From $500 to a $1.7M Masonry Business

I got in a bad accident, 2024, totally ruined that sale. We were about three weeks from closing, and the guy I backed out 10 days after the accident. Oh man, so then you had to go back in there and build it back up. The ultimate goal is to leave my family better off than we started.

Kenneth Morro is a resilient, driven, and accomplished Masonry entrepreneur who built a thriving business through grit, hard work, and an unwavering determination to succeed. From extreme poverty to building a million dollar company, Ken's story is one of perseverance and refusing to quit.

You always trying to challenge truth, right?

“And that's a very important thing in the industry, right?”

In construction industry, or any of that, is to be trustworthy. Everything you do in life is all about connections. Obviously, if you're not the best deal with people aren't going to deal with it. I wanted to start with my company, but I was wrestling. Really, you know, yeah, seeing how hard the kids work,

and how hard you've got to push yourself. And just seeing how hard those kids to push themselves. And like, I was kind of working in the union all again three to six months a year. And I'm like, "Man, if I just work half as hard as these kids, I'm going to be a millionaire."

So, I decided to start my own business and, you know, one thing leads to another and then. It spans the goal.

Like a super high school, into their buildings.

And they have all this going to reinvent for mom. It's not over, I'm telling how we're doing. But living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. As a senior, as a lawyer, all that is sensational to open. Check out what was the way you said Paul is about to smile on the planet.

You can live your dreams. Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of "Living Your Legacy" podcast. And I'm your host, Jay Slingon. And yeah, we got the privilege to talk to some of the greatest entrepreneurs from around the country. The disruptors, the experts, and today for America's Best Builders show,

brand new show that we have at Inside Success. We've got a special guest here for Massachusetts, kind of newingly in my town of the woods.

“And, yeah, have you introduced yourself and what's your business?”

I'm Kenneth Moro, I'm on Moro Maceery, we're out of Trigby Meshchuths. All right. And so Maceery, yeah, a lot of backyards I'm guessing, driveways. What are you doing? That's pretty much how we started it.

Now we do mostly commercial like 95% and 90%. Okay. And what's the commercial Maceery in town? So a lot of retail stores, schools, hangers, anything built out of block that's bigger. But mostly retail, we do a lot of like branding, branding buildings.

Okay. So in my mind, I'm not the American's Best Builders, handyman guy, right? But Maceery, I'm thinking bricks, right? What else is it? Brick block, EFIS, which is like that stucco look.

Okay. Down here, you guys have a lot of, in Miami, you guys have a lot of like concrete with stucco. Of course, we do like an insulation like two to four inches in insulation and then it has a thin layer of stucco over it. So we offer that, we offer brick, block, stone.

Okay. Yeah, that's stucco, it gets a lot of cracks also. So when you do it, direct apply to something, yeah, but when you do an insulation, it holds up pretty good. Okay.

Okay.

“And so, yeah, how long have you been in business for?”

I've been in business since 2014, so roughly 12 years. Okay. Okay. And so how big's your team now? So the team is roughly today, we very, we usually go like between four and ten people.

All right. And yeah, I mean, having a business for 12 years, that's quite an accomplishment, right? Congrats on that. And yeah, how do you, how did you build your team?

Was it solo at first or you had a couple crew?

So pretty much, high started was just in the residential. I worked in, you know, like the Union for a while, big commercial projects. But then, you know, it got slow and we weren't getting much work. So I decided to branch out on my own and we did a lot of commercial. I pretty much just had one other person that worked with me.

And we did that for about five, six years and then it kind of fell on our lap to do some commercial. And since then, it's kind of taken off and, you know, it's kind of all worth a mouth and nice nice. We'll find those.

And we do bid jobs, but mostly it's for the same select contractors that we do business for all the time doing all the time. Okay. So I guess one of your big tips would be, get a good relationship with the contractors.

Yeah, how you interact with people, how you connect with people, how you hold yourself.

And, you know, pretty much how you deal with people. Like obviously, if you're not the best deal with people and you're not going to deal with the, you know, but. Yeah. If you don't want to want to deal with an A-hole, right?

Or with a mass hole, you're from Massachusetts. That's a nice role. That's a nice role. It's all about connections. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And you said that you have a lot of work on mouth marketing, so that's a lot to do with those connections that you're building, right? Yeah. So a lot of them are like I have a few connections that are from wrestling base.

I coach for wrestling for years. Okay. And so a lot of my connections are through wrestling and everyone knows in wrestling. The people in wrestling that work harder. Yeah.

So people tend to like stay with the who they know, you know, from those times.

“You must have been a wrestler in high school or I wasn't actually.”

No. I was a wrestling connection. So I actually had a bum shoulder for most of my life. Okay. Not most of my life, but all my childhood.

So I played different sports besides wrestling. I didn't even know about wrestling. Yeah. But I mean, I'm a product of the 80s and 90s, you know, growing up. I didn't wrestle, but I was down with the whole cog in ultimate warrior.

Right? It's a total different wrestling. Yeah. Yeah. It was as we had moved back from Florida in 2006.

My son started wrestling in 2007. Okay.

One of the coaches that was his first coach.

He actually stepped away after that year. And my son won states this first year. So I was hanging out locked in. I was a big sports fan. I played sports my whole life and once I, you know, once you see your kid, you know, do

that good. You're like, okay. This is we're going to stay with this. Well, like I said, as coach left them, we went to a different community wrestling program after like a year or two, watching that.

And, you know, there was a couple of kids from our town that were going there, like probably five or six.

“I reached out to the old coach and said, hey, what do I need to do to coach these kids?”

Yeah. And I can do it. And he said, I'll help you with the paperwork and you can just do the matwork. And so I did that for a couple of years. And then was approached by somebody, you know, one of my good friends, I met him at

a tournament. And then basically we started, I started coaching there for six more years. And then, you know, like I said, it's all, I wanted to start in my company when I was wrestling. Really, you know, yeah, I see him like how hard the kids work and how hard you got to

push yourself and just seeing how hard those kids push themselves and like I was kind of working in union all again, three to six months a year and I'm like, man, if I just work half as hard as these kids, I'm going to be a millionaire. So I decided to start my own business and, you know, one thing leads to another. And then I got lucky with meeting a certain contractor that I didn't have a connection

with. It's all to me, um, said, I noticed you have, because I have been on a couple of their projects,

but he never, I never got him.

And he had called me and he's like, yeah, I noticed you have been on any other stuff in over a year. I said, yeah. And if I take me off your business, I don't want to bid your job anymore. Because I'm not trying to keep your Mason honest, you know, just, I was just honest, you

know, like I'm always honest with everybody fair. And I just told him, basically, why I didn't, and he said, well, I just started here a year ago. And if you, he goes, you're right, you were low on some of these beds. So I'm going to give you an opportunity to do this job if you're low.

And so I came in and we were a little bit and we did the job and ever since then we've had a great relationship and, you know, fair and honest is the way to go and communicate with people and, uh, well, there's two things that you said in that, um, one is, you know,

“you've got lucky meeting this guy, but you've got to create your own luck, you know?”

Of course. You had, you had the things that, uh, you put yourself in the right places and the right time, you know? Um, yes, there is a little bit of luck, right? But you've got to kind of make your own luck, right? If you don't put yourself out there, you're not, that luck's not going to come to you, right? True. True. Like, I'm talking to me wrong in the past when I was just doing residential,

I was emailing contractors and saying, hey, give us an opportunity to bid the, yeah, you know, because we're small. I mean, at that time, I probably had three to four guys working, you know, and it's like, you know, we're doing residential at this point. And the most I did in residential for the gross was probably 450, you know, and then as soon as you get into a commercial, it suddenly it jumps up to, you know, treble out, you know, there you go. Yeah, and it's all about

connections and just making your own luck again. Yeah. And then another thing that you said in

a very important thing in the industry, right, in construction industry or any of that is to be

“trustworthy, right? Because you're not, you can't be on the job the full-time, right? You don't know,”

you know, like, there's so many ways. It's like the mechanic, right? You got to just trust the mechanic because you're not getting under the hood, you're not getting under the car, you can't see what's going on, right? And so yeah, you got to be trustworthy. Yeah, the issue is some of the cases and not trustworthy. Correct. Then you got to call a cousin Joe, right? Come over here, right? Exactly. And that's the thing is like, um, if a once you got a guy, it's like,

you know, I got a guy. And then your friends are like, hey, I got a guy, right? Exactly. Yeah, once we started working for that contractor, people see our trucks and stuff on, you know, they were one of the biggest contractors in our area, uh, very elite. They do all branded buildings. Nice, nice, right? Totally, like, there you go. Big companies, you know. And so once people see you on their jobs, then they're like, hey, I'm going to call them and have a bit of a drop, you know, even though it's

“not. But that's how it kind of worked for the last since 2019. There you go. It was pretty much”

worth a month. I mean, and then since then, uh, how much money have you put in in marketing per month or a year? Uh, I do run a very, so I do run like, I get leads from a big, uh, chain, you know,

that's pretty big. Um, but I never follow up on them. I pay for them. Okay. Just from the marketing

point of it, because they will put you like, hey, uh, number one of this area, you know, for me, sorry, yeah. And so like your name will pop up with all your reviews and stuff. And that's the reason why I even, I'm on that platform, uh, because I never do any other jobs, you know, so it's more of a just really thing. Yeah, it's more of a, yeah, credibility. Everything I get is all where to mouth or like, okay, well, I know. So you pay for credibility right there, just to kind of put

your name on that on that, on that. Yeah, we have a couple, like we have probably 20 sound reviews on that platform. And I mean, there's only one bad. I don't know who the guy is. Yeah, I literally responded to, you know, yeah. Yeah. I don't know who you are. It's got to be a competitor trying to bring down our rating. It could be very well could be. Either way, uh, you know, like,

“that's what I do before. Yeah. So that word of mouth is so important. And yeah, I mean, if you've been”

in business for that long and you're like, I'm not really putting in the marketing, right? And you can

sustain that, uh, with that, that's amazing, right? Yeah. I mean, like I said, it's in 2019, the companies

built and grown and, you know, we have a shop. And so, um, we just got that last year in November. There you go. You know, to tell me about the growth, right? You're starting off. You're doing all the old jobs. And then you grow from one truck with the branding on the side. And then you get the second truck, right? And now you got the warehouse, uh, or the studio, right? Yeah. Tell me about that growth. How long did it take? Um, what was the most difficult part of that jump? So the whole time I was

in residential, I was going back and forth from, you know, I mean, I had a pickup truck that I was just using that was my personal pickup truck. But I drove every day. Yeah, no branding that. Just the forward. Yeah, literally nothing. Um, I bought a van, uh, lettered it all up, you know, when you're, when you're trying to build up, you're buying the most economical. So that economical means you're going to break down a lot. Yeah. So that they have broke down all the time. Oh, man. Um, yeah, the last

time that ended up breaking down on a high 90, which is the last bike. Oh, yeah. Cosmere ridiculous, I'm going to get a towed off there. Oh, no. And so, uh, I ended up started going to, uh, you all. Okay. And buying their use box trucks. Okay. And then just lettering them up and those trucks are the best trucks I've ever used. So yeah, so you get a good truck, right? And then you, and then you, I guess, uh, stick her up the you haul. Yeah. All right. Put some wrap on it, right? Yep.

Put some wrap on it. You know, uh, we bought, you know, laws, which is everything has our logo on it. The law is like a 40 foot foot, 44 foot, uh, lift that brings out the block to the staging. Um, we have a boom lift. That's, uh, 85 foot snark, a lift, um, tons of staging and everything. But we bought the, the shop in November last year and we put our liner put our sign up on it and we did the outside. And I mean, uh, so are you guys buying the box trucks of the trailers? Just the box trucks.

The box trucks. Oh, okay. Yeah. The box trucks. I usually, I don't go with anything over 15 foot because they go up to 11, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I only stay at the 15, um, that way we can go under most of the bridges in our area. There you go. There you go. And they're, and they're, they've been great vehicles for you. Oh, great vehicles. You don't have to. That's a, that's a hack right there. People, you know, getting those, those vans, right? You don't know what's been happening to them.

truck and okay. Start your business. Like I'm going to buy another one now and do like, uh, just like

“two guys and the on residential is going to start episode. All right. All right. And so you,”

your first truck buying on credit or you had the money from from your old business, uh, the revenue that was coming in or how did that go? Yeah. So pretty much I started the company with a $5,000 check. Yeah. Um, and just kept reinvesting reinvesting year after year. Like we probably brought in at our best here in residential 450. I probably invested 300,000 of that back in, you know. Um,

and it's just, I mean, I mean, I, but it's always reinvesting a little while. It's a noise. It's never

taken. You know, like all through residential, I was never doing good, you know, great. It was always just keeping your head above water. And you know, basically making an honest day's living. Yeah. Once we went to commercial, it was a lot easier to invest more money to look better, you know, and that's it. You know, like I started getting the box trucks and, you know, I had a dump truck. Obviously the dump truck got ruined in the accident, but um, I now have my 250 pickup. So I asked everyone on the

show, um, you know, what you got cooking? What's on the horizon? You talked about your new warehouse,

“maybe talk to about that a little bit. But, uh, yeah, what are you most excited about?”

Uh, so I'm most excited about, you know, like I literally, uh, just paid my house off, you know, like, hey, hey, they go. So I paid that off. I sold my two family to my son. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm getting going to be death free here. Hopefully, by the end of next year, um, fantastic building. Yeah. Um, then I'm going to buy some property in Florida. Okay. Um, ultimately, I had the

business sold at one point for 1.7 million. There you go. Um, I got in a bad accident, 2024.

Totally uh, ruin that sale. All right. Uh, I'm sure you talk about that in your interview. I actually, uh, well, I didn't talk about it in the sale, uh, for the sale. No, no, in the episode that you just filmed. I didn't talk about this. Oh, really? Falling through. I, that was one thing I, I forgot to mention, but yeah, we actually had, uh, we're like, about three weeks from closing, and the guy backed out 10 days after the accident. No, man. So then you had to

go back in there and build it back up pretty much. I kind of walked for, uh, you know, I still have a broke leg. I'll have surgery number four this year. Um, but it's been almost two year. It'll be almost two years to the day. Well, minus one month, having December 6, 2024. But uh, yeah, pretty much, I got, uh, airlifted and everything. Wow. Oh, brok my leg had to get, uh, draws a life to help. Oh, my, oh, my had a total pastures with me, but uh, the husband and wife and the other card

didn't make it, um, they crossed the line. Like, if you were to see NASCAR come out from behind the car, they had someone in front of them and then just came out and I, there was nothing you could do. Oh, man. But yeah, I mean, ultimately, the, the ultimate goal is to leave my family, uh, better off

them. We started. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Leave a legacy. Yeah. We started leaving legacy. I always say someone

asked to sacrifice in order for the family of the next generation has to be good. Yep. No, and sacrifice before me, but yeah. I was there to go to a point. I'm sacrificing now. Yeah. To try to keep the lineage, you know, to where they don't have to worry as much as I did when I was growing up. Good man. Good man. Well, uh, thank you for being on the show and joining us here in the studios and, uh, happy birthday, man. Yeah. So his phone's been all blown up. This is birthday today.

“And when he's in South Beach, right? You got birthday plans. Uh, I think we're going to go get some, uh,”

seafood that, uh, stone crab jose or something like that. Okay. Yeah. That's like the end ocean drive. Nice. Nice day on the ocean drive and the beast recommended it. Yeah. He's actually filling in for me today. I'm the job. Okay. Okay. He's like, hey, he had jose. So I think we're going to hit that and then, uh, probably hit the casino. Oh, okay. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. Talk to Tierra. She's a big casino girl. You know, we're talking. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. She's all about that. Yeah. All right. So well,

thank you for joining us here in the studios for the podcast and thank you everyone for joining us again on on on on another great episode. Yeah. America's best builders will retock to the construction workers and all the craftsmen and yeah. I mean, these are the people that aren't going to get replaced by AI working hard and, you know, becoming millionaires. Um, so, all right, we'll see you guys next time. Cheers, everyone.