Builder Stories

Hosted by Eric Fortenberry

Business EntrepreneurshipInterviews guests

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Episodes

152

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Welcome to Builder Stories, the podcast where builders, remodelers, and contractors share their personal and business journeys. Come learn from the stories of successful entrepreneurs who share how they got started, how they found success, and the lessons learned along the way. Your host, Eric Fortenberry, has successfully built two businesses, one in software and one in construction. He is now the Founder and CEO of JobTread Software, a construction estimating and project management platform that has helped thousands of builders and contractors sell and manage over $1 billion in construction jobs.

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60 recent

August 19, 2026Episode 15346 min

How to Price Work Correctly and Sell it with Video | Dan Flansburg of Flansburg Construction

Dan Flansburg started his New Jersey remodeling company in 2011 with a truck, a set of tools, and no business plan. For three years in the middle of that run, several of his employees took home more money than he did. Around 2018 he stopped treating marketing as an expense and hired a real web team, an SEO company, and a professional photographer. Three years ago he added video, and he now calls it the biggest change his company has made. In this episode you will learn: What Dan tracks on every job and the three years he lost by not tracking it The six weeks off his feet that taught him to delegate for the first time The two outside programs that helped him scale the company and improve operational efficiency How he handles scripting for his videos, and who's on the video team The two kinds of callers he can tell apart within a few qualifying questions Listen to the episode to learn more. Resources: Learn more about Flansburg Construction here .

August 12, 2026Episode 15251 min

Win More Remodeling Jobs by Mastering the Sales Conversation | Tyler Hunsberger of Hunsberger Builders

Tyler Hunsberger has won a NARI Contractor of the Year award and earned a spot on Pro Remodeler's 40 Under 40. He is a fourth-generation contractor who has spent nearly 15 years on the sales and design side of remodeling. Now he is bringing that playbook back to his family's company after 25 years with no marketing, no estimating, and one single customer. This conversation is a masterclass in how remodelers actually win jobs. In this episode you will learn: How Tyler builds real excitement on a first phone call before he has ever seen the project What he does with a lead that is clearly a bad fit for his company The approach that earns him reviews far more often than any email or QR code How he opens the budget conversation without naming his own numbers first The way he delivers a $15,000 change order without losing the client's trust Listen to the episode to learn more. Resources: Learn more about Tyler and his work here .

August 5, 2026Episode 1511 hr 1 min

Turn Your Craft Into Content | Mike Coffey of Coffey Custom Builds

Mike Coffey grew his social media audience from nothing to more than 120,000 Instagram followers. Here, he reveals how contractors can use social platforms to build trust, show their humanity, and turn finished-project beauty shots into real sales opportunities. He also shares how suffering a stroke last year changed his priorities. Instead of feeling consumed by the less inspiring parts of his business, he is now focused on building a life around the things he loves most: producing excellent work and the creation of meaningful content he can share with others. In this episode you will learn: How much social growth your business really needs The difference between personal branding and company branding How Mike learned the best times to post Common social media mistakes contractors should avoid What to know before working with sponsors and brands Listen to the episode to learn more. Resources: Learn more about Coffey Custom Builds here .

July 29, 2026Episode 15058 min

Running a Company You Grew Up In | Kelly Kirk of Greymark Design + Build

Kelly Kirk took over Greymark Design + Build a few weeks after her mother, who founded the company, passed away. Leslie King was a larger-than-life figure and a well-known industry leader. Kelly chose to honor that legacy while also finding her own voice as a leader and bringing in fresh processes and a new approach. The journey wasn't easy, but today Kelly heads up a thriving company with a strong, aligned, and high performing team. In this episode you will learn: Why Kelly could not lead the way her mother did, and what she built in its place The single email that changed how Kelly's team saw her, and how long the effect took to compound What her business coach used to pull the company through its worst stretch, and why it was far simpler than she expected The client comment that revealed a blind spot only someone outside the industry could see How she plans in one, three, five, seven, and ten year increments without losing focus on the current month Listen to the episode to learn more. Resources: Learn more about Greymark Design + Build here .

July 22, 2026Episode 1491 hr 2 min

Inside the Playbook of a Successful Design Build Firm | Bryan Sebring of Sebring Design Build

Bryan Sebring didn't just grow a business, he rebuilt one from scratch. After running his company in Chicagoland for over two decades, Bryan moved to Franklin, Tennessee and relaunched as a design build only firm serving a completely different market. He shares the controversial 15 day pricing window he uses to qualify leads and close faster, along with a "power of three" approach to budgeting range. Bryan also opens up about the peer group community that changed his business and why he treats every homeowner, even the ones he turns away, as a future advocate. In this episode you will learn: The "dating before marriage" mindset Bryan uses to qualify homeowners before they ever see a price Why he intentionally gets fewer leads now than he did in Illinois, and why that's a good thing The controversial 15 day pricing window some builders call dishonest and Bryan calls incentive How Bryan turns down projects and still creates lifelong advocates out of the homeowners he refers elsewhere The unexpected way switching his accounting system finally made work in progress reporting possible

July 15, 2026Episode 14855 min

When the Exit Goes Wrong | Vince Nardo of Master Roofing Solutions and TimeProof USA

Vince Nardo helped grow his family's cabinet refacing shop into the largest home improvement company on the West Coast with 700 employees. The company operated in multiple states and even landed a partnership with Costco to sell their products. In 2022, he sold the business to private equity firm Audax. Two years later, the acquiring company went bankrupt and the 40-year legacy the Nardo family built was gone. Now Vince is out of retirement and building a national roofing brand from scratch, and he's sharing every hard lesson along the way. In this episode you will learn: The simple metrics Vince used ensure growth of a 700-person company Why Reborn stopped thinking of itself as a sales and marketing company, and what it became instead How a meeting in Seattle turned into a partnership with Costco, and what selling under a retail giant taught his team The one question Vince says every contractor must ask before selling to private equity What convinced him to bet on himself again after losing everything he spent decades building Listen to the episode to learn more.

July 8, 2026Episode 14758 min

How Contractors Get Found Online, Straight From Google | Jane Dzielski of Google

Jane Dzielski has spent nearly a decade at Google turning massive datasets into answers about how consumers make decisions. She knows what people type when they need a contractor, and that behavior is changing fast. In this episode she breaks down search, reviews, ads, and AI for the home services industry. Contractors will walk away seeing their own marketing differently. In this episode you will learn: Why showing up in fewer searches can win you better clients The one thing customers search for most, and why leaving it off your website costs you jobs What AI can and cannot read in your Google reviews The way your paid ads and organic results boost each other Which type of content to make first when you can only make one Resources: Learn more about Jane's work here .

July 1, 2026Episode 14650 min

The Three Moves That Got Him Out of the Weeds and Back to Building | Dustin Hippensteel of True Grit Roofing

Dustin Hippensteel spent years convinced he had to do everything himself. Then three decisions quietly changed how his entire business runs. None of them cost much, and none were the flashy fixes most owners chase first. In this episode he breaks down what they were and why they mattered. In this episode you will learn: The hire he was sure wouldn't work that now handles the load he used to drown in How to tell a coach worth paying for from one who just has good marketing The first system he wrote down that made every customer call land the same way The mindset he had to kill before any of it could actually stick How his wife turned days of software setup into twenty minutes Resources: Learn more about True Grit here .

June 24, 2026Episode 14529 min

How to Step Back From Your Business Without Watching It Fall Apart | Felipe Freig of Versa Method Coaching

As the leader of Versa Homes, Felipe Freig builds multimillion dollar homes for executives and entrepreneurs. He dialed in the systems behind those builds so completely that he was able to step back from the daily grind. So he launched Versa Method Coaching to hand that same playbook to other contractors. In this episode he gets specific about what actually keeps a building business profitable. In this episode you will learn: Why Felipe calls "transparency" a "crock" in the construction industry Why Felipe commits to a fixed price on multimillion dollar custom homes when almost no luxury builder will What luxury clients actually want instead of a line by line breakdown The one number Felipe says no client should ever see, and why showing it loses you the job The full SOP library running Felipe's company, and how a builder could soon have it dropped straight into their own system Listen to the episode to learn more. Resources: Learn more about Versa Method Coaching here .

June 17, 2026Episode 1451 hr 0 min

How to Turn a Stalled Business Into Your Most Profitable Year | Corey Plourde of Core Remodeling Services

Corey Plourde spent eighteen years climbing the corporate sales ladder before walking away to build his own remodeling company. Years later he hit a wall he could not see past and finally admitted he had run out of answers. In this conversation he opens up about the moment everything turned around and the year that followed became his most profitable ever. He also reveals why the change he feared most was the one that finally unlocked his growth. In this episode you will learn: Why his most uncomfortable decision became his biggest breakthrough The mindset shift that finally helped him understand his true numbers How he nearly tripled his average job size in a single year What he wishes he had stopped spending money on in the early days The leadership blind spot he is still working to fix today Listen to the episode to learn more. Resources: Learn more about Core Remodeling Services here .