Contractor Cuts
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Contractor Cuts
The Future of Construction: Technology's Impact on the Way We Do Business
Clark and James explore how technology is reshaping the future of contracting, focusing on implementing tech solutions to grow construction companies efficiently and effectively.
• LIDAR technology ($2-5k service) can save thousands in construction costs by identifying underground obstacles before breaking ground
• Drones provide safer roof inspections, marketing material, and comprehensive site surveys without physical climbing
• AI-powered takeoff software helps with estimates but supplier services may be sufficient for occasional needs
• Chat GPT and AI assistants can enhance emails, presentations, and interior design visualization for client proposals
• Construction management software forms the backbone for systematizing processes and training employees
• The dual training approach: software teaches employees how to execute tasks while core values teach them how to think and make decisions
• 81% of clients will pay more for contractors with clear communication and processes
• Fear of technology disruption is balanced by recognizing that the human element remains essential in construction
• Signature services and niche marketing help contractors stand out in crowded markets
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Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover the good, the bad and the ugly of growing a successful contracting company.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Contractor Cuts. My name is Clark Turner. I'm Biggie Smalls. Thanks for joining us again this week. So I have Biggie Smalls on the podcast.
Speaker 2:We are talking about our third in a series of three the future of contracting, the future, the future. So today what we're talking about is tech how it impacts construction, where it's going in construction and how we utilize it to grow our companies. I think we're going to start by kind of talking through some of the most updated tech that we use, why we use it, how we use it, how to implement it. That'll be a shorter part of this and then we're going to go into how growing a company today is different than 15 years ago. Grow, build, duplicate and really help us grow the company to the next level that we have really implemented through ProStrux360 and our coaching and our systems and processes that sort of thing to really help you.
Speaker 2:So that's today's podcast, the final of our future of construction series. So let's start with tech, different techs that are being used. I kind of put together a list. I'd love to hear your thoughts on them. The first one that I have on here is when you are and this is more for the builders doing construction on properties, but using LIDAR to be able to assess. Fill us in on what someone would use LIDAR for, if they're looking for, say you know, where are we going to put a house on a property? That sort of thing, what's the use of it and how do you utilize it.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, you kind of took the main one. But if you're trying to build somewhere, one of the first things is you need to know where you're going to put the house, and the way that that's typically done is you take soil samples around where you'd like to have the house and, based on those soil samples, your engineer and if you're doing septic, the septic it's going to tell you what your requirements are going to be for that type of soil. And it might be like this is not good soil. Don't build here. Know what, if there's rock, like big rocks, a lot of rocks, boulders, bedrock, what is under the ground, to the point where we're going to run into this.
Speaker 1:If we dig yep, that has always been done by guess and check you know we found the soil sample. This should be good. We dig down, hey, we hit rock. It's a ten thousand dollar change order. We got to explode it. If you use LIDAR and I don't really know a ton about the LIDAR drill, from my research it looks like it's probably cost somewhere between 2000 to $5,000 to have the service done. But if you've ever built a house um, or if you've built, you know multiple houses you know that the under the ground stuff, the stuff that you run into. Those change orders can be pretty crazy, because it's not just hey, we found rock, we got to get rid of it. It's the foundational aspect. After that, the concrete that you need to pour and the amount that you need to pour because of now this obstruction that you're removing, you've just increased the volume of of concrete.
Speaker 2:Typically, that you have to put and you've delayed your project three to six months, because now new drawings, new septic approval, new, uh, you know.
Speaker 1:God forbid, you need to use dynamite literally. Yeah, that's a different permit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh there, there's so, so many things. I mean I think the two main things with LIDAR you're getting is site analytics of what's happening underground, what's happening around it and the topographic side of it, to where, if I'm doing a house with a sunlight basement, to where it's underground on three sides and it's out, you can move it 14 feet to the left and save yourself thousands and thousands of dollars by not having to dig as much, by setting the house naturally into the ground, to where we're not digging out this huge pit. But we're actually just going to have a small amount of digging, a small amount of backfill, and it's exactly what we're calling for. So, using LIDAR on the front end of a new construction job, doing one of these LIDAR services, figuring out what's in the ground like you're talking about with rock and stone and how dense the areas are where water is sitting, looking at a topographic map and understanding exactly water runoff sites and that sort of thing I mean a lot of that's going to come up when you're doing your civil engineering with the ground perk test and all that stuff. But to really utilize that, if I'm paying three grand for a service like that verse, I can save 20 grand worth of of site work. That's a huge difference. And not only 20 grand of site work. But if I start somewhere and then we have to move it because we ran into something, we are six months out from even getting going again, cause I need architect, engineer drawings, approvals, city changes, permit change there's a bunch of different things that's going to happen just to move the site 10 feet to the left. Yeah, so I think that's a great piece of technology that's saving headaches in the in the new construction world all over the place.
Speaker 2:I think another one number two, two drones. I think those are not a new technology. Those have been around for a little while now. But you can spend a couple hundred bucks to get a really nice drone and do before, during and after photos and fly through videos of the same spot. I think for the marketing aspect of it alone. When you're doing roofing, new construction, additions, landscapingping, that sort of thing, that a good aerial view, um doing estimates. I I know a roofer that does all of his estimates using a drone. He doesn't get up on roofs anymore. He gets up close, covers the whole area. Great, utilize it for that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:There's probably like insurance, that like breaks, you get on insurance. I'm sure that. I'm sure.
Speaker 2:So using utilizing drones for for aerial site surveys, monitoring progress, safety inspections, that sort of thing, getting photos, uh, to understand, you know we're going to have to pull the whole chimney box off because if you look you can, it's all rotted around the top where it meets the roof, stuff like that that you might not have seen otherwise. But you're utilizing that to justify estimates and and make sure that we're fully complete before going on a contract.
Speaker 1:This, this has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but have you seen the guy on Instagram that he has a drone and he people pay him like they'll pay him to feed cats like stray cats. It's really enjoyable. It'll like land the drone will land and this like cat will come out of nowhere and just they have a bowl mounted to the drone with food in it and the cats will just randomly come out. Which is just it's pretty smart, it's a pretty fun.
Speaker 2:So, james McConnell, construction and cat feeding yeah.
Speaker 1:Your next business, why not? I wouldn't do cats, though Cats aren't really my bag, that's true, I look for dogs, that's true.
Speaker 2:Maybe baby bird feeding. No, not really a bird guy. Okay, that's fine, all right. So the next one going back away from drones AI power takeoff software. I'd like to stick on drones.
Speaker 1:Let's get back to drones.
Speaker 2:Let's get back to drones, all right, so.
Speaker 1:James Feeding cats man. I can't get enough of it, man. It's just a passion of mine, I found, and I won't get away from it.
Speaker 2:Cool, cool, great to have you on the podcast. All right, we're switching to solo podcast. Ai-powered takeoff software, I think, is something that people are using. What's funny though, I gave this advice earlier this week to a contractor If you're not using it a lot, if we're not doing a lot of takeoffs and doing it, using it heavily a lot of times, your suppliers are going to do that for you.
Speaker 2:You, if you're doing a one-off addition, maybe you know I do three new constructions a year, so that's all. I don't know if you need to invest in learn a new software for that. I mean a lot of lumber supply companies are going to do takeoff for you if you send them the blueprint. So utilize your resources before spending a lot of time learning and training and and some of these, these takeoff uh, the plan Swifts and that sort of thing that that you can use for takeoff. It's great, it's helpful, uh, and if you don't know what takeoff is, it's, it's really being able to identify from blueprints exactly how many two by fours you're going to need, how much materials you're going to need for the plans that you have down to the penny and one thing you know getting into it.
Speaker 1:Yes, use those, those suppliers, but that's a good kind of dip your toe into the water. Spend 20 bucks a month on chat GPT and see what it does for you Use. Use your suppliers as a barometer for how accurate your your chat GPT can does for you. Use your suppliers as a barometer for how accurate your chat GPT can be for you. In my experience thus far, it's not been very good at consistently and accurately reading plans. That has a lot to do with the prompts that you give it.
Speaker 1:Are you pumping plans in the chat GPT? I've done it. Yeah, actually, before chat GPT came out with the $200 a month version, yeah, um, it was doing a really good job and then all of a sudden it stopped, yeah, and so I don't know. I haven't paid for the $200 version. Um, I don't think I can utilize it enough. Honestly, the $20 version is pretty sufficient for what I need.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, but it was doing a good job and then all of a sudden it wasn't. And that's just going to happen. They're giving you a product to use and they're trying to see how can we monetize this, and then they take away some of the features and make that a special feature. But I would use that as kind of a barometer and see what it does for you, because you never know how quickly you're going to get this stuff back from folks. So being able to do your own takeoffs, there's a lot of value there, especially if it's like you can just feed something into chat and it'll give you something and you can use that as a baseline If you go back to some of our other coaching that we've done and talk about in the podcast.
Speaker 2:Process wise, we don't need takeoff service for an estimate. That is, on our final revisions, getting our dollars down, you should have a roundabout per square footage, per linear foot of wall, some sort of set pricing that you're doing for the property. Maybe a chat GPT is going to help you with some of that type of guesstimate pricing. But if you're doing your estimates right, I don't need takeoff services. And down to the penny of how much the materials are going to cost me for framing on my initial estimate, I'm trying to get in the ballpark, trying to get on the same page and then, during my due diligence, when my customer's paying me, that's when I'm going to be doing my takeoff and getting all of my material set up, changing prices. Hey, good news, our lumber package is actually $2,800 cheaper than what we had budgeted for. Here's, you know I can show you my takeoff costs and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:So, process wise, when we're talking takeoff and those type of softwares are super helpful Don't go to them because they're fun and cool and you can get micro numbers on it pretty quickly. Save that until you get down the road with the customer. We're trying to get round numbers and that kind of leads into the next line item, which is chat GPT. Like you were talking about Utilizing chat GPT, we both pay for the system. It is a very helpful way to go about life these days. I mean, we're not going to sell you on using it If you don't use it. Get into it in terms of whether it's checking your emails, helping you think through things, building things out. It is a great assistant.
Speaker 1:It is helpful, I would say, though people are becoming real lazy.
Speaker 2:GPT dependent.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, I mean. You know, if you use it you can spot a chat GPT email coming at you like cause. People will copy and paste it and send it and it's like a different color, like the letters are a different color.
Speaker 2:Somebody sends me an email by themselves, versus one that they send from chat GPT.
Speaker 1:It's very different and if you're not consistent with the way you're communicating, it's just a dead giveaway and I can't stand it, honestly, Because it's like hey, buddy, I could have typed that in a chat GPT. I'm asking you because you have the actual experience right here and I don't even know if you vetted what chat GPT just told you.
Speaker 2:I helped my wife yesterday write an email to someone she works with. That was a bit of a. This is how I'm feeling about the project. This is kind of some not conflict, but like, hey, let's talk about this, let's put it all kind of out on the table and talk, talk through what's going on. I was like the first sentence in this needs to be just so you know, this is 100% my feelings and thoughts. And I did not use chat GPT to write this because, like, I wanted that statement of this or my feelings about how things are going, that like and I want you to know every word on here I thought about and wrote, wrote like to every word on here I thought about and wrote like to get to a point to where you need to state that before having an email that goes out like that's crazy, but that's where we're at. But it's a great use for, especially in construction, where maybe you're not great at typing, you're misspelling stuff, you, you know, throw it in a chat GPT and churn out a better looking email.
Speaker 2:I think, on top of that, one thing I've used ChatGPD for is interior design. You can take a photo of a room and say, hey, we want this to be a living room. We want a sleek sleek, you know, upper class feel in it. We want it retro. We want it this. We want that it will drop couches, pillows, you know, lamps, that sort of thing to where you can. You know, if you're trying to do marketing and I've finished a kitchen or I finished a living room and it's kind of plain because it's no one's living in the house, Use chat to be to do some interior design work on it. Get some ideas for a kitchen. Right, you can upload your client's kitchen and say, hey, can you redo this photo? And there's a bunch of different mid journey. There's a bunch of different mid-journey. There's a bunch of different photo editing apps another AI. But utilize that stuff to take 10 minutes to take a client's photo. Put it through there and send them the photo of hey, here's some alterations on the photo of the way the kitchen would look if we went. Black cabinets, like you were trying to like getting crazy with it. Utilize it for that Photo editing. Like you were trying to like getting crazy with it. Utilize it for that photo editing changes. Uh, presentations, pitches, that sort of thing. You can really utilize that chat, gpt and other AI assistants and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Um Couple more mobile LIDAR scanning apps for interiors. There's a lot of these, you know. 3d rendering, where you can walk through a house and it's going to build you a 3D model of the interior of the house Very cool way to do it. You know there's there's a lot of stuff like that. That's helpful. That's that might be good even for capturing before and after photos, or CYA, to make sure that whatever is in the house currently is the condition that we give it to you back at and it's not our fault that there's a hole in that wall. But there's a lot of good 3d rendering, 3d scanning using even like mobile devices down to your phones and iPads. That can do a lot of that for you. So that's a that's a really cool tech, I think.
Speaker 2:The last one that I've got is our own ProTruck36.
Speaker 2:I think using a construction management software, and this is where we're going to land some for today, the systemizing of how our processes work is how we duplicate and train people up in our company.
Speaker 2:But it's more than just systemizing and training them steps and processes, and we're going to get into some of that today just systemizing and training them steps and processes, and we're going to get we're going to get into some of that today, um, but utilizing this tech is helping us get things done quicker, faster, more impressive and allows us to show people that we've done a lot more work than actually we've put time into it. Right, if I can spend an hour on this project and make it feel like I've spent three days on building out design and some other stuff, it really goes far on selling that with your customer. So a lot of these are for that. That that's super helpful tech, um, but going into it, um, oh, the uh, training project managers, yeah. So, when we're talking about growth using tech, growth using, uh, you know, the future of construction, you know, I think back to 15 years ago. When did you start here? When did you come on? 2010? 11? 12? No 14.
Speaker 1:Either way, you've thrown out too many numbers for me to think.
Speaker 2:Either way, bringing guys on originally in this company is a totally different way of doing things than it is now. The way that I'm coaching, teaching guys on hiring, growing and training and utilizing our tech that we've got built into our processes and procedures is how we grow the new construction company, how we grow past to where you're at right now, how we get off the yellow pad and actually put it into software, because software is nothing special. Software is your backbone and everything that you put on is the meat right. The skeleton of your company is your software. Utilizing it the right way allows you to view your numbers, manage your calendar, make sure I'm making money on every job. All of that stuff happens because I'm utilizing this tool, and so what we want to do is have a technology like ProStrux 360 that our systems and processes happen the same way every time. Then, when I hire someone in, I can bring James in your new hire A. I'm going to show you how our systems and processes work. I'm going to show you the steps that you need to take from A to Z to be successful here laying out those systems, utilizing the software, learning how to build estimates, learning how my numbers work inside job, templating all of that stuff that you can do to really expedite all of the work that you're doing in a construction company.
Speaker 2:But then we take it to the next level. We have something that we roll out to every new contractor is our core values that we want you to implement in your company. And they're not just normal core values, these are your. They're cool, mom. Yeah, it's not like integrity, loyalty, you know, kindness, it's not just just words to put on a vinyl sticker on your wall to make the everyone walk past it. See, okay, they're, they got integrity here.
Speaker 2:Our core values is a threefold communicate, advocate, lead. And these are the ways that we do it. And when we train a new employee on core values, we are saying this is how you filter your decisions. So it's a two-part training for new employees that we utilize our software for. Number one is our software doing the steps and the processes of point A to point B. This is how you do everything. Number one is our software doing the steps and the processes of point A to point B. This is how you do everything. Number two is the core values. This is how I want you to have a vision of where we're going, what we're doing and how to filter every decision and conversation you have with our customers. I can train you on the core values to think like me. I can train you on the software to act like me. And if I can do both those things, I can duplicate myself in this new hire to where I'm not just hiring an assistant but I'm hiring a second me and I can grow that person into running and being better than I am, because they've got skills that I don't and I'm training them on the skills that I do and so I can help my employees be better than me inside of my company.
Speaker 2:And that's the goal of utilizing this technology and what we've got. Also our processes, procedures and our trainings. That's kind of the core of ProStruck360 and our coaching side Training you on both those things how to systemize that, how to grow it. So that's kind of how we utilize and how we grow and what's changed in this and I think kind of our magic sauce on helping guys be successful in construction. I'm training them on the two-pronged attack of how I do my work and how I think about things, how I filter decision-making on job sites. We marry those together in how you're supposed to be operating in this job and then from there forward, it's accountability, training and help Support. How do I do this? How do I hold them accountable?
Speaker 2:And the software, the technology that we're using allows you to know everything that's going on on the job site without micromanaging the guy, without calling every single day. Now what's happening? Okay, now what's happening? Are they pissed? Hey, your customer called me. What's going on here? We don't need those phone calls anymore. We need to meet once a week. We need to go through the software, do our PAL meetings or however you're assessing the software job by job and give them that support as the leader. So, anyways, that is how we're utilizing tech and moving forward.
Speaker 2:I think one thing that you know, a stat that I found when researching this 81% of clients say they pay more for clear communication and processes over someone that's less clear. 81% are fine with paying you more because you are clear in your communication and how your process is run. That alone goes to our client engagement agreement. That alone goes to the education that James has been preaching on every single podcast, that if we can educate our customers, if we can get them to understand the process, their expectations that they should have of us and our expectations we have of them. 81% of them are willing to pay more for us and for that product, which I think is proof in the pudding as to why what we're doing works and why it has been successful. I don't know. Sorry, it's a little tangent on it, but go ahead.
Speaker 1:We haven't talked about this and this is older technology anyway. But a lot of guys don't use this, but all inspectors use it. But like the thermal, those thermal guns yep, not just for insulation but specifically for and these aren't expensive, they're like 175 bucks, 200 bucks, you can get a thermal gun that will show you uh, you know the heat register behind whatever you're looking at. And the way that I like to use that is with your shower pans. Every time that you do a shower pan, um, you should be running hot water, and when you're, when you're doing the test and checking it with your thermometer, because if you can catch it before you do all of your tile work, you're in a much better you're saving thousands of dollars and weeks, if not months, of time but like nobody uses it nobody uses it, but the inspectors do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they'll go in there, they'll shoot it and they'll know right away. You've had a leak for five weeks, yep let's go downstairs, shoot the ceiling below it.
Speaker 2:Let's do yeah, there's, there's plenty. And we love gadgets. Right, let's go. Full approval of buying that gadget because it's so, so helpful and it's a write-off. You write it off. You just write it off.
Speaker 2:If you're looking to improve your systems and processes and to start utilizing some of this tech today, what I would say is step one, go to ProStruck360, get the software. This is self-promotion 101. But if you're not using us, use some sort of software to start building your estimates the same way every single time. That's where we start Build your estimate the same way In our software. When you're building your estimates, you start saving them the line items to use again in the future, and then we can also build a job and use that job again in the future In the software. If you start a new project, you say, hey, this is very similar to 123 Main Street we did six months ago. I want to copy all of the stuff from Main Street and put it on this job so I can start my first. The first minute of my estimate has the full 123 Main Street estimate that I built six months ago as the basis. Then I can edit it, change it, delete stuff, add stuff as the basis. Then I can edit it, change it, delete stuff, add stuff. But getting systemized and how you're writing your estimates, sending those estimates out, how we invoice and how we do work orders Start there in the software that's feels very basic. It's like, well, quickbooks does all of that it does, but not like this and this also communicates and dumps it all on QuickBooks for you and manages your QuickBooks as well. But start there. Get on some sort of a software where you can systemize how you're doing things, look professional and really start building a foundation to hire people and grow on. And I think that's what sets ProStruct apart from other softwares is it's built for hires and to grow a company. It's not just built for estimating and invoicing and that's kind of a. You don't understand it until you get into it and start hiring and seeing how we can really manage employees in it. But it's really good for growth.
Speaker 2:Also some other stuff to be auditing. Look at your Google reviews, your website, your footprint. I think that's something else that the deeper we get. When I'm looking 15 years ago to today Google, my Business is 100 times more important now than it was when I started this company 19 years ago. Of course, reviews matter, but website expectations that customers have now than back then. Google reviews are the most important thing you can have, having a lot of them, having good ones, responding to every single one. How I'm facing. There's a lot of AI that will help you with that stuff. Chat, gpt will go to your website and review it for you. There's tons of stuff like that to utilize some tech to really kind of get yourself one foot ahead of your competition. Those are two really good things.
Speaker 2:If you have a project manager, here's something else you can be doing. Sit them down and ask them what's unclear to them. What is the gray cloud over anything that we do? What part of our process is broken in your mind? What part of our process do you not really understand? If you start asking them those questions, they will love to help make it better right, and so I'm not going to be defensive. I'm going to say, okay, cool, tell me more about that. How did? Oh? I didn't realize you don't get that Right. Let's start fixing our processes to where, as we grow the company, we've got software that we're running. The processes are built inside of that. We've got trainings that happen. Everyone acts the same and that's how we're growing into the next year. That's how we're getting to the next level within the company.
Speaker 2:And then the last thing I'd say we've said in the last two podcasts but signature services. What's my niche, what is my signature service that I'm offering? And I'm going to lean into that as well. So, owning the niche, owning what you're doing, your signature service I'm the ADU guy. We do the Barnumium Blueprint Company right. Whatever you want to call yourself or the niche that you want to service, really start pushing that. There's so much content out there that you can build off of, to really push yourself to the front of the line. When someone's looking to build something specific, they are going to find you, as opposed to you're one of a thousand contractors in the area. No, I'm the Barndo guy, so I'm going to go to the top of the list. No, I'm the ADU guy. I'm the kitchen and bath maestro. Whatever you want to try and, yeah, let's go on Whatever niche you're trying to service, let's lean into that and let's put a lot of ad words around it. Let's put a lot of our keywords on our websites around it. Put a lot of our keywords on our websites around it. Let's try and build towards those niches. As the construction industry grows, there's bigger and bigger niches that you can be servicing. I think that sort of thing as well.
Speaker 2:As the last thing I'd say you could do today to get going this way is setting up templates. Startproosetstruck360.com. Our cheapest version that's got templating, is 89 bucks a month. It's our light version. You can template your email responses, templating job items, templating job templates where you can copy full jobs or have a full preset. This is our kitchen renovation. Every time we do a kitchen, start here and then I can build out from there. Start building those efficiencies into your company, refine them, and that way, part of our process is this is how we do estimates. Um, those, those are the things I'd say start doing today. Sorry, I went on a tangent. Did you fall asleep over there?
Speaker 1:No, you're just, you're all talking. I don't know what you want me to say right now.
Speaker 2:I don't want you to say anything. I was checking in over there. I think the quad espresso has hit in for me, and then you're going to add to this Anything about technology growing into the future, things that are different now than 10 years ago, when we were running things that are helpful or hurtful, um and anything, I think I think there's a lot of fear for people.
Speaker 1:yeah, uh, I don't think that the construction industry has ever been one that's been known for adopting, um, new tech. It's like things come out. I, I take that back. It's not game-changing tech. There's a lot of really cool things that you can find at trade shows different takes how to do things, like the peer footings that you can now use for decks that aren't. You don't have to dig an entire footing, you can just drive these pylons in different directions and that's sufficient and building codes will accept that. It's not like that. Chat.
Speaker 1:Gpt has changed things for AI has changed things for a lot of people and there's a lot of fear around. What's this going to do to our industry? And I think for certain aspects, there is some fear there, like if you can and some of this isn't even AI driven, it's what we were talking about a couple episodes ago when is the industry going? And a lot of these ADU units you can prefab build those. You've got a lot of people trying to take angles of things, like we're going to build everything off site and drop it on site.
Speaker 1:Pour a sub and drop a house on it, yeah, and then modify it from there if need be. So, yeah, the there's good reason for framers to be a little bit concerned. Um, there's also these like 3d printers that can make you know the concrete houses. But how many people are going to actually do that? How long does it take for something like that to become more ubiquitous with their mainstream, with the industry? But if you are a general contractor, you know those people whoever's doing that for youd printing your foundation walls that have to. They have to work with the other trades. So there still is a place and you just have to find your spot in there.
Speaker 1:But the big thing is like, with the chat, gpt stuff, there's a lot of bull crap that you got to swim through because it's not all accurate and people that just use that as a bandaid or a salve for everything are going to come up real short. Because there's a human element that I think, at the end of the day, if you're listening to an audible, you can like oh, this is an AI reading a book that an AI generated. I'm not, I'm feeling nothing. There is something about a human element that the trades and building has always been. There's a human element that the trades and building has always been. There's a human element that people. I think that AI is actually going to reveal more to people about how important our place is in the whole.
Speaker 1:The value of it. Yeah, the way this world operates. The way this world operates, because you're going to find this very what is it? Very binary. The way that computers operate is binary. It's either this or that technology. We need to look at what it is and utilize it for what it is, but utilize it because there is benefit there. It wouldn't be such a popular thing if there wasn't benefit there. But you do need to weigh the cost-benefit analysis of how much time and how much energy am I going to put into utilizing this new tech, and how much energy am I going to put into utilizing this new tech and how much energy am I going to put into doing what I've been doing and that's making connections and building relationships?
Speaker 2:I would. I would echo that in terms of a like a chat. Gpt is a tool. It's just like when. Such a tool, such a tool. So just like when, like when spellcheck came out on Microsoft Word.
Speaker 1:It's like I remember when spellcheck came out.
Speaker 2:But it's like when it started.
Speaker 1:You used to do spellcheck for a nickel.
Speaker 2:But it was something that, like it's not writing my essay for me. It is correcting and helping me make what I'm saying better, and ChatGPT is just that times a thousand, but it will write an essay for you, but it won't be your essay. If I'm writing an essay and I'm using ChatGPT to spell check, to say it a little bit better, more clear manner, great, it's a tool that you use, just like everything else Also. In our industry, though, there's two extremes that I've seen coming into the coaching program. One extreme is I use a yellow pad. I hope that's okay, cause I'm not changing. You need to change.
Speaker 2:There's 56% of contractors use software, which means 44% don't use any software. That's got to change, and that is changing as those guys start dying off and retiring and the young generations coming in literally dying Literally dying off on job sites. But, that being said, there are so many guys behind that just won't adopt. You got to adopt some of this technology.
Speaker 2:The other side of the extreme I've seen guys do nothing but spend days and hours chasing setting up this takeoff software that integrates with this, and then my company cam comes in and does it. I'm like, yeah, that's awesome. You spent three weeks on building out some really cool tech. You don't have any jobs, like where is the money coming from, how are we selling? And we're trying to. Just I don't know what to do, so I'm going to spend time nerding out on tech. So there's kind of the opposite extremes that I've seen come through, where it's like use it, utilize it. It's a tool, but let's help you use the software that we've got and the technology we got to duplicate ourselves, make our product better, make our services better, make our customers experience of us better, and if we can do that, we're growing into the future. I think that's the main goal with it.
Speaker 1:God, that's another good bumper sticker man. Yeah, well, Growing into the future.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Well, we'll end on that. If you want any of this with us, if you want to, or a bumper sticker.
Speaker 1:If you want a bumper sticker.
Speaker 2:If you want a bumper sticker, if you want a bumper sticker, go to ProStruck360.com and click contact us and email us and James will. I'll give you his personal phone number to get a bumper sticker from him and he'll get that printed for you. But if you want to get on the software, you can try it for two weeks for free. We've got a complete version at $199 a month and it's got everything integration, ai, back end that's reading emails and sorting them to jobs to make sure that all your communication with the customers are on the job card, all the way through QuickBooks integration and managing all that. So we've got an $89 a month version that's also free for two weeks. That's the light version. One of those are a great spot to start. We've got a free version too. It's really stripped down. It's more like hey, see how it works. But really the two paid versions are the are the versions you're going to want to use once you get in and test it. But try for two weeks for free.
Speaker 2:Go to pro-strike360.com and sign up. If you want to talk about partnering with me, getting me as a coach or our company coming in and helping you grow, hit us up as well as in the contact page. I will reach out to you personally. We hit us up as well on the contact page. I will reach out to you personally. We can have a phone call, love to hear about you, your company, what you're doing, see how we can help and if it's just a conversation where it's something we can potentially work together in the future, great. Let me give you some advice. Let's talk through where you're at, love to help you out and have that conversation. So alright, thanks so much for listening. Week bye.
