other beautifully, and quite frankly, the look of the façade is stunning- and the glass absolutely stands out. Kudos to Walters & Wolf on an amazing project and to all who may have contributed and collaborated!
No comments:
Post a Comment