Learnings and Missteps

Lead Like You Build: Brian Anderson on Integrity, Grit, and Growth

• Kaelalosey • Season 3

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In this episode of the Learnings and Missteps podcast, host Jesse interviews Brian Anderson, President of Bear Construction. Brian shares his journey of starting his own construction company, driven by his desire to create his own values and methods. Despite initial setbacks, such as working for companies that went under and facing financial struggles, Brian successfully established his business, Bear Construction, with intentionality and faith. He also discusses leveraging LinkedIn for both business growth and talent acquisition, emphasizing the importance of transparency, respect, and building genuine relationships. Brian's story is a testament to hard work, faith, and the impact of a supportive community.

00:00 Introduction and Personal Values

00:29 Meet Mr. Brian Anderson

02:14 The Importance of Hard Work

03:10 Journey in the Construction Industry

04:36 Family Legacy in Construction

05:26 Starting Bear Construction

07:44 Joining Peer Groups for Growth

15:39 Building Relationships and Networking

23:17 Overcoming Business Challenges

30:48 Starting a Business from Scratch

33:59 Starting with Limited Resources

35:13 The Importance of Intentionality

36:16 Delegation and Growth

38:00 Hiring Challenges and Lessons

46:59 Leveraging Social Media for Business

54:15 Spiritual and Personal Growth

58:40 Final Thoughts and Reflections



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SPEAKER_00:

I wanted to create my own ways, my own values. If I see theirs on the wall, I copied it and put it on my wall. I wanted to be like you said, I wanted to be my own person. I wanted to grow myself because I knew that would only that would help me grow my company. If I'm always trying to be like somebody else, emulate a different company, then just look the same.

SPEAKER_01:

What is going on, LM family? Back again with how should I say, I'm just gonna call him a LinkedIn influencer because I came across him and my attention was like captured by not just what he posts, but like the tone, the message, the humor. There's a lot in there that just came across as super human. And he's he's a business operator. So he's the president of Bear Construction, family man. His name is Mr. Brian Anderson. So we're gonna get to know a bunch about Mr. Brian, and I'm gonna be learning all kinds of new stuff because this is actually the very first conversation that we've ever had, which I absolutely love because then I get to be super, super curious. Hopefully, I won't cross any lines. But before that, if this is your first time here, you are listening to the Learnings and Missteps podcast, where you get to see how amazing human beings just like you are sharing their gifts and talents to leave this world better than they found it. I'm Jesse, your selfish servant, and we are about to get to know Mr. Brian Anderson. Mr. Brian, how are you, good sir? I'm getting by today. Getting by, huh? Oh my goodness. So we've been you've been busy. I know you've had a lot going on. We connected a while back and we finally were able to like get on the calendar. Now you're like a professional podcast guest, it seems. You're making the you're making the rounds out there. And so I got a real simple question. You ready?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Where do you stand or what are your thoughts on hard work?

SPEAKER_00:

It pays off. First off, it pays off, it's worth doing, and it's godly. You're supposed to put in the hard work and you rest, and it you're rewarded.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, sir. I was kind of LinkedIn stalking you, and you had a post specifically about hard work, and you I think you pulled a quote from scripture about the laborer has amazing sleep after a day's hard work. And reminds me of a story a buddy of mine, he was in law school, and he was venting to his then father-in-law about having trouble sleeping. And his father-in-law said, like, oh, we used to need to work. And my buddy was like, But I'm in law school. He's like, Yeah. So if you just did a little work, you would sleep five. A little more. Just a little bit more, so you're tired up to go to bed. All right. So you're president at Bear Construction. Now, was that something that that you just been on those straight line paths since high school to start a construction business? Was that the goal right out the gate?

SPEAKER_00:

No, twice along my journey. I worked at construction companies that like in a way, the economy shut down. So that construction company did too. It was in Atlanta, Georgia. Good little small mob and pop type construction company. And then around 2013, got back into it, and that company shut down. So I was left without a job a second time. So I almost got out of construction completely. There's no money in it. Um, it's not there's no longevity, apparently. And I was, I guess I was just working companies that didn't survive. I got out of it. I got into like cutting grass, landscaping, helping a buddy out, installing alarm systems, wire backed, just trying to find like what what my love is, what uh what I want to do, and what would help me be successful?

SPEAKER_01:

Nice. So you work for two construction companies, they went under, and then you kind of went on this, we'll say, uh, exploration of like what's next, what do I want to do? So what was it that like attracted you to those first construction companies? Did you just like construction? Is construction in the family?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yes, definitely in the family. My grandfather had like 300 acres in Fair Review. And the boys would leave school after lunch and go cut hay, bail hay, take care of the farm. Um, they did it for other families in the community. So that was their job. When they all, I guess, graduated from farm work. They moved out and they all started in construction as pipe layers mostly. Oh, we're known as utility guys. The Andersons are.

SPEAKER_01:

Ah, so the Andersons are utility guys running the like domestic water distribution, storm drainage, sanitary, fire sprinkler. Exactly. Yep, yep. Oh, okay. This is good.

SPEAKER_00:

That's how I started my company.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, once I did.

SPEAKER_01:

So you work with two outfits, they shut the doors, which is difficult and I'm sure painful for everybody involved, but the that didn't scare you away. So, what was it? Was it like bar backing? And you just said, I ain't gonna do this, I'm gonna go start my own company. Because I mean, I'm gonna speak on both sides of the fence. Having started my own business, it's harder than I thought, while it was also or is also easier than I thought.

SPEAKER_00:

So I have the same sentiment.

SPEAKER_01:

Really?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, it's very odd, but apparently the person I am on LinkedIn invites a lot of communication. There's people that are in peer groups that have asked me how do I manage my cash flow? People that ask, like, how do you sustain the growth? How do you because we've been growing 100% each year, except for this one? They're asking me questions, and I'm like, I don't know. This is what I it's worked, so it's it's odd that these people are asking me, but yes, there is a formula, and I've seen it in this national market that you worked your ass off until like the fourth year is when you start. The fifth year is when it really breaks, but fourth, you're like, okay, I I see what I've done, didn't work. I've fixed that. I've brought in one or two people to start helping get this lined out. You start buying machines, hopefully, you didn't buy them in year one, right? And then it didn't work, or several machines. Year five breaks, and you're like, okay, I got this. Like it all makes sense. You start hiring better people, more qualified, you've got some money that you can pay them and bring them in, and then you start working on your culture. And once your culture gets down path, I'm in year six and a half, and six and a half, and I don't know if you saw that last video I just posted. Like, I don't know what to do with my time throughout the day.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't see that.

SPEAKER_00:

That's where I got my identity.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Oh my god, there's so much here, and I appreciate you like spreading it out that way. You talked about being in peer groups, so I guess the first question is did you jump into a peer group like day one when you decided to start a business, or was that like a little further down the road after some bumps and bruises?

SPEAKER_00:

So I had been um asked to join peer groups early, early on. Yeah, I think maybe a year and a half into my business that I did join one. It's not necessarily it's not a construction peer group, it's a Christian leadership peer group. Okay, around two, and it's called C12. Here I've been there five years. Oh, nice. One, I guess. I don't know if you win it, but I was, I guess, Buffalo of the Year in my group. Congratulations, all right. One of those one of those years, and I knew early on as a lot because my first contract that I signed, the project manager, I gave it to him. He got he turned it into his own um estimate, added twenty thousand dollars extra to it, and handed it back with their signature, said sign this. I said, That's not my bid. And he comes back and says, You keep 10 and then give me 10. And so that was my first contract that I ever put my signature on. I'm like, is that what this is? Is that how the construction community is? Like, why likes construction costs? Yeah, I was like, I want to change that. This is not who I want to be. Like the good ones sustain my life by being crooked. Yes. Um, and I was like, all right, I need some advice from people, but I didn't want to be in a construction peer group. I wanted to be in a leadership peer group to change who I am and how I can run my business. I saw a post by Craig Warner. He was my first advisor, I guess, chair, member, leader, and he was absolutely amazing. I couldn't afford it, but I said I need this. And I paid in, and it's probably saved my company three or four separate times. Really?

SPEAKER_01:

Just the insight and wisdom from the people that you were interacting with.

SPEAKER_00:

The insight, yeah, like you said, the insight, the wisdom, the other executives that aren't in construction but have the same problems. Yeah. And they have connections. If I needed a lawyer, they had that. I had an employee that has some heart problems, and I was still paying his insurance and everything else. And they said, Brian, is I know you want to be a good Christian and take care of this person, but there's 10 care, there's benefits to free health care for certain people. Like he can jump on any of that, and you don't have to keep him on your payroll and keep his insurance loud. Like he his he and his family can do what it takes to help him through this.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and just connect him with the resources so that he's taken care of either way, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. And that's what they did, they gave me ways to to help him outside of bear because there was there's only so much that I can do financially and legally to help him. But I was able to give him more information than I had because of this group.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice, nice. So, folks, if you didn't catch that, the LM family members out there, you made an investment in yourself, right? I it's all about, and I want to clarify something because I had a discussion with somebody. They're like, Jesse, you have that invest in who you got. What does that mean? And I said it means invest in who you got. Who do I have first? Me. And if I have a team, I have employees, if I have people, it means them too. But you gotta do invest in who you got, which means everybody, and you started there now. You said specifically you didn't want to be in a construction peer group, but you did want to improve yourself. So, what was it about a construction peer group? Why did you make that delineation? Why was it like, no, I don't want that kind of group, I need something else.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't want to, I guess first I didn't want to copy another company. Um I wanted to create my own ways, my own values. If I see theirs on the wall, I copy it, put it on my wall. I wanted to be like you said, I wanted to be my own person, I wanted to grow myself because I knew that only that would help me grow my company. If I'm always trying to be like somebody else, emulate a different company, then just look the same. Yeah, and that's who I am.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And then you're constantly chasing. Like, I get the sense that you're of the abundance mindset, right? Like, it's funny. I'll talk like because I'm a consultant. I'm one of them dirty, like, I actually have a job, so I'm one of them lowly consultants. And so I get to see, you know, luckily, I work with amazing clients that like invite me in to see all the dirty details. And it's interesting, some of them have a fear of like, man, just like you can't like non-disclaimer, they're nervous about me sharing the secret sauce. I'm like, yeah, you don't need to worry about like one, I'm not gonna like it's an integrity thing, but two, even if I did share your secret sauce and somebody else decided to copy it, you're five to ten years into actually doing it, they still need to figure out how to make it like how to make it stick, and they're always gonna be behind as long as you stay true to your purpose and the direction you're headed, they'll never catch up. Do you feel the same way?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. I had met with a big company here in Nashville that just recently sold to a bigger company, but they have been doing it for over 30 years, and that's who I wanted to emulate. Like, all right, they've got employees that have been there for 15 plus years. They had like 50 employees that you know have been there forever. So I'm like, all right, what are they doing? So I first started subcontracting for them when I first started working. So I want to work for y'all, and I learned so much from them. And anytime, like they was like, You want me to mail your check? Like, no, I'll come get it. I would spend an hour or two in their office talking to their project managers, their account ladies, everybody. Yeah, and if the owner walks by, hey, tell me how you doing, like, yeah. I was very intentional with going to pick up that check every single time. It wasn't a lot of money because we were only labor and machine at that point. But it was the what I the value I got from visiting the offices.

SPEAKER_01:

Just learning and gleaning information, getting the again the insight, how they operate, how do they communicate. So what are which I think is it's a phenomenal practice, right? There's some people might be saying, yeah, but what's the return on investment? Because they're thinking in a short-term cycle, right? Like if I go to pick up a check, that might be a 30, 45, 90-minute round trick ride, which is windshield time's never very productive. So people might argue that it's like a low cost, low investment, low return, but you're making contact and kind of doing some investigation, some forensic CSI type investigation. Like, man, how do these people function? What does it feel like here? So, what are maybe a few things if you're gonna recommend to someone like, hey man, go pick up your check. And when you do, look for these two things. You got any top two big hitters?

SPEAKER_00:

No, just build a relationship. They had a project manager that is now a land development manager, and I've had two or three projects you know off of that. He left that company, went out to a national home developer, and because of that, he trusts me because of the conversations I had in his office about the projects they were working on that I wasn't part of, and then the ones that we were working on, just built that relationship and that time in that office. He trusts me. He feels like he knows me and was more than willing to give me the opportunity to bid a 50 to 150 house subdivision.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. All right, so that is actually a monster like cheat code. The relationships, the real now. I want to uh add something because it took Brian, Mr. Brian. I did I didn't know this, and I wish I did back early in my career. Talking to the project manager, now he's a representative of the land developer, so he has financial decision-making authority. We got to do the LM family member shout-out. And this one goes out to Mr. Jeff Riley. Mr. Jeff left the review and he says, this was a great experience. It really gave me a roadmap on how to effectively improve work in the field, to find how to execute a gamble walk. I'm now teaching my team so we can PDCA one of these in the coming weeks. This was all taught with passion and enthusiasm that made an eight-hour day go by super fast. Mr. Jeff, thank you, my man. And folks, if you're wondering what he's talking about, we just did the Sweat Equity Improvement Workshop at Congress in Arlington last week, and he dropped me that little review. And y'all already know I love attention, I love compliments. So, folks, if you take the time to drop a review, do some stars, do some sharing, it means a lot to me, and it gives me an opportunity to shout you out in the future.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't think that way 20 years ago, right? If and again, I come up as a plumber, so I'm from the field, and so PMs to me were eh, like they're not cool. I ain't talking to them, I'm a I'm gonna beat them up and uh bully them as much as I can. Well, you know what? Fast forward 15, 20 years, they're project executives and department heads now. Like, damn it. And when they see me, some especially here in San Antonio, they're like, that dummy, we you want to give our money to that goofball? Oh man. So, point being one, build the relationships. Two, that I think probably comes naturally to you, Mr. Brian, because of your background and your faith, but doesn't come naturally to a lot of people, is treat everybody with immense appreciation and respect, regardless of where they are on the organizational chart, because they're not gonna stay there forever.

SPEAKER_00:

No, and young kids, like it's hard right now to want to talk and discuss with young guys, but that generation only wants to grow higher and faster, so it won't be long before they're leading companies and running companies, and and you know, us 42-year-old men are at their mercy. So one of our one of our core values is respect and value others, and if they if they have an idea, it's probably a good one. Do you agree with it? Maybe not, because we're different generations, but you have to honor that thought. They put their effort into it. So honor that thought and come up with the best way to make it work. If it works for you, give them that opportunity. Say, hey, I'm not, I don't exactly see your vision in this, but here's the opportunity to try it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Go walk me through it, get a rep in, let's see what it looks like. If it sticks, heck yeah, let's do that thing. I think you touch on something that I think is one of those hidden treasures, is when we listen and give people the agency to like bring their idea to life, we tap into some really powerful stuff as opposed to say, no, that ain't the way we do it, we ain't gonna do it that way. Because when we do that, we suffocate it, and then they just all we get is their body, we don't get the rest of their brilliance that they carry with them every day, right?

SPEAKER_00:

And kind of going back to the peer groups, that's why I didn't want to join one because I didn't want them to tell me this is how you do it, this is how you should do it. I'm like, No, I've got my own thoughts, yeah. Yeah, so I turn that into the people that I talk with, and like they have their own thoughts, they see they feel passionate that they can do it a different way. Being from the utility background, I have one way to install pipe. So when I go out to a job site and they're digging 300 feet, have put a stick of pipe in, I'm like, what are you doing? And then I gotta remember that all right, they were taught different somewhere. So I'm open to let them do that, and I will show them my way, tell them my way, and if they feel that my way is more advantageous, then they'll probably change. But if they feel good and I agree, I'm like, okay, like you did a good job. You put the production in that day or more, and it's backfilled, it's cleaned up, like it's safe. Yeah, okay, like it worked. You've proved that you know to me that you can do it. I don't agree with it. I wish you did it a different way, but you saw me on the fact that you believe in what you're doing, and that's a powerful value.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's a massive discipline, Mr. Brian, because I know I struggled with it when I back in the day when I was an apprentice and journeyman. What I would run my pipe to where you could read all the letters left to right, and they were all on the same side. All my no-hub bands were all like it was art, Brian. I'm telling you, it was art. And then I became a foreman. And guess what I did? I wasn't very yeah, I would make people run it, like take it apart and do it the way I would have done it. Until my boss came and said, Hey, dummy, you know how much that's costing us? I'm like, Yeah, but what about pride and quality of work? He said, Bro, the specs say pass inspection, they don't say nothing about the letters. Okay, dummy. So it's can you produce the outcome? Yes or no? Exactly how you get to the outcome is there's some flexibility there, provided you hit the measures of quality, safety, production. Then we're well, and that's not easy.

SPEAKER_00:

And here's one thing about it we bury it, you know, you drywall it, and so you don't see it, but it still has to be done with quality, or else it won't pass inspections. And now we nowadays we can't run sewer lines, and if it could fail and cause a road to the center, so like there's still that quality that absolutely has to be performed.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, 100%. Okay, so the group that you signed up for, did they paint a picture of how easy sales was gonna be selling? And I don't mean like actually making this, I mean all the work it takes to get the sale.

SPEAKER_00:

They have each month is a different, I can't think of the word, but lesson. Yeah, so yeah, they once a year they probably go through that, and then like right now, we're doing strategic planning for next year. Oh, yeah, and so yeah, they're yes, I'm pretty good at sales, I've become really good at it. I can sell what we want to do and what we're trying to do, and then but the best part is we go out there and do it. You had to work on that first. You can't go out there and say, Oh, yeah, we can build you a hundred houses in eight months, but then when you start it, you only get four. Um sales became easier when the quality of work that me when I was out in the field and my guys performed matched.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Oh very well said. Uh maybe, so I'm wondering. So the first two organizations that you were with, because I've seen this when I had a real job and still see it a bunch now, that the company they get a new boss, there's new management, or they're new to the market, whatever it is, and they start winning work, and they're delivering, right? They're meeting expectations, client satisfied, so they get more work, and then they take on a whole lot of work and they have to flood people in from like other organizations, and then all of a sudden, the quality or the experience that the client was having diminishes, they start losing credibility, they start losing business, and then that's the common term is back to basics, we're getting back to basics, and so they have this cycle that I think is because somewhere between like earning work and starting to get like negotiated contracts, if you will, they oversell themselves. Have you seen that, or is that something that you've like paid attention to in terms of your business or maybe the ones you were working with?

SPEAKER_00:

Pay attention to it. I don't necessarily have an exact answer to what you're asking, but I've seen companies that had a lot of money behind them when they started, um, not do it right. They're able to go out there and get the work because they've got the machines, they've got the people in the office. It's easy to say, oh, we got 12 people. So this developer's like, oh, y'all should be able to do it then. Um no, those are 12 people in the office that have nothing to do with that project, right? Uh so like it doesn't matter how many people you have, it's the quality of work you do. Number one. I've I've seen companies come into town, even national home builders come into town. Great product, can't seem to get the right contractor on board to deliver them the product that they need, and they ship back out of town. Um and there's contractors that start their business, they buy the big suited up trucks, dually with trailer truck tires on them, um tin all their windows, and just do some silly stuff to put a culvert in for granny. Um and it doesn't sustain. Right, right. My first my first work truck was 08 Kia Spectra.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a t-shirt. That's a t-shirt.

SPEAKER_00:

My first uh actual utility bed truck was one that we bought from my first boss like in 02 when I started in construction. It was a 1995 450, F3 or 450 utility bed. So in in the year 2019, it's old, it's more out, but it's diesel, and it was a dinosaur, so like it it ran.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Okay, I think there's a massive lesson there. So you said your first truck was a Kia. After you had talked about these big giant dualis with tractor tires and all the whizbangy attention-grabbing stuff. Why did you choose? Because that was a choice, to run your business out of your Kia.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, uh, so I mean, it was a free vehicle, it's my wife's, but we upgraded her to a GMC terrain. Okay. I just had a just had a baby, and it's I started the company about six months after he was born. Oh wow. Wow. Yeah, there's a whole nother story. It's uh starting a business at 35 with a newborn. And I'm 42 with a two-year-old and a dollar. We're probably training both of them at the same time. So but the kia was given to me by her. We upgraded her vehicle. And I just I wanted a gas guzzler because I knew I was gonna have to sell. I knew I was gonna have to like go job site to job site. If I get a new set of plans, I gotta go look at the fresh layout of the land, see what it looks like. Um pick up parts here, pick up parts there. Of course, I I realized the Kia doesn't suffice when I picked up uh like a gate valve concrete box. Okay and like the mufflers dragging uh 24. All right, you know, bought a cheap, it was Brand New. I did buy Brand New 2019. It wasn't even a four-door, it was a half-door in the back. And so like I've made a lot of silly decisions along the way. The next truck after that was a 2020 F350 Dooley. Yeah, because I was at that point, I was pulling, I had a trailer, I had a mini X and a Skiss deer. So I was like, all right, I gotta need something that will pull that thing. Because that I guess half ton, won't go pull it. Yep. Yep. And so I made a lot of serious decisions, and then I got to the point where all I was doing as the owner of the business was hauling machines around, going to pick up stuff. So I then bought an SUV to get myself out of doing the gopher stuff. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh okay. So there's I think there's some massive decisions in what you just described to us. You started with what you got, and it was a business decision to say, okay, I'm gonna be putting. A lot of miles, all I need is the Kia until you're dragging the muffler because it was loaded up with a big giant cake valve. And the reason I call I said because uh too many people, and it doesn't matter if I can reach out and say, Jess, I want to start. What do I need? I was like, your phone, you're ready to go right now. But they want to go and get the fancy lighting equipment and the fancy expensive camera, fancy expensive microphone. None of those things are gonna actually help you do the thing. And it seems to me like you just you knew that. Did you know that inherently, or was it somebody something that somebody said, hey man, don't worry about getting that big food to you, sell work first?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I absolutely had no communication of how to start a business, run a business. My favorite story, and I know you'll love this. Um you might have heard it before, but I was working for a developer in town and as the like construction admin. That's how I got back into construction after cutting grass and doing everything else. Was conned by a guy to help run his company. He was just doing like service taps from the street to the houses, and I did like 200 in two months for him. And every night on the ride home in this big dealy truck, I'd stop at the gas station and car would decline every single night. And I'm trying to get home to my six-year-old, my six-month old, I'm sorry. And it was just miserable. I'd get home late. I worked so hard that day because it was me and one other guy. He didn't have the help that we needed. I worked very hard. Yeah. And then I couldn't even get home on time or easy. I always had to call him, say, hey, can you put some money on the card? And then I'm just sitting there on the couch one night and Googling how to start a business. Apparently, all you gotta do is you know, file for your articles, your articles of the organization, and name it. And then pay 300 bucks, and you've got a business. I was like, That's not too bad. Like, I mean, what I had to lose. So I asked, you know, we're just sitting there and watch TV, or she's holding the baby. I look at my wife, Heather, and I'm like, should I start a business? Like, yeah. Okay. So I do all the government paperwork, and then the last question is like, what do you want to name this business? I didn't know. I didn't have an idea that I was gonna start a business in that 30 minutes. So I ask her, Heather, what should I name this business? She says, Name it bear, because you're my bear. Okay. I'm thinking like, okay, like I like, yeah, I am her bear, but then also I've got her baby bear in her arms. And so I'm like, it makes sense, it works for me. I'm not, I don't have a special name for it. I knew I didn't want to name it Brian Anderson Construction. I've never agreed with that. Because what if it goes south and you like need to sell it or get rid of it? Yeah. File bankruptcy under Brian Anderson. Like that sounds bad. So I was like, I don't know what I'm doing, so I'm not gonna name it after myself in case it does go south. So we named it Bear that night on LinkedIn. That's why I love LinkedIn. I put a post out there. Hey, started my I didn't have a logo, didn't have nothing, didn't have a business page. Hey, started my site and utility company in Middle Tennessee. And immediately a contractor said, call me in the morning. Really? He didn't know me because I wasn't posting at that point. And he gave he had two projects he needed help on. He had a subcontractor. Again, I didn't have a vehicle, I didn't have a truck, I didn't have a shovel, I had a pink hammer inherited from her when we moved in together. Didn't have a pipe laser, he let me borrow that. I didn't have machines, he let me borrow those. I paid him rent on his machines, hired my cousin because I knew that he worked for another cousin at one point, so he was like, Well, he can lay pipe. And then I called around town and got an excavator operator, and we went to work. I I I think he told me what he would pay me on you know per linear foot. I said, okay. I think I did have to get a diesel account and a tank on site, but other than that, I got that old 95 utility bed truck, and a week later we were 25 feet deep in double trench boxes. Oh yeah. Ductile Ire sewer. Damn. Serious. Yeah. So like first thing I did was the hardest damn thing to do. And it was hammered. So we had to hammer, we had to use trench boxes. It was fun, it was amazing, it was great. Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so I want to make sure people don't get the idea that just start a business and everything's gonna work out. But I also don't want to say that it's not possible for it to be that way. I think the difference is when you have a heart that's focused on serving others and growing and challenging yourself, things work out.

SPEAKER_00:

Would you agree? Yeah, you have to be intentional with what you want to do. And I was intentional about my family. Yep. I was intentional about I wanted faith in my business, I wanted it exposed, I wanted it out there. I had one, I have ADHD, so I can easily jump into something with the fullest effort. It's hard to sustain that once I get started. That's when you start delegating. And that's how you but well, honestly, that's how you grow. I do, I've done the assessment working genius, which C12 put on us. Yeah, and I'm a wonderer and inventor. So off in the clouds all day long, thinking, planning, being creative, and then I'll figure out a way to do it. My I guess my frustrations are carrying it out and seeing it all the way through. Yeah. So I think for a business owner that wants to grow, that those qualities are great. Um, and then I've done the assessment on everybody that works for us, foreman, superintendents, vice president of operations. They're all they like to see things through to the finish. Yeah. Um, there's nobody in here with discernment, so nobody, unfortunately, nobody says, Brian, that's not a good idea.

SPEAKER_02:

So you just get to do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_00:

I get that, yeah. And they're like, okay. So so and I know Heather Jones and Jake Jones. I love them to death. Heather is my discernment, that is her quality.

SPEAKER_02:

And she's good at that.

SPEAKER_00:

She is good at that. And so, like, I run a lot of stuff through her. When I'm hiring people, I talk with her about it, and she tells me this is how they'll work, this is why it's not a good idea. Do I always listen to her? No, no, but I do value what she says, and a lot of times it is in my thoughts when I'm analyzing what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Oh my god. There's just so much, but I want to go into this hiring thing. Because when you started bear construction, it was you were doing the digging, the tamping, the backpack, the trench box setting, the sales, all of it. Well, now you mentioned you got COOO, you got foreman, you got superintendents. And so from going from being the everything to where you're at now required hiring. How did you learn how to do that?

SPEAKER_00:

Bumps and failures. I I hired off so I had people. I was on a job and uh put an ad an ad on Craigslist because I didn't want to pay for, I didn't want to pay for Indeed, I didn't want to pay for ZipRecruiter. So I went to Craigslist and said, Hey, I need pipe player for 20 bucks an hour. Talked to two kids, they came in, their dad's been doing it for 30 years in Nashville. Like, y'all can call around, he's he's the best superintendent over there. So I'm like, all right, well, come on. I just need people. Come on. I started them. They said I failed. I set up the laser that day. They laid out of a mantle. Apparently at lunch, someone, another company came in and offered them like two more dollars an hour. This is their first day working for me. I went on a sales call, came back about 2 p.m., and they laid 150 feet, something like that. They did decent. It wasn't steep. But when I got down there and stood at the manhole, their machine was over here, and their pipe was going off toward the pond instead of a straight line. So I'm like, I took a breath. Like, what's going on here? I went over to them in the ditch and they had the remote for the laser in their pocket. I was like, why do you have the remote in your pocket to move the laser? I'm like, You should never move the laser. The laser isn't tree light. And so I went in the manhole, and if you see a pipe, it's a full moon. But you couldn't see anything. There's no daylight. So I said, All right, guys, like we're gonna stay here until we relay every single pipe that y'all installed. We're gonna take it out first, we're gonna relay it. Like, I'm not letting nobody from the company that we work for see this. We're gonna get the production that y'all made, but it's gonna take a lot more today. And so they grabbed their stuff and headed up the hill. Lunch offered them two more dollars an hour, and they weren't gonna stay and help me do that. So I said, Wow, see you later, guys. So, guess what I did? And I put that same amount of potty back in the ground and buried it. Oh man, straight though.

SPEAKER_01:

You hit the manhole in everything.

SPEAKER_00:

But that's what it takes. Like you make those mistakes. So I don't get on a crazy list at all anymore. Lesson learned. Yeah, you start calling around to people that you meet and build relationships with and say, Hey, I need a guy, send him over. Yeah. And people are happy to do it. Hey, here's a better, you know, here's a good chance to go get your start at a company to where you're on the ground level. It can lead to something more.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. That's so important, amazing. I had a similar situation where I didn't ask my foreman if he understood like the inward elevation of the manhole compared to where we're starting our roughing in the building. Until I came to the project, I'm like, what are you trying to think? And I said, Man, how where how high did you like where'd you start at the high point? Because we had to do it backwards, right? Because the manhole was very good. He's like, I don't know, I just felt like three foot was good. And I thought, oh my, I mean, they were telling three bar over the pad already. Like if we weren't gonna make it, it was a so, anyways, I got out, I started doing my calculator like clear, dude. I need to teach you. He's like, Oh, I didn't know all that. Why do you think I had that number right there? Luckily, we had we hit the twitch, but we had to be super, super accurate to get outside the name methole, but we were in within three and inch, and it was, I mean, we were stretching it to to get that. We're just within tolerance in terms of having the right amount of slope. Because I didn't know, but luckily we got it. But back to you the uh hearing you make some mistakes, priceless obviously is not the way to go. Uh you're willing to put in the work to complete deliver for your client. I hear a lot of people out there, you I'm sure you've seen it. I'm gonna come back to leaked in for a little bit, but there's a lot of people out there that are in our business that like to complain about people don't want to work anymore. But I get the sense that you have some solid people. So, do you have like magic fairy dust that just makes everybody that comes work with you amazing? And it's not the end of the world, doom and gloom, that they just don't want to work. Like, how did you break that?

SPEAKER_00:

Like I said, year four, you start to realize who you want in the company, who you don't, and it also comes, I see it in the millions to like 1.2 million. This person is fine at that as a foreman, yeah. Uh, to go from 1.2 to 5.4, you need somebody else in that foreman receipt, yep, and then 5.4 to 10.4. You need you probably need someone else. Yeah, and during that time, I do try to improve that person so that hopefully when we get to that mark, they can help us sustain that growth. Um, we're not at the we're not at the I guess revenue size that person can hide and just do the bare minimum and be okay.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Because you need that person. So we're still need to grow the people. Yes. And by growing the people, I'm not saying that person, if they want, you gotta give them, you can give them that time to see if they're able to grow, but if they stall out with growing every day learning, then it's time to move on. Um, and find somebody that and you have to pay that next person, like you know what that person's worth, and you're like, all right, that person wasn't worth the next level of um pay, but you go out there and you I've never stolen anybody from a company because I've built those relationships as a sub. And but I will put the job out there in hopes that someone does not want to be at that place anymore or wants to try something new, yep, and and I'll do it that way. I've never went onto a job site and hired two crack kids for two dollar dollars an hour. I didn't want to make enemies, right? Because I wanted to sustain who we were as a company, and if I make enemies, then it's so much easier for them to talk crap about me to everybody. But I just recently I met with a competitor, and and they told me, hey, all these people are telling me that I need to meet you. Like I need to emulate you, I need to ask some questions, see how you're doing things. I'm like, okay, okay. But people are talking good about bear construction and how we're doing things. And that's I mean, that's the highest compliment I could ever think.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Congratulations. Congratulations. Because you know how proud we are in this work that we do. And so to go ask a competitor, like, hey man, I've been hearing about you, I've been hearing good things, that's a big sign of respect, and I think a signal just to the caliber of individual that you are, in terms of saying, sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, I I get that all the time. People are, hey, I like the way you're doing things. Can I meet with you? And I take them to coffee, uh take them to lunch, or they take me. They want to be in charge of the questions, but it's very strange. I never thought I would have one story to tell or be good enough to lead the conversations.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh man, I applaud you because clearly not only do you have the like the actual experience, but just the way you carry yourself is like, man, I please can I learn from you? It's kind of what the feeling I'm getting. Now, you mentioned LinkedIn. And I and the reason I want to ask this is because my business would not, I'd be dancing on tables for money right now, Brian, if it weren't for social media, because it's where I get a lot of business from. I didn't know I still don't really know what I'm doing, but I didn't know that I could generate business from social media. And you said you made a post and something reached out to you. So, in terms of the way you utilize LinkedIn, did you get a coach for that, or is it just you kind of figuring it out and having fun with it?

SPEAKER_00:

That's my ADHD. Like I'm um in my wonder in my invention. Like I'm always thinking, I try not to assimilate what someone else is doing on there, but I've kind of noticed there's certain things that people like to read about. One, it's I failed, and this is what I learned. Yep. That gets you the thumbs ups, those the hearts and the supports. I used that early on to show how honest and transparent I can be, and to explain how hard starting a business from scratch is. Yeah. And negative$300 in our personal account. So I did not start with anything. I started with luck uh and worked out. So yeah, I just I wanted to be transparent, I wanted to be honest, and I was not scared to say, hey, I don't know what I'm doing. There's so much pride in construction. I from a sales point, I need you to know that I know what I'm doing. It's not true. Like nobody started knowing what they're doing. It's kind of like the coming out of college and you need five years' experience to be a paper pusher. No, you can't get it unless you you do it. But I've always been honest about how hard it is and what type of work you have to put in, how you have to be honest, how you have to have faith, you have to show it and be it. You can't just put a post out and then not be that person.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Oh, I agree. I I think there's more than enough people that I'll say regurgitate what they think it would be like. It's like they ain't walked it. And those kind of like, oh, I'm gonna leave them alone. It bugs me a little bit, but I'm gonna leave them alone. Now, and in the social media space, specifically on LinkedIn, what do you think about leveraging LinkedIn to attract talent to attract people to come work for bear construction?

SPEAKER_00:

I get those just the same amount as the people that want to meet me. They say, Hey, I like the way you do things, do you have any positions open? And I actually hired a uh 21-year-old college student based on that. He was curious, he loved the way that I put faith into my post and into my business. And he was he didn't know that construction companies do that. So we met for coffee one morning. Yep. And he was he used that time very wisely. Great kid, is very hungry and loves God.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

So he wanted to know how I put faith into the business. And then a month or so later, I put a construction business manager position out there, and he applied for it. He's like, I know I'm not qualified, but here's my recipe. Yeah, give it a shot. Exactly, and it worked out for him. Wow. Now he's our construction business assistant with a five-year plan to become the construction business manager and not lead all aspects of the company, but lead uh the financial. He's a finance major, so yeah, at what rates we should buy machines at, and you know what machines are. So we're gonna crash, crash course everything construction. Yep. And sorry, guy loves that and fit fits in really well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think I honestly believe that the play on LinkedIn or just social media, period. Now, my business is just me, right? I have a sorry boss who happens to be me. All my employees are lazy and they all happen to be me. But if I had a business where I had employees or I needed employees, I would absolutely that would be my primary focus and purpose of utilizing social media is just to attract talent. Because it's like you described, people see and they say, Oh, that person, I like the way they roll, I like the way they operate. If that how that person works, I bet more people like that, work there. I want to work there, but I don't see a whole lot of folks like I'll say firms using it that way yet. And so you're, I would say you're ahead of the curve in terms of that actually. How another Chris Gutkiss up in Long Island, same thing happened. He was super, super active on social media. He's like, dude, all of a sudden I'm hiring outstanding people because they're saying, Hey, I saw your stuff, I like your message, and it was bringing in people that he needed badly. That's the game. That's the it's not selling the project, it's attracting talent. That's my thought. I don't know truth, but that's where I'm at with this.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it does. I mean, it's who you are, who you represent. And again, if you're honest about who you are, the people gravitate towards that and are excited about it without even working here. They're like, man, like that sounds like company I've been looking to work for. That's why I put that we've failed and how we failed, and what I've learned, and how we've gotten better. Because a lot of these companies they don't put that stuff, which is fine because a lot of them hide by hide behind the brand of the name instead of being the personal person. I do most of my post under me, not under Bear, which I feel like Facebook is more for hiring employees, like laborers, and operators, but LinkedIn is more for office, the office space. Yep. And yeah, we I've got a lot of great people, a young estimator from that, and and the construction business assistant because they wanted to come work for Bear. Or I'm sorry, maybe they wanted to come work for Brian. That's all right. Yes, but Bear is the avenue for them to create a life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god. I mean, so you're not just giving people jobs or careers, you're helping them create a life. That's important.

SPEAKER_00:

Um right now I'm spiritually trying to love on all these employees. We've got 30 of them, so we're not big. That's a lot, not in middle Tennessee. Like we're we're we're a small fish in the contractor field in Tennessee. But what I tell them is you're doing a godly service. You're you have the chance to build a structural pad for a house to be built on. Um sanitary sewer system to keep your house and your kids clean. You get potable drinking water and bath water to clean yourself. You get stormwater runoff, or you're building stormwater runoff for these communities so that houses don't flood, kids don't get hurt. You're you're help building some base for asphalt companies to put down a smooth driving surface, walkable sidewalks and communities. There's so many places that don't have these things, and you get to build this for a complete stranger. You're doing a godly service out there right now. I hope you realize that. And by doing this, you're also providing yourself and your family and your kids with the same thing. You're getting you know, a godly service for your family. Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

You maybe want to go get my boots and put them back on. Dang, all right. So I'm gonna make sure that we put your LinkedIn a link to your LinkedIn profile so that people, once they get inspired by you, they can connect with you. Now, if somebody wants to like build a life and build a career and work with you, Mr. Brian, should I put your bear construction website link in there also? Yeah, you can do that too.

SPEAKER_00:

Perfect. I think I got 100, 900 friend requests sitting there to be reviewed at the moment.

SPEAKER_01:

And I bet you review them too, which I absolutely love.

SPEAKER_00:

I know it takes a lot of time. There's a lot of insurance salespeople out there. I'm like, I've got my guy, I've got my banker, so I don't want to oversaturate it. Like, I want my feed to be of people that are a service to me, not one just looking for service, but there's so many insurance salesmen out there, but I'm primarily looking for like project managers, estimators at GC companies, developers, yeah. I'm looking for a special frame request, not just any, not just random.

SPEAKER_01:

I know exactly what you're talking about. I don't have that kind of discipline. I do have a little bit of a filter, but not uh, I could do better.

SPEAKER_00:

I could do better. It is about the impressions, and once you get one, I've had like three of them go above 250,000. And two of them went over. Like I did, I had I just posted like an embroidered shirt and it got 330,000. Jeez. Wow. And so I'm like, okay, I have a voice here. That's why I started doing the podcast. I'm like, maybe I do have something to say that people enjoy here. If I can talk about God and every single one of them, I'm going.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Love it, love it. And I'm gonna tell you, bro, like you have massive insight and wisdom that's gonna benefit a lot of people. Now, I don't want to take away from what you got because a lot of people do, but the way that you communicate, there's so much intentionality and purpose behind what you're saying that it is transformational. I believe and see that it is transformational. So please keep doing it. Because the world, our industry, not just our industry, or not just the world, our industry needs to know that there are leaders of your caliber out there. Like they do exist, folks. Brian is evidence that they do exist. They're few and far between. And so, from that perspective, my vote is, or I will advocate for like folks to if they can't come and like transfer to Tennessee and come work for you, make sure that you find somebody that has the same commitment of service that Mr. Bryan does, because those are the kind of people that we need to pour into, support, and celebrate. And so, Brian, I just got to tell you, like, thank you for taking the time to take this the invitation and have this conversation with me. Because I believe in you. I mean, I'm just a little guy that makes a lot of noise, but if I have in any way I can contribute to your path, that's what I want to do. Now, that all brings us to the Grand Slam home run question. Are you ready for it?

SPEAKER_00:

Never, but let's go. I love that. All right, I'm being up for fire. That's all you are is a fire, fire fire as a business owner.

SPEAKER_01:

It's nothing as heavy as that. So here it is. What is the promise you are intended to be, Mr. Brian? In what form? What do you mean? So I'll give you an example. Well, I don't know if but I struggled with addiction for a long like 20 years of my life. I'm almost 10 years sober now. That started with the conversation with one of my counselors in rehab. And he said, Jesse, your problem is that you haven't accepted that if you continue living life the way you're living, you will never become the promise you're intended to be. And in that moment, I knew. I'm underserving myself. I'm playing too small. I've got self-destructive behaviors. And I am here for a greater purpose. And I've got to change the way I live in order to become that and fulfill that purpose. Does that help?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I've got several ideas. Thank you for that. It's hard to be that honest and share that with people, but never give up on that, obviously. Right. And no, you're not the only one. You have that ability to dive in and love on other people to help them out of whatever they're going through. You're not, like I said, you're not the only one. Everyone has their own demons, yep. Stuff that they won't post on the LinkedIns or the podcast. And they do it in dark rooms. So there that's one of the thoughts. Thank you for that. And continue loving on people. The other one, can you kind of Yeah, what is the promise you are intended to be? Okay, so my promise started before I met my wife, and I'm gonna lead into what I believe my promise is. I hated everything, everything was just so hard, couldn't afford nothing. I was cutting grass, I hated traffic, I hated people, I hated every single thing. I was having fun. I was drinking, I was playing softball, basketball a lot, and I was by myself, but I just hated every single aspect of it, even though I was having fun. I turned on the local Christian radio station randomly, and I noticed over like probably like a day's time a weight was lifted. Oh, and so over time I was happy just listening to that. I hadn't gone to church yet, and then I finally I made a Facebook post. I where's everybody in this town go to church? And so I went to church, sat by myself. Um, it was on a TV screen, so I didn't like that, but I got used to it, and then I I met my wife, she's a stranger at the moment, but I invited her to church, and that's what so with her on me. And then life just started changing because I went to church. God sent me a beautiful wife who has held me accountable for every single thing in my life. She's the strongest person I've ever known, and she's put me on that right direction. Something I never thought I could be. And she's led me to be who I am. I'm still not perfect, I still make a lot of mistakes to her, to my employees, to everything I'm a part of. But they're not the same mistakes that I made when I was angry. They're just silly. Like pick up after yourself. Yeah. And but her love and God's love has held me to a higher standard to love everybody around me. I didn't know that I loved people, but my C12 group, when we do our core business presentations, would always pray for me. And they always talked about God, Brian's love for his people. And at that point, I was like, I didn't, I do love them. Okay. They helped me realize that's another thing they saved my business. They helped me understand how to love people and that I love people. And I never knew that. So that is my why. And I'm giving these people an opportunity to grow themselves. And hopefully, I'm a good example to them. I'm goofy as shit. But I think they believe in me, and I hope they do, and I'm gonna work on them every single day without telling them they need to believe in me. I'm gonna do my best to show them that I'm here for them, and I want to be here for them. I want them to know that they can come to me.

SPEAKER_01:

Beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you, sir. Not surprised at the depth of your answer because that's just who you are. Did you have fun? Yeah, that's fun.

SPEAKER_00:

A little sweaty, but that's just me.

SPEAKER_01:

Same. The lights kind of heated up in you. Thank you for sticking it out all the way to the end. I know you got a whole lot of stuff going on. And in appreciation for the gift of time that you have given this episode, I want to offer you a free PDF of my book, Becoming the Promise You're Intended to Be. The link for that bad boy is down in the show notes. Hit it. You don't even have to give me your email address. There's a link in there. You just click that button, you can download the PDF. And if you share it with somebody that you know who might feel stuck or be caught up in self-destructive behaviors, that would be the ultimate. You sharing that increases the likelihood that it's going to help one more person. And if it does help one more person, then you're contributing to me becoming the promise I am intended to be. Be kind to yourself, be cool, and we'll talk at you next time.