Randy Hall is President & CEO of Batson Cook Company, #148 on the 2015 ENR Top 400 Contractors list. Click here to join The Construction Leading Edge Nation In this episode of The Construction Leading Edge podcast I talk with Randy Hall of Batson-Cook Company, one of the largest contractors in the southeast, about a variety of topics including the following: Which is more important, watching people grow or watching buildings grow? Why you need to develop your presentation and communication s...
Feb 11, 2016•43 min•Ep. 44
Guy Sanders of DPR Construction, one of the largest contractors in the US, shares strategies you can use to grow your team and grow your business by building relationships with large contractors like DPR. DPR Construction is #21 on the 2015 ENR Top 400 Contractors list with $2.9 billion annual revenue and 2,600 employees. Guy Sanders is one of DPR's leaders and talent managers, and we discuss topics including the following: How to know when you have the wrong people on the bus, and you need to m...
Jan 23, 2016•43 min•Ep. 43
Listen as Greg Howell tells the origin story of Lean Construction Welcome to episode #42 of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast from www.constructionleadingedge.com , which is a great interview with Greg Howell, a founding father of Lean Construction. In this interview Greg shares some amazing insights and stories on the following topics: How the Lean Construction movement got started. Greg's experience as a Navy SeaBee, and how that influenced Lean. The impact of one commanding officer's lead...
Jan 10, 2016•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 42
Ken Stowe has been in the construction industry for over 25 years, working for companies including Disney, Pizzagalli and Macomber Builders, and now helps AEC firms across the globe leverage the power of BIM (Building Information Modeling) in their businesses. Listen to this interview to listen to Ken discuss the following topics: How to accelerate your project schedule 7% - 12%. What you should and should not be prefabricating. How modeling your projects during the bidding process can make you ...
Dec 20, 2015•56 min•Ep. 41
How to get started with Lean Construction, even if you have no idea where to start... David Umstot is the President of Umstot Project and Facilities Solutions, LLC. He is a California-registered Professional Civil Engineer with 29 years of leadership experience in private sector and public agency construction program management and facilities management. He has delivered more than $2 Billion in construction projects, and he is an expert in project delivery methods, specifically lean construction...
Dec 12, 2015•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 40
Tony Booth has worked for one of the biggest contractors in the world, has run a family owned small contracting business and is now a consultant for contractors and runs The Contractors Coachcast podcast as well as www.contractingcoach.com Click here to learn how to move your Lean planning into the digital world with LeanPlanner During this interview we talk about how contractors can provide high level customer service and get repeat business. Tony also shares a few of his "6 Tips for Choosing t...
Dec 06, 2015•51 min•Ep. 39
How you should think differently about construction estimating Some new strategies you need to embrace and some systems you can use to become an entrepreneurial estimator. Offering "Free Estimates" is like a car dealership offering free test drives. It's time to stop thinking of it as "estimating," and start calling it selling, business development or revenue generation. Common frustrations from construction estimators and business owners: "I send out a lot of estimates, but they don't go anywhe...
Nov 16, 2015•46 min•Ep. 38
Will Hodges is President of Cadence McShane Construction Company, a general contractor in Dallas, Houston and Austin Texas with around 135 employees and an annual revenue of about $260 million. During this interview we talk about how he made the transition from project management and operations into executive leadership, the importance of company culture, workforce development and how to be strategic with your business and your career. A lot of people run their construction business like a proje...
Nov 08, 2015•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 37
How to develop joint ventures and collaborative relationships as a diverse contractor, how to maintain culture in an organization and Monroe's approach to giving back to his local community. In this episode, I interview Monroe Barnes, President of MBJ Consultants in Cincinnati, OH, which provides construction management and facilities management services to clients in the midwest and California. Click here to learn more about LeanPlanner from Newforma Here are some of the questions I asked, and ...
Nov 01, 2015•59 min•Ep. 36
This episode of The Construction Leading Edge podcast (press and hold on this link) is an interview with Jim Johnson, President and CEO of GE Johnson Construction Company in Colorado Springs, CO. The company was founded in 1967 and made the 2015 ENR Top 100 Green Building Contractors list. Here are a few of the topics we cover in the interview: How important is the culture of an organization and how does it impact the bottom line? [Jim] Our culture is more important than the bottom line, and our...
Oct 24, 2015•52 min•Ep. 35
In this episode of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast ( www.constructionleadingedge.com ) we will be covering... Construction Technology You Probably Didn't Know Existed Press and hold on this link to go to the full show notes James Benham is CEO of JBKnowledge ( www.jbknowledge.com ), who advises and consults 700 construction companies on technology. He also speaks all over the country on trends that his firm identifies as coming up. Some of the most exciting technologies being developed tod...
Oct 18, 2015•47 min•Ep. 34
In this episode of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast ( www.constructionleadingedge.com ) we will be covering... The Top 10 Mistakes To Avoid When Dealing With Conflict At Work Press and hold on this link to go to the full show notes Out of the total list of 41 Mistakes that I put together, here are the Top 10 I covered in the podcast Click here to download the complete list of 41 Mistakes to Avoid.. #2 Not recognizing the cost of unresolved conflict – According to Daniel Dana, author of a bo...
Oct 12, 2015•29 min•Ep. 33
This is The Construction Leading Edge podcast ( www.constructionleadingedge.com ), my name is Todd Dawalt, and my job is to help you grow your leadership skills, grow your business and grow your income. Need help with daily reports? Sign up for a free 15 day trial of Raken In this episode, I interview Chris Fussell. He is the Chief Growth Officer at McChrystal Group. He's an author of the New York Times bestseller, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement in a Complex World. Chris was commissioned...
Sep 25, 2015•54 min•Ep. 32
Todd Dawalt here from The Construction Leading Edge ( www.constructionleadingedge.com ). If you lead a business, department or a project, you're probably busy, there's always work to do, you could always use more customers, and every part of your operation can be optimized to be more efficient. A lot of people think that when they need to get more results, speed things up, increase profit, etc. the answer is simply to do more, work more, hire more people, or just work harder. Wrong. The reality?...
Sep 17, 2015•35 min•Ep. 31
Welcome to another episode of the Construction Leading Edge podcast. My name is Todd Dawalt, and today is going to be a little different. I’m going to start with a story. It was August 2014, and I had spent two or three hours preparing for this meeting. I was nervous because this meeting would determine the future of my job. When it was time, I drove a few miles to the Applebees where we agreed to meet, and I had a knot in my stomach. This was going to be one of the most difficult, and important...
Aug 08, 2015•41 min•Ep. 30
Welcome to episode #29 of The Construction Leading Edge Podcast ( www.constructionleadingedge.com ) where my job is to help you grow your leadership skills, grow your business and grow your income. This episode is part 2 of The Construction Business Accelerator program, where I will be going deep into specific strategies and tactics that I used to double revenue and triple profits at a construction company I ran for about three and a half years. Today's episode is about Leveraging Your Labor For...
Jul 24, 2015•45 min•Ep. 29
www.constructionleadingedge.com Welcome to The Construction Leading Edge Podcast, where my job is to help you grow your leadership skills, grow your construction business and grow your income. In this episode I interview Dan Conery, VP of Business Development with Newforma, a company that develops software for the construction industry. We talk about advice for millennials, how contractors should approach innovation, why Dan is jealous of the people he sells software to, and some great sales and...
Jul 09, 2015•32 min•Ep. 28
Welcome to episode 27 of The Construction Leading Edge podcast www.constructionleadingedge.com Click here to download a free resource guide from Mallorie's team - "WHERE WE'RE HEADED: Construction Technology Trends for 2015"
Jul 03, 2015•28 min•Ep. 27
Welcome to Episode 26 of The Construction Leading Edge podcast. My name is Todd Dawalt and my job is to provide the tools and resources you need to grow you leadership skills, grow your construction business and grow your income. Today’s episode is an interview with Cesar Abeid, the host of The Construction Industry Podcast and The Project Management For The Masses Podcast He is also the author of an upcoming book, Project Management For You . You can find connect with Cesar at www.cesarabeid.co...
Jun 24, 2015•44 min•Ep. 26
Welcome to Episode 25 of the Construction Leading Edge podcast. My name is Todd Dawalt and my goal is to provide the tools and resources to grow your leadership skills, grow your business and grow your income. Free online training for contractors: How to get out of cash crunch mode and upgrade your profit margins. 5 simple strategies I used to get out of the vise-like grip of poor cash flow, while doubling a construction business in a few years. In this episode I share practical strategies for c...
May 29, 2015•46 min•Ep. 25
Welcome to Episode 24 of the Construction Leading Edge podcast. My name is Todd Dawalt and my goal is to provide the tools and resources to grow your leadership skills, grow your business and grow your income. Free online training for contractors: How to get out of cash crunch mode and upgrade your profit margins. 5 simple strategies I used to get out of the vise-like grip of poor cash flow, while doubling a construction business in a few years. This episode is an interview with Nick Baucom, a f...
May 12, 2015•51 min•Ep. 24
Welcome to Episode 23 of the Construction Leading Edge podcast. My name is Todd Dawalt and my goal is to provide the tools and resources to grow your leadership skills, grow your business and grow your income. Free online training for contractors: How to get out of cash crunch mode and upgrade your profit margins. 5 simple strategies I used to get out of the vise-like grip of poor cash flow, while doubling a construction business in a few years. This episode is an interview with Torrey Hawkins, ...
May 05, 2015•37 min•Ep. 23
Welcome to Episode 22 of the Construction Leading Edge podcast. My name is Todd Dawalt and my goal is to provide the tools and resources to grow your leadership skills, grow your business and grow your income. In this episode I interview Greg Laszczynski, an executive with Layne Inliner, who talks about the following: One simple habit that anyone can do to differentiate themselves from the competition How he built a successful business from ground zero in almost impossible circumstances The powe...
Apr 16, 2015•46 min•Ep. 22
Culture: noun cul·ture \ˈkəl-chər\ A blend of the values, beliefs, taboos, symbols, rituals, and myths a company develops over time. Whether written as a mission statement, spoken or merely understood, corporate culture describes and governs the ways a company’s owners and employees think, feel and act. Does your company have a safety program or a safety culture? What’s the difference? One requires constant maintenance and enforcement and the other tends to take care of itself. Keys to creating ...
Apr 10, 2015•37 min•Ep. 21
Welcome to Episode 20 of the Construction Leading Edge podcast. My name is Todd Dawalt and my goal is to provide the tools and resources to grow your leadership skills, grow your business and grow your income. This episode lays out a step by step process and a framework to follow when you have a construction project crisis. Step #1 – Figure out when you need to act. It it is a life safety issue, the answer is, “Immediately.” Resist the temptation to jump in and “just do something.” When does you...
Mar 22, 2015•50 min•Ep. 20
A key skill for leaders is knowing when to quit. In Episode 19 of the podcast, I have a conversation with my good friend and former colleague Bert Lace. A conversation that serves as a postmortem analysis of the past four years we worked together, how we helped to grow a construction business from 20 to 50 employees, the leadership strategies we tried that worked, the ones that didn’t work, and ultimately why we both decided to quit and walk away. Topics Bert and I cover include the following: H...
Mar 15, 2015•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 19
Welcome to Episode 18 of the Construction Leading Edge podcast. My name is Todd Dawalt and my goal is to provide the tools and resources to grow your leadership skills, grow your business and grow your income. If you are involved with the construction industry and have any interest in keeping up with the cutting edge technology that is currently available, or would like to get a sneak peek into what is coming online soon…you are in for a treat today. You are about to listen to an interview with ...
Dec 20, 2014•45 min•Ep. 18
Dec 03, 2014•24 min•Ep. 17
Like it or not, the construction industry is moving toward a more collaborative project delivery approach. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and lean construction delivery approaches are growing in popularity, and the days of simply executing a project to meet plan, spec, budget, and schedule will soon be a thing of the past. Project Owners Are Buying An Experience, Not Just a Finished Product. In Episode 16 of the podcast, Brent Darnell ( www.brentdarnell.com ) sheds some light on the field of ...
Nov 16, 2014•1 hr•Ep. 16
Here’s the deal: You have limiting beliefs that are like lenses that you see the world through, but you don’t know they are there. These limiting beliefs are messing up your relationships, keeping you from getting promotions, and preventing you from growing in your personal and professional life. Limiting beliefs are “the lid” on your growth. Want to know how to identify these limiting beliefs, then reverse them?
Nov 07, 2014•45 min•Ep. 15
