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ISFA Presents the Top 10 Podcasts of 2023
Listen up, folks! We’ve curated a list of the top 10 Behind the Surface podcasts of 2023. Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their businesses to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
From weathering a volatile economy to making the most out of each slab to innovations that propel our industry into the future, get ready to hit play and pick up what ISFA’s podcast is breaking down.
1. Sink Cutouts: Carving Out Hidden Revenue with Steve Mast, Precision Countertops
There’s no such thing as a free sink, and many fabricators operating on a slim margin make this mistake. You might be able to build the cost of the sink into your price, but few consider that it’s the entire sale price you’re giving away with that “free” sink. In the interest of customer satisfaction, the sink is the most used appliance in the kitchen, and nobody purchasing a premium countertop wants the headache down the road of replacing an inexpensive option. Protect your business, sell a good quality sink and get paid for it!
2. Slab Yield & Optimization with Joe Duszka, Carolina Custom Surfaces
Who doesn’t like adding more money to their bottom line? Material costs make up over 40% of the finished cost of goods and not to mention are the highest overhead cost for most fabricators. In addition to discussing how to maximize yield, Joe also shares a free software program that all fabricators can use from his experience in material manufacturing.
3. Tracking Your Machines’ ROI with Tim Saddoris, Grand Onyx
Recent years have shown steady revenue growth, enabling many shop owners to invest in new machinery or expand their staff in order to keep up with demand. But when a downturn looms, how do you maintain a positive trajectory? In this Behind the Surface podcast, Tim Saddoris discusses how to get the most from machinery and the employees who operate them.
4. How Top Fabricators are Planning for Turbulent Times with Ed Young, Fabricator’s Business Coach, and Justin Shaw, Stone Fabricator Elite
How are you planning for an economic downturn? Will you be taking an offensive or defensive approach? In this episode of the Behind the Surface podcast, Ed Young of Fabricator’s Business Coach and Justin Shaw from Stone Fabricator Elite discuss effective business strategies to survive the challenges your business may face in these turbulent times.
5. Silica Safety and Industry Standards with NIOSH
In this episode of Behind the Surface, Alyson Fortner and Reid Harvey from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Respiratory Health Division discuss:
- What is NIOSH, and how is it different from other agencies?
- How does NIOSH work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?
- Crystalline silica safety: how to provide a safe working environment.
Listen in to learn how you can insulate your business from the harmful effects of silica by ensuring a safe working environment for your fabricators.
6. Shaping Tomorrow’s Quartz: Innovations and Safety Insights with Breton
Egon Hinss and Damiano Caon from Breton discuss advancements in manufactured materials that mitigate risk, including the company’s newest development: Bioquartz. Learn how this material enables a safer production workflow for fabricators while furthering sustainability initiatives. The team also discusses other material innovations, including an exclusive technology that pioneers the production of full-thickness quartz slabs, showcasing ultra-exotic color patterns and other full-body engineered quartz slabs that exhibit exceptional durability and shine over time. Tune in and get up to speed on the latest developments from this pioneer of the surfacing industry.
7. Marketing Tools That Lead to Growth with Stephen Alberts, Countertop Marketing Co.
Stephen Alberts from Countertop Marketing Co. discusses accessible and inexpensive marketing tools fabrication shops can use to glean customer insights and increase sales. Starting with the basics, Stephen walks listeners through his recommendations with practical advice on the benefits of each tool. He’ll cover:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
- Google Analytics.
- Tracking calls and web form submissions: customizing to get the actionable data.
- Other tools and metrics to keep an eye on.
Tune in to learn how to level up your marketing game in your fabrication shop and get results that bring in more revenue.
8. How To Build a Sales Engine To Drive Business with Stone Fabricator Elite’s Justin Shaw
In today’s uncertain times, it’s more important than ever to have a strong sales pipeline that can withstand economic pressures and keep your business profitable. Listen in as we chat with Justin Shaw, founder of Stone Fabricator Elite, a business development and sales support agency specializing in helping fabricators grow their businesses with proven systems, solutions and strategies. Justin will share his expertise and insights on how to keep your pipeline full of quality opportunities and rapidly increase sales in both trade and consumer channels. We’ll cover tactics top fabricators use to create a more defensible business and drive profitability, even during challenging times. Whether you’re looking to fine-tune your existing sales strategy or build a new one from scratch, this episode is for you.
9. Using Data to Find Opportunity in Your Business with Tim Saddoris, Grand Onyx
The recession is on everyone’s minds.
Will we have one, or won’t we?
How long will it last?
Will we have a soft landing or a hard one?
In uncertain times like these, it is more imperative than ever before to leverage data to run your business. Join us as we talk with Tim Saddoris, President of Grand Onyx. At Grand Onyx, they build world-class stone fabricators using systems, software, and technology they have developed to help fabricators better manage and grow their businesses. Tim will talk about how using data can help you navigate the challenges presented by this economy, including a couple of specific case studies he presents that show how using data has impacted fabricators. We will also discuss some of the challenges in tracking and using data.
10. The New NEO Consumer with Ed Young, Fabricator’s Business Coach, and Mike Hetherman, Willis
When the economy gets shaky, consumers tend to spend less overall, and they look for more bargains when they do spend. If this is always true, how do we explain that Apple generated $3B in iPad sales in 90 days during the Great Recession? If everyone is reducing their spending across the board, how does a nonessential and relatively expensive item like an iPad generate such large sales numbers during a severe recession? Is it because of the Apple logo, or is something else at play?
It turns out there are two distinctly different types of consumers with two different sets of values – the NEO consumer, who is driven more by authenticity, design and uniqueness, as opposed to the traditional consumer, who is driven by price, features and status.
Join us as we talk with Mike Hetherman of Willis about the impact of NEO consumers on the countertop business.
- What’s the benefit of marketing to NEOs?
- How do we identify NEOs?
- How do we market to NEOs?
- How do we use this knowledge to improve our businesses?
If you want to get out of the lowest-price-per-square-foot game, understanding the impact NEOs can have on your business is a game changer.
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