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- [00:00]
A
My definition of winning one is setting up my family so that it's like if I cease to exist, they're still taken care of. And then growing the company and trying to make it bigger and trying to get into more real estate investment and growing it out and growing it wide. I basically want to look myself in the mirror and see who The I became 10 years from now. It used to be, oh man, like the money would be cool, right? Like that's kind of the motivator was the money. And now it's like you don't need money for anything at the end of the day, like there's nothing that I like sit here, it's like, oh, I need a Ferrari, I need a, you know, Bugatti. Or like I don't fit in cars, right? Like I don't want a car because I don't fit in the thing. So it's like I. You can only buy so many things before you're just like, dude, it's boring. Why do I need a 15,000 square foot house when 1500 fits me and my wife? The money at the end of the day is to set up for more of long term wealth and allowing like your family to come over and capitalize off of what you've done. Hopefully try to grow it, not crash it.
- [01:02]
B
The code to winning insights you need today to seize the world tomorrow. Today we actually still in Las Vegas. We actually right now have access to the balcony. We in Sin City. It's amazing. We've been getting a lot of entrepreneurs from variety of different, different industries and fields as well. Today if you're curious in learning a bit more obviously in the real estate space, we're going to talk a bit more about just building, building homes, investing a variety of different fields within the aspect we actually have in the studio. He goes by the name of Hunter from the wwe. No, it's not, it's Brock Helioke as well. So we're gonna talk a bit more about him, the man himself. Welcome to Studio Boss. How you doing? Good, how are you doing? Well, thank you very much. Yeah, can you just, I mean just go through pretty much who you are and how you started in the field that you're currently in right now.
- [02:05]
A
Oh man, I've been in construction for a long time so like 14 part time job through the summer. I work, work for my dad and his business partner doing, you know, concrete, concrete labor. When you're 14 and you work with like 30, 40 year old degenerates in construction, it's like you pretty Pretty well get like some language that you're not really accustomed to when you're in like eighth grade, right? Like, you hear, you hear some. So, so you get a little rough around the edges. You get used to cursing and carrying on, you know, more adult conversations when you're a little younger than you probably should be doing that. But anyway, it's fun experience got through there. Kind of when I got through school, it's like, man, I want to go into psychology, I want to go into philosophy, which neither one of them pay anything really. You know, like find that out after like my first year of school. It's like, hey man, like you can go make like 35 grand after you get a master's degree in psychology is like a clinical psychologist. It's like, I can go down the road right now and drive trash truck for 65 grand with a thousand dollar CDL. You know what I mean? Like, the, the two aren't really balancing out. Like in my mind, I'm sitting here like, man, I got six years of school or I've get a thousand dollar CDL in like a couple weeks, right? Like, and I can make double the money. Like, why am I doing this traditional thing that everyone's telling me to do, you know, so not that I really wanted to be a trash truck driver, but then I, you know, went in full time into concrete construction. Just kind of dove into that a few years into it, I'm kind of just like, man, like I, I need to, I need to make a change. I'm. I don't want, like, I don't want to be living day to day.
- [03:58]
B
Yeah.
- [03:58]
A
Like, I don't, I don't want it to be like paycheck to pay paycheck every week. Like I'm broke at the end of the week. Like then I didn't really know what I was doing. I just knew, like, looking at my boss, I'm like, you're doing better than me and I want what you have. Right? So it wasn't like I didn't really have anything figured out. I didn't really have a plan. It was just more like my, my assimilation was like, if I have my own company, I can better position myself to have what you have, right? And set myself up my family for, you know, something a little bit better.
- [04:36]
B
And how long were you working for your boss at that time?
- [04:38]
A
I'd been with them probably about two or three years now.
- [04:41]
B
And that was in Utah, right?
- [04:43]
A
Yeah, yeah, we worked Utah. Nevada was kind of where, where we would work, so.
- [04:48]
B
And when did you start your construction or Building Company?
- [04:52]
A
2000, I think. 2000. 2002 or 2003.
- [04:55]
B
Okay.
- [04:56]
A
I was, I think 21, 22 at the time. When I got licensed, my boss was pretty cool. I got into it. I did a few little side jobs here and there. Got a contract with the company out of St. George to do some of their flat work. He was, he was pretty cool about giving me like Fridays off. He's like, yeah, you can go take like Thursday Fridays off or whatever and go do your deal after a couple months. He's just like, dude, you got to figure it out. Like, either you're, you're in or you're out kind of deal. Like, like, I, I can't have you part time. Like, you either gotta come, come with me full time or you gotta take the step and go do your own thing.
- [05:34]
B
And then when you started it, did you end up getting funding from businesses and, and entrepreneurs, or did you just start everything from yourself, from the ground up and like your own.
- [05:45]
A
Everything was ground up. Everything was just. I just started doing stuff and everything that I would buy equipment wise, I, I started, I, I buy it cash. So I, I did have, you know, credit credit with like, the material suppliers and stuff like that. So as far as being able to be supplied, you know, concrete materials, rebar supplies, stuff like that, we had like credit accounts with, with those companies. But everything else was, was funded like basically just out of pocket. So it just started really super small by myself, no employees, shoveling dirt. Rather than hiring, you know, people with equipment to come do it. Never really went into like buying the heavy equipment. Like, I would just, to me, I found it was like, man, I, if I hire this guy for 45 bucks now, like at the time, you know, it's like 45, 50 bucks an hour. Got me like a skid steer. And the operator, I'm like, that's an extra guy, right? For 45 bucks an hour. And it's like he's, he's, he's helping me and he's got equipment and I don't have to pay him other than the 45 bucks an hour in the new series, you know. And so that's kind of, kind of how I got started. And then it's a little interesting that, you know, I get in and it's. You do a, you do a few jobs, a couple thousand dollars. It's like I ended up my next set of sex. Next set of houses were like 15, $16,000. Homes was for the concrete scope portion of These jobs. So that was, you know, my, my bid for, you know, footing some foundation flat work or whatever on these houses. And I'm like, dude, I don't have 16 grand. I've got two houses I just contracted. That's 32 grand, right? Like my is on the line for like $32,000 if this thing goes to hell. Like I'm broke, you know, and obviously it didn't, it worked out, you know what I mean? But it's, it went from where your, your comfort level was, you know, 30, you know, 15, 20 grand a house to then I got into custom houses. So now I'm doing seventy, eighty thousand dollar concrete scope, works on like, you know, five, six thousand square foot.
- [07:57]
B
Yeah.
- [07:57]
A
Not nice custom homes. And within a matter of six months I'm bidding 2, 3, 4 million dollar commercial jobs, you know what I mean? And so I, it, a lot of people's like, oh, it's scary. But I think it's like, it's scary when you dip your toes into the water, but then when you like actually walk out there into it, it's like, oh, it's really not so bad, right? Like, why am I so panicked? And, and I think just taking that initial step into it, it's like, it's almost like, like you're like you're stepping into a death wish, right? Like when you initially step out there and then you're just like, oh, okay, like cool, now we can rock and roll, right? Like now, now it's not so bad, right? Like now I'm accustomed to this isn't as scary as I thought it was, I guess, right? Like you get on a roller coaster, it's like, oh, I didn't die. Cool, let's do it again, right?
- [08:52]
B
Like that's a good analogy.
- [08:54]
A
Kind of the same thing is it's like you stepped out there, it's like, dude, I didn't go to zero, right? Like I made money. Let's go do the next thing you know. And then you go do it and then they get bigger and then they get bigger and then they get bigger and it's, you know, all of a sudden it's like now you're, you're doing multi million dollar deals and you're just like, like six months later and you're looking back like dude, I was scared to do this $5,000 sidewalk job for this guy. You know what I mean? Like you just get used to it. I think a lot.
- [09:21]
B
One thing I noticed, many people, especially within the blue collar space, they are very, very Good at in, within the industry, whatever specific task or expertise is really channeled on, whether it's either building or roofing, whatever it may be. However, sometimes they are not financially as have that, what do I call it, the financial literature. To understand how accounting books and all the different stuff, you know, kind of with the business side of things as well. Do you feel like you end up like already did you have that already or did you learn that over time? Did you get the right mentors? How, how did you figure out that part of the running the business aspic as opposed to just being blue collar and building?
- [10:11]
A
So the business. It took me a long time to really figure out like the back end stuff is probably more important than like the front end stuff or at least equally important, you know, like learning your taxes, learning, you know, how to keep all your books and everything organized on the back end is really. And it's something I still kind of struggle with, with as far as, you know, that goes. I've got accountants and bookkeepers and stuff like that in place now. But it's like, you know, originally starting out, it's like, dude, I don't want, I don't, I don't want any issue with the irs. Just pay whatever and make it go away, right? Like, so it's like I wanted nothing to do with it. It was just like, pay somebody to make me not go to jail, right? Like I'm making money, I don't care what it cost me. I think, I don't know, probably six, seven years ago, I, you know, through home building and stuff, I went out, made some purchases that weren't like tax write off approved I guess. So it's like now I've got all of this stuff, I've got all of my money tied into this thing that now I cannot write. I write any of that money off and now I owe all of this tax, but all of my money is already gone, right? And so I'm like, oh crap, like I'm going to figure out how to not ever really have to pay taxes, right? Like that's so the last probably five or six years. It's like I got to figure out how to not pay taxes because most business owners don't understand that like taxes are probably your biggest expense that you're going to get, right? Like you make money, you pay 40% of it back to the government at the end of the year and it's like you just never get ahead. And you got to figure out a way to really get past paying 40% back to the government, like it's okay to pay them a little bit, but it's like that money, the more of that money that stays with you, the faster you can grow your business. If you're always making the money and then paying a whole bunch out and then starting almost from ground zero again, going, going into the next year, it's like halfway through the year is when you finally get the momentum and then the end of the year you're wiped out again. And that just seems like this cycle that keeps going over and over and over again. And for me it was like, dude, figure out how to not ever have to pay taxes, right? Like figure out a strategy or some strategies that can come in and offset these taxes to where you're not just getting wiped out at damage here. So that's kind of like the real estate aspect as far as like the long term holds and stuff that I do is part of my strategy on, you know, what we do for our taxes to be able to not have to pay out as much at the end of the year, which gives us the ability to kind of grow every year.
- [13:04]
B
Awesome. And obviously 2002, 20, 25, it's about 23 years running right now. What would you say has been the biggest financial year in terms of like revenue that you've accumulated? How much have you made? Like the most in one year this year?
- [13:20]
A
I think this year is going to probably be your best because typically so for the last, I don't know, seven, eight, nine years, we've been pretty, just content of, you know, we're there, 10, 12 houses a year. I can manage that by myself. I don't have to have a whole bunch of staff or anything like that. Within the last couple years we've had a bunch of big players, Dr. Horton Lennar, big builders come into our little small area, right. And so I've kind of started seeing the writing on the wall. It's like these guys are going to come in, they're going to buy, they have the capital to come in and buy a development that somebody's doing that's an 80 lot subdivision. Like they can come in and just buy the whole thing out. So it's like at some point when they come in full, full force, like I'm not going to have product unless I've kind of ramped everything up to where I can go produce my own product. So this year we've, we've got up to where we should be somewhere in that 20 to 25 home range. So we've doubled or close to doubled what we've done in the previous years. And then the goal for next year is to double on top of that.
- [14:27]
B
Okay.
- [14:28]
A
So at some point I think the goal, the overall end goal is to kind of get in that 80 to 100 homes a year to where we're doing, you know, on average a couple a week with starts. But right now it's like we, we get, we got pretty close to our goal this year. I think like I said, we were to double, which would have been 24. I think we're going to probably end up being about 20 or 22 by the end of the year. So I think we'll be pretty close to what we were shooting for. And then if we can double that again next year, then we'll be on track to kind of hit where we want to be within the next four or five years.
- [15:04]
B
Awesome. And so when people come and approach you, is it, is it to build a home and like do you do multifamily? What's the actual process when people come and approach your service of business?
- [15:16]
A
So for us like we, we don't specialize in like high end homes or kind of, we're mid level homes. So more affordable housing. It's you know, not tracked housing. It's semi custom, so a little bit above, you know, the bare, bare bones minimum. But we, we like to kind of add more customized features to the house, allow more tweaks, you know, on the floor plans, colors, stuff like that so people can come in and get a, a pretty customized home for a fraction of what you would pay for a fully custom home. Okay, but we, I guess an answer to your question, it's like we do have different products for different people. So can we build you know, million dollar plus homes? Yes. Do we like to? Typically not.
- [16:07]
B
What's the range currently in, Currently we're,
- [16:11]
A
I try to stay in the, you know, know 4 to 500,000 range. It's a pretty good mid level market. Most people can, you know, afford that product. It seems like a, for retirees, it seems like they're, they're trading a house that's too big for them for something that it's like a little lower maintenance. So that kind of gets them into that, you know, 15 to 1800 square foot.
- [16:36]
B
Do you, do you do renovations as well or you just build homes mainly?
- [16:39]
A
I, I don't like doing remodels. There's, for me it's a whole lot of unknown. Like you get into it, it's like, oh well, we gotta tear this wall out and then, oh, the plumbing's in there. So now we got to tear all the plumbing out or tear into the floor and it's like, oh, the floor's rotted. We, you know, like, there's a whole lot of like, what ifs on there. I've just really like, our process is dialed on new homes and it's like we can crank them in 90 days. So like most other builders in the area, they're five, six month builds. Like we can, we can blow through the same thing in a fraction of the time.
- [17:17]
B
Interesting. So 90 days is from building something, from just having a stand to building the entire home in 90 days.
- [17:24]
A
So start to finish, the second we show up to dig footings to the time that you're getting your keys. 90 days.
- [17:31]
B
That is impressive. That's impressive. Wow. And you specialize that in Utah?
- [17:37]
A
Utah, southern Nevada. So not quite into Vegas yet. We're in the Mesquite. Mesquite, Nevada. We're into southern Utah, Cedar City areas, mainly. The two areas that we build, Cedar and Mesquite.
- [17:48]
B
So what's one of the toughest challenges that usually face? Pace. And the field that's so demanding physically as well?
- [18:05]
A
Well, I think more just scheduling and keeping everybody on, on pace. You know, like we, we've, we've got a really good group of subcontractors that we've used and like, they're, they're kind of dialed in with our process to where it's rinse and repeat. But it's like there's just always, there's always something. There's always a, there's always a holiday on a Monday that, shoot, that kills the day. There's always, you know, a rain day or a snow day or it's too windy to pour concrete or something, you know, so it's just, just elements that just always kind of take you by surprise. You know, you see a lot of these guys like, oh, what's your calendar look like? It's like, dude, I don't have a calendar. Like, you look at my phone, there's nothing on any day of any week on my phone. Because it's like I wake up in the morning from 4. It could be 4 o' clock in the morning, could be 6 o' clock in the morning. It doesn't matter. Whatever, you know, whatever time I'm up, it's like I don't have a plan because I know by 6:30, 7:00 in the morning my phone's gonna ring and I've got fires to put out. That is just stuff that has to. That has to happen. Right? So there. Whatever I want to schedule, even if I wanted to schedule it, I just know that there's. If there's stuff that needs to get done, I make sure that it gets done. But for the most part, it's like, I can't tell you that it's getting done at 10 o' clock because I might have something that's more pressing over on a job that needs to be taken care of beforehand. So as disorganized as I am, like, the house takes precedence over anything. So it's like, you look at my desk and there's just papers everywhere. And my wife's just like, how do you know where everything's at? Like, she'll clean. She'll clean it up. And I'm like, what the did you do with all this? Like, where did you put it? Right? Like, I put it over here. I'm like, how can you find it? I'm like, well, I knew it was in this pile, like, third down. Like, the paper I was looking for was in this pile three. Three pages down. And I knew I could just grab it off the table and look at what I needed to look at. Look at and then put it back. Right? So to me, it was like disorganized chaos of, like, my organization. Right? But it's like, so I knew where it was. Nobody else knew what the hell was going on. Right?
- [20:16]
B
Fair enough.
- [20:17]
A
But it's like, that's. That's my chaos. And I understand it, but it's like above anything. Like, these never, like, the schedules never really get off. Like, I. I make sure that's takes precedence over anything, that we just stay on schedule.
- [20:34]
B
I love that a lot. Obviously, we've seen a vast improvement in terms of innovation, the utilization of artificial intelligence, how AI is reshaping building as well. I've seen how some of these, like, 3D models, 4D models, where people can actually see their homes inside and stuff like that. Have you and your company often incorporated that form of model as well?
- [20:57]
A
We haven't. I. I know we're kind of going through like an overhaul on the website right now. So we do have some pretty cool tools that I think they're trying to implement to where it's like we can pull up, Pull up the floor plans, turn them into a 3D view, and then allow them to actually go in and like, move walls so that it's like, oh, if we make this room a couple feet bigger, what does it do? Like, if we move this, if we eliminate this wall wall or you know, add this wall over here, what, what is it going to look like? And so I think we do have some pretty cool features that we're in the process of putting out that I, I think will be pretty beneficial color schemes that people can go in and kind of click on and like place no place. You know, like wall colors and flooring colors and stuff like that. So you kind of get a, kind of an idea of what it looks like beforehand. But yeah, it's, it's, it's coming. I think it's a little bit early, but like we are kind of working that way, if that makes sense.
- [22:00]
B
So I, I know we've been here in Vegas, this conference three, four days. I don't know if I told you, I was born and raised in South Africa before. So the thing is, in South Africa, almost all the homes are made in brick. I've been here approaching 10 years, if not 10 years already, and I've noticed there's a certain material that's used to build the homes in the United States especially, obviously. And I've lived most of my life in like the west coast of, I mean most of my time in the U.S. in the west coast, Utah, Idaho, California, all that kind of stuff. Stuff. What's, what material do they use? What material do you guys use?
- [22:45]
A
Stick frame, mainly. So it's a lot of lumber, a lot of.
- [22:49]
B
I noticed that material doesn't that pick up on fire and stuff?
- [22:53]
A
It's definitely not fireproof for sure. But I mean every, every wood's gonna burn. You know what I mean? That's like. You've seen the California fires. It's, you know, pretty good example. You got all these houses that were sitting up in Malibu.
- [23:06]
B
Yeah.
- [23:06]
A
Hills. Right. That have 40, 50, 60 year old lumber that's been sitting there drying out for however long. And it's like they caught on fire and it's just like they burned. You know what I mean?
- [23:19]
B
So my question with that though, can you still build brick or is that a bit more expensive?
- [23:24]
A
I think. Right. Like the, the most cost effective way to build right now is through your traditional stick frame frame. So is there like, could you build out of like solid block? Yeah. Could you build like we've done houses where we've done like foam, like ICF systems where they're like foam blocks or foam panels that you fill with concrete. Right. And it's. So, so that is an option. And, and honestly, like through the COVID era when lumber skyrocketed and 4 by 8, 9, 16 OSB went to like 100 bucks a sheet. Like, I'm like, man, does it now make sense? Like is buying, you know, an ICF system that's foam and concrete, it's going to be a more solid product, actually equal out cost cost wise. Right, right. Like, because at the time it was always about 30 or 40% more expensive to do the ICF systems. But it's like, and if I'm paying 10 bucks for a 2x4 stud and I'm paying 100 bucks for a sheet of plywood, it's like now worth my cost. Right. Because everything had went up by 5,6x for material.
- [24:46]
B
Yeah.
- [24:47]
A
So what I was paying for three houses a year ago. Like now I'm paying for one for my lumber package. And so it's like, well now does it make sense to kind of lean this way? And it got pretty close to where I'm like, yeah, like let's, let's start doing some houses with some ICF systems or some non traditional ways and then everything kind of, you know, plateaued and come back down after that.
- [25:12]
B
Okay.
- [25:13]
A
But yeah, right now like you're still like mature. Materials are down to a pretty, pretty good level. I mean they're not, they're not super cheap, but they're not over the top expensive.
- [25:25]
B
So and then with if a home's going to be about 500,000, how much of that is going to be subcontracted? And how much of that does your company make revenue out of?
- [25:39]
A
It kind of depends. So I shoot for between 20 and 25% percent profit margin.
- [25:43]
B
Okay.
- [25:45]
A
So right now the market's a little soft. So it's like you offer incentives, you offer a few other, you know, some, you know, closing costs or builder incentives.
- [25:59]
B
Is it 20, a small amount?
- [26:03]
A
Well, you figure 20 of 500,000.
- [26:06]
B
Yeah.
- [26:06]
A
So we're making, you know, that's kind of what I shoot for is around, you know, 85 to 100 grand a house.
- [26:13]
B
Okay.
- [26:14]
A
That's what we, we shoot for, for our profit margins.
- [26:17]
B
Okay. And do you subcontract majority of the stuff in terms of like people that are building the homes and stuff like
- [26:24]
A
that or basically everything.
- [26:25]
B
Okay.
- [26:26]
A
So yeah, it's, I mean we do, we do a few little things in house, but for the most part it's like everything's everything things just subcontractor management, everything's in house. Scheduling's all done in house. But yeah, every, every trade is subcontracting out.
- [26:48]
B
And then would you say I Want to just kind of like try and come to the point where we can concluding. I'll ask just two, two more questions as well. We had a great conversation the last few days on, on economics. The dollar, bitcoin gold indices. We know that there was a recession, the great recession that occurred 2008. 9. Around that period of time there was Covid that happened as well. What is your strategy to try and overcome recession proof business? Like what are you doing right now to try and do that recession?
- [27:29]
A
I don't know that anything's recession proof. I think at some point it's like you just do what you do and keep grinding and hope that everything stays, you know, above water, right? Like I, I don't know that there's really a clear cut strategy that you can implement that's to going to guarantee you anything, right?
- [27:53]
B
Like,
- [27:55]
A
like you look at this, it's like if, if it was guaranteed it would cease to have value, right? Because it's like it, everybody could do it. So if it was guaranteed that you could go buy gold and become a millionaire or ride through like bad parts of economy. It's like. And it was easy to do, everyone would do it, right? So having the uncertainty is what actually makes it, you know, profitable in the back end. That being said, it's like there are certain things that you can do or invest in that you know, maybe a better play. For me, I'm not a bitcoin guy. I'm not like, I'm not a guy that wants to trade tangible money for a holographic image of a coin, right? That I can only see as long as the power buttons on, on my computer screen. Like to me that's not an asset. Like people look at it as an asset and it's like, I guess if you look at it like a stock, like we were talking, like if you looked at it as a stock and you're riding the highs and lows and you're buying and selling and doing stuff like that, then, then you can make money on it. But I think long term, I think it's like what value does bitcoin have? Like, like what is the actual value of something that doesn't exist? You know, gold exists. Like if I turn my computer off and I have a bar of gold in my safe, like the gold's still there. If I turn the light switch off, the gold's still there, right? Like if I turn the light switch off on my computer, my bitcoin's gone. So turn the power out to the world. Bitcoin's gone forever. You know, gold's still there, A house is still there, an apartment complex is still there, you know, so, and with assets too, like, like here's kind of the crazy thing with assets. If I'm gonna go buy a hundred thousand dollars worth of gold, I have to trade a hundred thousand dollars worth of some kind of currency for that gold, right? Like it costs me equal value of what asset that I'm buying, right? Bitcoin's the same way. If I, if I'm buying a bitcoin, it's gonna cost me, I don't know the value of bitcoin is today like 100 grand, right? If I buy a Bitcoin for 100 grand, like I have to trade a hundred thousand dollars worth of cash for that coin, okay? If I go buy a hundred thousand dollars worth of real estate, I can buy that with $20,000 and finance the other eight, right? So I can make, I can make an investment that's going to appreciate that. I can also depreciate out and take off some, like, you know, offset taxes and stuff like that with it, all with 80 of somebody else's money, all with bank money. So for me it's like I can leverage my money to get more in real estate and that's the play. That's what I know. And so that's what I do. So like if you're a stock guy and you understand stocks really well, go play in that market. That's what, that's probably where you should be. If you understand bitcoin really well, it's probably a market for you, right? Like for me, none of those markets make sense. And so that's not the markets that I'm in.
- [31:08]
B
Love that,
- [31:11]
A
yeah. I think, you know, real estate just gives you, it gives you the advantage to be able to use bank money to leverage assets and be able to collect assets quicker. But it, it's also not one of those sexy businesses like everyone thinks, where it's like, oh, I'm a real estate investor, I'm gonna make millions of dollars tomorrow, right? Like it's a long term play. It's a 10, 20 year play. Like I don't go buy a property and be like, I made a million dollars on this thing. Like every now and then maybe you can buy something and it's like the value increases, like, cool, I can sell that and double my money for the most part. It's a 10 year play. Like you have to be in it long term and you have to be patient enough to Be like, I'm not making money tomorrow, but 10, 15 years from now, I'm gonna make my money. And so I think if you can, if you can have that mindset, then I think real estate, it's a good investment for you. If it's a quick gain that you're looking for, probably stocks or crypto, you know what I mean? Because you can buy, sell stuff like that.
- [32:21]
B
Awesome. Now that's powerful. I know I said three more questions I'll ask second last one right now. What advice would you give somebody out there right now that wants to try and start within like building phase of trying to build homes? And as well, what, what advice would you give that person is trying to
- [32:37]
A
start like tomorrow that's trying to build homes? I probably wouldn't start building homes unless you've been in some kind of a trade. Like, understand, like if you have no knowledge of construction, go work in construction so that you can understand the process. Because if you have no idea how the process works, like, you'll be done. Okay, right? Like, you have to, like, it has to be something that you have some kind of an understanding in, or you have to have a good bank account already established where it's like, hey, I can hire the right people to run this for me, but to just jump into it, be like, I'm gonna figure this out. Like, you'll get your launch a.
- [33:22]
B
That's possible.
- [33:24]
A
So like, and I don't. It doesn't necessarily have to be any specific trade. Like, you could be a drywall contractor or roofing contractor. Like, like, you could come from that. You could be just an employee of, you know, a framing company. Right? Like, but understanding the process of like, start to finish, how homes are built or how commercial projects are built or whatever type of building that you're going into. Like, I don't do a lot of computer commercial because there's a lot of. It's not something that I specialize in, right? For me, I've got the home building dialed in. I've got my product dialed in. I know what I build, I know who I build for. And I'm really good at like, not, not be a dick. But like, we've perfected this portion of the building market, right? And so I'm really good at that.
- [34:17]
B
That.
- [34:17]
A
But for me, like, I've had people like, man, why don't you do commercial? Like, you can go do this job over here, it's going to take you a month and you can make 200 grand. It's like, I could, but I could also lose 200 grand. Like, because as much money as there is to make in commercial it, you can lose your pretty quick too, right? It's when I look at a residential set of plans, I've got four or five pages of structurals and I've got three or four pages of architecturals. I open up a 2,000 square foot commercial building plan and there's 130 pages attached. Like, I guaranteed you're gonna miss something on one of those 130 pages that's gonna bite you in the, you know what I mean? Like, you're not gonna catch it all. And so that's kind of a game of like win, loss, and you better have a really good team around you as far as like on site management and just estimators that can really like go through and, and understand the plans really well and read all of the specs and just dial that all in. So for me it's like, could we do it? Yeah. Is it something that I really want to jump into now? No, because I really am focused more on this and growing this portion of it. Maybe at some point it's like, yeah, let's hire a completely separate division that just does this, that only does commercial. And then I can just keep my, my people here. But it's like I'm kind of one after diving into different odds and end, you know, projects like stuff that I want to do, like trying to dive into like the health and fitness industry and stuff. It's like I, I, after doing several of those while still trying to do the main business of home building, kind of figured out the hard way that it's like, just focus on one thing, throw everything into that one thing and make it as big as you can possibly make.
- [36:16]
B
That's powerful.
- [36:18]
A
So when your attention's going six different directions, nothing, nobody's getting anything, nothing at all. All you're doing is running around humping air. And it's like the last place that you want to be if you're in business is standing in the driveway humping air, right?
- [36:34]
B
Like
- [36:37]
A
you got, you got, you gotta like dial it in and actually move the needle forward on something, right? And so if all you're doing is spinning your wheels, nothing happens, right? Like you don't make any progress.
- [36:50]
B
The last question, because it's the coach winning insight you need today in order for you to seize the world tomorrow. Everyone's got different definitions for this, but for Brock today, what is your definition of winning?
- [37:03]
A
My definition of winning is, I don't know, I I think at some point it was about money. Now I think it's more two goals, I guess. Like one is setting up my family. So that's like, if I cease to exist, they're still taken care of, if that makes sense. Like setting up, setting up knowledge for my son so that like, in the event that I die driving home tomorrow, like, he can take this company over and run with it, right? Like giving him the knowledge of being able to like, like operate a pretty polished company, right, and, and move it forward and grow it and still be fine. So, so financially, I guess more like that my family's taken care of and then the direction that I'm going as far as like growing the company and trying to make it bigger and trying to get into, you know, more real estate investments and stuff like that, I think more of the growth and, and, and growing it out and growing it wide is more of a. I want to see, I basically want to look myself in the mirror and see who The I became 10 years from now. It's powerful, right? Like, and again, it's like it used to be, oh man, like the money would be cool, right? Like, that's kind of the motivator was the money. And now it's like, I really don't need money for anything. You know what I mean? Like, at the end of the day, like, there's nothing that I like, sit here and it's like, oh, I need a Ferrari, I need a, you know, Bugatti. Or like, I don't fit in cars, right? Like, I don't want a car because I don't fit in the thing. So it's like, I. You can only buy so many things before you're just like, dude, it's boring. You know what I mean? Like, how many watches can I, I have? How many houses can I have? You know, like, you only live in one house. Why do I need a 15,000 square foot house when 1500 fits me and my wife? You know what I mean? Like, I don't need anything extravagant. And so it's like the money at the end of the day is to set up for more of like long term wealth and allowing like your family to come over and like, you know, capitalize off of what you've done and hopefully try to grow it, not crash it, right? So I guess that like, in the phase of life that I'm in now is it's like trying to relay the information that I have to my family, my kids so that they can figure life out and have a head start. With that and then as I'm still involved in it and growing it, just see how far I can push the bar just for like a personal goal.
- [40:00]
B
So powerful.
- [40:01]
A
So I don't know, fitness, like, like I've been in weightlifting, bodybuilding, stuff like that forever and it's always, it, it's, it's always a you versus you thing. Like it's never, oh man, I, I gotta look like that guy or I gotta be that guy. It's like you just go to the gym and try to be the best that you can be, right? And so it's like with that mindset said, it's like you have to be disciplined and you have to be a little crazy to kind of do that, beat the hell out of yourself day in and day out. But by doing that right, like you also create this other aspect on the other side. It's like, man, like I want to be like a good dad, I want to be a good husband. I want to be like a good, good at business. Like it, it gives you that drive to kind of go and be better in all aspects of life, right? And the push the limits. Because like, dude, if I can do that here and I didn't die, I can do it here and probably not die too, you know.
- [40:53]
B
Awesome stuff. Noel, thank you very much. The coach winning insight you need today to seize the world tomorrow yet again. If you're learning about, especially in the blue collar space, about building, upscaling, learning more about the industry as well, this episode is a great one for you. All of Brock's information will be in the description section right below as well. Without further ado, thank you very much, boss. Appreciate your time.
- [41:14]
A
Thank you for having me.