February 27, 2025 • 49 mins
Join us for an enlightening conversation with Kris Schlembach, a remarkable individual who has navigated a unique career journey from Wall Street finance to residential renovations in sunny Delray Beach, Florida. In this episode, Kris shares personal anecdotes and professional insights that shed light on his passion for construction, honed through early experiences working alongside his father. We delve into his transition from large-scale commercial projects to the world of residential renovations, exploring the importance of integrity and quality work in a market plagued by unreliable contractors. Discover how Kris's expertise in design and effective communication has helped him navigate client expectations and manage multiple projects with ease.
In this captivating episode, we sit down with Kris Schlembach, a seasoned professional who has transitioned from a successful career in finance on Wall Street to become a respected figure in the world of residential renovations. Kris's fascinating journey is filled with personal stories and professional insights that offer a unique perspective on the construction industry. We explore his early experiences in construction, his passion for finance, and the life-changing events that prompted him to make a significant career shift. Join us as we delve into the challenges of managing client expectations, the importance of design in construction, and the strategic use of technology to streamline project management. Kris's story is a testament to the power of adaptability and the rewards of pursuing one's true passion.
Step into the world of construction and design with Kris Schlembach as he takes us on a journey through his career in this captivating episode. From his early days assisting his father with construction projects to his role as a trader on Wall Street, Kris's experiences have shaped his unique perspective on the industry. We explore the challenges and rewards of residential renovations, the importance of assembling a reliable team, and the significance of well-defined design plans. This episode offers valuable insights into managing client expectations, navigating budgets, and leveraging technology for efficient project management. Join us as we uncover the secrets to success in the world of construction and design.
Learn more at:
https://twinteriors.com/podcast/
https://scottwoolley.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Voice Over (00:00):
The following podcast iDesign Lab is an SW
Group production in associationwith Five Star and TW Interiors.
This is iDesign Lab, a podcastwhere creativity and curiosity
meet style and design.
Curator of interiors,furnishings and lifestyles.
Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, aninterior designer and a style
(00:22):
enthusiast, along with herserial entrepreneur husband
Scott, idesign Lab is yourultimate design podcast where we
explore the rich and vibrantworld of design and its constant
evolution in style and trends.
Idesign Lab provides industryinsight, discussing the latest
trends, styles and everything inbetween to better help you
style your life, through advicefrom trendsetters, designers,
(00:45):
influencers, innovators,fabricators and manufacturers,
as well as personal stories thatinspire, motivate and excite.
And join us on this elevated,informative and lively journey
into the world of all thingsdesign.
Today, we're thrilled to haveChris Schlembach, a construction
and design expert, joining us.
With a background that blendsconstruction, finance and
(01:07):
high-profile commercial projects, chris found his true passion
in residential renovations.
He'll share insights on homedesign, scaling a business and
the rewarding connections hebuilds with his clients.
Let's dive in.
Tiffany Woolley (01:20):
Today we want to welcome Chris Schlembach to
the iDesign podcast.
Chris is a seasonedprofessional from Wall Street,
where he started, and now inDelray Beach, Florida, in the
construction business.
Scott Woolley (01:35):
I think he actually started in New Jersey
in construction.
Am I correct?
Tiffany Woolley (01:39):
Yes, correct, okay so tell us about that
journey.
Kris Schlembach (01:43):
Just growing up , always helped out my dad
around the house with simplethings projects, building
bathrooms, you name it Really.
Anything he was about to do.
Voice Over (01:53):
Really as a little kid it started out just here
I'll hand.
Kris Schlembach (01:55):
You know, go get this, get that, handing him
tools.
So your dad was in construction, yes, and always did all the
things around the house, likeadded a bathroom to the house.
Tiffany Woolley (02:05):
Really he did the kitchen and that kind of
stuff.
Kris Schlembach (02:07):
Yeah, on his own, and he was always also very
entrepreneurial.
So I learned a lot aboutbusiness as well, you know just.
But it started out just assimple thing as hand a tool.
Then, as I got a little olderand when I say older I mean
maybe like 10.
It's like hey, do you want tocome out on a weekend on a job
(02:28):
site or something?
I have a little bit of stuff todo, and maybe he would pay me
$20 and buy me lunch orsomething.
Back then it was probably theearly 80s, and it was like
watching, I would start to learnand pick up things along the
way and just sort of you know,kind of liked it.
I always liked the idea oftaking something and seeing it
(02:50):
progress.
You know, like power washing Ifyou put pressure washing it's
such a there's so much instantgratification in it, you know,
to see something open.
Tiffany Woolley (02:57):
That's why there's so many TikTok videos.
It's just so rewarding to watch.
Scott Woolley (03:02):
So I just did a lot of that To watch power
washing yeah, oh, my God, likepower washing.
Kris Schlembach (03:07):
I love it because you take this instant
gratification.
You say wow, look how beautifulthat looks it's the same thing
we're doing that's funnyRemodels.
To take this I agree.
Tiffany Woolley (03:17):
I always say that too about projects, that
the new construction with ablank slate granted.
That's awesome and exciting,but there's so much
gratification in takingsomething that looks absolutely
horrible or in a time warp andreally bringing it to the next
stage.
Scott Woolley (03:33):
But you started your career really in Wall
Street.
But what made you change to goto get into construction?
Kris Schlembach (03:39):
So I always, you know, I went to school for
finance.
I always wanted to work infinance, even through high
school, I would.
You know the other kids instudy hall are flicking the
football around the little youknow paper football and playing
around and I was reading booksabout T Boone, pickens and you
know these corporate raiders andtrying to educate myself.
And I actually even went andtook college classes at the
(03:59):
local community college when Iwas in high school.
Tiffany Woolley (04:01):
Really yeah.
So you were that passionatewhen I was in high school Really
yeah regarding the stock marketand everything and trading.
Kris Schlembach (04:05):
I had subscriptions to every single
magazine you could Fortune,forbes, you name it Wall Street
Journal and I would even runhome at lunchtime.
We only had maybe 35 or 40minutes.
I was a few blocks from theschool.
I would run home watch DanDorfman on.
FNN back then Financial NewsNetwork, which is now CNBC, and
(04:25):
just look and learn and I justloved it.
I was kind of passionate aboutit, I guess, and eventually,
after college, I worked for amortgage company initially and
then I was fortunate enough toget a job in a Wall Street firm
as a trader, which is reallyreally, really hard to get into
Right, really hard.
(04:45):
But I was extremely persistentand I found out later, one of
the people that worked in HRtook my resume and put it right
on top of the pile and they weregetting like 10,000 resumes a
week.
That's insane to think about,and they only hired like 12
people when I got hired, so itwas really I was.
When I got on that tradingfloor to interview my heart was
(05:08):
pounding and I just kind of knewI was meant to be there and it
was incredible.
Tiffany Woolley (05:13):
How long did you spend doing that?
Kris Schlembach (05:15):
I was there like 99 through 2001.
So after 9-11, that was like acrazy situation and the whole
thing got turned upside down.
And then we got bought out by alarge wall street firm and they
changed everything when Iworked there.
one of the things that attractedme to that particular firm is
it was a meritocracy so if Imade that firm money I would get
(05:36):
paid yeah and it didn't matterabout my tenure right so I'm
like this as an entrepreneurialperson, I want to be paid on my
merit, not on my tenure andthings like that, right, so just
went along those lines of howI've always liked to do things,
even a lot of my employees.
I'll pay them a little get,I'll incentivize them, you know,
because I feel that it makespeople do better.
(05:58):
And then so what?
Scott Woolley (05:58):
point.
Did you wake up going?
I want to change to go intoconstruction well I always threw
.
Throughout high school andcollege, I started learning a
lot more.
So what point did you wake upgoing?
I want to change, to go intoconstruction.
Kris Schlembach (06:05):
Well, I, always throughout high school and
college.
I started learning a lot moreabout construction as I got
older and was more capable and Idid kind of enjoy the thing
about, you know, makingsomething look a lot better and
just like giving it a makeover.
It's like, you know, reminds meof one of the old sitcoms or
something where, oh, this girland they give her a makeover and
(06:26):
all of a sudden everybody'slike wow, you know, it's very
rewarding.
And then so and Wall Streetafter 9-11, and then we got
taken over by another firm.
They changed it.
I got out of there around 2001or so and then I was considering
I was offered a job out in SanFrancisco, but I didn't want to
(06:48):
move out there, I wanted to stayin New Jersey area.
So I figured, hey, I'll getback into the construction and I
started.
My family had a business.
I went back to work with myfamily, but it was very
specialized and we did largecommercial projects, nasa,
hospitals airports, local areas.
From DC up to Rhode Island, allover like northeast, like big
(07:11):
commercial projects with unionsand prevailing wage.
We were all in the union andeverything and eventually I
started spreading out andgetting more into the general
contracting arena up there inNew Jersey and then I just loved
coming down here in Florida.
I just loved the weather andthe atmosphere and everything.
Tiffany Woolley (07:30):
So it was a goal to get this way.
Kris Schlembach (07:32):
So as I spent more and more time here, I
started to kind of make someinroads and I thought, well, I
could probably work from Floridaand because a lot of our work
was all over the Northeast, Iwasn't physically on these
projects.
Most of the time I was workingfrom New Jersey and I could be
working a project that was fouror five hours away.
(07:55):
So then when I would come downto Florida, there were times I
would stay here for months at atime and I would just DC for the
day and fly back or fly up toRhode Island or whatever, and I
could manage them with thetechnology we have nowadays,
with cloud-based things and itsort of eventually evolved that
(08:15):
way, so was this your companyOriginally.
I worked for my dad and then wehad three companies.
We started my brothers and Istarted another company which
was a manufacturing company,because we figured that we saw
our cost of goods was one of ourmajor right, you know expenses,
expenses.
so we thought we can reduce ourcost of goods, we'll increase
(08:38):
our profitability or evenincrease our competitive edge
because we can bid lower thanother people and get still get
the job and make just as muchmoney.
So we started.
We initially rented somemachinery, we learned how to
manufacture different things andthen we eventually bought
machinery.
We became a licensee of thisone company from Texas and then
(08:59):
we met with architects and justgot into their specifications.
So if a project was coming outthe ground, the architect
specified a certain product.
Even if we weren't getting theentire contract, we could at
least sell the material.
So it's like half a loaf isbetter than none, and we were
always privy to a lot moreinformation as to what projects
(09:21):
are coming out the ground, sothat business today my brother
runs is extremely successful.
Tiffany Woolley (09:27):
Wow, so he still does that.
Kris Schlembach (09:29):
Yeah, and I was in his facility this summer and
it was blew me away.
I mean, it's like 60,000 squarefeet.
He does 10s of millions a yearin projects, you know, and it
was something that we allstarted together.
That is so awesome, I wanted tomove down here and I have my,
you know, the generalcontracting and it was, you know
, coming from a commercialreally difficult, challenging
(09:52):
projects.
I mean, we had projects, we hadhelicopters bringing material
onto roofs, we had to shut downtraffic in Washington DC.
Tiffany Woolley (10:00):
Imagine traffic there.
Kris Schlembach (10:01):
So we had police on either end of the
street shutting down traffic toescort the material in and a big
crane so we had to have thestreets shut down.
So I've been involved in thingsthat are a very high level of
difficulty.
You know a lot of coordinationGeneral contracting.
Tiffany Woolley (10:31):
Of course, there's a lot more facets to it,
but I feel like it's a mucheasier process than what I was
dealing with before.
What did the learning curvelook?
Kris Schlembach (10:36):
like changing from commercial moving towards
residential.
That's a good question.
So I had a project A goodfriend of mine, his office is
right up the street.
Um, a project my a good friendof mine, his, his office is
right up the street.
He's a huge company and theyboth basically deal with like
mold fire water damage that kindof thing.
He was always having troublehere in south florida.
Of course there's not a lot ofcredible people and you know you
(10:56):
get a lot of shady people yeah,so he asked me he said, hey, um
, I have all these projectscoming in.
We tear the houses apart becauseof the mold and we don't have
anybody.
They're always asking us tohave somebody put it back
together, but we've been throughdozens of contracts.
We can't find anybody quality,reliable.
Tiffany Woolley (11:15):
What a great segue for you.
Kris Schlembach (11:17):
And I said, well, I'll give it a shot.
He goes.
I know you like big commercialstuff.
I said I don't necessarily likeit.
That's what.
Tiffany Woolley (11:22):
I do.
Kris Schlembach (11:23):
But I'll try some residential.
So the first job I didwaterfront house had mold.
We put everything back togetherand I thought this is actually
quite relaxing compared to thecommercial environment I'm used
to.
It's so fast paced and a lot ofstress and meetings every day
and OSHA and I mean it's just somuch prevailing wage reports to
(11:47):
fill out.
Tiffany Woolley (11:47):
A lot of bureaucratic.
Kris Schlembach (11:49):
It's just so much bureaucracy especially
dealing with the large militaryprojects we did in the airports
and the hospitals and all thatstuff.
So it went over real well.
I thought, oh, this is notnearly as stressful.
I like it.
And the other thing that reallyI liked about it was that it
seemed I learned right away howgrateful people they had, so
(12:10):
much gratitude that we came in,did a good job, did what we said
we were going to do.
And I thought this is so easy.
All I have to do is show up ontime, do what I say I'm going to
do.
I mean, this is natural to me.
Just to do the right thing, butpeople aren't used to that which
blew me away.
Tiffany Woolley (12:27):
Especially in Florida.
Kris Schlembach (12:29):
So how long ago was that.
That was probably about 10years ago.
Scott Woolley (12:32):
I'm going to say 10 years ago, yeah, started
doing the residential.
Did you have a generalcontracting license at that?
Tiffany Woolley (12:38):
point yes, yes.
And what about putting togethera team?
Scott Woolley (12:42):
Because you have a team now that's originally
your company.
Kris Schlembach (12:45):
Yes, I, yeah, actually it was more than 10
years ago.
Yeah, it had to be like 15years ago, yeah, at least
because the so I have to lookwhen I got.
I don't really I don't lookback a lot, I'm look, always
looking forward in the present.
Voice Over (12:59):
I'm in the present and I'm looking forward.
Kris Schlembach (13:01):
I'm not like, oh what, my wife would know
exactly the year and the day andeverything, but it was probably
10 or 15 years ago roughly.
So the team, originally I wasout doing all the work.
I was doing everything the tile, the demolition.
I was out there getting myhands dirty and I eventually got
, you know, I would weed throughpeople.
(13:22):
You get somebody and they'reokay for a little while.
Then they start going downhilland then eventually, as I would
weed through people, you getsomebody and they're okay for a
little while.
Tiffany Woolley (13:26):
Then they start going downhill.
I know, I say that a lot too.
Kris Schlembach (13:26):
Eventually, as I would get bigger projects, I'd
have a bigger pool to choosefrom and I would always just
keep the best guys in the bottom, like, say, 20%.
They're always on the choppingblock and I'm always looking to
upgrade my team, but obviouslysome of the guys have been with
me a long time, more than 12years really yeah yeah, um, so
(13:50):
one time, you know, I I would,sometimes guys would come and
find me and then I'm reallyfortunate the guys I have, who
are just great guys and they doan excellent job.
They tend to come to me withhey, my nephew or my uncle came
here from Cuba or something.
(14:12):
Would you mind hiring him?
And I say, yeah, let's talk,we'll try it and even with any
new people that come to me, whenI first hire them, I make sure
I put them with my best guys fora few weeks so they can
evaluate the new employee andtell me how are they doing.
And not only are they doing agood job, are they getting along
(14:35):
with everyone.
That's really important to havecohesion.
Scott Woolley (14:38):
So your company, KMR, is a pretty busy
construction or remodelingcompany for mostly, let's say,
high-end residential yeah,mostly I prefer that and I know
that last year you probably did,I don't know.
18 to maybe more than 20 houses, which?
Voice Over (14:55):
is pretty aggressive and pretty busy, probably more
than that.
Scott Woolley (14:58):
How important because it's one of the things
we love to talk about on thispodcast is design in what you're
doing Design, how important isit?
Well, maybe the first thing Ishould ask is that, of all those
houses, how much of them hasthe design already been done?
Kris Schlembach (15:17):
Probably on the projects I do.
Probably about 40% of thedesign is done.
Some of them the homeowner doesthe design themselves and you
get into some issues wherethere's not a cohesion of like
the the everything's tyingtogether.
I love, you know, with thedesigner.
I like working with you guys,for instance, because
(15:38):
everything's already picked out.
I'm not holding the hand of thecustomer, you're doing that,
you're, you're looking at theirtastes and getting something
that will work for that home andputting it all together.
So for me, I'm not trying topick out every single piece of
material and when I know aheadof time, that's really important
If we know ahead of time whatmaterial is going where, because
(16:00):
there's a lot of considerationsthat people don't think of so
having everything selectedbeforehand, before you start the
project.
First of all, it helps me toprice the project.
That's one thing.
It's really difficult to put atrue price on something when you
don't know what type ofmaterial.
(16:21):
For instance, if you do tile ina shower it could be, you know,
say it's, it's a thousanddollars, but if you do a certain
pattern, right, it could befour thousand dollars.
Tiffany Woolley (16:33):
That's heavier.
Yes, I mean you could quadruplethe price yes, so there's.
We have to know about thematerials ahead of time I mean,
I would think, even working witha designer, you know, in the
construction side, I always tryto tell clients let's come up
with this design, let's come upwith this palette, let's come up
with this whole schematic, thevibe, everything.
(16:55):
And when you do send it toprice with contractors, you're
getting pricing that's apples toapples too.
I would imagine that it's notthe easiest to go bid a job
based on you know something inthin air and then somebody else
is coming basing it on anotherthin air.
Kris Schlembach (17:16):
That's such a great point.
And it's like if you've heardin the real estate business, oh,
that realtor bought the listing, the house is worth a million
dollars.
And they say, oh, I'll get you1.1 million.
It's unrealistic and therealtor knows the market, knows
they're only going to get 950 orso, but they buy the listing.
And I think a lot of times I'veseen it a million times
actually with contractors ifthere's a job, I'm $20,000.
(17:39):
I'm being very realistic, basedon what they're doing and to do
it properly it's going to costthat.
And I'm not getting rich onthat because another guy's at
$12,000.
I'm not making an extra $8,000.
He's doing an entirelydifferent job.
So they'll come in low and thenthey'll hit the customer with a
bunch of crazy change orders orthey're coming in low because
(18:01):
they're just slapping ittogether and not really doing.
It's not apples and apples, itreally isn't, do you think?
Scott Woolley (18:06):
most people clients realize how important
design is prior, or do you thinkmost people think, well, I'll
kind of wing it as I go along?
Kris Schlembach (18:16):
So I would say the customers that do realize
how important it is are Acustomers that are doing
higher-end projects and Bcustomers who have been through
the construction processpreviously.
They realize hey, you know whatwe need to get the planning
done properly.
Proper planning prevents poorperformance.
Tiffany Woolley (18:36):
I love that.
That's a good slogan.
I don't know why I don't usethat one more often.
Kris Schlembach (18:41):
I get all these from my dad.
He has a million of them.
Tiffany Woolley (18:42):
That's a great one actually we should talk
about that in one of our tidbits.
It's funny because I wasactually at a job site the other
day a magnificent home, amagnificent property and you
would walk in and be like thisis amazing.
But the more you do dive intoit had you had a furniture
layout that you were actuallybuilding around and lighting, I
(19:06):
mean there's huge.
Yeah, you know, and I hate tosay that, that a beautiful
project could have been better,but that's why you could have
been better the model home yeahand the new development is
always designed.
Kris Schlembach (19:22):
The designer comes in and plans everything
out, and that's why it looks soamazing.
But then a lot of times you buythat model that's not designed
and it doesn't look anythinglike the model home.
Tiffany Woolley (19:34):
It's so true.
Scott Woolley (19:35):
Well, it's all the finishes.
Tiffany Woolley (19:36):
It is, it's all those layers that we talk about
a lot.
Kris Schlembach (19:39):
A friend of mine who I built their house and
they used a designer and it'sso amazing how the kitchen
sconces they have sea glassaround them and then the
chandelier over in the diningroom has the same sea glass on
it.
So it all ties in together.
It's so just tight it looks anda lot of times you know we're
(20:04):
talking about real obviousthings.
But if you go into a house andthis ties into the construction
as well If you walk into onehouse, let's say you have
identical homes.
One was done by the companythat cuts corners and does it
sloppily and just maybe you knowit's just not done right, and
the other one was done whereevery little detail was
considered, and you walk intothose houses.
(20:27):
At first glance or if someonetook photos, you might think
that's the same house, but whenyou look you'll have a feeling
of this.
One just feels so much nicer.
It does this one.
I don't know what it is, Idon't feel like it's that great.
And then it's your subconsciousregistering that paint drip
(20:47):
over there and the littleimperfections and all, and
you're not seeing it Like maybe,without further looking at it
you won't identify the specificthings, but you will feel a
difference when you walk intothe house.
That's done properly versus theone that's just slapped
together.
Tiffany Woolley (21:02):
Without a doubt .
Scott Woolley (21:03):
Do you think that ?
Is there one big like mistakeyou think people make from a
design standpoint?
That seems to happen over andover.
Kris Schlembach (21:12):
It's hard to think about.
I'm not really sure Nothingreally stands out particularly.
It's just overall having thatwhere everything ties together
and not just colors.
But having a nice thing is tohave Flow, yeah, but also like
where you have differenttextures and materials, soft and
hard.
(21:33):
You know tile, but you don'twant all tile Now the room's
echoey and too hard or masculine.
You want some softness andthose kind of things make a huge
difference.
Tiffany Woolley (21:44):
Lighting, yeah, lighting, yeah Lighting is so
important.
It really is.
I know I even like thetemperature of lighting to me is
so important.
Even just driving through ourneighborhood coming home at
night I'm I'm like, oh, thelight in that one house is so
bright, you know, like it's justso off, it's not like.
Scott Woolley (22:04):
Well, most people are not thinking about the, the
calvin temperature right, rightand these are now that changes
the whole aesthetic of a house.
Kris Schlembach (22:12):
That there's so many things that look, I mean,
this is what we do right, so weknow all these little nuances
and you can't be good ateverything.
Do I hire a contractor to be mydoctor or to take a tooth out?
No, I mean, I go to a dentistor a doctor.
It's like there's so manysubtle things.
I had a um someone call me as afavor the other day and say,
(22:36):
chris, could you come take alook at this for us?
I said sure, no problem, andthey had done the signs in the
front of the development.
Tiffany Woolley (22:46):
At your development.
Yeah, okay.
Kris Schlembach (22:49):
So I'm looking at it and I'm like you know, it
looked great.
But, I said, did you do this,did you do that?
And no, they kind of GC'd itthemselves.
Tiffany Woolley (23:00):
The neighborhood did.
Yeah, oh wow.
Kris Schlembach (23:02):
And I'm like, okay, so that beautiful black
tile you have on this wall withthe sign where the water runs
down, it that's all going toturn white.
Tiffany Woolley (23:09):
I was going to say, was it waterproofed?
Kris Schlembach (23:13):
I said you need to put a filtration system on
the water.
You need a carbon filter,something to filter out the
calcium and everything.
And when they put the tile onthe wall they should have used a
certain thinset that does nothave the calcification come
through.
I know and I already see it andit was only done two weeks ago.
Tiffany Woolley (23:29):
I know that's when you know you're with a good
builder or a bad builder.
I've had clients who you knowrelied on contractors.
I didn't bring the contractorto the table or anything.
I actually had a great workingrelationship with them.
But that became a huge problemon the end result of the project
that showed up right away.
Kris Schlembach (23:51):
Yeah, was the calcification there's a million
things like that, and it's just.
You know, it's not like you,you just know this stuff or like
you went to construction school.
Tiffany Woolley (24:02):
But it's years and years of experience and if
you're not doing it every day,you're not in the loop of it.
That's why you need to and look, we've made a lot of mistakes,
but that's how we learned.
Kris Schlembach (24:12):
It's been years and years and decades of of
there's always still a new one.
Scott Woolley (24:16):
Yeah, there's always something new will pop up
, but so you and your company,kmr, do a lot of projects
high-end homes, condos,townhouses.
Is there a design style thatyou kind of you like personally
better, like right now or thelast few years?
Really modern has been, yeah,like the mid-century modern type
(24:39):
stuff I like.
Kris Schlembach (24:40):
I think it's like there's a good mix of
materials, kind of a throwback,but like classy and modern
update.
It's like, it's cool.
I like a mid-century modern.
I've always been real privyalso to like the um, like that,
it's.
Uh, it's like's like a beachy,but sort of like modern
transitional.
Tiffany Woolley (25:01):
Like the West Indies.
Kris Schlembach (25:02):
Yeah, I love that style.
Tiffany Woolley (25:04):
Yeah, I agree.
That's such a nice Florida.
Kris Schlembach (25:06):
Look A friend of mine just built a beautiful
5,000 square foot house on thewater in Key West and I went
down and looked at them.
This is just that British WestIndies style with the wood
soffits outside and just youknow, beautiful, but the details
.
The builder needs to reallybrush up on his details and my
(25:31):
friend asked me.
He said please write down apunch list for me.
We walked around the house forabout four or five hours.
Scott Woolley (25:35):
Wow, please write down a punch list for me.
Kris Schlembach (25:37):
We walked around the house for about four
or five hours, wow, and I wastelling him just put a Post-it
note on every little thing andwrite a little note on it and
just put it all over the house.
He used about 400 Post-it notes.
He said I wish you would havebuilt my house, but I'm not
doing work in Key Largo, youknow.
Tiffany Woolley (25:51):
Right.
Scott Woolley (25:52):
So is that a frustrating aspect of
construction is finishing a joband then having to deal with the
client and what they think isfinished.
Kris Schlembach (26:02):
Sometimes there's unrealistic expectations
, and that's part of the job ismanaging people's expectations
is really important.
It helps.
Communication is my number onething, and then two is part of
that is just managing theexpectations.
I have had issues where peoplethat's unacceptable, that's what
they're saying, and I'm saying,no, it is acceptable, it's
(26:23):
actually right, this is theright way to do it, and I've
referred to what my go-to is.
I'll call the manufacturer andsay let's, let them come out and
take a look at it.
And, sure enough, they come outand they go.
This is perfect.
Not only is it well within ourtolerances, this is exactly the
way we want you to do it,Because we read the instructions
before we do things.
(26:43):
I mean, there's so manydifferent things like flooring.
If you're doing wood flooring,typically we'll let it rest
inside the house for a minimumof 48 hours.
Voice Over (26:52):
Before we install it .
Kris Schlembach (26:55):
It has to acclimate to the temperature and
humidity.
Right, there's so many littlethings that Nuances.
Some of them are glued down,some are floating.
There's all these little things.
Some of the materials requiredifferent installation methods
or preparation, and we just aslong as we.
That's why, coming from thecommercial, you know
construction I always made surewe followed all of the details
(27:19):
to perfectly, just to the T,because we've had these meetings
.
I mean big jobs, multi milliondollar projects, commercial
projects, and in the commercialarena there are more people that
will, as they play the game.
They won't pay you just as amatter of doing business.
That's just what they do.
So they will come up with anexcuse not to pay you and say,
(27:41):
well, this isn't done correctly.
So then we would have to callin the manufacturer's rep.
We'd bring an architect, thatthe architect would have to
approve everything.
Tiffany Woolley (27:48):
Yeah, almost like plead your case.
Kris Schlembach (27:49):
Yeah.
Scott Woolley (27:50):
They don't want to pay.
Yeah, and you have a contractwith them.
Kris Schlembach (27:53):
Yeah, yeah, a lot of business, people and you
had a contract with them?
Yeah, a lot of.
Let's say like I had a case.
There's a car dealership I wasdoing in Rhode Island and they
said, oh you know, they got downto like the last final $50,000
they owed us on the project andeverything was great.
The entire project, you know itlasted four months, this
project.
They loved us the whole time.
They couldn't say enough goodabout us.
(28:15):
You guys are doing such a greatjob.
We had a great rapport withthem until it came time for them
to make the final payment.
And then, all of a sudden, theypoint out all these issues
which weren't issues.
They made them up.
They made them up.
Scott Woolley (28:26):
Sounds like they had a cash flow problem.
Either that or they actually dothat on every job and they
figure hey, if we save 10% onevery project we do.
Kris Schlembach (28:34):
that's millions of dollars.
That pays for the guy'sspeedboat and gas.
Yeah.
So now we have themanufacturing.
They say this is fine,everything's perfect.
So then they say well, I oweyou $50,000.
I'll give you $35,000.
Take it or leave it.
And now I talk to my attorney.
He says it's going to take youfour or five years to get your
money.
By then the you know you'reonly saving.
(28:56):
He's basically 15 000 you'relosing.
Plus it's going to cost you 25000 legal fees.
Tiffany Woolley (29:02):
Just take the 35 it's definitely and it's,
it's happened, it's happened,definitely it happens in
commercial it.
Kris Schlembach (29:09):
It's knock on wood.
It's only happened to me onetime in residential and the
couple was going through adivorce and I could have gone
after them legally.
But I did go after them likecivilly or, I'm sorry, like a
normal lawsuit and.
I won and they had to pay allmy legal fees, but the people
were going through a divorce andthey were.
Tiffany Woolley (29:29):
It was more about them than paying me A tit
for tat type of thing.
Kris Schlembach (29:31):
Yes, Neither wanted to pay.
It's like well, you pay it.
Tiffany Woolley (29:34):
No, you pay it, yeah.
Right, neither wanted to pay.
It's like, well, you pay it.
No, you pay it, yeah.
Kris Schlembach (29:36):
And what they did really could have got them
in trouble.
It was an insurance project.
The insurance company made outa joint check to them and me.
Tiffany Woolley (29:47):
They forged my name and went and cashed the
check.
Yeah, that's an unscrupulouscrew.
Kris Schlembach (29:51):
I could have criminally went after them.
Tiffany Woolley (29:52):
Yeah, that's an unscrupulous crew, yeah.
Kris Schlembach (29:54):
But anyway it all worked out.
I got all my money.
Tiffany Woolley (29:56):
What does the day-to-day look like when you're
running multiple projects?
Kris Schlembach (30:08):
So I rely heavily on my foremen that are
out on the job to communicatewith me.
Sometimes the communicationdoesn't happen because they're
busy, busy, busy.
So I will call them If I can'tmake it out on a project to
check on it.
I'll FaceTime them.
And that's great.
We use WhatsApp all the timeand they go like this you know
we'll discuss everything andI'll say, okay, put this mark on
the wall there.
So it's almost like I'm there,which is great because that
(30:30):
allowed, like technology hasreally allowed me to scale up
and do a lot more work.
But my, my, basically my dayconsists of like, scale up and
do a lot more work.
But basically my day consistsof like two things.
It's mostly project managementand then bidding new projects.
So I'm dealing with orderingmaterial, scheduling plumbers,
electricians, that kind of thingordering some materials,
countertops, and then on theother times I'm running around
(30:53):
on estimates.
And while I'm out runningaround doing estimates, hey,
I'll stop in and check on theseguys, I pop in on them and check
on the jobs, and then the restof the time probably about 20%
of my time is just spent runninga business, doing payroll and
accounting and dealing withinsurance and all that kind of
stuff.
Scott Woolley (31:10):
So I'm guessing most of your work is coming
through word of mouthPredominantly word of mouth yeah
, yeah, that's repeat customersfor us yeah, I had one.
Kris Schlembach (31:19):
I just ran out to wellington the other day.
It was a woman who I did a jobfor about five.
I did a kitchen five years agoand she was in green acres.
Now she lives in wellington soI went out there and she's chris
, can you come out and look atthis, you know?
So ran out there, look at it sorepeat business when come to
you.
Scott Woolley (31:36):
Do you prefer or is there a preference that you'd
rather a job coming to you fromthe client directly or like
with us when we work with youcoming through us as the
decorator or the interiordesigner?
Is there a preference that no?
Kris Schlembach (31:52):
because if it's a client coming to me directly,
it all just really depends onthe project, because if it's a
smaller project, they don'treally need a decorator.
A lot of times, a simplebathroom or closet, it's a
really simple thing.
But when it's more, when it'sthe kitchen and the dining room
(32:13):
and maybe're doing like a wholehouse, especially, I need a
designer.
But as far as where it comesfrom, it doesn't really make
much difference to me because wework really well together and
coordinate everything.
Either way, whether I bring theclient to you or you bring them
to me, I don't think it reallymakes a difference.
Scott Woolley (32:32):
So jobs that are pretty decent-sized jobs.
Do you prefer that an interiordesigner is involved?
Kris Schlembach (32:37):
Oh, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, because there are
so many moving parts, so manylittle details, that it's
challenging for me to convey allof the material options to the
customer where you're set up forthat.
(32:58):
You're very well set up for it.
You have all the samples here.
I'm basically copy and pastinglinks and mailing them to them
saying how about this showerenclosure, how about this tile?
Or why don't you go to FloorDecor and pick out some tile?
Tiffany Woolley (33:10):
and let me know .
Kris Schlembach (33:12):
You're a one-stop shop, you guys have it
covered.
You have all the beautifulsamples and showroom and you can
put together a little designdisplay for them.
It's just much, much better andI think they get a better
product that way.
Tiffany Woolley (33:25):
I think so too, and I always say people who
trust the process aretechnically much happier in the
long run.
Scott Woolley (33:35):
So technology you mentioned has helped your
business in communicating withthe client and your team.
What about social media?
Has social media and has that?
Kris Schlembach (33:44):
changed.
Yeah, so just recently we werelike last year was a pretty slow
year.
Normally we were in an averageyear.
I would get 10 to 12 calls aweek, like on average.
That's an average year.
I've at 10 to 12 calls a weekLike on average, that's an
average year, I've at times sortof getting 25 calls a week.
A week, yeah, a week, how doyou?
Tiffany Woolley (34:02):
weed them out.
Google, yeah what.
Kris Schlembach (34:05):
I do.
Scott Woolley (34:06):
How do you meet?
Kris Schlembach (34:06):
with them all.
So I don't, I don't.
When you're that busy, you haveto basically.
Have a strategy, yeah, so what Iwould do typically will.
I'll speak with the customer onthe phone, feel out what
they're trying to do and I'llusually type in their address
and look.
Most of the time there'spictures on Redfin or Zillow or
(34:28):
realtorcom and I can see.
I'll say, hey, are you talkingabout the bathroom with the two
sinks and the showers to theleft?
Yeah, that's the one and westart to discuss it and I can
see multiple photos, usuallyjust online without them.
Sometimes they'll email me thephotos and we'll discuss it and
this is just a preliminarydiscussion and I'll say okay,
you're roughly depending on yourmaterial selections.
(34:49):
You're somewhere between 40 and50 000 for that project so
that's interesting.
Scott Woolley (34:54):
So we did a podcast a few weeks back about
budget and about budget abouthow important it is to really
get the client to discuss thisfrom the very beginning of the
project because it really helpsall of us guide that project to
get done a quicker and get abetter presentation done.
(35:15):
So how important is it to youto get a budget out of the
person on the first call or two?
Kris Schlembach (35:23):
So for different aspects, you know you
want to kind of gauge what levelof construction they want.
You know, you're not going tooffer, like, if somebody has a
$500,000 house, you're not goingto offer them a $200,000
kitchen.
Voice Over (35:39):
It just doesn't make sense.
Kris Schlembach (35:41):
So that's part of like giving them a budget and
trying to.
I know some people ask peopletheir budget.
I don't do that First.
I listen, I ask them questionsand I listen to what they're
saying and I'm processing theinformation, especially if I go
out and look at the house.
I look at the neighborhood, Ilook at how expensive the home
is.
Is it a home in a neighborhoodthat, if they put $100,000 into
(36:04):
a master bath, are they going toget that out of it?
Tiffany Woolley (36:06):
Well, if it's a waterfront house in Boca.
Kris Schlembach (36:08):
Yeah, no problem, and there's some places
they wouldn't, so it's reallypart of the process.
Scott Woolley (36:14):
So you're not really asking them for a budget.
You're basically, in most cases, giving them a range.
I'm giving them a range.
Kris Schlembach (36:21):
And part of that, the range, is to give them
a realistic budget as to whatthis is really going to cost, to
do it properly, on the levelthat they're requesting and that
is commensurate with their homeand property value thing and
that is commensurate with theirhome and property value.
Tiffany Woolley (36:40):
So when you're getting so many of these leads
every week, you know, forexample, how and we're talking
about how you weed through them,but is there one that's too big
or too small that you?
Kris Schlembach (36:48):
Most of the time, it has to do with
geography.
I don't want to go to Miami, oreven Fort.
Lauderdale and drive, it'll takeyou 45 minutes down 995 to go
50 miles and then to go threemiles from 95 to the beach takes
you another 40 minutes.
I don't want to deal with that.
I have to have something that'saccessible so I can go check on
it and not have excuses not togo.
(37:09):
I mean, if I have to drive anhour and a half just to check on
a job, I'm not going to thatjob very frequently.
Tiffany Woolley (37:17):
Yeah, we have the same mindset.
Well, we do, but at least, atthe same token, we are not
having to be managing a siteevery day too, because we do
have projects that are notexactly located in our level.
Kris Schlembach (37:28):
And then the other thing about the budgeting.
It's sometimes people havecompletely unrealistic
expectations.
I could say well, your bathroom, the way you want to do it.
As you're explaining it to me,I'm thinking it's going to be
between $18,000 and $20,000.
And I can be fairly accuratelike that.
I mean, I've done hundreds so Iknow about what it's going to
(37:49):
be.
And the variation of price hasto do with the materials they
select and patterns, and maybethere are some things that we
run into that we're not aware ofwhen we open up a wall.
There could be something screwedup in there.
So at that point if they go, ohmy God, $18,000.
Tiffany Woolley (38:09):
I thought it was going to be $10,000.
Kris Schlembach (38:11):
I'm not driving out there to meet them for an
appointment because they'reunrealistic expectations.
So that weeds through a lot ofit, a lot of it, yeah.
So I like to give a rangebefore I even go out and spend
two or three hours of my timegiving them a free estimate.
Tiffany Woolley (38:30):
I know.
Scott Woolley (38:31):
You know, so it's interesting because on our side
we're trying to get the numberout of the client on what their
expectation, what they thinkthey have, because if they're
telling us, okay, I want to redothis bathroom, and they're
throwing out a number, it thengives us a gauge of okay, we can
(38:52):
, what's your word?
I say we'll use this vendorvendor value engineer this value
engineer to make that work butat the same, but at the same
time, if it's a number that justdoesn't make sense, yeah, then
we're letting the people knowthat yeah, I think it makes more
sense for you to do that,because the material is variable
.
Kris Schlembach (39:12):
There's so many variables it could you don't
have as many variables, no Imean, like a faucet, you can buy
one faucet, you can buy one for$40.
You can buy one for $2,000.
Scott Woolley (39:21):
No problem.
Kris Schlembach (39:22):
A tub.
You can buy $50,000 tubs.
Tiffany Woolley (39:24):
Agreed.
That's where it's nice andclear cut with construction and
it does give us a goodunderstanding when people do say
a little bit of a number wherethey'd like to be and I always
try to say being comfortablewith that number.
Kris Schlembach (39:43):
I wonder how much those cabinets are that I
sent you the other day.
They're so beautiful, oh mygosh, they are so beautiful.
Tiffany Woolley (39:49):
It's funny.
I love that line.
I forget how do you say it LaGuafas.
Kris Schlembach (39:54):
I don't even know La Gala, yeah, beautiful.
Tiffany Woolley (39:59):
Beautiful.
I'm like we need that client.
Yeah, we do.
Kris Schlembach (40:03):
Well, it's also knowing the client and it's
like communication, you know allthese things like managing
expectations, knowing the client.
I find that the you know, themost important thing to certain
clients is different dependingon the client.
It's not always price.
Price could be the fifth thing.
The most important thing tocertain clients is different
depending on the client it's notalways price.
Tiffany Woolley (40:24):
Price could be the fifth thing, the most
important thing and that's awhole new system to gauge really
it really is and you don't wantto shortchange people who are
willing to have that specialright range or that special
fabric.
You know it's because therethere is just so much out there
that you really can curate aspecial end result.
Kris Schlembach (40:45):
My friend gave me she had done a bathroom and,
I think, her dining room in thiswallpaper and it was so
beautiful and I always liked it.
And she was over at my houseand she said that wall, you
should use that wallpaper.
I used I have some left overand she gave it to me.
Well then I later found out itwas $2,500 a roll.
Tiffany Woolley (41:04):
A panel or a roll.
Kris Schlembach (41:05):
Each roll was like $2,500.
And it looks beautiful and shehad rolls left over.
Scott Woolley (41:10):
She had some left over.
Kris Schlembach (41:11):
Yeah, but it's so nice.
Tiffany Woolley (41:14):
That's fun.
Kris Schlembach (41:15):
Yeah, but I mean it's the right thing for
her house and it just sohappened.
I used it for a small area butI wouldn't have paid $2,500, but
that's me, but some people theywant the best and the most
beautiful thing.
It's the perfect thing for thatwall.
Let's get it.
Tiffany Woolley (41:32):
Right.
I love working with that typeof client.
Scott Woolley (41:36):
So for a person who wants to become a young
person, who wants to become acontractor, a general contractor
, what piece of advice would yougive them?
Kris Schlembach (41:46):
I would say like the best thing in any type
of endeavor you want to get intois to try to find a good mentor
.
Tiffany Woolley (41:52):
That's got to be your best bet, so your mentor
is your dad On the job training?
Kris Schlembach (41:56):
Yeah, my mentor is my dad in many aspects of
not only life but in business ingeneral, and I find that so
many things translate frombusiness to business to business
.
If you have integrity, youtreat people right, you have a
good work ethic and I could say10 or 15 different things it's
going to translate well into anybusiness you're in.
(42:19):
So I think they're the mostimportant things, but then,
specifically, the technicalaspects I would go work for
somebody and try to learn.
You have to work in the fieldtoo because it's really
important to actually get thatfield experience.
It helps you visualize thingsgetting done in a step-by-step
process.
(42:40):
You know what's actuallyinvolved, rather than just using
a software program to throw aprice out there, which I've had
to use the software programs forpricing because I've done a lot
of insurance work and theyessentially require it.
It's almost mandatory in theinsurance industry.
Tiffany Woolley (42:54):
Like an estimating.
Kris Schlembach (42:55):
Yeah, it's, Xactimate is one of the programs
and they want very detailedbreakdowns of everything where I
might say, hey, in this room,I'm going to charge you $500 to
paint the room.
It's implied that I'm going tocover and protect the floors,
move the furniture out of theway and put masking tape.
You need to break that downindividually by line item.
On the insurance work Wow,which is kind of cool in a way,
(43:18):
because I've done a lot ofinsurance work and it helped me
think that detailed level ofthis is everything we're going
to need, you know.
Tiffany Woolley (43:27):
I like that.
There's constant learning everyday yeah, oh, always learning
do you think any of your kidswill jump in with?
Kris Schlembach (43:36):
you, I don't think, well, it's possible.
But I mean my, my oldest, myone son is going to school for
engineering, the other one, he,wants to do something in
business or sales.
Scott Woolley (43:49):
So it's possible yeah, but it's tough, would you?
Kris Schlembach (43:51):
like them to?
I wouldn't like them to.
It's really tough.
It's a very stressful job.
It's like there's a lot ofpeople's expectations are
completely unrealistic.
That's why I say managing theexpectations, keeping them their
feet planted on the ground.
Scott Woolley (44:04):
Good, clear communication.
Very, very good, yeah, exactly,communication ongoing all the
time really helps, huge, huge.
Kris Schlembach (44:11):
Yeah, it's a tough business but at the same
time it's rewarding with seeingthe transit Freeing and I have a
lot of freedom.
I travel a lot and I can.
If my son had a basketball gameat 1 o'clock in the afternoon,
I would have no problem going tothe game A few months ago.
As opposed to.
You know, when I did work onWall Street, I was pinned to the
computer screen.
(44:31):
When the markets opened I couldbarely get up to take a leak.
Tiffany Woolley (44:34):
I mean I'm pinned to that screen.
Kris Schlembach (44:36):
Yeah, it's so crazy that you had such a
passion for Wall Street and thatin such a short period of time
you realized there was anotherway.
I did love it, but I didn'tlike the associated rat race
because at that time you prettymuch had to be in New York, so I
like living in South Florida.
(44:56):
Now there's hedge funds.
Tiffany Woolley (44:58):
There's like 2,000 hedge funds in Palm Beach
County or something like that.
I know it's crazy.
Kris Schlembach (45:01):
There's a lot of different aspects of it now,
but it's different what I did.
A lot of it's handled byautomated systems, computer
programs or doing what my jobwas.
Tiffany Woolley (45:14):
Wow, yeah, that's so crazy to think about.
Kris Schlembach (45:16):
Everything's programs.
There's triggers that occur andboom.
All of a sudden, millions ofshares are traded
instantaneously.
It's a different world.
Tiffany Woolley (45:25):
That is a different world.
Scott Woolley (45:27):
So we wrap up each of our podcasts by asking
some interesting designquestions.
So the first question I'm goingto ask you and you are a world
traveler, I mean you'retraveling, like you just said,
all the time Is there a hotelthat comes to mind that you
think has fantastic,unbelievable design?
Kris Schlembach (45:47):
I mean the breakers is always just so
impressive to me.
I love the old like it's soornate, reminds me of like being
in europe.
You know where you have.
Everything is so grand and richand just bold, and you know
like a lot of places you go arevery clean and modern, but it's
antiseptic.
Scott Woolley (46:06):
It has no, no passion, no yeah, you know, the
boca hotel used to be like thatyeah, years ago.
Kris Schlembach (46:11):
I'm not too crazy about it anymore no, no,
me too but I love the places ineurope, just like I went to a
place in london the saintermine's and saint in in
umchester.
It was so cool A lot of marble,a lot of old, just stuff that
you look at it and you're justblown away by how did they build
(46:31):
?
Tiffany Woolley (46:31):
this In the history, yeah Like some of these
places the craftsmanship youhave such appreciation for.
Oh, I love it.
Kris Schlembach (46:37):
I love the craft, Even the doors.
When you're in Paris justlooking at some of the front
doors in these houses.
Tiffany Woolley (46:41):
It's amazing it when you're in Paris just
looking at some of the frontdoors in these houses.
It's amazing, it blows me away.
It blows me away too.
You could create like a wholebook of just the doors.
Yes, right, you really could.
I think somebody has.
Kris Schlembach (46:49):
I love the detail and I have a very a major
appreciation for it EverywhereI go, like Croatia and Italy and
all these places it's like howdid they do this?
It's really cool I know withsuch passion what is your
(47:11):
favorite event to attend I don'treally attend any events for,
like construction or anything, Iprobably should like any event
in life like I mean a sport game, a sport game or like.
Tiffany Woolley (47:23):
Cavalino or, like you know, like all these.
Kris Schlembach (47:25):
I love Anything at.
Tiffany Woolley (47:26):
Mar-a-Lago.
Kris Schlembach (47:27):
I love concerts but I don't yeah, I love going
to Mar-a-Lago.
Usually, stuff that'sassociated with like outside,
any like outdoors I love.
We did a.
We took our boat down to watchthe what's the big concert.
Tiffany Woolley (47:43):
The country concert.
Oh yeah, like, can you do thatthis year?
My girls want to go.
Yeah, we'll take our boat down.
Can we go?
Yeah, yeah, jumping off theboat, we're swimming listening
to music.
Kris Schlembach (47:50):
It's great.
I love stuff like that that'sactually, yeah, that was.
The kids had a blast.
They're doing backflips off thetop of the boat and having and
there's a lot of boats out there, a lot of boats, yeah, my kids
that that's like on theirChristmas list was tickets to
Tortuga.
I like the air shows too.
We've done that with the boat.
Planes are flying right overyour head.
Scott Woolley (48:08):
It's really cool, that is really fun.
So what's a restaurantdesign-wise?
Not necessarily food, butdesign.
Kris Schlembach (48:21):
That's a tough one.
Tiffany Woolley (48:23):
You've been to a lot of different restaurants
all over the world is there one?
Scott Woolley (48:27):
that stands out, that you could say like the
design was.
Kris Schlembach (48:35):
Man, I like so many of them, I'm trying to
think it's hard.
There's a new place I kind oflike the decor in it up in West
Palm Pink State.
Oh yeah, that's cute.
It's a cool place.
Tiffany Woolley (48:43):
It kind of like the decor in it Up in West Palm
Pink.
Kris Schlembach (48:44):
State.
Scott Woolley (48:45):
Oh yeah, that's cute, it's a cool place, it's
kind of neat.
Kris Schlembach (48:47):
Is it a big place?
A small?
It's pretty big.
Yeah, it's pretty big.
It's in a shopping center.
You wouldn't think much of itfrom the outside, but when you
go in it's really.
Well done, All right.
Tiffany Woolley (49:02):
So lastly your favorite wardrobe accessory.
Kris Schlembach (49:04):
I don't wear many, but probably my wedding
ring.
Oh, good answer.
It reminds me of my beautifulwife.
Tiffany Woolley (49:10):
Oh, good answer .
That's a good way to end theshow today.
Scott Woolley (49:15):
We appreciate you coming in, Spencer.
Tiffany Woolley (49:17):
Good to see you guys.
Thank you, chris, all right,thanks.
Voice Over (49:20):
Thank you.
Idesign Labs Podcast is an SWGroup production.
Thanks, thank you.
The following podcast iDesign Lab is an SW
Group production in associationwith Five Star and TW Interiors.
This is iDesign Lab, a podcastwhere creativity and curiosity
meet style and design.
Curator of interiors,furnishings and lifestyles.
Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, aninterior designer and a style
(00:22):
enthusiast, along with herserial entrepreneur husband
Scott, idesign Lab is yourultimate design podcast where we
explore the rich and vibrantworld of design and its constant
evolution in style and trends.
Idesign Lab provides industryinsight, discussing the latest
trends, styles and everything inbetween to better help you
style your life, through advicefrom trendsetters, designers,
(00:45):
influencers, innovators,fabricators and manufacturers,
as well as personal stories thatinspire, motivate and excite.
And join us on this elevated,informative and lively journey
into the world of all thingsdesign.
Today, we're thrilled to haveChris Schlembach, a construction
and design expert, joining us.
With a background that blendsconstruction, finance and
(01:07):
high-profile commercial projects, chris found his true passion
in residential renovations.
He'll share insights on homedesign, scaling a business and
the rewarding connections hebuilds with his clients.
Let's dive in.
Tiffany Woolley (01:20):
Today we want to welcome Chris Schlembach to
the iDesign podcast.
Chris is a seasonedprofessional from Wall Street,
where he started, and now inDelray Beach, Florida, in the
construction business.
Scott Woolley (01:35):
I think he actually started in New Jersey
in construction.
Am I correct?
Tiffany Woolley (01:39):
Yes, correct, okay so tell us about that
journey.
Kris Schlembach (01:43):
Just growing up , always helped out my dad
around the house with simplethings projects, building
bathrooms, you name it Really.
Anything he was about to do.
Voice Over (01:53):
Really as a little kid it started out just here
I'll hand.
Kris Schlembach (01:55):
You know, go get this, get that, handing him
tools.
So your dad was in construction, yes, and always did all the
things around the house, likeadded a bathroom to the house.
Tiffany Woolley (02:05):
Really he did the kitchen and that kind of
stuff.
Kris Schlembach (02:07):
Yeah, on his own, and he was always also very
entrepreneurial.
So I learned a lot aboutbusiness as well, you know just.
But it started out just assimple thing as hand a tool.
Then, as I got a little olderand when I say older I mean
maybe like 10.
It's like hey, do you want tocome out on a weekend on a job
(02:28):
site or something?
I have a little bit of stuff todo, and maybe he would pay me
$20 and buy me lunch orsomething.
Back then it was probably theearly 80s, and it was like
watching, I would start to learnand pick up things along the
way and just sort of you know,kind of liked it.
I always liked the idea oftaking something and seeing it
(02:50):
progress.
You know, like power washing Ifyou put pressure washing it's
such a there's so much instantgratification in it, you know,
to see something open.
Tiffany Woolley (02:57):
That's why there's so many TikTok videos.
It's just so rewarding to watch.
Scott Woolley (03:02):
So I just did a lot of that To watch power
washing yeah, oh, my God, likepower washing.
Kris Schlembach (03:07):
I love it because you take this instant
gratification.
You say wow, look how beautifulthat looks it's the same thing
we're doing that's funnyRemodels.
To take this I agree.
Tiffany Woolley (03:17):
I always say that too about projects, that
the new construction with ablank slate granted.
That's awesome and exciting,but there's so much
gratification in takingsomething that looks absolutely
horrible or in a time warp andreally bringing it to the next
stage.
Scott Woolley (03:33):
But you started your career really in Wall
Street.
But what made you change to goto get into construction?
Kris Schlembach (03:39):
So I always, you know, I went to school for
finance.
I always wanted to work infinance, even through high
school, I would.
You know the other kids instudy hall are flicking the
football around the little youknow paper football and playing
around and I was reading booksabout T Boone, pickens and you
know these corporate raiders andtrying to educate myself.
And I actually even went andtook college classes at the
(03:59):
local community college when Iwas in high school.
Tiffany Woolley (04:01):
Really yeah.
So you were that passionatewhen I was in high school Really
yeah regarding the stock marketand everything and trading.
Kris Schlembach (04:05):
I had subscriptions to every single
magazine you could Fortune,forbes, you name it Wall Street
Journal and I would even runhome at lunchtime.
We only had maybe 35 or 40minutes.
I was a few blocks from theschool.
I would run home watch DanDorfman on.
FNN back then Financial NewsNetwork, which is now CNBC, and
(04:25):
just look and learn and I justloved it.
I was kind of passionate aboutit, I guess, and eventually,
after college, I worked for amortgage company initially and
then I was fortunate enough toget a job in a Wall Street firm
as a trader, which is reallyreally, really hard to get into
Right, really hard.
(04:45):
But I was extremely persistentand I found out later, one of
the people that worked in HRtook my resume and put it right
on top of the pile and they weregetting like 10,000 resumes a
week.
That's insane to think about,and they only hired like 12
people when I got hired, so itwas really I was.
When I got on that tradingfloor to interview my heart was
(05:08):
pounding and I just kind of knewI was meant to be there and it
was incredible.
Tiffany Woolley (05:13):
How long did you spend doing that?
Kris Schlembach (05:15):
I was there like 99 through 2001.
So after 9-11, that was like acrazy situation and the whole
thing got turned upside down.
And then we got bought out by alarge wall street firm and they
changed everything when Iworked there.
one of the things that attractedme to that particular firm is
it was a meritocracy so if Imade that firm money I would get
(05:36):
paid yeah and it didn't matterabout my tenure right so I'm
like this as an entrepreneurialperson, I want to be paid on my
merit, not on my tenure andthings like that, right, so just
went along those lines of howI've always liked to do things,
even a lot of my employees.
I'll pay them a little get,I'll incentivize them, you know,
because I feel that it makespeople do better.
(05:58):
And then so what?
Scott Woolley (05:58):
point.
Did you wake up going?
I want to change to go intoconstruction well I always threw
.
Throughout high school andcollege, I started learning a
lot more.
So what point did you wake upgoing?
I want to change, to go intoconstruction.
Kris Schlembach (06:05):
Well, I, always throughout high school and
college.
I started learning a lot moreabout construction as I got
older and was more capable and Idid kind of enjoy the thing
about, you know, makingsomething look a lot better and
just like giving it a makeover.
It's like, you know, reminds meof one of the old sitcoms or
something where, oh, this girland they give her a makeover and
(06:26):
all of a sudden everybody'slike wow, you know, it's very
rewarding.
And then so and Wall Streetafter 9-11, and then we got
taken over by another firm.
They changed it.
I got out of there around 2001or so and then I was considering
I was offered a job out in SanFrancisco, but I didn't want to
(06:48):
move out there, I wanted to stayin New Jersey area.
So I figured, hey, I'll getback into the construction and I
started.
My family had a business.
I went back to work with myfamily, but it was very
specialized and we did largecommercial projects, nasa,
hospitals airports, local areas.
From DC up to Rhode Island, allover like northeast, like big
(07:11):
commercial projects with unionsand prevailing wage.
We were all in the union andeverything and eventually I
started spreading out andgetting more into the general
contracting arena up there inNew Jersey and then I just loved
coming down here in Florida.
I just loved the weather andthe atmosphere and everything.
Tiffany Woolley (07:30):
So it was a goal to get this way.
Kris Schlembach (07:32):
So as I spent more and more time here, I
started to kind of make someinroads and I thought, well, I
could probably work from Floridaand because a lot of our work
was all over the Northeast, Iwasn't physically on these
projects.
Most of the time I was workingfrom New Jersey and I could be
working a project that was fouror five hours away.
(07:55):
So then when I would come downto Florida, there were times I
would stay here for months at atime and I would just DC for the
day and fly back or fly up toRhode Island or whatever, and I
could manage them with thetechnology we have nowadays,
with cloud-based things and itsort of eventually evolved that
(08:15):
way, so was this your companyOriginally.
I worked for my dad and then wehad three companies.
We started my brothers and Istarted another company which
was a manufacturing company,because we figured that we saw
our cost of goods was one of ourmajor right, you know expenses,
expenses.
so we thought we can reduce ourcost of goods, we'll increase
(08:38):
our profitability or evenincrease our competitive edge
because we can bid lower thanother people and get still get
the job and make just as muchmoney.
So we started.
We initially rented somemachinery, we learned how to
manufacture different things andthen we eventually bought
machinery.
We became a licensee of thisone company from Texas and then
(08:59):
we met with architects and justgot into their specifications.
So if a project was coming outthe ground, the architect
specified a certain product.
Even if we weren't getting theentire contract, we could at
least sell the material.
So it's like half a loaf isbetter than none, and we were
always privy to a lot moreinformation as to what projects
(09:21):
are coming out the ground, sothat business today my brother
runs is extremely successful.
Tiffany Woolley (09:27):
Wow, so he still does that.
Kris Schlembach (09:29):
Yeah, and I was in his facility this summer and
it was blew me away.
I mean, it's like 60,000 squarefeet.
He does 10s of millions a yearin projects, you know, and it
was something that we allstarted together.
That is so awesome, I wanted tomove down here and I have my,
you know, the generalcontracting and it was, you know
, coming from a commercialreally difficult, challenging
(09:52):
projects.
I mean, we had projects, we hadhelicopters bringing material
onto roofs, we had to shut downtraffic in Washington DC.
Tiffany Woolley (10:00):
Imagine traffic there.
Kris Schlembach (10:01):
So we had police on either end of the
street shutting down traffic toescort the material in and a big
crane so we had to have thestreets shut down.
So I've been involved in thingsthat are a very high level of
difficulty.
You know a lot of coordinationGeneral contracting.
Tiffany Woolley (10:31):
Of course, there's a lot more facets to it,
but I feel like it's a mucheasier process than what I was
dealing with before.
What did the learning curvelook?
Kris Schlembach (10:36):
like changing from commercial moving towards
residential.
That's a good question.
So I had a project A goodfriend of mine, his office is
right up the street.
Um, a project my a good friendof mine, his, his office is
right up the street.
He's a huge company and theyboth basically deal with like
mold fire water damage that kindof thing.
He was always having troublehere in south florida.
Of course there's not a lot ofcredible people and you know you
(10:56):
get a lot of shady people yeah,so he asked me he said, hey, um
, I have all these projectscoming in.
We tear the houses apart becauseof the mold and we don't have
anybody.
They're always asking us tohave somebody put it back
together, but we've been throughdozens of contracts.
We can't find anybody quality,reliable.
Tiffany Woolley (11:15):
What a great segue for you.
Kris Schlembach (11:17):
And I said, well, I'll give it a shot.
He goes.
I know you like big commercialstuff.
I said I don't necessarily likeit.
That's what.
Tiffany Woolley (11:22):
I do.
Kris Schlembach (11:23):
But I'll try some residential.
So the first job I didwaterfront house had mold.
We put everything back togetherand I thought this is actually
quite relaxing compared to thecommercial environment I'm used
to.
It's so fast paced and a lot ofstress and meetings every day
and OSHA and I mean it's just somuch prevailing wage reports to
(11:47):
fill out.
Tiffany Woolley (11:47):
A lot of bureaucratic.
Kris Schlembach (11:49):
It's just so much bureaucracy especially
dealing with the large militaryprojects we did in the airports
and the hospitals and all thatstuff.
So it went over real well.
I thought, oh, this is notnearly as stressful.
I like it.
And the other thing that reallyI liked about it was that it
seemed I learned right away howgrateful people they had, so
(12:10):
much gratitude that we came in,did a good job, did what we said
we were going to do.
And I thought this is so easy.
All I have to do is show up ontime, do what I say I'm going to
do.
I mean, this is natural to me.
Just to do the right thing, butpeople aren't used to that which
blew me away.
Tiffany Woolley (12:27):
Especially in Florida.
Kris Schlembach (12:29):
So how long ago was that.
That was probably about 10years ago.
Scott Woolley (12:32):
I'm going to say 10 years ago, yeah, started
doing the residential.
Did you have a generalcontracting license at that?
Tiffany Woolley (12:38):
point yes, yes.
And what about putting togethera team?
Scott Woolley (12:42):
Because you have a team now that's originally
your company.
Kris Schlembach (12:45):
Yes, I, yeah, actually it was more than 10
years ago.
Yeah, it had to be like 15years ago, yeah, at least
because the so I have to lookwhen I got.
I don't really I don't lookback a lot, I'm look, always
looking forward in the present.
Voice Over (12:59):
I'm in the present and I'm looking forward.
Kris Schlembach (13:01):
I'm not like, oh what, my wife would know
exactly the year and the day andeverything, but it was probably
10 or 15 years ago roughly.
So the team, originally I wasout doing all the work.
I was doing everything the tile, the demolition.
I was out there getting myhands dirty and I eventually got
, you know, I would weed throughpeople.
(13:22):
You get somebody and they'reokay for a little while.
Then they start going downhilland then eventually, as I would
weed through people, you getsomebody and they're okay for a
little while.
Tiffany Woolley (13:26):
Then they start going downhill.
I know, I say that a lot too.
Kris Schlembach (13:26):
Eventually, as I would get bigger projects, I'd
have a bigger pool to choosefrom and I would always just
keep the best guys in the bottom, like, say, 20%.
They're always on the choppingblock and I'm always looking to
upgrade my team, but obviouslysome of the guys have been with
me a long time, more than 12years really yeah yeah, um, so
(13:50):
one time, you know, I I would,sometimes guys would come and
find me and then I'm reallyfortunate the guys I have, who
are just great guys and they doan excellent job.
They tend to come to me withhey, my nephew or my uncle came
here from Cuba or something.
(14:12):
Would you mind hiring him?
And I say, yeah, let's talk,we'll try it and even with any
new people that come to me, whenI first hire them, I make sure
I put them with my best guys fora few weeks so they can
evaluate the new employee andtell me how are they doing.
And not only are they doing agood job, are they getting along
(14:35):
with everyone.
That's really important to havecohesion.
Scott Woolley (14:38):
So your company, KMR, is a pretty busy
construction or remodelingcompany for mostly, let's say,
high-end residential yeah,mostly I prefer that and I know
that last year you probably did,I don't know.
18 to maybe more than 20 houses, which?
Voice Over (14:55):
is pretty aggressive and pretty busy, probably more
than that.
Scott Woolley (14:58):
How important because it's one of the things
we love to talk about on thispodcast is design in what you're
doing Design, how important isit?
Well, maybe the first thing Ishould ask is that, of all those
houses, how much of them hasthe design already been done?
Kris Schlembach (15:17):
Probably on the projects I do.
Probably about 40% of thedesign is done.
Some of them the homeowner doesthe design themselves and you
get into some issues wherethere's not a cohesion of like
the the everything's tyingtogether.
I love, you know, with thedesigner.
I like working with you guys,for instance, because
(15:38):
everything's already picked out.
I'm not holding the hand of thecustomer, you're doing that,
you're, you're looking at theirtastes and getting something
that will work for that home andputting it all together.
So for me, I'm not trying topick out every single piece of
material and when I know aheadof time, that's really important
If we know ahead of time whatmaterial is going where, because
(16:00):
there's a lot of considerationsthat people don't think of so
having everything selectedbeforehand, before you start the
project.
First of all, it helps me toprice the project.
That's one thing.
It's really difficult to put atrue price on something when you
don't know what type ofmaterial.
(16:21):
For instance, if you do tile ina shower it could be, you know,
say it's, it's a thousanddollars, but if you do a certain
pattern, right, it could befour thousand dollars.
Tiffany Woolley (16:33):
That's heavier.
Yes, I mean you could quadruplethe price yes, so there's.
We have to know about thematerials ahead of time I mean,
I would think, even working witha designer, you know, in the
construction side, I always tryto tell clients let's come up
with this design, let's come upwith this palette, let's come up
with this whole schematic, thevibe, everything.
(16:55):
And when you do send it toprice with contractors, you're
getting pricing that's apples toapples too.
I would imagine that it's notthe easiest to go bid a job
based on you know something inthin air and then somebody else
is coming basing it on anotherthin air.
Kris Schlembach (17:16):
That's such a great point.
And it's like if you've heardin the real estate business, oh,
that realtor bought the listing, the house is worth a million
dollars.
And they say, oh, I'll get you1.1 million.
It's unrealistic and therealtor knows the market, knows
they're only going to get 950 orso, but they buy the listing.
And I think a lot of times I'veseen it a million times
actually with contractors ifthere's a job, I'm $20,000.
(17:39):
I'm being very realistic, basedon what they're doing and to do
it properly it's going to costthat.
And I'm not getting rich onthat because another guy's at
$12,000.
I'm not making an extra $8,000.
He's doing an entirelydifferent job.
So they'll come in low and thenthey'll hit the customer with a
bunch of crazy change orders orthey're coming in low because
(18:01):
they're just slapping ittogether and not really doing.
It's not apples and apples, itreally isn't, do you think?
Scott Woolley (18:06):
most people clients realize how important
design is prior, or do you thinkmost people think, well, I'll
kind of wing it as I go along?
Kris Schlembach (18:16):
So I would say the customers that do realize
how important it is are Acustomers that are doing
higher-end projects and Bcustomers who have been through
the construction processpreviously.
They realize hey, you know whatwe need to get the planning
done properly.
Proper planning prevents poorperformance.
Tiffany Woolley (18:36):
I love that.
That's a good slogan.
I don't know why I don't usethat one more often.
Kris Schlembach (18:41):
I get all these from my dad.
He has a million of them.
Tiffany Woolley (18:42):
That's a great one actually we should talk
about that in one of our tidbits.
It's funny because I wasactually at a job site the other
day a magnificent home, amagnificent property and you
would walk in and be like thisis amazing.
But the more you do dive intoit had you had a furniture
layout that you were actuallybuilding around and lighting, I
(19:06):
mean there's huge.
Yeah, you know, and I hate tosay that, that a beautiful
project could have been better,but that's why you could have
been better the model home yeahand the new development is
always designed.
Kris Schlembach (19:22):
The designer comes in and plans everything
out, and that's why it looks soamazing.
But then a lot of times you buythat model that's not designed
and it doesn't look anythinglike the model home.
Tiffany Woolley (19:34):
It's so true.
Scott Woolley (19:35):
Well, it's all the finishes.
Tiffany Woolley (19:36):
It is, it's all those layers that we talk about
a lot.
Kris Schlembach (19:39):
A friend of mine who I built their house and
they used a designer and it'sso amazing how the kitchen
sconces they have sea glassaround them and then the
chandelier over in the diningroom has the same sea glass on
it.
So it all ties in together.
It's so just tight it looks anda lot of times you know we're
(20:04):
talking about real obviousthings.
But if you go into a house andthis ties into the construction
as well If you walk into onehouse, let's say you have
identical homes.
One was done by the companythat cuts corners and does it
sloppily and just maybe you knowit's just not done right, and
the other one was done whereevery little detail was
considered, and you walk intothose houses.
(20:27):
At first glance or if someonetook photos, you might think
that's the same house, but whenyou look you'll have a feeling
of this.
One just feels so much nicer.
It does this one.
I don't know what it is, Idon't feel like it's that great.
And then it's your subconsciousregistering that paint drip
(20:47):
over there and the littleimperfections and all, and
you're not seeing it Like maybe,without further looking at it
you won't identify the specificthings, but you will feel a
difference when you walk intothe house.
That's done properly versus theone that's just slapped
together.
Tiffany Woolley (21:02):
Without a doubt .
Scott Woolley (21:03):
Do you think that ?
Is there one big like mistakeyou think people make from a
design standpoint?
That seems to happen over andover.
Kris Schlembach (21:12):
It's hard to think about.
I'm not really sure Nothingreally stands out particularly.
It's just overall having thatwhere everything ties together
and not just colors.
But having a nice thing is tohave Flow, yeah, but also like
where you have differenttextures and materials, soft and
hard.
(21:33):
You know tile, but you don'twant all tile Now the room's
echoey and too hard or masculine.
You want some softness andthose kind of things make a huge
difference.
Tiffany Woolley (21:44):
Lighting, yeah, lighting, yeah Lighting is so
important.
It really is.
I know I even like thetemperature of lighting to me is
so important.
Even just driving through ourneighborhood coming home at
night I'm I'm like, oh, thelight in that one house is so
bright, you know, like it's justso off, it's not like.
Scott Woolley (22:04):
Well, most people are not thinking about the, the
calvin temperature right, rightand these are now that changes
the whole aesthetic of a house.
Kris Schlembach (22:12):
That there's so many things that look, I mean,
this is what we do right, so weknow all these little nuances
and you can't be good ateverything.
Do I hire a contractor to be mydoctor or to take a tooth out?
No, I mean, I go to a dentistor a doctor.
It's like there's so manysubtle things.
I had a um someone call me as afavor the other day and say,
(22:36):
chris, could you come take alook at this for us?
I said sure, no problem, andthey had done the signs in the
front of the development.
Tiffany Woolley (22:46):
At your development.
Yeah, okay.
Kris Schlembach (22:49):
So I'm looking at it and I'm like you know, it
looked great.
But, I said, did you do this,did you do that?
And no, they kind of GC'd itthemselves.
Tiffany Woolley (23:00):
The neighborhood did.
Yeah, oh wow.
Kris Schlembach (23:02):
And I'm like, okay, so that beautiful black
tile you have on this wall withthe sign where the water runs
down, it that's all going toturn white.
Tiffany Woolley (23:09):
I was going to say, was it waterproofed?
Kris Schlembach (23:13):
I said you need to put a filtration system on
the water.
You need a carbon filter,something to filter out the
calcium and everything.
And when they put the tile onthe wall they should have used a
certain thinset that does nothave the calcification come
through.
I know and I already see it andit was only done two weeks ago.
Tiffany Woolley (23:29):
I know that's when you know you're with a good
builder or a bad builder.
I've had clients who you knowrelied on contractors.
I didn't bring the contractorto the table or anything.
I actually had a great workingrelationship with them.
But that became a huge problemon the end result of the project
that showed up right away.
Kris Schlembach (23:51):
Yeah, was the calcification there's a million
things like that, and it's just.
You know, it's not like you,you just know this stuff or like
you went to construction school.
Tiffany Woolley (24:02):
But it's years and years of experience and if
you're not doing it every day,you're not in the loop of it.
That's why you need to and look, we've made a lot of mistakes,
but that's how we learned.
Kris Schlembach (24:12):
It's been years and years and decades of of
there's always still a new one.
Scott Woolley (24:16):
Yeah, there's always something new will pop up
, but so you and your company,kmr, do a lot of projects
high-end homes, condos,townhouses.
Is there a design style thatyou kind of you like personally
better, like right now or thelast few years?
Really modern has been, yeah,like the mid-century modern type
(24:39):
stuff I like.
Kris Schlembach (24:40):
I think it's like there's a good mix of
materials, kind of a throwback,but like classy and modern
update.
It's like, it's cool.
I like a mid-century modern.
I've always been real privyalso to like the um, like that,
it's.
Uh, it's like's like a beachy,but sort of like modern
transitional.
Tiffany Woolley (25:01):
Like the West Indies.
Kris Schlembach (25:02):
Yeah, I love that style.
Tiffany Woolley (25:04):
Yeah, I agree.
That's such a nice Florida.
Kris Schlembach (25:06):
Look A friend of mine just built a beautiful
5,000 square foot house on thewater in Key West and I went
down and looked at them.
This is just that British WestIndies style with the wood
soffits outside and just youknow, beautiful, but the details
.
The builder needs to reallybrush up on his details and my
(25:31):
friend asked me.
He said please write down apunch list for me.
We walked around the house forabout four or five hours.
Scott Woolley (25:35):
Wow, please write down a punch list for me.
Kris Schlembach (25:37):
We walked around the house for about four
or five hours, wow, and I wastelling him just put a Post-it
note on every little thing andwrite a little note on it and
just put it all over the house.
He used about 400 Post-it notes.
He said I wish you would havebuilt my house, but I'm not
doing work in Key Largo, youknow.
Tiffany Woolley (25:51):
Right.
Scott Woolley (25:52):
So is that a frustrating aspect of
construction is finishing a joband then having to deal with the
client and what they think isfinished.
Kris Schlembach (26:02):
Sometimes there's unrealistic expectations
, and that's part of the job ismanaging people's expectations
is really important.
It helps.
Communication is my number onething, and then two is part of
that is just managing theexpectations.
I have had issues where peoplethat's unacceptable, that's what
they're saying, and I'm saying,no, it is acceptable, it's
(26:23):
actually right, this is theright way to do it, and I've
referred to what my go-to is.
I'll call the manufacturer andsay let's, let them come out and
take a look at it.
And, sure enough, they come outand they go.
This is perfect.
Not only is it well within ourtolerances, this is exactly the
way we want you to do it,Because we read the instructions
before we do things.
(26:43):
I mean, there's so manydifferent things like flooring.
If you're doing wood flooring,typically we'll let it rest
inside the house for a minimumof 48 hours.
Voice Over (26:52):
Before we install it .
Kris Schlembach (26:55):
It has to acclimate to the temperature and
humidity.
Right, there's so many littlethings that Nuances.
Some of them are glued down,some are floating.
There's all these little things.
Some of the materials requiredifferent installation methods
or preparation, and we just aslong as we.
That's why, coming from thecommercial, you know
construction I always made surewe followed all of the details
(27:19):
to perfectly, just to the T,because we've had these meetings
.
I mean big jobs, multi milliondollar projects, commercial
projects, and in the commercialarena there are more people that
will, as they play the game.
They won't pay you just as amatter of doing business.
That's just what they do.
So they will come up with anexcuse not to pay you and say,
(27:41):
well, this isn't done correctly.
So then we would have to callin the manufacturer's rep.
We'd bring an architect, thatthe architect would have to
approve everything.
Tiffany Woolley (27:48):
Yeah, almost like plead your case.
Kris Schlembach (27:49):
Yeah.
Scott Woolley (27:50):
They don't want to pay.
Yeah, and you have a contractwith them.
Kris Schlembach (27:53):
Yeah, yeah, a lot of business, people and you
had a contract with them?
Yeah, a lot of.
Let's say like I had a case.
There's a car dealership I wasdoing in Rhode Island and they
said, oh you know, they got downto like the last final $50,000
they owed us on the project andeverything was great.
The entire project, you know itlasted four months, this
project.
They loved us the whole time.
They couldn't say enough goodabout us.
(28:15):
You guys are doing such a greatjob.
We had a great rapport withthem until it came time for them
to make the final payment.
And then, all of a sudden, theypoint out all these issues
which weren't issues.
They made them up.
They made them up.
Scott Woolley (28:26):
Sounds like they had a cash flow problem.
Either that or they actually dothat on every job and they
figure hey, if we save 10% onevery project we do.
Kris Schlembach (28:34):
that's millions of dollars.
That pays for the guy'sspeedboat and gas.
Yeah.
So now we have themanufacturing.
They say this is fine,everything's perfect.
So then they say well, I oweyou $50,000.
I'll give you $35,000.
Take it or leave it.
And now I talk to my attorney.
He says it's going to take youfour or five years to get your
money.
By then the you know you'reonly saving.
(28:56):
He's basically 15 000 you'relosing.
Plus it's going to cost you 25000 legal fees.
Tiffany Woolley (29:02):
Just take the 35 it's definitely and it's,
it's happened, it's happened,definitely it happens in
commercial it.
Kris Schlembach (29:09):
It's knock on wood.
It's only happened to me onetime in residential and the
couple was going through adivorce and I could have gone
after them legally.
But I did go after them likecivilly or, I'm sorry, like a
normal lawsuit and.
I won and they had to pay allmy legal fees, but the people
were going through a divorce andthey were.
Tiffany Woolley (29:29):
It was more about them than paying me A tit
for tat type of thing.
Kris Schlembach (29:31):
Yes, Neither wanted to pay.
It's like well, you pay it.
Tiffany Woolley (29:34):
No, you pay it, yeah.
Right, neither wanted to pay.
It's like, well, you pay it.
No, you pay it, yeah.
Kris Schlembach (29:36):
And what they did really could have got them
in trouble.
It was an insurance project.
The insurance company made outa joint check to them and me.
Tiffany Woolley (29:47):
They forged my name and went and cashed the
check.
Yeah, that's an unscrupulouscrew.
Kris Schlembach (29:51):
I could have criminally went after them.
Tiffany Woolley (29:52):
Yeah, that's an unscrupulous crew, yeah.
Kris Schlembach (29:54):
But anyway it all worked out.
I got all my money.
Tiffany Woolley (29:56):
What does the day-to-day look like when you're
running multiple projects?
Kris Schlembach (30:08):
So I rely heavily on my foremen that are
out on the job to communicatewith me.
Sometimes the communicationdoesn't happen because they're
busy, busy, busy.
So I will call them If I can'tmake it out on a project to
check on it.
I'll FaceTime them.
And that's great.
We use WhatsApp all the timeand they go like this you know
we'll discuss everything andI'll say, okay, put this mark on
the wall there.
So it's almost like I'm there,which is great because that
(30:30):
allowed, like technology hasreally allowed me to scale up
and do a lot more work.
But my, my, basically my dayconsists of like, scale up and
do a lot more work.
But basically my day consistsof like two things.
It's mostly project managementand then bidding new projects.
So I'm dealing with orderingmaterial, scheduling plumbers,
electricians, that kind of thingordering some materials,
countertops, and then on theother times I'm running around
(30:53):
on estimates.
And while I'm out runningaround doing estimates, hey,
I'll stop in and check on theseguys, I pop in on them and check
on the jobs, and then the restof the time probably about 20%
of my time is just spent runninga business, doing payroll and
accounting and dealing withinsurance and all that kind of
stuff.
Scott Woolley (31:10):
So I'm guessing most of your work is coming
through word of mouthPredominantly word of mouth yeah
, yeah, that's repeat customersfor us yeah, I had one.
Kris Schlembach (31:19):
I just ran out to wellington the other day.
It was a woman who I did a jobfor about five.
I did a kitchen five years agoand she was in green acres.
Now she lives in wellington soI went out there and she's chris
, can you come out and look atthis, you know?
So ran out there, look at it sorepeat business when come to
you.
Scott Woolley (31:36):
Do you prefer or is there a preference that you'd
rather a job coming to you fromthe client directly or like
with us when we work with youcoming through us as the
decorator or the interiordesigner?
Is there a preference that no?
Kris Schlembach (31:52):
because if it's a client coming to me directly,
it all just really depends onthe project, because if it's a
smaller project, they don'treally need a decorator.
A lot of times, a simplebathroom or closet, it's a
really simple thing.
But when it's more, when it'sthe kitchen and the dining room
(32:13):
and maybe're doing like a wholehouse, especially, I need a
designer.
But as far as where it comesfrom, it doesn't really make
much difference to me because wework really well together and
coordinate everything.
Either way, whether I bring theclient to you or you bring them
to me, I don't think it reallymakes a difference.
Scott Woolley (32:32):
So jobs that are pretty decent-sized jobs.
Do you prefer that an interiordesigner is involved?
Kris Schlembach (32:37):
Oh, yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, because there are
so many moving parts, so manylittle details, that it's
challenging for me to convey allof the material options to the
customer where you're set up forthat.
(32:58):
You're very well set up for it.
You have all the samples here.
I'm basically copy and pastinglinks and mailing them to them
saying how about this showerenclosure, how about this tile?
Or why don't you go to FloorDecor and pick out some tile?
Tiffany Woolley (33:10):
and let me know .
Kris Schlembach (33:12):
You're a one-stop shop, you guys have it
covered.
You have all the beautifulsamples and showroom and you can
put together a little designdisplay for them.
It's just much, much better andI think they get a better
product that way.
Tiffany Woolley (33:25):
I think so too, and I always say people who
trust the process aretechnically much happier in the
long run.
Scott Woolley (33:35):
So technology you mentioned has helped your
business in communicating withthe client and your team.
What about social media?
Has social media and has that?
Kris Schlembach (33:44):
changed.
Yeah, so just recently we werelike last year was a pretty slow
year.
Normally we were in an averageyear.
I would get 10 to 12 calls aweek, like on average.
That's an average year.
I've at 10 to 12 calls a weekLike on average, that's an
average year, I've at times sortof getting 25 calls a week.
A week, yeah, a week, how doyou?
Tiffany Woolley (34:02):
weed them out.
Google, yeah what.
Kris Schlembach (34:05):
I do.
Scott Woolley (34:06):
How do you meet?
Kris Schlembach (34:06):
with them all.
So I don't, I don't.
When you're that busy, you haveto basically.
Have a strategy, yeah, so what Iwould do typically will.
I'll speak with the customer onthe phone, feel out what
they're trying to do and I'llusually type in their address
and look.
Most of the time there'spictures on Redfin or Zillow or
(34:28):
realtorcom and I can see.
I'll say, hey, are you talkingabout the bathroom with the two
sinks and the showers to theleft?
Yeah, that's the one and westart to discuss it and I can
see multiple photos, usuallyjust online without them.
Sometimes they'll email me thephotos and we'll discuss it and
this is just a preliminarydiscussion and I'll say okay,
you're roughly depending on yourmaterial selections.
(34:49):
You're somewhere between 40 and50 000 for that project so
that's interesting.
Scott Woolley (34:54):
So we did a podcast a few weeks back about
budget and about budget abouthow important it is to really
get the client to discuss thisfrom the very beginning of the
project because it really helpsall of us guide that project to
get done a quicker and get abetter presentation done.
(35:15):
So how important is it to youto get a budget out of the
person on the first call or two?
Kris Schlembach (35:23):
So for different aspects, you know you
want to kind of gauge what levelof construction they want.
You know, you're not going tooffer, like, if somebody has a
$500,000 house, you're not goingto offer them a $200,000
kitchen.
Voice Over (35:39):
It just doesn't make sense.
Kris Schlembach (35:41):
So that's part of like giving them a budget and
trying to.
I know some people ask peopletheir budget.
I don't do that First.
I listen, I ask them questionsand I listen to what they're
saying and I'm processing theinformation, especially if I go
out and look at the house.
I look at the neighborhood, Ilook at how expensive the home
is.
Is it a home in a neighborhoodthat, if they put $100,000 into
(36:04):
a master bath, are they going toget that out of it?
Tiffany Woolley (36:06):
Well, if it's a waterfront house in Boca.
Kris Schlembach (36:08):
Yeah, no problem, and there's some places
they wouldn't, so it's reallypart of the process.
Scott Woolley (36:14):
So you're not really asking them for a budget.
You're basically, in most cases, giving them a range.
I'm giving them a range.
Kris Schlembach (36:21):
And part of that, the range, is to give them
a realistic budget as to whatthis is really going to cost, to
do it properly, on the levelthat they're requesting and that
is commensurate with their homeand property value thing and
that is commensurate with theirhome and property value.
Tiffany Woolley (36:40):
So when you're getting so many of these leads
every week, you know, forexample, how and we're talking
about how you weed through them,but is there one that's too big
or too small that you?
Kris Schlembach (36:48):
Most of the time, it has to do with
geography.
I don't want to go to Miami, oreven Fort.
Lauderdale and drive, it'll takeyou 45 minutes down 995 to go
50 miles and then to go threemiles from 95 to the beach takes
you another 40 minutes.
I don't want to deal with that.
I have to have something that'saccessible so I can go check on
it and not have excuses not togo.
(37:09):
I mean, if I have to drive anhour and a half just to check on
a job, I'm not going to thatjob very frequently.
Tiffany Woolley (37:17):
Yeah, we have the same mindset.
Well, we do, but at least, atthe same token, we are not
having to be managing a siteevery day too, because we do
have projects that are notexactly located in our level.
Kris Schlembach (37:28):
And then the other thing about the budgeting.
It's sometimes people havecompletely unrealistic
expectations.
I could say well, your bathroom, the way you want to do it.
As you're explaining it to me,I'm thinking it's going to be
between $18,000 and $20,000.
And I can be fairly accuratelike that.
I mean, I've done hundreds so Iknow about what it's going to
(37:49):
be.
And the variation of price hasto do with the materials they
select and patterns, and maybethere are some things that we
run into that we're not aware ofwhen we open up a wall.
There could be something screwedup in there.
So at that point if they go, ohmy God, $18,000.
Tiffany Woolley (38:09):
I thought it was going to be $10,000.
Kris Schlembach (38:11):
I'm not driving out there to meet them for an
appointment because they'reunrealistic expectations.
So that weeds through a lot ofit, a lot of it, yeah.
So I like to give a rangebefore I even go out and spend
two or three hours of my timegiving them a free estimate.
Tiffany Woolley (38:30):
I know.
Scott Woolley (38:31):
You know, so it's interesting because on our side
we're trying to get the numberout of the client on what their
expectation, what they thinkthey have, because if they're
telling us, okay, I want to redothis bathroom, and they're
throwing out a number, it thengives us a gauge of okay, we can
(38:52):
, what's your word?
I say we'll use this vendorvendor value engineer this value
engineer to make that work butat the same, but at the same
time, if it's a number that justdoesn't make sense, yeah, then
we're letting the people knowthat yeah, I think it makes more
sense for you to do that,because the material is variable
.
Kris Schlembach (39:12):
There's so many variables it could you don't
have as many variables, no Imean, like a faucet, you can buy
one faucet, you can buy one for$40.
You can buy one for $2,000.
Scott Woolley (39:21):
No problem.
Kris Schlembach (39:22):
A tub.
You can buy $50,000 tubs.
Tiffany Woolley (39:24):
Agreed.
That's where it's nice andclear cut with construction and
it does give us a goodunderstanding when people do say
a little bit of a number wherethey'd like to be and I always
try to say being comfortablewith that number.
Kris Schlembach (39:43):
I wonder how much those cabinets are that I
sent you the other day.
They're so beautiful, oh mygosh, they are so beautiful.
Tiffany Woolley (39:49):
It's funny.
I love that line.
I forget how do you say it LaGuafas.
Kris Schlembach (39:54):
I don't even know La Gala, yeah, beautiful.
Tiffany Woolley (39:59):
Beautiful.
I'm like we need that client.
Yeah, we do.
Kris Schlembach (40:03):
Well, it's also knowing the client and it's
like communication, you know allthese things like managing
expectations, knowing the client.
I find that the you know, themost important thing to certain
clients is different dependingon the client.
It's not always price.
Price could be the fifth thing.
The most important thing tocertain clients is different
depending on the client it's notalways price.
Tiffany Woolley (40:24):
Price could be the fifth thing, the most
important thing and that's awhole new system to gauge really
it really is and you don't wantto shortchange people who are
willing to have that specialright range or that special
fabric.
You know it's because therethere is just so much out there
that you really can curate aspecial end result.
Kris Schlembach (40:45):
My friend gave me she had done a bathroom and,
I think, her dining room in thiswallpaper and it was so
beautiful and I always liked it.
And she was over at my houseand she said that wall, you
should use that wallpaper.
I used I have some left overand she gave it to me.
Well then I later found out itwas $2,500 a roll.
Tiffany Woolley (41:04):
A panel or a roll.
Kris Schlembach (41:05):
Each roll was like $2,500.
And it looks beautiful and shehad rolls left over.
Scott Woolley (41:10):
She had some left over.
Kris Schlembach (41:11):
Yeah, but it's so nice.
Tiffany Woolley (41:14):
That's fun.
Kris Schlembach (41:15):
Yeah, but I mean it's the right thing for
her house and it just sohappened.
I used it for a small area butI wouldn't have paid $2,500, but
that's me, but some people theywant the best and the most
beautiful thing.
It's the perfect thing for thatwall.
Let's get it.
Tiffany Woolley (41:32):
Right.
I love working with that typeof client.
Scott Woolley (41:36):
So for a person who wants to become a young
person, who wants to become acontractor, a general contractor
, what piece of advice would yougive them?
Kris Schlembach (41:46):
I would say like the best thing in any type
of endeavor you want to get intois to try to find a good mentor
.
Tiffany Woolley (41:52):
That's got to be your best bet, so your mentor
is your dad On the job training?
Kris Schlembach (41:56):
Yeah, my mentor is my dad in many aspects of
not only life but in business ingeneral, and I find that so
many things translate frombusiness to business to business
.
If you have integrity, youtreat people right, you have a
good work ethic and I could say10 or 15 different things it's
going to translate well into anybusiness you're in.
(42:19):
So I think they're the mostimportant things, but then,
specifically, the technicalaspects I would go work for
somebody and try to learn.
You have to work in the fieldtoo because it's really
important to actually get thatfield experience.
It helps you visualize thingsgetting done in a step-by-step
process.
(42:40):
You know what's actuallyinvolved, rather than just using
a software program to throw aprice out there, which I've had
to use the software programs forpricing because I've done a lot
of insurance work and theyessentially require it.
It's almost mandatory in theinsurance industry.
Tiffany Woolley (42:54):
Like an estimating.
Kris Schlembach (42:55):
Yeah, it's, Xactimate is one of the programs
and they want very detailedbreakdowns of everything where I
might say, hey, in this room,I'm going to charge you $500 to
paint the room.
It's implied that I'm going tocover and protect the floors,
move the furniture out of theway and put masking tape.
You need to break that downindividually by line item.
On the insurance work Wow,which is kind of cool in a way,
(43:18):
because I've done a lot ofinsurance work and it helped me
think that detailed level ofthis is everything we're going
to need, you know.
Tiffany Woolley (43:27):
I like that.
There's constant learning everyday yeah, oh, always learning
do you think any of your kidswill jump in with?
Kris Schlembach (43:36):
you, I don't think, well, it's possible.
But I mean my, my oldest, myone son is going to school for
engineering, the other one, he,wants to do something in
business or sales.
Scott Woolley (43:49):
So it's possible yeah, but it's tough, would you?
Kris Schlembach (43:51):
like them to?
I wouldn't like them to.
It's really tough.
It's a very stressful job.
It's like there's a lot ofpeople's expectations are
completely unrealistic.
That's why I say managing theexpectations, keeping them their
feet planted on the ground.
Scott Woolley (44:04):
Good, clear communication.
Very, very good, yeah, exactly,communication ongoing all the
time really helps, huge, huge.
Kris Schlembach (44:11):
Yeah, it's a tough business but at the same
time it's rewarding with seeingthe transit Freeing and I have a
lot of freedom.
I travel a lot and I can.
If my son had a basketball gameat 1 o'clock in the afternoon,
I would have no problem going tothe game A few months ago.
As opposed to.
You know, when I did work onWall Street, I was pinned to the
computer screen.
(44:31):
When the markets opened I couldbarely get up to take a leak.
Tiffany Woolley (44:34):
I mean I'm pinned to that screen.
Kris Schlembach (44:36):
Yeah, it's so crazy that you had such a
passion for Wall Street and thatin such a short period of time
you realized there was anotherway.
I did love it, but I didn'tlike the associated rat race
because at that time you prettymuch had to be in New York, so I
like living in South Florida.
(44:56):
Now there's hedge funds.
Tiffany Woolley (44:58):
There's like 2,000 hedge funds in Palm Beach
County or something like that.
I know it's crazy.
Kris Schlembach (45:01):
There's a lot of different aspects of it now,
but it's different what I did.
A lot of it's handled byautomated systems, computer
programs or doing what my jobwas.
Tiffany Woolley (45:14):
Wow, yeah, that's so crazy to think about.
Kris Schlembach (45:16):
Everything's programs.
There's triggers that occur andboom.
All of a sudden, millions ofshares are traded
instantaneously.
It's a different world.
Tiffany Woolley (45:25):
That is a different world.
Scott Woolley (45:27):
So we wrap up each of our podcasts by asking
some interesting designquestions.
So the first question I'm goingto ask you and you are a world
traveler, I mean you'retraveling, like you just said,
all the time Is there a hotelthat comes to mind that you
think has fantastic,unbelievable design?
Kris Schlembach (45:47):
I mean the breakers is always just so
impressive to me.
I love the old like it's soornate, reminds me of like being
in europe.
You know where you have.
Everything is so grand and richand just bold, and you know
like a lot of places you go arevery clean and modern, but it's
antiseptic.
Scott Woolley (46:06):
It has no, no passion, no yeah, you know, the
boca hotel used to be like thatyeah, years ago.
Kris Schlembach (46:11):
I'm not too crazy about it anymore no, no,
me too but I love the places ineurope, just like I went to a
place in london the saintermine's and saint in in
umchester.
It was so cool A lot of marble,a lot of old, just stuff that
you look at it and you're justblown away by how did they build
(46:31):
?
Tiffany Woolley (46:31):
this In the history, yeah Like some of these
places the craftsmanship youhave such appreciation for.
Oh, I love it.
Kris Schlembach (46:37):
I love the craft, Even the doors.
When you're in Paris justlooking at some of the front
doors in these houses.
Tiffany Woolley (46:41):
It's amazing it when you're in Paris just
looking at some of the frontdoors in these houses.
It's amazing, it blows me away.
It blows me away too.
You could create like a wholebook of just the doors.
Yes, right, you really could.
I think somebody has.
Kris Schlembach (46:49):
I love the detail and I have a very a major
appreciation for it EverywhereI go, like Croatia and Italy and
all these places it's like howdid they do this?
It's really cool I know withsuch passion what is your
(47:11):
favorite event to attend I don'treally attend any events for,
like construction or anything, Iprobably should like any event
in life like I mean a sport game, a sport game or like.
Tiffany Woolley (47:23):
Cavalino or, like you know, like all these.
Kris Schlembach (47:25):
I love Anything at.
Tiffany Woolley (47:26):
Mar-a-Lago.
Kris Schlembach (47:27):
I love concerts but I don't yeah, I love going
to Mar-a-Lago.
Usually, stuff that'sassociated with like outside,
any like outdoors I love.
We did a.
We took our boat down to watchthe what's the big concert.
Tiffany Woolley (47:43):
The country concert.
Oh yeah, like, can you do thatthis year?
My girls want to go.
Yeah, we'll take our boat down.
Can we go?
Yeah, yeah, jumping off theboat, we're swimming listening
to music.
Kris Schlembach (47:50):
It's great.
I love stuff like that that'sactually, yeah, that was.
The kids had a blast.
They're doing backflips off thetop of the boat and having and
there's a lot of boats out there, a lot of boats, yeah, my kids
that that's like on theirChristmas list was tickets to
Tortuga.
I like the air shows too.
We've done that with the boat.
Planes are flying right overyour head.
Scott Woolley (48:08):
It's really cool, that is really fun.
So what's a restaurantdesign-wise?
Not necessarily food, butdesign.
Kris Schlembach (48:21):
That's a tough one.
Tiffany Woolley (48:23):
You've been to a lot of different restaurants
all over the world is there one?
Scott Woolley (48:27):
that stands out, that you could say like the
design was.
Kris Schlembach (48:35):
Man, I like so many of them, I'm trying to
think it's hard.
There's a new place I kind oflike the decor in it up in West
Palm Pink State.
Oh yeah, that's cute.
It's a cool place.
Tiffany Woolley (48:43):
It kind of like the decor in it Up in West Palm
Pink.
Kris Schlembach (48:44):
State.
Scott Woolley (48:45):
Oh yeah, that's cute, it's a cool place, it's
kind of neat.
Kris Schlembach (48:47):
Is it a big place?
A small?
It's pretty big.
Yeah, it's pretty big.
It's in a shopping center.
You wouldn't think much of itfrom the outside, but when you
go in it's really.
Well done, All right.
Tiffany Woolley (49:02):
So lastly your favorite wardrobe accessory.
Kris Schlembach (49:04):
I don't wear many, but probably my wedding
ring.
Oh, good answer.
It reminds me of my beautifulwife.
Tiffany Woolley (49:10):
Oh, good answer .
That's a good way to end theshow today.
Scott Woolley (49:15):
We appreciate you coming in, Spencer.
Tiffany Woolley (49:17):
Good to see you guys.
Thank you, chris, all right,thanks.
Voice Over (49:20):
Thank you.
Idesign Labs Podcast is an SWGroup production.
Thanks, thank you.
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