From Best Buy to Luxury Smart Homes | Shane Orndorff, Architechne #089

Hello everyone, I'm Karissa with Sun Control. Super excited, we are here at Shining Light in Burnsville. And I have Shane next to me. Welcome, Shane. Hi, thanks guys for coming. Hello everyone, Instagram, Facebook. Yes. Tell everybody a little bit about where we're at and what got you into this location. well awesome. My name My name is Shane Orndorff. I actually run the Rochester showroom with a company called Architechne. So, Architechne is a technology-based company where we do residential, we do some light commercial, but we mainly focus on luxury brands inside of custom, you know, new builds from shades to sound, golf simulators, kind of the sky is the limit on what you would what would include what we do inside of a home. And we're we're a unique company in the sense of we're very brand forward. We believe that luxury is incredible brands met with craftsmanship together. So, our mission statement really is around giving clients that experience. We've got almost eight locations right now, so we are nationwide. And I think we're almost about to hit 100 five-star Google reviews, so super excited. It's a great time to be alive and technology is just growing every day, so. How did you get into this role? You didn't start directly here. You've been in the business for a long time doing other things. Yeah, so this company, if you guys are familiar with the Magnolia brand, this company was really birthed out of that a really a community of tech-minded leaders really came together and said, "We want to create this small business experience for a customer. We want to create intimate places." Even our showroom kind of reflects what you can do in a smaller space. And I've been in this business for 30 years. Yeah. I'm a master Lutron lighting and shade designer. And uh, you know, partnering with builders, architects, interior designers, really bringing kind of the market together to understand technology better is really our mission statement. But, lots of experience from installing, running services teams, uh, running sales teams, and working directly with customers. So, been doing this a long time. What are some of the new products that you guys offer? Cuz I know we had this conversation a little bit ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's very interesting, but I would almost say that obviously everyone is looking forward to AI. Everyone is still, you know, while there are talks about AI and AI is actually very well from a, uh, you know, third-hand kind of standpoint, allowing you to do marketing things. It it there's tons of capabilities. There still really is a limit on what AI can do from controlling technology standpoint. Mhm. So, we have a brand called Josh AI, if you're familiar with it, that is an incredible way to control lighting, shades, and and other components. We also are a ambassador um, dealer for a company called Savant. Savant is an Apple-based control system, and they have been, uh, sneak peeking Siri AI in all of their products over the last year or two, and we we truly believe that in the next end of this year, we're going to see a true AI modeling experience happening, uh, inside of your home. It knows, [music] Yes. It knows what you music you listen to, what you like, what kind of day you had. I mean, that's really where we're trying to go, and I think a lot of customers want that. They want to They want to walk into their home, have their home come to life, and anticipate and know, uh, their living habits. As much as we also want to have privacy, Yep. we do want that assistance. So, AI is a big thing. The other big thing is, if you have ever seen a structured AV rack and it's just got this nest of cables in it. We are moving very quickly away from these analog connections. A majority of things that are connected are with a single wire and they all talk to each other. So, um I think that's everybody's thing. They don't want to see the wires, right? You've got to hide them. You don't want to have see them hanging behind a TV or anything else, a speaker system. And And the the bigger thing, [music] too, is when you have all of these different connection points, you create this environment, obviously, for failure, right? Copper connections and things like that. The you know, on my Instagram page, I put a post up talking about that I'm a makeover artist because I do technology makeovers in clients' homes. And one of the biggest things that we see is we leave with buckets of old cables. And they are usually like, "Hey, can we Can you please take these away?" But then I have to kind of show them, "Can I show you what is actually in your system now?" And they're like, "It's almost nothing." And I'm like, [music] "But you know that's a good thing cuz we've now simplified your life." Less is more, right? Yeah, less is more. Yeah. So, those I think are the two things that we're seeing as digitizing, [music] digital. I think the third thing would be if you ever had some of those friends that had a MacBook with music on it because it was really high-fidelity. Apple Music is now streaming that quality. Yep. And so, a lot of people don't know that they can get completely lossless audio through, you know, a control system or a smart amplifier. And that's something that you couldn't do 5 years ago. Right. Yeah, I mean, it's it's simplifying me working smarter and not harder, right? For the general population too. You guys also do some golf simulators. We do, yes. Yes. Yeah, so we do a lot of Golf FX simulators and then we work with Sin Lawn a lot. Yep. Around creating really unique and fun environments in clients' homes. Um, you know, really high quality vinyl, um, turfs and um, that's kind of like a whole new world, I think, too. I think that people are really desiring to get fitness at home and to do the things that they love doing in inside of their home. Yes. Uh, when they can, especially in Minnesota when it's cold and you need to practice your swing. Colorado, too, and all the all those places. I mean, it's it's one of those I mean, I play a lot of golf. We have a simulator at our shop and it's one of those like, do I have to? No, I would rather have it at home, but at the same time Yeah. bit of separation is good, too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, you have a lot to offer here. Tell about all of your locations. Yeah, so we we're here at the corporate headquarters, which was the beginning in Burnsville, Minnesota. We have a showroom off of Broadway that's down in Rochester that services at the Mayo Clinic and tons of doctors and different people that are living down there. Uh, and then we do have a Colorado location. We are opening a New York, Manhattan location, working on that. Uh, we have a Sarasota, Florida location. We're working on opening a Tampa, Florida location, as well. And um, we just brought on a North Carolina, uh, South Carolina, um, operator who Megan Burns is going to be working to opening that. And so, you know, the great thing about being in the industry as long as we have as you meet a lot of talented people. Yes. You meet a lot of people that maybe don't realize the kind of experience they're giving clients really deserves them considering going off on their own or or maybe people are capable of so much more than they believe in themselves. And so, we're a company that wants to come alongside them with the brands that we offer and say we can get we can teach you how to give a customer an incredibly luxurious experience and uh, yeah. Which is interesting because everybody's version of luxury is different. So when you say luxury to one person it might be hey I just have an indoor speaker system to one it could be I have a whole outdoor space plus I have everything in the shop. So yeah. I think you know something that we have really strive for it really is our foundation when we talk about a customer trusting us with their wallet and their hopes and dreams of whatever kind of system that they are trusting us with our foundation really starts with the promise of it functioning the way that we had promised for it to function. Everybody is great with customers and they collect that check and then you usually see a decline the service kind of fall off and you know you're going to voicemail once in a while. Well we establish our ultimate goal is to showcase the brands that we sell and show clients that usually when we come in and we take over system there was a design gap in the beginning which caused it to be unreliable and so we just say hey trust us again if you've you know done some sort of automation system and you weren't happy with it you know give us a chance and sometimes we start small. Right. Hey we'll just do this room and then once we build more trust but that is really our foundation is these systems when they're done professionally should should really work the way that the manufacturer intended for them to work. Yeah absolutely and I know especially like with AI and other things that are going on people get worried about that getting taken over like someone's going to come in and hack it or somebody's going to come in and they're going to Yeah. try to rework the system and then there's not going to be anybody to help me or I'm going to screw it up and I'm going to have all my speakers blaring at the wrong time. I would say that that probably is one of the biggest fears is hey if I invest this money what is it going to look like a year from now and two years from now? One of the things when we when we first started this company, we had obviously a lot of different brands say, "We'll sell our product. We can give you these 20 products or we can give you this extraordinary margin percentage." And we instead went down the route of, "Well, what are all the brands that we know that are going to work incredibly well together?" And then also, what are the brands that are updatable, right? So, if you if you example would be Savant. So, Savant runs like a home off of a Mac mini Yep. computer. Right. That computer, we we upgrade operating systems in it, then we upgrade the Savant software in them. Yep. And we have done upgrades to customer systems that are almost 15 years old with most of the same hardware and then they get all of the new cool things. they don't want their old system to stop working even if they do the updates, "Hey, we can't service you anymore, you know?" And the cool thing, too, is that brand in particular also does upgrade paths for you where if you do have a component that is out of really can't [snorts] be upgraded, they give you a discount in some way, shape, or form to incentivize you to say, "Hey, I want to stay with this brand." Uh I could go on and on about all the other brands that also do that as well. But, that really is our foundation of saying, "Can we pick something that we think is going to be around for 20, 30, 40, 50 years?" promising, right? never know what the future holds, but you can usually tell by the heritage that these brands have that they have been doing very well for a really long time. Yeah. [music] So, you grew up in technology. Is it something that you always wanted to do when you were younger or is it something you kind of fell into? You know, it really was something I fell into. So, I uh grew up in California. So, I was your typical surfer, snowboarder, Orange County kid. I took the bus to the beach. It was a dollar at that time. Uh and I was in a music, so I was a professional jazz musician and then I was in a rock band for a while. And then when reality hit and uh I met my girlfriend who's now my wife. We're about to celebrate 20 years of marriage, which is incredible. My son that son of the time that kind of changed my trajectory. Uh I was working for a dealer out there building movie theaters. And so I just made the choice to say, "You know what? I You know, I still play music at home. It's fun. It's not going to be a profession anymore. Instead, I'm going to go all in and learn what I can learn and and license where I can get licensed and really say, 'Hey, I can make this a career.'" And that was in '99. So we were like delivering rear projection TVs that weighed 500 lb and it was just like I just remember like, "Man, I'm I don't even need to go to the gym. I just carry these things around." And then fast forward, um I wouldn't have it any other way. My son actually is in technology as well, going to college. Uh but I would tell you that I feel like the biggest thing that helped me was the always staying relevant. So me and my wife also uh mentor teens. And staying connected to the next generation, I feel like is critical to saying you need to kind of know how to use technology, which means you can learn how to sell technology. Um and there is a huge gap. And so staying relevant is I mean, it's I could tell you how many different classes and courses that were just always in to learn. But, you know, when you do that, you can also push aside the fad things. And that's the biggest thing that I think clients need is they're like uh when I go and now they're looking at AI, right? They just go right on their phone and they go, "What would be a good sound system for me to get?" We know it's not accurate all all time, but But need to be prepared that our clients, that's what they're using to try to get informed around things that are complicated. Yep. Uh so we make that information as accessible as possible. Our website has actually all of these different project guidelines, if you go on it, that tell you, well, how do I start designing a theater? Yes. What do I think about about outdoor audio? What is better going there than just, hey cloud or hey Siri, you know, what is this and what's this going to look like in my home? Yeah, and now they can kind of see it. They get pictures. They can look at, you know, we're big on testimonials, so we have some testimonials on our website. We really try to focus on helping educate clients so that they can come to us and they already have a good idea what they want to do, and now we can just make that a reality for them. Which is important. I know when you walk in here, you're not like, hey, this is [music] a three $30 million home. I can't afford anything in this place. You come in and it's broken down kind of in phases or in different areas. Yep. Yep. everybody needs to welcome everybody in. Yeah, and not everyone's doing a movie theater, you know, behind you you've got a short throw projector that can kind of fit in a small space. Um but we truly believe that in the right way, if we show somebody a really elegant looking bookshelf speaker, you know, made of walnut, uh Kef is a brand that we sell, 65-year-old brand of speakers, that's why we have them everywhere. Yep. They make speakers that look great and still give you performance. We truly believe that we don't have to hide everything away. Right. I feel like most builders have been shown the things that are, let's be honest, kind of ugly Right. Oh, yeah. very nice looking. I wouldn't put it in my home and I'm in this industry. Here's a big box speaker and then here's your sound bar on the bottom. Yeah, and then, hey, we're trying to hide it in boxes that aren't nice looking. So then we move into invisible, which invisible is great. Uh so trying to really let people see everything that's possible um is really what our goal is. What have been some of your obstacles in the last few years that you've kind of overcome and have launched you to the next level? I think um yeah, a lot of different obstacles. I think the first thing is uh figuring out how to tell your story in a way that's relatable, right? So, one of the things that we see is we and obviously we're going we're doing classes, we're we're meeting with different vendors, our team is always we're doing quarterly training. So, I head up all of the services and sales trainings for the company and so there's always different topics, but one of the biggest thing is uh how do you differentiate differentiate yourself? Yes. Because you know, when we talk to some other dealers, they're like, "Oh, we're luxury." Cuz we say, "Hey, we're a luxury technology company." Oh, well, we're luxury, too. Oh, talk to us about what brands and then you start going down the path of all the do-it-yourself brands. And so we're like, "Well, how do we tell that story?" Because we don't want to be bashing on other people or "Hey, I'm going to bring everyone else down so I can raise myself up." And so service and our our people and who we are, you And so VENZEO, which is our SEO marketing company that we work with, really helped us tell that story in a way that was relevant. And so it started with that. It was, "Well, what differentiates you?" Well, we're brand first, we're a brand first company, right? We believe craftsmanship comes behind luxury brands and that's what makes a luxury experience. Yes. So, that's the biggest thing is differentiation. The other thing would be our industry is known for having the big van with [music] the $10,000 of tools, with the big showroom, and all of these capital investments that are so not scaled Right. that it makes it impossible for you to figure out what priority you need to focus on. Right. Well, Jeff Cole, our founder, really focused on, "Well, what do we need?" Right. Absolutely. need first? We need products and we need brand partnerships. Yep. What else do we need? We need a place to show clients that Third, we need talent, right? And so, it's like, if you take those three core things and you go, "Well, then, okay, what is the next thing that you need?" Yep. Then it becomes this different scaling business that a lot of businesses in our industry, because the costs are so high to operate in some places, they just collapse. Right. They're like, "We don't have any clients yet." Throw it all in and sink or swim from there. it all in and our capital costs are just so out of control that and so, we're always talking, us and the owners are always trying to figure out, "Well, what is the priority?" Right. Right? The priority is showing what we can do. It's [music] not to have all these back-end things. Flashy, yep. Yeah. And so, so once you once you really reduce down [music] the concentrated experience you want to have the client have, it makes it really clear where you invest your money. Because you need to know the customer first and what their needs and wants are. You can grow from that once you know that and understand them. Yeah. I think that probably the third and one of the biggest things is, because we do work with some builders, but we don't rely on builder business to survive. So, that was something as well that we focused on was we want to figure out a way to be customer first. yeah. Because in our industry, if you start something up, a lot of the times it's started up from a "Oh, I have this builder that gives me all of the business, you know, I get to connect with every customer that buys a house for them." Yep. And we're like, "Well, okay, we do have builders that we work with, but if that's what we depend on, that's not actually going to make us be really sharp and savvy with customers directly. Yep. There's always going to be kind of this middle [music] thing. So, that was one of the biggest things that we focused on is we want a customer to come to our website, figure out where they live, Yep. and and call that phone number and be able to do what we need to do um and and work with us directly and talk to us with us directly. The the the partnerships are secondary and um And then the the biggest thing too also to combat is how do we build the trust with builders, Yeah. right? Yep. You know, if they're going to do a project with us, this could be the most important project, you know, important project they have for this year. Absolutely. How do how do you figure that out? So, navigating that can be challenging, but um yeah, I think that as we build a track record and just continue to have customers refer. And people's time frames are always different, too. When you're with a builders versus working with a residential homeowner, Yep. you never know when and where or if it needs to be done last week for the Artisan Tour or whatever that may be. Exactly. Yeah, you help make it work. Yeah. Who have been some of your main mentors that have gotten you to where you are today, do you think or do you feel? Yeah, I think that I've had a lot of them. And obviously during the time when we uh when I worked for Best Buy, there were so many good leaders that were there. I mean, I would I would say first and foremost, my biggest cheerleaders my family and my wife. Absolutely. Yeah. My wife So, my wife runs her own salon in Eden Prairie, Amazing. Jade Salon. and so she's gone through some of that entrepreneurial experience. Yep. And anytime you can hear from a completely different industry, especially something that's like hair styling where it's like emotional, Yep. You're like a psychologist. You're It's a little bit of everything. like, I am like they sit in my chair and it's therapy for them. And I'm like, that's really interesting. Yeah. I wonder how I could make Well, I could make my business therapeutic because we talk about listening to music. We talk about having light. So, it's just cool. kind [snorts] of wrapping it all up. to talk about that. And then I also have had some great leaders, high-level leaders that have really said um throw everything else aside that you know, how do you put the client first? Right. Um you know, I have a uh recently a story that I kind of shared on Instagram about a client who I hadn't talked to in 15 years Mhm. who still had my phone number. It was on my personal phone cuz obviously I had a new business number. And he called me and he was like, "My internet is out. Can you help me?" And I was in Rochester and he's in Deephaven. And I was like I would just remember hearing the voice in my head going "You know what the right thing to do is, Shane? And it's to go there. He's close to your house. You can do it." So, I decided to drive there. Hour and a half later, you're there. Got everything [laughter] situated and I just the relief in his eyes after we did what we could do. And obviously it turned into a sale and a best customer of ours. But that is like a customer experience, you know? And you know, you talk to different people and they're going to go, "Well, what about boundaries?" And and they start bringing up the somebody who does that all the time. Well, listen, I'm not at customer's houses at 8:00 p.m. every night. That'd be a boundary issue. But when the need is there I think that's the biggest thing because if you don't have internet, you don't have Wi-Fi, you don't have X. Your world is shut down. thing now and so get out pen and paper like you used to and start writing things down and You're like, "What do I do now? I can't." And then we have a lot of homes too as well where there's not good cell service. Correct. So, if you're like, "Now I'm in a home, right?" Maybe you're like, you know, traveling or the wife and the kids just got home. Nothing works and they're like, "I can't even call anybody." brick home and I can't even get service inside. in front of my house. So, we really have learned that wow, um there's certain core technologies that you really need to have working in your home. And that's a customer serve men you know, customer first mentality is really that like I'm going to go out of my way without you paying anything yet to figure out what's going on and see if I can solve the issue. nobody wants to "Hey, my internet's out." and you try to walk them through it over the phone cuz that's the most Yeah, and you're like "Hey, I'm going to send you a pay by link for $300 site visit." and you're like "Okay, never mind. I'll live with the 70-year-old customer that doesn't really even understand it and it's like "All right, I'll be there. Let me make this work." It's amazing. So, you have all locations all over. Your son's getting into technology. What do you think's next for you guys? You know, I think the biggest thing for us is obviously being able to take our brand more nationally is our focus. I think also mentoring the next generation of experts is is on our road map. It's very, very clear. And [music] and that's really is our focus is you know, lots of people have let's just say a revenue band. And obviously we have that. We're business, you know, we're we're we're we have a certain business and a certain target. Right. But our focus is really how can we get one more five-star reviews? How can we overcome something that I really focus on is coming into an [music] existing home that was maybe built 15 years ago and helping consult a client on what they can [music] do cuz they can usually do more than they think they can do. Absolutely. And I think really trying to capture that and continue to bring on brands that represent what we do is definitely on our road map for the future and bring other partners on. I personally work with a ton of interior designers and I um we do classes as well on lighting design for interior designers. And one of the reasons for that is I feel like interior designers are probably even closer to the customer than the builder is. Right. Oh, 100%. And I think there's just this misconception, but interior designers have so much vision and they really understand the limitations of a client. too. Which is helpful because if you start presenting all these things, you really do want an interior designer to say Yeah. Um hey, they're not going to like that. Correct. Or an architect to say, "Hey, I know the right person for you." Yes. Yes. Yeah. So, um I think that's our focus is just partnering with the right people and continuing to grow the brand. Amazing. I mean, I think with especially with mentoring, I do a lot of mentoring myself, but bridging that gap with the younger generation, keeping the communication alive Yeah. instead of just all technology cuz technology can go south. People can mistake it different ways, but also putting the old with the new and having them all work together is a bridge in itself, right? Yeah. And you can never you you without having the next generation come in and breathe uh new life into your company, there's an expiration date for everything you do. Uh so, you invest in the next generation, you have fun. We have a lot of fun around here while we do it. We have all stop learning, either. We actually just hired a 19-year-old technician who just started with us. So, we're from 40s, 50s to 19 years old and then everything in between. And it uh keeps us on our toes. And then when we need to crawl in an attic, I can tell that person to do that and my back is not feeling great today, so I need you to do that. So, is which is nice. I mean, it's it's getting all the different age levels and people together to come together for one great meaning. One one great company. Yeah. So, when people go into all of your sites or how can they get a hold of you? Where can they find you at? Well, I'll definitely uh put my, you know, my business phone number in on this post. Uh you can go to our website. There's direct numbers that are on there. You also, if you see us on Instagram, you can DM us directly. It's very easy for us uh for you to get a hold of us. You can even do a web submission, as well. Tell us a little bit about what you're trying to do, and um we do projects even cross state. So, we're actually working on a project in Virginia. Uh well, a dream house that's out there, and uh we pick and choose how we, you know, execute those projects. But, if a client is not in a state where we operate, um they can always still reach out to us, even if we give them it all in house. You don't sub anything out. Yeah, so we do not sub out. So, we travel when we need to travel. We're super efficient with the work that we do. We drop ship things as needed. Um but, yeah, no subcontracting. Amazing. So, you've had a lot of mentors. You've had a lot of growth. What do you think, outside of the growth, in your personal life is going to be next for you, your wife, your son? Any trips or anything? Man. Well, so my wife has uh lived in Thailand for 13 years. So, we visit Thailand a lot. Fun. Yep. Uh and it's a long You got to kind of stay there for a good amount of time, cuz you're It's like 25 hours gate to gate. But, I think that's the biggest thing. My daughter is a junior at Chaska High School, and so she's starting to figure out what her Yep. uh you know, what her passions are. I think the biggest thing is getting out in the community, and then obviously we're looking forward to the CEDIA Expo that we go to every year. Um but, yeah, outside of that, um getting outside, getting some fresh air, working on some projects, and enjoying uh enjoying the outdoors. How important do you think is it for people, when you're talking to people, to get your passion involved with what you do every day life? Cuz I know I do a lot of that. People are worried about burning it out. They're worried about all the other things, but Yeah, I think two. Yeah, I I have kind of this small business journey post that I've put on my Instagram and I'm going to be putting a new one on in this next week. But the biggest thing is if you aren't enjoying what you're doing, you're doing the wrong thing. And everyone's definition of joy is different, but I think joy and easy aren't the same things. No. And so, you know, you want to be challenging yourself every day, but you do want to love what you what you [music] do. I mean, I'm almost almost 30 years into this and I still love every challenge that I'm faced with. guys grow and you think outside the box. It's something new. a solution for something. I think yeah, it can be hard to say, "Man, I have to really learn a lot all the time." But I feel like that keeps us young. Well, I mean, your role like my role like everybody else's Well, not everybody else's, but we're not stuck in a cubicle all day long just doing what we're doing. I mean, some people love that and that's who they are and that's what they do. But it's again going back to what you love and what you do. If you can take something from the outside like I do golf and mix it with work, you do your music and you mix it with your work. Finding your passion in something that you do, it helps a lot. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. So, you have a lot going on here. We are going to give everybody a tour once we're done too so they can kind of take a look and see what's what's on and what's out. We'll put your website on there. Any new things that you guys have coming up? Well, so we obviously there's a ton of events in Twin Cities that I'll send to you. So, we are going to be doing an event with 311 RS, which is the Porsche shop. So, that's going to be in August. We are doing a What is Luxury event at the Emerald Company. So, we like to do a lot of things like that. There are some events that are going to be going on with Cambria down in Rochester. So, yeah, lots happens in this town in the summertime. So, we take advantage of that. So, other than that, yeah, we continue continue construction on the golf simulator and the theater. And that work's going to be done. But, yeah, happy to give you guys a tour. Amazing. Before we close out, would there be any advice that you'd give to the younger generation? Or do you think that there would be any advice that you've taken in that are that's really important that's stuck with you? Yeah, I think from a younger generation standpoint, always be learning. And always be finding opportunities [music] to cross-examine or question older folks that are in an industry you're interested in because we always get excited when young people ask us about it. you do this? Yeah. And and listen, the questions can be difficult. Yes. We're okay with that too as well, but always be learning, always be asking. And I'd say the second thing is believe in yourself. Yep. You are you are totally capable of incredible things. You are totally capable of pursuing your dreams. And nobody said it was going to be easy. So, you should expect it's not going to be easy, but you are going to love the journey. And it'll be a long journey and there'll be ups and downs, but you learn from those too, right? Well, thank you so much for being on today. We'll do the tour. We'll add that all on and we appreciate everybody that's staying tuned and keep shining light. Thanks, guys. Thank you.