Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Calvin Ludwig. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Calvin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, folks often look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight – but that often obscures all the nitty, gritty details of everything that went into the growth phase of your business. We’d love to hear about your scaling story and how you scaled up?

To me, scaling up was never the hard part of the business. Honestly, no part of the business is hard. I genuinely love it all. I love the accounting, I love the actual work, and I love getting my clients excited; I love what I do.

With that in mind – scaling came naturally and easily, but it did not come quickly. With my genuine excitement to “go to work” every day, it was natural to grow and expand and take on a little more work than I did the previous day and do a little bit better of a job than I did the day before as I was (and am) constantly learning and growing.

I was in a unique situation with my business, as I think a lot of small business owners are when they get started – I had a full time job on top of working on running and growing my business. It took over four years to get to a point where I felt I could leave my job as a Project Manager at a medium-sized General Contractor to go full time with 4Blades Digital.

That is when it really felt like I was able to pour gas on the fire. Being able to spend every day doing exactly what I wanted and focused on myself and my business, the growth started to explode. Even in the first four years of business where I was working full time, I saw my company’s growth typically 2x or 3x every year. It was in year four that for the first time I saw that I wasn’t going to at least 2x my revenue from the year prior. That was a huge sign to me that I needed more time to dedicate to the business.

There were definitely really amazing and rewarding days, and a lot “meh” days that really weren’t exciting. I recognized that this wasn’t a sprint, though, and did my best every single day. It’s amazing when you do your best every day when you suddenly look up a quarter later or so and realize how far you’ve come.

Calvin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a farmer. I loved tractors and wanted to be around tractors more than anything else. Whenever I saw a tractor when we were driving around, I’d beg my parents to stop so I could go and look at it. When I accepted an offer to go to Colorado State University, I chose mechanical engineering, makes sense right? Yeah it didn’t make sense for me either.

I didn’t last long as a mechanical engineer, I realized that this was not the kind of career for me at all and switched majors a few times. I ended up with a Construction Management Degree from CSU and fell in love with the construction industry (partly because they have really cool tractors everywhere!)

The first 4-5 years in construction were incredible. I thought I’d be a General Contractor for my entire career. I thought I’d stay at a company for 20+ years, get the golden Rolex, and retire.

I really started to get bogged down around 2017, though. Having to be “tied” to an office, to a job site, really started to bug me at my core. I wanted to do something else, but wasn’t sure what I would do.

It wasn’t until I went to a car show and got to talk to all the folks that had Ferraris, Lamborghinis, you know – expensive cars. I talked with all of them and the first question out of my mouth was “what do you do??” and the answer was nine times out of ten “I own….”

I realized I needed to start my own business – but had no idea what I’d do. Around this same time, I received my first drone as a gift (a GoPro Karma). I started taking pictures of the job site I was on and quickly realized that the entire company I was with really loved this. The idea was formed.

Today – 4Blades Digital Media is what I’d call a Construction Media Contractor. We work with all types of contractors and help them with whatever their media needs are. Progress tracking on site, high-powered branding commercials, aerial surveying, headshots, final photography, and more. My goal was to be a scope-gap filler for the industry with media services and operate a media company like a subcontractor. Having walked the walk, it has been very easy for me to talk the talk and not overpromise to my clients.

Spending my days today getting to visit all sorts of different projects around the country has been a dream of mine. I get to spend my day doing what I love and doing what I want – and genuinely helping make the construction industry a better place for all.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being honest and being real. There’s absolutely no reason to not tell it how it is and be yourself.

I know that I am one of very few contractors in the United States that specialize in construction like I do and have the background in construction that I do. Being able to go out to a job site and talk the talk and walk the walk is huge. There’s a huge stigma in construction around “white-collar” workers and being able to break the perception that the “media guy” is also “one of us” has been huge. It builds a lot of trust with the guys that hey, I’ve been in your muddy shoes on the tail end of a 14 hour day – I get it.

Lastly I think delivering (and overdelivering) on your promises. If you say you’re going to do something, get it done.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social Media is hard, especially growing it organically.

A lot of my videos on platforms like Instagram maybe get a few hundred views – but those few hundred views? They’re all project managers, superintendents, and key decision makers at the construction companies I want to work with.

Knowing your audience is crucial. It really helps (and is my advice) to start a business in an industry you know. Every single type of work you can think of (barista, delivery driver, retail, etc.) has specific pain-points about their jobs that you could help alleviate from knowing the industry.

With knowing my audience so well, I really just do and post what I want – because I am my own audience. I think to myself, “wow, that turned out really cool.” and I think if I, a previous Project Manager, thinks it looks cool – I bet other Project Managers in the industry will think the same.

Knowing your platform is huge, too. I typically organically post a few times a week on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. I like to do this so I stay relevant on all platforms. They’re free anyways, so why not? BUT – I know I need to spend my time and attention on LinkedIn, though, because that’s where the key decision makers for contractors typically hang out at.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.4bladesdigital.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4blades_digital/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4BladesDigital
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/4blades-digital

Image Credits
Calvin Ludwig