Episode 35: Transforming Our Building Company With Michael Bolduc and Vanessa Willett

In episode 35 of the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, we’re joined by Michael and Vanessa, Co-founders and owners of HC Habitation, based in the south of Montreal, Canada. Throughout this episode, we go over how Michael and Vanessa got started in the building industry and learn the mistakes they made along the way.

HC Habitation’s main goal is to give new home builders a truly personalised experience when making the biggest investment of their lives. They endeavour to streamline this process for both homeowners and builders. With the customer's satisfaction in creating their dream house design being their ultimate goal. 

During this episode, Michael and Vanessa also explain how HC Habitation found their niche, the good and bad of running a building company, how APB has helped HC Habitation, and what success looks like to them moving forward.

Listen to the full episode to discover how Michael and Vanessa transformed HC Habitation into what it is today. 

 

Michael Bolduc - Co-founder of HC Habitation

Michael Bolduc is one of the Co-founders of HC Habitation and is the definition of passionate. He sincerely loves what he does. So much so, that he considers himself retired because he doesn't ever feel like he's at "work".

Connect with Michael

 

Vanessa Willett - Co-founder of HC Habitation

Vanessa is another Co-founder of HC Habitation and is in charge of branding and marketing. She loves everything that's creative. From the website, and videos, to blogs. Besides creativity, her other passion would be her two children, or three if we include Michael.

 

Timeline

1:09 About HC Habitation.

2:31 How Michael and Vanessa got started in the industry.

6:24 Mistakes Michael and Vanessa made when first starting out.

7:45 How HC Habitation found its niche.

9:43 What consumers must know about building a custom home.

11:31 How Michael and Vanessa have transformed their business.

13:19 How APB has helped HC Habitation.

16:13 Michael and Vanessa’s loves and loathes of running a building company.

17:54 What HC Habitation looks like now. 

21:30 The future of HC Habitation.

23:00 The biggest challenges when running a building company.

25:15 Michael’s advice for other builders.

26:55 Where Michael and Vanessa see the industry evolving to.

29:00 What success looks like moving forward for Michael and Vanessa.

32:30 Michael and Vanessa's advice for their younger selves.

 

Links, Resources & More

HC Habitation

APB Website

APB on Instagram

APB on Facebook
APB on YouTube

Join the Professional Builders Secrets Facebook group for builders & connect with professional builders world-wide.

Bosco Anthony:

Hello and welcome to the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, a podcast by the Association of Professional Builders (APB) for building company owners, general managers, VPs and emerging leaders. Here, we discuss all things running a professional building company from sales processes to financials, operations and marketing. 

Bosco Anthony:

We have another great episode from the Professional Builders Secrets podcast. I'm joined today by Michael and Vanessa, Co-founders and owners with HC Habitation in south of Montreal, Canada. Thanks for being here today. It's great to see some fellow Canadians.

Vanessa Willett:

Great to be here.

Michael Bolduc:

Thank you so much for having us on.

Bosco Anthony:

Let's start off with a little bit about HC Habitation. What do you guys specialise in and tell us a little bit about what you do.

Vanessa Willett:

Basically, we are very custom. We specialise in very custom homes, very tailored specifically to our clients and on their lot. So it's different to a lot of the builders that are around here. A lot of them are on their own land and like cookie cutter home projects. So that's how we're different to them.

Bosco Anthony:

That's interesting. So they actually come to you with a land package and then you build them a home. Do they come to you for the land as well? Or is that just something you guys don't work with?

Vanessa Willett:

We don't really work with it anymore. We did when we first started out. We had 22 lots and we sold them all. Then the problem was trying to find lots, and around here it's a rare commodity. So we had a few people who did come up to us and ask if we could build on their own land and it worked out well. So basically, we continued from that and saw that it was definitely more profitable or just less... what's the word I'm looking for? Less…

Michael Bolduc:

Headaches.

Vanessa Willett:

Headaches. Yes.

Bosco Anthony:

Well, let's go back down memory lane, shall we? Let's start off with how you guys got started in the industry and what made you choose this path.

Michael Bolduc:

Absolutely. So around 2008, a friend of mine was building his own home for himself. His father had built a home for their family as well, so they had a little experience in residential construction. I was working actually as a pipe fitter, more on the commercial industrial side of construction. It was always interesting to me to see residential home building. I had an opportunity to help him build his home, and I learnt a lot and just absolutely loved the experience. So after that, we decided to build our own family home and then just a couple of houses after that to build and resell, and it just felt like it wasn't work. I was doing it after work and on weekends and evenings. Then in around 2011, that's when I decided, “I'm going to do this full time.”

Michael Bolduc:

At that point, I had a business partner who I worked with. We decided to go off and start building homes and buildings for clients and taking whatever work we could find. We did that together up until about 2018 and we had a split in the partnership. We had different views of where the business wanted to go and some things that pop up with partnerships. So then Vanessa and I decided, "Okay, well, let's do this for real," because most of the good advice that I would get was from her in the background and from her input. I would go to her for a lot of those issues and problems that we'd have, and a lot of times the solution was there. So we figured, “Let's start building. We can still do this. Let's take this leap.” It was 1st March 2018 that we began construction of our first home for HC Habitation.

Bosco Anthony:

You pronounce it very differently. Is that a French enunciation as well?

Michael Bolduc:

It absolutely is a French enunciation. The reason for that is because being where we are, the majority are French. So it probably seems like a really weird company name for anybody who would read it in English, but yes, it makes more sense in French.

Vanessa Willett:

Habitation.

Bosco Anthony:

That's cool. Yeah, it's very different, but I like it. So tell me a little bit about what it was like starting out. Obviously, you were leaving a career, you were starting out. It must have been a little bit daunting, not knowing where you were going to land at that point. Take me through what you were thinking through, at that point, when you were starting out.

Michael Bolduc:

It was tough at first, for sure. I mean, I was in a fortunate position where I was actually working for a family business. My parents were entrepreneurs; they had a company that did fire protection systems and they'd been established for almost 25 years, at that point. They had a relatively big company, almost 50 employees. So it was a little bit of a challenge to decide, "Okay, look, that's not the path for me. This is really what I want to do." Fortunately, I was able to save up some money before jumping into it, and I did have that financial backing and support. So we had a much better opportunity than a lot of people who would've probably been in the same shoes, but it was tough.

Michael Bolduc:

It was tough not knowing what the future held, not having that security. Our son was born in 2010, so there were a lot of things going on at the same time, but I definitely had a lot of support from family, tons of support from Vanessa for the first business that we had begun, but it was a challenge. I think anybody who's in that same position probably feels a lot of the same things. We feel we've come a long way since then, but it's not that long ago.

Bosco Anthony:

Looking back at some of the experiences you had, obviously you had some amazing family experiences as well, what were some of those classical business owner mistakes that you make that you'll never forget and potentially might have changed your business when you look back at them? Every builder I've met from around world has had something or other pop up, obviously when they're first starting out. But if you go back down that path, what comes to mind?

Vanessa Willett:

I guess probably winging it a lot. We definitely winged it, to be completely honest. We had no idea what we were doing. So basically, I would say, 99 per cent of what we did was winging it. Luckily, Michael is very into business and reading and he reads books about every possible niche of business and entrepreneurial books and listens to podcasts. So he did have, I would say, a pretty solid background in the guidance of what we needed to do, but we were definitely winging it. It was probably our motto.

Bosco Anthony:

There's faking it till you’re making it, and there’s winging it. So I'll take winging it any day of the week. I think we can all agree that's actually a good place to be. And I think it's really refreshing that people can actually say that because I think we all start from somewhere. So I definitely respect the hustle. How did you discover that you had a unique value proposition in such a competitive space? You talked about space being an issue where you are and the fact that you had to find a niche in this area. So did that just come to you organically? Did you stumble on it and how long did it take you to realise that you actually have a viable craft here that you could take to the market?

Vanessa Willett:

It honestly did fall into our lap. I remember listening to Gary Vaynerchuk talking about marketing, and they talk a lot about niche, find your niche. I just kept thinking, “How do I find my niche? I don't get it. Where do you find it? How do you know if it's that?” And I guess just with a lot of the repetitive questions that we got from potential clients asking us if we could build on their lot, it literally fell into our lap. Then we realised, "Ooh wait, this is something that we're good at, and there's a lot of demand." It became more and more popular, as I was saying, with the lack of available land. People were just trying to save money, too. With the increase in home building, it would be cheaper for them to buy their own lot than buy from a builder with a markup.

Michael Bolduc:

Yeah, I think that's how we fell into this niche in the market, whereas a lot of the builders who were established in our area had been around for 20, 25, 30 years, and they had their methods of working. They had good quality, they were well renowned, but they were a little bit stuck in their ways where, “You take this house, this is how it is, and if you want it, buy it, if not the next person will buy it.” 

Michael Bolduc:

We were a lot more flexible, in that even from the beginning when we were selling on our own lots for our clients, we had a lot more customisations, modifications, brand-new plans, anything you want, we can figure it out. Then it just became more and more of a demand from people wanting to build on their own lots. We really specialised in that specific niche in this area, which is common all over the world, but over here, it's just a little rarer. So we were able to stand out like that.

Bosco Anthony:

What should homeowners who are looking to build on their lot be aware of in this space? What's the common misconception or something that surprises them when they start working with you?

Michael Bolduc:

I think the thing that people need to know is that even though we're professional builders and we're licensed and everything, each builder has their own way of working. Now, the thing is, each home is one-off. It's on that specific lot. It's on those specific conditions during the course of the building. It's with that particular client. So, we're not repeating the home, we're repeating the process to get to that point. So I think that's something that a lot of homeowners need to take into consideration: this is a one-off. This is the only house like this in the world, even if we've maybe built something pretty similar or kind of the same, or you've built with another builder. So that's something that a lot of people don't quite consider.

Michael Bolduc:

Something else that I find very important is really open lines of communication. If you have a question, ask it. There's no such thing as a dumb question. I'd rather be asked a hundred questions in a week about your build to clarify things, than to do something, execute the work that we think is great, because that's the way we always do it and most of our clients have been satisfied with it, then it's too late.

Bosco Anthony:

Big surprise too, right?

Michael Bolduc:

Absolutely, so just try to get everybody on the same page. There are so many elements that go into building a home that's on us as well. Some of the communication and the strategy we've been trying to put into place is to be more clear, upfront and try to get everything we can detailed, but there are just thousands and thousands of elements in a home, so if something's unclear, ask your builder the question.

Bosco Anthony:

It sounds like it's a really collaborative process, which could also be exciting if you have the right home builder and homeowners. So let's go down transformation a little bit. Obviously, you're not winging it anymore; things have changed. How did you end up transforming your business and what does it look like today?

Vanessa Willett:

Good question. Well, I touched base on that a little bit before, about finding our niche. Basically, we transformed it to the way that we wanted it to be, and we just really focused on the demand that was there. It just figured itself out, really. I feel like you don't know until it smacks you right in the face and you realise, "Oh, that's what I've been looking for." 

Michael Bolduc:

To add to that also, we didn't really touch on it, but we were so used to purchasing lots and selling them to clients, that's how we made our income. So all of a sudden, we complete that project, and we have no prospects to purchase land. What's available is way too expensive, or if we want to grow the business, now it's not buying 22 lots, it's buying 44. And then it's putting $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10 million down. And we're a small business, we're a young company and it was just a major risk that we could put ourselves in. So, we didn't really have a lot of choice to move to that transformation. It was either that, or just don't build.

Michael Bolduc:

So we adapted and we were really able to put in a lot of the marketing strategies and a lot of the knowledge that were put forth through the APB portal for us. We were members of the education portion before being in the Private Mentoring program and just trying to put all those things to work, little things at a time, not absolutely everything, but just some of those things and the sequences of things and getting the overall picture, really helped us with the transformation to what we're doing.

Bosco Anthony:

Tell us a little bit about APB. How did you hear about them and what did the membership, and then eventually the coaching, change and transform the business?

Michael Bolduc:

Well, it's funny actually, now that I recall. I heard about them listening to the Buildertrend podcast. There was another builder talking about it; I believe they were based in Saskatchewan. So I just typed it into the computer, typed up my email address, tried to get as much free information as I could for a while because I'm cheap like that. So I tried to maximise as much value as I could. And I saw, “There is value here, so let's sign up. Let's try it out,” and we just went through everything really quickly. That's when we set up a meeting with Clint, our coach, to check out the next steps and see if it could be a viable option for us. 

Bosco Anthony:

We actually had Clint on an episode a while back; I think he was coming in from Colona and he had talked us through the coaching process as well. So tell me a little bit about that. So was it the systems, was it the coaching, was it a combination of having that support that allowed you to systemise the process a little bit more? What were some of the key learnings from the coaching?

Michael Bolduc:

I think one of the important things was definitely to have a clear picture of what's going on. Going back to us talking about winging it, that's the opposite of having a clear picture and a detailed plan. Go through your workbook. Set up your targets. See where you're at. Count and see where you're going. How many leads are coming in? What are the projections looking like? There's such a long lead time in home building that if it's drying out right now, it might not affect you right now, but in four, five or six months, it definitely will. So just fine tuning those little details and having somebody holding us accountable and being a secondary voice, I think really helps. That outside opinion. Neither of us have ever worked in a home building company before. So everything's new, so to have that input definitely helps.

Vanessa Willett:

It's nice to also have a non-personal voice to give us reason because we have so much feeling that goes into what we do. Sometimes, we can't distinguish if it's passion or anger or any sort of emotion with logic. So with that, it's a good sense of direction and it's nice to hear that second voice come in.

Bosco Anthony:

Yeah. It eliminates the bias that comes in, especially with multiple co-owners as well. Sometimes you have a bias based on where you're coming at, but having that third party, that is attached, but not really attached as well, can give you that sort of perspective that you're looking for from a different viewpoint. So, I think it's a good way of looking at it. Well, let's start off with, are you still having fun? Are you loving running a building company today? What's the one thing that you're not a fan of? I remember when I was in Canada, I loved the work I did, but I hated the one hour drive to get into the office. What do you love and what do you not so much, as far as running a building company?

Michael Bolduc:

Yes. I still do love it. I think I still have that same passion that I did when I was first helping my friend build his home. As a business, yes, there are days that are tougher than others, but I just love being able to go on site and see the progress. It's framing, now it's drywall. "Hey, we've got paint." We're meeting up with the clients, "You're getting your keys. Now you can have your home." It's really cool to see that. 

Michael Bolduc:

At the end of the day, we're building homes. We're pretty fortunate to be able to do that. Literally, people will have their entire lives in something that we've built. So certain days are a little bit tougher: material delays, I had trade partners not showing up, payments not arriving on time. I think that's the same with any business, but if you're selling chips or meat, you're not building a house. It's permanent. 

Vanessa Willett:

It doesn't get more personal than a home.

Bosco Anthony:

And I'm sure it's a bit of a proud moment too, when you're driving by and you're looking at a home and thinking, "We built that." I think that's a pretty cool sort of stamp and brag tag that you can actually say to people. Right?

Vanessa Willett:

Yeah, for sure.

Michael Bolduc:

Yeah. I need you to tell my kids that because they're fed up with me saying it whenever we drive by somewhere and I'm pointing it out.

Bosco Anthony:

You're the dad who says, "You see that one on that end of the street? That was us." 

Michael Bolduc:

I'm that meme.

Bosco Anthony:

All right. So what does the building company look like today as far as staff? How many people do you have? I'm sure it's not just the two of you, but how big is the team?

Vanessa Willett:

Right now, we're only four.

Michael Bolduc:

Yep.

Vanessa Willett:

We were five. One fell out of the boat.

Bosco Anthony:

That's a good way of putting it.

Vanessa Willett:

Yeah. We kicked them out of the boat. I don't know right now, honestly, what the company looks like. I'm going to be honest: it looks like a s**t show, because I feel like we're walking into open-heart surgery midway. We're trying to get everything into place, so I feel like it's organised chaos. We know where we're going, we know what we are trying to do; it's just kind of crazy right now, but it is coming along. So, I'll say that it's messy, but I feel like we see the rainbow at the end. The storm's clearing out and we're there.

Michael Bolduc:

Yeah. So we're definitely in the process. We want to hire another employee, maybe even more after, so people can join the team. We run really lean, especially compared to most other comparables that we see with APB now. Whether that's a good thing or not, that's a completely different story. So we do know we need to bring on some team members just because of the volume of work that we're doing right now. We're running at around almost $2 million dollars in revenue per employee. That's Canadian dollars, obviously, so a little bit different if there are US listeners, but it's a little bit much. So I think we have to get some more people on the team to try to help us out here.

Bosco Anthony:

That's a really refreshing answer too. I've asked this question and typically people like to give me the scripted version of what's going on. So I really appreciate the candour as well, Vanessa, about where things are. It's an original answer, but it also tells you that you could still be growing and still trying to figure things out as well. So I think that's really important for our listeners out there. It's also interesting to note that you talked about the fact that you want to bring on more people. The question I had for that is, do we have a skill shortage, a limited supply of workers in your area, like most of the other parts of the world, or is it just the fact that the industry isn't bringing more people into this trade? Where do you think the problem is?

Michael Bolduc:

I think it's a little bit of both. A lot of the people who are drawn to the construction industry were pushed away from it for the last 25 or 30 years. College was the best path for absolutely everyone, and it's great to get a higher education. But at the end of the day, it's not for everyone. I have a high school education. That's the max I topped out at. I have a lot of friends who went to college, graduated with degrees, but they're not doing anything that they couldn't have done in a different manner. 

Michael Bolduc:

I think an emphasis needs to be put back onto people who do want to work, do want to get into the trades. It could be a great job, a great living. You can enjoy yourself, you can get outside when it's nice. Maybe not so much in the winters over here, that's a little bit of a tougher situation, but you can see something. There's something at the end of the day, something tangible.

Vanessa Willett:

It's necessary.

Bosco Anthony:

Yeah. And it's a noble craft, so perhaps different people need to be having this conversation. Andy, our Head Coach at APB, had recently said it needs to be a dinner table conversation to start with. We need to get our kids and future generations to fall in love with the trade again, and I think alleviate some of the stigma that came with it. So, I think you've got a really good point here. I think it's a conversation, and hopefully there's more and more people and more and more conversations like this that can be taken to the world so that people can look at it from a different angle. 

Bosco Anthony:

As you've grown the business, you talked a little bit about recruiting being one of your focuses and trying to rearrange things as well. What do you think, over the next few years, as far as focus is concerned, what else are you focusing on to help improve the business?

Michael Bolduc:

Right now, one of the major reasons why we joined up with APB was definitely working on our margins. That's something that we know we were way behind where we needed to be for industry standards. It's just not a safe way to grow. We hit, pardon the Canadian pun, but a little bit of hockey stick growth from the beginning. We'd only been in business for four years and all of a sudden, we had all this work built up and we were doing all kinds of stuff. But at the end of the day, it's not hard to sell a house if you're not really making the margin that you should, so that's really a focus that we've had. It's a process, like we said, it's a long lead time to be able to get those higher margin homes and to respect the margin for the value that a builder can offer and the service that we offer during and after the build.

Vanessa Willett:

Yeah. Clint would say, or does still say, "Less is more; don't let your ego get in the way. You see those big numbers sales, but do you make any money at the end?" So, we are trying to focus on doing less, but making more, if that makes sense.

Michael Bolduc:

Yeah. Clint's got to reel me in a little bit because I'll get out of hand and not make the best decisions just to try to get sales. Because I guess I always have that little voice in the back of my head saying, "Hey, you might not get another sale. And business is done, you're over, you're finished."

Bosco Anthony:

It's the personal eye mask of all the emotions. The fear, and then especially with what's going on in the world, everyone takes that inward as well. So it's the real thing; fear is a real thing. So, I can appreciate where you're coming from there too. What do you think builders struggle with in the industry today? If you have to look at your journey and it might have even been a shorter journey, but you still encounter some commonalities with what other builders face, what do you think are some of those common struggles that everyone should be aware of? And why is the coaching so important?

Vanessa Willett:

I guess just the trades not showing up, suppliers scheduling random delays, people being reliable – that's a huge one. It's mostly within the last two years, obviously with the pandemic, where people have been using it as a crutch and being a little bit lazy on things that they used to do and don't do anymore, and they still try to blame the delays or the suppliers. 

Michael Bolduc:

Yeah, but it is what it is. It's that reliability. The consistencies that we've seen in the past are going away. We might say, "Hey, you were scheduled to show up on this day, but you didn't. What happened?" "Oh, well, I forgot about it." There's more of that, "Oh, you forgot to call me," or whatever. It's passing the buck. It’s trying to take that responsibility; we have to be responsible for our builds. We're the ones who are in charge.

Michael Bolduc:

So we have to do a better job on our end, trying to make the pathways clear for everybody. But it feels like sometimes we're the only ones trying to push in that direction, whereas everybody else just lets it fall into place. I think that's a struggle that probably a lot of builders are facing right now. And then, as we said before, skilled labour, that's going to be an issue. I don't know how it is in other markets around the world, but here, I can see in the next five or six years, it's going to be extremely difficult unless some major things are done.

Bosco Anthony:

What advice do you have for builders, either getting into this industry or fellow builders like yourself? Is there any advice from the experience that you've had, obviously, that would be really something that they should consider as well?

Michael Bolduc:

There are always going to be ups and downs. When it's up, don't get too up because it's going to come down. But when it's down, don't get too down, because it's going to come up. If you can always just focus on the goals that you have, it makes those ups and downs smoother. You try to stay a little bit more in the middle, in between. That's something that I'm trying to learn to deal with as well, because I'll let things affect me maybe a little bit more than they should – and it's a challenge.

Michael Bolduc:

I think every business is going to be the same. My parents found it was the same when they had their business, so I saw it as a kid too. Just try to stay a little bit even keel and far as home building's concerned, I would say, choose your clients wisely. At first, you're going to take whoever you can get, just to be able to get the job. But something that we've learnt over time is one bad client can feel like the work of 10 or 15 good clients. It's tough; you don't always know until it's too late, but if you have that gut feeling, go with your gut feeling, that's what I would suggest.

Bosco Anthony:

It sounds like what you're saying is find the constant within the ups and downs as well. It's like, ride the wave and try to stay constant wherever you go. That's what I'm getting from that answer too. So, what do you think the industry is evolving to? Obviously, you've talked a little bit about some of the challenges, and the more I talk to builders like yourself and folks from around the world, it sounds like the industry is really gearing up for complete change. Everyone's committed to excellence, everyone seems to have this passion. And I think this is one thing that I really admire about APB, is they're really driven by this cause. But where do you feel the industry is evolving to?

Vanessa Willett:

I guess it's very personal. I feel like the clients really want to have full transparency, and with social media and all those things, they want to see everything about the builder, every aspect. Also, you can go shopping online for anything, one click and buy. I feel like maybe eventually, home buying would be leading towards that. If you can fully customise something online and just literally click add to your basket and buy now, and then magically your house appears. I feel like everything's moving so fast that people just want the quicker way and they're also just trying to buy time, I guess.

Bosco Anthony:

Do you feel like there's a lot of shortcuts sometimes that come with that as well? Do you feel like people expect shortcuts, or how does that look like? I'm just curious if the consumers sometimes say, "Oh yeah, that's okay." Do they overlook some of the things that take time, or do you feel like they want the quality, but they want it really quickly?

Michael Bolduc:

I think they want the quality, and they want it really quickly. Sometimes, that comes back to communicating with the client in advance and letting everybody know what the expectations are and what the timeframes are and being as upfront and communicative as possible. They might have an image in their head for what they want, with the timeline that they want. But those two things don't coordinate. So, we can do it really well, but it's going to take the time it's going to take. But if you want it done really fast, it's not likely going to be the same quality you're looking for. It's going to be way more expensive because you have to put more people there, more resources. So that's kind of the challenge of finding the middle ground with those.

Bosco Anthony:

What does success look like to you both today? Obviously, having more team members was one thing I got from Vanessa as an answer, but what does success look like today for your business moving forward?

Vanessa Willett:

Good question.

Michael Bolduc:

I think it's to be able to take a step back where the company's still going to function and thrive. I don't want us to be basically key men in the company, where everything needs to go through us and if not, we're the bottle neck. I'd like it to be able to do that. We could spread that out throughout the team, have confidence in them, let them grow with different challenges and help grow the business as we are and be able to see the top view of everything, and see how we can guide the business to the future for our clients and our team members and our trade partners and get out of the necessary day-to-day where if you don't do this, well, nothing moves forward. And just kind of have a general overview and really manage the business itself instead of working in the business.

Bosco Anthony:

What does the future of your business look like five, 10 years from now? What's the future state of play for you long term?

Vanessa Willett:

We'd love to expand geographically; I don't know how big. Depends what Mike wants to do. He wants to take over the world. But definitely, we want to grow a little bit more geographically. One of our big goals is to donate $1 million dollars to the Montreal Children's Hospital. So we thought about that for a while. And when do you have $1 million dollars in your bank account that you're going to give? 

Vanessa Willett:

So we decided to do it $1000 at a time. So every home that we do build, we donate $1000 to the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation. So this way, it's a more of an obtainable goal and you don't really notice that $1 million chunk that just came out of your bank account. Definitely, giving back to our community: there are hockey programs here that we care a lot about. So we definitely want to help those grow as well. What about your future, Mike?

Michael Bolduc:

Yeah. I think we're on the same page. At one point, yeah, sure. I'll be completely honest, we want to make a ton of money. That's great. I think everybody who's in business, that's not the primary goal. It's a goal because there's a lot of challenges, a lot of stress and a lot of work that needs to be put in, but I don't think I need a crazy lifestyle or anything like that. 

Michael Bolduc:

So, if we can, that would be a goal that we can help people who maybe aren't in the same position or haven't had the same luck or the same chances that we have and kind of pay it forward a bit. So, that would be definitely only the long-term goal, is to be able to hit that $1 million donation mark. That'll take some time, but slowly, we'll chip away at that and help out some people on the way and have fun building homes and getting families together to enjoy those experiences.

Bosco Anthony:

That's such a noble cause and I've never actually heard a concept of a thousand donations of $1000, so that's kind of cool. I think you're going to need a bigger boat, though. I think you're going to need a bigger boat with a lot more people.

Vanessa Willett:

Yeah.

Michael Bolduc:

Yeah.

Bosco Anthony:

Well, listen, I really appreciate the candour, the honesty and the time. You're actually our first Canadian home builders on our podcast, so this is a really proud moment for me as well. We had a fellow Canadian, obviously Clint, come on the podcast a few episodes back, but it's really cool to hear from someone in Canada who's doing the building as well. So, I’m really happy and excited about that. My last question for both of you, if you look back and you had to go back in time, both of you, what advice would you give a younger version of yourself in business, looking back?

Michael Bolduc:

Start now, don't put it off. Just start. It's not going to be perfect. You're going to have challenges; there are going to be struggles. Even if you're the smartest person in the world and you take over a business that's been around for a hundred years, there are going to be challenges. So, what's the difference? Start and put in the work. If you don't work for it, nothing's going to happen. So, start and work, basically.

Bosco Anthony:

I like that. Vanessa, why is the Children's Hospital such an important cause for you?

Vanessa Willett:

Now it's more personal. It started off just as something that we felt was necessary. I just feel like there are so many children who don't get to be kids because they're so sick and they're stuck in the hospital. Anytime when we had gone there with our kids or even for ourselves, it was great, and they're always looking for donations. And they're always giving kids little gifts and stuff like that, little surprise boxes whenever they go into the ER in the hospital. So we committed to that. And then actually, our son got diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the summer, in June last summer. So then it was an even more personal cause for us.

Michael Bolduc:

Yeah. It's just great. I remember going there when I was a kid. One time, I was actually hospitalised for a few days and it kind of got the wheels spinning because there was another kid who was in my room and he was there for months. It's just unfortunate that kids can be in that position. You see older people who are in hospital who maybe are there because of the poor choices they have made. But the kids who are in hospital haven't had those choices yet. So if we can donate money to the hospital, it's a little, minimal thing that we can do to help out a little bit; they do great work.

Bosco Anthony:

Yeah, it's a great cause. And maybe even the homes you build, the homeowners would like to make their own donations as well to help with the cause, because I think it's a really worthy cause. Look, it's been great. I think I could talk to you guys about Canada quite a bit. You are actually making me homesick, but I just want to thank you both for your time today and really appreciate the insights in Canada as well.

Vanessa Willett:

Awesome. It was really, really nice to speak with you.

Michael Bolduc:

Yeah, thank you so much. It's very early for you over there, so I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day and it rolls out really well for you.

Bosco Anthony:

Cheers.

Bosco Anthony:

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