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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Patrick Cavanaugh, a commercial general contractor based in Minneapolis. They discuss Patrick’s journey in the construction industry, focusing on his vision, the challenges he faced, and the importance of building relationships. Patrick shares insights on navigating the commercial construction landscape, the lessons learned from setbacks, and the need for process improvement as he scales his operations. The conversation emphasizes the significance of investing in people and maintaining strong relationships in business.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Pat (00:00)
yeah, definitely. One definitely comes to mind. I would say it was in 2015 or 2016 or so. You know, project that was going great for you know, six months where it was a time where we’re doing a lot of traveling nationwide traveling for our clients. And we’re going around ⁓ remodeling these restaurants, you know, pretty well known restaurant nationwide. ⁓ I think we were traveling to three or four different states. ⁓ Started in Indiana, went to Houston and ended up in California. about six, about, you know, five months into the project, our client asked us to add another crew on top of the two that we already had. Four or five man crews. So we were on the road with 15 different people out there working. It got to a point it was getting tough to manage. We ended up actually missing a couple sites of ours, know, guys not showing up. We were just spread a bit too thin. Ended up getting kicked off the job just essentially fired from the project, ⁓ which was a huge blow.Quentin (02:49)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Super excited about my guests. One word that we’ve been talking about is vision. And I’m going tell you, this gentleman has vision. From where he started to where he is now, and to what he’s still carving out, this guy has vision. And so I’m excited for you guys to get to know him, to see things through his lens from his perspective.Pat (03:08)
youQuentin (03:17)
And so please help me bring up on the stage, Mr. Cavanaugh. How you doing, sir?Pat (03:24)
I’m great, thanks for having me.Quentin (03:25)
man, thank you for being here. Thank you for carving time out. I know you are a busy guy, but I know this is going to be valuable for our listeners. so I’m so ready, man, for you to just take us into your world, man. Tell us about what it is that you do. I don’t know if you want to tell them about the little secrets of your sauce that you got, but I’m going let you control all of that. But just take us into your world, man. Tell us what you do. Maybe a little bit of how you got started and even the markets that you’re operating in.But man, Mr. Patrick DeFleur is yours,
Pat (03:57)
Yeah, so we’re a commercial general contractor in Minneapolis, Minnesota, based out of Minneapolis. We have about a 200-mile range around the city of Minneapolis. I would say our main source of work is interior buildouts, service work in the commercial space, whether that be break fix repairs, know, small remodels on the service side.And then even to the bigger build outs of, know, ⁓ some dollar, a lot of dollar stores, we do a lot of phone stores, you know, interior build outs. So we’ll get in there and do the demo framing, drywall carpentry, all the way to the final clean. You know, at times we’re a full service general contractor and at times we’re ⁓ just subbing out for the larger nationwide general contractors. ⁓
Super happy about the space that we’re in. We’ve been at it since 2009. Right after that residential market crash in 2008, we made
large shift into the commercial space. Really the best decision we’ve ever made. Our clients are easier to work with. To be honest, less stressful than working for a homeowner.
⁓ Which I don’t mind, you know, we’ve gotten into a couple homeowners, but it’s really just not something we’re big into at the moment. ⁓ Looking to change that though, because I know there’s just a ⁓ definite need for a lot of these, you know, homeowners to get things done inside their house from reputable and experienced contractors.
Quentin (06:34)
I love it, man. No, I absolutely love it, Mr. Patrick. I love it how you can cover all spectrum. Like we can do the residential if you need us to, but man, our speed pot is with these, you know, with the commercial as well, having these project managers call us up and say, Hey, we need your service. And so I absolutely love it, And yeah, one of things we talk about is that you’re growing and be honest, every business is not growing within this climate. It’s not always easy.So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly, Ms. Patrick?
Pat (07:05)
Yeah, I would say it’s quality work, of all. Following up with our clients, making sure we’re running through their processes correctly. As I said before, kind of a glorified subcontractor at times. a lot of our contracts include when we’re doing these larger interior build-outs.They include four or five different scopes. And we found that, know, scopes meaning we’re doing the demo, the framing, the drywall, the carpentry. You can add the painting and then the final clean. A lot of our, and our clients like that, you know, it’s less paperwork on their end. They don’t have to write, you know, four different contracts. They can come to us as a really one-stop shop for these items. ⁓ You notice I leave the mechanical stuff out of it.
you know, you need special permits and we’re a licensed general contractor, but we don’t, you know, we don’t possess any electrical or HVAC licensing up in Minnesota. ⁓ Just not needed, you know, we have several great relationships with those, ⁓ you know, some electricians and HX and plumbers up in Minnesota. So ⁓ not something we’re looking to get into. We’re really just good carpenters. ⁓ We fix things.
⁓ handymen, carpenters, and ⁓ I got a few guys who love tearing stuff up in the demo. So ⁓ really just a fun space to be in. There’s always different things that we’re doing, ⁓ whether it be break, fix, repairing, ⁓ it’s always something new and different. ⁓ It’s keeping my employees engaged because they’re always learning new things.
⁓ have a couple really, really good young guys at the moment, young, I’m talking 20, 20 to 22 years old who are, who are loving it. ⁓ given, given them the freedom to, ⁓ make their own schedule. ⁓ one, one of the younger guys is even building his own estimates on his service calls and submitting them and, and, making good money doing it. ⁓ you know, ⁓ so.
Quentin (09:03)
Yeah.Pat (09:21)
Just a good spot where we’re at and see a lot of potential for growth here.Quentin (09:26)
Love it man. Yeah. It’s always good to have some people on your team that love to smash. You you say Hawk smash and they like, we got you. So I know you said you got some guys that love doing demo. ⁓ But I love it. I love how you know your sweet spot. You know what you do strong and you’ll do what you do and then partner with other people that can do what they do best. And I think that’s always the name of the game is when you know who you are, you know what to do. And so I absolutely love that man.Pat (09:33)
Mm-hmm.Quentin (09:54)
Now know, you you’ve been around since 2009, you’ve been doing this. And so I like to normalize the heart for people. try to, you know, sometimes we focus so much on the success that we don’t focus on the process of how we got to this success. And so I always like to ask the question, you know,I know there’s times within your industry where things get real. Maybe when something goes sideways, a time when you have to pivot fast. And I was wondering, Mr. Patrick, if you mind sharing one of those moments for you.
Pat (10:56)
yeah, definitely. One definitely comes to mind. I would say it was in 2015 or 2016 or so. You know, project that was going great foryou know, six months where it was a time where we’re doing a lot of traveling nationwide traveling for our clients. And we’re going around ⁓ remodeling these restaurants, you know, pretty well known restaurant nationwide. ⁓ I think we were traveling to three or four different states. ⁓ Started in Indiana, went to Houston and ended up in California. about six, about, you know, five months into the project, our client asked us to add
another crew on top of the two that we already had. Four or five man crews. So we were on the road with 15 different people out there working. It got to a point it was getting tough to manage. We ended up actually missing a couple sites of ours, know, guys not showing up. We were just spread a bit too thin. Ended up getting kicked off the job just
essentially fired from the project, ⁓ which was a huge
know, we were out there and I was invested, you know, about a month before that, I, you know, they asked us to add a crew. It ⁓ required an investment and a truck and a trailer ⁓ made that investment, you know, so 15 of us all of sudden out of work in California. ⁓ It was fast and sudden.
You know, traveling to every guy’s hotel room, ⁓ paying them out, you know, making sure they’re paid for their work and, you know, apologizing, telling them it’s over, we’re going home. You know, I had guys from Arizona, had guys from Wyoming who were out there ⁓ and we had to get back to Minnesota. You know, there was about, I think four five of us were actually from Minnesota. So. ⁓
Huge blow. ⁓ Came back and ⁓ really, I mean, ⁓ it was a process of, you know, still negotiating with our client on our final payout. All of my guys were paid out, know, line of credit maxed. ⁓ You know, because in this business, you know, you pay yourself before, or you pay your other guys before you pay yourself. And, you know, they all went to bat for me for, you know, three, four months working.
Quentin (13:31)
Yeah.Pat (13:37)
long days. It was an overnight project, so it was a lifestyle we were in. ⁓ So that was a challenging time. ⁓ Weird thing about it was we got fired from that job, but we still held the client. They’re a real large client out of Texas and ⁓ still work for them, to be honest, to this day.Quentin (14:03)
Hmm.Pat (14:04)
I would say it slowed down a little bit with them at the time. But fortunately, they knew that we did good work and I don’t know if they had a choice in the matter of letting us go from it being that we missed some sites. it’s just kind of a, I would say it’s a little testament to the work that we do is that we kept the client.and still do large projects for them for this day, it was a, I would say that project set us back about a year and a half, two years. ⁓ One of the largest business learning experiences that I’ve had, you know, don’t overextend. ⁓ Don’t let your eyes get too big and learn to say no at times. know, things were running great with two crews until they asked us to add another crew. ⁓
They would have been fine with us saying no about it. ⁓ You you just, you think you,
you know, at that time, you know, I was younger and wanted to, you know, maybe wanted to be, you know, the top crews out there doing the most sites, just not needed, you know, stay within your wheelhouse. Don’t bring, you know, it caused us to bring people in that we didn’t know, you know, going on, you know, I think at that time we were even using Craigslist to patch some crews together.
⁓ Not a good idea. know, it’s just, ⁓ you know, stay within what you know and stick with what works if it’s working, you know. ⁓ Just be a little more careful about expanding things. ⁓ I definitely, you know, as I said, one of the larger learning experiences that I’ve had and something that I still think about, you know, to this day. ⁓ So thankful that it happened. It sucked up the time.
Quentin (16:26)
Yeah.Pat (16:39)
⁓ But onward and upward.Quentin (16:43)
Yeah, No, man, thank you for sharing. That’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. ⁓ And honestly, that’s what separates folks from just the ones that dabble to the ones that stay in it for the long term. And for me, again, it speaks to your vision, right? You have people who’s willing to rally behind you in a moment of crisis. And I believe they do that because they know you have vision. And I think that makes you a good leader.And again, man, I see the through line of vision when it comes to you and how you look at things, how you can turn things around. so again, man, thank you for your honesty with sharing that story. Yeah.
Pat (17:24)
Yeah, I remember one ofmy friends said to me, know, it doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. And, you know, everything is just a stepping stone in life, you know, going from one thing to the next. And you learn, you move forward. And yeah, keep doing that. I think if you have that attitude, you know, everything will…
Quentin (17:33)
Woo! ⁓Pat (17:52)
everything will snowball on you and come back to you.Quentin (17:57)
Absolutely. We can’t build muscle or get stronger without resistance. Resistance is what built muscles. It’s makes us stronger. so, absolutely, man. Thank you so much, Let me ask you this, Mr. Paschek. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for you,Pat (18:18)
Yeah, great question. ⁓ I would say it is the processes of how we handle our work coming in. At the moment, we have three or four different platforms that we’re working off of. Platforms meaning some of our larger clients have their own phone app, their own schedule, their own desktop platform.So we’re working off three or four of those. we also, ⁓ about a year ago, got, ⁓ we use Jobber as a platform to get our work done. So we’re integrating all the, we’re trying to integrate all these ⁓ different schedules together. And they’re really, our biggest issue is they’re not talking to each other. ⁓ Our schedules aren’t lining up. So at times we get,
⁓ overbooked and at times we get underbooked on a day that we think we’re booked. ⁓ We have some technicians missing a few work orders because they just didn’t see it on the specific app that the work order was on. ⁓ So it’s a big challenge for us. ⁓ Whether or not we have to move everything to Jobber, which ⁓ that doesn’t make sense. ⁓ systems and processes, it’s kind of a big
big thing in our industry at the moment. ⁓ But ⁓ definitely something if you want to scale and have a growth, you need to get these in order. ⁓ It’s really the one thing that’s, the things that got me here are not going to be the things that ⁓ move me forward in business. So it’s really… ⁓
Quentin (20:05)
Yeah. Yeah.Pat (20:09)
You know, ⁓ it’s really our biggest obstacle at the moment. ⁓ And it’s really keeping us in the same spot. know, we could stay here forever ⁓ and scramble and kind of run around crazy for a while, or we could ⁓ figure it out. And that’s what we’re trying to do. Figure out how to get to everything, talking with each other. ⁓Quentin (20:14)
Yeah.Yeah, yeah.
Pat (20:41)
you know, some relief, some relief to our work.Quentin (20:45)
Now, man, I hear you and it’s no doubt in my mind you’re going to be able to figure this out. Again, you know, I come back to it, man. You got vision, brother, and I’m sure is going to come to you exactly how to put all the pieces in place because you overcome every obstacle, right? You’re moving from one place to the next. You’re carving out niches. I mean, it’s only right the next transition is figuring this out so you can scale to the level that you want to scale to. And I scale at a pace that I thinkis good for you because right now you’re not doing it too fast. You talked about not going too fast, learning from your mistakes. And so I know you’re right at the natural inclination where you need to go. So I love it, man. I love listening to you talk. I love listening to what’s going on with your business and the next steps that’s right on the horizon. So I appreciate you sharing, think one of the last, next and one of the last questions I want to ask you is when it comes to relationships. mean, you was able to
pull together about 15 people, know, driving in four different states. Again, it shows me that people are willing to buy into you. So I think a lot of people hearing this, that at the early part of their journey or, you know, they’re looking to level up. And I think their benefit hearing from you when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?
Pat (22:12)
It’s all about taking care of people and realizing these people got families, they got goals and dreams just like I do. They want to be cared for. They want to feel like they’re a part of something. I’m fortunate to be able to pay them a good wage and our line of work.One thing that has been big for us is supplying them. ⁓ Every technician we have, we supply them with a vehicle. We supply them with a gas card, ⁓ health and medical. Of course, it’s a big deal, big expense, but it’s a big deal. But we also give them opportunities to ⁓ make bonuses and to make extra money on top of their hourly wage, depending on the work they want to put in. ⁓
You know, and I’m the type I don’t, I take care of them before me. You know, I’m not driving around in $80,000 trucks. All of my stuff is used old trucks because I like them and I know a little bit about ⁓ them. But, ⁓ you know, I would rather invest in people than invest in, you know, ⁓ the big trucks.
Some of these trucks people drive around are, they’re crazy nowadays. ⁓ Not needed, I would rather take that money and get my guy who would take a $10,000 vehicle and be super happy and thankful for it. And I can see that, I can see it. ⁓ So it’s really a…
Quentin (23:40)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.Yeah, yeah.
Pat (24:00)
and investing into them. know, some of my guys I’ve known for six years, six, seven, 10 years, ⁓ you know, they’re out there buying their own houses, you know, taking their own vacations. That’s what makes me feel good about it. ⁓Quentin (24:17)
Absolutely not. I love it, man. I love it, Mr. man. I love the way you talking. I love the way you caring for people. Relationships are everything within any space that we’re in. Relationships are so key. So I appreciate you so much for sharing that perspective. Listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you,Pat (24:44)
Yeah, great question. ⁓ I would say just via email would be good. We live on email nowadays. ⁓ can just reach me at, our email is, well my direct email would be patrick, P-A-T-R-I-C-K at IPCgroupllc.com.Quentin (24:51)
Yeah.Love it. Well, there he is, Cavanaugh, sir. Thank you so much for your time, carving out some time for us. Thank you for your stories, for your perspective. ⁓ We definitely need people within this space that has the heart that you have, putting people first, building these relationships, taking care of the people around you. We definitely need more people like you in this space. So again, thank you, Mr. Patrick, for coming through,
Pat (25:30)
That’s great. Let’s do it again.Quentin (25:32)
Absolutely, absolutely. Now, everyone else, you’ve heard Mr. Patrick, I know you got a ton of value out of this. There’s very few times when I tell you I’m excited that you don’t see my excitement by the end because there are constantly valuable conversations that come out. So, well, Mr. Patrick, you’ve seen it and we’re going to continue to keep bringing you valuable conversations. So, Mr. Patrick, thank you again. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
