October 13, 2025 • 40 mins
With more than 40 years of experience in the construction industry, Brian Keller, CEO of Quest Building Corporation (QBC), shares his leadership journey from starting as a young carpenter to becoming the head of a thriving construction company.Brian discusses the importance of reshaping leadership in construction, shifting company culture, and creating opportunities for employees to grow into leaders. He dives into the challenges of attracting and retaining talent, the value of training programs, and how redefining leadership has helped QBC scale and maintain a strong company culture. His insights shed light on the future of leadership development and workforce growth in construction.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of coopod.
I'm your host, Caroline, and today I'm joined with a
very special guest. We are here with Brian Keller, who
is the CEO of Quest Building Corporation. Brian, how are
(00:25):
you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm doing great, Caroline, how are you doing doing good?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
How's the weather over there?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
That's a little warm, but not too bad. It's pretty
this time of year.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Nice. We're starting to get into the hot months here,
so I'm trying to check in with all my people
about the weather. But California has been looking good so far,
so fingers crossed it stays that way. Awesome. Well, let's
kick it off, so, Brian, I would love it if
you could give all of our listeners and our few
(01:00):
just a little brief overview about who you are a
little bit about your background.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Okay, So we started our construction company back in nineteen
ninety eight. Me personally, I started in construction when I
was very young, with my dad probably running crew since
I was fifteen, So date myself a little. That puts
me in about forty five years doing that. And so
when we started our company, it was just rough framing,
(01:28):
just kind of four guys out of the back of
our truck. We were kind of we started it to
kind of try and figure out a better way to
appreciate employees. Growing up in construction, especially in the rough
framing side of it, there's not always a lot of
appreciation for the trade itself, and the previous employer that
(01:50):
we had worked for didn't seem to value the employee
as much as we had hoped. So when we started
our company, we really wanted to put a focus on
valuing the employee and trying to figure out ways to
give them benefits in industry.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, yeah, and you know, unfortunately, that's a story that
we hear a lot, you know about you know, not
so much you know companies currently, but you know, if
you date it back, what twenty twenty five years, it's
a very common origin story that I've heard quite a
few times.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah. The I guess the reputation or the stigma from
twenty twenty five years ago was construction or construction workers
were not kind of valued. We're not. They were more
looked kind of down upon, and so we've really worked,
especially in the last probably ten years fifteen years, to
really try and change that. That's another reason why we
(02:49):
started the company was really trying and change that perspective
and kind of make it, make it appear and give
people the information that it's more honorable profession.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, I know that's awesome. And with you know,
over forty years in the industry, like you mentioned, forty
years young by the way, we love that. So, you know,
think about when you first started into where you are now,
how has your leadership style kind of evolved, you know,
with you know, creating this company, really focusing on the
(03:22):
workers and changing that perception. You know, how has that
leadership style evolved from when you were you know, fifteen
running crews to where you are now?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Well, and like looking back on it, the biggest thing
I noticed and kind of talked to people about is
we were never taught how to lead. If you had
the skills, you were put into a position to lead people,
and then you were just required to lead those people.
But nobody ever really taught how to do that. So,
like my I would say my teaching style changed from
(03:54):
telling people what to do to teaching people what to
do just because looking again, I'm looking back, nobody ever
really taught leadership. And I know, even in a lot
of companies today, not just construction but just in general,
there's not a lot of leadership training, so we really
like probably ten fifteen years ago, I made that a
big focus for myself. One I kind of realized it
(04:17):
wasn't a very good leader. I was really a carpenter,
Like I'm really good at the construction side of it,
but leading people and growing people and developing people, I
just didn't know how to do that. So spent a
lot of time researching, learning, finding experts in the field,
and developing our own programs to be able to teach
that internally.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, you know, leadership and you know, becoming a leader
from someone who was, you know, a doer. It's such
a different jump and it's such a different beast, you know,
Like people sometimes will think, you know, the leaders have
it good. You know, you're just delegating tasks. But it's
like no, like this is a whole different skill set
(04:59):
than what you were you too, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Especially today because you're dealing with so much more like
psychological Like I when I teach leadership, I try to
really help people understand that you are dealing with the
whole person. Like again, when we came up, you went
to work, you probably got yelled at most of the
day you went home. You weren't really appreciated for being
a person. You were just a cog in the wheel
(05:22):
and you were there to perform a task. And so
we really have to look at it differently, especially with
just the way things have evolved with people and personalities
and younger people and you know, how they how they
look for appreciation from other people. You really have to
learn how to deal with the entire person. And there's
a psychological element to that that you get to learn.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, what have been some kind of like you know,
learning curves for you in that whole process, you know
what has challenged you there?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I would say probably being patient has probably been one
of my biggest challenges kind of as I, as I
transferred you know, duties and responsibilities to others. A big
thing has been just kind of that letting go and
letting them you got to let them fail a little bit,
you know, try to be there to catch them. But
probably that the transition of more the watcher and the
(06:20):
the standing back and watching them and making you know,
just making sure they have the information, but not the
doing anymore. You know, for probably twenty probably twenty some
years of our company, I did almost everything you know
from the accounting side, plus still worked out in the
field and so really in the last year and a
half we transitioned into handing a lot of those duties
(06:40):
off to other people. So just being paid probably a
big thing.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, And you know, while we're on this topic of
leadership and you know, leadership training, so you're credited with,
you know, overseeing all of this training at QBC. What
does a successful leadership pipeline look like at QBC for
you guys.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So the first thing you're we're looking for is the
type of person and this kind of goes to a
little bit how we hire, but do they have the
ambition and then do they understand what it actually means
to lead people. So when we start and we've run
probably I think I'm on my fourth or fifth class
(07:23):
of my entry level leadership and some of them have
gone on to the elite level leadership. The elite level
leaders the ones who go through that training are the
ones who recommend the next group, and they really need
to be people who are you know, they have some
good skill sets, but they have the right attitude. You know,
they're showing up they're asking what they can do. They're
(07:45):
really trying to be more initiative out in the field
and even internally in the office, just really showing that
initiative that they want to do more, become more, grow
more into different positions in the company.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah. I think it's really cool how you guys have
this whole leadership training program, because you know, a lot
of companies will have, you know, training programs for you know,
tasks that they need to do, you know, for the
type of work that they do. But I feel like
very rarely we see, especially construction companies, coming out with
actual leadership training and giving their employees, you know, a
(08:24):
pipeline to you know, grow in that company. Are you
seeing anyone else do this as well, or is this
kind of more unique to QB.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, I haven't really not come across what we're doing
with any other companies. I get a lot of Wow,
that's really interesting, or yeah, that must really be helpful,
but I haven't really come across any companies that are
doing this type of leadership training, especially in the construction industry.
It is I would really like to, you know, see
(08:56):
more people kind of gravitate towards leadership. We teach it
so much internally with our leaders that work with other
you know, work with other companies and work with the
leadership out in the field that they get a sense
of who we are, communication all the different things that
we do and teach with our leadership. It would be
(09:16):
it would be encouraging to see some other companies maybe
gravitate towards some leadership training.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I completely agree there. I feel like that is something,
you know, if you're a company that's really trying to
attract that new generation of talent, I feel like that's
something you need. Yeah, I really do.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, you know, to be able to show, especially the
younger people, that there's an opportunity to be able to
move up. A lot of times, especially in construction, you
go into companies and you know, the senior people are older,
a lot older, and the young people are like, oh, well,
there's no room for me at the top. We are
continually telling our people there's plenty of room at the top.
(10:02):
We just have to work through the programs and work
through the training to get there. The biggest thing we've
found is the growth that we've seen would not be
achievable if we didn't have the leadership. You can have
a ton of people working for you, but if you
don't have leadership, it just kind of turns into chaos.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yes, lots of lots of chaos.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
No one wants chaos. We experienced a lot of that
chaos early before we really started working on the leadership programs.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So what like in those early days, what actually pushed
you to create these leadership programs.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
So we were this was probably around two thousand and
ten or so, and we were at about thirty five
employees at that time. We were only doing rough framing,
and we just couldn't seem to grow, Like, we couldn't
seem to take on more work, we couldn't seem to
perform at a little bit higher level. And at that
time I was I was getting introduced to some leadership
(11:02):
people and some personal development coaches and different types of opportunities,
and the thing I learned was is that we were
not leading well. We were all really good at the
skill set, we were just not developing leadership people and
leadership teams and hierarchy, and so we just could not
(11:23):
grow beyond that thirty five employee range. At that time,
I kind of realized I was the main problem because
I wasn't teaching leadership. I was just telling everybody what
to do. So I spent a couple of years really researching,
going to seminars, going to events, learning from leadership experts,
and developing this program that we developed to be able
(11:44):
to start teaching. And as soon as we started doing that,
we really noticed a significant difference in the way like
our foreman and the project managers were managing their people,
managing their projects. The culture started to change, morales started
to change, people started to see opportunity for themselves, really
(12:05):
changed the dynamic of our company.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
That's incredible, and sometimes it's hard, you know, not even
just as a leader, but as a person to look
at yourself and say I'm actually the problem and do
that introspective thinking and work on yourself to you know,
benefit everything else around you.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah. I think the most significant thing that I learned
at that time was from Jim Rohn, not personally but
through his teachings, was if you will change, everything will change.
But if you won't change, nothing will change. And that
hit me really good. That kind of opened up my
eyes that for us to grow and become, you know,
a better company, a stronger company, and even grow in
(12:50):
the market. I really had to start with changing who
I was as a leader. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, that's I think one of the biggest things that
you know, I think it takes time for people to
understand that sometimes, but I feel like once you get
that like little golden nugget of knowledge, it just all
the doors start opening up.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
That's incredible. Yeah, and it seems like the opportunities just
you know, I used to go from kind of a
mindset of not everybody's out to get me, but more
of a scarcity mindset, And from learning those kind of things,
it changed it to everybody's out to help me. Now. Really,
you know, I really experienced that a lot. I teach
(13:31):
it a lot. I see our teams experiencing that that
people really are out to help them if they if
they approach it in the right way.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yes, it's all about the approach. I do want to
switch gears here a little bit. You know, it's kind
of along the same lines. You know, your training programs,
you know, they're very attractive to the next generation, and
that is one of the big issues we're having in
the industry. I'm sure everyone who's an avid listener of
this podcast is probably sick and tie of hearing me
(14:01):
talk about the labor shortage, but I just need to
drill it into everyone's minds because it is such a
real issue that we're facing now, that we're going to
face in five years, ten years. So it is really
important for companies to adopt, you know, different strategies to
bring in this new talent. And I think that these
(14:22):
leadership trainings that you guys do and showing these young
people that there actually is a path and a career
in construction is huge. But what else do you guys
do to help attract and retain that new talent.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
So one of the first things we did, and we
only did this about probably a year a little over
a year ago, we happen to be at an event.
I had a bunch of leadership with me, and I
just kind of heard somebody talking about hiring people. And
we're in a group of about one hundred people, and
they were saying, you know, there's just no good people
(15:00):
out there. And the person who was presenting, who was
up there talking to everybody, he said, you know what,
he said, there's good people out there, but good people
don't work for shitty bosses. And I was like, holy crap,
he's right. So what we did is not that we
did do a little introspection, you know, kind of looked
at ourselves a little bit and what are we doing,
what could we change? But the biggest thing we took
(15:22):
away from that is we were not hiring correctly because
we were hiring from the wrong mindset. There's no good
people out there, so shifting our mindset. There out there,
we just need to find out how to get them,
how to find them. And I had read this story
about this guy who trekked across the South Pole back
in the seventeen hundreds, and he had put an ad
(15:43):
in the paper, and the ad said, you're most likely
going to die. There's no money, there's no reward. This
is going to be a terrible experience other than we
will accomplish it. And what happening with the event was
they got landlocked by ice and they had to walk,
but nobody died. Because of the way he hired, because
of the way he recruited. And so when we came back,
(16:06):
we changed how we recruited. We told people how difficult
the work was, how many long hours you work. We
really painted not a grim picture, but a very accurate
picture of our company. But we also said, at the
end of the day, we get it done, like we
get stuff done, and you're going to be able to
stand back and be proud of that. You're going to
be part of a team that's proud of getting stuff done,
(16:27):
working together and accomplishing great things. And then we wrote
up a persona of the ideal person who works for us,
and we all reviewed it and kind of finalized it,
and then we made every employee sign it. And what
we said is to work here, you have to either
be this person or work to become this person, and
if not, you probably won't work here that long. And
(16:50):
once we made that change and started hiring according to
those kind of principles and that ideal, and then changed
our hiring process too. We have a better three step
process that we use now for interview people we got
were the right people.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, that document sounds like the declaration of QBC. You
should have it framed up in the office somewhere.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yep. Everybody, every new person has to read it and
then sign it.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
That's awesome and it's I think it's so important, you know,
especially early on in that hiring process, if not right
at the beginnings, being clear and transparent about you know,
what the work is, what the company is, everything. So
it's so important to retaining that talent because you know,
you give them one set of expectations of this is
(17:44):
what it's like, and they come in and it's it's
not like that at all.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, we really take time now in our interview process
to really establish that expectation from both sides. You know,
I don't do any of the hiring one. I'm not
very good at it because I think they say I'm
a little too optimistic and I want to hire everybody.
But what they do is they really talk about who
we are and then try to find out who the
(18:11):
person is and then do we have alignment there, and
if we have alignment, if they really understand. So one
of the things they'll always ask is have you done
any research on our company? Have you gone to our website?
And if they haven't done any research to find out
who we are, they typically don't get a second interview.
We really need them to understand. You know, we're a
(18:32):
very fast paced company, a lot of pressure, we get
it done, and we need people. So the ones who
really look into our company are like, if that's what
I want to work for. That's what I'm looking for.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, And if there's one thing I know about QBC
is you guys get it done, and you get it
done the right way and quickly. So but you know,
we're talking about bringing in all of this new talent,
which is great, but then you know, as you're thinking
about scaling a company, you know, bringing in new people,
the issue then kind of shifts to, Okay, so how
(19:07):
do we keep that same company culture? You know? How
do we keep that right?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So a couple of things that we realized as we
shifted the way we started hiring, and especially like with
the transition with the administrative staff and me offloading you know,
half a dozen different tasks to half a dozen different people,
was that there are people out there who love to
do everything that needs to get done. Like we have.
(19:33):
We have a person that estimates for us, and everybody
calls him a machine just because of how good he
is at it, how fast, and everything that he does.
And I always remind people there are people who love
to do everything it is that we need to do.
We just need to find them. So the biggest thing
is getting the right person. So that's finding that person
(19:53):
who fits our culture and agrees to kind of our
persona as soon as we find the right person, and
then it's really making sure they're in the right seat.
So one thing that we really talk to people about
is we want to make sure they're doing what kind
of lights them up, what lights their fire, what really
energizes them. The last thing we want to do is
have somebody who's really talented and has the right kind
(20:16):
of attitude to mesh with your company, but you have
them doing the wrong thing and they don't enjoy it. Well,
that's a big thing that's really helped us a lot.
And then we have a lot of communication with our
new employees. We like to check in with them every
sixty days or whatever. On a more I guess you
would say personal level, how are things going. We have
(20:38):
a thing that we learn to kind of sit down
with the employees and talk about their personal, professional, and
financial goals over the next three to five years. What's
it look like. How do we help them get there?
The big thing is letting our employees know that we
want them to invest in our company with their time.
We want to invest in their future with how we
can help them achieve it. We're continually talking about that
(21:02):
in a review process. Developing our culture. A new thing
that we're working on that we're kind of in the
process of I think we've been working on it six
eight months, is developing these tenets that we kind of
govern our company by. I think we have thirteen of them.
They're kind of our pillars. We just kind of rate
(21:22):
people based on those different ideals like you know, being
a servant, commitment in you know, integrity, a few different
things like that, innovative wisdom, and just really working that
into our culture has really helped a lot, because people
One thing that I learned in all the research that
I did is people will do more for kind of
(21:44):
recognition than they will do for money. And most people
really want to be part of something bigger than themselves.
And what happens in a lot of companies when they
get there is they can't see it so they can
see their future role in what your going to do
as a company, and so they get lost and then
they just feel like a number or a cog. One
(22:06):
thing we try to do is really help them. Like
when I was teaching, I was talking to leadership and
I was teaching the other day, I said, you know,
you guys are very young. You haven't and most of them,
I think we're under the age of twenty five, Like
it was a pretty young group. It was twenty five
or twenty eight something like that, but they were pretty young.
But explaining to them that our growth, if we even
(22:27):
just grow four times, which our growth is much bigger
than that are planning, but four times, that we're going
to need people to lead all those people, and they're
the ones that could do it. So really helping paint
that vision I think is critical for especially businesses today
hiring new young people who are just so connected to
the world, really need to help them see what their
(22:48):
future looks like with you.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah, And I think that's one of the things that's
so unique about gen Z is you know, they want
to see the bigger picture. You know, they're not going
to come to the job site because they have well,
of course they have bills to pay, but that's not
the only reason they're there. You know, they're there because
of you know, a higher purpose or you know, they
(23:11):
want to see their work in fruition. So I think
it's really incredible to really be fostering that with them
and not you know, just throwing them on a job
and saying Okay, here you go do this onto the
next you know, kind of taking that time with them,
I think is so important, especially to gen Z.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, they are I mean, they are your number one asset.
One thing that we started a few years ago. As
I go into there's a high school. They have a
construction program, which is really nice program. They work on
rough framing, siding, roofing, plumbing, electrical concrete, brick laying, everything,
And so I was fortunate enough to be able to
(23:53):
go down and start working with those the students, helping
them build these small buildings. I've been doing that now.
I think I started in twenty eighteen. We took a
break during COVID we weren't able to go, but I've
been going every year, and so we're trying to recruit
some of those students coming out of high school, showing
them that there is a good opportunity and especially now
(24:13):
with you know, with just what's happening in the market,
there's good opportunity for income as well. Some of these
kids can come to school making anywhere between twenty and
twenty five dollars an hour just to start.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, and I feel like, you know, with all of
this that everyone's been doing, you know, with technology and everything.
I feel like, and this is where we connect on
being optimists. But I feel like, you know, I think
we're shifting the narrative of construction as a career for
these young people. You know, we look back forty fifty
(24:48):
years ago, and you know, it was the stereotype was, Okay,
well you're not smart enough to go to college, you
go to construction, which if you've been in construction, you
know just how wrong that is. Like construction takes physicality
and brains, you know. So I think we're shifting that narrative.
(25:08):
Correct me if I'm being too optimistic here, but it's.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
No. Yeah, I think I think we've done a good
job in the last couple of years of really letting
the young, especially the younger group, know that this is
an honorable profession. You do need some skills. So we
really like when I'm down there working with the students,
any opportunity I get to talk to students, especially young people,
(25:35):
really helping them to understand that this is a noble
profession and really not everybody can do it. It's one
of those things just not for everybody. It's more like
you said, it used to be if you couldn't do this,
you went into construction. Now we're really seeing a little
bit of a shift that you may not even be
able to do this the education that it takes. You're
(25:59):
not necessarily going to get in school. You're going to
do better hands on, but it's a lot to learn
what you need to learn today to be really good
in construction. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I mean, I know, just for myself, I have so
much respect for everyone out in the field because I
know there's no way in hell I could do that.
You would tell me what to do and it would
go in one you're out the other. So it really
is such an incredible career path that I think it's
looked over so much, and I'm so glad that we're
you know, we still have a long way to go,
(26:30):
but we're sort of shifting that narrative I think is awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, And for us, the big focus is letting them
know we're going to teach them. We're going to coach
them and teach them, And I think that was a
kind of a stereotypical thing way back then. As you
get into construction, you're going to learn as you do,
but you're you're probably not going to get to You're
not going to be able to go at the pace
you want to go. You're going to go at the
(26:56):
pace of whatever the people in the company that you're
working for, and if they have a bunch of people
at the top, you're just going to be the person
carrying lumber and doing all the groundwork. And we really
shifted that focus, especially in our company, that we don't
hire anybody to come in at an entry level and
stay there. Our focus is really as much education as
(27:17):
fast as you can get it to move yourself into
a higher level.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, and you know, I kind of want to switch
gears here a little bit. You know, we're talking about
all of this with bringing in the new generation. Of course,
this has to lead me to technology and innovations in
the industry in that realm. That was actually one of
the biggest things that I noticed about QBC. You guys,
(27:45):
you're incredibly people centric, but you're also incredibly technologically advanced,
you know.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, so, and recently, especially like in the last two years,
we really made us magnificant kind of decision to really
grow and really just become a much better, stronger company
and also a legacy company that we could. You know,
we're setting it up to go from generation to generation
to generation. This will be our goal, is a generational company.
(28:17):
And to do that, one thing we've talked about is
you just really have to keep up with what's happening,
you know. I know they say that there was a
lot of research done years ago about how fast technology
has changed from like the nineteen hundreds to two thousand,
then from two thousand to twenty ten, from twenty ten
to two thousand and twenty, and from twenty to twenty five,
(28:38):
and just how fast it's exponentially changing. So one thing
we're always looking at is what new thing can we
use from a technology standpoint that can improve our efficiency
overall as a company. And I would say the latest
things are net Suite that we're using, we're implementing integrating
into our system right now. Been working on that for
(28:59):
about six eight months. We're super excited about lumber five,
which is our which will be our time tracking and
payroll system. And then we have another new one for
estimating called stack CT goal is to get all of
these to work together to be able to just share
and move information and reduce a lot of data entry
(29:22):
and then another thing, like our marketing team looks at
is a lot of AI. How can we you know?
So we use it in our meetings, we use it,
We use it everywhere we can possibly, Like, I'm always
pushing them to find new ways to use it. And
I think a lot of the things. I always kind
(29:42):
of joke that the thing will probably kind of make
the most money on or that'll be our biggest revenue source.
We haven't even started it yet, Like it's going to
come from some kind of technology that we're going to
come across that's going to help us be innovative in
something that we're not even doing yet that will really
allow us to achieve exponential growth. So I love the
(30:05):
technology side. I know. I have some people who've been
here a while are like, well, I'm not good with computers.
I have one of one of our owners yesterday we
were spending a little time together and he was saying, yeah,
that's something I'm going to have to get better at,
you know. So I'm like, yep, we just have to
work on it. But yeah, technology, if you're not embracing it,
you're just going to get left behind.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, And we see that a lot too. And you know,
thinking back to when you guys, you know, we're thinking
about putting together this tech stack with you know, net Suite,
lumber stack. You know, how did you create this tech stack?
I see a lot of times, you know, companies want
to get more involved in all the technology out there,
(30:47):
but there's so much that they don't even know where
to start. Where did you guys start? How did you
kind of develop that?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
So so it started with NetSuite and what we've used
quick books. It's the beginning, so five years and what
was happening was is we move at a very fast
pace with everything, and so like I kind of joke
with my team, like, I know, it can be challenging
keeping up with me. So sometimes you got to tell
me that you're not able to keep up with me.
(31:17):
And so we're running out of quick books, we're working
out of quick books, and it's glitching on us, like
it's rebootings. And we work through a cloud system, so
everything's on the cloud, which I can tell people if
you are not using cloud systems, you are way behind
the eight ball now. So we're just having all these
(31:42):
glitch problems where now it's a payroll day and it's
not working we can't get in there or they're updating
the system and it takes a couple of days and
we can't do our work. And so our admin team
that was there was I think probably three of us
that were like, okay, we got to come up with
something different. So we just went out and researched what's
the best accounting software platform in the market today? And
(32:10):
next we came up at the top of a few
different different things when we were looking, and it's way
more than we need. Like it is, you know, it is.
It is a lot. The thing when we called and
talked to them, the biggest thing is that it's we
can use it all in one system. So the one
(32:30):
challenge we have is we have multiple companies that we
run well. In quick books, you have to open a company,
close a company, open a company, close a company, open
a company. And with this one we can operate all
of it together. It all integrates together much much more seamlessly.
And the opportunity to grow our company and this thing
we'll be able to keep up was a big deciding
(32:51):
factor for us. So it kind of came out of necessity,
which I guess a lot of things do, but we
did years ago we did. We you know, like we
started setting up everything we have as cloud based, so
all of our documents, all of our data, everything we
do is cloud based in the sense that now I
can work from home access it. I don't need a
(33:13):
server at the office, and it's all secured. It's very
you know, it's highly encrypted. So it's not just that
it's cloud based, but it's highly encrypted, cloud based, well protected,
accessible to our team, you know in certain situations. And
you just got to get going with all this technology.
And one thing we noticed with like with net Suite,
(33:35):
it's a lot more there's a lot more going on
in the system, but we feel we will reduce the
amount of people we need to hire to be able
to operate it. Same lumber five is going to probably
eliminate one hr person for us stack CT. We figure
it'll eliminate at least one or two estimating people that
(33:58):
we'll need. So we're not just doing it because it's
just it's the new thing to be doing, but also
we look at the you know, the financial side of
it and what does it do for our company. Well, yes,
it does cost more, but we're paying for that and
reduced labor because when we went to next week, we
went to the team and we said, hey, here's what
it's going to cost. So I had each person kind
(34:20):
of do a cost analysis of how much time they
spent in quick books and with the new system and
what it would do, how much time they would save,
and we came out that it would more than pay
for itself in a very short period of time.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
That's awesome. And you know, with all of this technology,
you know, we're in construction. I know I've I've probably
beat this horse to death. But our industry sometimes is
a little bit more hesitant to change. But you know,
being such a forward thinking company, you know, you guys
are changing right and left. What kind of advice would
(34:57):
you have to other companies who are maybe, you know,
a a little bit more hesitant to that technology change,
you know, the shift. You know, how would you kind
of inspire or give advice to them?
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Well, one thing, one thing like for us, it used
to be everybody carried a notepad. Now everybody carries iPads.
Like all our leadership is equipped with iPads. The thing
that I think people should really remember about that is
the access so our teams can go out in the
field and they can access a set of blueprints and
blow them up on their iPad and look at a detail,
(35:35):
versus trying to carry around a set of blueprints, coming
through the pages and trying to figure out where to
put that. They have this little electronic tool that gives
them access to every kind of information they would need
to be able to perform their jobs. So, you know,
for companies that struggle with thinking that it's going to
be it's going to work, or the amount that it's
(35:58):
going to save them in the amount of time that
they spend with communication is just incredible. It's communication on
the fly all the time. Like our teams, a lot
of times it's email. They're emailing back and forth and
they're accessing documents and they're being able to communicate real
time with what's happening. They don't have to come to
(36:19):
the back of the office to get a set of plans,
they don't have to come back to the office to
look anything up. They don't have to call anybody to
find something. It's literally at their fingertips. And so I
think for these companies that are a little apprehensive, you
are going to go through some challenges and learning it.
One thing, you know, maybe find somebody or find Google
(36:40):
or YouTube. You can learn anything in about fifteen minutes,
you know. Yeah, So for those that are really reluctant
to jump on board with the technology one, I think
you just really have to do it. The benefits are
going to out weigh outweigh any challenges you're going to
(37:02):
go through, and that's what's going to allow you to
compete in the market. Because if you're not doing it,
I can tell you five years from now, you won't
be able to compete in the market.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, it's it's definitely going to be tough, and I
mean I'm sure it's probably tough now, but I mean
looking in five years, woof, it's going to be even tougher.
And there's going to evy even more solutions out there,
which is kind of a blessing and a curse. You know.
It's great to have all of these new solutions, but
then the selection process becomes even more difficult.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, and you've got to spend a little time figuring
out what works for you what you know, what systems.
We're a very systems oriented company, so we're always looking
at evaluating systems. I always tell my team, you know,
try to figure out what works for you. If it
doesn't work, try something different, you know, keep trying until
you figure out what works. I always joke that we
got closets full of shoes that just that just don't work.
(37:59):
And it's okay. You know, you just got to keep
going till you find those systems and processes that work well.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
For you, for you exactly. Let's see, Brian, I think
I have time for one more question here for you.
This will probably be the hardest question I ask you
all days, so apologies in advance. What is one piece
of advice you have for young construction professionals.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
The biggest advice I would give them is decide who
you want to be and what you want to do
with your company or your organization, and then find a
mentor odds are somebody's already done it. We'll just do
some research, especially now with Google and there's books and
there's all different kinds, and you can reach the podcasts,
you can find people, you can find me to help you,
but find somebody that can help you map out a path.
(38:48):
Because the biggest thing that I learned is I didn't
know what I didn't know because I didn't know it.
The reason I didn't know it is because I didn't
know the questions to ask and I didn't know who
to go to. And in today's market, there's people you
can go to, but you still may not know the
questions ask. So find somebody who's done what you want
to do and kind of go work with them, have
(39:09):
them be your mentor.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Yeah, that's wonderful, And you know, we'll put down in
our description, we'll put a link to your LinkedIn so
if anyone is interested in reaching out, if they have
any questions, you can contact Brian through there. If we
get his permission, maybe we'll put his email there. Who knows,
but good, yep, awesome, Well, then we'll put that down
(39:32):
there for you guys as well. We'll also put some
links to the QBC website if you're interested in checking
it out, seeing what projects they're working on and just
how amazing they are online as well. Awesome, Well, Brian,
thank you so much for joining us today. This was
such a great episode, and personally I had a lot
of fun talking with you, and I really actually learned
(39:54):
a lot that I'm going to take back from this,
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Thank you. I really appreciate it. Carolyn.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Awesome, Well, everyone, else have a great rest of your day.
Thank you so much for tuning in to c O
Pod and we'll see you next time.
All right, hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of coopod.
I'm your host, Caroline, and today I'm joined with a
very special guest. We are here with Brian Keller, who
is the CEO of Quest Building Corporation. Brian, how are
(00:25):
you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm doing great, Caroline, how are you doing doing good?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
How's the weather over there?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
That's a little warm, but not too bad. It's pretty
this time of year.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Nice. We're starting to get into the hot months here,
so I'm trying to check in with all my people
about the weather. But California has been looking good so far,
so fingers crossed it stays that way. Awesome. Well, let's
kick it off, so, Brian, I would love it if
you could give all of our listeners and our few
(01:00):
just a little brief overview about who you are a
little bit about your background.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Okay, So we started our construction company back in nineteen
ninety eight. Me personally, I started in construction when I
was very young, with my dad probably running crew since
I was fifteen, So date myself a little. That puts
me in about forty five years doing that. And so
when we started our company, it was just rough framing,
(01:28):
just kind of four guys out of the back of
our truck. We were kind of we started it to
kind of try and figure out a better way to
appreciate employees. Growing up in construction, especially in the rough
framing side of it, there's not always a lot of
appreciation for the trade itself, and the previous employer that
(01:50):
we had worked for didn't seem to value the employee
as much as we had hoped. So when we started
our company, we really wanted to put a focus on
valuing the employee and trying to figure out ways to
give them benefits in industry.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, yeah, and you know, unfortunately, that's a story that
we hear a lot, you know about you know, not
so much you know companies currently, but you know, if
you date it back, what twenty twenty five years, it's
a very common origin story that I've heard quite a
few times.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah. The I guess the reputation or the stigma from
twenty twenty five years ago was construction or construction workers
were not kind of valued. We're not. They were more
looked kind of down upon, and so we've really worked,
especially in the last probably ten years fifteen years, to
really try and change that. That's another reason why we
(02:49):
started the company was really trying and change that perspective
and kind of make it, make it appear and give
people the information that it's more honorable profession.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah, I know that's awesome. And with you know,
over forty years in the industry, like you mentioned, forty
years young by the way, we love that. So, you know,
think about when you first started into where you are now,
how has your leadership style kind of evolved, you know,
with you know, creating this company, really focusing on the
(03:22):
workers and changing that perception. You know, how has that
leadership style evolved from when you were you know, fifteen
running crews to where you are now?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Well, and like looking back on it, the biggest thing
I noticed and kind of talked to people about is
we were never taught how to lead. If you had
the skills, you were put into a position to lead people,
and then you were just required to lead those people.
But nobody ever really taught how to do that. So,
like my I would say my teaching style changed from
(03:54):
telling people what to do to teaching people what to
do just because looking again, I'm looking back, nobody ever
really taught leadership. And I know, even in a lot
of companies today, not just construction but just in general,
there's not a lot of leadership training, so we really
like probably ten fifteen years ago, I made that a
big focus for myself. One I kind of realized it
(04:17):
wasn't a very good leader. I was really a carpenter,
Like I'm really good at the construction side of it,
but leading people and growing people and developing people, I
just didn't know how to do that. So spent a
lot of time researching, learning, finding experts in the field,
and developing our own programs to be able to teach
that internally.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, you know, leadership and you know, becoming a leader
from someone who was, you know, a doer. It's such
a different jump and it's such a different beast, you know,
Like people sometimes will think, you know, the leaders have
it good. You know, you're just delegating tasks. But it's
like no, like this is a whole different skill set
(04:59):
than what you were you too, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Especially today because you're dealing with so much more like
psychological Like I when I teach leadership, I try to
really help people understand that you are dealing with the
whole person. Like again, when we came up, you went
to work, you probably got yelled at most of the
day you went home. You weren't really appreciated for being
a person. You were just a cog in the wheel
(05:22):
and you were there to perform a task. And so
we really have to look at it differently, especially with
just the way things have evolved with people and personalities
and younger people and you know, how they how they
look for appreciation from other people. You really have to
learn how to deal with the entire person. And there's
a psychological element to that that you get to learn.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, what have been some kind of like you know,
learning curves for you in that whole process, you know
what has challenged you there?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I would say probably being patient has probably been one
of my biggest challenges kind of as I, as I
transferred you know, duties and responsibilities to others. A big
thing has been just kind of that letting go and
letting them you got to let them fail a little bit,
you know, try to be there to catch them. But
probably that the transition of more the watcher and the
(06:20):
the standing back and watching them and making you know,
just making sure they have the information, but not the
doing anymore. You know, for probably twenty probably twenty some
years of our company, I did almost everything you know
from the accounting side, plus still worked out in the
field and so really in the last year and a
half we transitioned into handing a lot of those duties
(06:40):
off to other people. So just being paid probably a
big thing.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, And you know, while we're on this topic of
leadership and you know, leadership training, so you're credited with,
you know, overseeing all of this training at QBC. What
does a successful leadership pipeline look like at QBC for
you guys.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So the first thing you're we're looking for is the
type of person and this kind of goes to a
little bit how we hire, but do they have the
ambition and then do they understand what it actually means
to lead people. So when we start and we've run
probably I think I'm on my fourth or fifth class
(07:23):
of my entry level leadership and some of them have
gone on to the elite level leadership. The elite level
leaders the ones who go through that training are the
ones who recommend the next group, and they really need
to be people who are you know, they have some
good skill sets, but they have the right attitude. You know,
they're showing up they're asking what they can do. They're
(07:45):
really trying to be more initiative out in the field
and even internally in the office, just really showing that
initiative that they want to do more, become more, grow
more into different positions in the company.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah. I think it's really cool how you guys have
this whole leadership training program, because you know, a lot
of companies will have, you know, training programs for you know,
tasks that they need to do, you know, for the
type of work that they do. But I feel like
very rarely we see, especially construction companies, coming out with
actual leadership training and giving their employees, you know, a
(08:24):
pipeline to you know, grow in that company. Are you
seeing anyone else do this as well, or is this
kind of more unique to QB.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, I haven't really not come across what we're doing
with any other companies. I get a lot of Wow,
that's really interesting, or yeah, that must really be helpful,
but I haven't really come across any companies that are
doing this type of leadership training, especially in the construction industry.
It is I would really like to, you know, see
(08:56):
more people kind of gravitate towards leadership. We teach it
so much internally with our leaders that work with other
you know, work with other companies and work with the
leadership out in the field that they get a sense
of who we are, communication all the different things that
we do and teach with our leadership. It would be
(09:16):
it would be encouraging to see some other companies maybe
gravitate towards some leadership training.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I completely agree there. I feel like that is something,
you know, if you're a company that's really trying to
attract that new generation of talent, I feel like that's
something you need. Yeah, I really do.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, you know, to be able to show, especially the
younger people, that there's an opportunity to be able to
move up. A lot of times, especially in construction, you
go into companies and you know, the senior people are older,
a lot older, and the young people are like, oh, well,
there's no room for me at the top. We are
continually telling our people there's plenty of room at the top.
(10:02):
We just have to work through the programs and work
through the training to get there. The biggest thing we've
found is the growth that we've seen would not be
achievable if we didn't have the leadership. You can have
a ton of people working for you, but if you
don't have leadership, it just kind of turns into chaos.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yes, lots of lots of chaos.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
No one wants chaos. We experienced a lot of that
chaos early before we really started working on the leadership programs.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So what like in those early days, what actually pushed
you to create these leadership programs.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
So we were this was probably around two thousand and
ten or so, and we were at about thirty five
employees at that time. We were only doing rough framing,
and we just couldn't seem to grow, Like, we couldn't
seem to take on more work, we couldn't seem to
perform at a little bit higher level. And at that
time I was I was getting introduced to some leadership
(11:02):
people and some personal development coaches and different types of opportunities,
and the thing I learned was is that we were
not leading well. We were all really good at the
skill set, we were just not developing leadership people and
leadership teams and hierarchy, and so we just could not
(11:23):
grow beyond that thirty five employee range. At that time,
I kind of realized I was the main problem because
I wasn't teaching leadership. I was just telling everybody what
to do. So I spent a couple of years really researching,
going to seminars, going to events, learning from leadership experts,
and developing this program that we developed to be able
(11:44):
to start teaching. And as soon as we started doing that,
we really noticed a significant difference in the way like
our foreman and the project managers were managing their people,
managing their projects. The culture started to change, morales started
to change, people started to see opportunity for themselves, really
(12:05):
changed the dynamic of our company.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
That's incredible, and sometimes it's hard, you know, not even
just as a leader, but as a person to look
at yourself and say I'm actually the problem and do
that introspective thinking and work on yourself to you know,
benefit everything else around you.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Yeah. I think the most significant thing that I learned
at that time was from Jim Rohn, not personally but
through his teachings, was if you will change, everything will change.
But if you won't change, nothing will change. And that
hit me really good. That kind of opened up my
eyes that for us to grow and become, you know,
a better company, a stronger company, and even grow in
(12:50):
the market. I really had to start with changing who
I was as a leader. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, that's I think one of the biggest things that
you know, I think it takes time for people to
understand that sometimes, but I feel like once you get
that like little golden nugget of knowledge, it just all
the doors start opening up.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
That's incredible. Yeah, and it seems like the opportunities just
you know, I used to go from kind of a
mindset of not everybody's out to get me, but more
of a scarcity mindset, And from learning those kind of things,
it changed it to everybody's out to help me. Now. Really,
you know, I really experienced that a lot. I teach
(13:31):
it a lot. I see our teams experiencing that that
people really are out to help them if they if
they approach it in the right way.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yes, it's all about the approach. I do want to
switch gears here a little bit. You know, it's kind
of along the same lines. You know, your training programs,
you know, they're very attractive to the next generation, and
that is one of the big issues we're having in
the industry. I'm sure everyone who's an avid listener of
this podcast is probably sick and tie of hearing me
(14:01):
talk about the labor shortage, but I just need to
drill it into everyone's minds because it is such a
real issue that we're facing now, that we're going to
face in five years, ten years. So it is really
important for companies to adopt, you know, different strategies to
bring in this new talent. And I think that these
(14:22):
leadership trainings that you guys do and showing these young
people that there actually is a path and a career
in construction is huge. But what else do you guys
do to help attract and retain that new talent.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
So one of the first things we did, and we
only did this about probably a year a little over
a year ago, we happen to be at an event.
I had a bunch of leadership with me, and I
just kind of heard somebody talking about hiring people. And
we're in a group of about one hundred people, and
they were saying, you know, there's just no good people
(15:00):
out there. And the person who was presenting, who was
up there talking to everybody, he said, you know what,
he said, there's good people out there, but good people
don't work for shitty bosses. And I was like, holy crap,
he's right. So what we did is not that we
did do a little introspection, you know, kind of looked
at ourselves a little bit and what are we doing,
what could we change? But the biggest thing we took
(15:22):
away from that is we were not hiring correctly because
we were hiring from the wrong mindset. There's no good
people out there, so shifting our mindset. There out there,
we just need to find out how to get them,
how to find them. And I had read this story
about this guy who trekked across the South Pole back
in the seventeen hundreds, and he had put an ad
(15:43):
in the paper, and the ad said, you're most likely
going to die. There's no money, there's no reward. This
is going to be a terrible experience other than we
will accomplish it. And what happening with the event was
they got landlocked by ice and they had to walk,
but nobody died. Because of the way he hired, because
of the way he recruited. And so when we came back,
(16:06):
we changed how we recruited. We told people how difficult
the work was, how many long hours you work. We
really painted not a grim picture, but a very accurate
picture of our company. But we also said, at the
end of the day, we get it done, like we
get stuff done, and you're going to be able to
stand back and be proud of that. You're going to
be part of a team that's proud of getting stuff done,
(16:27):
working together and accomplishing great things. And then we wrote
up a persona of the ideal person who works for us,
and we all reviewed it and kind of finalized it,
and then we made every employee sign it. And what
we said is to work here, you have to either
be this person or work to become this person, and
if not, you probably won't work here that long. And
(16:50):
once we made that change and started hiring according to
those kind of principles and that ideal, and then changed
our hiring process too. We have a better three step
process that we use now for interview people we got
were the right people.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, that document sounds like the declaration of QBC. You
should have it framed up in the office somewhere.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yep. Everybody, every new person has to read it and
then sign it.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
That's awesome and it's I think it's so important, you know,
especially early on in that hiring process, if not right
at the beginnings, being clear and transparent about you know,
what the work is, what the company is, everything. So
it's so important to retaining that talent because you know,
you give them one set of expectations of this is
(17:44):
what it's like, and they come in and it's it's
not like that at all.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, we really take time now in our interview process
to really establish that expectation from both sides. You know,
I don't do any of the hiring one. I'm not
very good at it because I think they say I'm
a little too optimistic and I want to hire everybody.
But what they do is they really talk about who
we are and then try to find out who the
(18:11):
person is and then do we have alignment there, and
if we have alignment, if they really understand. So one
of the things they'll always ask is have you done
any research on our company? Have you gone to our website?
And if they haven't done any research to find out
who we are, they typically don't get a second interview.
We really need them to understand. You know, we're a
(18:32):
very fast paced company, a lot of pressure, we get
it done, and we need people. So the ones who
really look into our company are like, if that's what
I want to work for. That's what I'm looking for.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, And if there's one thing I know about QBC
is you guys get it done, and you get it
done the right way and quickly. So but you know,
we're talking about bringing in all of this new talent,
which is great, but then you know, as you're thinking
about scaling a company, you know, bringing in new people,
the issue then kind of shifts to, Okay, so how
(19:07):
do we keep that same company culture? You know? How
do we keep that right?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So a couple of things that we realized as we
shifted the way we started hiring, and especially like with
the transition with the administrative staff and me offloading you know,
half a dozen different tasks to half a dozen different people,
was that there are people out there who love to
do everything that needs to get done. Like we have.
(19:33):
We have a person that estimates for us, and everybody
calls him a machine just because of how good he
is at it, how fast, and everything that he does.
And I always remind people there are people who love
to do everything it is that we need to do.
We just need to find them. So the biggest thing
is getting the right person. So that's finding that person
(19:53):
who fits our culture and agrees to kind of our
persona as soon as we find the right person, and
then it's really making sure they're in the right seat.
So one thing that we really talk to people about
is we want to make sure they're doing what kind
of lights them up, what lights their fire, what really
energizes them. The last thing we want to do is
have somebody who's really talented and has the right kind
(20:16):
of attitude to mesh with your company, but you have
them doing the wrong thing and they don't enjoy it. Well,
that's a big thing that's really helped us a lot.
And then we have a lot of communication with our
new employees. We like to check in with them every
sixty days or whatever. On a more I guess you
would say personal level, how are things going. We have
(20:38):
a thing that we learn to kind of sit down
with the employees and talk about their personal, professional, and
financial goals over the next three to five years. What's
it look like. How do we help them get there?
The big thing is letting our employees know that we
want them to invest in our company with their time.
We want to invest in their future with how we
can help them achieve it. We're continually talking about that
(21:02):
in a review process. Developing our culture. A new thing
that we're working on that we're kind of in the
process of I think we've been working on it six
eight months, is developing these tenets that we kind of
govern our company by. I think we have thirteen of them.
They're kind of our pillars. We just kind of rate
(21:22):
people based on those different ideals like you know, being
a servant, commitment in you know, integrity, a few different
things like that, innovative wisdom, and just really working that
into our culture has really helped a lot, because people
One thing that I learned in all the research that
I did is people will do more for kind of
(21:44):
recognition than they will do for money. And most people
really want to be part of something bigger than themselves.
And what happens in a lot of companies when they
get there is they can't see it so they can
see their future role in what your going to do
as a company, and so they get lost and then
they just feel like a number or a cog. One
(22:06):
thing we try to do is really help them. Like
when I was teaching, I was talking to leadership and
I was teaching the other day, I said, you know,
you guys are very young. You haven't and most of them,
I think we're under the age of twenty five, Like
it was a pretty young group. It was twenty five
or twenty eight something like that, but they were pretty young.
But explaining to them that our growth, if we even
(22:27):
just grow four times, which our growth is much bigger
than that are planning, but four times, that we're going
to need people to lead all those people, and they're
the ones that could do it. So really helping paint
that vision I think is critical for especially businesses today
hiring new young people who are just so connected to
the world, really need to help them see what their
(22:48):
future looks like with you.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah, And I think that's one of the things that's
so unique about gen Z is you know, they want
to see the bigger picture. You know, they're not going
to come to the job site because they have well,
of course they have bills to pay, but that's not
the only reason they're there. You know, they're there because
of you know, a higher purpose or you know, they
(23:11):
want to see their work in fruition. So I think
it's really incredible to really be fostering that with them
and not you know, just throwing them on a job
and saying Okay, here you go do this onto the
next you know, kind of taking that time with them,
I think is so important, especially to gen Z.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, they are I mean, they are your number one asset.
One thing that we started a few years ago. As
I go into there's a high school. They have a
construction program, which is really nice program. They work on
rough framing, siding, roofing, plumbing, electrical concrete, brick laying, everything,
And so I was fortunate enough to be able to
(23:53):
go down and start working with those the students, helping
them build these small buildings. I've been doing that now.
I think I started in twenty eighteen. We took a
break during COVID we weren't able to go, but I've
been going every year, and so we're trying to recruit
some of those students coming out of high school, showing
them that there is a good opportunity and especially now
(24:13):
with you know, with just what's happening in the market,
there's good opportunity for income as well. Some of these
kids can come to school making anywhere between twenty and
twenty five dollars an hour just to start.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, and I feel like, you know, with all of
this that everyone's been doing, you know, with technology and everything.
I feel like, and this is where we connect on
being optimists. But I feel like, you know, I think
we're shifting the narrative of construction as a career for
these young people. You know, we look back forty fifty
(24:48):
years ago, and you know, it was the stereotype was, Okay,
well you're not smart enough to go to college, you
go to construction, which if you've been in construction, you
know just how wrong that is. Like construction takes physicality
and brains, you know. So I think we're shifting that narrative.
(25:08):
Correct me if I'm being too optimistic here, but it's.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
No. Yeah, I think I think we've done a good
job in the last couple of years of really letting
the young, especially the younger group, know that this is
an honorable profession. You do need some skills. So we
really like when I'm down there working with the students,
any opportunity I get to talk to students, especially young people,
(25:35):
really helping them to understand that this is a noble
profession and really not everybody can do it. It's one
of those things just not for everybody. It's more like
you said, it used to be if you couldn't do this,
you went into construction. Now we're really seeing a little
bit of a shift that you may not even be
able to do this the education that it takes. You're
(25:59):
not necessarily going to get in school. You're going to
do better hands on, but it's a lot to learn
what you need to learn today to be really good
in construction. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I mean, I know, just for myself, I have so
much respect for everyone out in the field because I
know there's no way in hell I could do that.
You would tell me what to do and it would
go in one you're out the other. So it really
is such an incredible career path that I think it's
looked over so much, and I'm so glad that we're
you know, we still have a long way to go,
(26:30):
but we're sort of shifting that narrative I think is awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, And for us, the big focus is letting them
know we're going to teach them. We're going to coach
them and teach them, And I think that was a
kind of a stereotypical thing way back then. As you
get into construction, you're going to learn as you do,
but you're you're probably not going to get to You're
not going to be able to go at the pace
you want to go. You're going to go at the
(26:56):
pace of whatever the people in the company that you're
working for, and if they have a bunch of people
at the top, you're just going to be the person
carrying lumber and doing all the groundwork. And we really
shifted that focus, especially in our company, that we don't
hire anybody to come in at an entry level and
stay there. Our focus is really as much education as
(27:17):
fast as you can get it to move yourself into
a higher level.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, and you know, I kind of want to switch
gears here a little bit. You know, we're talking about
all of this with bringing in the new generation. Of course,
this has to lead me to technology and innovations in
the industry in that realm. That was actually one of
the biggest things that I noticed about QBC. You guys,
(27:45):
you're incredibly people centric, but you're also incredibly technologically advanced,
you know.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, so, and recently, especially like in the last two years,
we really made us magnificant kind of decision to really
grow and really just become a much better, stronger company
and also a legacy company that we could. You know,
we're setting it up to go from generation to generation
to generation. This will be our goal, is a generational company.
(28:17):
And to do that, one thing we've talked about is
you just really have to keep up with what's happening,
you know. I know they say that there was a
lot of research done years ago about how fast technology
has changed from like the nineteen hundreds to two thousand,
then from two thousand to twenty ten, from twenty ten
to two thousand and twenty, and from twenty to twenty five,
(28:38):
and just how fast it's exponentially changing. So one thing
we're always looking at is what new thing can we
use from a technology standpoint that can improve our efficiency
overall as a company. And I would say the latest
things are net Suite that we're using, we're implementing integrating
into our system right now. Been working on that for
(28:59):
about six eight months. We're super excited about lumber five,
which is our which will be our time tracking and
payroll system. And then we have another new one for
estimating called stack CT goal is to get all of
these to work together to be able to just share
and move information and reduce a lot of data entry
(29:22):
and then another thing, like our marketing team looks at
is a lot of AI. How can we you know?
So we use it in our meetings, we use it,
We use it everywhere we can possibly, Like, I'm always
pushing them to find new ways to use it. And
I think a lot of the things. I always kind
(29:42):
of joke that the thing will probably kind of make
the most money on or that'll be our biggest revenue source.
We haven't even started it yet, Like it's going to
come from some kind of technology that we're going to
come across that's going to help us be innovative in
something that we're not even doing yet that will really
allow us to achieve exponential growth. So I love the
(30:05):
technology side. I know. I have some people who've been
here a while are like, well, I'm not good with computers.
I have one of one of our owners yesterday we
were spending a little time together and he was saying, yeah,
that's something I'm going to have to get better at,
you know. So I'm like, yep, we just have to
work on it. But yeah, technology, if you're not embracing it,
you're just going to get left behind.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, And we see that a lot too. And you know,
thinking back to when you guys, you know, we're thinking
about putting together this tech stack with you know, net Suite,
lumber stack. You know, how did you create this tech stack?
I see a lot of times, you know, companies want
to get more involved in all the technology out there,
(30:47):
but there's so much that they don't even know where
to start. Where did you guys start? How did you
kind of develop that?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
So so it started with NetSuite and what we've used
quick books. It's the beginning, so five years and what
was happening was is we move at a very fast
pace with everything, and so like I kind of joke
with my team, like, I know, it can be challenging
keeping up with me. So sometimes you got to tell
me that you're not able to keep up with me.
(31:17):
And so we're running out of quick books, we're working
out of quick books, and it's glitching on us, like
it's rebootings. And we work through a cloud system, so
everything's on the cloud, which I can tell people if
you are not using cloud systems, you are way behind
the eight ball now. So we're just having all these
(31:42):
glitch problems where now it's a payroll day and it's
not working we can't get in there or they're updating
the system and it takes a couple of days and
we can't do our work. And so our admin team
that was there was I think probably three of us
that were like, okay, we got to come up with
something different. So we just went out and researched what's
the best accounting software platform in the market today? And
(32:10):
next we came up at the top of a few
different different things when we were looking, and it's way
more than we need. Like it is, you know, it is.
It is a lot. The thing when we called and
talked to them, the biggest thing is that it's we
can use it all in one system. So the one
(32:30):
challenge we have is we have multiple companies that we
run well. In quick books, you have to open a company,
close a company, open a company, close a company, open
a company. And with this one we can operate all
of it together. It all integrates together much much more seamlessly.
And the opportunity to grow our company and this thing
we'll be able to keep up was a big deciding
(32:51):
factor for us. So it kind of came out of necessity,
which I guess a lot of things do, but we
did years ago we did. We you know, like we
started setting up everything we have as cloud based, so
all of our documents, all of our data, everything we
do is cloud based in the sense that now I
can work from home access it. I don't need a
(33:13):
server at the office, and it's all secured. It's very
you know, it's highly encrypted. So it's not just that
it's cloud based, but it's highly encrypted, cloud based, well protected,
accessible to our team, you know in certain situations. And
you just got to get going with all this technology.
And one thing we noticed with like with net Suite,
(33:35):
it's a lot more there's a lot more going on
in the system, but we feel we will reduce the
amount of people we need to hire to be able
to operate it. Same lumber five is going to probably
eliminate one hr person for us stack CT. We figure
it'll eliminate at least one or two estimating people that
(33:58):
we'll need. So we're not just doing it because it's
just it's the new thing to be doing, but also
we look at the you know, the financial side of
it and what does it do for our company. Well, yes,
it does cost more, but we're paying for that and
reduced labor because when we went to next week, we
went to the team and we said, hey, here's what
it's going to cost. So I had each person kind
(34:20):
of do a cost analysis of how much time they
spent in quick books and with the new system and
what it would do, how much time they would save,
and we came out that it would more than pay
for itself in a very short period of time.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
That's awesome. And you know, with all of this technology,
you know, we're in construction. I know I've I've probably
beat this horse to death. But our industry sometimes is
a little bit more hesitant to change. But you know,
being such a forward thinking company, you know, you guys
are changing right and left. What kind of advice would
(34:57):
you have to other companies who are maybe, you know,
a a little bit more hesitant to that technology change,
you know, the shift. You know, how would you kind
of inspire or give advice to them?
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Well, one thing, one thing like for us, it used
to be everybody carried a notepad. Now everybody carries iPads.
Like all our leadership is equipped with iPads. The thing
that I think people should really remember about that is
the access so our teams can go out in the
field and they can access a set of blueprints and
blow them up on their iPad and look at a detail,
(35:35):
versus trying to carry around a set of blueprints, coming
through the pages and trying to figure out where to
put that. They have this little electronic tool that gives
them access to every kind of information they would need
to be able to perform their jobs. So, you know,
for companies that struggle with thinking that it's going to
be it's going to work, or the amount that it's
(35:58):
going to save them in the amount of time that
they spend with communication is just incredible. It's communication on
the fly all the time. Like our teams, a lot
of times it's email. They're emailing back and forth and
they're accessing documents and they're being able to communicate real
time with what's happening. They don't have to come to
(36:19):
the back of the office to get a set of plans,
they don't have to come back to the office to
look anything up. They don't have to call anybody to
find something. It's literally at their fingertips. And so I
think for these companies that are a little apprehensive, you
are going to go through some challenges and learning it.
One thing, you know, maybe find somebody or find Google
(36:40):
or YouTube. You can learn anything in about fifteen minutes,
you know. Yeah, So for those that are really reluctant
to jump on board with the technology one, I think
you just really have to do it. The benefits are
going to out weigh outweigh any challenges you're going to
(37:02):
go through, and that's what's going to allow you to
compete in the market. Because if you're not doing it,
I can tell you five years from now, you won't
be able to compete in the market.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, it's it's definitely going to be tough, and I
mean I'm sure it's probably tough now, but I mean
looking in five years, woof, it's going to be even tougher.
And there's going to evy even more solutions out there,
which is kind of a blessing and a curse. You know.
It's great to have all of these new solutions, but
then the selection process becomes even more difficult.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, and you've got to spend a little time figuring
out what works for you what you know, what systems.
We're a very systems oriented company, so we're always looking
at evaluating systems. I always tell my team, you know,
try to figure out what works for you. If it
doesn't work, try something different, you know, keep trying until
you figure out what works. I always joke that we
got closets full of shoes that just that just don't work.
(37:59):
And it's okay. You know, you just got to keep
going till you find those systems and processes that work well.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
For you, for you exactly. Let's see, Brian, I think
I have time for one more question here for you.
This will probably be the hardest question I ask you
all days, so apologies in advance. What is one piece
of advice you have for young construction professionals.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
The biggest advice I would give them is decide who
you want to be and what you want to do
with your company or your organization, and then find a
mentor odds are somebody's already done it. We'll just do
some research, especially now with Google and there's books and
there's all different kinds, and you can reach the podcasts,
you can find people, you can find me to help you,
but find somebody that can help you map out a path.
(38:48):
Because the biggest thing that I learned is I didn't
know what I didn't know because I didn't know it.
The reason I didn't know it is because I didn't
know the questions to ask and I didn't know who
to go to. And in today's market, there's people you
can go to, but you still may not know the
questions ask. So find somebody who's done what you want
to do and kind of go work with them, have
(39:09):
them be your mentor.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Yeah, that's wonderful, And you know, we'll put down in
our description, we'll put a link to your LinkedIn so
if anyone is interested in reaching out, if they have
any questions, you can contact Brian through there. If we
get his permission, maybe we'll put his email there. Who knows,
but good, yep, awesome, Well, then we'll put that down
(39:32):
there for you guys as well. We'll also put some
links to the QBC website if you're interested in checking
it out, seeing what projects they're working on and just
how amazing they are online as well. Awesome, Well, Brian,
thank you so much for joining us today. This was
such a great episode, and personally I had a lot
of fun talking with you, and I really actually learned
(39:54):
a lot that I'm going to take back from this,
So thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Thank you. I really appreciate it. Carolyn.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Awesome, Well, everyone, else have a great rest of your day.
Thank you so much for tuning in to c O
Pod and we'll see you next time.
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