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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Kirk Welsh, a licensed architect and entrepreneur based in Detroit, Michigan. Kirk shares his inspiring journey from humble beginnings to becoming a successful business owner of Housewarming, a flooring company. He discusses the importance of mentorship, personal routines, and the significance of building strong relationships in business. Kirk emphasizes the need for integrity and professionalism in the construction industry and outlines his vision for growing his business to a multimillion-dollar enterprise.
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Kirk Welsh (00:00)
Like this is not for the faint hearted, this is not for the weak. There’s many days that I wake up and I’m super discouraged, like why am I doing this? But then my positive thinking really kicks in and say, you built for this, there’s no other way to do it. And you gotta keep going. So I feel like your relationship with yourself has to be on point because if you’re of love, then you can give love to others. If you’re full of integrity, you can give integrity to others.Quentin (00:08)
Yeah.Woo! Yeah.
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Heard me say this before, my guests have a way of firing me up right before I press record, right before we come here. And this is no different, man. We have someone here who does excellent work, who is amazing. What I love about this gentleman is that he’s bringing professionalism to construction. Listen, y’all heard, and this is no shot to you, GE, General Contractors.
But we know we’ve heard some horror stories about reliable contractors. We’ve heard some horror stories. This gentleman has an architect background. He’s bringing that professionalism, that keen eye to construction. And I’m so happy for us to get a chance to talk to Mr. Welsh. Mr. Kirk, how you doing today,
Kirk Welsh (02:47)
I’mdoing amazing, feeling great, feeling good. Blessed to be here.
Quentin (02:51)
My man, well, listen, I’m blessed to have you here. And I don’t want to waste any time, man. I want to dive in. So I want you to tell people what your main focus is these days. Give us a little bit of an origin story if you don’t mind. We love origin stories. I want to know where your hero journey began. And then also, man, tell them what city you’re up in, man. Tell them what market you’re operating in. So Kirk, sir, man, let’s give a floor.Kirk Welsh (03:17)
All right, perfect. So I could start with name and city first, because that’s the most important thing. I say, my name is Kirk Welsh. I am a licensed architect, been practicing in the industry for a decade and a half. Recently, I would say within the last year or so, decided to take a different path, which was entrepreneurship.I’ve always been interested in real estate, architecture, construction, all those things. Alongside being a licensed architect, I’ve been a real estate investor for the last five years. Here in Detroit, Michigan, all the way, it’s cold here from the dirty glove from the Midwest. So that is me and where I’m from and where I’m operating. The most…
Recent thing, and I think the focus of today is my company, Housewarming. Housewarming is a flooring company here in the Detroit area. So we service three counties, Oakland County, Macomb County, and Wayne County. And we are a reliable, communicative company that’s built off integrity and professionalism to help people alleviate their stress when it comes to ⁓ performing.
flooring services on whether it’s their commercial properties or residential properties. In terms of origin story, ⁓ that’s an interesting one. So born and raised in Detroit, come from just a typical background growing up in that era in the early 90s. So after high school, I went off to study at the University of Michigan.
And I never really knew anybody that went to college at all. So that was my first experience in going to an institution and one of the top institutions in the world, University of Michigan Ann Arbor. But before that, I could say what actually helped me to get there was my upbringing in Detroit. And I went to a high school called Cas Tech High School. And the reason I want to highlight Cas Tech High School is because
What we had to do is we had to take a sort of, ⁓ what do you call that, an interest exam at the beginning. So they made you just fill out the sheet and they put you in to these different categories of industries. So I was placed inside of the architecture sort of curriculum. So I had a drafting class and that’s what introduced me to architecture early on. But I can honestly say if I didn’t go to CAS and that was not…
Quentin (06:37)
Yeah.Kirk Welsh (06:45)
the first step for me, I probably wouldn’t have ended up in architecture. So that’s kind of what kickstarted everything for me being in that drafting class. I went to University of Michigan, studied architecture, undergraduate degree, went over to the west side of the state, Grand Rapids, Michigan and started my career building houses for Habitat for Humanity. So this is what really married the architecture thing for me with the construction thing.Quentin (07:07)
Mm.Kirk Welsh (07:13)
I was making $400 a month building houses for Habitat for Humanity. And I rented a room off Craigslist and I just made it happen. And from there, worked my way up, ended up riding past an architecture firm. I realized that I had an undergraduate degree in architecture, but never went to an architecture firm. Called him up. I said, hey.Quentin (07:38)
Mmm.Kirk Welsh (07:41)
I graduated from University of Michigan. I actually graduated in architecture. I’m not interested in anything. I just want to come by and be able to tour an architecture firm. And do you know that tour? guy has a mysterious way of working because I was tour, I was, I was led on a tour by a guy that was on his way out of the company to start his own the very next week. AndWe did the tour, I just was super interested in seeing the firm. And by the end of the tour, he said to me, he’s like, I really love your energy, I love your vibe, I love your enthusiasm, would you be interested in doing an internship? And I took on the internship, it started probably three months after that. It was paid, I wasn’t even expecting it to be paid. And that’s what kickstarted my career in terms of architecture. was…
building houses for Habitat for Humanity part-time, and I worked at an architecture firm full-time. And the story get even more interesting. I was sitting in the office one day, it’s probably two years after I started, sitting in the office one day in the middle of the winter time. I got invited to a wedding out in Puerto Rico. Went to Puerto Rico, went to the wedding.
Probably stayed there four days, fell in love with the place. I mean, the weather, the people, the culture, did not know the language, but just fell in love with the place. Came back to Grand Rapids a couple days later. I was like, hey, I want to become a licensed architect. And in order to do that, I have to have a master’s degree. So what I did was, middle of the winter time, I just got from Puerto Rico where it was 80 degrees outside.
I looked on the list of accredited programs at University of Puerto Rico, applied, got in, dropped everything a couple months later, moved to Puerto Rico and studied there. Did not know that the entire program was in Spanish. Got down there on my first day, realized that the entire program was Spanish.
Quentin (09:48)
youKirk Welsh (09:59)
but I was committed at that point. So got my master’s degree in architecture at the University of Puerto Rico, all in Spanish, and decided to come back to Michigan in 2019 ⁓ and really kickstart the second leg of my career as a real estate investor, as a licensed architect, and eventually as a full-time entrepreneur running a fluent company called House Women Today.Quentin (11:03)
Man, bro, listen, the hero’s journey came to my mind when I was introducing you, but man, listening to you unfolded, bro. This is literally a hero’s journey from cast tech that really got you into architecture, right? Really played a big role into your perspective the way you think now, the tools that you have.Kirk Welsh (11:04)
Yeah.Quentin (11:30)
to Habitat of Manity, $400 a ⁓ month, bro, to go on, to see a firm, to go on a tour, to get the internship that you didn’t even think was paying, but paid out to Puerto Rico to where you are now. Man, what a journey, bro. What an incredible, incredible journey. And thank you for sharing, man. Like that’s remarkable.Kirk Welsh (11:34)
Yeah. ⁓Quentin (11:57)
and shout out to Puerto Rico, me and my family went. And within one day, we wanted to move to Puerto Rico. And so I can just imagine the architecture, like how that played with your brain, because the architecture is just, it’s amazing. And so I hear you, man. And so, you have, you know, I hate to determine, it comes to my mind, but sometimes it just such a badge.Kirk Welsh (12:03)
yeah, yeah.Mm.
Quentin (12:24)
connotation, but you literally pulled yourself up by your bootstraps, right? Like you really, you know what saying? and so you, you’re found success, you found a lane and you told me all the things that have helped you out, but I want to specifically see if we can hone in on some strategies. And I want you to answer this two, two ways. What are some business strategies that you use that really help you out and what are some personal strategies like some personal.Kirk Welsh (12:42)
Mm-hmm.Quentin (12:53)
mantras or personal, just like affirmation or even just like personal routines such as meditation or whatever. I’m just throwing stuff out there, but what are some personal things that power you business wise and that power you personally?Kirk Welsh (13:09)
Quinn, that’s such a great question. I wasn’t even expecting to be asked that question, but I think that that’s super important and I live by that each day. And I think business and personal ties into one another. So a strategy that’s helped me a lot from the beginning is mentorship. Mentorship, a lot of times, and I can speak in our community, we not talk the importance of mentorship and coaching.You have to be able to learn from somebody to get to where you need to get to because if you don’t, then chances are you’ll either never get there or it’ll take you 10 times the amount of time it’ll take you to get there. If you pay for and invest it into yourself. I have several business coaches and one business coach, he talks to me about the power of investment, the circle of investment.
First, you have to invest into yourself first and foremost. And you have to spend all of your extra money to invest into yourself, your skills, your personal skills. that’s communication, public speaking, ⁓ just empathy for other people, ⁓ sales, marketing, all of these other soft skills and hard skills that are super important in business and just being personal in your personal life. So I’ll say the power of investing into yourself via coaching.
Quentin (14:19)
Oof. Ooh.Kirk Welsh (14:33)
and mentorship has helped out tremendously. And I was introduced to it. I was skeptical about it at first, but I’ve never turned back since then. ⁓ And it’s like walking in Walmart and you actually looking for, I was looking for a tape measure one day in Walmart. And I said, I could either walk this whole store and spend 10 minutes trying to figure out the statement or I can ask somebody that works here and they send me straight to the place I need to beQuentin (14:51)
Yeah, yeah.Kirk Welsh (15:42)
and I could.went, looked at the tape measure, found the one I wanted to purchase, went to purchase it and walked back to my car in 10 minutes. So that is the analogy I like to use when it comes to mentorship and coaching. And in terms of personal, I have a very strict routine every day. I wake up every day at 430 in the morning. I get to the gym at five o’clock, five, five thirty. I work out.
Quentin (15:51)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.Yeah. Yeah.
Kirk Welsh (16:10)
an hour a day. ⁓ And then after that, I come back home. I do 45 minutes of reading. I make sure I read some fiction to feed my brain because I’ve already fed my body, feed my mind. Then after that, I take a shower, get myself together, meditate for 10 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes.And then I do journaling and visualizing for 10 to 15 minutes. And what that does is it sets the day for me and it sets my energy before I get into anything else. And the way I learned that was when I was working in architecture industry, I was waking up even before I was taking a shower, opening up my laptop. And before I knew it, I was doing stuff for everybody else and not getting to myself. And that was really, really…
Quentin (16:55)
Mm.Kirk Welsh (16:57)
I was really feeling conflicted mentally, emotionally, but most importantly, spiritually. And it really got to me day after day. And then I realized that I have to pour into myself first before I give to anybody else. And since then, that’s helped me to adopt that sort of daily routine and ritual that gives me the energy to be able to compete to the highest level in business as I… ⁓as I grow our business house warming because everything you do outside of the business is only going to help you in the business. It’s not the other way around. And that’s from how I feel about
Quentin (17:30)
Mm.Man.
Man, Kirk, thank you so much for answering that question in detail and in depth. You know, I love asking that question. I love when I get that perspective from different people because we have to have something in our life that grounds us. We have to have something that resets us. We have to have something that refuels us. And you’re right. You can’t separate, especially when you’re an entrepreneur, can’t separate your personal from the business. You are the business. You are the brand.
Kirk Welsh (17:51)
Yes.Yeah.
Quentin (18:05)
Every standard, everything you have in you is going to weave itself into business one way or another. One way or another, it’s either it’s going to be intentionally or it’s going to be unintentionally. Like if you’re not disciplined, it’s going to weave its way into the company. If you’re not motivated, it’s going to weave its way into the company. And so for you to be a visual person and to have that creative mind that God has blessed you with, to be able to take 10 minutes, 20 minutes to visualize.Kirk Welsh (18:13)
yeah.Quentin (18:34)
that directly affects the business. And so thank you, man. Thank you for taking us through some of the core strategies that you use in business and in your personal life. I really appreciate it. It blessed me, man. So I thank you for sharing real talk. absolutely, man. So then you got to tell me, man, housewarming, what’s the next real goal? Like, what are you looking to solve a scale next?Kirk Welsh (18:37)
for sure.For sure. I appreciate you asking the question.
To grow the business, we’re our early stages. So this is a startup business. Startup business, we’ve opened our doors officially in January of this year. So we clocking in on one year officially. And my focus now for the next three to five years is to grow our business to a multimillion dollar business. My goal is to grow to a $5 million business. So that is the, that’s the North Star.
That is the focus. Like I said, real estate investor. I’ve even vowed to not even buy any more real estate properties for the next three to five years in order to focus on growing the business and really give to it. A month or two ago, I shut down my architecture business because I was doing architecture projects on the side. But as long as you, if you give yourself out, you never give yourself a way to go all in. And for me,
Quentin (19:30)
Yeah. Yeah.Kirk Welsh (20:00)
⁓ For sure. For sure.Quentin (20:01)
I’m sorry, bro. I’m sorry, Keep talking, man. I’m sorry, man. Keep talking. I’m sorry, bro.Kirk Welsh (20:07)
for me, I have to go all in on building this flooring business because it’s given so much value to the other end and business is meant to serve people. It’s meant to solve problems for people.And a huge challenge in the industry is finding reliable contractors that’s going to show up, that won’t take your deposit, that’s really built off integrity and really built off professionalism, reliability, all of those things that are important. And I want to continue to give that because I see how it’s affecting the end user, how it’s affecting the people on the other end of the transaction. You’re not giving me or giving us money or transacting with us just
just to give us money, just to get a mediocre outcome. I really pour into the end user and the end result. And I put my heart and my soul into making sure that they feel completely satisfied at the end of the day. And it’s not even about a referral to me. It’s just about being a great human being at the end of the day.
Quentin (21:10)
Yeah, I say it on so many podcasts. I think the foundation to any business, sustainable business, is servitude. When you really want to serve people, I always say people are the real currency. That’s something I say all the time. It’s like you invest in people, you will get an amazing return on your investment. And it will come through resources or it may come through money. It may come through connections. Like when you invest in people,Kirk Welsh (21:18)
Yes.Quentin (21:37)
and you serve people, that foundation is unshakable, unshakable. I gotta mention this to you, because as you talk, this book has me in a choke hold. It’s called Gradually, Then Suddenly by Mark Batterson. Gradually, then suddenly. He says success happened two ways. Gradually, then suddenly. And in his book, he talks about how Walt Disney built, know, Walt Disney, know, how Washington.Kirk Welsh (21:41)
Yes.Okay. ⁓
Quentin (22:06)
was laid down and built. talks about long vision and long obedience. And bro, I got, I almost got emotional when I heard you say you shut down the architectural business. I know that wasn’t easy, right? But you are focusing, like you are doing things gradually and things that eventually going to happen suddenly. So the things, the work that you’re putting in gradually, bro, bro, do I have to read your resume again? We’re talking about Casttec, $400 a month.Kirk Welsh (22:27)
Yes.Quentin (22:36)
go on a tour, get an internship, go to Puerto Rico. I think you can identify with gradually than suddenly. So bro, I just gotta tell you, House Mormon, you are doing the right thing. You have to make some hard decisions, but you have lived a life of gradual and some things have happened suddenly. And this is gonna be no different, bro. When the success come, five million, I hear you. I know that’s the North Star.Kirk Welsh (22:51)
Thank you. Yes, sir.Quentin (23:06)
I hear you, you will reach 5 million, you will surpass that and it’s going to happen suddenly. And it’s going to happen though, because you respect the gradual process. And so I just had to, you know, just say that to you, I do want to talk a little bit before we get out of here about relationships real quick. What are your, what are your ideas and perception around building relationships? Have they benefited you? I know you talked about mentorship, so I want you to talk about a little bit about.Kirk Welsh (23:23)
Yeah.Quentin (23:34)
building relationships and how they really benefited you.Kirk Welsh (23:38)
Bro, that’s the nucleus of everything. That’s the nucleus of everything. you know, if you don’t have solid relationships in life, then it’s just not meaningful for me as I think about this. ⁓ You know, even when, so I have five core things that I live by in terms of ⁓ you have to have on point, you have to be in alignment as an entrepreneur. And it’s spiritually.Emotionally, spiritually, mentally, physically, financially, and relationally. And relationally is multifaceted. It’s so many different levels to that. Your personal relationship, your relationship with self, first and foremost. Your relationship with self has to be on point, especially in entrepreneurship. Because if you think that you’re going to wake up every morning and think that everything is all good, you are out of your mind.
Quentin (24:21)
Ooh!Kirk Welsh (24:33)
Like this is not for the faint hearted, this is not for the weak. There’s many days that I wake up and I’m super discouraged, like why am I doing this? But then my positive thinking really kicks in and say, you built for this, there’s no other way to do it. And you gotta keep going. So I feel like your relationship with yourself has to be on point because if you’re of love, then you can give love to others. If you’re full of integrity, you can give integrity to others.Quentin (24:41)
Yeah.Woo! Yeah.
Yeah.
Kirk Welsh (24:59)
And as it relates to business relationships, like that’s the nucleus of everything, even in an industry like this construction. I’m piercing an industry where they have relationships built for decades, where people inherit in legacy companies that their fathers and grandfathers have built relationships and.had them have a company that they can inherit, a legacy company that they can inherit and not have to start relationships from zero because it’s all about relationships. You can go and get in rooms that you’re not necessarily qualified to be in because of a relationship. I got my first internship from an architecture firm based off of a relationship that I developed with a person off of a 15 minute tour.
and that kickstarted everything for me. I ended up in Puerto Rico based off of being invited to a wedding based off of a relationship. So I feel like the success in life and the places that you go in life are truly based off relationships. And as I grow our flooring business, and I say our flooring business, because it’s not mine, it’s ours, because
We have a team and it’s based off of great relationship. I hold relationship building to be number one, relationship building and partnership. And that’s the way that I grow the business is based off of focusing on the relationships and the partnerships that I develop and how I show up for people before we even do a transaction. And a lot of times people want to get to the transaction first, but the business sometimes comes three months, six months a year.
two years, but if you build the relationship over time, it’ll be easy transition straight into the business and being able to transact more meaningfully at the end of the day.
Quentin (26:59)
Man, you mentioned two relationships. You relationship with yourself and then relationship with others. And that is something that I’m learning. Like I’ve said it to myself, but it’s becoming so vitally deep rooted in me that I have to have a positive relationship with myself before I can show up and try to have a positive relationship with anybody else. Business and my marriage, friendships, and I am learning, bro.Kirk Welsh (27:19)
Amen.Quentin (27:27)
I am showing up for myself. Therefore, I’m showing up for others. And so, man, when I look at what you’re doing, the way you’re showing up for yourself, it’s no surprise to me that you’re building these amazing relationships as you show up for others. And so, Kirk, man, I appreciate you so much for being here today. This has been absolutely wonderful. Listen, man, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you,Kirk Welsh (27:33)
Yes.Quentin (27:54)
Connect with you, collaborate with you, hire the firm. What’s the best way for them to get in contact with you, sir, in order for them to reach out?Kirk Welsh (28:04)
Yeah, most definitely. That’s great to actually do that and be able to give information out. So I would say there’s two ways on social that you can connect with me really quickly. And that’s today, right now.is one, I’m on LinkedIn very heavily. First name is Kirk, K-I-R-K, and last name Welsh, W-E-L-S-H. So if you look me up, you’ll see me there. There’s a couple of different Kirk Welshes, but one, I housewarming, so you’ll be able to see me, brand and the company, and myself on LinkedIn. And then two, I would say the other quickest way to reach out to me and to connect with me is on Instagram.
and the handle is kirk_the.mogul Those are the two quickest ways to reach out to me. And I also have a free gift I would love to give to you via DM. If you follow me.
Quentin (28:57)
Mm.Kirk Welsh (29:00)
and ⁓ message me mogul. I’d love to give you a free gift that really provides some value to you. And it is a kit talking about some flooring things that could be really helpful for you as you start to vet out different contractors in the industry.Quentin (29:16)
Well, y’all heard him, Kirk giving away game and gifts. Y’all hear what I said? Giving away games and, when I say games, I’m talking about free game. I’m talking about nuggets. I’m talking about values. know, everybody, we Detroit and Baltimore, we know what talking about game is, they’re like, he didn’t sound like he was playing the game. He sounded like he was really serious. No, Kirk is giving away nuggets and vice, and he’s also giving away gifts. so, Kirk, man, I say this with all sincerity, sir.Kirk Welsh (29:32)
It sure.the front end.
Quentin (29:46)
Thank you for your story. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your perspective. This has been wonderful, man. So I appreciate you so much for coming through.Kirk Welsh (29:56)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me. Appreciate the audience. Appreciate you and just such great questions. And then most importantly, your energy cue. Really appreciate you, brother. Thank you.Quentin (30:05)
Appreciate that real talk, absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard it, Kirk. You’ve heard the gems. Y’all see why he got me fired up right before I came on. So listen, definitely make sure you check out all the information that he gave you, get in contact with him, and please make sure you are subscribed. You do not want to miss out on this amazing content and these amazing people just like Kirk that we continue to bring up. So Kirk, thank you again. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
