Episode 139 - The Calm You Crave, The Craft That Created It: Mysa Hus

#139 | Live from Mysa Hus | The Calm You Crave, The Craft That Created It: Mysa Hus

Post originally appeared on The Curious Builder.

In this live episode of The Curious Builder podcast, Mark brings together his crew from Pella Windows, Huber & Zip, and Rockwool for a fun and lively chat at Mysa Hus. They dig into what makes this build stand out—think cozy vibes, wellness-driven design, and the power of working with partners you actually like. It's all about pushing home building forward with teamwork, quality materials, and a genuine passion for creating spaces that just feel amazing.

Listen to the full episode:

About Mysa Hus

Mysa Hus is a custom-crafted home in Cottagewood, MN, inspired by the Swedish concept of “mysa” — to cozy up and enjoy meaningful time at home. Designed with warmth, connection, and intentional living at its core, Mysa Hus blends Scandinavian simplicity with modern function. From open gathering spaces to quiet nooks, every detail is crafted to help families dwell well — rooted in nature, filled with comfort, and ready to grow with you.

Resources:

Visit the Mysa Hus Website

Visit the Pella Windows Website

Visit the Huber Engineered Woods Website

Visit the Rockwool Website

• Transcript

  Mark D. Williams 00:00

  We're excited to announce that we're bringing back Sonic camp 2.0 on March 20, from two to 8pm we had this last year. We had 42 owners. This year, we're maxing out the capacity of the camp, which is going to be 60 people. We're going to have a wellness panel with some Everest summiters, as well as some iron men and women to compete and all about wellness and how they prioritize their health and wellness, not only in training, but in their lifestyles and in their business. And then we're gonna have a two hour window of sauna and cold plunging in the lake, and then an amazing wood fired grill, Mediterranean style food at the end of that. So if you're interested, please head to cures, builder.com

  Mark D. Williams 00:35

  under retreats, you'll find everything there is about sauna camp on March 20 in Minnesota,

  Mark D. Williams 00:45

  even though I know the product super well more than maybe a lot do, I don't know what's coming out next. I mean, you guys know what's coming out six months from now, one year from now, five years from now, some of your long term initiatives. And so I think one of the messages that I'd like to get out to builders is talk to your partners that you already are working with and find out how you can collaborate on things together. Welcome

  Mark D. Williams 01:11

  to curious builder Podcast. I'm Mark Williams, your host, and we're doing a live podcast at Misa house in cottagewood to a live audience. Let's hear your audience. How many we got here.

  Mark D. Williams 01:22

  It's standing room. Only 100 people invite the ticket. Cover charge was 100 grand per ticket. Thank you for your donation. We've got about 20 people in the audience. And what I want to do is do a live podcast where I cross over the curious builder and Mark Williams custom homes. So I'll just do an introduction, left to right. I've got Mark Cabrera from Pella windows, Mark Brandon Hoff from Pella windows. I've got Alex unknown last name, yep. Alex CERN, thank you, sir from Huber and zip and I've got Chris Jessen from rockwool. And so what I want to do was just talk a little bit about why, why we're partnered together on this home, not only for the audience at large, but also for the audience that's here. Everyone that is here is a sponsor of this home. And we're gonna do two more of these. We're gonna do one in the spring where, you know, let's say this part, we're kind of at the infrastructure phase, and towards the end, when we're all done, we're gonna have, like, House of role. We'll have amsterdale, we'll have pent air, and we'll reverse this. And I thought it was just a good way for everyone. I've had so many conversations with each one of you, and you've been huge supporters of what we're trying to do here, but I wanted you to hear from your other counterparts, like, why are they interested in partnering in MISA house? And because we've spent so much money and time documenting and marketing Misa house at large, I thought it'd just be a fun way to engage our audience and kind of hear from your point of view, why you're excited to be a part of this project. So why don't we start with that? We'll start with you, Mark, when you first heard the word Misa, who's What was your first reaction? Like, what is mark up to now? Yeah, well, let's start with we get calls all the time, like, I've got this crazy idea, call me back. So that's generally how it goes with you. So anything is on the table, but I had to google it to understand what it was. We'll talk about cozy today. But, yeah, I think for me it was, we've done so much work together over the years that I have a faith, and there's, there's a vision to it. And we'll talk, obviously, about the concept and everything. But that's what got me excited, was something that could be repeatable. Yeah, how about you Mark? Yeah. I mean, when I first heard did the same thing as Mark is, looked it up to see what we're talking about. But after that, really, you know, over the last three years, we've been really focused at Pella Northland on, you know, looking at our mission, and what is our mission, and our mission is to improve people's view of the world and their place in it. And I couldn't think of a better project that really exemplifies what we're trying to do and what you're trying to do in a different way. No, I think that's well said. I mean, for those that don't know what Mises means, it means cozy and Swedish, and so we spent a ton of time sort of, I wanted to come to market with something different. And you know, just talking to builders out there across the country that listen to the podcast is like, whatever you're passionate about, there's a market for it. In this particular case, we sort of discovered, I won't go through the whole journey of how we came to Mesa, but it really pivoted hard from energy efficiency, which is still important to wellness. And so we'll talk a lot today about how each one of your companies sort of reinforced that, why I picked you and why you're excited about that. Alex, why don't you give us a little shout out to zip and Huber, yeah, absolutely. Thanks again for the opportunity. And our relationship just started a few months ago, relatively new in this position, but hopefully it, you know, gets to a couple of years like the fellow colleagues on this panel here. But I think Huber

  Alex Sernick 04:44

  is really excited about this partnership because it really represents what the future of home building should look like. Whether you talk about sustainability, you talk about wellness, high performance, I think that really signifies everything that.

  Alex Sernick 05:00

  We believe in, and I think that you believe in as well as a home builder, so we're very excited to partner with you and hopefully replicate that in the future as well.

  Chris Jessen 05:08

  Chris, yeah, well, obviously we've been trying to partner with Mark D Williams custom homes for quite a while. So when this opportunity came up and you kind of explained it, I don't think I even knew what the MISA who's was yet. I didn't even look it up, but I was like, Well, that sounds cool, like, we'll give it a shot, but

  Chris Jessen 05:24

  basically just kind of building better. We saw that you wanted to do a house that's more cozy, as you said, but built better than code, built better than the standard house. And I think that's where rockwool fits in quite well. That's kind of why we wanted to partner with you guys on this one, you know.

  Mark D. Williams 05:38

  And one of the things too, and this is a message that I like to for every builder in the country to think about, too, is that I didn't, you know, pretty much everyone in this room I have had previous relationships with there's a few that are new. But really, I mean, I've been using zip for quite a while. I've wanted to use Rockwell forever. I just haven't been able to get my clients. I haven't figured out the right sort of angle. You know, sometimes as builders or people, we're passionate about something, but we haven't figured out a way to sort of get beyond our own passion. And it's interesting that a number of my clients that have seen what we're doing now say, Well, are you putting in that in my house? And I've told this to Pella corporate a number of times. I've never done triple pane windows in any home in 21 years, I now have of the next four homes that I have under construction, three of them have triple pane windows, and it's because of doing something like this, where people see how passionate the team is about it, but it's a lot of it's education, right? And you know, one of the things that I've tried to do the best Ian, is I go to part I want to go into battle with people I already know, right? Like I have this really long relationship with Pella, 21 years strong, and that's one of the longest ones that I have in my career. And so, you know, you get this really great relationship. Or do you come to your brand partners and you say, Hey, this is what I'm doing. What do you have? Because I don't, even though I know the product super well, more than maybe a lot do. I don't know what's coming out next. I mean, you guys know what's coming out six months from now, one year from now, five years from now, some of your long term initiatives. And so I think one of the messages that I'd like to get out to builders is talk to your partners that you already are working with and find out how you can collaborate on things together. Do you remember some of those early conversations, Mark and Mark, when we were discussing, like, what we wanted Misa, who's to be you know,

  Marc Cabrera 07:22

  specifically I knew I wanted triple pain. But do you remember when it switched to quiet and that became kind of a big focus? Yeah, I mean, I think you were kind of on the forefront of healthy home concept, and so that was another thing that caught my ear when you started talking about it, is, there's, there's only one other builder that I had had conversations with that was talking about healthy home. And so, you know, I immediately went to our corporate team and said, What do we have today, or what's coming down the road that can tie into this? And I was kind of surprised. I mean, Paul is a company that's really focused on innovation, but for them to say, yeah, we've heard that we are. We're doing this in the innovation lab. These are things we're thinking about or talking about.

  Marc Cabrera 08:07

  So, yeah, I think for us, early on, it was triple pain, obviously, and the health benefits that come with less condensation, with better energy efficiency, just comfortability in the home. You know, you want to be reading in a nook that's comfortable. So that's just a small piece of how many trades Do you work within our home? Like 60 hundreds. Okay, so if we can all come to the table with something that kind of ties into that concept, to help,

  Mark D. Williams 08:35

  when you when we looked at, you know, glazings, or to me, it was really about quiet. And I think wellness means something different to every person, for me specifically, and since, you know, it was kind of, I was spearheading it, along with our oho and Ka design team was, you know, for me, I like this idea that you go off the grid, you go somewhere, like a cabin where no one can get a hold of you. It's restorative. You're reading a book, the snow is falling, you're sitting in a well lit room, and it's just quiet. And I want to know, like, could you do that in an urban environment? You know, just a minute ago, it was blowing like crazy outside, and I could hardly hear anything, and we don't even have rock wool in here, yet, imagine how quiet it's going to be when our walls are full of rock wool. What is it about that messaging or that ideology that sort of attracted each one of you, you know, to this product, other than the fact that obviously you're very excited about your own brands, what about Misa, who specifically has sort of elicited a response from you that's like, I want to be a part

  Mark Brandenhoff 09:31

  of that. Well, I was really worried about your passion for these types of projects, and so I figured we better interject some passion for Mark. But it's interesting because when I grew up, my mom did a lot of Feng Shui, and was very intentional about what she did in the home. And so for me, from a very young age, has been very aware of that, and hearing what you and the team are trying to do was very exciting, something different, something unique, right? Something to stand out, and being very intentional, you know, and you mentioned about. The you know, trying to reduce the ambient noise and really control your environment. And so maybe it's not solitude and complete quiet, but you can actually do what you want within the home, whether it be soft music, whether it may be somebody's playing the piano, that allows you the option to have what you want and not be impacted by something that's outside your control, and that's where we can come into play in that,

  Mark D. Williams 10:25

  you know, with, you know, with zip, specifically, I've been using our six for, I suppose, three, four years now, this was our first opportunity to go to an R 12. So that was an energy decision that we made in our market. I mean, how often are people and builders using our 12?

  Alex Sernick 10:41

  Not as often as so we have four different thicknesses of our zip R all the way from an inch all the way to two and a half inches, which you used the zip R 12 is probably the least common one that we definitely see on residential homes. With that being said, it is something that is becoming more and more common here, especially in the Twin Cities. I see it a lot up north, in the Fargo area as well, in Grand Forks. But there are some, you know, learning curves to using our 12, you know, with with that being said, I think one of the things that attracted Huber's, you know, specifically myself, in the products that we represent here, is that our part, our products, really push the industry forward. And I think the way that you build and the way that you come to market with your custom homes does the same thing. So we, I think we align definitely, on pushing the industry forward to use more of those premium products that really do save on energy efficiencies. Yes, they may pay a little bit more, the homeowner may pay a little bit more upfront, but they will recoup those costs, you know, over, you know, X number of years, depending on how long they stay in the home, just to briefly touch on sound and how our product really performs with sound barriers. Zip R is technically not tested for any sound efficiencies or any sound barrier properties whatsoever, so we don't test for it. We don't put it in our literature. But I've had custom home builders all over the three states that I cover, you know, really tell me, Hey, Alex, you know, you would be hard pressed to hear anything outside of the home, you know, except for an explosion right outside of your front door because of the zip R so our poly ISO phone that's attached to our, you know, our struck one OSB panel and the, you know, and then the house wrap on top of that really does inherently provide a much better sound barrier than using it without the poly ISO foam. I mean,

  Mark D. Williams 12:27

  one of the things you know that you've heard that terminology belt and suspenders, you know, how can you work with systems? I mean, it's one of the reasons why we're pairing it with rock wall as well, right? Rock Wall is very well known for its sound abilities. And, you know, pairing it with the R 12 and, you know, pairing it with the triple pane. To me, I'm looking at, you know, the four of you as sort of a system to make my envelope, you know, just rock solid, if you will. Pun intended. I thought you'd like that one. Why? You know, from your point of view, shifting the narrative a little bit, because this isn't meant to be just a whole Misa, who's, you know, let's go rah rah, rah thing, although we can do that later, is from brands point of view. Why is it worth investing in, not only me specifically and in this project, but like, what? What should builders across the country aspire to do to sort of attract brands to partner with them? Because I get a lot of people that say, Oh, I've never heard of that before. I've never done that before. And a lot of it is just teaching them to be, to think differently. And I know my point of view, but I'm kind of curious, from your point of view, and maybe Chris, we'll start with you. What are things that builders and remodelers can do to sort of engage brand partners, you know, to have a cohesive relationship while they're in design. Because a lot of this doesn't happen unless we're designing, so, you know, our architectural designer Carl is here. You know, we're talking about this product, you know, a year ago, right? I mean, so misused was really born a year ago today, roughly, you know, I think we came to market with the brand sometime in November. I had to convince a lot of people to let me go forward with it. That took four or five months and but, you know, my point is, is, like you can't get to where we're at without having your whole team involved early on. This isn't something you can just slap together last minute and say, oh, you know, I want to change this spec. It's, it's, it has a huge ripple effect. So it needs to start really early on, which starts with discussions with your brand partners,

  Chris Jessen 14:14

  for sure. And I think with like our company, I know all companies up here, we're out there in front with these builders that want to build better like yourself with their architectural and design teams running AIAS and calculations for them, really getting them involved. And we're trying to get out to these builders that want to they're thinking of going in a different direction, like you did, and maybe build better than the codes are requiring, because that's codes are changing all the time, but you want to build better than that. So we've been really successful with builders like yourself getting into those architects and getting into their design teams, and then them reaching out to us when they see us at product shows or on Instagram or the internet or podcasts like this. So I think us as brands, we're we market to a lot of those type of builders, and. And do a lot of those type of events.

  Mark D. Williams 15:01

  What about how, you know, one of the ways to, you know, I heard this old sales adage that I like that if you want to catch a fish, you know, cast your bait where the fish eat in this idea that, you know, we all have the same client like, none of this works unless people want to buy this house when we're done, right? And so, you know, a lot of the products that we're talking about right now, we can see, because we're in a house that, you know, a week from now, will be completely insulated with rock wool and will be, you know, we'll start to sheet rock and all. You won't see any of your product anymore, right? I mean, you will obviously see the windows, but we're not going to see any of the Advantech flooring. We're not going to see any of the zip sheeting on the outside. We're not going to see any of the rock wool. But you feel the difference. How? How do we educate the buyers of these homes? Because there is an investment to this. I don't like the word cost, because I think the value is outstanding. What do you think is the best way for us to convey that value to a future homeowner?

  Alex Sernick 15:57

  I can take this one mark. You know, we really at Huber engineered woods. We really talk about two different ways that we can convey the value to a homeowner. Energy costs are continuing to rise every single year. Energy costs are not coming down. They're just getting more and more expensive. We live in a climate, and I'm sure, you know, a lot of people do around the country, where it's very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer, and there's really no in between, when you can convey the energy efficiency and the energy savings that they will see on the backside, and calculate that, you know, depending on the size of the home, how long they think they'll stay in the home, I really think that does put a, you know, monetary value on, you know, in their heads. And they say, Hey, you know what? It makes sense to pay a little bit extra now, but recoup those savings, you know, a few years down the road. And I think another thing that we talk about, and I think this might go for all of us here, and maybe, you know, tell it to some degree, but we always like to, excuse me, use the analogy that you can always change the kitchen, or you can always remodel the kitchen or the bathroom, but it's very hard to remodel the rock wall or remodel the zip and the subfloor. So get, you know, get the structure right. Get your engine right. And then if you've got a couple extra bucks down the road, you can always remodel the, you know, the nice, pretty

  Mark D. Williams 17:07

  things, you know, it's funny is six months from now, when we have this panel, I'm pretty sure some of our finished products are gonna be like, you know, what? If you hadn't spent so much money on the foundation, more money to put on the flash? I think you're 100% right, but I mean more is more. I mean it just keeps on leading. I'll

  Mark Brandenhoff 17:25

  jump in. And that was more of a quantitative analysis, but from a qualitative perspective, somebody that's built a few homes, you can't go back and change the acoustic properties. And so as someone right now that has multiple teenagers, multiple dogs being able to hear the kids and or dogs, or whatever else is going on. Unfortunately, I can. So I wish I would have invested in some of these attributes that could have been a lot more beneficial for the enjoyment of the home. Floor squeaking drives me crazy, and I've got some floor squeaking as well. So if you don't do that early on and take the time and invest and understand the value prop early. To your point, you can always change out the refrigerator, but some of the bones of those homes you can't do anything about. You're stuck with that, and so doing it early is important.

  Marc Cabrera 18:12

  Well, I think you mentioned brand right? And how do your clients walk into a home and understand the value that comes along with that. We talk a lot about brand, because I think you're you're a builder first, but you are a great salesman and marketer, and so you're always thinking about, how do I sell the product? Who are my partners that I align with? And I think you said earlier, feel the difference. So how do your clients come in and feel the difference? I think it starts with building a property like this, a spec home, because they can come in here and they can feel the quality, they can hear the windstorm that passes through and how quiet it is in here. And, you know, at Pella, we've got, we had a marketing Sarah's here from our marketing team. We have a team that, you know, works on brand for different product lines, but also talks about like, what is that client or consumer experience going to be? And when Triple pain came out for the first time, it was called feel the difference. So we actually had something in our showrooms where we had single pain, dual pain, triple pain, and then we had lamps behind them so people could come up and feel the difference. And so you built that on a on a massive scale, where you can bring clients through other builders, architects, and say, this is this is why I partner. And you can hear it and you can feel it.

  Mark D. Williams 19:37

  This episode is brought to you by Pella, windows and doors. I've used Pella for 21 years as the exclusive window company on every one of my builds. When people ask me who I trust for windows and doors, it's Pella every time. Their craftsmanship, their innovation, the top tier service, make them a no brainer for any custom home builder or designer who demand the best, whether you're designing something bold or building something with timeless L. Ian's Pella has you covered. They're also the only window company that has a lifetime warranty on all of their windows. I've gotten to know all their people at Pella corporate, as well as locally. Here at Pella Northland, I'm proud to call them our partners and our friends. Visit pella.com to learn more and connect with your local reps today. Also for more information, you can listen to episode one, where I interview their founders, as well as episode 109 where we talk about the innovation at Pella. I've said this many times on the podcast, and just to people in general, that one of the best compliments. I mean, you're seeing it as everyone in this room is a professional in their industry, and you see a lot of homes at various stages. You know what to look for. I mean, architects can go through another architects work and be like, Oh, wow. That that thought process that's amazing. Like, kudos to them. They did a really great job. That builder really hacked it up, but that architect did a great job. And but where I'm going with this is that I think the average consumer that comes through knows very little about most of that stuff. So what are you left with? You're left with feeling. I think Maya Angelou has the quote my wife says it all the time. So watch out, Maya Angelou, my wife's coming for you, and it's people forget what you say, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. And I feel like, over my 21 year career, when we have artisan homes and parade homes, when people come through our home, I'll often engage with them and ask them, I said, Well, what did you enjoy about this home? And they're like, I can't tell you what, but it feels different. And I used to beginning I used to not like that because I wanted something qualitative. I wanted something to latch on to. But as I've gotten older and more mature, slightly, I realized that that is probably one of the highest compliments I can get, because we sense things in a way that we often can't explain. Like, how do you explain love for somebody? Or, how do you especially when you especially when you dumb it down for a child, like, when I'm talking to my kids explaining a more abstract concept, I'm like, Wait, that's I got to make this really simple. And at the end of the day, you might just say, it just makes me feel really good, and I'm okay with that. And so anyway, when you said that, that's kind of what that reminded me of, is just my goal, is that even I was talking to Nancy from Stark intersource Before we were sitting down, she's in the audience right now. And you know, when someone comes in the home, one of the reasons why we're telling the story so much is, you know, sure, if someone really wants to see this house, we'll make it happen. But really, I don't want to show people this home until it's 100% done, other than the brand team that are already supporting it. Because even as much as all of you know, each one of you know 1/100 of what's going in here, collectively, there's only about three of us that know everything that's going in and until it's all the way done. You know, I keep liking this. I hope that lives up to this. But like when you sit in a Ferrari and you see the leather stitching going back and forth along the black of your hand, you know, you know, supple leather that was, you know, made in Milan. Like that's the level of craftsmanship and detail I want. How do you explain that to someone right now, when I'm looking at a, you know, a subfloor, beautiful, yellow subfloor, but it's not the same. And so that's something I'm thinking about. It's like, how do you convey that story? So

  Marc Cabrera 22:57

  Well, you document it all, all along the way, which is great, yeah, so we can all watch it through your glasses and Instagram. So I think that's a great way to show, especially buyers today, is the power of social media and brand ties in perfectly with that.

  Mark D. Williams 23:11

  So let me you know, this question wasn't on the question, but let me ask you, just because I'm curious. I know a lot of people are asking me, about me, so who's because I'm marketing it. Have Have you found other builders, either in our market or outside our market, that know that you're a brand partner of this project, and are people asking you about it?

  Marc Cabrera 23:30

  Well, I can say that every builder in town knows that we work together. You know, when we talk, they say, Oh, you and Mark do this or that, you know? So I do think that's that's nice, because they're looking at ways that, how can they partner with all of us? And they see the success you've had, and they see the true partnership, versus just being a supplier or somebody that's doing labor on your projects. So yeah, they come to us and, you know, like you said, three out of the next four homes are using triple pain. We've got other buyers that say, what is Mark using? I want to use that. I like the study set, etc. So yeah, they see it. And I think most of that's probably on social media.

  Alex Sernick 24:10

  Okay, I could not agree more with you. I see that all the time. No builder. It is a very small world that we live in. And a lot of the builders know all the other builders. I feel like, in the custom home builder world, no home builder wants to be left out using a product that no one else is using. You know, Mark, you use something. Everybody takes, takes notice of that. Why is Mark using that? Maybe I should look into, into that. You know, what does he know that I don't know? And so, just by virtue of you using a product, maybe a newer product, that does go a long way, you know, to put the feel good, you know, into another builder that might be on the fence or hesitant to use the product.

  Mark Brandenhoff 24:46

  And I think it'll pick up speed, right? I mean, it's pretty early on. You're just getting things out. These things are happening. And as you button it up, and as you said, you're not going to really open it up until it's done. I think once you do that, and people can see and feel for themselves, that'll really move things.

  Mark D. Williams 25:00

  Quickly, from a, from a brand value standpoint, we've touched on this a little bit, you know, if you were, if you were to speak to other builders out there, what should they be thinking about? What, what should they be doing to sort of attract you to them? Because, I mean, I approached all of you because it was kind of my idea that I really wanted to help in partnership with, how often are you going to these brands and saying, Hey, we think you're we think you're a great builder. We'd love to showcase Rockwell in it, for instance. Or what are things that other other businesses can do? Because this might seem really daunting to somebody. They might say, well, I don't, I don't have a Misa who's I don't have this idea. And I know what I would say to them, but I'm curious what you would say to them.

  Chris Jessen 25:47

  I think with, like, on our side with Rockwell, we were really early investors in the social media network, so we were going to builders like yourself and talking to them and getting sponsorships and working with them. So when this came about, that's was kind of like an easy transfer for us, and we get a lot of questions. We get a lot of builders that see what we're doing on line, on social media, working with builders like yourself, and want to know how we can partner, how we can build better with them. And that's kind of seems to be the best thing we most builders that are looking to build a better house are usually more active on the social media. Not everybody, obviously, but it seems like a lot of the ones that we work with, they're just active out there. The homeowners are seeing it. More homeowners are buying and looking online. So we're placing ads online. So it seems to work out pretty kind of a hand in hand with some of these better built homes.

  Mark D. Williams 26:39

  I think that, you know, correct me if I'm wrong. But I think once this house gets buttoned up, it's up to us to educate or entertain. It's kind of the two ways that I think about it, and I like both, right? I mean, both are fun. I mean, who doesn't want to go somewhere and get entertained or smile or laugh, or, you know, something like that, because life is too boring. Otherwise, that's my own personal mission statement. I guess I'll get off my soapbox in a minute. But my question is, how do I lost my way, cracking up my own joke.

  Marc Cabrera 27:09

  Are we gonna do like another sauna experience? Actually,

  Mark D. Williams 27:14

  that's a great idea. That's pretty small sauna. We're not gonna have that many rooms. That's only like a five person sauna. That's true.

  Marc Cabrera 27:20

  But we've had that experience before where we've done, you know, sauna cold, yeah, what was it? Ian

  Mark D. Williams 27:26

  sauce, yeah, we did that a few times with you guys. I mean, so, and we also have sauna camp. I mean, so, part of it, I think, you know, speaking to the builders of America, or just people in general, it's like, whatever you're passionate about, like, you can find a way to incorporate into your bit in your business, right? I haven't thought about doing a wellness thing out here. It's good idea. We'll have to talk about that offline.

  Mark Brandenhoff 27:43

  I think he's looking for sponsorship, Mark. I think

  Chris Jessen 27:46

  like Friday, like you said it Friday, if you're open. I think once insulation in this house is done, there's a lot of stuff that as a builder and as a product manufacturer can do with this. It's going to be a fun house to walk through. And the installation is done, it'll make your ears pop when you walk in the door. I remember

  Mark D. Williams 28:01

  I was going to say before I derailed myself, educate and entertain. You know, it's up to us as builders and as industry professionals to educate. You know, the end homeowner, the problem is we only have so much time that they're gonna give us, rightly so. Like, each one of us only has so much time in our attention span to like, make a value proposition. Like, is this worth it? You know, you know. I know when you feel the difference. Again, going back to Stark like, I know, like, if you feel the wool rug, you know that has no dye in it, because it fits the wellness theme. Like, how do I explain that with other but once it's in, I'm like, touch that that's different, you know? And there's, there's a value to it. Again, I think no one is going to see what this looks like on the inside, other than we can go back to video, and we have, obviously, we're documenting everything too, but I think at the end of the day, like we need to showcase as professionals, our value to the clients. And I don't know if they need to know everything, because I don't think they're going to give us the opportunity to do you think someone's going to spend five days in here with a team of three letting us explain every single nuance? Or do you think they'll be like, Please, let me just buy the house. I don't want to hear you talk anymore. I don't know. Let's talk. We talked mostly about relationships, which I think is important. One last question there is, how do you find working with other partners? You know, typically, let's say Chris with Rockwell. You're working with builders. How often are the people in this room, like I said, there's about 25 of you here. How often are you guys interacting as brand partners, saying, I think we should do this project together, or, Hey, there's an event coming up, like a cures builder collective or a contractor coalition Summit. Or, I feel like the world is getting more and more collaborative, not only between builder and builders and designers and architects. But I also think between brand, different brands, are you seeing that and how are you utilizing that as part of a business strategy?

  Chris Jessen 29:49

  Yeah, quite a bit. That's basically our whole team, or my whole job, is out collaborating and just building the building the network with builders. And obviously we work a lot with. A van take and Huber and those guys. It seems like we're always in the same houses. And then obviously, Anders with Pella too. It's the same thing. So like people that are building better, that's we're all together, and that's our whole job is to get out there and put these, put this type of stuff together. Yeah,

  Alex Sernick 30:15

  I was speaking to the Pella guys earlier, and I I stopped them, because I do run into the Pella commercial reps, excuse me, a lot on commercial projects. So not only am I responsible for residential, but I'm also responsible for the commercial side as well. And there's been numerous times where I've seen a representative from Pella meet me on a, you know, a large commercial multi family project where you're where they are using our house wrap, our zip and our tapes for the window, and then installing a Pella window. And they've got both of us on there to make sure that first window install goes correctly. And there are some nuances, you know, depending on how they want to do it, you know, what adheres to their warranty versus our warranty and things like that. So it is very, very important. And I'll, you know, back, continue to back off the subject. We are actually doing an event on on Thursday with another window manufacturer in conjunction, you know, a dual window manufacturer. And disappointing. So we do try to get out there as often as we can with different brands and whatnot that interact with our systems as well. And we more than happy to, you know, have a conversation with you guys and set something up for sure. But I get questions all the time about rock wool, and I'm glad that, you know, we'll have to exchange numbers after this, because I do get questions very, very often about how our system integrates with rock wool, and there are some unknowns, so we'll definitely have to exchange context after this.

  Mark Brandenhoff 31:37

  Yeah, yeah. I'll jump in. So one thing that comes to mind for me is like intentional is not transactional, and so really fostering that relationship and spending the time Mark and I were just comparing notes on our calendars for the next two weeks, we spend a lot of time interacting, and not because we feel like it's just what we have to do, but we generally really like to work with the people that We partner with, and we view them as true partners. And many of them, I think you're in this category to become friends, right? I mean, it's not just about a window and a home. It becomes knowing about each other's families and kids, and that's the ultimate for us. And that happens a lot. I mean, we, we, but we, it's very intentional. We spend a lot of time, because we don't want to just be a supplier. We definitely want to be a partner.

  Mark D. Williams 32:20

  And I've mentioned this many times on other podcasts as well. Of I think loyalty begets loyalty, right? And I use our relationship as a prime example that. But you know, there's a lot of brand companies out there that say, Well, how do we partner with, you know, ABC builder, or whoever it might be, and vice versa, the builder saying, Well, how do I partner and have that same relationship with, you know, whoever. And ultimately, I think that's why whoever you're currently using go to them first. You already have a relationship with them. And so, you know, you can go further with that relationship. And if that relationship no longer serves either one of you, but both parties owe it to the other to kind of say, Hey, I think where you're going might be a different place than we want to go. We had someone on our team who had been with us for a long, long time, and, you know, I won't go into all the nuances, but they said, You know, I think you're going to a place that I don't want to go to. And I said, that's totally understandable, totally respect that we've had, you know, 15 years together, and that's, you know, that's no problem, and that's fine, as long as you're clear, clearly communicating. And there's plenty that say, oh, man, we'd love to do that. But I think just understanding, just saying, Hey, do you want to work together? Yes, we can figure it out. And I think that's true of builders too. I mean, right now, you know, shout out to, you know, my partners at honey Hill, you know, aspect, you know, they came to me and they said, you know, a lot of people say collaboration over competition, but not that. Many people truly do it, believe it, and, you know, execute on it. And they said, Let's work on this together. And I can't tell you how invigorating it is to work with true partners, especially, you know, quote, competitors, if you will, if you're willing to sort of lower your guard and ask someone for help, or lower your guard and say, Hey, how can we work on this together? I'm telling you, the world is just way more exciting and way more enjoyable, because doing this alone would be really, honestly boring, and it couldn't even happen honestly alone, because this doesn't happen without hundreds of people physically working on it, but also all the support that we have from each one of you in this room, it can't be done. It's not possible. And so it's like, if you want to go farther, you need, you need to incorporate more people into it

  Marc Cabrera 34:19

  and leverage, you know, le leverage, the relationships that you have, because we know Sean and Tom, and so it was a natural Connect for us to work, you know, exclusively with you guys on that development. And we started conversations early on. And I think the other thing that you're trying to do for the industry is get you connected to people that are like minded that will push their business forward so the collective or leverage the relationships that we have with architects or other suppliers that can potentially change your project or, you know, the way you market your builds. But I that's something that this industry, although there's social media, which is powerful, the relationship. Piece of it, the components of the the loyalty, the true partnerships, the people that get your brand, that get get what you're trying to do, keep those relationships strong, because that's what this industry is built off of. And we, we all know that because we're in it. But I think the the consumers see so much of the social side, they don't necessarily understand what it takes to build it.

  Mark Brandenhoff 35:21

  I think the passion piece too, when you talk about that Mark, I mean, we all can, none of us are here because we have to be. We're here because we're passionate about the building community. We're passionate about building beautiful homes. We're passionate about some of the projects. And I'm new to the industry, relatively new, and I absolutely love what I do every day, and I love the people I work with, and I love working with the builders, and we do a lot. It's, it's definitely not for the faint of heart of how much time I'm sure builder experience is the same thing. But if you love it, it's, it's just part of your DNA. And I'm there, and it's been a lot of fun. I think

  Mark D. Williams 35:53

  it also represents our industry. I mean, you're, we're building a home for people. I mean, other than, I've often argued that, other than getting married, and, like, the planning around a wedding, what else do you spend more time, effort and energy and expectation into, other than a home? So I think our industry is sort of primed for that deep relationship, because if you're really honest with like, who you're building for, it's way beyond, like, a, you know, four walls and a roof and it's, it's a family. Someone's gonna have memories there. Someone's gonna raise their children there. You know, they're gonna have, you know, Christmases and Thanksgiving and all the things that matter to us outside of work happen, you know, in this space, like, right now we're in this space, some point in the future, someone will be having, you know, their monumental life moments in this exact space. And so I think thinking about a home differently than just like, it's a place that I dwell, you know, it's a place that you, you know, you dwell well and like you have all these memories, and also with a lot of the products that we have in this home, specifically with the four of you up here is, you know, and this isn't a warranty, because it's going to exceed, my lawyer would hate this, but like, I want this house to last beyond 100 years. I mean, why in Europe were they using, you know, stone and, you know, whatever else you know, 1000s years ago, and those buildings are still standing. So, you know, obviously time will tell. We're using a lot of new technologies, you know, and we're still evolving. I mean, what worked 20 years ago? The products are so different and so superior, but we still have to try them and vet them and test them. And I think for builders, it's really helpful for me to talk to Chris and say, Hey, Chris, you know, Rockwell has been around forever in this application, you know, what can we do here? Like we actually had that on this house, you know, I wanted to put the rock wool. I wanted Rockwell everywhere. So I wanted rock wool up under sub slab. And I didn't like the way we had our stego poly, you know. And so we work with the manufacturer, and said, Well, I don't want it on the top. I want it on the bottom. Are you okay with that? And so I think you know, not always just doing what you're told is probably well, at least that's not what I do. I want to know, but I also respect people. If you tell me no three times, I will listen, but I'm not going to take no, you know, at least twice. Just twice. Ask Carl, he tells me, he tells me no plenty, but he appreciate his patience. He definitely knows how to get through to me. So I think, I think we all need each other. Like, I'm going to push you as brand suppliers, like, Can I do this? But I also depend on you to push back and say, Mark, it's not in your best interest. Like, you know, for Pella, like, you know, the wellness studio, we have this really cool multi slide door out there. The original design was a bifold and as we worked with the architecture team and oho team on what it was going to become, it kept evolving like none of this, again, happens without a team concept. You know, when I go to I'm just looking at Nancy, so I keep referring to her in the audience. But you know, it's like, you know, when I'm picking a I say, Hey, here's my philosophy. I want this house to be based on wellness. I want what to my not, it's not perfect, because we're still iterating here, but like to the best ability possible. I want this to have, you know, natural, no off gassing, things that I can control. And Nancy's like, well, then you want this product. She's She knows more about her product than I could ever hope to know. And so I would challenge builders out there, like, when you have an idea, like, again, depend on your people. Have them. You don't have to know it all like I know very little. I just know to ask all of you for help. And so far, you guys keep on answering the phone, so that's on you. What would be like a goal out of this? When this home is done, what would make this a successful, a successful venture for each one of you.

  Marc Cabrera 39:24

  Well, I think first that you sell the house, then be successful for all of us. But I think as you look at I talked a little bit about, you've documented the whole build process, and so for us to collaborate and use that to gain future business and push the industry forward would be a success, at least from from my lens, I

  Mark Brandenhoff 39:46

  was thinking the same thing. I look, you know, we're a little bit lucky when our product and that it typically is like a statement piece or a showcase showcase piece, something you really can't avoid not seeing you. But being able to get people to say, Hey, Mark is doing triple I should do triple marks, doing multi slide I should do multi slide marks, doing this. We should do that. That's awesome for us. And that's, you know, the whole partnership really works well that way, Mark.

  Alex Sernick 40:14

  I mean, my hope is that you really set the benchmark for what a custom home can be going forward with with all of our products involved in that I, you know, really sent that set that benchmark for future builders that have an idea of building that, you know, great, custom home. They're saying, they're, you know, they're thinking that, hey, these products were used. I'm going to use those products as well. So, yeah,

  Chris Jessen 40:35

  I think the same kind of continue on that is just what, when we partnered with you, we were like, Okay, we want to partner with Mark D Williams custom homes going forward. I think you kind of set that benchmark for the Twin Cities, which definitely needs to build better than code, and they're moving in that direction. So having our product, having the continuous exterior insulation with the zip bar the windows, is just stuff that's not normally done in Minnesota very often, and I think that'll trickle down to obviously, more custom home builders, but down to more standard home builders. Every every house, especially low income housing, could use a lot of these products to save money for that homeowner, renter, individual, for years to come. So I think that we're pushing in that direction in the Twin Cities, and that's kind of why we wanted to jump on board with you guys to

  Alex Sernick 41:23

  help that if this home could be proof that sustainability and design can go hand in hand, you don't have to compromise on either.

  Mark D. Williams 41:32

  Yeah, I mean, I think it does come down. It's funny, because I'm thinking of all the things I said no to, believe it or not, I do have to say no to some things, you know, in terms of cost and value, you know, we're making value decisions based on what we think, and the proof will be in the pudding. I mean, we'll find out six to seven months from now whether this vision and the goal that we had in collaborating together will someone appreciate the way we do. We don't know. And when it does sell, and talking to that buyer. I'm very curious, for all of our sakes, like, what will be the thing that drew them in? Like, what's their why? Like, I know my why. You know each one of you represents your brands. You know your why. I'm very curious to know if a homeowner will really know what their Why is, or do they have to discover it. And even, like, checking in with somebody, you know, I tend to stay just because this is only five, you know, six minutes from our office, I'm very curious to check in with them a year, five years, 10 years down the road, because we've put so much passion into this home, I'm really curious to sort of stay in touch with all of our homeowners. We do that. But this one, it'll be a little bit different, obviously, because I want to know, like, how's my child doing? You know, you know, are they taking good care of her? Like, you know, is she going to grow up? Like, what is she going to be? Gonna become? I'd have no idea. But I think you need things like this to get passionate about, because honestly, for me, you know, I've mentioned this a lot with the podcast as of three years ago, when I started the curious builder, like, I was completely burned out, like I was kind of like, I'm done building, like, I'd consider going to work for another builder. Just like, what I'm just like, I'm done. And really, this type of collaboration just completely relit a fire, you know, for kind of, you know, probably, God willing, the next 20 years. And then this home is because of that. I wouldn't be here today doing this home without the curious builder. And so in that sense, both of them are very much intertwined. And so doing something like this, I think, is really inspiring for me, and I hope that other people listening to it, regardless of what you do, like you do, you don't try to copy me, and if you want to, great. I'll give you the blueprint of what I'm doing. But that's not really the point. The point is like each person has something in them that I think is special, and the partners that they work with, like this house could not be completed again without everybody here. And I think, to me, it's a little bit like when you go to a family gathering and get a little woo on everybody. But, you know, as you walk through the house, and I'm thinking like, you know what I wouldn't have done that? You know, if Kristen from Edmund one hadn't recommended I do that, or, you know, Ian from Pentair said, hey, you know, for your pool design, you really should do this. And this water clarity and this purification system, you know, is this, and so it's like, that's honestly, what's exciting for me, because I'm getting introduced to new products from all of you. Or, you know, I've been partners with Anthony from Alpine for, you know, what, 20 years, 15 years, a long time enough that he's gonna have to get a restraining order on me. And but, you know, like, when I when I tell people what the goal is, they're coming to me with the ideas. I don't have to keep iterating all these ideas. So that, that, to me, is why it's so fun to have partners. Because this isn't really my vision. It's collective, you know, vision together. Not much to say about that wasn't that was pretty terrible question, by the

  Chris Jessen 44:35

  way, but I will jump in a little bit there. We've done a house kind of like this, down in the Kansas City Market. They call it the pretty good house. So it was

  Mark D. Williams 44:42

  basically terrible brand, the pretty house. It's making a pretty good offer.

  Chris Jessen 44:47

  Doesn't burn it was pretty good. It wasn't passive level, but it was a pretty good house. Let's go back to the pretty good Yeah, so, but it was the same thing. There was the European style triple pane windows. It was. Continuous extra insulation, rock wool inside. And they it was great. You walked through it, it felt good. But then they went back and they interviewed that homeowner about six months later, or we did. We had a whole, like, video shoot on it, and that home was like, I can't tell you, but you like you said, you can't, I can't tell you, but I don't my I don't hear anything. I feel better. I wake up better. I can just yeah, that just the sound quality of the feel of the house, with all those things put together was so much different, and we use that a lot. So I think that's something for you to do when come back to this homeowner, when they're done and just be like, Hey, can you do a testimonial? What it's like to live in a house that you could put in the middle of this inner city or next to an airport, and you still

  Mark D. Williams 45:37

  wouldn't feel any different. I'm just still tripping over their name. That is terrible. Well, there's a book

  Chris Jessen 45:42

  called The pretty good house. What's that Emily mantra? She wrote a book called The pretty good. Oh, really. It's basically not passive, because, like, not everyone can pay for passive, so they call it the pretty good. That's kind of where they kind of played on words there.

  Mark D. Williams 45:54

  So I'll take a pass on that one. Okay, rapid fire. If you could use one phrase to describe misehus, what's a word that you would use to describe it? This process or this? Build

  Alex Sernick 46:11

  intentional? Yeah, yeah. Every, every aspect design choice has been intentional. Yeah? Has serves a purpose.

  Mark Brandenhoff 46:21

  I'll go. I like flow. The Home will have great flow and great energy.

  Chris Jessen 46:25

  I think serenity. I think when this house is done and you're just gonna walk and you're just gonna feel different, I'm

  Mark D. Williams 46:33

  just glad you didn't say pretty good, decent.

  Marc Cabrera 46:37

  Well, I'm not gonna use cozy, because that's the actual word, but I think a good word for it will be comfort,

  Mark D. Williams 46:45

  if you were when you when a homeowner moves into this home, when they're done, what do you think would be a meaningful interaction for all the brand partners that have been sort of a part on this journey? You know, you don't want to overwhelm you know, it's kind of like, you know, they've adopted your child, and you're like, you know? It's like, Well, okay, we also want them. It's like their home now it's no longer really our home. What do you think would be a meaningful way to sort of interact as a collective team, you know, for future homeowner? Any ideas,

  Mark Brandenhoff 47:19

  could you a video expose of each vendor's contribution to the property, and kind of follow that over time with many interviews, and wrap that up and do a nice, short, two or three minute video for the homeowner to have.

  Mark D. Williams 47:34

  Leah, we got to write that down. That's a great idea. I'm thinking about like a wedding video. Like, and then your idea of just like, two minute, like, Hey, you're gonna enjoy going to Iceland, you know, this is from, you know, the three marks, you know, enjoy this, you know, hotel, or whatever. I'd like that idea a lot.

  Chris Jessen 47:55

  Actually, call out what we think is gonna be special about this house and say, Hey, walk through the cells. How's that feel? How's that quietness, how's the windows and whatnot. So it's, I think, definitely could be a cool idea.

  Mark D. Williams 48:10

  I'm really hoping that you know, somebody that you know is going to see how much care we put into this home, how they'll let us use it for future clients. You know, because once the home sells, and you know, it'll be on the artisan home tour. And so obviously, anyone that wants to come see the home is certainly going to see the home. That'll be the first three weeks of June. And we're going to do a number of industry events. We'll probably use, if you're part of the curious builder collective, raise your hand. How many people are either a sponsor or part of the curious collective in the room right now? So maybe 70, 80% of the of the room. We're probably going to do a mixer here where we'll have the architect, design and builder collectives, because so many of my partners and sponsors in the curious builder enterprise, obviously, are the same ones as they are in, you know, Mark Williams custom homes. But I think I want to do some sort of a meaningful mixer here. I'm not sure what that looks like yet. We're still sort of iterating, and then even involvement with the neighborhood. I mean, obviously, neighborhood. I mean, obviously the entire neighborhood knows about this house. It's funny because one of my other designers that I work with a lot down the street, she lives three homes down. They refer to the house as MISA. How's Misa doing today? So I gave her, I gave her a water bottle, like, not quite like this one. This one's pretty cool. Pentair, you guys should check this out, by the way. Lark, have you seen this? They have a UV filter in it that it clarify, it purifies the water. Check this out. Sorry. Audience, that's not cool. It purifies the water. So I'm going to give the homeowners their own custom water bottles. So the house is cheap, but the water bottle is very expensive. I got one

  Mark Brandenhoff 49:37

  more twist for it. I was just thinking this would be a fun one to have everybody that's involved sign like a three by three square and then hide it. And then during the video that you give them, let them know to open this panel up, or, you know, remove this, and they could see all the people that contributed to the build. Oh, look at you. Autographed it. There

  Mark D. Williams 49:56

  it is. That's not my autograph. That's admin one autograph.

  Mark Brandenhoff 49:59

  So I have. Hard to see that, though, after it's built, that's true. You gotta find a place where you can put it that they're not gonna know about it, but you can surprise them six months in. So

  Mark D. Williams 50:07

  we've been documenting it so you're you, I like the way you think. So what we did is, I've been asking anyone that's worked on the house to sign their work. And the idea is that if you sign your work, you're putting your name on something, there's going to be a little bit more care, a little bit more intention, a little bit more you're just going to be authentic about what you're doing. You're going to think a second time before you, before you do something that's not great.

  Mark Brandenhoff 50:33

  Which pane of glass would you like Mark and I to put our signature on a handprint front or back, maybe a door. Tell you what

  Mark D. Williams 50:40

  no one we're done today, I got a Sharpie in the trash, and everyone's gonna sign something in this house, you know, not a window that I can see. Otherwise, I'm gonna be replace it. But anyway, the idea is, again, it's a story in, you know, it was funny because I had one of our HVAC guys was downstairs, Lennon, and I had him on camera. It was just the guy's great. I love his energy. And I never met him before. And I said, Hey, Lennon, do you mind if I get a video of you signing the, you know, the tin and the duct work on the plenum? He's like, Absolutely. He's like, this is awesome. I've only been doing this for a couple months, but I love this. Oh, crap. I was like, You know what? In for a penny, in for a pound. Let's do this, buddy. I think he'd been there for a couple years, but I remember touching his boss being boss being like, someone's overseeing Lennon, right? Like, two months and so. But I say that sort of, I want to tell that story, a, to put a little pie in my face, but also B is like, there's this narrative that there's not young people coming into the industry. That's not been my experience. I see a lot of young people interested in our industry, and I think it's up to us to engage them differently and have them come in. Like, right now we're going to try to do a speaking tour into high schools, and so we're trying to work on a way, like, how can I get people into this? And it's interesting because I was sort of told by a number of people, like, keep this home a little bit more secretive. Don't let people in till it's done. Because my original idea was actually, after this, we were going to have 100 people in the house for the hard hat tour. It was going to be it was going to be all the kids in the neighborhood. And we actually have like little checklists of all the things to look through and educate them. But I was convinced that that was not in my best interest. Is that by your lawyer, the team that was by a number of people that that? I said, no number. So anyway, not all my ideas get greenlit.

  Mark D. Williams 52:29

  This episode is brought to you by adaptive. If you're still chasing checks and juggling spreadsheets, it's time to upgrade. Adaptive is revolutionizing how builders get paid with AI powered bill pay, automated draws, one click payments and built in Lean waivers, Faster Payments, fewer headaches and total visibility. Adaptive takes care of the back end chaos, so you can focus on what you do best, building. We've used adaptive for two and a half years, and trust them to keep our projects moving and payments flowing. Learn more at Adaptive dot build and simplify the Pay Process today. For more information, you can also listen to episode 10 and episode 15. Maybe we'll take a few questions from the audience. We're out of questions, and right now we're just riffing. So does anyone have maybe we'll do three questions. Does anyone have a question in the audience that they'd like to ask anyone on the panel or anything about the house? I mean, for the audience, there's like, everyone's hand is up. It's I can't, I can't decide who to pick. Ian, go ahead.

  Speaker 1 53:25

  So we talked a lot about the materials that are in the house today, and someone had mentioned a warranty. So as we're thinking beyond just move in day, how do you also delight homeowners when it comes to seeking out a warranty or calling about service concerns, curious what your philosophy is with the type of buyer.

  Mark D. Williams 53:47

  So the question was from Ian from Pentair, and she basically just said, how do, how did the brand partners up here view warranty and reassure the clients long term that while they're in their home, like, what is? What is warranty? What does commitment to a home of this caliber mean, like from their point of view?

  Alex Sernick 54:06

  Alex, go ahead. So this was on my mind when we were talking about partnerships, and it was something that I did want to speak about. So Thanks for Thanks for bringing this up. And hopefully I can make it quick. And this is just coming from Huber, but I think any manufacturer of any product that that you're going to use on this home, you know, has a pretty good lawyer behind the scenes that can get out of just about any warranty situation that comes up at the end of the day. In my opinion, it really does come down to a partnership and a relationship. I want you to feel extremely comfortable knowing that when you are using our products, not only do they come with a 30 year, you know, non prorated warranty, or 180 day of exposure rating, where you can keep it open for 180 days. That's all good and dandy, but when it comes time to act on that warranty, how do you know that we're not going to find the fine print that says, Hey, you didn't do this one little thing, therefore we're washing our hands of the entire situation. In my. World. And in my position, I know Huber, being a family owned company, is never going to wash their hands of any situation, depending on whose fault it is, we are always going to work with you know, work with you. Partner with you, build that relationship. Because I know as soon as I say, hey, too bad. So sad you guys didn't do this one little thing. Are you ever going to use my product again? Probably not. I'm here to build a long term relationship. And so that means not only educating you on the product, giving your guys the you know, your team, the product knowledge, training sessions, etc, but also helping you out and working as a team if a warranty situation were ever to come up in the future.

  Mark D. Williams 55:36

  I mean, I think that speaks a little bit to what Mark was saying, too about the power of relationships, and I think it's more interesting anyway, and more rewarding as a person, just working in this world, is just like having relationships that are meaningful, that, like you said, Mark as well, too many marks up here. You know that just that you might actually like someone, that you might be friends with them. And you know when you when you know someone cares about you and they care about your reputation, you know they're gonna go a lot further than just what is stated. Or they'll tell you, say, I'm sorry that my hands are tied, but I think we need to do this. And so they really, if it's a transaction, it's black and white, and it's, it's to your point, the fine print seems to be in everything but my contract. And so Thanks for laughing at that. And so, you know, I think a homeowner, at the end of the day, they're very few homeowners, read our contracts. At the end of the day, they're saying, Mark, we trust you to build our home, and we trust your reputation. And that's enough for me. And as long as I stand behind that, the contract is only there if I don't. And honestly, if we're coming to if it's going to that, then I'm not really the builder I want to be anyway. And I'm sure we need those things for certain situations, but at the end of the day, like, I think I don't know anyone that's like, yes, contract, can't wait to read this thing. This is going to be some great bedtime reading that's just not enjoyable. People don't like it. They like real people. And I think that's why you see people go back to relationships, and why people continue to work with the same people over and over again. I can tell you, as a builder, there's been situations where maybe things were 5050 maybe it wasn't even 5050 maybe it was definitely not the manufacturer's issue, but they took care of it anyway. Think about it this terms. If you're if you're a family and you have children and you see someone do something kind for one of your children, how do you think you're going to feel about that person? You're going to feel very strongly towards them. They did the right thing, even when they didn't have to. Now that is something you can't you can't not only put it, not put a price on it. You really can't, hardly even quantify it. You can only tell the story.

  Marc Cabrera 57:37

  I think it's a good question. I think you've you've got to partner with brands and with builders that have a reputation to uphold the warranty right, even beyond what's maybe written. Pella specifically, has been around for 100 years. Is our 100 Year Anniversary, which is pretty cool. And locally, we've been here 85 years, and we've worked together 21 of those years, and we've run into things along the way where we've had to address them. And I just think that people will see what you advertise for warranty, but I think when clients come in and can have a conversation with the builder that you worked with for decades, or a brand partner that you've worked with for so long that they know that that reputation in that market is strong. So I would just encourage clients to look for relationships that are lasting, that are loyal to each other.

  Chris Jessen 58:31

  Yeah, I think same thing with products like when you mentioned warranty, I'd come from another background before Rockwell, and it was always about warranty. What's your warranty? And I'm really not sure what rock was. Warranty is, it's made from rocks, so it's just how much you could do to it that's gonna be that's gonna hurt it and whatnot. And we've been around for almost 90 years. Started in Denmark, so I've just, and we mentioned earlier, Europeans build stuff out of stone. That's 80% of the market in Europe. And so it's, we've got 65 year old product that's still the same r value and still touch on the top of the stud 65 years later. So it's not even sure what our warranty is. So we'll have to get back to you on that one.

  Mark D. Williams 59:09

  Well, I mean, I think you we just told us what it is. Yeah, the fact that you don't know it and it hasn't been a problem tells me that the warranty is enough that it's not a problem. Anyone else have another question?

  Speaker 2 59:23

  Anthony, where did you find your inspiration to come from? You know, one certain country in Europe. Sort of say that one more time, where did you find your your inspiration? How did it develop into one country from Europe? Besides, point of cozy and like, where did it come from? Like, inside of you. You came up with this, or a group of people, or whatever, how did you feel, or how did you like? You're trying to elicit some sort of response from clients, not just what's on paper. And we all do that with all of our just our trades and everything that we're a part of, we want to be a part of, like, develop some sort of emotion that people come in. You know, they. A memorable this right math. And then, how did you, how did you come up with that, with the one country, I guess, more or less, and then was just mainly because the word cozy,

  Mark D. Williams 1:00:10

  or so, I think the question to repeat it was so Misa, like, how did I come up with the term, or we come up with the term Misa, who's and, like, I guess, how did it start? Man, I'd have to think about that for a little bit. It's been talking about, talking about for so long. Sometimes forget about the beginning. It's like telling, oh, that's a little too woo, woo. I was gonna be like, go back and be like, when you first went on your first date with your wife, like, what were those first feelings like, when you knew she was the one? I mean, just off the cuff, I knew that I didn't want to, so I haven't done a spec home in 16 years, and I didn't want to come to market like everybody else, no disrespect to what they're doing. It's just not me. It wasn't creative. It wasn't interesting to me, and I didn't want to do it. So then you can't really make someone do something they don't want to do. As I already mentioned, I was kind of burned out. I sort of needed to be burned out in order to have this idea. So I think for me, it was just part of the process. And so for me, through the curious builder, and working with a lot of other people, I just, I've been kind of obsessed with brand, you know, the curious builder, like I about three years ago, I was going through this brand exercise of like recreating Mark Williams Custom Homes, because no one tells you, at 23 years old, don't name your company, Mark B Williams custom homes so long, and it's like, how am I gonna sell that? And so anyway, I can't even get my wife to agree to it. So, you know, let's go. I need a different name. And so for me, I'm going through the story of, just like, I was really keyed in on brands. So when the curious builder came along and I'm interacting with all these different brands, and like, you know, and I think it's really common now, people say, like, What's your why? And I just became really interested in, like, knowing what I wanted it to be. And so for me personally, I just this house. If I could afford my own work, we'd be, you guys would all be in my own personal home. And I'm certainly not the first builder to build their own personal home and then market it and then move into it. The difference is, I can't afford my own work. And so what I did with that is like, well, how can I take because I had to choose, is this going to be a main level living for an empty nester, or is this going to be a family home? It can't be both. It has to be one or the other. And so I really struggled with deciding what we were going to build. And so for me, sitting down with Carl, sitting down with I knew who my team was actually. I think maybe even before I knew the concept. I'll have to fact check this with them later. I can't remember if I had the idea first, or if I came to them. I knew I wanted to work with Carl. Carl is my neighbor. It's how I got into Ultra running and the wellness really took a big turn towards that. I've always been into athletics and things like that, but that was a, let's say, call it 1/3 of the idea. I knew that if it was just Carl I designing, it would probably get too modern. And most of my my women, people who buy my homes, are the women. You know, my designers used to say, Happy wife, happy life. Like, if I can't relate this home to women, and guess what? They want something that's cozy, approachable, traditional in our market. So I'm like, Okay, I knew for certain that it was going to be Melissa from olent interiors, and so it was really that collaboration, and then kind of coming up with this idea of like I was the last piece, like I was called the archetype. I wanted to have a philosophy that without a client, like designing a home on a blank piece of paper is actually really hard, because it can be anything, and if it's anything, it's kind of nothing, and it's not special. How can it be special if it appeals to everybody and but you kind of have to dive off the diving board and say, like, it's going to be this, and that's a lot of pressure. And so I wanted to develop a philosophy that the philosophy dictated every selection. And so once we had that, oh, this was so freeing. It was the that's why this project has been so rewarding and so freeing. We worked with a local company. Shout out to Molly windmiller from lab, and I kind of presented all these ideas to her, and she helped me. I'm really good at the idea creation, but as you can imagine, it's a little bit like a shotgun. I mean, there's bullets everywhere. Like, I needed someone to help me, like, focus this on a thing. And so we did some brand names. And, you know, I'm a Scandinavian, Norwegian mutt of, you know, 15 different bloodlines. And I'm like, Well, we did our honeymoon in Iceland in Norway. And I was like, you know, I love going back to this cabin, this intentional. I wanted this home. If it was my home, to be a place where my family, my children, I could be in common spaces, the rooms would be smaller. So I'm giving you a long answer, but that's how it all. It just kept coming. All these inputs just started coming together and together and together and together. And so I didn't pick a country, I picked a philosophy. And the philosophy sort of worked around and plus, Misa is very catchy, so that helps too. It's not pretty good homes, I'll tell you that. And so that was don't know if I answered the question, but that was really how I came to it. There's a lot more there. We'll probably do a, we could do a whole dedicated podcast, probably on it, but did I answer your question, last question, and then we'll respect the time for the audience and Mark's travel plans and. Other questions. Ian, all right, our producer, I love it. Any of your conversations on the curious builder podcast affect what you did here at visa? That's a good question. So Ian, our producer from Studio Americana, asked if there was any conversations that had happened on the curious builder podcast that influenced, I'd say all of them, but in ways that I couldn't like name. You know, I interact with owners across the country, designers, architects, builders, and, like any interaction with somebody, people leave an impression on you. I couldn't say specifically. I could say a little bit like, you know, shout out to Nick Schiffer from out in Boston. He's one of my business partners with the contractor coalition Summit. He's much farther along and his spec home, and his is, like 5x mine. He's got something called 45 white oak. If you've been following it, it's out in Boston, an insane his, his motivation is a lot different than mine, but I saw his passion, and I saw his dedication to like, a specific thing. So it impacted me, from that point of view, how we got to I'd be curious to ask someone else how similar they think our end goals are. I think they're quite different. But he was so motivated by he wanted to build the highest and most pure home, like everything to the nth degree. I mean, I'm like a one out of 10 compared to that home. I mean, that home is insane. If you're not familiar with it, you really need to go give it a look. I'm actually flying out there in two weeks to go look at it. One of my business partners told me I could go look at it, because he's afraid what will happen. Don't worry. Don't worry. I said, we're already too far down the road to change. But I think everyone impacts you. And so you know, Misa, who's could not come about without every single person involved. And really it's an evolution of it all.

  Marc Cabrera 1:06:41

  So I think I'm gonna go with you so I can keep you in check. Oh, yeah, you guys will appreciate

  Mark D. Williams 1:06:47

  that too. Okay, yeah, you can come. Why not? I'd like to, actually, I think

  Chris Jessen 1:06:50

  you should do whatever he does on the exterior of his houses. I'm sorry, just do whatever he does in his house and on the exterior of his house. Yeah,

  Mark D. Williams 1:06:56

  Rockwell has been working with NS builders for a long time. And so, you know, I think that's you know. Back to your question, Ian, I think you know, as you interact with people, you know, people are asking me, Hey, why are you using our 12? What do you think I did when I called Chris Cook, so he's one of the head people at Huber, he put me in touch with someone on the East Coast, not Nick but somebody else. I called him and said, Hey, tell me about our 12. You know, Rockwell. I'd seen Nick use it for years, and I was just kind of obsessed with, if you see it every trade show, and then someone have a big flamethrower on, it never burns. I'm like, that's cool. I love fire and it's not burning. That's awesome. I don't know why I want that in my house, but I want it in my house. And so I think you just ask a lot of questions, and I think that's obviously what the curious builder is. That's who I am. And so that's how all of it sort of came to be a big blender of relationships and crazy ideas and adrenaline. Well, why don't we wrap it up that because we'll talk forever, and you guys all have better things to do. Thanks for tuning in the curious builder podcast, and we'll see you next week.

  Marc Cabrera 1:07:55

  Thanks for Thank you. Martin, yeah, sorry.

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