#016 | Live in Rhythm with Nature Using Biophilic Technology with Luis Cortes of Echo Workshop

We spend 90% of our time indoors. This disconnection with nature has a negative impact on our health and wellbeing. If this is our future, how can we create our indoor spaces to be more in rhythm with nature and gain all the amazing health benefits? Join us in this great conversation with Luis Cortez of Echo Workshop on how Biophilic Technology can enhance your health and wellness. It's the wave of the future.


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Transcript

Unknown: 1:42

Welcome to the health and wellness podcast. I'm Sheri Davidson. And I'm Candace Rodgers. This is our quaint, warm space, where we will share our passion for wellbeing and explore everyday living and health, wellness and design to help you thrive in your life. Welcome to the health and wellness podcast. I'm Sheri Davidson, acupuncturist, health and wellness coach and former interior designer. And I'm Candace Rodgers. I'm an interior designer and I'm also a wellness designer. And today we have Louis Cortez of eco workshop here with us to talk about biophilic technology. And we're actually in lewis's showroom, which is really exciting. Lewis is passionately driven by music and technology. He has been heavily involved in both industries for three decades, started in the late 80s with focuses on automotive technology and moved into residential and small business applications upon the inception of his own company at the workshop in 1999. Lewis is also driven by the values of integrity, honesty, knowledge of his industry, and no fear of hard work. Lewis enjoys learning new things and sharing his knowledge with others through teaching events. He's a registered CDL outreach instructor and he's president of eco workshops since 1999. Welcome, Louis. Hey, Louis, how's it going? Thank you for having excited to be here. A quick tidbit. So the how I know Louis and his wife Pam is through asi, the Texas Gulf Coast, which is the American Society of interior designers, Louis and Pam are heavily involved. Pam has been on the board, you guys. She's been chaired many committees, and you guys are very involved with the designers. But I met you guys. I guess I was a student when I met y'all. So we've known each other for like, gosh, six or plus years now. years. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And a little fun fact about Pam and Louis. We used to do this Halloween. One of the vendors Ferguson used to have this Halloween costume contest every year big Halloween party, and they always had the best costumes. You guys are so. So what were some of the costumes? Oh my gosh, yeah. Like what were one year we were animal and Janet from the electric Muppet band together, and I made her a bass guitar with shoe laces as far as the strings. We were the Grinch and Oh, that's good. I think I remember that one. I cannot remember the little girl's name right now. Cindy little there was a there was the sound that came from the back. And we were even. What's his name? What was the last one? You guys were with the? I can't remember who it is. With the villain from Batman. Yeah. It was recently a movie about him. Oh, the Joker. The Joker. Joker. Yeah. And she was Harley Quinn. That's right. Harley Quinn. Yeah, we've gotten into our costumes. You guys always have great costumes. Always look forward to seeing what you guys were wearing you Thank you. Yeah, mine were not as creative. You know, kind of creative. I thought they were pretty good. Yeah, record warm up in my closet. Awesome. We have fun with those that tell us about your company eco workshop? Well, I mean, as noted, we started the company back in 1999. I came from the car audio industry. So I did a lot of fabrication in the car audio industry. And somewhere towards my late 20s I decided that I wanted to do something a little bit different, you know, the direction that I was taking with with my career just wasn't fulfilling enough. And I thought what can I do with my skill sets and I started doing theater rooms and custom audio video systems and became part of this industry that's called a custom installation or ci and within that got introduced to home automation and then lighting control and shading control and thermostatic control and evolve, evolve, evolve, evolve, right? And then all of a sudden, the end of the company becomes something much larger than the original intention. It was always technology driven. That's all that I've done my entire life. So it was kind of easy to transition into the next thing that the industry wanted to do. So part of it is you know, my own desire to grow and then part of it is an industry There is constantly looking for different avenues and different things to, to provide to clients. And then, you know, with the latest being the health and wellness movement, and you know, a lot of the things that we can do from a technology side to be part of the health and wellness movement. Yeah, yeah. Cuz I was gonna ask you what inspired you to move into the health and wellness space? Yeah. Well, it's, it's so funny because I, you know, I often get the question and I equate this to this question is like, do you have an hour? It's there's so many reasons why I kind of, was passionate about this and how I grew into it. You know, as I mentioned, a few years back, I decided more than a few years back, I decided that I wanted to be a vegetarian, and started looking at the health and wellness implications of that. I've always loved animals, and I've loved you know, the outdoor spaces, and through my industry, also wanting to to participate within that health and wellness movement. I started learning about biophilia and really started researching, just going crazy looking for how biophilia, what biophilia is, and how it would interface with what we provide as a company. So kind of putting all of that together led me to, you know, just yet another offering the last, not the last but the latest offering in what we do as a company. What's it all about, I think about what I love about technology, and what's so cool about it, and probably what you love about it, too, is that it is always evolving. And there's always something that's on the forefront of technology, and you guys as a company are seem to be always on the forefront, which is, which is really great. And I know is exciting to get into. So it's always changing. You're always learning, it's always evolving. And you guys seem to be open to evolving with it and learning about all the new technology and going with whatever is the newest, latest, greatest thing. It's amazing that everyone is a teacher, you know, and in keeping up, it's like, it's really difficult to keep up with whatever the latest technology is because there's so many different manufacturers doing different things. And when I say that everybody is a teacher is that we'll get a phone call from a customer that says, hey, the XYZ does ABC now, are you able to do that? And it's, you know, we're kinda like, I'm sure that we can. You don't ever want to say no, you're like, Okay, and then you go, Okay, we're gonna figure this out. Right? Exactly. And, you know, sometimes we, whether the client knows it or not, sometimes we're learning on the job. And it's not that we don't know how to do it, it's just that there's been this little addition, or this little different way to do something that we already know how to do. And, you know, I equate it to, you know, learning a language. Once you know that language, there might be some words that you don't know within that language, but you can still get through and you can still communicate and our industry is a lot about that. That's true. That's so true. And I love that about I think with interior design, it is always changing. And the fact that I mean, you guys can bring in new technology into the home. I mean, now with all the It used to be that you didn't have all this technology in the home, but now people are wanting it. So you can do all these really great things indoors. Now, you know, whether it comes to kitchens or biophilic technology, but I think a lot of people might not really know like our listeners, I think we've had episodes before on you know previously on low biophilic design is can you explain what biophilic technology is? Sure. Well, the term came about called biomimicry. So you know, biophilia is about the love of the outdoors. And the health and wellness movement is all about these elements that are concepts that are part of the health and wellness of a building or a home in this case. So you know, one of them, for example, being air quality, and then there's water quality and lighting and thermostatic control or climate control. And these are all parts of you know, the biophilic design and the technology that can be controlled within biophilic design. So biomimicry, kind of gives us the ability to use electronics to mimic the outdoors and just like a very simple example, a pair of speakers in a room and we actually do that here often you'll walk in in the morning and the guys, you know, they'll walk in the morning, and there's forest sounds playing bass and you know, there's a little birds chirping and there might be some running water and you know, the guys are looking at, you know, looking around and look at me like Oh, he's up to that again. You know, sounds of replicating the ocean in me personally, I'm one that if I listen to the ocean, I sleep really well. So very often I might turn on the sounds of the ocean when I'm home and I want to take a nap or you know, just better better sleep. You know. So that is the easiest example of biomimicry. And then we can actually delve into it a lot further. Yeah, that's great. So is this on a surround sound like you have installed like in? It can help? Yeah, yeah, it can be surround sound, it could be just distributed audio, where we have a pair of speakers in several rooms of the house. Yeah, and, you know, the sounds of the forests are, you know, a really popular one. Like I said, The ocean is a really cool one if you want to go to sleep, but it's kind of been proven that even within the workspace that being able to hear sounds of nature, that they can be very calming and soothing to your employees, as well, as you know, if you're using it a residential application, and you're just enjoying your own space. Yeah, I mean, yeah. They they see the benefits of biophilic design, and people experience less pain, they are not taking as much medication they're stay at the hospital isn't as long. So I think that's really incredible. Yeah, I think the health care movement is definitely starting to realize, you know, the benefits and incorporating it into their design. Because, you know, it's amazing that we've talked about this, that the healthcare design space was so sterile, and bringing in that mimicry of the outdoors in has shown to have the same benefits as actually being outside in nature. So bringing it in has the same benefits and even education, I think it would be great because it sparks creativity and cognitive development and lower stress, blood pressure, go ahead of all things. I've actually even read a stuck study about them using it in prison systems, to think about that prisoners to images of nature and sounds of nature, how they have a more calming effect on the population. And that's why I do have much calmer, yeah. prisons. It's important. Yes. That is a really great idea. That's a great idea. I stress environment. And so doing something like that, especially because, you know, a lot of those prison systems, they don't get to go outside. And if they do, there's not a lot of nature, really around trees. And maybe even it could be a great a great group to do studies on too, because it's a very good biophilia technology. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I am. So have you seen people requesting more of this? I know, like we interviewed Tammy, we did wellness travel. Last, I guess two weeks ago, I interviewed her and she said that was interesting to me. She said people are asking for these things. But they're not calling it wellness travel. Right. They don't know that they don't realize I don't realize that they're asking for this, but they are but everything that they're wanting in their travels is wellness related. So have you seen an uptick in that with your business are finding is that there's we're not running into the people asking for it? What we're running into is that once we start talking about it in this very same room, they're like, Oh, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Let's, let's do that, let's, let's put some of that into the space as well. And, and here is where we kind of, we will sit down with a pair of a set of plans to a new construction home. And we're talking about, you know, and so we're very lifestyle driven. And, you know, some of the questions that I might be asking the customer is, how do you live? How will you live in this space? What is it that you're going to use it for? Much like what a designer? Would I you know, we're asking some of the same questions. And it's, it's so funny that, you know, even when we're doing lighting control systems for someone, we tell them, you're going to live this for a month to three months, before we finalize it for you, because you have to live with it. You have to know how it works, and what you're going to want to change about it. And that's going to take you at the very least a month, sometimes even longer. So going back No, people aren't asking for it yet. I don't I'm not seeing enough being said about it to the general consumer that they're asking for it yet. Do you think it's that they don't really know about it? That's what I yeah, yeah, I think they're just not educated in it. They don't know that it exists, that they can have these things. So a division of industries I think that within the air conditioning industry, it's notable I think that people are starting to know oh, I can improve my air quality. Right. And that's certainly part of this movement and, and the water quality. I think that we all agree with that. Yeah, but you know, When it comes to circadian lighting, for example, and when that's something that we're very heavily into, people just aren't even asking for it yet. And, you know, I often have, I find myself explaining what circadian lighting is, and then, you know, they'll make a decision whether that's something that's important to them or not. So you're still educating? Yeah, yeah, I do that I do that a lot in my practice, you know, I mean, I'm still educating about the benefits of acupuncture and health coaching, you know, because people they don't, they still don't know. I mean, a lot of people know what acupuncture is, but they're still unclear of how they can use it and how it can benefit them. And then once they do know, they're like, Oh, my gosh, you know, I wish I would have known about this a long time ago. That's so true. And I do think in our in our professions, that it is important to educate the clients and let them know that there are these things that are out there that may they may not know about or haven't thought about. And these are options for them. You know, that's a great service that, that you do that. And then segwaying, I guess, into the circadian rhythms and biophilic mimicry that so maybe just explain a little bit about what that is and what you guys do for their circadian rhythms with technology? Sure. With Sherry, you and I were talking about this a little bit earlier, and how the correlation between what I know about the circadian rhythms part and then what was with the Chinese clock, yeah, we have a Chinese clock. So I saw his chart, it was a circadian rhythm chart. And it just reminded me Chinese medicine also has a chart, a 24 hour chart that we use. And it is for different, like the body it's it has to do with getting young. And young is the very active phase. Yes, the very inactive phase. It's the nighttime Yong is daytime. So Young would be 12. Noon is the young as young as you can get. And and you know, like for your chart, it said blood circulation, high energy and heart. That's the same for us. Right. So there were some correlations. Really cool. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So in from my learnings of it, you know, and I certainly claim to be no expert at this, but I have done quite a bit of research just in educating myself. This goes back, you know, to 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, when caveman was around, and they were constantly exposed to the outdoors, you know, they, they, they work constantly under sunlight. And the body, that human body became regulated by the sunlight, and specifically by the color temperature generated by the sun as it travels across our sky. So it's all rated in something called kelvins, right. And when we're talking about sunrise or sunset, the kelvins are really low. It's like 2525 2020 520 700 Kelvin. And that is that really orangey yellow light that we all know what sunset looks like, right? And then at noon, it's more like 4500s of 5000 Kelvin, really, really white, almost bluish light. And depending on the time of day, our bodies are actually being moved to do different things. Depending on what color temperature we're experiencing, for example, you know, when we're approaching nighttime, and it's, you know, eight 9:10pm, we start developing melatonin in our bodies, which is telling us that it's time to go to sleep, you know, and that's how we start feeling sleepy, there's, as we are approaching noon, or actually 10 o'clock, nine o'clock, 10 o'clock in the morning, then we're developing more testosterone and higher alertness, you know, to take on the tasks of the day. So going back to Mr. caveman, you know, this, this was hunting time, this was the time to be alert. And, you know, the best coordination was when you were, you know, hunting and trying to gather your food for the day, it even goes as far as to, you know, create endorphins and hormones with a body where it even regulated childbirth. You know, and a lot of us know that childbirth actually happens more in the really early morning times. And this is all related to circadian rhythms. Interesting. So why am I talking about this? Because technology guy, right. So I mentioned biomimicry? Uh huh. And now what we're doing is we are because of the inception of LED lights becoming so good. We can create biomimicry or sick circadian lighting in indoor spaces. So we actually programming Your house where at high noon, your lighting is that really white slash bluish color. And as the sun travels across the sky, your house can be doing exactly the same thing, where when it's dinnertime, you're finding yourself in a very calming 2700 Kelvin light. And we can program all this. It's all technology that we can program in your space. It's being used in the commercial marketplace, and it has been for years and now what we're doing is we're actually doing it within the residential marketplace. So how are they using uncommercial? How's it being used? Like in Vegas? They're probably all the time. Probably a good day. Right? They're probably oxygen and keeping it at that bright. Probably right? Yeah. So you have no idea what time I always laugh about that about Vegas. I'm like, you have no idea. It's like four o'clock in the morning. And then as far as you're concerned, it's noon. Yeah. Yeah. So you're wide awake and ready to go. You know, I'm always amazed by how much psychology there's so much. Haha. And you know, we don't realize that and I remember as a kid thinking psychology, why am I taking this right? And now it's so much of what we do every day, just understanding how people function. So yeah, yeah, Vegas is definitely putting that though about the age of the actual I like 1000s of the lighting colors because, you know, when I think of when I think of the circadian rhythms of lighting, I'm just thinking about how bright the light is like whether it's you know, on full on bright in your home, or whether it's, you know, dimmable low light, which is what, you know, I tried to do in the mornings I tried to get the lights on so it wakes me up. And then at night, I'm dimming lights and putting things low, but I never thought about the actual colors of the lights and how that affects you. Because that was that you when I think we were talking about biophilic design it was what the one we did together. Just you and I were talking about the light. Oh, is that the clock? Me that I will do the covers over my head. there there's a clock that that is out there that will that will start like a sunrise to wake you up? Well, it had this little click that it would make probably no one else could hear it. It was very faint that I knew that's when that little click was when the light was going to start coming on. And I would hear that little click and I would put that every put the covers, so I gave it away to somebody. I don't remember who I gave it away to but I mean, I'm sure it works on other people. But I know that on the weekends, I wake up to sunlight as soon as Yeah, that's it. Yeah, you know, any change in life. So I would love to get one of those clocks. Oh, it'll just get me punched by my wife. So it would still be an abrupt awake. She's gonna sleep she's gonna do like I do I sleep with a sleeping mask on. Yeah, so she wears her sleeping mask and she doesn't see the light and then it wakes you up. So she did the light doesn't wake her up the sunlight. No, it doesn't wake me up either. It does. It does a little bit but I actually on purpose didn't have window treatments in my bedroom. Because I I wanted the sun to wake me up. I'm not a morning person. And so I wanted this, this natural sun to wake me up. And then I did have to get some Window Treatments on one of the windows because they built some buildings. But I still on these really high windows that I have. I don't have any kind of window treatments and the sun comes in and I am just you're out I am out and sleeping and it's not even bothering me pleasurable. But they also said and they and I think that that our sleep interview Tracy Oh, Tracy. Yeah, Tracy said that around. Yeah, Tracy reps and that if you wanted to get really great sleep if you were having if you're having issues with insomnia to make sure you see sunlight first thing in the morning. Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. Along the same lines. And I know that I've heard this comment before is don't look at your iPad, your tablet right before going to sleep. Well. Guess why isn't blue? It's 4500 Kelvin is 4000 Kelvin that lights up the screen. So you're looking at blue light right before going to bed now. The manufacturers of these devices have actually gotten smarter and created night mode and if you put it in night, yes, you'll notice that it kind of yellow is a little Yeah, well guess what? That's 20 703,000 Kelvin. That instead of inputting that blue light into your retina. It's actually you know put putting the the yellow light in there, the warmer light and you can sleep. Yeah, I do. I do utilize that on my phone. Because I do like to like read the news on the iPhone. Yes, it is. I have I mean, I have a Samsung, but I have a night mode. And and I just put it on that night mode and it sort of dims it. And if you can feel like you can feel it like your eyes can feel it whenever it gets rid of that blue light. Yeah, but have you so have you been? Has anybody requested that? Or have you done that in a residential application? Are you just mainly is it been commercial or with the with the certificate? offerings? No, not yet. We keep pitching? I really what do you do? I want you to let me know, because I really want to check it out. I would like to check it out too. But I'm curious like what they use it for in commercial? Because you're not there. Oh, well to keep your employees? Oh, you mean like during the day? I see. I see. So you're probably you have a lot of the blue lights? Yeah, yeah, I didn't. And so there's another side of biomimicry as well. I mean, I mentioned some of the sound triggers and the circadian lighting, but they're even using screens now. Like if you're in a space that has no windows and I can generate a window with a screen with a television. And you could be looking out onto you know, mountain scenery or the ocean or whatever it may be they even there's even a manufacturer that we work with that will create skylights that show you a moving sky. Wow. You know, and it is all being made from screens. And again, just another example of vitamins. That's really cool. There's, well you don't think there's I tried to I tried to find, I think it's a museum in Japan. I tried to find it before I came, I couldn't find it. But they are doing technology that you can interact with. And it's biophilic. It's biophilic technology. But the scene that I saw was I was watching something is they were walking through the space and they were touching things and like flowers were responding to them. Like it was really cool. What are the cool like you could like walk through a wall and then interact with it interact with it. That is really awesome. It was pretty cluttered. If I'm still I'm gonna look forward, if I find that I'll send it to you. Okay, it was super cool. I also think you were talking about the Vegas thing in the work environment. I was thinking that if people work night shifts, that that could be really good for them too. Because you could keep them awake with the brighter light for daytime. I mean, it wouldn't be so good for them as far as their circadian rhythm or their or their health but the graveyard shift. Yeah, exactly. Now, so I can see them using it in that application. But I know that shift work does really mess up as far as their circadian rhythms and in health and things like that. Because it is our body's natural swing. So many of us just live with it. I mean, I remember in younger years, working the graveyard shifts and yeah, man at 11am coming out at seven in the morning and nothing ever seemed or felt Right, right. Yeah. But I wasn't doing that. But I hear Yeah, I wasn't I wasn't your party. I wasn't working but I did it a lot in school and design. Yeah, you stay up all night doing projects and then you're right like it's just things just aren't right and they're just off. Yeah, I used to come out of the bars and the birds would be chirping and you're like why what's going on out here? may or may not your disco now? Like a disco nap? It's like a 30 minute nap. Not longer than an hour just about to give you that Papa energy so you go out for the night. Oh, that's so my lot you know way younger days. I have a lot of fun. Yes, I have I had my but it's funny now because I'm I've run now. So I wake up early in the morning. And so sometimes the partiers and worlds collide in the mornings. That's interesting. I'm running down Washington and then easy somebody with a walk of shame. It happens in their shoes, like mascara underneath their eyes. Yep. So funny. Our worlds collide. So So Lewis, so tell us so you, it's not just lighting. There's also sound and you said water and temperature control. And all those things are so important. I know for sleep is supposed to be like 60 something like 64 degrees. Yeah, for like, I don't know if that's 64 I don't know what I put my VA it's it's in the 6964 Yeah, it's I think it's like 60 it's the hot 6468 is supposed to be an optimal temperature for you to get the best sleep. Okay. I haven't heard that word, but I have nothing to add on. However, you know, it's kind of funny because for us in the automation industry, thermostatic control. Religious popular before the health and wellness movement kind of got going. So we've always had the ability to control your thermostat through, you know, technology, and then some of the integrated systems that we do. So now, when somebody does want health and wellness integration into their space, it's just really easy to, you know, because it's already there. Yeah, like I have the, I've had a nest thermostat for Gosh, I think when they first came out is when I got one. Yeah, and you can 6565 Okay, 65 degrees is optimal for sleeping, okay. But the Nest thermostat is great because it learns your routine and and sometimes it's annoying that it learns your routine, because I don't want it to go there. But it's great. I love the nest, and then you can do it right from your phone. It has like an eco mode. There's, there's lots of other things, I think that it will do, too, that I probably don't utilize. There's other ones that have come out too, that are similar to the one that turns off the AC while we're recording. Yes, that's the one I told you. Well, what happens is because I'm not there, so it goes into Eco mode, because the thermostats actually on the second level, so it's not picking up any motion. And so it thinks that I'm not there. So sometimes when sharing our recording downstairs, it goes into Eco mode, and we're like it's hot in here, and then I'm on there fixing it or whatever. So, yeah, we often run into that with customers that have upstairs units and units, and they never spend any time upstairs and the unit upstairs doesn't turn on often enough. So that is one of the issues that we run into with. However, it is a great product and this direct to consumer movement and electronics. I mean, they're really coming out with some really intuitive stuff that is meant to help the masses, which is really really cool stuff. Yeah. Speaking of sound, I mean, we you know, we talk about actually making sound. But you guys also do acoustic and sound absorption. Yep. So have you I noticed it's everybody's at home. Now I know that I'm hearing that it's a problem or an issue, especially with multiple people in the family working from home kids at home with school, maybe somebody has a zoom conference, and then somebody else is trying to have another zoom conference, have you had a lot of requests for sound absorption or acoustic absorption? Yeah, we're seeing it more in the high rise. environment. People that can hear their upstairs neighbor downstairs neighbor. So we are in we were already doing acoustical treatment because of theater rooms. So when I went to COVID. When it comes to acoustics, there's two things that are abatement, there's isolation, which is keeping unwanted noises out. And then there is treatment, which is How good does it sound when I'm inside, right? Okay. But you can use techniques from both sides to kind of create a really nice usable space. So sometimes we will use some absorption or some reflection to create a better space for the for the customer for the end user. Or sometimes we'll just use isolation to keep unwanted noises out. So you know, a really thick rubber matting product keeps noise from traveling through the walls sound after all is just vibration. So you just want to dampen those vibrations so that they don't come through. I didn't think about the high rises. But you know, people are probably now that they're working from home, they were always at work. And so they didn't really hear all that noise. And now that they're working at home, there's obviously a lot more noise going on. One of my most recent requests is a guy whose upstairs neighbor put in wood flooring, and he can now hear the dog running across. And we are doing sound abatement panels on his ceiling. Okay, to dampen. Yeah, so I live I live in. She's like, Oh, hello. Well, two things. One, I live in a older apartment. It's a 1930s apartment. I love it. It is it's so awesome. But wood floors, and the sound is awful. So I haven't had a problem recently because my neighbors were super quiet, but they just moved so I'm kind of nervous. Who's going to come in there next. It's just two stories. So I'm like, so now that you're saying this, I'm like, Huh, but then also in my clinic. The to the junior chronic. Yeah, to have the treatment room. I have two treatment rooms back to back and they're separated by glass door. So I used to have like acoustical panels. I hung some up and it worked a little bit but I need something that's a little bit more rubber man. I know. He said rubber mat. Yeah, it's called Load vinyl. It's one way of trading. There's also air gapping, which is where you do like to, you could do two layers of sheet rock. And you put this glue product in between them to create an air gap in between. Again, it's just vibration. Yeah. How do we dampen that vibration from going to one space? Yeah. Yeah. Why need that? And I need the four sounds like my clinic. Yeah, we need we actually need Lewis to help us with our podcast. Yes. And yeah. And then the podcast space was funny, because when we were first starting, you know, we talked about this all the time, how we had to research everything and figure out how to do anything from scratch. But we were going to record in on my second level, it's a really nice open area. There's like these big beautiful windows, and it's a really great space. But so Oh, the egg goes bouncing everywhere recorded and you know, we did a test and we were like, Oh my gosh, this sounds horrible. And then we realized that it was just bouncing off all of the hard surfaces. And so then we're like, what are we going to do? And then I remember one time we were laughing about well, maybe we need to record in the closet. But uh, we bought like a screen we will we bought we bought these and then we bought the we added the windscreens and then there was another little contraption that and all we can see was each other's eyes. This is weird. We don't feel comfortable. So then we started putting like rugs and blankets and all kinds of like, my layout and when I broke my lamp with a blanket thing was on there when you said the words big beautiful windows. What did my head do? I know you started shaking now he already was like, Yeah, but we figured it out. We moved downstairs into my office and then added a rug and we don't even use that other. Well do we still use because you have a glass table. We put something over the glass table. So we do put like dubay cover over the telling all our secrets now, but we put the duvet cover over the because I have a glass gasket. So we found out that there were some vibrations obviously going on with that. So 5000 hertz. Oh, really? No, that's that's the frequency at which glass reverberates? 1000 hertz. Wow. Okay. I should have just called Louis to begin with, and he would have told us what to do. But we figured it out. He helped us to do their mixer. Yeah, I knew too much about nothing. That's a lot of good information. All the time that we spent trying to figure out all the technology you could have been like, Hey, what do we need to buy and tell us how to set it up? Because even setting up that mixer? We were trying to? Yeah, I had the you that. Oh, thank goodness for YouTube. We used to everything? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna say you need to you should have a YouTube channel to ask you do you do? Oh, you do. There's an eco workshop, you put that in our show notes and everything. Okay, so people can see, yeah, I'm gonna have to start checking it out. What we'll use our YouTube channel for, though is to solve problems. Okay, you know, we'll get a call, how do I change my code on my alarm system? Or how do I bypass this zone on my alarm? That's great. So we have, you know, mock up systems set up in our warehouse for every brand that we sell, okay, and two of us will go back there, one of them shooting the video and one of them just explaining, here's what you do. And we'll shoot the video. And really, that's all we're using the YouTube channel for right now. And then from the marketing standpoint, then we have the amateurs Instagram. Well, that's what we're using YouTube for. We've loved people like you that were doing those kinds of tutorials. And we could just go on and watch them and they would literally tell you step by step what you needed to do. And we're like, this is awesome. I do the same thing. I'm gonna be a surgeon by 2020 there's gonna be two doctors. I learned it from YouTube. Don't worry, okay. All right. guy looked like he knew Doctor. Doctor. Well, we talked about thermal control. We talked about lighting and circadian rhythms. And yeah, so I mean, yeah. Do you have any other like requests or anything that you're seeing in the industry? Or what do you think the future holds for biophilic technology? Well, I'll say this, that, you know, the, the, the main point behind all of this, you know, we're talking about health and wellness, you know, in in some of the sound abatement things that we're talking about. It's, you know, you can kind of consider we're just trying to do away with something that's bothersome, but the deeper thought behind it is that this is all about stress relief, you know, and taking stress away from our lives. So there's a lot of reasons why we use the sound abatement solutions, and then do some interior speakers or something, keep, again, keep all the unwanted noise out, right, keep the wanted sound in. And, you know, we live, not a stress free, but a lower stress life. Right? Well, I'm all about lowering the stress and anxiety. I mean, especially in our the time that we're having right now, I do think that people are having a higher stress and anxiety. And so things like this that they can incorporate are great. And I don't you know, I think people don't think about that about their home being a place where, well, I think they're thinking about it now. Yes, a place where they can de stress, but now people are starting to think about it. Yeah. Have you been getting requests for like, I don't know, if you do this, but UV lighting since the pandemic, I know a lot of people like UV lighting can help kill like bacteria and viruses. And within the HVC systems that I mentioned earlier, it's kind of becoming a standard to have that UV lighting with air systems. And you know, I often have to answer this question, when we're talking to clients about it, you know, you're bringing in another trade the HVC guy or contractor sorry, in order to do the hbic system, you know, and they look at us as like, well, do we need you for that? It's like, Well, no, not really. And then obviously, a plumber is going to do your water filtration, not your AV guy. And you start looking at all these different offerings that we're all talking about as being health and wellness, what we want to do is we bring it all together, and we have systems in place that can monitor your air quality, and monitor your water quality. And obviously, we're already controlling your thermostat, and we are already controlling your circadian lighting. So now we give you this digital report card on an interface that you can look at it and it could be your iPad, or your smartphone, or it could be a dedicated tablet that lets you know, what's my house doing? What How is my air quality right now? You know, is it time to change my filters, whether it's my water or air filter? So where is the industry going? It all of this is going to grow? And we just need more people aware of it? And I think people will start to expect it? Or you know, certainly notice it. I'll go back real quick. I'll make this one fast. You mentioned something earlier that, you know, was leading to the expectations within the home. And when I started in this industry having come from cars, you know, we talked about how in cars back then this is 1999. In cars, power door locks were just becoming popular in 1999. In power windows, you know, it's like not every car had power. Yeah. But you know, today, you couldn't imagine buying a car that didn't have those amenities. So in 1999, the big topic of conversation in the home building industry anyway, the technology side like me, it was something called structured wiring, and it was, you know, running the wire within your house to be able to support all the things that we're talking about now. Well, that's not even a topic of conversation anymore, because it is expected that you're going to have structured wiring in your house. That's true. You know, the the biggest and smallest spec Home Builders already throw that stuff in. So where are we going with this? I think it's going to become commonplace enough that people are going to start expecting it within their spaces. I'll also go back to talking about energy efficiency. A few years ago, we were talking about LEED certification. Yeah. And you know, there was an institute that kind of mandated and oversaw what was going on and whether you could be LEED certified. And now the conversation is about well certified. Yeah. In the 10 concepts of well, and is my building meeting those standards? Well, I'll say that as of things may have changed now. But the last time that I looked, there was no real well certification for residential marketplace. It was mostly industrial and commercial marketplace. But what I used to say to my customers back then, and what I'll say now is it doesn't matter if it's well certified or not. Look at the 10 concepts you know, water quality, air quality, lighting, quality, you know, movement, air filtration, all of this stuff, look at it in just kind of judge on your own Do you need these things? Do you value these things within your space and you might come out with something really really nice in your movement peace movement is actually more in your world. Yeah, it's about you know, being what Yoga is a really I sort of that. gems. Yeah. Those are the main parts of well those are the big The big thing of fitness is one of them. Okay, so movement that we've talked about before movement within your space and for well designed and well accredited professional. It is, you know, LEED was more of the architectural aspect of your home and the environmental impact that you had on the exterior. And then fishin c energy efficiency, and then well design is more of the interior of your home. And then just like we're talking about today, bringing the outside inside, and how does it affect the occupants? It's more about the occupants of the space. And then Li design was more about how the space is affecting the environment and how you have affected the environment. Yeah, interesting. I know, it's the first time I've ever like since Well, it was right after COVID you started seeing the commercials for well designed, I know. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, that is so cool. So I'm getting accredited in Well, okay, design, so I'll be a well accredited professional sent, is it in the residential marketplace yet? The certification? No. Okay. You know, being a wellness or credit professional, obviously, you can consult with your clients, and then you can give them options, and you can tell them what they can do for their home. But as far as being a well certified building, that's really the commercial aspect. And those those are what the commercials that we've seen, if anybody's seen those commercials, they have some celebrities that are the commercials, the commercials seem to be more residential, Taylor. I don't know if they were but just like visually, like, it seemed to be more residents like, well, I took it as residential. One of the things that we run into is that, you know, big apartment complexes can be built as a commercial project, but they're really resin. Yes, exactly. So is that kind of mix of commercial slash residential, having your apartment complex, be well certified, or having your restaurant for instance, being well certified, and maybe more people feeling, you know, more comfortable to come into your restaurant or your establishment? Well, but they know that you're practicing these certain concepts, but wellness, I think they're also trying to make sure that LEED and well designed, they're all kind of working together because this this word wellness, sort of like the word healthy, anybody can use that word. Well, what does it mean? And so they're trying to come together to come up with a great standards and concepts for that, so that there is a standard for what is wellness design? Yeah, so I guess like, you know, if it was gonna be residential, like what would be like, what would be the benefit of being having a certification of having a well house, the benefit would be so for instance, my house is LEED certified. So the benefit is resale, but for having someone also you as a person, like for me, it was very important to have a LEED certified home, just for not only what I do, but what I believe in as far as building an impact in the environment. But I think it would mean something to somebody that's interested in wellness and wanting to be healthy that they want to say that they're home as well, they notified that they've met the standard know that they've met these standards. And it's the same with Lee, you have to meet a certain amount of standards, and there's different levels. But with the with the well certification, you would meet the same standards, you know, you can go for the lowest certification or you can, you know, add on and get a higher certification. But then just to be able to say when you go to resell your home, and you say My house is a well certified home, my house is a LEED certified home that sets you apart from the other homes that are out there for sale. And people didn't hear about people didn't care about LEED certification before. It also wasn't in the residential area. When I built my home in Atlanta, they didn't have LEED for residential. So now that they do and people actually hear that your home is LEED is like, oh, okay, well, my house just just jumped up in the price range. And you have a certain, you know, niche market of people that are gonna like that and be interested. I mean, that's my opinion on it. I think it's a good one. I think, other opinions and maybe, you know, I think it's, um, you know, when you guys talk about we always talk about the pillars of health, right? Like there is movement and exercise, there's nutrition. There is sleep, there is spirituality. Mindfulness. Yeah, exactly. Or then when you talk about the home, there's temperature, there's lighting, water filtration, and there's fitness. Exactly, yeah, it's very similar. Yeah. Like get in the house. So what you Candace says that you have won a lot of Design Awards. Yeah. And so I want to know what your favorite project is. Oh, now you're one of my children. I'll tell you right now we are in the middle, we just finished wiring for this job. It is a show car garage. Oh, and this particular owner, it is in his home. But he built this, he's building this really incredible facility. And I started talking to them about color changing lighting, you know, so this lighting that we're putting throughout the space can be any color that you can imagine is 256,000 colors, oh my god, it is all led driven. We are running our own wire category six cable, a cat six cable to every light load. What that means is that the electrician didn't run fixtures, we are running all of the lighting fixtures ourselves, each of the car positions, because they're all very, very nice cars, we have five heart lights dedicated to each car. That's amazing. I cannot wait to finish this project. And it's not because I wanted done. I can't wait to see the product. But we are doing some incredible stuff over there. In it's our first foray into putting the lighting in a space that we're controlling all of it not, you know, some white light bulb cam that you know, the electrician is gonna get to put in we are controlling everything about this installation, and the electrician is looking at I was like, What do I do? though? That's really cool. I didn't think about that. Well, these people that have these really nice cars and these expensive garages. They want to showcase these automobiles. And that's just wow. So it's like a museum museum qualities for these cars. Well, I'm going to add something to it. Yeah. Because these lights will do 256,000 colors. Yes. What? It also does circadian. So this customer is going to have circadian lighting within his face. Although that's that wasn't the intent of it. They literally and the wife is very heavily involved in, you know, when I when I first talked to them about this, it's like, are you gonna have parties in here? And I said, Absolutely. And I said, Would you like the room to be purple? And she just lit up and she's like, you can do that. And I was like, we can make it any color that you want. And she's like, I like purple. Great. It can be purple. It can be any color you want. So yeah, we'll we're going to actually program circadian into it. But we didn't sell it that way. We sold it as a high energy entertainment space. Okay, yeah, that will showcase them. I like that word, high energy entertainment space for his showcase garage. That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. And part of it is he describes himself as an addicted entrepreneur. You know, and he's, he's willing to his years. He's, I think he's 7778. And he's retired, but has started. He's only running like eight companies now. And, you know, he got into or bought into a company that restores cars. This base is just going to show off his best car. That's amazing. I can't wait to see it. When are you going to be finished with that? That depends on the budget. Oh, well, I have to let us know. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds amazing. Yeah, so I'm gonna say that that's probably one of my favorites. As you saved yourself on that one. You didn't have to pick any, like designers that you had. That would be kind of tricky. Designers. So any tips for our listeners that? Well, I mean, within the health and wellness space in it, just like I did just get yourself educated that you know, that YouTube education is actually kind of a good one, believe it or not, or, you know, there's so many companies out there. Well, no, that's not true. There's some companies out there that are playing in this space, and they're putting out some really great information. When I started looking into this, I had no idea that Bala biophilia has been around since the 70s. And you know, to learn that, you know, it stemmed from a book from a guy that loves dance. And, you know, I've started reading the book several times. Now, it is written by a scientific mind. And it is a tough read, I'm sorry to say, but I've looked at it, but you know, I just either way what it inspired, I think it's pretty great. I think that there's a lot of merit behind it. And if you have any inkling of, you know, a love or you know, a passion for any of this stuff. It's it's great to learn more about it. Yeah. And I always say call a professional if you don't know what you're doing. Right like some Unlike you, you know, find interior designers know who you are, you have a great relationship with them, they can put you in touch with you or, you know, find someone in your area that does what, what eco workshop does. I mean, I don't know, if a lot of people do what you guys do, I think what you're doing is really amazing, another forefront of technology. But I think you know, more and more people are going to be getting into that. So I always say if you're, you know, scared, or you don't know what to do, just call and call in the professional, right? Yes, in our industry is moving into this pretty heavily. So you're going to find integrators like ourselves that are doing this kind of stuff. For me, I'll say that it was a personal passion that I was already involved in, I already liked. And when the industry said, Hey, we're doing this, I was like, Oh, that's familiar. I really like it. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. So in you did a lecture is that oh, I mean, do you like Do you enjoy doing that if somebody wanted to reach out to you and have you. So one of the things I've been an outreach instructor now for about 10 years, and that's through an association in our industry called CEDIA, and not to get into the cetus field, but they train guys like me to teach classes to designers, architects, and builders, where they can get CPUs for attending our classes. So we hold at least two classes per year, with an aim of four classes per year. And we'll do CTU days where you could come out for a day and do some classes, and there may or may not be some wine involved. And we know we may hold a couple of classes in a day, one of the things that I'm working on is that there currently isn't a biophilia or health and wellness class. And I reached out to CD and I said, Hey, this is something that I want to do. Now, by no means am I anybody high in the you know, in the CEO of network, you know, I have no making no decision making possibilities within that network. But I reached out to the people that I know and I said, Hey, I want to write a class that includes health and wellness. And these are some some of the points I sent them an example of what I had already used as a speaking PowerPoint, and they liked it. But this was right at the beginning of COVID. Right, and then it never got followed up on in, you know, something that I need to get back on top of the world. Yeah, I think it would be great. And then we'll have you we'll have you on with ASD. Yep. With one of the CEA is they do a lot of they do several CES with them ASAP. But you guys also do them on your own, too. And you guys have a newsletter, right? Yes, yeah. And you have all this information in the newsletter. And yeah, and we'll have the way for our listeners to sign up for your newsletter. We can put it in our show notes. But what's the best way for people to get in touch with you? Oh, we're a go workshop calm. We are at echo workshop 1999 on Instagram and Pinterest, and just look up eco workshop on Facebook. And then you have your YouTube channels where you're doing the tutorials. Correct. And if you search YouTube, if you search on YouTube, you'll find us that way as well. Okay, it's an original enough name, I guess. Yeah, it is. That's awesome. What you do? Yeah, YouTube Academy, YouTube Academy. Yeah, I learned a lot today, especially about the circadian rhythm stuff. Sounds awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. We really appreciate it. And you know, I always appreciate you and Pam. So thank you very much. My pleasure. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And we will see you or two, I guess listen to us in two weeks. Thanks. Bye. Join us every other week for a new episode. Go to your favorite podcast platform and subscribe to us so you don't miss out on any new episodes. And please share our podcasts with your family and friends. If you like what you hear, please give us five stars and a positive review. It will greatly help our rating and success of the podcast. You can also keep up with us on Instagram and Facebook at health wellness. To find out more information visit our website at help a wellness.com We welcome your input. If you have any ideas, comments or questions, you can email us at health and wellness@gmail.com