Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
You should know powerd by Iheartgadia. Let's me Bruce Case.
He is the president and CEO for Case Architects and Remodelers.
He designed build firm specializing in residential remodeling projects in Washington,
D C. And the metro area. Before we talk more
about Bruce's company, I first asked him to talk a
little bit about himself, where he's from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I grew up in Montgomery County, proud of public school
member through all the years. Went to BCC High School,
Leland Junior High which halfway through my two years there,
they closed Leland and moved us to Western High School,
which then became Westland High School. For those who are
listening that don't know the origin of Westland, that's where
(00:44):
it was a combination of the two and college college.
I went to Vanderbilt down in Tennessee. Wanted to see
a different area of the country. Enjoyed Vanderbilt, and then
I graduated in ninety and it was sort of a
tough economy. I interviewed, I think with fifteen companies through
the career center down there, and ended up as an
(01:04):
insurance broker.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Up in Boston and was up there for about six years.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, obviously we're here to talk about the amazing things
that is case architects and remodelers, And you know what
I wanted to ask you first because I know your
dad started this company in nineteen sixty one and there's
been an evolution to what the company was to what
it is today. So I'd love to hear the history
about it because that's a long time ago. That's even
(01:29):
before a lot of our listeners, including myself, was born
just barely. What's the origin story to what your dad
wanted to do starting a company back in the early sixties.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So the very beginnings, my dad grew up in a
household where they would fix up houses, sell it and move,
So I think he moved about thirty times growing up.
And so he grew up around saw dust, around construction.
They would do a lot of the work themselves. He
would pitch in as a youngster, so he had that
sort of saw dust in him.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Then he went to Catholic university, so he stayed local.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
And when he was a Catholic, he made money to
help put him with himself through school by doing piece work,
installing trim and things like that in DC, and then
when he got out of college, it was time to
try to make some money or put something together, So
that's when he started to He built a couple homes,
but really new home construction wasn't his thing. He was
much more interested in remodeling homes because you're dealing with
(02:23):
a homeowner. It's a more intimate experience. You're helping them
improve their homes. So he started in sixty one doing that.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
So when were you first aware of the business and
what he did.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Probably the day after I was born.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I was born in sixty eight, so but you know,
you know, probably five or six, because he would he
would work during the day doing you know, like with
his tools or whatever it took, meeting with homeowners to
talk to them about renovations. But then he'd come home
and do a lot of paperwork, cut checks, all those
kind of things. So as a child, my first memories
(02:58):
actually were at the dining room table with him, with
all his papers read everywhere. I remember distinctly one time
he needed to draw a certain angle for an addition
for a project, and so he borrowed my brother and
I's puzzle box because it was circular, and he used
that to draw this sort of shape that he needed
and it ended up winning National Design Award, which was
pretty cool. But those are some early memories.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You know. It's been fortuitous to me and this serious
Bruce that I've had an opportunity to talk to some
CEOs and presidents and people that run companies that are
second and even third generation, and I know some of them.
It's predisposed that you're going to work for your father,
your grandfather, and some that aren't, and they go off
and find themselves and maybe they come back around. What
was the plan for you? What did you want to
(03:41):
do and what did your dad want to do? You know,
growing up, I carried his toolbox when we did.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
We always were working on stuff around the house and
had all kinds of crazy projects, so you know, I
was always worked really well together. The business was pretty
small back then, and for some ready I never thought
about going into the business with him, and I don't
remember him at all. I distinctly remember him not pressuring
me to go into it, and I don't remember much
discussion about it. I will say it's probably illegal, but
(04:10):
I started working on jobs when I was twelve, you know,
digging ditch to.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Statute a limitation to have passed no works share. Yeah,
we're good to go, making that clear.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
But so I was around it, but I didn't.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
It just wasn't I know, it might be hard for
some people to understand, but it wasn't a thing. So
then when I graduated college, and plus I'm pretty independent,
and you know, I think he wanted me to spread
my wings. So that's you know why I ended up,
you know, moving on to a different, different field. But
you know, I just saw dust was in me and
I wanted to come back and get into it. You know.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It also maybe gives us a little insight to your
dad that maybe you can expound on us a little
bit more about how he kind of separated the church
and state he had the business, but he also want
to let his son kind of find his way and
not force you into the business. I think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It's it's very cool looking back on it.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
At the time, it just was what it was as
a kid growing up, But yeah, looking back on it,
very impressive. Yeah, Yeah, I think that's fairly unique. I
would think he was a philosophy major at Catholics, so
I think he wasn't. He wasn't sort of born again.
He grew up around construction doing remodeling work. But his mind,
(05:19):
I think thought bigger picture than that a lot of times, right,
And then maybe that was part of it.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, listen, in just a few moments, we're going to
talk about mission and vision, what you do and all
the incredible things. And it really is an amazing company,
and your dad's legacy lives on through you and your team.
But I'm curious when the decision was that I Am
going to be part of the company, and then how
you worked your way up? When when did that happen?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So I was up in Boston, it was my time,
probably nineteen ninety six. I've been working up there about
six years, and he basically we had you know, we
talked all the time, but he had a serious conversation
with me about the business because he was sort of
thinking about what's he going to do with the business
when he wants to fires with it. And he basically
made it clear that if I wanted to get involved,
(06:04):
we needed to really talk that through. If not, that
was fine too. He wasn't pressuring me. It was sort
of there was a certain window. So we had conversations
probably for about a year, and came up with a
list of ten or eleven things that were important things
to each of us that we agreed on, which I
think was an important part of the process as well,
because you know, sometimes the generational businesses struggle with certain issues,
(06:28):
and we certainly, you know, had our ups and downs,
but a lot of ups and very few downs. So
that's what kind of got me back into the business.
That plus, as I keep saying, I had the saw
dustin me, I mean, I was building furniture in my
apartments in Boston and to the neighbor's chagrin.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
But you also, and I think this is really important
for context, that you know, you had to do a
major league pivot because you were doing something completely different
even though you knew the business intimately. But yet the
choice was to join this business. And we should mention
to everybody that you kind of worked your way up
through the company too. You just weren't handed the keys automatically.
I think you had to learn the business and the
(07:04):
business model before you took over everything. Can you kind
of expound on that.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, you know, it's a good point. I did know
the business, you know, Agan I mentioned earlier. So you know,
working in the field when I when I was twelve,
but it was me digging ditches, sweeping, doing trash. I
didn't really know the business real large. I knew the
field side, or I had a feel for it. So
to your point, one of the ten or eleven agreements
we had was I needed to work in the business
for ten years and prove myself. Of course, right before
(07:30):
I had the opportunity to actually run the business, and
that was agreed on upfront. So yeah, I took a
pretty good pay cut to come back and you know,
have the opportunity to be involved with not only a
family business, but also a relatively smaller business than when
I was working in, which was exciting to me.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You know, I'd love for you to relate your experience
because I know that your journey is very specific to you.
But I'll give you an example. My daughter was just
fresh out of college for a year now when she's
in the film industry up in New York, and so,
I mean we talked about since high school. Even though
she wants to be a DP, a director of photography.
My advice was to her when she was listening to me,
was to do everything on the set. Make sure you
(08:09):
know how the lighting works, the blocking, the camera work,
what's the director doing the PA And I think we
can use this now example to you that you know,
as you're worked re up the company, you learned what
everybody was doing before you were taking over the company.
I think your dad was very specific about this, to
have the knowledge in the education, this is what everybody's
doing before you're in charge of them.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
You're exactly right, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And he was careful they you know, the business was
careful not to just invent roles from me, but as
things came open, it was, hey, Bruce, do this, you know,
do that? You know, I started a division within the
company to get that sort of entrepreneurial vibe, you know,
within a company. I was never in accounting or certain
a couple roles were more specific, but certainly around them enough.
(08:53):
And that's been really to your point, that's been critical
to my to at least my personality. My ability to
work with people is my sort of maentra is. I
don't I'm not the all start anything, but I kind
of know eighty percent about a lot of things and
that really helps me. I feel like not just work
with people, but have some empathy for what they're dealing
with because I've done some of those roles.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Understood, Well, let's get to the meat of everything. When
it comes to case, architects and remodelers, tell us what
the mission and the vision is worse.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
It's really I mean, it's really inspiring through the power home.
And it's fairly broad. It's obviously it's not just remodeling.
What we're focused on is inspiring people through the power home.
We feel and that was a big attraction to me
to be in this industry is you know, I feel
like home is a special place. It's one of the
few places people can call their own that's uniquely theirs
(09:46):
that you know, everybody needs to relax, to recover, to
an oasis, you know, especially in today's world, there's just
a lot going on, and I feel like strongly that
people shouldn't have to go on vacation to sort of recuperate,
you know that ideally their home can help them do that.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
All right, and listen, let's do this for the people
that haven't heard from me, and I know a lot have.
But if you were to give a thirty thousand foot
view and tell people what do you exactly do? What
would you tell them?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
We're a team of architects and remodelers that do renovations
to homes and whether that's kitchens, bathrooms, additions, things like that.
And then we also have a separate team, a separate
division specifically devoted to home improvement, which is we define
it done in my house. I just I don't need
design or anything. I just need expert craftsmanship. And so
that's what the FRED division does.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So there's a lot going on with the industry. You know,
there are teriffs, and there are things coming from other countries,
and I know that you have to work with third
parties all the time. And I imagine you know, after
you had to live through COVID and how that changed
and me and you could talk about how the company
had to pivot at whatsoever. I'd love to hear about
that story. But also the current climate we're in now.
So there's just a lot of things going on for you.
(10:56):
Where's the state of the business I guess in the
industry right now, and how to fix you and your
team and then your clients.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Right, I mean going back to COVID, because you touched
on that. Yeah, it was a scary time. Obviously for
all of us what goes without saying, But from a
business perspective, the first couple of months were very scary
because we're working people's homes. I mean, what's going to
happen to our team, you know, team members, our clients,
they even want us in their home, and then and
then you know, from there, it was sort of a
manic level of demand, which was great but also challenging
(11:25):
because we're a service business at heart, not a product business,
and our ability to give that service is limited by
the number of people we have on the team and
the quality of them, and that pushed that a little bit.
It was exciting times to have that demand, but it
was also you know, I'm glad to kind of be
through that a little bit, frankly, because it was also
we couldn't get appliances, we couldn't get things.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But what it did, time to your direct question about.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The current state of the industry, it really flexed our
muscles to be flexible, to be creative, to be solutions oriented.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I'm talking about backing COVID.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
You know, Okay, we can't get the stof that they
want or it's delayed six months let's get a different
stove in there for the next six months that.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
They can use.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Oh, the countertop materials of challenge, Let's get something in
there that they can use, and let's make it happen
for clients. And I think that those are important muscles
for today's world too, because in today today's world, there's
a lot of uncertainty going on, and as you mentioned,
teriffs and things that we need to really be flexible
and not stagnant. And because we're an older business since
(12:26):
nineteen sixty one, we've been through a lot of ups
and downs. But one thing I constantly am wary of
is that having been around for a long time as
a business, I think is a strength but can also
be a huge weakness. And I don't want us to
get stagnant, and we need to remain flexible in today's climate.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, Bri, It's one of the things I want to
talk to you about because I'm a condo owner, but
I've been a homeowner for many years with my wife
and then when our daughter lived with us. And when
you get anything remodeled or done, it is a very
emotional thing because it's your home, especially if you're an owner.
So this is a really interesting aspect. You know, you
have an execution with your team about putting something in
(13:05):
then the installation or the changing it and remodeling. But
also you're dealing with homeowners where they have a very
emotional bond with their stuff. And if you know, somebody's
getting their kitchen redone, they want it a certain way
because they're in there everyday cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
And I imagine that comes into play with you and
your team, that there is a big emotional aspect here
when you're working with a client.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Right, Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And that's why I've said a couple of times I
think on this call that we're really in a service business,
not a product business.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And that's why I.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Say that, yes, we install cabinet's, yes the kitchen's beautiful
when we're done, it's a product, but it's really about
the service. The other thing I'd say to that that's
core to what we do and hasn't been for a
long time, is we have a very iterative design process
that can you know, if it's a kitchen, it could
take three or four months, and some homeowners say, wow,
why does it take that long? But a big part
(13:54):
of it is setting the expectations both ways. We need
to really understand what the homeowners got in their mind,
what their vision is, what the goals are, so that
we can execute on that. And it takes time to
really flesh that out because the last thing we want
is to finish the project and have it be a
huge surprise other than a positive surprise, but a negative
surprise to homeowners.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I want to talk to you a little bit about
sustainability and growth and obviously, with your dad starting the
company back in sixty one to where we are now,
a lot has changed in the industry and how you're
running the business with your team, and we should tell people.
And you can talk about this near the end too,
when we give the website and all the other good
things about reaching out to you. But you service the DMV,
and you and I can agree that since you know
(14:34):
I'm an old false church kid, to where I was
in the late seventies to where it is now, the
DMV has exploded. Can you talk about the business plan
about serving the DMV and why you kept it to
that area only because I'm sure you could expand, but
there's a lot of I mean, it's huge here and
there's probably a lot of work going around. But why
the DMV, right.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Well, originally it was because my dad grew up here,
went to Catholic all that. But more to your question,
we did try to expand some frankly, and what we
found again going back.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
To the to the real belief that we're a service business.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Expanding a service business when there's so many variables in
homer modeling, right, every home is different, every homeowner is different,
you know, on and on and on products everything like that,
plus where the ability to really really control that and
have a consistent client experience. We pulled back candidly from
expanding outside of the DMV, So that was a big
reason that we stayed local. And then to your point
(15:33):
about the growth of this region, yeah, absolutely, I mean
you mentioned False Church. I mean we're one of our locates.
We have six locations here. One of them was in
the city of False Church. I mean it's unbelievable to
just watch the city of False Church go crazy. So
what we've done there is we want to be uber
local and that's why we have six design studio locations.
Because if you're in downtown d C. To say, oh,
(15:54):
you need to drive to Rockville to see toilets, tubs,
products things like that.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
I mean, that's that could take what an hour hour
and a half in rush hour.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
So we have, for instance, in that example, you know,
downtown DC showroom so that people can see that that
we're local, we understand their needs. The showroom has products
that are more conducive to urban settings versus our city
of Falls Church, you know, versus Alexandria.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
So all right, well this is a great segue, and
I think you're kind of talking about this, but I
don't want to make any assumption that there's any businesses
in the DMB to do exactly what you and your
team do. But with that said, when it comes to
competition out there, when you are pitching yourself, how are
you differentiating yourself from that competition.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, I mean, frankly, we've got some great competition. And
because of the span of what we do from sort
of handyman home improvements all the way up through three
story editions. The competition varies by what the project is.
If it's just a kitchen, and we might have these competitors.
If it's an addition, it might be these competitors. I'd
say the biggest different I mean, obviously I'm gonna say
(16:56):
team because I believe it, but I think everybody's going
to say that, And as a homeowner, how do you
really evaluate that before you work with a company. But
in terms of a more hard and fast, black and
white differentiator, I would say it's our process, And specifically,
the first step in our process is what we call
a case study. So we come out to your own
for free for a very low fee, will measure existings,
(17:20):
come up with three design options, put budget ranges around
those three design options, do an actual photo realistic rendering,
and it's a very very low feed, lower than any
of our competitors, and it's guaranteed, so if you're not
happy with what you get, we'll give your money back.
But it's our way to sort of test drive the
car with the homeowner, if so to speak, so that
(17:41):
they can get a sense for us. And candidly, we
lose money on it, but we're betting on the fact
that we're good enough that once we show you you
get to know our team and all of that, that
you'll want to continue assuming the project makes sense. But
it also gives us a chance to get to another homeowner.
I mentioned earlier how important it is for us to
understand your goals, their wishes, their dreams, and this is
really a chance to do that before we're quote unquote
(18:03):
marry together, before we sign contracts, and let's not do
that until we really understand what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
You know, Brews, during this conversation, you've talked and said
that we'd team several times, and I imagine that goes
hand ahead with culture. I'm a sports guy, and I
don't think it has to stay of two sports. You're
running a business or a family, there's got to be culture.
Can you talk a little bit about that leadership because
the one thing that I'm assuming here is there are
a lot of moving parts and a lot of people
that are all over the place, and you've got the
(18:29):
one voice and you want to make sure that they're
doing what they need to do. Obviously a good work
life balance too, But can you talk about leadership and
culture and team? Please?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
When I think about culture, I think about three a case.
I think about three main things. Number One, as team,
we put team actually before clients, which surprises some people.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Clients are they our b are critically important?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
But back to culture, we feel strongly that if we
don't have the right team on the right bus working
together in a respectful way, and respect is kind of
the keyword under team that we use, then we're never
going to have happy clients. So we put team first.
And again it's respect, not that we all have to agree.
I want disagreement, but it needs to be respectful. Clients
are second. It's the same thing respect.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
We're in their.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Homes, were with their children, their dogs, their family. We
need to show the ultimate level of respect. And then
third is quality. Whether that's your an accounting, whether you're
a carpenter, whether you're a designer, the quality and again
some people are surprise qualities.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Third quality is critical. It's number three.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
It's just again, I feel like we're a service business,
so it's about people first, number one, and if we're
respectful to clients and do the right work.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
So I don't know if that answers your question.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
No, it does define it. Yeah, it does. And I
was hoping to get a follow up too, because I
want to circle back to the emotional part of you know,
remodeling somebody's kitchen or bathroom, whatever they happen to change,
getting feedback in I think the world is amazing. There's
user reviews everywhere and we can all check that out
whether we're buying something, you're looking into how somebody does something.
(20:02):
But I imagine in your business it is just paramount
that you hear back from your clients making sure that
if they did a great job, we'd like to hear
about that. But if there's something we didn't do, how
can we do it better? And I like to hear
about your clients and then and their freedom to you know,
talk to you about whether the good, the bad, and
the ugly and you get them what you do with
that information.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Oh yeah, So we try to do a lot with
that because we feel like communication both ways us to
them them to us is critical and earlier we know
about something, if there is something that's bothering them or
that they love, we want to know about it. So,
you know, there's just many many steps in the process.
But you know, they get introduced to leadership as part
of the process with phone numbers and everything. So if
(20:44):
they're direct team members they don't feel are doing the
right thing, that they can elevate that. We have formal
weekly meetings with every client. You know, even if it
needs to be you know, in person or over zoom
or teams or something like that to really, yeah, we're
in and out of the house, but the homeowners may
not be there.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Maybe they're working.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
We don't want to interrupt them, but let's have a
time once a week where we call a time out.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
How are you doing? What's going on? That kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
We have an online portal that clients can see and
give feedback, you know, real time as to what's going
on on their project. We do a half way point
of the project. We call it the mid job huddle,
where it's sort of like sports, you know, okay, it's halftime.
How are we all doing, you know, let's talk about it.
What are there any issues, concerns, open items, things like that.
We also do a formal survey at the end of
(21:32):
the job certainly, and we actually just changed it because
one challenge I've found with surveys is that, like you said,
there's lots of those, but people don't and I'm including
myself in this, patience to fill them out sometimes isn't there.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
But we need, we want that feedback.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
So we've chained We're testing sort of more of a
text quickly just a smiley face or unhappy face, click
one or the other, and then there's a comment box
that comes up because the comments to me give the
color commentary as opposed to just oh I raked you
a four out of five or five out of five
comment box. So we just started that about a month
ago and hoping that we would get a higher level
(22:09):
of feedback. And then we also do at the end
of a job celebration with the client, you know, to
maybe bring them a bottle of wine or thank them,
but also to hear what they have to say about
the project.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So those are just off the top of my head.
Some ways we get feedback.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Well, that's really cool to hear because I think you
can agree and it sounds like when it comes to communication,
it's paramount for you.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Oh, absolutely, yeah, it's yeah, because if we don't know
about it, we can't.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, obviously we can.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You know as well as I do. There's some businesses,
and not particularly your style of business. There's some businesses
that they never want to hear from me after they
finish a job. You know, it's just the way the
way it works now. So I'm I'm stoked to hear
that that you do that I think that's the you know,
the basis of customer service, of the follow through and
the communication.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
So yeah, very cool.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Two percent of our new business every year is from
past clients.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Is that right? In addition to just trying.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
To do the right thing in the community that I
lived and grew up in, it's also a business.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Well pretty business past that says a lot about you
and your team too. Hey, listen up, Bruce. I wanted
to put a pin in work just for a second
and talk about philanthropic and charity work. When you do
have the opportunity, and I realize you're very busy, but
when you do have a chance to be a part
of something, whether it's through the business or person with
your family, what do you like to be a part of?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Community efforts is the number one thing.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
So we have an effort called case Cares where we
outline all the different things we do.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
But they kind of fit into two buckets.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I'd say one bucket is things that our clients team
members are passionate about. We really want to support that
if we, you know, as much as we can. That's
one bucket. The other bucket is more community at large.
For instance, clen Eco is you know in the Montgomery
County area. We've done some things with them, Alexandria's Seaport.
We've done some things with them down in Alexandria. They
(23:48):
have an amazing effort with teaching folks habitat Women's Bill.
We've been involved with thats for years now. Where you know,
women in construction often aren't thought about is as much
as men, But reality is, they're a key part of
our team and a key part of what we do.
And frankly, I think it's a great industry that you know,
women would love, so being involved with that. Wharton's Kids
(24:10):
is a DC group that we've done a number of
things with over the years. We do a tour drive
every year. So we don't have one charitable you know,
community organization that we've kind of married up with. We've
separated it out into some different groups, but you know,
we do feel strongly and given back.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
So, you know, I wanted to finish up with the
future and I realize that there are a lot of
unknowns right now. You know, the world's on fire right
so all that is breaking loose out there. But with
that said, you know, the feeling that I get not
only with myself and I'm not close to retiring yet,
but I'm on the older end and I'm the first
year of the generation X, so you know, I'm hovering
(24:49):
around sixty, so I've got years left. But my home
is important to me. And every time I get on
social media, especially during since COVID, that I am getting
the feeling that not just my demo, but even younger
people want to spend even more time at home and
not go out. And I'm sure you're hearing the same
thing and you're seeing the same thing. So what you
(25:10):
do in your industry, I think is paramount to people
that are spending even more time at home that they
want it beautiful, they want it cool and nice and
fun because they're spending even more time and they just
don't want to go out anymore. And I get that
and I can certainly relate to that. So I imagine, even
though there are a lot of unknowns out there, it's
the prospect is good for your industry, would I be correct?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I feel I mean, I'm biased obviously being in it,
but yeah, I feel great about it. I and not
just a growth and financial but more, as you said,
giving homeowners, giving the community, giving people a chance to
enjoy them enjoy their home to not feel like they
have to escape. I mean, COVID to me was the
perfect example of that. I mean it's a horrible example,
(25:53):
but a perfect example. I think it really brought people
back to their homes and they had time in their
homes on people and they thought about, Wow, I really
let me make this a place that I'm proud of,
or that I'm comfortable learning, that I can escape to,
or that I have that really speaks to me in
my character. And so the chance to work with people
to do that.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, I think we set a record for home projects
during COVID, all of us. And then, not to mention
running out of toilet paper, but I remember once we
wanted to kind of we were living in Raleigh, North
Carolina at the time when COVID was happening. I was
there with my wife and my daughter, and we wanted
to kind of do some things with our backyard and
I want to get one of those portable heaters that
you see at restaurants sold out, you know. It was
(26:35):
the funniest thing of things that were sold out during
COVID that you can obviously get now. But yeah, when
it came to do it yourself. Everybody was on top
of it and got better and there was a lot
of YouTube watching back then on how to do it,
so nothing wrong with that. Well, listen, I really enjoyed
the conversation. I do want to finish up with the website.
How people can get a hold of you maybe quick,
what the process is if you're hiring people, Bruce, so
(26:57):
serve the floor is yours.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
So if you're interested thinking about exploring options with your home,
you don't have to feel like you have to do
a kitchen or an addition or a renovation, but you
just want to explore it, give us a call, reach
out to us our websitees www dot casedesign dot com,
and there's an online form you can pick a time
in a day that will meet with you at your house.
(27:21):
So it's really easy. There's not a lot of phone
tag back and forth and all of that. And as
I said earlier, our process, we really try to make
it fair and easy for a homeowner to start to
explore options with their home.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
So it's very approachable. So we have a great team.
I'm biased, but they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
So nothing wrong with another on with being biased. Well, listen, Bruce,
I've really enjoyed the conversation. Can't tell you how much
I appreciate your valuable time, continued success to you and
your team, and we really appreciate you and featuring you
on CEOs.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
You should know, thank you, Dennis very much.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs you
should know. Is part of their ongoing commitment to build
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive,
because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed
M and T Bank presents CEOs.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
You should know powerd by Iheartgadia. Let's me Bruce Case.
He is the president and CEO for Case Architects and Remodelers.
He designed build firm specializing in residential remodeling projects in Washington,
D C. And the metro area. Before we talk more
about Bruce's company, I first asked him to talk a
little bit about himself, where he's from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I grew up in Montgomery County, proud of public school
member through all the years. Went to BCC High School,
Leland Junior High which halfway through my two years there,
they closed Leland and moved us to Western High School,
which then became Westland High School. For those who are
listening that don't know the origin of Westland, that's where
(00:44):
it was a combination of the two and college college.
I went to Vanderbilt down in Tennessee. Wanted to see
a different area of the country. Enjoyed Vanderbilt, and then
I graduated in ninety and it was sort of a
tough economy. I interviewed, I think with fifteen companies through
the career center down there, and ended up as an
(01:04):
insurance broker.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Up in Boston and was up there for about six years.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, obviously we're here to talk about the amazing things
that is case architects and remodelers, And you know what
I wanted to ask you first because I know your
dad started this company in nineteen sixty one and there's
been an evolution to what the company was to what
it is today. So I'd love to hear the history
about it because that's a long time ago. That's even
(01:29):
before a lot of our listeners, including myself, was born
just barely. What's the origin story to what your dad
wanted to do starting a company back in the early sixties.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So the very beginnings, my dad grew up in a
household where they would fix up houses, sell it and move,
So I think he moved about thirty times growing up.
And so he grew up around saw dust, around construction.
They would do a lot of the work themselves. He
would pitch in as a youngster, so he had that
sort of saw dust in him.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Then he went to Catholic university, so he stayed local.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
And when he was a Catholic, he made money to
help put him with himself through school by doing piece work,
installing trim and things like that in DC, and then
when he got out of college, it was time to
try to make some money or put something together, So
that's when he started to He built a couple homes,
but really new home construction wasn't his thing. He was
much more interested in remodeling homes because you're dealing with
(02:23):
a homeowner. It's a more intimate experience. You're helping them
improve their homes. So he started in sixty one doing that.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
So when were you first aware of the business and
what he did.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Probably the day after I was born.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I was born in sixty eight, so but you know,
you know, probably five or six, because he would he
would work during the day doing you know, like with
his tools or whatever it took, meeting with homeowners to
talk to them about renovations. But then he'd come home
and do a lot of paperwork, cut checks, all those
kind of things. So as a child, my first memories
(02:58):
actually were at the dining room table with him, with
all his papers read everywhere. I remember distinctly one time
he needed to draw a certain angle for an addition
for a project, and so he borrowed my brother and
I's puzzle box because it was circular, and he used
that to draw this sort of shape that he needed
and it ended up winning National Design Award, which was
pretty cool. But those are some early memories.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
You know. It's been fortuitous to me and this serious
Bruce that I've had an opportunity to talk to some
CEOs and presidents and people that run companies that are
second and even third generation, and I know some of them.
It's predisposed that you're going to work for your father,
your grandfather, and some that aren't, and they go off
and find themselves and maybe they come back around. What
was the plan for you? What did you want to
(03:41):
do and what did your dad want to do? You know,
growing up, I carried his toolbox when we did.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
We always were working on stuff around the house and
had all kinds of crazy projects, so you know, I
was always worked really well together. The business was pretty
small back then, and for some ready I never thought
about going into the business with him, and I don't
remember him at all. I distinctly remember him not pressuring
me to go into it, and I don't remember much
discussion about it. I will say it's probably illegal, but
(04:10):
I started working on jobs when I was twelve, you know,
digging ditch to.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Statute a limitation to have passed no works share. Yeah,
we're good to go, making that clear.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
But so I was around it, but I didn't.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
It just wasn't I know, it might be hard for
some people to understand, but it wasn't a thing. So
then when I graduated college, and plus I'm pretty independent,
and you know, I think he wanted me to spread
my wings. So that's you know why I ended up,
you know, moving on to a different, different field. But
you know, I just saw dust was in me and
I wanted to come back and get into it. You know.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It also maybe gives us a little insight to your
dad that maybe you can expound on us a little
bit more about how he kind of separated the church
and state he had the business, but he also want
to let his son kind of find his way and
not force you into the business. I think that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It's it's very cool looking back on it.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
At the time, it just was what it was as
a kid growing up, But yeah, looking back on it,
very impressive. Yeah, Yeah, I think that's fairly unique. I
would think he was a philosophy major at Catholics, so
I think he wasn't. He wasn't sort of born again.
He grew up around construction doing remodeling work. But his mind,
(05:19):
I think thought bigger picture than that a lot of times, right,
And then maybe that was part of it.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Well, listen, in just a few moments, we're going to
talk about mission and vision, what you do and all
the incredible things. And it really is an amazing company,
and your dad's legacy lives on through you and your team.
But I'm curious when the decision was that I Am
going to be part of the company, and then how
you worked your way up? When when did that happen?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So I was up in Boston, it was my time,
probably nineteen ninety six. I've been working up there about
six years, and he basically we had you know, we
talked all the time, but he had a serious conversation
with me about the business because he was sort of
thinking about what's he going to do with the business
when he wants to fires with it. And he basically
made it clear that if I wanted to get involved,
(06:04):
we needed to really talk that through. If not, that
was fine too. He wasn't pressuring me. It was sort
of there was a certain window. So we had conversations
probably for about a year, and came up with a
list of ten or eleven things that were important things
to each of us that we agreed on, which I
think was an important part of the process as well,
because you know, sometimes the generational businesses struggle with certain issues,
(06:28):
and we certainly, you know, had our ups and downs,
but a lot of ups and very few downs. So
that's what kind of got me back into the business.
That plus, as I keep saying, I had the saw
dustin me, I mean, I was building furniture in my
apartments in Boston and to the neighbor's chagrin.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
But you also, and I think this is really important
for context, that you know, you had to do a
major league pivot because you were doing something completely different
even though you knew the business intimately. But yet the
choice was to join this business. And we should mention
to everybody that you kind of worked your way up
through the company too. You just weren't handed the keys automatically.
I think you had to learn the business and the
(07:04):
business model before you took over everything. Can you kind
of expound on that.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, you know, it's a good point. I did know
the business, you know, Agan I mentioned earlier. So you know,
working in the field when I when I was twelve,
but it was me digging ditches, sweeping, doing trash. I
didn't really know the business real large. I knew the
field side, or I had a feel for it. So
to your point, one of the ten or eleven agreements
we had was I needed to work in the business
for ten years and prove myself. Of course, right before
(07:30):
I had the opportunity to actually run the business, and
that was agreed on upfront. So yeah, I took a
pretty good pay cut to come back and you know,
have the opportunity to be involved with not only a
family business, but also a relatively smaller business than when
I was working in, which was exciting to me.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
You know, I'd love for you to relate your experience
because I know that your journey is very specific to you.
But I'll give you an example. My daughter was just
fresh out of college for a year now when she's
in the film industry up in New York, and so,
I mean we talked about since high school. Even though
she wants to be a DP, a director of photography.
My advice was to her when she was listening to me,
was to do everything on the set. Make sure you
(08:09):
know how the lighting works, the blocking, the camera work,
what's the director doing the PA And I think we
can use this now example to you that you know,
as you're worked re up the company, you learned what
everybody was doing before you were taking over the company.
I think your dad was very specific about this, to
have the knowledge in the education, this is what everybody's
doing before you're in charge of them.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
You're exactly right, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And he was careful they you know, the business was
careful not to just invent roles from me, but as
things came open, it was, hey, Bruce, do this, you know,
do that? You know, I started a division within the
company to get that sort of entrepreneurial vibe, you know,
within a company. I was never in accounting or certain
a couple roles were more specific, but certainly around them enough.
(08:53):
And that's been really to your point, that's been critical
to my to at least my personality. My ability to
work with people is my sort of maentra is. I
don't I'm not the all start anything, but I kind
of know eighty percent about a lot of things and
that really helps me. I feel like not just work
with people, but have some empathy for what they're dealing
with because I've done some of those roles.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Understood, Well, let's get to the meat of everything. When
it comes to case, architects and remodelers, tell us what
the mission and the vision is worse.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
It's really I mean, it's really inspiring through the power home.
And it's fairly broad. It's obviously it's not just remodeling.
What we're focused on is inspiring people through the power home.
We feel and that was a big attraction to me
to be in this industry is you know, I feel
like home is a special place. It's one of the
few places people can call their own that's uniquely theirs
(09:46):
that you know, everybody needs to relax, to recover, to
an oasis, you know, especially in today's world, there's just
a lot going on, and I feel like strongly that
people shouldn't have to go on vacation to sort of recuperate,
you know that ideally their home can help them do that.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
All right, and listen, let's do this for the people
that haven't heard from me, and I know a lot have.
But if you were to give a thirty thousand foot
view and tell people what do you exactly do? What
would you tell them?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
We're a team of architects and remodelers that do renovations
to homes and whether that's kitchens, bathrooms, additions, things like that.
And then we also have a separate team, a separate
division specifically devoted to home improvement, which is we define
it done in my house. I just I don't need
design or anything. I just need expert craftsmanship. And so
that's what the FRED division does.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So there's a lot going on with the industry. You know,
there are teriffs, and there are things coming from other countries,
and I know that you have to work with third
parties all the time. And I imagine you know, after
you had to live through COVID and how that changed
and me and you could talk about how the company
had to pivot at whatsoever. I'd love to hear about
that story. But also the current climate we're in now.
So there's just a lot of things going on for you.
(10:56):
Where's the state of the business I guess in the
industry right now, and how to fix you and your
team and then your clients.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Right, I mean going back to COVID, because you touched
on that. Yeah, it was a scary time. Obviously for
all of us what goes without saying, But from a
business perspective, the first couple of months were very scary
because we're working people's homes. I mean, what's going to
happen to our team, you know, team members, our clients,
they even want us in their home, and then and
then you know, from there, it was sort of a
manic level of demand, which was great but also challenging
(11:25):
because we're a service business at heart, not a product business,
and our ability to give that service is limited by
the number of people we have on the team and
the quality of them, and that pushed that a little bit.
It was exciting times to have that demand, but it
was also you know, I'm glad to kind of be
through that a little bit, frankly, because it was also
we couldn't get appliances, we couldn't get things.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
But what it did, time to your direct question about.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
The current state of the industry, it really flexed our
muscles to be flexible, to be creative, to be solutions oriented.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I'm talking about backing COVID.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
You know, Okay, we can't get the stof that they
want or it's delayed six months let's get a different
stove in there for the next six months that.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
They can use.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Oh, the countertop materials of challenge, Let's get something in
there that they can use, and let's make it happen
for clients. And I think that those are important muscles
for today's world too, because in today today's world, there's
a lot of uncertainty going on, and as you mentioned,
teriffs and things that we need to really be flexible
and not stagnant. And because we're an older business since
(12:26):
nineteen sixty one, we've been through a lot of ups
and downs. But one thing I constantly am wary of
is that having been around for a long time as
a business, I think is a strength but can also
be a huge weakness. And I don't want us to
get stagnant, and we need to remain flexible in today's climate.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yeah, Bri, It's one of the things I want to
talk to you about because I'm a condo owner, but
I've been a homeowner for many years with my wife
and then when our daughter lived with us. And when
you get anything remodeled or done, it is a very
emotional thing because it's your home, especially if you're an owner.
So this is a really interesting aspect. You know, you
have an execution with your team about putting something in
(13:05):
then the installation or the changing it and remodeling. But
also you're dealing with homeowners where they have a very
emotional bond with their stuff. And if you know, somebody's
getting their kitchen redone, they want it a certain way
because they're in there everyday cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
And I imagine that comes into play with you and
your team, that there is a big emotional aspect here
when you're working with a client.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Right, Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And that's why I've said a couple of times I
think on this call that we're really in a service business,
not a product business.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
And that's why I.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Say that, yes, we install cabinet's, yes the kitchen's beautiful
when we're done, it's a product, but it's really about
the service. The other thing I'd say to that that's
core to what we do and hasn't been for a
long time, is we have a very iterative design process
that can you know, if it's a kitchen, it could
take three or four months, and some homeowners say, wow,
why does it take that long? But a big part
(13:54):
of it is setting the expectations both ways. We need
to really understand what the homeowners got in their mind,
what their vision is, what the goals are, so that
we can execute on that. And it takes time to
really flesh that out because the last thing we want
is to finish the project and have it be a
huge surprise other than a positive surprise, but a negative
surprise to homeowners.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
I want to talk to you a little bit about
sustainability and growth and obviously, with your dad starting the
company back in sixty one to where we are now,
a lot has changed in the industry and how you're
running the business with your team, and we should tell people.
And you can talk about this near the end too,
when we give the website and all the other good
things about reaching out to you. But you service the DMV,
and you and I can agree that since you know
(14:34):
I'm an old false church kid, to where I was
in the late seventies to where it is now, the
DMV has exploded. Can you talk about the business plan
about serving the DMV and why you kept it to
that area only because I'm sure you could expand, but
there's a lot of I mean, it's huge here and
there's probably a lot of work going around. But why
the DMV, right.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Well, originally it was because my dad grew up here,
went to Catholic all that. But more to your question,
we did try to expand some frankly, and what we
found again going back.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
To the to the real belief that we're a service business.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Expanding a service business when there's so many variables in
homer modeling, right, every home is different, every homeowner is different,
you know, on and on and on products everything like that,
plus where the ability to really really control that and
have a consistent client experience. We pulled back candidly from
expanding outside of the DMV, So that was a big
reason that we stayed local. And then to your point
(15:33):
about the growth of this region, yeah, absolutely, I mean
you mentioned False Church. I mean we're one of our locates.
We have six locations here. One of them was in
the city of False Church. I mean it's unbelievable to
just watch the city of False Church go crazy. So
what we've done there is we want to be uber
local and that's why we have six design studio locations.
Because if you're in downtown d C. To say, oh,
(15:54):
you need to drive to Rockville to see toilets, tubs,
products things like that.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
I mean, that's that could take what an hour hour
and a half in rush hour.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
So we have, for instance, in that example, you know,
downtown DC showroom so that people can see that that
we're local, we understand their needs. The showroom has products
that are more conducive to urban settings versus our city
of Falls Church, you know, versus Alexandria.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
So all right, well this is a great segue, and
I think you're kind of talking about this, but I
don't want to make any assumption that there's any businesses
in the DMB to do exactly what you and your
team do. But with that said, when it comes to
competition out there, when you are pitching yourself, how are
you differentiating yourself from that competition.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, I mean, frankly, we've got some great competition. And
because of the span of what we do from sort
of handyman home improvements all the way up through three
story editions. The competition varies by what the project is.
If it's just a kitchen, and we might have these competitors.
If it's an addition, it might be these competitors. I'd
say the biggest different I mean, obviously I'm gonna say
(16:56):
team because I believe it, but I think everybody's going
to say that, And as a homeowner, how do you
really evaluate that before you work with a company. But
in terms of a more hard and fast, black and
white differentiator, I would say it's our process, And specifically,
the first step in our process is what we call
a case study. So we come out to your own
for free for a very low fee, will measure existings,
(17:20):
come up with three design options, put budget ranges around
those three design options, do an actual photo realistic rendering,
and it's a very very low feed, lower than any
of our competitors, and it's guaranteed, so if you're not
happy with what you get, we'll give your money back.
But it's our way to sort of test drive the
car with the homeowner, if so to speak, so that
(17:41):
they can get a sense for us. And candidly, we
lose money on it, but we're betting on the fact
that we're good enough that once we show you you
get to know our team and all of that, that
you'll want to continue assuming the project makes sense. But
it also gives us a chance to get to another homeowner.
I mentioned earlier how important it is for us to
understand your goals, their wishes, their dreams, and this is
really a chance to do that before we're quote unquote
(18:03):
marry together, before we sign contracts, and let's not do
that until we really understand what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
You know, Brews, during this conversation, you've talked and said
that we'd team several times, and I imagine that goes
hand ahead with culture. I'm a sports guy, and I
don't think it has to stay of two sports. You're
running a business or a family, there's got to be culture.
Can you talk a little bit about that leadership because
the one thing that I'm assuming here is there are
a lot of moving parts and a lot of people
that are all over the place, and you've got the
(18:29):
one voice and you want to make sure that they're
doing what they need to do. Obviously a good work
life balance too, But can you talk about leadership and
culture and team? Please?
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
When I think about culture, I think about three a case.
I think about three main things. Number One, as team,
we put team actually before clients, which surprises some people.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Clients are they our b are critically important?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
But back to culture, we feel strongly that if we
don't have the right team on the right bus working
together in a respectful way, and respect is kind of
the keyword under team that we use, then we're never
going to have happy clients. So we put team first.
And again it's respect, not that we all have to agree.
I want disagreement, but it needs to be respectful. Clients
are second. It's the same thing respect.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
We're in their.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Homes, were with their children, their dogs, their family. We
need to show the ultimate level of respect. And then
third is quality. Whether that's your an accounting, whether you're
a carpenter, whether you're a designer, the quality and again
some people are surprise qualities.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Third quality is critical. It's number three.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
It's just again, I feel like we're a service business,
so it's about people first, number one, and if we're
respectful to clients and do the right work.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
So I don't know if that answers your question.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
No, it does define it. Yeah, it does. And I
was hoping to get a follow up too, because I
want to circle back to the emotional part of you know,
remodeling somebody's kitchen or bathroom, whatever they happen to change,
getting feedback in I think the world is amazing. There's
user reviews everywhere and we can all check that out
whether we're buying something, you're looking into how somebody does something.
(20:02):
But I imagine in your business it is just paramount
that you hear back from your clients making sure that
if they did a great job, we'd like to hear
about that. But if there's something we didn't do, how
can we do it better? And I like to hear
about your clients and then and their freedom to you know,
talk to you about whether the good, the bad, and
the ugly and you get them what you do with
that information.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Oh yeah, So we try to do a lot with
that because we feel like communication both ways us to
them them to us is critical and earlier we know
about something, if there is something that's bothering them or
that they love, we want to know about it. So,
you know, there's just many many steps in the process.
But you know, they get introduced to leadership as part
of the process with phone numbers and everything. So if
(20:44):
they're direct team members they don't feel are doing the
right thing, that they can elevate that. We have formal
weekly meetings with every client. You know, even if it
needs to be you know, in person or over zoom
or teams or something like that to really, yeah, we're
in and out of the house, but the homeowners may
not be there.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Maybe they're working.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
We don't want to interrupt them, but let's have a
time once a week where we call a time out.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
How are you doing? What's going on? That kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
We have an online portal that clients can see and
give feedback, you know, real time as to what's going
on on their project. We do a half way point
of the project. We call it the mid job huddle,
where it's sort of like sports, you know, okay, it's halftime.
How are we all doing, you know, let's talk about it.
What are there any issues, concerns, open items, things like that.
We also do a formal survey at the end of
(21:32):
the job certainly, and we actually just changed it because
one challenge I've found with surveys is that, like you said,
there's lots of those, but people don't and I'm including
myself in this, patience to fill them out sometimes isn't there.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
But we need, we want that feedback.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
So we've chained We're testing sort of more of a
text quickly just a smiley face or unhappy face, click
one or the other, and then there's a comment box
that comes up because the comments to me give the
color commentary as opposed to just oh I raked you
a four out of five or five out of five
comment box. So we just started that about a month
ago and hoping that we would get a higher level
(22:09):
of feedback. And then we also do at the end
of a job celebration with the client, you know, to
maybe bring them a bottle of wine or thank them,
but also to hear what they have to say about
the project.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
So those are just off the top of my head.
Some ways we get feedback.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Well, that's really cool to hear because I think you
can agree and it sounds like when it comes to communication,
it's paramount for you.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Oh, absolutely, yeah, it's yeah, because if we don't know
about it, we can't.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, obviously we can.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You know as well as I do. There's some businesses,
and not particularly your style of business. There's some businesses
that they never want to hear from me after they
finish a job. You know, it's just the way the
way it works now. So I'm I'm stoked to hear
that that you do that I think that's the you know,
the basis of customer service, of the follow through and
the communication.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
So yeah, very cool.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Two percent of our new business every year is from
past clients.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Is that right? In addition to just trying.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
To do the right thing in the community that I
lived and grew up in, it's also a business.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Well pretty business past that says a lot about you
and your team too. Hey, listen up, Bruce. I wanted
to put a pin in work just for a second
and talk about philanthropic and charity work. When you do
have the opportunity, and I realize you're very busy, but
when you do have a chance to be a part
of something, whether it's through the business or person with
your family, what do you like to be a part of?
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Community efforts is the number one thing.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
So we have an effort called case Cares where we
outline all the different things we do.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
But they kind of fit into two buckets.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I'd say one bucket is things that our clients team
members are passionate about. We really want to support that
if we, you know, as much as we can. That's
one bucket. The other bucket is more community at large.
For instance, clen Eco is you know in the Montgomery
County area. We've done some things with them, Alexandria's Seaport.
We've done some things with them down in Alexandria. They
(23:48):
have an amazing effort with teaching folks habitat Women's Bill.
We've been involved with thats for years now. Where you know,
women in construction often aren't thought about is as much
as men, But reality is, they're a key part of
our team and a key part of what we do.
And frankly, I think it's a great industry that you know,
women would love, so being involved with that. Wharton's Kids
(24:10):
is a DC group that we've done a number of
things with over the years. We do a tour drive
every year. So we don't have one charitable you know,
community organization that we've kind of married up with. We've
separated it out into some different groups, but you know,
we do feel strongly and given back.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
So, you know, I wanted to finish up with the
future and I realize that there are a lot of
unknowns right now. You know, the world's on fire right
so all that is breaking loose out there. But with
that said, you know, the feeling that I get not
only with myself and I'm not close to retiring yet,
but I'm on the older end and I'm the first
year of the generation X, so you know, I'm hovering
(24:49):
around sixty, so I've got years left. But my home
is important to me. And every time I get on
social media, especially during since COVID, that I am getting
the feeling that not just my demo, but even younger
people want to spend even more time at home and
not go out. And I'm sure you're hearing the same
thing and you're seeing the same thing. So what you
(25:10):
do in your industry, I think is paramount to people
that are spending even more time at home that they
want it beautiful, they want it cool and nice and
fun because they're spending even more time and they just
don't want to go out anymore. And I get that
and I can certainly relate to that. So I imagine, even
though there are a lot of unknowns out there, it's
the prospect is good for your industry, would I be correct?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I feel I mean, I'm biased obviously being in it,
but yeah, I feel great about it. I and not
just a growth and financial but more, as you said,
giving homeowners, giving the community, giving people a chance to
enjoy them enjoy their home to not feel like they
have to escape. I mean, COVID to me was the
perfect example of that. I mean it's a horrible example,
(25:53):
but a perfect example. I think it really brought people
back to their homes and they had time in their
homes on people and they thought about, Wow, I really
let me make this a place that I'm proud of,
or that I'm comfortable learning, that I can escape to,
or that I have that really speaks to me in
my character. And so the chance to work with people
to do that.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, I think we set a record for home projects
during COVID, all of us. And then, not to mention
running out of toilet paper, but I remember once we
wanted to kind of we were living in Raleigh, North
Carolina at the time when COVID was happening. I was
there with my wife and my daughter, and we wanted
to kind of do some things with our backyard and
I want to get one of those portable heaters that
you see at restaurants sold out, you know. It was
(26:35):
the funniest thing of things that were sold out during
COVID that you can obviously get now. But yeah, when
it came to do it yourself. Everybody was on top
of it and got better and there was a lot
of YouTube watching back then on how to do it,
so nothing wrong with that. Well, listen, I really enjoyed
the conversation. I do want to finish up with the website.
How people can get a hold of you maybe quick,
what the process is if you're hiring people, Bruce, so
(26:57):
serve the floor is yours.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
So if you're interested thinking about exploring options with your home,
you don't have to feel like you have to do
a kitchen or an addition or a renovation, but you
just want to explore it, give us a call, reach
out to us our websitees www dot casedesign dot com,
and there's an online form you can pick a time
in a day that will meet with you at your house.
(27:21):
So it's really easy. There's not a lot of phone
tag back and forth and all of that. And as
I said earlier, our process, we really try to make
it fair and easy for a homeowner to start to
explore options with their home.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
So it's very approachable. So we have a great team.
I'm biased, but they're amazing.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
So nothing wrong with another on with being biased. Well, listen, Bruce,
I've really enjoyed the conversation. Can't tell you how much
I appreciate your valuable time, continued success to you and
your team, and we really appreciate you and featuring you
on CEOs.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
You should know, thank you, Dennis very much.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs you
should know. Is part of their ongoing commitment to build
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive,
because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed
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