2022 40 Under 40 Spotlight: Clay Trautman, 2018

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Then: Private client adviser, Ollis/Akers/Arney
Now: President/CEO, The Cast Group

A side gig turned into self-employment for former insurance adviser Clay Trautman.

A year before he was a 40 Under 40 honoree, he and his wife flipped a house, and he ended up liking it more than he imagined.

In 2019, Trautman launched The Cast Group to buy and flip homes, as well as remodel and renovate houses for property owners.

“I always had aspirations of running a business,” he says. “It had always kind of been in my blood.”

To date, The Cast Group has conducted around 160 remodels, which Trautman, 34, says has become big business amid a spiking housing market.

His favorite job was his first, when The Cast Group turned around a home on North Campbell Avenue.

“That one’s kind of our baby,” Trautman says.

Best advice to young professionals? The resources that I have now have not been something that were developed overnight. Every individual you meet, every opportunity you get, make sure to take that and use it as a learning experience.