Welcome to the podcast where we take a deep dive into the stories behind construction business leaders. We will share how they got started, how they found success and the lessons learned along the way. I'm your host, Eric Fortenberry. Welcome to Builder Stories. Welcome back everybody. I am excited to be here today with Sherry Durr from Schlick Construction. They're located in Omaha, Nebraska. Really excited to have you on the show today, Sherry. Welcome. Thank you. We're excited to be here.
Yeah. So why don't you give us just a little bit of background? I mean, how, how did you get into construction? You know, what is a, what does Schlick do? Tell us a little bit about that. So I personally was raised in construction. My dad was an electrician and I remember being eight years old. I didn't go to the job months with much with him, except when my little hands could do stuff or, or things like that. But I remember they.
My dad and my uncle were running wire in a new, in a gym and they had me on the top of a The scaffolding scaffolding, but I wasn't on the boards like it should be I was on the because I was too short I was on the the Pipes and so I'm in I'm pushing the wire through and they're yelling push it faster. I'm like 70 feet up going, Whoa, I don't know. So, um, and then my dad built, um, three of our houses. So I just was always in construction. Um, I love construction cause every day is different.
You never know what you're going to get into. You wonder why people do different things and then you open the wall and you're like, Hmm, that's why they did that. So I just really enjoy construction piece of it. And so what is, uh, what, what led you to start, start your own business? Um, Actually, I don't own the business. I should have phrased that, but, um, I do run it. I'm the general manager.
The owner has, um, moved to Florida and pretty much retired, so he still has some into the business, but he's not in the day to day. So, I pretty much run it. Um, I have been with Schlick for three years. When I first started, they had no systems. They had nothing. They didn't have any software, nothing. It was taking them six months to get another, to get an estimates out to people. And they were trying to count how many nails and how many screws. And I'm like, you have to have a system.
You have to have something. That can just be a template that you can just run through these invoices quickly and get them back out to the people and get, get moved on to the next. So, and how long had the business been operating before you came in? Um, so we just, um, celebrate our 20 year anniversary last, last month.
So, um, Mike got his start in construction kind of the same way his dad was a, Mike is the owner, Mike Schlickburn, and his dad was a construction, in construction also, and Mike started, um, in property management and doing remodels there, and then him and his wife, uh, she was a Realtor, and the, the, between the two of them, they flipped over four hundred houses. And so that's where they really got their start. Yeah, that's awesome.
So when you joined the business, did he, was he kind of bringing you in to sort of take over all the operations? Was that the plan or did you just kind of work that way? It just kind of worked that way. He had some big project that, that got finished up and when that got finished up, Then the construction was ready to move on. So it's kind of interesting. I mean, although they've been in business for 20 years, they kind of, he's kind of stepped away.
And so now we're doing marketing and kind of rebranding because he'd done so much of the flips and, and things for his, for his own portfolio that once he got done with that, then. We got a, we're starting all over. So it's, it's kind of exciting. We're kind of at ground zero in setting up systems and getting a team going. Nice. Yeah, that sounds awesome. So, so before you joined this company, I mean, like what, what was your, what was your background coming in?
Um, I went to school for an accounting and that did not go well. I mean, it was, it was fine, but I'm just not a person to sit behind the desk and do that. So. Um, I started with a door company, and it was right, like, doing their bookkeeping, um, but it was right when cell phones came out, and so once the cell phone came out, he was like, why don't you come out to the job with me? So I was the holder.
So I always tell my guys, I'm like, I know when something doesn't look right, I'm not gonna be able to tell you how it doesn't look, how you're supposed to do it, but I know it doesn't look right. So, I did that for 15 years, then I, um, got a real job and worked for a school district for about two and decided that that was no fun. Um, sitting behind a computer, being in the same place every day. Yuck. Uh, and then I went, um, to a door, a floor place.
Did floors for property management, um, doing the project management of that. And then I had the opportunity to go to Hawaii for about five years being, um, the client liaison in between the construction and the, the clients. So I always tell the clients that.
When I, when we start you're gonna be sad when we leave and they're like, I don't think so, but it was we just hung out and was able to answer because in Hawaii, we did a lot of, uh, retired widowed ladies that when the guys are like, Oh, we're just going to put a GFCI in she's like, I don't know what that is. So it was always. It's easy to ask, answer those questions for them and, and just be a part of their life and help them get it all put together.
Sure. So it sounds like you've, you've seen a couple different businesses here and how they run and operate. So, you know, when you, when you came in to Schlick, has it, you know, kind of describe a little bit sort of what, what was the situation before and then kind of, what did you say? Hey, look, I know we need to, to make some changes, you know, we need to implement some systems and processes, like kind of what sort of cultivated that, that need for change would you say?
When I started, um, I got an, I inherited a computer from someone that was doing the estimating and I was on it about a week and then Mike asked me what I thought and I was like, I think we're going to go to breakfast or go to lunch. As, and I'm just going to be a consultant. I'm not going to go as your employee, and I'm just going to talk straight with you.
You've got to have a system, you've got to have a software, you've got to, we've got to have a way that we can keep everything in one place, so anyone looks at the, the job, they know exactly where we're at on it, what's going on, where's the pictures, um, and he's like, oh, wow, that sounds really good, so I introduced him to another software system. And we got that going, I got a, um, put together a whole catalog with pricings and they, they really had kind of started it.
So it was just a matter of implementing what they already had. But they were doing it, like I said, they were doing estimates, counting every nail instead of just throwing 500 at the job and you go on from there, so. Yeah. And so was that, you know, something that I guess kind of like you, you spearheaded the change to kind of really get that fully implemented up and running. And then, you know, was, was, was the owner bought into that? Was he good with that?
Because like, I know a lot of times, you know, there can be resistance to change. And so it can often be sort of tough to navigate the look, you know, here, here, here are the pains that we're seeing, you know, we need to make this change. And how did you go about kind of working with, you know, not only Mike, but like, The rest of the team, all of your, your labors, the people that were, you know, kind of out in the field using it, like, how, how was that transition?
So, with Mike, the owner, it was very, very welcomed. Um, the general manager at the time was, it was, we, we had a little bit of a bump with him. He just felt like I was coming in and taking over, and I was like, that's not my heart at all. That's not what I'm, I'm just attempting to make it, make us better. That's all. Yeah. And so, once we got. On board with that.
And he saw that I was using his numbers and was still asking him how he wanted things estimated and just really seeking his knowledge because he, he spent his whole life in construction and so his knowledge was valuable to me and I didn't want to lose that. So once we got him on board, that was good. And then the next step was kind of the accounting. Um, they had had other software and they didn't like how it interacted with each other.
And so she, they were very hesitant on just saying, okay, well, we're just going to implement this and it's going to, it's going to work great with QuickBooks. And, and so once we prove to the accountant, let her play with, let him play with it, they were like, okay, that's, that's good.
Yeah. Definitely, uh, can take a little bit of time to, to help people get comfortable, especially when you're going to mix it up with, uh, you know, with QuickBooks and, you know, getting all the books in there. I can, I can imagine that might've been a, a sticking point for a little while. Yeah. And did you all like, and so, I mean, you're pretty sure that was what, back in like 2022, 2023, and then you, you ended up making the transition over to Job Tread.
Yes. So what was it like migrating from, from one system that. You know, again, you were the first to sort of introduce the software to begin with, and then to tell people, okay, now we're going to make another change. You know, was that a, was that as disruptive as the first time or? No, it was really smoothly. It was, it was kind of, um, organic in that the system that we was with was phasing themselves out and, and pricing themselves out of the league. And, and it, it, they would just like.
Things that we were using they they weren't supporting anymore. So it was it was very easy to like transition into job tread and then job tread our Helper is Stephanie and I'm like, she's a part of my team. I call Stephanie and she's just like oh, yeah We just do this. So we need to do that. So she you the Customer support of job tread is is awesome.
There's there's just I, I cannot say enough about guys do a great job of just, of helping and answering those silly questions of what's a GFCI when in, in the software world. Um, yeah, Stephanie's awesome. I mean, our, our whole customer success team, you know, I think a lot of people might not realize, but we only hire people who have.
Construction experience to work with all of our clients, because like, I feel like it's so important for them to be able to really understand, you know, what you're going through and like, they need to have been there themselves. Like I, I can't just give them, you know, a bunch of experience, you know, trying to, to, to manage. You know, subcontractors are building estimates or, or dealing with cashflow.
Like that's just something that like, you know, the more experience that they've had on their own, it really helps. And, you know, I think then it's, it is awesome to hear though, that you, you view her as an extension of your team, because that's like exactly what, you know, we want our clients to feel like is like, Hey, like we are here to help. Like we, we have, you know, genuinely want. To see you be successful.
And so when you can tap into that experience and have somebody who's implemented, you know, hundreds or thousands of, of construction companies, I mean, that is a value added resource, but a lot of times people don't, they don't reach out and they don't ask the questions and I feel like that's just, you know, it's, it's such a missed opportunity, you know, to have that person there who can give you a quick consult and say, Hey, you know, are we doing it right? Does this look all right?
You know, how would you structure this? Like, you know, it's, it's a great resource. So love, love hearing that, uh, that, that, that you've, uh, You know really benefited from that Yeah, I tell people when they're when they're struggling with job tread of not really getting it and stuff I'm like, well, have you talked to your your your person and they're like no i'm like well Call them up and talk to them.
They're there to help you and and She can just tell me so quickly how to get wherever I'm trying to go and it's so helpful. And so, if I'm not mistaken, you're also working with Randy and 4 Level Coach and his team over there, is that right? Yes, we are. And so how did you, how did you find them?
Um, so the draw with Randy is I've done a lot of personal growth in my life and I just know that my world goes better when I have a, when I have a coach that they can point out things that are not going well. And so with Randy, um, and being a business coach was, was pretty exciting.
And then to have him come alongside and only do construction, that, that's a big deal because I mean, we do all our marketing with people that only do construction is construction is just such a different, different system. Different every day is just very different. They cannot put marketing in for, or coaching in for just anything. It just needs, like you said, construction, you're dealing with little pods of each business.
You're dealing with, with your team, you're dealing with subcontractors, you're dealing with vendors, you're dealing with. You're dealing with all of those, and then you've got to get it all together, and it's all got to run, and, and, uh, that, that makes a big deal. And then I did a lot of training on systems, so Randy was a great, like, breath of fresh air.
I, I studied under, um, Marshall Thurber, who did, um, Um, under Buckmaster Fuller and then also under Deming, which Deming put Ford back on the mount map with the Taurus and he's very much a systems person. And, uh, so I learned from like Marshall, it's, it's not the person that messed up. It's the system. So look at your system. There's something that you did wrong. If they're putting the pickles on the right side of the hamburger.
And you want them on the right side, and they're putting them on the left, well look at where your pickle jar is. If it's on the left, they're probably putting it on the left. So, change your system and get it so that you can help your team succeed. So, we have that conversation a lot with, with our team of, Hey, it's not you, it's the system. So, how do we make this system better, or what do we need to do different to tweak it? Sure. So, what is the kind of makeup of the team?
How many people do you have and what roles? So I have a, um, foreman, we have a foreman and then four field workers and then do a lot of subs. Okay. Mm hmm. And then you've got a back office, uh, like accountant. Yes. Yes. We are looking, we did have, uh, an office person and they went on to do something else, which is fine. So we are looking to fill that again. However, I'm being very specific that I want someone that's. System oriented and understands that. There's a lot to a system.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I've, I've found that it's, it's very important to, you know, really know what you're looking for. Know the, the role, the responsibilities, exactly, you know, what you need to fill. And then take your time finding that right person.
You know, I see so many people that will just You know, take any warm body and put it into a seat and it's like, you know, yeah, you might think you're solving the problem, but like, you know, if that's not the right person with the right skill set and the right seat, you know, you could really be adding more work to yourself. And eventually, you know, you're going to have to deal with that, you know, and deal with the issues and the ramifications of, of kind of making a bad hire.
And so I think it's really important that, you know, you do take the time to find that right person for sure. Randy talks a lot about, um, A players. And if you have A players on your team, they're going to add to your business and then C players are basically subtractors that you're spending more time with them and, and you're just, it, it's just work. So. And so who's, who's doing the estimating the sales? Um, right now I am, so I have a lot of hats on right now.
Yeah. I mean, uh, sounds like a typical, uh, you know, entrepreneur, you know, running the, running the ship is, uh, you know, definitely, you know, a lot, a lot, a lot of irons in the fire that you got to have there. Are you, are you looking to eventually find a dedicated person to solely focus on, on sales, or do you see that sort of. No, I think that the sales would move on. I like, I like the production piece of it. So, um, we are looking for a salesperson also to, to do the sales.
And then once they get a signed contract, then that would be our splitting point. That's what we did in Hawaii. And then once they did a signed contract, then that came to production and then that goes into the world of job tread more. And, and, uh, what, what, what's your average, uh, you know, project size look like our average project is running, um, 20 to 30, 000 right now. And is this primarily like kitchens, baths, kind of just interior remodel?
We are, a lot of interior remodel, a lot of, we're still in the flip thing from, um, Mike and Jerry, Mike and, um, his wife, Jerry, uh, doing, doing that piece of it. They also have, they have five different companies. So they also have a project man, a property management company. And so that field feeds us a lot of work through the property management. That makes sense.
Yeah. So what's the, I mean, what is kind of the, the, the longer term vision here, if you will, you know, obviously having the, the owner sort of stepping, stepping back, stepping away, you know, down in Florida, you know, what, what do you think, you know, what, what's the plan for the business?
Long term, um, we'd like to move completely into being the kitchen and bath and what makes us different is the, is the systems and that, that we are, we do a good job of communicating and Job Tread does a great job of helping us communicate with the customer that it communicates, puts the message out there. They can answer right from their message, from their email, however, but it goes right back into our job. So then the guys in the field can see that or the subs can see that.
And so that's, that's like one of the things that I really love about job training is it helps that communication piece. Cause it's so easy to forget, Oh, they said that the dining room light, they wanted it off centered because of their, the way their table. And if it's not in the notes, if it's not in the job. It's easy to forget that kind of thing. Sure, sure.
So I mean from, kind of from a, from a company standpoint though, I mean do you foresee you know, Mike staying in, you know I guess kind of involved or keeping the business or do you think he's gonna, you know, ultimately want to sell it or turn it over to, to the employees?
That's, the construction piece is his baby, so when I first took over, um, we went for a while with just getting fed by property management, and I'm like, we're starving, we need, we need more than that, and so, um, when we started with Randy, we were, we were basically either going to, to go or close the doors, so, and that, within this, we started with Randy six months ago, nine months ago now. And, uh, and now we're, we're gung ho and, and got a lot of things going.
Nice. So have you, like, do you guys have like a, a website and are you kind of looking to try to sort of generate your own leads and, you know, kind of build that, build that funnel sort of, and not have to depend on the property management company? Yes. So we are, we are working with a, um, marketing company and they, updated our website for us and then now they're working on algorithms and that's That that's not my my language, but I I can see the results i'm getting calls people are calling.
We're getting, we're getting good, solid leads. It's not just looky lose. So yeah, they're doing a great job. And you know, I think that's, you know, again, a lot of people kind of getting into the, the, the details of the marketing and the websites how, you know, kind of how, how those sort of all play together to. Ultimately generate you high quality leads.
Like, you know, to, to the extent that, you know, that's, that's not in your wheelhouse or someone in your company's wheelhouse, like is definitely a great that you've already made the move to hire a marketing agency, a marketing, you know, company who can help you with that. You know, a lot of times it doesn't, you know, it, it, it doesn't have to be a full time dedicated employee to being able to do that, but at.
You know, at the end of the day, like you got to make sure that you've got the right pieces in place to keep building, you know, the, the, the, the business and building that marketing funnel on the top of the top of the funnel where all those leads are coming in. Like if that's not getting filled, well, then you're going to have a hard time continuing to hit your monthly goals and kind of turning enough, you know, leads into customers to, to, to, to be able to deliver.
So that's just, that's definitely a great move that, that you already got that, that ball rolling for sure. Well, and to not fall in the trap. I think that's where Mike was feeling like, and he could, he, he did, he, um, built a lot of his business by word of mouth, however, we're, we're beyond that. Now it's, it's a lot of how many reviews does people have? And I mean, that's how I shop. I'm like, what, what reviews the best and. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I, you know, and I, and I see people all the time, like, you know, they, they, they, they, they work and work and work. And once they land a deal, well, then they turn all their attention to focusing on that project and, and sort of neglect that, Hey, you got to keep bringing in more and more leads and keep filling the funnel.
And that's where, you know, ultimately I think, you know, and, and, and my recommendation is usually makes her that you've got somebody focused full time on sales and continuing to kind of You know, nurture those leads and kind of progress those deals along because it's easy, you know, when you're wearing all the hats kind of say, okay, well, here's the higher pressing, you know, I got a job running right now.
And, you know, it seems like I'm firefighting and having to go deal with all those things like to forget. That well, you got to keep that engine going. And so I think, you know, to, to some extent, it's, it's very, very important that, you know, you figure out how to keep that, you know, keep that process, uh, you know, up and up and running.
And, you know, eventually maybe you get into, you know, doing more, you know, social posting, you know, even running some ads, you know, obviously word of mouth and referrals are, you know, I think the best.
You know, the best leads that you can get, you know, and you know, usually the, the, the, the cheapest cause you're not necessarily having to pay for them, but you know, sometimes you do have to figure out ways to supplement that and kind of keep, keep it coming, you know, even just organically. Yes. Yeah. So would you say that, you know, once you get You know, get somebody in and like you go out there, like what, what's the sales process look like?
I mean, are, are you, are you charging to go do estimates? Do you charge, you know, a design agreement? Like, how do you kind of sort of what, what's that process look like once you get them in? Uh, honestly, we're building that still. Um, I, right now we, we have said, we say that we don't go out for free estimates. We'll go, we'll go out for a free consultation.
And from there, kind of look at their project, figure out what their budget is and give them a guesstimate of this isn't a hard number, but this is, this is where you're at to see if it makes sense to move forward. Um, so that's. That's kind of what we're, we're doing, but I'm not a, I, I see the value of charging up front.
People are, are used to that, and, and so, I mean that's, when we do our projects, before we start, we get the, get a deposit of, depending on how long the project's gonna be, but we get, Most of the money up front, 50 to 60 percent up front. And then, yeah, you know, there's, there's, there's definitely a, I'd say kind of two, two camps of, well, do you charge for the estimate or not?
Do you charge for the design agreement or some sort of, you know, other way to, to get them in the door, you know, versus, you know, so essentially once you turn around, you know, depending on the level of detail that you provide in that estimate, you know, I mean that, you know, some people kind of worry that they're just going to take that and go shop it, or, you know. You know, you've given them all the kind of all the ideas and the answers there.
I mean, you know, some, sometimes though it's, it's, you know, it's not as big of a deal sort of really depends on your business and kind of how much time and effort you're having to put in to, to, to deliver that estimate. But, um, you know, probably for, for the smaller projects, I definitely see, you know, less, you know, or fewer contractors trying to, you know, Kind of have that design agreement, sort of that intermediary, you know, before getting to the construction contract.
Um, but sounds like, you know, kind of at the average of 20, $30,000 projects, you know, you, you can probably get in there, give 'em a pretty good, you know, ballpark to, to really try to weed out the people who, you know, maybe are, are gonna get a little bit of sticker shock or not prepared to, to move forward with the, you know, that size of project. You, you kinda wanna figure that out as early. You know, as early as possible.
So I, I assume, you know, part of that kind of flushing out the process will, will help you determine, is this a qualified lead? You know, do we think they're going to move forward? Like how much time do we want to invest into that at this point? It was interesting of just changing from the wording on our website and different places from. Free estimate to free consultation. It felt like it got rid of a lot of the looky loos. Hmm. And I, it just is something that I kind of noticed.
I'm like, we really didn't do anything except we're not just coming out to give you a price and, and go on. We're, yeah. Yeah. No, that's, that's great. I mean, that's the, again, the value of, you know, marketing and A B testing and kind of trying different, you know, different, different phrases, even different imagery, different You know, kind of call to actions.
Like then you can really sort of try to refine like what, you know, what is getting the most conversions, you know, and then as, as soon as you sort of figure that out, cause you know, again, every market is a little bit different kind of depending on your price point, depending on the type of work you're doing, you know, you may end up kind of finding, you know, those, those kind of those ultimately those optimized, you know, solutions there for you, but.
What would you say, once you get them into the construction, you know, what are some of the biggest challenges that you have kind of going from, you know, contract signed all the way to completion? Um, It goes, it goes a lot to scheduling. However, that is something that, that I enjoy. I do tell, tell the clients, I'm like, you will see a schedule in job tread and just know that it's a, it's a rough schedule. And when I do schedules, I pat it. Cause there's always stuff that comes up.
However, if we, if we say we're going to be done by a certain date, that that's what date we're going to be done. And I usually will. Once the starts, things start happening, I bring that the schedule back the other way. So, um, that can be a hiccup. Uh, another struggle would be just time wise that something takes longer. You open up something and, oh my goodness, what the heck did they do? We gotta, we gotta get the plumber in here twice and we, getting on everybody's schedule.
Those type of headaches, um, are tough. And do you, like, situation like that, I mean, would that be a change order, or is that, you know, how do you handle those unforeseen circumstances? Um, depends on how much, how much is there. So if, if it's, for instance, we just did a bathroom where she wanted to add a separate sink. I was like, that definitely will be a change order because it wasn't there.
But if we would open it up and saw that she didn't have a vent pipe, I think we would, that wouldn't, wouldn't have been a change order because that would have been on the estimating piece of it to not see that. Um, I do my best to do a solid estimate for people, um, with some padding in there. However, I'm, we're not, I'm not afraid of change orders. I mean, change orders are where the business is and I've also.
It makes me sad to a certain extent, like people, I hear other contractors and they got the job and they got it. They underbid everyone else, but then they changed ordered everybody to death. And I don't think that that's fair. That's not how I want to be treated. So that's not how we treat our clients at Schlecht. Like we make sure we get a comprehensive estimate and then.
I always tease with the client, I'm like, change orders will be, most likely, something that you decide to do, like, oh, since you were here, why don't you do this bathroom? Or since you was here, do this. Um, but if we do, do open something up and it's just a mess, then I would have the conversation, we would have the conversation with the client of like, This is crazy to do something.
Do you all, uh, ever have like drawings, like have a designer come in or architect to kind of draw out the solution or is it more so smaller, smaller changes? Um, no, if we need an architect, we, we have a structural engineer. We bring out a lot of times an architect. We do use, I mean, my philosophy is. When I go to the bar, when I go to the, the hairdresser, I'm like, just like, do my, do it. You're the, you're the expert. So, um, that's, that's why Job Tread is so alluring to me.
And, and Randy coach with the coaching is, is, is such a great fit for us because it's like, they're the experts in their field. The marketing's their expert in their field. We're the expert in our field. So use, use the experts. Sure. I love it.
You know, a lot of times I think, you know, the, the best teams will be the ones that have, you know, an awesome quarterback that, you know, can kind of bring all the right people around the table, make sure people are focused on their roles, kind of doing all the right blocking and tackling, and that's how you go out and you execute. And so, you know, regardless of it's.
You know, one at one at one of your own, one of, you know, your partners, whoever it may be, you know, sometimes it can also be even managing the client and making sure they're, you know, kind of doing the right things and getting the answers and kind of sometimes extracting that information can be, can be, you know, harder than, uh, than, than, than you might want, but, you know, getting the right, the right kind of decisions made at the right points can, can
really help a project progress as well. For sure. Yes. What would you say, you know, just kind of thinking back on the last, you know. Three years since you've taken over the business. I mean, like, what would you say has been some of the biggest changes that you've been able to help implement and that have made the biggest impact on the, you know, on the team or on the, on the business as a whole? Some of the biggest changes would be, uh, to, uh, change out the team.
Um, get the eight players on the team marketing. Um, we talked about, and then To get the guys in the field to buy into the benefit of taking pictures and having them all on Job Tread and then clocking into Job Tread and clocking in to the correct job when they're on the Job Tread instead of just, oh, this looks good. Um, so that, that has been one of the, probably the biggest things that I've implemented is, is that, cause, yeah, that would be. Do, do, do you have kind of like.
Policies around it, SOPs, like, how have you, how have you gone about sort of encouraging the, that, that correct behavior that you want to see? Um, SOPs, for sure. We talk about it. Um, I'm very, we. We, we are a business obviously, but we also are a team and a family. So, so we, we talk about it. We help each other out. Um, we go through and make sure everybody knows how to do it. Um, I really like Gallup string finder and so the whole idea about the Gallup is. You use everybody's strengths.
So everybody on the team knows each other's strengths. So if we're arranging, we'll go have the ranger go put everything in the job trailer, um, and they'll get it done three times as fast and, and they'll enjoy it. But, um, and then it takes a lot of the emotion out of it. For instance, I had in, I had one guy I'm like, and I like job tread or I mean, excuse me, Gallup, because it's just one word you can say. Command, and, and you know what I'm talking about.
It's not like some of the other ones where it's like, Oh, I'm a golden retriever. Well, what the heck is a golden retriever? And then you're lost in the weeps. Anyways, so I had this guy that was command and a guy that was context. And they were just button heads, like nobody's business. And so I told Command, I'm like, Context will work all day long for you if you tell him why he's building that wall.
And I'm like, and I told Context, I'm like, you can tell by Command's voice, something needs to happen right away. If he's like, shut off the water, we're flooding or doing something. And so once I had that conversation and they were like, oh, they asked to work with each other again. So that's really something that I instill in our guys that they have, um, know each other's strengths and it's so rare in the world.
Everybody wants to talk about the weaknesses of this or that and to, to actually celebrate. What people, how people are different and what, what makes them tick and how they see things is, is valuable. So that's the way I look at it. Awesome. So when you think about 2025, what, what are your big initiatives and goals that you want to see, see you guys accomplish? Um, we're still eating the elephant one bite at a time. Um, putting systems, systems, systems, systems, SOPs in place.
And, uh, moving directly into, uh, more qualified and more, different, higher elite clientele, I guess would be the biggest thing. That, that's what we're looking for. I see you're going to be coming to Job Tread Connect in January.
So that'll be a really exciting, hopefully, uh, get, get you, you know, kind of some, some even more, you know, kind of tips and tricks from, from other contractors who are fully implemented with Job Tread, kind of learning how they're managing all those processes, how they've, you know, kind of walked up and got, you know, a little bit larger scale. You know, leads coming in, you know, how their marketing is functioning, their sales operations.
I mean, all those things that sounds like you're continuing to work through. I think it'll be a great opportunity to learn from others and to collaborate, kind of share some, some, some stories and best practices. So, you know, I'm really excited to see what, you know, what you all can, can take away from that.
You'll want to see you have a banner 2025, you know, we got a, got a brand new year coming in, so it's always a good time to sort of refresh and, you know, reset and put those new goals in place. And yeah, I hope to see you guys, uh, you know, crush it. Well, thank you. And Job Tread, the Facebook page, is just, everybody on there is just so helpful and so, like, always wanting to help, always figuring out a solution when people are stuck, and so it's, it's great, it's a great community.
It really is just Yeah, I've, I've really, uh, been, been really blown away by, uh, how, how awesome it is to see everybody working together and helping each other. You know, I mean, uh, my favorite saying is a rising tide lifts all boats. And, you know, I think with this, this community that we've brought, uh, builders really all over the world. Coming together and just sharing, you know, Hey, here's what's working or here's what questions I have, or why doesn't this do that?
Like, you know, it's just such a neat community that, you know, I think has, has really, you know, just exceeded our expectations for what a, what a Facebook group could do, uh, you know, it's just so cool to see, you know, our clients beating us to the punch, answering questions and, you know, the how to's and stuff. So I really appreciate, uh, you know, you, you being in there and being an active member as well. It's certainly been a great community and.
Yeah, excited, excited to have everybody come real and in person, uh, you know, in, in, in January though. That's, that's always my favorite time of the year as well. So, Oh, sure. Yeah. Awesome. Well, look, I really appreciate you coming on Sherry, you know, sharing a little bit of the behind the scenes there at, uh, Schlick construction. You know, it sounds like you guys, uh, you know, got a lot of momentum. You're putting the right systems and processes in place. You're building out the team.
So, you know, as I said, I'm, I'm excited to see what you can do in 2025 and can't wait to see you in January. Very good. Thank you. Alright. Have a good one. You too. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Builder Stories. We hope you enjoyed the conversation and gained valuable insights that can help you in your journey along the way. Don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave us a review.
And as always, if you or someone you know has a story to share, please contact us at builderstories. com. We'd love to hear from you. I'm Eric Fortenberry, and remember, every builder has a unique story. Keep building yours.