Focusing on the customer experience with Missy Scherber

Show Notes

On todayโ€™s episode of โ€œThe Building Code,โ€ Paul is chatting with Missy Scherber, co-owner of T.Scherber, a company that provides demolition, excavating, roll-offs and hauling services in Minnesota. Missy and her husband work hard to set a new standard of service, safety and customer-based solutions in the waste and earthmoving industry.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about how Missy and the T.Scherber team do dirty jobs differently by putting customer experience in the forefront and building their brand around it.

What do you focus on when setting the standard for your company?

We definitely focus on integrity, itโ€™s in our byline for a reason. โ€œT.Scherber integrity in constructionโ€ is our wordmark. Iโ€™ve seen some contractors out there who just put their logo on there, and Iโ€™ve seen some who put their byline or wordmark of who they are and what they stand for. I think thatโ€™s important because it reminds your teams and your customers, this is who we are and what we stand for, hold us accountable to that. So, integrity and our customers. Weโ€™re a customer-based business. Everyone in our company is in sales and customer service, even our operators and thatโ€™s what we teach them.

How are you using social media for business success?

Everyoneโ€™s busy without it (social media), but itโ€™s not really about right now, itโ€™s about the future. Itโ€™s about the future buyer and will you have the voice in five years, 10 years when the millennial generation is the buying generation, and theyโ€™re spending money on you. When youโ€™re building their homes, and their industrial buildings. So, I just saw white space and thought, hereโ€™s where weโ€™re going to set ourselves apart.

Related content:

Learn more about T.Scherber and their services on their website.

You can also follow along with them on social:

Missyโ€™s Instagram

T.Scherber Instagram

YouTube

Check out the Crew Collaborative to get involved and start changing the conversation around women in construction. You can also get involved on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Got podcast topic suggestions? Reach out to us at podcast@buildertrend.com.

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Transcript

Paul Wurth:

Hey everybody. Welcome to โ€œThe Building Code.โ€ Thanks for tuning in again, this is episode 97, which is really great to say. We are creeping closer to the big episode 100, so be on the lookout for that. So, however you listen to your podcast or get them downloaded, make sure you’re looking out for episode 100. We’re going to have some highlights of the previous 100 episodes of โ€œThe Building Code.โ€ A lot of that’s come from the feedback from our fans. On that note, Danielle, our producer, would love me to say that we have got a Facebook group for โ€œThe Building Code.โ€ I’ll be honest, I don’t really get into Facebook groups, but I checked it out the other day. It’s basically a community of people who are listening to this podcast, where, obviously, we’ll drop episodes. Danielle manages all that.

But it’s great for anybody who wants to just collaborate and if you guys have comments, questions, you guys just want to talk about The Building Code Crew, that’s where you can find it. So, hit up your Facebook search for The Building Code Crew and fellows there. Beyond that, make sure you are rating, subscribing and reviewing the building code that really helps us out and spread our word, which we really appreciate. In addition to that, we just dropped a large number of episodes on YouTube. So, if you just want to go to YouTube and listen to this off your browser, you’ll be able to do that as well.

So, without further ado, I want to bring on our highly anticipated guest. We have Missy Scherber, she’s got a huge Instagram following and so, we’re going to talk all things related to her business. Missy, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Missy Scherber:

Hey, thank you so much for having me. It’s an honor to be on a platform that reaches so many contractors and congrats on episode 97. That’s a lot of hard work and a lot of talking. So, congrats on that.

Paul Wurth:

Thank you. You know that, right? Because you do some podcasting of your own.

Missy Scherber:

Just a little bit. We do the CONEXPO. CON/AGG has a national podcast, and we just do it once a month, earth moving nitty gritty in our industry. So, I know it’s a lot of hard work and 97 episodes is quite an accomplishment, so congrats to you guys.

Paul Wurth:

Thank you for that. We were really excited to have you on. Let’s start there. You’re coming to us from Minnesota. I know you and your husband have a business there, a couple of different ones. So, why don’t you just tell the audience what you do and just the origins of how you guys got into construction or I think, what did you say, earth moving? Dirt moving?

Missy Scherber:

Yes, earth moving.

Paul Wurth:

Okay.

Missy Scherber:

So, my husband and I own two companies. We have the roll-off dumpster company, which we started with. Actually, Trevor started that, my husband, before we met. So, he started with a dumpster company. We met in 2014, he had just purchased his first excavator and wanted to break into demolition excavating. So, that’s when him and I met, and we started the demolition excavating company and really built that together. We’re based here in Minnesota. Our primary focus is contractors. We support contractors with our services. I like to say, we do dirty jobs differently. We really built our business model around our customer voice, which is the contractor. How can we service them better? What does dirty jobs look like to them? That is just top-notch service to not just them, but their clients. Builders and contractors have very important developers, homeowners that they’re working with.

So, we’ve built a great business model there. My background was not in construction. I’m not sure how many guests you have on this podcast that have that background. I did not. I came from a non-profit background. I was in marketing and communications for non-profits. However, my upbringing, both of my grandfathers were businessmen. I had a Hispanic grandfather who had a trucking company, surprisingly enough. So, I guess it skipped a generation, and there’s something in the blood there with trucking and dirty jobs. And my German grandfather had an aviation company.

Paul Wurth:

Wow.

Missy Scherber:

And what’s interesting is, as I was preparing for this podcast and the question that you were going to ask me about my upbringing and background and knowing I was going to say, it’s not in construction. I wanted to really share more than that. Remembering both of their shops, I grew up in their shops or at least seeing their shops. My German grandfather had a meticulous, perfect aviation shop. You know?

Paul Wurth:

Yup.

Missy Scherber:

Everything was just right in an order. My Hispanic grandfather with the trucking company, he supported contractors as well, and his shop was just a little messy, but just full of people and love and excitement and happy staff. And so, my upbringing was really a lot around hard work and service. And so, I’ve tried to really take that as a subcontractor and figure out the contractor, which maybe means I need to be listening to your podcast to get that figured out.

Paul Wurth:

Well, I think you’re onto something, and I want to go down this road because you have a great Instagram. I was watching one of your stories that I want to ask you about. So, what is your Instagram handle, just so we’ll plug that a few different times?

Missy Scherber:

Yes. So, it’s @missyscherber, is M-I-S-S-Y-S-C-H-E-R-B-E-R is my personal handle and then our business handle is @bigmachinehustle.

Paul Wurth:

  1. Well, I like that one, big machine hustle. But the Missy Scherber one, has got like 20,000 plus followers, right?

Missy Scherber:

20 … Yes. I haven’t checked it in a while.

Paul Wurth:

That’s awesome.

Missy Scherber:

It’s got 24,000 or something like that, which is really fun, to reach the industry with the dirty jobs side of a project.

Paul Wurth:

Right.

Missy Scherber:

Who knew?

Paul Wurth:

Exactly. It’s so interesting. And we’re going to go down the social media path because as listeners know, we love talking about that. We promote using social media for a number of different things, expanding your brand, getting leads, things like that. But what I wanted to talk to you about was this idea that you don’t come from a background of construction. Not one person of the original employees of Buildertrend did either. We came from it from some technology background, some sales background, some industry just being servers in restaurants and teachers. And I think that there’s something to that.

Missy Scherber:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

I think for so long people who run construction businesses, and it’s amazing because we love this industry, they came from the trade, right?

Missy Scherber:

Yes.

Paul Wurth:

They came from doing the work, and that’s where their love of their business comes from, which is a great place to come from. But then I think it really is valuable to bring somebody in with different sets of eyes and experience, right?

Missy Scherber:

Yes. I imagine you’ve been able as a business, to bring innovation in a new way because you’re not in it day-to-day, you’re coming from the outside looking in, which is very cool about what you guys have developed which is clearly, you’ve brought just innovation to our industry, which we need, like you said.

Paul Wurth:

Right. And I think innovation and just looking at it in different ways and looking at it as a business. I think one of the things that frustrates me so much is I talk to so many business owners like yourself and how hard you guys work at it and how good you are at your job, but a lot of people, I don’t think give business owners in construction credit enough. They feel like they’re still a service industry, not a business owner. And I think that’s wrong because I think when you start thinking about it as a business owner like you have, and you came in from the non-profit, you probably started implementing some things that maybe your husband wouldn’t have done because he was just so interested in working in it.

Missy Scherber:

For sure.

Paul Wurth:

And I think that’s where I got with the social media thing. So, on your social media story, your Instagram story, I think maybe it was this week, I’m not sure if it’s still there, you had showed the audience how you guys did proposals and estimates to your general contractors.

Missy Scherber:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

And that’s great, but what was really interesting about that is that instead of just looking at your estimates and talking to your estimators like, hey, how can we do this better? You went to all of your clients and said, what could we have done better? What do you like to see with an estimate or proposal? I think just doing something like that in every part of your business makes a lot of sense.

Missy Scherber:

Every party of your business. I think it’s always about the customer voice. And to be honest with you, I learned that principle from being around Caterpillar, the equipment manufacturer, we use a lot of CAT equipment, and I’m part of their social media ambassador program. And the more I got to know Caterpillar, who’s just this monstrous hundred-year-old brand, right?

Paul Wurth:

Mm-hmm.

Missy Scherber:

Studying their habits and how did they become the most recognizable equipment company around? And all they talk about at corporate, I’ve been to corporate multiple times, at the dealers, it’s the customer, customer, customer, customer. And so, I started hearing that and being like, I do feel like customer service, when I came into it … at least on the earth moving, dumpster demolition side, I can’t speak of builders, … but I felt like customer service had been a little lost.

Now, where in my background, it was very important. That was like the critical thing, customer service. Here is Caterpillar, this monster brand customer, customer. So, like you said, I think it’s important to hear the voiceover customers to ask them for their feedback at the end of a project. Were you satisfied? Can we do this better? What would have been helpful for you in the process? Especially the building process. My father-in-law actually had me build an investment property with him, and I built a house and I said, I will never be a builder. These guys, what builders and contractors in many facets, they have to manage all for one customer is incredible.

Paul Wurth:

Right.

Missy Scherber:

It’s amazing. And so, I imagine they probably get so inundated in doing that, that checking in with the customer might get lost, but I think it’s the most important thing.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. And I think some people are afraid to check in with their client.

Missy Scherber:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Because it’s like, well, I don’t want a complain session again. You know what I mean?

Missy Scherber:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

But essentially, the more you do that, the less complaints there will be, right? That’s just logical.

Missy Scherber:

Absolutely.

Paul Wurth:

Take the ego hit, take the hard truth, make some improvements and then you’re going to get less and less of that and then you’re going to be above your competition. When you talked about your … I guess I heard a small value prop to the builders you work for, which is, we’ll be there, we’ll be professional when your clients, when your homeowners come onsite, will be an extension of you.

Missy Scherber:

Yes.

Paul Wurth:

I can see that as a very good value prop to a general contractor, right?

Missy Scherber:

It is.

Paul Wurth:

Because as a GC, you’re bringing in all these subs and vendors and if you got a crew that’s just smoking cigarettes and throwing pop cans everywhere and not looking like … Even if they’re not a true employee of the construction company, a client might feel that they are. And so, it’s going to reflect that on the GC, right?

Missy Scherber:

Absolutely. Well, and the first impression is everything, and what I realized is that we are one of the first subcontractors on the job site. So, in earth moving and demolition, we have this opportunity to set the tone right for a project. And I think all contractors should expect that out of their excavation contractor. You set the tone. You have a dirty job to do, but can you do it clean? Can you do it well? Can you represent us? Because the community is driving by. We’re in a big, scary line of work, right?

Paul Wurth:

Mm-hmm.

Missy Scherber:

We’ve got the big trucks, the big machines. How do we bring that down to the community’s level and say, hey, we’re here but you’re important. We do groundbreaking ceremonies with our builders.

Paul Wurth:

Oh.

Missy Scherber:

One of our builders actually just reached out and said, hey, we’ve seen you do this, we want it on our job sites, where we bring hard hats and safety vests for their homeowners and their clients. We get the kids in the machines, and we just try to set the tone well. It’s a rocky thing to do a building, building a home, building a building, there’s going to be ups and downs. How can we really go above and beyond and set the tone well? And again, that came from customer feedback.

Paul Wurth:

That’s amazing.

Missy Scherber:

That was listening to the customer and hearing them say, normally, we get a phone call when you guys show up.

Paul Wurth:

Right.

Missy Scherber:

And I’m like, OK, what is that phone call? Well, they don’t like the machines, they don’t like the mess. OK, how do we improve that? How do we get everyone excited? And it’s just amazing what that customer voice and listening, like you said, even though it’s hard, it’s a little hit to the ego.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Wow, I’d never thought of it like that.

Missy Scherber:

It’s improved that model though, significantly.

Paul Wurth:

I’ve never thought about how … well, the other thing is, is that now is the first part of construction, but there really haven’t been any problems yet, people are really excited. So, probably a great time for you to put your brand out there.

Missy Scherber:

For sure.

Paul Wurth:

Because the homeowner hasn’t had the issue that happened six months later and all of that. And you guys have branding in the hardhats and the vest and that whole ribbon?

Missy Scherber:

Everything is branded. Everything is branded.

Paul Wurth:

Wow, such a good idea.

Missy Scherber:

And I’ve even given some of our builders that feedback of, the future buyers are brand aware. They’re aware of where you are online, they’re aware of who you give back to and so the goal is to always just set a good standard that others follow, even if it’s our customers, our clients. So, everything is always branded for sure, which comes with a huge responsibility, right?

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Missy Scherber:

Then everything has to be perfect.

Paul Wurth:

Well, that’s what I was going to get into with you because how many employees do you have outside of you and your husband?

Missy Scherber:

We, right now, run where we just entered into our slower season here in Minnesota because the ground starts to freeze up, but we’ll run two to three crews at a time. And then the roll-off company has two trucks running. So, anywhere from eight to 10. We’re hoping to run with 12 next year based on the volume we’re bidding. So, we’re definitely a small contractor, but we try to treat everything like it’s a big, serious job, you know?

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Missy Scherber:

To handle and take care of.

Paul Wurth:

And that idea of like, hey, you’re an employee of us, treat everything with great respect and treat it this way. So, to your point, it’s a great responsibility when you have all that branding, because you’re saying, this is who we are. Every extension of you needs to be saying that from your work into your employees. And so, when you onboard a new employee or just continual education with your employees, is that something you guys focus on, about who we are and what our perception is going to be out there?

Missy Scherber:

Yes. So, definitely we focus on integrity, it’s in our byline sign for a reason. So, TSherber Integrity and Construction is our word mark. And I’ve seen contractors out there who just put their logo on there, and I’ve some who put their byline on there, or their word mark of who they are and what they stand for. I think that’s important because it just reminds your teams and your customers, this is who we are and what we stand for, hold us accountable to that.

Paul Wurth:

Absolutely.

Missy Scherber:

And so, that’s what I say to my team, it’s right there on the byline, it’s right there on the truck. And then integrity and then our customers, it’s like we’re a customer-based business. So, everyone in our company is in sales and customer service, even our operators. And that’s what we teach them. Our operators are in sales and they laugh at me when I’m like … They’re like, what? I’m an operator. I’ve been running machines for 30 years.

I’m like, you see the client more than I do sometimes, so you’re in sales. And they’ve been up to the challenge. And we just have the most amazing team who get Missy and Trevor care about how we treat the customer, not just the fleet and the equipment and the iron, that’s just how we treat the people.

Paul Wurth:

That’s great.

Missy Scherber:

So, it works well but like you said, the branding is important. Our industry seems a little lagging there. It’s coming around.

Paul Wurth:

It is, yeah.

Missy Scherber:

Which is exciting, but it does hold you accountable. Everyone is going to know you.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. I think there’s so many of the construction companies out there that probably haven’t even thought past the logo and to your point, the byline and the word mark and all the different things that you’re going to identify as are important customer facing, but also employee facing because you point to the … we talk about the word is in the wall, right? If something important within Buildertrend, we throw it on the wall.

Missy Scherber:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

We talk about effort, attitude and this is a kid’s show, so I won’t say what else we have on there. But we talk about bringing it every day, right?

Missy Scherber:

yeah.

Paul Wurth:

And so, when we talk about that to our employees. We don’t just do that during the orientation. It’s important to us, it’s on the wall. And so, when we have hard conversations with employees, or we have directional conversations with employees, we just point to the wall and say, this is what you signed up for. This is what we talk about every day.

Missy Scherber:

That’s awesome.

Paul Wurth:

And that’s branding within a business is, the same thing, right?

Missy Scherber:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

This is who we’re about. Well the other thing is, is that, I think a lot of construction companies in the past said, what’s the point having a brand because I don’t really have a website and I have maybe a truck. Well now, you can really accelerate your brand pretty easily through social media. So, it’s as important to have a logo and a brand. So, can you talk about your experience with social media, like how you got into it and then, maybe some of the momentum you got there?

Missy Scherber:

Yeah, absolutely. When I came into this industry, I was almost surprised just to be honest, and this was six or seven years ago, how behind the industry was in marketing and social media and websites. And the thing is, is that everyone was busy, so everyone’s busy without it. But it’s not really about right now, it’s about the future. It’s about the future buyer and will you have the voice in five years, 10 years when the millennial generation is buying … They’re buying and they’re spending money and dollars on you. You’re building their homes and their industrial buildings.

So, I just saw a white space and thought, here is where we’re going to set ourself apart. And I also saw that a lot of the story, if there was storytelling online in the construction industry with contractors, it was always the finished product. It was the builder and the architect always. Just the final design, beautiful home, and no one was really highlighting the foundational work that goes into a structure. So, I thought, OK, there’s a white space here, which I hope a lot of your contractors realize. There’s still a white space for them to build brands and be advanced on a nice website, a good social media presence and using technology that engages their customers. So, I just saw the white space and I was like, let’s do this. Trevor’s website was horrible.

Paul Wurth:

We won’t tell him.

Missy Scherber:

He is good at so many things.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Missy Scherber:

He is a true entrepreneur, but the website was two paragraphs and one old unfiltered photo. And I was like, let’s go. So, I hired a web and graphic designer and web developer and I said, we’re going to build a brand that people trust, that they recognize and we’re going to storytell about what we do. And some people were like, no one wants to hear from the excavator. It’s just a bunch of dirt, and it’s a dumpster. And I thought, well, I think people enjoy the process, and we’re going to try it. And it really just took off. It was amazing. I blinked and I had 600 followers. I started it two years ago and just said, we’re going to do some storytelling because our industry matters, our work matters. I think homeowners will appreciate seeing the process.

And it just took off from there. And I was able to really build a pretty decent following on other business owners and then potential customers. Builders started following us, and we’ve actually been hired from builders. I’ve had builders DM me now. They DM me on Instagram before they ever email or call me. Which is nuts when you think about that. That’s a new era of building business.

Paul Wurth:

For sure.

Missy Scherber:

That you’re getting DMs that you’re getting hit up on DM like, hey, I’m interested in what you’re doing. Oh, here’s my email. Here’s my phone number.

Paul Wurth:

Right.

Missy Scherber:

So, I think the game for me, I listened as a book by Gary Vaynerchuk, โ€œCrushing It!โ€ And he just said, storytelling is the future. And I don’t know that our industry does enough storytelling. That is a white space to improve on and so, I said, I’m going to storytell what we do. Some of our builders got excited about it, and they started storytelling more like on their job sites. They said, share, start to finish. Don’t just show us the pretty picture at the end, show your uniqueness. We work with some really incredible builders who their process is amazing. They invest in technology like Buildertrend, they’ve managed their sites well, and they start seeing me share the dirty side and they’re like, OK, let’s do this. You know?

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Missy Scherber:

Let’s start sharing the groundbreaking who knows …

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. That’s the one common thread with everybody who we’ve had on this podcast, who has a huge social media following is, they just started doing it. And they started sharing their story and their day-to-day. And I think that’s really what scares a lot of people, is getting on camera for the first time, you know?

Missy Scherber:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

And that’s not easy for everybody to do and put yourself out there.

Missy Scherber:

It’s not.

Paul Wurth:

Even when you have 200 followers, they’re usually your friends and family that would make fun of you, or whatever.

Missy Scherber:

It matters.

Paul Wurth:

But who’s laughing now? Now you’ve got 20,000 people following you. So, there you go.

Missy Scherber:

Right. Well, even if I had 1000 followers or 800 and three of them were potential customers, and they see the presence, it’s worth it.

Paul Wurth:

Well, that’s the other thing. It’s not just potential customers. What we’ve heard is potential employees.

Missy Scherber:

Absolutely.

Paul Wurth:

There’s a labor shortage coming up, just different opportunities. People are following you online and they’re going to DM you like DM is like the new cold call, I guess right?

Missy Scherber:

I guess so.

Paul Wurth:

Alright. So, you have a great following again, find you at @missyscherber, right? M-I-S-S-Y-S-C-H-E-R-B-E-R.

Missy Scherber:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

One thing that you’re doing through your social media is this movement, women in construction Wednesday. Now, I’m an honest host, I don’t know anything about this, but I want to talk about it. As a company, we have been huge proponents of women in construction, you know?

Missy Scherber:

Yes.

Paul Wurth:

We feel like we’re in construction, even though we’re a software company, but we solely serve the construction industry.

Missy Scherber:

You absolutely are.

Paul Wurth:

For many years, women in technology was a passion of ours. We couldn’t find enough women and now, we’re proud to have, I think probably close to what? Over 100 women who work at Buildertrend now.

Missy Scherber:

That’s awesome.

Paul Wurth:

And so, we’re really excited about that. And we have the same passion for women in construction. So, is that part of this movement, is just highlighting that?

Missy Scherber:

Yes. And it’s funny, the word movement. I’d never considered it that in the beginning. We started two years ago, I noticed this hashtag trend of hashtag woman crush wednesday or WCW. And I said, let’s turn that into women in construction Wednesday because I’m having a hard time finding them. And if they are out there part of workforce development, and what we’ve talked about, part of the future of our industry is sharing your story. And so, the goal with women in construction Wednesday was to share the email accounts in the industry that I was finding.

Paul Wurth:

Nice.

Missy Scherber:

And also get women to start posting more of like I used to say, raise your right hand and take a selfie.

Paul Wurth:

I like that.

Missy Scherber:

Ladies, you’re out there, get a photo on the job site. Let’s inspire more women, let’s redefine what crews look like and that they’re inclusive and diverse. And I love that you guys as a software company have focused on that. That’s one of the things I’ve always said is, if tech did it … tech was a very male-dominated industry. And now, it’s a very diverse industry. The health care industry did it, tech did it, construction can do it, and we have a long way to go with less than 10% female representation, but you nailed it, it’s, a workforce problem.

We have a workforce problem. We’re not short of projects and asking to do, we are short of laborers and 50% of the population, we’re not focused on. And so, we started the women in construction Wednesday and it just took off. When we started it, it was like 9,000. If you look at the hashtag women in construction, it was 9,000 pictures. Now it’s over 90,000 pictures and it’s incredible.

Paul Wurth:

Wow, that’s awesome.

Missy Scherber:

Women are excited to share their story. And really, they’re excited to share the story of the men that believed in them, the men in our industry who believe in them and said, let’s do this. I wouldn’t be in this industry if Trevor wasn’t like, sure, you have zero background, but I trust you to run a dumpster company.

Paul Wurth:

That’s right. That’s awesome. We shared really the same story the last 10 years, and we can’t be more behind that. And this idea about calling a group of people on the job site, not guys anymore, but crew. I think that, honestly, that goes a long way because we do always call a group of people guys a lot.

Missy Scherber:

It does. Always.

Paul Wurth:

And maybe that’s just because that’s how we grew up and it’s subconscious, but at the end of the day, I think it needs to change as well. So, is Crew Collab part of what you’re talking about?

Missy Scherber:

Yeah, absolutely. So, we just started noticing that not just women, but women and men wanted to come together to redefine crews and what they look like.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, absolutely.

Missy Scherber:

And we just liked that name crew let’s collaborate and be a more diverse industry and bring awareness to it. So, right now it’s just a social media handle @thecrewcollab, and we just promote women in the industry or the men that are supporting their roles and their stories. We’re really being pushed and asked to turn it into something bigger. It’s just managing that and running two businesses that we’re trying to resolve, but the industry is hungry for redefining, like you said, crews and what it looks like. And really, we did one micro event this past summer, we got some amazing big sponsors of it. We couldn’t believe the turnout. We couldn’t believe how many people were like, we want this. And half of them were men.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, of course.

Missy Scherber:

We want this, we were supportive. And I’m like, oh, we got to do this. But COVID-19 hit and then running and building a business this year has been intense for everyone and hopefully it’s starting to lift a little at year end. But Crew Collab is just about images on what the workforce can and should look like and like you said, instead of saying guys, can we say my crew. Our lead driver is a female and I love โ€ฆ our team is trained when they call, oh, have your guy. Well, actually, it’s a woman. It’s Deb, you know?

Paul Wurth:

Yeah.

Missy Scherber:

Deb will be there to take care of every need you have. Instead of being bitter about where we’re at, it’s the challenge and bringing an exciting approach to it. We’re excited to make a shift and a change. It sounds like you guys did that with your business, 100 women at a tech company, that’s phenomenal and it’s exciting, you know?

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, it’s amazing.

Missy Scherber:

That’s a, ship could turn right there.

Paul Wurth:

Well, we’re behind you because I think, and really everybody I talked to, I think everybody believes the same thing, you know?

Missy Scherber:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Anybody can be in the construction business if they have the right attitude and the right willingness to learn and be a part of, what I think we both agree, is a really an amazing industry that people who aren’t in it don’t know about. So, we’re behind you 100% of the way. How can somebody support, to just follow you @thecrewcollab?

Missy Scherber:

Yeah. So, just go follow @thecrewcollab. The best way to support though, is to really be looking at your own crews. Are they diverse?

Paul Wurth:

Right.

Missy Scherber:

Is my company diverse? How many women work for me? And am I looking at women more closely? Are there women in apprentice programs and the carpentry, electrical? Are you hiring subs that are diverse? I think that’s the best way to support the movement of a more diverse industry, is your daily business practices. Am I buying from a woman owned supplier? That’s my challenge to our industry on social right now, is what in your day-to-day can you do?

Paul Wurth:

Nobody is going to do it for you.

Missy Scherber:

Nope.

Paul Wurth:

If you believe in it, do it every day.

Missy Scherber:

Yup.

Paul Wurth:

I 100% believe that.

Missy Scherber:

Thank you.

Paul Wurth:

Well Missy, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast. It was super interesting.

Missy Scherber:

Yeah, it was awesome.

Paul Wurth:

It flew by because you have a lot of great stuff going on. So again, we want you to follow Missy on Instagram @missyscherber. And then you can always follow the hashtag women in construction Wednesday, post those women in your life that you are supporting in construction. Go follow @thecrewcollab and more to come from Missy. Missy, this was amazing. So, how about we just check in on you in next six or 12 months and see where you’re at?

Missy Scherber:

We’ll do it again. Thanks for all you’re doing on the software side. Tech is a huge part of our industry, and I appreciate what you guys are building to support the contractor. I know it’s critical, so thank you.

Paul Wurth:

Right back at you. Appreciate you. Thanks.

Missy Scherber:

Bye.

Paul Wurth:

OK, we’re good. Alright, thank you so much. That was awesome though. That really flowed because you got a lot of great stuff going on, so good for you.

Missy Scherber:

Thank you.

Paul Wurth:

All right everyone, thanks again for listening to this episode of โ€œThe Building Code.โ€ Remember to rate, review and subscribe wherever you listening to podcasts, help us grow this community of listeners, tell your friends, tell your family. We do appreciate it. And if you’ve heard anything that you want to learn more about on today’s episode, head out to the show notes website, Buildertrend.com/podcast. As always, we appreciate you.

Missy Scherber

Missy Scherber | T.Scherber


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