Jason Black is the owner and president of Artisan Signature Homes. He had a successful career prior to construction, but his passion for homes eventually led him to start his first company, Stonecroft Homes, in 2002 while still working full-time. This was the beginning of his journey in building custom homes. Jason has worked on a number of projects with his wife, Gretchen—a talented designer in her own right.

Jason does a deep dive into building a brand and scaling your business through social media, particularly through Instagram. He dismisses common misconceptions such as supposedly needing a huge number of followers and a long-term content strategy to build an audience and stand out. We also go into much of the behind-the-scenes of managing a construction firm, with a focus on budgeting and putting together the right crew for each project.

Listen in as Jason discusses how he sets expectations with his clients, why he almost always declines requests to bring in unfamiliar subcontractors, and how to build a powerful brand for your design or construction business on Instagram.

Topics Discussed:

04:19 - Jason on his spec and build-to-suit homes
08:47 - Choosing projects to serve as loss leaders
11:29 - Working with other designers
13:58 - Creating a budget and knowing how to adapt it as the project progresses
30:28 - Working with a business partner
32:28 - The typical timeframe for a custom home project
36:30 - Saying “no” to certain customers requests (i.e. unproven subcontractors)
41:18 - How Jason chooses his crew members
46:20 - How Jason manages his Instagram account
48:26 - Jason’s content strategy on Instagram
54:14 - How social media has benefitted Artisan Signature Homes
59:11 - What Artisan Signature has planned for the near future

Connect with Guest:

Connect with AFT Construction Podcast Host Brad Leavitt

Key Quotes from Interview:

I don’t chase the dollar. I always sacrifice the dollar for good design, maybe to a flaw. But that’s what I enjoy doing, so that’s what I’m going to keep on doing.
The trajectory any custom home project takes all boils down to those expectations and communications with the client.
Having a business partner is like having a sounding board to keep your ideas in check.
I prefer to stick to what’s tried-and-true with both the people I work with and the system we use. Anytime I fall out of my process, it never has a happy ending.
It’s taken me a long time to understand that not every customer is the right customer for me. So, it’s sometimes better to say “no” than to take a customer that I know is going to be a pain in the ass to work with.
When looking for subcontractors, we want a solid company that’s been in business for a long time that has a service crew that’s going to respond in a timely fashion.
Post what’s true to you. Post the best content that you can produce and share that. I don’t have a stock of 50 images. I usually don’t know what my next post is. Just choose a great photo for the day, keep posting consistently, and engage with your followers. Don’t overthink it.
The biggest thing with social media is to just put yourself out there. You don’t have to have 50,000 followers. There’s micro-influencers that have a couple hundred or a couple thousand followers. You’re still influencing people. You’ve just got to start. You never know where that opportunity will come from.

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