In this episode of the Construction Disruption podcast, host Todd Miller and co-host Ethan Young engage in a captivating discussion with Adam Stark, co-founder of Jet Build. The conversation delves into the dynamic world of construction technology, prompted by Adam's unique journey from special forces in Israel to leading-edge tech entrepreneurship. Adam shares his insights on how Jet Build leverages AI to streamline real estate development and construction management, enhancing efficiency, productivity, and stakeholder collaboration. Additionally, Adam touches on his podcast, 'The Veterans Who Build Show,' which focuses on the transition of veterans into roles within the built environment. Tune in for a deep dive into how tech innovations are propelling the construction industry forward.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:14 Insights from Chicago Trade Meetings
02:24 Introducing Today's Guest: Adam Stark
04:07 Adam Stark's Background and Journey
05:07 Military Service and Entrepreneurial Mindset
10:56 Transition to Real Estate and Construction
14:22 Challenges in Construction Management
16:46 Founding Jet.build
18:46 Leveraging AI in Construction
21:11 Getting Started with Jet.build
22:30 Onboarding and Training for Large Projects
23:20 Client Feedback and Product Improvement
24:58 Success Stories and Client Engagement
27:40 Introduction to Shalosh Wellness Philosophy
30:14 The Veterans Who Build Show
33:54 Rapid Fire Questions
38:15 Closing Remarks and Contact Information
Connect with Adam Online
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamstark512/
Website: https://jet.build/
For more Construction Disruption, listen on Apple Podcasts or YouTube
Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn
This episode was produced by Isaiah Industries, Inc.
Construction Disruption was recently featured in this 15 Best Podcasts for Contractors list!
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
00:00:00
Todd Miller: I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer
00:00:02
of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.
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Today, my co host is Ethan Young.
00:00:07
Ethan, welcome to the show.
00:00:09
How are you doing?
00:00:10
Ethan Young: Thanks Todd.
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I'm doing pretty good, honestly.
00:00:12
How you doing?
00:00:13
Todd Miller: I am doing well also.
00:00:14
So, as you know, I was up in Chicago this week for Metal Construction Association,
00:00:19
metal roofing alliance, trade meetings.
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And, that was a lot of fun.
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It's always fun to connect with, colleagues and, kind of talk, shop a
00:00:26
little bit and learn about the industry.
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But, we did have a couple of neat speakers, at the, main conference.
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One of them talked a lot about how to build.
00:00:34
build strategy and planning into your business.
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And so I'm anxious to delve into that a little bit.
00:00:41
we may even have some meetings here at work about it.
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Can you believe that?
00:00:45
and then we also talked quite a bit about some of the industry statistics that
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are starting to come out that have been collected through 2023 and, kind of cool.
00:00:55
We're seeing continued growth of metal and pretty much all segments, of construction.
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And so the future certainly seems to be bright, lots going on out there
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and, still lots more people getting involved, jumping on the metal bandwagon.
00:01:08
So that was a lot of fun.
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A lot of fun.
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Anyone wants to check out.
00:01:11
those organizations?
00:01:12
It is Metal Roofing Alliance at metalroofing.com and Metal Construction
00:01:17
Association at metalconstruction.org.
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So you good to go?
00:01:23
Ethan?
00:01:23
Let's do this.
00:01:24
Ethan Young: we're all ready.
00:01:26
Todd Miller: Very good.
00:01:27
So as we go into the future of construction and, really not just
00:01:31
construction management, but all types of management, I think we're clearly
00:01:36
seeing in today's world how important efficiency and productivity, are now and
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how much more important they will be.
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in the future.
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It seems like all industries are finding themselves having to try to do more
00:01:50
with fewer people and tighter resources.
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A lot of times of all kinds, finding ways to speed things up, but still
00:01:59
maintain that focus on customer delight and quality and all those good things.
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Just seems like the stakes in all areas keep increasing and As technology
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sort of propels us into the future.
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I really think that, trend is going to continue.
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but the good thing is, and we see this, the companies that get that all
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figured out quickly find ways to elevate themselves above their competition.
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Well, today's guest is someone with a very unique background, and we're going
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to dig into his background a little bit, but he and his business partner have
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used their experience in construction project management to develop a solution
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to the demands that they were facing in their work, a solution that they now make
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available through their own internet.
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development, which is called Jet dot build.
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Jet dot build streamlines real estate development and construction management
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with simplified software that utilizes A.
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I.
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This powerful tool empowers project stakeholders with centralized command
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operations, management, project, accounting, stakeholder collaboration,
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communications and data retention again with AI insights coming into all of that.
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So our guest today is Adam Stark, and he's going to share with us a bit
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about his life and the platform that they've built that other companies
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are now using every day, and on every project to benefit themselves.
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But we're also going to learn a little bit about a podcast he has put together
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called The veterans Who Build Show.
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So I'm anxious for that as well.
00:03:33
Adam Stark, welcome to construction disruption.
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Pleasure to have you here today.
00:03:37
Adam Stark: Thanks so much for having me and, you know, what,
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what an awesome introduction.
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I really, really appreciate, all, you know, those kind words and, and
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really the plug into both the business side and, the, you know, community
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development, I'll call it side with, the veterans who built you out of
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the podcast that, we've just started.
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Thank you.
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Todd Miller: That's cool.
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Well, we want to hear about all of that.
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And I know you.
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and I had the opportunity to speak a few weeks ago and I quickly said, Yeah,
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there's, there's a great story here and some great things and great insights.
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So looking forward to talking more.
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so, I'd love to kind of start out, a little bit with your own story,
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that ultimately allowed you to end up where you are today with jet.build.
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You grew up in Israel, would love to hear a little bit about that, but I'm
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curious, I mean, growing up in Israel, did you ever think you'd end up here
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in the States as a business owner?
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So how did that all transpire?
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Adam Stark: Yeah, so, you know, I, I kind of bounced around,
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quite a bit throughout life.
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and I'm continuing to do so right, right before we, we joined the call.
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You asked if I'm still in New York city and I noted, as of very
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recently, I, I, relocated to St.
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Louis.
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so, glad to hear you had a good time in Chicago out here in the Midwest.
00:04:42
Todd Miller: I did, but you have to promise me that you won't become a St.
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Louis Cardinals fan.
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I'm not sure we could be friends if you are, but anyway, that's fine.
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I'm just kidding.
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Adam Stark: Oh wait, but I got to know who's your, who's your team.
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Todd Miller: Cincinnati Reds.
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Adam Stark: Got it.
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Got it.
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We'll save that for the follow up part two of the show.
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So I have, you know, two, two, immigrants as parents.
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I was actually born in the U.
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S.
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and as I mentioned, bounced around quite a bit throughout life.
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And, you know, growing up, or spending time really in Israel, something to,
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to recognize that I think a lot of people might not realize is it's really
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the size of, of New Jersey, right?
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So it's a very small country.
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It's very new just in terms of its recent establishment.
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And it's a really neat environment to grow up in and experience
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and kind of embrace the culture.
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Reason being, one is there is a mandatory military service.
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So, you know, that doesn't mean that you have to go into combat.
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And it doesn't necessarily dictate what you do.
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Nonetheless, everyone who lives there, everyone who's a citizen has
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a requirement to serve, in, in the military in one, form or another.
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So it creates this, kind of central bond, I'll call it with everyone who's there
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because everyone will have some form of, you know, similar experience more or less
00:05:58
through, you know, service of the country.
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that said, what it also really, in a really interesting way, it
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produces, is a entrepreneurial, kind of mindset and ecosystem.
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there's so many, you know, startups, mainly technology based that come out
00:06:12
of, Israel or that have, you know, Tel Aviv, as a hub, for their business.
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Todd Miller: That is really interesting.
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I never would have made that connection intuitively, but it makes a lot of sense.
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And, you know, as someone it's been a number of years, but I did
00:06:26
visit Israel a number of years ago.
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And, you know, one of the things I obviously walked away from was, man,
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these guys know how to do security, better, better than anyone else.
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But, you know, a lot of that I'm sure is high tech stuff.
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So.
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so young adults start serving at the age of 18 and they're getting
00:06:43
introduced to those types of things.
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how long is the service and, you know, what did you do and how did that time
00:06:51
in the IDF and, by the way, IDF is, Israeli Defense Force, which, you know,
00:06:56
we hear about in the news these days.
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And I think most U.
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S.
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folks don't have a clue what that really means.
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They just hear it.
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but love to hear a little bit more about what you did and, You
00:07:05
know, again, how it did prepare you for what you're doing today.
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Adam Stark: Absolutely.
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So they actually, they, meaning the Israeli government system
00:07:13
have changed the requirement a few times over the past years.
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also since I, I served.
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and you know, during, during my time, it was a three year, mandatory,
00:07:22
like meaning a three year minimum.
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Today it might be a little bit different, a few months, of difference if, if so.
00:07:29
so I serve, the, the, the pipeline is a little bit different from that of the U.
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S.
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military.
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Again, mainly because of it, it being a mandatory service, which also,
00:07:38
curates a mandatory, reserve duty.
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you know, for several years after your base service, that said,
00:07:45
your pipeline to where you go, really starts from, from day one.
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So what I ended up doing was, special forces, airborne reconnaissance unit, out
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of the airborne, battalion, which is kind of a similar, service to like a ranger
00:08:01
regiment or like a Marine, MARSOC recon.
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They pull from elements of both, you know, not being the same military.
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Obviously it's hard to give a literal one to one, but it's more or less,
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you know, that kind of a program.
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And like I mentioned, the pipeline is, you know, you, you, you go for qualification,
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if you make it, you continue during, you know, you continue in that path, so
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long as you continue to, you know, excel and get good grades per se through that
00:08:28
pipeline, then you make it to the unit.
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And if not, then you drop to, a battalion or, you know, some,
00:08:33
some other infantry, position.
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Todd Miller: Very interesting.
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So that probably did give you some introduction to tech and things as well.
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I would imagine as part of that.
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Adam Stark: Yeah, absolutely.
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I mean, you know, I think the, the principles behind a service kind of
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regardless of, you know, where you serve really, is the understanding and how to,
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one is collaborate with people, right?
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I mean, you're going to be joining up with people who you might otherwise have
00:08:59
never interacted with, engaged with.
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You're likely going to be interacting with different.
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I'll call it departments, right?
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Of military, right?
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You're going to get plugins or plug into, other units or vice versa, right?
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For various reasons, various operations and purposes,
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various deployments, et cetera.
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with that, you're also, of course, learning how to leverage different, you
00:09:21
know, technologies, weapon systems, how to be incredibly efficient with that, right?
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With, with whatever it is that you're using, reason being, same with the
00:09:29
communication aspect, same with the scheduling aspect, same with
00:09:32
the, you know, readiness aspect.
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Everything is on the extreme of, okay, well, if I mess something up, right, if
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I'm doing something that's not great, that's, you know, subpar, well, now all
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of a sudden my life could be in danger and or my team's life could be in danger.
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So, you really got to understand that concept, which, you know,
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is easy to understand in such settings, in deployment and such.
00:09:55
and implement your day to day actions accordingly and how you,
00:09:59
carry yourself generally speaking.
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So what I like to say, and, you know, we'll talk about this, when we get to
00:10:05
the segment of, of the podcast, the show that, you know, we're creating
00:10:09
here is a translatable skill, from military to, to a civilian life.
00:10:13
So I just touched on some of those, the key factor in translating these skills
00:10:18
is to recognize the, the, I don't know if I want to call it the Delta or just
00:10:22
the, how do you migrate, you know, the extreme setting of military and implement
00:10:26
that into, the relevant amount, right?
00:10:29
The relevant doses of, you know, civilian professional life.
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Todd Miller: Wow.
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Very interesting.
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That's cool stuff.
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And I can see that, how that all built into creating who you are today.
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And, you know, So I am going to back up a second.
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I did forget to tell our audience.
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I always forget this.
00:10:46
We are doing challenge words this episode.
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So each one of us here on the show has been given a word by one of
00:10:53
the others that we are challenged to work into conversation somehow.
00:10:56
So our listening audience can try to figure out what those words are and we
00:11:01
will say at the end, whether we were successful or not, but so, you know, after
00:11:06
you, I assume it was fairly soon after you finished your time in the military, you
00:11:11
ended up back here in the States, ended up working in real estate management and
00:11:15
development and that was in New York City.
00:11:18
Is that correct?
00:11:19
How did that all happen?
00:11:20
How did you get your introduction to that?
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It doesn't seem like something that someone just suddenly
00:11:25
decides they're going to do one day and they're able to do it.
00:11:28
Adam Stark: Correct.
00:11:28
Yes.
00:11:28
Correct.
00:11:28
So yeah, after I finished my service, I actually went to Boston first where I did
00:11:33
my undergrad, Northeastern, great program.
00:11:35
they have this, this co op, program function within the business
00:11:39
school in particular that allows you to test different, work
00:11:42
environments through your degree.
00:11:44
So it's kind of an enforced inter internship program, which typically is
00:11:48
actually paid, which is really nice.
00:11:50
In that process, what I was recognizing is a few things.
00:11:53
One is, you know, realizing that I've always, as a kid too, liked to build
00:11:57
things like whether that be Lego, whether that be, you know, just, you know,
00:12:01
wood, workshops, whether it be fixing things around the house, you name it.
00:12:05
And the second part is I also really liked design.
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And the outcome of a design and kind of, I'm saying this in hindsight too.
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So it's not necessarily that, you know, in the moment I was able to pinpoint
00:12:19
these things, but, basically what happened in terms of getting involved into real
00:12:22
estate development and construction.
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Just right time, right place, just through networking, through these internships
00:12:28
and such, you know, I was finishing with my, with my degree, there was an
00:12:32
open position, at a, you know, a family office developer in New York City.
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and because of, you know, I guess, recognizing my interest in building,
00:12:40
my interest in design, I figured, yeah, you know, why not test that, especially
00:12:44
in a place like New York City, right, where, you know, real estate is, is
00:12:48
kind of the core of what goes on there.
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Todd Miller: Very cool.
00:12:52
I'm glad you ended up in construction because you bring a lot to our industry.
00:12:55
I mean, you could have gone to work at Tesla or something too, but, I'm glad
00:12:59
you ended up here in construction.
00:13:01
Your, your LinkedIn also talks something about photojournalism.
00:13:05
Tell me a little bit about that.
00:13:06
I'm kind of curious where that all ties in.
00:13:08
You're, you're like a Renaissance man.
00:13:10
I tell you, you do a little bit of everything.
00:13:12
Adam Stark: Yeah, you know, it's, it's a, it's a hobby of mine and I've
00:13:15
had the opportunity to, photograph a few, weddings and, and, you know,
00:13:19
kind of wedding related events, in a, in a more abstract kind of a way.
00:13:23
I, I, I'm not really sure how exactly I got into it.
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I think it's just that, again, that dynamic of enjoying, design.
00:13:30
Love to travel as well.
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I've traveled to quite a, quite a few places around the world and, I've
00:13:35
done so alone many of times and kind of what I ended up picking up is just
00:13:40
a camera and experiencing, you know, kind of, documenting, my travels.
00:13:44
so very, very much a hobby.
00:13:46
I love to kind of just engage with art in general.
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You know, I think since starting, since starting Jet Build, it's, it's
00:13:54
definitely not, been as prevalent like in my life, it being, you
00:13:59
know, photography, just because, entrepreneurship is all consuming.
00:14:02
Todd Miller: can attest to that..
00:14:03
Adam Stark: Correct, correct.
00:14:04
But, nonetheless, I always, you know, I always tried to, go back, get
00:14:08
back to the camera whenever I can, whether it be a short trip or, just
00:14:11
really just walking around, the city.
00:14:13
Todd Miller: That's cool.
00:14:14
That's a lot of fun.
00:14:15
So as you started working with construction and development
00:14:19
and redevelopment, what were some of the things that you saw?
00:14:22
I mean, problems, challenges, inefficiencies, that kind of drove
00:14:28
you to envision and, and then to go about creating jet.build.
00:14:33
Adam Stark: So if, if anyone is familiar with the, dynamic of family office, I
00:14:38
think particularly in the Northeast, I mean, I could be wrong, but I've just
00:14:41
seen that so many times, just, you know, by virtue of being in the ecosystem
00:14:46
of, real estate in the Northeast, is what, what you end up having is small
00:14:51
internal teams building significant, volume of construction of development.
00:14:57
And I bring that up in particular to say, you know, I was in a.
00:15:00
thankfully and gratefully in this awesome position where I was exposed
00:15:04
to really all of the dynamics that exist in, you know, significant,
00:15:08
high rise, mixed use, all types of development and construction projects.
00:15:12
and in that position, in that scenario, you know, I was.
00:15:16
Kind of this point person, representing the owner, working for the owner,
00:15:19
but also sometimes self performing.
00:15:21
So hiring trades, hiring GCs, hiring design teams, you know, hiring the,
00:15:27
the administrative stuff, right?
00:15:28
Like insurements, expediters, working with collaborating with the lender as well.
00:15:33
So really, you know, information was having to flow through me.
00:15:37
and then I would have to therefore delegate information
00:15:41
in the best way possible and.
00:15:43
It didn't take very long to recognize that without a platform to manage
00:15:49
all of these parties, right?
00:15:50
I mean, that's a that's a lot of people from a lot of different companies
00:15:53
who otherwise are not connected outside of this project, right?
00:15:57
so realizing that for example excel and email chain was not a great way
00:16:02
of spending my time Right because i'd end up on a weekly basis Spending
00:16:07
hours of collecting everybody's, you know, updates, feedback, information,
00:16:13
comments, questions, consolidating that into one place and trying to
00:16:18
issue it out all the time, whether that be an Excel document, you know,
00:16:21
PDF, email chain, impossible, right?
00:16:24
You're talking hundreds of millions of dollars worth of value.
00:16:26
in, in projects, construction and assets and dozens of stakeholders.
00:16:31
So, I mean, what's going on here, right?
00:16:33
I mean, we have technologies exist to support us with less significant, right?
00:16:38
Less significant functions, right?
00:16:40
Significance, meaning just literal size, objective size or objective, dollar value.
00:16:46
And that's when, of course, before, you know, spending, all of, all of,
00:16:49
life building out a solution first went to, to the market to see what existed.
00:16:54
to understand, all right, well, what can we adopt to help us do our jobs better?
00:16:59
Recognize the legacy products that existed in the Market, got hit with,
00:17:03
the, the price tag, which, quickly and, you know, immediately got rejected
00:17:08
by the company I was working for.
00:17:09
And my, my co founder, a long time friend, he's really a
00:17:12
copy and paste version of me.
00:17:13
He has the exact same story.
00:17:16
And then that's when, that's when we just met up and said,
00:17:19
all right, well, You know what?
00:17:20
Why don't we, why don't we just figure this out?
00:17:23
Like, why don't we just solve for this rather than, you know, continue
00:17:26
on this path of, email and Excel and wasting hours of our time, you
00:17:30
know, manual entry problems, lack of data retention, if at all, lack of
00:17:35
data for, life cycle of that asset.
00:17:38
Right.
00:17:38
So for example, again, working for the owner, what happens at
00:17:42
the end of a project, right?
00:17:43
The, the data dump on Dropbox or SharePoint from a legacy
00:17:46
product is not helpful.
00:17:48
For whenever an issue occurs on your, on your asset, right.
00:17:52
When it's a operational, right.
00:17:54
So, you know, that, that's the data plug as well.
00:17:56
Right.
00:17:56
How are we going to leverage data to help us on the life cycle of the asset?
00:18:00
Not only in the construction process.
00:18:02
And that's, that was the inception of Jet, which really in reality occurred
00:18:06
because of first and foremost, price point of existing legacy products.
00:18:11
And second was also just the difficulty in understanding those products, right.
00:18:15
We couldn't see the value in it against the price.
00:18:19
Todd Miller: You know, I see so many people that will delve into, you
00:18:23
know, tech and an app or whatever, and they invest in it and they, they
00:18:27
find it's just pretty overwhelming.
00:18:29
I mean, you know, you, you have to spend so much time learning it and
00:18:33
teaching your team and then holding them accountable to make sure they're using it.
00:18:37
So, I love that you guys came out of, okay, we know the things
00:18:42
that are too difficult sometimes, how can we, make them simpler?
00:18:46
So I'm curious, you talk a little bit about, AI and how
00:18:50
it, works within your platform.
00:18:53
Tell us a little bit about some of the things maybe that, you're doing
00:18:57
through AI to help your clients.
00:18:59
Adam Stark: Absolutely.
00:18:59
So I always like to start off with, separating, the two buckets of AI,
00:19:04
as I like to, you know, call it, one bucket is, the Boston Dynamics, for
00:19:09
example, robot that is, you know, building buildings or trying to, right.
00:19:14
I'm putting that aside.
00:19:15
The jet.build version of AI is administrative support, right?
00:19:19
So it's the Chat GPT type where you can really just start leveraging it today.
00:19:26
so for, you know, literal functionality in terms of what we've implemented in
00:19:30
particular, for example, that's, AI, scope of work, SOW creation, right?
00:19:35
Based on your budget line item.
00:19:37
It's things like, scheduling overlays to understand, you know,
00:19:41
if you're behind on, on schedule or, you know, ahead of schedule.
00:19:46
Same thing for things like, specifications or drawing overlays to understand
00:19:51
what has been added or removed.
00:19:53
So it really, a lot of administrative, support, what ends up happening as
00:19:56
well, and I think you've mentioned this in, in the introduction, so
00:20:00
thank you for, for calling that out is, the more data that you can retain
00:20:04
in a in an indexed format, right?
00:20:06
So you need a platform to retain data Excel is not going to do this for
00:20:09
you The more data you retain the the more insights, more reporting that
00:20:15
can be produced in a AI capacity.
00:20:18
So what what could that mean?
00:20:19
It's predictive analytics.
00:20:21
It's just really reading, you know through your data and giving you an answer
00:20:25
exactly like chat gbt is doing Right?
00:20:27
And it's doing that by consolidating You amassments of data, reading it
00:20:31
real quick for you and addressing whatever you've asked it.
00:20:34
So that, that's the kind of AI that we're focused on.
00:20:37
Todd Miller: You know, it's funny.
00:20:38
I mentioned earlier the meetings I was at this week and the last time
00:20:41
we met was just six months ago.
00:20:43
And at those meetings, someone came and talked to us about AI
00:20:48
and, you know, even just Chat GPT.
00:20:50
And, you know, most of the people there was just, wow, they just blew away.
00:20:54
They had nothing, knew nothing about it.
00:20:56
Well, this meeting just six months later, I don't think there was a person in the
00:21:00
room who didn't say that, yeah, I'm using some form of AI today, six months later.
00:21:05
So, yeah, the potential there is just tremendous.
00:21:08
So I, I admire you guys for integrating it.
00:21:11
kind of curious, how does a company out there get started with, Jet?
00:21:15
You know, what does that process look like?
00:21:18
Adam Stark: Totally.
00:21:18
So, you know, we have two versions of getting started.
00:21:21
One is literally an off the shelf, product where you go on our website, jet.
00:21:26
build, you know, grab a license and just start rolling with your project.
00:21:30
We have, dozens of clients who have actually done that.
00:21:32
which is really awesome to realize, right?
00:21:35
Cause what we're seeing in that, in that concept is kind
00:21:38
of the shift in understanding of technology in our industry, right?
00:21:42
So rather than the traditional mindset where it's this, you know, elongated
00:21:48
onboarding process and you know, teams need hours or weeks or months to
00:21:53
understand how to leverage tools, right.
00:21:56
For their projects.
00:21:57
Well, what we're seeing now, literally, because it's already happened to
00:22:01
us dozens of times is, you know, clients will go on our website, start
00:22:05
a project, we'll reach out and say, hey, you know, thanks for joining.
00:22:08
How's your project going?
00:22:09
Do you need any help?
00:22:10
Etc.
00:22:11
Nah, we're good.
00:22:11
And they just, they, you know, continue rolling on with their project.
00:22:14
So it's really cool to see.
00:22:15
Yeah.
00:22:16
Ethan Young: Yeah, that's, that's special.
00:22:18
Adam Stark: Yeah.
00:22:18
now the other side, and I'll, you know, say also, you know, you
00:22:22
know, full transparency, those are relatively smaller projects, right?
00:22:25
So those aren't a hundred million dollar projects, which, you know,
00:22:28
rightfully so that, that makes sense.
00:22:30
Now for the larger projects, even so what, what ends up happening is
00:22:35
we'll have a, you know, like a 45 to an hour, long onboarding, and
00:22:41
introduction and training session.
00:22:44
And that typically starts with the, you know, core team, who's the license holder.
00:22:48
Then from there, depending on how the client wants to interact, we'll either
00:22:52
schedule weekly or biweekly follow ups for about a month or two months.
00:22:56
Also again, 40, 40 minute calls, each of those.
00:22:59
where we'll continue to scale their project.
00:23:02
And really the reason for that is, you know, the, the initial phase is to say,
00:23:06
okay, here's your initial drawings.
00:23:08
We'll onboard the initial teams that exist so far in this project.
00:23:11
And then as more teams get onboarded to the project's life cycle, that's
00:23:16
when we're, you know, onboarding new people, essentially new information.
00:23:20
From there and what's really neat about the kind of, the combining support
00:23:25
with the product is what we'll do is we'll take feedback from our clients,
00:23:30
whether that be, you know, missing a report, whether that be, you know,
00:23:34
their, realization that a nuance to a solution can be better because, you know,
00:23:38
they're the ones literally operating.
00:23:40
So we'll, we'll understand that as a team, because again, you know,
00:23:43
our backgrounds are literally.
00:23:44
You know, my business partner is a civil engineer by trade.
00:23:48
Both of us spent over a decade on construction sites.
00:23:51
We've literally ourselves coded the product.
00:23:53
So when we encourage feedback and when we hear from clients, it's really easy for us
00:23:57
to one, envision, first of all, understand what they're saying, two envision how
00:24:02
it gets implemented on the product.
00:24:03
And three, give them a real timeline of implementation, which, you know,
00:24:08
we range from like an hour to, I mean, the longest something has taken,
00:24:12
I think is three weeks, but really that's just because priority lists
00:24:15
rather than actual time to implement.
00:24:17
So people are really, pleasantly surprised with one, our, you know,
00:24:23
desire for their feedback and two, the turnaround to implement that feedback.
00:24:27
so that's really the two, two processes is, you know, generally speaking,
00:24:31
it's really an hour of onboarding because the recurring calls are
00:24:34
usually with different teams, you know, as they're onboarded to projects,
00:24:38
Todd Miller: That's amazing and everything you say there is just,
00:24:41
I think, music to everyone's ears because I think a lot of folks have
00:24:45
gone the route of trying to implement us, you know, software or something.
00:24:49
And, you know, one of the things you often find is those people trying to help
00:24:52
you don't even understand the software
00:24:54
Adam Stark: Right.
00:24:55
Todd Miller: and so that's, that's an awesome story you have there.
00:24:58
Any success stories or client comments that come to mind that you can share
00:25:03
with our audience, from, you know, folks who have implemented, JET?
00:25:07
Adam Stark: Yeah, absolutely.
00:25:08
So, you know, there's, I'll give it two different like buckets of stories.
00:25:12
One is, really simplicity of it's really what I was just describing
00:25:15
right simplicity of use and the support that we provide our clients, which is
00:25:21
also, you know, it's collaborative, meaning the client has to want to, you
00:25:25
know, engage with us so that we can support them better, in their process.
00:25:29
So, we have some clients that, I find this to be really neat where, you know, we went
00:25:33
through the typical onboarding process.
00:25:35
They have a handful of projects that are all significant in, in
00:25:39
construction, value and volume.
00:25:41
And what they started to do is just simply reach out to us when
00:25:44
they noticed, you know, hey, what about a report for this solution?
00:25:48
That would be really helpful for my process, right?
00:25:50
So now they're just realized at this point.
00:25:53
You know, they can just ask for a solution.
00:25:55
We'll embrace it and implement it because we understand it makes sense, right?
00:26:00
Obviously if we have a question we ask a question, but I find that to
00:26:02
be really cool where you know, we don't have to engage clients anymore
00:26:06
Rather they just know to reach out and ask for ask for something if
00:26:09
there's an area where we can improve.
00:26:11
Now the second piece that I find, really really cool as well.
00:26:15
And this this is going to be um, a hot take on, on industry where,
00:26:19
you know, you have a lot of legacy products who, who claim innovation
00:26:23
and claim technology, but they're also all consuming in budget, right?
00:26:28
Their price points are, uh, egregious, and they are compounding year Over year,
00:26:33
they audit accounts, et cetera, et cetera.
00:26:35
So it's really tough for companies to innovate because they're
00:26:39
locked up with their core product.
00:26:41
On one solution.
00:26:43
So there are two companies, two clients in particular who have since, you
00:26:49
know, migrated off of those legacy products and onto, onto JetBuild,
00:26:52
which has freed up space in terms of, you know, technology budget or,
00:26:57
you know, willingness to actually innovate and leverage other products.
00:27:01
And we've, you know, essentially provided them with the core platform,
00:27:05
which is jet to go to the market, right?
00:27:08
And absorb a few other solutions that were really helpful for
00:27:12
them, like drone imaging or just, you know, site, image capture,
00:27:16
generally speaking, AI for safety.
00:27:18
so that's that's been really neat as well.
00:27:21
Todd Miller: You know, I, again, I love that and music to my ears.
00:27:24
I mean, hearing a software company that is responsive and, you know, wants to
00:27:30
grow that way because of information from clients is pretty unique.
00:27:36
So I, I do want to switch gears a little bit.
00:27:39
something caught my eye.
00:27:40
Your LinkedIn profile says you are a master practitioner of shalosh.
00:27:46
I hope I'm pronouncing that right, which was something I had never heard of before.
00:27:50
Sounds pretty incredible.
00:27:52
Can you tell our audience a little bit about, uh, shalosh and the,
00:27:55
the impact it has on your life?
00:27:57
Adam Stark: Yeah, that's, you pronounced it 90 percent correct, which is
00:28:00
Todd Miller: 90%.
00:28:01
Ah, 10 percent's a killer.
00:28:04
Adam Stark: Yeah, so it's called, uh, Shalosh, which is, again, you were,
00:28:07
I mean, maybe it was even more than 90 percent is what you, what you got.
00:28:10
So that's Hebrew for the number three.
00:28:12
and, that's my essentially wellness philosophy.
00:28:16
wellness practice, you know, leveraging my own experience of, you know, sports,
00:28:22
special forces, military career, a 500 hour certified yoga instructor,
00:28:26
and really just merging all of these, you know, different things that I've
00:28:29
experienced and gone through my life, into how I practice wellness day to day.
00:28:34
And Shalosh, like the number three stands for the three pillars of which I practice.
00:28:39
and that is, you know, mental wellness, physical fitness and nutrition.
00:28:44
Todd Miller: So that, uh, keeps you at peak performance at all times.
00:28:47
Then hopefully,
00:28:49
Adam Stark: It, it does and, you know, what, what, what tends to,
00:28:52
I don't even know how to word it, but tends to, like, be, be missed
00:28:55
is, it's, it's not easy, right?
00:28:56
It's, even for someone dedicated day to day, it doesn't mean
00:29:00
that it's easy day to day.
00:29:01
And that's what it's about though.
00:29:02
It's, it's, it's recognizing that it's not easy, recognizing that.
00:29:05
you know, things won't always be the same for you, whether that be
00:29:08
mental, physical, you know, nutrition wise, and it's about how do you
00:29:13
fluctuate, and maintain consistency.
00:29:16
Cause that's, what's most important.
00:29:19
Todd Miller: Do you find, as you are able to, you know, consistently practice
00:29:23
that discipline, whatever it might be in one area of your life, that it kind of
00:29:28
allows you to do it in other areas also?
00:29:30
I mean, it seems like an undisciplined life is undisciplined
00:29:33
in all areas and a disciplined life is disciplined in all areas.
00:29:37
Is that kind of what you find also?
00:29:39
Adam Stark: Yeah.
00:29:39
I mean, you know, mind you, you're, you're obviously asking, someone with, you
00:29:44
know, a, a extreme per se, perspective, coming with, with military background.
00:29:49
But, I mean, you know, I'm, I'm at a point where if I don't.
00:29:53
if I'm not able to commit at least some, some amount of time to, to my daily
00:29:58
routine, which is, you know, really the, the, the mental and physical element,
00:30:02
I'll feel it, I'll feel it during that day, in a, in a negative way.
00:30:05
So my answer is unequivocally yes, and, and it's really important to me,
00:30:10
and how I just function day to day.
00:30:13
Todd Miller: Very good.
00:30:14
Well, I don't know where you find time for everything, Adam, but, you also
00:30:18
have a podcast, as we mentioned earlier, called The Veterans Who Build Show.
00:30:22
Tell us a little bit about that.
00:30:24
Adam Stark: Yeah.
00:30:24
So, you know, I want to give a shout out to the Sean Ryan show.
00:30:29
For those that are listening, if you're familiar with it, he, he's Sean Ryan.
00:30:33
He he's, like a top five podcast at this point.
00:30:36
I caught on to his show about a year ago, maybe, maybe a little bit less
00:30:40
even, and I've just been, I mean, I've been hooked on, on the stories.
00:30:44
It's, it's really just, providing a platform for veterans
00:30:47
to speak their life story.
00:30:49
And it's been incredibly helpful for me to, to hear.
00:30:53
In, in a way that, you know, I wasn't aware that this would, this
00:30:56
would happen to me by any means.
00:30:58
However, just hearing other veterans talk their stories, their hardships,
00:31:01
what they're doing, you know, now, how they've got, gone through hardships
00:31:04
and realizing that I was applying that to myself with things that I wasn't
00:31:09
even necessarily like consciously aware of, which was, it's funny to say.
00:31:13
And that was just actually what was happened to me, what happens to me
00:31:16
when I listened to these stories.
00:31:17
So that, that started, you know, kind of like percolating in my head, right?
00:31:21
I was thinking like, Oh, this, this is interesting.
00:31:23
Like that this is happening to me.
00:31:25
And the second is just, you know, realizing myself and my own story that,
00:31:29
you know, the built environment in general is, an incredible like segue
00:31:34
for veterans, you know, finishing military and looking for a profession
00:31:38
for, multitude of reasons, some of which I, you know, described before
00:31:41
that, you know, environment where you're working with different, different
00:31:44
people, different companies, you're on a, you know, physical kind of, you
00:31:48
know, situation and outcome, right?
00:31:50
You're building, you have a tangible outcome, and whatever, a lot of
00:31:54
different other different reasons.
00:31:55
So, kind of just recognizing that or being in this space and then listening
00:31:59
to Sean Ryan show, I eventually just pieced these things together, and had
00:32:03
this aha moment like, okay, well, this is, this is an awesome opportunity
00:32:07
to, provide, kind of both of those things in an emerged capacity, right?
00:32:12
So the purpose of the show is.
00:32:14
to create this roadmap for, veterans or, you know, our military personnel
00:32:19
that it's actively enlisted, right?
00:32:21
The roadmap is transition period from, military to civilian, which
00:32:25
is just a very difficult thing.
00:32:27
and then the second is to discuss translatable skills,
00:32:30
military to, profession in the built environment in particular.
00:32:34
And when I say built environment, I mean, it's pretty broad, sweep in.
00:32:37
So that's anything from like commercial real estate to, of course, contractors
00:32:41
and trades, site operators to, you know, technology in the space.
00:32:45
So anything that has to do with built environment.
00:32:47
And the way that the show functions is it's kind of, just a platform for
00:32:50
veterans to share their story, where we go from, you know, childhood through
00:32:54
enlistment, through transition, into the built environment, you know, with
00:32:58
that key element of roadmap, you know, transition period and translatable skills.
00:33:03
Todd Miller: Very neat.
00:33:03
Well, I am going to be sure to check it out.
00:33:05
I haven't had a chance to yet.
00:33:06
But, anxious to hear some of those stories.
00:33:08
So again, that's called The Veterans Who Build Show, and we
00:33:12
encourage folks to check that out.
00:33:14
Well, Adam, you have had a fascinating life and you still
00:33:17
got lots of life ahead of you.
00:33:18
and I love how, you know, a common theme in your life that I keep hearing is.
00:33:23
You know, really wanting to help others and wanting to share with others
00:33:27
and and help to bolster their lives.
00:33:29
So this has been great, our time has flown by.
00:33:32
We're kind of close to wrapping up what we call the business end of things.
00:33:35
Is there anything we haven't covered yet today that you wanted to be sure to share?
00:33:41
Adam Stark: No, my, my two, you know, key plugs here on any show
00:33:45
or really anything I'd like to talk about it, we touched on, right.
00:33:48
We have, JetBuild and we have, The Veterans Who Build Show.
00:33:51
so, yeah, appreciate you asking.
00:33:53
Todd Miller: Awesome.
00:33:53
Thank you so much.
00:33:54
Well, before we do close out, I'm going to ask you if you're willing
00:33:57
to participate in something we call our rapid fire questions.
00:34:02
So these are 7 questions.
00:34:03
Some may be serious.
00:34:04
Some may be more silly.
00:34:06
All you have to do is give a response and, you would be our
00:34:09
first person to turn us down.
00:34:11
So I have to ask you the pressures on.
00:34:13
Are you willing to, participate in rapid fire?
00:34:16
Adam Stark: Very well in.
00:34:17
Todd Miller: It's always fun.
00:34:18
Well, Ethan and I can alternate asking questions.
00:34:21
Would you like to ask the first question, Ethan?
00:34:23
Ethan Young: Yeah, I can do that.
00:34:24
Um, what's one thing that you don't think you could, or let me say, what's one
00:34:29
thing you'd say you can't live without?
00:34:31
Adam Stark: My morning routine.
00:34:33
Todd Miller: Gosh, that is not an answer most people would
00:34:35
probably have to that question.
00:34:37
That's awesome though.
00:34:39
Question two.
00:34:40
If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would
00:34:43
you choose to have dinner with?
00:34:45
Adam Stark: I'm gonna go, I'm, you know what, I'm just gonna go like really
00:34:48
biblical here and say King David.
00:34:49
I wanna, I wanna know what his, you know, one to one, what his life was about.
00:34:56
Todd Miller: That'd be cool.
00:34:57
That'd be cool.
00:34:58
Ethan Young: Very much so.
00:34:59
what's your, what's your biggest pet peeve?
00:35:02
Adam Stark: This is a good one.
00:35:03
This is a really good one.
00:35:04
So, uh, uh, I like to run.
00:35:07
so I run, you know, typically in a park now at, in New York city, I
00:35:11
used to live next to central park.
00:35:12
Now I'm in St.
00:35:12
Louis.
00:35:13
I live right next to the forest park.
00:35:14
And my pet peeve is definitely, you know, there, there typically are paths
00:35:19
for like, you know, running, walking, or there's a site, whatever, when, when
00:35:23
people are walking and they, they see you.
00:35:26
And they're taking up the entirety of, you know, like a running path or
00:35:29
a bike path, whatever, and then they don't move when you're getting closer.
00:35:32
And that's, that, that's my pet peeve.
00:35:34
Todd Miller: I'm moving faster than you.
00:35:37
I thought you were going to say when people threw chewing gum on
00:35:39
the path or something like that.
00:35:41
Question number four.
00:35:44
What was your favorite childhood toy or game?
00:35:49
Adam Stark: Oh, definitely.
00:35:49
Definitely Legos.
00:35:51
Todd Miller: Uh, that's that whole build thing and create and very cool.
00:35:56
Ethan Young: Ties in perfect.
00:35:57
Um, I guess you already said you've traveled a lot of places, but there,
00:36:01
is there like another place that's on your bucket list that you haven't
00:36:04
been on to, or haven't been to yet?
00:36:06
Adam Stark: Yeah, I mean, I kind of have like the, the, the world
00:36:09
meaning the balance of places.
00:36:10
I haven't been on my bucket list, but, I guess top, top few right now.
00:36:14
First would would be Vietnam, I think.
00:36:16
that, that's number one.
00:36:18
yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with Vietnam.
00:36:20
That's, that's my, that's my next like destination that
00:36:22
I'm, that I'm hoping to get to.
00:36:23
Ethan Young: Yeah, very cool.
00:36:25
Todd Miller: Next to last question.
00:36:27
It sounds like you're kind of a sports guy.
00:36:29
What is your favorite sport to watch?
00:36:32
Adam Stark: You, you know what's really funny is I, I used to, I used to be so,
00:36:36
you know, avid into sports like watching everything that was going on and over the
00:36:41
past probably five, six years, I really just dropped off to like, all right,
00:36:46
the back end of playoffs of sports.
00:36:48
I love to, to physically, physically go to, to really any game, any sport.
00:36:52
I find that to always be just a fun environment, even regardless of, of the
00:36:56
teams, Favorite sport to watch though, it would, would still be, and I think
00:37:00
traditionally for me has been football.
00:37:01
So American football.
00:37:03
Todd Miller: Okay.
00:37:05
Good answer.
00:37:07
Ethan Young: Uh, last one.
00:37:08
Is there a product or service that you've purchased recently
00:37:11
That's you've kind of been like, where has this been all my life?
00:37:14
You know, this is a game changer.
00:37:16
Adam Stark: That's a good one.
00:37:17
Um, uh, wow.
00:37:19
I probably do.
00:37:20
Oh, yes.
00:37:20
Great.
00:37:21
I got it is an instant pot.
00:37:23
So what that is, is I like to cook most of my meals.
00:37:27
and it's a pressure cooker.
00:37:29
So it kind of, you know, creates a, static temperature
00:37:34
and the entirety of the device.
00:37:36
So it cooks things quicker, and with, you know, one pot versus
00:37:41
having, you know, let's say if you're making like rice and, and meat and
00:37:44
vegetables, you could literally just throw everything in there, press one
00:37:47
button and it cooks it, amazingly.
00:37:49
so that, that's my, that's definitely my answer.
00:37:53
Ethan Young: Nice.
00:37:53
Todd Miller: Good answer.
00:37:54
And kind of reminds me, I have to talk to my wife.
00:37:56
We have to get ours out.
00:37:57
We haven't used it in a while.
00:37:58
She's always kind of freaking out I'm going to blow up the kitchen with it or
00:38:01
something like, no, no, that won't happen.
00:38:03
It'll be okay.
00:38:04
Adam Stark: Yeah, you'll be good.
00:38:05
Todd Miller: Well, thank you again, Adam.
00:38:07
this has been a pleasure.
00:38:08
Really enjoyed getting to know you and hearing about, JetBuild
00:38:11
and, and all the other things and your podcast and everything.
00:38:15
for folks who may want to get in touch with you or to follow,
00:38:18
JetBuild and what you're doing there.
00:38:20
give us some ways they can do that.
00:38:23
Adam Stark: Yeah, absolutely.
00:38:24
So, Jet Build's website is jet.build, so, the .build is
00:38:28
in place of .com, for example.
00:38:30
So jet.Build, for Jet.
00:38:32
For me personally, I'm, I'm active on LinkedIn.
00:38:35
you'll find me Adam Stark.
00:38:37
Umm, not sure what happens actually when you search Adam
00:38:39
Stark, like if other ones come up.
00:38:41
But, if you see Adam , Adam Stark Jet, Jet Build, that'll, that'll probably work.
00:38:45
And then the veterans who build show is on, you know, any platform that you're
00:38:49
listening to, for podcasts or content.
00:38:51
So we're on, you know, YouTube, Apple podcasts, Spotify, and we
00:38:55
also throw on shorts, on, Instagram and, and Facebook and Twitter.
00:39:00
Todd Miller: Very good.
00:39:01
Well, we will put links in the show notes as well.
00:39:03
So folks can easily find you, and you were easy to find on LinkedIn also.
00:39:08
So that would, again, just Adam Stark and Jet Build and you'll find them.
00:39:14
Well, thank you very much.
00:39:15
It's been a real pleasure.
00:39:17
did, did any of us, Oh, I got my challenge word in.
00:39:20
Yeah.
00:39:20
Did you guys get your challenge words in?
00:39:22
Ethan Young: Nah, I did not.
00:39:23
Adam Stark: Yeah, I was, it was, it was on my mind a handful of times, but, Each
00:39:26
time it came up, I was thinking, I mean, this would, this would just be too silly.
00:39:30
Like I know when I had the opportunity, I realized I missed
00:39:33
it though, but congrats to you.
00:39:35
You, you, you win the, you win the award.
00:39:38
Todd Miller: Well, I had the word Tesla that I, yeah, I was able to work that in.
00:39:42
But, Ethan, your word.
00:39:44
was that you didn't use.
00:39:46
Ethan Young: Yeah, mine was Windex.
00:39:47
I, I, I was gonna do something with like the whole like maybe window washing
00:39:50
or skyscraper kind of thing with New York, but I feel like that was just too
00:39:53
much of a stretch and then I couldn't figure out any other way to put it in.
00:39:56
Todd Miller: I thought maybe when you asked, Adam, if he, you know,
00:39:59
had discovered any new products, you'd say, you know, I just
00:40:01
discovered Windex the other day.
00:40:03
And yeah,
00:40:05
Adam Stark: It, it, it crossed my, it crossed my mind.
00:40:07
a few, a few, a few opportunities crossed my mind, but I had the same kind of like,
00:40:11
it's too, it's too much of a stretch.
00:40:13
Like, come on.
00:40:13
Ethan Young: just felt like a stretch
00:40:14
Adam Stark: Yeah.
00:40:15
Todd Miller: and Adam, your word was covert, right?
00:40:19
See, see, you were so good at it.
00:40:21
No one even knew it.
00:40:22
So.
00:40:23
Ethan Young: Yeah.
00:40:24
Adam Stark: I used it.
00:40:24
Maybe I didn't.
00:40:25
Todd Miller: There you go.
00:40:26
There you go.
00:40:27
Uh, that's been great.
00:40:28
Thank you so much for joining us.
00:40:29
Appreciate it.
00:40:31
Adam Stark: Thanks so much for having me on the show, guys.
00:40:32
I really appreciate the opportunity to share, you know, my story and what
00:40:35
I'm working on through your platform.
00:40:37
It means a lot.
00:40:37
Thank you.
00:40:38
Todd Miller: Thank you and thank you to our audience for tuning in to this very
00:40:42
special episode of construction disruption with Adam Stark of jet.build, please
00:40:47
watch for future episodes of our podcast.
00:40:49
We're always have great guests.
00:40:51
please leave a review on Apple podcasts or YouTube.
00:40:53
until the next time we're together, keep on disrupting, keep on challenging,
00:40:56
keep on looking for better ways of doing things and don't forget to give back.
00:41:01
Have a positive impact on those around you.
00:41:03
Do whatever you can to just smile or encourage them.
00:41:06
makes a big difference in someone's life.
00:41:08
So, God bless and take care.
00:41:10
This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode
00:41:13
of Construction Disruption.