E107 - Raw Communication with Lance Furuyama

Ever found yourself in the thick of a construction project, where every voice has the potential to build or bulldoze progress? Lance Ferriyama from Trade Partner HQ joins us to hammer down the significance of communication in the trade industry, offering a blueprint for turning monologues into dialogues that construct rather than constrain. Together, we're chipping away at the old-school 'sizing-up' culture and reengineering it into one of collaboration and respect – because, in this field, a solid foundation isn't just about the concrete.

Navigating the complexities of the construction site is much like calling a truce in a high-stakes standoff – it calls for tact, strategy, and a willingness to listen. We lay out the tools for construction managers and superintendents to become architects of inclusivity, ensuring every voice is heard from the ground up. And just when you think the blueprint is clear, we tackle the frustration of silos and the art of breaking them down, sharing a personal tale from a San Jose project that could've used some serious demolition in the communication department.

But what happens when the hard hats come off? Lance and I dissect the raw, unfiltered essence of communication, extending beyond the job site to social media and beyond. Discover the power of authentic communication as we reflect on a 'UC moment' where staying true to oneself isn't just good for morale, it's good for business. Join us, and let's build bridges with words, one authentic conversation at a time.
Connect with lance and Check out his website: https://tradepartnerhq.com/

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Transcript

The UnCommon Communicator: 0:06

Welcome to the Uncom communicator podcast, where we bring enlightenment to the topic of communication. Are you ready to take ownership of your conversations? Are you looking to possess the skills to navigate and facilitate conversations to a mutual understanding? What are you waiting for? Grab your growth mindset and let's go? Welcome to the Uncom communicator podcast, where we bring enlightenment to the topic of communication. I am really pleased to have Lance Ferriyama, the rising star of Lance, on the podcast today. We're going to talk about kind of his dive and his take on communication and where he has taken his business. I feel like he has been a vehicle of communication trade partner headquarters HQ. Why don't you jump in and tell us a little bit more about yourself?

Lance Furuyama: 1:02

Yeah, hi, james. First of all, thanks for having me. I'm a big fan of the show, so this is a little surreal for me. I live in the Bay Area, california. I do work for an electrical contractor on the operations site. Still, I started trade partner HQ earlier this year primarily to help business owners, consultants, get their voice out. I didn't so much of a salesy way, but really telling their story and differentiating themselves.

The UnCommon Communicator: 1:30

That's what really made my first connection with you as well, too. You used all the right words, which is getting your voice out there. That's something that I've refined, probably over the last few months. I even had this in a conversation with Jen Lacey, where I really began to understand what is my real purpose. I'm like what am I doing here? Why am I giving this podcast away like this? You give a ton of content away as well, too, but it really comes down to giving people a voice. That's what initially made that connection with you is you are giving people a voice. I didn't realize it had only been this year. We're talking 2023. I don't know what year we talk Right now in this week. What week do we talk about? What year are we in it?

Lance Furuyama: 2:10

was about 2023. Yeah.

The UnCommon Communicator: 2:13

That's amazing what spurred the birthplace of Trade Partner HQ.

Lance Furuyama: 2:19

It was really just a part of me that wasn't being satisfied in my job. I'm completely on the operations then. Unless my communications with people aren't great, they're usually kind of running as the goon at the end of the day. That's really what my role is as far as communicating there. I don't enjoy that route. I've been really working on communicating before there's an issue. I enjoy getting to know people, but those circumstances weren't allowing for me to really get things off on the right foot.

The UnCommon Communicator: 2:53

You just said giving people a voice. Is that the true mission of Trade Partner HQ.

Lance Furuyama: 2:59

It is what is the mission.

The UnCommon Communicator: 2:59

Yeah.

Lance Furuyama: 3:01

My mission is really to help. At first it was just Trade Partners, but now I've found myself working on the GC side and a lot of the construction tech companies as well. The thing is, we don't say a lot. People listen to response. I found that there's a lot of gap in there where, if you create the platform and create the environment for people to have curated speech, I'd rather dive deeper into a question than just hit all the boxes and continue moving with my pre-rehearsed questions.

The UnCommon Communicator: 3:37

Yeah, I love that. Let's talk about the format of this, because what you're doing is I don't want to say it's groundbreaking because I haven't seen it. If I haven't seen it and it hasn't existed before because I'm as old as dirt it appears to be very groundbreaking where you're giving really a business and a trade. People who don't communicate on social media very well, which is where we're not in newspapers anymore, people we can't hand flyers out on the street and get people to go. We're curating which I love that term these conversations with people. What spurred that idea like that need? How did you see that need develop?

Lance Furuyama: 4:19

Well, it started off as something that was a fun project for me, which is that business and beyond livestream that I do on LinkedIn. I don't share the questions with anybody beforehand, I just want to have conversations In construction. We all say we're best in class and this or that. At the end of the day, cody48 says you remove the name and look at the stats and everything. He looks the same. So I figured an advantage for somebody is to. If you do an interview with me and people relate to you, you're going to track them. If your style rubs in the wrong way and you repel them, that's even better, because it's better to be finding that out now than when you're under contract and finding out that you guys are not are oil and water to them.

The UnCommon Communicator: 5:07

Well, and that's very true, and I love the fact that you give a platform for people to talk about those things. But there is that part about making that fit happen. And on the general I'm on the general construction side sometimes we get to choose who we partner with based on relationship, based on you know, however, the project. You know pricing is structured, but other times, on some fixed price situations, we're having to go in with the low bid, which is always still the wrong way to go about any type of business, especially if there's no relationship. But we're not afforded that time to develop that relationship. And that is the same as if you're hiring new employees. They're in construction. There is such a you know empty pool, like if somebody wants to get in to construction, right now is the time to do it. It's been that time for the last probably five, 10 years. The pool is wide open and you can pretty much go anywhere that you want to go and the money is starting to climb because those needs, because there's such a need for it. But because of that need there is, you're not taking time to get to know that person. You're trying to fill a hole. You're trying to fill that spot.

The UnCommon Communicator: 6:22

There was a story that goes back. My dad was a general superintendent or general foreman on a project at NUMI. In fact, out there by you in California, he was at NUMI and the superintendent that NUMI is the New United Motors. It was the partnership between Toyota and General Motors. My dad had worked at General Motors. My grandpa worked at that facility as well too, when it was General Motors. So a history going back Lance and I from similar routes out in the California Bay Area, but he was on this job and they called for 50 mill rights to come out on this job. And so, as they showed up that superintendent at the time, he's like no, you don't have the right coveralls on, you don't have enough tools, you don't have enough this. And my dad was in there physically writing that's back when he had to write the checks, writing the two hour show up time for that guy because they were weeding through their pool of people that they had to do this construction job, and so he ended up with 30 people and they knew that they were gonna get rid of 20 out of those people.

The UnCommon Communicator: 7:20

And when you do that, you're gonna get I don't wanna say the best of the best, but you're gonna get the better guys. I've been on projects where you have five to 10 open spots of work to do because they're not there. So that's the same thing I think we see within our trade partner world where we're not getting to know them, we're just trying to fill those spots, and I think the platform that you're bringing which is saying, hey, let's talk about, let's talk about, you get to know, you get to know the person, cause I think that's the move in our trades Do you see that as a change in construction right now? We're not my dad's old school style and this was 40, 50 years ago is that's not the style we're doing today, is it?

Lance Furuyama: 8:03

Yeah, I feel like it has to be intentional. Like every time I go to like a kickoff meeting, I always tell people I'll wait till you finish drink your coffee before I tell you this. I always tell people. If you step back in the room and all of the trades are there, it looks like dogs are sniffing each other's butts at a dog park. You know, like nobody's really. Everybody's kind of a chest out, kind of eyeing up and down like who are you, who are you with? And they leave it at that. They don't even try to get to the point where, hey, we're about to work together. Let's find out a little more about each other. And you know, people put that on the construction manager or the superintendent, but that's not their, it is part of their role. But we need to be more active in being approachable. Like I feel like everybody's just staring each other down, looking for scope, overlap and already like chomping at the bit to getting each other's business.

The UnCommon Communicator: 8:57

Yeah, well, and sometimes they're well. It could have been relationships earlier, but in other times it's just the positions of the role, right? You know that somebody you're ready to fight with the electrician because you know he's not gonna sweep up after himself. So there's some of that, just already knowing that going into the role. But I like your analogies and I do love analogies as well too but the and thank you for letting me put my coffee down, because I would have spittled all over the screen but that is exactly it. I mean, that's a perfect analogy of assessing people in a room and how they're gonna begin to interact with that. But I'll disagree with you. I think it becomes the role of that leader, that superintendent or whoever's facilitating that room to break those walls down. And that's what we haven't been doing in every situation is to break the walls down in communication, to get past it, let them.

The UnCommon Communicator: 9:47

You know what, though, then? Because I just got a new puppy, the sniffing's very important, so it's a very important social aspect in a dog. It may not necessarily be in humans, but what we're doing is exactly it. We're sizing each other up, we're checking each other's health, we're seeing how we're gonna get along with each other. So a little bit of that is okay, and you do know sometimes who you're not gonna get along with. Right then you know it, right then. And at that point for me that becomes, that becomes the focus. If I'm no, I'm gonna get along with Joe, then that's great, we're gonna be fine. Then I have to make another effort, a deeper effort, to get to meet whoever. That other person seems to be a little bit of the top dog, and there's always a top dog in every pack.

Lance Furuyama: 10:34

Yes, so in your role I mean the superintendent's listening to this what would be some ways that they could help facilitate? I mean, if we're not gonna like each other, that's cool. At least let's get that out of the way and figure out how to work together. What are some ways to help them Navigate that?

The UnCommon Communicator: 10:52

And so I appreciate that question, lance, because I've heard you're really good at turning the questions back onto the interviewer and you nailed it. So I was waiting for this moment. So thank you so much for asking me that question, because that collaboration is something that I've been thinking about a lot, especially in my role, but just as something that I want to help teach a little bit more about is the ability to run a collaboration, and that word is just a fancy word for stuff we've been doing for years, which is really getting everybody in the room to be acknowledged. And so how would I facilitate that? First off, I identify who's the quiet one and I always ask. So anytime I'm in a Zoom meeting or anytime I'm in an in-person meeting, I want to make sure that I'm acknowledging somebody.

The UnCommon Communicator: 11:40

And one thing that I like to do, especially just even in a small group, if there's three of us and I'll word it this way so you and I are chatting, and of course I'm doing all the talking, I won't shut up, right, it's like, and you're just barely listening, hanging on listening to me. Somebody else just shows up and we ignore that person. As soon as somebody else drives up, I get a knot in my stomach If that other person is not even going to acknowledge that, because I've been that person before too. Where you've walked up, you go to this. Sometimes it takes a little bit of confidence to come up. Hey, I want to be part of this conversation, you get excluded.

The UnCommon Communicator: 12:16

So, narrowing it down to even that small group, I think deep inside me is going to say I'm going to bring that person in, introduce them, at least get them part of that conversation. If that other person won't steer it that way, I know if I'm leading that, I am. But if I'm leading a group of trade partners, construction workers, then I want to make sure that we're bringing out. Everybody gets a voice, everybody gets to say something. So a lot of times it can be through like an icebreaker or just an icebreaker question hey, what do you think about the parking lot? It's just some question to get somebody to stay something and then begin that human route. So that's one way that I like to facilitate a collaboration. Do you have any more questions, lance?

Lance Furuyama: 12:58

No, not yet.

The UnCommon Communicator: 12:59

OK, we'll get there.

Lance Furuyama: 13:04

I like that approach Because a lot of times the super will just sit back and watch the dogs bite each other and be like, oh well.

The UnCommon Communicator: 13:14

So that what you just said is really an issue within construction, Because in some cases and I've seen it and it's not in the organization I'm in right now, but I've been on the jobs. I've been a trade partner for most of my career. I started in the trades as a millwright. I worked for trade partners, for GCs, so I've been on that side for almost over 30 years of my career and so the last six years I've been with a general contractor.

The UnCommon Communicator: 13:41

So I've seen that side of it and I've been that where that superintendent is doing it on purpose, he's doing that to create some of that aggression on the job, he's promoting it and that's one of the worst things that we can do because it makes that project morale miserable. It makes it bad for individual trade partners and then they're not there to support you, and that's, I think, the key that we're seeing in the turn towards lean construction on the general construction side is that collaboration and that creating of the flow. No longer is it the responsibility of that trade partner to go figure out their work. You're coming in and you're collaborating together just to see how your work fits within that flow. And that general contractor, that superintendent, wants to get you in and out as fast as you can so you make money. So the mindset has shifted and I think in that shift it had to have come through better communication.

Lance Furuyama: 14:37

Oh, that's actually pretty interesting. So it's like before we were working in siloes on the same property, but now we're all kind of integrated in together.

The UnCommon Communicator: 14:45

Yes, no, that's exactly it. The silo, your silo, shows up. You show up with your couple of gang boxes and you're not given any space and then you're invited to a. This is one particular job for me. You're invited to a gigantic meeting where they talk at you and then, when you're done, you guys have to go to work, where you just killed an hour and a half because they have safety requirements to train you on.

The UnCommon Communicator: 15:09

This was a project that I did actually down in San Jose and we were there for four weeks. I had just a small job. We're putting in some elevators, these kind of two floor one man or material loaders to floors for, at the time, one of those data centers, a secret data center downtown San Jose nobody, the data centers were new At that. This is in the 90s. I don't even want to tell you how long ago it was. They're starting up the computers with a hand crank back then, but it was at the foundation of data centers and anyways. So I had tons of questions and I had multiple superintendents on the project and I'm trying to get information from him and I'm asking him questions and then at one point he goes. You know what? I spend more time. You're the smallest trade, you're sub, you're the smallest sub that I've got and I'm spending more time with you. You need to go figure it out.

The UnCommon Communicator: 16:04

So at that point I went and figured it out and that's where I realized that it's that goes back to that silo. Right, go back to your silo, go get your work done and when you're done, get the heck off my job. Because I got all these other and they were firefighters right. They kept putting out fires, they didn't plan the work, they were in over their head because they didn't plan it. And those are part of the problems is bringing those silos together. How did my work integrate with the other trades? Because on that job, guess what had to come through and I had to stop my work, fireproofing. So they had to bring in the fireproofers and they had to get the beams right above where we were working at the same time that he knew we were gonna show up for our two weeks worth of work.

The UnCommon Communicator: 16:43

So it's just that and that's what I'm trying to communicate. So, definitely, breaking down silos is a key, I think, in our construction and in communication as well too. What inspired the business and beyond, live streams, that's something that, because your business is. Trade Partner HQ is about curating and helping businesses, and you provide that at a price Some services which I think is super low price to help them promote their business. You interview them, they get their platform put out there and I'll put a link in the show notes for it. But the business and beyond live stream seems like you're doing the same thing and you just I don't even know how you get your mix of people together. So tell me a little bit about the planning that goes into putting together that business and beyond.

Lance Furuyama: 17:35

Yeah, so that was pretty interesting. As I was growing my network, I was like I don't really. I know of these people, but I don't really know them and I have limited time to do a lot of one-on-one calls, so I thought it would be fun to get a bunch of people together that have never met. For the most part, live stream is involved the audience so that everybody feels like they're all getting something out of it, and initially the idea was to be talking about your business or your projects or whatever it was, but I found that that's not what interests me. It's more about who you are, the person. I've bought a lot of books or a lot of authors on LinkedIn in the construction space, so I bought a lot of books and for me I'm a little starstruck because I'm a big reader and when I get to meet the person like Henry Nutt was one of them, for me that was super cool to get to meet them and talk to them.

The UnCommon Communicator: 18:33

Yeah, so that's that is the advantage of hosting and inviting people in, because I've had that same scenario. I've had a couple of people and haven't jumped on this podcast yet. When we started, I invited Chris Voss because the whole foundation of this podcast started with going through Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, and if you haven't read that book, it's a book on negotiation, but it's more a book on listening and he's a FBI hostage negotiator assisted a great book. I probably read it half a dozen times before it really connected with me because his line of thinking and how he processes that is so different, and so that's what. So we took the foundations of that. That's what we started.

The UnCommon Communicator: 19:16

The first nine episodes of this podcast was in that book and then so there's some good information in there that we drew from dissecting that book. But of course I wanted to get Chris Voss on, but we didn't. We haven't met the listener criteria yet, so hopefully I'll get there one day I can have Chris on. I would actually love to have he's got some other people on this team that are fantastic as well too, but maybe I'll work my way up to that one.

Lance Furuyama: 19:40

So then later, yeah, it's just natural curiosity, right? I'd love to get to know people and that's it's for me, the wild card in the live streams that I've really enjoyed. It's a question that the audience are without there.

The UnCommon Communicator: 19:52

Yeah, it's because you don't. You're planning some questions, right, you have some planned questions, but I think one of the things that works so great with that is you are bringing to people that together, that people that don't know each other. Right, it's not, they're not even in the same state or country, even and I don't know if you have anybody out of country yet. I wasn't sure, Not yet you will guarantee a worldwide lance, but it's the interaction you start getting between the people and I think that's what really brings those depths of conversation in as they start playing off of each other. Because that's what you get when you have, you know, four people in a conversation versus just you and I. You start building a deeper conversation. They don't even they're helping themselves by learning from the other people, and I think that's something that you've developed through that to that process, which has really been kind of need to see evolve. Have you seen it grow and evolve in how you present those things?

Lance Furuyama: 20:52

I have. I've learned I have my questions ready in case the conversation stalls out. But a lot of times you know I'll probably six ready and we'll make it through one or two, because you know, naturally conversation takes twists and turns that you weren't expecting. And that's really what makes it exciting for me, because as the moderator I have no damn idea what's happening. And here we go, like sometimes I forget to check in with the audience, sometimes I'll forget to introduce myself at the beginning of it. I'm just so excited to do it and have fun.

The UnCommon Communicator: 21:25

And that's the having fun right, that's the most important thing. If you're having fun, it's fun for everybody. But what I haven't seen happen in your live streams is is people going off the deep end. And I've even heard this.

The UnCommon Communicator: 21:38

I'm part of some, some small groups that talk about podcasting and more and host and how do you host and stuff like that? And they, you know, how do you keep your guests from going off the rails? And they talk about having bad content and all this other stuff. And I'm like, well, you picked the wrong people and maybe you're facilitating it wrong, but you know all of that can happen, you know, because this happens on our job sites and that's something it's another skill to work on as well too. You get the guy who just wants to grandstand on your projects and try to control it and run it. I haven't seen any of that at all in the live streams that you've facilitated. But that is. That's always that kind of you're on the edge of. It could happen. Right, you could go on the mon, somebody could go on the monologue, and it's going to be up to Lance to have to steer him off of it in a in a kind and polite way.

Lance Furuyama: 22:27

Well, you know, I think a big part of that is behind the scenes, right, or somebody's on the show. Or as soon as they accept the invitation, I send them a document with expectations and you know, kind of the prevent marketing and the format that we're going to be using. And it's a loose format, that's a given, but there is something there and I'm when I open up the show, I'm saying, you know, to be respectful of people's time, blah, blah, blah. I'm talking about me, but it's implied that it's for all of us. So it's an expectation that's been set.

The UnCommon Communicator: 22:59

Well, that's a great way to do it too. You imply it about yourself, but you're like I'm going to hold you accountable to it. But I think what you're doing should happen at every meeting, every conversation. So what you're doing is just really, really good, foundational have a meeting. You're showing people how to have a meeting because you set those expectations up front. Then you don't have to worry about derailing it later. You know the whole thing with Lean is they talk about this Elmo? Have you heard anybody talk about Elmo? I have. I have Enough. Leave, leave it alone or something. I should know what it means. But anyways, they physically bring an Elmo doll in, but it's, it's not fleet alone. It's like you've gone on for too long. But there's an expectation in these meetings, because they are formatted to be as efficient as possible, to say okay, that's, that's a later conversation, but that's about setting expectations, which is exactly what you do when you do that.

Lance Furuyama: 23:55

Yeah, you know, for me the biggest thing has been expectations put on me that I wasn't aware of and that I never formally accepted. So for me, I always, whenever I'm in charge of something, I'm always carrying that in the back of my mind, because there's nothing worse than busting your butt and finding out you're going in the wrong direction, that you know the person in charge wasn't expecting. So that's double, double the frustrating.

The UnCommon Communicator: 24:20

Yeah, that's very true. Now you. So when we talked about having you on the show, you talked about your communication being raw and I thought this. So your communication style like and I've studied communication styles and that's one of the goals of any uncommon communicator is to understand the styles of other people, because you have to adjust your style to fit people, to make the right mesh, and that's that's the key. Actually, I called a combination lock. When you're communicating with somebody, you got to find out what the combination of of techniques, style, attitude, tone I mean there's whole bunch of different things and making and connecting with people and you, you're an incredible connector and I think it's just because you're the cool California kid from Hawaii. That's what I think it has to do with. You don't come across and I don't want to offend anyone from the East Coast, but East Coast but you can be more direct but you consider your communication style raw. Tell me a little bit more about that.

Lance Furuyama: 25:13

Yeah, I mean usually I don't hold back. I mean fortunately I'm not dropping F bombs left and right on this one, because it's the end of a very chill week for me. So you know, it was just process review and haven't had to really interact with too many people that have gotten under my skin, so I'm just chilling. It's nice, but you know, as far as raw. So here's, here's a fun story that happened earlier this year. I bought a book. It was kind of like a thesaurus on steroids.

Lance Furuyama: 25:44

You know, I wanted to improve my vocabulary and do this and that, which is cool. I like to do that. But I found myself like very. I tried dropping some words in and people were just kind of looking at me like I don't even know what that means and I'm like neither do I really. I kind of have to look at my cheat card over here and that's not authentic communication. And you know if To me, communication is you have a point to get across or a question, the other person understands it clearly and you can have a have a conversation. So for me to throw all of that window dressing on it, it didn't add value and actually detract it from the conversation. So that's kind of been a weird thing in 2023.

The UnCommon Communicator: 26:27

I wouldn't call that weird. I think that's Anybody who's willing to build their vocabulary as well. I think that's cool that you got a Arnold Schwarzenegger thesaurus so you can. I mean, to me any thesaurus is, is is gonna be a challenge, because trying to learn words so no, I think that's. I Think that's pretty cool.

The UnCommon Communicator: 26:48

But when you talk about raw, I had to look that up because that's not one of my categories. Like you're gonna have a communication style, but it's certainly one that connected with With Tony Robbins, apparently, because and he does he comes across as raw and that's one thing that does attract me is Having people Speak with candor. That's a conversation I've had with Adam Hoots. That's something that I'm working on because I tend to want to facilitate in a, in a softer mode. I guess is what I tend to do. I tend to diffuse. I am, by nature, I'm a mediator, so I will want to mediate, something like that. But I find that those that come with the raw communication now I'm craving that. Now I want something that's going to be more direct. You know could be around the bush, which I do a lot myself, but this is so this cave, this is a deaf.

The UnCommon Communicator: 27:37

There's actually a definition Raw, a raw communication style is a type of communication that is without finesse, and I'm like that's not Lance. So I don't think Lance looked up the definition of that, because you've got Plenty of finesse. It is direct, and I think that's probably what you're talking about, is, you can be very direct and this is this is interesting. It stings and creates tension beyond what anyone normally desires in a relationship, and so again there's another negativity. But then I love this is how they clarify at the end. Sometimes raw communication can be unexpectedly effective, but I think in general we need more Raw communication that is curated properly, as you do. You know coming in and bringing that type of communication with. You know it's not unfiltered, but it's, it's open, and so this is something. Is this how you grew up? Is this how you learned to communicate growing up?

Lance Furuyama: 28:33

You know, like for a lot of my life I communicated like a phone, be honest. You know I'm from Hawaii and we speak a lot of like pigeon English. I'm not sure if you've ever heard that, but it's. It sounds it's it's English, but not really. There's a lot of twists on it, like broken English in a sense. And that's cool, like everybody I just it wasn't my thing. So I felt like kind of the outsider because I refused to Do that if that's not how I spoke.

Lance Furuyama: 29:06

So you know, I joined like an executive association when I was 30 back in Hawaii and I was doing like a presentation on a waste aversion and and this was a room of like very accomplished people and you know basically where I'd want to be even now in 30 years. So you know I was, I was like crossing my teeth and donning my eyes and had a weird special phone voice ready for the presentation. It was so fucking weird, man, like I Couldn't believe it. Like as I was doing the presentation, I was getting distracted because I was also having to think about how to talk and and what I was gonna say and what I was presenting. So in the middle of I said, hey guys, you know, man like Sorry, this isn't me, but we're just gonna get it done. I'm gonna ditch this slide deck and we're just gonna talk.

The UnCommon Communicator: 29:55

From there like.

Lance Furuyama: 29:56

I Think it gave me the space to be myself.

The UnCommon Communicator: 30:00

Okay.

Lance Furuyama: 30:01

I could. I could see that I was losing the room and I could feel like you know you're not even giving yourself a chance to present. They brought you here for a reason Like do it got you here?

The UnCommon Communicator: 30:12

Yeah.

Lance Furuyama: 30:14

And that's kind of where the raw, where I look at it that way because you know it's dropping in some so colorful language and it's not exactly a setting. We're in some fancy Country club ballroom and I'm like you know what, let's just go like this is what's happening and they ate it up. Right, because it stood out in that room. It was so different, so different from the way that people communicated that it got their attention and it wasn't Intentionally to get their their attention. It was just because I couldn't get through the way the presentation, the way that I was doing it.

The UnCommon Communicator: 30:47

You'd prepared it and you couldn't even get through your own presentation, and I thought I applaud you for doing that, because that's one of the things in and I work with a nonprofit organization, toastmasters and there's, you know, there's a style of speech that goes along with some practice. There's definitely some people who are really developing their skills to bring it out into the real world, but there becomes some form and practice that really helps people get out of their bubble, get them out of their they're kind of confines, there's their fear of public speaking, so there's so much value in doing that. But there's also some things in bridging pass out, like what you just talked about. You know, there's sometimes some very fake hand gestures where I see you and I hear you, and, but all of these things are things to get what they're doing. Those are getting people outside of their whether we call it t-rexing when somebody's given a speech and they only, you know, keep their hands just like a t-rex. But there's there's skills that are applied. But taking that beyond to the next level and I've been in hundreds of hours of training, through construction, through anything, right then, having been through all of those styles of training, the ones that and I've been killed. I think I've died several times by PowerPoint, and what you just said is, if you go in there with this business voice without any inflection, you're going to go through your PowerPoints.

The UnCommon Communicator: 32:07

People felt accomplished, giving the information the way that they presented it, which is what their goal is, but they completely lost the audience, and that's what I applaud you for is you saw it. You saw it and pivoted, and that's something to do. You know, take some people years of going through that to realize it, but you saw it and then you made a pivot. And you made a pivot and you connected with it, and because that's what people want, our brains cannot handle More than one page of bullet points, and I'm not against them, although if I give a speech, if it's an entertaining speech, I like to give them in a TEDx style with a picture, and then I.

The UnCommon Communicator: 32:40

The picture relates somewhat to what I'm talking about, but there's stuff in what you and I do in presenting information. We have to present the information in a way. There's a lot of data that we're trying to give, but there's a point where You've gone too far, and so I love that you have approached that, and so that was kind of an aha moment. I'm always looking for moments of enlightenment, and it sounds like for you. That was a my chip. That was an aha moment that you pivoted in right then, and this was how many years ago.

Lance Furuyama: 33:11

Uh, it's been about 11 years ago.

The UnCommon Communicator: 33:13

I'd see even got down to 11. I love that. I'd be like. That's fantastic and so that's taking that kind of raw Going. Turning it raw is basically what you said, because you saw some value in Doing that. How do you practice that in your Communication now? Is it hard for you, since you said that you were Kind of, were you sugarcoat and things, or is those?

Lance Furuyama: 33:41

those were my yeah, I definitely was, and I was afraid to have tough conversations beyond the surface and I found out nothing. No business gets done at the surface, right, you got to get deeper than that. If there was a problem with, you know, tools being left all over the place and people not cleaning up, like that's the issue, isn't that there's a drill on the ground? It's like, why is your standard not up to the stuff? Like, like, let me talk to somebody a little further up and see if there's a root cause. That's that this is okay.

Lance Furuyama: 34:13

Yeah because if you notice a trend amongst their crews, what, no matter which job you're on, that's. That's not. It is a cruise issue, but it's more of a cultural issue, right, and I'm not afraid to ask and drive down a little deeper.

The UnCommon Communicator: 34:26

Yep, no, I love that and that's I. I tend to ramp it up. That's kind of my style, because I don't. I've worked around those general contractors, those superintendents that Just going at a hundred miles an hour every time, yelling, screaming, you know, and that's their style to get it. I like to ramp it up is what I like to do.

The UnCommon Communicator: 34:45

First I'll ask and then I'll ask strenuously, you know, and so you, you'll get to the point where you know it's probably not a great style, but I'll, I'll tend to, you know, you know, laying on a little bit of the guilt trip thing. It's like, man, we talked about this, can't you remember this? So then you get to the point where you ramp it up. I'm never gonna yell on the job, that's just not who I am. But I will at some point have to ramp it up to somebody, to who will fix it.

The UnCommon Communicator: 35:10

And that's what I have found is there's, there's always somebody in the company, at least you hope and you don't know that right until you know that trade partner that's willing to fix that situation. And I think what you talked about tools all over the place I think that's one of the worst things. That shows somebody's ability to provide quality work and efficient work is that they don't take care of their tools, if they don't take care of their job sites, if they're working and filth. Those are things. If, as we continue to help our trade partners become better, a cleaner job site provided for them and then to provide it as well too, are all things that help foster that environment. But we do it through communication, like we we're setting expectations of those, of those type of things.

Lance Furuyama: 35:53

Yeah, and you know one thing I'd like to speak on while I have a have a platform. Everybody gives superintendents such a hard time about being shitty communicators. But if you think about it, what other role are you in? We're 24-7. Whatever phone call you're getting probably isn't a good one. It's always some unexpected thing. You may have everything figured out and then One thing down the chain throws everything off and you're all out of alignment. I mean, that is I was trying to think about it Right. So there's like the military, there's first responders and law enforcement who have to be on once they're on. They're on like there's no downtime in their brain mentally.

Lance Furuyama: 36:37

And you have a superintendent who has a PM, who has a project executive there's, you know, finance coming down, say, hey, we need to hit this milestone. What are you doing? And you have 27 trades working that you really I mean if you're being real about you have no real control over the. I Mean you can try and you can yell to your blue in the face, but they're gonna move. How they're gonna move, I mean just based on who you hired.

Lance Furuyama: 37:03

So when you're in a low bid situation and you're just getting bad news after bad news and you come up with hey, hey, james, how's it going? It's like what are you talking about? Terrible. What the hell are you talking about? I think people need to be a little more aware of the responsibility that they carry, so don't come to them with dumb shit. Like you know, hey, did you? Did you see the game last night? It's like no, I was here. Like, what are you talking about? Like I think there needs to be a little more grace given, and you know they're trying their best, man, it's tough.

The UnCommon Communicator: 37:34

Yeah, the role of the superintendent is one of the toughest jobs that you can have. On that job site and a PM within my organization we're definitely superintendent driven. All the responsibilities of all of the project, you know deliverables, fall on the superintendent as well as executing the project site. I mean there's in some other companies, organizations, it's, you know, the PM might drive the schedule even which not my organization, and so you pretty much own everything. And that's one of the reasons it drew me to the company that I'm working with right now, because that I'd love to having that idea. I don't want to say that amount of control, but that amount of influence on how the project goes falls on that superintendent. But you nailed it and I think that's something that I am. I'm working on some.

The UnCommon Communicator: 38:23

I might be working on a book, I might just throw that out there, but the idea is there's the mindset of stoicism, is something that has helped me and I'm not some weird philosophy guy who is unemployed which is a lot of times the philosophy guys are unemployed but there's a mindset that says that you basically you're not going to let the outward forces change. You know is are going to affect you. You have to manage yourself Everything that's going on beyond you. You know I can't let those situations me take them home anymore, and I I'm learning this over the last few years, but I did. I was one of the worst of them. For two I could not leave work at work, and I made a mind shift years ago to do that. Because, just what you said, you got a million different decisions that you're making every day for everybody, and so there's skills that we can adapt and use at any level of leadership to share that load of decision making, to not let those problems get affect you to where you're going to take those things home.

The UnCommon Communicator: 39:28

It is a very tough and challenging job, and that's where I my passion, is working with the trade partners to better their skills, to be better trade partners, because sometimes, just like in any relationship, we, they, they got to know how to be good trade partners with good expectations as well. So are we giving them good expectations? And most of the time, the trade partners aren't given the training that they should be given because back to this, we, the pool is small. We're throwing so many people into these things, into form and leadership roles that are not ready for it, because there's nobody else to step into it. So now we owe them the training, and that's what I want to see in the next 10 years is and that's what you're doing by sharing through your platform.

The UnCommon Communicator: 40:13

There's several of us, through this no BS tribe and through some other connections, that are saying we're going to take this information and we're going to do our best to get it to this young generation, because there's no reason they need to go through everything that we went through, because they're smarter, they have a better access to information that we've ever had in our life and you know, being able to connect those dots and I see you doing that as well, too, by just getting getting it out there and showing the human side of construction, the human side of communication, really.

Lance Furuyama: 40:45

Thank you. Now in your company do superintendents have a say? I mean maybe not the final say, but a say in the selection of trade partners?

The UnCommon Communicator: 40:53

Yeah, so, depending on the, the contracting style, there are times. But yeah, there we're always brought in and we're given a little bit of choice. But because we're also the responsibility, the budget is ours as well too. We have to look at that and think and I've done this, it's like, okay, this they're $20,000 less, I will. I know the challenge that that trade partner is going to bring, but I want to make sure that we have the right budget to be able to go in there. So you'll make those decisions knowing that.

The UnCommon Communicator: 41:20

So, yeah, there is that decision not always, sometimes a lot, when you, when you said 27 trade partners, trades on the job, that's real and you're talking sometimes, like the project I was just on, I think at 25, I think it was, and it was a small. Well, it was a small project. We did a larger project down the road, say, I mean I was working on a $4 million project. There was one down the road we're doing at 50 million. It had 26 trade partners. So it's not indicative of the side of the project, it's still. The complexity is there. But are we given the choice? For the most part yes, sometimes no, and then you realize who are going to be your challenges and then, when you know it, then you can approach them with a plan to kind of as as it was worded to me as like we need to, we need to drag them across the finish line. And so my word was because this is the trade partner we had to go with and had to to finish with, and I said, okay, I'm giving you some rope too. So we're all going to do it. And we all did. We all pulled them together.

The UnCommon Communicator: 42:23

They actually the one that I'm talking about in particular they did up the performance that they were tough at the beginning, very hard to communicate with, hard to get responses out of their. Finally, once they were engaged and involved, they ended up being one of the more successful trade partners on the project and their work was stellar. I mean, it was beautiful. Like they were a perfectionist then. That was part of the problem in trying to get them to commit early on. So to try. So you have to dive a little bit deeper into know that. You know, at the end of the day I'm looking at how are you finishing? You know there's always going to be a problem along the way, but how are you going to finish it up?

Lance Furuyama: 42:59

Nice, I like that because you guys own as super tenants, own the project for the most part, you know. It made me think of that old bill for ourselves quote if they want you to pick the dinner, at least say I'll let you shop for some of the groceries. I like that.

The UnCommon Communicator: 43:12

Say that again, say that again for me.

Lance Furuyama: 43:14

Oh yeah, it was. If they want you to pick the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.

The UnCommon Communicator: 43:20

I love that. Oh boy, that that should be our UC moment, which that's what we're going to move into now. Lance, thanks so much for joining me this morning. This has been a great conversation. I really have enjoyed watching your, your communication style, and really watch how you've leveraged a lot and we didn't get too far into this, but you've leveraged social media. You've been able to really connect with people who you're you're not meeting in person either. People are connecting with the stuff that you're putting out there and you're plus, you're giving a voice to people. But through our conversation here, what do you think is the UC moment? The UC moment is the uncommon communicator moment, the one thing we're going to sum it up, because they're going to be fun, they're going to have be entertained. But what are they going to walk away with today from my conversation with Lance?

Lance Furuyama: 44:06

I think it's be yourself Like. Nobody can speak your voice better than you can.

The UnCommon Communicator: 44:12

Well, I love them.

Lance Furuyama: 44:12

They'll try to be somebody else.

The UnCommon Communicator: 44:15

Oh, man, that's, we have to end there. Be yourself, I love that. Well, thanks so much, lance. That's what that's all we've got. See you and come to the UC. Children jumpers мотр lightly.