Many of you listening, whether you like it or not, get involved in helping your companies promote themselves, and local events is a great way to build your brand. Whether you are launching your own event or sponsoring something local in your community, event marketing is something that can really help your brand, but it’s also something that can have a lot of downfalls if not done right. So, how do you even get started with something like that? Publisher Jill Bloom sits down with Anna Anderson, CEO of Art Unlimited, to talk about some innovative ideas for event marketing. Anderson discusses social media strategies, pitfalls you can expect to face in event marketing, hiring the right people to help market your brand, and the top three things you should be thinking about when promoting yourself.

The ICAA’s Executive Director Michael Kwart speaks with W&C regarding what it means to be a top insulation contractor in North America. He discusses his criteria and dissects the numerous steps of what this entails. Kwart also speaks about an upcoming important webinar the association is holding late February. Kwart also discusses the biggest collective concerns this country’s insulation contractors have. These might obvious, but some might surprise you. And as far as the future of the insulation industry? You’ll have to listen to hear Kwart’s thoughts. The insulation contractors community can be found at the next ICAA trade show.

Tom Harris returns for another discussion with W&C about the challenges facing spray foam insulation, growth in the industry, and his overall impression of the future for the industry.

As challenge fosters change, there needs to be focus and a common vision. At the contractor level it’s trade associations that Harris sees helping to create the focus while meeting the challenges head-on. This year will see continued demand for high performance insulations like spray applied polyurethane foams as we get another year of the new blowing agent technology under our belt.

Whenever there’s change, especially within the SPF formulation game, there will be a necessary learning curve for contractors. These new formulations are different and will require time to optimize their performance and how they behave during installation.

Like most industries, construction was hard hit with supply chain issues, COVID-19 and mother nature. Material supply was sporadic, and prices skyrocketed. 

The mid-term election means a barrage of political ads will take over most major media streams. Art Unlimited CEO Anna Anderson explains how contractors can rise above the noise.

For those who have been following along with the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test rule legal drama, the latest developments might come as a surprise.

On Jan. 26, the administration withdrew the rule that would’ve required employers with 100 or more employees to vaccinate their workers or regularly test them for COVID-19. In this latest Legal Insights episode, Trent Cotney, CEO of Cotney Attorneys & Consultants called the development a “pretty big exclamation point.”

But, Cotney warns, contractors may want to continue tracking the vaccination status of their employees. OSHA did indicate that it is pursuing its Emergency Temporary Standard as a proposed rule.

"We're not out of this yet," Cotney said. "I'd love to think that this is over, but I don't think it is, and there may be different ways they go about trying to enforce vaccines on employers and employees."

Matt DiBara was born into the masonry industry. His family has been doing masonry and construction for four generations—102 years—and it all started when his great grandparents came to the states from Italy. Dibara serves as the owner of DiBara Masonry, Founder of the Undercover Contractor, Co-Founder of Contractor Consultants, and host of the Confident Homeowner podcast. 

Associate Editor Hannah Belloli sat down with DiBara to learn more about career opportunities within the industry and how DiBara hopes to help advance the industry further. 

“We help contractors grow their business and utilize a lot of the things I’ve been fortunate enough to learn test and see firsthand over the last 15-20 years,” DiBara said. 

DiBara started to study his dad’s company as they expanded and did great business, yet the problem was always that the business could never run itself, it was too hard to find good workers they could count on and cared as much as they did. And now, he thinks he has something that can really help combat the labor shortage.  

“I thought to myself, ‘It can’t be impossible, there are companies with hundreds if not thousands of employees in all different industries including construction.’ So the last three years I became obsessed with this question: ‘Who is running your business if you’re the owner and you’re not there?’” 

For contractors who want to take a vacation, or spend time with their family, or even go to bed a little earlier one night, this is a fundamental question.

Three years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, DiBara and his coworkers have tested every recruiting method, every outreach method you can think of, and they found a system that is predictable, and can absolutely give you the best shot at finding talented workers that care.