APB’s 2025 SORCI report: How to add 9% to your markup with one change

Charley Burtwistle (00:05):

What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of “The Building Code.” I am Charley Burtwistle.

Courtney Mattern (00:12):

I am Courtney Mattern.

Charley Burtwistle (00:14):

Yeah, not sure what I was going with there. It is 5:43 p.m. at the time of this recording. So, I have gone through a full workday, so my brain’s a little melted.

Courtney Mattern (00:24):

Yet we’ve learned, I feel pretty good. I’m not a morning person, but you are obviously not a late afternoon person, and it makes me feel pretty good about myself.

Charley Burtwistle (00:30):

Yeah, nope. I peak probably around 3:00 p.m. and then it’s just kind of all down hill.

Courtney Mattern (00:36):

This is where I get a good second wind. I hop on. I do a little extra work.

Charley Burtwistle (00:41):

There you go.

Courtney Mattern (00:42):

Yeah, it’s the night owl in me.

Charley Burtwistle (00:43):

Different strokes.

Courtney Mattern (00:43):

Different folks.

Charley Burtwistle (00:46):

Does the late-night owl get the early worm?

Courtney Mattern (00:49):

No, absolutely not.

Charley Burtwistle (00:51):

But I’m saying early bird gets the worm, but what is the …

Courtney Mattern (00:54):

Well, maybe if the night owl stays up long enough, they also get a worm.

Charley Burtwistle (00:57):

Get a late worm.

Courtney Mattern (00:58):

They get the late worm, which is the same as the early worm.

Charley Burtwistle (01:00):

Exactly. Yeah. So, much to think about there, much to think about in this episode, which I’m very excited about. We have … Well, Courtney, who do we have? I normally let you do that.

Courtney Mattern (01:11):

Yeah. Today, we have Russ Stephens from the APB, Association of Professional Builders. We love Russ. We calculated he’s been on many times. He always comes to share the results of the Association of Professional Builders SORCI Report. We’ve been partnering with them for the past few years.

(01:29):

They survey builders in the industry and give us really great insights, both with how we can help serve the residential industry, but also for builders who want to know, what are their peers doing, what’s their competition doing, is everybody else feeling the same pain points as me, kind of mirroring and validating what your concerns are in your business. So, I’m really excited to have them here to share the results of the 2025 report.

Charley Burtwistle (01:54):

Absolutely. I don’t feel guilty saying this. Obviously, I love all of the guests that we have on here, but our interview with Russ is always my favorite episode because I am a data nerd at heart, by trade, and this is the opportunity to geek out with Russ. Admittedly may be a bigger data nerd than me. I always look up to them in these interviews. So, let’s not waste any more time. Let’s get him in here. Russ Stephens, the man, the myth, the legend, thank you so much for joining us today. Had this one circled on our calendar for a long time. How’re you doing?

Russ Stephens (02:26):

I’m fantastic. I’m pumped and excited because straight after this chat, I’m going to be hopping on a plane to meet you guys in person. So, really looking forward to that.

Charley Burtwistle (02:36):

Yeah, absolutely. We are just at the date of this recording a few short days away from the International Builders’ Show where yourself, myself, Courtney, and literally hundreds of thousands of others will be in Vegas. And I’m fired up.

Courtney Mattern (02:52):

Yeah, me too.

Charley Burtwistle (02:53):

So, Russ, we did talk a little bit before this, this is your fifth time on “The Building Code,” which I’m going to unofficially without checking the stats declare is the most of any guests that we’ve ever had. So, a lot of our listeners should be familiar. But for those joining for the first time that have not had the great pleasure of meeting you, we always like to start with just a quick little intro, who you are, where you came from, and how you got to where you’re at today.

Russ Stephens (03:18):

Yeah. Well, with the emphasis on quick being that I am a bit old, so I’ll stick to this century. Probably the story starts for you guys about 2011 when I came across CoConstruct. I was actually trying to develop a solution for builders myself at the time. Came across CoConstruct, realized that there was no point. The solution had already been done. So, we took on the distribution rights effectively, the licensing rights, for Australia, New Zealand and the UK and started selling CoConstruct to builders.

(03:50):

And from there, we realized that the next problem they needed solving was quality leads, which is why we launched the marketing agency. That then led to identifying a gap with sales where builders didn’t have a process or the right training. So, in 2014, we launched sales training, and that evolved into 2015 into APB when we realized that they needed more than just leads and sales. They needed to understand margins, operations, financials, the lot. So, yeah, APB was launched in order to help builders do all of those things and provide a better building experience for their clients as well.

Charley Burtwistle (04:30):

Love it. That was quick. I’m impressed. I would’ve loved to hear much, much more, but we have a ton of juicy topics to get to today, and you actually did a fantastic job previewing some of those. I know we have some stats around issues that sales are struggling with, or builders are struggling with in their sales cycle that we’ll get to here in a bit.

(04:52):

But one area that you didn’t go super in-depth on is the SORCI report, which is my favorite report. I have I think the last three-year copies on my desk, which get used all the time at Buildertrend. People constantly come over to my desk and borrow a hard copy when they need to look something up. So, before we get into that, what is the SORCI report?

Russ Stephens (05:11):

So, the SORCI report is the State of the Residential Construction Industry, and it’s a survey across owners and directors of residential building companies in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Over 2,200 building company owners responded to the most recent survey, and it’s become quite a benchmark survey within the industry because of partners like Buildertrend, who have expanded our reach and enabled us to gather data from a wider range of builders, which makes the data even more important.

(05:52):

But these are over 118 questions these builders answer. So, it’s a very comprehensive survey, and it covers advertising, marketing, sales, operations, financials. It really goes in-depth into salaries builders are paying themselves, the margins they’re working on, how they’re operating in terms of how they’re running their building company, the training strategies, et cetera. So, it’s very comprehensive.

(06:19):

It’s very in-depth, and it’s a phenomenal tool for builders both in terms of the survey and the report. Because in terms of the survey, it acts like a bit of an audit. It highlights what you’re not doing. And in terms of the report, it highlights where you sit in relation to other builders in the U.S. or Canada. So, very, very valuable resource for builders.

Courtney Mattern (06:43):

As you mentioned, Russ, we’ve partnered with APB for the last few years on this report. Because like you said, it’s giving great insights from builders themselves on trends where they’re investing their money, where they’re having problems. Talk to us a little bit about how much bigger the survey was this year, how many builders, what’s the makeup, before we deep dive into some of those really great insights on the 2025 report.

Russ Stephens (07:08):

Yeah, so last year I think we collated responses from around about 1,800 builders. So, over 2,200 this year. Significant increase. Really does show the popularity of this survey that it’s getting stronger every year. But I’ll probably emphasize that it is restricted to the owners and directors responding. So, we do have a lot more respondents than those 2,200. However, what we do is we do control the data.

(07:45):

Because when you think of building companies like commercial builders or handymen, if you include those results, you start to skew the data and it’s not meaningful. So, we only gather data from new home builders and remodelers. And in terms of remodelers, the guys that are average contract over 50,000. Because anything below that, it’s a very different business model and it’s not relevant. And it has to be the owner or director because they’re the ones that have access to this information. So, it’s really controlled to keep the data of the highest possible quality there.

Courtney Mattern (08:28):

One of the topics that is popping up in the report, I know I’ve pulled some stats, Charley and I have been looking at them, is around AI and AI adoption and construction. But Russ, last time you and I were talking, you told me that you had an interesting use for AI and putting together the results of the survey, which made it even more robust. Do you want to talk about that?

Russ Stephens (08:46):

Yeah. Look, that’s an excellent point because the survey has expanded each year in terms the questions we ask. We do try to stop ourselves from asking too many questions because it is a big ask of builders to give up that time to fill it in. But what we’ve been able to do this year because of the advancements in AI, in particular ChatGPT, is the real power of this information is when you cross-reference it. So, we’ve been able to look at two or even three data points and cross-reference them to really come up with some valuable deep insights.

(09:29):

And those insights have been able to clearly show how certain strategies, and certain processes lead to higher profitability. We’ve been able to do that to a limited extent previously, but it was very manual, it was very labor-intensive. I would come up with a theory and our data analysts would build the tables to cross-reference that data. And then I’d look at it, maybe that theory didn’t pan out.

(10:00):

I come up with another question. It was quite slow. But now we load the data into ChatGPT. I can literally ask any question cross-referencing two or three different data points to analyze the data and get some really deep insights. For example, understanding the builders that have a documented repeatable sales process versus the builders that don’t. We can talk all day long about to builders, “This is what you need to do. It is the best way forward.”

(10:30):

But now we can say, “The builders that do have a documented sales process have 25% higher gross margins. They’re actually marking up their jobs by 25% compared to the builders that don’t only mark up by 20%.” That is hard proof really that having a repeatable process actually works.

Courtney Mattern (10:52):

Charley, are you nerding out about this?

Charley Burtwistle (10:54):

Yeah, this is awesome. Like I said, had this one circled on my calendar for a long time. And it’s time now for me to ask my favorite question that I get to ask on the podcast. I ask it once a year, and I ask it to you. Now that the 2024 report is out and published, what were some of the notable trends that you saw and how do you see those shaping the industry moving forward?

Russ Stephens (11:15):

Yeah, and that’s a great point as well. Because this is now the fifth year, we are able to analyze trends rather than just where builders are at. We can see where it’s moving. And the most positive note, the most positive insight I would take out of the latest report is that tech adoption continues to increase. We’ve seen this year-on-year and there’s no stopping this adoption of tech within building companies.

(11:45):

So, building companies are becoming more professional, more systemized, more organized. But by cross-referencing the data in the adoption of tech, we’ve been able to clearly link the builders that are adopters of technology to higher profitability as well. So, similar to what I mentioned with sales process, that extends to having sales scripts, to having systemized platforms like Buildertrend to run their project management, to run their estimating, et cetera.

(12:17):

These all lead to higher profitability. So, that was a very positive trend. Another thing that we will look at, which I wouldn’t say it isn’t positive, but it’s more of an opportunity, and that is that content marketing is still neglected with 57% of builders ignoring that opportunity, which is to create content, which educates your prospects, which does lead to better quality clients and higher margin contracts.

(12:54):

And again, we’ve been able to link content marketing to profitability by simply looking at the builders that create just two articles, if you can imagine that. I know builders are busy, we all appreciate that, but the builders that just produce two articles over the course of a year markup their jobs by 26% compared to the builders that don’t do any content marketing.

(13:16):

They’re only managing 20%. And this is all linked to what an article does, it educates, which improves the sales process. And when you go to the recommendation, which is 12 articles a year, 29% markup for those builders. You compare that to the builders that aren’t doing this, 20%. That’s, what, a 45% increase in your markup. So, it’s certainly a massive opportunity.

(13:41):

But again, in terms of trends, the one positive is that this is slightly improving, but it is still a major concern and that is financial literacy within the industry. We’ve clearly seen that builders do not have a clear understanding of their financials, and around 90% of builders are looking at inaccurate financial information, which leads to poor decisions. So, that remains a big concern in our industry.

Charley Burtwistle (14:09):

Yeah, for sure. Courtney, you tossed it over to me, so I’ll toss it back to you. Your eyes had to light up there when you heard content marketing, right?

Courtney Mattern (14:16):

Yes. Because I mean, when I started at Buildertrend, I was the content marketing manager. And there’s always a ton of value that top of funnel content because it makes your marketing investment work smarter, not harder when you get further down the funnel. And Russ, I always picked that bone ever since the first report we worked on together. There always seemed to be stats that showed builders want a more efficient sales process. They want better quality leads, but they’re not investing in marketing.

(14:44):

And I’m like, there’s your answer, but there’s lots of types of marketing, content marketing. I know this report too has some interesting stats around using AI driven ads or targeting in a special way. But like you said, Russ, it’s not necessarily a negative, but it’s a huge opportunity. And a lot of the builders we bring on the podcast who we highlight are doing a lot of those things. I know Nick Schiffer gets into content. Morgan Molitor gets into content marketing. And now you have some data points to back it up.

Charley Burtwistle (15:15):

Well, it has to be …

Russ Stephens (15:16):

Sorry.

Charley Burtwistle (15:18):

Oh, I was just going to say, it has to be … I love that you used the word opportunity. That’s the value that the SORCI report provides, is if you’re not doing that today, don’t feel bad about it. Look at how many other people aren’t doing it today and look at that huge TAM that you have to go after and capture and improve and set yourself apart as a differentiator. It’d actually be more depressing if 100% of people were doing it, and you’re like, okay, well, then how am I supposed to set myself apart?

Russ Stephens (15:45):

Look, it is interesting in this survey as well because we do look to identify the number one challenge in marketing, in sales, in project management. Any marketing, no surprise, the number one challenge is generating quality leads. But to your point, Courtney, the solution is right there.

(16:04):

Interestingly, the biggest challenge in sales was client selections, but a large percentage of those people are not using dedicated software like Buildertrend that solves that problem for them, and they’re not doing content marketing, which would educate them before they actually got to that part of the process as to what they need to be doing in terms of making those selections to avoid holding the project up.

Courtney Mattern (16:32):

We could give this type of advice all the time from our perspectives as the tech people or the marketing people. But what’s so cool about this report is the data is coming from their peers. It’s what their peers are reporting is working successfully for them. Why do you think it’s important for them to have a resource like this where they can see how their peers are doing in the industry?

Russ Stephens (16:55):

I think because largely there’s a lot of talk that goes on down at Home Depot where you might bump into another builder or any kind of gathering, and it’s not always truthful. I think a lot of builders come into this industry not even really knowing what they should be marking their jobs up by. So, they end up asking someone else in the industry that might not even be a builder, they could be a subcontractor, and they might get an answer like 20%.

(17:31):

And in a lot of cases, new people into business, not just builders, are not even clear on the difference between markup and margin. So, that simple mistake of adding 20% and then believing that you’ve added a 20% margin when you’ve added a markup, that kind of puts you perilously close to losing money in the first instance. So, it’s really good when you can go to a trusted resource like this and see what is the industry actually doing? And not only that, what is the benchmark for the industry?

(18:03):

What should the industry be achieving? Because we don’t just talk about where builders are. There’s a commentary that goes with this data that explains what builders should be marking their jobs up, whether they’re building new homes or doing remodeling projects. And the rationale behind that, I can remember back when we started APB back in 2014, 2015 and doing presentations to builders, we would talk about 10% net profit margins, double-digit net profit after drawing a salary.

(18:39):

Builders in Australia would literally, they’d fall off their chairs laughing at us. Mate, you’re in a presentation. You’ve got people just openly laughing. You don’t know what you’re talking about. People would get so angry they would get up and walk out those presentations. And yet when you look at the data, I think it was a high 30%, probably about a third of builders, actually achieved 10% plus net profit in the previous year. More importantly, 75% of builders expect to surpass 10% net profit in 2025.

(19:11):

That is an incredible mindset shift. And it wasn’t just in Australia either. When we first presented at IBS in 2022, builders are a bit more polite in the U.S. They didn’t fall about laughing as it is, but they often tell me, “I was sitting in that presentation. I was texting my wife saying, ‘You’ll never believe what these guys are saying.'” And someone say, “Yeah, I had my project manager with me, and we’re looking at each other and scratching our head.”

(19:36):

But now there’s just so much documented proof, it’s kind of not question. But what really encouraged me was seeing that three-quarters of builders expect or at least targeting to hit that double-digit net profit. And maybe they won’t all reach it, I accept that, but I am looking forward to this year’s survey showing us that more than half the industry did achieve that net profit.

Courtney Mattern (20:04):

Just believing that that could be possible can completely change the way the world builds. I’m pulling our vision statement there. But that changes things. If they know that they can expect more than that, it changes how they might run their business or where they might invest resources on learning or tools.

(20:22):

I know we were happy to see that more and more businesses are investing in technology just because we know what kind of efficiency that can bring to a business, so they do have more time to understand the difference between markups and profit margins because maybe before they didn’t have time to think about that.

Charley Burtwistle (20:39):

I think … It’s really cool that they would invest time and energy and education to learn about this stuff. But the other cool thing, and I won’t steal your thunder, Russ, I’ll have you explain it, but that we have in the notes here from the SORCI report is also provides guidance into where they should be investing their money and where the ROI is.

(21:03):

So, we have a stat in here about the builders and the percent that they allocate to marketing to achieve a gross markup and how investing additional marketing dollars actually has an ROI to a point in teller’s diminishing returns. So, it’s not just the educational investment, but actual dollar investment the report can provide an impact to as well, too. So, I’d love if you could talk a little bit more about that.

Russ Stephens (21:27):

Yeah. So very early on, I guess, the main differential between APB and a lot of consultants, coaches out there is we’ve always been data driven. So, every builder that we took on and coached, we would provide a KPI spreadsheet, so we could analyze their numbers. And what that did, it gave our coaches the ability to rather than just have a conversation about, okay, what’s the biggest challenge, and then providing a solution, they could now look at the data, and they could see where the real problem was.

(21:59):

And invariably, it wasn’t what the builder described. And one of the benefits of that was we identified very quickly that 3% was the sweet spot for investment of revenue back into marketing and advertising. And that all comes down to the fundamental in business that we all know, which is supply and demand, but we all tend to forget. And some people believe they can make more money by cutting their ad spend or their marketing, which is a bit like trying to save time by stopping your watch.

(22:32):

It simply doesn’t work. You have to create excess demand. And what the data clearly, clearly showed is that 3% is the sweet spot. Because of what we’ve been able to do with AI now cross-referencing the data, we’ve been able to clearly prove that the builders that are reinvesting 3% of their revenue back into marketing, advertising, those guys, they not only have the highest profit margins, sorry, markups, gross markup, but they also have the highest net margin.

(23:02):

So, what that shows us that even a builder that effectively saves 3% by not investing in marketing and advertising, and they rely on referrals, referrals are great, they’re still not making as much money as the guys that are investing in marketing and advertising. What it also showed, interestingly, is that when you go past 3% because we did have a lot of builders that invest four and even 5%, and that can be good if you’re going for a growth strategy, but that is when the law of diminishing returns kicked in.

(23:34):

So, very interesting. If you’re investing 2%, it’s a missed opportunity. You really want to be investing another 1% and maximizing that. But if you invest in 4%, then you could become more profitable by pulling back. But yeah, if you’ve got a vision for growth, then there could be a reason why you’re doing that. So, very, very interesting data there.

Charley Burtwistle (23:55):

Russ, this is a bit of an aside, but do you have a cheat sheet up or do you have all these stats memorized? Because this is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen listening to you rattle off these stats.

Russ Stephens (24:06):

You’re embarrassing me now. I’ve got to be a bit sad, haven’t I? Actually, I dedicate a week. As soon as this data is ready, I dedicate a week to just absorb myself in it and look at previous years, looking at trends. But then you find yourself talking about it so much that yeah, it kind of comes to mind quite easily, probably more than it should.

Charley Burtwistle (24:30):

I love it. I’m always just blown away every time you rattle off.

Courtney Mattern (24:32):

I want to get to that point where I just know all of the most recent stats, so that you can have a meaningful conversation about where the industry is or whether it’s … I don’t know. I don’t think there’s anything I have all the stats memorized. Very impressive. At APB, you’re working with builders all the time. Is there a challenge that’s on your radar that might not have popped up in the report or did it mirror where your concerns were at as the same as the builders?

Russ Stephens (25:05):

Yeah, look, I think what’s really interesting, it’s kind of a challenge that we saw it coming at the beginning of the COVID boom, and we put all sorts of warnings out to the industry, but unfortunately, the vast majority didn’t heed, and that was in relation to fixed price contracts. We could see there was a boom in demand, which was going to lead to an explosion in prices. And with so many builders on fixed price contracts, we could see a disaster coming.

(25:34):

The unfortunate thing in this industry is we have a massive lag factor, and I’m talking a couple of years here. So, the builders that lost money in say 2021, the bigger builders acknowledged it quite early, especially in Australia. But the smaller builders, maybe because they lacked the financial insight, they didn’t realize how much money they’d lost. And we were still only seeing casualties of that over the past two years really.

(26:03):

But in terms of the challenges coming ahead now, what we’re seeing is a return in the post-COVID boom, a return to normality. And what that means is quality leads are difficult to generate if you don’t have the correct marketing and advertising strategy in place. Whereas as you know, during the COVID boom, builders, they had clients queuing up. You couldn’t go wrong as a builder.

(26:28):

Unfortunately, a lot of contracts that were signed just weren’t profitable, but signing contracts was easy. And we always say really that generating leads is easy. You just get an agency that understands our industry. They can generate leads for you overnight. Sales is easy. Anyone can sell a building contract even without any proper training or sales script. The difficult bit is signing contracts at margins that are profitable, I.E. 10%. That’s the hard bit, but anyone can really sign a contract below cost or at cost.

(27:01):

That’s easy in any industry. The real challenges that we’re seeing are really just what we saw pre-COVID, and that is generating quality leads in marketing. It’s client expectations because they’re not being managed through content marketing. That’s a big challenge in sales. And in projects, subcontractor delays, which it was material delays during the COVID boom, but last year, 27.6% of builders in the U.S. experienced subcontractor delays, and they named it as their number one challenge.

(27:40):

Now, these challenges can be mitigated. Obviously, you need tools, project management tools, that allow you to manage your subcontractors effectively. You also need to set a culture really where you’re not the builder being delayed by subcontractors, someone else is. And like we said, client selections, they can form a part of delays as well. So, we’re kind of back to where we were almost. It’s almost like the same old story to a large extent, but these are all challenges that can be overcome with the right preparation.

Charley Burtwistle (28:20):

I love it. I think just hearing you talk, this is something that I don’t think we’ve mentioned, but I guess I did in the intro there, the insights from the SORCI report, obviously valuable to builders wanting to understand where they stack up across their peers. We also use it internally at Buildertrend all the time to understand … Obviously, we’re talking to our customers and doing our own market research, but having that flip book right there on your desk to be able to pull up and like, ah, I wonder if we should …

(28:44):

When you mentioned cost plus, that’s what made me think of it. I quoted that stat, I think it was from the 2023 report, probably 100 times as we were trying to prioritize from a product and engineering standpoint, should we build out the functionality to utilize cost plus contracts inside of Buildertrend? I’m like, this is where the stats are at right now.

Courtney Mattern (29:03):

Well, and we even on the Buildertrend side underestimated how many of our builders were using cost plus. But when we rolled out our new cost-plus features last year at the International Builders’ Show, there was a huge demand, and we’re seeing so many more builders move from fixed price to cost plus. So, the data’s informing the tools that these builders get to use, too. So, that’s really cool.

Charley Burtwistle (29:22):

Yeah, absolutely. Just another fantastic reason why we love having you on here so much and partnering with APB is we all get better together.

Russ Stephens (29:32):

Yeah, and I think this data exposes great opportunities for companies. I think it’s why we’ve seen so much interest from providers to the industry like yourselves as well. I think one massive opportunity that sits in the U.S. is the workplace health and safety documentation.

(29:49):

When you look at other countries like especially New Zealand, closely followed by Australia, Canada is starting to improve now, but there remains a massive opportunity for a company to provide this documentation and platform to make administering safety documentation so much easier in the U.S. So, yeah, it’s great data for providers to the industry.

Courtney Mattern (30:16):

So, for our listeners, the report is out. You can download a copy of it. We will put a link in the show notes for anybody who wants to thumb through it. It’s really long. There’s so many incredible insights. Russ, is there any closing thoughts or anything that’s on your mind maybe for 2026? Do you think that far ahead?

Russ Stephens (30:42):

Yeah. Look, looking ahead, the one thing I’d probably say to builders is that anyone can do this stuff. There is a hell of a lot to do in the building company. And I think when you take part in a survey like this, you realize just how many gaps maybe there are in your business. But with the right process, everyone can implement this stuff and transform their building companies into highly profitable businesses.

(31:12):

And I think one of the best ways of understanding that is immersing yourself in a community of like-minded builders by attending events like IBS, like attending the APB events that are done in conjunction with Buildertrend in the U.S. and Canada as well. And when you come along to those kinds of events and meet with other like-minded builders, you realize that this is all possible to get implemented and within your reach.

Charley Burtwistle (31:40):

I love it. Real quick before we go, I know Courtney said closing thought there, but one more closing thought because I know right after this you’re hopping on a plane and heading to the Builders’ Show. I guess this comes out after the Builders’ Show.

Courtney Mattern (31:54):

It does.

Charley Burtwistle (31:55):

Nevermind.

Courtney Mattern (31:55):

Can you reframe your question?

Charley Burtwistle (31:56):

I was going to say, where can people find you? Because I know you’re doing a couple podcasts and panels and things like that, but I guess if you’re listening to this, you missed him.

Courtney Mattern (32:06):

You missed it, but you can always come to social media and find clips and podcast recordings.

Charley Burtwistle (32:13):

Yeah. Absolutely.

Russ Stephens (32:13):

I believe IBS run video recordings of all the presentations as well. They have a great educational segment at IBS. Worth attending those if you were there. But if you missed any, you can watch the recordings as well on the IBS portal.

Charley Burtwistle (32:29):

There you go. Thanks for saving me there, Russ. That was a good question after all. Russ, thank you so much for your time. Always really appreciate it and look forward to seeing you next week.

Courtney Mattern (32:38):

Yes. See you soon.

Russ Stephens (32:40):

Always a pleasure, guys. Thanks so much.

Charley Burtwistle (32:43):

Well, we just heard from Russ Stephens from APB. Definitely lived up to the hype. Fantastic interview. What’d you think, Courtney?

Courtney Mattern (32:51):

I loved it. It’s always one of my favorite interviews of the year. The report’s always been one of my favorite tools over on the content marketing team because we’re able to read all the insights and try to come up with content that we can make that would be helpful to solve these problems. And I was thinking, Charley, he was talking about this report this year is even bigger because they were able to use AI. There’s more insights, more builders responded. And you’re a data guy.

Charley Burtwistle (33:16):

I am.

Courtney Mattern (33:16):

Do you have any tips for builders who are reading this report and getting overwhelmed by the amount of data? How would you go about trying to leverage this in your business?

Charley Burtwistle (33:25):

Yeah, absolutely, that’s a great question. I think this was actually Danny Kerr at Breakthrough Academy where he came to a BTU and gave the closing remarks there. And he said something that really stuck with me, which is find your one thing, recognize your one thing. And that’s something I’ve tried to implement even in my day to day here at Buildertrend is like, what is the one thing that I can do to make this business better, make my business better, make my life better?

(33:54):

What is the one thing that I can take from this report? So, I think you should read it all. It’s like 150 pages. Go through, circle things that you find interesting. But don’t go and find literally 100 different things or even 10 different things and say, “Okay, I’m going to start investing more into marketing. I’m going to do content marketing. I’m going to start writing blogs. I’m going to get a project management software. I’m going to get health and safety software. I’m going to improve my culture,” blah, blah, blah.

(34:19):

You should absolutely do all those things, eventually. Find the one thing that you learn from this, one thing that you think you have the opportunity to invest into your business to make it better, and sprint at that 100% until it’s implemented. Then open the report back up, go through and find another one thing. But it’s so good. There’s so much in here. You can get lost very easily. And if you get overwhelmed and if you think there’s no way I’m ever going to be able to do all of this, don’t. Do one thing, and you’ll have a huge impact.

Courtney Mattern (34:49):

You might not even need to read the whole report. I feel like …

Charley Burtwistle (34:52):

Oh yeah, I have it open on my laptop right now. I’m on page three, and I’m already stuck.

Courtney Mattern (34:58):

But with the way Russ had all the numbers memorized, it’s like, is this the whole report? He was so impressive.

Charley Burtwistle (35:04):

I’m on stage with Russ next week at IBS, and I’m going to spend all weekend memorizing this report, so I can match him with the stats.

Courtney Mattern (35:11):

He’s going to be so proud.

Charley Burtwistle (35:13):

Maybe, or maybe I’ll stink at it. He’ll be really embarrassed.

Courtney Mattern (35:16):

Just focus on the one thing, Charley. Focus on the one part of the …

Charley Burtwistle (35:19):

And then just make sure to mix that specific stat in there. I’ll find a really obscure one, so he thinks I know everything. But no, Russ was fantastic. Like you said at the end there, he is going to be at the International Builders’ Show. If you’re going or if you went, hopefully you saw him. If you didn’t go, all that content is published after the fact. So, if you’re looking for more Russ content, it is out there. We’ll link it all in the show notes for sure. Otherwise, I think that about does it for us. Courtney, you got anything else?

Courtney Mattern (35:45):

Nope.

Charley Burtwistle (35:45):

All right. As always, please like, review and subscribe.

Courtney Mattern (35:52):

Follow us on Instagram.

Charley Burtwistle (35:52):

Follow us on Instagram.

Courtney Mattern (35:52):

We’re still on the TikToks. TikTok is still alive.

Charley Burtwistle (35:56):

Did you say the TikToks?

Courtney Mattern (35:58):

The TikToks. I’m showing my age.

Charley Burtwistle (36:01):

Yeah, it’s tough. We are on the TikTok. Follow us everywhere if you want or don’t. I don’t know.

Courtney Mattern (36:08):

You definitely want to.

Charley Burtwistle (36:09):

You definitely want to. All right. I’m Charley Burtwistle.

Courtney Mattern (36:10):

And I’m Courtney Mattern.

Charley Burtwistle (36:10):

Peace!