Protecting your Margins with Garrett Goldsberry

Reece sits down again with Garrett Goldsberry of Salt Creek Homes for round two, now that Garrett has been using Adaptive for a few months. They break down what changed after moving from Excel and QuickBooks into real job costing, and why it matters if you are trying to protect margin. You’ll hear how Garrett builds cost plus draw packages, improves transparency with clients, and catches missed costs before they quietly erode profit. If this helped, subscribe and share it with a builder who is still “making it work” in spreadsheets.

https://www.saltcreekhomesco.com

1st Episode with Garret: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2344845/episodes/17328423

Show Notes:
00:00 Responsibility matters
02:39 Who is Garrett
04:29 Spec house win
09:00 Why part two
11:06 Wish sooner
14:16 Software resistance
18:40 Cost plus draws
21:43 Catch missed costs
35:09 Hiring confidence
39:16 Podcast habits
42:12 Family time wins
44:26 Wrap up

Find Our Hosts:
Reece Barnes
Matt Calvano

Podcast Produced By:
Motif Media

Transcript

0:00

Yes, it is a business. Yes, this is our livelihood, but also we are super passionate about it, and there's a huge responsibility to bringing somebody on board with that, whether it be a vendor or an employee of Salt Creek Homes. It's our responsibility to support them and their families as well. Welcome to builders budgets and beers. I'm Rhys Barnes and I started this podcast to have real conversations about money in the building industry, the wins, the mistakes and everything in between. I believe builders deserve to feel confident about their finances, and that starts by hearing from others who've been through it too. This industry can be slow to change, but the right stories and the right tools can make profitability feel possible. Let's get into it. Mike's your hot gold Z, we're live. Love it, dude, I appreciate you jumping on little part two, it's good to be back, dude. We we followed through. We left a little teaser. God, that was a while ago. But hey, we stuck with it. We got you through. We'll obviously give the the listeners a little, a little recap here, but I want to ask, how are you doing? To start, I was like doing great spooky season. It is Halloween. It's spooky season. What do you have the boy? What's the boy gonna be dressed up as tonight? A parrot, a parrot, kind of like his old man, just kind of, all right, you want to know? Why? Yeah, why? Why? Because he, he's almost two, and he repeats everything we say. So, no profanities today. Reese, no, I love it. No profanities today, or he's gonna repeat them and, like, there's, there's zero profanity used in the Goldsberry house. He repeats everything. It's amazing. I love it. And I've actually never heard of that. Like, granted, I'm not in that, like, phase of life where I'm talking to my peers about what their kids are dressing up as costume for costumes and Halloween, but I've never heard of that before. I think it's extremely unique and creative. Was that neely's idea had to have a neely's idea. Yeah, we're both pirates too. So I can't wait to run around the neighborhood with my Jack Sparrow run. It's gonna be great. I'm gonna text you a video of my Jack Sparrow walk on in Boston. I'm gonna leave it there. You might have heard this story, but I'm gonna leave it gonna leave it there. Okay, okay, for the listeners, for the ones that didn't tune into Episode One, with you, part one, rather, who is Garrett Goldsberry? Therapeutic on this who's Garrett Goldsberry? What do you build? Where you from? Yeah, salt Creek Homes Lincoln Nebraska. We have been in the construction world for about five years, and until this year, we were strictly remodel. Passion for kind of the craftsmanship of old, the character that you find at least more often in older historical homes just kind of dove into new construction this year. We put up our first spec, and our goal was to prove that it can be replicated. Craftsmanship of old that is, can be replicated. So, yeah, a wild success. It's been a lot of fun and adaptive. Helped a bunch in that process. Yeah, okay. Again, this is guys. This might, for the listeners. Might get a little pluggish, but we're going to try and keep it as like, very like, action, results oriented. Then, just to finish this thought, because the initial episode one was Garrett, I want Garrett and I are friends. We're very close family, friends, and he was running an extraction company. Was not using he wasn't using anything other than QuickBooks and excel, if I'm not mistaken, that's correct. And you were getting the point in business where it made sense to start talking about software. So the deal was, was, do the podcast talk about your process, the problems that you guys see, run you through an authentic sales cycle of adaptive, no friends and family discount, no doing favors. It had to be a good fit. It ended up being a good fit, and now you're using it, okay, but before we jump into that, talk about the spec dude. This is a really big deal, because what you glazed over was is you have been in business for five years. You've largely been doing remodels, and this was kind of the maiden voyage, the entrance to the market of new construction, and you guys crushed it. So talk about your spec a little bit. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it was a huge passion project for us. I mean, my wife, Neely and I were able to work hand in hand with an architect to develop a floor plan that we loved. We picked material, selections that we loved, and we kind of got to run wild with it. And as I stated, I mean, the goal with it was timeless charm in a new home. I mean, it's it's hard, it's hard to replicate. I had a lot of fun with it. You know, we were maybe a little you. Was overconfident at times, but I will say that, like having done some really large scale remodels, building a home from the ground up was substantially in my opinion. I don't know if easier is the right word, but it was a breath of fresh air, for sure, from from doing remodels, you prefer new construction. I mean remodels, you know, you can do as much front end work as you want, but largely, there's certain aspects of that that are going to just always be reactionary. Whereas, you know, putting together a robust schedule and planning through a new construction efficiencies are stellar. I mean, it was fun. It was a lot of fun. And, I mean, that makes a ton of sense, right? It's like, do you start with something and like, work around what's already current, or do you just build from scratch? Totally one thing everybody to check out. Our website, salt Creek homes.co. Look at the listing. It's a beautiful home. It is still available. But just you know, if you have a passion for construction and a passion, passion for timeless design, look at it, because it was a lot of fun. It was, yeah, it was, it was a good time. You 100% have to. And I think, like, also, and one, and one thing that I think is is worth noting, is, like, a, it's a beautiful home, but B, I think, in terms of what you're bringing to the Lincoln market, is it is very refreshing. Did you, what kind of feedback did you get on the product? Because you just did Parade of Homes, didn't you? You threw in homes? Amazing. Yeah. I mean, it was, it ran quotes. What were some of the quotes? Some like, actual feedback you got from people that were walking in. Don't see anything like this in Lincoln. I love what you did here, here, here, I mean, all over the place, positive feedback throughout, really, not many negative comments. There was a couple people that didn't love, a couple little, small aspects of it, but, I mean, it was preferential taste, you know. But sure, you know, the parade runs from a Sunday to a Sunday. There's weekdays in there, from five to eight. That can typically be slow. And I mean, you know, the house was full of people, you know, 90% of the time, some just great, great feedback. The neighbors were, you know, thrilled. Obviously, you know, we, you know, we, we built a home in their neighborhood and and construction can be tough sometimes, but they were just thrilled with it. They thought it was beautiful. Yeah, really great feedback. And honestly, we had a couple of clients that were kind of on the fence of what we were going to do moving forward, whether they, you know, thought that salt crumbs was a good fit for them with their new construction. And now we, you know, through the parade, have two clients specifically that we're working through some preliminary design with to hopefully build the stream. So business, from a business standpoint, super beneficial. A couple remodel inquiries as well, from some folks that were there. So it was, overall, a big success for us. For sure, dude, that's huge. You and Neely need to you need to be proud of yourselves. Take a moment if you haven't already. That's huge. And especially just like, you know, kind of knowing your journey, I mean, because, like, again, I've known you for years at this point. And just like, even I was at builder trend still, and you were just getting started, because you were at ABC electric, weren't you or ABC supply or whatever? ABB, ABB, not ABS electrical manufacturer, yeah. And then you're like, to hell with corporate. I want to go build my own business. And now you guys are doing it. Like, look at you five years remodels got in the game just, like, totally, like, just, we're gonna just totally immerse yourselves. And yeah, now you're here. Good for you guys. You made one comment. You made the timeless charm. Did you call it timeless charm? Yes, you know, it's kind of, you know, for anyone that's listening to this, you go to the YouTube, or we might have a snippet of this Doug and Dave. But the only other thing that has about as much timeless charm is at home that you built, is that mustache on your lip. I appreciate that. Thank you. You pull it off. Well, you look sharp, dude. No one should talk you off that ledge. It's a good addition. It looks good. Okay, let's get to the brass tacks. What are we? We're like, eight minutes into this. I think this was good, solid banter. God, I'm stoked to talk about this. Okay, so again, the reason listeners we wanted to do this episode was we wanted to showcase an authentic buyer experience, builder experience, talking about financials, and how was it done before and now, how is it done post leading financial technology for construction accounting, known as adaptive. But again, I'm going to try and keep this from being a huge plug, because, as you know, if you listen, I don't like to plug adaptive. I'm okay with like, authentic, like, comments like, I don't want this to be a commercial. Um, with that said, if you want the backstory and how Garrett was actually operating, let me pull this up real quick. Um, I should be more prepared. Um. Um, just so that you can go find it. Essentially, you just need to go to either Spotify Apple podcasts or our website or YouTube adaptive, dot build and then hit podcasts. And then you could probably just do like, a control F Garrett Goldsberry for the first episode. I don't even remember when the first one was. It's been a little while. Yeah, I know here, it's been a minute. And I could probably just, like, once we release this one, um, do some like sharing on Instagram. I'm so close. Hang on. I'm close, I'm close, I'm close, I'm close, I'm close. Here you are right there. The title of the first episode with Garrett Goldsberry of salt Creek homes was from DIY to $3 million what builders learn the hard way without software. So if you guys have any questions on this, you can obviously DM me and I'll send it to you. But Garrett, let's talk about it. Um, so you're on adaptive now, yes, um, we'll, we'll dig in. But, like, generally, like, what do you think it's amazing that I wasn't using something before, if I'm being completely honest. You know, as I spoke in the first podcast, basically, budgets were built in Excel, which they still are today. Now they're imported into adaptive, great, and then tracked from that point on. But you know, before it was just, it was such a manual process, there was, you know, mistakes that were made. Draw packages were a nightmare. Just, yeah, tracking finances in general was just difficult. And now it's, it's it's simpler, it can provide, does provide so much more transparency to our clients? I mean, yeah, the overwhelming response that I would say is, I wish I would have done it sooner, for sure. Well, and I think, like, candidly, like, appreciate that, but like you, like you were, you were just getting to the point of needing it right. And just, like, tie this all into context, right? It's like, yeah, you guys were running remodels like you, you were, we basically caught you at the point where you started to, like, recognize and feel that friction, right? It was like you were doing, I mean, go ahead. But just Yeah, I mean, from the from the specifically, it was at a point where our business was growing to where the process that we had in place was way too time consuming. It was creating mistakes, costly mistakes, but also the amount of time that was that was needed to put into that was creating an unrealistic schedule in my week, whereas now, I mean to be completely frank, I probably spend a day a week, if that in adaptive it's something that I can now more specifically block out time for and more efficiently and effectively go through and keep jobs up to date when I'm doing weekly update emails to our clients about how their project is progressing. So, yeah, I mean, it's just, you're right. I mean, that is important to to note that, like, where we were, it was what we were doing was working up until it wasn't. And we needed, we needed to make a change, totally for sure, totally well. And I think that's like, that is like, a way I'm excited to talk to you. And I frankly, like, I would want your perspective. Actually, we can just dive into it. You hear it all the time, right? And you were in sales, like, you get an hour and it's like, you call people, or you're like, selling a business, like, Ah, no, what we're doing works like, we've got it under control, like, I'm already working with why do I need ABB when I've got someone else, right? You know what? What do you think drives that for builders, like, had you not known me, had like, Reese Barnes never been associated with adaptive, and you get rung up by some, some, BDR, cold caller, like, what? Why do you think people are just like, adamant? They're like, No, no, Excel is working. QuickBooks is fine. I got the office manager doing it like, this is, we don't need anything help. Why do you think that is, I would say that. I mean, and again, this is, maybe, this is completely my opinion, but I'm sure some of this might be accurate. For some, I would say that the initial investment, combined with stubbornness and comfort with the current operation, regardless of if it's taking time right like it is important to point out that adaptive for me required a decent amount of front end work and effort to create processes and prepare my back end QuickBooks and all that stuff to work properly with adaptive so like initially, yes, it created more work for me. But now, after that dust settles, it's been much more efficient. So I would say the cost, the initial setup or comfort. Effort of doing what you're doing. And then, I mean, to be completely fair, there's with a lot, a lot of larger builders, there's probably somebody on staff that can manage that in a way to where, I mean, somebody may be concerned that their their job would be at risk if with adaptive I don't know for sure. I mean, yeah, I assume that it would make them much more efficient. But totally, totally, well. And I think to that point, I mean, Joe, you bring up, like, all extremely valid points, right? And I think that's where, like, a the podcast is great, because you can, you basically get a chance to go inside the mind of other builders that have very you guys are all doing the same thing, right? It's like you're all operating at, like, essentially the same thing, not building the same house. I don't want to offend anybody, you guys, you have your own special touch and how you're building things. But in terms of, like, running the back office in the business, like, it's generally the same, right? I think, like, in terms of this, like, it's going to take my job, conversation, it is. It is an adaptive objection staple, right? It's like, this is going to take my job. And it's like, okay, we can think about that a couple of ways. Like, if it's just, like, pure data entry, which 90% of the time it is not the case, like, there's much more critical thinking management decision making, right? Like, which is really, like, the high value work, like, going into it, like, it ain't gonna take your job. Is it gonna make you more efficient? Yes. Are you gonna spend 60 hours a week at a large operation, like, owning this function on, like, all the different components? No, is it real for you to go from a 60 hour week to a 40 hour week? Just like, purely focusing on construction accounting? Like, yes, we hear it time in and time out. But I think a lot of it has to do with, like, the stubbornness of like, you know, if it's not broke, don't fix it. That's who makes up the $850 billion of this economy, right? It's like, all these builders are, like, old school guys. Go ahead, yeah. I think another thing that's probably important to mention too, that, like, in the construction industry, there's a construction industry, there's always the next software I think sometimes we get software fatigue, some of it, I mean, and you you get this from your past experience too. But some of the sales technique can be to the point where it's like, if that is literally the best thing in the world, the way that it is sold is going to create a situation in my mind where I am literally going to boycott it only because of the way that it was tried, you know, the way that it was sold, right? Like, leave me alone, 1000 like, a billion different softwares. And, you know, whether it's a scheduling software, project management, this, that the other I mean, there's, there's so many of them. Now that you know, someone calls and says, Hey, try adaptive. You might just already have your guard up and be like, No, I'm good. Not another one. Totally, totally BDRs AES, you're gonna be listening to this episode. You're gonna be getting a little feedback from Garrett Goldsberry. But no, dude, you're totally right. It's like, you just get, like, freaking overwhelmed with all these different solutions, and everyone's like, save you time and money. My solutions all in one. Mine's better at this than that. And it's like, that's it. We're not feature selling here. Like, we need to be talking about problems that exist in businesses and why your solution is compelling enough for someone to take an action right, which we don't need to, like, change this into, like, a sales coaching podcast here, but, but, but I'm glad, I'm glad to hear that it's working out with you, that you're seeing the time save you mentioned how you send it to customers, yeah, what the general feedback been with your customers? I'll just let you answer. Go ahead. Yeah. I mean, so, I think so on the first podcast I had mentioned this, but we, you know, in the first five years of our business, the remodel side, we have predominantly been lump sum contracting all of our jobs. And don't get me wrong, like it worked. It definitely worked. And had I had, you know, a more robust financial tool, we would have probably eliminated some of the mistakes that we were having with that. But we've kind of shift our focus on some of those for a couple of different reasons. One, it was something that I wanted to change for a while, but also, I have now found through adaptive that a cost plus basis job is extremely efficient, and for me, quite a joy to work with through adaptive so, I mean, I guess at a baseline, right? You know, invoices come in, expenses come in. You know, they get, they get cost coded to the job, and then each month, or each week, or biweekly, however you're doing your draws. I mean, you throw the draw package together, all of those invoices are sent directly to the customer. In the draw package. All the information is just right there, the remaining, you know, the remaining cost. And I mean, all the information that a client consumer could possibly want for me to bring. Provide 100% transparency is there? It eliminates the plumber charged$1,000 more for this unknown condition during rough in and now, eight weeks later, I'm having the conversation with the homeowner of like, Oh, hey, by the way, this was more expensive eight weeks ago. I mean, it just the efficiency of it, internally and externally, has been tremendous for me. And this may sound super Elementary. I mean, I'm sure that there's a lot of folks out there that had a better grasp on how they were billing clients or whatnot, but for me, I mean, personally, it's been, it's been incredible. Well, I think element, how long have you been with adaptive? June? June? What is it? So, probably, so our podcast either right at the beginning of June? Yeah, end of May. Yeah, we hopped on that right before I got it, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, because I was a part of the deal podcast sales cycle, and now we're here. Okay? So it's like, essentially, like, you're in it for four months. And like, I will tell you that, like, we roll out features really fast, so there's probably like things that we can do, and you're still getting, like, your legs under you, which is great to hear that you're getting the value that you are, but to the rudimentary or elementary, rather, comment that you made, I don't think it is Garrett. Like, even for builders that are running like, 1015, $20 million dollars in custom homes, and they're all cost plus, like a you could not convince me ever that a process putting the other cost plus draws without adaptive is more efficient. No shot negative will not happen. But this is where, like, I coined the phrase, like you can't, plus what you don't cost, right? And perfect example for you, we started a job two weeks ago, and I was pretty transparent about this in our first podcast, but we have a pretty long front end process with our company, right? There's a consulting and then pre construction, and it takes us a long time to get to construction, and there's a lot of reasons for that, a lot of reasons that we're really passionate about, but so we charge fees during consulting. We charge fees during pre construction. I was creating the budget for this specific project through adaptive and as I imported it, there was a cost specifically that wasn't in that budget. And it was, let's call it, $750 for engineering fees that were absolutely necessary to making sure that the wall we were removing was going to work. It wasn't in the budget. I missed it when I created my first draw package, I realized that there was, at some point, a few months ago, an invoice from the structural engineer that needed to be paid for, and I was able to have that conversation on day one of the project with our client, get paid for it, and get paid or I Guess, plus what I was, unfortunately not costing before, and it's, it's, I alluded to this in the first podcast, though, but it's like one of those things where, when you're when you're kind of new in the industry, or don't have as much confidence as you do year 20, as you do year two is, you know, you kick that can can down the road a few months. And you might even, in your own mind, justify and say, like, I can't charge them for it because it's been too long, but at the end of the day, like we're providing a service for the client that we feel is, you know, top notch and at the end of the day, right, like the structural integrity of their project, the communication, the transparency, everything needs to work both ways, right? Like it was a fee that wasn't on the budget. And, you know, we apologize for that, but we have to get paid for that, and it was crucial to their project. So that was, I mean, day one project through adaptive. I mean, it saved it saved us, you know, month and a half a subscription, yeah. Oh, all right, two, two months subscription, yeah. I mean, paid for itself. It paid for itself. And I remember when we first talked about jumping on board, I was very, very confident that I would be able to offset subscription costs by fixing and eliminating issues. I mean, that's at the end of the it's in its simplest form, that's what it was. It makes my heart feel good that that is like a genuine experience of yours again. Because, like, you're a personal friend of mine, right? And it's like you, like, you sell this to the public. And like, of course, you have the best interest in mind, but when you do it with a friend, you're like, okay, like, this is like the reality check, right? And it's like, actually working and selling to a salesman is one of the most great. Is the best feelings ever, because, like, you're course gonna have, like, a skeptical and like, like, what's like, I'm not sold until it's like, actually working for me, right? You know how this goes. But the point I do want to highlight is is more so on this. Like. What has adaptive done for you? I think that's a really important topic to cover here, because in our sales cycle, there's really, like, two ROI buckets. Is the first is the time savings, right? Which, like you, along with 98% of adaptive users, start with, which is the time savings, right? You're like, I can sit down and I can do budget reviews and approve costs and ensure receipts and put draws together a day a week, right? Whatever or less, whatever it is, right? And like, that was better than what I was doing. That's fine, but the big ROI bucket, the second ROI is the profit erosion, and that's what you just got done explaining, and that is what literally slaughters this interesting industry. I was in Vegas this week for Intuit Connect. Or, yeah, Intuit Connect. It was intuits conference, QuickBooks conference, sure. And you know, when we're talking about this, we did panels on like, how to build a construction cast, essentially a construction bookkeeping firm. And we go over this, it's like an $850 billion market made up of like, like, 20 million or like, what is it? It's like five to 100 million builders, whatever it is, they make up a huge component of the market, and they see two to 4% profit margin erosion, which equates to, like, essentially a$25 billion opportunity for service providers to catch and prevent that slippage or erosion from happening. That's what you're explaining. That's huge.$750 a month, kick the can down the road, Miss costs. There's got to be more zeros behind the example, right? It's not your example. It's I know, well known builders. I've done podcasts on this where they're like, dude, reach we'll literally, like, uncover, like, 150 grand that didn't get billed for at the end of a job. And it's like, what are you gonna do? Like, that's not including your 20% markup. You're gonna go to a client and, like, risk a reputation. Be like, you need to cut me a check for 200 grand because I missed it. Yeah. Like, you're gonna eat it or split it, which is still coming out of your bottom line, right? And those are big numbers, yeah. So I mean 100% and I can confidently say that we were around three to 5% profit erosion. Shamefully, I think sometimes when you the reason why I'm giving you the range is because when it's happening. You don't exactly always know what the true number is, for a lot of different reasons. But yeah, I mean very confidently. I mean when I get to the end of a yeah, anyway, totally. And that's again, like guys, this is probably, like, the most pluggy builders budgets and beers episode there is. But I think this is an awesome story to have. It's a great journey, because it really is going to really is almost like a success story. Like you're like, four months into this journey, and you're already saying, like, dividends paid back. Going, do you have anything you want to add on to that? Or can I jump around a little bit? You do your thing, man, I'm on fire. I'm on fire. Okay, so with, again, with communicating this to your clients, you mentioned. Like, the transparency side of things. How do you deliver this? Is it just an email? Do you do a set down meeting? Do you review it with them? Do you just give it to them to sign off? Like, how do you actually communicate that with them? Specifically, like, draw packages. Or, yeah, draw packages. Budget reviews, pre con. How do you use adaptive with your customers? Oh, yeah. So our front end process with customers at this point, quite honestly, doesn't have, and maybe it will in the future, but, you know, it's, it's wildly, like, outside of adaptive, you know, realistically, like when we get to the end of pre construction, it's when we have a solidified budget, right? And then it's that, at that at that point before construction starts, at that budget gets inputted into adaptive. And then that's where the the magic happens. You know, for us, there's not really a communication other than on draw number one, you know, hey, this is the software we're using. Here's what the draw package looks like. You know, that's really the delivery. I mean, in its simplest form, right? I mean, at the draw package has the cost in this billing cycle, along with all of the receipts and invoices that are associated with those expenses, and then a very clear builder, builder markup. I mean, yeah, I think that's fine, yeah, go ahead. Oh yeah. I mean, it's like, if you're, yeah, I mean, I guess if you're expecting some, like, big, grand, like, confetti parade, honestly, all it does is it makes something that should be really, really simple, really, really simple. Bang, exactly like, I don't have to explain anything, because it's already there, dude. It's like, I think the confetti parade is what builders and software companies are yearning for. They're like, oh, there's got to be this big thing. And like, it's like, Dude, I just want to know if we're tracking on this damn project. And I want to know that I'm paying on time. I want to know what this thing's gonna actually cost me, yeah. And I want to know that it's working. Like, it should be a. Very clean, straightforward, like, drop as much emotion out of that process as possible, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, I want to wow them with a finished product, not with the, you know, the financing tool, you know, I will say that, you know, for those finance nerds that are, you know, going to see the draw packages, they're going to be really excited about it. But I guess, as far as, like, what it looks like on my end, I mean, it's sending them the information that requires no explanation from me. I mean, and that's, that's really what I was looking for. Yeah, I love. There's so much conversation. I get asked software a lot, like, just like, because, like, I'm like, I'm in like, a marketing sales role now, but it's like people, like, they're coming to me, like, more from like, a thought leader standpoint, they're like, hey, what do you think about this tool? Hey, what should I be thinking about this? Like, Hey, how's this gonna work? I'm like, dude, like, I don't know. Like, it's like, from a project management standpoint or financial standpoint, like, you should be like, solving problems with these tools. And they're like, they make it this huge deal of like, I need this to be like, this great client experience. It's like, what? What if the best client experience was just like, insanely, like, transparent and communicative and aligned? And they're just like, the best client experience was just not a super overwhelming client experience, yeah, I mean, 100% right? Like, drop package. The invoices are there. They're all, I mean, it's all there. Cool. What did I spend for x there it is totally okay. So, so we've been talking about, like, client experience, draw packages. What's your favorite part about adaptive. Is it the draw package so far? I mean, yeah, I think so truthfully, how do you make your money? Show me the money. Garrett golden, yeah, I'm just trying. I mean, honestly, too, though, like even the front end. Yeah, I I think that that's today, four months in, for sure my favorite part, and I'm sure that there will be other parts that I'll, you know, either discover or learned to love more. But honestly, like even just inputting that initial budget into adaptive at the end of pre construction, and then just being able to track that as it flows, and not have to go back and be like, oh, did I, you know, Miss categorize something, or where's this flowing? Or, yeah, just, it's just super user friendly for me. I'm not hunting things down. It's giving me a one stop shop for going and finding where we're, where we're trending on a job, finding your numbers, seeing your numbers. Um, okay, so there's, like, certainly, like, I'm excited. Like, again, I don't want overwhelming you, because you are, like, You're four months, five months into this thing, yeah. But I think, like, just, like, understanding it sounds like that, if you know your income as a cost plus builder, and you're confident your income, then, like, your costs are essentially tight, right? Because, like, there's like the nature of the motion, but I think you're building like, really strong fundamental processes to then start getting into, like, weekly whip reviews, monthly whip reviews, right? Start talking about, like, the vendor compliance side of things, or like, even like building out and like, as you and nearly grow, like, hiring an office manager or a bookkeeper or whatever to own that thing. And then you're like, getting more into the reporting side and the more analytical side, and especially with you, like, still doing a fair amount of remodeling work, and like, getting more and more into the custom new build work. It's like using that data for estimating and just like, the actual job costing so I'm stoked for you on this, um, in terms of the listener, that's like, I frankly, like, I've got, I get like, 1000 downloads a month on this thing. I don't know if they're like, all like, Diane up in Winter Park, just downloading it because she's supportive. Or if it's like, actual, like, like prospects or potential buyers, or just whatever. What would you say to the audience was been like the most the most helpful? Or what would you urge them to consider when they are in a situation where they're operating off QuickBooks Excel considering something like adaptive, and doesn't necessarily be adaptive, but just like, what would that piece of advice be for them? Man, you can talk about it. Yeah. I mean, outside of a lot of the specific elements that I've already really discussed, I mean, honestly, I would challenge each person to ask themselves seriously, if they are keeping their monthly billing issues below the cost of a subscription. And I would be very confident that even the most efficient company could not answer that question by saying yes. I mean, truthfully, I guess Yeah, it's kind of where, I mean, that's, that's where I'm at, yeah, well, and I guess, like, what drives you? You're just like, just like, the value is like, so glaring, or like, you just know the Bloat that happens in these businesses and like, what that like without it looks like? Yeah, I mean, I remember what it looked like before, and really honestly, kind of feeling beat down sometimes when you, you know, go back and do a final audit of a job and just be like, super hard on myself, because there was things that were missed, and being concerned about longevity of business, if those mistakes continue to keep happening, and feeling pulled in a million different directions, because as a small business, we wear a lot of hats, so sometimes it's like, I don't have time for that right now, so I'm going to go do this and behind the scenes, some negative financial thing is happening, or something we're missing something, or profit erosion, and it's, you know, I mean, where we're at and where we've been for the last probably 12 to 18 months is seriously considering what the next employee for salt Creek homes looks like, and having confidence in our books Before making that next step is super important to us, and profit erosion or eliminating that is going to make make that move, and that next step, you know, much more bearable and will give us a lot more confidence in that. I guess, God, you guys are sharp. I love that. That's that's a great way to look at it. And you guys are quite literally, like, living out this isn't like I was a right moment. Maybe it is, I don't know, but I'm just like, I just like, I'm literally, like, pounding this logic of, like, you have no business in scaling a product that you don't know you're making money on. Like, before you start scaling, know you're selling it. I use the example of Apple, right? Yeah. Like, what do you think there's just making, like, hundreds of millions, billions of iPhones a year, and they don't know they're making money on it. It's like, they built the first fuel and they validated the market wanted it. And then they're like, Okay, how do we know, to the decimal of a cent that we're making profit on these things? Yeah, and then scale it right? It's like, of course, custom homes are different. You're not just cranking out iPhones, but you should know that before you start going and building out an organization. I think the other thing too is it's like, you know, I mean, for us specifically, just as this is our example, but, you know, quarterly and annual, you know, reviews, which, again, it's my wife and I, right, but we'll go through and look at budgets and projections for the next year. And, you know, a lot of times, not a lot of times, every time we do those, you know, we're looking at baking in employees. And I will be honest with you, there was times before adaptive where we had it baked in, and it seemed, you know, like a silver bullet. And then it's like, you look at annual sales, and they hit the budget, and then you look at what it would have looked like with an employee, and it wouldn't have worked, you know. So that's super discouraging. So, yeah, I mean, I think that's, that's the biggest part of this too, is it's like, yes, it is a business. Yes, yes, this is our livelihood, but also, like, we are super passionate about it, and there's a huge responsibility to bringing somebody on board with that too, and being 100% confident that it will work for them. You know, we always think about every single sub and vendor that we work with, right? Like, I don't ever look at anybody that works on our job sites as a subcontractor or somebody that I hire, I mean, they're part of our team that is executing for our clients, and anybody that comes on board with us, whether it be a vendor or an employee of soccer gums, it's our responsibility to support them and their families as well, so Understanding the books, making sure that we can afford the employee is just super important to us. So adaptive has helped a lot, and I feel, I feel really good about the trajectory of our business for a lot of different reasons, but that that finance side has helped a lot. You're the man. Again, I keep saying this, but yeah, you guys are doing great for the hiring thing. Do you listen to builders budgets and beers often? You can be honest. This could be a no. You could say no. So Diane is Diane is listening to the podcast? I know, I'm sure she is. You know, I see your little snippets on Instagram, but I'm gonna be honest. Mr. Reese Barnes, I do not listen to it, dude. It's fine. It's cool. Do you have to support me? I have, I have a list of podcasts, you know, construction industry podcasts that I pay quite a bit of attention to. But which ones are they? No, I'm working my way up, dude. This is a dude. This is I've got, I've got a freaking chip on my shoulder. That's okay. Yeah, work. I'm gonna work my way into your list. But who do you listen to? Passion for craft. Passion for craft. Who's that? It's Brett Hall. Brett Holt, dude. I met Brett and I talked to you about this. Brett's the man. This guy is a freaking national treasure. Go ahead. He's very Yeah, we really love his work. And then modern craftsmen, Nick Schifrin, Tyler grace. Great dudes. Nick, jump on the pod. Now that I'm in Boston. Go ahead. I had CG on. I had Tyler grace on. Did you listen to Tyler Grace episode? I'll send it to you. That'd be a good one to start with. If you like Tyler. I had him on the pod. Great dude. I think it was like one of the longest I've ever done in record. We're both just Ramblers. That's the two construction industry podcasts that I listen to. Okay, beautiful. Well, if there's not room for the third, I totally understand. You're a busy guy. You got a young family, thriving business, you can find room for me. That'd be great one day. Another one. And the reason I asked is because with you and Neely getting ready to hire you should listen to the podcast I did on hiring and like, how to do it. And it's with Suman over at Cherry group. Cherry talent group. It was great. I'll send it to you. It's called Stop losing a players. And we did a beat on like, how do you sequentially look at hiring people and they in, like, hers was like, start with administrative. Like, get the admin stuff. Like, completely off your plate, processed, systematized. It's like, very repetitive work, very consistent work. Easy to playbook, yeah. And then get into the field. And then start, like, building your job description essentially throughout the day to hire your first project manager site. Super so Yeah, listen to that one. Yeah, yeah. Swan sharp, great gal, great gal. But anyways, I digress. Gold z, I think this was good, and we're coming up on time. Sorry for the delay earlier. Anything else you want to share with the fine Contractors of America? Or I think we've done a good job on this topic so far. Yeah. I mean, not that I can think of, you know, yeah. I think one thing to note is you're not getting paid for this. You're actually paying us for this. So yeah, for sure. And it is worth mentioning that Rhys did not pay me to be on the podcast either time. I don't even listen to his podcast. So, you know, you're just, you're just keeping the lights on at the Barnes residence. You know, just doing me a favor. What up? What up? Pirate Neely, Hi. Happy Halloween. The boss has entered the chat. That's right, that's right. Where's the boy? Is he in his garb yet? Not yet. Well, he might be at daycare. We took his outfit to daycare. Dude, how do you party? How do you dress him up as a pirate? Is it like a feathered costume? No, he's a parrot, parrot, a parrot. That's what I'm saying. Like, is it like a feathered like, like a it's like a suit, yeah, it's like a fluffy thing. He puts it on, and he's like, I'm a bird. You've got, you've literally got it texted to, I cannot wait, I will. You guys are crushing it. You're crushing it. Neil, you look great. You look great with your what is that? What's on your head? I don't know. Came in the pirate. Oh, it's a pirate. It's a whole thing. I thought it was like a tie. I thought it was like one of, like, Garrett's ties wrapped around it's what it is. Man, yeah, yeah. I love it. I love it. Um, Neely, what do you think about adaptive? Do you use adaptive? Um, I I'm not in it as much as Garrett at all. But what I can say is that it has freed up more of his time and late nights working at his computer. And so honestly, even beyond, like, the business benefits that it provides, actually, because we work together, we're a family, we have a kid we're expecting. Number two, you know, it also has impacted family life in a positive way. So it's even bigger than business. Yeah, I love it well. And that's, you know, you got your hubby back, you know, adaptive got you your hubby back. That we're saving marriages over here too. We're not only just like showing the number, like marriages, put it on the list, yeah, yeah. Adaptive benefit cleans up your books, saves your marriage, saves your marriage, saves your marriage. Wifey knows that what we're building is actually making us money, and you're not spending time doing it. It's therapy. That's right, that's right. I appreciate it. Okay. Well, you guys look great. Garrett, you got to just be ready to get into your costume. You've got trick or treating coming up, I'm sure here. Okay, well, I'll let you guys get to it. I appreciate you as always. Enjoy the evening and let me know if I can ever do anything. You know, I'm here for you. Build something beautiful, baby. That's what we're doing. Build something beautiful. You too. You already are building something beautiful. Yes, all right, the Midwestern goodbye is over. We'll see you, dude. Love you, bud. Bye.