Volume 148

It was a treat to spend the day with ALOA Security Professionals Association.

I'm grateful to Dave O'Toole for spearheading the opportunity to be there. Dave is an absolute legend in this industry, and if the locksmith trade could be embodied in a single person, it would be Dave. Hilary and I call him Uncle Dave. He is that “favorite uncle” to us. Genuine, fun, loyal, smart, and just a great human. Thank you also to Wayne Winton and the entire ALOA leadership team for the opportunity to be there.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect heading into ALOA. I had heard plenty about it and had already spent time at the European Locksmith Federation (ELF) before this (similar challenges and opportunities, but wildly different). The word on the street was that the people are great and the opportunity is real, but that the show itself has gotten a little long in the tooth, so temper expectations accordingly. That is fine by me. I find this kind of work genuinely interesting, and it pulls at my curiosity every time. No matter what, something great comes from showing up. I enjoy the people. I enjoy the chance to tell a story, and I enjoy the sport of trying to convince a room full of people to see their business differently than they did when they walked in.

I found a lot of what I talk about playing out in real time at the South Point Hotel just off the strip in Las Vegas (btw 104 degrees outside at the time…which is hard to express how hot that fels).

Here are some short observations of what I found once I got there.

Three Worlds: Standing on that stage, I was standing between three worlds that are all relevant right now but not created equally. The Yesterday is mechanical, break-fix, key cutting, and this is where The Nevers and The Maybes live. The Today is where decisions are made, and where The Maybes meet The Yeses. The Tomorrow is the electronic locksmith industry, full stop, and very few rooms in this trade are fully living there yet. You could see and hear the tension between all three, sitting in the same room and sometimes in the same conversation. That tension is not a flaw in the room, but the most honest thing about the room, and all three are equally important and relevant. Neither is one better than the other. In fact, they are weirdly dependent on each other and carry equal weight. (They also all talk about each other when I spoke to them one on one. It’s like someone has to lock them all in a room and say “let’s figure this out for the betterment of the trade”). And the Yeses are not theoretical. They are not some future cohort I'm hoping shows up eventually. I met them in that room. Wayne Winton and Jason Montague, both on the board, are already full speed into electronics and solution based selling, and both are eager to add physical access control to what they offer. I saw PDKhats being worn around the room. I met Brivo dealers working the floor like it was the most normal thing in the world, because for them, it already is.

So the hunger is there. The engagement is there, in pockets. What's missing isn't will, it's organization. Right now this is too spotty, too scattered, too dependent on individual locksmiths finding their own way into the conversation instead of the industry building a clear, loud, purposeful on-ramp for them. The Nevers will never, and that's fine, that's their choice to make. But there's a hungry group of Yeses waiting for someone to engage them properly, and an even larger group already doing the work quietly on their own. Imagine what happens when that stops being spotty.

We Are What We Do: It dawned on me in conversations that one of the limiting factors of many locksmiths is that they define themselves by what they do, not by the value they deliver. “I cut keys.” “I install locks.” It is closer to how an artist talks about their work than how a business talks about its value proposition. That is part of what makes this group wonderful, and it is part of what is going to make this transition harder than it needs to be. I am happy to report that I met many who were talking about solution based selling. More on that below.

Quirky: They are a quirky bunch, and I mean that with real affection. They are wonderful. There is a politeness in that room, and there is also a stubbornness. There is an apologetic tone in how many of them talk about their own value, and that attitude needs to stop. The trade needs to move from its heels to its toes.

Size: Most of these shops are run by one or two people. That fragmentation is a real reason this industry does not get the attention or focus it deserves from manufacturers. The customer acquisition cost is high for sure, but I’m convinced with the right focus, products, and programs, the return on investment will be high. Keep in mind, there are seven-figure shops in the room. Yes they are not the majority, and the median experience in that room is closer to that of a solo operator than to a scaled business with “one to three vans” is how they sized it for me, but if you are a fighter brand, this is a clear lane to growth.

Pageantry: There is a pageantry to the meetings themselves that I found genuinely heartwarming. They say the Pledge of Allegiance, and in the room, the board sits on chairs and tables on a riser facing the membership. The lectern has a vintage lock and key emblem in the shape of skull and bones that is reminded me and my team of some secret society. They served V8 in a can as a refreshment. The best part? They open the mic at the end for members to address the room. I was shocked by the openness and emotion shown as members came to the mic to thank the association and fellow members for their help and openness. I heard, saw, and felt a genuine sense of belonging that I don’t elsewhere in the industry. More than one member cried as they thanked their peers for being so welcoming, sharing best practices, and lending a hand. I have been to many meetings and have seen nothing to this level. It was also nice to see the real respect for the past built into the ritual of how they gather. It is charming and could use a bit of modernization, the same way the show itself could, but I hope they never lose it. It felt good. Felt like culture.

My Presentation: I presented Winning Strategies for the Locksmith of the Future, walking through what I call the market squeeze: locks feed PACs, PACs feed the integrator, and the integrator feeds the customer, while software companies now reach past every link in that chain straight to the end customer. I laid out six attributes I think separate the locksmith who survives this transition from the one who gets cut out of it: moving upstream into the credential and software conversation, owning mechanical and electronic end to end, selling judgment instead of locks and keys, leaning into licensing and certification as a liability and trust asset, using AI as leverage while picking a side on open versus closed credentials, and building the bench deliberately instead of relying on an apprenticeship model that is too slow for the pace of change.

The line that resonated most, by a wide margin, was this one:

“Are you a key cutter who happens to hold certifications, or are you a certified security advisor who happens to cut keys and install hardware? Those are different businesses with different futures, and the trends are forcing every one of you to pick one.”

I think that framing worked because it gave some footing under what a lot of the Today and Tomorrow crowd in that room had already been trying to articulate, without quite having the language for it yet. They knew something was shifting. They did not have a clean way to say what beyond “we need to embrace electronics.”

My Takeaway: I went in and came away with the opinion that I do not think locksmithing will go away. I do think it will look different than it does today, and getting from here to there takes real leadership. It also takes grace and appreciation in both directions. Grace from The Yesterday, to let The Tomorrow take control of The Today instead of holding the wheel out of habit, belonging, self-identity, and fear. And The Tomorrow needs to make sure it celebrates The Yesterday and today along the way, instead of treating the transition as a clean break from people who built the trade that The Tomorrow gets to stand on.

There is a lot of work ahead for sure. But what market opportunity this size, with this much disruption sitting on top of it, does not come with a lot of work? I would rather have this kind of work in front of me than the alternative, which is a trade with no transition to navigate because there is nothing left worth fighting for. That is boring and not where I, and I know many of you, want to work.

This is just one more example of something I keep saying: There is no better time to be in our industry.

So here is my challenge to all of you. Meet the moment. Want an easy way to do it? Join me next year in Chicago for ALOA 2027 (take some of that GSX budget being wasted). Invest in this cohort in the ecosystem by attending the show and seeing it for yourself. I cannot think of a place in our industry right now where you will get a greater return on showing up than ALOA.

We will continue to invest our time and resources in electronic locksmiths. I look forward to working with all of you who will do the same.

Click on the above image and use code sxst3gkbkn to hear the audio version.