November 13, 2025 • 67 mins
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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
I wanted to create my own ways, my own values.
If I see theirs on the wall, Icopied it and put it on my wall.
I wanted to be like you said, Iwanted to be my own person.
I wanted to grow myself becauseI knew that would only that
would help me grow my company.
If I'm always trying to be likesomebody else, emulate a
different company, then justlook the same.
SPEAKER_01 (00:28):
What is going on, LM family?
Back again with how should Isay, I'm just gonna call him a
LinkedIn influencer because Icame across him and my attention
was like captured by not justwhat he posts, but like the
tone, the message, the humor.
There's a lot in there that justcame across as super human.
(00:50):
And he's he's a businessoperator.
So he's the president of BearConstruction, family man.
His name is Mr.
Brian Anderson.
So we're gonna get to know abunch about Mr.
Brian, and I'm gonna be learningall kinds of new stuff because
this is actually the very firstconversation that we've ever
had, which I absolutely lovebecause then I get to be super,
(01:11):
super curious.
Hopefully, I won't cross anylines.
But before that, if this is yourfirst time here, you are
listening to the Learnings andMissteps podcast, where you get
to see how amazing human beingsjust like you are sharing their
(01:34):
gifts and talents to leave thisworld 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.
(01:55):
I know you've had a lot goingon.
We connected a while back and wefinally were able to like get on
the calendar.
Now you're like a professionalpodcast guest, it seems.
You're making the you're makingthe rounds out there.
And so I got a real simplequestion.
You ready?
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01 (02:13):
Okay.
Where do you stand or what areyour thoughts on hard work?
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
It pays off.
First off, it pays off, it'sworth doing, and it's godly.
You're supposed to put in thehard work and you rest, and it
you're rewarded.
SPEAKER_01 (02:29):
Yes, sir.
I was kind of LinkedIn stalkingyou, and you had a post
specifically about hard work,and you I think you pulled a
quote from scripture about thelaborer has amazing sleep after
a day's hard work.
And reminds me of a story abuddy of mine, he was in law
school, and he was venting tohis then father-in-law about
(02:51):
having trouble sleeping.
And his father-in-law said,like, oh, we used to need to
work.
And my buddy was like, But I'min law school.
He's like, Yeah.
So if you just did a littlework, you would sleep five.
A little more.
Just a little bit more, soyou're tired up to go to bed.
All right.
So you're president at BearConstruction.
(03:15):
Now, was that something thatthat you just been on those
straight line paths since highschool to start a construction
business?
Was that the goal right out thegate?
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
No, twice along my journey.
I worked at constructioncompanies that like in a way,
the economy shut down.
So that construction company didtoo.
It was in Atlanta, Georgia.
Good little small mob and poptype construction company.
And then around 2013, got backinto it, and that company shut
(03:46):
down.
So I was left without a job asecond time.
So I almost got out ofconstruction completely.
There's no money in it.
Um, it's not there's nolongevity, apparently.
And I was, I guess I was justworking companies that didn't
survive.
I got out of it.
I got into like cutting grass,landscaping, helping a buddy
(04:07):
out, installing alarm systems,wire backed, just trying to find
like what what my love is, whatuh what I want to do, and what
would help me be successful?
SPEAKER_01 (04:18):
Nice.
So you work for two constructioncompanies, they went under, and
then you kind of went on this,we'll say, uh, exploration of
like what's next, what do I wantto do?
So what was it that likeattracted you to those first
construction companies?
Did you just like construction?
Is construction in the family?
SPEAKER_00 (04:40):
Oh, yes, definitely in the family.
My grandfather had like 300acres in Fair Review.
And the boys would leave schoolafter lunch and go cut hay, bail
hay, take care of the farm.
Um, they did it for otherfamilies in the community.
So that was their job.
When they all, I guess,graduated from farm work.
They moved out and they allstarted in construction as pipe
(05:05):
layers mostly.
Oh, we're known as utility guys.
The Andersons are.
SPEAKER_01 (05:11):
Ah, so the Andersons are utility guys running the
like domestic waterdistribution, storm drainage,
sanitary, fire sprinkler.
Exactly.
Yep, yep.
Oh, okay.
This is good.
SPEAKER_00 (05:26):
That's how I started my company.
SPEAKER_01 (05:29):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (05:29):
Oh, once I did.
SPEAKER_01 (05:31):
So you work with two outfits, they shut the doors,
which is difficult and I'm surepainful for everybody involved,
but the that didn't scare youaway.
So, what was it?
Was it like bar backing?
And you just said, I ain't gonnado this, I'm gonna go start my
own company.
Because I mean, I'm gonna speakon both sides of the fence.
(05:53):
Having started my own business,it's harder than I thought,
while it was also or is alsoeasier than I thought.
SPEAKER_00 (06:04):
So I have the same sentiment.
SPEAKER_01 (06:06):
Really?
SPEAKER_00 (06:07):
Okay, it's very odd, but apparently the person I am
on LinkedIn invites a lot ofcommunication.
There's people that are in peergroups that have asked me how do
I manage my cash flow?
People that ask, like, how doyou sustain the growth?
How do you because we've beengrowing 100% each year, except
for this one?
They're asking me questions, andI'm like, I don't know.
(06:28):
This is what I it's worked, soit's it's odd that these people
are asking me, but yes, there isa formula, and I've seen it in
this national market that youworked your ass off until like
the fourth year is when youstart.
The fifth year is when it reallybreaks, but fourth, you're like,
(06:50):
okay, I I see what I've done,didn't work.
I've fixed that.
I've brought in one or twopeople 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, orseveral machines.
Year five breaks, and you'relike, okay, I got this.
(07:13):
Like it all makes sense.
You start hiring better people,more qualified, you've got some
money that you can pay them andbring them in, and then you
start working on your culture.
And once your culture gets downpath, I'm in year six and a
half, and six and a half, and Idon't know if you saw that last
video I just posted.
Like, I don't know what to dowith my time throughout the day.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
I didn't see that.
SPEAKER_00 (07:35):
That's where I got my identity.
SPEAKER_01 (07:38):
Okay.
Oh my god, there's so much here,and I appreciate you like
spreading it out that way.
You talked about being in peergroups, so I guess the first
question is did you jump into apeer group like day one when you
decided to start a business, orwas that like a little further
down the road after some bumpsand bruises?
SPEAKER_00 (07:59):
So I had been um asked to join peer groups early,
early on.
Yeah, I think maybe a year and ahalf into my business that I did
join one.
It's not necessarily it's not aconstruction peer group, it's a
Christian leadership peer group.
Okay, around two, and it'scalled C12.
(08:20):
Here I've been there five years.
Oh, nice.
One, I guess.
I don't know if you win it, butI 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 Isigned, the project manager, I
(08:41):
gave it to him.
He got he turned it into his ownum 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, Youkeep 10 and then give me 10.
(09:01):
And so that was my firstcontract that I ever put my
signature on.
I'm like, is that what this is?
Is that how the constructioncommunity is?
Like, why likes constructioncosts?
Yeah, I was like, I want tochange that.
This is not who I want to be.
Like the good ones sustain mylife by being crooked.
(09:23):
Yes.
Um, and I was like, all right, Ineed some advice from people,
but I didn't want to be in aconstruction peer group.
I wanted to be in a leadershippeer 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, Iguess, chair, member, leader,
(09:45):
and he was absolutely amazing.
I couldn't afford it, but I saidI need this.
And I paid in, and it's probablysaved my company three or four
separate times.
Really?
SPEAKER_01 (10:00):
Just the insight and wisdom from the people that you
were interacting with.
SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
The insight, yeah, like you said, the insight, the
wisdom, the other executivesthat aren't in construction but
have the same problems.
Yeah.
And they have connections.
If I needed a lawyer, they hadthat.
I had an employee that has someheart problems, and I was still
paying his insurance andeverything else.
And they said, Brian, is I knowyou want to be a good Christian
(10:29):
and take care of this person,but there's 10 care, there's
benefits to free health care forcertain people.
Like he can jump on any of that,and you don't have to keep him
on your payroll and keep hisinsurance loud.
Like he his he and his familycan do what it takes to help him
(10:49):
through this.
SPEAKER_01 (10:50):
Yeah, and just connect him with the resources
so that he's taken care ofeither way, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (10:55):
Exactly.
And that's what they did, theygave me ways to to help him
outside of bear because therewas there's only so much that I
can do financially and legallyto help him.
But I was able to give him moreinformation than I had because
of this group.
SPEAKER_01 (11:15):
Nice, nice.
So, folks, if you didn't catchthat, the LM family members out
there, you made an investment inyourself, right?
I it's all about, and I want toclarify something because I had
a discussion with somebody.
They're like, Jesse, you havethat invest in who you got.
What does that mean?
(11:35):
And I said it means invest inwho you got.
Who do I have first?
Me.
And if I have a team, I haveemployees, if I have people, it
means them too.
But you gotta do invest in whoyou got, which means everybody,
and you started there now.
You said specifically you didn'twant to be in a construction
(11:57):
peer group, but you did want toimprove yourself.
So, what was it about aconstruction peer group?
Why did you make thatdelineation?
Why was it like, no, I don'twant that kind of group, I need
something else.
SPEAKER_00 (12:11):
I didn't want to, I guess first I didn't want to
copy another company.
Um I wanted to create my ownways, my own values.
If I see theirs on the wall, Icopy it, put it on my wall.
I wanted to be like you said, Iwanted to be my own person, I
wanted to grow myself because Iknew that only that would help
(12:33):
me grow my company.
If I'm always trying to be likesomebody else, emulate a
different company, then justlook the same.
Yeah, and that's who I am.
SPEAKER_01 (12:44):
Right.
And then you're constantlychasing.
Like, I get the sense thatyou're of the abundance mindset,
right?
Like, it's funny.
I'll talk like because I'm aconsultant.
I'm one of them dirty, like, Iactually 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 into see all the dirty details.
(13:05):
And it's interesting, some ofthem have a fear of like, man,
just like you can't likenon-disclaimer, they're nervous
about me sharing the secretsauce.
I'm like, yeah, you don't needto worry about like one, I'm not
gonna like it's an integritything, but two, even if I did
share your secret sauce andsomebody else decided to copy
(13:26):
it, you're five to ten yearsinto actually doing it, they
still need to figure out how tomake it like how to make it
stick, and they're always gonnabe behind as long as you stay
true to your purpose and thedirection you're headed, they'll
never catch up.
Do you feel the same way?
SPEAKER_00 (13:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
I had met with a big companyhere in Nashville that just
recently sold to a biggercompany, but they have been
doing it for over 30 years, andthat's who I wanted to emulate.
Like, all right, they've gotemployees that have been there
for 15 plus years.
They had like 50 employees thatyou know have been there
forever.
So I'm like, all right, what arethey doing?
(14:09):
So I first startedsubcontracting for them when I
first started working.
So I want to work for y'all, andI 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 intheir office talking to their
project managers, their accountladies, everybody.
(14:30):
Yeah, and if the owner walks by,hey, tell me how you doing,
like, yeah.
I was very intentional withgoing to pick up that check
every single time.
It wasn't a lot of money becausewe were only labor and machine
at that point.
But it was the what I the valueI got from visiting the offices.
SPEAKER_01 (14:48):
Just learning and gleaning information, getting
the again the insight, how theyoperate, how do they
communicate.
So what are which I think isit's a phenomenal practice,
right?
There's some people might besaying, yeah, but what's the
return on investment?
Because they're thinking in ashort-term cycle, right?
Like if I go to pick up a check,that might be a 30, 45,
(15:11):
90-minute round trick ride,which is windshield time's never
very productive.
So people might argue that it'slike a low cost, low investment,
low return, but you're makingcontact and kind of doing some
investigation, some forensic CSItype investigation.
Like, man, how do these peoplefunction?
(15:32):
What does it feel like here?
So, what are maybe a few thingsif you're gonna recommend to
someone like, hey man, go pickup your check.
And when you do, look for thesetwo things.
You got any top two big hitters?
SPEAKER_00 (15:45):
No, just build a relationship.
They had a project manager thatis now a land development
manager, and I've had two orthree projects you know off of
that.
He left that company, went outto a national home developer,
and because of that, he trustsme because of the conversations
I had in his office about theprojects they were working on
(16:09):
that I wasn't part of, and thenthe ones that we were working
on, just built that relationshipand that time in that office.
He trusts me.
He feels like he knows me andwas more than willing to give me
the opportunity to bid a 50 to150 house subdivision.
SPEAKER_01 (16:29):
Yeah.
All right, so that is actually amonster like cheat code.
The relationships, the real now.
I want to uh add somethingbecause it took Brian, Mr.
Brian.
I did I didn't know this, and Iwish I did back early in my
career.
Talking to the project manager,now he's a representative of the
land developer, so he hasfinancial decision-making
(16:52):
authority.
We got to do the LM familymember shout-out.
And this one goes out to Mr.
Jeff Riley.
Mr.
Jeff left the review and hesays, this was a great
experience.
It really gave me a roadmap onhow to effectively improve work
in the field, to find how toexecute a gamble walk.
(17:12):
I'm now teaching my team so wecan PDCA one of these in the
coming weeks.
This was all taught with passionand enthusiasm that made an
eight-hour day go by super fast.
Mr.
Jeff, thank you, my man.
And folks, if you're wonderingwhat he's talking about, we just
did the Sweat Equity ImprovementWorkshop at Congress in
(17:34):
Arlington last week, and hedropped me that little review.
And y'all already know I loveattention, I love compliments.
So, folks, if you take the timeto drop a review, do some stars,
do some sharing, it means a lotto me, and it gives me an
opportunity to shout you out inthe future.
SPEAKER_02 (17:55):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (17:56):
I didn't think that way 20 years ago, right?
If and again, I come up as aplumber, so I'm from the field,
and so PMs to me were eh, likethey're not cool.
I ain't talking to them, I'm aI'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
(18:19):
department heads now.
Like, damn it.
And when they see me, someespecially here in San Antonio,
they're like, that dummy, we youwant to give our money to that
goofball?
Oh man.
So, point being one, build therelationships.
Two, that I think probably comesnaturally to you, Mr.
Brian, because of yourbackground and your faith, but
(18:42):
doesn't come naturally to a lotof people, is treat everybody
with immense appreciation andrespect, regardless of where
they are on the organizationalchart, because they're not gonna
stay there forever.
SPEAKER_00 (18:56):
No, and young kids, like it's hard right now to want
to talk and discuss with youngguys, but that generation only
wants to grow higher and faster,so it won't be long before
they're leading companies andrunning companies, and and you
know, us 42-year-old men are attheir mercy.
(19:18):
So one of our one of our corevalues is respect and value
others, and if they if they havean idea, it's probably a good
one.
Do you agree with it?
Maybe not, because we'redifferent generations, but you
have to honor that thought.
They put their effort into it.
(19:39):
So honor that thought and comeup with the best way to make it
work.
If it works for you, give themthat opportunity.
Say, hey, I'm not, I don'texactly see your vision in this,
but here's the opportunity totry it.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (19:52):
Go walk me through it, get a rep in, let's see what
it looks like.
If it sticks, heck yeah, let'sdo that thing.
I think you touch on somethingthat I think is one of those
hidden treasures, is when welisten and give people the
agency to like bring their ideato life, we tap into some really
(20:15):
powerful stuff as opposed tosay, no, that ain't the way we
do it, we ain't gonna do it thatway.
Because when we do that, wesuffocate it, and then they just
all we get is their body, wedon't get the rest of their
brilliance that they carry withthem every day, right?
SPEAKER_00 (20:30):
And kind of going back to the peer groups, that's
why I didn't want to join onebecause 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 ownthoughts, yeah.
Yeah, so I turn that into thepeople that I talk with, and
like they have their ownthoughts, they see they feel
passionate that they can do it adifferent way.
(20:50):
Being from the utilitybackground, I have one way to
install pipe.
So when I go out to a job siteand they're digging 300 feet,
have put a stick of pipe in, I'mlike, what are you doing?
And then I gotta remember thatall right, they were taught
different somewhere.
So I'm open to let them do that,and I will show them my way,
(21:14):
tell them my way, and if theyfeel that my way is more
advantageous, then they'llprobably change.
But if they feel good and Iagree, I'm like, okay, like you
did a good job.
You put the production in thatday or more, and it's
backfilled, it's cleaned up,like it's safe.
Yeah, okay, like it worked.
(21:35):
You've proved that you know tome that you can do it.
I don't agree with it.
I wish you did it a differentway, but you saw me on the fact
that you believe in what you'redoing, and that's a powerful
value.
SPEAKER_01 (21:50):
Yeah, that's a massive discipline, Mr.
Brian, because I know Istruggled with it when I back in
the day when I was an apprenticeand journeyman.
What I would run my pipe towhere you could read all the
letters left to right, and theywere all on the same side.
All my no-hub bands were alllike it was art, Brian.
I'm telling you, it was art.
(22:10):
And then I became a foreman.
And guess what I did?
I wasn't very yeah, I would makepeople run it, like take it
apart and do it the way I wouldhave done it.
Until my boss came and said,Hey, dummy, you know how much
that's costing us?
I'm like, Yeah, but what aboutpride and quality of work?
He said, Bro, the specs say passinspection, they don't say
(22:30):
nothing about the letters.
Okay, dummy.
So it's can you produce theoutcome?
Yes or no?
Exactly how you get to theoutcome is there's some
flexibility there, provided youhit the measures of quality,
safety, production.
Then we're well, and that's noteasy.
SPEAKER_00 (22:51):
And here's one thing about it we bury it, you know,
you drywall it, and so you don'tsee it, but it still has to be
done with quality, or else itwon't pass inspections.
And now we nowadays we can't runsewer lines, and if it could
fail and cause a road to thecenter, so like there's still
(23:13):
that quality that absolutely hasto be performed.
SPEAKER_01 (23:16):
Yes, 100%.
Okay, so the group that yousigned up for, did they paint a
picture of how easy sales wasgonna be selling?
And I don't mean like actuallymaking this, I mean all the work
it takes to get the sale.
SPEAKER_00 (23:38):
They have each month is a different, I can't think of
the word, but lesson.
Yeah, so yeah, they once a yearthey probably go through that,
and then like right now, we'redoing strategic planning for
next year.
Oh, yeah, and so yeah, they'reyes, I'm pretty good at sales,
I've become really good at it.
I can sell what we want to doand what we're trying to do, and
(24:02):
then but the best part is we goout 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 thequality of work that me when I
was out in the field and my guysperformed matched.
SPEAKER_01 (24:25):
Yeah.
Oh very well said.
Uh maybe, so I'm wondering.
So the first two organizationsthat you were with, because I've
seen this when I had a real joband still see it a bunch now,
that the company they get a newboss, there's new management, or
they're new to the market,whatever it is, and they start
(24:47):
winning work, and they'redelivering, right?
They're meeting expectations,client satisfied, so they get
more work, and then they take ona whole lot of work and they
have to flood people in fromlike other organizations, and
then all of a sudden, thequality or the experience that
the client was havingdiminishes, they start losing
(25:11):
credibility, they start losingbusiness, and then that's the
common term is back to basics,we're getting back to basics,
and so they have this cycle thatI think is because somewhere
between like earning work andstarting to get like negotiated
contracts, if you will, theyoversell themselves.
(25:33):
Have you seen that, or is thatsomething that you've like paid
attention to in terms of yourbusiness or maybe the ones you
were working with?
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
Pay attention to it.
I don't necessarily have anexact answer to what you're
asking, but I've seen companiesthat had a lot of money behind
them when they started, um, notdo it right.
They're able to go out there andget the work because they've got
the machines, they've got thepeople in the office.
(26:01):
It's easy to say, oh, we got 12people.
So this developer's like, oh,y'all should be able to do it
then.
Um no, those are 12 people inthe office that have nothing to
do with that project, right?
Uh so like it doesn't matter howmany people you have, it's the
quality of work you do.
Number one.
I've I've seen companies comeinto town, even national home
builders come into town.
(26:23):
Great product, can't seem to getthe right contractor on board to
deliver them the product thatthey need, and they ship back
out of town.
Um and there's contractors thatstart their business, they buy
the big suited up trucks, duallywith trailer truck tires on
them, um tin all their windows,and just do some silly stuff to
(26:47):
put a culvert in for granny.
Um and it doesn't sustain.
Right, right.
My first my first work truck was08 Kia Spectra.
SPEAKER_01 (26:59):
That's a t-shirt.
That's a t-shirt.
SPEAKER_00 (27:02):
My first uh actual utility bed truck was one that
we bought from my first bosslike in 02 when I started in
construction.
It was a 1995 450, F3 or 450utility bed.
So in in the year 2019, it'sold, it's more out, but it's
diesel, and it was a dinosaur,so like it it ran.
SPEAKER_01 (27:26):
Yeah.
Okay, I think there's a massivelesson there.
So you said your first truck wasa Kia.
After you had talked about thesebig giant dualis with tractor
tires and all the whizbangyattention-grabbing stuff.
Why did you choose?
Because that was a choice, torun your business out of your
(27:50):
Kia.
SPEAKER_00 (27:51):
Well, uh, so I mean, it was a free vehicle, it's my
wife's, but we upgraded her to aGMC terrain.
Okay.
I just had a just had a baby,and it's I started the company
about six months after he wasborn.
Oh wow.
Wow.
Yeah, there's a whole notherstory.
It's uh starting a business at35 with a newborn.
(28:15):
And I'm 42 with a two-year-oldand a dollar.
We're probably training both ofthem at the same time.
So but the kia was given to meby her.
We upgraded her vehicle.
And I just I wanted a gasguzzler because I knew I was
gonna have to sell.
I knew I was gonna have to likego job site to job site.
If I get a new set of plans, Igotta go look at the fresh
(28:36):
layout of the land, see what itlooks like.
Um pick up parts here, pick upparts there.
Of course, I I realized the Kiadoesn't suffice when I picked up
uh like a gate valve concretebox.
Okay and like the mufflersdragging uh 24.
All right, you know, bought acheap, it was Brand New.
(28:58):
I did buy Brand New 2019.
It wasn't even a four-door, itwas a half-door in the back.
And so like I've made a lot ofsilly decisions along the way.
The next truck after that was a2020 F350 Dooley.
Yeah, because I was at thatpoint, I was pulling, I had a
trailer, I had a mini X and aSkiss deer.
(29:19):
So I was like, all right, Igotta 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 seriousdecisions, and then I got to the
point where all I was doing asthe owner of the business was
hauling machines around, goingto pick up stuff.
So I then bought an SUV to getmyself out of doing the gopher
(29:43):
stuff.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (29:44):
Oh okay.
So there's I think there's somemassive 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 beputting.
A lot of miles, all I need isthe Kia until you're dragging
the muffler because it wasloaded up with a big giant cake
(30:06):
valve.
And the reason I call I saidbecause uh too many people, and
it doesn't matter if I can reachout and say, Jess, I want to
start.
What do I need?
I was like, your phone, you'reready to go right now.
But they want to go and get thefancy lighting equipment and the
fancy expensive camera, fancyexpensive microphone.
(30:28):
None of those things are gonnaactually help you do the thing.
And it seems to me like you justyou knew that.
Did you know that inherently, orwas it somebody something that
somebody said, hey man, don'tworry about getting that big
food to you, sell work first?
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
No, I absolutely had no communication of how to start
a business, run a business.
My favorite story, and I knowyou'll love this.
Um you might have heard itbefore, but I was working for a
developer in town and as thelike construction admin.
That's how I got back intoconstruction after cutting grass
(31:08):
and doing everything else.
Was conned by a guy to help runhis company.
He was just doing like servicetaps from the street to the
houses, and I did like 200 intwo months for him.
And every night on the ride homein this big dealy truck, I'd
(31:29):
stop at the gas station and carwould decline every single
night.
And I'm trying to get home to mysix-year-old, my six-month old,
I'm sorry.
And it was just miserable.
I'd get home late.
I worked so hard that daybecause it was me and one other
guy.
He didn't have the help that weneeded.
I worked very hard.
(31:50):
Yeah.
And then I couldn't even gethome 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 thereon the couch one night and
Googling how to start abusiness.
Apparently, all you gotta do isyou know, file for your
articles, your articles of theorganization, and name it.
And then pay 300 bucks, andyou've got a business.
(32:12):
I was like, That's not too bad.
Like, I mean, what I had tolose.
So I asked, you know, we're justsitting there and watch TV, or
she's holding the baby.
I look at my wife, Heather, andI'm like, should I start a
business?
Like, yeah.
Okay.
So I do all the governmentpaperwork, and then the last
(32:33):
question is like, what do youwant to name this business?
I didn't know.
I didn't have an idea that I wasgonna start a business in that
30 minutes.
So I ask her, Heather, whatshould I name this business?
She says, Name it bear, becauseyou're my bear.
Okay.
I'm thinking like, okay, like Ilike, yeah, I am her bear, but
then also I've got her baby bearin her arms.
(32:56):
And so I'm like, it makes sense,it works for me.
I'm not, I don't have a specialname for it.
I knew I didn't want to name itBrian Anderson Construction.
I've never agreed with that.
Because what if it goes southand you like need to sell it or
get rid of it?
Yeah.
(33:17):
File bankruptcy under BrianAnderson.
Like that sounds bad.
So I was like, I don't know whatI'm doing, so I'm not gonna name
it after myself in case it doesgo south.
So we named it Bear that nighton LinkedIn.
That's why I love LinkedIn.
I put a post out there.
Hey, started my I didn't have alogo, didn't have nothing,
didn't have a business page.
(33:38):
Hey, started my site and utilitycompany in Middle Tennessee.
And immediately a contractorsaid, call me in the morning.
Really?
He didn't know me because Iwasn't posting at that point.
And he gave he had two projectshe needed help on.
He had a subcontractor.
Again, I didn't have a vehicle,I didn't have a truck, I didn't
(34:00):
have a shovel, I had a pinkhammer inherited from her when
we moved in together.
Didn't have a pipe laser, he letme borrow that.
I didn't have machines, he letme borrow those.
I paid him rent on his machines,hired my cousin because I knew
that he worked for anothercousin at one point, so he was
like, Well, he can lay pipe.
And then I called around townand got an excavator operator,
(34:22):
and we went to work.
I I I think he told me what hewould pay me on you know per
linear foot.
I said, okay.
I think I did have to get adiesel account and a tank on
site, but other than that, I gotthat old 95 utility bed truck,
(34:44):
and a week later we were 25 feetdeep in double trench boxes.
Oh yeah.
Ductile Ire sewer.
Damn.
Serious.
Yeah.
So like first thing I did wasthe hardest damn thing to do.
(35:05):
And it was hammered.
So we had to hammer, we had touse trench boxes.
It was fun, it was amazing, itwas great.
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (35:13):
Okay, so I want to make sure people don't get the
idea that just start a businessand everything's gonna work out.
But I also don't want to saythat it's not possible for it to
be that way.
I think the difference is whenyou have a heart that's focused
(35:34):
on serving others and growingand challenging yourself, things
work out.
SPEAKER_00 (35:42):
Would you agree?
Yeah, you have to be intentionalwith what you want to do.
And I was intentional about myfamily.
Yep.
I was intentional about I wantedfaith in my business, I wanted
it exposed, I wanted it outthere.
(36:02):
I had one, I have ADHD, so I caneasily jump into something with
the fullest effort.
It's hard to sustain that once Iget started.
That's when you startdelegating.
And that's how you but well,honestly, that's how you grow.
I do, I've done the assessmentworking genius, which C12 put on
(36:25):
us.
Yeah, and I'm a wonderer andinventor.
So off in the clouds all daylong, thinking, planning, being
creative, and then I'll figureout a way to do it.
My I guess my frustrations arecarrying it out and seeing it
all the way through.
(36:46):
Yeah.
So I think for a business ownerthat wants to grow, that those
qualities are great.
Um, and then I've done theassessment on everybody that
works for us, foreman,superintendents, vice president
of operations.
They're all they like to seethings through to the finish.
Yeah.
Um, there's nobody in here withdiscernment, so nobody,
(37:09):
unfortunately, nobody says,Brian, that's not a good idea.
SPEAKER_02 (37:12):
So you just get to do whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00 (37:14):
I get that, yeah.
And they're like, okay.
So so and I know Heather Jonesand Jake Jones.
I love them to death.
Heather is my discernment, thatis her quality.
SPEAKER_02 (37:29):
And she's good at that.
SPEAKER_00 (37:31):
She is good at that.
And so, like, I run a lot ofstuff through her.
When I'm hiring people, I talkwith 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 shesays, and a lot of times it is
(37:52):
in my thoughts when I'manalyzing what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01 (37:56):
Yeah.
Oh my god.
There's just so much, but I wantto go into this hiring thing.
Because when you started bearconstruction, 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 gotCOOO, you got foreman, you got
(38:17):
superintendents.
And so from going from being theeverything to where you're at
now required hiring.
How did you learn how to dothat?
SPEAKER_00 (38:30):
Bumps and failures.
I I hired off so I had people.
I was on a job and uh put an adan ad on Craigslist because I
didn't want to pay for, I didn'twant to pay for Indeed, I didn't
want to pay for ZipRecruiter.
So I went to Craigslist andsaid, Hey, I need pipe player
for 20 bucks an hour.
(38:51):
Talked to two kids, they camein, 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.
(39:12):
Apparently at lunch, someone,another company came in and
offered them like two moredollars an hour.
This is their first day workingfor me.
I went on a sales call, cameback 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 andstood at the manhole, their
(39:35):
machine was over here, and theirpipe 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 ditchand they had the remote for the
laser in their pocket.
I was like, why do you have theremote in your pocket to move
the laser?
(39:56):
I'm like, You should never movethe 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, likewe're gonna stay here until we
relay every single pipe thaty'all installed.
We're gonna take it out first,we're gonna relay it.
(40:17):
Like, I'm not letting nobodyfrom the company that we work
for see this.
We're gonna get the productionthat y'all made, but it's gonna
take a lot more today.
And so they grabbed their stuffand headed up the hill.
Lunch offered them two moredollars an hour, and they
weren't gonna stay and help medo that.
So I said, Wow, see you later,guys.
(40:37):
So, guess what I did?
And I put that same amount ofpotty back in the ground and
buried it.
Oh man, straight though.
SPEAKER_01 (40:46):
You hit the manhole in everything.
SPEAKER_00 (40:49):
But that's what it takes.
Like you make those mistakes.
So I don't get on a crazy listat all anymore.
Lesson learned.
Yeah, you start calling aroundto people that you meet and
build relationships with andsay, 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
(41:10):
your start at a company to whereyou're on the ground level.
It can lead to something more.
SPEAKER_01 (42:03):
Yeah.
That's so important, amazing.
I had a similar situation whereI didn't ask my foreman if he
understood like the inwardelevation of the manhole
compared to where we're startingour roughing in the building.
Until I came to the project, I'mlike, what are you trying to
(42:23):
think?
And I said, Man, how where howhigh did you like where'd you
start at the high point?
Because we had to do itbackwards, right?
Because the manhole was verygood.
He's like, I don't know, I justfelt 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 makeit, it was a so, anyways, I got
(42:47):
out, I started doing mycalculator like clear, dude.
I need to teach you.
He's like, Oh, I didn't know allthat.
Why do you think I had thatnumber right there?
Luckily, we had we hit thetwitch, but we had to be super,
super accurate to get outsidethe name methole, but we were in
within three and inch, and itwas, I mean, we were stretching
(43:11):
it to to get that.
We're just within tolerance interms of having the right amount
of slope.
Because I didn't know, butluckily we got it.
But back to you the uh hearingyou make some mistakes,
priceless obviously is not theway to go.
Uh you're willing to put in thework to complete deliver for
(43:32):
your client.
I hear a lot of people outthere, you I'm sure you've seen
it.
I'm gonna come back to leaked infor a little bit, but there's a
lot of people out there that arein our business that like to
complain about people don't wantto work anymore.
But I get the sense that youhave some solid people.
So, do you have like magic fairydust that just makes everybody
(43:54):
that comes work with youamazing?
And it's not the end of theworld, doom and gloom, that they
just don't want to work.
Like, how did you break that?
SPEAKER_00 (44:03):
Like I said, year four, you start to realize who
you want in the company, who youdon't, and it also comes, I see
it in the millions to like 1.2million.
This person is fine at that as aforeman, yeah.
Uh, to go from 1.2 to 5.4, youneed somebody else in that
foreman receipt, yep, and then5.4 to 10.4.
(44:27):
You need you probably needsomeone else.
Yeah, and during that time, I dotry to improve that person so
that hopefully when we get tothat mark, they can help us
sustain that growth.
Um, we're not at the we're notat the I guess revenue size that
(44:48):
person can hide and just do thebare minimum and be okay.
unknown (44:52):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (44:52):
Because you need that person.
So we're still need to grow thepeople.
Yes.
And by growing the people, I'mnot saying that person, if they
want, you gotta give them, youcan give them that time to see
if they're able to grow, but ifthey stall out with growing
every day learning, then it'stime to move on.
(45:15):
Um, and find somebody that andyou have to pay that next
person, like you know what thatperson's worth, and you're like,
all right, that person wasn'tworth the next level of um pay,
but you go out there and youI've never stolen anybody from a
company because I've built thoserelationships as a sub.
(45:39):
And but I will put the job outthere in hopes that someone does
not want to be at that placeanymore or wants to try
something new, yep, and and I'lldo it that way.
I've never went onto a job siteand hired two crack kids for two
dollar dollars an hour.
(45:59):
I didn't want to make enemies,right?
Because I wanted to sustain whowe were as a company, and if I
make enemies, then it's so mucheasier for them to talk crap
about me to everybody.
But I just recently I met with acompetitor, and and they told
(46:21):
me, hey, all these people aretelling me that I need to meet
you.
Like I need to emulate you, Ineed to ask some questions, see
how you're doing things.
I'm like, okay, okay.
But people are talking goodabout bear construction and how
we're doing things.
And that's I mean, that's thehighest compliment I could ever
(46:43):
think.
SPEAKER_01 (46:44):
Yeah.
Congratulations.
Congratulations.
Because you know how proud weare 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 hearinggood things, that's a big sign
of respect, and I think a signaljust to the caliber of
individual that you are, interms of saying, sure.
SPEAKER_00 (47:06):
Yeah, I mean, I I get that all the time.
People are, hey, I like the wayyou're doing things.
Can I meet with you?
And I take them to coffee, uhtake them to lunch, or they take
me.
They want to be in charge of thequestions, but it's very
strange.
I never thought I would have onestory to tell or be good enough
(47:28):
to lead the conversations.
SPEAKER_01 (47:30):
Oh man, I applaud you because clearly not only do
you have the like the actualexperience, but just the way you
carry yourself is like, man, Iplease can I learn from you?
It's kind of what the feelingI'm getting.
Now, you mentioned LinkedIn.
(47:50):
And I and the reason I want toask this is because my business
would not, I'd be dancing ontables for money right now,
Brian, if it weren't for socialmedia, because it's where I get
a lot of business from.
I didn't know I still don'treally know what I'm doing, but
I didn't know that I couldgenerate business from social
media.
(48:11):
And you said you made a post andsomething reached out to you.
So, in terms of the way youutilize LinkedIn, did you get a
coach for that, or is it justyou kind of figuring it out and
having fun with it?
SPEAKER_00 (48:25):
That's my ADHD.
Like I'm um in my wonder in myinvention.
Like I'm always thinking, I trynot to assimilate what someone
else is doing on there, but I'vekind of noticed there's certain
things that people like to readabout.
One, it's I failed, and this iswhat I learned.
Yep.
That gets you the thumbs ups,those the hearts and the
(48:47):
supports.
I used that early on to show howhonest and transparent I can be,
and to explain how hard startinga business from scratch is.
Yeah.
And negative$300 in our personalaccount.
(49:07):
So I did not start withanything.
I started with luck uh andworked out.
So yeah, I just I wanted to betransparent, I wanted to be
honest, and I was not scared tosay, hey, I don't know what I'm
doing.
There's so much pride inconstruction.
I from a sales point, I need youto know that I know what I'm
(49:30):
doing.
It's not true.
Like nobody started knowing whatthey're doing.
It's kind of like the coming outof college and you need five
years' experience to be a paperpusher.
No, you can't get it unless youyou do it.
But I've always been honestabout how hard it is and what
(49:50):
type of work you have to put in,how you have to be honest, how
you have to have faith, you haveto show it and be it.
You can't just put a post outand then not be that person.
SPEAKER_01 (50:01):
Yeah.
Oh, I agree.
I I think there's more thanenough people that I'll say
regurgitate what they think itwould be like.
It's like they ain't walked it.
And those kind of like, oh, I'mgonna leave them alone.
It bugs me a little bit, but I'mgonna leave them alone.
Now, and in the social mediaspace, specifically on LinkedIn,
(50:23):
what do you think aboutleveraging LinkedIn to attract
talent to attract people to comework for bear construction?
SPEAKER_00 (50:33):
I get those just the same amount as the people that
want to meet me.
They say, Hey, I like the wayyou do things, do you have any
positions open?
And I actually hired a uh21-year-old college student
based on that.
He was curious, he loved the waythat I put faith into my post
and into my business.
(50:54):
And he was he didn't know thatconstruction companies do that.
So we met for coffee onemorning.
Yep.
And he was he used that timevery wisely.
Great kid, is very hungry andloves God.
unknown (51:11):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (51:11):
So he wanted to know how I put faith into the
business.
And then a month or so later, Iput a construction business
manager position out there, andhe applied for it.
He's like, I know I'm notqualified, but here's my recipe.
Yeah, give it a shot.
(51:31):
Exactly, and it worked out forhim.
Wow.
Now he's our constructionbusiness assistant with a
five-year plan to become theconstruction business manager
and not lead all aspects of thecompany, but lead uh the
financial.
He's a finance major, so yeah,at what rates we should buy
(51:53):
machines at, and you know whatmachines are.
So we're gonna crash, crashcourse everything construction.
Yep.
And sorry, guy loves that andfit fits in really well.
SPEAKER_01 (52:06):
Yeah, I think I honestly believe that the play
on LinkedIn or just socialmedia, period.
Now, my business is just me,right?
I have a sorry boss who happensto be me.
All my employees are lazy andthey all happen to be me.
But if I had a business where Ihad employees or I needed
(52:29):
employees, I would absolutelythat would be my primary focus
and purpose of utilizing socialmedia is just to attract talent.
Because it's like you described,people see and they say, Oh,
that person, I like the way theyroll, I like the way they
operate.
If that how that person works, Ibet more people like that, work
(52:52):
there.
I want to work there, but Idon't see a whole lot of folks
like I'll say firms using itthat way yet.
And so you're, I would sayyou're ahead of the curve in
terms of that actually.
How another Chris Gutkiss up inLong Island, same thing
happened.
He was super, super active onsocial media.
He's like, dude, all of a suddenI'm hiring outstanding people
(53:15):
because they're saying, Hey, Isaw your stuff, I like your
message, and it was bringing inpeople that he needed badly.
That's the game.
That's the it's not selling theproject, it's attracting talent.
That's my thought.
I don't know truth, but that'swhere I'm at with this.
SPEAKER_00 (53:32):
No, it does.
I mean, it's who you are, whoyou represent.
And again, if you're honestabout who you are, the people
gravitate towards that and areexcited about it without even
working here.
They're like, man, like thatsounds like company I've been
looking to work for.
That's why I put that we'vefailed and how we failed, and
(53:54):
what I've learned, and how we'vegotten better.
Because a lot of these companiesthey don't put that stuff, which
is fine because a lot of themhide by hide behind the brand of
the name instead of being thepersonal person.
I do most of my post under me,not under Bear, which I feel
(54:15):
like Facebook is more for hiringemployees, like laborers, and
operators, but LinkedIn is morefor office, the office space.
Yep.
And yeah, we I've got a lot ofgreat people, a young estimator
from that, and and theconstruction business assistant
(54:37):
because they wanted to come workfor Bear.
Or I'm sorry, maybe they wantedto come work for Brian.
That's all right.
Yes, but Bear is the avenue forthem to create a life.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (54:51):
Oh my god.
I mean, so you're not justgiving people jobs or careers,
you're helping them create alife.
That's important.
SPEAKER_00 (55:02):
Um right now I'm spiritually trying to love on
all these employees.
We've got 30 of them, so we'renot big.
That's a lot, not in middleTennessee.
Like we're we're we're a smallfish in the contractor field in
Tennessee.
But what I tell them is you'redoing a godly service.
You're you have the chance tobuild a structural pad for a
(55:25):
house to be built on.
Um sanitary sewer system to keepyour house and your kids clean.
You get potable drinking waterand bath water to clean
yourself.
You get stormwater runoff, oryou're building stormwater
runoff for these communities sothat houses don't flood, kids
(55:48):
don't get hurt.
You're you're help building somebase for asphalt companies to
put down a smooth drivingsurface, walkable sidewalks and
communities.
There's so many places thatdon't have these things, and you
get to build this for a completestranger.
You're doing a godly service outthere right now.
(56:09):
I hope you realize that.
And by doing this, you're alsoproviding yourself and your
family and your kids with thesame thing.
You're getting you know, a godlyservice for your family.
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (56:25):
You maybe want to go get my boots and put them back
on.
Dang, all right.
So I'm gonna make sure that weput 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 likebuild a life and build a career
and work with you, Mr.
(56:46):
Brian, should I put your bearconstruction website link in
there also?
Yeah, you can do that too.
SPEAKER_00 (56:52):
Perfect.
I think I got 100, 900 friendrequests sitting there to be
reviewed at the moment.
SPEAKER_01 (57:00):
And I bet you review them too, which I absolutely
love.
SPEAKER_00 (57:03):
I know it takes a lot of time.
There's a lot of insurancesalespeople out there.
I'm like, I've got my guy, I'vegot my banker, so I don't want
to oversaturate it.
Like, I want my feed to be ofpeople that are a service to me,
not one just looking forservice, but there's so many
insurance salesmen out there,but I'm primarily looking for
(57:26):
like project managers,estimators at GC companies,
developers, yeah.
I'm looking for a special framerequest, not just any, not just
random.
SPEAKER_01 (57:38):
I know exactly what you're talking about.
I don't have that kind ofdiscipline.
I do have a little bit of afilter, but not uh, I could do
better.
SPEAKER_00 (57:46):
I could do better.
It is about the impressions, andonce 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 postedlike an embroidered shirt and it
got 330,000.
Jeez.
Wow.
And so I'm like, okay, I have avoice here.
(58:07):
That's why I started doing thepodcast.
I'm like, maybe I do havesomething to say that people
enjoy here.
If I can talk about God andevery single one of them, I'm
going.
SPEAKER_01 (58:17):
Yes.
Love it, love it.
And I'm gonna tell you, bro,like you have massive insight
and wisdom that's gonna benefita lot of people.
Now, I don't want to take awayfrom what you got because a lot
of people do, but the way thatyou communicate, there's so much
intentionality and purposebehind what you're saying that
(58:39):
it is transformational.
I believe and see that it istransformational.
So please keep doing it.
Because the world, our industry,not just our industry, or not
just the world, our industryneeds to know that there are
leaders of your caliber outthere.
Like they do exist, folks.
Brian is evidence that they doexist.
(59:01):
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'tcome and like transfer to
Tennessee and come work for you,make sure that you find somebody
that has the same commitment ofservice that Mr.
Bryan does, because those arethe kind of people that we need
(59:23):
to pour into, support, andcelebrate.
And so, Brian, I just got totell you, like, thank you for
taking the time to take this theinvitation and have this
conversation with me.
Because I believe in you.
I mean, I'm just a little guythat makes a lot of noise, but
if I have in any way I cancontribute to your path, that's
what I want to do.
(59:45):
Now, that all brings us to theGrand Slam home run question.
Are you ready for it?
SPEAKER_00 (59:53):
Never, but let's go.
I love that.
All right, I'm being up forfire.
That's all you are is a fire,fire fire as a business owner.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:02):
It's nothing as heavy as that.
So here it is.
What is the promise you areintended 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 Istruggled with addiction for a
long like 20 years of my life.
(01:00:22):
I'm almost 10 years sober now.
That started with theconversation with one of my
counselors in rehab.
And he said, Jesse, your problemis that you haven't accepted
that if you continue living lifethe way you're living, you will
never become the promise you'reintended to be.
(01:00:43):
And in that moment, I knew.
I'm underserving myself.
I'm playing too small.
I've got self-destructivebehaviors.
And I am here for a greaterpurpose.
And I've got to change the way Ilive in order to become that and
fulfill that purpose.
Does that help?
SPEAKER_00 (01:01:02):
Yeah, I've got several ideas.
Thank you for that.
It's hard to be that honest andshare 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 inand love on other people to help
them out of whatever they'regoing through.
(01:01:24):
You're not, like I said, you'renot the only one.
Everyone has their own demons,yep.
Stuff that they won't post onthe LinkedIns or the podcast.
And they do it in dark rooms.
So there that's one of thethoughts.
Thank you for that.
And continue loving on people.
The other one, can you kind ofYeah, what is the promise you
(01:01:46):
are intended to be?
Okay, so my promise startedbefore I met my wife, and I'm
gonna lead into what I believemy promise is.
I hated everything, everythingwas just so hard, couldn't
afford nothing.
I was cutting grass, I hatedtraffic, I hated people, I hated
(01:02:06):
every single thing.
I was having fun.
I was drinking, I was playingsoftball, basketball a lot, and
I was by myself, but I justhated every single aspect of it,
even though I was having fun.
I turned on the local Christianradio station randomly, and I
(01:02:28):
noticed over like probably likea day's time a weight was
lifted.
Oh, and so over time I was happyjust listening to that.
I hadn't gone to church yet, andthen I finally I made a Facebook
post.
I where's everybody in this towngo to church?
(01:02:48):
And so I went to church, sat bymyself.
Um, it was on a TV screen, so Ididn'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, andthat's what so with her on me.
And then life just startedchanging because I went to
(01:03:11):
church.
God sent me a beautiful wife whohas held me accountable for
every single thing in my life.
She's the strongest person I'veever known, and she's put me on
that right direction.
Something I never thought Icould be.
And she's led me to be who I am.
I'm still not perfect, I stillmake a lot of mistakes to her,
(01:03:36):
to my employees, to everythingI'm a part of.
But they're not the samemistakes that I made when I was
angry.
They're just silly.
Like pick up after yourself.
Yeah.
And but her love and God's lovehas held me to a higher standard
(01:03:56):
to love everybody around me.
I didn't know that I lovedpeople, but my C12 group, when
we do our core businesspresentations, would always pray
for me.
And they always talked aboutGod, Brian's love for his
people.
And at that point, I was like, Ididn't, I do love them.
Okay.
They helped me realize that'sanother thing they saved my
business.
(01:04:16):
They helped me understand how tolove people and that I love
people.
And I never knew that.
So that is my why.
And I'm giving these people anopportunity to grow themselves.
And hopefully, I'm a goodexample to them.
I'm goofy as shit.
But I think they believe in me,and I hope they do, and I'm
(01:04:38):
gonna work on them every singleday without telling them they
need to believe in me.
I'm gonna do my best to showthem that I'm here for them, and
I want to be here for them.
I want them to know that theycan come to me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04:51):
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Thank you, sir.
Not surprised at the depth ofyour answer because that's just
who you are.
Did you have fun?
Yeah, that's fun.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05:02):
A little sweaty, but that's just me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05:05):
Same.
The lights kind of heated up inyou.
Thank you for sticking it outall the way to the end.
I know you got a whole lot ofstuff going on.
And in appreciation for the giftof time that you have given this
episode, I want to offer you afree PDF of my book, Becoming
the Promise You're Intended toBe.
(01:05:25):
The link for that bad boy isdown in the show notes.
Hit it.
You don't even have to give meyour email address.
There's a link in there.
You just click that button, youcan download the PDF.
And if you share it withsomebody that you know who might
feel stuck or be caught up inself-destructive behaviors, that
would be the ultimate.
You sharing that increases thelikelihood that it's going to
(01:05:49):
help one more person.
And if it does help one moreperson, then you're contributing
to me becoming the promise I amintended to be.
Be kind to yourself, be cool,and we'll talk at you next time.
I wanted to create my own ways, my own values.
If I see theirs on the wall, Icopied it and put it on my wall.
I wanted to be like you said, Iwanted to be my own person.
I wanted to grow myself becauseI knew that would only that
would help me grow my company.
If I'm always trying to be likesomebody else, emulate a
different company, then justlook the same.
SPEAKER_01 (00:28):
What is going on, LM family?
Back again with how should Isay, I'm just gonna call him a
LinkedIn influencer because Icame across him and my attention
was like captured by not justwhat he posts, but like the
tone, the message, the humor.
There's a lot in there that justcame across as super human.
(00:50):
And he's he's a businessoperator.
So he's the president of BearConstruction, family man.
His name is Mr.
Brian Anderson.
So we're gonna get to know abunch about Mr.
Brian, and I'm gonna be learningall kinds of new stuff because
this is actually the very firstconversation that we've ever
had, which I absolutely lovebecause then I get to be super,
(01:11):
super curious.
Hopefully, I won't cross anylines.
But before that, if this is yourfirst time here, you are
listening to the Learnings andMissteps podcast, where you get
to see how amazing human beingsjust like you are sharing their
(01:34):
gifts and talents to leave thisworld 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.
(01:55):
I know you've had a lot goingon.
We connected a while back and wefinally were able to like get on
the calendar.
Now you're like a professionalpodcast guest, it seems.
You're making the you're makingthe rounds out there.
And so I got a real simplequestion.
You ready?
SPEAKER_00 (02:11):
Yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01 (02:13):
Okay.
Where do you stand or what areyour thoughts on hard work?
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
It pays off.
First off, it pays off, it'sworth doing, and it's godly.
You're supposed to put in thehard work and you rest, and it
you're rewarded.
SPEAKER_01 (02:29):
Yes, sir.
I was kind of LinkedIn stalkingyou, and you had a post
specifically about hard work,and you I think you pulled a
quote from scripture about thelaborer has amazing sleep after
a day's hard work.
And reminds me of a story abuddy of mine, he was in law
school, and he was venting tohis then father-in-law about
(02:51):
having trouble sleeping.
And his father-in-law said,like, oh, we used to need to
work.
And my buddy was like, But I'min law school.
He's like, Yeah.
So if you just did a littlework, you would sleep five.
A little more.
Just a little bit more, soyou're tired up to go to bed.
All right.
So you're president at BearConstruction.
(03:15):
Now, was that something thatthat you just been on those
straight line paths since highschool to start a construction
business?
Was that the goal right out thegate?
SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
No, twice along my journey.
I worked at constructioncompanies that like in a way,
the economy shut down.
So that construction company didtoo.
It was in Atlanta, Georgia.
Good little small mob and poptype construction company.
And then around 2013, got backinto it, and that company shut
(03:46):
down.
So I was left without a job asecond time.
So I almost got out ofconstruction completely.
There's no money in it.
Um, it's not there's nolongevity, apparently.
And I was, I guess I was justworking companies that didn't
survive.
I got out of it.
I got into like cutting grass,landscaping, helping a buddy
(04:07):
out, installing alarm systems,wire backed, just trying to find
like what what my love is, whatuh what I want to do, and what
would help me be successful?
SPEAKER_01 (04:18):
Nice.
So you work for two constructioncompanies, they went under, and
then you kind of went on this,we'll say, uh, exploration of
like what's next, what do I wantto do?
So what was it that likeattracted you to those first
construction companies?
Did you just like construction?
Is construction in the family?
SPEAKER_00 (04:40):
Oh, yes, definitely in the family.
My grandfather had like 300acres in Fair Review.
And the boys would leave schoolafter lunch and go cut hay, bail
hay, take care of the farm.
Um, they did it for otherfamilies in the community.
So that was their job.
When they all, I guess,graduated from farm work.
They moved out and they allstarted in construction as pipe
(05:05):
layers mostly.
Oh, we're known as utility guys.
The Andersons are.
SPEAKER_01 (05:11):
Ah, so the Andersons are utility guys running the
like domestic waterdistribution, storm drainage,
sanitary, fire sprinkler.
Exactly.
Yep, yep.
Oh, okay.
This is good.
SPEAKER_00 (05:26):
That's how I started my company.
SPEAKER_01 (05:29):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (05:29):
Oh, once I did.
SPEAKER_01 (05:31):
So you work with two outfits, they shut the doors,
which is difficult and I'm surepainful for everybody involved,
but the that didn't scare youaway.
So, what was it?
Was it like bar backing?
And you just said, I ain't gonnado this, I'm gonna go start my
own company.
Because I mean, I'm gonna speakon both sides of the fence.
(05:53):
Having started my own business,it's harder than I thought,
while it was also or is alsoeasier than I thought.
SPEAKER_00 (06:04):
So I have the same sentiment.
SPEAKER_01 (06:06):
Really?
SPEAKER_00 (06:07):
Okay, it's very odd, but apparently the person I am
on LinkedIn invites a lot ofcommunication.
There's people that are in peergroups that have asked me how do
I manage my cash flow?
People that ask, like, how doyou sustain the growth?
How do you because we've beengrowing 100% each year, except
for this one?
They're asking me questions, andI'm like, I don't know.
(06:28):
This is what I it's worked, soit's it's odd that these people
are asking me, but yes, there isa formula, and I've seen it in
this national market that youworked your ass off until like
the fourth year is when youstart.
The fifth year is when it reallybreaks, but fourth, you're like,
(06:50):
okay, I I see what I've done,didn't work.
I've fixed that.
I've brought in one or twopeople 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, orseveral machines.
Year five breaks, and you'relike, okay, I got this.
(07:13):
Like it all makes sense.
You start hiring better people,more qualified, you've got some
money that you can pay them andbring them in, and then you
start working on your culture.
And once your culture gets downpath, I'm in year six and a
half, and six and a half, and Idon't know if you saw that last
video I just posted.
Like, I don't know what to dowith my time throughout the day.
SPEAKER_01 (07:34):
I didn't see that.
SPEAKER_00 (07:35):
That's where I got my identity.
SPEAKER_01 (07:38):
Okay.
Oh my god, there's so much here,and I appreciate you like
spreading it out that way.
You talked about being in peergroups, so I guess the first
question is did you jump into apeer group like day one when you
decided to start a business, orwas that like a little further
down the road after some bumpsand bruises?
SPEAKER_00 (07:59):
So I had been um asked to join peer groups early,
early on.
Yeah, I think maybe a year and ahalf into my business that I did
join one.
It's not necessarily it's not aconstruction peer group, it's a
Christian leadership peer group.
Okay, around two, and it'scalled C12.
(08:20):
Here I've been there five years.
Oh, nice.
One, I guess.
I don't know if you win it, butI 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 Isigned, the project manager, I
(08:41):
gave it to him.
He got he turned it into his ownum 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, Youkeep 10 and then give me 10.
(09:01):
And so that was my firstcontract that I ever put my
signature on.
I'm like, is that what this is?
Is that how the constructioncommunity is?
Like, why likes constructioncosts?
Yeah, I was like, I want tochange that.
This is not who I want to be.
Like the good ones sustain mylife by being crooked.
(09:23):
Yes.
Um, and I was like, all right, Ineed some advice from people,
but I didn't want to be in aconstruction peer group.
I wanted to be in a leadershippeer 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, Iguess, chair, member, leader,
(09:45):
and he was absolutely amazing.
I couldn't afford it, but I saidI need this.
And I paid in, and it's probablysaved my company three or four
separate times.
Really?
SPEAKER_01 (10:00):
Just the insight and wisdom from the people that you
were interacting with.
SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
The insight, yeah, like you said, the insight, the
wisdom, the other executivesthat aren't in construction but
have the same problems.
Yeah.
And they have connections.
If I needed a lawyer, they hadthat.
I had an employee that has someheart problems, and I was still
paying his insurance andeverything else.
And they said, Brian, is I knowyou want to be a good Christian
(10:29):
and take care of this person,but there's 10 care, there's
benefits to free health care forcertain people.
Like he can jump on any of that,and you don't have to keep him
on your payroll and keep hisinsurance loud.
Like he his he and his familycan do what it takes to help him
(10:49):
through this.
SPEAKER_01 (10:50):
Yeah, and just connect him with the resources
so that he's taken care ofeither way, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (10:55):
Exactly.
And that's what they did, theygave me ways to to help him
outside of bear because therewas there's only so much that I
can do financially and legallyto help him.
But I was able to give him moreinformation than I had because
of this group.
SPEAKER_01 (11:15):
Nice, nice.
So, folks, if you didn't catchthat, the LM family members out
there, you made an investment inyourself, right?
I it's all about, and I want toclarify something because I had
a discussion with somebody.
They're like, Jesse, you havethat invest in who you got.
What does that mean?
(11:35):
And I said it means invest inwho you got.
Who do I have first?
Me.
And if I have a team, I haveemployees, if I have people, it
means them too.
But you gotta do invest in whoyou got, which means everybody,
and you started there now.
You said specifically you didn'twant to be in a construction
(11:57):
peer group, but you did want toimprove yourself.
So, what was it about aconstruction peer group?
Why did you make thatdelineation?
Why was it like, no, I don'twant that kind of group, I need
something else.
SPEAKER_00 (12:11):
I didn't want to, I guess first I didn't want to
copy another company.
Um I wanted to create my ownways, my own values.
If I see theirs on the wall, Icopy it, put it on my wall.
I wanted to be like you said, Iwanted to be my own person, I
wanted to grow myself because Iknew that only that would help
(12:33):
me grow my company.
If I'm always trying to be likesomebody else, emulate a
different company, then justlook the same.
Yeah, and that's who I am.
SPEAKER_01 (12:44):
Right.
And then you're constantlychasing.
Like, I get the sense thatyou're of the abundance mindset,
right?
Like, it's funny.
I'll talk like because I'm aconsultant.
I'm one of them dirty, like, Iactually 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 into see all the dirty details.
(13:05):
And it's interesting, some ofthem have a fear of like, man,
just like you can't likenon-disclaimer, they're nervous
about me sharing the secretsauce.
I'm like, yeah, you don't needto worry about like one, I'm not
gonna like it's an integritything, but two, even if I did
share your secret sauce andsomebody else decided to copy
(13:26):
it, you're five to ten yearsinto actually doing it, they
still need to figure out how tomake it like how to make it
stick, and they're always gonnabe behind as long as you stay
true to your purpose and thedirection you're headed, they'll
never catch up.
Do you feel the same way?
SPEAKER_00 (13:47):
Yeah, absolutely.
I had met with a big companyhere in Nashville that just
recently sold to a biggercompany, but they have been
doing it for over 30 years, andthat's who I wanted to emulate.
Like, all right, they've gotemployees that have been there
for 15 plus years.
They had like 50 employees thatyou know have been there
forever.
So I'm like, all right, what arethey doing?
(14:09):
So I first startedsubcontracting for them when I
first started working.
So I want to work for y'all, andI 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 intheir office talking to their
project managers, their accountladies, everybody.
(14:30):
Yeah, and if the owner walks by,hey, tell me how you doing,
like, yeah.
I was very intentional withgoing to pick up that check
every single time.
It wasn't a lot of money becausewe were only labor and machine
at that point.
But it was the what I the valueI got from visiting the offices.
SPEAKER_01 (14:48):
Just learning and gleaning information, getting
the again the insight, how theyoperate, how do they
communicate.
So what are which I think isit's a phenomenal practice,
right?
There's some people might besaying, yeah, but what's the
return on investment?
Because they're thinking in ashort-term cycle, right?
Like if I go to pick up a check,that might be a 30, 45,
(15:11):
90-minute round trick ride,which is windshield time's never
very productive.
So people might argue that it'slike a low cost, low investment,
low return, but you're makingcontact and kind of doing some
investigation, some forensic CSItype investigation.
Like, man, how do these peoplefunction?
(15:32):
What does it feel like here?
So, what are maybe a few thingsif you're gonna recommend to
someone like, hey man, go pickup your check.
And when you do, look for thesetwo things.
You got any top two big hitters?
SPEAKER_00 (15:45):
No, just build a relationship.
They had a project manager thatis now a land development
manager, and I've had two orthree projects you know off of
that.
He left that company, went outto a national home developer,
and because of that, he trustsme because of the conversations
I had in his office about theprojects they were working on
(16:09):
that I wasn't part of, and thenthe ones that we were working
on, just built that relationshipand that time in that office.
He trusts me.
He feels like he knows me andwas more than willing to give me
the opportunity to bid a 50 to150 house subdivision.
SPEAKER_01 (16:29):
Yeah.
All right, so that is actually amonster like cheat code.
The relationships, the real now.
I want to uh add somethingbecause it took Brian, Mr.
Brian.
I did I didn't know this, and Iwish I did back early in my
career.
Talking to the project manager,now he's a representative of the
land developer, so he hasfinancial decision-making
(16:52):
authority.
We got to do the LM familymember shout-out.
And this one goes out to Mr.
Jeff Riley.
Mr.
Jeff left the review and hesays, this was a great
experience.
It really gave me a roadmap onhow to effectively improve work
in the field, to find how toexecute a gamble walk.
(17:12):
I'm now teaching my team so wecan PDCA one of these in the
coming weeks.
This was all taught with passionand enthusiasm that made an
eight-hour day go by super fast.
Mr.
Jeff, thank you, my man.
And folks, if you're wonderingwhat he's talking about, we just
did the Sweat Equity ImprovementWorkshop at Congress in
(17:34):
Arlington last week, and hedropped me that little review.
And y'all already know I loveattention, I love compliments.
So, folks, if you take the timeto drop a review, do some stars,
do some sharing, it means a lotto me, and it gives me an
opportunity to shout you out inthe future.
SPEAKER_02 (17:55):
Yep.
SPEAKER_01 (17:56):
I didn't think that way 20 years ago, right?
If and again, I come up as aplumber, so I'm from the field,
and so PMs to me were eh, likethey're not cool.
I ain't talking to them, I'm aI'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
(18:19):
department heads now.
Like, damn it.
And when they see me, someespecially here in San Antonio,
they're like, that dummy, we youwant to give our money to that
goofball?
Oh man.
So, point being one, build therelationships.
Two, that I think probably comesnaturally to you, Mr.
Brian, because of yourbackground and your faith, but
(18:42):
doesn't come naturally to a lotof people, is treat everybody
with immense appreciation andrespect, regardless of where
they are on the organizationalchart, because they're not gonna
stay there forever.
SPEAKER_00 (18:56):
No, and young kids, like it's hard right now to want
to talk and discuss with youngguys, but that generation only
wants to grow higher and faster,so it won't be long before
they're leading companies andrunning companies, and and you
know, us 42-year-old men are attheir mercy.
(19:18):
So one of our one of our corevalues is respect and value
others, and if they if they havean idea, it's probably a good
one.
Do you agree with it?
Maybe not, because we'redifferent generations, but you
have to honor that thought.
They put their effort into it.
(19:39):
So honor that thought and comeup with the best way to make it
work.
If it works for you, give themthat opportunity.
Say, hey, I'm not, I don'texactly see your vision in this,
but here's the opportunity totry it.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (19:52):
Go walk me through it, get a rep in, let's see what
it looks like.
If it sticks, heck yeah, let'sdo that thing.
I think you touch on somethingthat I think is one of those
hidden treasures, is when welisten and give people the
agency to like bring their ideato life, we tap into some really
(20:15):
powerful stuff as opposed tosay, no, that ain't the way we
do it, we ain't gonna do it thatway.
Because when we do that, wesuffocate it, and then they just
all we get is their body, wedon't get the rest of their
brilliance that they carry withthem every day, right?
SPEAKER_00 (20:30):
And kind of going back to the peer groups, that's
why I didn't want to join onebecause 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 ownthoughts, yeah.
Yeah, so I turn that into thepeople that I talk with, and
like they have their ownthoughts, they see they feel
passionate that they can do it adifferent way.
(20:50):
Being from the utilitybackground, I have one way to
install pipe.
So when I go out to a job siteand they're digging 300 feet,
have put a stick of pipe in, I'mlike, what are you doing?
And then I gotta remember thatall right, they were taught
different somewhere.
So I'm open to let them do that,and I will show them my way,
(21:14):
tell them my way, and if theyfeel that my way is more
advantageous, then they'llprobably change.
But if they feel good and Iagree, I'm like, okay, like you
did a good job.
You put the production in thatday or more, and it's
backfilled, it's cleaned up,like it's safe.
Yeah, okay, like it worked.
(21:35):
You've proved that you know tome that you can do it.
I don't agree with it.
I wish you did it a differentway, but you saw me on the fact
that you believe in what you'redoing, and that's a powerful
value.
SPEAKER_01 (21:50):
Yeah, that's a massive discipline, Mr.
Brian, because I know Istruggled with it when I back in
the day when I was an apprenticeand journeyman.
What I would run my pipe towhere you could read all the
letters left to right, and theywere all on the same side.
All my no-hub bands were alllike it was art, Brian.
I'm telling you, it was art.
(22:10):
And then I became a foreman.
And guess what I did?
I wasn't very yeah, I would makepeople run it, like take it
apart and do it the way I wouldhave done it.
Until my boss came and said,Hey, dummy, you know how much
that's costing us?
I'm like, Yeah, but what aboutpride and quality of work?
He said, Bro, the specs say passinspection, they don't say
(22:30):
nothing about the letters.
Okay, dummy.
So it's can you produce theoutcome?
Yes or no?
Exactly how you get to theoutcome is there's some
flexibility there, provided youhit the measures of quality,
safety, production.
Then we're well, and that's noteasy.
SPEAKER_00 (22:51):
And here's one thing about it we bury it, you know,
you drywall it, and so you don'tsee it, but it still has to be
done with quality, or else itwon't pass inspections.
And now we nowadays we can't runsewer lines, and if it could
fail and cause a road to thecenter, so like there's still
(23:13):
that quality that absolutely hasto be performed.
SPEAKER_01 (23:16):
Yes, 100%.
Okay, so the group that yousigned up for, did they paint a
picture of how easy sales wasgonna be selling?
And I don't mean like actuallymaking this, I mean all the work
it takes to get the sale.
SPEAKER_00 (23:38):
They have each month is a different, I can't think of
the word, but lesson.
Yeah, so yeah, they once a yearthey probably go through that,
and then like right now, we'redoing strategic planning for
next year.
Oh, yeah, and so yeah, they'reyes, I'm pretty good at sales,
I've become really good at it.
I can sell what we want to doand what we're trying to do, and
(24:02):
then but the best part is we goout 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 thequality of work that me when I
was out in the field and my guysperformed matched.
SPEAKER_01 (24:25):
Yeah.
Oh very well said.
Uh maybe, so I'm wondering.
So the first two organizationsthat you were with, because I've
seen this when I had a real joband still see it a bunch now,
that the company they get a newboss, there's new management, or
they're new to the market,whatever it is, and they start
(24:47):
winning work, and they'redelivering, right?
They're meeting expectations,client satisfied, so they get
more work, and then they take ona whole lot of work and they
have to flood people in fromlike other organizations, and
then all of a sudden, thequality or the experience that
the client was havingdiminishes, they start losing
(25:11):
credibility, they start losingbusiness, and then that's the
common term is back to basics,we're getting back to basics,
and so they have this cycle thatI think is because somewhere
between like earning work andstarting to get like negotiated
contracts, if you will, theyoversell themselves.
(25:33):
Have you seen that, or is thatsomething that you've like paid
attention to in terms of yourbusiness or maybe the ones you
were working with?
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
Pay attention to it.
I don't necessarily have anexact answer to what you're
asking, but I've seen companiesthat had a lot of money behind
them when they started, um, notdo it right.
They're able to go out there andget the work because they've got
the machines, they've got thepeople in the office.
(26:01):
It's easy to say, oh, we got 12people.
So this developer's like, oh,y'all should be able to do it
then.
Um no, those are 12 people inthe office that have nothing to
do with that project, right?
Uh so like it doesn't matter howmany people you have, it's the
quality of work you do.
Number one.
I've I've seen companies comeinto town, even national home
builders come into town.
(26:23):
Great product, can't seem to getthe right contractor on board to
deliver them the product thatthey need, and they ship back
out of town.
Um and there's contractors thatstart their business, they buy
the big suited up trucks, duallywith trailer truck tires on
them, um tin all their windows,and just do some silly stuff to
(26:47):
put a culvert in for granny.
Um and it doesn't sustain.
Right, right.
My first my first work truck was08 Kia Spectra.
SPEAKER_01 (26:59):
That's a t-shirt.
That's a t-shirt.
SPEAKER_00 (27:02):
My first uh actual utility bed truck was one that
we bought from my first bosslike in 02 when I started in
construction.
It was a 1995 450, F3 or 450utility bed.
So in in the year 2019, it'sold, it's more out, but it's
diesel, and it was a dinosaur,so like it it ran.
SPEAKER_01 (27:26):
Yeah.
Okay, I think there's a massivelesson there.
So you said your first truck wasa Kia.
After you had talked about thesebig giant dualis with tractor
tires and all the whizbangyattention-grabbing stuff.
Why did you choose?
Because that was a choice, torun your business out of your
(27:50):
Kia.
SPEAKER_00 (27:51):
Well, uh, so I mean, it was a free vehicle, it's my
wife's, but we upgraded her to aGMC terrain.
Okay.
I just had a just had a baby,and it's I started the company
about six months after he wasborn.
Oh wow.
Wow.
Yeah, there's a whole notherstory.
It's uh starting a business at35 with a newborn.
(28:15):
And I'm 42 with a two-year-oldand a dollar.
We're probably training both ofthem at the same time.
So but the kia was given to meby her.
We upgraded her vehicle.
And I just I wanted a gasguzzler because I knew I was
gonna have to sell.
I knew I was gonna have to likego job site to job site.
If I get a new set of plans, Igotta go look at the fresh
(28:36):
layout of the land, see what itlooks like.
Um pick up parts here, pick upparts there.
Of course, I I realized the Kiadoesn't suffice when I picked up
uh like a gate valve concretebox.
Okay and like the mufflersdragging uh 24.
All right, you know, bought acheap, it was Brand New.
(28:58):
I did buy Brand New 2019.
It wasn't even a four-door, itwas a half-door in the back.
And so like I've made a lot ofsilly decisions along the way.
The next truck after that was a2020 F350 Dooley.
Yeah, because I was at thatpoint, I was pulling, I had a
trailer, I had a mini X and aSkiss deer.
(29:19):
So I was like, all right, Igotta 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 seriousdecisions, and then I got to the
point where all I was doing asthe owner of the business was
hauling machines around, goingto pick up stuff.
So I then bought an SUV to getmyself out of doing the gopher
(29:43):
stuff.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (29:44):
Oh okay.
So there's I think there's somemassive 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 beputting.
A lot of miles, all I need isthe Kia until you're dragging
the muffler because it wasloaded up with a big giant cake
(30:06):
valve.
And the reason I call I saidbecause uh too many people, and
it doesn't matter if I can reachout and say, Jess, I want to
start.
What do I need?
I was like, your phone, you'reready to go right now.
But they want to go and get thefancy lighting equipment and the
fancy expensive camera, fancyexpensive microphone.
(30:28):
None of those things are gonnaactually help you do the thing.
And it seems to me like you justyou knew that.
Did you know that inherently, orwas it somebody something that
somebody said, hey man, don'tworry about getting that big
food to you, sell work first?
SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
No, I absolutely had no communication of how to start
a business, run a business.
My favorite story, and I knowyou'll love this.
Um you might have heard itbefore, but I was working for a
developer in town and as thelike construction admin.
That's how I got back intoconstruction after cutting grass
(31:08):
and doing everything else.
Was conned by a guy to help runhis company.
He was just doing like servicetaps from the street to the
houses, and I did like 200 intwo months for him.
And every night on the ride homein this big dealy truck, I'd
(31:29):
stop at the gas station and carwould decline every single
night.
And I'm trying to get home to mysix-year-old, my six-month old,
I'm sorry.
And it was just miserable.
I'd get home late.
I worked so hard that daybecause it was me and one other
guy.
He didn't have the help that weneeded.
I worked very hard.
(31:50):
Yeah.
And then I couldn't even gethome 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 thereon the couch one night and
Googling how to start abusiness.
Apparently, all you gotta do isyou know, file for your
articles, your articles of theorganization, and name it.
And then pay 300 bucks, andyou've got a business.
(32:12):
I was like, That's not too bad.
Like, I mean, what I had tolose.
So I asked, you know, we're justsitting there and watch TV, or
she's holding the baby.
I look at my wife, Heather, andI'm like, should I start a
business?
Like, yeah.
Okay.
So I do all the governmentpaperwork, and then the last
(32:33):
question is like, what do youwant to name this business?
I didn't know.
I didn't have an idea that I wasgonna start a business in that
30 minutes.
So I ask her, Heather, whatshould I name this business?
She says, Name it bear, becauseyou're my bear.
Okay.
I'm thinking like, okay, like Ilike, yeah, I am her bear, but
then also I've got her baby bearin her arms.
(32:56):
And so I'm like, it makes sense,it works for me.
I'm not, I don't have a specialname for it.
I knew I didn't want to name itBrian Anderson Construction.
I've never agreed with that.
Because what if it goes southand you like need to sell it or
get rid of it?
Yeah.
(33:17):
File bankruptcy under BrianAnderson.
Like that sounds bad.
So I was like, I don't know whatI'm doing, so I'm not gonna name
it after myself in case it doesgo south.
So we named it Bear that nighton LinkedIn.
That's why I love LinkedIn.
I put a post out there.
Hey, started my I didn't have alogo, didn't have nothing,
didn't have a business page.
(33:38):
Hey, started my site and utilitycompany in Middle Tennessee.
And immediately a contractorsaid, call me in the morning.
Really?
He didn't know me because Iwasn't posting at that point.
And he gave he had two projectshe needed help on.
He had a subcontractor.
Again, I didn't have a vehicle,I didn't have a truck, I didn't
(34:00):
have a shovel, I had a pinkhammer inherited from her when
we moved in together.
Didn't have a pipe laser, he letme borrow that.
I didn't have machines, he letme borrow those.
I paid him rent on his machines,hired my cousin because I knew
that he worked for anothercousin at one point, so he was
like, Well, he can lay pipe.
And then I called around townand got an excavator operator,
(34:22):
and we went to work.
I I I think he told me what hewould pay me on you know per
linear foot.
I said, okay.
I think I did have to get adiesel account and a tank on
site, but other than that, I gotthat old 95 utility bed truck,
(34:44):
and a week later we were 25 feetdeep in double trench boxes.
Oh yeah.
Ductile Ire sewer.
Damn.
Serious.
Yeah.
So like first thing I did wasthe hardest damn thing to do.
(35:05):
And it was hammered.
So we had to hammer, we had touse trench boxes.
It was fun, it was amazing, itwas great.
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (35:13):
Okay, so I want to make sure people don't get the
idea that just start a businessand everything's gonna work out.
But I also don't want to saythat it's not possible for it to
be that way.
I think the difference is whenyou have a heart that's focused
(35:34):
on serving others and growingand challenging yourself, things
work out.
SPEAKER_00 (35:42):
Would you agree?
Yeah, you have to be intentionalwith what you want to do.
And I was intentional about myfamily.
Yep.
I was intentional about I wantedfaith in my business, I wanted
it exposed, I wanted it outthere.
(36:02):
I had one, I have ADHD, so I caneasily jump into something with
the fullest effort.
It's hard to sustain that once Iget started.
That's when you startdelegating.
And that's how you but well,honestly, that's how you grow.
I do, I've done the assessmentworking genius, which C12 put on
(36:25):
us.
Yeah, and I'm a wonderer andinventor.
So off in the clouds all daylong, thinking, planning, being
creative, and then I'll figureout a way to do it.
My I guess my frustrations arecarrying it out and seeing it
all the way through.
(36:46):
Yeah.
So I think for a business ownerthat wants to grow, that those
qualities are great.
Um, and then I've done theassessment on everybody that
works for us, foreman,superintendents, vice president
of operations.
They're all they like to seethings through to the finish.
Yeah.
Um, there's nobody in here withdiscernment, so nobody,
(37:09):
unfortunately, nobody says,Brian, that's not a good idea.
SPEAKER_02 (37:12):
So you just get to do whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00 (37:14):
I get that, yeah.
And they're like, okay.
So so and I know Heather Jonesand Jake Jones.
I love them to death.
Heather is my discernment, thatis her quality.
SPEAKER_02 (37:29):
And she's good at that.
SPEAKER_00 (37:31):
She is good at that.
And so, like, I run a lot ofstuff through her.
When I'm hiring people, I talkwith 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 shesays, and a lot of times it is
(37:52):
in my thoughts when I'manalyzing what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01 (37:56):
Yeah.
Oh my god.
There's just so much, but I wantto go into this hiring thing.
Because when you started bearconstruction, 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 gotCOOO, you got foreman, you got
(38:17):
superintendents.
And so from going from being theeverything to where you're at
now required hiring.
How did you learn how to dothat?
SPEAKER_00 (38:30):
Bumps and failures.
I I hired off so I had people.
I was on a job and uh put an adan ad on Craigslist because I
didn't want to pay for, I didn'twant to pay for Indeed, I didn't
want to pay for ZipRecruiter.
So I went to Craigslist andsaid, Hey, I need pipe player
for 20 bucks an hour.
(38:51):
Talked to two kids, they camein, 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.
(39:12):
Apparently at lunch, someone,another company came in and
offered them like two moredollars an hour.
This is their first day workingfor me.
I went on a sales call, cameback 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 andstood at the manhole, their
(39:35):
machine was over here, and theirpipe 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 ditchand they had the remote for the
laser in their pocket.
I was like, why do you have theremote in your pocket to move
the laser?
(39:56):
I'm like, You should never movethe 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, likewe're gonna stay here until we
relay every single pipe thaty'all installed.
We're gonna take it out first,we're gonna relay it.
(40:17):
Like, I'm not letting nobodyfrom the company that we work
for see this.
We're gonna get the productionthat y'all made, but it's gonna
take a lot more today.
And so they grabbed their stuffand headed up the hill.
Lunch offered them two moredollars an hour, and they
weren't gonna stay and help medo that.
So I said, Wow, see you later,guys.
(40:37):
So, guess what I did?
And I put that same amount ofpotty back in the ground and
buried it.
Oh man, straight though.
SPEAKER_01 (40:46):
You hit the manhole in everything.
SPEAKER_00 (40:49):
But that's what it takes.
Like you make those mistakes.
So I don't get on a crazy listat all anymore.
Lesson learned.
Yeah, you start calling aroundto people that you meet and
build relationships with andsay, 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
(41:10):
your start at a company to whereyou're on the ground level.
It can lead to something more.
SPEAKER_01 (42:03):
Yeah.
That's so important, amazing.
I had a similar situation whereI didn't ask my foreman if he
understood like the inwardelevation of the manhole
compared to where we're startingour roughing in the building.
Until I came to the project, I'mlike, what are you trying to
(42:23):
think?
And I said, Man, how where howhigh did you like where'd you
start at the high point?
Because we had to do itbackwards, right?
Because the manhole was verygood.
He's like, I don't know, I justfelt 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 makeit, it was a so, anyways, I got
(42:47):
out, I started doing mycalculator like clear, dude.
I need to teach you.
He's like, Oh, I didn't know allthat.
Why do you think I had thatnumber right there?
Luckily, we had we hit thetwitch, but we had to be super,
super accurate to get outsidethe name methole, but we were in
within three and inch, and itwas, I mean, we were stretching
(43:11):
it to to get that.
We're just within tolerance interms of having the right amount
of slope.
Because I didn't know, butluckily we got it.
But back to you the uh hearingyou make some mistakes,
priceless obviously is not theway to go.
Uh you're willing to put in thework to complete deliver for
(43:32):
your client.
I hear a lot of people outthere, you I'm sure you've seen
it.
I'm gonna come back to leaked infor a little bit, but there's a
lot of people out there that arein our business that like to
complain about people don't wantto work anymore.
But I get the sense that youhave some solid people.
So, do you have like magic fairydust that just makes everybody
(43:54):
that comes work with youamazing?
And it's not the end of theworld, doom and gloom, that they
just don't want to work.
Like, how did you break that?
SPEAKER_00 (44:03):
Like I said, year four, you start to realize who
you want in the company, who youdon't, and it also comes, I see
it in the millions to like 1.2million.
This person is fine at that as aforeman, yeah.
Uh, to go from 1.2 to 5.4, youneed somebody else in that
foreman receipt, yep, and then5.4 to 10.4.
(44:27):
You need you probably needsomeone else.
Yeah, and during that time, I dotry to improve that person so
that hopefully when we get tothat mark, they can help us
sustain that growth.
Um, we're not at the we're notat the I guess revenue size that
(44:48):
person can hide and just do thebare minimum and be okay.
unknown (44:52):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (44:52):
Because you need that person.
So we're still need to grow thepeople.
Yes.
And by growing the people, I'mnot saying that person, if they
want, you gotta give them, youcan give them that time to see
if they're able to grow, but ifthey stall out with growing
every day learning, then it'stime to move on.
(45:15):
Um, and find somebody that andyou have to pay that next
person, like you know what thatperson's worth, and you're like,
all right, that person wasn'tworth the next level of um pay,
but you go out there and youI've never stolen anybody from a
company because I've built thoserelationships as a sub.
(45:39):
And but I will put the job outthere in hopes that someone does
not want to be at that placeanymore or wants to try
something new, yep, and and I'lldo it that way.
I've never went onto a job siteand hired two crack kids for two
dollar dollars an hour.
(45:59):
I didn't want to make enemies,right?
Because I wanted to sustain whowe were as a company, and if I
make enemies, then it's so mucheasier for them to talk crap
about me to everybody.
But I just recently I met with acompetitor, and and they told
(46:21):
me, hey, all these people aretelling me that I need to meet
you.
Like I need to emulate you, Ineed to ask some questions, see
how you're doing things.
I'm like, okay, okay.
But people are talking goodabout bear construction and how
we're doing things.
And that's I mean, that's thehighest compliment I could ever
(46:43):
think.
SPEAKER_01 (46:44):
Yeah.
Congratulations.
Congratulations.
Because you know how proud weare 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 hearinggood things, that's a big sign
of respect, and I think a signaljust to the caliber of
individual that you are, interms of saying, sure.
SPEAKER_00 (47:06):
Yeah, I mean, I I get that all the time.
People are, hey, I like the wayyou're doing things.
Can I meet with you?
And I take them to coffee, uhtake them to lunch, or they take
me.
They want to be in charge of thequestions, but it's very
strange.
I never thought I would have onestory to tell or be good enough
(47:28):
to lead the conversations.
SPEAKER_01 (47:30):
Oh man, I applaud you because clearly not only do
you have the like the actualexperience, but just the way you
carry yourself is like, man, Iplease can I learn from you?
It's kind of what the feelingI'm getting.
Now, you mentioned LinkedIn.
(47:50):
And I and the reason I want toask this is because my business
would not, I'd be dancing ontables for money right now,
Brian, if it weren't for socialmedia, because it's where I get
a lot of business from.
I didn't know I still don'treally know what I'm doing, but
I didn't know that I couldgenerate business from social
media.
(48:11):
And you said you made a post andsomething reached out to you.
So, in terms of the way youutilize LinkedIn, did you get a
coach for that, or is it justyou kind of figuring it out and
having fun with it?
SPEAKER_00 (48:25):
That's my ADHD.
Like I'm um in my wonder in myinvention.
Like I'm always thinking, I trynot to assimilate what someone
else is doing on there, but I'vekind of noticed there's certain
things that people like to readabout.
One, it's I failed, and this iswhat I learned.
Yep.
That gets you the thumbs ups,those the hearts and the
(48:47):
supports.
I used that early on to show howhonest and transparent I can be,
and to explain how hard startinga business from scratch is.
Yeah.
And negative$300 in our personalaccount.
(49:07):
So I did not start withanything.
I started with luck uh andworked out.
So yeah, I just I wanted to betransparent, I wanted to be
honest, and I was not scared tosay, hey, I don't know what I'm
doing.
There's so much pride inconstruction.
I from a sales point, I need youto know that I know what I'm
(49:30):
doing.
It's not true.
Like nobody started knowing whatthey're doing.
It's kind of like the coming outof college and you need five
years' experience to be a paperpusher.
No, you can't get it unless youyou do it.
But I've always been honestabout how hard it is and what
(49:50):
type of work you have to put in,how you have to be honest, how
you have to have faith, you haveto show it and be it.
You can't just put a post outand then not be that person.
SPEAKER_01 (50:01):
Yeah.
Oh, I agree.
I I think there's more thanenough people that I'll say
regurgitate what they think itwould be like.
It's like they ain't walked it.
And those kind of like, oh, I'mgonna leave them alone.
It bugs me a little bit, but I'mgonna leave them alone.
Now, and in the social mediaspace, specifically on LinkedIn,
(50:23):
what do you think aboutleveraging LinkedIn to attract
talent to attract people to comework for bear construction?
SPEAKER_00 (50:33):
I get those just the same amount as the people that
want to meet me.
They say, Hey, I like the wayyou do things, do you have any
positions open?
And I actually hired a uh21-year-old college student
based on that.
He was curious, he loved the waythat I put faith into my post
and into my business.
(50:54):
And he was he didn't know thatconstruction companies do that.
So we met for coffee onemorning.
Yep.
And he was he used that timevery wisely.
Great kid, is very hungry andloves God.
unknown (51:11):
Wow.
SPEAKER_00 (51:11):
So he wanted to know how I put faith into the
business.
And then a month or so later, Iput a construction business
manager position out there, andhe applied for it.
He's like, I know I'm notqualified, but here's my recipe.
Yeah, give it a shot.
(51:31):
Exactly, and it worked out forhim.
Wow.
Now he's our constructionbusiness assistant with a
five-year plan to become theconstruction business manager
and not lead all aspects of thecompany, but lead uh the
financial.
He's a finance major, so yeah,at what rates we should buy
(51:53):
machines at, and you know whatmachines are.
So we're gonna crash, crashcourse everything construction.
Yep.
And sorry, guy loves that andfit fits in really well.
SPEAKER_01 (52:06):
Yeah, I think I honestly believe that the play
on LinkedIn or just socialmedia, period.
Now, my business is just me,right?
I have a sorry boss who happensto be me.
All my employees are lazy andthey all happen to be me.
But if I had a business where Ihad employees or I needed
(52:29):
employees, I would absolutelythat would be my primary focus
and purpose of utilizing socialmedia is just to attract talent.
Because it's like you described,people see and they say, Oh,
that person, I like the way theyroll, I like the way they
operate.
If that how that person works, Ibet more people like that, work
(52:52):
there.
I want to work there, but Idon't see a whole lot of folks
like I'll say firms using itthat way yet.
And so you're, I would sayyou're ahead of the curve in
terms of that actually.
How another Chris Gutkiss up inLong Island, same thing
happened.
He was super, super active onsocial media.
He's like, dude, all of a suddenI'm hiring outstanding people
(53:15):
because they're saying, Hey, Isaw your stuff, I like your
message, and it was bringing inpeople that he needed badly.
That's the game.
That's the it's not selling theproject, it's attracting talent.
That's my thought.
I don't know truth, but that'swhere I'm at with this.
SPEAKER_00 (53:32):
No, it does.
I mean, it's who you are, whoyou represent.
And again, if you're honestabout who you are, the people
gravitate towards that and areexcited about it without even
working here.
They're like, man, like thatsounds like company I've been
looking to work for.
That's why I put that we'vefailed and how we failed, and
(53:54):
what I've learned, and how we'vegotten better.
Because a lot of these companiesthey don't put that stuff, which
is fine because a lot of themhide by hide behind the brand of
the name instead of being thepersonal person.
I do most of my post under me,not under Bear, which I feel
(54:15):
like Facebook is more for hiringemployees, like laborers, and
operators, but LinkedIn is morefor office, the office space.
Yep.
And yeah, we I've got a lot ofgreat people, a young estimator
from that, and and theconstruction business assistant
(54:37):
because they wanted to come workfor Bear.
Or I'm sorry, maybe they wantedto come work for Brian.
That's all right.
Yes, but Bear is the avenue forthem to create a life.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (54:51):
Oh my god.
I mean, so you're not justgiving people jobs or careers,
you're helping them create alife.
That's important.
SPEAKER_00 (55:02):
Um right now I'm spiritually trying to love on
all these employees.
We've got 30 of them, so we'renot big.
That's a lot, not in middleTennessee.
Like we're we're we're a smallfish in the contractor field in
Tennessee.
But what I tell them is you'redoing a godly service.
You're you have the chance tobuild a structural pad for a
(55:25):
house to be built on.
Um sanitary sewer system to keepyour house and your kids clean.
You get potable drinking waterand bath water to clean
yourself.
You get stormwater runoff, oryou're building stormwater
runoff for these communities sothat houses don't flood, kids
(55:48):
don't get hurt.
You're you're help building somebase for asphalt companies to
put down a smooth drivingsurface, walkable sidewalks and
communities.
There's so many places thatdon't have these things, and you
get to build this for a completestranger.
You're doing a godly service outthere right now.
(56:09):
I hope you realize that.
And by doing this, you're alsoproviding yourself and your
family and your kids with thesame thing.
You're getting you know, a godlyservice for your family.
Wow.
SPEAKER_01 (56:25):
You maybe want to go get my boots and put them back
on.
Dang, all right.
So I'm gonna make sure that weput 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 likebuild a life and build a career
and work with you, Mr.
(56:46):
Brian, should I put your bearconstruction website link in
there also?
Yeah, you can do that too.
SPEAKER_00 (56:52):
Perfect.
I think I got 100, 900 friendrequests sitting there to be
reviewed at the moment.
SPEAKER_01 (57:00):
And I bet you review them too, which I absolutely
love.
SPEAKER_00 (57:03):
I know it takes a lot of time.
There's a lot of insurancesalespeople out there.
I'm like, I've got my guy, I'vegot my banker, so I don't want
to oversaturate it.
Like, I want my feed to be ofpeople that are a service to me,
not one just looking forservice, but there's so many
insurance salesmen out there,but I'm primarily looking for
(57:26):
like project managers,estimators at GC companies,
developers, yeah.
I'm looking for a special framerequest, not just any, not just
random.
SPEAKER_01 (57:38):
I know exactly what you're talking about.
I don't have that kind ofdiscipline.
I do have a little bit of afilter, but not uh, I could do
better.
SPEAKER_00 (57:46):
I could do better.
It is about the impressions, andonce 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 postedlike an embroidered shirt and it
got 330,000.
Jeez.
Wow.
And so I'm like, okay, I have avoice here.
(58:07):
That's why I started doing thepodcast.
I'm like, maybe I do havesomething to say that people
enjoy here.
If I can talk about God andevery single one of them, I'm
going.
SPEAKER_01 (58:17):
Yes.
Love it, love it.
And I'm gonna tell you, bro,like you have massive insight
and wisdom that's gonna benefita lot of people.
Now, I don't want to take awayfrom what you got because a lot
of people do, but the way thatyou communicate, there's so much
intentionality and purposebehind what you're saying that
(58:39):
it is transformational.
I believe and see that it istransformational.
So please keep doing it.
Because the world, our industry,not just our industry, or not
just the world, our industryneeds to know that there are
leaders of your caliber outthere.
Like they do exist, folks.
Brian is evidence that they doexist.
(59:01):
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'tcome and like transfer to
Tennessee and come work for you,make sure that you find somebody
that has the same commitment ofservice that Mr.
Bryan does, because those arethe kind of people that we need
(59:23):
to pour into, support, andcelebrate.
And so, Brian, I just got totell you, like, thank you for
taking the time to take this theinvitation and have this
conversation with me.
Because I believe in you.
I mean, I'm just a little guythat makes a lot of noise, but
if I have in any way I cancontribute to your path, that's
what I want to do.
(59:45):
Now, that all brings us to theGrand Slam home run question.
Are you ready for it?
SPEAKER_00 (59:53):
Never, but let's go.
I love that.
All right, I'm being up forfire.
That's all you are is a fire,fire fire as a business owner.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00:02):
It's nothing as heavy as that.
So here it is.
What is the promise you areintended 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 Istruggled with addiction for a
long like 20 years of my life.
(01:00:22):
I'm almost 10 years sober now.
That started with theconversation with one of my
counselors in rehab.
And he said, Jesse, your problemis that you haven't accepted
that if you continue living lifethe way you're living, you will
never become the promise you'reintended to be.
(01:00:43):
And in that moment, I knew.
I'm underserving myself.
I'm playing too small.
I've got self-destructivebehaviors.
And I am here for a greaterpurpose.
And I've got to change the way Ilive in order to become that and
fulfill that purpose.
Does that help?
SPEAKER_00 (01:01:02):
Yeah, I've got several ideas.
Thank you for that.
It's hard to be that honest andshare 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 inand love on other people to help
them out of whatever they'regoing through.
(01:01:24):
You're not, like I said, you'renot the only one.
Everyone has their own demons,yep.
Stuff that they won't post onthe LinkedIns or the podcast.
And they do it in dark rooms.
So there that's one of thethoughts.
Thank you for that.
And continue loving on people.
The other one, can you kind ofYeah, what is the promise you
(01:01:46):
are intended to be?
Okay, so my promise startedbefore I met my wife, and I'm
gonna lead into what I believemy promise is.
I hated everything, everythingwas just so hard, couldn't
afford nothing.
I was cutting grass, I hatedtraffic, I hated people, I hated
(01:02:06):
every single thing.
I was having fun.
I was drinking, I was playingsoftball, basketball a lot, and
I was by myself, but I justhated every single aspect of it,
even though I was having fun.
I turned on the local Christianradio station randomly, and I
(01:02:28):
noticed over like probably likea day's time a weight was
lifted.
Oh, and so over time I was happyjust listening to that.
I hadn't gone to church yet, andthen I finally I made a Facebook
post.
I where's everybody in this towngo to church?
(01:02:48):
And so I went to church, sat bymyself.
Um, it was on a TV screen, so Ididn'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, andthat's what so with her on me.
And then life just startedchanging because I went to
(01:03:11):
church.
God sent me a beautiful wife whohas held me accountable for
every single thing in my life.
She's the strongest person I'veever known, and she's put me on
that right direction.
Something I never thought Icould be.
And she's led me to be who I am.
I'm still not perfect, I stillmake a lot of mistakes to her,
(01:03:36):
to my employees, to everythingI'm a part of.
But they're not the samemistakes that I made when I was
angry.
They're just silly.
Like pick up after yourself.
Yeah.
And but her love and God's lovehas held me to a higher standard
(01:03:56):
to love everybody around me.
I didn't know that I lovedpeople, but my C12 group, when
we do our core businesspresentations, would always pray
for me.
And they always talked aboutGod, Brian's love for his
people.
And at that point, I was like, Ididn't, I do love them.
Okay.
They helped me realize that'sanother thing they saved my
business.
(01:04:16):
They helped me understand how tolove people and that I love
people.
And I never knew that.
So that is my why.
And I'm giving these people anopportunity to grow themselves.
And hopefully, I'm a goodexample to them.
I'm goofy as shit.
But I think they believe in me,and I hope they do, and I'm
(01:04:38):
gonna work on them every singleday without telling them they
need to believe in me.
I'm gonna do my best to showthem that I'm here for them, and
I want to be here for them.
I want them to know that theycan come to me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:04:51):
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Thank you, sir.
Not surprised at the depth ofyour answer because that's just
who you are.
Did you have fun?
Yeah, that's fun.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05:02):
A little sweaty, but that's just me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:05:05):
Same.
The lights kind of heated up inyou.
Thank you for sticking it outall the way to the end.
I know you got a whole lot ofstuff going on.
And in appreciation for the giftof time that you have given this
episode, I want to offer you afree PDF of my book, Becoming
the Promise You're Intended toBe.
(01:05:25):
The link for that bad boy isdown in the show notes.
Hit it.
You don't even have to give meyour email address.
There's a link in there.
You just click that button, youcan download the PDF.
And if you share it withsomebody that you know who might
feel stuck or be caught up inself-destructive behaviors, that
would be the ultimate.
You sharing that increases thelikelihood that it's going to
(01:05:49):
help one more person.
And if it does help one moreperson, then you're contributing
to me becoming the promise I amintended to be.
Be kind to yourself, be cool,and we'll talk at you next time.
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