Staying Relevant and Interested in the Latest Tech

RCS Influencer Danny Kerr says you need to be at the forefront of technological trends or risk getting left behind. 

Editor’s note: Find out what Danny thinks about trying new technology and his advice on staying up to date with the most recent advancements. You can read the transcript below or listen to the podcast.  

Megan Ellsworth: Hello everybody. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at RoofersCoffeeShop.com, back again for the June Influencer Topic with Danny Kerr from Breakthrough Academy. This month's topic is, what makes you try new technology? So, Danny, what makes you try new technology? 

Danny Kerr: All right. Yeah. So there's two thoughts I had on this one, it's pretty macro level and one's more kind of day to day just in the business stuff that makes sense. So the macro thought is this industry along with many others are about to be completely turned upside down by AI, by artificial intelligence. 

Megan Ellsworth: Totally. 

Danny Kerr: And whether it's just AI or just the amount of automation that's going to become more and more accessible, we need to be on the forefront of it or else we're going to get probably left behind. And I think that it's easier to see it in the auto industry right now, where it's like, "Okay, that's pretty obvious, we're going to be replacing people with basically artificial intelligence to drive us around." It's less obvious to see it in construction, but it is coming and it will come, I think, a little faster than people realize because technology double folds every 18 months Moore's law. 

So I've always been very intrigued and interested in how that plays out in our world and how that is, right now, changing our world quite a bit, and you should not have a blind eye to it in construction, just because it's not as obvious in construction doesn't mean it's not coming. 

Megan Ellsworth: Precisely. 

Danny Kerr: So that's one reason that I would use new tech and always be interested in what's on the forefront. So it's just to stay relevant. The other thing which is more granular, a little bit more practical to people probably listening today is, every year you should do an annual audit on all the things that you and your company do and all the processes that it uses and start to look at where are things kind of repetitive and being counter-ish. 

Megan Ellsworth: For sure. 

Danny Kerr: And where is there a lot of that going on that's wasting me or my team's time? And the chances are whether the software is already out there and released, or it's something that maybe is just brand new or a new feature that's in a software you already use, lot of those things are getting problem solved. People every single day are working on technology and doing what I call, or what the tech industry calls idea extraction, where they go and they meet with somebody or a bunch of ideal customers in a very specific field, they figure out what's your biggest challenge and pain, they go and build the software around it, and then they offer a subscription model to it. We all know, hopefully most of us know now what a project management software is. And so [inaudible 00:02:22] roofing, you've got AccuLynx, you've got JobNimbus, you've got JobProgress. They did that. They approached the industry, they niched a product down and they build something that's kick-ass and it changes the landscape of what it means to even be a roofing company now. 

Megan Ellsworth: Oh totally. 

Danny Kerr: 10 years ago, before the advent of a project management software, it was hard to scale a roofing organization. Now it's accessible to everybody and you don't need millions of dollars to create your own software because you pay a subscription that everyone else pays and you're crowdsourcing the technology. And that's happening in so many different arenas right now. To not take time to say, "Hey, okay, we've got a project management software in, but John in the office is constantly spending five hours a week doing the same repetitive data entry." Or, "Kim is doing X, Y, Z thing that seems very repetitive and being counter-ish." Sensing those things, it's worthwhile to take some time to go see, A, what's out there that solves that issue, and B, what updates have happened in the software that I'm already using that might make sure that I don't have to deal with this next year? And in doing that, you can kind of create more efficiency just by doing a bit of research. Can go a long way. 

Megan Ellsworth: So true. Yeah, research, that's all it takes. And man, AI, that is such a good point that no one has really made yet. I think that's totally something we should all have our eyes on, on the horizon and keeping informed on the new technologies there. That's brilliant. 

Danny Kerr: I just did a webinar on it and we were talking just about what's coming up from a marketing perspective, but also on the operations perspective. And there are some interesting articles out there right now that's talking about how AI is basically being introduced into Caterpillars and all these big machinery. And so, [crosstalk 00:04:08]. 

Megan Ellsworth: Oh. 

Danny Kerr: Yeah, so it's coming. 

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. I didn't even think of that. That's wild. Okay. 

Danny Kerr: Yeah. 

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. 

Danny Kerr: Your dump trucks, your big backhoes, all kinds of stuff. And when you look at the painting world, I can envision some sort of scaffolding that basically can just paint the house for you. When it comes to roofing, I mean, that's a pretty repetitive task, I know it's not out yet, but give it 10, 20 years, maybe even quicker, we're going to see something, and whether it's doing the roof itself, or it's just helping with part of the process, this type of stuff is on its way. 

Megan Ellsworth: So true. Wow, brilliant. Thank you, Danny. Amazing as usual. I will be chatting with you next month on the July topic. So everybody keep an ear and eye out for next month's Influencer Topics. Thank you so much. 

Danny Kerr: Awesome, guys. Thanks. 

Danny Kerr is the Director of Assessment of Breakthrough Academy. See his full bio here.