28. Successful Lead Generation With David Belman

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Builders on everything you need to know to generate more leads, more sales, and higher margins while improving the building experience for your clients. Hello and welcome to the Professional Builder Secrets podcast, a podcast by the association of Professional Builders for building company owners, general managers, VPs and emerging leaders. Here we discuss all things running a professional building company from sales, processes, financials, operations and marketing. Welcome, everyone. We have another great episode from the Professional Builder Secrets podcast. I'm joined today by David Bellman, president of Bellman Homes, Inc. David. David, thanks for being here today.

Hey, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

Well, David, let's start off with a little bit about Bellman Homes. How did you get started in this industry and what is it today?

I got started early. I'm a second generation builder, so it's a family business and we literally had it in the basement of our home. And so I grew up at the dinner table hearing conversations every day about home building. And when I started into home building, my father was a big influence on me. So he got me kind of interested in it. And it all started at the dinner table one day where he had his feet up on the table and he was reading a newspaper and it was a Saturday and I was bored. I wanted to hang out with dad, so I kind of told him I was bored. Expletive list. I won't say the word, keep it family friendly here. But long story short, I ended up at a job site with a broom and a shovel. And he handed it to me and said, start at the top and work your way to the bottom and I'll be back in two hours. And I was about nine years old and he left me on the job site. And so, yeah, I learned how to clean houses and I did a lot of hard work. And at the end he gave me a check. I learned the value of hard work and the value of a dollar. And I also learned never, never tell your dad you're bored and never disrespect your father.

Fair enough. Fair enough. And where is Bellman Homes today? You know, what is it? Where are you located? Tell us a little bit about what you do.

Sure. We're out of Waukesha, Wisconsin. It's kind of a weird name. It's an Indian name here. And we're just a suburb outside of Milwaukee, and we're a single family home builder. We also do land development, a little bit of real estate work, and we build about 35 to 40 ish homes a year right now. And you know, we've been very fortunate. We have great customers and a nice following, a lot of repeat business and a really solid reputation as, you know, one of the top builders in the area.

And you spent your time building a healthy pipeline and doing a lot of lead generation. Why is it so important for a healthy pipeline for a residential building company today?

Consistency is a big part of it. And so the pipeline is important for a lot of reasons because we rely a lot on our trades and we have very specific companies that we like to work with and continue to work with time and time again. And, and so when you have a full pipeline of leads and you're able to keep your guys busy, that protects your trades from one of your most valuable resources, really. It protects your trades and allows you to keep the same guys and keep them busy so that you're not losing them to other builders. And that's an important thing for us. So, yeah, it's almost as much about the production end of it as it is obviously the more that you're working every single day and producing work obviously means that you're generating that revenue as well on your bottom line. But you want to make sure that you keep your really key trades employed. And what we do too is even if, let's say we do have a little leg somewhere, and that's why we do some model homes as well, or spec homes, we fill those in when we're not doing customer work so that we can keep our guys busy.

Now let's talk a little bit about lead generation activities. Why is that so important and how can it, you know, elevate a brand or business like yourselves out there as well? What are some of the key significant activities that are important for building company?

Well, it's, it's a couple things. It's not just the lead generation, but then it's, you know, having a documented sales process that you follow as well because you could, you could generate, you know, hundreds of hundreds of leads. But if you, you don't have a good, easy to follow sales process and system behind it, you're going to generate a lot of leads that are going to go nowhere. So that's just as important as the generation part of it. So I think a lot of things have changed. And it's funny because I've told people this, but what worked a year ago doesn't work now what worked two years ago definitely doesn't work anymore. And it's constantly changing and evolving. But as we move more and more into this digital age and more, everything going through online, the beauty of it at least is that when you get an online lead, they tend to get sorted out fairly quickly. And you can also track it, you know your numbers. So you can say, hey, I did this ad, or I did this promotion, I did this post and I got something generated back out of it. You kind of know what works and what doesn't work. So you have to be testing and measuring everything that you're doing and understand what's working and what's the most effective thing and then doubling down on it.

And when you talk about having a documented process, are you referring to like a sales book or sales manual? What does that look like?

So we've, we like at Bellman Homes, we've actually created a sales process. We have a set process that when we take a lead and we get an incoming lead, how we work through that. And so, you know, ours is in the eight point process basically. So what we try and do is first, before we even put them into the sales process, you have to kind of do some questioning and sort of be a little bit of a detective and determine is this actually a valid lead or not. So if it's not a sales qualified lead, then obviously you don't really want to spend a lot more time on it. So you assist them and then direct them to maybe another builder or maybe away from building. We get a lot of those where they're like, hey, we want to build a brand new home for $200,000. And we're like, yeah, it's unfortunately not possible in our market to do that. You know, it's 500 to build a new home. So you know, obviously that's the first part is are they even qualified to be your customer? And if not, obviously we move those on, we don't push them forward. But if yes, they do check the boxes, then what we do is a lot of times customers come in right away and they're like, I got this sheet here and I got all this stuff and I want all this stuff. And let's start talking price. And, and we're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out, time out. Let's talk more specifically on our end. We want to know a little bit more about you, what's important to you. And when we build a home, we can't unbuild it. So we need to know really what's important to you, because we want to do this right the first time. So we're going to ask you a lot of questions. You certainly have an opportunity to ask us questions, but we kind of put them through sort of a. I'd like to say a little bit of an interview process, but I'm getting to know them, but I'm also trying to find out what's really important and drill down to those key items. And then once we do that, then we can kind of start to build out the rest of the sales process for them. And the big thing for me when I do that, and the reason why I do that, is that I want them to really understand what makes bellman homes different from any other builder they're talking to. And I don't want to be a commodity. So baked into our sales processes, we talk to them about why a bellman home is different, what sets us apart, and why they should contact or work with us versus a competitor. And I won't even price a home out until they really understand and are aware. And also, I don't want to price out a home to someone that's going to go to 12 other builders and do the exact same thing. That's a waste of their time. So I point that out to them and I say, hey, interview a bunch of builders, find your top two, and then start pricing things out. Because you're just going to make a lot of work for yourself and you get really confused.

It sounds like you've perfected the process, obviously, over time. If you look back down memory lane, what were some of the initial learnings that have brought you to where you are today? What are some of those classical mistakes that you're really proud to make now because it's really shaped where you are today?

Yeah, well, I think this started way back in 2013, where we really started to devise a sales process. And the beauty of a sales process is that it is going to change over time. You can spend a lot of time putting it together, but it can literally die in the vine if you just leave it the way it is. You gotta kind of constantly tweak it. And especially with the new ways of marketing and things, you know, those are gonna change from time to time. But, yeah, I mean, I've sold houses since I was 18 years old when I first got into the industry, really. And so, you know, at first I was just. It was all trial and error and I had no documented process. And it was just about tenacity, really, and going through and just staying up on your Leads and contacting people and just continually working the phones and setting up meetings. And nowadays it's so different. It's like, so you can get an E lead and they'll send you. We have a chatbot on our website, we've got design questions to kind of filter out everything. So you get this thing emailed to you as soon as they send it and it's like, well, I know how much they can afford and what area they want to build and what type of home they're looking for. So I already know, you know, maybe 70% of what I need before I've even, you know, had a conversation with them. And that's amazing. But you know, sometimes it's just, you know, hey, for whatever reason, at point 3 of the 7 point sales process, I'm, I'm dropping a lot of customers. We need to do something there. What's, what do we need to change? So that's what's cool about having a sales process is that you can identify each point in the sale and see where your drop off rate is the highest and then you can move things around. Maybe you have to, you know, give them some additional documentation. Maybe you've got to do something to wow them there. Maybe you've got to make a verbal commitment with them earlier. You know, there's all sorts of little things you can do to basically improve those metrics.

Now obviously with the transformation, what were the contributing factors that have led to the growth of your company outside of the sales process and outside of the lead generation? You know, if you look back now, growth doesn't just happen overnight. What really pushed it to the next limit?

There's two things that I can point to and a lot of it, the main genesis is for us really focusing on the company culture and having a compelling vision statement for a company. What had happened is around that same time, around 2013, my father was still involved with the company, but he was vacationing over the winter and was only part time really working for the company. So I started to take over and that was one of the first thing I implemented was let's create a vision. And so the vision at Bellman Homes is creating the ultimate building experience, one customer at a time. And so we're not going to focus on building the most homes, being the cheapest builder, building the most homes. We want to have really happy, satisfied customers. And that's what we really wanted to focus on. So that became kind of our passion and our goal. And then that basically raised the bar for everyone in the office. So that really helped. The other thing that happened with that is as you focus on that, you tend to improve on it. And so as we did that, that kind of brought in the awards and different things that we've gotten and tied in with our reputation, our branding as one of the top builders in the area. So while all my competitors are just focusing on price or quantity, we had something completely different to talk about. And so that really set us apart, and that upped our conversion rate with our customers. It improved the overall morale of the team because now they felt like, hey, we have a purpose at the same time. The second part of that that I kind of alluded to was that when you put in a strong work culture, there's three things that happen. You're going to have, you know, your top performers are going to embrace it and probably get better. You'll have some of your average performers that'll start to raise the bar. And then you're going to have people that don't feel passionate about that. They think they don't like it, and they're gonna stick out like a sore thumb. And either your team is going to hold them accountable and they're gonna get on the bus, or they're gonna just continue to stick out. And you identify that, and then you either they remove themselves from the situation by finding another job, or you end up having to let them go. And I've had to go through that process a few times, and luckily, most of the people jumped on the bus and came along. But when someone doesn't fit your culture, it becomes instantly obvious, and you can get rid of them quickly and find somebody that can be much better.

So tell us a little bit about how you heard about the association of Professional Builders and what's your relationship with them?

Yeah, actually, I talked to Russ. We've actually was it about a year and a half ago, I do a podcast as well called the Home Building Hero, and we connected on that. He actually reached out to be a guest on my podcast, and we had some conversations and had him on the show, and we learned about each other's businesses. And that's what's so cool about podcasts is, you know, it's. It's worldwide. I mean, I've been on Canadian podcasts and New Zealand and Australia, obviously, and all sorts of different parts of the country. And that's. That's really cool how we've globalized and learned from each other. And I've seen some of his videos. One of my friends, a builder down in Louisiana, is a big Part of your program as well. And we've met a few times at national events and talked about it. So yeah, that's kind of how it all started.

Well, let's get into some of the challenges that comes with lead generation a little bit as well for the residential home building space. What can home builders expect when it comes to those blind spots and barriers as well? When it comes to lead generation, a.

Lot of builders, unfortunately, they're older. You know, the average age of a builder is 60 years old. So a lot of them don't embrace digital technology. And that was one of the things we were fortunate with, was I kind of embraced it early on. So whether it's having retargeting on your website where you have a pixel on and somebody goes on your website and they get served ads, or using Google AdWords or you can do behavioral targeting so you could identify, maybe you interview a few of your customers and say, it seems like my target audience. A lot of them like golf or they. They like outdoors events or they like tennis. Whatever it is, you can identify. And then they create a buyer profile. And then you can go out and find people that exhibit the same interests and serve them ads. So instead of serving and buying radio ads and say 200,000 people hear this radio ad a bunch of times, but only maybe 1% of them actually is your target market. You're now maybe only targeting 10,000 people that show the same characteristics as your buyer. So there's a lot of things you can do to be smarter about your money and your ad buy. And then obviously you ought to have it on the back end. So you have to have. Besides just the leads, you have to have a compelling reason for them to contact you. And it's important that you really have a good message on who you are and what you're about, what makes you different. So you don't become the commodity and people really want to talk to you. In my market, there's over 200 builders. We don't have a big national company in our market. So it's really important to kind of stand out and be on that top list, that top three or four people that they contact. And a lot of times we're the first ones that they do contact, which is great.

It's an interesting insight as well about the fact that the average builder is in their 60s. When you talk about digital onboarding, are you also talking about having a software like a CRM, basically when the lease.

Absolutely. Thank you for bringing that up. So that's the other thing. Like as part of the sales process to really marry it all together. And you know, you gotta have your lead gen, you've gotta have a sales process. And then what you do is in order to reinforce the sales process, what you want to have is a CRM tool. Whether it's, you know, Salesforce, Insightly, Zoho. I mean there's a million of them. You can even use it through like buildertrend or Co Construct, they have a client portal. But I like Insightly because you can actually make a process in there. And so that's what we do is we use that. And so every spot, that seven point main sales process that I have, I also have that in my CRM tool. And so when we put a lead in, you can actually move. There's like a little bar, you move them from one point to the next. So you can look at a screen and see your top 20 leads. You can say, hey, I've got three in the estimate stage right now. And then I have a 75% probability of closing those deals. So if you are a light on your leads or your sales, you can say, I'm going to focus on these three opportunities. Or maybe, hey, we need some stuff down the road. Hey, we got to fill our pipeline more. You can kind of get a snapshot of that. And the other thing is people don't buy a house overnight, typically, especially a new house or build one. So you may have somebody you put into that system and they don't contact you again for six months. Maybe they're on your email drip or whatever it is that you have. And then all of a sudden one day they decide, okay, we're ready to do this. And they call you and you can click on your CRM and pull it up and go, oh, yeah, yeah, we talked back in October and yeah, I know your kids were finishing up this year's school year and they're going into a new school and they're like, holy crap, how do you remember that? And it's just because if you keep good documentation and you do a good job with your CRM, you'll know all that stuff.

Now you talked a little bit about retargeting ads and having code that sends people different ads for a website. Let's get into the actual lead generation part of this as well. What are some of those successful recipes that bake strong lead generation tactics that deliver results for home builders today? What are you guys testing right now in the market?

Well, right now we've actually dialed down our lead acquisition attempts because you Know, with the supply chain the way it is, leads aren't really an issue for us right now. Like we have enough jobs. In fact, we really don't want to take out a lot more work at the moment because we're so busy and everything's taking, you know, months longer than it used to. So we've actually dialed it back. But, you know, our strategy right now is we have kind of a multi tier strategy. Obviously, you know, our website is very good. You have to have a good storefront. So that's number one. Have a good website, have your compelling message, have a lot of, you know, information on there that sets you apart. You have to have a really strong message. And then we do, we do like radio ads still. So we do that and that's the branding part of it. So there's branding, there's website, then there's different lead things. So like I said, we do some retargeting. Sometimes we'll do adwords. You know, quite honestly, sometimes still just a local newspaper is still good. You know, like when we have a new project, press releases are important. We do press releases around major events. Sometimes those get picked up and then every once in a while we'll just use, we don't even use the big paper. We'll just use our local newspaper and you know, for like 150 bucks we can buy a nice little banner ad at the bottom. Hey, we got a new subdivision or we got this brand new. And yeah, all of a sudden it brings people out to, to your site. And then the last and the simplest thing, and this has been true 20 years ago and it's just as true today, is signage. There's nothing more valuable than having good signage. Like we have directional signage to our sites. We have, you know, signs in front of our models. That is still probably the number one thing that gets people to your houses.

So when we talk about, you know, some of the trending sales techniques, I guess let's, let's shift the conversation because you mentioned a little bit about the fact that, you know, lead generation is really just a depending on your client flow and the demand for work and what you can do from a capacity perspective. But what are some of the trending sales techniques that you're seeing in the market that are leading to those high conversions? You know, you talked a little bit about the sales process as well. What are some of the, you know, the age old secrets that you recommend when it comes to having a really strong sales conversion?

Okay, so one thing that I'll say is you Know what the difference between a contact and a contract is? There's one letter difference, the letter R. Okay. R stands for relationship. So you got to have a relationship with the customer, and the best way to do that is you have to be a good listener. And so one of the other things that I spend a lot of time on with my team is training on buyer behavior and personality. I think that's really important. So, you know, we actually kind of profile our customers and understand what. What their buying behavior is and what their personality profile is. And when you understand that, you can talk their language, and you instantly become more likable. You become more effective. So we do that, and that's baked into our CRM tool as well. So, like, once we meet somebody, I'll be like, yep, this is a direct communicator. This is a person that likes their numbers and their data, or this is a person that likes a smooth process and no surprises. So we can kind of identify that, and then we adjust our process around them. So like a direct communicator, like a CEO that owns a big company, he doesn't want his time wasted. He doesn't want me to spend an hour talking about how our siding's installed. He wants to know that we're gonna do this, this, and this, and it's gonna be the best product for him. It's gonna save him money. And this is what I would do on my house. And if I can do that and I can convince him that I can literally give him a sheet of paper, and I'd say, here's what we're gonna do for you. Does this look good? Yep.

Sign right here.

So you're your best customers, of course, but those are few and far between. But everybody does it a little different. But if you can learn their process, you've achieved a lot right there.

So you talk about Personas, basically, like customer profiles, and then, you know, mirroring that, that sort of communication around them. How many Personas do you find or deal with in the construction industry space for those clients?

Well, there's lots of different. And I'm not a psychologist or a therapist or anything, but I prefer the disc method. So that's a very widely platform. There's really only four profiles. Now, that doesn't mean that when you identify somebody as a profile, that they're 100%, that you're usually dominant in one, and then you have two or three others. But once you find their dominant trait, that kind of gives you an idea how to communicate. So you have the direct Communicator, we call those the Ds. And you have the I which is the influencers. Those are, you know, the people that are people people. And then you have the S's which are steady and they're the ones that like a smooth process. They don't like surprises. They're friendly but they're quiet. And then you have the Cs which are the hardest to sell to and they're like your number guys, your accountants and your high detail people that are going to come in with 12 spreadsheets and every single report. You can identify those folks and then understand how they process information and then deliver it in a way that they like.

You talked a little bit about metrics as well. You know, you talked about the fact that you love using insight leads, a CRM because you can identify where the drop offs are and where your sales process does really well. As a business owner, what are some of those key metrics around lead generation that you're looking at from start to finish?

Well, I mean obviously you want to just look at like even like social media is easy because you can do a post and you can see, okay, how many people are liking and communicating with it. And did I, you know, did somebody respond to that? For instance, just last week or this week actually I decided to post something a little different and I posted what I call post with purpose. And so we have a new model and I had a realtor reach out to me and they wanted to do some realtor portraits in our model. So I said, okay, you know, I'm going to talk about that. So I did a post and I knew it wasn't going to be as high performing posts as I normally do. But I said, hey, we got a brand new model. Look at, we had these realtors come out, they took these really cool pictures in our house and if you as a, if you're a realtor and you want some really cool portraits in our model, just reach out and I'll gladly not only open my model up to you, but I'll give you a tour and show you our brand new project. And I've had three different realtors just in the last day reach out to me and take me up on that offer. So now I've got a potential to get referrals from all these people talking to buyers. So they're out trying to get buyers, they find somebody and they're sending them right to me. Now I've got a really warm lead. Now I didn't get 100 likes on it and 15,000 views on the post. But I literally got direct contacts with people that want that opportunity. And so for me, it's like, I don't need 15,000 views on that. I only needed a couple and that's what I got. So sometimes it's, you do want to do the branding component and get as many people see it as possible, but then you also want to do something with a purpose, which is, in this case, I had a specific ask. I'm like, hey, if you're a realtor and you want some pictures, you want to tour a brand new site, you know, reach out to me and, you know, that's all you have to do is ask.

That's a pretty creative way of also getting your homes, being, you know, viewed and also creating awareness through someone that already has a network. And so I think that's a pretty creative actually technique as well.

Networking is big too. So I just want to touch on one thing because we didn't really cover it. But with lead generation, networking is really important as well. So I do actively network. I mean, there are a couple network groups. We actually put on some events. We do a lot of stuff in the community. So one of the things that we do to stand out is we build a home for a wounded veteran every year and it's donated to them. So we put on community events. And so that builds our brand and our reputation as well. And it's a huge differentiator. So if you have a company and you're not, you don't have that one thing that you can say that we do that nobody else does. You better figure that out first, because before you start spending a bunch of money on advertising, you have to have a differentiator. You have to have something that's different, otherwise you're probably going to be wasting a lot of money.

You talked about donating a home, right? Every year. Is that through a charity or a cause? Tell me a little bit more about that.

Yeah, it's actually called Operation Finally Home. And it's a national organization that it started down in Texas and they provided a remodel for a wounded veteran in the area. And they got almost everybody to donate material and labor. The media picked up on it and so they kind of created an organization and then we brought it to Wisconsin and it was so impactful that we decided to do it again and someone joined in and helped us. And all of a sudden we decided to do another one. And now we've done six.

Oh, wow.

And we're starting number seven this year. So it was one of those things where we were the right people at the right time. And the cool thing for me now is I have realtors and other people in the industry that volunteer their time. They come see me, they come to events and they help out. And of course, if they're going to refer one of their friends to a builder, guess who they're going to refer them to. Because I not only have created goodwill, but I've created friendships that are very powerful. So that's why I don't think I have to necessarily spend quite as much on advertising. And we get a lot of free media from it as well when we put on a big event like that. I mean, I have magazines, newspapers. When we surprise a veteran with the home, we get on all the major networks. I mean, it's on, you know, the news for two, three days straight. Yeah, one of the houses, 38 different news broadcasts around the country. I mean, I was like, I was like in Portland, Oregon and like Missouri and all these different states. I'm like, this is crazy. Now that doesn't necessarily bring me a lead because getting it on the newscast in Portland, Oregon isn't going to turn into a house lead for me. But that's powerful branding.

Yeah, that's a pretty inspiring story too, that it's such a neat cause as well. In today's world, what are some of the struggles that builders face in the industry today? We're living through a really unprecedented time. But what are some of those struggles that you see happening on a day to day basis?

Well, nowadays just kind of getting in the. I don't know if we're in post Covid yet or not, but we're getting there. Right. But the supply chain is number one right now for most builders as an issue. The other big thing is just housing affordability in general. And we've seen massive spikes in the cost of homes. So I'm very passionate about trying to drive that down and keep housing affordable here in my state. For example, back in the 1950s when only one person had to work and the spouse stayed home with the kids and they were able to buy all the new stuff and have a new car for twice their average income, they could buy a brand new home. Well, nowadays it's nine times their average income. So you're seeing people just work two jobs. Husband and wife are working and then they got a side gig and you know, it's hard for people to make it. And then we've seen 18, 19% increase in the cost of homes over the last Year and a half just because of materials and it's getting unsustainable. If these increases continue at this rate, you know, people are going to be priced out of buying a new home and we're not producing enough homes. So that's a huge issue. So I've been working a lot with our elected officials on ways to streamline the process and ways to create efficiencies, hopefully drive down the labor and material cost. Development is a huge issue. Working on trying to get that process simpler. So yeah, that's a lot of stuff that I'm working on right now on behalf of the industry. And it's not something everybody is doing, but it's something that I care about because I know I'm going to be in this industry for a while. I want to make sure it's when that's going to last. Right, right.

What do you think the construction industry is evolving to? You talked a little bit about some of the challenges like labors and supply chain issues as well. Where is the construction industry evolving to? Is it the last frontier, as some people call it? Is it, is it the wild west or is it starting to become, you know, even, even more professional moving forward?

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, for a while we dealt with the reputation issue that builders, contractors, you know, don't know how to deal with people. I think, you know, that's slowly improving, especially with the newer generations getting in. That's improved. But the future is, you know, also in technology and embracing it, not only, you know, on the lead gen and the sales end, but it's gonna have to work its way onto the job site as well. So, you know, obviously we're using a lot of cloud based software on the project management side for communications not only with the customer, but the trades. But now it's really moving forward into how do we use this technology to build homes more efficiently. And I gave a presentation about two years ago. I like it was supposed to be like housing in the future kind of thing. They're like, just brainstorm what you think future is going to be like. And I was explaining some stuff and some people looked at me like I was cross eyed. And I'm proud to say a few things are already coming true. Like I said we're going to 3D print a house and people thought I was nuts and they're already doing it, they're 3D printing homes. And I said, well my thought was they're going to 3D print a panel, they're going to take a drone, fly it to a job site and set it, and then they bring the next one in and set it. They actually have the technology now 3D printed on site. So that's kind of right there. But you know, even just automation, you know, like they have a machine that can you put it on a roof and it's like a robot and it'll go through and lay the shingles and nail them. So I think robotics technology, I think that's all going to be in the future because especially the labor costs, the safety issues, you know, you can mitigate some of that with proper, you know, interesting.

You bring up robotics. You know, I had another guest that did a lot of 3D floor plans and you know, the concept's been there for years and I've been learning about, you know, that world as well. Are you ever concerned with robotics if it's going to wipe out a labor force, or do you feel like the concept of still having humans on site still going to be there?

Yeah, I mean, you're never going to be able to completely build a house by machine unless, you know, it's a. It's not like there's a factory that just spits these things out and then, you know, they just roll off onto a site. So I mean, you're still going to have humans be a part of this process. There's no way I could see that happening. But I'm not worried about it because right now we don't have enough laborers to begin with and it's hard to get people into the labor part of this industry. So we have to look at these things just to continue to have output. So, yeah, technology is going to have to be a big part of what we do going forward.

What does success look like for you today?

Oh boy, I'm not sure. That's a great question. You know, I've been very fortunate to have achieved a lot in the last few years and actually just won the builder of the year award for the, for my state. And so I think successes at this point now is happy customers, steady workflow and being able to, you know, especially after going through Covid, you know, I went three years without taking vacation. I just took my first, you know, eight day vacation in a long time. So just being able to enjoy the other parts of life and also bring a new generation into this industry. And I get a lot of cool opportunities to talk to youth and going to schools and talking about my industry and so on and so forth. So I'm really honored that I get to be a part of that. And so I think that for me is a lot of success is building that legacy and being that person to other people.

When you took the vacation, were you guilty at all or were you checking your phone? Or did you actually take a vacation and not look at the phone?

I mean, I will. The little truth behind that is part of the vacation was attached to going to the International Builder Show.

So there was a little bit of work.

Yeah. So what I did is we actually were gone for 10 days. So three days were work and seven days really were family time. So non negotiable with the family was that, hey, I'm going here. I have to spend three days doing my obligations. And so they get to hang out at the resort and relax by the pool while I was doing my work. But then the rest of the time it was, yeah, I didn't check my email as much at all and I was gone and it was great. And now I'm like, I gotta do this more often. So that's the plan.

Well, I guess it's not work when you're having fun at what you do. And it sounds like you have a lot of fun with your role as well. What's your future focus for Beltman Homes? You know, you talked a little bit about the fact that you want to be a voice for the industry. You're working with your state elected officials as well. But where is Wes Beltman Homes moving towards?

Well, first of all, we've got a lot of land in that area, so we've got a lot of projects that we can put forward. But I'm really hoping to help usher in a change in our administration, especially statewide here, and really work on some of these issues, the development issues and the cost of that. And if we can get people that want to listen to us, which I'm talking to some really wonderful people, if we can get them in, I want to work hand in hand with them to kind of radically transform, hopefully in a positive way, that process, to make it simpler, easier, and allow us to build more homes a lot faster and a lot easier. Because right now we're using standards from the 1950s that don't work anymore and especially in a modern era. And we've got to get better at that. So if I can play my part in that and transform it, that would be phenomenal.

Well, it's been an insightful interview. So my final question for you is what advice would you give a younger version of yourself? What advice would you give a new home builder? And what advice would you give, you know, A veteran that's either looking to retire or close up shop in a few years. What advice would you give?

Try and work this back. Right. I might. That's a lot to unpack. But for someone that's about to, you know, be maybe in their twilight of their career, I mean, you've got to have, you know, an estate plan, and you have to have a transition plan, and you have to have a business that'll work without you if you want to ever sell it. So you have to have systems in place, because if you're ever going to sell that business, if you leave the industry and the business doesn't work without you, then you don't really have a business. You have a job. So you have to understand that first and foremost. The second thing, as far as advice to a younger person, the first thing I would say is that you've got to work as much on yourself as. As you do on anything. So you have to improve yourself and constantly learn and want to grow. So that would be what I would tell my future self as well, is that you're never done learning and you're never done growing. So you have to take 15 minutes every day and invest in yourself. The other thing is mindset is huge. So taking a few minutes every day, be grateful for three things that happened in your day. Maybe it's the minor like, yeah, somebody smiled at me today. It was a bad day. That was the one thing you can be happy about. Be happy about that. And then you have to train your mind. I usually pick three or four things that I want to get better at, and I focus my mind on it. And mindset is huge. It's a big part of your life if you're not doing some mindset work every once in a while. I became a good leader because I focused on becoming a leader. I became a better delegator because I focused on it. I became bigger than I am because I worked on myself. You have to do that. You have to put that work in.

And taking the occasional holiday once in a while. Right. As well.

Yeah. And life isn't all about work, and you have to realize that time goes by really fast.

Absolutely, my friend. Well, this has been great. Thanks so much for the insights. It's definitely been refreshing to hear from someone on the front lines about lead generation as well. And I wish you continued success with your brand and your business as well, and look forward to having you back here.

All right, thank you so much for the opportunity and enjoy the program. Thank you for listening.

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