The Curious Builder

Gabe Norcross built other people's dreams while quietly drowning in his own, and for eight months he told nobody. He and Mark talk through the project that cost him everything, the photo he took of himself on a beach that he still pulls up when he needs it, and what it looks like to rebuild a life from the inside out when you finally decide you are worth saving. This one will stay with you. Suppor...

Ashley Ortiz joined the podcast with a client story so fresh the paint was still wet, and somehow it only got worse from there. She and Mark swap war stories about nightmare clients, whether specifying coat counts in your contract actually protects you, and why the painter always gets blamed even when it is the drywaller's fault. It ends with a mutual agreement that some jobs you just have to get...

Louise Woehrle is a passionate storyteller whose mission is to shine a light on stories that need to be told with the hope they will serve as catalysts for change. In addition to her work as a documentary filmmaker, she is an Emmy regional award-winning Executive Producer (Grandfather's Birthday), book publisher/editor for Suicide Survivors' Club - A Family's Journey Through the Death of Their Lov...

What happens when two marketing minds start talking about failure? A surprisingly fun conversation about growth, trust, data, and why "measure, learn, change" beats chasing the perfect plan every time. Chad Guillory of CARD Companies shares hard-earned lessons from 30 years in sales and business development, proving that today's mistakes often become tomorrow's competitive advantage. Support the s...

Most business owners underprice their work not because the math is wrong but because their fears show up in the numbers, and Etinosa Agbonlahor has built an entire firm around fixing exactly that. She and Mark talk through the psychology of pricing, how to have money conversations with the people who matter most before it becomes an emergency, and why a blank price tag on a truly unique home might...

SPAN is the smart electrical panel that tells you exactly which circuit is draining your wallet, can charge your car only on solar power, and somehow also looks cool enough that homeowners show it off to their friends. Reina Smyth and Mark cover the origin story behind the product, the wrong QR code that caused two weeks of frustration, and Mark's very ambitious idea to turn his wellness home into...

Don Forsman has 45 years of building homes and is currently building his own, which means he has never been more dangerous in a conversation about never evers and always always. He and Mark cover why you can't blame the drywaller for a bad HVAC vent, how external insulation brought wood siding back from the dead, and why precision is the goal and perfection is a trap. This one is basically a maste...

Josh Frei spent 17 years as a firefighter before pivoting to custom saunas, which means he already knew how to show up calm, problem solve fast, and never leave a job half done. He and Mark talk through the lessons learned when too many cooks in the kitchen cost a project days of rework, why a quick phone call beats an email thread every single time, and how Symmetry earned a lifetime partnership...

Billy Beson walked into a million dollar hotel pitch with nothing but a museum poster, told the client he could make the place look like a million bucks for a million bucks, and got the job anyway. He and Mark spend an hour trading stories about Minnesota's quietest billionaires, 46,000 square foot homes with bowling alleys and car simulators, and why designing toward feelings instead of materials...

After pulling off six events in seven days, Mark sits down with Alyssa Abbott and Mary Clark to talk about why in-person connection is still the most underrated marketing strategy in the building industry. They cover everything from swag as a love language to why empowering your community to be your advocates beats any ad spend, and Alyssa makes the very good point that sometimes the best business...

PLAAD's Mark Stankey and Matthew Byers join Mark for a deep dive into what actually makes a home authentic, and it turns out the answer has a lot more to do with composition than cost. They talk through never evers like windows to nowhere, soffit returns gone wrong, and why a quiet, well composed exterior beats a gable smashed mansion every time. Stick around for the courtyard story that proves th...

Two social media experts walk into Mysa Hus, and what comes out is a refreshingly honest take on the wins, the flops, and the algorithm mysteries nobody can fully explain. Alyssa Abbott from Olive and Vine Socials and Mary Clark from Pella swap stories about overworked carousels that flopped, lazy Saturday posts that crushed it, and why chasing every trending audio clip is a great way to end up in...

Forget renderings, Taylor Hall O'Brien is making the case for real light, real rooms, and real collaboration in an industry that AI is circling like a hawk. He and Mark talk through the art of consistent storytelling across a photo gallery, how Taylor built relationships with top editors one Instagram follow at a time, and why being easy to work with matters more than being the most talented perso...

Twenty years, 30 employees, and one very real fire that nearly took out a parquet floor a month before a major photo shoot. Anthony Janckila and Mark trade stories about clients going dark, why the GC ends up responsible for literally everything whether they get paid for it or not, and the kind of loyalty that shows up at a funeral instead of just sending flowers. This one's got heart, a little ch...

Six months into the Smile Tour, Mark parks himself inside Mysa Hus with a heavily highlighted copies of Buy Back Your Time and Psychology of Money, and he has a lot of thoughts about money, time, and why your inbox should not be your boss. He hits the big ideas from both Dan Martell and Morgan Housel, connects them to real moments from his career, and reminds everyone that a $10 million company wa...

Hans Frees of Outdoor Escapes has been in business 25 years, filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, lost money on a spec home during the 2008 crash, and came out the other side with better relationships, a better location, and a much healthier respect for staying in his lane. He and Mark swap war stories about building spec homes they probably shouldn't have, losing sleep over unpaid subcontractors, and why...

Documentary filmmaker Jude Charles came to Minnesota to flip the script and road map the emotional soul of Mysa Hus, and what started as a brand conversation turned into the deepest dive yet into why Mark built the thing in the first place. Jude's "but why does that matter to you" energy draws out stories about childhood cabins, slow mornings, and what it actually means to build a home as a person...

Paul Cramer sold his business, hit rock bottom, and discovered that being sober for decades doesn't automatically mean you have your stuff together, which is a humbling plot twist for anyone keeping score at home. Round two gets into the real work: two weeks of intensive therapy, rebuilding from scratch, and why the way you survive something becomes the way you live everything. Buckle up, this one...

Five days before the Artisan Home Tour, Mark and Melissa Oholendt of Oho Interiors snuck away from a live photo shoot to talk about what the final stretch of Mysa Hus actually looks like — wrong-sized sectionals, a Hail Mary pass to a UK lighting CEOs, and a third-generation plumber who showed up unannounced and left with chocolate-covered strawberries. They walk through the 60-day countdown, thre...

What happens when the entrepreneur dream becomes the thing quietly eating you alive? In this episode of Losers Are Winners, Mark sits down with author and recovering entrepreneur Paul Cramer to unpack startup highs, brutal lows, identity loss, therapy, and the emotional cost of building something from nothing. It's equal parts business therapy session, cautionary tale, and "oh crap… that sounds fa...

Most people don't think about what happens to their business when their one critical supplier goes down — Tyler Webster of Old Mill Building Products lived that nightmare firsthand and spent the last three years making sure it never happens again. Mark and Tyler get into the nuts and bolts of supplier diversification, why just-in-time manufacturing sounds great until a robot breaks in a brick kiln...

Kyle Schlesser is back in studio, and this time the conversation goes somewhere most business podcasts are too afraid to go — marriage, guardrails, and what it actually looks like to run a company with your spouse without turning into glorified roommates. Kyle shares the three daily non-negotiables that keep him grounded, why he journals notes for each of his kids and his wife on his phone, and wh...

Casey Cloward doesn't build the most homes, doesn't chase the biggest numbers, and isn't trying to be the loudest guy in the room — and that exact philosophy has built Raykon Construction into one of Utah's most respected custom home firms. Mark and Casey dig into what it actually means to run a lean business on purpose, why Casey treats his five project managers like five in-house general contrac...

Kyle Schlesser left a six-figure finance career, convinced his wife Katie to leave her executive marketing role, and launched Solid Ground Construction in 2019 with nothing but a leap of faith and a neighbor's porch swing job — and the next few years were exactly as humbling as that sounds. Mark and Kyle dig into the white-knuckle years of doing everything himself, the moment he nearly buried the...

Scott Jaffa is a rare breed — an architect who's also a GC with an in-house interior design team — and the way he talks about money, value, and client relationships makes it immediately clear why his clients are willing to watch a $3 million remodel quietly become a $10 million one. Mark and Scott dig into why the farm-to-table model works better than assembling a team of strangers, how Scott used...