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I think one of the other big things I've gotten out of the coalition is obviously you guys put on a great presentation and you provide a lot of information, but it's the other builders in the room that really inspire you and that you can really learn from from the questions that they ask. And hearing some of their stories and knowing like what they shared, like it like made me kind of think about my own story, and it just made me think. Well, maybe somebody else here has been through a situation like this, and they just need to know like they're not alone. Like you can be at the bottom and come back up, but that's why we're all here is to learn how to improve ourselves.
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Second contractor coalition, Minneapolis was your first one. What are some things that you implemented in your business that you learned in Minneapolis, and how have they made a difference for you?
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I came away from Minneapolis charged, ready to go right out of the gate. I instantly looked over where my contract was, realized I was missing some things. I could improve some areas, so got with my lawyer. Kind of started rewriting my contract using a lot of the examples that Brad and Nick had provided. I instantly implemented a pre-construction process, which I was not doing before, and realized that even though I'm from a small market, and I thought that it'll never work, it proved itself to work a couple days out of Minneapolis, and then I really just started to grow more my confidence when I was meeting with clients and just talking to people, I no longer felt like I was too young that I could do this just from being around the group of people at Coalition.
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And coming back now, a year and a half later, what were things that you were hoping to achieve, or what brought you back, you know, a year and a half? Was there a period of time that you wanted to try and implement? Like, why now? Why Chicago?
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Yeah, I think timing-wise, it just worked to be the year and a half. I knew when I left Minneapolis, I would come back. Didn't know when it would be. So timing-wise, it worked out. But I think it was like drinking from a fire hose when I was there, and I just wasn't sure what I might have missed, and that was why I wanted to come back again.
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Things have changed. I mean, we're obviously talking about new things that or new practices that you know, Brad, Nick, yourself are you know implementing your businesses and providing us the handouts for, but it was really just I felt like so recharged after the first one that let's do it again and see what I might have missed and how can I continue to grow.
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What I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but on opening night we had the open mic. I believe you shared a story where, you know, right before Contractor Coalition Minneapolis, like things weren't going really that great. Like things were pretty much a low point, and you know you didn't have a lot of money left, really, as I understand it. And you basically invested in yourself, kind of like the way I've sort of thought about it was like this is it. This is the last amount I have. I'm going to invest it in this thing, and and then that basically turned around your entire business with what that investment in yourself is. That was that accurate? Did I get that? Yes,
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100% accurate. I was definitely at a low point in the business. Had some stuff going on business wise, and I was just totally recharged, and I think it was the fresh breath air that I needed to come out, hit the ground running with updating those contracts, starting pre-construction, and really pre-construction is what helped me get my feet back on the ground. It was still a little slow in the market at the time, but I was looking at projects, but I was able to capture my time and bill for it after pre-construction. So it helped me start re-establishing the foundation I needed to build the business again.
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I mean, early in my career, and I assume earlier in yours, you know, we before we charge for pre-construction, we essentially are fronting free work, free labor to our client in the hope that they'll that we'll get a build that eventually by the end we'll make money. But I mean, if a project takes a year, two years, you know, you don't see that payday for two years. You can't go two years and support a family, a home, food, much less have mental stability on top of it, and any sort of resemblance of balance in your life.
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Pre-construction is just the first step to basically taking some sanity and and shockingly make you profitable, but also it attracts a better client. I mean, it's it fixes so many things. It's sort of it's. Of remarkable. Tell me a little bit about how it's maybe helped you weed out clients that you would have probably taken before because they wouldn't sign it, versus clients now you're attracting more sophisticated, you know, clients that are really a better match for you anyway. I mean, it's really the why in the road, you know.
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Yeah, I think when I wasn't doing the pre-construction process that we are now, or the pre-construction agreement that we're doing now, it was like I was just planning on doing the work to try and get the job, but now I've learned to sell the process in a way that it just creates more transparency with the client and builds more trust with them, that they know the pricing that I'm going to give them. I've done the legwork for, and we have a really accurate budget by the time we come out of pre-construction. And even if we have to rebuild the budget or adjust it if we're over, you know I'm still in pre-construction where I before it was like I would reach the budgeting part and be like, gosh, I hope
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they sign so I can like make some money on this deal, but now it's like we'll stay in pre-construction as long as you want because I want the client to be confident in the project we're going to build, and I want them to have the full understanding of the scope that we're going to do, and all that is what we address in pre-construction with the, you know, the value engineering we'll do, and the the dive in of scope and design and the plans, and just getting more people involved on the front end for a more successful project once we break ground.
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What are some things? You know, that first time you're just sort of overwhelmed with all the information, drinking from a fire hose, as we like to say.
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Now, a second time, you're hearing some of this. You've implemented a lot of it. What are some things now going back?
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You're like, I either forgot about that, or like, ooh, yeah, I'm in the process. I'm going to tweak that, and when I get back, that's that's the next thing I'm going to work on.
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Yeah, I think the the first round. One of the things I kind of just breezed over, like I'll do that another day, was more the social media side and getting more involved on like the daily posts and trying to read the analytics and see how those things work. So that was one thing I really want to improve coming out of this one, or just start implementing, I should say. Also, just continuing the relationships of the people that I've met here.
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There's a couple people here that were also in Minneapolis, and it's like the first night, that instant spark-it just made walking into the room so much easier, and you don't have the imposter syndrome that I had. I was so nervous the first night in Minneapolis, and it was the Curious Builder Collective. We did an episode there, and it was-I was kind of the guy in the corner just observing. But the first night here, I just really felt comfortable, and I think I was more open, and which made it so much easier to absorb and learn too. You know that open night, we had that open mic night. We already kind of talked about what you shared, but why did you choose to share? You know, I think there was maybe eight, nine people roughly. What made you feel comfortable enough, and also when you went up there, were you just kind of moved to go up there, or what did that? What was that? What did that feel like? I think one of the other big things I've gotten out of the coalition is obviously you guys put on a great presentation and you provide a lot of information, but it's the other builders in the room that really inspire you, and that you can really learn from from the questions that they ask, and hearing some of their stories and knowing like what they shared, like it like made me kind of think about my own story, and it just made me think. Well, maybe somebody else here has been through a situation like this, and they just need to know, like they're not alone. Like you can be at the bottom and come back up, but that's why we're all here is to learn how to improve ourselves.
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I mean, I love that answer. It's like the the pebble in the in the water bucket and just the ripple effect. I mean, from the first story to the second to the stories we heard were extremely authentic, very vulnerable, very open, and for that to be an open night in front of a lot of people that most people didn't know, we've talked about among ourselves in terms of the leadership. Like that will be that will be a hallmark of what we do going forward because it was super impactful. Yeah, well, actually, we'll just ask alive.
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That was that meant a lot to a lot of people. I've had a number of people, obviously yourself included, who who participated.
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Do you think that is the right format for it, or do you think it should be like in a room where everyone can listen?
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Because the one con, having just it was our first time trying it, was it was obviously related.
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Loud in the room, right? I'd say 70, 80% of the people were, you know, listening, and then the other 20% were, you know, kind of doing their own thing, which is totally fine. Not everyone.
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What's your What's your thoughts on where it takes place and would be most successful?
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For me, I'm not usually one to like speak out.
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So being in the room that we were, like I felt more comfortable than if we did on the stage in a room like we're in today.
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Yeah,
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I don't know if it was the environment or just the background noise of the people talking. Like it was kind of more intimate. Like it was just our small group there. Yeah. So for me, it was a good environment that I felt comfortable that I could,
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and that's the most important because I, for for my point of view, and obviously everyone has to through it through their own lens because I mean obviously I'm comfortable in front of audiences, which I understand is not a normal thing, but I just wanted everyone to hear the stories,
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yeah,
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and I was like I kept on wanting to be like you like a parent at a concert. Like my kid is speaking. Be quiet.
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Like I just wanted everyone.
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These stories were so rich and so amazing. But like again, you have to have the right circumstances, and it's a little bit of impromptu. It's a little bit like people don't know. And so, well, I mean, we're obviously going to keep doing it because it was. I really enjoyed hearing what people had to share, and and I think I've mentioned this before, but like I
just feel like this. Every coalition has a different, slightly different vibe or nuance to it. For me, this one is very raw and very emotional, and I love how that binds. It's very sticky. It binds people together. What are after you left the one in Minneapolis?
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Were there builders that you stayed in touch with and still stay in touch with, either by calling them or how many, and what are the nature of your conversations and the frequency?
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Yeah, I've kept up with a couple people from Minneapolis. You know, I was debating. I'm a smaller builder, so I was debating getting rid of if I should go to my office or go to my home office or what I should do there, and I reached out to Ben Garvin from up in Minnesota who I met up there, and he's a very similar sized builder, and you know he was operating out of his home office, and it just kind of gave me the reassurance that maybe I don't need the building, and then I've kind of social network, just you know, commented back and forth. I follow a lot of the people that I met up there. It's just been a good community that you know, like if I have the question, I'm not afraid to send the text or make the phone call. And I and I've gotten a lot of numbers from different builders this weekend, that I know we're some of them are bigger than me, some of them are the same size as me, but it's just cool to have that new network of people that you can call on.
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I mean, I think that's part of the the beauty of the community aspect, and as we look at even what we want to do in leadership in terms of what we want the coalition to how we want it to act and behave, you know, as it goes into the future and continues to evolve, you know, the alumni. We, you know, I would say we probably get about 20% alumni at each, you know, new collective, right?
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Which is always really encouraging sign that a they want to be a part of it. They feel you know a need to come.
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Sometimes they miss a couple, come back after you know a year and a half, but then you know that's one of the reasons why we do the meetup you know in Vegas you know the Monday night, and then you know we have a huge crowd. You know it could be two, 300, 400 people because so many people go to the National Bullet Show because they know all of their peers will be there plus all the things that they learn.
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But you know now it's becoming a big thing. Like I want to see, it's almost like the class of'99 or the class of 2010 or whatever class you're part of.
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It's almost like it's becoming kind of its own thing, which is really cool to see. You know, from our our chairs to kind of see this this this this coalition and this family sort of stay super connected.
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I actually went to the meetup in Vegas back in February, and my wife and I were there, and it was fun taking her around. And it's like this Ben that I've talked about, and she's she's kind of networked with Morgan, just you know Instagram messaging back and forth, and it was cool to like introduce her to Morgan and just meet some of the people that I've met and been talking about, and yeah, it's a great community.
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That's awesome.
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Well, we love having you here, and we'll see you in Vegas.
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Sounds good.
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Oh, actually, not Vegas. Florida. Are you going to Orlando?
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I won't be in Orlando this year. No, waiting for Vegas to come back. Yeah, yeah. Well, it'll
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be there from for the rest of time. It sounds like. So, thanks again.
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You bet. If
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you're interested in attending the Contractor Coalition in the future, please head to contractorcoalitionsummit.com or follow us on Instagram to find out more.