Value-driven branding: Why builders should prioritize content and storytelling

Zach Wojtowicz (00:05):

What’s up everybody? Welcome to “The Building Code.” I’m Zach Wojtowicz.

Charley Burtwistle (00:09):

And I’m Charley Burtwistle.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:10):

And today, how are you? We’re reunited Charley? I feel like it’s been a while since …

Charley Burtwistle (00:14):

It has been a while.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:15):

I don’t know where we’re going to fall in the timeline of episode airings, but the summer mix up. Everybody’s busy, everybody’s moving around. Hopefully where you’re at, you’re getting some beautiful weather here in Nebraska. We’re about to hit that 99 degree, a hundred percent humidity.

Charley Burtwistle (00:30):

I saw that. Yeah.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:30):

Feeling good.

Charley Burtwistle (00:31):

Yeah, it’s 86 already and it’s still mid-morning I think.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:33):

And the most Nebraska way to open a podcast. Talk about the weather.

Charley Burtwistle (00:36):

Yeah, absolutely. Everyone was wondering what is going on in Omaha, Nebraska from a weather standpoint?

Zach Wojtowicz (00:41):

And we have to rotate hosting because of the heat. That’s actually what’s happening. Just kidding.

Charley Burtwistle (00:45):

Yeah. Can’t come out today.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:46):

How was your wedding in Italia?

Charley Burtwistle (00:49):

It was fantastic. A true dream come true. The only thing I would change about it would be should have scheduled a couple episodes of the podcast …

Zach Wojtowicz (00:55):

That would’ve been epic.

Charley Burtwistle (00:56):

… from the Colosseum.

Zach Wojtowicz (00:57):

In the Colosseum just interviewing about construction and be like, “Hey, walk me through how the Romans managed to do this without any sort of technology outside of just bare hands and ingenuity.”

Charley Burtwistle (01:09):

Without any project management tools.

Zach Wojtowicz (01:11):

Could you imagine Buildertrend, just like renovating the Colosseum or a wrecking one?

Charley Burtwistle (01:15):

No, I’m saying building the Colosseum like the first go around.

Zach Wojtowicz (01:18):

Hey, I don’t want to crack open the conspiracies here, but maybe they did.

Charley Burtwistle (01:21):

Yeah, the pyramids.

Zach Wojtowicz (01:22):

Yeah.

Charley Burtwistle (01:22):

People always ask how they were built. Maybe it was Buildertrend.

Zach Wojtowicz (01:25):

BT is before time?

Charley Burtwistle (01:27):

Time?

Zach Wojtowicz (01:28):

Yeah. Honestly.

Charley Burtwistle (01:29):

All right, best enough fun for today. Let’s get into the real meat and potatoes. Zach, who do we have as our guest on this very special episode of “The Building Code?”

Zach Wojtowicz (01:37):

A very special guest, Morgan Molitor, Construction2Style out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I actually have had the privilege of working with her team as onboarding with them. We met them and-

Charley Burtwistle (01:47):

They haven’t quit yet.

Zach Wojtowicz (01:48):

They haven’t. Hey, my churn rate looking pretty good so far. Morgan, if you’re hearing this, please tell me this. Yeah, Morgan and her entire team, they’re just awesome people. They do awesome work. Jamie is the handcrafter. He really does amazing carpentry and remodeling and he’s got big dreams, big ambitions. Actually, just was with them in the Contract Coalition, Spring Edition 2024 in Minneapolis and just really see not only their vision but the way that they treat other people. And it’s just amazing. You’re going to hear it right away and just the way that Morgan approaches life and business and the people around her, and I’ve just learned a lot from her already.

Charley Burtwistle (02:34):

I’ve heard a ton about Morgan, so I’m very excited to meet her finally.

Zach Wojtowicz (02:39):

Yeah, whenever I feel like I bring you into the fold, people are always like, “Why don’t you send him?” Why do you send Zach? And Charley’s just way a way better time.” And that’s probably true. But the biggest thing that we’re going to talk about today, Charley, is what?

Charley Burtwistle (02:52):

Today we’re going to be talking about brand strategy. So, I’ve noticed the number of episodes we’ve done around brand has gone up. I think twofold. One, because it’s very, very important for construction businesses. Two, because I think Courtney finds a lot of these guests and loves brand and sets them up. But the good news is, Zach and I also love talking about it because it is the absolute backbone of your business, and you’re customer facing, how you get more leads, so your experience with the customers, your reviews, everything kind of funnels through your brand. And talking to Courtney before this, Morgan’s best in class and so, very excited to talk to her and it should be a great episode.

Zach Wojtowicz (03:27):

We’re going to learn a lot, so let’s get her in here. Hey Morgan, welcome to “The Building Code.” It’s your first time on the podcast, but we’re great friends here at Buildertrend with Construction2Style. How are you today?

Morgan Molitor (03:39):

Good. Thanks for having me you guys. I’m so excited.

Charley Burtwistle (03:42):

Super pumped to have you. I’ve been hearing all about you from Zach and Courtney and everyone else, it seems like in the Buildertrend headquarters, but for those that are not fortunate enough to know you, we love to start these off with. Just tell us a little bit about yourself, your company and how you got into construction.

Morgan Molitor (03:59):

All right, so I’m Morgan Molitor, along with my husband Jamie, we run Construction2Style. We started our business or our brand back in 2012. He was, my husband, went to school to be a contractor, went for carpentry, graduated during the recession, worked for a waterproofing company commercial, started flipping homes when he’d get laid off in the wintertime. And then we were just dating at the time, and I was just blown away by his talents. Started documenting what he was doing on the blog. We started a blog, Construction2Style. And then slowly but surely, people started reaching out to us, started remodeling their homes. My background was fashion merchandising and marketing, and I quickly jumped into it with him, and one thing led to another, got married, so we technically started our company before we were married, which is insane now we think.

It worked out well for us. And yeah, quickly got married, had three kids. After our second son was born, I was like, I cannot work corporate full-time plus be doing Construction2Style full time. We had employees on our team by that time and jumped ship, went full-time with him in 2015, and then … Sorry, 2015 is when Jamie went full-time, jumped his job. And then 2017 I joined the train. And then since then we’ve been doing design build anywhere from, we’ve done a few custom home builds, but otherwise we focus on additions, remodeling. And then during all that time, too, prior I was working at a digital marketing agency. So, when I came to C2S full-time, I just started leaning more into the brand partnerships, affiliate marketing, ad revenue, content creation, all that kind of stuff. So, we also have a full-time business running our content side and making revenue through there.

(05:53):

And people started reaching out, how do you do that? So, from that I started doing workshops. I started offering courses. I started offering mentorship and we launched another company called The Online Media where we focused that on other people, content creation, blogs, SEO, website builds. And then what else? We also have a nonprofit called Resilience to Reform that gives those a second chance who are resilient and have reformed their life. My brother was incarcerated for eight years, and so, I’ve lived that life, bringing my kids to a federal prison and started sharing about that more publicly. And people are like, I’m going through the same thing, and I would never tell anyone. And I was like, “Why not? Life’s hard,” and all that kind of stuff. So, truly our construction style, we pride ourselves on being an open book. What you see is what you get. We’re very transparent when it comes to pricing, when it comes to our family lifestyle, our team lifestyle, basically everything. So that’s kind of about us.

Zach Wojtowicz (06:57):

Yeah, they’re a lot of fun to hang out with, charley, I wish you could have been there, man. It’s one of those things that when you meet the team, I’ve been working with Kayla and Topher and everyone, there’s a really awesome culture that you’ve built and I don’t know, how do you do it all? You’ve got three companies, you’ve got three kids, you’ve got a team of people. I’m always just enamored with the ability for people to do so much. And I’m over here working a corporate job, thinking it’s hard. We want to talk to you of course, about your brand strategy and how you’ve grown these businesses, but I think something people really are interested in is that growth mindset. We talk about that a lot on the podcast. Did you mean to do all this or is it an accident? And what was that story as far as how did this happen? What was your motivation?

Morgan Molitor (07:54):

Yeah, I always think, I’m just a very intuitive person and energy person, whatever you want to call it. And I really lean into that. So when I get an opportunity or when I meet someone that I’m like, oh, there’s something there, something could be really cool. I lean into it and I try to figure out what it is. I feel like I meet cool people just like you guys, that it opens new opportunities, it opens new doors. I’m always just kind of intrigued on, I just have a growth mindset, an entrepreneurial mindset. Both Jamie and I, our parents ran their own companies, so we grew up in households that we saw our parents working extremely hard and I saw my parents working and they owned a restaurant. So around the clock I was raised in the restaurant. That’s where our family dinners were.

(08:45):

And so yeah, I think even with the beginning of constructionist style and my background, I didn’t think I’d be doing design for clients. And all of a sudden when met Jamie, I was like, this is fun. And I leaned into it and his goal was to be a custom home builder and all of a sudden I was like, let’s launch this blog. And all of a sudden we started doing content and that kind of led to another opportunity. And throughout our whole journey, it’s just meeting people. It’s bringing on the right partners, just like you guys. We’re very, I don’t want to say selective, but it’s just when we meet someone, even when it comes to a brand, a tool we use, a product that we’re putting into clients’ homes. Our clients have led us to cool and new opportunities.

(09:30):

We know immediately if it’s a yes or a no, if they’re our people and we’re like, “Yep, we’re in.” And when we’re in, we’re a hundred percent in and we think fast. And then if we make a mistake, we learn from it and keep moving. I don’t like to dwell on things we’ve screwed up on. And yeah, it’s just keeping that positive mindset even when things are not going good. And Jamie and I struggle with that every day. Even this morning we wake up and he’s like, we’re going to be late to our client meeting. And I was like, not with that attitude. I was like, “My attitude is we’re going to be on time.” I was like, ‘Get that. Check it out the door.” And he is like, “Oh my Lord, look who I married.” So it’s just that constant just staying moving forward, being positive. Yeah. Yeah.

Charley Burtwistle (10:17):

I love that. And clearly it’s worked for you. Incredibly impressive resume, and I feel like we could go down 20 different avenues to talk about, but Zach and I are going to try to stick to our questions that our marketing team put together for us here. And the point of this episode is creating that effective brand strategy. So something that you mentioned a couple of times already is that this all kind of started with a blog and I think a lot of, we’ve had a few different people on the podcast to talk about brand and I feel like the common pushback we get is we don’t really know where to start or we don’t know about social media and SEO and stuff like that. And the guests that we’ve had have always said, “Just start somewhere, pick something and start with it.” So I’d love to hear a little bit more about your evolution of what did that blog look like and how did that transform? What was the next step of that and the next step, and how did you get from one blog to the media empire that you have today?

Morgan Molitor (11:08):

Yeah, I would say it’s so hard too, to rewind back to 10 years ago or whatever long it was, because it’s just like what I did then, what I do now today, I don’t know. But the one thing I would do is I think sometimes too, especially as a brand and whether it’s your brand or you’re working for another brand, we always over complicate things and we always overthink things, whereas I’m like “Just write.” And that’s what I did in the beginning too, is I just started documenting what Jamie was doing to this home. He had bought this investment property. I started one blog entry on how he was taking down this load-bearing wall, what he was doing, the cost that went into it. And that was a blog post. I did another blog post on the back splash, what he was installing, why, and it just started creating this storyline.

(11:58):

And so I think for everyone in the housing industry, you have so many storylines to tell and it’s very rare that I see we just have so much content to share and not a lot of people are sharing all of their content and not a lot of people are even sharing any of the content. And so I’m just like, start with one project, start with one storyline, start with your team and write.

(12:23):

And the first thing I always do, is I just truly write from my heart and I just type so I’m not writing, but I’m typing away of what it is. And then I let it sit and then I’ll come back to it and I’ll refine it and I give myself about three revisions before I have to hit publish. And I also always am a big time blocker, so I only have so much time to write this article and then I’m going to put it out to the universe could I sit there and go through it over and over and over and make sure it’s SEOed correctly and it has the right tone and the right links and all this stuff? Yes, and then it would probably take you 30 hours for one piece of content to get live. Whereas I just have this rule where I’m like, I don’t want to spend more than three hours on this piece of content. Otherwise, yes, then it’s not going to be an ROI. You just need to get the content out there and get it going.

(13:10):

I’m also a huge fan of owning your content. I think we all see so many people online, they put all their money, projects, everything just in the Instagram and that’s it. And we see it all the time where people’s Instagrams get shut down all the time, because we don’t own Instagram, we don’t own any social media platform. So just like that, they don’t like the politics you said, they don’t like a word you used. The other day, I used a word I didn’t realize and they shut our Instagram down for 24 hours to make sure we weren’t, you know.

(13:43):

And for a second I was like, what the heck? Because I keep all that kind of stuff offline. But then I was like, oh my gosh, I left a comment on someone else’s just using kind of a joke word, just like a cliche word that people would use and it literally alerted Instagram. And Jamie texted me right away, he got the alert and he’s like, what are you doing?

(14:03):

And I was like, I didn’t even think twice about my comment. But with all that to be said, I’m like, when you’re creating content, make sure you’re putting it in a place that you own. So I’m a huge advocate of having your content, your storyline on your website and owning your website. Don’t have a rented space website. And then from there, using social media platforms to push your content. So using it as an arm, an extension, like you guys podcasts, amazing. You own this content, you own the articles, you own all of these assets, and then you use social media to help leverage it.

(14:43):

But to not over complicate it, I always say just start writing. Have that storyline on your website and start there. Because even this morning, client job site, I immediately was referencing some projects and I pulled up our website to show them what I was referencing. I wasn’t pulling up social media and scrolling, scrolling, scrolling to try to find this one thing I was referencing. Then I knew exactly where I could go on our website, share the storyline, they can go back there, they can dig deeper into all the other platforms, but then all that too, they’ll go down a rabbit hole, start seeing who we are as a company, a team, our brand voice. That was a long answer to your question.

Charley Burtwistle (15:19):

No, that’s a great answer. And I also, real quick before we move on, I love the way you started and the way you phrased it of, “I just typed what we were doing or what he was doing at the time.” I think a lot of times people have mental blocks of I don’t know what to write, what would I blog about, what do I post about? It’s like, what did you do today? Just talk about that. There are literally millions of other people that are going through the same exact experience in the same exact space. Just share your version of it.

Zach Wojtowicz (15:46):

I think-

Morgan Molitor (15:46):

Or what I say too is, “What did you do today?” Is a great one, but also, “What questions are your clients asking you?” Because I know they’re asking you the same questions and you’re repeating the same answers. So create a resource where you don’t have to keep repeating that same answer and then add to it later, write the article, but then add in a video later, add in photos later. We’re constantly going back and updating content based on new projects that we put out that are relevant to that information. So start with by answering your client’s questions that they’re asking you.

Zach Wojtowicz (16:21):

Yeah, I was thinking too, the same lane as Charley when it comes to, oh, no one would read that. It’s like, yeah, but you would never know what people would read if you never do it. And so you’re better off putting it out there and seeing what you get and really trying to experiment and seeing. You just never know. You really don’t know. And if you hold it to yourself or you’re held up on the what ifs, you’ll never actually do anything or accomplish anything.

Morgan Molitor (16:47):

For sure. Yeah.

Zach Wojtowicz (16:48):

So that’s really great advice, Morgan, and you do a lot of this type of education at the Contractor Coalition where you talk about these things. And it’s funny watching a lot of our customers kind of like you can see the wheels turning like, oh, it’s really not that hard, and it just is that type of education or that little push or a pioneer, someone that’s done it to be able to say, I can do this too.

(17:09):

What are some of the other things in a brand strategy for a construction business that you teach people or share with others that can maybe level them up? You got to start somewhere, but what are some of the other things that are really part of a strong brand strategy for someone that wants to grow their construction business or any business?

Morgan Molitor (17:27):

I think, oh man, that’s like… Well, in our courses and our workshops, which we’re actually changing right now, I’m working on changing all that to a membership base so that people can sign up and get any of the content that they want.

Zach Wojtowicz (17:28):

Cool. That’s really cool.

Morgan Molitor (17:42):

Yeah, I know. Thank you. I’m a month behind, so I’m talking to myself here.

Zach Wojtowicz (17:46):

Well, you’ve nothing going on, Morgan. I feel like, oh, another great project, Morgan, do you have a time machine? How do you do? I just cannot fathom.

Morgan Molitor (17:54):

I’m like, I need to just time block and get it done because I know how important it is. And I’m like, I have all the assets, I just got to move it over into the membership style.

(18:03):

But to answer that, we chat about just Pinterest marketing. I think that is a huge untapped potential in home industry. Pinterest and Google stories are my top two that hardly anyone’s on, and I’m like, people will say, “Oh, my clients aren’t on Pinterest. Or, what are Google stories? My clients aren’t there.” And I’m like, “Your clients are on Google. Think about how often even we’re in the industry and I’m Googling.” I’m Googling stuff every day about the home industry and we’re in the industry and Google leads you, Pinterest pops up immediately. Google stories pops up immediately. So I think those are two huge untapped markets that are so easy to incorporate into your marketing. And so we teach stuff like that or share stuff like that.

(18:53):

Another great thing too is just when it goes back to your brand and your identity, I think it’s so important to figure out who you want as your brand voice. And I always say, have this avatar. Think of an avatar for your brand voice. Think of an avatar for your ideal client and with your team or yourself or your leadership team, whiteboard, storyboard it out. Who is this person? What do they do? What do they like to do as hobbies? Just get into the nitty-gritty details and then develop those people.

(19:24):

And so what I always think with marketing, and I struggled with this for a long time because I was starting to be the brand voice and the brand face and all these things, and I was like, I didn’t want that because I’m like, it’s me and Jamie and our team, and I’m very team focused and I’m like, when you hire us, the first person you’re interacting with is not me. I’m a lot more so behind the scenes and it’s Kayla and then it’s Topher on job sites. And so I struggled with that for a while as I tried to remove myself. And then after listening to podcasts and reading articles and surrounding myself with brilliant minds, I realized, no, you can pick that person. And maybe it’s not the owner, maybe it’s someone else on the team. Maybe that’s not someone that’s comfortable showing up and doing these things.

(20:17):

So anyway, I just let that go and I was like, Nope. Because again, what we were talking about a second ago, Zach is just like, data will prove itself. So you don’t know what’s going to work and what doesn’t work, but look at the data. And so Kayla was the one was like, “Morgan, stop fighting this because every time you’re showing up and you’re talking, it’s working and those are our best performing.” She’s like, “The data is showing.” And I was like, “Fine.” So I let it go. And then just started showing up more.

(20:46):

And so what I’ve learned is a lot of times people, I think as owners too, you might think, oh, I should hire this. And granted, we do have a media company, but I’ll be the first to say, if you can, you need to be showing up. If you want to get to the next level in marketing, you got to show up. And so would I always think is a lot of times people think that’s the first thing, let that go. Hire someone else, hire an intern. When I hear that, I just cringe like that’s the last person that you should be trusting with your marketing. This is a big deal. This is your mothership. And all of that could go to the wayside if you put someone that’s uneducated and doesn’t know your brand well as that.

And so I always think, that’s the first thing. You should offload other things within your company that your leadership team can take over for you so that you’re able to show up. And it’s not, because people will be like, “Oh, this is so easy. Someone else can do it.” And it’s not about that. It’s about showing up for your brand. And so your brand voice is important, your brand face is important. Your brand just as important as your brand logo, your colors, your fonts, all of that if not more important because again, that’s going to be repeating from your social media to your website to what trickles down to your team. They all now have instilled qualities and characteristics that I am helping to drive home, or tone of voice, or the lightheartedness.

Zach Wojtowicz (22:18):

I can’t wait for Courtney to hit me with the marketing’s the mothership of Buildertrend.

Charley Burtwistle (22:22):

I know, that’s the exact thing I thought, too.

Zach Wojtowicz (22:24):

He’s over here in the studio like, oh no, Morgan!

Morgan Molitor (22:27):

Train Courtney!

Charley Burtwistle (22:29):

They’re going to have T-shirts within the week.

Zach Wojtowicz (22:31):

Stickers, mugs, ugh, Morgan.

Morgan Molitor (22:35):

Yes, don’t you guys agree though?

Zach Wojtowicz (22:37):

No, I totally do. And I kind of got that feeling of total alignment. It is so important for leadership-

Morgan Molitor (22:49):

Yes.

Zach Wojtowicz (22:49):

… to show, for everyone to kind of be involved in that type of understanding because it does create that perception that everybody’s kind of on the same page. It just makes things work better when you do those things, everything flows more naturally and the people who understand that, so adeptly, like you Morgan, you have to make the time. It’s a choice. But when you do it, what you get from it, by being really present in the front side of the client facing and the way that people make decisions, it’s like it is a human decision. They want to know who the people are that they’re working with. Even if you’re not on the job site, that isn’t necessarily why they’re deciding to go with you. Yeah.

Charley Burtwistle (23:27):

Well, the piece that really stuck out to me was just the kind of consistency. Something we talk about a lot at Buildertrend is just expectation setting. So we’ve been pretty focused, at least in this interview on the front end side of lead gen and brand awareness and stuff like that. But that same voice that you’re setting and expectations and brand that you’re setting, carries through the entire customer experience. So then on the backend, when you come time for client reviews and the trust and credibility of how that project went, it was seamless. I was working with a different, or I thought I was going to be working with a different company, then I signed a contract and it’s completely different.

Morgan Molitor (24:00):

Yes!

Charley Burtwistle (24:01):

It needs to be holistic kind of customer journey from start to finish with that same consistency and credibility throughout.

Morgan Molitor (24:09):

Exactly. And even again, I was chatting with Kayla on the phone coming back from a client meeting today, and we were actually just talking about that as in our team as a whole showing up to this job site this morning that we’re trying to win a good project for. And she just reminded me, she’s like, “We showed up all of us who we are, this is who we are, we’re laid back, we’re carefree, but we also care.” And she’s like, “That’s all we can do. And we’re all showing up on the same way, the same level, the same energy, the same excitement.”

(24:42):

And I was just like, “Oh my gosh, that was just such a great reminder. And I was just kind of laughing to myself like, here, you’re telling me what I should be telling you. I’ve hopefully instilled that in her. And it’s the trust to do that too, to let things go as an owner and to let your team have that act as an owner because now they truly are running our company just as I and Jamie would be running the company. And it’s really cool to see that too.

Charley Burtwistle (25:09):

Well, it sounds like we’re going to have to set up a second episode with you on just company culture and shared leadership because gosh, we could go down that avenue for another hour.

Zach Wojtowicz (25:17):

Morgan’s got a great line, which is, “Your vibe is your tribe.”

Charley Burtwistle (25:21):

Oh, there you go.

Morgan Molitor (25:22):

Don’t forget that that’s your tribe.

Charley Burtwistle (25:22):

Need a T-shirt.

Zach Wojtowicz (25:25):

Yep, that’s the T-shirt line. But she said that in Minnesota at Contractor Coalition. I was like, “I love that. It’s so simple and short.” I think the messages that convey a lot been very short words are the ones that really are powerful and you can just feel it working with your team and it does become part of your brand too. I think your customers probably experienced that as well. They know Kayla from the front end, they know that you’ll be in and out. They’ll know that Jamie’s handcrafting the project and making sure the design is really on time. And that the product being delivered is really, really high quality. So it makes all the other stuff, one, it makes it fun because delivering something you can be proud of, but two, it also just makes everything else kind of really work.

Morgan Molitor (25:25):

Zach Wojtowicz (26:03):

Yes.

And that’s like the dream come true, right?

Morgan Molitor (26:06):

Yeah, it is.

Zach Wojtowicz (26:07):

So some other things that we were kind of looking at, you mentioned strategies around trying to build additional revenue in things like Pinterest and Google. What is kind of the business strategy on there, are you thinking? Is the construction business the primary kind of focus or are you using the additional revenue streams or additional strategies to kind of drive business or do you treat them all kind of separately? I think people in construction may not necessarily have the same awareness that these other tools can be something that helps boost their bottom line, can help build business. What does that workflow look like for you?

Morgan Molitor (26:52):

So I would say our focus always is our contracting company. That’s where we do that. We focus our time, attention, revenue. We don’t want that going anywhere. And now we’ve gotten to a point where we keep it all separate. So we have ad revenue, we have affiliate marketing, we have brand collaborations, brand sponsorships, and then we have these memberships courses, workshops. And so we keep all that separate into its own separate entities and that kind of stuff. But I would say we started figuring out very quickly, one, through ad revenue, because we have our content living on our website, how easy it is, we’re already making the content. So how easy it is now when we get traffic, we collect a monthly check from our network company or ad network company, which is Media Vine for us. And it’s just like, who wouldn’t want that extra $5,000 a month? And so it’s just on the content you’re already making.

(27:53):

And then with affiliate marketing, we just started, people are always asking what’s in these homes? What are you wearing? But I think a lot of times people think like, “Oh, it’s so fashion focused.” I’m like, no. At Contractor Coalition, I shared our live stats. I share it in our courses, but the bulk of our revenue from affiliate marketing is all in the home industry because people want to know what is that light fixture, what is the flooring, what is the paint color? All of that.

(28:21):

And so I’m like, you’re sharing the information anyways, why not be making money from it? So whether that’s on your website with links, all of our links for the most part, if they’re linkable for affiliate marketing revenue, it is linked through either Amazon or reward style, which is Like to Know It. Or a lot of companies have their own affiliate marketing tool, which Buildertrend does. So anytime I’m talking about Buildertrend, use the affiliate marketing tool, any apps we’re using, tools we’re using too, we’re asking them if they don’t have it listed on their website, which normally at the bottom of every website, it will say apply for our brand ambassador program. So I’ll ask them if they don’t have that.

(29:06):

So anytime we’re referencing anything, I’m always like, “Let’s get an affiliate link.” Because that is a huge revenue driver for us. And I could go into all the tools and stuff, but one very easy is you run, it’s a second step, but you run it through URL Genius, it’s called, but it basically tracks people for 90 days. And so I’ll look at our stats and I’ll be like, wow, I’ve never talked about any of these products, but we got all the affiliate marketing revenue from it because then they’re going on and buying their stuff that whatever it is, it’s tracking and we’re getting the revenue from it. So when things are that simple to set up, yes, it takes time, yes, it’s something more to do, but to me I’m like, you’re already doing it. You’re already sharing it. Why not create additional revenue for it? And that would be an easy thing to hire an intern for.

Charley Burtwistle (29:55):

There you go.

Morgan Molitor (29:55):

And so-

Zach Wojtowicz (29:58):

There’s nuance, there’s internship and marketing for certain things, but not for your entire brand strategy. Yeah, yeah.

Morgan Molitor (30:02):

Yeah. So I would say that it’s just so simple. And I was laughing too, because I shared this at Contractor Coalition, but the day before, I just looked in our account to pull up some stats or whatever, and I was like, Oh, someone’s buying concrete offline. Never would you think, right? And I remember Jamie being like, “I started linking tools.” We have a couple blog posts on his favorite tools, and he was like, I would never go to this place to buy my tools. And I’m like, Jamie, I understand that, but this is not for contractors. We’re not selling to contractors. I’m like, this is for the typical homeowner that is coming to our site for resources or guides. And I’m like, “And guess what? They’re buying their tools off these places.” So I’m like, “Let’s make some money from it.”

(30:46):

So I just think too, again, not going back to content and getting stuck, it’s like just anything you’re doing already, just start sharing the links or sign up for the affiliate programs and slowly start sharing. And then again, the stats will speak for itself. You’ll start to see revenue and you’ll be like, oh my gosh, why didn’t I start this sooner? So yeah,

Charley Burtwistle (31:11):

I love that. And we’re getting close to time here, but everything that you’re hitting on is just so impactful and valuable for me. And I’m not in construction or marketing, so I would have to imagine that people listening to this will find it even more beneficial. You’ve referenced these workshops a few different times. Are those things that anyone can sign up for or what do those look like? I’d love to promo those a bit too as well.

Morgan Molitor (31:32):

Yeah, so on Construction2Style.com, we have a tab on our website, it says Courses, so that is where our courses are. And then under there too, we have Workshops. It’s on a dropdown. And so each month I have a different topic that I talk to. These are all via Zoom and webinar. And so you can take the workshop, for example, we have one on Pinterest marketing for three weeks, and it’s three Fridays for one hour. I record all of them. So if people can’t make them live, you can get the recording. Those are like 30 bucks to join. And then I share everything, all the assets, the downloads, all that. But, depending when this airs, all this will be focused or moving into a membership platform. So again, it’ll be right on our website.

(32:14):

I’m still going to keep the workshops because that will talk about lead generation sales funnel. That will be a sales funnel into the membership. But the memberships too are going to be very affordable, probably under 20 bucks a month. And I’m going to have all the courses, all the assets, all the downloads that we reference talk about in this library, so can take them at their own time and have access to it. And then I’ll stay up to date as I learn new algorithms and trends and all that, I’ll be updating them.

Charley Burtwistle (32:48):

I love that. Well, we will definitely link that in our show notes. Otherwise, I think that about does it for today. Zach, you got anything else?

Zach Wojtowicz (32:55):

Yeah, Morgan, I can’t wait to catch up with you again when you’ve got another project somehow they managed to fit into your schedule. It was a pleasure having you on. It was great catching up, and you’re just an amazing entrepreneur, and we’re really lucky to have you on today. Thank you so much for coming on the Building Code.

Morgan Molitor (33:13):

Thank you.

Charley Burtwistle (33:13):

Yeah, thank you. It was great to meet you, Morgan.

Zach Wojtowicz (33:15):

We just had Morgan, co-founder of Construction2Style, delivered as usual. We covered a ton of topics, brand strategy, education in the industry, business processes. We kind of touched all that, how to build culture. A lot to unpack. I think that that always calls for another episode because we end up-

Charley Burtwistle (33:15):

Absolutely.

Zach Wojtowicz (33:35):

… it almost feels like chasing our tail sometime, trying to get to all the great content. We don’t want to shoot our shot all at once. So Charley, what were your takeaways on what we talked about with Morgan, especially on the brand strategy and some of the-

Charley Burtwistle (33:49):

Well, yeah, the first thing that stuck out to me is if you are dating someone and you’re curious if you should marry them or not, your first step should be to start a business. And if you can get through that, then you know that they are-

Zach Wojtowicz (34:00):

Great advice. Foolproof.

Charley Burtwistle (34:01):

Yeah, exactly. I don’t see any way that goes-

Zach Wojtowicz (34:05):

Yeah, well, I just roll those dice, baby. What do you got to lose? Love is love.

Charley Burtwistle (34:09):

Love is love. No, the main thing that stuck out to me was just how, I guess, I think a lot of people don’t do brand or marketing or social media because they don’t necessarily know where to start. They don’t do a lot of different things. You don’t know where to start. So I thought her perspective on just dive in-

Zach Wojtowicz (34:30):

Take the first step.

Charley Burtwistle (34:31):

Take the first step, talk about what you’re doing, talk about what questions people are asking you and grow and scale from there. It was a really interesting perspective hearing from her who has built this very, very successful media enterprise to rewind time and talk through where they started out and how they got to where they are today, because I think she essentially laid out the roadmap and the playbook for anybody, regardless of if you’re the construction industry or not, on how to start establishing your brand. So I might sign up for one of her workshops and start going through that because that stuff is just fascinating to me. So that’s really what stood out to me was just you don’t have to go from zero to perfect, and there is a small incremental iterative roadmap that you could take to get there. And the first step is literally just taking the first step.

Zach Wojtowicz (35:17):

And I think that’s true of a lot of things is it’s just really easy to talk yourself out of things. And so finding that courage, that strength, to start something is usually the most difficult part, is the anguish of doing it.

(35:31):

And then I think in construction, funny enough, we’ve had many guests come in, “Well, I don’t spend on marketing. Marketing’s not important to me. I need marketing.” And so there is this kind of philosophy, disagreement, in construction about why it matters versus why it doesn’t.

And I think that’s normal in a lot of industries to have different perspectives on the business processes. And it’s probably not just even a construction thing, but it is interesting. She went as far as to say, marketing is your mothership, which is the lifeblood of what your business is all about, what you can achieve. And other people are like, I don’t want to invest in it, but ironically, that’s kind of their brand. You can’t really get run from it.

Charley Burtwistle (36:10):

That’s a good point.

Zach Wojtowicz (36:11):

That’s how I was thinking about it. You can’t run from your brand whether you’re actively polishing or honing it, versus passively having one. I think there’s optimizations in there that little things like starting a blog can make a big difference that then leads to this more mature brand.

Charley Burtwistle (36:27):

Yeah. Everyone has a brand, whether you know it or not.

Zach Wojtowicz (36:29):

Exactly.

Charley Burtwistle (36:31):

Do you want to control your brand is the difference.

Zach Wojtowicz (36:34):

Exactly. And I think people like Morgan are a little bit ahead of their time, whereas in lots of communities you have well-established construction companies, but there’s different kind of forms of them and some of these newer age touching other things besides construction becoming multi LLC kind of conglomerates almost in terms of what they do. But they’re really impressive. And I think that’s kind of where we’ll start seeing more and more of the industry go over time as people come into the industry from corporate America, because that’s what you also see is the family run businesses versus the people who had a different career and came into it, met someone in construction, merged their skillset together.

(37:13):

And that’s what’s great about getting to talk to different varieties of customers, you learn something from everybody, everybody’s got something to contribute, and there’s a pantheon of knowledge that comes out of it. But for Morgan, it’s just really impressive, because I really don’t know how she does all that with the same hours in the week that you and I have.

Charley Burtwistle (37:32):

Well, the good news, Zach, is if you did want to learn more about how she does all this, Buildertrend does have a-

Zach Wojtowicz (37:37):

Amazing segue.

Charley Burtwistle (37:38):

… behind the business series featuring Morgan and her husband Jamie, who obviously know from the interviews, started their business over a decade ago with only cash in their pockets. And it’s a five part series and they go kind of through the journey of starting a construction business from the ground up. And how Buildertrend helped them scale that. So if you want to learn more, if this was just a teaser and you’re curious on what the right steps are to take, we literally have a series about what the right steps are to take. So we’ll make sure to link that in the show notes. Morgan’s great. She lived up to the hype that you and Courtney set up for her, and we definitely got to get her on for another interview.

Zach Wojtowicz (38:12):

Yeah, don’t forget, she mentioned too, if you want to learn directly from Morgan, she puts stuff on her website where you can learn from her, which I think is also really, really cool that she takes the time to also spread her knowledge to other people. Because I think in a lot of ways, if you’re able to get a little further in the path, you can learn from others who got there and then you can get there a little quicker.

(38:31):

So check out Morgan herself and her content on her website, and she will be more than happy to spend time kind of helping you grow your brand.

(38:40):

So, thank you so much for listening to Building Code, another great conversation, another one of the books, another one with Charley and Zach, the classic combo of the Building Code.

Charley Burtwistle (38:49):

I was just going to say thank you so much, Zach, for hosting another episode of Building Code.

Zach Wojtowicz (38:52):

Hey, thank you.

Charley Burtwistle (38:54):

Yeah, until next time. I’m Charley Burtwistle.

Zach Wojtowicz (38:56):

And I’m Zach Wojtowicz. See you.