Page 6 - Flooring Specialist Summer 2021

TO BE OR NOT TO BE…certified that is

By Robert Varden, Executive Director, CFI Division, CFI #969

You know I often get the “Why Should I Be Certified” question. I listen to them make a case on how great they are and how
they have all the work they need, etc. I get it! I once was a great installer even before CFI. I had all the work I wanted and was
even able to charge pretty decent prices and still stay busy. I thought for sure I was definitely if not the best, one of the best.

It wasn’t until I went to my first CFI certification that I realized how much I didn’t know.
Being humbled by the likes of Jim Walker, Bob Gillespie and others was truly a humbling experience.

But more than anything it woke up something in me that now wanted more. More knowledge, more ways to do things even
better than before. We then developed a saying at my company:
“Today we want to do better than we did yesterday.” It was a saying that may not have happened every day, but it did give us
the drive to continue to learn more and to strive daily to do things a little bit better each day.

Certification is not just an evaluation of the skills you possess, but if used like any other tool in your arsenal of doing business
it can give you something that separates you from the rest of the pack. It shows the industry and your customers that you
care enough about what you do for them to actually test those skills against the installation standards within our industry.

As we move into the next generation of our industry, I strongly feel that Certification will become more of a requirement
and not just a credential. More and more, we are getting calls from companies that were awarded a project where the
specifications require the installers to be CFI Certified. Manufacturers are realizing the value of requiring certification to fulfill
or perhaps extend their warranties -- more reasons for installers to become certified.

While there are certainly other great training and certifying bodies in our industry there is nothing quite like CFI. You really
almost have to experience it to truly understand it. CFI has always been associated with family. You may have seen or heard us
use the term: CFI Family.

Let me give you just a few examples of what happens every single day somewhere in the world of CFI. A CFI member has
a large project he committed to and is now very ill. With little more than a phone call or two, he now has his CFI brothers
driving cross country with the equipment needed to take care of the project.

A CFI member is having a ridiculous time dealing with a situation that is costing him considerable time and money. A call to
one of his CFI brothers and within minutes he is given solutions that make such a difference on the project that he is now
able to even make up the lost time he was having prior to the call. The CFI family consists of some of the absolute best
professionals in this industry -- all willing to always be there for their CFI brothers.

So don’t go it alone, Come join the family, I promise you, you will be glad you did.

#CFI FAMILY #CFI STRONG

THANK YOU!
Robert Varden

6 Flooring Specialist Summer 2021