Most owners think their job is to be the one who fixes things. Mitchell Kasselman learned that every time he jumped in to save the day, he was taking the chance to learn away from somebody on his team.

Bobby is joined by Mitchell Kasselman, co-founder and CEO of Ressio Software, which builds construction management software for custom home builders and remodelers. They have known each other since 2022, and Bobby was one of the people Mitchell leaned on when Ressio was starting out.

Mitchell has gone from two founders to a growing team in four years, and the conversation is about what that took. Moving from what he calls heroics to systems. Hiring for culture so seriously that a ten out of ten candidate still fails if they do not fit. Letting people go sooner, and finding out that the person and the team were both relieved. Setting company goals and deliberately leaving his own name off them.

There is also a practical stretch on AI, from somebody building it for builders: why the owners who get value from it are the ones who check its work, and why that is exactly how trust gets built with people too.

"What I'm actually doing is preventing an opportunity for a team member to actually learn how to do that themselves."

"Even if we had the ten out of ten best technical candidate, we will still fail someone at the cultural stage if they don't exceed in our values."

Chapters:

0:00 Stop being the hero

0:29 Welcome

0:55 Meet Mitchell Kasselman

2:23 How he found the contractor

3:30 Why builders' software feels twenty years old

4:13 Building Ressio

5:22 A hundred decisions a day

6:08 Year two: talent and culture

6:38 From heroics to systems

8:11 Your job is the environment

9:31 Building a company is like a marriage

10:30 What AI is actually good for

12:01 From a customer call to working code in days

13:15 AI built for builders

14:51 Getting past "I don't trust it"

17:04 Decide if this is really for you

17:52 Bias for action

18:37 Getting back off the mat

19:24 Do not go it alone

20:04 Keep reinvesting in your team

21:02 Rock stars and superstars

22:42 People are the competitive advantage

24:14 The castaways who thrived

25:02 How they hire for culture

26:53 Hire fast, fire fast

29:02 Two out of three salespeople

30:16 You already have values, write them down

31:42 Let your values evolve

33:13 From doing the work to managing managers

34:01 Four goals, and his name is not on them

34:42 Teach a man to fish

36:21 Stop pointing at the individual

37:25 Seek first to understand

38:18 Curiosity over prescribing

39:03 Ask more than you tell

39:58 What not to do

40:38 Take advice, but think for yourself

41:38 Hallway decisions that become policy

42:37 You cannot be everything to everyone

43:15 Six dimensions, twenty one points

45:11 What to take away

47:02 Close

Learn more at ChoiceConsultingMan.com/Podcast

Bobby's books, Choices and Clarity, are at ChoiceConsultingMan.com/books

A video version of this episode is on YouTube. Search Choices Create Change.