November 24, 2024 • 29 mins
In this episode of the Builder Upper Show, we had an incredible conversation with Michael Essrig, founder and president of ETC Building and Design and Safe-T-Proof. Michael shares his journey from experiencing a life-changing earthquake to becoming a leader in seismic retrofitting and hospital safety compliance.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm Lou Perez, your host of The Builder
Upper Show, a podcast where we talk about everything in
the construction and trades.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Now let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I would like to welcome our guest, Mike Esrigg, founder
and president of ETC Building and Design and Safety Proof.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hey, Mike, how you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I am great. It's a beautiful day here in San Diego.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh man, you are so lucky. So I'm in Wisconsin.
The leaves are falling, the I feel like in the
morning you have to put on a hoodie.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
In the afternoon you might need to be wearing shorts.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So it's a total total up and down situation over here.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I appreciate you jumping on here.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I've been anticipating this podcast with you for quite some time.
I'm super excited that you're here and to hear your story.
So why don't we jump right in. When did you
get into construction?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, I wouldn't call it construction at the time. Let
me see, Well, to go back a little bit further.
In nineteen seventy one, I'm twelve years old. I'm laying
in bed at six o'clock in the morning anticipating, you know,
one of the first days back to school after the break,
(01:22):
and all of a sudden, the earth starts shaking. The
Silmar earthquake hit and the Granada Hills Mission Hills area
of the San Fernando Valley in California, and I was
thrown out of bed and the bookcase and everything in
my room. I had this huge bookcase and a black
light and a lava lamp, and you know, the whole works.
(01:45):
I'm twelve going on thirteen, and I'm really twenty, right,
I get thrown out of bed and this thing is
coming at me and I barely escaped it, and my
whole house is just shaken up. And ten minutes later
they had us evacuate. Please came on and said you
have to leave where the don't the damn behind our
(02:08):
house may break. You got to leave. So that was
a real believe it or not wake up call, and that,
you know, was stuck right here in my brain until
my wife and I had two little babies at home,
and my wife was a school teacher and I was
selling real estate at the time, and I said, you know, God,
(02:28):
I'm thinking about this, this earthquake, smre quake. What do
we do if we're both at work and the nanny
is staying with the babies and we lose you know,
the phones, and we can't get in contact with her.
We don't know after a quake if they're going to
be okay. So I went to and fastened everything in
(02:49):
my house. Right, wow, bookcases, appliances, got a gas shut
off valve, an automatic shut off valve. I went crazy.
And when I was done fastening all the cabinets everything,
I said, wow, this really, this isn't this is a
good business for somebody. And I had a contractor friend
(03:10):
that was living in the same neighborhood, and I said, hey,
why don't you do this business? And he goes, non,
you know what, well, maybe would you do it with me?
And I said, well, yeah, I would be free on
the weekends, I guess, and you know, I'll do it
with you. So we started this little business, and then
we were starving because you know, the earthquake had been
(03:32):
so far away. This is in nineteen ninety three, right,
and so you know, we starved doing this for six months,
and he finally says, you know what, I gotta go.
I've got to go make a living and doing something else.
And I said, oh, I think I'll keep it. And
then I went and did a presentation for some big
companies and Xerox and Exxon and Prudential Insurance and all
(03:59):
these companies that I did this little, you know, evening
performance of you know what I knew about earthquake preparedness.
They they came out and they said, hey, we're going
to call you, and they called me and placed orders.
I got orders with everybody, and I was it was
black right after, you know, right after that. So I
(04:21):
took my money and I put it into advertising. At
that time, in ninety three, we had.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yellow Page in the Yellow Pages, so I sunk some
advertising into the Yellow Pages. And the night before the
Northridge earthquake, my wife said, did you put the belcrow
on the back of the little pictures in the hallway
leading up to one of our daughter's bedrooms.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
And I said, ah, so ten o'clock at night, I'm
sticking this is true story. I'm sticking bell crow on
the back of these pictures. And at four point thirty
one am, the Northard earthquake hits.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I mean I was literally jumped up, floating on air,
running to one child's bedroom. My wife was going to
the child's bedroom that was I put the pictures up.
Nothing in our house fell, nothing happened, We got to
our kids. We were not scared. As a matter of fact,
(05:22):
I was jumping up and down, going, oh, Mike, I
knew this was going to happen. I knew it. I
knew it. I knew it. And we had these lights
that came on that were mercury Control. I was testing
out everything and they came on. So my house is
lit up. Everything's fine. Our neighbors come over. They're knocking
on a door, freaking out, what's going on? Why do
(05:44):
you have lights? And I said, I told you guys
to get prepared. I said to you, all you had
to do was fasten all your furniture. I would have
even done it for you, but you guys, you know whatever.
So that's how it started.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Okay, that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And yeah. And so I was out doing fastening people's
homes and then the nice lady Teresa, who was actually
cleaning our house for us once a week. I said, hey, Teresa,
would would you like to, you know, work in the
back with me and earthquake supplies and everything for another day?
And she said, okay, I would love it, right, so
(06:19):
she and I are making earthquake kids and fasteners and
putting everything together. After the North Through earthquake kid, I
probably got I don't know, a thousand phone calls a day.
We had people coming to our house because I used
the garage as my showroom. Right. I had to raise
(06:40):
the garage door at six thirty in the morning, and
people were lined up around the block. I sad you not.
There was probably one hundred people at any one time
lined up. I was taking people through my house to
show them how to use the fasteners. That's how intense
it got. Mother in law, my sister in law, my wife,
(07:02):
everybody was there trying to handle all this business. And
this went on for months, and finally my neighbors, who
were very kind about it, said, you know what, you
got to move. I mean, you got to move your
business because you know, we're here in the cul de
Sac and we're getting these big trucks delivering stuff every day.
So I said, okay, So I opened up. That's where
(07:22):
I started, and I said, okay, well I can take
this beyond fastening homes. I can take this into the
commercial arena, right, And so we started fastening like commercial
buildings you know, the prudential insurance and doing all of that,
and I said, you know, I can take this beyond that.
(07:45):
I can get into hospital fastening. And so we started
doing the seismic bracing in hospitals and that's where it
led to not really doing too much commercial and really
getting out of the residential part of it and going
strictly into healthcare and laboratories. So with that, we then
(08:06):
started a construction company called ETC. Building and Design. And
that's ten years into it and twenty two years ago
I think it was nineteen twenty, sorry, two thousand and
two is when we started ETC. Building and Design. And
all we do now is healthcare and labs. We remodel,
(08:27):
we do you know, MRI suites, ed suites, we build
ground up, starting to do the ground up. We're doing
behavioral health units. So we really really started branching out
and going into the construction, and we brought some fantastic
people in with us who were experts at the construction
(08:49):
and built you know, hundreds of millions of dollars worth.
My partner, John Menzer, and he was doing this for
a very very large company at the time, and decided,
you know, what they were going to move they get
out of the hospital business. And he said, hey, you
got anything, because I don't really want to move to Tennessee.
(09:10):
Do you have anything that you know you could use
me for? And we said, oh my god, yes, let's
really get the hospital division going. And John's now the
CEO of the company.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Oh nice.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
And not only that, but Teresa's Rosa who is an
owner and she is a vice president of the safety
Proof division. So she went from cleaning houses to really
running a big part of our company. And it's it's amazing.
So a little story.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I love that story. That is a super powerful story.
So I would love to unpack the etc.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Building and design.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So is this, uh, when you're building, is it more
in line to make sure that they are safe against earthquakes?
Is that the main piece to this or is there
even more?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Oh? Oh there's a lot more. I mean, yes, we
you know, it's mandated that hospitals have to be prepared
for earthquakes in California and you have to go through
h KAI, which is the you know, the the building
department for hospitals, and so there there's strict mandates for
people to do it, for the hospitals to do it
(10:25):
and we specialize in it, so they they do call
us and we do that. That's part of our business.
But the other part is building new you know, a
pack you or an ed remodel or like I said,
you know the cat scan rooms, the MRIs, all of
those types of uh places within the hospital. And now
(10:47):
we're doing the ground up where we we just built
a pack you where we attached the ground up portion
to the existing hospital and that that is a real
that's a tough one to do, but we just finished
it in a fantastic eighteen bed pack you. And now
we're doing behavioral healthy units. We got a big seventy
(11:08):
thousand square foot behavioral healthy unit ground up starting in
about two months. And yeah, we're we're building, We're cranking.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Your journey just simply it amazes me.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
You sound like you were super Dad in the beginning,
and you took baby proofing to a whole other level, right,
turned it into a business. By I mean, you're literally
saving lives with safety proof and then that gradually got
(11:44):
up to the point of now you're doing these buildings.
It's incredible. That is where did this inspiration come from?
Like how did you what inspired you to be a founder.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Well, I've always been an entrepreneur since day one. I
didn't want to work for anybody else. I wanted to
start my own businesses. You know, at fifteen, I'm going
to the swap meet selling car stereos for my dad's business, right,
And so I'm out doing that and then I you know,
I worked for a couple of companies throughout, you know,
(12:21):
throughout my life, but I never really liked working for
somebody else. I always liked working for myself. And then
when the opportunity came to start safety Proof, it came
out of a fear and a protection of my children,
and that's how it really started. But I was so
inspired after I did it. I felt so good. After
(12:42):
I had fastened everything that I said, I got to
get the word out to people because they don't know
about this kind of stuff, and that's how it really
got me going awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
You know, there's always like a rollercoaster when you're going
down this type of path. Is there anything that you
wish you knew when you started?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
That you know?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Today?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Oh where do I start? How long is this program? Okay? Well, yeah,
but I'll tell you one thing. When you fail, you
learn and I have failed so many times that I
am so wise now at my old age of sixty
six that I could really write a book about it
(13:27):
because of all the failures that I've had. But I've
also had some major successes. And yes, you know, when
I do something different, yeah, I sure would. I would have,
you know, really had a business plan. I fly by
the seat of my pants most of the time. I
would have really done a lot of research. I would
(13:48):
have invested differently, I would have, you know, I've done
so many things differently. But but on the other hand,
I think we did pretty well. We've had we have
like eighty five employees right now, and we're building it.
We're growing as we speak. I mean, can you imagine
(14:09):
thirty two years later we're growing again? And who knows,
but you know, in the next year, we might have
over one hundred and fifty employees. Right And for a
little small company to really literally start in a garage
and then to expand like that is quite exciting and
(14:29):
it keeps me from retiring, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
The short amount of time that we've spoken, Michael is
I get super driven off of your passion, Like you
can definitely feel your enthusiasm. When you speak about everything
that you do, I'm sure that that gravitates towards your
employees that you have. I mean, you have eighty five employees.
What kind of culture do you set? Like, what kind
of employees do you guys have?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Well, we have a different culture, okay we I don't
know if you can see my but it says kindness
and compassion, building a better world. Oh yeah, we live
by that. We that It's just part of our culture.
(15:14):
With everything that we do. That's on every shirt that
every person wears. That's how they treat people. That's we
we do. You know, the charity work. We we go
out there, we we practice what we preach. Yes, and
we've we've gotten everybody to buy into that. And it's
it's amazing to see our the people that work with us,
(15:37):
we call them associates, we call them partners, we call
them whatever we call them. They're still family and we
treat them that way. And I think that it says
a lot. They're not just a number. They are there.
We're open with them. They are free to come in
at any time and speak with us about anything, share ideas.
(16:00):
You know, we just have that kind of culture. And
it's just it's it's it's fun to go to work.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
That's so great. That is so great.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
And do you have any employees that just have been
with you in such a long time, like for like
the longest time, or you know, is any anybody that
you would want to give a shout out to that
have been kind of by your side and helped you
out along the way.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Oh, yeah, yeah, Glenn grand Holme is one of them,
you know, Glenn. Glenn has been with us I think
almost almost eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
And he will be retiring soon.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
But good.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I wouldn't say he's going to retire people. I know
that for a fact, because he's his brain is going.
He's a writer. He's written a couple of books three
I think three books so far. He's probably got another
ten in the back of his head that he's going
to start writing. And so he's been John Menser, my
my partner and the CEO of ETC. Building and Design,
(16:55):
he he's been God, he's been with us his two
and six so almost twenty years. And and then uh,
we've got several people like Josh Miller and Matthew Burns
and and I can go on. Mindy Bryant Ahmaud Karate
(17:18):
and and Tom Ross And I mean, I mean, we've
got some scalar, stellar people that you know, I'm I'm
just sitting back watching as they create, you know, and
and they're they're doing a fantastic job.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I can I felt the excitement coming out, as if
you were on stage at the Oscars and somebody was
about to start playing the music and then you wanted
to make sure that you cover everybody. No, no, don't
stop yet, Let's make sure to give everything. But I
feel it. So I'm I'm sure there's a lot of
employees that you cherish and keep close to you. And
(17:56):
I definitely felt that when you just threw that out there.
So that's absolutely amazing just to you know, talk about
even recruiting, which is interesting. Do you have anything when
you look at a new prospective employee. Is there any
traits that you look for, like, how do you hire
somebody today?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Well, you know, you can you can look at a
resume and you can see if their job jumping, you know,
a year here, a year there, two years and they're
moving right, And that's typically a younger person because they
(18:38):
do that. I don't know, you know, they they they
move around a lot for why, I don't know what.
They don't stay put for a long time. And one
of the employees said to us that, you know, this
is not my career, This is not I'm not going
to be here in four years from now. I'll tell
you that. Right now I will be moving around. And
(18:59):
he he was, let me see how long has he
was with us? Six months? And then he moved on, right,
So you got to be really really careful. You know
who you hire and what their goals are in life.
And so we're getting really really good at interviewing people
(19:19):
and finding out how they're going to fit into the organization.
Are they really going to be givers? Are they going
to follow in the same culture that we want them
to follow in the kindness and compassion? You know, can
they keep their tempers down? Can they be respectful to
the clients? Can they respect be respectful to the internal clients?
Which is us right, We look at that and we
(19:43):
you know, we do our homework, and we we have
found some magnificent people. I have to say, it's just awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
It's so wild.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Some people don't even think about, you know, there's growth
within your business on how good you get at your job,
or you're getting better at your job and stuff like that.
I don't think people realize that there's even growth in
the back office about hiring practices and people that you
bring in, you know, building up on your culture.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It's kind of like you do recognize that you guys
have gotten better at hiring so that the employees that
you're bringing in kind of are a really really great
value add to everybody else that's already you have been there.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Do you use any type of.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Technic You don't have to be specific, but do you
use any technology within your business to help with like
and I guess say workforce experience or excellence or anything
like that, or even like any technology at all.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Well, you know, we sometimes, especially in California, and maybe
this is all over the United States, but because we're
in California, we we have to rely on recruiters at
some sometimes we need to get really stellar people, and
recruiters during the COVID really kind of took over and
(21:01):
just pooped in and you're paying an exorbitant amount of
money to a recruiter to get somebody. So we do
rely on recruiters, but for the most part. Now what's
happening is it's slowing down. The economy slowing down a bit,
and so we are getting resumes from LinkedIn, the LinkedIn
(21:23):
pro okay, and that's how we're getting a lot of
our employees. And so it's it's working out right. We're
getting great resumes and we're not paying a recruiter.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That is nice.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Not a recruiter, are you.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
No, no, no, I'm definitely not pushing myself as a recruiter,
not at all, not at all. I will selfishly plug
that we can we can help get the resumes through
the door, But I'm not a recruiter, I'll just put
it that way. We're more on the technology side. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(21:59):
So as far as you know the construction industry, I'm
sure you work alongside a lot of other construction companies.
Is do you take any inspiration from other companies that
you're working alongside or you're partnered with, or anything like that,
And then is there anything that you kind of would
offer up to the industry from what you've seen that
(22:20):
could potentially help the industry move forward?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Well, I would, you know, we do, we do have
a lot of friends in the business whether the competitors
or not. We have found that it's it's better to
be friends and share ideas and we don't walk into
a room saying, oh, well, I'm going to not talk
(22:44):
to that person because they're a competitor. They just beat
us out on this job. Well, if you learn and
you do your you do your your you sit down
with the with the project manager where where you can
find out what you did wrong. And it just kind
of a what do they call it, not the exit interview,
(23:07):
but it's more of a there is a term for it,
but an interview with your client, Right, why didn't we
get this job? And then we find out what they
did right and what we did wrong and we learned
from that right, and so we don't make those same
mistakes and we're landing. The average, you know, is twenty
five to thirty percent of what we did on we land,
(23:28):
which is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
That is good.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
But yeah, and we and we do work with like
the bigger companies, the Swintertons, the dprs and the McCarthy's,
they're they're nationwide here and some of our international right
and we do work with them and we will be
a sub to them on occasion but they will bring
us in because of our expertise in the earthquake business,
(23:54):
and so they will bring us into to do some
of that for them. And we also work way well
with engineers, structural engineers and architects. We we're very tight
with them and we we help them with their designs
a lot. That's more very helpful to us.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
That is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I have a quick question for you then, to just
a kind of bank off of what you mentioned about clients. So,
over the years, have you ever gotten like a really
cool review or something that somebody said nice about your company?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
I would say once a week, Oh.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Once a week, that's good. Yeah, oh yeah, that's great.
I was I was thinking.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I almost though you were going to say, yeah, one
time we got a good review.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
But once a week is a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Once a week we get a letter from a nurse,
a project manager, the CEO of the hospital or the laboratory.
We get we get it all the time. And it's
not just you know, it's not just a compliment of
(25:07):
one of our our employees, our associates. It's a lot
of them because they're kind and that's that's the difference,
you know, just being nice and being kind and not
being arrogant and helping out and jumping through hoops for
your client. It gets rave reviews and we get we
(25:31):
actually get two nurses and doctors who compliment our shirts
all the time. That's so cool. Wow, I like the
message that you're putting out there, right, and that's our message.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I'm going to have to I'm gonna have to request
that you send me one of those T shirts or
one of those shirts.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
That you got.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
That would be awesome. So where I mean you sound
like a wonderful business to work for and where can
people find your business? Where are you generally located? And
then you know, do you guys have a website? How
do people you know reach out to you even for
business as well?
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Oh yeah, we well, we we have the safety Proof
website which is safe hyphen t hyphenproof dot com. That
are the products, uh portion. We have a lot of
patents on different products. Now you have a lot of
We have the I C C. E. S R. Reports.
(26:38):
We also have the we have O p ms which
a lot of people in California and contractors will know
about opms on different products that we have in different
fastening systems so they can go there if they're interested
in in in the fastening systems, or they can go
to E T C H E T C U SA
(27:00):
dot net is our construction uh website and we're in California,
all over California. We work from San Diego to northern California.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Oh wow, Yeah, California is like its own country.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It's huge. That's great.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Uh So before we wrap up, I have one more
question for you, and I could probably guess what the
what it would be as far as like advice, But
do you have any advice for new owners that could
be listeners right now or new founders out there?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yes, the found And it's funny you should ask this
question because there's there's such thing as the founder's syndrome.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Founder syndrome is not letting people in, right. You push
people out because you're afraid that you're gonna lose yourself.
You're gonna lose what you built. It's an ego thing.
Whatever it is. Nobody can do it like you can. Wrong,
that is not true. I have a high school education.
(28:09):
I never went to college. I don't think I'm the
smartest guy in the room. Okay, what I do is
I seek people who I get along with that are
way smarter than I am, and I let them run
with it, and I elevate them up. And now John's
elevating those those people up. And that's how we operate. Wow.
(28:33):
You know, sometimes I'm micromanage the safety proof part of
the company. I'm slowly but surely letting go of that
as well. And and you know, there's there's better ideas
out there and I don't have them. You know other
people do, and so we we love that people bring
(28:53):
it their ideas and you know, they help run the company.
You know, they are the company.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
So, Michael, you are truly inspirational. I love the piece
about the founder syndrome. I feel like there could be
a lot of listeners that hear that and are like, oh, yeah,
this is the way to do it.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
So I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And I want to thank you for being a guest
on our show, and please everyone like, subscribe, comment, share
the Builder Upper show with anyone in the construction industry.
Go check out Michael's website cit he threw out there,
and we will see you next time. If you're a
(29:40):
construction contractor and would like to appear as a guest
on our podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Write us an email.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It's Lou at lumberfi dot com.
Hey everyone, I'm Lou Perez, your host of The Builder
Upper Show, a podcast where we talk about everything in
the construction and trades.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Now let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I would like to welcome our guest, Mike Esrigg, founder
and president of ETC Building and Design and Safety Proof.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hey, Mike, how you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I am great. It's a beautiful day here in San Diego.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh man, you are so lucky. So I'm in Wisconsin.
The leaves are falling, the I feel like in the
morning you have to put on a hoodie.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
In the afternoon you might need to be wearing shorts.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So it's a total total up and down situation over here.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I appreciate you jumping on here.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I've been anticipating this podcast with you for quite some time.
I'm super excited that you're here and to hear your story.
So why don't we jump right in. When did you
get into construction?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, I wouldn't call it construction at the time. Let
me see, Well, to go back a little bit further.
In nineteen seventy one, I'm twelve years old. I'm laying
in bed at six o'clock in the morning anticipating, you know,
one of the first days back to school after the break,
(01:22):
and all of a sudden, the earth starts shaking. The
Silmar earthquake hit and the Granada Hills Mission Hills area
of the San Fernando Valley in California, and I was
thrown out of bed and the bookcase and everything in
my room. I had this huge bookcase and a black
light and a lava lamp, and you know, the whole works.
(01:45):
I'm twelve going on thirteen, and I'm really twenty, right,
I get thrown out of bed and this thing is
coming at me and I barely escaped it, and my
whole house is just shaken up. And ten minutes later
they had us evacuate. Please came on and said you
have to leave where the don't the damn behind our
(02:08):
house may break. You got to leave. So that was
a real believe it or not wake up call, and that,
you know, was stuck right here in my brain until
my wife and I had two little babies at home,
and my wife was a school teacher and I was
selling real estate at the time, and I said, you know, God,
(02:28):
I'm thinking about this, this earthquake, smre quake. What do
we do if we're both at work and the nanny
is staying with the babies and we lose you know,
the phones, and we can't get in contact with her.
We don't know after a quake if they're going to
be okay. So I went to and fastened everything in
(02:49):
my house. Right, wow, bookcases, appliances, got a gas shut
off valve, an automatic shut off valve. I went crazy.
And when I was done fastening all the cabinets everything,
I said, wow, this really, this isn't this is a
good business for somebody. And I had a contractor friend
(03:10):
that was living in the same neighborhood, and I said, hey,
why don't you do this business? And he goes, non,
you know what, well, maybe would you do it with me?
And I said, well, yeah, I would be free on
the weekends, I guess, and you know, I'll do it
with you. So we started this little business, and then
we were starving because you know, the earthquake had been
(03:32):
so far away. This is in nineteen ninety three, right,
and so you know, we starved doing this for six months,
and he finally says, you know what, I gotta go.
I've got to go make a living and doing something else.
And I said, oh, I think I'll keep it. And
then I went and did a presentation for some big
companies and Xerox and Exxon and Prudential Insurance and all
(03:59):
these companies that I did this little, you know, evening
performance of you know what I knew about earthquake preparedness.
They they came out and they said, hey, we're going
to call you, and they called me and placed orders.
I got orders with everybody, and I was it was
black right after, you know, right after that. So I
(04:21):
took my money and I put it into advertising. At
that time, in ninety three, we had.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yellow Page in the Yellow Pages, so I sunk some
advertising into the Yellow Pages. And the night before the
Northridge earthquake, my wife said, did you put the belcrow
on the back of the little pictures in the hallway
leading up to one of our daughter's bedrooms.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
And I said, ah, so ten o'clock at night, I'm
sticking this is true story. I'm sticking bell crow on
the back of these pictures. And at four point thirty
one am, the Northard earthquake hits.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I mean I was literally jumped up, floating on air,
running to one child's bedroom. My wife was going to
the child's bedroom that was I put the pictures up.
Nothing in our house fell, nothing happened, We got to
our kids. We were not scared. As a matter of fact,
(05:22):
I was jumping up and down, going, oh, Mike, I
knew this was going to happen. I knew it. I
knew it. I knew it. And we had these lights
that came on that were mercury Control. I was testing
out everything and they came on. So my house is
lit up. Everything's fine. Our neighbors come over. They're knocking
on a door, freaking out, what's going on? Why do
(05:44):
you have lights? And I said, I told you guys
to get prepared. I said to you, all you had
to do was fasten all your furniture. I would have
even done it for you, but you guys, you know whatever.
So that's how it started.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Okay, that's incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And yeah. And so I was out doing fastening people's
homes and then the nice lady Teresa, who was actually
cleaning our house for us once a week. I said, hey, Teresa,
would would you like to, you know, work in the
back with me and earthquake supplies and everything for another day?
And she said, okay, I would love it, right, so
(06:19):
she and I are making earthquake kids and fasteners and
putting everything together. After the North Through earthquake kid, I
probably got I don't know, a thousand phone calls a day.
We had people coming to our house because I used
the garage as my showroom. Right. I had to raise
(06:40):
the garage door at six thirty in the morning, and
people were lined up around the block. I sad you not.
There was probably one hundred people at any one time
lined up. I was taking people through my house to
show them how to use the fasteners. That's how intense
it got. Mother in law, my sister in law, my wife,
(07:02):
everybody was there trying to handle all this business. And
this went on for months, and finally my neighbors, who
were very kind about it, said, you know what, you
got to move. I mean, you got to move your
business because you know, we're here in the cul de
Sac and we're getting these big trucks delivering stuff every day.
So I said, okay, So I opened up. That's where
(07:22):
I started, and I said, okay, well I can take
this beyond fastening homes. I can take this into the
commercial arena, right, And so we started fastening like commercial
buildings you know, the prudential insurance and doing all of that,
and I said, you know, I can take this beyond that.
(07:45):
I can get into hospital fastening. And so we started
doing the seismic bracing in hospitals and that's where it
led to not really doing too much commercial and really
getting out of the residential part of it and going
strictly into healthcare and laboratories. So with that, we then
(08:06):
started a construction company called ETC. Building and Design. And
that's ten years into it and twenty two years ago
I think it was nineteen twenty, sorry, two thousand and
two is when we started ETC. Building and Design. And
all we do now is healthcare and labs. We remodel,
(08:27):
we do you know, MRI suites, ed suites, we build
ground up, starting to do the ground up. We're doing
behavioral health units. So we really really started branching out
and going into the construction, and we brought some fantastic
people in with us who were experts at the construction
(08:49):
and built you know, hundreds of millions of dollars worth.
My partner, John Menzer, and he was doing this for
a very very large company at the time, and decided,
you know, what they were going to move they get
out of the hospital business. And he said, hey, you
got anything, because I don't really want to move to Tennessee.
(09:10):
Do you have anything that you know you could use
me for? And we said, oh my god, yes, let's
really get the hospital division going. And John's now the
CEO of the company.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Oh nice.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
And not only that, but Teresa's Rosa who is an
owner and she is a vice president of the safety
Proof division. So she went from cleaning houses to really
running a big part of our company. And it's it's amazing.
So a little story.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I love that story. That is a super powerful story.
So I would love to unpack the etc.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Building and design.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
So is this, uh, when you're building, is it more
in line to make sure that they are safe against earthquakes?
Is that the main piece to this or is there
even more?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Oh? Oh there's a lot more. I mean, yes, we
you know, it's mandated that hospitals have to be prepared
for earthquakes in California and you have to go through
h KAI, which is the you know, the the building
department for hospitals, and so there there's strict mandates for
people to do it, for the hospitals to do it
(10:25):
and we specialize in it, so they they do call
us and we do that. That's part of our business.
But the other part is building new you know, a
pack you or an ed remodel or like I said,
you know the cat scan rooms, the MRIs, all of
those types of uh places within the hospital. And now
(10:47):
we're doing the ground up where we we just built
a pack you where we attached the ground up portion
to the existing hospital and that that is a real
that's a tough one to do, but we just finished
it in a fantastic eighteen bed pack you. And now
we're doing behavioral healthy units. We got a big seventy
(11:08):
thousand square foot behavioral healthy unit ground up starting in
about two months. And yeah, we're we're building, We're cranking.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Your journey just simply it amazes me.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
You sound like you were super Dad in the beginning,
and you took baby proofing to a whole other level, right,
turned it into a business. By I mean, you're literally
saving lives with safety proof and then that gradually got
(11:44):
up to the point of now you're doing these buildings.
It's incredible. That is where did this inspiration come from?
Like how did you what inspired you to be a founder.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Well, I've always been an entrepreneur since day one. I
didn't want to work for anybody else. I wanted to
start my own businesses. You know, at fifteen, I'm going
to the swap meet selling car stereos for my dad's business, right,
And so I'm out doing that and then I you know,
I worked for a couple of companies throughout, you know,
(12:21):
throughout my life, but I never really liked working for
somebody else. I always liked working for myself. And then
when the opportunity came to start safety Proof, it came
out of a fear and a protection of my children,
and that's how it really started. But I was so
inspired after I did it. I felt so good. After
(12:42):
I had fastened everything that I said, I got to
get the word out to people because they don't know
about this kind of stuff, and that's how it really
got me going awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
You know, there's always like a rollercoaster when you're going
down this type of path. Is there anything that you
wish you knew when you started?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
That you know?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Today?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Oh where do I start? How long is this program? Okay? Well, yeah,
but I'll tell you one thing. When you fail, you
learn and I have failed so many times that I
am so wise now at my old age of sixty
six that I could really write a book about it
(13:27):
because of all the failures that I've had. But I've
also had some major successes. And yes, you know, when
I do something different, yeah, I sure would. I would have,
you know, really had a business plan. I fly by
the seat of my pants most of the time. I
would have really done a lot of research. I would
(13:48):
have invested differently, I would have, you know, I've done
so many things differently. But but on the other hand,
I think we did pretty well. We've had we have
like eighty five employees right now, and we're building it.
We're growing as we speak. I mean, can you imagine
(14:09):
thirty two years later we're growing again? And who knows,
but you know, in the next year, we might have
over one hundred and fifty employees. Right And for a
little small company to really literally start in a garage
and then to expand like that is quite exciting and
(14:29):
it keeps me from retiring, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
The short amount of time that we've spoken, Michael is
I get super driven off of your passion, Like you
can definitely feel your enthusiasm. When you speak about everything
that you do, I'm sure that that gravitates towards your
employees that you have. I mean, you have eighty five employees.
What kind of culture do you set? Like, what kind
of employees do you guys have?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Well, we have a different culture, okay we I don't
know if you can see my but it says kindness
and compassion, building a better world. Oh yeah, we live
by that. We that It's just part of our culture.
(15:14):
With everything that we do. That's on every shirt that
every person wears. That's how they treat people. That's we
we do. You know, the charity work. We we go
out there, we we practice what we preach. Yes, and
we've we've gotten everybody to buy into that. And it's
it's amazing to see our the people that work with us,
(15:37):
we call them associates, we call them partners, we call
them whatever we call them. They're still family and we
treat them that way. And I think that it says
a lot. They're not just a number. They are there.
We're open with them. They are free to come in
at any time and speak with us about anything, share ideas.
(16:00):
You know, we just have that kind of culture. And
it's just it's it's it's fun to go to work.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
That's so great. That is so great.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
And do you have any employees that just have been
with you in such a long time, like for like
the longest time, or you know, is any anybody that
you would want to give a shout out to that
have been kind of by your side and helped you
out along the way.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Oh, yeah, yeah, Glenn grand Holme is one of them,
you know, Glenn. Glenn has been with us I think
almost almost eighteen years.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
And he will be retiring soon.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
But good.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I wouldn't say he's going to retire people. I know
that for a fact, because he's his brain is going.
He's a writer. He's written a couple of books three
I think three books so far. He's probably got another
ten in the back of his head that he's going
to start writing. And so he's been John Menser, my
my partner and the CEO of ETC. Building and Design,
(16:55):
he he's been God, he's been with us his two
and six so almost twenty years. And and then uh,
we've got several people like Josh Miller and Matthew Burns
and and I can go on. Mindy Bryant Ahmaud Karate
(17:18):
and and Tom Ross And I mean, I mean, we've
got some scalar, stellar people that you know, I'm I'm
just sitting back watching as they create, you know, and
and they're they're doing a fantastic job.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I can I felt the excitement coming out, as if
you were on stage at the Oscars and somebody was
about to start playing the music and then you wanted
to make sure that you cover everybody. No, no, don't
stop yet, Let's make sure to give everything. But I
feel it. So I'm I'm sure there's a lot of
employees that you cherish and keep close to you. And
(17:56):
I definitely felt that when you just threw that out there.
So that's absolutely amazing just to you know, talk about
even recruiting, which is interesting. Do you have anything when
you look at a new prospective employee. Is there any
traits that you look for, like, how do you hire
somebody today?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Well, you know, you can you can look at a
resume and you can see if their job jumping, you know,
a year here, a year there, two years and they're
moving right, And that's typically a younger person because they
(18:38):
do that. I don't know, you know, they they they
move around a lot for why, I don't know what.
They don't stay put for a long time. And one
of the employees said to us that, you know, this
is not my career, This is not I'm not going
to be here in four years from now. I'll tell
you that. Right now I will be moving around. And
(18:59):
he he was, let me see how long has he
was with us? Six months? And then he moved on, right,
So you got to be really really careful. You know
who you hire and what their goals are in life.
And so we're getting really really good at interviewing people
(19:19):
and finding out how they're going to fit into the organization.
Are they really going to be givers? Are they going
to follow in the same culture that we want them
to follow in the kindness and compassion? You know, can
they keep their tempers down? Can they be respectful to
the clients? Can they respect be respectful to the internal clients?
Which is us right, We look at that and we
(19:43):
you know, we do our homework, and we we have
found some magnificent people. I have to say, it's just awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
It's so wild.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Some people don't even think about, you know, there's growth
within your business on how good you get at your job,
or you're getting better at your job and stuff like that.
I don't think people realize that there's even growth in
the back office about hiring practices and people that you
bring in, you know, building up on your culture.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It's kind of like you do recognize that you guys
have gotten better at hiring so that the employees that
you're bringing in kind of are a really really great
value add to everybody else that's already you have been there.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Do you use any type of.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Technic You don't have to be specific, but do you
use any technology within your business to help with like
and I guess say workforce experience or excellence or anything
like that, or even like any technology at all.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Well, you know, we sometimes, especially in California, and maybe
this is all over the United States, but because we're
in California, we we have to rely on recruiters at
some sometimes we need to get really stellar people, and
recruiters during the COVID really kind of took over and
(21:01):
just pooped in and you're paying an exorbitant amount of
money to a recruiter to get somebody. So we do
rely on recruiters, but for the most part. Now what's
happening is it's slowing down. The economy slowing down a bit,
and so we are getting resumes from LinkedIn, the LinkedIn
(21:23):
pro okay, and that's how we're getting a lot of
our employees. And so it's it's working out right. We're
getting great resumes and we're not paying a recruiter.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That is nice.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Not a recruiter, are you.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
No, no, no, I'm definitely not pushing myself as a recruiter,
not at all, not at all. I will selfishly plug
that we can we can help get the resumes through
the door, But I'm not a recruiter, I'll just put
it that way. We're more on the technology side. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(21:59):
So as far as you know the construction industry, I'm
sure you work alongside a lot of other construction companies.
Is do you take any inspiration from other companies that
you're working alongside or you're partnered with, or anything like that,
And then is there anything that you kind of would
offer up to the industry from what you've seen that
(22:20):
could potentially help the industry move forward?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Well, I would, you know, we do, we do have
a lot of friends in the business whether the competitors
or not. We have found that it's it's better to
be friends and share ideas and we don't walk into
a room saying, oh, well, I'm going to not talk
(22:44):
to that person because they're a competitor. They just beat
us out on this job. Well, if you learn and
you do your you do your your you sit down
with the with the project manager where where you can
find out what you did wrong. And it just kind
of a what do they call it, not the exit interview,
(23:07):
but it's more of a there is a term for it,
but an interview with your client, Right, why didn't we
get this job? And then we find out what they
did right and what we did wrong and we learned
from that right, and so we don't make those same
mistakes and we're landing. The average, you know, is twenty
five to thirty percent of what we did on we land,
(23:28):
which is pretty good.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
That is good.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
But yeah, and we and we do work with like
the bigger companies, the Swintertons, the dprs and the McCarthy's,
they're they're nationwide here and some of our international right
and we do work with them and we will be
a sub to them on occasion but they will bring
us in because of our expertise in the earthquake business,
(23:54):
and so they will bring us into to do some
of that for them. And we also work way well
with engineers, structural engineers and architects. We we're very tight
with them and we we help them with their designs
a lot. That's more very helpful to us.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
That is wonderful.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I have a quick question for you then, to just
a kind of bank off of what you mentioned about clients. So,
over the years, have you ever gotten like a really
cool review or something that somebody said nice about your company?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
I would say once a week, Oh.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Once a week, that's good. Yeah, oh yeah, that's great.
I was I was thinking.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I almost though you were going to say, yeah, one
time we got a good review.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
But once a week is a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Once a week we get a letter from a nurse,
a project manager, the CEO of the hospital or the laboratory.
We get we get it all the time. And it's
not just you know, it's not just a compliment of
(25:07):
one of our our employees, our associates. It's a lot
of them because they're kind and that's that's the difference,
you know, just being nice and being kind and not
being arrogant and helping out and jumping through hoops for
your client. It gets rave reviews and we get we
(25:31):
actually get two nurses and doctors who compliment our shirts
all the time. That's so cool. Wow, I like the
message that you're putting out there, right, and that's our message.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
I'm going to have to I'm gonna have to request
that you send me one of those T shirts or
one of those shirts.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
That you got.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
That would be awesome. So where I mean you sound
like a wonderful business to work for and where can
people find your business? Where are you generally located? And
then you know, do you guys have a website? How
do people you know reach out to you even for
business as well?
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Oh yeah, we well, we we have the safety Proof
website which is safe hyphen t hyphenproof dot com. That
are the products, uh portion. We have a lot of
patents on different products. Now you have a lot of
We have the I C C. E. S R. Reports.
(26:38):
We also have the we have O p ms which
a lot of people in California and contractors will know
about opms on different products that we have in different
fastening systems so they can go there if they're interested
in in in the fastening systems, or they can go
to E T C H E T C U SA
(27:00):
dot net is our construction uh website and we're in California,
all over California. We work from San Diego to northern California.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Oh wow, Yeah, California is like its own country.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
It's huge. That's great.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Uh So before we wrap up, I have one more
question for you, and I could probably guess what the
what it would be as far as like advice, But
do you have any advice for new owners that could
be listeners right now or new founders out there?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yes, the found And it's funny you should ask this
question because there's there's such thing as the founder's syndrome.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Founder syndrome is not letting people in, right. You push
people out because you're afraid that you're gonna lose yourself.
You're gonna lose what you built. It's an ego thing.
Whatever it is. Nobody can do it like you can. Wrong,
that is not true. I have a high school education.
(28:09):
I never went to college. I don't think I'm the
smartest guy in the room. Okay, what I do is
I seek people who I get along with that are
way smarter than I am, and I let them run
with it, and I elevate them up. And now John's
elevating those those people up. And that's how we operate. Wow.
(28:33):
You know, sometimes I'm micromanage the safety proof part of
the company. I'm slowly but surely letting go of that
as well. And and you know, there's there's better ideas
out there and I don't have them. You know other
people do, and so we we love that people bring
(28:53):
it their ideas and you know, they help run the company.
You know, they are the company.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
So, Michael, you are truly inspirational. I love the piece
about the founder syndrome. I feel like there could be
a lot of listeners that hear that and are like, oh, yeah,
this is the way to do it.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
So I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And I want to thank you for being a guest
on our show, and please everyone like, subscribe, comment, share
the Builder Upper show with anyone in the construction industry.
Go check out Michael's website cit he threw out there,
and we will see you next time. If you're a
(29:40):
construction contractor and would like to appear as a guest
on our podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Write us an email.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It's Lou at lumberfi dot com.
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