From Setbacks to Success: How John B. Is Building BrunCo Build’s Reputation in Tampa

Quinton Comino: Hello, everybody. Today, my guest is John from Bronco Build. He’s a young contractor starting out — I’ve been doing this probably, what, seven, eight, nine months — has a lot of experience in contracting but on his own for less than a year. Seen some great success and had some failures, had some setbacks — you know, had to eat it on some jobs — which look, we all have to do.

Quinton Comino: Whether in business or in real life, you make mistakes. And sometimes the best thing is just to say, “Look, I messed up.” Then you gotta eat that, but it can be difficult when it’s a business.

Quinton Comino: So really excited to tune into this one and hear some more about how John was able to reach the success that he has at an early stage in the business and kind of niche down and focus on what he’s really good at. And sometimes you learn that by just what you’re good at and sometimes you try something and realize, “I’m not good at this at all — I need to not take another one of those jobs.” That’s real life. So this is a really great one — I’m excited to hear some more — so tune in.

Quinton Comino: You’re John — it’s Bronco Build — is that right?

John: Yes. My awesome. Yeah. My last name is Brunner. So I kinda just played it off that Bronco Construction.

John: So that’s kinda where I got the name.

Quinton Comino: I love it, man. So just fill us in. Tell us what you do. Tell us where you’re located. Just give us a general overview of Bronco Build.

John: So I’m located in Saint Petersburg, Florida. We work all throughout Pinellas County, and we do a lot of work in Tampa as well. I would say we’re basically anywhere in that Bay Area. You know, we’ve gone down over the bridge to Sarasota, did some stuff over there, but kinda in that Bay Area, Pinellas, Hillsborough, and Manatee County.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. That’s good. Pretty busy area. A lot of people there.

Quinton Comino: Oh, yeah. Ton of people. So that’s around the Tampa area, right on the water. Nice houses, lot of people, lot of activity. Yeah.

John: Definitely. You get a whole different range of different types of homes too with all the homes on the water, especially with the new rules, and how they have to be built. And then you also get a lot of older historic homes in, like, Ybor and other areas in Tampa. So it’s definitely very unique area and understanding the different types of builds and what era the house is from really makes a big difference in knowing that stuff when you go to work on it.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. What type of contractor would you classify yourself as? You renovate, you just do new construction, you remodel sorts of things. How would you say you do or what your specialty is?

John: I would classify myself as a residential remodeler right now. I wanna get into the new construction, but all the stuff I’ve done now has been really all remodel. I do a lot of kitchens, a lot of bathrooms, but then I’ve done also a lot of full remodels on homes that got flooded out and things like that. In the beginning, I tried to take, you know, whatever work was coming my way.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. That’s how it goes.

John: Yep. So now I’m starting to niche down a little into mainly kitchens and bathrooms, but then also take on some bigger projects if they come my way.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. It’s good. So how do projects come your way? Is this word-of-mouth? Do you do advertising? How does that work for you?

John: Initially, I started. I was playing football. I played up in Canada, and I was kinda just doing construction in the off season to stay busy. And clearly, once I got done playing, I was like, you know what? I think I’ll just gonna kinda start on my own. I was working for another contractor at the time. And when I went off on my own, I really only had one job lined up. Like, it you know, it did

Quinton Comino: You really went for it.

John: Yeah. So, I did that. We did a they they were filling in their sliding glass windows because their house had been flooded out, and they kinda wanted to waterproof it a little better. We filled in their sliding glass doors with block walls and windows.

Quinton Comino: Oh, wow.

John: And then we did the same thing for the neighbors. And I think after we finished those two jobs, I think it was a Saturday was the we finished on a Friday. I started passing out flyers and stuff around the neighborhood. And just luckily, I’ve been busy since then.

Quinton Comino: No way.

John: Yeah. I would say, I got some realtor friends that definitely helped get me some business and all just pretty much word-of-mouth. And my network, I haven’t had to really do much advertising yet.

Quinton Comino: Wow. That’s really great. But it was up in Canada is where you started.

John: No. No. No. So I started down here. I played football

Quinton Comino: in Canada. Okay. Okay.

John: Yeah. But then in the off season yeah. I come back to Florida for the off season.

Quinton Comino: So how did you juggle that, man? It’s kinda a long way away from home.

John: Yeah. So I really got into construction as I had a friend that was doing it that was working for a contractor. And, you know, football is like a five, six months a year. So you know, you can only work out one or two times a day, then you got the whole rest of your day just to do whatever. So I was like, decided to pick it up and kinda just roll with it from there.

Quinton Comino: That’s so cool, man. Absolutely love that. So then so you’re so when did you start that then? You’re done doing football in Canada. It’s full time Bronco build?

John: Yep. So I actually started last November, so I’m about seven or eight months into my business for myself now. Yeah.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. So very fresh.

John: Yeah. Definitely.

Quinton Comino: That’s good. And you already feel you’re at a point where you have the type of jobs that you’re looking for. For where your company is now, like those kitchen and bath sort of things, those are the type of jobs you want.

John: Yeah. I would say at first, I was kinda you know, first couple months, I was taking whatever came my way. And now I’ve been able to specialize and kind of put the word out that, you know, this is what I was focusing on. And you know, always still looking for more work. It’s definitely hard to keep guys busy, especially when you’re first getting started out.

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

John: But I’ve gotten to a point now where I’m starting to feel a little bit more comfortable where I’m not stressing where my next job’s gonna come from.

Quinton Comino: You know? But yeah. I mean, it’s really hard to make money out of thin air, so to speak. It’s really hard to be just be sitting there in your room and say, alright. Well, what am I gonna do that’s gonna make money show up? How am I gonna do that?

Quinton Comino: What am I gonna do for people to pay me? That’s not an easy thing to do. And much less employ people as well and pay them. I guess it’s a really complicated thing.

John: Definitely. And in the beginning, I definitely ate a lot of losses, either pricing the jobs incorrectly or just some inexperienced things. And I guess my advice would be anyone starting out, your reputation is way more important than making a few extra bucks. So just take the losses, make the customer happy, and just keep rolling with it. And you’ll learn as you go.

Quinton Comino: Absolutely, man. You need to get those referrals when you’re first starting out so bad. And it’s important later on as well. I mean, just doing the right thing. And if you make a mistake, like, extreme responsibility. Hey. That was on me. And people see that as a company. They see it when the mistake happens, and they can just see it in your work when you have that extreme responsibility of, hey. We messed up. We’re gonna own this, and we’re gonna make this right.

John: Definitely. A 100%. And that’s one of the things I learned is, you know, you gotta just look at the big picture. Yeah. You might have thought you were gonna make this on a job, and you didn’t, but that’s not your employee’s fault. That’s not the homeowner’s fault. So you have to just yeah. You know, take that responsibility and just deliver a good product and own it.

Quinton Comino: Exactly. But you can’t have said it any better. I like that. The extreme ownership is definitely a good point for

Quinton Comino: Oh, yeah. Yeah. It’s something that really drives us here at Home Nation, extreme responsibility. Even if so we transport mobile homes. Right? Once the home’s built, the home gets transported to the customer’s location, and we’re providing the home from the manufacturer. We don’t build it. We just kinda like a car dealership. They’re just selling the cars. They don’t build them. That’s what we do here at Home Nation for mobile homes. We just sell them. We don’t build them. We connect the dots. We get the transport company to pick it up and move the home to the property. Right? A lot of times what will happen is, shingles might blow off or a piece of siding comes off or maybe some doors come loose or sometimes a cabinet door comes off, or a wall panel is a VOG, vinyl over gypsum. It’s a three eighths inch drywall with a vinyl on the face of it. So it’s not half inch. Maybe one of those panels comes off and you can’t repair it like you repair drywall. You have to replace the entire panel. So those are some various damages that happen during transport with a mobile home, but that’s not technically, that’s not on Home Nation. That’s on the transport company. But we value those transport companies, and we wanna take care of them. So we don’t wanna put a bunch of problems on them. And then we also wanna take care of the customer because they wanted their home to come with all of the shingles. Now I can’t help it with transport 500 miles. Transport anything 500 miles, it’s gonna be in a little more rough shape than when it started. At the very least with your car, you need to get it washed. Right? Well, when that home’s going down the road, some shingles come off, what have you, we go ahead and we say, we wanna take care of our customer. At Home Nation, customer service is a priority for us. So we just eat that. I mean, I have it constantly. My door is right over here. Right? I constantly have my service department coming in saying, hey. Can we review this? And that’s not because there are constantly things going wrong, so to speak, but we do a lot of homes. And we’re providing over a home per day. And if you have even 1% of those, you’re gonna have even 1% going wrong. You’re gonna have a lot of that stuff. So as you scale and get bigger, these problems don’t necessarily go away. You might be able to make them smaller problems because you make less big mistakes, but you’re still gonna have a lot of those problems. So you’ll need to have, something not only like processes in place, but you’ll need to be pre pre pre prepared, like, emotionally. Logistically, you’ll need to be prepared to handle those sorts of things that come your way. When you’ve got guys on a job, and they mess something up, or something’s not really their fault, maybe because of the way the home was designed, or there were other contractors working on the house, and now it’s kind of looking bad on you. Or you’re like, hey, man. I can’t help that your studs are all warped, so the drywall doesn’t look really clean. Like, I can’t help that. Sometimes you’re just gonna have to take care of that. Have you thought of what the future looks like for Bronco Build and, like, how you’re gonna expand and make sure you have the right people to handle the various things that are gonna come your way?

John: Yeah. So I guess the first couple months, as you know, I mean, sounds like you’ve got a pretty good business going on. You’re kinda wearing all the hats of your company. So I was so focused on, okay. I’m in the field, then I get home. I’m doing estimates, and I’m working on this. So you kinda get lost in the mix a little bit. And now I feel like I’ve been able to pull back a little bit and start to systemize and kinda iron some of these things out. My goal is basically just to keep keep building, keep learning, and getting better. I ultimately wanna get into new construction. I wanna stick to the local market I’m in for right now, kind of stick to that Bay Area. But that’s pretty much the plan for now is just keep doing what we’re doing. And as I grow the company and don’t try to rush things or push things faster than they need to go, but at the same time, keep that level of, I guess, hunger to wanna keep getting better and keep building. You know? Just do it slowly.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. Yeah. It’s good. You know, it wearing multiple hats statement there that it’s good in the sense of well, like, long term, it’s not good. You’re not gonna if your business depends on you, that’s a problem. If it depends on you to run, then you really just have a glorified job. That’s what you have. It’s not really business. But if you can leave and it can run, now, now we’re talking you’ve got something that’s autonomous. You’re gonna need to have autonomous employees and policies that just procedures that just make sense and they work. And it doesn’t take someone who’s a master craftsman with in whatever way to be able to solve the problem. Right? But nobody knows your business better than you. So it was so important for me to work in all those different departments, to work in service, to work in transport, to work in sales, to work in finance, to work in just admin stuff in the back. It was so important for me to do those things so that I can understand, okay. I need this type of person to work in our sales department. I need this type of person to work in our call center. I need this type of person to be a developer to write the code that we have that runs the systems that we operate on. So it was just you can’t replace that experience. In my opinion, and in my experience, it’s not something that I could replace. Having spent the time in those various positions, it wasn’t fun. Like, it wasn’t always glamorous working in construction and getting a home delivered, and you’ve gotta throw down big metal pads for the home tires to go on because it’s sandy otherwise, and the home’s just gonna sink in there. And I’m the only one there, and it’s just the driver, and he’s yelling at me. And the diesel engine’s running on his truck, and he can’t hear anything. I’m throwing things under there, like, exhaust going in my face. And we gotta get this mobile home on the property because we gotta do it. It’s like, this is the day to do it. I’m not gonna leave it on the road. Figure it out. No one to call. There’s no help coming. Figure it out. Like, that’s just invaluable. You really can’t beat that.

John: No. Definitely. And I feel like it gives you a unique perspective. So when you do have guys calling you saying, hey. This is going on. You’re like, okay. I’ve been there. I know exactly what it feels like. And I think that’s why it’s been important for me to stick in the field and learn as much as I can. I’ve got a lot of good guys that I work with, you know, that have been doing certain trade for twenty plus years. And I’ve done some subcontract work when I first started out for other contractors trying to stay busy, and I just saw a lot of mistakes and a lot of things that I thought weren’t run properly.

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

John: And I think it’s because they didn’t really have a great overall understanding of the actual building process and all the little things like you said, like, oh, well, the wall’s not level, so then we gotta we’re gonna have to shim this and get that level before we can put our board on and start the tile. And, I think that’s definitely been a big thing for me. I’m just trying to soak up as much as I can from all the guys. And to be a truly good contractor, I think you do need a level of actual field experience and expertise so that you can really understand what the guys got going on that are working, the process, the layers, the steps that needs to happen in, and that you can also relate to the guys when a problem occurs. You’re like, okay. I’ve been through that. I know exactly what he’s dealing with, and I can empathize with that, and this is what we should do.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. That’s good. So and you’ll know if someone’s BS ing you.

John: Exactly.

Quinton Comino: Exactly. Like, no, man. You’re full of it, man. That’s not the problem. Or they just don’t even know what they’re talking about. Let alone trying to be, like, malicious or anything. Like, hey, no. That I’ve never had that happen before. That doesn’t sound right. Whether they’re your guys or maybe someone that you need to have come help you for a job because it’s so big, like, you get subs or whatever. You’ll know. You’ll know what it actually takes to do the job.

John: Definitely. And I’ve heard Florida, you know, described as the Wild West sometimes when in terms of construction and dealing with some subcontractors and other things like that. Exactly like you said, it’s like you’re gonna know how to pick who’s the good guys, who aren’t. And it’s like now to the point where, you know, you can look at a guy’s tools. Say you’re looking at a tile guy. You can look at his tools and you can kinda get a good feel of, okay. This guy, he knows what he’s doing.

Quinton Comino: Mhmm. Exactly. Go ahead. Sorry.

John: I was gonna say you hit the nail right on the head. I think that that was a perfect point you made.

Quinton Comino: Mhmm. Yeah. So I tell the employees, some of them in particular, as I look, we need to we need we need to expand our boundaries for stress. We need to enlarge our capacity for stress because we are limiting ourselves. We are creating a ceiling where we think that it’s too hard for me to handle this. I can’t do it. So I tell them they really need to just embrace what’s coming, because they can handle it. And I know that what I’m saying is true that and I know not only who they are as a person, because I hired my train them or I hired the person who did train them, and I worked with them. So I know what they can handle because, you know, I’m not gonna put, I’m not gonna put a plumber on an electrical job and then be upset when he’s not doing well in electrical. I got the wrong person. So I know I’ve got the right person in the right position, and then I know what the position calls for because I’ve done it myself. And I’m familiar with these sorts of things. So I can say, you can handle this capacity of stress. And I’ve been in that situation before, so I know it’s gonna be okay. Like, it’s not gonna be a problem. Yeah. The customer’s upset. Yeah. This thing went really wrong. It’s okay. I tell them there’s never something like, there’s a solution for every problem. We will be able to solve everything. We had a mobile home one time. This is crazy. So it was leaving our Decatur, Indiana facility that we purchased mobile homes out of. It was a champion home, and it’s not a dog on champion or anything. It wasn’t actually their fault. It’s a beautiful home. It was a double wide. We’re sending it all the way to Colorado. Right? I think it was, like, Pueblo, Colorado, which is near Colorado Springs, just at the foothills of the mountains there. So we’re sending the home there, and it’s like a Thursday. And it was a really windy day in Decatur. And the first half had left on, like, Monday, and the second half was delayed a little bit for weather. And then on Thursday, they thought, you know what? We can haul it. And so they’re bringing the home out, and it’s a couple day haul to even get to Colorado. They didn’t even get out of the state of Indiana. The transport driver hooks up to the home, and this is basically like taking a billboard down the road. That’s essentially what a mobile home is. Alright? And if you catch wind like, have you ever seen, because you’re on the ocean. Right? See those kite surfers ever or maybe they’re in the river or the intercoastal? Yeah. They catch wind and they’re poof. They’ll come off the water, like, ten, twenty feet. It’s crazy. Yeah. So, that’s pretty much what’s gonna happen when a big gust of wind comes through. And it’s like that’s exactly what took place on just kinda unfortunate day. Big gust of wind came through with the mobile home, and we’ve never had this happen before. We’ve been doing this for years and years. We’ve done thousands of homes. It caught the home, lifted it off of the truck, took it off the hitch, and absolutely threw it on the ground, destroyed that half of the home. Because double wides are sold in two halves. When they arrive, you put them both together. So the second half, it left on that Thursday. The first half made it. It was all the way there at the customer’s property. The second half didn’t make it. Got completely destroyed. Wind caught it, and it just threw it on the ground, smashed it to pieces. You couldn’t tell what the floor plan was, where the kitchen was versus the bathroom versus the bedroom. It was just sticks, insulation, and all the other, you know, shingles and building material. It was bad. It was pretty bad. The frame was twisted up. The truck was okay. But it was a huge gust of wind came and it just absolutely destroyed it. So we get this call, and we get photos of the home, of this mobile home. We’re like, wow. Okay. This is a problem. This is not good. We have to break this to the homeowner. And what are you gonna do? Am I gonna lie to them? Like, no. I’m not gonna lie to them. But am I gonna call them in a panic? And, like, your home’s been destroyed. We don’t know what to do. Like, no. So we had to figure something out. We talked to the manufacturer, first and foremost. And their gracious enough champion was, would you really appreciate it? They said, hey. We’re gonna build this half for you. We’re gonna build it again. And we’re gonna put it at the front of the line and get this thing done. And the transport company, you know, love them and they do really well, but that was something that they shouldn’t have hauled the home. And so they had to eat that. And, you know, I respect them for it. They own that mistake. And they said, hey. We’re have to pay for this. We’re literally gonna pay for another one to be built because we shouldn’t have hauled it, which is tough. Like, that’s not a fun that wasn’t a fun call on their part, but I really respect them for saying, you know, we’re gonna take this. And at the end of the day, we gave money back to the customer because we felt terrible. Even though it wasn’t on us, we felt awful. Like, because they’re a young couple. The mother was just so sweet. She’s always got kids in the back background playing or crying, and the husband’s working it. They’re just such a sweet couple, and they’re gonna move into this home. But this, like, really awful situation happened, and so we had to work with that and say, alright. We’re gonna get this thing built as fast as we can. We talked to the people, the higher ups of the factory, and then we didn’t charge anything extra to the customer. We ended up giving them some money back at the end of the day because we really felt it was the right thing to do. And, like, I wanna be able to go to sleep every night and know that I did my best to take care of a customer. And, thankfully, we’re in a position to be able to afford those sorts of things. But it’s really tough in the beginning when you’re just starting. Like, it’s not a matter of, okay. Am I alright with making a little bit less money this month? It’s like, oh, boy. Am I gonna be able to make payroll this month? Because we’re just getting started. But it’s tough, man. It is really tough position to be in when you’re just starting and you’re making mistakes. And that’s why a lot of businesses and they’re not gonna they’re not gonna make it past the first couple of years, if even the first couple months. Because mistakes are costly. And when you don’t have a lot to pay for that cost, it can absolutely shut your business down.

John: A 100%. And that whole story, I think, epitomizes exactly how you do good business. I mean, you have a good relationship with the people you work with, your transporters and your builders, and then also, you know, doing the right thing by the customer. And I think a lot of people will burn bridges over things like that. And, you know, you burn enough bridges. You don’t have anywhere to go. So I think the way you handle that was perfect. It’s like, you know, your people take care of you. You have a working relationship with the transporter. You guys do a lot of business together. You did the right thing, and then you did the right thing by the customer even going beyond what was expected. And I think that, you know, just helps build your reputation and shows your character. Yeah. And also touching on what you said about the stress before, I really like that you focused on training the employees on how to handle that stress.

Quinton Comino: Yes.

John: Because as the business owner, you know, a lot of times, you’re eating a ton of stress and a ton of problems all day, and you start to get callous to it, and you learn how to deal with it better. And sometimes in your head, you could think, oh, this is so minuscule, what they’re complaining about. You know? But I think that’s a really important point to kinda try them to bring them along with you and kinda build that callus for stress and say, hey. You know, you don’t need to freak out over these things and just kinda talk them through it, get through the process, and get it fixed and keep it moving.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. It can be easy. Because I’m also as we build the company and we’re providing more houses, we’re building culture here at Home Nation, we’re building culture. And that culture starts from the top down. So it’s gonna come from your owner, then your management, then, you know, down the levels and so on. And you hire in culture. You build it yourself and you also hire it. So who if you hire someone who’s awful, and they’re they don’t know how to swing a hammer, or they’ve got a bad attitude, that’s gonna start to affect everyone. But if you hire someone who’s clear, positive attitude, that’s also gonna start to affect everyone. So culture is such an important thing because it reflects on everybody here, and then it reflects on the customers. And I want our customers to have an excellent experience. I don’t want them to be dealing with someone in service who just dismisses their problem. Because we’re working with homes. Right? We’re in the same type of industry. We’re not working with, like, clothing lines or, you know, products you can buy on Amazon, where if it’s got a defect, hey. We’ll just send you another one, or, hey. Send it back. We’ll just send you your money back. We’re dealing with homes, and people are super emotional when it comes to homes. They’re attached to their home. This is their vacation home, or it’s their forever home, or it, like, it’s their only home. Whatever it is. And you’re in their home too. Like, that you’re getting really intimate with the customer. You’re in their kitchen. Like, that is their living space. That is where they live and breathe. You’re in their bathrooms. You’re in their bedrooms. You’re in their living room. You’re in their home. And knowing how to handle the customer is so important. And eventually, you’re not gonna be the only guy, if not already. You’re gonna have other people in there. And so who you hire on and how they see you work with customers, it’s going to set the stage for the type of business that you’re gonna have. And it’s so important to do that right as early as possible because fixing that down the line, it can be pretty difficult.

John: 100%. Because a lot of times, if you go in to do work on a house or someone’s living in the house at the time, you might be going into someone’s house where their wife and kids are at home, and you got five guys coming into their house, and you’re going to start working on their house. So that’s one thing I tried to stress to anybody that works with me is, hey. We have to make these people feel as comfortable and welcoming as possible. Yeah. You know, be professional at all times, and they should have not a single ounce of doubt or they should be welcoming us, like, you know, welcoming us into the home with open arms and feel a 100% safety and

Quinton Comino: Yeah. No hesitation.

John: Exactly. And then I also like what you touched on with the culture of the company. That was one of the things that I took from playing football is anytime you saw a good team, the yeah. You have good players, but the culture of the team is what makes a good team. So you could have a lot of good players with a bad culture, and all it takes is one bad apple, and it can ruin the whole team. So I think that’s a really important thing is, because you might have a guy with a lot of talent. Hey. This guy can frame really well. He’s really good at, this guy can tile really good, but, you know, he’s got a bad attitude, and none of the other guys like them. So you have to look, hey. This guy might be really good at what he does, but he’s having a bad impact on everybody else.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. And then my customers are picking up on that. And, you know, that person lost opportunity is one of the worst things because you don’t actually see it on your profit and loss spreadsheet. Right? On that report. You don’t necessarily see the jobs you didn’t get. You see that you see what you made. So you’re like, okay. I fell short of my goal or whatever. But you don’t see the people who are like, no. I’m not using Bronco build. That tile guy, like, he’s just, I saw him coming in and out in and out of my neighbor’s house on that job. Like, no. I don’t wanna work with that guy. I’m gonna call someone else. You don’t see that. Really important to have the right people.

John: Definitely. And especially if you’re not doing advertising and you’re trying to get referrals from clients, all it takes is one little thing. You could even in your head, you could think it’s not a big deal, but you gotta think from the perspective of the homeowner. So that was one thing I had to really train myself on. This might not be a big deal to me.

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

John: But to them, it means everything. So those are all little things you have to remind yourself of anytime you would rent someone’s home.

Quinton Comino: What, what situations do you find it difficult to take that perspective? Because I can think of a couple in my industry and my business where it’s really hard for me to put my not that it’s hard, but it can be easy to just dismiss putting myself in the customer’s shoes. Are there any situations that come to mind where you’re like, okay. You need to pause and go, alright. If I were the customer, this is how it would feel.

John: Yeah. So we had one customer that’s like, hey. I like to play pickleball in the mornings. Like, can you guys please not get here till ten? Also, can you put on these booties too anytime you come in and out of the house? Yeah. Like, you know, they were on everything. And then you think like, okay. Yeah. Like, it becomes to the point where it’s like, in your head, you think, you know, it’s not really that big of a deal if I let one of these things slide, but they yeah. You know, you have to just get inside their head. And to you, you think this is a little much, but at the same time, it’s like, that’s the customer. They’re right. Do it their way. And that’s just how it’s gotta be on that job.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. That’s really good, man. That sounds like you take a lot of pride in what you do, and you’re eager to grow what you have and do it right. Actually, you know, I had that. Where was it? I think it was on your list. I love what you said here. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Says our philosophy is simple. We never settle for the easy way. We always strive for the right way. Yeah. I love that. Because it’s that’s difficult to do, and it’s difficult to scale that. But really striving to take care of the customer and do the right thing, it speaks volumes, and it does come back either as more business or just, hey. You know what? I can sleep at night, and I know I’m doing the absolute best that I can. And so I don’t have anything on my conscience.

John: A 100%. And it’s like, if you can get a referral from a customer like that that’s extremely picky

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

John: You’re gonna get the job when they go to refer you because those people know, hey. This person is really picky. If he had something good to say about him, I know that they’re exactly. You made Johnny happy. Like, man, this guy is gonna be good.

John: Exactly. So that’s one of the that that’s when it instantly clicked for me is I had a job like that, and I instantly got, like, two other jobs, two other bathrooms to do from somebody else. Nice. So that’s when I was like, man, they didn’t really under I was like, that you know, usually, you don’t get two referrals right off the bat like that, but then I kinda put it together in my head. I’m like, man, if these people are friends with them, they know how they are. And if they’re referring you, then that means a lot.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. So do you, sorry. Did you have someone else that I didn’t wanna cut you off?

John: No. No. You’re good.

Quinton Comino: So do you ask for referrals at the end of a job?

John: I don’t. So what I started doing now just recently is trying to get Google reviews. That’s I basically just started getting into that, and now I’m starting to try to take a little more to social media and do some other things like that. But I feel like in the beginning, I was just so tunnel vision focused on the work itself and making sure everything ran properly. For now, I’m trying to start to put together multiple streams of jobs. So we’re not reliant on just word-of-mouth or one thing we can have. So if something slows down, we get this stream of jobs coming in.

Quinton Comino: It’s good. But, you know, those are good things. Reviews are great, but those are, like, for well, you think of it yourself yourself, man. If you see a Google review on a business and it shows positive, they’re okay. But let’s say a restaurant. Keep it really simple. Let’s say it has a thousand reviews. Over a thousand. Like, four and a half stars. Okay? Tons and tons of reviews. High stars. I mean, that place is probably pretty good. I think I wanna go eat there. But you say you have your friend, you know, of yours, who says, hey, John. This place down the road, this place is delicious, man. You gotta try this out. I went there last night for dinner. Oh, my goodness. That’s the best pad thai I had in my life. Or, man, their burger. Oh, my goodness, bro. I gotta have that for breakfast. You’re gonna go to that place. Like, that speaks more volume. And in most cases alright. This is not like a ever case. But I would say in most cases, that referral is gonna speak more volume to you than all of those reviews.

John: Oh, a 100%. And I think construction more than anything is probably the biggest word-of-mouth industry there is.

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

John: Because if you do have a company that relies solely on advertising, they’re probably not very good.

Quinton Comino: If, you know, they’re dumping

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

John: Tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars into Facebook ads, by the time you’ve gotten that many jobs, you shouldn’t have to do a single advertisement. You know?

Quinton Comino: Yeah. Yeah. Seriously. So I would really I mean, your business to do what you want, man. But referrals are huge, because you don’t have to spend money on advertising for that. And that referral, they have such a higher, like, commitment rate than someone who just happens to see a bunch of reviews that you have. So I would definitely, you know, recommend asking referrals for at the end. Google reviews are great, but you say, like, hey, man. You know, mister and missus Smith. So I did job here. It’s fantastic. Really, really working with you. Look. Do do you know of anybody else that might have a kitchen that’s a little bit outdated or might have a bathroom that could use some new tile? Like, describe to them the type of customer that you’re looking for, and then you’re more likely to get that referral. Nice. I think that would be so invaluable.

John: That’s a terrific idea because some people just don’t even really think about that. They might wanna refer you, but it’s just not even in the back of their mind where now you’re making them think, oh, well, missus Smith’s kitchen is pretty old. She did mention something about that. I would say one of the things that’s helped me a lot, I learned this from the guy I worked for previously. He was kinda like a New York slick talker type of guy. He was real good at selling stuff. And the thing I saw him do is he told everybody what he did. That was one thing I picked up on is

Quinton Comino: That’s good. Yeah.

John: Yeah. If people don’t know what you do, they can’t refer you. So that immediate network you have, it’s really important to let everybody know what you do and what you got going on. And I, you know, tried tons of things. I made T shirts for people. So just you know, why do you have a construction shirt on? Oh, that’s John’s business. You know? Just little things like that.

Quinton Comino: That’s good. And your customers too, like, that you’re in there doing tile, but they don’t know that you also do framing. Right. And so let them know that. Or at the end of the job, you don’t have to ask for just a tile job. Say, hey. We do these other things. And they’re like, oh, shoot. Man, if I knew you did that, I woulda had you replace my windows. I didn’t know you did windows. I thought you just did the tile. So

John: A 100%. Because the easiest sale is selling to somebody that you’ve already done work for before.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And if you’re doing good work, and they see value in that, like, they want that. Customers want that. It is that is like, you’re not a con man. You’re not trying to get someone into something you don’t want. They want that. They hired you. You did good work. It is an easier experience for them. If you’re in there laying tile, they find out that you also do windows, and they can go, that would be fantastic, John. Can I please get a quote on that? Yeah, man. I’ll let me finish this up, and I’ll quote it.

John: 100%. And I don’t think, you know, there’s anything wrong or you’re conning anybody because if you really believe in the work you do and the service you provide

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

John: You’re gonna give them a better product in your mind than them taking a shot on another company that they have no idea what type of work or so I think it’s for both parties, and that’s, you know, something I didn’t think about before, but that’s actually a really good point that you should mention all your services because, yeah, you did a bathroom for them, but they don’t know that you do masonry walls. And maybe you do work for them or they refer you out to somebody else that they previously wouldn’t have known that you do that type of work.

Quinton Comino: Yeah. Exactly. Or they’re like, yeah. My buddy, he’s been complaining about that retaining wall that’s leaning real bad, or, man, his wife just is on him about the paint and the house peeling off. Like, they need to get that redone. Oh, you do that? Man, you gotta talk to him, man. I’m tired of hearing it from the cool, man. So so wrapping up, you had mentioned construction is something that you wanna start getting into. Right now, you’re doing a lot of you’re niching down, you were saying, with kitchens and bathrooms. What’s the future look like for Bronco Build?

John: Yeah. So, basically, right now, I wanna build kind of like you said, you gotta get your systems and everything together. So it’s like I’m basically getting systems and everything down where I’m getting really good at doing bathrooms and kitchens and then start to add layers and add layers. And once I build more trusted connections with subcontractors, and I’ll take that next step next step. And I ultimately wanna get into the new construction and, you know, do new houses and other things like that. And then my long plan is that I ultimately wanna get into the commercial space as well, either, you know, doing quick service restaurants and other things like that.

Quinton Comino: Yeah.

John: Something that I looked into that kinda piqued my interest. So I would say, you know, I’m just gonna take it one step at a time and just keep building and keep, you know

Quinton Comino: That’s good.

John: Just keep stacking.

Quinton Comino: I love that, man. Like, commercial will be so valuable because as a business owner, if you have someone who is reliable, the price becomes less and less of a concern. Because of the value of, like, man, every time I have a customer who walks into this lobby of our business, and they see this outdated decor and outdated everything, or they see the holes in the wall or the paint’s peeling or whatever. Right? The terrible trim job, every time, like, that impacts my business. It’s my business, but you walk into a place that’s spick and span, and it’s modern, and it’s bright, and you walk into that. This this business going on. This business has it together. And so as a business owner, you’re like, Bronco build, they’re reliable, and they get it done. Absolutely. They’ve got the job every time. They don’t they don’t even have to quote it before they do it sort of stuff. Like, that’s just so valuable having real reliable contractors, reliable work. Like, you know, you’re hire is gonna do it and do it right. That you just, you that’s getting the lowest price.

John: Oh, yeah. A 100%. It’s an, I kind of got the idea. I met a guy that did pretty much like all the Starbucks in the area. He got all the contracts. So I was like

Quinton Comino: Yeah. All of them.

John: Yeah. Exactly. So I was like, okay. There’s something to that. So it’s down a little bit, but it’s definitely something I’m aiming towards.

Quinton Comino: That’s so cool, man. Well, thank you. Thank you, John. So Bronco Build over in the Tampa area. Right? For those who not know exactly Pinellas County. That’s gonna be what Clearwater, Sarasota, those sorts of and just tell us one more time what it is focusing on, just your services so that anybody listening can know this is what Bronco Build does and if I’m in area of them because we have a ton of customers in Florida, one of our biggest states, then they’ll know to reach out to you for those particular services.

John: A 100%. So I would say, obviously, kitchens and bathrooms, we’re doing a lot of that right now. And then another thing that I just brought on is we’re starting to do a lot of exterior painting as well. So, any type of exterior painting jobs. I got two really good guys, fifteen years of experience. So

Quinton Comino: Nice.

John: Any exterior painting job, I feel very good that we can deliver a really good product.

Quinton Comino: That’s so good. I love it. Well, thank you, John. I really wish you all the success with Bronco Build. You’ve got vision for it. You’ve got the you got the appetite for it for a really successful business. So I just would love to it’d be fantastic to have you months or even years down the road to see how you’ve grown because I think you’ve got a lot of success waiting for you.

John: A 100%, man. And I’d love to be back on here, you know, a couple of months down the road and check back in. And yeah. I think you have a awesome thing going on. I looked the link to the stuff you guys were doing before I got on here. And, I’m happy to be on here.

Quinton Comino: Thank you. Appreciate it, John. I wish you all the best, man.

John: Alright. Thank you. You too.

Quinton Comino: See you.