November 18, 2025 • 35 mins
Josh Vitale shares his journey into the construction industry, emphasizing the importance of wellness in this field. He discusses his transition to construction advocacy and recounts early experiences that shaped his career. The episode delves into his role in personal crisis intervention and efforts towards systemic change. Josh analyzes the return on investment for wellness programs and highlights initiatives like Project Built. He discusses educational partnerships and family retreats, touching on fundraising efforts and the Recharge Room concept. The conversation covers peak performance hubs, collaboration with academia, and outreach during Construction Suicide Prevention Week. Josh concludes with insights on wellness and self-care.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Absolutely.
(00:00):
You know, the numbers have been studied alittle bit and the return on wellness
initiatives is like for every dollar spent,you're getting $6.10, $15 in return.
You know what I mean?
In a world where your boardroom is pining overfractions of a percent of increase in
profitability, we can take these programs, plugthem in right now, and in three to six months,
(00:22):
you're going to see massive ROI.
I don't see why any company would turn awayfrom that.
And I think maybe right now, it's just a matterof disbelief because the numbers are so big.
They go, that can't be true.
Or, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to do this andit's gonna be hard, right?
But once we have once we prove it out and wefind some pilot companies that do it and then
we have the data that backs it up, then it'sgonna be a no brainer.
(00:45):
Josh, I love that we just met on LinkedIn andwe kinda that was the connection and then
quickly was like, oh, we need to like actuallytalk and have a conversation.
And then, hey, let's go get coffee.
And then, hey, I'm building this amazing thing.
Let's talk more about that and have you on thepodcast.
So it's been a it's been very serendipity asthey say on in the world of the Internet and
where we we are in society because I feel likehistorically IT guy I wouldn't call me an IT
(01:10):
guy, but a guy that works in IT and a guy thatworks in true hands on field shit wouldn't have
been like, oh, yeah.
Let's just hang out.
It'll be funny.
Let's go grab a coffee.
Right?
So, just really cool era of the world we livein, but I was thinking, I'd love to hear more
so about your experience before I dig into moreof the project build stuff.
(01:30):
Yeah.
It's I wonder if you even realize what a firestarter you are, but when we first connected,
so we talked, right?
And I kind of told you what what I was doing atthat moment in time.
And you were like, oh, that's cool.
Let me connect you with this guy I just had aconversation with who was Matt Astin from or
asked me Who's
on the podcast?
From From GPRS.
(01:51):
Ohio.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Correct.
So Matt and I had a conversation over the phoneand he was like, you know, I don't know how I
can help, but I know a guy that I can.
So he connected me with Mark McGinnis, who isthe founder of Seal Legacy Charity or
Foundation.
And he's an ex Navy SEAL commander, doesincredible work for Navy SEALs in the suicide
(02:12):
prevention space.
They actually do suicide post vengeance fortheir people.
And Mark was really the linchpin for me goingfrom advocate to turning this into a real,
like, full time thing, where he said to me, hewas like, you're gonna have to create it.
If you wanna do what you say you wanna do, youneed foundation, you need a nonprofit, and you
(02:33):
need a consulting business.
And so fast forward a year and a half, twoyears, and then that's where we're at, right?
We're consulting, we've built the nonprofit,rolling out these programs.
And so, you know, I mean, ultimately, you,Justin, were the catalyst for all of my career
path.
I don't know if I should thank you or curseyou, but
(02:54):
I would love to take the credit, but like Ijust I did the simple like, hey, this feels
like a connection that may make sense in someway.
And I I actually I had a I literally had a callyesterday with she Heather Lennon, was also on
the podcast, not serial entrepreneur, but sheruns a GC.
It's one of the one of the businesses she has.
And she said all the business I've ever startednever turned out the way I thought they were
(03:16):
going to when I initially started them.
And, like, that's kind of the approach here of,I don't know.
This seems like a thing that would maybe makesense and who knows what, you know, what you do
from there.
And I'll just leave it to that, Josh.
I'll just say, hey.
I I just did the basic minimum, and then youtook it from there.
So you gotta you gotta applaud yourself for,actually being driven and taking the ball and
(03:38):
running with it.
Right?
Oh, yeah.
I say I can get a lot of work done with onehand because I'm patting myself on the back
with the other one all the time, you know?
So how so how long were you before you decided,hey.
I'm going full, I'm gonna say advocacy is isthe I'll tee it up to that.
Consulting advocacy, a nonprofit.
Before that, how long were you in the trades?
How like, share share with the listeners, hey.
(03:59):
This is what I was doing prior to this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I mean, I grew up in construction.
My stepdad was a drywall contractor.
So, you know, my afternoons were, like, loadingmud into the garage and cleaning out the
bazooka in the yard and, you know, scrappinghouses at twelve, trying not to get nails
through my shoes, that kind of thing.
Right?
So that's how I grew up.
I grew up with a dad that was saying, do not gointo construction, that you're too smart for
(04:24):
that.
And then I went to college and hated it.
So I ended up in construction and joined theIBEW apprenticeship in like 1997, 1998, topped
out in like 2001.
And you know how it is in construction.
If you show up on time and you're not doingdrugs, they basically give you a foreman truck.
(04:44):
You know, if that's all you're doing, thenyou're the boss.
So they made me a foreman before I was even ajourneyman lineman.
I was running a crew installing street lights.
So I've been doing that for about twenty fiveyears and kind of progressed through, through
the trades and meandered around.
And then most recently I switched.
I was the transmission and distribution vicepresident for Intermountain Electric kind of
all over The United States.
(05:05):
That's a funny story.
I got marooned up at Yellowtail Dam right onthe Wyoming Montana border in my truck driving
out a transmission line.
And Amy, my wife and my sister were like, youknow, calling search and rescue and had police
and fire and everybody out looking for me.
And so the week that I got back, I got a callfrom a recruiter and they said, Hey, they're
(05:25):
building a semiconductor plant in Chandler.
They want you to come do the electrical pieceof that.
And I was like, Man, even in the interview, Isaid, I think you guys called the wrong person.
I know nothing about semiconductors.
But they offered me a position, and I told Amyabout it.
And she said, Wait, so you're going be home forthree years?
And I said, Yeah.
And she said, I don't care what it is.
You're taking the job.
I ended up working for a GC on a semiconductorproject, which is what led me to so no
(05:52):
coincidences, right?
It led me to the suicide prevention work andmental health advocacy and really started the
ball rolling into what we're seeing today,which is being thrust into the environment that
we're in, understanding that it's an emergency.
And really, you know, I spend a lot of timeeducating myself on what's out there and what
people are doing currently, but then alsoidentifying the gaps.
(06:15):
And so then, you know, the project built isreally the gap filler that Amy and I decided we
wanted to inject that we thought could do a tonof good.
So, obviously, suicide prevention, substanceabuse, this is big, huge problem in the
industry.
You see statistics, right?
Like it is, as, as, as I say, as an outsider,I'll see this statistics.
(06:36):
I'm like, that's, that seems aggressive.
It seems sad, but like, you've actually seen itmore firsthand and like the real reality of it.
I know when we went and had coffee, havingconversations about like just the things that
you've seen is heartbreak.
Like, it's just like, you know, it makes senseto me why you would then go and say, Hey, we
need to fix this.
We really need to fix this problem.
It's easier to just, like, chalk it up to statsand, like, numbers when you're not there seeing
(07:01):
it compared to now, like, you're living thisand seeing this every day, and that's that's
gotta be hard.
Yeah.
You know, so I got I was in a position and Iwould say voluntold, right?
It's not like you don't ever look for that.
But I was in a position to where I became thecrisis intervention guy on-site.
And so, you know, a superintendent would callme and say, Hey, I've got a guy that's
(07:24):
struggling.
Obviously, I don't know what to do.
Will you talk to him?
And so we would, you know, gather him up, takehim to a private space, sit down and see what's
going on.
And yeah, I saw some pretty horrific stuff, youknow, guys that were ready to go in the parking
lot and down a bottle of pills or, you know,that had a loaded gun on the front seat of
their pickup truck.
And their plan was to, you know, on the drivehome, pull off somewhere and do it.
(07:47):
Or, you know, it was, it was strange for me tobe in that position.
But so to back up a little bit, I come from abackground of trauma that, that childhood that
I talked about was filled with addiction andalcoholism.
So I'm a CPTSD survivor.
And about ten years ago, I finally raised thewhite flag, got help, got EMDR therapy.
(08:09):
You know, I've spent my whole life trying toheal that part of me.
And so, that mixed with being in the situationthat I was in, where I noticed that people were
in crisis, I felt uniquely called to besomebody that can help.
And so, when I'm sitting with someone that isin the middle of the crisis, I can say, Hey,
I've been exactly where you are.
I know what you're feeling.
(08:30):
Here's what I was doing when that happened.
And here's what I did to get out of that.
And so that was a great opportunity for us toopen up.
I call it the container, right?
You open up the container, we can set our stuffin there together, and then we can work on
like, what are the next steps, right?
I'm not a clinician.
I'm not a therapist.
I really don't know what to do outside of justopening up and saying, Hey, I'm here for you.
(08:52):
You're not alone.
I love you.
Let's move forward together.
And then I'm going be the guy that's callingand texting you and making sure that you're
going to your appointments or whatever.
But I think, like you said, right, identifyingthe gaps.
Now, the one gap that came up every singletime, and I've done dozens of interventions.
I went, I went and did a retreat with my buddy,Josh Rizzo and Justin Asbille with a company
(09:14):
that had like 30 superintendents.
Every single one of those guys talked about adisconnection from family.
Everyone that I did an intervention on,everybody up at that retreat, everyone that I
talked to as I'm traveling around doing talks,it's always that disconnection from family.
Amy and I felt that too, right?
When I was marooned out there in the middle ofwherever, you know, when I was out traveling
(09:36):
and we weren't communicating and we werefighting and having struggles, you know, we
didn't have the tools to stay connected, right?
We didn't have rituals in place that allowed usto maintain our stability and our communication
as I was on the road and she was here trying toraise a family and work and do all the things
that she's got to do.
And what I've noticed, a lot of the gentlemenlike myself that have spent their lives on the
(10:00):
road, traveling, doing this construction thing,is that they don't feel appreciated.
They're estranged from maybe they got two,three divorces.
Their kids don't talk to them, so they feeltotally alone.
And they feel like they've wasted their entirelife thinking that they were sacrificing for
their family, when in reality, their familydidn't appreciate what they were doing.
They just felt like they were leaving themalone.
(10:21):
So really trying to figure out how we can dosomething about that is what Amy and I have
focused on and why we created the retreats thatthat we'll we'll get into.
Yeah.
So that I mean, literally, as you were gettingthe semiconductor job, Amy said, I don't care
what the job is.
You're taking it because you'll be here forthree years.
I think that that screams, you know, the ahas.
(10:42):
Right?
Like, of the this is so crucially importantjust being here, being near.
And, obviously, there's a lot of travelingtradesmen, right, that are just going to the
next place to the next place to the next place,and it makes it very difficult.
So you you'd mentioned consulting nonprofit andthe foundation.
Let's, let's get the breakup of those, whatthat looks like, and then we can dig into these
(11:04):
retreats.
Sure.
So the way that I the way that I look at it isin order for there to be systemic change, it
has to come from the top down and the bottomup.
So, with Project Built, we're looking bottomup, right?
Healing families, getting out there to workers,really giving them practices that they can
inject into their lives that will make theirlives better.
(11:25):
So, we start from the bottom up with that.
And we study it, right?
We can't just go out and do good, heartwarmingwork.
We have to have data to back it so that we candrive big industrial change through, you know,
risk insurance companies and the government.
We need states involved.
We need the federal government involved, theDepartment of Labor, OSHA.
It's going to take a huge federation ofinterested parties that understand that we're
(11:50):
trying to reshor and rebuild manufacturing.
To do that, we have to be able to take care ofthe people that are building it.
And right now, construction is broken.
We're seeing the highest rates of suicide anddrug overdose of any trade.
And if you include extraction, mining, thosetrades, those are all the worst, right?
And they're all construction adjacent.
(12:10):
So, kind of group them all together, right?
It's high risk, high travel.
And so, we have to, as a community, have tostart looking at, okay, where are we investing
our money?
Where are we investing our time and ourefforts?
And how can we start to heal, you know, ourworkers, the families, our job sites?
How can we do that?
So, bottom up is project built.
And that's, you know, that's the piece that forme is the most exciting, right?
(12:34):
I love getting my hands dirty.
I'm a builder.
That's where I want to be.
I want to be with the workers.
But also, we have to come from the top down.
And so the consulting is more aboutunderstanding from an executive level, what is
the return on wellness?
How do we create programs within our companythat actually decrease turnover and increase
(12:55):
engagement and decrease absenteeism andpresenteeism?
And so all of the things that are draining yourprofitability of your company as our margins
are shrinking over and over again because ofthat.
That's just where we're at, right?
Everybody's fighting for these jobs.
So how can you increase your profitabilitywhile at the same time taking care of your
people?
And so we put together a group of incredibleindividuals from across the country that are
(13:18):
coming together to try to solve that problem.
And then, you know, it's about taking the, ifwe demystify what it takes to get there, then
we can give that to companies and say, Hey, youdon't have to do it our way.
We're just gonna give you this information, andwe want you to go do it.
Because it's gonna take 10,000 Josh's, youknow, out there doing this work to really make
(13:40):
an impact at the scale that we need it.
Interesting.
You mentioned that return on wellness, right?
So one of the things we talk about frequently,obviously safety, like we think of it, when we
ask the question, it's usually like, is it acost or is it an investment?
Or is it both?
Right.
Taking that the step further to wellness.
Right?
Because it's like, yes, you don't want yourguys to get hurt.
(14:02):
Pretty straightforward.
Like, that is not good for business.
That is bad for the human beings.
That's bad for the business.
It's bad for probability, all those differentthings.
But wellness takes that a step further.
It's like, well, they didn't get hurt, per se,but, like, they are, you know, being hurt
mentally or they're being put in a really toughposition of stress and things like that.
And where does that impact the business as wellas the person, as well as the family then they
(14:27):
come home to?
And I think that at least to my knowledge, andmaybe you can correct me wrong, that's not
being thought of maybe as much as it should be,is the easiest way to put it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, in all my searching and looking forways that we could come about solving this
problem, I look to other models and otherindustries and you know, how have they done it,
(14:49):
right?
So what's out there that people much smarterthan me have gathered to say, hey, this is what
makes a healthy work environment.
One of the challenges with construction is thatno one that's ever built a model around
holistic wellness or worker wellness oranything like that has looked at the transient
nature of an industry like construction.
You know, Reika Anna Lasso, who's a professorat Pepperdine and she's helping us work on this
(15:13):
stuff, she brought up a really good point.
And it's a concept called teaming.
And when you work, you know, in an office, yougo to the same place every day for ten years,
you work around similar people, you can getsome, you know, best practices in place that
are, you know, they become part of the cultureand that's just your daily regimen.
But when you come to construction, you've gotan eighteen month turnaround on a project when
(15:37):
you might be working with 100, 200 differentcompanies.
So the idea of having that many companies withthat many, you know, whatever standard
operating procedures coming together to try tocreate a holistically well environment is
incredibly complex.
And no one has ever looked at it that way.
And so that's what we're in the process oftrying to do is really, like I said, demystify
(16:01):
those things.
Because once we have a picture of everythingthat comes together, then we can draw some
corollaries and we can say, Hey, if you dothis, this, and this, then you're going to have
a massive impact on the overall culture of ajob site or your company or whatever it might
be.
But we have to find that information first.
We have to have the exercise of walking throughit with a group of individuals that are
(16:22):
informed and are experts and have livedexperience.
And we take all that knowledge and we condenseit into a package that allows us to extract
what the best interventions might be.
Yeah.
I, it's interesting that you're working withhigher education or Pepperdine because that
becomes, you know, it becomes, it becomes anequation, right?
(16:44):
I mean, that's sadly, it's how we break thingsdown, but it's like, how much effort do I put
into this thing in the, in this case, wellnessthat then allows me as a business.
When you think of this in the, I'd say themister Burns way of thinking about it is like,
if I can prove to mister Burns thatenvironmental policies are a good thing because
it helps his business, he'll do them eventhough he doesn't care about the environment.
(17:06):
If I can prove to somebody that doesn'tnecessarily, not that they don't care about
their people, but they don't have the samethought process on wellness.
If I can prove to them if they do care aboutthis and put some investment into it, they will
make more money.
It is a lot easier to get those practicespassed than it is compared to it's just the
right thing to do, or it is good for them ashuman beings, those things.
(17:29):
So I always frequently think like, oh yeah, ifwe could just ROI everything that it makes
decision making so much easier and new policiesso much easier to pass.
Absolutely.
You know, the numbers have been studied alittle bit and the return on wellness
initiatives is like for every dollar spent,you're getting $6.10, $15 in return.
(17:50):
Know what I mean?
In a world where your boardroom is pining overfractions of a percent of increase in
profitability, we can take these programs, plugthem in right now, and in three to six months,
you're going to see massive ROI.
I don't see why any company would turn awayfrom that.
And I think maybe right now it's just a matterof disbelief because the numbers are so big.
(18:10):
They go, Ah, that can't be true.
Or, Oh my gosh, I'm going to have to do thisand it's going to be hard.
Right?
But once we have once we prove it out and wefind some pilot companies that do it and then
we have the data that backs it up, then it'sgonna be a no brainer.
Yeah.
I think that that's always the challenge forthe beginning of anything, right?
It is it is hard at first.
Like things are always hard at first.
(18:31):
That's absolutely otherwise everybody wouldalready be doing it because it's easy.
Right.
And I think that that is probably the big leapfrom where you're starting project build to
then getting it to be the national standard,you know, if if you will.
That's the, hey.
How do how do I get some people to to really,really bite into this to to really prove out
(18:51):
these programs, or initiatives that occur?
Speaking of initiatives, family retreat.
This is a big one that you're pushing for.
I'd love to talk more about family retreatsbecause in general, I also like to retreat with
my family.
So that's always a nice thing.
So tell what what is this what's thephilosophy?
Where where did you see it?
Where'd the idea come from?
(19:11):
Explain it all.
So
the family retreat came in.
It wasn't my idea.
Like all good ideas, it came from my wife.
So Amy Amy said, you know, what her focusreally as we started to think about, you know,
creating a nonprofit and what we wanted to dowas you know, solving the problems that we had.
Like you mentioned, you know, being maroonedout there in the middle of nowhere, having to
(19:34):
go through crises together as we were newlymarried and me being on the road and, you know,
trying to raise kids from a FaceTime call isjust not, you know, it's hard, right?
And so we went on this healing journey throughour process of, you know, just going through
life and being lifelong learners of how to healour family and how to heal ourselves and show
up better.
(19:55):
And so, you know, what she wanted to do wasreally explore what was available for families
to do the same thing that we did and then dothat with them.
You know, she started building out the idea andit was obviously it made sense.
So, I'm out there on the road talking to peoplethat are going through the same thing and
(20:15):
they've got the family struggles.
And so, you know, it made a lot of sense.
And let me back up.
So, in 2021, she and I read Gary Keller's book,The One Thing.
I don't know if you've read that one.
So, in The One Thing, there's that work sheet,right?
That you do to figure out what your One Thingis.
So, we both did ours.
Hers was like, you know, family and educationwas like the main part of it.
(20:38):
Mine was transforming people's lives throughexperience.
And as I was visioning what was happening, Ihad this vision of what I thought was like
summer camp.
You know, like those seventies movies where,you know, there's a lake and, you know, people
are water skiing and super cheesy.
That was the vision that I had.
And in no way did I think I was going to bedoing summer camps.
(20:59):
But fast forward four years and now we'rebuilding a summer camp for families of
construction and that's exactly what we'regoing to be doing.
Okay, so the vision was there.
It's part of our life purpose is to help peopletransform.
And then obviously coming from the space thatwe were in of, you know, being the child of
addicts and, you know, having trauma that wewere trying to heal.
(21:20):
And then, you know, once you get into youradult attachment bond with your significant
other, right?
And then you throw kids into the mix, all thisstuff starts bubbling up that you thought you
had parked somewhere and I was never going todo this and I'm never going to yell at my kids
and you know, all those things, right?
They start bubbling up and you go, what theheck do I do about this?
And so we were on that journey of figuring thatout and we'll never not be on that journey, but
(21:44):
we've come across a lot of really great waysto, you know, put into practice those rituals
that help you stay connected and, how to healon an individual level and bring that back to
the family.
You know, we moved our kids into homeschooling,and so we have a micro school here at the house
where we do kimochi circles and socialemotional learning for them so that they can be
(22:05):
better connected to their emotions andexplaining them.
You know, we've just been able to do so muchover the last four or five years that have
really transformed our family that now we wantto give that to a larger group, if you know
what I mean.
Yeah.
So the seventies summer camp idea.
So how how does this work?
What what happens?
(22:25):
Is it is it a random lottery of like, we'regonna it's like a what was it?
A clearinghouse sweepstakes, kind of a thing?
What what's the what's the way this works?
What's the logistical way this works?
Yeah, so we're going to open up nominations forfamilies and you can go to our website right
now, which is getbuilt.org, and you can eitherself nominate or nominate another family.
(22:46):
And the criteria for qualification, like Isaid, is going to be if you're a family that
has experienced stress or whatever aroundconstruction, you're qualified, which I don't
know any family that's been in constructionthat hasn't had somebody that's working late
nights or on the road, bringing stress home,whatever that looks like, showed up with an
addiction that they maybe picked up after afterhanging out with the boys after work or girls.
(23:11):
So it really it's pretty much open to anyone.
We're going to run through a nominationprocess.
We're going to pick people that are ready to dothe work and have reached a point where they
feel like us, they know they want somethingdifferent, and they know that they're ready.
They're just not 100% sure what that is.
We're going to fly them out.
So all expenses paid.
We'll fly them out to Aspen, Colorado.
(23:32):
They'll take the drive up to Bayoule, which isthe resort that we're hosting the retreat at.
An incredible place up at the mouth of theFrying Pan River, which is like blue ribbon fly
fishing, one of the best places in the countryfor that.
And then we're going to, you know, have them gothrough a five day process of healing and
(23:52):
really in a regimented way that lets theminstill the practices that when they leave,
they go home with tools that they need.
Even if they do, 20% of it will completelytransform their lives.
But we don't want to stop there.
So, we're going to follow them for the next twoyears.
We're going to check-in on them, make sure weknow how they're doing.
We're building that tribe of folks that can bea peer support network for the families that
(24:14):
are there.
And then for the next two years, we're justgoing to make sure that they're doing okay,
that that flywheel is spinning, that if theyneed support, they have it.
And then one family each year will be invitedback to be the like mentorship lead for the
next year.
So, you know, again, we pay it forward, we findsomebody that's really taking to the work that
wants to give back, And then they come back thefollowing year and just model the sort of
(24:38):
recovery and transformation that we're lookingto do.
And then we'll just continue that process withas many retreats as we can fund.
Know what I mean?
Yeah.
No, no.
Okay.
That's awesome.
That's amazing.
When is this tentatively happening?
Or when is it actually happening?
It'll be the last week in June.
So June 2026.
(24:59):
So we're heavily looking to make sure that wehave the funding in place to do that.
And so, you'll see that at the end of year, ourfundraising campaign to pay for everything is
what we're focused on right now.
We have a lot of great information.
But, you know, we're not just looking formoney.
We're looking for friends.
We're looking for advocates.
We're looking for anyone who believes thathealing the family can help our industry and
(25:23):
save lives and then also help our businesses.
And they see that.
So, for your listeners, what I would say is ifyou feel called to this in any way, reach out
to me.
We can find a way for you to help, whetherthat's volunteering, whether that's sponsoring.
You know, there's a million ways that you canget involved, whether it's just sharing the
message on your social media, whatever thatlooks like.
(25:44):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Okay.
So what else are you building if that's notenough?
Right.
Well, so you know, you're here in Arizona,right?
I met a guy, actually it's funny story.
So my son goes to golf, like golf school.
And one of the kids that he goes to golf schoolwith, great kid, his dad is, I think the chief
(26:05):
of police or captain at Queen Creek PoliceDepartment.
Anyway, I went to go pick up Evan from hisbuddy's house and walked inside, met mom, and
started talking about the nonprofit.
She was like, you know, you need to meet myfriend Rich.
He's this incredible guy and he does stuff likewhat you're talking about.
So I met Rich Ganley, who is a philanthropist,10 times successful businessman.
(26:28):
He said he retired at like 40 because he soldhis company.
And then really everything that he's done sincethen is things that can help out people in the
community.
So, amazing guy.
Well, he started this thing called the RechargeRoom.
And the Recharge Room is in fire departmentsand police departments all over the state.
They're moving into education and hospitalitynow.
But it's the physiological reduction trauma.
(26:50):
So, think about like red light therapy,grounding, vagus nerve stimulation, cold plunge
and infrared sauna in a thirty three minutecircuit.
And what they've discovered is that justhandling that physiological piece of trauma
reduction is incredibly transformative for thepolice and firefighters that go through that
(27:11):
process, right?
And I think the city of Chandler, just thismonth, released a study that said they spent
$40,000 on a recharge room, and last year, theysaved $700,000 turnover.
Just turnover.
So, yeah.
And now we have the police officers after astop.
They have a stressful interaction with somebodyin the public.
They're sitting in their car and using thevagus nerve stimulator to actually lower their
(27:35):
blood pressure and lower their stress levelbefore they go on their next stop.
And then their incident rates are falling.
So we're starting to see how thosephysiological interventions that athletes and
the Gary Breckas and Hubermans of the worldhave been talking about for a long time, we can
actually insert those into the workplace and beable to do a lot of good there.
(27:56):
I thought, okay, that makes a lot of sense forconstruction.
We may not be able to do a cold plunge on a jobsite because obviously we're dirty and filthy,
but, we can do those other things.
So he came up with a shorter version.
It's like ten minutes with no cold plunge orsauna, but it does the same thing, right?
It lowers stress.
It lowers your heart rate.
It gets your variable heart rate up, which is agood thing.
(28:18):
And then, you know, like just usingphysiological interventions to start helping
the people that we should be treating asathletes, our construction folks, and to
becoming better humans, right?
And being able to weather the storm of Phoenixsummer when you're working twelve hour days,
six days a week.
So, he and I got together and we've startedbasically a peak performance hub is what we're
(28:41):
calling them.
So, you can put this on your job site.
You'll have the physiological portion, but thenyou'll also have, you know, peer support and
the mental health support that we're talkingabout through Project Built.
So, we've formed a joint venture to kind ofcombine those two efforts.
And then we'll show that huge ROI on doing thewellness stuff.
But we also let companies kind of be hands offso they don't have to create the program.
(29:06):
They don't have to train their people.
It's something that's ready to go that they canplug in today.
And by Monday of next week, they're gonna startseeing the results of that.
Wow.
Okay.
So, and that's essentially ready to be broughtto a job site today.
Is that accurate?
We're looking to find a few companies that areready to pilot that for us so that we can, you
(29:27):
know, study the statistical data.
We've got a few companies that are like on thehook that have said that they want to.
So we're just developing everything andfiguring out what's gonna work best for those
locations.
But we need more.
So the more people we can have pilot this, themore, you know, data sets we have, the better
our data will be and, you know, then we'llreally understand what works and what doesn't.
(29:48):
No.
Okay.
I love the fact that you're actually using databecause to back to my mister Burns analogy,
data is key in these things to make, make,believers out of others, essentially.
Yeah.
We're working with your friends over at theDeli Webb School at Arizona State University,
(30:08):
Doctor.
Soo Yuan Song, who is she's an award winningprofessor out of University of Alabama, and now
she's there doing some incredible work intolike heat illness prevention and some wearable
devices.
But yeah, we're going to bring her gradstudents right out to the job site and let them
have a lab where they can be interacting withreal construction workers and try to bridge
(30:30):
that gap too.
Wow.
I love that.
That's amazing.
In addition to them, you know, being sundevils, which I inherently love, I love the
fact that they're actually going into the fieldand saying like, hey, let's have a straight lab
here and and figure this out.
That's awesome.
So, you got a ton of, what is it, pokers in thefire?
Is that what they that's how they say it, Ithink.
You got lots Yeah.
Stuff going Something.
(30:52):
They say something.
Awesome.
Anything else?
Anything else that you'd like to share ofwhat's happening?
Yeah.
You know, I think, well, I mean, obviously,Construction Suicide Prevention Week was just
last month.
So, I'm the 2025 chair of that.
So, I just want to thank everybody that was outthere doing work.
I'm sure some people that will be listening tothis participated.
(31:13):
So, that was huge.
You know, awareness, it's still baffling to methat we're not aware of that.
But that's where I was in 2021 when Idiscovered it.
And we still have a lot of work to do as far asthe awareness piece goes.
So, you know, just committing to one week ayear in September, focusing on suicide
prevention and awareness is a huge way that youcan get your company started.
(31:37):
That's all free to do.
So, constructionsuicideprevention.com is thewebsite where you can register your company.
And we have all sorts of webinars throughoutthe year that help you get informed.
There's lots of great resources availablethere.
There's a speaker sourcing guide.
So, if you're looking for somebody to do youryear end, to talk about mental health or
suicide prevention, you know, quarterlymeetings, we can do virtual meetings.
(32:01):
So, there's all sorts of ways that you can getstarted in the process of informing your folks
or the executive team.
You know, if that's doing a retreat for theexecutive team to get aligned on what it looks
like to transform your culture and, you know,how to do a strategic plan, there's a ton of
ways to go about it.
And, you know, if you have any questions or ifyour listeners have any questions, I'm happy to
(32:24):
pro bono, just walk them through what'savailable because, know, my whole life is
absorbed with finding the right people andmaking sure they're doing the right thing.
Tiffany Sharp, who's a GC owner here in Phoenixhas the saying the right people doing the right
things at the right time.
Right.
That's, that's it.
So I love that.
This has been a ton of fun.
(32:45):
If somebody wanted to get ahold of you, what'sthe best way for them to actually do that?
Well, I will, I'll share my Linktree with youand we can drop it in the show notes if that's
cool.
The best, the best way to do it also is to goto, you know, getbuilt.org, contact us.
I'm the guy, you know, right now it's, it's meand Amy.
We don't have a staff.
We're doing it all.
So, you know, when you email or call, you'regoing to talk to me.
(33:07):
And so I'm available whenever, right?
And luckily, you know, through my work, I'vefigured out how to have boundaries.
So I do, you know, I take some family time andI take some time for myself to meditate and
journal.
But ultimately, this is my life and this iswhat I'm here to do is help, help people and
companies.
So I'm here for that, you know.
And if there's any way that I can help you orany of your listeners, I'm I'm absolutely
(33:30):
available for that.
I love it.
I love, those that find purpose as as you know,and we've had many conversations about that.
It's a beautiful thing.
So, this has been a ton of fun.
I had a I had a really good time just gettingto share just more time with you as well as
just with the listeners and see how we can justhelp the industry grow and and become better.
(33:51):
So yeah.
Anything else you wanna add before we say ourgoodbyes?
No.
I would just say, you know, be good toyourself.
Right?
Stay strong, you know, wherever you're at.
You know, I just spoke with someone today thatwas struggling with addiction and really, you
know, giving yourself permission to be rightwhere you're at is the one piece of advice that
(34:12):
I wish I could give myself ten years ago, andmaybe I need to give myself today.
It's, you know, right where you're at istotally fine.
And you're doing the thing.
We're all here doing that human thing.
The more we can be here for each other, thebetter we'll all be off.
Better off we'll all be.
That's the, when's the best time to plant atree twenty years ago?
(34:32):
When's the second best time today?
Right?
So it's just, the reality of it.
Yeah.
Listeners, it's been a ton of fun.
Please reach out to Josh, with any questions,comments, concerns, and if you just need
somebody to to chat with about strategy of ofwellness in the workplace.
And until next time, adios.
Thanks for listening to Building Scale.
To help us reach even more people, please sharethis episode with a friend, colleague, on
(34:57):
social media.
Remember, the three pillars of scaling abusiness are people, process, and technology.
And our mission is to help the AEC industryprotect itself by making technology easy.
So if you think your company's technologypillar could use some improvement, book a call
with us to see how we can help maximize your ITcybersecurity strategy.
(35:21):
Just go to buildingscale.net/help.
And until next time.
Keep building scale.
Absolutely.
(00:00):
You know, the numbers have been studied alittle bit and the return on wellness
initiatives is like for every dollar spent,you're getting $6.10, $15 in return.
You know what I mean?
In a world where your boardroom is pining overfractions of a percent of increase in
profitability, we can take these programs, plugthem in right now, and in three to six months,
(00:22):
you're going to see massive ROI.
I don't see why any company would turn awayfrom that.
And I think maybe right now, it's just a matterof disbelief because the numbers are so big.
They go, that can't be true.
Or, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to do this andit's gonna be hard, right?
But once we have once we prove it out and wefind some pilot companies that do it and then
we have the data that backs it up, then it'sgonna be a no brainer.
(00:45):
Josh, I love that we just met on LinkedIn andwe kinda that was the connection and then
quickly was like, oh, we need to like actuallytalk and have a conversation.
And then, hey, let's go get coffee.
And then, hey, I'm building this amazing thing.
Let's talk more about that and have you on thepodcast.
So it's been a it's been very serendipity asthey say on in the world of the Internet and
where we we are in society because I feel likehistorically IT guy I wouldn't call me an IT
(01:10):
guy, but a guy that works in IT and a guy thatworks in true hands on field shit wouldn't have
been like, oh, yeah.
Let's just hang out.
It'll be funny.
Let's go grab a coffee.
Right?
So, just really cool era of the world we livein, but I was thinking, I'd love to hear more
so about your experience before I dig into moreof the project build stuff.
(01:30):
Yeah.
It's I wonder if you even realize what a firestarter you are, but when we first connected,
so we talked, right?
And I kind of told you what what I was doing atthat moment in time.
And you were like, oh, that's cool.
Let me connect you with this guy I just had aconversation with who was Matt Astin from or
asked me Who's
on the podcast?
From From GPRS.
(01:51):
Ohio.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Correct.
So Matt and I had a conversation over the phoneand he was like, you know, I don't know how I
can help, but I know a guy that I can.
So he connected me with Mark McGinnis, who isthe founder of Seal Legacy Charity or
Foundation.
And he's an ex Navy SEAL commander, doesincredible work for Navy SEALs in the suicide
(02:12):
prevention space.
They actually do suicide post vengeance fortheir people.
And Mark was really the linchpin for me goingfrom advocate to turning this into a real,
like, full time thing, where he said to me, hewas like, you're gonna have to create it.
If you wanna do what you say you wanna do, youneed foundation, you need a nonprofit, and you
(02:33):
need a consulting business.
And so fast forward a year and a half, twoyears, and then that's where we're at, right?
We're consulting, we've built the nonprofit,rolling out these programs.
And so, you know, I mean, ultimately, you,Justin, were the catalyst for all of my career
path.
I don't know if I should thank you or curseyou, but
(02:54):
I would love to take the credit, but like Ijust I did the simple like, hey, this feels
like a connection that may make sense in someway.
And I I actually I had a I literally had a callyesterday with she Heather Lennon, was also on
the podcast, not serial entrepreneur, but sheruns a GC.
It's one of the one of the businesses she has.
And she said all the business I've ever startednever turned out the way I thought they were
(03:16):
going to when I initially started them.
And, like, that's kind of the approach here of,I don't know.
This seems like a thing that would maybe makesense and who knows what, you know, what you do
from there.
And I'll just leave it to that, Josh.
I'll just say, hey.
I I just did the basic minimum, and then youtook it from there.
So you gotta you gotta applaud yourself for,actually being driven and taking the ball and
(03:38):
running with it.
Right?
Oh, yeah.
I say I can get a lot of work done with onehand because I'm patting myself on the back
with the other one all the time, you know?
So how so how long were you before you decided,hey.
I'm going full, I'm gonna say advocacy is isthe I'll tee it up to that.
Consulting advocacy, a nonprofit.
Before that, how long were you in the trades?
How like, share share with the listeners, hey.
(03:59):
This is what I was doing prior to this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I mean, I grew up in construction.
My stepdad was a drywall contractor.
So, you know, my afternoons were, like, loadingmud into the garage and cleaning out the
bazooka in the yard and, you know, scrappinghouses at twelve, trying not to get nails
through my shoes, that kind of thing.
Right?
So that's how I grew up.
I grew up with a dad that was saying, do not gointo construction, that you're too smart for
(04:24):
that.
And then I went to college and hated it.
So I ended up in construction and joined theIBEW apprenticeship in like 1997, 1998, topped
out in like 2001.
And you know how it is in construction.
If you show up on time and you're not doingdrugs, they basically give you a foreman truck.
(04:44):
You know, if that's all you're doing, thenyou're the boss.
So they made me a foreman before I was even ajourneyman lineman.
I was running a crew installing street lights.
So I've been doing that for about twenty fiveyears and kind of progressed through, through
the trades and meandered around.
And then most recently I switched.
I was the transmission and distribution vicepresident for Intermountain Electric kind of
all over The United States.
(05:05):
That's a funny story.
I got marooned up at Yellowtail Dam right onthe Wyoming Montana border in my truck driving
out a transmission line.
And Amy, my wife and my sister were like, youknow, calling search and rescue and had police
and fire and everybody out looking for me.
And so the week that I got back, I got a callfrom a recruiter and they said, Hey, they're
(05:25):
building a semiconductor plant in Chandler.
They want you to come do the electrical pieceof that.
And I was like, Man, even in the interview, Isaid, I think you guys called the wrong person.
I know nothing about semiconductors.
But they offered me a position, and I told Amyabout it.
And she said, Wait, so you're going be home forthree years?
And I said, Yeah.
And she said, I don't care what it is.
You're taking the job.
I ended up working for a GC on a semiconductorproject, which is what led me to so no
(05:52):
coincidences, right?
It led me to the suicide prevention work andmental health advocacy and really started the
ball rolling into what we're seeing today,which is being thrust into the environment that
we're in, understanding that it's an emergency.
And really, you know, I spend a lot of timeeducating myself on what's out there and what
people are doing currently, but then alsoidentifying the gaps.
(06:15):
And so then, you know, the project built isreally the gap filler that Amy and I decided we
wanted to inject that we thought could do a tonof good.
So, obviously, suicide prevention, substanceabuse, this is big, huge problem in the
industry.
You see statistics, right?
Like it is, as, as, as I say, as an outsider,I'll see this statistics.
(06:36):
I'm like, that's, that seems aggressive.
It seems sad, but like, you've actually seen itmore firsthand and like the real reality of it.
I know when we went and had coffee, havingconversations about like just the things that
you've seen is heartbreak.
Like, it's just like, you know, it makes senseto me why you would then go and say, Hey, we
need to fix this.
We really need to fix this problem.
It's easier to just, like, chalk it up to statsand, like, numbers when you're not there seeing
(07:01):
it compared to now, like, you're living thisand seeing this every day, and that's that's
gotta be hard.
Yeah.
You know, so I got I was in a position and Iwould say voluntold, right?
It's not like you don't ever look for that.
But I was in a position to where I became thecrisis intervention guy on-site.
And so, you know, a superintendent would callme and say, Hey, I've got a guy that's
(07:24):
struggling.
Obviously, I don't know what to do.
Will you talk to him?
And so we would, you know, gather him up, takehim to a private space, sit down and see what's
going on.
And yeah, I saw some pretty horrific stuff, youknow, guys that were ready to go in the parking
lot and down a bottle of pills or, you know,that had a loaded gun on the front seat of
their pickup truck.
And their plan was to, you know, on the drivehome, pull off somewhere and do it.
(07:47):
Or, you know, it was, it was strange for me tobe in that position.
But so to back up a little bit, I come from abackground of trauma that, that childhood that
I talked about was filled with addiction andalcoholism.
So I'm a CPTSD survivor.
And about ten years ago, I finally raised thewhite flag, got help, got EMDR therapy.
(08:09):
You know, I've spent my whole life trying toheal that part of me.
And so, that mixed with being in the situationthat I was in, where I noticed that people were
in crisis, I felt uniquely called to besomebody that can help.
And so, when I'm sitting with someone that isin the middle of the crisis, I can say, Hey,
I've been exactly where you are.
I know what you're feeling.
(08:30):
Here's what I was doing when that happened.
And here's what I did to get out of that.
And so that was a great opportunity for us toopen up.
I call it the container, right?
You open up the container, we can set our stuffin there together, and then we can work on
like, what are the next steps, right?
I'm not a clinician.
I'm not a therapist.
I really don't know what to do outside of justopening up and saying, Hey, I'm here for you.
(08:52):
You're not alone.
I love you.
Let's move forward together.
And then I'm going be the guy that's callingand texting you and making sure that you're
going to your appointments or whatever.
But I think, like you said, right, identifyingthe gaps.
Now, the one gap that came up every singletime, and I've done dozens of interventions.
I went, I went and did a retreat with my buddy,Josh Rizzo and Justin Asbille with a company
(09:14):
that had like 30 superintendents.
Every single one of those guys talked about adisconnection from family.
Everyone that I did an intervention on,everybody up at that retreat, everyone that I
talked to as I'm traveling around doing talks,it's always that disconnection from family.
Amy and I felt that too, right?
When I was marooned out there in the middle ofwherever, you know, when I was out traveling
(09:36):
and we weren't communicating and we werefighting and having struggles, you know, we
didn't have the tools to stay connected, right?
We didn't have rituals in place that allowed usto maintain our stability and our communication
as I was on the road and she was here trying toraise a family and work and do all the things
that she's got to do.
And what I've noticed, a lot of the gentlemenlike myself that have spent their lives on the
(10:00):
road, traveling, doing this construction thing,is that they don't feel appreciated.
They're estranged from maybe they got two,three divorces.
Their kids don't talk to them, so they feeltotally alone.
And they feel like they've wasted their entirelife thinking that they were sacrificing for
their family, when in reality, their familydidn't appreciate what they were doing.
They just felt like they were leaving themalone.
(10:21):
So really trying to figure out how we can dosomething about that is what Amy and I have
focused on and why we created the retreats thatthat we'll we'll get into.
Yeah.
So that I mean, literally, as you were gettingthe semiconductor job, Amy said, I don't care
what the job is.
You're taking it because you'll be here forthree years.
I think that that screams, you know, the ahas.
(10:42):
Right?
Like, of the this is so crucially importantjust being here, being near.
And, obviously, there's a lot of travelingtradesmen, right, that are just going to the
next place to the next place to the next place,and it makes it very difficult.
So you you'd mentioned consulting nonprofit andthe foundation.
Let's, let's get the breakup of those, whatthat looks like, and then we can dig into these
(11:04):
retreats.
Sure.
So the way that I the way that I look at it isin order for there to be systemic change, it
has to come from the top down and the bottomup.
So, with Project Built, we're looking bottomup, right?
Healing families, getting out there to workers,really giving them practices that they can
inject into their lives that will make theirlives better.
(11:25):
So, we start from the bottom up with that.
And we study it, right?
We can't just go out and do good, heartwarmingwork.
We have to have data to back it so that we candrive big industrial change through, you know,
risk insurance companies and the government.
We need states involved.
We need the federal government involved, theDepartment of Labor, OSHA.
It's going to take a huge federation ofinterested parties that understand that we're
(11:50):
trying to reshor and rebuild manufacturing.
To do that, we have to be able to take care ofthe people that are building it.
And right now, construction is broken.
We're seeing the highest rates of suicide anddrug overdose of any trade.
And if you include extraction, mining, thosetrades, those are all the worst, right?
And they're all construction adjacent.
(12:10):
So, kind of group them all together, right?
It's high risk, high travel.
And so, we have to, as a community, have tostart looking at, okay, where are we investing
our money?
Where are we investing our time and ourefforts?
And how can we start to heal, you know, ourworkers, the families, our job sites?
How can we do that?
So, bottom up is project built.
And that's, you know, that's the piece that forme is the most exciting, right?
(12:34):
I love getting my hands dirty.
I'm a builder.
That's where I want to be.
I want to be with the workers.
But also, we have to come from the top down.
And so the consulting is more aboutunderstanding from an executive level, what is
the return on wellness?
How do we create programs within our companythat actually decrease turnover and increase
(12:55):
engagement and decrease absenteeism andpresenteeism?
And so all of the things that are draining yourprofitability of your company as our margins
are shrinking over and over again because ofthat.
That's just where we're at, right?
Everybody's fighting for these jobs.
So how can you increase your profitabilitywhile at the same time taking care of your
people?
And so we put together a group of incredibleindividuals from across the country that are
(13:18):
coming together to try to solve that problem.
And then, you know, it's about taking the, ifwe demystify what it takes to get there, then
we can give that to companies and say, Hey, youdon't have to do it our way.
We're just gonna give you this information, andwe want you to go do it.
Because it's gonna take 10,000 Josh's, youknow, out there doing this work to really make
(13:40):
an impact at the scale that we need it.
Interesting.
You mentioned that return on wellness, right?
So one of the things we talk about frequently,obviously safety, like we think of it, when we
ask the question, it's usually like, is it acost or is it an investment?
Or is it both?
Right.
Taking that the step further to wellness.
Right?
Because it's like, yes, you don't want yourguys to get hurt.
(14:02):
Pretty straightforward.
Like, that is not good for business.
That is bad for the human beings.
That's bad for the business.
It's bad for probability, all those differentthings.
But wellness takes that a step further.
It's like, well, they didn't get hurt, per se,but, like, they are, you know, being hurt
mentally or they're being put in a really toughposition of stress and things like that.
And where does that impact the business as wellas the person, as well as the family then they
(14:27):
come home to?
And I think that at least to my knowledge, andmaybe you can correct me wrong, that's not
being thought of maybe as much as it should be,is the easiest way to put it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, in all my searching and looking forways that we could come about solving this
problem, I look to other models and otherindustries and you know, how have they done it,
(14:49):
right?
So what's out there that people much smarterthan me have gathered to say, hey, this is what
makes a healthy work environment.
One of the challenges with construction is thatno one that's ever built a model around
holistic wellness or worker wellness oranything like that has looked at the transient
nature of an industry like construction.
You know, Reika Anna Lasso, who's a professorat Pepperdine and she's helping us work on this
(15:13):
stuff, she brought up a really good point.
And it's a concept called teaming.
And when you work, you know, in an office, yougo to the same place every day for ten years,
you work around similar people, you can getsome, you know, best practices in place that
are, you know, they become part of the cultureand that's just your daily regimen.
But when you come to construction, you've gotan eighteen month turnaround on a project when
(15:37):
you might be working with 100, 200 differentcompanies.
So the idea of having that many companies withthat many, you know, whatever standard
operating procedures coming together to try tocreate a holistically well environment is
incredibly complex.
And no one has ever looked at it that way.
And so that's what we're in the process oftrying to do is really, like I said, demystify
(16:01):
those things.
Because once we have a picture of everythingthat comes together, then we can draw some
corollaries and we can say, Hey, if you dothis, this, and this, then you're going to have
a massive impact on the overall culture of ajob site or your company or whatever it might
be.
But we have to find that information first.
We have to have the exercise of walking throughit with a group of individuals that are
(16:22):
informed and are experts and have livedexperience.
And we take all that knowledge and we condenseit into a package that allows us to extract
what the best interventions might be.
Yeah.
I, it's interesting that you're working withhigher education or Pepperdine because that
becomes, you know, it becomes, it becomes anequation, right?
(16:44):
I mean, that's sadly, it's how we break thingsdown, but it's like, how much effort do I put
into this thing in the, in this case, wellnessthat then allows me as a business.
When you think of this in the, I'd say themister Burns way of thinking about it is like,
if I can prove to mister Burns thatenvironmental policies are a good thing because
it helps his business, he'll do them eventhough he doesn't care about the environment.
(17:06):
If I can prove to somebody that doesn'tnecessarily, not that they don't care about
their people, but they don't have the samethought process on wellness.
If I can prove to them if they do care aboutthis and put some investment into it, they will
make more money.
It is a lot easier to get those practicespassed than it is compared to it's just the
right thing to do, or it is good for them ashuman beings, those things.
(17:29):
So I always frequently think like, oh yeah, ifwe could just ROI everything that it makes
decision making so much easier and new policiesso much easier to pass.
Absolutely.
You know, the numbers have been studied alittle bit and the return on wellness
initiatives is like for every dollar spent,you're getting $6.10, $15 in return.
(17:50):
Know what I mean?
In a world where your boardroom is pining overfractions of a percent of increase in
profitability, we can take these programs, plugthem in right now, and in three to six months,
you're going to see massive ROI.
I don't see why any company would turn awayfrom that.
And I think maybe right now it's just a matterof disbelief because the numbers are so big.
(18:10):
They go, Ah, that can't be true.
Or, Oh my gosh, I'm going to have to do thisand it's going to be hard.
Right?
But once we have once we prove it out and wefind some pilot companies that do it and then
we have the data that backs it up, then it'sgonna be a no brainer.
Yeah.
I think that that's always the challenge forthe beginning of anything, right?
It is it is hard at first.
Like things are always hard at first.
(18:31):
That's absolutely otherwise everybody wouldalready be doing it because it's easy.
Right.
And I think that that is probably the big leapfrom where you're starting project build to
then getting it to be the national standard,you know, if if you will.
That's the, hey.
How do how do I get some people to to really,really bite into this to to really prove out
(18:51):
these programs, or initiatives that occur?
Speaking of initiatives, family retreat.
This is a big one that you're pushing for.
I'd love to talk more about family retreatsbecause in general, I also like to retreat with
my family.
So that's always a nice thing.
So tell what what is this what's thephilosophy?
Where where did you see it?
Where'd the idea come from?
(19:11):
Explain it all.
So
the family retreat came in.
It wasn't my idea.
Like all good ideas, it came from my wife.
So Amy Amy said, you know, what her focusreally as we started to think about, you know,
creating a nonprofit and what we wanted to dowas you know, solving the problems that we had.
Like you mentioned, you know, being maroonedout there in the middle of nowhere, having to
(19:34):
go through crises together as we were newlymarried and me being on the road and, you know,
trying to raise kids from a FaceTime call isjust not, you know, it's hard, right?
And so we went on this healing journey throughour process of, you know, just going through
life and being lifelong learners of how to healour family and how to heal ourselves and show
up better.
(19:55):
And so, you know, what she wanted to do wasreally explore what was available for families
to do the same thing that we did and then dothat with them.
You know, she started building out the idea andit was obviously it made sense.
So, I'm out there on the road talking to peoplethat are going through the same thing and
(20:15):
they've got the family struggles.
And so, you know, it made a lot of sense.
And let me back up.
So, in 2021, she and I read Gary Keller's book,The One Thing.
I don't know if you've read that one.
So, in The One Thing, there's that work sheet,right?
That you do to figure out what your One Thingis.
So, we both did ours.
Hers was like, you know, family and educationwas like the main part of it.
(20:38):
Mine was transforming people's lives throughexperience.
And as I was visioning what was happening, Ihad this vision of what I thought was like
summer camp.
You know, like those seventies movies where,you know, there's a lake and, you know, people
are water skiing and super cheesy.
That was the vision that I had.
And in no way did I think I was going to bedoing summer camps.
(20:59):
But fast forward four years and now we'rebuilding a summer camp for families of
construction and that's exactly what we'regoing to be doing.
Okay, so the vision was there.
It's part of our life purpose is to help peopletransform.
And then obviously coming from the space thatwe were in of, you know, being the child of
addicts and, you know, having trauma that wewere trying to heal.
(21:20):
And then, you know, once you get into youradult attachment bond with your significant
other, right?
And then you throw kids into the mix, all thisstuff starts bubbling up that you thought you
had parked somewhere and I was never going todo this and I'm never going to yell at my kids
and you know, all those things, right?
They start bubbling up and you go, what theheck do I do about this?
And so we were on that journey of figuring thatout and we'll never not be on that journey, but
(21:44):
we've come across a lot of really great waysto, you know, put into practice those rituals
that help you stay connected and, how to healon an individual level and bring that back to
the family.
You know, we moved our kids into homeschooling,and so we have a micro school here at the house
where we do kimochi circles and socialemotional learning for them so that they can be
(22:05):
better connected to their emotions andexplaining them.
You know, we've just been able to do so muchover the last four or five years that have
really transformed our family that now we wantto give that to a larger group, if you know
what I mean.
Yeah.
So the seventies summer camp idea.
So how how does this work?
What what happens?
(22:25):
Is it is it a random lottery of like, we'regonna it's like a what was it?
A clearinghouse sweepstakes, kind of a thing?
What what's the what's the way this works?
What's the logistical way this works?
Yeah, so we're going to open up nominations forfamilies and you can go to our website right
now, which is getbuilt.org, and you can eitherself nominate or nominate another family.
(22:46):
And the criteria for qualification, like Isaid, is going to be if you're a family that
has experienced stress or whatever aroundconstruction, you're qualified, which I don't
know any family that's been in constructionthat hasn't had somebody that's working late
nights or on the road, bringing stress home,whatever that looks like, showed up with an
addiction that they maybe picked up after afterhanging out with the boys after work or girls.
(23:11):
So it really it's pretty much open to anyone.
We're going to run through a nominationprocess.
We're going to pick people that are ready to dothe work and have reached a point where they
feel like us, they know they want somethingdifferent, and they know that they're ready.
They're just not 100% sure what that is.
We're going to fly them out.
So all expenses paid.
We'll fly them out to Aspen, Colorado.
(23:32):
They'll take the drive up to Bayoule, which isthe resort that we're hosting the retreat at.
An incredible place up at the mouth of theFrying Pan River, which is like blue ribbon fly
fishing, one of the best places in the countryfor that.
And then we're going to, you know, have them gothrough a five day process of healing and
(23:52):
really in a regimented way that lets theminstill the practices that when they leave,
they go home with tools that they need.
Even if they do, 20% of it will completelytransform their lives.
But we don't want to stop there.
So, we're going to follow them for the next twoyears.
We're going to check-in on them, make sure weknow how they're doing.
We're building that tribe of folks that can bea peer support network for the families that
(24:14):
are there.
And then for the next two years, we're justgoing to make sure that they're doing okay,
that that flywheel is spinning, that if theyneed support, they have it.
And then one family each year will be invitedback to be the like mentorship lead for the
next year.
So, you know, again, we pay it forward, we findsomebody that's really taking to the work that
wants to give back, And then they come back thefollowing year and just model the sort of
(24:38):
recovery and transformation that we're lookingto do.
And then we'll just continue that process withas many retreats as we can fund.
Know what I mean?
Yeah.
No, no.
Okay.
That's awesome.
That's amazing.
When is this tentatively happening?
Or when is it actually happening?
It'll be the last week in June.
So June 2026.
(24:59):
So we're heavily looking to make sure that wehave the funding in place to do that.
And so, you'll see that at the end of year, ourfundraising campaign to pay for everything is
what we're focused on right now.
We have a lot of great information.
But, you know, we're not just looking formoney.
We're looking for friends.
We're looking for advocates.
We're looking for anyone who believes thathealing the family can help our industry and
(25:23):
save lives and then also help our businesses.
And they see that.
So, for your listeners, what I would say is ifyou feel called to this in any way, reach out
to me.
We can find a way for you to help, whetherthat's volunteering, whether that's sponsoring.
You know, there's a million ways that you canget involved, whether it's just sharing the
message on your social media, whatever thatlooks like.
(25:44):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Okay.
So what else are you building if that's notenough?
Right.
Well, so you know, you're here in Arizona,right?
I met a guy, actually it's funny story.
So my son goes to golf, like golf school.
And one of the kids that he goes to golf schoolwith, great kid, his dad is, I think the chief
(26:05):
of police or captain at Queen Creek PoliceDepartment.
Anyway, I went to go pick up Evan from hisbuddy's house and walked inside, met mom, and
started talking about the nonprofit.
She was like, you know, you need to meet myfriend Rich.
He's this incredible guy and he does stuff likewhat you're talking about.
So I met Rich Ganley, who is a philanthropist,10 times successful businessman.
(26:28):
He said he retired at like 40 because he soldhis company.
And then really everything that he's done sincethen is things that can help out people in the
community.
So, amazing guy.
Well, he started this thing called the RechargeRoom.
And the Recharge Room is in fire departmentsand police departments all over the state.
They're moving into education and hospitalitynow.
But it's the physiological reduction trauma.
(26:50):
So, think about like red light therapy,grounding, vagus nerve stimulation, cold plunge
and infrared sauna in a thirty three minutecircuit.
And what they've discovered is that justhandling that physiological piece of trauma
reduction is incredibly transformative for thepolice and firefighters that go through that
(27:11):
process, right?
And I think the city of Chandler, just thismonth, released a study that said they spent
$40,000 on a recharge room, and last year, theysaved $700,000 turnover.
Just turnover.
So, yeah.
And now we have the police officers after astop.
They have a stressful interaction with somebodyin the public.
They're sitting in their car and using thevagus nerve stimulator to actually lower their
(27:35):
blood pressure and lower their stress levelbefore they go on their next stop.
And then their incident rates are falling.
So we're starting to see how thosephysiological interventions that athletes and
the Gary Breckas and Hubermans of the worldhave been talking about for a long time, we can
actually insert those into the workplace and beable to do a lot of good there.
(27:56):
I thought, okay, that makes a lot of sense forconstruction.
We may not be able to do a cold plunge on a jobsite because obviously we're dirty and filthy,
but, we can do those other things.
So he came up with a shorter version.
It's like ten minutes with no cold plunge orsauna, but it does the same thing, right?
It lowers stress.
It lowers your heart rate.
It gets your variable heart rate up, which is agood thing.
(28:18):
And then, you know, like just usingphysiological interventions to start helping
the people that we should be treating asathletes, our construction folks, and to
becoming better humans, right?
And being able to weather the storm of Phoenixsummer when you're working twelve hour days,
six days a week.
So, he and I got together and we've startedbasically a peak performance hub is what we're
(28:41):
calling them.
So, you can put this on your job site.
You'll have the physiological portion, but thenyou'll also have, you know, peer support and
the mental health support that we're talkingabout through Project Built.
So, we've formed a joint venture to kind ofcombine those two efforts.
And then we'll show that huge ROI on doing thewellness stuff.
But we also let companies kind of be hands offso they don't have to create the program.
(29:06):
They don't have to train their people.
It's something that's ready to go that they canplug in today.
And by Monday of next week, they're gonna startseeing the results of that.
Wow.
Okay.
So, and that's essentially ready to be broughtto a job site today.
Is that accurate?
We're looking to find a few companies that areready to pilot that for us so that we can, you
(29:27):
know, study the statistical data.
We've got a few companies that are like on thehook that have said that they want to.
So we're just developing everything andfiguring out what's gonna work best for those
locations.
But we need more.
So the more people we can have pilot this, themore, you know, data sets we have, the better
our data will be and, you know, then we'llreally understand what works and what doesn't.
(29:48):
No.
Okay.
I love the fact that you're actually using databecause to back to my mister Burns analogy,
data is key in these things to make, make,believers out of others, essentially.
Yeah.
We're working with your friends over at theDeli Webb School at Arizona State University,
(30:08):
Doctor.
Soo Yuan Song, who is she's an award winningprofessor out of University of Alabama, and now
she's there doing some incredible work intolike heat illness prevention and some wearable
devices.
But yeah, we're going to bring her gradstudents right out to the job site and let them
have a lab where they can be interacting withreal construction workers and try to bridge
(30:30):
that gap too.
Wow.
I love that.
That's amazing.
In addition to them, you know, being sundevils, which I inherently love, I love the
fact that they're actually going into the fieldand saying like, hey, let's have a straight lab
here and and figure this out.
That's awesome.
So, you got a ton of, what is it, pokers in thefire?
Is that what they that's how they say it, Ithink.
You got lots Yeah.
Stuff going Something.
(30:52):
They say something.
Awesome.
Anything else?
Anything else that you'd like to share ofwhat's happening?
Yeah.
You know, I think, well, I mean, obviously,Construction Suicide Prevention Week was just
last month.
So, I'm the 2025 chair of that.
So, I just want to thank everybody that was outthere doing work.
I'm sure some people that will be listening tothis participated.
(31:13):
So, that was huge.
You know, awareness, it's still baffling to methat we're not aware of that.
But that's where I was in 2021 when Idiscovered it.
And we still have a lot of work to do as far asthe awareness piece goes.
So, you know, just committing to one week ayear in September, focusing on suicide
prevention and awareness is a huge way that youcan get your company started.
(31:37):
That's all free to do.
So, constructionsuicideprevention.com is thewebsite where you can register your company.
And we have all sorts of webinars throughoutthe year that help you get informed.
There's lots of great resources availablethere.
There's a speaker sourcing guide.
So, if you're looking for somebody to do youryear end, to talk about mental health or
suicide prevention, you know, quarterlymeetings, we can do virtual meetings.
(32:01):
So, there's all sorts of ways that you can getstarted in the process of informing your folks
or the executive team.
You know, if that's doing a retreat for theexecutive team to get aligned on what it looks
like to transform your culture and, you know,how to do a strategic plan, there's a ton of
ways to go about it.
And, you know, if you have any questions or ifyour listeners have any questions, I'm happy to
(32:24):
pro bono, just walk them through what'savailable because, know, my whole life is
absorbed with finding the right people andmaking sure they're doing the right thing.
Tiffany Sharp, who's a GC owner here in Phoenixhas the saying the right people doing the right
things at the right time.
Right.
That's, that's it.
So I love that.
This has been a ton of fun.
(32:45):
If somebody wanted to get ahold of you, what'sthe best way for them to actually do that?
Well, I will, I'll share my Linktree with youand we can drop it in the show notes if that's
cool.
The best, the best way to do it also is to goto, you know, getbuilt.org, contact us.
I'm the guy, you know, right now it's, it's meand Amy.
We don't have a staff.
We're doing it all.
So, you know, when you email or call, you'regoing to talk to me.
(33:07):
And so I'm available whenever, right?
And luckily, you know, through my work, I'vefigured out how to have boundaries.
So I do, you know, I take some family time andI take some time for myself to meditate and
journal.
But ultimately, this is my life and this iswhat I'm here to do is help, help people and
companies.
So I'm here for that, you know.
And if there's any way that I can help you orany of your listeners, I'm I'm absolutely
(33:30):
available for that.
I love it.
I love, those that find purpose as as you know,and we've had many conversations about that.
It's a beautiful thing.
So, this has been a ton of fun.
I had a I had a really good time just gettingto share just more time with you as well as
just with the listeners and see how we can justhelp the industry grow and and become better.
(33:51):
So yeah.
Anything else you wanna add before we say ourgoodbyes?
No.
I would just say, you know, be good toyourself.
Right?
Stay strong, you know, wherever you're at.
You know, I just spoke with someone today thatwas struggling with addiction and really, you
know, giving yourself permission to be rightwhere you're at is the one piece of advice that
(34:12):
I wish I could give myself ten years ago, andmaybe I need to give myself today.
It's, you know, right where you're at istotally fine.
And you're doing the thing.
We're all here doing that human thing.
The more we can be here for each other, thebetter we'll all be off.
Better off we'll all be.
That's the, when's the best time to plant atree twenty years ago?
(34:32):
When's the second best time today?
Right?
So it's just, the reality of it.
Yeah.
Listeners, it's been a ton of fun.
Please reach out to Josh, with any questions,comments, concerns, and if you just need
somebody to to chat with about strategy of ofwellness in the workplace.
And until next time, adios.
Thanks for listening to Building Scale.
To help us reach even more people, please sharethis episode with a friend, colleague, on
(34:57):
social media.
Remember, the three pillars of scaling abusiness are people, process, and technology.
And our mission is to help the AEC industryprotect itself by making technology easy.
So if you think your company's technologypillar could use some improvement, book a call
with us to see how we can help maximize your ITcybersecurity strategy.
(35:21):
Just go to buildingscale.net/help.
And until next time.
Keep building scale.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.