Breaking the Ceiling | Tony Flattum, Built Strong Exteriors #006

Hi everyone, it's Karissa with Sun Control. We are here today actually at our shop. We have a super awesome special guest today, Tony Flattum from Built Strong Exteriors. Welcome, Tony. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's great to have you here. Why don't you tell our listeners and everybody that's going to be watching the video a little bit about you and kind of who you are, where you're located. Yeah, so my name is Tony Flattum. I live in Stillwater, Minnesota. Our company is based in Lake Elmo, Minnesota and uh we've been there since 2016 and that's our new location. So awesome. So you have built strong exteriors. Why don't you tell people a little bit about where you got started? I know you said 2016. Have you always been in the Lake Elmo Still Water area or have you gone other places? So yeah, I grew up in Still Water, so I'm originally from there, but um I got into the business in 2002 originally. Okay. worked for another company, did some production for a little while and then got into the sales side of the business and then did that for a couple years where eventually I went off and opened my own thing, my own company in 2006 and grew that. But then we also had a partner for a while and did that and grew the company and we just were going different directions. So we parted ways and kind of went through a couple of different partnerships over the years and and um went through some journeys and up and downs but learned a lot through it. And then Built Strong got started in 2016 when we moved over and got that going. Nice. So for our listeners that are listening in and don't know exactly what Built Strong is, why don't you tell them a little bit about the construction industry and where all that is? Yep. So we're a construction we do roofing and siding, windows, gutters. Most of it is insurance restoration work. That's where kind of my background was. We help homeowners through the insurance claims on hail damage, wind damage, um trees that fall in your house. if there's anything damaged to your house, we come out and put together a full scope on helping you get that covered through the insurance company and walking them through the claim to help get it restored. So awesome. So getting started with BuildStrong, what did you do prior to owning the company? Yep. So I did um I did production for a company for um for one season in 2002. I was going and running around doing repair work to fixing installing windows, siding, roofing, and quality control, watching job sites. And then I just realized that I wanted to get more on the other side of helping homeowners through the process of getting them, you know, approved through the insurance company. I was seeing that done through the company and I was like, that's what I want to do and made that jump and that was kind of where my niche was. I just really enjoyed that part of it, seeing the customers go from having the roof damaged or wanting a roof replaced by retail and just didn't know how they were going to afford it and helping them through the process of getting it covered through the insurance if there was damage there. And then also if there was no damage, if they were just in bad shape, we would give them a retail bid and get them taken care of and help them out. So that was kind of my passion of um helping the customers for sure through the process. Yep. Helping is a big it's a big world out there and when customers need you can make their process a lot easier. Um a lot of times it's about mindset and getting going through the obstacles which are always fun to do. Have you had a lot of obstacles lately or tell us about a couple that you've had that along the way have kind of transitioned your journey? Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's always a lot obviously. I mean, when you're out and we do some door knocking as well, so when you deal with the up and downs of that, I mean, being out knocking on doors and and giving our information, you get a lot of nos and but we know that we're out there for a purpose and doing good things and trying to get people aware of what happened in the area and and pre-qualify them. So there was always an obstacle with that and and pushing and helping our sales staff to kind of get over that obstacle as well. But then just the the partnership, you know, I mean, we went through a couple of different companies over the years of being in this business and mainly just kind of going different directions and it wasn't um you know, it was just different directions on where we were going. So we just kind of made a couple of different brand changes. So was, you know, this is our third company that we rebranded and moved over with a lot of our staff and gotten going. Um, mainly because of, you know, just partnership split-ups, but we have a lot of the same crews we've used and and a lot of the sales guys been there for the last 10 plus years. So it's the experience is is definitely in house. Yeah. So, with your sales staff and helping coach them along the way, what are some of the benefits that you hear from the sales staff or from any of the people that work with you as far as their journey and where you guys are at? Yeah, a lot of them just I mean coming into the business and some of them having the opportunity to make more income. Yeah. You know, get out there and change their life on doing good things on the more people they can help, the more money they're going to make. It's it's a commission job, so it's more volume based. So the more that they can get out and help people and and we always push them to focus on that. Don't focus on just going after the paycheck. It's like um you know we always board more people and say hey just make sure you're going out there networking, working with agents, working with brokers, knocking on doors, whatever you need to do early on to get in front of many people as you can to help them and the money will come. And if we can really paint that picture, a lot of them really get after it and they go out there. They don't let the doors bother them. how many they got to go to and how many they got to do every single day to to be at the end of the year and have a good number. Kind of planting those seeds from the beginning. What is your guys' service area? Where all do you covered? So, right now we mainly cover within 60 miles of our office in Lake Elmo. We try to stay within that. So, western Wisconsin to, you know, 60 mile area, but we also have a location. We just opened up in Rochester. So, we're going to be covering about 20 miles around that area, mainly servicing that town. And then we've done some jobs in St. Cloud as well. I mean, we've had some brokers up there we've worked with and some agents and stuff that we've worked with over the years to where we've gotten quite a few leads up there. So, we'll go up there and work those areas where we try to stay within our our zone so we can at least make sure we can build the jobs and get to them faster instead of being so spread out. So, but it's hard to do because people want you to go and and service them. They want you to be everywhere. We try to go and help them whenever we can, but if it's too far outside of the circle, we have to let them know. We just obviously can't help them in this case. Do you have referrals that cover a lot of the other areas or other companies that you know of that you usually try to lead them in the right direction? Yeah, we have a lot of our subs or a lot of other people that are different areas that we would pass them on to that we know in different spots. So, we always if it's us getting it or somebody else, we would be fair and give them a good lead to go help take care of them. Outstanding. So, you do a lot with the build strong. I have known that you've done some investing and things like that in the past. Are you still doing that? And where are you all with that? Yeah. Yeah, the investing game I've been doing for quite a while. I mean, I've been buying real estate since 2004. And last year, we were overly busy, so I didn't really get to do too much, but we had a major storm that came through our area and so we were went all in on that and didn't pretty much focus on the real estate stuff. But, um, it's a big passion of mine. I mean, I've been doing that for quite a while. I really enjoy it. Also with my my team, I mean, as they're making more money and growing and they want to invest. Yeah. It's been fun to kind of give them some pointers and talk some real estate stuff with them and help them get them and see put their money to work. So outstanding. So you guys just went on a company trip not too long ago. Tell our viewers about some of the fun things that you guys have done as a company and where you've gone. Yeah, so we every year we always try to put together an incentive for our staff to where we could hit certain goals and go on a company trip. So, we've done some trips to Cancun. We've done some trips to Bise, uh, Costa Rica. Our last one we just did here last year, we went to Columbia, and, uh, that was one of our biggest company trips we've had, and we've had, I think it was 64 that went on that company trip with us last year. So, it was great to get everyone together. Oh, yeah. Team building. Yeah. when you get out of work and you can at least hang out and spend seven days with each other and not be at work and be outside of work and and be on vacation. I mean, people are still talking about that trip today. So, that's great. That's important to have that rapport with not only the sales staff, but to have that work life balance all kind of go together. Absolutely. So, I heard through the grapevine that you're writing a book. Tell us a little bit about that and where all that started. Yeah. So, I mean, I just over my journey of me doing this business and getting into this space, I just been into a lot of masterminds lately and a lot of uh conferences and coaches and mentors I've been talking to and they're just like, man, you got to tell your story. I'm like, well, yeah, I didn't know that was that big of a deal. But when you're going for 20 years and you're kind of just keeping your head down and you're just going to work every day, working 12, 16 hour days and and getting after it and building a business and then rebuilding a business and rebuilding a business and going through those challenges and having people, you know, restart, some people would have just quit and gave up and did something different and and I didn't. I just kept kind of pushing forward. So, yeah, the book is going to be coming out fairly soon. We're just in the process of working through it and uh just kind of telling the story and Yeah. and uh the journey along the way and some of a lot of mindset stuff and just having your mind in the right place and and pushing through the challenges because if you let that get to you and bring you down and it'll change your course. Yes. So, so staying positive mindset, all of that is the most important. I know that a lot of people I've met along my journey, they're like, "Man, you're just always so happy." I'm like, you know, you've got to make the best out of every situation. And obviously in the sales world or any world, you can't take nos. It's always not know directly. It could just be not right now. You just got to kind of keep feeding the feeding the fire and seeing what you can do. So the book will be coming out. You've got a lot of investing going on. What is your why? What drives you to do what you do today? Yeah, mostly what's been my biggest why is is seeing the people that are coming into the business and seeing their lives change because my life's changed early on of me being a salesperson to an early business owner and going through those different challenges and and whatnot, but also be able to travel and do nice things and and have investments and and work because you want to, not because you have to kind of a deal. And if I can pull in people into the company that can come in and work and mentor them and to try to be a better person and do better things and and change their life, that's been kind of more my passion lately is just that's why we're opening up one more door mastermind. We opened it a couple months ago. We're slowly slowly building it out. Right now it's more organic, more uh direct referrals. So we're just kind of going through the early stages of of building it, but it's more of a bigger picture of not only helping our staff, but helping everybody in the industry. Sure. And then eventually it'll be more than just our industry. It'll be mindset stuff and coaching and putting people together that um if we don't know the answers, we'll have an expert in our group that will have the answers to it. So it's more of a network to where I'm part of a few other ones now. So, I'm kind of learning a lot from them, saying, "I love this and I want to do it for myself and and also bring in more people that I can help as well at my level and then just keep hopefully me growing and then growing them." Nice. Who have been some of your mentors along the way? I know you talk a lot about mindset and a lot of the coaching and I know you do some stuff here and there and dabble with a bunch of different people, but who are some of the main ones that have mentored you and gotten you to where you are today? Yeah. So, I mean there's been a lot, but the ones that I'll kind of go to right now are the ones that are current that are kind of u directed me towards a certain uh phase of my life is is Tony Robbins um more of a life coach kind of deal and um part of his mastermind and then also Ryan Steumman. I've been really getting involved with him and his group Apex which is awesome because they have it's not just rooking companies. everybody in the group to where he's building a good network of everyone helping each other out and um just a really good group of really good people. And then also on the real estate side, I mean, there's been a couple, but the one I'll mention, everyone probably knows a lot of them is Grant Cardone. He's been one that I've been following for quite a while that just showing me how to invest in bigger deals and get out of the smaller deals and go to the next level. So, I've been kind of following his path a path a little bit. I'm just trying to get into some bigger deals and and uh see where that goes. Growth is always the main goal, but it's also seeing the steps along the way, the processes, getting those in place, getting everybody's PPFs done, kind of following along the process. So, when you talk about your mentors, has there been anything or any quote or anything that's kind of driven you from the beginning that kind of sticks in your head every time you're out there or anything else? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's it was a huge shift for me in 2018 when I first went to a Tony Robbins event. And that was shortly after I had a partnership split up that was um not as friendly as the first one. It was a little more um cutthroat on the second one. We were just kind of going different directions and it was handled pretty poorly on his end and um we parted ways in 2016. That's when we kind of came over to Built Strong. But um when I went down to a Tony Robbins event in 2018, going through those years of wondering why things happened to you and why is this happening to me and you know all I was trying to do is build a good company and and work with people and help people out and give the shirt off my back. And then um you know these kind of things happen on partnership splitups and and doing it the wrong way. So I um when I went down there and heard him say about you know things don't happen to you, they happen for you. Mhm. So that's been a game changer for me. So everything I look at now, things happen for me and things happen for a reason. So even though that I'm dealing with something that's coming off that you're wondering what the heck, it's like, well, this is happening for me for whatever reason. It sucks right now, but but in the in a year or two, you're going to look back and say that helped me pivot to a certain point to where I came out of that much better. For sure. And even the partnership split up actually how much how how much that sucked. Yeah. going through that and actually looking back now was actually a blessing. It was a good thing. We weren't meant to be together for that part of the journey and um and parting ways and where we're at now. We're in the best spot that we could ever be in. Absolutely. And um I think that kind of happened for a reason. So with him doing that, it actually worked out and probably better for him too. You know, so it's um works out great. Sometimes with those partnerships or the things that happen along the way, the little bumps in the road, you grow as a person. Like that's the one thing like you don't see at the time you're like you know this could be something you can handle it one or two ways. You could be negative and kind of be sour and be stuck in that situation or you can learn and grow from mistakes and or things have happened. And I think that's the big thing when when you get through those and you find a way to kind of get out of the situation and make the best of it is growing yourself. So you have a lot of employees that you've talked about a lot about coaching mindset everything like that. Is there one in particular person that you've seen grow a lot and that they've really, you know, kind of came out of their shell since they started with you? Yeah, there's been a handful, I mean, in the company that came in and they're developing and I mean, even one of my main sales managers, I mean, he was been looking for 18 years. Nice. And um and with him coming in as a salesperson originally to over the years being a project manager to a general manager to a field trainer, I mean, he's done just about everything. And to where he's at now, it's great because he's leading the sales team. Nice. Um he's finding his way and and his why and he's getting a lot of passion and helping the sales guys and turning it because originally early on, I mean, he was kind of, you know, for himself. He was a sales guy trying to do his thing and he'll admit that's why I could say that, right? But but yeah, he would he would be more for himself a little bit and and looking at things for himself. And now with him leading the team, he's really getting that to where he wants them to win more than him. And if they're winning, he'll win. Y and once you get to that point, it's priceless. It's game over. Then it's, you know, that that's their why. That's their drive is helping people. And it's not just the living paycheck to paycheck or it's not the money that comes in, but it's like, wow, I'm making a difference in somebody's life, right? And when you get to that point, no matter where you're at in life, it's it's a game changer. I mean, it's meeting people, seeing people, and they're like, you've been here, you've been through the situation. How can you help me? So, yeah. And even with him, I mean, he's, you know, I started going in early, watching all these motivational videos before the day get started. I was always in there in the office at 6:00 6:30 watching these videos and he would come in and he would kind of sit there a little bit and do his thing and walking by and hearing the videos as I'm playing on a big screen. He's like, "What are you doing?" And I'm like, "I'm just watching my videos. I watch them every single day to kind of just get my head where I need to be and um start the day off, right?" And so then we started watching the videos together. Nice. Good. And then now like he's all into them, which is great cuz now like all those videos are pouring into him and he's pouring into his people and Yep. It kind of transforms. It just gives you more purpose and and just know that people are going to deal with a lot of crap. Yeah. And it's all how you overcome it and words matter. If you can, I can't. I mean, it's like, you know, if you win, you learn or when you fail, like you just got to change the words a little bit and um it's a game changer. So, he's been really diving into that and the development over the years of doing that the last few years has been been huge. It's interesting when you watch videos like that or you watch the Tony Robbins, you do the Grant Cardone, any of those, when you're watching them, how people take them differently and they make them their own, but it really starts to kind of form their life and makes makes a difference. I mean, whether it's you interpreting something one way or just whatever is going on in their life, overcoming those objections or no doesn't mean no or anything like that. Yeah. So, you have your investments. You now have a yacht that you do some things on a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I got the yacht a couple of years ago. It was um I got in May of 21 and it's been one of those things where started off wanting to, you know, for the family and all that stuff and and hanging out, which has been great. We we do that as much as we can. Yeah. But a lot of it lately has been doing deals on it, getting beaten down there with real estate brokers and talking through deals and signing deals. And we did our first podcast on the boat a lot not too long ago. So there's it's being used for a lot of different things now instead of just pleasure. It's it's actually a good spot to go down and have meetings on it and network. And we have another smaller office that's really close to there as well. Nice down um near the river there. So we always we go down have our little meetings and then we'll go out and entertain or have some of our leadership meetings there. We have them every Friday at 10:30. So we um we'll go on the boat and just go there and brainstorm and just get out of the office just get a different vibe so people can open up a little bit and let loose and just you know share their concerns, their hot files and whatever we're dealing with at the time and and just figure out solutions for it. So yeah, a lot of times it's just a different setting. I mean, I know obviously I have done a lot of networking on boats. You do you do you're in a different mindset. You're kind of a little more relaxed. You're just free flowing. You're able to just kind of clear your mind, get things out, get the deal set if you need to. It's kind of like when people say, "Geez, you're on the golf course a lot." To me, yes, I am, but I'm I'm working. Like, they don't see that. It's like you get a lot of deals done. There's more sales or anything that can happen when you are out on the golf course. Whether you're networking, you're talking business, you're with someone, you're playing golf them for 4 hours or you're out on a boat, you're in the middle of the river. Guess what? There's nowhere else you can go. So, let's just talk about life and kind of build that relationship as well. Yep. Yeah. It's be where your feet is, right? Absolutely. You got to be where you're at and and be all into it. And if you're in there and all the distractions of the cell phone and Yeah. everything else pulling you away. I mean, if you can get into those meetings and really dive in, you're going to accomplish a lot more in a half hour than being in there for two hours. for sure. And just taking it apart a little bit. I mean, you got to really dive in and and it it's been really a good good thing. So, I'm not telling you to go buy a yacht, but but it's I've been brainstorming on the boat. We've already got a name. I've been I've been I've been boating for years and so this is just a newer boat that I've replaced one with. So, I mean, it wasn't like I just bought the boat for my first time. Yeah. It's it's been been boating for a long time. So, Yep. It's interesting when people talk about boating or they talk about golfing and putting the phone down. So many people drive you to pick that phone up and stay on the phone 99% of the time. But I feel like a lot of work is done when you actually do put that phone down. When you are current and you're carrying on a conversation and you can communicate with people and you can really get down to the nitty-gritty and kind of find out, you get a good feeling for who they are, where they're going. Absolutely. So, what's next for you? What do you think you have on your plate next? Yeah, right now we're just really trying to build this mastermind out. That's kind of the next big push. I mean, it just started. So, um, yeah, it's we're just building that out and trying to grow that group and and hopefully we can help more people and get the message out there and and do what I'm seeing in other groups to where how much they're helping me. Yeah. If I can pass that on and take that knowledge and bring it into this, that's going to be kind of my next big push here for a while and obviously keep growing, build strong. I mean, we want to open up more locations. We don't want to slow down. We want to kind of keep building and ramping it up. and we know there's a lot of different breaking points and we're going to peak to a certain number and last year was one of our best years we've ever had and so but then this year we kind of pulled back a little bit because we're kind of restructuring and and we we're filling a lot of roles that we last year we had everyone wearing two or three hats. It was a crazy year. We were underst staff and now we overstaffed to where we can get everyone trained in the right areas so we can regroup a little bit and then keep building that base up to where each year we can kind of keep stacking up and then pull back a little bit and then just you know keep being over the previous year. You're going to go up a little bit and then back down a little bit back down. So it's not always going to go up but I mean we know that we weren't going to bust through our number last year but we knew that we want to rebuild the foundation and so as years come we can for that again. Yeah. So, you talk about your employees wearing many hats. Do you see a lot of them shifting through different positions and in ads and flows and kind of what where their niche is or what they actually want to do during Yeah, absolutely. We have Yeah, we have I mean the company's growing so much now over the last three years that we're we're putting roles in place that we've never had before. Yeah. So, the people that are high on what they're doing over here, but their expertise could be in something else, we find out what their strengths are and trying to put them in the right roles. Y we also been doing a lot of the um assessments too for our employees so we can figure out where their strengths are and try to help them be in the right position too because if they're not happy, if they're frustrated, right, and they're coming into work and just doing their role and and they're hating it, they're not going to be able. So, if we can find out where their passion is, and let them know up front, hey, you're hired for this position, you come in, do your job, and if we if if you think that another role in the company that you can see that is better fit for you, let us know. You know, if it's a good fit, we'll move you. So, we're always either transferring people, move them around, and and as we grow, new roles open up, and the people that are in a role that can move up to a new spot, they get to move up, too. And Yep. So, there's always opportunity everywhere. And then eventually if they want to ever go do their own thing, they can always have a process involved. They can do they can do our our own location somewhere else or go do their own thing. But it's it's have an opportunity to where they can still work with us and go do the locations. Have you found that in the Rochester area or the St. Cloud area or is that still strictly you? Do you have other employees that are starting to run kind of run those branches and things like that too? Yeah, so we had I mean we opened it we've been down there since 2017 doing a lot of work down there. Yeah. So, we would have clients, but we never had like a location down there, but we would just go. It's only an hour and a half location. So, we would go down and service those customers and work those areas, but we just know that it's a great market. It is and it's and it's blowing up so much. They're building like crazy down there. It's a great little area. So, we wanted to get a location there. And it just happened to work out to where one of our guys that been with us since 2017, he got married to a girl that lives down there. Nice. and he made the move down in June of this year. So, we're making him our point guy to run that location. Y and then now we're in the process of just hiring more people to fill up that team to build it. So, we're we're building it out a little slow this year, but then going into the winter months, we're going to really try to build out one full team. Yeah. Which is a team of eight and then we'll just keep stacking up more teams after that going into next year. So, we were talking a little bit about processes and getting them set in place to where you guys are now and that way you can duplicate it wherever you go. What was your journey in getting those processes set in place? So, we're always doing processes. They're never done. And it's it's when they say growing pains, that's part of it. I mean, we it it's a it's a journey. It's hard. I mean, you you go through and you add certain things in place to where you might see it from a certain angle. You put something in place and then all of a sudden you get somebody that's like, "Well, hey, what about this?" you're like, okay, so you're always adding things. So, but we're we are trying to get our processes so dialed in to where yeah, we can just have a complete model to where we can go here and have a complete playbook, right? And but I mean a lot of it's done, but we're always adding to it every year. It's always a uphill battle trying to make them perfect and look at every angle from every side, not just from our side, but the sales side and the production side. I mean, it's a lot of work that goes into the processes. Yep. Definitely. I mean, you notice too like what works here might not work in Rochester or in St. Cloud or Wisconsin or wherever you may go because it's just it's a different atmosphere. It's a totally different area. So, you don't know what's coming up with those. So, St. Cloud, Rochester, are you thinking about anything in Wisconsin since you're over by Still Water or have you dabbled in that area at all? Yep, we do a lot of work in western Wisconsin. I mean, we've done work all the way out until to um Ellsworth, Wisconsin. Uh we've done a little bit we've done work actually out in Madison more of like town homes. We have a a few people out there that we work with that work for a town home association. So whenever there's one that comes up we usually do one or two every couple years um for them. So we'll go down there and do a bigger project. But eventually it' be nice to have a location in Madison. Um so that could be hopefully down the road. But yeah, but we cover well into Wisconsin right now because we do a lot of work in Hudson, New Richmond, all those different areas. So close. We we service all those spots. Perfect. So, you have family. You've talked about your family. Do you have any of your family or staff that work for you currently? Yeah. So, my mom, she was one of my first original employees. She uh she was working at 3M, one of the smaller locations in Stillwater. And so, she worked there for like 15 years, I think it was. And then they were relocating that location. and she's like, "Well, I don't want to have to move to that new location out of state." And then um and then she went to a different location. She had to kind of start over for her ranking. So, she's like, "Well, I'm going to take an early retirement." And um it was kind of nice cuz she uh she's like, "Oh, you just did your own thing in 2006. You're getting you're getting off going and and I believe in what you're going to do and I want to come and support you." So, she retired early. Awesome. and she came over to be my first employee back in 2006 and she's still working with us. She's doing it more part time for us, but she's working Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays and taking up Mondays and Fridays and but uh but yeah, she loves being around helping out. But it's great to see where we came from her being the first employee to now we're at 102 employees. That's a lot. So, it's uh been a heck of a journey. But yeah, it was good that she jumped on early on and helped for sure. her and see where you've gone and what you've done and she's been in the process. So, you have some kids. Are you thinking that this is hopefully something that will go to them in the future or what they want to do? But yeah, I mean they'll I mean, if they're if they want to. I mean, we'll we'll see. I mean, I'm not going to kind of lay out a perfect plan for them on the construction side. If they want to be involved, they can. Um, I do know that I mean maybe more of the real estate side having them doing some things and helping out, but um, yeah, it just kind of comes down to what they want to do. I want them to kind of figure out their own path a little bit, but give them some ideas and some tips and some processes that might say, hey, I mean, no matter where you go, you know, do these certain things and maybe give them a little bump on a jump start a little bit, but they have to kind of go through their own little journey. But, right, I know one of my kids is talking about wanting to work with me. Uh-huh. The other ones don't know what they want to do yet. No. And they might not know that. I mean, there's I have kids that are going through college still and don't even know. And it's like there's people my age, your age that are still kind of dabbling their feet and trying to get their their feet planted and figure out what they want to do. So, it's it's a tough life. But I think that with the coaching that you guys do, things like that, too. I mean, that that helps helps motivate them, helps keep them going. When you have like your business, you have your family. Do you intertwine those a lot? Do they come to your events? Do they do a lot at the business? Yeah. I mean, my wife, she doesn't get too much involved in the business. I mean, she's got her own things going where she keeps busy with it. And I kind of do that for a reason cuz it's I mean, some people can work together and and be there all day and then take it home with them and whatnot. And for me, like I just didn't want to have too much of the work. when I come home, I want to kind of shut it off a little bit, right? And not have to talk about work all the time and and be in it. So, she's been doing a lot of the coart dog rescue, give back. She's been doing that for the last four years and being a mentor for them. So, she'll go over and help dog, you know, people for the dog fostering and whatnot. We also dog foster as well and we sponsor a lot of their events. Like we actually have one this Saturday coming up for the big event that they have and they that's at their new location in Somerset, Wisconsin. We did the graphics there. That's who when we have our newsletters go out when everybody says we see the dog. That's from Copa's heart. So perfect. Yeah. So we sponsor all their events. We actually installed a free roof for them back when they built that building and we donated our labor and our material to um put a new roof on that building for them. So we're we're really involved with with them and helping out. But then she also does some um subbing for school for Okay. elementary school for where our youngest son goes. Yep. And so she's busy with that. But she'll come to like obviously the Christmas parties and a lot of the events that we have throughout the year to kind of get everyone together and bond and stuff, but and she'll help me on a couple little things if I needed to, like a little punch out list, but for the most part, we just keep it separate. Keep that separate. Yep. So Build Strong, you've been talking a lot about the Coco's heart. How else do you guys give back? Do you guys give back in the community? I know you're around a lot and you for sure are doing a lot. Tell our viewers a little bit about that. Yeah, so pretty much we do a lot of givebacks to a lot of local schools, especially where we focus on as of right now where a lot of our employees have their kids going. So we have them get involved and have them sponsor their schools and sponsor their sports teams. And um even like Hudson for an example, I mean we do a lot of stuff over there cuz one of our guys kids plays football over there and so we do a lot of the sponsoring for that. We also do a lot of sponsoring for Koko's heart. Uh we also do every October coming up here we do Susan G. Kman. So we donate $50 per job built in the month of October and we donate that towards that cause. And last year we had it was a big month last year. We donated like over $20,000. Wow. Amazing. To Susan G. Khan. And then every year we pick six families in November for Thanksgiving that are having maybe a hard time. So, if you even wanted to donate or recommend somebody, I mean, you can reach out to us and and uh put that in there. We're always looking for families that really are in need of uh having a good Thanksgiving with their family. And we provide, you know, a full meal and give them a gift card where they can go and get some of their own things too as well. But just give them a good full-blown Thanksgiving to where they might not be able to afford it or in a tough spot to where they just couldn't have a full dinner. So we we do that to six families and then we also um we did a lot of the toys for tots stuff um for many years and then the last couple years we kind of shifted to where we do the toys for tots but it's more of like bringing the toys down to Gillette hospital and giving them to the kids. Nice. And um so we've been doing that in December for our December month. So mostly those three months are our big give big ones. Y and then throughout the year we'll sponsor a lot of schools and people that reach out from customers. We'll sponsor golf events and stuff for people too. We'll have customers that will ask like, "Hey, do you guys sponsor a hole? Do you want this?" And we almost always do. We try to give back where we can. So if people want to help with the give backs or they want to help donate or be a part of your Susan Gman or any of the ones at Thanksgiving dinner, they want to help donate on behalf of you guys, how do they get a hold of you? What do they do? Yeah. So, they can uh look up our company. It's built strongexteriors.com. They can go on there, our Facebook page, our Instagram. We're on there as well. Um, also they can obviously reach out to me directly at Tony Flattum on Facebook as well or Instagram. But, um, yeah, I mean, just you can either donate or, you know, jump on board with us and donate directly or if we're doing work with you in the month of October, you'll automatically be donating to the cause. So we try to donate so much per job. Perfect. In October. Outstanding. Well, you're a lot you're on social media. You're doing the podcast. You've started dabbling a little more in the podcast. What have been some of the the difficult questions or the things that you've come across from the beginning? Have you started to kind of get into it a little bit more? It gets a little more comfortable. Yeah. I mean, it it actually I didn't even really plan on doing podcast. It was just kind of funny where I um had a buddy of mine reach out through Apex. Yeah. and um more of the real estate side and he did our first one and and he threw it out there and then a bunch more people reached out to where I'm like, "Okay, this is a thing. I'm going to I'm going to do this a little more and and get out there and so it's been awesome though. It's been great." I mean, a lot of it is just it's it's tough talking about the previous partnerships. It is. Yep. You have those things. It's always one of those topics where you're like, you know, you never want to have a partnership go bad, but I mean, it does and it did for a reason and and the first one wasn't so bad. the loan was really bad to where it was pretty cutthroat and and um me and a lot of guys got kind of taken advantage of and didn't get paid through that whole journey and and um so it was but you learn through those things. Absolutely. And and that's why I mean where I'm at today I just think it all happened for a reason but those are always hard to talk about is they are the partnership stuff but it's all part of the journey. Yep. And you wouldn't be where you are today if you didn't have those happen but you also learn for things coming up in the future. you see the back side of it and what can happen, the pays, the partnerships, things like that. So, you kind of start to just do it on your own and say, "Okay, this is how I want to do it. This is my why. This is why I'm doing it." And getting everything set in place. Yep. And it's being around good people. I mean, I've been just really being a lot more careful on who I bring into my circle. For sure. And and making sure that I mean, I trust but verify a lot more to where I don't just cuz before I was always like a handshake deal. I trust you. Go do this. and you just start going to work and do your part and you're not watching everything that they're doing. You don't micromanage it. Yeah, you don't want to micromanage it. I'm not that kind of guy, but I'm just like running and gunning doing my thing and then you look back, you're like, "Oh jeez, I would maybe saw a little more of something happening." I would have paid a little more attention and um or especially he would have an agreements in place like we didn't have anything signed. It was more of a handshake deal. I trusted him, trusted both of them. And then just like now looking back, well obviously if I have a partnership that's going to get real laid out and um everything up front when everyone's happy and go through all the pros and the cons and lay it all out there and have an agreement in place to where you if anything ever did happen, you have a buy sell agreement to where now you know if you're going to part ways. Yeah. You don't have to spend time going through legal or fighting to prove your side. You can just say here it is and move on. This is already what is established and we're set. But it's still building on a good leadership team and we have a really good leadership team in place now and management teams and stuff. So I mean when you get them people in place and and get them in the right area where they need to be and and what they're doing and delivering the message Y they're passing on what we're wanting from where we're at and just doing the right things. Absolutely. So you're talking a lot about obviously the processes things like that and having employees going through the last couple years have probably been difficult through the co like everybody else being here and there and everywhere. Do a lot of your people mostly work back in the office. Are they all back in office or do some still work from home or just kind of we both we have we have most of them do work in the office at least they come in for our meetings and most of our sales staff are out in the field. Absolutely. So they're only in there for like our trainings we do and then for our companywide meetings they're in the office. But for the most part they're all in the field. Same with production. I mean production comes in the morning. They huddle in the morning and go over a game plan for the day and get what jobs they're watching and they're out in the field all day running around too doing that. But then we also have our in-house department that does like insurance negotiations for like supplements that are missed on the estimates. They go through that and make sure that they're getting everything that they are owed for the home to do it right and get it done right with the right code items and stuff. So we have most of them that are working remote. Yes. And there's a few of them that work in the office but a lot of them for them they don't need to be in the office necessity. Yeah. They have the CRM system that we have so they can get in there see all the pictures uh go through and just call the insurance company and negotiate all those items. So they don't need to be in the office for that. So, but as we grow, I think there'll be more positions that will kind of come to where we won't have to have everyone in the office, right? Obviously, the people that need to be there. Yep. Yep. But it is good to get people in the office cuz then you just kind of rally around the excitement, get a good plan and just that interaction with people. For sure. But, but yeah, it was it was a different time in 2020. I mean, it was we didn't know what was going to happen. I mean, we're a door-nocking company. Yeah. And we do a lot of marketing as well. We get a lot of leads from brokers and like agents and realators and all this different thing to where it's not only doornocking, but a big part of it is doornocking. And we were like, whoa, what's going Do we do it? Do we not do it? Yeah. I mean, we were shut down there for a little bit to where we had to kind of shift gears and figure out different game plan to get in front of customers and and how to sell that deal and help them because we really can't help them until we sign them up and move them through the process. But we were going all leaving folders and then calling them from the from the car, right? and um walking them through the process. Here's the folder. Here's the layout. Yeah. We would get up and and video the um the inspection and take pictures and then call them and send it to them so they can see what we're doing. And so that was there and this is the layout and we're virtual. It was a different time, but we adapted overcame and it was uh it was a good experience. We learned a lot through that as well. Yeah. Do you guys still use some of that in place today? I mean, I know people aren't fully back and they might not ever be to where they were 2 years ago to all the face to face, not wanting to leave the house or to do things. They want to do everything virtual now. How much of that has changed for you guys? Yeah. Well, we do pretty much 50/50. I mean, we have a lot of them cuz all we went digital on all of our files. Where some of the reps still want to use the paper files and they go and sit down and and have them signed off. But then there's a few of them, a handful of them that want to, you know, it's all digital. They email it over and they can fill everything out and have them click and sign and do that. So they don't have to use the paper contract. But that was a big shift for us in 2020 cuz we were we were a company kind of old school to where we would have a paper copies and paper files. We'd have file racks all over our office and moving file to file. We've got those offices here. So, so we were doing that and it's like, man, I mean, we did it for a lot of years and and it worked for us, but then that kind of forced us to go more digital, go more, you know, um, virtual, too, to where we can just do it over the phone and just go away. Yeah. So, there's a there's definitely a handful of them that do it that way still, and there's a bunch of them that still do it going to the house and sitting down and going through the paper contracts as well. So, and it kind of depends on the customer, too. I mean, you get a feel right away when you're in there what what's going to work for them, what's not going to work for them. Yeah. If they want everything electronic, that's easy. If not, here's the paper. Here's how it's laid out. Get the pen out and let's get it done. Well, it saves a lot of time, too, over the I mean, if you go out to a customer's house and you're looking at a roof or the siding, you're putting all those down and signing off on that, but you forgot the gutter color. Yep. And now you have to drive all back out there 40 minutes out. You go back out there and get a gutter gutter color signed off. You can just forward the form to them, have them click and sign it. I mean, that's been saving a lot of time for a lot of the reps on just the little extra little things that need to be done that be easily done with that process instead of having to go back out to the house. For sure. That's I mean, it it has been a big change and you notice it even with the younger kids when they were kept home, not wanting to still wanting to learn online, e-learning, seeing the high schools and teachers aren't even in the classrooms anymore. It's all you're learning. They're learning from a computer that's sitting in front of them. And the world's changing. It's crazy. It is. It's moving fast, too. There's always things changing. You guys got to keep up and try to be ahead of it a little bit. Yep. Absolutely. And I think having the kids, my kids, your kids, whomever, kind of keeps us on our toes a little bit and lets us know what's coming, what's going, everything like that. Absolutely. They do. They show you all the little tricks. Yep. I'm still learning. I mean, I know I'm on social media doing as much as I can, but every day they're like, "Hey, mom, why why do you do this or let's let's get on here and try this?" I'm like, I don't know what it is, but all right, let's let's do it. I'm getting on TikTok. Let's go. Yeah, it's fun. The world's changing, and I I like seeing that kids want to help. They want to still be out there. Still want to get out. They want to have the face to face. They're not stuck just sitting in the room behind behind a desk. It's It's good to see them get back out there and get back to the normal life. Well, it was great having you out here today. Again, if people want to get a hold of you, locations are where? Yep. So we have our main location in Lake Elmo and then our other location in Rochester, Minnesota. And then yeah, they can get a hold of us on builtstrongexteriors.com. They can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So we're on those three platforms right now. We might get on Tik Tok, maybe commercially, but we're not there yet. Maybe coming soon. Hey, you will be through us. So there you go. Perfect. All right. I love it. All right. Well, it was great having you out with Tony today. Right. Thank you. Y I appreciate it. Yeah.