Episode 26 with Casey Grey - conscious building

As I always do with us, I'm going to ask you to please introduce yourselves to our.

Uh, but we've been together over 15 years as it will be our eighth wedding anniversary. We have one son who is my greatest teacher, uh, because he does what I do, not what I say. I am a. I'm a licensed carpenter by trade. That's what I went to school for, but I don't do much carpenter anymore.

I'm essentially an entrepreneur running my business and having fun, creating content, educating people in the construction world and, uh, put most of my time right now towards business and, and just things are going really well. And I even amid the pandemic and COVID and so forth. Uh, people seem to be wanting to get their houses built and renovated. So there's no shortage of work right now. That's for sure. So a lot of good things happening there.

Uh, so my experience I've been in business 10 years, over 10 years at this point, but been in construction over 17 years. And I guess on the personal side, when I'm not working, I have a 1977 Volkswagen Westfalia that has been in the shop this year because when COVID hit, we decided to renovate it. So I brought it up. We got it. It brought it there and we haven't got it back yet because I just told him to fix everything, call me when it's done, but I've been so busy anyways.

Probably a good thing. I don't have it back. And so I usually it would be doing camping, uh, in that and, uh, or kayaking or doing something outdoors and. Yeah, I guess that's me in a nutshell, you know, family outdoors and work. Um,

And that's the goal and it wasn't until about two years after we started the business that we had a little bit, I say we, because my, it was my wife and I together. We'd been on this journey together and we had a little bit of an awakening and it started with a book that I had purchased for my wife called the success principles by Jack Henry. And within that book, uh, although it wasn't necessarily that book that sparked it.

What was I read that book after, but when I bought it for my wife, she read it. And within that book, there was mention of Tony Robbins. And I don't know if you've been to Tony Robbins events or anything, but. She ended up looking him up because of that book. Cause she's like, oh, I remember Tony Robbins from the infomercials, from my grandparents when I was a kid.

So she looked him up, found a boat, found out about a program called unleash the power within and said, Hey Casey, do you want to go to this seminar? I said, sure. You know, I didn't ask any questions I should. Yeah, I'll go. And uh, that event changed our lives because it changed our thinking and change your thoughts, change your life. Right. And. So we, we left that event, like drank the Kool-Aid, so to speak, right? That's the joke. Whenever you go to events like that.

Uh, and, uh, it was good Kool-Aid to say the least, right. We, we changed a lot and that was the beginning of what got us to where we are at this point. But what that was, was it brought awareness to. The way we were living and helped us realize that we do have control right at the, I remember a comment that one of the carpenters that I learned from you said, I'm, uh, it's not my fault. I'm a product of my environment. And we had said it, it was just funny. It was a joke he was doing.

I can't remember what he was doing, but it was set in a way like, oh, I'm not, I can't be responsible for what I just did sort of thing. And it wasn't until much, many years later that I realized how much truth that statement has because we are all products of our environment. However, we get to choose the environment that we want to put ourselves in or the environment that we want to surround ourselves with. And that comes in many forms. And then after that, we started thinking differently.

I started asking the question, why, uh, why am I building, what do I want to do? How do I want to stand out? Uh, what do I want to leave behind? And when we, not long after that, we found out we were pregnant with Sullivan. And that's when I started thinking beyond myself. After that, right. We started thinking health, but then as soon as you realize that there's going to be a little person looking up to you, then everything changes. And you're like, all right.

If I'm going to tell this person to be and do whatever he can be. Or whatever he wants. I have to do the same. Right. I have to lead by example. And that's when the conscious builders started to come into focus. And it wasn't the name. It was originally our slogan, our tagline that we started to use for the company. And then we eventually turned it into the company name and podcast name and YouTube channel. Yeah,

You were saying Tony Robbins, I will naturally the last two days, every once in a while. Coming to it, something about Tony Robbins. And I started watching he's like this, right, Nick. He draws you in,

The way the world is working, that's on work for all of us, and it's really commendable to be able to, to have that differently and then actually doing the change. And wouldn't that one. What, because I have my preconceived ideas about the construction companies and industry and sustainability. And what, what has changed for you in terms of that drag? What are the aspects that you see in that time of day? We need to mention.

One, what we do here is like, we call it the conscious builder because consciousness, as we were just talking about is a state of awareness. And if we're not aware, we can't make a change, we can't do something different because we're just not aware of it. So we see our role as more of an educator. Yes, we do renovations and we do custom homes and, and, uh, videos and so forth. But then the idea is.

We want to educate people so that they're aware of the possibilities out there by doing so we continue to educate ourselves as well, because there's always new products. There's new things. We're not going to pretend that we know everything we are learning and we're taking what we've learned and we're putting it out there for other people. So the biggest thing, first of all, I want to say is that people. People vote with their wallet, so to speak, right?

If you go to the grocery store and you continue to buy food, that is not healthy for you, the grocery store will continue to stock food that is not healthy for you. So if you want to see more organic produce. In your grocery store, go and buy the organic produce because then the grocery store will bring more in because they track all of that. Right. They're going to bring in more of what sells and get rid of what doesn't sell. And that's the same for everything.

If you want to see better built homes, you have to go out and actively pursue better built homes. So. The biggest thing is we all think that we can't make a difference, but we can, by making those decisions to put our money where our mouth is so to speak. Uh, and I know it's hard. It's easier said than done. It's expensive. I get it. That's why we don't preach that you have to build a certain way or you have to renovate this way or use this product or whatever.

We just put the information out there and we understand that people have a budget and there's only so many things you can do and you work with what you have. But if you can do a little bit now and a little bit more later, like every little bit counts. So if we can make our homes more energy efficient, that will help us now, homes are getting more efficient, right? They are getting more comfortable. Like the building code is changing at least here where we are.

So we do see that increase, but it's not going as fast as we need it to go. The other factor is that. There are technologies that are helping us to, right. Solar panels are getting more portable. They are becoming more efficient too, so they can produce more electricity because a lot of. Things, I don't know where you are, what the heating demands and cooling demands are.

But a lot of the biggest energy consumptions in our Heather's is now, especially the houses that are built better, come down to hot water, which is, has nothing to do with how your house is built. That's just how you use the hot water in your house, as well as plugging. Which comes down to fridges and, and dishwashers and electronics, right?

If you have a family that has seven TVs and seven laptops and seven cell phones and seven, like all those things are charging and then an electric car, which helps the environment. But it's, it's still pulling on like on the grid too. Like all these things. How we live comes into, into play as well. So it's kind of a, long-winded answer to your question. Um, but it's not just one, one thing. I think it's, it's, it's everything.

And if we can make little changes here and there, it will add up to big changes. Yeah. And I went

The maturity goes for fast and cheap and would make it in terms of that, which is for the maturity of people. Would. Can there be like, what's the thing that will make the change. It's about changing the code or perhaps it's like changing some of the materials that are cheap, but seeing Nick modern, sustainable

They like, especially if there's a big family, they need, especially with COVID that's what's happening is that people Mo more people are living at home now. So they're actually the ones who had the space are grateful that they had the space because everyone's working. So they need a home office. They might need two home offices, right. So that the no mom and dad can work in the office. And then the three or four kids have places to work places to be.

So. The people that are in smaller houses are now wanting additions or needing to expand. Right? So, uh, here where we live, you can't be outside all the time. Right. You can have an outdoor space for part of the year, but it's not like we can extend our space outdoor in the winter. It, it just doesn't work like that. So that question will definitely depend. So I think one, there's a couple of things that need to change. Yes. People need to change the way that they live. I think that's.

The biggest thing, but we can't do that. We have habits, right? So we, in order to create habits, you know, we now have new habits because of COVID. Uh, but to some extent, we need to be aware of how we live so that we can change. What's not working and implement what is working. But there is going to be a big policy change too. So what we do is we kind of build for the 1% of the 1%, right?

So the people who can, that are thinking the way that we think, but also can afford what we do, uh, not to say that we're necessarily the most expensive, but it's not cheap to renovate a home or to build a custom home. It's it's a lot more expensive than just going to buy a home for. However, the builders are building for the mass, right? So they need to keep costs down in order to keep houses affordable for the people that they're trying to build for. Right.

So they pushed to some extent some of the code changes, uh, because they don't want to change too quick quickly because when things change, they have to increase prices because things cost more to them, which ultimately just trickles down to the homeowner who maybe can't afford it. So now they don't make as many sales, um, I always say, like, I think one of the biggest things that could happen here is that you force people to get energy assessments done of their home. Right. So you get.

Everyone who goes to sell their home. You say you have to get an energy assessment done to prove how good or how bad your home performs, just like gas mileage on a car. I think that could have a huge impact, especially in the neighborhoods that have a lot of the homes that look the same. Right now there's no value put on homes that perform better. And ultimately the houses that perform better are more comfortable homes, right? We, we don't necessarily build energy efficient homes.

We build comfortable homes, which are by. Energy efficient homes. So that's our goal is to make sure it's comfortable for the people who live in it. And that is the, then that sustainable, because then that's the way they start to realize that.

Okay, well, they don't have to turn off the thermostat to 24 to make sure that their room at the far end of the house heats up or cools down, depending on the time of the year, they can keep it lower because it's more dispersed properly because we've done it properly. So. Yeah, there's there there's if that, if those assessments were mandatory, then all of a sudden those houses that all look the same that are built beside each other, we'll have something that differentiates them.

One, you realized that maybe one house looks the same, but the other one is twice as energy efficient. So your, your bills are lower and it's more comfortable to live in. So there's no value in that right now. And I think that would have a huge impact on the real estate market.

And then you breathe out. Breathe through your skin, you sweat through your skin, right? So your, your permeable, to some extent, if we use that term, which is a term in the building world. So we want our walls, like our skin to be as airtight as possible and to be able to allow vapor to travel through them. But we don't want air to travel. Instead, we want to control the air that comes into our house. Just like we control the articles into our lungs. And that is what creates a comfortable home.

The insulation is important, but it's not nearly as important as the air tightness and the best analogy I can give as you think of a jacket. So if you're outside in winter and it's minus 25 degrees out and you have a big winter jacket on and you have the zipper undone and you face that. Are you going to be warm? Probably not. Right. Because it's not zipped up. You need that jacket to be air tight or else the installation does nothing. And that's, that's what we're thinking of.

So when we can make sure that that installation is, is. Or sorry, we can make sure that the installation is done properly, but the air tightness is sealed properly. Then you can actually reduce your installation. Right? So your jacket, a big winter jacket, unzipped is not nearly as effective as just simple. Windbreakers. Yeah, so that that's the way we're doing it.

And the way, the way we mechanically ventilator houses, you know, if we want to get into technical stuff is through what's called an HRV or an ERV. But what it does is that as the air comes into the house, it mixes. Uh, or sorry, it doesn't mix. It goes through a core which transfers the heat from the outside air to the inside air, vice versa. However you want to look at it, but it doesn't actually mix the air. So it filters the air coming into your house.

And as the air is leaving your house of preconditions, the air that's coming in and then it disperses it through the house. So you always have fresh filtered air coming into your house. 24 7. That's the healthiest home that we can build?

It can be, um, now wood products that are, uh, I'm not to say that cutting down trees is bad. I think it is actually a good thing if it's done properly, because it helps the question carbon. Uh, but it has to be. And, and in a properly managed way. Um, but what I'm saying is that if you can get a local locally, that is good for the environment.

If you're buying products that are shipped overseas, just because you need to save some money, once again, I understand you need to save money sometimes, but if you can get the local option that is better. We'll have the biggest impact on everything that we do. Um, it's kinda like thinking more in terms of your carbon footprint, as opposed to just one thing, which is typically saving money a lot of times, unfortunately, when it comes to renovating a building homes.

So if the. Documentation. Hasn't been approved, for example, by all the regulatory bodies that are required, it's going to be difficult. So then you'll need an engineer, somebody to stamp it. So it takes time. It takes more money once again. And the product probably costs more because what ends up bringing the price down a product is mass production and those products aren't in mass production yet.

So I think hemp is great because it can be used in all sorts of different ways and it is starting to become. Uh, used in different ways. And, uh, part of that is because people now understand that what hemp is, right. They don't just look at, you know, weed. Right. So that, so that's becoming quite apparent to people. And, but there are some things that you still have to look at how people build and you can't. Like we've been building, we've been slapping two by fours together, two by sixes.

We're flopping wood together for houses around here for years. You can't just change that overnight. So you have to, if you can send out work products into that same way of building, then you have a really, really good. Chance at surviving or growing the product because it's a whole industry that's been built on this way. You can't, we can do it because we're a small company doing, you know, a few projects at a time, but.

I've had I've, I've spoken to companies for really innovative products and talk to them. But then as we get into the details, I'm just like, I can't, I can use this product, but only if the, if the client's willing to pay more for it. And because we have to, there's going to be more labor involved in because they don't like, we're the ones working with it. Right. So they don't understand everything until they really get out and talk to people like us.

And. It's, it's not going to be an easy, like anything, anything it's not going to be easy. It it'll be worth it in the end. Uh, but it'll take work for any of these products to definitely make a big dent in the market.

Rolling. And I think it's there in a way that actually we can change that because I've talked to some people here and they're like, ah, it's just this year, we just put everything on one bin then.

So that that's one industry, the recycling industry that connect. Generate a good amount of income by recycling materials. Companies are either saving money or making money on some of these things.

If something wouldn't go to them for, like, I think that perhaps one of the ways to discourage stuff like that would be like thinking of resources or paying a little bit extra out things really bad. Yeah. It's a very interesting thing request. I see sometimes on the big construction sites and it's like, wow, there's so much waste. And then that. And our stems shock with that much.

Anyways. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about what, uh, has been now that you were saying that you're focusing as well on education, and you're doing that through the podcast. You're doing that through videos. Um, can you talk a little bit about what led you into doing that with those mediums?

And understanding myself and business and so forth and doing all sorts of personal development programs and reading nonstop. Uh, you start to realize that now what, what the Internet's done is that everybody has information at their fingertips, right? So the idea is. That's our marketing, right? We don't pay to put a, I have in the past, it never worked. We don't pay to put anything into magazines or, or run, uh, ads on Facebook or YouTube or social media for up for what we do.

It doesn't work for some people. I could see that stuff works. It's a part of the marketing strategy, but for us, we're really doing, what's called content marketing. We're putting out content. That is our marketing by me being here on your podcast, that is our marketing by me interviewing you or somebody else on our podcast. That is our marketing, right. We are just putting out content out there and the more people. C Casey or here or the conscious builder or whatever it may be.

Uh, the, the more that there, we're going to get eyes on us. And we're going to be seen as the industry experts in consciousness building. Right? That's that's the goal is to be the leader in a healthy, comfortable, and efficient home building. We don't, it doesn't mean that we have to. Build every single house. We just want to be seen as the leader in that industry. And the way to do that is to put content out there. So that's what we do.

He was in that high pressure stress, and he was the one enforcing the pressure. And then he realized he was, you know, it was brought to his awareness. He become conscious of what he was doing. And he found this new world, uh, this Vedic, he teaches a lot of Vedic stuff, lifestyle. So he's. He acts, he's a really good teacher and he explains a lot. And, but it it's great because he kind of brings those two worlds together. Right? The, the usual word that we're used to in this, this.

World Vedic tradition and he kind of makes it work for today's world. Right. So I definitely recommend checking out that book. And, uh, we can, if you want, we could even do a little draw on your podcast. And if you want to somehow track who shares this or something like that, we could send them a copy. Just let me know. But, uh, you tell me, uh, I have some signed copies from them, so I bought a whole bunch of side copies from. To give away. Cause I thought the book was so good

That. Where we need to go with that as we have to think beyond just the people that we're hanging out with, but we have to think about what we're reading, what we're watching, what you know, what's our social, what are we going on to our social media feed forward? We're watching the news. I don't watch the news. I haven't watched. I bet you, if I turn the news on right now, it'd be the same thing. Like it was four months ago. It's all the same stuff. And if something really bad.

Somebody will tell me I'll be good. It's not effecting me. Uh, and by not watching it I'm actually affected more positively. Right. So just being aware of what you're putting into your mind, uh, because that environment that your subconscious mind is taking in is, is what's happening is what's gonna come out externally, right? So your, your external world is a reflection of your internal. Yeah,

Yeah. That's such a good. Um, what is your latest small act of kindness?

Yeah. It's probably the most recent one. That's a good question.

Um, but we don't go out and hurt people on purpose and we don't go out and harm the environment on purpose. And I think. When we're aware and when we're conscious of those things, then we start to make those changes. Like we've been talking about throughout this whole podcast. So I think that's, I think people know it. They just need to remember it. Yeah,

And as Casey was saying before, if you've learned something on this episode, please. Right on the comments. And we'll see about when this episode comes out, we'll see about potentially doing an intro for one of the books. We'll see if that's possible. If you learn something, please put it in their comments and we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you very much, everyone.