CCCT with Caity Taylor, Director of Solutions Engineering from Avvir Video

CCCT sat down with Caity Taylor, Director of Solutions Engineering from Avvir that is part of Hexagon, provides construction teams with control through its automated risk analysis platform, featuring automated schedule tracking, cost and earned value analysis and installation issue detection. Avvir delivers the only hardware agnostic platform that not only provides critical insights but closes the loop by updating the BIM with as-built conditions, allowing customers to focus on solving issues, not finding them. Avvir is based in New York City and has a customer base that spans across North America, Europe and Japan, and includes well-known customers such as AECOM, Related, Columbia and DPR. Learn more at avvir.io.

Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 24,000 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 5.2bn EUR.

Learn more at hexagon.com and follow us @HexagonAB. https://www.avvir.io/

#construction #softwareengineer #platform #bim #asbuilt #projectmanagement

Transcription

Hey there, Commercial Construction Coffee Talk fans. Thanks for chiming in. My name’s David Course, and I’m your host. I’m also a publisher and editor of Commercial Construction and Renovation Magazine. Well, we’re digital now since August of 2021, but this is what it used to look like. This is, let’s see, November 2020, A Cut Above V’s Barbershop. This is awesome. Jim and Emily, thanks for gracing the cover. This one was 116 pages, and let’s see where I was. Oh, I always look at my Publisher’s page. I was in the Jacksonville Stadium. I guess the Rolling Stones had played there, and they had this big mural inside of the tour, and I was like, “Oh, I got to get my picture next there. A big tongue there.” But that’s where it is. It’s inside Jacksonville Stadium where the Jaguars play. But anyway, it’s always nice to hold the magazine. You know, I was a print guy all those years and looking at it, but don’t miss the post office, don’t miss the printer, don’t miss any of those guys. Have a couple million people a month that hit our site, consuming content. We’ve become a destination point, and it’s just been an amazing ride from going from print face to face over the last year, three and a half years of the roller coaster that we’ve all been on. So, hope everybody had a great weekend. You know, we’re kind of almost in the middle of the week. He got a couple of weeks. He got Thanksgiving coming up, and then I got my last reception on the 28th in Scottdale, and then coming up, you got Hanukkah, you got Christmas. I’ll throw Festifits out there too, and then New Year’s, and then we’re in 2024. So, it’s going to come quick, and 2023, what a wild ride it’s been. I never a dull day. Just every day, I am mentally drained by the time it’s time for me to catch some Z’s. Everything that’s going on in the world and everything else, running my business and all my, everybody I talk to, it’s just been crazy. But I’ve had fun. I’m still smiling, and it’s been a really, really great trip this year. So, hopefully, 2024 will be that much better, but we’re still in 2023, so let’s make the best of the last six weeks or so. So with that said, I’ve got a nice lady who you’re looking at right now. Her name is Katie Taylor. She’s with A, and she’s the Director of Engineering Solutions. Did I get it right? That is very close, Solutions Engineering. But Solutions Engineering. Okay, I was close. Okay, it’s been a long, long day, like I said. But anyway, Katie, say hello to our listeners out there on Commercial Construction Coffee Talk.

Yeah, hi everyone. I am honored to be on the show. Thank you, David, for the introduction. And where are you today? So I’m currently based in Washington, DC, although I have my Zoom background on. I’m in the middle of a move about to make my way up to Annapolis, Maryland. Oh, nice, nice. It’s beautiful down here in Atlanta. You’re just north of me, so it’s nice up there too, today in DC. Yes, it is. And I’m very familiar with Atlanta. I actually grew up in Smyrna, Georgia. Oh, wow, near the big chicken. Yeah, everything is near that big chicken. Is that still there, by the way? It’s totally still there. Look, I’ve been a Yankee living in the South, so I’ve been here since ’92, but the big chicken is still there. And wow, and it’s got eyes that roll around and around. It’s a KFC, right? It’s ELC Fila. Yeah, I think it is a KFC. But for those of you who’ve never been to Atlanta, you get over on the West side, just look up the big chicken. Go check it out. It’s a pretty cool landmark here in the ATL. I live up by the lake, up by Lake Lanier, so getting all the way over there to the West Side, that’s like a whole another city, you know, for at least a 45-minute an hour drive, depending on traffic, you know. So it’s like a whole another world. But anyway, the way we’re going to work this today is I’m going to do our interview in three sections. You’re going to tell us your story, where you’re going up, brother, sister, you play any sports, you know, where you went to school, and how you ended up a year. Then we’ll talk about the last three years, three and a half years, I should say, of the roller coaster that we’ve all been on. Even though there’s, we’re out of the tunnel, there’s still some little pools and bumps that we’re hitting. And then any new products that you’re coming out with, and then you’ll leave one positive thought or phrase for our listeners. So with that said, the floor is yours. Tell us your story.

Awesome, that sounds great. Yeah, so like I said, I’m from Atlanta. I grew up in Smyrna. I actually went to Georgia Tech. I started out my career actually wanting to be an architect, and my dad is an engineer. He’s a mechanical engineer, owns his own firm, although he’s about to retire. And he taught me how to do drafting in AutoCAD and sort of started me down that path into buildings and construction. But like I said, went to school at Georgia Tech. And while I was there, it sort of foreshadowed my career path. I took up an interest in technology during school. I was basically taking every course I could in the various design authoring platforms because I thought it was really cool, one, and also I was not that great at hand drawing. I went into architecture school thinking I could get by with technical skills. I was surrounded by artists, and so I was like, “I got to make up for this somehow.” So after school, I ended up interning at the Walt Disney Company and moved down to Orlando for a year. I got the chance to work on some really cool projects there, but really it was just a fun place to do some of that kind of grunt work that you have to do as an intern, especially in architecture. And at the end of that year, I decided to make the big leap up to New York City. I started working for a BIM consulting firm called Case Design. And I’m all over the place at this point. My career was not very linear. Here at Case, I was focused on helping designers, architects, and engineers really to adopt technology, so mostly Revit, but other solutions as well that we would create. And during this time, it was kind of the 2010s, right? BIM was still fairly new in terms of adoption, so there was this huge opportunity there to bring technology to those groups. And ultimately, that group was acquired by a company that’s been in the news lately, WeWork. So I went to go work for WeWork, a shared office-based company. At that time, WeWork was in the middle of raising a lot of cash. They were positioning themselves as a tech company, so our vision at Case of building equals data really fit into that vision, that strategy. I had the chance there to kind of choose my own path in a way, and so I actually veered into project management. I was building out anywhere from 20 to 30 locations all at one time, aging myself by years, I think every year at WeWork was like equal to 10 years. It was very high stress, very fast-paced, but it was also a lot of fun. And let’s see, from there, I was given a demo of A, which I’ll get into. But ultimately, I was so compelled by what I saw out of A that I decided to make the leap to where I am today in software, helping to promote the solution and ultimately help to continuously improve it for our customers. Yeah, you know, WeWork is one of those tech companies that came out of nowhere, and “exploded” is the perfect word for them. But then things happened, and, like every tech company ever, some make it, some don’t, but they’re still around. They weathered the storm, and I think they’ve got their act together. It’s like washing your car; you didn’t do the greatest job, but you still have the car, and it’s going to get a little dirty, but then now you get to wash and now looks really, really nice. If you’re not making mistakes and not learning, you’re not trying hard enough; you’re doing something wrong because everybody goes through that kind of stuff.

Work, that was an amazing story. How long were they in business when you hooked up with them? They were still fairly new. At Case, we were a consultant to WeWork, and we helped take that construction documentation process from average 12 weeks down to some two weeks. So we worked with them very early on when there were like 12 people at WeWork. I think by the time I left, there were hundreds, thousands of employees. The numbers changed every day with all the and stuff. I got to leave on my own terms, which is nice. But I’m cheering for them too. I think they’re going to make it. The latest headline today, filing for bankruptcy, we’ll see. I think it’s strategic, but they had beautiful facilities. I mean, they were really, really nice. Actually, I just took a tour. We had an event in New York, the Big Apple, back in September, and I did my site visits back in May. I had one of my clients that was working on the event with me, and we found a really nice Penthouse to do it at, but we looked at some hotels, some conference centers, the shared space aspect, looked at a couple of clients anyway, but it was nice to see them there. They had beautiful facilities, I mean, just really, really nice. That whole executive suite rental, part-time office, it’s a godsend for a lot of people that, like just like myself, if I go into a city and let’s say appointment cancels or whatever, I could go in there and rent space for an hour, or if I have a bigger event, they have those capabilities.

So, going to Georgia Tech, I mean, you’re down there with a bunch of engineers, right? I mean, I pull for, I’m a Yankee living in the south, so I pull for the Bulldogs, I pull for the Yellow Jackets. You got the Georgia-Georgia Tech game coming up in a couple of weeks. I just want it to be a close game, the best team win, and I pull for them whenever. I think they just played; they just beat Virginia, right? Which wasn’t that great, but still, it’s an ACC. Anyway, so I pull for all the Georgia teams. I don’t care where it is. Actually, I’m going to see Georgia-Georgia Tech ice hockey. They both have hockey teams because they don’t have Division One, but they have really good club teams, and they’re playing before the Gladiators game. I just got the email. I said, you know, I’m going to go buy a ticket. I want to go see that. It’s a good rivalry. Just give you a little Atlanta stuff that’s going on here. So, pleasure to talk to a Georgia Tech alum. That’s awesome. That’s where my dad went to school. Oh, God, so family. Yep. And if Georgia Tech manages to beat Georgia, it’s a successful season. It doesn’t matter what else happens. As long as you beat Georgia, and it’s the same thing with Georgia; you got to beat Georgia Tech. It doesn’t matter how many wins or losses; that’s the whole season right there. It’s like the Navy-Army game. I can go down the list, Florida-Florida State.

So, you ended up at Avere, and let’s look back, March 2020, cranes all over the place, economy is just killing it, low unemployment, everything’s going on, and the roller coaster started. Talk about how your firm weathered the storm, dealing with clients, and how you went about lessons learned that they might find of knowledge, even if they haven’t implemented them, that they might be able to. Yeah, so basically, over the past 10 years, reality capture has become commonplace. When I say reality capture, I’m really referring to things like laser scans or 360 photography, anything that allows you to capture the reality of your job site. Avere was really kind of born out of this idea that all of this data that’s being gathered on the job site is really being underutilized. It became extremely apparent, I think, over the past couple of years, where we have this new culture where everyone’s starting to work remotely. That’s so beneficial; you’re no longer limited to the pool of talent within the 50-mile radius of their HQ. You have people working all over the world for your company, that allows you to really get the best of the best. But in construction, it’s a little bit unique, a little bit different. We’re all working on the physical asset with skilled laborers who have to be physically present, so it’s so important that the job site is documented. The problem that we’re coming up with now is that all this data is available, but it’s being underutilized. It’s just sitting there on a folder on a server, taking up space. That’s really where Avere comes in. We position ourselves as a reality capture analysis platform and provide automated risk analysis. That’s really a mouthful. I already defined reality capture, that’s 360 photos and laser scans, but we’re automating that analysis of the data by taking that reality capture and comparing it to what we refer to as an enriched BIM, that’s a BIM that contains information about your schedule and your schedule of values. This comparison really boils down to allowing you to answer questions like, am I on track with my schedule? Have trades installed for the plan? What is the value of the work that’s been installed to date? All really important questions, of course. But without a tool like Avere, you just don’t always see the value in taking all those photos, taking all those scans, and so that’s really where we come in. We’re leveraging AI, machine learning, all those buzzwords everyone is throwing out there now, but it allows you to get insights out of that data that you’re already capturing. I can tell you about our products that kind of align with everything I just described as well. We really have three main products, all of those helping to automate risk analysis: schedule risk, cost risk, and quality. Like I mentioned, our products align with those. Avere Inspect, that’s your quality risk. This is going to be the product that compares your BIM to your laser scan. It allows you to review critical deviations. You can see if this particular piece of equipment or this steel was installed exactly where it’s supposed to be, and it also allows you to do what we refer to as predictive clash detection, so you can see whether or not that deviation is going to cause a downstream impact. Let’s say you installed a piece of ductwork; it shifted to the right 3 inches. Doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but actually, there’s a pipe that’s supposed to be right there, and so we’re going to flag that for you. You’re going to know as soon as anyone could possibly know that this problem is coming up, and really it’s allowing you to continuously coordinate the actual conditions of your job site as they’re ever-changing. And ultimately, all of that allows you to take it even a step further and automate the process of creating your as-built.

So, we’re capturing all this data, we’re writing it back to a file that can be downloaded, and instead of spending all this time manually reviewing scans and manually reviewing models, we actually automate that whole process for you. You can download your as-built model and save tons of time and money in that process. On the progress tracking side, there’s two more products I described: the first one, Avere Inspect, we also have Progress 4D and Progress 5D. Those 4D and 5D terms are referring to schedule and cost.

With Progress 4D, that’s where we can take a look at your photo, compare it to what’s in your schedule, and tell you if any given trade is ahead, behind, or right on track with where you want to be. 5D is a similar concept, although with 5D, we are taking into account the unit rates for each of the elements that we see installed, and we can report on the actual earned value of what’s been installed to date. That’s going to give your owners, your project managers, that confidence to approve their payment applications because they know that what they’re seeing in the payment application, 65% versus what Avere is reporting, which is third-party objective, is comparable. So they can say, “Okay, I don’t need to spend any more time on this. I feel confident that I can approve this payment application.” So it’s good for everyone, right? Spend less time reviewing, spend less time waiting on payment, and so it just reduces the friction in that whole payments process.

I think I covered those three main products and probably answered way more than what you asked. No, you’re okay. Technology is an amazing thing. It’s just like here on Zoom. Before the roller coaster started, I had a project management firm tell me one day, “Your finger, your fingertips like the construction project, and then everything else is facility maintenance, retrofit, and then rebranding and what have you.” But the bottom line is, he said, “In one day, before the shutdown, in one day, I was in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Europe, Central America, Canada, and then did a couple walkthroughs in the United States on projects that I was working on. And before that, it would have taken me three weeks to do all that. I did all that in one day.” And now I can pick where with technology, especially with AI, that I can pick and choose where I want to go. Why would I drive two or three hours when, like I’ll use your pipe example, you can show that pipe off online versus having to go to the site that might be an hour and a half from your office or wherever it might be in another state, that you can do that right online. And you can call that sub and say, “Look, I know you guys haven’t put in that piping yet, but you guys are scheduled next week to install it. I’m telling you that our data says that it’s shifted, and it’s three inches off, and you’re not going to be able to fit it in there. So when you get there, it’s already been flagged for you. You know where it is.” And that’s the kind of like the antivirus that’s on your computer. It’s just kind of letting you know, “Hey man, we got you got an issue here or you got an issue there. It’s solvable, and you don’t have to freak out about it, but you should know about it.”

And with AI, I had another gentleman on that was talking about AI and how he helps subs, and he said, “Look, you can have a human, you’re building a tall multi-story building, like an apartment, and you got to put HVAC ducts, you know, on every floor, and a human can put it in there. And guys do it every day; they’re great. They can probably make it as straight as they can, but it’s not going to be perfect. But if you let AI do it or a robot do it, it’s going to be just about 99% or 100% perfectly straight on every floor that it goes to. And that’s really what you want to do because you want simple install, you want to have less maintenance, and you want to finish your project on time and hopefully under budget.” So, all of those things that you just talked about, cost delays, with your three stages that you have or the product lines that you have, all are applicable today. The question is, can people, or general contractors, or architects, or whatever discipline they might be in, can they get the fear factor away of trying technology and learning how to use it? It’s really push-button 101 when it comes down to it, but technology comes so much easier. Just look at the original Macs that came out. They were just so cumbersome. Now Mac is, you know, I wasn’t even a Mac guy. My son was, and finally, I got my Mac. I have a PC. There are certain things I like doing on each one of them, but to learn how to use it, all there was, you know, I was stubborn. I just no, I’m not a Mac guy. I’m not. But you know, a lot of my friends were. I know a lot of architects; they’re all working on Macs and C and all that. And then I did make the switch. Now I get the best of both worlds, and that’s really where the software technology companies that I’ve talked to over the years, that they’ve improved that simplicity of it into saying, “Look, you can really use this to your advantage. It’s going to save you time, it’s going to save you money, it’s going to save you headaches, and all you have to do is learn how to use the software.” And I’m sure every one of your platforms has the to-do article or demos or whatever might be.

Absolutely, yeah. We’ve created a number of resources, but as I’ve put those together for customers and thinking this is so intuitive, you know, I think, and that’s the point, right? Good software design should be intuitive. I have a three-year-old, and she can open up an iPad and just navigate to her game and play it, and I’m just so amazed. But that’s the next generation; they don’t need help finding a button. And that’s what we’re trying to be as well. You pick it up; you know how to use it. You don’t have to do anything special to use our technology. And in fact, all of the data that I’ve been talking about utilizing, most projects these days already have it. BIM has been adopted largely, taking photos; everyone has a 360 camera now. Laser scans, we’re still getting there, but you can do it on your iPhone actually now. You can capture LiDAR scans. So, we took a bet that all this technology would continue to advance, and we’ll be there to help teams get those insights instead of having to spend all this time looking through it for themselves. The virtual reality thing is, with technology and all the platforms that are out there, that interconnectivity with it. And I had another guy on my podcast a couple of months back, and he said, “Yeah, down the road, you’ll be able to put your goggles on.”

Or you’ll be able to put these glasses on, and you’ll be able to see your project and look at it in real time, whether it’s a residential or commercial project, and you can kind of, versus looking at a 3D drawing or a set of blueprints or whatever it might be, and you’ll be able to see everything before the crews get out there so you can kind of map things out and say, “Hey, you know what, I had my glasses on for an hour last night, I was looking at this thing, I think we need to tweak it this way or that way, so you guys come out, make sure that you have these kind of tools with you.” It was a very interesting conversation, and I was like, “God, you know,” and everybody’s like, “Oh, AI is going to take jobs.” Listen, people have to build AI, people have to build the robots to build that stuff, people have to get retrained. Do I think that construction workers or who’s going to, your robots going to dig holes? I have no idea, but the genie out of the bottle, that’s number one, and it’s not going back. Or the toothpaste is out of the tube, okay, you’re not going to put it back. So now the question is, how do we use it to our advantage and maintain control of it so there’s nothing malicious going on with things, and that it’s worked as a positive for humans and machines to interact in a positive way to get the job done.

And so, I’m all about technology. Like I told you before we got on, I’ve been doing digital classes for the last year, and some of the stuff I’ve learned that computers can do is just amazing. And once you learn how to, just like your three-year-old, I’m like a three-year-old. I just turned 60, so I’m giving my age away, but I don’t care. You know, I feel like I’m 20. You know, my knees don’t, but my mind does. There’s an 84-year-old in my group that I take these digital classes with every night, and he still cranks right along, made plenty of money over the years, but he’s just like so gung-ho, and it’s inspiring to say the least. But the thing is, is that you can take these things and really, really improve the efficiency of time management, costs, architectural ability. You know, is it simulating? You can take all of these things with different platforms and really make a killer project, and at the end, go to the owner when you turn the keys over and say, “Hey, that wasn’t that bad, was it?” “No, you know, actually, we’re going to get the software, or we’re going to implement the entire staff to learn how to do all this stuff because, yeah, you know, three years ago, if I would have done this, it wouldn’t go, it wouldn’t have run that smooth.”

But there are other contractors that don’t even have a smartphone. So, you know, you got that aspect of it. They’re like, “Technology? Yeah, I’ll grab my sledgehammer; I’ll straighten that three inches out.” You know where I’m coming from. Of course, yes, yeah. So, it, you know, but the fear factor is the biggest thing. You got to get rid of the fear. You just got to go in there and make your mistakes, learn how to use it, and then as time goes on, technology right now is going at warp speed.

When I was taking my AI class about six months ago, I think it was an eight-week class. Anyway, my, we call ourselves a family, we’re tribe members. So, anyway, the instructor, like you say, “Look, everything that you’re going to learn over the next six months will probably be obsolete in six months because technology is moving so quickly.” But you will understand the ins and outs of how things work. So when you do get a new software platform or app or an application, call it whatever you want, it’s a tool that you’ll be able to go in and manipulate it. And he’s always like, “Look, don’t buy it right away. See if they have a free trial so you can kind of see if you like it because there’s so many competitors out there.” And listen, technology is like the best thing in capitalism that ever happened because if someone raises their prices, another guy’s going to come in and create something that’s probably more affordable but also is much more user-friendly, and you can learn and be able to apply it to your daily activities, whether you’re in construction or if you’re a restaurateur, or you’re a dentist, or what have you. You can use all those things and make your business efficient. But if you’re doing construction, it’s a no-brainer. Learn technology. You know, contact Avere, where it’s all at; that’s the wave of the future. And I can’t tell enough people that it’s a fear thing, especially if you’re older. The youngsters, like my son, he doesn’t even know what a magazine was. If he, you know, I laughed when I stopped printing the magazine; he’s like, “Dad, I look at it on my tablet, my phone, my watch. That’s where I’m looking at stuff. I don’t even know what a magazine is.” I was out in LA; I did a reception last week at SoFi, and there was a guy, he was 22 years old, and he worked for Tria of Southern California anyway. He was the construction facilities manager. So we’re sitting there; we’re eating some wings after the tour at this restaurant in El Segundo, and I didn’t think he looked like he was probably a little older, but he said, “Oh no, I’m only 22.” I said, “Wow.” So we started talking, and someone brought up, “Hey, do you know what a CB radio is?” And he’s like, “No, what is that?” So we had to explain what it was. Do you know what a CB radio is? Did you see my face? Okay, so when I grew up, CB radios, everybody had a CB radio in their car and a scanner so you could find out where the police were. But anyway, everybody had a handle, you know, like, you didn’t use your name; you were the Snowman or Frosty or whatever, and you could communicate on a radio in your car with an antenna on top of your roof. So that was the big thing, but now you got cell phones and this and that. Like this cell phone, alright, is the best tool that you can have in your tool arsenal because it can hold all your apps. You can look at the screen; it might not be that big, but you can stay in contact with eight billion people that are on the planet. You can get plans to it; you can use AI; you can use everything on here. It’s just, you know, and everybody’s touching it. You know, especially with texting, 93% of the people will open a text before they open up an email. So it’s just a crazy thing, but this phone, and I always tell people, you know, you should make 10 personal calls a day just to have, you know, like we’re doing a Zoom call. I say just call someone up, schedule a call, and talk to them on the phone versus a email because you’re going to get so much out, and then you can pick and choose where you want to go do those face-to-face meetings that you want to, you know, see your buds or see this client. I just had an architectural roundtable I did before we got on here, and one of the gentlemen said, “I want to go out and spend more time off of, I’m still going to use Zoom, or I think he was using Teams or Google platform, but anyway, he says, “I want to do those meetings because they’re a timesaver, but I definitely want to do more in-person lunches, breakfast, dinners with clients.” And I asked him what was their 2024 New Year’s resolution, both professionally and personally, and this one gentleman, he was out of San Francisco, an architect, he said, “I just want to go out and meet more people for lunch and breakfast and just have that personal conversation.” But I’m still all about technology and being on the web and saving time and all of that stuff. So, you know, but you, being younger than me and stuff, you know, it, I’ve seen all this stuff, you know, the tips and valleys, but right now, technology is just on such a fast pace that, you know, it, and AI, I think, is getting, AI, you know, it’s kind of like, is the horse before the cart or is it after? I’m not sure. I just want it to be a positive thing that people can use, and it, you know, I post every day on our social media platforms, and I tell people, look, don’t send me AI-generated content because I can pick it out. Alright, I don’t need it. I have software that can do it, but you’re still going to charge your client, and you know, we’re going to do the post, but really, we want you to still use your mind. So, I might use AR for a little stuff, but I still have to go in there, format it, and I want it to look right, and this and that, or I’ll come up with ideas or what, you know. So, you know, I like using these tools, and some of them I like, some of them I don’t. I find something new, or someone says, “Hey, did you hear about this thing here? I’ll send you the link,” and I jump on it because I love technology.

It’s amazing. Do you know how to drive a stick? Do you know what a stick is? I have, yes. You’re from Georgia; come on, your dad probably had a truck, right? Oh yeah, yeah, I learned a bit. And I haven’t done it since, so I wouldn’t trust myself, but I know the basics. But you know what, it’s amazing, but you don’t know how many people don’t know how to drive a stick. They just, you know. So, I give you credit because in his class before, my son, he works for Boeing, he went to FAA mechanic school, so he didn’t go to college; he went to trade school. But anyway, in the class, the professor asked, “Hey, how many guys can drive a stick?” He was the only one that raised his hand. So, when he was 16, well, here, you get your permit at 15 in Georgia, so we went to the elementary parking lot outside our subdivision, and we got the RX8 out there, and I let him stall it, stall it, stall it, and I just said, “Hey, you got to learn how to drive stick because it’s just one of those things you need to know how to change a tire, you need to know how to check the oil, you just need to know all that stuff because even though it’s old and outdated, you just need it. The more you know, the better off you’re going to be.”

In my view, I kind of look at it like Georgia Tech football. I’m a high schooler; I was a running back. I’m now going to play for the Yellow Jackets. I come to my first practice, and the coach says, “Yo, Corson, you’re a running back. Guess what, you’re going to be the punter.” “I don’t know how to kick balls.” “No, you’re going to play punter.” So, if you know how to do all these different things, you’re such more of an asset than if you just know one thing. So, that said, learn as much as you can, read, try out things, make mistakes, just have fun with it. It’s the nature of the beast. But very detailed explanation of your products out there. So, if anybody out there is listening to this episode on Commercial Construction Coffee Talk and they wanted to reach out to you and talk about any of your three product lines or bump some questions that they might have on their project maybe using other technology, how would they reach out to you?

Yeah, so, a few different ways. I guess the easiest one would be to find us at our website, which is av.io. I’d be happy to connect with people on LinkedIn. Again, my name is Katie Taylor, and I spell it kind of strange; it’s C A I T T, and you can reach me at katie@av.io, which is also spelled c A I T @av.io. So, if you’re out there and you have a technology question, or if you’ve never seen, want to do a demo, or hit Katie up with the way she spells her name, there’s no way in there because that’s the way I thought it until I saw her email. You know, hit her up on LinkedIn, or you know, send her an email, and she’ll be glad to tell you everything that you need to know so you can make a rational decision if you’re going to use the software or not. If anybody wants to reach me, you can get me at David C at CCRdm.com. Listen, the way that Katie got on here, the publicist reached out to me, and I kind of like all this technology stuff, so I said yeah, let’s get her on and put her on the schedule. We look at everything, so don’t judge a book by its cover. Listen, we’re very tough to get in the magazine, but we have all these other channels that we post on every day: Twitter, Facebook, the magazine site, you name it, we put stuff out there. So if you have a charity golf tournament you’re doing, or if you have a new product that you’re launching, or it’s your anniversary, anything like that, let us judge it. Send it to us; we post it, we send you the URL. It’s a win-win. It’s good for our SEO, which is search engine optimization, if you, and uh, the bottom line is you got to be found on Google. And by all means, you know, just, I always say, you don’t buy a lottery ticket, you can’t win the lottery. So if you don’t send me something, I can’t look at it, I can’t get you on the show, I can’t get you in the magazine or on any of the platforms or any of that stuff. So, with that said, Katie, before we go, we want you to leave one positive thought or phrase with our listeners out there. You know, as we end 2023 and Q4, and we go into 2024, what would that be?

Yeah, I thought about this a little bit before getting on the podcast, and it goes actually very well with the theme of our conversation. The positive thought is, don’t be afraid of change. The change is coming. Embrace it. Construction, we’re on a roll. I think we’ve notoriously been labeled as the industry that’s slow to adopt technology, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore. So, embrace the change. Yeah, I’m with you. You know, like I’ve already said, my every night, I put positive quotes on my business page, you know, inspirational stuff. But it all comes down to, don’t let, you have to, you have to combat fear. Fear is what stops so many people from doing stuff. You’ve got to take action. And, you know, if you do something today, a year from now, you’re going to be so excited that you actually made the jump. And listen, you don’t have to make big jumps, you know, just little small wins, they all add up to a big win, and the sum is always bigger than the whole. So getting rid of that fear of technology and just taking the bull by the horns, I’m right on there with you.

You know, it is what it is. But the Big Chicken, a lot there’s, there’s people here that don’t even know where it is. So, thank you for knowing where the Big Chicken is. And like I said, if you haven’t been to Atlanta, look at the Big Chicken, get your picture by it. It’s a very, very, very cool thing. So, really. So, with that said, Katie, say goodbye to DC and good luck to your move up to Annapolis, right? That’s where you’re going. That’s right, yep. I’m excited. So, say goodbye to our audience on Commercial Construction Coffee Talk.

Yeah, thank you, everyone. This has been fun. Thanks, David.

You’re very welcome, and I’m going to sign off from Sugar Hill, just below the Beauford Dam, up by Lake Lanier, about, oh, about 25 miles north of downtown ATL. And everybody, listen, have a great next couple of weeks, enjoy Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, all that stuff, and enjoy yourself. Remember, weekends recharge your battery, positive mindset, get rid of all that negativity, and start out the New Year on a positive note. Finish off 2023 strong with momentum and into the new year. So, with that said, we will see you all next time, and Katie, if I ever get up to DC or Annapolis, I’m gonna look you up, but we’ll go to lunch, and I want to see a demo of your office and all that stuff.

Sounds great. That’d be great.

And everybody out there in Commercial Construction Coffee Talk land, we will see you next time on another episode, and everybody, have a great rest of the week. Katie, I look forward to meeting you, and thank you so much for being your guest. Thoroughly enjoy the conversation.

Okay, yeah, thank you. Me too.

You bet. See you later.