Ep 78 – 2026 Build Show Live Recap

More leads. More revenue. More growth.

Sounds like a dream, right?

Until your processes start falling apart, your team is stretched thin, and suddenly you’ve got bigger problems than you started with.

This special episode of Trades Secrets: Contractor Marketing, Amanda and Devon recap their time at 2026 Build Show Live and share what contractors are talking about, investing in, and figuring out right now.

From AI and operational efficiency to sales, social media, and profitability, they break down the lessons that go beyond marketing.

Devon Hayes (00:00)
We went to the build show live to learn what contractors are being told.

We spend all day every day marketing contractors and we wanted to kinda understand what they were being told in terms of marketing, but even just in terms of business and just actually sit in the rooms that they’re sitting in.

Amanda Joyce (00:17)
Yeah,

we wanted to hear what their coaches are telling what technology they’re being sold, and what problems they’re actually trying to solve in this collective group. So it was it was a really fun thing to experience.

Devon Hayes (00:27)
Yeah, and some of our biggest takeaways had almost nothing to do with marketing. So this episode, we’re gonna talk through some of the biggest takeaways from the 2026 Build Show Live. And I can tell you, Amanda and I were both completely blown away by the experts in the room, the amount of passion behind

building something that lasts and with integrity and that includes the structure but also their businesses. It was such a great experience and we’re we’re both like so happy we decided to to go attend the show.

Amanda Joyce (01:00)

okay, first impressions. What was everybody talking about?

So we we wandered the expo floor, we attended a ton of talks. There were more talks than we could have possibly sat through, but every single one of them we did sit through. We our eyes were open to the business challenges that these guys are facing, many of which are challenges we can share as business owners ourselves. and then really getting to learn about all of the latest techniques in building and how they’re differentiating themselves. It was just it was it was such a fun event and it was, I mean, I don’t think we knew what to expect.

we were it still by far like blew all of our expectations.

Devon Hayes (01:36)
Absolutely. I know. I do love sitting through like those business sessions and like financial sessions and I’m like feverishly taking notes as they talk through some of those things. that as business owners, like we know we’re supposed to be paying attention to, but how and how to wrangle that beast and like what’s what’s a short scorecard. yeah, some of those were they’re great for us too, but it’s it’s cool to hear exactly like how contractors

what their scorecards are to see how their business is running, if it’s being if it’s efficient, looking at, you know, their pipeline and backlog and other KPIs that that that they called out in some of those financial sessions. I love those ones and it makes me wanna come back to our business and do homework too.

Amanda Joyce (02:14)
I know one of the

things that really stuck out in one of the sessions, they called in a guy who has recently figured out how to actually monetize his change orders, and all the guys in the room, like and women, turned around like, I need to know more about this because for so many of them it’s death by a thousand paper cuts with all those change orders, and then so often it’s like, I don’t know, I love this guy. I don’t want to tell him no, we’ll figure out how to do it in the original scope. And it was like really cool. I mean the guy he was like, Yeah, we’ll do your change order, but you have to pay for it up front right now, and we’ll get that going, and you are gonna pay.

pay a higher rate than in the original scope because because we’re on you know we’ve already ordered all your materials, we’re here. A really cool one and I could see everybody just like feverishly taking notes about that one.

Devon Hayes (02:58)
Yeah,

that that was a good one because e we even feel that in our business a bit too when on the surface it looks like one thing and then you once you dive in and get under the hood, you’re like, gosh, actually there’s a lot more here that you don’t know until you’re you’re diving in. but the the the group in the room had some really good questions on that change order topic. They’re like, Well, is that for

like a a change orders to something that you should have caught or a change order to something that the customer caught on their own. Do you charge for both? So it was really interesting and a good conversation and gave us like and the whole reason we went there was to understand their pain points as business owners, what they care about as contractors. And just we weren’t there to sell anything. We were there to just truly like listen and get a pulse on what on what’s happening

inside of you know, the the custom build and and renovations worlds and some of the trades involved with that. Yeah.

Amanda Joyce (03:49)
Yeah. Yeah and I

I was gonna say one of the things that I loved that really stuck out was h just hearing the questions they were asking and how almost all of it always went back to like delivering a really good customer experience and making sure that their that their craftsmanship was like up here so that they weren’t disappointing the client. Like it

Devon Hayes (04:05)
Yes.

Amanda Joyce (04:05)
was it was always the client first and it was just such a fun thing to get in that headspace because we know that’s how our how our clients feel, but it was fun to just get to be a fly on the wall with those conversations and it’s such a reminder of the types of things that we need to be bragging about.

for them. They’re never gonna sit down and tell us like, yeah, I lose sleep at night over making sure that my clients that we’re meeting every one of these seven pieces of our company code of ethics. But hearing them talk about it naturally like really opened up our eyes to the questions we should be asking our contractors so that we can better highlight them. Because these guys could not be more modest. They never brag about themselves and they have so much to brag about.

Devon Hayes (04:42)
They really do. They really

do. And and it kind of goes back to I think something you and I like I don’t know the bigger takeaway I guess from the conference was not that contractors are necessarily like suffering from a lack of revenue. it is like you said, death by a thousand paper cuts from different inefficiencies within the business. And so I guess maybe that

More revenue does not fix a broken business. And there was a lot of information shared about what exactly that means and how you identify what’s broken and inefficient. And even I mean, even you and I have been guilty of being like, Okay, we just looking at our revenue and like thinking about more sales instead of like inefficiencies inside of our existing processes and systems, you know?

Amanda Joyce (05:27)
Yeah, and so many of the guys were talking about exactly what you were saying. Like it exacerbates the problem. If anything, you’re not efficient already and then you just sell three more jobs and it what’s already kind of crumbling is really crumbling. Then they’re losing sleep, they’re making mistakes, they’re losing they’re continuing to bleed more because they didn’t get their house in order. So it was cool to hear some of some of the the elements that they know that they have to get in order on the back end to be more efficient. and then talk

the guys that are talking about how they’d solve for it and their communication is better and their they they avoid a lot of the change orders and all that stuff. that those are the kind of things that like when a company has those in place and the end the end customer benefits from it, that’s the stuff we need to be bragging about in their content, on their social posts, in video content. We need to let the homeowner know that like they’ve already that that they’ve got all this figured out so that you’re not gonna have to write

ride that wave with them. And then there’s plenty of these guys that are probably the their customers blissfully unaware of what’s going on on the back end, but they’re like just desperately trying to like pace things together. And I loved what there was a talk that he was really speaking to like, you know, one million union revenue, you you know, at 1% is $10,000. It hurts, but it’s not crazy. But as you continue to scale, $10 million, you’re looking at a hundred grand and just things just sliding out the door from just little tiny

systematic changes that need to be put in place to improve the overall efficiency of your business. I mean that’s some serious revenue for the owner of the company if they could walk away with an extra hundred thousand dollars every year that they’re currently bleeding out just because they’re so busy and they’re taking on more work than than they’re like ready to scale to.

Devon Hayes (06:58)
Yeah, in that conversation, I mean in terms of like what we as agency owners got out of it is and things to spot within our clients. And I we do this naturally. We do this through our conversations, our monthly meetings, listening to calls and listening to how they’re being handled by the call center, looking at close rates, looking at the quality of leads and you know, some of some of our clients are just like, Yeah.

Leads are not the problem. Thanks, guys. Actually, we need you to tone it down. We are not converting. We are not selling. Our sales team isn’t following X, Y, and Z. we we actually can’t handle more leads right now. And so it was it’s it’s good to hear that it’s not always like leads, leads, leads, I need more leads. Sometimes it’s asking the question of like, well, or or I guess being more forward with, we noticed this at your call center, we noticed missed calls here, we notice they don’t know how to answer this question, or we noticed.

That these are really highly qualified leads and you’re not closing like seven out of ten leads, you know. So

Amanda Joyce (07:50)
Yeah, or you’re

tell you’re turning people away ’cause you can’t get a bid same week. And but then two weeks later you’re telling us your clothes rate sucks. Like you gotta you gotta fix something here.

Devon Hayes (07:57)
Yeah. Yeah, and

not to toot our own horn, but I’m going to. I I don’t know

we don’t know what it’s like when you work with other agencies, marketing agencies, but it’s like actually we really are a partner. Like ’cause we do that for our guys, we tell we listen to all of the calls. It’s not, you know, we have kind of a framework ’cause some of the call volume is wild. It’s like d you know, I were they on the phone for more than thirty seconds, that kind of thing to to sift through it. But we really do act as a partner to give you a pulse on that that kind of part of your business that maybe you don’t maybe you don’t know it’s broken already, you know? Like

I don’t know, so I it was it was interesting to hear that that’s not something that’s just happening automatically in every single business. Not everybody’s listening to the tone and the pulse of their calls. They’re not using that data per se right now. and

or their agency isn’t providing it to I I don’t even know because we steered clear of doing any kind of selling there, we’d we didn’t really have any calls like, What does your marketing agency do for you? But just in little snippets that we overheard and and some of the questions that were asked in the in the classroom, we were like, Okay, this is kinda cool. It’s something that we do go above and beyond for other clients.

Amanda Joyce (09:02)
Yes, absolutely. And then another thing that we noticed was AI was absolutely everywhere, but the interesting thing was it wasn’t like how do you use Chat GPT? It was like such a larger conversation and it was like so fun to hear how these guys are creatively using it in their own businesses. And we sat in a talk from BTA Danny Kerr, shout out to Danny, which which was brilliant and it was interesting, you know, there were people from

on every level of this of the spectrum of AI. Some people raising their hand and saying like talking about really really advanced ways that they’re leveraging AI to to increase to really systematize things and then some people raising their hand to be like, if I’m gonna get started tomorrow, which LLM should I use? And and it was just such an open, friendly conversation. There you know, everybody wanted to help everybody at every level of it and it was it was really fun to to witness and to be a part of.

Devon Hayes (09:51)
Yeah, I wondered how they were gonna tackle AI because it it is everywhere, it is huge. I think you and I as owners, we hear it too. We’re like, there’s another tool, there’s another easy hack, there’s another shortcut. Everyone’s like vibe coding and collecting them or connecting MCPs and they’ve got all this stuff figured out. And and then there’s like obviously some some guys in the room they’re like, Okay, I know this is everywhere. Like, where where do I even begin? Like I am the leader of my company.

I am here to, you know, really have my eyes open and and approach this, like knowing that it’s part of the future, but I haven’t started with it. Like where do I start? And it was, I think Danny gave everybody a great place to start with the company Brain. And he gave a step by step on how to do it. and he he really simplified it so it didn’t feel overwhelming. And even if you’re you know, in our agency group, we call it like a caveman, you know, sticks and stones and

And dinosaurs. Danny broke it down and simplified it in a way where you’re like, actually, this is like, I understand, I have this info, and he just made it really, you know, a four-step process of how to create this company brain that’s like your one source of truth. So your company brain, being the one source of truth for where you can find

I don’t know, HR resources or your SOP on this thing or your like ten step sales process. It all lives in one brain. And he and he talked through how to connect it. I thought that was a really smart way and a great place to start for anyone who hasn’t started with AI but knows they need to like dive in there somewhere. I think BT I think he did do like, I don’t know, I don’t know, some handouts on that too. but

Amanda Joyce (11:20)
Yeah.

Devon Hayes (11:21)
anyway.

Amanda Joyce (11:21)
Yeah,

and it was funny too, ’cause you and I were both like looking at each other when he’s talking about like getting organizing your drive or wherever it is that you keep all your documents. And we we as an agency have tried to do that and we kind of do, but I think all business owners can relate to this. You start out with all the best of intentions and then you’ve got enough people working in things that like ever over time it it gets a little scattered and hearing him talk about how like just just the hierarchy of of really organizing that and then feeding it in will completely

completely change your output and completely change the efficiency of all of the activities you’re doing in AI. So like it it definitely resonated with you and I for our for our own business and I I thought it I thought it was a like you said a really cool way to make it digestible for everybody and not make it feel like, my gosh, like why now I just feel like I’m behind and overwhelmed. Instead it was like something everybody could go home and do and then say, okay now what’s my next step? What’s my biggest focus as an as a company? Where do I need to really inject AI and my information is gonna be there.

On the ready.

Devon Hayes (12:20)
Yes, yes. And and and not to be I mean it can be overwhelming ’cause AI is everywhere, but I liked kind of the takeaway there was that like AI it really i it’s not the problem, but it does it does expose your documentation problems. Truer words may never

Amanda Joyce (12:37)
Exactly. Yeah.

Devon Hayes (12:39)
have been spoken.

Amanda Joyce (12:41)
Exactly. And

then you think about if you have some

messy driver dropbox and you’ve got outdated SOPs in there and old documents. Maybe maybe you’ve rebranded or you no longer have that same company mission. If it’s all in there and it hasn’t been cleaned up, AI’s gonna gobble up whatever it wants. So it’s just such a, you know, such a good reminder of like having a a super tidy house. And it’s on Devon’s and my list since we got home. We haven’t done it yet, but it’s on there. So it we we can report

Devon Hayes (13:06)
Vert.

Amanda Joyce (13:07)
back to you guys with how efficient we’ve been with our own company brain.

Devon Hayes (13:10)
We’re gonna get yeah, we’re gonna

get our our little agents to work too. and do some housekeeping. Do do a little housekeeping here. But there was other outside of like kind of a step one where to start with AI, there was a couple AI vendors there. one was called Diggs and that one was super cool. It is an AI platform that basically does a a two D and three D modeling of

your estimates, it can do the estimate for you. And then but it’s interactive for the trades. So the trades can have like it the the build is if like blue for plumbing for example and like green for I don’t know the electricians. But then there’s like a layer where the homeowners like they can like interact on certain rooms or certain areas. They can like

highlight a problem or not a problem but like upload like the tile selection like all kinds of different things in there and then also chat with the contractor and then post you know the post closeout they can any warranty issues like that can be activated all within the same system and it I think it says it I don’t remember Amanda the when they were doing a walkthrough of how quickly these two D estimates and models could be built out, I think it was like within minutes

Amanda Joyce (14:20)
It was instantaneous.

And like

Devon Hayes (14:22)
Yeah.

Amanda Joyce (14:22)
what you were saying too, they were talking about the digital twin that you get of your home when it’s done. So these custom home builders that are building these incredible houses for people, it not only their warranty, but it’s something that they can continue to to load things in throughout the life of the home. So it’s like they have this user manual of their own house that and and they were even talking about how like resale value down the road when you can say like the homeowner has this that they can just pass on to the next person where they know every trade that’s ever been in the house.

every appliance, all that stuff. I mean I was like, who wouldn’t want that? I mean, talk about a way to differentiate yourself as a builder or even probably a remodeler. You could do that and then hand it off to them and they have that for life. It was it was really cool.

Devon Hayes (15:03)
It w yeah,

that was that was really impressive. ‘Cause I would imagine like estimating a project could take three weeks depending on the size of it. And yeah, so then to have it done instantly, I’m like, my gosh, of course you’re gonna still need like human judgment and an estimator to actually go through and look at it and see if it aligns with kind of what they did, I would imagine. But I’m sure the the guys at Diggs would talk you through

the accuracy and how they ensure I think they they even gave a metric on how accurate their the modeling is and it was like single digit percentage wise I think if I’m remembering correctly. So that was a cool AI tool and then the other one was trainual that one is interesting because it takes your SOPs but turns them into a video like an interactive I don’t know if it’s interactive. It turns it into a video

So it’s not just your new hires like reading mounds and mounds and mounds of SOPs. I’m like, that’s actually pretty, pretty awesome. All right. I’m sure our new hires would much rather watch a video or a training video over and and there I think it sticks more because then you’re hearing it, you’re seeing it, and it’s visual and you’re not just like glued to a desk for your first couple of days. so that was it. That was the other software that we saw there that I guess was kind of AI.

Amanda Joyce (16:15)
AI focused.

Devon Hayes (16:15)
Goes in the AI bucket, yeah.

Amanda Joyce (16:17)
And one more thing I was remembering about Diggs, when they were up there talking about it, they were also talking about the build show and their whole new AI thing that that ties in all

That ties in code. I mean, it’s gonna be crazy for contractors all over the country to be able to make sure that they’re meeting if and ideally obviously with the bill to everyone’s trying to exceed code, but that it that’s all available too, and that also connects into digs so that as you’re planning, you’re you’re accounting for all of the all of the different code and permitting that you need to be worried about, that which is also gonna play into the into the scope of your project, that that’s gonna be automatically baked in, like mind blowing to think about the hour.

Hours and hours of painstaking work that contractors have had to do to get to that point for years, make through like just blood, sweat, and tears, and that now it’s all in one digital platform. Is like, I mean, it’s they just kept going with features that I’m like from

Devon Hayes (17:05)
Yeah.

Amanda Joyce (17:06)
the it helps from the contractor trying to write the estimate all the way to the homeowner when they go to try to sell the home later, and that like every person along the way benefits from it. I was just like mind-blommed. Makes me want to knock my house down and build from the ground up so that I can have that.

Devon Hayes (17:19)
Yeah, talk about a clean and like, I don’t know, a differentiator as a as a homeowner, like going through a custom build. I only did a somewhat major renovation. When was it like a I don’t know, a year and a half ago? This would have made that a lot smoother, I believe. So and it was only like a I don’t know, maybe like a hundred thousand dollar renovation. So someone who’s like building from the ground up and all of the information that even comes from the foundation and the soils and all of that, having it in the s one place is crazy.

Amanda Joyce (17:46)
Yeah, so cool.

Okay,

another thing that we we’d we’ve talked about this for years, but it w it came up again, and now we’re like more headstrong than ever that we’re really gonna lean into this for our clients, and it’s recording customer conversations with sales guys, like customer conversations in general, but especially sales guys out in the field. We broke out our our pl our plots for the first time while we were there, and it was pretty fun to be able to like record the the talks and everything and everything that was going on. So we had these training.

Transcripts later to go back and look at them. and they were talking about having your salespeople do that and talk about a great training opportunity. So you yeah, you don’t have time to go out and sit on every sales call with your sales guys, but if they’re all recording those every time they’re having a conversation, the the feedback you can give them is incredible. And then for us as marketers, this is gold for us. I was actually talking to one of our contractors when we got back about sending some to us, and she’s like, I don’t really see why this is relevant, but I’ll send them to you. I’m like, it’s important.

Because you guys don’t even realize at what point in the conversation it goes from like you’re selling to then maybe you’re qualifying them or they’re just hook, line, and sink or they’re in and we need to hear when that conversation turns and we need to make sure that’s what we’re highlighting on your website and in all your marketing materials. So it’s it’s gold and forever we’ve like, Will you please send that to us? And now it’s more like if we know our client has it, we’re going to say like when are you gonna get that to me? We really need to go through it.

Devon Hayes (19:07)
And that’s true. And again, like going back to why we even went to this was to listen to these conversations and hear things like this, but it it’s because we need original information. We need to hear it like firsthand in the world of AI and being able to ask a machine anything you want and getting an answer, like how can we differentiate our clients so that their content is always authentic and original?

And and how can we beat the whole information gain ranking factor inside of Google? Well, you have to have original information. So that’s where these conversations, like we can hear some really good stuff out of these and it just reinforced even more. So like Plaud makes it so easy to record these conversations. You can get consent and just, you know, obviously you wouldn’t want to sneakily be recording anything, but there is just marketing gold inside of there. And so yeah, that

We we definitely are gonna be pressuring. I feel like we should get a sponsorship from Plaud because of what we’re gonna be telling our clients they have to go buy right now, but it’s

Amanda Joyce (20:09)
How many of those yeah. Maybe

that could be our Christmas gift for clients.

Devon Hayes (20:16)
Brilliant.

Amanda Joyce (20:16)
Like,

yeah. Because like so many of them are so busy and they like they don’t even want to sit for a content interview, they like roll their eyes at us. And even then we’ll sometimes be like, Okay, give me your elevator pitch, and they’re like, Okay, whatever, and they just reluctantly give it to us. But hearing it in the wild in the live is a totally different story, and that’s when you’re really turning it on and that’s when like I mean, and if if we can save our clients from even having to sit for a content interview and then to your point we’re writing really unique content, and you know, the the sales guys are probably

get on board when suddenly they realize that like some of their like the best ways they’re positioning the company are suddenly being featured on the homepage. It only reinforces what they’re trying to do out there. So it’s a great way to get that that connection and that cohesion without us having to like painfully pull it out of you when you’ve done up you’ve had a long day and the last thing you want to do is get on the phone with your marketing company.

Devon Hayes (21:05)
Totally, totally. That’s a and then I mean, talk about using it for training for other sales guys, like just tape a plot to your your top salesman and just listen to for a day and I’m sure. And then run that run the transcripts through AI and and say, you know, form a sales plan for me based on this. yeah.

Amanda Joyce (21:25)
True story, how do I clone this guy? And also

that same contractor we have, they make their guys record every one of them and they have a sales coach that then they have sales meetings where they sit down and live listen to them. And it’s way more authentic than having someone follow you around and like kind of shadow you. That’s like truly what’s happening when you’re on your own out in the wild, there’s no one staring over you, leaning over your shoulder, kind of like trying to like lead the witness. This is it’s talk about like training gold.

Like I know they made me say this so I’m gonna say it ’cause they’re listening, like

Devon Hayes (21:54)
Yeah. Because it’s yeah, it’s step five in in our sales process.

Yeah.

Amanda Joyce (21:57)
Hehehe

Devon Hayes (22:00)
so good yeah, that was that was good. Definitely we’re more passionate about that than ever before. we also went to a really cool social media session.

If you guys have listened to Amanda and I at all over the years on this podcast, you know that we don’t pretend to be social media marketers. We don’t pretend to be influencers or anyone that’s gonna make you go viral. We we post for our clients for what it does for the machines.

And of course, you know, keep your profiles fresh. But you get it. We’re not your internal team that’s gonna have the really fun, good content, you know. So anyways, we wanted to listen to social media, like what are you know, what are contractors being told? what are best practices, like what should they do? They it I think more and more they know it’s there, they know they should do it.

And I and I don’t know, Amanda, what you think? I think personally because of AI, like it’s even more important that it’s just less produced and more authentic on your social channels and it really is coming from like the people and it doesn’t look like a you know, a perfect Canva design all the time. Don’t judge us because I think we do that a lot, but

Amanda Joyce (23:01)
Yeah.

It’s so true. And the thing that like I just loved that they were talking about was like I think what did Matt say in it? He said, perfection is the enemy of the good. It’s like stop trying to stop like stopping yourself. Quit with the analysis paralysis. I mean he w it was funny, they first started saying like post every day. Just make that your goal, post every day. And then Matt was like

Maybe do it three times a week. Set a goal you can reach, but either way, set a serious consistency goal and just start putting it out there. Because the only way you’re gonna know what resonates in your market is by posting it and finding out what what people are responding to.

Devon Hayes (23:38)
Yes, and I’m trying to find so I know, ’cause the it was on the panel. it was Matt Reisinger, and then I know her Instagram handle is Drywall Shorty, and then the other gal was Stephanie Builds It is her Instagram handle. And it was just authentic. It was like, you know, we didn’t start these channels to go out and become influencers. We were just sharing knowledge and Drywall Shorty, her name’s Lydia, she

She’s a drywaller and awesome, but she was like sharing techniques and just teaching people. And that ended up blowing up. I think her YouTube channel might be the the bigger bigger one, biggest one. and then Stephanie

Amanda Joyce (24:09)
Yeah.

Devon Hayes (24:09)
Builds It. she is a custom builder, but just sharing like unfinished pictures of like laying like flooring and just some of the mill work. And she’s like, This is actually the content that performs way better.

than my before and afters. And so I thought that was really interesting and I wish that we had a really cool art Amanda that you and I could post what we do throughout the day, but it would be our computers over and over again.

Amanda Joyce (24:32)
It’s not yeah.

It’s not quite as exciting. But yeah, she was saying that one of her

Devon Hayes (24:37)
Definitely not.

Amanda Joyce (24:38)
most popular videos was her just really zo zeroing in on some millwork. I think it was on some steps in a Batman basement or something, she said, but it was just on like some incredible space she was building and she was just nerding out on the on the millwork. And she also said her favorite thing to do is to highlight her the people on her team and the beautiful work they’re doing. She’s like it’s not about me, it’s about the people that are here making these homes come to life. And she’s like, I it was just so cool. She said she heard

ever posts a final a an after picture. She and most people when they finally find her, she actually said she doesn’t even have her business on her Instagram. Like you have to go seek it out to even find out what w how to get a hold of her. She’s like, by the time someone gets a hold of me, they have already decided I’m who they want to go with. Because they’ve watched all my videos, they see how much I care, they see they see that all of the team that I have behind me doing this work. And it that’s just so cool. Like I and then that’s when you get to nerd out and actually just

share share your like craftsmanship and what makes you unique instead of having to be like all buttoned up and try to like like look at this final product. Like that’s actually not what people are even that that interested in.

Devon Hayes (25:44)
Yeah, it was it was so interesting. it I think that they they’re lucky because they’re, you know, custom they’re doing like custom builds and in these beautiful homes and so their work is really interesting. but along the way, you know, you’re accidentally educating the person who ultimately wants to buy from you and maybe and you know, maybe other people like within the trades or seeing how like a good builder is doing it. But it is really interesting how

We know this, right? We know we’re supposed to be giving information on social media. We know we’re not supposed to make it about ourselves and you’re supposed to be like benefiting other people. but I’d I find it so smart that these that they just went out and were these two women were just highlighting the work that they were doing every day and just educating on how they’re doing it and it isn’t like the polished thing and

They just kinda stumbled into like big social media followings that happened to turn into business, all for doing something they love and are passionate about and and just trying to share knowledge, you know.

Amanda Joyce (26:42)
Yeah, it’s like such a cool story and it’s like if we can help other co some of our contractors and anyone out there listening even just benefit from that a little bit. Yeah, we’re not all gonna go like Instagram famous or Facebook or YouTube famous, but like if your content is gonna help position you just a little bit more as that expert in your local market and is gonna help you close a few more deals, it’s a win and then and then social doesn’t feel like you’re just feeding the content beast for the sake of feeding it.

Devon Hayes (27:07)
Dude, absolutely. I was I’m just thinking about I’m like, gosh, then we went like nerding out looking on their like Instagram channels. It’s like really good. Instagram was the one they had on the screen, so that’s where we were like, yes, follow, let’s go, let’s go look at the work. But it was really cool. I just we both took so much out of that show. It was it was cool. We don’t pretend to be custom builders and we’re not going to be custom builders, but really nerding out and sitting through like the educational sessions,

outside of marketing, you know, which was obviously helpful to us and and how we talk to our contractors and what we can do for them. But w we sat through what did we sit through? We sat through like insulation, moisture and windows. And then we got some really good questions to ask our our exteriors guys about the way they install windows and like the the flashing tape and all kinds of good questions. Things that they probably know is inherently good construction when you install it this way and you do these three things and

But they don’t we don’t think to ask them the questions and they don’t think to tell us that about the way they’re installing these windows and and the products that they use. so that was a good one. And then gosh, we we got real deep into decking materials and deck tape and treated wood and all kinds of

Amanda Joyce (28:12)
And

all the exhibitors were so kind and nice to us when we went up and were like, we’re actually not your target market. We know it. We’re marketers. We’re just here to to learn. And they were like so excited to talk to us about how why how their products are different. And one of the things we got really excited about that we we really hope to get to lean into more on this podcast is talking more to these manufacturers because they all have these great programs for you guys to leverage. And a lot of you are leveraging them. You sit through a call with them and decide, yes, you are my dedicated, I’m James Hardy all the way from now.

on or I’m Trex or whatever it is and you hear it and you know why you picked it and you probably even tell your clients that but we’re probably not doing a good job of telling every the world that on your website or through your content. So it’s like real we’re really excited to lean more into learning more about how how we can take those those manufacturer relationships to the next level and just make sure that you you’re benefiting from all the marketing materials and stuff they offer you just as being one of their their their dedicated or you know their preferred content

Yeah.

Devon Hayes (29:09)
yeah. And we got ideas on content from that too, in terms of what is included in the manufacturer warranties and what like voids a warranty. Like one of the deck, like the composite deck folks, their warranty would be voided if you used or not included in the warranty, not voiding the warranty. I guess not included in the warranty work would be like s damage from sunscreen or bug spray.

I’m like, what? As a mom, like you take your kid outside because you’re not doing that inside the house. And so I’m like, that

Amanda Joyce (29:37)
Yeah.

Devon Hayes (29:38)
would be for all of our deck guys. Like that’s a great video. Just know when selecting a material, like, you know, warranties are great. Yeah, but the fine

Amanda Joyce (29:44)
Read the fine print. Yeah.

Devon Hayes (29:46)
print, like don’t don’t sunscreen your kid outside. so

Amanda Joyce (29:49)
Yeah.

Devon Hayes (29:50)
yeah, the the the vendor’s talking to us about some of that stuff in like the hidden nooks and crannies, ’cause we were able to say, okay, well

Why wouldn’t someone choose you? Or what would be the or what what’s a problem? Or what’s something they’re not thinking to ask? Or what’s something we’re not thinking to ask our contractors when or they’re not asking their homeowners when they’re going to sell a deck. Like maybe someone wants wood and we know that that will rod, but they’re afraid of the expense of like, you know, a trex or something like that. Like just just some some nuanced things and I I mean

that has to do with I guess deck materials and selling. But the warranty conversation was interesting. Different products, a lot of different products out there, that were like the the wool insulation that was fireproof for

Amanda Joyce (30:30)
Yeah.

Devon Hayes (30:31)
and it was like it was a different kind though. It wasn’t like you’re, you know, that pink insulation we see everywhere. Anyways, there’s just so

Amanda Joyce (30:35)
Yeah.

Devon Hayes (30:36)
there was a Yeah, the whole day.

Amanda Joyce (30:36)
They had a blowtorch on it and it wasn’t lighting. And they said they

figured it out because it literally happens naturally off of volcanoes in Hawaii. And it the way anyway, they figured out how to make it in a lab, but they it it’s it’s it was originally produced from volcanoes in Hawaii that then that then natives used on their hut their huts because that was w it was fireproof. And then they’ve years later figured out how to like make it in a lab. Like just stuff like that that you’re like, what? Who knew? So it was so cool. And one of the other things,

Devon Hayes (31:02)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda Joyce (31:03)
this isn’t really project.

related but one of the other talks we sat through was one by Brent Hole that you and I were like my god it was so cool he is like an an a master builder and he was just speaking to everybody about like getting back to like true architecture and like that we shouldn’t be we shouldn’t lose the art of building and so he gave this whole history on architecture from literally Roman times all the way up through like the 50s when we started like mass manufacturing homes and

I I love history. I once I really my in a former life I was gonna be an architect and I just was like such a fangirl about that talk. I was like, it was so cool. And there was a photo he even showed of just like a hallway that he’s like he just put true molding the way it should have been put on the home to begin with from you know if if you were using standards from like the early 1900s and he was like that’s literally all I did in this hallway and it went from like builder grade 1970s

the

to this like look like a grand hallway and it was literally just from like the proper molding. Now I’m just walking around my house looking at all the places I’m gonna put molding. It’s it was pretty eye-opening.

Devon Hayes (32:07)
my gosh. I love I also loved

his examples of like a he didn’t say it this way. He was he was classier than this, but like a what the hell happened and it was like a stucco home in like Tucson, Arizona that had these weird columns that were just decorative, but it was above the garage roofline, but in between like the windows of the second story and the garage roofline. So they obviously weren’t doing zero purpose just

Amanda Joyce (32:27)
They served zero purpose and they looked terrible.

Devon Hayes (32:31)
weird and terrible and he kept that picture kept popping back up. I was like, what did happen? But but his yeah, and you can tell when someone’s passionate about, you know, architecture and history and I I was just blown away by his expertise and like it really it it really shined a light on what a master builder is

and the passion behind bringing back master builders and like and really caring about the things that we build and how we build them. and that and that room that room was double the size of any of the other rooms besides the keynote speaker room and it was filled. It was filled with all of these these contractors

who want to build beautiful, long lasting pieces and they don’t want to do the shortcut and they want something that stands the test of time and they want beautiful architecture. it was really cool to see how passionate people are about building something that matters and that lasts and that stands the test of time and and not taking the shortcut. Cause around me, like I mean, there’s

you know, apartment buildings going up overnight, these like developments that have like streets that are super narrow, you can hardly pass if there’s two cars parked. And and and everyone there I think just had such a passion for for

building something that matters, it was it was really cool. It was something that I didn’t go there expecting to find. I really didn’t I I guess I didn’t have any expectations, but to see that and like feel that energy and and like the passion and care for building it was it was really cool.

Amanda Joyce (34:01)
was awesome. The keynote was so awesome. my gosh. I love him so much. I wanna be Steve’s best friend.

he was yeah,

Devon Hayes (34:09)
I know, I want to hang out with him.

Amanda Joyce (34:11)
he was so freaking cool. Steve Bach Bachek. I don’t I think I might be saying that wrong. I hope not, but he is obviously a huge personality on Build Show and he’s just as big of a personality in real life. And I mean it was it was such a moving speech and it was just it was underscoring everything we just said that was the the entire just message of the entire event. He underscored it again, just building better and doing it the right way and doing it for the love of it.

And it was like I just felt privileged to get to be there.

Devon Hayes (34:39)
Agreed. It was it was so moving and he was a former Marine and I feel like I wanna like hang up in my office. He talked about how, you know, on the mirrors when you every single day it said you are responsible. I’m like, I just wanna put a big sign right there ’cause it

Amanda and I operate our business the same way. Like we care very deeply about our clients. It’s very personal. Like y your ad spend is cold hard cash. Amanda loses sleep over it every single night. I don’t I don’t know that side of the business like that or else I would too, I’m sure. But it is it was I don’t I love a good keynote and he was he was damn good.

He was damn good. He was really good, so final takeaways. Things were taken

home. I you d we talked a lot about what we’re taking home. there we got some rapid fire Amanda what is what do you think one thing is, I’m gonna put you on the spot here. We didn’t talk about this, but

Kind of a rapid fire, what do you think was one thing that contractors should stop doing?

Amanda Joyce (35:32)
Think contractors should stop doing. I mean, getting too focused on per perfection when it comes to your marketing and just moving forward with it.

Devon Hayes (35:40)
I think so. Yeah. Marketing or even ops or anything, any system

Amanda Joyce (35:43)
Mm-hmm.

Devon Hayes (35:44)
that you’re trying to like put in place that would create efficiency. I I wish I was better at remembering names and quotes, but it it’s the whole like there’s someone who’s like, I will have done it twice before and have the third best iteration before you’ve even launched it if you keep waiting to do it, you know?

Amanda Joyce (36:01)
We’re already we’re already

Devon Hayes (36:01)
Can’t wait.

Amanda Joyce (36:02)
excited. We can’t we absolutely can’t wait. So we’re gonna go back yep next year ready with so many more questions and like yeah I I just I can’t wait.

Devon Hayes (36:10)
so closing thought. from our conversations and and kind of the classes we were sitting in, but I think the the contractors who seemed the strongest, they I don’t think they were the ones that were chasing like the newest, brightest, shiniest object. They understood their numbers.

They really understood their customer. they really understood their craft and then they what they were focused on was learning, but like building systems and efficiencies around what they already knew was working, not just abandoning them because there’s a new AI tool or you know,

Amanda Joyce (36:45)
I I completely agree. And it was fun to just see them all going around and like really educating themselves about the products on the floor. we we got to talk to Andy from Build Productions who’s like, you know, he basic he was like, I’m who picks who’s on this floor and I make sure that every single person here like lives up to the build show standards. So like anyone who had the privilege to be on that floor, everybody there trusted them implicitly and was like so excited to figure out how they could work those materials into their processes. So it was it was really cool.

Devon Hayes (37:12)
It was just awesome. Nothing but wonderful things to say if you have if you haven’t been, I mean this is like I feel like this is a paid promo, but you should definitely go check it out

Amanda Joyce (37:20)
Ha ha ha.

Devon Hayes (37:21)
if you’re a custom builder. even a lot of the trades guys were there learning about new products and materials. So it really is for everyone that’s in the customs custom build, like new construction space.

But I think there’s information that anyone, anyone can really learn and take away from from these experts. All of the sessions, minus one, all of the sessions were taught by business owners and this was their experience, and now they’re sharing it with you. It wasn’t vendors, it wasn’t people selling to you in the space.

I think that’s a differentiator versus like a lot of expos or conferences that we see, like, you know, you pay to play and you get up there and you give a speech, but then you’re selling something. It it was not it was not like that. They were experts, they achieved something in their business, they were vetted by the build show experts and they were there teaching other contractors, because it’s been proven to be successful with their business. So that was a cool differentiator.

Amanda Joyce (38:13)
Okay, well it did you did you attend? Were you there? If you’re listening to this and you were, tell us comment, let us know what your favorite highlights were. Did we miss anything? and if this makes you want to go next year, look for us because we will be there enthusiastically learning more. So thanks for listening guys.

Devon Hayes (38:27)
Take care.