December 20, 2024 • 25 mins
In this episode, Kyle Young, President of Double L Management, discusses his incredible journey in the construction industry. Kyle takes us through his diverse experiences, from designing conveyor systems as a mechanical engineer to taking a leap of faith in purchasing a struggling company, now flourishing with an 800% growth. Kyle opens up about how he shifted from hands-on construction to focusing on the strategic side of business.
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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
construction and trades.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Now, let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I would like to welcome our guest, Kyle Young, president
of Double L Management.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey, Kyle, how's it going good?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Good? Thanks? Thanks for the invite. I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, I appreciate you jumping on here. You're a really
busy guy, a lot of stuff going on in your businesses,
so I'm excited to jump right into it and just
ask you right away.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
You know, when did you get into construction? So?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, so I've been in construction for probably close to
twenty years now. I grew up. I grew up in
with the entrepreneurial grandfather that had his own commercial contracting
industrial contracting company, SPENT. I remember when I was ten, eleven,
(01:04):
twelve years old, sneaking into plants, working the night shift
with him, and kind of grew up doing that, got
into engineering, and then went to work for a homebuilder
and really really enjoyed the home building side of things.
Out of that was an internship when I was in college,
(01:26):
and after after I got out of college, I went
to work designing convetra systems because I thought, hey, I'm
a mechanical engineer. He grew up in the plants, and
that's kind of what I wanted and thought I wanted
to do, So started designing convert systems. Absolutely hated it.
It was terrible sitting behind a desk all day and
(01:48):
CAD and you know, solid the works and them modeling
and stuff. But so I took a chance and went
to work as a estimator for a when I had
absolutely no idea what they were. They were an interior
finished His contractor ended up being the large knew nothing
about them. They were large interior finishes contractor. And I thought,
(02:12):
how much metal studs and drywall can there be in
the Columbus, Ohio market, And coming to find out there's
quite a bit of a commercial metal studs and drywall,
so wow. Yeah. So worked in there for for a while,
got a little burnout, decided to go try general contracting.
Went worked for a large national general contractor for a while.
(02:40):
Didn't there was a lot of red tape. It didn't
didn't love, didn't love all the red tape that was involved.
So got the opportunity to come back to Columbus, Ohio.
There was a company acoustic killing partition which I which
I now own, that was struggling. I'm gonna I'm gonna
(03:01):
shut the doors down, actually gonna gonna close up. This
office had a project that was going really bad. It
was right during the oh downturn eight nine, ten eleven.
So with a with a handshake agreement, I agreed to
come on board and if if I get turned back around,
(03:22):
he was he was willing to sell it to me.
And here we are eleven eleven, twelve years later, we've grown.
Oh shoot, I take to think about it, probably it's
over eight over ten eleven years here.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So oh wow, So you're you're you made a really
great business movement. Sounds like would you like to attribute
some of that success from the I see that you're
you're a Buckeye. So I know you went you went
to Ohio State University for mechanical engineering. Did you learn
a lot of anything else from business that you know
(03:59):
really led you to wanting to make moves like that?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah? You know I didn't. I didn't turn right. I
think I think the entrepreneur preneurial piece was just in me,
just kind of always wanting to kind of do my
own thing. My wife and I actually just last couple
of days, we're just laughing about it. Like here, I
(04:22):
was at a steady had a steady salary and a
steady income at a company that was a large national
general contractor. We were newly married in a apartment that
was eight hundred dollars a month, and I said, yeah,
what the heck, let's give it a run. All the
(04:44):
worst thing that happens as I they go out of business, right,
So they were on the verge. They were on the verge.
I mean it was we had a couple of rough
jobs and it was worth every every bit of roll
in the dice. So yeah, while at Ohio State, there
I did. I started at a small engineering school called
Ohio Northern. You know, love my experience there. The problem
(05:06):
was is, uh, they weren't really recognized by some of
the larger companies. So I shifted gears, went to Ohio State,
minored in business and kind of knew I always wanted
to be in the business side of things.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
But yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Where does the inspiration to be an entrepreneur come from?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Is it in the family jeans?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah? I think it was growing up right watching my grandfather.
You know, we were we were he was he was.
Do you ever watch some of those show on some
of those HBO shows the Pacific or whatever. He was
a marine and yeah, some of the stuff that those
guys went through there on the Guadalcanal and Galapagos Islands
(05:54):
and stuff like that, you look back and you're like, wow,
that's that's nuts. But he got done, got out and
started a HBAC company shortly after that, and uh, next thing,
you know, he's in industrial contracting and building, working plants
and stuff. And then just yeah, that kind of inspired me.
And then I just grew up, grew up around the
(06:14):
family business and you know it since learned my lessons too, right,
because it was always with them. I was always feast
or famine, and you know, eventually it did build bankrupt,
but kind of learned my lessons on how to what
to do, what not to do, and here we are today.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Does it push you to kind of almost like that
inspiration that you got almost like pay it forward and
mentor any others to bring others up the way that
you did.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, it does, it does. It's it's hard because it's
a lot of it is a work ethic thing, you know, right,
it's uh, you gotta you gotta put your time, you
put the time and effort in, you know. I I
remember summers when I was in high school and stuff.
I would go hit the road and we were working
seven days a week, twelve hour days and all summer long.
(07:09):
And I was, you know, sneaking into plants when I
was ten years old, tearing you know, running torches and
welders and cutting, cutting stuff out, putting conveyor systems in.
And I'd worked the night shift because my grandfather would
sneak me in and sneak me in during the night shift.
I remember one of the supervisors came over and wanted
(07:29):
something done that worked with the plant, and he kind
of looked at me, and you could see it, and
in this I was like, this kid's not this kid
is not sixteen years old. What the world? Aaron was
climbing around, crawling around on conveyors and systems, and oh yeah,
it was fun, great times.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh I love that story. What is something that you
know today that you wish you knew when you started?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
You know, I think you can't say enough about having
the mentality not not putting yourself out there, you know, right,
some people are going to say no. But just building
that network and just putting yourself out there to throw
something out there, right, I mean everything from hey, how
(08:16):
do I look on this job? Or so on and
so forth. And it's funny because like some of the younger,
younger folks and and some different personalities, just like, throw
yourself out there. Right. The worst thing that somebody's going
to say is no, but go ahead and take a chance.
The upside is great. The downsides, hey, they say no,
So that'd be the biggest thing I would say. So
(08:38):
I think I think part of that was I learned
a lot of that after I worked for a general
contractor and then all I wanted to do, that's all
I wanted to do more FBI type type stuff. Right.
So I was I was thirty years old, almost going
through a midlife crisis, trying to figure out what I
(08:59):
wanted to do with my life, and I didn't know
if construction was the right feel ended up going into
the military, and I learned a ton of a ton
of stuff there. So, you know, spent spent eight six
years in the reserves, and uh, you know, learned a lot.
(09:19):
Learned a lot there, especially in the background that I
was in in the military.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Oh wow, you made that move when you were thirty.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I was thirty years old. Yeah, I had. I had
an engineering degree and I was running running. Uh. Actually,
at the time after I did it, I had just
finished up. I was project managing a forty million dollar
GC project over nine months and kind of kind of
like didn't know what we were working to two shifts, uh,
(09:53):
two ten hour shifts five days a week, and then uh,
two eight hour shifts on Saturday. And I was working
and for the general contractor, and I was there all
the time, and We're finishing that project up, and I'm like, huh,
what am I gonna do with my time now? So
I said, what the heck, I want to join the military.
So I here, I am thirty years old, and I
(10:14):
went and joined the military, and I ended up going
and listed because you got to pick. You got to
pick what position you wanted to do if you went
and listed, whereas if you went officer, which I had
my engineer a degree at that time, so I could
have went offsir route, but they pick what you do
at that point. So I ended up doing doing military
(10:36):
intelligence is what I did, and it taught me a
lot of a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So for sure, does any of the military experience that
you went through help you with what you're doing today.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I think the leadership side of things, for sure, definitely
definitely helps helps with some of the some of the
stuff I do today, and then some of the training
that I got through my through my MS school. Just
like building, uh, building relationships, building rapport and you know, learning, uh,
(11:12):
learning as much about as much about people as you
can and just you know, networking and building those relationships.
That's that's right. It's very similar. So whether you're whether
you're in the military and you're trying to find information
out about X, Y or Z, or you're you're a
contractor trying to find out where my number is compared
to the competition, Right, that's a huge that's a huge
(11:33):
part of it. So building that relationship to where you
can get feedback to kind of know where you're at,
and that's a that's a huge part of it. So
I guess thinking back about it, yeah, that's that's what
There's a lot of similarities. Right, You're trying to get
you're trying to get intelligence on on different things in
(11:54):
the military, and here I'm trying to get intelligence on
where my numbers are at, how what I can do
to do better, what I can do to get the
next job. So yeah, I think that's a big part
of it, for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You've become a professional at peeling back the eion. Do
you have any secrets on scaling your business?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
So, you know, we started scaling just by building relationships
and growing and growing and growing here locally. I think
what I kind of learned though, was I started enjoying
the deals more than I enjoyed the building piece of it.
So I was at a so after five years I
(12:39):
bought acoustics, stealing partition or after growing it, growing it
from you're about three hundred thousand, and then we were
up to twenty two million after five years, so we
grew it, and then I kind of learned from there.
I'm like, you know what, I enjoy the deals and
(13:01):
the growth aspect more than I do the construction building
piece of it. So I have a great leadership team
in place that does a lot of the building, and
then I'm out a lot doing a lot more mergers
and acquisitions. You know. Right now we're We're started out
as one company, you know, eleven years ago, and now
(13:21):
we'll be goals to be uh eight next year. We're
we're just going through growing. I was at a conference.
I was at a conference merging acquisitions conference, and they said,
sixty five of companies in the next ten years are
going to change hands. Of those companies have no succession plans.
(13:43):
So what I've done is I went into some companies
and made it a win win situation for both of
aging baby boomer generation right that started the company that
was their baby, and now they're in their late fifties, sixties,
even sevens, and they don't have any options of, well,
we're either going to close this down or that's what
(14:05):
we're going to do. You know, just not a lot
of options. So go in there and take and harness
our management and our operational skills and step into these
family owned companies and you know, get the get the owner,
the founder a payday, but then also be able to
tack it onto what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
That's that's awesome. I mean, what an experience that you
go through to I mean, for M and A.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
The I'm guessing growing pains is something that you're used to.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Now you know, how do you and you know, how
do you deal with that?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, I think my folks that have been with me
for a long time now have gotten used to it.
Therefore we're they're getting bored if we're not growing and
I can't, I can't sit still. So you know, we've
we've uh and I know we'll maybe talk about a
little later, but you know we've brought uh SMI as
a consultant and joint a peer group been a phenomenal
(15:04):
piece for us, and then we've been able to take
that and really get operational excellence out of it. Right,
So we are we know our we know our job cost,
and we know what we have processes in place to
a t. So nowadays we just go at on a company.
We already have our processes set up. We'll bring FMI
(15:26):
in to help implement those processes, but we'll you know,
technology and processes will we'll tack them on and clean
them up because a lot of times these companies too
that are you know baby boomer generations are aging right there.
They're scared of technology, and we harness we definitely harness
that and use that to grow and scale and clean
(15:49):
up processes for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, that's what I was gonna have a piggyback off
of that and ask, you know, how do you use
technology in your businesses.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
We're using a ton of technology, and I think you know,
construction was stagnant for so long that there wasn't much
much movement. So so we started by smallly, you know,
adding some be it EERP type systems to where we
had our job costs pretty well nailed down to. In
(16:22):
the last couple of years, we've panelization, role forming your
own studs, bim revit, getting design build contracts, robotics all right,
we have we have robots now out in the field
that do layout and we've we've used some finishing robots
that finish our drywall for us, and we've uh so
(16:44):
we've started leveraging a lot of that. Our initiative right now,
that's the next eighteen months initiative, is we are completely
overhauling our software to where we're going to have dashboards
and job costing and production rates and and you know
percent completes and at everything. It's gonna be at the
(17:07):
it's going to be at the tip of a fingertips,
so we can forecast, so we can plan so we
can project one three five years out you know, where
where the numbers are on. And then as we bold
on these other companies, you know, we can add different
scenarios in that. Hey, if this happens, this happens, you know,
kind of playing playing that out. We've been definitely been
(17:27):
blessed here in Columbus, Ohio because this market's been a
a hot, hot market. But we're using that to expand
into other markets as well.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
So I love the mentality behind technology that you're doing.
It sounds like you're future proofing everything that you have
built so far today.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, I think the plan is, you know, we'll be
a The plan is our current size and capacity, we
will be able to double our size with kind of
the what we're getting ready to do currently.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So that's great.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
How do you so if you're going to be doubling,
you know, and you need to go out and recruit
new workers.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I mean that could be one question. How do you recruit?
And then also what is the company culture like?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
So I've tried. It's been fun, but we've tried to
really you know, at heart, we're a family company, right
we we we work hard, we play hard, we try
and get everything done that needs to be done. We don't, uh,
we don't watch the clock. You know, you've got an appointment,
you got a kids event, you got this, that and
the other thing. I like to treat my employees just
(18:36):
like they're entrepreneurs too, right they you just you're in there.
You gotta you gotta do what you gotta do to
get the job done. But I'm not sitting there and saying, hey,
come in at seven o'clock and clock out at three.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
No.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I hated it, right. That was when I was in
the factory, building conveyor systems. That's what it was. So
you were clocking in, clocking out, expect to work. No. I.
You know, if you're a if you're a professional, and
you need to treat it like so. We do a
lot of be it happy hours or you know, Christmas parties,
and you know, outside of work, we're all friends, right,
(19:09):
It's it's all we help each other out. We build
a great culture that way. And you know, we continue
to try and just bring everybody into the picture, trying
trying to break that barrier down between the field and
the office, trying to you know, we're all one team.
We're all you know, what's good for what's good for
the lowest guy in the total pole is good for
(19:29):
me trying to you know, swirrow in it, in it
to do the same thing.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
For sure, if somebody wants to go, I mean it
sounds like an amazing environment that you've created for your workers.
If somebody wants to go look for jobs, to apply
for jobs.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Do they go to Double L Management? Do they go?
Is that the core?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Yeah? Yeah, So Double L Management ties to all the companies.
You can you can see all the companies there. So
even if you go go to one of the other companies,
be it a CP elevate legacy on me, they all
roll up into into Double L. So you can you
can find it there pretty easily. But you know, that's
that's one thing that's also you know, we've seen a
(20:11):
lot of growth because there's there's just growth potential. I'm
as I said before, I can't sit still. So we're
going to continue to grow. We're going to continue to grow,
continue to expand, and all these folks you know, have
continued to grow with me, so I uh yeah, so
(20:31):
or everybody from our I remember a CFO came with us.
She was she was a just came on as like
a accounting clerk ten years you know, seven, eight, ten
years ago, I forget how long now and now she's
the CFO of our company. And same way with our
operations guy. Right, he was a he was a field
guy and has just grown and grown grown with us,
(20:52):
and there's just a ton of huge potential. Now he
runs all our operations for all our company. You know,
he oversees four hundred employees now in our field.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So oh wow, I was I was going to ask you,
like spotlight a couple of your employees there, what you
can name drop?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
You know? Yeah? Yeah, So like so justin Hollinsworth, he came,
he came with us, and he worked in the field
for a little bit and wanted to get into project
management now the next yeah, So he's just continued a
project manager, senior project manager operations. It's funny because as
we've grown, I was doing all that, right, I was.
(21:31):
I was estimating and project managing and then doing all that.
So we've just kind of moved people into those positions.
Marco Salis is the uh he's been. He's been with
me the longest. He's been running our estimating department for
he came on two years before I did. He's the
only the only office employee that's left from the old
(21:52):
company that was about to go bankrupt. So and then
Ruth Gable, she's our but she's grown with us as well,
So that's been great.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
That's that's great. Where can people find your business? You know,
do you have a centralized location? Do you work in
multiple states?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
You know, what does that look like as far as
like where can they go? Do you have a website,
like a direct website that they go to?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yes, you could go to double L Management dot com
and find a lot of information. But you know, currently
we're in Columbus, Ohio, We're in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are
in uh hopefully here soon growing up into the Michigan
ann Arbor on Detroit market. But we're rapidly expanding, looking
(22:40):
to expand in other markets. So so I'll put that
shout out on here, so there's any companies that are
looking to be for sale, feel free to reach out
because we're always looking to expand and looking for acquisitions
in different markets to continue to expand.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So sure, that is great to know.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
I mean me per I reach out to a lot
of companies and I do run into quite a few
that are saying I'm about to retire, I'm ready to
get rid of my business, and you know, I don't
that's the plan. So it's, uh, it's good to know.
So I can definitely filter those your way and you
can have those conversations hopefully that will benefit you. And
(23:19):
then for your current businesses, are you guys currently hiring
then right now?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Like you're yeah, we're always hiring. I mean everywhere from
project managers, accounting, estimating, engineering, uh, finishers, concrete. Yeah, we're
always hiring. So we're carpenters, We're doing quite a high,
quite a bit of hiring all the time. For sure.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
That's good to know, good to know.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And then before we wrap up, do you have any
advice for new construction owners that you'd like to share
with our listeners?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Take a chance, right, I mean, it's it's scary, it's
it's a risk, but don't you don't know until you
don't try, right, So that's kind of what the way
I started out the conversation here when we started is
the worst thing it can be? Is said, no, but
just take a chance, take a risk, come believe in yourself,
and you know if you feel like you can build
(24:19):
it and do it, do it, take a chance, try it,
try it out. So I love it. Best advice, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
You don't know if you don't try. I really appreciate
that advice. Well, Kyle, thank you for being a guest
on the show. Please everyone like, subscribe, comment, and share
the Builder Upper Show with anyone in the construction industry.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
We will see you next time.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
It's Loot at lumberfive dot com.
Hey everyone, I'm Lou Perez, your host of The Builder
Upper Show, a podcast where we talk about everything in
construction and trades.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Now, let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I would like to welcome our guest, Kyle Young, president
of Double L Management.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey, Kyle, how's it going good?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Good? Thanks? Thanks for the invite. I appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, I appreciate you jumping on here. You're a really
busy guy, a lot of stuff going on in your businesses,
so I'm excited to jump right into it and just
ask you right away.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
You know, when did you get into construction? So?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, so I've been in construction for probably close to
twenty years now. I grew up. I grew up in
with the entrepreneurial grandfather that had his own commercial contracting
industrial contracting company, SPENT. I remember when I was ten, eleven,
(01:04):
twelve years old, sneaking into plants, working the night shift
with him, and kind of grew up doing that, got
into engineering, and then went to work for a homebuilder
and really really enjoyed the home building side of things.
Out of that was an internship when I was in college,
(01:26):
and after after I got out of college, I went
to work designing convetra systems because I thought, hey, I'm
a mechanical engineer. He grew up in the plants, and
that's kind of what I wanted and thought I wanted
to do, So started designing convert systems. Absolutely hated it.
It was terrible sitting behind a desk all day and
(01:48):
CAD and you know, solid the works and them modeling
and stuff. But so I took a chance and went
to work as a estimator for a when I had
absolutely no idea what they were. They were an interior
finished His contractor ended up being the large knew nothing
about them. They were large interior finishes contractor. And I thought,
(02:12):
how much metal studs and drywall can there be in
the Columbus, Ohio market, And coming to find out there's
quite a bit of a commercial metal studs and drywall,
so wow. Yeah. So worked in there for for a while,
got a little burnout, decided to go try general contracting.
Went worked for a large national general contractor for a while.
(02:40):
Didn't there was a lot of red tape. It didn't
didn't love, didn't love all the red tape that was involved.
So got the opportunity to come back to Columbus, Ohio.
There was a company acoustic killing partition which I which
I now own, that was struggling. I'm gonna I'm gonna
(03:01):
shut the doors down, actually gonna gonna close up. This
office had a project that was going really bad. It
was right during the oh downturn eight nine, ten eleven.
So with a with a handshake agreement, I agreed to
come on board and if if I get turned back around,
(03:22):
he was he was willing to sell it to me.
And here we are eleven eleven, twelve years later, we've grown.
Oh shoot, I take to think about it, probably it's
over eight over ten eleven years here.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So oh wow, So you're you're you made a really
great business movement. Sounds like would you like to attribute
some of that success from the I see that you're
you're a Buckeye. So I know you went you went
to Ohio State University for mechanical engineering. Did you learn
a lot of anything else from business that you know
(03:59):
really led you to wanting to make moves like that?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah? You know I didn't. I didn't turn right. I
think I think the entrepreneur preneurial piece was just in me,
just kind of always wanting to kind of do my
own thing. My wife and I actually just last couple
of days, we're just laughing about it. Like here, I
(04:22):
was at a steady had a steady salary and a
steady income at a company that was a large national
general contractor. We were newly married in a apartment that
was eight hundred dollars a month, and I said, yeah,
what the heck, let's give it a run. All the
(04:44):
worst thing that happens as I they go out of business, right,
So they were on the verge. They were on the verge.
I mean it was we had a couple of rough
jobs and it was worth every every bit of roll
in the dice. So yeah, while at Ohio State, there
I did. I started at a small engineering school called
Ohio Northern. You know, love my experience there. The problem
(05:06):
was is, uh, they weren't really recognized by some of
the larger companies. So I shifted gears, went to Ohio State,
minored in business and kind of knew I always wanted
to be in the business side of things.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
But yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Where does the inspiration to be an entrepreneur come from?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Is it in the family jeans?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah? I think it was growing up right watching my grandfather.
You know, we were we were he was he was.
Do you ever watch some of those show on some
of those HBO shows the Pacific or whatever. He was
a marine and yeah, some of the stuff that those
guys went through there on the Guadalcanal and Galapagos Islands
(05:54):
and stuff like that, you look back and you're like, wow,
that's that's nuts. But he got done, got out and
started a HBAC company shortly after that, and uh, next thing,
you know, he's in industrial contracting and building, working plants
and stuff. And then just yeah, that kind of inspired me.
And then I just grew up, grew up around the
(06:14):
family business and you know it since learned my lessons too, right,
because it was always with them. I was always feast
or famine, and you know, eventually it did build bankrupt,
but kind of learned my lessons on how to what
to do, what not to do, and here we are today.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Does it push you to kind of almost like that
inspiration that you got almost like pay it forward and
mentor any others to bring others up the way that
you did.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah, it does, it does. It's it's hard because it's
a lot of it is a work ethic thing, you know, right,
it's uh, you gotta you gotta put your time, you
put the time and effort in, you know. I I
remember summers when I was in high school and stuff.
I would go hit the road and we were working
seven days a week, twelve hour days and all summer long.
(07:09):
And I was, you know, sneaking into plants when I
was ten years old, tearing you know, running torches and
welders and cutting, cutting stuff out, putting conveyor systems in.
And I'd worked the night shift because my grandfather would
sneak me in and sneak me in during the night shift.
I remember one of the supervisors came over and wanted
(07:29):
something done that worked with the plant, and he kind
of looked at me, and you could see it, and
in this I was like, this kid's not this kid
is not sixteen years old. What the world? Aaron was
climbing around, crawling around on conveyors and systems, and oh yeah,
it was fun, great times.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh I love that story. What is something that you
know today that you wish you knew when you started?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
You know, I think you can't say enough about having
the mentality not not putting yourself out there, you know, right,
some people are going to say no. But just building
that network and just putting yourself out there to throw
something out there, right, I mean everything from hey, how
(08:16):
do I look on this job? Or so on and
so forth. And it's funny because like some of the younger,
younger folks and and some different personalities, just like, throw
yourself out there. Right. The worst thing that somebody's going
to say is no, but go ahead and take a chance.
The upside is great. The downsides, hey, they say no,
So that'd be the biggest thing I would say. So
(08:38):
I think I think part of that was I learned
a lot of that after I worked for a general
contractor and then all I wanted to do, that's all
I wanted to do more FBI type type stuff. Right.
So I was I was thirty years old, almost going
through a midlife crisis, trying to figure out what I
(08:59):
wanted to do with my life, and I didn't know
if construction was the right feel ended up going into
the military, and I learned a ton of a ton
of stuff there. So, you know, spent spent eight six
years in the reserves, and uh, you know, learned a lot.
(09:19):
Learned a lot there, especially in the background that I
was in in the military.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Oh wow, you made that move when you were thirty.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I was thirty years old. Yeah, I had. I had
an engineering degree and I was running running. Uh. Actually,
at the time after I did it, I had just
finished up. I was project managing a forty million dollar
GC project over nine months and kind of kind of
like didn't know what we were working to two shifts, uh,
(09:53):
two ten hour shifts five days a week, and then uh,
two eight hour shifts on Saturday. And I was working
and for the general contractor, and I was there all
the time, and We're finishing that project up, and I'm like, huh,
what am I gonna do with my time now? So
I said, what the heck, I want to join the military.
So I here, I am thirty years old, and I
(10:14):
went and joined the military, and I ended up going
and listed because you got to pick. You got to
pick what position you wanted to do if you went
and listed, whereas if you went officer, which I had
my engineer a degree at that time, so I could
have went offsir route, but they pick what you do
at that point. So I ended up doing doing military
(10:36):
intelligence is what I did, and it taught me a
lot of a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So for sure, does any of the military experience that
you went through help you with what you're doing today.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
I think the leadership side of things, for sure, definitely
definitely helps helps with some of the some of the
stuff I do today, and then some of the training
that I got through my through my MS school. Just
like building, uh, building relationships, building rapport and you know, learning, uh,
(11:12):
learning as much about as much about people as you
can and just you know, networking and building those relationships.
That's that's right. It's very similar. So whether you're whether
you're in the military and you're trying to find information
out about X, Y or Z, or you're you're a
contractor trying to find out where my number is compared
to the competition, Right, that's a huge that's a huge
(11:33):
part of it. So building that relationship to where you
can get feedback to kind of know where you're at,
and that's a that's a huge part of it. So
I guess thinking back about it, yeah, that's that's what
There's a lot of similarities. Right, You're trying to get
you're trying to get intelligence on on different things in
(11:54):
the military, and here I'm trying to get intelligence on
where my numbers are at, how what I can do
to do better, what I can do to get the
next job. So yeah, I think that's a big part
of it, for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You've become a professional at peeling back the eion. Do
you have any secrets on scaling your business?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
So, you know, we started scaling just by building relationships
and growing and growing and growing here locally. I think
what I kind of learned though, was I started enjoying
the deals more than I enjoyed the building piece of it.
So I was at a so after five years I
(12:39):
bought acoustics, stealing partition or after growing it, growing it
from you're about three hundred thousand, and then we were
up to twenty two million after five years, so we
grew it, and then I kind of learned from there.
I'm like, you know what, I enjoy the deals and
(13:01):
the growth aspect more than I do the construction building
piece of it. So I have a great leadership team
in place that does a lot of the building, and
then I'm out a lot doing a lot more mergers
and acquisitions. You know. Right now we're We're started out
as one company, you know, eleven years ago, and now
(13:21):
we'll be goals to be uh eight next year. We're
we're just going through growing. I was at a conference.
I was at a conference merging acquisitions conference, and they said,
sixty five of companies in the next ten years are
going to change hands. Of those companies have no succession plans.
(13:43):
So what I've done is I went into some companies
and made it a win win situation for both of
aging baby boomer generation right that started the company that
was their baby, and now they're in their late fifties, sixties,
even sevens, and they don't have any options of, well,
we're either going to close this down or that's what
(14:05):
we're going to do. You know, just not a lot
of options. So go in there and take and harness
our management and our operational skills and step into these
family owned companies and you know, get the get the owner,
the founder a payday, but then also be able to
tack it onto what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
That's that's awesome. I mean, what an experience that you
go through to I mean, for M and A.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
The I'm guessing growing pains is something that you're used to.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Now you know, how do you and you know, how
do you deal with that?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, I think my folks that have been with me
for a long time now have gotten used to it.
Therefore we're they're getting bored if we're not growing and
I can't, I can't sit still. So you know, we've
we've uh and I know we'll maybe talk about a
little later, but you know we've brought uh SMI as
a consultant and joint a peer group been a phenomenal
(15:04):
piece for us, and then we've been able to take
that and really get operational excellence out of it. Right,
So we are we know our we know our job cost,
and we know what we have processes in place to
a t. So nowadays we just go at on a company.
We already have our processes set up. We'll bring FMI
(15:26):
in to help implement those processes, but we'll you know,
technology and processes will we'll tack them on and clean
them up because a lot of times these companies too
that are you know baby boomer generations are aging right there.
They're scared of technology, and we harness we definitely harness
that and use that to grow and scale and clean
(15:49):
up processes for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, that's what I was gonna have a piggyback off
of that and ask, you know, how do you use
technology in your businesses.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
We're using a ton of technology, and I think you know,
construction was stagnant for so long that there wasn't much
much movement. So so we started by smallly, you know,
adding some be it EERP type systems to where we
had our job costs pretty well nailed down to. In
(16:22):
the last couple of years, we've panelization, role forming your
own studs, bim revit, getting design build contracts, robotics all right,
we have we have robots now out in the field
that do layout and we've we've used some finishing robots
that finish our drywall for us, and we've uh so
(16:44):
we've started leveraging a lot of that. Our initiative right now,
that's the next eighteen months initiative, is we are completely
overhauling our software to where we're going to have dashboards
and job costing and production rates and and you know
percent completes and at everything. It's gonna be at the
(17:07):
it's going to be at the tip of a fingertips,
so we can forecast, so we can plan so we
can project one three five years out you know, where
where the numbers are on. And then as we bold
on these other companies, you know, we can add different
scenarios in that. Hey, if this happens, this happens, you know,
kind of playing playing that out. We've been definitely been
(17:27):
blessed here in Columbus, Ohio because this market's been a
a hot, hot market. But we're using that to expand
into other markets as well.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
So I love the mentality behind technology that you're doing.
It sounds like you're future proofing everything that you have
built so far today.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Yeah, I think the plan is, you know, we'll be
a The plan is our current size and capacity, we
will be able to double our size with kind of
the what we're getting ready to do currently.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So that's great.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
How do you so if you're going to be doubling,
you know, and you need to go out and recruit
new workers.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I mean that could be one question. How do you recruit?
And then also what is the company culture like?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
So I've tried. It's been fun, but we've tried to
really you know, at heart, we're a family company, right
we we we work hard, we play hard, we try
and get everything done that needs to be done. We don't, uh,
we don't watch the clock. You know, you've got an appointment,
you got a kids event, you got this, that and
the other thing. I like to treat my employees just
(18:36):
like they're entrepreneurs too, right they you just you're in there.
You gotta you gotta do what you gotta do to
get the job done. But I'm not sitting there and saying, hey,
come in at seven o'clock and clock out at three.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
No.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I hated it, right. That was when I was in
the factory, building conveyor systems. That's what it was. So
you were clocking in, clocking out, expect to work. No. I.
You know, if you're a if you're a professional, and
you need to treat it like so. We do a
lot of be it happy hours or you know, Christmas parties,
and you know, outside of work, we're all friends, right,
(19:09):
It's it's all we help each other out. We build
a great culture that way. And you know, we continue
to try and just bring everybody into the picture, trying
trying to break that barrier down between the field and
the office, trying to you know, we're all one team.
We're all you know, what's good for what's good for
the lowest guy in the total pole is good for
(19:29):
me trying to you know, swirrow in it, in it
to do the same thing.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
For sure, if somebody wants to go, I mean it
sounds like an amazing environment that you've created for your workers.
If somebody wants to go look for jobs, to apply
for jobs.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Do they go to Double L Management? Do they go?
Is that the core?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Yeah? Yeah, So Double L Management ties to all the companies.
You can you can see all the companies there. So
even if you go go to one of the other companies,
be it a CP elevate legacy on me, they all
roll up into into Double L. So you can you
can find it there pretty easily. But you know, that's
that's one thing that's also you know, we've seen a
(20:11):
lot of growth because there's there's just growth potential. I'm
as I said before, I can't sit still. So we're
going to continue to grow. We're going to continue to grow,
continue to expand, and all these folks you know, have
continued to grow with me, so I uh yeah, so
(20:31):
or everybody from our I remember a CFO came with us.
She was she was a just came on as like
a accounting clerk ten years you know, seven, eight, ten
years ago, I forget how long now and now she's
the CFO of our company. And same way with our
operations guy. Right, he was a he was a field
guy and has just grown and grown grown with us,
(20:52):
and there's just a ton of huge potential. Now he
runs all our operations for all our company. You know,
he oversees four hundred employees now in our field.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So oh wow, I was I was going to ask you,
like spotlight a couple of your employees there, what you
can name drop?
Speaker 3 (21:09):
You know? Yeah? Yeah, So like so justin Hollinsworth, he came,
he came with us, and he worked in the field
for a little bit and wanted to get into project
management now the next yeah, So he's just continued a
project manager, senior project manager operations. It's funny because as
we've grown, I was doing all that, right, I was.
(21:31):
I was estimating and project managing and then doing all that.
So we've just kind of moved people into those positions.
Marco Salis is the uh he's been. He's been with
me the longest. He's been running our estimating department for
he came on two years before I did. He's the
only the only office employee that's left from the old
(21:52):
company that was about to go bankrupt. So and then
Ruth Gable, she's our but she's grown with us as well,
So that's been great.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
That's that's great. Where can people find your business? You know,
do you have a centralized location? Do you work in
multiple states?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
You know, what does that look like as far as
like where can they go? Do you have a website,
like a direct website that they go to?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yes, you could go to double L Management dot com
and find a lot of information. But you know, currently
we're in Columbus, Ohio, We're in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are
in uh hopefully here soon growing up into the Michigan
ann Arbor on Detroit market. But we're rapidly expanding, looking
(22:40):
to expand in other markets. So so I'll put that
shout out on here, so there's any companies that are
looking to be for sale, feel free to reach out
because we're always looking to expand and looking for acquisitions
in different markets to continue to expand.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So sure, that is great to know.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
I mean me per I reach out to a lot
of companies and I do run into quite a few
that are saying I'm about to retire, I'm ready to
get rid of my business, and you know, I don't
that's the plan. So it's, uh, it's good to know.
So I can definitely filter those your way and you
can have those conversations hopefully that will benefit you. And
(23:19):
then for your current businesses, are you guys currently hiring
then right now?
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Like you're yeah, we're always hiring. I mean everywhere from
project managers, accounting, estimating, engineering, uh, finishers, concrete. Yeah, we're
always hiring. So we're carpenters, We're doing quite a high,
quite a bit of hiring all the time. For sure.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
That's good to know, good to know.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
And then before we wrap up, do you have any
advice for new construction owners that you'd like to share
with our listeners?
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Take a chance, right, I mean, it's it's scary, it's
it's a risk, but don't you don't know until you
don't try, right, So that's kind of what the way
I started out the conversation here when we started is
the worst thing it can be? Is said, no, but
just take a chance, take a risk, come believe in yourself,
and you know if you feel like you can build
(24:19):
it and do it, do it, take a chance, try it,
try it out. So I love it. Best advice, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
You don't know if you don't try. I really appreciate
that advice. Well, Kyle, thank you for being a guest
on the show. Please everyone like, subscribe, comment, and share
the Builder Upper Show with anyone in the construction industry.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
We will see you next time.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
It's Loot at lumberfive dot com.
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