Revolutionizing Construction Communication | Buildercoms Podcast

Chris Kiefer (00:00.755)

Ron, started the wrong way. Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Pursuit of Purpose. My name is Chris Kiefer and I am here with Ron Neusbaum. He is the founder of BuilderComs. I'll let him tell you about that in a little bit. But first of all, thank you so much Ron for coming on and being generous with your time.

Ron Nussbaum (00:22.354)

Absolutely, Chris. It is fantastic to be here. I look forward to our conversation.

Chris Kiefer (00:29.244)

So what is BuilderCom's?

Ron Nussbaum (00:31.17)

Yeah, so we're a communication platform built for the construction industry. We help builders and contractors communicate with their clients. Like say we work like air traffic control. We make sure everybody's talking to the right people and then we organize it all per project. So no more chasing emails or chasing text messages.

Chris Kiefer (00:51.339)

And when you say this construction, is this like, I've got my GC and my electrical guy and my plumber and framer, that's the type of stuff that we're talking about communication-wise?

Ron Nussbaum (01:04.674)

So you can utilize it that way. We will build really customer facing for your customer communication. I have guys that utilize it to run their job sites when they don't have an end customer. So they'll have all of their guys on there and utilize it that way. But what we're really built to do is bridge the gap of the communication between builders, contractors, and homeowners.

Chris Kiefer (01:11.954)

Ah.

Chris Kiefer (01:30.395)

Mmm.

Ron Nussbaum (01:30.918)

Number one customer complaint is never the guys. It's never the work. It's always I wish the communication would have been better and After spending a decade in the industry, I understand. It's not that we want to be bad communicators It's just we don't have the right tools So I went out and I built the tool so we could be the great communicators. We were meant to be

Chris Kiefer (01:52.375)

Hmm. So what was the, um, like I'm just thinking I've worked with painting companies, uh, working with a construction company right now, the obviously, yes, I completely agree that customers want better communication, more timely and relevant communication. They don't just want to be blasted with like nonsense updates or whatever, but what is the, like, trying to think of the best way to go about this. Is it the,

Chris Kiefer (02:22.287)

the tool using other apps that people listening might be familiar with. That make sense? It's kind of like texting, however you can do what you can do in this app or whatever.

Ron Nussbaum (02:33.366)

Yeah, so one of the best ways to put what really separates us and where the magic happens is our channels of communication. So think of all your messages that you have. What if we got those organized and we sent those to the right people at your company? So like that guy or lady that runs the schedule, when your customer reaches out, they're talking directly to that person. They're not talking to that sales rep or they're not talking to that foreman that's on the job site.

only if they have questions that pertain to that portion of the job. So we're making sure that everybody's on the same page and instead of just having a bunch of messages and stuff that just goes out to homeowners, we're empowering your clients to reach out to you and ask questions that a lot of times, what they would do is say, hey, I'll wait for the guys to get out here. That sales rep doesn't have the answer, but a lot of times that question can completely delay the job.

at that point in time because it might be something that's mission critical to that job that should have been asked weeks in advance so you could plan for that.

Chris Kiefer (03:40.867)

Hmm. So is this like a slack kind of?

Ron Nussbaum (03:46.124)

You could say slack but built by a Marine that spent over a decade in construction. So a lot easier to use.

Chris Kiefer (03:53.343)

Okay, so yeah, that's awesome. I think that the, what, you ran a construction company for how many years?

Ron Nussbaum (04:04.279)

I ran operations in the construction company for just about six years.

Chris Kiefer (04:08.811)

and then jumped into this, right? Or like started building it for that and then left and now do this full time.

Ron Nussbaum (04:10.684)

Yeah.

Ron Nussbaum (04:14.622)

Yeah, so I've done everything from digging the holes to running the company, scaled to over 25 million in annual revenue, and this is now what I do, is I go out and I work in service of the construction industry. I really have gotten passionate about being on this side of it and actually helping other guys go out there and have the impact they're meant to have.

Chris Kiefer (04:24.632)

That's awesome.

Chris Kiefer (04:37.691)

That's fantastic. So one of the things I know you had told me you were passionate about is actionable tenacity. Tell me, first of all, what is that? And both of them sound, I mean, I could give my guess, but I'm curious, I'm sure there's a succinct definition.

Ron Nussbaum (04:56.874)

Yeah, so it's kind of a coin phrase or phrase that I just kind of coined when I was asked, like what do you pin your success on? How do you describe how you got to where you're at today? And everybody says there's a lot of action. You just gotta take action, you gotta take action, you gotta take action, but action without tenacity isn't going to get you anywhere. But tenacity without action.

isn't going to get you anywhere. And you know, I'm a grinder. I got a lot of grit. And that just that ring a bell. When I put those two words together, I was like, that's what it is, is I've been able to take the action. But at the same time, I've had the tenacity to see it through and get to where we were headed. I think without those two things working in conjunction, failure can occur. Like, you can't just have all action and you can't just have all tenacity.

to actually get to an end result that you're headed towards.

Chris Kiefer (06:00.303)

Hmm. Well, I'm trying to, I'm just looking up the definition of tenacity. Uh, the quality or fact of continuing, continuing to exist or the quality or fact of being very determined, the quality or fact of being able to grip something firmly. Um, so you're, are again, I'm trying to make this or relate this in my mind. So you need to have that quality of being very determined.

and then take action again and again and again in that determination of the goal or thing you're pursuing.

Ron Nussbaum (06:35.986)

Yes, absolutely. You just can't have the determination to just see anything through because you can do that on the couch. Like I can have tenacity to ride it out on my couch. That doesn't involve any action to actually get to where that end goal is. I think we see so many times where people are sitting by and they're watching stuff pass them by and they're like, I got the tenacity. I'm hanging in there, but they're not taking any of the action that it

Chris Kiefer (06:46.392)

Hmm

Ron Nussbaum (07:05.614)

takes to get there. But if you're just out taking action and you don't have any of the tenacity, any of that, just grind it and you're going to stay there and get that stuff done, the action can go without getting anything accomplished. You really gotta bring it to your other in order to get to that end result.

Chris Kiefer (07:20.848)

Hmm.

Chris Kiefer (07:25.459)

Yeah. So how do you are in the past or now, if you're giving someone advice on finding what it is to have the determination and grit for, how are you determining or what would you advise me on? Like, what's the thing that I need to be tenacious about? And this is going to be different for every person. But I'm saying how do I determine what that is for me?

Ron Nussbaum (07:45.086)

Well, that would be completely...

Ron Nussbaum (07:51.082)

Well, what's your vision? Where are you headed? What's the end outcome that you're wanting to create? Because you can't go anywhere without having an understanding of where you're going. And it all starts with the vision. And once you understand that, you can go after it. Because if your goal, let's say one of my goals is to live on the water, or live on the East Coast here on the water where I'm at in North Carolina now.

I used to live on a lake. We decided we wanted to go live by the ocean and live the ocean life. I moved to North Carolina. I got within proximity of that. So now every day I go walk down the streets where one day I will eventually have a house. So I understand the vision. I took an action. I have the tenacity to not lose sight of that. I go out there and I walk the roads. I understand now we don't wanna be on the ocean cause we wanna have a boat.

We want to be over on the sound on the inner coastal where we can have a book. You start to understand this stuff and it all is about having that action that got me here. And then the tenacity that I'm continuing to work towards that every day.

Chris Kiefer (09:02.723)

That's awesome. So I've got lots of things to bring up about that, but I'm curious, what do you do in your life to maintain high levels of actionable tenacity?

Ron Nussbaum (09:15.726)

Ah, so I got this book, 75 Hard, right back here behind me. I'm a big 75 hard guy. I'm a 10X guy. I just believe in you have to be going after it. In high discipline, we're equal to the results. That's what will bring greatness.

Chris Kiefer (09:29.135)

Hmm.

Chris Kiefer (09:34.675)

Yep. And so do you are I guess my other question is like, what are you? Is this like a you do? Are you in the middle? Do you do like continuous 75 hard cycles? I did 75 hard. I did I always tell people that I did it for real, but it took me about 120 days, I think to do 75 hard because forgot to take a picture you know, one of the things like, oh, I'm doing this. I'm doing this legit.

And so I restarted the clock and did it again. But I also feel like there's a part of me that didn't want to stop. Because I was like, I was like sabotaging myself because I wanted to have that excuse of why I was still pushing myself because I'm trying to finish this challenge, you know? But anyway, so that's good. Like, yes, you can do that. That creates willpower and determination and grit. But do you have like, like you said, proximity.

Ron Nussbaum (10:07.264)

Mm-hmm.

Chris Kiefer (10:30.719)

Are you intentional about being in groups of people like mastermind or what do you surround yourself with in order to, what are realistic things that someone could do? So I want to have actionable tenacity, but I work out of the gym, but what else could I physically change about my existence to help that become a more natural occurring thing?

Ron Nussbaum (10:56.506)

Yeah, absolutely. Great question. So yeah, I did 75 hard. I did then I did live hard. So the year deal with all the phases and then I did 75 hard again. The second time was a lot harder than the first time when you have nothing to prove. And now I just try to regiment it like it's my life. I think every day we those core principles you should try to work into your life every day. And that's where I'm focused on that.

And then with groups and masterminds, it's absolutely important to be getting into the right rooms, being around the right people. And you need to understand who all those right people. I'm very selective at this point in time in my life, who I let get close and get around me and it's about not necessarily benefiting each other, but do we play off of each other's strengths? Is there a reason why we should be running as lions through life together?

Like, are we able to watch each other's back and pick that up? So I'm a part of a couple different groups, some masterminds. I think that stuff's very important. And that's where you start to figure out where do you fit. And I'm a firm believer you should never be the biggest dog in the room, but you shouldn't be the smallest dog. You should be in a position to be reaching up and then pulling somebody up at the same time. So your circle should also be that.

So those people that are on your inner circle should be people that are helping pour you along, that are pouring into you, and then people that you're pouring along with you. And I think the hardest part of it all, for me, is we can really be just givers and be out there. And when you're taking all this action and you're getting stuff done, you can be the one that is constantly.

Chris Kiefer (12:22.895)

Hmm.

Ron Nussbaum (12:49.222)

into everybody else, but we have to realize we do have to have people in our life that we can pour into and that can pour, not, that they can pour into us. That, you know, we can decompress to and whoever that is, whether it's a significant other, a spouse, or a really good friend. I mean, people have therapists for this. Like, that's, you have to have a way to also be able to decompress.

Chris Kiefer (12:58.905)

Hmm

Chris Kiefer (13:13.903)

So at what point did these mastermind groups, because I guess I have this leading question, so I'll start with my statement. For me, because I agree with everything that you're saying, I should clarify that, but for me, I went through whatever that would be, the first 29 years, 28 years of my life, and I had coaches for sports when I was in high school and college, but then after that, I...

I mean, I went to a CrossFit gym, so technically I had a coach there. But it wasn't until, I think it was about three years ago, that I invested in coaching. It was a group coaching group with 10 other guys. And there was all different industries and stuff. But that, I would say, was a key, like, pivotal trajectory change because it was like this container of just carving out an hour and a half of my time.

to come to a group and say, hey, this is what's on my mind, this is what I'm gonna complete, and they're like, when you gonna do that by? I'm like, I'm gonna get this done by next week. Come back the next week, sometimes the night before, I'm like, oh crap, I didn't do the thing I was gonna do, I'm gonna do it, so I'm stay up late, finish it, so I can say to the group, I did this. Something that's very simple, but that led to, you know, some relationships and other people that were, I like, I love the analogy used of lions going through life together, you know, like.

Instead of just kind of being whatever animal you are and what in the zoo just kind of anywhere, you know, like you can have Like-minded individuals that are aggressively going through life pursuing stuff So I love that but I guess for me I would say the action of investing in yourself and putting money on the line

to say I'm going to spend money to carve out time in my calendar to get better at XYZ. I just, I think that it's, people that have never tried it, it's hard to come to explain to them or for them to feel the impact that can have. So my question now, cause that was the context of where my head's at, is were you, like at what point did you start joining these masterminds and at what point in the building of BuilderComs were you like,

Chris Kiefer (15:32.42)

Or did that happen first and then builder comps came out of that? Does that make sense?

Ron Nussbaum (15:36.342)

No, no, absolutely that made sense. So no, I mean, I started down this journey. I'm a lifelong learner. And the one thing up until a couple years ago I had never really crossed the line on was just stroking a check. Like to get in these rooms, I always thought, you know, I can have enough atchinibotanacity to get in these rooms. And eventually you do. I mean, it took me over a decade and I got in a room with Grant Cardone at the Tenants Incubator.

not because I paid to be there, because I was invited there because we were partnering. So you can get there, but what I realized was you can shorten the time a lot by stroking a check, and then you get in these right rooms. And you know, at first it might be about the money to get in there, but eventually it becomes not about the money. And you do build relationships. Here are one of the most powerful things about...

Let's talk about going to events and writing checks to get in places. As I went to Jersey to this men's retreat and wrote the check, cost me a few thousand dollars by the time I got up there, went to the one day event, stayed at a hotel, did all of this stuff, and I met a dude that lives 25 minutes from me.

that is an animal, an amazing person. And now we spend a couple hours every week together. We're gonna do a podcast together. But that relationship would have never happened if I would have just been sitting here going, oh, that's too much money. I don't wanna make that investment. I don't think that's going to pay off. I would just be sitting here and all life's would be going on. Two guys that completely align. We're the lions. We're out there running.

Chris Kiefer (17:22.509)

Hmm.

Ron Nussbaum (17:24.386)

We would have probably never met. Live in 30 minutes from each other. Both of us go, well, he flew his plane there, but I drove nine hours, he flew there. But we go that far to meet each other. And then come back here and form this relationship to me. That is worth a thousand times what I spent to go to that event. And that's why you just can't be afraid of it.

Chris Kiefer (17:26.64)

Mmm.

Chris Kiefer (17:39.01)

Mmm.

Chris Kiefer (17:46.467)

Hmm. Yeah.

afraid of it being.

Ron Nussbaum (17:51.918)

Stroke into check.

Chris Kiefer (17:53.439)

Yeah, finding that finding that room, that environment and saying, I'm going to put my money down on this. And it's are you saying that it's the relationships is big. From that. Yeah.

Ron Nussbaum (18:03.454)

I think that, yeah, 100%, it's all about the relationships. It lowers the timeline. Because you get in there and everything can happen a lot faster. The right rooms lead to the right thoughts. You think about stuff differently and you learn faster.

Chris Kiefer (18:22.815)

Yeah, 100%. That's awesome. So what other like, where do you want to take this? So you got builder comms, the actionable tenacity, how, like, what other advice do you have or what have you learned in building? Cause you're still like builder comms. You still own this. You're growing this. What's the end goal for that? What's on the horizon for that? What else do you have going on that you're that you're tackling?

Ron Nussbaum (18:31.423)

I'm gonna go.

Ron Nussbaum (18:41.975)

Mm-hmm.

Ron Nussbaum (18:51.078)

Yeah, so we're just going to continue to grow it. And then my goal is to help 5 million contractors and builders with their communication. And the end goal is to eventually have an exit. That's where we're headed with this. That's why I started building it with the purpose in mind that eventually this would get to the point where somebody would come along and want to write us a check that we're probably not going to say no to.

Chris Kiefer (19:17.871)

Hmm. And so how long ago did you, six years ago did you say you started BuilderComs?

Ron Nussbaum (19:24.306)

No, no, no. Builder comes, we went live in February of this year. I worked on it for the last year of actually getting it all built. So I'm a non-technical tech founder, Marine Corps, 12 years in residential construction, now I own a software company. It's kind of a real leap in thought process, but I'm a believer that as opportunity comes and you have an understanding on

Chris Kiefer (19:29.027)

Okay.

Chris Kiefer (19:45.735)

Yeah.

Ron Nussbaum (19:53.014)

what can actually happen and how you can help people. And my heart was just poured this way.

Chris Kiefer (20:00.491)

Yeah. Do you, um, I'm so like right now, like the, for the, what's the reasonable goal for builder comms? You've got, uh, been in, you've been like live for six, seven months. What are you like? What's your user count? Like, how are, what are you measuring your success by right now or this phase of the business?

Ron Nussbaum (20:15.478)

Mm-hmm

Ron Nussbaum (20:24.766)

So I just, what I measure stuff by is typically where I just continue to fail. Uh, and not in a bad way. Like we have 193 contractors and builders on our platform. We're continuing to grow it. We've convert guys are converting into paid users as well. And the goal is to just continue growing it and have a better understanding of the machine. So I've completely bootstrapped this.

Chris Kiefer (20:33.102)

Yeah.

Ron Nussbaum (20:54.854)

I've raised no money. And I think having an understanding of some of the stuff that's wrong with tech, and if we want to go down that road, because I'm a non-sericon Valley guy. I think people raise a bunch of money. They build products that suck. They look good on paper. And then it just doesn't, it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. It's mediocre at everything. That's why we're never be a CRM. We're never be an Angie's List like.

Chris Kiefer (21:17.915)

Hmm.

Ron Nussbaum (21:24.062)

I just want to fix communication. I want to stay in that lane and I want to be an add-on to everything. And my goal is just to understand the customer journey. Right now is I want to learn what that customer journey is for everybody so I can make that the best it possibly can be as we continue to bring on builders and contractors. I tell people now, we do a completely free project. Just get on there. Tell me what you love and tell me what you think sucks.

Chris Kiefer (21:28.155)

Hmm.

Ron Nussbaum (21:53.55)

Like that's the only way we're ever going to continue to grow this into the platform that I want it to be so I asked for patience as well as Just go out there and utilize it

Chris Kiefer (21:57.06)

Ah.

Chris Kiefer (22:06.495)

Yeah. What I'm curious the for someone that has now built an app and you're non-technical, I think that's even more exciting because I've talked to a number of business owners or just people that are like, oh, we should make an app or we should make a software for this or whatever. How, when, what was your strategy or how did you end up deciding? Like, what would you advise someone on?

when is the right time to go solve this problem or how do you know that it's a big enough problem worth solving that actually is gonna have a good payout for you?

Ron Nussbaum (22:43.63)

So you got to do some market research from either rolling out. It can be as easy as rolling out a landing page and putting your other waitlist and pushing it out there and seeing what the response is. Does something happen? Or just you can go higher. You can have market analysts surveys done. I know some people that that's what they do is they'll go out there and.

They're talked to a hundred two hundred people and see if something has traction like is this something that people would pay for I think Figuring that out and then figuring out where it's at on the pain list So like you might have a great ID, but it might be like number 52 on the list of a hundred pain points somebody has and all they going to pay for number 52 or 51

Chris Kiefer (23:35.905)

Mmm.

Chris Kiefer (23:41.007)

Mmm.

Ron Nussbaum (23:41.206)

So having an understanding of that starts to bring some clarity there. And then just, there's a fly on me there. And then just having an understanding of your industry. Like I'm very knit, like I get poured in different directions all the time. Like people want this to go over into other industries. I think it's applicable to stuff besides the residential construction industry. Absolutely. I think anybody that has a-

Chris Kiefer (23:50.075)

Hahaha.

Ron Nussbaum (24:10.014)

A customer facing business could use Buildacom to improve their communication with their customers. But I'm not going to go chase that because I'm going to stay in my lane over here where I understand the residential construction space.

Chris Kiefer (24:23.547)

Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I would say the, I am, so for example, what I do is I implement technology in automation and system processes and whatnot specifically for painting companies. And it's kind of like an absurd, not only just painting companies, but I would say painting companies between like four and $10 million. That's like my sweet spot.

But if you're a painting company between four and $10 million, I can save you so much time and money that it's like the most no-brainer investment ever. But it's so niche that it's like, it's crazy to tell people, like I sometimes, you know, depending upon how big of a conversation I wanna have, I'll say, oh, I work in tech, I do automation stuff. Like, oh yeah, cool, cool. But that's like what I, that's the simple answer.

But it's because it's so niche, it seems like hilarious or weird to me to try and explain that to somebody. But you're in a similar boat, it sounds like, where you are literally tackling just communication just for residential home builders. And then, and that is a, I mean, I don't know, have you figured out like how many residential home builders are there and what the total addressable market is and stuff like that?

Ron Nussbaum (25:32.75)

Mm-hmm.

Ron Nussbaum (25:44.166)

Yeah, so for residential construction it's mainly contractors and builders is like on it, you know A funny kind of offshoot to that is like I originally built this for big companies But Our fastest growing demographic and who's signing up is contractors and builders within five years Of starting their business. They understand communication is a problem They want to fix it now

and they don't ever want to worry about it ever again. So I had to pivot my entire avatar of who I thought our ideal customer was within like the first 30 days of doing the wait list. Like we found this out in the wait list when all of a sudden everybody that was signing up and the people that were converting on our offer on the wait list, like get somebody's credit card information as well as soon as you can, because that validates something. So like we did a ridiculous offer, $97 for an entire year.

Chris Kiefer (26:36.003)

Hmm

Ron Nussbaum (26:39.134)

if you signed up on a waitlist, you had access to that. And the people that were taking advantage of that would knew, like I'd call them up, I'd interview them. They're new contractors. They're like, I've been doing this for three years. I'm gonna break a million dollars. Communication, biggest pain in my ass, I wanna fix it. So then we pivoted how we were marketing. But yeah, so with that being to answer your question about total addressable market, is we figure if we can get one to 3% of our market.

Chris Kiefer (26:56.099)

Mmm.

Ron Nussbaum (27:08.146)

in that niche area that would create a legacy wealth for my family.

Chris Kiefer (27:15.171)

Mmm, that's awesome. I was gonna say I'm looking at the website is nut nest calm. Is that right?

Ron Nussbaum (27:21.386)

Yep, that's our former brand. We have just we have rebranded from Nutnest Builder Comms.

Chris Kiefer (27:28.163)

Oh, gotcha. Okay. So that builder comes, I'm looking at it here. I can see just kind of the screenshots at least that you have. And I love the idea that you said of trying to get people to pay for it in advance before there's anything. So $97 for, you know, for the entire year. Were you driving like Google ads to this prior to launching, or did you just go to conferences and say, Hey, this is what I'm working on.

sign up if you're interested. Like how are you actually, I agree with this statement of getting people on the list, but how do you get people on the list? How do you get this in front of them?

Ron Nussbaum (28:04.842)

So, I mean, I use my network. I spent over a decade in the industry. I just utilized that, started doing podcast interviews, and just started leveraging what I already had. I have yet to do a conference. Conferences are 2024 is my game plan to start doing conferences, but everything and all of our growth has literally come, you could say from my action over tenacity.

Chris Kiefer (28:25.04)

Hmm.

Ron Nussbaum (28:32.426)

of grinding it out, doing podcasts, taking interviews, going and speaking on stage places, doing webinars. I hang out in Facebook groups. I think Facebook groups are literally most underutilized resource for customers for anything anybody does, period. Whether you're selling technology or you're a painter that is looking for clients, Facebook groups are where our customers live.

and I just live in there.

Chris Kiefer (29:04.079)

Hmm. That's a great idea. And you're just joining construction or home builder groups, whatever, just finding groups like that and then just throw it. Are you prospecting or saying, hey, if any of you are interested, I've got this, I'm trying to solve this thing. What's the strategy once you're in the group?

Ron Nussbaum (29:23.778)

So it just depends on the group and what the group roles are. Typically I can, I'll get into like Oklahoma contractors or Oklahoma home bill, wherever, like they have these niche groups. I'm a member of almost 700 groups on Facebook. I say this and then Facebook's probably gonna take my account away. But what you can do is you just go in there and most of the time I can find people talking about communication problems. Like it's something that is just talked about.

Chris Kiefer (29:39.855)

Hehehe

Ron Nussbaum (29:54.166)

So I'll go in there and I'll jump in those chats. Hey, go check out what we're doing here. More than happy to have a conversation with you. Or if ROAS allow for people to be able to post right in there, is I'll put, I'll just put, hey, I'm looking for eight to 12 contractors and builders that wanna try a new software out I built that will get all your communication, pictures, documents all in one place and organize it per project. And typically when I do that.

in the right size group. So one thing I wanna stress is like groups that have 100,000 people in them, 50, 60, like they're not the right size group. One of the reasons you wanna be niche is you wanna get in these groups that have like 1,500 to a couple thousand people, because you're gonna get a lot better engagement is what I've found. And I'll throw that out there and typically that post will blow up and I'll spend a night.

Chris Kiefer (30:33.359)

very passionate, like, focus topics.

Chris Kiefer (30:41.631)

Mmm. That's a great point.

Ron Nussbaum (30:48.306)

Onboarding people I do it like I don't know if you're familiar with a line aboard our line aboard is fantastic It's absolutely amazing. I will make a post in the general contractors group there and Within a week. I'll have over a hundred comments on it of people wanting to sign up now It's more complicated to get people to work through it on a line of all than it is on Facebook But like these groups are where our customers live whether you're looking for contractors or builders or

Chris Kiefer (31:14.235)

Hmm

Ron Nussbaum (31:16.982)

You're looking for homeowners. Like, I'm part of every group around where I live at here in North Carolina. You work with a lot of painters. If I was a painter, I would want to be in every one of these homeowner groups I'm in. Because you know what people are talking about? Getting their house painted or having their cabinets painted. Like, it's just art.

Chris Kiefer (31:38.763)

That's a great point, yeah.

Ron Nussbaum (31:39.83)

Customers are right there. We can easily just go ahead and give you an opportunity to say, hey, that's exactly what I do. Let me come out. And I think it's just really underutilized.

Chris Kiefer (31:51.883)

So you were pretty excited about alignable. Enlighten me, the only experience I have with alignable is that I was on some list or like a thing where it'd be like so and so wants to connect with you on alignable. And I was like, what the heck is this? I never looked at it. I'm assuming just based on what you're saying, is it kind of like a LinkedIn sort of, or like a social media? Like what exactly is it?

Ron Nussbaum (32:18.386)

It's more, so it's kind of a hard thing to answer, because I don't know if I quite figured it out. So it's more business related. So like when you go on there, my profile is like BuilderCom, but I'm Rod Newspom from BuilderCom, but like when I do stuff on there, it shows up as BuilderCom. So it's more business centric. It's my understanding of what they wanna be longterm is Lee Business Hub.

for business. So anything that you need to have done, whether it's have a website built or do this or get an LLC, like that's a hub. And then you have like your natural geographic areas. So like, I'm in my area, but I'm still able to reach people nationwide. So they're doing locally and nationwide. And why you get that email is every time somebody signs up, they ask you, Hey, do you want to invite everybody from your network?

Chris Kiefer (32:49.003)

Mmm.

Ron Nussbaum (33:15.522)

to come join Alignable. And some people click yes to that, and then they message everybody in your contacts to bring them on there. It's interesting. Like I said, it's a little bit more complicated when it comes to how to do stuff and connect with people. And they modify it.

Chris Kiefer (33:17.803)

Uh, say yes, yeah.

Chris Kiefer (33:34.287)

But you're saying that you got clients from going to Alignable and it's like they, you put out the message, hey, I'm doing this thing, I need eight to 10 businesses, and people are just like, I want to try it.

Ron Nussbaum (33:48.426)

Yeah, absolutely interested. I wanna see that. Let's get on a call. Like in the last month, I've had over a hundred thousand views on my profile on there. And I can pretty much watch it when I make a post, where it would go. Like typically if I make a post, it'll get over 20,000 views on it. So that's basically, I can break down the number. If I make a post, 20,000.

Chris Kiefer (34:11.269)

Hmm.

Ron Nussbaum (34:15.746)

views on it typically just over a hundred comments and then like I said the messaging and stuff on there could be better but I'm a paying user so I can connect with as many people as they will allow me to connect with a month because you can't message unless you're connected with somebody like I can't just call it outbound you

Chris Kiefer (34:34.851)

Yeah, so it's like LinkedIn in that way. Yeah, that makes sense.

Ron Nussbaum (34:37.766)

Yeah, but LinkedIn, you can still call it outbound people. Like without us being connected, we can't trade information.

Chris Kiefer (34:45.003)

Got it. Yeah, that's super interesting. I love the, I love this hack for, for scaling this. I'm curious from a technology side. Um, that seems like that is an enormous roadblock for many people to get into. Like I have an idea, but I don't know anything about coding. So I guess I'm not going to do it. What was the, like literally who did you reach out to, to figure out how to build an app? And now you have an app.

and you've got a development team, I assume. And like, like talk to me about how do you go from not to like, the one thing that I personally struggled with a lot, I'm curious if you had this was where, what is the, like, what language do I code this app in? Who do I talk to? How do I know that person has my best interest and they're understand like how coding languages has, have evolved and there's pros and cons to using different ones and

Like, yeah, what was your process to determine how to do that?

Ron Nussbaum (35:44.942)

So at first a lot of no's. Because a lot of people looked at me as like, hey that's a great idea, but you're probably not the guy to go do that. And I was like, that's BS, I am the guy. Like, what do you mean? And so I just kept going, and I got accepted into Tenets Incubator, which was, there was 23,000 companies that applied to be part of that, and I was one of less than 100 they moved forward with. And I'm one of less than a handful that actually brought a product.

Market which led me to meeting Jared Yellen from project 10k who I partnered with and that's How I developed this like I went and found somebody that's really good at that like I was like I understand this Now I need a partner that can do that and I need somebody that

Chris Kiefer (36:30.504)

Hmm.

Chris Kiefer (36:33.875)

And who, so you had, oh, so you have a business partner who's managing the tech side?

Ron Nussbaum (36:40.423)

Yeah, yeah, yep, absolutely.

Chris Kiefer (36:42.347)

And the 10X incubator, who's the person you said you partnered with?

Ron Nussbaum (36:47.874)

Jared Yellen is, he's the founder of Project 10K. I met him because of the Tenets Incubator. And that he became my partner and it's been absolutely amazing because he has the non-technical background but has built out. So he's originally the founder of Sinduit and he built all of that out and scaled that company. And now he's founded Project 10K where he helps non-technical tech founders.

Chris Kiefer (36:55.064)

Got it.

Ron Nussbaum (37:16.386)

figure out how to validate their ideas and take them to market. So I got around the right people, literally, like people that could make up for my weaknesses.

Chris Kiefer (37:20.91)

Mmm.

Chris Kiefer (37:24.415)

That's awesome.

Chris Kiefer (37:30.731)

And so did this Patrick guy, Patrick Yellen is his name? Or Jared, sorry. I was looking, I just pulled up Project 10K's website. So Jared, is he affiliated with Grant Cardone?

Ron Nussbaum (37:37.506)

Jared.

Ron Nussbaum (37:48.862)

I mean there's some of that there. Grant Cardone's an investor in his company at this point in time.

Chris Kiefer (37:55.275)

Um.

So then that's why I was just wondering like, was he also launching a product or a business? And then you guys were both like incubatees at this incubator?

Ron Nussbaum (38:08.35)

No, no, no. He was part of the program. He was there to help feel, to have an understanding is this stuff that you can actually take to market. Is it something that can be validated? Can we actually build this stuff? He brings that knowledge to that process.

Chris Kiefer (38:12.568)

Got it.

Chris Kiefer (38:23.521)

Yeah.

That's awesome. And then are you still having to pay development fees for that or is that their team is doing that and they get a percentage of the company or the revenue or how that works?

Ron Nussbaum (38:37.914)

Yeah, so there's a combination of that depending on what exactly you're doing. So I don't not 100% on if it's exactly the same for everybody. But yeah, there's equity plus money depending on what has to happen to get the product to market.

Chris Kiefer (38:50.136)

You worked that out.

Chris Kiefer (38:56.319)

Awesome. That's I mean, yeah, I think how did you I just think this is so fascinating. That's like you have Ron who pre 10x incubator was doing whatever you're doing, you know, and then you get in the room here, you meet Patrick or Jared. I don't know why I keep saying Patrick. You meet Jared and then you are now and it's totally you have a software. You've got a couple hundred people that have signed up. You're off and running like.

How many years ago was it that you heard about the 10X incubator? Whether or not that was when you signed up, but like, had you heard about this for...

Ron Nussbaum (39:31.21)

Oh, it was just yeah when I originally signed so I've been a big tenets guy for a long time I originally read tenets role in 2011 So and I read it in 2011 and told my wife one day I'll do a deal with Grant Cardone like that's why I said it took me a Decade to do that deal because I didn't write the checks to go down to Miami and make stuff happen even faster

Chris Kiefer (39:41.038)

Yep.

Ron Nussbaum (39:56.022)

Like I just grinded it out and then eventually when the Tenets incubator came out, I knew that was the opportunity and that was going to be the deal. And here we are now. It's all come to fruition and we went from, I call it a haphazard PowerPoint presentation. Like this is what I was showing. Like I go show people, like this is what we need to build. How do we do this? Most people would say no, I showed it to them. They said, you're the right guy. This is the right product in the right market.

Chris Kiefer (39:56.035)

Yeah.

Ron Nussbaum (40:25.174)

Let's go do this.

Chris Kiefer (40:25.243)

Hmm, that's awesome. I think, yeah, this is, I had no idea about the 10X incubator thing and it looks like he has, he's got some different, on his website for the 10X, there's the product idea, service idea and tech idea. And if you click tech idea, it takes you to the pitch10k.com landing page. And that's Jared's company.

Ron Nussbaum (40:50.09)

Yeah, so they, yep, and they mixed it up a little bit now to where they take other stuff. Like originally they would just take in like early stage software companies and now they do all kinds of different stuff. And like the software goes through Project 10K and then I don't know exactly where the rest of the stuff, I haven't had an ID that was a product or anything yet.

Chris Kiefer (41:16.575)

Yeah, that's awesome. So cool. Yeah, I think that I just, the, like you said, you heard about this, but it took you many years to write the check and get down and get in the room. And that's a fantastic way to shortcut and move quicker to things, you know?

Ron Nussbaum (41:36.246)

Yep.

Chris Kiefer (41:38.327)

So last couple questions I have for you. Well first I always end with, is there anything else that you came in thinking like, or based on what we were talking about, closing remarks, comments, things you wanna share before we move to my wrap up questions.

Ron Nussbaum (41:55.286)

I just think that if anybody out there is listening, I'm just a guy from Akron, Ohio, that was in the Marine Corps, spent over a decade in residential construction. If you have an ID, just chase it down. Don't be afraid to go get it. There's nothing that separates most people other than the inability to just chase their dreams and then take that action of a tenacity to go get it.

Chris Kiefer (42:23.171)

Hmm, that's awesome. So books are my ask everybody this three book recommendations They can be related to this unrelated your favorite books But I always ask I like to know what people are reading and what they are inspired by

Ron Nussbaum (42:39.398)

Absolutely, so pretty cut and dry. Three books everybody should read to change their life. Ten Eds Roll, 75 Hard, Tratchin'.

Chris Kiefer (42:48.635)

Hmm. I've read all those. They're all I would second that I remember Yeah, you can't read it and sit on the on your ass and then wonder why nothing changed That's awesome. I yeah, I remember reading 10x back in you said 2011 I don't think I stumbled across it until 2014 or 15 but um

Ron Nussbaum (42:53.972)

And then you just have to take the action. What they say in the book.

Ron Nussbaum (43:01.036)

Yep.

Chris Kiefer (43:13.775)

Have you read 10X is easier than 2X? Just came out maybe four months ago from Dan Sullivan.

Ron Nussbaum (43:21.13)

No, I have not.

Chris Kiefer (43:23.087)

So do, or if you, I'm an audible guy, so I listen to everything in audible, but I would say take a look at that, because it's just, yeah, I would say, it's a fantastic framework to think about how you want to scale and grow. And my summary of the book is, when you think about literally 10Xing your.

And they say to make it very tangible. So whether it's user count or revenue or whatever it is, the number doesn't matter on some level, because it's just a target. But at the same time, it does really matter because it helps our brains process the scale of what we're talking about. So if you have 200 users right now, it's like, okay, your goal is to get to 2,000. And then once you get to 2,000, your goal is to get to 20,000. And when you're...

trying to solve the problem of get from 200 to 2000, you're gonna tackle that and think about solving that in a much different way than if you were like, I think we should grow 20% year over year, and you just do more of what you're doing. But in order to 10X yourself, you can't continue to do what you're doing most of the time because there's so much waste that you have in your life that you gotta clear out.

to streamline how do I get myself to that 10X version of the business or myself or whatever it is. So it's another, it's a book that is right in, I would say it is similar but has very distinct like mindset shifts than the Grant Cardone book, but I like both of them. Any, yeah, last question, favorite movie.

Ron Nussbaum (45:03.038)

Mmm, or take a look at it

Ron Nussbaum (45:12.776)

I mean the first thing that jumps to mind is Braveheart but I haven't seen that in a wire. I mean I think Top Gun is pretty good, the original one.

Chris Kiefer (45:21.751)

Ooh, top gun, I like that. And if people wanna get in touch with you, Ron, how would you recommend that they do that?

Ron Nussbaum (45:29.81)

Yeah, I'm pretty much everywhere on social media. It's kind of hard to miss me. We're on News Bomb, Instagram, Facebook, any you name it, LinkedIn, anywhere. If you want to check out what we're doing, BuilderCom.com

Chris Kiefer (45:43.731)

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on today, Ron. It was fun and we will be seeing you around for sure.

Ron Nussbaum (45:50.814)

Absolutely, man, it's been fantastic.