All right, so today we have had some back and forth and people are always wondering, how did Kingdom and Co. get started?

And so we thought we’d share the evolution of how we got to where we are.

Yeah, so Lincoln and I we were working in real estate together, doing a lot of flips and just building our real estate careers.

And we had this idea that we would build an indoor farm, the whole farm to table movement.

I can’t remember how we came across it, but we came across this concept of building a farm within retrofitted shipping containers.

And so we kind of built out this business model for it and we thought we’d be selling fancy greens and lettuces to these high-end restaurants on the Strip and we needed a guy that could actually build it out.

And that’s how we crossed paths with Brian.

Partnered with Brian to help build this and then we realized something completely different.

It was a great venture that we did.

It was fun because we, you know, at the time I got to design it and it was using hydroponic technology, building our own A-frames, different things like that.

I mean, how many grow spots did we have, Lincoln?

We had 5,000 grow spots per A-frame and I think we had up to three or four A-frames.

So we had like almost 20,000 grow spots.

Yeah, and it was flourishing.

It was actually really fun.

Yeah, because the idea is, you know, you’re spending quite a bit of money to control the space with the HVAC, the CO2 emitters, all these mechanics that are going in to create this perfect growing environment.

So you want to condense those grow spots and, you know, it all makes sense on paper and then.

And the engineering behind it was like fun.

It was like, oh my gosh, like fog machines and this.

I mean, we went nuts.

Like, we went absolutely insane.

But throughout this process, when we were doing this, we were like, Brian, what the heck are you doing working for the government right now?

And he’s like, well, I’ve got a pension and this and that.

I’m like, you are way too talented.

Yeah, because he had a.

He was like, it didn’t make sense to us.

This was a side gig for him.

He had his government job.

So it was basically 20 years of experience in building commercial buildings for transit terminals all over town and bus maintenance facilities.

So I had the background of building.

I had the background of engineering.

You guys were already at the time flipping.

So it actually was a match made in heaven.

You know, I was able to get my general contractor’s license.

And from there it was, let’s hit the ground running.

Yeah, people were calling us to say, hey, can you do my kitchen?

Can you do my bathroom?

And we’re like, well, yeah, we do flips.

We can figure it out.

But as far as getting to that point where we could actually do it at scale, we needed somebody, we needed Brian.

So that’s how Kingdom got created.

Well, and it’s funny, dude, because people ask a lot of times, where’d you get your name from?

And I’m like, it was Brian.

So Brian, I remember being at my house back in the day and Brian walked into the house and he’s like, hey, I had a dream last night.

I know what the company’s supposed to be called.

I’m like, what are you talking about, a dream?

You know, like in my mind, we’re just gonna be this little company.

And he’s like, no, we need to be called Kingdom.

I’m like, okay, Kingdom it is, you know, not thinking anything of it.

And then- I didn’t know that.

It was actually a lot longer name.

Our original name was Kingdom Home Remodel and Repair.

That’s right, that’s right, that’s right.

Yeah, and that’s a lot of words there.

But we revamped it to Kingdom Home and now we are actually revamped again to Kingdom and Co.

So that, because a lot of people don’t know that we do commercial work.

And it’s funny that I do a lot of, I’ve done commercial work for the last six years for my old employer.

A lot of TIs, a lot of build outs.

And, you know, we’ve done a few restaurants.

Attorney office, you know, one of my buddies, he was an attorney, did his office for him.

So Kingdom Home was really limiting what people thought we could do.

And by changing it to Kingdom and Co., it opened us up to a lot more commercial space.

Well, and they emphasize too, we do design now.

So design, build, remodel, commercial work, it really emphasizes that we’re not just a, we can’t, we don’t just do one thing.

We can do multiple things and we can do them well.

That’s the key.

The whole design thing came out of the era where we started working with Property Brothers.

Yeah.

Because it, so we’re coming from the flip mindset and the construction mindset and doing kitchens and baths.

And then, can’t remember how we crossed paths with the TV show.

We were working with a designer at the time that was contacted by them and then she recommended us.

Yeah, we did a phone call and all that.

So we were commissioned to do one job for Property Brothers, but they ended up hiring us on to do eight episodes, I think, so.

They love Brian, Brian kicked butt for them.

I mean, he finished everything on time, on budget, absolute amazing quality.

The guy was, I remember bringing blankets one time in one episode because he was so tired.

He had to finish up the job.

Yeah.

Then a drive, 30 minutes at like 12 o’clock at night or midnight, brought him a blanket.

He slept for three hours, had to get back up and get everything ready.

And when they were filming it, him and the designer, I remember when they were filming it, they were both sleeping.

And I just remember being like, this guy has gone above and beyond.

Like they love us.

Because the whole Property Brothers thing was, not only you’re trying to juggle the timeline of a construction project, then they’re trying to do a shooting schedule.

They have a schedule of when they shoot those scenes.

Yeah, it’s a lot of starting, stopping, waiting, rush again, stop, rush again.

So you have different milestones throughout the project that they want to capture on TV.

So you would have to stop and wait for them to come film it.

It got frustrating at time, but it’s part of the game.

You know, we knocked it out.

It’s funny because at that same job, you brought those blankets.

I had the HOA security come and tell me that if I didn’t leave, they’re going to tow my car.

And I said, go ahead, here’s the keys.

Because liquidated damages by not being done on time were far more than me having to get my car out of impound.

Wow.

Yeah, it’s really cool what the Property Brothers taught us.

It taught us the importance of design.

It taught us the importance of how we didn’t realize how fast we can get things done with high quality.

And that’s kind of what we turned our company into, is we get things done quick at a high quality manner.

It’s pretty cool to see.

When decisions are made ahead of time, when the plans are well done, yeah, your velocity of execution is so much better and the final product is so much better.

So fast forwarding from the Property Brothers days, we knew we had to really establish a design department and that was going to take some time to cultivate.

So we re-retrofitted the farm containers, the shipping containers, and that became our office for several years.

We were in that.

We were in these fused shipping containers in Lincoln’s backyard.

And we were designing millions and millions of dollars worth of work in shipping containers.

Yeah.

And it was a blessing for us because it kept our overhead low.

It allowed us to actually scale properly and attract good talent.

I would say that people coming in, they thought, what’s going on here?

But once they saw the company culture and what we were trying to accomplish, it worked out really well.

The miracle was that we were able to hire a bunch of the team that we have.

Being able to hire, we have some amazing people that work with us and for us to be able to convince them to come to my backyard and work in shipping containers was pretty crazy.

Yeah.

If you think about it.

And we didn’t have, there was no cubicles.

We were all kind of in one bullpen and we didn’t kill each other.

And we didn’t kill each other.

At times we almost did, but we never went that far.

So the cool thing about where Kingdom & Co has evolved into is it’s really neat to see us now that we’re in our design studio and how much emphasis we’ve put on our design process and how important that is.

And we discussed this the other day about how bad plans are when they come from the outside world.

You know, we talked to architects, we talked to designers.

Their goal is to put as little amount of information as possible into these plans so that they’re not liable in the field.

Yeah.

They just want to get you over that hurdle of getting permitted if you’re the architect.

The designers don’t even interested in that.

They just want you to get excited about something.

And, but yeah, they’re not the ones building it.

So they don’t have that vested interest in the detail and they don’t want to be held responsible for it.

And our experience, storytime wise, I mean, our experience over and over and over again with all these other designers and whatnot, it came to the point where we’re like, man, like they basically just give us a bundle of things that don’t match up.

We give it to Brian or a project manager and we say, here, design this.

And then you get the information, none of it adds up.

There’s so many miscommunications here or there.

It got to the point where like we need to handle and control this process so that our clients can have a better experience.

Yeah.

And we see that over and over again.

I mean, Brian is in the middle of a job right now he’s working on that’s a nightmare because of this situation.

It’s true, it does.

It reminds me of the old days and tell you what, I’m a lot older now and it’s tough.

Yeah, it’s exhausting.

So yeah, we, and then in that process too, we built our own homes and we really tried to design or I guess engineer our process around the process that we wish we had had when we were building our homes.

Correct.

And to help make those decisions earlier in the process.

And so the execution of the build goes much faster and cleaner.

Absolutely, it’s so important.

It’s funny, I was meeting with somebody the other day, they’re doing a big remodel and they’re flippers.

They’re like how we used to be back in the day.

And it was so fascinating to meet with them.

And I’m like, man, if you guys try to treat this $1.5 million remodel as a flip, the nightmare that’s gonna happen because it’s just a different process.

It’s a different game and the quality is gonna go straight downhill.

It’s gonna take them twice as long and they’re gonna spend about the same amount of money and just have way more problems.

And so it’s just so cool to see the evolution of our company and how we’ve grown it into a position to where we have so much more knowledge now.

Where Brian has been able to build, like he built a custom home in 10 months, a 4,200 square foot home on an acre in 10 months.

Like that’s insane.

And he could have done it in seven and a half to eight months if the trusses would have came in on time.

So like it’s crazy to think how we’ve evolved from the quality of plans and the quality of the pre-construction and emphasizing and applying that into the real world of construction.

We can go fast and we can have high quality and that’s very hard to beat.

You know, that’s what sets us apart.

Yeah, that’s the value that we offer.

Yeah, absolutely.

It’s pretty cool.

So an additional thing we didn’t expect.

We knew our processes would be, it would be a better customer experience by having the studio.

What we really didn’t quite anticipate is how much faster the design process goes quicker when you have the studio because you can make decisions faster by having more samples available.

You can take people through the process quicker and with cabinetry, with windows and glass, with flooring.

And so the added efficiency of the design studio is that those projects are getting designed quicker and then your speed to actually getting the project is shortened significantly.

That’s been a huge advantage that we didn’t notice, that we didn’t realize and didn’t anticipate would happen.

And then in addition to that, some added tools for Brian’s crew when they’re in the field is things like Buildertrend.

And the customer is able to log in, have their own portal and they get daily updates of the progress that’s going on in their project.

And the customer is also able to RFI, request for information through Buildertrend.

So everything’s documented, it’s real seamless.

Yeah, our plans, each page has the QR code.

So if I’m a tile guy and I come into a bathroom, there’s a QR code taped on the framing wall and I can click that.

I got the latest version of the plans.

I know where all my hardware’s going as far as my shower handles, my shower head and even down to the grout layout.

And if we’re doing a special pattern of lay, all of that stuff matters.

Thickness of grout, I mean, it’s every little detail.

Schluter edges and all those call outs, so it’s pretty cool.

So yeah, all of that process is what makes, again, comes back to a lot of times when people are coming into a remodel or even a new build, they don’t realize all those decisions and it can be so overwhelming.

And if you’re not ready for it or if you don’t have the right team, it just makes the project go to hell.

And so.

It’s really cool to see when they meet with our plans manager and they put on the VR headset.

Yeah, VR.

I’ve had friends and clients who put this headset on and they’re able to look around and like, oh my gosh, that wall is way higher than I thought it was gonna be.

Or, oh man, that four foot hallway isn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

And they’re able to see those things that they can kind of feel what the space is gonna feel like.

And that really helps with being confident in the decisions you’re making.

And it really helps with not making as many change orders in the field.

It really helps save a lot of money.

It gives the client a life scale interpretation of what’s gonna be remodeled for them.

They can actually walk around the space.

It’s cutting level technology, I’ll be honest.

I wish I had it before I built it.

I mean, it would’ve made a huge difference.

And if I’m gonna spend one to two to three, four million dollars on my home and I can walk through it and feel it, heck yeah, man, that’s what I want.

And that’s what we’re giving to our clients.

It’s been a cool, awesome experience for them.