2% Decoded with Glen Yates

What does it take to grow a specialty contractor from one field crew into a company with national reach—without losing the culture, accountability, and operational consistency that made the business successful in the first place? In this episode of 2% Decoded, Well Built CEO Chad Prinkey sits down with Glen Yates, CEO of Colt Builders, to unpack Colt’s growth from a roughly $1.7 million business with one field team in 2011 into a national commercial wood-framing contractor built around local leadership. Glen shares how Colt learned to follow great customers into new markets while developing strong local GC relationships, why geographic diversification has made the company more resilient, and how creating opportunity for employees became an important part of the growth model. The conversation also gets into the less visible systems behind that growth: building an executive team around character and integrity, maintaining alignment across geographically dispersed offices, investing in face-to-face communication, creating a clear brand promise, and standardizing processes without removing the judgment of high-performing people. Chad and Glen also discuss why Colt has built its business around seller-doers rather than a traditional sales force, how operational excellence becomes one of the strongest business-development tools a contractor can have, and why the right processes and training are essential if you want customers to receive the same experience in every market. In this episode: How Colt Builders grew from one crew into a national contractor Following great customers into new geographic markets Why national reach still requires strong local relationships Using geographic diversification to create resilience Creating career opportunities through company growth Why character and integrity come before everything else in culture Building an aligned executive and regional leadership team The value of in-person meetings in a distributed company Turning a brand promise into a real operating standard Why 90% accuracy is not good enough when building a leadership team The advantages and challenges of the seller-doer model How process, training, and great people work together Where Colt Builders sees its next opportunities for growth CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome to 2% Decoded 02:20 Glen’s path from the field to ownership 04:11 What Colt Builders looked like in 2011 04:43 Coming out of the recession and finding a growth engine 05:46 The beginning of Colt’s geographic expansion 08:44 Building local relationships in new markets 10:15 Why geographic diversification matters 12:52 Character, integrity, and Colt’s culture 16:23 Building an aligned leadership team 20:47 Keeping a national company connected 24:02 Building and delivering the Colt brand promise 28:03 Leadership lessons and getting the executive team right 31:15 Why Colt uses seller-doers instead of traditional salespeople 35:02 Seeing ahead and managing the sales pipeline 35:50 Process vs. people in operational excellence 38:39 What’s next for Colt Builders 40:37 Final thoughts Learn more about Colt Builders: https://coltbuilders.com Get the book: https://a.co/d/0iUVpXvU Get construction leadership insights in your inbox: https://www.wellbuiltconsulting.com/w... Want to talk with Well Built? https://www.wellbuiltconsulting.com/c... #ConstructionLeadership #ConstructionBusiness #ContractorGrowth #OperationalExcellence #WellBuiltPodcast