42. Seeing Opportunities Instead Of Problems With Isaac Nickelson

Maybe things aren't working out exactly as planned. You know, you kind of start to question yourself, right? There's only so much time in the day, right? You can't possibly wear all the hats. The biggest thing that keeps me going in this space is I can better the industry as a whole. It's easy to have destination addiction. It is a kind of survival of the fittest.

This is Professional Builder Secrets, the number one podcast to help you grow your building company safely and securely. Brought to you by the association of Professional Builders. Join us every week as we talk to industry experts and your fellow professional 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. I'm joined today by Isaac Nicholson, founder and owner of Nicholson Construction in Fort Collins, Colorado. Isaac, thanks for being here today.

Yeah, hey, thank you, Bosco. Thanks for having me.

Well, let's start off with a little bit about your business and what you specialize in. Tell us a little about you.

My name, of course. Isaac Nicholson. I am the founder and owner at Nicholson Construction. We are a design build firm. We specialize in custom home building and primarily remodeling as well.

Well, Isaac, let's start off with how did you get started in the industry and was this a path that was predetermined or did you accidentally land on. Right.

Yeah. So definitely have a little bit of a interesting story, kind of whole backstory to getting into the industry. I was actually homeschooled as a child and even from a young age had a kind of a passion for building. So it really just kind of something that came as a kid. But as I grew up and was around construction, my father actually had a cabinet company. They were in the commercial space. So I started kind of with a family friend from really young age, about 13, 14 years old, starting out at base level, you know, cleaning up trash on job sites, nailing straps, and was the strap boy. Kind of moved all the way through to running some framing crews and then kind of moving up to different positions in the construction industry. So, yeah, really just kind of a passion for building from a young age. And then as time went on, I worked for a pretty large home building company who actually ended up going out of business in the crash of 2008. And it was right around that time that I for some reason decided to start my own business, probably at the worst time you could get started. So yeah, a little bit of background. I'm sure there's a lot more to share on that.

But what was it like starting out and when did you know that you wanted to start your own business as well?

Yeah, you know, some of it, I don't know if I was pushed in that direction. Like I said, it did come from a passion of loving to build, loving to work with my hands, loving to create something from nothing with the building industry. But I think some of it was kind of being pushed, you know, into the space in a sense of working with a company and probably still being young and not knowing that my career had kind of ended there. So it was, it really kind of. I was presented with a. A big question mark of what do you do? Do you go find working for another builder? Do you start on your own? So I was kind of pushed in the space and because I've always enjoyed being an entrepreneur and creating things, I said, hey, let's go for it. Kind of started with some small little side jobs and some little things really just to make some extra income. And that actually ended up turning into what is now our business.

And was it always based out of Fort Collins? When do you start operating out of there?

I was born and raised in Florida. The companies I worked for there were based out of Florida and we worked there for quite some time. I started my business right around 2009 and really kind of started ramping up in like 2010, 2011. We became state licensed in the state of Florida and really then started to specialize in custom homes there in Florida. A whole change of events and a lot of different backgrounds over, over the years that really got us asking some deeper questions of do we like the climate where. Where might we want to settle? And so we really started to look at Colorado. I had some family from the area and we decided to do something that was very challenging and decided to bring our business to a close there in Florida, but then make a transition all the way here to Colorado. So we've been here about four and a half years now. Yeah, needless to say, that was quite the challenge with definitely lots of highs and lows and things along the way.

So you moved from Florida to Fort Collins in Colorado and you established a business in Florida. That's a big risk when you leave one state where you actually built a prominent business you've put your time in and then you start off in a new state. And starting from scratch, did you evaluate the risk and go, this is a risky move, but we still want to do it? What was your thought process around that?

Yeah, I think we absolutely knew it was going to be a huge risk. And I think from the time that we really started to think about it, from the time we actually pulled the trigger to really actually make the move was probably about a year and a half, maybe even close to two years from the time we really started talking about what does a move look like from the time we're actually saying, okay, we've got to close out some contracts, bring some things to a close. So, yeah, it wasn't a overnight decision by any means, and it was quite a challenge. So, yeah, the thought of really, it was kind of a lifestyle change for us and we were kind of up for the ride to say, hey, this is something we. That is really important. This is somewhere we, you know, we love the outdoors. This is somewhere we want to be with, raising our kids. And so, you know, sometimes I think in business it's beyond just being established or being successful. Sometimes you've got to take the whole piece of life into this. And the bigger picture of, yes, the business is important, but you're also. There's all these other aspects of living right. That's super important.

It sounds like you've constructed your life by design in many ways, and I can resonate to that. What were the highs and the lows of being in that time in your life where you had now relocated your business? And, you know, every entrepreneur remembers that classical high and that classical mistake that they make that will forever change how they operate business. If you look back at your career in this space, what were some of those highs and lows?

Yeah, wow. Yeah, there's definitely lots of highs and low. I think anyone in construction could attest to that, for sure. The biggest thing, some of the lows, I would say, was there's times that you. When you decide to do something and then maybe things aren't working out exactly as planned or maybe as quickly as planned, you know, you kind of start to question yourself, right. Did we make the right decision? Should we have stayed? And so I think you juggle with a lot of kind of mental mind gymnastics of, was it the right move? I think some of the lows were definitely in that space of double thinking or questioning. Was this a good choice? Some of the other things were breaking into a new market to totally. Although it's familiar, it's construction, it's a lot of similar stuff, a lot of working on some of the main national codes, but now you're working with kind of relearning a lot of things. Even though some of the national codes are the same, local codes are different, and you're breaking into that whole space. There was definitely a lot of challenges, a lot of lows. I think in the beginning, trying to get established to. You're moving to a place that no one knows you, no one knows your business, no one really knows your name. So those are some of the lows, I think some of the highs. When you start to get some of those first sales and you're working so hard, even though it's all familiar, it's kind of like you really feel like you're almost set back to be like, okay, I'm starting at ground zero. Some of the highs, I think that you have a blank slate. You're in an area where now out here where we are, you know, profit margins are higher. We've learned a lot of things along the way. I think some of the highs is when you. When you kind of make some of those sales, you. You definitely want to celebrate the wins and keep moving forward.

You talked about higher profit margins. Did you forecast that opportunity when you were moving from Florida to Colorado, or did you have a notion that moving not only would help the lifestyle, but more importantly, you'd be able to see some opportunities where some people normally would just look at the problems of the challenges?

Right, right. In a way, we did some assessment of the area and kind of knew where things were. Now, until you're in it and living it, you don't know exactly what those profit margins might be. And that's where partnering with apb, we've learned a lot along the way and have even taken some of the background that they teach and have been able to apply that to increasing our profit margins.

What made you transition as well? You talked earlier about you transitioned to custom homes from remodeling. Was that a choice or was that the business was calling for it? I'm just curious as to what restructured that focus.

Yeah, so some of it with being kind of growing up, and that's what I started with. I had a lot of my expertise in and started from the ground up within the custom homes we did. As market changes and things happen, we had to make a shift and kind of diversify a little bit into some of the remodeling and things like that. Even when I was getting started, we took on a lot of different projects. But I think it's always been a Passion of mine to build with something new. You know, it's kind of similar to the move here and that blank slate that I talk about, it's similar in that situation on a custom home, you're starting from a dream and you're making this dream a reality. And that's something that's pretty exciting. So as we moved, we did kick off a lot of remodeling, a lot of smaller stuff to kind of get in and get known and get our name out there. Probably one of the other kind of driving factors for us as a business and now what our system is today is of course kind of a larger contract, a larger sale. So for our business model and some of the things we have planned for the future, it fits our business model as well.

How did you transform the business to where it's at today? You talked a little bit about increasing your profit margins, but what does that business look like today? How big is the team and what led to the growth of the company?

Yeah, I think the biggest transformation, and some of this even is I think comes from the move. Yeah, you can see all the lows or all the challenges, but in a lot of ways it can challenge you. You can give you a new perspective on business. And I think some of that has transformed as we have made the move. I grew up in a really small town in Florida and it was kind of all builders just kind of did the same thing. It was just kind of like it was the known stigma, I guess of like, oh, 10% margin. That was kind of like the just the known thing in the industry. So it's funny how you can grow up with a certain perspective and you kind of just apply that just because it's the norm. Some of the biggest transformation has been that move and that new challenge. So some of it comes starting back to just kind of having more of a one man show, I guess you could say is like, you know, I'm going to work in the business, I'm going to do, I'm going to wear all the hats. I think the biggest transformation for us us has been we're actually setting up systems and working with a team and still trying to lots to sort out and building these systems and things as we continue to grow. But that would be the biggest thing I think is learning to delegate, learning to set these systems up and really trust a team and growing a business, not just staying, trying to wear all the hats yourself.

You alluded to the fact that you came across the association of professional Builders and they also helped play a Part in your growth and how did that relationship start and how did you hear about them and how did they impact your business?

Yeah, I think the first thing that I saw with APB is they. I saw an advertisement I believe on Facebook and it was, it might have been Sky. I think she had a little video and something she was running about not doing free quotes. And that really stuck out to me. I think something in this industry that's another one of those things that just, it's kind of like, oh, it's always been done that way. Why change it for us? Especially as you quote on a custom home, it's such a process and there's so much that goes into it. And these custom homes are not commodities. Every home is different. There's so much work that that goes into it. So that really caught my eye when she had kind of showed an outline, a path to say, hey, you can charge for these essential services. So that's how we became acquainted and I think we did kind of a little interview and the rest is kind of history from there.

How did the relationship mature? I guess after you started working together, did you start the coaching program and what did you take from it?

So I think we had signed up initially just for kind of some of the initial membership. And then as time went on, we really did see the value to some one on one coaching and working with our coach to dive in a little deeper on some of the issues that we were facing as a company. And that's where it started. And today we are in the private coaching, the mentoring program.

And how did the mentoring program now impact your business? You talked a little bit about systems as well. Were there any strategies or any sort of tactics that you're applying right now or that you have applied that you've seen really great success at?

One of the biggest ones was really critiquing and providing us a better sales system. As I mentioned, kind of providing and building the, I guess the building blocks and the foundation of how to actually have a three step kind of sales process. And some of these things that APB really drives home, that was really big on our sales end and then on the systems end of things, that's what we're really into now and trying to systemize better parts of the company. So there's definitely a lot of good information.

So when you move into a new state and nobody knows your name, how do you outreach to get clients? You know, are you advertising, are you cold calling? How are you drumming up business?

Yeah, so a lot of it we're doing some of the apb, following some of their marketing programs and doing some different things on social media or adwords and things like that. So that's kind of what we started with. My coach Eric had actually given us some good information. One of the APB kind of protocols, I guess was this 10 by 10 by 10 strategy. So there was an unfortunate situation actually here in Colorado. There was a wildfire and a lot of people lost their homes and quite a tragic situation. But it was also an opportunity that we could work with some new clients on these rebuilds. And Eric had given us this strategy to say, hey, we were working with one client and they call it the 10 by 10 by 10. It's kind of reaching out to the one that you might know and then they working with people that maybe that's their neighbors and those neighbors know neighbors. And so it's kind of this outreach, I guess, of who you're already working with and who they might know. So we did set up some zoom calls and kind of provided some value to say here's who we are, here's what we can do and here's how we can help with that rebuilding process. So that was a really good take away from the mentoring as well, that you have that sort of support and all this.

When you talk about the outreach and you were asking for referrals and you were asking for people that knew each other as well. I mean, obviously they're going through a really tough time in their lives right now. And you, you have to be really gentle with that approach as well. Can you tell me a little bit about the impact of the outreach? Were people surprised? Were they open to chatting with you about rebuilding their homes as well? What was the impact to the business?

Yeah, they were. So we had started with kind of one contact and we had signed into some of our early steps, which we call kind of our cpa. It's a conceptual package agreement. And then we moved to step two, which is our. The pba, a preliminary building agreement. So we had signed on one deal and kind of this. Some of this early preliminary phases and some of the. By setting up this outreach, you know, we had reached out to several other neighbors there and also signed up quite a few others into this phase and moving some of these now into the building contract phase.

It also speaks a lot about people and adversity as well, not only from your end, but also from the client's end as well. I can only imagine the tragic feeling that someone has when they lose something and that emphasis to rebuild and Restart again is really inspiring because it's finding the opportunity in things and finding the opportunity amongst challenges as well. As you've grown the business, what are you focusing on today? You talked a little bit about, you've got to focus now for the future. What does that growth look like for you and where are you putting your thoughts into and actions?

The biggest thing I think we're still working on is to better implement systems. I think for so long, because I was so hands on with so many things, it was hard to let go of certain areas of the business and certain things that, you know, always felt that I kind of had to keep my hand in. And I think as we have grown, what that does do is it really reveals that there's only so much time in the day. Right. You can't possibly wear all the hats, you know, and even as much as you want to. So it's probably something a lot of us smaller builders, you know, who are very particular and we have a way of doing things that's been the biggest change for me. So definitely focusing on systems and to better put those in place so our team can look to these systems in a sense and say, okay, without having to bring it all the way to the top. Where do I start? What, what if I, if I run up against something, can I have some good support without having to go up the chain of command, in a sense.

So when you talk about systems, you're also talking about technology as well, I'm assuming as well.

That's right, yeah. Everything from. So we've worked with Builder Trend for quite some time and project management software, better marketing and CRM software, things like that. Some better things that help set up some automation and some things that don't also have to always be done by someone manually doing some repeatable tasks.

What are some of the struggles that builders face in the industry today? I'm just curious what your perspective is on this.

Yeah, quite a lot facing the industry, I think, as a whole. I think inflation is a big question and challenge at the moment. And it's kind of like no one knows exactly where things are headed with that. There's a lot of subcontractor shortage and good trades in the industry. So those are a couple big ones. And of course, just with what's going on in the economic world of supplies and trying to get things timely, that's another big one. And one that I think is probably in the back of every builder's mind is at some point, as a custom home builder, is the client base or Demand. Is something around those lines changing in the sense of the way custom homes are sold? Is it something that. I think a lot of people nowadays want something and they want it now. So I think it's providing a good, clear sales process to the steps, because there is a lot of steps to building a custom home, and I think it's trying to make that as clear as possible. I think there is a lot nowadays that it's kind of sometimes easy to find a home on the market and purchase a home, but it's a process to go through a custom home. So I think that's going to be interesting to see how that unfolds in years to come.

Obviously, those struggles are your struggles too, because you just listed a bunch of things that you're probably going through as well. I guess every builder goes through some of these things as well. How do you balance the struggles and the anxiety that comes with those struggles and then live a normal life and turn off and turn on and go back to work every day? What keeps you getting up in the morning to do what you do despite all the struggles out there?

Yeah, you definitely have to have a bigger perspective of what you're doing in life and the value you do bring. Definitely having a balance to it all. There's definitely a lot of good things to focus on. And I think the biggest thing that keeps me going in this space is looking at the problems that I can solve and looking at the things that I can better the industry as a whole. That's really kind of a motivation is to keep bettering myself and also bring my best for the industry as well.

If you had to travel back in time, what advice would you give a younger version of yourself?

I think definitely be patient. Be patient with yourself. I think it's easy to have destination addiction in a sense of always wanting to be in a certain place. That a lot of questions and things. Yes. Set your goals up, set your aspirations for the future and where you might want to work towards, but never to forget, to be present, to live in the moment. And a lot of things that seem like they may be big problems will. You'll handle them chunks at a time and one day at a time. And you'll look back and think, wow, how far have we come by tackling just really just taking moment by moment and being patient.

I find it very fascinating that you call it destination addiction. I don't think I've ever heard anyone call it that before, but I guess it makes sense because we're living in this world of instant Gratification and digital noise. And people live their life through a touchscreen. Right. And they create all these expectations from themselves. And, you know, I could totally resonate with what you just said there, that, you know, people are addicted to success, but sometimes that takes time and work and patience. So totally get it. Yeah, you've talked a little bit about the struggles. I'm just curious, where do you see the construction industry evolving to? What does the future look like today?

In a sense, there is a lot changing in some sort of way. It is a kind of survival of the fittest in the sense of the ones that put in the work to working on their business and working through these putting systems in place and building teams and following a lot of these APB protocols are huge. I think it's going to be. There's so much changing with a lot of this inflation, as we mentioned, and things that these fixed contracts that are signed. You really have to have the right background in all this and language and things to not only protect your homeowner, but protect yourself and your business. And so it's going to be an interesting few years as things kind of shift around to see what the construction industry as a whole, what those changes will actually look like. I'd say those are some of the key things that really putting in the time into your business.

Do you feel that the demand for custom homes is still going to be there? Do you feel like there's going to be people that want to have an appetite to build their home, especially with where you are right now? Is that demand increasing over time?

I think it will. I think there's always going to be. I think there's going to be a big shift in the market. But I also do think that there's enough people that are always going to want what they want. And there's some things that you can only get that with a custom process. And I think the ones that are going to be here to stay around and be a part of this industry and help improve the industry are the ones that are going to put in the work on their business and have clear processes in place and make that really the education of this whole building process very known and very clear. I think that's the big difference in where things are headed.

You talked a little bit about the reason for moving was this lifestyle that your wife and you wanted to promote. And you can move to Colorado for a different type of lifestyle. Do you feel you've achieved that? What does success and happiness look like to you today?

Yeah, yeah, in a sense it's an ever work in progress. You know, I think to create some sort of balance is. It's not easy, right? And it's something that I'm not always good at, but I put in more effort all the time to really look at what's important. You know, I mean, there's so many things that demand our attention in this day and time. And being a business owner, especially in construction, is very demanding. But there's certain things that are important to me. It might be funny, but every day I even put on my calendar certain time where I'm very intentional to spend time with my family. And certain time that I focus on health, gym routine and things like that. And certain times where it's like, hey, you need a mind break. And although business, all these things are very important, when anything, when any one thing gets out of balance, it can be really throw everything off. So I think that's the key, is to try to be aware is the first step, and then say, okay, what can I do? Even if it's small steps, to set these things up based on what is important to you.

You're a family man, and looking at the website, it sounds like your wife is also in the business as well. How do you promote that balance where you have that work time and then you sw off and take care of the family and everything else? How do you. How do you. How does that look like for you? Do you have to hold. Have someone hold you accountable or do you sort of prompt yourself to turn off when you. When you're done working?

And I mean, in a sense, we. We kind of try to hold each other accountable, but it is easy to let all of that roll into, oh, it's dinner time, we're still talking about work or something like that. And so I think we've become better at that. But it's. That is a challenge when you work with your wife or a family member. And it's easy to kind of just merge it all together. And in a sense, there's a time and a place for that all. But I've found it personally very healthy to set a time where this is work and then this is time. For me, this is kind of based on my values. It's very important that at some point I shut it off and it's going to be there tomorrow and we're going to pick back up and carry on with the important things.

Isaac, I think I could talk to you about work and life and business for quite some time, but I want to thank you for your time today and your insights. Really appreciate you taking us back to the roots and talking a little bit about change. And some people fear change, some people look at all the challenges that come with change. But it sounds like you really saw the opportunity in this change in your life and the move. And it sounds like you are achieving what you set out to do, which is finding the opportunity to make the most out of it.

Yeah. Thank you. I really appreciate you having me on and chatting a little bit.

Cheers.

Thank you for listening. Remember to subscribe to Professional Builder Secrets on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review. To learn more about how the systems at the association of Professional Builders can help you grow your building company, visit associationofprofessionalbuilders.com See you next time.