S4-177: SIMA 2026 REVIEW SHOW!

Speaker A: This no Jobs podcast episode is brought to you by Top Gun Back Blades.

Speaker B: Are you ready for the best damn out of your life? Give me a hell, give me a G Stand up right now and give me the hell Give me a G. Stand up right now get ready to go she ain't moving slow she's taking control Pushing my pedal through the floor I'm begging for go.

Speaker C: Let's get it. Snow Jobs nation. Here we go. We are back again, bringing you episode 177 of the Snow Jobs podcast main show powered by Top Gun Back Blades. As always, I'm Steve. I'm talking to the juice box guy, you know who's with me. I'm one of the baddest of all time, one of the best singers, one of the best looking you've ever seen.

Speaker D: Hold my drink.

Speaker C: The best show in snow is off and running. What is up, Jay? How are we, bud?

Speaker E: Hey, Steve O. Not a lot. Happy birthday, buddy. Happy birthday to the big Stevo.

Speaker C: Thank you very much. The big five zero has come and gone. Oh, yeah. Just another day. Just another day.

Speaker E: Another day.

Speaker C: Yeah, no, it was good. Uh, we're back. We made it back alive and safe from Cincinnati. Even after having a gun pulled on us, though.

Speaker E: Well, that's probably well deserved.

Speaker C: I don't know. I mean, yeah, uh, it was weird, but. Yeah, no, Cincinnati was great. If you, if you stay in the downtown area, uh, it was, it was great. If you stray a little trying to find like a late night Kroger or somewhere, you can get snacks or something. I highly recommend. We should have known when we saw cops emptying the parking lot that we probably shouldn't be in that parking lot at 10:50 at night that it probably was a bad idea.

Speaker E: But hey, there's a story to be told. Everybody's good.

Speaker C: Uh, but we didn't wanna.

Speaker E: He didn't want any. He didn't want to mess with you.

Speaker C: No, he didn't. I think he was trying to just tell us to get out of there, that we were interrupting something.

Speaker E: Yeah, whatever.

Speaker C: But, uh, yeah, you know, I mean, listen, he needed, uh, we needed our chips and we needed our soda. So, uh, you take those kind of risks.

Speaker E: Just because you brandish doesn't mean you're gonna use it.

Speaker C: True, true, true. Oh, it was, it was definitely interesting. But yeah, we are back from Sima, Cincinnati, 2026. Uh, we got back. When did we get back? Friday morning, early. We all had very early flights. It was, uh, it was pretty easy, right, getting through the airport?

Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, it's Nice.

Speaker C: Those of us who had pre checked. Yeah, pre check is not sky priority, as we've learned. Or we've had to. We've had to teach a couple people. Pre check is not sky priority. But, uh, yeah, no, it was.

Speaker E: Give them an effort.

Speaker C: They did try. They did try. Apparently the snow job stickers set off the, uh, the x ray machines.

Speaker E: Yep.

Speaker C: Right. We both got our bags checked different airports.

Speaker E: Yep, I did. He's like, it's a big circle on mine. And he's like. I'm like, I don't know what's in there. I thought it was a war because last, last time it was that. And he's like, no. He goes. I go, stickers. It was like, explosive. It said like red explosive. I go, it's just stickers, dude.

Speaker C: Yeah. For some reason the pack of stickers showed up, uh, like red flagged. And they, uh, the. The guy like, apologized. I'm like, don't ever apologize to me for doing your job, bud. Like, I'm, I'm good with it, you know, inconvenience the. Out of me. That tells me you're doing your job.

Speaker E: And I put a sticker on the machine as I left.

Speaker C: Yeah, there were, uh, there are some guys going home with snow job stickers on.

Speaker E: Uh, there's a few snow job stickers around the city of Cincinnati as well.

Speaker C: Just doing jobs. Oh, man, it's great. We had a good time. It was great to be with the boys. It was, uh, it was, it was a very nice, very, uh, nice week, I thought, with the guys.

Speaker E: Yeah, very nice. It was fun.

Speaker C: But that's, uh, yeah, that's what we're. We're gonna do tonight. We're gonna do our annual. We always do the preview show and then we always do the review show. So that's what we got for you tonight. We are back from Simon 26 and Cincy. And uh, we got some of the crew. They're uh, they're gonna help us do a SIMA show, review all of the, uh, the events that we attended and uh, and the trade show itself. Hear from them what they thought as far as who the winners were and uh, you know, what, uh, what they looked forward to the most and if it lived up to the hype. But uh, that's what we're gonna do tonight. And uh, before we do that, you know what we got to do? We got to hear from team Top Gun. We got to come back and do a quick week in review.

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Speaker C: All right gang, we're back so quick week and review before we get to the boys here. Uh, if you haven't already checked it out, head over to YouTube to the Storm Chasing YouTube channel. Check out Storm Chasing Season 2. We got three episodes up there for you to check out if you haven't already done so if you have, watch them again. Uh, what. Next up, the next event of the year here of the travel year for snow guys is Storm field day. That's going to be in Mankato, Minnesota, July 29th and 30th. Uh, tickets are on sale currently on the storm website. So if you haven't already done it, uh, get your tickets because that event, as we told you about Starks, Sean, that event will sell out. So get your tickets now. Don't, do not wait for the last second. All right, uh, we have August off this year, right, Jay? We got nothing in August so far because Storm Move there is up to July. You muted

Speaker E: oops. We got that one day show. And for Putsy, August 13th I think it is. So.

Speaker C: Okay, there we go. So if you're in the Fargo Moorhead area or feel like traveling to Fargo Moorhead, uh, you have the Valley Green and Associates. There was uh, a one day, you know, kind of.

Speaker E: Yeah, I was gonna have like Phantom Turbo, Todd's gonna be there and a few, few local vendors, I think of stuff.

Speaker C: So what was the date on that 13th?

Speaker E: Uh, I thought it was August 13th.

Speaker C: August 13th. If you happen to be traveling through, if that is a vacation destination for you, Fargo Moorhead, then, uh, you know,

Speaker E: now flights will be full

Speaker C: book now it's a hot spot for vacations in August. Margot Moorhead. Oh, uh, and then after that we go into September and we got that two day Pennsylvania swing you got. September 16th is storks annual Plow Tech School. Uh, very, very good class. Can't stress that enough for all you guys running Douglas Dynamics stuff. Uh, whether it's Western Fisher Snowex. Uh, that is definitely worth attending. And if you go to storks on the 16th, then hang out. Drive the hour and 20 minutes to the. Where is it? The Scranton Wilkes Bar area. Drive over to SNS Snow and Ice Solutions sixth annual snow show on the 17th. That's Thursday. All right. Uh, that is a good time. Hi, Mrs. DiVincenzo.

Speaker E: Tried. We saw you.

Speaker C: That was the quickest non quick story across the screen I've ever seen. But yeah, check out. We'll be both of those days. So make sure you guys, uh, get your tickets. Check them out with us. I know, uh, sns, that's going to be another, uh, for the east coast guys. That's going to be another Phantom reveal.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: So if you haven't seen the Phantom yet and you're looking forward, the storm Phantom plows will be at SNS for you to, uh, to look over and mess around with. And then we get into October. So October 1st is the big concert, the Morton Wallace concert and Lainey Spalding. Uh, the. The Northeast De Icing Solutions annual deicing day is October 1st and that's in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. And I don't think we have any further information on that yet. Wow.

Speaker E: What is that? Is that.

Speaker C: I don't even know what that is. Was it. Was it a pizza? I don't know what it was. We'll have to find out when he comes in. But uh, yeah, looking good. Um, what else? Uh, new Snow Jobs patch hats are still in the store. They look great. And we, uh, had a still for sale. Oh yeah, the stale. The sale is still on for another couple days. So spend $100 in store. Get entered to win the uh, Oo Carry On Luggage for the Snow Jobs luggage. All right, so head on over to snow jobs nationstore.com get your stuff, guys. Uh, keep hitting the Apple podcast and Spotify like and subscribe. 5 star reviews, the whole 9. Leave the comments, leave the reviews. Uh, it's awesome. We've been blowing that up lately. You guys have been a big help with that and we really appreciate that. You got anything else, buddy?

Speaker E: I don't. Wow.

Speaker C: Record time tonight. All right, cool. All right, we got through that. So let's hear from our partners and we'll get to what we really came to talk about tonight. We'll be right back.

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Speaker C: We're back. Thank you so much to our partners. We appreciate it. Uh, Pat Salmon shot me a text. Uh, I forgot one event if you are interested. Uh, and that's going to be August 27th is the, uh, the small Buffalo snow show there, um, that Northeast De icing attends. I don't know if I'm going to that, Pat. I don't know, but welcome in the boys. We got Patty Simon, we got Brandon Riley from ladc, who joined us on this trip. And as always, crowd favorite, Sean Twinkle Toes Divincenzo of native snow, New Jersey. What's up, boys? Long time no see.

Speaker H: How's it going?

Speaker E: What's up, guys?

Speaker C: How we doing?

Speaker I: Doing good.

Speaker E: Did you win? Did you? I'm gonna get right in. Sean, did you win the championship or not? Uh, or the game? Did you win the championship?

Speaker I: Three tuddies, two extra points.

Speaker C: We out there grinding today, boys.

Speaker E: Where's the face? Where's the Instagram post of your twinkle toes? That's what I'm looking for.

Speaker I: Uh, I'm waiting for the video, uh, the video to come out.

Speaker E: Oh, yeah, I'm sure you had a professional take a picture just locked on you. One camera locked on you.

Speaker C: Wise angle.

Speaker I: All they had a lock on was me.

Speaker E: Three TDs, huh?

Speaker H: Uh, GoPro attached to his chest.

Speaker C: Who are you playing exactly? Kids or who are you playing?

Speaker E: The Little Giants?

Speaker I: Ray Charles.

Speaker C: Oh, my God, that's great. Oh, uh, it's good to see you guys again. Long time. Long time. How, uh, how did everybody's trip home go? Any problems?

Speaker D: Quick.

Speaker H: It was very fast.

Speaker E: Good.

Speaker C: I think we got to do that from now on. Like, everybody first flight out in the morning. Let's go.

Speaker E: I think we always do.

Speaker I: Yeah.

Speaker C: Sometimes we don't. Sometimes, like, we're not on the 5:00am or 6:00am somewhere, sometimes around, like, the 7 or 8. And I think that's when starts getting screwed up. Yeah, but so, Sean, how long did it take you get through pre, uh, check there with no pre check?

Speaker I: It was pretty quick. Uh, a couple minutes. I got pre check on the spot.

Speaker E: But then she gets strip search.

Speaker I: They confiscated my liar.

Speaker E: Oh, your lighter? What? Yeah, Yeah, I made an example out

Speaker C: of you bringing lighters into the airport.

Speaker I: Well, you could bring lighters, just not torch lighters. I got there with it, but I didn't get back with it. So it is what it is.

Speaker H: You can bring a normal lighter on a plane.

Speaker I: Yeah.

Speaker E: Oh, uh, really?

Speaker H: I did not know.

Speaker C: Pretty sure that's not allowed, dude. Either way.

Speaker I: Yeah, no, you could do it. You just can't do torch lighters. They say they're highly flammable or something.

Speaker E: So did you lighter change from a lighter to a torch when you were There or what happened? How did it make it there?

Speaker I: No, it made it there. Just didn't make it back.

Speaker E: Yeah, okay.

Speaker G: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, TS Jersey.

Speaker D: Tsa.

Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Oh, my good Lord.

Speaker I: As long as you're not like the unit bomber in Newark, they're letting you go through.

Speaker E: Ah. Oh, you look like kind of. You could be there.

Speaker C: Yeah, the chin strap. Yeah, I would definitely give you a double. Double look.

Speaker H: I don't know. They didn't like the Zubas. I had to have a pat down.

Speaker C: Well, you look like a homeless guy going through shot.

Speaker E: Oh, how is this guy in first class?

Speaker C: He wore the same clothes that he was sleeping on the couch. And when Sean came in the door that night and mistake him for a bum that got in our house and was sleeping on the couch, that was the funniest ever.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: Oh, God. All right, so Sima, 2026, Cincinnati. We got in on Tuesday, uh, what? Tuesday morning? Actually, we were supposed to get on Tuesday morning. Some of us did, some of us didn't. Some of us were delayed multiple times. But, uh, you guys got there first and somehow got. Found a restaurant right off the bat. How did you get the four or five miles over? I meant to ask you that.

Speaker E: Huh? We squeezed in a car.

Speaker C: That's right. Clown car.

Speaker E: Mitchell had a. Mitchell had a car. And, uh, we.

Speaker D: It's really cozy.

Speaker I: There were 10 guys in there.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: You guys said that place was great, right? I only came and had a glass of water, but you guys ate there and stuff.

Speaker E: What was it?

Speaker C: Ford's Garage. Was that right?

Speaker E: Ford's Garage.

Speaker H: Yeah, it was good.

Speaker C: Place is great.

Speaker E: Good.

Speaker C: Nice.

Speaker E: Yeah, really good.

Speaker C: We, uh, we headed out. We got to our Airbnb. We got some supplies and checked into our Airbnb houses. And what do we think was a thumbs up or thumbs down on those houses?

Speaker H: Great. Location was.

Speaker E: They're fine.

Speaker C: Location was a little.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: Sketchy.

Speaker E: It was chop shots across the street,

Speaker C: but they didn't bother anybody. They were just doing their thing.

Speaker E: Uh, yeah, Even Matt's raptor made it. No problem. That's true. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker C: So, yeah, that was parked out front for a long time. Absolutely.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: All right, so the house was good. And then, uh, our first event of the. Of the trip was, uh, Tuesday night at the, uh, at the Reds game. Had a good time, right? Any, uh, everybody approved of that one?

Speaker I: Yes, absolutely.

Speaker H: Amazing.

Speaker D: It's gonna have to be a yearly thing.

Speaker C: Yeah, that was a good time. That was a good time. We, uh, got to take some of our. Some of our partners out and uh, and have a good time with the, uh, the extended family. Uh, that was pretty cool. And thank you to the Cincinnati Reds for the hospitality. They. They went above and beyond. That was pretty cool.

Speaker E: That was good.

Speaker C: Yeah, Food was tremendous because we are. We are snow show slash food critics. So the food at the ballpark was absolutely tremendous. What was your favorite thing, Sean? What was, uh, what was. What was on the menu? What was your favorite?

Speaker H: Chicken wings were awesome. Those Buffalo wings.

Speaker C: Yeah, I would.

Speaker I: I would say those, um, the sliders were really good.

Speaker E: Okay. Yeah, I never had one.

Speaker C: Pot stickers. Pot stickers all day.

Speaker I: I was actually more impressed with that. They stopped serving food at the seventh inning. But you. You can drink until the last pitch of the game. That was. That's great. I mean, that was not happening. Water.

Speaker E: Water.

Speaker I: Yeah, I was just drinking water.

Speaker E: Water.

Speaker C: Great. You're too funny, buddy.

Speaker D: In New York, Mac and cheese was awesome, too.

Speaker E: That was good. I don't even like Mac and cheese.

Speaker D: Yeah, I'm not a Mac and cheese person. That was good Mac and cheese.

Speaker C: The one thing I didn't have, I didn't try the Mac and cheese. But, yeah, it was a great view. They, uh, they got Snow Jobs Nation up on the scoreboard. That was pretty cool to see that. And then what, uh, we do after that? Well, I took Todd back to his car. You guys went across the street to. What was the name of that bar?

Speaker E: Uh, we helped some homeless people the rest of the night. Just fed them and stuff like that.

Speaker D: Okay.

Speaker C: You did your charity work.

Speaker E: Charity. Did some charity stuff.

Speaker I: Nice.

Speaker C: Very cool.

Speaker I: Yep.

Speaker C: And, uh, then, let's see. We had. That was Tuesday.

Speaker F: Wednesday.

Speaker C: They didn't have anything. We didn't go. None of us went to class.

Speaker E: We had a round table in the house all day. In the house. We had a good private session.

Speaker C: Yeah, that was great session.

Speaker E: A lot of. A lot of smart stuff happened there.

Speaker C: So Wednesday was, uh, the seminars and stuff at Simon, but none of us went to it. But because none of us went to it, we put a thing out on the socials to get some, uh. Uh, to get some opinions of the guys that did go through it. So we'll read a couple of those right now. Let me see here.

Speaker E: Where are they?

Speaker C: Boom, boom, boom. All right, so we heard the clue. Well, that's later. The closing keynote speaker was amazing. We heard that from somebody. Uh, um, we heard some of the classes were just infomercials, guys trying to sign you up for their programs. Um, that's not. That's three or four Guys basically said the same thing on that. That, uh, Randy Dodson says 25% of the classes were decent. 75% were not so good.

Speaker E: We have

Speaker C: Big Rich. Uh, why was Maddie muscles in an arctic shirt? I thought he was a metal plus guy. Get him, Steven. Jeremy. When was he wearing an arctic shirt?

Speaker D: I didn't see Maddie in an arctic shirt.

Speaker C: I didn't see him.

Speaker E: I don't know. Well, that would be really smart of him.

Speaker C: That would be. We got a bunch of guys that said they were taking the AI class and they could not understand the speaker and couldn't see the slides. Uh, the audio was horrible. And the audio was bleeding through from room to room. So if you were in one room, you were hearing audio bleed through from the next room over. Um, yeah, same thing for there. So sounds like. I don't know.

Speaker E: Sounds like it was a hit.

Speaker I: Sounds like they crushed it right out of the park.

Speaker C: Yeah, that. See, I mean, that's. That's something that I don't think should be a thing. Like, you shouldn't have presenters that are trying to sell time shares, basically. I mean, that's not why guys are going to these classes. They're going to these classes to hear, you know, stuff that can help them not sign up, you know, not have a guy pitch you to sign him up as a mentor or as a, uh, you know, as some kind of program. He's selling that. That shouldn't really be the case for these. So I. And that was. Multiple people said that. That they were. Felt like they were being sold a timeshare in Florida. Um, see what else. Another one. Presenters for. For some of the classes were very hard to understand. The audio was not good. Um, hard to understand?

Speaker E: What do you mean? Just like.

Speaker C: I don't know. It. It sounds like it was an audio thing.

Speaker E: Okay.

Speaker C: I. I don't. I don't really know. I'm just reading comments here. Presenters. Some of the classes were very hard to understand. Uh, and the audio did not help.

Speaker I: They might have had some Canadian speakers too. You can't understand.

Speaker C: Could be.

Speaker E: Could be. Yep. Canadian speakers speaking Canadian.

Speaker I: Yeah. Hey.

Speaker E: Hey.

Speaker C: All slides for each class was speaking at once.

Speaker E: Yeah, you're probably not wrong.

Speaker I: Oh, definitely. Sorry.

Speaker C: All slides for each class should have been uploaded ahead of time. Um, some were, but most were not, which made it difficult and annoying to have people stress and snap pictures during the lecture. Uh, the presenter rushed through the material and missed some key points. Um, one lecture, the audio from another room was actually broadcasted into our room. Um, that's a myth.

Speaker E: Um, let's see, we got some comments. That's for sure.

Speaker C: One of the most. Oh, here's. This is actually a good one. This is a good one for Simon to take note of. Uh, one of the most important times of the show was the snack and chat session, uh, which basically networking and uh, that was interrupted with uh, like people worrying about prizes. Um, a lot of people, let's see. A lot of people including our table, were in deep conversations and lost our train of thought. They. And they limited the time which I think should have been longer for this session. Needed longer time with less interruptions.

Speaker E: All right.

Speaker C: M. What else? Oh, this is actually a good one for Simon to take note of. Uh, anything to be improved. Uh, they said any new products that are at the show for the first time should have their own section at the. On the trade show floor.

Speaker E: Yeah, that's a pretty good idea.

Speaker C: That's a great idea. That way you're not hunting all over the place and, and trying to find one obscure booth in the middle of everything that would be good for first time attendees or brand new products to have their own own little section under a banner or something so you can just highlight them.

Speaker I: Isn't that harder to do though? Because they, they're paying for the size of the booth. So if you get a triple size booth, you're not going to.

Speaker C: There was plenty of room in that building.

Speaker H: Yeah, I'm sure they could separate it out. Like this section's a bunch of mini booths and um, all new con like because obviously. Are you going to buy a big booth if you're new?

Speaker C: Yep. What else here? Let's see.

Speaker E: Trying to see anything else?

Speaker C: No, that was about all things they

Speaker E: can correct if they want to, it sounds like.

Speaker C: So, um, so that was on Wednesday. So Wednesday night for us was dinner, uh, with the family. And then uh, some guys went to a rooftop thing for certain people, um, that were invited and uh, the others went to the casino for a little bit and proceeded to lose a lot of money very quickly. Right, Sean?

Speaker G: Sean?

Speaker I: My mom listens to this show.

Speaker C: The meatloaf. Uh, that was a great dinner. What was it? Was it J. Rubies or something? Jeff Rubies?

Speaker I: I don't, I don't know. But it was really cool.

Speaker H: Highly recommend.

Speaker C: Highly recommend. That place was awesome.

Speaker I: I guess it's a chain, right? There's a couple of them, it seems like.

Speaker H: I think there's Cincinnati in that area. There's.

Speaker C: Yeah, four of them. A bunch of locations in that area. I don't Think it's a national chain, but. Yeah, it's a local chain.

Speaker E: That was. It was good.

Speaker C: Highly recommend, that. Yeah, no, that was great. That was a great dinner. Very good.

Speaker E: You got. He got a birthday cake and Sean, uh, ate it, so that's good.

Speaker C: Yep. I gave it to him.

Speaker D: Cupcake.

Speaker C: He looked like he was starving to death, you know? Uh, yeah, that was. It was really good. It was really. Everything there was really good. Um, but, yeah, we had a nice easy night Wednesday night, and then, uh, Thursday was go time. So Thursday morning, uh, we woke up bright and early at the 10:30 mark. Well, I mean, you don't have to get up early. You don't have to get up early when the trade show doesn't start till freaking noon.

Speaker E: Yeah, that's.

Speaker C: These hours are getting more and more ridiculous. Oh, I'm sorry. I did have comments. Hold on. Let me go. Let me backtrack to Wednesday night, because Wednesday night was the. We didn't go. But it was the trade show after Dark. I have a bunch of comments about that.

Speaker E: Yeah, I heard about that. Yep.

Speaker C: Um, one guy said, because I asked a direct question, how many people were actually there for trade show after dark hours? And three people were all in the same range. One said 150, he'd estimate. Uh, one said 200, and the other one said between 150 and 200. So it's probably in that. In that range of 150 to 200. But the one guy said, unless you were storm, it was a ghost.

Speaker E: They were all at storm. So, like, they're out the storm. Booth.

Speaker C: The one guy said, unless you were storms. Booth, you were. It was. The rest of the place was a ghost town. So not worth. That Was from a vendor. That was actually from a vendor. Unless you were storm, it was a ghost town. Was not worth being there.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: I asked a couple of vendors how the trade show After Dark was and if it was worth their time being set up, and they all unanimously agreed it. No, it was not worth stabbing.

Speaker E: Not for an hour and a half.

Speaker C: People are in town for. And I don't know if this is thought of by Simon. I know they're trying to get those extra hours. Why they don't want to do it on Thursday, I don't know, but because the cl.

Speaker E: Don't classes go till certain time on Thursday morning.

Speaker D: In the morning again?

Speaker C: Yeah. You got guys coming in on Sunday for this thing. You got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to do whatever you want to do. I don't know. I. I still nobody and nobody can give you a, a reasonable explanation about

Speaker D: why force people to go to classes by not having a trade show.

Speaker C: Well, that's a backfire, especially when you got started. Sell them timeshare o' clock in the morning. Absolutely. Trade show should be 9 o' clock in the morning, 9 to 5.

Speaker F: Done.

Speaker C: There you go, there's your day. Uh, I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I maybe was able to get to and see six booths

Speaker I: total by the time, by the time you talk to somebody there for a

Speaker C: half hour, 40 minutes and you are not going to, you were not going to be rude?

Speaker I: Nope.

Speaker E: I couldn't, no, I couldn't even tell you any booths I saw, to be completely honest. I tried walking to some and he just end up talking to people and the then next thing you know, time's over.

Speaker C: Everybody's coming into town for this, for this show. They want to, they want to, they want to see people they haven't seen or don't normally get to see except once a year. So Wednesday night nobody's going to go to, you know, a trade show floor when they have hours on Thursday because they want to maybe, I don't know, go out to dinner with people they haven't seen all year or you know, do some kind of networking thing. They don't want to be at the trade show. Those, those hours are stupid. It's a waste of time. That's an uh, absolute waste of time. So I, I don't know why they won't just give you more hours on Thursday. Uh, it's, it's, I don't know, it's mind boggling because we've been down this road before.

Speaker E: Uh, you know, and then if you talk to all the vendors about the Friday, they all just like, it's just a waste of time.

Speaker C: Exactly. They say Friday is a waste of time. It's not attended either.

Speaker E: Three hours. Three hours on Friday.

Speaker C: Well, half of them the, the complaint last year, if I remember correctly, from the people that were there, the couple people that were there was that half the boots were already broken down. They were breaking them down, you know, Friday before the thing was even over.

Speaker E: I don't blame them.

Speaker C: I don't blame them. Absolutely not. No. They want to get home to their families. I get it. I, I don't, I, I think it, I don't know.

Speaker D: Especially because most of those vendors come in on Monday, right?

Speaker C: Uh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker E: Um, yeah, they set up. Yeah. Monday and they shut, Start setting up Tuesday is what I've been told.

Speaker C: So Yeah, I mean, it's, uh, it's mindboggling. Why you're going to go five.

Speaker D: Yeah. Monday. So they just want to get out of there.

Speaker E: Johnny.

Speaker H: Yeah.

Speaker E: Arctic, like, left on Sunday and he was setting up Monday. I think so.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah. I don't, I don't understand the whole 12 to 5 thing. I wish somebody could give me a viable answer on that. But it makes no sense to do the, the hours before or after. Just do a full day on Thursday. If you only want to do one day, just do that. Five hours, 12 to 5. Not enough time.

Speaker I: No. And it's a lot of money for those guys to put out for five hours.

Speaker C: Ridiculous, ridiculous amounts of money.

Speaker I: Like, they're not even getting the foot traffic because half the people are stopping and talking. And like, there's more boots. I would have liked to see.

Speaker C: And I couldn't, uh, I, I got, if I got stopped to talk to one person, uh, and I, I talked to that person for five minutes. What was happening was two or three more people would see us talking and they'd stack up behind and they'd wait their turn patiently. But now you're not just gonna end that conversation and say, oh, see you guys.

Speaker E: You're.

Speaker C: You got to talk to these people, you know, you got to say hi.

Speaker E: And it's not. And it's not because of us for any reason. It's everybody.

Speaker C: It's everybody.

Speaker E: Haven't seen.

Speaker I: Yes.

Speaker C: You know, it's everybody. This is the social event of the season right now. You know, I mean, you're seeing a lot of, A lot of people here you haven't seen in a while, and you want to talk to them, but there's just not enough time. Like, we've discussed this numerous years, and they just don't seem to care. They don't seem to take any of the feedback. And you know, the one year. What was it? The one year they said, oh, the vendors only want one day. And then we asked all the vendors the next year and found out that is not true. Because only 1 out of the 48 vendors we asked said, yeah, we'd only like one day.

Speaker E: Well, they probably would be fine if one day. If was one full day.

Speaker H: If you started at 8 in the morning and went till 5:30, then, yeah, one day would be perfect.

Speaker C: It's a waste. Doing anything on Friday is a waste. Let everybody travel home to their families on Friday. Makes no sense. But yeah, I, um. What, what was you, what was the overall vibe? We went there, you know, we got there uh, the building was nice. The Expo center was nice, right? Yeah, Very nice place. I, um, thought it was busy.

Speaker E: I thought it was busy, obviously, because you only have so many hours left, so he's got. Everybody's got a churn there.

Speaker C: So check in was easy. Yep, yep. Check in was easy.

Speaker H: Mind very fast.

Speaker C: Yeah, very big, uh, check mark to that, to Simon on that. Check in was very easy. The people were very nice. Um, what were we there a grand total of three minutes with the. The 10 of us or 12?

Speaker E: Yeah, it was quick. Very quick. Very quick.

Speaker C: Um, what was the overall vibe when you. When you walked in?

Speaker D: Same as 25.

Speaker E: Same old, same old.

Speaker C: Yeah, I. I see. I. I don't know. For whatever reason, I. When I walked into the trade show floor, it seemed more exciting. Like, it seemed like there. Like there was energy in that building. I. I don't. I can't put my finger on it. That's just the way I felt.

Speaker H: You just walked straight into Arctic?

Speaker C: It. Felt it. Well, maybe. Yeah. That was. That was not dumb on their part, putting Arctic's giant booth right there. I mean, those guys are always, uh, you know, the life of the party.

Speaker E: Big daddy yelling at you right away. That sounds good. Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, I thought it was a really good vibe. I thought it was a really good vibe walking in this year.

Speaker H: I thought it was. I don't know, I took a really fast lap around everything just to see where everything was, because I knew you, you know, get stuck talking to someone or the products you wanted to see. So walked around quick, and then I was able to base. Basically slow it down, stop at the places that I wanted to talk with the guys, um, that I wanted to talk with. With the products. And the trade show seemed busy the whole time. I mean, booths were. People were. It wasn't, you know, like, everyone was sitting at one place. I thought people were pretty well mingled around a lot of the different vendors.

Speaker C: I thought the places were. I. I thought the place was pretty decent attendance.

Speaker E: Yeah, I definitely did seem busy. It seemed busier than last year, and it just seemed like you said, a little more upbeat.

Speaker C: I don't know what, um. So what boots were you guys wanting to. To check out? What were you. Jeremy? What are you. Did you have a target list, uh, on your mind that you wanted to check out? Make sure you got to

Speaker E: me.

Speaker H: Yeah.

Speaker C: Jeremy. You're Jeremy, right?

Speaker E: Well, something M.

Speaker C: Rick James.

Speaker E: All right.

Speaker C: Did you have a target list?

Speaker E: I didn't have a target list. I guess I. I just wanted to just check everything out. That I could and I did. I failed.

Speaker C: Oh, I failed miserably.

Speaker E: I failed miserably. I couldn't even tell you what I saw because I was too busy talking to people.

Speaker C: Yep. And it went so, so fast. What about you, Pat? Did you have a, uh, list of boots you wanted to. To check out?

Speaker D: Had a few. Never made them to any of them. Just same thing, you know, you hit the. The normal, like, Arctic and Boss and Storm Cinetech, but other than that, you just get stuck talking to people you haven't seen or want to talk to you, and then there goes the whole show.

Speaker C: Yeah, Brandon, uh, Brandon had it probably right. You know, do a quick run around the exterior and find out where everything is, and then just start hitting things.

Speaker D: But, I mean, we probably had the Arctic booth for. For the first hour talking to those guys, and then, like you said, everybody's stacking up, talking to you.

Speaker C: Yep, yep, yep. That is definitely, uh. That's definitely a problem.

Speaker H: But.

Speaker C: But, you know, you gotta. There's things you gotta do. You know, you gotta give people time.

Speaker E: There's definitely booths I want them to go to. I just. I. I feel bad I didn't make it to him.

Speaker C: Yes, 100%.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker D: Rude to somebody and saying, all right, bye. Call me.

Speaker C: Uh, I'm not gonna be rude. Absolutely not. People want to talk to you. They, you know, they're. They're your listeners. They're the ones that are. That are, you know, keeping the show going. You got to talk to them.

Speaker E: I think I had to go. I had. I had somebody want to talk to me. So I was on my way to talk to him because the show was about ending, and Turbo Todd wanted to talk to me.

Speaker I: I was.

Speaker E: It's like, sorry, you have to be. I'll be right. And of course, he gives me, oh, you know, I'm like, just. I'll come back and talk to you. I just. I told this other person I'd talk to, you know.

Speaker C: You know, do you know who I am?

Speaker E: Rude. No, that's not. That's not at all what it was.

Speaker C: I'm telling you, it's. But I mean, listen, to a certain degree, that is true. Like, there's a lot of people that want to. They want to talk to you.

Speaker I: Yeah. Especially when they think I'm you guys. And I got to sit there and talk to them. Like, I act like I'm you. I'm like, yeah, thanks for listening my show.

Speaker C: You're not the first, you know, you're not the first to do it. Oh, yeah. Didn't somebody come up to you and Robert and say, like, hey, you guys, I love the show? I'm like, man, if that's Steven Jeremy now, if we look like Sean and Robert, man, that's a. That's a rough paper route we gotta get to.

Speaker E: We gotta get video going, everybody.

Speaker C: Yeah, we gotta get some video. We are much better looking.

Speaker I: The amount of people that came up to me in the trade show because I had the snow jobs backpack on.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker I: And they're like, are you one of the snow jobs guys? So I'm with them, but yeah. So what do you want to talk about?

Speaker E: I'm the bodyguard, dude.

Speaker C: You can introduce yourself as Sean from the show. You know, they'll know who you are.

Speaker E: You're like, maybe they'll give you money to get. So your mom. Because your mom doesn't give you anything. Cash.

Speaker I: I know. She's stingy, too.

Speaker E: Funny.

Speaker C: Yeah. But I didn't even get. I didn't even get to the Western booth. I wanted to drop by and say hi to Western. Didn't get there. Um, what else didn't I get to? I did get by the boss booth. Um, I did not get one of those cool boss chains. I was gonna bring one home. One of those home to Riley, but Emily told me, no, you are not permitted to have one of those without doing the scavenger hunt. Like, who the hell has time to do a scavenger hunt? I don't got that kind of time. I'm like, I guess I'm not getting one. So Emily put her foot down. She said, no, you cannot have one.

Speaker E: We'll send you one now. Probably.

Speaker D: Lisa gave me one.

Speaker C: She was doing her job.

Speaker E: I didn't get one.

Speaker C: Uh, the boss people were great.

Speaker E: We got hanging up in the office.

Speaker C: Yeah, boss people are great. We got to got.

Speaker E: This Booth was busy when I was down there.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker F: Yeah.

Speaker C: The booth was hopping.

Speaker E: Patty had to go back and do a little interview. I saw.

Speaker D: Oh, uh, that was.

Speaker E: Dude, I. I was nice to you. I didn't even. I didn't message you like I said I was gonna do.

Speaker D: It's the camera. Katie's probably thinking, how does this guy sell so many. So much liquid stuff? He can't even talk about pre treating

Speaker C: permanent

Speaker E: because of the concert.

Speaker D: Brian works nice.

Speaker I: I had. Somebody asked me to do a video testimonial.

Speaker E: Who did?

Speaker I: Uh, yeti. And there was money involved in it. If we. If I did it, I'm like, no, I'm good. Like, but it's a prize money you know, you.

Speaker C: You could win.

Speaker I: And then we sign you up for this gift card. I'm like, nope. I was like, I'll sit here and talk to you all day, but put me on camera. I was like, I can't. I just can't do it. Exactly, idiot.

Speaker E: 24.

Speaker I: 7. Put me on camera.

Speaker C: My name is Sean.

Speaker D: Did he get any size?

Speaker A: No.

Speaker I: Yeah, I got socks.

Speaker E: No, I didn't get myself, and I didn't get my yeti socks.

Speaker C: I didn't get by yeti, and, uh, YETI wanted to talk to me, and I didn't get by there, and I apologize for that. And then I didn't see them at the event later either, to talk to them.

Speaker E: They were out. I tried.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's, uh, it's tough, dude. It's really tough to. To get the stuff. I mean, we did get by Storm. We did. Did, uh, see our friends over at the Storm booth, and, you know, congratulations to them. I think they had a. I think they had a day.

Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker C: Did a great show. They were packed.

Speaker E: Yeah, I think there are a lot of eyes on that plow.

Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I would think in my mind, they're the big winner of the show. I mean, they had the most traction. Um, we already heard from a couple people about Wednesday night, uh, the after hours, if you weren't their booth and you were a ghost town.

Speaker H: Um.

Speaker C: Um, and then Thursday was no different. There was tons of people in their booth on Thursday, the two. Two times around, I was able to go past their booth. Um, I saw the salt flap. Did you guys see the salt flap guy?

Speaker I: Yep.

Speaker E: So on the Instagram, that started that.

Speaker C: Yeah, he had to boot the show. So that started as just the salt flap for under the spreaders, you know, for the tailgate. Uh, cover that. Now he's got a tarp for over the steel casters and stuff, and it's real easy to put on and off. And, uh, he's also got a tool to open the. The Polycaster and the Tornado. Uh, uh, flaps, like, super easy without, like, we have to use rebar to push those flaps up on the dump trucks. And, uh, yeah, he's got a. He's got a tool out. So that was pretty cool. So he was at Storks in April. What?

Speaker I: He was at Storks in April?

Speaker C: Yeah, I didn't see him at Stork stuff.

Speaker D: Yeah, I did.

Speaker C: I saw him there.

Speaker I: I talked to him for about an hour there. It's really cool guy. Uh, I had seen his product, uh, probably like a year or two ago when he first started in the demo stage. Um, but so I went over there and talked to him. He's pretty cool. You know, we talked about cars a lot actually.

Speaker E: Uh, I was, I was gonna get a few of those this past winter. Man, I just got busy. I was talking to him, he was like, he said he could brand your logo in them and everything like that. So. Really?

Speaker D: That's pretty cool.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I like that.

Speaker D: Didn't they redesign those spreader tops to open with a shovel though?

Speaker C: Last year they did. Um, but it's still, it's still not the easiest. Um, this, this tool made it a lot easier. Um, but yeah, the, uh, let's see. So, Salt flap, what else? Uh, side tote by Vernig. That salt spreader that I had over the winter. Um, I went by that booth, checked them out. I think I sold a couple of those for them to a guy I was talking to at their booth. Um, I just told them, you know, spread pattern was tremendous. That thing is, that's a home run. So if you, if you can get around the price tag, that's. It's definitely, it'll. It'll definitely be worth it. You eliminate a truck. Uh, what else did I get to trying to think? No, I don't know that I got to much else. What'd you see, Brandon?

Speaker E: We saw the tree can like we did.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker H: I kind of had like two ways of looking at it. I had my, you know, normal contacts that I'd reach out to. So obviously Arctic spent a lot of time with Turbo Todd just because every time I went to go talk to him, ended up talking to some people that were looking and wanted to know more about it. Um, talked to the tree can melter guys for a while. U.S. equipment Exchange, um, and then basically was hunting down new products. So metal, um, plus came out with an Agramax Live Edge, um, for their tractor plows. So um, I wanted to see if that was there. It wasn't. Um, but basically found out that it was. It's very similar to basically their normal Live Edge technology. It's just a standard, standard edge instead of a carbide, um, for the tractor. So you don't have to use the stripe. A normal just solid straight blade edge for them. And then same with like the Provenos and the Norman blowers. The Live Edge technology. You wanted to see those actually in person, see them on the blowers.

Speaker D: They've always had Live edge for the agromaxes,

Speaker H: not for the small ones. They've had them for the. The big.

Speaker C: Like, the, uh.

Speaker H: What is it? I don't know the size where it starts, but now you can get them in like, the 611 and the 712.

Speaker D: Oh, okay.

Speaker E: So.

Speaker H: And that's larger would be 66.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker H: They have them on the big ones. This is for the little ones.

Speaker D: Oh, that's pretty cool then.

Speaker H: And so wanted to see that. That wasn't there. Um, but talked to Bob and. And, uh, what was. Oh, and then, of course, winter. Winter equipment. Spent a lot of time with Ron. Seeing that they let him out. Got to hang out with Ron.

Speaker C: I didn't even see Ron see Ron.

Speaker E: Finally got to see Ron.

Speaker C: I didn't see him for like, two years. I know. I, uh, know they need to let that guy start doing what he does again.

Speaker E: Yeah, he's a salesman. I mean, he knows his. He knows his.

Speaker H: Knows everything.

Speaker E: He knows his edges.

Speaker C: He knows his customers.

Speaker E: He's been sitting in the back room just lifting them. The guy's got so much bulk on him. Jack.

Speaker C: Yeah, he's jacked.

Speaker E: What the. Ron?

Speaker C: Uh, yeah. I didn't get. I didn't even get. I didn't get to see Ron. I didn't get the winter.

Speaker H: A nice big center booth.

Speaker C: Didn't make it.

Speaker H: Site photos. Talked with us exchange about, uh, double downs and their. What is it? Their lease or. Their lease or rental program. That's what's going on. I missed the lease. The plow place. I didn't see that booth. Um, I know it was there somewhere, but basically, like leasing Arctics. There was a booth on that.

Speaker C: Didn't see it. Didn't make it.

Speaker H: M. I mean, I thought every boot, like, it was busy.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker H: Uh, so I thought. I thought it was a good show.

Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah, it was.

Speaker H: I mean, we were pushing like 5:45 when we walked out there. Wasn't it supposed to be done at 5, 5, 30?

Speaker E: 5:30.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, yep.

Speaker D: Cinetech seemed pretty busy the whole time, so that's, uh.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker D: Good for. Good for Adam.

Speaker C: Good for big papa.

Speaker H: Oh, and Hilltop. They were busy. It was really hard to get around that booth at times.

Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker C: I didn't even see. It was before storms right across from Arctic.

Speaker E: Right by cross from Arctic.

Speaker C: Oh, I didn't say it.

Speaker E: Cool. Cool. Yeah.

Speaker C: What, uh, did any new products out there catch you guys eye?

Speaker H: There's only a few signs that actually said new products, so it's hard to tell what was new.

Speaker C: I mean, outside, what we know. The storm. Uh, the phantom.

Speaker H: I was gonna say yeah. Ah, that's. That's the big one.

Speaker C: Yeah, that was obvious. The big winner at that show.

Speaker H: And I'm looking at their new arctics.

Speaker C: Yep. Yeah, those are cool too. And they have the snow jobs sticker on the back of them as well.

Speaker E: Love that product.

Speaker I: I don't remember the name of this salt, uh, product that I, I seen. I got his card, but, uh, he put like salt in a little Ziploc bag, put water in it and, or calcium. And you see how hot it got compared to his product. That didn't get hot at all. It's supposed to be like a better dynamic of melting ice for walkways and stuff, because it doesn't flash freeze after it heats up. So it goes down to temperature slow, uh, slowly instead of super fast rapid, uh, which I thought was pretty cool. I gotta, I gotta see the business card. But, uh, that was probably the only new product that I've seen. And the guy actually just called me. I was walking by, he's like, oh, you want to see something cool? And I was like, you know what, sucker? Why not?

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: Look at this guy with that chin strap. I'm gonna rope him in.

Speaker E: Three balls. $1. Throw it at the thing.

Speaker C: Oh, too much

Speaker H: salt booths. I wonder if anyone was giving out pricing, because I'm just curious to where things are at. I've heard some, some terrible numbers for what's to come.

Speaker D: They're just gonna change it anyway.

Speaker C: I walked past the one booth and they were talking to somebody and the guy said something. I said, can you guarantee me that when I call you in December and January, no matter what kind of winter we're having, that you, you're going to be able to get me as much salt as any? Well, no. Then why are you here? Like, seriously, like, I think all the salt companies were there doing damage control.

Speaker E: I was talking about. I was talking about Austin from Father and Son, and he was saying he talked to assault guys and he didn't think it was going to be as. He didn't tell me the price, but he said they told him it wasn't going to be what he thought was going to be increased. So it's going to be an increase, but not, uh, not as drastic as he thought it was going to be.

Speaker C: I'm not, I'm not really honestly worried about the price going up. It's the availability. You know, from what that guy was saying, the, uh, it's the availability. The infrastructure is broken. That's going to. That, that's going to happen every year unless the entire United States basically has a super mile winner. But they shut those up, and then

Speaker H: they go into shortage and increases.

Speaker C: Well, they said they shut down the. The. The root causes of it. He listed two minds when he was talking. He said these two minds produced some ridiculous amount, like, percentage, like 45% of domestic salt out of these two mines. And they both got shut down in the last three years and not replaced with another mine. And then they rely on the. The stuff coming up the Mississippi. But once.

Speaker I: Once.

Speaker C: Yeah, once the barges freeze, if you have an early freeze winter, then the barges ain't coming. And that kind of cuts off the, uh, the Midwest there.

Speaker E: So.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's, uh. He didn't paint a rosy picture, man. He was. And then, uh, he was coming on the show to talk about it, and then legal shut him down. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're. You're not gonna lay that all out.

Speaker H: I mean, I can't get an exact.

Speaker C: We haven't heard from since. We don't even know if he's still alive.

Speaker H: Well, north of 100 bucks a ton for white,

Speaker C: but, yeah, uh, we don't even know if he's still around. They might have. They might have snuffed him out. He was saying too much to salt mafia, right? We haven't heard from that guy again, right?

Speaker E: I haven't heard from him, no.

Speaker C: Nope. So that was, what, three months ago?

Speaker E: Oh, at least I think it was back in February.

Speaker C: He's in wit. Oh, all right. Anything else about the show we, uh, got to touch on?

Speaker E: No.

Speaker C: Okay, so then the after show, what'd we do?

Speaker E: Uh, we went to the Arctic party. There ain't no party like an arctic party.

Speaker C: Amen. Ain't no party like an arctic party.

Speaker E: That was hopping.

Speaker C: That was definitely hopping. That was some night. Did anybody. None of us. We all went together, right? None of us went to the ball field first. Did any. Do we talk to anybody that went to that?

Speaker E: We did that on Tuesday, didn't we?

Speaker C: Yes, we did. Anybody talk to anybody that went to the ball field before they went to Arctic? All right, so we don't know how that event went.

Speaker E: Okay.

Speaker C: Um, the Arctic party was hopping. That was freaking. Spencer can throw a party, dude. What was our impressions of that?

Speaker E: Fantastic. It was good food, good people, very entertaining. Lots of stuff to do.

Speaker H: Yeah, lots of people.

Speaker D: Lots of talking, great networking.

Speaker C: Absolutely. What do you think people, uh, like, numbers wise? How many people?

Speaker E: No clue.

Speaker I: So I was all night, um, and I heard them talking about that. I think they had, like, I think around, like, 8, 8 o', clock, 9 o'.

Speaker A: Clock.

Speaker I: They had, like, over 300 people in there. 3, 350.

Speaker C: They're worried about shutting it down for capacity.

Speaker D: Yeah, I was gonna say 350. 400.

Speaker I: Yeah. So, I mean, that was people coming and going because they had the shuttles all night, which was awesome.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: I think the final number was four something. 460, 480.

Speaker E: Really?

Speaker C: People. Yeah, a lot of people.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: Oh, I mean, it was hopping.

Speaker E: Oh, yeah,

Speaker C: we got. Yep. We got to, uh. We, uh, we were doing our Snow Jobs Nation awards, which we started back in January. We gave the, uh, the dealer of the national Dealer of the year award, the first one to Storks, Plows and Gene and his gang in April at their event. And then, uh, we had already decided, uh, to give Randy straight the lifetime achievement award, first ever for the Snow Jobs Nation gang. Um, and we did not know Simon was also deciding to do one this year because they haven't done one since 22. Uh, but they did give one to. They rewarded one to Paul Vanderson. Very deserving. Paul's a legend. Congratulations to him on award. Well deserved. Uh, you know, unfortunately, we were both doing it in the same. Same, uh, year. We didn't know about theirs. They. They definitely didn't know about ours. So that's, you know, doesn't hurt to recognize two industry legends at once.

Speaker E: No, definitely not.

Speaker C: So random. Yep. Absolutely. So congratulations to Paul on that and, uh, congratulations to Randy. Um, I mean, that's an obvious choice for us. 48 years in snow and the 20th anniversary of the sectional, which, I mean, in my opinion, all plow technology that we're looking at now started with the sectional, you know, and kind of grew off that. I don't.

Speaker E: He's the godfather for a reason.

Speaker C: He is the godfather of modern snow. We were very. We were honored to be able to present it to him. Uh, you could tell it meant a lot to him. And, uh, he did a really nice speech. Talked about the, uh, the three boys, how they're just absolutely killing it, pushing the company forward. They're having an amazing, amazing run. They're making all the right moves and, you know, can't wish those guys anything but the best. They, uh, they really. They're the real deal. Congratulations to them. They're all on a plane right now to Italy.

Speaker E: Yeah, definitely. I would say, honestly, that was my highlight of the whole week was given that thing, Randy, and how it meant

Speaker C: so much to him.

Speaker E: Oh, yeah, that was definitely my highlight of the Week.

Speaker C: You believe that? 48 years building that size snow company. All the people he's helped in the industry, with their businesses, the products he's created from his own mad scientist brain. And he's. He said that was the first award he's ever gotten.

Speaker D: It's crazy.

Speaker C: That's insane, right? Like, I thought he got. I thought he's got a ton awards. I honestly thought he'd be, like, kind of laughing it off. Like, he loved that. That meant so much to him. I was shocked.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: Good for him. That's, uh. That's really cool. I was, you know, honored to be able to do it with Jeremy, and, you know, we were excited to do it. And I don't think. I don't think the boys knew about it. I don't think Spencer. Spencer knew, but I don't think Lucas and Blake knew. So that was pretty cool to surprise them with that as well. Big Daddy didn't know?

Speaker E: No. Blake came up to me, and he was. I didn't know anything about it. What did you tell me?

Speaker C: Oh, gotta stay a surprise. So. Yeah. Yeah, it was good. You know, he gave a great speech, uh, as only Randy Stray can, right off the cuff. And if you asked him to do it again right now, he'd be able to repeat the whole thing verbatim. I don't know how he does it, but he does it. He's amazing.

Speaker E: There's no fluff. It just comes from his heart. It's natural. It's. It's. It is what it is.

Speaker C: 100, man. That's why he's a he. That's why he's an absolute legend. And, uh, it was our great pleasure to do that, and I. I couldn't think of anybody else to. To give the first one to. I couldn't think anybody else. There's nobody that's had more of an impact on me in my business, so it made sense. Um, but, yeah, the Arctic party was awesome. Best cups ever, right?

Speaker E: Yep.

Speaker C: Who'd you guys, uh. Who'd you guys talk to? Who'd you guys hang out with?

Speaker D: A lot of people.

Speaker E: A lot of people.

Speaker C: A lot of people. Yeah.

Speaker E: Anybody see the magician? Anybody see the magician?

Speaker C: I stayed away from him after he freaked the couple people out because I heard he was calling out people's PIN numbers for their ATM cards.

Speaker E: Yeah, like. Like card tricks when I saw him. But, yeah, he. He was pretty cool.

Speaker C: Yeah, he was legit. He was legit. But I got to, uh. I was, uh, talking to, uh, Tony and Joey Mooch and, uh, And Joey Mooch's girlfriend Gina. Uh, we spoke for quite a while. I was trying to give them some. Some tips. They were asking me some stuff about podcasting, and, uh, because they got their own little podcast that they're trying to get off the ground. So we were talking for quite a while about that, trying to help them out. That was a. That was a good conversation. Those guys were cool. Um, saw a bunch of dudes, man. Got to talk to Jeremy Kirkham for a little bit. Trying, um, to think who else I

Speaker D: get to talk to. Gene, uh, Stork for a decent amount of time, which is. Which was nice because they're so busy in April at his show. Yeah, you never get to talk to that dude. And I actually get to spend a lot of time talking to him. And, uh, he's just.

Speaker E: He's so awesome.

Speaker D: Good dude, Real smart.

Speaker C: He's the best, man.

Speaker E: This is, uh.

Speaker C: You know, that's the one thing this show seems to have in common, man. We bring the best people together.

Speaker E: Yeah, I talked to him for a bit. I've got to talk to Tony from SS M. Quite a bit.

Speaker C: I did see Tony. I did see Tony there.

Speaker E: I talked to Uncle Rick. Was there. Talk to Rick. He was always, everything's going good. So, yeah, sounds like it's going everything. I talked a lot. I couldn't even tell you all the guys I talked to, which is great. It was a fun time.

Speaker C: A lot of guys introducing themselves for the first time, which is awesome. Uh, it means the world to us. Like, don't, you know, definitely. Don't ever be afraid to tell us that you listen. I mean, that's why we're doing it. It really does mean the world to meet all you guys. And, you know, uh, our apologies in advance if we don't have as much time as we'd like to talk to every single person for as long as we want. But, uh, it's, uh. It's pretty crazy. Got to see the, uh, the Bozeman Montana guys.

Speaker E: Yes. Yep.

Speaker C: Got to see them. They're, uh. Uh, they got some interesting stuff coming with Brian.

Speaker E: He had a shitty winner, that's for sure.

Speaker C: They did have a winner. They did have a winner.

Speaker E: Crazy. Oh, so.

Speaker C: So, yeah. But, yeah, it was. Everybody out west had one crazy good party.

Speaker E: Cra.

Speaker C: Crazy good event. Nice night.

Speaker E: And, uh, oh, the weather was beautiful the whole time we were there.

Speaker C: It was. It absolutely was. Yeah, we. We made out like bandits on that. And it looked a little iffy the week before, so I'm glad that all played out for the ball game.

Speaker H: And I think by flying out so early, too, because we hit that weather when we were flying out.

Speaker C: Yep. And then, uh. Well, how was the rooftop? I. I only was up there briefly.

Speaker H: Briefly.

Speaker C: Rather briefly.

Speaker D: The rooftop was good. Uh, so obviously, you know, Arctic party. It was. It was way too loud to be able to talk to anybody.

Speaker C: Yes. The DJ music was too loud on that floor.

Speaker D: Yeah. So the rooftop wasn't even part of their event. We just all there, and that's where all the networking was done, because you could actually here.

Speaker E: Yep.

Speaker C: Yeah, that was.

Speaker H: Yeah. The DJ was so loud then. Everyone's talking loud, so it's like screaming and so just getting louder and louder. And it was like, I'm trying to hear what you're saying, but it was still a blast.

Speaker C: Yep. It was, uh. It was definitely good. But, yeah, D.J. had to. He had to tone it down a little bit. He was too busy trying to get everybody clubbing.

Speaker D: They were.

Speaker E: They were.

Speaker D: They were. They were clubbing.

Speaker C: I got to talk to Aaron from Wolf, uh, America there from the Loaders. Saw him. That was good. Got to see Harry.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker C: They said they had a good show. They said they had a lot of interest at their booth, which is great. Great to hear.

Speaker E: Good. Yeah.

Speaker C: I'm trying to think who else. It's such a blur, dude. Such a quick three days. Yeah. What about you, Sean? Anybody you talk to?

Speaker I: Ah, uh, so many people. I can't. I was just looking through my phone, trying to remember, and I can't remember.

Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Saw Tom.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker H: Sat with them and talked to them at the table.

Speaker C: He's such a good dude, man. He is such a good dude.

Speaker E: Oh, he's Brock Lesnar's bodyguard, so he's.

Speaker I: Someone did take my hat and my, uh. And my shirt off the table, though.

Speaker D: Yeah. And my sunglasses.

Speaker E: Yeah. Somebody got Patty sunglasses.

Speaker I: Well, your, uh, Kineti has your sunglasses. I believe.

Speaker D: They're cheap sunglasses. I just. I knew where they were. I was like, all right, we go back at the end of the night, grab the hats, the shirts, sunglasses, and everything was gone.

Speaker C: If Tom Kennedy wants your sunglasses, you just let him take. Just let him take the sunglasses. Buy another pair.

Speaker E: He'll crush you. I take your sunglasses.

Speaker I: You want another somebody? I don't know.

Speaker C: I could talk to that man for hours.

Speaker E: He's such a. He's awesome.

Speaker C: Uh, what else? Anybody else

Speaker E: trying to. Just another great party. Great people.

Speaker C: Uh, I definitely want to say congratulations to, uh, to our friends at Storm. Um, that was a big, big show. For them. Um, and I'm glad it played out the way we had all hoped that, uh, that it would for them.

Speaker E: Definitely

Speaker C: trying to think. Anything else? Let me hit some commercials here. We got a couple, uh, a couple of little things and then, uh, we'll wrap it up. But let's hit some commercials. We'll be right back.

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Speaker C: all right, we're back. So what else?

Speaker E: What else?

Speaker C: The salt squeeze. Yeah, I see that. I got that in my bag too, Pat. What is he showing this stuff for?

Speaker D: No, it's just frozen.

Speaker C: Oh, it's just frozen.

Speaker E: Perfect timing.

Speaker C: Too funny. Oh, man. Well, any parting, uh, any parting thoughts about Simon 2026? Anything you want to see them improve? Not that they're going to listen, but anything you want to see, uh, there, there is somebody listening that, that wants to do improvements. So you know, he'll stay on Friday.

Speaker I: Trade show change. Changing like we talked about last year and I believe the year before that and the year before that. Uh, but, uh, yeah, other than that, maybe some better classes for the guys that want to attend, especially since you're

Speaker H: paying so much for them.

Speaker I: I don't. Yeah, I don't know how you, how do you better vet that? I don't really know. Um, I guess getting the right guys. I don't run trade show, so I have no idea. But if the guys are not liking the classes and then the people that are going for the trade show are not liking a trade show, it's not going to be a good, good thing, you know, it's not a good thing.

Speaker C: Honestly, I think it's all about the booth money. As long as they're getting booth money, I, uh, I don't, I don't really honestly think there's any reason for them to change anything.

Speaker D: I Remember last year, the same complaints were.

Speaker C: Sorry, you're both talking over each other. I didn't hear, uh, I was just

Speaker H: saying, no matter what, whether the, you know, the show's good or bad, people are still going to go just so they can meet up with friends and, you know, see people they don't get to see in a normal basis from all around the country that you snow.

Speaker C: I think they know that. I think they know that to a degree.

Speaker H: You know, whether it's going out to a nice steakhouse with a small group, whether it's going to these big parties, like it's just a huge networking.

Speaker C: Yep, yep. And, you know, that doesn't make them forced to change anything that the people are telling them to change. And they'll say, uh, oh, nobody's telling us to change except you guys. Oh, yeah, well, you know, I got 15, 20 responses in two seconds. You know, with. With great ideas how to change it. Just the. The new product section have a couple, you know, boots that have, uh, under a new product spanner that at least, you know where they are to go look for them. Um, Patty, what are you. What were you gonna say?

Speaker D: I was just gonna say, I mean, it's. They can change it so, so easily. But if I recall last year and probably a year before that, it was all audio problems for all the education. You go to the slideshows now, I

Speaker C: will play devil's advocate and maybe possibly defend them on that, because I don't know, that might be the. That might be more on the venue, uh, than. Than sima.

Speaker H: All right.

Speaker D: You just figure, I mean, eight, five for a full. A full pass. Some of these companies send a couple guys to education. It's not cheap for them to not be able to get anything out of it.

Speaker E: I got that. And then they got hotels and everything else. Oh, yeah, flights.

Speaker D: Even if it was on the convention center, for what people are paying to go there, that they'd somehow do it, like, vet it, do an audio check or something, make sure that everything's working well.

Speaker C: It's not cheap either because you look at, like, if, uh, guys staying in hotels, these hotels, normal weeks when there's no convention in town are like, say, 190, uh, bucks a night. As soon as they know conventions in town, they're up to 400.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: So, like, guys are paying a lot of money for this, and they should at least not get sold to by infomercial guys. And that's a direct quote. That's, uh, that can't happen. You cannot have guys teaching Classes trying to push product and sell shit. That is not cool. Yeah, somebody's paying. What was it, 875 for the seminars? Yeah, 875 for seminars. And you had multiple. Multiple cloud. I got a list of three classes here that they said they were straight up product pushes to buy that guy's services, so that can't happen. That's a hard pass. What else, Jay, what do you got?

Speaker E: I was saying I think on the floor, they should do like, all the salt companies got me in this area. And they all just compete for your

Speaker C: business, like a battle royal.

Speaker E: Yeah, if they want. They want to sell you.

Speaker H: Well, then deal.

Speaker C: Cage, match.

Speaker H: They do that with everything. So software, you get in this corner, everything.

Speaker I: It would make things a lot easier to find, honestly.

Speaker C: Wouldn't that be easier if they sectioned everything like that for all the vendors?

Speaker I: Yes, it would be a lot easier.

Speaker E: All right, who's gonna pull me in? Who wants to make a deal?

Speaker C: Let's go be like Disney world. You'd be very easy to get around, too. Where are you? Oh, um, I'm in, uh, plowland. Oh, I'm m. In salt land.

Speaker D: That's a good idea, actually.

Speaker C: Uh, I mean, it's not rocket science, like.

Speaker H: Well, that's because normally you. Then you're seeing it side by side, too. Now, obviously, some of the stuff, it doesn't matter if you see it side by side, but if you're looking at different snowblowers for tractors and you got provenos on one side and Norman. Right. I mean, you literally. They're side by side. Love it.

Speaker C: Let them fight it out.

Speaker H: Yeah,

Speaker E: his little competition. You know, maybe the, uh, vendors would be, like, a little more interactive than, um.

Speaker C: You know, I get it for the aesthetics. They want to randomize the boot sizes and stuff like that.

Speaker H: But, I mean, I love how arctics are literally everywhere, all over these shows. You got them at u. S equipment exchange. You got them in the case booth, you got them in the storm booth. You got them in the arctic booth. There's just arctics everywhere. Yeah.

Speaker C: They're not hidden.

Speaker E: The phantom was. Yeah, the phantom was. That's the only hydraulic wing claw there? I think so.

Speaker C: No, there were a couple more.

Speaker E: Oh, there. A couple more.

Speaker C: I didn't see many, though.

Speaker D: Uh, they're hiding.

Speaker C: What, uh, else. Anything else? Any other changes you'd like to see? As I said, they're not going to listen. They haven't listened. And we've been doing this. What, this is the fourth one now? Yeah, we've done.

Speaker H: Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Just open it up at 8. Change.

Speaker F: What?

Speaker C: What?

Speaker I: Sean, change takes time.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, no, uh, they're. I think they're just being obstinate at this point. They're just being. Gonna do the opposite of what we say now.

Speaker D: It'll be at 1 o' clock next year.

Speaker C: Yeah, next year will be 1 to 4. You have the snow jobs to thank. Uh, keep complaining. We'll make it one hour long.

Speaker D: Milwaukee, right?

Speaker C: Milwaukee's next year. Can't wait. Can't wait. Did they. Did they announce dates on that or just Milwaukee is the venue?

Speaker E: Ah, that's all I know is Milwaukee.

Speaker C: Gotcha.

Speaker E: All right.

Speaker H: Isn't there normally a flyer? I guess I didn't. I didn't see it, but normally there's that.

Speaker E: I didn't see it.

Speaker C: Um, anything else, boys?

Speaker E: I don't think so. All right, just, uh, wishing you a happy birthday. Against evil.

Speaker C: Happy birthday, brother. Thank you, brother.

Speaker E: Another great year. And let's, uh, keep rolling.

Speaker C: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We got some, uh, we got some interesting stuff coming. So it's, it's going to be a good next couple of months. A lot of, hopefully a lot of good announcements to make, but, uh, yeah, if everybody's good. Thanks for coming on, boys. Appreciate you and great trip with you guys and can't wait to do it again. Sean, you are going to Minnesota.

Speaker I: I am not going to Minnesota.

Speaker C: You're going to Minnesota. You are.

Speaker E: Look at me.

Speaker C: You're going to Minnesota. We'll fly you back. If she pops.

Speaker E: Where's the wife?

Speaker D: Just bring her.

Speaker C: There you go. She'll be a Minnesota resident. The baby born in Minnesota to get

Speaker I: daycare, uh, for free.

Speaker C: There you go. You'll be able to have your pick of daycares.

Speaker E: Daycare will be taken care of. Yeah,

Speaker H: Grant's not free here. I wish.

Speaker C: Uh, not for you.

Speaker H: Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, all right, well, then that'll do it. Let's wrap it. Episode 177Our Saima 2026 review show is in the books. All right. Thanks to the guys again. Couldn't do it without them. Love traveling with these dudes. It's a always a great time. Miss them already. Uh, everybody else that went to sim, I hope you got home safely. And, uh, everybody have a great week.

Speaker E: All right?

Speaker C: Take care of yourselves. Keep pushing.

Speaker B: The night we set the fire Feel the color I stand and still defy it Every light, Every light All Every light We open.