Episode 55: Introducing APB Rewards With Russ, Sky & Andy

In episode 55 of the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, we’re joined by Co-founders of the Association of Professional Builders Russ Stephens and Sky Stephens, along with APB’s Head Coach, Andy Skarda. Throughout this episode, the trio go over exactly how APB Rewards is saving our members time and money.

 

Inside episode 55 you'll discover

• What APB Rewards actually is
• The process behind putting it together
• The benefits for builders around the world
• Examples of APB’s preferred partners
• And much, much more.

 

Listen to the full episode to find out how access to APB Rewards and our preferred partners can transform your building company.

 

Russ Stephens - Co-founder

Russ Stephens is a Co-founder of the Association of Professional Builders, a business coaching company dedicated to improving the residential construction industry for both builders and consumers. Russ is a data analysis expert who has introduced data-driven decision making to the residential construction industry. Russ is also a proud member of the Forbes Business Development Council.

Connect with Russ

 

Sky Stephens - Co-founder

Sky Stephens is a Co-founder of the Association of Professional Builders, a business coaching company dedicated to improving the residential construction industry for both builders and consumers. Sky is a proud member of The National Association of Women in Construction and she was also recognised as one of 2021’s Top 100 Women. 

Connect with Sky

 

Andy Skarda - Head Coach 

Andy Skarda has owned and led businesses in South Africa, the United States, South-East Asia, and for the last decade, Australia. With 30+ years of business experience, Andy heads up the coaching team at the Association of Professional Builders (APB), helping business owners in the building industry identify and implement the skills and systems they need to be successful, without needing to go back to school or more importantly, without going bust.

Connect with Andy

 

Timeline

1:53 What is APB Rewards why was it launched?

5:32 How APB members have responded to it

12:52 What’s in it for the builders?

17:41 Our hand picked preferred partners

20:38 How builders can claim rewards

29:37 Plans for the future of APB Rewards

 

Links, Resources & More

APB Rewards

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.

Russ Stephens:

Put simply, it's free money for our members.

Sky Stephens:

Let's pay our members to be members.

Andy Skarda:

Your rebates will exceed what you pay to be a member of APB. 

Andy Skarda:

There's a complete back-end engine behind this thing.

Russ Stephens:

It’s probably even more about accessing a network of service providers that provide real value to residential building companies. 

Russ Stephens:

So, you can be sure that your business is going to be taken very, very seriously.

Andy Skarda:

This is not too good to be true. It's so good because it is true.

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. We have another exciting episode from the Professional Builder Secrets Podcast. I'm joined today by Co-founders Sky and Russ Stephens, as well as Head Coach Andy Skarda for APB. Sky, nice to have you join us again.

Sky Stephens:

Thank you, Bosco. It’s lovely to be here.

Bosco Anthony:

And Russ, it’s good to see you as well.

Russ Stephens:

Hey Bosco, how are you doing?

Bosco Anthony:

I'm good. I'm good. Andy, it’s always a great time when you grace us with your presence and your analogies as well.

Andy Skarda:

Listen, anytime, Bosco, anytime.

Bosco Anthony:

I'm really excited to chat with you all today because you've launched something really new, and it's called the APB Rewards. What is it and how did you guys get started?

Russ Stephens:

Put simply, it's free money for our members. Now, over the years we've had numerous companies approach us, all wanting to tell our members about their great services. It really makes sense for us to connect our members to the companies that are going to make running a residential building company easier and more systemised. What typically happens in these kinds of situations is that the referring company, APB in this instance, gets say a kickback or a referral fee for the introduction. We’ve never really been comfortable with setting up those kinds of deals because it can lead to a conflict of interest. 

Russ Stephens:

We can say, “This is a great tool or service,” but if we're also receiving a cash incentive for doing that, then it could lead to a situation where our recommendations are potentially going to be influenced by income, so we've never done it. But then we thought, how about if we collected all that money that suppliers are willing to pay in order to access our membership, but instead of keeping the money, what if we were to pass it back to the members themselves? We could create a situation where we are then actually paying our members more than they're paying us for membership. 

Russ Stephens:

Of course, we only partner with companies that we truly believe in. We’ve got a website designer who follows our process and others, for instance, bookkeepers and accountants, they have to understand work in progress, obviously, and insurance brokers who can offer genuine savings to builders. So really, it's not even just about builders getting cash back, which is great, but it's probably even more about accessing a network of service providers who provide real value to residential building companies.

Bosco Anthony:

It's a very fascinating concept and what I'm really impressed by is that the situation presented itself for you because you already had this scenario where you were already having people that you could recommend, and you've turned it into a wonderful feature for your members. Why did you launch something like this?

Sky Stephens:

I have to say, as of the recording of this podcast right now, this whole episode, I would say it's probably our most exciting launch to date. A massive reason why, piggybacking on what Russ has just said, is that our builders and all of our members are using professional services every day anyway. You have to have certain pieces of software to run your building company professionally. You are going to be engaging third parties, like Russ mentioned, such as bookkeepers, lawyers and accountants. These are services already required and in need.

Sky Stephens:

There’s something that we always want at APB, you might have heard us say this in the past, Bosco, we want members for life. We want people when they join us, to never leave. How we do that is to keep giving value year on year. So that renewal is a no brainer. Of course, when you want to renew, you get 10 times more out of this membership than you ever pay. We're always thinking of ways to add value, like how can we keep members for life? It was so natural, it was so perfect. Let's pay our members to be members. Let's give them cash back on those services. Let's align with the right people and just make it such a perfect relationship for our builders.

Bosco Anthony:

I was actually travelling – and talk about brilliant copywriting. I got an email from Russ saying, “Find a way to pay for your membership. Stay tuned and you'll hear about our announcement.” It caught my eye; I saw the subject line and I was thinking I actually want to know what this is all about. In the next email that came in, you made the announcement. I was thinking, “This is brilliant.” How have your members responded to this new launch as well? I'm just curious because it got my attention 100%.

Andy Skarda:

They’ve responded very positively, Bosco. I think as Sky said, it's not that we're asking them to do something different to what they're doing anyway. It's literally they are now in a situation where they benefit directly from stuff they were doing in any event. As Russ has pointed out, if they are moving to possibly new providers, there are going to be things that are lined up with our protocols anyway. They’ve responded very positively.

Bosco Anthony:

Now, how long has it taken to put something like this together? Obviously, it's one thing to give back to your members, but I can only appreciate what goes into building an effective rewards program. So, from concept to execution, how long did that take? Take me through the process.

Russ Stephens:

It’s taken 12 years. Literally 12 years. This is something that I've always wanted to do in the construction industry: to create a rebate program. The reason for that is in a previous life and in a previous company in England, I had a distribution company. We were wholesale distributors and I heard about a group called Nicer Today. The story went in the industry that there is no such thing as a free lunch unless you join Nicer Today. They were like a buying group, but they didn't get involved in the negotiations because we'd deal with hundreds of suppliers. We did our own negotiations, but whatever we spent, a percentage of that came back in a negotiated rebate from Nicer Today. I was a bit sceptical because it sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Russ Stephens:

You sign up. I think it was about £5,000, which was a decent bit of money back in the day. You effectively bought shares in this group, which was weird. From then on, every month you’d get a cheque in the post, and it was just incredible. I'm not saying that you got thousands of pounds or anything like that. I'm not even talking about tens of thousands of pounds. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of pounds every year. It was phenomenal. That money did not affect our negotiations in any way, and it went straight to our bottom line and boosted our margins. So, I always had that in mind, and being in Australia and being in the construction industry, I thought, “This is a fantastic concept. We should really do that because it's too hard in Australia or the US or Canada to really negotiate prices with suppliers across such an expense, because there are so many different price fluctuations.”

Russ Stephens:

I was thought it'd be a good idea to just do a rebate. But I did try it very early on, back in about 2010. Most people had no idea what I was talking about. It was way too good to be true. I remember one guy said, “Nope, I don't sign up to anything I can't understand, and I really don't understand where the money's coming from.” I said, “I'm not asking you for any money, I just need your name really so that I can go to suppliers.” 

Russ Stephens:

But it was a Catch-22. I couldn't get the builders behind it to get enough momentum to then go to the suppliers and negotiate, so it flopped. As APB grown over the years, it's in our quarterly strategic planning. It's always been something that's popped up, I really wanted to do this idea, but Sky was never keen. It was never the right time and she just really didn't get the concept at all. You'll probably jump in here Sky.

Sky Stephens:

I think you're being so polite. We're father-daughter; we get along quite well. We do. But for that whole time, this was our biggest argument.

Andy Skarda:

Yes, I've been in the stands on a few occasions when this argument has broken out and I'll back Sky up. This one got heated regularly.

Sky Stephens:

You know what, though? It was because I couldn’t get it. Russ, if he’s passionate, he’s passionate. He was saying, “Yes, rebates, this is the way forward. We're going to make a rebate program.” I didn't get it, and I didn't like it. I was really worried we were going to move into potentially quite a boring space that would take us away from what we are doing. It's rare, but this was our recurring argument. Every time we sat down for the next quarter, this was Russ's moment, “We're going to do rebates.” We couldn't get on the same page.

Sky Stephens:

Then I started using ShopBack services. Do you guys ever use ShopBack services or know about some banks that give you cash back when you spend money? I thought, “This is amazing. You get cash back from things you're already doing. This is so good. We should actually launch something like this. Let's make a rewards program.” I think Russ just sat there looking at me, thinking, “Oh wow, this is only what I've been talking about for the last decade.” So, it was a great idea.

Andy Skarda:

If I remember correctly, Sky, that was almost the key that moved it around. I watched you shift from the word ‘rebate’ to the word ‘reward’ and all of a sudden that made all the difference.

Sky Stephens:

Rewards was fun and interesting. It was a sexy way of communicating it. I think everyone gets your rewards programs. They are your credit card rewards, your flight rewards. It's almost easier to explain. It probably makes sense why it was really hard to communicate to anyone else to get on board. Rebates, I don't know about you guys, but it just sounded boring to me.

Russ Stephens:

It's a great lesson I think, isn't it? If you want an idea to take off, let someone else take ownership of it.

Andy Skarda:

I think also in our industry, there'll be a lot of people listening to this podcast, who when they hear the word rebate, they automatically think about materials. We really don't work in that space at all. I think that it was that disconnect of, “We don't really do that. We don't sell timber and cement and stone and those kinds of materials.”

Russ Stephens:

I'm going to disagree with all of you here. ‘APB Rebates’ would've been so much better.

Sky Stephens:

Nope, nope.

Bosco Anthony:

Well, from the outsider’s perspective, I think it's great because it's a user journey where people get to use things and they're already going to be using these different things. I think about my Qantas Rewards Points. When I first got the points, I was hooking it up to my Uber and my hotel rides and then I was getting all these different entities, but I was using it and I think about the program that you're offering and everything that you're rewarding are things that they're going to use anyway. So why not get rewards for it? So, I thought that was a brilliant concept, from the outside looking in.

Sky Stephens:

Thank you, Bosco.

Russ Stephens:

Thanks, Bosco.

Bosco Anthony:

I'm going to take credit for this, Russ?

Andy Skarda:

Oh, yeah, and I'm going to just bask in the glory that I had nothing to do with.

Bosco Anthony:

Well, what's in it for the builders? Let's look at it from the builders’ perspective. What's in it for them? We have all these different programs, some of them work, some of them don't work out there. What makes this so different and unique to them?

Andy Skarda:

We've focused pretty much in the discussion so far on the cash back. But really what we've done is because of the way that Russ and Sky have always run APB, and this is no different, we're not just going to throw a bunch of people out there on whom there's some money coming back. These are not just the kinds of services that builders are going to use. These are curated. If we ignore even that people are going to get money back in the long run, if we just look at the short-term scenario, what we are doing is connecting them to people who other members have already vetted. They've got benefit out of the service that they offer and they're a recommended service. There are no uncharted waters here.

Andy Skarda:

In a lot of cases, I do this in my own personal life when I’m considering buying something. What's the first thing I read? The reviews. If they’re positive and it's a five-star service, et cetera, I'm a lot more comfortable to get involved. So, at its initial level, it's the kind of services, the kind of structural things, the kind of software that a builder will need to build a professional business. So, there's number one, you don't have to go looking for those things. Every time we add somebody to the list, you now get that confidence to know, if this is part of this list, you can trust that the outcomes will be what you’re looking for.

Andy Skarda:

To me, that's almost the bigger advantage. The direct benefit you get of course is that the money comes back to you in cash. The reality, as Sky has alluded to, and I think Russ said it in so many words, there is the very real possibility that if you are using the services that you would've used anyway, your rebates will exceed what you pay to be a member of APB. In which case, those partners, those rewards partners are effectively paying you to be a member of the APB, which is just the cherry on top of the cake.

Russ Stephens:

It’s is a bit like the live events as well, isn't it? Our preferred partners actually pay for our members to go out to dinner. We're trying to bring these partners in and to the benefit of the members themselves. But I think it was a really good point you mentioned about the types of partners that we're bringing in as well because we’ve got some pretty sensitive topics that we talk about. For example, website design has to be done in a certain way. 

Russ Stephens:

There are so many website designers out there who don't follow our process. We wouldn't work with those guys. It’s the same with bookkeepers and accountants. I think anyone in APB knows what a sensitive topic that is and they know how difficult it is to work with a bookkeeper or an accountant who doesn't believe in what we are actually saying and doing with regard specifically to work in progress. So, it's very important that any partner who comes on board buys into our teachings, really.

Sky Stephens:

That's such a good point. The benefit is the compliance with what we are teaching. I think this is why it was the perfect time to launch it now as well. It was almost like it was always chicken and egg. We needed the group of builders to sell to the suppliers, but we also needed the authority as a company in order to have any supplier follow a particular training or methodology. So, it's come at the perfect time that our preferred partners want to work with us because they want access to such a professional, advanced group of building company owners because it's just going to be such a complementary service.

Sky Stephens:

As another benefit to the builders as well, when you sign up – and you don't have to, obviously – but if you choose to sign up to any one of these preferred partners, you aren't just one client to them because you are a client of APB and they have so much to gain from delivering such an incredible experience to an APB member because of this partnership. You're a little bit more taken care of, you're a little bit more secure because you're a part of this body, this association.

Russ Stephens:

It's not all boring stuff either, like traditional services like website design and insurance and lawyers, et cetera. There are some exciting partners getting in touch with us, bringing new concepts and ideas to market as well. That's really exciting to be able to share what is the cutting edge of processes and systems, different ways of doing things, which puts out builders on the front foot and at the cutting edge as well.

Bosco Anthony:

Can you give us some examples of some of the preferred partners? I noticed that obviously the membership is global; you've got members from different parts of the world. Can they work with the preferred partners, or do you have them restricted to the geographical zoning?

Sky Stephens:

The way we launched it on our Rewards Preferred Partner Directory, you can segment for your country. For example, we've got lawyers involved, construction specific lawyers. You get a cash reward, cash rebate, money back, cash back, whatever you want to call it, from engaging them and their services. Now with something like law that's going to be very specific. So, they do only service a particular country, but you can start filtering on your own country. 

Sky Stephens:

We also have filters that are global because we have software providers. A good example is Buildxact. There's a cash rebate, cash reward plus a discount for anyone who signs up to Buildxact through our rewards system. There are so many different marketing services. We've also got photo editing services, 3D rendering services, we've got sales and marketing assistance basically to help you in your sales process. There’s tons of software, different service providers like law, insurance, so you can negotiate your insurance and we even have providers to do with safety documentation as well. 

Sky Stephens:

The thing is though, what we've launched with right now is going to be constantly and perpetually growing. It's not going to be a static rewards program because, like Andy mentioned, we get introductions and we go through a vetting process. We are meeting providers that make a difference for our builders all the time. Our goal is to build up this program so that it really can incorporate and include every service provider that can make a difference and help the owner of a building company run their building company professionally.

Bosco Anthony:

Can anyone become a preferred partner? What is the process? If there is a suitable partner out there, how do they come to meet with you guys and get vetted out? Do you have a vetting process as well?

Sky Stephens:

Yeah, we definitely do. Firstly, we get introductions. This is the number one way we want to meet partners. We need our members to introduce them. It's obviously the best way to do it because then we get to talk to our members in detail. “Well, what is it? What are the benefits? How long have you worked with them?” Then we'll try and talk to some of our other members. “Have you worked with them as well? What was your experience?” We'll start meeting with them and go through our process from there. 

Sky Stephens:

Can anyone be a preferred partner? They can't just sign up on our website and that's it, no. There are a few steps so that we can make sure their service is actually valuable and people have had a good experience as well. But we do want to grow this, so we're always looking for introductions. Our members can refer as many partners as they like because there's just a button right at the bottom of the partner directory for them to do so and make that introduction.

Bosco Anthony:

As a member, how easy is it to claim your rewards and is there a process for them to activate this?

Andy Skarda:

It's ridiculously easy. That's the only way I can describe it. Because at the end of the day, they don't even need to claim it. As long as they set up the relationship with the preferred partner correctly from the word go, all of the administration and processing happens in the back-end and the next thing they will see is literally cash coming back into their bank account. 

Andy Skarda:

To be honest, and I think this was one of the things that really was a benefit out of Russ and Sky – let's use the nice term, ‘debating’ – this process for as long as they did because it meant that the detail was very well fleshed out and we literally have worked to try and make it as easy as possible on both ends of the scale. So, there's a complete back-end engine behind this thing that takes care of all of those financial transactions, et cetera. Then literally all that our members will see is that money coming back into their bank account every quarter.

Sky Stephens:

It's a really important point, actually. Because I think for a lot of people, the first question when we talk about launching APB Rewards is, “Oh, are you just going to credit our membership then? So, it's not actually cash back, you're going to reduce the renewal amount?” No, every quarter cash will be paid into your bank account.

Bosco Anthony:

That's really cool. But some might say, “Well it all sounds good in theory, but at the end of the day, any company that pays a rebate will simply inflate their price in the first place to cover the costs, so it's not really a win.” How would you handle that scenario?

Russ Stephens:

You've been hanging out with too many builders, Bosco. You're getting old and cynical. That's exactly what I would be thinking, for sure. And it's the reason why we make it very clear in our contracts with each preferred partner that under no circumstances will our members be penalised on price. If we find out that they are, then we have the right to terminate that contract immediately. 

Russ Stephens:

Now I guess this touches on another benefit for the builders as well because apart from tapping into a network of preferred partners that can help systemise their business and apart from the fact that they're going to get money each quarter paid into their bank account, the other benefit is that they are not a single company dealing with another company. They effectively represent over 500 members of APB, so you can be sure that your business is going to be taken very seriously right from the start. From the moment you make that initial inquiry, you are going to get the follow-up it deserves.

Russ Stephens:

If that doesn't happen, we will take action immediately because, let's be honest, a lot of companies are not the greatest at sales and follow-up. We've already had an instance of this but very quickly that feedback came through the coaches and back to us, at which point we sent one email and within minutes that problem was sorted. That's the clout you have as an individual builder because they tried numerous times, they weren't getting the response they wanted, but when the email came from us it went straight to the top. Things happened very quickly. That's the power of being part of a group when you deal with different partners. 

Russ Stephens:

Now some of the partners actually offer discounts to APB members, like Buildxact does. But the majority, and this is the way it's set up to go forward, is all on rebates, but the price cannot be inflated to cover that rebate. That is never going to fly. Another way we protect ourselves is for things like Buildxact, it's quite easy, because it's a set price. Everyone knows the price, so they can't inflate it to cover the rebate. But when you talk about things like lawyers and maybe even website developers and PR, they can get a little vague. 

Russ Stephens:

So, in a lot of instances, we've got specific packages that have been set up for APB so builders know exactly what’s being provided, and obviously we've had good insight what that is. We know those packages are in line with their rates and value for money. But if it's a more general ongoing hourly rate, if ever it was a case that we found out or even a member found out that their price was being inflated, these guys would have too much to lose; they just wouldn't do it.

Bosco Anthony:

Obviously, the timing this time around was right and both Sky, you and everyone aligned in making this decision. So, I'm going to throw a random curve ball question here. I want you to think of your most desirable rewards program or your least favourite and tell me what it was about that feature that either made you really like it, or you made you not use it? And how did that shape the making of this rewards program? 

Bosco Anthony:

Obviously, the biggest feature for me was the usability factor and the fact that I'm always a big fan of rewards programs that I can use and it's in my life and I can integrate things. I talk about the Qantas one, which obviously has a lot of features, but Andy, Russ, Sky, anyone can take this. If there's a rewards program that you really like or you'd stay away from, please throw it at me.

Andy Skarda:

I'm tempted to say the four-letter word, but I can't get it to be four letters because that'll get everybody's attention. But the three-letter word that you've used multiple times about that airline that you've been talking about, because they're not part of our rewards program, so I'm not going to talk about them.

Bosco Anthony:

Yeah, yeah.

Andy Skarda:

No, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. You use it. And I'm sitting here thinking it's a great question because with Flybuys and all those kinds of things, I have no idea what to do with Flybuys, but I religiously go beep beep every time I go through the till, and I've got $11,000,926 I don't ever use. It's almost irrelevant. So, I think that is the key. We've almost removed that process because you're not going to use the reward, you're going to use the service that generates the reward and then you're going to get that reward automatically. For me, the real kicker here is that I don't have to do anything with my 10,865,000 Flybuys dollars. It automatically gets done for me, which makes it really easy.

Sky Stephens:

I think that's a really good point. Mine would be that it's real because what actually convinced me in that whole 10-year saga was actually using a rewards program. I think they're only Australian based program, but maybe they're bigger. This was ShopBack and I online-shop a lot, shockingly enough, and I heard about it, and I thought, “Oh sure, it's just a Chrome extension and I can see it on my phone and I’ll just activate it next time I shop.” 

Sky Stephens:

Then I got all these emails, $20 here, $100 there, and I thought, “Wow, this is legit. Let's just wait.” And I could withdraw all the cash; it worked; it was real. So it was that whole ‘too good to be true’ argument and that's why I couldn't get my head around rebates. I thought, “It sounds cool, but it sounds a bit like something's off. There's something wrong happening.” So, the fact that it was real would be the biggest feature for me.

Russ Stephens:

I think mine is a credit card that I signed up to probably about six or eight months ago that has an instant cash rebate on it of 3%. There's no fee for this credit card and you just use it as normal and instantly, you don't have to wait till the end of the month or the end of the quarter even, instantly when you spend money on anything, you automatically get this 3% come up on your credit card statement, which is awesome. It's that gratification of getting something for nothing, really.

Andy Skarda:

Bosco, you said it, you put your Uber on it, and you do all kinds of things with it. That's really the principle here, is it? It's not even needing you to go and spend money that you would not otherwise have spent. This is money that is in your interest to spend because it's going to make your business more professional and efficient and blah, blah, blah, and you get rewarded for it. This is not too good to be true. It's so good because it is true.

Bosco Anthony:

And there's value.

Russ Stephens:

It's a classic win-win, isn't it? Because one of the first things that a building company needs when they come to us, typically when they start working with the coaches, is a website. That was an Achilles heel for us for years. Builders need to find a website company, but we couldn't recommend anyone at all. It was really difficult to tell them what they needed to do and what they needed to look for, and we couldn't even suggest someone who could do it for them. So, to actually work with someone who can deliver on exactly what they need, but then know that they're going to get looked after and that they're going to get a benefit that they wouldn't have got otherwise as well, it's a win-win-win really.

Bosco Anthony:

There are some really exciting times ahead for you all if you have to think about what the next few months or years will look like. Is there a preferred partner you'd like to bring on, or do you have any exciting, future innovative things that you want to bring to the rewards program that our members should be excited for?

Russ Stephens:

I'd love to bring on an accountant who understands work in progress. I'm sure we will get that one day, but that's my dream.

Andy Skarda:

Yeah, I'm trying to work out a way to get a brewery involved. I haven't quite worked out the mechanics yet, but that's my goal.

Sky Stephens:

Let's get some airlines involved.

Bosco Anthony:

Airlines involved too. All right. Well, where can the members get more information about this? Obviously, when I was on the road, I saw the email and I've seen it on social media, but is there a centralised point where members can get tips on how to maximise the points or make the most out of this? And is there a resource sheet?

Sky Stephens:

All over the website. To make it nice and easy, we’ll put a direct link to our rewards and preferred partners in the show notes here, just so everyone can have a browse, check them out, see what is available, and just know that even from the time of recording this episode, we would've added so many more because they're just coming constantly. It's definitely worth keeping up to date with.

Russ Stephens:

Even if you are not a member of APB, you can still opt in through that rewards process. You won't actually receive the rewards until you become a member. But if it's something you are considering doing, you might as well get tagged now so that when you do join APB, you'll start instantly receiving cash back.

Sky Stephens:

Let's be honest, they're substantial. A lot of these services are not like a couple of hundred dollars that you're getting 8% cash back or 16% cash back on. They are substantial services. It's a really good point. If you find yourself in the need of signing up to those services, it becomes that no brainer win-win.

Andy Skarda:

As you're saying that, I'm thinking we've got a couple of Gandalf wizards in this thing in particular areas. One of these is something like homeowner's warranty insurance where forget the rebate, forget the reward, this guy's creating things that were impossible before he came along. He's not only getting rights, but he's actually saving people money on their insurance premiums directly.

Sky Stephens:

It's like $14,000 savings in a year. This is big money that we are hearing from our members.

Andy Skarda:

Yeah, I think that Russ's point is valid, even if you are not a member of APB yet. And of course, the question would be why the heck not? But that's another discussion. There's benefit for you in this, even in that area, that you'll get better services at better rates.

Bosco Anthony:

Before we go, are there any other 10-year arguments that Russ's going to have that we should run to the market? I'm just curious.

Sky Stephens:

Andy will reveal all.

Andy Skarda:

Yeah, not that we're going to talk about on a podcast. I'll tell you privately, Bosco.

Bosco Anthony:

Well, it’s been a pleasure to have you all again. I'm really excited to see this roll out. And again, thank you for your time, energy and insights, and we look forward to hearing more about the rewards program grow.

Andy Skarda:

Thanks, Bosco.

Sky Stephens:

Love it. Thanks, Bosco.

Russ Stephens:

Thanks, Bosco. Thank you.

Bosco Anthony:

Cheers. It’s been a pleasure as always, guys.

Bosco Anthony:

Thank you for listening. Remember to subscribe to Professional Builders Secrets on your favourite podcast platform and leave a review. To learn more about how the systems at APB can help you grow your building company, visit associationofprofessionalbuilders.com. See you next time.