The Contracting Handbook: Builder & Trades Construction Podcast

The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world and has recently reached the Top 2% of all podcasts globally. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.

Host: Mike Knoche

Website: The Contracting Handbook

Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook

Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1

[email protected]

Guest: Aaron Butt

Instagram: @aaronthomasaquinas

Music: Tell Nobody (The Contracting Handbook theme) by Tiny Pancake Breakfast

The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.

Host: Mike Knoche

Website: The Contracting Handbook

Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook

Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1

[email protected]

Guest: Barbie The Welder

Instagram: @barbiethewelder

LinkedIn: Barbie The Welder

e1Xg1ABHekjJhmoKRVCa

The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.

Host: Mike Knoche

Website: The Contracting Handbook

Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook

Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1

[email protected]

Guest: Fiona Plett

Instagram: @herself_contracting

My name is Mike Knoche and I’m a general contractor and reformed remodeler representing Zone 8 in Fairbanks, Alaska, I’m on a mission to catalyze the conversation in construction and give a platform to voices from across the industry at all levels of experience. The TCH podcast is a distillation of nearly 1000 years of collective construction industry knowledge and experiences through discussions with my guests over 102 episodes. It’s a grass roots effort to share knowledge, empower contractors and tradespeople with knowledge and affirmation. It started off as a mission to make the business side of running a contracting business easier, but running the business is nuanced. There’s making time for family, long days on the jobsite, irrational clients, stress, mental health issues, cool ideas, setting standards, honesty, integrity, respect, professionalism, and an absolute need to pull together to recruit more people in the trades, women in particular. We need more builders. What’s more, the experiences are universal across the building community we’re not that different no matter where we live. Since the podcast launch in May 2021, the podcast has been downloaded in over 70 countries and I am proud to tell you the TCH is now in the Top 5% of all podcasts globally. I may independently record and produce the podcast, but every GC needs good talent. Thanks to an A list of guests, we were able to build it, and the people came, as they say. Before the podcast launch, I was cynical about the construction industry with a good dash of hope. Now this hopeful cynic has found inspiration from the genuine nature of my guests, their stories, and feedback from my listeners.

Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and/ or a rating on Spotify to help spread the word for this free content!

Host: Mike Knoche

Website: The Contracting Handbook

Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook

Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1

[email protected]

Guest: Michael Anschel 

Website: C.O.P.E.

Instagram: @oabuilds

The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.

Host: Mike Knoche

Website: The Contracting Handbook

Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook

Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1

[email protected]

Guest: Jon Hilgenberg

IG: @jchcabinets

The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.

Host: Mike Knoche

Website: The Contracting Handbook

Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook

Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1

[email protected]

Guest: 

Andy Bannister @earthtoneconstruction

Gena Hoyt @bigdoglifex3

Krystal Brookes @_paintchick_

Jasper Liles @proficientbuilders

Lizardo Martinez @a_builders_world

Jeff Pacheco @sweet_buzz_woodworks

Andy Steel @frsbuilders

Beau Wheelock @thebeaubuiltco

Aron Jones @bigdogconstruction.gm

Niya Doncheva @girlwithpowertoolsss

Mike Falzon @mikes_tool_fun

Tony McKlem @Hollywood Decks

Harvey Jesso @maritimecarpenter

Bennett Lyster @builderbennett

Doug Roberts @nextlevelhandymanservice

Nate Schuele @full.tilt.timber.framing

Paris Benay @waka_wahine

Aaron Butt @aaronthomasaquinas

Kali Sudbrook @kalithecontractor

Michael Anschel @oabuilds

Ryan Smith @roofslayer2681 

Brant Taylor @thetoolhacker

Thanks to Pixabay for music and sound effects

Photo Credit: @david w shaw

The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.

Host: Mike Knoche

Website: The Contracting Handbook

Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook

Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1

[email protected]

Guest: Harvey Jesso

IG: @maritimecarpenter

@maritimeelectrical

The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.

Host: Mike Knoche

Website: The Contracting Handbook

Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook

Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1

[email protected]

Guest: Larry Clay

Instagram: @theclayway

The Contracting Handbook podcast is all about the builders and skilled tradesmen and tradeswomen in the construction industry from all over the world. Here you’ll meet the tradespeople who took a leap of faith from working their craft to running the own construction company. You’ll meet people who left lucrative careers to enter the trades. For newcomers to running a construction business, there is a ton of advice on “how to” run your contracting company. For established contractors, you get to meet other industry leaders and get behind the scenes of their business and stay up to date with industry change. Mike Knoche, your host, keeps the conversation interesting. He’s been operating his contracting business for over 15 years in the oddly wonderful, Fairbanks, Alaska. Mike’s philosophy is “we are all experts in how we build where we live, but the business basics and business management are universal”. Join us for this global conversation on operating a construction company, mental health, cool projects, and construction industry progress.

Host: Mike Knoche

Website: The Contracting Handbook

Instagram: @thecontractinghandbook

Venmo: Mike-Knoche-1

[email protected]

Guest: Tom Lawson

Instagram: @straight up stairs