Construction Trailblazers: Paving The Way to Excellence

[00:00:00] Welcome to Construction Trailblazers Paving the Way to Excellence, where we dive into innovation, success, and streamlined excellence in the building industry. I'm Samantha C. Prestidge, your host and ally in Simplifying Operations and Empowering Dynamic Teams.

Samantha C. Prestige: I know the transformative effects of adopting people focused, Tech Forward, Lean Practices. And these changes not only boost company revenue, but also restore peace of mind for owners overwhelmed by daily chaos. On this show, we bring to light leaders who are innovating across the industry and creating outstanding results, inspiring you to forge your path to excellence.

If you're ready to leave behind the daily firefighting and move toward a more streamlined operation with a team that consistently delivers success, then you're in the right place. Catch up on past episodes at ConstructionTrailBlazers. com. Today, we have the wonderful honor of being joined by Jose [00:01:00] Amaya, the Chief Business Development Officer at Pinkard Construction.

He's bringing over three decades of wisdom and expertise to us that he's honed and crafted working all across the United States. ~He's been focused in Colorado recently, or actually, sorry, ~He's been focused in Colorado for quite some time and joined Pinkard in 2022. He's a dedicated and wonderful father and someone who really understands how to find balance between fulfillment in work and fulfillment in family life.

So, Jose, Again, you've been at Pinkard going on into your third year now, and you joined after spending 25 years at J. E. Dunn, which is one of the largest national brands in the industry. When we talked before, one of the most noticeable, notable differences you mentioned about Pinkard was its commitment to staying within the front range.

And for our listeners who are not in Colorado, that's about a 10, 000 square mile. area from Wyoming to about South Central Colorado. So you guys have focused on the front range rather than expanding beyond it. [00:02:00] Can you tell me more about what that front range commitment means for your employees and how it's really shaped the company culture?

Jose Amaya: Samantha, thank you very much. It's great to be here with you. For us, the front range means many things, but primarily it has to do with the life work balance. And I'll explain that. So what we're talking about, the front range is basically from Northern Colorado, Fort Collins, all the way to Colorado Springs.

And that's where we focus all of our work. And the key here is that for 62 years since this company has been founded, they want all their employees to go home every night and have dinner with their family. And that's just an amazing aspect of our business that we do, and we have had opportunities to go to the mountains, to eastern Colorado, to southern Colorado, and even to other states that surround us.

As you know, we got Wyoming, we got Nebraska, we got Kansas, we got New Mexico, and we got [00:03:00] Utah. No, our interest is in behalf of making sure that we have that life work balance. in a way that we have retention for our employees and they can be with their family.

Samantha C. Prestige: I think that is so impactful. Like there's a lot of companies that maybe boast, Oh yeah, we're family focused.

We know what it means for you to have a family, but they don't really put their action where their words are. And you guys seem to do that really well. Again, like, It's not just, yeah, we focus on Colorado. No, you focus on a very specific part of Colorado and you clearly say no to everything else. So, and we talked to, you touched a little bit on how that improves employee retention.

Talk to me more about that, of how maybe it attracts the right employees or the employees want to stay. Cause they know I get to go home and have dinner with my family every night.

Jose Amaya: Yeah, definitely. And, and it's, it's all about the employees. But also with our clients. Our clients know that this is the area where we do our work, [00:04:00] where we have the relationship with our trade partners.

And we know the different permitting departments of each city. So there's a lot of things that we bring as best value that allows us to be successful. I'm, I'm working with different generations of employees at Pinkert where they've been 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. And that tells you something about this company.

Also bringing in new talent. We've had like young engineers that have come to us for that specific reason that we're going to be working in the front range. These are engineers that come from bigger companies that do national work, that they understand that in order for them to grow, they're going to have to travel.

And I experienced that when I was working at JDEN. That's what brought me to Colorado. So I was blessed that I actually ended up in Denver. For And was able to get to meet the leaders at Pinker Construction that [00:05:00] provided this amazing opportunity for me to be a partner at this company and also be in their C suite as the Chief Business Development Officer.

So, as far as attracting the best talent, That's out there. This is one of the principal tools that we use by saying you're going to be here and you're going to stay here and the local or natives from Colorado love that too, that they want to go into construction and they know and understand that they're going to continue to be there with their family, that Families have other businesses and they're going to be with their cousins, uncles, it's just amazing.

When we get together as a company and we start talking about family, it's all to this local. And this Friday we actually have a cornhole tournament. It's in Tupinca construction. And it's just a lot of fun. We try to, same thing, balance the [00:06:00] work life, life we have. The balance of, of just being able to enjoy life.

Samantha C. Prestige: Yeah. Are you looking forward to this cornhole tournament? Oh,

Jose Amaya: yes, yes. It's a lot of fun. And remember, we work hard and we try to build the better buildings out there in the front range. And we're serious about what we do every day with, with practicing safety keeping projects within budget. and meeting our schedule.

But when we want to try and have fun, we take that to the next level as well. Yes. So it's, it's, it's great to get together because we're not just talking about business that we do every day. We, we're just having fun and talking about what we do with our families.

Samantha C. Prestige: And that's the type of team building that so many companies are after.

And I think a lot of companies spend quite a bit of money and quite a bit of time on some culture initiatives. But what's awesome for you [00:07:00] guys is you've, you've done the work to build a great culture. So now when you have these fun events, they actually mean something for your employees, right? We can actually get around and talk and get to know your employees, rather than feeling like we've got to have this team event so that people actually stay and being stressed about it.

Right.

Jose Amaya: And the names that they come up for each team. It's just a lot of fun. And we, we do it like on a yearly basis. And we try to get people to attend, have fun, relax. And get to know other employees that are in different projects around the front range.

Samantha C. Prestige: Yeah. Put a face to the name that you might be seeing on some emails or things.

I also, I want to touch back on something you said, which I want to make sure we highlight this. You have employees coming to you guys, which in an industry where there's a lot of turnover for a lot of companies, or sometimes a lot of companies just struggle to find good applicants for certain positions, you seem to be in a very different.

[00:08:00] position, right, where someone is seeking you out because they know you not only do great work, but you have this great culture. Is that, was that a one time thing or does that happen often for you all? No,

Jose Amaya: no, this happens often. So one of the aspects of my job at Pinker Construction is also be in interview committees.

And so I have the opportunity to see this, this talent that wants to work with us and listen to the why. Why are you leaving and why us? And what we try to do is, is make sure that this person that wants to work with us aligns with the culture. And that's really important because we want them to stay for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years.

So we, we ask them some, some, some questions and just make sure that we understand the why. And then that's how we understand, look, I'm actually from Northern Denver. My family's all there. [00:09:00] I'm working for this huge company. They're amazing. They've been training me, but my next promotion takes me to another state.

And it's not like they don't like the company where they are. It's just the way that you get promoted. by traveling. And that, that makes you bigger, stronger. There are many things you can tie to that, but that's not what they really want as a professional. The life work balance, correct?

Samantha C. Prestige: So

Jose Amaya: that's when they come to us and they say, I've done my research, I know who Pinkert is, and you only work in the front range.

I want to stay working for a good company, and I want to be with my family. That's why I'm here. And it's just, for me, it's just amazing to listen to this young talent. actually wanting to work for us. And that's one of the reasons.

Samantha C. Prestige: I think that's [00:10:00] such an amazing recruiting tool. And I mean, like you said, there's, there's a time and a place for travel, right?

Like you were able to take such great advantages of travel and find this job because it took you to Colorado and you fell in love with Denver, but there are a lot of great employees out there there that are ambitious, but that ambition does not want to take them away from their families. And so to be able to witness.

younger professionals be very clear about what they do or don't want for their life, I think is astonishing. Knowing that, you know, just 10 years ago, or even just pre pandemic, people just kind of took what was handed to them, right? And it was like, well, that's the path for career growth. So I guess I need to do that.

And you guys are And

Jose Amaya: then the other thing that they, they know that by working at Tinker, they're still going to have a great career working for a great company, and they can achieve all their goals.

Samantha C. Prestige: In the

Jose Amaya: construction industry.

Samantha C. Prestige: Yeah, where staying small, staying committed to this front range isn't because you guys aren't capable of doing more, [00:11:00] but it's rather just you know what you want and where the quality for you is.

Now, you also, you mentioned, you've mentioned a few different times just the amazing culture of Pinkard. Something else that you guys have focused on a lot is multifamily housing, particularly affordable housing, which is. Such a big need in Colorado with our ever rising costs of living, right? I want to understand a little bit more about how affordable housing became a priority for the company and how does that really align with your company's values?

Jose Amaya: Sure. So this company has been in business for 62 years and they've been building affordable housing even before it was called affordable housing. So this is one of our strongest. Vertical Market, and for the company and specifically for me, as you mentioned, this is a need that every city in the state of Colorado needs, every county, it doesn't matter with which politician as far as mayors you talk to, they, [00:12:00] they realize that this is a need.

People want to work and live in the same area. They just can't afford it. So they have these specific programs, which allows people to live and work in the same area. As an experience for me working for Pinkert, I love it when we win the project. I love it when we build it as a team, but the best is when the families move in.

Samantha C. Prestige: And

Jose Amaya: that is an amazing experience because it's all about them. And when you see that families moving into this, New buildings. And remember, the fact that they are affordable housing doesn't mean that they're less quality. No, these are beautiful buildings on the inside and outside. You can drive through any neighborhood and you cannot identify today.[00:13:00]

What is market rate and what is affordable? And that's on purpose.

Samantha C. Prestige: That is so amazing and it sounds so fulfilling. I mean, not to diminish the awesomeness of some commercial buildings and seeing, you know, businesses fill in those buildings and, and the wonderful, the amazing things that might bring to a community, but to be able to just like really watch a family move into their home, knowing that like, Hey, I can afford this.

And I'm not just moving into some crappy, so to speak crappy apartment, but this is a great place to live and I can afford it. That sounds so fulfilling. And it's awesome that you have that in your day to day.

Jose Amaya: Yeah, yeah. And then, like, like I said, it's, it's just for us, it is a vertical market, but we get it.

We understand who is it for. And, and to me personally, it's, it's, it's a market that I did not work on in my previous years until I got to Pinker Construction, and our commitment is [00:14:00] strong, especially mine. I'm also a member of Housing Colorado, which is an organization that is focused on on affordable housing.

And that will allow me to bring some input

Samantha C. Prestige: to the

Jose Amaya: board on the construction industry side of the aspect of affordable housing.

Samantha C. Prestige: That's awesome that you're like, you're integrated into the community. You can really see the impacts of what you guys are doing. It sounds like not only do you have this great culture, but as as a driving force behind this culture.

You guys are so thoughtful and so intentional in everything that you do, from how you're structuring your teams and who you're bringing on, right, to what clients and projects you work on. ~What are the types of clients that you really want to, Sorry, I'm usually, I think I maybe need a little bit more coffee.~

~We'll tell Callie to cut that out. Sorry, I just, I think I didn't confirm this with you before. You just don't want me to ask what clients you say no to, but I can ask about your go, no go process. Oh yeah, yeah, ~

Jose Amaya: ~yeah, correct. ~

Samantha C. Prestige: ~Okay,~ so tell me a little bit more about the types of clients that you want to work with and how does that influence your go, no go process for the projects that you do say yes to.

Jose Amaya: Yeah, [00:15:00] so, we've been in business as a construction company for many years, so we have a lot of amazing relationships

Samantha C. Prestige: with

Jose Amaya: clients. That, that continues through decades, and we continue to do business with them. When we look at a new client, One of the things that we pay a lot of attention on is if we align as culture, as partners.

Because we're going to be working together for 12, 24, or even 36 months. And we want to make sure that we're going to work well together as partners and have fun.

Samantha C. Prestige: ~Yeah, that's a long time. So ~

Jose Amaya: when we look at the different vertical markets, because affordable housing is one of the vertical markets, the other markets that we do work with we look at the prospective client to make sure that we can be true partners.

And when we achieve [00:16:00] that, building becomes easier.

Samantha C. Prestige: Yeah. So tell me, what is being a true partner really look like for you guys?

Jose Amaya: I mean, for us, it's, it's, it's a partner that will engage from the beginning. We will bring in the architect. You will have creative ideas, because what we try to do is have a win for everybody.

If you have a developer that wants to develop a specific project, you got the architect that wants to design it, and you have us that want to build it, if that project does not get built, nobody wins. So we will work together as partners to make sure that that project goes from an idea, to drawings, to building it.

And that's when you have to win win.

Samantha C. Prestige: That, again, just emphasizes how thoughtful you guys are. And going back to what you're saying about, hey, you might be working with them for 18 months or [00:17:00] 36 months. That's a long time to be partnering with people that, hey, maybe you don't align in certain areas. And to be Connected for three years with people that you don't align with can be such a struggle for, for you, for the culture of the company, for the team.

And so again, to have that thoughtful intention of these are the projects we're going to work on is so transformational for the company. When we talked before, also kind of diving into your go and no go process, you touched on how part of that is also understanding your team and having a really good grasp on your team's capacity, the upcoming schedules and upcoming projects.

I'd love. for you to share with our listeners, how do you really keep a pulse on this? Because I think for some, they either don't give their team enough, or they have really unrealistic expectations of how much a team might actually get done and they overwhelm the team. So what is your secret sauce there of, yep, this is what my team's true capacity is.

Jose Amaya: Right. Excellent question. Of course, I'm not going to give you [00:18:00] all our secrets.

Samantha C. Prestige: Oh, no. Yeah. Keep some secret sauce to yourself. Right, right. No,

Jose Amaya: but, but you're correct. So my job in the business development world, I need to understand our capacity inside Pinker Construction. And that capacity could be the team that actually puts the costs together.

All the capacity of the teams that are actually going to be building the project. And then I have to consider the vertical market. Is it affordable housing? Is it healthcare? Is it higher education? I gotta have availability of those teams so I can actually be able to talk to the client. And have the best proposal in front of them so we can be selected and win the project and actually build it.

So what I do is I have internal meetings with my leadership and I do that [00:19:00] actually twice a week. Which to me is amazing that I have my entire leadership twice a week on Mondays and then on Thursdays. And I'm being able to present, because these are our business development meetings, anything that I need an answer.

And these are meetings that I'm proud to say that I have 100 percent attendance. every single day. They're important to me. They're important to them. I have an agenda. I keep it to the exact time. I know how busy they are. And we discuss, okay, I got this opportunity. I've been talking to this prospective client.

This is the type of work, this is the timing, do we have a team that can actually put a proposal together, can put a cost together, can put a schedule together, can [00:20:00] interview and be committed 100%, and then have the team that's actually going to execute and build the work. And that's how we make decisions, and that's how we've been successful.

Samantha C. Prestige: That I, what I want to really highlight on there, because I think some people are like, Oh my gosh, he has his leadership team twice a week. Like sometimes I can't even get ahold of my C suite, you know, it once a month. Right. So there's, I'm sure there's some listeners that are like, wow, that's amazing. But there's balance to that, right?

Not only are they carving out time for you, but you're also being very respectful to their time. You're very intentional with what You're going to talk about in that meeting and also understanding all of the puzzle pieces that you need to know before you go into that meeting. Was there ever a time where maybe you didn't have that agenda fully broken out?

Or was that always something you came to every meeting prepared with from day one?

Jose Amaya: From day one, I come prepared. I used to run work. I used to be a project [00:21:00] manager and I understand how busy. These operations teams are and I'm not gonna be wasting their time. So I always prepare and I have a agenda and this is something that I coordinates like with my CEO on some of the actual meetings that I have just to make sure that first I'm covering everything that I need on my needs and anything else since we have the leadership there that we need to address.

Thanks. And, and like I said this is the first time in my career that I've had two meetings a week in where I have a hundred percent participation. So it makes my job easier and it's all, it's all about bringing the right opportunities for our company so we can be successful at what we do and that's build better [00:22:00] buildings.

Samantha C. Prestige: ~I think what's, what's. ~I mean, 100 percent attendance is astounding. That's amazing. And I can just imagine the impacts of that, of you guys like moving together as a team. So you are constantly reminded of how to work as a team, but also constantly reminded of like, Hey, here's the vision. Here are the projects that are going to get us there.

Here's how we're going to work together for this. I think a lot of teams don't have those reminders often enough. So another big thing I'm hearing here is communication. So. You've mentioned to me before and earlier that communication is really key to knowing your team, to being prepared for your leadership team and those meetings.

Can you walk me through how communication flows within your teams and flows throughout your leadership outside of these meetings?

Jose Amaya: Yeah, so, we have a specific form. We call it a go no go or different projects. And these forms, it's just going to be gathering a lot of information [00:23:00] that we need so I can present to the leadership for us to make a decision on what projects we want to pursue and what projects we are not.

There's a lot of information that goes there. There's a lot of coordination. There's, there's cost information, there's schedule information. So what I do is I coordinate all this. with my teams before that meeting, because that meeting is going to be decision making time. It's not going to be, but what, do you have this?

No, I'll get back with you. No, everything needs to be there. So we have the GoNoGo that includes every aspect. Every question that's being asked is going to be covered because it's going to be answered in these forms. And that's one of the reasons why these meetings are so effective. Because they have the information, as far as the leadership, to be able to make that decision.[00:24:00]

Samantha C. Prestige: And be able to, like, very quickly analyze what they, what the decision even is, right? And then make that yes no. I want to throw you a curveball question. Sure. Because For everyone, as our listeners know, we have a business superhero quiz and you are a second person to score a Captain of Excellence. Our other person was Clint Schmitz.

It's episode nine if you guys want to go back and listen to that. But you're taking so much of your learned experience, right? Also part of your character to do these amazing things. You're also doing this in a company that already has a really great culture built. So I want to go back to how you guys interview and bring people on.

So you're very thoughtful there about bringing in the best people, right, that are going to align with your values. However, no one starts out their career perfect, right? No one starts out as a captain of exlets. So with some of those younger professionals on your team or that have just joined the company, do [00:25:00] you notice them making maybe some mistakes that you made early on in your career?

And how might you go about navigating or mentoring them through that?

Jose Amaya: Sure. Well, I mean, you, you, you gotta let them fly by themselves. You, you can't just be on coaching them for every decision because that's not how they learn. I mean, you will guide them so they don't make the really bad decisions.

But as far as when we bring in that new talent, we have different interview committees. So it's not just me and maybe the C suite. No, it's gonna be several teams. that are going to be interviewing this professional. And we want to make sure that, first of all, like I mentioned before, the culture. We want this person that once it's hired by the company, it's going to stay with us.

For decades. So we have them meet with different parts of the organization, the pre construction department. It could be the pre management department. It could [00:26:00] be HR. I mean, it, it, it just depends on how we group these committees and they might go through two, three interviews and that's how we make the decision.

We all get together and then we, we analyze all our notes. and make the decision. And that's how we get the in my opinion, the best talent to work for finger construction.

Samantha C. Prestige: Which is such an amazing process. So once they start and they maybe are training or maybe they're a few months in, do you ever have employees that have those moments of like, Oh, whoa, that's not quite aligned with how we do things.

We need to correct this. Or do you ever see an employee like, You know, when I was your age, I did the exact same thing, but that's not really the best way to do it. Here's how we're going to do it instead. Do you have those moments?

Jose Amaya: So, so we, we have what we call a rotation process. So as we get the young project engineers, they're not just going to be like, Oh, I want to be an estimator.

And that's basically [00:27:00] everything they're going to be. No, we, we have them do some work on the field. We have them do some work. estimating. We do, we have to do some work with quality. So we have a program in which we rotate. The project engineers, because we want to make sure that even though they came with an idea that this is what I want, by exposing them to the entire industry as a general contractor, they might say, you know what?

This is, this is what I really want. And the other thing that we do is we have an open door. So, as soon as they get hired, I will tell them, My door is open. I've been in this business for over 30 years. Please ask me any questions. And it doesn't matter what it is. It could be from, I don't know how to run a copy.

I'm not hooked up. Or it could be more of a technical questions, or it could be, Hey, just explain to me how you find leads [00:28:00] or how you network, or it doesn't matter what it is, but it's cool when they come to me and asking me questions and I try to take them to lunch. And just get to know them a little bit more on the personal side.

So, so to me, I understand that you might come in with a specific career in mind in this industry. But by experience, I started on the operations side and then got a taste on the business development side because it was part of what I needed to do to grow as an executive. And I found out that business development was my true passion.

And I took it, changed careers. within the construction industry and found out that that allowed me to have a better quality of life, work, as well as home.

Samantha C. Prestige: Wow, I think two things I really want to hit on this with our listeners is [00:29:00] not only do you have the open door policy, but you're also taking them out I think a lot of managers get this open door policy wrong where they say, well, yeah, I told them they could ask me questions, but if you don't have that rapport built up with your team, they're not going to feel comfortable asking you questions.

Maybe they don't think that you're going to think that they're still competent, or they just don't trust you. You enough to ask you questions, but you're actively building that relationship so that they can use your open door policy, which again, I don't think enough managers do that enough. And something else you are doing here is actively breaking down silos.

So, you know from your experience how busy other departments get, right? And a lot of conflict in our teams come from not really thinking of our other department or not thinking of another team, not knowing their perspective. And you're allowing your employees to get to know all of those different perspectives so that no matter where they land based off of their strengths and what they like, they [00:30:00] still have an understanding for the other department or other team that they're going to work with, which is amazing.

I think more people need to be doing this.

Jose Amaya: Yeah, definitely. And, and we also have an internship program in which we bring students from different higher education programs here in the state and basically when they come in is during the summer when they're off and we have a similar program But more condensated type of a rotation program.

We want to make sure that they understand who we are and what we do on the different aspects of actually putting a building together. And then to me, it just helps them really understand what are they getting into. And that's, to me, the best way to love this industry. Like, my goal is always being able to bring the best talent.

That's out there into this industry because this industry is my passion and I did some work in the [00:31:00] past where I will go to schools, K through 12, and actually talk about the industry and I've been asked by my CEO this week that I needed to start that again. So, hopefully I'm going to be working with the Association of General Contractors.

To start going and, and speaking to students like I've done in the past and let them know how great this construction industry is.

Samantha C. Prestige: That is, that's great. Bring to light to people who, they, a lot of people just don't know. They haven't been introduced. They haven't, they just see, you know, the road work on the side of, as they're driving by and they think, oh, that's annoying.

Like, that's messing up my traffic, right? And they. They don't realize the great people in the industry, or maybe they've been exposed to companies that don't have such a great culture and a great team, and they don't know how amazing it can be.

Jose Amaya: Correct. This is a an amazing industry, and people love to work outdoors, and that's why you have people that work in the [00:32:00] field, but that's another aspect of the construction industry, which is basically what I do.

which is the management side. And, and you can grow and, and go as far as you want, depending on how much time you want to put into it.

Samantha C. Prestige: Yeah, I think from all of this, we could definitely tell why you are a Captain of Excellence. Amazing. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jose. Everyone, if you want to find out if you're also a Captain of Excellence and on the same level or what superhero you might be, you can take the quiz at ConstructionTrailBlazers.

com and catch up on past episodes, like episode nine with Clint Schmitz, who's our other Captain of Excellence. If you want to learn more about Jose, ~we'll be linking their, his website.~ We'll be linking the company website and Jose's LinkedIn so you can go follow him. He's a great person to follow and have in your orbit on LinkedIn.

Thanks again, Jose, for joining us. Thank you

Jose Amaya: very much, Samantha. I really appreciate this opportunity. Have a great day. [00:33:00]