Leading Contractor Podcast

This Construction Podcast Inspires Motivates And Educates Contractors Around The World

Jonathan Walters

About Jonathan Walters

As a teenager being asked by my parents what I wanted to do for a living when I became an adult, I responded that I wanted to be a contractor one day. Their response was to go get a job and become the best that I could be at that craft. I started out in the construction industry during high school in southwest Florida, working the weekends, school breaks and summers. As a 17-year- old general laborer, my first responsibility was to pick up trash, lumber and cinder blocks as well as grab a broom and sweep out houses that were under construction. I continued on that path and eventually was able to move into learning more of the skilled trades that go into building houses. Except for one year of college football at Jacksonville University in Florida, I was able to work mostly full time as a carpenter and attend construction management classes at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Being afforded the opportunity to obtain both the hands on experience in the field as well as the knowledge gleaned from a classroom setting has benefited me greatly as I have progressed in this industry. Having worked for small business construction companies in southwest Florida, south Mississippi and Houston, Texas has exposed me to a wide range of construction & renovation type projects in the custom residential and small commercial arenas. Not only has that experience been in different types of construction but having been almost completely in small business settings has allowed me to be able to wear many different hats within the management & business sides of those companies. That has given me a broad range of experiences and has allowed me to be in the midst of both positive and negative decisions that have affected the overall health of the companies that I have served. These are all experiences and knowledge that I hope can be passed on to others and be of benefit to those reading here.

I currently reside in south Mississippi with my beautiful wife and serve as a Project Manager & Estimator for a custom home builder & remodeler.

How Contractors Should Embrace The Process

Future Plans Begat Current Work Have you ever caught yourself overlooking the tasks and happenings right in front of you and constantly looking towards the future? Whether that future is later on in the same day, the very next day or some day down the road, it is easy to have your mind on the […]

Smart Growth

If you have an interest in growing your construction business.  Here are several options for smart growth: A – Train somebody B – Finding already trained workers C – Steal somebody D – Outsource E – Scale down on number of projects   There are lots of reasons to try to grow & expand your […]

3 Key Contractor Scheduling Terms

Keeping a schedule on a construction project can be very similar to attempting to herd a litter of cats in the same direction. A construction project has so many moving parts that it can be a daunting task to keep a project on schedule.  Deliveries, employees, subcontractors, vendors and the dreaded but inevitable DELAYS all […]

Construction Intuition

Whatever your trade, craft or even profession, there seems to be a professional intuition that is developed over time. Knowing when & how to implement this intuition into your business & projects can be a game changer. It can really help tie together all of the myriad of moving parts that occur on a daily […]

Fail Forward

It has been said that you should never lose – you either win or you learn. While this saying makes perfect sense for a motivational speech for a sporting event, can it be applied to your construction business? Easy answer – YES. Apply it every day. Multiple times a day if necessary. Trust me, if […]

Contract(ors)

Contract is the root word of what we all consider ourselves to be – Contractors. Think about it, you can’t spell contractor without contract. Likewise, you should NOT be doing any contracting type work without a contract. Sure, it is not as cool a word as demo day or excavation and writing a contract is […]