Morgan Molitor met her husband Jamie at a bar in St. Paul, Billy's on Grand, while he was flipping an investment property. He went to school to be a carpenter and always wanted to be a builder. She went to school for fashion and marketing, started a website to document what he was doing to that house, and people assumed she was the designer. That became construction2style, a Twin Cities design-build company doing kitchens, bathrooms and full home renovations. Four more companies followed, including a media company, a nonprofit focused on the trades, and two conferences, the Contractor Coalition Summit and the BuildHer Retreat. She gives Instagram basically all the credit.
The first half of the episode is about people. Morgan says your client avatar should be an emotion, built off the favorite client you ever had and how they made you feel in the home. If a lead starts talking about resale value on the first walk, she knows they are not a fit. And last fall, when red flags showed up on a big job in early November, she did the math on her oldest son. He's eleven, so she counts seven holidays left with him at home. They gave every single penny back, after more than a year of pre-con and design, and walked away.
The second half is the systems, and she is further along than anybody I've had on. She has been around AI since programmatic ads in 2010. Today she runs Claude, Claude Code and Claude Design, with agents handling daily and weekly workflows. Ressio runs project management, Adaptive runs company finances, every receipt gets scanned and tracked to a job, and she can text a bot and get profit margin and which vendors still need to be paid. We also get into why QuickBooks won't die, why you build a knowledge base before anything else so your business can plug into any AI tool, and why that same knowledge base is what makes a construction company a sellable asset. Her bot is named Stevie, after Stevie Nicks. Mine is Codsworth. We compared notes.
Watch: YouTube Listen: Apple Podcasts · Spotify
Find Morgan: construction2style.com · morganmolitor.com · Instagram
Chapters
- 00:00 - Introduction and how construction2style started
- 02:46 - Five companies, all grown through Instagram
- 05:17 - Open book: community over competition
- 06:28 - Burnout, writing down your why, and soul-filled homes
- 07:21 - The resale red flag
- 09:20 - Your client avatar should be an emotion
- 09:58 - Giving the money back to protect the holidays
- 14:43 - Bidding with Claude inside Ressio
- 15:40 - Sticker shock and the open-book bid
- 17:41 - Morgan's AI journey, back to 2010
- 18:47 - Her stack: Claude, Claude Design, and agents
- 20:00 - Every penny tracked: Ressio, Adaptive, QuickBooks
- 22:00 - Build a knowledge base, stay tool agnostic
- 23:42 - Every construction company should be a sellable asset
- 28:35 - Why does everybody still need QuickBooks?
- 31:47 - Train your AI like a new employee
- 35:07 - Redesigning a kitchen with the client in the showroom
- 37:02 - Do the design tools have taste? Meet Stevie
- 39:42 - Where to find Morgan
Takeaways, in Morgan's words
- "In my mind it's community over competition."
- "Your client avatar should be an emotion."
- "We gave every single penny back."
- "You should be creating a sellable asset, period."
- "If you just started chatting with them and gave them no foundation, they would be the worst employee ever and they'd be fired in a couple of weeks."
Full transcript
Reasonable Tech Dad (00:00)
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of the Reasonable Contractor Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Templin, The Reasonable Tech Dad, here with a new friend that is just needed for someone like me. So we have Morgan Molitor here from construction. It is construction2style. And I just want to say that we have not had anyone on here that has had design taste. And I have been around the trades for an eternity, and I am a tech and a systems guy, and there's one thing I don't have is taste. any of it. When I'm vetting jobs, I go to bathrooms and they're like, What tiles should I get? I have no clue. So looking at your website, Morgan, why don't it's better than better that you tell it than me read awards and accolades off your site. So why don't you tell us how you got started? Tell us about your company.
Morgan Molitor (00:30)
Okay. Oh gosh, no. Yeah, thanks for having me. Uh okay, so I'm Morgan Molitor with construction2style, alongside my husband Jamie. So my husband is actually the general contractor, and our story, I always say like our elevator speech, because it can be very long, is I met Jamie. At a bar in St. Paul, Billy's on grand. He was flipping an investment property, a house. I was like, what in the world are you doing? Um, and I was just blown away by his talent. I started a website and this was back while we were dating and He went to school to be a carpenter. His goal was always to be a builder, a contractor. And I just started documenting s documenting his story. And then one thing kind of led to another. And people just assumed I was the designer. I wasn't, but I went to school for fashion and marketing. So I know how to put a f a room together, if you will. Um, and so I just started, yeah, sharing what he was doing to this home that he was renovating. Um, and uh one, yeah, we started doing things with brands, we started learning about ad revenue.
Reasonable Tech Dad (01:31)
Yeah.
Morgan Molitor (01:43)
affiliate marketing in started doing a lot of kitchens and bathrooms, full home renovations. Uh we still do our investment properties on the side. um And yeah, that's construction2style. And then if we want to fast forward a little bit more too, people started coming to us just to say like, how do you build your website? How do you do affiliate marketing? um You know, we're getting started too and how do you bid jobs and um you know getting through the everyday battles that we deal with as contractors. Like a lot of people would ask us about that. And so we started two different yes, correct. Yes, the business side of things. Yep. And so now today we have two different conferences that we host. One is called Contractor Coalition Summit. The other one is BuildHer. Uh BuildHer is focused more on the female aspect and it's in Costa Rica once a year. Contractor Coalition we have two to three times a year all across the nation. I have different contractors as partners. Um so we have those as well.
Reasonable Tech Dad (02:15)
business side of things, not just the building and contractor stuff. Yeah, very cool. Absolutely. Love that. That's awesome. It's so cool because it's something we touch on in this show. Like I like to tell people we talk about how to get young people into the trades, right? Because we need it. We need more people. And it's and it's something that kind of for a generation I think kind of fell by the wayside or got a bad rap. And I just we really try to open eyes to that. So when I saw the builder, particularly 'cause I have daughters, but I think it falls along those same lines. That's really cool that you guys do that. Was that something that just happened uh organically through n uh relationships that you had and the marketing thing? Or was it something that you kind of looked at and were like, I want to put something together for this?
Morgan Molitor (02:46)
Yes, yeah. Yep. Mm-hmm. Yes. I everything I even say even with con construction2style, um, and we also own a media company called Neon Lion and then we have a nonprofit called Resilience to Reform that's focused on the trades as well. Um and we everything, so all five companies was all organic. And I give a lot of credit, basically all the credit, to Instagram because through Instagram and people asking and building relationships and for me I just really see gaps in things very quickly and Unfortunately for my husband, I quickly know how to turn all that into a business. uh Last week I literally drove on a Monday five hours to see a property that's, you know, 500 acres. I came back, or he goes, Oh God, you're gonna come back and you're gonna have another business idea. And sure enough, I'm like, sure do. But yes, but I'd say for the the coalition, um, I was hosting a conference here locally in the Twin Cities called
Reasonable Tech Dad (03:42)
Go after it. He's like, Oh, we're doing this too, okay. Just guess what? Just a thing. uh
Morgan Molitor (04:09)
BizCom and that wasn't catered towards the trades. And I had Brad Leavitt with AFT Construction. Um he's out of Scottsdale, Arizona, does multi-million dollar homes, new builds. And we formed a relationship through Instagram. And so I had him come and speak at that conference. And he came to that and immediately I was on his podcast. And during that podcast, he was like, We need something like this for the home industry. And he's like, let's create it. And Within just a few months we had our first conference in Nashville and it was a hit and we've carried on ever since and we're three, four years moving into our fourth, fourth year, maybe even our fifth. So, yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (04:43)
Interesting. That's so cool. So you guys do at the conference. Are you bringing design ideas to contractors? Is that kind of what is that? It is all business big. Okay.
Morgan Molitor (04:51)
Nope, it's all business focused. Strictly business. Yep. So it's me, and now we have a few other partners in it too. Nick Schiffer, Tyler Grace with the Modern Craftsman podcast. Um, and then um Mark Williams. He also has all these guys have podcasts except for me. And so uh with all them, I don't I mean, I've tried, but I'm like, I you can't do it all. So yeah, I was just
Reasonable Tech Dad (05:07)
Next business idea coming up. uh
Morgan Molitor (05:17)
Through them we expose everything. We're an open book and we share how we bid things, how our different streams of revenue that we do, how we do our contracts, how we build our team, how we all of our infrastructure that we all share it. So it's all open book and we're there to elevate the industry and really to get on the same playing field because in my mind it's community over competition. I don't care. Even if we're living in the same neighborhood, there's as you said, yeah, there's so much work to be done and we need more people in it and we need
Reasonable Tech Dad (05:29)
It's amazing. That too.
Morgan Molitor (05:46)
better contractors in it that are all way better. Yeah. That are all bidding things the same pri right. And it's like we all are individual humans, so we're always gonna bring different aspects to the job, but we're more focused on just elevating the industry as a whole. So
Reasonable Tech Dad (05:48)
Need way better contractors. Amazing. Well, typically I would if we were talking strictly contractor, I would ask a question like what makes you good and what makes you win bids, but I feel like you have such a massive business product like machine already. What uh what kind of things are you focused on right now for driving growth, I guess, across all your companies? What are what kind of things are you doing that you feel good about? You're like, yeah, we're really good at this and we're working this and this is going well for us right now.
Morgan Molitor (06:28)
Um, I would say something that is still lighting me up because I think every day, right? We like we all are burnt out. I don't care if you have we have great clients and we still get so mentally drained and exhausted. And so every day I have my why written written down that why I'm getting up and doing this. And yeah, and I'd say the the biggest thing that just
Reasonable Tech Dad (06:44)
Yes. Preach. Yes.
Morgan Molitor (06:56)
That's going well, is like I'm truly honed in on that, like where you live, where you work, it all matters to how you're living your life. And so for me, we just are really pushing into like soul-filled homes, is kind of how I say it. And so I'm like, whether we're curating that for our homeowners or they're coming to us for inspiration and content ideas, or
Reasonable Tech Dad (07:04)
Yes.
Morgan Molitor (07:21)
If it's anyone in the home industry that wants to build a better business, a better life, like we're also the resource for that. So I think for me and my why, it's just really having intention behind what we're building and why we're trying to build it. And I will say, even with the question of winning bids, the second we get a lead, if ever they, you know, and we're even out walking the house or what have you, if they're ever talking about resell or anything like that, I just immediately know they're not going to be a fit for us because I want them to be thinking about a deeper why of what we're doing within their home and not them thinking about the resale value, which we all know, what does that even mean, right? So it's like, I and I'll say that to them right away too. And I'm just like, look, if you're here for the price and you're looking to just flip something quick, even though they're like, they'll immediately go, Well, I'm not sure when we're gonna move. And it's like, okay, then let's really think about this. But if you are thinking about that price, we're never gonna be curating a home for you to live a more joyful life. And so right away, I just that's like a red flag for me. And and that's why I we try to win bids too is like we want people to work with us that want to work with us, right? And if they're if they want to work someone else, great. Like we want them to work with them as well. Cause we want this industry, yes, we want this industry to be busy and everyone to win. So I think for me it's just really living with intent, no matter what that looks like. Mm-hmm.
Reasonable Tech Dad (08:31)
Yeah, and we know people, right. The purpose. I love that. Um, that's interesting you brought that up because I feel like it was never something I planned to ask, but the last few episodes I've done this last month or so, that's came up twice. The the idea of when you go to a bid thinking about the type of customer you want versus just how do you win the job.
Morgan Molitor (08:59)
Yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (08:59)
and clarifying what your criteria are for that I think is super powerful to not leave businesses in hard spots. And I think a lot of contractors I talk to on this show
Morgan Molitor (09:06)
Yes.
Reasonable Tech Dad (09:10)
don't have that on their scope. They don't think about that when they're they're they're thinking about jobs purely like, oh well, the bathroom's gonna be this much and this is, you know, ba they're trying to assess their clients in like budget capability. And I understand that that's that's something that you do have to look at, but I think that as a business matures, that's probably something that more people should hash out. Like what kind of people are we going to work at? Like that's awesome.
Morgan Molitor (09:20)
Hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah, I always say, yeah. One thing I always stress at our coalitions and stuff too is just like everyone should have a client avatar, right? And the client avatar shouldn't just be oh, you know, we don't work with engineers or we don't work with, you know, X, Y, and Z. It's like, no, it should be deeper than that. Like your client avatar should be an emotion and it should be just down to, you know, we picked our client favorite client we've ever had.
Reasonable Tech Dad (09:46)
Right.
Morgan Molitor (09:58)
And we started really working through like who those people are, how they made us feel when we're in the home. Um, and I don't know whether it's having kids or what, but I just even last year we had a pretty big job in the fall and a few red flags came up and and the only thing I could think about, and this was like right in early November, the only thing I could think about was like, is this how I want to be treated over like I only have our oldest son's eleven? 56. So we have seven more, you know, I think like this like seven more holidays. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so all I could think about was like, do I want to take one of those seven? And because I knew he was gonna ruin our holidays. Like I knew he was gonna like be someone that just made us feel like a POS. So I'm like, do I wanna spend the holidays feeling like a POS when I only got seven with my kid? And I was like, no.
Reasonable Tech Dad (10:29)
I think in those timelines for my kids all the time. How many Christmases do I have left? How many weekends do I have left? I measure that. I'm the say kindred spirits on that with my kids in particular. Yes.
Morgan Molitor (10:55)
And so just like that, we gave money back in full, even though we'd been doing pre con and design for over a year. We gave every single penny back. So I was like, we gotta go. And walked away from it. So yeah, but I mean, not to say it was easy, but
Reasonable Tech Dad (11:02)
Good for you. That's an amazing place to be in. That's fantastic. And no, absolutely not, right? That's but people hear that and...
Morgan Molitor (11:11)
Yeah, I know. It's like, okay, Christmas might be emotionally better, but maybe not financially.
Reasonable Tech Dad (11:16)
Yeah, no, and I think that you I think through all of your branding and it was funny you brought up your Instagram, 'cause man, your guys' Instagram between the followers and your content on there. That's that is top notch. Uh which lines up, right, for with with how you do things, but I think bringing that emotional piece into finding your client avatar would just lead to more of what your purpose you're talking about and what you do well, and understanding what lights you up every day. I think there's a lot of people in the business that don't get lit up because they don't bring any of that emotional attachment and they don't take the
Morgan Molitor (11:24)
Oh, thank you. Doesn't always feel like that. Yeah. No, no.
Reasonable Tech Dad (11:46)
Time to figure out what is emotionally driving them in their business that's going to make them feel good, which can snowball into better business when you're operating from that kind of uh what's the word I'm looking for, fulfilled place. How much better you treat people and how many better ideas you have, you know what I mean? When you're in that creative flow versus stressed and oh push all the time and deadlines, you know what I mean? That's a miserable place to be.
Morgan Molitor (11:53)
Yeah. And I Yeah. Yes. Hundred per cent. Yep. Yes. Miserable. I know. And people always we always think too and we say, I hear it so often, it's just like it's business, right? And it's business. And for me, I'm like, what we do, it's never business. We are literally in people's homes seeing m they're more exposed, we're more exposed, right? We see everything about these people. And I'm like, even though yes, we always have to have our business mindset on, I'm like, the work we do gets extremely personal personal, especially if in times my husband is the one doing the work in different situations. And I'm like,
Reasonable Tech Dad (12:33)
Yes.
Morgan Molitor (12:40)
That is extremely personal when they don't like something or they're complaining about something and he's like sacrificed weekends with his kids to create this for them. And so to me, I'm always like, you gotta have that lens with these client avatars too. Like, and that's why you have to think about the emotion. Cause I'm like, what we do is very personal.
Reasonable Tech Dad (12:55)
Yes. People we talk about it on here all the time. You're going to someone's home. How much more personal does it get? You're going into someone's private home. Like how many people like and you know, I mean, uh when you're there's certain people that they might not let anybody in their home. So you're on a very short list of people here. So there is a
Morgan Molitor (13:01)
Mm-hmm. Right. So chill. Right. Home and finances. Like what two bigger things, right? Like
Reasonable Tech Dad (13:17)
And these are big projects. And I've talked about that on here too, like multiple times. There's few things that most people spend more money on than their construction projects, than a bathroom remodel. That's gonna be the biggest thing they spend money on probably this decade for a lot of the
Morgan Molitor (13:24)
Very true. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. Right. Yep.
Reasonable Tech Dad (13:29)
Customers, you know what mean? So that's an amazing mindset that you have that all tied together. So I think you already talked about it. What's the challenging parts for uh construction2style right now? Do you guys are is is it that stress part? Is it is there is it that mindset of finding the right kind of avatars? What's the challenging thing? What what makes you wound up and out of that emotional fulfillment place?
Morgan Molitor (13:47)
I would say, yeah, I would say for us, the challenging part, well, and because we're a design build too, so for me and our team, like we have to be thinking creatively. And a lot of times when there are emotions involved that like sabotage our creativity, like that can be really hard to cause you have to be, like you said, like in a flow. And if there's clients something that they're not happy with, and maybe it's not even that big, it's still like.
Reasonable Tech Dad (14:10)
Yes.
Morgan Molitor (14:16)
For me personally, it paralyzes me. Um, even last week I felt paralyzed in creativity. And for two days I told Jamie, I'm like, I know that I need to get this done, but like I can't even think. I can't even move. I'm just like so paralyzed. So I really have to do things that like get me through that. Um, and I'd say the other challenging part that I know we all deal with, but it's just the like even this morning, my husband's like putting a bed together and we're
Reasonable Tech Dad (14:24)
Thank you.
Morgan Molitor (14:43)
We're implementing a new tool, a project management tool, and so with which has a lot of AI that I love that you talk about AI on this podcast. And and so I'm showing him how to work Claude with this tool that we're using. It's called Ressio. And he's putting this bid together and he was just getting like a little bit frustrated where I'm just like trying not to be like, it's so e like just talk to it. It literally is doing it for you. But I was like trying to be patient and he just and then he finally like gets in a groove and he goes, All right.
Reasonable Tech Dad (14:49)
Yes, we do. Yeah.
Morgan Molitor (15:12)
And I was walking out the door with the kids, and I'm like, all right, see you later. Like, call me if you need anything. And he's I'll just be over here putting this bid together for two hours and then it's gonna be overpriced and the client's gonna say no anyway. And I was just like, But yeah, but I but I think that's an ongoing challenge that's so difficult. Is just like a lot of homeowners don't know like how much time with AI or not, right? Like that we utilize our brain power, our resources, like to put bids together.
Reasonable Tech Dad (15:23)
He was all in the in the funk. He was in the funk. Yeah.
Morgan Molitor (15:40)
that even though we've done the vetting, the upfront costs, all that and talked them through, we'll still send a bid over and they're still sticker sticker shocked. And so I think that is the most challenging is then just it's exhausting, right? Because now we gotta call them and we gotta like feel we feel like we're selling our souls when it's like, this is just what it costs. Like this and we're an open book. You see every line item, you see our markup, like we don't hide anything. And it's still like explaining to them to understand when you're just like it's right here. Like this is what it costs. So I think that's just a huge exhausting challenge right now, especially with what prices are. It's like, yeah, we're sticker shock too, but do you want it or not? We're not twisting your arm to remodel. Yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (16:14)
Yeah. No, this is the price. And I think that you I think you really touch on it well because it does feel some days like it is peace of my soul. That part you're talking about when I sit down and I shop materials and figure out the nuances of, hey, is this clip, you know, is this material gonna be put in based on what's there? And then you get it over to somebody and they're like, oh, I'll call someone else. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, and it's like I tr you know how much I just put into the figuring out all the details so that you didn't have to think about any of this for you to just oh
Morgan Molitor (16:26)
Oh yeah. Yeah. They still don't get it. Yes! And you're like, Yeah. I know. Right. I know. And then that's when I get like sad too, because I'm like, no matter who you call, like what it should be, and I hope one day we really get there in our industry. But it's like, this this should be this price, like we have it so dialed, like this should be the price for any other contractor you call unless they have a different markup, right? And if you get an extremely lower one, which happens to us all the time, it's almost like I want to call the contractor because I'm looking out for them, because I wanna be like, you probably missed a few line items. And at the end of the day, you're gonna eat that cost. So then you like feel bad. uh
Reasonable Tech Dad (17:16)
That's exactly what it is. That's exactly what it is. Yes. Like this is wrong. That price you got that is eight grand less. That's wrong. This is not they're missing key components of what you need here. You're gonna be in a bad spot for that price.
Morgan Molitor (17:23)
Yeah, I don't Right. And I wanna be like, take the job if you want it, but just I'm looking out for you 'cause you're gonna be financially fucked at that like
Reasonable Tech Dad (17:34)
Yes, yes, absolutely. Oh, let's geek up. Come on, let's geek up. Talk to me on the AI, the Claude. Tell me about this project. Let's geek out. Help let me geek out with you for a minute. What is Ressio? What is so what are you doing with Claude? And how did you guys tell me about your AI journey a little bit? Did you like how how how how tied in how much how tied in are you? I bet you you're heavy because you because of your content creation chops.
Morgan Molitor (17:41)
Okay. Oh my god, I love it. Okay, so yeah. I'm heavy, yes, I'm heavy. Yes, yep. So I I feel like I started AI when AI started. First of all, I say everyone's been using AI. Like if you've been using Netflix, you've been using AI. Um, and then and I used to work, I also worked at an agency before joining um full force with my husband. And there it's like programmatic ads. Like that's all AI. Like there's bots on the internet that follow you around. So that's that's what I always say: is like, yeah, this is not new. And so
Reasonable Tech Dad (18:21)
Not new. That's not new. No.
Morgan Molitor (18:24)
I've been using in that component with programmatic ads, all of that with digital marketing since 2010. Yeah, so a long time. Yeah, yeah. And I love it. And obviously there's a lot of things that aren't great, but I lean into the good and especially as small business owners, it's like we can't really survive without it.
Reasonable Tech Dad (18:31)
Okay. So you've been around the game, for sure. I do too. Same. There's just too much leverage to be had. So where like I suppose you don't want to get too crazy in it, but like are you guys using cloud cloud Claude Code? What's your interface? Do you are you have harnesses? Are you using are you building your own software tools? Like do you guys have cut? Okay. But you're using the harnesses right now, like Claude Code, are you using codecs? What what are your main ones? And I assume you're tapping it into your project management software.
Morgan Molitor (18:47)
Yeah, exactly. No, I don't care. What y what you ask me? Not yet, not yet. I well, yeah. Yeah. Yep, so we use, I mean, I use Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT. Claude is the biggest one. And then I use Claude Code, Claude Design, huge. Um, yeah, so good. And then I use Composito, C-O-M-P-O-S-I-T-O that connects to Claude, that then connects to every single tool or anything that we need it to.
Reasonable Tech Dad (19:18)
Claude Design's amazing.
Morgan Molitor (19:34)
um to build my agents. So I have a few different agents, which if someone's listening, that's new employees basically. Um so I have different workflows that are constantly happening for me daily, weekly. I have a CEO that manages them. And yeah. So yeah, I have it integrated with and I would say the biggest things people are always like, you know, that I hear is it's replacing and yada yada. And I'm like
Reasonable Tech Dad (19:41)
Yes. Yep, that's the right time that's the right framework to have it. Absolutely.
Morgan Molitor (20:00)
For me, it's just enhancing. It hasn't replaced anyone in anything I'm doing. It's made things so things are a lot more clear and buttoned up. Um, for our cash flow. So we use Ressio is our project management tool, R-E-S-S-I-O. Um, they also have Mason and AI integrated in Ressio, but I also have Claude integrated. And then we use Adaptive, A-D-A-P-T-I-B-E. Has all of our financials, so every single penny gets tracked to a job. It talks to Ressio. It's all connected with our QuickBooks, with every single receipt anyone tracks. Like we know where every penny is in the company. And that is what helps us know exactly what our profit loss is of every job, of projections. I know it makes my soul so happy. Every penny, and then when we get
Reasonable Tech Dad (20:44)
It brings me peace just listening to a system like that. It makes my soul happy. Just hearing the words every penny is trapped.
Morgan Molitor (20:56)
Audits, right? That we all have to go through every year with insurances and W9. Like all that's automated. We don't need to deal with that. Exactly. And yes. Well, it's it's pretty crazy because even at any given time, I can literally pick up my phone, and this is all through Adaptive, which I have Claude talking all these, but even Adaptive on its own. I can pick up my phone and text my bot and just be like, Hey, where are we at on X job? And it will come back and say,
Reasonable Tech Dad (21:01)
Stress, we just got the report. Push the button. What else do you need? I got the numbers. Where are you I got all the receipts and they're dialed? What time frame do you want?
Morgan Molitor (21:25)
Hey, we're at 15% profit margin. We're still on track to finish. These are the vendors that still need to be paid. It will give me a full summary report of every job. So that just in itself is just such peace of mind for me and Jamie. Just like as we're trying to grow, like we can't be all things at once, right? As we're and we're a smaller ish team. Um, we are down to we had nine employees at one time. What do we have now? Seven or eight, um, at C2S. And so it's like, And there's two of us. I can't imagine when people are just own a thing by themselves and they're trying to scale and grow. And it's like, we gotta keep track of our client relationships. We gotta keep track of the finances. We gotta keep track of our processes, of materials. Like there's so much. I'm like so that's when I think about AI and I'm like, How have we gotten as far as we have without knowing where all our numbers are? Right. It's like, yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (22:00)
Yeah. Without it. Without it. And that's that that's a big part of what I why we talk about it so much on here is because I'm with you and that the industry needs to be upgraded. Um and I don't think that there is a better way than building AI systems in, even slowly. Like what you're talking about is pretty complex. I assume you have like a separate data, a second brain, if you call it, a knowledge system that is completely isolated and as these tools change and and adjust and whatever get absorbed by companies, you're allowed what you've what you've built and what people I recommend should be building.
Morgan Molitor (22:23)
Yes. Yeah, yes. Exactly. Yep.
Reasonable Tech Dad (22:45)
Is that separate knowledge base so that you're not connected to Adaptive. You're not locked in. There's not the vendor locked in of the old software systems. Claude goes down today, you can plug into a different model. So that's the thing that I think people really need to consider as you get into AI: is that one of your first steps should be understanding how to build a knowledge base for your AI, whatever you want to do with it. There's workflows, but getting that knowledge base built. Um
Morgan Molitor (22:50)
Exactly. Yes. Exactly. Yep. Hundred percent. Yeah. Yep. That's such a good reminder. Yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (23:12)
You have to make sure that you are AI, you are company agnostic in the AI age because things move so quickly, the tools change so much, and you want all of your agents, all of these things that she's talking about are are just tools. People get really worked up about 'em. They're to think about 'em like a saw. They're just like a po they're just like a new power tool. And what you want to have happen is that as the power tools change or the systems change, that you have your core business built in a way that it can be plugged into any AI component is a good way I think people should be thinking about it. Um
Morgan Molitor (23:17)
Yep, yes, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I was thinking too as you were saying that, I was like, the thing that another thing is just made me sad in the industry is like, um, you know, there's Jamie and I are first generation, I guess, but there's so many second, third, whatever generations, or you see these businesses like without that, they just die and dissolve, right? And to me I'm like uh every c yeah, it's just mind boggling to me. I'm like, every single construction company you should be thinking about
Reasonable Tech Dad (23:42)
Go ahead, elaborate. Flounder.
Morgan Molitor (24:09)
selling your company. Like no matter what. And even when I say that to people, they're like, I mean, I'm forty one, but people are always like, You're already thinking about that. I'm like, I was thinking about that five years ago. Like you should be creating a sellable asset, period. And what that looks like. And now with AI, I feel like it is one of the easiest things that you can start, as you just said, your knowledge base. Like you should start To create a company that you don't always have to be there, right? Like that's how you sell something is that it's workable and it can it has something to sell. And so just you d you saying that knowledge base, I'm like, that is so powerful when you're thinking of like one day creating a sellable asset and not just going, Oh, does my kid want it or it'll just dissolve? Like, how sad too. You spent your whole life because I'm like, what?
Reasonable Tech Dad (24:49)
Set all that effort. And that's the floundering and the overwhelm people talk about is because they make themselves too dependent. I mean, there's a number of business minds. I'm sure you could list off names and I could list off names where you talk, they talk about that exact idea. When you make updates or changes or investments into your company, you should be thinking about how to do it for selling it. That should be a framework around every decision.
Morgan Molitor (24:56)
Yes, yeah. Right.
Reasonable Tech Dad (25:10)
Because otherwise it's going to run into a place where there's where you can't do it all. And then that's where things start to crumble and fall apart and get behind and make things stressful and it's messy. Oh Morgan, we could go on for a while. I want to be appreciative of your time. Uh I wanna dig some more. Uh shall we wrap up? What do you got for time? You're good right now? All right.
Morgan Molitor (25:15)
Right. Right. Yep. I love it. Okay. I'm good I'm good with whatever you need. Yep, I'm good.
Reasonable Tech Dad (25:31)
Let's at tell me about Adaptive. Is that a financial piece? Because I'm I'm trying to think now a lot of project software like JobTread. JobTread's a really good one. They have they've really built themselves in a way I think different than some of the other ones where they've they've built it around the new AI plugin. So it's easy to connect an MCP server, et cetera, into their system. But now they track finances too. So is Adaptive strictly a financial project management software or what is that?
Morgan Molitor (25:36)
It is. Yeah. Yeah. I know, and I've heard a lot of great things about JobTread too. I just haven't explored it. Um, so Adaptive is strictly a financial tool and it integrates with Ressio, as in not just with AI and everything, but like the founders of the company know each other, and so they've created things. Because even in Ressio, yes, it has financials. We do our estimates in there now and all that, but Adaptive is more for
Reasonable Tech Dad (26:07)
Yes.
Morgan Molitor (26:24)
Like it r tracks every receipt. So if anyone buys anything, they have to scan the receipt. And once they scan the receipt, it automatically gets tracked in Ressio to that job. Um and it does that, it helps us with the forecasting and it helps us at the end of all projects with um the profit and loss and everything like that. But that's more Adaptive is of a whole, whereas Ressio project management tool is more project financial focused. Adaptive is more company financial focused is
Reasonable Tech Dad (26:50)
Yes.
Morgan Molitor (26:54)
I would I'm sure they would say like very all the things that are very much different, but like when I dumb it down for me, that's the way I look at it. And yeah. And they're both wonderful human like I know all the people that work there. Um personally, I've met them. They've come to our contractor coalition summits and they sponsor them and they're just wonderful humans too. So um yes, I was gonna say sometimes knowing the people behind things you're using is like a game changer, and so yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (26:57)
Right, of course. Nice. that trust is there. That's and that's the reason I Huge difference. I asked about the financial piece because I can tell that you know this stuff. And one thing I haven't gotten into is where do you start plugging in AI on financials and QuickBooks, right? Because LLMs, they're good for a lot of tasks, but hard math, I would be curious where a construction company trusts the AI to do things where there's programmatic code doing real math. Have you had to overcome that hurdle or address that in in applying either of those tools? As far as the finances.
Morgan Molitor (27:51)
Na, yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (27:53)
'Cause I know QuickBooks is probably set up to like 'cause QuickBooks has has programmatic math where the math is still done on the old system, right? That's that's a that's a hard coded thing that is not being interpreted by an LLM. And I guess the the question I have is that when an LLM makes a query and it does math, very often it's right, but I would be hesitant to trust a financial process where the LLM is actually doing all of the calculations.
Morgan Molitor (28:19)
Yes. And I was gonna say I haven't encountered that. However, not to say it hasn't happened, because we do have an in-house controller that manages all that, and then we have an accounting team too. Um, but I will say
Reasonable Tech Dad (28:29)
Sure. Nice.
Morgan Molitor (28:35)
I'm constantly like, why do we still need QuickBooks? Like this pisses me off. Cause it does things that like, but for whatever reason, they keep telling me they're like, we can't get rid of QuickBooks. And I'm like, but we have Adaptive and we have like you guys. And like there seems like there's so many layers. And I'm like, is it really we still need freaking QuickBooks? And I guess we do, but why? I don't know. But no.
Reasonable Tech Dad (28:40)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha! You don't so you don't have a more insightful answer because I'm telling you, some of these guys I've worked with is is that QuickBooks is this key piece all the time. And
Morgan Molitor (29:03)
All the time and like how is no one hacked that? Because clearly everyone has QuickBooks. So I'm like, that thing's a gold mine in itself. I'm like, why do we all still need freaking QuickBooks? No. I should actually No, I know. Isn't that the worst part? I'm like, I think why I hate it too is like there's online version and then there's the desktop version. And it's like, why are we still why is this still like a thing? I know. I actually should ask.
Reasonable Tech Dad (29:11)
So there's no good answer yet. QuickBooks is still this dinosaur that we are stuck with. No offense, QuickBooks. Don't give me like Such a bloated software it feels like with everything that's being built.
Morgan Molitor (29:32)
Yeah, was gonna say I should actually ask Adaptive more about that 'cause I've never like asked them straight up like what is the deal here? Yeah, because I'm like it is very clunky, whereas Adaptive everything is integrated, flowing, and there's things on QuickBooks that our team still needs to do manually and I don't know why. But yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (29:39)
We need it. And it's it's a it's a that question is huge with I think a lot of companies as you start adapting or bringing in AI too, that's a number one question is why do we still need this?
Morgan Molitor (30:02)
Yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (30:02)
Because and that's kind of where things are shifting because you can build it's pretty easy to build like I've built custom add-on pieces for our company on JobTread, right? Where now it's not all of the bloated software. The only thing we need is our data, our people, our jobs. And it's so easy to build those components around these these tools, it's like, what do we still need? You don't need to have 10 softwares anymore. You know what I mean?
Morgan Molitor (30:14)
Yeah. Yes, yeah. Yep. I know. That's that's my whole goal, honestly, with Ressio. We were on Buildertrend. We moved over to Ressio just this past year, and I was like, because that was my goal. I'm like, we need less million tools, right? And getting this more more unified uniformed, unified, whatever with AI. I was like, that's our number one thing we think about too, is like we are f a forward-thinking company when it comes to the selections we put in a home, the tools we use on job sites to the technology we we use in our business. And so that was
Reasonable Tech Dad (30:42)
Yes, yes, yes.
Morgan Molitor (30:56)
kind of my thing is like if we start this tool, one does it use AI, and two, can we alleviate other tools? And even though I'm talking about multiple tools, we had a lot more before we got rid of a Yeah.
Reasonable Tech Dad (31:08)
Well, it's a pain. It's a pain it's a pain and it's expensive. Like and if if th one of the biggest unlocks for AI is that it's just a matter of data. Where is your data? And that's why the knowledge base is so good. Because once you once you have your company's data and you're you're you're putting it into the knowledge base and the knowledge base, the workflows are built correctly, uh there's just not a need to have all those tools. There there really isn't. Because they're just moving around data at the end of the day. They're moving around letters and numbers. That's all they're doing. And so let's get
Morgan Molitor (31:17)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, and I think the right. Yes. Yeah. Shuffling papers, that's what I call it. I'm like, is this another shuffling papers tool or position?
Reasonable Tech Dad (31:38)
Exactly. Correct. Right, exactly. And once you have your workflows built and the knowledge base is aware of those, there's a that you can eliminate a lot of that stuff. So that's just interesting to hear at your scale. You're doing it at a scale that I probably haven't participated in, so that's cool.
Morgan Molitor (31:47)
Yeah. No. Well I was gonna say just you saying the knowledge base thing. I think a lot of people when they're thinking about AI or maybe they used and they're like, I don't know what these guys are talking about. Like it doesn't it doesn't work for me. I've tried it. And I'll always challenge them with like, but did you try it when you started putting everything in, like your brand down to your brand colors, your brand fonts, your brand tone, your brand sharing it some emails? Did you download your Uh employee handbook, your client handbook. And if you don't have those, that's fine. But like anything like that, did you start with that? And they're usually like, oh no, I just started talking to it. And I'm like, well, think of any Yeah. And I'm like, think of any employee. If you just started chatting with them and gave them no foundation, they would be the worst employee ever and they'd be fired in a couple of weeks. So so yeah, I'm always like, Yeah. So the knowledge base, I'm like, yes, you'll get that hub, but like when you start, you need to start with just
Reasonable Tech Dad (32:22)
Yes. I just started making a bunch of chats. Ever in history, right. You gotta train it. You gotta give you gotta make 'em understand the context for sure.
Morgan Molitor (32:48)
Anything that you start training a new employee on, like dump that in there and then you eventually get to this like big brain, right? That's what I always call it. Yeah. Yep. Right.
Reasonable Tech Dad (32:55)
And it takes time. You gotta build it up over time. You gotta train it over time. Now, what what I think is funny is that I said knowledge base and you said brand colors. So, no more educated. What no person knowledge bases? What color is it? What cut are the colors? What are you doing to overcome the AI limitations with creative? Because I know the image generators are better.
Morgan Molitor (33:09)
Sounds good. Brand colors are very important. your knowledge base though but that's hilarious. I'm thinking design. That's good.
Reasonable Tech Dad (33:25)
But like, by and large, that's that's a tough thing for the AI website design. You can still look at most websites and be like, oh, you created that with Claude or ChatGPT this weekend. You know what I mean? So what kind of stuff are you building there? I bet you got just crazy harnesses and context around design ideas.
Morgan Molitor (33:26)
Okay. Yes. Well, I would say so website, Claude Design, I feel like, has been a game changer and creating that. Like I just created a couple of websites last week just with Claude Design. And it's like I was able to get them up and going in just a few days. And so and again, I own a media company. It's like people we used to be able to charge twenty grand for a website. Now now we're charging fifteen hundred bucks, right? And I'm like, this depending on what how complex people want things, but um
Reasonable Tech Dad (33:48)
Been better. Yes.
Morgan Molitor (34:11)
I really do think Claude Design, which if people aren't familiar, when you open Claude, it's at the very bottom, you'll see Claude Design. Um, and so a lot of times people think it's another plug-in or what have you at the top. And I'm like, you yes, there you go. Yes. And then for like room layouts and everything like that, um, ChatGPT is like again, I try to get rid of chat and just use Claude. Yes. And there's um
Reasonable Tech Dad (34:24)
So a little paint palette. Looks like the the the wood piece with the colors on it, yeah. It's gotten a lot better.
Morgan Molitor (34:41)
Oh my gosh, I'm totally blanking out on the name. There's a design tool in ChatGPT that uh gives like the best renderings. And now I'm like, I need to find it. But oh
Reasonable Tech Dad (34:54)
Yeah. I assume that was their design comp competitor. I'dn't ever heard about co chat GPTs yet, but
Morgan Molitor (35:02)
So ChatGPT in there, um, it's Dolly, D-A-L-L-E. So, yes. And now I'm like, even I was in a in a showroom with a client last week, and we had our cabinetry designs, we had our art architectural designs, and even that, right? Like we're trying to get uh edits back to one person that needs to be conveyed to another person, and they're right, there's so many, like, and then we got the contractor, then we got myself helping.
Reasonable Tech Dad (35:07)
Oh, that was their old image generator they used to call that. That was their
Morgan Molitor (35:32)
Like there's so many moving parts. And so I literally just took all of their information, threw it into chat, and I was like, I was sitting with the client, I was like, this is what me and Jess actually want. Like, move the dishwasher here, blah, blah, blah. And within ten minutes, it spit out an image that looked exactly like what we wanted. And it even had notes pointing to everything to say, this move here, double check to make sure it's measured to code, but it had the measurements, everything. And so that way we're able to send it back to all these people that are trying to talk to each other with like not chicken scratch, right? Like notes. And it was very easy to be said like, take this now and everyone update your plans based on this feedback. So yeah, Dolly.
Reasonable Tech Dad (35:58)
Wow. Coherent. Yeah. So did you do that with the transcripts? You recorded everybody talking and brought transcripts in or did you have drawings there as well?
Morgan Molitor (36:19)
I had so I was just sitting in the showroom with me and the client. And so I just opened Dolly and I downloaded all the notes, like the plans from the architect, the plans from our cabinet maker. And then I was sitting in the showroom where we were picking out the floors, the paint colors, all that. And so I was typing notes and I was voice memoing notes in. And then I just took their things and I left the meeting and I was like, I'm done. I don't need to go back to the office and I'll
Reasonable Tech Dad (36:36)
Amazing.
Morgan Molitor (36:46)
Spend the entire day like recapping all the notes and on top of the notes I had all the designs like updated and that was all through Dolly in Chat GPT.
Reasonable Tech Dad (36:53)
Yeah. That's amazing. And so now here's the question. Do you think that those design tools now are finally do they have taste, as we were talking about earlier. Do they have taste like you? Like they do. You think that they can they they can understand color concepts and and spatial use and things like that?
Morgan Molitor (37:02)
They do, yes, yes, they do. They can mine I mean, like you said with your knowledge base. So my knowledge base consists of like my bot, which by the way, my bot's name is Stevie. So Stevie has very good style. And Stevie knows exactly the exact Sherwin Williams paint colors I love and I don't love. And so, like you said with your knowledge base, it's like my bot knows these colors because I've trained it to know these colors. If I just threw that in there and it didn't have any context.
Reasonable Tech Dad (37:33)
Yes. Yes.
Morgan Molitor (37:38)
Like, no, your designs would look like crap, but mine exactly. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Down to like Stevie would never ever put like partial overlay cabinetry in a design because she knows I hate that. So I'm like, she knows. It's a girl, by the way, and she's a badass. Oh. Oh, I love that.
Reasonable Tech Dad (37:40)
And then they think that the tools are bad. They're like, oh, this doesn't work. No, you need to tell it how you work and what works for you. I love it. We need more of it. We need more of it. For sure. Now mine's super geeky. Mine's Codsworth after the Fallout Butler boss. So he he does all the he got the British flavor and all the fallout lore and all that stuff. So it's super geeky. Amazing. That's so cool, Morgan. I love that. Alright, now we are pushing long on time, and I do want we're gonna have to do this again. This is amazing.
Morgan Molitor (38:10)
Oh my gosh. Oh, that's mine's after Stevie Nicks, 'cause I think she's a badass. So good. I know it's just so fun. I'm so glad we chatted and you invited me to this. It's been so fun. And I love your podcast. I listened to a few and I was like, oh my gosh, where have you been? But yes.
Reasonable Tech Dad (38:28)
Thank you. This was amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much. That comes from bartending. Lots of years of listening people talk over booze and asking a lot of good questions and learning that kind of stuff. It's uh it's it's turned into a really nice niche for me.
Morgan Molitor (38:36)
Oh okay. You actually need to so Adaptive has a podcast too. Um and so Reese Barnes is the is the host and um but it's called Bruise and Oh my gosh. You sh I know, I was like, you should cut this because I'm butchering it and he would kill me. But anyway
Reasonable Tech Dad (38:46)
Okay. Mail it to me, whatever, we'll find it. So we don't cut the we d I we can cut where we want.
Morgan Molitor (39:03)
Every time I look at him, I'm like, you look like you worked in a brewery. I'm like, but it's very entertaining to listen to. Yes. You're gonna look at it and be like, oh yeah, I know exactly what she was talking about. But what you're saying, I'm like, I spent I grew up in the restaurant industry and I'm like, there's something about serving and being in that industry that you can just like pick up and go. Yeah. Ooh.
Reasonable Tech Dad (39:07)
He's got the look. She's right, she's right. He's rovery. It's a repetition of connection in a very fast amount of time. You really get you really get uh kind of a sixth sense for different types of people and how to just strike rapport quickly with the right kind of looks, questions, mannerisms, that kind of stuff, and you just get the reps, right? Like anything else, you do it enough, you get good.
Morgan Molitor (39:35)
Yeah, that's good. Yeah. I love it. Well you're good. Yeah, you do a good job.
Reasonable Tech Dad (39:42)
So thank you. I appreciate that. Where can the people find you? What kind of links should we put out? Where should where should people go and hype you up? And look your Instagram account for sure. Cause I looked at that, I'm like, wow, this is unreal. So tell us where to find ya.
Morgan Molitor (39:52)
Oh, you're so nice. Um, we are construction2style.com and on we're on every single social media from YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, uh, Google, you name it. Our handle is construction2style at all of them. And I'm Morgan Molitor, and I also am at Morgan Molitor and morganmolitor.com. So yeah. You're so nice. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you.
Reasonable Tech Dad (40:12)
Good people, folks. Go find her. Morgan, this has been a pleasure, and I'm sure we'll talk again soon. All right. Take it easy. Cool.