In Episode 2 of Growth Decoder, Lindsay and Robert Vieville join Mahfuz to talk about building their custom home business. HRD Homes saw 1,000-per-cent growth over three years, testing the couple’s ability to adapt and stick to their core values. The Vievilles discuss running a company together, balancing parenting with entrepreneurship, and how authenticity on social media has helped to solidify their brand.
Here’s a sample of the insights you’ll take away from this episode:
Mahfuz Chowdhury [00:00:13]:Welcome to Growth Decoder, a podcast proudly brought to you by Canadian Western Bank. I'm your host, Mahfuz Chowdhury, and we're going to meet businesses with a variety of different backgrounds to unpack the challenges and successes that go hand in hand with growth and find out how they got to where they are today.
Robert Vieville [00:00:32]: I think it's easy to quit as it gets really hard. But don't give up. You continue to put the work in. And also that loves a choice. Of course there's disagreements. Of course, there's these challenges that come up. But I hope that they've seen that we've also had the positive out of it as well to continue moving forward.
Mahfuz [00:00:51]: The husband-and-wife duo behind Home Reflections Design know exactly what it takes to grow a company. Lindsay and Robert Vieville went from designing and building 3 to 4 custom homes each year to over 30. All while raising six daughters and building their business around their family. Hello, Lindsay and Robert, thank you for being on the show.
Robert [00:01:10]: Hello.
Lindsay Vieville [00:01:10]: Hi.
Mahfuz [00:01:11]: I'll tell you why I'm extremely excited about this interview. In preparation of getting together today, I've opened up your website, looked at your social media, I click on the about page, and the first thing I see is a full-blown photo of the two of you. A great photo, mind you, followed by the emphasis on being a family-run company. And it's a beautiful piece that I'm extremely passionate about because I've always loved the concept of family and community building, and this is a story that really does a good job highlighting those areas. I'd love to start right at the beginning of the HRD story. Can you share a little bit about why you started the company and how it's evolved over the years?
Robert [00:01:47]: Really, what it was, I was a carpenter, a framer specifically, so I would frame houses and we scaled that through doing multiple projects. We called it HRD Framing, and HRD Framing grew from, you know, me and a couple of guys doing two duplexes a month to doing over 250 doors a year. And that really came from just teaming up with a specific developer builder. We grew organically with them as well. And I, you know, and Linds worked so hard at creating teams of framing crews and such, and that's how we grew it. We recognized that that's not something we wanted to do for the rest of our lives. And really what happened was we had crews in Saskatchewan, Alberta, you know, like Edmonton, Calgary and then lower mainland B.C., like Abbotsford, Mission area. We saw that we were doing all this. And at the time, Lindsay was pregnant with our youngest. And so we needed a house that we were just going to kind of settle in. And when Spruce Grove was always like, that's where we want to be, right? We ended up buying a house that a local builder did, and not all of it was finished. And we had them finish a bunch of stuff in it. We hadn't had that kind of experience with that builder that we realized we could do this, we could do better than this, and we're ready. Because we were always like, are we ready? Could we do this? And so that's kind of what really launched our decision to really start HRD homes.
Lindsay [00:03:18]: And I think organically while that was happening as well, we started transitioning from not just framing because we're pulling out of some of the other provinces at that point, because we knew that we wanted to maybe focus on the housing, that we were doing more Edmonton, Parkland County area and then you were being hired as a GC (general contractor) to do work for people, and then that started spreading as word of mouth. So then we started actually doing full houses as general contractors. And then, you know, Rob would be like, oh, my wife also designs and so then you know we kind of…we started working together, then that wasn't an expression of us, of what we could do or what, you know…we weren't doing our own floorplans at that time, not our own designs. We were just essentially helping the clients, just navigating through what they had to pick and choose and making sure that everything was built correctly. And then from that point, we were like, we should do our own show home and showcase what we can do, our own designs, our own floorplans, you know, our own quality of build, our own trades, our own employees, like where we would control everything. And then that's where everything started and 2018 was our first show home.
Mahfuz [00:04:25]: That's incredible. And what did that evolution of the business look like? You went from custom building to opening up your first show home. That's a major step for a lot of people in their business. I'd love to hear a little bit more about those details.
Robert [00:04:37]: Yeah, I think that I mean, I'll let Linds add to that as well. But starting a show home, we felt, was a way that we could showcase what we do, because what we were doing up to that point was what the client wanted, and it wasn't allowing Lindsay to express her design sense.
Lindsay [00:04:56]: Yeah, I think that we just felt like there was a gap within the market. I felt like, you know, I would see all these pictures, whether they were through Pinterest at that point in time or through Instagram and nothing within our region where we were living that ever expressed anything that you would see online. And I felt like there was so much more of that our area within Edmonton, Alberta, could have offered and there was nothing. Whenever you would go see a show home that was out there and we just felt like we could do more, we could do better.
Mahfuz [00:05:23]: What did that mindset look like, Lindsay, when you decided that you wanted to make it look unlike anything else out there. What was it that you weren't seeing out there and what did you do differently?
Lindsay [00:05:32]: Where we were, everything felt 5 to 10 years behind. Previously, before that, everything, you know, it was way before that. It was the golden and it was the greyish walls. And then it turned to grey. Everything was grey. And I felt like we were stuck in that. Here in Alberta, everything was grey and we're within the States and other places was transitioning a little bit to that warmth and those oaks again, but not the old yellow oaks that you think of growing up, but a little bit more of that warmth and those white walls and sometimes even the yellow undertones then, a little bit more homey. And there was nothing like that here. Everything was still just grey and black faucets. So we had brought in oak floors and oak cabinets and champagne bronze fixtures. And when we were doing this and even our suppliers were even looking at me, questioning me, like nobody does this, nobody does this, nobody has oak cabinets. And but we went with it. I felt passionate about it and we went with it and everyone seemed to love it, so.
Robert [00:06:28]: I remember when we were explaining to people what we were doing in the house and we were like, We're going to use oak. And people would look at us like, what are you doing? And I was like, oh, they don't, they don't get it. And now it's like it's everywhere.
Mahfuz [00:06:42]: It's in. And, and you were really the pioneers of that movement. I love the following your intuition when others were pushing back, you know, when there was doubts being fed from every direction, you went ahead with it. And I understand that the show home was a critical turning point for the business. Tell me a little bit about what happened from there.
Robert [00:07:00]: So the first show home we did was in a community called Genesis on the Lakes, which is, you know, just this kind of estate-style community, just connected to Stony Plain. And when we did that show home, you know, we're pushing the envelope, you know, with design. And I was doing things with construction that even some of the trades were a bit like, you know, hesitant to accept. But I knew because I'd been doing this since 2000, I started my apprenticeship in 2000. So I understood the industry and I understood what needed to be done and done right. And so when we were in that building that we decided we're going to do a grand opening, and our grand opening was in conjunction with a community event with other show homes in the area, and we had so many people go through our show home, and we did a comment box like, what did you think of the house? And the feedback we got was incredible. We took that information and we saw like it was almost validating that we did it right. And so that was a big thing for us and we felt like that was incredible. From there you start to get that traffic and I think there was like 300 or, you know, I might get this number wrong…300 or 400 people that went through the show home that weekend, specifically that day.
Mahfuz [00:08:24]: That's incredible.
Robert [00:08:25]: That created a lot of drive for people to come to the show home and check it out even after, because it started to pick up word of mouth. and so that started to drive more sales.
Mahfuz [00:08:35]: Right. And just to paint a picture for the listeners, how quickly did the company grow after you did your first show home?
Robert [00:08:41]: So in 2018 is when we opened our very first show home. So 2018 to 2021, the beginning of 2021, we saw 1,000% growth. And so that is amazing. But that kind of growth can also kill a company. We learned a lot of important things through that time. And we always made sure that what we did was focus on quality and that if we made a mistake, that you always fix it. And we still have that same tone in our company today.
Mahfuz [00:09:16]: Well, you are on Growth Decoder, and it would be a sin if I didn't spend some time decoding what happened in this chapter of your life, which is the incredible yet sometimes overwhelming and terrifying growth that happens very rapidly. 1,000%. My gosh, it's an incredible statistic. Talk to me a little bit about what changes had to be made. I mean, being that you're going through this for the first time emotionally and physically, how did you manage the growth every step of the way from the moment you saw that rapid growth kicking in?
Robert [00:09:44]: I would say that Linds and I are very aware, self-aware of what we can do well and what we don't do well. We identified what she does well and what I do well and realizing that we need help. We need support because we were both just doing it together, taking that and understanding that we need to have help. That was very important.
Lindsay [00:10:11]: Yeah. And I think some of our challenges that we that we faced were, you know, we grew so fast. And so at the beginning, Rob and I were wearing all the hats, we were doing everything. And so we knew that there was areas that we were weak in so we hired people in those places. But when you're growing so fast, it's hard to train all those people and you have so many more employees. So, you know, we had challenges, and remained humble and we even talked to our clients at the beginning, and we asked them, what are things that we could have done better for you? We care and we took those things to heart, so we brought on an online project management system. We hired new people. We…not that we wanted to, but we did have somewhat of a quicker turnover and staff just because if they weren’t on board with the core of what HRD is, and they don’t believe the same things, we found people that could and wanted to be on board - that wanted to grow with us and were okay to go through some of those challenges. We also knew that everything needed a system, a policy and a procedure. You know, we had no system for when somebody wants to pick up a paycheque. What do you do if a vendor wants to get paid early? Like, there's no checklist for framing deficiencies, because Rob did it all. And so we had to take everything out of our heads and put it on paper so that our team could help replicate that. Obviously, that had its own challenges. But, you know, our team and ourselves, we developed those systems and policies together.
Robert [00:11:49]: So that was a big learning curve, and that was a lot of work. Like I think when have to write procedures and policies yourself, that's a lot of work. Especially when you want to do it well. And then creating a warranty program inside your company is also a big part of it. And so we just hunkered down and I'm telling you, it was early, early, early mornings and late, late, late nights. Yeah.
Mahfuz [00:12:15]: Yeah. You know, it's interesting to me that you started at the very beginning with a lot of pushbacks on the vision that you had. And you said, listen, we're going to trust our gut. We believe this is how it should look. But it's very evident. as we go forward in your story. that you've been collecting feedback every step of the way, the feedback that you're receiving at the show home, from the feedback that you're getting from your team members and from each other, that although it looks like you were building a parachute while freefalling, the truth is you were getting that feedback every step of the way and making sound decisions, although it may have been not things that you knew ahead of time, which I think it's a very interesting story. I want to shift gears to your six daughters and for them to be able to witness these ups and downs that are happening during this rapid growth. Can you talk to me a little bit about what they're experiencing and their involvement with the growth of the company?
Lindsay [00:13:00]: Yeah, our two youngest, they’re definitely in the thick of it. So, you know, Rob and I joke, I was literally having contractions with our second youngest while doing payroll cheques because we're in the position of Rob and I are doing everything, we're wearing all the hats. So I nurse babies while working, I, you know, they sat in our home office. I have pictures of the little ones crawling around on the floor, and it was a lot. And then as we continue to move on, some of our daughters, you know, they were still young at that time, but they started to have an interest in design. And so I would bring them and show them, you know, why I made the decisions I did, and mentor them that way to see if it was something that they wanted to continue later on in life. And they would come and help us stage. They would come to lawyer meetings with us. As Rob mentioned before, we had late nights, early mornings. And so instead of picking the path of hiring a nanny or doing something and separating the two, we chose to bring our daughters along. And so they’ve been there.
Robert [00:14:07]: We went to, you know, our lawyers downtown Edmonton. So you could imagine you're going to this skyscraper to meet your lawyer for whatever it was. And we brought the two little ones with us. And there they are. They're there in that boardroom, sitting there. And I got great pictures of it, too, you know. And so I think we tend to shy away from allowing that to happen. And that was something that we just weren't going to do. We brought the family along. And even though maybe society would be like, that's not how you would do it…we were like, no, that's how we're going to do it.
Mahfuz [00:14:41]: The ability to adjust in those type of environments to make sure that you can still be great parents to your children while growing a business along the way is truly inspirational and I love the fact that you take photos along the way, by the way. I think you're going to look back one day and have all these memories up and your children will even appreciate being part of those experiences, especially at the early stages of the business. It's a beautiful story.
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Mahfuz: I want to talk about the both of you. And it seems to me that even the way you're answering these questions, you know, feeding off each other and really crediting each other in the roles that you both play for the business. And talk to me a little bit about the advice that you would give for maybe people listening in that are maybe also in business with their husband and wife and are trying to figure out how to build a business while raising a family. Can you share a little bit about what that looks like day to day that allows you to operate a highly successful business while still being great parents?
Lindsay [00:16:17]: It's funny that you ask that. I have a friend who’s going into real estate agent business with her husband. And I expressed to her, I think one of the biggest things is finding your own lane as a spouse or a husband-and-wife team - you will have different strengths and weaknesses. And it's easy, and we've done this at the beginning, that if I am strong somewhere and he's weak somewhere, it's easy to point fingers and say, you know, you should be more like this, you should be more like this, because it just naturally comes easy to yourself. However, where I am weak, he is strong. So we've really spent time doing courses and things like Strength Finder, things like that, and really even personality tests, to establish and know who each other is as people. And then we gauge that. And so we have our own, we call them our own lanes, within our company. And so obviously I do design and he does construction, but more beyond that as far as the business side, I like doing policies and procedures and writing things out and spending that time. And if things are weak in an area, I find out why and find a solution. And where Rob is strong, he's more so growing the company, developing those relationships with the banks and with vendors in areas where my personality is a little bit more introverted. So I'm not as strong in those areas. And so we just play off of each other. So I think that's really big. Finding your lanes, finding your strengths and weaknesses and not competing, working equally together.
Robert [00:17:48]: I think too it's easy to be in a scenario where you feel like you're the strongest one. You know, we both felt that at times. But that could be a season. So the first year, maybe I'm the strongest, but year two, she's the strongest. And so, you know, we often focus on the now, but we have to realize that as a team, I'm going to help her and she's going to help me at times where I thought maybe I would never need help. So I think it's always good to recognize, like you have your lane and what you do good at, but also recognizing like it's okay to be strong and it's okay to be weak some days. And learning from your failures is huge. I've never learned anything from my success. I learn from my failures, the successes, are the reward of all the hard work. But I look back today and I think, wow, all the things that we had to do in like ourselves and we had to work so hard. You know, I enjoy that today, but I also miss those moments, too.
Lindsay [00:18:50]: And I think that as far as the family side goes, um, one thing that we have really learned is that everything is a season. And so, you know, I expressed saying that we didn't hire a nanny, but there, of course, there's times when we had babysitters within our company. So everything is a season. And I think just open communication as a couple of what's important to your dynamics as a family. You pick and choose of how much or how little involved you want the family to be, and that sometimes, you know, it does require me to stay at home because the kids are sick, but we feed off that. And it's always just a season, you know, it's a season of maybe one week where someone is sick, or maybe it’s season of six months because they’re babies. Whatever it may be, you just continue to communicate. And what's important, I think, is that from behind the scenes is that you two are on the same page and it doesn't necessarily matter what everybody else sees. It's that you guys know what's going on.
Mahfuz [00:19:44]: And your children watching you facilitate the business, as well as work the way that you two have just described - what do you hope that gets instilled in them, that maybe they learn from watching mom and dad do every single day?
Robert [00:19:57]: I think that my biggest desire for them to see is, don't quit. I think it's easy to quit. I think it's easy to quit a hard relationship or business as it gets really hard or because you don’t feel like it. But you don't give up. You continue to put the work in. And also, that love's a choice. And so you have to choose each day and get your mind right. And I hope they learn that from what we're doing. I hope that they see all that hard work because not everything is perfect. Of course, there's disagreements. Of course, there's these challenges that come up. But I hope that they see that and that they've seen the positives as well, to continue moving forward.
Mahfuz [00:20:46]:Being as vocal about the so-called failures, and I almost don’t like calling them failures, because I think it led to something much more beautiful, but being that you're vocal about it and you're sharing it very openly, I think is an incredible thing to do that sometimes many businesses are vulnerable to do in an open space. You’ve shared your story on platforms like this, but you also share big pieces online through your website and social media. Can you talk to me a little bit about the strategy that you've been using on social media and how that's been very effective for your business? Being in the digital marketing space for the last decade or so, I've spent a lot of time with businesses, even in your space, and I remember a decade ago a lot of the feedback used to be like, digital marketing doesn't work, this doesn't apply for my industry, or like those tangents of social media ruining lives. We'd hear those. But now it's interesting. Over the last decade, the narrative is changing significantly where people are saying, I wish I started sooner. Or that my competitors are doing it so well, why can't I? Lindsay, maybe we'll start with you on this one. I'd love to hear a little bit about the social media strategies that have been really working well for your business and how you've been tackling that in a unique way.
Lindsay [00:21:50]: Yeah, I think for us I did. I looked at what other people were doing and saw different people being successful in our industry. And some of it, I struggled, because it didn't seem authentic to me. It felt like they were putting on a show and it just didn't feel real to me. And so, Rob and I talked about it and we thought that, well, we're just going to do what is us, and we just shared, us and we didn't over plan anything. We just shared us and what felt natural and the steps and the journeys along the way. And, you know, at one point we had only one house to show because as we spoke to you before, is that the other houses weren't a reflection of us. They were, as far as our quality of work and the bones of the house, but we couldn't showcase that. That wasn't appealing on social media. And so we just continued to show who we were. And we slowly did it. You know and then that's where we also became involved more within the community and trying to show who we were as a company. It was more than just, this is the final product that we have. We are doing something different and we care about what we are doing.
Robert [00:22:52]: Mm hmm. That social media strategy…you know, I was, when we first went into social media, I was like, I don't think that works. Like, you know, over time, you see it, you see it really work.
Lindsay [00:23:03]: Remember, when all our videos, we used to start, we would always be like, “Hey guys, hey guys,” Every time we would start.
Robert [00:23:10]: She’d be like, we can’t say “hey guys” anymore.
Mahfuz [00:23:12]:We all thought we were a TV personality when we hit record, right?
Robert [00:23:14]: Yeah. So, you know, lots of learning there, um, but we just worked it out and it grew, and it was…it was fun.
Mahfuz [00:23:25]:I'd love for you to help me make this case for a lot of people that are maybe still hesitating on taking that leap on social media. Can you break it down for why you think this tactic has been really helping you connect with your community and attract more clients for your business?
Robert [00:23:40]: You know, how we grow business today is a lot different than how people would have grown businesses 30 years ago. It's important that people understand the value that you're creating. If you don't have that value being shown, it's really hard to connect. Today, there's lots of information. There's lots of different things out there. And so I love competition. I love the idea that there could be another builder out there doing his or her thing uniquely. And so I think that's important. Finding your voice and sharing that through social media is important. How you post and how regularly you post is very important. But I’m a big believer that if as long as you are sharing what is true and what is authentic, it will come across, it will show, and the people will be attracted to that.
Mahfuz [00:24:36]:It's very evident that putting out the authentic you and sharing your story has created incredible results for you on social media. I also know you’ve had an unfortunate circumstance of, like many businesses today, your Instagram account being hacked. Can you talk a little bit about what impact that has had on your business?
Lindsay [00:24:53]: It's been a little while. It's been over six months now, and we've been working to try and get it back. And we were at a point where we just hitting over 30,000 followers. We got to be the biggest builder within our area at least. And so we were getting other vendors approaching us, working with some monetization, being able to monetize. And also, you know, it was exciting for us as a company, but it was also exciting because we were able to showcase things to our clients. So, you know, it was exciting. We were just getting started with that. So things like flooring and lighting and window coverings and so, you know, it was a win for us and also a win for our clients. And so now all of that unfortunately has stopped and we've made some progress in getting it back, but not 100%. So we created a new account, HRD Homes 2, and we have now hit a thousand followers on that one, but not nearly the traffic that we had before. So still trying to get that back.
Mahfuz [00:26:07]:First and foremost, I'm optimistic that account will come back. But if it doesn't, I'm also optimistic because it's very evident that it wasn't strategies and social media practices that made your account as big as it is. It was you, right? It was you and your way of articulating your story and your work and your design. So the ability to bring that back doesn't go away. And I…I'm very optimistic that you'll be able to get back in full swing and maybe you'll have two giant accounts…maybe the world is doing us a favor here.
Lindsay [00:26:34]: Yeah, one of our daughters suggested she said, well you should keep the HRD Homes 2 after and do a behind the scenes, and I was like ooh I like that.
Robert [00:26:43]: Yeah that's good. Yeah. Let's hire her.
Mahfuz [00:26:45]:Yeah. She should be your lead marketing.
Mahfuz [00:26:49]:That's excellent. I'd love to wrap up with learning a little bit more about the future of Home Reflections Design. And can you share a little bit about what you're doing now that's going to allow you to drive the growth even further in the coming years?
Robert [00:27:01]: Yeah, I think you have to identify what's currently happening in the market…that that's important. And with inflation rising and the interest rates where it's at, we're looking to create other products that people would experience through a townhouse or a duplex. We are looking to expand. We are mostly in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County, Lac Ste. Anne County, and we are going to be making a move to Edmonton. That is our future goal, to move to Edmonton. We also are looking at developing our own product as far as land. We are looking at larger chunks of land and to develop our own kind of community. And so we have some exciting pieces of property that we're looking at, and once we make that decision, we're definitely going to get into that.
Mahfuz [00:27:50]:It sounds like a lot of exciting things coming up. How big of an undertaking is it to build a whole community? This is an exciting yet sometimes overwhelming type of experience that you're going ahead with. Talk to me a little bit about what that one feels like.
Robert [00:28:03]: That one will be a lot of work, right. But to me, that's where I thrive. And I know Linds thrives in that as well, too. So it's about finding a community, a piece of land that we could develop that is a reflection of us. And so I know Linds could talk too about how we would do the exteriors of those, you know, because we would have architectural control of that that subdivision.
Lindsay [00:28:25]: Yeah. So I think just going back to the same thing as where we were when we first opened our show home in 2018, doing something different. We want that on a bigger scale, for a whole community that feels different. You know, exteriors that look different than what you normally see, and a little bit more for the community to be involved in - nicer parks, nicer walkways, things like that. Just feel different and give a different vibe within the community here that attracts people.
Robert [00:28:54]: Yeah. So if we could have a development that is a full reflection of how we would exteriors to look, for interiors to look, I think that changes everything.
Mahfuz [00:29:08]:Sounds like a beautiful strategy. And thank you so much for sharing your story with us and these incredible tactics today. I hope you know how much more of an impact that you're making, not only on your community by what you do, but by the way that you shared your wisdom with our listeners today. So thank you so much for being on the show. It's an absolute pleasure, and I wish you the best. My honour. Thank you.
That was a great conversation with Lindsay and Robert. I think we've learned a lot based on the story that they've walked us through, as well as the details of how they operate at every single step of the way.
My big takeaways from today's episode was, first and foremost, the importance of authenticity. How it was used in not only communicating externally through social media and marketing, but also internally with their family not hiding the good and the bad, as both of them have demonstrated with being open about things that are working well, but also saying, “Hey, listen, not everything's going well and we need to hear more feedback about it.”
The second big one that stood out to me was the lovely dynamic of working with a partner and the importance of learning to stay in your lane by knowing what your strengths are, but also being able to also ask for help so that your weaknesses are also being taken care of. This was demonstrated perfectly by their ability to overcommunicate, take practical tests and learn a lot more about each other so they both know how they could accommodate each other every step of the way.
And the final big piece was the willingness to fail, not giving up, knowing that things could go wrong but just because something goes wrong doesn't mean it's over. It’s the ability to get back up, take your learnings and do better.
In the next episode, we'll hear about how an employee accident completely changed how a trucking business operates. If you haven't already. Make sure to subscribe to Growth Decoder. You can also visit www.cwbank.com/podcast for videos and stories about Home Reflections Design as well as the other businesses featured on Growth Decoder. I'm your host, Mahfuz Chowdhury. Thank you for listening.
Growth Decoder is brought to you by Canadian Western Bank with production by Strategic Content Labs.