Contractor Growth Network

Logan Shinholser
  • 4.8 (57)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Semimonthly

Growing up as the son of a successful contractor, Logan experienced firsthand the benefits of a healthy contracting business: less stress, more money, and more time for family. Now Logan runs Contractor Growth Network to help guide you on your journey to create a strong and reliable contracting business for your family. Interested in learning more? Visit contractorgrowthnetwork.com or join our Facebook group, Common Sense Contracting, today.

  1. Jul 22

    #490 Answering Remodeler's Top Photography Questions

    How do you find a good remodeling photographer — and once you've found them, how do you actually get photos worth paying for? In this episode of the Contractor Growth Network podcast, Aaron Horner sits down with Luke Strappelli, a CGN client success manager, to answer the photography questions that come up over and over from remodeling clients. Aaron spent years traveling to shoot on-location photography for CGN clients and has been building a full photography guide, so this one gets tactical. They cover what actually separates a good photo from a bad one (spoiler: it's not just camera quality — it's staging and whether someone can picture themselves living in the space), why real estate photographers are the wrong fit for emotion-driven remodeling work, and what you should expect to pay — from the $200–$600 budget end up to $2,000+ day rates. Aaron breaks down the five categories of photos every remodeler needs, why high-end photographers shoot with the interior lights off, how to prep both the space and the photographer, where to find a shooter if you're in a rural area, how many photos to aim for per room, and what to do when a family has already moved back in. If you've ever looked at a beautiful remodel captured in a flat, lifeless photo and winced, this episode will show you how to stop leaving sales on the table with bad media. LINKS Photography Prep Questions Doc: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Zlnntx-JYQrcgEj9XfYy1UhWSVxWhIJ/view?usp=drive_link Photographer Sourcing Websites: findaphotographer.com https://www.asmp.org/find-a-photographer/ Today's Podcast Episdoe on Youtube https://youtu.be/VSIiBs1Exrk Youtube Photography Guide https://youtu.be/c36bz-0kdiY   🎯 Timestamps: 00:00 — Why listen to us? 03:12 — What actually makes a photo "good" 08:44 — What remodeling photography really costs 12:34 — Why pros shoot with the lights off 15:32 — Staging the space, and why it matters most 25:37 — The five types of photos every remodeler needs 30:32 — How to prep your photographer so they get the shots 34:03 — What to do when you can't find a photographer 39:04 — How to pick the right photographer from your options 42:43 — How many photos you actually need per room 44:46 — Getting photos when a family already lives there 48:00 — Can you just do it yourself or use AI?

  2. Jul 8

    #489 Your Remodeling Business' Marketing Strategy for 2027

    A year ago, in episode 466, we laid out the entire six-step marketing strategy for a remodeling company. A lot has changed since — the market has slowed, AI search has gone from a curiosity to a real force, and the tactics that used to move the needle have shifted. In this episode of the Contractor Growth Network podcast, Logan Shinholser and Aaron Horner give you a "State of the Union" on what CGN is now doing differently for its remodeling clients, and why. The foundation hasn't changed: know your ideal client and their real problem, articulate how you solve it, back it up with strong branding and media, and tie it all together on a website that reads like a tailored resume for your business. What's changed is everything above the foundation — the traffic layer. Logan and Aaron break down how Google's AI search is reshaping SEO, why the Reddit-gaming era already came and went, and why "by the book" still wins even if it's the slowest lane. They also get into why AI writing reads like AI — it's the uniform sentence length and the talking-a-lot-about-nothing, not just the word "delve" — and what that means for how you should produce content now. From there it gets practical. As AI makes generic content effortless, the only real edge left is proof, so the whole strategy now centers on specific, real projects. Logan walks through capturing a project in a 45-minute interview instead of a fill-in-the-blank form, turning that one project into a featured project page, and then spinning it into a web of supporting content — informational blogs, "am I getting scammed?" job-to-be-done posts, cost pages with real examples — that builds topical authority and gives people (and AI) a reason to land on your site instead of a summary. Then he covers the demographic side: running social ads as "digital yard signs" that put a finished project in front of the exact neighborhood it's in. If you're doing scattered marketing tactics without an overall strategy — or you're wondering how to fold AI into your business without sounding like everyone else — this episode gives you a clear, current playbook. 00:00 — Why CGN is updating the strategy from episode 466 03:36 — The six-step framework, recapped 09:56 — Traffic: intention-based vs. demographic-based 18:10 — How AI search changed SEO, and the Reddit-gaming era 21:44 — Why AI writing actually reads like AI 26:26 — Ideal client: pick one real person, not a generic avatar 31:18 — Reverse-engineering a featured project, step by step 39:33 — Turning one project into a featured project page 48:19 — Writing content AI can't just summarize away 56:05 — "Digital yard signs": social ads to the neighbors

  3. Jun 24

    # 488 AI Tools Built BY REMODELERS (ft. Data X)

    Everyone keeps telling contractors they'll be out of business in six months if they don't adopt AI. The reality is calmer than that—and a lot more useful. In this episode of the Contractor Growth Network podcast, Logan Shinholser sits down with Peter Ranney and Elliott Wittstruck, the founders of DataX, an AI optimization company built specifically for contractors running JobTread. Peter and Elliott come from the remodeling world themselves, and DataX started as a hodgepodge of tools they built to solve their own problems—Peter brute-forcing automations in Zapier, Elliott writing code for cash flow projection calendars. They walk through how those scrappy internal tools turned into a software company, and why the goal was never to build a business so much as to build helpful things and share them. Along the way they break down what AI actually does well in a construction business right now: receipt processing that runs while you sleep, a grammar checker that turns "bathroom color?" into a question a high-end client will actually respect, and connecting your phone system, Gmail, and Zillow data into JobTread as a single source of truth. Frontier models like Claude and ChatGPT will "brute force" a vague prompt by burning huge amounts of tokens and time—sometimes 15 to 20 minutes per question. DataX pre-defines the construction logic and JobTread tools on the back end so the same task runs 20 to 50 times more efficiently. Peter and Elliott also get into the misconceptions—the FOMO, the trap of solving problems that don't exist, and why you can't outrun a business with foundations that aren't set up yet. If you've been told AI is going to leave you behind but you don't know where to actually start, this episode gives you a grounded, contractor-specific way to think about it.  Timestamps 00:00  —  Meet Peter and Elliott, the founders of DataX 01:22  —  Peter's origin story: from BuilderTrend to JobTread to Zapier 08:09  —  Elliott's path: band director, self-taught coder, family business 14:07  —  The biggest misconception: FOMO and solving problems that don't exist 14:46  —  Only 0.4% of the world pays for AI—you're not behind 17:12  —  How DataX acts as guardrails between you and JobTread 18:25  —  The massive system prompt behind DataX (20–50x more efficient) 33:27  —  The bread aisle analogy: buy tools, don't build everything 46:23  —  The most-used workflow: the receipt processor 01:01:37  —  Final thoughts: have AI tell the humans what to do

  4. Jun 10

    #487 Branding for the Billion Dollar Client (ft. Vought Construction)

    Everybody says they do "high end." Almost nobody looks the part. In this episode of the Contractor Growth Network podcast, Logan sits down with Devin Vought of Vought Construction — JobTread's 2025 Builder of the Year and a luxury home builder in the Bay Area whose clients are routinely worth hundreds of millions, sometimes billions. Devin breaks down what branding actually means when your prospects can buy anything they want. It's not the logo or the tagline. It's the client journey he's engineered behind the scenes — the demo-day party, the handmade pastries waiting for a client flying in from London, the white-collar warranty guy he sends over to hang a light fixture months before a contract is ever signed. Logan ties it back to the book Selling the Invisible: in a service business, the brand is the product before you can deliver it, so every touchpoint has to prove you'll handle what the client can't see behind the drywall. They get into uniforms and the "broken windows" theory on job sites, why trash cans everywhere beats nagging your subs, removing decision fatigue for busy clients, the real ROI of a website, and why Devin is now working to make Vought Construction stand on its own — without Devin. If you've ever felt like you're doing great work but can't get clients to pay what it's worth — or you want to move upmarket but don't look like a company that belongs there — this episode shows you the small, accumulating moves that actually raise your average job size. 🎯 00:00 — Targeting billion-dollar homeowners: what this episode is about 00:34 — Devin's back, now 2025 Builder of the Year 01:04 — The Remodelers Advantage peer group that sparked this conversation 02:10 — Who Devin's clients really are (and why "high end" is watered down) 04:42 — What branding actually means — beyond the logo 05:51 — The proprietary "client journey" most clients never see 09:25 — The London client, the pastries, and the tears 11:40 — Why most contractors want to do this but never find the time 12:24 — Getting into the client's world through dinners and events 15:28 — Why hiring a customer-success role pays for itself 18:34 — Uniforms and the broken-windows theory on a job site 21:14 — Defining the "Vought way": clean, organized, respectful 22:55 — Trash cans everywhere — shaping behavior instead of nagging 26:50 — Removing friction: pods, white-glove moves, decision fatigue 31:13 — Selling the Invisible: third-party proof vs. first-party experience 34:00 — Photos that show a lived-in home, not a realtor's empty room 36:16 — Honey-do touch-ups during pre-construction as a marketing move 39:33 — The real ROI of a good logo and website 46:44 — Consistency, the Starbucks standard, and core values that ring hollow 50:13 — The pushback: "it's just price and time" 56:22 — Living into your future identity before you've earned it 59:08 — The next three years: building a company bigger than the founder 01:02:16 — How brand drives job stability and pulls talent from competitors

  5. May 27

    #486 How to Get Cited by ChatGPT, Gemini & Claude in 90 Days

    _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Is your remodeling company being recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude — or would you even know if it was? In this episode of the Contractor Growth Network podcast, Logan sits down with Patrick Sculley, CGN's in-house SEO lead, to walk through a 90-day plan for getting cited in AI search. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> They start with the basics — what "cited" actually means, why personalization is making AI results different for every searcher, and why the old SEO formula of "more reviews + more backlinks = trust" doesn't hold the same weight anymore. Then they break the 90 days into three sprints. Days 1–30: run a visibility audit, fix your service pages and About page, and figure out what the LLMs already know about you. Days 31–60: build first-party content — call recordings, FAQs, cost articles, project pages, and YouTube videos that AI can pull from. Days 61–90: spread your influence beyond your own website with reviews on Houzz and Angie, Reddit answers, association memberships, and press mentions. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> The conversation also gets into CGN's "client brain" — the system we've been building so that every blog, page, and ad we write for a client is sourced from their actual transcripts, calls, and brand voice instead of generic keyword targeting. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> If you've ever opened ChatGPT, asked "who's a good remodeler in my area," and not seen your name come up — this episode lays out the exact 90-day path to fix that. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> 🎯 Timestamps _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> 00:00 — Is your remodeling company being recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude? 02:50 — What "cited" actually means in AI search 16:09 — How realistic is 90 days, and what foundation do you need first?  19:00 — The most-crawled page on your site  24:14 — Day 1–30: how to run your AI visibility audit 30:31 — Quality vs. quantity: why pumping out blogs will backfire 33:18 — Why your search results look different from your neighbor's  47:32 — Day 31–60: turning sales-call FAQs into website content 54:51 — Inside CGN's "client brain" and why it changes what we write about 01:04:01 — Chunked indexing: why one long article can replace ten short ones 01:08:26 — Day 61–90: amplification, reviews, Reddit, and associations 01:14:54 — Do NARI and Chamber of Commerce memberships move the needle? 01:18:40 — How to re-measure your visibility at the end of 90 days

  6. May 13

    #485 JobTread's Founder on AI, Automation, and The Future of Remodeling

    What's the one thing in your business you wish could be automated? In this episode of the Contractor Growth Network podcast, Logan sits down with Eric Fortenberry — founder and CEO of JobTread — to dig into how AI is reshaping the way contractors run their businesses, and where the real risks are hiding underneath the hype. JobTread just rolled out a feature that lets contractors connect their own AI model directly into their JobTread account, and within two weeks over 1,500 users had spun up Claude and wired it in. Eric walks through what's working, what's blowing up in people's faces (one client accidentally exposed every customer's contact info, another leaked their Google Places API key and started racking up charges), and how to think about AI as a 65–75% tool rather than an easy button. The conversation hits estimating, hiring, customer service, MCP integrations, the future of search, and why $100/month for Claude is the most underpriced employee you'll ever hire. If you've been watching AI from the sidelines wondering whether to dive in — or you're already deep and worried you're moving too fast — this episode will help you figure out where to push the gas and where to tap the brakes. 🎯 Timestamps 00:00 — What's the one thing you'd automate in your business? 00:40 — Pros and cons of AI from a software founder's chair 02:24 — How AI compares to the internet's adoption curve 05:28 — The "vibe coder" trap — when speaking into AI breaks more than it fixes 08:22 — The client who accidentally exposed every customer's data 10:30 — And the one who leaked their Google Places API key 12:33 — The Waze problem: faster isn't always worth it 14:52 — Where AI actually saves contractors time today 17:34 — Turning a 12-hour scope of work into something AI assists in minutes 19:32 — Why "trust and verify" beats trusting AI's first draft 23:15 — Feeding examples — the unlock most people miss 26:50 — Why people using AI will displace people who don't 28:27 — How JobTread hires (and why they still want a 2-minute intro video) 32:55 — Why an AI answering service kills a $100K remodel pitch 38:54 — Putting AI into the interview process 45:19 — Plod, MCP servers, and stringing tools into a real workflow 50:25 — Real screenshots vs. AI-fluff blog posts — why authenticity wins 53:52 — Google's data moat and what it means for search 59:17 — The math behind $20 Claude (Anthropic spends $18 for every $1 you pay)

  7. Apr 29

    #484 The Anatomy of a Great Remodeling Testimonial

    How well does your company share stories of your past work? Many remodeling companies know that client testimonials are important, but are wasting the opportunity because of a lack of understanding around what a testimonial is supposed to do. In this episode Logan and Aaron are breaking some of the most impactful lessons they've learned over the years making impactful testimonials that actually sell more work. They walk through why most testimonial videos fail, the biggest mistakes contractors make when trying to capture them, and what it actually takes to create a video that builds trust and drives real buying decisions. From choosing the right setup (DIY vs. photographer vs. videographer) to structuring the story, asking the right questions, and editing for impact, this episode is a full behind-the-scenes look at how high-performing testimonial videos are made. If you've ever thought, "We should probably get a testimonial for this project," but weren't sure how to do it right—this episode will save you time, money, and frustration.   Resources Mentioned in the Video: Client Testimonial Questions PDF https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S2pCv3sASWny_2iWiLqCilz80PBf7r1Z/view?usp=sharing 7 Tips for Recording Better Testimonials https://youtu.be/L_wE3-qPWf8?si=ezSGJRlvmnYPVbPW Finished Testimonials We Created for Frei Remodeling https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoQIN5NPd7wdXN_xyKCRUGhcemMnr7AFD&si=C0JaPttzZDjO24xV 00:00 — Why storytelling is the key to building trust with testimonials 01:28 — Why video testimonials are harder than they seem 04:13 — The biggest mistakes remodelers make 05:46 — DIY vs. hiring help: pros and cons 10:09 — "Architectural Digest vs. TikTok" style videos 14:05 — The 3 core components: filming, story, and editing 18:07 — What testimonial videos are actually used for 20:54 — How to prep before filming (finding the story) 24:02 — Identifying the core storyline 29:29 — Setting up the interview and camera positioning 37:44 — The exact questions to ask clients 55:06 — What B-roll is and why it matters 01:00:10 — Editing, pacing, and keeping attention 01:12:50 — Why editing is the most important part

  8. Apr 15

    #483 Tommy Mellow: Scaling Your Contracting Business Presentation

    Tommy, founder of a $200M+ home service business, breaks down the exact principles he used to scale—from performance pay and hiring A-players to dialing in branding, KPIs, and company culture. But more than tactics, this talk hits on something deeper: accountability, execution, and why most contractors stay stuck despite having access to great ideas. If you've ever felt like you're working hard but not making the progress you expected—or you know what to do but aren't actually doing it—this episode will challenge you to rethink how you operate your business and your life. Timestamps 00:00 — Why keeping promises to yourself matters more than anything 00:20 — Introduction to Tommy Mello and his $200M+ business 02:00 — Why profit matters more than revenue 05:05 — The 8-step sales process and increasing reviews 07:02 — The 4 KPIs that control your entire business 10:48 — Branding mistakes and the power of a rebrand 14:27 — How to research customers before showing up 15:17 — Hiring A-players vs. settling for average 21:46 — Tools, systems, and automation that scale companies 27:58 — Performance pay and building a winning team 33:39 — "The magic you're looking for is in the work you're avoiding"💻 Ready to grow your contracting business?  Visit https://www.contractorgrowthnetwork.com for expert resources and support! Connect With Us: 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/contractorgrowthnetwork1/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/contractorgrowthnetwork/ ✨ View Recent Projects: https://www.contractorgrowthnetwork.com/featured-projects/

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4.8
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About

Growing up as the son of a successful contractor, Logan experienced firsthand the benefits of a healthy contracting business: less stress, more money, and more time for family. Now Logan runs Contractor Growth Network to help guide you on your journey to create a strong and reliable contracting business for your family. Interested in learning more? Visit contractorgrowthnetwork.com or join our Facebook group, Common Sense Contracting, today.

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