Latest / Epic Entrepreneurs / TikTok Turned A Local Contractor Into A Lead Machine with Dylan Mason, Mason Contracting Co

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TikTok Turned A Local Contractor Into A Lead Machine with Dylan Mason, Mason Contracting Co · Epic Entrepreneurs

0:45
SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: I am Cliff McCray with Action Coach Business Growth Partners, where we work with local business owners to turn big ideas into real scalable growth.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Today I'm excited to be joined by Dylan Mason with Mason Contracting.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Dylan, how are you doing today?
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Good, sir.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm doing wonderful, man, and I'm excited to have you on.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: So let's go ahead and jump right into things.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: All right.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: So for those of you who may not know it yet, you know, what is Mason Contracting?
1:15
SPEAKER_02: We specialize in custom homes here in the northeast state of North Carolina.
1:19
SPEAKER_02: We'll go as far as, you know, hour and a half, two hours from our location.
1:22
SPEAKER_02: We're based out of Pilot Mountain over here near like the Virginia line.
1:26
SPEAKER_02: So we build custom homes, we build decks, we'll do renovations, additions, all that good stuff.
1:30
SPEAKER_02: But custom homes is definitely our niche, and that's where you know we're trying to take our business, you know, just do custom homes full time.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: We started this company four years ago when I went and got my GC license, and right now I think we're on our 13th, 14th home, and we have six more coming down the pipeline.
1:48
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, we we we kind of went full throttle on this, and ever since we haven't looked back.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: And who are you personally?
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Who who are you as a person, Dylan Mason?
2:00
SPEAKER_02: So I've been in construction the majority of my life.
2:03
SPEAKER_02: I went through high school, all that good stuff.
2:05
SPEAKER_02: I was always in the the kitchen and cabinet making and carpentry, anything where I was using my hands with you know, woodworking, any any type of that type of work.
2:13
SPEAKER_02: I was always in that class.
2:14
SPEAKER_02: I took it like every semester in high school.
2:16
SPEAKER_02: Always made an A in that class.
2:18
SPEAKER_02: Probably the only A's I made were in carpentry.
2:20
SPEAKER_02: And ever since I've just I've always, you know, wanted to do some work with my hands.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: I'm not the type that could sit behind a desk all day.
2:27
SPEAKER_02: You know, ever since owning this business, I've had to kind of put the hammer down a little bit to focus more on the accounting side, the managing side, all that good stuff to make sure everything stays organized and it gets done in a timely manner.
2:38
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I was finished high school, I was building bridges for a family business.
2:44
SPEAKER_02: I was there for about two years, and then I decided to move down to South Florida.
2:48
SPEAKER_02: I was also a mixed martial artist, and I was trying to make a career out of that.
2:52
SPEAKER_02: So I moved down there to join the one of the best gyms in the world.
2:55
SPEAKER_02: I was part of American top team, and I was there for four years, almost five years.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: Ended up coming back home, met my wife down there.
3:04
SPEAKER_02: She was my girlfriend at the time, but I was like, hey, I'm from this small town up here in North Carolina.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: You want to move up and you know try to start a life together?
3:10
SPEAKER_02: And we did.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: And I came back to work for the family business.
3:14
SPEAKER_02: I was there for about seven years building bridges, and then you know, I took the leap of faith and started my business, and ever since we uh we've never looked back.
3:21
SPEAKER_02: We we we've been married for what, six six years now.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: Got two kids, got another one on the way, and yeah, a bunch of houses going, and like I said, not led back since we started this business.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: We truly love what we do every single day.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: I would get excited for Mondays because I get to you know go back to work and I get to go see all my projects and see, you know, who needs this, who needs that, and I just I'm kind of like addicted to this.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: I I love it.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: No, it's awesome.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: It's awesome, especially since it's your it's your baby, it's your business, right?
3:54
SPEAKER_00: So exactly.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, does your is you so your wife works with you alongside with you or uh she does my social media, she does all my marketing.
4:02
SPEAKER_02: Other than that, I have a bookkeeper that takes care of my books for me.
4:05
SPEAKER_02: You know, starting out starting this business, I was fully, you know, 100% on our own.
4:12
SPEAKER_02: We were doing everything from start to finish, from the accounting to the managing, all that stuff.
4:17
SPEAKER_02: And then as we've gotten bigger, we've also started to branch out a little bit and give this person this job, this person the other job, all that stuff.
4:26
SPEAKER_02: Also, when I was, you know, before I started this business, I was in the Marine Corps reserves, so that helped me with a lot of my discipline.
4:34
SPEAKER_02: You know, getting up early, keeping everything organized.
4:38
SPEAKER_02: The military definitely helped out with that aspect of things, and you know, I'll I'll continue doing that until the day I die.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Now I I gotta go back to that MMA part.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: So, man, we we were pretty close to seeing you on Saturday nights fighting in the ring.
4:52
SPEAKER_02: No, I never made it uh that big.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: More local events.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: I made it to a few bigger shows, but not the UFC.
4:58
SPEAKER_02: I didn't make it to that level.
4:59
SPEAKER_02: I ended up stopping just because uh our first child was born, and I was like, you know what, there's there's no money in this unless you're you know Connor McGregor up there and you're making millions of dollars.
5:09
SPEAKER_02: But there's really not that much money into it.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: Most of these fighters you see on the UFC cards and Bellator cards, most of them work at a you know another job because the the pay is just not there.
5:20
SPEAKER_02: It was fun though.
5:21
SPEAKER_02: I learned a lot.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: I had some good friends that still compete, still talk to them, great coaches that were great mentors to me.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: And I I use a lot of the things that they taught me, you know, in my everyday life.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: So it was a great, humble experience.
5:35
SPEAKER_02: I'm definitely not the type of person to go out there and street fight.
5:37
SPEAKER_02: I've never been in one.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: I just I like to I found something I liked, and I was I had a wrestling background and you know, I like to compete.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: I love competition.
5:45
SPEAKER_02: So that that was something I just fell in love with and I took off with it for 10, 11 years, and then I kind of just stopped one day and yeah, now we're here building houses.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, what part of Florida were you were you in?
5:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh South Florida, like West Palm Beach area.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: West Palm Beach, okay.
6:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, bounced around to a few towns down there, a few apartments, a few houses.
6:06
SPEAKER_02: Had two buddies that I moved down there with.
6:09
SPEAKER_02: We kind of all dropped out of college, and we were gonna take our last year before we, you know, went back to school for our senior year.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: Like, let's go to Florida and just live for a little bit and then figure it out.
6:19
SPEAKER_02: Because, you know, we didn't know what we were doing.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:21
SPEAKER_02: 20-year-olds, 21, 22-year-olds, you know, uh I feel like no one knows what they're gonna do for the rest of their life at 21, 22.
6:27
SPEAKER_02: I I especially didn't.
6:28
SPEAKER_02: I just knew how to I just knew about fighting and having fun and working construction and all that good stuff.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, yeah.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: No, the reason why I asked is because I actually grew up in uh Tampa, Florida.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: So I live in Florida pretty well.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Moved up, moved up to North Carolina uh what, back in uh 2019 and myself.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: So I I've got no intention of ever moving back.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the case.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: That's the truth.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: I think it's too hot, so expensive.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: Yep, that you you said it hit it right on the head.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: The six month summer, six, seven months, depending on the year, eight months, sometimes, some years.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: Nothing good on that.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my my my parents actually they still live down there and they were sending me pictures a week.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: They're burning up down there.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: They're like, it's already 95 plus every day.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yep, see, that's why I don't I don't miss it, man.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: We've been nice up here.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: It's been nice in the 60s lately, low 70s.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'll take it.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: I love it.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: Today's a great name.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful, beautiful outside.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I got I don't miss it at all.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, I I I I respect Florida, but I don't uh I don't miss it.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: I I like visiting, but I don't like uh I don't want to live there again, you know.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, in regards to your business, what would you say was the most stressful moment you've had as a business owner?
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Like a, you know, how am I going to get through this type of moment?
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Would you say?
7:41
SPEAKER_02: The most stressful, the most stressful part was definitely starting the business.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: Taking taking that leap of faith, taking that uh sacrifice.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: You know, I had a I believe I had a 16-month-old and a four-month-old when I quit my job.
7:54
SPEAKER_02: I didn't have much money, everything was getting expensive, and that was the scariest moment.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: I literally quit my job December 31st.
8:03
SPEAKER_02: I gave like a two or three-week notice.
8:05
SPEAKER_02: So January 1st, I went out on my own and I started framing a house with my grader and his son.
8:10
SPEAKER_02: We framed an entire house.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: And we did all the baseboards and we just did everything from start to finish.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: And you know, I wasn't like I didn't know I didn't have a degree in a degree in accounting or managing money or business or any of that.
8:23
SPEAKER_02: I just kind of taught myself, read some books, listened to podcasts like this one, and you know, I still do that to this day.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: I I still I still feel like I'm always gonna be a student in this trade because I don't know everything, just like uh anyone else in their trade.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: Like they they don't know everything, they can always learn from somebody.
8:40
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, talking to other GCs, talking to other buddies that are in construction, talking to my framers, making these relationships, just uh teaching myself that's how I got to this point and learning from everybody else.
8:52
SPEAKER_02: But definitely the hardest part was going from zero to one.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: I feel like that's the hardest part of any business, and then from two to a hundred, you know, it it's kind of just streamlined from there.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, definitely starting the business, taking that risk, especially with two kids that gotta eat with you know, not much money in my my bank account, just trying to figure it out.
9:13
SPEAKER_02: And you know, if if I feel like I'm the point I'm at now, if I wanted to go make money, I can make money.
9:19
SPEAKER_02: There's there's plenty of money out there.
9:21
SPEAKER_02: I mean you just gotta have the hard work ethic, be a little bit smart, you know, it'd be a little bit of common sense, and I feel like you could go a long way.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: And there's new neighborhoods going up every week, so you're always gonna have plenty, plenty to do.
9:35
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, have you ever thought about quitting?
9:40
SPEAKER_02: Quitting the business I'm in now?
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, quitting the business and maybe going back to your nine to five or absolutely.
9:46
SPEAKER_02: No, no, you couldn't you could offer me a hundred million dollars and I would not do it.
9:49
SPEAKER_02: I I promise, I would not do it.
9:52
SPEAKER_02: The the money wasn't there for that business for the type of work that it was, and it's just I truly, like I said, I like waking up on Monday and going to work.
9:59
SPEAKER_02: I I enjoy what I do.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: You know, they say you'll never work a day in your life if you love what you're doing, and that that that's a fact.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: I I really do truly love what I do.
10:08
SPEAKER_02: I like helping out, you know, my framers, if they need an extra hand, or whoever the sub business working that day, if they need an extra hand, I'll I'll happily do it.
10:15
SPEAKER_02: My job is more to schedule, make sure things are getting done in a timely manner, dealing with the homeowners, going back and forth about decisions.
10:22
SPEAKER_02: Like I love every single part of it.
10:24
SPEAKER_02: Like, I I don't mind the stress, I like the stress, eat it for breakfast.
10:28
SPEAKER_02: You know, waking up early, driving to jobs.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: You know, I try to get home every night at a certain time because I do have a family and I like to spend time with my family and you know, do things on the weekends.
10:39
SPEAKER_02: But like I truly am happy with what I do, and I don't think I could ever do something different.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, no, I get it.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, it it now what you know what's something about you personally, or you know, maybe in your personality or your personal life that had to change in order for your business to grow.
10:58
SPEAKER_02: Oh, a good one.
10:59
SPEAKER_02: Get more comfortable with public speaking or just not speaking in general, just like having those awkward conversations, like if someone goes over budget or just trying to sell a customer or a client on something, you know, kind of like I guess that like the negotiation side of it, just being face-to-face, communicating.
11:19
SPEAKER_02: You know, in college, I think I made a D in public speaking.
11:21
SPEAKER_02: I was a horrible public speaker.
11:23
SPEAKER_02: My wife makes these TikToks of us, and we first started, I was super uncomfortable.
11:27
SPEAKER_02: I'd stutter, I didn't know what to say, I couldn't memorize anything.
11:30
SPEAKER_02: But the more houses I've built, the more I've been in front of people, in front of clients, customers, I've gotten a lot more comfortable with that.
11:37
SPEAKER_02: So that was definitely one of my hardest things was being able to talk to the customer, be knowledgeable about a certain subject or a specific item.
11:45
SPEAKER_02: And but now, you know, we're at this stage three, four years later, and I feel very confident in you know, talking to the homeowner, getting through educating them and what this process is, why we're doing this this way, that good stuff.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, and this next one next question is hypothetical, but let's say if someone shadowed you for a full day or let's say even a full week, what would you say would surprise them the most about how you operate your business?
12:11
SPEAKER_00: Would you say?
12:16
SPEAKER_02: I like to think I'm very organized when it comes to my business.
12:20
SPEAKER_02: Knowing I'm at home, I might like misplace my keys, and my wife will say I'm very unorganized.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: But when it comes to my business, I'm super organized.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: If I get like, if I get charged on a card for whatever this house, you know, this particular house, I immediately go to my laptop, to my computer, wherever I'm at, and I plug it in into my Excel to make sure that everything is accounted for, all the numbers are adding up.
12:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm super organized when it comes to that, and when it comes to using other people's money to build their house.
12:49
SPEAKER_02: So I think a lot of people would be shocked by that, maybe.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: Like I have the bookkeeper, but she reconciles my books at the end of every month.
12:55
SPEAKER_02: I do it on a daily basis.
12:56
SPEAKER_02: I've probably done it 20 times a day.
12:58
SPEAKER_02: Because I got to call my rep, I gotta buy this, I gotta buy that for this house or that house, and I've reconciled my money very quickly.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: No, I like that answer.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's get into you know the numbers a little bit without getting too specific, you know, since you've been in business for a little bit.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: What what, you know, I know you did say that you left right December 31st, January 1st, you were really trying to make this thing work.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: What what would you say was the time when you know you started, you the what was the turning point?
13:26
SPEAKER_00: How many months was it was the turning point where things started to scale and you started to become profitable and started to grow, would you say?
13:33
SPEAKER_02: Probably after the first year.
13:35
SPEAKER_02: So the first year in business, I would say I was just getting by, able to, you know, put food on the table, pay our mortgage, all that good stuff, just like necessities of life.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: And then after that, I was able to really dial in profit and then your you know, taxes, insurance, owner's expenses, all that stuff.
13:56
SPEAKER_02: I was starting to categorize things a little bit better and a little bit more organized, I guess you'd say.
14:02
SPEAKER_02: And so then I was like, okay, now this is starting to work.
14:04
SPEAKER_02: I was not charging enough for this.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: I need to charge a little bit more because I I lost money on this job, made a little bit on this one, you know, and it was kind of like just taking whatever work I could get.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: I was taking anything decks, remodels, fixing a door handle, whatever it was.
14:19
SPEAKER_02: I was, you know, I was taking care of it and trying my best.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: And now we gotten to the point where we can be a little bit pickier if if you get it, like like with the houses that we take.
14:32
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm not I'm not like a Schumacher builder or a Sedgwick home builder where they build uh 10,000 homes a year.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: I don't give so much about quantity, I care about quality.
14:42
SPEAKER_02: I'd rather build five houses a year than you know, 20 houses a year, but keep that quality within it, because I can only manage so much as an individual.
14:51
SPEAKER_02: And I I don't want to lose that.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: I don't want customers getting upset with me about someone not being at their job because I try my best to have someone at the job every single day.
14:59
SPEAKER_02: Because there's no excuse that if the sheetrock's going in on a house, there's no reason why siding can't be going on as well because they're not they're not the same company, they're they're working on completely different sides, completely different sides of the house.
15:12
SPEAKER_02: Uh one's inside, one's outside.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: So I yeah, just keeping the quality and not so much quantity is one of my biggest things.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Now, what would you say actually moves the needle most in your business right now?
15:26
SPEAKER_00: Would it be, you know, kind of your leads, your conversions, your pricing, or or something else entirely?
15:32
SPEAKER_00: What moves the needle most right now for your business?
15:35
SPEAKER_02: Believe it or not, it's TikTok.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: TikTok, okay.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: TikTok marketing.
15:40
SPEAKER_02: My yeah, my wife has done an exceptional job on our social media.
15:44
SPEAKER_02: I'll send her, like, she'll text me every once in a while, like, can you send me a video of this?
15:48
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, well, I'm really busy.
15:49
SPEAKER_02: If I remember, I will.
15:50
SPEAKER_02: But then after I do eventually send her the videos, she really does turn it into something great.
15:55
SPEAKER_02: And right now we have let's see, we have six projects going on, about to start two more.
16:02
SPEAKER_02: So, and I believe seven out of eight of those are from TikTok.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
16:08
SPEAKER_02: That's that's where they found us.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I try to tell people all the time that you know TikTok is it's the wave, it's it's where to go.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's the future.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's on it all the time.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: And uh, everybody's on their phone, everybody's scrolling.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, man, get on TikTok and start average.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: You'd be surprised how many entrepreneurs don't get on, I don't have a TikTok at all.
16:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, most of them.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: They don't.
16:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, they need to because I yeah, I'm not a big TikToker, like I don't really get on it.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: I just don't have time, I don't really go on social media that much.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: I don't post much on a personal profile, but our business page does really well from social media.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: Even if it's just like she gives a lot of good tips out there, she'll ask me a question and she'll relay it to the public on TikTok about what to do, what not to do to your home build.
16:52
SPEAKER_02: Even if you're not going with us, I mean I've had people in different states reach out to us, like Texas, Georgia, Indiana.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: I've had people everywhere.
17:01
unknown: Yeah.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you just never know who's gonna see it.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: And they appreciate it.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: Some people, you know, there's people out there that make fun of you saying it's wrong.
17:08
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, well, you're entitled to your own opinion.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: You can say what you want.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: It's up to you.
17:11
SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't really doesn't bother me.
17:13
SPEAKER_02: I can just, you know, keep going.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, what would you say is one thing you are doing today or your business is doing today that's giving you kind of an unfair advantage over your competitors?
17:24
SPEAKER_00: That's got that honestly, you kind of just answered that a little bit, but anything else you think of?
17:29
SPEAKER_02: The contractors around my area, the a lot of them are older, so they're not like on the social media aspect.
17:35
SPEAKER_02: I feel like we're one of the younger ones and we make a lot of noise in this area, which uh people can take that how they want, but I believe social media is a huge part of it.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: You know, my generation, we're always on our phone, right?
17:49
SPEAKER_02: Always.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: Older generation, not so much, they'd rather just throw it in the trash and not use it.
17:53
SPEAKER_02: They'll do the pen and paper thing, but you have to adapt with the times.
17:57
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like AI, like AI is coming out, you need to adapt with it, otherwise, it's gonna take your business from you.
18:02
SPEAKER_02: So you always need to evolve with time.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: That's that's what I feel like that we need to do, and every business truly needs to do it.
18:08
SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, it's not gonna be a business much longer.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: No, I agree, I agree.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: I I probably use AI, probably.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: I no, actually not probably.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: I use it every single day to do my job.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: So Yeah.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: I use it too.
18:21
SPEAKER_02: I use it too.
18:22
SPEAKER_02: Like if someone brings me this plot of land and they want me to tour it, and I'm like, oh, send me your house plan, and I could throw it up on the throw it up on the land.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: Like, here you go, this is what it's gonna look like.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: Not exact, but it's gonna be close to it.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: Or like a takeoff.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: If I need to know how much block I need for this crawl space or something, it's usually pretty close to it's close to accurate.
18:39
SPEAKER_02: I double check it, you know, obviously, or order a little bit more, like 20% more, but it's still it's it's pretty close, and it saves me a ton of time.
18:46
SPEAKER_02: And as everyone knows, time is money.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, agreed, agreed.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Now I know you said you you you don't have any actual employees, but you subcontract out.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: So what would be the fastest way, you know, I guess a subcontractor could lose their job working for you, working on a job for you?
19:04
SPEAKER_02: So a lot of people have lost that job.
19:07
SPEAKER_02: Like it's I'm not their boss.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: They have their own company.
19:10
SPEAKER_02: They just work.
19:11
SPEAKER_02: I don't even want to say they work for me, they work with me.
19:14
SPEAKER_02: My subcontractors have turned into friends and family, truly.
19:17
SPEAKER_02: Like, I I've been through a bunch of them, and the biggest thing was not showing up when they say they're gonna show up because I have it scheduled, I have it organized for this guy's gonna follow you, next guy's gonna follow that guy.
19:28
SPEAKER_02: And if one person messes up, that that just ruins my whole timeline, right?
19:33
SPEAKER_02: So I've had to let a few, I've had to let a few go just because of the the timeliness.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: Not once or twice, like maybe like three or four times it happens, and I'm like, dude, this is getting a little a little annoying.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: It's starting to mess up my schedule.
19:44
SPEAKER_02: The the homeowner's asking me, where's this guy?
19:46
SPEAKER_02: Where's that guy?
19:47
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, he uh he's a no-show.
19:49
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
19:49
SPEAKER_02: He won't answer his phone.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: So that that's the number one thing.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: That's my biggest thing is not showing up when you say you're gonna show up.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the biggest thing is the the not the ghosting, you know what I mean?
19:59
SPEAKER_00: Not answering the phone, not answering a text.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're on the phone all the time.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's on their phone.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: So you know you see my call, you know you see my missed call, you know you see my missed text, you you know you saw it.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Just answer.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you need you don't even have to pick up the phone, you could just say, hey, I I I don't don't want to do it, or I can't make it, whatever.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: My wife's sick.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well just I mean, it's you know, the whole ghosting thing is so strange.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: I of course, yeah.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: If the subcontractor doesn't answer their phone, I understand that they're they're busy.
20:25
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm always busy, like I gotta call you back too.
20:27
SPEAKER_02: And I'll shoot a text, I call you right back.
20:28
SPEAKER_02: Or I'll leave that text message unread.
20:31
SPEAKER_02: Like I'm a big, yeah, big fan of that.
20:33
SPEAKER_02: Same thing with emails.
20:33
SPEAKER_02: I respond to emails, or me or my wife respond to emails very quickly.
20:37
SPEAKER_02: I hate seeing that little red bubble with like a two next to it.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: That's why we reconcile our books very quickly, daily, and then the emails were also we also take pride in you know responding to text, emails, phone calls almost immediately.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: Definitely emails within 24 hours, we will respond.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Now, have you ever had to make a tough call, like you know, maybe maybe saying, you know, okay, you're in the middle of a job and you, you know, maybe something came up and you can't do the whole thing, or maybe just declining a job altogether.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, have you had to do something like that that ended up being the right move long term?
21:16
SPEAKER_02: Not not really.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: I've I've denied work, definitely, for you know, maybe the numbers just didn't work out for the because I charge a certain rate, right?
21:26
SPEAKER_02: Maybe that's a reason why I didn't accept a job or I was too busy and I pushed them out and they just found someone else.
21:33
SPEAKER_02: But no, honestly, no.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, no problem, no problem.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we're gonna head what's into to what's called the quick fire round.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: So, how this works is I'm going to give you one word, and I just want you to tell me the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear each word in regards to running your business, and then give me kind of you know two or three sentences after to kind of give me the reason why you chose that, if that makes sense.
21:54
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: All right.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: First word is success.
21:58
SPEAKER_02: Discipline.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Definitely gonna have discipline when running a business and you want to be successful, you know, just staying on time, doing what you say you're gonna do, have the discipline to show up when you say you're gonna show up or respond when you're gonna respond.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: Failure.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't know.
22:19
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, that's not quick.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: Failure.
22:22
SPEAKER_02: Unorganized.
22:23
SPEAKER_02: Being unorganized, that that'll fail you real quick.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: You know, if you're if you have if you didn't reconcile a ten thousand dollar charge or you put it on someone else's charge or however that works with money, and you gotta be organized with money, especially when you're playing with other people's money or spending other people's money.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Agreed, agreed.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: Burnout.
22:42
SPEAKER_02: Too much.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: I feel like if you have too much going on, uh just too much I know that's not one word, sorry, but just too much work.
22:49
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, if you're doing quantity over quality, you know, I feel like you could get burnt out pretty quick.
22:55
SPEAKER_02: That's why we kind of you know, we have people booked out for fall beginning in 2027, which is a good thing.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm not complaining at all, but I mean someone else someone else could take them all, you know, at once, but I they'd probably get burnt out.
23:09
SPEAKER_02: They'd probably not be as organized, and I just feel like that's that's how you burn out quick.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: Scaling.
23:19
SPEAKER_02: I didn't have a word that came up.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: Scaling.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't know.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: Shit.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people like to use tough because it's it's tough to scale to tough to know you know when to do it and when to stop and stuff like that.
23:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I guess tough.
23:35
SPEAKER_02: I mean scaling is tough.
23:37
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, going from zero to one feels like it's almost impossible.
23:41
SPEAKER_02: But then once you get past that, once you get past that hump and you start to get everything organized, you start to get everything reconciled, you you start to see growth and you start to you know take what you can handle and you kind of get an idea of like how this works and how to schedule these crews and yeah.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Hiring.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh nah, I don't I don't I don't I just don't want employees.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: So the way the way I do it, the way I think, is to build this house, right?
24:13
SPEAKER_02: I I could probably go out and build a house.
24:16
SPEAKER_02: I've I've I've done one, right?
24:17
SPEAKER_02: I did the framing, the baseboard stuff.
24:19
SPEAKER_02: I didn't do the electrical or plumbing because I'm not licensed to do that, so hire a professional.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: But you know, I could hire guys, teach them how to build a house or with a construction background, that good stuff, and we could do a good job.
24:32
SPEAKER_02: But I feel like I need to find every trade that is perfect at their craft, right?
24:38
SPEAKER_02: They always said the quote I don't fear the man that's practiced a thousand kicks one time, I fear the man that's practiced one kick a thousand times.
24:45
SPEAKER_02: Same thing with construction and everyone's individual trade.
24:49
SPEAKER_02: Like my my trim guy, he is phenomenal at his job.
24:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, he takes his time, he does it right, he sans all his corners, and it's phenomenal trim work.
24:59
SPEAKER_02: Same thing with the plumber, the electrician, the grater, they they are all fantastic at their job because they do it every single day.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: They know a lot more than I do about it because I don't, you know, I'm not in a skid steer every day, or I'm not pulling wire and hooking up outlets all day or running plumbing or whatever.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: So I feel like you need to find the best trade or the yeah, the the best guys at what they're the best at doing, if that makes sense.
25:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I feel like as a GC, I'm great at organizing, I'm great at scheduling, I'm great at talking to the customer, talking to the subs, you know, treating everybody the way I want to be treated.
25:32
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's kind of how I run my business.
25:34
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, I don't I don't really want the employees.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Competition.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: Around here, uh I love competition.
25:44
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was the military, the martial arts, my whole life's been competition.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: I feel like I've always been the one, the underdog, I guess, in everything that I've done.
25:54
SPEAKER_02: I was always the the small guy, I was always the one that people probably didn't think was gonna succeed or definitely not own a business.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: So competition, I love it.
26:04
SPEAKER_02: I'll compete with anybody at anything, and I'll put any of the subcontractors I work with against anyone else.
26:09
SPEAKER_02: Does not does not scare me one bit.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: And the last word is freedom.
26:15
SPEAKER_02: That's my favorite part about this business, definitely.
26:19
SPEAKER_02: You know, once my kids are older and they're starting to play sports and have these school plays or whatever it is, you know, no one's gonna tell me that I can't leave and go, right?
26:28
SPEAKER_02: Like no one's gonna tell me that, especially now that I'm able to.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: They say you make your own schedule when you start a business, and it it's somewhat true, but then again, you work 24-7, you work all the time, it's always in your head.
26:41
SPEAKER_02: You lose sleep, you lose time, you lose all that.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: But when it comes to my family and the freedom that I have to kind of, you know, not miss those special events or take a vacation or take a trip when I want to, you know, it's up to me to organize and make sure the business is still running when I do that, but it's the the freedom, you you cannot put a price on it.
26:59
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, you could offer me a hundred million dollars to go back to my old job and I would not take it.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: All right, so I appreciate you getting through that quickfire round here.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: So, where do you think your industry is going?
27:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, with all the talk of AI and automation, we kind of talked about a little bit earlier.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: What do you think your industry will be in the next, you know, 10 years, let's say?
27:19
SPEAKER_02: I was talking about that this morning, actually.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: I was I'm building a house about an hour and a half away from my hometown, and I went to meet them.
27:25
SPEAKER_02: I had the surveyors out there, so we're kind of plotting the house and the way that they wanted to face it and stuff like that.
27:31
SPEAKER_02: And we were talking about AI and taking over jobs, and I don't think home building, I don't think really home building needs to worry about that just yet.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: Just because I think people still like that human-to-human interaction and discussing and going over making the vision boards and going over all the samples and all that.
27:52
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you can use AI to like pull up, you know, vision boards and stuff to help you out, but when it comes to actually building the house, I do not think you would get the quality as you know, a man or woman coming out here and building it instead of a robot.
28:04
SPEAKER_02: I've seen them try to do it, like the the concrete houses, I've seen the 3D printers go on.
28:09
SPEAKER_02: I really don't think I have or anyone in this business has anything to worry about for a while.
28:15
SPEAKER_02: That's just my input.
28:16
SPEAKER_02: That's that's my opinion.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: I haven't really seen much with home building and AI or robots or any of that stuff.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, okay.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, where do you see your particular business five years from now?
28:32
SPEAKER_02: It's a good question.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're steady, and like I said, I I love what I do.
28:37
SPEAKER_02: I feel like we would still be kind of, you know, doing what we're doing, maybe a little bit quicker, maybe a little more efficient, I guess.
28:47
SPEAKER_02: You know, I still, like I said, I don't want to do the quantity builds.
28:50
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to be like a track home builder.
28:52
SPEAKER_02: I want to keep the quality.
28:54
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we make our way a little bit further south, a little bit further east, maybe.
28:59
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of where I see the expansion.
29:01
SPEAKER_02: I've always had a dream of building homes on Lake Norman.
29:05
SPEAKER_02: That's that's my ultimate dream is to build houses down there and potentially live down there one day.
29:10
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's about an hour and a half from me.
29:12
SPEAKER_02: That's that's kind of where I see it going.
29:14
SPEAKER_02: That's probably like that's probably 10 years maybe.
29:18
SPEAKER_02: But right now, I mean, we're just gonna keep trucking.
29:20
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm I don't have a plan to you know retire when I'm 50 or whatever.
29:25
SPEAKER_02: I I don't even know if I want to retire.
29:27
SPEAKER_02: I I really do enjoy this.
29:29
SPEAKER_02: Maybe my son will come out with me when he's older, my daughter, she might come as well, and maybe they'll take it over one day.
29:35
SPEAKER_02: You know, they'll be able to do whatever they want to do, hopefully.
29:37
SPEAKER_02: And you know, uh, but I'm just gonna keep doing what I love to do.
29:41
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, I I look forward to Mondays.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: No, that's awesome.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: Now, and I want you to be as candid as you can with the answer to this next question.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, let's say a small business owner is looking listening to the podcast episode we did today, Dylan, and let's say they're having just a hard go of 2026, you know, they're feeling stuck or overwhelmed, they're not profitable, you know, they're thinking about going back to their nine to five in the industry that they came from.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: What's a piece of advice you want them to hear from you today?
30:12
SPEAKER_02: Um I would say the the good times definitely out outweigh the bad.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, if you're going through a bad spot, it's gonna get better.
30:22
SPEAKER_02: Because at the end of the day, I I have bad days.
30:24
SPEAKER_02: Everybody has bad days, especially as a business owner.
30:27
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna have way more bad days than you have good days.
30:30
SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, you get to go home, you get to hang out with your family, you know, you get the plan for the next day.
30:36
SPEAKER_02: You're not answering yes or no to a boss, you're not you're not clocking in and clocking out for the same person every day, making that person a ton of money.
30:45
SPEAKER_02: You know, if they make a quarter, you're making a penny.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: Like it's that's just how it works.
30:50
SPEAKER_02: That's how just that's just it's just simply how it works.
30:53
SPEAKER_02: But for people that want to start their business, I've actually I made I think I made a TikTok about that, but I had two people reach out about taking the risk and just put put everything on black and just go for it.
31:04
SPEAKER_02: And I promise you, you'll never look back.
31:05
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be extremely hard, it's gonna be extremely tough.
31:08
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna hate it, you're gonna want to quit.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: But just if you stick with it, I I can guarantee that you will be very happy, very successful.
31:16
SPEAKER_02: Just you know, just stay with it, don't quit.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: So, Dylan, what's next for Mason contracting?
31:23
SPEAKER_00: What should people be excited about coming up in the near future?
31:27
SPEAKER_02: So, just seeing just seeing the progress on these homes that we got going up.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: We got we've got a few houses, we got a barn dose garage going up, we got a few decks coming.
31:36
SPEAKER_02: We're just excited in all these different locations that we're building.
31:39
SPEAKER_02: We've kind of expanded from our little circle here in Surrey County and Stokes County.
31:45
SPEAKER_02: We're going down to Burt County, we're over in Guilford County now.
31:48
SPEAKER_02: We've been in Wilkes.
31:49
SPEAKER_02: We're kind of expanding and tracking outward a little bit.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: And I think these homes that are coming up, everyone's really gonna love.
31:56
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna love seeing on social media, all the different higher-end finishes that we're doing in some of these houses.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: Some stuff that we we go to the builder show every year.
32:04
SPEAKER_02: It's usually in Las Vegas, and we try to bring all of that information here to where a lot of these home builders around this area, they're not going to these shows.
32:13
SPEAKER_02: They're not, you know, they're not adapting.
32:15
SPEAKER_02: Like I said earlier, they're not getting with these new trends.
32:19
SPEAKER_02: And that's what we kind of want to throw in these houses and present to our customers, where it's a different siding material, uh different stone material, some cantilever staircases, all that cool stuff.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: We want to throw it in our houses and sell it to our clients and you know, make them happy, make them unique, and that's kind of I think that's where our business is going.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: And finally, what's the best way for someone to connect with you or learn more about what you do?
32:45
SPEAKER_00: We've definitely got to get that TikTok over there.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: So uh, what's that?
32:48
SPEAKER_00: So we can find it.
32:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, go ahead, check the uh TikTok, all our social medias, Facebook, Instagram.
32:53
SPEAKER_02: We have a website, masoncontractingco.com.
32:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, best way to reach us is our email.
32:59
SPEAKER_02: Like I said, we respond very quickly, unless we are you know out of town on or event or whatever it is, uh, we respond very quickly on those.
33:07
SPEAKER_02: Um, if you don't, you'll get an automated message that says we will respond.
33:11
SPEAKER_02: So that's definitely the best way to reach us.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: Very and what's the handle for the TikTok if you want to get it out over there?
33:17
SPEAKER_02: Same thing as the website, it's Mason Contracting Co.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: Just Mason Contract Inco.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay, all right, perfect, perfect.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, go check out that TikTok.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: He said he, you know, it's it's great.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, his wife is doing uh a lot of great work out there, so definitely want to support you on there and maybe you get some get some additional followers.
33:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, appreciate that.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: All right, Mason.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, hey man, it's been fantastic.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for coming on and sharing your story and your perspective.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Any last words you have for the for the audience here before you we sign off?
33:43
SPEAKER_02: Uh if you're thinking about starting a business, just just please jump, take the risk, do it.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: I promise you, we'll never look back.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I appreciate that, man.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: And we appreciate everything you do and wish Mason contracting nothing but continue to consist.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, sir.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: All right, thank you.