IBS builder talks: Emergent Construction – Systems and social media

Tom Houghton:

You are listening to “The Building Code.” I’m Tom Houghton.

Paul Wurth:

I’m Paul Wurth.

Tom Houghton:

Thanks for tuning in this time for another of our talks, live from the International Builders’ Show.

Paul Wurth:

So far, so good.

Tom Houghton:

Fantastic content.

Paul Wurth:

You can tell with the background noise, there’s a lot of buzz at the booth.

Tom Houghton:

There’s a lot of buzz. A lot going on there.

Paul Wurth:

We fought through it and had some great guests.

Tom Houghton:

That’s right. Matt from Emergent Group stopped by and chatted about systems in their business, also kind of gave us …

Paul Wurth:

All of their businesses.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, they’ve got quite a few different aspects to their business there. And then we talked a lot about Instagram.

Paul Wurth:

Another guy who has a really good Instagram following, understands the power of marketing through Instagram.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Stay tuned for his comment on leads. I mean, it will shock you.

Paul Wurth:

I was going to say it, but you teased it well.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, exactly.

Paul Wurth:

Good. Now they’re going to listen.

Tom Houghton:

Exactly, you’ve got to get the payoff. You’ve got to listen to the episode.

Paul Wurth:

You’re a professional.

Tom Houghton:

Well, I try.

Paul Wurth:

He’s out of at Indianapolis, they’ve been in business since the downturn. Another downturn story. He worked for a production builder understood the benefit of processes and systems on a big company, and then he took that to his own business.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, don’t give it all away.

Paul Wurth:

See, I’m doing it again.

Tom Houghton:

Don’t give it all away.

Paul Wurth:

I’ll let Matt tell it.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, exactly. So, listen now to our conversation with Matt from Emergent Group.

Okay. We’re joined here with Matt Troyer of Emergent Group. Hi, Matt.

Matt Troyer:

Hi, guys. Thanks for having me.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Hello, Matt.

Tom Houghton:

Stopping by the booth, you’re at the International Builders’ Show. Matt, you joined Buildertrend, I think, about two years ago, was it?

Matt Troyer:

Yeah, I believe so. I’m trying to figure out the date, but at least two years ago.

Tom Houghton:

That’s good. Good. And what was that experience like finding Buildertrend?

Matt Troyer:

It was great. I think for us, I think we dragged our feet a little bit of understanding the numbers of it. And I think we started out at the entry level, whatever it was, like the paper job kind of thing. Wasn’t long before we saw value in it and ramped up to the unlimited, and do a ton of jobs through it now.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Tell your story. So, what were some of the things you were finding in your business challenges? Because everybody comes for different reasons, right?

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Well, there’s a general reason, like there’s got to be an easier way to do this or a better way, but what specifically were the triggers for you?

Matt Troyer:

I mean, we had all the similar systems in place, but it was spreadsheets, it was email communication. It was a lot of back and forth, QuickBooks. So, the same data’s still in QuickBooks, but to view the job pricing and that kind of thing, it’s so much easier with Buildertrend than us to go to QuickBooks. So, for us, it was just kind of pulling together all the systems we’ve already had that were harder to update regularly, and to give allowances the customers on a weekly basis and give them a snapshot of where their job stood at a moment’s notice. And to kind of put all those pieces into one platform for us was just an easy transition.

Paul Wurth:

That’s a common one. I mean, honestly, if you’re running a business right way without a platform like this, then you’ve got eight processes, eight different places, not all joined.

Matt Troyer:

Yep.

Paul Wurth:

And so, I think that’s really the common thread, typically.

Matt Troyer:

I think we also saw that the scale was there. Like we knew we’d hit a limit with our paper. It wasn’t paper, but like manual systems.

Paul Wurth:

Sure.

Matt Troyer:

And it was like the goal is to grow, so it wasn’t scalable that way.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, that’s a good point because a lot of people’s goals are different. Not everyone wants to grow.

Tom Houghton:

Nope.

Paul Wurth:

A lot of people love if they could just sit in a pocket of eight or nine high-end where I’m comfortable. And systems can get you there too, but growth is a big trigger.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah. So, we were a little bit diverse. We’re a general contractor builder, but we also buy and sell real estate, rental properties as well.

Paul Wurth:

Oh, right on.

Matt Troyer:

So, we set up our own rental properties as a job in Buildertrend and then it links to a different company in QuickBooks. And then that way we can manage our rental properties, the financials of that for maintenance and all that through Buildertrend, separate of the construction projects.

Paul Wurth:

That makes sense. That’s cool. Tell us about what, like if we had to ask, what’s your company profile? Like size, number of employees, what do you do? What’s your wheelhouse?

Matt Troyer:

So, we’ve been floating around between 10 and 15 employees for the last few years. We started in 2007, kind of ramped up really full-time in 2012, so we’ve been at it for about six or seven years now full-time. And we’re kind of a mix of, I’d say half of our work is client-facing remodels, new construction stuff, and then the other half is our own real estate or work for investors and that kind of thing. And that’s kind of been our stock portfolio to ride the waves of, hopefully become a little bit recession-proof and not be stuck in one niche market knowing that things could change.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, not be totally controlled by the market ups and downs.

Matt Troyer:

Yep, absolutely.

Paul Wurth:

Do you plug in your investors to the system so they can kind of see what’s going on?

Matt Troyer:

We don’t on that side. And I’m definitely open to creative ways to use the tools. Like we, like I said, for our property management stuff, we use that. We’ve thought about putting our tenants in there as the client. You can do warranty requests or maintenance requests through there as well.

Paul Wurth:

We have people do that.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Matt Troyer:

So, I think that’s probably the next step. We’re kind of go through all those businesses and streamlining it. So, we’re a group of like five companies with the real estate holdings and the properties, and that kind of thing. That’s the Emergent Group because Emergent Construction is the workforce.

Paul Wurth:

I got you.

Tom Houghton:

Right.

Matt Troyer:

And the rest of it is the properties.

Paul Wurth:

Is it just you or you have business partners?

Matt Troyer:

I have one business partner.

Paul Wurth:

So, how’d that come about?

Matt Troyer:

So, we were both in production home building, so I worked for a production home builder.

Paul Wurth:

So, you guys knew each other just outside or through the industry?

Matt Troyer:

Yeah. So, through there, and then we kind of went, we actually bought our first rental property that we were planning on flipping back in 2007, I think it was. And it was right when the market turned. So, then we ended up keeping …

Paul Wurth:

Tough year.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah, so it was a terrible year to start in that business.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Same with us, we’re 2006.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Smart guys.

Matt Troyer:

Hey, the good news is we’ve seen a little bit of a down, we’re on the uphill.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, absolutely.

Matt Troyer:

But yeah, that’s kind of our goal, is to become, like I said, recession proof because we’ve seen a little bit of that. We don’t want to have to go through that again.

Paul Wurth:

Absolutely.

Matt Troyer:

But we did that and so, then we ended up turning those three properties into rental properties, which we still have. I have the same tenant in the first house we bought in 2007.

Tom Houghton:

Wow.

Matt Troyer:

She’s lived there for 12 years now.

Tom Houghton:

That’s great.

Paul Wurth:

It’s huge.

Matt Troyer:

So, we’ve joked that we’ll just give her the deed when she pays it, we’ll be paid off.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, there you go.

Matt Troyer:

So, we did that and then kind of went different ways. He was in some sales, and I went to do some commercial framing and drywall, managed company there. And decided we wanted to kind of go at it full-time. And it’s a long story short, but I was essentially fired from my job for a conflict because I was doing other work with my houses on the side.

Paul Wurth:

Right.

Matt Troyer:

And it wasn’t a true conflict of the business, but he didn’t see it that way. But looking back now, I’m super grateful that he kind of kicked me in the butt. It was what I needed to do it because maybe I would never have gone full-time. And it was two kids at home and terrifying, but came home and went after it, and went from $200,000 a year to 1.2 the first year. So, it was just kind of a quick jump and just dedicating full-time to it.

Paul Wurth:

I think everybody should respect that leap. That’s crazy to do.

Matt Troyer:

It’s tough.

Paul Wurth:

To start your own business. And that’s one thing, everybody who uses Buildertrend, obviously the owners, they probably all have that story one way or another, right?

Matt Troyer:

Yep.

Paul Wurth:

That’s crazy. Congrats, man.

Matt Troyer:

And for me, it’s kind of an okay story, but it’s like, it wasn’t my doing to do it. I still didn’t have the confidence, but I had it figured out. I was forced to do it, which was still what I needed because that decision is so hard.

Paul Wurth:

I don’t know that. Yeah, it’s probably more common than you think though, too.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Two kids?

Matt Troyer:

Two then, I have three now. So, three boys.

Paul Wurth:

Oh, boy.

Tom Houghton:

Busy guy.

Paul Wurth:

That’s risky.

Matt Troyer:

So, we’re building our workforce to take over the empire.

Paul Wurth:

You’ve got to get your exit now, right?

Matt Troyer:

That’s right, yeah. The oldest is 10, he’ll be 10 this summer, so we’ll see. I started when I was 12 from my dad, framing and picking up trash, all that. So, it was good exposure.

Paul Wurth:

Good, get them out there.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, it’s good for him. Let’s talk about, you’ve got a pretty sizable Instagram following.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

Inquiring minds want to know, what’s going on there? Do you want to talk about that a little bit?

Matt Troyer:

Yeah, it’s been great. There’s been a lot of meetups here and you guys have had a lot of big time Instagram players here at the booth. And it’s been a great network for us. I was at IBS last year in Orlando, and I talked to your team as well there too. And just the meetups and the social get togethers and connecting with other builders and people that are doing the same things we’re doing. And they’re just, we can get together and talk about stuff because we’re not competitors in our local market.

Tom Houghton:

Right.

Matt Troyer:

And there’s a lot of, we’ve had some really great open sharing between guys across the country that have been really helpful.

Paul Wurth:

That’s interesting. I never thought about it like that. I thought it was always like, “Hey, I want to build my social media following, so I can get more leads or more exposure.”

Matt Troyer:

It definitely does both. And I think it’s how you use it. And I would attest that we have … So we’re just shy of 5,000. We’re getting close to 5,000 followers, which is getting up there, and it’s been great. I’ve noticed how that gives us a little bit new respect with our clients that we meet, that they kind of see that as like, “Oh, wow. They’ve got a little bit of a presence here.” Maybe that helps push people over the edge to go with us.

Paul Wurth:

For sure.

Matt Troyer:

And then we’re probably, I’d say at least 50% of our clients come from Instagram.

Tom Houghton:

Wow.

Paul Wurth:

Wow.

Matt Troyer:

All of our retail, a lot of our retail business is from that.

Paul Wurth:

And when did you really start ramping up Instagram?

Matt Troyer:

We probably, I’ve been doing it for, I don’t know, three or four years, but I’d say we’ve probably doubled our following in the last year. So, it’s definitely helped connecting with a lot of the other presence of …

Paul Wurth:

And that’s now 50% of your leads, or part?

Matt Troyer:

Yeah, I’d say at least, somewhere around that number.

Paul Wurth:

And so, that’s basically organic. You’re not paying, right?

Matt Troyer:

Don’t pay, yeah. Every now and then, we’ll boost it a little bit, but it’s, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Let’s rewind that for all the listeners and who’s got their own business out there.

Matt Troyer:

You don’t have to pay for that marketing.

Paul Wurth:

Holy moly, that’s awesome.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

That’s really cool. Well, you’ve got two more followers today I bet.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Are you doing it? Are you smashing the follow button now?

Tom Houghton:

Of course, I am.

Paul Wurth:

I’m going to smash it.

Tom Houghton:

I’m just pulling it up. I mean, there’s some really good pictures on here.

Matt Troyer:

Thank you.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Some great photos.

Tom Houghton:

I mean, it’s great to see what you’re doing. You can see your work and just see what else is out there. So, if you’re not following them, make sure you follow. It’s @emergent_indie, but it looks like emerge-indy.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah. @Emergent_indie, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Emergency.

Matt Troyer:

Thought about putting a space in there, a hyphen. Maybe we should, but it’s …

Tom Houghton:

No, this is better.

Paul Wurth:

Tom’s an expert, he says yes.

Tom Houghton:

It’s in the shownotes, so if you don’t have any idea what we’re talking about, check out the shownotes and you can find a link to follow @emergent_indie on Instagram and be a part of their success there. Let’s talk about your usage of Buildertrend. what’s your number one, go-to feature that you’re like, “This feature is my favorite feature,” or giving an option here, or it’s the one that’s been the best for you?

Matt Troyer:

It’s tricky.

Paul Wurth:

It’s getting tricky here.

Matt Troyer:

It is tricky.

Tom Houghton:

Like for your company.

Matt Troyer:

That’s a tough question.

Paul Wurth:

Keep it more simple, Tom.

Matt Troyer:

I’m a business owner, so the numbers, for me, is super important. So, the clarity of those is my go-to of, we’ve got to have that right. But I think a lot of the struggle for us is to get our guys to understand the new expected feature, to know where … Because you can make game time decisions with your budget. So, you can load the budget, you can load your POS and your costs and expenses. But to understand the new expected, it’s your projected number of the job and how it’s going to end up, to get those things weekly updated, to know that … Because then you can make a game time decision of, “Hey, we blew the budget on framing.” We’re talking fixed cost jobs here. Hey, we’ve got to make up some money, so let’s get creative on … Not cutting corners, but knowing that you’re a little more budget conscious as you’re making decisions to buy the rest of the job out.

Tom Houghton:

Sure.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I mean, you’re just not setting it, hoping, praying and then seeing what happens.

Matt Troyer:

Put your thumb to the wind and hope it sorts itself out, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

That new expected came from a ton of feedback from our clients. And it’s just a little dropdown, it’s like a new view. It’s cool.

Matt Troyer:

Yep. It’s been a great feature for us. And I tell people all the time, that data’s all, it’s what we put in, so you’ve got to manage it right.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. There’s still that aspect of it, for sure.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

Cool. How big is your crew that you’ve got?

Matt Troyer:

So, right now, we’re 12. We have, I’d say five in the office management level and then there’s, we have six guys in the field, like carpentries. So, our guys that we employ in the field are carpenters, so mostly on the finished carpentry side, but a lot of it is, we’ll do a little bit of framing and demo work for that kind of rough carpentry on smaller jobs. And then just having our guys, the presence, the fit and finish of the job has been really, really valuable for us because to close out a job is so hard. And if you’re doing that, all the subcontractors, it’s just tough to buy those contracts out to get the little stuff done. And to be able to make our, we can jump when we need to jump, and send the whole crew and knock something out if we need to.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, exactly.

Matt Troyer:

It’s been good. And then, having vans in the neighborhood is nice because we do a lot of work in like a five or 10 mile radius, and we have four fleet vans. People are like, “Man, we see your vans everywhere. You must have a bunch of them.” No, we’re just in the same neighborhood all the time. It’s good. So, it’s great exposure.

Tom Houghton:

That’s another pro tip. Just stick in one neighborhood, drive around in circles.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah, exactly.

Paul Wurth:

Just pay, once your oldest becomes 16, got a new job for him.

Tom Houghton:

Boom.

Matt Troyer:

Find out where you want to work and drive up and down the street one day.

Paul Wurth:

Drive up and down all the time. Really slow, then it becomes creepy. So, stick to the speed limit.

Tom Houghton:

Then you’re on next door. This van.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Matt Troyer:

We purposely wrapped our vans in matte gray, like almost black and charcoal. Matte gray because the creepy white van everybody thinks of. It looks a little better to be a different color.

Paul Wurth:

Smart.

Tom Houghton:

That true. It is. Another pro tip there.

Paul Wurth:

Do you have a marketing team? Or how do you do that?

Matt Troyer:

We don’t. My brother-in-law has helped. My brother and then my brother-in-law are both graphic designers.

Paul Wurth:

Oh, perfect.

Matt Troyer:

And they’ve helped with our branding side of things. And then I pretty much run point on all of our marketing myself as far as social media and like marketing decisions.

Paul Wurth:

I threw another soft ball.

Tom Houghton:

So, these Instagram photos are your photos?

Matt Troyer:

Yeah, I run the account. Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

I threw him with a big soft ball there.

Tom Houghton:

You did. And he knocked it out of the park.

Paul Wurth:

I didn’t know that, honest. It’s impressive.

Matt Troyer:

Thank you.

Paul Wurth:

Honestly. It’s a big part of the business, right?

Matt Troyer:

Yeah. It’s a huge part. And so, I guess we do, the marketing we pay for is good photography. So, I have two good photographers who we work with and good photos are what is going to make you crush it online. If you have, iPhone photos are great for some of the stuff, but get a good camera and get a good photographer, lighting on finished products, that’s going to help big time.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Have your network on Instagram helped you learn it? Like, “Hey, this is how you do this, this how you do that.”

Matt Troyer:

Definitely, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Like the guys you follow and all that.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah, because everybody’s got Instagram crushes, so it’s like you see guys that are just doing amazing stuff. I see guys that do stuff that’s way cooler than we do, and we’re definitely not doing the highest end, cool stuff out there, but it’s motivation. And it’s also, keeps you in check. If you’re posting something and it’s not right, somebody’s going to call you out on it.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I didn’t think about that.

Matt Troyer:

It’s a reality check.

Paul Wurth:

That’s scary.

Matt Troyer:

Well, one of them, one example I had was, we did a … So, we use ram board protector, floor protection on our job sites for older houses and stuff and everybody demo’d. I posted something about how we’re doing this to protect this tile and we got a client that wrote us, “You didn’t do that on our job.”

Paul Wurth:

Oh, man.

Tom Houghton:

Ooh.

Matt Troyer:

And I was like, “That hurts. You’re right. That needs to become a standard in our playbook.” This is what we do every job, is this prep work and that kind of…

Paul Wurth:

Wow.

Matt Troyer:

It keeps you in check.

Paul Wurth:

Didn’t think about that.

Tom Houghton:

You kind of talked about those checklists and adding to those in the program, so you can set those up and just adding to that, like pre-flight checklist.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. A lot of people, they’ll phase out the job with checklists, right? And that’s a great example. So, this isn’t the exact correlation, but like end of framing. Before we move on from framing, we’re going to do these 10 items. And then the next job you do, you might want to add the 11th because you figured let’s do this too.

Matt Troyer:

That’s a good idea.

Paul Wurth:

And there’s like a recurring, and you just place them in each job.

Matt Troyer:

The templates are definitely something I need to spend more time. It would speed up all that process so much.

Tom Houghton:

Templates are huge.

Paul Wurth:

The Buildertrend coach, we were just talking about Dolan, right?

Matt Troyer:

Yep.

Paul Wurth:

Dolan.

Matt Troyer:

Dolan.

Paul Wurth:

You and Dolan are now …

Matt Troyer:

Taking care of us.

Paul Wurth:

That’s right. So, are you coming to Buildertrend University? We talked about that.

Matt Troyer:

I am, yeah. Some format, whether it’s onsite or bring you guys to us, and show you a good time in Indy.

Tom Houghton:

Well, we’ll see you guys there.

Matt Troyer:

So, if you’ve never been to Indy 500, you should come late May, and we can do that.

Paul Wurth:

Is that just set the whole city on fire?

Matt Troyer:

The greatest racing spectacle in the world. I mean, it’s 200,000 people that come on one race day to be there.

Paul Wurth:

I’ve always wanted to ask this. I don’t not like racing, but not interested. Still fun though.

Matt Troyer:

I’m not a huge race fan either, but that event is just magical. I mean, there’s just so many people there and there’s so much history behind it. It’s a blast on the day.

Tom Houghton:

I’m sold, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Sold.

Tom Houghton:

You can feel the buzz.

Matt Troyer:

Oh, yeah.

Tom Houghton:

Kind of like the buzz here.

Paul Wurth:

The buzz in the booth.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. You can hear the buzz.

Paul Wurth:

The buzz of the booth.

Tom Houghton:

I mean, there’s a ton of people here at the show, the Builders show here. How many years have you been to the Builders’ Show?

Matt Troyer:

Actually, last year in Orlando was my first one. And it was a …

Tom Houghton:

Oh, yeah?

Paul Wurth:

Thoughts?

Matt Troyer:

It’s been great. I mean, you see cool products, you see stuff. I prefer this over a lot of other shows because you’re seeing the latest and greatest, and cool stuff, and all the facets of our market. And then really, I’d say half of it, too, is just to connect with everybody’s that’s … I mean, it’s connected to Instagram people, so it’s become like an Instagram family of everybody that we all meet up lots.

Paul Wurth:

Right. For those who have never been, it is huge. So, there’s three halls.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, a million square feet. I think a million square feet.

Paul Wurth:

A million square feet, there’s three halls. I don’t know how many vendors, hundreds.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. And I heard last night, over a 100,000 people.

Paul Wurth:

You couldn’t walk. You can’t walk. 100,000 people.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

If you wanted to walk every aisle and get your eyeballs on every booth, you couldn’t do it.

Tom Houghton:

You couldn’t.

Paul Wurth:

You couldn’t do it in three days.

Tom Houghton:

Not in three days, no. No way.

Paul Wurth:

People seek us out, that’s great.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Matt Troyer:

Come for the big shiny ones with the big RV.

Tom Houghton:

The big RV, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Big RV. The big RV is wrapped with the new logo. It is the talk of the south hall.

Tom Houghton:

It’s true. I hope. It’s one of the largest things in the south hall.

Matt Troyer:

That’s right.

Tom Houghton:

Taking up the most floor space up here.

Paul Wurth:

It was a strange journey to get it from Omaha to Las Vegas, let me tell you.

Tom Houghton:

But on the positive side, we made it.

Matt Troyer:

We’re here.

Paul Wurth:

We made it.

Tom Houghton:

We made it, we’re here.

Paul Wurth:

It’s always the result, right?

Matt Troyer:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

The end result.

Tom Houghton:

Mm-hmm.

Matt Troyer:

I tell my customers that all the time. The struggle to remodel is painful. I hope you like us in the end, you’re probably not going to like us the entire way through, but it’s the end result that hopefully, something we can all be happy about.

Tom Houghton:

See, that’s good.

Paul Wurth:

Ups, downs, what have you.

Matt Troyer:

It’s the emotional experience.

Paul Wurth:

Stay with it.

Matt Troyer:

Yep.

Tom Houghton:

I want to jump back to the Instagram thing really quick, just because I think some builders see social media like that as a waste of time, honestly. And I mean, just hearing that you got 50% of your leads probably from Instagram alone, and that’s the only platform you’re really focusing on. I mean, I’m sure you probably have a Facebook page.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

But you’re really putting all your chips in the Instagram market.

Paul Wurth:

Well, I think people don’t understand it.

Tom Houghton:

Right.

Paul Wurth:

And they’re probably intimidated as well. I think more and more people are going, “Whoa, something’s happening here, but I have no idea where to start.”

Matt Troyer:

I think a lot of people want that, or maybe they jump into like, “Let’s hire a marketing person to do that.” And I think what we’ve seen a lot of these successful people are, the person at the top is the one managing the account. Because then you get the most reality, the most what’s actually going on, you get the best pulse of the company. And it’s hard because it does take time, but it’s like you’re hopefully your best salesperson.

Tom Houghton:

That’s true.

Paul Wurth:

Right.

Matt Troyer:

You’re out there as a front for it. And I’m not on every job, so it’s hard to like catch videos or posts of all the different jobs, but that’s something we’re trying to figure out as we grow, like how do you do that? Or how do you have the team send in photos or videos or something that we can share? So, we’ve done some of those takeovers where even our guys will take over the account for a day while they’re working and stuff, which is kind of cool.

Paul Wurth:

That makes sense.

Matt Troyer:

So, we still push that stuff to Facebook and our website’s nice and clean with a lot of the same photos. We put it on house, we’ve still got all those platforms, but we don’t … Everybody asks us to pay money for advertising, I don’t think you need to do that. I mean, if you’re smart about what it is, you’re, you’re still paying. My marketing budget is photography and then my time. It does take a big chunk of my time, but it turns out, and I think it’s worth it.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, the return is there.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I think it’s still an emerging sort of vehicle.

Matt Troyer:

That a good word.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Matt Troyer:

Emerging.

Tom Houghton:

Emergent.

Paul Wurth:

That was a subconscious thought. I have so many rare conscious thoughts that I welcome any thoughts.

Matt Troyer:

Like I said, the Emergent name came from the emergent, in the rainforest …

Paul Wurth:

I was going to ask.

Matt Troyer:

We were looking up names years ago, like what should we call our company? We were looking up wood, all the classic wood names or tree types, whatever. So, then we came across the layers of the rainforest and the emergent layer of the forest are the smallest or the skinniest tall trees that poke through the top layer of the rainforest, and they poke out to get the most, to get to the sunlight and to thrive above the canopy. So, the emergent layer was kind of that, sounds cool.

Paul Wurth:

Very meta.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah.

Tom Houghton:

That’s deep.

Paul Wurth:

That’s deep. I like it.

Matt Troyer:

Yeah. And then if people don’t even think about until you explain that, so it’s a good story.

Tom Houghton:

That’s a good …

Paul Wurth:

I like it.

Tom Houghton:

That’s a good story, I like that.

Paul Wurth:

It’s a cool logo, it’s a cool name.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah, your logo. I mean, the brand’s on point. So, kudos to your team.

Paul Wurth:

No joke, we love seeing, we love having the best companies using Buildertrend. That’s like a pride for us. Like we want, in Indianapolis, the best people using our system not for anything besides just, like I said, pride. So, thanks, man.

Matt Troyer:

I appreciate it.

Paul Wurth:

That’s awesome.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Matt Troyer:

Everything I’ve learned about marketing is go simple. Like we keep it gray and orange. Everything that somebody sends to me, like the marketing-wise, when you have a look at it, like no, delete all those words. Just go simple logo, a couple of words, keep it clean.

Paul Wurth:

Messaging is big.

Matt Troyer:

Your new logo brand looks great. That’s a good move.

Tom Houghton:

Oh, thanks.

Matt Troyer:

It’s a good shift, I like that.

Paul Wurth:

Thanks. Good segue, we did have a new logo. I love it. It’s one of those things that you see the old logo, and it’s only been a month or two.

Tom Houghton:

A month, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

I see the old logo, I’m like, “Ew.”

Tom Houghton:

Ew. Throw away all your shorts.

Paul Wurth:

What were we thinking?

Tom Houghton:

Burn them all.

Paul Wurth:

Strike that from the world.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Strike it.

Tom Houghton:

We did.

Paul Wurth:

We did.

Matt Troyer:

Wrapping that RV’s no fun. That’s a big wrap.

Tom Houghton:

No.

Paul Wurth:

It’s a big wrap, yeah.

Tom Houghton:

We had a good team do it though.

Paul Wurth:

We had a good team do it, we have a good company in Omaha who does it. And the rap took a little hit on the drive, but our team here did a great job cleaning the baby up. It was good.

Matt Troyer:

Nice.

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Well, I guess the only other question I had for you is those builders out in Indy that aren’t using Buildertrend, why should they be in your opinion? Like obviously, you’re a business owner, you’ve seen the growth happen, you’ve seen the organization. I mean, what’s been big for you?

Matt Troyer:

Yeah. I don’t know what other platforms are out there in our market that are so specific to our industry, that fit the need any better than you guys do. And you can use multiple systems. We still use QuickBooks because all the data pushes to QuickBooks, like it’s still for our financials and all that. But I mean, there’s no better specific software for what we do, and I think once we got to that point where we’ve got 20, 30 jobs on there … And it’s a no brainer now. Like that small amount of money that we put in, in the grand scheme of the business, it would be a mistake to do anything else now.

Paul Wurth:

Sure.

Tom Houghton:

Matt, thanks for joining us on the show today. We really appreciate you coming out and sharing what’s the behind the scenes look at your business. Again, if you are interested, go to the show notes, check out Matt’s Instagram on Instagram, the only place you’re going to find it. It’s exclusive content there.

Paul Wurth:

That’s it. That is it, that’s the whole point of a business, Tom.

Tom Houghton:

It is.

Paul Wurth:

It’s on the business, Instagram.

Tom Houghton:

Thanks for joining us, though. We really appreciate it. And again, we wish you all the best of success going forward in your business.

Matt Troyer:

Thanks, guys.

Paul Wurth:

Good times. Cheers.

Matt Troyer:

We appreciate your partnership.

Paul Wurth:

Appreciate you.

Tom Houghton:

Well, that was a great conversation.

Paul Wurth:

That was. That was a funny ending. Now, where do you find people’s Instagram feeds again?

Tom Houghton:

On Instagram.

Paul Wurth:

Oh, man. They’re smart over there.

Tom Houghton:

They are.

Paul Wurth:

Figured that one out.

Tom Houghton:

Again, that exclusive content only on Instagram.

Paul Wurth:

Everybody should follow Buildertrend on Instagram.

Tom Houghton:

They should. If you’re not following Buildertrend, follow @buildertrend on Instagram. Again, don’t forget to check out the show notes page, buildertrend.com/podcast to see, again, more content that’s coming up, more content on what we talked about today on the show. You can see the direct link to Matt’s Instagram on there.

Paul Wurth:

And website.

Tom Houghton:

And website, yeah. Lots of good content there as well. Stay tuned for our last discussion at the International Builders’ Show, part four, if you will.

Paul Wurth:

Part four with another one of our clients.

Tom Houghton:

Still coming your way. So, check that out.

Paul Wurth:

Right after that, we’re going to be doing another live episode from …

Tom Houghton:

Buildertrend University.

Paul Wurth:

Omaha, Nebraska.

Tom Houghton:

Thanks for listening. Don’t forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast.

Paul Wurth:

Appreciate you.