How Contractors Turn Reputation Into Real Growth

speaker-0 (00:00.142)

you

Welcome back to the Meridian Pursuit Builders Podcast. I'm your host, Jesse Sampley, and this is where we sit down with home builders, developers, real estate professionals, and industry leaders who are out there doing the work. You'll hear real conversations about markets, design, mistakes, and lessons learned, and how builders can position themselves in a way that brings more customers to the table. Let's dive in.

speaker-2 (00:31.822)

KC, I started KO Builders about, I'll be going on five years now in May. I'm just a little bit shy of five years right now. I have an instruction background in residential and commercial construction. yeah, about that five years ago, I decided to go off on my own, get into residential remodeling, push on obviously towards the new build side, which is probably every builder's dream and goal. And yeah, up until a year and a half ago, I was just working based off of...

Word of mouth referrals, building relationships with clients, friends, family, anybody and everybody that I could meet and come cross paths with. I think it was about a year and a half ago, Kendrick and I cross paths, met each other. He was just getting started with his business, getting into some investment, rehab work. And he interviewed me to be his contractor. And we started up, a project together.

And I guess the rest is kind of history. We've been working together ever since that point in time until present day.

Awesome. Kendrick, tell me a little bit about your background.

Yeah, so I stumbled into construction about four years ago now, and I had gotten out of my stint in the military in late 2018, December of 2018. So after active duty service, I had gone on a path to become a private security contractor for the government. spent some time overseas doing that for about a year after departing from the military, ended up moving to

speaker-0 (02:06.4)

Arizona, which is where we're based out of. And I continued my pursuit of the next tier of private security contracting. had kind of somebody whispered in my ear about a kind of a more exclusive program that was going on that I was eligible for. And so I waited a very long time to get my security clearance for that. I had to go to tryouts for that. I sustained a pretty gnarly injury in the waiting to get to that period and had to recover and go to tryouts and...

was able to make it on. then unfortunately, by that time, the US had kind of decided to completely pull the plug in Afghanistan, which was where I was headed to. And so I effectively lost my job like overnight and I came back to Phoenix and I was scrambling for a job I needed to make money. And I jumped on Craigslist and I started looking for work and somebody was hired, a remodel guy locally was...

was trying to find laborers. And so I applied and he hired me and that was my first experience with residential construction. Fast forward a few months, he actually made me an offer to become his partner. And so I became co-owner of his business and we ran together for two years up until what would have been the early 2023 timeframe, May of 23, I turned the company back over to him. I wanted to do something different and I had an image of what I wanted to do in construction.

And I wanted to take a crack at real estate investing. So doing large-scale single-family renovations. And that's kind of who the clientele we were catering to at that point in time. And so I was learning the ins and outs from these real estate investors, becoming friends with them, brushing shoulders with those personality types. And I just said, I think I want to do that. And so I took a break from Phoenix, left for a bit, came back. As I was getting prepared to come back to Phoenix,

And I had this model in my head and I said, okay, I can either try and play contractor myself for my own personal projects, or I can try and find somebody that I really get a good warm and fuzzy from. And so at the time, as I'm formulating all of this, I was overseas, I did a short three and a half month contract overseas in the Middle East to kind of bridge the gap and keep making money. As I was formulating this game plan, I coincidentally was now looking online.

speaker-0 (04:23.84)

for contractors that I thought would be worth interviewing. And that's how I came across this gentleman's contact information. And we joke about this all the time, because there's a weird connotation with Craigslist. But I just said, I'm going to go on Craigslist and see if I can find a guy. And he helped me. He was the only advertiser that I laid my eyes on that looked worthwhile. And I contacted him through that ad, set up a phone call with him. We did a call. We were probably 13 hours apart on the clock. And right off the bat, just by way of

us conversing. said, this is probably going to be my dude, but I want to meet him first. So a few months later, when I got back to the States, I actually flew to Phoenix just to see him and meet him in person. that's how we first got introduced. And then I got my first investment project up and running. I gave him a couple pieces of the scope of work on that one. And he shined like, you know, like a star and, then ultimately gave him my first full scale project, which

to present day. We'll go down in history, not for anything he did or I did wrong, but it'll just go down in history as the worst project in renovation history. know, building departments and the numbers, and it was a testament to his commitment and his desire to serve. And it really strengthened our relationship. And there was a lot of stress involved in it, but it really progressed our relationship over time. Because from that point forward, we've worked together now on present day.

since the beginning of May of last year, we've now been involved in what will be present day, total of how many? six, no, seven, technically, was very hot. So seven full-scale single-family, very major renovations. And we plan on continuing to do so. And so that's where we're at currently. And now what you're seeing kind of come to fruition at social media is through our working together very closely, especially over the last year, we just kind of sat down one day over the summer and we said like,

man, our businesses are crossed over pretty heavily. People were still calling me for construction, solicitation of construction services. I wasn't offering that anymore on a private level. I just wanted to keep in my own realm. So I was throwing all my referrals directly to hit, I'm not going to do this, but I know a guy that'll be the best fit for you. I would throw him to Casey. Casey would shine and deliver a great product to those people. And so we just sat down and talked at one point this year and said like,

speaker-0 (06:42.158)

How do we formalize this? do we make, how do we bring the best of both of our worlds together and really find scalability and growth through, you know, the coverage of covering each other's strengths and weaknesses and combining those things. And that's what we have kind of grown into today.

Yeah, I mean, that sounds awesome. So it's a pretty natural fit for both of you guys. It sounds like how did you communicate? How did you position your company to so that people that you wanted to work with, they knew exactly that you were the guys to go to? Was there something strategic that you guys did to make sure that people understood that?

Well, I'll Casey to touch on, I think one of the most impressive elements of the brand of KO Builders is before my involvement, before we even knew each other. And this became a thing here that it is now Casey drove his business just by reputation, quality and word of mouth, never paid into advertising, never paid into social media marketing. That's kind of a new thing that I'm trying to implement to see if we can get growth.

I'll let him touch on kind of what he thinks his driving factors were for the growth originally.

Yeah. So as I kind of started off on my path, when I, when I left the company that I was working for to start KL builders, I would walk job after job with client after client. And they always would say the same exact thing, which is I have bad history with another contractor. I'm looking for somebody to come in and do this right. The bad reputations from other builders are.

speaker-1 (07:54.914)

Yeah, love to hear.

speaker-2 (08:20.792)

There's just a stigma that you hear with a lot of contractors. They're horrible at communication. They're not trustworthy and honest. They're not hitting schedules. They're not hitting budgets. And they just, they treat it as just something like they get the job, they get the contract and the job, it pays for their life. It pays for their business and their lifestyle. But the client and the project and the quality and all that kind of seems to get put on the back burner. And so...

just inherently, I guess, from always hearing people mention their gripes and concerns with past contractors, I was like, okay, well, if I go in and I do exactly the opposite of what all those guys are doing, then I must be able to find some kind of success. And a little bit of success that I have found, really think is based off of all that. When I go in, and I'm not a salesman by any means, but I really try to push and show

a client or potential client that me and my guys would care about the product that we're putting out. We care about the communication. That's something when you're in somebody's home, when they're investing a lot of money into you to do something for them, they want to always know what's going on. Even if it's eight, nine o'clock at night, sometimes they want to be talking about stuff. And that's sometimes a difficult part of being a business owner is you got to handle all that kind of stuff.

after hours and put in that extra work for the customer service. But yeah, the growth and I think the growth that Kendrick and I will continue to hopefully have is going to be based off of just showing our clients and people that we care for honest. We're here to be transparent and trustworthy. At the end of the day, hopefully put you in a position where you can get your dream project done. Even if that means that we're maybe not necessarily the builder that would be doing it for you. We're there at the end of the day to hopefully point you in the right direction.

to find whatever builder might be the right fit for you, whatever is going to hit your budget the best. And so yeah, that's what I've kind of honed in on over the past few years is really caring.

speaker-1 (10:24.974)

You know, it's funny, I deal with some of the exact same things is, you know, someone's worked with a marketing agency and they've been burned. They're like, oh, we tried this, we tried that, tried to get my website done and had a horrible experience. They charged me upfront. They never got it done. And it's, you almost have to reeducate people a bit. But at the very base level is, do I trust these guys? Are they going to do exactly what they say? And then so much of this is common sense too, which is...

Hey, if you're going to promise something, go ahead and deliver on that because it's so easy to get referrals. you just, mean, real basic stuff here, just do what you say, show up on time, communicate with these people. That's exactly how I've built my business too. Is there something you guys do unique on each, each job to kind of commemorate the project or something that's, you know, maybe it's from a branding side that people remember you guys by?

You get deadlines.

Yeah. mean, so I, before I met Kendrick, was working for a big commercial contractor and I got to see a completely different side of instruction. Um, there's a lot of good on that side. Crazy on that side. One thing that I learned, um, and a skill that I was kind of able to develop and still I'm developing, but it's pushing and driving a schedule and just a job site full of guys.

Just for Kendrick, when I met him, he's an investor client. So he's obviously paying daily to hold that property. So it's very easy to obviously look at it like that. A lot of investors are like, hey, I this done now, now, now, because there's little literal money on the line day by day. But I try to look at it similar to even when it's a homeowner client. They're necessarily not paying per day, but sometimes they move out of their personal home to have it remodeled while you're in there working on it.

speaker-2 (12:27.008)

Even if they don't move out and they're still in there, it's their personal, all their personal space. They, they want you out as quick as possible. yeah, the big thing that we always try to deliver on is basically a finish day is sticking to that, that finish day.

Yeah.

speaker-1 (12:43.947)

Have you found some things that help hit your targets, hit your deadlines?

Never turning your brain off. mean...

better subs.

when you have multiple projects going on at the same time, it's just constantly just knowing through and thinking over each individual job you got going on, who's next step in line. Yeah.

like good organization too, just so you're not so scattered, especially if you have multiple projects going on at the same time. We found that just a good project management software, you know, if you can just get it out of your brain and then just have it somewhere to where you can organize it, leave notes, then you just, you sleep a whole lot better. But two, it's just a good way to just look at everything, but it's outside of your brain. And it's just, okay, it's not as stressful as when I was trying to

speaker-1 (13:36.194)

hold everything inside my mind, you now it's, it's somewhere that where I can actually, you know, view it in a list or a board form.

Well, let's switch to a little bit of the marketing side because this is huge for me. This is exactly how I found you guys. You're real loud on Instagram. That's probably the loudest I've seen you guys. Tell me, what all are you guys doing to generate this attention for yourselves? What different platforms are you using? What are you saying that's working? Let's kind of chat through some of that stuff.

So part of my role and involvement is we were brainstorming, okay, what's going to be the strategic partnership from an operational standpoint and what can I bring, resume by resume, side by side. Casey has the longer track record of construction experience to anybody, especially to him. And so my involvement only makes sense if I can be a tool to drive sales, right, by way of alternate means of advertising and marketing outside of what

his original business model was incorporating, which as we discussed, was literally just word of mouth, not a dollar dime going into advertising. as we were working through this concept, I just by way of modern day commonality, right? Everybody's on social media. It's just the truth. mean, if I, my grandparents are not a lot, but if I had them, I bet you they'd be on Instagram, right? With four followers and no pictures posted, but they'd probably at least be on...

out. And so part of that line of thinking was I'm seeing constantly being flooded on my own feed with pitches from other local businesses, right? Big businesses, small businesses, service-based businesses, products. And I, by trial, when I was running with my previous business partner, when I was starting off as a young contractor, you know, four or five years ago, I was always posting what we were doing every day.

speaker-0 (15:36.832)

on my personal page. That was it. It wasn't and it was for no reason other than I thought what we were doing on job sites was so cool. I wanted my followers, followers, my friends, my family, I wanted them to see what Kendrick was doing at work that day because I was excited about it. And it wasn't, I wasn't trying to advertise, I wasn't trying to market. Well, just through that, that channel, and this was when I speak of this, I'm speaking directly on Instagram, I got

a message on a Saturday afternoon from a guy I'd gone to high school with that had ended up moving to Phoenix. And he was a real estate agent. And he messaged me and said, dude, I keep seeing you doing all these really cool projects. A friend of mine is a really big real estate investor here and he's looking for a new contractor. He just fired his, can I send him your number? And I said, yeah, absolutely. That turned into in the first year of us being in business together, that client alone.

turned into probably somewhere around a half million dollars in revenue. Just from that one kind of girl that was strictly by way of me just posting on stories on my Instagram all the time about construction things. so that kind of drew back on that reference experience when him and I started kind of formulating this thing. And I said, we got to bolster the presence. got to put money into social media marketing and advertising.

We got to get somebody on board that knows the ins and outs of that. You can try and take on the role of being a subject matter expert for just about anything, but it just comes down to time. And so through that thought process, I got in touch with a local social media marketing company here that seemed to have a really good presence. I watched a few testimonials and videos about how they have their model set up for the service that they provide. We did a couple kind of introductory phone calls with their sales guide.

who obviously did his job because they sold us the service. We signed a six month contract and gave them our money. And so right now, the only channel, so to speak, that I'm putting emphasis on just by way of wanting to experiment is Instagram. Because in my personal reference experiences, I feel and see that to be one of the heaviest hitting platforms right now for common use. And that's a subjective opinion. I'm not saying that that's the truth.

speaker-0 (17:57.014)

I know guys that are basically covering every single base and they're hitting Instagram, they're hitting YouTube, they're hitting Facebook, they're hitting Twitter or X or, and TikTok.

and LinkedIn and yeah, the list goes on and on.

Google Ads and Yelp and all these, you could easily in one 30-day cycle, if you got involved in all these platforms, be spending tens of thousands of dollars in fees just to put your name across the airwaves on those. There's certainly, I think the importance of this is number one, know and understand the market you're in. I think that in a big metropolitan area like Phoenix, for example, there's so saturated that the urban density are so saturated.

And when I put and formulate on Meta business, when I'm doing my Instagram at programming, when I'm tweaking those markers of the age demographic that I want to hit and the exact neighborhoods, not just the cities, but very core pockets of different municipalities around the Phoenix metro area and male versus female and previous search history that they have on Instagram when it comes to hashtags and relevant pages. just, my sense is...

The average person is likely scrolling on Instagram mindlessly at least once a day. And the algorithms are so dialed in right now that there's a high likelihood that if I pay a nice little amount of money for that advertisement, the algorithms and the settings that I choose are going to put us in front of somebody here locally with the hope or with the intention that they are either consciously or subconsciously looking for somebody that provides our service.

speaker-0 (19:33.838)

And then the caveat is now we're starting to try and build the page to showcase because we get some... Let's face it, every contractor, you get solicited to... Somebody wants you to come change a light bulb. And you're like, that's not really my bread and butter. I see what you're doing, that's not what we're business for. And the tailoring of the page kind of appearance is like, when somebody does come across us and they land on our page, I want...

to resonate with them as guys that are bigger projects, One guest bathroom or not one closet in the house. I want people to get the vibe that we're, are the go-to guys that are completely tearing houses down to the studs, completely scraping the front and rear exterior areas of the home to re-landscape and re-artscape. All of those redoing pools, redoing exterior lighting.

roof, every single aspect when it comes to, if you could imagine renovating a previously existing version of home and making it new, I want the portrayal to be that. want them to see us as that. that's the test right now is what kind of content do we need to actually be posting that's going to imprint that on people? How do we get so dialed in that we're not getting the DMs about cooling and changing light bulbs? And instead, we're just getting the DMs about, you know, at a bare minimum, full kitchen remodel.

full master bath and guest bath remodel, multiple areas of the home at a minimum. And then on the highest level, like Casey said at the beginning, which most GCs dream target is, at least I think it should be, is how do we build that momentum so much that the public trust and portrayal of our company gets so high that those inquiries start changing into, hey, we want to scrape this lot.

and build a brand new custom home and we think you guys would be a great fit. That is in our hearts and in our minds. That's the trajectory and the run up by the way of using the social media platform. And then again, we're loose in this right now. think we're having hired this marketing company. We're probably about five weeks deep. And they've got multiple phases that we have to go through as they gather data about which advertisements are getting really good traction, which ones aren't really hitting.

speaker-0 (21:49.354)

you know, the populace the way we want to and getting the reactions we want to. So we're still very premature in this. But again, this is just one platform. This is just Instagram. And that's all that so far. That's all we've experimented with.

But you already know that your video is the absolute best way to do that because you're going to get back exactly what you put out there. You guys already know this, but if you're real strategic with what kind of videos you're putting out there, showing your personality, I mean, I saw a couple of videos where it's like, man, these guys are awesome. They seem trustworthy. They've got some personality. They're doing these skits. They're making fun of themselves. It just breaks that barrier enough to it's like, I was in the Scottsdale area,

And, you know, I was in the market, me being a younger guy, like I'm going to search on Instagram. That is where that's mostly like where I'm looking for my social proof is a little bit Facebook, but probably more Instagram and a lot even more chat GBT now. But as I'm searching for this stuff, I'm going to be so pre-qualified by the time I get to you guys. So like if I do DM you, I give you a call. However, you know, you guys are wanting me to reach out to you. I'm going to, I'm going to

consumed so much and I'm going to come to the table so better prepared about what you guys do, what your personality is like, all of the different stories that you're telling. It's such an organic and perfect way to put yourself out there and basically pre-qualify people without having to be real celzy with it.

He's kind of had that because the guidance we're receiving from these consultants, these social media guys is like, they're all about the script. The days they show up and they wanted to be part of the filming process, it's like, you need to say this. And then after he says this, you need to say this. You can feel that through a video. can tell. I mean, you can watch a handful of our videos. if I challenged you to...

speaker-0 (23:48.974)

Option A is it's organic and option B is it's scripted. You could probably get about 100 % on that test, right? I think most people. And we did a client testimonial yesterday on a contract that we were able to close with a homeowner who... It took some... I don't want to say finessing, but he contacted us. We walked it with him a couple of times. We finally generated a proposal. He sat on for a couple of days. He called me. We spent like an hour and a half on the phone for him just basically to say like...

I'm not going to go with you guys. You know, I need to save the money and I'm going to try and self manage this project on my own. And he, I think he embarked on that. And then a few days later, he kind of called me back and was like, all right, I thought about it and I think I'd like to hire you guys. we were like, it was a great project. It's a full top to bottom end to end, you know, single family home remodel fully gutted. It's going to be a great project. It's very in line with what we already do. And we're

just starting the drywall phase as of this week. And so just wanted to do a testimony with them and say, like, you know, I'm not going to tell you what to say. Just I'll ask you a couple questions but speak from the heart. Because I'd rather people see it coming out of you naturally than like, we have to rehearse 12 times before we press record. And it's not going to pull on people's heartstrings. And I think that that goes in many directions, not just for something that you're trying to advertise in your business, but even the way you interact with clients.

or potential clients on a face-to-face level or even how we're interacting with you by way of camera right now. mean, it's just organic is, I feel it, I think most people, whether they're aware of this or not, organic is what connects people, right? And that's what, though they are looking to you to provide a service, a lot of people are buying based on comfortability and that subconscious trust that you're imprinting on somebody. And a lot of people won't buy.

based on the opposite, if they get the vibe that you're going to be untrustworthy, if you're going to, you know, say you're going to deliver one thing in one amount of time, but you're going to do the polar opposite, which is a notorious trait of contractors, I think universally, which is sad. And that's part of our mission is to restore that, restore that, that, that, you know, that reputation in this industry, because so many people, you do talk to so many people and they say like, well, I've had a really horrible experience or my, you know,

speaker-0 (26:13.046)

my family member had a really horrible experience. And so I think that, you know, just understanding that the human aspect of all this and trying to keep it organic is super important.

Yeah, man, man, it really is. It's, you know, I did commercial commercial video production probably 10 years ago. That's what I started out doing. And over the over the past 10 years, it has the landscape has changed so much, especially in paid ads. So what we used to do would be, you know, these really elaborate commercials and we would, you know, it would take three days and you would hire all this talent.

create these scenes and all this stuff to promote this product or something that was going to go on Facebook ads. And now you see such a difference to where, yeah, no one's engaging with that. So that $50,000 that you spent on that commercial, it doesn't translate on social media more than not ever. But know what does convert? It's a UGC video, a user-generated video where someone's holding their phone in their hand, they're talking directly to the camera.

Maybe it's got a teleprompter on there. Maybe it's giving them some bit of guidance, but just that interaction, that is how people are using social media. So even on a paid ad side, you're using the exact same content. You're using that organic content that you're already creating. You're just pouring a little gas on it and giving it some distribution. And like you said, if you're strategic with it, then you can target those different neighborhoods and do your geofencing so that it's more effective.

You it all comes down to being authentic. What you said you guys were already like, were you five weeks into the content creation part of this?

speaker-0 (27:58.03)

Yeah, we're five weeks into basically, I think it's five, maybe it's closer to six going into this. We kind of have to look at the calendar. But basically, we're about five or six weeks in from the conscious decision we made to go all in on the Instagram aspect of things. And we kind of we were conversing with the consultant. He's like, you guys have a business page established yet. I have my personal page in case he had his.

And he did an analysis and he said, you know, Kendrick, think if you're willing, I volunteer, said, if you want to take my page, I will, I don't need to be Kendrick on Instagram anymore. could sacrifice to the construction gods and turn it into a company page. And that's what we did. And there was a lot of pros to that. There was already a network and a presence established on my page from people I knew here locally and similar people in industries, lot of realtors, a lot of other people that are investor, know, investors are in that space.

And so that helped, think, already having that pre-established baseline of following. it's since then, since we've done this push over the course of five or six weeks, everything you see in that timeframe has been done under the premise of trying to put the company under the spotlight and just show people what we're doing and showcase the ongoing projects that we have. And here's a couple that we just finished and trying to

remain as active as possible. it is, I mean, it's a lot of work. is truly, if you want to be dedicated and disciplined to it in order to maximize the return, the reality, and this is why people end up hiring it out to a third party where they send one of their cronies to your job sites every day for 30 minutes to get the stories and to take the videos and to go back and edit it and to post it and do all the interaction with people that are reaching out. It's so critical to maintain a consistent presence.

And one of the best pieces of advice I've heard now twice, not only from the consultants, but also from another successful local business here. And it's an HVAC company. I met the owner the other day. We connected through social media. He's now hopefully I think going to be our HVAC, our go-to HVAC technician. the summary of that statement each made and originally was this. You have to be, if you want to have the highest thoughts, the highest success rate of gaining new business.

speaker-0 (30:25.282)

by way of social media, you have to constantly be getting in front of faces all day, seven days a week. And it may be the same faces you're getting in front of. It should certainly be a portion of new faces you're getting in front of. But you have to subliminally communicate to people that are constantly seeing you that you are the go-to guy in their area to call on. Because when that becomes imprinted on them, when they're constantly seeing you and they're constantly recognizing the logo,

and the name and the faces and the voices, when it comes up in their life that they need this service, whether it's for themselves, a friend, a family member, a coworker, the goal is they're going to go, wait a second, I keep seeing KL builders every three hours on my Instagram. They must be the best because I keep seeing them, you know? And that's just one example of like the pure volume.

of flow that you have to put into those outlets to kind of make sure you're staying in front of people as often as possible. It makes total sense, but make no mistake, it is a commitment. You can't just do a story here and there, a post every three to four days and hope that you're going to be landing on the masses to a volume that's going to get you sales. mean, you need to be getting in front of 20,000 people every seven days at a minimum to make it.

And it's its own natural referral program too. You know, like a lot of people in your industry will say, you know, yeah, I've built my business on reputation and just natural referrals. Well, organic and social media is just, it's a, it's just a virtual version of that. But you know, people that you'll, sure you guys will find this eventually if you haven't already, but you'll get referrals from people that have never done work with you, but I've just seen your content and going to refer you to other people.

So it almost, it kind of grows its own referral program naturally.

speaker-0 (32:15.682)

great correlation because... I haven't even told Casey this, but Il Nogo, I'm speaking of. To your point, and I'm using this as testament to how dead on you are and what you just said. Within our first couple weeks of running our first paid advertisement, this is about 2.5, maybe 3 weeks ago, within 24 hours, we got 2 major solicitations. Big. I think one was probably hovering somewhere around a $200,000 revenue-based contract. The other one was...

quite possibly could have been upwards of a $300,000 contract and both of which were by the channel of Instagram. One of which I ended up finding out. So she was another local luxury real estate investor. She does bigger scale flips similar to the projects that we do for our own internal projects. There's a local, there's another local flipper. She's a little, you know, I think she's been doing this for years, but she's very small scale. She does maybe two a year, but very nice.

She's been following me on Instagram, watching my investment properties now for probably about a year and was always seeing the stuff that I was posting. And so this other investor that reached out to us to get a bid ended up telling me, yeah, know, such and such actually sent me your Instagram page because she said you guys would definitely be the ones to take care of me for a project like this. This other gal that was the one that did the referral, who I'd never spoken to once in my life, by the way.

I just knew she followed the page. She reached out to me yesterday on the story and was like, my gosh, that's so cool. Are you guys going to build an addition? Cause I know you always build additions. I said, yes, we are. Like you're exactly right. And then I remember like, Oh, by the way, cause I've never actually engaged with her said, Oh, by the way, I, I was made aware of that. Your friend Lori was, you were the one that actually recommended she reach out. And I just wanted to say, I really appreciate you making that referral.

It means a lot to us that you would recommend us." And she just responded right away and she said, absolutely. I've been following you for so long now and I love all of you. And there's nobody else I would recommend for a project of that type or that size. And in this is, I'm like kind of starstruck or awestruck. I'm like, wow, I guess there's probably more than just her in the shadows that are kind of watching and maybe talking to other people. It was a really cool correlation. was a very cool experience to have that.

speaker-1 (34:42.612)

Yeah. Well, so we've talked a little bit about what has worked for you guys, but tell me some challenges that you guys are facing and then how you're going to address some of those next year. Just a current challenge that you guys are just kind of focused on tackling in the upcoming year.

The big thing I've been focused on lately, especially since Kendrick and I have been game playing and strategizing on how to kind of fine tune this process that we kind of have been working on building is getting the right guys on the team. Like you mentioned, subcontractors. I've been pretty fortunate to do what I've done because I have a handful of guys on my team right now that are very, very good at what they do.

And not even just from a craftsmanship point of view, but they're trustworthy, they're honest. One of the guys on my team, he's almost like a mini GC, I call him sometimes because I can basically say, hey, I need this, this, this, and this done. And he can, he can take care of a half a dozen different tasks or things on a job, which is huge for me. If I'm a one man show wearing every hat, having a guy who I can kind of

put some stuff on to his plate and he can kind of help delegate a little bit. There's a ton of value in that. On the flip side, we obviously have a couple for sure. And I'm sure a lot of contractors go through this where you're constantly trying to fine tune to find the right guy for the team. The big thing I really try to look for in guys is if they're honest and if they're just willing to be a team player.

At the end of the day, I kind of look at construction as a team sport. Like everybody's not in it to win it together. And it's just going to make the project a whole lot more difficult. And so trying to find the right guys where we'll end up pitching and land a hand on something that, I mean, even something as simple as helping sweep up at the end of the day, it's maybe not even their debris by any means. It may be from another guy who left earlier and didn't pay attention to it or lending a hand, moving some stuff. Things come up.

speaker-2 (36:53.39)

all day, every day on construction sites. And so to have guys who are on the team willing to play ball is very important. So we've been fortunate. We have a handful of good guys on the team, and then we're working through some of the guys on the team who maybe don't fit so well and trying to find how to fill those gaps and those holes in the bucket, so to speak.

Yeah. Is there anything you guys are doing to keep those, those people around the good people? Yeah. it could be, yeah. Incentives just showing, you know, additional appreciation. mean, just, just things to show these, the, good people you guys like working with that, Hey, you're important to us. We want to work together for a while. You know, don't get distracted by someone over here. That's maybe, you know, over promising something. Is there anything that

and slip into

speaker-1 (37:45.324)

that you guys are doing to try to keep those relationships real tight and strong.

This is something I've thought about a lot lately over the year because every once in a while. So I did some big commercial work before KL Builders and you get a yearly bonus, right? And from time and time again, I've shot some of my guys cash and give them a bonus and say, hey, thank you. It's actually something I've been thinking about a lot lately because I wouldn't be able to do what I do without a lot of the guys that are on my team.

and I know they're very appreciative of the constant workflow that I've been able to give them. The Kendrick's been able to give them. also trying to be, cause again, there's a stigma out there with a lot of contractors, builders or investors, and they're not the friendliest. They're not the nicest. And so we try to really be cool with the guys and have a lot of fun. It's been something on my mind lately, though. I heard, I forget who said it, but they said something along the.

lines of when you're like a bonus per se, right? Trying to find ways to personalize the... Or you're incentivizing the employee, the subcontractor, whoever it is, find a way to make it kind of more personal or catered to maybe what they like. It hasn't been something that I've implemented yet or done yet, but it's definitely been something that's kind of been on my mind and I've been trying to think of some ways.

to figure out how to take better care of the guys who on the team. Because like I said, at the end of the day, I wouldn't be able to do this if it wasn't for them.

speaker-1 (39:26.798)

Sometimes it doesn't even have to be a real big thing. We were talking to a home builder in Kentucky a while ago and he was saying that one of the strategies he has to keep his really good subs around is the subcontractor, let's say it's an electrician, the guys that the electrician had, he may go pick them up a box of pizza or something like that and bring it to the job site. And he was kind of helping out.

his subs guys, know, and show an appreciation for those and, know, maybe take them to, you know, a lunch, you know, real small things, but just to show that like, Hey, I'm appreciating you guys, you know, all along. I mean, it doesn't have to be anything huge, but you know, some of those small things can be, you know, the things that people remember of, Hey, these guys are cool. You know, we had a

We had maybe an issue that we worked through or, you know, hey, they brought all my guys a couple pizzas and it was just a random Tuesday. Sometimes just a small thing can go a real long ways.

Yeah, no, keeps the morale up for sure. Cause some days are, especially in the summer months, days get long and hard here sometimes. Yeah. Anything like that to keep the guys morale up, keep them happy, keep them satisfied.

Yeah.

speaker-1 (40:36.942)

and hot.

speaker-0 (40:43.15)

I would say just by way... mean, through the exposure experience from having first met Casey, then getting to know his subcontractors that he had originally created a roster of and there's been some new guys that we've thrown in the mix. But all of which we've developed pretty strong relationships with these guys, especially this last year. mean, any of these guys will tell you like...

the volume that they've been given in terms of workload this year by us has been pretty significant. I mean, so significant that you'd be hard to find a guy that was at home on the couch at any point in 2025. And if it was, it was for a day because it was weather related, you know? And so something that I learned just by exposure, I don't think he gives himself credit for this and he knows this about me because this is just how I think I am in my own nature. Respect goes a really long way.

for the guys that are swinging the hammer for you. And just the way you speak to them, just the way that your energy is to them when you're interacting with them. Numerous of these guys that I talk to and passing every day, and it may not even be about anything job site related, could just, I was your weekend and hey, I noticed you were sneezing on Friday, are you feeling better today? Just a little stuff like that. Portraying that you care about them, not just portraying and pretending, but...

genuinely having that within your heart of making them feel like you care about them and that they're not just a number to you and they're not just a soldier to be thrown in the meat grinder. These guys know that and they feel it because we had a tailgate talk with our electrician the other day and he looked me in my eyes and said like, you

As we work through pricing and as we start to get better grips on how we're going to be developing package prices for these really large projects, that was the that was kind of the root of the conversation. But he said, like, you guys, you guys treat me like nobody else has ever treated me. like, basically, what he said was, I'll do whatever you guys need me to do to make it continue to work. Just let me know because I want to keep working for you guys. You know, I don't want to I don't want to go out and have to find another relationship like this. I really like the way you guys treat me and talk to me.

speaker-0 (42:57.678)

And it was a very genuine, it was a very simple thing to say, but it was a very genuine moment. it's like, oh yeah, dude, that's right. Like most people at the end of the day, yes, we are doing this to make money. That's probably the universal truth. None of, none of us, none of these guys are showing up to the job site every day because they're, they're kicking their feet up, you know, pulling pedals off daisies because they have so much fun there. We like that environment. We want the guys to feel.

comfortable and happy and motivated to show up every day. And I genuinely think that they are, but just by way of treating them well, you know, from a personal level, I think goes so far. these guys, I mean, it's like, yes, I agree with you. And we could probably be better about this too, about actually like going out of our way to do stuff, you know, bring pizzas to the job sites or maybe host a dinner or an event. We've talked about maybe hosting an event at one of our completed projects to let everybody

into the house when it's staged and cleaned, let them see the fruits of their labor, bring their families. I think that's a really cool thing to do and we should probably do it. And those are all great things that keep people, you know, keep people feeling taken care of. But man, if there was one summary to what I say could go the longest, it would be just treating everybody humanely. And I think that everybody could get on board with that.

What advice would you give somebody that's doing the exact same thing as you guys today? Something you've learned along the way?

that you care, literally just show clients that you work for potential clients that you're trying to get the guys that you work with day in and day out, just show them that you genuinely care about everybody benefiting and everybody winning. And it's not just a game that you're trying to play to bat in your pockets or make your life easier. It's a, it's a game that we're going to be playing for the rest of our lives. Like I'm young, I'm 29. Like I still have another 30 years, probably a

speaker-2 (44:50.732)

working a career and so I'm not going anywhere time going anywhere anytime soon and a lot of the guys that I work with that's probably the same. I say, yeah, just showing people that you care goes a long way. Yeah.

You're cutting yourself a little short. mean, 30 years, I think you've got a good like 50 years. mean, Dick Van Dyke's 100 years old and he's still dancing and singing and going about, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. So maybe it's not the next 30 years of work. Well, that kind of leads in as we're wrapping up. Where do you see your guys in the next 10 years? What kind of projects are you working on? How are people viewing you guys? But what does 10 years down the road look like?

big custom homes.

and spec. is just is the goal is especially in 2026. And we're adamant about this. We've spoken about it. I'm a big advocate of sneaking things into existence because I've seen it time and time again in my life. So we look at 2026 as we get to the end of the year, we'll button up what we got going on. We start kind of turning the camera towards the next 12 month cycle. Figure out how to figure out how to scale at the current operation we're doing well at right now.

So bigger projects, more of them. But ultimately getting us to a point, like I said earlier in the conversation where I have the vision for us and I think Casey does too. And it's not just having the vision. feel in the depths of my soul that we are the guys for this. And that's an important part too, is just really believing that you're the right candidate to go off and get what you're trying to get. That we will graduate to the point where we are getting solicited to build.

speaker-0 (46:29.454)

beautiful big custom homes and some of the most expensive affluent neighborhoods here in the Phoenix metro area. And then we're going to pair that again with the other side of the business that I've kind of brought into the mix, which is the investing side and start building spec homes and just become a true builder, a high-end builder that is catering to high-end clients on the retail construction side that are also concurrently running speculative builds to bring to market.

And so whether you say it's 10 years from now, God willing to me it's one year from now. I want to have dust on my boots standing in the dirt on our, at a minimum, our first spec home 365 days from today. And come hell or high water, we're going to make it happen.

Do you already have kind of a rough idea of what type of home that looks like? There you go. If you don't picture it, then it will, nothing will come You have the visionary and I can tell you're a real visionary, but like when you have something so imprinted in your mind, it's so easy to see or to make these specific steps towards that, even down to the contractors of the slate. You know, we treat our contractors real well because you know what? If

if they're going to work with us on a spec home and maybe they need to put in a little extra, what better to have these good relationships now? Because in the next year, they're going to be working on the spec home together. That cost really is the utmost important thing because a small mistake can cost you $10,000, $20,000. So everything is just build it on paper first. What a great mindset.

to already have, you know, be looking years in advance. Real quick, who are there some people in the building world, construction world that you guys admire, people that you look at to draw inspiration from?

speaker-0 (48:20.14)

Yeah, we're fanboys of a couple.

Hahaha

Okay, tell me.

Tell them who our top dog is.

So locally, I like AFT construction. I'm a big fan of him and what they do. actually interviewed with him years and years ago trying to get a job. He's a big local favorite. There's a couple others. There's one in Utah, Killawin Construction. You're nailing it. And then another one in Newport Beach, California is Patterson Construction. So those are probably the top three of my favorites that I follow right now.

speaker-1 (48:52.952)

What do you admire about those guys?

They just, they just seem like genuine good dudes and it seems like they care, I think, to do anything at the level of what they do. Like, I mean, they're building like ultra, ultra luxury. Yeah. I mean, like the top of the food chain when it comes to real estate and what they're putting out on these builds. And I know a little bit, I've put a lot of time over the past handful of years into like,

$15-20 million home.

speaker-2 (49:24.92)

personal development and trying to see like the guys who are doing it at that highest level and like how they get to that level. And like they're almost like a freak in a way, like in a good way, but like it takes a certain personality or certain mindset to do the things that, that they do. and to do it for long periods of time and not quit and not give up and to have that grid, that fortitude, like I know what they do is not easy. And so it's just,

It's admirable, not even in the sense of like the projects they build, the money that their businesses could generate, but just, I mean, like we've talked about something like changing a light bulb for a client. mean, you can go all the way from that to building a $20 million home on the beach or on the side of a mountain. And I mean, it's just on a different, it's a completely different level. It's just admirable to see somebody do something like that because what I've been able to do in just a short

you know, four or five years has taken almost everything. And so I'm like, dang, how more do you got to give to get to that level? So it's admirable.

sure. think Albert Einstein said it's not what you know, but who you know, to really get somewhere. Yeah. Well, how can people watching or listening, how can they find out more about you guys?

Social media, yeah. mean the big push right now is Instagram. Anybody that's interested to just see kind of what we do for our day-to-day operations or maybe even a couple glimpses of previous projects, it's at KL Builders and then AZ. No underscores, no dots, no spaces. So that's where we're going to keep our presence the biggest for the probably the upcoming minimum six months and then we'll kind of take away from that what we need to and shift focus if we have to but that'll be the biggest platform for the time being.

speaker-1 (51:07.852)

All right, that's a wrap for this conversation. If you know someone who should be on this podcast, send us an email at info at bradyanpursuit.com and nominate them. We're always looking for great stories to share. And if you got something out of this episode, please leave us a quick review on the show. And if you're watching on YouTube, tap like and subscribe so we can share this with more people. I'm Jesse Sampley. Thanks for listening and I'll see you on the next one.