In this episode of the Construction Disruption podcast, Todd Miller and co-host Ryan Bell from Isaiah Industries explore the future of design, building, and remodeling with Michael Fortinberry, Senior VP of Perennial Construction Solutions and co-founder of Protiv.
Michael shares insights on how Protiv's performance-based pay system is revolutionizing employee motivation and company culture in the construction industry. He discusses the challenges of hourly compensation, the importance of company culture, and the potential for Protiv's model to be adopted in other industries. Tune in for a deep dive into construction innovation, company culture, and practical advice for contractors and young professionals entering the industry.
Timestamps
01:19 Guest Introduction: Michael Fortinberry
02:54 Perennial Construction Solutions Overview
07:31 Challenges in Employee Compensation
10:26 The Birth of PROTIV
15:14 Implementing PROTIV: Practical Insights
20:41 Expanding Beyond Construction
24:20 The Importance of Incentive Compensation
25:08 Recruitment and Retention Strategies
26:13 Empowering Workers with Technology
30:20 Advice for Newcomers in Construction
35:01 Rapid Fire Questions
41:25 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
Connect with Michael Online
Website: https://protiv.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfortinberry/
X (Twitter): https://x.com/protivpropay
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/protivpropay/
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This episode was produced by Isaiah Industries, Inc.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Welcome to the construction disruption podcast, where we
Intro:uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.
Todd Miller:I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer
Todd Miller:of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.
Todd Miller:Today, my co host is Ryan Bell.
Todd Miller:Mr.
Todd Miller:Bell, how are you today?
Todd Miller:Hey, Todd, I'm doing well.
Todd Miller:How are you?
Todd Miller:I'm doing well also doing great.
Todd Miller:So, uh, as is sometimes our tradition, we start out with a
Todd Miller:little bit of lighthearted levity.
Todd Miller:Uh, do you have any lighthearted levity for us here today, Ryan?
Todd Miller:I
Ryan Bell:have some dad jokes.
Ryan Bell:Why did the adventurous explorer bring a ladder on their expedition?
Ryan Bell:I don't know.
Ryan Bell:Not a clue.
Ryan Bell:Cause they wanted to take their exploration to new heights.
Ryan Bell:Now that's good.
Ryan Bell:I'll give that like a seven or eight.
Ryan Bell:That's good.
Ryan Bell:Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon?
Ryan Bell:No, I have not heard about the restaurant.
Ryan Bell:I mean, tell me about it, right?
Ryan Bell:Great food.
Ryan Bell:No atmosphere.
Todd Miller:Okay.
Todd Miller:I like that one better.
Ryan Bell:Compliments of chat.
Ryan Bell:GPT.
Todd Miller:Awesome, man.
Todd Miller:Chat.
Todd Miller:GPT can come in handy sometimes.
Todd Miller:Well, shall we be off to the races here?
Todd Miller:Let's get started.
Todd Miller:Well, today our spotlight, a guest is Michael Fortenberry,
Todd Miller:based in New York city.
Todd Miller:Michael is senior vice president of perennial, uh, perennial
Todd Miller:construction solutions, one of the nation's largest multifamily
Todd Miller:turnover and renovation companies.
Todd Miller:Um, out of that then in 2021, he co founded PROTIV, um, that's P R O T I V for
Todd Miller:those of you who are out there Googling.
Todd Miller:Um, an online workers incentive program that directly links your project
Todd Miller:budgets to team incentives offering a performance based alternative to
Todd Miller:the old style of just hourly pay.
Todd Miller:Um, Oh, one of the things I should mention too, before I bring
Todd Miller:Michael on, we are doing challenge words once again, this episode.
Todd Miller:So listen for any funny words we may work into the conversation
Todd Miller:and you'll know it's maybe it was our challenge word we had to use.
Todd Miller:And at the end, we'll talk about those and whether we were successful.
Todd Miller:So Michael, welcome to construction disruption.
Todd Miller:It's a real pleasure to have you today as our guest.
Michael Fortinberry:Oh, super excited to be here.
Michael Fortinberry:Appreciate y'all.
Michael Fortinberry:Have me on the, on the show and look forward to talking a little bit
Michael Fortinberry:about, uh, what we've built here and, uh, you know, the, our approach to
Michael Fortinberry:company culture within our industry.
Todd Miller:Well, I'm excited to hear more because, you know, we see
Todd Miller:a lot of folks doing a lot of things out there with apps and tech and, um,
Todd Miller:things, and I have never seen anything, uh, like what you guys are doing.
Todd Miller:So I'm really anxious to learn more.
Todd Miller:Um, but let's.
Todd Miller:Let's kind of start a little bit before of the development of Protiv.
Todd Miller:Um, you've been with Perennial Construction, uh, Solutions since 2019.
Todd Miller:Can you tell us a little bit about Perennial and its scope
Todd Miller:of work and, uh, what it does?
Michael Fortinberry:Perennial was started, there was a group of us that had
Michael Fortinberry:already been doing some multifamily work.
Michael Fortinberry:That was my background prior.
Michael Fortinberry:And, We had an opportunity to start doing some large scale multifamily renovation
Michael Fortinberry:work in New York city, which is frankly, it's pretty straightforward construction
Michael Fortinberry:business, but it's a really complex logistical business and there are only so
Michael Fortinberry:many companies that can do it at scale.
Michael Fortinberry:It's one thing.
Michael Fortinberry:If you're going to go renovate or turn over 20 apartments, you know, over a
Michael Fortinberry:month or something, what can you do?
Michael Fortinberry:20 in 1 week or 50 in 1 week, you know, you've got to have 50 starts
Michael Fortinberry:with 50 crews, 50 sets of materials delivered into specific units.
Michael Fortinberry:And some, sometimes you have 3 days, you know, and sometimes you get 2
Michael Fortinberry:weeks, depends on scope that's that.
Michael Fortinberry:Complexity we found was an opportunity and perennial was really built
Michael Fortinberry:specifically to go after that market, large scale renovation work in the city.
Todd Miller:Okay.
Todd Miller:So I'm curious are these usually your properties or properties you're doing?
Todd Miller:Uh, you're renovating for other owners or is it kind of a mix?
Michael Fortinberry:Well, 1 of our.
Michael Fortinberry:Clients early on the property was, uh, sold for five and a half billion dollars.
Michael Fortinberry:So I wish I had this.
Michael Fortinberry:So yeah, not, not mine.
Michael Fortinberry:Uh, no, we do that for, for owners of, of large properties in New York.
Michael Fortinberry:Some of our.
Michael Fortinberry:Clients have 10,000 apartments in one location.
Michael Fortinberry:Wow.
Michael Fortinberry:Wow.
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah.
Michael Fortinberry:Core perspective.
Michael Fortinberry:They have, we also do a lot of nycha, uh, which is the
Michael Fortinberry:public housing renovation work.
Michael Fortinberry:Okay.
Michael Fortinberry:In the city.
Michael Fortinberry:Gotcha.
Michael Fortinberry:So, which is prevailing wage, um, work, it's, it's a little bit different
Michael Fortinberry:and, but we really, we really like.
Michael Fortinberry:That work, it's been good for us as a company and it's kind of expanding into
Michael Fortinberry:that space a bit is they're putting a lot more money into renovating public housing.
Michael Fortinberry:It needed it, frankly.
Todd Miller:Yeah, it is surprising how much money I'm seeing going
Todd Miller:into what I call infrastructure type projects like that.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, what's great is that what they.
Michael Fortinberry:Came up with was a good public private partnership.
Michael Fortinberry:A lot of times I think you think about public housing, we think about
Michael Fortinberry:our tax dollar, just getting dumped through an inefficient process into
Michael Fortinberry:his black hole of, of public housing.
Michael Fortinberry:This was a lot more creative.
Michael Fortinberry:They've started these hundred year.
Michael Fortinberry:Partnership deals with private management companies, basically give
Michael Fortinberry:them the keys to the property, let them manage the renovation work, then
Michael Fortinberry:manage the leasing process, let the revenue flow through those entities,
Michael Fortinberry:some tax breaks associated with it.
Michael Fortinberry:Public private opportunity that we believe is going to be very successful and
Michael Fortinberry:probably repeated in other markets where they have large scale, uh, public housing.
Todd Miller:Wow.
Todd Miller:That does make a lot of sense.
Todd Miller:It kind of gives folks some incentive to, uh, make these projects work.
Todd Miller:Also
Michael Fortinberry:my favorite word incentive.
Michael Fortinberry:I love it.
Todd Miller:Yeah, we're going to talk more about that.
Todd Miller:That's right.
Todd Miller:So I understand that perennial kind of has, you know, it was designed
Todd Miller:and has a reputation for being sort of a different kind of contractor.
Todd Miller:And, um, one of those differences I understand, and this is pretty different
Todd Miller:as you have your own, uh, software development team, um, what are some
Todd Miller:of the ways that you see perennial standing, um, above other contractors
Todd Miller:doing, you know, similar types of work?
Michael Fortinberry:You know, the funny thing is we have that, and I
Michael Fortinberry:think if we had to do it over again, we would do our best to not have that.
Michael Fortinberry:Oh, really?
Michael Fortinberry:Oh, my gosh.
Michael Fortinberry:What a, uh, it's a challenge.
Michael Fortinberry:And it's funny because I even knew how hard this was going to be.
Michael Fortinberry:I think we knew how hard this would be going into it.
Michael Fortinberry:And yet we stumbled down the road anyway.
Michael Fortinberry:What was interesting is we had a unique type of construction that Our jobs
Michael Fortinberry:were too big to be a work ticket and too small to be, you know, pro core.
Michael Fortinberry:Right.
Michael Fortinberry:We had mid sized jobs.
Michael Fortinberry:It didn't really fit some of the platforms that were out there for management.
Michael Fortinberry:So we started building some tools just to manage our own stuff, you know,
Michael Fortinberry:that wasn't really in the market.
Michael Fortinberry:We grew quite a bit.
Michael Fortinberry:We, uh, we put 130 people in the field there, you know, in the summers and.
Michael Fortinberry:So as we grew, we needed just better systems to manage, manage that.
Michael Fortinberry:And so, yeah, we ended up stumbling down the road of software development,
Michael Fortinberry:uh, by, by necessity in some ways, sounds kind of adventurous.
Michael Fortinberry:So it was a bit adventurous.
Michael Fortinberry:I'll give you that.
Todd Miller:Well, I'm kind of curious, um, You know, what were
Todd Miller:some of the particular challenges you saw with employee compensation?
Todd Miller:And, and, you know, perhaps many of our other or of our listeners have also
Todd Miller:experienced some of those challenges.
Todd Miller:Uh, what were
Michael Fortinberry:some of those?
Michael Fortinberry:I can pretty much guarantee you that every one of your listeners as hourly workers
Michael Fortinberry:in the field understands this problem.
Michael Fortinberry:Hourly pay is structurally an inefficient model.
Michael Fortinberry:It's, I get why we pivoted towards that a hundred years ago, 125 years ago.
Michael Fortinberry:But it creates a dynamic of conflict between management and the
Michael Fortinberry:workers because the model is not built on teamwork, communication,
Michael Fortinberry:productivity, quality, safety.
Michael Fortinberry:None of those are in the formula.
Michael Fortinberry:It's just time.
Michael Fortinberry:The formula on time and time is not our friend in construction, right?
Michael Fortinberry:We, we need to get off these job sites.
Michael Fortinberry:We always wonder why does that last 5 percent of the job
Michael Fortinberry:take 20 percent of the time?
Michael Fortinberry:You know, why is, Bob taking, you know, so long at home Depot.
Michael Fortinberry:Why did two of them need to go to home Depot?
Michael Fortinberry:Right.
Michael Fortinberry:It's all these little examples.
Michael Fortinberry:And I guarantee everybody listening has got a hundred examples of that.
Michael Fortinberry:And it's not that our crews are lazy is they're not incentivized correctly.
Michael Fortinberry:Yelling at them and saying, hurry up is not as effective
Michael Fortinberry:as we like to pretend it is.
Michael Fortinberry:So we were looking for ways to get people to be motivated.
Michael Fortinberry:We get some cold winters here.
Michael Fortinberry:You can imagine, right?
Michael Fortinberry:We were out there and I've got to get.
Michael Fortinberry:To get out there in the cold and get over to this apartment and, you know,
Michael Fortinberry:get, get a new floor put in or whatever.
Michael Fortinberry:We got icicles hanging off the buildings look like giant popsicles.
Michael Fortinberry:We've got all this effort into, you know, the, what it takes to get
Michael Fortinberry:logistically all the materials there.
Michael Fortinberry:If they're not motivated to push through that and be
Michael Fortinberry:productive, it's a, it's a thing.
Michael Fortinberry:And how do I get them to want to do that on their own?
Michael Fortinberry:It's not, it's not just me asking them to or telling them to, it's they get
Michael Fortinberry:internally want to do well, communicate, work as a team, be productive,
Michael Fortinberry:do the job right the first time.
Michael Fortinberry:And what you guys probably heard this, right?
Michael Fortinberry:Bob comes to your office.
Michael Fortinberry:You guys probably have Bob and he says, uh, Hey Bob, can I get a raise?
Michael Fortinberry:Baby needs shoes, whatever, you know, and the reality is the only thing that's
Michael Fortinberry:actually going through my head is, okay, I want to get barber raised, but the only
Michael Fortinberry:thing that changes is my costs go up.
Michael Fortinberry:Nothing else changes in my business.
Michael Fortinberry:My costs go up.
Michael Fortinberry:I don't make any more money.
Michael Fortinberry:I make less money now.
Michael Fortinberry:I don't get any more done.
Todd Miller:Folks don't understand.
Todd Miller:Well, what extra do I get for that extra?
Todd Miller:I pay you.
Michael Fortinberry:So we set about tackling those two things.
Michael Fortinberry:I need them to care more.
Michael Fortinberry:On one side, I need them to teamwork communication because they want to.
Michael Fortinberry:And on the other side, they want to make more money.
Michael Fortinberry:How do I get those two things together?
Michael Fortinberry:And that was what Protip was born from.
Todd Miller:That makes a lot of sense.
Todd Miller:And you had a good word in there too.
Todd Miller:You know, you got, you got to have them to care.
Todd Miller:And sometimes that thing of just browbeating folks to work
Todd Miller:faster means quality goes down.
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah, it's not speed.
Michael Fortinberry:It's, it's the combination of do it right the first time and think,
Michael Fortinberry:be productive, good teamwork.
Michael Fortinberry:We find that the secret for most of these crews to finishing the jobs
Michael Fortinberry:on schedule is teamwork, the way they communicate with each other.
Michael Fortinberry:Eliminating rework because they do it right the first time is arguably the most
Michael Fortinberry:that, that, if we just didn't do anything else as a company, but just eliminated
Michael Fortinberry:rework, my profits would jump, right?
Michael Fortinberry:Rework kills us the minute I have to go back.
Michael Fortinberry:I'm probably breaking.
Michael Fortinberry:Even if I have to go back twice, I probably lost money.
Michael Fortinberry:It's I need the crew to want to do it.
Michael Fortinberry:Right.
Michael Fortinberry:How do I get them to care?
Todd Miller:Well, you've touched on a number of things there as far as
Todd Miller:challenges that, you know, you can solve for companies by addressing this issue.
Todd Miller:Any, any other challenges?
Todd Miller:I'm kind of curious, you know, how does addressing this issue
Todd Miller:even affect company culture?
Michael Fortinberry:It is all company.
Michael Fortinberry:That is actually our word, right?
Michael Fortinberry:It is incentives become woven into your company culture.
Michael Fortinberry:We are convinced at this point, having done this for a few years
Michael Fortinberry:now and worked with a lot of different kinds of companies that.
Michael Fortinberry:If you lean into performance pay, it's central to your company
Michael Fortinberry:culture, getting everybody on the same team working towards success.
Michael Fortinberry:That's the secret.
Michael Fortinberry:The software we've built is actually pretty straightforward.
Michael Fortinberry:It's complicated behind the scenes, but the way it operates is very simple.
Michael Fortinberry:The hard part is the culture side.
Michael Fortinberry:How do I, I want to, I want to know that my team is frustrated with
Michael Fortinberry:the procurement team because the materials aren't there on time.
Michael Fortinberry:I want them to know that the estimator can't tell a meter from a
Michael Fortinberry:foot when they're measuring, right?
Michael Fortinberry:I need to know this so that I can get better right now.
Michael Fortinberry:They don't really care.
Michael Fortinberry:They kind of care, but not really.
Michael Fortinberry:So if the, if the stone isn't delivered or the paint's not there or the
Michael Fortinberry:conduit doesn't show up, Whatever, you know, I'll wait happy to wait easier.
Michael Fortinberry:The minute that the labor budget becomes their money, all of a
Michael Fortinberry:sudden they're on the phone with saying, boss, what are you doing?
Michael Fortinberry:You got to get our materials here.
Michael Fortinberry:You're costing us money.
Michael Fortinberry:That is a culture shift because now the, now everybody's pulling for success.
Michael Fortinberry:That's what we're, that's what we push for here.
Todd Miller:I'm kind of curious as, as you sort of develop.
Todd Miller:You know, protive and developed it for your own company.
Todd Miller:Did you immediately think, Hey, we're onto something that would
Todd Miller:benefit other companies as well, or did that kind of come later on?
Todd Miller:It
Michael Fortinberry:actually happened pretty fast and we had probably had
Michael Fortinberry:about two years of stumbling through how to make it work with tech.
Michael Fortinberry:There was a couple of aha moments.
Michael Fortinberry:One is that we had to simplify.
Michael Fortinberry:The equation so that it was easy for the workers to understand exactly
Michael Fortinberry:how much they were going to make based on how they performed it.
Michael Fortinberry:If it was a, if it was a black hole, like, if they didn't really see
Michael Fortinberry:it, then they didn't believe in it.
Michael Fortinberry:They didn't change behavior.
Michael Fortinberry:So we started texting them every day, the budget, what
Michael Fortinberry:they'd use, what they had left.
Michael Fortinberry:So they could see the differences, what they got to keep.
Michael Fortinberry:That simple thing, all of a sudden their brains came on, you know, it's a great
Michael Fortinberry:thing when you hire someone to, let's say you're going to put on a roof and
Michael Fortinberry:I'm going to hire you to put shingles on or whatever, and I'm paying you
Michael Fortinberry:for that task that you're back, right?
Michael Fortinberry:To put on shingles, I get you at your hammer and you're putting
Michael Fortinberry:on shingles all day, whatever.
Michael Fortinberry:I don't really do it that way anymore, whatever.
Michael Fortinberry:So the reality is you actually get.
Michael Fortinberry:It's like a gift of purchase, a free brain.
Michael Fortinberry:It comes with the back and we don't use it.
Michael Fortinberry:We don't, we don't ask them to use it.
Michael Fortinberry:We don't take advantage of this free gift that we got with every employee.
Michael Fortinberry:Now, some of them are better than others.
Michael Fortinberry:I give you that, but there are, there is an opportunity to unlock more.
Michael Fortinberry:From our people to get them to bring their brain to work and to
Michael Fortinberry:think about how can we work better.
Michael Fortinberry:And that when, when we saw the behavior change, when they could see, I'm going
Michael Fortinberry:to make more money on Friday because of how I work on Tuesday, all of a
Michael Fortinberry:sudden they brought their brain to work.
Todd Miller:Man.
Todd Miller:I love that.
Todd Miller:I'm kind of like.
Todd Miller:You know, bingo, you hit it on the head as far as realizing that, hey,
Todd Miller:these workers have a brain too.
Todd Miller:And let's figure out how to use it and not just be using their black, their back.
Todd Miller:So can you go into a little bit more in depth dive on, you know,
Todd Miller:exactly what, what the protocol is?
Todd Miller:Platform proto, uh, software does and how companies use it.
Todd Miller:I mean, what this means to them from a very practical standpoint.
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah.
Michael Fortinberry:The software itself always starts with the labor budget.
Michael Fortinberry:We integrate to your ERPCRM systems, wherever your labor budget lives, pull
Michael Fortinberry:in your labor budget, dollars, hours.
Michael Fortinberry:How long did you think you were going to spend?
Michael Fortinberry:How many dollars do you think you're going to spend on labor to do that task?
Michael Fortinberry:It could be mowing Mrs.
Michael Fortinberry:Smith grass or.
Michael Fortinberry:Putting in 300 miles of highway.
Michael Fortinberry:I don't care.
Michael Fortinberry:The other side is I pull your actual time off of your time tracking.
Michael Fortinberry:So we will, we integrate, integrate to time tracking systems so that we know that
Michael Fortinberry:Bob clocked 27 and a half hours this week on that cost code on that project on that
Michael Fortinberry:job or five minutes or whatever it was.
Michael Fortinberry:So, but that too, those two pieces of information, I have
Michael Fortinberry:budget and I have actual.
Michael Fortinberry:Once I have those two pieces of, uh, Of information, I've got a platform on
Michael Fortinberry:which I, I can measure so the software pulls the one pulls the other and we show
Michael Fortinberry:the workers right on their phone those numbers so they can see it and they can
Michael Fortinberry:set goals as a team so they can see it.
Michael Fortinberry:They can say where we've got 200 hours to do this work.
Michael Fortinberry:If we get it done in 180, how much is our team bonus?
Michael Fortinberry:The crew leader can talk about it.
Michael Fortinberry:The workers can see they're part of it as the job progresses.
Michael Fortinberry:We're tracking actual.
Michael Fortinberry:So I know that this is how you're doing against the goal you set.
Michael Fortinberry:They can see those numbers.
Michael Fortinberry:They can talk about how we're doing.
Michael Fortinberry:What do we need to do different?
Michael Fortinberry:How, you know, how are we progressing towards what we thought we could earn?
Michael Fortinberry:And at that point, we finished the job up.
Michael Fortinberry:If the job was done ahead of schedule and the job is done correctly, if they have to
Michael Fortinberry:go back and fix it, customer's not happy, whatever the team loses on the bonus.
Michael Fortinberry:The reason it's a team bonus is that we want them to hold each
Michael Fortinberry:other accountable to doing it right.
Michael Fortinberry:Hey, Bob, you got to do that.
Michael Fortinberry:Right.
Michael Fortinberry:You're going to cost me my bonus because we're gonna have to come fix it.
Michael Fortinberry:I actually have a carpenter on video saying the quiet part out
Michael Fortinberry:loud, which was his name's Frank.
Michael Fortinberry:And he literally said that his approach to quality change when he went on pro
Michael Fortinberry:pay, that's what we call a job because.
Michael Fortinberry:It cost me too much money to go back.
Michael Fortinberry:And I was like, Hallelujah, Frank, that, that welcome to my side of the table.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, I want Frank to want to hang that door straight because Frank, it's
Michael Fortinberry:going to cost him money if he doesn't.
Michael Fortinberry:And that was the, that's like this hallelujah moment where they get it.
Michael Fortinberry:And it's such, such a transformational thing when you
Michael Fortinberry:can push into that, that concept.
Todd Miller:I remember years ago, I heard someone ask a, uh, worker,
Todd Miller:Well, you know, about how long do you think this is going to take you to do?
Todd Miller:And, uh, their response was literally, Well, that depends.
Todd Miller:Is it my time or your time?
Todd Miller:Uh, and so, yeah, light bulbs go off.
Michael Fortinberry:They don't care.
Michael Fortinberry:I hate to break it there by listening, but your workers don't care about your money.
Michael Fortinberry:Right?
Michael Fortinberry:Right.
Michael Fortinberry:I mean, they're somewhat, they care about their own money and they're
Michael Fortinberry:somewhat accountable to their peers, which is an interesting dynamic here.
Michael Fortinberry:So if you can get them to collectively view the labor budget as their money,
Michael Fortinberry:they will treat it differently.
Todd Miller:Does this require a lot on the workers part, you know, in
Todd Miller:putting time and stuff like that, or it's all pulled, it's all digital.
Todd Miller:That's what I figured.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah, we, we technically work with some
Michael Fortinberry:companies that don't have digital time tracking, but that's rare.
Michael Fortinberry:Most everybody now has busy, busy or clock tracker T sheets or, or one of
Michael Fortinberry:these time tracking, you know, the systems in Java and build a trend, et cetera.
Michael Fortinberry:So they have some type of time tracking process for it.
Michael Fortinberry:Frankly, if you don't, you should, because it's better for your job costing.
Michael Fortinberry:Uh, there's all kinds of value propositions associated with
Michael Fortinberry:accurate time tracking legal reasons.
Michael Fortinberry:Frankly, here's the other part.
Michael Fortinberry:A lot of people have tried this.
Michael Fortinberry:A lot of people have a spreadsheet while you're listening to private spreadsheet
Michael Fortinberry:somewhere that they tried performance Bay and they tried to use Excel just to track,
Michael Fortinberry:all right, Bob, I gave him 10 hours.
Michael Fortinberry:He did it in seven.
Michael Fortinberry:I'm going to pay him the difference there.
Michael Fortinberry:So one Excel will just break in real life.
Michael Fortinberry:It doesn't.
Michael Fortinberry:The level of calculation you really have to do this because different
Michael Fortinberry:people work different numbers of hours.
Michael Fortinberry:You have, um, people with different wage rates.
Michael Fortinberry:It's there's all kinds of complexities to real life construction that excel.
Michael Fortinberry:It's just becomes administrative burden and the calculations for.
Michael Fortinberry:Oh, T was called OT differential, which is a department of labor, fair labor
Michael Fortinberry:standards act set of rules, especially when you're in states like California,
Michael Fortinberry:New York need to be done correctly.
Michael Fortinberry:You're going to get sued.
Michael Fortinberry:So the software makes that easy to do, um, settings.
Michael Fortinberry:And then, so I've, I've run into people all the time that have
Michael Fortinberry:piecework structures in place today.
Michael Fortinberry:I'm paying them 7 percent or 20 percent of, of the job value, or I pay them X
Michael Fortinberry:amount per square in the roofing industry.
Michael Fortinberry:Most likely.
Michael Fortinberry:The minute they work one minute of overtime, you're a foul of the rules.
Michael Fortinberry:That doesn't mean you're going to get sued tomorrow, but the minute
Michael Fortinberry:you've got enough employees, some class action lawyer is going to
Michael Fortinberry:find you find where your disgruntled employees and you're in trouble.
Michael Fortinberry:And it's not the, just the OT differential amount they come
Michael Fortinberry:after is the fines and penalties.
Michael Fortinberry:So it's, it's, and we can solve it for people who like, if that's
Michael Fortinberry:what they do today, I can help you get compliant in one day,
Todd Miller:I'm curious, have most of, uh, Your users so far for pro to have
Todd Miller:been in the construction industry, or have you seen any other industries that are
Todd Miller:very hourly base that have adopted it?
Michael Fortinberry:So construction, landscaping, cleaning kind of where
Michael Fortinberry:we started with all of this, but we have a pilot program kicking off with
Michael Fortinberry:a manufacturing company right now.
Michael Fortinberry:That has 18 locations where they manufacture some,
Michael Fortinberry:some materials and we're.
Michael Fortinberry:Curious where that's gonna go.
Michael Fortinberry:It's more of a unit based objective.
Michael Fortinberry:Um, how many units is my goal for my shift for my team on this shift?
Michael Fortinberry:And what can we actually output?
Michael Fortinberry:So it's just a little different, but it's the same basic problem, right?
Michael Fortinberry:I have hourly workers.
Michael Fortinberry:I need them to be.
Michael Fortinberry:Uh, lined, you know, with company KPIs and targets.
Michael Fortinberry:And sometimes those KPIs are more safety or, or quality oriented
Michael Fortinberry:or, or something like that.
Michael Fortinberry:And sometimes those KPIs are different, but whatever they are, that's part of
Michael Fortinberry:this becomes part of the equation of how.
Michael Fortinberry:Incentives get paid and what you, what gets incentivized gets done.
Michael Fortinberry:That's a good point.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, and it was like so many quotes on that.
Michael Fortinberry:I have a bunch of quotes often give from different kind of famous people
Michael Fortinberry:who talk about the power of incentives.
Michael Fortinberry:One guy talked about all of economics can be summed up in, you know, the four
Michael Fortinberry:words that humans respond to incentives.
Michael Fortinberry:That's it.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, that's economics in four words, right?
Michael Fortinberry:You have your degree back, you know, it's, uh, it's a powerful, powerful
Michael Fortinberry:thing to get, you know, once you got it in your head where we can go.
Michael Fortinberry:If you weave it into the company culture and get people understanding that.
Michael Fortinberry:We're doing this together.
Michael Fortinberry:This job is what we're doing together.
Michael Fortinberry:I've got to estimate it right.
Michael Fortinberry:I've got to procure the materials, right?
Michael Fortinberry:We're going to get our permits squared away, whatever, all those things.
Michael Fortinberry:And you, the weather's got to cooperate and this and this, and
Michael Fortinberry:this Bob's got to do a good job.
Michael Fortinberry:You guys have to execute the project well.
Michael Fortinberry:And then if all that goes well, we all make more money.
Michael Fortinberry:If any part of that breaks down, then we have a chance to make less.
Michael Fortinberry:If you're the owner, you can go below zero, right?
Michael Fortinberry:At least the workers, we give them a floor, right?
Michael Fortinberry:So if you make 25 bucks an hour, you don't make less than 25 an hour.
Michael Fortinberry:If the owner, my number, I don't have a bottom, right?
Michael Fortinberry:I never can go to zero and then go below that.
Michael Fortinberry:Right.
Michael Fortinberry:So everybody out there is probably familiar with jobs that look like that.
Michael Fortinberry:And that's where.
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah, we, we protect the employees, the downside to the employee,
Michael Fortinberry:give them a chance to earn more.
Todd Miller:Yeah, I love it.
Todd Miller:Well, you, you talked about Frank and his comment, any other comments that
Todd Miller:you can think of as far as either from managers, owners of companies, or from,
Todd Miller:you know, the hourly based workers, um, after, uh, implementing proto,
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah.
Michael Fortinberry:The workers are the ones you get the most, uh, enjoyable feedback from, uh,
Michael Fortinberry:management, look, management comes back and they talk about our gross profit went
Michael Fortinberry:up 7 percent or, you know, labor costs came down 3 percent where they find those.
Michael Fortinberry:All those are fine.
Michael Fortinberry:There's nice quotes in a marketing brochure, I guess, but the, the.
Michael Fortinberry:Employees who talk about how they're ahead of inflation, you know, like
Michael Fortinberry:inflation was killing us and I feel like we're back ahead of the game now, boss.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, and they, cause they get it right.
Michael Fortinberry:They understand the impact on their family when they start to earn more money.
Michael Fortinberry:When they, I've had owners tell me that if they tried to take.
Michael Fortinberry:Pro pay away from their workers.
Michael Fortinberry:They would just leave it, lose everybody.
Michael Fortinberry:Like the guys love it.
Michael Fortinberry:Like they get into it and it, because it becomes theirs, theirs.
Michael Fortinberry:They just, they care about it more.
Michael Fortinberry:You're recruiting and retention.
Michael Fortinberry:Uh, we get a lot of companies talk about how that, that really is key right now.
Michael Fortinberry:I'm recruiting people.
Michael Fortinberry:By saying we have a incentive comp system here where you can, you know,
Michael Fortinberry:make more money if you perform.
Michael Fortinberry:Well, yeah, think about right.
Michael Fortinberry:Bob comes in your office.
Michael Fortinberry:He's like, I'm the greatest carpenter ever.
Michael Fortinberry:And you should pay me X.
Michael Fortinberry:And you're like, oh, well, we're going to find out, Bob, you know,
Michael Fortinberry:because we've got incentive pay system here and our best carpenters make.
Michael Fortinberry:A lot of money.
Michael Fortinberry:Now our best concrete guys, they make a lot of money because
Michael Fortinberry:they're good at what they do.
Michael Fortinberry:They work well as a team and they bring jobs in ahead of schedule.
Michael Fortinberry:They do the job, right?
Michael Fortinberry:They stay safe, et cetera.
Michael Fortinberry:That's how you recruit.
Michael Fortinberry:And we we've done that in our own company.
Michael Fortinberry:We fight our clients often sharing that back to us.
Michael Fortinberry:Then on the other side, who's going to leave.
Michael Fortinberry:When you're making our average worker right now in our systems,
Michael Fortinberry:making over 10 percent more in base wage than they were making before.
Michael Fortinberry:That's average.
Michael Fortinberry:Some are doing even better.
Michael Fortinberry:You're going to find, if you've got 30 people in the field, I
Michael Fortinberry:guarantee you, there's gonna be eight of them on your team.
Michael Fortinberry:They're going to think this is the greatest thing ever invented by man.
Michael Fortinberry:They're, they're just going to lose their mind.
Michael Fortinberry:They're going to be so happy with this.
Michael Fortinberry:You're going to have about 20.
Michael Fortinberry:They're going to be like, ah, okay, whatever you can have two or three.
Michael Fortinberry:That are going to hate it because it shines a spotlight
Michael Fortinberry:on the fact that they're lazy.
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah.
Michael Fortinberry:Right.
Michael Fortinberry:And to get rid of those three and you will get more done with the remaining
Michael Fortinberry:27 than you ever did with those 30, because they all are going to care.
Michael Fortinberry:So we're finding companies can control their labor costs, get rid of a little
Michael Fortinberry:bit of that group they don't need.
Michael Fortinberry:Um, They want to get rid of, they just can't right now because
Michael Fortinberry:they can't find people, right?
Michael Fortinberry:We've all got that challenge.
Michael Fortinberry:Can't find good skilled, good skilled laborers.
Michael Fortinberry:Hard and hard to come by.
Michael Fortinberry:It's one reason you guys started this podcast.
Michael Fortinberry:How do we get more people, you know, interested in the industry and One of the
Michael Fortinberry:ways we believe that's gonna happen is to, let's use some technology, but show them
Michael Fortinberry:how they can make more money doing this.
Todd Miller:You know, it's funny, right?
Todd Miller:As you led into that, talking about the impact on recruitment and retention.
Todd Miller:That's exactly what was going through my head, um, was, man, this would be
Todd Miller:a huge tool for recruiting workers.
Todd Miller:So, uh.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:Any, I'm just kind of curious.
Todd Miller:You, you guys probably have a crystal ball.
Todd Miller:I mean, is there anything else that you think at some point, um,
Todd Miller:protiv as a company might be able to address to help, uh, contractors?
Michael Fortinberry:So we are, yeah, I actually love that.
Michael Fortinberry:We are pushing our solution to be worker centric.
Michael Fortinberry:What we realized that we cared about as we were building this, we, we found, We cared
Michael Fortinberry:about how did the worker be successful?
Michael Fortinberry:They're the key.
Michael Fortinberry:Their, their worker is, it's the, um, commodity that's in short supply.
Michael Fortinberry:We don't have enough of them.
Michael Fortinberry:We need to care.
Michael Fortinberry:And they're the ones who do the work that we actually get paid for.
Michael Fortinberry:What we do is sell their effort.
Michael Fortinberry:And so we've got a process now where we can lean into them
Michael Fortinberry:and reward them for helping us.
Michael Fortinberry:So what else could we do to help them?
Michael Fortinberry:And that goes to, we see it through, um, communication tools, community
Michael Fortinberry:tools, education, um, platforms, safety, training, et cetera.
Michael Fortinberry:Weaving a lot of that into our system, probably through
Michael Fortinberry:partnerships in many cases.
Michael Fortinberry:We're launching a chat platform, um, built into our system next two weeks
Michael Fortinberry:from now, I think it's coming out.
Michael Fortinberry:Um, where the ownership and management can easily communicate
Michael Fortinberry:about project performance and project progress right to the worker level.
Michael Fortinberry:Shocking to me how many owners tell us that, yeah, I don't have a great way
Michael Fortinberry:of just talking between the management team and the worker, I can talk to my
Michael Fortinberry:VP of operations, or I can talk to my.
Michael Fortinberry:Supervisor or maybe, but to talk to my workers, to get them information or
Michael Fortinberry:to feedback is a bit of a multi level process today for a lot of owners, a lot
Michael Fortinberry:of management, and that's, that's, we need a more direct line in some cases.
Michael Fortinberry:I kind of want to know what Bob thinks that Bob thinks we've got
Michael Fortinberry:a problem I would like to know whether he's right or not wrong.
Michael Fortinberry:Isn't even the issue.
Michael Fortinberry:It's just, I just want to know I can do something when I have information.
Michael Fortinberry:So communication, but it's all the idea of how do I get the workers empowered?
Michael Fortinberry:There's a lot of systems being built for management to get better
Michael Fortinberry:numbers, your accounting under control, your financials, your sales
Michael Fortinberry:and marketing, get more customers.
Michael Fortinberry:Okay, well, let's build a tool and a platform for the workers and help them.
Todd Miller:Oh, I love it.
Todd Miller:Now, you know, I see a lot of platforms too, that talk a lot about communication
Todd Miller:to the customer, to the client.
Todd Miller:Man, you got to address that internally first, or, you know, along at the end.
Todd Miller:The same time.
Todd Miller:I that's good.
Michael Fortinberry:It's very important.
Michael Fortinberry:Right.
Michael Fortinberry:And we, of course you need to talk to your customers.
Michael Fortinberry:Of course you need to talk, you know, numbers.
Michael Fortinberry:You need to know your finances need to have your, your, you don't
Michael Fortinberry:have your numbers under control.
Michael Fortinberry:In fact, if you don't know your numbers, if you have, if you're not have good
Michael Fortinberry:cost controls, um, job costing, et cetera, I actually would recommend
Michael Fortinberry:you don't implement our system yet.
Michael Fortinberry:You need to go solve that first.
Michael Fortinberry:Okay.
Michael Fortinberry:Sure.
Michael Fortinberry:Cause if you don't, you don't know if you're what your labor budget is.
Michael Fortinberry:Um, Yeah, just go, you need to call for that, my friend, you
Michael Fortinberry:know, that's a go get that right.
Michael Fortinberry:That's foundational to running a construction company at scale.
Michael Fortinberry:And we find the bigger companies we work with are even more
Michael Fortinberry:maniacal about the numbers.
Michael Fortinberry:If you want to know a picture into what the big companies do different
Michael Fortinberry:than the small ones, it's their fanaticism around the numbers.
Michael Fortinberry:Like, they don't guess
Todd Miller:we, we see the same thing, even in, in the residential
Todd Miller:roofing industry, those contractors who are leading their markets are
Todd Miller:the ones who know their numbers.
Todd Miller:Um, extremely well.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Todd Miller:So I'm kind of curious.
Todd Miller:We think a lot of our audience members out there for construction disruption.
Todd Miller:Um.
Todd Miller:Our younger folks, folks newer to the construction industry.
Todd Miller:Um, any, you've been in construction a while and have seen a lot.
Todd Miller:Any words of advice for folks who might be just getting started
Todd Miller:with a career in this industry?
Michael Fortinberry:Enter your phone number one contractors frequently don't
Michael Fortinberry:answer the phone and don't I see this all the time small companies because
Michael Fortinberry:you're it's hectic and frankly, you're probably at the job site and you're,
Michael Fortinberry:you know, you're wondering where why the pain hasn't been delivered or
Michael Fortinberry:whatever you got to answer the phone.
Michael Fortinberry:Your customer is calling and.
Michael Fortinberry:When you talk to a customer there, the faster you engage with that
Michael Fortinberry:customer, the more likely you're going to sell that is this number
Michael Fortinberry:one is the most foundational thing.
Michael Fortinberry:If you don't answer your phone and say something nice, like engage, Mrs.
Michael Fortinberry:Smith is calling you and she wants a new roof, answer the
Michael Fortinberry:phone and talk nicely to Mrs.
Michael Fortinberry:Smith because she's going to call five people and the other
Michael Fortinberry:four are going to be grumpy.
Michael Fortinberry:And they're not going to answer the phone and you're going to be nice.
Michael Fortinberry:You're going to answer the phone.
Michael Fortinberry:You're going to absolutely miss Smith.
Michael Fortinberry:I'm happy to come over there.
Michael Fortinberry:It's Saturday at three in the morning and give you a quote on, on your, you
Michael Fortinberry:know, 800 square foot roofs, you know, that you've got a 500 budget for it.
Michael Fortinberry:Of course I will, whatever, you know, it's just answer the phone, engage
Michael Fortinberry:with your customers in a positive way is, it's a big deal, um, treat your
Michael Fortinberry:people really well, because your people actually take care of, you know, the
Michael Fortinberry:That's who delivers your product.
Michael Fortinberry:Your product is what serves your customer.
Michael Fortinberry:Your customer is what serves your revenue.
Michael Fortinberry:So if you, if you think your job is to take care of your customer,
Michael Fortinberry:you're missing the step because you don't actually the owner take care
Michael Fortinberry:of your customer, your people do, they're the ones who install the roof.
Michael Fortinberry:The roof is what makes your customer happy.
Michael Fortinberry:Your customers who pays you.
Michael Fortinberry:So there's a bunch of steps in there that you're missing.
Michael Fortinberry:If you're going from yourself all the way to your customer.
Michael Fortinberry:Oh, I'm customer centric.
Michael Fortinberry:You should be people, you should be employee centric.
Michael Fortinberry:You teach your employees to care about your customer.
Todd Miller:That's amazing advice.
Todd Miller:Um, yeah, there's a lot in that.
Todd Miller:Thank you.
Todd Miller:Um, well, Michael, this has been a great time together.
Todd Miller:You, you are a great guest and this has been very informative.
Todd Miller:Um, loved, uh, learning more about Prodiff.
Todd Miller:Um, we're close to wrapping up what we call the business end of things.
Todd Miller:Um, anything we haven't covered that you wanted to be sure
Todd Miller:to share with our audience?
Michael Fortinberry:Oh, I, I'm very excited about our
Michael Fortinberry:industry as a whole right now.
Michael Fortinberry:I think we have labor challenges.
Michael Fortinberry:Facing us, but the demand side of our business, if you've just forecasted
Michael Fortinberry:out through the 2030s is so great.
Michael Fortinberry:It is just a wonderful place to be building a career from, given what
Michael Fortinberry:I think you get as an ROI in your college education, kind of loving.
Michael Fortinberry:This space for people to come into right now, you come out of high school right
Michael Fortinberry:now, and if you were to go to plumbing school and get your license or, or start
Michael Fortinberry:up a landscaping company and bring your brain to work every day, your chance of
Michael Fortinberry:retiring at the age of 38 are really high.
Michael Fortinberry:If you want.
Michael Fortinberry:Like if that's what you want, um, it's just a, it's a place where you
Michael Fortinberry:can be immensely successful, right?
Michael Fortinberry:And you know what?
Michael Fortinberry:And go get yourself a new F two 50 King ranch.
Michael Fortinberry:And you just honestly, it's a cool life being in the trades, right?
Michael Fortinberry:You know, you got your job site, you got your car hard on and
Michael Fortinberry:you're it's a, it's a thing, right?
Michael Fortinberry:It's something you'd be proud of.
Michael Fortinberry:Like it's a culture around this that I love.
Michael Fortinberry:And I really would encourage folks to, you know, consider this an opportunity
Michael Fortinberry:to step into something where the sky's the limit and you can build
Michael Fortinberry:it as big as you want to build it.
Michael Fortinberry:Talk to a guy not long ago that, um, started, uh, his landscaping company,
Michael Fortinberry:you know, mower and two friends, and now he does 80 million a year.
Michael Fortinberry:And I was like, you know what?
Michael Fortinberry:That that's legit, man.
Michael Fortinberry:That is just.
Michael Fortinberry:Because he brought his brain to work every day, you know, and he grew
Michael Fortinberry:and grew and built and thought and learned, got out to the conferences and
Michael Fortinberry:learned from his peers and networked and invested of himself into it.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, now he's got private equity firms banging down
Michael Fortinberry:his door, trying to write him gigantic checks for his landscape.
Michael Fortinberry:And he started with a mower and a couple of friends.
Michael Fortinberry:I mean, God love that.
Michael Fortinberry:God bless America.
Todd Miller:Absolutely.
Todd Miller:And great words of advice there.
Todd Miller:And you and I were talking about it before the show too, the importance
Todd Miller:of, uh, going to conferences, being a continual learner, um, being curious,
Todd Miller:um, and, and taking your brain to work.
Todd Miller:I love it.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:Well, we're about to ask you if you are willing to participate in something
Todd Miller:we call our rapid fire questions.
Todd Miller:So these are seven questions.
Todd Miller:Uh, some are, some may be a little silly.
Todd Miller:Some may be a little more serious.
Todd Miller:Um, all you got to do is give an answer and it's just something fun
Todd Miller:that we like to close out shows with.
Todd Miller:Are you willing to do this?
Todd Miller:I'm ready.
Todd Miller:I'm ready to see what we got.
Todd Miller:Awesome.
Todd Miller:Let's do it.
Todd Miller:Hey, uh, oh, by the way, I'll give a shout out.
Todd Miller:I did let chat GPT write these questions.
Todd Miller:So, uh, we'll see what they got.
Todd Miller:Ryan, you want to start with the first one?
Ryan Bell:I would love to.
Ryan Bell:Question number one, if you could instantly become an expert in
Ryan Bell:any subject, what would it be
Michael Fortinberry:quantum
Ryan Bell:physics?
Ryan Bell:That sounds
Todd Miller:impressive.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, I wouldn't know how the
Todd Miller:universe works.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:Okay.
Todd Miller:Next question.
Todd Miller:Are you a coffee or a tea person or maybe neither?
Todd Miller:And if you are a coffee or tea person, how do you drink it?
Michael Fortinberry:Coffee.
Michael Fortinberry:It's black when my dad drank it and I'd sneak it out of his cup, you
Michael Fortinberry:know, and so yeah, still coffee today.
Todd Miller:I hear you.
Todd Miller:I drink black coffee too.
Todd Miller:I'm too lazy to put anything into it.
Todd Miller:So we just do it.
Ryan Bell:Keep it simple.
Ryan Bell:All right.
Ryan Bell:Question number three, you have a choice on this one.
Ryan Bell:Um, what is the best or the worst piece of advice you've ever been given?
Michael Fortinberry:Best advice.
Michael Fortinberry:It's a really simplistic thing.
Michael Fortinberry:And Is this idea of never quit and I always, I actually used to have this rock.
Michael Fortinberry:I've still got it somewhere.
Michael Fortinberry:It's not my office now.
Michael Fortinberry:It literally just said on it, never quit.
Michael Fortinberry:And because if you never quit, eventually you can win, right?
Michael Fortinberry:It just may be hard.
Michael Fortinberry:You may stumble in a, you know, get backwards at times, but if you
Michael Fortinberry:just, the perseverance of that idea.
Michael Fortinberry:Is the battle because none of this is easy.
Michael Fortinberry:I, you know, starting the software company of, wow, I we've been on
Michael Fortinberry:the brink of not making it already.
Michael Fortinberry:And it's just, and then it, you make it right.
Michael Fortinberry:And it's just, you're further and you survive a bit longer
Michael Fortinberry:and it's, it's really hard.
Michael Fortinberry:Sometimes life's just hard and you've got to keep going.
Michael Fortinberry:So just don't quit.
Michael Fortinberry:Keep going.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, persevere perseverance is powerful.
Todd Miller:Yeah, I think that's interesting.
Todd Miller:I was thinking last night.
Todd Miller:Um, you know, sometimes I think all of us in our careers or our
Todd Miller:lives can start to get a little.
Todd Miller:Oh, woe is me.
Todd Miller:I have so many challenges and so much I face.
Todd Miller:And I was thinking last night, you know, everyone does.
Todd Miller:We're no one's any different than anyone else.
Todd Miller:And, um, really the best thing any of us can do is, hey, maybe make that,
Todd Miller:uh, Maybe make that journey a little easier for somebody else along the way.
Michael Fortinberry:Reframe it.
Michael Fortinberry:Dive into it.
Michael Fortinberry:Own it.
Michael Fortinberry:Go get it.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, just persevere through it.
Todd Miller:Okay, next question.
Todd Miller:This one's a simple, easy one.
Todd Miller:If you were a superhero, what color would your cape be?
Todd Miller:I'll
Michael Fortinberry:just go with gray.
Michael Fortinberry:I think hey, I'm not sure how good a superhero I'd be.
Michael Fortinberry:I'd probably be in the middle, you know, there's some fun stuff I'd like
Michael Fortinberry:to do if I was superhero that might not actually go to the whole superhero,
Michael Fortinberry:you know, the hero part, you know, because sometimes it's just fun to do.
Michael Fortinberry:So you're kind of a under the radar superhero.
Michael Fortinberry:This guy.
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah, yeah.
Michael Fortinberry:And I definitely have one of the masks.
Michael Fortinberry:I want to be able to walk around like normal people.
Ryan Bell:No.
Ryan Bell:Fame would be.
Ryan Bell:Not so good.
Ryan Bell:What would your superpower be then?
Michael Fortinberry:Uh, best superpower.
Michael Fortinberry:I'm thinking, uh, I think it was where you can move stuff with your mind.
Michael Fortinberry:I always thought that would be pretty good.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, uh, you know, doors just open as I walk up.
Michael Fortinberry:Someone actually said one thing I read one time was, uh, I heard it somewhere.
Michael Fortinberry:Someone said that they, their superpower would be to have theme
Michael Fortinberry:music around them at all times.
Michael Fortinberry:I thought that was great.
Michael Fortinberry:I was like, that's a cool superpower.
Michael Fortinberry:Like everywhere you go, the appropriate theme music is playing
Michael Fortinberry:around you, you know, so, all right.
Michael Fortinberry:That was strong.
Michael Fortinberry:That was a fun one.
Ryan Bell:That's cool.
Ryan Bell:Good stuff.
Ryan Bell:Okay.
Ryan Bell:Next question.
Ryan Bell:Is there a movie you could watch over and over again?
Ryan Bell:If so, what is it?
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah, I've seen Sicario quite a few times.
Michael Fortinberry:That's for sure.
Michael Fortinberry:Great movie.
Michael Fortinberry:Tombstone too, you know, going back a little, little further,
Michael Fortinberry:you know, it's like, uh, Yeah, Tombstone's pretty, pretty legit.
Michael Fortinberry:I can quote most of it at this point.
Michael Fortinberry:I know he's my wife.
Todd Miller:Okay, good answer.
Todd Miller:Well, this next question is a little more serious.
Todd Miller:Um, what would you like to be remembered for at the end of your days?
Michael Fortinberry:I took my four year old granddaughter
Michael Fortinberry:to Disney World last weekend.
Michael Fortinberry:Yeah, I'll take that.
Michael Fortinberry:I, I don't like Disney World.
Michael Fortinberry:I had the best time because it's her and it's like, and that,
Michael Fortinberry:that was, that was just great.
Michael Fortinberry:We had such a great time, you know, just everything through
Michael Fortinberry:her eyes is, is a magical.
Michael Fortinberry:And if I can leave her with that, you know, the joy and an opportunity in life
Michael Fortinberry:to do the things she wants to do, you know, winning, winning across the board.
Michael Fortinberry:All the rest of this stuff is just stuff.
Ryan Bell:Love it.
Ryan Bell:Good stuff.
Ryan Bell:Final question.
Ryan Bell:Have you purchased a product or service, uh, recently that was kind
Ryan Bell:of a real game changer for you?
Michael Fortinberry:I like my new microphone.
Michael Fortinberry:That's not the right one though.
Michael Fortinberry:This one I got here.
Michael Fortinberry:Cause I, I, my audio was always a little sketchy before I had to wear the little
Michael Fortinberry:ear ones and I like the microphone.
Michael Fortinberry:I think that's been good, but that's not a good answer though.
Michael Fortinberry:It's a terrible answer, actually.
Michael Fortinberry:Um, so it's been a good product or something I've bought recently.
Michael Fortinberry:I don't know.
Michael Fortinberry:I feel stumped on that one.
Ryan Bell:I think your answer is legit.
Ryan Bell:Yeah, absolutely.
Michael Fortinberry:You know, cause I like, you know, have
Michael Fortinberry:the little thing dangling out of my ear is kind of annoying.
Michael Fortinberry:And, and I was doing more of the podcast stuff and I was like, all
Michael Fortinberry:right, I should get a microphone and talk to a few people who do podcasts.
Michael Fortinberry:And like, you know, they recommended this, this one now.
Michael Fortinberry:So I try to improve my audio.
Michael Fortinberry:I'm a soft spoken guy.
Michael Fortinberry:So I don't have to, you know, yell at the screen anymore for people to hear me.
Ryan Bell:Good audio is very important.
Ryan Bell:Yeah.
Todd Miller:Right.
Ryan Bell:Ryan kind
Todd Miller:of lives for good audio.
Michael Fortinberry:I, the other game changer is when I bought my,
Michael Fortinberry:uh, my wife's engagement ring and we got married, that was pretty much a
Michael Fortinberry:game changing product purchase too.
Todd Miller:That would be absolutely rock.
Michael Fortinberry:She's a rock star.
Todd Miller:Well, Michael, this has been great.
Todd Miller:Um, thank you so much for being on the show.
Todd Miller:You've been a great guest and I'm anxious to get this out in front
Todd Miller:of our audience and let more, more folks know about Protiv.
Todd Miller:Uh, so for folks who would want to get in touch with you or to learn more about
Todd Miller:Protiv, um, how might they do that?
Todd Miller:And we'll put this in the show notes as well.
Michael Fortinberry:Oh, sure.
Michael Fortinberry:Uh, prodev.
Michael Fortinberry:com, P R O T I V.
Michael Fortinberry:com.
Michael Fortinberry:Obviously, our website's great.
Michael Fortinberry:It's michaelatprodev.
Michael Fortinberry:com.
Michael Fortinberry:If anyone wants to email me and just, you know, say hey or learn more about what we
Michael Fortinberry:do, I'm happy to show folks our system.
Michael Fortinberry:Um, see if it can be of service to, to people or just even if they just want to
Michael Fortinberry:hear about how do we implement performance pay, whether you use our system or
Michael Fortinberry:want to try and do something different.
Michael Fortinberry:I like talking about it.
Michael Fortinberry:So happy to, happy to talk to folks.
Michael Fortinberry:Um, we're on LinkedIn and all those, you know, insta talk and all that,
Michael Fortinberry:I think too, but, um, not really a social media guy, but it's out there.
Todd Miller:Well, very good.
Todd Miller:And you know, what I think is really cool about what you do, you've
Todd Miller:not only developed the software, but you're also a user of it.
Todd Miller:And a lot of folks who develop software aren't really using it also.
Todd Miller:And so I think that's very cool.
Michael Fortinberry:Well, thank you.
Michael Fortinberry:Grateful.
Michael Fortinberry:Thank you very much for having me on and enjoyed it very much.
Michael Fortinberry:It was a great conversation.
Todd Miller:It was.
Todd Miller:And thank you to our audience for tuning in to this episode.
Todd Miller:I think we were all successful with our challenge words.
Todd Miller:Um, Michael, I know your challenge word was.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Todd Miller:Popsicle.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Todd Miller:You worked it in.
Todd Miller:I had to work that in.
Todd Miller:Took me a minute.
Todd Miller:You did well.
Todd Miller:Ryan, you got yours in, didn't you?
Ryan Bell:I did right, right at the beginning.
Todd Miller:And then later I stole it and I used it also.
Todd Miller:That was just an old man brain fart.
Todd Miller:Um, got confused.
Todd Miller:Um, but I also worked in my challenge word, uh, which was bingo and
Todd Miller:your word was adventurous, right?
Todd Miller:Right.
Todd Miller:Yes.
Todd Miller:Correct.
Todd Miller:Cool.
Todd Miller:Well, thank you all so much for tuning into this very special episode
Todd Miller:of construction disruption with Michael Fortenberry of perennial
Todd Miller:construction solutions, and also of.
Todd Miller:Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.
Todd Miller:We always have great guests.
Todd Miller:Don't forget to leave a review for us, please.
Todd Miller:And until the next time we're together, keep on disrupting and
Todd Miller:challenging the status quo, looking for better ways to do things.
Todd Miller:Be curious too.
Todd Miller:And most importantly, don't forget to have a positive impact
Todd Miller:on everyone you encounter.
Todd Miller:Make them smile, encourage them, bless them in some way.
Todd Miller:Um, powerful things we can all do.
Todd Miller:So, um, take, take care, God bless.
Todd Miller:And this is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode
Todd Miller:of Construction Disruption.
Intro:This podcast is produced by Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of specialty
Intro:metal roofing and other building products.
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