Built. Trusted. Chosen.

In construction, your technical capability might get you considered. But trust, culture and reputation often determine whether you actually get chosen. I’m joined by Irene Scott , a civil engineer with around 30 years in engineering and a lifelong passion for bridges. Irene is General Manager – Bridges & Structures, Senior Principal Engineer and Executive Director at pitt&sherry. We talk a...

Construction is easy to lead when the work is flowing, materials are available and the numbers stack up. The real test comes when supply tightens, costs jump, funding changes or months of bad weather stop your equipment from earning. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen. , I sit down with Justin Strunk, Chief Operating Officer of RABS Group, to talk about what long-term resilience really look...

Trade shows can cost thousands by the time you add the booth, travel, staff, signage, giveaways and days away from the business. So why do so many companies do all that work and then simply hope the right people walk past? In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I speak with Jen Kelly about creating a proper trade show strategy for B2B, trades, construction, engineering and technical businesse...

Growing revenue sounds great until the business gets busier, margins disappear and the owner ends up with even more headaches. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen. , I'm speaking with Derek Isaac, founder of Rapid Result Creators, about what contractors need behind the scenes if they want sustainable growth. We'll unpack some of the mistakes Derek made while building his own contra...

If every enquiry, follow-up, staff question and business decision still comes back to you, growth quickly becomes exhausting. For many trades and construction business owners, the biggest bottleneck is not a lack of opportunities. It is that too much of the business still depends on the owner. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I speak with Jenna Bannister from Automations for Owners abou...

You can keep hiring people, buying software and producing more marketing, but a trades or construction business will not scale if everything still depends on the owner. The real shift happens when you stop managing activity and start building the business around clearly defined outcomes. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I speak with growth operator, marketer and leadership speaker Kurt...

AI is making it easier for small construction businesses to move faster, produce better proposals and compete for larger projects. But it is also filling the market with generic content, questionable advice and business owners who are automating away the very human qualities their clients value most. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I speak with architect, builder, developer and entrepr...

The skills that help you build a successful trades or construction business can eventually become the very skills holding it back. When every decision, quality check and client problem still depends on the owner, growth creates more pressure rather than more freedom. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I speak with Lady Jen Du Plessis about moving from hands-on operator to sovereign leader...

A lot of contractors do excellent work, but their presentation, proof and communication do not show it. That gap can cost trust before the first quote is even discussed. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I’ll be speaking with Dennis Mark Interdonato, a New Jersey real estate professional who grew up working in his family’s construction business. We’ll unpack how his father built a succes...

Fire safety can feel like another compliance cost for trades, construction and facilities leaders. But when something goes wrong, the quality of your systems, records and maintenance can become the difference between confidence and catastrophe. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I speak with Mark Turnham from Virtue Fire Solutions about building a fire and essential safety services busine...

Most trades and construction businesses do not struggle because they lack work. They struggle because the admin, systems, compliance, reports, photos, invoices and follow-ups start swallowing the day. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I speak with Jo McClure from JM Virtual Business Services about how small to medium businesses can simplify their systems, reduce admin overload and make t...

Trades and construction projects rarely go wrong because of one big thing. More often, it is the small gaps in communication, process, expectations and trust that create the pressure. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I chat with Erica Kalkofen, a remodel designer based in metro Denver, Colorado. Erica shares how she approaches residential remodels, why her six-step design process helps...

Commercial property can offer stronger cash flow and greater control, but the wrong tenant, lease or location can turn a promising opportunity into a costly problem. In this upcoming episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I speak with commercial buyer’s agent Cameron Jay about how trades and construction business owners should approach commercial property. We discuss owning your business premises, in...

Builders waste a huge amount of time pricing jobs that were never going to happen. The problem often starts well before the quote, when homeowners design a dream project without any realistic sense of budget. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I chat with Jared Kemp, founder and director of RedKem Constructions and B4U Build, about the real cost of poor early-stage qualification in reside...

Most trades businesses don’t have a revenue problem. They have a labour performance problem. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I sit down with Michael Fortenberry to unpack what actually happens when a founder-led trade business starts scaling and the owner is no longer on site. We talk culture, systems, job costing, and the uncomfortable truth about hourly pay. Michael shares how his co...

I’ll be going live with Aaron Husak to unpack what actually drives consistent leads for trades and construction businesses right now. We’re getting practical on Google Business Profile optimisation (and why it can matter more than your website), what “consistency” really means to Google, when Google Ads makes sense (and when it becomes a money pit), and how AI is changing the way customers compare...

Most trades and construction businesses don’t lose work because they’re bad. They lose it because they’re bland, unclear, or competing on the wrong thing. In this conversation with Alex Gore, co-founder of F9 Productions, we unpack what it really takes to get chosen for the right projects in architecture and construction. We talked about the hidden cost of cheap drawings, why most pitches sound id...

Too many trades and construction businesses stay busy but never become truly valuable. They win work, carry the stress, manage every decision, and still end up with thin margins and a business that depends too heavily on the owner.  In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I sit down with Stefan Kazakis to unpack what it really takes to grow a trade or construction business beyond survival mode...

Trades and construction businesses don’t usually fail because the work isn’t good. They stall (or break) because the foundations underneath the work are shaky: cashflow, systems, and consistency. In this upcoming live conversation, I’m sitting down with Adrian Henry from Business Grower to unpack what actually helps contractors grow without overcommitting, burning out, or getting smashed by “surpr...

Running a trades or construction business is hard enough without disengaged crews, missed expectations, and constant frustration on site. In this episode of “ Built. Trusted. Chosen.” , I sit down with executive coach Trevor Blondeel to unpack why leadership breakdowns happen in trades and construction, and how small shifts in communication, expectations, and accountability can completely change t...

Most homes pass inspection. Very few are built for health. In this episode of Built. Trusted. Chosen., I sit down with Craig Leonard, a third-generation builder who completely rethought his approach to construction after mould contamination in his own home made his family seriously ill. What he discovered will challenge how you think about energy efficiency, ventilation and modern building standar...

Trades and construction businesses often help create value in investment properties, but many owners and project teams do not fully understand how that value can flow through into tax deductions and cash flow. That gap can mean missed opportunities, weaker pitches, and less confidence when talking to property investors. In this episode, I sat down with Jarrel Dugay from Duo Tax to unpack how tax d...

If you run a trades or construction business, it’s easy to wake up one day and realise the business cannot run, or sell, without you. In this conversation, I’m joined by Anita Marshall from Gold Coast Business Brokers, and we unpack what actually makes a trades business attractive to buyers (and more resilient for you as the owner). Even if you never plan to sell, building with an exit in mind for...

Trades and construction businesses are getting hit from every angle: rising costs, hiring pressure, housing shortages and constant negative headlines. The danger is making short-term decisions based on panic instead of seeing the bigger forces shaping where demand, people and projects are actually heading. In this episode, I sit down with Simon Küstenmacher to unpack the demographic and economic t...

Most trades and construction businesses don’t struggle because the work isn’t good. They struggle because the day gets swallowed by calls, admin, quoting, follow-ups, and the never-ending “I’ll get to that later” list, and the business pays for it in missed opportunities, slow response times, and trust gaps. In this episode, I sit down with Janine Fraser to unpack the real operational bottlenecks...