Question: Please introduce your company to our readers. Include what your business does, the main location, and whether you operate in multiple cities.
Answer: The Schueler Group – we are a design-build and bid construction manager located in Lebanon, OH. Our company takes pride in managing the site selection, design, incentives, budgeting, financing (if necessary), permitting, construction, and warranty periods. We are a company that used to travel for nationally recognized companies. Pre–COVID we made the difficult decision to focus locally, defined as 2-3 hours from the Cincinnati, OH market.
Question: Tell us a little about yourself (your role in the company, background, and any major career highlights).
Answer: Personally, I’ve been married for 28 years with three better-than-awesome kids and one super son-in-law. I arrived in Cincinnati in 1991 to play hockey for the Cincinnati Cyclones. This was after a successful College career at Northern Michigan. My college days were capped off by a National Championship in triple overtime over Boston University.
After 33 years with the company, I have recently purchased the company from the founder, Mike Schueler. A career highlight was, of course, this purchase, along with the number of repeat customers our company has been blessed to work with over the years.
Another highlight is that I also have great pride in the growth of our valued employees.
Question: What inspired the business to begin or evolve into what it is today?
Answer: We take great pride in the economic growth of the local communities we serve, and with this comes the growth of the companies we serve and our employees.
Question: What three pieces of advice would you give to someone entering your industry or role?
Answer:
1) Get up and go to work every day. Understand there will be challenges, acknowledge that what we do is not heart surgery, and keep pushing forward.
2) Be patient, understand all phases take time, understand the investment made by each customer will most likely be the largest investment they will make, with this treat this investment like it is your own, and finally be kind, as it takes a village to push these deals over the finish line.
3) Building Relationships is key. Customers buy from those they like; local governments work with people they like; lenders work harder for people they like; design teams are willing to go the extra mile for people they like; and subcontractors are more willing to work with people they like. Customers come back to people they like. Can’t stress it enough, relationships at every phase of what we do are important.
Question: What are the top three skills you believe are most important for someone to succeed in your field?
Answer:
1. You must care about what you do and who you are dealing with. Caring for customers, the company, and your daily work is mandatory for me. If one is missing, it is not going to work long-term.
2. Understanding of our trade, along with the ability to work with, communicate with customers and subcontractors at every level of business.
3. Ability to get up, go to work, and work through the good and, yes, the challenges this industry brings, and there are many.
Question: On average, how many hours do you work in a day, and how do you manage your time?
Answer: Between working at the office and at home, I would suggest a daily average of 10-12 hours per day. Over the years I have learned that weekend work is sometimes necessary to maintain sanity and presence at home.
Management of time is challenging. A daily list is made, and prioritization is included in this effort. Providing all falls in place, which is not often this system works. For the times other work items come up, more hours are required; more hours, in most cases, means business is strong, and this is a good thing.
Question: What do you most attribute the company’s success to?
Answer: The principles and direction of our founder, Mike Schueler, our employees, who take great pride in our trade and finished product, and, of course, our valued customers, who have given us a shot to play a small role in the growth of their company.
Question: How does your company typically market its services or products? Which strategies have worked best?
Answer: Communicating our recently started, ongoing, and recently completed construction projects with local media, social media, and sharing these on our website. The earned media of something as simple as a press release can turn one project into five within our pipeline very quickly.
Over the years, the strategies that have worked best for us have been taking care of the customers, who refer us to other opportunities. Our company also manages 20-plus business parks near major interstates, attracting customers.
Question: In your opinion, what is the best way to achieve long-term success in business?
Answer: Not to be repetitive, but in our industries, the best way to achieve long-term success is to get up, go to work, take care of the customer, and be willing to work through the challenges that will come.
Question: Where do you see the company in the next 5–10 years?
Answer: Smart growth of the company with an eye on the daily improvement of processes that make life easier for our valued employees and customers.
Question: Aside from your own, what company or brand do you admire most, and why?
Answer: I am a big fan of the brands Callaway, Taylor Made, and Titleist golf products. Golf is my escape and one activity that takes me away from the day-to-day “fun” life tosses at us.
Question: How important has your team been to the company’s success?
Answer: Without our team of valued employees, we don’t have a company. Yes, cliché but also fact.
Question: What motivates you personally in your role?
Answer: Growth of the company, employees, and serving our customers by delivering a building consistent with the customers’ vision of a new space safely, on time, and on budget.
Question: What are the company’s core values or ideals?
Answer: Be creative with ways to make each deal work while working with integrity and accountability.
Question: How do you and your team come up with new ideas?
Answer: We meet every other week to talk about sales prospects, active projects, and what we need to do to be better.
Question: How do you define success in your role or for the company overall?
Answer: Happy customers that come back to us for future projects, growth of employees, lead employees where this leadership results in employees who want to work for and take pride in our company, and yes, profitability.
Question: What is your favorite part about working in this business?
Answer: Delivering a finished building, followed by an expansion to the same building. The result of this is customer and employee growth, while adding to the local economy. Then, when customers come back to expand their facility, this essentially doubles the fun!
Question: What has been the most satisfying moment for you at the company?
Answer: Being a part of the growth of companies, local economies, and most importantly, the personal growth of our employees and their families.
Question: What makes your company’s culture unique, and how did it develop?
Answer: Family first, all our employees care about each other and the well-being of all family members. No one on staff won’t jump in and help during a time of need. This holds true for projects; there is zero hesitation to assist where needed. I like to think our compensation is market for our industry, but the feedback that is shared with me most is that the culture we have created over the years is why people stay.
Question: If you had to describe your experience in one word, what would it be?
Answer: Blessed
Question: If you could start your career over, what would you do differently?
Answer: I would have studied construction management as a major or minor in college. I would also worry less, which has been a challenge in every phase of my life. Some call it worrying, I call it caring…I sincerely care about our people, our customers, and our business.
Question: How has your career in this company/industry affected your personal life?
Answer: Provided a wonderful living for my family. My only wish was that I would have been more present for my kids in the early years, but overall, blessed.
Question: What is your greatest professional challenge, and how do you handle it?
Answer: Keeping my emotions intact and realizing it will all work out.
Question: How did you decide on your company’s location(s)?
Answer: It was here when I started. It was a new building!
Question: Do you believe there’s a formula for success in your industry?
Answer: Keep it simple, wake up every day, go to work, work hard, serve the customer, and be a good person.
Question: If you could talk to one person from history, who would it be and why?
Answer: My wish has always been to be able to meet one of my grandfathers, who both passed prior to me being born.
Question: Who has been your biggest inspiration in your career?
Answer:
1. Mike Schueler, Fritz Turton, the former President of Bunnell Hill Construction, and Ted Gilbert, the former CFO of Schueler Group, have served as great mentors in my career.
2. Another source of inspiration for me was the comments made over the years along the lines of I’d better make it in hockey, because if I didn’t, I would be living at home.
Question: What book has influenced you the most?
Answer: Business-wise, any book by John Maxwell has resonated with me. I also enjoyed the book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
My main reads over the years have been books written by or about athletes I have looked up to over the years.
Question: What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned along the way?
Answer: Take care of your employees, and they will do everything they can to take care of the company. Bad things will happen, and you know it will, one way or the other, always work out.
Question: How does your team handle mistakes or setbacks?
Answer: Together with the understanding that no one wakes up in the morning and asks themselves: What can I do to cause a setback? We huddle, we plan, we correct, we learn, we work to not repeat.
Question: What are your hobbies or interests outside of work?
Answer: Golf
Question: What makes you happiest in your work and life?
Answer: Work – doing what we do, working creatively through the challenges to the finish line of an awesome new building/space. Life – Family and Golf
Question: What sacrifices have you had to make to get where you are?
Answer: Being present for family, specifically for our kids, in the early years. I would 100% do it all differently if I had the chance to do it again.
Question: If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask?
Answer:
1. What are the three things you would change to make our industry better?
2. What was the biggest surprise encountered in the industry, and how was it handled?
3. What is the biggest project challenge, and how was it addressed?
4. What is the biggest customer challenge, and how was it addressed?