The Curious Builder

What happens when builders, designers, and vendors stop trying to do everything themselves and start working together? Charlie and Susan Flynn join Mark at Mysa Hus to share what it takes to build a relationship-driven business, create a culture that survives growth, and bring the design community together through events like Francis King's Mini Market. Along the way, they unpack the Mysa Hus coll...

Construction costs are climbing, skilled labor is getting harder to find, and building a home on-site comes with plenty of opportunities for expensive surprises. Paul Kealey of EkoBuilt joins Mark to explain how prefab construction and passive house principles can create more predictable builds, healthier homes, and better energy performance without sending costs into orbit. Plus, they tackle the...

What do garage doors, an eight-week training program, and bringing a customer's trash cans up from the curb have in common? They're all part of how Alex Johantgen is building Rise & Shine Garage Doors into a business that stands out from the competition. Alex joins Mark to talk rebranding, profitability, employee training, and why friends knock and strangers ring the doorbell. Turns out, exception...

Nick Quijano went from teaching snowboarding and driving a Zamboni to building a career with one of the country's major home builders, then launching Southerly Homes with a few kids, a mortgage, and a whole lot of faith in the plan. He and Mark get into the risks of starting a business, the systems small builders often overlook, and why production builders and custom builders have a lot more to le...

What if you could offer better employee benefits, save on taxes, and make your business more attractive to top talent without wrecking your profit margins? Mike Notte joins Mark Williams to explain how smart employee benefits can help attract the kind of people who take ownership and keep the business moving. They also unpack tax-saving strategies, wellness plans, and why assuming benefits are too...

You built the business, hit the goals, and made the money. So why are you still stressed out and answering emails at the dinner table? Author and keynote speaker Rob Stein joins Mark to explain why success can actually create decision fatigue, how delegating decisions (not just tasks) changes everything, and why your morning routine can't save you from a poorly structured day. Because no amount of...

Aaron Hall built a successful law firm, ended up with 45 employees, and discovered that "making it" didn't feel much like making it at all. He and Mark Williams get into burnout, lawsuits, the danger of chasing money and fame, and why entrepreneurs need to know when to put down the problem-solving hat and just listen. Plus, a little Mr. Miyagi wisdom, some dad-level relationship advice, and a remi...

Two years, 32+ brand partners, 3,700 visitors, countless design debates, and enough Diet Cokes to fuel a small construction crew. Mark Williams sits down with Karl Adalbert and Melissa Oholendt to reflect on the wild ride that was Mysa Hus, from pitching the original vision to watching the team turn that vision into something far bigger than a spec home. They talk creativity, wellness, craftsmansh...

What do you do when your investor relationship goes sideways halfway through a spec home? Trapper Roderick joins Mark for a very honest Losers Are Winners conversation about refinancing mid-build, pricing a $4.4M Park City spec, walking away from the wrong client, and how some of the biggest wins in business start with things going spectacularly wrong. Support the show - https://www.curiousbuilder...

Ryan Rutzick took a third-generation family business, helped turn it into an ESOP, and then dropped millions on a second showroom. Totally normal Tuesday, right? Mark and Ryan dig into succession, big business bets, leadership, and why sometimes the biggest risk isn't making the wrong decision, it's refusing to make one at all. Support the show - https://www.curiousbuilderpodcast.com/shop See our...

Jeremy Huson joins Mark for a Losers Are Winners episode full of cybersecurity horror stories, hard-earned lessons, and a few "please don't click that" moments. From phishing scams and ransomware to AI-powered attacks and the importance of backing up your data, Jeremy breaks down how small businesses can protect themselves before the bad guys come knocking. Support the show - https://www.curiousbu...

What happens when you put Mark and Nick Schiffer in a room with 12 unanswered questions and absolutely no plan? A Curious Builder variety show, obviously. The two builders riff on everything from social media and business growth to conflict, trust, money, ego, family, and the wildly questionable decision that became Nick's 45 White Oak project. Support the show - https://www.curiousbuilderpodcast....

Big goals are great until you actually accomplish them. In this solo Losers are Winners episode, Mark talks about the strange emotional hangover that can follow a massive project, a 50-mile race, or any other mountain you've spent months climbing, and what he's learning about finding purpose on the other side. Expect some honesty, some philosophy, and at least one questionable analogy involving ha...

Two years, one incredible house, and Melissa Oholendt and Mark decided the perfect way to reflect on Mysa Hus was to draw up a chopping block for $500,000 worth of cuts. The pool goes, the wellness studio nearly goes, and the plumbing fixtures take a serious demotion from luxury unlacquered brass down to something considerably less fancy. It closes with a surprisingly emotional detour into why fin...

Brad Robinson is putting AI to work, but he's not letting the robots take over just yet. He and Mark Williams talk about AI bots, automated CRMs, financial reporting, and the surprisingly powerful art of picking up the phone. Plus, they explore why authenticity, hospitality, and wellness may be the next big competitive advantage in custom home building. Support the show - https://www.curiousbuilde...

Billy Beson returns with a résumé that includes decorating an actual presidential palace, mentoring half of the design world, and somehow still finding time to launch a brand new art gallery in his "retirement." He and Mark dig into what makes interior design an emotional art, why hoarding trade secrets is a losing strategy, and why kindness might be the most underrated business skill there is. It...

Brad Leavitt is finishing his own house, past his original move-in date, and has never felt more empathy for his clients in his life. He and Mark cover the SOP gaps that keep showing up project after project, why ghosting in real estate is somehow legal and completely maddening, and what it actually costs when a spec home sits longer than expected. Also: scorpions versus mosquitoes, and Minnesota...

Wilson Harwood has thought about nothing but soundproofing for six years, and Mark gave him a full hour to prove it. They cover why the quietest room in the world makes people fall over, how a perfectly square tile shower becomes an acoustic disaster, and what builders can actually do to make homes meaningfully quieter without going full recording studio. Mark even brings up Mysa Hus and gets his...

Losers are Winners is back with Adam McChesney, who signed away equity in his business for what sounded like a great deal and ended up in an eight month legal battle instead. Mark and Adam talk about the self confidence gap that almost sank him, why he rebuilt bigger and better once the dust settled, and why he now believes collaboration happens at the top while competition happens at the bottom....

Lauren Riddei's body basically staged an intervention on her career, and the fallout turned her into one of the sharpest voices in healthy home design working today. She and Mark talk biomimicry, why your front door should act like a filter, and why bigger houses might be making us sicker instead of happier. It ends on birds building the perfect nest, which somehow makes total sense by the time yo...

Mark brought Gabe back to Mysa Hus one more time to talk about the thing that actually makes a house feel like a home, and it is not the granite. They dig into why cracked plaster is a compliment, why Gabe writes hidden notes inside the walls he builds, and why Mark thinks every builder is secretly a choir conductor. It ends on a tattered flag analogy that will hit different if you have ever weath...

Mark spends half this episode geeking out over where lumber actually comes from, and honestly, so will you. John Brenard breaks down why the southeast grows the best trees in the world, why his fund treats a forest like a factory and a warehouse in one, and why a 1919 two by six might just be tougher than anything framing a house today. Mark even brings up Settlers of Catan to explain it, so buckl...

Gabe Norcross is back for part two of Losers are Winners, and Mark doesn't let him off easy this time. They get into why raising his rates cost him a client but saved his business, the difference between bending and breaking, and how losing his house three years ago cracked open a whole new set of dreams he never would have found otherwise. It ends on a quote Gabe carries with him now, broken cray...

Tanner Konrady swore he'd never be a builder, then one Christmas break with a hammer changed his mind for good. Now he runs a 26 person company in coastal North Carolina, building healthy homes and a property services business, all while handing his eight year old a sledgehammer on weekends. Mark and Tanner talk windows nobody should open, hiring, and the leadership lesson hiding in a butt joint....

Gabe Norcross came back from Contractor Coalition, fired a bad client, set up an investment account, and hired a bookkeeper, all before the next coalition. He and Mark talk through the quiet financial discipline that finally started working, why most builders become the bank for their own clients without realizing it, and what it actually feels like to turn a profit and not feel guilty about it. S...