00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:22 Unknown Anybody can be a member, and 00:00:01:22 - 00:00:06:16 Unknown we have some people that you wouldn't think would be a member of a builders association, but they 00:00:06:16 - 00:00:13:12 Unknown may be related just to me and my company. But they've joined to get involved, to help pull through with other companies like ours. 00:00:13:12 - 00:00:15:15 Unknown they'll have a project or they'll have a prospect 00:00:15:15 - 00:00:19:14 Unknown really not the type of client that they're looking for, 00:00:19:14 - 00:00:24:21 Unknown but they know of another builder within the GBA and they pass these leads around. 00:00:24:21 - 00:00:29:05 Unknown the biggest thing is that you have, you know, for me, it's men and women that 00:00:29:05 - 00:00:32:14 Unknown maybe they're older. They've been in the business a little bit longer, and you learn from them. 00:00:32:14 - 00:00:40:06 Unknown until you're there and you've got somebody that's a really paved the way and say, hey, this is I mean, it's really shaped and molded my business. 00:00:40:06 - 00:00:44:14 Unknown if I had not gotten the education, both learning the technical 00:00:44:14 - 00:00:50:12 Unknown side and the business side and getting the support of other people there, I would probably not be in business today. 00:00:50:12 - 00:00:52:23 Unknown I would have gone belly up, bankrupt and been 00:00:52:23 - 00:00:53:18 Unknown out of business. 00:01:08:02 - 00:01:24:08 Unknown Hey, friends, welcome back to the Your Project Shepherd construction podcast. We have a full table in the studio today, and I am super excited to have some of my great friends from the GBA joining us today. And going around the table real quick. We got Sonora Storm with Luke and Jacob Construction. 00:01:24:10 - 00:01:38:09 Unknown We have del. So sorry, del Westmoreland with the detouring company. I know your name. And then over here we got Matthew Rubenstein with Royal Design build. Now, Del and Sonora or both on the the Custom Builders Council board with me. And I see them all the time. 00:01:38:09 - 00:01:48:00 Unknown So, Matthew, I haven't gotten to do really well. He's a actually a past president of the GBA, and I've seen him at some functions, but we haven't got to hang out yet. So I'm excited for him to be here as well. 00:01:48:02 - 00:02:07:03 Unknown So, but before we kind of get into this discussion about, membership in the GBA and professional organizations in general, let's go around the table real quick and I'll just have each of them just give us a little history about who they are, what they do, and how they first got involved with the GBA. It's an honor. I want you good ladies first. 00:02:07:05 - 00:02:35:22 Unknown Well. Hello, everyone. My name is Senor Storm, and I, Curtis sat down with Lincoln, Jacob Construction, and some know me as the foundation repair lady. And like Curtis was also saying, the, I'm on the custom builders board, and I'm also on the remodelers board and have been so, for a few years now. And, those two boards have been very instrumental in, great success with, my, with working with Lincoln Jacobs Construction. 00:02:36:00 - 00:03:02:22 Unknown I've also was the membership chairman and 2023, PWP membership. I work on that committee as well. And, earned my professional builder partner designation through our ABCs education, which I know you're going to be talking about here shortly. And, probably most one of the most exciting things that happened for me was when, Lincoln Jacob Construction became a partner with the GBA. 00:03:02:22 - 00:03:27:13 Unknown And this is our second year to be a diamond partner. Awesome. Though. I'm. Dale was born sales manager to Deering Company. Been affiliated with the GBA for 44 years. Wow. Since 80 and 81. And, I've served on the board of directors. I'm with you on the custom Builders Council, and I chair the membership committee, and it's an exciting time for us. 00:03:27:15 - 00:03:53:22 Unknown I was three years old when you started on, GBA. That's amazing. That's rough. I'm not going to say anything there. I wasn't even around yet. Oh my goodness. Hey, Dale, I got you. I got you. Thank you. Man. So Matthew Eisenstein rule design, build. I have been a member, gosh, I think for 13 or 14 years of the 15 a.m. business. 00:03:54:00 - 00:04:12:04 Unknown The irony of this situation is my very first lumber salesman sitting right across state. Well. So when I started my own company, we were where I tell everybody, you've heard me say, I'm from South Dallas. I'm originally from Houston, but I live in Montgomery County now. So you might as well call it South Dallas, because everything I do is an hour away. 00:04:12:06 - 00:04:33:04 Unknown Whenever we do anything with the. I'm driving an hour or so. Love it. I've been involved, obviously, as you alluded to, I was, I'm past president now. So president last year of the GBA and, gosh, that has come with, I think I did 150 something events last year total. I was at, so it took I'm getting back into my normal role. 00:04:33:04 - 00:04:48:02 Unknown So that is northern counties. Building developers is where I kind of hung my hat for the longest, and that is kind of our northern quadrant. It used to be Montgomery County. Most developers have been president of that several times. And, just, got really involved in education. That's actually how I got started in the GBA was the education classes. 00:04:48:02 - 00:05:05:08 Unknown So, that was when the NFB used to do a lot of things, but but yeah, I've been around for a long, long time. I served on, a lot of state stuff as well with Tex association and builder. So stay really involved in, in this industry. Great. Yeah. So I've been in the GBA probably about ten years. 00:05:05:08 - 00:05:31:05 Unknown I actually kind of lost track of when I joined. So I also joined originally for the educational side of things. That and just kind of the chance to get connected with other builders and just kind of learn more about how to be a better builder, a better business person. So about, I guess about four years ago, I started getting more involved with the the Custom Builders Council, and I guess three years ago they asked me to be on the board. 00:05:31:05 - 00:05:54:10 Unknown So, I've kind of grown my involvement over the last five years, and it's really been a blessing to me and to my company to to be a part of the organization. And it's helped help our business tremendously. So, we've been talking internally, both on the, the CBC and the GBA in general about how to kind of promote membership and increase, you know, engagement for our current members. 00:05:54:12 - 00:06:15:09 Unknown And so we started talking about doing some videos with Morgan, who was our social media marketing person. And I said we should do a podcast about this. And you know what? We want to Morgan, to have the opportunity to take the podcast also and kind of use some of these sound bites for for promoting the GBA among members and nonmembers as well. 00:06:15:09 - 00:06:38:13 Unknown So, I've talked in the past on the podcast about professional associations and kind of the importance of of getting plugged in with other like minded builders and, and people in the industry and how that can be just a great resource for our, our companies, but also for our personal growth as well. So I'm really excited to have you guys here to talk about, GBA and, nahb and all that kind of stuff. 00:06:38:13 - 00:06:58:06 Unknown So, so first off, I don't know if people really know what the GBA does. It's not just the kind of the good old, the good old boys social club. I think some people might have the view of it as is that. But, you know, we do make a lot of good friends and, have a lot of camaraderie, among the members. 00:06:58:06 - 00:07:17:13 Unknown But, that social aspect is really just kind of a small part of what we do. But the social aspect is great. Right? So now we're in a where's our social queen? Absolutely. It hands down the best networking ever. Yeah. So we do a lot of fun events. We just did our fajita cookoff here a week or so ago. 00:07:17:14 - 00:07:33:22 Unknown You know, we get the barbecue cook off. We have all, all kinds of fun things. And even we even when we're doing something that's maybe viewed as not as fun, like rally day, like we're going to Austin to talk to lawmakers. We still find a way to make that fun and exciting and and have a good time. Right? 00:07:34:00 - 00:07:58:11 Unknown Absolutely, absolutely. So one thing that's really interesting to me, though, is, you know, we're there together, having a good time. But all these companies that we're there with, we're we're competitors. You know, I'm, although Matthew and I may not compete directly because we're in different parts of the city, there's other builders that that are in the in the room with us every day, these meetings, who we are competing with. 00:07:58:11 - 00:08:20:22 Unknown I mean, I, I know for a fact I'm talking to the same clients that several other guys are, right. And, you know, there's other there's other building materials companies that are there. Right. And and so there's, there's other companies that we're competing with. And yet even though we're there, as competitors, we come together and, and we really find ways to help each other. 00:08:21:00 - 00:08:44:18 Unknown Can you guys kind of speak to that real quick? Well, when we're all together, there's there's somebody in that room that if you've got a question or you've got a problem, you can ask about it. You've got everybody from bankers to realtors to builders to developers and whatever your question is, whatever your issue is, there's someone there you can ask, even if it would be a competitor. 00:08:44:20 - 00:09:12:15 Unknown Yeah. Actually, for me. Excuse me. I'm, I'd say I'm pretty fortunate because I may be the only foundation repair and sewer repair that, is at the GBA, but what I'd like to share is, how I've watched from the, upfront and close and personal, and I've seen how how builders really work with each other and they support each other. 00:09:12:16 - 00:09:46:02 Unknown And maybe that relationship doesn't happen overnight. However, I have watched builders in need of framers are in need of great drywall guys, and, the build the builders to share that information. And I've also heard where builders will, they'll have a project or they'll have a prospect that it's really not really not the type of client that they're looking for, but they know of another builder within the GBA and they pass these leads around. 00:09:46:04 - 00:10:14:18 Unknown And so being an associate, the an associate vendor of the GBA. I, I have in my, in my ten in my ten years of being around the GHB, I've never seen competition. I've seen more of, you know, brothers helping other brothers, if you will. It's it's just an amazing place. And all I see are are individuals helping other individuals to grow. 00:10:14:19 - 00:10:36:16 Unknown That's that's from my. See what I've seen? Yeah. Yeah. I'm 100% coming from a builder. It's interesting. When I first started come around the GBA, my very first thing was a golf tournament. And I went to go to this golf tournament, and, I will sponsor this. Not even two months into this, I'm thinking I am literally just selling to myself to other builders, and this just doesn't make sense. 00:10:36:16 - 00:10:52:04 Unknown And so initially, I was really hands off. It's funny, I tell become from now a past president of the GBA, that my very first start in this was, oh, like I had some secret sauce to to the building industry, and I was going to do a different than everybody else is going to do it. And so it took me a while to kind of get ingrained. 00:10:52:04 - 00:11:06:03 Unknown And it was really the education classes that brought me in and got me to I started talking to other people. I met with some other builders. And through the years, I mean, it's interesting how my mind shifted so much. I mean, some of my best friends now are builders within the GBA. And we do. We help each other. 00:11:06:03 - 00:11:20:02 Unknown We support each other. You know, when there was some electrical code issues last year that had come up, I had a builder text me, hey, how did you get around this with your inspector and this, that and the other? How did you appease the homeowner to make sure that was okay? And, you know, we tell each of these stories. 00:11:20:02 - 00:11:39:12 Unknown We try to help each other's businesses out. And I do alluded a lot of this to like a golf game. I'm only playing to make myself good. And, you know, I hope that you have a great game too. And there's never a a deal where I'm just out to just ruthlessly kill somebody and nobody in the GBA. It's interesting because I like the builders, because they make us better. 00:11:39:14 - 00:11:55:06 Unknown All these builders are making us better. The ones that that scare me, or the ones that aren't members because they're the ones out there cutting the corners. They're the ones you hear about with the big lawsuits and the homeowners that are going on the internet talking about how bad their builder is and the well, that's because their builder didn't have a network of people to reach out to. 00:11:55:08 - 00:12:12:09 Unknown And you can see a quality difference, I think, in the in our members versus the nonmember builders out there. So it is it's, you know, and even here recently, with the economy the way it's been, one of our builder members, I was actually having lunch with, who happens to have a bunch of extra lots, and they they're kind of changing that a little bit, what they do. 00:12:12:11 - 00:12:27:12 Unknown And I said something about, yeah, we're little bit slower than normal. And he's like, well, we can subordinate two lots to you if that helps you. This is coming from another builder who's a A member saying I'll subordinate two lots just so you can get some more projects going. We're going to sell the lots anyway, so we'll just subordinate them. 00:12:27:12 - 00:12:43:15 Unknown You pay us at the end when you sell the deal. Well, I mean, that's an incredible gift to have. And it's that come from a competitor in my area. And you know, that's just how I think. I think if more people understood, it's more of a brotherhood at times. There is no competition within the group. A very, very seldom do you even see it. 00:12:43:16 - 00:13:06:21 Unknown Absolutely. I mean, I, I tell people all the time that, I would rather see you hire another person in our network than hire against some, some random guy who's working out of his truck. Right. That doesn't know what he's doing because it hurts our industry. Exactly. So, and maybe I'm a bad salesperson, but when I'm talking to clients, sometimes they I've gotten the question of why should I choose you? 00:13:06:23 - 00:13:23:14 Unknown And I said, well, you know what? Choose. You choose your builder based on a personality you fit. Do you like their processes? I said, but, you know, I know the these other three guys that you mentioned you're talking to or that I know the architect referred to you. I know these guys. And honestly, I feel like you'd be taken care of by choosing any of the three of us. 00:13:23:14 - 00:13:45:01 Unknown Right. So I want you to choose based on who you're getting along with. And do you kind of like what you see from our company? I'm not going to sit there and badmouth the other guy. I'm not going to say that I'm that much better of a builder than than this other guy. So, I feel confident as long as they're choosing kind of somebody in, in kind of this, this network that they're going to be taking care of. 00:13:45:03 - 00:14:05:11 Unknown Right. And also, I'll say, you know, we're not perfect. And I've seen other guys in the group make mistakes. And sometimes they can be bad mistakes. But you know what? I've also watched those guys own their own those mistakes and fix it, or they've reached out and said, hey, Curtis. Hey, Matthew, I'm having this issue. What do you think about this? 00:14:05:12 - 00:14:24:00 Unknown Can you help me through this? And I feel like people are not going to get taken advantage of in general by people in our group. So that's a that's a great testament. You know, it's it's the it's the mentality of the rising tide, you know, floats, all floats, all ships. Yeah. There's plenty of work out there in Houston. 00:14:24:00 - 00:14:50:11 Unknown There's plenty of work. Just a couple houses being built in Houston. Yeah. I mean, we're with the Lord. The Lord is building work in the country. Is is in this part of Texas. And so there's there's plenty of work. So, yeah, the the the the GBA is just a great, a great resource that will really help, kind of help you grow and improve your, your company if you just dig in and take advantage of the opportunities that are there for you. 00:14:50:11 - 00:15:14:06 Unknown So all right, let's talk for a minute at kind of about the history of the GBA. I'll start off by just kind of reading some facts that The Office sent over for us. The GBA was actually founded in 1941, which I found out GBA is actually older than our kind of parent organization tab. Tab? They were started in 1946, so we've been around five years longer than the state organization. 00:15:14:08 - 00:15:28:04 Unknown We are the largest local HBA in Texas, and we're the third largest in the US. So I'm actually not sure who the bigger ones are. I, I do, but you know what? And this has been coming from the president I'm going to say this. My goal is how do we not how are we not number one. Right. 00:15:28:09 - 00:15:50:17 Unknown Yeah. It has to do with the membership. It's the way that our membership is counted. We do member companies. So we're 16 around 1600 plus or minus spending what time of year? But 1600, member companies. So a company can have 4 or 5 people, ten someone up, ten people. And it's counted as basically one membership the way we do it, there are other, places that the two that are above us, they actually count individual memberships. 00:15:50:17 - 00:16:07:06 Unknown So one company may have five members or whatever. And so they have an affiliate membership that goes with them. So it's like it's like baseball. It just depends on how you skew the numbers. We can we can change the data and we can change the inputs to get a different out. But we're still number one. Technically, we're number one. 00:16:07:06 - 00:16:31:06 Unknown Technically we're number one. If you look at our events over there, events we are phenomenally larger in in the number of people that show up and participate. Yeah. Everywhere I go I hear, man, GBA is a great a great, association. I hear that when I go around the country and talk to other other builders, and other industry people there, I mean, GBA and MTV in general is has got to go. 00:16:31:11 - 00:16:56:18 Unknown Houston is seen it has across the state and across the country. It definitely has its own aura. When people talk about builders that model builders associations, Houston's the one that comes to their mind for sure. But in Dallas and in Denver, both and neither one of those organization should have near the participation of Irish does not near about the amount of events that we have because the builder council in Dallas, if they pull 6070 members, they're lucky. 00:16:56:20 - 00:17:16:04 Unknown Yeah. Well, we have 160, 178 hours. So we're fortunate. And in certain states, I'm going to add my little asterisk here. And in certain states you are required, for insurance reasons, to be a member of a builders association. So a lot of those builders are forced to be members but do not actively participate. Well. And so we do see that that's another thing that skews the data. 00:17:16:04 - 00:17:37:08 Unknown Just just a little bit. Not that I'm prideful about it, but that is of the things that skews the data. Absolutely. So we cover a big region here. You know, the Houston area is is massive. Obviously Houston, Harris County is kind of the center of that. But we also cover Montgomery, Fort Bend, Brazoria, Waller, Liberty, Wharton, Galveston, Matagorda, Austin, Colorado, and Chambers counties. 00:17:37:10 - 00:17:51:04 Unknown And I bet you there's probably some members from some of the fringe around there. I San Jacinto County, maybe, and some of the other ones are kind of right there on the border who are also members. But that's kind of what we focus in. Some of them. We just recently joined chamber. Chambers is brand new. So that was our 12th. 00:17:51:06 - 00:18:06:12 Unknown That's our 12th county. That was a big decision. Hey, we we actually looked at 13 or 14 if we're being honest. There's there's still two out there on the northeast side and no man's land that nobody's really technically claimed. And the downside is, you know, when you when you take on that county, you really need to be able to provide services. 00:18:06:12 - 00:18:21:18 Unknown And at some point you get geographically so far away from the center of Houston that while we could take them on, we make it that much harder for them to be actively involved in, you know, sort of having a plane or a helicopter, it makes it difficult. So, but chambers is a new addition, I think, a great addition. 00:18:21:18 - 00:18:49:23 Unknown You know, you have a lot of volume builders go into that, that direction, out there. So I think it's, I think it was great to add that 12th one. Yeah. So I think what a lot of builders and associates, Joy and GBA, they get involved, just kind of in their little area that they've joined, whether it's the Custom Builders Council, Remodelers Council, and whatever, and they don't really know kind of how the whole organization is set up and structured, or why it's structured that way. 00:18:50:02 - 00:19:10:02 Unknown So let's talk about that for a second. Matt, since you've been in in leadership, talk to us about that structure kind of all the way from National, you know, on down to local and then and then all the councils. Yeah, I think a lot of people don't even realize that when they get a membership to the GSB, they're automatically they have a membership now to the state and the national levels. 00:19:10:04 - 00:19:25:09 Unknown I've been active on all of all three, national being the hardest because it's the biggest naturally. You show to some of their meetings and there's, you know, several hundred people at some of these meetings. So, you know, you're at first you're going to feel like, hey, I'm just a fly on the wall. They don't really need me here. 00:19:25:11 - 00:19:47:02 Unknown It's easy to get kind of lost in the weeds, but one of the things that I find interesting is you're dealing. Similarly, we have Rally Day, which is GBA focus. We have what they call a ledge con, which is our legislative conference that we have, for the national level. So that's a lot of fun. You actually go sit up there in Washington, you're going to go, you know, meet your, your, congressmen and women, you sit down. 00:19:47:02 - 00:20:07:01 Unknown It's it's similar in nature, but you're you're talking about all the different issues that we have. And one of the things that I don't think people don't realize is that until we bring these to their attention, they don't know what we're dealing with. You know, you might have a lawyer from wherever, and you're, you know, they have no clue what we're dealing with on the building side and what things are hurting our industry and affordability and those things. 00:20:07:01 - 00:20:23:06 Unknown So, when you sit down and talk to them or their staff, either way, you actually get to feel like, hey, I'm making a difference. And this is across the nation, you know, we're dealing with big stuff and, it's a lot of fun. Then you come down the state level, we have what we call rally day, which is all the locals participate in. 00:20:23:06 - 00:20:39:00 Unknown It's a state level, similar nature, rally day is up at the state capitol, and, we have a day for that. The thing about the state and a lot of people don't realize, hey, a lot of our meetings are in Austin. It is a two, 2.5 hour drive max. I wish we'd get more people there. You really feel like I've been, 00:20:39:04 - 00:20:59:04 Unknown I'm now a life director on the state level, and, I got that last year. And so I think that's 7 or 8 years of service and, going to the meetings I've been on part on different committees. I'm on a membership committee there. I'm on long range planning committee. So what that does is help us look forward to not only today, but what can we do for our members to make sure we have good member benefits? 00:20:59:05 - 00:21:17:21 Unknown We work with people to bring those in, and everything from contracts. So that's another thing that people don't realize is that the state we have our state, residential contracts. So you get a whole package for that. It's a it's that that alone is where if you were a builder, remodeler or anything in between, that alone is worth you getting a membership. 00:21:17:23 - 00:21:35:05 Unknown And our, our contracts committee is held at the state level. So every two years, we after a legislative session, we're going to go in and look at what's changed was not, what ways can we improve to make sure we're keeping our builders and developers safe? And our model as well. So, a lot of things happened on the state level that I wish more and more people could see. 00:21:35:10 - 00:22:03:02 Unknown So if I had any plug for anybody, it would be, hey, on one of our four statewide events each year, go. Just come sit. Come find me. I'll sit with me and I'll walk you through it. It's great to feel, you know, really empowered by it. But what you're seeing. The last thing I would say from from a, what I find, I guess how I benefits me sometimes is that when you're over there shaking hands with the congressmen or women or a state rep or a, you know, you're getting the in the know. 00:22:03:05 - 00:22:17:05 Unknown It's not what the TV said. It's not what your buddy said. It's not really what you're reading online. You're actually able to talk to them about today's issues. Tell me what you're dealing with. I'm going to tell you what I'm dealing with. You're taking a picture with them, and a lot of times they'll say, hey, reach out to my staff. 00:22:17:05 - 00:22:33:14 Unknown Or if you have any questions, you know, you can sometimes get Ahold of them. But the thing is, where else in this world can you be so active in your industry and be able to go get the answers directly from the source? Yeah, and I think it really if you want to really kind of level level up on your business, that's something that I've noticed. 00:22:33:14 - 00:22:46:09 Unknown People, they come to me with all sorts of questions about, you know, hey, what's happening on the state level? What's doing this was doing, you know, people see us, you know, whether it's on social media or wherever, that hey, I was in Austin last week and I get a phone call or I get somebody in my office asking about it. 00:22:46:15 - 00:23:06:19 Unknown It does level you up a little bit. Yeah. So when we were at a rally day this last time, I thought it was really cool. You know, that they parasol up or actually they put us in groups of 3 or 4, and then we we have appointments at the different offices of the, the legislators. One of the ladies in my group, we were in, in the office of, I think it was, Boris Miles, maybe. 00:23:06:21 - 00:23:25:03 Unknown And she said, you know, I saw you at the grocery store last week. If you shop at H-e-b and see on a plantation or something like that, and he's like, oh, yeah. And so it turns out their neighbor is like a few blocks away from each other. And so, you know, we we kind of gained this instant rapport with this legislator, and he suddenly got like a lot more engaged. 00:23:25:03 - 00:23:40:23 Unknown And he really listened to what we had to say. And I felt like that day in those conversations that we had with him, that we that we made a real difference in his understanding of the issues. And, you know, I mean, he he personally sat down with us just like this and, and listened to everything that we had to say. 00:23:40:23 - 00:23:56:03 Unknown He asked a lot of questions and he said, oh, you know what? I meant. I didn't know that about that, about that issue. So it was really neat to kind of to see that power of that personal, that face to face connection with the lawmakers. And a lot of times they'll actually reach out to you, too now. 00:23:56:06 - 00:24:12:12 Unknown Yeah. You know, if you hadn't told me ten years ago that I would be texting with my state rep and congressman, truly, they text, we text each other. And it's funny. I mean, they're busy, but if there is an issue, they want to know more about it. I'm their go to source and I can if I don't have the direct answer, I'll go get it for you. 00:24:12:14 - 00:24:26:21 Unknown That just puts you in a different and a different league, you know? And in my opinion, I got to tell everybody I didn't start this to be in politics. I was nowhere in the SBA thing that ever said become a politician. But I feel like I've become one at times. And then down to even the local levels. 00:24:26:21 - 00:24:50:10 Unknown And I think that's another one that that people it is not just a good old boy social club as much fun as we have. And and the great events we have, I mean, we're, we're now in 12 counties, so we have to deal with the commissioners of each county, the judges of each county. You know, a lot of times the local city councils and different people as things are going on, whether it be a water moratorium or whether it be a lot size restriction or a this or that, we as the GBA come and we kind of tackle those issues. 00:24:50:14 - 00:25:06:01 Unknown We make sure that they we are seen and heard so that they know that they're being watched. And, really it's to benefit the, you know, our builders, developers and remodelers and, and all the associates that come with it. Right. And so that's a lot of times you as a local person. So maybe you're not wanting to go to Austin, maybe you don't want to go to Washington. 00:25:06:01 - 00:25:23:05 Unknown That's okay. We can still use you in your local jurisdiction. We absolutely can get your help because they're going to listen to you and your constituent. You know, when when it's you saying, I live here in Sugar Land or I live here. And so and so they want to hear from us and be that resource. And that's what the GSB does a lot of and, I mean, gosh, we're so spread out with 12 counties. 00:25:23:05 - 00:25:45:14 Unknown We need the help. So yeah, I'd like I'd like to make a plug for, our contracts, for any of the, remodelers or custom builders that are listening today. You if you, if you don't have if you could quote unquote an ironclad contract tab Texas Association of Builders. They have a contract for builders and remodelers. 00:25:45:16 - 00:26:08:11 Unknown And I would highly, highly recommend that you call the GBA and get some information. And, not only do you get a contract, you get a class once a year that will help you with, the specifics of these contracts. And if you ever have any questions, there's also an attorney that will give a couple of minutes, carte blanche. 00:26:08:12 - 00:26:28:20 Unknown Free to the free on the house, if you will. And, I highly suggest if you're out there, if you're a builder, if you're a custom builder or modeler, and you're doing this without a contract, please call. But please call the GBA. And we're actually one of the few associations that does this for free for member three. 00:26:29:00 - 00:26:59:05 Unknown If you remember, these are free. Some of the other cities in Texas still charge their members to access these state contracts, right? And even then, it's about $400. I believe that's still a heck of a deal. That's still an absolute heck of a deal. It would cost you tens of thousands to have the number of contracts and addendums and things that we have readily available to us would not only take you, but you'd have to re, you know, every two years you'd be looking at them again, because as legislative session changes things and bills get voted on or approved or denied or whatever, you know, those things come into play. 00:26:59:08 - 00:27:16:05 Unknown We have to update on constantly. Or you found out kind of who had a lawsuit over what issue in the last year. You know, those those guys who write those contracts and update them, keep track of of lawsuits that happened around the contracts, and there's always some little hole that has to be plugged. You know, some little technicality always comes up. 00:27:16:05 - 00:27:34:14 Unknown So they're constantly adjusting those to protect us as as members. Right. Yeah. And I mean, one of the things two years ago that was such a big fight for us was, was the statute of limitations. And, really, it was centered around, right. As of then, we had a ten year structural warranty that we were required to have as a ten year warranty on the house. 00:27:34:16 - 00:27:50:06 Unknown That's a long time when you look across the rest of the state, we were one of the longest. And, so we lobbied and fought hard, speaking with legislators to say, hey, look, you know, these builders, we're building these houses, but you know what happens in ten years and how in the world could you possibly say that we're liable for these houses? 00:27:50:06 - 00:28:08:17 Unknown And so, anyways, what we were able to do is kind of strike a deal, if you will, to say, hey, if we offered a third the, the, the, the bargaining chip, we use was if we offer a third party warranty, meaning it's an insurance backed warranty program, we can now reduce that to six years. That's four years. And we're saving builders and remodelers from having a warranty, a house. 00:28:08:19 - 00:28:24:12 Unknown And I think it's a critical four years because the bulk of your stuff that's going to happen will happen the first five after that you're calling us in or anyways. So, you know, the idea is that ten years is ludicrous to us. And it was, you know, across the nation we said that. So six years and my gosh. 00:28:24:12 - 00:28:48:15 Unknown And that was a huge benefit. And that when that win took place at a rally day two years ago, where all of the, builders and developers and associates such as myself and Dell, you know, were there and talking to the representatives and, lobbying for that change. And that's where that that's where that changed happened. So so here's my shameless plug in saying all that. 00:28:48:15 - 00:29:03:21 Unknown If you're a builder and you're listening to this and you think to yourself, I don't have time to come to the EPA now, time to go to all these events. And I don't want to maybe I don't like people I don't know. Hey, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, if nothing else, your membership automatically allows you to be a member of the state organization tab. 00:29:03:23 - 00:29:21:10 Unknown And that does help us to put money and power in our words, because what we're doing is saying, hey, our members of this many thousands of members or 10,000 statewide members, you know, when we go to to the we're a voice and you're a small part of that, you not only have to show up, but just being a member helps us fight those battles. 00:29:21:13 - 00:29:37:23 Unknown And it cost you a couple hundred bucks a year. And guess what? You just got reduced from a ten year to a six year just like that. And that's just one of our many wins that we've had. Absolutely. That's a huge benefit for you. Yeah. So on on the structure, you know, Houston is such a large areas we touched on, we cover a lot of counties. 00:29:37:23 - 00:29:57:19 Unknown So, you know, again, we got, you know, national, state, local, GBA, and then we're even broken up into into regional within the association. Right. So you mentioned northern counties. We've got the Bay area, Council Builders. Which other local groups do we have? Or there's the two main ones. Those are two main as far as geographically. 00:29:58:00 - 00:30:18:13 Unknown So, so one way up north is one way down south, right. So, you know, we we are, through those local councils, kind of addressing the more specific needs of those of those parts of our area. So but then even within the GBA, you know, there's a lot of different committees. There's like, there's like 14 different committees that we have. 00:30:18:13 - 00:30:38:15 Unknown So we've, you know, we've mentioned Remodelers and custom builders several times because we're all involved and there's a lot but there's a lot of other councils out there for people who are for companies who are like volume builders, production builders. Right. What what other what other, Qube is my absolute favorite. Coming from a male. This is my favorite professional women building. 00:30:38:17 - 00:30:55:02 Unknown Houston has by far the the number one that you look at. I mean, they PWP in Houston is just seen as the as the pinnacle as far as that that council is concerned, across the nation. So not only do they win awards, but they really are just a big powerhouse. I mean, it's just incredible to watch. 00:30:55:04 - 00:31:13:10 Unknown And I think it really does in an industry that probably 30, 40, 50 plus years ago was probably more male dominated. The reality is, and I'll say it like it is, most women are more organized. They're they're better communication. They have a lot of the a lot of benefits to the construction industry that men don't have, just in nature. 00:31:13:10 - 00:31:41:16 Unknown So when you see these 102 hundred women events, I get a little nervous. I'm not going to lie. I walk in a little nervous. These are some powerful women coming to replace you. Well, here's a here's a couple of stats. When, when the FPA, founded the PWP here in Houston. Don't not don't quote me on these, but I think the largest PWP in the state of Texas was maybe, maybe at 200 or under 200. 00:31:41:18 - 00:31:59:03 Unknown And our first signing day, we hit well over 300 people. 300. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, like, you don't have to be a woman. And they have the best events too. Yeah, I see some events they have. I'm like, man, I want to go to the like, which is who won? Which is. Whoo! Bingo. We down October. Yeah. 00:31:59:04 - 00:32:19:09 Unknown Hey, they even had, I guess it was last year. Don Buckingham or land commissioner coming from Austin. Austin. And that was awesome. I mean, if anybody's ever met Don, she's she's incredible woman. She's a she's a powerhouse. Yeah. Yeah. And and you just sit there kind of on your jaw dropped on the floor. Listen to her. Some of the stuff she does and and see, I think a lot of people don't even know what a land commissioner even does in the state of Texas. 00:32:19:15 - 00:32:33:16 Unknown So hearing that firsthand, she puts her business cards at the end, you know, and said, I mean, y'all reach out to me. And I thought, that's just it's very few organizations that are going to have those kind of people come in and speak and say, hey, we want to hear from you. Yeah. So then that's just one of the many. 00:32:33:16 - 00:32:58:01 Unknown I mean, we've got we've got everything, like I said, Custom Builders Council, that obviously, I mean Remodelers Council custom Council of Council, developers associates. We've got a little place for everybody. And so come on, we even have another association underneath this Bay Area Builders Association backbone that northern counties, those are geographical ones. So yeah, that's a great segue into our next item here. 00:32:58:01 - 00:33:17:02 Unknown So, you know, we're not just builders who are members of the Builders Association. Associates are a big part. You know, Delon's and or both associate members and their companies are. So del, talk to us about, you know, what what kinds of, what other kinds of companies are our members, but also kind of what you guys do and how you interact with us. 00:33:17:05 - 00:33:40:07 Unknown Okay. Anybody can be a member, and we have some people that you wouldn't think would be a member of a builders association, but they may be related just to me and my company. But they've joined to get involved, to help pull through with other companies like ours. The networking is phenomenal. The classes are fantastic. Got talent that want to talk about membership. 00:33:40:09 - 00:34:09:22 Unknown We have these ABCs of building classes, and Sonora is one of three for now. Professional preferred vendor. Or what is it called for performance? Yes. Professional builder partner. Yes. She took the same classes that the builders and Remodelers do. Get the professional builder a professional remodeler designations. And I'm I'm on that path now myself and learning stuff and here and stuff. 00:34:09:22 - 00:34:32:14 Unknown But the thing about it is the networking with the people that are in that room also, learning from them. Dave Yellow, which is, is a fantastic instructor. But there's some people in there pretty sharp that make some comments and do some things that that you pick up on. So you get the benefit of all of that and having a good time to advocacy. 00:34:32:15 - 00:34:52:12 Unknown Well, it's it's just that, well, well it's interesting, Dale, because like you and I will be in those classes and, you know, you expect to see builders there, you know, I guess, you know, vendors like us, but you'll see us there. You might see engineers there. You might see a print shop owner in there because, you know, they want they want to they they want to get involved. 00:34:52:12 - 00:35:12:19 Unknown They want to sell their printing to builders and signage and marketing and all sorts of marketing. So, yeah, you'll see an array of, of different, vendor associate vendors in the, in those builder classes, which is interesting, like the one I took last, last week. The last thing I want to be or y'all want me to be as a plumber. 00:35:12:21 - 00:35:30:11 Unknown Well, I took the plumbing class, three weeks before that. I've been selling frame lumber 44 years. I took the framing class, and, but it's just you hear things in there, you still pick up on stuff. You can always learn something, and I. I heard some things in there that I sure didn't know. That was my next question. 00:35:30:11 - 00:35:55:15 Unknown Do you ever hear anything in those classes that you don't know that well, all the time? Absolutely. Every day I do. I think it's just being able to speak the language of, of the builders to, you know, even if you're even if you're not selling a building product like lumber, but you want to be a part of the organization and you want to be able to relate to builders, sell to builders, you kind of need to be able to speak the language, understand some of the basic technical terms. 00:35:55:17 - 00:36:13:01 Unknown So even if you never plan on, on, on doing any of that actual work, just sitting in those classes, you know, they're only generally like two hours or more, but most of them are two hour classes. You know, you'll learn something, you'll learn to speak the language, and you'll probably be sitting next to a builder. Just chance for chance for networking, right? 00:36:13:03 - 00:36:29:16 Unknown Absolutely. Yeah. You know, the other thing that I think is interesting and I'll say this out loud, especially if a potential homeowner is here watching Texas is one of three states that doesn't have licensing, and we don't have time to go into day. How I feel about some of this, but, could better different am I degrees in civil engineering. 00:36:29:16 - 00:36:46:05 Unknown And a lot of us, you know, in the building world we have different degrees from all over the place. And so I end up being in our profession. And, so the interesting part about this, though, is we don't really have continue education because we don't have licensing. And one of the biggest benefits I see to the ABCs of homebuilding, which is the courses that we're talking about. 00:36:46:05 - 00:37:09:06 Unknown And then they have the designation courses, is it gives you a chance to also continue your education, new products come out, new ways of doing something comes out. Maybe this builder does it slightly different than I do it out. Let me tell me why. Like why do you do your framing this way. And it's really a great hands on approach to staying and evolving within as things change, as things get modernized, how do we evolve from there? 00:37:09:11 - 00:37:24:19 Unknown So being part of the job, if you're not in the gym, you're under a rock somewhere and you're doing it like, you know, could you imagine a builder is building a house today like we did 20 or 30 years ago? You know, you never want to hire that guy. Doesn't mean is a bad guy. He just needs to evolve. 00:37:24:20 - 00:37:47:04 Unknown We've come a long way in the building process and the building world and building sciences. And so you've got, like you mentioned, the hell, even a building sciences go to that guy. You know, and it's interesting because you will you every time you'll pick up on something that you didn't know before. And I wish more people looking at builders knew that about GRP members and the education is a great marketing tool for builders as well. 00:37:47:04 - 00:38:09:17 Unknown Because again, if someone's shopping, you know, for a builder interviewing different builders, that's something that you can say is, hey, you know me, my project managers, we stay up on latest trends and codes. We we take classes, we do continuing education. You know, we're not that guy who's just in in their own bubble ignoring what's going on. Like we're staying on top of things to give you a better product. 00:38:09:19 - 00:38:28:17 Unknown So, yeah, I, I've had customers ask me in an interview before, you know, what do you guys do for for education? And I can say, hey, I've got these designations, you know, because I, I that was one of the first things that attracted me to GBA, to Nahb was, you know, when I, when I joined, I went and got all my back. 00:38:28:17 - 00:38:51:13 Unknown Then all the nahb, designations were really being promoted hard. Graduate master builder and all that kind of stuff. You know, caps, and I've used those as marketing tools many, many times and talking to clients and the classes will be evolve and there's an education committee and they're working on additional classes that will be starting to be offered next year in addition to the current ones. 00:38:51:13 - 00:39:08:10 Unknown Right. So that's that's pretty exciting. Have you have you ever been to a class and walked out and not met somebody new. Yeah. No, no, that's been my experience too. You always meet somebody new shake your hand. And it just again that network just continues to increase. And the production builders are running their superintenden s through it. Yeah. 00:39:08:10 - 00:39:27:03 Unknown Custom builders are running their builders through it. And and then like us associates going through it, and that's going to help us relate to the builders better for me, for me. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. I took 12 classes and the 13th the integrity class or what was that? What that class. Ethics. Ethics and took I 13th was the ethics. 00:39:27:05 - 00:39:57:08 Unknown But in those 12 classes, should I ever build a custom home? I have a few things to to look out and watch for as the homes being built, but more for me as a vendor. And my prospects being builders and remodelers is, you don't realize with builders and remodelers what they have on their plate. You don't assign them on it, you don't know what you don't know. 00:39:57:12 - 00:40:16:19 Unknown Yeah. And, you know, prospecting builders. It was like, why won't they give me the time of day? I mean, look, I need I need their time. You go through that class and you're going to, you're going if you're going to have a saw, a soft spot for the builders and remodelers when you're done with those classes, and especially if you pay attention to code and Dave of it, he teaches all about codes. 00:40:16:21 - 00:40:54:12 Unknown And I tell you what, those codes alone, what they put you builders and you remodelers through, it's a I that that I was like I could never build I can't do this. This is just this is just too much. So anybody out there, the anybody out there that's thinking about building a home, I highly suggest that you do some serious vetting with your builders and your remodelers, and that can start with looking at those that are members of the GBA, but also ask them about their education, because, like, you guys were just saying, there's, you know, there's no certificate or licensing here in the state of Texas. 00:40:54:14 - 00:41:18:09 Unknown You need a you need you need to sincerely do some serious vetting with who you're looking at, what classes they take, what do they know, what certifications do they have, etc.. Before you start handing thousands of dollars over to someone to build a home for you. Well into that point, I was going to say the thousands of dollars thing, one of the most, influential classes as far as I took early on was, was business management for the building professional. 00:41:18:11 - 00:41:38:10 Unknown You look, I come from an engineering background. I love I love the construction science side of things. I love the building side of things. But what separates a good builder from a great builder is often money management. Learning how to manage your business, making sure you're certain things are paid up. You understand accounting terms. Those are things that you just don't when you get into a building industry building business. 00:41:38:10 - 00:41:55:17 Unknown I started my company. Those are things that I kind of neglected. I didn't really think, oh, that's not you're doing millions of dollars a lot of times, you know, especially now, every house you're dealing with it. So, you know, as a, as a person going to hire a builder, don't you want one that's probably got a little accounting background somewhere in him because he's the one dealing with your money. 00:41:55:17 - 00:42:20:08 Unknown When those doors come in and they're six figure draws, if you're a custom builder, if you're buying a even even a couple hundred thousand on a house, right. Let's say it's just a that's still a lot of money. That's your whole life savings that you're pouring into this house, probably. And you definitely want to build that understands how to manage his money and understand you do not want a builder or a modeler who's borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, because there's never been any horror stories from builders going belly up or anything. 00:42:20:14 - 00:42:38:01 Unknown And so I, I left a buyer high and dry, you know, and so and you but you very rarely ever hear that with the GBA builder. That's what I find interesting after all these years of hearing it. You just don't hear this stuff. I think it's real common. And I did this too. I it's real common for a builder to start off really small. 00:42:38:06 - 00:43:02:22 Unknown You're doing 1 or 2 projects or you're starting as a remodeler. You're doing kitchen and bath remodels and you natural progression. You get asked to do bigger and bigger projects, or you want to write. Maybe you build a spec house and next thing you know you got ten projects going. There's a big difference in managing money between a $20,000 bathroom remodel when you're a one man operation, and managing ten custom homes going on at once, right? 00:43:03:00 - 00:43:39:05 Unknown I mean, it's night and day difference on accounting and data management and everything. So that's one of the great things about the education classes. The networking that goes on is just just being able to to soak up that knowledge from all the people around you to operate your business better. You know, and so, you know, this podcast is through my consulting company, Shepherd, because I can because I can talk to the Shepherd Construction Advisors and, you know, in Shepherd, I get hired to go in and look at situations where people will put themselves in a, in a bad situation with a builder, and I have to help them kind of get out of 00:43:39:05 - 00:44:02:15 Unknown that situation and get things back on track. And nine times out of ten, that builder is just mismanaging everything from, you know, money to contracts to, you know, employees. I mean, everything, right. And so and in almost every instance, it's been somebody who grew from real small, got real big real fast. And they didn't know how to manage it. 00:44:02:16 - 00:44:21:12 Unknown Yeah, yeah, I'd say my biggest learning curve and you know, I'm not gonna say mistakes, but certainly learning curves is going from a one man operation to where I was running the show to employer. That's a that is a term that, you know, I didn't take classes on this. Nobody in engineering school taught me how to how to hire people and what I would need paperwork wise. 00:44:21:12 - 00:44:40:00 Unknown And a report to the government and all these things. Right. So employing people is no, no different than managing your money. It's managing your people. And if you want to have a successful project, you got to be good at both of those. And oftentimes I see good builders aren't great at managing the business side. And so the SBA really has help step in. 00:44:40:02 - 00:45:02:00 Unknown And, you know, I could go on for days of a list of people that I've had to call through the years to say, hey, when you ran into this issue or when you're an employee do this, or how do you handle this? And, you know, these builder Tony groups are so important for that, because it does offer a lot of, a lot of help when you're growing, and even when you're you're fine where you're at, you still need to stay up in your game. 00:45:02:00 - 00:45:20:11 Unknown Yeah. And and I'll say this, you know, the guys who have been mean. I'm sure you're the same way, Matthew. And I'll admit this. There's a lot of guys in a group who have made bad mistakes in the past, you know, with their companies. But we we have the network in place to get advice to get things back on track. 00:45:20:17 - 00:45:39:10 Unknown You can ask tutoring. I've paid some bills late the teetering in the past, you know. But I had to figure out how to get my company in order and back on track and operating on the level that we should be operating on. So I think almost every guy in the group, guy or girl, every every company in the group has had some of those issues at that point. 00:45:39:12 - 00:45:58:09 Unknown So it's learning. It's being able to talk to other like, you know, like minded people and just get that support to, to make sure that that either doesn't happen again or how do I get my company structured so that I'm operating on a higher plane. Right. Well, one thing more about the, professional designation and ABCs of home building classes. 00:45:58:11 - 00:46:20:10 Unknown After you get your designation, you have to take three classes a year, in order to keep it. So you're continuing your education. And if you rotate the classes and take the new classes to just come out with, you're just only growing. Yeah. And I think the key thing to to remember is NB no longer has the designations like they did ten years ago when we were doing it. 00:46:20:10 - 00:46:43:11 Unknown I think you and I are on the same boat. Got it. My graduate, master builder and all those things. They had since taken a lot of those pieces away, which is why the GBA stepped in and is now, ironically, kind of the new model for the state. Now they're they're looking at, you know, the states asking about whether they should do, I've heard the state's been looking around the state has been saying they, they, they, they love the idea of it and they know it's a great thing. 00:46:43:11 - 00:47:01:05 Unknown And. Yeah. So and is taking note of that too. So I'm good friends with one of the guy who's guys who was pretty high up the national ladder. In fact, he's going to be here in September at our I'm sorry, in June, rather at our CPC luncheon. His name's Bob Peterson. He's the second vice chair nationally, and he's a good friend of mine. 00:47:01:05 - 00:47:20:16 Unknown He used to be in my builders 20 group. But, you know, Bob used to be chair of the the national education thing. And so he's mentioned to me that they've taken note of what GBA is doing as far as education goes. And, you know, National is actually looking at restructuring some of their stuff and kind of using what we've done as a model. 00:47:20:21 - 00:47:41:12 Unknown So I just speaks volumes to to what we've accomplished. And you know, what our education committee has done to. All right. So we're going to kind of change directions a little bit here just because, you know, we got some talking points from the office here we got to touch on. So the the mission, the, the official mission of GBA. 00:47:41:12 - 00:48:03:14 Unknown And I'll just again, I'll kind of read this like I did a few minutes ago at the history. So our, our, our mission of GBA is threefold is to provide advocacy on behalf of builders to keep regulations appropriate, which we already already talked about, to connect members with each other to create trusted business partnerships. We talked about that and then to educate those in the industry on best practices and trends. 00:48:03:14 - 00:48:29:21 Unknown I think we just talked about that too. And we yeah, we nailed it. So, yeah, my my kind of, my, my order here on my on my on my notes. We've already kind of checked all those boxes. One thing we hadn't touched on is, our community involvement. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. With the giveaway, the Frank Origins of Christmas giveaway is named after dear friend Frank Aranda. 00:48:29:23 - 00:48:50:15 Unknown The hanger, where we're helping young people that are in school learn to build and out of manage stuff. And I'm sure y'all know some others that were involved with. Yeah, we do, the benefit Homes project, some adoptive family stuff. You know, all the individual councils also kind of have their, their own charity projects that they, that they do as well. 00:48:50:15 - 00:49:12:01 Unknown So giving back to the community is, is also a big part of, of what we do as an organization. Yeah. Huge part of it. And also, you know, we actually did a some videos on this a while back. But, you know, the hanger, which is an organization that the Ccbc has been partnering with out in Berkshire, Texas, out, out in Berkshire, you know, I hired one of the kids from their program, right? 00:49:12:02 - 00:49:35:17 Unknown I sure did. Amelio. He he's been with me since, I think December now. And he's turned out to be a fantastic employee. And so that's an organization that that, they do a lot of different things. But one of the components of what they do is they have a, a construction trades skills program that they teach these underprivileged kids, you know, some basic construction skills. 00:49:35:19 - 00:49:51:05 Unknown They do some projects with them. And, and kind of get them on the right path. And so when we were out there doing a charity project, I watched this kid really work his butt off. And I said, you know what? I would love to have you join us, because I heard that he'd already graduated high school early. 00:49:51:05 - 00:50:19:00 Unknown He was 17 and already graduate. Changed his life. Well, I hope so, I believe so, I know, so I bid on it. So yeah, it's a great organization and I tell all the other builders like go out there and do these projects. You might meet your your future all star employee by doing that. Yeah. Well and on top of that I met how I got involved in the hangar, which, because I'm not really involved locally, was was funny enough after, Hurricane Barrel, we were doing this giveaway. 00:50:19:00 - 00:50:40:00 Unknown I mean, you just literally to bring it in trucks and trailers were giving them water. All the contractors, you know, we just told it's free chainsaws to help them as they're clearing debris and stuff. Chainsaws, water, gas cans, you name it. We have these tents set up and they could come through and get all these things. And in the process of us going out there sweating that day and handing out all these supplies, it was hot. 00:50:40:00 - 00:51:00:02 Unknown It was hot that day. It was muggy. You know, I met I met a couple through the hangar. I heard a little bit about it. I said, hey, you know, I really want to set up a lunch and let's talk about this. And I heard about the mental side of it. I was so inspired. So I went, and I'm on, I'm a trustee on the Texas Builders Foundation, which is the, the base of the philanthropy arm of Texas Association Builders. 00:51:00:04 - 00:51:13:21 Unknown I've been a trustee on that for about seven years now. I went up there and I pitched this whole thing to them. I wrote up a grant and got everybody on board. We approved the grant. We were able to give them $10,000 and tools and other things. We had a big press last week, right? Yeah, couple weeks ago. 00:51:13:21 - 00:51:39:16 Unknown Yeah. Two weeks ago. You know, and it's just it's just stuff. I just one thing led to another. It's just every door kept opening. And the one thing I've always said about the GBA, when you talk about these, the community involvement, and I can say this as a, as a past president, because I got involved in a lot of different things every single time you say, hey, I really need fill in the blank, you didn't hardly finish the sentence before somebody stepped up and said, I got you covered. 00:51:39:18 - 00:51:54:22 Unknown What do you need? Whether it's a monetary donation, whether it's tools, whether it's a, hey, I'll just be there to bring some labor, you know? I mean, it was just it. And it always baffled me. And you think that would. That feeling would get old? My wife heard me say this laying in bed so many nights where I'm just. 00:51:54:22 - 00:52:12:01 Unknown I just can't believe it. Every time we need just this, they show up with this. And then by the time you start really looking at it, they got this. You know, it's it's just wild to me that our members, they're not giving back to put their name on it. They're not giving back to they give back because they want to we you know, we say that a lot. 00:52:12:03 - 00:52:31:00 Unknown Yes. We work and live in this, this area. But man, they really want to give back to the community. And that is always super inspiring to be around people like that. We'll talk about needing we, we can check off construction. We recently and have our second location now, and it's actually, our executive office is, if that's what you'd like to call them. 00:52:31:05 - 00:52:53:06 Unknown And we did an open house, and, all of my invitations are to GBA for, I don't know that I know anybody else if they're not involved with the GBA. And I tell you what, the GBA turned out for me. I don't know, we had maybe 70. I'm just kind of guessing maybe 70 there and, 68 were from the GBA. 00:52:53:08 - 00:53:19:21 Unknown Dale was there. I know you guys would have been there, too. You both were invited, but you had other things on your calendar. But the GBA showed up for me that day and made our open house a success. And all I had to do was ask. Yeah, that was it. Yeah. So, that's it just I look at all the the groundbreaking ceremonies we have, the benefit homes projects will have, you know, and it's just the streets get lined with GBA members. 00:53:19:23 - 00:53:37:09 Unknown And it just baffles me, you know? I mean, what they're willing taking time out of their busy schedules, you know, they're all busy to come here and give an hour or two even. It's just incredible to watch in the benefit homes. I mean, they've donated hundreds of thousands of dollars. And it's remarkable what the builders do that do those houses. 00:53:37:11 - 00:53:59:06 Unknown Yeah, yeah. All right. So to kind of wrap up, I just want to go around the table and have everybody kind of give a quick summary of, of what, what GBA membership means to you, what you've gotten out of it and, since you've been a member, I know we've all kind of touched on that a little bit, but let's just kind of all, kind of give our a little testimonial if we can. 00:53:59:08 - 00:54:18:04 Unknown I'll go first. Go for it. Wow. We got another couple hours here. A couple of days. I'll be I'm going to have the mic for a while. Let me see if I can do this short. I'm sure my husband's laughing. We need some 30s sound bites here. I'm just kidding, man. We can chop it up. Well, I've always teased over the years that I attended TCB. 00:54:18:06 - 00:54:35:21 Unknown You guys heard of TCB? You. I went to that. I went to that university, Texas Commerce Bank. University. So when I got out of high school, we couldn't afford for me to go to college. And so I got a job at Texas Commerce Bank, and I worked there for nine years, and I watched and I listened and I learned and I moved up. 00:54:35:21 - 00:54:58:10 Unknown And so I always teased that I went to TCU. Texas Commerce meant university. And I was sitting here thinking about it. I was like, wow, I went to the GBA university. That's where I got my master's program. Because I tell you what, the day that I walked into GBA, it was an associates luncheon when the luncheons were still over at the GBA, in the education center. 00:54:58:11 - 00:55:17:09 Unknown I was clueless. I had no idea how to network, I really didn't, I thought it was just go find every builder that I could and just, you know, just beat on them until they gave me an order. And if you weren't a builder or a remodeler, I really didn't need to talk to you. That's what I thought. 00:55:17:11 - 00:55:40:11 Unknown Boy of. I come full circle, my best friends. Now, if I had to go to another organization, maybe go straight to the associate vendors because they know all the tricks in the trades of getting in with the builders and which builders or remodelers may need. My, my expertise. So the GBA is home. It's a family. 00:55:40:13 - 00:56:06:06 Unknown It's my third favorite place in the world to be. First being, at church, second being with my family and my third favorite place in the world, which is probably the most fun place to be is the GBA. It is home for me. I have so many friends there, I have grown. I have learned how to truly network the proper way to network, because I don't think there's a class networking 101 I don't know, I didn't go to college, I think I think you do a great job at the, thank you. 00:56:06:08 - 00:56:30:00 Unknown But, the GBA. So what is the GBA done? The GBA over the course of ten years gave me the opportunity to become the Foundation Repair lady. It is because of the Greater Houston Builders Association that I had the opportunity to ask Lincoln Jacob Construction to join the GBA. Be a spike of mine, which means a new membership for me. 00:56:30:02 - 00:56:50:23 Unknown I got to meet him and he offered me a job that has been my dream job, and I should be winding down now to retire. I'll be 61 in June and I should be. I should be slowing down to retire. No way. I'm going to have to wait till the GBA kicks me out. So, they've given me. 00:56:51:01 - 00:57:11:16 Unknown They just given me this awesome opportunity. Career. How to network a new family. And I could just go on and on, and. And today I'm at Lincoln Jacob Construction, the foundation repair lady. Because of the GBA. Awesome. So good luck following that deal. I'm telling, by the way, you're saying that we're more fun than your family. 00:57:11:16 - 00:57:31:07 Unknown I love it, yeah, I told your husband, babe, I really didn't mean it when I said it. I mean, through the years, 44 years. I mean, I've met so many people in the organization and have come to respect so many people that I've met. I'm fortunate enough to have been involved in membership through the years. 00:57:31:09 - 00:57:58:17 Unknown And I'm a super spy, having recruited over 300 members who, So I'm really excited about that. But I get to know those people, too. And I get to gotten to meet Sonora and Matthew, and. And I was his first lumber millwork salesman back in the day. And I said on my first house that the things, the questions he probably didn't ask me that he wanted to hey, may need to go take some classes. 00:57:58:19 - 00:58:18:01 Unknown What's up? PM just joking. And just to be a part of the camaraderie ship. You mentioned that, it's phenomenal when you go with custom builder luncheons and remodelers luncheons and the holiday parties and the things you get to mix and mingle and, and see people that you get to see every month or two that you know and wouldn't get to see your meet or have a relationship with. 00:58:18:01 - 00:58:42:13 Unknown So I'm blessed for because of the people. Yeah. Well I'd like to thank you for your 40, 44 years at the HBA because it is folk like you that pave the way for folk like us. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you I appreciate that. That would be my sentiments to to this question. You know, I think the GBA is an extension of my family. 00:58:42:13 - 00:58:56:17 Unknown I mean, it really it really is. And I know we said it already, but it becomes a family when you really dial back what that really means. You know, you have the brothers that you that you get along with. You know, the brothers, you, you fight with each other and kind of mess with each other just for fun. 00:58:56:19 - 00:59:11:09 Unknown And then you have the moms of the group that take care of you. Make sure that you're taking care of throughout the day. You know, you have it all, but the biggest thing is that you have, you know, for me, it's men and women that maybe they're older. They've been in the business a little bit longer, and you learn from them. 00:59:11:09 - 00:59:28:02 Unknown You get those experiences. You can't get that out of a book. You can't get that even watching a podcast, you can't get that, until you're there and you've got somebody that's a really paved the way and say, hey, this is I mean, it's really shaped and molded my business. It's shaped who I am as an employer. 00:59:28:02 - 00:59:43:00 Unknown And say to, I am as a, as a builder. But, you know, you learn from their experiences too, and you just listen to them. It's incredible what you get. Now, my hope is that, you know, at some point in life, fast forward a few more years. Maybe somebody comes to me, can learn some things that I've done or been able to change or adapt to. 00:59:43:00 - 01:00:05:09 Unknown And and it really is something that, like I say, until you're there and until you get involved, you just won't get the benefit from, unfortunately. And, but it really has been it's been an incredible family and I hope to I hope to not get kicked out yet for a while. And the and to think about it, to support all the members get from the staff at the GHB is absolutely incredible. 01:00:05:11 - 01:00:31:00 Unknown You know, they've got our backs and they're going to be working hard for us, putting things together, doing the detail work and that that provides a path for all of us. Well, how many staff members does GHB have roughly? You didn't, you know, 15, 20? Yeah. It depends. We're 1617 right now. So yeah, it's, I have a feeling it's going to grow still. 01:00:31:00 - 01:00:52:16 Unknown I mean, those are all people that are there just working every day. Yeah. For us. Yes. Yes. And they and they typically. Well, I don't know I don't know what an event that a staffer wasn't there. Yeah. The, the staff is amazing and I'd like to, I'd like to put a plug in for Cynthia Fagan. Who was recently, promoted to vice president of membership. 01:00:52:18 - 01:01:16:07 Unknown She's the director of our membership, but she's also a vice president, and, I, be remiss if I didn't share her and that, she is the reason I believe that I really got involved, stayed around, and, she she led me to my way as chairman of membership. She helped me to grow into that position, went to her, told her that one day I'd like to do that. 01:01:16:13 - 01:01:33:18 Unknown And she helped me. Cynthia Cynthia Fagan helped me grow into that position. And I was very fortunate to be a chairman, of which Dell is in Dallas this year. But yeah, you know, one of my highlights last year when people ask about your, your president year and all that, what was your highlight? I said, I mean, there's so many of them. 01:01:33:18 - 01:01:48:23 Unknown It was just they gave me a book at the end and it's it's fun to flip through it. I actually look through the other day just smiling over some things. But we did a serving staff day and that was one of those, hey, I'm gonna throw something together. Our staff really deserves to be rewarded for what they do. 01:01:48:23 - 01:02:04:12 Unknown And it does. Just a thank you. And what started as a simple, hey, let's do something small, turn it into everybody going, what do you need? I got you covered. We're going to do this. We're going to help pay for this. We're going to within 30s of seeing an email out, one of our members said, I got lunch covered. 01:02:04:14 - 01:02:18:13 Unknown I'll bring the barbecue pit. I'm going to make sure we got lunch covered. Don't worry about any of that. I'm like, man, I was just hoping to raise a few dollars to go get some pizzas or something. And and he's I mean, that was what I'm talking about. But that was such a fun day watching their faces, they came and they had no clue what was going on. 01:02:18:13 - 01:02:39:17 Unknown And and so many of our members came together in our building and just really poured into them. And so well-deserved because our staff, you talk to other people across. And again, I've had the the blessing of being able to talk to other associations across the country. And when we tell them about our building and our staff and our this and our that, it's funny to watch their faces because I mean, some of them are a little bit smaller, obviously, and don't don't have what we have. 01:02:39:17 - 01:03:01:17 Unknown Maybe there's not a big area, but I mean, we really have something special. And the staff, there's no doubt. Yeah, there's a lot of other professional organizations out there in the country, you know, for remodelers and builders. And as I talk to people across the country, I've heard when I don't do the Nahb or my local HBA stuff, they just don't have their act together. 01:03:01:17 - 01:03:24:03 Unknown I join this other this other group instead. And I'm like, man, why? You know, it's sad to me because I'm like, we have such a great thing going on. Like, I feel no need to go join this whole other organization, you know, to get support. You know, we're we're blessed to have GBA. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I tell you what, it's a great place to be when you have a midlife crisis. 01:03:24:05 - 01:03:49:00 Unknown Mine was that pony that I never had as a child. And so Matthew helped me vet a horse. Saint Francis. And so Matthew, where were you? Were you? I was I was at a meeting in San Antonio for I believe is national. It was our one time. We've got it. We've been in HB meeting here in Texas and I was there going, how do I go see this horse, get home to my family, do this, do that. 01:03:49:02 - 01:04:02:17 Unknown After being away from his family for four days, he makes his way. So I'm going to actually kind of be that direction. I can go swing up there, I said. But here's the problem I don't have I don't have boots and spurs. I don't have my saddle, I don't. So you got to bring it all. So she brings out a barrel saddle. 01:04:02:17 - 01:04:22:08 Unknown Now I am not a barrel. I'm not a barrel racer by any stretch. But I squeezed into Nora's barrel saddle to try this horse out for her. He sure did. He sure did. I mean, so, and we have pictures to prove the saddle. Oh, we've got a picture. We got a picture. Video to prove. Yeah, yeah, it was a little bit small for him, that's for sure. 01:04:22:08 - 01:04:44:06 Unknown So there's another side benefit for anybody listening who's not a member. If you join GVA and you want to buy a horse, we've got your guy right here. Yeah. He's I'll get I'll get you in the Mafia real fast here Matthew Roberts that all right. So I guess my, my my testimonial that I'll give real quick is I honestly don't think that I would still be in business if I, if I hadn't joined GBA. 01:04:44:08 - 01:05:05:19 Unknown You know, I mentioned that I started off small, so I, I learned construction just kind of by hanging around my uncle, who was a remodeler. So I was a music student in school. I was this you're in your 20s, if I may ask what? Your 20s. Okay, so I was going to be a musician, a music teacher, then a musician, and then I got in the restaurant business because I realized I couldn't make it as a musician. 01:05:05:21 - 01:05:25:10 Unknown And, and in the restaurant business was horrible. I was I was a newlywed, and I was never home. My wife hated the restaurant business. And so my uncle said, hey, just come hang around with me and learn construction. And so I started hanging around him. And he was actually a longtime customer of Deering. And so I used to I used to go over to their old office. 01:05:25:12 - 01:05:45:14 Unknown Well, what street was that on? Over on the Heights Boulevard over by Washington. You know, the size of Washington. Yeah. So I, I'd go over there and order my PM five and my, my doors and everything is back before we all sold lumber. And, anyway, so I hung around my uncle, dealer in construction, and but but he was doing kitchen and bath remodeling. 01:05:45:15 - 01:06:04:13 Unknown He was flipping houses. And so I just kind of learned by hanging around the job sites, I never really had any formal, education in it. And, I learned his way of doing things, which wasn't necessarily the right way of doing things. And so, you know, I'm just I'm kind of entrepreneurial. And so I said, I can, I can, I can, I can do this on my own. 01:06:04:13 - 01:06:25:21 Unknown So I started doing my own remodeling projects for friends and family and whatever. And I got bigger and bigger. Well, I definitely became one of those people who, as I mentioned earlier, didn't have the systems in place. I didn't know how to grow. I realized that I didn't have the education that I needed just from watching my uncle and his in his trades. 01:06:25:23 - 01:06:51:16 Unknown So that's why I joined I, I joined to get the education. And then I saw this network of, of, of brothers and sisters who were supporting each other. And I said, you know what? I want to get involved in that. And so I, I feel confident that if I had not gotten the education, both learning the technical side and the business side and getting the support of other people there, I would probably not be in business today. 01:06:51:16 - 01:07:10:16 Unknown I would have gone belly up, bankrupt and been out of business. So just the the resources that are available, if you take advantage of them, if you get plugged in, will really help you grow as a, as a business person and as a and as a person. There's so many great opportunities for personal and professional development. 01:07:10:16 - 01:07:32:06 Unknown So Curtis that's my plug. Curtis so how did you hear about the Greater Houston Builders Association? Was it just was it just known out there or did you go look for the GBA? I think I looked for it because, you know, when you're, when you're new and you kind of want to legitimize your yourself, you know, I want to be able to say I'm a member of the association. 01:07:32:08 - 01:08:04:02 Unknown Right? So I think that was my first motivation was just being able to say, I'm a legitimate contractor because I'm a member, right? I think I think that's where a lot of people start. They, they join just to kind of credibility look legitimate, right. Yeah. Because again, there's no licensing in Texas. And so really, the only way to kind of set yourself apart is by joining an organization to say, hey, you know, and that was my impetus for also getting the designations for getting my, GMB and Caps and all that kind of stuff was I wanted to create some legitimacy. 01:08:04:03 - 01:08:24:05 Unknown And so the desire for just you know, outward appearances, I think, also led to that growth. Yeah. I love that. All right. Well, I think that's about, that wraps us up for for today. We could probably go on and tell stories and talk about this for a long time, but I really appreciate all three of you being here today. 01:08:24:05 - 01:08:40:13 Unknown Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's been a lot of fun. And we'll definitely have to do some more individual because I want to learn more about your stories. So let's get together and do this again one on one. Absolutely. Thank you. Look forward to it. Thank you. Thank you Curtis so much. 01:08:40:14 - 01:08:45:10 Unknown And thank all of you for watching the Your Project Shepherd podcast. We'll see you next time. Thanks.