Episode 129
Transforming How Remodeling Gets Done with Kyle Davies
Joining the family business isn’t always a given, but Kyle Davies shares how he found his path and the lessons that shaped him along the way.
Kyle Davies, General Manager of W.E. Davies and Sons Remodeling, talks about his unique journey into the family business, a company that's been a cornerstone of Madison, Wisconsin, for nearly 50 years. Kyle didn't jump into the business right away; he explored careers in retail, restaurant management, and distribution, gaining valuable experience in sales and service before coming back to his roots. His diverse background has helped him bridge the gap between operations and sales, fostering smoother internal communication.
Kyle shares how the landscape of the trades has changed, including the renewed interest among younger generations thanks to revived trade programs in schools. His experiences at local high school trade days proved that interest in hands-on work is alive and well. The family business thrives on mentorship, with seasoned carpenters sharing their knowledge and guiding newer team members at a sustainable pace.
Through an open-door policy and a culture of transparency, Kyle emphasizes the importance of communication and learning from each other to keep the company strong. For those considering a career shift to the trades, Kyle offers practical advice: you don’t have to be a master carpenter to be part of the industry—there’s a role for everyone.
Episode Highlights:
- Kyle’s journey from retail and distribution to joining the family business.
- The impact of trade programs in schools on the younger generation’s interest in the trades.
- Unique strategies for finding and training new talent in the remodeling industry.
- The importance of mentorship and transparent communication within the company.
- Advice for those considering a career shift into the trades without prior hands-on experience.
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Transcript
Welcome back everyone to this episode of the Blue Collar BS podcast. I'm going to have to pause here and just let everybody know that, you know, my co -host, Mr. Brad Herta decided to be AWOL today. He is attending a meeting and so he is going to be a little offline. If he happens to join, cool. But if not, and you listen to this, make sure you give them a little bit of shit for not being here and not showing up because, you know, we actually do have a pretty awesome guest on our show today.
So since Brad's not here, let's do the introduction of Mr. Kyle Davies. Mr. Kyle Davies, he's a general manager in his family's now third generation remodeling company in Madison, Wisconsin. W .E. Davies and Sons Remodeling, they are coming up on their 50 year anniversary in business. And Kyle brings a fresh perspective to the trades and the remodeling world. He spent the past few recent passes up the president of the N .A .R .I. Madison chapter.
and he has served on the local and national level membership committees. See, with today's struggles of staffing and the trades, Kyle's gotten creative in where and how he looks for potential carpenters and other positions needed in the company. His background in sales and service helps bridge that gap in finding solutions to internal business struggles. The network he's built in the greater Madison area helps create word of mouth opportunities for those looking to change careers or to join a better company culture. Kyle.
Welcome to the show, man.
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, good to be heard and seen. Great to see you guys again. And maybe if Brad shows up, I'd say the same thing to him. But yeah, good to be here. Thanks for having me on.
Steve Doyle (:Right? Yeah. So Brad usually likes to chide me a little bit because I do forget. So today I actually had to write this down. Which generation, Kyle, do you best fit in with and identify with?
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, smack dab in the middle of the millennial generation. So 1989.
Steve Doyle (:Awesome. All right. Awesome. So knowing where you fit age -wise and you're now third generation in the remodeling business, family business, as a general manager, do you mind letting our listeners know, like, how did the company start? How did you really just say, yes, this is where I want to be in the family business?
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, so it actually took quite a while for me to make the commitment or the jump into what people think of as a scary family business aspect of things, right? So yeah, growing up, my grandpa was the original co -founder and owner of
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Kyle Davies (:W .E. Davies and Sons Remodeling, which is out of Madison, Wisconsin in 1975. He started the business just as a local handyman, kind of fixing people's homes, using some skills that he had. He used to work for a picture framing company and he just loved to whittle wood, pretty much anything and everything carpentry wise in a wood shop. And from there, he kind of took his skills to the neighborhood and
He ended up having a family with his wife, who's my grandmother, both still alive, which is awesome. They both still live in the same house that I used to visit growing up. And they had three kids, my aunt, my uncle, and my dad. And my dad and my uncle were, I won't say the word forced, but probably highly encouraged to work with him, you know, after school, nights, weekends, things of that nature.
Steve Doyle (:Awesome.
Steve Doyle (:Right?
Kyle Davies (:And so they are the W .E. in the W .E. Davies. They've all had the same initials. My grandpa and my dad and my uncle. So from there, yeah, they were now a second generation company and they were doing a little bit more larger projects, additions, decks, kitchens, bathrooms, basements, living spaces, et cetera. And they kind of just built the company from my grandpa's shop.
king on the same jobs. And in: Steve Doyle (:Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:From there, I was about 10 years old at that point. I was not in tune with business, not in tune with what they were doing. But in the summers, worked with them. Probably more so as like a disciplinary thing. And you didn't get your homework done in time, you're gonna go work with your uncle for the weekend or something like that, right? And so right out of high school, I wasn't forced into the family business. They said, kind of go do your own thing.
Steve Doyle (:Right?
Kyle Davies (:whether you want to go to college, you want to try a different career, whatever that looks like. And so from there, I went to a local technical college here in Madison in about 2008, just for small business and entrepreneurship. I watched my dad and my uncle grow this business from the kitchen table and the garage, the business transfer, the house I grew up in. So I grew up in the business. And from there, from college on, I, you know,
ng family business. And so in: Steve Doyle (:Right.
Steve Doyle (:That's awesome. It's really great to hear like, hey, you know, may not always want to be in it, especially if it's a family business, but that the family allowed the opportunity, hey, do your own thing for a little bit. And if you want to come back, it's potentially available for you to come back.
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, I call it the boomerang effect. I went and did a bunch of stuff and then I came back to the business.
Steve Doyle (:So that's right. Right. That's awesome. So knowing that you're you were past president of the N .A .R .I. out in Madison, obviously you've seen a lot of things. Tell us kind of some of the trends that you're seeing when we talk about generational work force.
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, so the Nari Association out of Madison is just one chapter of the National Association. So it's the National Association of Remodeling Industry. And from being involved with that association, I've learned quite a bit. And just kind of seeing a lot of folks older than me, the generation older than me, actually kind of mentoring me in a sense where they've been able to, I've been able to, I guess what you'd say is,
kind of take some of the good and the bad, right? And really hone in on what's going on in our trades and in our community. And so from there, being a part of association is great because I don't have to come up with ideas myself. I have all these other people to bounce ideas off of, see what's worked, what hasn't worked for them. And just being around a group of people like that has really encouraged me to want to learn more, do more, and especially for the community and the trades in itself.
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Steve Doyle (:Right. So any trends that you've seen from a generation standpoint in terms of different generations and wanting to go into the trades? Have you seen any trends like that?
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, yeah, I mean, it wasn't too long ago, what, five, 10 years ago, there was kind of a disruption in the school systems where they were cutting tech classes, woodshop classes, metals classes, design courses. Those are kind of the first types of curriculums to be cut when a school has to cut funding. And so that was really kind of a disruptor in our industry that I found. And even though,
just I just got into this business, you know, close to 10 years ago. That was kind of a concern of mine because I thought, well, here I am, this younger generation trying to get into the trades, develop my skill, develop, you know, a growing company. But what's going to happen in 10 years? And so now we're here. And the trends from then until now have actually, I think, kind of gone gone up. I think that some of those courses are being back offered in schools.
A lot of the schools around here in the Madison, Wisconsin area are investing more into the school systems again that they weren't for maybe five, 10, 15 years. And so I would say that the trends I'm finding are that we're trending up, which is a good thing. People are putting more money, time, and energy to teaching the younger generation that the trades are a great way to earn a living and a great way to learn a great skill as well.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Right. Now, one of the things that is currently kind of like the miss, we call it the misnomer out there is, you know, that this young generation today doesn't want to work. Right. They they're lazy. They don't want to work. What have you seen in the Midwest region that you're in? What have you seen with the young generation as they're looking to get into the whether they're looking to get into the trades or not? What are the trends that you've seen?
Kyle Davies (:I was very scared of that, the trend that it was trending down, right? But I do see, like I said, that trending upwards. And what I'm finding too is just last week, or a couple of weeks ago, we spent two days at two different high schools in local community school districts here, and they had a trades day, which was coordinated by our Madisonari chapter here.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:And just being in front of and involved with the kids, I was able to kind of pick up on some trends that I didn't know existed. I thought these kids were, you know, if I look at myself in high school, I would have thought, oh man, I would have taken that opportunity to skip class. I would have taken that opportunity to like hang out with my friends in the corner or be social and get out of English class or whatever it might be. But there was, surprisingly, there was a lot of kids, and these were juniors, everyone who was in 11th grade, got to,
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Yes.
Steve Doyle (:Got it.
Kyle Davies (:miss a math or English course to come down and learn an electrical HVAC plumbing and or carpentry skill for about a half hour. And during that, yeah, during that time, I kind of caught on that, wow, people are really like these, these kids are really involved. They're in these courses in school. They're in mechanics classes. They're in the wood shop. They're in these design courses. And they seem to be more intrigued than I could have ever even imagined.
Steve Doyle (:Awesome.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:Like I said, looking at myself, you know, 15, 20 years ago, I definitely wouldn't have been as hands on as these kids were. And so I think that the trend is now, you don't have to go to college if you don't want to. We still need all those other professions that you have to have college degrees for. Don't get me wrong, but I do see things trending upwards. There was a kid that said, yeah, I've roofed with my uncle the last two summers and.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:I think I'm gonna do that when I graduate. And just hearing that was like music to my ears.
Steve Doyle (:That's awesome. That's actually phenomenal. So with the, we'll say the quote unquote struggles of staffing, what have you guys found to be something that's unique that you guys have done to help bridge that gap of, hey, where are these people at?
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, yeah, knowing that the younger generation doesn't have a giant population of kids that are eager to get into the trades. There are some, right? But knowing that we've had to get a little creative with where we look, how we find folks to either continue the trade, learn the trade, or maybe even come back to the trade. There's a lot of teachers out there, retired, whatever it might be that.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Kyle Davies (:you know, enjoy these types of skills and these types of trades, but they don't, you know, necessarily call it a career or a job. And so what we've found is that if we can find a pool of people in between or retiring or changing jobs, you know, the pandemic was a big thing. People were changing careers. They were getting let go. They didn't know what to do. I found a lot of folks that were being laid off that were like, well, I like building furniture in my garage.
Steve Doyle (:Hmm
Kyle Davies (:How can I make that a job or a career? So I'm spreading the word in my local chapters and community networks here to say, hey, if anyone knows anyone who got let go, a teacher who's thinking about retiring early that has a good five years left in them, that wants to put their mind and hands to use, let's do it. Because there's all different types of levels to the trades.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Kyle Davies (:Right? You could be a laborer, you could be a level one carpenter, you could be a delivery or purchaser. I mean, there's so many different opportunities to get involved. And so we have to think about all those things and all the different avenues that you could go down. So I've, like I said, spreading the word, being a part of networks and associations, go into meetings. And when people ask, well, what's your ask as a, as a business owner, a business person, mine is like, Hey, if you know anyone that wants to learn,
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:Carpentry skills, I'd love to talk to them. Send them my way. It doesn't take a whole lot, you know, a couple courses, a couple being at a job site with the right individual or trainee or trainer. It goes a long way.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Steve Doyle (:Right. Mm hmm. Yeah. So kind of piggybacking off something you just said, one of the things that I really hone in on with with the companies I work with is around how do we mentor those, whether it's specific generations coming in like younger generations or just in general, any workforce coming into the business. What is kind of like the thing that.
your company is known for when you bring in an employee.
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, so I think we've just been really, really fortunate to have folks here who are willing to share their knowledge. Without that, we're not able to train, right? We would always be looking for someone to come in with skill versus teaching them a skill. And so my uncle is considered a master carpenter. He's a CLC, he's got a certified lead carpenter certificate. And we have encouraged all of our lead carpenters who are, you know,
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:basically project managers, but on the job site, we encourage them to get their certified lead carpenter license or certification so that they understand not only the building codes, ethics, and standards that we have, but so that they can actually at least train and teach those skills and information to the other newer type, you know, let's say green carpenters or.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:And so just having the knowledge and wealth of knowledge from the tenured carpenters and folks in our company helps really diversify our company in general.
Steve Doyle (:That's awesome. Now, when I talk to a lot of companies, you know, they always say, yeah, we'd like to have that. How have you made that stay, that mentorship stay as part of the culture?
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, I think sometimes folks want to grow too fast. They want their business to grow too fast. They have this huge business model that they draw it on a whiteboard or a piece of paper that says, oh, I could have this many project managers, this many operation managers, this many carpenters, or this many whatever it might be. Our growth has been really organic. And I'm really, really thankful for that because it gives us the time and allows us to take the time to.
Steve Doyle (:Right. Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Hmm.
Kyle Davies (:to train at a pace where people need to learn. Whether it's, no matter what generation it is, these are skilled trades, right? It is a skill no matter what you're doing. And so having an ample amount of time on a job site, having an ample amount of time before heading out for the day, or an ample amount of time at the end of the workday to go, let's look back at what we did this week. What was a like best or do better next time kind of conversation.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:And so if we really hone in on those couple key things, that could be a five minute conversation, that could be an hour conversation at the end of the week, that goes a long way. You can't just throw somebody in onto the job site and say, do this thing that they've never done before and expect them to learn. Really honing in on like taking the time to slow down a little bit. Yes, it's not efficient. Maybe it's not.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:It affects the bottom dollar a little bit, sure. But in the long run, those folks appreciate what we're teaching them. Hopefully they're learning enough at a speed where that's comfortable for them. And then they're allowed, they feel like they're allowed to make decisions on their own. And once you get them to that point, I think it's like letting the bird fly, right? It's like...
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Right.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, absolutely.
Kyle Davies (:Quick funny story to Steve. Our most tenured lead carpenter, believe it or not, has only been here for a little less than 10 years because our company has grown exponentially in the last 10 years. But the most tenured lead carpenter we have was a bike mechanic and my dad was getting his bicycle fixed at a bicycle shop.
Steve Doyle (:Okay.
Kyle Davies (:We, uh, my dad knew of this gentleman and he was a friend of my brothers and my dad had said, Hey, you know, Ian, what, uh, how long you been doing building bikes for? And he's like, I got about four years. He said, yeah, you like it. He's like, yeah, it's okay. I don't know if it's a career thing for me. And my dad goes, well, you ever think about joining a trade or getting, getting involved in trades? He's like, I don't know. You know, and my dad's a book here. Do you ever want an opportunity?
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:to come learn a trade, to learn under Wade, who's my brother, who's a master carpenter. We'd love to interview you, we'd love to hire you. We are gonna be hiring for a couple positions here in the next year or two. And now that guy's our newest PM in our company. And my grandpa had said to him, eye to eye, it's gonna take 10 years, Ian. And Ian looked at my grandpa and said,
Steve Doyle (:That's awesome.
Kyle Davies (:10 years it's gonna take to learn everything I need to know and he says at least 10 years and he's just coming up on his 10 -year mark and he said when he was promoted to the project manager position, wow, your grandpa was right. When he first met me and said it's gonna take 10 years, he was right and he goes, but man, I'm glad he told me that because it gave me a goal to strive for. It's not one of those skills you're gonna learn in six months or a year.
Steve Doyle (:10 years, yep.
Steve Doyle (:Yep. No, just the intimate details that you have to focus on. Kudos to those that do it, because yeah, there's not enough putty to help me.
Kyle Davies (:I know. Same, same. I feel the same way sometimes. I don't know who manages me, but real kudos to them.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, so that's awesome. So how has your background in sales and service? Kind of help bridge that that gap with the internal things that are going on there.
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, so that's actually what intrigued me the most about joining the family business was I come directly out of working for a beverage distributor for about four years. And the first year I worked in the service end of things. And when you work for a larger corporation or just any type of business where there's a sales and service divide, you get to learn about what you do and don't like about the other side.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:No.
Steve Doyle (:Yep.
Kyle Davies (:And I, as a service tech at that time or a delivery driver, I was always complaining about the salespeople. They're doing this, they're doing that. Upper management says this, and I'm trying to do my best. And after about a year of doing that, I moved into a sales position on the sales end of things. And I got to see what it looked like from the other side.
And so I think that actually helped me kind of take that career to another level because I already been in service. I knew what I did and didn't like about the salespeople. And I knew what I did and didn't like doing as a, as a service rep. So when I became a salesperson, I was always thinking with empathy because I could see the other side. And so I think just those four years of being on both sides of the spectrum really, really intrigued me to come into this business and go.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:I see a disconnect in any business that I've ever been in between sales and service. I don't want those common stereotypes to be our business. I don't want that to be the culture. And especially being third generation working directly under my father and my uncle, I'm like, you know, I'm playing middleman over here. My uncle is running operations and service. My dad is running sales and estimating. There's a disconnect. Usually we lose our minds somewhere in between.
Steve Doyle (:Right. Yep.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Yep. Yep.
And somewhere in the middle. Yes. Yes.
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, yeah. This is the sale and the homeowner. Great. They sign the document. They make the down payment. Things are awesome. It gets the operations or service and they're like. What is this? I need more information anymore. Deep tail. I need this that and then they're going well, I gave you more than enough and they're saying you didn't give me enough, you know, and so you know we have worked very diligently to put people in positions to.
Steve Doyle (:Thanks. Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:What is this?
Steve Doyle (:right?
Steve Doyle (:Uh huh.
Kyle Davies (:manage how they get from point A to point B and from point B.
Steve Doyle (:Right. Mm hmm. Yeah, that that that struggle is real no matter if it's a family business or not. Like, yeah, that that is a real struggle in the trades business for sure. And it will.
Kyle Davies (:or any type of business in general, yeah, yeah.
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, and I think just putting the right people in the right positions and in talking about it, I mean, transparency is the biggest thing in our company. We have an open door policy. And I don't mean like physically, like my door is shut right now, right? Anyone can come in and ask me, they can ask the owner, they can ask anyone a question. It doesn't matter who they ask. There is a chain of command to follow in any business, but in the sense of...
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Oh yeah.
Kyle Davies (:I want to be able to talk to the owner. I want to be able to talk to anybody in the company at my will. That's our company culture. And I don't see that going anywhere anytime soon because I think that helps with transparency and transparency helps bridge that gap.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, absolutely. So what advice would you have for, let's just say anybody right now that's looking for a career change that may be overthinking or overlooking the trades? What advice would you have for him?
Kyle Davies (:Um, well with the, with the statement of, I don't want to beat my body up. I'm not the most hands on person because that's me. Okay. I didn't grow up building homes. I didn't grow up doing a ton of remodeling. I was involved to certain, certain extent, but people always do ask me that same question, Steve. They say, like, can I get into the trades? Can I make a career out of this without beating up my body for, you know, 10, 20, 30 years and.
I would say of course you can. I mean, just because I'm in the family business and I was able to make the connection and get in, that doesn't mean that you can't be a designer, you can't be a purchaser, you can't be in charge of material handling, or you can't be an office manager. There's so many other areas of business that you don't have to know how to build a house to work for a home builder. You don't have to know how to remodel a basement to work in the trades, no matter what you do.
Steve Doyle (:Mm -hmm.
Kyle Davies (:So I would say there's opportunity no matter at pretty much any level of staff that you really want to dive into. And I would say take what you like doing and see if that applies to any portion of the business. Because like I said, I wasn't a fan of service, but I was a fan of sales and estimating. And I made that opportunity for myself knowing that there was an opportunity.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:That's awesome. Hey, look who we had joined the show. Finally, Mr. Brad Herta. How you doing, my friend?
Brad herda (:I am doing well. I am doing very well. And I appreciate, as I came in late on that last statement, Kyle, as I just came out of a client's team meeting full of a team of 14 steel construction workers, where one guy has no background into any of it. You could see the scared look on his face. But he was very intrigued because the team was letting him in and bringing him in. And
Steve Doyle (:You
Brad herda (:and creating their own path and some great conversation. So I completely agree with what you're saying. Make it your path because we got to build the pond to make it deeper and not just say, here's the only one path and away you go. There's 500 different trades out there and home building is only a small portion of it.
Kyle Davies (:Yep, absolutely.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, yeah. So Kyle, now that we're, you know, Brad joined and now we're wrapping up, kind of, kind of key for him here. He did. He did. It's all good. You did.
Brad herda (:Sorry, sorry, not sorry. Hey, at least I made it, Steve, right? Okay, sorry, man, I apologize. But I warned you both that it was gonna be like, this is going way longer, but it was way, way, it was way good.
Steve Doyle (:awesome. So Kyle, how would people, how do people get a hold of you? How do they find you?
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, so we, I'm not a social media guru by any means, but we do have a website. We are on Facebook, we are on Instagram, and we do have a LinkedIn. So wedaviesremodeling .com. And you can pretty much on all platforms look up w .e .davies and we'll pop up in the queue right away. So the website's the best way to inquire for job opportunities.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah.
Steve Doyle (:Awesome.
Kyle Davies (:work that you might need on your home or even I encourage vendors to use that landing page to reach out to us if they want to partner or be one of our vendors or partner with our business here.
Brad herda (:It's a fantastic website too, by the way. It is one of the best websites I've seen for this industry that you guys participate in in a very, very long time. So congratulations to you and the team.
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, I appreciate that, Brad. Thank you. We've worked really hard to put all of our...
photos and all of our gallery and testimonials and and actually more so our process on the website because I always tell folks You know when they ask us what makes us different I always say it's your process you got to know like and trust the person you're working with and You can usually get that from somebody's website. Who are they? What do they do? What's their background? What's their process look like? How do you get from A to Z and our website thoroughly explains that so that?
If you don't have time for an hour zoom consultation or phone call, you can get all that information on the nights or weekends while you're surfing your phone or surfing the web on you know at night. So that's what it's there for.
Steve Doyle (:Well, very cool. And thank you, Kyle, for being a guest on our show today. We definitely appreciate having you here and the words of advice that you have for our audience. So thank you very much.
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, yeah, thank you guys. And I'd love to do it again. This is a great platform to kind of share our experiences and talk about different types of generational strategies to keep building, keep remodeling, and keep renovating spaces for everyone to live in the near future.
Brad herda (:I'm gonna have to listen to the show. Sounds like it was good.
Steve Doyle (:Yeah, why don't you listen bread? All right on that note. Thank you guys and have a great day
Kyle Davies (:Yeah, you as well. We'll see you soon.
