Corporate Life and Coming Home | Scott Carlson, A.C. Carlson Appliances #049

Hey everyone, I'm Karissa from Shining Light on Minnesota. Today we have a very special guest with us, Scott Carlson. Welcome, Scott. Thank you for having me. Yes. So, I'm pretty excited. We've known each other for quite a while in the commercial world. Originally, you were with Commercial Drywall and now you have a super new role. Let's start and tell everybody about the little transition from commercial drywall to where you are now today to all the appliance world. Yes. So, I was Well, I guess I'll just start. I've been in the construction world, commercial construction world, uh, right out of college. Um, I graduated from Oclair, Wisconsin, and I went to a company called Hilty, North America, which they are in the tools and any commercial um, commodities that go into buildings. Um, took a sales role. Never thought I'd be really, if you'd have told me I was in the construction industry prior, I would have said, "No way." But I got into that. I did uh I was an account manager, sales rep for interior finishers or drywallers. Yeah. And I did that for I think it was about eight years. And I called commercial drywall was one of the customers I called on and um they they kind of were they recruited me over kind of the years. They had always threw some in my ear, of course, you know, on the golf course, right? Like that. And then um they finally convinced me enough I made the jump over to them um it was to probably two and a half years ago three years ago I can't in that area um to kind of come over and um was helped do business development there but also project manager um I also ran the manpower for them. Mhm. Um, so I did that where I got to obviously meet you did a lot of the, you know, the business develop events and all the awesome construction events that there are in this industry. There are a lot. Golf a lot, which is awesome, which is what I love cuz you get to meet people and you get to hear their story and see what's going on that way. Um, so I did that for um two and a half years and um yeah, now I'm at AC Carlson Appliances. It's a my familyowned appliance business. Yep. I made the jump. Um my dad's owned it for 30 something years. I don't even know I should know. 30 something years. Uh my brother's been in the at the company for six years. Mhm. And just the timing of it was kind of just the right time to come in and make this move. It was really hard to say goodbye to Commercial Drywall. I loved working with them. They were awesome people. Um but I just kind of had this calling at this time to come over and and um continue on to a third generation appliance business. Absolutely. And it's important. tell everybody a little bit about, you know, a family-owned business is big, especially when you get to the point when your dad's getting up there. I mean, he's had the business forever. Your brother's getting to the point where he's kind of strapped, not sure which way to go. Do we want to keep going? Do we want to We obviously want to grow and you have a young family of your own. Do you want to keep working for somebody else or do you want to help grow the family business and make it succeed and successful 100%. And that's that's where just like my draw was to come and do this now because for that exact point um my brother was kind of at that point where it was like okay like I really like he was really liking it you know we obviously had talked quite a bit y um some timing wise you know like 5 years ago actually I almost did join and some external stuff happened and I didn't so you know it's always obviously been there and growing up in it like growing up in a family small you know, familyowned business. You know, you see your dad work his tail off. Absolutely. We're a retail, so you know, you're open on the on Saturdays. My grandpa always closed on Sundays, so we're we're not open on Sundays, but still, you're working retail hours and, you know, it's it is it's a lot of obviously work. I mean, you know, Oh, absolutely. You're it's you're the face of the company and you're, you know, you got to be there and and do it. And so that was obviously all went into, you know, thinking about making the change. And like you said, I got I have three kids, my wife Andrea, three little kids, and you know, timewise, too, like, hey, making this jump like, yes, we we have to be we have to be on board together because, you know, it is going to be a lot and I'm going to, you know, be gone and have to be with the business and and do that and and but like I said, there's this my grandpa started this company in 1954, right? So, we've been around for 72. It's been around for 72 years. So, when my brother came to me and said, "Hey, like I'm at this point where either, you know, I want to do this, but I don't want to do this solo, right?" And when he said it like that, I just was like, "Yeah, absolutely. My heart's in it. I have to do it. There's no the pride of it, you know, like I've watched I've grown up and I've watched my dad put everything he's got into this business. Yeah, I watched my grandfather obviously put everything he had to do into this business. I can't just let it crumble and can't let it go. And it's a it is a really it's a community place. My grandfather was huge on the community. Um so we're located in New Hope Crystal started in Crystal. Nice. We moved We moved several different locations. Um always stayed in Crystal New Hope area. That's where I grew up. Yep. And um yeah, I've I've just seen, like I said, it's been, you know, a living for my family and and it's been a huge community place where, you know, my grandfather and my father does a lot to give back to the community and the local sports. Y um they were really big on giving back to the local theaters. Um and you know, we continue to try and do that and be a support for the local, you know, the local people. And obviously we love dealing with local customers that come in, you know, we treat them like family. Yep. That's how my grandpa and my dad does it and that's how we treat everyone who comes in. And trying new things I think is one of the things I mean bringing bringing younger generations on board is obviously one of one of the things that you try too. I mean, obviously your grandfather, your dad, um, have always had the ways they do it, but bringing younger people on, trying social media, trying going commercial ways, trying different things, too, is obviously a learning curve for them, but also for you guys, too. And yeah, trying to learn the business yourself when you're not in it prior is is a huge learning curve, too. Yeah, I'm like I'm like sinking right now, but so I just joined three months ago. So um so right now I'm really just obviously taking in the whole business how this business is operating and then learning a whole new industry you know being in the construction world for a while you know you kind of start to learn you know the outs of that and the people right you get in everyone's I always say in any industry it's a massive industry but it's so small when you actually get to you know meet people and everyone knows connections and everyone knows everybody so right now like I'm just trying to take that all in, you know, learn the industry, learn everything there is about appliances. Mhm. Like I'm on my like trading and carting and all that fun stuff, too. Oh, yeah. Delivery truck, you know, whatever I got to do. We're out there doing it. See, I've Yep. I've worked in the warehouse with our guys doing all the unpackaging, taking in deliveries, hookups to go Yep. Doing all that to going on delivery trucks and going out being the end face with the customer, doing, you know, hauling in. we get bring in big straps and you put on the refrigerator on your shoulders and you bring it in. of doing that and then obviously just the operational part too of trying to figure out how we run and you made a a great point on you know the next generation coming up and I think anyone going into a family business there's always that you know you have your father whoever's the one yeah who's been doing it for 30 plus or you know his whole life pretty much and you know it's hard to it's hard to make change Yes. especially for that generation of people Yep. are just used to, you know, doing handwriting versus technology. Smarting, working smarter, not harder, you know, there's other ways. There's other ways, but making those changes and getting those, you know, the gaps, too. Yes. So, we have that. We have a lot of that to to work on and do. But it's exciting, you know. I'm excited to to bring in a piece of that. And as you know, in this world, I mean, if you're not changing, you're not, you know, you're not going to make it and you're not going to grow. and we want to we want to grow this business. You know, that's ultimate goal, too, right? We don't we don't want to stay status quo. We want to we want to grow and expand and I don't know exactly what that looks like right now. And me and my brother obviously have talked quite a bit. But, um yeah, but it it's fun. It's it's when it we kind of said earlier when it's your own, you know, you it's your baby. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot of passion for it. Well, I think I mean based on the conversations I've had with you two and based on your construction world prior, I mean bringing people in from that world, the residential world and just everybody and trying to learn it all one step at a time and just getting your feet wet in all of it and just trying to learn as much as you can at your own pace, right? Not trying to bite off more than you can chew and for sure take all that in. For sure. And that's kind of the side obviously coming from the commercial side is was is an area that we definitely want to try and grow. Yep. We are a heavy retail you know we have a beautiful 17,000 square foot showroom where you know customers come in any retail you know sell appliance you would need. um we do some we've we've done some in the commercial world for you know 10 to 15 years but it's a market that I think we can grow um and you know getting more a little bit more into that. So I' I have I've started to um I said I was never going to be an estimator because I don't like sitting behind computers and doing that all day but you know what it looks like but I'm estimating jobs now so oh boy. So um now hiring. Yes. Yes. Exactly. But uh yeah, so getting into that and it's been great with the people I've gotten to know my prior at commercial and even at Hilty. Um you know, they've been awesome. I've I've already reached out to several contractors here in the metro and I've met with several of them. We're already bidding to them and working with them and you know, the biggest thing is is just transparency and hey, you know, no, I'm not going to win everything, right? Or can we? But um just being that partnership and talking and say, "Hey, where I'm at?" And and they've been awesome already at being open to me telling them, "Hey, I'm I'm new to this. I want to wear a lot of hats and I want to understand it. Help me understand it. Help me figure this out." Like I obviously came from it where I was a project manager, so I understand construction, you know, how the industry works. But this lay out. Let me just see how you've done it in the past or anything like that. And appliance specific, obviously. like I have no idea how does the appliance stuff even go down with you. Have you bidded it out? What does it look like? So, they've been I've like I said, the people I've contacts I've had have been awesome and helping me kind of get my feet wet and just figure out where this market is too with that and seeing where where we can be the best fit too, you know, like, hey, how can I be the most? You have a thousand things these project managers and these people are trying to do. So, how can I I know the appliance slowing you down. I know the appliance thing can sometimes be just a small thing, but hey, if I can take one less, you know, headache off of your plate. Yeah, I'll try and do that. So, how does that look uh with Andrea and her her role now with all the kids and everything like that, too? And yes, how much has she taken? So, I got to give all the credit to her for sure because without her, we would all be not standing. So, she uh so Andrea um stays at home. So, she is a stay-at-home mother with I have three kids. Yep. So, we have a four and a halfyear-old daughter, Stella. Uh, EMTT will be three in September. And then we have a two-month-old boy, Milo. Yep. So, she is the real rock star and everything. Um, you know, I not a job I could do and stay home all day with the kids. So, I mean, like this morning I'm leaving and it's just chaos city, you know, and you have to leave and then you get home and it's like, okay, it's Chaos City again. Like, dad's home. Like, I need the break. You go. Right. Right. So, um, but she loves being a mom. Yep. You know, I ask her all all the time like, "You, you know, want to make sure you're good and you like No, I love I love being here with the kids." And, you know, there's obviously crazy hard days. Yeah. Well, every day, but, uh, but she's awesome and she, like I said, allows me to go and I'm gone for most of the day. I am, you know, especially now not getting home till close to bedtime. So, it's like you get home and just got to get right to it. And she's got all of them fed and y they're most pleasant kids to come home to and they come running to me. And so, you know, tonight they're not going to be when you get home cuz you're saying that knock on wood. But no, Andrea um she she's great. She was uh she actually went to school for kinesiology. So, she worked at Health Partners prior to when we were having kids. And obviously, we had talked about her want to be a stay-at-home mom and she wanted to as well. So, um, yeah, we've made it work so far. Yeah. Today world especially, it's harder and harder, but it is, you know, I mean, it is just with how you make it work. You make it work. That's what I always said. You just make it work. And, you know, your money will find itself eventually. Whatever, you know. Yep. Whatever happens happen, it'll figure itself out. So, that's kind of what we've just always gone by. And I think the most important is she's home with our, you know, our children. And she's raising them the way you want to raise them. For sure. Absolutely. So, so with work in the warehouse, how many employees do you guys have and how how does that all work? What's the dayto-day look like? Yeah, for sure. So, got to get my coffee. You know, we're running on like, you know, six hours of sleep. Absolutely. And that's a lot for our household. We're good. No. Um, yeah. So, we have 13 employees. Mhm. We have uh So, we have a delivery crew on a full truck. So, we have three delivery trucks. There are AC Carlson trucks. So if you see they're just a big box truck rolling around town, those are ours. We have three of them. Um in the summer we usually have two of them running. So busy deliveries were running too. If it's really busy, we got three of them going. But we have a full-time two person delivery crew. Um we have a full-time two warehouse crew members. So they do all of our unloading. You know, we bring in GE, Whirlpool, Friger, whatever comes in. They do all the unloading, checking in. Yep. Placing. So we have I don't know probably a 20,000 square foot warehouse attached to our showroom. Nice. So which is really nice. So it's all in one spot. Good. Um and then so they do all that. We then have I call him he's one of the rock stars. His name's Luke. He was hired by my grandfather actually. Okay. And he's your appliance wizard. He can fix anything. He knows everything about more than he wants to know about which is good. you need to have those goes wrong or something is he's like you get a call yesterday, hey, my refrigerator's out of whack. It's out of, you know, it's not level and so send out Luke and he takes care of him and he's a great with C, you know, he's very he's just a really good personal guy and he's really good in front of customers and so he's kind of the jack of all like if you need him going deliveries, he's on deliveries. If he goes, he's our guy you're sending if you reliable he's the first one there in the morning. First one there, last one to leave. Yeah. So that's Luke and then we have five we have five sales on the floor. Nice. Six. Including my dad and but um so yeah then they have the sales um on the sales floor obviously any incoming traffic and then we service a lot of calls during the day. What areas do you guys cover? So we cover all the metro. Nice. So we'll do anywhere in the Twin Cities. Um, obviously West Met, we're located in New Hope, so we're on the west metro, so we obviously see more foot traffic from for sure. West side of town, but we do deliveries to, you know, Woodbury, we'll go anywhere. Nice. Um, if you if you need a delivery out, you know, somewhere a little farther, we'll do it. Depends on the job. Yeah, absolutely. For sure. Me and my brother will throw it on the truck and go down there. So, but we service the Twin City metro area um right now. And that's like I said kind of nice. We can we can go anywhere though. Who have been some of your motivators growing up and who have been some of the your driving force and that have really changed your life? Um I mean my father's obviously a very influencer in my life. Um just growing up seeing how hard he's worked um in the business and you know when you're growing up you kind of take that all for granted of everything he's done. And now it's been really cool to like work there and actually see what he's Yep. dealing with and why he came home, you know, maybe whatever way he was. Yeah. Yep. And he he and he was he came home, he was I mean he was at our sporting events, you know, I grew up heavy sports, me and my brother and I have two sisters. Yep. And he was always at everything. So it's not like he wasn't like not making time for us. He was at he coached me and you know traveling basketball and everything like that. So, uh, yeah, he's obviously been a heavy influence on my life. Um, my other one would be my my grandpa Milin, which is my actually my, um, mother's dad. Uh, he passed away a couple years ago, but, um, he was just a man who I always I don't know, we were similar in the most ways. Um, I felt like I knew him before he was I don't know. I just felt like I knew him even longer than when I was the time you get to know a grandparent. Yep. We just always got along. We got to, you know, give each other we gave each other [ __ ] all the time. And he got me into um really the outdoors. I'm a huge outdoorsman. I love hunting. I love fishing. And he he grew a passion for me for that. He was did everything like that. And um yeah, so he was someone I he was one of my best friends and we like I said I spent many of summers and even winters up at the cabin with him. They own a cabin or they owned a cabin up in north of Max and so yeah and and he was heavy on you know just treating people right. He was a religious man, you know, which I think is very important. And it is and um yeah, he just I don't know taught taught me taught me how to treat people right. Correct. And my dad my dad has done that too. And and that's I would say those are the two that um that I've looked up to. My brother as well. Yep. Um he's my younger brother, but um you know, I see everything. my brother is worth that work ethic, you know, now again being really cool working with him and seeing that now up now that Yeah. Now that you're actually working with him instead of just seeing him work. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like I I'll tell you it was the first day walking in was so weird. It's like I was in the commercial world. Now I'm working by your side. I walk Yeah. Like that first day on the job, you know, my brother and you know, I've gone to the store 100,000 times growing up as a kid, you know, like I was up there all the time, you know. But walking in actually like first day on the job and my dad and brother sitting there in the back waiting for me like welcome you know it was it was kind of surreal but u it's been really cool to you know I was nervous of that you know like hey am I going to like it going to be am I going to like being around them all time you know all day every day and then you do stuff with your family outside of work and it's like you know do I need a break exactly so um but it's been really good I've really enjoyed it. I've really enjoyed working alongside him. I'm actually surprised I haven't like completely blown up on my dad yet, which which not in a good way, you know, we just sometimes we see some things differently, which is good. You need that. Um, but it's a little competition. I mean, a little headto-head that, you know, sometimes can be okay, too. Yeah. Yeah. So, no, it's it's been a lot of fun so far. So, what do you see in the future for growth? Yeah. So, like I said, we we um we definitely want to make some changes. We know changes need to happen, right? Um whether that's today or, you know, in 5 years. Yep. We know things have to progress and change, but uh one of the industries I mentioned earlier is definitely the commercial side is an area I' I'd like to get into a little bit more. Um the construction industry, I mean, I I've been in it. I've grown a passion for the construction industry. I I love the people in this side of the business and you know them and it's an easy kind and I've just always grown getting into it even when I was at Hilty. I mean like these are the hardest working people you know these are the hardest working people there are you know the construction people I'm talking to people on the site doing all the dirty work every day waking up at 4:00 a.m. getting down you know half these guys are driving from Oglev and Mora and or down south and you know it's right I was always in awe of just the how hard of working people they are. So I've I really I really have had a just a passion for all the people who are involved in this industry. And so that would be um definitely uh a side of the things we want to expand and grow. Um we actually just bid our first multifamily project. Nice. So that's exciting. Yes. So that is we've never gone after that work. Okay. We did a little bit but not really. So it's I'm like you know let's just try let's go for it. Yep. So, um, say yes now and figure it out later. Right. Exactly. Let's let's get in and the only way we can learn is if we try. Yep. And it may not be perfect right away, but Right. We're not going to know unless if we try. So, yeah. So, that was really exciting. Just submitted our first bid um to Grinder actually. Um, and uh yeah, so we're going to see that. So, want to get maybe more into that side of the the uh construction side. the other side of the business that that has that we could grow and have potential and this would be down the road, you know, hopefully hire sales, you know, hire some more salesman to actually go out and do Yes. external, you know, outside sales. Um would be in the um like the development and contractor side of residential homes. Yep. So, there's obviously we see homes, it's insane the amount of homes going up. Um, but you know, getting in with builders and working and partnering with them to be able to send their Exactly. architects to work with them and their clients on building their dream home and their dream kitchens and working along every step of the way. There's alo always like the builder showcases, the always I mean they're they're growing up everywhere, right? Absolutely. So um there's that side and then the other market that we are currently in but again definitely areas of growth is in the property manager side. So we do um you know we work with several great property managers in the metro area and service apartments, condos. Yep. And we do you know all the replacements for their appliances. Yeah. And I mean coming from the commercial side, I mean you've got the real estate managers, you have the facility managers, you have I mean we could go on for days and days. I'm trying to figure that world out like of that like okay you're the property manager. Who's the you know like okay do I go to you? Do I go to the facility manager? Do I go to the real estate manager? Who's who's the person lock the deal in? Right. Correct. Who's who's the person who's making the call on this? And or is it all of you? Right. For sure. Which it could be. And not to not to say not each touch point's important because they are. everyone's involved in that process of touching an appliance or needing to make sure they're, you know, covered when they need something, right? Uh, but yeah, I am trying to figure out that and my brother does most of that right now. So, he's kind of in charge of the property. He he manages all of our, you know, open accounts. What about the service side of things? So, the service side, we do not we do not have a full-time um service technician department. Okay. Right. Yep. Like I said, we have, you know, Luke, I mean, my my father Dave, he'll go out and do, you know, he knows everything, too. So, if it's something that he can just take care of, and that's where we pride ourselves on that. You're not going to get that anywhere else. We're like, "Hey, if you are in a pinch, like like we'll do what we can to get out there, right? And take care of you." Like, y with anything, if my fridge goes on, that person, the most important to them is they need a fridge. Yes. Right. It's not important until it's needed. It's needed, right? And then and then we get to go, I need, you know, my freezer. I have all my meat I just bought. Exactly. I just have all I got $5,000 worth of meat. Yep. I just bought a paper. I need help. Right. So, you know, we we can go out and do, you know, the service calls, but we don't have a full-time service. Um, again, technician on on staff. Now, the appliance world, which again, I'm learning, you know, GE Whirlpool for all these manufacturers, uh, they cover all the warranty stuff. So you're sending out them direct anyways on any warranty calls. Got it. Um outside of that after warranty we partner with several um appliance service companies in the metro. So we have we have good contacts where if our customers call, you know, we say we say call us still, you know, hey, we'll take care of you. Yeah. We'll take care of anything regardless. Call us. We'll help you get it set up. We will get you in contact with the right people who we know are going to come and service your specific Right. because you want to make sure it's not the same person calling and calling with the same thing over and over again. And and there are certain, like I said, we have partnerships with some good ones in town that do specific work on specific brands, too, which is big because there are so many options nowadays like with anything. Y um Appliance World is no different. There's a lot of different brands, a lot of different options, a lot of different models, a lot of different everything. I'm sure you know with your product as well. I mean, there's so many different Absolutely. Yep. Window film has different Yep. It just all depends on the make, model, and everything. Exactly. So, um yeah, we make sure we take care of them if they do need any service piece of it. Do you have you are you getting into any schools or any of the bigger bigger world like that at all? We haven't done the school, you know, some of that like public work. I haven't um just hasn't been Yeah. Not yet. Not yet. I haven't I take that back. I say that and I actually did have a um we had the city of Brooklyn Park their commission or I I should know their role but they came out last week looking for some assistance on appliances at all their schools. So actually you say that um and we assisted the best we could get it was more information they just were needing information on you know they were getting dinged by OSHA on not having some compliant refrigerators and so we wanted to try and help them and figure it out put them in the right hands put them in the right hand and try and help them as much as we can and and we honestly said like hey hopefully we kind of pushed them to say hey I don't think you need to do this and buy this many appliances like see if you can go back these are the hands this is where you need to go so but in terms of bidding the public school stuff. I haven't yet. I know some of that stuff you get into the bondage projects and hands are kind of tied and you got to figure out what's what's best, what's not best. Yeah. So, so outside of work and family, what are some things you guys like to do and travel and where have you gone and things like that? Yeah. So, me and my wife before kids, we love to travel. We did a lot of traveling. I did a lot of traveling. Um, college, I did the study abroad. So me and my whole family, my parents sent all four. I have two sisters and two brothers. We all went to Spanish immersion in Robbinsdale, which at the time was the only Spanish immersion school. Now there's a lot of them, which is awesome. Right. So I'm a fluent Spanish speaker. Yes. Um which is great. I used I use it. I've used it when I was at commercial drywall when I was doing when I was running all the manpower work. I used Spanish every week. It's necessary these days. 100%. Yes. Yeah. Right. I mean, I still get calls from those guys, right, looking for drywall work. I'm like, "Sorry, I'm not sorry." Not Yep. game anymore, but I can help you still. Yep. I can help you. I can help you, though. But, um, so the Spanish thing is huge. So, I've been to South America several times. Um, I love obviously going and using it. U, my sister studied abroad in Chile. So, we went down. I went down. We went long ago. You were there, weren't you? Uh, no, that was a while ago, but then I went to Uruguay. So I studied abroad in Uruguay, South America and I did that for I was down there for eight months. Did the whole lived with the host family. Nice. Joined the soccer the university soccer team which was amazing experience. That was super fun. Um so I did that and traveled South America and then me and my wife when we graduated we did Southeast Asia, we went to Europe. Fun. Um she's her family's heavy Croatian so we went to Croatia. That's what it was. I think we were talking about that. Yeah. Sorry. Yep. Croatia and Switzerland, I think. Yeah, that was our that was our last trip before children. Obviously, now since children have come, we those trips are a little bit unposing to put them all on the all on the plane. We have yet to do the plane the uh taking our kids on planes. I don't know. We're a little hesitant to to give it the go, but it's a lot. You've done it. I've taken kids on planes. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot. So, uh but no, so we we do love to travel. We do go uh we like to go up north a lot. Yeah, we take our It's not, you know, we take our kids. We love the Northshore. We've done that trip several times. Um we go up we have a family cabin north of Max. So we're there for the 4th of July and the kids obviously love that swimming, you know, lake swimming, getting the kids fishing now and getting them. Absolutely. Getting them on the lake and just getting out there and Yep. getting them on the lake and doing that. So we like that. But I mean, with the busy schedule, I just say I just love just staying at home and putting the sprinkler outside. Nobody understands what's what's nice when you just get home. Like, you know, you're kind of getting older when it's like I just want to be home, right? Like, as much as as much as it's nice going out, it's like for real. No, I'm like just being at home. I just want to stay home, hang out with the kids, and hang out with Andrea. And and we have a lot of her family's from here. She's from White Bear Lake. She grew up in White Bear Lake. I I grew up in New Hope and both of our families are all here. She's got three brothers. Y one of them lives in Princeton so not far. So we'll go up there and they come down and see us and so we got a lot of I was telling you before it takes a village to raise your family and be there for you and support you and everything that you're going through that life throws at you. Yep. Um as you know and and uh yeah you have you rely on those people and Yep. And you just make it work and you you do what you do, right? Yes. Yeah. So awesome. Well, we appreciate having you on today and look forward to seeing what's coming in the future and if there's anything we can help you with, but we for sure will. We'll start talking about all of the associations and helping you grow and putting you in more contacts and yes, getting your name out there. No, I want to say I appreciate everything. You've been awesome. You know, I've really enjoyed getting to know you over the years and you've been nothing but supportive. I remember the first time when I made the switch, I came to the I still or I showed up to the it was the a was it the No, it's the MCA. MSA. MSA. Yeah. Uh the event at um where was it? Up at um the the thunderstorm, the tornado warning one. Yes. But that was the first time when I I just made the switch. Yeah. Um to the I was literally I think like a week or two in. I mean it was place was that I'm just trying to I know. Was it not Gresser cuz Greser's in shock. It was um I know I'm blanking too now. I should know. They're not they're not going to be happy that we don't remember there. No, I do remember cuz people were wearing the sombrero and everything else. Yep. Yeah. And I was on the MSA board, so I really should know because I was part of But we were there. But no, I remember seeing you first time contractor awards. Yes. Yeah, it was MSA contractor's award, but I can't remember what office it was at. But anyways, I saw you. That was the first time I made the change and right away you were just like, "How can I help you? How can I?" And I've always appreciated that. You've been very supportive of and we'll get you out on the golf course again. So, um, no, I I want to thank you for having me on here. This has been Hey, we can help get the word out. We're going to put this in the newsletter and just keep spreading the word and Yes. Awesome. Talk residential, we'll talk commercial, and everything we can do. Sounds great. Okay. How can people find you and get a hold of you? Yes. So, we are uh AC Carlson Appliances. Uh we're on Bass Lake Road in New Hope. We're literally right off of 169. So, if you're driving north, we're right on the east side. Can't miss us. Um we have a full-blown website. You can do all your online shopping on there. You can get a hold of us on there. You can call anytime. What's the website? accarlson's.com. Okay. And can they find you on any socials at all? So, I am getting that going. Okay. So, that is something that uh as you mentioned, we need to get more into. So, I'm getting a Facebook page going and going to try and get some of that platform going um as well, LinkedIn and and that side of things. I am on LinkedIn so you can find me on LinkedIn. Um but yeah, come and visit our show floor. I always tell people even if you're just coming down and you just, you know, want to learn about, you know, hey, I'm we're thinking of doing some appliance, just come in. We'll give you, hey, this is what to look for. This is maybe what we recommend, what to look out for, you know, we we try and create an environment that's, hey, come on down and we'll treat you like family. And um yeah, so come on to our show floor and we can that's that's why I say with appliances, people still like to touch and feel and see. Well, they like to have that face to face contact and not a lot of people Yes. know that anymore. Well, and you know with the online world now it's I mean it is difficult cuz you can everything's but you're not going to know what it is and you're going to get it and you're going to be like okay this isn't quite stainless steel. This is more of a Exactly. So I always say it's great people do some research before you come in. I mean most people do now you know. Um but we'll help you guide you and and do people still can they find like out of box things? Can they find because I know a lot of times when people are looking for appliances they they want something that's not quite brand new. They want something that's a little used. Sure. Used. So we are not an author. So we're not an authorized like used and dent. Good. Yep. Appliance. Yeah. So now every once in a while, yes, we have some that come that are, you know, dim dim. So if they find something wrong, they can obviously return it. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. If anything's wrong, yeah, we take care of that. But um yeah, people do come in and ask, "Hey, do you have any scratch and dent?" We don't Sometimes we do, but we're not an authorized scratch and dent dealer. There are a few in the metro that if you want that, you know, there's places you can go to find that. So, we're mainly all brand new. Um highend. Yep. Yep. Yeah. We can do everything from Yeah. your If you were looking for Wolf, you know, that type of high-end, we carry those models. We can get mono, GE, mono, monogram, some of those nice Scotsman ice m, you know, we can beverage centers. Um but yeah then any appliance need that would be needed we we have good and can get our hands on. And for hooking them up you have contacts for if they need certain wiring things like that too. Absolutely. Yes. So we have um we obviously will do all your you know if there's gas line hookups, water line hookups, we take care of that with you guys or with the customer. Um we do have, you know, if people need like electrical work. Yeah. Um there is a couple local um electricians that we've recommended. Okay. There's there's a similar small um single run electricians that are that are you know an authorized electrician. So if you need work on that we do have some contacts with that. We have good you know uh we have good contacts for uh vent cleaning and all that that sometimes is just hey my my dryer's not working. It's not drying. Well sometimes it's just the vent. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. So anyways we have good contact for that. And yeah, if if you have any appliance need, if we don't know, we'll put you in the right hands and we know good people in the in the community who can, you know, we can send out there. Perfect. So, when this goes out in the newsletter, we'll put the website and the link so people can click on that, get a hold of you, and we appreciate having you on. Thank you, Karissa. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. [Music]