That Time We Talked About Mattresses

This is episode number 115 of The Homeowner's Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner's Show. We're glad that you could join us for this extra special sleepy nighttime episode. of the Homeowner Show. It's, it is nighttime. It is for us. If you're listening to this, you're probably getting it like early Tuesday morning. So rise and shine, people. You, you know, if anyway, we'll get, we'll, we'll get into all that in a minute.

Yeah. But, but it feels like bedtime 4 hours earlier than it should right now.

It gets dark at like 5:30.

Exactly.

Somebody should punch Ben Franklin in the throat.

No doubt. Wait, why can't we all be like Arizona? That's not something you hear all the time.

Not right now.

Not right now. Not Right now. Well, nobody really knows what's happening in Arizona right now.

Well, I mean, like, when the episode airs, hopefully we'll know something that's going on in Arizona.

Yeah.

Hopefully they'll have figured their stuff out.

No doubt.

But there's all kinds of— man, let me tell you something. So somebody recently recommended to me to start watching Yellowstone.

OK.

Have you watched this?

No, but I know about it.

You know about it?

Yeah.

So, and I can't decide what's more brutal, what's going on with politics in the country right now or that show. And if you've seen the show, It is brutal.

Yeah.

And it may— it's not, it's not as bad as Game of Thrones, but it's like definitely as shocking.

Yeah.

And just like, I mean, like it sort of like makes guttural movements inside your body when stuff happens in the show, like, oh. And like, I don't know which one I'd rather watch, like the horribleness that happens in that show or the horribleness that's happening on the news right now. And I don't even watch the news.

Right.

And I'm just, I'm talking to people and they're telling me, You know what, that's a good tip right now. Tip for the show, stop watching the news. You'll be a happier person, I promise you.

Well, I'll tell you this, I don't watch it.

There you go.

I don't watch the news. I don't watch TV. Well, I watch some TV, but I don't watch like live TV in any way other than sports. I listen to podcasts. I don't turn the radio on. Do people actually turn the radio on these days?

I guess it's still happening.

Well, part of my frustration with radio is like there's way more ads and commercials than there is actual music.

Constantly.

Yeah, the content is just ridiculous, so podcast it is for me.

Yeah, well, and like, people, I mean, like, you know, we're obviously the smart guys in the right industry, even though we're not making any money. But like, any magazine you pick up, any radio station you turn on, you're gonna be inundated with those ads, and then the people creating content on those things have to create content that you wanna click on and that you wanna follow after, and so like, it's just salacious stuff that like nobody wants to hear, and it's probably like not even, it has like a kernel of truth, truth in it, but then they just exaggerate it in order to make you continue to listen, like, oh my gosh, that happened?

Yeah, it's— yeah, so we, we actually got a, uh, we got a magazine in the mail from Target the other day.

The Target?

Yeah, so it's got like the, uh, the holiday gift buying things in it. Well, my son— I just brought it in, set it on the table. I was gonna throw it away later and just hadn't got to that part yet.

Yeah.

And my son walks in, he's like, Legos! And I'm like, here, here's the problem. Since we only really watch TV that has no commercials in it, my kids are virtually free from, I want that specifically, or, I want that, other than what their friends have, right? And so, I'm like, even the magazines are horrible, because now they want all the stuff.

Yeah, I've told people this many times, is the problem— because we're in the same boat, like, my kids have virtually never seen a commercial.

Yeah.

The problem is, when they do see a commercial, it's very effective.

Oh, yeah. Yes, those commercials are— you realize how good they actually are.

My kids are like, I didn't even know that was an option.

Right.

It's like, yeah, we know. We didn't want you to know that that was an option.

And I'm kind of like, it's not an option.

Because up until you saw that commercial, you wanted to go climb a tree.

Yes.

That's all you wanted to do.

Right.

But now you need that thing.

Right. That keeps you in my house. Get out. Get out. Exactly.

All right.

Well, other than politics and other than TV ads, what's going on, man?

That that's pretty much it.

That's it.

That's nothing.

Man, the world.

I don't have time for anything else. It's golf show, the business, the you know the family.

Yeah.

I mean, I I you guys are my world.

I guess. Yeah. Congratulations, listeners. It's all about you.

you.

Um, I, I don't know, I'm, I'm kind of in this place where it's like I don't consume that media most of the time anyway. And so like, you know, a couple nights ago when the election was supposed to have been determined, um, I, I turned it on.

Yeah.

Just to kind of see what was going on. My wife was like, are we gonna watch this? I was like, no, I just turned it on to just see what's going on for now.

Yeah.

And, uh, we, we watched whatever we normally watch, and then when she went to bed, I was like, okay, let's see what's going on. Oh, nothing.

Yeah. Well, let me— like, I, I live for this kind of stuff, like, and that's why I had to turn it off. Like, I love watching and analyzing and, and all this kind of stuff. I, I— and like, for election night, I think I stayed up till like 2 or 3 in the morning, like, wow, looking for like results and following. And, and so a couple things I've learned is that one, it takes about 20 years to get your election process right. Okay. Um, because the one from that night that was the most efficient was Florida.

Right.

And if, you know, if you're old enough to remember, in 2000—

It was horrible.

It was the worst state in the union.

Yep.

I mean, and, and people don't remember, like, people are, people are being very impatient right now because at this point it's been 3 days, right? Right. And they're like, where are our results? Yeah, y'all, in 2000 it took 37 days to determine who won that election.

Yeah, and it was all because of Florida.

And it was all because of Florida. And who was the most efficient tallier of votes this go-round?

Florida.

Why? Because they never wanted to have that happen again.

They're like, get this out of the news.

So the good news is, in 20 years from now, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, they'll have their stuff together by then.

I promise you, there will be other states that fill their void. Somehow there'll be people that figure it out.

So anyway, anyway, so we don't, we don't know. And we probably— and honestly, by the time this show airs, we probably won't know by then either.

No, I doubt it.

Like, and they— there, there will be people that say, I won and I won, and then it's just gonna go to the courts.

Yeah, exactly. I was gonna say, so not only are we not gonna know, we— what we think we know is not gonna be what we actually know, because somebody, whoever loses, which I'm pretty sure I know who's gonna lose, but whoever loses, um, They're gonna throw a hissy fit.

Oh, everyone's gonna throw a hissy fit.

Exactly.

It doesn't matter.

No.

Both sides are gonna—

there's already hisses been thrown. Yes. Lots of fits.

But here's the thing. At the end of the day, if you're me and you're staying up till 2 or 3 in the morning, and you're gonna be dumb enough to stay up that late at night, what little sleep you get that night, you need to make sure that it's quality sleep.

Yeah, because no matter what, Uh-huh. The alarm goes off at the same time.

That's right.

And so whatever time you go to bed, that alarm— for me, and I know it's different for you, for me it's 6 o'clock. Every morning at 6 o'clock, and you're going, oh, I would love to sleep till 6.

Slacker.

Yeah. Um, 6 o'clock, my alarm goes off and I hit the floor running, literally.

So, you know, well, so, so what we decided to do tonight was to bring in the guy that, that transforms sleep for me.

Right.

Um, and so we've got my buddy William Underwood in the studio from Mattress Firm, um, who helped me and my wife find the mattress that we now love.

Um, that, that phrase is really important. The mattress that we now love.

That we now love. Um, and, and we'll probably get into all that. Um, but, but William, man, we're glad that you could be in the studio.

Thank you, guys.

Yeah.

Pleasure to be here, for sure.

Well, and I think this is a topic that might seem a little askew, but this is a huge— Kevin has brought this up before. I think it was you that was like, this is a place where you spend a third of your life.

Yeah. The way I pitched this to— well, I had to pitch it to my wife. Because when we were buying—

We're going to do the math, babe.

Exactly. When we were buying a mattress, the first mattress we ever had was a gift. from my parents, and so we already had a mattress.

I literally thought you said GIF.

A GIF?

I was like, that is a thin mattress.

Yeah, it is the correct pronunciation, GIF, not JIF, by the way. Anyway, um, I digress. So I, I told her, I was like, look, you're— what we were looking at the time, we were looking at spending roughly $2,500 on this mattress. And at first we had found one, it was like It was like $900, and it was awful once we got it home. Kind of, again, scenario that you understand. And so we, we were going back, I was like, look, let's go over here, let's look at this mattress. We did, and we loved it, both of us. And she was like, that is way too much money. And I was like, look, a third of your life is going to be spent on

this.

Mhm.

8 hours is what you should be spending a night, at least for an, for an adult, right? Maybe more, but if you're doing it correctly, that's a third of your life, right? And, and most of us— I know everyone in this room has a vehicle that cost more than $2,500, and my mattress has a 25-year warranty on it. My truck came with zero warranty on it, and if you buy it new, it might come with a 3-year warranty. So they don't expect it to last 25 years, right? And so You're paying tens of thousands of dollars for those vehicles. I'm looking at the math going, this is a no-brainer to spend this much money on a mattress. But I think a lot of people look at it and go, man, why would I spend that much

money on something like that whenever I could spend only $300 over here and it's a mattress? It's something to sleep on.

I only think that about my kids.

Oh, yeah. Who cares? They can sleep on a paper bag for all I care. Exactly.

They'll have character.

Now that we've gone through that whole spiel—

My job's done.

You can go home now, Will. Kevin, why don't you just hire Kevin? Listen, lady!

Let's do this. Let's back up. William, tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into the mattress business? You don't just sell mattresses, you sell quality sleep as well. Where does that all come from?

So, like you said, Kevin, it's all about quality sleep. You know, I was already in sales. I had a friend of mine that actually worked for Mattress Firm. And he said, hey, why don't you come? You know, you like helping people and you like changing lives. So why don't you come over here and sell mattresses with me? And, you know, it's kind of history from there. 4 and a half years, almost 5 years ago, I got Went to work for Mattress Firm, and, um, you know, our, our big thing is that we want to be America's trusted authority in sleep. Um, we go through hundreds of hours of training every year to help us help y'all find the right mattress to fit your needs.

Wow. So what—

I'm curious as to what that training looks like.

Yeah, that's kind of where I was going.

I was like, you told me hundreds of hours, right? I mean, like, what kind of stuff are you guys covering? Is it different stuff every year, or is it—

Definitely. Um, so, so just like any other industry, it's always evolving.

Okay.

Um, as we dig deeper into the science of sleep, um, there's new material that's coming out, new technologies are coming out every year, kind of like the car industry.

Yeah.

Um, you know, you got new models coming out every year, so And those new models have different materials that they're made out of. And, you know, it's all about every industry. It's all about improving or you're going to be passed up. Right. And so we have online learning that our associates go through. We have in-person builds, or used to be in person.

Now it's all virtual.

Yeah. Um, um, during all this COVID and, um, We also do role plays with our associates.

Okay.

As one of the senior managers for Mattress Firm, you know, we go through and we role play with our guys to make sure that they not only went through the material, but they actually know how to present that to the customer and how to actually, like when yourself and your wife came in, you know, go through what your needs were so we can help you find that right mattress.

Right. And just, just everybody know, I don't know if you know I don't know if we mentioned that. I mean, the reason we got Will in is he sold me my bed. Yeah.

But you were having major issues. Let's talk about that for just a minute. Tell— because this kind of plays into why William's here, right? Because you were having major issues.

I was having major back issues.

Right.

And I'd been going to the chiropractor, and I have a great chiropractor, Chad. And my wife was like, look, there's a divot in the bed. I mean, like, this is obviously not helpful. It was on my side of the bed because I'm a chunk. It wasn't on her side. I was like, well, let's just flip the mattress. She goes, no, then I got to sleep in the divot.

Well, then you would know how I feel.

That's right. This would happen faster.

She's like, I don't want to know how you feel.

Anyway, Chad had told me, he's like, look, I'll write you a script and then you can go in and you can get a little bit better deal on your mattress. I was like, Cool. I'm the type of person that I would just deal with it and just be uncomfortable. But my wife was very insistent. It's like, no, I'm tired of you being in pain. Because I'll just work through it until it's debilitating and I can't move anymore. But she really coaxed me and she was like, look, I forget how long we'd had the other mattress, a long time. Again, because like I'm just— I tend to not be focused on those kinds of things that I'm investing in, or not investing in,

which it is, it is an investment, but like that's just not in my, you know, right there in front of my, my face as something I need to do.

It's almost like buying tires. Like a lot of people look at it and it's like, well, this is a deal. Yeah, it's a necessary evil, and I have one, so why do I need a new one, right?

I mean, Yeah, until you spin out on the highway, right? You know, which is kind of where I was at, was like, I'm, I'm not— the chiropractor is not helping. I mean, he's doing the best he can, but I'm just not gonna get any better.

Right.

And he's telling me, he's like, well, you really need to fix the mattress. Um, so we, we reached out to Will because we knew that, uh, where, where he worked and what he did, and we trusted him. And we was like, well, just come in. And so he, he brought us in and took us through the whole showroom. Um, but yeah, I had— I was having massive back issues. Um, and I, I'm still going to the chiropractor, but I'm not in any pain like I was anymore. Like, I, I was literally— it would take me a good 30 to 45 minutes to get up and going in the morning, um, just to like work out the kinks of what my back had done to me that

night.

Sure. Um, so, so, so, William, a question that I've got is, so a guy like Craig walks into your, into your store. Okay, you, you don't, you don't know Craig, or maybe you do know him, but you don't really know what's going on. You just know that He's looking for a mattress.

He immediately patted me down.

Yeah.

Well, that's kind of shady.

Yeah, exactly. So what do you do? What, what is, what is the first thing that, that kind of happens past the greeting? Hey, I'm, I'm so-and-so, nice to meet you.

Sure. Um, so through years of trial and error and, um, learning how to You know, people aren't going to come right out and tell you, hey, this is what my issues are.

And, um, you probably should, but they don't.

You probably should. Yeah, just like a doctor, you go, oh, my wife made me come up here.

Yeah.

Yes. But you're not going to tell them what's wrong with you, right? Um, same thing happens because we're complete strangers, right? Um, and so we're gonna dig. We have what's called a buying process that we're gonna take you through. First, we're gonna tell you about what events we have going on right now. You know, this is the current sale that we have going on. This is what our promotions are that we have going on. And, you know, and it's a 1-2-3 process. Try to make it as easy and as painless as we can for you. And then we're gonna get— dig into the issues that you're experiencing. You know, We want to know what you're sleeping on. We want to know how long you've had that, that particular bed

that you're sleeping on, or what we like to call a sleep system, because it is actually a complete sleep system that you're getting involved in. You know, the foundation, the mattress, all of it affects your pillows, everything affects how you sleep at night. And then we talk about You know, the environment that you're in. How cold do you keep your house at night? Are you the type that's kicking covers on and off? Are you cold all night long? Are you the type that's bundling up? Because, you know, normally our temperature varies anywhere from 12 to 15 degrees up and down all night long.

Goodness.

And you're talking about like your internal temperature?

Internal temperature.

Yeah.

So, you know, when you have those big body spikes in temperature, that takes you out of that REM sleep, that deep sleep where you want to be at, because that's where your body is actually healing itself and you're actually getting that good quality sleep. And, you know, that disturbs your sleep patterns. And then we talk about, you know, when you wake up in the morning, how are you feeling? You know, what are you experiencing? Are you experiencing lower back issues? Are you experiencing upper back issues? Are you experiencing neck issues? You know, is there hip? Because those are going to be support issues in those 3 categories there. And then we talk about hip and shoulder pain. Hip and shoulder pain. If you're experiencing those issues,

usually those are more towards your side sleepers, because those are pressure points. You know, because your shoulder or your hip area is digging into the mattress.

Mm-hmm.

And maybe you're on something that's too firm. You know, something— you need something that's gonna give you more pressure relief. And then we talk about other things like snoring, sleep apnea, you know, acid reflux. You know, we, we, we don't only want to sell you a bed, we want to educate you.

Yeah.

That way you know more about sleep because it is, like you said, it's very important. And it is an investment. It's an investment in your health. It's an investment in your family. Because, you know, if you're experiencing those issues where you're so tired that you can't get out there and play with your kid because you're too tired or you're too sore to get out there and do that, and that's being caused by your mattress, how much is that worth to you to get back?

Yeah.

You know, because I can tell you, I got a almost 16-year-old, and I, I would love to see her more than I get to see her because she's already starting to develop her own life. So yeah, um, for sure, you know, those, those kids grow up quick.

So yeah. Well, talk, talk to me about the sleep apnea one because, um, I know like for us a big deal was the ability to adjust the, the elevation of the mattress. Sure, sure. Um, even though like neither one of us have sleep apnea, I, I know just from— I'm in so many homes Just throughout the week, I can tell you there is a huge increase in people that have sleep apnea machines in their homes.

Right.

And again, like, no one in here is a medical expert, but from what I understand about these things, I mean, once you start using one of those things, you can't stop using the thing.

Right.

I mean, it's kind of like a lifelong commitment to— I mean, like, you have that assisted breathing and you can't back away from it once you start. So what are you guys talking to people about with that?

Well, so, you know, snoring is— you can snore, but usually if you have sleep apnea, you are a snorer.

Sure.

For sure. And what that is, is when you are sleeping flat, our chest weight comes up towards our esophagus. Okay, that cuts off our airway. That's why a lot of people that have sleep apnea and that kind of issues, they're Side sleepers, because that kind of shifts that weight away.

That's the way they're able to breathe.

That's the way it's easier for them to breathe. So being able to elevate yourself, that refocuses that center of gravity downward, and that opens that airway up and allows you to sleep on your back, which is better for you because then you're not putting all your weight on your shoulder and your hip. And just allows more airflow, more oxygen into your bloodstream, which is also going to allow you to— that's going to help reduce that snoring. It's going to help reduce sleep apnea issues. It's not going to solve them, of course.

Sure.

But it is going to help reduce some of those issues. You know, but as always, you know, get with your doctor. If you have snoring issues, get with your doctor and find out Because sleep apnea is a serious thing. It can be life-threatening for sure.

And I think part of what you're talking about there is something worth mentioning. I mean, I don't know that a lot of people recognize the technological advancements that they've made in mattresses and in— I forget what you call underneath the mat.

The adjustable— we call them lifestyle bases.

Lifestyle bases. I want to get the terminology right here. The fancy box spring, right?

The one that goes up and down.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was, I was blown away with, uh, with, with some of the stuff. Um, sure, you know, and like with the, with the one that we ended up with has like the, the zero-G positioning.

Sure.

Um, the massage features. Sure, sure. Um, the, the under-lighting that you can turn on. Um, which really just reminds us that we need to dust under the bed. Right.

Or, or at my house it would just cast shadows because there's stuff under the bed. Stuff under the bed.

Yeah.

Exactly.

And, uh, the new model just came out, by the way.

Oh.

So if you want to come check it out.

Is there, is there a trade-in fee? What am I looking at here?

Let's, let's make a deal. Well, I, I think, you know, you, you're, you're getting into a, to an area there talking about sleep apnea, talking about, you know, some of these things that I think a lot of people experience And again, it's the, the, the lack of education that gets us to a place where it's like, I didn't know I needed— I didn't, I didn't know that was an option.

Yeah, I came in for the rectangle, right?

Right. Yeah, it's just I, I wasn't aware that my sleep was affecting so many of these other things.

Exactly.

And you know, that's one of the reasons we, we had the sleep episode we had with with Molly, our friend from New York, who was able to talk through some of those things. We're hoping to have her back on at some point to talk through some more things because so much— you even talked about the healing process that happens in our sleep, you know, and it's just kind of amazing what our bodies do during that time frame, you know.

I mean, not, not to get into the science behind it and everything because I don't I don't fully understand all what they're doing, but they're even doing studies now where, you know, the circulation enhancement that you're talking about that they call a massage, um, that helps like people with vertigo, is helping to realign their center of gravities.

Wow.

And, um, you know, they're seeing that the longer that people are able to stay in that deeper sleep, that REM sleep, That the neurons and stuff in their heads are starting to make connections again. So, you know, where's that going to lead? Who knows? You know, maybe someday that helps with Alzheimer's patients and dementia patients.

And yeah, as long as they just need to study it and figure it out.

Yeah, study it and figure it all out. But, you know, sleep, sleep's everything, especially right now when everybody's so health conscious with this virus running rampant and everything else, you know. Colds and everything else, that sleep affects that. Well, you get lots of rest when you're sick, so yeah, that's what it's all about.

So yeah, well, and I, I will say, I mean, like, just, just from my own experience with, with, you know, the, the mattress and, and the whole setup that we got, I, I, I find that one, my wife has control of the remote control. So if you could, if you could look into getting me a second one of those, um, just for my side of the bed, because If I go to bed after her, I can't like get it, but I tend to fall asleep twice as fast if I'm able to turn on the— I forget what you called it— the massage feature.

We call it a circulation enhancer.

Circulation enhancer. I fall asleep twice as fast, I find, when that's on.

Yep.

Um, it just, it, it just sinks me into that, into that sleep cycle so much faster.

Does it take you a while to, uh, to fall asleep typically?

It does, it does. And it's, it's, um, and like, you know, I have my own issues, but—

Oh, we don't have time for that.

No, this is not that show, Craig. No, but like, it, it, it really takes my brain a long time to wind down.

Yeah.

And to get into a place where it's like, okay, now it's time to be quiet.

Um, women are saying the only man around.

Did I, did I tell you the, did I tell you the story about the cat cat, like the, the dream I had about the cat? No.

No? All right, so let me, let me, let me tell this story real quick because it was, to me, looking back on it now, it's really funny. So I, I woke myself, and this was, this was a couple weeks ago, but I just, because it was one, because it was frustrating, and two, because now it's funny, um, woke myself up. I mean, just like straight awake, like, like I'd never been asleep. And I'd been having a dream. You know how people have those recurring nightmares?

Mm-hmm.

So, my recurring nightmare is actually— and I tell people it's not really a recurring nightmare because it's something that actually happened to me. You know that nightmare where you show up and you haven't been to class in a month and you have an exam?

Oh, yeah.

That's my recurring nightmare.

But you had clothes on and underwear, right?

Yeah.

Because that's kind of the other thing.

I was fully dressed.

OK, good.

But no, this, this actually happened to me in college. Like, I had skipped a class for about a month and I showed up one day and there was an exam. And yeah, I passed that class, by the way.

Wow.

Yeah, but it wasn't a hard class. But anyway, so I had a similar dream that night where I had been away. The basis of the dream was I'd been away from my dorm room, right? And I've been married for 15 years now. I haven't had a dorm room and I can't remember when, right? But like in the dream, I'd been away from my dorm room for like a month. I walk into my dorm room and there's a cat. And my brain goes, oh my gosh, you completely forgot about the cat. You told so-and-so that you would take care of the cat and it's been in this room the whole time. And that's when I woke up.

Wow.

And so I wake up and in— and like this is, this is 40-year-old Craig going, Where's the cat? Like, I've convinced myself that this cat is— like, my brain has convinced itself that this cat is real.

And you don't have a cat.

I don't have a cat. I won't ever have a cat.

Exactly.

But like, I can't convince my brain that it's not real.

Oh, wow.

Like, and so like, I'm having this internal dialogue, right, of, hey dummy, you don't have a cat. You never told anybody that you'd take care of a cat. And then my subconscious brain is going, yeah, but the cat.

That's what woke you up.

Yeah. And like, and so like I'm in panic mode going like, who did you betray? Who did you let down? Whose cat did you almost kill?

Oh no.

And so I go through this for like 3 hours in the middle of the night trying to like— and this will just give you some insight as to what I mean when it takes me a while for my brain to wind down. It took me 3 hours to talk my brain down into going, listen, dummy, Wow. There's no cat.

Man, you're really screwed up.

I am. Well, it gets better.

Okay.

It gets better. So I finally get to sleep and I have to get up the next morning and I'm making the coffee and I'm sitting down having coffee and I'm looking at it going like, you're such a moron. I was like, I'm going to tell my wife about this. So I tell her the whole story and she goes, well, so what's the cat? And I say, what do you mean?

Uh, so she's trying to go all like counselor on me.

And she goes, she goes, what, what does the cat mean? Could it mean something? Are you neglecting something? And I was like, well, I am now. Now I gotta figure that out.

Right.

Thanks a lot. I was just gonna listen to podcasts.

So that whole day I was like, what could that dadgum cat be?

Nothing, by the way. He's probably taking a shower. Yeah, you needed to actually not neglect the shower.

Yeah.

Anyway, I digress. I think that getting into a good rhythm of sleep is one of the most important things you can do. The mattress is definitely going to help that. Um, I, I want to get a little bit specific, and this is going to be a really tough question to answer, and I realize that as I get into it. I want to preface that. But is there a range that you find most people need to really consider? You're going to spend at least this amount of money to get into a decent mattress, or is it just kind of like, listen, there are some people that a $300 or $200 mattress is For some people are going to need a $4,000 mattress or even more.

Is there something that you would tell people that are listening to this episode today? Look, if you are needing a new, a new mattress, you need to consider it's going to cost you probably at least this much money. Or is it just you need to go shop? What, what, how would you answer that question?

I mean, like, are you having to save for an engagement ring or something?

Yeah, exactly. Like, because I, I think that, I think that it's, I mean, I— when I said $4,000, you're not blinking at that. I mean, mattresses can cost way more than that even. And you can find one that's just a regular old box spring mattress that's, you know, $100 or whatever. Um, or you could just buy one off of Facebook Marketplace, right?

Right.

And what is the difference? And is there a threshold somewhere that you're going, okay, if you spend less than You're gonna regret that you did that in 2 years type of thing. Well, um, you know, I know it's a really hard question to answer.

I know the answer because, you know, not only do we want to find you the right mattress for you and the right bed that's going to fit the needs that you're having to help solve those sleep issues that you're having, But, you know, let's be realistic. We all have a budget.

Yeah, we do.

You know, you know, so we try to have something in everybody's budget that's going to fit those needs. Now, you know, you may have to give up some of those items that would Enhance, right, the solutions.

Yeah, like the, the motor, whatever the motor is. We need to give up the motor, right?

The, uh, you know, the circulation enhancer.

Exactly, the motor.

I'm not giving it up, right? Take it from my cold dead fingers.

Yeah, but, uh, but you know, there's other options out there that are less expensive. You know, it's just a matter of, you know, how important is your sleep? Yeah, that's, that's the thing. And like, Craig, Craig, and I might have to pick on you here for a minute. What you just said about your kids, I don't care, they can sleep on whatever. You know, that's, that's probably one of my biggest pet peeves, um, is people come in and they go, oh, I need a bed for my kid. I said, okay, well, tell me about how your kid sleeps.

Yeah.

Well, it don't matter. What's your cheapest thing you got? You know, and honestly Sleep is more important when kids are little and all through school because that's when those, you know, if you want to have a good retirement, they need to be learning. Yeah, and those connections are made while they're sleeping, guys.

Yeah, and it's, and it's easy to say, but let's put a number on it. So, so kids that are under the age of teenager, so let's just say 10. Kids under the age of 10 should be getting a minimum of 11 to 12 hours of sleep a night.

That's right.

Okay, if your child who is under the age of 10 is not getting 10 to 11— I'm sorry, who's under the age of 10 is not getting 11 to 12 hours of sleep a night, you are fine— you're going to find that you are hindering their ability to learn, their ability to to grow the way they're supposed to. Teenagers are supposed to be getting a minimum of 10 hours of sleep a night. Okay, I'll tell you, that did not happen for me. And I can tell you, based on the school systems that we go to, our children go to in this state of Texas, which is a very, very— a state that's very heavy, uh, focus on education, they don't have time

to sleep that much.

That's right.

So the time that they get That's right.

And turn those electronics off. Yeah, if you're a parent, turn those electronics off.

It's not worth it.

It's not worth it. It's not worth— it's not worth their sleep for sure.

I agree.

Make sure those electronics are in the other room because, uh, they— especially when they get to those teenage years, they like to—

So I, I, I don't even think either one of you guys know this yet, even though we're all friends, Like, I just, I just moved my kids to a new school.

Oh yeah. Well, I knew we were talking about it.

Yeah.

Is it the one we were talking about?

I think so. Yeah.

That's awesome.

So they're only going 3 days a week now.

Yeah.

And the middle day is actually a much shorter day. And so like, they're— they have a lot more opportunity. Like, you know, if you want to— if you want— if your kid is in public school, the, you know, the window that you have to spend time with them is very narrow at the end of the day.

Yeah.

Um, and so we had really been trying to find Like, I had— like, we, you know, we had, you know, since COVID had happened, we've pretty much been homeschooling them. And even when the schools opened back up, we opted to keep them at home just to kind of test drive that. Um, but now we found this new school that's like a university model, um, even, even for our kindergartner. Um, and so they go 3 days a week. So they have a month. So we have a 4-day weekend with the kids.

Wow.

And so they have a lot more opportunity to sleep.

Yeah.

In on, you know, more than— more days off than they are in. Yeah.

Right.

So it's, it's— I mean, we're a weekend right now, so I don't really— I can't really tell you the results of that or what that's looking like, but like, so far we like it.

Cool.

Um, so it— but like, I, I recognize the difficulty it is in getting kids to get the amount of sleep that they need, you know, especially like if you are a parent that's a night owl anyway, like Well, in me, I just— I tend to not sleep most of the time anyway. Like, I'm up late at night, I'm up early in the morning.

Yeah.

And my kids tend to mirror me. Yeah. And so it's really difficult, you know, unless they just sleep in in the morning, um, to, to get that amount of sleep.

Yeah.

Because they want to— they want to behave like mom and dad.

Yeah. I mean, I feel like you're, you're always compromising on something, right? You're— the, the world that we live in, we're compromising on something. It's either that we're going to compromise the amount of the amount of sleep we get, or we're going to compromise how much we spend on a mattress. We're going to compromise whatever, right? Comfort tends to sometimes be the thing that we're least concerned about.

That's true.

We, we want to— we want to have certain things. We want a really nice sofa, right? We want a comfortable place to sit, but a comfortable place to sleep is, is a little bit less important for some reason. And I knew that asking you that question about price was going to be really difficult, but you answered it in a really great way to say, look, we're going to help you and we have options. If you have someone who says something like I said, which is like, hey, $2,500 on our mattress— Craig spent more than I did, a lot more on the one that he bought. You hear that and you're like, oh, gosh, I'm never going to buy a new mattress.

Sure.

But they have $400 mattresses at the store that can probably do for you what they need to do. And so I guess one of the things that, that I want to encourage people is to come see you, because most likely you're not getting the optimal amount of sleep if you haven't gone through the process of finding the right mattress for you. If you're just using the one that someone handed down to you or that you bought off Facebook or, or whatever, You're probably not getting the experience at night that you should. Right.

Or going to a furniture store and, you know, oh, I bought a bedroom suit, so I got a free mattress. You know, that's, that's, that's not actually being catered to. Fitted to a mattress. You know, it's like a suit, you know, you got to find a suit. You know, they, they fit that. If you go buy a custom suit, they fit that to you and your needs. We try to do the same thing with your sleep system.

That's probably actually a really good comparison. If you just go buy a suit off the rack, it might be a good suit, and you might get lucky, and it might fit you OK. But if you go in and you get measured, get tailored, and you have a suit made for you, that's a different suit. That is made to make you look sharp.

Yeah, actually, I actually had someone talk to me about this just yesterday. They said my— something there, they had a relative who said that they had a custom tailored suit, not just the suit but like the shirt, everything was custom tailored. And he said, I would wear this all day, every day. It's one of the most comfortable things that I own.

Yep.

And most men would look at you like you're an absolute crazy person because who wants to wear a suit? But it's like, nope, this was made for me, you know, fits me, and because of that I have a better experience. And you— I love that analogy, it's great.

Well, and you know, the, the big thing is I can't tell you how many times I've seen somebody, you know, pull up to the store and they're driving a $60,000, $70,000 luxury vehicle.

Yeah.

And they come in there and they look at the price and they go, oh yeah, I'm not spending that much.

Yeah.

And, you know, and then you start diving into what's going on and I'm like, okay, so how long do you spend in your car every day? Well, 2 hours. You know, I drive it 2 hours a day, an hour to work, especially here in Houston, hour to work, hour home.

At least, right?

You know, and, um, and I said, well, how long do you spend in it? In your bed? Well, 8, you know, 8 hours. Or the answer I love is, oh, as long as I can, you know. And, you know, and what it is, is we are, as a society, it's all about the outward appearance to people, right? And, you know, you're not inviting people into your room. I don't know if you have or not, Craig, but—

I do.

Check out my bed, you know. But, but I mean, but if you're just sleeping on something that wasn't made for you, it's, it's a bed.

I'll tell you this, he does not say it like that. Check out my bed. Check out my bed. It's very different.

That's where I do my best work.

Oh gosh, we have, we have derailed quickly. Let's, let's move on. Question, what is What do you think, whenever people come in, what's that feature that they've heard about? They want the blank. Like, give me the mattress with the blank. What is that? Um, my guess, at least for a while, was memory foam. It had to have been memory foam for a long time. Like, I need the memory foam.

The big thing right now is, um, you know, purple is huge.

Oh yeah. Do y'all sell purple?

Oh, we do sell purple.

Nice.

I, I laid on a purple.

You laid on purple?

I did.

Okay.

Their pillows are cool.

Their pillows are awesome.

Did, did you bring an egg with you? No. That's kind of their thing, right? Oh, you do an egg test?

We can do the egg test.

Nice. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

So, so, so they see things on TV They're like, I want that. Oh, of course, of course.

And don't get me wrong, Purple's one of the best at marketing. I mean, they're amazing. I mean, their beds are amazing.

Yeah, no, the bed, the bed was comfy. I mean, like, comfy. Um, I, I really don't have anything bad to say about it. Yeah. Um, it just didn't have the features that we ultimately wanted. So like, it, like, and I'm gonna try and answer your question because I think it's actually hard Because I was a nincompoop walking in there. I don't even know the features that are available. But the one that I was most excited about when I walked into the store was the cooling— is it cooling gel? Is that what it is? What is that? It's like a cooling— it's the thing that lowers the temperature in the bed.

Ice cubes? No.

Phase change material.

Is that what it is?

Yeah.

OK. What is it, like 7 degrees?

Your particular mattress is 8 degrees cooler.

8 degrees cooler. Like, when I, when I found out about that, I was like, yes, that— how did I not know about that before? And like, that became pretty much the center of our purchase at that point. I didn't care about anything else. Like, what do I have to do to get that?

Yeah, I want to be cooler.

Yeah, because I'm like, I tend to get really, really hot. Yeah, when I sleep, and like, you know, sliding into a cool bed is, is really, really nice. Yeah. Um, we always had the— so the— there was a guy I knew that always had the saying, cooler than the underside of the pillow.

Yes.

Yep.

Yeah, right. So that dude, that dude was a SportsCenter guy, wasn't he?

Oh, I don't know.

I think that's— yeah, he said cooler than the flip side of your pillow or something like that.

See, I'm the wrong guy to ask. I don't watch sports.

Who knows? I'm gonna look it up while y'all are talking.

All right, you look it up.

Yeah, it doesn't matter, but I wanna know.

I wanna give credit where credit is due.

Um, the, the big thing right now is, uh, Hybrids. So, you know, a lot of people, they like the pressure-relieving feel of memory foam. Mm-hmm. But they don't like that you don't get the pushback of a regular coiled mattress that we slept on for hundreds plus years.

Okay.

And so that's where the hybrid comes in.

They want to jump on the bed.

They want to be able to jump on, have that little jumpy spring boost, but they still want the pressure relief of, uh, of the memory foam. And so that's what it is. It's a combination of the 2, um, technologies, which is really nice.

Um, and I was gonna say, I, I think you were explaining to me that like the number of coils that are actually inside the bed actually affect the price and the— and sure, then the, the luxury level of the mattress, the density of the foam.

And, you know, you got high-density foam versus low-density memory foam, gel foams. I mean, we sit here all night long and talk about the different science and makeups of bed.

Yeah.

You know, if there's single-wire coils or triple-wire coils, and, you know, it's just a matter of, you know, is it 3 feet of steel per coil or is it 9 feet of steel per coil? Ours is the old-school, you know, mattress where you can jump on one side and bounce your partner out the other side. You know, the one that we slept on when we were kids that you worry about the spring coming up through the bottom of the bed.

That's right, you could double bounce somebody on that booger.

Right, yeah, yeah. And you know, the, the biggest thing that we get, you know, the biggest misconception that we got to get over when we're talking to people is, you know, people, the first thing they come into and they say, well, you know, I need something firm because I need something that's going to support my back.

Right.

You know, that's— you can get good support from a soft mattress. You know, it's just— Yeah, that sounds luxurious.

Yeah, that's right.

Okay, so I I just have to tell you.

Okay.

I was way off, Craig. It was Uncle Cracker.

Uncle Cracker?

Uncle Cracker. In the lyrics of one of his songs, Smile, the song Smile by Uncle Cracker.

When did that come out?

He says, you make me dance like a fool. He goes with all these things and he says, you're cooler than the flip side of my pillow. And, uh—

He's attributed to being like the first one to say that?

I guess. I mean, it's 2009. It's what's coming up at least.

Good Lord, I haven't heard that name like since high school. There's—

That's when he was—

that's when he came out, right? Yeah, like it was early, late '90s.

Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, probably.

Yeah. I'm learning new things about both of y'all.

Wasn't he—

wasn't he like, right?

Was, was he the one that was, was buddies with like Kid Rock or something like that?

Um, well, Was it was it Kid Rock? Yeah, yeah. Kid Rock and Uncle Cracker—they did they did some stuff together. And then yeah, I'm I'm getting so also getting some other things.

Well, no, like this this is important because it's it's far enough away now that like Kid Rock is like running for office or something like that. Yeah, is he? I don't know if he did or if he's planning on it or what the issue is, but I mean Kanye.

Was actually on ballot.

Okay, so not in Texas. Not in Texas.

Sorry, announces boo.

Yeah, exactly.

No, but he's the only one that's conceded. Yeah, yeah.

I don't—I'm pretty sure the others aren't going to concede. Yeah, ever. And we're back.

Proving once again that Kanye was the smartest man in the race.

Yes, right. Yeah, that says a lot. Says a whole lot. I'm out of here. That's right. Go back to making records. So what have we not talked about that you would like to talk about?

I, I actually, I actually have one.

Sure.

Um, because this, you know, I, I think like, and here's why I bring this up, because I think when most people walk onto like a car lot, the guy that they avoid is the salesman. That's right. You know, Um, and instinctively, I don't anymore. I actually enjoy engaging these guys because most of them, like, they know about the vehicle. They're going to be able to tell me stuff that I don't, you know. And they also recognize that, like, you know, this is probably not going to be a sale, right? You know, and I, I do this all the time. I actually take my car to the dealership to get the oil changed. I go find a salesman because they're bored.

Yeah, right, exactly.

And they tell me all kinds of stuff. When, when we came in, I, you know, I think, I think going into a mattress store could be one of the more awkward because what someone like you might tell me is like, well, start laying on 'em, you know, see what feels good, you know? And this can be kind of like a weird thing, like, oh, sure, lay on this one. And but like, when I laid down on the mattress, and I don't know if you remember this or not, but like, um, you picked up on something that I was doing as I was laying on the mattress. Do you remember this? No? Uh, anyway, I crossed my legs when I was laying down.

Yep.

And you're like, oh, you've got back problems.

Yep.

I'm like, how do you know that? like, because you're crossing your legs.

Yep.

I'm like, what does that have to do with the, the price of yen? Or— but like, this, this is something, you know, this is something that, that guys like you pick up on, right? And are, you know, obviously with 100 hours of training, something went through, you know. But like, you know, that's why you do those kinds of things. That's why you interact with guys like you, is because you're going to be able to— okay, like, so obviously you're having problems. Do you lay like that all the time. And then that led to a series of questions. They're like, yeah, this is where I'm experiencing pain. You're like, oh, well, check this out. Um, and so

like, and I guess kind of my question about that is, are people kind of like standoffish?

Oh yeah, definitely. Um, you know, and there's been studies done behind shopping for a new car. Shopping for a mattress is number 2.

Yeah, is it really?

Oh yeah. Wow. Yeah. Um, people, uh, and, and what it is is You know, it's kind of awkward. You're, number one, you're laying in bed in front of some stranger.

Right.

And then, you know, and, you know, unfortunately, I think a lot of them in the industry just tell you, hey, lay on the bed, see if it feels good to you. Because that's, that's, that's the easy way out, you know. And that's, that's something that we try to avoid at Mattress Firm, is that we don't We don't— we're not there to take the easy way out of it, you know. I think y'all were there for a couple hours.

Oh, easily.

Easily. Yeah. And, and that's what— that's what sets us apart, is we're actually trying to fit you to that right system. Where, you know, we could— we could be like a lot of places out there, and we could say, okay, yep. Oh, that one feels good. Great. Let's write it up, get you out the door. Yeah. And, and then you're with regrets. And, you know, it's the wrong decision, you know. And, and we, you know, we're gonna do everything that we can to make sure that we find you the proper sleep system to fit your needs.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, that's something that sets us apart from everybody else, is that if we haven't— and Craig experienced this because Brandy, you know, your wife thought She needed the firm mattress. Yeah, she had it in her head and, you know, she was miserable.

Yeah, no, it was— I'm glad you brought it up because, I mean, that was a great moment of like customer service. I mean, I don't remember how long we had that mattress. I mean, I think it was like a week. Yeah, about a week. And my wife was not getting any sleep, and so we reached out to you and we're like, look, this, this one's not working. and then we need to try something else.

And, and I think that what you told me, you were like, man, we're gonna have to call William. Like, you were— he was dreading it because he was like, this is not gonna be comfortable. How do we tell him we want to return something that we spent thousands of dollars on? Like, how do we do that? And like, when I asked him about it, he was like, oh, it was easy.

Yeah. I mean, well, and he told it— he told us up front. He's like, look, if it doesn't work, call me.

Yeah.

Um, and, you know, and I think, I think there's a lot of people out there that hear that and go, Yeah, whatever. Yep, you know, but like the next— I, I think it was within 2 days of making the phone call, I think we had the other mattress in the house and people were sleeping and Daddy was happy again.

Yeah, yeah. And that's something that we, that we do different is we give you 4 months because, you know, which is a long time. Well, I mean, when you're, when you're talking You know, a very inexpensive mattress, you can break that mattress in quickly, right? You know, when you're getting into the higher density level foams and the thicker gauge steel and everything, it takes longer to break that mattress in.

Yeah.

Because we actually— and this is something that people don't realize— is we actually will walk on mattresses at the stores. when we get them in. And, you know, and what that allows us to do is it allows those pores on the foams to open up and allows those springs to be compressed. Because what we want you to experience is how that mattress is gonna feel once it's broken in, right? What the final feel is gonna be like. Because if you only felt it How it felt when you first got it, you know, would never buy it. Or that 4 months, number one, you wouldn't ever buy it. No. But number two, 4 months down the road, if you did buy it, you're gonna be

like, hey, this mattress is already falling apart and it's junk because it's not giving me the support I need.

No, right. Yeah, I mean, which was— I mean, it was definitely the case. I mean, because like After a week, she was like, this does not feel like the mattress. With the one that we have now, after we'd broken that one in, we left on a trip. I say this because we went to a really, really nice hotel. The whole time we were there, she's like, this mattress sucks.

Right. We had a very similar experience whenever we were looking for a mattress. Um, we, we went in, we bought, we bought the mattress that we liked.

Sure.

Um, it was like, I don't know, it wasn't very expensive really. It's like $800.

Yeah.

Uh, and when I say that's not very expensive, I mean, there's some very expensive mattresses out there.

Oh yeah.

We spent 3 times that amount whenever we finally decided on one that we wanted. Um, but we, we had the same experience. We got it home and we, we laid down on it. We're like, this is not this. We, in fact, we called that— we called the store. I'm sure you get this a lot. We called the store and we're like, did y'all deliver the right mattress? Because this doesn't feel the same way as it did in the store. And so the salesman said, look, we understand there is a break-in period. Okay, sure. We honestly gave it like 2 more nights, maybe 3, and we're like, we can't do this. We cannot do this. Neither one of us were sleeping. It was horrible. It was so, it was so stiff. And

then, you know, whenever we got the bed that we, we decided on, it was like, like you said, Craig, it's like instantly better. Uh, but there is a break-in period. I'm, I'm thinking the salesman should have told us that whenever we bought it, you know.

And, and, you know, you said, you just asked me, I, I bet y'all hear this a lot. We really don't.

Oh, really?

And that's the reason why, is because we want to set those expectations.

We didn't go to mattress firm, y'all. Sorry, mattress giant or someone of those other ones. They're we're not going to go into that. They're part of us now. Okay, well, you bought them out. It was probably like mattress junk. It was something.

You have a better experience now.

Yeah, exactly right.

The thing is, you know, we want to set the proper expectations so that you know what to expect when you get your new bed at home. We also another thing that you you and your wife experienced is. We have a 120-night low-price guarantee. Um, so if it goes on sale for less 4 months after you bought it, yeah, we, we get money back.

That actually happened to us. Wow. Yeah, so I think it was like 2 weeks after we bought it, it went on sale. Yeah, yeah. And now we got it. I don't know if you called us.

Yeah, or yeah, it was actually when we rescheduled your, uh, thing. I was like, hey, you know what, it's on sale too, so we're bringing you a different bed and we're giving you some money back.

Twist my arm. That was a really good day for you.

It was a good day. I got to sleep, I got some cash.

Perfect. Perfect. Well, cool. Well, man, I— this has been a wealth of information, I think. And, you know, we— one of the things we try to do, William, is we try to give our listeners the opportunity to own their home better, to live their life a little bit, you know, better. And I think one of the— I mean, you're gonna spend spend more time in bed in your home than you are probably anything else. If you work outside of your home, then your bedroom is the most important place in your, in your home.

That's right.

It's the place you spend more time than anything else. So if that is something, um, that you are not experiencing, please go find somewhere that can fit you to the right place. And William's going to say, please come to Mattress Mattress Firm, Tomball. Let's be specific.

Yeah, exactly.

Come see my team.

Are Mattress Firms across the country now?

Yes. Um, so we are in all 50 states.

Are you really?

Yep.

Dude, that's fantastic.

We sure are. Um, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Oh, nice. And so, soon to be Puerto Rico, is it?

Maybe we might have to add another state.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, but, uh, yeah, definitely. And that's another great benefit to us. Um, so, you know, if you do move somewhere, yeah, all of our computers are connected. Yeah. So, you know, we can find your order anywhere. Plus, we've been around since 1986. I can find your records back to 1986.

Oh wow.

So, you know, if something did happen and you had to file a warranty claim or something like that, because I don't I mean, humans are involved occasionally. There are some issues there. Sure. Yeah, we can help you with that as well. But yeah, definitely, definitely, we'd love to help you if you're not experiencing that. Big things is, you know, sleep's important, not only for yourself, but definitely sleep's important for your kids as well.

Yeah. And let me, let me, let me say this, because I actually had a very interesting warranty experience recently with Best Buy.

OK.

This is no shade at Best Buy. It was just weird. I say this because I've had nothing but a good experience with Mattress Firm. Those that know me know that I constantly listen to audiobooks and things like that. A big part of my life are my earbuds. I recently switched over to the Bose sunglasses. I've had those for about a year now. Life-changing. Fantastic product. Love the product. Um, and yeah, if you, if you guys haven't checked them out yet, the Bose sunglasses, I mean, I think the cheapest pair is like $200, um, that you can pick up from Best Buy. Well, my, my wife had bought them for my birthday last year and she paid for the extended 2-year warranty. So,

um, about a week ago they just quit turning on.

Hmm.

And I was like, well, nuts to this. I'm just gonna take them to the store and you know, have them, you know, honor the warranty. So I took him into the store, took him the sunglasses, the whole shebang, and I was like, here's my warranty, there you go. And they go, yeah, okay, cool, go pick out whatever pair you want, no problem. I went back there, found, you know, the exact pair that I wanted, the same pair that I had before, and took it back up to the front. And he goes, okay, good, um, do you want— do you want to go ahead and, and buy the warranty for these? And I said no, because this warranty is good

till '21. And he goes, no, uh, your warranty's expired now. And I said, why? And he goes, because you just used it.

What?

And he goes, yeah, because you exchanged them, that nulls the warranty for the rest of— if you want, if you want to, you can now warranty these sunglasses, but these are not— otherwise these aren't going to be warrantied. And I said, but I paid for 2 years. They're like, yeah, but you used it. I was like, that doesn't make sense.

That's not a warranty, that's a replacement.

Right.

That's a replacement for cost. That's not a warranty.

I was like, I'm OK if that's the policy, but this is very tricky.

Right.

I would imagine, however many times the mattress fails, the warranty is for the warranty. The warranty is the warranty. You really have to pay attention to something. Unfortunately, you really have to pay attention to some of these companies and the way that they're structuring their programs. Because I mean, you know, like for a $200 set of sunglasses, I had to pay another $50 for additional 2 years.

William, please do not get us started on home warranties. We don't have time for that.

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty! Free at last!

But yeah, seriously, I mean, yeah, Yeah, I— if you don't come see me in Tomball, go to one of our stores.

Yeah, um, because just name drop, they all know you.

Yeah, well, Tomball, there's 2 stores, 4 corners in Tomball.

Yeah, and you guys are on 2 corners, right?

We're on 2 of the 4 corners, um, and, um, I have a great staff there, um, you know, myself, Bill, Chris, Mike, we'd all— Christine, we'd all love to help you.

Shout outs to people.

Shout outs to my people.

That's right, they're gonna jump on and hear their name now.

Yeah, that's right. But, but yeah, Black Friday sales already started.

Oh, that's right. Yeah.

Which is huge. Come in there, say you heard us on here, and we'll— there's a few brands that we can't offer additional savings on, but, but the brands that we can, we'll get you an extra 10%.

So I mean, just, just to kind of tickle people's interest, what's the craziest Black Friday deal you got going on right Um, right now, Black Friday, we have king for the price of a queen.

Okay. And a free head-up adjustable base. Okay. Um, so that's huge. That's a, that's a good deal. Also, uh, Kingsdown right now is offering up to $1,600 off. Oh my goodness. Mattresses, which is huge. Yeah. Yeah. Great luxury brand.

It's a good Christmas present right there.

Yeah. Sleep.

And 0% financing too. So. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, sounds like we've hit a lot of important things. Well, this has been, this has been really good, but we, we really can't continue this episode without taking you through probably what Craig and I feel like is the most important segment.

The gauntlet.

The gauntlet, which is the Final Four.

Final Four.

That's right. So these are the final 4 questions we ask all of our guests, unless you're a repeat guest, and we—

because we skipped it last time.

We did, because we've already done the final 4. We don't want to hear from those suckers. Yeah, so final 4 questions we ask all of our guests. So, uh, we're just gonna kick it off. All right, so here we go. What is the must-have tool that you won't leave your house without?

Um, must-have tool, um, Definitely, definitely. I'm sure you heard it 100 times, my phone.

Oh yeah.

Just, uh, you know, being in management with my company. Never know when that call's coming. Or, uh, you know, being, uh, being married and you never know when the wife's gonna call.

So, uh, gotta be available.

Don't be without it. Don't be without it.

That's right. Definitely your phone.

Definitely my phone.

All right, great. All right, well, we'll go over to the second question. So, so what's, what's a job you've walked away from? Now, um, this is, this is something, uh, that we kind of wanted this to be like, what's a project you walked away from, from your house? So if you've got something, that would be great. Um, if it's a specific job though, would be interested in hearing that too. But what's a job that you've walked away from?

Oh, project I walked away from. Well, uh, so with all the COVID going on this, uh, this year in our our community pool being closed, we, we got the bright idea to go out and buy an above-ground pool.

Oh yeah, super popular.

Super, super popular. Hard to find. Yeah. And so I get out there and my yard's kind of— if you stand back and look at it, you really can't see it, but it has a nice Slope to it. Sure. And so, uh, got out there and started leveling it out and everything, and I'm like, okay, yeah, this looks pretty nice and level. And, uh, so I'm like, well, you know, because I've worked on it for like 2 days now. Sure. Um, tired of hauling dirt and everything else, right? Is it good enough for me, right? I see it from my work. So, I start putting the pool together and start putting water in it. I'm like, hmm, this is a little off. I'm like,

start Googling on the internet. Well, exactly how level does a pool have to be?

Yeah.

And you know what? I was like, okay, turn the water off. Let's drain it. get on our homeowners page. Who knows anybody that can come level a yard? Yes. So, uh, yeah, that was, that was the one, you know, most things I can take care of myself.

Who'd you get to do it?

Uh, my mom's yard guy, actually. Uh, okay, I hired him and then he like hired one of his buddies to come do it. Subcontracted out. Subcontracted out. I didn't care.

He's like, I ain't doing it. No. Yeah.

He showed up like at the end, he's like, okay, let me, uh, let me stop it one time. Okay, there you go, Mr. William. It's good.

Well, that, that, man, I, I've done that kind of stuff before, and at the end of the day you're like, can someone please just do this? Yeah, I'm so done. All right, that's a good one. That, that's a really good— yeah. All right, 3rd question. Okay, how do you wind down at the end of a long day?

You know, so my days, kind of like Craig, they start really early in the morning and most of the time they end really late at night.

Yeah.

So usually I'm getting home 9:00, 9:30 at night, and from that point You know, it's just eat dinner really late and, you know, it's kick back in my recliner and just enjoy the quiet because the kids are already in bed and just sit back and relax and usually read an article or listen to podcasts or— Some kind of background noise and just chill there in the recliner. That's my evening. I'm pretty boring.

All right. So now, you brought up a question that I think we need to answer really quickly. So we're going to take a break, but it fits right in. What mattress do you sleep on?

What mattress do I sleep on? I sleep on Tempur-Pedic.

Okay.

Yeah. Not as advanced as Craig.

Oh, okay.

Craig's got the newer version of it.

Yeah, um, he'll let you come see his. Look at my bed.

But, uh, but, uh, yeah, I'll, I'll, uh, I, I get to lay on it quite a bit at work, so I'm like, man, I need to upgrade.

Yeah, but unfortunately— I hear they've got some really good sales going on right now.

They do, you know. Um, well, Temper, Temper Not, not so good right now, but, uh, but it's coming, I'm sure, here in the future. Um, but, um, but you know, that's one of the ones that we don't get discounted either. So, uh, you know, so yeah, you know, I'm like, I'm kind of like all of y'all. I'm like, man, do I really want to put that much money when I already got one?

Yeah, exactly. This works fine.

But I will say my kids sleep on nice luxury beds too.

There you go. Awesome. Very cool. All right, well, uh, let's get back to the last question here. What's one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice you've ever received?

Um, you know, I like, like we were talking about earlier about, you know, how my daughter's getting older, or my oldest daughter's getting older and everything, and we don't She's more involved with sports and school and friends and all that.

Yeah.

You know, she's a sophomore in high school and, you know, a couple years she'll be headed off to college and everything. So, you know, I think the, the biggest word of advice I can give anything is, you know, no matter what you're doing, And out there, you know, none of that matters but what happens at home. At the end of the day, home's all this— that's the only part of it that's going to count, because the rest of the world out there and all this politics and everything else that's going on, they could care less about you.

Yeah.

Um, so it's all about family and how you affect that life at home. And, you know, You know, Craig, you're mentioning how, you know, our families, the kids try to mimic how we are.

Yeah.

And how they like to stay up late and get up early and everything else. And, you know, same thing goes with sleep. You know, if you're, you know, I can't tell you how many times I've been up at 2 o'clock in the morning or whatever, and my youngest who's 5, she'll come out there and she's like, oh no. I'm like, why aren't you in bed? Oh, I just want to hang out with Yeah, yeah. And that's, that's, you know, that's the big thing because, you know, honestly, we don't, we don't spend enough time with our families, right? Typically.

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, that's, that's really good. That's, that's really good. Thanks for, thanks for sharing that with us. Uh, well, Craig, what else? We miss anything?

No, I think we all need to go to bed.

There's no doubt about that. Well, listen, Thank you everyone for downloading today's episode. It's been really, really good. William, thank you for taking the time to come and spend some time with us. We really appreciate it.

Thank y'all for letting me come out and spend this time with y'all. It's been fun.

Absolutely. Now, there, there is a secret question that we didn't get to yet for the final 4. There's actually the, this, this super special question that Craig gets to ask. So Craig, go ahead.

Yeah, and I get to ask it because it's the only one I can remember. If people have questions and they want to get a hold of you, what's the best way to get a hold of you?

Best way to get a hold of me anytime, because, you know, I want to make sure I get back with you if I'm not available. You can email me, william.underwood@mfrm.com, or That's, that's probably the easiest way.

Yeah.

We'll link that up in the show notes and make sure people have access to that so that they can, uh, you know, send you spam and, you know, all sorts of appropriate emails. Yeah, exactly.

Speaking of emails, we have one. Yeah. info@homewatershow.com. If you got any questions, if you have any suggestions for episodes, or anything like that, let us know. We would love to, uh, to field that email from you. So, um, give us a— give us a shout. Uh, we would love to interact with you on Facebook, Twitter— uh, don't try— but Instagram, you can try over there as well.

And, um, punch the like button.

Yeah, exactly. We're on YouTube. We got a video coming out. So, uh, typically our podcasts are coming out on, on Tuesday. The video podcast is going to come out on YouTube on Thursday. So check all those out. And man, we would love to hear from you. If you have a chance, go on Apple Podcasts, leave us a rating and a review. That would really, really help us out. We appreciate that very much.

It's the least you could do.

It's literally the least you could do. Thank you for being, you know, that, whatever that is. Anyway, we really do appreciate it. Thanks for downloading the episode. We hope you have a great day. We're here every single Tuesday, so thanks for joining us. Until next time, we'll see you later. See ya.