← The Mulder Life Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript10 lines
- [00:05]
A
Welcome to this week's episode of the Molded Life podcast. A live show featuring your questions about all things landscaping, equipment, business and life. Join our live show weekly on Instagram oderoutdoors Monday nights 8:30pm Central Standard Time to ask your questions or tune in here for the replay.
- [00:23]
B
And now from the Incon Studios Incon, a world leading manufacturer of tilt rotators and attachments enhancing your business. Here's your host, Andy Mulder.
- [00:41]
A
What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Molder Life podcast. We are live here Monday night 8:26pm and we are in the Ncon Studios Ncon til rotators for thank you to them for being our studio sponsor. Also sponsoring this week synced up project management software. Go check them out. Pave Tool Innovators pavetool.com Don't forget our coupon code Molder Outdoors 50 when you buy something there. Also Albany's Candy Factory, the official candy of the Motorlife podcast. We have ourselves a bag of the Albany's True to fruits. Okay. The American favorite fruit flavors. And we got. We'll try these. They're amazing as always. You know them, you love them. Albany's Candy. Be sure to try them next time you see them out and about. Guys, I feel like this is the first time that I've stopped doing anything all day and now here I am doing this. So it's just very busy right now and so much work and I'm very, very grateful for the season so far and the work that we have coming and the work that I'm estimating and designing. I have honestly never spent so much time on my computer over the last month and a half. It just, it's relentless right now and it's great and I'm just very grateful. So yeah, it's just crazy how you can have ebbs and flows and business like that. I mean we came out of a really, really great winter and then all of a sudden it's like 100 miles an hour and it's such a blessing. So yeah, just I've been honestly feel like my eyes are burning out of my sockets from spending so much time on my computer. And then when I need to trying to get some work done, stuff around the shop, make decisions on different things with the building, keep my crews going. We talked about it a couple weeks. I have two crews going now. And so that's an adjustment and something that I'm always, always learning. And that's what we talked about last week, I believe is what we talked about. And so yeah, it's just. We're going 100 miles an hour. It's. It's awesome. And soon, I would guesstimate there, my shop's gonna be really close to being finished soon here. And I'm very excited about that. It's. It's so cool. I. Every day right now, finishes of different things are getting done, and it's just like, this is so cool. It's such a surreal experience. And sometimes I go in the shop and I look around, like, at the end of the day when all the guys are gone, and I just was like, I'm. I. It's crazy. It's crazy. I. I mean, I've been planning this building for so long in my head, and then over the last two years, actually planning it and designing it and making changes and trying to decide how to do something, each detail. Like, I. I've spent a lot of nights on my laptop, like, playing around with the layout and playing around with how it's going to work. And then, like, right now, I've been. The plumber has been doing a lot of the pipe runs and copper lines and pressure washer lines and gas lines. And the pressure washer system is something that I have spent an enormous amount of time on and just thinking through how I want it, seeking advice, ordering parts. I've kind of went overboard on the pressure wash system. I frankly don't want to go back and add up all the stuff that I bought for this pressure washing system, but it's really cool and it's something that I enjoy doing that, like when we did this building here, I really enjoyed, like, doing the work to, like. I know I'm not doing the actual work now. I'm designing it and I would love to be doing the work, but it just. The time of year didn't. Doesn't make sense for me to do that. But this building here, I did a lot of the work here and tinkering on it and coming up with the right layout. And so that's the. I spent a lot of time on the plans, and seeing all those things come together right now has been really fun. Yeah. So it's just really cool to see a lot of the things getting finished up. Currently, all the doors are hung in the offices. Now. They put on doorknobs. Today they put on, like, doorknob, like the door stops. So they put all those on. Today they were making all the adjustments on the doors. Tomorrow the company is coming and installing all the railings on the mezzanine. And so those are Things that I worked through with a company on, the same company that did Durvin from Dig it excavating his shop. It's the same company that did his railings. And so I contracted with them to do all my railings. They're like steel powder coated steel tube, tube steel removable railings. And they're all powder coated, the same gray as the outside of the building. And so I'm super excited to see those. They're going to be there at 6am tomorrow, so I got to meet them there early at the shop to have them start that installation. So that'll be done tomorrow. My water softener company is coming tomorrow to install the water softener and that's awesome. And because of that then the plumber will finish putting the toilets in and we can be having a working toilet by the end of the week, which is so exciting. I think by the end of this week all the doors will be in and functional. I think the painter's coming back soon. We're really waiting on the weather to be more consistent for the painter to get the outside doors painted. It's just been like 40s in the morning. It warms up during the day but then cools down. And he wants some more like consistent temperatures like 55, 60 at night for him to feel comfortable painting the steel doors. And so we've just been waiting on that. And that's cool. So that'll be a cool thing to see that get painted because that's been the last part of the building to get to the correct color. And. And then my excavating company is coming back on Wednesday, I hope, and they're gonna prep all the area in front of the building for the concrete apron that's going to be getting poured soon. I could totally do it myself, but again, it's one of those things I just. None of my guys have. I don't have any time and my guys don't have any time to do that. So. And it's a pretty big area to, to prep. So I'm assuming they'll be bring a pretty big excavator in and we're gonna dig down probably 8, 10 inches and then put in a few inches of 53s and compact that and get it prepped for concrete. So yeah, there'll be an apron across the whole front of the building. And then I added some concrete on the south side of the building for a few different things that I have planned over there. So yeah, it's, it's cool guys. There's a Lot of cool stuff happening. So let's see. So something on the topic of the shop, something that I have been working on for probably three months now is a grand opening. And we are going to be doing a grand opening in conjunction with our studio sponsor, encon. And we're going to be having a ncon demo day and a molder shop open house, whatever you want to call it, on July 25th of this year. And it is going to be open to the public. Anybody that would like to come and the shop's going to be open. We're going to have food, food there. It's going to be completely free for everybody. Anybody that registers or RSVPs for the event will get a free T shirt, an event T shirt and some kind of goodie bag of some sort. Those are details we're ironing out at this point. There'll be bounce houses. I'm going to build some kind of big sandbox out of blocks and like big concrete blocks and obviously sand. There will be. What else? There'll be Italian ice in the afternoon, Italian ice truck coming in the afternoon. We'll have coffee and donuts in the morning. And the event is going to be from 9 to 4 Central Standard Time on July 25th. It's a Saturday. And yeah, you'll be able to tour the shop. There's going to be a bunch of different vendors there. We have companies that are sponsoring the event and those will be announced in the coming weeks. Different companies that are going to be a part of it. They're going to have a kind of a vendor area where a few different companies will be there showing off different products or whatever. And then obviously an N con demo day which will have a bunch of excavators there. All my excavators will be there, of course. My KX80, my KX57 and then my E20 will be there. I know Westside Tractor is bringing in. They are bringing in at least three big excavators. I don't know how big they're bringing, but there's probably going to be six to 10 excavators there with N Con tilt rotators on it. And you'll be able to sign up and sign the waiver, of course, and then try out different tilt rotators. I've never done an N Con demo day and I've never had a place to do it. And now we do. And so this is going to be a really cool event. And like I said, anybody's welcome to come. And there'll be more details on that and there'll be a registration link that I will be sharing really soon here. I might even get it it up on the website this week if I can because we want to be able to have people register and like I said, you really need to register to come and if you do, you and whoever you bring with you will get a free T shirt. And, and like I said, the whole thing is going to be free, the food's going to be free. It's going to be really, really cool. I'm very excited. And so yeah, July 25th, if you want to make the trip, we're also going to be setting up a hotel room block that will be listed on the registration when we get that, all of that released. And like I said, there's going to be a bunch of different companies there. There's a few that have signed up already. Ad Equipment is going to be there with their rotostar screening bucket and I'm hoping I don't, I need to talk with them but I'm hoping maybe they bring a, one of the crushing buckets there. Heritage Landscape Supply is going to be a part of it. Westside Tractor, west side John Deere and Advanced Equipment Services, which is my mobile mechanic, they're going to be there or they're a sponsor of the event so far and there'll be other companies that probably will end up being a part of it as we get a little closer. And so yeah, guys, I just, this is a 10 year, 12 year dream come true for me to have this facility and I want to share it with. I want to have a day where if anybody wants to come see it in person and walk around and ask questions and just hang out for the day, you're gonna be welcome to do that and it's gonna be really fun. So if you are able to be there again. July 25th and it's 9am to 4pm so that is gonna be super cool. What else? I just feel like it's crazy. I, this, this today I just felt like. So I, I spent most of my day on my computer this morning and then I took a couple hours in the afternoon and helped my guys set up some pallet racking. And I said it on Instagram already but like every time we do something at the shop or at the yard, I just feel like it's, every time I stand back I'm like, oh, that was a dream to be able to have that one day and look, now it's there. And today we set up some pallet racking outdoor pallet racking, where we're gonna have some attachments that stack up in there. And then also I want to see about storing some of my snowplows on it. But this the part that we set up today, I don't think think that's where I want to put the snowplows. It's very visible and I just don't like the look of it. I guess I want to put those kind of around the corner, but I don't have concrete poured for that yet, so I may have to pour some more concrete, which it's just never. I don't think I'm ever going to stop pouring concrete, it seems like. But yeah, it's just to have some pallet racking to start putting some things up. I want to put our mats on some of it, I think, and like stack those up so it's easy to get out in the morning. It's just. It's so cool, guys. It's just so cool.
- [13:37]
B
You sweat, you struggle, you're the first one there in the morning, the last one out at night. You don't need another issue to deal with. In fact, if someone or something could pull a few things off your plate, that'd be amazing, right? That's what Synced up is for. How about we take care of the knowing your numbers part and streamline your operation for your cruise while we're at it? How would it sound to have every job priced for profit? Synced up does invoicing, scheduling, time tracking and syncs with QuickBooks Online. All job info, notes, photos and lists are easily available to your crews. Even work hours are tracked for automatic payroll. And the big one, every job is job costed automatically. Visit syncedup.coms y-n k e--u-p.com and book a demo today.
- [14:27]
A
Looking at the comments, if there's any questions, Casey A. Silverman says, how did you choose the size of the building? That's a good question, Kasey. How did I choose the size? Like I said before, I pretty much spent two years planning this building out on paper and then at least many years before that looking at people's shops, going different places, looking at. I'm a part of a few different Facebook groups online. I think one is like farm shops or something and then the other one is, I don't know if it's shop ideas or something like that. And so then you're always seeing all kinds of different options and buildings that people do. And the farm shop one is crazy because there's A million things you can search for on there and look at. And then of course there's farmers with these massive buildings. It's just crazy. And then I've spent a massive amount of time on YouTube just searching buildings and watching our buildings and all this different things he's built and just all kinds of stuff like that. So initially I had planned on an 80 by 120 building and I was gonna have it be a drive through shop and I was gonna do that on another piece of property that I had looked at and was maybe going to buy. And the layout there probably would have worked pretty good. But what I found with a drive thru shop is number one, you need double the doors. And if anybody's ever bought 14 foot overhead doors, they're very expensive. I don't remember off the top of my head what the door budget was on my building. I probably could look it up because it was one of those things is like, okay, like if I had a drive thru shop like that would add this much money to the building. I'm just quick looking if I could possibly pull that up quickly. I don't know if I can, but it was a lot of money for doors. It's a lot of money. It just like that was something that stuck out to me initially when I was thinking of a drive thru shop. And then the other thing that I thought of was like you lose so much wall space when you have a pull through shop. And I know that's not, has, doesn't have anything to do with, with what you're asking about the size of the shop, but you just lose a lot of wall space. And so I was taking that into consideration and then I priced out an 80 by 120 and then I decided to price out the size that I did which was a 60 by 150. And a 60 by 150 if I remember right is more square footage. The 60 by 150 is 9,000 square feet and 80 by 120 is, I guess 80 by 120 is more square foot footage. But it's cheaper to do something that's not as wide but longer. Right. And so it was cheaper to do it that way. And then what I did is I went with the 60 foot deep because I don't know, I think I was just playing around with the size of the property and like how much room I wanted to take. Oh, I know what it was. I went to Caleb Allman shop. I've been there a couple times and this is by an absolutely no means there's nothing bad about his shop, but what's something that I noticed in his shop is I felt like there was so much space between when you. Where you pull something in to the back wall. And I think his is 70 or 80ft deep. And that was when I was like, you know, I feel like I would rather have a shop that's longer with more bays than deeper with less bays or less doors or whatever. Because 90% of the time I would say we're not, we wouldn't be using that full depth, that full depth of that 80ft. I mean there's maybe a time here and there where like having that much depth would be nice. But you're inclined to, you're inclined to put stuff at the wall, right at the back wall. So say you have pallet racking or you have whatever you want to have, you're going to put it usually against the back wall. And then if you're pulling a truck in or you're pulling a. Whatever you're pulling into the shop, you're using the first 40ft. 40ft is long. I mean this building is 40ft deep. And the last 12ft of this building, which is this wall right behind me is this is where there's 12 more feet behind these banners that goes back. And that's where my toolbox used to be and my workbenches and all that stuff. It's now since been framed out and it's not like that anymore. It's my brother in law's office for he works from home. And so anyways, this shop here gave me a lot of perspective on space used and like how we would use it. Right. And this shop is 40ft deep. It's 35 by 40, I think, or 30 by 40 anyways. And so I just felt like we were gonna use like if you went 80ft deep, you'd use the first 40 a lot of the time. And then you'd have this long gap. Say it's 30ft of like nothing and then whatever you have against the wall. And I just felt like it was a lot of wasted space. I felt like we would have wasted space. I'm not saying Caleb has wasted space. That's just when I noticed it. Okay. That's when I started to think about it. And so I decided to make the building longer instead of deeper. So I went from 120 to 150, added that 30 extra feet and then I went 60ft wide. And then I. So I priced it out and then I was like, okay, like I Got some numbers on that. We got some like they, you know that my GC would call it the schedule value. So it's like budgetary numbers basically for the building. I'm like, okay, well what about if we just shorten it up 50ft and I later add that 50 foot extension on the end and we just have three bays and the off still do the offices, but then do three bays wide. And I really liked the eight foot between the doors. And I knew I was going to have 14 foot doors. 14 by 14 doors. I was, I was not going to not have that. That was a non negotiable and then so whatever that would be. So it was, it would have been like 14 +14, you know, call it 20. So that's 28 +8. It was roughly like, I think it was like, I don't know, roughly 40 or 50ft that I shortened the building. And I was like, okay, well then later I can add that, that onto the shop and all this stuff. And, and you gotta understand like when you're building a shop and you're doing a new development like the Count, at least my county, like to me it was like, you know what, they're gonna give me so much grief to not later I'm gonna have to go through all engineering work with the county again. And I just don't want to do that. Not to mention it costs money to do that. Obviously I have a symbol engineer. They're not free. And then just the time with the county and the permitting and the blah blah blah, blah blah. And so I just said forget it. It's not that much different in price. Like yes, it's different, it adds up, trust me. But it's never going to be cheaper than today. So that's kind of how I ended up at the 60 by 150. It worked out nice with my doors and how much space I wanted between the doors. It worked. The depth worked out good. Sometimes I would argue maybe I should have went 65 by 150, but like guys, like it's absurdly big. Like it's plenty big for what we're gonna do. And I'm sure in 10 years I'll say it should have been bigger, but I think I don't. What am I going to do? Like build a hundred by three hundred foot building? Like I'm not gonna do that. That seems absurd, but it's gonna be amazing. It is amazing. And it's the craziest thing that we have this shop that's almost done. So that's Kind of how I got to that size, the offices, was I decided, okay, well, this is where I wanted the office. This is what I wanted the office size to be. And then we designed it to fit that size. It wasn't like somebody told me anything. It's not like somebody said, this is the right size to be. I just decided when I was messing around on my computer, like, we'll put the wall here and now. Let's make the. Let's make this space fit the offices and the office design that we want. The only thing I think so far that I'm like, ah, man, maybe I should have done something with. I feel like my conference room is pretty small, but again, I don't have a table in there yet. I think it's going to be fine. And then we have the whole area above the mezzanine, above the. Above the offices that, like, is just a big open mezzanine. So, like, that's a ton of space there that we can do whatever we want. I really would like to have a huge classroom. Excuse me? I want to have a big classroom up there just for. If we end up ever hosting classes there. I just want a big open room that we can gather in or have a bunch of tables and chairs in or whatever. That's something I really want to do. And then I'll be building. I want to build a podcast studio up there eventually that's set up all the time and it's soundproof and the lighting is better and all these different things. I want to do that. My son seems to think that he wants to have a gaming room. I don't think that's going to happen, but he thinks it is. So. Yeah, there's just lots of space that we could do different things. Very cool. How's the E20 axe two grind firewood. It's great. The guys actually used it today. They dug some trenches with it today. Promo landscape. Should I bring a trailer for the E20? It's, you know, promo landscape. Dude, listen, you never know. You show up with a trailer and a check. I might, you know, especially at that point in the building, I'll be sick of spending money and want some money back. You never know. What. What kind of deals could be made at the. At the Mulder Outdoors Open house, slash N Con demo day. You never know. But if you want to come try it, you can come try my E20, my KX57, my KX80, a bunch of different excavators, John Deere, maybe a 245, probably a 135. I don't know what else they're going to bring. I don't know if Durvin talked about maybe bringing an excavator, but if John Deere brings a bunch of them, I don't know if it's going to be necessary. He has cat. He has a cat. One something. I don't know what size this is. Yeah, I'm sure. I mean my track machines will be there, all of our equipment will be there, all of our trucks will be there. You'll be able to tour the whole shop and it just, it's all going to be open and it's going to be cool. So again July 25, 9am to 4pm Eagle Creek outdoor Living do you have a metric that you use for how much you to pay a foreman based on production? I do not. There's some things I could probably talk with you about further, but I don't think I can talk to you about it on this platform. You could send me a DM and I could share some different things with you about that, but it's not something that I think I want to get into on the podcast here. The pay rates for foreman's right now are. I mean it's a sought after position in my opinion. I think it's. But I think there's more to it than how much you pay them. I think the longer I'm in business the more that I see that it's not always about the money for different people. And if it is about the money, you can see through that pretty quickly. And it may not. You know, like I don't want to hire someone to work for me. That only is coming because they care about the money. I think it's just something that you're going to have more of a team player when the hourly rate is not the thing that's going to or whatever package you want to create. I don't think that that's the thing that is going to get you an employee that cares a lot about the company and has loyalty and has passion. I think it, it's just different things that I've learned through different experiences. This is what I'm saying.
- [27:20]
B
So tired of busting your back, losing valuable time and watching good help walk off the job. You're in hardscaping because you're a builder, a creator. But is the daily grind grinding you down? Phil Baylor, the founder of Pave Tool Innovators, gets it. He's been in this hardscape game for over 40 years and built pave tool because frankly, this industry is hard. But it doesn't have to be. Phil and the team at Pave Tool are driven by a passion to revolutionize hardscaping. By taking the hard out of hardscaping, making your life easier and your business more profitable, imagine cutting down on manpower, finishing jobs faster, and putting less strain on your body. At Pave Tool, our mission is to help you advance your business to save time, increase profits, satisfy your crew, and reduce physical strain. Don't get left behind in the old ways. It's time to work smarter, not just harder. Visit pavetool.com or use the link in the podcast description to see the innovation, explore our full line of hardscape solutions, and take the first step towards a more efficient and profitable future. Get $50 off a purchase of $500 or more with code MULDER OUTDOORS50.
- [28:23]
A
Kylie Jensen what brand sweatshirt is that? This is a Brunt workwear sweatshirt. Brunt. Can you see that? Brunt. It's on my computer. Brunt right there. This is the Brunt EK hoodie. Why am I not thinking of the name? It's my favorite hoodie by far. I literally wear one daily. If it's anywhere close to sweatshirt weather, this is the only style of sweatshirt I want to wear. And then I had it embroidered with her logo on it. I'm gonna pull it up here right now just so I can get the. I think it's the Altech or Allard Tech hoodie. Where are we at here? Where is it? It's my favorite sweatshirt. Allard. Yeah, it's the Allard Tech hoodie. Grunt Workwear. I do have a Coupon. Code MULDER outdoors10 will save you $10 off of your purchase. The Allard Tech hoodie, they range starts at like 80 bucks to 85 bucks depending on the size. They have an all black one. They have black one and then they have a high vis one. I love the buck. The button neck here. It gives you a little more room. The hood is really big. It's the perfect thickness of sweatshirt in my opinion. And it just, it's just the best sweatshirt. I used to be a big quarter zip guy which actually brought has a Shevlin quarter zip. They also have a Shevlin HD sweatshirt. Different styles. I think I have one of each. I like the Shevlin HD sweatshirt. It's a really nice sweatshirt. That's one of my favorites as well. Brunt Workwear just. They come out with so much awesome stuff, guys. They really do. They also. Brunt also has the right tech Vest, which is a really awesome vest if you're into vests. Yeah. Lots of different options. Of course they have boots. One of my favorites is the molder boot. You know, don't sleep on that. I also really love and honestly, daily, almost daily I wear the Omen and I wear it with the Compto Brunto, which is like a protective piece on the end of the. Of the boot. This is turning into a Brunt commercial and they're not even a sponsor today. But the Omen is one of my favorite pairs of boots, for sure. Second to the molder, of course. The molder is a very heavy duty boot. An aggressive tread. It's a. I'm trying to pull it up here. Where is it? The molder? Welted. So it's a welted sole. It takes a little bit longer to break in because of that. It's got a comp toe on it. It's arguably Brunt's most heavy duty boot. Goodyear welted construction waterproof 90 degree heel defined heel. It's a beast and I'm proud to have my name on it, that's for sure. And if actually, if you go to the bottom of the. Of the Mulder boot page on their website, you can watch a video about it. And that's crazy to me that it's on there. It's so crazy. Okay. Anyways, done with the Brunt commercial. Sorry. I love work clothes. Who doesn't? Let's see here. Terrain, landscape says. How are you liking the pave tool Paver edging? It's awesome. I really like the pave tool edging. Hybrid edging is the correct term. I guess. Not a guess. It is. It's showing right here on the banner right there. So everybody, of course, I'm sure, is aware that I used to use a lot of concrete edging, and I did. And I liked it for as long as I used it. My biggest gripes with it were the grass not growing up to the edges. We already over dig our patios, probably more than what we should. But I don't like callbacks. And so I do everything overboard and we install a awesome patio that honestly doesn't fail. But when you're getting up to those edges and you have the stone base extending past your edge a foot, which is arguably what we do most of the time. And then you add a triangle of concrete. You fight grass growth along the patio. And that. That has been my biggest frustration with it. I always put up with it because I liked the way that it Worked. But that was a frustration. And then the other thing that I saw was I started to notice on more than one job, specifically at my house, where the edging, the concrete, was pulling away from my pavers when it got really, really dry in the summer, it would pull away and it never would go back. And then I noticed that area of my pavers at my house, and it was all, you know, it's interesting. It was only where the grass came right up to the edging, came right up to the pavers. It didn't happen where I had the. Where I had the mulch going right up to the pavers. It only happened where grass came up to it. So the thing that I think, and this is just pure thought and my own assumptions, is that in the summer when we have extreme dry times, drought conditions, the ground shrinks. And that's, you know, you get cracks in the ground. I think everybody knows what I'm talking about, right? And I think that what would happen was somehow the grass or dirt or whatever is stuck to that edging. Maybe. I don't know. Again, this may be a ridiculous thing to say, but this is what I'm thinking. And it would pull when it would shrink, it would pull. Pull it back as the ground shrunk. I don't know. So anyways, whatever. And then I. I know and have been friends with the guys at Pave Tool for years. As long as I haven't been in business. They kept wanting me to try it. You got to try it. You got to try it. Okay, I'm gonna try it. So I tried it. And specifically this year, I tried it for the first time this spring. We tried it for the first time, and I was not there when they first put it in. And my foreman called me. He's like, listen, dude, he's like, you gotta come. You. You gotta see this edging. Like, I. I said, how is it? Here's the YouTube videos. I didn't have time to go with him the first day. I said, here's the YouTube videos on how to install it correctly. Like, watch them first and do it. Okay, he does it. He's like, this stuff is like rock solid when you put these stakes in. I'm like, I mean, that's what they said, but, okay, I want to come see it. So I went and saw it, and very impressive. It is locked in with those stakes. They're like, it's a V stake. And then it has holes in it. And with open graded base, when you use nails, it wants to move all over the place and it doesn't stay tight against the pavers. And like, I would always fight that whenever I would mess around with. With regular edging and spike nails. But this style of stake, it's not a nail, it's a steak. And it has these holes in it and it like locks into that three quarter and it is not coming out. It's very strong. And then it has these pieces which you can't see it in this. It. You can't see it in the, in the banner here. Unless you like, we're really close. Or one day when I have a podcast studio and I have like 4K cameras, you'll be able to see it. But it has a piece right here. And again, I know you can't see it, but that piece folds up and it reinforces that edge. It's. I believe it's really meant for like driveway applications where you could use that. We're just using it on everything now. And it reinforces that edge even more. That 90 degree turn, that 90 degree corner and like keeps it from folding in. And so it's just really strong. And I'm really impressed by it. More so than I thought I was even gonna be. The guys really like it. It goes in fast and they like it and I like it. I like what I've seen. I have not actually installed it myself. Like, my guys have done it and ultimately I want their feedback and I want to hear what they think about it. Yeah, it's legit. It's the real deal and I'm planning on using it going forward and probably exclusively. It's legit, guys. So if you have not checked it out and Pave Tools not paying me to sell their edging, I'm giving you my honest feedback on this edging. If I didn't like it, I would not be telling you that. I love it. I love it. It's awesome. Yeah. If you want to go try it, you can use our Coupon code, Mulder Outdoors. 50. Save yourself 50 bucks off 500 or more. I believe it's how it works. It's legit, guys. So go check it out. Johnson Construction Company. What's your next machine? I don't know. I mean, I recently bought that vibratory plow. I bought a Vermeer, a 2012 Vermeer LM42, I think it's called. It's a vibratory plow and trencher. Bought that a couple weeks ago. I wasn't really planning on buying that, but I found it on Marketplace and it was A I talked them, I talked with them for like three months and finally got them down to the price that I wanted to pay and they hadn't sold it and so I bought it. It was a great, great deal and we got it all serviced and we fixed two issues that were wrong with it and we're in business. We got a dedicated pipe puller and trencher and also a boring machine on it, which is sick. So I bought that a couple weeks ago. We haven't really used it for anything yet, but we're gonna use it. And I think I'm gonna trench something from my building out to my pond where I want to get real power out there to plug in our fountain. So that's probably the first thing I'm gonna use it for. And I also need to pull a one and a quarter inch line from the front of my building and pull that all the way to the entrance and then use that as a. To get some water out there. And then I need to trench in some conduits for electric to our gate and yeah, so I'm going to use it a bunch for that. And then we have a huge irrigation job that we're going to do this sometime this summer on the job that we've been working on for a while. We'll have a big irrigation system for that and we'll be using it for that. So I don't do a lot of irrigation. Like I don't go out there and just put in irrigation systems for people. But on these big projects that we do all, every detail of the project that those are the systems that I like to do, we have them designed by an irrigation designer and then we install them to spec. And so yeah, that's kind of how that's gone. And that's the last machine I bought. I am in the process of doing something else vehicle wise right now. I don't know if I'm ready to talk about it yet or show it, which I can't really show it because I haven't seen it in person myself. But I have purchased a vehicle that is going to be added to the fleet this year. But more on that to come. Like I said, I haven't seen it in person but I did buy it and it's kind of crazy that I bought it without seeing it in person. But that's how it goes sometimes. So that's coming and more on that later. So that's. It's going to be really cool. Something that we don't have currently and something that is one of those dream come true types of things. Super excited for that. The real Elliott Miller says, I love my Molder boots minus the fact that I got a. I think I got a defective pair. Well, I'm sorry that happened man. You can probably exchange it if it within the 30 day period. That's a bummer dude. I have had that with different boots from Brunt so don't think that they're perfect. I don't think any boot company is perfect. I don't think any company is perfect. I've had defective things from every company that I buy things from before so
- [40:48]
B
you're listening to the Molder Life podcast because you want to get better at your craft. Andy is always working hard to improve himself and pass on that knowledge to you. He's even improved his molder outdoors.com website to make it easier to use and to give you several ways to support the podcast. When you visit molder outdoors.com click on the Shop link to pick up some of the coolest merch around. Choose from camo hats and beanies to fluorescent work shirts and super warm hoodies. While on that page, scroll down and check out the video courses, contracts and worksheets to make you and your company highly effective and profitable. I recommend the Everything bundle, which gives you access to all the training and forms while saving you money. If you need to book a one on one consultation, you can do that as well@molder outdoors.com support the show while growing your business. There's also a link you can use in the show Description
- [41:44]
A
Vivid Colorado how do you schedule construction projects? Do you give exact start dates or ranges in which you anticipate to start? I've talked about this a lot in the past. I do never give definitive start dates unless I'm like three days out, maybe, maybe four days out. But anytime I say a date of any kind, immediately following after that, I say if everything goes as planned in the jobs leading up to it and if the weather. If it's weather dependent, right? You have to. You just. There's so many variables in what we do day in and day out, whether it's a sunny day or it's raining all day. There's a million variables that can change your schedule in this kind of work. And so I'm very, very cautious giving firm dates to anyone about anything. You have to kind of. You have to be careful of the words that you use and the words that you type in emails. And remember that whatever you put in that email or whatever you say or whatever you text is Going to be what they hold you to. And they should, because your word is your bond and you should be a man or woman of your word. So I'm very careful to not over commit and then under deliver. You have to do the opposite. You have to under commit and over deliver. That's what you want, right? And so just be careful about that. And so I am very careful about that. I'm very careful about the words that I use and the things that I say. And I just want to make sure that I, that I communicate as much as I can. But don't paint myself into a corner, if that makes sense. Like, we have a job that we're gonna start on Wednesday. I told the client two weeks ago. I said, hey, we're starting in. We're starting at your neighbor's house, which is like down the block. I was, I kind of grouped these projects together. I said, listen, we're starting at this person's house. Cause they signed up first. When we get done there, we'll. We're planning to most likely come to your house. Keyword, most likely. Okay, Very important. That's how you say it. We finished that job a little bit early on Thursday. Friday came around and we had a bunch of like little customer service things that had kind of stacked up. And also they had came and stripped their road and they were going to repave it. And so I email, I said, hey, listen, I don't think we're not going to start this. I'm not starting your project on a Friday because I didn't want to start it on a Friday. I said, so we're finishing up at so and so's house here on Thursday. We're not going to be there on Friday because of some other things we need to take care of. And I know your road is getting paved. And next week I have something to do on Monday. And I think we're going to start on Wednesday just weather dependent. Because I knew I had. I have, I also have a commitment on Tuesday that I had to do. So I pushed it from like Friday to, I pushed it to the next Wednesday. And I said, hey, this is what I'm thinking that's gonna happen. We'll have to see how the weather plays out and how our other jobs lined up. But that's kind of what I'm thinking. This is what I'm thinking. Weather dependent. Those are the kinds of things. And now tomorrow I think the schedule is gonna work where we're gonna be able to start then on Wednesday. But tomorrow I will Email him, say, hey, so far it's looking like we are going to come there Wednesday. We are going to be there. And so I'm going to commit to Wednesday. But I still will say, unless it's raining or something. I just. You just, I just always do. I'm just by habit, I'm always like, yeah, maybe. I'm like, yeah, we're coming, but maybe not now on bigger jobs, that's completely different. Where we're there for six months. It's completely different because we're coming there. And I try, I try my best when we're on bigger jobs to have a crew there working every day. I really, really do. I'm. I think we do a good job of that compared to other contractors that I've seen on big jobs. Like, they will work for five days and then leave for two weeks or whatever. Like, they're jumping all over. Like, I really try to commit to keeping a crew at said project, which is kind of why we started two crews this year, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do that. So, yeah, it's. It's just important that you watch what you say. Ranges are totally fine. Don't be afraid to say what to say to give ranges. But you just. Somebody said it really good to me the other day. I said, are you guys really backed up? Like, how's your schedule? He's like, listen, dude, I don't have a schedule anymore. I just have a list. And I thought that was hilarious because it's really true. Like, some of the projects that we're doing are super complex and like, there's just a lot of moving parts. And then it rains and then it's 50 degrees, then it's 150 mile an hour winds. And then it's. And then it rains some more and then it's sunny for four days and then it pours out. Really? Like, the schedule is a joke. It's an illusion of control. It's not, It's. You have a list. We have a list and you're on the list and we'll get to you when we get to you. And like, I know that sounds like kind of. Does it sound rude? I don't know. But like, that's how it has to be sometimes. And your customers, you need to try and explain that to them. You have to be a little kinder than. Listen, I don't have a schedule, I have a list. Like, probably not the thing you should say to them because they're not gonna get it, but just, you kind of have to have that vibe. Like, it's gotta be a little fluid. And you want customers that are cool with that. If you want customers, say, I need it done by this date. I'm not your landscaper. I'm just not. I. I don't operate like that. I never commit to anyone to be like, we're gonna have this done by Memorial Day. No, I have never been stressed about Memorial Day or Labor Day. I know that people do, and I understand that. And that's fine. You have different commitments and you have to do what you have to do. But I just have never got myself in a pickle where I. I am like, this massive push to get something done by Labor Day. Like, or by Memorial Day or whatever. Like, dude, no. It's going to be done when it gets done and it's going to be awesome when it gets done. And that's why you're hiring me. You're not hiring me to get it done by a date. You're hiring me to get it done perfectly, if that makes sense. Wynwood Property Service says I don't even give week of for the love of dirt. Do you ever see a need for a hook lift? I have considered that, yes. I've looked at them many different times throughout the years. Almost pulled the trigger on one two years ago. I think they're awesome. Inca Stone synced up Summit Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. Just saying. Synced up Summit. I don't know when that is exactly. I should really get the dates and I can let you guys know. Alex, if you want to drop the dates in the comments. Feel free to do that. I think. Is it going to be at Tussie Shop again? I don't remember if that's what I saw. I don't remember if I saw that. Wynwood says 10,000%. I don't have a schedule. I have a list. Let's see. This discussion on schedule and list is pure gold, dude. It's just like. I don't know. I just don't. It's my company and I just can't even. I cannot in. In good faith tell someone we are going to get this done by a certain date. The second I say that it's going to rain for 10 days, it just is. Like, you can't. We have a list and that's. That's how it's going to be from now on. I'm going to get into a lot of schedule discussions here. I can just. I feel it coming. I'm at like, I have three projects right now that Are in very deep into the design phase. Very deep. And we're pretty darn deep into the proposal phase. And all three of them, I can just feel it. They're all coming. And I'm. I'm far enough along where I'm like, yeah, we're going to do this one. And then I'm going to have to start talking about timing. And it is a first come, first serve ultimately. But, like, I'm going to have to play some games on, like, different parts of these projects when they can get done. When can some subcontractors come in and do some work? I'm gonna have to do a little juggling. I can feel the. I can feel the pressure of that a little bit coming. But I have to keep moving along with these projects. And I want, I want. I'm gonna do all three of them. I already know it. I want to do them all. And I'm gonna figure it out. And we always figure it out, and it always works out. And no one ever comes to my house and shoots me because they're unhappy with the time that we're gonna do the project. All three of these jobs are gonna be great customers. I already know it. All three of them are ones that I want to work for, and all three of them are customers that want me to work for them. So it's going to be a win. Win. It's just a matter of, like, when does each one, like, finally say, this is the design and this is what we're doing? And I just, I can feel the pressure build. It's going to happen. So Inca Stone, September 10th and 11th. Come see the truck. Dude, you mean the, the stone truck that you built? September? Ah, we can go see that. Ooh, I'm gonna have to check my calendar. That sounds amazing. Three trails. I say you are on the short list. Oh, you say that to customers? You're on the short list. Yeah, that's. That's good too. You could say that for sure. Winwood says, what do you say when the list is this long for these new what do you say when the list is this long for these new people? What do you. What do you mean, this long? I don't know. I mean, you just tell them at some point you got to be like, listen, just so you know, it's going to be like August, September, maybe October, Sometime in the fall, maybe. If I get these next three. If these three jobs that I'm working on right now, and they're not small projects, if I get them all, I'm Gonna add up the weeks that they're all gonna take. And I'm like, okay, most likely we're not gonna be doing two of these at once. I can almost guarantee it, because I have a crew that's out at this other job, and they're gonna be out at that big job and probably through July, maybe July. And then we're gonna pull off of there. And what I'm kind of thinking is I'm gonna take that crew off of that job and then go do one of these other ones in between. We don't want to plant that big job in a man right now. We're not going to plant the plants till the fall. We're going to leave and wait until the heat of the summer's gone. And we're come back in September, mid September, October, probably mid September. Plant the whole thing, irrigation, sod, finish it. It's going to be unbelievable. But we'll do that. We'll wait to finish that till the perfect time. So while it's a bajillion degrees, we're going to pull off of that and we're going to go to these other jobs and somehow crank out maybe two of these jobs at once and then go back there and do that. That's what I'm thinking. That's. I think that's how I'm going to play the game. But anyways, once I get those jobs, one or two of those jobs locked down, like, for sure, then I'm going to. Then I'm going to start telling anybody else. Like, I have a list of seven people that I'm going to start. I got to work on their designs. And these are not. These are like great jobs, but not jobs that are like bigger projects. And. And I'm. I work on them in order. I don't put big projects in front of little projects. I don't care what the project is. It. I'll work on it when it gets to the right. The right time. So. Or the right order of which I met with you or whatever. So I will then communicate new information to these other people that have been waiting and say, listen, these are. This is our schedule right now. These projects were people that I met with before you, and we designed them and now got the project and that has now pushed my schedule out to sometime in the fall. Are you willing to wait that long? Because I'm not going to work on your design unless I know you're willing to work. Wait for that long. So you just. You have to communicate and it's. And it just, it takes a while. The real Cole Graham, we're at an hour and I'm going to quickly answer your question. How long is your design and quoting process from the initial me with the client, it's too long and I'm working on shortening that. I'm very slow and I'm, I go as fast as I can, but I'm slow. I'm. We're very busy. I don't just sit on my computer all day, except lately it seems like it. And I would say that's my biggest flaw in the company is the time it takes me to get things to people. But some of that is a result of just, we just have a lot of work and these projects, some of the ones that they're very complex and it takes a lot of details and time to get figured out. So. All right, guys, we're going to wrap this one up. Thanks for listening or watching and listening to the Molded Life podcast in the enconc studios. Thanks to synced up project management software, Pave Tool Innovators and Albany's Candy Factory, the official Candy the Motorlife podcast. We will catch you on the next one. Thanks.
- [54:58]
B
This has been a molder outdoors and Mr. Producer production.