PowerTips Unscripted

The demand and absence of skilled labor is a huge challenge for remodelers across North America. We hear it from our Roundtables Members as well as from our associates, sponsors and Podcast guests.

In this episode Victoria and Mark explore different ways to tackle the issue, and welcome Dan Hurst to the show to talk about how his firm effectively creates a culture and career path that provides opportunities for his staff to learn and develop new skills.

Dan is the President / General Manager of Hurst Design Build Remodel in Westlake, OH and is actively involved in NARI as well as a Master Certified Remodeler and Certified Lead Carpenter.

Dan, Victoria and Mark talk more about:

• Things you can do to create a culture and provide a path to grow your own skilled workforce
• Why there is a need to develop your own staff vs. hiring
• Creating opportunities for your employees to learn and develop new skills
• What a typical career path might look like
• Managing and helping your staff achieve their career goals
• The fear of investing time and energy into developing someone, only to have them leave

Key Strategies on Finding, Hiring & Keeping the Right Talent for Your Remodeling Company.

This one-hour FREE webinar, led by Doug Howard, is designed to provide insight and strategies for remodeling company owners and their leadership teams on how to hire more efficiently and effectively.

July 28, 2020; 11:30am – 12:30pm ET

Click Here for More Information + Free Registration >>

The post Ep.113: Fighting the Labor Shortage with In-house Training with Dan Hurst appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

We are all so busy running our businesses that we often don’t realize that there are other potential revenue-generating investments that align with our present and future business needs.

Chris Landis thinks you should consider helping businesses that lease their office space as an added revenue stream.

In this episode, Victoria, Mark and Chris talk more about this innovative revenue source.

Chris is a Principal owner of Landis Architects/Builders in Washington, DC and is a member of the AIA, with 28 years of experience in residential architecture. Landis Architects/Builders is one of the top Washington, DC renovation and remodeling firms and is co-owned by Chris and his brother, Ethan Landis.

In this episode, Victoria, Mark and Chris cover:

• The benefits, opportunities and challenges of owning your own building.
• Offering space in your building to other business.
• What is involved in becoming a landlord.
• How these deals are structured financially and timelines involved.
• How you can pass this knowledge onto other business owners.

The post Ep.112: Discovering New Revenue Streams With Chris Landis appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

We have covered the dangers of stress and anxiety for you and your business a few times; most recently on Episode 108, where we touch on ways to battle and reduce it, including mindful meditation.

To explore this topic further, Victoria and Mark welcome Peter Feinmann, President of Feinmann, Inc, a design build company in Lexington, MA, just outside of Boston.

From the company’s beginnings in Peter’s home in 1987, Feinmann has grown into a multi-million dollar, award-winning firm, with a staff of 20+. Peter is a nationally recognized writer and sought-after speaker in the design/build industry and is the recipient of numerous local and national awards, including the NARI Contractor of the Year Award and Remodeling Magazine’s Remodeler of the Year.

In this episode, Peter talks about how to use mindful meditation to help manage anxiety and reactivity when dealing with clients and employees. Peter has been able to use meditation in order to be more effective by facilitating great attention and focus.

Victoria, Mark and Peter cover:

• How to get started with meditation practice
• How meditation has impacted Peter’s leadership at his company
• Has meditation has aided Peter and his company during the current COVID-19 crisis
• Information about the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program

During this episode, Peter mentions his Introduction to Mindfulness program; Click here for more information (PDF) about that program.

The post Ep.111: Using Mindful Meditation to Deal with Clients and Employees with Peter Feinmann appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Current events have created an environment of incredible stress for homeowners across the globe. Remodelers have an opportunity to tap into their dissatisfaction with their home environments by using an empathy-based marketing approach to make an emotional connection.

Tanya Bamford joins Victoria and Mark to share how using the right messaging, imagery, and delivery channels can allow remodelers to present themselves as conduits for creating retreats from stress at home – filling their pipelines with homeowners who are hungry for a reprieve.

Tanya Bamford is the Managing Director of R/A Marketing–a full-service agency providing creative, yet straight forward marketing solutions for remodeling companies across the United States.

This episode will cover:

• What empathy marketing is.
• Practical ways to incorporate empathy into your marketing messages.
• How this is this different than leveraging “pain points.”
• The challenge of making an emotional connection with a strangers and how empathy marketing bridges that gap.
• How remodeling companies can begin to incorporate empathy into their marketing.

If you have a topic that you would like us to cover or know of an industry contact, author or thought-leader that you think others would like to hear from, let us know.

If you’re enjoying our PowerTips Unscripted podcast, please spread the word and post reviews on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.

The post Ep.110: Making powerful emotional connections using empathy-based marketing with Tanya Bamford appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Email is the default communication tool in business, there’s no denying that. But there is good reason to expand beyond email for your internal team communication.

Victoria and Mark welcome Jason Langkammerer to the show, as they discuss how taking that step can enhance your teamwork, reduce the “noise” of email, and strengthen your company culture.

Jason Langkammerer is a licensed architect, general contractor and founder of AT6 Design Build  in San Francisco, CA.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The challenges email poses for internal communication
• Other options for communicating
• How to transition your team to a new method
• How these platforms differ from email
• How it can improve your communication

The post Ep.109: How Getting Off Email Can Dramatically Improve Your Internal Communication appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

How stressed are you? Pandemics, demonstrations, economy, health… It’s not uncommon to feel stressed during these uncertain times.

According to a study by the University of Cincinnati, many people feel anxiety around the Covid-19 virus, but even more are concerned about the financial impact that the pandemic has had or may have on them and their families.

Anxiety and stress, whether for this reason or another, can affect your physical and mental health in ways you might not have considered.

In this episode Victoria and Mark explore this serious and underlying threat to your business and personal health. Topics covered include:

As discussed in this episode, here is a link to a powerful stress assessment tool that will help you measure where your stress levels are.
Click here for more information and the Survey >>

The post Ep.108: How to Cope with Stress appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

We’ve all had a gut instinct at one time or another. But do you trust your gut? Do you often rely on your intuition when making decisions? How do you know when you should follow your gut, even if the data suggests another approach?

In this episode, Victoria and Mark discuss what intuition is and how to know when you should follow your gut when making important decisions. The guidelines they discuss will help you understand more about decision making and how your brain creates the patterns that guide you.

As always, if you have a topic that you would like us to cover or know of an industry contact, author or thought-leader that you think others would like to hear from, let us know.

If you’re enjoying our PowerTips Unscripted podcast, please spread the word and post reviews on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.

The post Ep.107: How to Know When to Trust Your Gut appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Are you resistant to change? Do you believe that because something has always worked for you, it’s “obviously” the best way to do it? Have you ever said, “we’ve always done it this way,” as an argument against change? 

If so, then you are playing a dangerous game of chicken with your company, because these six words will eventually be the downfall of your business. 

In this week’s episode, Victoria and Mark discuss the dangers hidden behind this seemingly innocent string of words, and they share proven methods to not only overcome your fear of change, but also to ensure you’re making the right decisions for change.

Because change for changes sake is just as dangerous as not changing at all.

Whether it’s business, finance or production we have the experienced, professional coaches standing by to help you and your team battle through these uncertain times.
Click here to learn more about Remodelers Advantage Business Coaching Services.

The post Ep.106: Six Words That Will Destroy Your Business (and what to do about it) appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

The world is rapidly changing, and many of the old rules no longer apply. It is imperative that we change how we sell our services to stay ahead of the change curve.

Today’s guest, Jeff Borovitz with Sandler Training, has been on thousands of face-to-face sales calls and has dialed the phone over 100,000 times to schedule appointments, follow up, and close sales. 

In this episode, Jeff gives us permission to break all the traditional “sales” rules so that you can close more deals. Jeff shares:

The post Ep.105: Break all the Rules and Close More Deals with Jeff Borovitz of Sandler Training appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

Editor’s note: We’re all working from our homes, away from the friendly confines of the office and its podcasting studio. So we dug into the virtual vault to bring you this episode. We’re in an uncertain time for many remodelers, so here’s some advice that will help you weather any business climate.

One of our core principles is that remodeling companies should make a good net profit, after paying the owners an above-average salary. When the economy’s booming, you can get away with a lot and still hit those goals, sometimes by accident. But the goal is to get those healthy net profits consistently, year after year, even in a downturn.

In this episode, Mike Medford Sr. talks to Victoria and Mark about how to do just that. Before seeing the metrics of the Top Ten Roundtables members a few years ago, Mike says his financials were always in flux. But then he took those figures and made them hard targets.

Mike Medford Sr. has been a home remodeling contractor for over 40 years. In 2007, he partnered with his son, Mike Jr. to form what is now Medford Design Build, with offices in Colleyville and Arlington, TX. Mike Sr. is the president of Medford Design Build.

Mike challenged himself and his team to hit the new fixed targets. He refined their processes and challenged his team to hit those targets. By the next quarterly meeting, the company’s profits were rising. He talks about how he and his team made it happen, including:

• Creating a profit-centric culture
• How net profits will help you beat the labor shortage
• Focusing your staff on gross profit
• The importance of open books to the process
• Setting up a bonus structure
• Building time in to plan
• And more…

Mike also talks about getting back to the art of contracting and how important that is to your margins.

After more than 30 years of working with some of the finest Remodelers and Renovators in the business, we are facing new challenges in our industry. We want to give back to an industry that has supported us through good times and bad, and so we’ve created Build Aid, a free event to help support our members, associates, and friends in the remodeling community.

Join us on April 1-2 as we explore various ways your business can navigate these tough times, and position yourselves as a leader when the world begins to recover and re-build.
Click Here to Learn More & Register >>

The post Ep.104: [Unscripted Back-Up] How to Hit Healthy Net Profits in any Economic Climate with Mike Medford Sr. appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.