June 28, 2025 • 48 mins
Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, June 28th, 2025
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports nine to twenty in your iHeartRadio app.
We're coming from live from the Donovan and Jorganson Cooling Studios,
Keating and Cooling Studios. We need to get them in
here voice every week. Now, this is ridiculous. And Spencer's,
you know, all dressed up. My co host has a
(00:23):
has a hoodie on and.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
He's freezing mist frostbite.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Greg Adamic. He's like, yeah, I know, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I'm fine. I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, I'm good, no worries at all. Our special guest
for the entire hour. He's the president of the Narry
Milwaukee Foundation, Primitive Edge consultant. We're going to talk about
later in the show. Greg Adamic, how you been?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I am well, you're here by yourself today for a
lot of reasons. Yes, yeah, I you.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Know, Spencer put his tucks on, actually washed his hair
thinking your wife might be coming in. What a neat lady.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
You put on his good shirt and everything.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah. Yeah, Well and a long he's got a long
sleep one because he knew it was going to be
about forty degrees in the studio. H it's good to
see you again. It's been a few weeks. Everything's good,
Everything is great. How does the cigar event go? In
the nomine falls?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It went well.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
You know, the bottom line is we we made some
money to uh to go to the Nary Foundation, So
that was great. It was our first event, and I
think our next one is going to be more well attended.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
But it went really well.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You know, you guys put that together for two weeks
in two weeks, so if you guys made money the
first year, an event like that, year two will be
much better.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, I love that coming up for the Narry Foundation.
And we you know, we just talked about the golf
outing and You're like, hey, you should come play, and
I'm like, yeah, be all right, I'd be all right.
The idea of you know, doing those outings sometimes a
little much.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Right, Well, you golf in it. You don't have to
do the outing. You don't have to be the personality.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Just be my when you're when you're big time, Mike McGivern,
you're always that person.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Well, actually we try to get John but anyway, oh well,
you would have had a better shot at the cigar Well,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Golfer cigars or you know, clay shooting. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I don't think he show up at the Clay shit.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You know what he actually on around the corner. They
had him do that once. He did pretty well. He
did much better than me. You're listening to this show, Yeah,
he's not listening. They kept saying you should trace it,
and I had no idea. In fact, here's the funny
part for that segment that we did in Achkosh. I
had about a twelve year old kid who was standing
there laughing at me because I couldn't hit it while
(02:35):
they're filming, They're trying to get it in the segment.
So I stood him behind me and I said, when
they go pull, you shoot it and I'll protet. And
that that made the show, and nobody knew it wasn't me,
but I couldn't. I didn't know what they meant by
you got to trace it, and I'm like, I don't
know what that means. No idea. Hey, the tea out
before the trades. There's still some openings.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Correct, there are some openings, but quick because it's gonna
July ninth.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
This always fills up.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
It's the thirty first annual Neary Milwaukee Foundation golf flouting
to raise money for the foundation and Greg for people
that might not know. And I know we've had this
conversation a lot, but talk about kind of the mission statement.
The money that's raised in any of these events where
you're raising your money for the foundation, where where does
that money go to?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
So the Waking Aery Foundation is the charitable arm of
the milwauking Eery Chapter, and we raise funds for people
getting into the trades. We have two endowment funds. We
have an endowment fund with w CTC and m ATC.
We've had that forever.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
We are.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
We opened up the entire UW system for people going
even into architecture, anything that involves the trades, so electrician, plumber,
and all of our funds, every nickel goes to raising funds.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You know, kid people my age, Yeah, you can play
for scholarship.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
So people in your nineties even can get it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And we're in a hoodie inside because you know it's cold.
But I think that's a really good point. You know,
this isn't just for kids that have just graduated from
high school and are planning to get into trades or
when you you know you talked about there's a lot
of different ways.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Even when you're in the trade, you can always learn,
and it's always a continuous education. There is really good
support of the continuous education. These people all these little
letters on as on the side of their names and stuff.
That's because they're proud of it. They're always continuously educated.
Things are happening so fast and industry it's hard to
keep up, so you can take courses to stay on
(04:38):
top of the game. Here.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
One of the best stories I had was we had
our spring home improve Mia schew On and a woman
was at the design area that we used to have
and I said, oh, are you one of the instructors.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
She said, no, I'm a student. And she was in
her mid sixties.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
And I said, tell me your story and she said,
you know, I was in I can't remember what she
did for a living. She said, I'm changing my whole
career path around and I want to be a designer.
So she applied for a scholarship at WCTC and she
got it from the Foundation and she was in her
mid sixties.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
So you know, for years, people who have been in
your position as the president of the NARI Foundation have
come on the show and said, look, we want more
people to apply for these scholarships because we don't have
we haven't done a great job of letting people know
that this is available. So to apply for that scholarship,
(05:30):
if you go to Narimiwaukee dot org to or google
the NARIM Milwaukee Foundation and when you get there, what
you can do is go right to schools and scholarships
and it has a nice layout in exactly what we do,
what you guys do. You're presented more than a quarter
of a million dollars over the years in scholarships, grants, equipment,
(05:50):
supplies to asconsin based educational institutions, students and those embarking
on continuing education. And so right on that website, I
apply for scholarship relatively easy, and I know that a
lot of people have applied for scholarships where it's you know,
you basically have to write out your whole life story,
(06:11):
get fifteen or sixteen people to devouch for you, and
then get them to videotape themselves and say what a
great person you are.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
This is not that, No, we made it very easy
for everything.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I just that's one of my pet pee's When you
have a scholarships or some applications for a course, which
is harder than the course itself.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Right, that makes no sense, Right, that makes absolutely no sense.
So it's important. Look, if you're if you have a
student or a son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter that just graduated
from high school or they're doing something now that they
want to maybe transition into the into the trades, and
(06:50):
one of the issues that they're having is to be
able to pay for it. Apply for that scholarship. Great,
how does that is there a certain time of year
that you guys pick when or how does that does
that work?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Well, we try to do it for for for the
fall session when people are getting back into school. So
we're we're starting to take applications right now, so right now,
right now, get it in. Yeah, we started making making
the picks in July and August and and they're you know,
some scholarships are two fifty five hundred, twenty five hundred
dollars and you can keep reapplying for them. And you know,
(07:23):
for some people that buys books. For some people it
pays for a heck of a lot more. And we
used to go to them ATC and w CTC dinner
nights and people that would come up to us and
go say, hey, I got a two hundred fifty dollars
scholarship from you guys, and I wouldn't have been able
to go to school if I didn't have that. It
paid for all my books, and they're extremely grateful. So
try apply, we recommend it, and who.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
How does that that process go? Then they apply, and
then does the board take a look and decide who's
going to get them? As the president, do you do
you get two votes or do you still just go one?
Speaker 5 (07:59):
No?
Speaker 4 (07:59):
I we put a committee together and it's usually about
four people on the committee instead of the entire board,
and we rifle through and a couple of things.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
We have to make sure as you fill out the
application properly.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
It's not that hard getting in on time, and we
kind of look at it and we judge it. And
I can't tell you, I can't tell you many that
have not gotten a scholarship.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
I will tell you that right now.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
If you get your name right, you're looking good.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, you're looking really good.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
We used to have about a four page application, like
kind of like what you're saying before, and because there
weren't a lot of places you could go get a
scholarship from going into the industry. So we had a big,
long process and we shortened up a lot good.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
So yeah, please.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Scholarships are up to twenty five hundred dollars per semester
or five thousand dollars per year available for people again
pursuing higher education in trades, technical creative sectors, which again
has been changed a little bit. It used to be
if you're looking to swing a hammer, will help you,
(09:00):
but now there's so many different areas. When kids go, look,
I I well, I'm not getting I don't want to
get into the trades because I don't think I want
to be a plumber. I don't want to be there.
There there's a lot of different spaces now and we'll
get to that in the in the last segment on
something you're doing now where you're not swinging a hammer anymore?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Right, you're you know that? No brain, I mean it's
not a brain of mine.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I've been in an industry a big time personality, Yeah
you have. I've been an industry for thirty five years
and uh, three of those years was swinging a hammer
or being on a job site. And and I got
into the dealer distribution end of it, and it's been
a it's been a great career for me and in
sales and management.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So I've turned in the.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Swing hammers in our group. No, it's a hot con
trial thing.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, there you go, or tell people where they got
to swing that.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I just get up. We stare at the walls all
day long.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I don't think that. I don't think Sam would agree
with you. I I don't. I think that you guys
are awfully busy. You guys, your team outworking today.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
We're we're beyond booked and we just have to literally
just stop looking at stuff because I tell people where
we can't get you this year, Can you just come
and take a look at it? Can we say your
down payment? And no, that's not gonna.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Not gonna happen, right, We just can't. Well, I can
tell you that on the through the mcgiffern Agency and
the clients I work with, like Common Restoration and Kernel
Electric and Donovan Jorganson Heating and Cooling, they're like, hey man,
we right now, especially this last week with Donovan jorgensend
were we're pretty pretty busy. We can get to people
(10:29):
if it's an emergency we'll get out there. But if
it's something that you can wait a week or ten days.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Well it is. I look at stuff in February and
see I can get you this year, right, but they
can't call me up like last week, and so okay,
you're still going to do me this year.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
If I knew about it back then, yes, but you're
not anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Hey, is the Wild Toasted project done?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Now?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yes, it's not opening up, but it's done.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
It's it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It's beautiful. No, everybody every keeps telling me what and
people asking me the winds openness. I'm not the owner.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
When can I go get coffee over there? But it's
I've driven by there. It's a beautiful building. You guys
have done. Hey, Greg, when when when you do these
golf outings and again it's it is to raise money
for the foundation. And when you think about it being
it's been done for a long time. So you guys
are doing it obviously doing it, doing it right. July ninth,
(11:22):
Ironwood Golf Course, they do. Ironwood does a lot of
these and they do a really good job. I've been
to a number of outings. That's where Common has theirs
as well. But there are still a couple of spots
open if you want to get out on a Wednesday.
They've got great food, really good people, and it's fun.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
It's they're amazing. They can run a really good they
run a really good charity event. Yeah they do. They've
been doing it a long time.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
They and they've got you know, they've it's not just
eighteen wholes so it can't be you know, they they've
got twenty seven, which really benefits because the event is
so big, and get eighteen and but.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
You know, will be first in line for the Buddy Mary's.
That's our favorite event is getting going there because the
only circles in the morning or something. So she goes,
stands in line and that's the personally she wants me
to first. Don't hold the bloody Mary in the morning.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Though that's awesome, good for her. I'd be in the
coffee line nowadays. But you know that, get get ready
for the whole thing with a good bloody marry and
raising money tee up for the Trades for the Narry Foundation.
And I think that after that, the next event at
least on the calendar or September twelfth, Pull for the Trades,
which is a clay shoot out at Walkshot Gun Club.
(12:30):
And if you go on their website again.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Me new I know they are promoting it. You can
be beginners. They will help you through it. I don't
know exactly about how they're gonna do it, just but
they'll make sure that you don't shoot your eye on good.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, that was one of my favorite movies.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
By the way, So tea up for the trades coming
up and there are still spots the ninth of July,
so it's just in a in ten days or so.
Make sure that you sign up for that and then
pull for the trades. And again when you when you
talk about where the money goes, one hundred percent of
the money goes to give back to to people that
(13:05):
want to get involved in in it. Hey, when when
you when you ran for the board, the foundation has
always been something as long as I've known you, Greg
that you have been.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
He's been a foundation and president like before I think
before I joined it probably.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Well, I was in time two thousand and eight to fifteen,
I was the president as well.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
My favorite last time you were in studio, I started
talking about the old rummage sale and you had sweat
beats coming off your eyebro. I was just thinking about
that fast his place.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
So he had a story everything in advance.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
That was a that was a rough couple months before that.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
But we made a lot of money and the good
thing was is that all went to a great cause.
So if people were going to throw things out, people
had a door. You know, I don't like anything going
into recycling or or just a big garbage lot. So
you know, we had doors, and we had trim, and
we had just miscellaneous stuff and people got to reuse
it and that was one of the greater things. And
then we donated our we gave that product to restore
(14:01):
the Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Restore habit Habitat Habitat for.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Humanity, so nothing went to waste. Uh, it was it
was a great cause, made a lot of money and
and stayed out of the recycling bind for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I I remember those days when you were doing it
and it was like you had a good team, but
it was that that thing laid on you. And you know,
I remember you saying, Hey, we're going to close it
up at five, come at quarter to five, because we're
really dealing on this stuff we had.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
So I think the I think that the show the
Rumisy was in May, and I used to collect everything
at my company. I was at Milwaukee Millork back at
the time.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
For some reason, always d and.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
We had we put a big tent up in the
in the front of the parking lot, and and I
stored a bunch of stuff and people would deliver it
to my building and and then I'd put out there
and forklifts and pallettes and and and it was so
much stuff. And Color did a great job bringing us
tubs and toilets and all stuff. But uh, it was
great and I'm getting jitterated right now going.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I remember Ferguson show up. We got some lights, be
like a semi trailer full of lights, which is huge.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
And you guys were dealing on that stuff. And the
people that went early to pick through everything, they didn't
get the best deal. But if you were willing to
be patient, like you would say, please, if you'll take
some of this stuff, because the amount of work that
had to be done at the back end of that
thing to get it off of my parking get it
out of your parking lot.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
It was on a.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Friday, and I had to have all cleaned up by
by Monday, and I was including the tenth and everything
and it was.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
It was great. Keep saying, well, and I know that
people that are thinking, maybe you should run this back,
put the old band back together.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
What do you think I I we'll talk off air.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
We will talk. Yeah, do not punch me. No punching
of physical. He is Greg Adam again. He is the
president of the Nary Milwaukee Foundation. Also owns Primitive Edge Consultant.
We're going to talk about closer to the end of
the show and find out what he's doing with that.
Next segment will continue to talk about the Nearry Milwaukee Foundation.
(16:08):
Got a number of questions for Greg on that. This
is the Creative Construction Wisconsin Home improvement Show on Fox
Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back
to the Creative Construction Wisconsin Home improvement Show on Fox
Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Coming live
from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating Colleen Studios. Any issues
(16:29):
you have, like we have here in the studio, go
to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. I Mike mcgiver alongside Bingo Emmons.
He's the owner of Creative Construction Wisconsin and our special
guest is Greg Adamic, president of Nary Milwaukee Foundation, along
with a primitive edge consultant that will get to you
on the other side. We'll talk about that in the
(16:50):
third segment. Got a big phone call. She was telling
you you don't sound good on.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
The radio or no, she said, I sound great on
the radio. She's in Arizona right now. It's one hundred
and fourteen degrees as a high.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
With a dry heat.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
She could send some of that our way for the studio.
I'd appreciate that a lot. She got up early and
Arizona to listen to you on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Well, you know she likes to hear my voice.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
I don't know. And the fact that your facetimeing live
so she can see your face the same time, that's
pretty impressive. Impressive, Thank you. Hey's when she was here
a few weeks ago in studio with us, and and
she has kind of that same passion for that servant
leadership part that you do. And she had some great
(17:38):
things to say about the foundation. She's right by your
side on some of the stuff that you do with
this right yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
She So she works at s RS Building Products, SRES
Distribution and no nomine falls, and I got her involved
with the Monccinary chapter. She is on the Education Committee,
and one of the things that that she is kind of.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Head up is the Latino outreach portion.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
We have so many people within the industry that are
Latinos and they have their own businesses and and they're
they're afraid to get involved simply because they can't communicate.
And Nancy's holding a big part of that, and and
and she's trying to get them a little bit more
advanced and a little bit more within the industry. And
(18:27):
we need them, We absolutely need.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Hey talk to me about the educational part of it.
When when you say she got involved in that, what
does that look like?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
So the Education Committee, and and Bingo has been the
chair for the Education Committee for a long time. But
but we are always trying to find ways that we
can reach people and educate them more about a the
industry and b to advance them within their careers. We
advance them at companies that they're at as well, like
like Bingo was saying earlier, all these little letters that
we have after our names crs and c kbrs.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
They also want people to stay in the business. They
just we just did a one on one class for
people that are new into business, you know, new leaders,
new owners, and you know, you know, a lot of
what happens a lot of people is they go out
of business. You know, they start a business and one
to three years later they're out of business. So we're
actually working on helping people stay in the industry. You
(19:20):
know what they really need to know, they're really the
cost of goods sold is not exactly what people think
it is. You think you pay a guy this much
an hour, and then he gets like, no, you don't
get to keep all of that right. You know, there's
a lot of stuff that goes in and then you
got to get insurance. And when you want to be legal,
it's not you don't make as much money as you
think you're making. So that's we have to make sure
every he's on the same page and we help people out.
Most of the time, new people just don't charge enough
(19:41):
and that's usually why they go out of business.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Hey, how often do you guys see you know, a
kid gets out of high school, thinks he wants to
go into this part, wants to be a carpeenter. Let's
use that and a year or two into it. They decide, look,
maybe this isn't the right path, but I want to
maybe transition and being an electrician or be a plumber
or you know, work for Creative Construction Wisconsin and learn
(20:04):
how to work in the in the stucco world and
the plaster world. How often do you see kids when
when in young adults, when they decide one way, but
then they make a decision they want to try something else,
and the scholarships are available obviously for those guys as well.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Yeah, we see that a lot once once kids get
in the industry and they start start working on the
sites with other contractors. You know, other contractors want good employees.
So if they see a guy swinging a hammer and
he's doing a great job, an electrician will walk up
to him and say, you know you should, why don't
you come be an electrician. It's going to be easier
and climbing up on a roof and it's going to
be easier in doing this. So they will, they will
(20:41):
h find their own people within the trades, and yeah,
they they could go to school at w CTC and
be a carpenter and then switch and become an electrician.
That's that's great.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
We can Yeah, well does Eric's been on here a
few times, right, yeah, yes, he was a union plumber.
Now he's has nothing to do with plumbing plumb right now,
he's just he's a carpenter. You know, he does really
good carpentry work. But he started off, as you know,
doing a whole union thing with the plumbering stuff. And
now he's in his own business doing corpentry.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Do you know? Did he And we've had him in
studio and I've asked him this that when he made
that transition that he said, look, I I need to
I want to change and be a carpenter. Did he
then go back to school or is that something that.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
He had done? And you know he was, No, he
was he was doing working for I won't say a name,
but he was working for that company. And he came
by me and he says, I want to work by you.
I'll learn to see. I want to learn how to
do a historic restoration like you guys do, right, so
let me come and work for you for one year
and see how that goes, right right now? It was
five years later, yeah, and now he's you know, now
now he's uh, he just went off on his own.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
You know it's interest, so you brought that up. I
just recorded a new commercial for the people at Helman
and the idea on the commercial is, look, do you
want to replace or do you want to restore? So
if your man cave gets flooded, you had it exactly
what you want it and now do you want to
just repair it or do you want to do you
(22:02):
want to restore it? And when you talked about look,
we were the restoration side of it.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
We deal with interest compans all the time. Yeah, you're
allowed to have it restored back to the way it
was before the event. That's key, and that's in it.
It's a battle. It's a battle for for contractors and
for the homeowners. They get it that way, but you
know we work with them to help them happen. Yeah,
make it happen.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
What's interesting with with with Kelman is they have an
office now in Sheboygan and they said, look, can you
help us market this office in Sheboygan. We've been up
there a year and people in that area only want
to work with people that have their office in our town.
They'll pay a little extra, but they feel like, okay,
if you're Sheboygan through and through we'll work with you.
(22:45):
Everybody from that in that office born and raised in
Sheboygan and and they need a little bit of help
getting their name out and I can do that. And
the idea of restoring rather than replace, we just.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Did that with you know, we do a lostuff with
Kellman and then but like the one of the most one,
most funnest ones we ever did with Telman is when
the car ran into Tompkins. You know it's a wing press, right,
I love that wing place. We always go there all
the time, right, So I was I was excited when
you're told me about this one. That was great. Then Zach,
you know, Zach did the work and Zach at all
the free lunches so perfect he wanted to deal out
at the smart boy that Jack.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, that's awesome. Hey, Greg, When when we get to
talk about primitive Edge, When when when somebody like a
Calmet or a company like that comes to you and says, hey, look,
we could we need for you to to help us
in this area. When whether it's marketing or it's branding,
(23:38):
or it's the you know, the back end the books
and how we can make more profit. That's kind of
what primitive does.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Yeah, So that's a great example. If somebody says, hey,
we want to expand we want to go to Sheboygan.
The main thing that I look at for everybody is
to make sure that their process and procedures are in
order so we can duplicate the efforts, kind of like
a franchise like the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Hey, the of
the kettles we use, here's the formula we use, and
then we can take it and duplicate it. You can't
(24:05):
take the people with you, but you can take the
process and procedures with you. And that's kind of what
I teach people and I focus on and I can
I can focus on how they're going to make their
gross profits, and I analyze the neighborhood area of competitors.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You can teach us how to make KFC.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
I can teach you how to make KFC as well.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I think so, yeah, I can give you that.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Those are the those are the success stories at KFC.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Had it down and I follow it at UH. It's
everything's a recipe, it's a processing procedure.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
You know. It's interesting. I was talking to a guy
earlier this week who had he worked for a major
company then he started his own company and and and
it was going really well. But then he went back
and worked for corporate And I said, can I ask why?
And he said, you know, back then, like quick books
and all of the stuff that's available now that I
(24:56):
didn't know and it wasn't available. Is what got me
out of running my own company is it was just
too much because of trying to take care of that
side of it. Things have changed. And in with with
owning your company, the contelting company, you have to know
of all the different benefits that people can utilize with
(25:18):
AI and quick books and all of that. You have
to be up to data and all that correct.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, you got to stay up on top of all
of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
And my job is to make it easier for whoever
is I don't want to say failing, but struggling. And
you know, when you're in the business, you're looking at
the business and you're not focusing on how to grow it.
And that's typically the biggest problem I find with people
out there, and I help them get outside their box
and get outside their company so they can easily expand
it or create a sales team, or create a new
(25:50):
pricing structure or can new commission, structure, whatever it may
be to help their business advance.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And what happens when people are in business is they
know what they know, but they don't know what they
don't And that's what happened to somebody else in Yeah,
because he was like, this is the way I do it,
this is the way I've always done it, this is
that's it, that's the way to do it. This always
works for us. But they don't know what they don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
And business owners an entrepreneur are entrepreneurs and.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
They typically, like you just said, they know how to
do it, but they don't know how to teach it.
And I know how to teach it or help it
or extract it out of their brain, get it on
paper and teach The sales crewer.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
We had so many years ago on this show, and
I won't name him, but he was telling me that
when he took over the company, they had like six
employees and he was making as the owner of this company,
he was making a great living. But he decided he
(26:42):
really wanted to expand, expand fast, and he goes now,
instead of six, I have twenty seven, twenty seven families
that I that I have to make sure we have
enough work that I can feed their families. I'm not
making a dime more and I've got I have a
lot of sleepless nights. I think if he would have
come to you when he decided he wanted to expand,
(27:05):
you would have probably talked him, talked him through what
that looks like, and maybe expand slowly instead of all
in twelve months. And he said he didn't know exactly
what Bingo talks about. I didn't know what I don't know, right,
And now I know and I can't run it back.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Yeah, we I talk about expansions. So when somebody says
I'm want to double my business in one year, I
go through the whole process with him. Okay, let's talk
about this. Do you want to double your business or
do you want to make more profit?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Sell?
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Sell what you're selling. Now, you know, if a two
million another company is making a ex profit, do you
want to make X plus? X plus has less headaches
than adding going from six employees to twenty six employees. Right,
So we go through that whole exercise. And if they say, yeah, no,
I want a franchise, I take them to I slow
it down a little bit because Hey, if you're going
(27:56):
to expand and you're going to go double your business
within a year, there's a lot of cap expenditures. You're
gonna have to think of your cash flow. There's a
lot of things you got to think about in order
to in order to grow that fast.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
What I didn't know when I started at the McGivern
agency was cash flows.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
King it is, Yeah, it is?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
And when when when I love you know where I'm
at right now in the beginning, and I have to
think Brookside Baptist Church, my home church, with that show
faith in the zone that I do that the day
I started my company, the first day, they handed me
a check for the year to be a sponsor of
(28:34):
Faith in his Zone, which gave me, you know, thirty
to sixty days of Okay, we got no money coming in,
but we can. We can do this because of that
company and because of that church. And they knew in fact,
the guy who runs that part of Brookside Baptist Church
is John Amy's brother, and so he's part of our
(28:55):
church and he handles, you know, our books and and
all that. And he's the guy who said, hey, look,
with you starting your company like like John did years ago,
we know that that. How about if we pay you up.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Front for you He also does the books on John
Nimmy's company through Yeah. One I went to the office
and they go, hey, there you are.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Okay, he's really good. He's a really smart dude.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Place.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
He comes to Brookside Baptist Chart So you know, I'm
the valet driver there. Guy. So if you ever come
to church you want me to park your car, I'm
the guy out front. Nobody trusts me.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
How can you not try?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
I'm not stealing your car when they put it in
a valet mode whenever you get in it.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, they I help people out of their car. And
and my favorite story with that is we had a
pastor whose wife is no longer with us, older woman,
and she drove a thunderbird and she pulled up and
she opened her door real fast to let me park it,
and her concealed carry fell out, and she went, oh,
(29:51):
that's where that is. And I thought, oh, man, you
know what, I'm just like, oh, this off And I
don't know, maybe we should put this stored a little
bit a little bit better. Hey, another question for you.
In the foundation, I'm the website, it says request the speaker.
You guys have people that are on the board of
the foundation. If a company wants you guys to come
(30:15):
and speak for them and come to and speak to
them about what the foundation does and what your mission
statement is, you guys are able.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
To do that. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
We'll take any opportunity we can to talk about our
mission and what our plan is to help people get
it within the industry. So yeah, anybody give us a call,
call the office, schedule us myself or another industry professional
like Bingo. Bingo loves going to well going doing speeches
for school.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Oh yeah, waiting to go to schools and stuff. And
then we're actually just doing a program too with schools.
We're trying to get them, you know, I'm trying to
get Aaron and the younger people because I guess some
old guys stand up in the corner. You got to
get the younger guy right truck and say hey, look
at this could be you and you know instead of
people like me. But we're doing yeah, we do that
boys and girls clubs. Uh do you think we're just
we're not trying to, you know, say this is a
(31:06):
cult creative construction as a cult that you need to
join We're just if there's an opportunity, if you want
to make more money than your friends, you know, come
and do constructions. You know, come and do construction because
that's it's an honest pay. You get honest paid for
honest day's work and all that.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Hey, as a last question, and we're going to get
to a break, but I want to go back real
quick to primitive edge consulting as a management consultant, is
what you would do? Would you would say that's what
your company does?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Right? Yeah, this is this is.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
My for an example, how could you fix him?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Okay, let's not talk about your let's not talk about
the gym. That's how you can come on, man, the
boys could looks at the sparkling personality.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
That's where it has the man got face.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, oh man, if I hadn't buck for every time
I was told that. But the roles of a management consultant,
can we talk a little bit about what that looks like?
And then will continue on the other side of the break.
But you know, doing some research for the show, problem, identification,
strategy development I think are probably the top two in
what you do for companies. Correct.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Yeah, So when somebody comes to me and they say, hey,
I want to X. Either I need to change my culture,
I need to get a new sales team, I need
to create a sales process, whatever that may be. I
create a program for them specifically, and everybody has a
different program. And I've worked with machine shops and gun
(32:35):
shops and whatever out there. It doesn't matter business and business.
A couple of things that I teach them is I
want to know what it costs to keep the lights on?
And that simple exercises. That simple exercise gets people to
focus on, holy macro, what does it cost to keep
your lights on? So in two thousand and eight, when
we had the great depression that happened, a lot of
(32:57):
people thought that, well, if I just sell something, even
if it's a cost, it's going to keep capital flowing.
And that doesn't work. No, you have to make a profit.
And we watched Bengal's been around for a long time
and and the people that were strong and they did
and they did what they should do and they didn't
sell for costs. They're still around. Yeah, and there's a
lot of people that are gone.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You know, you talked about the culture, and I was
on WISN this week, Dave Michaels talking about high school
State of Wisconsin out in high school sports. The NIL
is now available to high school student athletes. And that's
the part that the culture part is what scared me
(33:37):
the up. I'm glad I'm retired as a basketball coach
because imagine this on a basketball team. Let's say you
have fifteen kids and there's a pecking order. Who's your
best player, second best player? If the fourth best player
has an NIL deal, and he walks into the locker
room and says, hey, look at these new air Jordan's
I bought with the NIL money I have. But but
(33:58):
your top player and your second top and your third
is not getting an IL deal. You want to talk
about how hard you're going to have to work as
a coaching staff for the culture and look, it's a
buzzword nowadays. Great, right, Hey, we got to fix the culture.
Well what does that mean? What does that look like?
I used to work for a radio station that they
would do a you know, they on a Friday afternoon,
(34:20):
they cook brats out. You know, they do a little
cookout and think that's what it was going to fix
the culture, and they'd make mistake after mistake after mistake
for the culture and then think by cooking your broad
it's going to all fix it. And it's a buzzword.
People don't really understand how important the culture is in
a locker room or in.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
The culture is. I mean, you know, we get workers
to become family, right. The culture is so big. I
mean that's what whenever I look for employees, we look
for people that are looking for a family right right,
because the people don't want to be the people that
they want to do stuff together. Then they help each other. Man,
my work is like cover for each other those like
do something you know, they'll make us all.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
It's every bingo. Every time I've had people outside of
the true your true family in studio to be representing
Creative Construction Wisconsin, they brought that word up. That's what
they That's not something that you just talk about and
it's a buzzword for you. They brought it up like
the Emmits, like we get invited to their family function.
(35:20):
We're part of their family inside the office but outside
as well. And I think that's important. The culture part
of it. Greg. I think that what you do at
Primitive Edge Consultant, that has to be a big part
of what they're doing. And the culture side of it
is it's a hard thing. The bigger the company, the
harder it is to build a really strong culture.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
So culture comes in a lot of different ways. And
I the one thing that I find is just because
you're the owner of the company doesn't mean that you
should be doing the job of a general manager, a
sales manager, a salesman. I want to focus on who's
in the right seat on the bus. That's the biggest thing.
And and I currently working with a couple of different
(36:03):
companies that the owner tried to be the general manager
and we've switched out and we found the right general
manager to to stay at the ground level, work with
the people constantly, and put the put the owner at
a little bit higher level to go do the things
to work for the business instead of in the business.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Okay, we can use an example, right Tennantly, I'm the
owner of the company.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
But who do you talk to Sam?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Okay Zach Right, yeah, Sam runs, she organizes. He's the
one that has the companies. People call all the time
to say, when can you do it? I said, you
gotta talk to Sam. I can't you know, I can't
just change that stuff with not the way they do it.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
And that's the greatest example. So so guys like Bengo,
He's created a very great company for all these years,
but he realizes that I need to have somebody else
do certain things. He can still he can still mentor
he can still teach, he can still show people what
he's done. But go have somebody schedule for me. I'm
a disastrous scheduling things. Oh yeah, I forgot to be
(37:01):
there because I don't have a scheduler. So that's one
of the simplest things that I that I do to
change the culture. And it's amazing that when you move
a couple of parts and pieces around a company, you
also find that there are certain people that shouldn't be
at a company and you work on that as well.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
And that's.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
We had a we had a players toxic we put
up from for a lot of years. And as soon
as you got rid of the toxic employee, everybody came
out of the woodwick and said stuff right in the
beginning and not saying nothing you all think you know,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, we're gonna get to a break other side the break.
I have a question for you, Creig, if you can
teach a person who isn't a good manager how to
be a better manager. Because that that was a good
challenge for me. Yeah, you know what, because I always
want Yeah, I'm a nice guy. I want to be
friends with everybody. And I don't know if you want people.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
To respect you, not be friends with everybody? Well, you
don't want to like?
Speaker 1 (37:49):
You want said?
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Do you want to be liked? You want to be feared?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Well, and now with the beginnering agency, you know, I
had to fire my secretary a couple of weeks ago.
My wife didn't even know she was my secretary here,
but she's still my personal assistant.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
And I'm like, she's also a HR departments.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
No, No, that's me I gotta take I'm keeping that
hat for sure. He is Greg Adamic again, President Narry
Milwaukee Foundation, and he owns Primitive Edge Consulting and we're
talking to this next segment a lot about that company.
This is the creative construction of Wisconsin Homiprouvement Show on
Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app. Yeah,
(38:28):
I know, guys, we need a new producer. He's not
playing playing Nelly music. I give him casting crowns and
he plays Nelly. Welcome back to You're a strong Man.
Welcome back to the Creative Construction with scottson Home improvement
show on Fox Sports nine twenty years. iHeartRadio app could
be live from the Donovan.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
And George Sports off the air though, yeah a lot. Yeah,
he's Bingo Emmons. He's the owner of Creative Construction Wisconsin.
Our special guest in studio, so it was good to
have him in studio. Greg Adamic, President Narry Milwaukee Foundation
also owns Primitive Edge Consulting.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
And I want to talk a little bit more about that.
You know, we had talked last segment right at the
end about about how to build culture, and then we
talked about management and and.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Well you could help us with stuff too, Like you know,
we're in a transition period, right, you can help us
with the whole help.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Position with people transitioning from their generation.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Because when I talked to them their dad, I'm their dad.
I got to get someone to say the same thing
as all good, you don't hear from their dad.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
I set a specific set of ground rules when when
there's family that's that's transitioning over. So I'll have you know,
I'll tell the children or whoever is going to be
the buyer, that this is your stance, is what you do,
and bingo, this is what you're going to do. And
I watch Creative Construction and I stay I stay on
the ball with creative construction, and everybody else has to
(39:55):
do their own their job.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
So I think that's important. Uh. And we talked and
I teach you up because I was talking about myself.
I think I coached for a long time, but when
I was working and I was put into a management role,
I wasn't very good at it. And I think it
came back to this whole thing about you know, these
(40:16):
are my friends and now I've got I've got to
talk to them or do something against the friendship part
of it. And I think that that I wasn't very
good at that. Are you able to at least help
people become better managers?
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (40:33):
So the biggest thing, like you just said, I want
to be everybody's friend. I want to be everybody's friend.
And Jack Hughes, one of my very good mentors, told
me a really long time ago, you don't want to
be their friends.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
You want them to respect you. You don't want them
to like you. You want them to respect you.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
And fifty percent of respect is given when you walk
in this door, and the other fifty percent is earned.
So I can help you with the other fifty percent.
You got to bring in the fifty percent. That's that
when you walk in this room. And that's a huge thing.
And I tell people, just because you're a good salesperson
doesn't mean you're gonna be a good manager. And we
got to make sure you're in the right seat on
(41:08):
the bus.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
And that's it.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
And that includes the owner, the people sweeping the floors. Everybody,
everybody at a company is a salesperson. You're sweeping the
floor that can get your business.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Do you know your background is in the trades, but
what you're doing with primitive Edge consulting can work. You
can work with people outside of the trades. Correct.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Oh, business is business to me. Business is business and
it's all a game to me. So everybody has a
product and service that they sell to somebody that has
a want and a need and I try to get
it the want and the need to the customer more efficient.
I try to and efficiencies will make money. So it
says simple as that, if you make your company more efficient,
you're going to make more money. If you have fifty
(41:51):
steps within a process or procedure, can it be twenty
five steps? Can you cut twenty percent out of your
process and procedures to make you more efficient?
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Hey? Were you and I should know this. Were you
a student athlete at Hartford? Did you play?
Speaker 4 (42:07):
I did one year of wrestling, one year of football,
played rugby outside.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Okay, So there's something I think to be said for
people that have at least tried their hand in different
sports being part of a team. And when we talked
about the culture side of it, I think you learn
that you learn either really good habits in that world
or bad habits in that world on different things that
(42:33):
you do. If you're part of the boy Scouts, right,
if you're part of the wrestling team, if you're part
of the baseball team, if you're part of the musical
there are so many opportunities. And as you grow greg
there are so many different lessons you learn about what
you believe is good culture and what you believe might
be bad culture. And I think there are so many
(42:55):
lessons to be learned at an early age where you
then build your own idea on what good culture is.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
When your team is in the right spot, the team
will take care of itself. It's a self sufficient team.
It's kind of a military mentality. If you've got a
guy that's a really good part on a team, but
he's lacking, your team is going to pick him up
and drag him along. That's same thing with the Hey man,
you missed that ball. You know, here's what you gotta do.
Get on it, you know, keep your eyes focused on it.
(43:23):
The team will fix itself when all the people are
sitting on the right seat on the bus. So, like
the example that I gave you before, I had an
owner of a company, realize that you need to have
a general manager within the organization because he needs to
focus on other things. Go focus on financial parts, Go
focus on buying new trucks, Go focus on the ROI
on you're gonna add another piece of equipment in the building.
(43:47):
Have the general manager focus on the people themselves. So
the people themselves is when you're a general manager, you
are you're watching the ball of the company. You're watching
the financials. You're also the priest, You're the father, you're
the men to or pastor, you're everything of a company.
To make sure that the people are getting what they need.
If they don't have what they need to do their job,
(44:08):
whatever specificity they may have for their job, they don't
have the proper tools, they will not succeed. That's the
role of a general manager, not necessarily an owner of
a company unless they're at that management level.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Really deep, So.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Did you talk about good cop bad cop stuff?
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I do?
Speaker 1 (44:26):
I have to?
Speaker 4 (44:26):
I played both. Yeah, I play good cop bad cop,
and you have to. You're catering to everybody's needs. Your
needs mic are different than Bingo's needs. Your Bingo's needs
are different than Spencer's needs. And the general manager or
a manager of an organization needs to understand the needs
for the different people.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Do you know when I coached, the other coach was
the deanis students in the school, and we had the conversation.
I said, you can't be a bad cop all day
long as the dean of students and then think you're
going to be the good cop. I'm the I'll play
the good cop. So I'm the one who put my
arm around the kids when they ran out of practice
because again he was yelling at him, and so we
(45:04):
had that conversation. These kids, in fact to this day.
You know, guys I coached fifteen years ago would say,
do you remember when you got that big argument with
the other coach. I go, yeah, that was pure drama.
We did that for you, and they had no idea
that as the managers, we would have the conversation. He
would come to me and say, that kid has not
(45:25):
practiced well the last two days. I'm gonna get on
pretty hard, so be ready to put your good cop
hat on, put your arm around him, and get him
back to practice. And we would have those conversations. And
I think that with Primitive Edge consulting, you'll have those
conversations with the owner and the general manager. One guy
can be the good cop, one can be the beat.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
Well.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
I talk about the roles of which they are now
intended to be, but I also teach him how to
not undermine when one makes a decision. They have to
be lockstep within the organization. That if you don't like
what your general manager does that you've appointed, you take
them in the other room and you have a conversation.
I want to teach that they they've made a decision
(46:09):
and any decision is better than no decision. But we
talk about it that maybe next time, it's going to
be a little bit different, and there's nothing within an
organization that.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Hey, people can get a hold of you a number
of different ways if if they Google you or if
they're on UH they can go on the website for
Narry Milwaukee Foundation. They can there's number of ways for
people to find you with Primitive Edge consulting.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
Correct click on LinkedIn. That's a that's one of the
best ways to get me, or else.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
You can just call my phone. Yeah, six two, hold on,
hold on, go ahead, six two three, yep.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Zero nine three. Now that's my personal number. Don't call
me after nine to six. You don't call me before six.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Well, thank goodness for Nancy, because back back in the day,
be okay to call you after nine for sure two
six two six two three oh nine three seven nine
three nine o nine three nine two six two six
two three oh nine three nine. It's really good to
see you.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Great to see you as well.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Yeah, you bet have fourth July coming.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Yeah, nope, Yeah, I get yell at because I'm not
talking about we're in a Tulsa parade. We're passing on
popsicles this year, and yell I'm getting yelled at from them.
I said, don't forget we got five thousand popsicles to
pass out this year.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
You're passing on popsicles.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Last year, you guys ran out quick.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah, yeah, that's why. So we got five A whole
freezer in the back of the truck.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Now Toast praise.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
They started freezing on a month ago, the.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
Fourth of July. Toast Parade starts like tomorrow, the longest parade.
We used to go to that thing every year, and
I finally said, honey, let's go, like, let's go to
Cedarburgs Frade.
Speaker 3 (47:50):
It's fourteen.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Yeah, we tried doing we're doing two prays. Last year
we did the green and a toolsa prayed.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Sam says no, no, we need help with the popsicles,
and yeah, people look.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Forward to that.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
So we bring those every year.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
Make sure that you yell to Bingo if you see
them in the Toasted parade, ask for a popsicle. Guys,
good to see you, Bingo. Have a good week. Spencer,
thanks for letting us know to bring our big hoodies.
And I see you've got your park on.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Well done.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
This is the Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement show
on Fox Sports ninet twenty in your iHeart radio app,
Welcome into the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports nine to twenty in your iHeartRadio app.
We're coming from live from the Donovan and Jorganson Cooling Studios,
Keating and Cooling Studios. We need to get them in
here voice every week. Now, this is ridiculous. And Spencer's,
you know, all dressed up. My co host has a
(00:23):
has a hoodie on and.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
He's freezing mist frostbite.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Greg Adamic. He's like, yeah, I know, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I'm fine. I'm good.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, I'm good, no worries at all. Our special guest
for the entire hour. He's the president of the Narry
Milwaukee Foundation, Primitive Edge consultant. We're going to talk about
later in the show. Greg Adamic, how you been?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I am well, you're here by yourself today for a
lot of reasons. Yes, yeah, I you.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Know, Spencer put his tucks on, actually washed his hair
thinking your wife might be coming in. What a neat lady.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
You put on his good shirt and everything.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah. Yeah, Well and a long he's got a long
sleep one because he knew it was going to be
about forty degrees in the studio. H it's good to
see you again. It's been a few weeks. Everything's good,
Everything is great. How does the cigar event go? In
the nomine falls?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It went well.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
You know, the bottom line is we we made some
money to uh to go to the Nary Foundation, So
that was great. It was our first event, and I
think our next one is going to be more well attended.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
But it went really well.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
You know, you guys put that together for two weeks
in two weeks, so if you guys made money the
first year, an event like that, year two will be
much better.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, I love that coming up for the Narry Foundation.
And we you know, we just talked about the golf
outing and You're like, hey, you should come play, and
I'm like, yeah, be all right, I'd be all right.
The idea of you know, doing those outings sometimes a
little much.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Right, Well, you golf in it. You don't have to
do the outing. You don't have to be the personality.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Just be my when you're when you're big time, Mike McGivern,
you're always that person.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Well, actually we try to get John but anyway, oh well,
you would have had a better shot at the cigar Well,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Golfer cigars or you know, clay shooting. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I don't think he show up at the Clay shit.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You know what he actually on around the corner. They
had him do that once. He did pretty well. He
did much better than me. You're listening to this show, Yeah,
he's not listening. They kept saying you should trace it,
and I had no idea. In fact, here's the funny
part for that segment that we did in Achkosh. I
had about a twelve year old kid who was standing
there laughing at me because I couldn't hit it while
(02:35):
they're filming, They're trying to get it in the segment.
So I stood him behind me and I said, when
they go pull, you shoot it and I'll protet. And
that that made the show, and nobody knew it wasn't me,
but I couldn't. I didn't know what they meant by
you got to trace it, and I'm like, I don't
know what that means. No idea. Hey, the tea out
before the trades. There's still some openings.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Correct, there are some openings, but quick because it's gonna
July ninth.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
This always fills up.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
It's the thirty first annual Neary Milwaukee Foundation golf flouting
to raise money for the foundation and Greg for people
that might not know. And I know we've had this
conversation a lot, but talk about kind of the mission statement.
The money that's raised in any of these events where
you're raising your money for the foundation, where where does
that money go to?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
So the Waking Aery Foundation is the charitable arm of
the milwauking Eery Chapter, and we raise funds for people
getting into the trades. We have two endowment funds. We
have an endowment fund with w CTC and m ATC.
We've had that forever.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
We are.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
We opened up the entire UW system for people going
even into architecture, anything that involves the trades, so electrician, plumber,
and all of our funds, every nickel goes to raising funds.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You know, kid people my age, Yeah, you can play
for scholarship.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
So people in your nineties even can get it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And we're in a hoodie inside because you know it's cold.
But I think that's a really good point. You know,
this isn't just for kids that have just graduated from
high school and are planning to get into trades or
when you you know you talked about there's a lot
of different ways.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Even when you're in the trade, you can always learn,
and it's always a continuous education. There is really good
support of the continuous education. These people all these little
letters on as on the side of their names and stuff.
That's because they're proud of it. They're always continuously educated.
Things are happening so fast and industry it's hard to
keep up, so you can take courses to stay on
(04:38):
top of the game. Here.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
One of the best stories I had was we had
our spring home improve Mia schew On and a woman
was at the design area that we used to have
and I said, oh, are you one of the instructors.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
She said, no, I'm a student. And she was in
her mid sixties.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
And I said, tell me your story and she said,
you know, I was in I can't remember what she
did for a living. She said, I'm changing my whole
career path around and I want to be a designer.
So she applied for a scholarship at WCTC and she
got it from the Foundation and she was in her
mid sixties.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
So you know, for years, people who have been in
your position as the president of the NARI Foundation have
come on the show and said, look, we want more
people to apply for these scholarships because we don't have
we haven't done a great job of letting people know
that this is available. So to apply for that scholarship,
(05:30):
if you go to Narimiwaukee dot org to or google
the NARIM Milwaukee Foundation and when you get there, what
you can do is go right to schools and scholarships
and it has a nice layout in exactly what we do,
what you guys do. You're presented more than a quarter
of a million dollars over the years in scholarships, grants, equipment,
(05:50):
supplies to asconsin based educational institutions, students and those embarking
on continuing education. And so right on that website, I
apply for scholarship relatively easy, and I know that a
lot of people have applied for scholarships where it's you know,
you basically have to write out your whole life story,
(06:11):
get fifteen or sixteen people to devouch for you, and
then get them to videotape themselves and say what a
great person you are.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
This is not that, No, we made it very easy
for everything.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I just that's one of my pet pee's When you
have a scholarships or some applications for a course, which
is harder than the course itself.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Right, that makes no sense, Right, that makes absolutely no sense.
So it's important. Look, if you're if you have a
student or a son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter that just graduated
from high school or they're doing something now that they
want to maybe transition into the into the trades, and
(06:50):
one of the issues that they're having is to be
able to pay for it. Apply for that scholarship. Great,
how does that is there a certain time of year
that you guys pick when or how does that does
that work?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Well, we try to do it for for for the
fall session when people are getting back into school. So
we're we're starting to take applications right now, so right now,
right now, get it in. Yeah, we started making making
the picks in July and August and and they're you know,
some scholarships are two fifty five hundred, twenty five hundred
dollars and you can keep reapplying for them. And you know,
(07:23):
for some people that buys books. For some people it
pays for a heck of a lot more. And we
used to go to them ATC and w CTC dinner
nights and people that would come up to us and
go say, hey, I got a two hundred fifty dollars
scholarship from you guys, and I wouldn't have been able
to go to school if I didn't have that. It
paid for all my books, and they're extremely grateful. So
try apply, we recommend it, and who.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
How does that that process go? Then they apply, and
then does the board take a look and decide who's
going to get them? As the president, do you do
you get two votes or do you still just go one?
Speaker 5 (07:59):
No?
Speaker 4 (07:59):
I we put a committee together and it's usually about
four people on the committee instead of the entire board,
and we rifle through and a couple of things.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
We have to make sure as you fill out the
application properly.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
It's not that hard getting in on time, and we
kind of look at it and we judge it. And
I can't tell you, I can't tell you many that
have not gotten a scholarship.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
I will tell you that right now.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
If you get your name right, you're looking good.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, you're looking really good.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
We used to have about a four page application, like
kind of like what you're saying before, and because there
weren't a lot of places you could go get a
scholarship from going into the industry. So we had a big,
long process and we shortened up a lot good.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
So yeah, please.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Scholarships are up to twenty five hundred dollars per semester
or five thousand dollars per year available for people again
pursuing higher education in trades, technical creative sectors, which again
has been changed a little bit. It used to be
if you're looking to swing a hammer, will help you,
(09:00):
but now there's so many different areas. When kids go, look,
I I well, I'm not getting I don't want to
get into the trades because I don't think I want
to be a plumber. I don't want to be there.
There there's a lot of different spaces now and we'll
get to that in the in the last segment on
something you're doing now where you're not swinging a hammer anymore?
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Right, you're you know that? No brain, I mean it's
not a brain of mine.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
I've been in an industry a big time personality, Yeah
you have. I've been an industry for thirty five years
and uh, three of those years was swinging a hammer
or being on a job site. And and I got
into the dealer distribution end of it, and it's been
a it's been a great career for me and in
sales and management.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So I've turned in the.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Swing hammers in our group. No, it's a hot con
trial thing.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, there you go, or tell people where they got
to swing that.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I just get up. We stare at the walls all
day long.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I don't think that. I don't think Sam would agree
with you. I I don't. I think that you guys
are awfully busy. You guys, your team outworking today.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
We're we're beyond booked and we just have to literally
just stop looking at stuff because I tell people where
we can't get you this year, Can you just come
and take a look at it? Can we say your
down payment? And no, that's not gonna.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Not gonna happen, right, We just can't. Well, I can
tell you that on the through the mcgiffern Agency and
the clients I work with, like Common Restoration and Kernel
Electric and Donovan Jorganson Heating and Cooling, they're like, hey man,
we right now, especially this last week with Donovan jorgensend
were we're pretty pretty busy. We can get to people
(10:29):
if it's an emergency we'll get out there. But if
it's something that you can wait a week or ten days.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Well it is. I look at stuff in February and
see I can get you this year, right, but they
can't call me up like last week, and so okay,
you're still going to do me this year.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
If I knew about it back then, yes, but you're
not anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Hey, is the Wild Toasted project done?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Now?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yes, it's not opening up, but it's done.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
It's it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It's beautiful. No, everybody every keeps telling me what and
people asking me the winds openness. I'm not the owner.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
When can I go get coffee over there? But it's
I've driven by there. It's a beautiful building. You guys
have done. Hey, Greg, when when when you do these
golf outings and again it's it is to raise money
for the foundation. And when you think about it being
it's been done for a long time. So you guys
are doing it obviously doing it, doing it right. July ninth,
(11:22):
Ironwood Golf Course, they do. Ironwood does a lot of
these and they do a really good job. I've been
to a number of outings. That's where Common has theirs
as well. But there are still a couple of spots
open if you want to get out on a Wednesday.
They've got great food, really good people, and it's fun.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
It's they're amazing. They can run a really good they
run a really good charity event. Yeah they do. They've
been doing it a long time.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
They and they've got you know, they've it's not just
eighteen wholes so it can't be you know, they they've
got twenty seven, which really benefits because the event is
so big, and get eighteen and but.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
You know, will be first in line for the Buddy Mary's.
That's our favorite event is getting going there because the
only circles in the morning or something. So she goes,
stands in line and that's the personally she wants me
to first. Don't hold the bloody Mary in the morning.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Though that's awesome, good for her. I'd be in the
coffee line nowadays. But you know that, get get ready
for the whole thing with a good bloody marry and
raising money tee up for the Trades for the Narry Foundation.
And I think that after that, the next event at
least on the calendar or September twelfth, Pull for the Trades,
which is a clay shoot out at Walkshot Gun Club.
(12:30):
And if you go on their website again.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Me new I know they are promoting it. You can
be beginners. They will help you through it. I don't
know exactly about how they're gonna do it, just but
they'll make sure that you don't shoot your eye on good.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, that was one of my favorite movies.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
By the way, So tea up for the trades coming
up and there are still spots the ninth of July,
so it's just in a in ten days or so.
Make sure that you sign up for that and then
pull for the trades. And again when you when you
talk about where the money goes, one hundred percent of
the money goes to give back to to people that
(13:05):
want to get involved in in it. Hey, when when
you when you ran for the board, the foundation has
always been something as long as I've known you, Greg
that you have been.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
He's been a foundation and president like before I think
before I joined it probably.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Well, I was in time two thousand and eight to fifteen,
I was the president as well.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
My favorite last time you were in studio, I started
talking about the old rummage sale and you had sweat
beats coming off your eyebro. I was just thinking about
that fast his place.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
So he had a story everything in advance.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
That was a that was a rough couple months before that.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
But we made a lot of money and the good
thing was is that all went to a great cause.
So if people were going to throw things out, people
had a door. You know, I don't like anything going
into recycling or or just a big garbage lot. So
you know, we had doors, and we had trim, and
we had just miscellaneous stuff and people got to reuse
it and that was one of the greater things. And
then we donated our we gave that product to restore
(14:01):
the Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Restore habit Habitat Habitat for.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Humanity, so nothing went to waste. Uh, it was it
was a great cause, made a lot of money and
and stayed out of the recycling bind for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I I remember those days when you were doing it
and it was like you had a good team, but
it was that that thing laid on you. And you know,
I remember you saying, Hey, we're going to close it
up at five, come at quarter to five, because we're
really dealing on this stuff we had.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
So I think the I think that the show the
Rumisy was in May, and I used to collect everything
at my company. I was at Milwaukee Millork back at
the time.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
For some reason, always d and.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
We had we put a big tent up in the
in the front of the parking lot, and and I
stored a bunch of stuff and people would deliver it
to my building and and then I'd put out there
and forklifts and pallettes and and and it was so
much stuff. And Color did a great job bringing us
tubs and toilets and all stuff. But uh, it was
great and I'm getting jitterated right now going.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
I remember Ferguson show up. We got some lights, be
like a semi trailer full of lights, which is huge.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
And you guys were dealing on that stuff. And the
people that went early to pick through everything, they didn't
get the best deal. But if you were willing to
be patient, like you would say, please, if you'll take
some of this stuff, because the amount of work that
had to be done at the back end of that
thing to get it off of my parking get it
out of your parking lot.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
It was on a.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Friday, and I had to have all cleaned up by
by Monday, and I was including the tenth and everything
and it was.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
It was great.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
It was great. Keep saying, well, and I know that
people that are thinking, maybe you should run this back,
put the old band back together.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
What do you think I I we'll talk off air.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
We will talk. Yeah, do not punch me. No punching
of physical. He is Greg Adam again. He is the
president of the Nary Milwaukee Foundation. Also owns Primitive Edge Consultant.
We're going to talk about closer to the end of
the show and find out what he's doing with that.
Next segment will continue to talk about the Nearry Milwaukee Foundation.
(16:08):
Got a number of questions for Greg on that. This
is the Creative Construction Wisconsin Home improvement Show on Fox
Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Welcome back
to the Creative Construction Wisconsin Home improvement Show on Fox
Sports nine twenty in your iHeart Radio app. Coming live
from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating Colleen Studios. Any issues
(16:29):
you have, like we have here in the studio, go
to Donovan Jorgenson dot com. I Mike mcgiver alongside Bingo Emmons.
He's the owner of Creative Construction Wisconsin and our special
guest is Greg Adamic, president of Nary Milwaukee Foundation, along
with a primitive edge consultant that will get to you
on the other side. We'll talk about that in the
(16:50):
third segment. Got a big phone call. She was telling
you you don't sound good on.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
The radio or no, she said, I sound great on
the radio. She's in Arizona right now. It's one hundred
and fourteen degrees as a high.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
With a dry heat.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
She could send some of that our way for the studio.
I'd appreciate that a lot. She got up early and
Arizona to listen to you on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Well, you know she likes to hear my voice.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
I don't know. And the fact that your facetimeing live
so she can see your face the same time, that's
pretty impressive. Impressive, Thank you. Hey's when she was here
a few weeks ago in studio with us, and and
she has kind of that same passion for that servant
leadership part that you do. And she had some great
(17:38):
things to say about the foundation. She's right by your
side on some of the stuff that you do with
this right yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
She So she works at s RS Building Products, SRES
Distribution and no nomine falls, and I got her involved
with the Monccinary chapter. She is on the Education Committee,
and one of the things that that she is kind of.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Head up is the Latino outreach portion.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
We have so many people within the industry that are
Latinos and they have their own businesses and and they're
they're afraid to get involved simply because they can't communicate.
And Nancy's holding a big part of that, and and
and she's trying to get them a little bit more
advanced and a little bit more within the industry. And
(18:27):
we need them, We absolutely need.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Hey talk to me about the educational part of it.
When when you say she got involved in that, what
does that look like?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
So the Education Committee, and and Bingo has been the
chair for the Education Committee for a long time. But
but we are always trying to find ways that we
can reach people and educate them more about a the
industry and b to advance them within their careers. We
advance them at companies that they're at as well, like
like Bingo was saying earlier, all these little letters that
we have after our names crs and c kbrs.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
They also want people to stay in the business. They
just we just did a one on one class for
people that are new into business, you know, new leaders,
new owners, and you know, you know, a lot of
what happens a lot of people is they go out
of business. You know, they start a business and one
to three years later they're out of business. So we're
actually working on helping people stay in the industry. You
(19:20):
know what they really need to know, they're really the
cost of goods sold is not exactly what people think
it is. You think you pay a guy this much
an hour, and then he gets like, no, you don't
get to keep all of that right. You know, there's
a lot of stuff that goes in and then you
got to get insurance. And when you want to be legal,
it's not you don't make as much money as you
think you're making. So that's we have to make sure
every he's on the same page and we help people out.
Most of the time, new people just don't charge enough
(19:41):
and that's usually why they go out of business.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Hey, how often do you guys see you know, a
kid gets out of high school, thinks he wants to
go into this part, wants to be a carpeenter. Let's
use that and a year or two into it. They decide, look,
maybe this isn't the right path, but I want to
maybe transition and being an electrician or be a plumber
or you know, work for Creative Construction Wisconsin and learn
(20:04):
how to work in the in the stucco world and
the plaster world. How often do you see kids when
when in young adults, when they decide one way, but
then they make a decision they want to try something else,
and the scholarships are available obviously for those guys as well.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Yeah, we see that a lot once once kids get
in the industry and they start start working on the
sites with other contractors. You know, other contractors want good employees.
So if they see a guy swinging a hammer and
he's doing a great job, an electrician will walk up
to him and say, you know you should, why don't
you come be an electrician. It's going to be easier
and climbing up on a roof and it's going to
be easier in doing this. So they will, they will
(20:41):
h find their own people within the trades, and yeah,
they they could go to school at w CTC and
be a carpenter and then switch and become an electrician.
That's that's great.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
We can Yeah, well does Eric's been on here a
few times, right, yeah, yes, he was a union plumber.
Now he's has nothing to do with plumbing plumb right now,
he's just he's a carpenter. You know, he does really
good carpentry work. But he started off, as you know,
doing a whole union thing with the plumbering stuff. And
now he's in his own business doing corpentry.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Do you know? Did he And we've had him in
studio and I've asked him this that when he made
that transition that he said, look, I I need to
I want to change and be a carpenter. Did he
then go back to school or is that something that.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
He had done? And you know he was, No, he
was he was doing working for I won't say a name,
but he was working for that company. And he came
by me and he says, I want to work by you.
I'll learn to see. I want to learn how to
do a historic restoration like you guys do, right, so
let me come and work for you for one year
and see how that goes, right right now? It was
five years later, yeah, and now he's you know, now
now he's uh, he just went off on his own.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
You know it's interest, so you brought that up. I
just recorded a new commercial for the people at Helman
and the idea on the commercial is, look, do you
want to replace or do you want to restore? So
if your man cave gets flooded, you had it exactly
what you want it and now do you want to
just repair it or do you want to do you
(22:02):
want to restore it? And when you talked about look,
we were the restoration side of it.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
We deal with interest compans all the time. Yeah, you're
allowed to have it restored back to the way it
was before the event. That's key, and that's in it.
It's a battle. It's a battle for for contractors and
for the homeowners. They get it that way, but you
know we work with them to help them happen. Yeah,
make it happen.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
What's interesting with with with Kelman is they have an
office now in Sheboygan and they said, look, can you
help us market this office in Sheboygan. We've been up
there a year and people in that area only want
to work with people that have their office in our town.
They'll pay a little extra, but they feel like, okay,
if you're Sheboygan through and through we'll work with you.
(22:45):
Everybody from that in that office born and raised in
Sheboygan and and they need a little bit of help
getting their name out and I can do that. And
the idea of restoring rather than replace, we just.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Did that with you know, we do a lostuff with
Kellman and then but like the one of the most one,
most funnest ones we ever did with Telman is when
the car ran into Tompkins. You know it's a wing press, right,
I love that wing place. We always go there all
the time, right, So I was I was excited when
you're told me about this one. That was great. Then Zach,
you know, Zach did the work and Zach at all
the free lunches so perfect he wanted to deal out
at the smart boy that Jack.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, that's awesome. Hey, Greg, When when we get to
talk about primitive Edge, When when when somebody like a
Calmet or a company like that comes to you and says, hey, look,
we could we need for you to to help us
in this area. When whether it's marketing or it's branding,
(23:38):
or it's the you know, the back end the books
and how we can make more profit. That's kind of
what primitive does.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Yeah, So that's a great example. If somebody says, hey,
we want to expand we want to go to Sheboygan.
The main thing that I look at for everybody is
to make sure that their process and procedures are in
order so we can duplicate the efforts, kind of like
a franchise like the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Hey, the of
the kettles we use, here's the formula we use, and
then we can take it and duplicate it. You can't
(24:05):
take the people with you, but you can take the
process and procedures with you. And that's kind of what
I teach people and I focus on and I can
I can focus on how they're going to make their
gross profits, and I analyze the neighborhood area of competitors.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You can teach us how to make KFC.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
I can teach you how to make KFC as well.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I think so, yeah, I can give you that.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Those are the those are the success stories at KFC.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Had it down and I follow it at UH. It's
everything's a recipe, it's a processing procedure.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
You know. It's interesting. I was talking to a guy
earlier this week who had he worked for a major
company then he started his own company and and and
it was going really well. But then he went back
and worked for corporate And I said, can I ask why?
And he said, you know, back then, like quick books
and all of the stuff that's available now that I
(24:56):
didn't know and it wasn't available. Is what got me
out of running my own company is it was just
too much because of trying to take care of that
side of it. Things have changed. And in with with
owning your company, the contelting company, you have to know
of all the different benefits that people can utilize with
(25:18):
AI and quick books and all of that. You have
to be up to data and all that correct.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, you got to stay up on top of all
of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
And my job is to make it easier for whoever
is I don't want to say failing, but struggling. And
you know, when you're in the business, you're looking at
the business and you're not focusing on how to grow it.
And that's typically the biggest problem I find with people
out there, and I help them get outside their box
and get outside their company so they can easily expand
it or create a sales team, or create a new
(25:50):
pricing structure or can new commission, structure, whatever it may
be to help their business advance.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
And what happens when people are in business is they
know what they know, but they don't know what they
don't And that's what happened to somebody else in Yeah,
because he was like, this is the way I do it,
this is the way I've always done it, this is
that's it, that's the way to do it. This always
works for us. But they don't know what they don't know.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
And business owners an entrepreneur are entrepreneurs and.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
They typically, like you just said, they know how to
do it, but they don't know how to teach it.
And I know how to teach it or help it
or extract it out of their brain, get it on
paper and teach The sales crewer.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
We had so many years ago on this show, and
I won't name him, but he was telling me that
when he took over the company, they had like six
employees and he was making as the owner of this company,
he was making a great living. But he decided he
(26:42):
really wanted to expand, expand fast, and he goes now,
instead of six, I have twenty seven, twenty seven families
that I that I have to make sure we have
enough work that I can feed their families. I'm not
making a dime more and I've got I have a
lot of sleepless nights. I think if he would have
come to you when he decided he wanted to expand,
(27:05):
you would have probably talked him, talked him through what
that looks like, and maybe expand slowly instead of all
in twelve months. And he said he didn't know exactly
what Bingo talks about. I didn't know what I don't know, right,
And now I know and I can't run it back.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
Yeah, we I talk about expansions. So when somebody says
I'm want to double my business in one year, I
go through the whole process with him. Okay, let's talk
about this. Do you want to double your business or
do you want to make more profit?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Sell?
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Sell what you're selling. Now, you know, if a two
million another company is making a ex profit, do you
want to make X plus? X plus has less headaches
than adding going from six employees to twenty six employees. Right,
So we go through that whole exercise. And if they say, yeah, no,
I want a franchise, I take them to I slow
it down a little bit because Hey, if you're going
(27:56):
to expand and you're going to go double your business
within a year, there's a lot of cap expenditures. You're
gonna have to think of your cash flow. There's a
lot of things you got to think about in order
to in order to grow that fast.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
What I didn't know when I started at the McGivern
agency was cash flows.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
King it is, Yeah, it is?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
And when when when I love you know where I'm
at right now in the beginning, and I have to
think Brookside Baptist Church, my home church, with that show
faith in the zone that I do that the day
I started my company, the first day, they handed me
a check for the year to be a sponsor of
(28:34):
Faith in his Zone, which gave me, you know, thirty
to sixty days of Okay, we got no money coming in,
but we can. We can do this because of that
company and because of that church. And they knew in fact,
the guy who runs that part of Brookside Baptist Church
is John Amy's brother, and so he's part of our
(28:55):
church and he handles, you know, our books and and
all that. And he's the guy who said, hey, look,
with you starting your company like like John did years ago,
we know that that. How about if we pay you up.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Front for you He also does the books on John
Nimmy's company through Yeah. One I went to the office
and they go, hey, there you are.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Okay, he's really good. He's a really smart dude.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Place.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
He comes to Brookside Baptist Chart So you know, I'm
the valet driver there. Guy. So if you ever come
to church you want me to park your car, I'm
the guy out front. Nobody trusts me.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
How can you not try?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
I'm not stealing your car when they put it in
a valet mode whenever you get in it.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, they I help people out of their car. And
and my favorite story with that is we had a
pastor whose wife is no longer with us, older woman,
and she drove a thunderbird and she pulled up and
she opened her door real fast to let me park it,
and her concealed carry fell out, and she went, oh,
(29:51):
that's where that is. And I thought, oh, man, you
know what, I'm just like, oh, this off And I
don't know, maybe we should put this stored a little
bit a little bit better. Hey, another question for you.
In the foundation, I'm the website, it says request the speaker.
You guys have people that are on the board of
the foundation. If a company wants you guys to come
(30:15):
and speak for them and come to and speak to
them about what the foundation does and what your mission
statement is, you guys are able.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
To do that. Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
We'll take any opportunity we can to talk about our
mission and what our plan is to help people get
it within the industry. So yeah, anybody give us a call,
call the office, schedule us myself or another industry professional
like Bingo. Bingo loves going to well going doing speeches
for school.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Oh yeah, waiting to go to schools and stuff. And
then we're actually just doing a program too with schools.
We're trying to get them, you know, I'm trying to
get Aaron and the younger people because I guess some
old guys stand up in the corner. You got to
get the younger guy right truck and say hey, look
at this could be you and you know instead of
people like me. But we're doing yeah, we do that
boys and girls clubs. Uh do you think we're just
we're not trying to, you know, say this is a
(31:06):
cult creative construction as a cult that you need to
join We're just if there's an opportunity, if you want
to make more money than your friends, you know, come
and do constructions. You know, come and do construction because
that's it's an honest pay. You get honest paid for
honest day's work and all that.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Hey, as a last question, and we're going to get
to a break, but I want to go back real
quick to primitive edge consulting as a management consultant, is
what you would do? Would you would say that's what
your company does?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Right? Yeah, this is this is.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
My for an example, how could you fix him?
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Okay, let's not talk about your let's not talk about
the gym. That's how you can come on, man, the
boys could looks at the sparkling personality.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
That's where it has the man got face.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, oh man, if I hadn't buck for every time
I was told that. But the roles of a management consultant,
can we talk a little bit about what that looks like?
And then will continue on the other side of the break.
But you know, doing some research for the show, problem, identification,
strategy development I think are probably the top two in
what you do for companies. Correct.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Yeah, So when somebody comes to me and they say, hey,
I want to X. Either I need to change my culture,
I need to get a new sales team, I need
to create a sales process, whatever that may be. I
create a program for them specifically, and everybody has a
different program. And I've worked with machine shops and gun
(32:35):
shops and whatever out there. It doesn't matter business and business.
A couple of things that I teach them is I
want to know what it costs to keep the lights on?
And that simple exercises. That simple exercise gets people to
focus on, holy macro, what does it cost to keep
your lights on? So in two thousand and eight, when
we had the great depression that happened, a lot of
(32:57):
people thought that, well, if I just sell something, even
if it's a cost, it's going to keep capital flowing.
And that doesn't work. No, you have to make a profit.
And we watched Bengal's been around for a long time
and and the people that were strong and they did
and they did what they should do and they didn't
sell for costs. They're still around. Yeah, and there's a
lot of people that are gone.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You know, you talked about the culture, and I was
on WISN this week, Dave Michaels talking about high school
State of Wisconsin out in high school sports. The NIL
is now available to high school student athletes. And that's
the part that the culture part is what scared me
(33:37):
the up. I'm glad I'm retired as a basketball coach
because imagine this on a basketball team. Let's say you
have fifteen kids and there's a pecking order. Who's your
best player, second best player? If the fourth best player
has an NIL deal, and he walks into the locker
room and says, hey, look at these new air Jordan's
I bought with the NIL money I have. But but
(33:58):
your top player and your second top and your third
is not getting an IL deal. You want to talk
about how hard you're going to have to work as
a coaching staff for the culture and look, it's a
buzzword nowadays. Great, right, Hey, we got to fix the culture.
Well what does that mean? What does that look like?
I used to work for a radio station that they
would do a you know, they on a Friday afternoon,
(34:20):
they cook brats out. You know, they do a little
cookout and think that's what it was going to fix
the culture, and they'd make mistake after mistake after mistake
for the culture and then think by cooking your broad
it's going to all fix it. And it's a buzzword.
People don't really understand how important the culture is in
a locker room or in.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
The culture is. I mean, you know, we get workers
to become family, right. The culture is so big. I
mean that's what whenever I look for employees, we look
for people that are looking for a family right right,
because the people don't want to be the people that
they want to do stuff together. Then they help each other. Man,
my work is like cover for each other those like
do something you know, they'll make us all.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
It's every bingo. Every time I've had people outside of
the true your true family in studio to be representing
Creative Construction Wisconsin, they brought that word up. That's what
they That's not something that you just talk about and
it's a buzzword for you. They brought it up like
the Emmits, like we get invited to their family function.
(35:20):
We're part of their family inside the office but outside
as well. And I think that's important. The culture part
of it. Greg. I think that what you do at
Primitive Edge Consultant, that has to be a big part
of what they're doing. And the culture side of it
is it's a hard thing. The bigger the company, the
harder it is to build a really strong culture.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
So culture comes in a lot of different ways. And
I the one thing that I find is just because
you're the owner of the company doesn't mean that you
should be doing the job of a general manager, a
sales manager, a salesman. I want to focus on who's
in the right seat on the bus. That's the biggest thing.
And and I currently working with a couple of different
(36:03):
companies that the owner tried to be the general manager
and we've switched out and we found the right general
manager to to stay at the ground level, work with
the people constantly, and put the put the owner at
a little bit higher level to go do the things
to work for the business instead of in the business.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Okay, we can use an example, right Tennantly, I'm the
owner of the company.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
But who do you talk to Sam?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Okay Zach Right, yeah, Sam runs, she organizes. He's the
one that has the companies. People call all the time
to say, when can you do it? I said, you
gotta talk to Sam. I can't you know, I can't
just change that stuff with not the way they do it.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
And that's the greatest example. So so guys like Bengo,
He's created a very great company for all these years,
but he realizes that I need to have somebody else
do certain things. He can still he can still mentor
he can still teach, he can still show people what
he's done. But go have somebody schedule for me. I'm
a disastrous scheduling things. Oh yeah, I forgot to be
(37:01):
there because I don't have a scheduler. So that's one
of the simplest things that I that I do to
change the culture. And it's amazing that when you move
a couple of parts and pieces around a company, you
also find that there are certain people that shouldn't be
at a company and you work on that as well.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
And that's.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
We had a we had a players toxic we put
up from for a lot of years. And as soon
as you got rid of the toxic employee, everybody came
out of the woodwick and said stuff right in the
beginning and not saying nothing you all think you know,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, we're gonna get to a break other side the break.
I have a question for you, Creig, if you can
teach a person who isn't a good manager how to
be a better manager. Because that that was a good
challenge for me. Yeah, you know what, because I always
want Yeah, I'm a nice guy. I want to be
friends with everybody. And I don't know if you want people.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
To respect you, not be friends with everybody? Well, you
don't want to like?
Speaker 1 (37:49):
You want said?
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Do you want to be liked? You want to be feared?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Well, and now with the beginnering agency, you know, I
had to fire my secretary a couple of weeks ago.
My wife didn't even know she was my secretary here,
but she's still my personal assistant.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
And I'm like, she's also a HR departments.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
No, No, that's me I gotta take I'm keeping that
hat for sure. He is Greg Adamic again, President Narry
Milwaukee Foundation, and he owns Primitive Edge Consulting and we're
talking to this next segment a lot about that company.
This is the creative construction of Wisconsin Homiprouvement Show on
Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app. Yeah,
(38:28):
I know, guys, we need a new producer. He's not
playing playing Nelly music. I give him casting crowns and
he plays Nelly. Welcome back to You're a strong Man.
Welcome back to the Creative Construction with scottson Home improvement
show on Fox Sports nine twenty years. iHeartRadio app could
be live from the Donovan.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
And George Sports off the air though, yeah a lot. Yeah,
he's Bingo Emmons. He's the owner of Creative Construction Wisconsin.
Our special guest in studio, so it was good to
have him in studio. Greg Adamic, President Narry Milwaukee Foundation
also owns Primitive Edge Consulting.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
And I want to talk a little bit more about that.
You know, we had talked last segment right at the
end about about how to build culture, and then we
talked about management and and.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Well you could help us with stuff too, Like you know,
we're in a transition period, right, you can help us
with the whole help.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Position with people transitioning from their generation.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Because when I talked to them their dad, I'm their dad.
I got to get someone to say the same thing
as all good, you don't hear from their dad.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
I set a specific set of ground rules when when
there's family that's that's transitioning over. So I'll have you know,
I'll tell the children or whoever is going to be
the buyer, that this is your stance, is what you do,
and bingo, this is what you're going to do. And
I watch Creative Construction and I stay I stay on
the ball with creative construction, and everybody else has to
(39:55):
do their own their job.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
So I think that's important. Uh. And we talked and
I teach you up because I was talking about myself.
I think I coached for a long time, but when
I was working and I was put into a management role,
I wasn't very good at it. And I think it
came back to this whole thing about you know, these
(40:16):
are my friends and now I've got I've got to
talk to them or do something against the friendship part
of it. And I think that that I wasn't very
good at that. Are you able to at least help
people become better managers?
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (40:33):
So the biggest thing, like you just said, I want
to be everybody's friend. I want to be everybody's friend.
And Jack Hughes, one of my very good mentors, told
me a really long time ago, you don't want to
be their friends.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
You want them to respect you. You don't want them
to like you. You want them to respect you.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
And fifty percent of respect is given when you walk
in this door, and the other fifty percent is earned.
So I can help you with the other fifty percent.
You got to bring in the fifty percent. That's that
when you walk in this room. And that's a huge thing.
And I tell people, just because you're a good salesperson
doesn't mean you're gonna be a good manager. And we
got to make sure you're in the right seat on
(41:08):
the bus.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
And that's it.
Speaker 4 (41:09):
And that includes the owner, the people sweeping the floors. Everybody,
everybody at a company is a salesperson. You're sweeping the
floor that can get your business.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Do you know your background is in the trades, but
what you're doing with primitive Edge consulting can work. You
can work with people outside of the trades. Correct.
Speaker 4 (41:29):
Oh, business is business to me. Business is business and
it's all a game to me. So everybody has a
product and service that they sell to somebody that has
a want and a need and I try to get
it the want and the need to the customer more efficient.
I try to and efficiencies will make money. So it
says simple as that, if you make your company more efficient,
you're going to make more money. If you have fifty
(41:51):
steps within a process or procedure, can it be twenty
five steps? Can you cut twenty percent out of your
process and procedures to make you more efficient?
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Hey? Were you and I should know this. Were you
a student athlete at Hartford? Did you play?
Speaker 4 (42:07):
I did one year of wrestling, one year of football,
played rugby outside.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Okay, So there's something I think to be said for
people that have at least tried their hand in different
sports being part of a team. And when we talked
about the culture side of it, I think you learn
that you learn either really good habits in that world
or bad habits in that world on different things that
(42:33):
you do. If you're part of the boy Scouts, right,
if you're part of the wrestling team, if you're part
of the baseball team, if you're part of the musical
there are so many opportunities. And as you grow greg
there are so many different lessons you learn about what
you believe is good culture and what you believe might
be bad culture. And I think there are so many
(42:55):
lessons to be learned at an early age where you
then build your own idea on what good culture is.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
When your team is in the right spot, the team
will take care of itself. It's a self sufficient team.
It's kind of a military mentality. If you've got a
guy that's a really good part on a team, but
he's lacking, your team is going to pick him up
and drag him along. That's same thing with the Hey man,
you missed that ball. You know, here's what you gotta do.
Get on it, you know, keep your eyes focused on it.
(43:23):
The team will fix itself when all the people are
sitting on the right seat on the bus. So, like
the example that I gave you before, I had an
owner of a company, realize that you need to have
a general manager within the organization because he needs to
focus on other things. Go focus on financial parts, Go
focus on buying new trucks, Go focus on the ROI
on you're gonna add another piece of equipment in the building.
(43:47):
Have the general manager focus on the people themselves. So
the people themselves is when you're a general manager, you
are you're watching the ball of the company. You're watching
the financials. You're also the priest, You're the father, you're
the men to or pastor, you're everything of a company.
To make sure that the people are getting what they need.
If they don't have what they need to do their job,
(44:08):
whatever specificity they may have for their job, they don't
have the proper tools, they will not succeed. That's the
role of a general manager, not necessarily an owner of
a company unless they're at that management level.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
Really deep, So.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Did you talk about good cop bad cop stuff?
Speaker 3 (44:25):
I do?
Speaker 1 (44:26):
I have to?
Speaker 4 (44:26):
I played both. Yeah, I play good cop bad cop,
and you have to. You're catering to everybody's needs. Your
needs mic are different than Bingo's needs. Your Bingo's needs
are different than Spencer's needs. And the general manager or
a manager of an organization needs to understand the needs
for the different people.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Do you know when I coached, the other coach was
the deanis students in the school, and we had the conversation.
I said, you can't be a bad cop all day
long as the dean of students and then think you're
going to be the good cop. I'm the I'll play
the good cop. So I'm the one who put my
arm around the kids when they ran out of practice
because again he was yelling at him, and so we
(45:04):
had that conversation. These kids, in fact to this day.
You know, guys I coached fifteen years ago would say,
do you remember when you got that big argument with
the other coach. I go, yeah, that was pure drama.
We did that for you, and they had no idea
that as the managers, we would have the conversation. He
would come to me and say, that kid has not
(45:25):
practiced well the last two days. I'm gonna get on
pretty hard, so be ready to put your good cop
hat on, put your arm around him, and get him
back to practice. And we would have those conversations. And
I think that with Primitive Edge consulting, you'll have those
conversations with the owner and the general manager. One guy
can be the good cop, one can be the beat.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
Well.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
I talk about the roles of which they are now
intended to be, but I also teach him how to
not undermine when one makes a decision. They have to
be lockstep within the organization. That if you don't like
what your general manager does that you've appointed, you take
them in the other room and you have a conversation.
I want to teach that they they've made a decision
(46:09):
and any decision is better than no decision. But we
talk about it that maybe next time, it's going to
be a little bit different, and there's nothing within an
organization that.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Hey, people can get a hold of you a number
of different ways if if they Google you or if
they're on UH they can go on the website for
Narry Milwaukee Foundation. They can there's number of ways for
people to find you with Primitive Edge consulting.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
Correct click on LinkedIn. That's a that's one of the
best ways to get me, or else.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
You can just call my phone. Yeah, six two, hold on,
hold on, go ahead, six two three, yep.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
Zero nine three. Now that's my personal number. Don't call
me after nine to six. You don't call me before six.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Well, thank goodness for Nancy, because back back in the day,
be okay to call you after nine for sure two
six two six two three oh nine three seven nine
three nine o nine three nine two six two six
two three oh nine three nine. It's really good to
see you.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Great to see you as well.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Yeah, you bet have fourth July coming.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Yeah, nope, Yeah, I get yell at because I'm not
talking about we're in a Tulsa parade. We're passing on
popsicles this year, and yell I'm getting yelled at from them.
I said, don't forget we got five thousand popsicles to
pass out this year.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
You're passing on popsicles.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Last year, you guys ran out quick.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah, yeah, that's why. So we got five A whole
freezer in the back of the truck.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Now Toast praise.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
They started freezing on a month ago, the.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
Fourth of July. Toast Parade starts like tomorrow, the longest parade.
We used to go to that thing every year, and
I finally said, honey, let's go, like, let's go to
Cedarburgs Frade.
Speaker 3 (47:50):
It's fourteen.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Yeah, we tried doing we're doing two prays. Last year
we did the green and a toolsa prayed.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Sam says no, no, we need help with the popsicles,
and yeah, people look.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Forward to that.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
So we bring those every year.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
Make sure that you yell to Bingo if you see
them in the Toasted parade, ask for a popsicle. Guys,
good to see you, Bingo. Have a good week. Spencer,
thanks for letting us know to bring our big hoodies.
And I see you've got your park on.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Well done.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
This is the Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement show
on Fox Sports ninet twenty in your iHeart radio app,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.