CCCT with Donna Coneley from Triad Retail Construction Video

CCCT with Donna Coneley, VP of Marketing from Triad Retail Construction, Inc. that specializes in nation-wide retail and commercial construction. They also offer other construction services such as design-build and construction management. At Triad Retail Construction, their project managers are intimately involved in all aspects of your project, from the initial stages of design, conceptual budgets, value engineering, estimating, bidding, contracting of trades, daily construction, project delivery, and project closeout. If you want your project completed on time and on budget, reach out to Triad Construction, a proud member of the Retail Contractors Association. Enjoy the conversation.

#retailconstruction #designbuildfirm #constructionmanagement #commercialconstruction

Transcript

Hey there, Commercial Construction Coffee Talk fans. Thanks for chiming in. My name’s David Corson. I’m your host. I’m also the publisher and editor of Commercial Construction and Renovation Magazine. This is what it used to look like. Oh, I got the glare on there. Hey, I’m breaking out the archives here, January February 2013, Dennis, CCCT Magazine, COO, Casual Male Retail Group, nice looking issue. Okay, I always like looking at my Publisher’s page where I was, you know, where I’m coming in here. Oh, this one’s pretty cool. I’m coaching my WCK team here. I think these are seven or eight-year-olds, select team for lacrosse. I think we got to the playoffs, but we didn’t win in the end, but anyway, a manly looking crew. Now they’re probably in college by now, and I probably had a little more hair back then, but anyway, always like looking at the magazine, what was going on, and anyway, thanks, Dennis, for gracing the cover. If you’re still around, we appreciate you telling the Casual Male story. It’s Tuesday here in the week. Hopefully, everybody had a great weekend. It’s kind of fall break here this week in Atlanta, and everybody’s out and about trying to enjoy the Indian summer in the South. I’ll tell you, it is beautiful out there today. Not a cloud in the sky, no humidity, and boy, it’s time to go out on the lake again tonight because eventually, I’m going to have to winterize my boat here, and I won’t use it for, well, probably December, January, February, but want to get it winterized before November, but it could be a boat night tonight.

I don’t know, but we’ll see. Listen, I hope everybody’s having a great week. Last week, I was on the road, went to Detroit, had a great meeting with the RCA. We talked about skilled labor and learning about how to build foundations. Beautiful headquarters in downtown Detroit at Saki or Sasi. I forget how to pronounce it. Anyway, they had a beautiful office, and those of you that haven’t been to Detroit, I haven’t been there in a while, but man, the city development planning team, Kudos, because downtown Detroit looks awesome. It just does, and they made it a destination point, and very, very impressed. Flew to New York, had my event, my meet and greet, my little gig that we did at Penthouse 45 was awesome. Had a great speaker, Aaron Golb, who was the first legally blind NCAA D1 football player. He played for Tulane. He was a Long Snapper. Went through his story, how he came over the diversity of being blind and how to do all the stuff, and he got a pro tryout. Now he’s a speaker. Everybody loved him. There wasn’t a dry eye in that room. Then had the meet and greets. Everybody walked out with business, and then we ended up with a tribute band called FOM 68, and they do Johnny Cash. Oh my God, Ring of Fire, I’m in the prison. I mean, the guy looked like I was talking to Johnny Cash. So JC, you guys did awesome, and anybody wants to see the video, it’ll be in the next issue with our wrap-up section. I’m going to put the video together here this week. I just got the links from my photographer, but just an awesome couple of days on the road. Got to meet the Naked Cowboy on my way to Grand Central to catch the train out to LGA because I had never met him before, but I’d seen him plenty of times in the Big Apple, and it was starting to rain. Like, hey, I want to get your picture. He did the flex for me and showed the Naked Cowboy in his butt and then gave me a little picture with his autograph and said, see you later. That was the cherry on top of the ice cream that day on last Thursday.

Then flew home and then tried to catch a few Z’s and do it all over again this week. Today, I have a very special lady down in the big state of Texas, down in southern Texas in Houston. Her name is Miss Donna Conley, and she’s the vice president of marketing for Triad Retail Construction and a member of the RCA. So Donna, say hello to our listeners out there in commercial construction coffee talk down in Houston. Hello, everybody. Thanks, David. I appreciate you having me. Absolutely. And question, are the Astros in the playoffs? Did they make the playoffs or not? They are in by the skin of their teeth. They’re in, and it’s funny because we’ve had this battle going on with the Texas Rangers up in Dallas, and for a while now, we all thought that they were going to win our division. They didn’t make it. No, they’re going to go wild card if I’m understanding it all correctly. I don’t follow it as closely as everyone else, but yeah, it sounds to me like we won our division, and they are in the wild card, so we’ll see how it shakes out. Listen, the Braves and Houston, you know, they have that little rivalry going on, so maybe that will happen, and you and I will have to make a little bet, you know, if that happens. But there’s a lot of games to be played. Congrats to the Astros for making it because I know it was dicey. There were so many teams that were in it, and the Braves, they clinched a couple of weeks ago, and you know, they just been sitting around. They’re getting the buy, so I don’t even know who’s going to play, but I know that one of my buds in Baltimore, the Orioles, they made it, and I knew the Braves were in, but I knew there were a bunch of teams in there. I knew the Astros were one of them. So way to go, Stros. No, it’s great.

They usually pull it out at the end. It seems like every year they start off slow. We have a few issues midseason, and then bam, they start firing on all cylinders right at the end when it counts the most, so we’ll see how it goes. And you got the rookie QB, the guy from Ohio State, playing for Texans. No one wants to play that team. They’re like the underdog, but now they’re talking about, hey, you don’t want to mess with the Texans. The last few games, they have looked very strong, and boy, did we need it because the Texans have been tough to love over so many years. I think it was 2000 when they started, and man, talk about breaking your heart as a fan over and over again, but they are looking really good. I mean, I hate to get my hopes up, but we’ll see. Hey, I think, you know, they had blue helmets, they were wearing the red helmets, they got new color, you know, they’re blue and red, but they got the red helmets, and I think it’s cool, and they got the quarterback from Ohio State, and he’s a rookie, and they’re all coming in, and they’re winning, so it’s they look good. Yeah, absolutely. I caught the highlights, but they’re all saying, oh, don’t mess with the Texans, CJ. They’re the real deal, blah, blah, blah, so, you know, I hope that’s accurate. I’m very cautious about getting my hopes up with the Texans, but let’s see how it shakes out. So early, you know, it’s like you got to play one game at a time, but it goes basically, you know, in quarters. You got September, October, November, and December. You got to play, you know, you got to win all those games when it counts, but right, it’s good to see them, you know, playing good. So, sports guy, look at all that stuff, you know. I mean, yes, but I love sports as well. It’s a great downtime. You don’t have to think about anything. Just root for the underdog or your team and enjoy yourself. That’s nice. No politics, no work, just have a good time. Absolutely.

And, you know, the reason why I actually had Donna on, you know, because, you know, she’s in construction. She’s a female. She’s playing in a male-dominated gig, and boy, you know, she’s not. I know this lady. She’s an all-around, you know, she gets it done. She can play with the best of them, so she’s got a good story to tell. So the way that we’re going to do this, Donna, is we do it in three parts. Tell your story, where you grew up, you got any brothers, sisters, you know, dogs, cats, you were married, playing any sports, what have you, where you went to school, how you ended up, you know, where you are today, and then we’ll talk about Lessons Learned.

From the last three years that we all went through on the roller coaster, and any cool projects that you might be working on, then you’ll leave one final thought or phrase with our listeners out there in your contact info, and then we’ll close this out. So without further ado, Miss Conley, the floor is yours. Tell us your story. Great. So, I’m a small-town girl, you know. Dad was good to me. I’m very blessed. I always wanted horses growing up, and he had two girls, so I am the boy in the family, or was, am, fishing, hunting, horses, anything outdoors. I love golf today, but Dad was kind enough to buy us property, move us from Pasadena, Texas, which is just a little southeast of Houston, over to Dickinson, which is closer to the Galveston area. And with that came some property, some horses. That was around the fourth grade. Came on up, got into volleyball, played a little sports there, but always was the horses, the fishing, frog gigging, if you know what that is, you know, and hunting whenever I could, anything to get my hands dirty, anything to get outdoors and just be with nature. And so I did that, of course, growing up. My sister, on the other hand, was more the girly type, you know, she was president of student council, cheerleader, all the opposite of what I was, but she too is a very good athlete, in fact, better than me. She could hum a ball from center field to the catcher and get people out left and right, so always impressed by her there. But married now, you mentioned that I’m in construction, a man’s world. Well, I’ve kind of always been in that world. In my early 20s, I worked at a chemical plant in Pasadena, Texas, for about seven years in the laboratory, testing lube additives, raw materials, mid-level materials, and then out the door, you know, and making sure that everything fit those specifications. So that too was male-dominated, you know, you had your operators out in the field, your technicians, you know, maintenance guys. I think it was one to thirty, female to men out there. So, you know, from there, finally went to college, had two kids while I was at the chemical plant, which was great, you know, we had wonderful insurance, and it all worked out really well for me and my husband, who we just had our 30th wedding anniversary.

Oh, too. So congrats. Yeah, it’s a wonderful thing, you know. I’ve got him trained, so you don’t have to worry about it. He said, are you’re not going to trade me in on two 25-year-olds? Heck no, why would I want to do that and start all over again? Yeah, it’s a different world out there right now than 30 years. It is a completely different world. You know, I mean, my daughter’s 28, she’s a nurse, and my son’s at A&M, getting ready to graduate with a degree in construction project management. So, I couldn’t be prouder of those two kids. Go Aggies, man. Oh, yeah. Yes, yeah, yeah. They’re doing quite well in football too. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, my kid, my son, was just at Arlington field watching Arkansas and Aggie game. Oh, yeah, this weekend. Yeah, I had a blast with that, and of course, you got the Alabama game in College Station next week. No, is it next weekend? It is, yeah. So, anyway, just, that’s my life. Things are going great. I have horses to this day. We’ve got a few cows, we’ve got, you know, small little 10 acres in Alvin, Texas, which is between Houston and Galveston. And my two favorite things in life, well, of course, there’s my husband, but when I come home in the evening, I’ve got my two Australian Shepherds that greet me at the door, and I just, I love them to death. And you got to tell everybody what their names are because they’re related to the Cowboys. You know, how do you remember that? I’m a shark. I remember everything, especially when it comes to dogs. I’m like, okay, what are the names? And I’m not, I’ll let you tell them. Their names, okay. All right. So, you’ve got Doc Holiday, who my family surprised me with a few years ago for Christmas. So, it was the holidays, and my son loves Tombstone, so it’s Doc Holiday. And we found that he was so hyper and so crazy when we got home from work that we needed something to calm him down and keep him busy and playing all day. So, I bought him a dog. I got him an Australian Shepherd. So, there’s Doc Holiday, and there’s Wyatt Earp. There you go, man. In typical Texas fashion. That’s right. That’s right.

They’re the best. So, we had stables. I grew up outside of Philadelphia in PA, and we had stables, so I was curious what kind of horses did you learn that were they Quarter Horses, Appaloosas, Buckskins, you know, Palominos, what were they? Yeah, my first two were Appaloosas. One was a big strawberry roan gelding, and the other one was white, and I swear she had blue spots on her rear end. So, there were, you know, and it was back in the Salt and Pepper days. Yeah, Salt and Pepper were their names. So, yeah, those were my first two horses, and they were fantastic. And we had a ball on them. But yeah, so I’d had the Appaloosas, and now I have Quarter Horses. I’ve always had Quarter Horses, and did some barrel racing. I’m actually thinking about starting up again on the barrel racing, which I don’t know if that’s crazy. I don’t know. It was 100 degrees all summer long here. I was not going to start barrel racing again in that heat. But now I’m thinking about it. Yeah, when I was younger, I wanted to play professional hockey, so I went into my hockey digress. I told my parents, I said, hey, this is where I want to go, and they go, the Hockey Ranch, what’s that? I go, well, it’s four hours of horseback and four hours of hockey, and you live out on the ranch. It was outside Toronto, and so I went up there just about every summer for a month, lived on the ranch, cleaned out the stalls, ran horseback, you know, I did English and Western, so you know, posting and all that stuff. But I had a buckskin, I had an Appaloosa, my favorite was my Quarter Horse, Poe, and he got kicked in the leg. We, I had to, we had to put him down, and my grandfather, you know, we do it the old-fashioned way, and he’s like, do you want to do this, or do you want me to do it, you know? So, I learned at an early age, you know, that, you know, because when a horse breaks their foot or their leg, it’s pretty much, can’t save them.

Yeah, there’s some things you just cannot manage. His name was Poe, and but yeah, the Quarter Horse is the best, in my opinion. They’re just a good size, and but no, we, I grew up with them, so whenever I talk to horse people, you know, I always ask what type you went for. And so yeah, Quarter Horses are, in my opinion, the best. My grandfather, he was in combat engineer in World War II underneath Patton. He built, rebuilt all the anyway. He has this picture on like Patton. He always used, he was in the cavalry, so he’s a very good rider, and anyway, there’s a picture of Patton, and he’s always on the White Horse, so my grandfather had this picture on the White Horse, and he’s got the ivory pistol, six-shooter on his side, and you know, his crop, and he looked like Patton, you know, in it. He was a lieutenant colonel, but he built all the bridges after, you know, the Allies during War II, and whatever. Now, he’s, they’re in steel, steel recycling. Like, on my mother’s side, it was in construction, so they’ve been in business since 1888, over 120 years. So, my cousins, like, when I grew up, when you got your license, all the grandsons had to go and work in the scrapyard, so that’s kind of so now, my cousins, who are my age, they’re running the company, you know, they’re fifth generation. That’s great. It’s, you and I kind of have, you know, that kind of same kind of background. I knew the horse thing was there, but I didn’t know it was so prevalent. I would love to see that picture of your grandfather. That sounds… It’s sitting around here someplace, one of those things, but he’s on, he’s on this white horse, and he’s got his hard hat on, you know, and the army hat, and he’s got the six-shooter, the arm, you know, the ivory. That is so cool. I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but great story. So, let’s talk about, you know, over the last three years.

You know, I’ve had… We listen, I’ve been doing my podcast since March of 2020. I mean, I thought I’d be doing these things out on the construction site. That was my plan. I just bought my microphone, and I was going to interview people, whether I was on the road or locally, on the construction site, and then everything got shut down. I was like, okay, I’ll just start doing these, you know, virtually, and 140 or 60, whatever episodes later, here I am again. But maybe I’ll start doing them on the road. Who knows? But like everybody, you know, every March of 2020, in the beginning of January of 2020, cranes everywhere. I’m sure in Texas, everybody was booming, low unemployment. I mean, everything was perfect, and then everything just stopped on a dime. And then no one really knew how long it was. Here we are three and a half years later, and we’re still kind of talking about it, but we’re kind of out of the tunnel. A little dips here with the labor or the product shortages, but all in all, most people, you know, some people had the best years of their business, you know. If they could find more supers or PMs, they probably would have, you know, had more business to do, but you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew and not. So, talk about how your company, you know, kind of weathered the storm and lessons learned that our listeners out there in Commercial Construction Coffee Talk might find of interest. Sure.

So, what we found initially was, which is probably similar to a lot of people, general contractors, was that some of our storage work was being put on hold. The developers that were going into the multi-level self-storage, which was a good portion of our business at that time, and we were enjoying that because it was good work, you know. We knew exactly what we needed to do. We could get in there, get it done, move on to the next, had multiple going at the same time, all over the country. We had great supers and PMs that knew how to handle it, and it was flowing. It was beautiful, and then bam, it hit. And much of that was put on hold, or some even got canceled. So, and we had been talking about, you know, we really need to diversify, going to other service lines, and look at other options and other opportunities, which we were doing. But looking back, we wish we’d have been doing it sooner. So, actually, there were some good opportunities that came out during that time, and some of that was, think about the automotive. What happened to the auto industry, right? A lot of new cars were not available, all of a sudden. No, exactly. And then used cars became so much more valuable, and rental cars were being sold off because no one was renting cars. They weren’t going anywhere. They were just sitting in these lots, right? So, what did that spur on? Well, and I’m still seeing it today. Oil change facilities, service maintenance facilities, body shops, car washing is, oh my God, the car washes, you know. So, during that time, I’m calling on these types of clients and gaining new clients, which was, I’m grateful for it, and the Triad was very grateful for it.

Yeah, Jay was psyched, you know, totally psyched, and we’re still enjoying that business. So, that was a great move. Retail, you know, that was not going anywhere at the time. It depends what sector you were in and if you were essential or not, what state you were in, what the regulations were. But you’re right, listen, I mean, you know, but for us, it was not working out, at least at that moment. We’re seeing it now, and that’s fantastic. We’re seeing a lot of dental facilities, ground-up UPS. They’re great. A lot of different, you know, other than self-storage and retail, which is basically what we were before all that happened. But some of the struggles that we went through, I think, like a lot of others, labor. We couldn’t find labor, and then once you had labor, if you had an illness breakout or anything like that, I mean, of course, everybody was very concerned about that. We had to put new policies into place to manage all of that and to make the clients feel comfortable, which, of course, we did everything we could do. And some other things, you know, these parts that come with the HVAC, the steel prices that were so unstable, roofing taking, you know, six months, eight months to come to the site, and we started storing these things. If we had a client that we knew we were going to need these items for these types of builds, well, we’re just going to store some of this stuff, you know. And an electrical component, same thing. But for me, being in the business development and sales world, what was the biggest struggle that I saw was the manpower, the labor, the superintendent, the project managers, you know. Even though things had slowed down, we were still struggling to keep those folks that were good, strong PMs, supers, and labor crews in place. So, that was my experience through all of that. Thankfully, we’re seeing things come around, you know. Concrete, even.

You wouldn’t be guaranteed concrete on a day that you needed it, you know. Depending on what state you’re in or what city you’re in, you might be on a list, and you’ll get it when they have it, or when you’ve got five other jobs ahead of you. And so, the scheduling of the concrete pours, “I’m coming tomorrow. Tomorrow, be there,” or “You’re going in the back, and you know, right, yeah,” and the pricing wasn’t guaranteed either. So, it was just the variables really made it difficult to ensure that you were going to have appropriate margins to make things work. Talking about skilled labor, last week when I was at the RCA Round Table up in Detroit, they did this presentation. I think they had five presentations on how different contractors were from all over different parts of the country, how they were going about going into the schools and presenting it to kids and their foundations and how they worked with the local community to basically get people interested because a lot of kids these days, they think that oh, being a contractor or a plumber or electrician, HVAC, oh, it’s not glamorous. “I want to go to Harvard. I want to go to Florida State where they have this really cool pool and hanging out.” They come out with degrees that aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, right? And you know, my son, he went through FAA mechanical school, so he went to labor and skilled labor, and you know, now he’s at Boeing, and he’s on the flight line and worked on $350 million planes every day.

But what was interesting was the way that everybody went about it, and that planting the seed of you know, you got to get in there between fifth and eighth grade, and if they have career days, you need to go out. You got the firemen, you got the doctors, you got the police, but here, you can plant the seed for the contractor, and Hopefully, you know, out of 30 kids that might be in that room, if you get one or two of them, male or female, we want them both, right, would come in and think about becoming a trade person, learning a skill. And because we have to replace all the people that are going to retire or, you know, down the line right now. So just like aviation, I said up there, there’s 600,000 maintenance techs that are going to retire, so they all have to be replaced. So if you’re a business out there and you’re in construction or you’re a subcontractor, you really need to think about that because this country is not going to get built or keep the engine going without people working with their hands, and AI is not going to replace that, okay, not for a long, long time until I see robots, in my opinion, right? I mean, it’s just the reality of it. But it was so interesting how they went about and got the, you know, it was very, you know, hopefully, they’ll put the video up, and it’ll, I know they were zooming it, so a lot of people saw it, but it was just a really, in one of the best conversations I had seen in a long time. And skill labor is such an issue, and you lived it, you know, because you just didn’t know, you know, if the product or if you did another project like storage, they’re not cookie-cutter, but at least you know how they’re going to be done, you know, but you know how they’re going to be done depending on how many levels and what the land is and the site. But bottom line is if you don’t have labor to do it, or you don’t have the product to do it, it’s not going to get done.

Exactly right. I mean, I am so glad to see some local schools, we’ve got some large schools around here, 5A schools, that are putting, they’re investing in just what you’re talking about. They built these whole schools where kids can go and take HVAC courses, you know, electrical, plumbing, everything from veterinary technicians on to all these different types of skilled labor. And what they’re explaining to them is, yes, you can go get a liberal arts degree, or you can go get that degree or this degree and come out and be in a stack this high on someone’s desk and try to get a job that way, or, and with significant debt, many of them, or you can go into one of these skilled trades and come out making more money than most college graduates out of school. And the demand for you, your job security, is like unbelievable, and you can work anywhere. I mean, of course, if you’re an HVAC guy, you got better job opportunities in South Texas than you do up in Michigan, but you get what I’m saying, right? So, it is so true, and the shortage, it is a concern, and it was refreshing to see these large schools invest that kind of money into these buildings and all this equipment, and they’re getting donations from local plumbers, and they’re explaining to them you can start your own business. You don’t have to always work for someone. And look, if you want to get a business degree on top of knowing that skill, do that too. That’s great. You can run your own company someday and have crews of skilled laborers working for you and create all these jobs. It’s a great program, and I love seeing it because we used to have auto shop and schools, and you know, all these times. So, did you go to home ec when you were going since you were the daddy’s boy in the family? Did you go to home ec class, or did you go to shop class when you were growing up?

I did both. So, I went to, did both. Yeah. Well, I wasn’t supposed to. So, home ec was right by the auto mechanics, which goes right by the woodshop, right? Well, I took woodshop, and of course, my shop teacher was missing one of his fingers, but aren’t they all? Yeah. And then I took home ec. I mean, home ec was, I call it home ec, but I just did that because I loved to eat, and I knew that they were baking and cooking in the class. So yeah, I took that, but I also took it because I kind of liked hanging out with the guys in the automotive shop. Didn’t take auto mechanics, but home ec was right there. You could, fools, but yeah. So, it was a lot of fun. And I just, I feel bad for the kids today. They don’t, not all schools have that.

No, listen, they, my all have that before. No, listen, my son’s school, they didn’t have, they have, they had a shop class where they go, you take a couple of classes in the morning, and then you would go over to the tech center, and they would do automotive or whatever in the afternoon. But you know, they need, he needed the grades, and I actually went in and sat down with the principal and the counselors. I said, look, if there’s one kid in this high school that, 3,000 kids, he go here, he wants to work with his hands, he’s working at the garage right now part-time, you know, he’s it, he’s not in history, he’s not in English, he just, with his hands. Oh, well, he doesn’t have the grades. We’re gonna have to waitlist him and this and that. So I yanked him out his senior year. He worked on, he did his senior year online, and he sold his buds that he could hang out with, but he worked, and then he got into the aviation school, and the maintenance gig, but he learned woodworking, welding, metal, avionics, all that stuff. That’s great. You know, so I lived it. But you know what, the biggest thing that a lot of these guys set up at the RCA meeting last week was that a lot of kids think that they don’t, they don’t want to swing the sledgehammer. They don’t want to learn from the bottom up. They just want to become the president, you know, and they don’t want to, you know, if you want to run a business, you have to, you know, like I’m a publisher, so I know how the press works when I was printing it. I know how to buy paper. I know what good content, you know, so it’s all these different things that you need to know.

So if you want to run your own business, you really have to start at the bottom, and like some worked in the garage. I said, if Mr. Jeff tells you to go clean the toilets, guess what, it might not be changing the tire, but you got to do it as good as you can at 110%. And because having your toilets clean for your customers, that’s part of running your garage. So it doesn’t matter what you do, but you have to start at the bottom and earn your way up because if you do, then when you hire someone, they know that you’ve done everything. And that’s the biggest hindrance that I heard through. And listen, Home Depot did a presentation, and TR North and the city did one. I mean, like I said, they were all really good. Denise from Singleton, I think, out of Columbus, she did one. Anyway, it was awesome hearing how they all kind of, you know, but that was the biggest thing, that the hindrance is that a lot of the kids today, they just don’t have that can-do attitude. Maybe the athletes do, but in general, they just think, oh, I’ll just become the president. I’ll just run the thing. I won’t have to, and that’s not the way it’s done. Yeah, that immediate gratification, you know, that it’s going to happen overnight and not have to work your way up. The best business owners, the most successful business owners, many times started at the bottom. So, well, you know, as a horse person, if you get bucked off the horse, what’s the first thing that you do? You get back on. You got to dust yourself off, make sure you got your teeth or whatever, but you got to get back on, but you better do it quick before you change your mind. But you gotta, but the biggest thing is, is that, you know, you’re gonna get, you know, sometimes it’s gonna hurt, but you got, you know, when you first got on a horse, you were probably terrified, whatever, but you got to get on, you got to take action, and you got to learn from the bottom. And then you learn how to clean their manure, clean their hooves, make sure that the right feed is there, you got to clean the stall, you got to make sure that your saddle stays oiled.

And so forth, you got to make sure your hat is perfectly clean. Maintenance, right. So, you know, I’m just putting it in horse terms because, you know, we’re horse people, but that was the biggest interest that they don’t want to sling, you know, they don’t want to do the work to get there, and that’s just the mentality thing of, you know, and there are kids out there that will do it. Definitely, there are, and I think that things, it’s almost as though things come back around, right? You feel like, okay, this is the way it used to be, the good old days, all those types of things. I really truly feel like things are coming back around in a lot of ways, you know, and people are realizing technology is great, all of that, but you have to get outdoors, you have to get some vitamin D, you have to, in order to be healthy mentally, physically, all of that. Did your son have shop class when he was going through high school? I don’t think he did. He was big into Korean martial arts, so Hapkido is what they called it. He was a little guy, he was always the smallest guy, and he had, you know, it was almost as though he had anger issues because he was always angry when he was about, I guess, seven, eight years old. We realized we need to get this kid into something he’s going to stick with that he likes, so we got him into Korean martial arts. He had his black belt when he turned 14. It took him seven years to get it, so it wasn’t one of those schools where, okay, you show up, you get the next belt. No, you had to get certain things down. You had to be able to do a roundhouse kick, you had to be able to break a board, and this and that.

It wasn’t just, you know, yeah, show up, and we’ll give you the next belt. No, you had to make things happen, you had to work at it, and I think that had a lot to do with him developing outside of just being angry, wanting everything right now, immediate satisfaction, and not having to work for it. It made a huge difference in that kid, so I’m glad we did that. Yeah, wasn’t into horses at the time, but he is now. Listen, I’m a black belt in Taekwondo. I had, you know, I took it with my son, and I, two weeks before my black belt test, I blew my knee out, tore my ACL, and then had to spend another seven, eight months or so in rehab. Then I got back on and got my belt. I can tell you right now, I don’t care if it’s Korean or Jiu-Jitsu, Taekwondo, yeah, it ain’t easy. If you become a black belt in anything, you’re in an elite group. Not everybody gets it, and they don’t give it to you. Nothing’s guaranteed. Like, if you don’t pass your test in Taekwondo, you gotta wait six months to take it again. I knew after I blew my knee out, I was like, I am not going to go for another six months, and I felt bad for a couple of little kids, you know, they’re crying, they didn’t make it, you know, and I’m like, hey, that’s okay. I had to wait. I blew my knee, and I had to wait another year even before I even had a chance. Good for him. Good for him. I appreciate that. I mean, it is difficult, but man, does it, what an accomplishment, right? If something’s hard, and then you get there, the way you feel about it is like nothing can stop you, right? So, it’s well worth the work.

You know what the worst was? As you got close, they would put your black belt up on the wall, so you had to look at it for about two months with my name, my name in Korean, and you know, but the greatest thing about becoming a black belt, it’s great, but I’m only a first degree. So, you know, I want to get my second degree, and third degree, so you never stop learning. You’ve reached the summit, but you’re still learning, so it never ends. Like, you know, other things, you win, and it’s over with, with martial arts, it’s a never-ending journey, and you’re always learning, so you always have that opportunity to climb. But it builds character, leadership, winning, losing, taking on bigger people, smaller people, you know, and I get it, if you’re someone’s one of the smaller guys, hey, you know, it’s one of those things. But it was probably one of the best things you probably ever did for him. Oh yeah, he has a ton of confidence from it, and you know, the other things that you do that you never really stop learning, horses, golf. Golf is definitely one. So, tell us one of your coolest projects that you’ve done over the last year or two that you’re proud of. Okay, sure. Well, I mean, we’ve got one that’s probably about 80% complete right now in Las Vegas. It is a beautiful project, a two-story self-storage about 100,000 square feet, and the reason why this one’s special is because of the background, the surroundings. You got the mountains, you’ve got the desert. It’s absolutely gorgeous, the terrain. So, as a marketing person, of course, I’m thinking pictures. These are going to make some great pictures with the mountains and the horizon in the background, and it’s just coming along beautifully. Anytime something is just firing on all cylinders, knock on wood, haven’t had any issues, looks like the client couldn’t be happier.

That’s what turns my crank when it comes to one of these projects. And you know, we’ve had a few good ones that are also self-storage. There was one in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and because of the ground and the water table, we had to use, I think I might be lying here, and to go check with the PM, but I think it was around 200 piers under that building in order to support that concrete and to give it what it needed. For self-storage, you have to have, per square foot, there’s a lot more weight that has to be supported. So, no, that one was really cool, and that again made some really nice pictures because the client wanted to do lights on this building so that you could change color with the, if it was Mardi Gras, they’re going to light it up in purple. If it’s, you know, LSU weekend, yeah, yeah. So, Christmas, orange, yeah, I mean, red and green, you know. So, yeah, I mean, that was a really cool project too. And then we’ve done a few service centers that I, the facade and the lobby, this is not your, you know, Goodyear or whatever, these different service places that, you know, with the dirty floor and the little bathroom. No, this lobby had an indoor playground, oh nice, and just the most gorgeous finishes, you know, stone on the inside where their logo was and their signage, and just the most beautiful exterior as well, you know, with five bays this way and four bays on the other side, made a beautiful looking design. And then this center column that comes up with a great metal, red metal roof. I mean, just beautiful. So, I thought that those projects were really cool. And then we have a, it’s not yet started, but there’s a coffee, ground-up, it’s, I won’t mention the name, it’s a mom-and-pop, but it’s going to look fantastic. It too will have really cool finishes, and it’s local, so I get excited over local works. We’re national, but I love anything in Texas, you know. It’s just, to be able to work in your home state, there’s nothing better. So, when we do our project profiles award in March of 2024, I know you’re going to nominate the mom-and-pop coffee. You bet, you bet I will.

Will do. So, if someone wanted to reach out to you, you know, just in general, talk horses, golf, construction, and so forth, how would someone reach out to you? Well, I mean, I’m happy to give out my cell phone. It’s 832-331-7267. And then, of course, I’m on LinkedIn. I get a lot done on LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn. So, Donna Conley, Triad Construction, on LinkedIn. My cell phone, look me up. We’re online. We have a website, Triadrc.com. So, I would be happy to talk to anyone interested in talking construction, horses, golf, Australian Shepherds. You know, I actually had an Australian Shepherd when I was in school, and we tried. His name was LB because I bought him for $25; he was low budget. The pet store, no one was going to buy him, and I looked at him, and I was like, okay, we’ll take him. Man, but he would get sick in the car, and I tried to break him. We tried to get you know, acclimation. He just couldn’t break it. So, I was in the University of Denver. I got my Denver garb on today. Anyway, I drove him up to Vale, and we took him to the vet, and the vet’s like, oh no, one of the farmers around here or the ranchers is going to take that dog. He didn’t even stay there a day; he was gone.

LB because I bought him for 25 bucks, his name was low budget. But he was a great dog. Oh my God, the dog, frisbees, oh my God, man, you could catch anything. He was amazing. Put him in the car, yeah, two seconds. How do you even have to be moving? I’d be like, oh no, I hear that he’s rustling. Oh no, you know how it is. Yes, well luckily, none of mine gets sick, but yeah, they definitely love to chase the frisbee, the cows, anything. They leave the horses alone because I’ve taught them to leave those horses alone, but they were the quickest dogs to housebreak, I will tell you that, and I’ve had a lot of different dogs. So listen, if you got any questions, LinkedIn, you got her cell phone number, give Donna a call. She’d love to talk to you, you know, and all that good stuff. If anybody wants to reach me, you can get me at DavidC@ccr-mag.com. You can find me on LinkedIn too, at David Corson. Listen, I’ve known Donna, and we talked to her, I think, at our Orlando event, you know, right when the storm was coming in, at the end of August. But listen, if you want to be a guest, listen, you got to reach out to me, okay? And we have all sorts of guests on the show, so if you want to tell your story, reach out to me at my email, and we’ll take a look, and we’ll get you on one of these episodes. So as we finish up, Donna, you know, we’re in Q4 now, we got three months left, we’re going to close out 2023, we’re going into 2024. If there was one positive thought or phrase that you’d want to leave with our listeners out there, what would it be? Well, I would say if there’s anything that you ever wanted to try, don’t delay. Try it. Take action.

Yes, the day you know, listen, if you start something today, a year from now, you’ll thank yourself, you know. So but if you don’t do it, you know, it’s just mute. So I always say take action. You know, one day at a time, and when you’re done with the project, you look back, and darn, I wish I would have, you know, started that sooner, I wish I would have done that. You don’t play that game. Just do it, and do it, and do it again, and you know, so anyway, listen, pleasure having you on here, and you know, I look forward to seeing you in person. Obviously, I’ll probably see you at CenterBuild here in the next month or two. You’re going out there? Yes, you will. Thank you, David. It was a lot of fun. Thank you so much for having me. No, absolutely. And a couple of things as we finish up here, hey, number one, if you’re out there, we want you to hit the like button. We want everybody to find this episode and find out about Triad Retail Construction out of Houston. And hit that like button, leave a couple of comments if you like. We want the algorithms to find us on the web. Number two, if you’re in construction, you’re out there, be safe, okay? We want you to go home, be able to play with your dogs, your kids, etc., and then get up the next day and show up for the site. All right. And number three, it’s still hot out there, believe it or not, even though we’re getting into the fall season. It’s still hot, so drink lots of water. Here, you know, I’ve got my electrolytes, not much left in here. Put some powder in there, make sure you stay hydrated because when you get dehydrated, you get headaches, that’s when mistakes happen. We don’t want that stuff to happen. So be safe, drink lots of water, stay hydrated, and you’ll thank me.

Okay, so with that said, Donna, pleasure. Say goodbye from down in Houston. Bye, everybody. And I am going to say goodbye from Sugar Hill, about 25 miles north of downtown Atlanta, right below the Buford Dam on Lake Lanier, which is calling me, I think, to go out on the boat tonight. So with that said, we will see you next time on another episode of Commercial Construction Coffee Talk. Thank you, Donna, you’re the best. All right, thank you. And everybody, have a great rest of the week, and we will see you next time. Ciao. See you.