July 10, 2024 • 50 mins
In this episode, Henry Nutt III shares his inspirational journey into the construction industry, influenced by his father's dedication and encouragement. From initially aspiring to be a mechanical engineer to becoming a sheet metal worker, he chronicles the challenges and triumphs of his career. He discusses the lessons in work ethic and resilience passed down to him by his late father, and how these have shaped his professional path.
The conversation further explores his role as a Pre-Construction Executive at Southland Industries, the importance of technology and training in the field, his involvement with industry organizations like the Lean Construction Institute and AGC, and his advocacy for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through his experiences, he emphasizes the significance of believing in oneself, taking risks, and the power of mentorship and leadership in creating a successful career.
The conversation further explores his role as a Pre-Construction Executive at Southland Industries, the importance of technology and training in the field, his involvement with industry organizations like the Lean Construction Institute and AGC, and his advocacy for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through his experiences, he emphasizes the significance of believing in oneself, taking risks, and the power of mentorship and leadership in creating a successful career.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm Lou Perez,your host of The Builder Upper Show,
a podcast where we talk about everythingin construction and trades. Now let's get
into it. I would like towelcome our guest, Henry Not, the
third pre construction executive at Southland Industries. Henry, how are you doing today?
(00:23):
I'm doing great, loud, Thanksfor having me today and looking forward
to conversation with you. Absolutely,so I wanted to jump right into it.
I'm really thrilled that you made thetime to come here. Yeah,
I appreciate you having me and definitelylooking forward to the conversation. And yeah,
I know we've had I was travelingand keynote speaking across the country literally,
(00:44):
so it was pretty cool. ButI appreciate you being patient, you
know, and definitely looking forward tobecause I was looking forward to coming here.
But glad we foundly that made ithappen. Absolutely. I checked out
your LinkedIn, I saw the speakingengagements. You're a keynote speaker. You're
a super impressive speaker. I wishI was as good as speaking at you
as you are, but yeah,really impressive background. So with all that
(01:07):
said, I know everybody's wondering whois this guy you know who does on
the show. How did he getinto construction? That's why I want to
jump right into it, Henry,how did you get into construction? Well,
you know, it's an interesting storybecause I can't tell you that I
was aspiring to be any type ofconstruction professional as a young person. I
(01:29):
wanted to be an engineer. Ihad a father that was in the trades
and he's a sheet metal worker andown a business for about ten years as
well, and he would continue.When I graduate from high school, I
was going to a community college,going to be a mechanical engineer. And
while I was going to school,he was, hey, the test is
(01:49):
coming up. You should take thistest now with ignore him or I'm focused
that I got. I'm doing whatI'm doing. And one day he just
kind of put it in a waythat this made sense, just hey,
this take the tests. If youdon't want to do it, don't do
it, but just take it.So how do you argue with that?
You know? So I ended uptaking the test, and I had a
whole routine. I was going toschool during the day, working at night
(02:12):
and communting, you know, anddoing my thing. And so I took
this test and about two weeks later, I got my results and said you're
in and we needed to start likenow. And so I'm thinking, like,
oh great, you know, andso I really had to kind of
sit down and make a lat decision. I was working at a retail store,
going to community college, and allof a sudden, my life was
(02:35):
going to change overnight. And soobviously I took the jump and I began
going to school for sheet metal andit was a pre apprentice only for a
short time, and got inventured asan apprentice in October of nineteen eighty seven.
And you know, it wasn't agreat journey in the early stages of
it, but you know, Ihave no regrets, but it was definitely
(02:59):
tough when I got first started.But I definitely attribute all that to my
father making that decision or at leastencouraging me to at least consider it.
And and so the rest was reallyhistory. But it really started with my
dad kind of badgering me in thebeginning. I love that. I love
(03:19):
that. And your your dad wasthe pivotal moment to push you to construction.
So tell me a little bit aboutyour dad. Yeah, so I
have to first start and say thatmy dad recently passed just a so sorry
this year, thank you, andbut he was definitely instrumental and and and
and me being who I am today, you know, as far as my
(03:43):
father always was an example of aman that went to work. Sometimes he
had more than one job, evenbefore he got into the trades, raising
us. I have three sisters,and so got got a chance to see
a person that really what I reallynow understand being developing a strong work ethic.
And when you're a kid and youcan watch a parent get up and
(04:04):
go to work every day, getup early in the morning, prepare themselves
and then come home in the evening, you know, you just you just
don't know the impact that that waswas going to have. And my dad
would not only do that, buthe's changing the brakes in the car,
and I'm outside helping him, notbecause I wanted to, but because he
(04:26):
made me go out there. Youknow. My dad was a great cook,
so he would like really like tobake and and and kind of compete
with my mother at the time,and they both could cook great, but
my dad was more like a specialistwith it. And and so I was
kind of forced to learn that aswell, you know, And so he's
changing the brakes and working on stuffin the house, but also cooking and
(04:47):
baking bread and doing all this stuffthat you just wouldn't normally see, I
don't think, and but it wasmy normal, you know. And so
I really learned to appreciate it moreas I got older. When I'm driving
my vehicle. I had when Iwould say, eighteen nineteen years old,
and I could go and do atune up for my car, change my
brakes, and my friends couldn't,you know. I realized how much of
(05:12):
what he instilled and what he exemplifiedas my father and showed me that how
much of an impact that would make, and I I was able to carry
that, you know, into mycareer. How do you feel like that
even impacted you in your own lifetoday outside of work. Do you feel
like that push to help others inthat and push them in the same direction.
(05:35):
Yeah, I mean in that directionis you know wherever that might take
them, you know, And it'sit's really understanding that not everyone had the
opportunity or the luxury or just beingbeing blessed with having a parent that would
exemplify a better version of yourself somethingthat was going to help you succeed in
(05:58):
life, something that may have feltreally hard and challenging, but then you
learn to appreciate it as you gotolder, because you find yourself in a
position where you have some tools inyour tool belt that you can access that
you just you can read it inthe book. At that point, you
saw it every day and it becomesyour own habit. So I definitely recognize
(06:19):
that that that is not common,and it's part why I wrote a book
about it in regards to just howyou create success for yourself by the fundamental
things that both of my parents didjust by showing up every day to be
my parent. And I know that'snot necessarily a given for every family that
(06:40):
they have people in their lives thatthey can see what's the best route to
take, just by recognizing and seeingsomeone's life that is that close to them.
So it's really propelled me by thework that we've done here at south
Land and partnering with workforce development organizationsin our community to really go and talk
to those people that are looking toget into the industry. But they may
(07:04):
know how to use a hammer anduse a specific tool, but they may
not know how to show up withthe right behavior that's going to keep them
a job that can grow into acareer. And so it's not a secret
sauce, but it really is kindof secret. It's not. What I'll
say is like common sense isn't commonAnd I learned that with the exercise of
(07:28):
writing this book and thinking that noone's going to read this. Everyone knows
this already because I thought that's commonknowledge, but it's not, you know.
And so one of the reasons whyI became this advocate and a spokesperson
for things that designed to help peopleovercome understand how to navigate through hardship and
(07:50):
recognize some of their own faults lookingin the mirror and being able to like
say, hey, I got tochange here. Because they may not have
had that talk. They may nothave had that example, they may have
had an uncle or not, ora mother that was involved to that degree
of their lives where it's helping themshape the you know, the rest of
(08:11):
their lives with the decisions that theymake. And so forever grateful for that
from from both of my parents,but specifically having a having a man in
my life that identified with as ayoung man showing that example was very impactful.
Can you think about any quotes orsayings that your dad would say to
(08:33):
maybe get you through a tough time, or maybe a story that you'll remember.
One of the things that my fatherthat's a great question was my father
always told me, I want youto think. He always encouraged me to
not be persuaded by the crowds.He would make examples driving down the block
(08:58):
and seeing young people doing and wildcrazy stuff, and he would make jokes
like are you doing that? Andyou know, and like it wasn't our
style. You know, it wasn'twhat we did. But he'd be that
kind of person that would say thinkyou know, and and and and really
challenge you to to not just becaught up in the moment of what everyone
(09:20):
else is doing, and how youshow up every day using your own brain,
challenging what you see and if youdecide to do something that even I
don't agree with, do it becauseyou wanted to do it, don't do
it because the crowd did. Youknow. That's something that my dad was
really unique in that way. Hedefinitely had his own style and and and
(09:45):
I was able to witness that growingup. You know, and and so
not that I agreed with everything thathe did, but it definitely was was
was something that I that stood outwas he was very specific in how we
did life and what he and decisionsthat he he made and some of the
why that it took me years andsome of it I will discover even more
(10:05):
later about some of his wives andthings that he was challenged with to make
the decisions that he's made, youknow. So it definitely that impacted me,
just being someone that used their ownbrain to make decisions and not feel
like you have to just follow thecrowd because that's what everybody's doing. What
(10:26):
is something that you know today thatyou wish you knew when you started?
Yeah, I think tied into thatquestion. Honestly. I think about with
the thinking part, I and thisis this is how I'm more. I
don't think this had anything to dowith my dad. I think this is
who I was, how I wasborn. I am an overthinker, you
(10:46):
know, and so I can Ican can paralyze my own self by by
overthinking. And I think I wasI was always the safe kid on the
block. So if I wasn't,I was in my late teens and starting
to go hang out and had acar. The parents that I was hanging
out with their children, if theyknew that I was there, they knew
(11:09):
that their kids were going to begood no matter where we were going,
no matter what we're doing. Theyknew that, like, Henry is going
to be the safe person. He'sgoing to not drink, he's not going
to do anything crazy with the car, he's going to get us back on
time. He's going to be Anda part of me like, Okay,
that's cool, but really not somuch when you're young, thinking that's That's
what I'm known for. And sothere was this overthinking kind of mentality that
(11:33):
I had growing up where I thinkI was so structured and so precise with
my decisions and lived in this kindof like box if you will, that
I think I might have missed outon a few things in life as a
kid or a young kind of ateenager where people are out doing their wild,
crazy things and they can tell storieslater. I wasn't me, you
(11:56):
know, and I kind of resentedit for a degree. So tell my
younger self, you know, livea little bit, you know, obviously,
don't do anything that's going to jeopardizeyour life, but hey, take
some more risks, you know.And I didn't do that till later,
but I ran into people that crossedmy pass as a as a as an
adult. One person that I thatthat I was involved with for a while
(12:18):
that ended up like saying, let'sgo jump out of an airplane for your
birthday, and AND's somewhere along theline I must have said I want to
jump out of an airplane, becauseI don't recall that that I was told
like the night before, we're gonnago jump out of an airplane. And
I wasn't going to cower down.So we jumped out of an airplane,
(12:39):
you know. And it was that'swild, the craziest thing man. And
and so I I I loved everymoment of it, although I was afraid,
as I'm signing my life away onthe contract, but we did it,
you know, and I have arecording to prove it. And it
was an amazing thing. So ithelped me step out of like living my
(13:00):
lot of part of my life.I take more risk. I don't necessarily
live it all in the lines,but that's what I would tell myself,
is take more risk and challenge yourselfto do more than what you did be
risky, and I mean, Iwould love to see the face on everybody
that heard that you jumped out ofa plane. Is that something that you
(13:20):
would recommend for everybody to do ontheir bucket list? I absolutely would.
I think it's something that is soexhilarating. It was thirteen thousand feet obviously
tandem in this plane that the doorsopen and you're looking out and you're on
this bitch and you're scooting watching thenext person before you or you know,
(13:41):
before you go out, and you'relike, your moment's coming, it's inevitable.
And then you're sitting there like thisis the scariest moment is being on
the edge of the bench and nowyou're about to flip over and you have
to let You're completely surrendered to yourtandem person that is in control, so
you have to go with them,and you go and you flip, you
(14:03):
know, and then you do yourthing and he's yelling in your ear about
okay, now this is this iswhere you start this part of it.
And it was it was scary,it was crazy, but it was so
much fun and so exhilarating. Andonce you I mean, it lasts for
a minute, you know, butit was just an experience that I will
never forget and I definitely would recommendanyone to jump out. You don't have
(14:28):
to do a thousand and thirteen thousandfeet, but do it. You love
it, and you can, youknow, live to tell the story you
twisted my arm. I'm going tolook into it. I'm gonna try it.
I definitely I'll put the video somewhereafter I do it and be like
Henry not the third made me doit. I gotta do it, man'd
cool. That's awesome. That's awesome. So then going back to your position
(14:50):
at Southland Industries, what does preconstruction executive mean? Yeah, that's a
great question. It's really kind ofmy job title is what allows me to
do my job. But what Ido as a pre con execut is really
this is development last pre construction,which is we're the ones that are winning
(15:11):
the work for the company, youknow, for this particular division. We're
building relationships super important, Yes,that building relationships with our general contractors,
our owners, and just the communityat large to find out, you know,
how do we position ourselves best tosurround a project? Is it a
(15:31):
good fit? What is important tothis project and how do we make ourselves
more distinct than the next person inthe next company, and then getting our
teams involved to figure out an approachand execute the work, and who are
the right people to surround this jobwith us on our teams, And so
it's ultimately all about that, aboutidentifying opportunities and then pursuing those opportunities that
(15:56):
fit in our willhouse and bring youknow, profitable revenue to our company,
you know, And so obviously it'squickly important. But the role in the
title that I have as a preconstruction executive was really more so about a
title that allows me to do myday job and not get caught up or
(16:18):
others getting caught up with, oh, here comes a business development person.
Because I came from the trades,and so I have as a sheet modal
worker. I've been in that forthirty seven years. It's about and was
a general superintendent here at southmand fortwelve of my seventeen years, and so
I didn't want to get lost somewherewhen I am talking to our potential clients
(16:42):
about an opportunity and bringing in thatexpertise or that experience that I've had for
more years and it gets lost witha title. And so I was in
an interview once and one of ourGC partners said, hey, why are
you here, you know, andone new one the other one was like,
why is the business development guy inour interview? And and so he
(17:03):
gave me some advice and said,hey, you might want to consider changing
your title. I know the valueyou bring, but others will get trapped
in that title thinking that you're justa salesperson and you're not going to be
You're just going to tell us whatwe want to hear. And so I
brought that back to my office,you know, and said, hey,
I They said, well, gofigure out a name, you know,
(17:25):
and so so I did, youknow? And and it is and it's
true to what you know. Iam involved in the pre con part of
our job, and we have preconstruction manager intentionally that that I that I
report to. But that title allowsme to do my day job. It
allows me to kind of speak topeople and not have them get caught in
the crosshairs of a title, butreally understand the value that I bring.
(17:49):
So we have a great team,so it's easy. And so we actually
have a pre con manager and heis responsible for just the part man.
It's a really small group of us. Uh. Then then I have a
direct colleague that does the same thing, and and then we have a whole
proposal specialist that that kind of symbolsall of our proposals and works with us
(18:12):
to make everything look great when itgoes out to our clients. And so
we're out building relationships, networking withpeople, building trust within the community,
trying to again distinguish ourselves from ourcompetitors. And and I get a chance
to spend a lot of time,you know, like I said, I
was traveling before this this event hereor this US meeting and getting a chance
(18:36):
to speak to different people about what'simportant to Southland and what's important to me
in regards to how we execute,whether it's link construction and and and and
focusing on on field leadership and andproductivity improvements and and people as a whole,
(18:56):
you know, and building better culturesin our in our and our projects
that help our people have different experiencesthat are positive and construction because we have
a lot of negativity, we havea lot of negative publicity and about our
industry, and I'm focused on changingthat. And say it's one project and
one person at a time, andit's not easy work, but that's something
(19:18):
that I've just naturally gravitated towards andnow speak about it literally all over the
country. And it's not about beingon the stage for me, it's about
being a passionate about something that youbelieve in that so happens that gets you
on a platform where people want tolisten to you. I love what you
said, one project, one personat a time. That's a really powerful
(19:41):
statement. You are out there.I mean you're out there a lot,
speaking all over the place and goingto a lot of events. Is there
any events or like associations that you'repart of that stand out where you feel
like, you know, they reallyprovided a platform for you to get out
there and make a change. Yeah. There's so many, right, but
(20:02):
the one that that the Southland hasinvested in probably the most. We're founding
members of Line Construction Institute, youknow. And so I've been on the
board for LCI for almost six yearsnow and I'll be in my I'm in
my last term, my last yearof my second term, and so was
the chair of it last year.And what opportunity been able to It's not
(20:30):
just about Southland. It's very importantto us as a company, but it's
also recognizing what we're doing for theindustry. And so when I got on
the stage with sixteen hundred people orwhatever and talking about what's important to our
organization and what's important to me anda person coming from the field, I
wanted to identify with that group.I want to identify with, whether it's
(20:52):
a competitor or just another person inthe trades, that how do they connect
with Link Construction? What does itmean to you in the work a very
practical way, that that that organizationhas been very prolific and and and and
my development and being able to impactthe country when it comes to bleaning construction
(21:14):
and execution, and having collaborative behaviorsand and building a culture that that that
respects people and and really that thatmessage of respect for people, What does
it really mean? What does itreally look like on a job site in
an industry that has not been verykind to its people, and and really
(21:34):
taking a mantle up in regards tothat. And my mentor, his name
is Victor Sambido, is a seniorVP here at Southland. He recommended do
what helps you do your day job? When you get a part of this
board, don't just do something thatyou're checking a box, but do something
that's going to help you with yourjob. And at that time, I
(21:56):
was a superintendent and that's what helpedme working with our trade partners and creating
a task force that was going toimpact that group. So l c I
has been very prolific. Another organizationis AGC, which is associated you know,
Contractors of America as well as California, where we've been able to focus
on on de I and so diversityequity inclusion. I was on the D
(22:22):
and I Steering Committee when it recentlywas called that for six years, as
a chair for three of those years, and really was instrumental with building campaigns.
One in particular is a culture ofcare and and and really was emphasized
building better cultures and creating care,you know, on on projects that that
(22:49):
we're instrumental and and and how peopletreated each other again on projects that are
notorious for not treating people uh equitably, you know, whether it was women
or people of color or people fromdifferent communities, and sexual persuasion, you
know, and so it's all thosethings that we normally don't talk about dealing
(23:11):
with suicide and alcohol abuse and substanceabuse. That we're on the wrong side
of the metric, you know,when it comes to how we're addressing it,
and so knowing that there's organizations outthere that are really rallying around that,
very proud of the work Agency Californiadoes. I'm a part of their
(23:32):
their board as a VP of SpecialtyContractors. Getting able to do that work
here speysiically in California, but thoseorganizations are prolific. And the last one
I'll say that recently, I justwas appointed by the Governor of California onto
the Contractor State Licensing Board. Youknow, the level of impact, but
(23:56):
that's just been since February of thisyear, and so I've been to several
a couple of different meetings. Butthe impact that we have on every person
that holds the license, a contractorslicense in California. We're trying to protect
consumers, you know, and recognizehow we help because there's lots of unfortunately
people out there in the industry thatare manipulating the consumer and simply stealing money
(24:19):
from them, and so that workis important, you know. So it's
all these things I would have neverthought would have happened in my career path,
and it's it's actually pretty amazing.So I get to bring that to
our owners and our GC partners andour teams about our strategy and what we
(24:41):
should be considering in addition to allthe basic things that we have to do
to you know, win a job. At your speaking engagements, when you're
talking to the guys in the field, I know that's who you're really relatable
with. Has anybody came up toyou after the event was like, man,
you said this and it really stuckwith me, Thank you for bringing
(25:04):
up or anything like that that anylike key takeaways that anybody has brought up
to you. It happens more oftenthan I even can count. And it's
and sometimes I wonder, like arepeople listening to me? And sometimes it's
right away, and sometimes it's afterthe fact, and sometimes it's on another
event somebody said I saw you hereand he said this, and thank you,
(25:25):
you know. And I think partof it is when people wonder,
well, you know, we didn'tgo to I didn't go to school to
be a speaker. And in someof the states and people an amount of
people on there, you can getlike pretty nervous about that, and people
would ask me, how how doyou do that? Not get get you
know, afraid or whatever, andone I say, you know, don't
(25:48):
think I'm not at times, youknow, but I learned to do it
afraid, right, you got todo it anyway. But the critical part
for me, and the most importantpart of that, has been believing in
what I what I speak about,and the moment that that I get on
stage and I'm reading some prompts thatI didn't write, or I'm talking about
something that I didn't do, itwould be like he's a fraud. But
(26:12):
people would be looking at their phonewhile they're looking at me, partly because
it would come across just very disingenuous. And so I have learned to I
focus on what I believe in periodand so if I'm talking about it,
I've experienced it somewhere, somehow,some way, and whether good or bad,
(26:33):
and I tell that story whether goodor bad, because not everything is
rosy. I've had a rough youknow, stage, even in my career,
and I talk about that. Italk about those things, but I
also leave with hope, you know, not that I have the end of
the story yet, even but Ican say that I'm an optimist by nature,
and so I'm always going to behopeful even in some of those darkest
(26:56):
moments. And I think people whatI've learn is people have been more encouraged.
And these are like superintendent like youknow, total like masculine guys you
know that had these moments and theycome by and put me inside and they're
like, hey man, thanks forsaying, you know, talk about mental
health, thanks for talking about suicide, or you're just an encouragement just the
(27:21):
fact that you're on the stage andyou were that person that came through the
trades and you are doing this,You're an example for us. I don't
do it for that reason, butwhen those moments do happen, it reminds
me of the platform that I dohave and the power behind it. And
to be a voice for some people, or just to be an example for
(27:41):
some people, and then just beingreally raw is like as a as a
black man doing this, it's evenmore uncommon, you know. And so
I remember just a couple of monthsago, I was sitting down talking to
a gentleman that works for us,and he was just started working for our
company and our and our talent acquisitiongroup. We're sitting at a bar after
(28:03):
having a session speaking session out inChicago, and he was just I'm just
talking. It's like we're talking andhe's sitting there like, dude, like
like somebody should pay you to saythis stuff, you know. And I'm
sitting there like thinking, I'm justtalking common knowledge, things that I know,
things that I've experienced, things thatI believe in that he was just
(28:25):
saying, this is so rich,you know, and thank you for just
taking the time to talk to me. And sometimes you're like, hey,
I'm just a regular guy. I'mHenry. People around me remind me that
all the time, you know.But and I don't think I'm some big
shot at all. I'm just aregular guy. But I'm also very aware
that there are people that really appreciateand respect some of the things that I've
(28:49):
done that I would have never imagined, you know, that these things happening.
And every once in a while,it's usually when I'm putting together a
resume or I have to put somekind of thing together about what I've done,
and I look at that and I'mlike, WHOA, I did that,
and I did this thing, youknow, and and it's and it's
(29:11):
humbling, you know, because Istill don't think I'm a big shot.
I'm just the guy, regular guyI got. I got a mission,
I believe in it. I'm goingto do that, you know, And
and doors have opened because of that. But I was a scary, very
low confident person for many many yearsand rather blend into the back and exit
(29:34):
and not talk to me, don'task me a question. I'm shy all
that, you know. But andim and by nature I'm an introvert.
So many times I get on thestages, but I'm going to go take
a nap when it's over because I'miusts with all of my energy, you
know, and I mean to recharge. And people say, no way,
(29:55):
You're not an introvert, But yeah, actually I am. I know how
to step up and do what Igotta do. But by nature, I'm
going to I want to be buysome water in a quiet kind of environment
with a couple few people. That'smy happy place, you know. But
I also know how important it isfor me to do this. But my
thoughts and those prolific things that Ithink will come out of my mouth and
(30:18):
to my brain happen when I'm alone, you know, and I just have
the courage now to say it andhave the platform and others to motivate me
to say, hey, we wantyou to do this. And I think
as long as you keep it inthe perspective that it's not about you,
then you can do it, youknow. And I don't make this about
(30:40):
me, I just do it.When you're going out there and doing these
speaking engagements, talking in front ofpeople, you're an introvert, but you're
talking very confidently about what you know, it's because you genuinely care. And
I really appreciate that because I personallyfeel like I'm a total introvert. But
I'll be out there talking to peopleand that's because I'm trying to get the
(31:02):
same stories and understanding and seeing howI can help to And we can't help
people if we don't know. Sowe have to ask the right questions,
especially at the right time. Soeven that one individual that came up and
told you, hey man, thatwas huge what you just said, that
could have been timing and you neverknow it. Like, so, it's
important for us to speak up whenwe can, especially about topics that we
(31:25):
care about. So and I wantto revert back to like when you were
talking about your team, I meanit sounds like Southland Industries. They do
incredible work. Do you use anytype of technology in the field to help
streamline operations, you know, workflows? Like how do you utilize technology today?
Yeah, it's intricately a part ofwhat we do. And again,
(31:48):
working for a very progressive company thatbelieves in its people, knows that that
is the most important asset that wehave and our our largest risk happens in
the field. All the pre workthat we do, It really comes down
to the execution or the ability toexecute in a very proficient and productive manner.
(32:12):
And so we know that technology iscritically important of that, you know,
and so we do invest a lotinto how our field leadership and our
teams out there are are putting togethertheir plans, how they how they coordinate
with others, how they track theirability to know where where they're at during
(32:34):
a project schedule. And one ofthe one of the ones out that comes
to mind is this industry has menotorious for keeping information a secret to the
people who actually need it, Likewhat is your budget for for a particular
scope of work? You know,how much time was allocated in the estimate
for me to install a certain partof my job, you know, on
(32:55):
this during this during this project schedule, and and you don't know really if
you're doing well or if you're doinggreat. You don't really have a way
to measure that many times as fieldleaders, so you just go do the
job and feel like, hey,I thought, I think I did good
today, and you might have,you might not have. And so one
of the things that that we thatwe do here is we have this uh
(33:19):
this tool that allows us to tosee our actual productivity and understand what our
budget is. Where there's buckets ofmoney that are put away for the different
scopes of work. Some are verycomplex and some are very simple. But
our field leaders will get a chanceto see that in real time. Hey,
(33:40):
here's what your budget is for thisthis scope of work that you're going
to be responsible for. You're goingto build your crew. Here's where we
think maybe are some of the issuesor challenges. And and then it gives
that that that fhill leader or anopportunity to to strategize or come up with
ideas or who to collaborate with,or figuring out ways to to make it
(34:00):
better. But what has happened inthis industry for years in the way that
I was raised in it was ifyou tell that person how many hours they
have, they're gonna they're gonna abuseit. And what we've learned is that
if that is a person you haveon your crew, then it's the wrong
person. But if you tell somebodythat they have X amount of hours,
(34:21):
one of those real leaders are gonnasay, how do we beat it?
And are gonna come up with aplan to beat that, because that's just
our competitive nature is to win,you know. And so we no longer
thought about we can't tell them becausethey'll abuse it. We think about we
have to let them know so theyunderstand it, so they can protect it
(34:42):
like it's there. Because we treatour field leaders like you're an entrepreneur.
This is this project, is yourbusiness. Run it like it's your business,
you know, irresponsible for it,and whether it's a small portion of
it or a large portion of it, treat it like it's your business and
execute your work accordingly. And sowhoever you have to coordinate with, whether
there's another trade or a general contractoror your own team. We want to
(35:07):
make sure people know that they havethat autonomy to do their job, and
some technology will help us identify someof those issues and how we plan and
coordinate. And we're sitting in bigrooms and coordinating these massive projects that will
go for four to five years anda year of planning, you know,
all those decisions that we're making.We need some technology to help us to
(35:30):
execute that in the most proficient way. And so, again not something we
went to school for, but wetrain and so we help develop our people
and get used to technology. Andevery field leader is going to have together
an iPad or a laptop with technologyon it that's going to help them exic
(35:50):
keep your job period. And sowe don't leave it and say here's your
laptop, like you used to geta set of drawings and say, okay,
here's your drawing, here's the addressfor the job site. Good luck.
You know, we actually are goingto help and sit down with you
and be intentional about training and developmentand learning how to use different software.
Because it's not what you did,it's not how you normally did your job,
(36:14):
but now it is essential and it'san expectation even from some owners or
general contract is that you will usethis particular piece of software and they'll train
us. But we want to makesure that our people are prepped at least
in the foundational stuff and can cometo the table with having the basics like
in their tool bill. So technologyplays a huge part. I think it
(36:37):
has to be a balance of itbecause you can be you know, you
can try to overcompensate with technology,but if you don't have the culture to
execute it. It's like having thisdynamic piece of technology, or say,
you got this this piece of equipmentthat can change the world. Now you
got to do is plug it infor it to work. But if you
(36:58):
have this piece of technology that youcan't plug in, is just like a
big paper weight. It serves nobodyany good. And so we have to
be practical with technology and making surethat it's going to bring the value that
we wanted to bring. But weneed to make sure that we're training our
people to be able to utilize itin the most proficient way and that it
(37:19):
actually solves their problems. So someof the buy game needs to come from
the people who are using it,not from the salesperson who bought it,
you know. And so we've gotto make sure that you know, we're
a partner even with technological companies,to say, hey, what you are
developing, here's what you need tothink about, so that we actually want
to use it. And then it'shelping our teams solve their problems in the
field, you know, proficiently.And so it's a key part of what
(37:42):
we do and again again something thatwe didn't do many, many years ago,
but it's an essential component that wehave to have. It's like we
would have a hammer in our toolbuild. I like the way that you
articulated that. It sounds like southLand Industry has a very strong foundation for
their workforce management platform and how theytrain their employees. Absolutely, absolutely,
(38:09):
it's an investment. I used touse this blurb that I saw on LinkedIn
once and there was a CFO anda CEO talking about training and the CEO
tells the CFO, hey, whatif we train them and they leave?
And the CFO looks back and says, well, what if we don't train
them and they stay? You know? And so you think about it like,
(38:32):
do I want a bunch of untrainedpeople that are probably creating problems in
my company? And training on anykind of level, whether it's technology or
behaviors, or management or leadership.It's an investment though. You've got to
be able to invest in your peopleand it's going to cost you something,
but it's going to cost you moreif you don't do it. A little
bit about south Land Industries and feelfree to share what south Land Industries is
(38:58):
all about. And then also whereare they located? Where can people find
them? And where did they dobusiness? Yeah, so Southern is a
national company, you know, sowe we are across the United States.
I used to say we have sixdivisions, but we've grown that, outgrown
that many many years ago. I'min Northern California, but we so we
(39:19):
have a division here in Northern California, Southern California, in Southwest so in
Arizona, in Vegas, Philadelphia,We're in Dallas. What our what are
our company under the name Stilla BrentUSA, which is a part of south
Land now in Dallas, there inSan Antonio, in Houston area and mid
(39:42):
Atlantic. So we are across butwe call like the Smile of the United
States and growing and doing projects acrossmore states across United States. So we
are the let's see, we arethe largest privately hill mechanical contractor in the
United States. We probably have aboutthis year will be just under maybe three
(40:07):
billion in revenue with about sixty sixhundred employees overall. But we're design build
firm that that that has engineering staff, controls UH energy service and obviously the
h V A, C N EP. You know work that we do.
So we we do work in missioncritical healthcare, higher ed life sciences.
(40:36):
Well, we do what you know. We we we like to tackle
complex projects. We love doing designbuild work because we feel that we bring
value to our owners and GC partnersby having that in house capability to take
a complex project and really design itin the most proficient way with the end
user in mind. We we havecross learning across our divisions, so all
(41:00):
our divisions with their own shops andand capabilities that we were able to learn
from each other and we we we'vedone some of the largest largest hospitals in
the in the country as well asdata centers. So it's it's a it's
a again. My seventeen years here, it's been such an amazing transition for
(41:21):
me UH to come here one dayas a as a general superintendent, you
know, and to to be ableto grow and to learn as I have
and to be very proud of whatwe what we do, and this company
has stretched me and and but alsogiven me like the access to do it.
We put a lot of emphasists ontraining. I wasn't here probably a
(41:42):
month and I was in a trainingfor a week and got sent to back
then was like our corporate office inSoCal and there for a week with other
my peers across the company, sittingdown with our executives, uh, and
being taught about one whose south Plandis and then where do you fit in
Southland? And really helping you understandthat you really are valued here and and
(42:07):
we're going to invest in you inthis way not only to show you that,
but to help build your career andwant you to take a responsibility and
an ownership. Uh. We alsoare you know a company that that has
that where I'm a part owner ofthis company now, you know, And
that was that's been several years nowwhere you have this opportunity and I was
(42:30):
as a superintendent where I was ableto take part in that, you know.
So so it's been a lot ofopportunity here and and just the progressive
thinking of our of our CEO,Ted Lynch, down to really make this
company a place where it's a destinationwhere people want to come to work because
(42:50):
we actually do care. We're notperfect company, but I feel like in
my experience, we're one of thebetter ones for sure, in regards to
how we treat people, how weexecute work, how we want to address
the problems that our owners have andour GC partners have, and we want
to solve problems. We are expertsin the crafts that that we are.
(43:13):
You know that we that we areunder our umbrella, and and we have
a lot of smart people in thiscompany, and a lot of people that
care and want to create different experiencesand and and and break some of those
negative stereotypes and statistics that exists inthis industry. And the only way we
do that is by really creating anenvironment where we allow people to actually have
(43:37):
a different experience. Because it's notabout what you say. You know,
hey, we want to be agreat company. Okay, well you got
to do it. And that's goingto last longer and be more impactful.
If you can have a job that'sthat's potentially adversarial or very complex and challenging.
Doesn't mean that every day you goto work we have to have this
contentious environment. So we want tobe a part of work that has integrated
(44:00):
product delivery kind of type focuses,you know, where it's a team environment
where you're you're you're bound together,maybe even contractually, or you just have
an obligation to help each other win. And that has not been the mentality
of this industry. It's about whogets in the first wins and screw the
other person, and that's the loudest, the loudest person, the biggest jerk
(44:21):
wins, and that's the one whomakes the most noise is the winner.
That's been the mentality. And it'sstill like that, like probably more than
it's not. But being in acompany like South Pland, you get a
chance to say, here's what's possiblewhen you tap into one the talent pool
that you have, and not justthe person in the corner office has has
(44:42):
has to have the smartest ideas.It's everyone. But you've got to tap
into those people. You've got toask them questions, you got to get
them involved, you got to helpthem see that their voices do matter.
And and those are the things thatI think are prolific with South Pland and
how we're able to impact the industryand then give people better experiences because when
they have that, they're thinking like, like, how do we do this
(45:06):
again? And even if they goto work for another company, they're going
to think about that experience and sayI want that to happen here. And
it's not as easy just to sayyou want it. It actually definitely takes
work in people that are committed tothe effort. But we're committed to the
effort, and like I say,we want our folks that thinks like entrepreneurs
and not wait for someone that's totell them what to do. We want
(45:30):
them to see some issues and say, well, how do I solve that?
How I'm empowered to make something happenhere? And I think that's one
of the most prolific impactful things thatwe do is that it doesn't matter who
you are, if you have anopinion that we want to hear it.
We want to figure out. Noteveryone's going to work, but we want
(45:50):
to at least want to hear itand figure out how we can execute or
implement that. South Land Industries hasan amazing culture. They've created a safe
place for anybody and if I werenew to construction, I might want to
explore some opportunities there. That's whatit definitely sounds like. So I'll segue
that into my next question before wewrap up. Do you have any advice
(46:20):
for anyone new in construction? Oh? Yeah, that's a great question.
You know. I think it's likeone if you've if you've done any kind
of study or research and you lookat construction and just looks like this this
industry that is just has license badbehavior because it has you know, all
(46:43):
these all these negative things that thatcould look it could be very daunting.
You know what am I going toget myself into here? Like with anything,
I'd say, if it's construction thatyou want to be a part of,
and it's such a dynamic field,so many different areas that you can
go into. Is just believe inyourself. Is really believe in yourself and
your capability and and and have agreat attitude. Come with a willingness to
(47:09):
learn, to be eager, knowhow to be a friend or a trustworthy
partner so that people want to investin you. You don't have to know
everything, and especially coming from thetrades, I mean, our whole model
as an apprentice is as a youngerperson that didn't know anything, but someone
(47:30):
wanted to put their arm around them, you know essentially and say, hey,
let me show you how to dothis, because they wanted to pass
that knowledge down to that next generation. In part, that next generation was
going to be the key to themhaving a retirement, you know, with
(47:50):
them or their work was going tofeed into their pension, you know.
And so there's some you know,self you know kind of goal in that
as well. But but it's reallyabout knowing that we have to pass the
baton, but we have to passthe baton to someone as worthy. And
so I say, know who youare, be confident in your capabilities.
(48:15):
Don't be overwhelmed by someone who's hadyears of experience because you don't know their
journey, and you need to stepup and where you're at and not feel
like you should compare yourself to someonewho's got ten, twenty thirty years on
you. You shouldn't be like them, but be confident in you. And
(48:38):
that's the one thing that I feelwill separate you from other people. When
I was just getting into this trade, my career, my career became a
career when I changed myself and Iwas able to change myself and I became
aware of what the obstacles I wascreating for myself. It was my mindset,
and I took initiative one day andI stepped out into something that I
(49:00):
wasn't one hundred sure I should do, but I knew enough to say I
can make this decision. I didthat, and my foreman at that time
recognized a leadership capability in me,and it literally changed my entire trajectory of
my career. And it wouldn't havehappened if I did not take that initiative.
(49:22):
So I'd say, don't be afraid, be confident, take those risks.
That is great advice. And thankyou for being a guest on our
show. Please everyone like, subscribe, comment, and share the Builder Upper
Show with anyone in the construction industry. We will see you next time.
Thank you. If you're a constructioncontractor and would like to appear as a
(49:55):
guest on our podcast, write usan email. It's Lou at Lumberfi dot com.
Hey everyone, I'm Lou Perez,your host of The Builder Upper Show,
a podcast where we talk about everythingin construction and trades. Now let's get
into it. I would like towelcome our guest, Henry Not, the
third pre construction executive at Southland Industries. Henry, how are you doing today?
(00:23):
I'm doing great, loud, Thanksfor having me today and looking forward
to conversation with you. Absolutely,so I wanted to jump right into it.
I'm really thrilled that you made thetime to come here. Yeah,
I appreciate you having me and definitelylooking forward to the conversation. And yeah,
I know we've had I was travelingand keynote speaking across the country literally,
(00:44):
so it was pretty cool. ButI appreciate you being patient, you
know, and definitely looking forward tobecause I was looking forward to coming here.
But glad we foundly that made ithappen. Absolutely. I checked out
your LinkedIn, I saw the speakingengagements. You're a keynote speaker. You're
a super impressive speaker. I wishI was as good as speaking at you
as you are, but yeah,really impressive background. So with all that
(01:07):
said, I know everybody's wondering whois this guy you know who does on
the show. How did he getinto construction? That's why I want to
jump right into it, Henry,how did you get into construction? Well,
you know, it's an interesting storybecause I can't tell you that I
was aspiring to be any type ofconstruction professional as a young person. I
(01:29):
wanted to be an engineer. Ihad a father that was in the trades
and he's a sheet metal worker andown a business for about ten years as
well, and he would continue.When I graduate from high school, I
was going to a community college,going to be a mechanical engineer. And
while I was going to school,he was, hey, the test is
(01:49):
coming up. You should take thistest now with ignore him or I'm focused
that I got. I'm doing whatI'm doing. And one day he just
kind of put it in a waythat this made sense, just hey,
this take the tests. If youdon't want to do it, don't do
it, but just take it.So how do you argue with that?
You know? So I ended uptaking the test, and I had a
whole routine. I was going toschool during the day, working at night
(02:12):
and communting, you know, anddoing my thing. And so I took
this test and about two weeks later, I got my results and said you're
in and we needed to start likenow. And so I'm thinking, like,
oh great, you know, andso I really had to kind of
sit down and make a lat decision. I was working at a retail store,
going to community college, and allof a sudden, my life was
(02:35):
going to change overnight. And soobviously I took the jump and I began
going to school for sheet metal andit was a pre apprentice only for a
short time, and got inventured asan apprentice in October of nineteen eighty seven.
And you know, it wasn't agreat journey in the early stages of
it, but you know, Ihave no regrets, but it was definitely
(02:59):
tough when I got first started.But I definitely attribute all that to my
father making that decision or at leastencouraging me to at least consider it.
And and so the rest was reallyhistory. But it really started with my
dad kind of badgering me in thebeginning. I love that. I love
(03:19):
that. And your your dad wasthe pivotal moment to push you to construction.
So tell me a little bit aboutyour dad. Yeah, so I
have to first start and say thatmy dad recently passed just a so sorry
this year, thank you, andbut he was definitely instrumental and and and
and me being who I am today, you know, as far as my
(03:43):
father always was an example of aman that went to work. Sometimes he
had more than one job, evenbefore he got into the trades, raising
us. I have three sisters,and so got got a chance to see
a person that really what I reallynow understand being developing a strong work ethic.
And when you're a kid and youcan watch a parent get up and
(04:04):
go to work every day, getup early in the morning, prepare themselves
and then come home in the evening, you know, you just you just
don't know the impact that that waswas going to have. And my dad
would not only do that, buthe's changing the brakes in the car,
and I'm outside helping him, notbecause I wanted to, but because he
(04:26):
made me go out there. Youknow. My dad was a great cook,
so he would like really like tobake and and and kind of compete
with my mother at the time,and they both could cook great, but
my dad was more like a specialistwith it. And and so I was
kind of forced to learn that aswell, you know, And so he's
changing the brakes and working on stuffin the house, but also cooking and
(04:47):
baking bread and doing all this stuffthat you just wouldn't normally see, I
don't think, and but it wasmy normal, you know. And so
I really learned to appreciate it moreas I got older. When I'm driving
my vehicle. I had when Iwould say, eighteen nineteen years old,
and I could go and do atune up for my car, change my
brakes, and my friends couldn't,you know. I realized how much of
(05:12):
what he instilled and what he exemplifiedas my father and showed me that how
much of an impact that would make, and I I was able to carry
that, you know, into mycareer. How do you feel like that
even impacted you in your own lifetoday outside of work. Do you feel
like that push to help others inthat and push them in the same direction.
(05:35):
Yeah, I mean in that directionis you know wherever that might take
them, you know, And it'sit's really understanding that not everyone had the
opportunity or the luxury or just beingbeing blessed with having a parent that would
exemplify a better version of yourself somethingthat was going to help you succeed in
(05:58):
life, something that may have feltreally hard and challenging, but then you
learn to appreciate it as you gotolder, because you find yourself in a
position where you have some tools inyour tool belt that you can access that
you just you can read it inthe book. At that point, you
saw it every day and it becomesyour own habit. So I definitely recognize
(06:19):
that that that is not common,and it's part why I wrote a book
about it in regards to just howyou create success for yourself by the fundamental
things that both of my parents didjust by showing up every day to be
my parent. And I know that'snot necessarily a given for every family that
(06:40):
they have people in their lives thatthey can see what's the best route to
take, just by recognizing and seeingsomeone's life that is that close to them.
So it's really propelled me by thework that we've done here at south
Land and partnering with workforce development organizationsin our community to really go and talk
to those people that are looking toget into the industry. But they may
(07:04):
know how to use a hammer anduse a specific tool, but they may
not know how to show up withthe right behavior that's going to keep them
a job that can grow into acareer. And so it's not a secret
sauce, but it really is kindof secret. It's not. What I'll
say is like common sense isn't commonAnd I learned that with the exercise of
(07:28):
writing this book and thinking that noone's going to read this. Everyone knows
this already because I thought that's commonknowledge, but it's not, you know.
And so one of the reasons whyI became this advocate and a spokesperson
for things that designed to help peopleovercome understand how to navigate through hardship and
(07:50):
recognize some of their own faults lookingin the mirror and being able to like
say, hey, I got tochange here. Because they may not have
had that talk. They may nothave had that example, they may have
had an uncle or not, ora mother that was involved to that degree
of their lives where it's helping themshape the you know, the rest of
(08:11):
their lives with the decisions that theymake. And so forever grateful for that
from from both of my parents,but specifically having a having a man in
my life that identified with as ayoung man showing that example was very impactful.
Can you think about any quotes orsayings that your dad would say to
(08:33):
maybe get you through a tough time, or maybe a story that you'll remember.
One of the things that my fatherthat's a great question was my father
always told me, I want youto think. He always encouraged me to
not be persuaded by the crowds.He would make examples driving down the block
(08:58):
and seeing young people doing and wildcrazy stuff, and he would make jokes
like are you doing that? Andyou know, and like it wasn't our
style. You know, it wasn'twhat we did. But he'd be that
kind of person that would say thinkyou know, and and and and really
challenge you to to not just becaught up in the moment of what everyone
(09:20):
else is doing, and how youshow up every day using your own brain,
challenging what you see and if youdecide to do something that even I
don't agree with, do it becauseyou wanted to do it, don't do
it because the crowd did. Youknow. That's something that my dad was
really unique in that way. Hedefinitely had his own style and and and
(09:45):
I was able to witness that growingup. You know, and and so
not that I agreed with everything thathe did, but it definitely was was
was something that I that stood outwas he was very specific in how we
did life and what he and decisionsthat he he made and some of the
why that it took me years andsome of it I will discover even more
(10:05):
later about some of his wives andthings that he was challenged with to make
the decisions that he's made, youknow. So it definitely that impacted me,
just being someone that used their ownbrain to make decisions and not feel
like you have to just follow thecrowd because that's what everybody's doing. What
(10:26):
is something that you know today thatyou wish you knew when you started?
Yeah, I think tied into thatquestion. Honestly. I think about with
the thinking part, I and thisis this is how I'm more. I
don't think this had anything to dowith my dad. I think this is
who I was, how I wasborn. I am an overthinker, you
(10:46):
know, and so I can Ican can paralyze my own self by by
overthinking. And I think I wasI was always the safe kid on the
block. So if I wasn't,I was in my late teens and starting
to go hang out and had acar. The parents that I was hanging
out with their children, if theyknew that I was there, they knew
(11:09):
that their kids were going to begood no matter where we were going,
no matter what we're doing. Theyknew that, like, Henry is going
to be the safe person. He'sgoing to not drink, he's not going
to do anything crazy with the car, he's going to get us back on
time. He's going to be Anda part of me like, Okay,
that's cool, but really not somuch when you're young, thinking that's That's
what I'm known for. And sothere was this overthinking kind of mentality that
(11:33):
I had growing up where I thinkI was so structured and so precise with
my decisions and lived in this kindof like box if you will, that
I think I might have missed outon a few things in life as a
kid or a young kind of ateenager where people are out doing their wild,
crazy things and they can tell storieslater. I wasn't me, you
(11:56):
know, and I kind of resentedit for a degree. So tell my
younger self, you know, livea little bit, you know, obviously,
don't do anything that's going to jeopardizeyour life, but hey, take
some more risks, you know.And I didn't do that till later,
but I ran into people that crossedmy pass as a as a as an
adult. One person that I thatthat I was involved with for a while
(12:18):
that ended up like saying, let'sgo jump out of an airplane for your
birthday, and AND's somewhere along theline I must have said I want to
jump out of an airplane, becauseI don't recall that that I was told
like the night before, we're gonnago jump out of an airplane. And
I wasn't going to cower down.So we jumped out of an airplane,
(12:39):
you know. And it was that'swild, the craziest thing man. And
and so I I I loved everymoment of it, although I was afraid,
as I'm signing my life away onthe contract, but we did it,
you know, and I have arecording to prove it. And it
was an amazing thing. So ithelped me step out of like living my
(13:00):
lot of part of my life.I take more risk. I don't necessarily
live it all in the lines,but that's what I would tell myself,
is take more risk and challenge yourselfto do more than what you did be
risky, and I mean, Iwould love to see the face on everybody
that heard that you jumped out ofa plane. Is that something that you
(13:20):
would recommend for everybody to do ontheir bucket list? I absolutely would.
I think it's something that is soexhilarating. It was thirteen thousand feet obviously
tandem in this plane that the doorsopen and you're looking out and you're on
this bitch and you're scooting watching thenext person before you or you know,
(13:41):
before you go out, and you'relike, your moment's coming, it's inevitable.
And then you're sitting there like thisis the scariest moment is being on
the edge of the bench and nowyou're about to flip over and you have
to let You're completely surrendered to yourtandem person that is in control, so
you have to go with them,and you go and you flip, you
(14:03):
know, and then you do yourthing and he's yelling in your ear about
okay, now this is this iswhere you start this part of it.
And it was it was scary,it was crazy, but it was so
much fun and so exhilarating. Andonce you I mean, it lasts for
a minute, you know, butit was just an experience that I will
never forget and I definitely would recommendanyone to jump out. You don't have
(14:28):
to do a thousand and thirteen thousandfeet, but do it. You love
it, and you can, youknow, live to tell the story you
twisted my arm. I'm going tolook into it. I'm gonna try it.
I definitely I'll put the video somewhereafter I do it and be like
Henry not the third made me doit. I gotta do it, man'd
cool. That's awesome. That's awesome. So then going back to your position
(14:50):
at Southland Industries, what does preconstruction executive mean? Yeah, that's a
great question. It's really kind ofmy job title is what allows me to
do my job. But what Ido as a pre con execut is really
this is development last pre construction,which is we're the ones that are winning
(15:11):
the work for the company, youknow, for this particular division. We're
building relationships super important, Yes,that building relationships with our general contractors,
our owners, and just the communityat large to find out, you know,
how do we position ourselves best tosurround a project? Is it a
(15:31):
good fit? What is important tothis project and how do we make ourselves
more distinct than the next person inthe next company, and then getting our
teams involved to figure out an approachand execute the work, and who are
the right people to surround this jobwith us on our teams, And so
it's ultimately all about that, aboutidentifying opportunities and then pursuing those opportunities that
(15:56):
fit in our willhouse and bring youknow, profitable revenue to our company,
you know, And so obviously it'squickly important. But the role in the
title that I have as a preconstruction executive was really more so about a
title that allows me to do myday job and not get caught up or
(16:18):
others getting caught up with, oh, here comes a business development person.
Because I came from the trades,and so I have as a sheet modal
worker. I've been in that forthirty seven years. It's about and was
a general superintendent here at southmand fortwelve of my seventeen years, and so
I didn't want to get lost somewherewhen I am talking to our potential clients
(16:42):
about an opportunity and bringing in thatexpertise or that experience that I've had for
more years and it gets lost witha title. And so I was in
an interview once and one of ourGC partners said, hey, why are
you here, you know, andone new one the other one was like,
why is the business development guy inour interview? And and so he
(17:03):
gave me some advice and said,hey, you might want to consider changing
your title. I know the valueyou bring, but others will get trapped
in that title thinking that you're justa salesperson and you're not going to be
You're just going to tell us whatwe want to hear. And so I
brought that back to my office,you know, and said, hey,
I They said, well, gofigure out a name, you know,
(17:25):
and so so I did, youknow? And and it is and it's
true to what you know. Iam involved in the pre con part of
our job, and we have preconstruction manager intentionally that that I that I
report to. But that title allowsme to do my day job. It
allows me to kind of speak topeople and not have them get caught in
the crosshairs of a title, butreally understand the value that I bring.
(17:49):
So we have a great team,so it's easy. And so we actually
have a pre con manager and heis responsible for just the part man.
It's a really small group of us. Uh. Then then I have a
direct colleague that does the same thing, and and then we have a whole
proposal specialist that that kind of symbolsall of our proposals and works with us
(18:12):
to make everything look great when itgoes out to our clients. And so
we're out building relationships, networking withpeople, building trust within the community,
trying to again distinguish ourselves from ourcompetitors. And and I get a chance
to spend a lot of time,you know, like I said, I
was traveling before this this event hereor this US meeting and getting a chance
(18:36):
to speak to different people about what'simportant to Southland and what's important to me
in regards to how we execute,whether it's link construction and and and and
focusing on on field leadership and andproductivity improvements and and people as a whole,
(18:56):
you know, and building better culturesin our in our and our projects
that help our people have different experiencesthat are positive and construction because we have
a lot of negativity, we havea lot of negative publicity and about our
industry, and I'm focused on changingthat. And say it's one project and
one person at a time, andit's not easy work, but that's something
(19:18):
that I've just naturally gravitated towards andnow speak about it literally all over the
country. And it's not about beingon the stage for me, it's about
being a passionate about something that youbelieve in that so happens that gets you
on a platform where people want tolisten to you. I love what you
said, one project, one personat a time. That's a really powerful
(19:41):
statement. You are out there.I mean you're out there a lot,
speaking all over the place and goingto a lot of events. Is there
any events or like associations that you'repart of that stand out where you feel
like, you know, they reallyprovided a platform for you to get out
there and make a change. Yeah. There's so many, right, but
(20:02):
the one that that the Southland hasinvested in probably the most. We're founding
members of Line Construction Institute, youknow. And so I've been on the
board for LCI for almost six yearsnow and I'll be in my I'm in
my last term, my last yearof my second term, and so was
the chair of it last year.And what opportunity been able to It's not
(20:30):
just about Southland. It's very importantto us as a company, but it's
also recognizing what we're doing for theindustry. And so when I got on
the stage with sixteen hundred people orwhatever and talking about what's important to our
organization and what's important to me anda person coming from the field, I
wanted to identify with that group.I want to identify with, whether it's
(20:52):
a competitor or just another person inthe trades, that how do they connect
with Link Construction? What does itmean to you in the work a very
practical way, that that that organizationhas been very prolific and and and and
my development and being able to impactthe country when it comes to bleaning construction
(21:14):
and execution, and having collaborative behaviorsand and building a culture that that that
respects people and and really that thatmessage of respect for people, What does
it really mean? What does itreally look like on a job site in
an industry that has not been verykind to its people, and and really
(21:34):
taking a mantle up in regards tothat. And my mentor, his name
is Victor Sambido, is a seniorVP here at Southland. He recommended do
what helps you do your day job? When you get a part of this
board, don't just do something thatyou're checking a box, but do something
that's going to help you with yourjob. And at that time, I
(21:56):
was a superintendent and that's what helpedme working with our trade partners and creating
a task force that was going toimpact that group. So l c I
has been very prolific. Another organizationis AGC, which is associated you know,
Contractors of America as well as California, where we've been able to focus
on on de I and so diversityequity inclusion. I was on the D
(22:22):
and I Steering Committee when it recentlywas called that for six years, as
a chair for three of those years, and really was instrumental with building campaigns.
One in particular is a culture ofcare and and and really was emphasized
building better cultures and creating care,you know, on on projects that that
(22:49):
we're instrumental and and and how peopletreated each other again on projects that are
notorious for not treating people uh equitably, you know, whether it was women
or people of color or people fromdifferent communities, and sexual persuasion, you
know, and so it's all thosethings that we normally don't talk about dealing
(23:11):
with suicide and alcohol abuse and substanceabuse. That we're on the wrong side
of the metric, you know,when it comes to how we're addressing it,
and so knowing that there's organizations outthere that are really rallying around that,
very proud of the work Agency Californiadoes. I'm a part of their
(23:32):
their board as a VP of SpecialtyContractors. Getting able to do that work
here speysiically in California, but thoseorganizations are prolific. And the last one
I'll say that recently, I justwas appointed by the Governor of California onto
the Contractor State Licensing Board. Youknow, the level of impact, but
(23:56):
that's just been since February of thisyear, and so I've been to several
a couple of different meetings. Butthe impact that we have on every person
that holds the license, a contractorslicense in California. We're trying to protect
consumers, you know, and recognizehow we help because there's lots of unfortunately
people out there in the industry thatare manipulating the consumer and simply stealing money
(24:19):
from them, and so that workis important, you know. So it's
all these things I would have neverthought would have happened in my career path,
and it's it's actually pretty amazing.So I get to bring that to
our owners and our GC partners andour teams about our strategy and what we
(24:41):
should be considering in addition to allthe basic things that we have to do
to you know, win a job. At your speaking engagements, when you're
talking to the guys in the field, I know that's who you're really relatable
with. Has anybody came up toyou after the event was like, man,
you said this and it really stuckwith me, Thank you for bringing
(25:04):
up or anything like that that anylike key takeaways that anybody has brought up
to you. It happens more oftenthan I even can count. And it's
and sometimes I wonder, like arepeople listening to me? And sometimes it's
right away, and sometimes it's afterthe fact, and sometimes it's on another
event somebody said I saw you hereand he said this, and thank you,
(25:25):
you know. And I think partof it is when people wonder,
well, you know, we didn'tgo to I didn't go to school to
be a speaker. And in someof the states and people an amount of
people on there, you can getlike pretty nervous about that, and people
would ask me, how how doyou do that? Not get get you
know, afraid or whatever, andone I say, you know, don't
(25:48):
think I'm not at times, youknow, but I learned to do it
afraid, right, you got todo it anyway. But the critical part
for me, and the most importantpart of that, has been believing in
what I what I speak about,and the moment that that I get on
stage and I'm reading some prompts thatI didn't write, or I'm talking about
something that I didn't do, itwould be like he's a fraud. But
(26:12):
people would be looking at their phonewhile they're looking at me, partly because
it would come across just very disingenuous. And so I have learned to I
focus on what I believe in periodand so if I'm talking about it,
I've experienced it somewhere, somehow,some way, and whether good or bad,
(26:33):
and I tell that story whether goodor bad, because not everything is
rosy. I've had a rough youknow, stage, even in my career,
and I talk about that. Italk about those things, but I
also leave with hope, you know, not that I have the end of
the story yet, even but Ican say that I'm an optimist by nature,
and so I'm always going to behopeful even in some of those darkest
(26:56):
moments. And I think people whatI've learn is people have been more encouraged.
And these are like superintendent like youknow, total like masculine guys you
know that had these moments and theycome by and put me inside and they're
like, hey man, thanks forsaying, you know, talk about mental
health, thanks for talking about suicide, or you're just an encouragement just the
(27:21):
fact that you're on the stage andyou were that person that came through the
trades and you are doing this,You're an example for us. I don't
do it for that reason, butwhen those moments do happen, it reminds
me of the platform that I dohave and the power behind it. And
to be a voice for some people, or just to be an example for
(27:41):
some people, and then just beingreally raw is like as a as a
black man doing this, it's evenmore uncommon, you know. And so
I remember just a couple of monthsago, I was sitting down talking to
a gentleman that works for us,and he was just started working for our
company and our and our talent acquisitiongroup. We're sitting at a bar after
(28:03):
having a session speaking session out inChicago, and he was just I'm just
talking. It's like we're talking andhe's sitting there like, dude, like
like somebody should pay you to saythis stuff, you know. And I'm
sitting there like thinking, I'm justtalking common knowledge, things that I know,
things that I've experienced, things thatI believe in that he was just
(28:25):
saying, this is so rich,you know, and thank you for just
taking the time to talk to me. And sometimes you're like, hey,
I'm just a regular guy. I'mHenry. People around me remind me that
all the time, you know.But and I don't think I'm some big
shot at all. I'm just aregular guy. But I'm also very aware
that there are people that really appreciateand respect some of the things that I've
(28:49):
done that I would have never imagined, you know, that these things happening.
And every once in a while,it's usually when I'm putting together a
resume or I have to put somekind of thing together about what I've done,
and I look at that and I'mlike, WHOA, I did that,
and I did this thing, youknow, and and it's and it's
(29:11):
humbling, you know, because Istill don't think I'm a big shot.
I'm just the guy, regular guyI got. I got a mission,
I believe in it. I'm goingto do that, you know, And
and doors have opened because of that. But I was a scary, very
low confident person for many many yearsand rather blend into the back and exit
(29:34):
and not talk to me, don'task me a question. I'm shy all
that, you know. But andim and by nature I'm an introvert.
So many times I get on thestages, but I'm going to go take
a nap when it's over because I'miusts with all of my energy, you
know, and I mean to recharge. And people say, no way,
(29:55):
You're not an introvert, But yeah, actually I am. I know how
to step up and do what Igotta do. But by nature, I'm
going to I want to be buysome water in a quiet kind of environment
with a couple few people. That'smy happy place, you know. But
I also know how important it isfor me to do this. But my
thoughts and those prolific things that Ithink will come out of my mouth and
(30:18):
to my brain happen when I'm alone, you know, and I just have
the courage now to say it andhave the platform and others to motivate me
to say, hey, we wantyou to do this. And I think
as long as you keep it inthe perspective that it's not about you,
then you can do it, youknow. And I don't make this about
(30:40):
me, I just do it.When you're going out there and doing these
speaking engagements, talking in front ofpeople, you're an introvert, but you're
talking very confidently about what you know, it's because you genuinely care. And
I really appreciate that because I personallyfeel like I'm a total introvert. But
I'll be out there talking to peopleand that's because I'm trying to get the
(31:02):
same stories and understanding and seeing howI can help to And we can't help
people if we don't know. Sowe have to ask the right questions,
especially at the right time. Soeven that one individual that came up and
told you, hey man, thatwas huge what you just said, that
could have been timing and you neverknow it. Like, so, it's
important for us to speak up whenwe can, especially about topics that we
(31:25):
care about. So and I wantto revert back to like when you were
talking about your team, I meanit sounds like Southland Industries. They do
incredible work. Do you use anytype of technology in the field to help
streamline operations, you know, workflows? Like how do you utilize technology today?
Yeah, it's intricately a part ofwhat we do. And again,
(31:48):
working for a very progressive company thatbelieves in its people, knows that that
is the most important asset that wehave and our our largest risk happens in
the field. All the pre workthat we do, It really comes down
to the execution or the ability toexecute in a very proficient and productive manner.
(32:12):
And so we know that technology iscritically important of that, you know,
and so we do invest a lotinto how our field leadership and our
teams out there are are putting togethertheir plans, how they how they coordinate
with others, how they track theirability to know where where they're at during
(32:34):
a project schedule. And one ofthe one of the ones out that comes
to mind is this industry has menotorious for keeping information a secret to the
people who actually need it, Likewhat is your budget for for a particular
scope of work? You know,how much time was allocated in the estimate
for me to install a certain partof my job, you know, on
(32:55):
this during this during this project schedule, and and you don't know really if
you're doing well or if you're doinggreat. You don't really have a way
to measure that many times as fieldleaders, so you just go do the
job and feel like, hey,I thought, I think I did good
today, and you might have,you might not have. And so one
of the things that that we thatwe do here is we have this uh
(33:19):
this tool that allows us to tosee our actual productivity and understand what our
budget is. Where there's buckets ofmoney that are put away for the different
scopes of work. Some are verycomplex and some are very simple. But
our field leaders will get a chanceto see that in real time. Hey,
(33:40):
here's what your budget is for thisthis scope of work that you're going
to be responsible for. You're goingto build your crew. Here's where we
think maybe are some of the issuesor challenges. And and then it gives
that that that fhill leader or anopportunity to to strategize or come up with
ideas or who to collaborate with,or figuring out ways to to make it
(34:00):
better. But what has happened inthis industry for years in the way that
I was raised in it was ifyou tell that person how many hours they
have, they're gonna they're gonna abuseit. And what we've learned is that
if that is a person you haveon your crew, then it's the wrong
person. But if you tell somebodythat they have X amount of hours,
(34:21):
one of those real leaders are gonnasay, how do we beat it?
And are gonna come up with aplan to beat that, because that's just
our competitive nature is to win,you know. And so we no longer
thought about we can't tell them becausethey'll abuse it. We think about we
have to let them know so theyunderstand it, so they can protect it
(34:42):
like it's there. Because we treatour field leaders like you're an entrepreneur.
This is this project, is yourbusiness. Run it like it's your business,
you know, irresponsible for it,and whether it's a small portion of
it or a large portion of it, treat it like it's your business and
execute your work accordingly. And sowhoever you have to coordinate with, whether
there's another trade or a general contractoror your own team. We want to
(35:07):
make sure people know that they havethat autonomy to do their job, and
some technology will help us identify someof those issues and how we plan and
coordinate. And we're sitting in bigrooms and coordinating these massive projects that will
go for four to five years anda year of planning, you know,
all those decisions that we're making.We need some technology to help us to
(35:30):
execute that in the most proficient way. And so, again not something we
went to school for, but wetrain and so we help develop our people
and get used to technology. Andevery field leader is going to have together
an iPad or a laptop with technologyon it that's going to help them exic
(35:50):
keep your job period. And sowe don't leave it and say here's your
laptop, like you used to geta set of drawings and say, okay,
here's your drawing, here's the addressfor the job site. Good luck.
You know, we actually are goingto help and sit down with you
and be intentional about training and developmentand learning how to use different software.
Because it's not what you did,it's not how you normally did your job,
(36:14):
but now it is essential and it'san expectation even from some owners or
general contract is that you will usethis particular piece of software and they'll train
us. But we want to makesure that our people are prepped at least
in the foundational stuff and can cometo the table with having the basics like
in their tool bill. So technologyplays a huge part. I think it
(36:37):
has to be a balance of itbecause you can be you know, you
can try to overcompensate with technology,but if you don't have the culture to
execute it. It's like having thisdynamic piece of technology, or say,
you got this this piece of equipmentthat can change the world. Now you
got to do is plug it infor it to work. But if you
(36:58):
have this piece of technology that youcan't plug in, is just like a
big paper weight. It serves nobodyany good. And so we have to
be practical with technology and making surethat it's going to bring the value that
we wanted to bring. But weneed to make sure that we're training our
people to be able to utilize itin the most proficient way and that it
(37:19):
actually solves their problems. So someof the buy game needs to come from
the people who are using it,not from the salesperson who bought it,
you know. And so we've gotto make sure that you know, we're
a partner even with technological companies,to say, hey, what you are
developing, here's what you need tothink about, so that we actually want
to use it. And then it'shelping our teams solve their problems in the
field, you know, proficiently.And so it's a key part of what
(37:42):
we do and again again something thatwe didn't do many, many years ago,
but it's an essential component that wehave to have. It's like we
would have a hammer in our toolbuild. I like the way that you
articulated that. It sounds like southLand Industry has a very strong foundation for
their workforce management platform and how theytrain their employees. Absolutely, absolutely,
(38:09):
it's an investment. I used touse this blurb that I saw on LinkedIn
once and there was a CFO anda CEO talking about training and the CEO
tells the CFO, hey, whatif we train them and they leave?
And the CFO looks back and says, well, what if we don't train
them and they stay? You know? And so you think about it like,
(38:32):
do I want a bunch of untrainedpeople that are probably creating problems in
my company? And training on anykind of level, whether it's technology or
behaviors, or management or leadership.It's an investment though. You've got to
be able to invest in your peopleand it's going to cost you something,
but it's going to cost you moreif you don't do it. A little
bit about south Land Industries and feelfree to share what south Land Industries is
(38:58):
all about. And then also whereare they located? Where can people find
them? And where did they dobusiness? Yeah, so Southern is a
national company, you know, sowe we are across the United States.
I used to say we have sixdivisions, but we've grown that, outgrown
that many many years ago. I'min Northern California, but we so we
(39:19):
have a division here in Northern California, Southern California, in Southwest so in
Arizona, in Vegas, Philadelphia,We're in Dallas. What our what are
our company under the name Stilla BrentUSA, which is a part of south
Land now in Dallas, there inSan Antonio, in Houston area and mid
(39:42):
Atlantic. So we are across butwe call like the Smile of the United
States and growing and doing projects acrossmore states across United States. So we
are the let's see, we arethe largest privately hill mechanical contractor in the
United States. We probably have aboutthis year will be just under maybe three
(40:07):
billion in revenue with about sixty sixhundred employees overall. But we're design build
firm that that that has engineering staff, controls UH energy service and obviously the
h V A, C N EP. You know work that we do.
So we we do work in missioncritical healthcare, higher ed life sciences.
(40:36):
Well, we do what you know. We we we like to tackle
complex projects. We love doing designbuild work because we feel that we bring
value to our owners and GC partnersby having that in house capability to take
a complex project and really design itin the most proficient way with the end
user in mind. We we havecross learning across our divisions, so all
(41:00):
our divisions with their own shops andand capabilities that we were able to learn
from each other and we we we'vedone some of the largest largest hospitals in
the in the country as well asdata centers. So it's it's a it's
a again. My seventeen years here, it's been such an amazing transition for
(41:21):
me UH to come here one dayas a as a general superintendent, you
know, and to to be ableto grow and to learn as I have
and to be very proud of whatwe what we do, and this company
has stretched me and and but alsogiven me like the access to do it.
We put a lot of emphasists ontraining. I wasn't here probably a
(41:42):
month and I was in a trainingfor a week and got sent to back
then was like our corporate office inSoCal and there for a week with other
my peers across the company, sittingdown with our executives, uh, and
being taught about one whose south Plandis and then where do you fit in
Southland? And really helping you understandthat you really are valued here and and
(42:07):
we're going to invest in you inthis way not only to show you that,
but to help build your career andwant you to take a responsibility and
an ownership. Uh. We alsoare you know a company that that has
that where I'm a part owner ofthis company now, you know, And
that was that's been several years nowwhere you have this opportunity and I was
(42:30):
as a superintendent where I was ableto take part in that, you know.
So so it's been a lot ofopportunity here and and just the progressive
thinking of our of our CEO,Ted Lynch, down to really make this
company a place where it's a destinationwhere people want to come to work because
(42:50):
we actually do care. We're notperfect company, but I feel like in
my experience, we're one of thebetter ones for sure, in regards to
how we treat people, how weexecute work, how we want to address
the problems that our owners have andour GC partners have, and we want
to solve problems. We are expertsin the crafts that that we are.
(43:13):
You know that we that we areunder our umbrella, and and we have
a lot of smart people in thiscompany, and a lot of people that
care and want to create different experiencesand and and and break some of those
negative stereotypes and statistics that exists inthis industry. And the only way we
do that is by really creating anenvironment where we allow people to actually have
(43:37):
a different experience. Because it's notabout what you say. You know,
hey, we want to be agreat company. Okay, well you got
to do it. And that's goingto last longer and be more impactful.
If you can have a job that'sthat's potentially adversarial or very complex and challenging.
Doesn't mean that every day you goto work we have to have this
contentious environment. So we want tobe a part of work that has integrated
(44:00):
product delivery kind of type focuses,you know, where it's a team environment
where you're you're you're bound together,maybe even contractually, or you just have
an obligation to help each other win. And that has not been the mentality
of this industry. It's about whogets in the first wins and screw the
other person, and that's the loudest, the loudest person, the biggest jerk
(44:21):
wins, and that's the one whomakes the most noise is the winner.
That's been the mentality. And it'sstill like that, like probably more than
it's not. But being in acompany like South Pland, you get a
chance to say, here's what's possiblewhen you tap into one the talent pool
that you have, and not justthe person in the corner office has has
(44:42):
has to have the smartest ideas.It's everyone. But you've got to tap
into those people. You've got toask them questions, you got to get
them involved, you got to helpthem see that their voices do matter.
And and those are the things thatI think are prolific with South Pland and
how we're able to impact the industryand then give people better experiences because when
they have that, they're thinking like, like, how do we do this
(45:06):
again? And even if they goto work for another company, they're going
to think about that experience and sayI want that to happen here. And
it's not as easy just to sayyou want it. It actually definitely takes
work in people that are committed tothe effort. But we're committed to the
effort, and like I say,we want our folks that thinks like entrepreneurs
and not wait for someone that's totell them what to do. We want
(45:30):
them to see some issues and say, well, how do I solve that?
How I'm empowered to make something happenhere? And I think that's one
of the most prolific impactful things thatwe do is that it doesn't matter who
you are, if you have anopinion that we want to hear it.
We want to figure out. Noteveryone's going to work, but we want
(45:50):
to at least want to hear itand figure out how we can execute or
implement that. South Land Industries hasan amazing culture. They've created a safe
place for anybody and if I werenew to construction, I might want to
explore some opportunities there. That's whatit definitely sounds like. So I'll segue
that into my next question before wewrap up. Do you have any advice
(46:20):
for anyone new in construction? Oh? Yeah, that's a great question.
You know. I think it's likeone if you've if you've done any kind
of study or research and you lookat construction and just looks like this this
industry that is just has license badbehavior because it has you know, all
(46:43):
these all these negative things that thatcould look it could be very daunting.
You know what am I going toget myself into here? Like with anything,
I'd say, if it's construction thatyou want to be a part of,
and it's such a dynamic field,so many different areas that you can
go into. Is just believe inyourself. Is really believe in yourself and
your capability and and and have agreat attitude. Come with a willingness to
(47:09):
learn, to be eager, knowhow to be a friend or a trustworthy
partner so that people want to investin you. You don't have to know
everything, and especially coming from thetrades, I mean, our whole model
as an apprentice is as a youngerperson that didn't know anything, but someone
(47:30):
wanted to put their arm around them, you know essentially and say, hey,
let me show you how to dothis, because they wanted to pass
that knowledge down to that next generation. In part, that next generation was
going to be the key to themhaving a retirement, you know, with
(47:50):
them or their work was going tofeed into their pension, you know.
And so there's some you know,self you know kind of goal in that
as well. But but it's reallyabout knowing that we have to pass the
baton, but we have to passthe baton to someone as worthy. And
so I say, know who youare, be confident in your capabilities.
(48:15):
Don't be overwhelmed by someone who's hadyears of experience because you don't know their
journey, and you need to stepup and where you're at and not feel
like you should compare yourself to someonewho's got ten, twenty thirty years on
you. You shouldn't be like them, but be confident in you. And
(48:38):
that's the one thing that I feelwill separate you from other people. When
I was just getting into this trade, my career, my career became a
career when I changed myself and Iwas able to change myself and I became
aware of what the obstacles I wascreating for myself. It was my mindset,
and I took initiative one day andI stepped out into something that I
(49:00):
wasn't one hundred sure I should do, but I knew enough to say I
can make this decision. I didthat, and my foreman at that time
recognized a leadership capability in me,and it literally changed my entire trajectory of
my career. And it wouldn't havehappened if I did not take that initiative.
(49:22):
So I'd say, don't be afraid, be confident, take those risks.
That is great advice. And thankyou for being a guest on our
show. Please everyone like, subscribe, comment, and share the Builder Upper
Show with anyone in the construction industry. We will see you next time.
Thank you. If you're a constructioncontractor and would like to appear as a
(49:55):
guest on our podcast, write usan email. It's Lou at Lumberfi dot com.
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