“If you can capture that data you’re learning from the past, you’re applying it going forward in the future. And if you do it right, you don’t have to touch that data and clean it and mess with it time and time again to get one little answer at a time. It really becomes the fuel for your engine. And it’s just a matter of how fast and how long can we make that go. That’s what we’re all about.”

-- Steve Dell’Orto, CEO of ConCntric

Construction projects range from minuscule to massive, but they all require planning and preparation. The pre-construction phase is a key part of every job, but many companies and contractors aren’t leveraging their past data to improve their efforts. This is where ConCntric steps in.

Steve Dell’Orto founded ConCntric after years of industry experience to unify the groups that make up a construction project, evaluate and use data, and empower teams to run more efficiently. Listen in as Steve explains why pre-construction is so important, how it has improved over the years, and how ConCntric can take your team to the next level.

Topics discussed in this interview:

- Why did Steve form ConCntric?

- Leveraging industry experience to solve a unique problem

- A pre-construction platform for all sizes of project

- How has pre-construction changed over the last few decades?

- Cutting waste by understanding data

- Fostering collaboration between all parties in a project

- A simple design with more focus on making money and working efficiently

- Venture capitalism and construction

- Successful software earns its keep

- Does construction still carry an old-fashioned mindset?

- Rapid fire questions

Visit ConCntric’s website to learn more, email them at sales@concntric.com, or visit their LinkedIn page.

Titles mentioned: Freedom’s Forge

For more Construction Disruption, listen on Apple Podcasts or YouTube

Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn

This episode was produced by Isaiah Industries, Inc.

Intro/Outro: Welcome to the Construction Disruption podcast, where we uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.

Todd Miller: I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, a manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building materials. Today, my co-host is Ryan Bell. Ryan, how's today going for you?

Ryan Bell: So far, so good. And I have a few dad jokes to share to kick things off today.

Todd Miller: Awesome. I hoped you would, because I've got nothing. I got nothing today.

Ryan Bell: Well, these are pretty good. I actually found a website that just has one good one after another. I didn't even have to filter these. So this is number one on the website. What kind of dogs do magicians like?

Todd Miller: What kind of dogs? I feel like I've heard this before.

Ryan Bell: Probably. You should be able to get this.

Todd Miller: Mm hmm. I don't know.

Ryan Bell: Labracadabradors.

Todd Miller: Yeah, I have heard that before. That's a good one.

Ryan Bell: One more. Why do spiders know everything?

Todd Miller: It's got to have something to do with the web.

Ryan Bell: Yeah, they get their information from the web.

Todd Miller: Web? Oh, that was a good one. That was good. Well, thank you for those. What a rousing way to get started. So as a reminder to everybody also in our audience. We are once again today doing our challenge words, where both Ryan and I and also our mystery guest soon to be revealed, have been given a challenge word to work into the conversation somehow, seamlessly and as naturally as possible. And at the end of the show, we will reveal what our words were and our success or lack thereof. But you, the audience, can participate by listening to try to pick up on what our challenge words were. So anyway, good luck with that. So let's move forward. You know, we talk about the world of construction here on Construction Disruption, and we're always looking at the future and looking ahead. But one of the things that, you know, we often end up kind of talking about is the fact that the world of construction is really pretty fragmented. There are so many players. I mean, you figure you've got the design community. Yes, specifiers, you got GCs, you got various trades, you got manufacturers, you got wholesalers, distributors, reps. And then, of course, we also have property owners in there as well. So you take all that stuff together and there are so many opportunities for communication to be missed and things to go wrong. But on the other hand, you can kind of flip that and say, Hey, there are so many opportunities for things to be done well and things to go right. And that is what sets industry leaders apart from everyone else. Well, today our guest is someone who has lived in the world of construction for over 30 years. He started for many years as a project executive and then eventually company executive with one of the largest commercial and civil contractors in the country, Clark Construction Group. That person is Steve Dell'Orto. And today we're going to talk about a company he founded just over two years ago, ConCntric. ConCntric is focused on transforming the pre-construction environment by unifying processes and providing all those players I was talking about with a dynamic view of the project. Their platform can unify the pre-construction process, access real-time insights and reliable data, and control the future while ensuring a successful outcome. Steve, welcome to Construction Disruption. Great to have you here today.

Steve Dell'Orto: Todd, Ryan, thank you for having me.

Todd Miller: We're looking forward to a good conversation. And so thank you again. So you have a pretty lengthy and successful history in construction. Yet someplace in the post-pandemic environment, you kind of stepped away from that long history to start ConCntric. I'm kind of curious, based on your long industry experience, what prompted you to do that, to step away and do something new? And what is the mission you sort of hope to accomplish through ConCntric?

Steve Dell'Orto: Yeah, good question. You know, I spent many, many years in the industry on the building construction side, as you know, the project manager or project executive, but we kind of consider the operations role but always had a hand in the arly days and the bid room as we would refer to it. But then as the industry evolved to be far more collaborative, where the architect and the owner were more engaged over a longer period of time to plan the project. Just having that experience and insight over time, seeing where the industry has has transformed and then, you know, really being front and center with the owner, with the project teams and then ultimately responsible for running an organization that was really a team of teams doing all of this. I saw directly while we had as much. You know, we had fantastic talent really doing their level best, bringing their knowledge and experience to the planning of these projects and engaging with the owner, engaging with the architect. There was a fundamental lack of any sort of data technology, you know, anything that could help make their life easier. Utilize that data over and over and over again across many, many projects and really enhanced the communication with really bringing that data to life. Because you can just see the lapses in communication and understanding of one person with a particular background trying to communicate something that, you know, the other person doesn't have that same expertise. And so the message gets kind of lost or diluted. So I just saw that movie too many times over and over and over again, and I just saw how hard all of my people were working to just try to you know, do their very best, but just falling short. So I decided I you know, I felt like I was uniquely positioned to go and start a company that would solve that problem. And the problem being just that really augmenting all of the great talent that we have in our industry that are bringing all of that experience and knowledge and brainpower to make a project successful. But actually augmenting that with the technology that can digitize a lot of those work workflows, unite and structure the data to for them to harness the power of their own data and really make things a lot easier, more efficient for them to get their job done and make a much better impression with the customers that their clients that they're serving. And so everybody wins. And so that's why I left that part of the industry as an active general contractor and executive, to actually come over in the technology side and bring all of that experience and, you know, really kind of plow that into a technology platform for the benefit of all.

Todd Miller: Very cool. And who better to do it? I mean, with your years of experience and everything it makes makes perfect sense. So, hey, you know, I'm kind of curious. I mean, is as best you can, can you kind of boil down, you know, specifically how the the software, how the platform works and what you do for clients and how they interact with it and all those types of things? Just kind of give us a synopsis of the the real nuts and bolts of what it does for people.

Steve Dell'Orto: I appreciate your use of the term platform because that's exactly what we are. And I think a lot of people don't necessarily understand that at first blush. The difference between, say, an app or a point solution that's doing one thing versus a platform. So as a platform, we're taking the lion's share of all of the workflow that goes into the planning of a project. And it's not just the actual estimating. It's the communication of what's going on with the cost and the alignment of design over time, coupled with the business decisions and the strategies that the teams have to consider and execute on anything, you know, of permitting, legal, insurance. Just the general contract and the deal structure of ultimately what you enter into are just a few examples of the myriad facets of pre con that we have and are continuing to build digitized best of the best practices. So that way you can really drive a higher degree of standardization with a level of customization that our industry requires. Because not every project is the same, but the process is generally the same. So by really taking a platform approach and consolidating all of those workflows into one work environment and building something that doesn't have to be created in Excel and, you know, different from person to person two to person three, we can drive a great deal of predictability of outcome. We can unlock the power of the data that construction companies have at their fingertips and projects has at their fingertips. To then take that data and apply it to the next project or the next segment of the design process within that project to make better, more informed decisions going forward and ultimately the vision as if we can we can do that within the planning stage of a project. You know, we're going to be able to make things far more affordable and predictable in terms of, you know, where do you end up and sustainable. And, you know, that is ultimately our vision as a platform.

Todd Miller: So the ownership of ConCntric in terms of, you know the company that employs you folks or buys the platform, that rests mainly with large GCs. Is that correct? Is that who your typical client is, or am I mistaken on that?

Steve Dell'Orto: Think of it this way. The process of planning a project is no different. If it were a small project in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in total contract value or billions, and I've done them all. So the process is the same, which is really great. And so that commonality allows us by building the platform, the way we're building it, to support and serve the contractors that are doing the projects at the smaller scale all the way up to the big megaprojects. So it really isn't size. The only real distinguishing feature on a project that would or would not apply to whether or not you use ConCntric is that, you know, are you doing pre-construction or not? And some projects still to this day are done in that whole old hard bid rip and then read them type delivery. And while we don't serve them necessarily in that planning stage because it doesn't quite honestly exist, the data for those companies still on our platform provides incredible value to help them with their projects that are done through some form of collaborative delivery. So it's really a binary thing in that way, but it doesn't also preclude anybody who's doing the old classic hard bid work because that value can now still be in one place and applied to other other projects.

Todd Miller: So I'm kind of curious. I mean, in your years with Clark, you saw a lot of advancement of pre-construction and the whole idea of pre-construction, I suspect. I mean, you know, what did that look like? You were with Clark for 20 some years. I mean, did you see a dramatic change during that time period that then kind of led you to think, okay, this can go even further?

Steve Dell'Orto: Yeah, I did. It was, you know, timing is everything. And so when I started my career, almost all projects were done in some form of a hard bid fashion. But if there was any sort of a pre-construction negotiated arrangement you were just involved with for a month or two at the very tail end of the process. And so the contractor had very little input into how long the project should take complicated sequencing and phasing of a project and certainly market input on cost and market capacity to take on that project, etc.. You know, these deals are getting done and then bid out with any of that being factored in. And so inevitably there were just a lot of surprises, a lot of confrontation. I mean, that's how construction has had a little bit of a reputation of being litigious and confrontational, etc.. And I think the industry in my timeframe woke up and said, This is miserable. This is no way to, you know, take big CapEx budgets or whatever it might be and go through life for three or four years. And so they said, you know, the industry and everybody involved just said, hey, wouldn't it be nice if the person that is responsible for taking the risk of executing the job had a seat at the table at an earlier stage and that could be part of the team and maybe we could avoid all of this friction. And so, you know, more CM at risk, design/build-type deliveries that enabled the general contractor to become more of a partner and a trusted advisor among the developer or public owner and the design team and approach things as that threesome, if you will, going through the process. And I think everybody saw a much better, much more predictable and a much more pleasant experience. And so in my time I saw that trend. All of the projects that I was becoming more and more involved in were following that suit. And so I got very early on, you know, a lot of insight and very good at working in that environment, as well as being disciplined enough to be successful in the hard bid environment. So, but what I did recognize was what an opportunity. If the industry could get this right and we could get a higher degree of collaboration, really take down the barriers for having people to come together and really do the smart thing and what's right for the project. And then on top of that, I just got, I just saw the opportunity. You know, to this day wasted where the data that is coming that flows through each and every one of these projects is stranded and is not in a position to be leveraged for the next project, to make the next project better, more informed, with more and more accurate decisions. And the travesty of all that is, you know, without that data, everybody's taken an enormous amount of risk. And when they take the risk, then they have to kind of cover themselves, right, in case it's wrong when they're just working off, which they are, very imperfect, imprecise information. And so think about everybody involved is either rounding up or adding layers of padding. Think about what that does to the entire cost stack of a project. And then we scratch our heads and we wonder, why isn't more housing being built and why can't we have, you know, more schools and better, you know, schools available for our children, etc.? A lot of it has to comes you know, comes back to affordability. And unfortunately, there's an incredible amount of waste in the cost stack that oftentimes a project is deemed to be a no-go because it just kind of crosses this magic threshold that is no longer viable. And I think, you know, I can't put my finger on, but I guarantee you it's billions and billions of dollars of projects that could go forward if we just had more precise data that everybody felt more confident acting upon. And so, you know, our vision is to do just that is really to provide that greater degree of, you know, a predictable outcome for projects and the affordability of the projects so that they do go forward.

Todd Miller: You know, you see so many things there that are great. I mean, predictable outcome, affordability, less chance for litigation. I mean, as I go through that and think about it, I mean, there's a huge benefit here for the property owner as well. I mean, you know, you think about as being, well, this is for the contractor involved or other trades involved. But so I'm curious, I mean, do your clients talk much about ConCntric to property owners and let them know that, hey, this is the platform we're using to help ensure a smooth, cost effective program or project? Or do they kind of keep you off to the side?

Steve Dell'Orto: No, no. I mean, that's the beauty of of what we're building is, our customer, who currently is primarily serves in that general contractor/design builder role is inviting their client, the developer or the public, you know, agency owner into the platform so they have access and can view the data and the information in real time. Likewise, same holds true for the designer. And so when I talk about breaking down barriers, barriers could be a physical wall or it could just be you just can't have access to information. And so really, by bringing everybody into that environment and everybody's got their own parts of the deal that are, you know, sensitive to the individual, you know, stakeholder. But the lion's share of the information and the data is really project-oriented. And so our platform really is designed to be a project platform, not a platform for any one of the stakeholders uniquely. And so it is the place in which everybody can come together, contribute ,and be informed, and be part of the process, not just reporting the news or just getting what people want to spoon feed out.

Todd Miller: I'm curious, how easy is it for your clients to start using your platform? I mean, can they sit and spend some time over beer and have it all figured out or, you know, what kind of implementation and learning curve is involved? And do you find that people who are anxious for that kind of change, I mean, you know, how do they bring you in to help train them how to use this as well?

Steve Dell'Orto: Yeah, a little quick anecdote or story. During my career too, the advent of more of the project management solutions, I mean, when I started, we were literally filling out forms in triplicate with the carbon copy sheet, three-hole punching, and putting it in a binder and you know, the fax machine with the thermal curlicue paper.

Todd Miller: Oh, yes.

Steve Dell'Orto: That's like the way you would transmit information. So, you know, as those other forms of technology and that construction phase started to become hit the market. I just remember walking, you know, the office floor with a team. This is a big project I was doing in L.A. and it would drive me crazy because the the project engineers and the project managers all day long are just sitting there and seemingly unendingly entering in data. And it was like the construction project is out there. When was the last time you actually walked with the superintendent, talked to the trade workers, and really found out what the problems are and how to solve them physically out there? Like I'm just too busy. I got to enter on all this data. And so that's how things have obviously evolved since then. But technology in the industry, in our industry, in construction has been guilty of building things, and largely because I think it's outside our technologies, building things for us here in the industry, overly complicated, requiring way too much data entry to get just some kernel of something as an output. And we just said, you know what, we're going to do the opposite. Our whole goal is to make less work, not more. We need our people. We need our customer's teams out there doing what they need to do with their experience, doing what humans do best, interacting, problem solving, and really doing more and more in-depth planning, not entering data to get a report populated. So what better device or approach to emulate than just a simple iPhone or an iPad? You can take that thing right out of a box that's already pre charged. You maybe have to select what language and what time zone you're in. You're off and running. And that is exactly what we strive to build at ConCntric. So our our customers are literally in the span of one or two steps or off and running with their first project. And, you know, they just go and it's intuitive. There's no training involved. The implementation, there is none. It's just right out of the box. And it's intentionally very, very clean. In terms of your interface with our platform, it's not overtly widget-ed, there's not all kinds. It's like the old VCR, you know, you'd buy this VCR and you'd have a million buttons, and if you guys were like me, the only thing that you knew had to do was like, eject or hit play and all that other stuff you paid for, but you never used. But it was also confusing. None of that, everything is really about how do we make a very complex process simple. And I got to tell you, simple is hard. And that's what we, you know, within our design team for the platform, you know, strive to keep it simple. We don't need all the glitter and all of that other stuff involved in, you know, the day-to-day business. It's just really focused on what does the builder need to get their job done or to communicate appropriately within the planning stage of the platform? And fantastic team that has just done a wonderful job and proof positive. Our customers come and say, This is so intuitive, it's easy to use and you're checking in on them. They're like, No, we're good. You know, everything's going great. And we don't have. I remember sitting in a conference room with 15 people going through a two-day training session on how to use a given piece of software I won't mention and like that is an incredible waste of time and resources and you're taking people away from winning work and making money to sit in something that they're probably going to take 10% of it away and know how to use and then have to bug the helpdesk every step of the way. Like we can't design software like that and we have not.

Todd Miller: Good stuff.

Ryan Bell: Kudos to you guys on, you know, focusing on that simplicity side of things. One of my, I have a background in design and one of my favorite quotes is, and I don't remember who said it, but it's something along the lines of a great design is not finished until there's nothing left to take away.

Steve Dell'Orto: Yeah.

Ryan Bell: But it's, it's truly a challenge and it's not something that's easy. And, you know, at the end you may look at it or users may look at and be like, Oh, this is so simple. You know, this could not have taken time. But it is, that is a hard thing to do. So kudos to you guys for putting an emphasis on that.

Steve Dell'Orto: Yeah, we have been surrounded with a great community of contractors that believe in, you know, our movement. And which is like pre-construction and just the industry at large has an enormous opportunity to do something very special here that has like the opportunity to make a massive impact in a multitrillion dollar industry across the world. So, you know, let's get this right. And the feedback that we get, everybody's really bought into how do we make this better, even down to the point where, as we observed their usage in the early stages, as they go through whatever steps within our platform, if they even pause like they're having to think about what am I supposed to do here? To your point, it's like, all right, we're going to drill into that and smooth that process out. There's a lot of attention and, you know, the quality of the platform and not just how rapidly we can just pump features out, but how do we make less work for people, not more?

Todd Miller: You know, looking ahead, are there any trends that you're seeing out there in regards to ongoing innovation in pre-construction? And how is ConCntric kind of positioning itself to be able to take advantage of those ongoing opportunities and advancements?

Steve Dell'Orto: Yeah, you know, I've got the good fortune of also being a venture partner in two fantastic venture capital funds that are focused on primarily antiquated industries, construction being one of them. And so I get a unique view on what's coming up and what's out there. And there's just a lot of different trends of how to make the industry, construction, real estate better, which is exciting. It's one of the hottest areas of investment. But, yeah, the trends are many. There's autonomy, there's robotics, there's incredible strides being made in making the workplace safer for the worker. Sadly, there's not as much attention being paid to pre-construction, which, if you do look at that phase, is by far the most critical phase in the project development lifecycle toward the risk as established in terms of, you know, the risk to any of the stakeholders, millions of dollars at stake in any one project. And the, you know, the outcome can vary wildly. We all read about whatever 87% of all projects finish, you know, 10% over budget or more and three quarters of them are late. I mean, you just hear these horror stories. Yeah, but nobody's really looking to solve things like we are as a platform to say this critical stage, if done better, probably eliminates two thirds of a lot of the problems that are experienced in the construction phase, because that's where they're kind of manifested and they just don't get realized until it's too late and you're in physical construction. So that's the exciting opportunity and position that ConCntric has and solving this as a broad-based platform and integrating all of these workflows, tying it all together. The impact that we're going to make is is massive. But the positive trends are, I think, this whole notion of an antiquated industry and construction being slow to adopt and all of that, I don't, it's not false, but it's not entirely true either. And I think the industry deserves a little bit more credit than that. We're seeing a lot of interest, willingness to change and adopt new things, new technology. And I think a lot of that has to do with the quality of the technology that's being presented to them and our industry. You know, we don't suffer any fools. And if you come in with something that isn't truly solving a problem or is making more work, not less, and it's just going to add cost without some sort of offsetting ROI of some significance, they're not going to entertain it. They're not going to adopt it. So you have to build a solution that truly is going to save them time and make less work, help them increase them the razor-thin margins that they're operating on and, you know, really start to drive the risk out of these projects. So I think those tailwinds are really, really positive that the industry is now, you know, waking up and needing to do more and realizing that there's opportunity out there as long as they embrace it. But, you know, on the technology side, and I've been on both, you know, it's really incumbent upon us to build the right tools and the best tools to kind of meet them in the middle and make that happen.

Todd Miller: So this next question is kind of a broad-based question, and I hope I can can kind of spit it out okay. But I'm kind of curious. I mean, you know, you're involved in venture capital. That sounds very cool. You're talking about, you know, looking at antiquated industries. And I agree, I think that to some degree, construction gets a bad rap I, I or an unfair rap. I think there's more happening in construction than people realize and there has been for a lot of years. But I'm kind of curious, you know, where where do you look for trends or inspiration? I mean, what maybe what other industries or what people do you follow or, you know, where where do you look for saying, okay, this maybe this is where construction is going next by seeing it someplace else or hearing about it from someone else?

Steve Dell'Orto: Yeah, good question. You know, there are, most other industries have a way, like decades and decades more advanced than we are in construction in terms of leveraging technology, automating processes, leveraging and using their data, the financial industries, etc.. I mean, I was joking with somebody the other day and, you know, you just think about technology and finance and banking, stupid analogy. But in in construction, we're literally balancing our checkbook on the old fashioned ledger, you know, one, one, one entry at a time manually. Whereas the financial institution, you know who does that anymore? You go to the ATM, everything's automated. You can move money every which way just on the computer. And so as dumb of analogy is that that is I mean, it really does capture like something that we take for granted every day. It's so easy. And here we are doing it the old-fashioned way in construction. So there are so many industries are spending 2 to 3 times the amount of money, R&D money reinvested in just process improvement, etc. you know, to the tune of billions of dollars and construction hasn't. And that's why we are where we are. And so I think, you know, borrowing from these other industries that have, you know, solved things with digitization of processes and capturing and structuring that data to do amazing things with that data for the customer to be able to analyze things and bring intelligence into the equation that they never could with Excel or the abacus. So, you know, it's that just but I look at no specific industry because we're pretty much surrounded by every other industry that has done something over the last 10 to 20 years that have just advanced things significantly. So we're inspired by that. You know, there's not any one company, there's not any one author, there's not any one person that I follow. But, you know, it's pretty common sense. I mean, we can't keep doing the things the old-fashioned way that we've been doing them and expect better results. And so what I get excited most about is just the power of our helping our customers harness the power of their own data. And I think if there's an underlying theme, it's if you can capture that data you're learning from the past, you're applying it going forward in the future. And if you do it right, you don't have to touch that data and clean it and mess with it time and time again to get one little answer at a time. It really becomes the fuel for your engine. And it's just a matter of how fast and how long can we make that engine or that, you know, high performance car go with your own data. That's what we're all about.

Todd Miller: Good stuff, good stuff. And, you know, and it's interesting. I mean, I often wonder why has construction been a little bit slow? But on the other hand, it's such a fragmented industry. There's so many players. Human safety is involved, too. That probably helps keep people from wanting to drive ahead, you know, in too risky of ways some sometimes, but, well, gosh, more power to you. I love what you're doing and glad that you're out there in this space doing good things. So we really are close to wrapping up what we call the business end of things. Is there anything we haven't covered yet that you'd like to share with our audience?

Steve Dell'Orto: No, I think this has just been a great exchange. And, you know, I think credit to you guys for really bringing more of a voice and access to everybody about, you know, what we're dealing with within the industry, people who are trying to solve the problems and just talking about it. So my hat's off to both of you guys for really hosting and making these available to your audience.

Todd Miller: Well, good stuff. I mean, it's a lot of fun. And I tell you, the thing I love so much, we've been doing this show for a couple of years now, is I learn so much every episode. We just have great guests and I always learn things. So before we close out, I do have to ask you if you're willing to participate in something we do here on the show called our rapid fire round. So these are seven questions, this is a little bit lighter part of the show, seven questions we ask you. Some may be serious, some may be silly. All you have to do is give a response. So I have to ask you, Steve, are you up to the challenge of rapid fire?

Steve Dell'Orto: I'm up for the challenge. I can't say I'm going to be any good at it, but let's give it a go.

Todd Miller: You will, you will be perfect. We will alternate asking. Ryan, you can ask the first one.

Ryan Bell: I would love to. Alright, question number one. What is the product that you have purchased recently that was something, you know, that you would consider kind of a game-changer, kind of give you that feeling of where have you been all my life?

Steve Dell'Orto: You know that I have an Eero Wi-Fi system and anything that I would touch hardware-wise like that usually never worked and then just gets thrown in a closet. I was able to get Wi-Fi spread out throughout our entire house in the span of like 5 minutes. So whether it changed my life or not, highly, highly impressed with an easy-to-use piece of technology.

Ryan Bell: Can't beat the frustration-free. Sorry, say that again.

Steve Dell'Orto: E-E-R-O, and I'm not being paid to advertise or plug anything. You asked the question.

Ryan Bell: We give free shout-outs here.

Todd Miller: Absolutely, absolutely. Eero, check that out. Okay, question number two. If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would you choose to have dinner with? And what is one of the first questions you'd want to ask them?

Steve Dell'Orto: Oh, man. Abraham Lincoln.

Todd Miller: Very cool.

Steve Dell'Orto: And the question I would ask him is, Do you really need to go see that play?

Todd Miller: Oh, that's good. That's good. That reminds me of one of my sayings around here. When someone delivers bad news, my question is always. Okay, Mrs. Lincoln, other than that, how was the play?

Steve Dell'Orto: Exactly.

Ryan Bell: Well, you're not you're not going to believe this, but we had that question earlier today and the guest answered with the same answer.

Todd Miller: Same person.

Ryan Bell: Same person.

Steve Dell'Orto: Redo.

Ryan Bell: No, no, that's cool, that's cool. I was kind of like, hoping you would say that. I'm like, please say Abraham Lincoln. Oh, okay, question number three. Do you have a hobby or activity that you enjoy that might surprise people, like maybe planting philodendron or something like that? Something weird?

Steve Dell'Orto: Nothing, nothing weird that would be a head scratcher to people. But I think I do like to build stuff, like physically, you know, carpentry, millwork, art, furniture, that kind of stuff. And I think it catches people by surprise. You know, they just see when a and a suit and tie and all of that stuff and they just don't think that you're physically, you know, capable of actually building. So I always took great pride in that, so.

Ryan Bell: Very cool.

Todd Miller: Very neat. Question number four, this is one of our favorite questions here on the show. If you had to eat a crayon, what color of crayon would you choose to eat?

Steve Dell'Orto: I would eat the white crayon because as the wax would be all gummed up over my teeth, I wouldn't, you know, look halfway as silly as I would if it were a real color.

Todd Miller: Whole new form of teeth.

Steve Dell'Orto: Sorry, that's the practical side of me, I guess.

Todd Miller: We've had that answer a few times.

Steve Dell'Orto: Apparently, I am not unique. I'm literally like, 0 for nothing on being a stand-out here.

Ryan Bell: You're good. What's your favorite restaurant?

Steve Dell'Orto: Yeah, I love a good steak, you know. So if any sort of steakhouse that just gets it right, I'm a big fan of. So I can't say that there is one favorite restaurant, but that's my favorite restaurant type.

Todd Miller: Makes sense, making me hungry. Okay, next to last question, can you think of a book you've read that had a significant impact on your life?

Steve Dell'Orto: I yeah, I think Freedom's Forge and I've made reference of this before. It's just this, I'm a big avid reader and especially of history. And this book really summarized the kind of can do spirit, particularly when you're up against it. And the main character is Knudsen. And he was just a massive player in the automobile industry. And when Roosevelt realized that inevitably we were going to end up in World War Two, he did have the foresight to realize we need to ramp up our ability to produce everything, to go, you know, once we get sucked into this war to actually win it. But at the time, the U.S. was just way behind in terms of operating at that scale and having any sort of a defense built up. And so they you know, I it's amazing that, see, somebody has the vision, sees what's happening and has the guts to do something about it. And then they find this one individual. I mean, granted, it took a lot of people, but this one individual was that was really the spark and the piston that made it all happened. And, you know, just going in and negotiating with Ford and taking over entire plants that then start pumping out the tools to build the airplanes or build the airplanes themselves. If you read that book and you just see the scale at which the U.S., the America, was able to transform itself, I find inspirational in terms of, boy, if we could just do just a very little bit of that within our own industry. We'll, in light years accelerate and catch up to where we're no longer antiquated and we might even be a forerunner. So Freedom's Forge, you ought to check it out.

Todd Miller: I will check that out. I'm not familiar with it. So, thank you. Good stuff.

Ryan Bell: Final question. This one's a little more serious. What would you like to be remembered for at the end of your time?

Steve Dell'Orto: Well, maybe a couple of things. Obviously, just being a good person, a good dad. I have two wonderful daughters. And then, you know, I've had the good fortune of having a lot of people work with me, you know, for me, etc.. And in our industry, you know, in the early stages, it's all about building the building and the physical stuff involved in that. But as my career progressed, just finding talent and and teaching them and coaching them and grooming them to just, you know, go off and do incredible things in their own right is something that I have always been very motivated and get a lot of satisfaction out of. And to this day, I still see throughout the industry, people that, you know, I've played a role. I will not take an ounce of credit away from what they're achieving, but I played a role in their career path and to see them go on and do great things and have families and just be successful in whatever. And Denver Endeavor, you know, is is for me, the thing that I'd like to be remembered for is just touching other people's lives in a positive way in that respect.

Todd Miller: Good stuff. Noble, and you are well on your path that way. No doubt.

Steve Dell'Orto: Thank you.

Todd Miller: Well, Steve, thank you again for being on the show here with us. For folks who want to get in touch with you or learn more about ConCntric, what are the best ways for them to do that?

Steve Dell'Orto: At, you know, through the website, you go to ConCntric.com. C-O-N-C-N-T-R-I-C.com. Sales@concntric.com if you want to talk with us and book a demo, all of that can be done through the website or hit me up on my LinkedIn page. So I appreciate the opportunity, Todd and Ryan, and look forward to hopefully hearing from some folks.

Todd Miller: Sounds good. I hope so too. And we will put that information in the in the show notes as well so folks will have it handy for them. So I need to report back, you guys. We were all successful on our challenge words. That was pretty cool, right? Yours kind of came last minute and I kind of saw it coming. I knew how you were going to do that. Your word was?

Ryan Bell: Philodendron. And I got to say, I really wanted to misuse it at some point during the conversation and kind of use it in place of, can't say it, conundrum. But I was going to use philodendron instead. I didn't think I could do it without laughing, so I just stuck it in at the end.

Todd Miller: Well, good, good job. I had the word beer, which I did get worked in. Steve, you had the word?

Steve Dell'Orto: Glitter.

Todd Miller: Glitter. We all got them worked in. Good job, guys. Hopefully our audience, they probably picked up on a couple of those, I guess. We'll see. See what they think. Well, thank you again so much, Steve, for being our guest here. We really appreciate it; this has been a real pleasure. Thank you.

Steve Dell'Orto: Likewise. Thank you both.

Todd Miller: And thank you to our audience for tuning into this episode of Construction Disruption with Steve Dell'Orto of ConCntric, and that is C-O-N-C-N-T-R-I-C. So we encourage you please watch for future episodes of Construction Disruption. We always have great guests. Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. Till the next time we're together, keep on disrupting, keep on challenging, looking for better ways of doing things, and driving our great industry forward. And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter. Make them smile, encourage them. Meanwhile, God bless and take care. This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode of Construction Disruption.

Intro/Outro: This podcast is produced by Isaiah Industries, a manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building products.