Building Luxury Outdoor Living Spaces with Lakeshore Customs | F&D Mastery Podcast #79

Mason and his brother Clayton launched Lakeshore Customs in 2020 doing geotextile sandbag revetments to save eroding Lake Michigan homes during record-high water, then followed the same clientele into bluff stair access, dune restoration, and now full luxury outdoor living design-build.

The company deliberately serves one niche, Lake Michigan waterfront transformations with average deal sizes in the mid-to-upper six figures, and refers out small jobs like a 12x12 deck because that isn't how the business is built.

Lakeshore sells on emotional ROI over financial ROI: for a second or third home, what matters is the memories and experience the space creates, so the sales process centers on helping clients feel the finished project before they invest.

They use Oculus Meta Quest 3 VR headsets to let clients walk through a photorealistic render of their actual house and lake view before building, a differentiator Mason considers nearly non-negotiable for high-end work.

A charged design experience ($1,500, half credited back on move-forward) plus an outsourced 70-person design partner (Your Haven, with statewide exclusivity) locks expectations to the 2D plans and virtually eliminates change orders.

The team runs on EOS and a shared purpose, 'building life to its full potential' for clients and employees alike, and hires for determination and a growth mindset over pure skill or tenure, keeping a young 20s-to-30s team culturally aligned.

Growth is roughly 50/50 referrals and marketing: SEO built around 'custom decks on Lake Michigan' drives weekly inbound, while visual-first social content (now more trusted than AI-writable blog posts) builds the brand awareness that validates referrals.