An AV and integration-focused podcast broadcast weekly

This week's episode of Automation Unplugged our guest today is Carley Knobloch, founder of Warren Road and newly appointed Technology Advisor at AudioVisions in Los Angeles.

Carley is a longtime voice in home technology — from her role as HGTV’s Smart Home guru to her appearances on the Today Show with Kathie Lee and Hoda. Through her work with top brands like Samsung, LG, and Google, she’s spent more than a decade helping people understand how tech can make their lives simpler, not more complicated.

After a home renovation reignited her passion for design, Carley launched Warren Road to bridge the gap between designers and technologists — helping create homes where technology whispers, not shouts. Now at AudioVisions, she’s bringing that same philosophy to the world of ultra-luxury smart homes.

About this episode:

In this episode, Carley and I discussed:

• How thoughtful design and technology can beautifully coexist
• The importance of early collaboration between designers and integrators
• And Why lighting and wellness are the next frontiers in smart home design

SEE ALSO: #337: 2025 Year in Review — Growth, Challenges, and the Role of AI at One Firefly

Transcript

Ron:

Hello. Hello there. Ron Callis with another episode of Automation Unplugged. Today's show is kicking off the new year here in 2026. I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday weekend, our week weeks. Many of you might celebrate, uh, all of December. Maybe you started back in November. Uh, regardless, I hope you're all having, uh, a wonderful Wednesday 'cause that's the day we release our shows. Perhaps you're watching on the day of release or maybe you're watching, uh, far into the future regardless. Thank you for tuning in. Today's show is brought to you by one Firefly. That is, uh, my day job over at One Firefly. We work with integrators throughout North America and around the world to help them grow their business. If we can be of service to you, please don't hesitate to reach out. We also have amplify people where we are helping integrators with all of their hiring needs. So again, if we can be of service or value to you, don't hesitate to reach out the team at one firefly and amplify people is what holds down the fort, and that allows me the opportunity to spend. All of this time with you here on Automation Unplugged, and today we have another wonderful guest, uh, for you. We have the one and only Carley, Knobloch. She's a technology advisor. She's actually a newer member of the team over at Audiovisions. But as you will learn very quickly, uh, you may have seen or heard from Carley because she has been all over major publications. And all over, uh, TV for many years as a home technology expert. And now she's over at the team at Audiovisions, and I'm so excited to talk to her. She's gonna give us better insight into how integrators could be better working with the interior design community, the architectural community, custom builders working, uh, in different ways, bringing different perspectives, talking to luxury consumers and or their representatives. So without further ado, let's go ahead and bring in Carley and, uh, let's see how she's doing. Carley, how are you?

Carley:

I'm fantastic. How are you? Thank you so much for having me.

Ron:

I, uh, do we wanna tell everyone how this happened? Like where you and I actually where our paths crossed?

Carley:

Yes. Well. It was a fateful busy day at Cedia, just a, a handful of weeks ago. It was, um, and, uh, I am just kind of like, I was just a little puppy on the floor. Uh, I, I've been to CEDIA for many years and then I kind of took a break. And now with my new role at Audiovisions, I was back at Cedia, running around, uh, seeing old friends, um, and new friends like you. And, um, once you learned that I was gonna be joining Mark and the team at Audiovisions, you graciously invited me. And now after binging, uh, many episodes of this fabulous podcast, I feel honored to be in such good company. So it's a thrill to be here and, uh, and, uh, talking about this brand new role that I have.

Ron:

Awesome. I am, uh, I think we were, uh, I was talking with Patrick over at, uh, WAC Aspire, and you, you, I think you were at Patrick's next meeting. Maybe you were the next meeting, maybe you were the prior meeting. But, uh, Patrick being the networker and, and connector that he is, he got us connected and uh, and he said, you guys need to know each other. And, uh, and here we are. Now we get to share your story, your background, and your perspectives with our audience, uh, here on Automation Unplugged. So Patrick,

Carley:

Patrick, by the way, is a lovely new friend and has been such a cheerleader. Uh, and, and we'll get into the business that I started back in January, but he and I connected relatively quickly. Uh, and he has just been. Such a, um, a, a wonderful guide and Sherpa as I, uh, journey into this industry in a different way than I have before.

Ron:

Yeah, Patrick is a wonderful human being. Anyone that knows Patrick, uh, will attest to that. And, uh, he's probably at least one of the strong reasons, not the only reason, but that a lot of people are, are, a lot of people in our channel are doing. So much great business with WAC and uh, Spire, uh, 'cause he's just such a, a great ambassador. But that's Patrick. I'm sure. Uh, Patrick is glowing if he is, uh, listening to this Hi. Or if he's, uh, hi. Someone, uh, tunes him in that we're talking so favorably about him. Uh, but let's, let's talk about you real quick. Where are you coming to us from for this, uh, for this discussion?

Carley:

I am sitting in my home office, um, completely displeased with how my shelves are styled. Uh, this is, this room is the last room that's coming together after we, um, had a pretty extensive remodel. And I can go into that story 'cause it's sort of part of my arc here of how I ended up in this role. Um, but I'm coming to you from Los Angeles, uh, in my home office with dogs sleeping at my feet. And uh, and yeah, that's where I'm at. That's where I'm at. That's

Ron:

love it. I paused just 'cause I wanna make a comment. Uh, yeah. Pausing the Carley. So you joined the team over at Audiovisions. Uh, I'm actually gonna put their website up on the screen in case, uh, anyone, uh, let me, let me do this here. There we go. Putting, uh, their website up on the screen for our audience, at least the audience that's watching. Uh, I'll also put the Audiovisions website right across the bottom there, audiovisions.com. Um, but it, there's obviously a great, a great business, a great customer at One Firefly. I love Mark and Ryan and the whole team, but what I'm showing on the screen is they have, uh, multiple locations throughout California and, uh, which. What is the location where you're working and, and what's your general roles or responsibilities over there?

Carley:

Um, yes, good question. So I will be working in the LA market. It's the youngest market in the audiovisions collection of markets. Um, but what's wonderful about the company is just how collaborative all the different sales teams are. Um, oh, and I should say I will be, uh, what's called a technology advisor, which is a member of the sales team. So I'll be going out and hopefully closing a lot of business with, um, uh, with the design build community, with homeowners, with owners.

Ron:

Carley, just so that our audience understands kind of where you're at and what your specific roles or responsibilities are. You've joined Audiovisions, uh, as a technology advisor, but I'd love you to share what that means. And actually, uh, let's see if I can get technology to behave here. I'm gonna share the Audiovisions website. So for our, uh, listeners, what I'm sharing on the screen is the Audiovision's website, uh, specifically their locations page. And, uh, for our viewers that are watching, uh, on YouTube or on social media, they, they can see, but you can see that, uh, audiovisions has an Orange County, Los Angeles, Northern Cal and Palm Desert location. Are you working in all of these locations or are you focused or zeroed in, uh, working with one team?

Carley:

Yeah, I'm definitely focused and zeroed in working with and for the LA market. So we cover everything from Pasadena to Montecito and everything in between. It's a huge market. Uh, it's the youngest market in the audiovisions constellation of markets. But what's so remarkable about audiovisions is that the collaborative nature of all the different sales teams. So if one of my clients were to have a home in another location, it's very easy for me to service 'em because there are locations all up and down the coast of California. So, uh, I will be very focused on LA but there is potential for me to to, you know, work anywhere,

Ron:

wherever your clients go, wherever your clients have properties. So it's really where does the sales team or the production team based, but any, any. Sales person, or in your case technology advisor, uh, could work with their customer wherever their customer takes them. I mean, is that, uh, is that an accurate statement at least based on your understanding?

Carley:

Yeah, absolutely.

Ron:

Okay. All right. So let me, I'm gonna pull the audio visions. It is a beautiful website if I must, uh, say so myself. Uh, let me pull that off the air. Um, I'm curious, Carley, we're gonna go here just a few minutes into your background and you have just a, a wonderfully diverse and just interesting background. Uh, I'm gonna challenge quite different from a lot of the technology advisors or technology consultants in our channel, in our space. Um, but what was it about when you had this life choice of where you were gonna go next? What was it about audio visions that had you, you know, say that's, that's my new home base?

Carley:

I always, you know, life is a really funny thing and we, we zig and we zag. At least for me, I, uh, I feel like my life is well lived when I am just pursuing things that are interesting to me when I can really go deep into a subject matter and learn. And so, um, I also really wanted to work with the people at the top of the industry. Um, I'm new to the industry in some ways, and yet I've been present and observant and, uh, commentating on the industry for a decade and a half. So. When it came time to, uh, when, when, when I got to the place where I was thinking about, oh, I might wanna go in-house and really learn the custom integration business, um, I reached out to my very good friend, Scott Boco at Sonance, uh, and I said, who are, who are the people that are just doing it at the very top of the industry? Who are the wonderful companies that I should speak with in the LA market? And he was kind enough to introduce me to, uh, a very small handful of elite companies in la. Um, but Mark and audio visions were so standout just in terms of the quality of the human beings that I met as the interview process unfolded, um, I was very, uh, um, impressed and, uh, thought their whole process of how they build software and technology is so unique. Um, and of course the history and the legacy of how long they've been in the business and what they've seen and been a part of, um, and, and how far the tentacles go, the mark tentacles, um, in terms of relationships and the quality of those relationships. Um, and even just after speaking with him for the first, you know, conversation, which lasted nearly two hours, the quality of how I felt like our relationship was even just upon meeting him. So, uh, I think obviously you're looking for the caliber of the organization. Are they making money? Are they successful? Um, you know, are they, uh, well regarded, but you're also looking at the people. And so, um, I just really am at the point in my life where I wanna be surrounded by incredible people that I can learn a tremendous amount from. And, and they checked every box.

Ron:

So I've made comments that you have a diverse and interesting background. You've been on tv, you've been on, you know, nationally publicized TV as a technology expert. But, uh, go more in depth. Tell us about your background and then I've got a, a, a lot of fun directions. I want to take the conversation, but I want our audience to kind of understand where you're coming from.

Carley:

Okay, well, how far back do you want me to go?

Ron:

Oh my goodness. Uh, elementary school. Okay. No, uh, did you choose what the appropriate starting point is? All

Carley:

right, let's go back to, I moved, uh, to Los Angeles from Toronto, Canada, um, when I was, uh, just about to turn 20. So I've spent my whole adult life here and thought when I moved out here that I was pursuing a graphic design degree in print and then went to work for a magazine. I was the lowly intern and it was the early nineties. So now I've dated myself or everybody who can do math and uh, and they said, we need a website. Nobody knows what that is. Make the intern figure it out. And thus began two things. One, my first real career, which was. Um, as, as a very early web designer in the Web 1.0 era in the early nineties. And then a second thing began where I kind of found myself at a really interesting intersection, a really interesting moment in time, and kind of jumped into a new industry, figured it out as I went and rode that wave. So without obviously any training in coding or, uh, you know, Photoshop for that manner, um, I learned as I went. And within a year I was teaching classes at the art Center College of Design on web design, because there was no such thing. Um, I was hired.

Ron:

No, I'm curious. Carley, were you in doing web coding? Uh, am I gonna, is this in the nineties? Yes. Okay. Were you using Dreamweaver or were you u doing, was it HTML coding or what, what was it back then?

Carley:

It was HTML. I mean, I remember when Dreamweaver came out and I was like, this is all, this is throwing a lot of junk into the code and, and I sort of don't need this anymore. It would've been nice to have when I had first started, but I really started coding because I got impatient with the coding team. And I would create a design and I'd wanna see how it behaved on the web. And, uh, I just, I'll just do it myself. And so I can still, I'm still dangerous enough to kind of go in under the hood and look at code and figure out where to find things. But my coding, uh, knowledge is definitely early nineties level, uh, sort of quickly moved on from, from coding. Um, but, you know, I, I'm not afraid of computers. I'm not afraid of code and not afraid of sort of technical stuff, which I think, you know, sort of puts me in this unique place. But I definitely also have this art background, and that was the first time that I sort of had the intersection of those two things kind of come together.

Ron:

Uh, just one, one more question. At that period in your career or your experience, you, you transitioned pretty quickly after learning something into teaching it, and I see that as, I mean, not to rush the story, but so relevant here as a technology advisor to homeowners and designers and trade partners, so much teaching that happens. W has that always been a kind of a part of your DNA? You know, you learn something, you wanna teach it.

Carley:

That is, you took the words right out of my typical story arc, which is, I mean, if we had gone back to first grade, you would've seen me being like the reading group leader, like the student ta. Uh, I love learning, and the minute I feel like I have mastered any modicum of information, I love to turn around and teach it. And I feel like in my career as a journalist and a content creator and a TV personality. That's really my special sauce is I like to go and teach complex concepts like, uh, initially in my TV life, personal technology when it was new, uh, when the iPhone had just come out and everybody was trying to figure out how to make that the remote control for their whole lives, um, to moving into smart home. And we're sort of jumping around a little bit, but I love helping people get engaged with things because a lot of non-technical people, especially women, get a little bit like, ah, I can't, I don't, I don't know about any of that stuff. And like, immediate walls go up. Um, and I enjoy very much disarming those walls and getting people to understand what this stuff makes possible in their lives and connecting it to lifestyle headaches that they have. Um. And yeah, essentially, uh, going back to my story, what happened was I was working up and down the coast, uh, as a freelance designer. Um, I ended up being hired for, by Sony, um, in their first, uh, web design, uh, department, uh, Columbia Tristar Interactive. I worked for them for a couple years, built some of the first ever film and TV websites for the studios. Wow. Then I became a consultant. Yeah. I built, uh, the original, um, uh, spice Girls website, the Mad About You website, the Seinfeld website. I was a part of that whole era of, of literally putting these things online for the first time. And, um, and then I kind of took a little bit of a step back. I had my first, uh, child in 2001 and was. Watching what was going on in the industry. I noticed a couple of things. YouTube was already up and running. It was a lot of kids in their bedrooms with webcams. It wasn't yet a very, um, uh, uh, well du there weren't a lot of, well, there wasn't a lot of well produced content on YouTube just yet. Um, very homegrown stuff. I was watching a lot of the TV executives that I knew from Sony, a handful of them were leaving the TV business and starting digital studios. Uh, demand Media, if you remember that, or, uh, there were a number of them that we're starting. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be interesting to create a very commercial friendly, brand friendly, well produced. Three minute show that talked about the common lifestyle headaches that women slash heads of household slash non-technical people who are just trying to live their day, manage their families, go to work, travel for work, manage their businesses at home, address those lifestyle headaches with this emerging world of personal technology that was coming out and who is going to talk to. There were a lot of dudes talking to dudes about tech. There were a lot of like hot babes talking to dudes about tech. And I didn't really see anyone who looked like me talking to other women who looked like me about how they could leverage things like the cloud, like all of these apps that were coming out. And so I really fashioned myself as a girlfriend's guide, a non-technical person's guide to the world of technology. And I was teaching. People about the early days of Evernote, the early days of Dropbox. Um, what is the cloud? How do you sync your calendar with your husband so that he can never tell you that he didn't know that there was a soccer practice that evening? You know? Or how can you get your grocery list on your phone so that you don't show up at the grocery store and realize you left it on the kitchen counter? And, uh, these were, these were the stories that brought people in and helped them be like, oh, I get it. I get how I can use this. And she's making it look easy because it's actually easy if you sort of, those walls come down and you can say, step one, sign up for an account. Step two, you do this. Step three, you add that. And you're done. And so we, I created a, a YouTube show called Digital, and it wa it aired for about a year, weekly. Um, it launched me as a, uh, um, I hate using this word, but as an influencer, I started doing a lot of brand work because the brands were like, Hey, we don't really know how to talk to this market. We're just a bunch of hoodie wearing guys in Silicon Valley. Um, so can you help us craft stories that will be compelling to a non-technical audience That caught the attention of the Today Show, where I was a regular contributor for 10 years in the, in the, you know, 10 plus years in the golden era of Kathy Lee and Hoda. And I would go on with them and they would drink their chardonnay and I would talk to them about technology and hilarity ensued. And then that caught the attention of HGTV in sort of the. 15, 16, 17 era where they were just starting to try to figure out how to tell the smart home story to their audience. So I became kind of their smart home girl and went on. Um, they have a, they have several tent pole shows throughout the year, dream Homes that they give away. And one of them they had designated as the Smart Home. So I became a TV personality on the Smart Home franchise, and I did a ton of digital content for them around Smart Home. And, um, also worked with the Houseware Show and, you know, a a bunch of other companies that were all sort of trying to do the same thing. How do we centralize the smart home story in our show or on our screens or wherever? And how do we tell it in an engaging way and get people excited about it? And fast forward to a year and a half ago. Um, we had a flood in our home, a major flood. Our second, is it a

Ron:

rainstorm or what, what caused it?

Carley:

No, it was a perfect storm of utter nonsense. We had a, a, a water surge and a faulty valve, and a second floor washing machine just filled with water and exploded out and linked into the first floor. Huge insurance claim had to move out. What happened was I became the designer of my own renovation, uh, assumed the role of interior designer, had a great contractor that I partnered with, and also became my own technology specifier. I had a lot of technology in the house, but here was a chance where the walls were open, I could add more, and I really struggled to get tradespeople to understand my vision. A lot of arguments about things I knew that were possible, that they were saying weren't possible. And I just thought, if I'm having trouble and I know with great confidence what I can do here, because I work with many of these brands directly, um, other people might be having the same problem. And so that really caused me, uh, or inspired me to start my consultancy, which I started, um, about a year ago in January. And, um, it's called Warren. It was called Warren Road. Uh, continues to be Warren Road, but it's now going, it's now just sort of taken a new direction that I have this full-time role. Um, and it was really about just like the interior designer sits over other trades and kind of is the master of the design vision, like the upholsterer or the cabinet maker, the marble fabricator, the uh, plaster, the custom plaster wall finish guy. Maybe there needs to be somebody who sits over the custom integrator, the electrician, the lighting designer, the security guy, so that everything's mounted on the wall in a really pleasant way or is maybe disappeared. Um, the, the audio visual guy, and there's a, a design vision over all of these trades that are sort of brought in more like contractors later in the process. That they can be, there can be somebody there advocating for the overall design vision of the house and ensuring that everything either kind of completely disappears or plays very nicely with the design vision and with each other. Um, and that is where I sat for about six months until I started talking with Audio Visions, and now I'm here and I think the future of Warren Road will be, or, you know, is more like just my social presence. Um, and, uh, continuing to tell stories on my social feed. But, uh, I've been really focused on working with the Audio Visions team and, uh, just really connecting with homeowners in the design build community there and, and closing business.

Ron:

I, I'm curious when you had your, uh, your, your prior, um. Opportunities where you were on tv, maybe HT HGTV with the, the home technology or the Smart Home, or maybe some of the other roles. Did you find that you were exposed to this, this business type called the integration company, the integration contractor? Uh, did you know they existed at that point?

Carley:

Absolutely. I, and what immediately struck me, one of the first projects that HG HGTV sent me on was to an incredible home down in Manhattan Beach. Um, you know, starting with the biometric fingerprint door opener at the front door and going all the way up to the third floor man cave, you know, super Bowl watching environment that they had. It was layered with technology. It had a fabulous savant system. I remember way back then really, uh, appreciating the interface of that system because it was, you know, that one at the time where you can tap on a picture of the kitchen pendants and the kitchen pendants would turn on. And I thought, Hey, they're doing something really wonderful and very intuitive with their, um, user interface. Um, and that was early days for, for that particular user interface. But I also remember the stories that I was telling where I'm in this man cave. I'm talking about how three TVs kind of, you know, come out of the, the floor and you can watch several different sporting events at the same time. And, uh, you can, uh, have the lights turn on that and coordinate with your football team's colors and all of that. And I thought, this is cool, but this is a story that is very specific. Almost a luxury story and almost, and a very male-centric story. And the audience for HGTV is primarily female and not really a luxury market. So I felt even then that there was this mismatch of, yes, this is certainly cool and it continues to be cool that we can do all those things. But where are the stories that would appeal to a woman watching who maybe has kids, wants to make sure that they're safe and that they made it home after school. Maybe she's at work. She wants to keep eyes on the house, she wants to be able to communicate with her children. She wants to make sure that the locks are locked when they're home so no one can enter. She wants to be able to check that the garage door got closed after they were done playing outside. Um, I was craving and. Wanting, wanting more from the stories because I thought they would be more relevant to the people watching if they addressed some of these real life concerns that pretty much every family has.

Ron:

That's what I'm hearing in that we've only been chatting for, uh, you know, a little bit, I'm hearing this idea throughout your career, Carley, of, of really leading with stories, stories and applications over, um, you know, technology and features and black boxes. And, uh, I'm curious on your take, what, what role as it relates to technology integration and now that you're representing audio visions and you're not only working directly with consumers, but you're also working with the design community, right? You're, do you think that that's a. Different approach that you're, you are gonna be bringing on behalf of Audio visions into that design community as you represent our, not just audio visions, you represent our industry. And I would challenge, maybe there's an opportunity to do it a little bit differently, maybe a little bit better.

Carley:

Yeah. I think it's, I would, I would reframe it as less, better, and more just an evolution of the story. So I think, you know, audio visions is called Audio Visions. It started as an AV company because that's what, that's what custom integration was. When it started, um, in, its in its infancy and it has evolved into this life, this really compelling lifestyle from a comfort perspective, from a safety perspective, from an energy efficiency spec, uh, perspective, from a, um, you know, power perspective. There are, so, there's so many evolutions of this story, and the story continues to evolve to really, um, you know, if you distill it down to this home that knows what to do without you riding, its remote. And I think a lot of people think of smart home as, um, you know, oh, I can, I can operate that thing across the room from my phone. And of course that's, that is true, but it's so much more than that. And with AI and with all of the sophisticated sensors that all these devices have now. This is really about a home that is keeping you comfortable, keeping you safe, keeping the light, uh, in, in the best possible and most healthful, um, way for you to experience it, uh, without you having to do anything potentially. And so I often am just having sort of these deep philosophical questions with myself because I am always kind of ready to manage doubts and expectations and, and, um, you know, pushback about what is the point of all of this. Is this just a flex? Is this just for the ultra wealthy is just, just about having the coolest, newest thing in your house? And I think it's, yes, it's all those things and it is also so much more about really solving real. Problems that real families and individuals are facing in the home. And those are the things that are just so much more compelling to me. And in terms of storytelling, those are the things that people go, oh, oh, okay. Now I understand because I can have a smart fan and I can have a smart skylight and I can have a smart, uh, HVAC system. But if they all were on an, uh, an umbrella, you know, sitting underneath an umbrella system together, now they can work in concert and they can open and close and turn on and off themselves in the right combination at any moment to continue to make my house the most comfortable. And I don't have to think about when I should open the skylight or when I should turn on the fan. They're all working in concert together, keeping me comfortable, and I can get on with the more important things I need to do than riding my air conditioner and all of that. That's remarkable. So to me, those are the things that really help people's little light bulbs turn on, and that's like my favorite part of what I do.

Ron:

No, that's, that's awesome. You, you had mentioned earlier that you are always, uh, learning and growing. Uh, you and I were even chatting before we pressed the record button, that you've gone back to school in some different subject matter and recently, um, maybe you could provide clarity. You've also kind of gone down this path of lighting design. What, what, what have you done and, and what has that experience been like?

Carley:

I'm so glad you asked me about this because I have been bitten by the bug and it is yet another moment in my career where I feel like I am showing up at this incredible time. So, just recently, um, maybe. A year or so ago, uh, I started and then completed, obviously more recently than that, a lighting design certificate from Parsons or the new school in New York. Um, obviously I did it remotely, but uh, it was a really extensive class taught by the former president of the IES. Um, so very technical, uh, really got the vernacular down. Really a foundational, incredible education. And I just have fallen in love with this idea of lighting and I have this knowledge of controls because of how long I have observed and been a part of this industry. So when I graduated from that program before audio visions and before all of that, I thought to myself, okay, well I can work alongside a. Uh, a custom integration company or I could go mentor with a lighting designer and that would sort of continue to propel me forward with lighting design. And what I quickly realized is that this is the moment, this is the moment where custom integrators are going to capture this incredible opportunity to own the lighting design experience in residences and, um. So it made so much more sense to me. Ultimately when I really started talking to people and understanding the landscape. Patrick Laidlaw, again, was an incredible resource. David Warfield, who I know you've had on your show a couple times, uh, and all roads in lighting lead to David it seems, and he has been very generous with his time sharing with me. Um, I reached out to the people at the IES and, and made some friends there and really started to see this is the moment where integrators are actually going to own this space. So I feel really excited. Um, I still have a lot of work to do. I'm taking a couple classes now, um, through the Light and Health Research Center, um, on lighting design again, but also on lighting and its relationship to health. Um, again, I'm looking for more stories. I'm looking for compelling stories. I want to sort of broaden my knowledge to be able to explain to a homeowner. What is really made possible when you have good lighting, because I think people just live with bad lighting all the time and they don't really know what it is, what good lighting is until they experience it. And then it's like, you can never go back. It's like, you know, I think David on your show said it's like having air conditioning. Um, once you have it, you're never gonna not want it again. So it's just about getting people to understand what's possible, uh Yeah. And how it really does affect your health and your sleep and your wellbeing and all of that. So that's where I'm at with that.

Ron:

Yeah. My, my go-to with lighting and I, as my audience knows, I've been exposed to the conversations in education, at least on the periphery around lighting since my career started back in 2000. And that was when I joined Lutron. And, uh, my, my good example, I think that makes lighting understandable or approachable by all is that. We all can think of a, of typically a nice or stylish restaurant that we've been to, and it just looks great. It looks cool, it's inviting, it's warm, it's cozy, it's intimate. And when you understand lighting design, you quickly realize so much of that equation is in the lighting, how the place is lit and what needs to be bright is bright and what needs to, you know, the shadows are powerful and the layers of light are, you know, so powerful and, and impressive. And when done well, it just, the whole package makes you want to go back. And the same thing for a, a nice home. It's just in nice homes. Even though you could have a three or five, or god forbid, a $10 million house, there are still many cases where that thing went out. Uh, to bid to the electrical contractor with just very generic canned lighting. No attention to detail. I, I'm not saying that always happens at that, that those price points, it certainly almost always happens at the, I don't know, dare I say, sub $1 million price point for a home. Rarely is there any attention to quality lighting or fixture design or placement in a home. And it, it's such an exciting category for our industry. What I don't know is just how many people on the front line and sales, uh, or con consultation or advising like you are with, uh, audio visions have actually then gone and gotten the education. Uh, I, I'm gonna challenge that. That might be fairly rare and I think that that's gonna give you a leg up as you're out there having these conversations.

Carley:

Yeah, I think it already. Does give me a leg up and I would say to anyone listening it, it will, because if you and and I, and for me personally, where I am most excited or as excited as educating the homeowner about it, is educating the designer about it. Because it's one thing you know, you're spending a thousand dollars a yard on a fabric, on a sofa. Not only can you educate your designer about CRI or color rendering index. That, um, luminaire, but you can also say, and it's tunable. So if we decide that we wanna go from 2,700 to 3000, like just in this room or just on the lights that are, uh, aimed at that sofa to really bring out, or we wanna add some vibrancy from Lutron, Ketra to really bring out the reds in this, or really bring out the blues in this, there's so much that's possible that will enhance. The work of the designer. Um, when I was remodeling my home, this was before my lighting journey started, unfortunately for me and what I knew is that I hated the lighting in my house and I, I hated the downlights specifically. What I didn't yet understand is that downlights aren't the problem. It's bad downlights that are the problem. The lights where you literally have the bulb that's hanging below the ceiling and you're all you're doing is staring directly into the bulb if the bulb is in the wrong place and you know we're in your eye line and you have terrible glare. So I may go back now with the knowledge that I have at some point, um, when the family budget allows and replace some of my downlights that are still left. 'cause I ripped a ton of them out. When we were remodeling and the, and the ceilings were open, uh, and um, got rid of a lot of the grids of downlights in my house, which was a spec house. It's an 11-year-old house. So, um, again, sort of the, the, the cheap lights, the kind of lazy layout of lights. Um, tho that's really the problem. It's not the downlights themselves. 'cause a lot of designers hate downlights and they'll just rip them all out. And then it's like, well, we might be missing opportunities to light the walls and aim them towards the walls. We might be missing opportunities to light artwork and tilt them towards artwork. We don't necessarily need to have downlights that are lighting your pathway that we can have other types of lights, but downlights themselves can be part of a really beautiful, layered lighting plan. Um, and so it's, you know, it's just about better, not about, I guess, or a no.

Ron:

No, that, that makes, that makes perfect sense. I wanna pivot the conversation, Carley, to, uh, a course that I, I know you sat in the audience at the CEDIA show 'cause you and I have, I've compared notes and, and talked about it. And, uh, these two individuals that were in, that were leading your class, I've actually facilitated discussions with them on the same subject at, uh, Lightapalooza in the past. Uh, but the, the class you sat through, I'm looking over here at my notes, was, uh, get hired early, how to change your firm's perception from subcontractor to technology designer. And that was, uh, Josh over at HTA and David Weinstein from Lutron that I think were the instructors. Um, so first of all, what was your takeaway or what, how would you summarize, uh, for the audience, kind of what some of the, the nuggets of gold from that classwork?

Carley:

Yeah. First of all, Josh Christian and David Weinstein. Two also lovely, generous people, uh, that have, uh, embraced me warmly and, um, been, uh, fabulous resources for me as I jump into this space. Um, but they were talking about how the custom integrator, first of all, many people as was revealed in the town hall at CEDIA. Um, the white paper that was done by kbi, the Kitchen and Bath and KBA, the Kitchen and Bath Association and CEDIA did a, a huge white paper talking about the challenges and the sort of outlying issues. Uh, with those two communities, the design build community and the, um, custom integration community working together. And one of the things they figured out is people don't even know what a custom integrator is. They don't, they're not familiar with that term or the term is, you know, used interchangeably with the home automation guy, the AV guy. And I think, so that's the first thing is sort of figuring out what we call ourselves and being consistent, um, so that we can educate the market about what it is that we do. But the second thing is, a lot of the perception is, oh, those are the AV guys. They are contractors. We call them later. And the idea of the seminar was to. Uh, to change the, or to teach integrators that we're watching how to change the perception of the trade from contractor to member of the design team, early design partners, and how you can go about educating the design build community, the architects, the builders, the contractors, anyone who's going to hire you and, and, and the designers, and educating them about how important it is to bring us in as early as possible so that we can affect. The design, not that we're designers per se, but we are designers of the system that will work in concert with the interior design, with the architecture, with the build. So that was, that has become a torch that I carry and is a part as an integral part of all of my conversations with designers, contractors, builders, architects that I work with, is how important it is to get us in so that we can start thinking about and wiring for the right lighting in the right placement because we know the floor plan, because we are in early so that it's not an afterthought. And then everybody's going, oh, why can't we have this? Well, we didn't wire for it, we didn't know about it. The walls are closed. Um, and, and the frustration and the, uh, change orders that come from that.

Ron:

I'm curious the. Designers and the architects, uh, often and or the homeowner, but I'll focus on the trades for a minute, often bring in the, the integrator late in the project. Is that, whose fault is that?

Carley:

Well, I don't know that there's blame so much as there again is just this lack of perception, uh, lack of education, and this is time consuming. Like I could feel the resistance in the room when they were speaking because a lot of them are like, I don't have a team that can go and do outreach while I'm out in the field doing my job and I make my money when I'm out in the field. Right? So how am I going to single-handedly educate my entire marketplace? So I think it's up to, but, but I do think it is, it's critical. And so even if you're doing it on one project at a time, Hey, the next time you hire me, let's talk about how we can solve a lot of the problems we've had on this project by just having me come in early. Um, I think it takes time. And again, this industry, this trade has evolved so much over the last, you know, 20, 30 years. Uh, it does require an education. Um, it's, it's sort of like looking at a home cinema picture on Instagram and going, geez, that's beautiful, but I need an explanation. I need to know how many square foot feet is this space? Um. When did you come in on the project? What were, what was the overall design vision? What were the constraints? How did you solve problems? Were there problems? Um, how did you think about the design? How did you work in partnership with the designer and, uh, other tradespeople that were involved? I think the burden of being in this industry is that it does require constant education and information and, and teaching about what is involved. Because the whole point is at the end you look and you can't see the speakers because they're hiding behind drywall or you can't see the lights because the bulbs are recessed up and they're beautifully experienced in the room, but they're sort of not really visible in the photo. And so, you know, and you can't see the inner, you can't see the, the rack of technology. You're just looking at the beautiful space where there is no technology, uh, visible. And so. It does require education and explanation. And so I think as integrators, we all have to be really good at that.

Ron:

It, it's my observation that, uh, very few integrators, uh, go at and do outreach and education well to the design community. It's my observation that very few manufacturers go out into the design community, uh, consistently. Uh, Lutron, I'll put in the category of brands that I think has done that consistently for decades. And they, uh, are on the receiving end of so much specification coming out of that design community. Um, I've seen other manufacturers do it, uh, as a, an experiment and then when it doesn't deliver a fast enough return on investment. Leadership will abandon it and say, I yeah, told you it didn't, wouldn't work, or whatever their reason is, but ultimately it will get abandoned. Um, but the key is to do it consistently. And I, I'm, I'm bringing this back to integrators for, you know, folks tuned in here that it's rare when an integrator is of, of mind and vision to place biz dev in a role or function in their business or of a component or capacity of the, the sales team, whatever their titles are to go and love and support on that community. And that, when that does happen there, the, the dividends, the, the benefits of those relationships pay, um, so much back to the business. And yet it's so rarely done. I, I know you're newer Carley in the audio visions ecosystem, but I am curious without disclosing any of the company's proprietary secrets, I don't wanna make Mark or Ryan mad. Last thing I wanna do, I don't wanna get a text from Mark. Ron, why'd you ask Carley that? At a high level, what is your understanding, um, of the, the role that audio visions, uh, is taking or maybe plans to take in terms of outreach to the design community to try to educate and, and grow relationships?

Carley:

Well, I would say, given that I'm, I probably the least technical. Longest, most female member of the design, I mean, of the sales team. Um, I think my hire is evidence that they are looking for or have found in me, I hope, and I believe a fresh perspective and a, uh, a member of the team who is extremely focused and very passionate about, about outreach and about education. Um, I think it is, uh, an a extremely, I mean, you do this podcast, you add so much value to the community. Of course it is also tremendous marketing opportunity. So. Um, I think in this world, in any industry, when you are going out of your way to add value, hey, interior designer, let me teach you like a couple things that make you just a little bit more confident in the room when you're talking to, um, you know, the custom integrator or even the architect for that matter. Let me share something that will help you do your job better. Um, let me add value to what you do as a way of getting in front of you and showing you my value. Um. What, how could there be a more lovely way to market yourself and to, um, engender uh, you know, to build a great relationship with a trade partner, and especially in, when it comes to the interior design community, a way to get to the trades person that is most closely aligned with the homeowner. I mean, this is the person that is getting on the private jet and flying to Paris to shop for antiques with the homeowner. They are on, they are in lockstep with the homeowner and whatever the interior designer says, you need these petro lights done. So this is the person, I mean, it, it's one of the people, but I would say an incredibly critical person to have a relationship with. And what better way than to educate and to help them do their job better. It's how I launched my. Digital content creation career is, um, you know, again, I'd have, I'd have these brands call me and say, we just watched your video about Dropbox. I'm call, I'm the CMO of Dropbox. I don't know who you are, but you're telling this story better than anyone in our office could, and we wanna hire you to do more stuff. And I'm making their job easier because I'm speaking to the market that they wanna reach, um, in, in television. Not just like, Hey, can I come be on your show? But hey, I've created a whole segment concept for you. I can reach out to the brands, I can get all the product mailed in. I can, uh, script the whole thing. I can even write the questions that you would give to the host to ask me. So you don't have to do anything. How great is that for the producer to hear, oh, you've just basically handled and in one of the 13 segments I need to produce today. Um, done. I'll have you on, you make my life easier. So I think anytime you can make someone's life easier, of course they're gonna remember you. Of course. They're going to immediately know who you are, how you think, how collaborative you are, how helpful you are, how, um, you carry yourself potentially in front of their client, and how, how much better could that opportunity be to, to build relationships with. So I am personally very passionate about it, as you can tell, and I think, uh, in so far as a custom integrator could even just do a little bit more. Um, it can't not be helpful. And then I also wanted to say something else about brands. Uh, you mentioned Lutron and they have such incredible experience centers. Where they would love to have you bring your clients and experience the difference between a Home Depot downlight and a catcher Downlight, so that, because you can't really understand it until you experience it. And so isn't it great that in many, many cities now across America, you can bring your clients to an experience center and really have them not just understand intellectually, but experience physically what it feels like to be underneath those lights and, and have and imagine that in their home.

Ron:

I excellently said, Carley, I'm gonna close this out with social media and. You are an influencer. You have been one for, uh, for years, and you're, you're bringing those skills and talents to audio visions. Uh, you've brought them to audio visions, which is pretty cool. Uh, I, I'm gonna mention on social or not on social media, but on Instagram, I mean, folks listening. How many people follow you on Instagram? Well, Carley has 20,000 people following her on Instagram. And, uh, you, what, what do you see the role of social media? I'm gonna give a very high level question. Maybe a straightforward question. What is the role of social media that, uh, what role could or should it play for a integration business? What, you know, 'cause I'm gonna challenge maybe many are, are, it's very popular. By the way, Carley, in case you didn't know this, for the, the business owners in our industry to hate on social media. It is, uh, I hate Facebook. I think I've heard that statement more times than, uh, many other statements. Uh, but you're out there, you've been killing it on Instagram for a long time. And, uh, what's the role? What, what's possible?

Carley:

Well, I hear this too all the time, and sometimes I'm the person saying it. So I, uh, appreciate and empathize with everyone's hatred of social media. And of course it's a monster and it's a beast and you gotta keep feeding it. And we all resent the algorithms and, and the pace at which we need to go in order to be successful. That said, I think if you don't understand why you're doing it, it can feel very frustrating and you can burn out very quickly. So I always ask people to start with, what is my goal here? Is it brand awareness? Is it education? Is it outreach? Is it. Virality. A lot of people are very focused on going viral and it's like, I'm not sure why someone who has a local based business cares about going viral to someone who doesn't live in their market, but they think numbers equals success. And I would say at the very minimum what you want is for, um, and I wish I really knew this quote. Well, I'm gonna have to get back to your audience about the quote. We'll

Ron:

paraphrase, whatever you're about to say. Down in the I'll I'll, so people will get the exact quote. Rebecca's listening, I see her she'll, she'll make sure we get it dialed in. I think the

Carley:

quote that I'm referring to, which I can't remember where it is from, but we will get back to the audience, is that the idea that business is. Almost 80 or 90% closed before someone even reaches out to you. They've done their homework in today's world in 2025, you know, 2026, you're, we're sorry.

Ron:

We're

Carley:

gonna be 20.

Ron:

So we're in a brand new year. It's easy to, it's easy to get mixed up.

Carley:

It's true. So in this world that we live in, everyone's online doing research. They've already checked you out. Now they're reaching out. You're kind of at the end of the sales process. You're not starting from scratch when you think of it that way. If they're going online and they're checking you out, they need to understand who you are, how you think, how you work, how you solve problems, how you communicate. Do you look presentable? What kind of projects are you working on? It is not something that a home cinema flat photo can communicate. And so if you think about. Instagram or social media in general as a living, breathing business card, billboard education center for customers doing research. And that can be interior designers. It doesn't have to just be homeowners or builders. Or architects. I've heard about this company. Let me go to their social and just see what they are. If all they're getting is flat pictures or nothing at all. Um. You've missed an incredible opportunity to present yourself. And now imagine going to someone's Instagram feed and watching 15 different reels. Hey, I'm at a site visit. Hey, I just got off the phone with a client and they had this question and I thought it was relevant to a lot of people, so I'm gonna share how I answered it. Um, hey, now I'm over at the Lutron Experience Center and I wanted to show you this cool thing. Hey, I'm, you know, at, at another site visit and we're doing some pre-wire, and I wanted to show you how we do that and how meet and tidy it is. You're getting a whole, it's almost like you follow that tradesperson around for a week or a month or several months and you, you know exactly what it's gonna feel like to work with them. Mm-hmm. So if you're creating a live and robust kind of business card for yourself, um. Again, it's, you have this sort of unique and incredible opportunity, and it's not even so much about numbers because someone, a new architect that's never worked with you before, or a homeowner that's never worked with you before, maybe they don't even bother following you, you'll never really know, but you are creating this world in which someone can really get to know you and like you and trust you, and that is marketing. And um, and, and, and then you're just, you're gonna get a call and it'll be because they stopped you on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn or wherever you're gonna be most active. Wherever you feel like you're, uh, ideal clients are.

Ron:

I have to pull one more thread there. 'cause I just, I'm like resisting. I'm like, I need to close out the show. But no, I gotta ask you one follow up question and that is, uh, so many of the business owners that are tuned in right now, they're watching or listening, I, I, I, my team and I have heard this so often, so I'm just curious. Your take or spin on it is, uh, when they ultimately are interacting with that prospect, the person maybe that's conducted so much research. Uh, many business owners are, or the sales team, they're interacting, they're taking that inbound phone call and that consumer is not necessarily reflecting on that they watched eight reels or they read three newsletters, or they devoured everything on the website, or they, you know, consumed whatever that, that content that business is putting out. And therefore, so much in the realm of marketing, uh, uh, sadly for us marketers goes into the thinkless category, and yet I have a strong position and conviction that it absolutely matters in the research journey of the customer. Um, is there anything, uh, maybe we're, we're, we're singing off the same sheet of music, but is there any additional context or I guess advice you'd have for others out there that, um, how they should think about putting out content that matters to their constituents?

Carley:

Well, I think the first question or the first thing to do would be to ask the person that's inbound. How did you hear about us? Have you been on our social? Um, if somebody's undecided after you speak to them, have a look at our social. Uh, there's so much information there. We have highlights at the top of our Instagram that talk about security, that talk about, you know, you specifically asked me about pool equipment. We have a whole highlight where we have a bunch of stories about pool equipment that we've made smart. Um. Stuff like that where it's like, oh, you're undecided and this phone call is ending. Let me give you a way in your spare time whenever, um, to go and check out our content because that will continue the conversation even though you're hanging up with me now. Um, and the second thing is, imagine when marketers used to run an ad in a magazine and you sort of had a general idea of how many people subscribed or how many people bought it on newsstands, and you had a general idea of what the demographic was, and maybe you even had a general, general idea of geographically where those people were, if it's a local magazine. Um, but. That was it. You had no idea who saw your ad, who flipped through whose magazine ended up, you know, getting, uh, caught under the sprinklers and they never read it. Um, and, you know, you didn't have any information. So now you can go into your reels and see who's watching in what, uh, part of the, the, not only the state, but the city. Um, you can be putting money behind, um, reels that you're finding, uh, um, perform really well and segment the audience to your local market. So you have data that you can look at. You might not know that this particular person that called is the one who watched this particular reel, but you're going to have information about. How many people in our local market are we actually reaching and what can we do to tweak and which pieces of content are resonant with our local market? Let's make more of those. So I think we're, and you know, and then I'll just say in general, something I didn't say earlier, which is not a lot of custom integrators are doing it. That should be the big flag for everybody to go out and do it, because it's going to differentiate you. And, uh, and it's, I don't wanna say it's not that hard 'cause of course it's time consuming. Um, that's why you have the wonderful business that you have. And, um, and, uh, I think it's just about slowly dipping your toe, getting comfortable, maybe getting some guidance early on about how you should be thinking about it. Because you're on the job, you're working every day. There are teachable moments in everything that you're doing and moments where you can. Begin to develop a relationship with your future client or your future trade partner that will pay off. They just can't, not

Ron:

makes sense. I think we're gonna wrap it there. Carla has awesome words of wisdom. Uh, for folks that are tuned in, they wanna get in touch with you or follow you. Where, where are the places we'd send them?

Carley:

Yeah. I would say most active on Instagram and um, that's just my name, Carley bla Oh, look at that. Um, so you can find me there and, uh, go ahead

Ron:

and read that off for our people that are listening only so they can type it in. Thank you.

Carley:

Yes, it's instagram.com/carleyknobloch and that's C-A-R-L-E-Y-K-N-O-B-L-O-C-H. It's a bit of a mouthful to read, but it sounds much easier. Just Carley Knobloch. Um, and I'm on LinkedIn and you can check out the Audio Visions website if you're interested in working with me.

Ron:

Awesome. Carley, thank you for joining us on Automation Unplugged. It's, uh, it's been a pleasure getting to know you and it's been a pleasure, uh, learning more about you here on the show. I

Carley:

am looking forward

Ron:

to

Carley:

this being the beginning of a beautiful friendship and uh, it was my pleasure and like I said, I'm in such great company on the show and I'm just thrilled to be a part of it. So thanks for having me.

Ron:

Awesome.

Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

Resources and links from the interview:

• • Carley Knobloch LinkedIn Profile Page

• • AudioVisions LinkedIn Profile Page
    
    
• • AudioVisions Team