Q & A Episode 15 - What You Missed at the CSBUA Summit and the Contractor Coalition Summit
Episode #15 | Q&A with Mark D. Williams | What You Missed at the CSBUA Summit and the Contractor Coalition Summit
We are breaking down the breaking down the key takeaways from the recent CBUSA Summit in Minneapolis and the Contractors Coalition Summit in Boston. Don't miss it!
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About The Curious Builder
The host of the Curious Builder Posdast is Mark D. Williams, the founder of Mark D. WIlliams Custom Homes Inc. They are an award-winning Twin Cities-based home builder, creating quality custom homes and remodels — one-of-a-kind dream homes of all styles and scopes. Whether you’re looking to reimagine your current space or start fresh with a new construction, we build homes that reflect how you live your everyday life.
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Mark D. Williams 00:00
At the end of the day, at least for what I build. You know, people aren't coming to me as a low cost provider. You know, they want something that's executed at a very high level. They're looking for the journey, they're looking for the expertise, and they're looking for something that is different, something that's unique, something that's extremely well done and that aligns with what I want to do as well. I welcome
Mark D. Williams 00:27
to the cures builder Podcast. I'm Mark Williams, your host. Today is Thursday, so we've got our Q and A recently, I was asked about cbusa and contractor Coalition, which was in Boston. So those both happen kind of back to back. To back. So I thought I'd give a quick recap of what those were. So cbusa is a buyer group, fifth largest builder in the country, actually, if you add them all together, some around 900 builders collectively. And we're launching in the Minneapolis market, where the cures builder is recording. And so I've gotten to know a lot of the people there as they're interviewing builders here, I think we've got 12 builders. We've got room for about eight to 10 more here in our market. And just really networking with the builders from across the country, there was about 300 people at the conference, which was held in Minneapolis, and it was really great to hear some from some of the industry experts from around the country. I was lucky enough to host a panel as well about AI. So we had John Walker on the CTO of builder trend. We had Morgan Moller, who's also from Minnesota, talking about AI, how she uses it in her business, as well as Katie Cath from Jay Catherine vet. And so I won't go into all the specifics specifically on that, on that panel, because it is going to be recording that we will air on the curious builder. So if you're interested, that's what that's all going to be about. But it was really insightful, just listening to the builders talk about how they're using AI currently. And I think a lot of builders think, man, I you know, we're a construction we don't usually think of ourselves as technology adopters, but I like what was brought up is that actually construction is very advanced in technology. I mean, think about what we do to our homes. You think about energy compliance, code compliance, energy efficiencies. And really, I think builders are probably a lot more savvy on technology than they think, especially when it comes to physical technology, whether it's trusses or engineered specs and things that they're doing in their home. Obviously, I think, from an AI standpoint, we're thinking more about system management, things like that. And I had kind of argued that I think the industry that's the furthest that has the biggest gap, has the most to gain when you get a technology change like AI. And not only do we have a huge amount of people leaving the construction industry just based on age, I've talked a lot about that on the podcast, but I think we're gonna have a huge injection of youth both, because we have to, number one, we need to replace these jobs, the people that are doing the work in the field that are doing electricians and plumbers and cabinet makers and HVAC. I mean, all of it needs. We need more and more people in the trades, and it's a great industry. It's a great place to own a business. I think that doesn't get talked about enough, is that very few industries within just a handful of years could you own your own business. And I think it's something like 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every day, and I think it's only like one out of seven businesses are sold. So that's a lot of businesses that are very successful have operated for decades, but they either don't know how to sell their business or they don't have anyone interested. And so I think there's huge opportunity for the youth today to apprentice underneath someone who owns their company, somebody, you know, work for a couple of years. Work out a transition strategy you want, obviously, even need capital. I think one of the biggest detriments to owning a business is thinking like, oh, man, I've got to buy a business for 500,000 so they start their business. But I bet you could work out with some of these owners, you know, some sort of like a five year payback period. You know, they would essentially front the business cash, assuming it's a profitable business, and within five years, you could use proceeds from that business to buy out the previous owner. So, so many things to talk about. But, you know, back to AI, I think we're going to have a huge injection of of talent, people that are very equipped with AI, and I think it's going to radically change our industry. I mean, frankly, all industries, but I think construction is really going to huge, have a huge benefit, and really going to narrow up that gap of technology in the office and really around systems and management. And I think too, that, you know, we builders might be a little hard on ourselves, because we actually do use AI a lot more than we think. I mean, for those that are you know, let's say posting in LinkedIn, there's a rewrite script you just hit AI regenerate, and it automatically changes it. Anyone that's out there with newsletters or blog writing has been using chatgpt for several years now, because it's so great from a starting point or rewarding your sentences and. You know, as AI continues to develop, you know, plugins to your email to help speed up that process. That's be a game changer for myself. I know it exists out there. I'm playing around with Jasper right now to see how it can help me. You know, just take away, give me, give myself more time to be in the creative space, in the business operator space, versus just, you know, responding to all these emails.
Mark D. Williams 05:30
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That was just one segment of CBSA. We had a another break out there, Mike Emser, who's vice president Emser tile, had a panel all about relationships. So it was Tim Coughlin from all review out in Colorado. We had Brad Robinson from Bradford homes out of Atlanta. We had myself, Brad Levitt from AFD construction, and then Mike, and so it was really that whole panel was just talking about the power of relationships in our business and how they've transformed our business. And so that recording is not going to be a live podcast, or we did not record that for it, but it was really, really interesting to hear how some of the other businesses and other builders have really benefited from those relationships. I know I had a lot to say on that, just because I feel we're in a very relationship driven business. You know, I'm personally not really interested in transactions. You know, if it's just a transaction, it just, it's not very interesting to me, and I think even of how I've created relationships with my trade partners over the years. You know, a lot of my trade partners have been with me for well over a decade. I mean, that's a relationship, you know, I want to build homes together as a team. You know, I am not the master craftsman and when it comes to woodworking, but I have people that are, and so I really like the team that we have and the relationships that we're able to build that I think it really shows up in the way we build our homes for our clients. I feel like they can feel that level of execution as well, especially the chemistry between the trade partners and our team is very evident on the on the way we talk to each other, the way you collaborate. And, you know, I really argued quite hard that, you know, to me, you know, obviously cost is really important, but my value statement probably establishes more value on a relationship and repeatability than it does on a one time cost and again. This isn't to say that cost is an important metric in value. It certainly is. We have to be price competitive, but at the end of the day, at least for what I build, you know, people aren't coming to me as a low cost provider. You know, they want something that's executed at a very high level. They're looking for the journey, they're looking for the expertise, and they're looking for something that is different, something that's unique, something that's extremely well done, and that aligns with what I want to do as well. And then it was fun to just meet a lot of, a lot of people that started, you know, Bill, who created, started CBSA, you know, he's, he's still there, you know, making the rounds, talking to people, you know, builder trend recently bought CBSA, and so a lot of their upper management team was in town as well. And then we had a breakout session with just the local Minnesota builders that will be launching CBSA here in Minneapolis. And so it was just really interesting to hear how the process works. Process works and how it's what it's going to look like going forward. And then, actually, just later in that week, I flew out, just a few days later, out to Boston, so the contractor coalition summit that is hosted by Brad Levitt, Nick Schiffer from Ennis builders, we've got Morgan Molitor again, and we have Tyler grace from TRG home concepts and that, you know, it's been about two years since I went to my first contractor coalition, and this is the sixth one that they've put on. And I've been to four of them. People keep asking me, why do I keep going back? I think, you know, it starts with, you know, I think the first time you go to a contractor coalition, maybe you'll take a minute to explain what it is, you know, you've got basically three days of, you know, drinking through a fire hose in terms of information. So Brad and Nick and Morgan are basically just saying, Hey, we built these highly successful businesses and scaled them to pretty great heights. And. And this is how we did it, and this is what we do. You know, open book everything. This is our contract. This is how we show our sworn construction statement. This is how we market. This is how we do brand affiliation. This is what works. This is what doesn't work. They talk about contracts, what to include, what not to include, lots of fail stories. I mean, most entrepreneurs understand that the greatest lessons that you've learned are where you've stubbed your toes and slammed your face into a door, and so sharing those experiences with you know, the attendees in the class, as well as on their respective podcasts, is really how we level up our industry and make sure that all of us are compensated for what we do. I've kind of jokingly said that, you know, I've been business for 20 years. I think for 19 years, I have, you know, definitely undercharged my clients for what we do. And I think as you get more sophisticated, you understand your numbers better, and you understand your own self worth, it comes down to two things. One is confidence in what you do, and two, you know that competence really shows up and how you present yourself to your client. So it's kind of this funny. Kind of this funny thing, like, I wonder if you were confident when you were younger, yeah. And that confidence sometimes has to come with experience, obviously. So I guess you can't your past is what your past is, but learning different things. I mean, if you're running a cost plus contract, to quote my good buddy Matt from Adaptive, you can't plus what you don't cost. And so understanding that every single thing in your smart construction statement has to be above your bottom line, and then you apply your margin on it, I think we might know that in principle, and sometimes we even don't even know that. But then to get into the actual specifics of insurance, and you talk about everything, even your accounting software. You know if you have lawyer fees and all of those things, subcontractors agreements, if you're having someone review those for you. You know project management all in all auto goes. I mean, everyone knows that. You know the normal things like, obviously lumber and concrete and all those types of things. But there's so many operational soft costs that are on the business side, that if you didn't have that job, then you wouldn't incur those costs. Therefore, those costs need to show up in your song construction statement, because your client needs to pay you for that otherwise, you're doing that work for free. This episode is brought to you by Alpine hardwood flooring. They've been our partner now for over a decade, installing all our wood floors on all our new homes, as well as our remodels. And on a personal level, Adam and Anthony are just absolutely amazing people. They've been so supportive of my career, as well as doing anything we need to make sure that our clients are happy, and they work so well with our other vendors and trade partners at not only protecting their product, but also ensuring everyone else's looks great. So if you're looking for a wood floor or for a refinish, I highly recommend Alpine hardwood flooring. That was the first time I ever went to one of those. I just felt like, you know, my world just exploded. The second time you go, you realize, Okay, I've put into effect a lot of the things that I learned from that class and from those interactions with those people. You know, every night you go out for dinner, you know, in between breaks your talking shop, and it's a you probably learn as much outside the classroom as you do in terms of relationships and practical application. The other thing I really appreciate about the contractor coalition, unlike other you know, big seminars, is the interaction. You know, I'm somebody that learns from a lot of asking and a lot of dialog back and forth, a little bit more like tennis or ping pong. I don't do personally, really well just sitting there and just having someone speak to me the whole time. I don't learn that way. And so it's highly interactive, which is the number one reason I went the first time, second time, you're applying a lot of the information that you've learned. And so now it's kind of like you're hearing things the second third time, so you really are, are able to grasp it. The third time I went, I felt like, Okay, this is mostly review, a few nuances. I mean, there's still, there's still a lot of work to do. I mean, the real, I guess step one is the knowledge, but the real effort is what happens after you have that knowledge, how you apply it to your business, and then the fourth time. Now, I feel at this point, I could probably teach some of the classes, because I've heard of them so many times. And, you know, I've applied a lot of them. I found out what works and what doesn't work. And, you know, just being someone who's highly interactive, you know, oftentimes, you know somebody would, you know, talk about a particular topic, and I'd raise my hand and say, You know what, Hey, Brad or nick or Morgan said to do this, and I did this, and here was the here was what happened. And so I feel like sharing my experience with the people in the room that had hurt for the just time, for the first time in realizing that, you know, you can apply it to success, you can also find out that when you apply it, it might not work for you, so you have to do some nuances on it. But anyway, super, super great. And then, you know, just being in Boston is cool. One thing I really appreciate about the city, about the city is how clean it is. I've only been there once before, but I'm not a huge city guy, but Boston is really cool. City architecture is great. Kind of reminds me a little bit of Paris, you know, the brick buildings, kind of the, you know, the metal roofs, and just the architecture reminded me a lot of Paris, a little bit. And so. Just always fun, I think sometimes to get out of your daily grind. And so if you're considering going to something like that, I couldn't obviously recommend anything more than the contractor coalition, because they keep going.
Mark D. Williams 15:12
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To learn more, head to our website, the cures pillarpodcast.com, or to their website@www.hj law firm.com, one of the nights, actually, we, I was out there in a professional manner as well the gears builder podcast. We did something, what we called build buzz. So I interviewed Brad Morgan, Nick and Tyler, and we will air that episode as well on a few weeks. So I want to share, we basically in a in the past, like in Minneapolis, when we had the contractor coalition here in Minneapolis in May, we did a live event to maybe 100 120 people in Boston. There wasn't quite enough room to open up to the public to have a big kind of a live podcast, which is something I like to do. I like the entertainment side of it. I like interacting with audience. And so we did this one in a much smaller setting, so there was just 30 people in the room, a little bit more intimate, and it was really cool. I think one of the things that is always really enjoyable when you have repeat guests on both, Brad Morgan have been on the podcast a few times, and obviously these panels, they've been on a few times, but, and they're really good personal friends, too, but you develop some chemistry, and you can definitely hear when you ask questions and when you talk real openly, that you can get a lot deeper, a lot quicker, because you know each other's businesses a lot deeper. And so then the topics that you're talking about, the things that are being said, they're they're much, much deeper. And so yeah, the next one is coming up in June of next year in Omaha, and that's going to be at headquarters of buildertrend, one of the sponsors of the contractor coalition. And so curious build will be down there as well hosting a another live event down there. I think we're gonna have a bigger venue, so we'll probably open it up to, you know, anyone in Omaha as well as anyone that's obviously at the contractor coalition. So that was kind of a recap of what was happening at CBSA and the contractor coalition. And my wife is not super excited with all travel I've been doing here and such, back to back timeframe. And actually, this Sunday, I'm heading out to the second builder 20 meeting I've had. So I joined a builder 20. And for those that aren't familiar with that. Basically it's 20 builders from around the country, and you get together, you sign non disclosure agreements, but you talk about everything, you know, you show people everything, you share everything. And builder 20s are really, really helpful. You know, we talk on a text train, you know, throughout the week. You know, anytime I have a question about a client, the builder 20 is probably my first people that I go to that being said, it's interesting how everything ends up being sort of a Morph of another thing. And so I to me like the builder 20, you know, it really has a great place. And I highly, you know, advise joining one. I think there's a lot of value there. The contractor coalition is kind of like a three day builder 20. You don't have to sign in any NDAs, Brad Nick and Morgan and Tyler share everything they've got. So in terms of, like jump starting your business, that's like jumper cables, the ongoing relationship. You know, maybe a builder 20 is probably more of an ongoing relationship, because, you know, those 20 people, 20 builders from around the country, you can get insights from different parts of the country. But really, you can do the same thing with alumni from the contractor coalition. I stay in touch with several people that are alumni of the contractor coalition. And you know, if we're facing an issue, we'll call each other and say, Hey, I'm dealing with this. You know, how would you handle that? And so I think a lot of it depends on you as a person. If you're comfortable with sharing, you're going to find people that are also comfortable with sharing. And then that really, really the combination of those two things, the contractor coalition and builder 20 is sort of what gave the idea for me this year to start the peers builder collective. So we did kind of a beta test where we invited whatever builders wanted to show up here in Minneapolis, and we had to talk about contracts, just sit in small groups of nine. So we had three groups of nine and we had 30 people show up. It was amazing that turnout. And so I realized right then and there that, you know, this was something that I needed to do. I love education. I love bringing people together, and it's a lot smaller version, rather than three days builder 20 meets twice a year at a, you know, a different state every time. So it can get a little expensive, and it's. Three whole day. So six days a year, you know, 24 hours, and contracted coalition is three full days as well. I wanted something that was less expensive, that was much shorter and much more local. So, you know, what was born was the cures builder collective. So we meet four times a year for three and a half hours, and we'll have a specific topic, and we sit in these small groups and we just talk. And so we're coming up on our fourth one. We've done, let's see contracts. We've done banking, we've done energy, and like built green building science. We've done branding, and we're about to do client experience for our last one this year. That's five, if you're counting that. We had a kind of a bonus one in there during the summer, but we also started the curious collective for designers for the very same reason. It's like, I just like getting business owners together because there's so much to learn. So because the curious builder collective was going so well, I ran into a few designers at lunch, and I was explaining what we were doing, and they're like, Oh man, we don't have anything like that. So I was like, All right, so we just had our first design collective a couple weeks ago in September, that was great. We had 15 designers out. We talked about branding with Molly windmiller. It was such a blast. And we've got our second one coming up here in October or November, I think it is. And then we just, we're launching one for architects and for trades people. So it's like, I don't want, I don't want talking about business to be something that every group doesn't have access to so we're kind of creating these these small, little local collectives for people to get together. And then my goal next year, in 25 we have the whole season outlaid for all those different groups, but we're going to get together at sauna camp, which is in January, or potentially boot camp, which is in May, for those that are interested in that kind of thing, and then just try to find a reason to get everybody together to just talk. And I feel like, you know, you've got designers. Want to work with builders. Builders want to work with architects. Architects need builders. They need designers. It's like we have such a supportive community, why not create a community within a community that can interact? And so anyway, that's a few things that the curious builder's been up to here shortly, and we'll see you next week. 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