Podcast Guests

Mike and Brian are joined by Russell Roberts, General Superintendent of Rod Heisler Construction. Russell grew up destined for construction, it seems, with construction pumping through the veins of both sides of his family. As a young man, he joined the Navy, and upon finishing his service, made the move into construction as a Superintendent. Now as a General Superintendent, focusing on leadership and living by the motto of “Be better today than you were yesterday”, Russell selflessly pours into his team at Rod Heisler Construction on a daily basis. If you’re looking for an episode on leadership in construction and you’re looking for a person to carry that mantle, Russell Roberts is your guy!

Mike and Brian are joined by Ophir Levin, Owner of 911 Restoration of Ventura, Santa Barbara, & San Luis Obispo. Starting his journey growing up in Israel, Ophir, like all Israelis, went to the military and served in the Special Forces, and after meeting him and seeing his willingness to take on any challenge at any time, you can quickly see where his training and mindset come from. His positivity and devotion to overcoming hurdles work perfectly with the fact that he owns a restoration business – where they come to address disasters and tragedies. On top of that, they’re growing rapidly in just two and a half years in business. This one for sure is a keeper!

Mike and Brian are joined by Rich Rozycki, CEO of Crate Modular. Coming from a family that generationally was involved in construction, Rich took a different path and became a lawyer… but he specialized in construction law. No longer a practicing attorney and now running a multi-million dollar modular construction company, that knowledge and expertise is key to the company and its growth. With all of that said, Crate Modular, like some of our guests in the past, is part of this new wave of innovation where technology and construction meet and work together to improve overall cost and significantly improve return on investment more quickly to the project owner.

Mike and Brian are joined by Carolina Alvarez, President of J&S Building Maintenance, Inc. Working for a large national janitorial company and traveling half the month, Carolina opted to start her own janitorial construction company and create her own destiny. And the life lessons in this one are golden – from realizing she needed to have a construction license at the start of the company to having the right people in place for executive and management positions, this episode should be saved and downloaded for future reference. Thank you Carolina for your pearls of wisdom!

Mike and Brian are joined by April Morse, Owner of Weber Company. Immediately after graduating college, April began working towards her teaching credential with the hopes of becoming a teacher. But, growing up with a dad that owned a custom cabinetry shop and a mom that was retiring from doing the books, April found herself working at the family business – and loving it! Fast forward through the Great Recession of 2008, she’s gathered a ton of lessons and applied those to the business (we call that Wisdom!) and is taking every day in faith and gratefulness. Talk about a rad boss and company to work with and for!

Mike and Brian are joined by Robert Cianciminio, COO of Glazing Concepts, Inc. Back in 1991, after Robert had been honorably discharged from the US Navy Reserves, he took an outside sales position in the automotive industry and he hated it. So, he took an estimating position for a glass company at $6 per hour – keep in mind he was married with two kids! Now 30 years later, he’s the COO of Glazing Concepts, a rapidly growing glass company. No stranger to hard work, Robert starts every morning at 3 am, has his son now running all safety protocols within the company and thrives off of the challenges each new day presents in construction. Huge thanks to Robert for joining us!

Mike and Brian are joined by Clayton Rodrigues, CEO and Founder of Zothex Flooring, Inc. Originally from Brazil, Clayton came to the States to go to medical school, but through a series of events decided to go into flooring… and not just get into it, but open his own company. Now, six years later, he’s got 50 employees, opening his 4th store with plans and goals to open 20 stores within the next 5 years! And the key to all of this – vision. Clayton’s got vision pouring out his ears. He hires like-minded individuals from the beginning to aid in the mission of the company. He’s looking for hungry people that want to work and do anything and everything they can for the cause because that’s who he is. And it is working. If you’re lacking that drive, if you feel stuck, then this is the episode for you! We promise you, you’ll want to check this one out!

Mike and Brian are joined by Kirk Lane, President of Direct Shades & Blinds, Inc. With a 30 year background in the Event Technology industry, Kirk has a ton of crazy fun stories that led him to working for Direct Shades & Blinds – a contractor working all over the western US installing commercial window coverings. In fact, you’ll quickly see that his 30 years of management, production, and sales outside the industry provides a rich new perspective to the business side of the construction industry.

Mike and Brian are joined by Ray Goldsboro, President of Bonanza Plumbing. After one year of community college, Ray went to work for a plumbing company for the summer and that really started his love for the industry. He went back to school for a semester, but went right back to that same company in the winter! Now, as the President of Bonanza Plumbing – a plumbing company that specializes in new residential plumbing installation, specifically new residential tract development, he gets into the specifics of running his company, having a strong team that’s motivated to work together, growth, and new verticals to continue to grow the company. Please welcome Ray Goldsboro to our Podcast family!

Mike and Brian are joined by Mike Echelmeier, Owner and Founder of Echelmeier Consulting and Constructability Review. Growing up, Mike’s dad, a bridge engineer, worked with contractors all over the world building bridges – and that afforded them opportunities to live for some time all over southeast Asia. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and Mike, the only child in his family to get the construction bug, went to work for a whole list of contractors and construction management companies, including an opportunity to work for some time in Saudi Arabia building a hospital for the King. Now, marrying his construction experience and his affinity for detail, Mike heads a company that specializes in constructability review – reviewing architectural drawings and plans before construction to ensure everything is spelled out correctly for the contractor to keep projects from getting sidelined because of incomplete plans and hammered with unnecessary change orders. If you’re looking for experience and stories, not only will you be thoroughly entertained, but you’ll be able to bookmark this episode for future reference and knowledge checks! Huge shoutout to Mike for jumping on the show!