Growing Too Fast as a Small Business
Is your business growing faster than you can handle? In this episode, Nir Berkovich of SoHo Construction interviews Nate about the challenges of scaling too quickly, including team burnout, client experience, and tough lessons learned along the way.
Nir and Nate discuss how to:
Recognize when growth is outpacing your capacity
Make strategic hires and build strong processes
Protect your team and client experience during fast growth
Avoid common pitfalls that can derail your small business
Whether you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, or just starting to scale, this episode is packed with practical advice and real-world insights to help you grow smart, not just fast.
Transcript:
00:00:00
If your client doesn't have a good experience because you were overwhelmed, >> there you go. >> They're not going to call back and they're not going to send their friend to you, they're going to be like, "This guy sucks. I think that's a >> you couldn't make it to my house for two weeks." >> Well, hello everyone. Uh I'm Nir Berkovich with Soho Construction and today we are changing roles and me uh I'll sit at the host seat and interview
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Nate. Uh usually we're doing it a little differently but I kind of felt like I want to try something else and and interview you and kind of hear you more and and maybe um be more in the uh host side of things and we'll just jump on it. you know that's uh for today we'll talk about growth or in particular growing too fast >> which is you know a problem that it's dear to our hearts uh here at Soho but I'm sure that it's true to a lot of different businesses in different different spaces
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different areas um and growing too fast is a real problem so we'll try and break it down kind of touch you know on on why growing too fast is is tricky and danger or what you can do to mitigate growing too fast. Maybe share more about our story, you know, of of growing and what what do you what do we feel about growth and let's just uh let's just go on it and see see how how it flows. So growing too fast, Nate. >> Yeah. >> What's uh what's growing too? What what's what's growth for you in general?
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>> Yeah. So for me, I feel like growth, man. Oh, man. So really it's I think establishing uh scale and like scalable projects and whether it's larger projects or more projects. There's two different ways to do it. You either have big projects that require big teams or you have a ton of little projects depending on your business, right? So some people volume scale, some people revenue scale, right? And it's just big revenues per project. Um so I think that's kind of how I look
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at it. And when it comes to starting off and getting to the point where there's any growth, you know, it's your first growth is, "Oh my god, I got a project. Someone's signed. Someone's going to work with me, right?" And you're excited. Things are moving. And then you realize right away, oh my god, I don't know how to run this project. I thought I did, and there's more pieces than I thought. Uh, how do I handle this pickup framing? How do I hand like lots of
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little things that you you don't know? Um, and then you find out right away. And then at that point, I think it's where you start to realize like, huh, if I do this all on my own, I literally have to do it all on my own and figure it out piece by piece. So, I think the individual person growth is realizing that no, you're not the big shot number one that can do everything, right? >> Because if you are, I always like to say, if you don't have an assistant, you are the assistant. And if you're the
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assistant and the owner and the builder and the designer and all these things in one, you're just going to do a terrible job and that's not going to help. So your business might grow really fast all of a sudden, but then you not be able to service your business. Um, and then on the flip side, you could take it the opposite way and say, "Okay, I don't want that to happen. So I'm going to hire everyone I possibly can, fill all the roles, and then get that job. I'm going to get this next one. and we can
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get instantly line up and we'll be fine. We'll be good to go. Um, which can do the opposite thing. It doesn't take much for one person to have a family crisis, get divorced, decide they're going to move, >> or you don't know your numbers. You don't know how it works. You're hiring a lot of people. You don't know what's a good timing for hiring. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> And um and that leads me to the growing too fast part of things, right? >> Yeah.
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>> What what's so what's so dangerous and tricky about growing too fast? What can happen? You're as a new business owner, right? You you start off, let's say you're doing construction, right? You start this new remodeling company and you want to start taking projects and all of a sudden, you know, your phone start ring ringing. You're you got a beautiful face. You're knocking on doors. You're talking to people and leads coming in and you have that feeling, oh man, I'm on top of the world
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right now, >> right? I should hire everybody. I should make sure that my team is fully robust and ready to take on. >> And then >> what what can happen then? What what can happen to your brain when you get a lot of attraction like a lot of lot of traction sorry to your business and you more like feel like you need to grow without knowing >> growth what what growth is right. >> Yeah. I think really kind of what happens and what like I we saw it we've seen it with tons of different people at
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this point. It's come through a lot of our subcontractors has come through where they grow and they hire and hire and hire and they get things going. And I think the thing that everyone skips especially at the beginning is not really realizing what you need and then how to communicate that properly to the new team members or new clients or whatever it is that you're growing into. Right. Um because >> process I'm going to say >> yeah. Yeah. you you just skip the process or you think I've got an
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established process and then you just kind of roll with it and you're going and then you don't check up on that process because you need to like you need to establish something and say this is how we're going to do it and we're going to work on this and run for 3 weeks and then look and say oh crap that didn't work or what I thought I explained maybe doesn't work in every situation like you you need to go back and analyze it um which I think is the thing when you're when you're growing
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and you try to grow really fast is because things are coming in so quickly and you're trying to sell, sell, sell. You kind of forget about that, oh crud. I have a team that needs to figure out how to take my vision and my sales and all these things that are doing well and turn them into real projects and finish them, you know, and and get it to completion. So, I think that's kind of what happens. And then as the individual, you you obviously want to grow and you you feel like the team is excited about it
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and they're like, "Well, we're selling big projects. we got this awesome thing. And so I think that's one thing that you'll notice is like more people just get really excited and then that's when you start as a business owner if you start getting excited and see >> so excited we we hired two marketing people at the same time at the same time without even knowing what we want. >> Yeah. >> That was like thinking back what a >> what a what a crazy >> we had no idea what we were were looking
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for. >> I was one of those hires by the way origitally was was marketing was >> thank god. >> Oh my gosh. And I look at it now and I'm like, yeah, I probably was not the right person to have have picked for startup marketing. These are the million things that we need. It was just I can make videos for you. I could probably do that and I can do this thing. And >> came through the back door. >> Yeah. Yeah. And it just kind of rolled into what we have now. But it's one of
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those things where it's manic growth, you know? You're just like, we need it, we need it, we need it, we need it. And you don't really look back to be like, okay, what do we like about the business, right? It's just you're so emotional about the situation. So you start eating thinking that will fill you up but you're start eating junk just because you're >> you feel like you deserve a good meal you know so it's almost like the same thing growth but you know I must just
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add to what you just said that we are encouraging I personally encourage people >> to make mistakes means >> do the hiring you know lose some money go back fix it feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel f feel your back against the wall I mean the worst mistake is just the one you never >> made Right. It's just that's so true. You cannot learn like I I believe through psychology is that that
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>> that your best memory like muscle you you can you can develop and the best skill you can develop will will add um unfortunately uh upon mistakes and also upon like traumas. You gotta be a little bit as a good business owner and as a good business leader or as a good role like business, you know, if you're high up, you got to be traumatized a little bit >> to know what not to do, >> right? You got to feel it. You got to feel it. And we felt it. >> So, I just had to I want to add and make
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sure people are understanding. Make mistakes, hire a lot, fire a lot, try it out, do different different things for a business. Nothing we will say here will save you from the mistakes. >> But uh just keep in mind that growing should be slow >> at the end of the day. Doesn't matter what you do un until you got all the knowledge. >> It'll snowball. That's the thing. Snow it snowballs into fast growth like fast revenue growth but like it takes slow little baby steps. And I think the the
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caveat of something that we've learned too as well um is being canderous with the employees that you're hiring. Right? If you're if you're in this stage where you're like, I'm got a lot happening. I need to hire and you don't know, you might not know exactly what it is that you need and you're trying to figure it out. Like you got to be expensive with that though. And I think it's important to to hire somebody and be kind of clear of like >> my business is in this this spot right
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now and we're seeing really fast growth and this is what we think we need and this is what we're our plan is. And I think it's important because it's like, yeah, that person is putting their trust in you. You know, they're like, yeah, I I want to work here. This is my job. This is what I need. And so being able to be the business owner and taking the step back to say, okay, they want to get in this, they see this, I need to also be thoughtful of that, you know. Um, and it's one of those if you just go and
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grow and then you go, "Oh crap, okay, now I need to fire." There's also a good way to learn from that and say, "Okay, well, >> when I have this, I just have to have HR mistakes. It's just the whole thing is fast. >> Yeah. Yeah. Cuz Yeah. One thing can go and suddenly you're like we're 10k in the hole. Like I have to make payroll next week. There's tons of things that go and you're like oh gosh what do I do? So let's talk about the mechanism behind
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the fast growth because I think people will hear you talking about first growth and the outcome >> but let's talk about what's what's happening in a company within the company company's envelope when you first you know when you when you're growing too fast. So maybe tell me more about what what is what is a team burnout or what happened to the client experience when you're growing too fast? What what what have we noticed happening when we grew too fast? >> Yeah. Okay. So, the team burnout is the
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easy I mean team burnout's the easiest and it's always going to be your employee. Your employees know when they're burned out and their when their other co-workers burned out. You might not see it up front, but like they're they know, you know, um and cuz they're just working together all the time on little things and little tasks. So I feel like that's where you see it first and then there's just extra stress and someone just and it's usually one person maybe it's one or two that just carry
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extra stress and then that like you want to try to avoid cuz I mean that'll start resentment really fast right if you just feel like man everybody else has got it easy. I just got crushed and crushed and crushed cuz my one role is getting hammered right now. um that you don't want and that's like you got to take some time to to catch it and it's part of important follow-ups and being in the business and if you're the owner like you have to be in it and talk to them and be like
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>> okay how are you doing like this there's a lot going on are you good do you need help how can we assist and I think in learning from that that's important um the other thing is absolutely client experience because I think it comes from that person being stressed you know and when you have one two, three people on the team that are stressed or overworked or like they just have too much on their plate all at once. Then they can't get to that phone call or they can't send that email or respond to that text in
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time because they're worried about the other person that they're already an hour late to respond to them, you know? So, so those things start to roll and then you start to see it really fast. Okay, I've got four clients that for some reason they're all upset about something, you know, and it might be four different things, but a lot of times it'll stem back to, okay, we're overloaded in >> it's an availability issue, right? It's always like the coordinator and the PM,
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so to speak, are just not available as quickly as they should uh to handle the issue. It can be a small little thing that just triggers the client's brain right now. And on an ideal world, you have the coordinator and npm to address it quicker. And talking about construction in particular, I kind of feel like these are the two roles that getting burned out really quickly because they're so >> alive in their dayto-day. They must be available. They must put down fires all day. They must be talking to clients and
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they're like their first stop. So you if you are listening and you're a construction or service um companies owner or or working for a service company or in in the construction industry, pay attention to your coordinators or to your your you know you know your your receptionist call them or their you know are your gatekeepers your gatekeepers and make sure they are handling the right amount of volume >> and it's always a problem to kind of say they can manage because I'm creating
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more process for them and I'm creating more clarity on what what is important what's not and we're doing it pretty well. We are talking every day. We are having an ASAP task list. And on top of the list for each one of our projects, we do have what's more pressing and like pain points. But at the same time, it's just one person. Like she can she can send just five emails an hour. She cannot send 25 emails an hour and be very, you know, very detailed on each one of the emails. It's just one, you
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know, two pair of hands and that's it. >> Yeah. So pay attention to these guys that are not having an high up role. You know, marketing is one thing. It's not being tested every day. >> Yeah. For examp slow, it gets fast. It gets slow, it gets fast. Like >> it's a good point. What do you do when it's slow? >> Yeah. Like there there is that point of okay, I have things that are slow. So, when you're in the growth ass mentality, right, things are happening really
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quickly and you just happen to be getting leads, you know, and you're closing leads and you're nailing it and you're just like, "Wow, I've I've had five in the past week and they've all closed and suddenly you're just like, "Okay, we got project project." And what causes you to go slow, what we found is you start to give up on the other things that got you there. All that marketing, all the meetings with designers, all the everything that got you to those first
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five projects, you kind of put on the back burner because you're like, I need to throw these fires. Burn the fires. Gotta make take care of it. Now suddenly you do become slow and then you go, uhoh, I've got all these people that I had for all this business, but I forgot about what got me there. >> Let me put it on a gym anal analogy. Think about you're working on your forearm, >> but you got to breathe, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. If you'll forget breathing which is very essential let's call it
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marketing blood >> then it doesn't matter how strong is your forearm let's call it like stronger than the usual means more coordinators, more PMs >> and you got great sales then if you'll forget breathing it doesn't matter how strong that muscle is you'll just die same thing in business I mean you got to keep your core employees in place and take care of them and then you can grow like you cannot you know underestimate marketing or business development or you know your location if you're having
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an office that tracks a lot of clients your way because you're very local. >> Oh great um you're very local um you cannot give up on that just because you had a really good 3 months. >> Yeah. And then and then yeah I mean that same thing's going to happen anywhere. It's like if your client doesn't have a good experience because you were overwhelmed. >> There you go. >> They're not going to call back and they're not going to send their friend to you. They're going to be like this
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guy sucked. He couldn't make it to my house for two weeks. >> That's the issue. >> Yeah, >> that's the biggest one. You know what, Nate? You just touched the biggest one. Let's talk about the uh the moment you're starting to get you're start losing your sleep, right? You're going too fast. >> Things are booming and you are you're you're like, "Okay, I got to wake up tomorrow 3:00 a.m. and get everything ready." And you are growing. Yeah.
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>> Okay. You have the growth pain, the growth joy. This whole thing is knocking at her door. I'm growing. Give me give me your two cents. >> Yeah. So, at that point, you I think the thing that happens is this you you know you're in it when you set your schedule the next day and you're like, I've got my six things I have to do and you're you like committed. You're like, I am doing these today. They're going to get done. And then suddenly it's 2:00. you're like, "God damn it. I got one and
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I didn't get I couldn't get to the other one cuz there was just so much to do and all these other things that happened and came in your way and then you're just like, "Oh, dang." Like the the things I know are highest priority. I can't even get to those. And like at that point, I feel like, yeah, you're you're in it. This is it. Like you've hit this wall and you've hit this thing and now this is where it's you've got to get creative. You know, we've gotten really
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creative when we had these points where like I was at one point where I was like, man, I can't get to any of these tasks I've got for like a week and a half at a time and like I try and then I go and something gets in the way and we had tons of audits and Yeah. And Nina, >> so we we took that route and we said, "Okay, well, we need somebody else." And so, we're very fortunate to have found Nenah. And so she's like one of our our VAS, our virtual assistants, um, who
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works remotely, and she takes on a big chunk of the stuff I was doing all the time. And >> it makes zero sense for you to do. >> Yeah. >> And it freed us up though to look at the biggest >> industry. Nothing for you to Yeah. It just doesn't speak your language at all. >> Do what you do right now. >> Yeah. And and it was one of those things where it might not have been a construction and sales growth, but it was we have too many projects with too many transactions and too many things
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going for me to track and catch and do all the things that we needed. And so that was for me at that point. And I was like, I can't get to my sales, you know, and then my projects are suffering and then I'm trying to get this and then you're suffering cuz like well I don't know where we're at on the profit side and loss side and are these transactions for this and not and so we're trying to make all these business decision decisions but we couldn't. Yeah. We were just kind of trapped
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>> and it was worse cuz I was like I felt the point of the bottleneck because it was me and I was like I just can't get there. I just can't get to all these. And so at that point it was really just like you have to kind of stop and admit it. I didn't want to for the longest time I was like I can do it. I can do it. And then we'd have a meeting and I'd be like I know this is where I'm missing and I need to get these things but I'll get them done by this day. And then that
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day would come and I'd barely scrape through and I'd be here till like 6:30 like I got it out. Yes. And it wouldn't be I'd miss something you know. And so it was one of those you kind of had to take a step back and say, "Okay, I've overcommitted myself to too many things. It's just at this point we've gotten too big for me as the individual to do it." You know, so then it was like, "Okay, I need some assistance." And that can happen on your person doing your
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transactions. It can happen on your marketing person. It can happen on the coordinator. It can happen on the admin for the architect. You know, it could happen to any individual. And I feel like it's important cuz we have lots of meetings, you and I, um that we do talk about these things. And it was like, hey, you you were very nice and weren't like, you've missed this deadline three times, which is great as a boss, you know, but then then I also felt the same was like I am I just can't get
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>> I'll talk about that, you know, you got to you got to >> if you are the owner, you got you got to stop and you got to think is this guy is just being lazy or not organized. That's his is that his mentality or is just overloaded and I know for a fact that my team >> are not built from lazy people. We are very hard workers and if we cannot deliver something we said we will then it is because it's just impossible. We got to admission impossible and it's just too much on us and there are like
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more pressing things. So for me to be mad now or pissed >> um you know it's just just makes less sense. Um it's not being nice. I'm just I just understand you as a as a person. You got to understand your people. um trying to do it well most times. I'm not getting pissed too quickly. I think that's the uh that's the key. It's a game. Enjoy the game. Play it well. Play it nice. Play it clean. >> Um >> I will say also that you got to make sure you're stepping back and you're
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finding that one thing you can do to solve a big issue or a big problem. It can be a process, can be a hire. Uh but in order to do that, you said it right. You got to step back and stop and say, "Okay, I cannot breathe." You know, I cannot breathe. I'm I'm I'm in in in the middle of a panic attack right now. Business panic attack can can lead to a lot of different things. I got to step out and see, okay, Nate is actually doing way too much. You got to get help. This is the help I'm proposing. Or the system is
00:21:20
not working. Monday's, you know, we use monday.com. This board is not working. Stop. I'm going to sit down on my ass right now, figure out like a way to make this board work. And the solution you're coming up with or this problem you're trying to solve should solve a larger problem. If you're trying to put one fire down, >> then that's not the thing. You got to you got to make sure you're buying the, you know, you're you're you're creating a tool um to help you for a
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long run. >> I think that's that's one of the advices. step back and look for options to solve your bigger problem um than the pro the one problem you're dealing with. If it's a one one stop, one band-aid, it's not going to be it's it's that's not what you need. It's good for now and if it's an emergency, of course, take care of it. Do it right. That's okay. But then think back how it is not happening again. Come up with a process. Talk to your guys. Make sure it's on paper and
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make sure everybody knows how to handle it next time and you have a way to avoid it. Yeah. And then also I think I think think of what like what do you want this role and this position and this person or yourself what do you want to be doing future on? Right. And it was for you it was very clear. It's like I want you to selling these big projects. Right. And so for me it was like okay well I can't do that with this. Right. That's also another thing is that we took the step back and thought about it, but then you
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went a step further and had a whole list of this is what I want everyone to be doing and this is where I see we're having a problem, right? So, it's like a as the owner, I think that's the most valuable thing was was it wasn't just, oh, he took a step back and I'll solve his problem and think about it like you're talking about like you got see what was the big picture thing >> and then the big picture to where we are now I think is a big difference and you know you also need to understand when
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when you're talking about capacities right because the burnout capacities growing too fast is fast is like the same family right >> you got to make sure I'm reading this book right now called ikiguai it's uh the Japanese way for a longevity and happiness. And they talk about each one got their moments of flow. And when I'm talking about moments of flow is moments that time passes by so quickly that you do not even you don't even realize that how how much time just passed by by you
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doing a task. For example, I think that for you Nate, scoping and selling and breaking down a project from plans is when you kind of shine, right? you're just doing it so well communicating with the clients, solving issues, being very like responsible for the situation in a way in terms of like the construction planning. Mhm. >> I I see you shine there when other people probably going to do much better designing for example or um coordinating and making day go smooth and each one got their own eeky guy and I think it's
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really important to say I'm growing too fast but I got the wrong people in the wrong seats right so let me find let me try and look with them for where where they can flow and enjoy and then you retain them for longer which will help you with growth Because a turnaround is a big vibe killer for a company. It will stop your growth immediately. You will have to >> stop everything you do means you're you're not growing right now. You're solving an issue and it's can be a big
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one. >> So find those people that want to do what they're meant to do for your company. That's a big growth um helper. >> Yeah. >> Nate, we are wrapping up. I think we had a really good discussion. >> Heck no. >> Build it or bag it. >> Ah, this is the best part of the whole thing. You got to announce it better than that. This is Near's first time announcing Builder Bagot. >> That's the first time. I'm doing it very casual. >> Um,
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>> whoa. >> Need like a theme song. >> Build a bagot. >> Ready? >> Yeah, I'm ready. >> Thick card tops. >> I am a build it fan on this one. Actually, I really like it. We actually have one project that almost all of them are a thick drop down. I think it's cool. I think it's a challenging and complex. Um, it's a design challenge, you know, to make a thick counter top work with the cabinetry. Like there's a lot of pieces that are involved and I
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think like you talked about, I just like being involved in all the nitty-gritty. Um, but I enjoy it. Matan's enjoying it as the architect. Like I really am a fan. Um, there's a time and place. Obviously, I know a lot of people are going with just the standardized finish with thin countertops, but I'm a thick countertop fan. >> Amazing. I'm going to move to the next. I'm with you, by the way. I love thick countertops. I think it will expose like the beautiful part of the material by
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looking at profile of it. >> It's kind of nice. >> Um I'll skip the second one. I'm not filling it. But the third one here Jenny put together is exposed structural beams. >> What do you feel about exposed structural beams? >> So I like wood ones. >> Are you talking like engineered like LVL's PSLs? Um >> seeing the material >> I like seeing like these I I just like to see it. you know, and it's like, "Huh, that is how this is built." And
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then then you just >> it feels like it's like a strong thing. I don't know what it is about it. You're just like, "Yeah, this is a solid place." >> And >> I like it as well. If you ever if you ever watched uh the local project, they just uploaded an episode uh from Australia when the entire house >> is framed and they framed another frame on top of it where all the insulation mechanicals are. So, you can really see the original flame. So, the second frame
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is pretty much cosmetic. >> Yeah. The original frame is in place and you're you live in your frame. >> Yeah, >> that is so cool. They use like a beautiful wood um out of an broken bridge in Australia. >> Oh, sick. Okay. >> Yeah. Check it out. And they stain it beautifully. But that's the actual framing of the property. Yeah. >> And then they build another frame for all the mechanicals. So, it's almost like separating it from the mechanicals, but you're seeing where you live. And I
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think that's so amazing. >> Well, I don't know how much money they spent to build this project, but >> that's cool. I saw one actually of the architect who his whole studio is unfinished and it's all the framing all the everything's run and like obviously the electrical wiring has uh jackets around it in this case but he was like I want people when they come in to the rough Yeah. and to be like this is what is in your home and this is how we can design it to behind the walls. It's not
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just ugly hanging. Like it still has its >> beauty in the uh rough work. But I'm like I'm fascinated by that stuff cuz you so so often think of like oh Instagram just feeds you finished. Look at this tile. Look at this countertop. Look at this bathroom. And that just to see like raw lumber and hardware. Oh my god. I love that crap. Yeah. I just want to wrap this uh growing too fast episode and say to whoever is listening listening and if we do have listeners you know we're very young in podcasting
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but we do believe that this podcast will go to a lot of different places. >> If you are in stress if you are in a mental breakdown even you know within business feel free to reach out you know we're not going to charge you if you're that's not the thing we want we want to talk to you and help you. if you are in a mental breakdown, you want to hear more about our experience, if you want to get some tools or professionals we can connect you with to get you out of the situation you got got yourself into.
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Um, also, you know, it's not don't be ashamed to go and seek for professional help because that thing can break your family, can break your relationships, can be very deadly to you and your family. So if you're in a too fast of a growth journey right now and peril is closing on you and bills are closing on you and have no capital to get out of it um give us a call. We'll we'll we'll try and look at your books, look at your at the prom. See maybe maybe just share more of our experience
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because you will get there at some point and uh don't try and be uh in that situation by yourself. That's not healthy. Share it. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> That was it. >> All right. Heck yeah. Thank you everybody.