Where is Elevate Going?

The Treehouse Training Center and the Vision You’ve Never Heard

This is the second podcast in a quick little series about Elevate Construction and the journey. Jason hopes you enjoyed the last little podcast he did about where Elevate Construction has been. Now he’s going to talk about where they want to go. Let him first talk about some of the big goals and then work backwards and see if he can explain some of these things in good enough detail to where it sounds as remarkable as he has it in his mind.

We Will Build for St. Jude Children’s Hospital

First of all, Elevate will build a building for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. They will help them with consulting. Jason is going to, when he’s older and can’t work, sit and watch YouTube videos, if YouTube’s even around, of the little kids that that hospital is able to help in fighting cancer and these catastrophic diseases. And he’s just going to sit there and weep. That’s his thing. He’s always had a connection with St. Jude Children’s Hospital helping kids. That’s one of their big goals.

The Treehouse Training Center in the Woods

The other big, big goal, and Jason thinks that sometimes people don’t take him seriously on this, but he’s dead serious: they’re going to have a training facility in a wooded area that’s going to be called the Treehouse Training Center. They’ll call it whatever they want. They’ll come up with a more professional name.

But if you’ve ever seen these resorts like in Mexico and in the Polynesian Islands where they have these huts built of sticks and these wooden walkways and things that are indicative of these treehouse, fort, hut kind of beautiful resort type places in these really beautiful parts of the earth, think of that.

Another image Jason would like to give you: if you’ve ever seen the Lord of the Rings, the elven forest kingdoms. He’s remembering a scene with Lady Galadriel and she has this kingdom and everything’s up into the trees and there’s stairways up to the trees and the houses are in the trees and they have walkways back and forth. That’s what he’s imagining. The other thing would be Avatar, where everything’s up top in the treetops.

Jason wants a place where there’s a bit of an elevation change where you can drive up. He doesn’t think he’s talked about this on a podcast before. Where you drive up and there’s an elevation change and you go into the training facility and then his kids and him will live there in a separate house. But big enough to where all of their kids can come and there’s little rooms for their families, restrooms, a gathering area, and they’re able to come and help with the training facility.

The training facility you come in, it’s welcoming. There’s an area there to go to the kitchen. It’s really open and inviting. There’s maybe a waiting room. That’s where the buses pull up. That’s where there’s parking. You go into this training facility and Jason’s imagining something with really beautiful glass and it’s open and it’s inviting and it’s just really got this kind of community feel.

Then you go out and there’s the training facilities looking out to where you can see through the back glass out into the forested area. On the back porch where you’re able to reflect ahead of some of the really hard processes they do in training, there are these walkways, these wooden walkways that are 10, 20, 30, 40 feet up in the air that lead to other trees where there’s literally like a treehouse or a tree fort where there might be multiple bunks there in that house where people can bunk up and there’s a restroom there and the whole nine. That’s where people stay.

All of these walkways and these huts are lit. They’re lighted and at night you can see your way around and it’s just this beautiful, remarkable environment. Jason imagines it being in a place where it has all four seasons where there’s like actually a winter, actually a spring, actually a summer, and actually a fall. You have that different type of weather. But the scenery is so surreal that you’re able to elevate your mindset and really want better things.

He imagines a beautiful concrete and glass office where they have this Google type wonderful environment where there’s fun things and bean bags and really neat conference rooms and really neat walls with pictures and memory walls. There’s conference rooms and there’s video recording areas and it’s just this really happy, wonderful, beautiful place to work where somebody can go outside and look at the scenery, where they can go get a hot chocolate or coffee or what they call in Sweden a fika and go take a little break and just have a wonderful environment.

When they go into the training center, they’re working with people that are changing their lives and improving themselves and their set points are elevated. They would have like a small crew of people that really like working there and they’re always building new walkways. They’re always building new aspects to the training facility. They’re always helping.

There’s a gourmet chef. One of Jason’s buddies, Jake Smalley, he loves to cook and to entertain. Jason wants to have it to where they’re not getting rich off of this deal, but they have a training facility that’s actually serving a purpose in person. Say “Jake, hey, you ready to start cooking for the facility and also coming and doing some training and living your passion and your dreams and taking some people through their processes?” Him being able to cook some wonderful gourmet meals for the people that are there at the training camp. Now here’s the best part. This is what would be cool. When they don’t have trainings going on, you could Airbnb some of these things out to make a little bit of money to supplement the cost.

Bringing Foster Kids and Elevating Their Set Point

But whenever they have the opportunity, how cool would it be to bring foster youth or youth camps or underprivileged youth to this training facility and take them through these things and set them up for life and hook them up with opportunities for jobs in construction and to really leverage some of the networking and the training and the resources and the food that they have.

One of the things that Jason really likes, and he hasn’t proven this with psychology yet, but he’s always had this thought: if they could take underprivileged kids or even kids that are privileged but that just need to be awesome and serving out there in the world, take them and get them so used to those high standards and that good food and that high living and the feeling of almost being rich that they elevate their set point to where when they go back home, they have a disconnect between where they are and where they want to be. Hopefully that motivates them to live a better and more remarkable life.

Jason doesn’t know if that’s backed up by any kind of psychology, but he literally wants to addict the younger generations and especially the older foster care kids who’ve had a hard life to a higher way of living, to learning, to progress, to growth, to wealth, to mental wealth, to spiritual wealth, to friendship wealth, to all of those things. And to be able to use the resources to do those really cool things.

Now they’d have to have really good insurance, lots of adult supervision or else you can get in trouble with things like that. Because there’s always drama that happens with any situation where you involve kids in a camp. You have to have real good supervision. You’ve got to keep all kids away from any alone time with any one single adult. You’ve got to protect the innocent. There’s a lot that goes to that.

But Jason thinks if it was done in a short enough amount of time, he thinks it could be done legally with the right insurance, with the right adult supervision, two, three, four, five deep leadership at all times, nobody ever alone. He thinks it could be really good.

The Fastest, Most Addictive Training in Construction

Then the vision for that would be, how cool would it be for people in the industry to live in a beautiful place, to have the technology, the internet, the office space, the teams, to create the fastest, most useful, most addictive training in construction. Whether it’s online or in person or wherever, to where anybody, a worker, a foreman, or a project manager, or a VDC professional, or a surveyor, all of it was at their fingertips.

They can go to college if they want or they can take these courses as they’re ready and they get certifications and it almost guarantees them a job. That would be really remarkable. Jason has this vision in his mind that they can get this done and with the right people, with the right engagement, in the right environment, doing the right things, with the right synergy, with the right business deals and the right business structure, according to inspiration and the right vision for where they can head, they could literally transform the way training is done in this industry.

That’s another one of the main visions they have at Elevate Construction. Jason figured he would share that with you. One of the things that they want is for people to be able to, anytime they want to, attend a boot camp, attend a mastermind, get the help, have the templates and resources, expand their website. And then also to have any online content that they want access to in a remarkable way. Really engaging, pedagogical, online content at the tip of their fingers, always updated with the best practices.

The Vision: Lean Takt, Lean Survey, Lean Office, Lean Field

Jason has this vision where Elevate Construction would have other companies: Lean Takt, Lean Survey, Lean Office, Lean Field, Lean VDC, Lean Business. These companies will each have directors and they will grow those businesses to create training and YouTube channels and LinkedIn channels and free resources and masterminds and boot camps and all of that so that each of those can grow.

Then all of those directors will be advisory board members to Elevate Construction and expand their influence throughout the industry and choosing the best experts for each of those areas. Jason is looking forward, and he doesn’t know if it’s one year or five years or whatever, having the best website with the most resources where literally construction professionals can get on, it’s like a candy store and you see Elevate Construction graphics and free content and outlines and guides everywhere in the industry. You’re like “I saw your guide on this job. I saw your sign over there. I saw this over there.” That is where they’re headed.

Workers Respected, Leaders Trained, Families Preserved

Jason will just close out with this because he doesn’t want to needlessly take your time on a podcast, but workers are not respected. Leaders are not trained. And families are going uncared for. That is what Elevate will do. When Jason dies, they will have made a huge dent in the disrespect and the dysfunction of families in construction by providing training and knowledge and wisdom.

If you go back to the podcast Jason did just before this, he got a couple of things. He got his eyes opened. He got his expectations raised. He got morality and ethics. And he also got information from the best books in the industry. How can they get that distilled into an addictive, useful, and fast form for everybody in construction? Because ignorance is what’s holding us back. But it’s education and light and knowledge that will lead us to where workers are respected, leaders are trained, and families are preserved. That’s where they’re headed. If you have visions or thoughts or ideas of how they could do better or expand their vision or reach even higher or meet those goals, let them know.

Jason does want you to know that any time they do these podcasts or these trainings or these videos, they are thinking of you. They’re hoping that these are helpful for you. He doesn’t feel like it’s trite or insincere for him to say that they love you. They hope that you have everything good in life that you deserve and want or could have. They just wish you the best. He just wanted to take this time to do that and say this, and it’ll be interesting to see where they go and especially where they can go together. If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

FAQ

Q: What is the Treehouse Training Center?

A training facility in a wooded area with all four seasons. Beautiful glass and open inviting spaces. Wooden walkways 10, 20, 30, 40 feet up in the air leading to treehouses where people bunk up. Think Lord of the Rings elven forest kingdoms or Avatar treetops or Mexican resort huts. Lighted walkways at night. A Google-type office with bean bags, conference rooms, video recording areas, memory walls. A gourmet chef. A small crew always building new walkways and aspects. When not training, Airbnb it out. When possible, bring foster youth and underprivileged kids to elevate their set point.

Q: Why bring foster kids to a luxury training facility?

To addict the younger generations, especially older foster care kids who’ve had a hard life, to a higher way of living. Get them so used to high standards, good food, high living, the feeling of almost being rich that they elevate their set point. When they go back home, they have a disconnect between where they are and where they want to be. Hopefully that motivates them to live a better and more remarkable life. Set them up for life, hook them up with opportunities for jobs in construction, leverage networking, training, resources, and food.

Q: What’s the vision for online training content?

The fastest, most useful, most addictive training in construction. Anyone, a worker, foreman, project manager, VDC professional, surveyor, all of it at their fingertips. They can go to college if they want or take these courses as they’re ready and get certifications that almost guarantee them a job. Really engaging, pedagogical, online content at the tip of their fingers, always updated with the best practices. Transform the way training is done in this industry.

Q: What other companies will Elevate create?

Lean Takt, Lean Survey, Lean Office, Lean Field, Lean VDC, Lean Business. Each will have directors who will grow those businesses to create training, YouTube channels, LinkedIn channels, free resources, masterminds, boot camps. All those directors will be advisory board members to Elevate Construction, expanding influence throughout the industry and choosing the best experts for each area. The goal: best website with most resources where construction professionals see Elevate Construction graphics and free content and outlines and guides everywhere in the industry.

Q: What is Elevate Construction’s ultimate mission?

Workers are not respected. Leaders are not trained. Families are going uncared for. When Jason dies, they will have made a huge dent in the disrespect and the dysfunction of families in construction by providing training, knowledge, and wisdom. Ignorance is what’s holding us back. Education, light, and knowledge will lead us to where workers are respected, leaders are trained, and families are preserved. That’s the mission.

On we go.