600% Growth Since 2013... How Doug French Built a $350M/Year Company

SPEAKER_00:American builders and eraser dream. One brick, one dream, building the American Woo!

SPEAKER_01:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of American Builders. Today I am joined by Doug French, owner and CEO of Stylecraft Builders. Doug, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Garrett, a pleasure. So excited to be here, and thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01:We'll start like we start every episode. Give the audience um just kind of a brief background on who you are, who the business is, and we've got all sorts of cool, interesting stories and questions to dive into, but let's just kind of lay the foundation a little bit for those listening.

SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's great, Garrett. Yeah, so my name is Doug French. I'm CEO and owner of Stylecraft. We're a production home builder based in uh Bryan College Station, Texas. Um, so uh it's it's a great little area. It's a smaller town, so it's not the big metros in Texas like a Houston or Dallas or Austin. Uh, we this last year we're the number 59 largest builder in the country. Um, and that's Zonda's rankings. And so excited about that. We continue to grow and had a really good growth path. And um, you know, production builder, um, it's just really, Garrett, it's it's you know, you can't come in and have a plan printed off of plans.com and expect us to build that, but we have our own predefined plans and options and our communities that we build in with model homes and sales executives, and that's kind of been our business model.

And luckily, we're in a great state like Texas that's pro-business

SPEAKER_00:and pro-growth, and so we're in some really, really good markets. One thing that does make us unique, Garrett, is we haven't focused so much on the larger metros. What we what we try to focus on is what we call like B and C locations, which Brian College Station would fit that bill. Uh, but we try to be in A locations of a B and C market. So we go in these smaller markets, but we try to be in a really good location, located in a smaller market. And what we've seen is there's a ton of business to be had, a ton of pinup demand in some of these smaller markets. And uh that's really how we built our business.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we're gonna dive into kind of specifics um behind that model in a second. But first, I want to kind of go back a little bit, you know, the the family business kind of as everybody knows, it started in in 82 with your dad, but the entrepreneurial line, as I understand it, goes back quite a bit, whether it was kind of your your grandfather, your great-grandfather's uh clothing store, or um, you know, your grandmother's in the daycare center. Walk me back, kind of, you know, when did you realize like you're kind of the fourth generation of this long line of entrepreneurial journey, if you will?

SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's actually been here pretty recent where I've really started to do a little more research, Garrett. And you you seem like you've done probably about as much research as I have. So that's awesome. But yeah, so my uh on my mom's side, my great-great-grandfather had a men's clothing store in downtown Bryan in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, went out of business in the Great Depression. Um, and I've had the pleasure of acquiring that building in downtown Bryan, and I'm in the middle of uh a remodel down there, which that's a labor of love, probably not my most profitable project, but it's gonna be a lot of fun. I always joke. It's one of those deals, Garrett. Like, if you knew, like if I knew what I know now, I never would have done it, but I'm so glad that I am, if that makes sense. And then my mom's dad, so that was my mom's mom's side.

My mom's dad actually owned a lot of the Texacations

SPEAKER_00:here in town and then had a kind of a wholesale company for oil and gas for a number of years, was very successful in that. And then on my my father's side, um his mother, uh, we call her Big Mama. Uh that I guess that's a that's a Texas thing. I don't know if there's anything more Texas or country or redneck than that, but her name was Big Mama. That's what we affectionately called her. But she was a force. And so she started a daycare center out of her living room floor. So if you want to go on a date with your significant other, you drop your kids off in really at her house in her living room, put a quarter in the cigar box, and off you could go and have a date with your significant other, pick them up after that was over. And then she grew that business that started in her living room floor to five commercial daycare centers.

They sold out to kinder care in the early 80s, and those schools

SPEAKER_00:are still run and owned by kindercare to this day in Bryan College Station. And I'll run into people all across town that'll tell me stories about how they went to French schools growing up, and that's always puts a big smile on my face. My father took a little bit of that capital that my um that my grandmother made from, and then he and he he actually helped run the businesses and helped sell them as well. So he was very, very involved and learned a lot of lessons really early on. Huge catalysts in his career. But he took some seed money from that and started a home building company called Rainier Homes at the time. Custom home builder, built two houses the first year, four houses the next, eight eight the year after that, and then just slowly but surely kind of built that up.

But he always would go to these larger metros like Houston, Dallas, Austin, and would see these production-minded

SPEAKER_00:builders doing something more efficient, more affordable. He thought, man, there's such an opportunity for that type of home in Bryan College Station. So he brought that back to Bryan College Station in stylecraft and had a ton of success, built that business, quickly realized that, hey, if I want to really build a business of scale, I'm gonna have to expand geographically. We only can get so many housing starts in an MSA of you know 200,000 people at the time. It was 300,000 now, but back then it was 200,000. And so he started to expand to some smaller surrounding communities, uh, Brigham, Texas being one, Huntsville, Texas, and Waco, Texas. And so when I joined the company, we were doing about 200 a year housing units. And that was back in 2009, and that was our footprint. Uh, and we really hadn't fully optimized Waco or fully optimized the opportunity that was Huntsville either.

Uh, but

SPEAKER_00:yeah, we're doing about 200 a year since 2009, or really until in 2013, let me back up. In 2013, my dad had a health scare Garrett. And so I remember walking in and having dinner with him and some of his friends. We kind of having drinks before. And um, I walk in and his friend comes up and goes, Doug, you know you're gonna have to run these things. Like the time is now. And that was the time I realized, like, okay, yes, like what I'm seeing with my father and just him not able to kind of operate this business how he once was previously over the last three or four years that I'd worked with him, like what I was seeing now was being validated by by other people. And that's when I really was thrust into leadership. And since then, we've grown the company 600% as far as revenue and and capital has grown a significant uh way as well.

And and we've just we have a great team and a great business,

SPEAKER_00:and we've continued to expand geographically. Um and so that's led to it, led to a lot of growth. And right now we'll be we'll probably do about $350 million for the top line revenue. Our goal this year is 1,100 uh closings. And um, you know, we're really all around Central Texas, about a three-hour radius all around Bryan College Station. And uh, have about 1808 team members that do a fabulous job, that really do a good job of taking care of our customers and delivering a high quality product that we're we're all proud of. So that's really the the backstory and kind of how we got to where we are today.

SPEAKER_01:I mean, I think the first thing that comes to mind there is the the 600% growth. And if you can answer this question, I think it'll kind of lay the foundation for the rest of the conversation. But obviously, there's a lot of things that you probably did to go from you know 2013 to where you are now and be at that 1100 home mark. But if there was kind of the top two to three things that stand out as kind of the most effective tactical things you did that uh prove to be, you know, productive towards that growth, does anything stand out when I asked that?

SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Gary, you know, there's a and I always joke about this, but my dad, he was a salesman. And so my dad loved contracts, he loved to make the side. I love closings. And so, and and I say that kind of jokingly, but my my dad is a sales and marketing guy. He like relationships, like if he was on this podcast, like it's just he's unbelievable as far as like the the equity that he can he can build just instantly by the way he connects with people. So he's so, so good at that. But I don't think he really ever optimized the business, I'm being if I'm being quite honest. And so I always think back, like, man, if we were brothers, like and we had grown this business together, you know, from the very beginning, like where would it be today? But I think that I really came along and complimented his skill set very, very well. And so I was able to come in and really focus on profitability.

And I don't

SPEAKER_00:mean that from some like greedy stance, but home building is a capital-intensive business and it's a risky business. And so if you do not de-leverage your company and build your balance sheet, you cannot grow. It's just it's impossible. You cannot get out there and get the deals done and take um and de-risk the business and the operation in a way that's really gonna be worthwhile at all, unless you are profitable. And so what we what we've really done is we focus on profitability. We did that in a number of ways. I'm happy to get into that as well, but we've retained those earnings in the company. So as we have increased our profits, our balance sheet has grown, and that has allowed us to continue to expand geographically. Now, there's systems and processes, and that's really the other side of the coin. My dad, again, was a salesman, and so he would do really anything for the sale.

And so

SPEAKER_00:we had to really come back and say, okay, who are we as a company? And who is our customer? And then build our systems and our processes and be disciplined to that. Um, and realize that, like, by saying yes to the customer, that's not always the right thing. It may, it may feel really good at the time, and they may be happy at the time, but if you don't have the business, the systems, the operations to then go and execute on that promise, like it doesn't matter. You end up typically losing money because you didn't execute correctly, so you have a bunch of rework to go do. Your team members are frustrated because you didn't communicate with them properly, because you don't have the systems to do that. And the customer thinks you're an idiot because you told them you were going to do something and you forgot to do it because you didn't document it correctly.

And so we really had to learn those

SPEAKER_00:lessons. And unfortunately, sometimes we still learn those lessons uh to this very day, just at probably at a different scale than we used to. But we had to become more disciplined. In order to scale a company, you have to really understand who you are, focus on who you are. And then when you have that focus, it not only tells you what you say yes to, but just as importantly, it tells you what you need to say no to. So those are really probably the two biggest keys again: profitability, building our balance sheet, allowed us to scale, and then building a scalable business through processes and operations.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, this touches on, I mean, you we talked about how you know your grandma sold the daycare business, and now we're seeing acquisitions in kind of the home building space. You had Berkshire Hathaway purchase Taylor Morrison for 8.5 billion. How are you analyzing the sort of acquisition markets in um you know the home building industry? Is this something you're looking at at all? Or um obviously when you de-risk a business and create operations and systems that you know can live on forever, that obviously makes you a more acquirable business. I'm just curious to get your thoughts on the landscape of the industry.

SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So, you know, I'm a student of home building. And so, like, when there's a big deal like that, it excites me. I love reading about it. I love getting into the numbers. I love looking and saying, okay, like what is my experience with either one of these companies? And so we've had some experience with with Clayton properties in Berkshire in the past and have had actually two really good friends of ours that have sold out or that sold to Clayton properties. Um, and so I think it's gonna be interesting to see how that deal uh kind of evolves. And I think, you know, and and a lot I actually posted about this on LinkedIn, I had an article that I wrote about this earlier this week. But, you know, it's one thing to talk about scale and operations and economies of scale. And I definitely understand all that. You know, when you when you merge two companies, you can um reduce some redundancy

SPEAKER_00:as far as back office is concerned. And then taking Taylor Morrison and having the balance sheet of Berkshire Hathaway makes a ton of sense. And now all of a sudden you got a top five builder when you combine those two companies, and so on paper, it makes a ton of sense. I think the thing that people have got to remember is how difficult it is to pull something like that off. Now, if anybody can do it, I would say Clayton Properties and Taylor Morrison are who I would put my put my money on. So I'm sure they'll do a fabulous job. So not throwing any stones at either one of those companies. But what I do want to point out is how difficult that's that that is to pull off. It is not easy to do a merger of equals.

It's one thing, let's say, that like a builder is wanting to come and expand into Atlanta, Georgia, or they're gonna want to go and expand into Raleigh, you know, North Carolina, or

SPEAKER_00:wherever that is, right? And they go buy a local builder there and they have this huge giant footprint and they have all these economies of scale. And then now they just really bought the builder's lot position. That's really all they've done, right? That's one thing. I think it's a lot easier to absorb something like that. You gotta obviously go hire a really strong division president, put them over that operation. Maybe the owner operator stays on for a number of years and has an earnout, that looks you know completely different than hey, Taylor Morrison is going to merge with Clayton properties. It's the complexity of a transaction like that. And I mean the analogy I use, Garrett, was it's like if anytime you try to incorporate just one single team member into your leadership team. So we have a leadership team of seven people right now.

Every time we incorporate a new team member of our

SPEAKER_00:leadership team, we are so methodical and take so much time to interview that and to make sure they're a great cultural fit, not just that they know how to operate the business and their functional area, but that they're a great cultural fit. And they're not gonna, you know, throw that balance off that we've worked so hard to cultivate in our team. Now do that across two huge, large organizations. And to me, like just that with just having one new person come in an organization, that's a heavy lift. And it's a lot to accomplish. Coming and merging two companies of this size and this scale and this complexity, it's I mean, it's a bear. That that is a lot to get right. And I'm sure they'll get a lot right, I'm sure they'll get a whole lot wrong, and they'll probably learn a whole lot from it.

But I think just to say that, oh, this is the best thing, and this is this huge company, and you better

SPEAKER_00:watch out, which is kind of what I always read when I read those articles. Like people are telling me that, hey, you know, these these companies that are scaling have this huge advantage, and now you're gonna get run over, so you better get out of the way. So there's there's that side of it where I'm really a student of the market and kind of what's going on that I'm reading. And then there's the okay, I'm a I'm a builder who obviously has had numerous calls from the Japanese, or be it Clayton Properties, or even some of the larger publicly traded companies, and had those conversations. And just telling you, like, there's a there's a couple different sides of number one, I'm I'm young, I'm 43 years old. I'm nowhere near wanting to retire. And like I still have a whole lot of gas left in my tank. I'm still super competitive. I'm not tired, I'm not worn out.

We have a great team, they're doing

SPEAKER_00:a fabulous job. I feel like we have a lot of runway there. And so the reason that that I am not selling out, the reason that I do not want to sell out, the reason that when people call me, I say, yeah, I'm happy to have a conversation, but just realize like I am not a willing seller at all. And um, and so I typically will have those conversations because I always learn a lot from them. It's always interesting to hear different people's perspective and then kind of also build those relationships because there's always, you know, different opportunities as you go in different markets with some of these publicly traded builders. And again, you always learn something. But, you know, the if I'm just being completely honest, financially it doesn't make any sense for for me. Um, and that's also the other side. So there's the side that like I really enjoy what I'm doing.

Um, I I love our business,

SPEAKER_00:I love home building, I'm competitive. I need something to channel that energy towards. And if it wasn't this, like, what would that look like? I would drive my wife and my kiddos and everybody else in my life crazy. Like, I'm not just gonna go play golf and fish for the rest of my life. So I would want to go start something else. Well, that that's a whole lot of work and energy and effort. So, like, why go sell something that's going so well to go do that? So there's that side of it. Then there's the team side of it that's just doing such a good job, and that I really enjoy kind of investing in them and and growing the company and seeing them grow and the fabulous job that they've done. But then there's just the financial side where it just doesn't make sense. This is not like an AI startup where they're paying you, you know, 100x revenue.

Like, if you're gonna come offer me 100x revenue,

SPEAKER_00:yes, I will gladly sell my company, but that's not how these deals uh are you know underwritten at all. And just financially for me, I'm so much better. Like my my financial goals and where I want to get, you know, I have to have um consistent results over a long period of time. And home building for me is a platform, as I've de-risked it, it's a platform where we can deliver consistent financial results over a long period of time. Now, some years obviously you're gonna you're gonna hit that stand-up triple, or, but then other years you may bunt and get lucky to get on first base, right? So not every year is gonna be a home run. Um, but for us, it's you know, building a company that can sustain the ups and the downs of this industry, of the economy, of uh just home building in general.

So you got to build that balance sheet, de-risk the company, and then just have a really well-run, disciplined,

SPEAKER_00:you know, organization that just delivers results year over year over year. And then over 20, 30, 40 years, you look up and you've achieved something extraordinary. So that's really that's really the goal, that's the vision um for the company and and kind of what I want to accomplish. So I hope I hope that makes sense. That's the reason that not sold out as others have, yeah. If I was 75 years old, I'd probably look at it differently too, right?

SPEAKER_01:And it's a great place to be in, you know, where it's like, okay, I I don't need to sell, but you're in a market where there's clear clearly demand for it, especially when you have companies like Berkshire Hathaway doing acquisitions of this scale. So you're definitely in uh a spot that many people would want to be in. But I want to go back to one of the initial things you were talking about about the discipline, um, and that in order to have scale, you need to have discipline. Um you uh, you know, in my research here, I saw something along the lines of in order for the town homes that you guys are building to work, if they land for they, you know, they need to land 40 to 50k below a comparable single family home. And so to do that, you know, you had to make some decisions. You had to cut some square footage, certain bathrooms, garages.

I'm just curious when you look at those decisions that

SPEAKER_01:were made, um, especially as it relates to building a home, like what were some of the things that um, you know, you could cut and that would make a profitable decision versus some things where it's like, okay, you know, we're not gonna cheap out on this, regardless of if it's more expensive. You know, it's kind of critical to the the customer experience, if you will.

SPEAKER_00:For sure. You know, Garrett, there's just there's things like um, you know, some of the stuff that we would not cut is like waterproofing for a shower. Like that's just that that is not something that we're gonna ever make a compromise on. The roof integrity, our framing, I mean, all those types of things we're not gonna make any kind of compromise on. One of the cool things that we were able to do in one of the townhome projects we delivered in, our finishes in the one that we did in college station is actually nicer than a lot of our single family homes. But the way we're able to accomplish that, Garrett, is by making those spaces smaller. So they're they're nicer cabinets, but there's not as many cabinets. Does that make sense? And so those are some more of the compromises we made. It was more like, okay, so one of the things we are willing to move away from is a garage.

And so in a number

SPEAKER_00:of our townhome communities, we do not we do not have a garage. Now I know there'd be lots of land planners and um architects that say, oh my goodness, like now you're gonna have, you know, cars parked up and down the street and people will be parked in front of their house. But I mean, the reality is houses were built without garages for for such a long time. And so this is a very common practice. And I went to actually Austin a couple weeks ago, went to a concert with my family there, went to a really cool restaurant, and we had to park on the street and we walked, you know, three or four blocks up to go to this restaurant. And that's just kind of what it was. But every, if you tell somebody about that street and where we were, like, oh my gosh, like that is such a cool neighborhood, such a cool development. Like, I love the vibe, it's so walkable, it's so pretty.

There's all this tree,

SPEAKER_00:all this shade. But it's it's just funny how we look at things so differently. And everybody's saying you need to build more affordably, but in order to accomplish that, there's always gonna be critics. There's always gonna be people that say, like, oh, well, you should have added an alley to that product and done more of a rear load, although that um our customers don't want that. Our customers don't they want a backyard, you know? And so, but we what so some of the compromises we will do, um, lot cost has got to be a lot of it. So we've got to get a more dense lot. And I think there's pros and cons to that. Some people do not want to maintain a big, huge yard. They kind of want that lock and leave um, you know, kind of experience where they can leave the house. A little while and doesn't take so much to maintain it. And so, and then so there's there's the lot size, and so a lot of that

SPEAKER_00:40 to 50,000 delta that we have got to see between where our singles start and our townhome start, it's has to come from the lot. It just has to. And then the other side of that would be okay, we look at garage. Do we need a garage? Is there a way to thoughtfully do that? And then we're going to shrink our more expensive spaces. And our more expensive spaces are going to be our kitchen, they're going to be our master bathrooms, and then just the overall square footage, you know, in total. So we were able to accomplish that in college station. We had a $224,000 townhome we delivered on an 18-foot lot. It was all rear loaded. So the parking was behind it, but also had on-street parking as well that the city required. Um, and it has a very well, it could actually like waterfall countertops, stainless steel vent hood. I mean, it's really well done. Uh, under counter microwave. So we did some

SPEAKER_00:really cool finishes that we don't even do, like I said, in our single family, but it's a 900 square foot townhome. The um kitchen, I mean, there I think there's the just the the cadmetry as far as the counter space, the cadmetry there is probably, you know, a third to a half of what we typically would put in one of our standard houses. So that's kind of how we're able to get out some of the cost. We don't compromise on quality ever, right? But what we will compromise is like how much of something that we're putting in something. Like, you know, even things I remember forever we put in medicine cabinets in our houses. We always had a medicine cabinet, or we always did head knockers over the commode. And now you can easily, if you really want a head knocker, you buy one of our houses, you can easily add that. You can add that cabinet over your commode after you close.

But right now, not every

SPEAKER_00:buyer wants that. And there's gotta be some things we're able to eliminate and take out uh that does help get our cost down and helps drive that value and gets more uh gets more people where they can afford a home. So those those are some does that make sense? Those are probably the compromises we we will make, but net never on quality.

SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And you know, the reason I asked that is just because it's like everybody, the affordable housing is such a hot topic, if you will. It's like objectively, this country needs more housing, but in order for that to be affordable, there's really there's only one way to do that, and you have to figure out how to get those costs down. Um, and so it's you know, but like you said, without reducing the quality. So you're solving an important problem by doing that. But I want to touch on one other thing, kind of the construction specific space. Um, you mentioned in a previous podcast or interview that you guys kind of cut your build cycle by 32 days in a year, crediting a lot of that to kind of the VP of construction. I'm curious, walk me through that. What does that process look like? Like, you know, what were some of the things you did to get that that build time down if you're open

SPEAKER_01:to sharing?

SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Gary, no, that that's a great question. And Jordan York and his team have done a fabulous job. And so much of that is just returning back to discipline. And it's kind of the same thing that I had to do when when you started, when I when I really kind of took over the company, started running the day-to-day. You can't do everything at once. And so you've got to start to focus. And so for me, like when I when I always looked at durations, I thought, okay, are we pouring the slab on time? If you're not pouring the slab on time, you're not gonna build a house on time. So that's the very thing, the very first thing you got to focus on. And so you got to have, then you gotta look at all the key components. You got to scrape your lot, you got to go get the the form board set, you gotta go get your plum roughed in, you got to get dirt in the uh, you know, fill filled into the forms.

Um, and

SPEAKER_00:then you have to go get your, you know, your guy to go make up the slab and and pull the cables and pour the foundation. So you have to look at each one of those key components and break that down and start to monitor that and start to realize, okay, where is this slippage coming from? Where am I not hitting my targets? And then realizing that, okay, is it just a capacity issue? Is it that, you know, my plumber can only do four a week and I'm asking him to do six? I need I need a new plumber, or is it just that I haven't communicated to my plumber that I need to do six a week? And if I just would give him, you know, three weeks' notice, because we start all of our jobs six weeks in advance. If I just would give him three weeks' notice and then call him the week before, that would help them out. So it's really looking at it piece by piece.

And then once you get slab done, you got to go focus

SPEAKER_00:on frame. And then you got to go focus on, you know, your MEPs and getting your roof on. And you just got to break it down piece by piece by piece and really realize, okay, where's my bottleneck happening? And then when you identify that bottleneck, you go attack it. And there's only so many things that that are going wrong. Either you're not communicating correctly or there's a capacity issue. And um, if if it's one or the other, you got to go fix that. And then of course, there's also material deliveries and communication, and the job's got to be set up correctly for the next trade. I mean, if if you know, if um MEP or I'm sorry, if the frame inspection hasn't happened, but you have your sheet, uh you have your um installation scheduled and they show up, well, you can't insulate, like you can't do things like that. That really erodes trust and that's a dry run.

And and so it's it's just

SPEAKER_00:really being all over it and watching those schedules like a hawk. And I think that Jordan really went in there and uh eliminated the excuses. I think that's one of the things we've always seen and we've heard. Well, if the sheet rocker just would show up when I tell him to, or if the painter would just do this, or but it's like you can't control the painter. You can control you. And if the painter's really an issue, then you control you and you go find another painter. Or if the painter's really an issue, like let's do a better job of communicating. Let's have a monthly meeting with the painter and sit down and talk about all the things that are getting in his way and help him eliminate his bottlenecks or her bottlenecks so they can then deliver on time and on schedule for us. And so I think it's just always taking that proactive approach.

And what I see when people get stuck is they get

SPEAKER_00:stuck by blaming somebody else. It's an excuse, it is, and it's typically an excuse that's not in their control that they can do nothing about. And if you focus on that, you're never gonna get better. And I think that's just like a life lesson and something that I that I had to learn as a as a teenager. I remember learning that lesson, and just implementing it in business as well. Control what you can control and really get in there and focus. And when you do, things always get better. You know, and I'll use another example of that exact same concept. If we have a house that it hasn't sold, if we just plan an open house in four weeks from now, and then we go walk the house and we get the house touched up and cleaned and swept out and make sure it's really, really clean.

And then we start telling the realtor community about this open house that's coming up, and then we put air fresheners in

SPEAKER_00:it and we focus on it, and we promote the open house on Zillow. Nine out of 10 times, the house sells before the open house even happens. And the reason being is because we started to focus on that house. And I'm just a big believer in what you focus on, it always gets better. It always gets better. That's your health or your fitness or your spirituality or your relationship with your significant other or your kiddos or at work, what you're focused on is gonna get better. And it's just making sure you're focused on the right things. That's really what's so important. And I talked to Jesse Kelly, our COO, about that a lot.

Like, I think one of my jobs had always been, and one thing that she's working on and really is showing a lot of a lot of uh growth here, is when you get in and you take over a new leadership role, or you're a manager, or you're a project manager, even in the field, or really

SPEAKER_00:just in life, there's so many different things coming at you. But if you can slow down and kind of zoom out and get that 10,000 foot view and realize, okay, what's the most important things? There's 15 things down here. What are the two to the three that I can attack this week that I can get done? That once those are done, those are no longer an issue moving forward. And just focus on those. But it's like when you see the 15, you almost freeze. But if you can focus on those three, get those done, and then the next week focus on the next two or three. It's the same thing in business, the same thing I did with the company overall. It's the same thing that needs to happen with job schedules and durations. And that's what Jordan York and that's what Jesse Kelly and and our entire team has have just done a fabulous job of this year.

And that's why we've seen our durations go down to you know 30

SPEAKER_00:days. And so it just was really returning back to the basics of the disciplines that we should have been doing all along. But um doesn't make it's it's simple in theory, but it's certainly not easy, and it's not easy to accomplish. They've done a great job there.

SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. One of the things you mentioned there, you know, I like the quote you said, it's it's not the painter, it's you. And at the end of the day, the responsibility falls on you, but still, there is um, you know, an ability or a responsibility to make sure you have the right painter on the job. And this is the world we live in at TradeGuard, which is how do you make sure the subcontractors that you're working with are pre-qualified and should be the subcontractors you work with? Um, talk to me about that a little bit. How do you guys kind of make sure the trade partners on each job are properly qualified, are properly insured, and should be on that job. What does that process look like for you? Because at the end of the day, a lot of it does ride on them. You know, if even if you got to go find a new painter, it's like, okay, this painter's not working, we got to find a new one.

Well,

SPEAKER_01:there still is that responsibility to make sure that new one is a quality painter. Talk to me about that process and how that works for you guys.

SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, and eventually a team effort for us, Garrett. You know, purchasing our purchasing team is very, very involved in that. They're very involved in the onboarding process and you know, getting getting the um just all the uh accurate documentation and our agreement signed and of course the insurance and all that stuff. But then there's also, like you're saying, the job in the field. And so we have our purchasing team, our quality team, our um construction team kind of meet with them and make sure they walk a couple jobs. And then what we what we typically do is we'll do a pilot. So we don't just award somebody a neighborhood, we give them a couple of jobs, we see how that goes, and then we'll give them a little bit more. And then we slowly but surely kind of start working people into our process. Um, and so that's really how we've tackled that. But it's definitely a team effort. Uh,

SPEAKER_00:and again, it's between our quality team, I'm sure our warranty team gets involved some as well, our construction team in purchasing. And and I think that's really something that I probably didn't hit on enough when I talked about um the way that we've been able to improve our durations, but that's also been a huge key to that. Having our purchasing team and Bruce over there in Colton, they've done a fabulous job of continuing to find really good trades that can expand our capacity because, like you said, your only good is is your weakest link. And we have we have some fabulous trade partners that just do a great job with us, who've been with us for a number of years, and we're so blessed to be able to build alongside of them. But you're right, like we rely on them so, so greatly, and and they they really are key to our operation and key to our success.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, we we work with a lot of GCs and home builders, and it's you know, sometimes they can get a little frustrated and say, okay, I've been working with this sub for a while now, and um, or it's a nuance, ah, this, and you know, having them go through the jump through these hoops and do these requirements is you know, it's slowing down the process. But at the end of the day, if you want to grow, you need to have a reliable base of subcontractors. And so the work up front that you do now to get a trade partner into your roster is ultimately going to be one of the deciding factors on on how you grow going forward. So just wanted to hit on that last piece, Doug. This has been a fantastic episode. Um, where can people find you? And just kind of give give the closing words. You know, our audience is a lot of trade partners, a lot of GCs, a lot of home builders.

Um, but also for anybody

SPEAKER_01:who's who's looking for a home in the the central Texas area, you know, the the floor is yours. Let them know what you got going on and where they can find you.

SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Garrett. And so we run a couple different companies. I didn't even hit on Tenant First, which is our property management company. We have a rental platform as well that we do some build-for-rent communities all around uh central Texas as well, that we own and operate. So that's tenant1.com and then stylecraft is just stylecraft.com. I'm very active on LinkedIn. I try to get out there and put pretty new, kind of fresh content uh a couple times a week at a minimum. And so would love to have you either uh shoot me over a connection request or follow me over there. That's really the only platform I'm active on. I do have a YouTube channel as well, but that's just kind of just now starting uh down that road and in that venture. But definitely try to find me on LinkedIn where I'm very active.

SPEAKER_01:He uh Doug mentioned earlier in the episode about the the redevelopment building he's doing. There's a great video on there that he kind of walks through it all. So, ladies and gentlemen, go check it out. And Doug, thank you again for coming on.

SPEAKER_00:Thank you, Karen. It's been a pleasure and had a lot of fun.