November 8, 2025 • 47 mins
Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, November 8th, 2025
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app
coming live from the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating, cooling.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Studios and not you brought them up. Guess who's going
to be in next week Donovan?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Guess who was at my house yesterday?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Now you get to hear all the new deals that
those guys have.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Man, they're the best, the largest employee owned HVAC company
in the state of Wisconsin. Any issues you have, I'm
part of their maintenance program. Under two hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
You should be extra maintenance program. Yeah, I'm extra for
your maintenance program.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
My wife says, I'm high maintenance.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Are you still in trouble for when you take the
filter out and you rensed it up with the holes
to put it back?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I am. Yeah. They make fun of me for that. Yeah,
because I do a home improvement show. You know what,
they really make fun of me for having not figuring
out how to change the change the battery in my
smoke detector.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well you just take it out there, Timmy Cookeeh, no.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We do. I'm not going there. It's against some rules.
Talk to my wife on that one. Hey, our special
guest today. I'm looking forward to this because I'm going
to learn a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I know, I heard you because his designs are Marble
and you said, you're going up your whole life. He
got those little designs man. Yes, yes, he's so excited
about it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That Spencer's still laughing about. I said, what do you
think that the slab just like shows up on its own?
And and I go, yeah, that's how it worked at
my house. I went to work one day and Boom.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Came and it's like we can talk about contortops and
he and I said, how do you think they actually
get there?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I said, we're gonna find out. Because our special guest
she knows a lot about this. She is a Meghan
the Mulky designs in Marble. You go to designs in
Marble dot com. As we're talking two locations, we'll get
into both of those. And I love the fact that
Megan sent to us some talking points, and the first
talking point says our accidental family business. Meghan, how are
(01:51):
you today?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I'm very well, thank you so much for having me
here today. This is really exciting things.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Well, I thank you for that, and and you you
moved away for a bit, but it's you can take
the chief head out of Wisconsin, but you can't take
right Wisconsin. The chiefs head came home and when you
made a comment and said, look, I don't know of
anywhere else in the country would be a better place
to raise a child than southeast Wisconsin. He's now seventeen,
(02:19):
walks on north board. What is your son's name.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
My son's name is Nick.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Nick. Do you think Nick will get in the family
business one day?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I am trying yea open so you.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Know what, don't worry about it, because I trust me.
Bingo went through it, his kids all went through it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, yeah, maybody knows I had no intention of working
here back then, back in eighty six. Can help me
out for a couple of weeks and then that's it
it ever since.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
And Sam and Zach and when you talk to them
and they go, look, we were getting away from it,
and then realized what a great business my family had,
and why didn't I get involved in it? And the
rest is history. Now Sam and Zach will take over
and Bingo, Bengo's always going to trust me. Big O
will be there to help out.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Now that's awesome, whether they want me to or not.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Right, it wasn't something that that you wanted or thought
you wanted back when you were at econom Walk High
School and doing that stuff about being But all of
a sudden, this this company started and you fell in
love with it.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I did. So how do I put this?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
When I moved away my whole Uh, I was really
interested in biology and I was a veterinarian technician for
a while, and so Sam just went for that yeah, yes, oh,
or very similar.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
She did that for a while and before she came
back she was doing.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Same, same, very similar, same same story then. And when
I came back to Wisconsin, I was looking for a
vet tech job again. But VT techan doesn't really pay
the bills. So I said, well this my dad and
my brother started this company a couple of years ago
and they could use some help and receptions. So I said,
(04:01):
all right, well I'll try that for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
A couple of weeks, there you go, and the rest
they say is history is history. You moved on from
being in receptions and looking at your bio. You've been
kind of part of every little part of this, right
what and what what is your job description today? What
are you doing there now today?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
I am business development, so I really do help continue
to help our business grow.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
So sales sales. Yeah, and just to introduce your company
to is it? Is it to homeowners or is it
to contractors or all the above? Who do you Who
are you normally talking to when you're trying to develop
business for Designs in Marble.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I am talking to contractors mostly, and that is because
we are looking to develop relationships with the contractors that
we provide our services for, and it's it's them that
we want of support to see their businesses grow as well.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
What sets you guys apart? And I don't mean to
put you on the spot, but as salespeople, we all
have kind of an elevator pitch right going through the
talking points that you gave me and going through your website,
I know what mine, what mine would be if I
was a sales rep for you, what my elevator pitch
would be for Designs in Marble, But I'm wondering what
(05:26):
yours is.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Oh, thank you for asking.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
We really do hinge on education about the materials that
we're fabricating and installing. As I've been moving through this company,
I found that a lot of people were really asking
the same question over and over again. I said, well,
you know, why is this? Why are people so confused
(05:49):
about stone? And so what I've done then is educate
and train my staff to really be the source of
information that our customers need so that we can take
that confusion away from them and they can really get
the stone countertop service that they're looking for, not just
(06:13):
esthetically but also functionally as well.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So the educational part and and and each week the
guy sitting between us believes so much in that part
of what what this this is? Right? Let's educate not
only the companies and the people that work for these companies,
but let's educate the contractors. And and Bingo's so big
in education.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yes, yeah, And one thing was unique about stone is
everyone is different. There's no you don't get duplicates. I mean,
everyone's different, and you have to just pick the right stuff.
You know. These guys got to take, you know, a
stone from a mountain and then get in your kitchen.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So they just don't take it from that place on Lisbon,
like I talked about.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Talking, you're talking about limestone quarries from there.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Right, Hey, look I'm I'm just asking questions. Yeah. The
theme music for this this show is fanfare for the
common Man. I'm the common man when it comes into here.
Because I asked questions that I'm telling you, more people
come up to me and go, you really didn't know. No,
my father was a bricklayer and a mason, and so
you wanted to one of the mcgimnern boys to follow
(07:21):
his footsteps. None of us, None of us did. You
can see there's not a lot of calluses on these hands. Hey,
So your dad, Richard and your brother.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Carl, he was talking about his kids are the same
way I talked to one time I had to do
a job for his kids. I'll answered, well, n your
daddy wuld teach out a colck hees No, but he
told me how to dribble is my left hand?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah? As a basketball coach? Yeah? Did that I take
credit for Other than that, nothing there were both our
kids were very good students, and that comes from my
wife's side. When when was Richard your dad? Did he
do something in this prior to starting this with with
your brother Carl?
Speaker 4 (07:58):
He didn't.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
What was he doing prior to this?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
He was in Tool and Die for for decades, and
but he understood how to run a manufacturing plant, if
you will. So there is a manufacturing aspect to it,
as far as getting the right people in the right
place to to fabricate the stone and to run run
a fabrication shop like that. And and he also taught
(08:25):
us really the value of customer service at the same time. Uh,
in tool and die, it's all just metal. Uh, there's
there's really no aesthetic value.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
To it at all.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And diet are accurate measurement, yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Oh lots of yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So so we come with that the measure twice cut
once uh kind of philosophy. And so it was great
to have that kind of education from our dad in
that faction.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
So when you work with contractors, if they're there's a
person that is you know, just just somebody who owns
a home that is going to redo their kitchen and
they're working with a contractor, can they say, listen, I
was on the designs in Marble website and they have
something there that I want in my house. And so
(09:20):
that would be the process right or to have the
contractors who are working with them say listen, here are
the people we work with and do they then bring
them to your showroom or how does that work?
Speaker 4 (09:32):
That's typically how it works.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
So we develop relationships with the contractors, and the contractors
then trust us to perform these services in their customers' homes.
And a lot of times the contractors will give us
the plans for the house. So then we create a
quote and we hopefully have an audience with the homeowner
(09:56):
so that we can educate them about the materials so
they're looking at and considering for their home.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Do you know the Again, I spent a lot of
time on your website. If you go on the gallery.
The one picture that I called my wife, I said, go, yeah,
look at this and it's the courts built in night
stands in a primary bedroom and I'm like, fantastic, we
gotta get these. And she's like in our condo and
I go yeah, I go, I don't think our bedroom's
(10:25):
gonna look like this whatever, But that like that kind
of cool. This isn't just countertops, correct, Yes, there's a
lot to what you guys do. You offer a lot
of different things.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yes, we do so in addition to countertops, and that's
where a lot of people think and start as countertops,
but we are really growing quite exponentially into vertical applications
like fireplaces, fireplaces all the way to the ceiling, and
of course full hype backsplash, which is seems to be
(10:58):
getting bigger and bigger real time.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, those shows that we watch on TV, yes, right, yeah,
And I always ask the people that are sitting by you,
are those shows good for your business? Are bad?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Good? Question? Kind of a mixed bag.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
They It can be a little misleading with some of
those shows as far as how available the materials can be,
or or they kind of gloss over a little bit
of what the materials the stone cannon can do. So
that can be a little frustrating sometimes, but.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
The ideas that people get from those shows is probably
the helpful side that's helpful. Are you able to go
to a friend's open house they bought a new house,
or they redid their house and now you're going to
go over and have you know, glass wine and some
more dorves. Are you able to just go and enjoy
that or are you looking? Are you looking at how
(11:53):
they did their work? And if there's something you don't like,
DOJESU just keep your mouth shutterer and you go what
are you thinking.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Oh, the first thing I do this check the seams nowhere.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
No matter where I go, She's just like you, Matt.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
She is just being goes the same way you go.
I can't even walk into a new restaurant without looking
and that pretend to have to go to the bathroom
to find out how. Yeah, I just think that's very
fun that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Happened to me. We were at a restaurant and I
went in to the bathroom. Was Hey, in fact, do
you see that bathroom all in there? For everybody in
the table start going one at a time in our bathroom.
You're going in there.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We had to go look, everybody had a God book.
That's how. Yeah, you can't. It's kind of a curse
in the business.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
You can turn it off.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Hey, your brother was a senior in high school when
when your dad and him kind of started this. Was
that something that that Do you think it was pushed
by by your your brother wanting to do something like
this or was it your dad saying we're going to
do this.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
It was a combination of both. My brother was doing
it and uh he was successful at it. Uh for
just fabricating with some pretty rough tools out of the
back of a Gageousnessially, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
You learned how to do. Was there something that at
high school they.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Taught him that.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
It was actually a family friend that was fabricating stone
in Texas, and it was common practice at that time
to just get a slab of stone, you haul it
over to the person's house, and you start cutting it
up in their front yard.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
And that's not those days.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Those days are over.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, they won't even cut Marvelty. All your cabinets, everything's
got to be in place. We're all ready to.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Go, exactly. So, so it kind of started off, what
was it.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
What's the family friend's first name?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Oh, that would have been Curtis, but he's he's out
the picture for a while.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Right, But you know what we think, Curtis, thank you. Yeah,
we think taking the time to teach your brother this
and get him excited about it, because look, I I
coached high school basketball for a long time and after
this show, I do a two hour high school sports
show and we have seniors in high school in here
every week, and some of them are not motivated to
(14:05):
do much right, And to have your brother do this
in high school and go, hey, I'm pretty good at
this like I can make a little money at this
and have your dad identify that and go okay, and look,
this company's come a long way, right. You gotta be
so proud. How many employees right now?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
We're at twenty seven employees?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yes, good for you. Yeah, is that from start to finish?
So if they call the office to have a contractor
calls you, they'll meet with you. And then the process.
You guys do all your own own installs and stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
That is correct.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
So from top to bottom when we're working with contractors
and going into homeowners'.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Houses, it is always.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
The designs of Marble employee from top to start to finish.
There's no other way of doing it in my eyes.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, there's there's part of that elevator pitch right there.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You can almost you can almost walk there from where
you live.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
You can, Yeah, coming over.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I hope you do.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, you guys, I serve lunch and Bingo said you
have great food.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So when you do they when you do the food thing,
you gotta go for that.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah. Hey again on the website, on the gallery, and
we had talked about you guys now doing more in
the vertical space the fireplace with the dark and it's
almost like white and black that you have there. It's
really pop like it catches your eye, like, Okay, I
haven't seen something like that before. The trends in your business?
(15:32):
Is it more one color, more light more? Is it
people going dark? Or is it all over the place?
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Oh? Boy, it really is all over the place. However,
if we're going to pinpoint on a trend, I would
still say it is a white background with a marble
look is what we're going for. Doesn't necessarily have to
be natural marble. Uh, there's engineered products that achieve the
marble look, and we're seeing people asking for these types
(16:02):
of materials now. And what I'm kind of alluding to
is large format porcelain tile, which is how we're able
to have very thin material that looks just like marble.
Photographs of marble are implanted into the surface of this
large format porcelain.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
No, it's the most beautiful. Yeah, yeah it does.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's starting to I've been doing this for fifteen years
and I'm actually starting to have to double guests myself
when I'm looking at some of these applications. Is that
real or is that an engineered stone? And with this
very thin material, then We're able to take it all
the way up to the ceiling without adding a lot
of weight, because that has been the biggest drawback for
(16:48):
having stone applied in a vertical application, because it's heavy.
Three centimeter stone, which is just under about an inch
and a quarter thickness, weighs eighteen pounds a square foot.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Megan Mulky, if I asked you when you were a
senior econom walk, if I said, hey, one day we're
going to have you on radio show and you're going
to know this about you would have said, you're out
of your Mindiver, I'm going to be a vet tag.
I mean, this is what I'm doing. Amazing. Hey, is
it more expense? Is it expense wise? Having straight marble
(17:26):
would be more expensive right than fabricated.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
It would be if I'm going to find the most
gorgeous marble. And that's kind of a little bit of
the chick with natural marble is that it is sold
by market value. So the more prettier it is, the
more expensive it is. So if I'm going to have
this really gorgeous marble, look, I'm going to save money
if I go with a engineered stone that looks like it.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
And you can't cut marble at then make it, make
it exactly that big of a piece, because you know
when you go to a shop you see them just
some big slab, they're a big they're big pieces of marble.
Right then, so you gets on that thing. I just
is this going to shatter exactly?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Hey, we're going to get to a break other side
of the break. I have got some questions for you.
I came up with an article Tips for working with
a Stone Fabricator, and we're going to ask you a
couple of questions that these guys think. These are very
important tips when somebody is working with somebody like you,
and let's find out what you think of these. On
(18:27):
the other side, she's making mulky designs in Marble. You
can go to designs in marble dot com. Two locations.
The first location in in Zonia, correct and then in Pewaukee.
They're my neighbor. We're the fighting pirates, Matt, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And maybe I'll see at Bubbo's one day side Yeah,
trust me. Yeah, those kids over there work hard. Matt. Yeah,
(18:49):
that's a great place. We'll get to a break other
side of the break again. Tips for working with a
stone fabricator, and I want to talk a little bit
more about this family owned company and what that means.
I'm wondering on Thanksgiving, can they talk about anything except Marble.
We'll find out on the other side of the break again,
she's making mulky designs in Marble. This is the Creative
(19:10):
Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement Show only on Fox Sports
nine twenty and Your iHeart Radio App. Welcome back to
the Creative Construction Wisconsin Home Improvement Show on Fox Sports
ninety twenty and your iHeart Radio App. Coming live from
the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating and Cooling Studios our
special guest in studio. This has been really fun. I
(19:31):
was a little worried about this because I'm like, I
don't know much about Marble, and I think everything.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
But now we won't know how the little designs do
get in those little marbles. I'll do they Yeah, ratcham,
that was all excited.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
My friend Mike Bush, who he was a plumber forever
and big high school football fan, and I pulled in
this morning and he goes, hey, you got a lot
to talk about today and your high school show. I go, yeah,
but I got an hour of talking about Marble and
he goes, well, we played with Marbles when we were
a kid. I go, I don't think that's the way
I should bring this up. But this this has been
really good. She is Megan Maulky. She is with Designs
(20:04):
in Marble. It's a family owned company. Go to designs
in Marble dot com. What I love about this company
is look, her dad and brother started the company. It's
now they got almost thirty employees at this point. But
they are Wisconsin, this area, born and raised man, and
they have the look that servant leadership heart that a
(20:26):
lot of people out of this area have. These guys
have it. And when you talk, when you talk about
Meghan in that first segment, she's like, look, I just
want to help people. I want to help people get
exactly what they want, and then I want to educate people.
Again that servant leadership heart that I'm sure she got
from her dad, Richards somewhere along the line in econom
Walk and I love that part of this company. Tip
(20:49):
for working with a stone fabricator, let me go through
a couple of these and get your opinion on it.
Number one is find your ideal slab to start.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
From that can that's a good way to start is
to find what you are.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You might need to explain it the yeah, because when
you you know they're coming, you know they're big chunks
of marble and then we're cutt into little sections and
little slivers and stuff. And then when you slab, when
you go to a showroom, those are big slabs.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And it's so if somebody says it's a big slab
and somebody says, I really like the middle section, does
that that kind of stuff happen.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
That is typically what happens.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, yes, and what do you do with with the
rest of the slab?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Then done a lot of times, it really does one
of two things. When we cut the middle out of
a slab, the rest of it really does become waste.
If we're able to use the remnants for other parts
of the project. We want to Our whole goal is
to fabricate as much stone as we possibly can for
(21:55):
your project, and we also want to get it done
right as far as what you the customer, are expecting
it to look like. So if we cut it off
the middle, that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Going back to the first segment, when I asked you
about these next to the bed the stands. Yeah, so
you could use right. I mean, look, we put this
into your kitchen, but we have this, we have some
pieces left. Wouldn't it be cool to have two night
stands marble? Now again maybe not then my kind of people, right,
(22:30):
that would be what a great way to use some
of the remnants.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yes, exactly right, And so we help guide people in
that direction too. So starting with the slab itself can
be a great way to go. You're seeing what you
want as far as color goes, but you don't necessarily
know how that material is going to behave once it's
installed in your house. So that's why that first tip,
(22:56):
that's a little bit of a tricky question.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Well, number two, we also learned today how much square
foot does slab way per square foot? That was earlier
today three hundred pounds. No, no, it was eighteen pounds
of square foot.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That yeah, okay, anyway, let's give didn't do a great job.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
At ten square feet. You're not gonna be able to
pick it up and put it in your pocket.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
No, no, I don't think I can pick it up.
Number two, identify and share your favorite slab sections. So
let me read this part. You may have some favorite
and this is what we just talked about, may have
some favorite selections your slab shown with the grain color
and the flow of its natural elements. Point these sections
out to your stone fabricators so they can spotlight them
(23:44):
on the island or center of your countertop space and
not lose your favorite piece to a sink cutout.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
That is that's actually really good. Yes, I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I love it when people I wish I came up
with it, but I'm just looking at this website here.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
And then we actually take it as step further even
with our process, and that is when somebody identifies the
parts of the stone that they absolutely love and we
do want to capture that for their project. So before
we even fabricate, we give our customers an image of
what their project is going to look like before we
(24:19):
cut the stone, so that we can ensure that we've
captured the areas that they love.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
That business comes a long way from your brother cutting
in the backyard or the front yard. The last sentence
in that was your fabricator may also point out more
beautiful spaces that will flow well together when cut into
countertop pieces. That is true, So do you have to
have that designer I when you're looking at.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
This, we kind of do.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And that's one of the things that drew me into
the business then, is having a flare for artistic design
and then being able to.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Did you know you had that? Yeah? So were you
an artist?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
You were?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Okay, Yeah, that's a gift that not everybody and I
don't have. If we're going to paint that wall, and
you know how people just take three different colors and
put them on the wall and say which one. I
can't see what it's going to look like till it's done,
and so that's a gift that you have.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
It's a gift that I have, and it's a gift
that all of our sales executives have too. When I'm
looking for someone to be working in sales for designs
in Marble, they have to have an interest in creative design.
They have to be excited by colors and by helping
people through the selection process.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
If I ever send you a resume, do not hire me. Okay,
just don't hire me when it comes to because that
part of it, I might be able to tell.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
You, oh, yeah, yeah, want Kelly Green or something Kelly Green.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Everything needs to be the color of your sweatshirt right there,
which is beautiful to me. Number three on this list
two of the kitchen layout with your stone fabricator. Yes, yep, important.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I think that's important. Yeah, and we do that again
with images.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Ye do your sales and again so you work mostly
with contractors, and your sales team then is out working.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
With he's also a rising star.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, we're going to get into
that in the next segment. We have balloons and confetti
coming out for for the award.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Right because he's you know, talking a lot of contractors.
He's you know, making a big splash.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Well you said that before she came in and said, look,
you have to understand that she is now starting to
really move up into where people are talking about her
as somebody that contractors have to work with, which I love.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Is kind for the next party because I like their food.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, there you going. I'm going to be there because
it's right around the corner.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, you don't have any excuse now to No, I know.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I have no excuses. Plus you can tell I like food,
so you know that it's perfect, perfect for me. Number
four on this ask your fabricator for design ideas.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Oh that we do appreciate that and we're able to participate.
It gets us excited about the project too. We are
already we were already excited about the project because everyone
that we we work on is unique. As Bingo said earlier,
every stone is different. And that goes back to the
job security of as long as I can, as long
(27:20):
as there's misinformation out there, and as long as I
can educate people, then we'll have a place in the market.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Here are there times that you that you disagree with
the selection and you get you have to look, it's
it's the homeowner's choice. But are there times that you go.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Home, well that's well, I see she can see stuff
ahead of the time. I knew people like I got
like this texture and I want to put this on
my house. No, you don't. You really can't say that.
You got to You got to help them through it.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, you have to have a way to change their
mind with them thinking it was their choice.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Yeah, I would. I would say.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
So, there's a finesse that happens with sales, as we
all know.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
It's that I would say.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
One of the challenging things is when somebody falls in
love with a look.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
But not the characteristics of a.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Stone, and that kind of goes into the maintenance of
the upkeep of the stone. We fabricate and install marble,
of course, but we also work well mostly with granite
and quartz, and those are two very different actually all
three are very different materials.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
What do you recommend one more than the other? Do
you think people might come in thinking they want marble
right right? And then there are some downsides to marble.
There's downsides to everything. Are you able to then say, listen,
there's other choices for you. We can make it look
like marble as we talked about in the first segment,
(28:48):
or let me show you this on the quart side,
let me show you that, right. Are there ways to
be able to guide people into the direction that would
fit better for them.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Absolutely, And that's why we really encourage people to visit
our showrooms so that we can walk them through that process,
show them the different samples of materials that are available
to them, so that they can touch, feel and hold
these these materials.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
And even play with them.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I encourage people to take samples home even and try
to hurt them.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Really, that means, Mike, you can't take them enough samples.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I might be able to again. I live right there,
keep driving.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Over every day. Take a chunk home.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
He number five on this list, and that I think,
can you a touchdown it already and Bengo touched on
it as well. Really important finalized details. Then template the
countertops right before you template, make sure everything else is
selected and or in place. Have your sinks installed and
ready if possible, place your appliances that will be built
(29:54):
into the space. Then you want to insert a butcher
block or unique storage designs. So you want to final
line everything. And then then we come on in exactly
and measure twice cut one.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Measure twice cut ones. And the trick is the materials
that we're working with, especially natural stone.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
It is finite.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
That slab that we're working with for your kitchen, that
is the one slab that exists in the world. And
uh so we will only really have one chance to
do it right, and so the pressure's on.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, the last sentence in that in that chapter here
and a number five. The measurements must be precise for
your countertip to be perfect when installed.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
And you got your you need like a tool and
die guide to measure that.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Maybe well you don't want me measuring. You come out
and do the measuring, right, You don't just call me
and go MG every holl give me the.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Measurements and it's gonna be He'd be like, well, that's
thirty seven or three black marks.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
After that that I know how to measure stuff. Kind of,
I call zach Man. Zach comes over and does all that.
Never six asked to see the template process.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Yeah, that, and with that we call it our approval
drawing process. So our measure tech Lewis, goes on out
collects the information and he comes back to our fabrication shop,
creates a drawing, then sends it to our customer to say, hey,
here's where the seam's going to be, if there's a seam,
(31:25):
here's where the sink's going to be, faucet holes, edge profile,
and so we really do a triple check process of
approval before we do any cutting.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So, speaking of those shows, I was watching one this
week and the guy wanted you know, they had a
big island and he wanted cement. Yeah, and I thought
it looked horrendous, but I and he was dead said
and she kept saying, and he said, no, no, this
is what I've always dreamed of and watching his reaction
(32:01):
when he walked in the kitchen, I think it was
a pretend. Oh I love it because I thought, oh man,
it didn't look good. When that happens, it's done. It's
too late. I mean, I guess you could spend a
bunch of money to get it taken out and have
something else. Have you had people that have said, look,
I should have went with your advice, and I know
(32:24):
it's probably too late, right, I.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Have, unfortunately had that happen. Yes, seldom, not very often,
maybe honestly twice that I can think of where somebody
didn't take our advice for what they were expressing their needs,
their expectations for the material, and we try to talk
them out of it, saying, oh, I don't think you're
(32:47):
going to be happy with how that's going to perform,
and then they weren't.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
So it does happen.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
So it's good for people to ask a lot of
questions to their fabricator and also take that advice seriously.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
I take it because you guys, this is what you
do for a living. It is right and and so
I think that's really important. Hey, before we get to
a break and I think Bingo's going to go through this.
Your dad sold the company to your brother and and
in twenty twenty four, and one of the things that
you would put down on here, he's been making modern
(33:21):
improvements to our internal business structure. And is your dad
okay with with all of that? Yeah? Or because I
think Bingo's gonna be like, wait, what do you mean
You're getting rid of my roller decks and putting everything
on a computer kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
I was like even my dad about I can't believe
you're not doing yellow Pages.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Xactly.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
You see, he's yellowing me for not doing yellow Pages anymore.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, how is Richard with any of the change?
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Well, it's interesting you say the yellow Pages because when
Richard came up with a company name, it's Designs in Marble,
because d is at the beginning of the phone book.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
It's a great name though it is. Yeah, it's a
great name. But is he okay with with some of
the changes? And and look, this was his baby, and
you never want anybody telling you your baby's a little ugly,
because we're going to make it a little cuter. And
and how is he doing with all this?
Speaker 3 (34:16):
I think he's honestly I think he's excited for the
next chapter.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
He is.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
He visits our showroom and our facilities UH in Azonia
every day because we're expanding UH into a new building
over there, and so he and Carl are still working
together H on the expansion that we're in the middle
of right now.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Can we talk before we go to a break, talk
about the process. If a contractor who have you you've
not worked with in the past, makes a call on
Monday to you, it's just hey, I heard you you
and you on with McGivern and Bengo and and I
want to know more about what you guys do and
how you do it. What's the process for these contractors
start to work with you?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
First, all they really have to do is give us
a phone call, send an email. Even if they were
to contact us through our website that comes right to
my computer.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
So all they have to do is say, Hey.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
I want to work with you, and here's a drawing
for my next project. Could you please give me a
quote on this?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Hey? The showrooms both locations and people can set up
an appointment. Contractors can set up an appointment to come
view the showroom and take a look at what you guys.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Do appointments are preferred, but walk on in anytime. That's
why our doors are open for you.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
There you go, go on this website again, two different locations,
two different phone numbers, one in Exzonia, one in Pewaukee,
and you can email them again all that informations on
their website. There are times that their showrooms are open.
Are there Woody Lane in Exonia?
Speaker 3 (35:49):
But you're moving No, We're staying right there in Woody Lane.
That's our headquarters in Exonia. We're just expanding into some
of the surrounding areas there in that industrial park.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Boy, that's encouraging. Huh. Business is good.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Business is good.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
You guys set with enough employees? Are You're always looking
for good employees.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Planning for a job.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
I'm just asking questions here. Look, I've got a sheet
of question because most people that sit where you're sitting there,
like Look, we're pretty good. But if somebody special walks
through the door, man, we'll find a place.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
We want them on our team. Absolutely, We're always looking
for like minded people.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I'm not looking for a job. I would come work
for you. Would you hire me?
Speaker 4 (36:33):
We already use you.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Now I know, But what if what if I want
to do more stucco work. You've seen my work.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
I think you should look at talk to the Marble people.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Wow that hurts. And just so you guys know, if
I come to work for you, Spencer's coming to We're
a team here and yeah, he just sits and makes
fun of me and talks NA.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah, they need someone to clean up all lot of
marble stuff when you get done cutting.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
That would be my friend, Spencer. We'll get you a break.
Use Megan Mulkey Designs in Marble. Go to designs in
Marble dot com and look read the story of this company,
and then go to the gallery. That part for me.
I spent a number of minutes on the gallery going
through each picture and just looking at whoever took the
(37:18):
pictures did a great job and really highlight the beauty
of work that you guys do. At Designs in Marble again,
go to designs in Marble dot com. This is the
Creative Construction Wisconsin Home improvement Show on Fox Sports nine
twenty and your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the Creative
Construction Wisconsin Home improvement Show on Fox Sports ninety twenty
(37:41):
in your iHeartRadio app. Coming live from the Donovan and
Jorgans and Heating Cooling Studios. Funniest line of the day,
Bingos is saying to me, yeah, you remember what you
called me and said, look, I've cut it three times
and it's still too short. That never happened.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Okay, yeah, yeah, ut it could if you say it
didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
I didn't call you. I called Zach. That's who. My
wife's got Zach on speed dial anytime I try to
do any kind of fixer up or she calls him
and says, get ready, I'm gonna have to call you
because he's trying something.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
That when you try to take the mirrors off your house, Oh.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
That was a I had the goggles and all of it.
Oh no, I got him off, but then I didn't
know what to do. And then Zach came over made
fun of me and fixed everything that I did. Our
special cast in studio Megan Mulky designs in Marble. When
you say that one day maybe Nick might get involved,
(38:35):
is he is? He he's a senior in high school
or a junior.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
He's a junior now.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
And when I say get involved, he is artistically inclined.
So I'm actually trying to get him more involved in
like our social media and marketing kind of love things.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Necessarily see him, uh installing stone never know.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
You never know though, didn't see you doing all this stuff. No,
years ago, not at all. Came in and fell in
love with it and Zack and sam Nobody wanted Samuel.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Did you know she was one of those animal doctors
for Blarge Animals. You know, she did that for a
long time and now she does this.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Hey, when when somebody when when new contractors come in
and start working with designs in Marble, have they made
comments to you about what sets you apart from some
of the other people that they've worked with.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Yes, And a big part of that is just the
ease of working with our company and the ability to
uh turn projects from measure to installation fairly quickly, with
the understanding that as a subcontractor in a project, there's
other trades that come in after us. And so as
(39:47):
soon as the countertops go in, now your plumber can
come in and set the sink. Now the electrician can
come in and finish the lighting. And so for that
time where we're fabricating the project, we're actually holding up
the show we know that, so that's why we keep
our lead times as short as possible then to help
the contractors finish.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Don't realize when you do the kitchening models, all the Kevin,
everything's got to be in place, and then you come
and measure it. Yep, because that's how accurate they got
to be.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
So and and and the time frame then is I
think ours was about two weeks three weeks before and
that was like we thought we were done, right and
now it's and they said, no, no, you're not done.
And it's not going to be tomorrow because now we
have to come out tomorrow and remeasure and and then
we'll cut it and and and and we'll once it's there.
(40:39):
The installation process didn't take very long because everything was
perfect right right exactly.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
And it's pretty heavy nail a.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Down or not them No, and I didn't. I didn't.
I just watched. They didn't have to get involved. I
wanted to get involved in it. They listened to the show,
so they were like, no, sir.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
If you're help, if you're gonna help you, we're gonna
charge that.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Hey. The when people there's sometimes there seams right correct,
And is there a way to are there people that
don't want they don't want those to to to be noticed.
Is there a way to have those not noticed?
Speaker 3 (41:17):
Well, that's the the I like to start that conversation
of we don't want seams either. If we can avoid
a seam, then we we completely will. Really, what governs
that factor, if there's a seam or not, is the
size of material compared to the size of the project.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
So we take our seam work very seriously.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
When we have to, we let people, we make them
aware of where the seam's going to be first of all,
so there's an opportunity to change it in the kitchen.
Maybe it's in a spot where that would be a
high functioning, high high image area in the kitchen, and
customer doesn't want the seam in that spot, maybe we
can move it. We'd like to have that conversation first.
(41:59):
But when we are looking at seams themselves.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
Yeah, you can feel it a little bit, you.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Can see it a little bit, but it shouldn't be
the first thing that you see when you walk into
a brand new kitchen. It shouldn't, as I like to say,
it shouldn't reach out and slappy in the face that
seem it should really just flow and be as invisible
as possible.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Hey, did Thanksgiving? Do you guys talk about things other
than work? Or is it? Is it? And bingo? He
knows exactly what you're talking about, because when the family
gets together, right, I mean you talk maybe some packer football.
And then did you move over to how work is going?
Speaker 3 (42:39):
We do naturally, especially with Daddy. The first question is
how many new leads have you got?
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Right?
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Smart he is, so he's never gonna not be in
the business, which is good.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
We're happy about that.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
What is the territory that you guys work with contractors?
Do you go up in the medicine area are you
do you go down to scene where? What is the
territory of contractors that you work with?
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Good question?
Speaker 3 (43:03):
It really is all southeast Wisconsin. Our fabrication shop in
Axonia is strategically placed for a reason, right between Madison
and Milwaukee.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
Yes, so we are able to hit up both markets.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
And then we go through the recene and we go
all the way up to over upon Appleton area as well.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Wow. Okay, so contractors in in all over side and
it doesn't really matter where their job is. And then
who who does the measuring is it the contractors that
you guys, it's us, yes, smart, yes, because if there's
anybody to blame, you take the blame if it's not
done right.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Exactly, Yep, it's it's really on us to measure, fabricate
and install with precision.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah, measure you know, it's measuring has very precise you know.
You ever grab a ruler and you're over no, so
you can pull it you yeah, and then wiggles a
little bit. Yeah, it's got to be accurate.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
It's got to be one hundred percent. And the people
that do that, you understand that that's the most important
part of their job.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
That is the only that's really their entire job is
just to do that. And it is the technology again
that we're using as well. And so a lot of
people like to say, do you measure with a laser? Well, yes,
we do measure with a laser, but there's other equipment
that we're using as well to get the most precise information.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Hey, are there like marble shows that you go to
throughout the county? You know, you know how they have
you know, home improvement shows, or they have paint shows
or carpeting or flooring shows. Do they have shows.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
For this, there is, there's We're part of the Natural
Stone Institute and you are. Of course we are, and
and they have educational shows all over the United States
at different usually at different distribution Stone distribution companies, but
we'll find them at the big shows at cabiz or
(44:58):
surfaces as well while these show is over in like
Vegas or Orlando.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Hey, on the talking points you sent to me, my
favorite was the last one. Work is fun. As we
continue to be a family centric business. Work is fun.
You don't hear that very often with a smiley face.
Thank you for that. That made me smile. Man, you're
having fun?
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Huh yeah, we really really are.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
I yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
I would say twenty years ago if you said would
i'd be running a business with my brother, I'd be like, well, no, no, no,
that's ridiculous kind of business, right, what's wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Why would you even suggest that?
Speaker 1 (45:41):
No chance? And here you are. And guys, if you
get especially contractors that have not worked with Megan and
that worked with the people that designs in Marble, do
yourself a favor and contact her next week and just say, look,
I heard you on this show and I want to
know more. Can I come out and visit and let's
talk about the process and how we would start to
(46:03):
work with you guys. She gave a great elevator pitch
on education and the importance of education in this field,
in this category. For me, it's that last line. Look,
we're having fun as a family centric business, and the
people that work at her company, they all feel like
they're part of the family. It's a very similar feel
(46:24):
to Creative Construction of Wisconsin, and I think that that's
really important. And and congratulations on your rising star thank you. Yeah,
the teachers in are Cottomwalker must be going, wait what
why put her in detention a couple of times? She's
one of the rising stars. But congratulations on that award.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
It really is a is an honor, it really is.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Next time you do an after five live, let me know.
I will. I'll get there early and stay of late because,
as Bingo said, they got the best food.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
So there there you go.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
It's it's good to meet you you too. Yeah, yeah,
tell Nick You'll be part of this family business one day,
but maybe not today. So I love that. Keep up
the good work, Bingo. Any races coming up today or
that's it.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
We're done now until February, so hope you're happy.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
I'm not a really gonna miss it. I'm going to
go back and watch all the races I taped.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
The worst part is he thought Kyl Irson won. He
didn't win the race. He just won the championship. He
didn't win the race, so that's why.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
He won the champion That's what I meant, he won
the championship. I have no idea. I have none. Spencer
gave me that information before you walked in. Guys, have
a great weekend. This is the Creative Construction Wisconsin home
improvement show on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
Welcome into the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home improvement show
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeart Radio app
coming live from the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating, cooling.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Studios and not you brought them up. Guess who's going
to be in next week Donovan?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Guess who was at my house yesterday?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Now you get to hear all the new deals that
those guys have.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Man, they're the best, the largest employee owned HVAC company
in the state of Wisconsin. Any issues you have, I'm
part of their maintenance program. Under two hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
You should be extra maintenance program. Yeah, I'm extra for
your maintenance program.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
My wife says, I'm high maintenance.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Are you still in trouble for when you take the
filter out and you rensed it up with the holes
to put it back?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I am. Yeah. They make fun of me for that. Yeah,
because I do a home improvement show. You know what,
they really make fun of me for having not figuring
out how to change the change the battery in my
smoke detector.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well you just take it out there, Timmy Cookeeh, no.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We do. I'm not going there. It's against some rules.
Talk to my wife on that one. Hey, our special
guest today. I'm looking forward to this because I'm going
to learn a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I know, I heard you because his designs are Marble
and you said, you're going up your whole life. He
got those little designs man. Yes, yes, he's so excited
about it.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That Spencer's still laughing about. I said, what do you
think that the slab just like shows up on its own?
And and I go, yeah, that's how it worked at
my house. I went to work one day and Boom.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Came and it's like we can talk about contortops and
he and I said, how do you think they actually
get there?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I said, we're gonna find out. Because our special guest
she knows a lot about this. She is a Meghan
the Mulky designs in Marble. You go to designs in
Marble dot com. As we're talking two locations, we'll get
into both of those. And I love the fact that
Megan sent to us some talking points, and the first
talking point says our accidental family business. Meghan, how are
(01:51):
you today?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I'm very well, thank you so much for having me
here today. This is really exciting things.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Well, I thank you for that, and and you you
moved away for a bit, but it's you can take
the chief head out of Wisconsin, but you can't take
right Wisconsin. The chiefs head came home and when you
made a comment and said, look, I don't know of
anywhere else in the country would be a better place
to raise a child than southeast Wisconsin. He's now seventeen,
(02:19):
walks on north board. What is your son's name.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
My son's name is Nick.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Nick. Do you think Nick will get in the family
business one day?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I am trying yea open so you.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Know what, don't worry about it, because I trust me.
Bingo went through it, his kids all went through it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, yeah, maybody knows I had no intention of working
here back then, back in eighty six. Can help me
out for a couple of weeks and then that's it
it ever since.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
And Sam and Zach and when you talk to them
and they go, look, we were getting away from it,
and then realized what a great business my family had,
and why didn't I get involved in it? And the
rest is history. Now Sam and Zach will take over
and Bingo, Bengo's always going to trust me. Big O
will be there to help out.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Now that's awesome, whether they want me to or not.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Right, it wasn't something that that you wanted or thought
you wanted back when you were at econom Walk High
School and doing that stuff about being But all of
a sudden, this this company started and you fell in
love with it.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I did. So how do I put this?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
When I moved away my whole Uh, I was really
interested in biology and I was a veterinarian technician for
a while, and so Sam just went for that yeah, yes, oh,
or very similar.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
She did that for a while and before she came
back she was doing.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Same, same, very similar, same same story then. And when
I came back to Wisconsin, I was looking for a
vet tech job again. But VT techan doesn't really pay
the bills. So I said, well this my dad and
my brother started this company a couple of years ago
and they could use some help and receptions. So I said,
(04:01):
all right, well I'll try that for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
A couple of weeks, there you go, and the rest
they say is history is history. You moved on from
being in receptions and looking at your bio. You've been
kind of part of every little part of this, right
what and what what is your job description today? What
are you doing there now today?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
I am business development, so I really do help continue
to help our business grow.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
So sales sales. Yeah, and just to introduce your company
to is it? Is it to homeowners or is it
to contractors or all the above? Who do you Who
are you normally talking to when you're trying to develop
business for Designs in Marble.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I am talking to contractors mostly, and that is because
we are looking to develop relationships with the contractors that
we provide our services for, and it's it's them that
we want of support to see their businesses grow as well.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
What sets you guys apart? And I don't mean to
put you on the spot, but as salespeople, we all
have kind of an elevator pitch right going through the
talking points that you gave me and going through your website,
I know what mine, what mine would be if I
was a sales rep for you, what my elevator pitch
would be for Designs in Marble, But I'm wondering what
(05:26):
yours is.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Oh, thank you for asking.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
We really do hinge on education about the materials that
we're fabricating and installing. As I've been moving through this company,
I found that a lot of people were really asking
the same question over and over again. I said, well,
you know, why is this? Why are people so confused
(05:49):
about stone? And so what I've done then is educate
and train my staff to really be the source of
information that our customers need so that we can take
that confusion away from them and they can really get
the stone countertop service that they're looking for, not just
(06:13):
esthetically but also functionally as well.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So the educational part and and and each week the
guy sitting between us believes so much in that part
of what what this this is? Right? Let's educate not
only the companies and the people that work for these companies,
but let's educate the contractors. And and Bingo's so big
in education.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yes, yeah, And one thing was unique about stone is
everyone is different. There's no you don't get duplicates. I mean,
everyone's different, and you have to just pick the right stuff.
You know. These guys got to take, you know, a
stone from a mountain and then get in your kitchen.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
So they just don't take it from that place on Lisbon,
like I talked about.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Talking, you're talking about limestone quarries from there.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Right, Hey, look I'm I'm just asking questions. Yeah. The
theme music for this this show is fanfare for the
common Man. I'm the common man when it comes into here.
Because I asked questions that I'm telling you, more people
come up to me and go, you really didn't know. No,
my father was a bricklayer and a mason, and so
you wanted to one of the mcgimnern boys to follow
(07:21):
his footsteps. None of us, None of us did. You
can see there's not a lot of calluses on these hands. Hey,
So your dad, Richard and your brother.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Carl, he was talking about his kids are the same
way I talked to one time I had to do
a job for his kids. I'll answered, well, n your
daddy wuld teach out a colck hees No, but he
told me how to dribble is my left hand?
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah? As a basketball coach? Yeah? Did that I take
credit for Other than that, nothing there were both our
kids were very good students, and that comes from my
wife's side. When when was Richard your dad? Did he
do something in this prior to starting this with with
your brother Carl?
Speaker 4 (07:58):
He didn't.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
What was he doing prior to this?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
He was in Tool and Die for for decades, and
but he understood how to run a manufacturing plant, if
you will. So there is a manufacturing aspect to it,
as far as getting the right people in the right
place to to fabricate the stone and to run run
a fabrication shop like that. And and he also taught
(08:25):
us really the value of customer service at the same time. Uh,
in tool and die, it's all just metal. Uh, there's
there's really no aesthetic value.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
To it at all.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
And diet are accurate measurement, yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Oh lots of yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
So so we come with that the measure twice cut
once uh kind of philosophy. And so it was great
to have that kind of education from our dad in
that faction.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
So when you work with contractors, if they're there's a
person that is you know, just just somebody who owns
a home that is going to redo their kitchen and
they're working with a contractor, can they say, listen, I
was on the designs in Marble website and they have
something there that I want in my house. And so
(09:20):
that would be the process right or to have the
contractors who are working with them say listen, here are
the people we work with and do they then bring
them to your showroom or how does that work?
Speaker 4 (09:32):
That's typically how it works.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
So we develop relationships with the contractors, and the contractors
then trust us to perform these services in their customers' homes.
And a lot of times the contractors will give us
the plans for the house. So then we create a
quote and we hopefully have an audience with the homeowner
(09:56):
so that we can educate them about the materials so
they're looking at and considering for their home.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Do you know the Again, I spent a lot of
time on your website. If you go on the gallery.
The one picture that I called my wife, I said, go, yeah,
look at this and it's the courts built in night
stands in a primary bedroom and I'm like, fantastic, we
gotta get these. And she's like in our condo and
I go yeah, I go, I don't think our bedroom's
(10:25):
gonna look like this whatever, But that like that kind
of cool. This isn't just countertops, correct, Yes, there's a
lot to what you guys do. You offer a lot
of different things.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yes, we do so in addition to countertops, and that's
where a lot of people think and start as countertops,
but we are really growing quite exponentially into vertical applications
like fireplaces, fireplaces all the way to the ceiling, and
of course full hype backsplash, which is seems to be
(10:58):
getting bigger and bigger real time.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, those shows that we watch on TV, yes, right, yeah,
And I always ask the people that are sitting by you,
are those shows good for your business? Are bad?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Good? Question? Kind of a mixed bag.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
They It can be a little misleading with some of
those shows as far as how available the materials can be,
or or they kind of gloss over a little bit
of what the materials the stone cannon can do. So
that can be a little frustrating sometimes, but.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
The ideas that people get from those shows is probably
the helpful side that's helpful. Are you able to go
to a friend's open house they bought a new house,
or they redid their house and now you're going to
go over and have you know, glass wine and some
more dorves. Are you able to just go and enjoy
that or are you looking? Are you looking at how
(11:53):
they did their work? And if there's something you don't like,
DOJESU just keep your mouth shutterer and you go what
are you thinking.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Oh, the first thing I do this check the seams nowhere.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
No matter where I go, She's just like you, Matt.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
She is just being goes the same way you go.
I can't even walk into a new restaurant without looking
and that pretend to have to go to the bathroom
to find out how. Yeah, I just think that's very
fun that.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Happened to me. We were at a restaurant and I
went in to the bathroom. Was Hey, in fact, do
you see that bathroom all in there? For everybody in
the table start going one at a time in our bathroom.
You're going in there.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We had to go look, everybody had a God book.
That's how. Yeah, you can't. It's kind of a curse
in the business.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
You can turn it off.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Hey, your brother was a senior in high school when
when your dad and him kind of started this. Was
that something that that Do you think it was pushed
by by your your brother wanting to do something like
this or was it your dad saying we're going to
do this.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
It was a combination of both. My brother was doing
it and uh he was successful at it. Uh for
just fabricating with some pretty rough tools out of the
back of a Gageousnessially, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
You learned how to do. Was there something that at
high school they.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Taught him that.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
It was actually a family friend that was fabricating stone
in Texas, and it was common practice at that time
to just get a slab of stone, you haul it
over to the person's house, and you start cutting it
up in their front yard.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
And that's not those days.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Those days are over.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, they won't even cut Marvelty. All your cabinets, everything's
got to be in place. We're all ready to.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Go, exactly. So, so it kind of started off, what
was it.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
What's the family friend's first name?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Oh, that would have been Curtis, but he's he's out
the picture for a while.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Right, But you know what we think, Curtis, thank you. Yeah,
we think taking the time to teach your brother this
and get him excited about it, because look, I I
coached high school basketball for a long time and after
this show, I do a two hour high school sports
show and we have seniors in high school in here
every week, and some of them are not motivated to
(14:05):
do much right, And to have your brother do this
in high school and go, hey, I'm pretty good at
this like I can make a little money at this
and have your dad identify that and go okay, and look,
this company's come a long way, right. You gotta be
so proud. How many employees right now?
Speaker 3 (14:23):
We're at twenty seven employees?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Yes, good for you. Yeah, is that from start to finish?
So if they call the office to have a contractor
calls you, they'll meet with you. And then the process.
You guys do all your own own installs and stuff.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
That is correct.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
So from top to bottom when we're working with contractors
and going into homeowners'.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Houses, it is always.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
The designs of Marble employee from top to start to finish.
There's no other way of doing it in my eyes.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Yeah, there's there's part of that elevator pitch right there.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You can almost you can almost walk there from where
you live.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
You can, Yeah, coming over.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I hope you do.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, you guys, I serve lunch and Bingo said you
have great food.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So when you do they when you do the food thing,
you gotta go for that.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah. Hey again on the website, on the gallery, and
we had talked about you guys now doing more in
the vertical space the fireplace with the dark and it's
almost like white and black that you have there. It's
really pop like it catches your eye, like, Okay, I
haven't seen something like that before. The trends in your business?
(15:32):
Is it more one color, more light more? Is it
people going dark? Or is it all over the place?
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Oh? Boy, it really is all over the place. However,
if we're going to pinpoint on a trend, I would
still say it is a white background with a marble
look is what we're going for. Doesn't necessarily have to
be natural marble. Uh, there's engineered products that achieve the
marble look, and we're seeing people asking for these types
(16:02):
of materials now. And what I'm kind of alluding to
is large format porcelain tile, which is how we're able
to have very thin material that looks just like marble.
Photographs of marble are implanted into the surface of this
large format porcelain.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
No, it's the most beautiful. Yeah, yeah it does.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's starting to I've been doing this for fifteen years
and I'm actually starting to have to double guests myself
when I'm looking at some of these applications. Is that
real or is that an engineered stone? And with this
very thin material, then We're able to take it all
the way up to the ceiling without adding a lot
of weight, because that has been the biggest drawback for
(16:48):
having stone applied in a vertical application, because it's heavy.
Three centimeter stone, which is just under about an inch
and a quarter thickness, weighs eighteen pounds a square foot.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Megan Mulky, if I asked you when you were a
senior econom walk, if I said, hey, one day we're
going to have you on radio show and you're going
to know this about you would have said, you're out
of your Mindiver, I'm going to be a vet tag.
I mean, this is what I'm doing. Amazing. Hey, is
it more expense? Is it expense wise? Having straight marble
(17:26):
would be more expensive right than fabricated.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
It would be if I'm going to find the most
gorgeous marble. And that's kind of a little bit of
the chick with natural marble is that it is sold
by market value. So the more prettier it is, the
more expensive it is. So if I'm going to have
this really gorgeous marble, look, I'm going to save money
if I go with a engineered stone that looks like it.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
And you can't cut marble at then make it, make
it exactly that big of a piece, because you know
when you go to a shop you see them just
some big slab, they're a big they're big pieces of marble.
Right then, so you gets on that thing. I just
is this going to shatter exactly?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Hey, we're going to get to a break other side
of the break. I have got some questions for you.
I came up with an article Tips for working with
a Stone Fabricator, and we're going to ask you a
couple of questions that these guys think. These are very
important tips when somebody is working with somebody like you,
and let's find out what you think of these. On
(18:27):
the other side, she's making mulky designs in Marble. You
can go to designs in marble dot com. Two locations.
The first location in in Zonia, correct and then in Pewaukee.
They're my neighbor. We're the fighting pirates, Matt, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And maybe I'll see at Bubbo's one day side Yeah,
trust me. Yeah, those kids over there work hard. Matt. Yeah,
(18:49):
that's a great place. We'll get to a break other
side of the break again. Tips for working with a
stone fabricator, and I want to talk a little bit
more about this family owned company and what that means.
I'm wondering on Thanksgiving, can they talk about anything except Marble.
We'll find out on the other side of the break again,
she's making mulky designs in Marble. This is the Creative
(19:10):
Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement Show only on Fox Sports
nine twenty and Your iHeart Radio App. Welcome back to
the Creative Construction Wisconsin Home Improvement Show on Fox Sports
ninety twenty and your iHeart Radio App. Coming live from
the Donovan and Jorgans and Heating and Cooling Studios our
special guest in studio. This has been really fun. I
(19:31):
was a little worried about this because I'm like, I
don't know much about Marble, and I think everything.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
But now we won't know how the little designs do
get in those little marbles. I'll do they Yeah, ratcham,
that was all excited.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
My friend Mike Bush, who he was a plumber forever
and big high school football fan, and I pulled in
this morning and he goes, hey, you got a lot
to talk about today and your high school show. I go, yeah,
but I got an hour of talking about Marble and
he goes, well, we played with Marbles when we were
a kid. I go, I don't think that's the way
I should bring this up. But this this has been
really good. She is Megan Maulky. She is with Designs
(20:04):
in Marble. It's a family owned company. Go to designs
in Marble dot com. What I love about this company
is look, her dad and brother started the company. It's
now they got almost thirty employees at this point. But
they are Wisconsin, this area, born and raised man, and
they have the look that servant leadership heart that a
(20:26):
lot of people out of this area have. These guys
have it. And when you talk, when you talk about
Meghan in that first segment, she's like, look, I just
want to help people. I want to help people get
exactly what they want, and then I want to educate people.
Again that servant leadership heart that I'm sure she got
from her dad, Richards somewhere along the line in econom
Walk and I love that part of this company. Tip
(20:49):
for working with a stone fabricator, let me go through
a couple of these and get your opinion on it.
Number one is find your ideal slab to start.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
From that can that's a good way to start is
to find what you are.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You might need to explain it the yeah, because when
you you know they're coming, you know they're big chunks
of marble and then we're cutt into little sections and
little slivers and stuff. And then when you slab, when
you go to a showroom, those are big slabs.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And it's so if somebody says it's a big slab
and somebody says, I really like the middle section, does
that that kind of stuff happen.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
That is typically what happens.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, yes, and what do you do with with the
rest of the slab?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Then done a lot of times, it really does one
of two things. When we cut the middle out of
a slab, the rest of it really does become waste.
If we're able to use the remnants for other parts
of the project. We want to Our whole goal is
to fabricate as much stone as we possibly can for
(21:55):
your project, and we also want to get it done
right as far as what you the customer, are expecting
it to look like. So if we cut it off
the middle, that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Going back to the first segment, when I asked you
about these next to the bed the stands. Yeah, so
you could use right. I mean, look, we put this
into your kitchen, but we have this, we have some
pieces left. Wouldn't it be cool to have two night
stands marble? Now again maybe not then my kind of people, right,
(22:30):
that would be what a great way to use some
of the remnants.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yes, exactly right, And so we help guide people in
that direction too. So starting with the slab itself can
be a great way to go. You're seeing what you
want as far as color goes, but you don't necessarily
know how that material is going to behave once it's
installed in your house. So that's why that first tip,
(22:56):
that's a little bit of a tricky question.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Well, number two, we also learned today how much square
foot does slab way per square foot? That was earlier
today three hundred pounds. No, no, it was eighteen pounds
of square foot.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
That yeah, okay, anyway, let's give didn't do a great job.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
At ten square feet. You're not gonna be able to
pick it up and put it in your pocket.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
No, no, I don't think I can pick it up.
Number two, identify and share your favorite slab sections. So
let me read this part. You may have some favorite
and this is what we just talked about, may have
some favorite selections your slab shown with the grain color
and the flow of its natural elements. Point these sections
out to your stone fabricators so they can spotlight them
(23:44):
on the island or center of your countertop space and
not lose your favorite piece to a sink cutout.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
That is that's actually really good. Yes, I love it.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I love it when people I wish I came up
with it, but I'm just looking at this website here.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
And then we actually take it as step further even
with our process, and that is when somebody identifies the
parts of the stone that they absolutely love and we
do want to capture that for their project. So before
we even fabricate, we give our customers an image of
what their project is going to look like before we
(24:19):
cut the stone, so that we can ensure that we've
captured the areas that they love.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
That business comes a long way from your brother cutting
in the backyard or the front yard. The last sentence
in that was your fabricator may also point out more
beautiful spaces that will flow well together when cut into
countertop pieces. That is true, So do you have to
have that designer I when you're looking at.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
This, we kind of do.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
And that's one of the things that drew me into
the business then, is having a flare for artistic design
and then being able to.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Did you know you had that? Yeah? So were you
an artist?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (25:02):
You were?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Okay, Yeah, that's a gift that not everybody and I
don't have. If we're going to paint that wall, and
you know how people just take three different colors and
put them on the wall and say which one. I
can't see what it's going to look like till it's done,
and so that's a gift that you have.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
It's a gift that I have, and it's a gift
that all of our sales executives have too. When I'm
looking for someone to be working in sales for designs
in Marble, they have to have an interest in creative design.
They have to be excited by colors and by helping
people through the selection process.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
If I ever send you a resume, do not hire me. Okay,
just don't hire me when it comes to because that
part of it, I might be able to tell.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
You, oh, yeah, yeah, want Kelly Green or something Kelly Green.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Everything needs to be the color of your sweatshirt right there,
which is beautiful to me. Number three on this list
two of the kitchen layout with your stone fabricator. Yes, yep, important.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I think that's important. Yeah, and we do that again
with images.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Ye do your sales and again so you work mostly
with contractors, and your sales team then is out working.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
With he's also a rising star.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, we're going to get into
that in the next segment. We have balloons and confetti
coming out for for the award.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Right because he's you know, talking a lot of contractors.
He's you know, making a big splash.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Well you said that before she came in and said, look,
you have to understand that she is now starting to
really move up into where people are talking about her
as somebody that contractors have to work with, which I love.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Is kind for the next party because I like their food.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, there you going. I'm going to be there because
it's right around the corner.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, you don't have any excuse now to No, I know.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I have no excuses. Plus you can tell I like food,
so you know that it's perfect, perfect for me. Number
four on this ask your fabricator for design ideas.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Oh that we do appreciate that and we're able to participate.
It gets us excited about the project too. We are
already we were already excited about the project because everyone
that we we work on is unique. As Bingo said earlier,
every stone is different. And that goes back to the
job security of as long as I can, as long
(27:20):
as there's misinformation out there, and as long as I
can educate people, then we'll have a place in the market.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Here are there times that you that you disagree with
the selection and you get you have to look, it's
it's the homeowner's choice. But are there times that you go.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Home, well that's well, I see she can see stuff
ahead of the time. I knew people like I got
like this texture and I want to put this on
my house. No, you don't. You really can't say that.
You got to You got to help them through it.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yeah, you have to have a way to change their
mind with them thinking it was their choice.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Yeah, I would. I would say.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
So, there's a finesse that happens with sales, as we
all know.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
It's that I would say.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
One of the challenging things is when somebody falls in
love with a look.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
But not the characteristics of a.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Stone, and that kind of goes into the maintenance of
the upkeep of the stone. We fabricate and install marble,
of course, but we also work well mostly with granite
and quartz, and those are two very different actually all
three are very different materials.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
What do you recommend one more than the other? Do
you think people might come in thinking they want marble
right right? And then there are some downsides to marble.
There's downsides to everything. Are you able to then say, listen,
there's other choices for you. We can make it look
like marble as we talked about in the first segment,
(28:48):
or let me show you this on the quart side,
let me show you that, right. Are there ways to
be able to guide people into the direction that would
fit better for them.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Absolutely, And that's why we really encourage people to visit
our showrooms so that we can walk them through that process,
show them the different samples of materials that are available
to them, so that they can touch, feel and hold
these these materials.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
And even play with them.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
I encourage people to take samples home even and try
to hurt them.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Really, that means, Mike, you can't take them enough samples.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
I might be able to again. I live right there,
keep driving.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Over every day. Take a chunk home.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
He number five on this list, and that I think,
can you a touchdown it already and Bengo touched on
it as well. Really important finalized details. Then template the
countertops right before you template, make sure everything else is
selected and or in place. Have your sinks installed and
ready if possible, place your appliances that will be built
(29:54):
into the space. Then you want to insert a butcher
block or unique storage designs. So you want to final
line everything. And then then we come on in exactly
and measure twice cut one.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Measure twice cut ones. And the trick is the materials
that we're working with, especially natural stone.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
It is finite.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
That slab that we're working with for your kitchen, that
is the one slab that exists in the world. And
uh so we will only really have one chance to
do it right, and so the pressure's on.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, the last sentence in that in that chapter here
and a number five. The measurements must be precise for
your countertip to be perfect when installed.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
And you got your you need like a tool and
die guide to measure that.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Maybe well you don't want me measuring. You come out
and do the measuring, right, You don't just call me
and go MG every holl give me the.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Measurements and it's gonna be He'd be like, well, that's
thirty seven or three black marks.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
After that that I know how to measure stuff. Kind of,
I call zach Man. Zach comes over and does all that.
Never six asked to see the template process.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Yeah, that, and with that we call it our approval
drawing process. So our measure tech Lewis, goes on out
collects the information and he comes back to our fabrication shop,
creates a drawing, then sends it to our customer to say, hey,
here's where the seam's going to be, if there's a seam,
(31:25):
here's where the sink's going to be, faucet holes, edge profile,
and so we really do a triple check process of
approval before we do any cutting.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
So, speaking of those shows, I was watching one this
week and the guy wanted you know, they had a
big island and he wanted cement. Yeah, and I thought
it looked horrendous, but I and he was dead said
and she kept saying, and he said, no, no, this
is what I've always dreamed of and watching his reaction
(32:01):
when he walked in the kitchen, I think it was
a pretend. Oh I love it because I thought, oh man,
it didn't look good. When that happens, it's done. It's
too late. I mean, I guess you could spend a
bunch of money to get it taken out and have
something else. Have you had people that have said, look,
I should have went with your advice, and I know
(32:24):
it's probably too late, right, I.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Have, unfortunately had that happen. Yes, seldom, not very often,
maybe honestly twice that I can think of where somebody
didn't take our advice for what they were expressing their needs,
their expectations for the material, and we try to talk
them out of it, saying, oh, I don't think you're
(32:47):
going to be happy with how that's going to perform,
and then they weren't.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
So it does happen.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
So it's good for people to ask a lot of
questions to their fabricator and also take that advice seriously.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
I take it because you guys, this is what you
do for a living. It is right and and so
I think that's really important. Hey, before we get to
a break and I think Bingo's going to go through this.
Your dad sold the company to your brother and and
in twenty twenty four, and one of the things that
you would put down on here, he's been making modern
(33:21):
improvements to our internal business structure. And is your dad
okay with with all of that? Yeah? Or because I
think Bingo's gonna be like, wait, what do you mean
You're getting rid of my roller decks and putting everything
on a computer kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
I was like even my dad about I can't believe
you're not doing yellow Pages.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Xactly.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
You see, he's yellowing me for not doing yellow Pages anymore.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, how is Richard with any of the change?
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Well, it's interesting you say the yellow Pages because when
Richard came up with a company name, it's Designs in Marble,
because d is at the beginning of the phone book.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
It's a great name though it is. Yeah, it's a
great name. But is he okay with with some of
the changes? And and look, this was his baby, and
you never want anybody telling you your baby's a little ugly,
because we're going to make it a little cuter. And
and how is he doing with all this?
Speaker 3 (34:16):
I think he's honestly I think he's excited for the
next chapter.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
He is.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
He visits our showroom and our facilities UH in Azonia
every day because we're expanding UH into a new building
over there, and so he and Carl are still working
together H on the expansion that we're in the middle
of right now.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Can we talk before we go to a break, talk
about the process. If a contractor who have you you've
not worked with in the past, makes a call on
Monday to you, it's just hey, I heard you you
and you on with McGivern and Bengo and and I
want to know more about what you guys do and
how you do it. What's the process for these contractors
start to work with you?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
First, all they really have to do is give us
a phone call, send an email. Even if they were
to contact us through our website that comes right to
my computer.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
So all they have to do is say, Hey.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
I want to work with you, and here's a drawing
for my next project. Could you please give me a
quote on this?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Hey? The showrooms both locations and people can set up
an appointment. Contractors can set up an appointment to come
view the showroom and take a look at what you guys.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Do appointments are preferred, but walk on in anytime. That's
why our doors are open for you.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
There you go, go on this website again, two different locations,
two different phone numbers, one in Exzonia, one in Pewaukee,
and you can email them again all that informations on
their website. There are times that their showrooms are open.
Are there Woody Lane in Exonia?
Speaker 3 (35:49):
But you're moving No, We're staying right there in Woody Lane.
That's our headquarters in Exonia. We're just expanding into some
of the surrounding areas there in that industrial park.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Boy, that's encouraging. Huh. Business is good.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Business is good.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
You guys set with enough employees? Are You're always looking
for good employees.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Planning for a job.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
I'm just asking questions here. Look, I've got a sheet
of question because most people that sit where you're sitting there,
like Look, we're pretty good. But if somebody special walks
through the door, man, we'll find a place.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
We want them on our team. Absolutely, We're always looking
for like minded people.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
I'm not looking for a job. I would come work
for you. Would you hire me?
Speaker 4 (36:33):
We already use you.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Now I know, But what if what if I want
to do more stucco work. You've seen my work.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
I think you should look at talk to the Marble people.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Wow that hurts. And just so you guys know, if
I come to work for you, Spencer's coming to We're
a team here and yeah, he just sits and makes
fun of me and talks NA.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah, they need someone to clean up all lot of
marble stuff when you get done cutting.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
That would be my friend, Spencer. We'll get you a break.
Use Megan Mulkey Designs in Marble. Go to designs in
Marble dot com and look read the story of this company,
and then go to the gallery. That part for me.
I spent a number of minutes on the gallery going
through each picture and just looking at whoever took the
(37:18):
pictures did a great job and really highlight the beauty
of work that you guys do. At Designs in Marble again,
go to designs in Marble dot com. This is the
Creative Construction Wisconsin Home improvement Show on Fox Sports nine
twenty and your iHeartRadio app. Welcome back to the Creative
Construction Wisconsin Home improvement Show on Fox Sports ninety twenty
(37:41):
in your iHeartRadio app. Coming live from the Donovan and
Jorgans and Heating Cooling Studios. Funniest line of the day,
Bingos is saying to me, yeah, you remember what you
called me and said, look, I've cut it three times
and it's still too short. That never happened.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
Okay, yeah, yeah, ut it could if you say it
didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
I didn't call you. I called Zach. That's who. My
wife's got Zach on speed dial anytime I try to
do any kind of fixer up or she calls him
and says, get ready, I'm gonna have to call you
because he's trying something.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
That when you try to take the mirrors off your house, Oh.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
That was a I had the goggles and all of it.
Oh no, I got him off, but then I didn't
know what to do. And then Zach came over made
fun of me and fixed everything that I did. Our
special cast in studio Megan Mulky designs in Marble. When
you say that one day maybe Nick might get involved,
(38:35):
is he is? He he's a senior in high school
or a junior.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
He's a junior now.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
And when I say get involved, he is artistically inclined.
So I'm actually trying to get him more involved in
like our social media and marketing kind of love things.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Necessarily see him, uh installing stone never know.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
You never know though, didn't see you doing all this stuff. No,
years ago, not at all. Came in and fell in
love with it and Zack and sam Nobody wanted Samuel.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Did you know she was one of those animal doctors
for Blarge Animals. You know, she did that for a
long time and now she does this.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Hey, when when somebody when when new contractors come in
and start working with designs in Marble, have they made
comments to you about what sets you apart from some
of the other people that they've worked with.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Yes, And a big part of that is just the
ease of working with our company and the ability to
uh turn projects from measure to installation fairly quickly, with
the understanding that as a subcontractor in a project, there's
other trades that come in after us. And so as
(39:47):
soon as the countertops go in, now your plumber can
come in and set the sink. Now the electrician can
come in and finish the lighting. And so for that
time where we're fabricating the project, we're actually holding up
the show we know that, so that's why we keep
our lead times as short as possible then to help
the contractors finish.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Don't realize when you do the kitchening models, all the Kevin,
everything's got to be in place, and then you come
and measure it. Yep, because that's how accurate they got
to be.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
So and and and the time frame then is I
think ours was about two weeks three weeks before and
that was like we thought we were done, right and
now it's and they said, no, no, you're not done.
And it's not going to be tomorrow because now we
have to come out tomorrow and remeasure and and then
we'll cut it and and and and we'll once it's there.
(40:39):
The installation process didn't take very long because everything was
perfect right right exactly.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
And it's pretty heavy nail a.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Down or not them No, and I didn't. I didn't.
I just watched. They didn't have to get involved. I
wanted to get involved in it. They listened to the show,
so they were like, no, sir.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
If you're help, if you're gonna help you, we're gonna
charge that.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Hey. The when people there's sometimes there seams right correct,
And is there a way to are there people that
don't want they don't want those to to to be noticed.
Is there a way to have those not noticed?
Speaker 3 (41:17):
Well, that's the the I like to start that conversation
of we don't want seams either. If we can avoid
a seam, then we we completely will. Really, what governs
that factor, if there's a seam or not, is the
size of material compared to the size of the project.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
So we take our seam work very seriously.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
When we have to, we let people, we make them
aware of where the seam's going to be first of all,
so there's an opportunity to change it in the kitchen.
Maybe it's in a spot where that would be a
high functioning, high high image area in the kitchen, and
customer doesn't want the seam in that spot, maybe we
can move it. We'd like to have that conversation first.
(41:59):
But when we are looking at seams themselves.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
Yeah, you can feel it a little bit, you.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Can see it a little bit, but it shouldn't be
the first thing that you see when you walk into
a brand new kitchen. It shouldn't, as I like to say,
it shouldn't reach out and slappy in the face that
seem it should really just flow and be as invisible
as possible.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Hey, did Thanksgiving? Do you guys talk about things other
than work? Or is it? Is it? And bingo? He
knows exactly what you're talking about, because when the family
gets together, right, I mean you talk maybe some packer football.
And then did you move over to how work is going?
Speaker 3 (42:39):
We do naturally, especially with Daddy. The first question is
how many new leads have you got?
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Right?
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Smart he is, so he's never gonna not be in
the business, which is good.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
We're happy about that.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
What is the territory that you guys work with contractors?
Do you go up in the medicine area are you
do you go down to scene where? What is the
territory of contractors that you work with?
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Good question?
Speaker 3 (43:03):
It really is all southeast Wisconsin. Our fabrication shop in
Axonia is strategically placed for a reason, right between Madison
and Milwaukee.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
Yes, so we are able to hit up both markets.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
And then we go through the recene and we go
all the way up to over upon Appleton area as well.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Wow. Okay, so contractors in in all over side and
it doesn't really matter where their job is. And then
who who does the measuring is it the contractors that
you guys, it's us, yes, smart, yes, because if there's
anybody to blame, you take the blame if it's not
done right.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Exactly, Yep, it's it's really on us to measure, fabricate
and install with precision.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Yeah, measure you know, it's measuring has very precise you know.
You ever grab a ruler and you're over no, so
you can pull it you yeah, and then wiggles a
little bit. Yeah, it's got to be accurate.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
It's got to be one hundred percent. And the people
that do that, you understand that that's the most important
part of their job.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
That is the only that's really their entire job is
just to do that. And it is the technology again
that we're using as well. And so a lot of
people like to say, do you measure with a laser? Well, yes,
we do measure with a laser, but there's other equipment
that we're using as well to get the most precise information.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Hey, are there like marble shows that you go to
throughout the county? You know, you know how they have
you know, home improvement shows, or they have paint shows
or carpeting or flooring shows. Do they have shows.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
For this, there is, there's We're part of the Natural
Stone Institute and you are. Of course we are, and
and they have educational shows all over the United States
at different usually at different distribution Stone distribution companies, but
we'll find them at the big shows at cabiz or
(44:58):
surfaces as well while these show is over in like
Vegas or Orlando.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Hey, on the talking points you sent to me, my
favorite was the last one. Work is fun. As we
continue to be a family centric business. Work is fun.
You don't hear that very often with a smiley face.
Thank you for that. That made me smile. Man, you're
having fun?
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Huh yeah, we really really are.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
I yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
I would say twenty years ago if you said would
i'd be running a business with my brother, I'd be like, well, no, no, no,
that's ridiculous kind of business, right, what's wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Why would you even suggest that?
Speaker 1 (45:41):
No chance? And here you are. And guys, if you
get especially contractors that have not worked with Megan and
that worked with the people that designs in Marble, do
yourself a favor and contact her next week and just say, look,
I heard you on this show and I want to
know more. Can I come out and visit and let's
talk about the process and how we would start to
(46:03):
work with you guys. She gave a great elevator pitch
on education and the importance of education in this field,
in this category. For me, it's that last line. Look,
we're having fun as a family centric business, and the
people that work at her company, they all feel like
they're part of the family. It's a very similar feel
(46:24):
to Creative Construction of Wisconsin, and I think that that's
really important. And and congratulations on your rising star thank you. Yeah,
the teachers in are Cottomwalker must be going, wait what
why put her in detention a couple of times? She's
one of the rising stars. But congratulations on that award.
Speaker 4 (46:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (46:45):
It really is a is an honor, it really is.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Next time you do an after five live, let me know.
I will. I'll get there early and stay of late because,
as Bingo said, they got the best food.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
So there there you go.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
It's it's good to meet you you too. Yeah, yeah,
tell Nick You'll be part of this family business one day,
but maybe not today. So I love that. Keep up
the good work, Bingo. Any races coming up today or
that's it.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
We're done now until February, so hope you're happy.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
I'm not a really gonna miss it. I'm going to
go back and watch all the races I taped.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
The worst part is he thought Kyl Irson won. He
didn't win the race. He just won the championship. He
didn't win the race, so that's why.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
He won the champion That's what I meant, he won
the championship. I have no idea. I have none. Spencer
gave me that information before you walked in. Guys, have
a great weekend. This is the Creative Construction Wisconsin home
improvement show on Fox Sports ninet twenty and your iHeartRadio app.
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