Rob Stott: All right, we are back on the Connected Design podcast and excited to be joined right now by a man that I feel like needs no introduction, but we’re going to do it anyway. So Mr. Joe Piccirilli, appreciate you joining us and diving into this podcast with us. So much to dive into with you. And I’m really excited about it. First of all, just thank you for taking the time and being willing to get on a podcast.
Joe Piccirilli: Well, Rob, it is me that owes you thanks. Thanks for finding not only me interesting, but my subject interesting. And I really appreciate you being, taking time to have me on.
Rob Stott: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s one, you know, I, I’ve been, I feel like fallen for a while. but this, this category and I don’t want to dive into it I know we had a lot to talk about before we really get into energy and power, but, you know, it just feels like of late it’s, it’s gotten that attention that it finally deserves. So this is going to be a lot of fun to, to do with you. And I know, you know, we’re sitting here on one podcast. This is going to be, I, for those that don’t know strap in, we’re going to have some fun with you, and pick your brain on this category. So thank you for that. And,
I want to tee it up though. for those that the few that don’t know you, give us a little bit about your background yourself and how you got into this wonderful industry.
Joe Piccirilli: All right, I’ll try and do it and not take up the whole podcast with my introduction. I have been in the consumer electronics industry. This is my 52nd year, a long, long time. And here I am, a first generation American, both my parents were Italian immigrants. And I…
Rob Stott: What part? I’m sorry to interrupt. What part of Italy?
Joe Piccirilli: The province of Abruzzo, which is the east of Rome. I am lucky enough to still have that. really?
Rob Stott: Okay. I’m Calabria Avelino over here. I’m a little further along. I have fourth generation.
Joe Piccirilli: I am lucky enough to still have the house that my father and my grandfather and my great grandfather were born in. So, yeah, very, very lucky.
Rob Stott: I am jealous of that. That is incredible. Yeah.
Joe Piccirilli: But, you know, of course, like most first generation children, the parents go, you’re getting an education, you don’t have a choice. You know, there was no combating that. And I was first born, so the pressure was hard. And I was in engineering school at the University of Michigan working on a graduate degree in engineering when I dropped out of graduate school to open a stereo store in Fort Lauderdale. Now you might guess that my parents were not very, and you would have guessed correctly. I got into the business actually, I was recruited by a company in Boston and I wanted to be in the business called Tech Hi-Fi, which actually had stores in Philly, your home territory. And myself and my closest friend, Mark Phillips, he went to school with me and we went to TechIFI in Boston. They moved us to Michigan to open stores, of course, with the promise of equity that never came. And then we moved to Florida to open a company called Sound Advice. And, you know, my parents are going, you know, you were supposed to have a master’s degree in engineering, what’s wrong with you? But fortunately, we were very, we were very, we picked the right time to be in South Florida.
We were able to take sound advice public in the eighties. So my parents forgave me. And, you know, it was there that I really got exposed to the consumer electronics business, but I also got exposed to the fact that Joe Picker really working in a public company is a bad idea. So 1989, I left, I retired from the company and did what most people retired too early. started a consulting company because it was better than saying I was unemployed.
You know, I went from there. saw an opportunity in the distribution business and I started this distribution company called Avid, which became a national company. and it was during the Avid days, cause we distributed Crestron and Lutron. Then I noticed something. First thing I noticed was customers hated it. Give me back my light switch. It always works. You know why I have to have a room for a programmer cause he lives here.
So I’m going, what is the deal here? What’s the problem? So I took the stuff off our shelves. I took it apart. I looked at build quality and parts quality. In the case of Crestron and Lutron, they’re extremely well-built products. And at that point, we had 30 warehouses around the country.
So I could do a somewhat qualitative but quick analysis of installations. And because Crestron and Lutron were very well documented, the installations with some exceptions were good. So that narrowed the problem down to power. And in about 2007, I started to study the grid. And you know, the grid’s been around since the turn of the 20th century. So, you know, it’s pretty old.
What I noticed was the grid could not deliver constant voltage, which until the advent of the microprocessor was meaningless. So in fact, I think when you and I first met, told you this. The first indication of power quality problems was when you owned a VCR and it was blinking 12 for no apparent reason. That was the first indication of power problems. So I began to look at what could the grid deliver and how could I build a product that would deliver perfect power at all times. And it couldn’t be just a normal UPS because in order to create what I consider to be power resilience for a residence, you had to be able to ensure that the grid was always perfect.
You had to do something if there was a power outage because most power conditioners have minutes of runtime. That’s not enough. You need hours and days. You need to have something that can have real surge protection as opposed to the $400 device that the utilities want to market. cause those don’t work at all. So that was the basis of Rosewater energy. So we build the most complete residential device available.
And I mean, we add all kinds of things, and I could go on forever. We create redundancy. I am N plus one, which means if I have a component failure, I don’t even lose capacity. That is not swappable. So that was the beginning. that we, I found my manufacturer. I began to design the product in 2012 and then delivered the first product in 2016. And to your point in 2016, nobody was talking about that. Not to mention talking about a device that was plus $100,000.
Rob Stott: Right. Correct. So it’s been a, you know, an interesting decade to follow. But before we even get into that, I want to go back to, you know, maybe a time you want to forget about of, of leaving that, that master’s program to get into retail. What, what drew you to this, the audio business?
Joe Piccirilli: Well, I have been an audio junkie my entire life. Just to give you a story, my first academic scholarship check to the University of Michigan was written to me. So what did I do with that check? I went to the local stereo store, figured I could always post punk music. That’s how bad I am.
Rob Stott: That’s awesome. You had the bug.
Joe Piccirilli: Only some of it. I mean, that is a true story. But when you think back at the time, right, this is early 70s. So this is towards the end of the Vietnam War. And our soldiers were coming back from PXs in Japan with brands nobody had ever seen before. Kenwood, Sansui, Pioneer, that was affordable, high fidelity. And of course, the rock and roll scene was just, you know, the Beatles were here, the Stones were here.
The West California groups were big. So owning a stereo was a big deal and people were buying them left and right. Cause prior to that, it was sort of reserved for people with a lot of money who could afford McIntosh and Scott or who could build their own Dinokits. I don’t know if you remember Dinokits, but I’m old enough to. So it was a time when the industry was booming. It was in its beginning phases, but it was at that hockey stick point where it was going up. So I loved stereo equipment. I loved music. And here we are.
Rob Stott: Yeah, that’s incredible. Was there anything that you take from those days that you’re still, you know, applying to what you do today?
Joe Piccirilli: Yes. And this is what sometimes it irritates me because it’s so simple and people forget it today. One of the things that we did as a retailer early on was we understood the most important brand we sold. And that brand was us. It was not Sony or any of the other manufacturers. And here I am as a manufacturer telling my dealers exactly the same thing. But it is the brand position and being true to your brand position, which there are times that becomes difficult when, you know, when cash gets a little tight and you’re sitting down and going, well, should I really change my strategy? Maybe I should become a discount house or lower my product quality and price, but being true to who you are and understanding your brand position, that’s the smartest thing we ever did. And I continued, I did that with Avid and with Rosewater.
Rosewater has a brand position that is simply the best and I will do nothing to compromise that.
Rob Stott: No, that, if there’s anything, I mean, we could, we could stop there and not talk about power. That’s not what we’re going to do, but like that right there, I think is a message that you could kind of put in a package, put in a bow and like deliver. And if anyone took anything from this, it’s that right. Is you can’t try to be something you’re not and just know who you are, know your customers and you know…
Joe Piccirilli: It exactly. mean, when I say it out loud, go, well, Joe, everybody knows that. But few people actually execute it. And that’s what’s so weird. I, my fraternity brother, my fraternity brother and brother and I, we started the business together, knew that from the get go that this is our brand. The rest of it doesn’t matter because your brands change the products you sell change. Then again down that same line and you got me down this rabbit hole. Everything you sell has to have the appropriate reflection on your brand and you choose your partners by their brand position and is it synergistic with yours? know, and again, it’s so easy to say and seems so obvious. It’s really hard to execute at times.
Rob Stott: Yeah. I know we could save this for another time. Like I said, this is not going to be the only time we have you on. And, you know, I think there’s a lot to be said about, you know, why that’s a challenge and without getting into it, we’ll leave that as a little cliffhanger for anyone that wants to follow along the story, but, you know, why that’s a challenge and things, you know, how you were able to be successful with it. But,
You know, one thing kind of shifting gears, I know, you know, we had the chance to connect to Builders Week, which for me, it was the first time in a while that I had been to that show and been to Orlando to go there for it. That’s its own experience. We could probably do a whole separate episode on that. But if there’s anything I took out of that is I feel like that that is such a missed opportunity for the custom integrator and the CI world, you know, with everything that’s going on down there and sort of what you see on the floor and I know it’s alongside, you know, appliances and toilets and things like that. know, everything that’s going on on the KBiz side, but that builder’s week feels like a really cool, you know, opportunity for this channel. I wanted to get, that’s me sort of leading the witness, but I wanted to give you a chance to kind of share your thoughts on it—what you thought of that show?
Joe Piccirilli: I walked out of there using your word. That was, I saw opportunity with a capital O. It was like, wow. I mean, there’s an overwhelming amount to see. And I had brought my wife with me to that show. So God knows what it cost me.
Rob Stott: Future projects of your own.
Joe Piccirilli: But you look around and you mentioned the word appliance. Every appliance has microprocessors, it’s microprocessor dependent. And there are some really cool ones, really cool ones. Yeah. I don’t know if you noticed, did you go to the Kohler booth? Did you see that little commode attachment that they’re offering for 600 bucks? Yes. I mean, yes.
Rob Stott: I did. I had a great tour over there. Is it the one that analyzes your, yeah, you know, analyzes your stuff? Yeah.
Joe Piccirilli: But you know, when you think about that, that and devices like it are what’s going to lower the healthcare cost curves because they are going to make telemedicine work. If you get the lab out of the equation, that’s incredible. And I was like, I’ve been talking about this for a decade and now to walk that show and see this little, it’s an add-on to any commode you have. can just, in fact,
Rob Stott: Mm-hmm. It’s unbelievable. Yeah. It’s crazy. There you go. See, it was costing you money. That’s awesome.
Joe Piccirilli: I got home and I ordered one immediately because I have to see it. I have to have one. But as I walked through there and then
It kills me that my system integrator community and the builder and design community, even though our major language is English, we don’t speak the same language at all. And we have to fix that.
Rob Stott: Yeah, right, right. Yeah, that absolutely was something I’ve experienced it and had conversations about it well prior to being there, but then you get there and you see sort of how things are presented, how even the text section that was there, I forgot which hall specifically it was in. think it might’ve been the West Hall, but it was like where Legrand was, where Savant was, you you see all the ABB was there. how they present themselves at a show like that. And, and, know, they know the integrators aren’t there, but it’s the same brands that you would see at a CEDIA, right. And how they talk to the community that’s at a Builders Week, the Builders’ Show or KBIS. And I mean, even that it’s just a little bit different. And like, I, it’s tough to put your finger on like why. You know, they.
Joe Piccirilli: Exactly.
Rob Stott: They can’t just make it all work together, but it feels like that’s the direction it has to go for, you know, at least for the integrator sake, right? To be able to get in with that community and do everything we’ve wanted them to do within the home building segment.
Joe Piccirilli: I am determined to be one of the people who help make this work. That’s why I love the name you’ve chosen Connected Design because how in this, you know, I’m not throwing out idle flattery, but it is what we need. It is that connection. And you know, it sounds easy, but nobody’s been able to do it for the last 25 years that I could tell.
Rob Stott: Right. Again, to your, to your points, same as, you know, all these kinds of conversations can, I feel like flow and learn from one another too, right? Like everything you talk about being true to your brand, it’s the same here. It’s like being true to your trade, but at the same time, you know, understanding that, to me, it’s always been from, and I, it’s not one directional either. I feel like it’s a lot of ego between the communities, right? Like the, the home builder, you know, they’re all the expert at what they do. They’re the best at it. That’s, there’s a reason they’re in business, the business that they’re in.
But then it’s like, you know having to rely on someone they don’t want to they can’t check their egos at the door No matter which way the conversations going and it’s just it doesn’t help anyone
Joe Piccirilli: I agree. have this battle of egos and because it’s a battle of egos, nobody trusts one another. So it’s like, Oh, the integrators are just trying to sell me more shit. don’t need excuse my language. And, know, and the builders are sitting there saying, whatever they quote me, I want 50 % less in dollars, but I want to say stuff. You got to sell it to me cheaper. And that’s the language. Neither one of them understand the language and what is interesting. And I told you I was going to the design retreat. What I’m finding is that a lot of the people in the build and design community that are actual designers don’t understand their worth. And they take their worth on the sale of product instead of the sale of their knowledge. And as far as I’m concerned, their knowledge is the only worthwhile thing they have. know, products I can buy anywhere. So.
Rob Stott: Right. Right. I, you know, there, um, there may be no better example of that. And I still want to stay on this topic, but like of power, right? And you know, I know we talked about it while we were there, the idea that, um, you might think you understand, you know, the product and what’s going on, but if you don’t do it right, there is a big difference between if you properly install, you know, it, it managed the power within a home versus if you just kinda slap it on and throw a few outlets throughout, and you think you did your job well. It’s just not the same.
Joe Piccirilli: No, I know. it is, you know, somebody who was going to think it through and follow it through. You know, that’s really what end users want to pay for. And there is this, there is this huge trust gap between builders and integrators and designers. And that’s got to stop.
At some point, everybody’s got to get around and talk to each other and start to build that trust.
Rob Stott: One thing I did notice and it’s, it’s almost like a counterpoint to everything we’ve been saying is that in some cases it’s because, especially on the design side, I feel like they’ve had a relationship where they feel like they’ve been scorned or something didn’t go well, you know, as they expected it, but, it’s still, so they feel like their right to not trust someone on the tech space or on the tech side, right? Cause everyone’s had that bad experience, but yeah.
Joe Piccirilli: I think you’re right. And I think that a lot of times, because it leads us right back to Power, the experience that went bad was Power’s fault. It was because people neglected the category. In our case, clients who have multiple homes, when they install our product in one home, they end up installing it in all their homes. There is no better testimony to my product than that. You know, cause it’s just, it makes the house work better. And that, you know, it’s interesting. I’m under too many on DA’s, but we had a, a, a property manager who had a client with a problem house. and he called up said, I hear that if I put in your product, my client will stop complaining. And that’s exactly what happened. And again, there was a level of trust built, and Rosewater’s been building that trust over a decade now, but that’s the area that we have to work on.
Rob Stott: There you go.
Joe Piccirilli: All three of the communities, builder design and the integration community have to work on the trust. And I think this knowledge about power is going to help get over that gap because we blamed the wrong people for failure. so that’s what I’m hoping Rosewater helps create that bridge.
Rob Stott: Now, you from a part, speaking of building trust and, and, you know, the partners you work with, do you guys, I, and this is more of a curiosity, me being curious, the integrators you work with, do you, how much vetting goes on there to make sure that they’re, or education, maybe not necessarily vetting, but the education so that they are putting in your product correctly so that, you know, you get the type of testimonials that you’re talking about.
Joe Piccirilli: Well, it’s both of those things. It’s vetting and education. One of the things you should know about Rosewater, when I first started the company and I knew how difficult the installation was going to be because it requires high voltage permits, know, electricians, I’m gone. I can’t train every electrician in the country. And also I am concerned because electricians typically do not sell expensive product. So, at Rosewater, we install the product. So from my point of view, now I can’t pull a permit in every municipality in the country, but when a product is delivered, a Rosewater technician is with it. And then we watch the local electrician hook it up. And then we depend on our local retailer to communicate and serve the client. And we are very picky about who we choose.
I think out of the field of, what would you guess, about 8,000 integrators in the country? Is that a good number?
Rob Stott: Oh, if I remember right, CEDIA’s last survey in 25, it might’ve been last year. There’s like 20,000 integrators. But it’s, only like, I, you know, if you look at, not to say I don’t want to slight any of them, right? Cause they’re all business owners and they’re doing their thing. But the ones that are established, you talk about the groups, right? There’s probably about 3,500, 4,000 that are in the groups.
Joe Piccirilli: Okay, that makes sense. So if you look at that and maybe another 1500 or so who are, could be in the groups, but choose not to be. that gets us to 5,000 of that. think there are 200 dealers who are qualified to sell rosewater. That’s pretty narrow. Yeah. So, and part of it is selling technique.
Rob Stott: Yeah, that’s a 1 percent if you look at the whole, that’s crazy.
Joe Piccirilli: Part of it is having the clientele who can, a Rosewater target is houses 5 million and up. So that’s really basically, you know, who has that clientele and who’s not afraid of it. It’s interesting. One of the tactics that Rosewater started implementing at the beginning of last year was in one of my previous lives, I wrote and implemented sales training, legitimate sales training. And it dawned on me that our industry was built by car installers and technicians. In the old days of specialty retailing, like at Sound Advice, we had a training department. You all of the big retailers had their own training departments. Mostly the people who are in our industry have never had professional sales training ever. Yes.
Rob Stott: Yeah, self-starters, right? That’s how they all got into it.
Joe Piccirilli: And I don’t mean that as a knock because they’ve built incredibly good businesses without it, which is amazing to me. But, you know, so I have brought out all my old stuff and updated it and now Rosewater goes in and we offer our dealers generic sales training that will help them sell whatever else they’re selling. And then as an example of that training, we apply it, okay, now that you know the basics of selling, let’s apply them to selling power. And that’s been very well received. It’s interesting to see. And for me, it’s fun because I love teaching people how to sell stuff. So that’s great.
Rob Stott: Yeah. Heck yeah. And it’s the, the kind of that gateway drug, right? It’s like, them in, let them understand it. And then it’s like, by the way, here’s how this applies everywhere else.
Joe Piccirilli: Yeah. And it’s interesting. I’d be curious to have your observation because one of the things as I was updating it that I noticed is, what is the difference between selling a course or taking a course and training?
And that because you can’t learn a profession, I don’t care what it is, by taking one course or even going to B school. You got to get out there and train and analyze every day. know, my analogy is look, Tiger Woods, he’s in the argument for the greatest golfer of all times, no matter what. He’s still had a swing coach and he still practiced more than anybody else.
Rob Stott: Yeah. I, so it brings some of the personal life into this. I I’m a wrestling coach. got a high school wrestler, wrestling coach, and also my, my kids now are getting into it. Not by, not by force, I should say by choice. They want to do it. So we’re, out there and I’ll help them on the mat and stuff. I know the, the, the number we always throw out there is, is like, and this applies to everything, not just wrestling, but like, you got to do something 10,000 times before you’ve perfected it, or not, not even perfected it. It’s before you’ve gotten like you’re excelling at it. so yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
Joe Piccirilli: Right, before it becomes unconscious behavior. It’s gotta be 10,000. And the number’s right. And then you look at a guy like Tariqa Woods or Novak Djokovic, I they have probably swung a tennis racket and a golf club a million times in all their careers. yet, and they still have somebody watch them do it.
Rob Stott: Right. And guess what? They still mess up. Right. So then they’re still trying to adjust and adapt and innovate and all that sort of stuff.
Joe Piccirilli: Yeah, exactly. And you can go to the nuances and then you can strategize. Because, you know, the question I always ask myself is if I were playing me, how would I attack?
Rob Stott: You could truthfully, the sports analogies are too easy, but like you could apply them to anything. It’s why it’s why you don’t see, I mean, the NFL, you could make the argument that there’s been only certain teams that are, have been successful right over the last couple of years, but at the same time, right.
Joe Piccirilli: You should know that, I think.
Rob Stott: I know, right? So maybe a bad choice, you know, the point point being that you don’t have one team consistently dominate because everyone’s learning from one another and you know, trying to no matter what you think of the tush push, right? They’re trying to find ways to stop it. So like teams adapted, they find new strategies, they target your weaknesses like same applies to business, right? Where you have to constantly adapt and change your game to be successful.
Joe Piccirilli: Exactly. And how many people in our industry who are salespeople actually do that kind of analytical work on themselves? Not nearly enough is the politically correct answer.
Rob Stott: That’s probably not enough. Not nearly enough. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, that’s a, again, I think another one of those topics that, just sort of to use as a, a jumping off point for us here that I look forward to really, you know, diving into with you. but I know that, you know, the, the, the reason for being here today, is to talk about power and everything you’re doing today and with Rosewater and just the space in general, cause I think we both agree that, you know, what we saw in Orlando to me was eyeopening in the fact that, you know, it, it felt like the coming out party coming out party is the wrong term because to your point power’s been around, right? But it’s just, it’s finally getting that attention that it deserves. And it feels like, I don’t know if it’s, the companies like ABB that are doing things with the NASCAR car that they’ve got and all these companies, just the conversation around it is finally picking up steam and people are getting why it’s important. And I’m wondering, like, is there something that happened, like something that clicked in the industry or what is it that you think sort of gave it this level of attention that it deserves?
Joe Piccirilli: I think all of a sudden, because we have had some strange weather anomalies that have been giving people power outages, they end up, power outages is what everybody talks about. And then so all of a sudden powers on people’s minds. And now companies like Tesla, Rosewater, Savant, the Apex people, all of us have said, wait, power is a subject that is much larger, but people are more open to talking about it now. And I also think people are starting to feel the effect. It’s funny, a wolf cooktop comes with rebooting instructions. Now, I think they’re humorous because one of the instructions is reach underneath, find the plug and unplug it. How many people who want a roof while wolf cooktop are actually gonna do that?
But all of a sudden you’re starting to see that and people are feeling the failures and it is, and I have to give the to some of the builders now because the first line of pain is they get it. When something doesn’t work, they’re ultimately in charge of the product and this thing broke. It’s your fault. And I think builders are just tired of that kind of pain.
Rob Stott: Right.
Joe Piccirilli: And if we in the integration community, along with the design community go, Mr. Builder, do you like the pain? Well, that would be no. If I had a product that would eliminate 95 plus percent of your pain, would you be interested? But that’s, that’s really, it becomes almost that simple because now so touchless plumbing, there’s so many things in house now that can go bad. Not because it was poorly built, not because it was poorly installed, because the power structure is not good enough to support the products.
Rob Stott: Yeah. Yeah. It’s crazy. It’s a reality.
Joe Piccirilli: It is crazy, but hey, it’s not going to get better. know, now AI is everywhere. It’s going to take over or human beings are not going to be necessary anymore. But worst case, power is going to go up tenfold and you’re not going to be able to have all of it hyperbole. But what is interesting about AI as I was reading about it and the power demands is the power demands of AI are unpredictable because it is dependent on the number of people using at that moment and changes from moment to moment. You think we have voltage fluctuations now? Wait. Because AI is used 24-7, but it’s used in populations that are different. So I think that we have some issues. then as, I don’t know if we discussed this when we met at the Builder Show, but aging in place. Look at all of the sensors that are necessary in a home to allow aging in place safely. You have to have motion sensors in every room. You should have heat sensors in every room. You should be able to do some biometric analysis in every room. That’s a serious amount of processing power. And people want to build forever homes. That was a topic at the design function. Well, forever homes require the ability to adapt.
Rob Stott: Yeah. It’s, it’s like the basis for every, like the, you know, my head’s spinning with like so many ways we could take this to it. Cause there’s the grid conversation around to your point, like it’s, was built in the 20, like for the 20s, right? Like not for today’s demand and kind of what it’s exploded to. So there’s the conversation around what, what needs to be done there, or if it can even be done at this point in time. But, to, but to your point though, the amount of just product. Like we love our technology. We love this channel. We love kind of, you know, everything that it’s become over the last 10, 15, 20 years. But to the point that, you know, homes today, especially at the level of home that our channel is working in and working on, um, you know, they require far more than I think what you could talk to utility companies around what they’re willing to, you know, provide to that home. Right. Uh, so there’s, there’s just so much like, the power is the lifeblood, like the heartbeat of the home, right? Whether you look at it that way or not, it’s what makes the home work without that power feeding into that home and being fed incorrectly and distributed correctly. Like none of what goes on is possible. So that, that to me is kind of the, just the underlying conversation that feels like the way in for the integrator.
Joe Piccirilli: I agree. I think because a lot of integrators ask me this question, why them? Why not the electricians? the integrator, our community, touches more subsystems in the house than anyone outside of maybe the interior design people. We’re installing virtually every subsystem in the house are not afraid to be the innovators for new product. And because everything we install is affected, it makes most sense for the integration community to take the lead here and create the trust and create the reasonable. I whenever I’m out talking to my dealers, I go, look, the worst sin you can make is not selling a rose water. It’s not selling anything in the power category because now you are truly doing your customer a disservice. that’s, know, because look, a rose water is not for everybody. you know, it has a fairly serious price tag connected to it. But there are power products and projects. You size the power product to the projects and the needs of the consumer. And that it is amazing that we don’t do that. It’s making me crazy.
Rob Stott: It all comes back to that conversation around being that trusted—you’re the expert, right? And you you got to know, you know what you know, you have to apply what you know to those conversations and be able to have the conversation at all. Right? Otherwise then if you ignore it, then you get those situations. Everything we’re talking about is just the, the client experience. You know, the first thing goes wrong. Then they’re going to that home builder and all of sudden that home builders.
Joe Piccirilli: Exactly.
Rob Stott: You know, whether they know it or not, the power not having that power conversation could ultimately come back to you. Right?
Joe Piccirilli: I am hoping that during the course of our discussions, we talk about what you really need to know. Because a lot of our integrators go, well, I’m not an electrician. Going, yeah, that’s a surprise. So here’s what you need to know. And by the way, here’s how you present it in a very digestible form.
Rob Stott: Right, passing the buck.
Joe Piccirilli: There are so many building blocks to this. And much of it is just building the integrator confidence. It is not as technical as it seems, but it requires you to understand how to get the customer’s needs, wants, and desires from them to understand. How do you… I try and figure out, of all the subsystems in the house, which are the most important?
Well, if you’re homeschool, you’re networking entertainment, your computers, those are kind of really important. If you work at home, you know, if you’re a wine collector, your wine room, and people go, you know, wine room, well, I’m going, it’s not that the wine’s expensive, it’s a lot of those bottles you can’t buy again. So they become irreplaceable. So yes, that person wants to, why would you make fun of that person? That’s his or her passion and protect it.
So I think that becomes a really good conversation as we go down this road.
Rob Stott: Absolutely. So something we kind of vaguely hitting on it, but electricians keep coming up, right? Do you think that’s been a… If there’s ever a hurdle for the CI channel in terms of getting involved in the power category, is it the thought that… Or maybe is it a misconception that they need to be certified as an electrician? Like they got to go out and get the proper licensure to make sure that they can do this work?
Joe Piccirilli: Doesn’t hurt, but it is not necessary. At the rack level, these devices, you don’t need a high voltage light. At the panel level, where we, or the whole home level, you do, but a lot of us at the panel level, we handle the install as well. But I think where the major issue is, there seems to be a problem. I am stepping on the electrician’s toes, and I don’t want to make them angry. Well, again, now we have a trust issue. Because the electrician—no electrician that with, well, I can’t say ‘no.’ There are some electricians who would love to sell my product and some do. But in general, electricians would never touch this product because they don’t want to hear about it. They are production people. How many feet of Romex can I pull in a day? How many J boxes can I put in in a day? That’s not this mentality.
And, cause this is more, I need to build an appropriate infrastructure, not that has the right amount of wall outlets, but that takes care of the power stream coming into the house. And that’s just a different thought process.
Rob Stott: Yeah. I, and to me, it feels like one that, uh, you know, kind of the pipe dream of this channel is that they want to be involved in the conversation around new home builds or projects sooner. That’s gotta be, I have to imagine one of the first conversations is how much power do we need to supply to this home and how are we going to manage it?
Joe Piccirilli: Yeah. You know, and you’re right. And if they establish themselves as the power expert, okay, I’m taking care of the power from the meter into the house. I’m not distributing the power. I am making sure that the power is always perfect. It is the power quality that is important. You get a seat at the table really soon. And by the way, if the dealer, if you solve the dealer’s pain problem in one house, you get first chair at the next house. And I’ve seen it happen. mean, we’ve had a few builders who go to their integrator now and just say, Rosewater’s in this project. You’re the Rosewater dealer. Fine. Come to the table now. You’re the prince. Let’s figure this out. And because it works and it’s that pain point.
Rob Stott: Yeah. And it, so there’s anything, again, I feel like I’ve said it a couple of times here. If there’s anything you take away from this, it’s that you can get that first chair and this is, you know, the power category is, is how you go about it. But that feels like hyperbole, but it’s really not like it’s not. And, you know, it’s just one of those things that if you’re not thinking about it, then you you need to, I don’t know. I don’t know what it’s going to take. Maybe it’s just having more of these conversations that, sort of makes them understand.
Joe Piccirilli: Well, you made a point earlier, it seems like we’re at an inflection point now. And I noticed it sort of towards the last quarter of 2025. I mean, so far, our first quarter of 26 has been off the charts. That’s really great. So something has happened. Enough builders, enough architects, and enough integrators know that some integrator knows another integrator who is having success. So now we’re starting to build critical mass and that’s important.
Rob Stott: Yeah. And if anything, it, it’s one of those situations where, know, it feels like we’re not there yet, but the trains trains starting to leave the state. It’s picking up steam, right? And it’s about to leave the station. Uh, you better hop on. You don’t want to get left behind.
Joe Piccirilli: Well, and we also, that’s why we need to be picky about who we let on the strain at the moment, because we can’t screw it up.
Rob Stott: All true.
Joe Piccirilli: We have to, if you’re curing pain, you can’t have your clients hurting.
Rob Stott: Right. Can’t cry. Can’t give ourselves more reason or at the end of the day, break that trust. Right. So it’s, no, this is, it feels like a good, a good pausing point. I, know, we, we’ve sufficiently, I think we have established our lead for, for the rest of the conversations.
Joe Piccirilli: Yes. I will tell you this 30 minutes or so went by like a snap the finger. You are dangerous for me, my friend. We could talk for hours.
Rob Stott: I know, I know, I don’t mind that. I do and I don’t. I don’t mind it. I know the listeners do. So I want to be cognizant of them and also leave this at a point where, you know, without us diving any further, it’s a great stopping point and just a reminder that there will be more of this. So I very much look forward to it, Joe. This was a lot of fun. And again, just thank you for the time and we’ll be doing this again before you know it.
Joe Piccirilli: It was absolutely my pleasure and thank you for having me on. And I really look forward to our future conversations.
