Talkin’ Winter with Swinter

Ken and Nicole talk about their VIP tour of a working salt mine. They went 1,000 feet down and 3.5 miles into the mine to see how salt starts as a vein in the ground and ends up in chunks above ground. Part of the experience was watching an underground explosion. Standing 1,000 feet away in pitch blackness, they felt the impact and saw an amazing site. Ken and Nicole describe the entire experience.

Then, back up on top of the earth, they went 4 stories up in another building to see how those salt chunks become much smaller particles and end up in a more than 150' wide by ~800' long by 80' tall building FULL of bulk salt. Take a listen to this amazing process.

Tim Greenwood, sales guru with Fabick Caterpillar joins Ken, Zack and Brent to talk about Cat iron.

Ken, Zack and Brent discuss why it's important to start getting ready for snow at least 3-4 months before the first snow might fall. They talk about:

• equipment: what to check and how to check it
• deicing equipment: get pricing early so you know your costs
• customers: why and how to create a rapport with your customers as well as how to set yourself apart from your competitors.
• finding sub work: why the early bird gets the worm, or the prime properties.
• and more!

Ken, Zack and Brent talk about the SIMA symposium, robots in the snow industry and the challenges associated with installing snow plows and salt spreaders.

This episode is all about the trade show at the 25th anniversary of SIMA's snow and ice symposium. The crew discusses the products and experiences that they found the most interesting, including the Vortex backpack blower, Ironhawk Industrial vibration /sound dampeners for plows, Winter Equipment's Cutting Edges, the Raven bumper plow, Hilltip, spring loaded wear shoes, a dragon wing, and spiral metals.

Day 2 of the 25th anniversary of the SIMA Snow & Ice Symposium included snack and chats on social media, software, and recruitment as well as session about Leading from the Middle and Automation in Snow and Ice Management.

Topics the Ken, Brent, Mollie, and Nicole discuss include:

• Ways to use Facebook
• Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords)
• Incentive ideas for recruiting and keeping employees
• The importance of good communication
• How to receive feedback
• Benefits and challenges to using robots to clear sidewalks, including whether it replaces employees or helps them
• Where the green industry is using robots right now

Ken, Nicole, Brent, and Mollie talk about the first day at the 25th Annual SIMA Snow & Ice Symposium - Part 2 of 2

They discuss a wide range of topics! From their escapes around Milwaukee to a recap of the classes called "Creating Team Efficiency to improve the bottom line", where they discuss leading your leaders and the Kolbe Index and "Planning for Snow 52 weeks a year", where they talked about the importance of securing snow contracts as early as the summer to help all involved.

Here are a few links to things we mention in this podcast:

Kolbe - https://www.kolbe.com/kolbe-a-index

Vanilla Cranberry Lemonade - https://www.monin.com/us/vanilla-spice-cranberry-lemonade

Fancy chocolate - https://www.indulgencechocolatiers.com/shop/bars/seasonal-bark-tropical/

Soylent Green - https://youtu.be/N_jGOKYHxaQ

Ken, Brent, Nicole, and Mollie attended the 25th Annual Snow & Ice Symposium in Milwaukee. They each visited different educational sessions and discuss what they learned in the next few podcasts. Of course the trades how and exciting new products (robots?!) is a topic as well.

Ken and the guys embark on our first nearly completely unscripted show. The only things on the discussion table are tips and tricks for keeping warm and what to do and what not to do online.

Ken & Brent travel to Holland, Michigan to meet with Wade Madsen for a site visit, tour and interview. Wade then joined the team for recording the following day.