March 24, 2025 • 24 mins
Mitch Roedel from Boxwood Homes shares how his construction company pivoted their "Our Plans Your Land" program to support hurricane victims while maintaining their core business of building pre-designed homes across Western North Carolina. He offers valuable insights on navigating the contracting business, managing customer expectations, and finding work-life balance in an industry known for demanding schedules.
• Boxwood Homes operates across Western NC
• Hurricane Helene response includes offering modified pre-designed homes at reduced costs for victims
• Mitch provides free consultation hours weekly to help homeowners understand rebuilding options and avoid wasting insurance money
• Key business lesson: "Stop worrying and just do it" – take chances instead of choosing the safe route
• Finding work-life balance came from realizing he could meet deadlines without working 80-hour weeks
• Advice for aspiring contractors: "It's okay not to know everything" and "Just build something"
Contact Mitch Roedel at Boxwood Homes: 828-508-8246 or visit their office in Mills River.
Thanks for Listening. You may contact me or our team at https://billgilliland.biz/
All the best!
Bill
Thanks for listening. Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com or at https://billgilliland.biz/
All the best!
Bill
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode
of Epic Entrepreneurs, and I'msuper pumped to have Mitch Rodel
from Boxwood Homes with us assort of our focus for this week.
So, hi, mitch, welcome to theshow.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Bill thanks for having me and I want to thank
Beth for inviting me.
I got to meet her at networkingevents recently.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, Beth's awesome.
She's a great member of ourteam and she does a fantastic
job out there.
Tell us a little bit aboutBoxwood Homes, sort of how you
got into business and that sortof thing.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
So Boxwood Homes is owned by Toby Logel.
He's down in Greenville, northCarolina, and I'm over here in
Waynesville, north Carolina,today and now we are covering
the Asheville and Hendersonvillemarkets.
In between us, we have a officein Mills River on Old Haywood
Road, and we're not in it verymuch because we're out there
(00:55):
building your houses.
So if you all need another spotto do a podcast someday, just
let me know, I'll hand you thekeys and you can pop in there.
We are currently buildingToby's working on a development
small development in Greenville.
I am working on a few projectsin Hendersonville and Asheville
and we're breaking our firstground.
(01:17):
We're breaking ground on ourfirst project in Canton, which
I'm very excited about.
Just a few blocks from thepaper mill, which we're very
excited to hear has been sold toa responsible developer that's
going to be starting the cleanupprocess very soon.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, that's actually very exciting for Canton.
I always thought that that wasgoing to probably explode Canton
, once they close the paper mill, although the paper mill was a
central part of that economy fora long time.
I feel like that opportunity isgoing to just explode because
it's location betweenWaynesville and Asheville is
(01:58):
just as prime for development Ithink.
So it's going to be good.
So tell me about you.
Guys have been heavily involvedin some of this hurricane
assistance, hurricane cleanup.
Tell me about what you've donethere.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So, bill, throughout my life and then later career
especially, I started noticingthat sometimes timing just the
universe just set things up.
The hurricane was tragic,horrific, heartbreaking, as you
know, for us I had somesurvivor's guilt because all of
(02:33):
our projects were just barelyunscathed, mudslide to the left,
mudslide to the right.
I had a project in Oakley thatwas literally I could stand in
the front yard and look to theright and see the Swannanoa
River and that horrificdestruction.
We had just started a programcalled Our Plans your Land,
which is similar to the Build onyour Home Lot products of other
(02:55):
national builders.
And we've pivoted.
We still have that and we cando it the same way we were doing
it, but we've pivoted.
And so still have that and wecan do it the same way we were
doing it, but we've pivoted.
And so now we can do even morescaled back version of that for
people.
So for those in thenon-construction world, when you
(03:15):
go to build a house, a lot ofpeople do a custom house.
Custom house isn't just yourbig million dollar mansion.
Custom house can be a littletwo room shed or converted shed,
what have you.
But what us and some otherbuilders have done now is, we
pre-designed some homes so thatwe can figure out exactly how
(03:35):
much the material is going to be, how much to order, and we can
get our subcontractors to bidthat specific design.
So we have our costs naileddown to bid that specific design
.
So we have our costs naileddown.
So what we're doing now iswe're modifying some of those so
that people, if they've losteverything, if they're not
getting as much as they thought,they can pick one of these
(03:59):
plans and we can adjust theprice even further for them so
that we can build them somethingback.
I'm starting next week our firstproject in Hendersonville.
They had a tree take out theirmain house, they had a tree take
out their guest cottage andthey had another tree take out
their RV.
I got to go tour that housewith them and see where the roof
had pierced through the ceilingover their bed and they had
(04:21):
made it to the hallway just intime, so to be able to give them
something.
I don't like to use the wordaffordable, because a lot of our
audience thinks of affordablehousing as boring, concrete,
bland structures built for ourimpoverished.
So let's call it valueengineered, let's call it higher
(04:43):
efficiency construction, but wecan build them a beautiful
house now and they are up on amountain looking out over
Hendersonville and so we'redoing that.
And then the other thing feelfree to give my info to anybody
out there.
We've set aside a couple hourseach week and I can go to
people's homes.
A lot of people are trying torebuild.
(05:05):
For people not in Nashville,you might think, oh, that was
months and months and months ago.
They should be back on theirfeet.
Many of us are.
But some people are justgetting that insurance check now
.
Some people are still fightingfor that insurance check.
Or some people have gotten thatmoney and then all of a sudden
turned around and started theprocess of getting a contractor
and they're booked out right now.
(05:29):
So long story short, I can takethat couple hours of every week,
visit different sites, touryour home and help you figure
out what you do and don't needto do to get it rebuilt.
And the big thing I want tostress for a lot of people you
want to fix or rebuild your homecorrectly and to code, but in
(05:49):
North Carolina, for example, youdon't need to be a licensed
roofer to install a roof.
If you've got some roof damage,reach out to me.
I'll just let you borrow myhandyman for the day.
You don't need to go out andhire a full general contractor
and pay his overhead insurancejust so that one of his guys can
hire another guy to come outand do your roof.
(06:11):
That may be confusing to somepeople.
Please stop me if I get into mybuilder.
Speak, but please reach out.
We can help people not spendthe little bit of money that
they got back in the wrong way.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Hey, the message here is you know, contact Mitch and
we'll put his contactinformation.
We'll get that later in thepodcast, we'll put it in the
show notes.
But you know, contact Mitch orreally any reputable contractor,
and you know, let them pointyou in the right direction.
Because if it's minor damage, alot of things can be and a lot
(06:49):
of people say, well, thehurricane happened a long time
ago.
Well, there's still an awfullot of blue tarps over houses
right now.
I know of several people thathave gotten money.
But then they went and got acontractor and figured out that,
hey, it was going to cost thema lot more than the insurance
allowed.
So now they're fighting withinsurance to actually get what's
actually due to them.
So there's a lot of that goingon.
(07:11):
So it's going to be months andyears.
Get some professional help outthere and let Mitch point you in
the right direction.
So the our plans, your landthat's, that's that was.
You had planned to do that, butthe hurricane hit and then,
(07:32):
boom, now people got, they mighthave to tear down their whole
situation and start over.
So it seems like veryprovidential.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yes, and let's say the hurricane didn't exist at
all.
And let's say the hurricanedidn't exist at all.
Um, we are also still in ourhousing crisis, especially here
in western north carolina.
People want to live here andthere's not enough homes.
So for a full custom house,you're looking in ashville to
(08:02):
spend between four and sixhundred dollars a square foot.
Yeah, to build one, that'sright.
We can do the pre-designed onescloser to $250, $300 a square
foot with some customizations init.
So that's great for people thatare trying to do something
smaller on a tiny budget.
But it's also great for peoplethat can afford the $1 million
(08:25):
to $2 million home but want alittle more bang for their buck
and speed.
Because everything'spre-designed, pre-ordered, we
can build it a lot quicker and,as anybody who's dealt with
building a home or a remodelknows, it's always late.
If you watch HGTV, everybodywants to be in by Christmas and
they think they're going to stayon their budget.
It's always late and overbudget.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, all right, cool .
Well, let's shift gears alittle bit and talk about some
of the things you've learnedover your years as a contractor
and in business.
If you had to start over inbusiness, what would you do
differently?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Great question.
I would tell myself to just tryit.
I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd make thesmiley face poster post-it note
on the dashboard inside of myglasses.
Stop worrying and just do it.
Make the mess and then clean itup.
(09:23):
Um, it's so funny.
In my twenties and earlythirties I thought I was cocky
and foolish, but I really nowlooking back and see so many
areas where I was afraid to takethe leap and chose the safer
route and then regretted it.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Take it, try it.
I love it, I love it.
Take a chance.
What are some of the learningsthat you've had?
I mean, a lot of people don'tget like a contractor.
They think, well, a lot of themdon't have a lot of employees.
They use a lot of subs, butsubs are employees.
So, when it comes down to it,so what have been some of your
biggest learnings in workingwith subs?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So, bill, I'm going to rat you out here before we
started recording.
You asked me to to not get toonegative, um and call people out
, which I love, because that isone of the biggest lessons.
The construction industry inparticular tends to attract this
macho yell louder than the nextguy kind of thing.
(10:29):
So true, and like other arenasin the world, we think we need
to match that in order tocompete or to get our fair share
.
I shouldn't speak for everybody.
I used to think that I needed tomatch that in order to compete,
used to think that I needed tomatch that in order to compete,
(10:53):
and what I found is when I'm atcity hall trying to clear up a
permit that's got some funk onit and the guy next to me is
screaming at the poor stateemployee behind the desk, and
then I come up and ask them howthey're doing and listen for a
minute and then explain to themwhat I need, even though I might
(11:14):
be furious that it just made melook bad, disappointed.
A customer keeps them frommoving their kids on on time.
Listening sounds so cheesy, butjust listening and go to the
other side of the job site, kickthe dumpster, smash something
with the sledgehammer but thencome back and speak to people
(11:35):
like the real people, and thatworks for most of us.
But where it's reallysurprising is when you can
disarm the big angry guy thatwas just yelling at the person
next to you.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah 100%.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And then of course customers love that.
But it's yeah that mindset.
I don't have to match that toplay with the other guys.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
What do you think?
Some of the misconceptions areabout working with a contractor,
are about working with acontractor.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
So for non-construction people, the big
misconception is that the priceis going to be the price, yeah,
and that construction issupposed to go on schedule per
plan.
But it's like a podcast or aZoom meeting or a TV.
It's the real world.
(12:32):
You're dragging everything outinto the middle of nowhere.
You can't just make your iPhoneor tablet in the factory with
all the parts.
You have to get it from amillion different places and
somehow get it to all show up onone site and then expect the
weather to go well and everybodyto show up.
The other misconception is thesubcontractors, as you said
(12:53):
earlier, are like my employees,but they are not my employee.
I am not their boss, I am theproject manager, I have the
contract, but they don't meet mein the morning, they don't
punch my clock, um, they don'tcome to my HR department.
They're they're their ownperson.
(13:13):
That you know.
Of course, anybody can quit andmove to another job, but, um,
people will show up too earlyand start with a leaf blower.
And somebody is calling me andasking me why I sent that man
there early to wake them up.
And, mrs smith, I I didn't dothat on purpose.
I didn't call him and ask himto show up early.
(13:35):
He's.
He's got his own little company.
He's the best leaf blower rightin western carolina, but he
shows up when he shows up, yeahyeah, I, yeah, I get it, it's a,
it's an, it's an interestingone.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah, and managing other companies essentially to
to get there all the time, it'sa, it's a big thing.
But yeah, I mean, most peoplebuild one, two, maybe three
houses in a lifetime and youknow contractors do it every day
.
So there's usually amisconception there.
(14:09):
That's why I asked the questionhow do you balance sort of
business and personal life?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Oh, that's a great question.
So I didn't for a long time and, and I remember very clearly,
actually it was my wedding dayin Lake Chinaliska over here in
Waynesville.
I had not moved here full timeyet and I had been working for a
(14:38):
huge corporate builder.
I was learning a lot.
I was very excited.
It was my first time having a401k and I had worked my butt
off 80 hours a week, got thebonus to pay for the wedding, my
chunk of the wedding.
Don't let me pretend that mywife's amazing parents didn't do
(15:01):
most of the legwork there.
But in my head it was like okay, I made it.
I impressed everybody.
I got to the wedding, I didn'tdrop the ring and then we're
sitting there on this beautifulfront porch the next day and I
realized that I made it.
I didn't have to keep trying toprove to myself and everybody
(15:22):
else that I could build.
I could build a house, I can dothis.
And I was looking at the hoursI was putting in and, for
whatever reason, something justclicked and I went back to work
after our honeymoon and Istopped overdoing it and
actually nobody noticed orcomplained.
(15:43):
I was still meeting all mydeadlines, my customers were
happy.
And then when we moved out here, I went and was looking for
(16:05):
another corporate builder with a401k.
My wife started a business,misfit Improv and then a good
friend connected me with Tobyand I could not be happier,
because it's up to me and Tobyhow we set our workflow and work
day.
It's not a big meeting with ourshareholders and the HR
department, and so now I can dothis with you.
(16:27):
It's, it's nine 30.
My last job I would have beenon site an hour ago, two hours
ago, and there is no way I mighthave tried to do this in my
truck with you.
Right, we will take our callsand help people over the
weekends, but I I'm I'mfostering a rescue dog right now
.
He rides in the truck with me.
We stop at the dog park oh,that's cool.
We take twice as long and lowsbecause he's got to stop and say
(16:49):
hello to everybody.
Nice, he peed on the officefloor but I cleaned it up.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Don't tell anybody.
Well, if you have a dog, that'sgoing to happen sooner or later
.
You're going to have anaccident.
It happens.
Let me ask you some quick firequestions.
The name of our podcast is EpicEntrepreneurs and it's about
being epic in business and epicis an acronym.
So I just want to get justquick, like a word or a sentence
(17:19):
.
Maybe I'll give you a paragraphif you want it, if you've got
to do that for each one.
So the E is education.
Give me some thoughts on.
Education is education.
Give me some thoughts oneducation.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Education is great and in many things, especially
building experience, is the bestof education.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Right, actually doing it, I love that?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
How about planning?
P is planning.
Planning is paramount, butbeing able to change the plans
on the fly as conditions changeis essential Love that I is for
inspiration.
Inspiration again in theplanning stage.
But the house, the crew, thecustomer, the mountain will talk
(18:09):
to you while you're buildingand let you know how to adjust.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I love that and C is commitment.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That's big for us.
We try to finish in 12 months.
Sometimes big custom projectstake longer and it's going back
every day, even when the crew orthe customer or the HOA are
furious with me.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, yeah, I get that.
Yeah, I get that.
Well, thanks for that.
That's always good.
It's always good to get that.
What do you wish somebody hadtold you you had known before
you got into contracting?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
That it's okay not to know everything.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That's so good.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
tell me more about that I believe in fake it till
you make it.
Um, except that I twist thatand think that I have to pretend
I know everything.
And, um, my boss, my boss, theowner toby logo, he is.
He's a great example of that.
I he's never laughed at me orgotten mad at me for asking a
(19:17):
dumb question.
Um, I've had great mentorsthrough through the years, but I
I can point, most of mymistakes are because I didn't
just say I don't know, give me aminute.
Most of the commitments I'vefailed on with customers is
because I didn't say let me getback to you in a few minutes.
I don't know the answer to that.
I try to impress people.
(19:38):
I say something and now I'vegot to deliver on unrealistic
expectations.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah, much better to give them something they don't
want to hear rather thansomething that's never going to
happen.
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
Well, what would you offer?
Advice would you offer maybe toother contractors or other
(20:06):
young people thinking aboutgetting into contracting or
business in general?
What advice, other advice wouldyou have?
Just build it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Just try it.
It's really hard to lose withsmall construction projects.
Right now and this goes to Iput this out to everybody.
We have a housing shortage.
Build something.
Build a little guest cottage inyour backyard.
Don't use me, use anybody, useyourself.
Steal one of my plans off thewebsite, just build it.
(20:38):
It's really hard to lose rightnow.
If you want to build a $3million marble and gold mansion,
yeah, you might lose on that,but build the code.
Talk to your inspector and justbuild something.
We need the housing.
It's probably going to go up invalue or at least hold its
value.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, I don't see housing here going down anytime
soon, all right, well, anythingelse you'd like to add?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
It's, it's uh, it's exciting, it's.
It's still a sad time inashville when you go into some
of our neighborhoods, um, butit's also exciting because we
get a chance to rebuild togetherand do some things better than
we did before.
So if you're scared of this andif you feel like you're not
(21:40):
getting enough money, don't justgive up and sell and move away.
Reach out and see what yourother options are.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, there's always a way forward.
I mean there just is.
It might not be the ideal way,but there's always a way forward
.
I mean there just is.
It might not be the ideal way,but there's always a way forward
.
I love that.
How do people get in touch withMitch from?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Boxwood, Mitch Riddell, Boxwood Homes,
828-508-8246.
That's my personal cell.
It's on the signs.
You can pop by our office inMills River anytime, but we're
almost never there.
And stop by any of our projectstoo.
You'll see me in my white truck.
Just grab me and say howdy Ilove this.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Well, thanks for being on.
This has been awesome.
There's a lot of good kind ofnuggets there.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Thank you, bill, and thanks to Beth again.
Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode
of Epic Entrepreneurs, and I'msuper pumped to have Mitch Rodel
from Boxwood Homes with us assort of our focus for this week.
So, hi, mitch, welcome to theshow.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Bill thanks for having me and I want to thank
Beth for inviting me.
I got to meet her at networkingevents recently.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, Beth's awesome.
She's a great member of ourteam and she does a fantastic
job out there.
Tell us a little bit aboutBoxwood Homes, sort of how you
got into business and that sortof thing.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
So Boxwood Homes is owned by Toby Logel.
He's down in Greenville, northCarolina, and I'm over here in
Waynesville, north Carolina,today and now we are covering
the Asheville and Hendersonvillemarkets.
In between us, we have a officein Mills River on Old Haywood
Road, and we're not in it verymuch because we're out there
(00:55):
building your houses.
So if you all need another spotto do a podcast someday, just
let me know, I'll hand you thekeys and you can pop in there.
We are currently buildingToby's working on a development
small development in Greenville.
I am working on a few projectsin Hendersonville and Asheville
and we're breaking our firstground.
(01:17):
We're breaking ground on ourfirst project in Canton, which
I'm very excited about.
Just a few blocks from thepaper mill, which we're very
excited to hear has been sold toa responsible developer that's
going to be starting the cleanupprocess very soon.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, that's actually very exciting for Canton.
I always thought that that wasgoing to probably explode Canton
, once they close the paper mill, although the paper mill was a
central part of that economy fora long time.
I feel like that opportunity isgoing to just explode because
it's location betweenWaynesville and Asheville is
(01:58):
just as prime for development Ithink.
So it's going to be good.
So tell me about you.
Guys have been heavily involvedin some of this hurricane
assistance, hurricane cleanup.
Tell me about what you've donethere.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So, bill, throughout my life and then later career
especially, I started noticingthat sometimes timing just the
universe just set things up.
The hurricane was tragic,horrific, heartbreaking, as you
know, for us I had somesurvivor's guilt because all of
(02:33):
our projects were just barelyunscathed, mudslide to the left,
mudslide to the right.
I had a project in Oakley thatwas literally I could stand in
the front yard and look to theright and see the Swannanoa
River and that horrificdestruction.
We had just started a programcalled Our Plans your Land,
which is similar to the Build onyour Home Lot products of other
(02:55):
national builders.
And we've pivoted.
We still have that and we cando it the same way we were doing
it, but we've pivoted.
And so still have that and wecan do it the same way we were
doing it, but we've pivoted.
And so now we can do even morescaled back version of that for
people.
So for those in thenon-construction world, when you
(03:15):
go to build a house, a lot ofpeople do a custom house.
Custom house isn't just yourbig million dollar mansion.
Custom house can be a littletwo room shed or converted shed,
what have you.
But what us and some otherbuilders have done now is, we
pre-designed some homes so thatwe can figure out exactly how
(03:35):
much the material is going to be, how much to order, and we can
get our subcontractors to bidthat specific design.
So we have our costs naileddown to bid that specific design
.
So we have our costs naileddown.
So what we're doing now iswe're modifying some of those so
that people, if they've losteverything, if they're not
getting as much as they thought,they can pick one of these
(03:59):
plans and we can adjust theprice even further for them so
that we can build them somethingback.
I'm starting next week our firstproject in Hendersonville.
They had a tree take out theirmain house, they had a tree take
out their guest cottage andthey had another tree take out
their RV.
I got to go tour that housewith them and see where the roof
had pierced through the ceilingover their bed and they had
(04:21):
made it to the hallway just intime, so to be able to give them
something.
I don't like to use the wordaffordable, because a lot of our
audience thinks of affordablehousing as boring, concrete,
bland structures built for ourimpoverished.
So let's call it valueengineered, let's call it higher
(04:43):
efficiency construction, but wecan build them a beautiful
house now and they are up on amountain looking out over
Hendersonville and so we'redoing that.
And then the other thing feelfree to give my info to anybody
out there.
We've set aside a couple hourseach week and I can go to
people's homes.
A lot of people are trying torebuild.
(05:05):
For people not in Nashville,you might think, oh, that was
months and months and months ago.
They should be back on theirfeet.
Many of us are.
But some people are justgetting that insurance check now
.
Some people are still fightingfor that insurance check.
Or some people have gotten thatmoney and then all of a sudden
turned around and started theprocess of getting a contractor
and they're booked out right now.
(05:29):
So long story short, I can takethat couple hours of every week,
visit different sites, touryour home and help you figure
out what you do and don't needto do to get it rebuilt.
And the big thing I want tostress for a lot of people you
want to fix or rebuild your homecorrectly and to code, but in
(05:49):
North Carolina, for example, youdon't need to be a licensed
roofer to install a roof.
If you've got some roof damage,reach out to me.
I'll just let you borrow myhandyman for the day.
You don't need to go out andhire a full general contractor
and pay his overhead insurancejust so that one of his guys can
hire another guy to come outand do your roof.
(06:11):
That may be confusing to somepeople.
Please stop me if I get into mybuilder.
Speak, but please reach out.
We can help people not spendthe little bit of money that
they got back in the wrong way.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Hey, the message here is you know, contact Mitch and
we'll put his contactinformation.
We'll get that later in thepodcast, we'll put it in the
show notes.
But you know, contact Mitch orreally any reputable contractor,
and you know, let them pointyou in the right direction.
Because if it's minor damage, alot of things can be and a lot
(06:49):
of people say, well, thehurricane happened a long time
ago.
Well, there's still an awfullot of blue tarps over houses
right now.
I know of several people thathave gotten money.
But then they went and got acontractor and figured out that,
hey, it was going to cost thema lot more than the insurance
allowed.
So now they're fighting withinsurance to actually get what's
actually due to them.
So there's a lot of that goingon.
(07:11):
So it's going to be months andyears.
Get some professional help outthere and let Mitch point you in
the right direction.
So the our plans, your landthat's, that's that was.
You had planned to do that, butthe hurricane hit and then,
(07:32):
boom, now people got, they mighthave to tear down their whole
situation and start over.
So it seems like veryprovidential.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yes, and let's say the hurricane didn't exist at
all.
And let's say the hurricanedidn't exist at all.
Um, we are also still in ourhousing crisis, especially here
in western north carolina.
People want to live here andthere's not enough homes.
So for a full custom house,you're looking in ashville to
(08:02):
spend between four and sixhundred dollars a square foot.
Yeah, to build one, that'sright.
We can do the pre-designed onescloser to $250, $300 a square
foot with some customizations init.
So that's great for people thatare trying to do something
smaller on a tiny budget.
But it's also great for peoplethat can afford the $1 million
(08:25):
to $2 million home but want alittle more bang for their buck
and speed.
Because everything'spre-designed, pre-ordered, we
can build it a lot quicker and,as anybody who's dealt with
building a home or a remodelknows, it's always late.
If you watch HGTV, everybodywants to be in by Christmas and
they think they're going to stayon their budget.
It's always late and overbudget.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, all right, cool .
Well, let's shift gears alittle bit and talk about some
of the things you've learnedover your years as a contractor
and in business.
If you had to start over inbusiness, what would you do
differently?
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Great question.
I would tell myself to just tryit.
I'd, I'd, I'd, I'd make thesmiley face poster post-it note
on the dashboard inside of myglasses.
Stop worrying and just do it.
Make the mess and then clean itup.
(09:23):
Um, it's so funny.
In my twenties and earlythirties I thought I was cocky
and foolish, but I really nowlooking back and see so many
areas where I was afraid to takethe leap and chose the safer
route and then regretted it.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Take it, try it.
I love it, I love it.
Take a chance.
What are some of the learningsthat you've had?
I mean, a lot of people don'tget like a contractor.
They think, well, a lot of themdon't have a lot of employees.
They use a lot of subs, butsubs are employees.
So, when it comes down to it,so what have been some of your
biggest learnings in workingwith subs?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So, bill, I'm going to rat you out here before we
started recording.
You asked me to to not get toonegative, um and call people out
, which I love, because that isone of the biggest lessons.
The construction industry inparticular tends to attract this
macho yell louder than the nextguy kind of thing.
(10:29):
So true, and like other arenasin the world, we think we need
to match that in order tocompete or to get our fair share
.
I shouldn't speak for everybody.
I used to think that I needed tomatch that in order to compete,
used to think that I needed tomatch that in order to compete,
(10:53):
and what I found is when I'm atcity hall trying to clear up a
permit that's got some funk onit and the guy next to me is
screaming at the poor stateemployee behind the desk, and
then I come up and ask them howthey're doing and listen for a
minute and then explain to themwhat I need, even though I might
(11:14):
be furious that it just made melook bad, disappointed.
A customer keeps them frommoving their kids on on time.
Listening sounds so cheesy, butjust listening and go to the
other side of the job site, kickthe dumpster, smash something
with the sledgehammer but thencome back and speak to people
(11:35):
like the real people, and thatworks for most of us.
But where it's reallysurprising is when you can
disarm the big angry guy thatwas just yelling at the person
next to you.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah 100%.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
And then of course customers love that.
But it's yeah that mindset.
I don't have to match that toplay with the other guys.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
What do you think?
Some of the misconceptions areabout working with a contractor,
are about working with acontractor.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
So for non-construction people, the big
misconception is that the priceis going to be the price, yeah,
and that construction issupposed to go on schedule per
plan.
But it's like a podcast or aZoom meeting or a TV.
It's the real world.
(12:32):
You're dragging everything outinto the middle of nowhere.
You can't just make your iPhoneor tablet in the factory with
all the parts.
You have to get it from amillion different places and
somehow get it to all show up onone site and then expect the
weather to go well and everybodyto show up.
The other misconception is thesubcontractors, as you said
(12:53):
earlier, are like my employees,but they are not my employee.
I am not their boss, I am theproject manager, I have the
contract, but they don't meet mein the morning, they don't
punch my clock, um, they don'tcome to my HR department.
They're they're their ownperson.
(13:13):
That you know.
Of course, anybody can quit andmove to another job, but, um,
people will show up too earlyand start with a leaf blower.
And somebody is calling me andasking me why I sent that man
there early to wake them up.
And, mrs smith, I I didn't dothat on purpose.
I didn't call him and ask himto show up early.
(13:35):
He's.
He's got his own little company.
He's the best leaf blower rightin western carolina, but he
shows up when he shows up, yeahyeah, I, yeah, I get it, it's a,
it's an, it's an interestingone.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah, and managing other companies essentially to
to get there all the time, it'sa, it's a big thing.
But yeah, I mean, most peoplebuild one, two, maybe three
houses in a lifetime and youknow contractors do it every day
.
So there's usually amisconception there.
(14:09):
That's why I asked the questionhow do you balance sort of
business and personal life?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Oh, that's a great question.
So I didn't for a long time and, and I remember very clearly,
actually it was my wedding dayin Lake Chinaliska over here in
Waynesville.
I had not moved here full timeyet and I had been working for a
(14:38):
huge corporate builder.
I was learning a lot.
I was very excited.
It was my first time having a401k and I had worked my butt
off 80 hours a week, got thebonus to pay for the wedding, my
chunk of the wedding.
Don't let me pretend that mywife's amazing parents didn't do
(15:01):
most of the legwork there.
But in my head it was like okay, I made it.
I impressed everybody.
I got to the wedding, I didn'tdrop the ring and then we're
sitting there on this beautifulfront porch the next day and I
realized that I made it.
I didn't have to keep trying toprove to myself and everybody
(15:22):
else that I could build.
I could build a house, I can dothis.
And I was looking at the hoursI was putting in and, for
whatever reason, something justclicked and I went back to work
after our honeymoon and Istopped overdoing it and
actually nobody noticed orcomplained.
(15:43):
I was still meeting all mydeadlines, my customers were
happy.
And then when we moved out here, I went and was looking for
(16:05):
another corporate builder with a401k.
My wife started a business,misfit Improv and then a good
friend connected me with Tobyand I could not be happier,
because it's up to me and Tobyhow we set our workflow and work
day.
It's not a big meeting with ourshareholders and the HR
department, and so now I can dothis with you.
(16:27):
It's, it's nine 30.
My last job I would have beenon site an hour ago, two hours
ago, and there is no way I mighthave tried to do this in my
truck with you.
Right, we will take our callsand help people over the
weekends, but I I'm I'mfostering a rescue dog right now
.
He rides in the truck with me.
We stop at the dog park oh,that's cool.
We take twice as long and lowsbecause he's got to stop and say
(16:49):
hello to everybody.
Nice, he peed on the officefloor but I cleaned it up.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Don't tell anybody.
Well, if you have a dog, that'sgoing to happen sooner or later
.
You're going to have anaccident.
It happens.
Let me ask you some quick firequestions.
The name of our podcast is EpicEntrepreneurs and it's about
being epic in business and epicis an acronym.
So I just want to get justquick, like a word or a sentence
(17:19):
.
Maybe I'll give you a paragraphif you want it, if you've got
to do that for each one.
So the E is education.
Give me some thoughts on.
Education is education.
Give me some thoughts oneducation.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Education is great and in many things, especially
building experience, is the bestof education.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Right, actually doing it, I love that?
Speaker 2 (17:43):
How about planning?
P is planning.
Planning is paramount, butbeing able to change the plans
on the fly as conditions changeis essential Love that I is for
inspiration.
Inspiration again in theplanning stage.
But the house, the crew, thecustomer, the mountain will talk
(18:09):
to you while you're buildingand let you know how to adjust.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I love that and C is commitment.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That's big for us.
We try to finish in 12 months.
Sometimes big custom projectstake longer and it's going back
every day, even when the crew orthe customer or the HOA are
furious with me.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, yeah, I get that.
Yeah, I get that.
Well, thanks for that.
That's always good.
It's always good to get that.
What do you wish somebody hadtold you you had known before
you got into contracting?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
That it's okay not to know everything.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That's so good.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
tell me more about that I believe in fake it till
you make it.
Um, except that I twist thatand think that I have to pretend
I know everything.
And, um, my boss, my boss, theowner toby logo, he is.
He's a great example of that.
I he's never laughed at me orgotten mad at me for asking a
(19:17):
dumb question.
Um, I've had great mentorsthrough through the years, but I
I can point, most of mymistakes are because I didn't
just say I don't know, give me aminute.
Most of the commitments I'vefailed on with customers is
because I didn't say let me getback to you in a few minutes.
I don't know the answer to that.
I try to impress people.
(19:38):
I say something and now I'vegot to deliver on unrealistic
expectations.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah, much better to give them something they don't
want to hear rather thansomething that's never going to
happen.
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
Well, what would you offer?
Advice would you offer maybe toother contractors or other
(20:06):
young people thinking aboutgetting into contracting or
business in general?
What advice, other advice wouldyou have?
Just build it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Just try it.
It's really hard to lose withsmall construction projects.
Right now and this goes to Iput this out to everybody.
We have a housing shortage.
Build something.
Build a little guest cottage inyour backyard.
Don't use me, use anybody, useyourself.
Steal one of my plans off thewebsite, just build it.
(20:38):
It's really hard to lose rightnow.
If you want to build a $3million marble and gold mansion,
yeah, you might lose on that,but build the code.
Talk to your inspector and justbuild something.
We need the housing.
It's probably going to go up invalue or at least hold its
value.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, I don't see housing here going down anytime
soon, all right, well, anythingelse you'd like to add?
Speaker 2 (21:15):
It's, it's uh, it's exciting, it's.
It's still a sad time inashville when you go into some
of our neighborhoods, um, butit's also exciting because we
get a chance to rebuild togetherand do some things better than
we did before.
So if you're scared of this andif you feel like you're not
(21:40):
getting enough money, don't justgive up and sell and move away.
Reach out and see what yourother options are.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, there's always a way forward.
I mean there just is.
It might not be the ideal way,but there's always a way forward
.
I mean there just is.
It might not be the ideal way,but there's always a way forward
.
I love that.
How do people get in touch withMitch from?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Boxwood, Mitch Riddell, Boxwood Homes,
828-508-8246.
That's my personal cell.
It's on the signs.
You can pop by our office inMills River anytime, but we're
almost never there.
And stop by any of our projectstoo.
You'll see me in my white truck.
Just grab me and say howdy Ilove this.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Well, thanks for being on.
This has been awesome.
There's a lot of good kind ofnuggets there.
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Thank you, bill, and thanks to Beth again.
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