#353: Leading Through Innovation: AI, Video Walls, and Servant Leadership with Shawn Hansson
In this week’s episode of AU, guest Shawn Hansson of Logic Integration joins Ron to discuss How implementing a structured operating system and focusing on core values allowed Shawn to step back from the "trenches" and empower his team to lead.
This week's episode of Automation Unplugged features Shawn Hansson, the CEO and founder of Logic Integration. Based in Lone Tree, Colorado, Shawn launched Logic in 2004 and has grown it into a national powerhouse in both the residential and commercial audiovisual markets. With over 30 years of industry experience, Shawn is a true industry rockstar, recognized as one of ColoradoBiz’s "Top 25 GenXYZ Influential Leaders" and a "Top 40 Under 40" by Commercial Integrator.
Under his leadership, Logic Integration has earned massive accolades, including multiple appearances on the Inc. 5000 list and being named "Best AV Company in Colorado." Shawn’s influence extends far beyond his own business; he actively serves on the CTA Board of Industry Leaders, the Smart Home Board, and the ProSource Executive Board. From the Denver Broncos to the U.S. Military, Shawn’s team delivers high-level automation for some of the world's most prestigious clients.
In this episode, Shawn and I discussed:
- How implementing a structured operating system and focusing on core values allowed Shawn to step back from the "trenches" and empower his team to lead.
- The specific strategies Logic uses to maintain a six-minute response time and build a "sticky" recurring revenue model that keeps clients for life.
- And Shawn’s insights on how AI is streamlining internal operations and what high-growth categories like LED video walls mean for the next era of integration.
SEE ALSO: #352: Lighting That Sells: How to Sell the Experience, Not Just the Fixture
Transcript
Ron:
Hello. Hello there. Ron Callis here with another episode of Automation Unplugged. And man, do we have a doozy for you today? , just, , we're gonna be bringing to you, , an industry rockstar. I, I'm eager to , ask the questions and, and hear his thoughts and ideas. About a lot of current events going on in our industry, our economy and whatnot. Um, but as always , I do have a day job. That day job is running, , the awesome team over at one Firefly, and we serve, , so many hundreds of integrators throughout North America and around the world. And, the hard work by all the men and women at one Firefly. Serving our customers. Serving our industry is what empowers me and frees me up to be able to do automation unplugged. And so just wanted to give the whole team at one Firefly a shout out and remind you all. If you need help with your branding or marketing, give us a shout. , we also have an awesome team over at Amplify People. Which is our very fast growing hiring business. So you can visit that business
Shawn:
Doing good. How about you? I'm glad you had me out while you did all those introductions. 'cause I would've just left, you know,
Ron:
long. I know, I, I know you, you don't like when that happened. , but, , and we don't have to do it again here, but you, you do run and have been running for a lot of years, Shawn, you know, great business. And so I'll just ask you a thousand dollars question before we get into it. Were you always running a great business or did you No. What, what, what is, how many years have you been at it as an entrepreneur?
Shawn:
22 years. We founded in, , 2004, and thanks for having me back. By the way, it's, I feel like it's like Saturday Night Live. If you get to, if you get asked back, you know, whether it was the monologue or some of the skits you did, I feel like I got asked by you to come back. So very, very honored. And I think on the Ink 500, there might be a typo. I think it's 5,000, but. Regardless.
Ron:
Well, it's, it's
Shawn:
still, I wish I was 500. I, I'd be on a beach or something. Maybe
Ron:
That's right. Driving around in your yacht, you know? Yes. Or somebody driving you around while you sit on the front sun deck and just collect sun.
Shawn:
That's right.
Ron:
Um, that, that's fun. All right, well, for those that don't know you, Shawn, , by some chance or logic, give us a snapshot of, but maybe about logic. What, who are you guys, what type of work do you do and where do you do the work?
Shawn:
Sounds good. So yeah, logic integration was founded by me in, , my garage and a minivan. So I worked for, um, , a not so honest business owner here in Colorado, no longer in business. And, um, really wanted to build a company built on, um, my. Morals growing up and really important core values. We have eight core values at Logic integration and started it with no business experience. I was an installer like many, and , just kind of had to figure out the business part really by learning from a lot of other smart people and amazing manufacturers who have helped support me over the years. So yeah, two, 2000, , four we started and we've been. Res and commercial for most of that. I would say, you know, a lot of people know us as the, you know, a commercial company majority, and we were for a good 10 to 12 years. But when COVID hit, we really grew our residential business a lot. Commercial kind of scaled back a little bit, so we're about 50 50 now. And so we're, we're around 35 employees. We do have some subcontractors we use as well. Um, but that's our core team.
Ron:
Okay. And, , on the resi side, what, , let's just to give a snapshot, if you do a resi project, what's a, what's an average job and what's a big job? And then maybe gimme the same on the commercial. What's an average job and then what's a big job?
Shawn:
Sure. So average job, I mean, if you take, you know, we do roughly about 200 projects a year as a company, residential and commercial. If you take the revenue, divide that by project number, our average job is about 50 to $70,000. Our projects range from $25,000 dollars up in past a million dollars typically.
Ron:
Okay. And that, that, that same math or equation on resi and commercial
Shawn:
both sides.
Ron:
And, and so on. Resi luxury residential type projects.
Shawn:
Yep. Yeah, so home automation, lighting, shades, you know, climate, um, security, you know, all tied into one system and really luxury custom installs.
Ron:
Okay. And then commercial. What's typical type of client?
Shawn:
Sure. So corporate AV conference rooms. Um, we do, gosh, close to two to 300 meeting spaces a year. And a meeting space is anywhere from a three to five person little huddle room all the way up into a meeting space that has a few hundred folks. Kind of the hybrid meeting space where you have some people, um, in person, some people online, take a town hall meetings, video wall microphones, speakers, presentation systems. And um, the other part of our business is we do, um, government, so some department of defense, local city, state, and federal government.
Ron:
Okay. And, , let's look back, , we, we were, we last had you on back in 2021, may maybe. What, what's changed since 2021, September to the present? We're recording this here. I know we're gonna go live in a couple of weeks, but we're, we're right here at the, the end of April, , 2026. What, what sticks out to you, , a bullet or two, , what's changed over that timeframe for your business?
Shawn:
Yeah, so. In any down, we, we had a little bit of a revenue downturn. Like a lot of folks I think, um, we really reset as a team. We implemented EOS, so those of you who don't know what EOS is, it's an entrepreneur operations system and it's based on the book Traction. Thank you for the plug. Thank you Gino Wickman. Um, we, we. We basically wanted to create a framework for the company based on our core values. I'm gonna talk about core values a lot, probably 'cause they're really important to me and our team. And that was building a leadership team and creating processes and accountability for the entire company from the top down. So all the way from the leadership team, sales team. Different install teams, service department, et cetera. We basically have meetings and we talk about our goals, and we measure our goals. Those are called rocks, and that has been a game changer for us. So of course we had a little bit of a dip in revenue in COVID, and then it started to go back up. And I really give that to, instead of, you know, looking at the glass half empty during that time, we really just kind of reset and talked about what was important to us, who our key customers were, , our niche business, , what did we want to get rid of, you know, if we had 10 or 12 buckets of business industries, whether you, you know, house of Worship or schools, whatever. We, we sat down as a leadership team and as a company and figured out. What we're good at and what we're not good at. And so that's what's changed. That's, I would give that, , it's transformational, transformational
Ron:
high life experience that when Firefly, we implemented, , EOS in 2019 and, , we, I mean, we were a transformed business. I would say I'm a transformed leader having gone through that process, and it's not all easy. No, but going through that process is, , humbling and awesome because you now, at least for me, curious for you felt like I now had a gird or, or structure that I could continue to build from.
Shawn:
Yeah. Yeah. And we did have turnover, and I'm sure you did too, Ron. It, it was really hard. I considered some of the people that were not working with anymore good friends, but at the, at the end of the day, it wasn't a fit. You know, where we were going was not where they wanted to go. And of course, we still talk. We're not. We're not enemies or anything, but we had to make some changes and that was really hard on the team. This EOS thing was very scary for a lot of our team members. I think the dust has settled now. I think people are seeing the benefits. People are, you know, our team is staying more in their lane. We have clear job descriptions and roles and so it's been good. And I can step back a little bit. Hopefully do a little bit more of what I love, which, you know, Ron, look at you. You're, you're at 360 something shows. I don't think you could have done that without some sort of framework
Ron:
of
Shawn:
your team operating on
Ron:
the show. Well, just to point it at Automation and Unplugged the shows pre EOS at best we're random. When I was able to get a show produced and now today, I mean, in the last couple of years we put out a show a week. Yeah,
Shawn:
you
Ron:
can't do that without an amazing team and amazing process and structure and accountability. And Allison, our producer, she's here, , behind the scenes and there's a whole team behind e even her, that helps us get it done. So yeah, it's, if you wanna do big things, you just can't wish it, you gotta put the energy in to make it, make it happen.
Shawn:
Yep.
Ron:
So true. , question for you. So we're here in, you know, late spring 2026. , for many businesses, 2025 was, , I'm gonna say hot and cold, depending on where you were in the country and kind of what your luck was maybe, well, what was 25 like for logic integration and, and what's 26 looking like for your business? Just at a high level?
Shawn:
Sure. 25 was, it was a tough year. You know, if I, if I look at our 22 year revenue history, you know, it wasn't shark teeth. It was kind of a, a growth for a few years. Reset growth for a few years, reset. Last year was the end of our, , COVID growth. Okay. We definitely did not hit our goals. In fact, we were short. The main reason, , there's a few reasons we, we moved to an ERP, which is never easy. And everybody tells you that. And I've been through it before being in business as long as we have, but it was rough. It was distracting. It didn't go as planned. Um, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't do all the things that the salesperson promised it would do, right? We've been through this, but the other side is, um, commercial was down for us. You know, there's a lot of vacant office space. There's commercial buildings. In default, people are spending less in meeting space technology because people are still working from home. And, um, it, and facility staff and execs are spending less on the technology. Now, they're, you know, don't get me wrong, there are still companies investing in their meeting spaces, especially hybrid meeting spaces, but there was, you know, the, the phone rang less. Um, you guys have helped us immensely with, with some of our marketing stuff, and we're super grateful for that. And you do a great job, but
Ron:
appreciate that.
Shawn:
We had less phone calls. And, , on the commercial side, if, if I look at our CRM, the business that we brought in was either self-generated or repeat business. Almost 80%.
Ron:
Yeah.
Shawn:
And the, the new leads slowed down. Now those are picked back up the past six months, which is great. Especially the past 90 days, so that was last year. We didn't hit our goals. We produced, we almost hit our production goal, which was great. But as far as, you know, sales, contracted sales and, and, you know, new, new contracts, it was definitely low. This year we're planning on 5% growth. Maybe almost flat.
Ron:
Yeah.
Shawn:
But we are, what we are trying to grow is our services and our service. The break fix stuff. So we're reaching out to, um, you know, car dealerships, bars and restaurants, corporate of course, um, commercial real estate brokers, and really just doing a lot of quick turnaround projects that creates really good cash flow. We have a great, , reoccurring revenue business. I think this year our reoccurring revenue goal is almost 8% of our total revenue.
Ron:
How are you doing that?
Shawn:
S sticky service contracts. So basically we have a process when we're working on, um, a project and a proposal. We're talking about it from the first appointment. So, hi, how are you doing? My name's so and so. We walk the site, we, you know, what are your pain points? Oh gosh. You know, our last company we used to call them and they never, they never answered, they never showed up after the last check was written. You know, we didn't hear from for weeks. So we have a five minute response time at Logic Integration. Last year we processed almost 1000 service tickets.
Ron:
Wow.
Shawn:
And our average response time for the entire year, I think was a little, it was around six minutes.
Ron:
Wow.
Shawn:
Six minutes. So whether it's an email, a phone call, a text, a chat. And we do it all internally. Parasol does help us after hours, but everything else is done by our team and I'm really, really proud of that. And it took us years to hit that.
Ron:
Was there a point where you, there was some inflection point of you viewing starts with an idea, I would imagine viewing service as what should be a profit center.
Shawn:
Yeah.
Ron:
What should be a win for you and your customers and, and maybe with that idea you started changing people, process and product.
Shawn:
Yeah. Yeah, I, I am, , I'm in A-A-A-C-E-O group and, and, um, CEO network here in Colorado. I love spending time with companies that are way bigger than mine, and one of the things I've learned, especially from IT companies, is what percentage of revenue is reoccurring revenue and what it does for their business, not just monetarily speaking, but that the average customer stays with them seven to eight years. The average service contract renews three times. Those guys have got it figured out When there's an economic dip or real estate changes or whatever it might be, people are still paying for those IT services. People are still paying for the licenses. They might reduce the licenses. Mm-hmm. But you're always in contact with those customers. The one and done job, the, you know, the contract work that we typically do as integrators, you get forgotten about, especially in commercial. Right. So maybe an IT guy leaves or an IT person leaves and their team has turnover, the next person's just gonna hop on Google or AI and find a new integrator.
Ron:
Mm-hmm.
Shawn:
But you know, the name tag and the rack is not the only thing that's gonna get you back in the door anymore. I,
Ron:
I'm curious, how do you. Systematize that or program that into your business. Like, do you do training with your sales team? Here's how to sell it.
Shawn:
Yeah.
Ron:
And, and, and I don't wanna fill in any blanks because I'm making that up. Like, what do you do to make this not once you've decided it needs to be important, and we don't need to get overly detailed, but what are some, some of the big pillars that have led to success in this now growing revenue line of RMR for your business?
Shawn:
That's a, that's a good question, Ron. So. Once again, here comes the core values. So one of our, some of our core values is honor commitments. Another one is deliver L. Legendary service and quality. Guess what? In order to do that, this part is really, really important. The other thing we did, and I don't know if you've ever done this, Ron, I'm guessing you have, is ask your customers, what are we missing? What do you hate about what we do? What's the worst thing where you're like, ah, I wish you guys could fix this. We've spent some time asking some long time customers of ours that we really value and trust. What do you hate about working with us?
Ron:
Yeah,
Shawn:
and or what do you, what don't you like about what
Ron:
so many listening are probably terrified of thinking of going to their customers and asking them that.
Shawn:
Yeah. I love it. Love
Ron:
it. But it's so necessary, isn't it? How else do you know?
Shawn:
Yeah. It's, it's just like, like a company like Parasol or some of the other integrators that are tracking, what's the number one service ticket request that you get? You should be looking at that. Like you could have a bad. Brand of cable you're putting in the rack or maybe you bought, you know, bought some cheap stuff and you're just putting it in jobs and the sales engineer keep put, keeps putting the same thing in there and you keep getting a service ticket for that. Or maybe there was a software update that needed to be done and your team hasn't done it for a hundred sites. Like what is, what is the pain point? And so we stared at that and service was a big one. So we have five people on our service team, that's all they do all day long.
Ron:
Do you, , , and speaking of EOS, then you must have a scorecard with accountabilities and do you have KPIs?
Shawn:
Yeah.
Ron:
Where you're trying to, , in regards to that business unit that you're, that you're tracking and looking at every week, every month, every quarter.
Shawn:
Yeah. Yeah. You know, revenue is. It is kind of an obvious one, right? And everybody's probably tracking revenue and revenue's important, of course, but we wanna know
Ron:
that line item revenue from recurring maintenance contracts.
Shawn:
Yeah. So yeah, there's, there's the break fix service revenue. Hi, my thing's broken. I need a new part. I, you know, charge me some labor. We have that KPI, but we wanna know how many tickets are open. Average response time, what's our average response time? So I can open it up, look at it by week, by month. And then we've also like built some of this with AI so that it's very pretty and fancy and auto updates and all that, which I know we're gonna talk about probably later on a different show.
Ron:
Yeah.
Shawn:
Um, we have outreach, so we actually track business development.
Ron:
Okay. So opportunities that opportunities stand up from serving your, your maintenance clients.
Shawn:
Yeah. And then another one we track. , customer happiness. So with automation, since this is automation unplugged, we might as well talk about automation, right?
Ron:
Yeah,
Shawn:
you're welcome. We track customer happiness, so if a customer's not happy, when we close out the ticket, it actually will summarize what we did, who did it with photos, et cetera. But at the very bottom, there's a happy face and a sad face. Happy faces, great. We did a good job. Leave us a review, which then pushes to Google, which you guys do on Firefly, um, which works great, but if they're sad, it opens a ticket back up and goes to management and we immediately address what's going on. What did we do?
Ron:
That's interesting. And does that become a top priority for that manager? Yes. Is that one of the more important things for them to resolve that day?
Shawn:
Yeah, but as a team, these guys are meeting biweekly and they're going through six KPIs, and that's one of them is, you know, . Google reviews, , customer happiness, which technicians got mentioned.
Ron:
Yeah. Right. What, how long did it take for you to reach an inflection from, you know, your, your previous state of maybe the lack of growth or performance of your recurring to now where you're, you're watching it closely and you're seeing it move in the right direction? Was that
Shawn:
I, I, I give credit to, . So we, we, we brought in a new service manager about two to two and a half years ago. I give credit to Steve and his team, and then we've also got a guy named Alejandro. Um, he's really in charge of customer satisfaction, client happiness. The guy is a happy dude. Like he just loves to do what he does. And between those two guys, I would say that is it. It's, it's, we had a vision and a dream and we've been working on it for years and it's been going pretty good. But when I brought those two into the company, it was a game changer. They got it right. The gwc?
Ron:
Yep.
Shawn:
Those two guys and the, and the team below them. Um, just do it. They just nail it. They're so good.
Ron:
Let's broaden that out. You just, you just, , focused on the impact a single person can have on your org. You've been in business for 22 years. What, what have you learned about the importance or necessity to have the right people on your team?
Shawn:
Oh my goodness. That's, that goes back to the, to the EOS rollout. So Brad Whitehead was our implementer. He's incredible. He's built and burned a business. You know, he's been through the, not that he burned it, but, but he's been through the real rough stuff when you're in the trenches, you know, trying to keep it going.
Ron:
No, it's importance of people.
Shawn:
People. We, we basically did like Myers-Briggs testing for. Really everybody at the company, are they in the right seat on the bus? Right? Do they get it? Do they want it? Do they have capacity? And over about two years, we did a lot of shifting and changing. Once the dust settles, having the right people in the right seat of the bus, which is a Jim Collins quote, if you've heard of that quote, probably you have.
Ron:
Yep.
Shawn:
That is phenomenal. That's where you can step back and work on the business instead of in the business. And there's definitely seasons where I have to work. In the business and get in the trenches with everybody.
Ron:
What, what would
Shawn:
you say
Ron:
last,
Shawn:
say
Ron:
sorry to interrupt, but I just, I love using teachable moments like this for our listeners and there are entrepreneurs out there, I'll just call 'em, you know, there, there's guys and gals that have been running a, a five man shop and they've never been able in 10 years to break out of that or whatever that scenario. A 10 man, 20 man shot, whatever your, your life story is. Sometimes they, they, they, it's not clear to them why they aren't able to break through. And I'm not saying the only answer is people, but I think a big P piece of that is people, the ability to define roles, find the right people, delegate, elevate. I mean, what would be your advice? Just, you know, passing a, a word or two of wisdom to another entrepreneur out there that's leaning in right now? Knowing the battles that you've fought and the things that you've figured out and the lessons you've purchased.
Shawn:
Two things come to mind for me. Servant leadership and, oh, the second one, I'll share a story. One of my favorite things that I used to do that I thought I was really good at and the best at was building racks. Guess how many racks I build now? None.
Ron:
I would hope none
Shawn:
in fact. Most people are faster and better at me than building racks. And looking back, looking at the talent that's out there, I actually really wasn't that good at building racks. I wasn't the best.
Ron:
Hmm.
Shawn:
And so Ron, you are not sitting and coding and building websites anymore.
Ron:
No.
Shawn:
But you have gorgeous websites and gorgeous marketing material, and your team built that. And so I think hiring. Based on core values, hiring and firing based on core values. Having really, really good job descriptions and clear paths for people. Training, investing in them and serving them and helping them be successful without being a helicopter manager is, is how we've done it. And , I know, I know there's all kinds of businesses. I mean, I had one person, right? It was me. And for a while I was like, no one else can do sales. I am the only one who can sell. I'm the only one who knows my customers. Guess what? I've got salespeople that are so much smarter than me. Like, oh my gosh, we've, we've got a lighting designer. His name's Cole. He's amazing. The guy knows all things lighting. I couldn't stand a chance talking about lighting and so. Everything I can do for Cole with training and opportunities. I think he's next week, he's going out to speak at a conference on lighting. It's not gonna be me on stage. It's gonna be him. He knows way more. My job is to place him into opportunities where he can thrive and share his knowledge and pass it on and educate people.
Ron:
Love it folks. If you tuned off the, , , the podcast right now, write that down. Take it to heart and, and think about where you wanna take your business and the role people can, can make. 'cause it's, it's transformational. I mean, I, there's an inflection in my business. I was eight years in and I realized some things about people. And when I finally learned that and my business was able to inflect and really take off, and I, I was the barrier. I was the li, I was the governor. Couple years of, of struggle to realize that. So that's, ,
Shawn:
that's good. I, , at five employees, I remember that really, really well. I, I was still out pulling cable and doing all that, and when we started interviewing people, we really wanted to find the best so that I didn't have to do that anymore. And especially with sales, it's really easy for an owner to show up to a sales appointment and be the know-it-all and talk over the salesperson. And I've seen it. We've been interviewing insurance companies and PEOs, and there's one particular organization. The manager talks over the salesperson all the time, doesn't even let 'em finish sentences. You're not gonna grow your business that way.
Ron:
Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant. Alright, well there's so many things I wanna talk about. We're gonna move to the next topic. I believe you just recently got back from DC. You were out there. You are. , I'll let you tell the audience, but I know you're heavily involved with CTA, you're on various boards, and you are not only rubbing elbows and in, , , a lot of interesting conversations with a lot of who, who in terms of tech executives, but also politicians. Um, so just maybe, , just start out with what is, just so the audience understands what, what is one of the ways you're giving back in terms of your participation in the CTA board? Boards plural.
Shawn:
Sure. Great question. So CTA, the Consumer Technology Association, they put on the show, CES in Las Vegas, the big, the big technology show. Um, I think most people have heard of that. It's evolved. It's, you know, robotics, ai, autonomous vehicles, um, digital health. There's smart home. There is so much stuff going on in the world of tech and they used to be called the Consumer Electronics Association, um, years ago. They changed it for obvious reasons. Why in the world would I volunteer to time at such a big organization? You know, I think at its height, CES was 180,000 person show. I think, , 2026, we were one, one fifty three, a hundred fifty 3000. So it's one of the largest trade shows in the world. Logic integration is, is not a very large company in this organization. Right. You know, we're with Tesla and Lucid and Samsung and Amazon and Google, all these amazing large companies. And so there's, um, the board of industry leaders. I'm on, I'm actually on that with Jim Pierce, um, CEO of ProSource. And then I'm on the smart home board, which specializes in Smart Home. And I'm also on the retail board, which focuses on technology and retailers. So. Industry influence, like shaping standards and policy that affect our business and how, um, technology and policy and advocacy all play together in this space. Um, early Intel, every time I go to these events and hang out with people, you know, LA this last week I just got back yesterday we were with congressmen and women talking about. AI and policy and privacy and intellectual property and where does, where is government and all this. It is moving so fast. Ron, I mean, you were just at ProSource at our summit.
Ron:
It was,
Shawn:
you know, keynoting on AI and smoke was coming out of our heads. There's just so much to keep track of, so it's super fascinating to see how government is keeping up with that.
Ron:
, so I'll, I'll go into one of the, I think there's a lot of threads there. , I'm curious 'cause I, I do listen to for 'cause of a, I'm curious and it directly impacts my business. I, I tune into a lot of the varying voices and perspectives around AI and society. And government.
Shawn:
Yeah.
Ron:
, and there's different camps. There's, there's a camp, , that says, , AI's gonna nuke all white collar jobs. And there's a camp that goes, there's gonna be a world of abundance and more jobs created than ever, and they literally look like they're diametrically opposed, opposite ends. Like there people are seeing the same thing happening in the world. This, this technology revolution caused by ai and people are seeing two entirely different worlds as a possible outcome. I'm curious at least what you can share, what's being talked about in these back rooms in DC.
Shawn:
Well, first of all, this is not really Shawn Hansen. I'm actually an AI bot.
Ron:
Okay, now we got that out.
Shawn:
Yeah, it's been replaced.
Ron:
Yeah.
Shawn:
Um, that was actually a topic and , a lot of dinner conversations are, , of course around ai and there's been a little bit, can I talk a little bit about it with my team? Maybe at a high level anyway?
Ron:
Sure,
Shawn:
yeah, please. And, and this is happening, you know, small to large companies. There is a little bit of fear of replacement, and I think with, with any technology, of course it's going to replace some jobs, but I think some of the, the job re the cuts have been mismanagement of business through COVID. I, I think some companies mismanaged. Um. Their budgets and forecast o
Ron:
over, , over building staffing and, , yeah, staffing up.
Shawn:
Yeah. There was a pretty Get all that
Ron:
flood of work that came in.
Shawn:
Yeah. Yeah. We, we got a little hot and heavy with hiring too. I mean, you know, we were forecasting all this growth. Right. You know, EOS 10 year vision. Build it back three years. One year we, we were, it's
Ron:
gonna materialize. It's automatic, right?
Shawn:
Oh yeah. Yeah, we were looking at the trend and trying to forecast and all that. So I think there's a little bit of that. You know, I'll, I'll share one example. I think everybody, every company has some, some skeptics of new technology, especially with ai. Oh my gosh. It's gonna replace my job. And we've had a few of those too. But here's what I'll say. Like, we had a finance person a couple weeks ago. You know, our team is trying, first of all, we're we're training. We've rolled it out. We have an AI policy. It's kinda like the now what, where do we begin? And so we're starting to do training, and that's either professional training or the smartest guys at the company and gals that maybe they're training our, you know, training our team internally. But an example I have is my accounting person spends three to five hours a month uploading sales taxes into a government portal. Right sits there, multiple expel spreadsheets, QuickBooks Open, all that kind of stuff. And so I just decided to sit with her and watch how she does it and how, and you know, I didn't sit there for three to five hours, but I took that, recorded it and pushed it. Into an AI system. Um, I use a whisper flow. I, I try not to type actually, if you don't know whisper flow. I
Ron:
whisper flow is the hottest thing, man, talking the new programming language.
Shawn:
It, it, it, our team, our team is on it. And of course there were skeptics, but people absolutely love it. Um, but this person, we built this sales tax automator and all it does is take a bunch of data from QuickBooks and Excel spreadsheets and puts it into the state. Template and she can upload it. She now can do it in about five minutes.
Ron:
And previously it took how long?
Shawn:
Three to five hours a month. And so that's just one example out of a million. And she was pretty skeptical, like, I don't know how to use this overwhelming. And so we just kind of sat together and we just kind of built a tool. And so that's the kind of stuff I wanna learn about when I go hang out with the folks at CTA. Like, whether it's their staff government affairs or companies like Google. You know, like I get to hang out with people who are at Google. Not that they tell me all their confidential stuff, right? But I love hearing of like where they see things going. How are they using it in their own life, personal and work. That's freaking cool. I absolutely love that. So that's why I volunteer time.
Ron:
Oh, it's, that's, that's amazing. It's, it's, you're giving back, providing our industry's perspective. And you're also getting, right. I mean, I believe when you volunteer, I, I, if you do it with the right purpose, often you do get back multiples, , in return. , it sounds like you are, I am curious if you do cast vision out three to five years, and let's just focus on the United States, you know, our backyard. Where do you think we are with, , the state of, , the very broad question. You can answer it however you want. The state of AI in our society and what it means in terms of the workforce.
Shawn:
Oh boy.
Ron:
It's a, it's a subjective question. There's no right or wrong answer, but I, I'm curious, just Shawn Hansen's opinion.
Shawn:
Sure. I think, I think it's, , a tool like the mobile phone, the smartphone, the iPhone that enhances and better betters your life. And I think for me, speaking for me and even just some of my team members, when I ask them, you know, Hey, like that's an all company meeting topic that I'm gonna have every single month, I'm gonna ask that question. Hey everybody, share a quick story on how AI has helped you. Do more of what you love, because that's what we all wanna do, right? We wanna do more of what we love and somehow get paid for it.
Ron:
Amen.
Shawn:
So that, to answer your question, it's, it's allowing me to do more of what I love. Like I hate typing. I don't have to type anymore really as much. When I do have to type, it frustrates me. I get to spend more time with customers. I get to spend more time with my team members, and I especially hopefully get to spend more time with my wife and family. I'm gonna be an empty nester in August.
Ron:
I I've got one more year. So you're, , good for you. Good for you. I, I'm in that transitionary phase. We're visiting all the colleges and we're
Shawn:
Oh yeah. Good luck, buddy.
Ron:
Oh, it's, we're in the thick of it, but, , that, that's neat. I'm happy for you that you'll be empty nesters.
Shawn:
Yeah.
Ron:
Alright, let's, um, , , mindful of time, want to, , try to get through a couple other high level ideas here. What is, . What trends are you seeing with customers? And, and I wanna you, you have the perspective of the resi customer and the commercial customer. I'm just curious between your business and the relationship your business is having with these, these end consumers, , are you seeing any changes? Like is there anything societal change or interacting change, expectation change that you could put your finger on?
Shawn:
Sure, yeah, I'll address two. So I'll address a residential one and a commercial one. So we have a lot more homeowners that I think are more aware of home automation or have had home automation in the past, and they really are trying to keep it simple. They have busy lives and when they come home, they want to use this stuff and not have to deal with multiple apps. Or maybe something's not working, or maybe having to call our team to adjust something, whether it's lighting or music preferences. And so systems that can learn their habits and preferences. And that comes into the whole AI thing. Companies like Josh AI are doing, and Lutron, and now Crestron too, I guess. Um. So, you know, getting up in the morning, same time going to bed, you know, kind of creating a cadence and a rhythm, whether it's music, lighting, shades, environment is getting asked a lot more. And thankfully the technology is allowing that. So. We're, we always want to be in the customer's lives, right? But we don't want to have, they don't want to have to lean on us for every single thing. Maybe they're entertaining and they push the entertainment button and it turns on the music, and the music's a little too loud. Or the, the lights are too bright in the kitchen. Or, you know, when you hit the, um, the sports button for the, the game or whatever, and the lighting changes to the color. Maybe there's too much of this and not enough of that. Having the homeowner be able to set that in an easy way has, is starting to get asked a lot more. We're seeing a trend with that. We're seeing a trend with less complicated automation, video distribution, things like that. It's not, I don't think all that's going away, but I think there's some wounded, wounded homeowners out there who have had a bad experience. And then on the commercial side, like companies like Savvy iq. On the commercial side,
Ron:
they do the
Shawn:
digital signage and AI
Ron:
digital signage in the golf, , places, right?
Shawn:
Yeah. So may, yeah, maybe, um, maybe you're doing an AV system at a, at a golf sim, you know, bar where they have food and all that kind of stuff. If they want to have a, a happy hour special, they no longer have to have a graphic designer and a digital design specialist to create all the slides, and then someone to log in, do all the scheduling and this and that. You can talk and ask it to create a happy hour special from four o'clock to 6:00 PM specializing in whatever brand of alcohol special they want to do, two for ones, et cetera, all talking to it. So if you can imagine Canva, something like Canva where you're creating, you know, , media assets,
Ron:
it's a graphic design environment for those that aren't familiar. Yeah.
Shawn:
Yeah. You can do that with your voice. That is so enabling for maybe a, a smaller bar owner who doesn't have the budget to outsource to a marketing company or a graphic designer. They can do that themselves. If they want to play, you know, eighties rock music on Friday from six to 8:00 PM you can tell it to do that. So that kind of technology is awesome, and I think people want more of that. They don't want to have an integrator have to, to come out every, every week or remote in and make changes like you're giving the tools and the power to the end user.
Ron:
That makes sense. The, I'm gonna continue on this theme of trends, , over the last two to three years. Seems like it's gone in waves over the last couple of decades, but over the last two or three years, it seems there's been, . More of an effort openly being talked about around industry consolidation, m and a activity, um, you know, various brands, you know, buying up integrators, consolidating them. Where, where do you see that trend, , as you just look forward the next five to 10 years? Do you think that stays the same, decreases, increases, and, and maybe why? Why do you have that opinion?
Shawn:
Hmm, the surprise question. Thank you, Ron. That wasn't on the list. Um, I think it continues and I'm excited about it. I like it. I think it's good. There has been m and a activity that has not been successful.
Ron:
A lot of it.
Shawn:
And that, yeah. And that hurts our industry. But you know, things like, . Guild and Daisy, and you know, Ava and all, you know, just, I want that stuff to be successful because it's good for our business. It's good for business. The problem is we're a, a lot of companies are operating as hobby hobbyists and individual siloed companies. And it's tough to roll that up, but I think because of, you know, companies like Vital, like there are companies who are legitimately trying to standardize our business, and that's so good. I want to be able to take my business. If I get hit by a bus, I hope that someone can jump in or my team can just take over and go. And so I think it's gonna continue. I think the m and a activity is gonna continue and I think it's really, really good.
Ron:
Next, , next thing or topic on that theme, tech trends 2020, mid 2026. Cast your vision out next 12 to 18 months. What's hot? Why?
Shawn:
Well, , let's go with, let's go with LED Video walls. It's kind of the hot thing. , just video walls. There's a lot of other brands out there. I think, you know, I love projection. I love projection screens. I'm not saying that's going away, but there are definitely some circumstances where if I had a 20,000 lumen projector, you know, on a commercial side, whether it's a lobby, a boardroom, or on the residential side, a big open space where you can put a direct view, LED video wall in, you know, absence, there's a lot of great brands out there, is awesome. I think that trend. Is is amazing. You know, I grew up doing Legos and so for me it's, it's kind of like really cool Legos and they have really, they're getting more affordable, but the aesthetics of them and how good they look is absolutely incredible. Like it's fascinating and we love doing time lapse videos when we build them that that's a lot of fun. So we do quite a bit of video. Well, so that was the one I thought of, Ron.
Ron:
No, I, I love that. Let's, and, and it's profitable to do video walls, right? So not only is the product and the, the customer loves the product when they see what it produces, but it, it's a win for the customer and it's a win for the business. No.
Shawn:
Yeah. Yeah. And if you're a five person company back to going to that audience and you wanna do a video wall. If you're not in a buying group, first of all, you should be in a buying group. You need to look into being in a buying group. It's a community that will support you and help you grow your business. I give total credit, so the buying group I'm in is in ProSource. It's been absolutely incredible for my business, but they have manufacturers in those groups that will help you design and install a video wall. You can sell a video wall, but just do it right.
Ron:
That's amazing. Do you see, , video walls in residential applications? I'm just extrapolating out here. We'll call it futurist type talk. Is the technology going in the direction where you're gonna see more and more video wall? I mean, so not your 60 or 70 or 80 inch, you know, , tv, but larger installations in homes and, and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm extracting from that. I've seen the 40,000 square foot home that has the video wall and it's displaying art and okay, that home was $50 million.
Shawn:
Big Baller house,
Ron:
big baller house, right? We've all seen those houses. But what about the. 5,000 square foot house. Yeah. 8,000 square foot house. So do you see it fitting into that at some point in the near future?
Shawn:
Yeah. Yeah. Lar, you know, larger format. L-E-D-L-C-D. Right. They're getting bigger, right? You can buy, I don't know, what is it, 115 inch television now. You have a video wall, you would know better than
Ron:
me. I don't, I don't know.
Shawn:
I don't know. See, once again, people are smarter than we need. Need our
Ron:
experts, our experts know these things.
Shawn:
Absolutely. For sure. You know, we're getting more, , requests for it. You know, precision Media is here in Denver. They're a part of the Guild. Great company. They're doing a lot of video walls in residential. And so, , you know, we have one in our showroom and customers ask about it, you know, can we put that in our house? So the awareness is definitely there. It's great.
Ron:
That's awesome. Would you call that likely for your business, one of the hotter growth categories?
Shawn:
Yeah. Yeah. And we've been doing, we've been doing video walls for quite a while, probably 10, 12 years, especially on the commercial side. But the trend in residential is definitely is turning. And you know, just video walls, um, does an, like, Skylar does an amazing job with marketing. Their YouTube videos are awesome. Yeah. You know, Robert with Tri Face, just put some in his showroom. I mean, it's. It's moving fast.
Ron:
Yeah. Our team, we did our team event, , in Indiana last year and, , we actually went out to try phase and, , our whole team got to put our eyes on his,
Shawn:
that showroom is, you know,
Ron:
it's, it's one of the, I mean,
Shawn:
yeah, you can
Ron:
say it, it's, it's amazing. And Robert's demo of you, like, he gave us the, rolled out the red carpet and gave us the end customer experience. Yeah, I was ready to give him my black card. Like, all right, I'll, I'll take one of this and one of that. And do you do work in Florida?
Shawn:
Yeah. Robert Hacker and his team, they have built, that is an amazing company.
Ron:
It's a, it's an awesome company. I, I completely agree. Um, alright, where do we wanna go from here? You know what, I'm, I'm, I wanna end back on your business and your vision of how you, you think about your team, how you invest in your team, how you grow your team. Just, um, I, I'm gonna serve up that softball and I just wanna really focus on running a great business. Like what do you, what do you think are some of the ingredients of running a great business? There's a lot of bus, there's thousands of businesses in our, our industry, and only some of them are really great businesses. And I'm not saying that in an offensive way. I'm saying that. A business that continually grows or generates the revenues you desire with the profits you desire, with the lifestyle you desire, with a happy company culture, with customers that love you and refer you. I'm gonna call out those some of the good ingredients of a great company. I think you run a great company. Shawn, what are some of the ingredients, um, that you would, that you think have led to your success?
Shawn:
You said it earlier, it's people. People in process. I really, you know, part of our EOS I'm looking at it right now. Our, our 10 year target is, is delivering a legendary experience that serves client needs and supporting and enabling our team's gifts and talents. If I can fine tune and craft that into what we do. And create a fun environment, but have good quality of life, not work ourselves to death just for growth's sake. That that's my goal. I, I want other people to do what I'm doing. Like, I don't, I don't want to be on this, the guy on stage all the time. In fact, I'm not. I have other people now do speaking things.
Ron:
Yep.
Shawn:
I love that. I love that. Our former receptionist and person who used to clean our offices on the weekends now oversees our procurement and she buys millions of dollars of products a year and negotiates with our vendors like that's. That's what I want. That's what brings me joy. I love people who, families who get to buy houses and cars and grow their families in our little business. That's super fun.
Ron:
What are ways you invest in your team to help make that continually true?
Shawn:
Training and experiences. So the training part is pretty obvious that you'll provide them with good training. You know, back to the buying group plug. You know, we, if you're in a buying group, they're gonna hopefully offer you phenomenal training, career paths, successful templates that have worked for hundreds and hundreds of businesses. And then experiences like we try to have people come out and look at projects that they would never see. Like some people in our office never get to see what we do. I want them to see what we do. And I
Ron:
think, how do you do that? How do you arrange, like, do you have like a company outing to go finish the, the, to view the finished project?
Shawn:
Yeah. And we don't, you, we don't bring the whole company out, especially to a homeowner's house, but we definitely bring a, like our accounting person or a purchasing person, or maybe the engineer who sits in his office all day, try to bring him out to the job site. The guy spent a week and a half drawing the job. Why can't he go see it? Why can't he go meet, , with the techs that are out on site who built all three racks? The technician saying, Hey, you know what, we always use this one type of shelf and it always gets in the way. Like that kind of stuff doesn't happen over Zoom or teams. And so trying to change it up a bit, right? It's easy to come into work, kind of figure out the day and go home, and then you do that, you know, however many times a year, , what is it? 160 something days? We work a year. I don't know what it's, yeah,
Ron:
I don't know.
Shawn:
So that, that's how we do it. And then experiences, you know, we, we try to do quarterly events as a team. Get everybody together, have some fun together, get our, , our mind off work for an hour or two, just have fun together.
Ron:
That's awesome.
Shawn:
Yeah, we did, we didn't do one last quarter. It was, you know, like I said, it was a rough, rough end of the year and slow start to the beginning there. So we skipped a quarter. It's the first time we've skipped in 10 years. Know
Ron:
what we, we get to talk about. Well, actually, we'll close on this just for the hell of it. , , there, there was breaking news this week that we're recording. And that breaking news. , this is also, by the way, not on the list, but, but the, but the breaking news is that, , , a vexa purchased LightUp Palooza. Yep. And so, I, I believe there's a, a grouping of, , pro Source HTSA and a vixa that have come together to form a new company. They, they acquired Lightapalooza. And, , that show's now gonna move from, or Q1, usually January, February, in the year it's gonna move to June and be co-located with, , Infocom. , what gut reaction for that? I mean, was, was Lightapalooza part of your normal, um, trips you'd make every year? And what, what do you think impact that makes, if any?
Shawn:
Um, I think it, I think it's a good thing. That was my reaction. There are a lot of shows to go to. There's buying group events to go to. There's commercial and residential shows to go to, and I actually didn't go to Lightapalooza this year. I, I went, you know, obviously last year. But I think it's good like, like team up with team up and make it bigger and better. A Vixa Infocon, I mean, they put on the ISE show, I believe as well, they have resources and I think it's gonna create more awareness faster with lighting. I don't know the numbers of Infocom, but I think it's 120 to 130,000. No, that's ISE.
Ron:
Yeah, it's probably, it's probably 50 that, probably less than a hundred thousand.
Shawn:
Yeah. 50 or 80,000. Someone will look it up and throw it in your chat and slide. Yeah, they'll,
Ron:
that's okay. They'll drop it on the, the, the feed here on,
Shawn:
yeah. Don't be so angry. I don't know the number. Okay. But my point is, is some of those people that are at Infocom will wander over into the lighting section and I think it's great. I think it's great for the manufacturers. They're gonna get more traffic. They're gonna, their audience is gonna grow. So I'm, I think it's a good idea for sure.
Ron:
Awesome. Now, the, the, the a hundred dollars question, what, what does it do to CEDIA traffic if that show is in June?
Shawn:
Yeah.
Ron:
Does it have an impact on CEDIA in September?
Shawn:
You know, I don't know. I, I don't know. I, I don't know the cd. Um. Yeah, I don't, I refrain
Ron:
it's to say I don't know. That's a fair and honest picture. I actually dunno. That's where I'm at. I don't know either, but it's,
Shawn:
I dunno,
Ron:
it might have some material impact. That'll be
Shawn:
interesting. It may
Ron:
to see how that plays out.
Shawn:
It may, Hey, you know, I, I've been going to CEDIA since 2005, so you know that, that show's near and dear to my heart. And, um, some manufacturers gave me a shot at that show. So I'm, I'm grateful for what it's done in my life, but, um, I don't know a whole lot about, you know, what they were two years ago or five years ago, where they're at now. I'm not the guy.
Ron:
Fair Shawn, thank you for joining me on this episode, , for your, , second, , showing on Automation Unplugged. And we actually are getting you booked for a third 'cause we're gonna talk about AI a little bit deeper on one of our AI insights, , episodes. So, , for folks that wanna hear a real tactical example of how Shawn is deploying AI in his business, and we'll do some show and tell. You guys will wanna tune in for that show. We'll, um, we'll actually be recording that soon and then we'll, we'll get that out there. But it'll be, it'll be soon, it'll be this summer when that comes out, most likely. Um, but Shawn, I wanna thank you for joining me on Automation Unplugged. And as always, I wanna let you give a shout out to the audience where they can get in touch with you. And, , Allison has put some of those artwork here, so we'll put it on screen for our YouTube visitors. But remember Shawn, as you name these. Or their websites, phone numbers or whatnot. , our audio listeners aren't watching, so if you could read off whatever the website is or the phone number or an email, just so our audio listeners will be able to track it, that'd be great.
Shawn:
Yeah. Sounds good. So my email is
Ron:
now. You're , it's always a pleasure, Shawn. I feel like an hour goes by in a blink when I talk to you. , you're a wealth of information and ideas. Experiences. So thanks for joining us. Thanks for sharing it with the audience, and, , we'll see you again. We'll see you again soon for that AI insights when we record then.
Shawn:
Yeah. Sounds good. Thank you, Ron. Thanks Allison.
Ron:
All right, guys.
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.