Tom Gies - MKE Design Build - 10/18/2025

Full show from the Donovan & Jorgenson Heating & Cooling Studio: Saturday, October 18th, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the creative construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement Sure
on Fox Sports nine twenty and your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donovan and Jorgensen Heity Cooling Studios. I
might be given alongside the twenty twenty five Associate of
the Year for MBA. Man Congratulations, Bingo's people standing in

(00:23):
the studio clapping balloons, confetti, beautiful cake yep Man.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, first thing people said, okay your associate idea? Does
that mean?

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, anyways, well, if the NBA they got builders people up,
you know, find up with some dirt and build a
house and associated everybody else and when it was everybody
else got was that a surprise for you? Oh yeah, yeah,
I didn't know what was coming.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Man. The one year, I'm not MCing the thing.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
And maybe that's why I did good it right. Maybe
that's why because they're waiting for you to get out
of here.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
I I normally had you guys seated way in the back.
I think.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, well, I asked him. I said, yeah, how come Mike,
And he says, well, you you suggested that I'm they
take a year off from you.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, yeah, because three years in a row and I
know Rob probably did. He didn't do.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
No, you just you just wanted to watch a Brewer game.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Nope, nope, nope, I got to talk to Rob. It
feels like Rob started to go after some of my stuff.
So I need to have a little conversation with with Robah.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Like I said, he spent some time talking to me. Yes,
I know he did.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I'm sure he talked to Colonel Electric, Ounavan, Jeorgans and heating, cooling,
you know, all the all of my my guys. And
we'll have a little conversation with Rob los about six
blocks for me. So I'll just stop by knocking his
door and introduce myself.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
No, I have a I might have a conflict of
interest because this kid worked for us last summer.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
He could worked for Colonel Electric last summer.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
But anyways, remember two weeks ago, I wasn't here because
my daughter got married. Yes, well I got to call
it Wednesday morning. He guess who else guests got married?
Zach no Way, yep, yeah, maybe he took his little
vacation to some park things. So I got a call
and he's like, you know the Hey, Dad, I just
want to let you know that he got we got married.

(02:03):
So you can put bucket because we're at We're at
the wedding. Oh, at the wedding? Was this horrible? Every said,
when do you get made? When you get made? When
do you get married? He said, you guys can quit,
finally saying that we finally did it.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Man, you know what I told him for years, You
better put a ring on that finger. Put a ring
on that figure. Good for him. Congratulations, Zach, look at you.
You got him all off and married.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
You know, it's like I said, you know, so we
had two kids married less than two weeks.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yes, you did. One was a little more expensive than.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, this one here. Yeah, I hope I didn't pay
for anything. But dev is not letting him get off
without a party. We're gonna go. They do gonna make
him do the place. No, we don't want to do anything.
Oh yeah, you ain't getting away with that.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, I can see that coming. Hey, our special guest,
and hey, sorry about that. We had a lot to
talk about before we introduced. He is the current president
for Nary Milwaukee. Current because only in a couple more
months he becomes the past president, and I think he's
looking forward to that. We'll find out. Tom guys. MKAE

(02:58):
Designed Build Milwaukee Designed Build. You can go to Mkdesign
buill dot com for more information on his company. We're
talking a lot of Narry stuff today. Hey, it's good
to see you morning.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
Might get to see you as well.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
Been good, been really good, been busy, but overall enjoying it.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
How is my friend Sarah doing.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
Oh, Sarah's doing great. And Sarah's doing awesome.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Man, I'm not that surprised she didn't come in studio
with you. Yeah. No, she didn't like coming in studio
when she was the courr Electric.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Wish I wish i'd know that, I would have forgot
that she works. That would have made her because yeah, yeah,
because we go way back with her.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Oh yeah, I officiated her wedding. If I can't tell
her to come in studio, even when when she was
the cour Electric, when she came in studio, she was like,
I'll come in, but I'm not talking. I'd be like, Sarah,
this is radio and we're a lot of the radio.
You're gonna have to talk. Don't ask me many questions. Yeah,
she's just the best. She's still doing really well.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
Yeah, she's a rock star.

Speaker 5 (03:53):
She's I was rassing her yesterday at the show, because
she said it was like, Hey, I'm doing the radio
sort tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
I said, last time Mike asked me to bring you
along right now, I'm not coming to.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
See there it is. And look, I understand that her husband,
and I'm a big fan of Bobby's, he's had a
rough high school football season. I'm sure that he's not
been the peach to be around the whole season. So
maybe that's why she didn't want to come back.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
Yeah, yeah, she said, he's been spending long hours working
on the on the team and trying to improve it,
and yeah, the unfortunately didn't go well for him.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
It did not go well. And I haven't called him
a lot of times, like back in the day when
he goasca and when they were just dating and they
were rolling, I'd be on the phone with them all
the time, you know, talking about that team and who
you know, upcoming matchups, and didn't talk too much this year.
I gotta be honest with you. Hey, the Narrow Show started.
The twenty twenty five home remodeling show at State Fair

(04:47):
Park started yesterday. Yeah, how did that go? Yesterday?

Speaker 4 (04:50):
It went great? So really excited.

Speaker 5 (04:53):
This year we we created a new kind of focal
point for the show this year, which is the Midwest basement. Yeah,
it ties in and correlates awesome. I mean, unfortunately, we
had a lot of you know, people that have experienced
flooding issues things like that with their basement. But the
timing of it is great from the standpoint of for
those that unfortunately went through that you know, traumatic event.

(05:14):
Now they have an opportunity to to maybe get some
inspiration and look at you know, more creative or innovative
ways to look at their basement space and to make
it something that's more usable, more exciting for them, right,
And so that that part of it is is perfect, right,
and it's it's cool the way they set it up.
You know, they just did sound sort of like a
bunch of different vignettes. So you have, you know, an

(05:36):
audio visual center, you have a bar, you have sort
of a sports area with lockers, you have a craft area.
So it's just it's really neat to kind of see
all the different ways that people, you know, came up
with creative solutions for what a basement could be. And
you know, again it's a perfect time for you know,
people that are thinking about a project to come in
talk to these contractors.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
That are there, that are excited to be there.

Speaker 5 (05:58):
They're excited to meet with you and really get a
good you know, vibe and good sense of you know,
how it's going to be to work with them.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
And what happens is right now, you know, as we're
talking about the NBA and all these all the new
homes are being built, they're not being built with basements.
So then every people want to make additions. The most
easiest edition you can do is do a basement roy model.
People just like well, I want tom do an edition.
The balls are there, the room's there, the spots are there.
You know, technology keep the water out of the basement

(06:26):
is way better than it used to be. I mean,
it's there. It's a good, really good opportunity to take
a look at that.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, and to buy tickets. Guys, if you're going to
the show, buy them ahead of time. Go online and
you can again, Bengo says, you can be in line
to buy tickets and if you go online you can
save a couple of bucks. Goes on today and tomorrow
again at State Fair Park. Tickets are eight dollars online,
ten dollars at the door. Seniors are eight bucks with

(06:54):
an ID, and then kids seventeen and under are free
along with active military, veterans medical personnel. Just bring your
ID and you get in for free.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
You're going on Sunday or you're going Someday and it's free.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
That was the next one special promotion during the Packer game.
Get over there tomorrow at three o'clock and it's free
to get in. And there's trust me, you're not gonna
miss the Packer game there. They are gonna be TVs.

Speaker 5 (07:18):
Oh god, there's so many. Don't had the Brewer game
on last night?

Speaker 1 (07:22):
And ye, no, no they didn't. They had my twenty
four for the high school. I'm on the sidelines over there.
That was. That was just times you can live. You want,
you can't, but you might want. I'm city right here, No,
that's all right. Homestead at West and West. It was
a heck of a game, went right down to the
wire and Homestead scored about a minute ago. And big

(07:44):
high school show today, by the way, brackets for the
high school football playoffs cott nice and we're gonna we're
gonna be watching it live and and talking about it,
so it'll be a lot of fun. Hey, getting back
to the near show, yesterday's crowd when you came in,
you said, look, it started out and bang, and then
you know, in the evening, like it always does Friday,

(08:06):
people are going for their fish fries, watching a little
over a game. But it was a really good Friday
compared to word spend in the past. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
Absolutely, So we had a good attendance yesterday. And then
you know, honestly, the show in and of itself, as
I was giving the announcements and talking to the staff yesterday,
so every year over the last four years, the show
has grown, and that's in vendors and attendants, and you know,
I think a lot of that is can really be
attributed to the staff, you know, and also the committees
that are you know, reinventing what the show is trying

(08:36):
to you know, spark more interest, providing things like that
Midwest basement revival, right because unfortunately, well fortunately for us,
I guess unfortunately for a lot of people, is that
they have a difficulty in envisioning you know, space and
what they can do with it, right, and so the
idea here is really to spark those those things for
you know, homeowners that maybe can't visualize it can't really

(08:58):
fully you know, come up with a concept.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
So yeah, I was the thing about is what happening
is the whole world was going to Amazon right every
he's buying online. Look online. You don't take this right.
But if you're doing remodeling, you know, you need to
build a relationship because these people are they live in
your house for a while. You need to build a
decent relationship. And then you know, it's like you and
my wife. She doesn't like to just want to buy,
she wants to go there. Become good friends with her

(09:21):
whoever she you know, because you will be good friends
or you can be really bad friends, whatever it is.
But you got to make sure you develop a good relationship.
And that's what's so great about the shows. You can
talk to somebody is you know, I just don't like
the way this guy was sitting or he was looking
at me in the eye. Wasn't this You get this?
You get that out all away. So when you get
time to build your yoursell set and that the new
technology is, you know, google it on app, order it

(09:43):
and get like this. And there's a lot of people,
you know, and I'm one of them that want to
want to meet the people that you're going to be
in your home.

Speaker 5 (09:49):
Absolutely well, and I mean you've been involved with this
long enough, like you know, the the reality is is
that you know, from a price point standpoint, from a
quality standpoint, you know, because you're working with the or
you know, talking all these different NARIVE members that more
or less is kind of all equivalent, right, Like we
all kind of do the same thing. We provide the
same services, but it is that customer service, right, it's

(10:11):
how do you interact with that person? Do you enjoy
talking to them? Like you said, are you Can you
form that bond of that friendship with them? Because it
is months that you're working together a lot of times.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
And we always talk about this in even our company.
I'm sure with you guys, is we know we cost
some more, but people forget more about the price, then
they'll remember the relationship and experience they had with you.
We'll wait at a price one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Hey, getting back to the Midwest Basement Revival in that space.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
It sounds like it sounds like something like a church
group should be in that basement.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
It's a church band, yeah, you bet, yeah, and it's
sell Baptists by the way in that space, there's a
wellness area, there's a bourbon sitting area, there's a three
D printing hobby space, sports court, bar area, home theater.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
So when when you talk about we talk about radio's
theater of the mind, right, people are listening to us
and we're trying to paint a picture of what the
show is like at State for a Park and what
the space for the Midwest Basement Revival is. Well, when
you're going over to their this weekend and you're gonna
kind of go to that Midwest Basement Revival Park, I

(11:19):
want you to go to the Theater of the mind. Like,
what can I do with that space? My kids are
now moving out there, going to college or they've gotten married,
and we don't need that basement down there anymore. So
what do we do? We want the bourbon citing area,
I can go look there.

Speaker 5 (11:35):
Right, Yeah, And I mean you think about, you know,
whether you've done it for yourself or for others, been
to other people's basements, right, So often you know people
almost just make it like an extension of basically the
living room that they already have upstairs. Right, So you
put carpet down there, you put drywall you paint it right,
and it's it's sort of just another breakout space, right,
another space to kind of relax inconvenie, which isn't a

(11:56):
bad thing, right. A lot of people like that. They
like it because maybe they have kids. They want to
have a space where they can go and.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Be with their friends.

Speaker 5 (12:03):
You used to call it the man, right yeah, or
man yeah, yeah, yeah, we don't really call it that
I do, but.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah, I live in a condo. My wife wants a
basement every time a tornado's coming back.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
But I mean, you know, the man closet then or
what we just cod her sisters.

Speaker 5 (12:21):
But like you said, like the bourbon, you know, the
bourbon bar or bourbon taste. You know what, whatever you're into, right,
your interests, right, you can make it that right. You
don't have to be confined to you know what the
typical is.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Right. And during during COVID, everybody found out that look,
the space in our house that we thought was big
enough when everybody's gone all day, it's not. So they
they in there. They utilize the basement for maybe go
you know, you put a desk down there and that's
going to be your study area or you know, it's
things like that a play area for the kids because
they couldn't go. But now now things have opened up

(12:56):
and people are looking at space going we're not using
it like that anymore. What can we do to you
utilize that space to make our life better? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (13:05):
Yeah, And you know, honestly, as Bingo said before, it's
a very easy space. You know, you're not adding on
to your home. You already have that square footage there
right when you're building your home, especially in our climate, right,
and so you know that cost is not there to
incur when you're talking about expanding the footprint in your home.
You already have the square foot Yes, you have to
finish it, but it's a much easier process, right, and

(13:27):
it's it's already kind of right there for you.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
So the thirty fifth annual, it's a lot man, the
fact that it's been going on for thirty thirty five years.
The Nary Milwaukee Homer remoeling show today and tomorrow at
State Fair Park. Doors open at eight o'clock. And as
you're going through there, make sure it's hard not to

(13:50):
run into the Midwest Basement Revival. But there's so much more.
And look, I've told this story every time we have
somebody in to talk about this show. The first time
I was em seeing some things down there, I was
leaving and there was a woman walking out with me,
walking trying to walk quicker than me and talking to
herself and just going, oh, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble.

(14:11):
I go, are you okay? She started laughing and she said, look,
I came over here three hours ago. We need windows.
I was going to talk to two window people, pick
one and be out of here. And she had a
notebook with her and she said, so that was my want,
that was my need. I had to get windows. Look
at my once. I was supposed to be home two
and a half hours ago. My one wants to know

(14:32):
where dinner is and he's going to be really mad
at me. But now I want this sauna, and now
I want this, and I want this, and I want
people to understand that that's what happens when you go
to this show.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (14:43):
Absolutely, I mean it's a beauty of the show, right,
is that all of these different trades and contractors they
are all on one spot. Right, And you know, as
Binga and I have said, you get that opportunity for
that one on one, that face to face interaction that
you know, sort of calling and trying to set up
moments and having multiple meetings. I mean, we have over
one hundred vendors that are at the show, and you know,

(15:05):
they're all ready to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
And they're vetted. They're not your memory. To be an
Airy member, you got to be vetted. So you know,
the Narry office actually takes care of it ahead of time.
They make sure they have the insurance. They're you know,
legit companies. They're not you know, they're not ripping people off.
They always make sure that they're they're good, they're a
good shape, So they take care of that for you.
And then another thing I want to bring up to
is this is the fall show. It's the only you know,

(15:27):
in the spring, there's like three different home shows you
can you know, they're pretty much all the same, it
seems like sometimes and then but this is the only
fall show. And if you want something done next year,
you've got to go to this show now. Yeah, because
because you can't show up, you can't show up to
the show in the spring and say, hey, I want
you guys to start the spring. No, and that's not
going to happen. These these things take you know, these
guys are these guys are craftsmen. They're not going to

(15:49):
you know, these aren't what he goes bat where there's
one day guys or something. These are craftsmen, right. They
need to get plans, you get the permits to make
it legal. You got to do everything right. It takes time.
If you want to be on their schedule for next year,
I would go to show make good friends with them.
You know, Tom is Tom is a great contractor. You
know Tom also does a lot of stuff. You know,
you always talk about it with your charity work stuff.

(16:09):
We did that was Tom that had that one up
on North Adwin Or we did really Yeah, well yeah,
he's a lot of stuff.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Well we'll get into that because we're going to talk
a little bit about MK design build on the other
side of the break. One of the reasons we had
Tom and he's the current Neary president. Before we get
to a break. Your your tenures coming up here in
a couple of months. You're okay with that?

Speaker 4 (16:31):
You know, I have no emotion.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Have you come back? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (16:35):
No, I mean, you know, honestly, it's it's I mentioned
to you before the show. You know, it's it's such
a good collaborative group that we have now with the
board and the staff that you know, the beauty of
it is is that you know, even though it's kind
of sad to move on from it, you we all
have the same ideas. We all are moving in the
same direction, which is which is just so great, right,
I mean, you know, we're excited about the future. We're

(16:56):
excited about what we can bring. And to be honest
with you and being mentioned my you know, my willingness
to volunteer. I won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
I may.

Speaker 5 (17:04):
I'll be around and I'll be volunteering because, to be honest,
that's that's what I enjoy, right, I enjoy giving back
and enjoy being a part of this awesome group of
individuals and members.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Man, I love that. And you know who's listening, Michelle Brown,
and she's smiling because she's you said it. And I
can get her a recording to this thing where you said, look,
let's still be around. I'll volunteer. I'll be because if
you disappear, if you ghost them, she's gonna go.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
I know the process, he's not going. We still got
to be in a board friend our year.

Speaker 4 (17:31):
Yet yeah, hang around.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
They don't let you break clean.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
No, no, no, Well they get.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Good people and and Michelle Brown's pretty smart that way
for for sure. Our special guest time guys, he's the
MK designed build and the current president of NARY Milwaukee.
We're talking about the twenty twenty five Homer remodeling show.
Doors open at ten o'clock today ten o'clock tomorrow at
State for a Park. Any questions you have with that,

(17:59):
go to New Miwaukee dot or go to their events
page and you can take a look everything, all the
information you need. They got every exhibitor where with the
boosts that they're at. Some of my favorite current electric
is three forty three Donovan Jordanson and Cooling two thirty one.
When you go over to State Fair Park, make sure
you go see those guys and walk through the park,

(18:21):
walk through the whole the whole area. It's not going
to be a fifteen minute stop, so make sure you
put a good hour or two and trust me, they'll
have Badger game on if that's what you want to see.
They'll have the Packer game on tomorrow and you'll have
a good time. We'll get to a break. Other side
of the break will continue our conversation with Tom Guys again.
He is with MKE Designed a Build. They're located in

(18:44):
Saint Francis. You can go to Mkdesign Build dot com.
This is the Creative Construction of Wisconsin Home Improvement show
only on Fox Sports signed twenty and Your iheartradiop Welcome
back to the Creative Construction of Wisconsin home Improvement show
on Fox Sports nine twenty in your iHeartRadio app coming
live from the Donovan and Jorganson Heating and Cooling Studios,

(19:06):
the largest employee owned HVAC company in the state of Wisconsin.
Go to Donovan Jorgenson dot com for any of your
HVAC needs. I'm Mike McGivern alongside Bengo Emmons, the twenty
twenty five Associated of the Year for the NBA. Can't
believe you're making me introduce you like that every time for.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
The next just for our next year.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
For the next year. Oh man, next for you one
weeks the NBA Associated of the Year. That's a big
old trophy you were holding.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
It was it was really big.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
I was like, it looks like you started a thing
in the fifties.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
That's all right. Hey, thank god this dev was there
to help you carry that thing. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just
telling you our special guest in studio. He is the
current president for NARY Milwaukee. He is Tom guys MK
Designed Build. How long is MKA Design Bill ben In.

Speaker 5 (19:58):
Yeah, so we opened up in twenty fifteen, so just
over ten years that we've we've been in business, and yeah,
I mean we we are about a fifteen person team.
And you know, honestly, we specialize in mostly high end
residential modeling, but also like commercial, so we'll do bars, restaurants,
we do some dental medical facilities as well, but primarily

(20:21):
our business is really centered around residential and residential remodeling.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Did you start the company? Yeah, yeah, so you're you're
a call owner. Yeah, when you started the company, did
you think, man, we all look at that one year
or three year, right, ten year? Did you think that
you guys would get to how big you are right now?

Speaker 5 (20:43):
You know, I think I did, but it was I
mean even now, so my business partner and I, you know,
we always really have adopted the mindset of organic growth.
You know, it's never really been about a number of
employees or you know, even revenue, right, I mean, this
is just something that we're passionate about construction remodeling in particular,
and we want to make a living. You know, we

(21:03):
want all of our people to make a good living.
And so you know, whether I'm doing it for somebody
else or doing it for myself, that was really just
a choice. But yeah, it's never We've never been driven
by you know, those types of metrics, right, it's just
been Yep, this is what we're gonna do, and we're
going to make a go of it, and we're going
to make sure that we're successful by just you know,
putting in the effort and hard work and learning, teaching ourselves.

(21:24):
And uh, it's been great, it's been awesome. We have
a really great culture within our within our organization of
our employees, and we just have a lot of fun
and really spend a lot of time together and joining
each other.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
What out on the street, what do you think you
guys are known for the most? Is it first of
all residential? I think right, yeah? But is it is
it full full room model? Is a certain area in
the in the house. Is there something that you guys
kind of hang your hat on.

Speaker 5 (21:53):
Yeah, I would say I would say full service remodeling.
And the reason I say that is because we we
are turn key, right, So we're we're very approachable, you know,
we really want to work with people. You know, we're
We're definitely not someone that's going to come in and
tell you, you know, what the best way to do
something is. We're going to listen to you and understand
what your needs are. We're gonna make suggestions along the way.

(22:14):
But more than anything, we want to be approachable, right.
We want a relationship with these people. We have a
lot of repeat customers, repeat business and it's because for us,
we look at it as you know, for whatever it
is that you know these customers do, right, we want
to be their advocate, whether this is a commercial space
and their business.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Right.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
You know, I've told some of our dental clients in
the past, right, Hey, you you focus on teeth and
you focus on what you're doing with that, and I'll
focus on your building for you.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Right.

Speaker 5 (22:42):
And that's really our mindset, right is that you know,
we're not We're very humble. We you know, want to
help out. We we care about quality, We care about
our product and what we're putting out there. Uh, and
we want all of our employees to really vest in
that and enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
Right, Hey, do you when when when you go into
to somebody who's looking to redo their kitchen. That for me,
you know, when I was grown up on the East
side of Milwaukee with this whole Irish family, and the
kitchen was such a focal point, and then it kind
of moved to the living area in the living room

(23:16):
and maybe the dining room because they'd hang a TV there.
But it seems to me like it's back to that kitchen.
And maybe I'm wrong with that, and that open concept
of trying to blend the two is that in every
single conversation that you.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
Have, Yeah, I mean, you know, it's the kitchen is
so you know, it's such a center of someone's home, right,
And I don't know if it's a I guess I
don't know if it's a Midwest thing or not, right,
but I feel like I agree with you, you know,
no matter what, when you have people over, everyone kind
of gravitates. And you know, I don't know if it's
because your you know, food is just kind of this
thing that draws everyone in or what, but you know,

(23:52):
everyone sort of gravitates to the kitchen. That's where you convene,
where you talk, you know, and so you know, not
necessarily always is an open concept, right, but you kind
of always have to look at it in context of
the adjacencies to the other spaces, how it functions, how
it works. Some people prefer a more open concept, right,
and then others say, I don't want an open concept

(24:13):
because then everyone's going to gravitate into my kitchen and
I'm trying to cook.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Right.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
So it's really well a matter of preference, man.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
We found that out when we moved to this This
kind of for me, my wife loves it. It was
when we were in our home on eighty eighth Street.
The kitchen was a different area, different room with walls
and doors, and now it's all open and you're trying
to watch a ball game or something and the you know,
the dishwashers on or the you know, something's going down

(24:41):
in the kitchen. You had to turn it up. And
there are some downsides to that open concept.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
There, there are some downsides that open concept. Yeah, so
I mean it really again, it depends on you know,
what everyone's preference is with it. Obviously, newer construction homes
you know, newer design homes, a lot of them are
open concept, and I think it still works, you know,
but of course you get into your older bungalows things
like that, and it's it's natural to have those spaces
segregated like that.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I was gonna say something to it. There's also a
little bit of a trend. I know, it's in a
few products I've been a part of. They Actually, you know,
they got the open concept and there's a little room
right next to it that's like where the where they
can go there and go hide little pantry. Yeah, it's
like a little pantry thing, take a little sinking there,
a little coffee area in there, and you got a
little place go in there where you can do stuff.

(25:28):
So they're not like.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Right there, walk in closet.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Man, that's what it looks like. And I'm saying, it's like,
what do you need this for? You said, well, you know,
when you have a bunch of people over and you're
cutting fish or something, you just got to do it
in there, and coffee in there.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
We we have a walking closet in our bedroom. That
most of what they did when they kind of redid
our condo. They did great, sure, but they used those
wire racks in our walking closet, and once started to
bowl a little bit, and then another words started bowl
a little bit, so I I fixed it, try it,

(26:01):
and so it was okay for a bit, and then
one the other one started the bowl a little bit
and my wife said, hey, I'm gonna go to Pick
and Save and wait till I get back and we'll
do it together. I said, no, I okay, and I
thought I got this. I did the other ones and
as I lifted it up, and we had so much
stuff in there, Christmas ornaments, all of it. It all

(26:22):
came down, all of it, and it was like boom,
boom boom. And I was stuck in the back of
the closet. But I had my phone and I called
her and I said, where are you. She said, I'm
just getting done at Pick and Save and I said,
I'm stuck in the closet. She goes, what, I go,
wait till you come home. You're not gonna believe this.
I'm stuck in the closet. And so by the time
she got home, I had dug myself out and she

(26:44):
goes with a doorstock. I go, no, go in there,
And I thought, oh, this is not going to go well,
she goes, I get a new closet, don't I. I said, yes,
you do. So we got that done. But I can
tell you, man, it was to upgrade. Now it's like
almost that's my favorite room. Yeah, it's just so nice
to be able to and we see the lighting part,

(27:05):
all of it. It's it's great. So I can see
why people are putting that in off the kitchen, getting
nice to put a little bit of mini TV in
there and just close the door. Right. Yeah. Hey, down
at State Fair Park, you guys are booth four thirteen.
Are you going to be there?

Speaker 5 (27:20):
So I'm over there today, I was there yesterday, I'll
be there tomorrow all day.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
You'll be there tomorrow all day all day. Yeah, So
if you're going, make sure you head over to Booth
four thirteen. Talk to Time. You can talk to him
about nairy stuff. You can talk to him about building stuff,
about work, about packers.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
You'll talk packers anything. Yeah, you're not.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Talking about your footballer version.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
Well, yeah, I'm a little sour about the Brewers game. Yeah,
so you know in batterers. Honestly, yeah, I think that's
just a sensitive subject for a lot of people a show.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
I do call Faith in the Zone that airs Sunday,
so you're on nine to twenty. I talked to a
guy named Brady Ewing, Okay, who played at at Wisconsin,
played in the NFL, was on the coaching staff for
a bit, and we were talking about Faith in the
Zone and and and I finally said, Hey, I got
to ask you, how are you feeling? He goes, they're
unwatchable right now? Yeah? And I go, they are And

(28:10):
he goes, I'm so sad by this. He said, I
really was happy with the fickle Hire and I I
just I just don't know what they're laying their head.
And as we talked about when I asked you, what
do you guys? You know what? This is who we are?
They don't.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
They don't have that identity.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
They don't have that identity at all. For sure. Hey,
when yesterday when you were down at State Fair Park,
what are most consumers coming to talk to you about? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (28:35):
So to us specifically, they're they're coming and talking about remodeling,
typically a kitchen or bathroom. We do have some folks
that come in and talk about additions, you know, and
into our whole house.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Remodels as well.

Speaker 5 (28:48):
But I feel like that's it's it's definitely more kitchens
and baths for sure. And again that's that's a very
large portion of our business is just kitchens and bathrooms.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
You know, early on in our conversation about your company
in this segment, you said, look, we are high end.
We're a high end. Do people do people get surprised?
Do they ask you budget wise, where do I need
to be to work with you? And are they surprised
at that number?

Speaker 4 (29:12):
I would I would say they are, and I think
a lot of it. You know, It's it's not that
we have a you.

Speaker 5 (29:18):
Know floor as far as what you know number will
work with or anything like that. We're definitely willing to
work with whatever budget they have, but we definitely want
to identify that budget very early on because it is
our goal as a design build and part of that
turn key process to really navigate in and guide them,
you know, into that budget.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Hey, the difference between a design build company and a
company that you could go and bring your own design
and say, well you build this force is it that
that's a big difference. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (29:47):
I Mean we do all the drawings, we do all
of the finished selections, with you. We have our designers
in house, so it is a big difference, right, And
and part of the reason why it's so great is
because we have that autonomy to help guide you early
in the process so that you're not over designing, right.
And I think that's where people are surprised when it
comes to cost, right, is that they see all the
pretty pictures. I mean, social media is great for that, right,

(30:09):
The Internet is great for that. They see all these
things that they want, they don't fully understand how much
a lot of that costs, right, And so we try
to be really transparent and open with our pricing and
just say, hey, look, you know, it's not that we're
trying to profit, you know, in mass amount of money
or anything like that for these jobs.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
It's just this is what the real costs are.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Right. My thing is like they see someone on Pinterest
and it won't fit in a room that they want
to put it, right, They're like, well, yeah, can you
make this thing work? My wife really likes it, you know,
not necessary space.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah. Hey, if somebody comes to you and and wants
you just to be the design part of it or
just the build part of it, can they hire you
for that.

Speaker 4 (30:50):
Yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 5 (30:51):
More so we've had that happen where people come to
us with their own designs and they want us to
just contract it the design portion. The way that we
operate is to segment and we create milestones throughout the
process where you know, theoretically, if they wanted to stop
working with us after the design and you know, go
to another contractor, they could. To be honest, that's I
think only happened one time in the entire history of

(31:13):
our company. And part of the reason is, and Bingo
and I had talked about it before. We have developed
a rapport and a relationship with people at that point
right where they're comfortable, they're confident, they don't really want
to start over with that, and you know, and to
be honest, I don't feel like they should. Only from
the sansets. It sounds biased, but we really at that
point have a very good understanding of what their needs are,

(31:33):
what their house is, how it's going to function.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
You've been holding hands with them for a bit. Absolutely, yeah,
no doubt. Hey, guys, when you go down to the
Nary Show and you want to talk to Tom, you
go to Booth four thirteen MK Design built Booth four thirteen.
He'll be there all day tomorrow, but there'll be people there.
In fact, Sarah will be there.

Speaker 5 (31:52):
Sarah will be there today. Yeah, and then I think
Michelle's there is today as well.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
Just one of the most beautiful brides I've ever seen
in my life. To be able to blessing, Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
Another thing too, is I think about if you're a
contractor and I think about moving up the next level,
you talk to Tom about becoming a member.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, it's a great point.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, because people say, well, you know, they always say, well,
I don't want to join NAIRY because I don't need
the workers. No, it's it's a different level of work,
and it's the respect of all your friends. And when
you go to this ard, you know that you know
the other dollars coming up you go towards and you know,
I mean you think they're competitors, but they're not. They're
also they're also you know, and as that when you
become a member of NAIRY, I mean, these aren't your competitors.

(32:32):
It's your support group. They all help each other in
this business to keep this and keep their construction. Construction
get a bad name for a while and groups like this.
You know, when you hire a nairy guy, you know
you're hiring a contractor. It won't be on contact six.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
One hundred percent one hundred percent. And if you go
to the show today, before you go, Michelle Brown and
I talked about this a lot last week. She put
together he steps to prepare for the show. And you
might find that, like what I have to prepare to
go to this show? That this is a really good piece.

Speaker 2 (33:00):
Thisy be like me, I just lose it easy, So,
oh this is really cool.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
And I forget Homer Simpson when you're both we're like, oh,
look at look at that shiny object. Oh no, hold on,
you wait, look at that shiny object. Do yourself a favor.
Go on the Narry website. It's Narymwaukee dot org and
go to the events page and go to the steps
to prepare for the home show. And look, even if
you just read it quickly, on things that can make

(33:24):
this journey that you're going to go on more enjoyable
because you're not going to be just flying all over
the place. Gives you a really good kind of just
here's a couple of things that you're going to be
able to completely get everything you want out of this show.
If you just take a second to read that or
print it and take it with you, we'll continue to
talk about this show. Twenty twenty five Homer Remodeling Show

(33:48):
at State Fair Park, doors open at ten am to day.
Go to Narymwaukee dot org for all the information you
need on that show. This is the Creative Construction of
Wisconsin home improvement show only on Fox fort nine twenty
and your I Hurt Radio epsty good comfort music for us.
Getting a little spat here, he say go ahead and

(34:09):
yeah that's good. You jump, I'm not jumping. Welcome back
to the Creative Construction Wisconsin. I'll pull a hamstring. Creative
Construction Wisconsin Home Improvement Show on Fox Sports on twenty
Your iHeart Radio app coming from the Donovan to Jorgansen
Heating and Cooling Studios. Our special guest. He's a good
on tom Geist MK Design Built go to Mkdesign build

(34:33):
dot com or better yet, if you're gonna be there
tomorrow you get a chance to meet him in person.
But go today to meet my friend Sarah. Go go
down there and tell her, hey, I heard you. You
were the most beautiful bride of all time, And I'm
telling you that's a fact. Go to what booth four
thirteen is where you got to go? Hey, when people
go out of.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
There, you know, Sarah's the reason why I was such
a good relationship with Current in the beginning to right too,
because yeah, because zach.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
On and Steve who used to work there. Yeah, one
hundred percent. I uh yeah, I love. She's just really
good person. And if she is an ambassador for MK Design, Bill,
You're you're in good hand there, there is no doubt.
Do not talk to her about high school football to day.
Don't do it, you know, I don't, don't do it.
Stay away from that. But other than that, you can

(35:23):
talk to her about just about anything. Hey, Tom, would
people go down to the show of somebody's going down
there for the first time? Are there other than than
than printed out these steps to prepare for a home show?
What what advice would you give somebody to to to
be able to get full what the show offers is

(35:45):
so much, but to get the full experience? What would
you tell them? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (35:49):
So, I mean I think with any project, in your
remodeling project, you know, doing your homework and preparing yourself
is is really you know, it's it's your investment, right,
and it's your way of protecting your investment.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Right.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
So understanding what.

Speaker 5 (36:01):
It is that you're really looking for, really understanding you know,
the finance, you know, financial aspect of of you know,
what you want to invest into your home and your project, right,
and that's something that unfortunately a lot of us we
can't really answer that for you, right, Like, we're not
we're not your accountant, we're not your you know, finance guy.
You know, we don't live in your house, and yeah,
we can kind of tell you whether you know it's

(36:23):
going to be a worthy investment in your home, you know,
just based on the market and things like that. But
at the same time, at the end of the day,
you have to figure that out for yourself as far
as you know how you're going to afford it, how
you're going to do this, and then you know, be
prepared also with what your likes and dislikes are, right,
And some people may not be able to do that
because they have trouble visualizing, you know. But it doesn't

(36:43):
necessarily have to be from a design standpoint. It could
be functionality, right. It could be that you know, hey,
I don't really cook, So that's not really a big
priority for me, you know. Or I love to cook
and I love to cook for a lot of people, right,
those things are are really important to us as contractors
for to be able.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
To help with Yeah what I'm saying, but just companies
like you know, let's say Tom, we're just Bill pick
on him because he's in here. Just companies like him
that says, you know what, we want to do this,
but where do we know where to start? We don't
know what how to go? And you design build firms
that that his company all LEAs started right from the
very beginning to like, okay, what do you want to
build and what do you want to need at And
they're smart enough to know that people live in these

(37:21):
homes long enough now, right, so they put the boards
in the bathrooms, they make it and say, you know what,
how many years are going to live here? So let's
design this for that and that. And you know, companies
like that they can cater to that.

Speaker 5 (37:31):
You.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
I mean, you always got those companies that can just
they'll just build whatever you want, right, but you've got
somebody that can actually build for what you really you
know you want something, but what what do you really need,
and that's what they're good at. They're good at designing
and building for what you need, not just.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
What do you think?

Speaker 5 (37:45):
Well, And I was going to say, like even even
now posts, I mean, we're well pasted it, thank god,
But I mean post pandemic, right, that narrative really changed.
You talked about it earlier about people, you know, using
their space differently. You know, prior to pandemic, we would
run into people and they say, I want to redo
my kitchens that I can sell, And I would think
to myself, why do.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
You want to do that?

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Right?

Speaker 5 (38:05):
Like you're putting your own stamp on it, building this
beautiful space. Why don't you want to enjoy it?

Speaker 2 (38:10):
Right?

Speaker 5 (38:10):
That idea has changed, right, And a lot of it
has to do with the market. You know, home values
have gone up. People want to stay in the same
house that they're in, they want to improve it. But
we're really excited about that because now they're actually they're
really putting their own personal touch on it and they're
using the space the way that it's intended.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Hey, when somebody goes down again and if they go
to Booth four thirteen today at State Fair Park and
Sarah and we keep talking about her, but she's a
project coordinator coreat what a perfect person to be able
to talk to about some of the like, Okay, as
a project coordinator, look timing? What am I looking at?
Timing wise? How much knowledge you're making? Am I going

(38:48):
to hear from you guys every day? Am I going
to know when you're coming, when you're not coming? What?
And So I think to talk to her about working
with MKA Design Build is a really good conversation because
you can kind of get the weeds a little bit
and say, Okay, what can I expect from you when
it comes to this.

Speaker 5 (39:05):
Yeah, And you know, we love that part of like
that personal relationship that we form with our customers.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Right.

Speaker 5 (39:10):
So it makes me so happy that most of our
reviews and compliments that we get from our customers, the
number one thing they say is how nice everybody was,
how approachable, how easy going they were, how comfortable they
felt with them in their house. Right, And that's by design, right,
We want people to feel that way because it is
a very intrusive process. Right, We're going in and your
swinging hammers and cutting and doing all types of things,

(39:32):
making noise, making dust, right, it can be uncomfortable, but
you know, being reassured by the people that you're working with,
it just it makes it so much easy.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Does she stay with it? So if if I were
to hire you guys over, no, No, no, she did.
Is she's still my contact once you guys start swinging here.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (39:50):
So it transitions, honestly, So it transitions from you know,
our design staff. They'll kind of walk you through, you know,
the selections and picking everything out with you the drawings.
Right then it actually transitions over to Sarah. Sarah kind
of helps work with our estimating and then she helps
Sarah is like all the permitting. She works with all
the subcontractors, getting them in alignment and getting everything organized
prior to the start of the job, pre construction.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Designed, with the selections, selection process. That's that's the most
of the most excruciating part. I have no involvement, and
that was whatever the worst.

Speaker 5 (40:19):
There's a lot to this. I mean, it's you don't
think about how much there is it. But I mean
when you're talking about, oh yeah, because because he's.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Talked about picting, you know, cupboard handles and stuff like that,
the worst, right, Yeah, put.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Me in the fetal position.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
I was I was.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
It was the worst.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Always telling me what I do is I always say,
the best thing is you know, give me like two,
this one or this one.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Right right, Yeah, I'm okay with three, but but man, yeah,
a thousand. I am in the fetal position and I
need I.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Need look at this catalog forget it.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah, get it, it's over. I get it to my
wife and I go, please choose, and I will be
happy with almost anything that that that you choose. Hey,
we had talked little bit earlier. When people are in
today in today's world, right, people that are coming to
this show, you'd say, look, it's a wide variety of things.
But is it are they bigger projects than they used

(41:12):
to be? Or is it is it they want one
part of their house changed and then they'll come back
a year to change another one.

Speaker 4 (41:19):
I think it's a good mix.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Right.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
So there are still people that are just coming to
do you know, their kitchen or bathroom, which is great.
We love clients that are really upfront and transparent with us,
where they say, hey, look we have these three projects
we want to do, and we want to work them
in over the next handful of years, even ten years, right,
and say okay, great, perfect, Yeah, let's let's get to work.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Say one of the biggest mistakes that customers will do
is they'll say some underinflated budget. They'll come up with
some unrealistic budget. He say, yeah, we don't want to
spend more in seventeen thousand dollars on a completely model. Well,
you're gonna lose interest over you're talking to. I mean
you should kind of be honest, because you know, let
them know what they got to work with, you can
work with. They're not going to be They're afraid to

(41:59):
say something, Well, I don't want to say sixty thousand
because is not going to charge my hundred and twenty thousand.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Right or spend the whole six day right right?

Speaker 5 (42:05):
Yeah, yeah, I mean again, it really depends on your
tastes and what you pick, right. I mean, we help
guide you with that, but that's what drives it, right,
It's not it's not anything other than that.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
I mean, you know it could.

Speaker 5 (42:16):
It could give you job costings of what it actually
costs to have our guys on site and.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
That sort of thing.

Speaker 5 (42:20):
But the reality is is that's not what's driving the
main cost. The main cost is all of these really
high end finishes that people are selecting which they fall
in love with through, you know, whether it's social media,
whether it's Pinterest, whether it's you know, seeing it on TV.
And again they're great, they're awesome, right, and we love
installing those. But you don't have to go that route.
It's not a necessity. It's sort of a status symbol
thing that people get sucked into.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Yeah you get it's like a twelve burner, big Viking thing. Yeah, right,
when you buy something like that, you understand now you
got to get makeup. There, there's things, there's qualities. It's
for costs. I come to it as you know, twenty
thousand dollars stole you got.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
Well, And that's actually another reason why we love people
that come in and say, hey, these are the projects
we want to do, right, because the last thing we
want to do is do a project and then have
to you know, disrupt that project that we just completed
maybe a year or two ago, to then do something else. Right,
So you want to do a bathroom, well, we're going
to look at your pipes and if your pipes need
to be addressed now so that we don't have to
tear things open later we're going.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
To do that, right, hey, And and things change, right,
I mean, for a while there because of those TV shows,
the barn door thing was was huge and now nobody
wants it anymore. And for the people that jumped on
it because that was the next cool shiny object, kind
of stuck with that for a while. Yeah. The the
you know, the big farmers are kitchen the kitchen farm stinks. Yeah,

(43:34):
absolutely everybody. And I don't know if that's still hot
or not.

Speaker 5 (43:38):
It's you know, again, I think that's more of a
style thing. I think there's a lot of people that
still really enjoy that style and like it. You know,
it just depends on what people want, right. I mean,
we we operate, you know, we're just south of downtown
in Saint Francis. We do a lot of condos on
the east side, and you know, we work in all
types of different traditional styles, modern styles, right, So it
really depends on what you're looking for and what your

(43:59):
space you know, kind of works with. I mean, you're
not gonna put a farm sink in a brand new modern.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
House and you brought up condos and that's a whole
nother show. Oh yeah, it's a whole another show and
now that I live.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
And when I see that, okay, I text Sam, we
got to bring them back.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
But with Sarah, yeah yes only yeah she doesn't she
does it right, but you know what if she wants,
but I have pictures. The condo project is a totally
separate It's just a whole different animal.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
Yeah. So we we jokingly call ourselves the condo contractors
sometimes because we get into a building and we have
a really good rapport with the management team and then
they just start making referrals for us, and next thing
you know, we're in ten twenty units doing different things,
and it's it's a different project from sense of like,
yes it's residential, but you're really in a commercial building, right,
so there's there's fire suppression and things that you have

(44:48):
to take into account that normally you don't see on
a residential draft.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
You know, my wife and I've been in this kind
of almost three years now, and the hl A board
is up in November and there's some people going, hey,
you know, maybe it's time, and my wife's like, you
better think about that. You better think about what you're
getting yourself into, because I won't answer the door if
people keep bringing the doorbells. So Hey, Tom, it's so

(45:13):
good to see you. And if you want to meet
him in person or go say hi to him tomorrow
at State Fair Park. Doors open at ten a quad.
The twenty twenty five Homer remodeling showed opens today at
ten o'clock. Tom will be there tomorrow. Booth four thirteen.
Go see the Superheroes that Colonel Electric Booth three forty three.
Donovan Jeorgan said, heating cooling against some clients of mine.

(45:34):
Booth two thirty one, but four thirteen. Go say hi
Sarah today. Go say hi to Tom tomorrow. From MKA
Design and Build. Hey Bingo again, congratulations. Twenty twenty five
associated the year with NBA. That's a really cool award.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah you bet. Dev looked awfully happy in that picture.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Well no, I keep telling her some days you're gonna
like me, because.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
I ye she she may not like you all the time,
but she sure loves you, and I can tell you
that firsthand. Say something bad about you behind your back
and watch her. Go. Tom, it's good to see it,
really gat to see you.

Speaker 4 (46:08):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
You got it. This is the Creative Construction Wisconsin Home
at probit show on Fox Sports nine twenty and your
iHeart radio app