Paradigm Industry Insiders
Conversations That Move the Window and Door Industry Forward
The window and door industry is evolving fast. Customers expect more, technology is raising the bar, and the companies that adapt quickest are the ones who will lead.
The Industry Insiders Podcast, powered by Paradigm, is where leaders across the industry share how they’re navigating change, building stronger businesses, and setting the pace for what’s next.
Hosted by John Wheeler, a 25-year veteran of building materials and software and sales technician at Paradigm, with season 1 guest co-host Stefanie Couch, founder of Grit Blueprint, a lifelong industry insider and growth strategist, the show takes you inside the strategies, tools, and ideas reshaping how windows and doors get sold, delivered, and experienced.
You’ll hear from manufacturers, dealers, and innovators across the supply chain, offering real-world lessons you can apply to your own business.
Paradigm Industry Insiders
Tackling Inefficiency: AI Solutions for Door and Window Companies
Inefficiency is the biggest challenge facing the window and door industry today, but AI solutions can help companies automate repetitive tasks and respond to customers faster. In this eye-opening conversation, John Wheeler, Sales Technician at Paradigm, and guest host Stefanie Couch, Founder of Grit Blueprint, dive into the most pressing challenges facing our industry today.
• Automating repetitive tasks allows valuable veteran employees to focus on what they do best
• Capturing the knowledge of retiring industry veterans is essential for training the next generation
• Companies are 21 times more likely to convert leads when responding within 5 minutes
• Digital transformation works best when tackling one challenge at a time rather than everything at once
• Costly mistakes highlight why automation matters
• The window and door industry has unique complexities that make knowledge transfer challenging
• AI adoption creates a competitive advantage that will be difficult for late adopters to overcome
• Looking forward, the industry must embrace efficiency through technology while preserving human expertise
John Wheeler combines 25 years in building materials and software with a passion for helping the window and door industry embrace tools that drive real results.
Stefanie Couch built her career inside the building industry and now helps companies grow by sharpening visibility, elevating customer experience, and creating systems that drive results.
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Inefficiency is the biggest problem I hear, and it's across the board. There's so many things that you can either automate or turn five buttons into one.
Stefanie Couch:If we have software that can help us vote quicker, sell quicker, you're 21 times more likely to convert something if you respond within five minutes. With AI, you can at least send an email or a text saying, hey, I got it, more can open it.
John Wheeler:They want to do this digital transformation, but they get 10 things from every department. It's impossible for anybody to do that. They teach it just one thing at a time. Solve one challenge, identify it, solve it, iterate and repeat the process. If you see or hear a story about somebody that was here where you are, and now they're over here, I think that just helps everybody get better. Other people have had these challenges. Here's how they overcame it.
Stefanie Couch:It is amazing when you start to talk to people what you find out.
John Wheeler:Welcome to the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast, where real people share real stories about what's happening with doors, windows, millwork, and life. I'm John Wheeler, and along with my co-host, we sit down with your peers who are moving our industry forward. These are honest conversations packed with practical insights and lessons you can take and bring value to your team. Here's today's conversation.
Stefanie Couch:Welcome to the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast, where we tell the stories of the people, products, and technology in the window and door industry. I'm your guest host, Stephanie Couch with Grip Blueprint, and I'm excited to be here today for the first episode of this podcast with my friend, and we've worked together on many projects. John Wheeler, you are a sales technician at Paradigm. Welcome to the show.
John Wheeler:Thanks. Very excited.
Stefanie Couch:And we are going to be talking with a lot of people over the next few weeks about what's happening in our industry, highlighting them, highlighting their stories, talking about AI, all the cool stuff that's coming out. And we talk a lot about this. We're both really into AI and we work with a lot of people in projects. But historically, our industry has not really been known for being a super innovative place. What do you think about what's happening in AI and technology right now and how people are actually going to adopt it in the window and door space?
John Wheeler:It's an interesting question because we are we're slow to change and adopt things. You know, there's there's lots of Excel. I think everybody runs to Excel first, which is totally fine to help with like a proof of concept. But you know, if you think about a lot of the the jobs that are in the industry, you think of like a production scheduler or a shipping route manager or even some of the sales teams, I think starting to automate some of those things that can be automated and let those, because there's a lot of veterans that you know, they're key pieces. I just named, you know, some of them. They're their role is so essential, but they're, you know, doing a lot of remedial tasks and they're doing a lot of day-to-day stuff. And so automating the things that can be, and then letting those people be excellent at what they're doing, give them more value back.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah. And it's scary to me that so many of those people who are running basically the the entire business, they're getting close to retirement as well. So, how do we capture that information that they have over 20 years, 30 years in the industry, and then distribute that via AI or something else to the next generation of leaders that come in? I think about that a lot. It keeps me up at night.
John Wheeler:I think that's where um, you know, I did a lot of learning on on AI recently, and you talk about prompting and you can you can teach it the things. And the way I like to think about it is, you know, if you hired a new person, let's say they're straight out of college and they want to go into logistics or something, they're gonna know, you know, the basics of logistics, but you have to teach them here's our routes, here's our trucks, here's what they look like, here's what the drivers do, here's our customer list. And you just have to do basically teach it the the same things and the fundamentals of it and give it that context. Once it has that, that's where you know it really becomes really cool.
Stefanie Couch:The issue is there's so much context, you know, because if you try to train someone on doors and you were in Georgia when I worked when I worked in two-step distribution and then in the dealer channel, I grew up in Georgia. I thought I knew a lot about doors. I did. Then I moved to Texas and I thought I knew a lot about doors and I didn't. Yeah. Because they do things totally different. No one in Texas has ever heard of a split jam. They don't do that there.
John Wheeler:Or California.
Stefanie Couch:Um, that's not a thing, but that's what 99% of the doors in Georgia were. So it's really interesting how much there is to train if you were going to build out. You know, Bed and I have worked on some tools like that, and it's there's so much detail into it, which is why it is so hard to train someone, anyone right now. It is. It takes years. I mean, it's taken me so long to know the things I know and to try to teach someone that comes in that hasn't ever sold anything, they haven't ever done anything on a job site, and you're trying to teach them all of the things at the same time.
John Wheeler:My my room number is 514. And the first thing I thought of when I saw that was, oh, five and a quarter gems. And like to get to get to the level where like it it's just a part of your daily life is almost impossible. But you know, one of the other things, you know, that I'm a real big fan of is you don't start with, I have to teach it everything. You teach it just one one thing at a time or like solve you know one one challenge or maybe maybe two challenges. And if during that process you actually find a new challenge, you stop the other one and just focus on one thing. I think that you see a lot of people that you know they they want to do this digital transformation, but they get 10 things from every department, and it's it's impossible for anybody to do that.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah, and talking about digital transformations, you know, things like ERP integrations and even software integrations, CPQs or customer pricing tool, they can feel like brain surgery, a little bit like a brain transplant. They are scary, they take a lot of resources, they are worth it in the end, but that process to get there is painful. And if you don't set it up the right way or with the right partner, I think that is where it can be a really terrible result. But most of the time, if you set it up the right way, it can be a really positive thing for the next generation in your business.
John Wheeler:Yeah. And I think I try to be transparent when, you know, no matter who I'm talking to, whether it's my personal life or whatever, because the more things you get out on the table and the more you know what's coming, the more then you can prepare for it. And, you know, just be brutally, brutally honest with people. Like, yeah, it's gonna be really bad. And like, you know, if you're doing something for more than eight hours per week, you have to figure out someone else to do that.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah.
John Wheeler:Um, so that you can again, the people that are excellent at their job are gonna be excellent at doing those things, but help the other people, you know, do the tasks, their daily tasks. Yeah. Making sure that you silo that out.
Stefanie Couch:You've worked on a lot of different areas of our industry. So tell me a little bit about I know you started at a location near your hometown at Big Box.
John Wheeler:Yep.
Stefanie Couch:And then you went to a bigger chain in the two-step distribution channel, right? And then now you're here at Paradigm, you're selling software in the same industry. What do you think the challenges that you see the most in our industry from the time you started to now, have they changed or are they still the same challenges? And what are they?
John Wheeler:I think it's the I think it's the same, right? You think of early, early 2000s when I'm at the uh the big box place, that's where I got the bug for it. And it's the crazy part, I did the math the other day, and it that was 25 years ago.
Stefanie Couch:Wow.
John Wheeler:I'm for sure a an old person in the industry, which is great. It's great to realize.
Stefanie Couch:You're an old door nerd. Who thinks about five and a quarter when they see 514? Only an old door door guy.
John Wheeler:And I'm starting to be grouchy, and if I see a dog on a plane, I'm like, ah, dog on a plane.
Stefanie Couch:I'm the opposite. I I turn into Snow White and start to squeal because I'm sleeping on a plane.
John Wheeler:You had the bird land on your feet.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah, I'm seriously like, this is the best flight I've ever taken. That's that happened to me the other day, and that's literally what I thought.
John Wheeler:Oh I think the core challenge is the same. And the the method of doing things has I think it's changed a bit. The method that you like put in a quote or the method that someone gets information from somebody has changed. But getting that information to the right person is still still a challenge, whether that's today through your website or previously, you know, it was a lot of brochures and and order forms and things like that. And then I think you know, just getting the quote fast enough and getting that that out was was always a challenge. And then everybody continues to expect things faster and faster and faster. So I think the challenges are the same. They just get you know exacerbated as you go move forward with technology becomes faster and Amazon exists, which makes it harder.
Stefanie Couch:Well, that's the thing. You know, it's there's a lot of statistics out there about converting things, and it's you're 21 times more likely to convert something if you respond within five minutes, even just saying, hey, I've got this, I'll give you back the quote. And I don't really know very many people in our industry that could even say that they respond to an email within five minutes most of the time. That's very hard to do. But with AI, you can at least send an email or a text or whatever saying, hey, I got it, I'm working on it. But I do think if we have softwares that can help us quote quicker, sell quicker. And if the customer can quote themselves, if we can get people to be more, you know, comfortable on those programs, then we can get them to actually not even have to wait on us because they're doing it themselves. I still see a lot of people that don't feel comfortable doing that. I think it's because mill work is tricky specifically. You know, if you sell a bundle of two before eight pre-cuts and they're wrong, like you bring them back, you're gonna resell them the next day with a two before eight pre-cut. Like I'm gonna sell that to the next contractor that comes with the frame and package. If I try to resell a door order that I screwed up that's like some really super custom thing, it's gonna sit in my graveyard forever until I give it to someone or donate it.
John Wheeler:And it's never just some like 30686 panel, it's always like, you know, a double double with you know pre-finish and it's got this weird glass and you know, whatever, whatever it's painted like orange or something.
Stefanie Couch:What's what's the biggest screw up you ever had when you were entering door orders?
John Wheeler:Oh man. Um, this this is the one that got me invited to not do multifamily jobs anymore.
Stefanie Couch:That's a multifamily story too.
John Wheeler:Oh, there was two apartment jobs.
Stefanie Couch:I like that got you invited to not everything. Yeah, they invited me to not just never come to this party again.
John Wheeler:Don't do that anymore. I was doing mirrored slider doors, like the easiest thing to quote out. And I forget what I what specifically I messed up, but I basically did stock sizes because I thought it was gonna fit, but the I don't know. I don't know how I got the math wrong, but like the overlap was like a foot. There were the two doors were overlapping. And uh they installed the first one, you know, and they had like 700 of them sitting in this in these containers, and they installed the first one, they were like, it overlaps like a foot. And I'm like, that's fine. Like, yeah, but when I close it, it's also covering up like 18 inches of the thing. And the yeah, we had to bring those back, and of course, they were not like I think they were not stock sizes, that's what it was. They had to like cut the mirror and redo the frame and everything like that. That was that was my biggest one that uh that I can remember, but I I like telling that story.
Stefanie Couch:Like, yeah, that's there's no worse feeling.
John Wheeler:No, tell me yours.
Stefanie Couch:So it was also a multifamily job. The worry about multifamily is you don't just script once, you know? It's always like 237 times at once. This actually was not exactly my fault, but you know, it was my order, so it all went wrong. But it was a large multifamily job with peep sites. It had ADA peep sites. So for those that are listening to this that maybe aren't super door nerds, that means there are peep sites like you see in a hotel. They are lower. There's two different ones, so someone that's um in a in a wheelchair can look through. And so we had a big, you know, conversation about where they were gonna be, get it from the customer, and they say it's 52 inches as the bottom one from you know, top of the door or whatever it was. I verified it like three times, put in the order, get them in, shops building them. It just so happened to be August, the hottest time in Georgia. I'll give that little color to the story. I walk out and my guy came in, got me, and said, Hey, um I need you to come to the shop. That's never a good sign, John.
John Wheeler:That's not good. Not when they invite you.
Stefanie Couch:And so I go out and I stepped up to the door, and the peep sight was um like this far apart from the two, you know.
John Wheeler:And when you said 52, I was like, that's not far apart.
Stefanie Couch:They did it at five foot two. All 237 of them. So thankfully they were still doors. And I had only been working there maybe like a year at the time. I mean, I was still a rookie. And so all of my management team, like every single person, including the branch manager, the sales manager, everybody, spent the next week bondoing all 237 of those peep sites in art form, redrilling them, sweating. I mean, I felt so bad. And uh you didn't help? I tried. They they were like you're invited to not help us ever do this. But it uh it turned out being a good learning lesson because we ended up putting in a bunch of protocols for things like that. And what had happened was someone just fat fingered it. They they put the little dash in the wrong. They forgot the dash in the middle that's one dash and only put the dash at the end or whatever, and it was uh it was all wrong.
John Wheeler:That's the you know, you talked about the challenges and things, and that's when you have to re-key something, you know, that's where something like AI can just or getting just two systems integrated, even if it's brute force, but integrating those things together where you know I have the chubby little sausage fingers that I'll push five keys when I try to push one, and yeah, you just send in the wrong one, especially if the keys are right next to each other, especially on the measurements like that that you're gonna catch because nobody's gonna make a 20-foot-wide door. You're gonna be like, that's clearly wrong. But if you know you put three six when you meant three oh, yeah, and then what are you gonna do with 42 inch doors?
Stefanie Couch:A lot of times it is the expensive things that get screwed up too. Never the easy one. No, I've I've messed up some decorative glass, it's always the most expensive one. But the thing is, once you screw something like that up, you don't do it again because you remember that pain so much. And I think that's one of the things I want people to take away, especially new people in the industry, is like you are going to screw things up. You know, I own my own business now, and every single day we learn something. My team and I, my husband and I, he's my co-founder. And there are a lot of lessons that have been learned. But usually if you learn it that way, you can solve the problem easier the next time, and you definitely feel the sting of that hot stove. So you don't you don't have to go into it thinking you're not gonna screw up, you just gotta go into it thinking you're gonna figure out how to not do it again.
John Wheeler:I read, I didn't read. I won't won't pretend that I read stuff. I listened to something about uh Elon the other day. He'd said a couple things, and one of them was if your hand's on the stove, you're going to make a change really, really fast.
Stefanie Couch:Was this the founders podcast? Yeah, we listened to it the other day.
John Wheeler:If it's somebody else's hand on there, you're gonna you're gonna respond still, but you're gonna be slower to respond. I always thought that was interesting because I learned faster with it.
Stefanie Couch:So true.
John Wheeler:Oh, it's it's the best. And then the when you know you talk about automating things, he uh in that that same thing we talked about, like automate at the end, because he and he admits that he devalued like humans in the in the loop and yeah, you know, automated, over-automated it and was going way too slow.
Stefanie Couch:Well, and even even if you automate something, if it doesn't need to even be done in the first place, you just wasted all your time and money trying to automate a process that should have been deleted. And that's that's one of the things that I admire about him the most. I mean, you know, people love or hate him and whatever, but he he is the richest man in the world. He's a genius, he is super hardcore, uh self-admitted. Yeah. And he has very contrarian views on a lot of things. But when he has a problem, he digs in fast and he tries to fix it himself with his team. And I think there's so much respect that I have for that because it's like, hey, he is the richest man in the world, and he is still going to the Tesla floor or the SpaceX floor sleeping in the hangar to fix something that he could just let other people figure out. And I don't know if that's the right thing to do or not. Um, the fact that he's one of the most successful people that's ever lived probably leads me to believe that he's got something right. But I think that having that spirit of ingenuity and and being able to embrace failure and admit failure and say, yeah, I screwed that up big time and I won't do it again, or I'm gonna try to do better in the first place.
John Wheeler:And I think it's one of the things that makes this industry special, I think, is when I first got to the distributor that I worked for, I was walking around the shop floor with the guy that owned it. We were eight locations and this huge thing, and uh you were walking by and there was like a piece of paper, like a label on the floor, and like he was the one that bent over, picked it up, and threw it away. And you know, leading by example and being willing to to put in the work at that point, you know, you see that throughout, and nobody's nobody's cooler than anybody else, and they uh they just lead lead by example.
Stefanie Couch:That's really why I I think I name my business the grit blueprint because the grit of this industry is what I love about it so much, and also the approachability. Like, if you're not like what you just described, you probably aren't gonna last very long in this industry, you're gonna get run out.
John Wheeler:You are you're you're gonna be the annoying person in the room.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah.
John Wheeler:Yeah. But people also, you know, you mentioned mistakes. I didn't, you know, I didn't get written up when I screwed my thing up. And you know, you they're just like, yeah, like you're gonna screw this up. Like I've screwed up plenty.
Stefanie Couch:The shame of walking in, watching them sweating like all my bosses walking by like drench, the shame was more than any write-up could have been for me.
John Wheeler:I always appreciate it too, because I I guarantee if you saw those people, you know, at the at WMA or something, they'll probab one of them's gonna mention.
Stefanie Couch:Oh, 100%. Ordered any peep sites lately? Yeah. Um nope. I sure haven't, my friend. Thank you.
John Wheeler:I think it's I'm I'm the butt of most jokes everywhere I've been, you know, here at Paradigm and and in my previous places, but I always think you know, they're not gonna make fun of somebody that they're gonna let go. So yeah. If you're the butt of the jokes, I guess it's a good thing.
Stefanie Couch:We gotta keep you around to make fun of you.
John Wheeler:Yeah.
Stefanie Couch:I love that. Well, we're doing something new and we're recording this podcast. Today is actually an annual conference, which is an exciting time at Paradigm. This is my third year attending, and you're gonna have how many people are gonna be here this year?
John Wheeler:107.
Stefanie Couch:107 people that are all fellow door and window nerds, just like us. Bunch of dorks. It's gonna be a really cool time. And you guys have a great culture here. Wonderful snack bar. You have um an actual bar, dog friendly.
John Wheeler:The chew toys and whatever just out there.
Stefanie Couch:And you also have a real culture of innovation and trying to figure out what's next. What are some of the most exciting things that y'all are presenting or talking about at annual conference this year?
John Wheeler:I'm partial to the data and AI one because that's the one that I'm doing.
Stefanie Couch:Okay.
John Wheeler:But we I think we have a lot of good products that people can use and tools and things around that. Um, but I think um, you know, there's there's a leadership change also from the the very tip top. And I think that's gonna bring a lot of just excitement and you know, kind of eating our own medicine type of deal where you know, if if we want to be better for our customers, we have to be better ourselves. And really looking internally, you know, rather than let's go build the next tool, let's get bigger, faster, stronger for our customers. And in turn, that's gonna generate more cooler stuff, then we can do that at a faster clip because nothing's ever getting slower.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah.
John Wheeler:So I think the kind of the underlying theme that I've seen from all the presentations is uh just getting better at what we do, and that is going to reflect in what goes to market for our customers.
Stefanie Couch:What do you think the biggest problem that you solve here at Paradigm is?
John Wheeler:That is a good question. I think inefficiency is the biggest problem I hear, and it's across the board, you know, whether it's on the sales or the operations or um, you know, marketing or whatever. I think that we brute force everything. And I see just see there's so many things that you can either automate or turn five buttons into one, or integrating systems and doing things. So I just think generally speaking, inefficiency.
Stefanie Couch:What actually excites you the most about doing this podcast and why do you think branding and visibility is important in an industry that hasn't necessarily decided to shine bright like a diamond?
John Wheeler:That is also a great question. I'll start with the personal side of it. Um, and what I heard from a lot of the guests that that we invited was it's new and scary and bright lights and all of all of this, and anytime that I feel scared of something, that's usually means that I'm on the right track because I care about it, and it's something that's gonna make me make me personally better. So that part's good. Um, I think the the other part is until I worked at Paradigm, I didn't know that there were so many different challenges and stories and things like that that were out there to be heard. And you know, there's a lot of the same challenges, but there's also a lot of different ones. And I think that people are going to, especially the format that we're doing where it's storytelling and it's innovation type stuff, um, you know, and here's how we were struggling, you know, that we talked about us screwing stuff up, having people hear those challenges and what the how they overcame it, um, I think is gonna be the the biggest benefit. So you think about the Elon story, like I'm never gonna start a company that's gonna colonize Mars, but hearing Don't underestimate yourself, John.
Stefanie Couch:Come on.
John Wheeler:I don't want to go to Mars.
Stefanie Couch:We could we could take Paradigm to Mars. No, I'm alright. I thought you dreamed bigger than this, John. I'm a little disappointed.
John Wheeler:Maybe the moon, because I I can see it. Mars looks like a star to me. Oh but yeah, I think uh I think just people hearing the stories and like, oh, other people have had these challenges, here's how they overcame it, or seeing other people do it, right? Whether it's riding dirt bikes or it's recording music or any of the other things that I'm I'm into. If you see or hear a story about somebody that was here where you are and now they're over here, I think that just helps everybody get better, right? What it didn't and it doesn't matter what what tool they're using or how they did it or who they partnered with, you know, the the story is the the key, and like I can do this.
Stefanie Couch:Yeah. Everyone has their own unique story, and I think we do forget that sometimes because we talk so much about business. So I'll tell you a little story from yesterday that happened, and then I'm gonna tie it back to you and put you on the spot. So warning. But I was at the do-it best market yesterday in Indianapolis, and I was sitting down at a table speaking to one of the vendors there, and this man walked up to me. He was he was looking for me, he had a brochure and he wanted to talk to me about some stuff to put behind my podcast booth, which is that acoustic paneling, which is super cool.
John Wheeler:It's inexpensive.
Stefanie Couch:It it is. Um, it's beautiful though, walnut.
John Wheeler:Yep.
Stefanie Couch:So we start talking. I was like, absolutely, I would love to do that. And then I said, Do you podcast? Because you have this really great bass timber in your voice. And he said, I don't podcast, but I'm a singer. I said, What kind of singer? And he said, Oh, well, like a classically trained singer. I said, Really? Tell me more. And he said, Yeah, actually, we're doing a symphony in Grand Rapids where I live. I'm going tomorrow to the last practice. It's Ode to Joy Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. And so I said, And he started singing in German with me. Really? And we sang the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony right there on the do-it-best floor in German. And I turned around and looked at the guys that were sitting there and they were like, What is happening right now? What just happened? But it's so cool because I mean, if you looked at this guy, you would never be like, This guy is going tomorrow night to practice Beethoven in a really good choir, and they're singing at Carnegie next month. That's crazy. Like they were invited, they didn't pay to sing at Carnegie. They're they're invited to go sing. And I was just like, wow, it is amazing when you start to talk to people what you find out. And that segues me to you because you are actually a musician musician too.
John Wheeler:I try to be.
Stefanie Couch:Do you think that there's some sort of weird reason why people who are musicians pay attention to details and come into this profession of mailwork specifically?
John Wheeler:I do. I think that there's an obsession, almost like an obsessive thing about it. And the more you learn, the more exciting it gets, and the harder it gets, and the more things, the more things you learn, the more things that you'll get asked to do. And I think that translates directly into music. So if your fingers can't do the things that you need them to do, you're gonna figure out because like I need the part to sound like this. Or for me personally, I can't make my voice do this certain thing, or I can't make the equipment do the certain thing. Yeah. And I think that it's the same thing in the industry or you know, so and so business is doing X. Like, how do I do that? And so you just obsessively think about those details.
Stefanie Couch:And it may be a certain part of your brain that musicians have a different way that they kind of think about things in general, but I think your brain does function a little different. So maybe that's because I've always said that millwork people are a little weird, like including myself, and I think that's true in the best way, and musicians are kind of that way too. Always weird. So we're just double weird. In the best way. Well, that's amazing. All right, last question. What do you hope if we sat down in five years and talked is true for our industry?
John Wheeler:I hope that when I talk to somebody, we'll pretend that that I'm I'm still allowed to sell stuff to people, that when I talk to somebody, there's less inefficiency. I know that sounds like the most boring answer ever, but I hope that somebody woke up one day at every single company and said, Oh, I hate grabbing this paper and this paper, putting them together and stapling it, or I hate re-entering these these orders and people actually make you know real changes. Because it that journey could take five years, but somebody wakes up tomorrow and says, We have to start doing this, and I'm gonna do it one challenge at a time, and five years from now, I would love if the whole industry, but specifically, you know, our our partners that we have took that journey, and five years from now they're at the level they want to be at.
Stefanie Couch:Does AI accelerate that timeline?
John Wheeler:It has to. I feel like that's the the only way to 24 months. Yeah. I think that's the only way you know, like I said earlier, nothing gets slower, and the expectations included. So your customers' expectations to get information and you have to automate those processes, and it's so repeatable, and you're gonna get thousands of people through your website and you're gonna do thousands of orders, you're gonna build thousands of doors or windows or whatever it is, and you have to make that better and more efficient.
Stefanie Couch:That's amazing. I'm excited about what's coming. Uh a little scared also that people won't be able to catch up because there is a real arbitrage moment, I think, of people are either gonna be able to get on the train now or it's gonna be almost too far.
John Wheeler:And that's kind of where where I was going, right? You got the just that first thing that the you do solve one challenge, identify it, solve it, iterate, and repeat the process. And then you look at JP Morgan Chase, you know, is at the Databricks summit, and ten years ago they started on their their AI journey, and their budget today is two billion dollars just for AI. And you know, that's crazy, but you think about what they're doing with the fraud detection and things like that. But there's no way with the how accelerated things like that get that they would have been able to hire any amount of people to do that. So I hope that our that's what I hope is the industry realizes it and just solves one challenge at a time.
Stefanie Couch:Well, I'm excited for this podcast, and you are gonna be hosting this most of the time. I'm gonna be guest hosting some. We are gonna be here all week just recording and telling the stories of the industry. So thank you for joining us on the first episode of the Paradigm Industry Insiders podcast. We will see you on the next episode.
John Wheeler:Thanks for joining us on the Paradigm Industry Insiders Podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms and follow Paradigm on LinkedIn and YouTube to catch more stories, insights, and ideas from your peers across our industry. See y'all.
