Next in line: What it really takes to pass down a construction business

Charley Burtwistle:

What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of The Building Code. I’m Charley Burtwistle, and today, we have a new special cohost, Shelbie. Thank you for joining. Do you want to give a quick intro?

Shelbie Hoggatt:

Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. My name is Shelbie. I am a community strategist here at Buildertrend, currently leading and hosting Buildertrend University, which is our two-day educational conference hosted here in Omaha. So I get to spend my days working with clients in person.

Charley Burtwistle:

That is awesome. And before that, you were our on-site consultant. Right?

Shelbie Hoggatt:

I was.

Charley Burtwistle:

So a ton of experience going out to people’s businesses, seeing how they’re using Buildertrend, help them use it more. Do you miss traveling?

Shelbie Hoggatt:

I do some days, but I enjoy being back home in Omaha.

Charley Burtwistle:

Well, now, I mean, BTU is kind of like on-site just here in Omaha. So you went to them, now they come to you.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

They all come to me and hang out with me here in Omaha. So it’s a lot of fun. It’s been a good change of pace. I think one of the tricky things doing on-site, I was really deep into accounts on a very personal level, meeting everyone inside of their company over those two days that I was with them. BTU, we’re kind of doing education for the masses. So we’re more focused on small group and networking and how we can get builders to, of course, learn from us, but most importantly, learning from each other.

Charley Burtwistle:

Awesome. I love that. I really appreciate you joining me. I hate doing these by myself, and we have a fantastic guest for your first episode of The Building Code.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

Perfect.

Charley Burtwistle:

We have Leah Gonzalez. She is down in San Antonio, Texas, and has recently joined back in the business after graduating college, which her parents have been running. So we’re going to talk a little bit about that experience with her, business, family, relationships, what do you want to do with your life? What is the business going to be? It’ll be an awesome episode, but I won’t say any more. I’ll let Leah say it for herself. So without any further ado, let’s get Leah in here. Hey, Leah, welcome to The Building Code. Really appreciate you making the time to join us today. How’s it going?

Leah Gonzalez:

It’s going good. I actually just got back from a jobsite that we are punching the house and trying to close on in the next two weeks. So I was running around over there, but I just got back. And so, now I’m here. So I’m really excited to talk to you guys today.

Charley Burtwistle:

Well, yeah, gosh, a lot of pressure on us then to make this worth it, obviously taking time out of your busy day. But no, it’s good. We’re excited to talk to you. I think this will be a great episode, but we always like to start kind of first question, just quick intro, who you are, where you came from, and kind of how you got to where you’re at today.

Leah Gonzalez:

Okay. So I grew up in San Antonio, Texas, more towards Northeast San Antonio, so in between San Antonio and New Braunfels. I went to high school at Canyon High School, and then I went to college at Texas Tech University, where I studied business management, and then I was also part of the Scovell Leadership Program there. And then I was also a student assistant for the Texas Tech Pom Squad up there, and then I was also in a sorority.

I was in Tri Delta for two years, and I was also the S.O. Sing chair while I was up there too. So I had grown up doing dance my entire life. So I started when I was young. I danced starting in third grade all the way up until… Well, I was a minor in college for dance too, so all the way through college as well. But I competed for 15 years, and then now I do choreography, and I still teach on the side, and I taught while I was in college as well.

So I always thought growing up that I was going to come back and just be doing dance, and my dream was to open a studio for a long time, which that’s still, to me, like a dream or something I could do. I think I’ll always have dance in my life, but I always knew that I wanted to come back home, and then I figured I’ve always just done dance. Teaching comes naturally to me.

I love leading. I was a captain of my dance team in high school for two years, and then I was in that leadership program in college. So I always knew that I loved to lead, like take initiative, be in charge of the whole group. I knew that was always my thing. Obviously, managing. I studied management. And so, I just figured I’d come back home and just do dance. But I took a family business class my last semester of college, which is this past fall, and they really just talked about succession, the legacy of taking over the business, and how important it is.

And so, I started to kind of get this feeling in my gut, like, “Mom, Dad, I think I need to come join your business.” They never pressured me at all. It really wasn’t in the talks between us at all. I mean, I interned for them here and there because I was home, and I’ve always been around it. So they always talked about it at dinner with our family. So I always knew what was going on with their clients, and I kind of felt a part of the business, but there was never a pressure to come and join the business.

And so, it was never really in the talks until my last semester of college, and then I said, “I think I want to do this. I want to go 100% into it and just see what happens.” And so, they were so on board. And actually, it worked out, because they did the 2024 Parade of Homes, which was this past November. And so, they started to get super busy, and people wanted to start building. So they actually needed to start hiring a bigger team.

So it honestly worked out, and then I didn’t move back until actually the beginning of February from school. I was up there, because I went to nationals with the dance team up there, and that was in January. So I didn’t move back from Lubbock until February. And every day, they were calling me, and they were like, “You need to come home and start working.” So I jumped full force in February, and I’ve loved it. So far, it’s been nothing but great.

Every day is different, which I like. So there’s days I’m really working on the computer in the office, going through Buildertrend, uploading stuff on there, working on the schedule, working on the budget, and then there’s days, like today, where I’m out in the field talking to the clients, making sure they’re happy, who needs to be called to come out there, what subs do we need to get out there. So far, it’s been really great, and I love this business, and I’ve got to meet a lot of really cool vendors and subs. So yeah, that’s just where I am right now. It’s been amazing.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

That’s awesome. What an exciting time jumping right in right after college. I know you said that you kind of had that gut feeling towards the end, but when did you guys start having conversations about eventually taking over the business at some point?

Leah Gonzalez:

We started really discussing that around, I’d say, November, December of even just this past year. I mean, we started talking about it in the works of me working, but I think we always mutually knew that if I was going to go into this business and if I was really going to like it, I mean, my mom is still… She’s still my parent. And so, I think she’s wanting to make sure, like, “Hey, I don’t want to pressure you.” It’s more of Dave than my mom, which Dave is my stepdad, by the way, but I’ve known him since I was five years old.

So to me, he’s basically my dad. He’s raised me. So I call him Dave. That’s why I’m referring to him as Dave. And then my mom, I just call my mom. Yeah. My mom is a little bit more just hesitant, not trying to pressure me or anything, and then Dave’s like, “You can have it.” He’s wanting to retire, not anytime soon, but he eventually wants to start that plan.

So I think once I was full force, like, “Okay. I’m going to work,” they, I guess, gave me a… Not an invitation. It wasn’t formal, obviously, but they called me. They’re like, “Okay. We want to give you this type of salary.” They kind of gave me this invitation, “Okay. We want to hire you.” And so, I was like, “Of course.” But since then, we’ve kind of talked about, “Okay. Well, if I’m going to work, what’s going to be the plan for me to eventually take over?”

So I think there was always just this mutual agreement that this is something that’s not just going to be me as an employee. It was always going to be this plan of, “Okay. What are the next steps on me eventually taking this over from my parents?” So that’s just always kind of been the talk since being hired by then. Where was I going with that? Oh, I was going to say that because we’ve been in the talks of talking about that since the beginning of me just coming on, I applied and I just got accepted into my master’s of construction management at A&M.

So I will be doing that online starting in the fall. So that’ll really help just push me in getting to know every single thing and learn quicker. So that way, in the next two or three years, I think, eventually, Dave will start to slowly shift things off to my mom, and then it’ll be me and my mom, and then, eventually, she’ll want to ease out of it, and then it’ll be me. So that’s the plan right now.

Charley Burtwistle:

I love that. I’ve only known you for about five minutes here, but you seem like someone that likes to keep themselves busy. So I’m sure the additional master’s program will be all helping with the company.

Leah Gonzalez:

So I definitely get that from my mom. She lives in chaos, and I think I do too. So I know I’m a lot like her already, but I think every day, I get a little bit more like her. So yes, I definitely like to keep myself busy.

Charley Burtwistle:

That’s awesome. What I’m curious to know is, you had mentioned some things of growing up. They were talking about the business around the dinner table. How has your outlook on the business as a whole shifted from something that you’re casually hearing about around the dinner table to obviously having a direct impact into how that business is performing? Does it still seem like the side business? Does it seem like work? Does it seem like family? How does the outlook on the business as a whole changed since you joined?

Leah Gonzalez:

Well, I think it is really crazy now that I am a part of it, deep-dived into the middle of it, because when I used to come home, I was in college, just focusing on my classes. I wasn’t there day-to-day, seeing what was going on with the clients. So when I did come home and we would go to dinner, I would kind of get annoyed, like, “Is this all we’re going to talk about? Can we talk about something else?”

But now I’m home, and now I’m obviously working with them and in the middle of the same projects that they’re working on. So now that we are at dinner, I’m deep-dived into the conversation, like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe that happened,” and “Oh my God, we still need to do this,” and “Okay. So who’s going to come tomorrow?” and then, “When do we need to schedule this meeting?” And I’m like, “Mom, we need to start scheduling this with the architect. Okay. Do you want me to schedule that now?”

So if anything, it’s just now I’m okay with talking about it at dinner and stuff, because I know what’s going on. I think before, I felt out of the loop and a little bit of FOMO, like, “Okay. Well, I don’t really know what to include in this conversation, because I have no idea what y’all are talking about.” But now I know exactly what they’re talking about. So if anything, now we just have a lot to talk about at dinner-

Charley Burtwistle:

There you go.

Leah Gonzalez:

… and catch up on the day. So no, it’s fine though. I know that in my class, we talked about separating family time with business time, but I don’t think it’s ever really an issue for us, because my parents love the business so much, and their love for it makes me love it even more. So we have this joint love for the business and the company, and we’re so passionate about it.

So when we do talk about it at dinner, we enjoy talking about it, if that makes sense. So it’s not that it seems like a burden or anything, or it’s like, “Oh, all we’re talking about is business.” Well, we care about this business, and our business is basically our whole family. And even our employees, we treat like family. So it doesn’t seem odd to talk about. It keeps us busy.

We were at dinner the other night actually, and we were there for three hours just talking about the business and new ideas and what we want to do for the next… We’ll be in the 2027 Parade of Homes. So we’re talking about what ideas already we want to have for that and all that stuff. So it just comes naturally to us. So I’m glad that I’m a part of it, because I think if I had a different job, I would still feel that sense of like, “What are y’all talking about?” and “Can we talk about something else?” But no, I love spending time with them and talking about the business. It’s fun.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

That’s awesome. As you have started kind of ingraining yourself more into the business and those conversations around succession planning, obviously you’ve come in with a lot of skills and knowledge from your past experience. Is there anything though specific that your mom or Dave had really started focusing on, like your skills honing in, or ways of thinking about the business? Is there anything specific that they’ve really focused in on?

Leah Gonzalez:

I think, well, they definitely know that I am a lot more social media savvy than they are.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

Nice.

Leah Gonzalez:

So they’ve really let me take over the social media part, which is crazy, because, I mean, I wouldn’t say I’m a huge social media… I don’t do anything influential on even my own personal social media. I mean, I think I’m just someone who posts sometimes regularly. I don’t take social media as a huge thing in general. But because I’ve taken on the business side of social media for them, it’s funny because people come up to them now, and they’re like, “Oh, I saw your daughter on your social media,” because we have been taking videos and stuff of us showing the houses and stuff.

But it’s crazy the recognition we’ve got, because they trust me with the skill set of at least knowing social media and posting regularly more, that it’s gotten a lot more attention than in the past. So they’ve trusted me a lot with that and just having a little bit more of a social media skill set, even with TikTok and all that, because that’s just something I’ve grown up with, and they haven’t.

So when I started, I was named an assistant project manager, which that’s kind of still my title, but my parents were like, “Let’s just see where you fall.” They knew that because I danced my whole life and I choreographed, they’re like, “Oh, well, you obviously are very creative and very artsy.” But they also knew I studied management. So they’re like, “Well, you’re very organized, so maybe that’s where you fall.”

So they kind of just said, “Let’s just see where you dive into and what you go towards.” And I definitely go towards a lot more of the managing side than the interior design part, because my mom is super into that part with the home building business. So already, just very quickly, I picked up on the organization, the managing, calling people, getting the bids, talking to people, organizing what subs are coming that day, the calendar, the schedule in Buildertrend.

So, I mean, I think they already knew that I had that skill set, but they also knew that I could also have a creative skill set. But we kind of do everything around here, but they’ve really trusted me with the managing side and the social media side for sure.

Charley Burtwistle:

Yeah. We’ve talked to a few second-generation builders on the podcast before, and it’s always really interesting to me on you’re not just taking over a business. You’re taking over your parents’ legacy. Right? And so, a lot of times, tensions can get really high on like, “Well, this is how we run things, not how you run things,” especially someone coming in from a younger generation of wanting to revamp social media, for instance. Small things like that can cause some points of contention of like, “No, this is the way we do things, not this.”

So it’s awesome to hear, one, that you’re coming in with a fresh perspective, but, two, that your parents are not only open, but encouraging that sense of change, because I think that that’s oftentimes where the family and business start to collide and butt heads a little bit there, on, “This isn’t just another assistant project manager. This is our daughter that’s running these things.” From what you’ve been saying, it seems like that’s been really encouraged from both sides of the house, and I think that’s probably just-

Leah Gonzalez:

Oh, yes.

Charley Burtwistle:

And you can expand on it, but a lot of that is probably just setting the proper expectations, like, “Do you want me to come in and provide these new ideas?” or “Where do you want me to land?” or it sounds like in this case, it was more so like, “Let’s just have you do everything and see which way you naturally gravitate to.” But yeah, curious on your perspective on, from the outside looking in, why do you think this has worked so well?

Leah Gonzalez:

I think it worked so well because my parents have taught me so much. They’re just great parents. They’ve really taught me, I think, from the beginning that communication is so important. We’re super high on communication. I mean, they just know everything, every thought I have. No idea. I think what is so great about my relationship with my parents is that no one really gets their feelings hurt. I mean, even when I’m choosing tile with my mom, for instance, we went to the tile store the other week, and I’m like, “Oh, this one’s nice.” And she’s like, “I don’t think I would pick that.”

She’s not afraid to tell me that, which I think is really important. If you are going to work with your parents, I think you have to have that type of relationship where you’re not afraid to get your feelings hurt, or even we’re meeting with a client and I have a… This was, I think, when I first started maybe, and I had an outfit on. My mom was like, “I think you need something a little bit more professional than that.” I mean, she’s just straight-up honest with me, and I’m like, “Okay.” And she’s still my mom, so I’m like, “Really?”

But I still go change my outfit, and I respect her so much. So I have to do what’s told. But I think because the communication is so open, that the respect goes both ways very equally. So I think that helps a lot. I forgot what you said about, oh, with being open to changes and stuff and new perspectives and new ideas. I have really deep-dived into how we can use Buildertrend really well and what things we can integrate in it, because I don’t think we’ve used it to its full capacity.

So even just this last week, I’ve watched a lot of videos on Buildertrend in how to mess with the purchase orders and how to mess with the schedule and using the whole Gantt chart. So I really want to make sure we are just using it to its full capacity and using every single part of it to our advantage. So I’ve done that, and they’ve just been super thankful that, I mean, I’m taking the time to really do that, because they’re so busy now, that I think because they’ve used it before I came on, so they’ve just kind of gotten used to what they’ve used out of it.

But now that I’m here and I have kind of this new perspective, I’ve never used it before, not as long as they have. So I’m able to kind of look at it in a different way and say, “Hey, we don’t really use this part the way we should. We don’t really use the budget the way we can and get a lot more use out of it, and what can we change about this?” So they’re super open to those ideas. And if anything, they want those fresh perspectives and people of my generation to bring that perspective of the technology and how we think about it more than them. But yeah, I would say our communication is very strong, sometimes too strong.

Charley Burtwistle:

For sure. And Shelbie, you did on-site consulting for a couple years.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

I did.

Charley Burtwistle:

So I’m sure you’ve seen a broad spectrum of people’s adoption of Buildertrend. Sometimes they followed the complacency, and it’s like, “Wait, there’s more that we could do to it.” Is what Leah is saying resonating with you from your experience?

Shelbie Hoggatt:

Oh, absolutely. My brain was kind of firing off a little bit there, but I think the biggest thing that I love to hear from you is that you are diving into the resources. I think that’s sometimes a place where people lack with Buildertrend. As a company, they’re kind of on their own journey, but we have built out so many types of resources, both online, virtual group trainings, Buildertrend University, if you ever want to come to Omaha and hang out with us.

There are so many resources out there, and it really just takes that one person to join a company and just dive in and start building out those workflows. Leah, I’m so curious. Did you start implementing Buildertrend as soon as you got back from college, or when did you kind of start reimplementing Buildertrend inside of the company?

Leah Gonzalez:

So they’ve used it since I’ve been in college. I think they’ve used it for the past couple years. And so, I know that when I was interning with them, I kind of had a feel of how they were using it, but I wasn’t really deep-dived into it. I kind of was just more joining them with clients and taking notes during their meetings, using the social media. So I wasn’t really using Buildertrend yet, but I knew they were using it.

I had it in the back of my mind. But now that I’ve done a lot more of the project management side of it and really working with… One of our employees is Tammy. I call her all the time, and she works remote actually, which is crazy, because we really didn’t know how that was going to work. She used to live here and work in person with us, and now she works remote.

But Buildertrend is so helpful, actually, for her to work remote, because she is constantly updating and messaging our clients too. So I was actually on the phone with her today for four hours. And so, we were on there looking at the punch lists and talking with the clients on what needs to be updated. So no, they’ve always used it, but I have just been on there, and there are so many different files and tabs, and looking at the allowances, looking at the selections, looking at the budget, looking at the purchase orders, looking at where you can insert bills.

And so, because I’ve looked at it, I’m like, “Well, why haven’t we really tapped into that hardcore? Why haven’t we really dived deep into how we can use this well?” I don’t know. I want to get the most use out of how we’re doing it. So they have used it. But I guess since I’ve been back, I’ve really been telling them how we can use it even more.

I like to have everything in one spot, because we do use Dropbox and we use Excel, and I’m like, “Well, I want it all in one place.” And I’m not afraid to say that to them. So I’ve been trying to help out and watch videos, and I don’t think they’ve necessarily been doing it wrong. I’m just saying, how can we make this even more, what’s the word, I guess just useful and cut down on our time and cut down on putting things here and there and all that?

Now, I am trying to get them to sway into more of Google, Google Sheets and Google Docs, because they’re Microsoft people, and I feel like my generation likes Google a little bit more. But we’re working on that. So I’ll have to see. But no, they’ve always used Buildertrend for a while for the past couple years, but I think since I’ve been back, I’ve just been like, “Hey, how can we just knock it out of the park and use even more of it?”

Shelbie Hoggatt:

Yeah.

Charley Burtwistle:

I love that. And then, so you’re taking the lead on the learning and implementing or, I guess, understanding how it could be used. Are you then reading back out to not only them, but the rest of the team on the actual adoption of those new features?

Leah Gonzalez:

Oh, yes. Yeah. I have talked to my mom about… Now, we’ve used the budget already. But yeah, I was talking to her about, “Oh, this is how we can use our purchase orders now and how we can insert the bills.” Say for electrical, there’s three different bills we kind of pay for them with the rough-in, and then we pay for when they come back.

So I was showing her, “Hey, we can insert these bills here.” And we can see that one-third of it has been paid already, but we can just see the overall progress, because I think where she’s had trouble with their projects in the past is that they want to make sure, like, “Hey, how much have we really paid on this?” And, I mean, we have QuickBooks, but sometimes it’s hard to scope on there. And what I love about Buildertrend is that it literally shows you on there the progress that’s made on this little line of, “Okay. This is green, what we paid, and this is still yellow, what we still owe.” And they don’t have something like that on QuickBooks.

So I was just showing her, like, “This is going to be so useful for you, for a bookkeeper.” So just to see visually that this is how much we owe still, and keeping everyone on the same page. And especially Tammy, who works remote, she’s able to see that too, instead of having to call and say, “Oh, well, where are we on that?”

And so, that was the biggest kind of light bulb that went off. I was like, “Oh my God, we can really integrate this for our next upcoming projects.” What else have we used? I mean, oh, I was sitting with both Dave and Angela on the whole Gantt chart. We were on a template. And so, they’ve used Gantt charts before, but I was like, “No, let’s start from scratch. Let’s start from the beginning,” and really put the scale on the project.

So that way, every single project we have, we can just insert that right away, because I think every project has been a little different. And so, I know that they’ve inserted it manually throughout when the project’s going, but I was like, “Hey, let’s just start from scratch on our template so we don’t have to do this every single time that a project comes up.” So that’s been helpful.

Charley Burtwistle:

Shelbie, I can see your face lighten up here, like-

Shelbie Hoggatt:

I know. I know.

Charley Burtwistle:

… claps and snaps.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

Yeah. I’m really happy that you guys made that decision. There was many clients that I’ve worked with that that schedule template, especially, has gone through maybe different hands or has never been maintained, or we set it up in a way that wasn’t really working for us, but we never went back to fix it. And so then, every job and project that they were using, they were facing those same issues over and over again.

So I love the idea of pulling back the curtain and starting to see, “Where are these things giving us issues, and how can we fix it?” And as you continue adding on those new feature and dialing things in, I always tell my clients progress over perfection. Like you mentioned, there’s a lot of tabs. There’s a lot of stuff in Buildertrend. You don’t have to do it all overnight. But if some of those things that you’re adding on are solving problems that you guys are having right now, that’s progress, and that’s what we want.

Leah Gonzalez:

Yes.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

So gold star for me.

Leah Gonzalez:

No. When I first looked at it for sure, when I got here, I was like, “Oh my gosh, what am I looking at?” I was like, “Okay. Let me go to the calendar first maybe.” That was the least overwhelming thing. I’m like, “Okay. I can do a calendar. This is easy.” But honestly, it’s been really easy to adapt to. I feel like I know it like the back of my hand now. It’s like, “Okay. Yeah. I got this.” Now I’m like, “Let me deal with it.” I will figure out how make it the best product we’ve ever used, and just making it really useful for our business. So yeah, it’s been great. Buildertrend is really easy to use, in my opinion.

Charley Burtwistle:

Gosh. Well, if you’re ever looking for a career change, you can come work for Shelbie and I-

Shelbie Hoggatt:

Yeah. You can come hang out with us.

Charley Burtwistle:

… and train other builders.

Leah Gonzalez:

I’m going to tell Dave that you’re recruiting me.

Charley Burtwistle:

Yeah. Yeah. This podcast was just a facade. It’s actually a job interview, and you got it. So pack your bags to Omaha. No, we’re getting close to time here. I have a couple more questions I want to ask, just because I think, again, the second generation of builders is really, really interesting to dive into.

Have you thought at all about, obviously, the legacy that your parents are leaving behind, and how do you maintain that while still making the business your own? Obviously, you’re just kind of getting started now, but I’m curious if you have any thoughts for what’s next, what direction you want to take this, and any future plans that you may have.

Leah Gonzalez:

Yes. Well, I do think that my parents have really big shoes to fill, and I even told them that the other night. They’re so good with the clients. Both, I think, they bring such different assets to the table, and I love them so much. They’re so great at what they do, and I have such high respect for the way they lead this business.

I definitely think that I just want to continue to keep innovating whichever house that I build in the future, keep coming up with new ideas. When I do have a little bit more control, obviously, and we started to have maybe a bigger team, just making sure who we hire too, that they still keep the values that my parents have within this business in how they hire. I think that whenever I take on that, I’m going to continue what they’ve built with just the values they hold within this business, and the creativity. They continue to just keep improving within each house.

I don’t know. I mean, I love that our business is a little bit smaller, and it’s within the San Antonio area, but I also would love to see if we kind of built some branches maybe in the Austin area and the Dallas area and Houston area. I think I would love to grow a little bit outside of Texas and just see where that goes. I mean, that takes a bigger team, but I would love to see kind of… Because there’s a certain maybe style over here.

We are in the Hill Country. I would love to see, what kind of houses could we build in Austin? What kind of houses could we build in Dallas and maybe Houston? Because all the styles are different. Dave just went actually to go judge the Parade of Homes in Houston, and he saw so many different elements that were different from just what people do down here.

And so, I don’t know, bringing those things to the table, or even when we branch out and maybe expand the business in different cities, just having a range of so many different houses we build, and just seeing where that takes us. So I don’t know. I’m very excited to see just with experience, what I take from that and what ideas come from that.

So it’s still a little bit fresh, but every day, I kind of get new ideas and where I want to go with it. So I’m super excited. But they definitely have big shoes to fill just with the way they lead and with the relationships they build with the clients. So I’m interested to see how that goes, but I definitely think that I’m going to fill in their shoes just fine, but they’re just so amazing at what they do.

Charley Burtwistle:

Absolutely.

Leah Gonzalez:

So I look up to them a lot.

Charley Burtwistle:

Well, if anything, you’re just securing another podcast appearance over the next two, three, four years, so we can check in on these big plans as they come to fruition.

Leah Gonzalez:

Yes. Oh my gosh, that would be crazy to see the next couple years, to see then what my answers are, and they’ll probably be extremely different.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

A Where Are They Now? series.

Charley Burtwistle:

Yeah. Exactly. I like it.

Leah Gonzalez:

Yeah.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

I would love that.

Charley Burtwistle:

Leah, before we let you go, just kind of a sign-off question here. Just what advice would you give to next-generation leaders stepping into family businesses? I think your perspective early on here is crucial, because that is something that I think most of the customers that we have on here and people in the building space are building, because they care about legacy, and the business is the biggest piece of their legacy. So I would just be curious to hear your answer of the next generation, what advice you’d give to take that on.

Leah Gonzalez:

Advice I would give the next generation is, I feel what advice has really helped me as a young adult is that you can do it all. You can always change a direction. You’re never too young or too old to just have new ideas for your career. I mean, I always thought that I was going to go straight into dance, which dance is still one of the outlets that I love to do.

And my parents have always told me, “That’s something you don’t have to stop. You can always continue that. And even if, down the road, you do take this over, but you want to switch careers…” I mean, my mom was a photographer for 12 years before she even got into home building, and Dave was in restaurants for 30 years before he even got into home building. So they’ve had different careers even before this.

You can have multiple different careers in your life. You don’t have to stick to just one. And so, I think that gives me some relief of, even if I take this on, I could always expand and build something commercially and then have my studio there. It doesn’t always have to be this one-lane road that I’m taking. It could expand and have different branches.

And so, I love that they support me creatively, career-wise and even just personally. They just support and want me to do what I love. And they’ve also always taught me, like, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.” And so, I mean, they’re a true statement of that, because they love their careers, and it makes me just love the career even more. So I’d say just love what you do for your career, and you can do it all.

Charley Burtwistle:

Awesome. That was a fantastic note to end on for the next generation and, honestly, anybody in their career. So well said, Leah. Really appreciate you making the time to join us today, and excited to see what’s next for you and your company.

Leah Gonzalez:

Well, thank you. I appreciate talking to you guys today.

Charley Burtwistle:

Yup. Have a good one.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

Thanks, Leah.

Leah Gonzalez:

Yeah. You too.

Charley Burtwistle:

Well, we just heard from Leah Gonzalez talking a little bit about jumping back into the family business. Shelbie, your first podcast here on The Building Code. So I’ll let you do the honors. What’d you think?

Shelbie Hoggatt:

I thought it was great. I think Leah has such a great perspective. I love the way that she’s communicating and working with her parents to really learn as much as she can. She’s diving into all things Buildertrend and improving that side of things. Again, I’m really excited to see where she’s going to continue to take the company over the next five, even 10 to 15 years.

Charley Burtwistle:

For sure.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

I think she’s going to have a lot of success.

Charley Burtwistle:

Well, it seemed like, like I said, we’ve had a few second-generation builders join before, and I mentioned a little bit in the interview, but she seems to be doing a really good job straddling that line between learning from her parents, who have built a successful, very established company. She even mentioned a couple times on there, like, “Big shoes to fill. Love the legacy they’re leading.”

But also, you’re joining this company with the fresh perspective from a different generation. Even little things like the social media that she had talked about that are second nature to her, but maybe something kind of big and overwhelming for her parents. There is a fine line there, and unless you all have the right expectation about what your role is, what you want it to be, and she mentioned another couple times in there, like the communication side of it is huge. It’s tricky, but it seems like they’re doing a fantastic job navigating it, and I agree. It’ll be fun to watch where that goes moving forward.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

Yeah. I think one of the things that she said there that really stood out to me was, “I respect them and they respect me,” and that mutual level of respect, and both personal relationships. They are parents and their daughter. But in a professional relationship, I think that’s really, really important. So yeah, she was awesome.

Charley Burtwistle:

And her parents will be coming out to the Contractor Coalition in Omaha in June. We’ll corner them and get their side of the story, see how much Leah was saying is actually truth, or if they have a different perspective.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

100%.

Charley Burtwistle:

No, that’ll be good. Great episode, Leah. Thank you again for joining us today. As always, make sure to like, review, subscribe, leave a comment saying how awesome Shelbie was as a cohost so we can get her back on here again. Otherwise, until next time, I’m Charley Burtwistle.

Shelbie Hoggatt:

I’m Shelbie Hoggatt.

Charley Burtwistle:

Peace.