The Tide That Lifts All Boats
How a Washington contracting conference reminded me why I wrote the Principles of MESLO.
AUBURN, Wash. — Years after first teaching contractors a framework for estimating, pricing, and building their back offices, I returned to the same professional community with a published book. What surprised me most wasn’t that people were interested in the book. It was that they remembered the lessons.
In years past, I attended procurement conferences to learn what government agencies and prime contractors were buying, introduce my company’s capabilities, and determine whether there was a market fit for our services.
This time, I returned as a published author to introduce The Principles of MESLO—and, more importantly, to share what I had learned.
Returning to the Regional Contracting Forum
The Regional Contracting Forum (RCF) brings government agencies, prime contractors, subcontractors, and industry professionals together for a day of networking, education, and collaboration.
Not another Zoom or Teams meeting. An opportunity to connect in person.
People travel from across Washington to attend. Organizations represented include WSDOT, Hanford, NWMBA, NAMC Washington, Tabor 100, COMTO Washington, King County, Sound Transit, the Council, and numerous public agencies and prime contractors.
One of the first people I encountered was a former Tabor 100 client.
Years earlier, I had worked with this contractor on estimating and pricing. Today, the business is still operating, profitable, and growing.
And they’re still using the MESLO Master Takeoff.
That encounter meant more to me than any sales pitch could have. It was a reminder that the real value of technical assistance isn’t necessarily what happens during a 1:1 or workshop. It’s what a business owner continues to practice years afterward.
From Working Manuscript to Published Book
I hadn’t received my author copies or ordered inventory in time for the conference. Instead, I arrived with a working manuscript of The Principles of MESLO.
I wasn’t expecting to sell books that day. I wanted to introduce the work, reconnect with colleagues, and explain why I had written it.
Then something unexpected happened.
Attendees began pulling out their phones, opening the Amazon app, and ordering the book on the spot.
What stood out wasn’t simply that people were purchasing a copy. It was their recognition that this knowledge deserved to be more accessible.
A Conversation at the Hoffman Booth
While walking the conference floor, I stopped at the Hoffman booth to greet two representatives and thank them for their previous sponsorship to attend UW Ascend.
During our conversation, they asked what had inspired me to write the book. I shared two observations from my years consulting with and teaching contractors.
First, estimating and back-office operations often felt like learning a foreign language. Contractors attending my MESLO pricing workshops would sometimes describe the material that way. Concepts such as direct costs, indirect costs, overhead, profit margins, job costing, and cash flow were unfamiliar—even to people who had spent years working in construction.
They understood how to perform the work. But understanding how a business prices, finances, and sustains that work was another matter.
Second, some contractors had been taught only enough to perform their jobs—not enough to understand the business.
When I asked participants why they hadn’t learned these concepts earlier, some explained that their employers wanted them to know enough to participate in operations, but not necessarily enough to understand how the entire business worked.
That observation stayed with me.
It raised a larger question:
What happens when people spend years helping build businesses without ever being taught how those businesses actually work?
And what becomes possible when that knowledge is shared?
At Operation Code, I learned firsthand how pairing and knowledge sharing could bridge learning gaps and make complex technical concepts more accessible. I carried that same approach into my work teaching contractors through MESLO.
Why I Wrote The Principles of MESLO
In the fall of 2023, I stopped what I was doing, sat down, and wrote approximately 33,000 words. A year later, I secured a publisher. The following year brought substantial organizational revisions, followed by line-by-line editing in 2026. Eventually, The Principles of MESLO was published and released in hardcover, paperback, and eBook editions.
The purpose wasn’t simply to write another book about estimating, building business systems, or growth strategy.
It was to take concepts that contractors often encounter piecemeal—estimating, pricing, overhead, operations, and business management—and organize them into a practical framework they could understand and apply.
A framework that could remain useful long after a workshop ended. Just as that former Tabor 100 client demonstrated.
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
John F. Kennedy helped popularize the expression, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”
When I think about that expression, I think about knowledge.
I think about leveling the playing field.
I think about the small contractor competing against a larger company with established estimating departments, administrative teams, and financial resources.
I think about the employee who knows how to perform the work but has never been taught how to price it.
And I think about the business owner who works tirelessly yet struggles to understand why revenue doesn’t always translate into profit. Knowledge changes those circumstances.
When small businesses understand their numbers, they become stronger competitors.
When contractors understand their costs, they can price their work more confidently.
When business owners understand overhead, cash flow, and operational systems, they can build organizations capable of growing beyond their individual efforts.
And when more small businesses become stronger competitors, the entire contracting ecosystem benefits.
That is why I wrote The Principles of MESLO.
Not to keep the knowledge to myself, but to make it accessible to the people building our communities, employing our neighbors, and delivering the work our economy depends on.
The Principles of MESLO is my contribution to the tide that lifts all boats.