About the Guru

Tommy Long is the Exterior Shade Guru — an installer and trainer who has spent years with his hands on exterior shades: measuring them, mounting them, motorizing them, and, most instructive of all, repairing the ones other people installed.

Ask anyone who does repair work: the hardest jobs aren't the shades you put up. They're the ones where nobody knows the brand, the remote is missing, the fabric is attached some way you've never seen, and the customer is watching. Tommy built his reputation — and a following of installers who call him the Guru of Shades — on knowing what to check, what to photograph, and what to measure so those jobs get quoted right the first time.

That hard-won routine is now the Installer Check List: fifteen questions, in the Guru's order, that walk any installer or dealer through a repair assessment — and send the summary to Tommy himself for a double-check before the customer gets a quote.

Through his YouTube channel, his Guru Wisdom videos, and conference sessions like his talk at ATA in Florida (November 2026), Tommy teaches the same craft he practices: quiet, careful, and right the first time.