Contractor Cuts

How to Start 2026 the Right Way: Annual Growth Retreat Preview

• ProStruct360

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We break down how to sell the real product clients want—project management, communication, and trust—and map a practical plan for 2026 with sales, process, marketing, hiring, and personal goals. We also share how our retreat builds systems, peers, and momentum that outlast the event.

• redefining the product as process, advocacy, and experience
• diagnosing the coffee stain and building guardrails
• designing a 10-step sales path from first contact to signature
• using preconstruction to prevent scope creep and delays
• creating consistency so jobs scale across teams and cities
• planning 12 months across six critical areas
• setting realistic goals before accelerating spend or hiring
• stage-specific marketing and when to add headcount
• quarter planning and weekly action for steady progress
• live estimate training to show value and win trust
• community, peer support, and night sessions that spark ideas

Join us January 11–13 in Nashville for the Chart the Course 2026 Planning Retreat. Sign up now and get three free coaching sessions before the event to finish 2025 strong and hit 2026 with a clear game plan. At the retreat, you’ll tackle systems, hiring, marketing, and leadership alongside ambitious contractors, leaving with a blueprint for growth. Spots are limited—visit prostruct360.com to learn more!

Have a question or an idea to improve the podcast?
Email us at team@prostruct360.com

Want to learn more about our software or coaching?
Visit our website at ProStruct360.com

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of growing a successful contracting company. Welcome to Contractor Cuts.

SPEAKER_00:

This is Clark. And I'm with James again this week, so thank you for joining us this week.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. Today we are talking about what you should be doing. Your changing body. Your changing body. You're a blossoming flower. No. Today we're talking. We're focusing a little bit on the retreat, a lot bit on the retreat of what we do on the retreat and what you're going to walk away with. A, we want you to know if you're interested in coming on the retreat. This is kind of what the takeaways are. But B, more of what we're talking about is going into the new year. Where should your mind be? What should you be thinking about? Where should you be going when you're thinking 30,000-foot view of your company? Take this and run with it. If you hear this and you're like, I like this stuff, I might want to come on that retreat. Hit us up. We are running out of space right now, but we love for you to be there. Um, but yeah, it's a it's a pretty intimate retreat where we, you know, it's we we limit it to 30 companies where we really want it to be, where everyone can participate. So we we've limited the room size, we've limited the amount of people to make sure that there's a good interaction. But if you want to come, go to contractorcusts.com, sign up right now, hop on a call with me, we'll talk for 20, 30 minutes about your company, make sure it's a good fit for you, and we'll get you booked. So, anyways, today we're talking about that. We're talking about what the takeaways are when you go on a retreat like this. What should you be doing? And if you're not coming on the retreat, what should you be thinking about? How should you do your own mini retreat in and of uh yourself and your company to really kind of launch into 2026 well? So I wrote down a handful of stuff. James is is going off the top of his head. We've been doing these retreats off the top the dome. Uh we've been doing these treats since 2016. I think this is our 10 year, 10th year of doing this. Wow. Um, and it started out just us. It was uh our company's um really intimate, really intimate. We really limited it to one company. Yeah. So it was uh it was smaller, but um we've been this is our fourth or fifth year where we've been bringing all of our coaching clients along and saying, you know, we got we got we were doing this and I switched into coaching, you know, five, six years ago. I was like, everyone needs this, like this is the best thing that we can do for our company is take this time once a year for a couple days and plan stuff out. And so we started inviting everyone to come and it's it's been killer. So all right, I've got it kind of a list that we can go down, take us wherever you want to go. I'll I'll I'll kind of rabbit trail as well. But the first thing that I think that is important to walk away from uh this retreat or any sort of planning that you're doing is starting to look at how and what you are selling, what product you're selling. And now, if you're a paint company, you're you're a flooring company, you're a general contractor that specializes in kitchens, uh, those are what people believe their product are. But what we really want to redefine is what you're actually selling, right? So I'm not, as a general contractor, I'm not selling a kitchen because there are 28 companies within a hundred feet of that house that can do a kitchen that just as good as I can, probably, or very close. The product that I'm selling, yeah, uh on paper, it's a kitchen. But what I'm really selling is the project management. What I'm really selling is my expertise, my knowledge, my skills, my ability to be your advocate as a client and to be able to step in and say, listen, I I we understand the vision of what you want in this kitchen. Now let me execute that and I'm gonna handle that for you. I'm gonna ask the questions that you don't know need to be asked. I'm gonna think through the things that you don't realize need to be thought through. And the product that I'm selling is the convenience and ease of receiving a renovation from someone who knows what they're doing. Right. And so, how do we refine that? How do we view our product that way? How do we view it not? I got you your kitchen. Why are you so angry? Like the kitchen looks beautiful. Stop. Uh, why are you yelling at me? Like that's not the product they're looking for. Baby, baby, relax, relax. Why are you so uptight? But literally, that's the mindset of people, of guys like in this are like, there's just another crazy client. Well, no, it's a client with unmet expectations because you never called them. You they didn't know clue when people were gonna be there. They you made choices without involvement. Like, there's so many things that you've done in get in delivering what you believe is the product, that kitchen that looks great, that the customer service was not good, not up to par, not met expectations. And so they're never gonna refer you to someone else. They're never gonna call you again. They're not gonna their their mom might walk in and say, This is a beautiful kitchen. Who did it? It's this company. I mean, they it the kitchen looks awesome. Um they're they're a pain to deal with. Yeah. Right? So that switch.

SPEAKER_02:

Separating intention from execution. Yeah. Like you can have the best of intentions. You could have tried to do this, you could have tried to do that. That doesn't mean you're a bad project manager or a bad person, but like what what was the execution like? Did it did it roll out the way that you wanted to? And if not, they've got they've got ground to stand on.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, the the litmus test for this is consistency of how your clients are receiving you, right? If if my client in Atlanta and my client in Lexington and my client in Austin all get the exact same experience, that means we've done it well. That means the product that we've built is that consistency of delivering X kitchen, bathroom, basement, addition, new build. Um, the the processes in delivering that is what's scalable and what's sellable as a as a owner of a company, as a growing company, that's the only way to scale it. And so what we want to do on the retreat is really refine what that looks like, assess what is missing in your game plan to deliver that, and start really building around what needs to change, what needs to say the same in the in in your product that you're offering personally.

SPEAKER_02:

And you said in the beginning, you know, it's not there's gonna be people that do different, serve different niches and niches in the industry, and not everything's gonna be 100% applicable. This is like anything else. It's take the meat, leave the bone. There's gonna be things that like someone's talking about that doesn't exactly relate to what you're doing. Yeah. But I've always found on these retreats you hear people from completely different walks, completely different mindsets, different creative abilities, different structural abilities talking and working through problems in their company or successes in their company. And there's always little nuggets that you're like, oh, that's not what we do. But like that, the heart of that makes sense. How do I uh put that over top what I'm doing? I like that piece.

SPEAKER_01:

That the what's what's funny, what the part you're talking about. I've been talking to some some of the people coming on the retreat, and you know, they're you know, first some the first timers are like, you know, like what's the schedule? Like what calls noobs. The noobs are like, what's you know, what should we expect? And what I say to them is like, listen, this isn't a vacation to Nashville. Don't go plan. Oh, I really want to go visit this restaurant that I saw on Instagram. Don't plan your evenings. Don't cut out at five when we're done and go do that. And I'm like, there is something that I can't explain that happens in hanging out with people going through the same process, trying to build and grow together that in the evenings we have that I can't really explain. But it's like what you just said like you can talk to an electrician or you know, a master woodworker that's there, and it's like, well, how are you doing this way? And what are you doing about this? And there's some sort of like, oh yeah, I can I can take the meat and leave the bone on that. Like, I'm not an electrician, but that's really cool how you do that. And there's a lot of those conversations that happen in the nights, in the evenings from five till midnight or one when guys uh end up going to bed that you you can't quantify, but it's there of like, oh, that's great, that's great. So my my my my suggestion to guys come in, girls coming uh for the first time is like, don't make any other plans. Don't go see your aunt who lives outside of Nashville. If you want to do that, get there on Saturday, go do that Saturday night and then Sunday, let's, let's, let's get down to business. Because Sunday night we do a cocktail party, it's a get-to know-you party. It's really the icebreaker. We we've realized if we do this, we did this last year for the first time, and it made Monday morning so much better because everyone was interacting, everyone was involved, everyone knew each other by that time. Where if you just show up Monday morning, it's like, hi, hi, um, go. And no one speaks up and no one wants to answer questions till we're three-fourths of the way through day one. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I think that's that's great.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, if you come Monday, you're gonna you're gonna not be on friendship level with everybody.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll have all these inside jokes. Yeah. And we'll be like, yeah, no, I should have been there. Gwen Stefani is terrible. Don't bring up Gwen. That's uh from last retreat. If you if you were on it, you would probably get it. All right, uh, number two, uh, something else I wrote down. We go from the product of what is your product, what is missing from your product. And again, we're looking and assessing 2025. We're looking at the last year saying, okay, what went well, what what didn't go well, what what went wrong, what can we improve in that? And and part of that, and this might scare some people away from the treat, but we get pretty introspective and deep on a personal level with people because it's like whatever your flaws are as a person, that's the flaws that your company have naturally baked in. So if you're not good at following up and you're you're you know, you're not good at remembering to do things, your company's gonna be known for that. Well, uh Grant a few weeks a year ago on the podcast talked about something that I've actually worked into the retreat. I might have him talking about some of it on the retreat. He's he he he he said the phrase and the metaphor, what is your coffee stain? Uh the the whole idea of when you leave, what's that one negative thing that's left behind? What's kind of what what's the coffee stain of your company? What's the the thing that like and and is it I just you know it takes two weeks to get estimates back from me? It's I get I hit people with the change rules at the end of the job and they get pissed. Every I feel like every job I'm arm wrestling to get that last amount of money that they owe me. Uh or you know, I'm just uh honestly, like if I pulled my clients, most of them would say they think our job sites are messy, or whatever, whatever it is, understanding what the coffee stain in the company is, and it's most likely in your personal life that's baked into the company that way. And we're not gonna fix you. Like you have you are who you are. What we need to do is build the guardrails around that and make your company better than you. Like that, I always said that when I with our company in Atlanta was when I got to a spot and I stepped out and turned into GM and you were a project manager at that time. It was like the software and the systems that I put in place were like what I what I needed. And then you came in and you were better at other things that were naturally happening, but then like the things that you aren't as good at, the processes are making you better. And so, like, you're a better PM because it's combining our two ways of running, like my good stuff and your good stuff. And so the goal is to build these processes where your company is better than you are, where a job site ran by one of our project managers is ran better than if I was running it myself. And if we can get to that spot, that product, that's what we're offering, that's the winning the winning product. That's the winning ticket that will get you there. And so uh taking that and understanding the flaws of the owner, the flaws of the company, we look at what's happened this year, and then we start building out your processes. What are the 10 steps? And this this year we're focusing on um of the 10 steps, the the first contact to signature. Uh, and then we'll also do some pre-construction um conversations as well. As so once they sign, what does pre-construction look like? But really, that sales process. It's not, I'm they want a number for the kitchen. Here's the number, uh either they sign or they don't. It is selling a product and letting them understand what they're buying, helping the helping your clients see your value over the next guys and why they should choose you, even though you might be 10% more expensive than the other guy, you are the safest, smartest bet for them. And how do we sell that? And and really kind of the front-end sales training of this movie, especially moving from like a hammer swinger into project manager. How do we sell that? And a lot of guys naturally are salesmen, especially a lot of entrepreneurs, but there's a difference of being a salesman and laying out a product that people want to buy. And so we're gonna focus on that on the retreat and kind of take that have have that takeaway uh on how does your process run? Our 10 step is from first contact to final invoice, every step of the way, what you need to be doing. But then we start refining it and getting it efficient and and patching the holes in the bucket that are dripping money out, that if we can get you two, three, five percent more efficient and then make it a product that people want to buy, that's a win. Right. So that's that's kind of the the a lot of day one and and some of day two is refining the process around your flaws, your inefficiencies, and the problems from last year. So if you're doing this on your own, if you're not coming on the retreat, take time to do that. Look back, be reflective, write out, have a spot in your in your iPad or on your phone where you kind of write down when stuff hits you, like, oh, we suck at that. Put that down. The more uh eye-opened that you are, the better your company's gonna be. Uh, do you remember we were in I won't name the the person, company, or place we were at, but we were at one of these retreats in the past, and I said, I I asked one of the guys there, or girls, but it was a guy, uh I said, you know, if I pulled your polled all of your clients, how many would be like 10 out of 10 he that company's perfect? And he was like, all of them. Every person. Do you remember this? And I was like, I was like, every person would say that you were a 10 out of 10. He was like, every client would. I'm like, oh, so you don't have the ability to to to like see reality of what people don't like about you and your company. Like, there's no way that you've been running a company for two years and 100% of your clients are 100% happy with you. And so how do we understand that and how do we start figuring out what people aren't happy with? Because if I can't see it, I mean if I could see that they're not something's not good, I'm gonna fix it.

SPEAKER_02:

There's something. There's something so refreshing about that confidence, though, that I want. I just want a taste of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Just the blindness to people's unhappiness with you.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's what your 2026 is gonna be.

SPEAKER_02:

Nah, man, I've I pissed ginger ilm poop sherbet, baby.

SPEAKER_01:

Anyway, so we're we're doing that. We're looking back, we're we're assessing the companies, we're figuring out the the holes in your process, uh, and we're diving a lot into that stuff. Um, and then something else that that that you're gonna get was day two on the retreat. Um you're we're breaking everybody into different groups. It's kind of the first timers or guys kind of starting companies that are either hammer swingers or one-man shows is group one. Group two are most most of the people, uh, it's gonna be more prepping for higher level companies, like first time, second time, third time hires. Um, if you're about to hire in the next six months, you're probably gonna be in that group two. Uh, and then group three are you've got hires. It's more of like a leadership group. Hey, how do you how do you grow your team? How do you build the culture? So half of day two, you're gonna break into those groups, and those groups are gonna go through a marketing per level, because each level's got different marketing. So we're gonna kind of customize what type of marketing you should be doing, what should your spend be? What should um you be focusing on? Where should you be at? Because a company that's got four project managers looks different than a dude coming out of the truck trying to become a project manager when it comes to marketing. And so, what should it look like? So that's that's one of the sessions. And the other session that each of those groups will go through is with me. And I've kind of got built differently on how who to hire, when to hire, how to hire that middle group or leadership, uh, or where the the startup group is gonna be more less really refine your 10 steps and really talk through what processes should look like if you're kind of new into this. So, anyways, that that's gonna be day two, but you're gonna be walking away with a marketing plan. And so if you're not coming on the retreat, take time to figure out what you're doing marketing-wise. What should you be doing? Do the research of how much should I be spending for my revenue price point? How much, where should I be spending? What's the most efficient spend in construction versus you know, wasting my money? Um, but that's that's something too, going into the new year. What is 2026 marketing look like? What should it look like? What's the goals by the end of the year on that? Um speaking of goals, uh, that's that's something else. We've got this big one-year goal plan across six critical areas that we're gonna be covering. It's revenue, financial, marketing, employee, process and procedures, and then personal. And those are the six that we're gonna be focusing on. Uh, and I'm gonna boil it down to uh probably three main ones. Um, but what we have is a planner that you're gonna get when you come on the retreat and it's laying out 2026, and we're gonna be focusing. So if you're in coaching, this planner you're gonna have for 365 days until the next retreat, and we are coaching out of it, and we're gonna be planning out what every month from here through December looks like to be successful for your company. And it's gonna be in writing that you're gonna take home, and we're gonna be editing, changing, working out of it, taking notes, all that stuff. What looking forward to it?

SPEAKER_02:

I am. I can't wait to see those journals.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's uh I'm pretty excited about it. We're it's it's not something we bought. I've I'm hand building them and we're getting books printed that are specific ProStrut planning journals for them. Are they gonna be leather bound? Might be. Are they gonna smell like rich mahogany? They will. They will, they'll be very nice. So that's something that that I think you know, focusing on those, if you're not coming on the retreat, revenue, financials, marketing, employees, are you gonna hire or improvement of current employees, uh, processes and procedures, and personal. I I care as much personal as I do on any of these other ones because if you don't have a healthy personal life, a healthy marriage, a healthy being a dad, healthy with friends, and and a balance where there's a focus outside of nothing but work, you're gonna burn out. Everyone does. And what's you know, get into the why of why you're doing this. What's the reason that you're running this company? Why not just go work in corporate America? Why is this your baby? And what are you doing to grow it and and to foster it? Because I don't care about my company. I care about the life it's creating for me. I care about my kids' experience of life, my wife's experience of life, and and what does this company support there? And where do I want to go by the end of 2026? What's health for me personally? What does that what is my North Star guiding me for my revenue and my finances and my personal and my employees and marketing? Like, what does success look like by the end of December? And what's also like, what's realistic? I had someone I was talking to uh who's in the coaching program that they were just starting with us. And my my first was like, Hey, let's talk about next year. Like, what do you think you can do? And they're like, you know, they want to 10x what they did this year. And it's like, well, that's not that's not gonna happen. We're not 10xing this year to next year when you don't have processes in place. I was like, let's lay out a realistic goal. I love that motor. Yeah, yeah. And like we will 10x. In a couple of years from now, but like we got to build the foundation before we build a house. And you think we're building a house and you're gonna grow and have this huge revenue. We got to spend three, four, five months building the foundation, your processes. How do we operate? How does your client engagement really work? And how does it uh really manifest itself on your job sites? All of that stuff needs to be in place before we can pour gas on the fire, before we can grow the revenue. And so I love that. I love the engine, I love the idea. I love like, yeah, I'm gonna 10X next year. Great. Let's actually pick a realistic number and let's look. When are you gonna make a hire? So let's talk about how much revenue you can do in your industry, in commercial, the revenue, and this is what it looks like. Or if you're a if you're a residential remodeler, this is what the max revenue you can do on your own. And this is when you add a project manager, what the revenue looks like, and kind of lay all those numbers out and just get a realistic number for December and and have that our goal that we're aiming for. Uh, and if you hire three people perfectly and they're all great project managers, and we do 5x what you're doing this year, awesome. We will edit that along the journey. We will in March and April, May, be like, dude, you're killing it. Like, let's let's up these goals. Um, but I want to set realistic goals for each company coming out of this retreat.

SPEAKER_02:

And the cool thing too, especially with how many people are gonna be there, and that changes every year, but like there's gonna be people there. If you're listening to this and you're like, yeah, I'm I'm I want to go, I'm worried about you know, being the low man on the totem pole, and like everyone's gonna be talking about all this great stuff, and I'm like just kind of struggling. There's gonna be people there that are in the same boat as you. Yeah. And it's going to be as daunting as it is to think about stepping away for a couple days and spending money to go on a trip and like, you know, maybe just feel like crap the whole time because everyone's doing better than you, you're going to get a a commiserating experience. There's gonna be people there that have the same problems, that are facing the same battles, and it's going to be rejuvenating. Yeah. It it always is.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it it's a it's not a get out the measuring tape of who's bigger. It's it's a we've all been at like me and you have been at every stage of this. And it's like we've there's not a oh little, oh, you're a little startup company. It's like, no, bro, let me, let me, come here, let's, let's talk. You know, this is a have you thought about this? Are you doing this? Tell me about what you're doing there. Like that's that's fun. And we're all entrepreneurs on this, and so it's like our our engines run at the same speed, which is great, because it's like, oh, what about this? Have you tried this? Oh, have you thought about doing this? Oh, that's cool. What if we did this? And you know, there's there's a lot of that, but I think that's a good point that you make of it's not a oh, the big boys and everybody else. It's it's like, no, we're all evil, evil, level playing field. Um evil playing field.

SPEAKER_02:

Life is a fickle mistress, she's an evil playing field.

SPEAKER_01:

So I I think one other thing when I'm talking about planning out uh 12 months in advance. It's hard to plan out weekly in November when it's January. But what we do is we plan out like goals for the year, what what they should look like, what success looks like quarter after over quarter. And then we look at Q1, January, February, March. What are you doing these months? When you leave this retreat, Monday you wake up, what's changing? Right? We we we want to look at the entire elephant that needs to be eaten this year and say, okay, cool. What are the first three bites? What are the first two bites that I need to do this month by the time January ends? This is February, February 1st.

SPEAKER_02:

This looks what I just got uh never, I'll explain it later. Just a visual of eating an elephant. I'm just picturing the elephant's face and like you're looking at the elephant like I'm gonna eat you slowly, and it's like, okay. What are you doing? I'm just mapping out where I'm gonna start.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm gonna tail it's tasty.

SPEAKER_01:

My nose. So, anyways, we're laying that out. We're laying out the first quarter of what you should be doing. And then if you're in coaching, well, uh, I've got plans each quarter. We're laying out those quarters as we go. So we're kind of setting short-term three-month goals that we that will be edited and changed as we go, and that will kind of affect our larger goals. Uh Clark, can I say something?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. Just as me, three months seems like not a short-term goal for me. That that's exhausting sounding.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Well, it won't be. Good. As long as you know like what you got to do in the next couple weeks. Like what's the next? What's next? The goal is what are what should you be when you sit down? Because I I've had guys in coaching like, all right, I've I've scheduled two hours Friday morning to work on the company. My wife takes the kids to school, and I got two hours that I'm gonna work on my company. What should I work on? And they sit down and they start writing estimates and they start looking through their emails, and oh, I gotta pay this bill, and I gotta do, and it's like, that's not that's not what you should be working on. Okay, well, then I'm gonna plan out my marketing campaign. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're you're not ready for a marketing campaign on Meta. Like that's not that's not here yet. And so it's uh what should you be doing Friday morning for that two-hour time block? What you know, how much time can you peel off this week to work on your company? And let's plan out those sessions to where it's like you're not wasting the time and you've got a sense of accomplishment because guys want to score touchdowns. Here goes the sports metaphor. Buckle in. You got this. We got to go all hundred yards to get you to success, right? And guys want to break off the 50, 60 yard plays that get you there real quickly.

SPEAKER_02:

Ken Walker. Sure. All he wants to do is hit dingers.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. What I what I want is we I don't care if you make one inch, one foot, one yard, three yards, five yard gain. I need you to be moving forward down the down the field. So every single week, I I mean, hey, I got slammed last week. I did nothing we talked about. Uh I gotta hit a reset. Cool, awesome. You didn't move backwards, so let's keep moving forwards. And so my goal, my, my goal. My goal is my goal with my goal with the coaching and with this planner and everything else you're doing is listen, we are going, I don't care how fast we go, I want forward progress week over week. And so by the end of the year, you've gone all 100 yards, and that's that's great. But no one, no one's just quickly getting there, even though we all want to get there. It's like, okay, cool, we will get there. All I need this week is this. Just do this. Or, hey, I've I'm finishing three jobs and starting two new jobs this week. Cool. You want your assignment is this week? Do that well. We're not gonna be doing anything, any other growth for your company this week or next week. End those jobs, start the next ones, let's talk in the next session, right? And that's okay. You have permission for that because it's a busy week, but we're not gonna fall off the wagon and stay off the wagon. We're gonna get right back on and say, hey, all right, those jobs are done. Now I need to start working on this. Now we need to start planning this. Hey, let's talk about subs and the sub onboarding. Let's start, let's, let's start, start filling up your bench of subs to where we can start calling on people because you don't start looking for painters until you have a paint job without a painter on it. Why don't we start looking now, have those calls and have a paint, right? And so we start talking about that sort of thing of where you should be at. Let's assess your company. Um, but yeah, you'll walk away from the retreat with kind of that game plan. If you're not coming on the retreat again, sit down and think through that stuff. What does Q1 look like? What's this month look like? What should I do for success this month? And really start assessing kind of the 30,000 foot view of your company of like what's missing here? What's broken here? What's what do people not like? What's my coffee stain from in this company right now? How do I start tweaking those things and my processes to where I'm eliminating that stuff permanently? I'm excited right now. Yeah. Uh I'm I'm super excited about going.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm being I'm being genuine. I'm I'm uh um I've got all these things in my head. I'm like, oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

This all sounds good. We we m what we'll probably do. We did this last year and people loved it. We uh we're gonna line up James to do a live estimate or desk estimate with the client or a live walkthrough with the client. Good to know. Yep. We haven't talked about this yet, but he did it last year, and so we're gonna line one up for this year, hopefully. It's it's hard because you got to find the right job and the right client and uh kind of choreograph it down to the day. Um, but uh I think James is a master at estimate writing, a master at talking with the client and prepping the client and the pre-con work and the the desk estimates and site revision conversations. I think you are the best I've seen in doing those. Take a moment. I don't give out compliments often, do I?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm gonna name it.

SPEAKER_01:

But I I think what's super helpful is for guys to see you do it and be like, oh, that's why. So we're gonna have a session, whether it's with a live client on a Zoom or just you building out an estimate. But but I think we're gonna be really, when I said from first contact through signature that we're focusing on, I think that's a big part of it of how and why we build those estimates, uh, kind of the reason behind why we put what we put there and how we do it for the pre-site estimate and then post-site estimate and all of those things. So there's gonna be a lot of that that that's that's really enjoyable. That was when I got feedback from the last year's retreat. That was a lot of people's favorite part, even though I wasn't doing it. So it was fine. It was good. It didn't hurt my ego at all. It makes sense. Um, but yeah, if you want to come on the retreat, you should come on the retreat. Go to contractorcuts.com, set up a call with me. We'll talk for 30 minutes. I want to hear about your company. I want to make sure you're a good fit for us, uh, and we're a good fit for you. Um, but take the time. It's worth the effort and the time to come on something like this. This is year over year the most impactful thing that companies can do, whether it's with us or on their own, is to take three days, zoom out, turn your phone off, set your uh jobs up to run when you're not there, and work on making your company better. Zoom out, look at the 30,000-foot view of who you really are, get some outside uh eyes on your company that say, hey, this seems like a problem for you. Let's let's figure out how to solve this one issue and let's let's let's keep tweaking uh these little things to really make you from good to great as a company. Yeah. If you want to come, check it out. Yep.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I was just gonna say if and if you're open to it, you're gonna leave with with like friends. Like everybody every time that we've done this, there's been real like friendships that start forming, and you can kind of watch them, and like someone's talking about their company, and like the same person's like, for whatever reason, you know, there's like this one person that's like really invested in like that person. Yeah. And you'll see them like offering thoughts and offering uh, you know, like building them up, and like it's just a really cool thing. You just it feels like a very isolating experience being an entrepreneur, being in the construction world. And when you get in a group of people that are all kind of doing the same thing, there is just a bond that's just naturally there, and then spending all this time together. And that's one of the big reasons I think you're saying don't plan other things. There's so much good stuff going on and the downtimes and you know, the breaks, and you know, just talking.

SPEAKER_01:

Everyone's coming off their islands that they're living on in their own cities, and we're coming together and we're helping each other go better and move for further and and be a better company. And there's no competent, I mean, there's guys like from Atlanta that come to this that are our competition, right? And it's like, no, we're like, there's plenty of work everywhere. Like, let's help each other grow. Um, but I think that's that's one of the what you're saying is right on of like the like I know that there is I know specifically two guys that after this retreat, you were, you know, we the you were talking about VA loans on the retreat last year, and two of the guys like, hey, can I can I call you when we get back? Because I want to get into doing more VA loans and I want to know how that process works. You're like, yeah, here's like, call me, call me, call me. So stuff like that where it's like, hey, I I've been thinking about this specific thing. You're doing that. Tell me like, do you mind being a resource for me? Like absolutely. Like, we all love to contribute and help each other out. So I think that's uh the camaraderie is hard to put on paper what happens on the retreats, and it's hard to tell people about it until they come experienced and like, yeah, I'm gonna come every single year. Until yeah, so thanks for joining us. Go to contractorcuts.com, uh, get signed up for the retreat. Um, love to chat with you, and we will love to see you there.

SPEAKER_02:

That's all. My bye.

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Clark Turner

Host