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RK Tropical Community RK Tropical Community — A commercial property and community hub in South Florida. Owned by the Kershner family. South Florida proud.
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Where trade workers, service providers, and field operators connect, grow, and build something worth being proud of. RK Tropical Community is more than a property — it's a gathering place for the people who build things with their hands and their hustle. Trade workers, contractors, service providers, and small business owners in the field. This is the spirit behind Deemed Essential — the book that honors the people who showed up and kept the world running. We believe in the dignity of hard work, the value of community, and the power of building something real.

Two out of three contractors using AI say it saves them at least three hours every week.That is from ServiceTitan's new ...
09/30/2026

Two out of three contractors using AI say it saves them at least three hours every week.

That is from ServiceTitan's new survey of 1,017 U.S. contractors, fielded May 26 to June 15 across HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, pest control and more. Here is the catch: only 47% of those same users say their profitability improved.

Three hours back is a gift. It only turns into money when you decide where it goes.

For a Keys pool or landscape company, the best places are the ones your customers can feel. The quote that goes out this afternoon instead of Friday. The reminder text before the crew arrives. The invoice that lands the day the job ends. The follow-up call you keep meaning to make. Let AI draft the words, you approve them, and the hours flow back to the relationship.

Mike Rowe wrote this week that every industry in America is competing for a skilled workforce that isn't there in sufficient numbers. If you can't hire your way out of the workload, you have to free the hours you already have.

Will robots do some of the field work someday? I'm curious and I'm watching. Today, the craft and the customer are still yours.

More on building a service company that lasts in Deemed Essential: https://deemedessential.org/

If you got three hours back every week, where would you spend them?

Last Friday was National Tradesmen Day. No parade, no day off. Most of you spent it on a ladder, in an attic, or leaning...
09/24/2026

Last Friday was National Tradesmen Day. No parade, no day off. Most of you spent it on a ladder, in an attic, or leaning over a pool in the September heat.

So here is a number worth sitting with. SupplyHouse surveyed 506 tradespeople in August, and 9 in 10 have no plans to leave their trade in the next year. More than 4 in 5 said they take pride in keeping homes and businesses running.

Asked what they value most, the top answers were earning a good living (43%), independence on the job (42%), and stability (40%).

Read that list again as an owner. All three get won or lost in the office, not the field. A good living leaks away through late invoices and quotes nobody followed up. Independence disappears when Sunday night belongs to paperwork. Stability depends on whether customers hear from you before they have to call.

That is exactly where AI earns its keep right now. Let it draft the quote, the invoice reminder, the reschedule text. You review, you approve, you go home.

Will robots take on some of the field work someday? Maybe, and I am curious to watch it unfold. Today, the craft and the customer relationship are yours. Protect them.

More on building a service company that lasts in Deemed Essential: https://deemedessential.org/

Which matters most to you: a good living, independence, or stability?

One of the answer choices in a trade-magazine poll running this week: "We don't use AI, and we're tired of hearing about...
09/17/2026

One of the answer choices in a trade-magazine poll running this week: "We don't use AI, and we're tired of hearing about it."

Fair enough. So here is what the same industry's own 2026 Trend Report (Service Nation, built from contractor roundtables) concluded: the biggest advantages this year will not come from technology at all. They will come from operational discipline, steady customer relationships and company culture. Documented workflows. Standardized quotes. Tracking callbacks. Knowing which jobs actually make money.

Anyone running a pool route, a landscape crew or an AC truck in South Florida knows this in their bones. The craft gets you hired. The systems keep the company alive the week the lead tech is out sick and the phone will not stop.

That is where AI fits, and it is smaller and more useful than the hype: a cheap way to be disciplined in the office. It can draft the quote from your field notes, flag the third callback on the same street, summarize last month's jobs by margin, and write the follow-up text for you to approve. You still make the call. The customer still gets you.

Robots on the job site? Stay curious. Nobody knows that timeline. The office discipline is available today, and it compounds.

I wrote Deemed Essential about exactly these companies, the ones built on serving people well: https://deemedessential.org/

What is the one office task you would hand off tomorrow if you trusted the result?

We just passed the peak of hurricane season with zero hurricanes. Five named storms, none of them made it, and 2026 is n...
09/15/2026

We just passed the peak of hurricane season with zero hurricanes. Five named storms, none of them made it, and 2026 is now the latest first-hurricane year in the satellite record.

Before anybody in the Keys exhales: Irma came ashore in the Lower Keys on September 10, 2017, the statistical peak. Colorado State still gives Monroe County the highest odds in Florida of a hurricane passing within 50 miles this year. Quiet is not the same as finished.

The pool techs, landscapers, AC and plumbing crews I admire treat a quiet stretch as a gift. They brace the palms, clear the drains, check the generators, and, just as important, they get their office ready to talk to every customer at once.

That last part is where the new tools earn their keep. A back office with AI drafting the storm-prep notice, the reschedule texts, the "we're checking your property Thursday" update, and the post-storm triage list means the owner spends the day in the field instead of on hold with a spreadsheet. The human still approves every message. The craft still does the work.

Will robots ever brace a palm in a crosswind? Maybe. I stay curious. For now the win is a company that stays calm and reachable when the cone shows up.

That mindset, service first, is the heart of Deemed Essential: https://deemedessential.org/

What is your quiet-season checklist?

Mike Rowe's foundation turned 18 this Labor Day, and he marked it with a number: $3.5 million in work-ethic scholarships...
09/10/2026

Mike Rowe's foundation turned 18 this Labor Day, and he marked it with a number: $3.5 million in work-ethic scholarships to 450 people training in 23 trades. That's $22.5 million to 3,350 tradespeople since a TV show about sewers started it.

But the line in his post that stuck with me was about a home-service company. Groundworks gave every frontline worker real equity. In February, nearly 5,000 employee-owners split a $31 million dividend. Rowe's take: employee ownership will eventually become the norm in home services.

Here's why that matters in the Keys. When ownership spreads to the crew, the value of the company has to come from somewhere the crew actually creates. And it does: the pool that's balanced right, the palm that's planted to survive a storm, the customer who calls you by name. The craft is the equity.

What eats that equity is the office. Quoting at 9 p.m., invoices that go out late, the same "are you coming Tuesday?" text answered forty times. That's the work I'd hand to AI first: it drafts the quote, the invoice, the reply, and a human approves. Robots on the equipment pad? Maybe someday. I'm watching with curiosity, not fear.

I wrote Deemed Essential about exactly this kind of company: https://deemedessential.org/

If your crew owned a piece of the business, what would change first?

Forty-five percent of pool pros say they're interested in AI but haven't touched it yet. If that's you, this one's for y...
09/03/2026

Forty-five percent of pool pros say they're interested in AI but haven't touched it yet. If that's you, this one's for you.

Skimmer's 2026 State of Pool Service report pulled together more than 1,600 pool pros and data from over a million pools serviced every month. Only 16% are actively using AI. Another 31% are testing it. The biggest group, 45%, is curious and waiting.

Here's the number I liked most: 40% said they would never let AI fully handle their invoicing and payments.

Good. Neither would I. That instinct is the whole design.

AI drafts, you approve. The quote gets written from your notes before you pull out of the driveway. The invoice is queued the minute the job closes. The "running twenty minutes behind" text is ready to send. You read it, you tap approve, and your name still goes on every word.

The demand is there for it. Search interest in pool care is up 22% since 2022, and 64% of operators expect more revenue this year. Most say they'll get there through efficiency, not more trucks.

Robots on the pad someday? Stay curious. Nobody has that timeline yet.

The people who keep the Keys running are who Deemed Essential was written for: deemedessential.org.

If you could hand one office task to a draft-and-approve helper this week, which one goes first?

Labor Day is Monday. Plenty of Keys pool techs, landscapers and AC crews will be working anyway, because pumps and storm...
09/02/2026

Labor Day is Monday. Plenty of Keys pool techs, landscapers and AC crews will be working anyway, because pumps and storms don't check the calendar.

So this one is for you. A quick, honest look at where the trades really stand with AI.

ServiceTitan's 2026 survey of 1,000 residential contractors found that only about one in four are using AI, and nearly half say they don't trust it yet. That isn't being behind. That's good judgment. Trust in this business is earned on the job, one call at a time.

The same survey found 73% of customers rank clear, upfront pricing as their top priority. That's a back-office problem, not a wrench problem. A quote built and sent the same afternoon, an invoice out before the truck leaves the driveway, a text telling the homeowner you're twenty minutes out. That's where AI earns its trust first, while your hands stay on the craft.

Robots on the equipment pad someday? Stay curious. Even Mike Rowe is headlining a summit on it this month. Nobody knows that timeline, including the people selling it.

The people who keep this island running are who Deemed Essential was written for: deemedessential.org.

Who in the Keys trades deserves a thank-you this Labor Day? Tag them below.

Wall Street just placed a $100 million bet — on the trades.BlackRock, the largest asset manager on the planet, has launc...
08/26/2026

Wall Street just placed a $100 million bet — on the trades.

BlackRock, the largest asset manager on the planet, has launched its Future Builders initiative: $100 million over five years to train 50,000 electricians, plumbers, and HVAC techs. CEO Larry Fink's reasoning was blunt: America is going to run out of electricians.

We've been saying a version of this for years here in the Keys. The work our pool, landscape, HVAC, and plumbing companies do can't be offshored and can't be downloaded. Now the world's biggest investors agree.

Here's the encouraging part for owners: the value isn't only in the field. Companies that let AI carry the back office — quoting, scheduling, invoicing, follow-up — free their best people to do what the money is chasing: skilled hands, honest service, real relationships. Plumbing businesses using AI nearly tripled since 2024 (7% to 19%), and almost all of it is paperwork, not pipe wrenches. Will robots eventually reach the field? Maybe someday — worth watching with curiosity, not fear.

If you're building a service company meant to outlast you, Claude Kershner's book Deemed Essential is about exactly that: https://deemedessential.org/

If $100 million landed in trades training tomorrow, what skill would you want the next generation to master first?

The machines everyone said would replace the trades can't even get built without them.Every AI data center going up in A...
08/25/2026

The machines everyone said would replace the trades can't even get built without them.

Every AI data center going up in America right now needs electricians, plumbers, pipefitters, and HVAC pros — skilled, well-paid work, and there aren't enough hands. Demand for HVAC and cooling-system technicians grew 67% between 2022 and 2026, the second-fastest of any skilled trade tracked, while the industry runs about 110,000 technicians short. And when Anthropic studied which jobs AI actually touches, HVAC came out among the least exposed of all.

So the honest picture for our Keys pool, landscape, plumbing, and HVAC companies isn't man versus machine. The machine is becoming your customer — and your recruiting pitch to the next generation.

The opportunity for owners is to be ready for that demand: let AI carry the back office — same-day quotes, self-building schedules, invoices that don't wait for Sunday night — so the hours go to craft and customers. Robots in the field one day? Stay curious, not scared.

This is why I wrote Deemed Essential (https://deemedessential.org/) — the people who show up and serve were never the ones being replaced. They're the ones being counted on.

If a wave of new demand hit your trade next year, what would you need in place today to catch it?

08/22/2026

Serendipity has a mechanism — and we can finally see it.

A new study in Creativity and Innovation Management followed 159 entrepreneurs and found that design thinking predicts digital innovation, but not directly. The path runs through serendipity. Founders trained to empathize, reframe, and prototype simply notice more lucky accidents — and convert more of them into real innovations. The effect grew stronger in turbulent, fast-changing markets.

Pasteur said chance favors the prepared mind. This is evidence that the preparation can be taught.

Here's the practical riff: ideation isn't a brainstorm meeting on the calendar. It's a standing discipline of exposure and noticing. You prototype early not because the prototype is right, but because it puts you in the path of accidents worth having. Organizations that formalize this — show the rough thing, talk to one more user, follow the odd data point — manufacture their own luck.

The next time something "lucky" happens in your work, look backward. You'll usually find a design choice that made it possible.

What's the best accident your work ever handed you — and what had you done that let you catch it?

Address

100 N Krome Avenue
Florida City, FL
33034

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 5pm
Tuesday 7am - 5pm
Wednesday 7am - 5pm
Thursday 7am - 5pm
Friday 7am - 5pm

Telephone

+13055641584

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