The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
Discover the passion, perseverance, and innovative thinking that fuels these businesses, as well as the challenges they've overcome along the way. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur seeking inspiration or simply a curious listener interested in the stories behind your favorite local spots, The Alimond Show has something for everyone.
Our guests share their experiences, insights, and valuable advice that can empower you to turn your own dreams into reality. We discuss topics like marketing strategies, customer relationships, community engagement, and much more, offering practical takeaways you can apply to your own business or career.
Join us every week as we celebrate the unsung heroes of our local business community and explore the vibrant tapestry of entrepreneurship in our area. Tune in to The Alimond Show and get ready to be inspired, informed, and motivated to support and nurture the businesses that make our community thrive.
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The Alimond Show
Jack Prins - From Stockbroking to Construction Success: Overcoming Adversity and Mastering Modern Marketing Strategies
Ever wondered how a former stockbroker could turn around a failing construction business? Join us for an insightful conversation with Jack Prins, co-owner of Steadfast Construction, as he recounts his unique journey from framing houses in college to navigating the high-stakes world of stockbroking, and ultimately finding success in the construction industry. Tune in to hear Jack's candid reflections on the challenges he faced, including personal tragedies and the invaluable support from his business partner, which were pivotal in steering Steadfast Construction from the edge of collapse to the thriving business it is today.
We also explore the evolution of marketing strategies in the home construction industry. Discover how Jack and his team transitioned from traditional methods like flyering and the Yellow Pages to embracing digital platforms such as Angie's List and HomeAdvisor. You'll learn how the early adoption of Angie's List transformed their business, the challenges they faced with fraudulent reviews, and the financial investments required to master SEO, blogging, and Google ads. Jack shares the secrets behind their successful online presence and the importance of organic growth in maintaining a competitive edge.
Managing a business remotely can be daunting, but Jack and his partner Kenny have mastered the art. Kenny oversees daily operations from the Philippines, while Jack splits his time between North Carolina and their main office, using technology to keep everything running smoothly. We delve into their effective delegation strategies and succession planning as Kenny prepares for retirement. Hear about Nelson, a meticulous worker at Steadfast Construction, and the potential shifts in roles that ensure the company's unwavering commitment to quality and client satisfaction continues. Don’t miss this episode packed with valuable insights for anyone interested in entrepreneurship and business management.
I'm Jack Prince, one of the owners of Steadfast Construction, screened-in porches, decks, patios, sunrooms, additions and, I would say occasionally, carports and garages.
Speaker 2:And that is it.
Speaker 1:I don't do interior work. I've actually turned down a lot of jobs that include outside work, but they want interior work as well, and I just say we don't do it.
Speaker 2:Is there a particular reason?
Speaker 1:why? Yeah, when I came back, I left for five years to start another business on my own Well, with another partner, and they're just still going strong. But they were.
Speaker 2:I love this song. I'm sorry we can let it ring out. Hold on, yeah, that'll go on for a bit.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, when I came back, the business was about to go under. This was about 15 years ago and that's why I came back. He begged me to come back. My old business partner. He's like just come back and help me, help me do whatever it takes to get this back on pace. And so not that I'm this guru or anything, but I know marketing. I know marketing and that's about it Sales and marketing and he's in charge of all the crews which, now that he's living in the Philippines, I've sort of taken over that part too. But anyways, I looked into the books and everything and I said you know, there's something really glaring here. We're not making any money on interior work. Almost every single interior job is a break-even or loss. The money-making jobs are the exterior jobs, but you trade them off and this is part of why you're going out of business. The other part is you've stopped spending money on marketing and so, between those two, got rid of all interior work, started spending a higher percentage of our revenue on marketing and we just blossomed again.
Speaker 2:Yay, I'm so glad that you were able to troubleshoot what was going on and get right back into it.
Speaker 1:It didn't take a genius, it was just. You know, it was right there in front of you. You just had to look you know, and he just wasn't looking.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, thank you for sharing that background there. Speaking of background, I would love to know how you got into your industry, how you got to where you are today.
Speaker 1:You don't want to know that story I do want to know.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, oh yes.
Speaker 1:So in college I framed houses, so I knew a little bit about that. But that can't help you build a porch, a deck, a sunroom, any of that stuff, but what it can do is give you knowledge of just the basics, the foundations and such. But I was finance all the way and I became a stockbroker and I was a stockbroker for about three years and it was all my life, all I wanted to do. I wanted to be a stockbroker and I was a stockbroker for about three years and it was all my life, all I wanted to do. I wanted to be a stockbroker. Prior to that, though, for the first year out of school, I did the thing that so many kids in College Park do, and around Maryland they sell windows and siding and I did that and I hated it and I was good at it, but I hated it yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, you just, and ultimately I, I, I finally got that opportunity to get a job as a stockbroker and I jumped at it and I thought this is my dream job. And it's very difficult. Your first uh you, you walk in and for for, uh, your first year you're calling 200 people a day and I am not good with rejection and at least with the window and siding sales. You know I was selling about 50% and that I can deal with. But when you call 200 people and you're lucky to get one, maybe two, that say okay and then you might sell one of those two, that's a huge amount of rejection and it was, it was eating away at me. And even when, into my third year, when you know I'm down to making 50 calls a day because I've got, I've got.
Speaker 1:Now I have a book. A book means you've got a group of you know people that are underneath you, that you're, you've already. You know that that are your clientele. Yeah, but, um, the problem is, is this a stockbroker back then? Now, what they do nowadays is their money managers which is a lot different stockbroker means your.
Speaker 1:Your job is to tell your client to sell and to buy as often as possible because, that generates a commission and it just left me feeling empty. So you had the rejection. You had the feeling of emptiness that you know I'm not doing anybody any favor. I'm not helping them make money. I'm just making the company and me money and I'm not putting myself up there. I'm no guy on a pedestal right, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think it takes a certain personality to just overlook that part of it yeah.
Speaker 1:And I just couldn't do it anymore and I quit Third year. I just said I'm done. I had nothing to go to. And so my business partner, who was my best friend this is part of the story so my older brother was his best friend and he died tragically in a car accident with me.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm so sorry, whoa.
Speaker 1:And I came back from California. I came to a certain school, I came back from California, I came to a sort of own school and I came back and a year later Kenny's younger brother, who was one of my good friends, he died, he was shot.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:Delivering a pizza. And so about a year later, no less than that, six months later, kenny came to me and he said I had a dream. Your brother came to me in a dream and said I'm to be your older brother. Now I'm like whatever dude. And he goes no, I'm serious. And so he stepped into that role and I had an older brother, five years older, but we weren't close. And so Kenny and I it went from being, you know, this supposed older brother, younger brother, to just best friends, and so everything we did we did together, you know. And when I came to him I said, hey, you know, he lived on the top floor of the tallest building in Tyson's, and back then that was an old building. They didn't have these new buildings. This will date me 29 years ago.
Speaker 2:You look great 29 years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, except for the hair color.
Speaker 2:Still looks great.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, well, thank you. I said what am I going to do? He goes. Well, you know, incredibly, this week I was told that they're not going to make me manager over at New York Life. He says they're going to keep me as a sales rep at my office. And he says the whole journey in this thing is you eventually want to make manager. And he goes and I just can't do that. I can't be a salesman here for the rest of my life. And I said well, what do you want to do? And he says you know, you see those two buildings out there all the way in Ashburn we could see them. They were the AOL. When AOL was rocking.
Speaker 1:So once again dated, myself and another company called MCI, which is, you know, went defunct and they were building the two buildings right next to each other and all around Ashburn. They were building these townhouses, these single family homes that had no porch or deck off the back of them. And he said you know, there's these townhouses out there, there's these single-family homes out there that need porches and decks. And I said we don't know how to build those. I did framing during the summer to stay out in California and you did some framing and he said, yeah, but we can hire guys. I said, yeah, he says we can market better than you know the the chuck in his truck guy can, and we can. Um, we, we can build a company off of that. And so we had a little bit of money of our own, but we borrowed some money from his mom and we put together, um, you know, a little company that we ran out of my condo in the den like a little 12 by 12 den.
Speaker 1:Back then you had to get a huge Xerox copier because, that's how you made your flyers, and we made these beautiful color flyers compared to everybody else and we would go out and we'd stick them. Everybody else, all these trucks and truck guys, would stick them in the windshield. So somebody comes out in the morning and they see this thing in their windshield, they crumble it up and throw it away.
Speaker 2:Who put this here?
Speaker 1:Right. So what we did is we'd go out in the afternoon and we would put them in the doorway, right in their door handle, so that when we came home at night they'd open their door, they'd say it and they'd say okay and they'd put it on the table. But eventually they would look at it, and so our phones didn't go in until about a week after we passed out about 10,000 flyers Wow, by hand.
Speaker 1:By hand, the two of us. We eventually had a crew that would go out and do that. Yeah, so when the phone line went in on Friday, I checked the messages Back then. You remember it was the message machine through the phone.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So I checked the messages and there were, if I can remember right, I think there was about 44 messages, and I'm like this is incredible.
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 1:And I scheduled about 22 of those for appointments.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:And we sold almost all of them.
Speaker 2:Holy moly, yeah, this needs to be a movie.
Speaker 1:And we didn't have a single person to install them.
Speaker 2:We didn't have a builder. That is a hustle right there. So our next job was to.
Speaker 1:We got to find builders quick and we got. We were blessed I mean, somebody was looking down on us because we found two of the best builders in the business and those guys trained our next three builders.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:And then from there they trained the next guys, and so we all of our guys that work for us right now, except for two crews all of our crews are made up. I mean, we got guys building those 22 years 24 years 21 years they started carrying wood, started digging holes and now they're foremen of crews, with three guys working underneath them. Wow, two guys working underneath them.
Speaker 2:They literally grew together.
Speaker 1:It's what's that word? Nepotism? You know they all would hire their family and stuff to come work for them, and so we actually have crews where we have two brothers that are two foremen. We have another two brothers who are foremen. We have a cousin who is a cousin to two of those brothers foremen. So nepotism, yeah, but it worked for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it worked you know and in the family passing it along.
Speaker 1:So this is how we grew, this is how we started, and you know so. Yet people, yeah people say you know, are you coming out to build my deck? Well, I was a stockbroker. Do you want me to, you know? I mean right yeah I could swing a hammer, but I'm not sure what I'm gonna hit, so no, that's an incredible story.
Speaker 2:I love that. It's like so much like drama, like I literally could watch a movie about this. Like two kids as kids growing up, what are they gonna do? Like we've got a rebel here and a guy. It's like so much like drama, like I literally could watch a movie about this.
Speaker 1:Like two kids as kids growing up.
Speaker 2:What are they going to do? Like we've got a rebel here and a guy who's like trying to make it. I don't know. I feel like this could be a movie. It's so cool.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, you guys are filming it right now. There you go, all right.
Speaker 2:Visually in our head Can. All right, heck, yeah, no one was here, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:How do you do that head movement. This Look at that. Oh my God, I don't know I'm so old, I can't even.
Speaker 2:Yes, you can, you stop it?
Speaker 1:Oh, I wish the camera could see that.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, What'd she do Remove her head. I'm just kidding. Watch this.
Speaker 1:I can't do that I can't do that. I'll show you after this. I'll show you after this. Alright, we'll practice.
Speaker 2:Yes, sounds good thank you for sharing that story. I do truly love that. So are you guys, like I guess, still together. Right, was it Kelly's?
Speaker 1:Kelly's dad.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And Kelly is my goddaughter. Oh my God. Oh yeah, I mean, we're talking. I was there at the birth of Kelly. I was right there watching it. This is awesome and just yeah, so it's been. He and I were like family. You know people drift apart and come back together and stuff.
Speaker 2:So we've had part of your life.
Speaker 1:It's part of life, and that was part of why I went off on my own. But then when he called and said he needed me to come back I mean, we started this company together and I knew that if he's calling me he's going to be less chafed. And that's where we got to. We'd reached a point where we were sort of chafing on each other and when he called and said I could use your help, I couldn't say no. I couldn't say no. In fact, what I said is okay, but here's what we're going to do. And I yelled at him. I said you are not declaring bankruptcy? No, pardon my expression, but effing way, because I, you know, no, not our company, it was still my company, yeah. And so I jumped at the opportunity to come back to the company I had started. You know, at that point it was what? Maybe about 12 years earlier? And now here we are, you know, 29 years into this thing.
Speaker 2:Going strong.
Speaker 1:Going great.
Speaker 2:I love that. I want to get into the marketing part, just because you said like that's your thing, and I want to share your insights or tips or what's worked for you in your business with other entrepreneurs who may be listening, people who want to get into marketing you want to share those secrets? I do, of course. That's why I brought you here. You Want to share?
Speaker 1:those secrets I do.
Speaker 2:Of course. That's why I brought you here.
Speaker 1:You got to share that, if you can pretty please me, if I beg enough, you will, all right, that would be great. That was enough begging.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I could do more, but it's fine All right. So if you could tell me what's working for you, what do you like to do?
Speaker 1:What's getting your so the so. When we first started off, it was flyering, and then you could tell that flyering was starting to fade, so then it became the yellow pages you had to put, and then you started with a quarter-page ad and that wasn't big enough because you weren't getting calls again, so you had to go to half-page and then a full page A full page.
Speaker 1:And then, as they saw that more and more people were doing full page, the price went up, went up, went up. More and more people were doing full page, the price went up, went up, went up. And then we're talking. In a matter of one year. The yellow pages died because of Angie's List.
Speaker 2:Oh, I remember Angie's List, but I didn't know that's what.
Speaker 1:put Yellow Book out, so it came like that, on like boom, and luckily and it wasn't because I'm not going to say I was smart and I was way ahead of the game- it was one of these things Well of course, so it was one of these things that I had just heard through the grapevine, I had just heard through you know.
Speaker 1:Just hey, look, you may want to look at this, you may want to get into this. So we got in early and I got in hard. I got in where I just said hey, you know, every salesperson I want from you every single month, two of your clients writing something about us on Angie's List. So we grew, first 10, then 20, then 50. We now have 488 reviews.
Speaker 1:We're at 92% A's and, yeah, you did the head thing again. So the cool thing is that nobody's even close to us. And there was a company. This is a great story. So there was a company that, and they're out of business now, but this goes back about seven years ago. There was a company that all of a sudden went from like 50 reviews to 210 reviews within three months.
Speaker 2:Holy moly and I said that is impossible. Were they real?
Speaker 1:And I called my rep. I said are you paying attention to this? Look at this company. And he's like no, we've done our background, they're fine. I'm like there's got to be something wrong here. He goes no, it's different IP addresses and that's what they look for.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I said but there's something wrong here, there's something absolutely wrong. And then it hit me. I said do me a favor. To my rep. I said would you have them check the credit card? Two credit cards were used for the last 120 reviews, so they bought all of those. I knew it, so they were paying a person or a group of people two people to just go to different libraries, go everywhere and write reviews.
Speaker 2:I love how you got to the bottom of it.
Speaker 1:That's the best part, and so boom, they were kicked off of Angie's List and they're out of business. Now, if it's because they lost Angie's List, I don't know, but that's yesterday. Angie's List is gone, angie's List is now Angie, and they were bought out by Home Advisor. Home Advisor is not for a company like us, and they were bought out by HomeAdvisor. Okay, homeadvisor is not for a company like us.
Speaker 1:Homeadvisor is for the chuck in his truck, it's for the guy who says I have $500 to spend, I want 10 leads a month. I'm willing to pay your $54 per lead, all right, and I will be at my cell phone at the beck and call when that lead comes in. So if it's a Sunday and it's four in the afternoon, I'm going to answer that phone and I'm going to schedule that appointment. My company doesn't work that way. We close our doors at 3.30 on Friday, we open again at 8.30 on Monday, and so no calls are being made. Nobody's answering the phone during the weekend. Nobody's there to call during the weekend. So by the time I pick up that phone and call at 8.30 with HomeAdvisor, people say oh, no, no, we've already got two, we've already got three appointments scheduled.
Speaker 2:I'm out of luck, yeah.
Speaker 1:So Angie was bought out by HomeAdvisor, so Angie was bought out by HomeAdvisor and Angie. Now they sort of gravitated towards doing the same exact thing. So they didn't buy Angie to run Angie's List, they bought Angie's List to turn it into Angie and then just sort of swallowed up.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so now we're looking for new ways to advertise. So I just said, you know what? I'm not smart enough. This is where hey now.
Speaker 1:I am not All right. My marketing skills have a plateau, and I reached it. So what I did is I went out and I looked into who is a really good, who's good at this and who's going to charge me the least amount of money and do it really well. And so I found a company called I won't say the name of the company, I don't want to. I found a company that does writes blogs, constantly looks for the right keyword, keyword uses in the blogs, keywords um gets us mentioned in other um blogs on other sites, so that it relates back to us.
Speaker 1:This is what they do and they charge me. They charge me quite a bit of money, so I pay them just under 10,000. And of that, about $4,000 goes to Google to pay for our Google ads and the rest goes to them for all the extra work they're doing on the side to generate our ad campaign. Yes, and the more you generate an ad campaign this is what I've learned from them, They've taught me the more you generate an ad campaign through Google, then the organic part starts. Do you understand what the organics is.
Speaker 1:Yes, so the organic part starts to follow, and we're seeing our organics start to just really kick some butt.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so it's yeah we're getting a ton, and here's what I was surprised about. About a year ago, I said to my office administrator, a guy named Omar. I said, omar, do me a favor, run everything that we've done for the last couple of years, every single thing. I want to see what the growth is and the different marketing sources. I was shocked to find out that right now, 30% of our business comes from referrals. Okay, so it's more of a big company. That's not supposed to happen.
Speaker 2:30% of our business comes from referrals. Okay, so it's more.
Speaker 1:We're a big company, that's not supposed to happen. Yeah, you know when you're small, two crews.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can get it.
Speaker 1:You know referrals, but when you're a big company like us, referrals are If you get. I thought I'd get one out of ten. Yeah, you know, it turned out to be 30%, so I was really happy about that yeah, absolutely. I'm a motor mouth right now.
Speaker 2:No, I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, shut me off. No, I love it. Turn off the tap. No, come on, turn it up. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:What about with social media Like do you said, the blogs? What about on Instagram? Are you doing any dances on TikTok, anything like that? I have to ask. Maybe you are.
Speaker 1:I'm practicing my head moves.
Speaker 2:You're welcome, just kidding.
Speaker 1:No, we started Facebook about a year and a half ago. It was started by a guy who left us to bigger and better things. I'm happy for him. He got an offer to be a 20% partner in a company things. I'm happy for him. He got an offer to be 20 partner in a company and, and and I turned it over to another guy works for me in the salesman. Who's who? Who's who's got his thumb on the pulse. Um, I wouldn't say them. Let's say he's got his one of his middle fingers on the post, because he doesn't quite, he's not all the way there yeah and I'm I'm hesitant to take it away from him and give it to this WebFX because they're actually cheaper than he is.
Speaker 1:I said, hey, look, I'll give you a percentage of whatever comes in, with a cap on every sale, and that would actually it's turned out that if I just turned it over to WebFX who really knows what they're doing, but you know, I've got loyalty to him and I'm saying, okay, you, you keep it, let's see how you grow with this thing. Yes, and then trex came to me just just a month ago and they said um, you know you, we're what's called platinum, we're so trex. You can become what's called a pro if you sell a certain amount of trex product a gold. If you sell a certain, we are Trex product a gold. If you sell a certain, we are one of the top five retail Trex companies and because of that we are platinum. And with platinum comes tons of money that they will give to you towards Trex marketing.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And they've come up with a new plan on this, where that Trex marketing is going to include a Facebook blast for three months. You know those little things that scroll down the side, the little advertisements.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Pop-ups right? Well, they're going to be doing that with Steadfast Perfect, and so that starts in November.
Speaker 2:I'll be looking out for you in November.
Speaker 1:We get six months of this, and so I use their money because they said, well, it's going to cost you this, but guess what? You've got enough money for us to pay for it for you. Okay, I said, okay, let me think about it. Okay, let me think about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this will be interesting to see how that works out. So that'll be in conjunction with what James does. Oh, works out. So that'll be in conjunction with what James does. Oh, perfect. But but I do. I have given James sort of a it's Instagram and anything goes on Facebook goes to Instagram. Yeah right, I'm learning this, this is, this is. I'm not talking from experience, I'm not talking from I know everything about Facebook and Instagram. I'm talking because, as sort of trying to direct James on what I expect out of him, I got to sort of know what it's capable of. Yes, so I'm learning. Every week I learn I'm a little bit more intuitive on it.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's awesome though, but I'm still oh my God, I'm still in third grade.
Speaker 2:You'll graduate to fourth grade soon. I hope so. I do.
Speaker 1:I think so I do. I think there's a test. So, anyways, I'm going to give him a chance and if things don't produce by February the way I expect them to, unfortunately he knows I'll have to pull it and and move it over to uh, and he's gonna seal this because he runs facebook I was just gonna in my head I was like um, so no pressure if you're hearing this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I better have this conversation with him yeah, oh sorry, surprise yeah but uh, no, I, I, I mean I, I get the feeling he's really working hard at it, yeah, but if it starts taking away from his sales, then my God, he is just. So when Jake left, james all of a sudden didn't feel like he was second fiddle as far as sales go. Jake was a. I've never seen anybody like him. We were sorry to lose him, but he had actually dropped because he was having personal issues, so it wasn't a big loss. But when he was with us the first three years there was, I've never seen me knock it out of the park like him. Um, james, though, my god, jake left and all of a sudden, who are you? You're personable, you're, you're like and's going to see this again. You are like, just a great guy to be around.
Speaker 2:Aw.
Speaker 1:Which before he was very stiff and quiet and kept to himself. And it turns out Jake was the one that brought him on. So Jake and him knew each other. So I think Jake sort of kept him down. And once Jake was gone, he blossomed. Oh, my God know that's a hard word to use with a man, but he blossomed okay, he blossomed with strength.
Speaker 2:Okay, that works. No, that is amazing, and I love how close you are and comfortable you are with talking about your employees. I think that's beautiful. I'm going to say it. It's beautiful because it is. And I think that it's a good dynamic to have with your team where you can be open and honest and give feedback.
Speaker 1:It is a team, right yeah, and you don't want to walk around eggshells and be like, oh, I don't want to. But you have to like, you want what's best for the person but also for the business. So you want to like, just be like, put a little fire under them and just be like. Here you go. So if we're going that route, then I'd be remiss in not mentioning that. You know, I've got a salesman who's also my assistant general manager, nick. Nick, you know, shout out to.
Speaker 2:Nick, Shout out Nick.
Speaker 1:And then we hired a new guy to replace Jake, which is Brandon, and Brandon fits in so well. He is just part of the team. I just need to get him to lift up his sales a little bit. You know that, brandon. So, yeah, yeah, awesome, it's a good group. It's a good group.
Speaker 2:Love that dynamic. Yeah, I'd like to know more about where you would see your company in the next five years, like any expansion.
Speaker 1:You don't want to ask that I do. No, I'm retiring in about two and a half.
Speaker 2:Now, this is awkward for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is so awkward, it's okay, I should have filled out the paperwork. No, you're good, stop it.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, so I'm actually my business partner's in the Philippines, okay, and as it turns out, he's there about six months to seven months out of the year, sometimes less, sometimes more, but that's what he's doing, sometimes less, sometimes more, but that's what he's doing. He's got somebody he goes out there to see and she's got 12 acres of a farm. There's no air conditioning, it's hot a lot, so he loves it, though he embraces it. He's out there farming and then he works out a couple times a week in this 110-degree heat with humidity.
Speaker 1:And I'm like more power too, you can. But he's found that what his niche is, his niche is not going out and checking on the jobs. As a matter of fact and he's going to hate when I say this, but as a matter of fact, when there's an issue, when there's a problem, I know a lot about the permitting. I know a lot about what can and cannot be permitted. I know a lot about how to build something and what it's, because I used to sit there and when I was bored I would actually read the code book, and it is boring reading. But when you're sitting around, I'm like, why not do that? Yeah, so when I have some free time, I just sit there and read the code book for about a half an hour and say, okay, got that. So I know a lot, yeah.
Speaker 1:But and Omar, who does all our drafting, does all our architecture? He sends a lot of stuff to me and says can this work, is this, what do you think? And I'm like, no, let's change this and do this. But the guys call me, which is a really good feeling, and I'd say maybe once every week, week and a half, I get a call from one of the builders and these guys are foremen who've been building for a long time. But it's good when they call me and they say, hey look, can you come out and help me figure this out? And sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but more often than not, between the two of us, we get it figured out, but I like that that they call me.
Speaker 1:So Kenny is my business partner. He's in the Philippines, but what his forte is and he's damn good at it. He's in the Philippines, but what his forte is and he's damn good at it. So we have a list every day of everybody, every single person who's working for the company and every little aspect of the company that needs to be followed up on. Yes, and he's got a short-term memory. I'm not going to talk about his long-term memory, I don't know if that's great or not, but his short-term memory is phenomenal. Talk about his long-term memory. I don't know if that's great or not, but his short-term memory is phenomenal. And so what he read through on that list yesterday, he knows he can actually not look at the list and know exactly what is on there.
Speaker 1:You know, okay, omar let's call Nelson and say Nelson, did you collect the check for $8,000? Nelson, did you order the windows? Nelson, did you call Jack to make sure that this was ordered? And he goes to the next guy, and the next guy, and the next guy. So his forte is being on top of that. Now do you need to be here to do that?
Speaker 1:So now my next thing is I've been moving down to North Carolina. I built a house down in North Carolina. Here's my pictures of it. It's absolutely beautiful, right on the water, oh nice. Yeah, a place called Wilmington, oh yeah. And so my wife and I have been spending more and more time down there and less time up here, and so now I'm about 50-50. And what I find is that I can get just as much work done down there. I don't go, I can't go check on the jobs, but I'm getting the the, each of the reps and also Nick, to go out and check on these jobs, and they are learning that they have to be tough on these guys. Hey, you did that wrong. You need to change it. No, there's. No, you have to change that. And and and and. That was hard in the beginning because they'd want to go out and just say, oh, everything looks good and everything. But no, now they know that, hey, if they want a referral from that client, they need to make sure that builder does not mess it up.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So that was my job, that was Kenny's job before he left and I got to tell you. You know my business partner. He can be a little bit of a negative guy sometimes and he says the steadfast way and you know and he's talking negatively. I think you know, if you go into any other business and you look at them, you'll find that we run a ship. That's pretty damn good.
Speaker 2:Steady ship, yeah, not the Titanic Stronger.
Speaker 1:And they don't need us, they don't need him. He does his job, you know, through email, and what's that called Audio FaceTime?
Speaker 2:Yes, and.
Speaker 1:I will be doing my job through email, FaceTime and just phone calls, and that's what I've been doing. I go down for two weeks and I get more done. I'm down there from. I work from eight to two and I get a lot more done than I do when I'm up here, Because when I'm up here my desk is right there in the middle of the office. Guys, walk by, Jack. Can you take a look at this? Jack, can you?
Speaker 2:take a look at this.
Speaker 1:I don't get that, so are we almost done? Because you look like you're about to say you're done. Oh no, sorry, do you want to cut that out? Do you want to edit that? No, you're good.
Speaker 2:You're good, no you are so good. No, but I think that's so great. Are you really planning on retiring?
Speaker 1:I am so the more I move down there, and by April we're going to sell the house up here in April and then I'll be down there probably three and a half weeks out of every month, and I'll come up here for the last three to five days, yes, and I'll just stay in one of those, you know. Airbnb yes, and I'll just stay in one of those you know um airbnbs.
Speaker 1:Airbnb maybe, but probably in one of those, those those um long-term, more long-term, like motels, okay, yeah you know I'm talking about, like the courtyards or whatever they are like bed and breakfast, maybe something like that, no, like a, like a courtyard type thing okay, yeah, cool Court. Yard by Marriott, things like that. So, um yeah, and my wife, she, she can work anywhere. She, she works for a company and uh, called Mitre, and she can work, they, they allow her to work anywhere.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I'm sure she's happy and you'll be retiring soon, so when?
Speaker 1:I retire. What'll happen then is is I'll just basically move everything to a couple guys and they'll take over a lot of what I do, okay, and then I'll be there for you know. Once again, if they say, hey, we need you up here for a couple days, I'll come up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it'll be a semi-retirement.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool. To help transition into the full-on when the time comes Right right. Okay, very cool, very cool. Is there anything maybe that I haven't asked? That you would like for people to know who are listening about your business? I want to make sure I hit all those key points for you while I have you here.
Speaker 1:So you know, one of the great things about what I said earlier and I guys have all been trained by the guy before them, by the guy before them, by the guy before them, and then worked their way up from building, from carrying lumber, to doing this. So if you go to Donald's job and then go over to Mirko's job and then go over to Rudy's job, one of the things you're going to find is that there is a very close similarity between the way each of the jobs is built. So you know, people might say they want this and that and all these different things, but you know the foundation of what we're building. You know not the main structure, it's more of like, you know just, um, you know a photographer. A photographer might take pictures of a lot of different things. Yes, right, but eventually you start to learn what that photographer, their style is, yes, and that is what we have my guys build almost identically. There are a couple guys that are just they're above the others.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Nelson and Mirko. I mean they're just an Omar.
Speaker 2:You guys got like a signature style. Is what you're saying?
Speaker 1:No, they just. Well, nelson, my god, nelson will be put on a job and sorry, nelson put it out there. Um, he'll be put on a job for and it'll take him 50 more time, but what you get is you get a job. He's one of the guys that just it's not like everybody else's it is it's like okay, the customer paid for x and they're getting x plus 30 wallety.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like okay, the customer paid for X and they're getting X plus 30% more yeah.
Speaker 1:It's like nothing nobody can compete with him, oh wow. But he won't leave the job until he's done all his little extras.
Speaker 2:That's such a good work ethic to have, though, to be like. I want my boss to be satisfied. I want a referral. I want these customers to leave knowing that we did a good job, because that's our name on the line there.
Speaker 1:You know you say all that and that may be true, but I think it's more with Nelson. It's like I can't leave until I'm satisfied.
Speaker 2:So it's like a little tick in him that he's just like Absolutely.
Speaker 1:He is just, you know, and it's not. He's not competing with anybody but himself. It's not. Like you know, one of the other crews is going to come over and look at his work. He's just you know, and when I do retire and Omar, who's our office administrator, he sort of takes over a lot of the Day to day Day to day, more of what I do on phone calls and talking to people and such, but take over some of the marketing and things like that.
Speaker 1:He'll also know that he doesn't have Kenny to check on job sites, he doesn't have me to check on job sites, he doesn't have me to sort of oversee the sales reps making sure they're doing the right thing, and he won't have the time to do that. So I think he's going to turn Nelson into his project manager.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Just go around and check on the job site. So why not make your best guy, the guy that makes sure everybody else is maintaining?
Speaker 2:something wonderful that would be a wise thing to do. Huh yeah, Right yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's the first part to your question. Yes, what, that's great. Yeah, so that's the first part to your question. Yes, what was your question again?
Speaker 2:Was it something special? My question was like if you had anything that you wanted to let our audience know that maybe I didn't.
Speaker 1:I actually knew the question. I was just letting you say it again.
Speaker 2:Oh, how nice, so the answer is.
Speaker 1:There is no better company than Steadfast Construction. That's right. So when you want your deck, porch or sunroom built, give us a call Absolutely. Thank you so much. Does everybody end like that, or just me?
Speaker 2:No, everyone ends like that.
Speaker 1:Do they really?
Speaker 2:No, just kidding. No, it's just you. I wanted to make you feel good. See, I got you now. All right, I'm kidding, no, but that was wonderful. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your.