Construction Trailblazers: Paving The Way to Excellence

Samantha C. Prestige: [00:00:00] What would it look like if you had someone who could bring all the pieces of the puzzle together, who could make project decisions even easier, and increase the likelihood that your project would be profitable?

Welcome to Construction Trailblazers, Paving the Way to Excellence, your go to podcast for innovation, success, and streamlined excellence in the building industry. I'm Samantha C. Prestidge, your host and expert in operations and processes. I've seen 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 the daily grind. 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. Today, I am so thrilled to have Clint Schmitz.

He has branched out on his own this year to start Schmitz Design Build, a [00:01:00] commercial design build contractor here in Colorado, with a very specific mission of focusing his almost 20 years of knowledge, wisdom, and insights in the construction and engineering industry into helping the small mom and pop shops who don't always have access to amazing people like him and his team to ease things for them and advocate on their behalf.

He is also one of our first guests. to score the captain of excellence on our business superhero quiz. So you know, he's going to have some awesome stuff for us today. All right, Clint. So when we first spoke, you mentioned that you always just had this love of dirt. So give our listeners a little background on your journey into the construction industry and then what really inspired you to start Schmidt's Design Build.

Clint Schmitz: to so, you know, growing up on a farm in Iowa, you know, we were always playing in the dirt, You know, whether we were in the field to work in the ground, you know, attended to the hogs, whatever it was, there was always something broken, always something to fix. And I always found my love, um, [00:02:00] just being out in the field, um, you know, work in the ground.

I always had a fascination for the soil understanding really how did it how did it help? You know, grow the corn, you know, at the end of the day, right? And there was a lot of just chemistry and science and everything that went into it that my dad taught me. And it was no different than how to grow corn than to how to how to build a building on it. Well, you know, when I was when I was young, my mom got remarried and my stepdad was in construction. And so we were always building things, always remodeling houses, and I just had a fascination for foundations, right? How does it support the house, right? How does it support a building? And so, you know, I went to Iowa State and got my degree in civil engineering with a, with a structural emphasis.

And when I moved out to Colorado for my first job in construction, it was just, you know, the hardest part of any job, you know, we were building, you know, concrete high rises. But the majority of the project was, how do we get this out of the ground? How do we write, [00:03:00] dig down? How do we get the right soils?

You know, understanding the proctors, you know, the moisture levels, everything we need to make sure that, you know, this 20 story building is going to stand for the next. You know, forever essentially, you know, without anything happening. And it was just that, ~that, that~ science behind it that really always intrigued me.

And so that's kind of how I, how I followed my dream to get my degree, and that's what brought me to Colorado.

Samantha C. Prestige: Wow. And I, I just love that there's, there was so much learning and curiosity in that whole story, right? And also just remembering it comes back to our foundations. It comes back to how we're going to start something and then bring it to life, right? Same thing with the corn. What's in your soil? How are you watering it, right?

What is the foundational routine you have to, to grow your corn? Um, but okay. So I also know part of your inspiration for Schmitt's build is just this respect for. Small mom and pop shops, right? You have worked on some really big, like, I mean, cool, but huge projects, right? Mostly in Colorado, [00:04:00] um, in a variety of industries, and now your business is focused on helping much smaller projects.

So, walk me through what, like, why, and also, like, how do you think your approach really helps these small businesses?

Clint Schmitz: Absolutely. ~You know. You know,~ the big thing is, you know, in my, in my past company, we worked for, you know, Fortune 500 companies. We were building some awesome project, but it was high rises, multi floor, you know, high end TI stuff at the end of the day. We were working for the local folks. Right? And they had managing partners report to they had a board in New York to report to, and that board had to report to New York and there's this level of bureaucracy that just, for some reason, just wasn't wasn't fulfilling to me.

You know, the farm I grew up on in Iowa, you know, we were outside of a town of 800 people and And all of our neighbors, our friends, those were your mom and pop shops, you know, you had our neighbor, right? He ran a plumbing business, right? Our other neighbors, they ran the gas station, you know, down the road and it was [00:05:00] just helping your friends, helping your neighbors.

When you work for the big corporate folks, you just don't get that. That feeling, you know, and, and, you know, and to each their own, but that just wasn't fulfilling to me. And when I look at this, and I'm like, I look at my past company and man, we had state of the art technology and systems and everything else you could ask for to help these corporations and.

You know, when we started this business, you know, coming to work for these mom and pop shops, they're, they're working with these companies who, you know, are still working like it's 1990 at the end of the day. And they have no systems. They have no technology. And I'm like, that's not. That's not really fair to these mom and pop shops that they have to just deal with this old school way.

That's just inefficient and more costly to them. So we've brought all the processes systems, the project management software, the technology in the field. We've brought that down and we're building for these mom and pop shops and we're using. That [00:06:00] technology and, you know, it's funny and people ask me, like, well, how do you how do you associate those costs working for the mom and pops?

And I, you know, it's kind of funny because, you know, you build 1 big monstrosity of a building and that building could take 2 or 3 years and your company might only be building 2 or 3 of those projects every year. We're working for the mom and pop shops. These buildings, you know, shovels in the ground to, you know, being done.

They're 6 to 8 month schedules and we're done. We're out of there. They have keys in hand and we can build 15 to 20 of those a year. So, really, there's no cost additives to these mom and pop shops to to have. Everything that the, that the big guys in town have to them, and they get the efficiencies and the cost savings from it.

Because at the end of the day, right, this, their business is their life at the end of the day. Like, that is how they feed their family. And that is how they keep a roof over their head for their families. And without this, they have nothing. And if we can help them do it faster, do it better, do it, you [00:07:00] know, less expensive and just make it easier on them, because at the end of the day, they have a full time job to do.

They cannot be worrying about the design, the entitlements, which is the hardest part of any development, you know, or the construction of it. If they're not worried about that, and they can focus on their job, making money, and we can take care of them, it is a win win situation for everybody.

Samantha C. Prestige: I, I resonate with that a lot. And I really just love kind of going back to, Hey, like I see my friend, I see my neighbor in this person. And also this is fulfilling, right? Like, similarly, I know, like, not to say that if you work in a big corporate job, that you also don't deserve some work life balance, right?

Like, you also don't deserve to be working so many hours all the time and to be stressed out all the time. But I also like most of my clients. And I know a lot of consultants that are like, I only work with companies, a thousand plus employees. Right. And I'm like, that's great for you. I could work with those companies too, but when you get to work in those smaller companies, you, it's more fulfilling, right?

You can [00:08:00] really see the impact of those changes, not only in that project profitability, but like, Hey, now they have more energy when they come home and like, they're hanging out with their kids. And you and I are both parents of really young kids. And I. Don't think either one of us underestimate the value of having energy for your family.

Uh, let's take a quick personal note. You come from a pretty big family from that farm in Iowa, right?

Clint Schmitz: Yeah, yeah, it was, um, my favorite story is when my wife and I were getting married, and I mean, she knew I came from a big family. She didn't understand the extent, just because I'm, I'm one of the youngest of all my cousins. And she was like, hey, where do we draw the line? Because we did a destination wedding.

I said, let's just do immediate family wedding party. My family and my wife was like, why? And I was like, because we won't know where to cut it off and she's okay. Well, what are we going to do for him? I said, okay, well, after the wedding, you know, we got married in April and Memorial Day weekend right after we went back home to the farm.

We had a big, um, you know, pig roast and everything on the farm and when we went to the cater to pick up the food. The cater was like, okay, party of [00:09:00] Schmitz for 120 and I was like, yep, that's us. And my wife literally punched me and she's like, I thought you said this was only family and I was like, it is only family and my wife just could not.

But, you know, we've been together over 10 years. We just had our 7 year wedding anniversary and it was just so funny because now, when we go home, she, she feels like she knows all my cousins or spouses, their kids. After 10 years, she's got the names down for for everybody. So it's been, oh, yeah, a lot of fun, but it's right.

It's just those family values that mean everything to us. And, you know, the most. The best thing I ever heard was, um, last week I took my VP of operations out and his son was, um, he had a day off from summer camp. So he was in the office with us. Uh, he's 9 years old and we all went out to lunch together and he just goes, you know, Clint, I just got to say, I am just so happy that my dad is working for you

Samantha C. Prestige: Oh

Clint Schmitz: that that literally just like, sink into me.

And I was like, [00:10:00] holy shit. I have the vision for our company. That right. Every one of our employees, kids are happy that they are working at our firm at the end of the day. Because right. If if our, if our employees have the best home life, that means you're going to have the best work life. And if they have the best work life, that is 100 percent going to resonate to our clients and their work and everything there.

And we have nothing else to worry about. We know everything will be taken care of. If their kids are happy, their parents are working.

Samantha C. Prestige: Oh my gosh. That's like a goose bump moment. I like, I wish someone was recording that for you. I want to like have that kid draw a picture and put it up on your office wall. That's an amazing moment. Another reason why, you know, you deserve that captain of excellence title there. Um, and also shout out. Hmm.

Clint Schmitz: Oh, I was gonna say funny story about that the very next day, you know, you know, Chad was in here and he goes, you know, miles was really talking about you last night talking about a son and he goes, but miles had one constructive criticism for you. And I was like, you know, what's that? [00:11:00] And he goes, Miles said, he goes, I will quote, Miles said, I really like Clint, but he needs a little more pizzazz.

I was like, this came from a nine year old. I was like, I don't even know what that means, but he's probably right. For sure.

Samantha C. Prestige: You know what? First off, uh, there's a lesson to be learned from all of us here. Like, if a nine year old can give someone feedback, all of us are capable of giving constructive feedback, but I think also sometimes it's okay to not have pizzazz, right? Like, sometimes just knowing what's the boring, simple way to approach this, that's also totally fine, right?

Um, oh my gosh, now I just, we're gonna invite Miles on to a podcast interview next, right?

Clint Schmitz: would, he would be happy to, for sure.

Samantha C. Prestige: Oh, wow. I was also going to say shout out to your wife for learning all of those names. Uh, shame on you for not clarifying the number of family before you went to pick up the catering. Um, okay, but hon, I kind of want to go back to something you said earlier as well, um, about, A lot of your work [00:12:00] was about just figuring out how to bring a building out of the ground, right, and how entitlements are part of, like, one of the hardest parts of the project.

Um, and I think maybe this might ruffle some feathers, right? Uh, but we like raw, juicy, like a steak here, right? So, uh, you said when we talked the first time, construction is actually the easiest part of a project. So if I'm hearing that, I'm saying, I'm thinking, are you saying that by getting all this other stuff in order, That, then my actual building, like once I go to build it, that's a cakewalk?

Like, break that down for us here.

Clint Schmitz: Yep, absolutely. And, you know, and that's 1 of the biggest reasons why we decided to go with the design build model. Um, there's only a few design build contractors and in Colorado, and which is funny. I think Denver has the highest amount of per capita in the country, and which is crazy, right? There's just this crazy competitiveness and this design build model and, you know, we were looking at this from a whole and we're like, you know, at the end of the day, when you look at the whole project.

You have your design, your [00:13:00] engineering, all your city fees. The G. C. is responsible for over 90 percent of the total cost to a client. And I'm like, it doesn't make any sense to me that the G. C. is being brought on at the very end. Right? If if the person responsible for more than 90 percent of your project, that should be your 1st person you're talking to at the very beginning.

And, you know, the hardest part of the project is just getting your project approved through the, you know, the city or the county, whatever the authority is having jurisdiction. Because at the end of the day, every time we find a piece of land, right, you know, we do a quick, you know, code, you know, the zone, the code, um, the analysis on it just to make sure.

Okay, is it going to work? Right? Looking at setbacks, looking at easements, floodplains, you know, especially we do a lot in Northern Colorado, you know, old abandoned oil well heads. Those always cause a problem where you can put a building. But every time we go to initial pre at meeting, you know, the authority, you know, the jurisdictions always asking, oh, hey, you're developing here.

Oh, great. We want to add a stoplight here and we want you [00:14:00] to pay for a turn lane here. And we want you to improve roads and literally they just put so much on whoever owns the property develop this. Well, you know, at the end of the day, when you build those big box stuff and again, you know, we go back to the institutional stuff.

Those folks can afford those things. They can afford, right, putting in a 1, 000, 000 dollar stoplight, or spending half a 1, 000, 000 dollars, you know, to to put in a turn lane, but we're dealing with a mom and pop shop, you know, and their budgets, 4, 000, 000 dollars, and they're spending a 1, 000, 000 dollars on the land.

And I got to try and a 15, 000 square foot building here for, I Under 200 bucks a square foot, there's no room for them to be paying for what the city needs at the end of the day. And so that's where we come in on the front end. Right? And this is the hardest part of our job is saying expectations, right?

We have a lot of politicking we have to do with. You know, the city planners, the city engineers, the county commissioners and, and everybody there to make this a win win for everybody. Because at the day, [00:15:00] everybody wants to be pro development, right? And it helps. It helps the owner get their business going.

It helps the city improve their city. It helps the city with tax revenue. It's a win win for everybody. And, you know, a lot of these jurisdictions just don't have that. They're, they don't have enough funds coming in from tax dollars to pay for this stuff. So they're trying to put it on there. So that is the hardest part of any project is getting through that entitlement phase, making sure that what the client wants within their budget is also going to work for the jurisdiction without them, you know, wanting X, Y, and Z, that's going to, that's going to blow up the deal.

And, you know, there's some jurisdictions who just, you know, You know, and we won't name jurisdictions here today just to, um, you know,

Samantha C. Prestige: we don't want too much politics, right?

Clint Schmitz: yeah, yeah, you know, not to get into too much politics. And, you know, I have some clients say, hey, I found this perfect piece of land and I'll laugh and I'm like, I've already done 2 pre apps with that city for 2 different things on that exact same piece of land.

Nope. What you want is not going to work there. We don't need to waste the money. Go down that [00:16:00] road. This jurisdiction is not friendly. Let's go a quarter mile down the road. Let's get to this jurisdiction. They would love to have you. Here's what they're going to do for us and everything else. And then, you know, a lot of it is having the relationships with the economic development councils at the end of the day when a lot of these mom and pop shops don't know is, you know, every time you read the papers, oh, this company just got 3Million dollars from the Denver Metro and tax incentives, you know, to move their headquarters here and they're bringing 1000 jobs here.

Well, the mom and pop shops. Don't know about any of that stuff. And so we always go work with the local EDC and like, hey, we have this mom and pop shop. They're moving from this jurisdiction to here. You know, they're bringing 28 jobs. You know, it's not, that's not a big number, but it's still a number.

There's still 28 families that are going to be affected by this and the EDCs love these mom and pop shops and you know why the numbers are small. They're still willing to help give some tax incentives and, and even though it's not, you know, the big numbers you see in the paper, it is still very meaningful for these [00:17:00] mom and pop shops.

You know, they may get 20, you know, we've even seen, seen some folks get over a couple hundred grand and that goes a long way for them and helping them get their business up and going. And they never even had a clue those incentives were out there. So it just, there's just so much that goes into this, this front end process just to get them.

Just to get a project to have legs and that's why I say, you know, once we get in, you know, you know, down down the road and once we have permit, like I said, we're easy street. Once that permits there, it's easy, you know, construction, right? You know, obviously there's, there's the whole part of managing the subcontractors, right?

We got schedules and budgets to hit, but. But, man, yeah, just getting the projects approved that is. That is the hardest part and these mom and pop shops, you know, whether they're whatever their businesses, that is not their forte. That is not what they do. And they need someone who has their back. That's going to be in their corner when, when the city pushes back and we can jump in and we can say, hey, look, I get that's what you want for the [00:18:00] jurisdiction.

That's not realistic here. Let's, let's find a, let's find some way here in the middle to make this deal happen.

Samantha C. Prestige: Yeah. I mean, I think I want to go back to kind of break this down a little bit because not only are you bringing such institutional knowledge to your clients, you're also bringing along, um, All these connections that you're aware of in municipalities, in the EDC, but another piece that, which is like the biggest soft skill, I think, the biggest advantage that you're bringing to your clients is that politicking piece.

And I think that that word might scare some people, and I'd love to kind of simplify this because that politicking, I think, is something that you embody not only when you're working on behalf of your clients, but also when you're working. with your your own team, right? Or maybe you're just working with vendors, not necessarily someone at the city, right?

Um, when I hear politicking, I'm really, I'm really thinking, let me listen and understand. And what does this person want? Right? So let's just kind of simplify politicking for our listeners a little bit and tell me about your approach here.

Clint Schmitz: Yeah. So, you know, the, the big thing that I've seen is, you know, You know, when you get to [00:19:00] these entitlement phases and the jurisdictions are asking for stuff, everybody gets so combative, right? I've been on calls with the city says, we want you to do this. And I'll send the owner without hesitation, right?

Starts dropping bombs to the city and we're not doing this. This is B. S. going down this road. Right? And then right now we have some. You know, uh, making up to do with the city, but really it just comes down to everybody, whether you're the jurisdiction, whether you're the client, you know, the designer, the builder, we're all people.

We all just want to be heard. We just want to know that you understand our side of the story. Right? And so a lot of times, you know, we get into those meetings and I, I have to tell all my clients. Hey, look, they're going to ask for a lot of things. That's probably going to upset you. I don't want you. I always think about, um, the movie.

A few good men. You know, if they see things that don't go in our favor, and they don't do this and they do that, you just stay still and you don't have a reaction. You just nod your head and you let it go. [00:20:00] Right? This is our initial meeting. We'll deal with this down the road. Right? So I have to have that, especially after a few experiences.

I've had some of my clients who are a little hot headed with the jurisdictions. Right? So I just want everybody. I'm like. Just let it go. We'll take care of it behind the scenes, right? We understand what they want. And then after the meeting, I'll call that city planner or, you know, the, you know, the, the building official, you know, the fire chief was a, hey, let's go grab a coffee.

I just want to talk through where your head's at on this. Right? And all we do is just sit down and just, we just understand why. Why are they asking for these things at the end of the day? And a lot of times it's like. Oh, I don't I don't even know why we need it. That's what the code says. That is I hear so many times from, you know, you know, the building officials and, you know, when we talk through it, like, you're right, Clint, this doesn't even make sense.

We don't need to put this on your folks, but it was just taking that time, right? Having lunch, buying them coffee and just. Listening to them and letting them feel heard, and that they know that their side was understood because it is right. Every time you talk to anybody in town, all they [00:21:00] do is complain that the cities are making them do this.

The counties are enforcing this on them and it's just like, it doesn't have to be that way. Right? We're all people, whatever side of the fence you are. We all just want to be heard. We just want to make sure that we're understood and then once that happens. Then we can figure out, you know, what is the win win situation to get to a negotiation and that is, you know, it's so funny, you know, even as the president of the company, that is the most important role I have at the company is making sure that the, the cities, the jurisdictions, our clients, you know, our design consultants.

Everybody is heard and everybody feels understood because until that happens, a negotiation can't start. And I think that's the number one fault in our industry is everybody tries to go straight to a negotiation, right? They don't care what your side of the story is. They just want you to, Hey, here's my story and I'm gonna shove it down your throat and here's why.

And if you don't like it, great, then we're gonna walk. And I'm like, yeah, but that all that's doing is delaying the project, right? Going out to find new land. And all that does is [00:22:00] hurt our clients at the end of the day. And that is the complete opposite of our goal of what we're trying to accomplish.

Samantha C. Prestige: I think that there, there's such great wisdom there because what you're describing isn't only solutions for getting through this entitlement phase, right? Like I think our, I'd want to highlight this for our listeners that what you're describing applies to problem solving in all aspects of personal life, of business life, right?

It's saying why, why is this happening, right? Like, like, does this make sense? Also, if something is not right, it doesn't, it's causing tension. Then Does it need to be happening? Right? We can say this is not how it should be. It can be better. And then also just that healthy conflict, right? It's okay to maybe not see eye to eye at first, but we're going to work together and communicate.

And if we could just take that framework and just copy paste everywhere else in our life, I think people would be a whole lot happier. Um, but I also, and I know that this kind of like cool, calm, collected, I'm going to kind of phrase this. This is maybe a [00:23:00] James Bond vibe you guys have going for your projects.

That also really influences who you bring on to your team. You've told me a few good stories about your team members. Um, maybe if you can recant them for our listeners as well of like, really, how do you look for that cool, calm, collectedness in your, your, the people you bring onto your team and also like, how did you know that they were really going to embody that for your clients?

Clint Schmitz: You know, again, it comes down to the, um, who are the level headed people, you know, at the end of the day, and, you know, when things escalate, what I look for in people is who knows how to deescalate a situation. And again, it all comes back to what we just talked about. Do they have the ability to listen and do they have the ability to whoever they're talking to, right?

Whether that's a client, right? 1 you know, you know, an inspector, you know, the jurisdictions, you know, do they have a way to make that person feel heard? And that is the number 1 quality I look for in anybody. And so, you know, when we're [00:24:00] interviewing people, it is literally just, I ask questions and do they have the ability to turn those questions on me and get me talking at the end of the day?

Because it's so funny. Right? You know, we all know those people. They come out of a meeting. They're like, man, that meeting went really well. I was like, well, of course, you would think so. You talked to 90 percent of the time. Of course, you think that meeting went well, right? You know, we always have this. We always have the 7030 rule that I always tell everybody.

Right? Right. Well, that's our sales people, our operations people, anybody in the company. If you're in a meeting, you talk more than 30 percent of the time, you failed. You failed, right? Because if you were talking more than that, the person you were talking to does not feel heard. And so, and, you know, we've all been in construction, right?

There's no project that's ever gone. Perfect. You know, ever in the history of of man in construction and things go wrong. And it's how do people handle those situations when things get bad. Right? You know, so many people, you know, you talk about when the economy's good, right? Everybody's a good salesman when the economy's good, but you know, who are the [00:25:00] salespeople who, who can step up and crush it when things are bad, right?

It's a small percentage of people. Same thing with operations guys, right? 90 percent of the time, maybe 99 the project's going well. There's always going to be 1 or 2 things that happen that things get crossway, you know, sideways on a project. And it's how do you handle that? Can you keep the owner calm?

Can you keep the inspector calm through all of these situations? And that is how we hire people. And the only way they can stay level headed is Is it take ownership of what they're doing? Um, 1 of the things that we've implemented in every 1 of our interviews, when we interview people, you know, 1 question that always comes up in every interview.

Everybody asked how will I be measured? I said, funny you ask. I don't have the book up here on my bookshelf. Um, I pull out a book because I always have it every interview. Extreme ownership by Jocko Lulnick. And I slide across the table and I'm like, I'm not going to tell you how you're going to be measured.

I will be measured as in this book. You don't have to read the book. It's up to you. [00:26:00] But if you want to know how you're going to be measured, you need to read this book and that's it. And I give that book away at every job interview that I do. Um, I read all 3 of his books now and they are just above and beyond.

What anybody ever needs to know about leadership and I, I mean, I, I'm a big reader, um, you know, whether it's sales or leadership books, you know, I've, you know, I kind of started my, my career off. I was an engineer and then I switched to sales and now writing a business, you know, it's all leadership books.

I probably read 30 leadership books and these are. By far these three books, the other 27 I've read combined don't even compare to these three books and the, and the principles they teach. And, and I was talking, like, here you go, and if you don't have these principles, you're not going to last very long at this company.

Samantha C. Prestige: Wow. I, first off, everyone, we will definitely link those books in the show notes. I want, I haven't heard of extreme ownership. I definitely want to read that now, um, get back into my self improvement reading. I've been kind of doing some more personal reading lately. That sounds awesome, but I also [00:27:00] love that you are setting that expectation for accountability right at the interview, right?

Like you're saying, like, yeah, I definitely want to get to know this candidate. I need to evaluate them, but this is also the candidate's opportunity to say, like, Can you step up to the plate or not? If you don't think you can, like, step aside. We're going to hire somebody else. And I think also sometimes we, a lot of people say accountability, they throw that out there.

They, they throw the idea of like, I definitely want my employees to own what they're doing. And they kind of Say it like it's a magic wand. And I'm like, well, it takes a little bit more effort than that, right? And also, do you have the right person in that role who is capable of holding themselves accountable?

So absolutely love that and, and love your interview structure. I also wanna go back to, um. If you're talking too long, I think that there is, um, you know, AI note takers have been like all the rage the past few months. I want to say it's Fathom. I will confirm this for everyone and link it in the show notes.

But I was on a call one time where the person was sharing their screen and they were in the position to talk for a while. So it was okay. It was a [00:28:00] presentation. But their note taker gave them an alert on their screen that they were monologuing. And I was like, oh my gosh, if I had this in real life, for some of the people I knew, where they could just get a little ding, of like, you're talking too much, like, throw in a question, get curious about something, stop talking, right?

Uh, have, I don't know if you've ever been in a position where, like, you've kind of told someone, hey, stop, slow down, let's let someone else speak? Have you had to say that in a meeting before?

Clint Schmitz: So, it's funny, um, you know, I spent, I spent 15 years with a general contractor and they did high end finishes and, you know, most of our work, we had to respond to an RFP and we go to an interview. And, you know, go to that interview we had, right? You've had your superintendent, your project manager, your estimator, right?

A project exec. Maybe I was the exec, you know, maybe I was just, you know, there because I had a relationship with the client and we had cues because, and no fault to, you know, the ops team, they're not salespeople. This isn't what they do every day. They're really good going out and building stuff. But we had [00:29:00] cues they would know if I lean forward in my chair, that means they were talking too much. If I lean backwards at my, in my chair, that means they answered the question poorly and they needed to be like, hold on. I don't think I answered that question. Right? Can you repeat your question? Because they didn't understand what the client was asking. So, we always had cues to help these folks that, you know, this is what they do every day, but there was a lot of things that they needed help with.

Samantha C. Prestige: Wow, that is such a smart strategy that I have not heard of before, of really training your team and setting them up for success because you are still kind of running the meeting, right, a little behind the scenes cues and actions that you're running the meeting, making sure it's going how you want, but also still enforcing that accountability, that ownership, letting them talk and build those skills.

I think that's one of my favorite tidbits I have heard. I'm going to start implementing that with my own team. Okay. I also, I want to kind of bring all this [00:30:00] together for everybody. Cause we've talked a lot of some really great soft skills in leadership. So for our listeners that are maybe outside of Colorado, that they're out of state, they can't call up Schmidt's design build to come help solve their problems.

What's maybe your, your best piece of advice or that first action step that they can take to really start making things run smoother for their projects.

Clint Schmitz: Build a relationship, right? Build a relationship with everybody on the team. I think our industry has gotten so reactive that, you know, you know, people hire a broker, right? Brokers are always the 1st people in, right? They either find a building they want to move into. They find a piece of land they want to build, and then it's like, oh, wow.

What's what's next steps? Oh, okay, well, let's either hire a design builder, let's hire an architect, civil engineer, whatever it is, right? And then they kind of constantly piecemeal down the road, right? And they never even get to know anybody. And, you know, what I found when I was back in the design bid build world, you [00:31:00] never had trust built with a client until the project was over.

And complete, right? And that was just so backwards to me. It just didn't make any sense. And that's all like, as a GC, we need again, right back to the, we are responsible for more than 90 percent of the cost of this project. You know, if this thing goes bad, this person goes out of business at the end of the day.

Like, this is this is not a small project for them. This is this is the livelihood of their business. And I'm like, we need to have the trust built with the entire team before the project starts. So, that is always my advice. If you say, hey, you know, I know I'm going to start this process in a year where I need to go find, you know, a building.

I need to go find a piece of land. Take that year to go meet your design builders. Go meet your contractors. Go meet your architects. Go meet your brokers, right? You need to make sure you have a bank in hand. And that's just one thing where, you know, so many people, you know, I talk to bankers all the time.

And Banker's like, yeah, it's getting really weird. People are applying for loans online and we've never met them. I was like, man, you [00:32:00] are, this is like your whole livelihood and you've never met this person before. So take the time, make the effort, build the relationships, make sure you find the people you trust before the project starts, find out if you trust them or not after the project's over.

Samantha C. Prestige: Yeah, I definitely, like, I always teach my clients, we've got to have some, like, what are our warning flags, the yellow and orange flags before things get bad. But hopefully, if we've done our homework, right, we know those flags never pop up because we're well prepared. I also love kind of, I definitely build relationships, but.

A really important part, I think, of what you're saying is to get out of this reactive mindset. We've got to understand this big picture. Who are all the players on the chessboard that I need to help coordinate, right? Because if I'm only looking, like, who's the next vendor I need to talk to today, and only looking at that in such the short term picture, So many red flags are going to start popping up when we don't want them to and cost us way more money.

Um, and also, wow, definitely meet your [00:33:00] banker before you apply for a loan. Do you trust them? Right. And do they trust you? Is that going to be a good relationship? Um, but wow, thank you so much today, Clint. This was absolutely amazing. Awesome. This was a raw, juicy, flavorful conversation, just like I like my steak.

I'm a foodie, everybody, so I might go get a steak after this. Uh, but that's a wrap for this episode of Construction Trailblazers. If you loved what you heard from Clint today, then I encourage you to connect with him on LinkedIn. We will link his LinkedIn and the books he recommended in the show notes for you.

Um, and if you're wondering what it would look like to have his approach lead your projects to profitable success, and you're in Colorado, then Then not only connect, definitely reach out to him and you can catch up on past episodes and take the quiz to see if you too are a captain of excellence at ConstructionTrailBlazers.

com. Thank you all for listening and we'll see you next time.