Show Notes

• Born to build
• Weathering the storm
• Lessons learned along the way
• Motivation to become an author
• God’s influence in Jerry’s life
• The Phoenix Dream Center
• Jerry’s legacy in the construction business

Connect With Jerry Meek

✩ Website: https://DesertStarConstruction.com/
✩ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerryrmeek
✩ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jerryrmeek
✩ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerryrmeek

Additional Resources

✩ Book: Be Great… Before It’s Too Late
✩ Book: Leadership on the Level

Summary

Jerry Meek is the Founder and CEO of Desert Star Construction, a company dedicated to building an impressive variety of architectural styles, net-zero energy and LEED Certified homes and residential projects in the most luxurious communities across Phoenix and throughout Arizona. Jerry discusses what it’s like to build homes for some of the world’s most successful people, and the true source of his success.

Full Transcript

Brian
Welcome to another episode of LifeExcellence with Brian Bartes. Join me as I talk with amazing athletes, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, and others who have achieved excellence in their chosen field so you can learn their tools, techniques and strategies for improving performance and achieving greater success.

Jerry Meek is the founder and CEO of Desert Star Construction, a company dedicated to building an impressive variety of architectural styles, Net-zero energy, and LEED certified homes in residential projects in the most luxurious communities across Phoenix, Paradise Valley, Scottsdale and throughout Arizona. Known by clients and industry colleagues as the best team in the luxury home business, DSC has been recognized in dozens of magazines and earned honors such as multiple Gold Nugget Awards, Phoenix Home and Garden Home of the Year, Southwest Contractor, and NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) Custom Home of the Year. In 2017 Jerry was the first ever luxury custom home builder to receive Phoenix Home and Garden’s Master of the Southwest, an award program in its 30th year that recognizes the best in design and craftsmanship. Jerry served as the founding president of the Phoenix Dream Center Foundation, an organization that helps survivors of human trafficking, and he is the founder of Glorious Reflections, an online community that helps overwhelmed Christian business leaders rediscover their eternal purpose and find unending joy in their life and leadership. Jerry and I share a passion for motivating people to dream big and live a life of greatness. It’s an honor to have him on the show. Welcome, Jerry, and thanks for joining us on LifeExcellence.

Jerry
Thank you so much, Brian. It’s an honor to be here. It’s taken us a while to connect but I’m glad it’s now.

Brian
I’m glad you’re here too. Thanks for being here. Jerry, I’ve seen some of the homes you’ve built and words like stunning and spectacular don’t even begin to describe them. I think we’ve included some video of one of your homes for those watching the show on YouTube. I have to imagine that, especially in upscale areas around Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, you’re not the only luxury home builder. What does DSC do that other builders don’t do that has caused you to differentiate yourself and become the company that some of the most financially successful people in the world choose to build what you call their personal resort.

Jerry
I think the biggest thing we do is we’ve got a foundation of integrity. My dad taught me the only thing I would ever own is my integrity and I had to keep working on it. Many of the builders…there are some other good builders, I don’t want to say there is not because there are and we are in relationship with them. I think what differentiates us, Brian, is that integrity is not just structural integrity, but it’s personal integrity with our team and our trade contractors. We just create really great experiences for our clients. They could choose anybody, anybody in the world, that they want to come build their home and they’ve asked us to be stewards of that vision for them. We feel like, with 46 years of experience, we’re uniquely qualified to do it.

Brian
Well, the marketplace, obviously, has shown that you are. Jerry, when we talked a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned a friend who eventually wants to build a house in Scottsdale and you said you’re so busy that it would be years before you could get to him. Give us an idea of the type and scope of projects that you’re working on these days.

Jerry
Wow, that’s a big question. I’ve got to go through my mind and see which ones I can actually talk about because of non-disclosures. We have not really done advertising per se, it’s been word of mouth. Our clients recommend their friends to us. The types of projects I think, every year, get more complex, more detailed and, set inflation aside, they’re just more money because of the size and detail. I think the complexity has gone up and frankly, the homes that we build, we call them personal resorts. It’s our trademark of what we build. I came from a commercial background early on and I didn’t like it; all they cared about was getting the project, didn’t care about quality and it was all about price. I figured we can balance those things out. We’ve done a good job at that. But we have one project that’s over 40,000 square feet. We’ve got one that’s 50,000 square feet. We’ve got a really cool one that’s 6,000 square feet. There are many more beyond that, but for us, we’re at a point in our business career where we get to choose who we work with. They have a choice but so do we. When I was starting out, Brian, anybody with a pulse I wanted to be my client, I had no customer base, I needed the work.

Brian
I think it’s fair to say that you are working with a unique clientele, not just the higher end of the market, but the very highest end of the market. Just out of curiosity – we’ll get into your career and the start of your career – but you mentioned being a commercial home builder and moving into the luxury home building business. What’s it like to deal with a clientele at at that high end of the market versus, say, the extreme opposite, or even somewhere in the middle?

Jerry
It’s a balance between pure ecstasy and sheer terror. It really is. I think the pendulum swings both ways. The majority of our clients are heads of publicly or privately held companies. That’s the good news. Then they want somebody who’s going to own it and run it like a business. But the design team sometimes has 10, 12 different people and other consultants [on it] and I have to tell you, they’re very sophisticated. Depending on the architect, the client or the design team people, it’s complex to build these things. The project that I believe you’re going to show later on is a three year project that should have taken five years to build and I had over 3 million labor hours in that project. It’s just a lot to coordinate.

Brian
So it’s probably pretty satisfying when you get that final sign off and the project’s complete.

Jerry
It used to be that. But I think honestly, it’s the opportunity to get to be toe to toe with these CEOs. I didn’t go to college, Brian, as you know, but I’ve had the most successful people in the world across the table from me toe to toe. They really are willing to share in terms of help, and there’s not an issue I can’t get resolved with a phone call. It’s been a blessing. I have to tell you, I am more motivated by the relationships that we build with our trades, our employees, the clients; some of them have ended up being business partners on different levels and it’s just exciting to do it. But in the end, we’re serving them or building somebody else’s vision and I think that’s what’s compelling to me, because I can tell you, I’ve got a good design sense but I could never design a project like we build, ever.

Brian
Well it sounds like you put a good team together. I know that you’re producing a very high quality product that your customers and clients are pleased with. Jerry, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who seemed to know at such a young age what he was destined to do vocationally. You were only five years old when you started tagging along with your dad to construction job sites. In your book “Be Great Before It’s Too Late” you wrote that you nailed down your first sub-floor at the age of five. I didn’t even know what a sub-floor was until I was about 35. You nailed down your first roof in the sixth grade. By the age of 18 you were in the carpentry business, you had gone into business, started Desert Star Construction, I guess, with your father. Share what it was like for you growing up and at what point did you realize that you were called to be a builder?

Jerry
That’s a very big question so I’ll try to distill it for you. I think the true reason that I was..I got dropped off after kindergarten to go work on my dad’s jobs. I think it was really because my mom didn’t want me around. I know she loved me, but there was a level of dysfunction in our family. I think what started first was a love for my dad, that I could spend time with him and then always working for that approval from him, the at-a-boy. My parents both had very challenging upbringings, a lot of bad stuff happened to them but they really did their very best with me and my brothers and sisters, and I’m thankful for it. I think you’ve heard me say this; in life it’s not what you’ve accomplished that makes you successful, it’s what you overcome. They both overcame in my book; mom and dad were two of the most successful people I knew. But I think the biggest thing is my dad had some bad experiences in construction and I was the compliant middle child in our family, just so you’re aware of the personality types. Well, my dad always told me not to go into construction. He wanted more for me. It’s hard, you’re going to work a lot, there’s no money in it, so on and so forth. The Phoenix Business Gazette did an article on me called “Rebellious Son” because they knew my dad didn’t want me to go into construction. So I don’t know if it was my rebellion or not, I just thought it was really cool to see something you accomplished at the end of the day and I still feel that way. The accomplishments are different now when you’ve got so many people on your team doing the actual work but the fulfillment is just as great. And to see our clients being the wealthiest in the world…they use their homes to raise funds for good causes and I think that’s really powerful. It’s more than just a home, it’s a venue where they can have their friends and family and for events too.

Brian
That’s really a great point. I really hadn’t thought about that. I know that you create beautiful, as you have trademarked the term, personal resorts but I didn’t really think about that being a showplace for raising money. Of course, now that you say that, it just makes sense. I have friends who have beautiful homes who use their homes for that purpose so to be a part of that is really an added blessing.

Jerry
It really is Brian, and the people that I’ve been allowed to meet that I would never have met – our governors and presidents or presidential candidates and things of that nature – it’s fun.

Brian
It sounds fun. You mentioned adversity in growing up and your parents’ situation growing up compared to yours…DSC today is a phenomenally successful company, financially strong, I’m guessing, but the construction market is – even as it relates to luxury home building, maybe especially as it relates to luxury home building – a cyclical business. You’ve been in business for over 40 years so I know you’ve experienced adversity. I know you’ve had personal adversity too, but certainly adversity in your business. Tell us about a time when DSC wasn’t doing as well and how were you able to weather the storm? What lessons did you learn from those downturns?

Jerry
I guess I’m going to break that into two categories; the first 20 years and then what happened after that. First ten years in business, my average income was $9,070 a year. My first 20 years in business was where my average salary was $17,000 a year. So I wasn’t making any money whatsoever. But I had a back injury and I had to quit working like I always had worked before and 18 months in traction will teach you how to get through something else. Instead of focusing on what I could do as Jerry with limited hours, and even more limited physical abilities, I transformed that into what kind of a team can I build. I will tell you, it was amazing to get, instead of addition, it was multiplication, our business. There have been a lot of different events that we’ve really hit…I’ll tell you, 9/11, we were fortunate enough just to push right through that, 2008-09 were brutal. We had $25 million in work cancel in a 45 day period and that year all we had signed was $25 million of work, so that was everything. I think what it is…I’m a person of faith and I think that gets me through these challenges. But when I say that, I had to figure out what to do. I had quite a few employees, we had a great team, great subcontractors, and I just made a bold statement. I got my team together and I told everybody – as other companies were going broke, people getting laid off – I said, I’m going to choose not to participate in this downturn. I said, what does that mean, that means my wife and I aren’t going to take a salary until things turn around. I had no idea what I was committed to, Brian. It was two years before Carol and I saw a dime and it took us a few years to catch up from that commitment. I’m so glad we did it, we reworked our entire process from the very first time we met a client all the way through to operation for the concierge division that now takes care of the homes. I would have never said that was a good thing but we learned a lot. And for me, I will never pick a fight with somebody but everybody knows I’ll never walk away from one either. So instead of being down and afraid, we turned into the storm. We literally started demolishing houses; the only thing that was going on was houses that were on the market wouldn’t sell, so I went to realtors and found out about the tax deduction. We were tearing down really good homes but they were getting tax deductions from $500,000 to just under two million and their property sold almost instantly because people can see their own vision on that land. So you just have to do things differently but never run from the adversity ever.

Brian
You’ve made some pretty bold leadership decisions and business decisions through the years, the one in 2008 was certainly bold. To be successful for that length of time your company really has to adapt, as you know, at different times. The other thing though, is that you’ve had to grow and adapt as a leader. How has your approach to leadership…you talked about being laid up and having to…because you couldn’t go…I know you were always the first guy on the job site at three in the morning and the last guy at the job site, and then you’d go and probably do paperwork at night, which isn’t an atypical story for someone in your position, especially in the early days, but you realized out of necessity that you couldn’t continue to do that. That forced you to adapt and really become more of a leader than I think the hands on manager or project manager, probably. How has your approach to leadership and management evolved as DSC has grown?

Jerry
I think it’s grown by virtue of sometimes what we knew and what we didn’t know. I felt like I had to start being bigger on the inside than on the outside; that was a lot of personal development, getting rid of things that didn’t work. But in terms of the pivotal things for me, it became a perspective of having a values based company, that we put people before profits. And when I say that, 30-40 years ago, most people had a community that they were part of – there was a church, some organization, a club – people have gotten away from that now and we took it upon ourselves at Desert Star to be that humanity. We now have family fun weekends, where we bring everybody and their children somewhere, we do something special. We have a lot of events during the year. That’s the social side. The practical side – this is something that I’ve just started doing this year with a renewed sense of urgency – we’re investing more and more into our team members. It’s not just giving them a to do list; I was the kind of leader and still am, where you come alongside the people, Brian, you walk with them, because I truly believe more is caught than taught. But I’ve got five amazing human beings right now, men in our company that I’m actually training, and I have to tell you, I’m having more fun than they are. They are all running projects but I didn’t do a good job in formally training them to be a superintendent. So we’re getting together and I think it’s the best thing I’m doing right now in business, investing in my team. I think that that, again, that will turn into multiplication, because it’s long term.

Brian
Sure, and I smile when you say that you’re having more fun than they are because I bet if we brought them on the show and asked them, they would suggest that they’re having more fun than you are. That’s a testament to your leadership, I think.

Jerry
Oh, thank you.

Brian
One of the things we try to do on the show, as you know, we bring people on the show who have achieved excellence in their chosen profession and the take-away I always strive for, that I shoot for, is that our listeners and viewers learn tools and techniques and strategies from the guests on the show that they can then take and apply in their own lives. What are a couple of the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned or specific strategies you’ve incorporated into your leadership, things that for you today are maybe second nature, having been in business for over 40 years, but haven’t always been that way?

Jerry
I think that’s thinking more of others than yourself. I think that comes with that level five leader, strong professional will, personal humility. That takes time to develop because honestly, that humility…that’s like the word integrity; there’s a word in the Greek that relates to it, it’s called the chisel and a chisel takes away everything that doesn’t belong. I think it’s a constant process. By the way, I don’t have it all figured out. I’m still a work in process too, Brian. But every day, I just pick a little bit more of the garbage out; like who am I supposed to be as a leader and as a builder. I think one of the main things has been delegating the leadership. We have construction meetings, we have leadership meetings, my core group that we get together and frankly, I think it’s giving people a future, not just a job. When we interview people, we ask them what they’re after and what they want to do in five or ten years. Every once in a while somebody will say they want my job. I say you can have it if you can do it. [Laughter.] (Brian: You can start tomorrow.) Yeah, exactly. But I think in terms of leadership, the practical thing is, for example, our annual meeting this past year, I did some things that I’ve learned from our clients. Most of what I’ve learned, for example, our first publicly held client was Randy Knight. He was the chairman of Knight Transportation, they’re a national trucking company and I was just like a pig in slop, I didn’t know why we even got the job. I said, why did you choose us? And he says, Jerry, you’re the only builder that didn’t impress me by dropping names of other people you built for. And I said, thank you. What Randy didn’t know was I had no names to drop, but I learned from it. I think what happens in these situations is you have to be aware of what’s right in front of you, instead of always going for the next thing. I have never brought up another client’s name in an interview in 46 years because Randy taught me that. I also learned, in terms of pricing structures, we are not the cheapest, but I believe we offer more value. As an entrepreneur business owner, it’s not how much you charge, it’s can you justify the price? For me, that was hard, I didn’t think we were that good. But at some point when profitability became an issue, I needed to figure out what do we do that nobody else is doing and leverage that. It’s even something that came to my mind just last Friday morning in my quiet time, is that it seems like we as business people are always chasing, instead of embracing. When I say that, we’re chasing the next client, the next employee, the bigger house, the car, and the list goes on and on. But that’s a mirage. I think part of my success in leadership, Brian, has been I’ve embraced what’s in front of me. I’ve been able to learn from these CEOs. I always ask them too, and I think they like the humility because many of the CEOs…I remember when I was working with Don Ulrich, he was a senior VP of Coca Cola, and I said, what do you like most about your job? He goes, I love the power. I’m like, great. [Laughter.] But you know what, I learned a lot from him, he taught me a lot. For me, it’s just been the opportunity to be in an environment, to be in a room I think…part of my history [is] I was a pretty insecure kid. We moved around a lot, never had friends, didn’t really have stability at home some of the times and to that end I just was afraid to meet these people. I just had to work through those insecurities and it took time, but we’ve all got stuff. When we’re thinking, what can we do for somebody instead of what can we get from them, that’s pivotal in every business relationship that we have.

Brian
Those are all great take-aways, Jerry, thanks for sharing those. Jerry, in addition to your successful career as a builder, you’ve also found time to write a few books. I love “Leadership on the Level” and I’m going to go back and re-read “Be Great Before It’s Too Late” because it’s just chock full of inspirational stories of men and women in history and the peaks and valleys they’ve experienced in their lives. I highly recommend that book for our listeners and viewers. You’re a busy guy with a thriving business and a great family. What motivated you to become an author on top of those things?

Jerry
I don’t know because there are times when I think it was like the dumbest thing I ever did. It’s like building a house; it’s harder, it takes longer and it costs more money, right? IMark Patterson, the author, said this once; he said that when a person dies a library goes away. I want to tell your listeners, I don’t think I’m a phenomenal author but I think I’ve got some great stories of what’s happened through my life, through my faith, how God’s blessed me, and I want to share those. I think it’ll be more than my kids and grandkids but there are certain principles of…”Leadership on the Level,” honestly, that and “While You Wait” were the byproduct of…I was speaking to a group of pastors and they were all talking about what are they going to do through COVID. I’m like, I think I’m going to write a book. I want to have an answer to that question. It’s like everybody asks, where were you when 9/11 took place? I can tell you what job or what we were doing then but I don’t want to waste time. When I get to the end of this journey, I want the “well done,” not “hey, you could have, Jerry, but you didn’t.” So I’ve always erred on the side of action, even when I failed, and I failed a lot.

Brian
Well, that’s another takeaway, I think. In the “Be Great” book I thought it was interesting how you talked about what greatness is. You wrote about that and shared stories of people we all recognize but it was interesting that you started by sharing what greatness isn’t and offered stories of men and women who were incredibly talented and phenomenally successful by worldly standards but ended up falling short of their potential. Why was it important for you to not only help readers see the opportunities for greatness, but also share warnings about the obstacles we might face in our journey to living that life of greatness?

Jerry
That is a great question, Brian, thank you, because really the motivation for that book, a friend of mine, he preached a message on that. He was at a college commencement. The first thing I thought of is, well, I wish somebody would have told me those things when I was 18: what’s really important. I got his permission to kind of steal his words to get started and I ended up not using any of them, hardly, just in terms of integrity, and Jensen wrote the foreword of the book for me. But it was, for me, I feel like every day it seems more visible that people are just chasing mirages. Even with the superintendent’s class I told you about I’m teaching with our team, the first half of every class is about character integrity, because if they don’t have a personal foundation to carry the weight of leadership and the size of the projects that they do, they’re going to crumble. I think everybody is so concerned about, oh, you’ve got these shoes and this handbag and a million followers. It’s like, who cares? Our personal greatness is what we do for others. Fame is what we do for ourselves. If you see these famous people and they don’t have the foundation and stability in their life, the priority in their life, they fall. I’m far from perfect, anybody who knows me well will tell you that but I know I’m trying. I think that’s what I want to communicate; who cares if you’re a movie star? I think Helen Keller was more successful than some of the famous actors or Corrie ten Boom – you pick a name. But I think in today’s society, people are so focused on stuff and belongings or what other people think we’re not investing in ourselves. The hardest person for anybody to lead is themselves. I’m a walking testimony of that, Brian.

Brian
I think you’re hard on yourself, Jerry.

Jerry
I’m very hard on myself. I don’t think I’ve ever really said, this was a great project, because I come in six months later, it’s like, how did we miss that? Nobody else sees it, but I see it.

Brian
You’ve mentioned your faith a couple times and I know you’re a man of faith. You credit your relationship with Christ for, I think, all the success you’ve had, whether it’s in your business or personal life, family life, and also for many of the important lessons you’ve learned. Share more about God’s influence in your life, if you would, and the impact he’s had on you both personally and professionally.

Jerry
It’s like everything in life, it’s been a journey. And even during the bullying part – I shared a little bit of this in “Be Great” – I think I was on school number seven or eight, I can’t remember, but I was getting beat up and bullied. I was one semester in Scottsdale, Arizona on the way to upstate New York and the teacher wrote me the most thoughtful letter. She said, Jerry, I don’t know why this is happening to you, I don’t understand it but I always want you to know that God plus one is a majority. And I have held on to those words my whole life. At that point in time we weren’t going to church, there wasn’t an emphasis on God. I was raised Catholic, but there was nothing about a relationship with the Lord. I think my faith has probably been the biggest impact on my business, Brian, in terms of generosity. To me, generosity is the hallmark of faith. And I don’t think it’s just money, it’s your time, it’s your talents, it’s helping others succeed. There have been so many pivotal things where we’ve been allowed to help people and that’s the biggest thing. Whatever money you make, it’s what are you going to do with it? I can remember a friend of mine who challenged me, he said, Jerry, did you dedicate your business to the Lord? I said, yeah and I feel pretty proud of myself. He goes, well, that’s why you’re not doing as good as you should. I said, excuse me? He goes Jerry, it’s all God’s, you’ve got to give the business to God and get out of the way. That was pivotal for me. It was a transition mentally, a lot of reading, a lot of prayer and trying to understand things, good conversations with quality people. My takeaway from that was I had to stop asking God to bless what I was doing and start asking God, what do you want me to do? And I will tell you, at that point in time, I thought I had it all figured out but nah, once I took that, our income and revenue went up four times.

Brian
Where was that time wise in the history of Desert Star?

Jerry
That was probably almost 30 years into a 46-year career. But even that, I think part of it is – I don’t do this every year, but probably every other year – I read one chapter of Proverbs every day in the Message Bible – which I can understand – not King James, it’s kind of like, I think he’s dead; we have hundreds of choices now for bibles. It keeps you grounded. It talks about how you trust in God, how you treat people, it talks about success in business, that people that are generous will be made fat. You go through all these things. It’s serving something bigger than yourself. But there’s a road map on how to do it and that’s what the Bible has been for me.

Brian
What do you make about the fact that Jesus was a carpenter and you were/are a carpenter? Is that just a coincidence?

Jerry
Well, first of all, I think all ministers should have real jobs. [Laughter.] No, I didn’t say that. No, being a pastor, I love pastors, got close friends, they work. I have to tell you, Brian, I went through a time in my life where I didn’t feel like I wanted to be a builder anymore. I didn’t feel like it was dignified. I always thought I’d be in a suit running a publicly held company and doing some amazing things. But that wasn’t my path and it wasn’t the choice that I pursued. I think what happened is my sister, over a cup of coffee, said, Jerry, builders are builders of men, there are builders of buildings, there are builders in the church, talking about temples being built. Frankly, I think it’s pretty cool that Jesus was a carpenter. He had to get materials, he had to negotiate contracts, he had to work with people and look what one man did, how he changed the world. So I don’t know, I think it’s cool. There are so many examples of builders and even builders when the temple was being built, and they went overseas to get materials; there’s a way to get the best people and the best product.

Brian
Jerry, you’ve been blessed with an incredible life. You mentioned generosity a while ago and I know at this stage in your life you’re in the process of moving from success to significance. You’ve been extremely generous with your time and money and helping others. One example of that – I mentioned it briefly when I introduced you – is your work with the Phoenix Dream Center. Tell us more about the great work they’re doing and the impact that Dream Center has on rescuing and caring for victims of human trafficking.

Jerry
That’s great. I’ve been off the board for a few years, but still in relationship with Pastor Tommy and Brian, who’s the manager there, and still support it in different ways. It was part of the…in 2008 we had that “we’re not going to participate in [the economic downturn]” conversation. Well, we had helped financially to buy the Dream Center. We were one of many who did that. Our son started his freshman year in college and he was borrowing equipment, he needed trucks so we had a sure go ahead because none of these people had driver’s license. They were trying to clean it up, get it ready for occupancy and Jeremy says, hey, Dad, I know you and mom like helping organizations and we need some kitchen equipment. And I’m like, okay, you know the drill. He goes, how many prices do I have to get? I said, get me two. I think we were looking at $40,000. I figured for $40,000 I’m going to go down and take a look at it. You know how the Bible talks about Jesus was moved with compassion? I was so touched by what they were doing down there and to see people that just needed a meal. I said, Jeremy, I can’t make the decision today. I want to set up a meeting with the leadership here. Long story short, they had a functionally obsolescent kitchen that wasn’t being used. They had a game room where they were grilling and setting up. They needed a new kitchen. I got the team together. I said, what do you want? What are your needs? We fully funded a commercial kitchen there, which basically the capacity was a million meals a year. As of the end of last year we’ve served over 11.5 million meals and not all the meals are cooked and served there, they take them out to other homeless people. Part of Pastor Tommy Barnett’s vision wasn’t to give a handout but a hand-up, and that was meaningful to me. Well, fast forward a little bit. Two of our clients were on the board for Phoenix Children’s Hospital here – I don’t know what they do in your area – they got 20 interior designers to decorate Christmas trees to auction off. Carolyn, my wife, and I were able to attend. None of the designers were there, which was kind of an interesting perspective, because that was one of the main reasons I wanted to go. As we left, I told Carol, I don’t know why this is on my mind…and by the way, my creativity comes in execution – leadership architect, if you will, we can figure anything out but to come up with an idea, that’s not me – I feel like God dropped a little nugget my head. I said, I think I want to reach out to the Dream Center and give ten rooms. She goes, for what? I want to get ten interior designers. Well, I wanted to…we were going to actually fund all this. And by the way, it was 2009, nobody had the work either so why would anybody help. We didn’t just affect ourselves we affected our industry and our community. We had ten interior designers, 30 trade contractors that we worked with, 300 companies and 1,000 volunteers, and in 72 business days – from asbestos removal to photography – it was done. And I will tell you, both of those things are the two most worthwhile things I’ve ever done. We’ve given a lot of money, but these are things that are working every day helping people. There’s a return on that investment every day. We believe there have been over 2,300 women now rescued from trafficking, and the number I’d never even thought was on the radar, or would be, I think it was 285 babies were born through there. (Brian: Oh my goodness.) To think we would have that kind of impact, but the community just came together. Everybody wanted to help. People said no one’s ever asked me to do something before. I said, well, I can help with that. The Dream Center continues on now with people aging out of foster care and they’ve just got great programs, that community. They’ve got a medical center now, you can get your hair cut, the victims of human trafficking can get their brands off – the tattoos – get those removed. It’s really become a community effort and even Grand Canyon University gives scholarships now, helps them finish their GEDs. It’s a movement more than is just a way to help people.

Brian
What a great organization and how awesome to be involved in it and to have planted some of those seeds a long time ago and see the fruits of that labor. How do you integrate generosity into your your business? Is that something that you’re intentional about weaving that? I’m sure it’s woven throughout the fabric of of your business in terms of your giving and your time, but is that something that you promote within your team as well?

Jerry
One hundred percent. The first thing is we’re generous with our employees, because nobody wants to work for somebody who’s taking care of everybody else but the families that are on our team. So we’ve got a lot of things that we’ve done, some of them I think were genius, and others we just did and it turned out to be a good idea. I won’t give you the 20 things we failed at epically. Encouraging the generosity within our company, we’ve helped people get their citizenship, we have an annual budget for their continuing education, we’ve actually, at the start of this year, we figured we need to do more. There’s a lot of tension and a lot of things going on in the world, we now have counseling that they can go to if it’s marriage or we have financial help for them in terms of planning, stock buying programs, we are the top half of a percent in how the benefits work in our company. We figure first we have to invest in our family at work, then we take it elsewhere. It was our team that helped us do that Dream Center kitchen, and our team that helped us do the rescue project rooms for victims of human trafficking. What was really cool, our team members brought their spouses, brought their kids, and taught them generosity. For me, everybody’s got their own faith to walk, I do not push my faith down anybody’s throat. We all have a choice. I am of the belief that we’re supposed to be salt in life, people are going to wonder what’s different about us. In terms of being an employer, we have to operate with a level of integrity and fairness with our people. Because if we don’t take care of them, you can say a lot about Jesus dying on a cross and how great is to be a Christian but if they’re not seeing the fruits of those labors of my life and my team’s life, it’s hypocritical.

Brian
That’s well said. Jerry, we’ve been talking about a life of greatness and our show, as you know, is called LifeExcellence. Greatness and excellence are certainly related but I’m curious, what does excellence mean to you?

Jerry
Wow, I was afraid you were going to ask me that, I wasn’t sure how to answer it. [Laughter.] Brian, to me, excellence is a process. I can kind of rewind back, we’ve hired a lot of people with college degrees from the construction school and they do a great job for us. We’ve also got guys like me that didn’t go to college. I think it takes everybody. I had a young gentleman who got his master’s degree out of Michigan in construction management, he asked me if he could see my business plan. We’ve got a couple of houses – two of them simultaneously, bigger than the White House – being built. I think if you’re 26, 27, you’re like, how did this guy do this? Again, it’s God who gave us the opportunities and the strength and the vision to get through them. But I told him I didn’t have a business plan. I hope you’re not disappointed in me. And he just looked at me, he goes, really? I said, yeah. I akin this to your question about excellence, Brian, I feel like…what I told him was I did my best every day, I didn’t get caught up thinking about what I didn’t have, what was the next step, because I would have missed the current step. Our runway was probably longer than a lot of guy’s but our duration in business is longer than most of them. There are not a lot of companies that do what we do that are still around, we’ve turned it into a professional service business that builds homes. So in short, what excellence is to me, it’s doing your best every day, taking that excellence and making yourself bigger on the inside. Then take what you’ve got on the inside and put that as a practical application to your own family, into your own business. I think that’s excellence, is just doing your best with what you have. [Inaudible] with publicly held CEOs financially, I mean, I was literally sitting across from two billionaires having a dinner with their wives a few weeks ago, and I chuckled. They said, what’s so funny? I said, well, you’re worth 8 billion and you’ve got a billion dollars going on and I’m Jerry. They were like, so what’s so funny about that? I said, well, none of us went to college. So don’t use the lack of education as a crutch – to you listeners: you read every book you can, you meet people that will reach out and talk to you. I’ve paid for lunches just to hear wisdom. I will do that. I think from that perspective, excellence is just a belief that there’s more out there and that you can achieve more, if you’re willing to invest in yourself.

Brian
That’s great insight. As someone who’s built an incredible legacy in the construction business, what are you most proud of?

Jerry
I would have to say, almost 44 years of marriage to the same woman, two amazing sons, one who, two and a half years ago, became president of our largest company, and another one who’s a rock star in commercial work, which we don’t do but he’s a talent in himself. And now have our first grandchild coming within a week. My oldest son, Jeremy, got married to a wonderful woman and she’s great. I think for me, it’s not the projects we built, it’s the people relationships and it’s the fact that I can invest what I’ve learned and lived in other people and hopefully make a difference in their lives. To me, that’s what I’m most proud of. We built some really cool stuff. I get excited when…I was on a job this morning before this interview. It’s on ten acres and probably 50,000 square feet. I was exhausted – a lot going on – but I got to catch up with all the guys and their families and how they’re doing. It’s people, people, people; the profits have always followed that.

Brian
Super. And by the way, congratulations on being a soon to be grandfather, you’re absolutely going to love it. I can relate to everything that you said regarding people. I have a 15 month old granddaughter and it takes the whole relationship game to an entirely different level. You’re certainly going to enjoy that.

Jerry
Thank you. We’re excited, we really are. Due Easter Sunday, we’ll see. I don’t know when this is going to broadcast, but we’ll give you an update.

Brian
Well, that’s great. Jerry, this has been terrific. Thanks so much for being on the show. It’s great to see you and connect with you again. I really appreciate everything that you’ve shared on the show today.

Jerry
Oh, thank you, Brian. Again, as I said at the beginning, it’s an honor. I’ve always had a high esteem and respect for you and what you’re doing in business and in life and where we met. It’s been good and I look forward to seeing you in person again soon.

Brian
I look forward to that as well and I feel the same way about you, Jerry. Thanks for tuning in to LifeExcellence. Please support the show by subscribing, sharing it with others, posting about today’s show with luxury homebuilder Jerry Meek on social media, and leaving a rating and review. You can also learn more about me at BrianBartes.com. Until next time, dream big dreams and make each day your masterpiece.