On The Contractors Edge Podcast, host Nick interviews Eric Ernisse, founder and CEO of Coastal View Construction in Hawaii, about how adversity and personal development shape success in contracting. Eric shares his path from studying engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder to sailing with his family for seven years through roughly 49 countries, learning planning, patience, and how dealing with people can be harder than storms. Returning to Hawaii, he helped design and build his father’s home and then his own cottage, gaining hands-on experience that led to his contractor’s license and a 12+ year business focused on condo remodels. He discusses learning business systems, speed-to-lead, delegation, investing in coaching, screening for ideal clients, leading employees by understanding their “why,” and keeping perspective during lawsuits and difficult projects by remembering that “this too shall pass.”

💥 Eric's Links

https://www.coastalviewconstructionllc.com/

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Better Boss | JobTread Certified Implementation Partner

On The Contractors Edge podcast, the host interviews Nathan Zee Pepmiller, an operations manager in a Minnesota contracting business and creator of JT Power Tools in the JobTread marketplace, about using AI and Chrome extensions to scale contractor operations. They discuss treating AI as a thought partner and coworker, building repeatable workflows that get faster over time, and avoiding “magic bean” expectations by training and reviewing outputs. Nathan shares how switching from BuilderTrend to JobTread inspired him to solve internal “red flags” with extensions like a text formatter, dark mode, job switcher filter, and a budget change log, growing to hundreds of users. They go deep on Claude usage, including role-based “coach” skills tied to SOPs and orchestrator skills that chain focused tasks, plus the mindset shift from admin tasks to critical thinking so teams don’t get left behind.

💥 JT Power Tools 

Code 7K8K7SYfor 50% off life time!

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🌐 Website: https://better-boss.ai

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Better Boss | JobTread Certified Implementation Partner

On this episode of Contractor’s Edge, host Nick interviews Jordan Rychlik of WES TEX Construction and Remodeling about transitioning from five years as a middle school teacher in Fort Stockton, Texas to joining her husband Jeremy’s business after moving to San Angelo. They discuss the dynamics of husband-and-wife teams, balancing risk and impulsiveness, setting role boundaries at work, and how trust helps partners cover for each other during burnout. Jordan shares why women often excel in operations roles, how she supports Jeremy with organization and tools like JobTread, and the value of investing in professional development, associations, and peer-to-peer communities. The conversation also covers imposter syndrome, “believe it while you brave it,” family life and kids on job sites. 

-- Jordan's Links -- 

https://www.westexconstruction.com/

---

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⚡ We only take limited clients per month. Every single one has given us 5 stars.

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Better Boss | JobTread Certified Implementation Partner

Today we interview Peter Rainey and Elliot Whitstruck of DataX about using AI, automations, and integrations to help contractors running JobTread. They discuss their backgrounds in construction and tech, how DataX began by sharing JobTread cost-group templates and grew into a toolbox of integrations (e.g., Quo communications logging, Zillow lead qualification data, Google cover photos, dashboards, and inventory). They explain commercial-style (AIA/702/703) billing PDFs and automated financial statement PDFs attached to invoices, including multi-job customer reporting. They introduce DataX’s MCP approach for efficient AI access to JobTread data versus brute-force API scraping, and share practical AI agent examples like daily PM status emails (budget vs actual, schedule variance, logs) and receipt-to-job-costing automation via forwarded emails. They also describe DX One, DataX’s own AI model for security, cost control, and team sharing, and emphasize starting with real business problems, solid processes, and customer experience.

🔥Get Your Free JobTread Prompt Bible → 

🔥 Book Your FREE Growth Audit → https://cal.com/mybetterboss.ai/jobtread-free-growth-audit-call

📞 CONNECT WITH BETTER BOSS:

🌐 Website: https://better-boss.ai

⚡ We only take limited clients per month. Every single one has given us 5 stars.

You didn't start your business to be stuck in the day-to-day. You started for freedom, for family, and for something better.

Better starts now.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly videos on building systems that actually work for contractors.

Better Boss | JobTread Certified Implementation Partner

00:00 Daily PM Agent Report

Today Nick hosts Nicholas Cormier of Home Builder Marketers, an agency that has generated over $268M in revenue for builders. They discuss why builders don’t need to go viral on Instagram and instead should focus on trust, consistent content, ads, and systems that nurture long sales cycles (often 6–18 months). Nicholas shares his path from construction and car sales to building and restarting his agency, including earning a Forbes Agency Council spot after years of rejections. Key strategies include prioritizing SEO/AEO, building strong Google reviews, running Meta ads for awareness, using email/retargeting to stay top-of-mind, tracking real metrics beyond cost-per-click, and using value-first CTAs like downloadable resources. They also cover how AI tools like Claude can enhance existing expertise rather than replace it.

-- Nicholas Cormier's Links --

https://nicholascormier.ca/

https://www.instagram.com/nicholas_cormier/

----

🔥Get Your Free JobTread Prompt Bible → 

🔥 Book Your FREE Growth Audit → https://cal.com/mybetterboss.ai/jobtread-free-growth-audit-call

📞 CONNECT WITH BETTER BOSS:

🌐 Website: https://better-boss.ai

⚡ We only take limited clients per month. Every single one has given us 5 stars.

You didn't start your business to be stuck in the day-to-day. You started for freedom, for family, and for something better.

Better starts now.

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Better Boss | JobTread Certified Implementation Partner

On The Contractor’s Edge, Nick interviews longtime collaborator and developer Ryan Roman about the evolution from deterministic automation to AI agents that can orchestrate workflows, arguing AI will be integrated into every domain. Ryan shares how he learned coding to automate repetitive work, then helped automate contractor lead generation end-to-end and later built AI agents to handle client-specific outreach. They discuss contractors’ biggest gaps—speed to lead and follow-up—and introduce Romey.ai, an AI agent deeply integrated with JobTread that instantly texts iMessage-style responses to inbound leads, intelligently follows up, can answer inbound calls after hours, qualifies prospects, and books appointments with round-robin calendar scheduling. They emphasize building SOPs before automating, adopting tools like Claude, and using JobTread’s MCP connector to chat with company data to improve scalability, margins, and work-life balance.

-- Romey AI --

🔥Get Your Free JobTread Prompt Bible → 

🔥 Book Your FREE Growth Audit → https://cal.com/mybetterboss.ai/jobtread-free-growth-audit-call

📞 CONNECT WITH BETTER BOSS:

🌐 Website: https://better-boss.ai

⚡ We only take limited clients per month. Every single one has given us 5 stars.

You didn't start your business to be stuck in the day-to-day. You started for freedom, for family, and for something better.

Better starts now.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly videos on building systems that actually work for contractors.

Better Boss | JobTread Certified Implementation Partner

On The Contractor’s Edge, the host interviews Erin Andrews, CEO of Level Accounting, about building better contractor businesses through proactive monthly accounting, payroll, bookkeeping, and tax planning. Aaron shares her background working largely with trades, frustrations with business owners treating accounting as an afterthought, and issues with once-a-year accountants and an industry talent shortage. They discuss why end-of-year “buy a truck for write-offs” thinking is flawed, what a strong accountant relationship looks like, and what contractors should review monthly: job profitability, gross margin, overhead, net profit, and tax liability. They connect marketing metrics to forecasting, highlight common scaling stress points around $1–$2M, address AR and cash-flow problems, recommend planning ahead with clean books and lines of credit, and cover software ecosystems including QuickBooks Online, JobTread, integrations, and cost codes.

-- Erin's Links --

https://www.facebook.com/erin.h.andrews/

🔥Get Your Free JobTread Prompt Bible → 

🔥 Book Your FREE Growth Audit → https://cal.com/mybetterboss.ai/jobtread-free-growth-audit-call

📞 CONNECT WITH BETTER BOSS:

🌐 Website: https://better-boss.ai

⚡ We only take limited clients per month. Every single one has given us 5 stars.

You didn't start your business to be stuck in the day-to-day. You started for freedom, for family, and for something better.

Better starts now.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly videos on building systems that actually work for contractors.

Better Boss | JobTread Certified Implementation Partner

In this Contractor’s Edge episode, Nick interviews Jake Mauldin, founder/CEO of Rising Creek Custom Homes, about Jake’s background in construction from childhood, his time as a firefighter/paramedic, and how those experiences shaped his focus on triage, prioritization, and staying calm in chaos. Jake explains why contractors need strong systems instead of relying on Excel, texts, and scattered communication, and why he chose JobTread after other tools fell short. They discuss practical advice for adopting AI and automations by taking small steps, identifying bottlenecks, and buying back time. Jake then announces Tread Connection, a new Circle-based community for JobTread users featuring focused group discussions, partner access, live events, and an MCP-driven audit concept to help users identify gaps and connect with the right experts.

-- Jakes Links -- 

🔥 Book Your FREE Growth Audit → https://cal.com/mybetterboss.ai/jobtread-free-growth-audit-call

📞 CONNECT WITH BETTER BOSS:

🌐 Website: https://better-boss.ai

⚡ We only take limited clients per month. Every single one has given us 5 stars.

You didn't start your business to be stuck in the day-to-day. You started for freedom, for family, and for something better.

Better starts now.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly videos on building systems that actually work for contractors.

00:00 Systems Over Chaos

Eric recounts being asked to help a five-year-old construction company stuck at a scaling “glass ceiling” due to chaotic, manual paper-and-spreadsheet workflows, leading him to build software that became JobTread; after taking over as CEO, the company grew from $5M to $8M in sales and increased gross profit by 43%, and JobTread launched officially in 2019. He explains his enthusiasm for AI alongside concerns about accuracy, overreliance, and liability when contractors use AI for fixed-price bids, which drove JobTread’s cautious approach and the release of an AI Connector that lets users connect their preferred AI via an MCP/API layer. He emphasizes tracking standardized data for reporting, using AI to analyze historical trends, documenting and training SOPs, focusing on process improvement, avoiding perfectionism, and regularly reflecting as a team to keep scaling, while sharing his mission to help entrepreneurs and encouraging users to attend JobTread advanced bootcamps.

Nick hosts a recap from a JobTread town hall announcing a new AI connection integrated directly into JobTread accounts via MCP, noting strong interest and rapid customer growth. Nick, Johnny, and Tyler discuss how this foundation-based approach lets users layer powerful AI tools (including Claude) over existing workflows without relying on a single narrow feature. They emphasize that AI requires solid processes, good prompting, and consistent double-checking because errors and hallucinations can occur. Practical ideas include using AI to speed up estimating, scheduling, dashboards, insights, and workflow creation by downloading JobTread dashboards/reports/workflows, organizing and uploading them for learning, and then having AI help build or import items while verifying results. They encourage users to start small, get reps in, and push through the learning curve, and invite viewers to book a free growth audit at BetterBoss.ai.

🔥 Book Your FREE Growth Audit → https://cal.com/mybetterboss.ai/jobtread-free-growth-audit-call

📞 CONNECT WITH BETTER BOSS:

🌐 Website: https://better-boss.ai

⚡ We only take limited clients per month. Every single one has given us 5 stars.

You didn't start your business to be stuck in the day-to-day. You started for freedom, for family, and for something better.

Better starts now.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly videos on building systems that actually work for contractors.

00:00 Origin Story Chaos

Nick hosts a recap from a JobTread town hall announcing a new AI connection integrated directly into JobTread accounts via MCP, noting strong interest and rapid customer growth. Nick, Johnny, and Tyler discuss how this foundation-based approach lets users layer powerful AI tools (including Claude) over existing workflows without relying on a single narrow feature. They emphasize that AI requires solid processes, good prompting, and consistent double-checking because errors and hallucinations can occur. Practical ideas include using AI to speed up estimating, scheduling, dashboards, insights, and workflow creation by downloading JobTread dashboards/reports/workflows, organizing and uploading them for learning, and then having AI help build or import items while verifying results. They encourage users to start small, get reps in, and push through the learning curve, and invite viewers to book a free growth audit at BetterBoss.ai.

🔥 Book Your FREE Growth Audit → https://cal.com/mybetterboss.ai/jobtr...

📞 CONNECT WITH BETTER BOSS:

🌐 Website: https://better-boss.ai

⚡ We only take limited clients per month. Every single one has given us 5 stars.

You didn't start your business to be stuck in the day-to-day. You started for freedom, for family, and for something better.

Better starts now.

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly videos on building systems that actually work for contractors.

00:00 Town Hall AI Reveal