How I Became a Spray Foam Expert, Step One

Last week I talked about how I became a spray foam expert and discussed the three-step process that worked for me.

Over the next few weeks we are going to take a deeper look at this three-step process and show you how you can get better, improve your knowledge or possibly become a spray foam expert yourself.

The first step to becoming an expert is Knowledge.

Now, last week I ended by sharing my opinion that, if you are reading my blog and are involved in the spray foam industry, you are probably already an expert… to someone, all you have to be is one step ahead of them.

When I started, as a green, wet-behind the ears, recent grad, I was an expert to at least one person, my mom. That’s it, even my dad knew more about spray foam than me, because he worked at Demilec.

I looked to him for guidance, because after all, he submitted my resume for the position and he had two months of experience on me, a whole two months.

Now, when it comes to knowledge, the first thing I figured out was that I didn’t know anything!

I was completely lost.

Less than 10% of my engineering degree had any impact on what I did as an engineering intern at Demilec.

I was learning about chemicals, spray foam equipment, application techniques, building science and building codes. It was all new to me.

By admitting that I didn’t know anything, I was able to stay open minded and eager to learn. This was critical to improving my knowledge as an entry level engineer.

Because I was open minded and eager to learn, I loved questions.

Anytime I got a chance, I was asking questions.

I asked more experienced coworkers to lunch, so I could ask questions.

I would eavesdrop on their conversations, so I could ask questions.

I asked so many questions that sometimes my coworkers got tired of it and would change the subject.

And I never ran out of questions, because I had a secret… I asked other people’s questions.

You see, in my position, I provided technical product support for our sales team and all of our customers.

Every day, I was greeted with new questions; well really, I was bombarded with questions every day.

Even “the old guys”, with decades of experience, asked me questions and I quickly realized that no one knows everything, so I didn’t have to either, as long as I could find the answer.

So, while knowledge is important, the theme of Step One is:

“Knowing where the answers are and how to find the knowledge is more important than knowing everything.”

Next week we will take a deeper look into Step Two of the process that I used to become a spray foam expert.

I did it, so can you.

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