Build Better with Matt Vetter

Heather Krill did not apply for a job here. She researched us, decided this was where she wanted to work, knocked on the door, and was told we were not hiring. She asked to sit downanyway. 

Two years later she has moved from project coordinator to Client Services Lead, and she has become the person who holds the front of our building together.

In the first episode of our Meet the Team series, Heather and I talk about her first 90 days, why nobody at Schafer holds your hand, how a nickname became a permanent job, what she haslearned about selling something you actually believe in, and the trip to Milwaukee that told Kerry and me everything we needed to know.

Anne-Abel Smith wanted a job that wasn’t posted. So she messaged Jozef Melaj on LinkedIn. Then again. Then again. He finally caved and hired her as an office manager. Within six months she was running the financials, and one of the first things she did was tell White Light Electric to fire their accountant.

Today she’s their CFO and strategic integrator. She’s the one who takes a visionary’s ideas, filters out the bad ones, and turns the good ones into a company that actually works.

In this conversation we get into what an integrator really does, where the visionary’s job ends and hers begins, why healthy conflict at the top is a feature and not a bug, and where electrical contractors quietly bleed moneywithout knowing it.

She closes with the three things every owner should check Monday morning: your systems, your people, and your cash. Without all three, you’re dead in the water.

Guest:Anne-Abel Smith, CFO and Strategic Integrator, White Light Electric.

Host:Matt Vetter, President, Schafer Construction.

Recorded on the porch the Sunday after the Fourth. A sold-out Build Better Foundation Golf Outing, a grandfather’s 95th birthday up north, and a jobsite tour with a younger brother who built his own company from nothing. It turns into a case for the hard road.

Trades scholarships: schaferconstruction.net/build-better-foundation

Steve Turner woke up on August 17, 2017 with an idea: put four words on a baseball cap. Bring Back the Trades.  Nine yearslater, he’s running Skills Expos across New England, awarding monthly trade school scholarships, and just delivered a TED Talk. 

In this episode, Matt and Steve trace the full arc from hat to national nonprofit. They get into the Mike Rowe story (howit actually happened), the COO Steve hired on the spot, and the TED Talk speech coach who made Steve rewrite his entire message from scratch.  The insight that changed everything: it’s not trades OR college. It’s college AND trades. 

Learn more about:

Bring Back the Trades

bringbackthetrades.com. 

Build Better Foundation:

schaferconstruction.net/build-better-foundation

Just got back from the best vacation of my life - and the contractor brain never shut off for a single day.

In this solo episode Matt Vetter walks through what he saw across Vegas, Zion National Park, and Page, Arizona: the Hard Rock guitar-shaped building under construction where The Mirage used to be, the Mt. Carmel Tunnel at Zion (1.1 miles bored through solid rock, finished in 1930, no electricity, no artificial ventilation), earth-moving operations in 100-degree Arizona red rock, and a white-knuckle two-hour drive back to Vegas passing semis pulling three trailers on steep grades with no guardrails.

Vegas is a city that has no right to exist. It exists because someone decided to build it. That is this industry.

3rd Annual Build Better Foundation Golf Outing -

June 25, 2026 at Hartland Glen in Hartland, Michigan.Scholarships for young people entering the trades.www.schaferconstruction.net/build-better-foundation

Keith Ledbetter took over ABC Southeastern Michigan ten years ago when the organization was getting threatening letters from the bank's attorney. Today he runs the largest construction trade school in Michigan with over 850 students across five campuses.

In this in-studio conversation, Matt and Keith get into therebuild, the merit shop philosophy, the data center wave that could reshape Michigan construction, and the Detroit charter school Keith helped build into a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon school.

Our 3rd Annual Build Better Foundation Golf Outing is Thursday, June 25 at Hartland Glen. All proceeds fund trades scholarships for young people. Register or sponsor at www.schaferconstruction.net/build-better-foundation

Connect with Keith: linkedin.com/in/ledbetter1

A different kind of episode this week — the first Build Better mailbag. Five questions I get asked all the time, batched into one show.

Matt covers what he wishes architects understood about working with a Design-Build GC vs. the old adversarial Design-Bid-Build model, the biggest mistake he's made as a leader and how he rectified it (hint: it's about who he kept around too long), why most construction tech being sold today is "VC theater" solving problems that don't exist, what a "test day" looks like and how he resets, and a story from the late 90s involving negative temperatures, a 3-story top plate, and a gas station sandwich nobody should ever eat.

If you've got a question you want answered on a future mailbag, DM Matt on LinkedIn or send it through schaferconstruction.net.

⛳ The 3rd Annual Build Better Foundation Golf Outing is Wednesday, June 25 at Hartland Glen. 100% of proceeds fund scholarships for young people entering the trades. Sponsor, golf, or learn more at:

schaferconstruction.net/build-better-foundation

Like the show? Drop a rating, leave a one-sentence review, and share it with someone in the trades. That's how we grow this thing.

Welcome to Build Better.

I didn’t start at the top. I started on job sites. I worked my way through the roles, learned the business from the inside out, and saw firsthand what actually makes projects succeed — and what quietly kills them.

This show is for builders, business owners, developers, and blue-collar badasses who care about doing things the right way. No shortcuts. No fluff. Just real conversations, real lessons, and practical insight from the field.

If you care about building better — projects, companies, teams, and yourself — you’re in the right place.

-----------------------------------------------

Follow on YouTube for FULL LENGTH VIDEOS and SHORTS!!

Help us get the word out by giving us a share to someone else who takes pride in building a better America!

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattvetter 

Want to be featured in an interview on Build Better? Reach out and let's get that set up!

Welcome to Build Better.

I didn’t start at the top. I started on job sites. I worked my way through the roles, learned the business from the inside out, and saw firsthand what actually makes projects succeed — and what quietly kills them.

This show is for builders, business owners, developers, and blue-collar badasses who care about doing things the right way. No shortcuts. No fluff. Just real conversations, real lessons, and practical insight from the field.

If you care about building better — projects, companies, teams, and yourself — you’re in the right place.

-----------------------------------------------

Follow on YouTube for FULL LENGTH VIDEOS and SHORTS!!

Help us get the word out by giving us a share to someone else who takes pride in building a better America!

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattvetter 

Want to be featured in an interview on Build Better? Reach out and let's get that set up!

Welcome to Build Better.

I didn’t start at the top. I started on job sites. I worked my way through the roles, learned the business from the inside out, and saw firsthand what actually makes projects succeed — and what quietly kills them.

This show is for builders, business owners, developers, and blue-collar badasses who care about doing things the right way. No shortcuts. No fluff. Just real conversations, real lessons, and practical insight from the field.

If you care about building better — projects, companies, teams, and yourself — you’re in the right place.

-----------------------------------------------

Follow on YouTube for FULL LENGTH VIDEOS and SHORTS!!

Help us get the word out by giving us a share to someone else who takes pride in building a better America!

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattvetter 

Want to be featured in an interview on Build Better? Reach out and let's get that set up!