Tune in for ISFA‘s podcast, Behind the Surface. With each episode, Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
Episodes
Monday May 29, 2023
Monday May 29, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
In this episode, Joe Duszka, a highly experienced fabricator and current president of Carolina Custom Surfaces, joins host Nancy Busch for a conversation about innovative techniques and strategies that maximize slab yield and efficiency. Whether you're looking for cutting-edge technologies or tried-and-true methods, Joe will share his valuable insights and uncover the secrets to achieving higher profits and reducing waste.
Listen in and learn how you can fast-track your slab efficiency and take your production process to the next level.
Monday May 15, 2023
Monday May 15, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
In this episode of Behind the Surface, Bradley Tuck, technical sales representative for Integra Adhesives, joins Nancy Busch to discuss adhesives for manufactured surfaces. In this podcast, you’ll learn about:
- Application best practices.
- Sticky sinks: ensuring adhesion on all surfaces, including porcelain and cast iron.
- Color matching.
- How to prevent mishaps and mistakes.
Tune in to hear about all the latest developments on the adhesives front and pick up a few tricks of the trade that can save you time and money!
Monday May 01, 2023
Monday May 01, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
In this episode of Behind the Surface, Marc Rosenkrantz, president of Schechner Lifson Insurance, shares insights and strategies around how fabricators, installers, distributors and anyone else in the industry can protect themselves from potential risks and liabilities. He'll cover important topics such as property insurance, risk transfer programs, workers compensation, the dos and don’ts around protecting your business from cyber threats and more. Tune in to learn how you can safeguard your business for the future!
Monday Apr 17, 2023
Monday Apr 17, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
In this Behind the Surface podcast, Ed Young of Fabricator’s Business Coach joins Nancy Busch to discuss strategies for process improvements in the shop. Ed will identify value-added and nonvalue-added activities and discuss the TIM WOODS approach, a methodology that can reduce process waste and costs while enhancing productivity. Tune in to discover the eight ways you can recapture 10% of your capacity.
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Monday Apr 03, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
Recent years have shown steady growth in revenue, 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, president of Grand Onyx, joins Nancy Busch to discuss how to get the most from machinery and the employees who operate them.
Tim will focus on the people and the process in these three steps:
- Having the right staff in the correct position
- Creating a competition
- Documenting the process
Hint: if you’re not first, you’re last.
Monday Mar 20, 2023
Monday Mar 20, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
Did you know color trends start in development as much as 10 years before they hit the marketplace? In this Behind the Surface podcast episode, Mark Woodman, CMG, a passionate designer, trend-spotter, and consultant for Corian Design, joins Nancy Busch to discuss color and design trends in the decorative surfacing industry.
Together they will discuss:
- The importance of light, dark and neutral
- A rearview on how the pandemic affected the color trends
- Return to nature design trend; increase in popularity of stained wood for cabinetry
- Finish and Texture
- Popularity of textures
- Mixing and matching colors and texture
- Using trends to help your customers choose materials
- Asking key questions to steer your customers in the right direction
- The dos and don’ts of stocking colors
Monday Mar 13, 2023
Monday Mar 13, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
Are you wondering what the industry holds for your business this year? In this Behind the Surface podcast episode, Ed Young of Fabricator’s Business Coach joins Nancy Busch to discuss the 2023 Industry Outlook from a fabricator’s perspective. Tune in to hear what expert and fabricator Ed Young sees trending across the country and gather insights on what to do to ensure your success.
Discussion will include:
- Insights by geographic area:
- Some areas are seeing slow down
- Some areas are still as busy as ever
- Predictions by market segment:
- Residential
- Commercial
- Medial field
- Define your focus
- 2024 Sneak Peek: Which markets stay hot and which will turn cold?
- Pro Tips: If your shop is busy right now, learn what you can do with as little as 30 minutes each week to work on your business and get ahead of potential problems. Hint: Train for a marathon, not a sprint!
Monday Mar 06, 2023
Monday Mar 06, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
Do you need to train your salespeople in the art of selling specifically for the surface fabrication business? Are you struggling to find the time to provide the comprehensive training necessary to develop your team's skills? Join Justin Shaw from Stone Fabricator Elite and Behind the Surface host Nancy Busch for A Sales Rep Clinic Introduction. Learn how this eight-part webinar series can help you navigate the sales process more efficiently, engage better with potential customers and close more deals.
Monday Feb 13, 2023
Monday Feb 13, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
In this episode of Behind the Surface, Matthew Bodoff, Business Development Manager at Ineos Composites, and Chris Anderson, Business Development Manager at US Silica, discuss quartz supply from a raw material supplier’s perspective.
The pandemic and the winter storms of 2021 affected the supply chain, and where does that leave us today? Listen in to better understand the current reality, forecast, and how providing your input can help the future development of the category.
Monday Jan 16, 2023
Monday Jan 16, 2023
Behind the Surface inspires fabricators to take their business to the next level by addressing challenges, sharing strategies, and gathering insights from leading industry experts.
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 join Nancy Busch to discuss effective business strategies to survive what challenges your business may be facing in these turbulent times.