Construction Trailblazers: Paving The Way to Excellence

Samantha: Welcome to Construction Trailblazers, Paving the Way to Excellence, the podcast
where we cut through the noise to uncover what truly drives success in the building industry.

I'm Samantha C. Prestidge, your guide in simplifying
operations and turning dynamic teams into industry leaders.

I'm all about helping you create a high performing team
that consistently delivers success without the daily chaos.

You can explore our past episodes at ConstructionTrailBlazers.

com and start your journey to excellence.

So today's guest is Carl Jefferson, the founder and president of Cadillacs Construction, a thriving
Midwest based ironworking company celebrated for its commitment to quality innovation and diversity.

Since 2010, Carl and his wife Diana have been leading Cadillacs,
growing it into a regional powerhouse with an absolutely stellar
reputation for tackling complex projects with precision and excellence.

All right, so Carl, I'm so excited to have you here with us today.

You started your business just about 15 years ago.

Walk us through your journey from way back then to where you are today.

Karl Jefferson: Well, thank you for having me, Samantha.

Well, can I go about four years prior to when we started the business?

Cause I think that's very important.

I joined the iron workers apprenticeship in 2006

and we out of local 396 St. Louis, and that's kind of where I gained my skill.

As far as iron work to be able to run projects.

Now fast forward three years whenever when I was in my last year of the apprenticeship,
I took a leap of faith and just started the business, not really knowing a lot.

I knew certain things from when my dad was in business, four years prior.

But I just took a leap of faith and just jumped into it blindly and kind of just went with it.

And one thing that kind of helped me out was I had my dad on board with me.

He came with me along the way and, um.

When we got our first project, he was right there with me.

He had actually had a lot of experience running work, but he, when we, when we awarded our
first job, he actually was right by my side and kind of guided me through running the job.

And I kind of, you know, took off from there.

Did I answer your question?

Samantha: I think it's absolutely awesome that you get to have a dad as your mentor, right?

Like I, I released an episode of working with my mom and having to give feedback to a parent, right?

But it's awesome that you just, you had that supportive relationship with your dad.

What were some of like the key lessons that really stuck with you that he passed on to you?

Karl Jefferson: You know, he's always told me since I
was a child, you know, you have to learn all you can.

That was his famous quote to me was, you know, learn all you can.

So I kind of took that, you know, Even in my childhood, he used to
take me to like junk yards and let me just pull pieces off cars.

Didn't really know what I was going to do with them.

I used to just pull them off and bring them home and I'll play
in the yard with them and just, you know, put things together.

But what now, when I think back to that time, what he did was, you know, he inspired me.

You know, he used to take me on to job sites when I was a kid.

So he actually inspired me to just work hard, learn all you can.

whenever you get on the job, it's important.

You know, one thing he taught me is when you get on
the job, you know, you got to make the company money.

So whenever I used to, whenever, whenever I worked for other
companies outside of my dad, that's the mentality I had.

And I, I was never out of work, uh, so I would say that was the most
important was, you know, learn all you can and work, you know, hard.

Samantha: I think what's, what's awesome about what he did for
you as a kid though, which I'm trying to do with my boys, right?

I have a five and a two and a half year old boy, both boys, and so keeping them entertained.

Is a little bit complicated.

I wish I had a junkyard near me to just give him a bunch of random parts.

Right.

Awesome.

Is you have that environment to like be creative and figure stuff out and fail at an idea.

Like you can, as a kid, it's very easy to fail forward as an adult.

It's much harder failing often feels like you're falling on your face.

Right.

And, um, in an, even an employee role.

You, it's awesome to go into that with the idea of like, yes, I got to make the company money.

You very clearly understood that you need to be a person of value for the company.

Now running your own business.

It's like, yeah, you better make some money, right?

You gotta make some money, like absolutely.

We should have the opportunity to fail forward.

But as a business owner, like those fails could be very costly, right?

Karl Jefferson: Yes.

And one, one thing I did is when I did start the business and I took the lessons my dad taught me.

But whenever I started the business, I made sure that I hired people that had those same values.

Like say today, everyone that works here, they're hard workers, they
have integrity, they Just relentless pursuit for customer satisfaction.

I mean, we thought, and we're probably 50 ironworkers strong and they, they all have that quality.

They're all duplicates of my dad.

It's just different people.

So, yeah, that's

Samantha: awesome.

You know what the, again, going back to like how awesome it was that your dad was your mentor.

A lot of times, like, I think people have this.

kind of cloud nine dream of what that perfect employee is gonna look like and
how they're gonna work, but they really can't bring clarity to that expectation.

They really don't know what are those values or really what are like the soft skills they're
looking for an employee and you have a carbon copy, you know, exactly who you're looking for.

You're like, if they're like my dad, if they'd get along
with my dad that I know that they Be good for the company.

Right now, was it always like that?

Did you always have awesome team members or is that a more, a newer development for you guys?

Karl Jefferson: No, no, um, actually I think I might've jumped ahead about 10 years.

So we actually first started, we did not have very good workers.

We, you know, the organization we used to get workers from, I don't really want to
mention them, but they used to send out people that were qualified, but when you put them.

Put the task in front of them, they could not perform, and one of the questions I
used to ask, ask the organization is how do I obtain the best workers out of the pool?

And they were telling me, well, you have to get the
big jobs first and then you'll get the good workers.

But, you know, I used to just sit at home and think, man, I can't get the big jobs right now.

Number one is you have competitors, established competitors.

And, and a lot of companies didn't want to trust us with the big
jobs initially, they didn't know we could do, we could do, do them.

And now when I think about it, I don't think we needed those type of jobs in the beginning.

So one thing I do tell new entrepreneurs is you want to start small
because of the lessons you learn when you're small and going through the
smaller projects, the lessons you learn by managing those small jobs.

Prepares you for the larger ones, and you need project management, the systems in place.

I mean, it's, it's a lot.

And when we finally did get to our large projects, we wasn't perfect, but we were
better prepared than we would have been if we would have took those on year one.

Our first year, we only did 40, 000 that year.

I mean, that's not a lot.

You can't really raise a, uh, pay every bill, you know, with 40, 000 in one year.

And actually I didn't take a paycheck probably for four years.

I didn't take a paycheck.

My wife was actually working and she was paying all the bills and she let me get this started.

But one day she came to me.

She said, listen, it's time to pay yourself.

She forced me to pay myself.

And.

And I did not want to do it, but I did it anyway.

And it worked out.

I actually, I feel like it helped me because it made me work harder to get that paycheck.

But for a long time, I didn't get a paycheck.

Samantha: Oh, wow.

I mean, first off, shout out to the wives that are so supportive.

They also know when's the right time to push and challenge you.

Right.

So she had, she had a good temperature there of like, all right, it's.

It's about time for us.

Wow.

I think I, I would, I also really appreciate about the idea of starting small
is that also helps to put like your own journey into perspective, right?

So many people often want to go for those big projects,
but then you're also comparing yourself to that competitor.

been around for 50 or 75 years, right?

As a lot of the big construction companies are.

And that's just, that's not a healthy mindset to be in as a leader that's responsible for vision.

Right?

So when you can focus on those small projects, you can really put your all
into how can I kick ass on this project and really make our journey our own.

So kind of going back to finding those right team members, what is something that you.

Do differently now.

I mean, obviously we've, we've dropped the other organization that wasn't sending you good people.

Okay.

Yeah.

What's something that you do differently now to really find those people?

Karl Jefferson: Whenever you own a business, you do a lot of thinking by yourself, but one day
I got on online and I did a job campaign and someone responded and that person that responded.

It so happened to be.

One of the greatest ironworkers I've ever seen, and my dad's ever seen.

This guy is great.

He just knows the work.

He's passionate, loyal.

He's the epitome of a great ironworker.

But once you find that one good person, and then typically the great people
know other greats or close people with similar talents, they might not be
as great as that person, but they can play a key role in building your team.

And from that day, I met him on ND.

And through him is how we've built this.

Samantha: I have kind of a curveball question for you there, because it's
making me think of the idea of usually great people know other great people,
but just also the idea of if you have a bad apple on your team, that could
ruin all the other apples, even if you have an awesome apple to start with.

So the conundrum I see a lot of businesses in is that they Either way too quick to fire
people if they miss just a few expectations or they take way too long to fire someone because
they're really wrapped up in the idea of, well, we can train and mentor them and all of that.

It's hard to find that balance, which it sounds like you have
found that balance starting with that first awesome person.

So.

If you're open to sharing, what are some of the strategies that you guys have to
know if it's too soon to fire someone or if you've waited too long and all of that?

Karl Jefferson: Well, one thing that makes me better on decision making,
number one, is I get counseled when I don't rely on myself to do things.

I've talked to my wife, I talked to my operations manager.

Once we all come into agreement on something, then I execute.

But there is some circumstances that happen here where I made the decision on my own.

If the employee is toxic, if they're toxic, if they're
abhorrent to our leadership, I just don't hire them.

It'll be, they can come out in one day and work and I would just go out there and release them.

Because I don't want that to spread throughout the company.

If the guy, I tend to let people go if they're not in a relentless pursuit to satisfy the customer.

That's what I tend to do.

If, if they don't have that mind frame.

We let them go right away, right away.

No ifs, ands, and buts about it.

Um, we don't, we don't hesitate.

Samantha: We don't play

Karl Jefferson: here.

We don't, I'll take anything, but if someone said, Oh, they're not working.

I remember when my dad went through that and it just put a scar on me.

Um, we were working on this job and the guy said,
if you don't like my speed, what'd you see my next?

And my dad could not fire him.

And I actually, being his son, I fired the guy and then.

The organization kicked me out of that area.

So I just, it's always stuck with me, but now I, lack of
work, insubordination, lack of production, lack of drive.

It's just, you don't want, you don't want those people at your company.

Samantha: Hi, I really appreciate how protective you are and
going back to, you've got clear expectations of what an ape.

layer really looks like we've seen some companies that they just continue
to grow and grow and multiply and then they'll just hire people because
they need them and they lose that protective nature over the culture.

And then it takes so much work to clean that up and just the
confidence and knowing we do not need this person on our team.

That is such a strength for you guys.

let's pivot a little bit.

Cause you talked about making decisions in counsel and
that includes your operations manager and your wife.

And I love kind of poking and prodding when people work with their families.

Like I said, I work with my mom.

I think it's an awesome dynamic.

I mean, we've seen a lot of other people that have taken over their parents company.

But maybe that parent hasn't stuck around, right?

But you work with your wife, talk to us through how that has maybe
strengthened the business besides her encouraging you to actually make money.

Working with her really helped evolve the business.

Karl Jefferson: Well, she's always been around, it's just, she worked as a bank branch manager.

She's a huge help here.

The skills she got from, you know, managing a bank, she brought to us.

And I'll tell you this, before she got, before she left her job, I
was attempting to balance books and I mean, I would be a penny off.

People were calling me, Hey, I need my pennies.

I couldn't mentally take it because I was running the office, running the jobs in the field.

I was running myself literally ill, you know, it was tough.

now she beats me to the office.

She does, she has her own like designated tasks that I don't have to worry about.

I have tasks she doesn't have to worry about.

And we work sync and the office is really proficient.

We operate, I believe close to, you know, 80 percent efficient.

We still have some work to do, but having her as a partner and part
owner also, I want, you know, when I started the bins, I made sure
that she became part owner and it's just, it's a beautiful thing.

We try to keep the personal things.

You know,

we try to, we keep them, you know, our offices right across the street from our house.

So it's like once you cross the street, you have to leave everything.

Samantha: You can argue over the breakfast table, but once you cross
that street, all those problems stay on that side of the street.

It sounds like a very beautiful yin and yang that you guys have going on.

And I think also what's, what's awesome about that is just recognizing
where your strengths are and what should not be on your plate, right?

Like, yeah, she's got tasks that you don't know about.

Like you don't necessarily need to know about him.

She can own them and vice versa.

And so often we see people that they want to own way too much.

And that really stifles their personal growth, but also the company's growth.

And like you said, you're going to run yourself ill.

You can't sustain that.

Karl Jefferson: Yeah, it's just I've been there and it's just
not efficient, you know, and it could affect your personal life.

I wouldn't recommend it.

You probably will have to do that in the beginning, you know, to save on cost.

If your revenue, the total year is 40, 000, you can't hire anybody.

And that's the one thing else I want to talk about is business owners.

Uh, and learning all you can is that is the reason you want to learn as many
skills as you can, because in the beginning, you need those skills to be
able to do a lot of different tasks until you're able to hire people laughing
me for this, but even like maintenance and equipment, those type of things.

You need those skills.

In the beginning, because if not, if you don't possess those,
you have to go purchase them, which is very expensive in the

Samantha: beginning.

In the beginning, when you're bootstrapping it, there
is the idea of, yep, you got to have all the answers.

But as the company grows, as you have a bigger team that you
can trust, you don't always have to have all the answers, right?

You can lean on your team to have some of those.

okay.

All right, Carl, so looking ahead, what are you most focused on achieving
in 2025, and how are you pre preparing to tackle some of those goals?

Karl Jefferson: You see?

20, 25, I have something that I'm working on is really big in my mind.

It bores other people, but we're trying to reach about 99 efficiency
in our office, and I'm working on the project to become that now.

Actually before the podcast, I was actually working on it, but it should bring us to where
we're going to, we should be around 99 percent of efficiency as far as digital employees.

you know what I'm talking about?

Samantha: Yeah, it sounds like I'm about some secret sauce cooking.

Okay.

I mean, that's, I, that is exciting to just have the clarity of the vision is for us
to be efficient so that we can really focus then on our customers and the success.

In the field and get the office stuff in line.

So, okay.

We we've kind of dove a little bit into learning all you
can, the lessons that have gotten you to where you are today.

You guys are obviously doing extremely better than 40, 000 a year, right?

You've grown so much and you are a really top brand and name now in your region.

And we also dove into hiring and your team members and things like that.

So for the listeners who are inspired by your success, what's just.

One impactful step that they can take to apply some of these lessons to their own team?

Karl Jefferson: Lemme see.

My main thing is, is you gotta be, you gotta be curious If you're not cur curious, if
you're the type that's waiting on other people to tell you things and then you'll move.

You cannot be successful in business.

You have to be in your personal time, curious, don't
wait on your wife, don't wait on your employees.

You as the owner, you have to.

Seek and find and try to solve problems.

If there's a problem, I want to be able to solve it.

I want to get that skill from solving it.

You know, I think a lot of people, they, they think of.

The only payment in life is physically receiving money.

But a lot of my perspective is if you learn a skill, that's just as good as exchanging money.

I mean, that's no one can ever take your skills away.

And over the years I've developed a lot of them.

I'm not the greatest speaker.

I'm not, you know, I don't know.

I'm not the smartest person on earth, but I do have a lot of skills from reading books.

Practicing on my own personal time and when it's time to come to work, I seem to perform better.

So

Samantha: yeah, that's my main

Karl Jefferson: thing.

Samantha: Curious.

I think curiosity is one of those things that really, if you take that throughout
everything you do from your, your marriage or relationship with your kids to
relationship with employees to just like business strategy, curiosity, and being fed
by this humble confidence to just learn and be able to do more that takes you so far.

So I definitely appreciate that perspective.

All right, Carl, this has been it.

Absolute wonder and joy to be able to learn from you.

All right.

If you have enjoyed listening to Carl today, we will link his
LinkedIn and the Cadillacs website in the show notes for you.

And we did talk on delegation and hiring and some of that accountability in your teams.

If that's something that you're struggling with, then our
team over here at construction trailblazers can help you out.

Email us at hello at construction trailblazers.

com.