Episode 92 - Losers are Winners: Kyle Schlesser's Leap of Faith That Almost Took Everything Down
Episode #92 | Losers are Winners | Kyle Schlesser's Leap of Faith That Almost Took Everything Down
Kyle Schlesser left a six-figure finance career, convinced his wife Katie to leave her executive marketing role, and launched Solid Ground Construction in 2019 with nothing but a leap of faith and a neighbor's porch swing job — and the next few years were exactly as humbling as that sounds. Mark and Kyle dig into the white-knuckle years of doing everything himself, the moment he nearly buried the company by refusing to ask for help, and why hiring for your greatest weakness is the hardest and most valuable thing a business owner can do. It's raw, it's real, and it's the kind of conversation that makes you want to text your spouse and say sorry.
About The Curious Builder
The host of the Curious Builder Posdast is Mark D. Williams, the founder of Mark D. Williams Custom Homes Inc. They are an award-winning Twin Cities-based home builder, creating quality custom homes and remodels — one-of-a-kind dream homes of all styles and scopes. Whether you’re looking to reimagine your current space or start fresh with a new construction, we build homes that reflect how you live your everyday life.
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Mark D. Williams 00:05
I feel like we all realize that the seeds of I don't even like the word failure anymore, because I don't even think it's like the seeds of disappointment or the seeds of setback really is what leads to the fruit of growth down the road. Absolutely, and you can't have the fruit without the seed. And I mean, it's just that simple. Welcome to the curious builder Podcast. I'm Mark Williams, your host today, I'm joined with Kyle Slusher from solid ground construction. Did I get it right that time?
Kyle Schlesser 00:35
You did? Yes, great.
Mark D. Williams 00:36
So we met at our continuing ed class about a couple of months ago, boringest class ever been in my entire life, and I've been in a few, yeah, it's funny because I told my project manager or my office manager to sign me up for the continuing ed. I'm like, you can do it all online, right? It's like, ah, you know what? Every once in all these classes are pretty good, I get to network and meet all these people. The highlight is, I met you.
Kyle Schlesser 00:57
Yeah, I was, I felt so bad for the guy he I mean, he admitted it at first thing out. He's like, I haven't done the 2026, version. And I was
Mark D. Williams 01:05
just like, it was rough. I got a lot of work done. I was, for sure, I got so much work done that day. Well, we're not gonna talk about continuing ed, because no one's we don't need to bore people twice. We are on a losers, our winner series, and what you got once you give you a brief background, because you kind of have a really interesting journey, actually. Why don't we do like a five minute recap on that, and then we'll go straight to the losers or winners and what you learned
Kyle Schlesser 01:26
for sure? Yeah, well, thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely. And the time, so a little bit of background. So solid ground. We started back in 2019 so prior to that, Katie and I, so we run the company together. We've got a team that supports us. But
Mark D. Williams 01:41
Katie's your wife, correct?
Kyle Schlesser 01:42
She is, yeah, absolutely. So she and I, before 2019 were in corporate roles, so we spent about almost a decade. I was in finance and she was in marketing. And it came up end of 2018 when I had a series of different positions, I ended up doing my own thing as a contracted financial kind of an advisor, more of an analyst, and it was coming to the end of my contract, and we were at lunch, and Katie was like, something bugging you, like, Well, yeah, like, my contract is re up. I've got probably four different positions within the corporation that I was within that I could submit an application for and they would maybe rehire me for one of those new positions. I was like, I just, I don't, it's not there anymore for me. And she looked at me, and she was like, Well, what is it then? And like, she's the one. She's She's a truth seeker by nature. Like, if there's and it's great for parenting, because if there's ever, like, a little bit of an issue with our kids, she's like, what's going on there? And like, she just dives into it and like, there's no way they're telling a lie. There's no way they're getting away from it. So, and especially from a marriage standpoint, like, it's great too, because she looks at me, she's like, something's off, and she knows immediately. I'm like, dang it. I didn't even know anything was off, and you're just calling it out of me. So that's who she is. But So we're sitting at lunch, and she was like, you've always loved homes, like, any parade, anything we could do on our own home. She's like, you just dive into it. Like, you love the journey and the adventure of, like, figuring it out. I was like, Yeah, but that's not construct. Like, that's not real construction. That's just like, Oh, if I make a mistake, I just pay for it in my own home. She's like, we'll figure it out. Like, maybe there is something there. And fast forward two months, and I was a licensed general contractor in the state of Minnesota on my first job, which was a porch swing on a neighbor's house, and I was hanging it, and I had to crawl up into it. Long story short, it was not what I was hoping for as the contractor, but it ended up being what it is. And so she challenged me there. She was just like, go find something that you absolutely love doing and seeing if there's a way to do it. And that was the beginning of everything solid ground. It was one where I took a huge leap of faith, like it was not we were both salaried six figures, and just like, oh yeah, this is what it looks like to do life as you get older. And so I went from that to zero and trying to figure out, we already have a mortgage. We already have kids in private school.
Mark D. Williams 04:07
Like, how many kids did you
Kyle Schlesser 04:08
have at that time? So at that time, we had
Mark D. Williams 04:10
two, yeah. And now you have, now
Kyle Schlesser 04:11
we have three,
Mark D. Williams 04:12
yeah.
Kyle Schlesser 04:12
And it was like, Well, how do we supplement that income that is now gone? And I was like, well, that's a faith step, like, we got to figure that out. And that's like, that's like, that's part of the heartbeat of what we do at solid ground, like we are living that faith dream out. And every step of the way, it's like, alright, God, like, how are we, how are we going to do this? How are we going to do this? And
Mark D. Williams 04:30
did you feel, I mean, we talked a little bit about this. I mean, literally, we've met for five minutes, and we had one phone call. It's great. And it was great. And we kind of, you know, one thing that was really appealing to me, and I've always, I always give a lot of props to people that have a career and have children and then make this entrepreneurship jump, like you're talking about a lot of us out there, myself included, like, when you have nothing to lose, like it doesn't really I wonder, risk is just different. I mean, would I at 45 with three kids and a family, take those same risks? Probably not. Not, but you don't know what you don't know at that time. And so I hearing your story, it's, it's really inspiring. And so especially, what was the main catalyst? You weren't happy. You wanted something bigger, like you knew what your path was. You know, you both are doing very well, and you could go that path and imagine, as a man of faith too, you're also like and correct me if I'm wrong. But this is a has happened to me many times, is like, you know, the whole parable about turning down the bar to build one bigger. And you wonder, like, do am I? Like, I've thought about that sometimes, about not building a spec home for that reason, for sure, like our Misa, who's project that we're almost done with now, for a long time, for 16 years, I sat on the sideline not doing it because I felt like it just wasn't for me. And then, like, sometimes things just change. Like, sometimes it's not, no, it's just not. Now, how was that in your journey, like to say, like, no, what was the entrepreneurship gonna do for you that this path was not gonna do? Yeah?
Kyle Schlesser 05:49
Yeah. That's a good question. So there was just an emptiness there, and it was a day to day. And so that was really hard, especially, you know, as the husband and the father in the family, like, I'm called to lead my family. And there were many times where I just wasn't holding that position because I was like, I just like, this isn't fun. And I know work isn't always fun, but it just it had an emptiness to it that I couldn't shake. And I know looking at the harder one was Katie to move out of her position, because she is incredibly talented in the world of marketing and understanding product cycles, and like, she was on executive leadership teams within the corporate world, and to pull her out of that, like her natural gifting, was to be in that type of a situation or scenario where you're just, you're leading amongst leaders, and you're bringing products to market. And then I was like, hey, I need some help. And she was like, but what are you sure? Like, are you? And I'm like, Yeah, you got to get to that point where you're like, Yeah, I need help. Otherwise, I can't do what I feel like we're being called to do, and so to take her out of it. But for me, it was that emptiness and just not feeling like this is the long term plan for me, and being willing to take that risk and follow that gut feeling, knowing that it could end in zero, or it could end in the next greatest thing, and something for us is like, well, this is a potential generational and legacy that you're leaving now for your children.
Mark D. Williams 07:14
So okay, that's amazing. How many years is it? Is it seven
Kyle Schlesser 07:18
years? Yeah, okay,
Mark D. Williams 07:19
and walk us through what the nature of this series now that we have your background. What were some of those early losses? The reason I think that the losers are winners, series is so popular, and why I resonate, and why, just like I gave you the choice, and most people I give the choice to inside the bid wins or and everyone picks, because I feel like we all realize that the seeds of I don't even like the word failure anymore, because I don't even think it's like this. Don't even think it's like the seeds of disappointment or the seeds of setback, really is what leads to the fruit of growth down the road, absolutely. And you can't have the fruit without the seed,
Kyle Schlesser 07:51
no?
Mark D. Williams 07:51
And I mean, it's just that simple,
Kyle Schlesser 07:54
yeah, well. And so to take that one step further, looking at like you've got your mountain top moments, and then you've got your valleys, right? And so the way that I look at it, and I got to go on an elk hunt with a best friend a few years ago, and this is when that story really came alive for me. So we were up on the mountaintop, literally. And I was looking around, I'm like, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, I think. And standing there for a short period of time, I was like, it's cold, it's windy, there's nothing to protect me. There's no food, there's nothing here, but it's beautiful, so I can be there for a moment, and then I got to come back down into the valley where there's food and there's game to hunt, and there's just things that you can do down in that valley to collect, and then that'll sustain you when you go back up to the mountaintop. And so it really is, what you're talking about is those mountaintop moments are great for moments, but you really learn all of the stuff to sustain you while you're down in the valley. And that's the same thing with construction. I mean, you got to go through the challenges. You got to go through the heartbreaks, the the minimized margins, the things that you didn't account for, to be able to get to that point where it's like, well, if you get knocked down, you got to get back up again. Like, there's, there's some songs that are written about that, which is kind of funny, but that is really the moments that you realize, okay, I'm learning the most when I'm when I'm challenged and I'm stressed and I'm uncomfortable and like, so for me, you know, looking at some of those losers, like, we have those stories where it's like, I'll give you a real, kind of simple one, but kind of funny, where I walked out to my truck and I realized my door to my truck was open, and I walked up to him like, I would never leave my truck door open. And sure enough, somebody had come in and just ripped through my whole truck on a job site and took all of my stuff. And I'm like, Well, this is a real loser. Like, like, now I don't have any credit cards. My license is gone, because a lot of guys in our industry will put that stuff in our truck and we'll lock our truck so that we don't lose it on a job site. And so that was like, Well, you know, those are, like, the easy losers. Those are the ones that are like, Well, yeah, in the moment, you're like, I'll never do that again. I've come out, and I've had guys going through my HVAC guys trucks, and. I went running after him down the street. I was like, You can't touch my guys. Like, I got that protective like, Apple bear, like, don't, don't mess with my guys. Moment, and I hit the street, and I was like, probably not the best to just run after a guy in a car down the street. So you have those moments where you're like, hey, well, how do we learn from that? But really, you know the when you look at, okay, well, what is the, what are the practical takeaways, the things that have gotten me from, you know, we're, I call it like a chuck in a truck, kind of a guy, to, okay, well, now you have an established business, and you're growing, right? So the one very tangible example, so probably the first, and it's about to get personal on me, so yeah, the first, probably three years of doing what we did, I was the one that I was making, the decisions, I was building, the estimates, I was going on, the pre sale calls. I was doing everything from pre con to finished construction. And I got to the point where I was like, Okay, this is how you run things. And like, you usually not like a white knuckle. You're just, like, everything you're doing, you're just gripping so tight. And you're like, I gotta do this. Well, I gotta do this. Well, gotta do this, well. And that took me from Okay, well, you can do business that way for a period of time, and then you plateau, or you have these slight inflations, and then you come back to that plateau because you can't really sustain it, because there's nobody supporting you. And I had this white knuckle mentality, where I woke up, and it was right before I went on a mission trip to Peru, and I was driving to the airport, and I was like, I'm gonna lose it, like everything. And it's because I did that for like, 18 months straight, and they were on projects that were way bigger than me. And so I got to this point, and I came home from the trip from Peru and Katie, and I sat across the table from each other, and I'm like, I've messed this up way beyond my control. And she's just like, well, what are we going to do? Because she's looking to me to lead. And I'm like, I have been a terrible leader in this because I've just felt like everything depends on me, and there was a breaking point there. And like, for me, you know, it's that's God's grace. And he was like, continue doing what you're doing. You're gonna make mistakes. And this was a big one, and it was to the point where Katie and I were looking at each other going, like, are we? Like, do we have income next month? Are we? Are we gonna be okay? And did the analysis, you got to do the work, you figured it out, and you're like, Okay, I think we can sustain ourselves for a short period of time, but we really have to change the way that we're doing things. And that's when I was like, hire somebody. And I was too stubborn to do it on my own. And Katie was like, for the sake of us and our company, hire somebody. And so we started putting people in place. And was like, Okay, you got to spend some money, and that's where the and that's where the loser turns into the winner, right? And so we started spending some money. And I was like, oh my goodness, they can do our books every month, and I don't have to do that after I work on the job site. So you just have these realizations. And like, you have far more experience than I do mark, but like, those types of moments where you're like, if you get to that point and you're humble enough and you're selfless enough to say, Okay, I can't do it all on my own. I'm not the chuck in the truck making 2 million a year, because that's not possible. It could be for six months, and then all of a sudden you're gonna get dropped. It's just gonna be terrible. So that was probably one of the biggest loser to winner moments that I was like, it was the catalyst to okay, we can do more than I realized.
Mark D. Williams 13:30
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Kyle Schlesser 15:27
yeah? Just common sense things. Other people are like, You should have just asked for help right away, Mark. And you're like, No, no, I could have done it. Like I did it.
Mark D. Williams 15:33
The hard part is, is like, you know, and this is why we talk about this series so much like a lot of us, especially men. I think it's a it could be an anything thing. Maybe it's type A. I don't know. I'm a guy and I'm a type A, so it's hard to me delineate which one is different, right? But it's like, what is the difference between quitting and resting? What is the difference between quitting and empowering someone else to take leadership? And I don't know the answers, but these are now questions that I now ask that are way more important. And I very much it was sort of lucky that I didn't have the skills to actually do any of the work. So early on, I had to empower people in order. So I now see that as a huge blessing that I wasn't aware of at the time. But every but mine was always limited by like, I didn't think I could afford another person, and I always felt like I needed to go have the sale before I would go hire the person, right? And some people can build their company without any sales. I'm just like, I'm just not made for that, yeah, and that's not really my goal and so, but I will say this, every time I've hired somebody, my stress level has gone down, our profitability has gone up. And I always say, why didn't I do that earlier?
Kyle Schlesser 16:38
It's it business wise, it makes sense, but it's, I think maybe correct me. If I'm wrong as the owner, you're like, but is anyone going to care as much as I do? Is anyone like, when they step foot on my job site? Are they going to care the way that I do? And that's kind of the fear factor of like nobody else will. And so that's then the knuckles start to get a little bit wider, and you're like, Okay, well, I just got to buckle down and like, the guys who do show up on my job sites, all my subs and trades, they're the ones that are going to have to carry some of that weight of, like, making sure everything's really pretty and organized and beautiful at the end of the day. For my homeowners, it's like, but if you hire somebody with So hiring your greatest weakness, that is easily the my hardest thing, but it is the most valuable thing. Like our we were just talking about our Operations Coordinator. She is incredibly gifted in the areas that I am terrible at, and so if I know that, I can show up and I can give my best in the areas where I'm best to my clients and our subs and trades, she's going to then come in behind me and wherever I'm the weakest, she's just gonna fill in those gaps and be excellent at those things. And I'm like, but then, you know, so this is my thought process. Well, I don't have time to go find that person, because it's really hard to find that one person and say, well, then how do you do it? I mean, I guess I'll just keep doing it. And then your knuckles start to get white again. You're like, I'll just keep on doing it. You're like, Okay, well then if there is an easy answer, I think more people would be doing it, but it but it is really a challenge, and it's when you just kind of buckle down and be like, Okay, I need to just dedicate time of my day. Maybe it's every week, every couple weeks, you're just going, how can I find that person, or those people, or that team that is going to backfill me well?
Mark D. Williams 18:14
And they're also, I think this is the power of friendships, relationships, networking, community. Sort of the more people that you know. And I think earlier on my career, I mean, we now have the curious builder collectives, this podcast, things like this now, where I'm way more tied into other people and other businesses, where early on in my career, I'm like, Well, I'm a small custom home builder and remodel, not only do I have time, I didn't see the benefit of all of it. And I mean, it's it would take an hour podcast just to list all the benefits and but one of the big ones is leveraging each other's brands and leveraging each other's friendships. Like, I forget the name of the book now, but it's like, what's the deal? Where it's like, the degree of separation between us and, like, however many people it's like four within four degrees of separation, you know, everyone in the world, or what's crazy some staff, whatever it is. But like, obviously it's a, it's it's a multiple and so if in So, I will say this at the top, collaboration is way more prevalent than it is at the bottom, because you think that it's a secret sauce. And there are some people that don't subscribe to that. They're really, honestly not my people. They're probably not listening to this podcast either, because that's what this is all about, is community. And I think that's where you have things like the contractor coalition Summit, or the collectives, or just finding a way to connect with other people. And how can you help other people? There's a podcast with someone, Mike Weaver. He's with Emser tile, amazing person. I'll introduce you to him because he loves introductions to people, and he's a phenomenal person. But he always has this line that like, even if you and I never met another person, you know enough people in your circle, and I know enough people in my circle that if I leverage your community and you leverage mine, we'll both be more successful than we ever could have been, because you don't always have to go wider when we can just go deeper with the relationships you have. And I'm not saying you don't get make more relationships. Certainly you do. But the point is, is like, How about asking. Someone say, How can I help you today, and in a genuine way, right? And so often we go through life. I did this thing one time in college, just as a total because that's a bit of a prankster. And so you know how, like, when you walk, especially in Minnesota, you walk down the street, like, Hey, how you doing? You're like, yeah, good. How are you? And like, that is the same form of, like, saying hi, right? But you don't actually respond to the question. It's not expected. In fact, it always throws you for a loop. If someone goes, Hey, how you for a loop. If someone goes, Hey, how you doing? You're like, you know, and I'm having a really, like, oh boy. I was not prepared, right? No, I didn't mean, but like, that's but it's also a little disingenuous not to be open. You asked a question. So this one day, I'm walking down campus, and I thought, you know, I'm gonna ask everything, and I'm gonna ask everything in a positive voice but a negative message. So everyone will go. So, hey, how you doing? I'm doing terrible. How are you? And to watch their they saw the they saw what they were expecting. But then when the message hit their brain, they're like, What did I just hear? And it was sort of wild. It was really fun day of just sort of messing with people that way. And it dawned on me, like, how often do we really listen to the other person's response,
Kyle Schlesser 21:00
especially as men, yes. I mean, we are the problem with that kind of thing, because you can it's everyone's first answer. Everyone good, even when we just got to see each other for this first time today, you're like, hey, you doing? I'm like, doing pretty well. And it's like, okay, well, how you really doing? And like, that second layer question, sometimes it's a third layer question we have to get to. And then all of a sudden you're like, Okay, here's the real stuff. And it takes that. And men have such a guard, or like, a wall built up of like, I don't really want to go there. And it's like, yeah, but you need to with somebody. You need to go with some. You need to go there with somebody. It doesn't need to be me across the table for you on a podcast right now, right? But it's got to be somebody. And as men, you just need to have that level of accountability as and you talk about college campus, I was laughing because talking about networking going deep right at so I graduated from Bethel, and the marketing and the business professors were like, it's all about who, you know, and then I graduated, and I'm like, No, it's not. It's about what I can do. And like, now, you know, fast forward 20 years, and I'm like, dang, it is about who you know, like there is, and even looking at, like, in our world, if you're walking through the doors of a prospective client and you knew that they knew someone you know, you're like, oh, like, fired up about the fact that you have rapport, and you didn't win the job off of that, but like, you have rapport, and so you're walking through the Door going, Okay, this is going to be fun, because be fun, because you know who I know, and that's just the level of relationship you can get to with the depth.
Mark D. Williams 22:28
I think there's something in us that is constantly seeking connection. I think a lot of times we aren't aware of it. But, I mean, why is it that in some people do it disingenuous, the whole name dropping thing, like, I have a family member that, like, within three sentences, she's gonna get to one of her famous nephews, mainly because she's really proud of them, which is totally a beautiful thing. It's wonderful. But like, when my sister and I are listening to this, we're like, okay, here we go. Like, it's just, it's more of a problem. But we do love connection. And, you know, you look not that you can't create new ones, but there is a way of, like, establishing, like, oh, you know, so and so. And I think that's why you know, when you are single, you hang out with a lot of single people. When you're married without kids, you hang out with married without kids, people and then the kid and then the families. And like you kind of travel in these pods of like, of your group. And I, I never dawned on me my kids are 10, eight, no, 10, seven and six, soon to be eight. And I never realized how powerful like the school length, and I never understood before about private schools or, you know, because as a public school kid, I always had this association that private school had these different connotations. But now, as I get older, regardless if we do it or not, it's not really the point of this conversation right now, but it's more of like the like, I get it that what they're really doing is they're sort of shaping their community that they want their children to grow up in. Now that I understand it, but that could be, that's just a label. It could be applied to football, basketball, it could, you could really take any group and say, I want my kids to be in there, because that is something that you either value. It's true of churches, it's true of businesses, it's true of life, and so it's just really interesting, as we sort of, you're like, oh, that's what that, you know,
Kyle Schlesser 24:04
yeah, took me
Mark D. Williams 24:04
25 years to figure it out. But like, Okay, finally got there,
Kyle Schlesser 24:07
yeah. Well, even, so, even walking through the doors this morning, I was walking up here, and I had the thought. I was like, Boy, I sure hope Mark and I connect over this podcast, because it's like, you just have that desperation for it, sure, and you never want to feel lonely. And I think that's, that's one of the the lies that, especially as a business owner, you can either be told or tell yourself, is like, nobody else is going through this, and you're like, ah, that's such a lie. And for you know, in the way that I felt like that's a lie from the enemy, the enemy wants you to be by yourself, and that's just not who you are, and that's not how you're designed to live life, which is why you desperately seek for that community, every single place, every single social circle that you're in, you're just searching like, okay, how can I connect with this person? How can I connect with this person? It's just natural for you. Oh yeah, I'll say one other kind of winner loser that I had come to mind. So I tell anybody who's willing to listen. I go, you should own a company. And most of the time they kind of when you were the confusion of the really like happy moment, but you're saying it like a really mean way, they look at you with that same face, like, What are you talking about? Like, you don't need to own Amazon or Best Buy or target. But as an individual, you should own a company at some point in your life. It could happen for a year. It could be your entire lifetime, but just own a company, and they're just like, for a lot of people, they're like, That's so dangerous. Like, keep your nine to five, but like, do this in your spare time. Start it on a weekend. Start it in the evenings. Do it with your spouse. Like, when your kids get up to the age of 1819, do it with them, because you're going to learn more about yourself, about the economy, about culture, about politics, about your state, about the local government, everything around you that you kind of build a wall up against, because you're like, oh, that I don't need to know about that stuff. You're like, all of a sudden you're ingrained in it. Because you're like, well, this affects my profit. This affects what we could do next year. This This affects where I'm going to market. And so it just builds a better person. And so
Mark D. Williams 26:10
I think the underlying trait that you're really encouraging is curiosity.
Kyle Schlesser 26:16
Oh, for sure,
Mark D. Williams 26:17
right? I mean, because the cure, in this case, as a business owner, as you get more usually it's led by passion or opportunity or you want, you want something. But as you get older, it seems like the thing that we all sort of then gravitate towards is like it becomes curious and interesting, and you'll you start reinventing yourself. You can already had this, you had a career, and you reinvent yourself for a number of different reasons. But I found that myself that after eight year I'm in year 22 right now, this May, after a couple weeks. And so it was at year 18 I was completely fried. You know, I was just not bored. I was just burned out. And it was really the it was contractor coalition that really completely reignited and changed my career. It was that that 30 builders down in Nashville, which really just completely opened up. My eyes got me excited about again before it was very lonely for me, even if someone is highly social, as I was, I secluded myself without realizing I was doing it. And so I needed that kind of moment to like again. Kind of not come to the end of myself. I wasn't there, but just like I was burned out. So I was just flat out burned out. And honestly, it was the podcast that got me excited talking to all these builders. You know, now I do 104 episodes a year, and talking to everyone, and they all have the same spark and same fire. And that is what this particular podcast is about, the entrepreneurship fire. But honestly, it's what inspires me. Light inspires light. And so you get excited about it wherever there someone else is on their journey, or that they encourage you. And then for building, it was misus. So the entrepreneurship was the curious builder. But misus made me fall in love with building again, which has only been over the last two years. And so I, I find that like, but that was all predicated on failure. Like, it was like, failure is the wrong term, slow times, right? It was like, you know, financially, we had a lot of few people go and it was like, during that kind of, that doldrums, you know, you're sitting at sea with no wind in your sails, and you're like, Well, what do I do now? You get creative. You figure out something new. You
Kyle Schlesser 28:07
build a motor.
Mark D. Williams 28:07
Yeah, exactly, build a motor. Like, you just invented the motor. Amazing. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, totally, yeah. I love that. Well,
Kyle Schlesser 28:14
that's, that's the after a continuing education class. You found us on social media and then
Mark D. Williams 28:20
in the parking lot while sitting next to
Kyle Schlesser 28:23
you. This is great, easy networking. But then I got like, three paragraph long email about all about what you do outside of Mark D Williams custom homes. And I was like, Oh, he's fired up and, like, you just saw it, like you you read it, and you're like, Okay, this is, this is his spark right now. This is the light that he's going after. And, you know, the custom homes and remodeling is the anchor. But, like, there's a new light and a new fire. You're like, Okay, let's go after this, like this, because this is interesting. This is fun. I'm curious about this. And so I got that from there. But what I was gonna say about this, the loser, winner. You know, starting your company, we did it in a unique way. We touched about on this a little bit earlier, about how we're a husband and wife team, and so turns out, as my network expanded, there are quite a few of those in the Twin Cities. There are, I was like, I didn't realize that living in my own little shell, that there are more, but it is more common than I realized. But looking at kind of going from a loser to a winner, like we have to navigate business while married, and you look at that, and most people, we talked to her, like, I don't know how you and like, ghost face, I don't know how you do it, man. And it's like, not everyone's built for that, but we are, and we found this, like I got life when I started contracting again, like I not again when I when I started contracting, like life came into my blood and my bones, and I was like, this is what, this is one of the callings on my life. And then to be able to look at Katie and be like, I think the vision for our company is bigger than just me, because I will be a really good handyman, but that's probably the extent of my abilities. And until she came in with her business acumen, her design and she was, like, bringing life to it, and so she, I got to add her to our team, and now her and I are partnering on this. And now you look at this and go, How did you do it? Because we went through this, you know, almost three years in this, like, massive downturn, and, like, I was white knuckling and I almost buried us. She's like, we're sitting there going, is our marriage gonna make it? And I'm like, Absolutely, there's no question. Like, we I could go sell groceries, I'll do whatever it takes. Our marriage isn't gonna fail. And so that's the base and the core of everything we do. But owning a company together, we had to build guardrails because, man, the amount of date nights that get ruined because you're sitting there having a nice steak, or whatever it is, and you're going across the table, and you're like, did you send client updates this week? And I'm like, dang it, oh man, now I just got hold on, like, five minute pause in our date night, and I'm starting to text and like, you build these guardrails, which are hard because business is important. Thanks for
Mark D. Williams 30:58
turning the curious, bitter podcast, well, everything in the show notes for solid ground construction and Kyle and tune in next week, because we're gonna do 2.0 right now. Thanks for tuning in the curious builder podcast. If you like this episode, do us a favor. Share it with three other business owners. The best way that we can spread what we're doing is by word of mouth, and with your help, we can continue to help other curious builders expand their business. Please share it with your friends. Like and review online and thanks again for tuning in.
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