#249: Lessons From an Acquisition That Went Wrong & Coaching Your Team to Success with Jeremy Flate
The one thing to remember
Do not buy headcount until you know the people, pay, profits, and processes will actually work together.
What happened
Jeremy Flaten of Jericho Construction says his company acquired another framing company a few years before the interview. The appeal was adding experienced employees, but the integration turned into about two and a half years of culture shock, wage pressure, weak numbers, and missing operating procedures. He does not state the purchase price or dollar loss. The company appears to have recovered by rebuilding systems, checklists, financial reporting, and team accountability.
Who's telling it: Jeremy Flaten, owner of Jericho Construction and the buyer-side operator This is told by Jeremy Flaten, the buyer-side owner; the seller, acquired employees, customers, and lenders are not heard from.
Timeline
- Sourcing
Jericho saw an opportunity to acquire another framing company with experienced employees.
- Closing
The company completed the acquisition, but the transcript does not state the price, structure, or exact year.
- Integration
The combined company experienced about two and a half years of culture shock, wage issues, and learning the numbers.
- Operations
COVID then added disruption while the company was still working through the acquisition and internal process problems.
- Operations
Jericho later focused on SOPs, checklists, job reports, meetings, and financial visibility to regain control.
stage where a mistake was made
What went wrong 7 issues
Culture clash lasted years
After acquiring another framing company, Jericho spent about two and a half years dealing with culture shock. The narrator says blending personalities became one of the hardest parts of making the acquisition work.
Mistake made at Due diligence → showed up at Integration
“we did and it was two and a half years of culture shock”
Warning signs
- The buyer was acquiring experienced employees from another company, which meant they likely had existing habits and expectations.
How to prevent it
- Before signing the LOI, the buyer should interview the target’s foremen and sample field employees about work standards, communication, cleanliness, and decision-making habits.
- Before closing, the buyer should write a 90-day culture integration plan covering crew assignments, expected behaviors, meeting cadence, and who will resolve conflicts.
- In the first month after closing, the owner and field leader should hold weekly crew check-ins and document culture issues that require coaching or separation.
Payroll economics did not fit
The acquired labor came with wage levels the narrator later describes as too high. That created pressure once the buyer started learning the numbers behind the added headcount.
Mistake made at Due diligence → showed up at Operations
“wages being too high learning about the numbers”
Warning signs
- The stated attraction of the deal was adding experienced employees, but the wage structure apparently had not been fully tested against profitability.
How to prevent it
- During due diligence, the buyer’s bookkeeper or CFO should compare each acquired employee’s wage rate to historical job gross margin and crew productivity.
- Before closing, the buyer should model whether target payroll can be supported at normal production rates, not just during busy revenue periods.
- At closing, the buyer should give transferred employees written role, wage, and performance expectations tied to job-level profitability.
No SOPs for added scale
The acquisition exposed that Jericho did not have enough standard processes to run a larger combined operation reliably. The narrator says the lack of SOPs could kill jobs instantly.
Mistake made at Closing → showed up at Operations
“not having the processes and having a standard operating procedure for your company can kill any job instantly”
Warning signs
- The company was adding people and work before its processes were mature enough to support a larger operation.
How to prevent it
- Before closing, the buyer should document the minimum SOPs required for job handoff, field checklists, change orders, inspections, and job reporting.
- During the first 30 days after closing, the operations lead should train acquired crews on those SOPs and require proof of use on every job.
- The buyer should assign one field leader to audit checklist completion and job notes weekly during the first quarter post-close.
Revenue hid profitability problems
The buyer had revenue and cash flow while crews were busy, but later realized that did not prove the work was profitable. The acquisition appears to have been pursued partly on a growth-through-headcount idea rather than proven profit economics.
Mistake made at Thesis → showed up at Operations
“if you don't stop and look at the numbers and see if you're making money the revenue doesn't matter”
Warning signs
- The buyer associated more experienced employees and more work with growth, but later emphasized that revenue and cash flow were not enough.
How to prevent it
- Before signing the LOI, the buyer should set a minimum acceptable profit margin for the acquired work, not just a revenue or crew-size goal.
- During due diligence, the buyer should rebuild sample job profits from payroll, materials, subcontractor costs, and billings instead of relying on top-line sales.
- For the first six months after closing, the owner should review job-level profitability monthly with field and office leaders.
Weak job-cost reporting
The business lacked reliable job reports showing man-hours, expenses, and profit by project. That made it hard to know whether the acquisition and related growth were actually working.
Mistake made at Due diligence → showed up at Operations
“you can't pull up a job report and see how you're doing that's not good business”
Warning signs
- The narrator later had to re-enter and reclassify books to get accurate financial and production reports.
How to prevent it
- Before closing, the buyer’s finance lead should confirm that both companies can produce accurate job-cost reports by project, crew, and phase.
- If reports are unreliable, the buyer should delay closing or hold back part of the purchase price until books are cleaned up.
- Within 30 days post-close, the bookkeeper should standardize payroll coding, expense categories, and job-cost reporting across the combined company.
Headcount was overvalued
The buyer appears to have viewed the target mainly as a way to add experienced people. In hindsight, experience alone was not enough because the acquired team had to fit Jericho’s economics, systems, and culture.
Mistake made at Thesis → showed up at Integration
“it's more employees that are experienced that have been doing what we what we do forever”
Warning signs
- The attraction was experienced employees, but the later problems were culture, wages, and systems.
How to prevent it
- At thesis stage, the buyer should write down the specific bottleneck being solved and test whether buying a company is safer than hiring selectively.
- Before LOI, the buyer should score the target not only on employee experience but also on cultural fit, wage fit, systems fit, and profitability.
- Before closing, the buyer should identify which employees are truly essential and create retention and replacement plans for each.
COVID worsened integration
The narrator says COVID hit after the company was already working through the acquisition problems. The transcript does not give details, but he connects it to material shortages, labor issues, and operational strain elsewhere in the episode.
Mistake made at Operations → showed up at Operations
“and then covet happens”
Warning signs
- The acquisition already had culture, wage, and numbers issues before COVID added more disruption.
How to prevent it
- During financing and closing, the buyer should run a downside plan for labor disruption, material shortages, and delayed projects.
- The buyer should keep enough post-close cash reserve to cover several months of integration problems plus market disruption.
- In the first year post-close, management should revisit the integration plan monthly when external shocks change labor, materials, or project schedules.
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Thesis
LOI
Due diligence
Closing
Integration
Operations
Transcript 2261 lines · 12692 words · auto-generated captions
[Music]
this is the construction leading edge
podcast from constructionleadingedge.com
my name is todd dewalt and we are all
about helping construction business
owners and leaders create freedom impact
and wealth got a great interview for you
today with
jeremy flatton he is the owner of
jericho construction in minnesota
and here's what you're going to take
away from this episode these are some of
the topics we talk about jeremy talks
about one of the greatest perks of being
a business owner that might surprise you
how jeremy is using hockey to get young
people into the skilled trades and some
of the other things he's doing
on that front
why you should never set goals by
yourself
how jeremy is using execution plans to
create a path to success with his team
we talk about how to use social media
even if you hate social media
jeremy shares how a business acquisition
went wrong and what he learned from it
he makes the business case for keeping a
clean job site
there's a an interesting connection
between business development and a clean
job site
jeremy talks about what happened when
his team started putting systems in
place how
not having sops standard operating
procedures can kill a job instantly
jeremy makes a pretty bold statement if
you're not trying to better your
business every day you probably
shouldn't be in business and he explains
why
he talks about how running a business is
like coaching in real life and he also
shares about how his life is different
after working in our coaching program
lots of great stuff you're going to want
to take notes for
this one before we get into the
interview here are a couple of resources
i want to share with you
if you want a construction business i
want you to imagine this imagine that
your team is solving problems quickly
with fewer mistakes and without you in
other words they're taking ownership
your phone is ringing a lot less with
questions you're getting a lot fewer
emails and fewer problems are landing in
your lap you have time to think time to
operate strategically and be proactive
you have time and the mental bandwidth
to work on the business instead of being
stuck working in it your projects run
more smoothly they start on time there
are fewer fires to put out and you
finish them on schedule you know what
you want your business to look like two
years in the future and you have a plan
to get there if that sounds good to you
i would invite you to check out my free
online training workshop titled get out
of your business how to make it run
without you this year you can watch it
free by going to
constructionleadingedge.com
forward slash get out here's what you'll
get out of this webinar you'll learn
your first few crucial steps if you want
to spend more time working on your
business instead of being stuck working
in it you'll learn three things you
should absolutely do before you make
your next hire you'll learn a proven
process to design your construction
business for the future how to motivate
your team to take more ownership and
solve problems without you and a lot
more you can watch the free online
training workshop at
constructionleadingedge.com forward
slash get out that's
constructionleadingedge.com forward
slash
g-e-t-o-u-t and if you want to work with
my team to systematize your construction
business go to that link watch the video
and click the button to schedule your
strategy call with my team
are you tired of chasing down field
reports raken's easy to use software
helps you connect the field to the
office that way you get the progress
updates you need without wasting hours
on the job with rankin's mobile app
field crews can share updates as they
build everything from daily reports time
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checklists and production data all that
field data is turned into a professional
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and share
how a project is going with reakin's web
dashboard the office can track projects
in real time and find actionable
insights to improve them give your field
crews an app they'll actually use and
get the data you need to build better
projects to learn more go to
rakenapp.com that's r-a-k-e-n-app.com
okay let's get into my conversation
with jeremy flatten owner of jericho
construction enjoy
right jeremy welcome to the podcast man
how's it going thanks for having me yeah
how are things in minnesota
cold
we've had a long winter and
a long spring
we're six baseball games in and i've
worn a winter jacket
uh to each of them
so
yeah i spring well
baseball is not a it's not a spring
sport i played baseball
all the way through high school and
i'm in kentucky and it's cold in march
and april and
um i can only imagine what
do you guys have to push snow off the
field to play baseball uh this spring
it's been a lot of we've it's just been
such a rainy spring
um or the
you know the dusting of snow if you wake
up to white
so it's a lot of rescheduling um but i
was talking to one of one of the dads
yesterday that his son's a pitcher
and he said that
the the last the first few games of the
year he couldn't feel those hands
because when he was throwing the ball he
couldn't he couldn't feel his grip
because it was so cold
but lots of hand warmers and
you know all that good stuff yeah i had
a similar experience in high school i
think it was my first
first at-bat of high school
baseball
it was
march april it was a night game and i'd
been sitting on the bench
for an hour so the coach puts me in and
i step up to the plate
and
i
remember it so clearly hit a line drive
to the right side
between first and second base
and i took off to first base and i
couldn't feel my feet
my feet were numb and i fell down right
there in the batter's box
and i did not hear the end of that
but uh somehow i made it down to first
base um
so anyway let's uh let's talk about your
business you have a couple of different
things quite a few different things
you're doing but let's talk about your
your construction businesses and we'll
get into
the work you're doing with young people
hockey skilled trades but let's let's
start with your construction businesses
talk talk to us about what you're up to
there well i am owner of jericho
construction we are a full service
general contractor a lot of the stuff
that we do at general contracting
general contracting is smaller kitchens
remodels
exciting that kind of stuff
we
also
a big a bigger portion of our businesses
we are
high-end
framing contractors
so
the southern
like south minneapolis and the western
suburbs there's a lot of high-end homes
lake minnetonka is a big um
big bit one of the big lakes around and
we're building um
anywhere from five to twelve thousand
square foot houses on on
in those areas
um we do we do some remodeling not a ton
with the framing part of it but it's
ground up we build the house top to
bottom put it put the windows in and do
all that stuff
um and then like i said the general
contracting thing it's kind of started
for me as a hobby
and we are currently
working our tails off to just get better
at that and keep getting better to
service the more local community of
where our shop is that's kind of the
area that we work is just based on our
shop so
let's talk about
the the high-end framing working on
those really large houses what what
might surprise people
what are some misconceptions or some
things that might surprise people
about doing that kind of work
are you like just a normal person or
people in the trades people in detroit's
you know what's super funny is like when
we bring team members on
we get a lot of experience
quote unquote experienced carpenters
that they probably have been doing it
for 10 15 years but they're doing a lot
of the you know the multi family or
they're doing the hot like the high
production big big national builders
um
the difference
with the high-end stuff is you might do
the same thing
how you do something you do every day
but you're never going to build the same
thing twice
we
i mean sometimes we have 18 foot walls
sometimes we have nine foot walls we got
barrel vaults uh the roofs are 16 18
pitch roofs
we're there for
i would say a good portion of
four to
20 weeks you know on a small remodel
we're there for five weeks we can bang
that out but we're there
we do three or four of them a year
and we can get up to up towards a
million and a half to two million
dollars in business with just that many
just doing that few of houses
and
it seems like you're you're pretty well
booked out
with the framing work how do you
if somebody's like i want to get in on
that
what advice would you have the have for
them
to
to go find that kind of work how do you
develop those relationships where do you
like do you do any
marketing for that or how to
let's talk about how do you get your
work and how to how would you recommend
somebody go about doing that
i think it's just getting in
um
you know i started doing it as a
teenager um
in 2000 we started in 2008
and my partner at the time
and i we were doing everything that we
could just to scramble by
um before the crash as a kid i was
working for my uncle who had a tie in
there he had one of the one of the bill
a few of the bigger builders in town
um
and then when the housing market started
coming back
i think
you know we were kind of just a
couple guys in trucks and trailers we
didn't really at that time we didn't
have an office we didn't have an office
staff we didn't have all that
and it's just going out there and put
getting your feet wet
um
we got lucky and we
one of my uncles old business or one of
my uncle's old builders
uh called me because they were looking
for carpenters and i think 2008 i think
it weeded a lot of the small
one-man shops out of out of the industry
um
so we were lucky we were we're go go go
go go we had a few subcontractors that
were working for us as employees that
type of thing
and then we got um once we got a base
you know once we did our first you know
six seven thousand square foot house
um
we
we started building a team and it's
been you know i from 2008 until today
the world has changed a lot and
um building that team has been
challenging um
but the whole thing is you just got to
put out a good product you you can't
show up
in raggedy old clothes like you have to
in high-end homes you have to look the
part and you have to play the part
um
you know our job sites are one of the
biggest compliments we've always gotten
is how clean our job sites are
and that's
as an owner no matter what size of the
project it is it doesn't matter like you
have to look
you have high-end clients that have
high-end expectations and you have to
meet them or do your best to exceed them
that's kind of been our motto for the
last 15 years
and
why does a what is a clean job site and
the clothes that your crew wears matter
to me it's a culture thing um
i think
you know i come from a sports a sporting
background i've been coaching you sports
for over 20 years i played college
football
um
and i just think
how first impressions are crucial i'm
not saying that you can't fix that first
impression but
things are a lot easier when you shake
someone's hand and they don't they don't
prejudge you so
walking down to a clean job site if it's
a new soup that you haven't worked with
because right now soups are revolving
doors we're working with the same
builders but we're working with
different job suits job soups on each
job
and it it's it's all about first
impression and organization
um you know
lumber's expensive so
every friday we do a we do what we call
a friday clean and
all of our lumber is on it's it's up off
the ground or off the floor so if it
does rain
um we sweep out because you know a lot
of these families have little kids and
or
you know we work with some older couples
too that are building their last house
and for them to come anytime on fridays
over the weekend is extremely important
but a lot of times
we
you know we're like i said we're there
for months so we get to know the
homeowners pretty well
and for them to come and see what's
going on during the day and to be able
to walk around safely and not have to
worry about stepping on a nail or
tripping over this and that
um
it's it's
it makes the whole rest of the process
super simple i mean for
cleanliness organization and just
appearance wise it's um
you know it's the only way i've ever
learned my dad used to make me sweep his
shop floors when i was
eight years old because he wanted a
clean shot floor so
i just it's it in my mind it's the only
way
so you have a unique
vantage point being a general contractor
and being a subcontractor working for
other general contractors
what
what do
let's look at it from both perspectives
what do most general contractors need
to do differently with their
subcontractors to be more effective
you know that's a really good question
and it's something that internally we've
talked about
um for years and it's crazy because i
think the last few years
with material shortage uh
labor all of just covet in general but
what kovitz showed our world
is that
if you don't all communicate
regularly like daily
um and
nailing the hand off is so crucial um
that's a term i learned from you and it
makes total sense
it's when i started working with you i i
it was about nailing the hand off
and
you would think as okay i'm a framing
contractor big deal i'm gonna go frame
the house
well
it's that simple but the minute we
started putting processes in
to our business
change orders were getting paid
um there was less
what if
how are we going to do it
there's less
problems on a job site
every day our whether it's a
subcontracting job or a general
contracting job we have communication
and job notes that are available to
anybody in any day
and i think
working for builders
for the high-end builders that we work
for
they've learned to tell customers hey
we need to wait in order to make the
process better it's still a work in
progress because we got to go go go go
go
but that communication up front before a
job starts
is so
so so crucial and
yeah i mean that's
right there is like if you have all the
if you've talked about all the
information that you have at the uh
beginning of a project it just goes
smoother and i think for the most part
the
the the companies that we team with um
it's been a great
it's it's always a work in progress but
everybody's on that same page you have
to trust your team you know like if
you're like for my my crew like
trust
amongst our team
is a must we do a lot of dangerous
things around roofs for
living lifting heavy beams running
equipment all that stuff but it also
goes like
if i'm working for a builder and they
and they trust me if i just call and say
hey joe
uh this is what we're dealing with what
do you think okay sounds good it's
documented everybody knows it's there um
it's it's an easy change then you know
but if you don't know a lot of stuff
going into it
the project gets messy for everybody
yeah so it sounds like
what general contractors can do to be to
help their trade partners be more
effective
is
slow down on the front end
get uh have a better handoff gather
all the information give their trade
partners more information up front
one thing i
recently started talking about is this
thinking trap that all of us get into
myself included which is the j-e-t-s
thinking trap just enough to start like
let's just give them just enough to
start
get them out there on the job site then
we'll figure it out later right and
i've seen it done i've done it i've had
it done to me
and it just causes all sorts of problems
so it sounds like
gcs if you want your trade partners to
be more effective give them everything
they need to finish the job up front
rather than than just enough to start
so let's let's look at it from the other
perspective
as a
as a trade partner
what
what advice would you have for other
subcontractors and trade partners so
they can be more effective and maybe
it's whether that means
be the trade partner of choice
make more money
be more productive with their general
contractors but what advice would you
have for
subcontractors or trade partners to work
more effectively with general
contractors
you know the one thing i see is
so we've been in that high-end framing
industry for 15 years
and like i said when we started we were
just a couple guys in a couple trailers
now we have a full office staff we have
office procedures that are followed
and what's that what that's created is
procedures in the field too you know
checklists in the field um the processes
that you have
you know it's it's literally taken me
years to try to figure out
the the best process for us for my
trades people
um
but once we started building it and once
we started using checklist um you know
because a lot of our checklists
the old school ways it's in my head i'm
i'm good at this
it's in my head i can do it but when
you're teaching new people
in your company
to do something
they don't know what's in your head
so like having these documented
processes that are already readily
available
is it a how-to kind of right but it's
just checking off and and having
if if so and so check that off there's
also there's a chain of command right so
everything gets everything gets touched
two or three times
and when we didn't have that um
our job sites some fridays weren't clean
and i'd get a phone call uh framing
inspections we'd miss you know we got a
really young crew
right now and uh we had a framing
inspection
last
gosh was it last
uh june i think it was and it was the
first time that a lot of these younger
people had finished the big house well
our framing
the inspector when we walked through
with the inspector he's like jeremy you
haven't had this many checklists or you
haven't had this many items on a framing
inspection
in 10 years
and i'm like well we're with new people
we're trying to figure it out and it was
nothing major
but it's simple
draft stopping it's simple things like
that
and what what i what i found is we built
these checklists it actually became
i mean in chronological chronological
order it it it became the process
for my crews to build a house from the
foundation up
um
so it's evolved from communication
checklist to all sudden this is how you
do it it's a production manual
and
if you start that right away if if
you're starting a business do that up
front it's taken me 15 years and i'm
just starting that kind of stuff and
really really really implementing it
and when you challenge your team and you
give it to them they might roll their
eyes and hem and ha
but when you have tangible results to
show them we just had two framing
inspections last week
there was two items on each of those
framing inspections and one of them
was a structural question that the
inspector had for the structural
engineers so really there's only one
framing
checklist on that and my guy was on site
and it was taken care of done no
callbacks
um and that's because of the processes
we have the checklist we have the
schedule that we have
um so if you are starting or if you
haven't if you've been in business and
you haven't
done that
it's a lot a lot of work and
it's not fun work but it's worth every
hour that you spend
to give it to your team because your
team has expectations then you know
it it it's like a kid in school when
they have homework well they have to do
it well
it might not be swinging a hammer or
pounding nails but it
the end product is that much better
yeah so
a lot of people listening are probably
thinking yeah i need to get my processes
together
yeah i need to have sops yes i need to
have a training document but
damn that seems like a lot of work
what's what's in it for
a construction business owner to do all
of that
freedom
how so
freedom there's very
i'm still in the field multiple times a
week
i'm still this morning i was at a
cabinet measure walk through um and then
i had a job where our crew was doing
deck rails
and
i do not
ever worry about the work being done
to the extent that i have to question
someone when i'm on site
someone that's someone else's job that's
justin's job
so when i'm on site i might see things
but i don't ever point him out unless
it's really blatant and i just kind of
put it in my notebook
and i bring it back to the shop and then
in our meetings it's a teaching moment
and i the reason why i say that i'm
comfortable with that is because justin
knows that that needs to be done and
that's the expectation of my team in the
field
so i am i'm it's just freedom i don't
have to worry about the quality i
i say that lightheartedly because i do
worry about the quality of work
but i don't there's
when i'm on site there's so much other
things that i can do
not having to worry about
things being done right
right on
so let's shift gears and talk about some
of the other stuff you're doing you
you're pretty involved with um
hockey
young people and the skilled trades and
blending all of those those three things
together
talk about that
well
i
have always been an advocate for when i
went to college i was going to be a
teacher and then i found out that you go
to school for construction when i
scratched that teacher idea
and i went to school for construction
management and
um then obviously i'm here
um throughout all of that uh my wife
she likes to tell the story that
while she was pregnant with all three of
our kids
she has been at an out of town hockey
tournament
that we did not have a kid in because i
was coaching um right out of college i
started coaching hockey
two of my kids play hockey
um and i knew
the correlation between sports and
trades is what made me
it gave me my work ethic it gave me
structure um i always tried when we were
building our company
the the structure that i knew was a
football team that how the hierarchy of
a football team you know like work hard
all of the little details about life and
so when i started coaching i started
doing that um
a buddy of mine and i started a hockey
program so we co we have three or four
this year we have four teams for it's
summer development and um training we
try to bring them outside of
hockey and teach them life skills that
are not hockey related
um so pre-covet i had been working with
um
about
i think there's three or four of the
builders that i've worked through
throughout the years and we were
trying to get trades back into the
schools
um volunteers any any way we possibly
could
um i literally had my first speaking in
like my
first speaking event and the shutdown
happened uh the day we shut down i was
supposed to go to a school and speak to
a group of kids about trades and
how great of
opportunity and career it is
so during covet you know you're hemingha
and you're like uh i want to do it but i
can't because we just couldn't
um
i got an opportunity
this
how did it even come up i got an
opportunity this fall
um
our school so the school that i my kids
go to spring lake park
they
we were at my son's counselor
meeting with my son's counselor and
somehow the trades got brought up and
his counselor said well we're bringing
trades back into the schools and i'm
like oh really great so i ended up
hooking up with eric who runs it
and there's about a dozen different
trade organizations
excuse me locally that will be helping
teach next fall they'll have two trades
courses it's an intro to trades and then
more advanced trades
and then the following year they're
planning on starting a
they'll probably have four or five
courses i'm not sure the details but
starting that following year we will be
building a house top to bottom with high
school kids
um
i got
i'm highly involved with that i will be
working i'll be sitting down this summer
working on some of the curriculum for
those classes
um
so
you talked about marketing like how i
market for
the
framing part of things
well my marketing plan for the summer is
to
create content for our youth
to see what we do and how cool it is and
how gratifying it is
so usually when i'm on site in the last
month or so it's making short videos
make creating content
in order to show kids what we do
and what the life of a tradesperson
looks like and how great it is we've had
multiple employees
young guys that are in their early 20s
they come and work for us and they've
bought houses they're starting a family
they're by you know the one of the
funnest one
uh
i came to work and
jeremy i just signed my first loan for a
truck and i didn't need my parents you
know
so the life
the life that we live
it's there it's great and
my passion is to show the kids that and
make them want to do what we do because
man when i was a kid
maybe it was how i grew up but the
trades are awesome you got to go i mean
i tell kids all the time you're outside
with your shirt off in the sun
watching what you're doing building
something with your hands and at the end
of the day you holy cow the whole second
floor we built the whole second floor
today you know
um it's
it's
trying to get it into schools
so that
it's it's cool i think a lot i think
high schools get a bad reputation a lot
about pushing four-year colleges
i don't disagree with that
but what is what have we in the trades
done
to promote what we do
every college is a marketing department
that says hey come here this is great
you can learn you're going to learn to
be an adult you're going to learn to be
an astronaut you're going to learn to be
a scientist teacher whatever
but if the high school has no
information or
like input to give to the kids about
what we do in the trades is it the high
school's fault not really
so
we as
it you know as an industry
we can give so much more back to the
kids
um and
kids
i'm seeing like we did uh we did a
career fair a couple weeks ago and
there was probably
i would say there's probably a dozen
different trade organizations there and
the kids wanted to be there
they were swarming those booths so it's
not that they don't want to do it but
they don't they don't know what it is
yeah they just don't know that's a great
point i have
my uh a senior in high school this year
headed off to college and
every day
we're getting postcards and flyers in
the mail from
colleges all over the place they have
these nice pretty pictures showing what
your what college life is going to be
like you're going to have friends
everybody's smiling
and showing this this lifestyle getting
young people emotionally connected to
the idea of going to college making it
look good and you're right there's a
there's this vacuum
of information
about the construction industry and it's
i agree i think we
i remember
my very first
job site i worked on right out of
college
it was a
it was a library for a small college and
i've been there for a few months we're
putting
foundations in the ground for this eight
million dollar library
and we had 36 inch diameter drilled
piers and
grade beams and 16 foot high foundation
walls and it was kind of normal to me
and my dad
stopped by the job site one
saturday and i walked him around and he
was just blown away like he couldn't
imagine like how do you even how do you
even do this how do you lay this stuff
out and
i was like yeah this is the coolest
in the world and yeah
i think we get so
bogged down with the details that we
forget
how cool it is we like create
things from nothing i mean you think
about the construction process like
there are lines on paper or there are
bits and bytes and
in a on an autocad drawing
and then there's a contract and then
stuff gets built
literally
built from nothing and it happens every
day
on thousands of job sites and it is it's
one of the coolest jobs
but
we
i think about
you were as you were talking about
how letting kids know how cool it is i'm
thinking about
how are we marketing the skilled trades
right now like the thing i hear now is
um go into the skilled trades and that
way you won't have a hundred thousand
dollars of debt
like is that
going to the steel trades so you don't
get something like what kind of
motivation is that
i i think we i think we need to tell
stories talk show the cool stuff like
look at this is what we this is what's
going on on a job site those job sites
you drive by and
you have no idea what's going on like
this is the cool stuff that's going on
the little details the tools you get to
use
diamondback
tool belts i guess they're more than
tool belts now but diamondback does a
great job like just showing the gear
that you get to wear
and
that kind of stuff so
what um
what
advice would you give it like what's one
thing that every
construction business
in
in america could do
very simply
that would would help
with this is it like for example
social media posts is it highlight your
employees is it
show pictures of details like what do
you think is something simple
that every construction business in
america could do that would help
help this
vacuum of information
um i think there's two simple things
and i think it's just it's
you don't have to pay a bunch of money
and and and like create this top-line
uh content
but i know
you know we work with three different
plumbers and
they're old school
but they still have a tick tock account
and they have an instagram account and
they post silly videos
you know maybe a guy changing out a
toilet
that's not cool but
it's cool you know like in the world of
youtube
think about all the things my my dad is
72 years old and he now youtubes
how to do something
so if you create a video of someone
actually doing it on site
like it's it it's
it's seeing that happen it's it's it you
know so i think social media is huge
um
as much as i like to say i don't like
social media uh
used in the right in today's world
social media it's not it's not going
away
you know um it's just gonna keep
my kids don't know any a world without
social media so it's not going away um
and i think the second thing
you said highlight your employees yes
like your team even if you have three
people in your company four people if
you have a hundred
like
everybody wants to be on a good team
you know and
you know just this year we started doing
a mvp for the month
was you know um we started doing team
challenges and like incentivizing
getting better
we are doing different things internally
to work on our health
to be more safe
changing life habits i think engaging
with your team's
life outside of work just a little bit
is super crucial um it goes back to
seeing things getting done right if you
if you have someone in your team that
had a health scare
and your whole team rallies around and
does some kind of
monthly or like a moved a needle
challenge
and everybody
one guy starts going to the gym one guy
stops drinking mountain dew
one guy maybe he quit smoking you know
what i mean like but but you the people
that you're with every day are
challenging you and checking in on you
and it's kind of fun you know because
nobody likes to lose a challenge
so
you know it's all about your team and
it's about showing what you do and being
proud of what you do
yeah i agree i
a few years ago i
i was talking to somebody who
hates social media like they they
couldn't stand the idea of being in
front of the camera
talking about themselves even talking
about their company just felt
egotistical
and i said all right great
in that case don't talk about yourself
on social media
go brag on your employees
and then when you've bragged on all of
them catching them doing a good job and
you made a social media post about them
then go brag on your trade partners
go show the cool stuff they're doing and
think about the effect that would have
on on your team
think about being part of a team where
the company is
appreciative recognizing the good work
you're doing whether you're an employee
or a trade partner and then think about
if you're working somewhere else and you
keep seeing these social media posts
like jericho's like these guys are
always talking about their people and
they highlight their people they're
making their people the hero of the
story it's not
jeremy's
jeremy's not the hero of the story he's
making his people the hero of the story
that's gonna make
those
those potential future employees
think more highly about your company and
when they're
ready to make a jump
you might be the first one they call
another thought before i forget
somebody who's doing a good job of
of talking about the cool stuff framers
do specifically
on instagram is awesome framers do you
follow those guys yeah i we talked about
it that one of our calls and i i started
following them yeah these guys are great
and they're
they show
they have this incredible amount of
content but they just like i think they
have a go one of them has a gopro
strapped to his head
and they'll just show like hey we're
using this
tool to
to slide a
18 foot tall or 800 pound wall over a
quarter inch and then here's how we use
this product and this is the new nail
gun and they just have a good time and
it it looks pretty cool so yeah
i think it's a lot simpler
than uh than people think so if you hate
social media
there are a few
potential things that will redeem social
media that
you could actually use for for good
instead of evil
all right let's shift gears a little bit
let's talk about one of my
favorite questions which is how has a
failure or a parent failure
set you up for later success
you know what
in the age of
if i had while the old saying if i had
20 great employees i'd be rich
i could do twice the work blah blah blah
we
a few years ago we had the opportunity
to acquire another framing company and
um
yeah you know it's more employees that
are experienced that have been doing
what we what we do forever
um
[Music]
we did and it was two and a half years
of culture shock
wages being too high
learning about the numbers
um
all of the stuff that you learn and then
covet happens
so just when you think you you you get
out of that and you've kind of figured
out okay we need to do a better job
internally for our employees and if our
employees are
type a or type b
we need we need to work together about
all that and we
have
i think in the the easy answer is is not
having the processes and having a
standard operating procedure for your
company can kill any job instantly
um
your culture gets bad
you know you you have to blend
personalities together
in order to
be successful and
um that was probably one of
the hardest things because i think a few
years i think in 2016 or 2017 we had
i think 14 or 16 guys out in the field
and the revenue was there the revenue
was there and the cash flows there
because we're just jamming jamming jam
and jamming
well if you don't stop and look at the
numbers and see if you're making money
the revenue doesn't matter um
i've done a lot of
business type
coaching and that stuff and it's always
about growing growing growing revenue
i believe that you cannot
successfully focus on growing revenue
you have to grow your team in order to
grow profitable revenue
um and if you're not checking in with
your team
and that's your office team and your
field team
you're gonna fail because when you go go
and don't pay attention to the details
you get really behind and then all of a
sudden you're sitting at your desk one
night and you're like oh crap what am i
gonna do here
um and that piggy tails right into
general contracting um
if you don't have the systems in place
in order
to
produce the work that you're trying to
produce you will fail
and there's there's a lot of different
types of a lot of different ways to fail
right you can fail the job cannot you
can be not profitable
you can have a customer that's extremely
unhappy because you didn't have all your
ducks in a row
you have a team that's unhappy because
you didn't have all your ducks in a row
um so it's having that infrastructure in
order to succeed
um is absolutely parallel and it's
i don't know if it was in the last i
don't i don't remember where i heard it
then it's it's not nothing new
but
[Music]
you work for your customers and your
team
they don't work for you and
i have learned that the hard way over
and over again and
um
i made a conscious effort for 2022
to make sure that everything is team and
customer driven
rather than just worrying about the
day-to-day you know like getting through
the day no you have to you have to do
all you have to have all the systems in
place and you have to do all the right
things to make sure that your customers
and your team are happy
i would say that that would be
considered a little unconventional
by some people they would say it's my
business they work for me but you're
saying you work for as a business owner
you work
maybe even as a leader
you work for your customers and you work
for your team is that right i'm trying
so what is
what is one
what's something else that you believe
to be true about business that some
might
say is unconventional maybe even a
little crazy
you know
so i come from a
long line of entrepreneurs
and
my dad owned a business my uncles owned
a business a lot of my uncles owned the
business
my gran my grandfather owned a business
and they're all most for the most part
they're all in the trades
and i remember
back when i first got married and we
were just starting jericho
you know i was young and i was able to
get up at four o'clock in the morning
and go have coffee with the old guys at
my dad shop before
before work and then still get to the
job site by seven
and
we'd always talk about
you know my dad and his my dad ron had a
shop a mechanic shop an auto body shop
for 30 some years and they oh after a
couple years
you know it's just the same old same old
it takes a few years to figure out your
business
i laugh at that and my dad and i have
numerous conversations about it
throughout the years it's if you are not
trying to better your business every day
um
you sh you shouldn't even try you
shouldn't even be in business
uh because
one of the greatest
perks about being a business owner is if
if i look at the wages that i've paid
out throughout the years
it's millions of dollars
and that's
far exceeds what i've made
and that's for other people it's for
other families
it's for
i mean maybe it's not families out it's
just that person that's your team so
i mean in essence if you're not trying
to get if you're not trying to make your
business better you're
why would someone want to work for you
you know and that's where i i truly
believe you
i need to do better every day
to make my team happier it's not about i
mean there's probably years when you're
young and oh we're going to make a bunch
of money well
it's not that simple like
making money
takes organization and communication
and dedication to your people uh is
if there's one thing
that i've learned throughout the years
and that's
um
i mean
it goes back to coaching right like if
you if you don't care about the kids
you're coaching
well why are you doing it
um
business is real life let's be honest
it's super real life you know
my kids are getting old my my son that
plays hockey he's getting older now and
all the kids that i've coached
throughout the years
there's nothing more grateful whether
it's a former player or a former
employee
um walking up to you and shaking your
hand and basically saying hey coach
how you doing you know
and that
that's the big picture for me it's not
money is money
i mean
we all ca
anybody can make money if they want to
um but it's what that money means to
people i think is the big
the big
um
that's the thing that
people don't realize and if you're an
entrepreneur that's just you well that's
great right but if you
have a team it's not about you
like you're the last person on you might
be the boss and you might be
you know everybody's looking to you for
answers but you're the last person that
that business cares about
so we've been working together for
i think over a year now for about a year
what's um what was the problem that you
were having that led you to contact me
about working together in my coaching
program
well i've done
i've done business coaching throughout
the years and it was never construction
related
[Music]
i found your podcast just you know
listening to the radio all day is boring
and it's fun to hear people talk
construction that that to me that never
gets old
and i found your podcast and then i just
started with uh
like your early content that's you know
um and the biggest thing that we had was
like we like i had all the skills and
all the tools to
build my team and you had all the
financial information in front of you um
but i never had anybody that it was
construction i didn't have a coach
like that it was construction related
and i needed someone to
i think from day one i told you i want
you to hold me accountable
and that's come miles in the last year
we've done a lot
with all of our groups
that we've met through you a lot of it
is accountability
so i think we had systems started we
that were
running kind of half-assed
we had a staff
that
i didn't have the systems
nailed down
enough
they were functional but they weren't
good
and when i hired you
we had just
we had just um kind of did a transition
in our office
and i basically
about halfway through going through all
of our books
reentering reclassifying
all of the stuff in order to have
accurate financial
reports and production reports and all
of that stuff
we started
your early on your program that got me
hooked and then
you know when we got into the actual
coaching part of it
um
the systems just started coming out and
you know it's it's finding out how to
build a system a system's never complete
but being able to put a system out there
that's functional
and your team knowing that if it needs
to be tweaked to make it better that's
okay
but this is the system this is how we do
things
um
that was
priceless uh we can do
once once the team buys into the systems
and the processes
they want to make it better because they
can make it better by making it easier
for themselves and that's what a
system's about right the system's about
making something easier for someone so
the minute your team buys in to
what you're trying to do to systemize
business
they want to help you
and that was
that was
you know after after we after this call
here i have my monthly meeting with uh
my bookkeeper and we're going over
weekly monthly all of the months numbers
we never used to do that
um
we
we we do that man we you know we were we
were really good at doing team meetings
like supposedly management meetings like
once a month well we're really good at
doing it three four times a year and
then just talking about it on site well
now
our management team knows that
every other week we're at the office so
that's just that standard operating
procedure for them now and
the handoff is better
you have more input on the handoff and
the handoff might change because of
those meetings
but if you don't
if you don't have the buy-in from your
team because the system sucks
that's not good so it was it was
finishing those systems and being
comfortable i think you taught me to
be comfortable
publishing a system
and that was more important than the end
game because
if the system's there it can get better
but if the system's not there it can't
get better
yeah yeah
so
what
what did
frustration feel like back then you had
had some systems but they weren't you
weren't getting traction the team wasn't
buying in what did that frustration feel
like back then before we
started working together
um
you could probably ask emily that she
could probably answer that question a
lot better than i could
your wife
it's
knowing that you
are either failing or succeeding in
business and not knowing why or how
drives a person crazy
you know like if you feel like you know
when we're when we're slamming
and everything's good and we're like
yeah yeah yeah and you can't pull up a
job report and see how you're doing
that's not good business
but right now
i could pull up
any one of our jobs right now and tell
you the exact amount of man hours the
exact amount of expense
and the exact amount of projected profit
that we have
i have a lot more time to do other
things
now that all i have to do is click a
button and look at that
so if you
i'm still learning how to read pls and
balance sheet all those reports you know
you can always educate and you can
always get better and how you use them
but when you don't have those reports
to try to
better things
it's the most frustrating thing in the
world and how do you explain to your
team how do you
how do you tell your team oh we can you
you get a raise because i think we did
good this year or i can't give you a
raise because i
i'm not sure how we did this year
now every quarter it's hey guys this is
our this is our goal
we hit it woohoo celebrate
we didn't hit it well
why didn't we hit it what do we need to
do differently what system didn't work
or is there a new system that needs to
be put into place
so the frustration is like not it's it's
not knowing
so
you started doing work
and you clearly embraced systems you
definitely embraced the idea of an
execution plan we'll come back and talk
about that you're the the king of
execution plans now
but take us to the moment when you
realize that the work you were doing in
the coaching program putting these
systems in place was actually working to
solve those problems
you know i think early on
there's probably two moments
um
i think the first one was at the
beginning of the year when i was
able to
sit down with my team
have their input on our goals rather
than just the office input
create them and tell them what my plan
was
in order for
in order to help them succeed in these
goals because let's be honest
i'm not physically doing the work so
it's it's my team
that has to physically put in the late
the manual labor to achieve these goals
i think
we had those systems in place the
beginning year so we could have that
that year that annual meeting
and i could tell them i am going to work
on building our team
it's something that i've talked about
for years and years and years
and
not done
because
i was doing other things now mind you
i'm still doing other things i'm still
doing a lot of the admin side of things
but i have two to three days a week
depending on the week some weeks it's
not but for the most part i have two to
three days a week when i can focus on
marketing the trades
working on getting kids in the trades
working on our human resources like our
package like what we can offer how we
how we make our team's life better
so that was the first moment because i
knew the systems were in place in order
for me to do that and my team had bought
in i think the second moment was after
we got back from florida when i could
take all the reports because we had
started a new product all of our new
processes it just worked out slick where
it was right around the end of the year
where we were starting new jobs so we
could really
implement these systems
on the jobs that we wanted to implement
them we had partially
implemented them halfway through jobs
last year
so we had a whole bunch of jobs starting
and to
like i said to click a button on my
computer and see exactly where we are on
a job and be able to say
hey guys we won
um and that was after we got back from
florida it was
i could show my team
that what we sat down and talked about
in january
where we were and
what we're going to do next to make what
we did even better
um
you know was that start it was that
launch and then oh okay we're here
well then it's like well we need to do
better we need to do more
and they're a hundred percent body they
they they're
the vision that i the vision that we
create as a team now
is being
[Music]
implemented which is fantastic
so
next question is
a two-part question how is life
different now for your team
after the work you've done over the past
year
um i think
i think the most important as i think
there's a genuine
a genuine um
the team chemistry and the culture that
we have created with
for the most part a younger group of
carpenters
is
uh
it's awesome like my team
they
genuinely care for each other and
know that
if someone takes a day off for
something they got like they got his
back or her back
um we just had
kevin he's been with me for seven years
um
if i look like kevin when i'm 65 or
whatever he is i'm gonna be a happy he's
just a cream of the crop he is a great
carpenter um he just beat cancer so he
was gone for two months doing chemo
and
i would
i would bet that someone from our team
was in contact with him multiple times
a week
and when he comes back when he came back
it's like it's a celebration that he's
back
and we
genuinely care for each other
away from work i think that's that's the
biggest thing
um
and that for me that's the coolest thing
the rest will
everything else kind of falls into place
after that i i believe
and what about you how is
your life different now after the work
you've done
in the coaching program over the past
year
well i'm my own worst nightmare um i'm a
squirrel i jump around a little ocd like
that
but what i feel
has gotten better is
we at home we had a big we had a huge
last well it was right around when we
started working together
we had a big life-changing a
family changing event my wife got a new
job
and her hours were
not what my kids and i were used to
and
i had to
figure out
a way to be more helpful with school and
the kids getting school and just at home
in general so i wasn't free to just go
work like i have been for the last 20
years
and
i would say three days a week i drive my
daughter to school
i'm picking her up at three o'clock in
the afternoon i feel like
on a monday i i have a plan for the week
the plan always doesn't happen
but i have
every day i know what i need to get done
and
for the most part those items those
items that need to get done every every
day get done and i feel like i have more
freedom i've
been able to enjoy
four o'clock baseball games which i
never used to be able to do that
um
you know driving my daughter to school
and picking her up from school is like
there's uh
if you haven't done it do it
you know um the stress level
you know i think
as a business owner i don't know if the
stress level ever goes away
the stress
the stress is may change
but i don't know if that that that
stress level is probably
self-implemented
but i
i know for a fact i don't have to strap
on a tool bag
if
i want to go golfing in the morning i
can do that and i just have to structure
my day differently
i have a lot more
i don't know how to say it
a lot a lot less guilt
for doing things that i personally
needed to do which i used to not do
because i was at work
um so that to me is
it
it's it's transparent to my team and
it's part of it they know that that's
what it is and they know that it's that
trust thing it's that chemistry team
that team thing they know you know if
if i can't make a meeting because i got
to bring my daughter to school that's
okay like that's what that's what jeremy
has to do and jeremy will make up for it
and i feel like that's everyone in our
team if they have to do something
you know oh emily will get we have a one
of our carpenters named emily this is
not my wife no but if emily has to go do
something she can do it and the team's
got their back so it's it's a great
just a week the weeks are
blend together with everybody a lot
better
and i think
that chemistry and everything makes
everybody happier like our team is
genuinely when they see each other
we're all happy because we're all in
harmony together i guess if you want to
put it that way
yeah
so you mentioned florida
you went through
a
kind of an unusual accountability
challenge we called move the needle it's
a small group of of guys
and gal i guess all guys in
in the coaching program
and the short version of it was
90-day goal setting and accountability
challenge called move the needle what
are some things that are going to move
the needle for you
and you published your goals at the
beginning in january and then toward the
end of march we got together and had a
live meet-up and you had to present
how you did you had to stand up in front
of the group and say these are my goals
and this is how i did
and it's it seemed pretty powerful
seemed like it was uh had it really did
move the needle for people what what was
what was the best part
about the the move the needle challenge
in the live meetup for you
um
i think the best part is
one
a group of guys that i've been talking
to regularly for quite some time i've
never met so
meeting someone that you've
you've developed a pretty good
relationship
because there's a few of the guys that
throw out move the needle and even
previous to that
that we've genuinely become friends and
we've never met each other so i think
the the the coolest thing was just
meeting putting a face to a name
but the but the most powerful thing
was
the relationships
and the trust
that
all of the people that were there
having each other
and only
talk over the phone or see each other
randomly
we
i mean
since we've got back from florida i've
talked to
three or four of the guys weekly
you know we're we're setting up
you know we used to do zoom calls and
like just talk about work and just kind
of problem solve
but now we're challenging each other
you know like
we challenge each other and we use an
execution plan or some sort of process
to better each other and help each other
figure out a problem
and then take it
take it
for our own business and adapt it
the the
relationship
part of it is
amazing
like
the it's a group of people that
literally are going through the same
things like all business owners go
through the same things yes but
literally we're dealing with the same
things and it's crazy how each market
it's not that much different
whether it's
california whether it's kentucky
you know all tennessee
florida
we're all literally dealing with the
same things with different people and
different vendors and
it makes it very easy
to
have a relationship that becomes
a friendship rather than just a business
relationship and that to me has been
um
remarkable it's just been awesome
yeah the uh at the beginning of most
live meetups that i have
i'll draw a circle
draw a pie graph
or pie chart on a big piece of paper
and
um like
half of the pie chart i'll break it into
half and then whatever the other part
i'll have a little like a sliver and
i'll say
this little sliver this is probably the
value you'll get from what you hear me
say
from the front of the room
um
the the next chunk of value like 25 30
of the value is gonna be from you
getting away from your business getting
away from the daily dumpster fires and
detaching a little bit and then the rest
of it the vast majority of the value
you'll get from this is the
relationships with the people that are
there and to be able to call or text
somebody after the fact it's just
it's what people really need it's
would you agree that running a
construction business is
kind of lonely sometimes kind of
isolated sometimes
[Music]
i think you know you say they're like
we're there when we're working and we're
doing the work when we were in florida i
think one of the coolest things was is i
think on saturday when we were done
you know we could all just as easy just
packed up our bags and went to the bar
well god did we stay there for another
hour and a half two hours and we're all
on our computers looking at co-construct
and like here's how i do this here's how
you do that and oh crap i gotta go over
to brett now because brett's got
something cool and um i i was
i
we should have been done working but we
were enjoying working because it's it's
invaluable how
someone else does something that you're
doing the same thing but when you take
someone else's side of it and they they
can show you one little intricate thing
that can be mind-blowing on how
your
process is gonna change yeah um
alex and i spent an hour and a half we
were laughing we were an hour and a half
and we wanted to stay on but we both had
something to do and we were like geeking
out on co-construct
i i don't like computers
so yeah it's
it it was
it's a great great great group of people
that's that's the bottom line yeah
and it seemed like having the the group
overlaid with this
goal setting and accountability
challenge just through jet fuel on on
the progress that you guys made
what
what was what was so impactful about
going through that goal setting
challenge with a group like what
it seemed like everybody i work with all
of the guys all of you guys in that
challenge
and to a person the progress that you
all made in
less than 90 days was was all pretty
remarkable but
what
what was the difference
oh
what was the difference with that move
the needle challenge that made it so
so powerful
i think
for me
if you
go into my garage or you come into my
office or even in my bathroom in my
bedroom i i'm very good at posting
things that i want to do
maybe goals
i've always every year i do set personal
goals
but i think
business-wise and what it taught me was
you know business and personally maybe
you should never set goals by yourself
like you can work towards those goals
they might be individual goals but
you know
i think having
when i told my team what i was doing
they are all like cool let's do it
so
those goals that i had in mind
working with you or and
and making it public to my team
they
it taught us how
for me it taught me how to set goals
like
and actually use them and
how to continually use them you know uh
to to maybe
after you
i think we all knew and moved the needle
we weren't going to achieve i think the
one lesson that we all learned was the
goals we
sent are kind of ongoing there's ongoing
projects with those goals
but we had an endgame and we had a date
where we had to get as much as we could
done
and i think for me it showed me
how to take a year into four quarters
and decipher how to do this
with my team
rather than just try to do it
by myself
and push the team
um my goals became my team's goals
because
right away when we did move the needle
beginning of the year in that meeting i
said this is what we're doing
let's go and
now we have goals for second quarter we
we have my whole team has individual
goals for the year
um actually tomorrow we'll sit down and
we'll we'll review those goals because
one of my move the needle goals was to
do reviews and just have like a
hackathon in our human resources thing
so we set we took quarter one we our
team took the time to sit down and write
down personal goals do self evaluations
do peer reviews
and now we will be sitting down like
kind of looking at the rest of the year
how it is
um the personal goals that my team set
were awesome like and
they're little
but they're changing matt was in here
the other day and he says jeremy i've
been going to the gym every day before
work he goes i got so much energy and
i'm like and that was his goal that's
one of the goals he chose right it's not
a goal to
lose
40 pounds or something it's just it's a
habit changer and
by having
goals that everybody
is aware of
and on board with achieving it was
awesome
that was the most beneficial thing for
me i i feel like we as a team learn to
do it
together and how to achieve it
yep that's great i like what you said
you should never
never set goals by yourself yeah that's
good
so let's talk about
the crack of the code segment what is
one specific part of your business
that's working well
that you feel like you've cracked the
code on that you'd be willing to share
about maybe it's maybe it's not the
secret sauce necessarily but what's
what's something you feel like is
working really well for you right now
um
i think
we joke about my execution plan stuff
now
but what that execution plan taught me
is how to
create a process
for an
individual so with our team reviews we
every one of my
team members has an execution plan
and it's basically
it's a journal of
their journey with us
um we'll sit down and you know hopefully
they're with us for years and every year
we're going to pick those we're going to
sit down at the beginning we're going to
choose goals
for them individually for each quarter
work and personal
so i think it's
i mean the crack the code for me what
what what the aha moment for me was
is to have that documentation
that's readily available to whoever is
going to use it to create their path to
success
and you can use it for anything
you know i
the reason why i latched onto execution
plans is because i have 17 notebooks
everywhere and i've learned to
centralize all my notes into execution
plans so i have one with our management
team i have them with our office staff i
have one with my financial guy i have we
you know we have now that
execution plans for every job
and we've
put that into co-construct now we're
we're learning co-construct more because
we can use coke and shrub to do all that
but it holds people accountable and it
gives them a path to succeed i think
that is it sounds simple and it sounds
silly
but if you
don't give
one of your
clients or trade partners or employees
a path to succeed
you're probably not going to succeed to
where you how you want to succeed
yeah yeah good stuff
well i want to be cognizant of your time
i really appreciate everything you've
shared here if people want to connect
with you follow you
on social media go to your website apply
for a job
um
learn more about your business where are
some places they can go um we are on
facebook so just look up jericho
j-e-r-c-o
construction on facebook
we're on instagram it's at jericho zero
eight
and then my all-time favorite my the one
that i'm gonna be pushing this year's go
to you just go to jericho on youtube
jericho construction on youtube
and a few years ago i started a stupid
little on-site daily uh stupid little
videos of on-site
and that's part of my move the needle um
goals was to create
more content that's better so
you know you know the first few youtube
videos on on-site daily you're going to
see
me just say
but now there's going to be awesome
content it's going to have our teams i
told them at the beginning of the year
you guys are going to be in videos so
it's fun and it's you know
it's truly
what
happens on site
every day um there's some videos of you
know some cabinet meetings some
pre-construction meetings
um everything that we do
within jericho will be on site daily to
show
the
to show what it's like to be in the
trades
in the field and in the office all the
good stuff all the bad stuff
um so onsite daily is the that's kind of
my baby for the next year or so so i'm
super excited about that
very nice well i will have those links
in the show notes on this podcast
jeremy this has been fantastic thanks so
much for taking the time to be on here
and uh for what you're doing to get kids
in the skilled trades
all right i appreciate it thank you so
much
hey thanks so much for listening i have
one challenge and one request for you
before you go here's the challenge
what is your five-minute action item
from this podcast in other words what is
one thing you want to implement in your
business or on your projects that will
take you five minutes or less my
challenge for you is to create an action
item as soon as this podcast is over and
do it
send yourself a text send yourself an
email put it in your planner write it
down in your unicorn journal whatever it
is but take
action on something from this podcast
episode so you get some real value from
it now here's the request if this
podcast has been valuable to you please
leave a rating and a review here's how
to leave a review on apple podcasts on
your ios device number one open up the
apple podcast app number two go to the
icons at the bottom of the screen and
choose search
search for this show construction
leading edge be sure to click on the
show not the episode then scroll all the
way down to ratings and reviews
and finally click on write a review
these instructions will also be in the
show notes if you could leave a rating
and a review that would mean a lot to me
and it also helps get the word out there
to other folks
and don't forget if you want to get out
of your business and make it run without
you this year go watch my free online
training workshop at
constructionleadingedge.com forward
slash get out that's construction
leading edge dot com forward slash
g-e-t-o-u-t thanks so much for listening
my name is todd dewalt i'll see you next
time remember every project starts in
the field and raiken's field friendly
software makes documentation easy with
reakin's mobile app crews can document
progress on the go and you can track
everything in real time right from the
office so give your field crews an app
they'll actually use and stay on top of
all your projects to learn more go to
rakenapp.com that's r-a-k-e-n-a-p-p.com
[Music]
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