Future-Proofing Construction with Chad Prinkey

Welcome to the construction disruption podcast, where we

uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.

I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah industries, manufacturer,

especially metal roofing and other building materials today.

My co host is Ryan bell.

Mr.

Bell got some exciting things to tell us today.

Nothing today.

I've got nothing today.

It's Friday.

It's been, it's been a long week.

It has been a long week.

All week.

I kept thinking we were one day ahead.

I kept thinking, surely it's Thursday and it was only Wednesday

and now I'm just all messed up.

But I got to tell you though, I have to apologize to anyone

who's watching this on YouTube.

Um, God bless those of you who are just listening to this show right now

because for some reason today I look like the pointy haired boss from Dilbert.

Um, you know, I just got these like horns of, I guess I can get a haircut anyway.

But hey, you know, speaking of.

personal problems.

Um, I did go to the doctor the other day, Ryan, and yeah, I told him

that after we talk things through, we figured out, um, cause it's kind

of this recurring nightmare I have.

Um, we figured out that I have a fear of giants.

Turns out that's a real thing.

It's called Fee Fi Phobia.

Yeah, I've heard of that before.

Ah, let's jump into things.

I'm excited about today's show.

Okay.

Oh, one thing too, we are doing challenge words, so both Ryan and I

end our Um, guest who is yet a mystery.

Um, and he's always mystery.

He's just a mysterious guy.

No, not really.

Anyway, we all have a challenge word that we are challenged to work into the

conversation as seamlessly as possible.

So you, the listening audience can be listening to see if you hear our

challenge words at the end of the show, we will reveal what our challenge

words and whether we were successful.

Anyway, um, let's get rolling.

So, um, we've all seen it before, um, you know, companies out there that

Excel with happy customers, happy team members, profitability, all that good

stuff, and then there are companies that you run into that you'll really

have the right building blocks.

And they're almost there, but not quite.

Well, today's guest is Chad Prinkey, a consultant to construction contractors

who helps those almost there companies get over the hump and reach levels of success.

They always dreamed of, um, working with them through skills, such

as better communication, enhanced problem solving, and clear priorities.

Based in Washington, DC and Baltimore, uh, that area.

Of course he works nationally, but Chad's company is well built

construction consulting, and that is exactly what they do.

Help construction contractors build their own businesses

in ways that create success.

And I'm had a hunch, a little bit of fun along the way.

Um, Chad, welcome to construction disruption.

It's a pleasure to have you here today.

Todd

and Ryan, thank you so much for having me.

It's, uh, I can, I can already tell this is going to be fun.

Well,

we try to make it that way.

We try our best.

That's for sure.

So I know that, um, your consulting firm focuses on midsize general

contractors, construction managers.

contractors, developers.

Um, can you share with us a little bit about your own background and

you know, how did that prepare you to play this role in helping these

companies to greater levels of success?

Sure.

So, um, I'll, I'll start back in high school.

So my brother, is seven years older than me.

He started a residential remodeling company when he was in his early twenties.

He, he was, um, it's actually an award winning, uh, Mason through tech school.

And, uh, when he, and then he went to construction management school, uh, got

a two year associates, uh, and, and came out at a very young age and inspired me.

By, uh, opening his own business, I thought that was bold and impressive.

And, uh, and, and, you know, he, he was like, Hey, and I need a laborer.

All right, here we go.

So, so I, I actually worked in the field for him from the time I was 15 to the

time I was 22, all the way through.

High school and college and I, I learned to lay block poorly and brick

poorly and, uh, even do some, some rough carpentry and roofing poorly.

And, uh, um, I'm really just not good at any of it, but, but I, I respect

the heck out of it and believe it.

I had a lot of fun.

I had a lot of fun working with my brother.

And we, um, uh, and I, I watched him grow his business from, you know, this

fledgling company and to, um, you know, and it's, it's still in operation today.

That's, it's been, you know, when the 25, 26 years, uh, running that business.

And so, uh, while I loved the, the experience, what I also knew is that

I wasn't cut out to work in the field and my brother didn't have, you know,

a spot for me in that business, you know, at that point I got into sales.

I was very quickly pulled into sales training and sales training sounded

like a really neat idea, but it was business to business and and I

didn't know I had to start with zero.

I made 0 cents unless I sold something right.

So it was 100 percent commission gig and I was I was I was like,

where can I where can I sell?

The only place that seemed to make any sense to me was to construction

companies because that's the only gig I ever really kind of understood.

I was extremely fortunate to bring in some awesome construction company

clients, like just, I had no business working with these amazing companies,

but you know, at the time, but they, they liked me, I liked them.

We built phenomenal relationships and.

I was really good if I could just, you know, be pat myself on the back in this

area, I was really good at helping them to grow and so helped, you know, contractors

that were 30 million to get to 100 million and help contractors that were 10 million

to get to 50 million and and so on and a lot, a lot, a lot of those stories.

Along that journey, what I also discovered is that growth comes

with all kinds of problems.

And, uh, and, and I, I, I always felt like these companies hired us.

They hired me to deliver a result.

And that result was not just growth, but it was also profitable growth.

So I started becoming really obsessed with every aspect.

Of delivering profitable growth and then began my own journey of of lots

and lots of education, you know, in in associations and you know, every

construction association sitting through, you know, all their all their

educational seminars and and, you know, learning that stuff and reading.

Just dozens and dozens of management books and leadership books all just so that I

could help these companies that really were That were hiring me for profitable

growth to to not just get the growth end of that equation Um, and then lastly

i'll share with you that Uh in in that experience where I worked with a couple

hundred companies more than more than 200 now uh contractors that I I found there

were some who were just really playing the game at a totally different level

and those companies taught me as much or more than I could possibly teach them and

I've been able to use that in my efforts.

With helping all these companies that are trying to go someplace special.

Um, and so it's really this journey of, of, um, you know, um, understanding

and passion for the industry.

ability to, uh, help companies to grow my skill set.

Definitely natural skill set is in sales and business development

and that type of stuff.

And then this learned skill set of, of, um, you know, leadership

management, organizational structure, uh, organizational

development, HR, yada, yada, yada.

And then, uh, you know, in, in the past, uh, three years since

I started this company, I've.

Surrounded myself with people way smarter than me.

I hear you.

Well, that's a great story and great way that you got where you are.

I'm kind of curious when you were doing the sales training early

on, you weren't involved with Sandler by any chance, were you?

I was.

I figured being there in Baltimore, there is a, a likely chance of that.

And, uh, actually I think it was, uh, it's been a very recent episode.

It may have been our last episode.

We had, uh, uh, Dave Matson, uh, who's the CEO of Sandler

these days, uh, on as our guest.

And, uh, that was a really good, good conversation.

Yeah.

So I, I was with Sandler for 12 years.

Okay.

Maybe 13 years, something like that.

Uh, a, a Sandler uh, affiliate company.

Mm-Hmm.

. And left and started this business, uh, which is not a Sandler company.

We focus just exclusively on the industry and so on.

So that's, that's, I had built this book of business inside the Sandler business

that I was like, eh, this isn't, I, I, the Sandler's great, but it, it, it

didn't, obviously it didn't cover all the different, uh, areas that I was covering.

Oh, absolutely.

Right.

It doesn't let you get as nuanced as you can be in what you're doing now.

And, uh, that's right.

Love that.

So, but, uh, yeah, no, that's good.

It's interesting though.

So, um, love to hear a story or two, uh, maybe of clients, um, situations where,

uh, you have helped people really grow their businesses and achieve levels

of success they'd always dreamed of.

Maybe we're getting the cart before the horse, but, you know, a couple of

success stories might lay the groundwork.

Well, for the rest of our conversation,

yeah.

So, I mean, you know, I've, I've laid out there these growth examples, you know,

and, and, um, those, those are a couple of good ones to just, you know, kind

of run with one company in particular that was, um, operationally very sound.

They were very well prepared to handle growth.

Uh, very good reputation.

They just really had no systematic way of going after the market.

And that was a company that, uh, once I was in there helping them to really

figure out their value proposition, really nailed down their target client

profile and, you know, put, put the focus on growth and then provide the

team with the, the tools they needed to follow that plan in the form of.

You know, education, um, uh, in the form of, uh, training, you know, in the

form of practice and skill development, the next thing you know, you know,

that that company was able to launch.

And this is these.

And so that company was 300 employees when I started working with them.

And, and today there are about 3, 000 employees and.

And, uh, and growing wildly.

Wow.

Yeah, that and that's, you know, that's what it looks like

when you're when you're ready.

Like, it's the only thing we needed was the growth model.

And, and, you know, we can do everything else.

Uh, that's it's relatively rare, but that that, you know, uh, situation exists.

And on the other end of that spectrum, I could look at a, you know, company

that was, um, this is actually recent that, uh, You know, they had the

last thing they needed to figure out how to do was bring in more work.

They, they had that machine finally tuned.

The problem was when they put it into the, when they put it into the machine

and they put it into the business, the operational side of the equation, they

were just consistently losing margin.

So you know, here we are, we're growing every year and that was the

situation we're growing every year.

Um, our profits are, are flat or declining and it seems like as

we grow, we're making less money.

What do we need to do?

And in that situation, we had to confront some hard truths about

leadership structure and the people that were in those roles.

Uh, and we also needed to, um, you know, implement operational

processes that help them to Uh, you know, be able to handle the growth.

And so we pushed pause on growth and we got that right.

We said, okay, you're not ready to grow what the problem that you're experiencing

is you keep on feeding things into a system that doesn't operate efficiently.

So, uh, in that scenario, restructure, put some people in different places,

uh, brought in some new folks and, uh, into some supporting roles

and, uh, and, and got the machine rolling in the right direction.

And in the past year, I've been able to press play on growth and actually, you

know, optimize profit along that journey, which has been really cool to watch.

And that's, that's a situation where a net profit on an annual basis

might have been at a two or 3%.

And today is operating at about 12%.

Wow.

Well, I mean, that's some significant change for them and I am curious.

So, I mean, your typical client, um, what is their attitude when they come to you?

They look like they just ate a bunch of sour apples and they just, you know,

are really not happy and not doing well.

Or do you often find your better clients actually are doing pretty well already.

They just need that little extra push, uh, to, to up themselves to a higher level.

So it varies, Todd.

And I think we have, um, I would say our, our Uh, typical client

is a pretty successful company.

They're successful in a lot of different measures, but they also know, and

they're frustrated by something that's keeping them from getting to whatever

the next level is in their own mind.

Um, usually.

They're having this realization that they're just, they're

just not making enough money.

Um, it's a lot of work for not a lot of return, you know, like

that, that kind of feeling.

And I think a lot of people feel that way in the construction industry.

Average net profits are really not exciting.

And, you know, when you take a look at the data that the CFMA puts out, you,

you look at that and you, and you know, if you're a software company, you look

at that data and you're like, you have to double take, you're like, I'm sorry,

what, what are you even doing this for?

This is just a hobby?

Exactly.

This is cute.

What are, what are you, what are you guys doing?

And so, uh, I think there really are ways to play way above the average.

Yeah.

And they're, they want to, they want to push that over the line.

Sometimes we do have people who are coming to us.

Who are, um, hurt, things are not going right, they're worried, you

know, those types of engagements.

Um, everything in, in, in all it changes is really the type of work

that we're going to do with them.

That company that comes to us is really doing well, they

just want to do better there.

As you can imagine, there's not as much urgency around

the efforts that we're taking.

We can be more strategic long term, put together three year plans

and, you know, start to make a measured progress sort of thing.

If you're not healthy today, if you're unwell, if you're sick as a

business today, we do not try to focus you on your three year plan, man.

Right?

Like if you're sick today, we're like, let's get you, you

know, let's do some triage.

Let's get you healthy.

Let's stop the bleeding.

And then we can start talking about the fun stuff.

And I think that really is.

That duality that that we focus on it well built that our clients hire us for

and love to keep us for is that, you know, we're always keeping our finger

on the pulse of both of those things.

How healthy are you today so that we can focus on tomorrow.

And if your today health is, is waning, that's where we need to place our

focus so that So that, you know, I, I oftentimes use this analogy of like,

you know, we, we, it doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense to renovate

your, your bedroom when there's a fire in the basement, you know, and, and

so, and I think a lot of consultants are like, you know, we do vision.

Yeah, yeah, we're all go through this path regardless.

Exactly.

We have this step by step.

You got to follow this step by step.

Well, the step by step sounds cute, but like, I'm going to

go out of business next week.

Yeah.

If we don't figure out cash flow.

And, and, and so, you know, we, we were, we have the flexibility to, to hit

people in both, in both of those areas.

Well, I love that.

And I think that's something good consultants do.

I mean, part of that onboarding phase is figuring out where are we right

now and what, you know, what do we immediately have to take care of?

Do you find a lot of your relationships are pretty long term

then where you sort of become a long term coach for that company?

Or is it more, okay, we come in, we get the ship righted, or maybe if the ship's

already right, we get you down this path.

Um, and then that's kind of the end of things for you.

So that varies too.

I, I, I, but usually again, I'll answer the, I'll answer the

usually question is, yeah, usually they're long term engagements.

Usually they have.

So, so, you know, when I was at, uh, Sandler, I was working with

when I left about 40 some companies.

And, uh, and then I had a period of time where I couldn't work with those

companies, which is very understandable.

Hey, you signed those agreements and, and, and that's what you got.

Uh, but I have all those companies back

and,

uh, you know, and, and, and a lot of those have been with me now

for, you know, 12, 14 years and, and, you know, stuff along those lines because.

I'm, you know, our, our team and, and, you know, I am, am a part of their company.

It's just a, you know, part of their organization and I'll give a little

bit on the other end of that spectrum.

There are lots of, uh, people who also just hire us for

engagements and that's cool too.

You know, there's, um, there's some of the largest general contractors in

the world use us on a regular basis.

We are not telling them how to run their business, right?

You know what I mean?

They're, they're bringing us in for this communication training or they're bringing

us in for, you know, this team building, uh, environment or whatever else.

And we, so we do a lot of that stuff too.

Yeah.

Tell me a little bit about that.

I mean, we all know the importance of interpersonal relationships, whether

that's with team members or with customers, clients, um, Tell me a

little bit about, you know, how does that impact a contractor's success?

I, I think a lot of contractors, let's face it, um, they got really good at

swinging a hammer and then they got a nice enough truck and, oh, I'm a contractor.

And maybe that interpersonal stuff was never really something

they gave a lot of thought to.

Um, tell us, reflect a little bit about on the, you know, how you help companies

get to better levels in terms of that.

In

the most of our work.

is with the commercial, uh, construction industry.

Some into the industrial, some into residential, but, but largely into, you

know, the commercial space, the commercial construction industry is a, uh, what

makes it not unique, there are some places that are like this, but, but the markings

of it that are really, really important to understand is that it is an account

based project sale, what that means is.

You, you have two sales that you need to secure.

The first sale is the account.

When you sell the account, you don't make any money, unlike

insurance, where when you sell the account, you get their insurance

business and that's the transaction.

In the commercial construction industry, getting the account is really just

getting an agreement that we seem like we're a good fit to work together.

That's the account sale.

Then there is the project sale, and you have to make each one of

those independently because of that.

You're doing business with the same people over and over again, and

you have to prove it every time.

So when you talk to me about the importance of interpersonal relationships,

It really is, to me, right down to the, to the, to the core of the people who,

uh, like you more, trust you more, and would rather have you on their jobs.

In an account based project sale.

It's, it's a, it's the difference between, uh, industry average 8

percent and 12 percent hit rates.

And our client average is 35, 45 percent hit rates, you know, on, on pursuits.

I mean, it's huge.

It's a massive swing.

So that's externally, internally, you know, success

with your people is essential.

I can't, there, there, you know, especially when you're in this

mid sized, you know, Category when you're a monster company and you lose

somebody, it's like, you know, you know, you have a bunch of really great

people that can backfill that spot.

No big deal.

When you're 100 employee, you know, electrical contractor.

And your VP of operations loses heart and quits, it can be

devastating to the business.

And so you have to be able to maintain meaningful, powerful relationships with

your, with, with, with your people.

Otherwise, you'll find yourself, uh, you know, constantly starting over.

And I, and I see a lot of that when we come in and do and, and get to know

these businesses, we'll oftentimes we'll find out the markings are like.

Uh, we've been about the same size for X number of years.

That's usually a good indicator that we're stuck.

And when I start digging into the stuck Oftentimes it's, they're

not succeeding with their people.

They're having turnover.

They're like, they're getting there and then they're having to replace people.

So they're kind of starting from scratch again and they can't really grow.

Very interesting.

And yeah, certainly, I mean, worked with enough construction companies.

I see that a lot of them eventually hit that point.

And, uh, yeah, so I love what you're doing.

Well, I think it's interesting that you started your business in 2021, which

I Oddly enough, coming out of COVID is going down as a year that was really

strong for people starting businesses.

Yeah, yeah.

Seems kind of crazy, but, um, but, but, you know, your time in this industry,

of course, precedes that significantly.

Are there any just fundamental changes or shifts you're seeing in

the industry, uh, that seem to really be having an impact on businesses?

Oh, there are so many.

I mean, we can talk about culture and we can talk about technology

and we can talk about economic.

Um, I'm going to hit on some short term stuff economically that I see and

then maybe some longer term trends.

Um, economically, what I see happening in the construction

industry is the cycles since 2021.

Have been really intense.

There have been some really up cycles and some really down cycles, depending

on what geography you're in and what market sectors you're servicing.

It's been very strange, you know, for 2021 in the construction industry for a lot

of our clients in the commercial space.

It was.

Gangbusters best year ever, uh, layer in PPP and they were killing it.

You know, they were like, oh my god, You know the best best years on on record.

You got to take out PPP.

Um, but That's that that's not your money.

Yeah, but the um, uh, the um, 2023 saw such a dramatic reduction in new starts

in Multifamily, which was a sector that was really really heavily carrying

Transcripts A lot of that growth.

So if you were building multifamily and you were saying 21 and 22,

these are best years ever you're in 23, you took a step back.

If you're doing data centers in 23, you were like, man, this is the

greatest environment I've ever been in.

Right.

Yep.

It's really intense.

It's been a very intense time with big ups and big downs and,

um, and, and massive behavior changes inside companies who maybe.

Got dramatically overstaffed.

Uh, during an uptime hired way more people than they actually need and are seeing

that now really crush their bottom line and lots of layoffs and, and it's, or,

or exactly the other way around, right?

They were carrying, they were super lean and now they're stretched to

capacity and they're totally overworked and they're now at risk of overhiring

and you know, under, under profit.

It's been a rollercoaster and, uh, the people that I'm seeing who are doing

the best are Um, here, here's a trend that I think is just, um, you know,

worth taking note of diversification.

If you get your business from a nice mix of publicly funded projects,

privately funded projects, projects in a few different geographies.

Projects of a few different sizes and in even inside the public or private

sectors, um, having it divvied up amongst a couple of different buckets.

If you're asking me for like the one thing that I, the trend that I'm

pushing with lots of our clients and I have been, you know, for years, is.

Get your money from lots of places.

Make sure that you're not totally beholden to one aspect of the market

because it can get very dicey.

Um, so that's on the economic side.

And then on the cultural side, one of the trends that I see, and I, and I'm

sure you guys do too, is, you know, we have a, a, a major, Shift in demographic.

There are a lot of people retiring.

And when I look back at this, you know, 15, 16 years I've been working

in the construction industry, um, in this capacity, I, I think about,

you know, the culture that changes as the, I'm going to, I'll call them

old school with love, by the way.

Uh, because I, I, I find that I am, uh, one of the oldest school

people, uh, around anymore.

And I'm, and I'm pretty, and I'm pretty young to be old school.

I find, I find myself saying things and people look at me like, all right, boomer.

And I'm like, easy, you know, but, uh, I'm a, I'm just a young Gen X or darn it.

Uh, but, uh, but yeah, so the, the, you know.

The thing that I see is that, uh, a lot of things that we quote

unquote used to do are going away.

And some of those things, good riddance.

I'm glad we're getting rid of some of that stuff, you know, high pressure, super

aggressive, um, yelling at each other, uh, fighting openly, you know, kind of

things like that's going by the wayside.

That's probably good.

You know what else is going by the wayside?

Picking up the freaking phone and and that sucks.

That's not good because we're not doing a good job of conveying what

we really need from each other.

In these, you know, um, GPT created emails.

That are, uh, you know, that that are being sent over with no regard to how

they're how they're read or perceived.

And, you know, uh, so I think we're losing something on the regard to interpersonal

relationships with a cultural.

shift that I'm, you know, I'm a, I tend to be very into progress,

progress as defined as improving.

I think progress is defined as just changing.

I am anti this change.

I think this is a really dumb thing that we're doing, uh, in migrating away

from, uh, a focus on relationships.

And so I do see that happening in the industry.

And I'm telling you, Todd, like I, I, I, Uh, I could keep going on trends

because it's I'm a student of it, and I have all kinds of opinions, probably

many of which I have no business having

no, I think that's great information.

And, you know, I, man, I so relate to that thing about.

Cycles have been so intense and, you know, I, I know we have seen that so

much on the manufacturing side, you know, from supply chain difficulties

to worker, um, shortage of workers and just everything has been so intense.

And, uh, you know, as far as communication and phones, yes, how

many times has it happened in my team?

Someone keeps saying, well, I just can't get ahold of them, you know.

Oh, well, what have you done?

Well, I've, I've emailed three times.

I've texted twice.

Oh, you know, do you ever try calling them?

And you're right.

It's, you know,

also you have legs in a car, you can like go to your office.

You can drop by the trailer.

Did you know

they have

a trailer?

Uh, hey, this, this has been great.

Now, I do want to talk a little bit about, you have a podcast

called The Morning Huddle.

Um, and I, I was mentioning, I, I apologize, I have not spent any time with

it yet, but I very much want to and will.

Um, but tell us a little bit about what you do, uh, in The Morning Huddle

and, you know, why our listeners should

tune into it.

So we do two things with the morning huddle.

Um, there is our, um, the morning huddle construction show standard we've

been doing now for coming up on three years and we've, um, that is a platform

for people who are creating positive change in the construction industry.

We're bringing on people to talk about.

Uh, what they believe positive change looks like and, um, uh, to share their

stories to have interesting arguments about, uh, whether those things

are as I just talked about, right?

Like, I'm progressive if progressive means better.

I'm not progressive if progressive just means different, right?

And, and, um, and so I, I, I really like, uh, fighting, um, in public.

Nicely with, well-informed, uh, people who are passionate about what

they do and, uh, they usually win.

That's, that's the show, . That's, that's how that goes.

And No, 'cause I mean, you know, look, and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm very open to

changing my perspective when people make a great case and, and there are

sure some awesome people who've been on, who've helped me to shift my perspective.

So in some ways it's basically just my education.

Well, yeah, that's what I love about our show, too,

is I learned so much every episode.

Love it.

It's awesome.

Yeah, I mean, if you're if you're a lifelong learner, there's

not many things I would recommend more than just taking time to

interview somebody once a week, right?

And get to know them.

It's pretty cool.

Uh, Stacey Holsinger is my co host for that show.

Stacey, she's also let's she's really the producer for that show, and

she does an incredible job lining up all of our all of our guests.

Um, she's more plugged into what's going on, uh, with trends in the industry than

I am and just, uh, you know, always make sure that we have something interesting.

The other thing that we do with that show is we have a long form discussion

and that's called the Well Built Series and that's between me and a

team member at Well Built Construction Consulting named Matt Verderamo.

And Matt is just brilliant and young and, um, insightful and a

real pain in the ass to argue with.

And, um, and he and I just have long form, hour long episodes where we talk

about what we are passionate about.

And it really gives me space and Todd, I can see, you know, you're, you're, You're

you're playing the role I normally play and this is I love playing this role.

This is such a fun role.

Um, but you know that the, the discipline of, of not like taking over your own show

and allowing the, you know, the, the, the well built series is really is my

outlet for, for saying what's on my mind.

And, and, um, uh, Matt is there as a constant foil to my, Um, uh, perspectives

and, uh, in a really, really healthy one.

I mean, he's just, it's, it's worth checking out to both of

them are, are a great use of time.

Well, and I have been, I have listened to a couple of the

shows with Stacy and, um, but I want to dig further into them and now I

got to check out these with Matt too.

So, uh, I will be checking those out on the morning huddle and

hopefully our listeners will, um, as

well.

Morning huddle construction show.

com just cause there's like a bunch of morning huddles, right?

We call it the morning huddle construction show.

com.

Very good.

Well, I mean, I can tell from your enthusiasm that

you truly love this industry.

You truly are driven by helping others.

Um, you know, when you look at construction in particular, what

is it that you really love about construction industry in particular?

At its core, I think it's just.

Probably the most honest way to make a living there is.

Oh wow.

Is, is to trade, is to trade your, your sweat and your expertise and to

leave something behind that is awesome.

Uh, that somebody, uh, gives you money for.

And I think that, that is, in my heart, it's just, uh, I wish I was good at that.

Um, because that's probably, you know, I, I, I think I would even, I would

sleep even better, uh, if that, but, but I'm getting the next best thing,

which is helping those organizations to be great places to work and,

uh, and, and creating a lot of, um, financial freedom for the courageous.

Entrepreneurs who, um, like my brother who took the leap.

Oh, that's a great perspective.

Love it.

Um, any advice you have for young folks out there?

Because we do think a lot of our audience are some younger folks

and fairly new to the industry.

Um, any advice, uh, in particular for them, uh, in this industry?

I'll

reiterate, pick up the phone, get out of your office.

I will, I will definitely capitalize on that and, and just, you know,

throw a exclamation point after it.

The, the other thing, uh, from an advice standpoint for those folks is don't,

so, so here, here's an observation.

I've found that the generation of incoming workers sees problems in the business and

they get dissatisfied, disheartened by seeing those problems quickly, especially

Especially high potential people, people who are really smart and they, and they

have bright futures ahead of them and they're working inside their business

and they're like, we don't do this and we should be doing this and this is stupid.

And they, number one, they tend not to say that to the

right person and number, right?

So they, so they say that, but they say that to their colleagues.

That's not the right person.

And uh, yeah, so that's, that's number one.

Number two, they, They view those things as intractable very quickly.

They view those things as like, well, that's, you know, and it's,

I just work at my company sucks.

And, uh, this is, I think, what, what leads to a lot of job hopping.

And it's, and, and, and, and so here's my ask, my, my, my ask and my advice.

I think we can help, help me help you help me.

Right.

Is, is.

Um, bring those observations to your supervisors and bring them with a

spirit of empathy and open mindedness that not everything is bad here.

And this thing that you're spotting that totally should be better, good

catch junior, um, please have some patience and help us to solve it.

Don't just point out problems.

Be the victim.

Yeah.

And, and I think if, if, because if you do that, you're just gonna keep doing that.

There's nowhere that's perfect.

And you've gotta get on the side of making the, the place that you're working more.

Perfect.

Yeah.

And um, um, and then a side note to that, if you find that the people that you're

raising those things to are completely dismissive and they shut you down, quit

and come work with one of my clients.

There you go.

I love it.

Well, and it's interesting.

I was talking to a group of young up and comers in our company yesterday

and I said, you know, the thing to get everyone to focus on is how

do we, how do we take things up?

How do we move up?

And, uh, yeah, that's, that's good advice.

Bring, bring solutions, not just problems.

Um, well, Chad, this has been a great conversation.

Time together.

Thank you so much for your insight and time.

Is there, uh, we're kind of close to wrapping up what we

call the business end of things.

Then we'll have a little more fun, but, um, is there anything we haven't

covered yet today that you'd like to be, uh, you know, be sure to like

to sell, to share with our audience.

I

hope on the business end of things, this is also fun.

Uh, but I just really.

So I finished writing my first book, it is, um, coming out

for publication on June 18th.

And so, um, uh, my guess is it will have already come out,

uh, as, uh, as our audience.

We're just a little before that right now as we're recording, but,

uh, it will have already come out.

Uh, It's called Well Built.

So if you look up my name and you and you type in Chad Prinkey Well

Built into Amazon, you'll see it.

Um, so the book is called Well Built, How the Top 2 percent of

Construction Contractors Create Superior Value, Profits, and Excellence.

And it's really about my journey with those special contractors that

I've talked about who have really demonstrated a consistent theme and shown

me how Um, uh, not on purpose, right?

But shown me how, uh, to hit on every single cylinder in your business.

And so I define the top 2 percent as that 1 in 50 type of contractor

that is just making way more money.

Then you are and they're doing it while making customers happy and

employees happy and they're doing it in a way that's not totally reliant

on a small handful of people, but because they've really built a machine

that works, that's the top 2 percent that I'm talking about and they exist.

And if you're one of them, you know, uh, if you're not one of

them, I'm, I'm here to tell you.

You can literally like triple your net profits and grow at the same time.

That's happening.

I know trade contractors out there that are making 24 percent net profits.

I know general contractors that are making 10, 12 percent net profits.

I know that sounds insane, but it is possible.

Now, it's not, not necessarily the end of the road.

You'll go down.

Maybe success for you looks like 6 percent and that's okay, but But

there it is possible to do way more than what you're currently doing.

And in this book, I really outline, you know, here's all the

cylinders you got to be hitting on.

And maybe you read it and you go, I'm doing that and doing that and doing that.

Oh crap, I'm not doing that.

That's my problem.

And that's why I wrote it.

That's why, that's why I wrote the book is to, is to really help people

to find and, and, and self diagnose and do, um, effectively what we do.

Like the construction industry is a really, it's a contact sport.

It is a very.

Uh, rough place to operate.

It's, it's a Thunderdome.

Uh, where people are, you know, constantly in some version of battle, designers

and owners and generals and subs and suppliers and manufacturers and everybody

is fighting for their little scrap, their little piece in a cage match.

Um, It doesn't have to feel that way and, um, and, and, you know, if

you're, if you find that you feel like it's, it is, you know, you're getting

beat up and bloodied and, you know, that kind of stuff, you're doing it

wrong, man, you're doing it wrong.

There's a way to be like.

Wow, are you guys seeing the cage match that's going on over there?

That's crazy.

I'm glad I'm not in the cage match.

I'm just over here making a bunch of money.

Um, those guys look like they're getting hurt.

And, uh, and I, and obviously that's, you know, imagery for, for a reason.

I want you to be thinking about how do you extract yourself from that?

So anyway, that's the book, that's my business.

That's, that's, that's, you know, that's the podcast.

That's what we're all about, man.

Great.

Well, I'm glad you threw that in about the book.

I didn't realize that was in the works and, uh, is out there now.

I'm sure, uh, well built.

So we'll check that out and encourage our listeners.

So, um, before we do close out, um, here's where, uh, yeah,

the whole thing's been fun.

Didn't mean that at all.

But, um, I would like to ask if you'd like to participate

in our rapid fire questions.

So rapid fire, seven questions.

Um, some may be serious, some may be silly.

Um, Chad has no clue what we're about to ask him.

Are you up to the challenge of rapid fire?

I mean,

it's, I, I feel like, um, I'm definitely, uh, I'm cut out for this.

I'm certain I'm cut out for this.

No doubt.

No doubt.

Okay, well, let's start asking.

We will alternate.

I will let you ask the first one, Ryan.

All right.

Uh, question number one.

If someone were to hire a musician to follow you around for a day and

never stop playing, what instrument would you want them to be playing?

Guitar.

Guitar.

That

sounds pleasant enough.

Yeah, they'd be, they'd be playing guitar, um, and they'd be varying,

Between, um, I would like them to have an acoustic electric place so that

they have and with the ability to do some distortion, uh, like when, uh,

you know, good things are happening.

I went like, yeah, it's like some like Metallica and then switching over to

some, you know, Simon and Garfunkel.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Very timely moments.

Love it.

So I have to tell you that question was inspired.

I heard that a group of high school seniors recently as their senior

prank hired a bagpiper to follow their principal around for the day.

The thing they didn't realize was their principal actually likes the bagpipe.

So he's one in a million.

That's awesome.

I love it.

I like the bagpipes if I'm settling in to watch a little

Braveheart, but that's about it.

There you go.

Question number two, um, what is a regular practice that you have that has made a

profound positive impact on your life?

Something that you just make sure you're doing regularly.

Calling

people to say thank you.

Oh, love it.

Um, there, there, I, I could list a whole bunch of other things in there,

but I think for my mental, Um, and, and spiritual wellness, there's just nothing

that makes a bigger impact than expressing gratitude to the people that I, I, I

just, I want people, I need people to know how, um, how they're positively

helping me, how they're impacting me, I think I don't, and, and, and just

that I think they're awesome people, um, I think, uh, We're all walking

around needing a little bit of that.

Yeah, that's a great answer.

Gratitude, practicing gratitude will change your life.

Yeah,

good stuff.

Question number three.

If you're trying to survive a zombie apocalypse, what one

person do you want on your team?

My brother, Todd.

Yeah, Todd.

He's, um.

He's just a big, scary dude.

You can throw some at blocks of people if you need them to, I guess.

That's it.

He's always, he's always been by like, so he was my tormentor, but

then like totally had my back, you know, um, uh, first he beat me up.

Then he beat other people up for me.

Good stuff.

Next

question.

What are you most grateful for?

I, uh, man, I most, I on a, yeah, have to be

most grateful for my family.

Um, And, and, and I have these three little boys that are just delightful,

um, in, in virtually every way.

And I know that sounds obnoxious, but it's true.

Like I, I find myself every day marveling at, uh, how, how sweet

and smart and kind, um, and, uh, You know, also like adorably flawed.

They are, you know, it's, uh, it's awesome.

And I, and I feel really fortunate to be in this, you know, life

shaping position called dad, it's a, it's a, it's a really cool job.

I hear you.

Very good.

Um, if you could, if you had to play a game of Pinochle every single day

for the rest of your life, who would you choose to have on your team?

Pinochle is a game of, um, you need to have a little craftiness.

I'm going to take Clooney.

I'm taking George Clooney.

He's going to play Pinochle with me.

Um, that's, uh, he's a, um, because I think he is, capable

of making people believe he has anything you want, uh, anything he

wants you to believe in his hand.

That's why.

If you could only eat one food for the entire rest of your life,

what food would you choose to eat?

Olives.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow.

I would, I would, those, the, the, the, the oil covered big

fat Spanish suckers with the pits.

Yeah.

That's, that's what I would take.

That's one thing I just cannot eat.

My wife loves olives too.

And we were just talking about it last night, uh, because we had a salad and

she's like, oh, this is missing olives.

And my stepdaughter and I are like, no gross.

But she, she loves them.

It's my, it's, it's my go to.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's no, I don't get it, but

it's between that and sardines for the record.

So, so my, like something that I could eat like

that as onions, I love onion.

I could eat an onion, like an apple and it drives my wife nuts, but just no one would

want to be around you, but no, yeah, no.

Yeah.

So I tried, I try not to make a habit out of it.

You don't

pull it out of your lunchbox and just take a

bite.

Maybe, maybe only once a year.

Um, all right, this is the last question.

Have you recently purchased a product or service that was kind

of a real game changer for you?

Something that would, you know, made you think where have you been all my life?

Oh man, I love that question.

Uh, I know the answer.

You know what it for our business?

We, um, uh, we purchased a project management and time tracking software.

That has been something that we've been doing with spreadsheets and,

you know, um, old school, right?

And, and using this software, uh, has, has provided such immense

structure and, uh, insights.

Um, and I have to say that the team is just unbelievable at

keeping it fully up to date.

We've got this group of eight people who don't complain about logging every minute

every day, which I think is a weird thing.

I don't think that's a normal state of affairs, but because of it, um,

the, the amount of insights we have into our business and where we need

to hire and all that kind of stuff.

It's been, it has been a game changer.

Yeah, it really has been.

Well, we can give him a shout out.

What is that software?

It's called teamwork.

Okay.

Great name.

It's mostly or, uh, set up for professional services firms.

So it would work really well for a general contractor, but not for a trade contractor

and it does work well for developers.

I, I know developers who do use it.

Very good.

Well, thank you again, Chad.

This has been a pleasure.

We will put the information in the show notes, but for folks who

want to get in touch with you, how can they most easily do that?

Uh, LinkedIn is probably the, the best spot for me.

So Chad Prinky P R I N K E Y on LinkedIn.

Um, I post a lot of content.

I was going to say good content, but that's totally subjective.

Everybody's up on that.

Uh, I post a lot of my opinions, uh, so there's that and, um, uh, you

know, so, so I'm very active there.

You can feel free to shoot me a direct message.

I really do keep up with those, uh, at least weekly, uh, and that's a

great place to reach out and then you should definitely come to our company

website, uh, wellbuiltconsulting.

com and uh, oh, and then lastly, uh, uh, one of the biggest things we've,

we, we rolled out a newsletter.

Um, newsletters, actually.

I write, Matt writes, John Livingston on our team writes.

And, uh, there are these three different perspective.

John is in the, in the final third of his career, and he's, and he's been

there, done that in every aspect.

And his stuff is really, really insightful for that veteran who

wants to give back to the industry.

And Matt, as I've described, is this up and coming, you know, he's in

the, he's in the newer generation and I'm smack in the middle.

And As you read these three different newsletters there, I'm I've had so

many people who say so go to our website, check out our newsletters.

That would be, um, a place that if you thought this was interesting that you

could, um, definitely dive into, um, more of mine and our team's musings, uh, and

and get cool ideas for your business.

Fantastic.

And that was WellBuiltConsulting.

com, correct?

Thank you.

Yeah, that's right,

Todd.

Very good.

I am pleased to say that we all met our challenge, uh, of the challenge words.

Um, Ryan, your word was?

Pinochle.

You worked it in quite extensively there.

That was good.

Um, Chad, your word was?

And I think we gave you a whole new shtick to help explain what you do.

You had a great story

and great imagery you created.

I created, I, I was, as soon as I got my word, I had like this whole

flow chart that I started drawing.

That

was incredible.

And I had sour apple, except I pluralized it.

So I had sour apples, but, uh, that was fun.

Well, thank you again, Chad.

That's been a real pleasure.

And thank you to our audience for tuning into this episode of construction

disruption with Chad Prinkey of well built construction consulting

and the morning hug huddle podcast.

Um, so we invite you to please watch for future episodes of our podcast.

We're always blessed with fantastic guests.

Don't forget to leave a review for us, please.

And until the next time we're together, keep on challenging, keep on looking

for better ways of doing things and keep on having a positive impact on

those in your life, there are simple things that we can do that really

changed the world for someone else.

Um, so God bless and take care.

This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode

of Construction Disruption.

This podcast is produced by Isaiah Industries.

Manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building products.