Made In Walker

Skilled Trades, Real Futures: A conversation with Preferred Flooring owners.

• City of Walker MI • Season 1 • Episode 22

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Skip the tired script about success requiring a four-year degree. We sit down with Daniel and Jose Gonzalez of Preferred Flooring to explore how a hands-on trade can become a vehicle for purpose, community, and a resilient career. From weekend gigs as kids to leading complex healthcare installations, their path shows how craftsmanship, discipline, and training turn “just a job” into a calling.

We dig into what makes hospital flooring unforgiving and why that pressure builds better habits everywhere else: surface prep, adhesive science, infection control, and close coordination under strict timelines. The brothers explain how sports shaped their approach to leadership—earning your role, taking coaching, and competing with urgency—then connect that mindset to recruiting teens at career fairs. When students snap a plank together and feel the work, they see new possibilities. We also unpack the industry’s labor landscape: the pull of 1099 work, the challenge of offering benefits as a small contractor, and the long game of retention through respect, training, and clear growth paths.

Education runs through everything. Products change, specs evolve, and shortcuts fail under real-world conditions. As certifiers and instructors, Daniel and Jose champion ongoing training to prevent callbacks, protect margins, and elevate the craft. They share why they call subcontractors “partners,” how relationships drive repeat work, and where their own platform—The Huddle podcast—helps new tradespeople set up businesses, manage books, and avoid common pitfalls. If you care about skilled trades, small business realities, or the art of building something that lasts, this conversation delivers practical insights and a shot of motivation.

Listen now, then subscribe, share with a friend who needs a nudge toward the trades, and leave a review to help more people find the show. Want to connect with our guests? Check out pfmi.team for projects or careers, and find The Huddle at thehuddle.team.

If you have comments about this podcast, or ideas for future episodes, please email us at PODCAST@WALKER.CITY

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Maiden Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories, and the ideas shaping our community. From local innovators to everyday change makers, we're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work, and grow. Here's your host, Nicole DiDonato.

SPEAKER_03:

We're shining a light today on a topic that deserves more attention, and that is skilled trades. For many high school students, success doesn't necessarily mean a four-year degree. So with me right now are Brothers of Preferred Flooring. We have Daniel and Jose Gonzalez. It's a Walker-based company that's not only creating success here within the community, but also showing high school students that there's alternative ways to great success. Thank you both so much for joining us. Thank you for having us. Yeah, thank you. All right, so let's start at the beginning. How did you know or when did you know that you wanted to get into flooring specifically? It's a very specific niche there.

SPEAKER_02:

So no one ever wants to get into flooring. You kind of get thrown into it and then you get stuck and can never leave.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. That's really what it amounts to. I you know, I started as a two-week temporary and then it kind of dragged him in.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh yeah, I started like right after seventh or eighth grade. I don't even remember. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

I was like 12 years old and great. You know, getting into it and we didn't have much growing up, so you got it kind of got offend for yourself, and that's what we did.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Pull him into a hey, you wanna you want some nice things? All right, come and work, come work on the weekend. Come and work when you get it.

SPEAKER_02:

That's what it was. I was just also helped for one day, and they were like, oh, he kind of works pretty good. So it was an every summer thing until I graduated and then just did full time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, okay. And you established your company in Walker. So grateful to have you and uh for choosing Walker to set up your business. What has that been like over the years?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh so far it's it's it's been going pretty good. Um, you know, we've been in the same location uh since since we moved to Walker and It's hard to get away from the district, right? So our kids are are uh Keno uh students and it's just the atmosphere, the little league, the people keep us here.

SPEAKER_02:

Being a small family business, that's what we kind of you know are base everything around. It's like, you know, let's let's stay in the community, let's help our community out, and yeah, and that way, you know, when when when they see us doing it, they end up helping us out too. And we've done quite a few homes. We it's residential is not something that we you know advertise, but once they know you do it, they're like, hey, I got a house over here you want to come do, and it's like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Word of mouth is great. That's the best. Yeah, and you were touching on just how involved you are in the walker community, especially with sports, with uh, I mean, assuming you guys grew up with baseball, softball too. You have a heart there as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um baseball was my first love, and we're kind of I don't want to say we're passing it down to the kids because we want them to love whatever they they want to love, right? But they in our family, you have to choose a sport. Yeah, right? You don't have to play it your whole life, but we have to try to find something because uh, you know, a coachable kid becomes a better employee, a better employee becomes a better entrepreneur, and we would just we want to introduce our children to the hierarchy of sports. Sports introduces a lot. Um earn your earn your spot.

SPEAKER_02:

Um we've been we've had a lot of people come through and it's you can tell the kids that played sports in school versus the ones that didn't, because they don't they don't deal with authority the same way, right? Sure. So when you put your kids in in sports, especially I mean I my son started playing baseball when he was like four years old. He started travel when he was seven, and it's just they have that that different dynamic when it's like I can they can look at at an authority figure and be like, all right, they're telling me what to do, not because they're just trying to boss me around them, but we got things to get done.

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's face it, entrepreneurs um don't always like the coaching they get either. That's why they start their own things. Um and and maybe that maybe that helps uh through sports because hyper competitive people create opportunities.

SPEAKER_03:

I love that connection. That is great to bring in sports and just how that builds character and everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Because you you know, you started, you know, saying about the high school, and we try and get in the career days, you know, as early as elementary school just to show people that you don't, it's not just all, you know, office work and stuff like that. It's you can actually build a pretty good career with working with your hands.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and you we were talking off camera and you were just mentioning what you see in kids when they come up to you during these youth career fairs. What is it that you you notice right away from someone?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh it's the kids that are actually like, oh, I get to play with some of these tools, right? Like it's it's nothing that's gonna hurt them or anything, but hey, I could snap this floor together. I get to use a rubber mallet to make sure that it's locked in there. And just the kids that actually want to do things with their hands and actually like you can see them light up.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And then most people, uh children are very hands-on, right? Like you want to touch it, you want, you know, don't touch the stove, it's hot, you know. But it's flooring, it goes together, and some of it's really easy, some of it's really difficult. But to put it in front of um a a child and and have and watch them discover something brand new. It's the same thing when you're an adult, when you're when you're in construction, when you're putting something together and you accomplish that, you are you're creating art. And that's what it is. It's it's just uh another way to look at it. It's uh it doesn't have to be flooring, but construction is an art form. And some people have it, some people want it, some people do not. But there's room for everyone in the construction industry.

SPEAKER_03:

You can really tell the huge pride you have in your work. Where do you do a lot of your projects? Who are your biggest clients? Oh, that's kind of uh or what industry maybe do you do a lot of that within? I know some of the healthcare, I think you were mentioning.

SPEAKER_02:

We do healthcare, and that's where we'd like to get more back into that. We've kind of fallen out of that for a little bit, and a lot of that is price-driven, but um in you know, in construction you kind of get what you pay for. And, you know, we've had the I don't want to say privilege because it's not a privilege to fix someone else's work, but it needs to be done, right? Because when you're working in clean rooms and surgery rooms, things have to be done and your infection control is is over you the entire time. So, you know, hospitals is kind of what we built our name on, and that's where um we'd like to get back to because I tell people once you once you know how to do hospital work, that translates to everything else, and you're actually a lot cleaner everywhere else than if you don't work in hospitals at all.

SPEAKER_03:

That's a great point. And those are big projects. That's kind of you know, it's hard on your body too, and yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01:

And and that's uh where the hyper competitive comes from, right? Like someone says, I can't do it, I don't want to do it. It's like, oh, you only get one shot to do that? One chance. I want to try it, let's do it. Yeah. And that's what that's what happened. Um but as far as the majority of the work, we've been fortunate to start from a labor only and then evolved into a full service uh flooring contractor. And um, you know, been building relationships since 98. So we get a lot of phone calls and we don't win everything. I don't expect to, but um it's nice to to rekindle some of those relationships that were built years ago. And you know, the gentleman who started as a labor laborer on a project and now running crews or you know moved up the ladder in in the industry that they're in, and they remember us.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's it's nice because I was just measuring a project the other day and um it was direct for a client and they had you know a construction company do their remodel. And uh I was like, Oh, who you working with? They told me, I said, Oh, I know, I know them pretty well. And then she comes back out and she texts me, she was like, Yeah, he said that how do you know him? He's one of the best in the industry.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it is all about oh, you know, who you know and those relationships too. And speaking about relationships, again, kind of working with family. I believe your sister is also part of the crew.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, our sister, our brother-in-law, wow, people that have been, you know, around our family for years. I mean, one of the guys that that works for us actually we worked with him um at a different company before we started this one.

SPEAKER_03:

A couple of them.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. A couple of the guys.

SPEAKER_03:

And how is that working with family? This could be a whole you know what?

SPEAKER_01:

Um the dynamic is hard at times, but you have the same goal. Right? Like you, you and your your family are are striving towards the same goal. So even if you don't agree um at in a moment, you do agree on on the end plan. So it's it's very comforting to know that we're still striving, taking strides to to help our family get to a better place. Um whether it's together all the time or sometimes not seeing eye to eye, um I guess you gotta catch us on on good weeks and bad weeks. Uh the good times are really good, the the bad times are momentary.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, day to day, minute to minute sometimes. Sure, sure. You just gotta you gotta know when to just hold your breath and all right. Like I tell people, okay, we'll we'll just do it your way. Like we'll do it the dumbest way possible, just to so you can see. Yeah, yeah. And then sometimes, you know, it ends up working out, and it's like, oh, I guess it wasn't that dumb after all.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing teaching each other. That's the sibling thing, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Like hands off, right? Hands off. I'm here to help.

SPEAKER_03:

And switching gears kind of back to the flooring industry. What are some of the challenges that you face um, you know, with the with the that flooring industry?

SPEAKER_02:

I think if you look at any articles from probably like 1990, you with the flooring industry, they call it um the installation crisis or the labor crisis, right? Sure. We've been battling getting people into the industry for years. Um, after the 80s, you know, you talk to some of these old guys and they're like, the 80s were so great, I was making so much money, and then they look at the rates and they're like, I was making the same rates that you guys are charging now back in the 80s. So it's just um not only labor, but getting the pricing to where it needs to be because flooring is an industry where everyone is not necessarily paid the right way, right? They hire us on a as a a contractor on a 1099, and then a lot of the other people will hire someone to help them on a 1099, and then they'll hire someone to help them on a 1099, and it's like a constant trickle effect. So it's actually um competing with manufacturing and stuff like that, or in just restaurants, right? Fast food even. Um, you you start working at a fast food restaurant or in on a somewhere industrial, and you get health insurance right away, and you get vacation, and it's like, okay, you don't get that kind of stuff on a 1099. So what can we do to compete with these bigger guys, even though we're kind of lagging behind on the pay scale? And it's it does, it takes it's a lot of expense, but it's something that you know we pulled the trigger on years ago to try and pull in some of the the talent that we have now, even.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it's the construction um all the way around, right? It's you can't get rid of the uh DBA or 1099 because it promotes uh entrepreneurs to take the next step. Um and it's something like if it didn't exist, we wouldn't be here right now. Um but on the other hand, it's talent, uh retainage and then also the cost of running a business nowadays. If you want to um be attractive to employees, um it gets very tiresome to go over all the changes and keep up with everything. Um because it's more money from us that has to go back out to to the city, the state, uh, federal. But I understand it's for a good cause. It just makes it a little more difficult when you're the smaller guy on the block, but we're figuring it out day by day.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, small business owners, you wear a lot of different hats. Uh, I know some of the things uh from uh speaking with you guys is that continued education, very important, especially with your trade too. So for folks who are part of your uh crew, what does that look like as far as growth and that continued um continued education?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we just try and tell them that, you know, um in any industry you have to do continued education, right? Just look at, you know, we talked about healthcare earlier and you see the I know nurses and doctors and they're constantly going to seminars and having to do different classes because things change and flooring industry is the same way. I mean, when you take something out of an adhesive and put something else in, that's a different adhesive now, right? So it's always just um telling them that they need to be proactive themselves and wanting to learn is is really the key. Because there's too many guys out there that think I've been doing this for 20, 30 years, I just gonna keep on doing it the same way when you can't do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And sometimes it's um it's a matter of you got lucky for 20 or 30 years. But I think everything, uh no matter what you choose to do in life, requires you to continue your education, right? Um you mentioned fast food earlier, and there's there's a a scale of progression, right? You start here at A and they want to see you get to B, C and D. Um but you can't do that without taking some kind of test or or educating yourself on what the next steps are.

SPEAKER_02:

And and we're you know, we're certifiers for a few organizations too, so we try to pull them over here. It's just hard to get um them to commit when not everyone in the area sees the the education the same way as we do, right? So it's hard to fill up a class and you know we'll schedule something and then they'll have to cancel it. So there's been a few times where we're like, yeah, we'll have the guys, you know, in here and doing it. And we call them the guys, but it doesn't mean the guys, I just mean the the employees, right? But yeah, and I'm we're we're constantly letting them know, you know, if there's something that you guys want to do, you know, let us know and we'll try and figure something out.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. If there's anything that anybody out there wants to learn and and they they have the requirements, we can help.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah, like uh in a couple weeks here, I'm going to Ohio to teach a class. And then have a meeting on Monday about going to Canada to teach a class.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, so you guys are everywhere, and and not only just in person, but uh, you know, really quickly, you guys also have your own podcast. Where can people find that and what kind of information is on that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so our podcast is called The Huddle. Um, again, a lot we're really sports-based, sports focused, so everything is you know, bouncing off of that. And you know, the tagline for that is forward progress, and that's what we say is forward progress in your career. And we just want to make sure that people, especially the the people that are just starting out, don't have to go through the same hurdles that we did, right? Um, setting up business, stuff like that. And um, we actually have a webinar series coming out that's we're we're trying to push it for quarter two of next year to start it, but that's gonna be our first one is actually setting up your business and you know, getting your books in order because there's too many people that don't know how to do that. And uh you can find us, our our website is thehuddle.team.

unknown:

Cool.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, wonderful. And if for folks are, you know, whether looking for um projects or even if they're interested in exploring a career in uh flooring, how can they get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we're all over all the social medias. Um you can actually our website is pfmi.team. Cool. So you can go there and if you're looking for for a job or if you you're a contractor now and just looking for for more work, um, at the bottom of our page is a couple links, you know, for employment or to partner with us. And that's what we we like to call people our partners, right? Because once you're once we're working together, we're partnering. You're not any lower than we are. We're just we wouldn't have that project if you weren't there. So that's that's how we look at things.

SPEAKER_01:

We got to build relationships and you got to use uh everyone who's at your disposal to help create that social capital.

SPEAKER_03:

So I love your philosophies. Thank you both so much for sharing that insight as well as what folks can do if they are interested in career and flooring. And we'll look for the Huddle podcast as well. So, Daniel and Jose, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02:

We appreciate it. Thanks for having us on.

SPEAKER_03:

And we appreciate you for tuning in.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Maiden Walker Podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walker. Maiden Walker is the official podcast of the City of Walker, Michigan. You can find Maiden Walker wherever you get your podcasts.

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Nicole DiDonato

Host