TJ Shaheen, Executive VP Of Builders General Supply | CEO's you should know

TJ Shaheen, Executive VP Of Builders General Supply | CEO's you should know

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, everyone, This is SteveDallison. Thank you for enjoining this week's
editions of CEOs. You should knowI am sitting with TJ Shahem, the
EVP of Builders General Supply. TJ. Thanks for coming in today. Yeah,
man, thanks for having me.I'm really excited about this. We're
excited to have you. I hada lot of opportunities to be able to
read a little bit about your journeyand your background and of course the company,
and I'm really excited for all ofour listeners to be able to dive

(00:21):
in a little bit. So tokick it off, I'd love to start
with your personal journey at Builders General, from starting as a teenager in entry
level positions to becoming the EVP thatyou are today. Yep, Well,
let's let's let's get to where weare and then we throw it back where
it's like, you know, soundsgood, and we'll just go back in
time. So the executive vice president, fourth generation family owned and operated business
as or company. We have sevenlocations in four counties, one hundred and

(00:45):
seventy employees, so we've grown forsure. Now let's spin it backwards to
where I came along. Listen,I was, I was the oldest of
four. We lived on a farmback in Locust, New Jersey, and
you know, I was I washome. My mom couldn't handle all the
so just go listen, take himto work, right, just take him
to work. So that's that's howI got started in the business. My
dad would take me every summer.I would work and just to get some

(01:07):
money right when I got to college, so I had money to spend,
spend at my discretion in college ateach semester. And then yeah, that
was the end of it, andI just got stuck and I've been here
ever since. That's awesome and probablya lot of benefits, isn't it,
You know, the ins and outsof the business, like not a for
sure, having a lot of differentpositions along the way. Now, listen,
I've I've done every function, everyposition there for the most part.

(01:33):
And right now I'm helping oversee oursales team, our marketing, business development.
And also now I'm president of theNew Jersey Building Material Dealer Association,
which involves all the lumber yards inNew Jersey. So you almost come to
a point where you transcend, rightand and over thirty years with my career,
I'm starting to feel that now whereI can start to be the guide

(01:55):
right and and really help and andand be that north starve right and help
you people. And we have goodrelationships for employees and or customers. And
that's that's really the secret sauce toour success. That's awesome. And throughout
the ten year, I'm sure you'reseeing the industry evolve, right, I
know you just mentioned obviously working withother organizations too. What role have you
played in adapting the company of thesechanges, man, I mean ninety six,

(02:17):
I think the first flip phone cameout. I mean we're just talking
about phones off air, about theiPhone and blackberries, and so you want
to talk about evolution, let's let'sthink back to then. I mean,
people were using pages and flip phonesand we got iPads. Now that people
hold up to their year that theiPhone can't get any bigger than it is,
right, So, for sure,technology has been a huge evolution.

(02:38):
And also you know, for us, you know, just there's been a
lot of consolidation in our market onon a you know, on an industrial
level, and then you also havelike these big box retailers as well,
so you feel that pressure for sure. But it's the way that we've done
it. And a lot of theother independently family owned businesses in New Jersey,
many of them are competitors, right, but they're also friends. We

(03:00):
have relationships there. So we haveto defend and protect and have deterrence out
there. That's why our association helpswith that. So you have to evolve,
right, and you have to belike a hedgehog. It sometimes and
you have to bury and you justfight through. And as long as you
have that grit, passion and perseverance, you're going to find a way.
Yep. And you just said apassion. You can tell that you're very

(03:21):
passionate about the industry, right,Yep. It came across the second I
met you and you started talking aboutobviously the company itself. How do you
keep that passion alive after so manyyears? You know what it's I believe
it's either in you or it's notright. It's got to be a part
of your DNA. And yeah,this is all I have known, right,
And I was in college, Istayed over the summertime taking classes,

(03:45):
and I went to work for anotherlumber yard. So it's really all I've
known is this business. But whenyou see again, I want to talk
about you start to develop a sixthsense, right, and you see what's
around you. Right, It's notabout you, It's about what you can
create around you to make your companysucceed. Your number one customer is your
employee, right that if you losethat, right, the machine breaks down,

(04:08):
you break down, right, Soyou got to take care of your
employees for sure. Customers are likeright behind them. You have your suppli
ors, you have everything in between. So if you can you know,
again, it's focus on those relationshipsand just drive, right. You just
got to have a will to drive. It's got to be in your DNA
for me at least in my opinion, and that's I think at this point

(04:30):
that's what's gotten this or me anywayto where I am today. Yeah.
No, absolutely, Passion is probablyone of the most important things about anyone's
job, right. You have tolove what you do. Yeah, sure,
it's awesome to see that that flameis still going very strong. As
a fourth generation leader in your family'sbusiness, what values and lessons have been
passed down through the generations that helpshape the company's culture and mission. So

(04:51):
listen, my great grandfather started thisbusiness in nineteen thirty one. My grandfather
came along. He passed away whenI was four, and then my dad,
my uncle. I learned under theirtutelage, right, and and that's
all been passed down from generation togeneration. Number one, Nothing is given,
everything is earned. Right. Eventhough I was you know, the
boss's son, whatever you want tocall, I was out there. I

(05:12):
was grinding, you know, andpeople saw that. So I do believe
that that's that's that's one of thebiggest things, is just making sure that
you know the value of a dollar, right, I said before I went
home on summers to work, soI can have money in my pocket,
so I can hang out with myfriends at my discretion, you know,
during semesters at school. Now afterthat, my mom said, you're out
the house after eighteen. That's it, right, It's not like today,

(05:33):
right, So, and that's whatI did. So I graduated, I
went and started living on my own. But again, you earned, you
learned the value of a dollar.You learned that responsibility, and that was
your framework, and that helped meget to where I am today. And
and just having that discipline and andreally just making sure that you knew what

(05:55):
what you had in front of you, but you had to earn it.
You know. It was almost likebeing two inches away from the water bowl
but being chained to the door knobbe like you know. So yeah,
that's that's that's what I believe anyway, So no, that's awesome. One
of the probably the most important thingsis the leader is always trying to improve,
right in making sure that your teamand the company that you're representing are
constantly improving throughout the way. So, Buildings General in general, how do

(06:17):
you encourage a culture of growth andlearning for your staff? It starts with
a career path. Okay, let'sif you're coming into Builders General day one,
here's a career path. Right.Maybe college isn't for you, maybe
something didn't work out, but here'sa job. Here's benefits. That's huge
in this day and age, justto have that, just to have a
start, something to just get youdown that lane and be able to go

(06:40):
out around that track allollion times.Right. But after that, those employees
are seeing our other employees. Nowour roster over over sixty percent have been
with us for five years or longer. And I'm sure that's grown a little
bit by now and then after that, we have twenty thirty forty year members
on our roster. Those are thementors, right. They see when when

(07:00):
I'm starting at build a General asa new start, they can see and
look up to, you know,these other employees that have been there forever.
So that's something it becomes contagious andit just has to repeat itself,
and it has so when you havea tenured roster like that, like I
said, the machine breaks down,you break down. We break down,
right, that's it, it's over. But but to have that back and
behind you is huge. So that'sthat's what I feel is really the one

(07:23):
of the secrets to our success.It's just being able to have people knowing
what they're doing. It becomes contagious. You learn from somebody else, and
your customers see that, they getto know that person because they're not in
and out. It's not a transactionalrelationship. There's emotionality behind it. And
and we care. We're a familyowned business. We're involved on day to
day operations. You know where it'sit's not you know, see you later,

(07:46):
it's we're there. And they seethat and it goes from the top
all the way down and I thinkthat's you know, that's helped us a
lot for sure. Awesome. Speakingof growth, you guys currently have expanded
to seven locations. I found outonce actually in my hometown of Edison.
So as you guys are continuing toexpand, and how have you been able
to maintain that level of quality andhave consistency across all the different locations.
I ran the Edison Yard for along time. It was it was a

(08:09):
great spot and some great customers therethat have been with me for life.
But you know, one of thethings with expansion is you have to be
careful, right because a minute,your secret sauce becomes diluted because you're just
looking ten miles down the road andforgetting like what's right in front of you.
You're going the wrong way and that'sgoing to have ramifications that hopefully you're

(08:33):
able to realize that. And again, I think because of our legacy as
a Sheen family, we've always beenable to kind of you know, Ben
did not break really flexible, identifycertain things where there's opportunities, certain things
that maybe you took a chance ondidn't work right. Okay, that's fine,
you got to do something right.You just can't sit idle. So
sure, there's been things that wetried didn't work. Some things we have

(08:54):
and it's been successful. But atthe end of the day, once things
settle down, you need to makesure that that that that culture is there.
And again, I have to goback to the roster. I'm thinking
about this because all of our locationsare managed by people that are our friends.
They get it, and they've beenwith us for a really long time,
so it makes it easy. Right. But now all of a sudden,

(09:16):
you say, oh, I'm gonnabuy this, I'm gonna buy that,
and buy that, it becomes diluted. You're just transactional. And I
can tell you one thing one ofmy customers said to us. He goes,
listen. The thing I like aboutBuilders General is that I got a
problem, I can call mister TJ. Right, yep, I go all
right, So who else would you? I'm not calling mister a big box
store because no one's gonna pick upfor me. So I think, knowing
that you have managers in those locations, the employees see it. It is

(09:39):
top down, bottom up, andthat culture is that heartbeat of your company.
The moment, like I said,the moment you go way too big.
You gotta be careful for what youwish for because you're gonna fall hard.
Yeah, So it's a great segueto the next question. Right,
So being a family owned business obviously, which I love, there's probably a
lot of advantages, but then there'sprobably also some challenges when you go up
again some bigger core operations. Right, What are some of those advantages of

(10:01):
being family owned and what are someof the challenges. So, I think
being family owned is great because youknow there is there is consolidation out there,
right, But if you're if youhave something that's been working for you
again and you you have alignment withother businesses that are in your industry that
are in the same category issue,I think that helps, right, I
think that helps a lot. AndI also think that it just got to

(10:24):
keep everything around. You have asixth sense and be aware of everything that's
going on, because if you don't. But again, I'll go back to
what I was saying, Because you'reattached to your company, right, You're
not checked out. You're attached toyour employees, you're attached to your customers.
And as long as you have thatarena right where you got, you
know your your arena is sold outand standing them only and you you're the
hottest ticking in town. They wantto stay with you. Then then you

(10:46):
got it right and you got tokeep repeating that. So I don't know,
that's that's what I think. No, that's awesome. You could tell
that obviously, something you're very passionateabout. And something else that's really come
through is how much you value yourteam. And we talked about the growth
growth aspect of making sure the employeessee those growth journeys as well. How
do you encourage also collaboration and teamworkas an essential part of the company.

(11:07):
So collaboration happens very easily, rightif you and I have been sitting across
from each other for five years,three years, Right, But if you're
in and someone else is coming in, and then you're out and someone else,
you can't because there's no trust.Right, you have to have trust.
Trust doesn't happen when you walk inthe door with me, right,
Trust happens over time. You cannotflip a switch. You have to earn
it. We go back to thething I said before earning it that was

(11:28):
part of our DNA, But nowit goes to this right. So for
collaboration, if my team members knoweach other and the people that are under
them are looking up to them,it's very easy to collaborate when everybody's been
there for a really long time andthey all get each other, they know.
It's almost like it just kind ofworks by itself. But if I

(11:48):
got people coming in out there's alot of turnover, then nobody wants to
work there. You can't collaborate,and basically you're just transaction or you're just
banging a register. Nobody cares,and that's not who we are. We
care and we want to be emotional. Yep. And trust, like you
said, trust, you have toearn that. It takes forever to earn
it, and the moment you breakit, you're dead. But just you

(12:11):
got to build it and you getso much reward out of that because your
customers call You have customers call melike hey, I need help. They
call me because we have trust,We have a relationship and it's built over
time. You can collaborate when youhave a relationship, when you have trust.
As the construction industry continues to evolve, what new opportunities or challenges does
builders institute Builders General anticipate and whatis the company doing to address them?

(12:33):
Well, I think it's Listen,I could tell you one thing we got
our hands full with just like naturalyou know, disasters. You know,
you want to go back to thepandemic, You want to go back to
Superstorm Sandy. You want to talkabout the financial crisis that affects us?
All right, Yeah, we're weare small business, family owned and operated.
But you know what, there arechallenges out there, and I think

(12:56):
that over our ninety three years ofbeing in business, we've seen a lot,
but there's always something new to throw. But if you just go back
to your your your your your morals, and your and your ethics and your
your values as a person, whichtranscends it into your company, you're able
to deal with stuff that's thrown atyou. As far as challenges what we
see down the road, we havegeopolitical stuff that that affects us. We've

(13:16):
got an election that's coming out thatcould affect us. Interest rates are sitting
on the sidelines right now. Nobodywants to like dump a two percent thirty
year mortgage, so they got handcuffed. So that's affecting us as well.
With the economy, so yeah,you know, it's there's all these different
challenges and oh, by the way, you know, you know you got
this over here, you got thatover there. So there's there's high level
stuff that affect our small businesses inNew Jersey. There's there's natural stuff that

(13:39):
affects for business, and you justgot to be prepared for everything and you
just keep but you can't lose.You cannot lose sight of your customer and
your employees because that is that's theglow, right and and the moment that
gets overheated, everything gets melted,nasty and sticky. Yeah, so look

(14:00):
ahead, what are some of thefuture goals for the company? What do
you guys planning for the years ahead? There's lot a few a few things
for sure, you know. Butagain it's I just have to go back
to for us with our goals.It you got to take New Jersey is
a densist state in the Union,right. We have over ten million people
here. We're in a high demandmarket. People want stuff now, not

(14:20):
tomorrow. So we saw this stuffwith the supply chain that's through stuff out
like months and months and months.And we have people building homes that are
secondary homes on the Jersey Shore.So our goal really for us is again,
yeah, we have higher level things, but our media goals it's what
matters most to us because that's transactional. It's back with emotionality, and people

(14:43):
keep repeating that. So when youhave your relationships with your customers are going
to continue to buy. And again, we're an unfortunate spot where we are
in the counties that we serve withMammouth County, Middlesex County, Ocean County,
Warren County because these are high demandmarkets. So that business everyone's going
to want to renew, be freshand renovate, right they don't want that,
and especially right now with the waythings have been again, nobody wants

(15:07):
to dump their homes. They're lookingto put money in their home. There's
we can tuck and roll all daylong, and and and again. For
family business of ours, I thinkit's just important right now. It's you
just got to keep doing what you'redoing. Sometimes that's just okay. Yeah,
you know, sure, one hundredpercent. If one of our listeners
are those individuals right now that aretrying to find out more information about builders

(15:28):
general, what's the easiest way forthem to do so? So We're on
LinkedIn, Instagram, Buildersgeneral dot comand listen TJ dot scheen a Builders General
dot com. I'll even give mycell phone number seven three two five one
three six four one three hit meup. We're not afraid. Uh.
You know, this is this iswhat small businesses do. This is what
we we do, and we're we'rewe're fighting every day, we're grinding every

(15:50):
day. And if don't have thatgreat passion and perseverance, then you know
what, maybe this isn't for you, but for us it is. That's
awesome. As we wrap up,what's a final message or piece of advice?
So you want to share to ourlisteners if they're an inspiring entrepreneur.
You need to envision an arena,okay, and you want to sell out

(16:11):
your arena okay, and you wantto do it every night like Massive Square
Garden right down the street, rightevery night. Sell out your arena.
But make it to it standing themonly and make them love you, make
sure they coming back and you getthose fannies in the seats every night.
Then you have it right. Butit's but it's but it's constant right.
You got to constantly focus because themoment you lose your focus. You got

(16:33):
to you got an empty arena andand that's not good, right, But
just focus on selling out every youknow tier in your arena and you'll be
okay. Awesome, Well, TJ, thank you so much for coming in.
Was an absolute pleasure sitting down withyou, hearing about your story.
It's very inspiring and I'm excited tosee and watch what's next. Absolutely,
this is very exciting for me andour family business, and uh, I
appreciate the time and the opportunity.Thank you. Awesome. Well, thank

(16:56):
you guys for listening to in nextweek for next week's edition of CEOs You Should Know