The work is the minimum, the experience is everything. I’ve been in construction since 1992, and in all that time — every company I’ve worked for, every networking event, every industry conference I’ve sat through — the one thing I’ve heard more than anything else is that we do quality work. You know what? So does everybody else.

Quality work is not a differentiator. It’s the minimum. It’s the equivalent of breathing. We don’t walk around all day saying, “You know, I took this many breaths, so I’m successful.” No. That’s what quality should be considered as well — something that just happens in the background because it has to. What we fixate on here is different.

It’s what happens around the work. How people feel while they’re in their home, what they remember when we leave, what they tell their neighbors. We call that creating a memory, and it’s the first of five values I want to share with you.

Value one is creating a memory. There’s a brewery Lorrie and I have been going to for quite a while. She loves the short ribs, I love the Hefeweizen. I remember the very first time we went. The server came over to our table with two pitchers of beer in hand and two cold glasses, and then she proceeded to pour the first glass for Lorrie, then poured mine. We didn’t ask her to do that. We could have poured our own drinks. It took her maybe, what, 10 seconds? And I’m still talking about it today.

Sadly, that little touch died during the pandemic and never came back. Now the server drops everything off on the table, warm glasses stacked inside one another, beer sloshing out of the top of the pitcher, and walks away without a single word. The experience went from memorable to average, just like that.

That’s what I think about when I talk about creating a memory. It’s almost never a big, dramatic gesture. It’s a cold glass instead of a warm one. It’s spelling somebody’s name right. It’s locking the gate at the end of the day without being asked because you’ve been paying enough attention to know there’s a two-year-old daughter in that house.

And you know what? Nobody’s going to brag to their neighbors about how well we connected the drain line four feet underground. They expect the drains to drain. They’re not going to know we shimmed that cabinet to be perfectly plumb. But they will notice every single time something feels off. They will remember, and they will tell people. The memory they have of this project, that’s on us. We own that.

Value two is to act with purpose. So what does it mean to be intentional? Done on purpose, deliberate. Running around without intention is just organized chaos, and I’ve seen what chaos costs — in money, in mistakes, and in relationships that don’t survive a project.

Acting with purpose means you’ve thought it through before you even touch it. Preparation before you start something, reflection after you’ve finished it. In between those two things, there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity, and that’s where most people either win or they lose.

I’ll give you a specific example. We put Ram Board floor protection down on every project, and you know why? Not because somebody told us to. It’s because we understand that the 15 minutes it takes to lay it down is the difference between a client’s hardwood floor surviving a three-month project and a hard conversation that nobody wants to have later.

When the why is clear, the how stops being a rule. It becomes a standard you hold yourself to, because you actually understand what’s at stake. Everything we do here has a reason behind it. Nothing is by accident.

Value three is to be authentic. I need to take a beat for this one, because being authentic means being true to who you are, living by your values and your goals, even when there’s pressure to act differently, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Look, we can teach tile, we can teach how to read a plan, we can teach how to protect a client’s home or have a difficult conversation or even how to write a daily update. We can teach a lot of things, but we cannot teach character.

Authenticity means you’re the same person on a Friday afternoon as you are on the first Monday morning. Same person when the client is watching as when they’re not. Same standards whether you’re wearing a Hochuli shirt on the job site or you’re out to dinner with your family on a Saturday night.

It also means owning it when something goes wrong. Look, we make mistakes. Every company does. Every person does. What we don’t do is hide from them. You pick up the phone, you have the conversation, and you fix it. That’s not a weakness. That’s where real trust actually gets built. I have found consistently that when you’re completely straight with other people, even when it’s the harder thing to do, they appreciate you for it. Maybe not in that moment, but they do.

Value four is following through. Do what you say you will do. I was a quarterback, and I can still hear my coach yelling across the field, “Follow through.” The throw isn’t finished until it’s finished. Following through completes the act. Without it, the whole motion falls apart.

Same thing here. Return the call when you said you’d return it. Show up when you said you’d be there. Finish the punch list item that’s been sitting there for three days. When you tell a client someone will call them back, make sure someone calls them back, and then check that it happened, because your name is attached to it whether the call was made or not.

At the core of follow through is accountability. Not the version where you apologize and move on — the real version, where you track what you committed to and you make sure it gets done. Every award we’ve earned, every referral, every client who’s come back to us for a second project, that’s what all of it traces back to. Trust built one kept commitment at a time.

Value five is to have fun. I saved this one for last because if you’re doing the other four — I mean really doing them — this one takes care of itself. When you’re working with people you trust, doing work you’re proud of, inside a company that knows exactly who it is and what it stands for, it’s genuinely fun. Not manufactured, not a team-building experience at Topgolf. Real enjoyment.

We’ve had kids take swings with demo hammers before they went off to school for the day. I hide dollar bills in my nephew’s bedroom, and I promise you there’s probably still some he hasn’t found. One of our field guys once sent me a selfie testing out a grab bar he’d just installed. A past client texted us to say he just sits at his kitchen island that we built because he loves it that much. That’s fun. That’s what we’re building toward, even when we’re knocking down walls.

Look, the industry’s hard. The days are long. The job sites are not always glamorous. But there’s nothing more satisfying than walking away from a finished project knowing a family is about to make memories in a home you helped create for them. That’s why we do it. At least that’s why I do it.

These values are not aspirational, they’re operational. Every person on this team, from the lead designer to the newest sub on site, is expected to know them, live them, and hold each other to them. We’re a small company. We have high standards, and we like it that way.

We’re not for everybody, and I say that with complete sincerity — not as a challenge and not as a sales line. If you’ve read through this and any part of it sounds like a company you’d want to show up to every day, I’d genuinely love to talk. I’m Scott Hochuli. This is Hochuli Design and Remodeling Team. We’ve been at this since 2001, so relax. You’re in safe hands.