October 28, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode of the Builder Upper Show, host Lou Perez welcomes John Wiley, CEO of Mangieri Electric. John shares his journey from starting in construction as a teenager to becoming a strategic advisor for private equity and a national brand ambassador for Think Realty. He dives deep into the importance of having an exit strategy for businesses, leveraging technology for scaling, and the value of building strong team relationships. John also highlights his experiences with various projects, including flipping a shopping center, repurposing a hospital, and managing a $60 million fund for single-family residences. This episode is packed with insights for anyone in the construction industry looking to scale their business and plan for the future.
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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 (00:15):
I would like to welcome our guest, John Wiley, CEO
of Manajery Electric.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, John, how's it going, Lou.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm doing great. I'm good to be with you today.
We've been planning this for us a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, And you're a really busy guy.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So I appreciate you opening up a time slot for me,
and it means a lot. And I know a lot
of the listeners today are just gonna want us to.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Jump right in and hear from you.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
John, So why don't you go ahead and expand when
did you get into construction?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I got into construction probably at the age of sixteen
or seventeen. I grew up in the Phoenix area and
could work construction, you know, in the summers, you know,
learning the trades, doing you know, apartment buildings, laying carpets,
setting tile, cleaning floors, whatever I could do to earn money.
Because I figured out I could make more in construction
(01:09):
than I could bagging groceries, which was the first start,
and I went, wait a minute, I can make more
money over there. That's how I got started. It's been
a career ever since.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And then you know, going down that path, you know
what experiences did you have? Do you feel like that
really sets you up for where you're at today? I guess, like,
what are you doing today? And you know what does
that journey look like?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah? So you know what set me up for success
is my dad who raised me, you know, taught me
how to swing an axe in the backyard we lived
grew up before we moved to Phoenix. We were in Anaheim, California.
We had a couple of old orange trees in the
backyard and he took me out there and taught me
the art of swinging and acts. I had blisters. You
taught me love that, you know like, and taught me
(01:55):
how to swing it and you know, let me struggle
for a while. Well that set me up for construction
because it's hard, can be hard work you have to endure.
But if you learn the tips and tricks, like he
taught me the art of swinging the acts, what was
hard became much easier and the tools started doing the work.
So as in construction, as we know, anything's easy with
(02:15):
the right tool. So anyway, that set me up right
for success, and I learned to be, you know, a
really good tile layer. I started laying high end tile,
high end tiles at tile showers I'm trying to say,
in high end homes in the valley, and and it
(02:36):
just continued on, you know, to hone the craft. And
then as I got into my thirties and forties, I
started acquiring single family residences for my dad's retirement fund.
He had seen his portfolio crash, his retirement portfolio he's
(02:58):
an architect, crash in the eight to nine correction.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It was brutal. He lost forty percent of his value.
And he came to me and he said, son, if
you could start any business, what would you do. And
I knew exactly. I said, Dad, I'd buy this shopping center.
Here's why I told him, pizza huts coming out. We
renegotiate the lease, do this, do that, hold it, fixed this,
fix that right. And all of my construction experience had
given me not only the attitude that I can I
(03:27):
can fix it, or I can bring in the right
expert to fix anything that needs to be repaired. So
we reflipped a shopping center and it went on from
there that I started buying single family residences for his
retirement fund. I made no money doing it. It was the
joy of reporting my dad right. And I had another job,
you know, as a community leader. I bought a former
(03:49):
hospital in Kansas City that had been abandoned for ten
years and I was in the middle of repurposing that
building for families that don't have anywhere to go, that
have people with job site repurposed that. So in the
middle of that, I start this side gig with my dad.
Well that led to probably about one hundred and twenty
five single family residence is being acquired over time, and
(04:12):
it's a lot, and I managed all. I did a
lot of the work in the beginning myself, all the rehabs,
distressed assets and got them up and got them rented
and managed, self managed, and then started getting approached by
other investors out of state, Hey would you do it
for me? Over that time, I became the national brand
(04:33):
ambassador for Think Reality Radio and Think Reality Magazine. I'm
all over the nation now teaching people, you know, the
simple little tricks I did and always having that construction
background because I could walk into a house and I
could within fifteen minutes, I could walk out with a
plus or minus scope in my head of what it'll
really take to fix this house. And that took my
(04:53):
real estate career my you know, not your traditional realtor,
right through the rocket like a rocket. And then I'll
wind this up on my path. Right, So now I'm
managing a lot of portfolio rehab for other people. Then
I was finally approached in twenty twenty two by a
publicly traded fund that invests in single family residences for
(05:17):
retirement funds that are managed and they had sixty million
dollar budget, and so I stood up a company to
acquire those homes and manage all the rehab in two states.
I think we did. We did one hundred and seventy
six homes and ten months perst in rehab. And that
(05:37):
that was then, and now I've gone on to do
other things as well. I'll take a breath.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
How do you find the time?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Oh? Life is fun, right, I get up all my life.
I've always woken up at like three in the morning,
four in the morning all my life, you know, just
an early riser and still end to day. I just
you know, I do. I love. It's not yeah, I
have the I have the privilege of getting to do
every day what I love to do, you know, build teams,
(06:09):
start companies, uh and and and and and go from
there and and today and I while I'm not you know,
I'm still in construction. But I never thought I would
be in the in the place that I'm in. It's
a unique journey, right that Taylor made to my personality
and my my own desires. I I I like people, right,
(06:32):
most of the time, we all get to a point
where like I'm done, I don't all talk to you.
But generally speaking, I like being around people, like building teams.
I like to see like people that work hard and
create that team environment. So as I did those large
home that large home project I told you about, right,
we bought all those homes for this publicly traded company. Yeah,
(06:54):
this last interest rate where they the rates shot up, right,
couple of years ago, all my clients dried up and
stopped buying, which I knew woul happened. Eventually, it happens
in real estate. So no houses to rehab, nothing to buy.
All the customers went away, had to lay off the
whole team and then I got a approached by somebody
i'd met when I was brand ambassador Think Reality. My
(07:17):
business partner today, Abby Gohar approached me and said, hey,
would you come join Meridian eighty four. It's a private
equity firm and we want you to be the chief
of strategy. My response was, I know vaguely about PE, right,
I have a concept of PE, but I'm not a
PE guy. And he's pushed back and said, we're not
(07:38):
hiring you because everything you know about PE, you know people,
you know how to figure out if the company we're
looking to acquire has toxicity in it that's not showing
up in the balance sheet. Meaning you know people, you
know teams, and you know clients and vendors, and you
have this way of just like building that big mo momentum.
(08:00):
Right uh. And now, because I'm the smartest, I just
know how to surround myself with like really great people
and get out of the way, let them do their job.
Come do that for us. Will make you chief of strategy.
So they would, they they would look at all the numbers,
bring me the companies in. My job is to get
to know the owner, the seller one on one, to
(08:21):
know who they are why they built their company, to
get to know why they hired the people they did,
why are you wanting to exit now? And for the
for the for the sellers in construction of companies that
that I just feel that affinity toward, like these are
hard working people that have You know, we acquired a
company in Galesburg, Illinois, right forty year old companies started
(08:45):
by one man, thirteen employees averaged ten year north of
ten years right there, and you know, we bought that company.
But getting to know those those sellers and then inviting
them onto our cap table to be what I call
wisdom at the table as we take over to grow
the company. And I'm proud to say like that company
(09:05):
in particular, it's two years later not one employee left
disgruntled or because we bought the company. Because we don't
come in to fix it it's already running. We come
into help scale it and grow it. And so when
we buy a company, I'm often the interim CEO in
the construction space, not always, but sometimes they'll appoint me
(09:28):
as the CEO to help with the transition, like we
did in Gaylsburg at Mangerry Electric.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Wow, Okay, that's super impressive. There's so many things that
I want to unpack. In all of that, I think
the thing that stood out to me right away was
the employee's part, like you must have done something in
the process that built trust and really helped you. And
(09:56):
maybe it was also the employees themselves and the kind
of culture that you may be even nurtured. So, you know,
expand a little bit, what is the company culture? You know,
what do you do with these employees that and is
there you know, any employees that you want a spotlight
that help this?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Uh, you know this whole process.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I guess well, as chief of strategy for pe on
the on the you know, the people side, right, not
the numbers guy, the people guy. I'm looking for that
my intuition to kick in, looking for that relational connection.
We I will green light a company to purchase if
I believe we've got the ingredients with the right team
(10:36):
in place. Doesn't mean I have to be the team's
fully assembled. It doesn't even mean that people inside the
company are necessarily in the best seats. I want to
keep them all, but we may do a little reshuffling
very slowly. But I'm very aware of what they're gifting
is because I've taken time. Most importantly, before we buy
a company, there's a one on one with me and
we just sat down and talk and I listen. I
(10:59):
listen to their hearts, desires, the key leaders, and I'm
just observing. And I do that for about six months
while the company is running. They don't need me to
run the company. The company's running. I'm more concerned about
the people, and so it gives me confidence when when
people like Julie Warner are CFOs. She was keeping the
books and realized and this is not a shot to
(11:23):
the previous owner. The previous owner was running his business
his way. He wasn't running it wrong. But we realized
that Julie had far more capability and we were able
to bring her into to become our CFO. And she's
doing an amazing job. And as we've scaled and grown,
and anytime you hand off a company there's usually a
little bit of a flat line before you start to
(11:45):
pick back up. She's managed that little normal flat line
and now everything's starting to point up a little bit.
She's doing an amazing job. We hired a great general manager,
Chuck Doocy left another company in the Midwest come and
join us. Moved his family to Geilsburg because he saw
what I saw, an amazing company with a great team.
(12:06):
You know, Jeremy Smith been there for so long running
the teams out. Rick Kent, our lead lead electrician, I
call him, he's been there for I don't know. I've
lost track of how many years. Ormer Marine been there
seventeen eighteen years. Like without these people, number one, we
(12:27):
wouldn't buy and number two, I wouldn't have the confidence
to know that we are growing. Because you can have
a company, but if you don't have the right team,
it's a grind.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
How did you get so in tune with getting to
know people? Like is this something that was like you
were you did that when you were a kid, and like,
you know, you just talked to everybody. I guess what
or did it come from your parents? Like how how
did you get this skill that you know they can't
really teach this in school?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, well, you know, I had a tough childhood. Grown up,
some people do something, you know. I was on my
own at fifteen, which is why we're wow fifteen fifteen Wow?
And you know, and so I was, you know, CouchSurfing
a lot at fifteen and sixteen trying to figure out
my life, which is how I ended up in construction. Right, Yeah,
(13:22):
gave me focus, and then at a young age, around
twenty twenty one, I, out of the overflow of who
I am, right, not as a job, I started hosting
conversations in my home with people who wanted to talk
about the Bible or talk about God or living right.
And it just kept growing and growing, and over the
(13:44):
course of my life. While I've always been in construction,
I've given birth to three different churches. Some of them
grew really large.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And I love that I learned the art.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
It's not about me. They didn't come to hear me talk.
It's about them and their journey. Right. So thirty years
of pastoring, startup congregations again out of the overflow of
my life, not as a profession or as a job,
right creating community, you know, closely held community. So I
bring all of that skill set that I learned through
(14:16):
the art of listening and standing with people through difficult times.
Families face hard decisions, transitions and marriages and loss of
parents and children that you say you did what and
they want to come talk to the pastor right and
learning the art of just helping people through tough times
(14:37):
is what really to be honest, is what developed these
skills in me.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Oh my gosh, we're going to clip that. I'm going
to share it with everybody. That's an amazing story. That's
phenomenal and it's cool. Like I get, I just learned
a little a new fact about you, mister John Wiley
right on this podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
You're a brother in Christ. I love that.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
It's amazing and the mission that you were on that
of course God puts you down that path sounds like
an amazing journey, even though you had adversity to overcome
in the beginning, and where you're at today is absolutely phenomenal.
I mean, people look at the story of John Wiley today,
you know, pe owner, you got the electrical company, you're
(15:21):
you know, super successful, but they don't realize the path
that you went down to get to where you're at today.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
It's it's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Wow, that's that's really cool. So I now I see that's.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Where a lot of the you know, people skills came from.
I mean, it's almost the you learn from the school
of hard knocks.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Well, what I learned was that what you seek to
receive first, seek giveaway. So I want deep, meaningful relationships
in a broad network of people that I can serve
and then they can serve me when I need help. Yeah,
the principle goes like this. If you want friends deep,
you know, deep connections, seek first to be that person
(16:06):
to others. And so that's the underlying thing. Right, you
want to be known as a hard worker, work hard.
You want to be known as deeply connected and a
guy to call when there's trouble on the line and
you've got other people you could call to break up.
Be that guy first to others and you'll receive that back.
And that is the foundation that has built everything in
(16:27):
my life. Not because I'm the smartest person in the room.
I just you know I have taken this this approach.
You know, I told you I bought a hospital in
Kansas City, right next to Arrowhead Stadium. I didn't buy
it for me. I didn't buy it to become known,
although it hit the national wire when I bought this.
I used to be on city council in the area. Right,
former councilman buys hospital. Nobody knows why, Right, I bought
(16:50):
with families. It was about the families, not about what
I did. It was about them, and we purpose that hospital.
And that's how I look at the companies that we buy.
It's being we're continuing the story of a founder who
loves their employees, loves their vendors, loves their customers, and
for whatever reason in their personal life, there's no one
(17:11):
there to take that company on. They want to sell it,
and they're looking for groups like ours that will continue
that legacy and not come in and shut the thing down. Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
This is yeah, really really incredible. And the experience that
you have in business, I'm sure you've learned some secrets
to scaling, you know, is there anything Is there anything
that you want to share with listeners? I mean, your
experience is pretty pretty awesome and very deep. So it's
(17:45):
like that, is there anything that you want to share
or even a position that you're in today that you
could probably share some of this information one on one
with people to help them with scaling their business.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Absolutely, it's really a role I've stepped into now now
I'm still involved with the pe firm, I'm still chief
of Strategy, and over that course of that time, just
to quantify and what I'd like to accentuate. Moving forward
to your question, I've looked at hundreds of companies with
my two partners, doctor Phil Hearn and Abi Golhart. We've
looked at hundreds of companies, and many of them we
(18:19):
wanted to buy, but we have to say no. And
sellers who wanted to sell to us, and a buyer
who wants to buy. And because we're bringing lenders to
the table with us to help us with our terms. Right,
we've got our own skin in the game, but we're
bringing in a capital partner. We don't have outside investors.
We bring in traditional lenders. So the lenders looking over
(18:42):
our shoulder under the hood at the company we want
to buy. Here's the challenge. Out of hundreds that we
would look at, most of the time, the answer would
be no, the company's great, it's profitable. I want to
buy it as a chief of strategy people person, but
the numbers don't work. Hundreds of company we couldn't say
yes to and we wanted to. I started getting frustrated, Phil,
(19:04):
really frustrated, because I'm meaning good people who want to
sell and move into retirement or just sell stick around
and help build it to the next level. Right, Yeah,
And we would have to say no, and they want
me to buy their business. And so how to that
frustration Because here's the stat. I'll give you a stat.
Eight out of ten businesses in the United States that
go up for sell will never sell, eight out of ten.
(19:28):
And I was witnessing those stats go across my desk constantly.
Eight out of ten will never sell to anybody. Here's
why they're great companies. They're not ready to go to market,
and nobody hold the owners what to do to prepare
for an eventual exit. Doesn't mean you want to exit
next year. I'm talking about no matter when you start
(19:50):
a business, you should know your trajectory. You should know
had the end in mind. It doesn't have to be
dates specific, but know how to build your company so
that when you do want to exit, you're able to
exit for full valuation and you won't get all these
people wanting to buy looking in and having all their
lenders go. Don't touch it, because what I found is
there's usually a handful four or five or so key
(20:15):
items that are suppressing company value, key indicators that the
owners are unaware of. They're what I would say, ignorantly
unaware that these are dramatic. They're profitable, they're making money,
but it's not preparing the business for exit. So I
have a company today called Exit Factor, and I focus
(20:38):
on that. I'm a strategic advisor to Meridian eighty four,
the PE firm, and now I'm a strategic advisor to
exit Factor both in the whole valley of Arizona, the
Arizona Valley as well as Atlanta. I help their in
office as well. And so what we do is we
partner with companies who having their they know holistically they
(21:01):
should be finding the things that would suppress their value
and they want to engage us. So what we do
is real quick, we do an assessment to assess their
exit readiness. Doesn't mean they're going to sell anytime soon,
but we're going to act like the buyer. We're going
to act like the buyer's lender. We're going to look
under the hood and do a complete due diligence and
bring a comprehensive about fifty page report and put it
(21:25):
at the ownerships, at the ownership groups in front of
them and go, here are the five things we found
that are suppressing your future valuation affecting you today. And
if we don't get these corrected, they will affect your
exit at the end. That's one thing to point it out,
but it's another thing to say. And here's the plan
to fix it. So we engage with them for a
(21:47):
one year, two year, three year consultive arrangement very affordable
to help them get that trajectory. And so here's two
key things, and i'll get off this number One, we've
got the data that proves it nationally, because now we're
in thirteen plus states and growing and twenty four locations.
And now those numbers are outdated, I'm sure, but we've
(22:07):
got all this data that backs us up. And so
here's the stats. Companies that engage us inside of exit
factor see a twenty five to thirty five percent increase
in profitability before they ever go to market.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
That's a lot.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
That's a lot, Okay, not new top line revenue, increased
profitability because we're going to work on the things that
we discover that are kind of causing the company to wabble.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right, you're fixing the leaks.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Then the last stat I'll throw at you is when
they do decide to exit, Now we know what their
valuation was when they come in because we do an
actual evaluation on what the company's worth today, find what's
suppressing it, what it could be worth. Right. So now
at the end of our engagement, we have another exit assessment,
the same one we did at the beginning. So now
I have quantifiable data we started here today, we're here
(22:59):
with that data. I can tell you nationwide, our clients
see an average increase evaluation fifty six point seven percent higher.
That's a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
That is a lot. It's a lot of money, right,
fifty six.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Fifty six point seven. Don't take away my seven six
point seven. That means the seller.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
You might get a lot of phone calls after.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
This the seller, the seller knows we want to speak
to me directly, We'll give them some contact. If they're
in a Google exit factor, they may get another location.
All locations are individally pendently held, owned and operated.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I would say, go to John, talk to John Wiley directly.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
I'll connect you to an office close by you. But
we've got an amazing here inside my company with five
full time people helping these conversations that we can help
anybody anywhere. I'll connect you to the right person in
the market close to you. But the bottom line is
the here's the owner right getting to exit for the fullaluation.
Now the buyer is still going to look at everything,
(24:05):
and the lender is still going to look. But when
they look under the hood, there's nothing to kick like
kick on, nothing to beat them up over. It's fully valued.
And these businesses sell faster and they sell for more
money because they're ready and pe firms or standalone buyers
will pay a reasonable fare price with a proper multiplier
(24:30):
if the company's healthy.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah, how do you?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I mean there must be a way. I know that
you're offering up like advice and you're like you're the
go to thought leader on and your team knows all
the inside information. Do you ever leverage technology to help
scale the businesses?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
So absolutely, let's talk about Manjeri Electric. Right, that's where
I'm an interim CEO. Right, I'm still I'm interrom there.
We've got a great team and you know, I'm probably
be backing myself out of that role really soon. But
whether it's at where I'm at now at Man Jerry
or over at Exit Factor, what what what we're doing
is when we look under the hood, Like, let's use
(25:18):
Man Jerry as a case study or an example. Great owner,
wonderful company. Then when we bought it, but what we
discovered was there's no CRM. It lived on everybody's cell phone.
We discovered that they're they're doing payroll to Julie's uh
shout out to Julie. You know a warner. She was
(25:38):
doing payroll by hand when we bought the company two
years ago, right, And so we look at that and
go oh, and then the estimating software had not been updated.
The update feature had been turned off. So we were
operating on a years old estimating software platform because the
previous owner didn't want to let updates come in and
(25:59):
have something not work. So this great company, wonderful employees,
but the tech package felt like the Stone Ages, right,
not a reflection on the owner poorly or the or
the people that are there. We just knew we could
come in and here's a value add we can we
can value we can increase the the efficiency of the
(26:20):
company with great employees. So we we brought in, we
got rid of an old Sage. We were operating on
Sage three hundred I think something. And so now we're
moving over to Sage Intact. And so in reaching out
to sage. We found lumber and h and of course
that's how I met you, right uh, and so we're
(26:41):
bringing we're actually onboarding. I don't know if you know
this or not, Loot, you may know I saw emails fly.
Our teams are meeting and we're implementing like in the
next couple of weeks right over at MANGERRYA implementing a
lumber in and and that's how you and I meeting
months ago. So uh and then and then companies like
(27:04):
you know we companies like the the Association of Builders
and Contractors uh A, b C.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, ABC Illinois.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
We love them like it's it's leveraging relationships, right and
technology because if all you've got is tech without great
team and team members and outside experts, you've got tech, well,
good for you. It's it's the people that make the
tech work, right, So we lean into our relationship with
ABC of Illinois and and and they've got a big
(27:36):
network behind them. So Julie and Chuck and all the
team have great relationships with Alicia at ABC, and and
they did. They they're an indispensable help. And that's actually
how I found lumber was through Illinois. So we can't
do it without those kinds of partners we value so much.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
ABC is so so important for contractors, especially the non
union contractors looking to even be competitive, right, Like, you
have that edge and you're talking to experts. I know
Alicia and their team are phenomenal. We're going to actually
be hosting a construction Owner's summit with their team, so
(28:22):
Construction Owners Summit Illinois. It's at Western Chicago Northwest in Itasca,
Illinois on November sixth. It's from eight to seven pm
and we're inviting all members of ABC Illinois to come out.
It'll be an annual membership meeting, but also for new
(28:44):
contractors in the space where they're trying to do I
mean basically what you've done, John, I mean you're growing
these businesses, you're helping them scale, you know all the secrets,
and they get to meet people like you at this
event where they're going to get in sites on what
they could do to better their own company. So the
construction owners coming together and it doesn't have to be
(29:07):
the if it's just leadership or you have people, you know,
just operations, people that need to be involved with other
contractors to get ideas. I mean, this is the place
to go. They're all talking about topics. But Alicia is
a powerhouse within associated builders and contractors.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I know that.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
I mean I think they even talk about her nationwide.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That's how big she is. So it's it's pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
You guys are super fortunate to be part of that
chapter and everything that she's doing to help be on
the innovation side for contractors. And you know the little
agenda of just helping people and assisting and serving. I mean,
that's that's what you're doing. That's what I'm doing. That's
(29:52):
what Alisha is doing. You're seeing that the passion kind
of just run right through and there's other people that
are benefits from all of this giving. We're all giving
and it's just helping each other, and it's it's a
beautiful picture.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah. I have found that when you give like that,
money always follows behind. Right now, it always does, you know,
Like you know when I said bought a former hospital,
I didn't buy it because I had the money in
the bank. I just knew it was the right thing
to do, and the money came behind. People were generous
when we stood up that not for profit. When you're
generous with your time and with ABC and helping them,
(30:28):
and they help us. The monetization's automatic, everybody, all boats
are rising together. It's it's just it's I love what
I do. I love I love, I love where I
am and in life. You know, I look at where
I started, and I look where I am. I'm living
my best life and I just I love it.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
That's fantastic. Hey, if somebody wants to reach out to you, John,
you know, is there an easy way for them to
get a hold of you? Should they look something up like,
you know, what's what's your direct line of contact?
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Well, we got two. If they're on LinkedIn. Not a
ton of people in construction are on LinkedIn. Right. If
you're on LinkedIn, you need to use my middle name
to find me more easily. Just go to LinkedIn. You
can search John Franklin Wiley. Keep them in there. That'll
pretty well narrow it down and so you'll find me there.
You'll or they can email me directly. I do. I'm
(31:21):
chief of strategy at the PE firm and over at
exit Factor. Probably exit Factor would be the easiest one
because I can hand them off to other people more readily.
So if they want to reach me there, they can
reach me at John dot Wiley w i l e
y so John dot Wiley so common spelling John dot
Wiley wil e y at exit factor dot com. And
(31:46):
that will get them to my inbox if they want
to schedule a fifteen minute zoom call, just a chit chat.
I'm a referral machine. I will get them where they
need to be, whether I get monit tized out of
it or not. Because when you do the right thing,
which you seek to receive, first seek to give away.
(32:06):
So help me give more away, reach out.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That's amazing, amazing. Before we ramp up, do you have
any advice for new construction owners that you'd like to
share with our listeners?
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Oh? Do, I yes, I do. It's really key. Listen.
In great school, we all learn this lesson and we
forget it, and so in grade school they'll teach us.
Everybody should know where the exit is. Correct? Yeah, right,
for those lessons you learn around in kindergarten first grade. Right,
if your parents haven't taught you, no matter what building
(32:44):
you're in, you should they start teaching you in kindergarten
first grade, know the exit, No, have a plan. Right,
you're not leaving yet, but you know you'll want to leave,
and if there's a need to leave quickly, you need
to know how to get out. My advice to new
business owners in construction or really any vertical start your
business with the exit already in mind. Specific That doesn't
(33:07):
mean you need to know the exact date and the
time and all of that you don't know, but be
ready to be exiting at any time. Listen, life happens.
I've worked with so many people who want to sell
who had a life event that's forcing them to sell.
Mm hmm, right, unplanned or planned. But if you know
(33:27):
you're always ready, when life does happen, you're ready. That's
so start with the start with the end in mind
is the most wisdom that I could offer this juncture.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
That's so strong because not a lot of people do
think about you know that, what is what does the
end look like for a business?
Speaker 2 (33:47):
You know, is this going to last forever? Am I
going to pass it on to? You know, the next generation?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Even if you do pass it on, you still want
to have that exit readiness in place because then you're
setting them up for success, showing them that they have
a successful business.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And it's easier to even pass.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Down when it's more modernized with the latest technology or
just the updated facelift on the website, you know, and
it's not a website from like the eighties or nineties,
like everything is actually in place and.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
It looks good.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
So yeah, that's that is strong advice. I really appreciate that.
And hey, listen, 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, and
we will see you next time. Thank you, John.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
It's Lou at Lumberfi dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
M
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 (00:15):
I would like to welcome our guest, John Wiley, CEO
of Manajery Electric.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, John, how's it going, Lou.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm doing great. I'm good to be with you today.
We've been planning this for us a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, And you're a really busy guy.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So I appreciate you opening up a time slot for me,
and it means a lot. And I know a lot
of the listeners today are just gonna want us to.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Jump right in and hear from you.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
John, So why don't you go ahead and expand when
did you get into construction?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I got into construction probably at the age of sixteen
or seventeen. I grew up in the Phoenix area and
could work construction, you know, in the summers, you know,
learning the trades, doing you know, apartment buildings, laying carpets,
setting tile, cleaning floors, whatever I could do to earn money.
Because I figured out I could make more in construction
(01:09):
than I could bagging groceries, which was the first start,
and I went, wait a minute, I can make more
money over there. That's how I got started. It's been
a career ever since.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And then you know, going down that path, you know
what experiences did you have? Do you feel like that
really sets you up for where you're at today? I guess, like,
what are you doing today? And you know what does
that journey look like?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Yeah? So you know what set me up for success
is my dad who raised me, you know, taught me
how to swing an axe in the backyard we lived
grew up before we moved to Phoenix. We were in Anaheim, California.
We had a couple of old orange trees in the
backyard and he took me out there and taught me
the art of swinging and acts. I had blisters. You
taught me love that, you know like, and taught me
(01:55):
how to swing it and you know, let me struggle
for a while. Well that set me up for construction
because it's hard, can be hard work you have to endure.
But if you learn the tips and tricks, like he
taught me the art of swinging the acts, what was
hard became much easier and the tools started doing the work.
So as in construction, as we know, anything's easy with
(02:15):
the right tool. So anyway, that set me up right
for success, and I learned to be, you know, a
really good tile layer. I started laying high end tile,
high end tiles at tile showers I'm trying to say,
in high end homes in the valley, and and it
(02:36):
just continued on, you know, to hone the craft. And
then as I got into my thirties and forties, I
started acquiring single family residences for my dad's retirement fund.
He had seen his portfolio crash, his retirement portfolio he's
(02:58):
an architect, crash in the eight to nine correction.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It was brutal. He lost forty percent of his value.
And he came to me and he said, son, if
you could start any business, what would you do. And
I knew exactly. I said, Dad, I'd buy this shopping center.
Here's why I told him, pizza huts coming out. We
renegotiate the lease, do this, do that, hold it, fixed this,
fix that right. And all of my construction experience had
given me not only the attitude that I can I
(03:27):
can fix it, or I can bring in the right
expert to fix anything that needs to be repaired. So
we reflipped a shopping center and it went on from
there that I started buying single family residences for his
retirement fund. I made no money doing it. It was the
joy of reporting my dad right. And I had another job,
you know, as a community leader. I bought a former
(03:49):
hospital in Kansas City that had been abandoned for ten
years and I was in the middle of repurposing that
building for families that don't have anywhere to go, that
have people with job site repurposed that. So in the
middle of that, I start this side gig with my dad.
Well that led to probably about one hundred and twenty
five single family residence is being acquired over time, and
(04:12):
it's a lot, and I managed all. I did a
lot of the work in the beginning myself, all the rehabs,
distressed assets and got them up and got them rented
and managed, self managed, and then started getting approached by
other investors out of state, Hey would you do it
for me? Over that time, I became the national brand
(04:33):
ambassador for Think Reality Radio and Think Reality Magazine. I'm
all over the nation now teaching people, you know, the
simple little tricks I did and always having that construction
background because I could walk into a house and I
could within fifteen minutes, I could walk out with a
plus or minus scope in my head of what it'll
really take to fix this house. And that took my
(04:53):
real estate career my you know, not your traditional realtor,
right through the rocket like a rocket. And then I'll
wind this up on my path. Right, So now I'm
managing a lot of portfolio rehab for other people. Then
I was finally approached in twenty twenty two by a
publicly traded fund that invests in single family residences for
(05:17):
retirement funds that are managed and they had sixty million
dollar budget, and so I stood up a company to
acquire those homes and manage all the rehab in two states.
I think we did. We did one hundred and seventy
six homes and ten months perst in rehab. And that
(05:37):
that was then, and now I've gone on to do
other things as well. I'll take a breath.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
How do you find the time?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Oh? Life is fun, right, I get up all my life.
I've always woken up at like three in the morning,
four in the morning all my life, you know, just
an early riser and still end to day. I just
you know, I do. I love. It's not yeah, I
have the I have the privilege of getting to do
every day what I love to do, you know, build teams,
(06:09):
start companies, uh and and and and and go from
there and and today and I while I'm not you know,
I'm still in construction. But I never thought I would
be in the in the place that I'm in. It's
a unique journey, right that Taylor made to my personality
and my my own desires. I I I like people, right,
(06:32):
most of the time, we all get to a point
where like I'm done, I don't all talk to you.
But generally speaking, I like being around people, like building teams.
I like to see like people that work hard and
create that team environment. So as I did those large
home that large home project I told you about, right,
we bought all those homes for this publicly traded company. Yeah,
(06:54):
this last interest rate where they the rates shot up, right,
couple of years ago, all my clients dried up and
stopped buying, which I knew woul happened. Eventually, it happens
in real estate. So no houses to rehab, nothing to buy.
All the customers went away, had to lay off the
whole team and then I got a approached by somebody
i'd met when I was brand ambassador Think Reality. My
(07:17):
business partner today, Abby Gohar approached me and said, hey,
would you come join Meridian eighty four. It's a private
equity firm and we want you to be the chief
of strategy. My response was, I know vaguely about PE, right,
I have a concept of PE, but I'm not a
PE guy. And he's pushed back and said, we're not
(07:38):
hiring you because everything you know about PE, you know people,
you know how to figure out if the company we're
looking to acquire has toxicity in it that's not showing
up in the balance sheet. Meaning you know people, you
know teams, and you know clients and vendors, and you
have this way of just like building that big mo momentum.
(08:00):
Right uh. And now, because I'm the smartest, I just
know how to surround myself with like really great people
and get out of the way, let them do their job.
Come do that for us. Will make you chief of strategy.
So they would, they they would look at all the numbers,
bring me the companies in. My job is to get
to know the owner, the seller one on one, to
(08:21):
know who they are why they built their company, to
get to know why they hired the people they did,
why are you wanting to exit now? And for the
for the for the sellers in construction of companies that
that I just feel that affinity toward, like these are
hard working people that have You know, we acquired a
company in Galesburg, Illinois, right forty year old companies started
(08:45):
by one man, thirteen employees averaged ten year north of
ten years right there, and you know, we bought that company.
But getting to know those those sellers and then inviting
them onto our cap table to be what I call
wisdom at the table as we take over to grow
the company. And I'm proud to say like that company
(09:05):
in particular, it's two years later not one employee left
disgruntled or because we bought the company. Because we don't
come in to fix it it's already running. We come
into help scale it and grow it. And so when
we buy a company, I'm often the interim CEO in
the construction space, not always, but sometimes they'll appoint me
(09:28):
as the CEO to help with the transition, like we
did in Gaylsburg at Mangerry Electric.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Wow, Okay, that's super impressive. There's so many things that
I want to unpack. In all of that, I think
the thing that stood out to me right away was
the employee's part, like you must have done something in
the process that built trust and really helped you. And
(09:56):
maybe it was also the employees themselves and the kind
of culture that you may be even nurtured. So, you know,
expand a little bit, what is the company culture? You know,
what do you do with these employees that and is
there you know, any employees that you want a spotlight
that help this?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Uh, you know this whole process.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I guess well, as chief of strategy for pe on
the on the you know, the people side, right, not
the numbers guy, the people guy. I'm looking for that
my intuition to kick in, looking for that relational connection.
We I will green light a company to purchase if
I believe we've got the ingredients with the right team
(10:36):
in place. Doesn't mean I have to be the team's
fully assembled. It doesn't even mean that people inside the
company are necessarily in the best seats. I want to
keep them all, but we may do a little reshuffling
very slowly. But I'm very aware of what they're gifting
is because I've taken time. Most importantly, before we buy
a company, there's a one on one with me and
we just sat down and talk and I listen. I
(10:59):
listen to their hearts, desires, the key leaders, and I'm
just observing. And I do that for about six months
while the company is running. They don't need me to
run the company. The company's running. I'm more concerned about
the people, and so it gives me confidence when when
people like Julie Warner are CFOs. She was keeping the
books and realized and this is not a shot to
(11:23):
the previous owner. The previous owner was running his business
his way. He wasn't running it wrong. But we realized
that Julie had far more capability and we were able
to bring her into to become our CFO. And she's
doing an amazing job. And as we've scaled and grown,
and anytime you hand off a company there's usually a
little bit of a flat line before you start to
(11:45):
pick back up. She's managed that little normal flat line
and now everything's starting to point up a little bit.
She's doing an amazing job. We hired a great general manager,
Chuck Doocy left another company in the Midwest come and
join us. Moved his family to Geilsburg because he saw
what I saw, an amazing company with a great team.
(12:06):
You know, Jeremy Smith been there for so long running
the teams out. Rick Kent, our lead lead electrician, I
call him, he's been there for I don't know. I've
lost track of how many years. Ormer Marine been there
seventeen eighteen years. Like without these people, number one, we
(12:27):
wouldn't buy and number two, I wouldn't have the confidence
to know that we are growing. Because you can have
a company, but if you don't have the right team,
it's a grind.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
How did you get so in tune with getting to
know people? Like is this something that was like you
were you did that when you were a kid, and like,
you know, you just talked to everybody. I guess what
or did it come from your parents? Like how how
did you get this skill that you know they can't
really teach this in school?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, well, you know, I had a tough childhood. Grown up,
some people do something, you know. I was on my
own at fifteen, which is why we're wow fifteen fifteen Wow?
And you know, and so I was, you know, CouchSurfing
a lot at fifteen and sixteen trying to figure out
my life, which is how I ended up in construction. Right, Yeah,
(13:22):
gave me focus, and then at a young age, around
twenty twenty one, I, out of the overflow of who
I am, right, not as a job, I started hosting
conversations in my home with people who wanted to talk
about the Bible or talk about God or living right.
And it just kept growing and growing, and over the
(13:44):
course of my life. While I've always been in construction,
I've given birth to three different churches. Some of them
grew really large.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And I love that I learned the art.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
It's not about me. They didn't come to hear me talk.
It's about them and their journey. Right. So thirty years
of pastoring, startup congregations again out of the overflow of
my life, not as a profession or as a job,
right creating community, you know, closely held community. So I
bring all of that skill set that I learned through
(14:16):
the art of listening and standing with people through difficult times.
Families face hard decisions, transitions and marriages and loss of
parents and children that you say you did what and
they want to come talk to the pastor right and
learning the art of just helping people through tough times
(14:37):
is what really to be honest, is what developed these
skills in me.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Oh my gosh, we're going to clip that. I'm going
to share it with everybody. That's an amazing story. That's
phenomenal and it's cool. Like I get, I just learned
a little a new fact about you, mister John Wiley
right on this podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
You're a brother in Christ. I love that.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
It's amazing and the mission that you were on that
of course God puts you down that path sounds like
an amazing journey, even though you had adversity to overcome
in the beginning, and where you're at today is absolutely phenomenal.
I mean, people look at the story of John Wiley today,
you know, pe owner, you got the electrical company, you're
(15:21):
you know, super successful, but they don't realize the path
that you went down to get to where you're at today.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
It's it's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Wow, that's that's really cool. So I now I see that's.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Where a lot of the you know, people skills came from.
I mean, it's almost the you learn from the school
of hard knocks.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Well, what I learned was that what you seek to
receive first, seek giveaway. So I want deep, meaningful relationships
in a broad network of people that I can serve
and then they can serve me when I need help. Yeah,
the principle goes like this. If you want friends deep,
you know, deep connections, seek first to be that person
(16:06):
to others. And so that's the underlying thing. Right, you
want to be known as a hard worker, work hard.
You want to be known as deeply connected and a
guy to call when there's trouble on the line and
you've got other people you could call to break up.
Be that guy first to others and you'll receive that back.
And that is the foundation that has built everything in
(16:27):
my life. Not because I'm the smartest person in the room.
I just you know I have taken this this approach.
You know, I told you I bought a hospital in
Kansas City, right next to Arrowhead Stadium. I didn't buy
it for me. I didn't buy it to become known,
although it hit the national wire when I bought this.
I used to be on city council in the area. Right,
former councilman buys hospital. Nobody knows why, Right, I bought
(16:50):
with families. It was about the families, not about what
I did. It was about them, and we purpose that hospital.
And that's how I look at the companies that we buy.
It's being we're continuing the story of a founder who
loves their employees, loves their vendors, loves their customers, and
for whatever reason in their personal life, there's no one
(17:11):
there to take that company on. They want to sell it,
and they're looking for groups like ours that will continue
that legacy and not come in and shut the thing down. Wow.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
This is yeah, really really incredible. And the experience that
you have in business, I'm sure you've learned some secrets
to scaling, you know, is there anything Is there anything
that you want to share with listeners? I mean, your
experience is pretty pretty awesome and very deep. So it's
(17:45):
like that, is there anything that you want to share
or even a position that you're in today that you
could probably share some of this information one on one
with people to help them with scaling their business.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Absolutely, it's really a role I've stepped into now now
I'm still involved with the pe firm, I'm still chief
of Strategy, and over that course of that time, just
to quantify and what I'd like to accentuate. Moving forward
to your question, I've looked at hundreds of companies with
my two partners, doctor Phil Hearn and Abi Golhart. We've
looked at hundreds of companies, and many of them we
(18:19):
wanted to buy, but we have to say no. And
sellers who wanted to sell to us, and a buyer
who wants to buy. And because we're bringing lenders to
the table with us to help us with our terms. Right,
we've got our own skin in the game, but we're
bringing in a capital partner. We don't have outside investors.
We bring in traditional lenders. So the lenders looking over
(18:42):
our shoulder under the hood at the company we want
to buy. Here's the challenge. Out of hundreds that we
would look at, most of the time, the answer would
be no, the company's great, it's profitable. I want to
buy it as a chief of strategy people person, but
the numbers don't work. Hundreds of company we couldn't say
yes to and we wanted to. I started getting frustrated, Phil,
(19:04):
really frustrated, because I'm meaning good people who want to
sell and move into retirement or just sell stick around
and help build it to the next level. Right, Yeah,
And we would have to say no, and they want
me to buy their business. And so how to that
frustration Because here's the stat. I'll give you a stat.
Eight out of ten businesses in the United States that
go up for sell will never sell, eight out of ten.
(19:28):
And I was witnessing those stats go across my desk constantly.
Eight out of ten will never sell to anybody. Here's
why they're great companies. They're not ready to go to market,
and nobody hold the owners what to do to prepare
for an eventual exit. Doesn't mean you want to exit
next year. I'm talking about no matter when you start
(19:50):
a business, you should know your trajectory. You should know
had the end in mind. It doesn't have to be
dates specific, but know how to build your company so
that when you do want to exit, you're able to
exit for full valuation and you won't get all these
people wanting to buy looking in and having all their
lenders go. Don't touch it, because what I found is
there's usually a handful four or five or so key
(20:15):
items that are suppressing company value, key indicators that the
owners are unaware of. They're what I would say, ignorantly
unaware that these are dramatic. They're profitable, they're making money,
but it's not preparing the business for exit. So I
have a company today called Exit Factor, and I focus
(20:38):
on that. I'm a strategic advisor to Meridian eighty four,
the PE firm, and now I'm a strategic advisor to
exit Factor both in the whole valley of Arizona, the
Arizona Valley as well as Atlanta. I help their in
office as well. And so what we do is we
partner with companies who having their they know holistically they
(21:01):
should be finding the things that would suppress their value
and they want to engage us. So what we do
is real quick, we do an assessment to assess their
exit readiness. Doesn't mean they're going to sell anytime soon,
but we're going to act like the buyer. We're going
to act like the buyer's lender. We're going to look
under the hood and do a complete due diligence and
bring a comprehensive about fifty page report and put it
(21:25):
at the ownerships, at the ownership groups in front of
them and go, here are the five things we found
that are suppressing your future valuation affecting you today. And
if we don't get these corrected, they will affect your
exit at the end. That's one thing to point it out,
but it's another thing to say. And here's the plan
to fix it. So we engage with them for a
(21:47):
one year, two year, three year consultive arrangement very affordable
to help them get that trajectory. And so here's two
key things, and i'll get off this number One, we've
got the data that proves it nationally, because now we're
in thirteen plus states and growing and twenty four locations.
And now those numbers are outdated, I'm sure, but we've
(22:07):
got all this data that backs us up. And so
here's the stats. Companies that engage us inside of exit
factor see a twenty five to thirty five percent increase
in profitability before they ever go to market.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
That's a lot.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
That's a lot, Okay, not new top line revenue, increased
profitability because we're going to work on the things that
we discover that are kind of causing the company to wabble.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right, you're fixing the leaks.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Then the last stat I'll throw at you is when
they do decide to exit, Now we know what their
valuation was when they come in because we do an
actual evaluation on what the company's worth today, find what's
suppressing it, what it could be worth. Right. So now
at the end of our engagement, we have another exit assessment,
the same one we did at the beginning. So now
I have quantifiable data we started here today, we're here
(22:59):
with that data. I can tell you nationwide, our clients
see an average increase evaluation fifty six point seven percent higher.
That's a lot of money.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
That is a lot. It's a lot of money, right,
fifty six.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Fifty six point seven. Don't take away my seven six
point seven. That means the seller.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
You might get a lot of phone calls after.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
This the seller, the seller knows we want to speak
to me directly, We'll give them some contact. If they're
in a Google exit factor, they may get another location.
All locations are individally pendently held, owned and operated.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
I would say, go to John, talk to John Wiley directly.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
I'll connect you to an office close by you. But
we've got an amazing here inside my company with five
full time people helping these conversations that we can help
anybody anywhere. I'll connect you to the right person in
the market close to you. But the bottom line is
the here's the owner right getting to exit for the fullaluation.
Now the buyer is still going to look at everything,
(24:05):
and the lender is still going to look. But when
they look under the hood, there's nothing to kick like
kick on, nothing to beat them up over. It's fully valued.
And these businesses sell faster and they sell for more
money because they're ready and pe firms or standalone buyers
will pay a reasonable fare price with a proper multiplier
(24:30):
if the company's healthy.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Yeah, how do you?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I mean there must be a way. I know that
you're offering up like advice and you're like you're the
go to thought leader on and your team knows all
the inside information. Do you ever leverage technology to help
scale the businesses?
Speaker 3 (24:56):
So absolutely, let's talk about Manjeri Electric. Right, that's where
I'm an interim CEO. Right, I'm still I'm interrom there.
We've got a great team and you know, I'm probably
be backing myself out of that role really soon. But
whether it's at where I'm at now at Man Jerry
or over at Exit Factor, what what what we're doing
is when we look under the hood, Like, let's use
(25:18):
Man Jerry as a case study or an example. Great owner,
wonderful company. Then when we bought it, but what we
discovered was there's no CRM. It lived on everybody's cell phone.
We discovered that they're they're doing payroll to Julie's uh
shout out to Julie. You know a warner. She was
(25:38):
doing payroll by hand when we bought the company two
years ago, right, And so we look at that and
go oh, and then the estimating software had not been updated.
The update feature had been turned off. So we were
operating on a years old estimating software platform because the
previous owner didn't want to let updates come in and
(25:59):
have something not work. So this great company, wonderful employees,
but the tech package felt like the Stone Ages, right,
not a reflection on the owner poorly or the or
the people that are there. We just knew we could
come in and here's a value add we can we
can value we can increase the the efficiency of the
(26:20):
company with great employees. So we we brought in, we
got rid of an old Sage. We were operating on
Sage three hundred I think something. And so now we're
moving over to Sage Intact. And so in reaching out
to sage. We found lumber and h and of course
that's how I met you, right uh, and so we're
(26:41):
bringing we're actually onboarding. I don't know if you know
this or not, Loot, you may know I saw emails fly.
Our teams are meeting and we're implementing like in the
next couple of weeks right over at MANGERRYA implementing a
lumber in and and that's how you and I meeting
months ago. So uh and then and then companies like
(27:04):
you know we companies like the the Association of Builders
and Contractors uh A, b C.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, ABC Illinois.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
We love them like it's it's leveraging relationships, right and
technology because if all you've got is tech without great
team and team members and outside experts, you've got tech, well,
good for you. It's it's the people that make the
tech work, right, So we lean into our relationship with
ABC of Illinois and and and they've got a big
(27:36):
network behind them. So Julie and Chuck and all the
team have great relationships with Alicia at ABC, and and
they did. They they're an indispensable help. And that's actually
how I found lumber was through Illinois. So we can't
do it without those kinds of partners we value so much.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
ABC is so so important for contractors, especially the non
union contractors looking to even be competitive, right, Like, you
have that edge and you're talking to experts. I know
Alicia and their team are phenomenal. We're going to actually
be hosting a construction Owner's summit with their team, so
(28:22):
Construction Owners Summit Illinois. It's at Western Chicago Northwest in Itasca,
Illinois on November sixth. It's from eight to seven pm
and we're inviting all members of ABC Illinois to come out.
It'll be an annual membership meeting, but also for new
(28:44):
contractors in the space where they're trying to do I
mean basically what you've done, John, I mean you're growing
these businesses, you're helping them scale, you know all the secrets,
and they get to meet people like you at this
event where they're going to get in sites on what
they could do to better their own company. So the
construction owners coming together and it doesn't have to be
(29:07):
the if it's just leadership or you have people, you know,
just operations, people that need to be involved with other
contractors to get ideas. I mean, this is the place
to go. They're all talking about topics. But Alicia is
a powerhouse within associated builders and contractors.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
I know that.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
I mean I think they even talk about her nationwide.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
That's how big she is. So it's it's pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
You guys are super fortunate to be part of that
chapter and everything that she's doing to help be on
the innovation side for contractors. And you know the little
agenda of just helping people and assisting and serving. I mean,
that's that's what you're doing. That's what I'm doing. That's
(29:52):
what Alisha is doing. You're seeing that the passion kind
of just run right through and there's other people that
are benefits from all of this giving. We're all giving
and it's just helping each other, and it's it's a
beautiful picture.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah. I have found that when you give like that,
money always follows behind. Right now, it always does, you know,
Like you know when I said bought a former hospital,
I didn't buy it because I had the money in
the bank. I just knew it was the right thing
to do, and the money came behind. People were generous
when we stood up that not for profit. When you're
generous with your time and with ABC and helping them,
(30:28):
and they help us. The monetization's automatic, everybody, all boats
are rising together. It's it's just it's I love what
I do. I love I love, I love where I
am and in life. You know, I look at where
I started, and I look where I am. I'm living
my best life and I just I love it.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
That's fantastic. Hey, if somebody wants to reach out to you, John,
you know, is there an easy way for them to
get a hold of you? Should they look something up like,
you know, what's what's your direct line of contact?
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Well, we got two. If they're on LinkedIn. Not a
ton of people in construction are on LinkedIn. Right. If
you're on LinkedIn, you need to use my middle name
to find me more easily. Just go to LinkedIn. You
can search John Franklin Wiley. Keep them in there. That'll
pretty well narrow it down and so you'll find me there.
You'll or they can email me directly. I do. I'm
(31:21):
chief of strategy at the PE firm and over at
exit Factor. Probably exit Factor would be the easiest one
because I can hand them off to other people more readily.
So if they want to reach me there, they can
reach me at John dot Wiley w i l e
y so John dot Wiley so common spelling John dot
Wiley wil e y at exit factor dot com. And
(31:46):
that will get them to my inbox if they want
to schedule a fifteen minute zoom call, just a chit chat.
I'm a referral machine. I will get them where they
need to be, whether I get monit tized out of
it or not. Because when you do the right thing,
which you seek to receive, first seek to give away.
(32:06):
So help me give more away, reach out.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That's amazing, amazing. Before we ramp up, do you have
any advice for new construction owners that you'd like to
share with our listeners?
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Oh? Do, I yes, I do. It's really key. Listen.
In great school, we all learn this lesson and we
forget it, and so in grade school they'll teach us.
Everybody should know where the exit is. Correct? Yeah, right,
for those lessons you learn around in kindergarten first grade. Right,
if your parents haven't taught you, no matter what building
(32:44):
you're in, you should they start teaching you in kindergarten
first grade, know the exit, No, have a plan. Right,
you're not leaving yet, but you know you'll want to leave,
and if there's a need to leave quickly, you need
to know how to get out. My advice to new
business owners in construction or really any vertical start your
business with the exit already in mind. Specific That doesn't
(33:07):
mean you need to know the exact date and the
time and all of that you don't know, but be
ready to be exiting at any time. Listen, life happens.
I've worked with so many people who want to sell
who had a life event that's forcing them to sell.
Mm hmm, right, unplanned or planned. But if you know
(33:27):
you're always ready, when life does happen, you're ready. That's
so start with the start with the end in mind
is the most wisdom that I could offer this juncture.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
That's so strong because not a lot of people do
think about you know that, what is what does the
end look like for a business?
Speaker 2 (33:47):
You know, is this going to last forever? Am I
going to pass it on to? You know, the next generation?
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Even if you do pass it on, you still want
to have that exit readiness in place because then you're
setting them up for success, showing them that they have
a successful business.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And it's easier to even pass.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Down when it's more modernized with the latest technology or
just the updated facelift on the website, you know, and
it's not a website from like the eighties or nineties,
like everything is actually in place and.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
It looks good.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
So yeah, that's that is strong advice. I really appreciate that.
And hey, listen, 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, and
we will see you next time. Thank you, John.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
Take care.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
It's Lou at Lumberfi dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
M
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