December 10, 2025 • 32 mins
Kevin Ellertson, President of Limitless Property Works, shares his incredible journey from growing up in a family of house flippers to navigating the Great Recession and a serious injury, which eventually led him to start his own construction company. Tune in to hear how Kevin transitioned from doing odd jobs and roto-tilling gardens during the COVID-19 pandemic to scaling a successful commercial general contracting firm. He discusses key insights into marketing, the importance of communication, and utilizing technology like AI to grow his business.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm Louperez, your host of The Builder Upper Show,
a podcast where we talk about everything in construction and trades.
Now let's get into it. I would like to welcome
our guest, Kevin Ellertson, President of Limitless Property Works. Kevin,
(00:20):
how's it going.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Great, Luke? Great, Thanks for having me today. A beautiful
day to talk about construction. So thanks for having me
on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, my pleasure. Beautiful day in Wisconsin. As we're approaching
the winter months.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Absolutely, it's about to get cold out there and everybody's
going to get their projects signed up before we head
into the holiday season here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Speaking of that, I mean, you're a busy man in construction.
You're growing fast. You're a contractor that we met at
the Milwaukee Happy Hour. It was at the gathering place
down there at Milwaukee over a brew, and you had
some interesting stories and interesting information. I think what really
is inspired this podcast was the background and growth of
(01:04):
you and your company and everything that you're doing. So
can I just start off by asking, you know, when
did you get into construction?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Man, that's a long winded answer, but I guess we'll
start back at the beginning. My dad and my uncle
flipped houses, did everything under the sun when it came
into construction, you know, when I was a little kid.
So we didn't get Saturday morning cartoons. We got get up,
get in the truck, we're going to eat something, head
to minards, and we're.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Going to get to work.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So my brother and I, along with a couple of
my cousins, were my dad and my uncle's free labor
as kids. So we started learning young none through life,
just always maintained an interest in the trades at that point.
Graduated high school in two thousand and seven, so there
wasn't a whole lot of opportunity obviously after the Great
Financial Crisis to get into the trades, but did every
(01:55):
other odd job under the sun, and then was working
in Chicago for Sam Blaster for a while and just
kind of learning the ropes from a small business owner
and an entrepreneur, and that really interested me. And at
the same time I was going to school for civil engineering,
so kind of gathering information from all different you know,
paths and routes and you know, personal education, education in
(02:17):
a school, and then just the good old fashioned school
of hard knocks, right, and then I ended up having
an industrial accident, I took a good chunk out of
my hand with a sand blaster. And I had to
find a job, right, And like everybody else who wants
to get out of the field, they go looking for
an office job. And it was just November, excuse me,
(02:38):
and not a lot of people hire in November, you know,
in the general contracting world. So put out what seemed
to be two three hundred you know, applications or indeed
and monster jobs. And I had saved a business card
from a gentleman who came in from Horizon Retail construction
at Gateway where I was.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Going to college, probably a year or two before.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I reached out to him with the resume, and I said, hey,
man looking to get into the office, looking to stay
in construction, looking to get out of the field, and
you know, learn the you know anything of what she
got in the office, right, And I shot it out there.
Didn't know if I was going to hear back from him,
And almost immediately, probably within ten to fifteen minutes or
(03:21):
back from him, and he goes, hey, thanks for sending
this over, expecting hear from my boss soon, and probably
within the next twenty minutes, I get a call scheduled
for an interview, went in interviewed, and I didn't really
care what the job was that they were going to
offer me. I knew I was going to get an
office job in construction, so to me, it was great.
So I took a job as a project coordinator and
(03:42):
went to work and really started learning I guess, I
would say, the art of general contracting. And I was
there probably two months, and they had an opportunity to
open up for a project manager, so I took it.
I didn't do the math that I was making more
as a coordinator because he worked at gazillion hours and
got paid hourly, but didn't do the math on what
(04:02):
they offered as a salary. I just knew I had
a position. I had an iPhone, and I thought I
was a man. So went to town, started learning general
contracting and it. Horizon Retail is a national general contractor
based at a start event that builds everything from Victoria's
Secrets to Edward.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Jones and anything and everything in between.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So went to work and learned really hard for six years,
you know, And I do remember non stop having work.
And I had asked my boss one time, do you
guys ever run out of work, and he said, do
you know that only happened once in two thousand and
eight and I laid off all my friends. Well, I
finished all my work during COVID, and COVID I had
(04:42):
to do kind of the same thing, laugh a bunch
of people that I considered friends, and you know, eventually
it kind of got tough out there. My wife and
I had four kids at home. My twins were six
months old, and my wife was taking care of our
children and liked many people. Through COVID, I faced a
lot of financial hardships, you know, reduction of income. Not
a lot going on in the construction industry in the
(05:04):
retail sector at that point.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So I figured, well, you got to do something to
feed all these kids.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And I put out an ad for rototiling gardens, very
simple on Craig's Low's Tale. Show up in roto tiler
your garden for fifty bucks. So I started doing that
one thing willed doing. Other people started asking me to
do handyman work. Well, handyman work kind of turned into finding,
you know, remodel work, and I went and remodeled a
condo for a woman over the course of three or
(05:30):
four weeks, and I hired all my local construction friends
who were laid off at that point, and we did
a great, amazing job, and she said you should start
a business. I was like, all right, good idea, went home,
told my wife and you know, did not get the
answer I was expecting. I thought she was going to say,
you're crazy, stay with that paycheck. We have kids at
home to feed. But she was ultra supportive. She said,
(05:53):
I think that's a great idea. You seem like you
have the right personality. You know, you should go for it.
I'll go back to work and get us some insurance.
So that way we got health insurance for the kids.
And I took off and busted my butt every single day.
Started the business founded at July third of twenty twenty,
which pretty patriotic person myself. So line's up great that
limitless birthdays lined up with America's birthday at that point.
(06:16):
And went to work, started hiring guys out and it
turned from simple handymaid projects to bathrooms to basements to kitchens, additions, garages,
really doing anything and everything that involved general contracting at
that point and kind of building out.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
A team, building out the processes.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And late twenty two early twenty three, we got the
opportunity to participate in a project for an acquisition company
that is under the Caliars umbrella. So they acquired a
multi family property down in Peoria, Illinois.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
They were really.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Struggling to kind of get some of the CAPEX projects done,
get some of the units turned over. So I took
ten guys on the road with me, went down to
Pure We flipped over about forty units at about a
five to six week period. Helped him execute all the
general contracting and CAPEX projects out there and really.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Get them pointed in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And that allowed us to start a relationship with Colliers
here in Milwaukee. And they had asked what our background
was or what my background was, and you know, I
gave him the same story i'm telling you here, and
they said, I think it would be a great opportunity
that you could add value to some of our deals.
You seem to have the knowledge, seemed to have the
motivation and understand the price points that we're trying to hit.
And they gave us opportunity in office remodels, so we
(07:34):
took that and we just started building one on top
of the other. So we switched over in spring of
twenty twenty three as a full time commercial general contractor.
So we got rid of all of our regular labors
employee site superintendents, and got ourselves in office down here
downtown Milwaukee and.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Started really trying to advertise and grow the business.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So that is the long answer to a short question
of how I got into construction.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And so now I operated. You know, I tell my
kids all the time.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
They go, Dad, I thought you were a construction worker
when they come down here and see.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Full office up and I'm like, well I am. I'm
just part of the clean pants club now.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So oh I love that. So where are you in Milwaukee?
Are you downtown?
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yep? So we're right downtown.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
We are actually in the John Plankton Building, which is
up above what would have been the old mall down here,
so Grand Avenue Mall building, we're right upstairs above it.
So it's great property out here. Temple Real Estate acquired
the property just before COVID started. They did a great
job kind of rehabing what was considered by the city
(08:38):
kind of a blighted property, and they didn't really know
what to do with it, so they came in and
turned it into some great living space, some retail space,
Third Street, Market Hall, some offices, and we're actually wrapping
up our time in this office here, and we're going
to be moving over to the Enterpack Center just down
the way here about a block away, into a new
fifty five hundred square foot office building as we are
(09:00):
expanding and growing our team, so that way we get
room for everybody.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
That's amazing. Now, this is absolutely totally off the cuff,
and this is for all the folks that don't live
in Wisconsin. Would you mind picking up your camera and
showing them out the window what Wisconsin looks like.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Sure, don't mind me and everything I got going on
out here. But oh yeah, we're right downtown. You know,
we get a beautiful view of Wisconsin Avenue and sometimes
it gets a little bit crazy out there, and you
get to hear some interesting things and the world is
been predicted to end multiple times since I've been down here.
(09:41):
But you know, it's the charm of downtown and it's
a it's a great place to be and I'm a
very big proponent of you know, Milwaukee is coming back
in a very strong way and proud to be west
of the River, which if you're not from here west
of the Rivers, where we had some more challenges, you know,
when we had some of the larger companies leave downtown Milwaukee.
So Hemple is a big part of that revitalization. We've
(10:02):
bought in as part of it. I love Milwaukee, you know,
it's home. Grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which is a
couple county south here. But love that we've made Milwaukee
our home.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
People call it Smalwaukee, but I think the opportunities that
it presents and the teamwork that is present in the
industry is what I enjoy most about it.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Amazing. And I noticed there was a couple of trophies
in the window. What were those?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So one is a fantasy football trophy to which we
take very seriously. I have a group of me and
nine other guys that go back, I don't know, twenty
twenty five years in friendship. So that is my ability
to talk smack to them anytime I want. I just
remind him and I look at it every day. And
then the other one we got invited by Sam Beef
(10:53):
with the Fishing for Good Foundation. If you haven't seen
them all, Pug Sam here real quick for Fishing for Good.
What they do in their mission is money to take
winned warriors and veterans out fishing and get him into
the outdoors.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So it's a great foundation.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
They hosted a charity event this year, so we sponsored
a salmon boat on Lake Michigan, and I took me
and a couple guys from my office and a handful
of my site superintendents and we went fishing for the
day and we caught the most fish with the most weight,
so we get to take the same a cup. There's
cool video on my LinkedIn and it looks like a
(11:26):
Stanley Cup, so as in tradition of when the hockey
players win a Stanley Cup, you have to pour a
beer in it and drink it, so we obliged to
pour a beer in it.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And there's a video of me on LinkedIn too.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I don't know if it's good or bad judgment on
that one, but of me drinking beer out of the
trophy there. So I hope we can defend it again
next year and bring it on home again, but you know,
if not, it'll go to another loving home at that point,
and it's our turn, right.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That sounds amazing. I think I might throw my hat
in the ring on that one. I do know Sam Beef,
so I got I I haven't had him pitch me
on this fishing for good, So I need to jump
in on the bandwagon and go fishing with you guys.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Absolutely well, we'll have to get you out.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
There, Loo, that would be great. And you know, just
to kind of pivot back to business, who or what
inspired you to get in construction? Is there like an
individual person? Is there something that just really, you know,
triggered you to be like this is it? Like this
is my life and I don't want to go anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Man, I.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
You know, it's tough, right A lot of people have
that one person, you know, Like my grandfather was one
of the founding members of the Wonkey Electrical Union, right like,
so he always worked on stuff. My dad was still
is that guy who has, you know, a two thousand
square foot shop and he works on and fixes anything
and everything. And you know, most I think about it
(12:50):
is I wanted to be one of the guys, right like,
I thought they were the toughest, coolest dudes out there
working and you know, you get progress at the end
of the day. To go I built that and I
did that, you know, So it was more of a
you know, mindset and a community, I guess I would say,
because construction really is.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
A community at the end of the day, right you know,
it's it's.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
A very big community that you know, spreads across worldwide
at this point. But I think it was just something
that really interested me on that side about you know,
being one of the guys and you know, being a
tough guy, right, you know, being a being a man
in that situation as a little boy looking at him,
you know, walking across roofs and you know, building steel
structures and things like that.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And you know, even though.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I'm a little bit further away from it now sitting
in the office at this point, I still do kind
of hold that deep down inside. And you know, I
truly love construction and love the industry.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That's great, Like it just doesn't leave you. You can't
get away from it no at all.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Do you.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
So do you go visit the job sites then, and
it just kind of gives you that feeling back.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I do.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
They give me a hard time with my clean boots
and my hard hat that's got no blemishes on it,
you know, Like I remember being one of the guys
in the field just looking at the know, the so
to speak, cleank pants club and look at him and go, no, man,
you know, but I uh, enough of my guys that
work for me started with me at the beginning, so
they definitely saw me throw the bags on, throw the
(14:12):
work boots on, you know, work, sweat and bleed and
suffer right alongside of them.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
So there's that respect.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And you know, as much as I like to think
of my head, I could step out of the cushy
office world and throw the bags on and show them.
I'm sure I would out of you know, just sheer
will and the next day I'd pay for it.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
But you know, definitely not afraid to still get my
hands dirty.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, every once in a while, the lion's got to
come out of the den.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
You just got to know if you still got it right.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, No, that's good. I love it. So what is
something that you know today that you wish you knew
when you started, oh.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Started the business or started construction?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
He can be either one.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Oh man, let's stick business. Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So here's one thing when people always ask me that
that I tell him, right, Like, if I knew what
I knew today, I wouldn't have started then, right, Like
you have to have some of that blissful ignorance, right,
you know, the old jump off the cliff is going
to feel like falling until you're flying is a real thing. Man.
That's that's a good question. What I wish I knew
(15:18):
now or what I know now that I knew then?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
So is it just yeah right in, Yeah, just jump in.
You know you're gonna find out a lot of stuff
along the way.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Sorry it is thinking there, but you're gonna find a
lot of stuff out along the way. You're gonna find
a lot out about yourself right when you jump off
the cliff. You know, I'd say, probably don't and this
isn't it. Don't scale your business too fast, but scale
your business in the right way right, Hire the right
people at the right time, you know, supervise and inspect
(15:51):
what you expect, and not just out of the work
that you're looking for, but out of the people that
you bring into the business right, understanding those relationships and
and not just going okay, that's construction professional twenty years.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I can hire them and not pay attention to them.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
You know, it's like anything, you got to pay attention
to what you're doing, you know, whether it's building a wall,
walking on a roof, hiring people out, processing payroll, you know,
networking and preventing or presenting yourself image right like, you
got to you got to really pay attention to what
you're doing. So at the beginning, I wish I could
have gone back and probably told myself to maybe pay
(16:25):
attention a little bit closer, you know, maybe want to
cost some of the headaches and financial pains that you
experienced early on. But at the end of the day,
it's the mistakes and the pains that make you who
you are today. So you got to experience every last
little bit of it and just hope that you're good
enough to overcome some of those challenges and then ultimately succeed.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, that's that's some good insights. And I mean you
mentioned scaling. Do you have any secrets to scaling your business?
Is there something that you've done where you're like, oh, wow,
this this is really helping me grow?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I would say this, right, And I think people construction
really struggle with it, right, Like, because we're all blue
color guys, you know, we're out here just doing the
work and making it happen and You don't see a
lot of people, you know, from this side, who just
make a pile of money and go, I'm going to
start a construction company. Right, whether it's a service business
or a general contractor, it generally starts with blue collar
(17:17):
guy who's you know, fed up or going I could
do this better myself, or I want to do it
myself and jump out right, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
But it's that marketing piece, understanding.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
You know, your image of who you are, Understanding your
guys image of who they are.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
You know, everybody on our side.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
You know, my thought from the beginning was everything's got
to look professional, whether it's the contracts, the work shirts,
you know, the work that we do myself, and how
I'm presenting myself. But the power of marketing, right like
at the beginning, you know we're talking COVID. You know,
advertising on social media was still cheap, right, Like you
(17:53):
could buy sponsored ads on Facebook for nothing and LinkedIn
for nothing, and you know, people were still thinking that, hey,
we advertise on TV, magazines and radio and billboards and
that's it, right, And I took I want to say
it was one hundred and fifty dollars and I ran
an ad campaign between the twenty third of December and
(18:13):
like the fourth of January. Right, it was that period
of like Friday night to the to the Monday morning
where everybody went back to work and everybody is tight
of their family and doom scrolling.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
I figured out every everybody's on Facebook, right, especially now
it's pandemic COVID. Right. So, yeah, one hundred and fifty
dollars on advertising, and it was a very clean advertisement.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
You click on.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
It and it's a lead funnel and you know, how
can I help you? Can we schedule an estimate? And
I think that one hundred and fifty dollars filled up
my schedule for probably a good six or eight months.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
So it's yeah, So it's the power of advertising and
putting your name out there, you know. I think if
you're a young business owner, you got to find out,
you know, where those lead funnels can come from at
a cost effective rate, right, So look for those.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And I mean, even though social media is a little.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
More expensive than it was five years ago, it's still
rather affordable. I mean, do you know the cost of
advertising in your own business?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Right?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Getting on a radio or printed copy is a lot
of money or advertising in a sporting event is a
lot of money, right, so find those valuable areas that
you can spread the message and get in front of
the right people.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
So I have a feeling that somebody's going to listen
to this and say, how did you create that ad?
Like what did they click on? What happened? Like? Did
you use somebody? Did you do this by yourself? Like
you know, there's probably some people that want to unpack
that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
So there's a great saying and it's Tony Robbins saying,
right like, you don't fail because of your lack of resources.
You fail because of your lack of resourcefulness. I'll say
that one again is one of my favorites. You don't
fail because of your lack of resources, You fail because
of your lack of resourcefulness. Right yeah, So I always
coming from the commercial side, right, take before and after
(20:00):
pictures of everything, and you take progress pictures of everything.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
So I just took a couple of clean pictures.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Facebook at the time had a tool that you could
utilize that would help you create an AD and then
it linked to your website or linked to your DMS
at that point. So like the branding, I utilized fiber.
I think I paid a guy in the UK like
one hundred bucks to you know, do our logo and
do our image which is an Infinity signal play on
(20:27):
the limitless.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And then utilizing some of the.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Other people that I know in marketing and going, hey,
what do you think about this? How does the grammar look?
You know the pre chat GPT where you could go
on there and say I need an ad, give me one.
So I'm sure if I look at it now, it's
probably not as clean and beautiful as I would.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Expect today five years later.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But for the time, it worked really well and I
put it out there, and you know, it's when you
get those messages you got to respond to them. You know,
you have to absolutely pick up the phone and talk
to them, go to that site, visit. Even if it's
not the right project for you at that point in time,
you still have to go because you never know. Some
of my best projects that I got out of that
lead funnel were ones that I didn't think would lead
(21:09):
to anything. No pun intended there, but I didn't think
they would end up in amounting to anything. The ones
that you think would never you know, spend the money
on the residential sides are the ones that would shock you.
The ones that sound like a simple project generally turn
into the most complex projects.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And the ones that sound like, hey, they don't want
to do much.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Once you start talking to them and getting their vision,
that's where you can get some really nice projects, you know,
and from that you can build more. Right, you can
gather more photos, you can gather more experience.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
He can gather more.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Exposure, and then you know, the next one that we
really did is the power of QR codes.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
You know now they're everywhere.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Five years ago, it was still kind of a newer
not a lot of people doing them. So what I
would do is I would create a QR code that
I had on a sign that would go in somebody's
front yard and I called them nosy neighbor signs. A
coupload photos every couple of days to that QR code.
The neighbors would scan it and watch. Then they could
see how we work. They could also see what was
going on in the neighbor's house. And then we all
(22:07):
have lives, you know, in our home ownership journeys that
are going honey, I think we could do something like that.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So it led to a lot of a lot of
leads that way.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Oh my gosh, talk about snowball effect.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
That's oh man, we just.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
That's amazing. So you mentioned uh, chat, GBT and technology.
You know, has that been a big game changer for
you and how you do your day to day business.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You know, I'm going to sound like an old man
who's fighting the time, So I'm like, hey, you got
to still write it, right because you know, at the
end of the day, with like AI music and chat GPT,
utilizing AI to write you know, copy out, you know,
or even on on websites, our brains still realize it
and can recognize it as you know, not totally genuine, right, Like,
(22:56):
it still has a little bit ways to go, but
you have to utilize the technology that's around you. I
think if we in art industry ignore what AI is
doing and what some of the software technologies are utilizing
with AI. You know, I get a picture sitting here
out next to my desk of when they built the
plant content building and they're using horse drawn work trucks,
you know, and they're using Pulley systems to pully up
(23:19):
for concrete, right, or you didn't have any power tools
so I think this is, you know, the new quote
unquote power tool of our industry. Right we have to
learn to use them, and I think you have to
welcome them in.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
You know, we.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Utilize pro Core, we utilize Salesforce, we utilize quick books,
and then on the back of that, we do utilize
a lot of the automation that goes with some of
those systems that are out there, you know, helping you
out with data entry to free up your time to
support your customers, helping you, you know, kind of craft
and clean up some of that marketing material on that side,
so you can spend more time on what matters to
(23:52):
where AI is not really going to step in and
replace this human interaction that we're having, at least not
that I foresee yet, you know, fifty years from now,
who knows what we're going to look at. But you know,
I think you can utilize the technology that you have
out there so that way you can focus on the
things that matter that you need to do personally on
that side.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
So it's great, you know, And like I said, I'm
gonna sound like.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
The old guy and fight some of it, but you know,
I think every day we can implement more and more
of it. And as we hire some of the younger
people out of college who have now been educated and
came up with it, you know, they're showing me new
things and they bring new things into your business that
add efficiency.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
So it's only going to add to the bottom line.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Absolutely spot on. So here's my next question, where do
people find you to go and do business with you?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
So we we're just we met with this AZO group
the other day, which is a marketing agency, because now
we're getting a little bit beyond of you know, my
marketing and capabilities to scale the business to where we
want to scale it. Right, So this is the question
I'd answered the other day, and right now we're kind
of a business to business approach, right person to person,
business to business approach.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
You know, not a lot of people need.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
A general contractor, let alone a commercial general contractor, you know,
so we're in that. We're really narrowing down that area
to where finding the people of when they need a
commercial general contractor not if they need a general contractor.
So you can find us on the internet obviously by
just googling us at limitless property works dot com. We're
(25:23):
all over LinkedIn growing the presence pretty steady and heavy
on that. But we participate in a lot of local
networking organizations. So we participate in carw SO Commercial Association
of Realtors Wisconsin, SiO R, which is another networking association
for like industrial brokerage and industrial minded people. And then
NYE Out, which I think everyone's pretty familiar with what
(25:46):
NYAPP is and what they are about. So we participate
in all three of those organizations. Then we're always looking
into going out to happy hours of mean people. You know,
it's getting me in front of those people like yourself,
right like we met at a happy hour. It's all
about the networking that you can do at this point
in our business and.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
How we are.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
But I'll shamelessly plug us. Go find us on the internet.
Feel free to reach out. I'm sure Louis'd be happy
to share our info. But reach out if you got
some ideas, you know, got questions on which direction you
should go. We're familiar from the path of all the
way to inception to completion and occupancy.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I was going to ask you, you know, let's say
you have a prospective client watching this show right now.
You know, what does that client look like? You know,
who is your target audience, who who you want to
reach out to you and what would you like to
tell them if they're watching right now.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
So we operate in the tenant improvement space, which tenant
improvement space if anyone out there is not familiar is
going to be. You have the existing building and we're
going to take what's older, even if it's a new
shell space into what needs to be right. So we
work in the office space, we work in the quick
serve restaurant space. We do a lot of industrial work
as far as building the offices out within, helping out
(27:04):
with the storage area, helping out with the manufacturing area.
And then we also operate for private equity firms where
we'll come in and we'll take a look at those
property condition reports and their CAPEX needs and the whole
deal is a total as a whole either excuse me,
and put together a plan on how we can improve
the properties. So pretty wide array of services that we
(27:27):
offer on that side. With being a quote unquote paper
general contractor, we employee site superintendents and we can hire
anybody and everybody out you know, in between.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I always say from demo to final clean.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
So what I would say to any prospective clients out
there is we are the conscientious GC. We don't aim
to be the lowest GC just to get the price
to get a job, to change order people. I personally
hate change orders, which is weird to hear out of
a GC. You know, most gcs the joke goes right,
the dinghy is called the base contract and the giant
yacht is called chain.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
I don't really think like that.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So we try and come in and partner with clients
and really be a partner to the deal. Coming on
the idea side, help people value engineer, build a budget
and build a schedule that suits their exact needs to
get the most of what they want. You know, we
want to be here for the whole duration of somebody's career, right,
not just do one job and then they forget about
us or we forget about them.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
But how can we do a lifelong of deals at
this point? And how can we add value?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
That's the first question I always ask people, and I
think I asked you this m How can I add
value to your business?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Who would have ever thought you're you've scaled this fast,
You're this big in just a few years, and just
not too long ago, it was roto tilling gardens. Like, man,
what a difference? I mean, like, what was that pitch
when you were roto tilling gardens?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Now it's like a whole different story, a crazy big
chapter where you're at.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
And you'll do anything when you get to feed your kids.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Right when you get a wife and kids at home,
you'll kind of do anything, you know, And that's what
it was at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
And you know we're still that way.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
You know, there's there's stuff that I won't row a
til your garden to be fair in every spring, I
always chuckle because somebody finds me through an old Facebook post,
you know, search and rot hotailing and there go hen
you run until gardens. You know, I get the same
cell phone numbers when I started, so I still have
residential customers. We'll call me, you know, and I get
to let them down easy, like, hey, I apologize.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
I don't really do that anymore. You know.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I get some great recommendations for you, but that's what
you get for putting your number on Google and Facebook.
And you know, but we're at that point where we'll
take a look at just about anything, you know that's
a good project size. You know, our kind of minimum
cut off on that size is you know, probably in
that forty to fifty thousand range, you know, to where
we're looking at a light TI. You know, right now,
(29:56):
we just finished wrapping up a bit on you know,
a three million another plus project too as well. So
it takes all types to make the construction company work.
You know, I tell people we're a young company, you know,
with with years and years and you know, almost a
century's worth of experience between me and all my associates.
But you know, we're willing willing to pretty much take
a look at anything at this point. If it makes
(30:18):
business sense for us, and it makes business sense for
our clients, we're in to do it.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, that's amazing. So that before we wrap up, do
you have any advice for new construction owners that you'd
like to share with our listeners?
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Oh man, that's kind of a loaded question too. I
didn't love that one.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Any advice, Like I was saying earlier, if I knew
now what I knew back at the beginning, I don't
think it would have started. You know, And this isn't
construction owners, this is anybody right just start. You know,
you're not going to be perfect. If you wait for
it to be perfect, it's never going to be.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Perfectionism gets in the way progress, right, so right down
you want to do set some goals, get out and
get after it. You know, make sure you got the
insurance piece taken care of, Make sure you got the
accounting piece taken care of. Take care of your people,
how you would want to be taken care of, Take
care of your customers, how you would want to be
taken care of. Be a good steward of the money
(31:16):
and turn over quality work. You know, and communicate. That's
the biggest one. I think I hammer home to really
anybody I bring into the business, or anybody when I
go out and speak at you know, UWM or any
other you know, universities or the young people in general.
Pick up the phone, communicate good, better and different, right
the saying goes. Good news is great, bad news is okay,
But no communication is unacceptable. You know, if you want
(31:40):
to succeed in construction, pick up the phone. Communicate with
your people. You know, think bad things are going to happen,
change orders are going to happen, you know, an unforeseen circumstances.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
But if you communicate and you follow through on that.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
People are going to spread that word like wildfire and
you'll have more people knocking on your door to add
value to their deals into your business fast than you'd
ever know what to do with.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
But get started, man, great, I feel like that was
advice for days. You could take pieces of each thing
advice for days. Well, Kevin, thank you for being a
guest on the show. Please everyone like, subscribe, comment, and
share the Builder Upper Show with everyone in the construction
industry and we will see you next time. Thank you.
(32:35):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
It's Lou at lumberfi dot com.
Hey everyone, I'm Louperez, your host of The Builder Upper Show,
a podcast where we talk about everything in construction and trades.
Now let's get into it. I would like to welcome
our guest, Kevin Ellertson, President of Limitless Property Works. Kevin,
(00:20):
how's it going.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Great, Luke? Great, Thanks for having me today. A beautiful
day to talk about construction. So thanks for having me
on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, my pleasure. Beautiful day in Wisconsin. As we're approaching
the winter months.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Absolutely, it's about to get cold out there and everybody's
going to get their projects signed up before we head
into the holiday season here.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Speaking of that, I mean, you're a busy man in construction.
You're growing fast. You're a contractor that we met at
the Milwaukee Happy Hour. It was at the gathering place
down there at Milwaukee over a brew, and you had
some interesting stories and interesting information. I think what really
is inspired this podcast was the background and growth of
(01:04):
you and your company and everything that you're doing. So
can I just start off by asking, you know, when
did you get into construction?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Man, that's a long winded answer, but I guess we'll
start back at the beginning. My dad and my uncle
flipped houses, did everything under the sun when it came
into construction, you know, when I was a little kid.
So we didn't get Saturday morning cartoons. We got get up,
get in the truck, we're going to eat something, head
to minards, and we're.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Going to get to work.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So my brother and I, along with a couple of
my cousins, were my dad and my uncle's free labor
as kids. So we started learning young none through life,
just always maintained an interest in the trades at that point.
Graduated high school in two thousand and seven, so there
wasn't a whole lot of opportunity obviously after the Great
Financial Crisis to get into the trades, but did every
(01:55):
other odd job under the sun, and then was working
in Chicago for Sam Blaster for a while and just
kind of learning the ropes from a small business owner
and an entrepreneur, and that really interested me. And at
the same time I was going to school for civil engineering,
so kind of gathering information from all different you know,
paths and routes and you know, personal education, education in
(02:17):
a school, and then just the good old fashioned school
of hard knocks, right, and then I ended up having
an industrial accident, I took a good chunk out of
my hand with a sand blaster. And I had to
find a job, right, And like everybody else who wants
to get out of the field, they go looking for
an office job. And it was just November, excuse me,
(02:38):
and not a lot of people hire in November, you know,
in the general contracting world. So put out what seemed
to be two three hundred you know, applications or indeed
and monster jobs. And I had saved a business card
from a gentleman who came in from Horizon Retail construction
at Gateway where I was.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Going to college, probably a year or two before.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I reached out to him with the resume, and I said, hey,
man looking to get into the office, looking to stay
in construction, looking to get out of the field, and
you know, learn the you know anything of what she
got in the office, right, And I shot it out there.
Didn't know if I was going to hear back from him,
And almost immediately, probably within ten to fifteen minutes or
(03:21):
back from him, and he goes, hey, thanks for sending
this over, expecting hear from my boss soon, and probably
within the next twenty minutes, I get a call scheduled
for an interview, went in interviewed, and I didn't really
care what the job was that they were going to
offer me. I knew I was going to get an
office job in construction, so to me, it was great.
So I took a job as a project coordinator and
(03:42):
went to work and really started learning I guess, I
would say, the art of general contracting. And I was
there probably two months, and they had an opportunity to
open up for a project manager, so I took it.
I didn't do the math that I was making more
as a coordinator because he worked at gazillion hours and
got paid hourly, but didn't do the math on what
(04:02):
they offered as a salary. I just knew I had
a position. I had an iPhone, and I thought I
was a man. So went to town, started learning general
contracting and it. Horizon Retail is a national general contractor
based at a start event that builds everything from Victoria's
Secrets to Edward.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Jones and anything and everything in between.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
So went to work and learned really hard for six years,
you know, And I do remember non stop having work.
And I had asked my boss one time, do you
guys ever run out of work, and he said, do
you know that only happened once in two thousand and
eight and I laid off all my friends. Well, I
finished all my work during COVID, and COVID I had
(04:42):
to do kind of the same thing, laugh a bunch
of people that I considered friends, and you know, eventually
it kind of got tough out there. My wife and
I had four kids at home. My twins were six
months old, and my wife was taking care of our
children and liked many people. Through COVID, I faced a
lot of financial hardships, you know, reduction of income. Not
a lot going on in the construction industry in the
(05:04):
retail sector at that point.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So I figured, well, you got to do something to
feed all these kids.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And I put out an ad for rototiling gardens, very
simple on Craig's Low's Tale. Show up in roto tiler
your garden for fifty bucks. So I started doing that
one thing willed doing. Other people started asking me to
do handyman work. Well, handyman work kind of turned into finding,
you know, remodel work, and I went and remodeled a
condo for a woman over the course of three or
(05:30):
four weeks, and I hired all my local construction friends
who were laid off at that point, and we did
a great, amazing job, and she said you should start
a business. I was like, all right, good idea, went home,
told my wife and you know, did not get the
answer I was expecting. I thought she was going to say,
you're crazy, stay with that paycheck. We have kids at
home to feed. But she was ultra supportive. She said,
(05:53):
I think that's a great idea. You seem like you
have the right personality. You know, you should go for it.
I'll go back to work and get us some insurance.
So that way we got health insurance for the kids.
And I took off and busted my butt every single day.
Started the business founded at July third of twenty twenty,
which pretty patriotic person myself. So line's up great that
limitless birthdays lined up with America's birthday at that point.
(06:16):
And went to work, started hiring guys out and it
turned from simple handymaid projects to bathrooms to basements to kitchens, additions, garages,
really doing anything and everything that involved general contracting at
that point and kind of building out.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
A team, building out the processes.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And late twenty two early twenty three, we got the
opportunity to participate in a project for an acquisition company
that is under the Caliars umbrella. So they acquired a
multi family property down in Peoria, Illinois.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
They were really.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Struggling to kind of get some of the CAPEX projects done,
get some of the units turned over. So I took
ten guys on the road with me, went down to
Pure We flipped over about forty units at about a
five to six week period. Helped him execute all the
general contracting and CAPEX projects out there and really.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Get them pointed in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And that allowed us to start a relationship with Colliers
here in Milwaukee. And they had asked what our background
was or what my background was, and you know, I
gave him the same story i'm telling you here, and
they said, I think it would be a great opportunity
that you could add value to some of our deals.
You seem to have the knowledge, seemed to have the
motivation and understand the price points that we're trying to hit.
And they gave us opportunity in office remodels, so we
(07:34):
took that and we just started building one on top
of the other. So we switched over in spring of
twenty twenty three as a full time commercial general contractor.
So we got rid of all of our regular labors
employee site superintendents, and got ourselves in office down here
downtown Milwaukee and.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Started really trying to advertise and grow the business.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
So that is the long answer to a short question
of how I got into construction.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
And so now I operated. You know, I tell my
kids all the time.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
They go, Dad, I thought you were a construction worker
when they come down here and see.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Full office up and I'm like, well I am. I'm
just part of the clean pants club now.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So oh I love that. So where are you in Milwaukee?
Are you downtown?
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Yep? So we're right downtown.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
We are actually in the John Plankton Building, which is
up above what would have been the old mall down here,
so Grand Avenue Mall building, we're right upstairs above it.
So it's great property out here. Temple Real Estate acquired
the property just before COVID started. They did a great
job kind of rehabing what was considered by the city
(08:38):
kind of a blighted property, and they didn't really know
what to do with it, so they came in and
turned it into some great living space, some retail space,
Third Street, Market Hall, some offices, and we're actually wrapping
up our time in this office here, and we're going
to be moving over to the Enterpack Center just down
the way here about a block away, into a new
fifty five hundred square foot office building as we are
(09:00):
expanding and growing our team, so that way we get
room for everybody.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
That's amazing. Now, this is absolutely totally off the cuff,
and this is for all the folks that don't live
in Wisconsin. Would you mind picking up your camera and
showing them out the window what Wisconsin looks like.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Sure, don't mind me and everything I got going on
out here. But oh yeah, we're right downtown. You know,
we get a beautiful view of Wisconsin Avenue and sometimes
it gets a little bit crazy out there, and you
get to hear some interesting things and the world is
been predicted to end multiple times since I've been down here.
(09:41):
But you know, it's the charm of downtown and it's
a it's a great place to be and I'm a
very big proponent of you know, Milwaukee is coming back
in a very strong way and proud to be west
of the River, which if you're not from here west
of the Rivers, where we had some more challenges, you know,
when we had some of the larger companies leave downtown Milwaukee.
So Hemple is a big part of that revitalization. We've
(10:02):
bought in as part of it. I love Milwaukee, you know,
it's home. Grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which is a
couple county south here. But love that we've made Milwaukee
our home.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
People call it Smalwaukee, but I think the opportunities that
it presents and the teamwork that is present in the
industry is what I enjoy most about it.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Amazing. And I noticed there was a couple of trophies
in the window. What were those?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
So one is a fantasy football trophy to which we
take very seriously. I have a group of me and
nine other guys that go back, I don't know, twenty
twenty five years in friendship. So that is my ability
to talk smack to them anytime I want. I just
remind him and I look at it every day. And
then the other one we got invited by Sam Beef
(10:53):
with the Fishing for Good Foundation. If you haven't seen
them all, Pug Sam here real quick for Fishing for Good.
What they do in their mission is money to take
winned warriors and veterans out fishing and get him into
the outdoors.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So it's a great foundation.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
They hosted a charity event this year, so we sponsored
a salmon boat on Lake Michigan, and I took me
and a couple guys from my office and a handful
of my site superintendents and we went fishing for the
day and we caught the most fish with the most weight,
so we get to take the same a cup. There's
cool video on my LinkedIn and it looks like a
(11:26):
Stanley Cup, so as in tradition of when the hockey
players win a Stanley Cup, you have to pour a
beer in it and drink it, so we obliged to
pour a beer in it.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And there's a video of me on LinkedIn too.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
I don't know if it's good or bad judgment on
that one, but of me drinking beer out of the
trophy there. So I hope we can defend it again
next year and bring it on home again, but you know,
if not, it'll go to another loving home at that point,
and it's our turn, right.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That sounds amazing. I think I might throw my hat
in the ring on that one. I do know Sam Beef,
so I got I I haven't had him pitch me
on this fishing for good, So I need to jump
in on the bandwagon and go fishing with you guys.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Absolutely well, we'll have to get you out.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
There, Loo, that would be great. And you know, just
to kind of pivot back to business, who or what
inspired you to get in construction? Is there like an
individual person? Is there something that just really, you know,
triggered you to be like this is it? Like this
is my life and I don't want to go anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Man, I.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
You know, it's tough, right A lot of people have
that one person, you know, Like my grandfather was one
of the founding members of the Wonkey Electrical Union, right like,
so he always worked on stuff. My dad was still
is that guy who has, you know, a two thousand
square foot shop and he works on and fixes anything
and everything. And you know, most I think about it
(12:50):
is I wanted to be one of the guys, right like,
I thought they were the toughest, coolest dudes out there
working and you know, you get progress at the end
of the day. To go I built that and I
did that, you know, So it was more of a
you know, mindset and a community, I guess I would say,
because construction really is.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
A community at the end of the day, right you know,
it's it's.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
A very big community that you know, spreads across worldwide
at this point. But I think it was just something
that really interested me on that side about you know,
being one of the guys and you know, being a
tough guy, right, you know, being a being a man
in that situation as a little boy looking at him,
you know, walking across roofs and you know, building steel
structures and things like that.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And you know, even though.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I'm a little bit further away from it now sitting
in the office at this point, I still do kind
of hold that deep down inside. And you know, I
truly love construction and love the industry.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
That's great, Like it just doesn't leave you. You can't
get away from it no at all.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Do you.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
So do you go visit the job sites then, and
it just kind of gives you that feeling back.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I do.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
They give me a hard time with my clean boots
and my hard hat that's got no blemishes on it,
you know, Like I remember being one of the guys
in the field just looking at the know, the so
to speak, cleank pants club and look at him and go, no, man,
you know, but I uh, enough of my guys that
work for me started with me at the beginning, so
they definitely saw me throw the bags on, throw the
(14:12):
work boots on, you know, work, sweat and bleed and
suffer right alongside of them.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
So there's that respect.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
And you know, as much as I like to think
of my head, I could step out of the cushy
office world and throw the bags on and show them.
I'm sure I would out of you know, just sheer
will and the next day I'd pay for it.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
But you know, definitely not afraid to still get my
hands dirty.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, every once in a while, the lion's got to
come out of the den.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
You just got to know if you still got it right.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, No, that's good. I love it. So what is
something that you know today that you wish you knew
when you started, oh.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Started the business or started construction?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
He can be either one.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Oh man, let's stick business. Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So here's one thing when people always ask me that
that I tell him, right, Like, if I knew what
I knew today, I wouldn't have started then, right, Like
you have to have some of that blissful ignorance, right,
you know, the old jump off the cliff is going
to feel like falling until you're flying is a real thing. Man.
That's that's a good question. What I wish I knew
(15:18):
now or what I know now that I knew then?
Speaker 3 (15:24):
So is it just yeah right in, Yeah, just jump in.
You know you're gonna find out a lot of stuff
along the way.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Sorry it is thinking there, but you're gonna find a
lot of stuff out along the way. You're gonna find
a lot out about yourself right when you jump off
the cliff. You know, I'd say, probably don't and this
isn't it. Don't scale your business too fast, but scale
your business in the right way right, Hire the right
people at the right time, you know, supervise and inspect
(15:51):
what you expect, and not just out of the work
that you're looking for, but out of the people that
you bring into the business right, understanding those relationships and
and not just going okay, that's construction professional twenty years.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I can hire them and not pay attention to them.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
You know, it's like anything, you got to pay attention
to what you're doing, you know, whether it's building a wall,
walking on a roof, hiring people out, processing payroll, you know,
networking and preventing or presenting yourself image right like, you
got to you got to really pay attention to what
you're doing. So at the beginning, I wish I could
have gone back and probably told myself to maybe pay
(16:25):
attention a little bit closer, you know, maybe want to
cost some of the headaches and financial pains that you
experienced early on. But at the end of the day,
it's the mistakes and the pains that make you who
you are today. So you got to experience every last
little bit of it and just hope that you're good
enough to overcome some of those challenges and then ultimately succeed.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, that's that's some good insights. And I mean you
mentioned scaling. Do you have any secrets to scaling your business?
Is there something that you've done where you're like, oh, wow,
this this is really helping me grow?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I would say this, right, And I think people construction
really struggle with it, right, Like, because we're all blue
color guys, you know, we're out here just doing the
work and making it happen and You don't see a
lot of people, you know, from this side, who just
make a pile of money and go, I'm going to
start a construction company. Right, whether it's a service business
or a general contractor, it generally starts with blue collar
(17:17):
guy who's you know, fed up or going I could
do this better myself, or I want to do it
myself and jump out right, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
But it's that marketing piece, understanding.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
You know, your image of who you are, Understanding your
guys image of who they are.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
You know, everybody on our side.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
You know, my thought from the beginning was everything's got
to look professional, whether it's the contracts, the work shirts,
you know, the work that we do myself, and how
I'm presenting myself. But the power of marketing, right like
at the beginning, you know we're talking COVID. You know,
advertising on social media was still cheap, right, Like you
(17:53):
could buy sponsored ads on Facebook for nothing and LinkedIn
for nothing, and you know, people were still thinking that, hey,
we advertise on TV, magazines and radio and billboards and
that's it, right, And I took I want to say
it was one hundred and fifty dollars and I ran
an ad campaign between the twenty third of December and
(18:13):
like the fourth of January. Right, it was that period
of like Friday night to the to the Monday morning
where everybody went back to work and everybody is tight
of their family and doom scrolling.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
I figured out every everybody's on Facebook, right, especially now
it's pandemic COVID. Right. So, yeah, one hundred and fifty
dollars on advertising, and it was a very clean advertisement.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
You click on.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
It and it's a lead funnel and you know, how
can I help you? Can we schedule an estimate? And
I think that one hundred and fifty dollars filled up
my schedule for probably a good six or eight months.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
So it's yeah, So it's the power of advertising and
putting your name out there, you know. I think if
you're a young business owner, you got to find out,
you know, where those lead funnels can come from at
a cost effective rate, right, So look for those.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
And I mean, even though social media is a little.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
More expensive than it was five years ago, it's still
rather affordable. I mean, do you know the cost of
advertising in your own business?
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Right?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Getting on a radio or printed copy is a lot
of money or advertising in a sporting event is a
lot of money, right, so find those valuable areas that
you can spread the message and get in front of
the right people.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
So I have a feeling that somebody's going to listen
to this and say, how did you create that ad?
Like what did they click on? What happened? Like? Did
you use somebody? Did you do this by yourself? Like
you know, there's probably some people that want to unpack
that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
So there's a great saying and it's Tony Robbins saying,
right like, you don't fail because of your lack of resources.
You fail because of your lack of resourcefulness. I'll say
that one again is one of my favorites. You don't
fail because of your lack of resources, You fail because
of your lack of resourcefulness. Right yeah, So I always
coming from the commercial side, right, take before and after
(20:00):
pictures of everything, and you take progress pictures of everything.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
So I just took a couple of clean pictures.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Facebook at the time had a tool that you could
utilize that would help you create an AD and then
it linked to your website or linked to your DMS
at that point. So like the branding, I utilized fiber.
I think I paid a guy in the UK like
one hundred bucks to you know, do our logo and
do our image which is an Infinity signal play on
(20:27):
the limitless.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And then utilizing some of the.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Other people that I know in marketing and going, hey,
what do you think about this? How does the grammar look?
You know the pre chat GPT where you could go
on there and say I need an ad, give me one.
So I'm sure if I look at it now, it's
probably not as clean and beautiful as I would.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Expect today five years later.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But for the time, it worked really well and I
put it out there, and you know, it's when you
get those messages you got to respond to them. You know,
you have to absolutely pick up the phone and talk
to them, go to that site, visit. Even if it's
not the right project for you at that point in time,
you still have to go because you never know. Some
of my best projects that I got out of that
lead funnel were ones that I didn't think would lead
(21:09):
to anything. No pun intended there, but I didn't think
they would end up in amounting to anything. The ones
that you think would never you know, spend the money
on the residential sides are the ones that would shock you.
The ones that sound like a simple project generally turn
into the most complex projects.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
And the ones that sound like, hey, they don't want
to do much.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Once you start talking to them and getting their vision,
that's where you can get some really nice projects, you know,
and from that you can build more. Right, you can
gather more photos, you can gather more experience.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
He can gather more.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Exposure, and then you know, the next one that we
really did is the power of QR codes.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
You know now they're everywhere.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Five years ago, it was still kind of a newer
not a lot of people doing them. So what I
would do is I would create a QR code that
I had on a sign that would go in somebody's
front yard and I called them nosy neighbor signs. A
coupload photos every couple of days to that QR code.
The neighbors would scan it and watch. Then they could
see how we work. They could also see what was
going on in the neighbor's house. And then we all
(22:07):
have lives, you know, in our home ownership journeys that
are going honey, I think we could do something like that.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
So it led to a lot of a lot of
leads that way.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Oh my gosh, talk about snowball effect.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
That's oh man, we just.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
That's amazing. So you mentioned uh, chat, GBT and technology.
You know, has that been a big game changer for
you and how you do your day to day business.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You know, I'm going to sound like an old man
who's fighting the time, So I'm like, hey, you got
to still write it, right because you know, at the
end of the day, with like AI music and chat GPT,
utilizing AI to write you know, copy out, you know,
or even on on websites, our brains still realize it
and can recognize it as you know, not totally genuine, right, Like,
(22:56):
it still has a little bit ways to go, but
you have to utilize the technology that's around you. I
think if we in art industry ignore what AI is
doing and what some of the software technologies are utilizing
with AI. You know, I get a picture sitting here
out next to my desk of when they built the
plant content building and they're using horse drawn work trucks,
you know, and they're using Pulley systems to pully up
(23:19):
for concrete, right, or you didn't have any power tools
so I think this is, you know, the new quote
unquote power tool of our industry. Right we have to
learn to use them, and I think you have to
welcome them in.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
You know, we.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Utilize pro Core, we utilize Salesforce, we utilize quick books,
and then on the back of that, we do utilize
a lot of the automation that goes with some of
those systems that are out there, you know, helping you
out with data entry to free up your time to
support your customers, helping you, you know, kind of craft
and clean up some of that marketing material on that side,
so you can spend more time on what matters to
(23:52):
where AI is not really going to step in and
replace this human interaction that we're having, at least not
that I foresee yet, you know, fifty years from now,
who knows what we're going to look at. But you know,
I think you can utilize the technology that you have
out there so that way you can focus on the
things that matter that you need to do personally on
that side.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
So it's great, you know, And like I said, I'm
gonna sound like.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
The old guy and fight some of it, but you know,
I think every day we can implement more and more
of it. And as we hire some of the younger
people out of college who have now been educated and
came up with it, you know, they're showing me new
things and they bring new things into your business that
add efficiency.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
So it's only going to add to the bottom line.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Absolutely spot on. So here's my next question, where do
people find you to go and do business with you?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
So we we're just we met with this AZO group
the other day, which is a marketing agency, because now
we're getting a little bit beyond of you know, my
marketing and capabilities to scale the business to where we
want to scale it. Right, So this is the question
I'd answered the other day, and right now we're kind
of a business to business approach, right person to person,
business to business approach.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
You know, not a lot of people need.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
A general contractor, let alone a commercial general contractor, you know,
so we're in that. We're really narrowing down that area
to where finding the people of when they need a
commercial general contractor not if they need a general contractor.
So you can find us on the internet obviously by
just googling us at limitless property works dot com. We're
(25:23):
all over LinkedIn growing the presence pretty steady and heavy
on that. But we participate in a lot of local
networking organizations. So we participate in carw SO Commercial Association
of Realtors Wisconsin, SiO R, which is another networking association
for like industrial brokerage and industrial minded people. And then
NYE Out, which I think everyone's pretty familiar with what
(25:46):
NYAPP is and what they are about. So we participate
in all three of those organizations. Then we're always looking
into going out to happy hours of mean people. You know,
it's getting me in front of those people like yourself,
right like we met at a happy hour. It's all
about the networking that you can do at this point
in our business and.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
How we are.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
But I'll shamelessly plug us. Go find us on the internet.
Feel free to reach out. I'm sure Louis'd be happy
to share our info. But reach out if you got
some ideas, you know, got questions on which direction you
should go. We're familiar from the path of all the
way to inception to completion and occupancy.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I was going to ask you, you know, let's say
you have a prospective client watching this show right now.
You know, what does that client look like? You know,
who is your target audience, who who you want to
reach out to you and what would you like to
tell them if they're watching right now.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
So we operate in the tenant improvement space, which tenant
improvement space if anyone out there is not familiar is
going to be. You have the existing building and we're
going to take what's older, even if it's a new
shell space into what needs to be right. So we
work in the office space, we work in the quick
serve restaurant space. We do a lot of industrial work
as far as building the offices out within, helping out
(27:04):
with the storage area, helping out with the manufacturing area.
And then we also operate for private equity firms where
we'll come in and we'll take a look at those
property condition reports and their CAPEX needs and the whole
deal is a total as a whole either excuse me,
and put together a plan on how we can improve
the properties. So pretty wide array of services that we
(27:27):
offer on that side. With being a quote unquote paper
general contractor, we employee site superintendents and we can hire
anybody and everybody out you know, in between.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I always say from demo to final clean.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
So what I would say to any prospective clients out
there is we are the conscientious GC. We don't aim
to be the lowest GC just to get the price
to get a job, to change order people. I personally
hate change orders, which is weird to hear out of
a GC. You know, most gcs the joke goes right,
the dinghy is called the base contract and the giant
yacht is called chain.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
I don't really think like that.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
So we try and come in and partner with clients
and really be a partner to the deal. Coming on
the idea side, help people value engineer, build a budget
and build a schedule that suits their exact needs to
get the most of what they want. You know, we
want to be here for the whole duration of somebody's career, right,
not just do one job and then they forget about
us or we forget about them.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
But how can we do a lifelong of deals at
this point? And how can we add value?
Speaker 2 (28:26):
That's the first question I always ask people, and I
think I asked you this m How can I add
value to your business?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Who would have ever thought you're you've scaled this fast,
You're this big in just a few years, and just
not too long ago, it was roto tilling gardens. Like, man,
what a difference? I mean, like, what was that pitch
when you were roto tilling gardens?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Now it's like a whole different story, a crazy big
chapter where you're at.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
And you'll do anything when you get to feed your kids.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Right when you get a wife and kids at home,
you'll kind of do anything, you know, And that's what
it was at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
And you know we're still that way.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
You know, there's there's stuff that I won't row a
til your garden to be fair in every spring, I
always chuckle because somebody finds me through an old Facebook post,
you know, search and rot hotailing and there go hen
you run until gardens. You know, I get the same
cell phone numbers when I started, so I still have
residential customers. We'll call me, you know, and I get
to let them down easy, like, hey, I apologize.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
I don't really do that anymore. You know.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I get some great recommendations for you, but that's what
you get for putting your number on Google and Facebook.
And you know, but we're at that point where we'll
take a look at just about anything, you know that's
a good project size. You know, our kind of minimum
cut off on that size is you know, probably in
that forty to fifty thousand range, you know, to where
we're looking at a light TI. You know, right now,
(29:56):
we just finished wrapping up a bit on you know,
a three million another plus project too as well. So
it takes all types to make the construction company work.
You know, I tell people we're a young company, you know,
with with years and years and you know, almost a
century's worth of experience between me and all my associates.
But you know, we're willing willing to pretty much take
a look at anything at this point. If it makes
(30:18):
business sense for us, and it makes business sense for
our clients, we're in to do it.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, that's amazing. So that before we wrap up, do
you have any advice for new construction owners that you'd
like to share with our listeners?
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Oh man, that's kind of a loaded question too. I
didn't love that one.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Any advice, Like I was saying earlier, if I knew
now what I knew back at the beginning, I don't
think it would have started. You know, And this isn't
construction owners, this is anybody right just start. You know,
you're not going to be perfect. If you wait for
it to be perfect, it's never going to be.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Perfectionism gets in the way progress, right, so right down
you want to do set some goals, get out and
get after it. You know, make sure you got the
insurance piece taken care of, Make sure you got the
accounting piece taken care of. Take care of your people,
how you would want to be taken care of, Take
care of your customers, how you would want to be
taken care of. Be a good steward of the money
(31:16):
and turn over quality work. You know, and communicate. That's
the biggest one. I think I hammer home to really
anybody I bring into the business, or anybody when I
go out and speak at you know, UWM or any
other you know, universities or the young people in general.
Pick up the phone, communicate good, better and different, right
the saying goes. Good news is great, bad news is okay,
But no communication is unacceptable. You know, if you want
(31:40):
to succeed in construction, pick up the phone. Communicate with
your people. You know, think bad things are going to happen,
change orders are going to happen, you know, an unforeseen circumstances.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
But if you communicate and you follow through on that.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
People are going to spread that word like wildfire and
you'll have more people knocking on your door to add
value to their deals into your business fast than you'd
ever know what to do with.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
But get started, man, great, I feel like that was
advice for days. You could take pieces of each thing
advice for days. Well, Kevin, thank you for being a
guest on the show. Please everyone like, subscribe, comment, and
share the Builder Upper Show with everyone in the construction
industry and we will see you next time. Thank you.
(32:35):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
It's Lou at lumberfi dot com.
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