S.2 Ep.23 TMH Nancy Novack - Modern Construction Methods
Of all the ways the building industry is innovating and evolving, the use of modular construction methods is perhaps the most practical and promising way to increase efficiency in the field.
Nancy Novak joins The Morning Huddle to talk about her experience with Modular Construction in her role as the Chief Innovation Officer at Compass Datacenters where she brings immense experience as a General Contractor to perhaps the most forward-thinking sector in the construction industry.
Nancy's passion for creating positive change in the industry will inspire you to start thinking differently about what is possible no matter what market sectors you build in.
Transcript:
00:00
Speaker 1
We need to get back to work. And work is one of the ways that we contribute to this country, that we grow our gdp, we grow our tax base, we contribute to each other effectively. We help finance our national security, our homeland security, our, you know, our infrastructure. I had key employees that really wanted to be leaders in the company, but they didn't want to have any ownership in it, responsibility that way. So I just had to start researching out and figuring out, well, how do I market my company?
00:27
Speaker 1
Go to your local school board for one hour twice this year and if you can have even just 10 or 15 employers show up and do that at the same school board every single month, there's two contractors filling out a little card to give her 30 seconds at the podium that says I need your help and we have great jobs. Eventually they will hear you. But if everyone just did two hours a year, that's how we change this. Stacy, how you doing this morning? I'm doing great. She loves it. I ask the question every time she's like I'm fine dude, just a little much.
01:00
Speaker 2
And I say to that owner, I said sue, you're not willing to invest in yourself. You're not going to invest in yourself. You're going to invest in companies you have no control over, whereas your company you control and you don't have the confidence to pour the money into that. When things are busy and they're looking for their GC friends to sit down and negotiate a project on a GC and a fee and they're more excited about building the project and then all of a sudden the model, the market swings and now the developer market is wanting to go out and they're going to hard bid the same project to two or three different GCs and that's where it starts going down.
01:43
Speaker 1
It's morning huddle time. Good morning. Chad Frinke here with Stacey Holzinger and Nancy Novak, our guest today. Good morning. Good morning. How are you Stacey and Nancy?
01:52
Speaker 3
Good morning. Doing great.
01:54
Speaker 4
Yeah.
01:55
Speaker 1
Excellent. Long Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully everybody got a chance to enjoy. Best thing that happened for you this weekend, Stacy, what was it?
02:03
Speaker 4
I got done so much yard work that has been. It just looks incredible and thankfully to my sister in laws so that's awesome.
02:17
Speaker 1
So you had like a crew.
02:20
Speaker 4
Say that again.
02:21
Speaker 1
You had like a crew to come up.
02:23
Speaker 4
Yes, they all helped during Memorial Day weekend. It was amazing.
02:26
Speaker 1
So what about you Nancy?
02:29
Speaker 3
Oh, I got lots of sun. We, I got to see my 8 year old dive off the diving board at the club and then we got to take the boat out, which is always fun in Virginia since it's so seasonal. So, you know, I like the water.
02:41
Speaker 1
So it was, it is, it kind of, it marks this milestone for boat owners. I know where they're like, I got the boat out. You know, it's, I got what my John Livingston, who works with me, he sent me a message. I was like, hey, take a look at this, you know, over the next few weeks. And it was really funny. He was like, look, man, it's boat weather, so I'll do my best. He's like, no promises. I get it. So, well, cool. I, I got out on Friday night. I did some fly fishing unexpectedly, right, because it was really bad weather on Friday, but the stream held up perfectly and I had one of my best evenings fly fishing in quite. Yeah, it was lovely. So, anyway, so let's, let's get in a little bit to, you know, who's Nancy?
03:31
Speaker 1
What are we here to talk about today? You know, that type of stuff. So, you know, Nancy Novak is with us. She has an immense, you know, amount of experience and really cool story that I'm going to let her kind of expand on. But today, working for Compass data centers, is that right? Compass, yes. And, you know, is doing some really interesting and exciting things, utilizing modern methods in construction, modular construction, being at the center of that. And so today we're just going to have a conversation, a dialogue about modern methods and construction. What is leading the way, why some organizations or some parts of the market are lagging and what are some of the common sense things that we can be thinking about to make that happen.
04:24
Speaker 1
So with all that said, Nancy, give us a little bit more on your sort of story. What brought you to where you are at Compass Data Centers?
04:35
Speaker 3
It's a little serendipitous. I've been in the built environment for over 30 years. My dad was a general superintendent. He worked globally for the largest firm in the world at the time. So I spent a lot of summers on job sites and earning extra money, which is really good money when you're that young. Fell in love with the industry and just started out in the big GC world. So I worked for 20 years with a company called Hensel Phelps and got to build some of the coolest, sexiest things in the nation. Right. I mean, I did everything from spectacular museums with Smithsonian to hospitals, airports and the launch facility for Lockheed, which was, you know, really got me interested in space. So I, I loved it because it's Like a continuous learning environment.
05:22
Speaker 3
Every time you build for someone, you learn about those, you know, those businesses that you build for. So it was just fascinating. Moved a lot coast to coast, you know, back and forth. And. And then when I became an executive with Hensel Phelps, I spent the next seven years kind of, you know, running in a division, and I. I was able to retire quite young, which I was super happy about, because I kind of. I had all these passions that I wanted to explore. And, you know, when you're running work, it takes everything. It takes everything from you. So I love the company and I love the business, but I really wanted to see what else was out there.
05:57
Speaker 3
So I spent a few years traveling and focusing on things like diversity and inclusion and, you know, supporting other, you know, women in STEM organizations around the world. And while I was retired, Hensel Phelps had me come back in to help with some of their major procurements. And then I met some other firms that we joint ventured with on a couple of very large multibillion dollar procurements. And. And then literally, like a year or so into before I finished my retirement, I ran into the chief of enterprise for Balfour Beatty, Skiing and Steamboat, and he asked me to come in and help them become one national firm because they had acquired in a lot of mergers and acquisitions. And it just so happens that Chris Crosby was one of our national accounts. And I met Chris doing that working for Balfour.
06:43
Speaker 3
So after being there for about four years, I retired again. And Chris called me to, and he said, would you please come help us build our company? So here I am at Compass, and it's been an interesting trip because I never, ever expected to be working for a developer and especially building data centers, but what a fascinating environment, and I'm so grateful that it went that way.
07:06
Speaker 1
Wow, that's such a cool story. And if this were. If this episode had a different theme or this show had a different theme, I think we could just have a discussion about how to retire young.
07:19
Speaker 3
I was just thinking that let's scrap.
07:22
Speaker 1
Everything else, give us the game plan. How do you retire? But, no, I think one of the things that speaks to and immediately exudes, you know, when. When you start talking about your work is that you're doing what you're doing because you're passionate about doing it, and. And that really does shine through and. And, you know, certainly been fortunate and I'm sure made some, you know, tough and important decisions over the course of your career to keep you in that position. So that's pretty cool. Stacy. I'm going to do you the favor that I always try to do, which is like not make you have to stare at the camera while engaging with the audience, you know, typing and all that stuff. So we'll bring it back.
08:06
Speaker 1
I'll, and I'll keep my eye on, I'll try to bring you back in the most awkward moment. If we can do that. We'll, we'll see at the end here. Stacy. So, so Nance, Nancy, let's talk about modern methods of construction. And you know, you've obviously, like you said, done some really cool sexy projects. You're probably doing some really cool sexy projects right now. What, what are some, give some examples of modern methods of construction that you've been involved with. And obviously bearing in mind that, you know, we have like 20 total minutes, so, you know, highlights. Even though I would love to get into details. Afraid we're in highlight show.
08:49
Speaker 3
Yeah, I mean the most popular way of thinking about how to change our industry so that we're more efficient in the modern methods world is what we call off site manufacturing. And it has many different words. It's designed for manufacturing, it's off site manufacturing, it's industrialized construction, it's the assembly approach. And it's everything from advanced work packaging to prefabrication to fully modularized units. And the idea is that you're trying to get more tool time for the tradesperson, right? So what you're trying to do is you're trying to avoid some of the things that make us inefficient. And that is being able to set up a cadence on the job because you've got certain components coming in at certain times that everyone can plan around.
09:31
Speaker 3
It's also like not having to run around looking for tools or parts or nuts and bolts in order to assemble things. It's also not making the tradespeople assemble things on the ground or in a lift. It's being able to put these components in a more efficient manner. So that's really, and it's interesting, that's the most obvious thing that I think we can do from an efficiency standpoint. And there's a lot. And when you get really into the modern methods, when you get into the off site environment, then you can get into the robotics and the various ways that we have computer systems and programming that can allow us to do this more efficiently, which again takes a huge investment. Right.
10:09
Speaker 3
I also think that it's important to note, because I always like to note this, that when you're in an offsite environment, it has all these wonderful benefits. Right. So in construction, one of the reasons we're not very diverse, honestly, is that it's a very difficult trade to be in when you have to commute long hours, when you have to go to different jobs, when you're always working yourself out of a job, etc. Etc. So it's not as steady as a lot of normal jobs are. But if you're in an offset environment, you literally have regular hours, you have a controlled environment, you have a way in which you can train and monitor people. You have a way to put like, let's say a daycare next to it.
10:49
Speaker 3
You just have all of these features that our industry doesn't typically allow, therefore making it less diverse. And when you really think about the fact that once you perfect this, which a lot of firms have been doing, it's better for cost, quality, schedule, and it's also better for sustainability, it's better for safety, it's better for diversity. Right. So when you really add all of that up, it makes absolute sense for us to start changing our industry and moving more in this direction. But I know we're going to talk, Chad, about some of the roadblocks there.
11:21
Speaker 1
Yeah, well, and it's a wonderful picture to start getting in mind of what is currently happening, what we could be striving toward. I'll tell you what, you know, my naturally skeptical, sort of, you know, maybe slightly jaded construction experience tells me is that I'm sitting here kind of saying, well, yeah, that's great. If you're, you know, a mechanical. Right. Cool. You could do off site, you know, fabrication of your stuff. If you're a mechanical contractor, you can bring it in. If you're not doing that and you're a mechanical, that's something that, you know, I might even say you're getting close to being behind depending on the market segment that you're, you know, in right now. But, you know, if we really want to make strides, you're gonna, I think, have to get multiple trade contractors to work together in this kind off site environment.
12:13
Speaker 1
And then immediately I kind of. Good luck with that. So, so is that happening?
12:19
Speaker 3
And I'm so glad you brought up mechanical. Yeah, that was one of the most interesting things. So Honestly, you are 100% right. The mechanical and electrical trades are well in advance on off site manufacturing because they have a very keen desire and need to want to perfect that. What's weird about it is it's one of the most difficult, they are the most difficult trades. And I just love this topic because this is all about looking at projects and how they lay them out when it comes to the different disciplines. So mechanical electrical are drawn isometrically or schematically. They are not to scale. How do you fabricate something that's not drawn to scale? Right. So being able to take what we have in the 2D or 3D, you know, environment in our models and then put those into fabricated fabricatable drawings is a challenge.
13:08
Speaker 3
And the mechanical electrical contractors who have figured this challenge out have really done well in this area. What's interesting to me is when you look at the industry and how they study being able to do this off site manufacturing or modularized construction, they look at the large real estate on the jobs and they have tons of examples that they look at. Hotels with lots of rooms, hospitals with lots of rooms, office buildings with lots of rooms, the Pentagon with lots of room. I mean it's like it's repeatable. Repeatable because everyone's thinking manufacturer means I have to be on an assembly line and I have to have lots of repeatable space. Think about mep. MEP not so much. I mean, they're kind of the back of house. They're like we cram all the equipment into one room. It's not repeatable.
13:51
Speaker 3
It's very specific to each building. So it's interesting to me when you look at off site manufacturing and you see the studies that have been done, it's always about the bathroom pods or the head walls or the modularized apartment units. And what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to turn this on its head because when you look at any normal commercial project, the MEP trades are the majority of the cost and the labor. And in a data center, which is what I build, it's by far the majority, right?
14:22
Speaker 1
Oh yeah.
14:24
Speaker 3
So the excitement for me is being able to take these repeatable spaces in a data center that are equipment yards and data halls and then get more bang for our buck by doing the off site fabrication in those areas that we can take 70 to 80% of that labor force and really be ultra efficient with them. Does that make sense?
14:44
Speaker 1
It totally does. Yeah. And that's what, like you said, biggest bang for your buck is going to be in those trades, particularly in your market.
14:50
Speaker 4
Do you.
14:51
Speaker 1
But, but, so here's my, here's my question specifically around this is are there examples where subcontractors are collaborating in Offsite construction environments and actually pulling multiple logos, if you will, under one roof for specific projects.
15:10
Speaker 3
100%, yeah. I mean, McDan has some very large square footage down in Virginia. And they bring Southland in, they bring Bowers, and they bring different folks in RK out of Colorado. They're multifaceted when it comes to disciplines. And then what I would say is the most popular method of doing that, Chad, is when you have, when you're on a project site, like the Parkland Hospital job at Balfour did, there was an on site, off site fabrication plant where all the trades got together to do those bathroom pods and those head walls. And they did it on site, but you know, like adjacent to the building. And it worked out beautifully.
15:46
Speaker 3
And it was, that was quite some years ago, but I talked to the general superintendent there and he said, yeah, I was really hesitant at first to see whether this was going to pay off. I could not believe what a difference it made in improving the schedule. And then the other thing I want to point out is there's lots of opportunity, again, especially in data halls. But any large building where you can do that Vance work packaging on site in that off site environment, Right.
16:11
Speaker 3
So everything at, you know, at, you know, the waist level, not in a lift, not on the ground, you know, go into one of the empty data hall spaces and then figure out every single thing you can do in an assembly format that's productive and then, you know, be able to install that as you turn over the facility. Oh, you're on mute.
16:31
Speaker 1
Thank you. Thank you. I think that's a first for me that I've ever. But so this, it's because I'm listening. So I'm like, yeah, anyway, this really requires a highly collaborative mindset on. I love that advanced work packaging on site, you know, or on site, off site. To your, to your point there, do you find the general contractor is the critical piece to taking the lead on that?
16:59
Speaker 3
Yeah, typically they are. I mean, it's always good if you encourage them or if you have incentives as an owner to encourage them to do more of this. Because we are trying to measure our improvements as we look at things. And so like, as an example, Compass started doing off site fabrication for our plenums for all our data halls. And it's interesting because, like, you know, first we had to do this big competition. We went to manufacturers, went to contractors, and were like, we want to gain more real estate in our data halls and we want to be able to figure out a more efficient way to Build these instead of stick building them.
17:33
Speaker 3
It costs more upfront, but it really saved so much time on the job, and it was so much more efficient that it was absolutely the right thing to do for our business. Sometimes you have to take that, you know, that investment part and say, like, I got to be in it to win it. And then as you normalize it and you. And you start repeating it, though, it's just like anything, when you manufacture it becomes more affordable.
17:55
Speaker 1
Yeah. You start to. You start to create efficiencies and learn lessons that have. Have permanent impact. So let's talk about the roadblocks.
18:08
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.
18:09
Speaker 1
What keeps organizations from making this leap now? You started with upfront costs as an example there, right?
18:16
Speaker 3
Yep, that's one of them.
18:18
Speaker 1
And. And so. So maybe let's start there. But. But kind of, you know, talk. There's probably other roadblocks that. That aren't money.
18:28
Speaker 3
I mean, cost is always a prohibitor. But if you're. If you're wanting to innovate, you know, then people do that. You know, develop an R D budget. You know, you got to come into the future. There's lots of compelling reasons for the construction industry. I do that. And by the way, when I speak at advancing prefab, over the last seven years, that conference has just blossomed into a massive organization. So I really feel like this is something that's here to stay, and I'm hoping that's the case. Some of the biggest roadblocks are the technology that we use as we go forth and we do models. Whether I said 2D, 3D or so forth, it's really a challenge to do the workarounds, to be able to make what we design, a fabricatable piece of drawing or model.
19:08
Speaker 3
And I want to really stress the way it's contracted is important because owning a model is complicated, you knowing. Because we attach scope to value to schedule. That's what we do. And if you have this model that's kind of this living, breathing environment, how do you. It's really hard to attach all those things in a contract. So you have to get clever about how you want to go about doing this integrated project delivery or somehow own that model with all of the vested stakeholders in a way that allows you to, you know, to still know who's responsible, who has obligations, so on and so forth.
19:44
Speaker 1
So. So I think along those lines, one of the. One of the roadblocks that you could be bumping into, particularly here in the. In where I. We're both in the mid Atlantic is a lack of experience with different delivery methods, a lack of experience with different contract methods and just fear that goes along with that. You know, integrated project delivery is still largely theoretical in this market. Right. It's not elsewhere, you know, in a.
20:13
Speaker 3
Different things, but it's still challenging everywhere. It actually is because it does. You do have to have some people holding the purse strings, right. And people who have to, you know, be accountable and take on risk and things like that. That's part of our business. So it is difficult. I mean, but I have to say it's a very harmonious way to go about building something. And transparency is going to be your friend there. It's absolutely going to be your friend. Everyone has to kind of get that mindset. Like I want everyone on the team to be successful. If I'm, if you're not successful, I'm not successful. If you don't have that mindset, then it's never going to work.
20:50
Speaker 1
So what would you say to the subcontractors, to the trade contractors that say, I am not comfortable in an environment where people are going to see my hard costs?
21:03
Speaker 3
I would say, tell me why you're not comfortable and I will write language that will make you comfortable.
21:07
Speaker 1
You're going to use it against me on projects in the future where they don't get delivered this way. And then you're going to come at me and say, well, I know what your costs are.
21:17
Speaker 3
So again, this is all about administering the contract. So my thing back to these contractors is if you're not super profitable on my job, then don't do any work for me because I expect you to be profitable.
21:31
Speaker 1
Awesome. Different definitions of profit too though, right? Like everybody's got a line, what's reasonable, what's fair and man, different conversation, different day. So, so, you know, one of the things that you mentioned earlier that Immediately, you know, struck a nerve, but then we kind of had to, you know, we were on a different topic. I want to bring us back to it, which is, you know, creating more diversity in the industry. You know, I never connected the dots that off site construction could actually be a vehicle to create more diversity in the industry. Are you seeing that happen? Actually, again, that sounded right.
22:13
Speaker 3
I am. I mean, I visited many off site factories across the nation. And there was one in particular that had a large contingent of women in their factory. And I asked why, of course I had to take my photo with everybody because it's always so amazing when they have that. And they said this was, it was transferable skill kind of situation where they had a paper mill shut down and a lot of these women who were let go came over into this factory and they had these transferable skills that were amazing. So they were doing really great. And I just want to point out it's not just about the gender thing. Like, literally, a rising tide lifts all boats, right? Men like to be home for their ball games for the kids, right.
22:48
Speaker 3
They don't want to commute tons of hours and spend time in the car and gas and maintenance. They also want a normal life, Right. I mean, it's not a rising tide lifts all boats. And if you can bring in more diversity, it just makes that work environment more innovative and more profitable. Flat out more profitable. I mean, there's tons of studies on that as well. And if you guys haven't heard of it, then I suggest you go look into it.
23:10
Speaker 1
That's awesome. Yeah. What we're really talking about, I think it's a good point. I think what we're really talking about is a way to make the construction workplace experience a more stable experience. Right.
23:27
Speaker 3
And think about the fact that we have. We're struggling right now, Chad, with our skill traits, right. I mean, the average age of electrician is in their mid to upper 40s. There's not a huge contingent left. We're not repopulating ourselves in the western world. And the trades have definitely suffered over the past 30 years, so. So we need to be more attractive. We need to make it to where it's a desirable industry. And honestly, the folks who carry the tools make a very good living and it's a very honorable profession to have. I was just saying at the DICE conference this week, I wish we would treat our tradespeople like we treat professional athletes. And then when it comes to skill and safety and everything else, I really want it to be the most desirable thing for folks to want to get into.
24:14
Speaker 1
And what I hear there also is merit based compensation. When I think about professional athletes, Right. I think about, you know, if you're really great, you're going to get paid a lot. You're going to get paid a whole lot.
24:26
Speaker 3
That's very possible. Yes. And it actually works that way. Even though everyone thinks it's very classic, you know, it's classified labor. I mean, which it is. There are tons of trades folks out there that make a lot more than what's called for. So it's absolutely.
24:41
Speaker 1
All right, I'm bringing Stacy back. Was this Sufficiently awkward, Stacy.
24:45
Speaker 3
Always.
24:49
Speaker 1
So, Stacy, what kind of questions do we have from the group?
24:53
Speaker 4
Mark, Jury, friend of yours, I believe.
24:55
Speaker 3
Yes.
24:58
Speaker 4
How do we pivot owners to pull the design and construction team together at the start to collaborate and design for off site assemblies, modular, etc. And maximize the advantages? Currently it's mostly a very, you know, late start and a redesign.
25:16
Speaker 3
Yeah, you know, you're spot on, Mark, as usual. I. It is hard to get. Owners have to be exposed to this. They have to understand the benefits around it. I mean, in the data center industry, it's like fast, fast. Everything's done yesterday. Right. But if you really invest in the process early on and then start practicing that, you know, practice makes perfect. And so I think a lot of it, Mark, is its exposure. It's being able to like really understand and do these studies around how this is really going to make the business better and more efficient and in the end make the owners more successful, you know, from their performance standpoint.
25:50
Speaker 1
Good. What's going on in my mind, I can't help but think about, you know, trade contractors. I've said this before, what if trade contractors did this on their own because it just, they found out it made them more money?
26:05
Speaker 3
You know, it's like, I mean that's literally, I mean, I've had, like I said, I use Dean as an example because he was one of the first to. Right. Built billions, he and I, when I retired the first time, he and I had quite a few sessions where we talked about this and he had this really amazing vision of like, you know, being able to do everything from operating suites to, you know, you name it, and be able to do this in this off site environment. And so he was in it to win it. He invested a lot of money in it. And I think there's quite a few people that are getting up to speed with that over the past 10 to 12 years. But yeah, they are. They're just like, hey, we know it makes sense.
26:41
Speaker 3
And so it's kind of like it's what my good friend Amy Marks to call the red shoe. Okay, we have the best red shoe. We want everyone to buy it. How do we now sell that shoe? And whether it's a power center or an electrical room or, you know, a pipe assembly, it's like, this is my red shoe. How do I get every. I got the best one and I can get it faster, cheaper, higher quality. How do I sell this now? And that's really where we're at, I.
27:04
Speaker 1
Think, and getting, yeah, and getting to that point with, to Mark Drury's question, you know, it's proof, right? It's. It's owners getting proof and owners hearing from other owners. You mentioned a conference earlier. I want to make sure that I'm capturing that because I think that might be a space that if people are watching this and thinking, how do I get, you know, more on this, more inspiration, things like that. Did you call it the Advancing Prefab Conference?
27:31
Speaker 3
That's what it's called, Advancing Prefabrication Conference. This last year. It was just last a couple weeks ago and it was in Arizona. It was at the convention center. And Amy Marks is one of the moderators. She's an expert in this field, so. And she works for Autodesk. But I would definitely encourage people to look into that because it's really good material there.
27:53
Speaker 1
Excellent. All right, cool. Other questions. Sorry, Stacy. Yeah.
27:56
Speaker 4
Keaton Brooks said, what regions of the U.S. are you seeing this modular construction deployed the most, other than Data Center Alley, of course.
28:07
Speaker 3
Actually, I've seen it kind of sprinkled all over. I mean, there's quite a bit over in the Southwest, you know, there and in the Midwest, actually, because, like Colorado, Texas, Arizona, you know, some in SoCal there. Because that's when I, you know, I told you guys I toured a lot of facilities across the US I haven't seen them all, but they're every, they're coast to coast here in the mid Atlantic. You know, there aren't. Like I said, there's some really powerful companies. Like I said, the Bowers is doing a great job. Dean Rosenden, you know, those are really good companies. Southland, they're all like, every single one of those has really some amazing technologies to try to work through this. Now I do want to bring up, because I think that's a great question that there are firms that do this, only do this.
28:55
Speaker 3
Like this is their entire life. Right. And these are, some of these firms are like, it's for, you know, the whole turnkey facility. I know one in Silicon Valley that is literally they go and they build, you know, whether it's a hospital or a, you know, multipurpose, you know, facility. And then they go and they retool their entire factory, but based on lessons learned. So it's a fascinating process that I always like to learn about that so that I can then share, you know, what those lessons learned are. Because that does take an investment to be able to do something like that.
29:29
Speaker 1
Awesome. Yeah. I mean, you look attempts to do this that I, you know, what is it? Katera? That went sadly wrong. But it was a really cool idea.
29:44
Speaker 3
I think they were trying to be the answer to everybody, though. And it's something you just can't do that. You have to really have those niches that make the most sense. And yeah, so I was sad to see that kind of implode, but it's a great lesson to learn and I think that it's going to come back again and it'll be done in a different way.
30:02
Speaker 1
Well, and think of the talent, the amazing, talented people who I'm sure helped, who are a part of that business, who are going to be able to take the lessons learned from that business model and apply it, you know, in a common sense way in different places. I do. I think the next 10 years are going to be really exciting that way.
30:19
Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah. Some of the folks that work for the big hyperscalers that I do business with have worked for companies like Project Frog or Click, you know, Katero or, you know, Nautilus or one of those other firms that have done this full time as their. And now they're sharing that with these big, you know, global firms. And so it's good.
30:38
Speaker 1
Awesome. Stacy. I see one more question, I think. Do we have.
30:44
Speaker 4
Yeah. Bill Wilson said, how do you expand more trades into this trend?
30:49
Speaker 3
So, so you're talking like the trades, meaning the actual individuals versus the firms themselves. And, and I would say I, I guess my answer to that is, you know, again, as a developer, and I would say the same thing to the sub trades and the specialty trades or the general contracts. As a developer, I want Compass to be the best company to work for. I want all the trades to be like, oh, if you have a choice, you need to go on a Compass job because they really care about us. They give us the best facilities. They don't make us work triple shifts. We get good pay. It's fast, it's efficient. I know just what I'm doing. I'm not having to rework. Morale is good. All of this stuff, these are the things that are going to bring more trades into this space.
31:34
Speaker 3
And the more that we practice it and show that it works and that we can do the same amount of work faster as. Faster, faster than any of our competition and do that in an off site environment and not have to work the trades to death, the more we can prove that, the more this is going to be something that everyone's going to aspire to do.
31:54
Speaker 1
Awesome. I know we're up on time. Stacy, is there anything else that the audience has that we need to weave in? I'd love to close the loop with that.
32:05
Speaker 4
No, I think we're good.
32:07
Speaker 3
We're good there.
32:08
Speaker 1
All right, cool. Good. I. Nancy, I could continue this conversation and maybe we'll ask to do that with even more sort of a part two of this discussion, because I think we could keep going. I really appreciate your spending the time with us this morning. I know that the feedback we're already getting in, the feedback that we'll get, you know, as a result of this is going to be great. Your insights have been certainly valuable to me, and I. And I know they will be to the audience. So thank you.
32:42
Speaker 3
Thank you. Thanks for having me so much.
32:45
Speaker 1
Yeah, pleasure. All right, Stacy, let's talk a little bit about what we have coming up next week. We have conversation about the future office and what that's going to mean. I think, you know, we're clearly not staying away from the office, but depending on your industry, different. Different environments, people are going back to the office at different rates and in different volumes and things like that. So Kellyannis is a friend of mine, and she's wonderful. She spends her. A lot of her time thinking and reading and speaking about this.
33:26
Speaker 1
And specifically, what we're going to be doing is talking about the impact that the construction industry can expect on what that's going to mean in terms of projected volume in the office market, what it's going to mean in terms of types of construction in the office market, and we may even talk about what construction companies themselves should be doing as it relates to the return to the office policies and what a sustainable future looks like in a. In a post, you know, post pandemic environment, which I. I think I know we're not technically in, but I've decided we are.
34:00
Speaker 3
We're trying to be desperately.
34:04
Speaker 1
Everyone's so over it, no doubt. Yeah. It all depends on where you are in Florida. They're like, we've been over it since 2020. All right, well, good. Stacy, anything you want to say before we wrap up?
34:18
Speaker 4
Enjoy this beautiful week. I don't have anything good to say.
34:24
Speaker 3
I hate when you.
34:25
Speaker 4
Okay.
34:26
Speaker 1
No is a totally acceptable answer. I just want to remind everybody to email Stacy if you want to get on our mailing list. If you want to, you know, not have to worry about signing up every week on. On LinkedIn or finding that, you know, link, we can send you an email. We have a few hundred people who are getting it now. Jump on it with the email is expanding. We appreciate everybody's support. And, and again, just a reminder that if you or someone you know has a valuable, important discussion about creating positive change in the building industry, we'd love to talk to him about season three. We getting underway?
35:09
Speaker 4
Yeah, we'll start recruiting for season three. I also do a recap of the episodes through email, and a lot of the speakers like to give me extra, extra resources for you guys, whether it's clips or articles or case studies or surveys. So that's always a great resource, too, if you. Because we obviously only have 30 minutes, so. So if you're not signed up for the email, you know, just give me your email and I'll get you on there.
35:37
Speaker 1
Thank you. Have a great week. Have a great week.
35:41
Speaker 3
See ya.
35:41
Speaker 1
Bye.
