Season 2 · Episode 3

Many construction business owners start with grit, skill, and long hours. Early growth comes from doing everything yourself. But eventually that same model becomes the bottleneck.

In this episode, Christene Marie sits down with Danny Kerr to explore what it actually takes to scale a construction business without sacrificing your health, your family, or your long-term vision. They unpack why contractor burnout is often a systems problem, not a motivation problem, and how leaders must evolve if their businesses are going to grow sustainably.

This conversation is for contractors who feel stretched thin, owners stuck at a revenue ceiling, and leaders who want to build a business that runs without depending on them every hour of the day.

🔍 What We Talk About

⏱️ Chapters

0:00 Intro

0:45 Guest Intro

6:30 The habit of hard work and savings starting young

10:11 Organizational structure for construction businesses

16:19 Support groups and what you can learn from them 

20:32 Separating your identity from the business 

27:34 First steps founders, owners, and operators can take to get in touch with their goals

31:42: Outro

📂 Resources From This Episode

Recommended exercise: Create a five-year “Painted Picture” vision for your construction company. Define what leadership, systems, team structure, revenue, and culture look like when the business no longer depends entirely on you.

Conduct a bottleneck audit:

👤 About the Guest

Danny Kerr is a construction entrepreneur and business leader known for helping contractors build scalable companies through systems, leadership development, and organizational clarity. With experience growing a painting business from a small team to a large operation, Danny brings real-world insight into what it takes to scale without losing control, culture, or personal freedom.

https://www.btacademy.com/ 

🎙️ About The Craft & Calling

The Craft & Calling is a community built for trades leaders who care deeply about both their work and the life they are building alongside it. Through real conversations and practical insight, the show explores leadership, legacy, and what it means to build businesses that last.

Explore resources, conversations, and the community at:

🔧 A Note on Foundation First Marketing

This conversation reflects the kind of leadership and strategic thinking that also informs the work of Foundation First Marketing, where Christene Marie serves as a co-founder.

Foundation First partners with home service businesses to build marketing strategies grounded in clarity, systems, and long-term vision, helping owners grow without losing trust, culture, or control.

Get a free marketing quote, grounded in real performance data.