How Tech and Communication impact Trade Businesses with Ron Nussbaum

00:00 - Speaker 1

Welcome to Blue Collar BS, a podcast that busts the popular myth that we can't find good people, highlighting how the different generations of today the boomers, gen X, millennials and Gen Z are redefining work so that the industrial revolution that started in the US stays in the US.

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The Blue Collar BS podcast helps business owners like you build a business that will thrive for decades to come by turning that Blue Collar BS into some true Blue Collar business solutions.

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In this episode you're going to learn business launch and rebrand, how the industry is jaded towards tech, how different generations respond to tech and a favorite moment during launch.

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Our guest today is coming back. His name is Ron Nussman, a millennial tradesman turned technology communication problem solver, who wants communication to not be a problem in a contract. We hope you enjoy the show.

01:03 - Speaker 1

Welcome back to the show, Brad Hertha. How are you doing today, my friend?

01:07 - Speaker 2

I am doing wonderful, Mr Steven Doyle. What's going on in Detroit City today?

01:14 - Speaker 1

In Detroit City it's sunny. You know, we had the hail, storm, thunderstorms come through last night. We're like a little havoc today. Beautiful route, nice summer day here, not too hot, not too cold. It's kind of cool, kind of cool, cool, awesome, good for you. What's going on in your neck of the woods over there in Milwaukee?

01:35 - Speaker 2

It is hot and humid, although we got the air show this weekend, so we got the blue angels floating around, so and then.

01:41

EA. Ea starts this next weekend as well, so we get lots of those experimental aircraft flying over our homes in our. We're kind of on the flight path, so I'm looking forward to it. So we got a returning guest. I can't say he's the first returning guest, but we have a returning guest and we are excited to hear the stories about his business, his communication platforms, what he's accomplished and the rebranding. Welcome back to the show, mr Ron Nussbaum.

02:15 - Speaker 3

Hey guys, thank you for having me back. I appreciate it, I love it, I appreciate what you guys do Thanks for coming back.

02:24 - Speaker 2

So, just so we can refresh our listeners and Steve doesn't have to be put on the spot to forget the question.

02:31 - Speaker 1

I'm zeroed out for it.

02:33 - Speaker 2

What remind our listeners what generation you are part of, Ron?

02:39 - Speaker 3

I would be a millennial.

02:41 - Speaker 2

That's too bad, just like Steve.

02:43 - Speaker 3

I'm at the very edge of that, but that is the category that I follow it.

02:49 - Speaker 2

Okay, great, good Yay Go team.

02:54 - Speaker 1

I'm all right, look who's here.

02:59 - Speaker 2

So, anyhow, all right. So last time we talked, you were just getting ready to launch. Right, you're just getting ready to go through that big, exciting. I'm going to start my business. It's going to be launched. We got the backing, we got all the stuff go. We're going to make the big splash. How's it been? What's been going on? What's the impact?

03:15 - Speaker 3

Hey, it has been absolutely amazing. Being to move from working in the construction industry to working with the industry has been an amazing experience and something that I have become extremely passionate about. We've had a great rollout, a great launch throughout the United States. I get to spend my days now talking with contractors and builders all over the United States and work through communication issues and how we can just continue to be better at that.

03:46 - Speaker 2

So you're just using emojis.

03:49 - Speaker 3

I, so we're trying to stay away from the emojis, but you know that sometimes it does come into play. I'm an emoji user.

04:00 - Speaker 1

Well, that's awesome. So tell us a little bit about you, know, since you've started. Highlight some of the challenges that have come up in your conversations with these contractors.

04:14 - Speaker 3

Yeah, so I get to work with a wide age range of contractors and builders. It's pretty amazing to see, you know, the younger generation really jumps in there and is hungry for technology, but that the older generation is as well. I think what I've noticed is we have a lot of jadedness in the industry for technology because there was a lot of technology that came out. I'm just a guy from the construction industry that now has software. But we, silicon Valley pumped out a bunch of software and it didn't live up to the height and unfortunately that's left a bad taste in a lot of guys' mouths and working through that can be difficult.

05:01

But you also have just the technical ability because I do everything online pretty much so meetings and demos, so getting guys on and demoing the software or doing onboarding. You know, one of the biggest realizations I had was it's hard for guys to get on there and set their accounts up. Once the accounts are up and going, it's rock and roll, like they love it, it's so easy to use. So what I saw doing I just saw an onboarding people form Like, if you're interested, I just help get everything onboarded, I get your company profile, get all of that stuff set up and it works out so much easier. It really lowers that barrier to entry, especially when we're dealing with an older generation.

05:48 - Speaker 1

Right.

05:49 - Speaker 2

Oh, you didn't even hit the softball, Steve Wow.

05:52 - Speaker 1

I was waiting for you because you're in the Google category, you old fart, so let's go Wow.

06:02 - Speaker 2

You didn't even swing. I was disappointed.

06:06 - Speaker 1

No, I was just kind of watching it, yep, yep. So anyway, I'm trying to talk about this, so you guys can do what you do. Sometimes we're just kind of playing with some airtime there.

06:23 - Speaker 2

So help our listeners reacquaint themselves again with what exactly the solution that you have put to market is what it's supposed to accomplish, because we all know software is supposed to accomplish eight something, and we all know that when we get to it, it accomplishes most of it but not all of it. So what is it that we're trying to? What's the biggest problem that we're trying to take care of?

06:49 - Speaker 3

So customer communication, and that is what we do. So at Builder comms, that's just what we do is customer communication. I'm unlike any other software where I'll never be anything more than that Like that's what I want to be.

07:07 - Speaker 2

I want to be doors, windows, siding and more.

07:11 - Speaker 3

No, you know I'm not going to be a CRM and I'm not going to be an Angie's list Like I've had. I get all these requests Like can you put a scheduling feature in here? Well, yeah, we could. But like do you want a scheduling feature? That sucks because all focus on customer communication. Like that's what ends up happening is, when you build out software, it gets so robust that everything becomes mediocre.

07:36

So my goal is to work with other construction software that does what they do really, really good and we all stop working well and we provide a solution that works for the contractors and builders, instead of saying I'm going to be all everything, we just focus on customer communication and being a tool in the tool belt. Like that's how I look at what we built. Like my mindset has really shifted in the last year. A year ago, I thought I built construction software, but what I really did was just build a tool to help guys effectively communicate with their homeowners and their homeowners be able to communicate with them, because it's not that we want to be bad communicators, it's just we haven't had the right tool to make us effective at it.

08:23 - Speaker 1

Right right.

08:24 - Speaker 2

Yeah, yeah, no, that is completely accurate. I we see it all the time. I hear it being part of the Builders Association here locally. You know, I hear it, I see it. My clients face it and like it's not that hard. Folks, it's really not that hard to take the extra 20 seconds to go to the door and say, hey, we'll be back tomorrow. Instead, I just I got to get out of the truck. I'm just going to bail out of the driveway and just say the hell with it. And now nobody knows, are they done for the day, not done for the day? It's two o'clock, it's still sunny out, it's supposed to rain tomorrow. My roof's half exposed. What's going on, right? I mean, it happens all the time.

09:07 - Speaker 3

Yeah, it can and it's just. You know, the number one customer complaint in the construction industry is communication, like it's never the job, it's never the guys, it's always. I wish we had better communication and it's. How do we do that? So how we do it at Builder Coms is we get everything in one place so we get rid of all the emails, all the text messages. We get it all in one platform and then we organize it per project so you don't have to be worrying about who you're talking to, what channel it's in.

09:39

It's hey, I'm in this project. And then, within those projects, what we've done is we build out channels so your homeowner knows who they're reaching out to. I like to say we work as air traffic control for your business, so when that homeowner has a scheduling question, they're talking to the person that can answer the scheduling question. They're not talking to Mary the receptionist, or Steve the sales guy. Neither one of them can answer that question and you get the industry standard of hey, sorry, I'm not the guy. And then that's where the ball gets dropped, and that's what we start to do.

10:13 - Speaker 2

I'll find out, yeah you didn't you didn't find out.

10:18 - Speaker 3

I'm just as guilty of saying that to a customer and then walking to the coffee pot, being in a 20 minute conversation about how good the Buckeyes play football, and then they can totally be confused with the customer.

10:30 - Speaker 2

Wow.

10:33 - Speaker 1

Must be a real short conversation yeah.

10:39 - Speaker 2

You guys talk about that vacated championship. Do you talk about that a lot that season?

10:46 - Speaker 3

I mean, they could give us all that back at this point in time, I mean. Wow.

10:54 - Speaker 1

I'm so let's go. Let's just take it a turn for the worst.

10:59 - Speaker 2

Hey, let's bring it back to the table. Let's just take it a turn for the worst.

11:06 - Speaker 1

Hey, let's bring it back to communication. Back to communication. So in your meetings that you've had with the hundreds of owners that you've had meetings with, talk to us about how the different generations have responded to whether it's enthusiasm or negatively to the solution that you bring.

11:28 - Speaker 3

So it's really the range of the generation. So the younger generations, they're excited. You know all fastest growing demographic from day one has been younger, newer contractors and builders that have been in business for three years or less, because they understand communication is a problem and they want to fix it on day one. They don't wanna continue having that problem Now, as we have continued to grow and I get in front of other guys, different generations, you know what ends up happening a lot of times. That I love is they bring on their project managers or their superintendents. They bring on the younger generations onto the call because not only are they going to be the ones that are implementing it, they wanna make sure they have a good understanding.

12:14

And every time I get on a call and there's a generational gap there, I don't you know I guess that's the best way to put this is I hear hey, I'm not like technology is not my thing. I think what you have is like it's neat, so I wanted to hear more about it, but like if this shit's like super hard, like I want nothing to do with it, so that's like what the herder that immediately has to overcome. But the great thing is is like what we build is. I'm a non-technical guy so like, if you can use Facebook, you can utilize our software and like if you can't use Facebook, you're probably not in our ideal customer profile there. But as soon as we get breaking it down a lot like you can see the shift and the change, cause I think a lot of technology, especially for the construction industry, it's just way overbuilt.

13:11

People try to make it into something that it's not and you think, for some reason, when people build out software, they feel like it needs to have all these bells and whistles and do all this stuff that it really don't. So when I start walking through them and the software just does what it's supposed to do, you can see the light bulb go off where they're like oh I can do this. Like this isn't nothing that's too hard, like this is just not do, cause you know what they don't want to do is email or text messages Like that's the other option, and they're just as aggravated with their email box as they all with possibly talking about a new solution.

13:52 - Speaker 1

So you made a comment there. Facebook, you know, it's kind of like Facebook. So boomers like Brad, they're crushing it and your Gen Vs, they have no idea what Facebook even is. Is that what you're seeing?

14:13 - Speaker 3

So it's different Construction technology. I just I actually had a meeting yesterday with a guy that was an older guy, but he's an early adapter, like always has been. He was like I was on builder trend before, builder trend was a thing and he told me all these different technologies he's used over the years and then we went through ours and he's like man, you really you have something here because you did, you built just something, simplicity Like in. His project manager was on there as well and we were talking and he's like man. I've seen a lot of this. But your ease of use, which is sites, guys, from a customer perspective, because at the end of the day, your customers have to utilize this as well. That's how it works. Your customers use the same communication platform as you, so we built an app for them, so it's super easy for the customers. But they start to see like my customers could use this, because that starts to become an objection, right.

15:12 - Speaker 2

So how do you go about? Right, so you can control the contractor side of it, the, you know, the plumber, the electrician, the roofer, the, whomever, the framer you can control what they're using. But how do you bring in or help them and support them in the conversation to get the husband and wife on the same page, right? So I've got a large you know four or 500,000-dollar addition going on our house. You got every tradesman possible there, you know, and a lot of folks are paper contractors let's just be honest about it right, they don't do a lot of self-performing. They self-perform the one really good thing. How do you work through that? So husband and wife are on the same page and then all the other contractors are in the loop.

15:59 - Speaker 3

Yeah, so let's say I'm the general contractor and I'm running the job. So it would look like hey, brett, we use BuilderComs for all our communication. You're going to receive an email to go on there, set up an account, and that's where everything would go through. You would set up your account, you'll download the app, any pictures, any updates, any documents in all of our communication would go straight through there. So you don't have to worry about checking your inbox, checking your text messages or logging into some portal on a website somewhere. We've set that up. We understand communication is the customer's biggest concern and it can break down a lot of projects. But we've taken the time to think about that, put a system in process and this is how we do it.

16:42 - Speaker 2

Okay, so that takes care of one. Now I got my wife to do the same. Now I got to get my wife to do the same thing, and or whomever right.

16:49 - Speaker 3

So if you're closing a job and you don't have them both there at the same time.

16:55 - Speaker 2

It happens. I'm just curious, right. So the other question I have is is it communication Because you mentioned something about pictures and things Is it also Documentation? Is it change orders? Is it contracts? Is it all that stuff as well, or no?

17:14 - Speaker 3

So we have the ability to send documents, to send pictures, videos, everything in there. What I tell guys is that this is completely customer facing, so anything that you want your customer to have access to should be being uploaded into that project so your customer can see that, and anything that they're sending back to you needs to go through there, because we're creating a record of all of this information.

17:41 - Speaker 2

So tell us the funniest story of the GC to their sub that the customer saw. That shouldn't have happened because the GC didn't use the tool properly.

17:57 - Speaker 3

So I do a lot of training on this and I talk about this Because I have guys that put their subs in there, because it's all admin settings If you're a GC and you add a sub in there, your customer is going to see what that sub says. So you don't want to be having a conversation that evolves around that job, but that shit happens.

18:22 - Speaker 1

Oh man.

18:22 - Speaker 2

Mary Smith is such a pain in the ass. They got that shitty ass dog that's in their house and they just keep getting in there in the way Her big sub doesn't happen, but it is a possibility if you don't read with what the expectations are.

18:39 - Speaker 3

So there's a couple things that you can go about. This is that you teach your guys that this is customer facing. Whatever you say on here, the customers will see you have a second account that just runs as a sub. So instead of being customer facing, it's project centric. So on the commercial side of things we see a lot of that. Guys are utilizing it not customer facing, they're using it sub facing and they use it to get all of that communication in there. Now, that's not what we were built for, but that's just kind of an evolution of what has happened, because there's a need for that, and then you just don't let them on there either. If it's somebody that you don't think is going to be able to say the appropriate stuff to your customers, you might need to reevaluate that relationship and you've got them on your communication platform. That is customer facing.

19:35 - Speaker 1

Wow.

19:38 - Speaker 2

So what's been your favorite moment or journey or client experience over the last 12 months?

19:48 - Speaker 3

So my customer one is an amazing builder out in New York and what was amazing is that he's overachieves on everything. It's not that he had bad communication Dudes are stellar communicator but he's building a couple million, doing a couple million dollar renovations on houses high end clientele and he looks at me and goes Ron, here's my problem. I can't get people to respond back to me. They either have their, they're not checking their emails or they have their text messages turned off and they think it's somebody that's just reaching out because they want to go have beers at the end of the day. And he said it's making me look bad.

20:36

So we work through that With the app for the homeowner. We push push notifications there. So for him it was a complete game changer because his homeowners now get that notification in the Builder Coms app and they know it's something to do with their project. They know it's not Johnny wanting to have a beer later on or go play 18. It's something that has to do with their project and they know they need to answer it.

21:04

So for him I watched that completely it took a superstar and let him go be a superstar With just that one thing, like he was fighting it all the time and we were able to straighten that out to where now his customers, on these huge remoders that he does, he doesn't worry about him getting back to him anymore, because he explains this is what we use. Download the app and this is where all our communication and because of what he does, he's very explicit that make sure you have your notifications turned on and when something comes through, you're responding to me because it has to do with your project. I don't just want to have a conversation, to have a conversation.

21:49 - Speaker 2

Right Cool.

21:50 - Speaker 3

So for me that was very impactful Because that's something that I had never even thought about as we built this all out. Like that to me was not even something, but here it was my very first customer and that was their pain point and it was just a superstar builder doing the right thing and had a pain point that we could solve. That wasn't even why I built it and to me that was amazing to be able to go in there and just that's when I started having the realizations that were more of a tool than anything Like we're just a tool that helps guys be better at what they're already good at or what. It's not that they're bad, it's just they need the right tool to be great at it With your launch this past year.

22:38 - Speaker 1

from the growth that you've had, what would you say you're looking forward to in the future, over the next 12 months?

22:45 - Speaker 3

evolved and I've started. So: 2020

23:30

Because what I really wanna do, what excites me right now about construction software and the meetings I'm having, is a desire to create a win-win for the builders and contractors. Like every meeting I'm in with somebody that's a partner or a strategic alliance or an integration partner, I lead the conversation with saying what we need to do is come together and figure out a win for that builder and contractor. If we can't do that, there's no reason for us to do anything, because if we're not doing stuff with the main goal of creating a win for them. Nothing should matter, like if everybody looked at it that way, it'd be a lot better of an industry, especially in the service aspect of to the industry, because if we create a win for that contractor, we create a win for that homeowner. When that homeowner wins, that contractor wins again because they refer them, they come back and they have more work done and by doing that everybody that's involved wins at that point in time.

24:33 - Speaker 2

So that's really what it takes me. Lifetime value of that one job can be spectacular, right? If you just take care of it. It can be the gifts that keep on giving.

24:46 - Speaker 3

Yeah, and as people that support the industry is, we should be figuring out how do we set them up to have that stellar job every time, how do they deliver for that customer, how do they deliver for their employees every time, on every job. And I wanna be part of that. I wanna be part of that solution that helps guys win.

25:09 - Speaker 2

nder Forbes article from late: 2022

25:41

You could get the coolest Milwaukee tool drill driver to control. I can get the remote control, I can get the app and say, okay, I'm only gonna put four and a half pounds of torque onto that screw so I don't strip out all my screw heads, but I can't communicate with my customers or my contractors properly. So great, I can control that I'm not ruining drill bits and screw heads and that, but I'm not gonna worry about how I'm gonna talk to my customers. It's like just, guys, rethink what you're thinking, rethink your investments, could you so Builders Comm? How are people going to find you, ron? Where do they find you? How do they get a hold of you? How do they get a demo? What happens there?

26:22 - Speaker 3

Yeah, absolutely so. Buildercomscom. You can go there. You can set up a demo. We do completely free projects. So that's all I offer is like just jump on the software, give it a test drive, set up a demo with me. I'll walk you through some of that as well, but get on there, tell us what you think sucks and what you think's awesome. That's what I tell guys. It's just having an open conversation about this because chances are, there's a lot of stuff in the middle that really really works well for your business and we can always do stuff great and we can always improve what sucks. So, as we continue to grow this that's what we do. So, yeah, buildercomscom. And then you can find me anywhere on social media. So if you wanna hear a Marine that spent some time in residential construction that now owns a software company, rambo about nonsense a lot of times, just look me up on social media, awesome.

27:27 - Speaker 2

Ron, thank you so much for sharing your journey with us and the experiences and putting a product out there that's going to help the industry across all generations and become better, put the industry in a better light from a perception perspective from the customers and actually paying people to do the things they want them to do.

27:46 - Speaker 3

Thank you, thank you guys for having me back on. I appreciate it and I look forward to having you guys on my podcast.

27:53 - Speaker 1

Awesome. Look forward to it.

27:55 - Speaker 2

All right, have a great rest of your day, gentlemen. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to Blue Collar BS brought to you by Vision Forward Business Solutions and Professional Business Coaching Inc. If you'd like to learn more on today's topic, just reach out to Steve Doyle or myself, brad Herda. Please like, share rate and review this show, as feedback is the only way we can get better. Let's keep Blue Collar businesses strong for generations to come.