Episode 72 - Crafting Quality and Client Happiness in Custom Home Building
Episode #72 | Brad Robinson | Crafting Quality and Client Happiness
In this episode of "The Curious Builder," Mark Williams chats with Brad Robinson from Bradford Custom Homes, diving into the art of creating outstanding customer experiences in the building world. They discuss everything from setting communication boundaries and perfecting painting finishes to the significance of lasting client relationships and sustainable design. Plus, you’ll hear some fun insights into Brad’s personal life and passions, like boating and high performance design, making this a must-listen for any curious builder!
Listen to the full episode:
About Brad Robinson
Brad Robinson is the dynamic leader of Bradford Custom Homes & Remodeling, an award-winning, premier design-build firm based in Atlanta. With a strong strategic vision, Brad demonstrates a wide variety of construction experience across residential, commercial, and retail projects, showcasing his versatility and business acumen. As an Atlanta native, Brad brings a personal touch to every project, ensuring that each aligns with his company's vision and standards of excellence.
Bradford's team subscribes to “success through customer obsession”. Brad is deeply passionate about sustainability and high-performance building, striving to create homes that excel in both functionality and purpose. One of Bradford's upcoming projects is a full ICF (Insulating Concrete Form) build, showcasing their commitment to innovative and superior construction techniques. Under Brad's leadership, the company actively works to build high-performance homes that benefit the community by providing enhanced living environments.
Brad believes that the secret to their growth lies in his exceptional team. Building and nurturing a talented team has been crucial to Bradford's growth. His unwavering commitment to quality and visionary approach, combined with the collective expertise of his team, have earned his businesses a respected reputation within the industry.
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G'day, I'm curious builder podcasts. I've got Brad Robinson from Bradford Holmes, we had an amazing conversation I really enjoyed. really diving deep about halfway through, we spent the last half hour of the episode all about the client experience. So if you want to maybe Fast Forward 30 minutes, if that's what your jam, that's where you want to go. But really, there's just so much charisma and character, and you could really get a sense that Brad cares for his people he was constantly talking about without his team, he wouldn't exist. So without further ado, let's listen to Brad Robinson from Bradford custom homes.
Unknown Speaker 0:32
Welcome to the curious builder podcast today I am joined with them today.
Unknown Speaker 0:39
Brad Robinson from Bradford custom homes in remodeling. I have never done an intro like that. But it just seemed appropriate for you, Brad. So welcome to the show. Hey, thanks so much for having me. So we met, I think for the first time at the builder show here recently and I know you're going to come into Minneapolis for the contractor coalition, but you wisely chose your son's baseball game. So for all those out there thinking about choosing business over family take a key note from from Brad, who's your family, because there's always another event coming up soon. And so anyway, I enjoyed meeting you and want to bring you on the show. And I appreciate you reaching out via social media. So it's a small world. It truly is. And social media makes it a lot smaller. So I can I didn't count or anything like that. But I'm sure that we had at least 100 engagements on social media before we met one another. I know that's I just kind of a cool part. You know, people talk a lot about the negativity with social media, especially with young kids, you know how to limit it, but all the positives are your world ends up being so small, and you can be huge fans of other people's work. And obviously, the collaborative nature of Instagram in particular, you know, you see what you're doing. And it kind of inspires you to maybe, you know, add a feature in your home. Or if there's a personality that you really gravitate towards, you know, you might reach out to him and say, hey, you know, let's grab a coffee, zoom, zoom coffee, that'd actually be a great business handled zoom coffee.
Unknown Speaker 2:02
Anyway.
Unknown Speaker 2:04
Any ideas? I know you have a lot of businesses, well, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself for the people that don't know who you are? You're out of Atlanta, Georgia, you've got like 18 businesses, and now you just started a coffee zoom company. Tell us a little bit about your history, how you got into it. And you know, kind of what, and then we'll kind of launch into State of the State of the Union in terms of building in Atlanta. Sure. Well, banks, I think we need to divide that business number by a few for sure. But I've got to say, I've had a really exciting career. And I've done a lot of different things, but I'll be I'll go back to my humble days. I started in the construction industry working at good old Sherwin Williams. So I was slinging paint.
Unknown Speaker 2:47
One thing led to another I was managing accounts, got recruited by a company, cut my teeth, learning how to paint, build decks do all those fun things. It was you know, Introduction to construction 101 In those days, but I was you know, 19 years old or so. So fast forward a few years, had some wonderful relationships, and had some very hungry and passionate friends of my own. And we said, Let's go start a paint company, which I don't think many people say that, you know, it's like, that's not the guiding star. You're thinking, you know, whatever, but
Unknown Speaker 3:26
grew that business to about 30 million bucks over the course of about four years. Wow, that's no joke at some absolutely amazing builders that I became very close friends with and I mean, some of the some of the guys from Atlanta that you know, really well, I think we both have a common friend and Mr. Vincent Longo down here. We actually did a lot of his work back in the day.
Unknown Speaker 3:51
Yeah, oh, wow, what a small right. He's in my builder, 20. And
Unknown Speaker 3:55
anyway, such as it is such a small world. Wow, that's cool that you were painting for him? How many employees did you have in that painting company? I think we probably had close to about 150 Subs at the time. And then we had an office staff that was we were pretty lean and mean, I think we only had about 15 folks on staff. So we were efficient. I learned a lot about business in those years went through 2008
Unknown Speaker 4:19
in that business, and then a partner that I had at the time, we bought him out. And then I ended up having one last partner who ended up buying me out. And so I graciously went on and wanted to learn more about commercial design and retail design and got to spend some very fun years learning about how the commercial space works, how that environment, you know, needs to perform and learned a lot of valuable lessons about space planning and management and in the design through that and then, you know, fast forward 2018 I had an opportunity I
Unknown Speaker 5:00
You know, I've, I've had the same phone number, I don't know, I'm probably like you have had the same phone number for like, my whole life literally. Yeah, I agree. I think I had an old flip phone in college. I don't think my numbers changed since that. Yeah, I mean, and I would never get rid of this number. I mean, whoever owns my number, like they could, they could, you know, blackmail me for whatever they want, but are short, you know, my phone was ringing, like, Hey, can you do this? Can you do that? I was like, I haven't been in the game in a little while, but you know, and then it just took one. And then it was like, a whole home remodel or something like that. It was, you know, very small at this time, maybe $250,000 project. So it was like, yeah, let me let me do it. And all of a sudden, I never looked back it from that point forward. Just explosive growth. I made a very, he's, you know, he's a colleague, but he's become like family to me, and my partner, Cody, who's our VP of construction. And he was building some new construction, and then we just, it just kind of supercharged us, quite frankly. And then, you know, fast forward to today, we're full on design build now and focusing on high performance and having an opportunities at projects that I never could have dreamt of. And so it's just very exciting. It's a very exciting time, the other businesses, I think, that you're referring to, I kept that commercial, that commercial. In my in my blood, and I created a company, we execute three PL labor services for a lot of the retailers that you know, and again, in life, it's all about relationships, and we play with that term is that are you doing build outs for commercial firms? Is that what you mean by that? Yeah. So I mean, think about, you know, customers, our customers are like Home Depot, we would go into those locations, and then stole a lot of the parts and pieces around that space. And that Home Depot is your customer, that's really ironically fun. Yeah, I can't, I can't take all the credit, you know, I did my small claim to fame and spending time with Home Depot is that I had an opportunity to help them re envision the parking lot space, and how pros Park and how handicap folks Park in that parking lot. And just how that environment works. And I got to do it with the park in partnership with a great manufacturing company. And so, you know, a lot of history there, and just spending a lot of time with their, you know, engineers, and they're architects and understanding how those big companies operate. So tons of fun. That's super interesting. And let's go back to something you said in the beginning, which was the back to this painting company. So when somebody buys you out, I mean, I understand the high level, but it's just kind of intriguing for, you know, sometimes when people aren't aware or aren't a part of a buyout, like how does that go in terms of like, valuating? The company? How does one buy a partner out? You know, you don't have to get specific, you can stay sort of high level or unless you want to, I just think it's kind of interesting, because I think a lot of people that are listening are business owners, maybe they want to buy into a company. And in this case, you were you know, you sold out so either way, you know, I think the information is really interesting. Yeah, I mean, we in essence, looked at, you know, all the KPIs that you might, you know, be looking for in your p&l or on the balance sheet, and just determining, you know, okay, the company has XYZ and assets, the company has why and debt, the company has, you know, this much cash flow, and, you know, this is what your EBIT is, right. So, if you're looking at your, your net, profit margin, and then you start deducting things like taxes and all that good stuff, you get down to that number. And then generically, it's done as a multiple of that EBIT a number plus consideration for the assets that you have on hand. So, you know, it's, it's pretty straightforward, but at the end of the day, somebody you gotta make it. Straightforward. Yeah, super straightforward. Yeah, super, super simple. I, like not simple. I don't I'm not trying to make it sound overly sound. No, I mean, I mean, did you end up doing it just internally and running your own numbers? Do you usually hire most people hire a third party to sort of verify and kind of help with that transaction? I mean, what does that look like? There's great business brokers out there who will come in and act as a third party consultant to help you give validity to the numbers that you're essentially selling to the buyer. So you know, if they're going to verify it, you can also use your CPA, your CPA is good at helping break the numbers down into a manageable format for you know, a potential suitor to come in and look at and feel confident that you know, hey, these these numbers have been verified by someone who is, you know, technically licensed. So, yeah, there's ways about it. In my particular case, I sold out to a partner that I had been in business with since you know, the whole time, he knew exactly what the business was worth. And he was looking at not only the dollars and cents on hand plus cash flow, he was looking at what future opportunity he knew he could get out of it. So is that
Unknown Speaker 10:00
Painting Companies still around, or did he sell out? It so he actually converted it. So during the, you know, the 2008 2014 timeframe, obviously, a lot of that trade work that we were doing for builders was, you know, it was pulling back. And as all that business pulled back, there was a lot of innovation in order to keep in order to continue to create revenue for the business. And so one of those avenues that he had actually come up with was
Unknown Speaker 10:29
artistic epoxy flooring systems. I know that that seems really obscure, but think of it almost as if it's an artist doing full panel flooring for you. So
Unknown Speaker 10:42
I'm trying to think of the right terminology. I don't know it all that well, I mean, we put it in some of our homes. In basements. Specifically, we have a couple of projects we've talked about where they're like polishing the concrete, it's as well or true, like epoxy, overcoats like, like a micro bevel. Now, it's a self leveling product. So it's like a self leveling epoxy product that you can put metallic veining inside of and you move the product and the product eventually moves on its own and creates its own unique, like in our conference room. Right now we've designed this floor to be to look like a piece of single solid piece of Carrera marble. So I can't flip the camera around and show you but I'll send you a picture. It's kind of unique, and it looks like it's one solid continuous piece of flooring. And so in certain places, it looks really nice. And I mean, he was he's been doing it ever since it's still a very profitable business for him. And he's kept it going. Although I had to steal him back. So he is our he is in the Bradford organization. Now I I got two and a half years into this thing and said, I need my killer back. And so we got him back. Oh, funny. So so he's still operating both companies or he's got someone kind of running the painting company then. Yeah, so he's he's hired an operator and that operator is doing a lot of the day to day lift, he kind of comes in and you know, I assume you use them then for all your painting as well. So no, I actually and his his company doesn't do traditional painting like we would refer to it. They're only doing the specialized finishes for flooring so but we do actually in our organization, the Bradford organization as well as my Lake City organization, which is a home exteriors company, we have developed and trained our own in house painting. So we self perform all painting and high performance finishes and house in our organization. That's got to be a huge differentiator in your market, I suppose any market but I'm a big you know, we only build a handful of homes a year and we're you know, we'd like to be very, you know, high in in our finishes and painting is one of the first things I do especially if you're painting snob you would know more about paint than I would obviously with your background, but I can always tell by feel I walk into anytime I walk into a parade of home artists at home, I'm always rubbing my hand up, even though I don't know that much about it. I know how it feels when it's good. And you can see if you can see that it's bad. And I can only imagine what it feels like because usually your eye can be deceived. But your touch usually can tell you you know, how buffed or how you know how smooth that finishes. And that's I don't know too many. I don't want too many builders. I'm sure a handful of remodelers would have their own painters on staff but I don't know too many new home companies that would have their own painting crew in house that's pretty progressive, have you guys well, I mean, a very large percentage of our business is remodeling so in order to you know keep that quality consistent through and through we're you know, we're choosing to do that now. I'm not going to say we have to supplement we're at the place now where we've, you know, gotten to the to the place where we're too busy, we have too many projects going on to where they can't be on every project and so we supplement with companies that give us the same quality and folks that we have trusted relationships with but that field test not many I don't think a lot of people know about that but that's exact we barely turn on the lights when we go check paint and that sounds absurd, but that's the truth. You know, I don't know what your standard practice is on finishing trim but ours is lacquer undercoat or base with you know, with a full top coat you know latex top coat nowadays it used to be oil based finish but you know, if you when you're sanding down lacquer undercoat or you know that it's going to be slick as a baby's bottom. Yeah, so are you I mean so how many total coats are you doing? On the trim? Yeah, yeah, so it's mostly three coats three coats Okay, I'd say three to four. Three is fine if they do a well I mean for we used to have our company that we worked with that I really loved their finish but obviously they're expensive you know, we would do two primary coats and to finish coats and it was like a car finish. I loved it. Yeah, I mean Atlanta markets almost 1415 bucks a foot these days interior exterior, I mean, depending on obviously all the other details but
Unknown Speaker 14:58
it's it's still not at
Unknown Speaker 15:00
Sheet service what is so let's so Lake City let's talk a little bit more about some of your other businesses so anchor retail must be your commercial build outs is that right? So we already talked about that your Lake City exteriors. So this is essentially what siding roofing like, what are you supplying necessarily? Yep. So we primarily focus on home exterior renovations. You know, our larger projects are inclusive of the five core, you know, services of the business. So roofing, siding, cornice work, obviously gutters painting, and then we do window replacement as well, this was this business was formed through our relationship with Pella, we had
Unknown Speaker 15:42
goodness that we just couldn't handle all the the intake, you know, we didn't these inbound leads that we were getting, we didn't want to dilute the Bradford brand with service work. And we wanted to continue to delineate our high end service from just the average every day like
Unknown Speaker 15:59
service providers. So
Unknown Speaker 16:02
with the partner through through Pella of Georgia, which they're great partners for us, they convinced us and twisted our arm to make it happen. And so we stood a company up, we use their marketing company pelas marketing company built us out from the backside. And we developed and built a team. And I mean John Valderrama, and Brian and the guys down here are just, they bless us, they keep us flush with lots of projects to install for them. And, you know, they I look at it as we're a strategic partner, they they call on us when their customers have large scale remodels. And they call us, for us to take care of those customers. That's amazing. I mean, I have a very tight relationship with Pelle up here in Minneapolis. I've worked with them for 20 years and done some brand ambassador stuff with them. And I mean, they're a sponsor with the podcast, actually, when I first started, I had they were my first call was saying, Hey, I know I'm gonna have some costs incurred. And, you know, we're gonna be sharing builder stories that in originally, it was mostly Minnesota companies. And so obviously, I went to my local, you know, Pella companies, I had built a couple homes for actually the owners of Pelle at the time, they have since sold it and every relationship obviously with the new owner, but you know, when you can align yourself with a company that you believe in, and you've demonstrated that you believe in them by you know, your not only your painting, patronage, but also just a long standing commitment to a relationship, it's no different than, you know, your painter, your trimmer, your cabinetry, you know, the one thing sometimes that people don't understand, in fact, I just got off a bid call on a remodel. And you know, a lot of times the architect or the client will ask for two or three bids, and sometimes it's appropriate, and sometimes it's not. And I had a concrete bid that I was defending, and it was about 10,000 higher than the other concrete bid. And they said, Well, why aren't we saving the $10,000 I said, we can I've used I've worked with both companies, but you're in a remodel, not a new home. And the company that's lower is really inexpensive, they do good work, but they are awful at communication, and they are in there, they will absolutely you know nickel and dime you all the way up if you as long as you know that going in, we can do it however on a remodel. I like the professionalism of this other concrete company, they are just so dialed in their concrete, their scheduling is unbelievable for a concrete company which has to have an asterix next to it. And
Unknown Speaker 18:21
you're laughing because it turns out it's not just Minnesota, it's across the country. And I really need to have some concrete companies on to ask them why is scheduling so hard? I mean, they always say weather and whatnot but we all deal with weather to some degree. Anyway, long story short, they understood it and like you know, sometimes there are people that I think people understand like framing or electricity or you know, electricians or whatever that hey, or cabinetry you know my cabinetry really is what sets us apart as long as my trim work so if someone is coming to our brand, and they're like well you know we love your brand we're not going to be like framing drywall paint it on painting painting is actually one of the ones with like, Well anybody can paint you know, like Yeah, anybody can my my five year old can paint it just looks like garbage. And so it's like you know, what level are you if you really value trim and carpentry Why are you not spending equal amount of tension on the painting because the painter is the last guy and that can save you he's also the last guy in that can ruin good work so it's like, it kind of rests in the hands of a good painter either way. So anyway, no 1,000% 1,000% And they're they're always the guys that are being asked to fix everybody else's work on top of them. So it's like they're the worst it's the worst sometimes I don't know I mean, honestly, well maybe you are a good person to ask because you were a painter. I don't the mind you have to be so chill to be a it's so not my maybe it's I can't relate to it because I am this I'm so opposite of being a completely chilled and relaxed person. Like all my painters are always like, very like drank kilo. They're just like very just like yeah, no problem, Mark, we got it. No problem. I'm like, Dude, we got to pray to home start in like 20
Unknown Speaker 20:00
For hours, like you think you can repeat this that are another thing like, No, we got it. They're always so relaxed. And I'm just like, wow, I don't know how they must all take like blood pressure like medication to like keep their blood pressure down. Because did you agree that most painters just seemed like really even keel or just like almost like asleep at the wheel? It's wild. I mean, I think they're just conditioned for it. You know, it's like a lifetime of just, hey, can you do this? Hey, can you do that? At some point? It's just easier to say sure. I got you than it is to say no, every time the hardest part is trust, because that so then they all say yes, but they don't always I'll deliver what they what you think they are. And it does put you at ease even as the builder as a professional. I didn't realize this podcast was gonna be a rip on painting as an industry, but it was like, you know, you're like, you go in, he asked the painter do somethings like, I got this and you're like, and then do you eventually my normal go to as you push a few times, and you kind of want them to come back, like, I got this. And then when they do it, I relax. I'm like, okay, they got it, then you come back, and they don't got it. And you're like, oh, man, my paranoia really was real. Yeah, that that's tough. I mean, it because it does happen, right? Like, it's inevitable that something's gonna get missed one little thing, one little thing over here, there, you know, but it's like, if I, I'm usually satisfied with 90%, on the first run, you know, if I get there, I can I can solve the rest? Well, okay. Let's talk a little bit about painting, actually, because you You're such a, you know, have a good repertoire on this. How do you guys handle, you know, the, you know, the blue tape walkthrough with the client? And how do you handle it as an internal organization prior to meeting with the client, so I want to talk about your kind of your detailed, you know, walking through a client experience, but let's talk about painting, because painting ends up being one of those things that I feel like as an industry, we do a very poor job of educating our clients of what is acceptable, what is great, and even how they should react. I mean, sometimes a client doesn't even know how to react to a good paint job or a bad paint job. Walk us through your observations of the industry and how you treat your clients during, you know, the, you know, the kind of the end the last 30 Day punch list and kind of that area of painting.
Unknown Speaker 22:08
Yeah, and, and I think you probably can empathize with this is my job is half builder, half educator, you know, so it starts in pre construction, when we're, we're explaining the process, and we're walking them through what they can expect. And, you know, we're giving them sort of a roadmap, but you're right, they don't, they don't know when Prime was versus first coat was versus, you know, point up, you know, so I kind of just help them like, hey, when you guys see some, you know, these weird black swirls on your wall, like, just understand you're in punch, you're, we're punching that thing out, right, so like, the drywall guys are gonna come back through. And then when you see that coat, beyond that, that's when you should start becoming concerned about the finish. But what we do is we'll provoked, we'll preemptively provoke a walk. So we'll make a list on our own, our superintendent will walk that site, he'll blue tape it up right after the first coats done. And because there are painters, a lot of times, they'll come back in and do one sweep before the client ever has a chance to see it. So when the client does come in, and we're getting into that last, let's call it, let's say we're in the last part of that phase, not 30 days, but let's just say we're at that point where your floors are clean. You've got paint on the walls, everything's pretty much done. We're doing a walk together. Are my superintendents already done a walk? He's blue, taped it. So when the customer comes in, they already see what I see. They already know what I have to say about the quality. So are you leaving the blue tape on the walls in front of the client? Yeah, absolutely. I want them to see that we're doing our job and quality controlling the job in the way that we told them they would. So that's their chance to join the fun, right? And I know that sounds terrible, because you're like, Oh, my God, how do your walls look when they're done? You'd be surprised. They actually come back with less when I showed them what I care about. And so I kind of walked back to that earlier comment, like it relaxes the client. Like, I don't have to be so concerned with everything because guess what Brad and his team are? Is that accurate? Absolutely. Because we're showing a ProAction we're showing that we're proactive against the work already. Do I have two questions about this one is do you give them a roll of blue tape? Or do you keep it in your own hands? No, we give them one of their own but we don't give it to him until so we all we Nobody's allowed to blue tape before right? You can't you can't get there early and start blue tape and it's like when we get there. Then we do it together. Yeah, I heard that. Okay, and then my second question, why blue tape? Why is it like everyone I talked to you're like, why is what why? How did blue tape get designated as the official you know, paint touch up blue tape that we give to our clients because a lot when they're using masking tape during that they don't use the blue tape like why blue tape
Unknown Speaker 25:00
I don't know. But this segment was brought to you by three M
Unknown Speaker 25:03
glue tape, which is based in Minneapolis. Thank you. So maybe I better hit them up as a sponsor. There you go. You know, I don't know, I got, I mean, we've used FrogTape for a while because we thought it had sharper lines, but it's more expensive. So we don't use that whenever we're doing our point up.
Unknown Speaker 25:20
Blue tape one inch, man, that's yeah, I like
Unknown Speaker 25:24
I like to middle and make arrows do you do that too. Sometimes if especially if it's a pie, I'm six foot two. So sometimes my clients that are shorter, or you know, even if my painters are shorter, you know, they'll be like, Hey, Mark, come over here. But, you know, they know I'm, you know, I'll be jumping up on the ceiling, or, you know, I can get to about 10 feet, that's about it. So it's like, as long as I've got the nine foot is no problem. But by the end, I better have brought my hops because if I'm jumping up actually, you learn all these little tricks, right? So like the back of a broom handles, you know, you do a little loop and then you put it on the top of the broom handle and you can stick it on the ceiling that worked out way better.
Unknown Speaker 25:58
While we digressed on that one, the but the blue tape one inch, I was told recently never give a client a roll blue tape. And for the majority of my career, it has not been an issue but I've had a couple clients where I you, I mean, it's you wish you never would have given them one because now, you know, I think they're single handedly causing the stock to go up and three up but they you know, every time you go to the house, you know, it's more and more and more and I yeah, I don't think I'll do it again. I don't think because I was did what you did. I would go through with my team. I'd have my project manager do it first. I tend to be probably the pickiest, actually, I'm by far the pickiest. I think when I come. It's like Moses or the Red Sea. The painters are like, get out of the way. Here comes Marco. No, you know, forget the Red Sea. It's the blue sea with the tape. And you know, they do not like, I mean, it just is what it is. They're fine. They're so relaxed, what do they care. So it's just like up goes, I'm convinced that half the time I put the blue tape up, and then they walk by and they just pull it down and I'll walk by that wall. Like the next day I'm like, I'm pretty sure I've marked something there. So one of these days, I should really actually verify that and like somehow come up with like, a tracker location because a lot of times it's so much of it's based on light. You know, you everyone listening who's a builder or remodeler obviously knows that, man the days that if you have high light or high contrast, I mean, or shadow lines, my goodness, a lot of it's the sheetrock. So the poor painter, you know, has to again, be the last, you know, buyer buyers, your painters a some pizza and get them some cool drinks and a hot day because they earn it man, they make your stuff look good.
Unknown Speaker 27:36
Wow, we spent a lot of time talking about painting on this one. Let's talk a little bit about your client experience. I'm kind of obsessed with the concept. And I don't know why it's taking me 20 years to really spend time I'm actually currently in the middle of mapping out from the first time I have a incoming call, you know, 15 minute call a one hour meeting a design agreement like and then all the way to the end and then past one year, and you actually want to do even out to 10 years would be my goal, because we have to warranty our homes for 10 years in Minnesota. That's where my headspace is at right now. It's gonna take me six months to kind of figure out what I want to do with it in between actually building people's homes and running a podcast. Back to you. What is client experience mean to you, one of the things I was reading about on your website was just, you know, you talk a lot about, you know, ongoing communication, reducing their stress, you talk about, you know, the client experience, I mean, we all want client experience, we all as a business owners want to produce it, what does it mean to you? And what have you found in your career that works? And what doesn't work? And how have you evolved?
Unknown Speaker 28:40
Yeah, I mean, and there's a lot behind that, right. So, you know, I have to admit that when I first began building custom homes, I was so laser focused on the product, that I found that we were missing things on customer experience, and that we we would build these beautiful homes, and the customer would be mad about it. And I just felt to myself, like look at this beautiful thing. And and it was through that experience and just understanding that you can't be you can't be one dimensional, you have to be capable of being multi dimensional, in the thought behind how your process works and how the customer experiences your product, not just at the end, but in the process of building. So, you know, we don't have any pre sales specs, we're not semi custom our customers find us and ask us, you know, for concept to keys. And in doing that, and as we began to, to become, you know, I would just say is really an empathetic approach. It was like, you know, look, we we just have to put ourselves in their shoes, and we have to create
Unknown Speaker 30:00
ate a roadmap of their experience that will have them raving about not only the product that they've gotten, but the experience that they had with us. And so we created this project development roadmap. So kind of like what you did, obviously, we had our, you know, you know, we that was a sales admin task technically. So, you know, the admin would take the first inbound call, you know, you'd go through that process, and all the way to the point where you're in pre con, but once it lands there, you know, we have a very strategic way we take them through the process of developing not only architectural concepts, but you know, the major build components of a build, and then the interior design, because we have interior design in house. So you know, we're, we're fully responsible throughout the entire component of them developing this project. And so we started there, we started there, and then we developed our process around how the customer would would be handled during the construction phase. And what we learned is, is that when we increase the cadence of communication, when we started having weekly or bi weekly meetings with customers, because we have a different cadence during pre con than we do in construction, so we're bi weekly and construction, we're weekly and pre con. And that could seem like a lot. Sure, you know, some of our projects that have digestion time built in, and it may not be on a weekly, but you get the drift, right? So increase cadence and communication, and then asking for asking directly for feedback. And so we do we do a scoring system. So the pre con manager all the way through the project manager, they're there, we're asking the customer to give us some feedback on how they feel their experiences going because we want to kind of monitor that rollercoaster effect that happens. Is that a weekly report, like on a Friday and like, because are you guys using builder trend? We are? Yeah. So your weekly reports, your Friday recaps, and you're looking at heads? Are you putting it in there? How are you gathering this information? And how are you getting your clients to not only rate you but to do it regularly? Surveys. So we're using the survey tool inside of builder trend to send that out after the meeting. So it's it's rather straightforward, even though the project manager is asking their what they're essentially doing is priming them. They're getting them ready for that survey to go out. So it's Hey, how's it going? Here's some updates about the project. Here's where we are today. We don't tip typically have finance conversations in hours because we've moved completely from cost plus to fixed fee. So we're not having many conversations around finance during the build cycle anymore. That's rushing, isn't it? How long were you guys doing cost plus? Just mostly through COVID? We were fixed price going into COVID We took including your remodels? Yeah, all remodels for for Yeah, all remodels have always been fixed price. Because the remodel side for us in our market is much more geared towards fixed price. Now, if there's a if your client like and we tell our clients this, like we won't back away from a project if they prefer cost plus, especially if there's we know there's going to be a lot of indecision, or they have very little time and can only make decisions just in time for us. We'll we'll approach it that way. But we give essentially the riot act and like hey, look, this is how we typically work, you know, never come to us and ask us in the middle of a project, what it's going to take for us to finish that's not that's not something that we do. As standard practice, we can tell you where you are, we can tell you what it should be. But we cannot tell you down to the penny what it will be in that in that, you know, in the way that that was happening. So we wanted to remove all of the customers pricing anxiety. So market cooled off post COVID Things are much more level. Now obviously, we kind of gone through somewhat of a dip. And that's good. And that's great for now. But you know, the only two escalation clauses that remain inside of our contract to date are earthwork and concrete. Those are the only two that that are still in our, you know, contract language today. One of my favorite quotes is from Walt Disney, and they asked him how much a Disney World would cost. And he said, I'll tell you the cost when I'm done innovating. And like that's a cost plus contract, right? I mean, he's now granted he's a creator, He's creating it and I just thought that was sort of that as a I'll probably use that the next time a client asked a little bit about the difference between the two. And it's not that you don't get bids. It's not that you don't know. I am actively I've been cost plus four. I got lucky I switched to cost plus right before COVID Actually, the reason I switched to cost plus is I had two homes that I built at the same time right entering COVID And they were monsters they were like two to three times my normal value and
Unknown Speaker 35:00
size that I'd normally built at that time, in one was an extremely complicated modern home that I'd never built. And I said, I'll only do it if it's cost plus, and I can't get to your point I said, you know, here's where I think it's gonna cost. But I mean, we got bids on it. But the other thing is the client probably made all man hundreds of change orders. And so that's the only way you could build a house like that. Anyway, I digress five years later, or however many years it's been since I've lost track of COVID. Is,
Unknown Speaker 35:28
is, I actually want to go back to fixed bid. You know, I think there's I talked to other builders and my builder 20. And I talked to other builders in general, I think there's more money to be made and fixed bid, honestly, because people are so afraid of the big, bad, scary number. I think when I used to do fixed bid back at early in my career for my first you know, 12 to 15 years, you know, you know, the sales proposition, they couldn't understand what the cost of the home was, they just had to kind of like, okay, I get it, this house is 1.2 million, what are the things that are included, and then they kind of just, you kind of, I would lose people sometimes, just because they didn't know, like, you know, when you see a visa statement, like when you, you know, I check at the end of the month, you know, and I sit down with my wife, I'm like, hey, wow, how did we get to this number, like, oh, we, you know, we bought a plane ticket, or we bought some new stuff for the kids or whatever. And like before you know it, like well, actually, this number seems sort of seems right on, I think that's the advantage of a cost plus, because you have the I tried to bring the client in and say, This is how we got to your price. I am a bespoke custom builder. If you want the price to change, I need your help to change it because this is your home. And that works really well for a client that you know, is in finance or in banking or is logical. I've run into a problem where you get some every once in a while you get a few people that want to run your business. And I'm really tired of that. And so I guess each one has a pro and con you got to pick which source Do you want to go to battle with. But right now I'm like, I think I kind of want to go back to fixed bid. So who knows I'll do a fixed bid for five years, and I'll be like, I miss cost blah. So who knows?
Unknown Speaker 37:00
You know, it just it extends the time and preconstruction, that's the one direct, you know, that's the direct correlation is the length of time it takes to go through the selection process, have everything hammered out, share all those things, what I say to our customers is pretty much the same thing you say to yours, it's like, you know, you own the cost. If there is if there is a, if there's something that I'm not aware of, for instance, and I don't know, there's an assumption made, and then there's an allowance put in there. And we hold that until you make that decision. So you still impact that cost, right? Until we get to the place where you solidify that. And then, you know, if we write it in as an allowance, that's what you've got to spend, I mean, there's still allowances in fixed price. It's not, I don't think there's a contract out there that truly is 100% Perfect going into it, maybe there are some but maybe those are some internal rule sets that they have, where they just won't start a project until down to the nail. And I think this goes back to one of the things that you have right on your website, you call it the process of success, which is just simply, you know, ongoing project communication, I ran into a real big issue last year, I, I've been trying for a long time to delegate more work to my people. And anyway, long story short,
Unknown Speaker 38:20
the client was not being educated, or communicated to in the way that they should. And at the end of the day, the blowback and the cost to me was excessive, it cost me a lot of money. And so
Unknown Speaker 38:31
I'm not saying you shouldn't trust your people. But you know, ultimately, I think your scoring system, I think that scoring system would have revealed pretty quickly that the client was unhappy with communication, and then I probably would have stepped in. So maybe that survey would have saved me, or I didn't, I was not exercising that part. Frankly, I don't even know what buildertrend had that too. I just wrote it down, I'm gonna have to look into that, because that sounds amazing.
Unknown Speaker 38:53
But I guess where I'm going with is just communication, you know, both in fixed bid or cost plus, as long as you are telling your client ahead of time, what you just told them. You know, I don't know what this is going to cost. Here's an idea. And as long as you have those weekly check ins, I like bi weekly, myself, I need a little any, especially if you have multiple projects weekly just becomes a lot for the team. I mean, it seems like as soon as you've met with the client, you already have to get prepared for the next meeting. You're like, well, nothing. I haven't even had time to do all the things I said I was gonna do the first time. And I you know, I'm not a big fan of just meeting to meet. In fact, a few things make me as excited as I canceled meeting because you're like, I overcommit my schedule. I'm like an airline. You know, I definitely oversell my seats in terms of time. And so if I get a canceled meeting, I'm like, Yes, you feel relaxed. You're like, oh, I have some time and you think I'm going to be so efficient. You know, you wasted doing something else. But anyway, you get the point. Yeah. Well, on the construction side, it's every two weeks, but pre con because we have change changing concept or, you know, modification to concept. A lot of times where I'm getting new renderings back on, you know, well this wine fridge needs to be horizontal versus vertical. You know, it's like oh, Here's your change. Those things go fast.
Unknown Speaker 40:00
So, you know, once a week, check it out on that. That's the kind of thing we do. But yeah, I mean, you know, just to kind of one more, one more piece on the, you know, customer experience. And again, like, you know, that process of success is, you know, we are trying to build confidence every step of the way, we never stopped trying to build confidence even after we've been awarded the job. And we're, you know, working through it, it is, it's all about having our customers feel like they've made the right decision number one, but also that we are, we, you know, we establish ourselves as the expert. And now we've proven that we are the experts, because we've committed that throughout the entire project. And I think that our customers feel that now, do we make mistakes all the time, and we're human, you know, like, I love my guys, our team is easily the only reason that we're having any kind of success and growth, I give it all to them, right. But the philosophy that you know, has come down from me is that we are going to be successful through customer obsession. That is, that is the only way that we are going to get to the place we want to go and do the types of projects we're going to do. And you know, we're not going to relent on that period. So it's a it's ingrained in the culture here, you know, there, you could grab every one of these guys outside of the hall and pull them aside. And they'll tell you the same thing almost verbatim. How's everybody good? I was gonna ask you this earlier, but I forgot how many total employees do you have? So office staff designer, we have an architect designer on staff we have for PMS, couple superintendents, office staff, obviously, I think we're up to 12 now in the office, and then our self performed team is only about nine guys deep right now. And then obviously, this applied this subspace. Yeah. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 41:58
Yeah, that's interesting, going back to only just because I was trying to think of I love this concept, customer obsession.
Unknown Speaker 42:05
You know, and I, you know, I think one of the things that's so rewarding about working with, obviously, our trade partners, but you know, we're working with our clients, they're, they're basically a part of your team for the, for the part of that journey, right. And there are certain clients that impact your life, as well as your trade partners and employees differently than others. And some, in many ways, in a very positive, very good way. I have this client, and she's an amazing woman, and we worked on her home for three years. And when it was done, you know, after three years, everyone's kind of just tired, and you're kind of ready to move on. But within like a month after she had moved in, we both kind of felt like this weird absence, like we're so used to seeing each other, you know, every two weeks, and it was like, I just stopped by the house one day, I'm like, surprised. I haven't seen you in a month. I just thought I should stop by and say hi, because it's it feels awkward, like, did we break up like what happened? And so we've remained, you know, pretty close, we'll text and she's been a huge advocate. If I have clients that are interested in, you know, homes, she is great about letting me come through. Well, I felt kind of bad because you know, these clients build in this case, it was a $4 million home, gorgeous home, and I'd show it every day. I mean, who wouldn't want to see this house, it's just gorgeous. Every time I walk into it, she takes such good care of it that I'm just like, Thank you for being my client. I feel so rewarded that not only did I get to build you this amazing home, it was a wonderful experience for me and for the client. But she keeps her home. Like the day I left it, which is a huge compliment to you as a craftsman. And then to bring people through it and have her raving about her own house. It's like I don't need to sell anything. Just look at her. She's just like oozing about this house. Well, anyway, long story short, I, I don't very often show her house. And I showed her house on like this random Tuesday at 10am. And I just happen to have another client that was sort of interested. And I was like, well, if I'm gonna go there, I might as well try to dovetail this. So I ended up lying to clients and a realtor all to come to her house at the same time. And I was orchestrating and did it all. And so I'm like, I need to say thank you, because this is amazing deals. So I sent her like some champagne or gift box and stuff like whatever. She sent me a text yesterday saying like, you didn't need to do that. We love you so much. If there's anything we can do to help you, you're just like, oh my word. How do I get more clients like this? This lady is amazing. But it goes both ways. Like she honestly felt the same way. She's like, you'd not need to say thank you. And I'm like, How could I not say thank you? 100 times more. And I just think that speaks to a special nature that building somebody's home. It's so emotional. And when it goes really well. That's like that's like the loftiest it can be. That's like, when I'm done with my career. I will remember her I will talk about her. I'll probably still see here. I'll probably still stop by her house if she's still there. Anyway, I mean, do you find that that type of it's not every client but there are clients like that that just it gives you kind of this really incredible feeling that makes you kind of keep wanting to do what you do. 1,000% I've got to say we've just finished this beautiful design build that we did not the biggest house right like only 2200 square feet, but
Unknown Speaker 45:00
One of the most well optioned, you know, homes that we've ever put our hands on amazing designer. And, you know, I've kept up with the homeowner, probably on a monthly basis. I mean, you know, they, they like to engage with our social media, they like to talk to us through social media, they were, I'm seeing their stories and watching how their lives are progressing. And they're in their new home and seeing new furniture come in. And, you know, I'm loving watching everything, but it's like, you know, hey, we're getting down to that time of, you know, it's like, we need to go back in about a couple months, and make sure that we tidy up some things after the one year, you know, kind of warranty phase, and he reaches out to me, and he's like, Hey, man, I just, you know, I feel like I need to give you a call. Because, you know, I know that you told me about all these things about why you built my house the way you built it. And I know that I didn't understand half of it when you were explaining it to me, right? Like, why did we use, you know, LP weather logic? And why did we choose to do spray foam? And why did we choose to do all these high performance features in this house, he's like, but I've been living here now. And my power bills are drastically reduced compared to anything I've ever experienced before. But not only that, I know we're getting ready for this thing. And I just kind of I don't know a lot about houses, but I, I called a buddy who's a home inspector, and he came out and inspected the house. And all he could do was just dote on how well the house was built. And I was like, man, like that means a lot it does. But the fact that you love it, and you're experiencing the direct benefits of the decisions that we made, and that you were you took my advice, and that you listened, and you trusted us. And now you're saying that that was beneficial to you? You know, it just Yes, it's like the same thing, in essence, you know, they they're absolutely happy to let us bring customers to and it's like, yeah, that's why you do this, I do this because of the lasting relationships that are made. And, you know, we're doing we're doing a large whole home renovation addition for his sister now. And you know, that's how this business works. And it just, it's a daisy chain effect, you know, you may meet one great person, and they introduce you to another great person, and then your network grows. And so when you stand back and reflect on the body of your work, it's not just the houses you create, but the network and the people that are within it. This is one of the few industries that that happens. Most of the time you sell a product, you never hear from the person. In this sense, you've made friends, and oftentimes for for a long period of time you engage with them for a year or two, three, right? We have, we have several of those. And it's honestly the reason I do this personally, my personal reason behind it is the lasting relationships that are made out what other industry
Unknown Speaker 47:44
do you think, or what industries do you think are the best at client experience?
Unknown Speaker 47:52
Man, that's, that's tough. I mean, obviously, you know, you think about entertainment, they have to be completely observant of every single part in peace, right? Retail is absolutely customer obsessed in a big way. Because you're interacting with a space and how you interact with that space is usually the determination of whether or not they're going to receive cash. So they're, they're particularly concerned with your experience, but
Unknown Speaker 48:24
that's, you know, I'm sure there are plenty others I just come into, um, well, you know, I I'm just kind of using personal experience here. You know, I know I'm into boating, I love surfing, that's one of my, our family hobbies is we live on our lake and we do a lot of Wake surfing. And I know that the manufacturer of the boat that I am a fan of and the ones that I bought a couple of they are absolutely inquisitive. And they are always asking us as as buyers, you know, what can they do to make their products better? And I would tell you that you know, yes, the luxury boat market is one of those industries that seems to care a lot about experience but I think that's because that's their their lifeline. I think that's a great you know, great question by the way what can we do to make your experience better? I think too often we wait till the end of a project to ask our clients you know what, and you know, it's kind of like the the final meeting or whatever and you kind of give them the keys or you know, however that process happens I mean, it's been so long since you just hand somebody the keys it's just like it seems like this is weird process that somehow they move into their house but there was really no final I mean it's just it's much more organic now than it used to be when I first started you know you're before I first started building was like a closing table is very official. It's like the Buckingham Palace like you got to wait for the guard at the top have to turn around and like here's the keys My house is now yours. So it's like now it's so are like, oh, you know, it's just much more laissez faire. I think sometimes clients almost wish it was cleaner and more cut and dry. Now it's a much more casual affair.
Unknown Speaker 50:00
Um, anyway, where I was going with this was that I've kind of been obsessed with the hospitality industry. Nick Schiffer on the modern craftsman who you know him, had shared this book called unreasonable hospitality. And I've talked about a little bit on the podcast before, but it's kind of been my go to, it's been on my mind for the last three days, it's probably been my favorite book in the last six months, I read a lot of books that books incredible. The store, we have so much to learn from hospitality, I'm thinking high end restaurants, you know, concierge is at hotels, and you know, I take a meal, for example, I mean, you can obviously make a meal at home for a couple of dollars very inexpensively. You can spend, you know, four or five $600 on a really high end restaurant, you know, totally different meal, obviously. But what you're really paying for is an experience, what you're really paying for is kind of this perceived, like, it's it's like showmanship entertainment. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out, you know, and all the spare time, I have to try to figure out some of these ideas, like, how can I sprinkle them into building a home? And I think one of the things that you said that brought it up for me is, I think I need to check in with my client more regularly, and say, you know, what could I do that would make your experience better, the hard part is, is a lot of times they don't know, because unless they've built before, they don't really know what to even compare it to. So if you were to ask one of your clients, what can I do? That would make your experience better? What are some things that you've heard?
Unknown Speaker 51:31
You know, most of the time, it's just about detail, you know, customers are just as curious as, you know, the guy that's doing the work a lot of times, you know, it's like if they don't have good information, whether that's on a set of plans, or whether that's a schematic drawing, or a shop drawing for some specific detail, or part or piece that we're putting in there. I think there can our customers are consistently consistently asking us, you know, it's like, how does that go together? You know, it's like, Is that Is that gonna be how it is? When it's done? You know, you kind of hear that a lot. And you're like, No, no, no, there's a couple stages to having this thing get wrapped up. So, you know, hey, if you're not aware, let me show you back. You know, in this file folder over here, there's one of the details it was, you know, there's a signature next to it a lot of times, but it's like, this is what you should be expecting. And I think a lot of times people just kind of forget along the path, you know, and a long cycle like a long, you know, build cycle, it is typically forget little details, or, oh, yeah, what, what was that, that I was getting over there? I forget that, you know, they just so those are a lot of the questions that we get, they're not necessarily so much of like a, you could be doing this or that better. I've got to just again, go back to doting on my team. I mean, they're, we're constantly communicating. I mean, we're, we're probably it's probably bad. You know, I know, builder trends, new communication tool. And I know, the way that the chat feature is designed is it's supposed to, you know, keep everything consolidated into one place. So you can go back and see that communication flow and monitor, you know, the cadence of communication. But we're still bad. I mean, our guys are communicating via text, they're communicating via email, they're communicating anywhere that is natural to that customer. So we're meeting them where they are. And that's just one of the kind of the rules that we break all the time. That's funny, you say that, because I actually have written in my contract about texting, because I've had a few that have clients that have particularly abused it, not only with me personally, but with some of our project managers where they cannot respect boundaries. And, you know, we are in a client experience business as we just I guess, we just talked about how important that is, I feel like, but respect is really important. The reason we treat their experience so well is we're trying to set them up for success and our team, if you're on a long build, and people don't have a time to recharge, if there's no mental headspace to regroup on nights and weekends, you know, you and I, as business owners have to protect our people. And anyway, we, you know, like a lot of things in your contract that are written there for, you know, for when you might need them. And, you know, I've often told my clients like, you know, for me, personally, I've talked about it a lot on the show, you know, I prefer email because I like the whole team to be able to see or guess what you can call me, you know, phone just works just fine. I texting for me personally is great for, you know, hey, I'm running five minutes late to a meeting or just a quick tip. But what becomes a problem is when people start communicating regularly that way, because it's convenient, they're sitting on their couch, they react to something. Again, it's fine for pictures and great for video, obviously, but it's a slippery slope. And so if we could probably have an entire episode with builders around the country of how texting has gone wrong, because it can really be, you know, a problem even just like the dinging of a phone. I don't know if you ever saw that movie, The Social Network.
Unknown Speaker 55:00
I see that a couple of years ago, I mean, just how you know, when your brain is interrupted from its flow of thought how disruptive is and actually physically harmful to your body. And in construction, someone was laughing the other day, because, you know, someone had described like, their day is a plan, and everything has to go concentric, or you know, in sequential order, or their day is ruined. And I'm like, I don't know, any builder that can hit like, that doesn't exist in building like, there's nothing that goes right from the beginning to the end, like if you are not able to adapt, and switch and change and modify and be flexible, like you are in the wrong industry. And, yeah, anyway, I guess I didn't really have a big point on that just more of an observation of how texting can be harmful. And as owners, we have to also protect our people. Now, I mean, it it, there have been times where you're right, there's no boundaries, we just let our folks know, we tell our customers at the onset, like text is not official communication. It does not, you know, if you get a response, it is not official communication, like there's no approvals, or there's nothing that we will ever say in a text message that is going to be binding in any way. So it's like, if you need a quick question, or whatever, you know, or you just want to, you know, want to know, something like, you're okay to do that. But if you don't get a response, you can't be upset with us either after hours. So we just kind of set the precedent that way. You know, it's like, if you send us a text, and it's late at night, you're gonna get something in the morning, just like you would as in an email, but, you know, I think a lot of our customers are busy professionals, that's the majority of our, of our base of customers. A lot of times, you know, just even getting them into design meetings can be challenging. So, you know, we're, we're just trying to, like I say, it's kind of meeting them where they are, but in a lot of ways, like official business does get handled through through email, primarily. So but it's, it's about, there's got to be two paths of respect there, period, no matter how you go about it.
Unknown Speaker 57:06
Well, as we kind of come in for a landing here, I was going to talk to you more about high performance building, because I know that's something you're passionate about, but I don't think we're gonna, we'll cover that in three and a half minutes. So maybe we'll save that for round two, will tell us a little bit about what you do. In your spare time. Tell us about how you recharge. And,
Unknown Speaker 57:22
you know, how do you stay excited about because you're constantly iterating new business ideas? You know, where do you get your energy and where to get your ideas from.
Unknown Speaker 57:33
And the time that I get to myself is, it's few and far between, right, but where I do my best thinking is generally on the back of my boat, I It's the only place that really allows me to feel like I can take a break. You know, I have a two year old son and it seems like our all the core memories that we're creating right now are out there doesn't hurt that it's also summer here. In the winter, I find myself twiddling my thumbs sometimes, you know, might wander out to the golf course just to hit some balls or something. But which we can do that here in Georgia, you can't do that where you're at. So I just did just disappear in the snow. Exactly. Other than that, man, you know, like I'm, I've gotten really into, you know, some sustainable causes. I really like the idea of, you know, on the on that side of high performance, I've been trying to educate myself to the best that I can but, you know, sustainability and, and high performance are important. I subscribe to it. Personally, I have a rivian You know, it's like, I love I love the idea of having a small footprint. And just trying to learn more about how we can kind of incorporate more nature back into this, you know, utilitarian, you know, environment that we seem to create. That's funny you say that I just was sharing a stage with someone last week, Jonathan Kramer forever sphere, he does some air testing. And with the term is that bio bio phallic design bio, basically. Yeah, but there and I just I'm kind of obsessed with it. I would loved he was telling me about how, basically bringing nature into your home, as you already mentioned, but you can there's a company that makes like to provide this is not his description. This is mine, but basically like Nespresso pods for like coffee, right, there's a company that you can have like a plant law, and you can have like a little barcode with these little plants, and then you can plant different Well, I don't know, different types of plants because I have a black thumb, anything that would be in my house would be dead, I certainly appreciate it, but I don't want to take care of it. And basically, these little plant pods will grow they'll take care of them. And it's a way to basically especially if people are gone because you know, indoor plant life has such amazing effects for air quality. And so I it'd be really interesting to see how that those design changes happen in residential homes because I think they're they're probably more prevalent and commercial design would be my guess. But anyway, that's I would like an outcome.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
I think if I really want to have somebody in that field, that's an expert on the podcast, because that'd be a fascinating topic to, to, to dive into. Yeah, we're doing a living roof downtown on this. It's a really, really cool project. But to your point about having it be incorporated, it's like when you get into the there's a lot of technical stuff to it, because you're adding a lot of weight in a lot of cases. But
Unknown Speaker 1:00:24
it really is interesting. I have to, I'll share some of that when it when it comes to life. So yeah, that'd be amazing to see. I mean, I follow you guys on Instagram, and you do beautiful work. And I like kind of how you celebrate you know, seems like your cinematography is pretty good. He's got like a movie creator for some of your ads. So kudos to James Cameron for coming on and doing some Bradford home commercials for you. For those that want
Unknown Speaker 1:00:49
to pick for those that want to reach out to you. Best place would be LinkedIn, Bradford homes.com, Brad for built I think is your Instagram handle. Is that right? Yep. So we're, I mean, predominantly going to be on Instagram, Facebook, but yeah, we have a presence on LinkedIn. I'm active on LinkedIn, I try to stay very closely connected to my network sometimes I'll share some things out there. I'm not leveraging LinkedIn as a marketing tool probably like I should but I know that um, you know, I have a robust network full of great people that you know have a good understanding of what I do and I try to share things that are relevant there that they might also enjoy so just you know that that's that's easiest place to find this
Unknown Speaker 1:01:34
for now. One last thing How did you come up with Bradford? How did I mean it Your name is Brad Robinson How did Bradford custom homes become a thing? Well, my mother calls me Bradford because that is my true first name. And I understand the sentiment behind people creating businesses with their last name leading the name of said business but I had a different philosophy that I wanted to do and I wanted to just kind of lean in towards you know, just just Bradford like when I was thinking about the name it was just going to be Bradford period I wasn't gonna say anything else was going to be Bradford and then I was like well, I guess I have to give some details so All right, it'll be I mean I like it a lot I you know I mind because no one tells you when you're 23 and you start a company you know don't name it mark with Dee Williams custom homes because you're like it makes it really hard to sell at least Bradford that sounds like you know, I could sell that that's like a lion. That's like Burberry you know, high end luxury homes of Atlanta. Watch out Burberry. Thanks again for coming on. It was great to have you and we will see you soon. Thanks, man. I'm looking forward to it. Alright, Thanks, Ben.
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