January 2, 2026 • 47 mins
In this episode of The Builder Upper Show, host Lou Perez sits down with Reggie Torbor, President of Pylon Building Group and former NFL player, to discuss his unique path into the construction industry. Reggie shares his experiences, from playing football at Auburn University and winning a Super Bowl in the NFL, to starting a successful construction company. He emphasizes the importance of mentorship, setting standards, and building a strong organizational culture. Reggie also provides valuable advice for those looking to enter the construction industry and highlights the critical role of faith, discipline, and teamwork in achieving success.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm Lou Perez, your host of The Builder
Upper Show, a podcast where we talk about everything in
construction and trades.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Now let's get into it. I would like to welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Our guest, Reggie Torber, president of Pylon Building Group.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, Reggie, how you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Man? I'm doing well, man, doing well. This Friday, I
get to hang out with you, so it's a great day.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I'm really excited that you here. We've been trying to
plan this podcast. I swear for the longest time, and
just so you guys know, I'll be fully transparent. Reggie
is one of Lumber's clients, a value client. He came
in and hang out with me. He went and hung
out with me in New York at NASDAC and gave
a speech to a lot of other big construction companies
(00:50):
out there.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So I appreciate you taking the time to come on
this podcast and tell us all about yourself. So with
that said, Reggie, I'm gonna kick it out, man, I'm
going to get right into it.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
When did you get into construction?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah? Yeah, well, man, before we get into construction, I
think I would like to return the favor. And man,
I've enjoyed getting to know you. You know, I have
in my life been blessed to have amazing mentors through
different areas of my life. But there's one central thing
that they all suggest that I do, and they preach
(01:24):
to me as surround yourself with great people and great partners.
And I am not into the weeds of lumber like
some of the people. I have some lumber fanboys and
fangirls here about your you all do, but man, I
know that you be a good person and a good partner.
And man, I've enjoyed you and hope to continue that relationship.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
That means the world to me. And I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I mean, I'm the same way I have my mentors
and advisors. You kind of follow what they say and
you end up getting blessed when you're following direction from
people that really know what they're talking about.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, yeah, they earned distracts construction. You How did I
get into construction? I would say I am to say
that it is when Arthur Knox would be an understatement.
You know, most people come to construction two ways. You know,
you either go through school your engineer or building science
(02:21):
or some type of engineer or you know, you walk
onto a job site with a two belt and a
hammer and you say, give me a shot. Neither neither
of those was my approach. I took the scenic group.
So so I guess for me. Speaking of relationships, I
think is a good segue. I went to Auburn University, Okay,
(02:44):
and I'm from Baton Ruth, Louisiana, and I was blessed enough.
I played sports. I played football at Auburn. And when
I was in Auburn, I had back to this idea
and this theme of mentors, really good mentors. Were surrounded
by people who I just say, wanted to see me win, right,
(03:05):
just surrounded by people who wanted to see me win.
And you know they would preach these intangible things, you know,
treat people well, work hard, do what you say you
want to do, be curious, right, don't just do your job,
do what needs to be done. Like those were like
scattered through and they were talking about football most of
the time, but they became who it was, you know.
(03:26):
And I played football at Auburn, went on to play
professional football, played in the NFL for eight years. I
want a Super Bowl play for the Giants, Dolphins, Bills,
had a great career. Wow, Wow, it's pretty cool. Yeah.
So at some point they show you the door, right
like people I retire. You didn't retire. They told you
(03:49):
you were too fat or too slow. You know, I
got this young guy, I'm paying less money. It's time.
So so when that was over, it really didn't know
what I was going to do. Moved to Birmingham, Alabama.
My wife is from Birmingham, which is why people think
I moved to Birmingham. It's really not. We moved here
because I wasn't really sure what the next season of
(04:12):
my life looked like. But I knew enough about the
world to know that networks matter. My strongest network was
an Auburn network because of how I had carried myself.
And the strongest Auburn network I knew about was in Birmingham, Alabama.
And that's my wife why I came here. And there
(04:32):
is a really large general of GC in Birmingham, Braswold
and Gory. It's the largest GC in the Southeast, do
about eight billion dollars worth of work. And also they
are Auburn people. You know most of the founder right,
and it's just it's helpful and they were looking for
(04:53):
a role. It was called personal development. That was the role,
right and basically what it was was, you know, basically
you were in people development. I will work with leaders,
young leaders, emerging leaders, people from the top of the
company to the bottom of the company. And all I
really was doing was using those intangibles that I talked
(05:15):
about earlier. I'm not an engineer, but I understood understand
high level leadership, high level team and that translates to
construction directly to construction. So that is my entry way
into construction.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Wow, that's super powerful. And I meet a lot of
people that come from sports. They have a sports background,
and it's almost like it's game day when it's time
to get to work. You're managing a team. You probably
have your other coaches managing the team. You got your foreman's,
your supers, or you got just project managers, and you
(05:55):
guys are ready to get things done on a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I feel like in construction too, you almost.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Had to keep yourself at an athletic ready build. You know,
you can't stay up all night long the night before
you have to get some sleep.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You have to get prepared. I mean, you got a
long day ahead of you.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So I feel like there's a good transition from sports
to construction. I mean, you're going in to get the
work done, so I appreciate that I do have a
sports background myself. I'll go into that a whole nother time,
but yeah, at that level, it does take a high
level a producer to really make construction successful.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And it's awesome to see where you've.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Came from, Like when you started and when we even
started having conversation, the growth and success has been tremendous.
I feel like your trajectory has been straight up. So
bringing on new employees, I mean you're coaching leadership. You
know how to have conversations with people and build people up.
Would you say there's like a certain formula that you
(06:59):
have when you're building a culture bringing in new employees
or like finding new employees.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yes, Uh, the first thing that I do is set
the standard and that that starts with me. And you
know Tom Coughlin, who I've played for at the Giants,
he used to say this thing all the time, and
I use it all the time. Lazy people don't like
to hang around hardworking people, and hardworking people don't like
to hang around lazy people. You know, and a lot
(07:27):
of times people you're here leaders complaining about their culture, Well,
it's just the reflection of what you are willing to tolerate,
you know. So I think a lot of it is
upsetting a standard and protecting this standard, and that's number one,
and we really start our foundation of creating the standard,
(07:47):
what's expected, how you carry yourself, how you treat other people,
doing what you say you're going to do. That's what
I call the container, right, and that that that container
a tres people, but it also repels people, you know,
which is as equally as important. Once you build that
container right and people feel safe, then you're just finding
(08:11):
people who fit into that container. And once they get there,
you give them the tools that they need and the
support that they need, and you really get out of
their way. You know. So that's an over the simplification
of our approach here and what I've learned. But as
far as you know, the coach said in the standard,
(08:31):
protecting people, giving them what they need to be successful,
creating that vision and you just like, you know, the
thing that I think a lot of times corporate people
miss out on that I think you can learn from
sports is every year you start over. I don't care
if you win the Super Bowl. The next year you
do every everything goes back on the table. Nothing, nothing
(08:56):
gets to pass. Just because it worked last year, It
doesn't mean it's going to work this year. Right, it doesn't.
If it's truthful and right, you don't, it doesn't need
your protection. Put it on the table for critique by
your leadership team. If it's still good, it stays. If
it doesn't, it has to go. You know. That's that's
training camp. That's what happens in training camp, you know.
(09:17):
So these are just principles that we're just applying here.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's so powerful, and I'm glad that you articulated it
that way. I don't think anybody has came on here
and actually said that. I mean, we think of what
we did today is just going to be tomorrow. We
have to continue to look forward and keep building and
keep succeeding. So it's fantastic that that's your mindset. I mean,
of course, yeah, that comes from sports too. I mean,
(09:42):
you have this discipline to you. I can I can
just see it. So did that discipline come from when
you were a kid? I guess how is it how
your parents raised you? I guess how did those roots
get built in you?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah, come from spankings, you know it is. You know
I would say I'm blessed, man, I really am. I
tell I like to say this loot man. I'm just
the product of the people who've invested in me. Right,
And I've had great mentors. You know, my mom was
(10:15):
a great leader. My high school coaches were great leaders.
But you know, at the end of the day, a
lot of what I what I what you experienced with
me is there is the mentor port but also sports.
If you think about it, it is a great leader,
(10:36):
a great trainer of leaders because the results are immediate.
Right If if I don't do what I'm supposed to do,
like that costs me today, right, Like I lose today, right,
And in what we call the real world, right, you
could have a bad habit and it could go on
(10:57):
for years right before you realize that. You know, you
think about what your kids right, like don't don't eat
candy for breakfast? Well, they could do that for a
real long time before they teach start, you know what
I mean? Right, So I am keenly. My life has
taught me to be keenly aware of the impact and
(11:18):
the consequences of poor decisions. So that discipline a lot
of people. When you think of discipline, I think of
like like guardrails, right, Like we live in Birmingham, and
Birmingham is pretty mountainous, right, and there's guardrails everywhere. Well,
you can look at guardrails two ways. You could look
(11:38):
at them as restrictive, right, like you as you will,
you're stopping me from doing something, right. I think that
is a I was going to say immature, But to me,
that is not the best way to view guard rails.
The best way to do view guardrails or protect right.
(12:01):
For me, discipline is protective, and you know, it is
easy for me to say, hey, I am not going
to do this or I'm not going to do that
because I want to do this. And a lot of
times what your experience is people who don't understand the
connection between hey, I would like to accomplish these things,
(12:22):
but they don't make the connection by saying that means
I cannot do these things? Does make sense?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
It does?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I mean you get these like little wins. I'm glad
that you like even brought up the kids. It's like
you can tell them, you know, if you eat you
broccoli today, you are protecting yourself from tomorrow. So these
these little wins just get keep building up over time.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
That's a lot of the stuff that you said, it's
really inspiring. It's like you got to look at these
things as they're protecting yourself. And speaking of inspiring, do
you have any I mean, you mentioned your mom was
a leader, Like do you have insprayed? Where that inspiration
sho come from? Did did it come from your mom? Like,
go ahead and expand on that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So man, you know, I grew up
in the whole. Most of the time it was just myself,
my mom, and my sister, you know. And you know
I had a I have a stepdad who was there
for you know, periods of that childhood. But most of
the time it was that. But you know, not traditional, right,
(13:27):
I would say that the way that I grew up.
But I was never in a position in which I
would say that. Man, I wasn't loved or care for
or safe. You know, my mom worked the butt off,
She worked two or three jobs when she had to
to take care of us.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I always say, we never had any of the things
we wanted but we always had everything that we needed.
M Yeah, we didn't realize how poor we were because
everybody else around us was so poor too, you know.
So know, so I learned a lot from her. Man.
I would even say, like my stepdad, like he did
(14:08):
like sheet rock and painting, mudding work like and he
worked this but like Louisiana summers are hot, you know,
working in houses with with with no h fact, no
mechanical systems. Right. And sometimes I would go to work
with him and like when we will be leaving work
(14:30):
in the summers, like we would be in the van
headed home when he would ask me. He would say, hey,
how was that? What do you think about that? And
I would say it was hard and he would say good.
He said, remember that, right, and that's this is why
you need to go do your school work this, you know,
they would say, get your lesson, right, this is why
(14:50):
you need to get your lesson. And you know, I
have two things that come from that that experience with him.
One is I do understand work hard and how how
my decisions today impact tomorrow. Basically that that's what he
was trying to me. But something that I didn't even
realize that will be impactful to my life, is the
(15:13):
other message that I received. It was an unintended I believe,
but I also received the messages construction is where you
go when you fail, right, Yeah, And I think we
may have talked about this when we were together, right,
But I think a lot of people look at the
construction industry. I think there's a stigma on our industry
(15:35):
that we have to do some work around this idea
of construction is where you go to fail because as
well as you know, you know there's an amazing opportunity
in the construction industry as well as all the ancillary
support services around it. You could change your life for
generations in the field of construction.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
You're absolutely right, man, I feel like that stigma that
you mentioned, it just needs a change.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It's gonna take a lot of work to get.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yes, takes us.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
It does take us. It does.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I mean, we have to keep showing the future generation
what we're doing today and how exciting it is for them.
And it's it's just that industry alone. I mean, that
is the messaging today. And I know that we're I mean,
we're changing it in general. A lot of people that
are listening right now don't know. I mean, we created
a free app for field workers called builder Facts, and
(16:33):
that's just so that they can start uploading their credentials
while they're in school. It doesn't matter if they're not
working in construction right away, and so that they can
upload any certification, certifications, education and start building that profile
so that it follows them throughout their career within construction.
And it's exciting. You get to follow your own journey.
(16:54):
And I know other industries that don't even do this.
So we're trying to do something different that makes that
those kids in school like maybe construction should be my
first pick, Like I can actually go make money, set
myself up. I mean, you don't have to go to college.
You can go to college. There's tech schools or I
would just say focus on educating yourself on the in
(17:15):
the places where you need to be educated.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
So oh yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yeah, uh no, I'm glad that you really brought that up.
It makes a lot of sense. And you know, just
to understand Pylon Building Group, I mean, you started this
company and what are you guys focusing on building?
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah, well there's a little clarification around. You know, I
am the face and I get the you know, you're
a leader, you lead your company, right, Yeah, yeah, I believe.
I believe you can relate to me when I say
we get a lot of the credit, and we get.
But you and I both know that we have an
army of people around behind. Oh yeah, working their tails off,
(17:57):
you know. So I'm no different. You know, I mentioned
earlier my start in construction was Brashwold and Gory. And
while I was in that company, myself and Jim Gory
who's the former CEO, and Rob Blaylock, who's the current CEO,
we were having a discussion around how can we take
(18:18):
two things that we love, that that is construction and
the city of Birmingham, Alabama, and and and make an
impact in our city. And we thought of several different
ways to do that, and one of those was, Hey,
how about we create a company that focuses on you know,
(18:39):
one hundred miles or so radius around Birmingham, Alabama and
do what we call create another circle. Right, this this
idea of these impactful circles that that span only not
a lover your work, but expand to your schools, your communities,
your churches, right wherever you are. Right because we understand
(19:00):
how important those circles are. If you're in one, you know,
you may not understand because it's just like it's just
like everyday life. But if you ever find yourself on
the outside of a circle, right, you realize that your
hard work, dedication and talent matters. But there's a point
in which you're going to bump up into I'm on
the outside, you know. So we wanted to use construction
(19:25):
to create another one, so we created Pilom. It didn't
have a name at the time. We created Pilom Building Group.
So Pilom Building Group currently is a current a Holy
owned Succedi area of Braswan Gory. You know, we work
together to create a amazing amount of support and resources
resources from that company. A lot of people put in
(19:47):
a lot of effort to do it, and the plan
was simple. We are going to work for three years
to build a foundation so that the company could last
seventy five one hundred years. After those three years, when
our strength was built, we built some cash flow, built
some bonding capacity, got some backlog, built some relational capital
(20:09):
in the community, we would roll that company from under
brassfl and Gory and transfer the ownership to me, Lou.
That seems like that conversation was yesterday. It was four
years ago.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
And we have reset points. So Man, on January first,
upcoming twenty six, the ownership will transfer to myself. Man.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Congratulations, that's it is it man?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Thank you? It is exciting and scary at the same time.
You know, yeah, because it's a tremendous effort for to
be the lead of an effort that has so much potential,
right to impact so many people in this community. You know,
one thing that I think will be helpful is our
(21:02):
mission statement. It's something I'm really proud of and it
speaks to the question that that you've asked me. And
our mission is build well to create good. Right. The
build well part is just the work part. It is
my background. It is what we've been talking about. It
is how grown up man. If you don't work, you
(21:22):
don't eat. It is a it is a very simple
age old line, right, like.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
You have to you have to go get the food.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
You got to go get it, right. And we are
not a nonprofit. Right. We don't want people to work
with us because we're cute and cutley, or because we
have relationships with these people. We want people to work
with us because we're the best at what we do
right and and if we will do that build well right,
then from that will come and overflow that that will
(21:51):
allow us to create good build well, to create good
right and and man, we are seeing that already, even
in the own phase in our in our young, young,
young life, We've seen that happen. So we want to
go out and build great projects and execute. And then
(22:14):
we also want to help with our community, right pipelines
and from schools, from high school to college, and partnerships
with colleges to bring them into the workforce one hundred
different ways. Right. But our little way of impacting this
thing that you and I have been talking about is
we will build well so that we can have some
(22:35):
extra to go create. Bit wow.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I mean you talked earlier about how you're blessed, and
I feel like at the same time you're blessing others,
you're blessing your community with creating these other opportunities. I mean,
this is this is big, This is really I feel
like we're we're seeing something that you're scratching the surface here,
and this is something that could be one hundred years
(23:01):
in the making. Oh yeah, really big. I can't wait.
I mean, we'll be even older and look back on
this and be like, man, can you believe that we
had this podcast rate before? Reggie to over like that's
that's wild, you know, would you? I hope you're okay
with me bringing this up. I'm just throwing this out there.
(23:22):
But you seem like you seem like a man of faith.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yeah, yes, yes I am. It means a lot to me,
and you know I have I call it my spiritual journey.
I've been on a spiritual journey since I was nineteen
years old. And you know, I would say it informs.
(23:47):
It informs everything that I do, good or bad. You know,
I would say, at this point in my life, as
I'm forty four, I am at the same time less
searchain about things that I thought I was certain about before.
(24:10):
Right because you're young, you think you read something, It's like,
I got it. I got to figure it out. I've
gotten enough butt kickings in my life to understand that
I don't so less certain about more than I ever have,
but also feel closer to the Lord than I ever
have at the same time, you know, and I believe
(24:31):
that I've gotten comfortable with not knowing everything you know,
and it feels like you get to a point where
you the only way you can make it from there
is to just surrender, you.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Know, yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, I know exactly. You can't go into everything like
you're the know it all. You have to go in
humble and you just got to give it up. And
I mean, yes, work hard, of course you'll get those benefits,
but you have to surrender.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
And just you know, I say this thing, little man like,
we may not know everything, we may not understand anything,
but you have what you need to go do what
you're supposed to be doing. Most of the time, right
it may not look the way that we wanted to
look or we thought the way we thought it would look.
And I do want to be you know, I'm not
(25:26):
a I don't want to be a callous man. There.
Sometimes life happens right, and there's grace for that. But
I do believe at some point we just have to
do what we're supposed to be doing and trust that
will be okay.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I mean, you're you're on a mission right here.
I mean I can I can see it, and it
almost like gives off that feeling you're in a position
where you can share this. I mean, you could share
your experiences. You're going to be sharing your faith with everybody.
But that's I mean, that's it's very clear that this
(26:03):
is your job. Like this, you have to share, share
the word, share the share the Lord, share everything. With
everything that you're building. I mean I can see that
you are doing that today and it's making it. It's
already making a difference. It's amazing, you're setting it up
for success. If everybody's going to have bad days, not
that not every day is going to be perfect, but
(26:27):
as if you have the right mindset, which you do,
I can already see that that mindset gets you through.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
So that's amazing. If someone in your position.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Has I feel like you have to you have to
have some backup, and you have that backup that you need.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Well, man, I mean, it is, it is. It's it's simple.
It's not easy, right, simple conceptually right. Just just treat
people well, man, Just show up in your best state
every day, bring energy and treat people well. But it's
not easy. Some days are hard people, right. But man, again,
(27:08):
I don't want to make it seem like I'm discrediting
hard work and talent. And you know, do I talk
of something I talk about here all the time, work
on your craft. You should always be working on your
craft and developing. Those things are extremely valuable to me.
But those things, while those things can be really great
(27:30):
in building up oneself and helping you attain a position,
those things alone are extremely inefficient. Insufficient is probably the
better word in creating an environment in which everyone can rise, right.
And if you want, if you want to just go,
(27:52):
do you then? Man, just go work hard and read
and develop and blop and you'll find yourself sitting at
the top of the world. But you should caution yourself
and know that you may be alone when you get there.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah, spot on, Yeah, spot on. There's definitely ways to
go about it.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Oh yeah, yeah. Treat people well, man, treat people well,
be generous and treat people well. And man, you'll you'll
find yourself surrounded by people who will do anything to
help you.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I mean, you're I feel like everything that you're saying,
I'm motivated to go out and say hi to everybody.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
You never know, man, you never you never know? I
mean how many times? I mean, you're a very successful Man,
how many times have you, you know, come across someone
and they say it starts off like this, Hey, you
probably don't remember me, right, And then they start telling
a story about when they saw you smiled at them
and you shook their hand or whatever, and it's like
(28:50):
and then I took off in life and you don't
know me, but I just want to thank you. Man,
how many happen?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
It happens and you just don't even realize the impact
that you make on every little path that you cross
and every every action matters.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah. Yeah, Well think about this. If the only people
that we poured into or that we spent time with
were people who are already successful, and I would argue, like, what,
we don't need you, that person was already as successful
that for you know what I mean? Right like you?
We must we must be willing to treat everyone like
(29:31):
they have value.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, it's you.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
That's it's also building your craft what you mentioned before,
and working hard.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It's biblical.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I mean a lot of people know I'm a very
very faithful person and everybody that I meet, I just
I mean I love everybody. Just everybody has something great
about them that everybody has a purpose and some people
need guidance and some people need help. But there's always
opportunities to have great conversations with everyone. With every single person,
(30:03):
there's something positive to pull out of a conversation. If
even somebody's having a bad day, there's something to talk
to them about even though they're having a bad day.
I know a lot of people kind of like to
steer away from those tough conversations. But even in construction,
we work in a tough industry, very tough industry, and
the leaders are the ones that are not afraid to
(30:27):
have those tough conversations and really build their team up
and get them going. I mean, some of these guys
or girls will have tough days and it separates the
true leaders that can bring them up out of those
tough days. And we know that construction has the highest
(30:47):
suicide rate, Like, let's be honest, that's how tough the
industry is.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
It's the highest.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
So what are the leaders doing to enhance their emotional
intelligence and get better at having conversations. How are you
adapting to these times to make a difference. And I
feel like, you know, you can have faith, you can read,
you can do everything, but the main main route thing
(31:16):
is you have to be just nice, Like be nice,
be be humble, be nice, talk to everybody regularly.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
How how you should talk to people?
Speaker 3 (31:27):
You have to get to know and listen. You know,
I would imagine there are some people that tune into
this podcast. There's no way, there's no way that they
could speak to every single person in their company. It
is a problem of scale, right, But you can create
a culture in which you demand that leaders check in
(31:51):
with their direct reports. So so as a as a leader,
you may not be touching these people directly, but indirectly
you can in set of standard in which you were
just I call it just be in tune with your people.
You know you have I'm a realist too, right, Like
you don't have to be everyone's best friend, right, but
(32:12):
you should have like in sports, we call it like
knowing the heartbeat of your team, right, you should kind
of know what's going on with people or have you know,
I had a situation and this was before Polong started,
but you know someone will come say, hey, you might
want to go check on such and such.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Oh yeah yeah, right, So just knowing, like.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Setting that standard and then making yourself known and seeing
viewed as someone who is safe enough for someone to
come and say, hey, man, you might want to go
go check on Jimmy man, you know, and it's just important.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I like the keeping that open forum is super important.
And I'm sure you even having conversations when you were
playing in the NFL and like that's that's also a
tough that's a tough Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah, that's that's the league.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Like you you're talking to some tough people, some tough guys,
you know, when you were playing.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I guess do you have any It could be fun too.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
We can change the subject as far as any stories
that you like to talk about of you know, some experience,
like you can name one, what was one really cool
experience that you had when you were playing in the NFL?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah, man, I have. I played for eight years, man,
and there are so many experiences that mean a lot
to me. And you know, it's kind of like when
you're in something, it doesn't seem like a big deal,
it seems normal. And then but now that I'm out
of it, I'm getting older and I look back and
(33:49):
I'm like, oh man, that was kind of formative for
me or for this relationship or that relationship. You know,
I would just say if I could give an example.
It's hard to give examples because I don't want to
make another group seem like, you know, negative, So I
(34:09):
would just say eighteen. It's still narrows it down to
two teams, but you have to pick one. When I
was with the when I was with the New York Giants,
I'll say this outstanding leadership was there and led in
a way in which you didn't even realize how good
(34:30):
you had it. Right, they were just they were. They
were the team that drafted me. I didn't have anything
else to compare it to. Okay, the other teams I
played for, they were fine, but they weren't anything the
level of when I was with the Giants. Okay, they
(34:53):
cared for us. And when I say cared for us,
not just the players, but like programs for our kids,
programs for our while like people. You know, man, we
work out butts off, we're on the road a lot,
we're gone a lot for them to say, hey, like,
I'm going to invest in this whole person, right, I'm
not going to send them across the country to go
play a game. And they got a pregnant wife at home,
(35:16):
you know, so let's address that also. You know, it
was just really really special and I didn't realize how
special it was until I went somewhere where the level
of care wasn't the same, Right. I think that is
a lesson as I sit in the sea that I
(35:36):
sit in now, there's two things, two things that I
take from that story, and I hope that can be
helpful to you. The first is, man, it's really hard
to go ask the people on our job sites to
do the difficult jobs that we're asking to do and
(35:57):
treat them like a Social Security number or treat them
like a commodity.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Man.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
And the main reason I don't do it because I
know what it feels like, right, like I would don't.
Don't don't treat someone right and in a way that
didn't feel good to you. Is a very good chance
they're not gonna like.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
It, egaloop, Right, You're just another number.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Don't treat them like that, right, because I've had that experience.
The other thing is this, and and and when I
talk to groups, I try to share this pretty I'm
pretty candid about this. A lot of times in a
young person's career, excuse me, we they find themselves surround it.
(36:43):
You're trying to give them everything you can, right, all
the resources, all the opportunities. You know, you're surrounding them
with an advocate. But they just want to go right.
Something about them, they just they just want to go right.
There's a point in my life where I took that
(37:05):
personal right, like, you're ungrateful, blah blah, you leave, you'll
never come back. And I've never said those words directly
to anyone, but inside, you know you're trying to help
someone and it's just like I'm gonna go to this
other company for two dollars two dollars a year, right,
Like there's a point of that that is just human nature. Yeah,
(37:28):
it is really Again, it's just my story. Man. It's
really hard to appreciate a place, a relationship, whether it's
a friend, whether it's a spouse. Right when you haven't
experienced anything else, your words as a leader have a
limited amount of impact on helping someone understand that, man,
(37:52):
this is a really good space if they don't have
anything to compare it to. So, you know, I have
been a part of several times since I've been in
this world where if someone has left in a year
or two, they come back, and man, this may be
an unpopular opinion, but man, we welcome back with open arms,
(38:13):
you know, because sometimes people just have to go on
that journey. It's not disrespectful to you as a leader.
It's not ungratefulness. Sometimes the journey requires them to leave
before they come back, you know. And man, I just
learned that play and ball.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
That's that's amazing. I mean, it means it's so serious.
Everybody does have their own chapters in their books, and
they might need to flip to that chapter, but you're
in a later chapter, you might come back.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I liked it.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
I liked there's other company. Of course, I'm big on culture,
huge culture within my company. Treat everybody with respect, create
a safe environment, just you know, very open conversations with
everybody in the company. I mean they I have an
open door policy. Everybody comes to me if they have
any questions or anything like that. And it's funny the
(39:09):
people that have worked in the industry for a long time,
even just like doing sales or whatever, they will tell
the younger ones that are just out of college that
are coming in.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
They're like, hey, just so you know, this place is different.
This place is nice.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
So if you get comfortable, I think twice if you
think about leaving to go check out, you know, other places,
because you are getting very spoiled here. So and it's
not just spoiled but like you know, with giving them
too much, But it's just spoiled with the culture that
we've created. It's so much fun to come to work.
(39:49):
And that's the kind of environment that we've created. But
you're right, like you almost have to be warned of
what else is out there, how other people work, or
how other people are treating each other. We I mean,
let's be honest, we have competition, and the competition's employees
are coming to us because they didn't create the right culture.
(40:10):
And I'm like, but then I'm going to protect my
current employees.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Like, hey, we got to vet everybody.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
We got to make sure that they're a right fit
for everybody else because I got to I have to
protect everybody else. And this culture that we've created, that's
it's very relatable.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Of what you just said, and that.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Job you're talking about is uniquely yours. Yeah, like that,
I say, there are very few jobs in here that
are mine. Like there you know, there are things that
people can run and do, and they're not going to
send me an email and just right, they're very talented,
you know, but oh, you know, protecting the culture and
who comes and who gets to come and who must leave.
(40:49):
You know, as a as a leader at the top,
that's our job and can't shy away from it. You know,
you must be be willing to fight for people who
needs to come in and stay. But you also need
to be willing to, you know, ask people to leave
that shouldn't be there.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
So before we wrap up, Reggie, is there it? You know,
you're you're getting your feet wet.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Would you have any advice for anybody that's thinking about
getting into construction today?
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yes, two things I would say. One, don't do it alone.
I could not imagine trying to start regardless of your
talent level, or skill level or money financially. Right, I
am you know you notice about me? I am. I
am a proponent of team. I just think things are
(41:44):
better done on the team, and this is one of them.
So make sure you have a group of people surrounding
you and that are committed. The second thing I would
say is be patient. Be patient when it comes to
the relationships that you involve yourself in you know, when
you're getting off the ground construction, Like, obviously cash flow
(42:07):
is a huge problem, right, and you get those you
need jobs, right, You don't have two years worth of backlog, right.
And it is very tempting to take a project that
the only reason you're taking it is for financial I
have experienced it, and I will be transparent against the
(42:31):
against the advice of a mentor of mine. Right, put
us in a position in which we were pursuing a
project with someone that I could tell you right now,
like I knew within thirty minutes not a good person.
Oh wow, Right, But you overlook these things because you're like, oh,
if I could just get past this and it trusts me,
(42:54):
it will never end well. It'll never end well. It
is so concisely. The second piece of advice I would
give is it is better to wait another month or
two and fight it out and figure out how you're
going to stretch money. It's better to do that than
to get involved with someone on a ten, twelve, fifteen
(43:16):
month project that is like sleeping with the enemy. It'll
never turn out well, and for most companies it's catastrophic,
especially in the beginning phases because you're not strong enough
financially operationally to endure it.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
This is strong advice. So this is really good. You know,
I gotta throw it out there. I know you spoke
so much, so great about how you're building pylon and
how you're going about business's it sounds like it's bulletproof
of how you're doing things, which is amazing. You know
(43:59):
you have you have a support behind you. I'd love
to before we like say by and everything like that.
You know you have I'm guessing you have a family
behind you. Is that like your your motivation?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
You know, you get going.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
You see them every day and like, did you get
throw out there a little bit about and of course
they'll probably watch this too, so you got to give
them a shout out.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah you mean my personal family? Yeah? Yeah, oh yeah,
man man listen, man, man, trying to get me emotional
enough man. So so it's funny, I tell you, like,
I've achieved a lot of things in my life, right,
coming from a little kid in Baton Rouge, right, all
the things that I do, right, they're pretty special things.
(44:44):
But at the core, I just really wanted to be
a good husband and a good dad. Love that I
want to be able to provide for my family. I
wanted to be able to be able to set be
a great example. I wanted to be able to help.
I just wanted to be someone that my wife and
my kids were proud of. So, man, they really pushed me.
(45:07):
My wife, I've been married twenty years, met her at Auburn.
That's mcgirl, Michelle. And then I have two boys, nineteen
and eighteen. They're both out of the house. Some inter nestors.
I'm an inter nestor. One that's South Alabama. He runs
track there and he majors inbout medical sciences.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
And my youngest is a freshman at the univers at
West Virginia. He plays football there and he studies on engineering.
So and hopefully one of those will come to the
new family business at some point will say.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Oh, yeah, I love that. I love that. Come work
for dad.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
Yeah, I'll treat you right.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
You should, you should be so proud.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And I can't you know what, out of this whole podcast,
I can't wait for them to see that part.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Pretty cool man, Yeah, no, I really.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
I really appreciate you. Is there anything else that you
kind of want to leave with the with with the viewers.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
You know, where can they find you? How can people
get a hold of you?
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Yeah, yeah, so pretty simple. You know, Pilon Building dot
com is our website and also it's you know, there's
no need to hide your phone number addressing more. People
can google and find anything. So you know, just just
want to reach out to me, you know, R T O,
R b O, R pile on building dot com And
we're always looking for partners, whether it's business or from
(46:32):
a civic duty community standpoint. We we have this view
that we're better together and if there's ever any partners
that want to work together, we're always.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
For amazing and I hope, I hope this really works
out for you. I hope some people reach out to
you to give you some business. Reggie, you deserve it
for all this hard work that you've done. Well, thank
you for being a guest on the show, and please
everyone like, subscribe, comment, share this. The builder up a
(47:02):
show with everyone that you know in the construction industry
and we will see you next time.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
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 everything in
construction and trades.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Now let's get into it. I would like to welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Our guest, Reggie Torber, president of Pylon Building Group.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, Reggie, how you doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Man? I'm doing well, man, doing well. This Friday, I
get to hang out with you, so it's a great day.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I'm really excited that you here. We've been trying to
plan this podcast. I swear for the longest time, and
just so you guys know, I'll be fully transparent. Reggie
is one of Lumber's clients, a value client. He came
in and hang out with me. He went and hung
out with me in New York at NASDAC and gave
a speech to a lot of other big construction companies
(00:50):
out there.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
So I appreciate you taking the time to come on
this podcast and tell us all about yourself. So with
that said, Reggie, I'm gonna kick it out, man, I'm
going to get right into it.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
When did you get into construction?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah? Yeah, well, man, before we get into construction, I
think I would like to return the favor. And man,
I've enjoyed getting to know you. You know, I have
in my life been blessed to have amazing mentors through
different areas of my life. But there's one central thing
that they all suggest that I do, and they preach
(01:24):
to me as surround yourself with great people and great partners.
And I am not into the weeds of lumber like
some of the people. I have some lumber fanboys and
fangirls here about your you all do, but man, I
know that you be a good person and a good partner.
And man, I've enjoyed you and hope to continue that relationship.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
That means the world to me. And I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I mean, I'm the same way I have my mentors
and advisors. You kind of follow what they say and
you end up getting blessed when you're following direction from
people that really know what they're talking about.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, yeah, they earned distracts construction. You How did I
get into construction? I would say I am to say
that it is when Arthur Knox would be an understatement.
You know, most people come to construction two ways. You know,
you either go through school your engineer or building science
(02:21):
or some type of engineer or you know, you walk
onto a job site with a two belt and a
hammer and you say, give me a shot. Neither neither
of those was my approach. I took the scenic group.
So so I guess for me. Speaking of relationships, I
think is a good segue. I went to Auburn University, Okay,
(02:44):
and I'm from Baton Ruth, Louisiana, and I was blessed enough.
I played sports. I played football at Auburn. And when
I was in Auburn, I had back to this idea
and this theme of mentors, really good mentors. Were surrounded
by people who I just say, wanted to see me win, right,
(03:05):
just surrounded by people who wanted to see me win.
And you know they would preach these intangible things, you know,
treat people well, work hard, do what you say you
want to do, be curious, right, don't just do your job,
do what needs to be done. Like those were like
scattered through and they were talking about football most of
the time, but they became who it was, you know.
(03:26):
And I played football at Auburn, went on to play
professional football, played in the NFL for eight years. I
want a Super Bowl play for the Giants, Dolphins, Bills,
had a great career. Wow, Wow, it's pretty cool. Yeah.
So at some point they show you the door, right
like people I retire. You didn't retire. They told you
(03:49):
you were too fat or too slow. You know, I
got this young guy, I'm paying less money. It's time.
So so when that was over, it really didn't know
what I was going to do. Moved to Birmingham, Alabama.
My wife is from Birmingham, which is why people think
I moved to Birmingham. It's really not. We moved here
because I wasn't really sure what the next season of
(04:12):
my life looked like. But I knew enough about the
world to know that networks matter. My strongest network was
an Auburn network because of how I had carried myself.
And the strongest Auburn network I knew about was in Birmingham, Alabama.
And that's my wife why I came here. And there
(04:32):
is a really large general of GC in Birmingham, Braswold
and Gory. It's the largest GC in the Southeast, do
about eight billion dollars worth of work. And also they
are Auburn people. You know most of the founder right,
and it's just it's helpful and they were looking for
(04:53):
a role. It was called personal development. That was the role,
right and basically what it was was, you know, basically
you were in people development. I will work with leaders,
young leaders, emerging leaders, people from the top of the
company to the bottom of the company. And all I
really was doing was using those intangibles that I talked
(05:15):
about earlier. I'm not an engineer, but I understood understand
high level leadership, high level team and that translates to
construction directly to construction. So that is my entry way
into construction.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Wow, that's super powerful. And I meet a lot of
people that come from sports. They have a sports background,
and it's almost like it's game day when it's time
to get to work. You're managing a team. You probably
have your other coaches managing the team. You got your foreman's,
your supers, or you got just project managers, and you
(05:55):
guys are ready to get things done on a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I feel like in construction too, you almost.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Had to keep yourself at an athletic ready build. You know,
you can't stay up all night long the night before
you have to get some sleep.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You have to get prepared. I mean, you got a
long day ahead of you.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So I feel like there's a good transition from sports
to construction. I mean, you're going in to get the
work done, so I appreciate that I do have a
sports background myself. I'll go into that a whole nother time,
but yeah, at that level, it does take a high
level a producer to really make construction successful.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And it's awesome to see where you've.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Came from, Like when you started and when we even
started having conversation, the growth and success has been tremendous.
I feel like your trajectory has been straight up. So
bringing on new employees, I mean you're coaching leadership. You
know how to have conversations with people and build people up.
Would you say there's like a certain formula that you
(06:59):
have when you're building a culture bringing in new employees
or like finding new employees.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yes, Uh, the first thing that I do is set
the standard and that that starts with me. And you
know Tom Coughlin, who I've played for at the Giants,
he used to say this thing all the time, and
I use it all the time. Lazy people don't like
to hang around hardworking people, and hardworking people don't like
to hang around lazy people. You know, and a lot
(07:27):
of times people you're here leaders complaining about their culture, Well,
it's just the reflection of what you are willing to tolerate,
you know. So I think a lot of it is
upsetting a standard and protecting this standard, and that's number one,
and we really start our foundation of creating the standard,
(07:47):
what's expected, how you carry yourself, how you treat other people,
doing what you say you're going to do. That's what
I call the container, right, and that that that container
a tres people, but it also repels people, you know,
which is as equally as important. Once you build that
container right and people feel safe, then you're just finding
(08:11):
people who fit into that container. And once they get there,
you give them the tools that they need and the
support that they need, and you really get out of
their way. You know. So that's an over the simplification
of our approach here and what I've learned. But as
far as you know, the coach said in the standard,
(08:31):
protecting people, giving them what they need to be successful,
creating that vision and you just like, you know, the
thing that I think a lot of times corporate people
miss out on that I think you can learn from
sports is every year you start over. I don't care
if you win the Super Bowl. The next year you
do every everything goes back on the table. Nothing, nothing
(08:56):
gets to pass. Just because it worked last year, It
doesn't mean it's going to work this year. Right, it doesn't.
If it's truthful and right, you don't, it doesn't need
your protection. Put it on the table for critique by
your leadership team. If it's still good, it stays. If
it doesn't, it has to go. You know. That's that's
training camp. That's what happens in training camp, you know.
(09:17):
So these are just principles that we're just applying here.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's so powerful, and I'm glad that you articulated it
that way. I don't think anybody has came on here
and actually said that. I mean, we think of what
we did today is just going to be tomorrow. We
have to continue to look forward and keep building and
keep succeeding. So it's fantastic that that's your mindset. I mean,
of course, yeah, that comes from sports too. I mean,
(09:42):
you have this discipline to you. I can I can
just see it. So did that discipline come from when
you were a kid? I guess how is it how
your parents raised you? I guess how did those roots
get built in you?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah, come from spankings, you know it is. You know
I would say I'm blessed, man, I really am. I
tell I like to say this loot man. I'm just
the product of the people who've invested in me. Right,
And I've had great mentors. You know, my mom was
(10:15):
a great leader. My high school coaches were great leaders.
But you know, at the end of the day, a
lot of what I what I what you experienced with
me is there is the mentor port but also sports.
If you think about it, it is a great leader,
(10:36):
a great trainer of leaders because the results are immediate.
Right If if I don't do what I'm supposed to do,
like that costs me today, right, Like I lose today, right,
And in what we call the real world, right, you
could have a bad habit and it could go on
(10:57):
for years right before you realize that. You know, you
think about what your kids right, like don't don't eat
candy for breakfast? Well, they could do that for a
real long time before they teach start, you know what
I mean? Right, So I am keenly. My life has
taught me to be keenly aware of the impact and
(11:18):
the consequences of poor decisions. So that discipline a lot
of people. When you think of discipline, I think of
like like guardrails, right, Like we live in Birmingham, and
Birmingham is pretty mountainous, right, and there's guardrails everywhere. Well,
you can look at guardrails two ways. You could look
(11:38):
at them as restrictive, right, like you as you will,
you're stopping me from doing something, right. I think that
is a I was going to say immature, But to me,
that is not the best way to view guard rails.
The best way to do view guardrails or protect right.
(12:01):
For me, discipline is protective, and you know, it is
easy for me to say, hey, I am not going
to do this or I'm not going to do that
because I want to do this. And a lot of
times what your experience is people who don't understand the
connection between hey, I would like to accomplish these things,
(12:22):
but they don't make the connection by saying that means
I cannot do these things? Does make sense?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
It does?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I mean you get these like little wins. I'm glad
that you like even brought up the kids. It's like
you can tell them, you know, if you eat you
broccoli today, you are protecting yourself from tomorrow. So these
these little wins just get keep building up over time.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
That's a lot of the stuff that you said, it's
really inspiring. It's like you got to look at these
things as they're protecting yourself. And speaking of inspiring, do
you have any I mean, you mentioned your mom was
a leader, Like do you have insprayed? Where that inspiration
sho come from? Did did it come from your mom? Like,
go ahead and expand on that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So man, you know, I grew up
in the whole. Most of the time it was just myself,
my mom, and my sister, you know. And you know
I had a I have a stepdad who was there
for you know, periods of that childhood. But most of
the time it was that. But you know, not traditional, right,
(13:27):
I would say that the way that I grew up.
But I was never in a position in which I
would say that. Man, I wasn't loved or care for
or safe. You know, my mom worked the butt off,
She worked two or three jobs when she had to
to take care of us.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I always say, we never had any of the things
we wanted but we always had everything that we needed.
M Yeah, we didn't realize how poor we were because
everybody else around us was so poor too, you know.
So know, so I learned a lot from her. Man.
I would even say, like my stepdad, like he did
(14:08):
like sheet rock and painting, mudding work like and he
worked this but like Louisiana summers are hot, you know,
working in houses with with with no h fact, no
mechanical systems. Right. And sometimes I would go to work
with him and like when we will be leaving work
(14:30):
in the summers, like we would be in the van
headed home when he would ask me. He would say, hey,
how was that? What do you think about that? And
I would say it was hard and he would say good.
He said, remember that, right, and that's this is why
you need to go do your school work this, you know,
they would say, get your lesson, right, this is why
(14:50):
you need to get your lesson. And you know, I
have two things that come from that that experience with him.
One is I do understand work hard and how how
my decisions today impact tomorrow. Basically that that's what he
was trying to me. But something that I didn't even
realize that will be impactful to my life, is the
(15:13):
other message that I received. It was an unintended I believe,
but I also received the messages construction is where you
go when you fail, right, Yeah, And I think we
may have talked about this when we were together, right,
But I think a lot of people look at the
construction industry. I think there's a stigma on our industry
(15:35):
that we have to do some work around this idea
of construction is where you go to fail because as
well as you know, you know there's an amazing opportunity
in the construction industry as well as all the ancillary
support services around it. You could change your life for
generations in the field of construction.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
You're absolutely right, man, I feel like that stigma that
you mentioned, it just needs a change.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It's gonna take a lot of work to get.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Yes, takes us.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
It does take us. It does.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I mean, we have to keep showing the future generation
what we're doing today and how exciting it is for them.
And it's it's just that industry alone. I mean, that
is the messaging today. And I know that we're I mean,
we're changing it in general. A lot of people that
are listening right now don't know. I mean, we created
a free app for field workers called builder Facts, and
(16:33):
that's just so that they can start uploading their credentials
while they're in school. It doesn't matter if they're not
working in construction right away, and so that they can
upload any certification, certifications, education and start building that profile
so that it follows them throughout their career within construction.
And it's exciting. You get to follow your own journey.
(16:54):
And I know other industries that don't even do this.
So we're trying to do something different that makes that
those kids in school like maybe construction should be my
first pick, Like I can actually go make money, set
myself up. I mean, you don't have to go to college.
You can go to college. There's tech schools or I
would just say focus on educating yourself on the in
(17:15):
the places where you need to be educated.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
So oh yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yeah, uh no, I'm glad that you really brought that up.
It makes a lot of sense. And you know, just
to understand Pylon Building Group, I mean, you started this
company and what are you guys focusing on building?
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah, well there's a little clarification around. You know, I
am the face and I get the you know, you're
a leader, you lead your company, right, Yeah, yeah, I believe.
I believe you can relate to me when I say
we get a lot of the credit, and we get.
But you and I both know that we have an
army of people around behind. Oh yeah, working their tails off,
(17:57):
you know. So I'm no different. You know, I mentioned
earlier my start in construction was Brashwold and Gory. And
while I was in that company, myself and Jim Gory
who's the former CEO, and Rob Blaylock, who's the current CEO,
we were having a discussion around how can we take
(18:18):
two things that we love, that that is construction and
the city of Birmingham, Alabama, and and and make an
impact in our city. And we thought of several different
ways to do that, and one of those was, Hey,
how about we create a company that focuses on you know,
(18:39):
one hundred miles or so radius around Birmingham, Alabama and
do what we call create another circle. Right, this this
idea of these impactful circles that that span only not
a lover your work, but expand to your schools, your communities,
your churches, right wherever you are. Right because we understand
(19:00):
how important those circles are. If you're in one, you know,
you may not understand because it's just like it's just
like everyday life. But if you ever find yourself on
the outside of a circle, right, you realize that your
hard work, dedication and talent matters. But there's a point
in which you're going to bump up into I'm on
the outside, you know. So we wanted to use construction
(19:25):
to create another one, so we created Pilom. It didn't
have a name at the time. We created Pilom Building Group.
So Pilom Building Group currently is a current a Holy
owned Succedi area of Braswan Gory. You know, we work
together to create a amazing amount of support and resources
resources from that company. A lot of people put in
(19:47):
a lot of effort to do it, and the plan
was simple. We are going to work for three years
to build a foundation so that the company could last
seventy five one hundred years. After those three years, when
our strength was built, we built some cash flow, built
some bonding capacity, got some backlog, built some relational capital
(20:09):
in the community, we would roll that company from under
brassfl and Gory and transfer the ownership to me, Lou.
That seems like that conversation was yesterday. It was four
years ago.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
And we have reset points. So Man, on January first,
upcoming twenty six, the ownership will transfer to myself. Man.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Congratulations, that's it is it man?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Thank you? It is exciting and scary at the same time.
You know, yeah, because it's a tremendous effort for to
be the lead of an effort that has so much potential,
right to impact so many people in this community. You know,
one thing that I think will be helpful is our
(21:02):
mission statement. It's something I'm really proud of and it
speaks to the question that that you've asked me. And
our mission is build well to create good. Right. The
build well part is just the work part. It is
my background. It is what we've been talking about. It
is how grown up man. If you don't work, you
(21:22):
don't eat. It is a it is a very simple
age old line, right, like.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
You have to you have to go get the food.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
You got to go get it, right. And we are
not a nonprofit. Right. We don't want people to work
with us because we're cute and cutley, or because we
have relationships with these people. We want people to work
with us because we're the best at what we do
right and and if we will do that build well right,
then from that will come and overflow that that will
(21:51):
allow us to create good build well, to create good
right and and man, we are seeing that already, even
in the own phase in our in our young, young,
young life, We've seen that happen. So we want to
go out and build great projects and execute. And then
(22:14):
we also want to help with our community, right pipelines
and from schools, from high school to college, and partnerships
with colleges to bring them into the workforce one hundred
different ways. Right. But our little way of impacting this
thing that you and I have been talking about is
we will build well so that we can have some
(22:35):
extra to go create. Bit wow.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I mean you talked earlier about how you're blessed, and
I feel like at the same time you're blessing others,
you're blessing your community with creating these other opportunities. I mean,
this is this is big, This is really I feel
like we're we're seeing something that you're scratching the surface here,
and this is something that could be one hundred years
(23:01):
in the making. Oh yeah, really big. I can't wait.
I mean, we'll be even older and look back on
this and be like, man, can you believe that we
had this podcast rate before? Reggie to over like that's
that's wild, you know, would you? I hope you're okay
with me bringing this up. I'm just throwing this out there.
(23:22):
But you seem like you seem like a man of faith.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yeah, yes, yes I am. It means a lot to me,
and you know I have I call it my spiritual journey.
I've been on a spiritual journey since I was nineteen
years old. And you know, I would say it informs.
(23:47):
It informs everything that I do, good or bad. You know,
I would say, at this point in my life, as
I'm forty four, I am at the same time less
searchain about things that I thought I was certain about before.
(24:10):
Right because you're young, you think you read something, It's like,
I got it. I got to figure it out. I've
gotten enough butt kickings in my life to understand that
I don't so less certain about more than I ever have,
but also feel closer to the Lord than I ever
have at the same time, you know, and I believe
(24:31):
that I've gotten comfortable with not knowing everything you know,
and it feels like you get to a point where
you the only way you can make it from there
is to just surrender, you.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Know, yes, yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, I know exactly. You can't go into everything like
you're the know it all. You have to go in
humble and you just got to give it up. And
I mean, yes, work hard, of course you'll get those benefits,
but you have to surrender.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
And just you know, I say this thing, little man like,
we may not know everything, we may not understand anything,
but you have what you need to go do what
you're supposed to be doing. Most of the time, right
it may not look the way that we wanted to
look or we thought the way we thought it would look.
And I do want to be you know, I'm not
(25:26):
a I don't want to be a callous man. There.
Sometimes life happens right, and there's grace for that. But
I do believe at some point we just have to
do what we're supposed to be doing and trust that
will be okay.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I mean, you're you're on a mission right here.
I mean I can I can see it, and it
almost like gives off that feeling you're in a position
where you can share this. I mean, you could share
your experiences. You're going to be sharing your faith with everybody.
But that's I mean, that's it's very clear that this
(26:03):
is your job. Like this, you have to share, share
the word, share the share the Lord, share everything. With
everything that you're building. I mean I can see that
you are doing that today and it's making it. It's
already making a difference. It's amazing, you're setting it up
for success. If everybody's going to have bad days, not
that not every day is going to be perfect, but
(26:27):
as if you have the right mindset, which you do,
I can already see that that mindset gets you through.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
So that's amazing. If someone in your position.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Has I feel like you have to you have to
have some backup, and you have that backup that you need.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Well, man, I mean, it is, it is. It's it's simple.
It's not easy, right, simple conceptually right. Just just treat
people well, man, Just show up in your best state
every day, bring energy and treat people well. But it's
not easy. Some days are hard people, right. But man, again,
(27:08):
I don't want to make it seem like I'm discrediting
hard work and talent. And you know, do I talk
of something I talk about here all the time, work
on your craft. You should always be working on your
craft and developing. Those things are extremely valuable to me.
But those things, while those things can be really great
(27:30):
in building up oneself and helping you attain a position,
those things alone are extremely inefficient. Insufficient is probably the
better word in creating an environment in which everyone can rise, right.
And if you want, if you want to just go,
(27:52):
do you then? Man, just go work hard and read
and develop and blop and you'll find yourself sitting at
the top of the world. But you should caution yourself
and know that you may be alone when you get there.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah, spot on, Yeah, spot on. There's definitely ways to
go about it.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Oh yeah, yeah. Treat people well, man, treat people well,
be generous and treat people well. And man, you'll you'll
find yourself surrounded by people who will do anything to
help you.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
I mean, you're I feel like everything that you're saying,
I'm motivated to go out and say hi to everybody.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
You never know, man, you never you never know? I
mean how many times? I mean, you're a very successful Man,
how many times have you, you know, come across someone
and they say it starts off like this, Hey, you
probably don't remember me, right, And then they start telling
a story about when they saw you smiled at them
and you shook their hand or whatever, and it's like
(28:50):
and then I took off in life and you don't
know me, but I just want to thank you. Man,
how many happen?
Speaker 1 (28:56):
It happens and you just don't even realize the impact
that you make on every little path that you cross
and every every action matters.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah. Yeah, Well think about this. If the only people
that we poured into or that we spent time with
were people who are already successful, and I would argue, like, what,
we don't need you, that person was already as successful
that for you know what I mean? Right like you?
We must we must be willing to treat everyone like
(29:31):
they have value.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Yeah, it's you.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
That's it's also building your craft what you mentioned before,
and working hard.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It's biblical.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I mean a lot of people know I'm a very
very faithful person and everybody that I meet, I just
I mean I love everybody. Just everybody has something great
about them that everybody has a purpose and some people
need guidance and some people need help. But there's always
opportunities to have great conversations with everyone. With every single person,
(30:03):
there's something positive to pull out of a conversation. If
even somebody's having a bad day, there's something to talk
to them about even though they're having a bad day.
I know a lot of people kind of like to
steer away from those tough conversations. But even in construction,
we work in a tough industry, very tough industry, and
the leaders are the ones that are not afraid to
(30:27):
have those tough conversations and really build their team up
and get them going. I mean, some of these guys
or girls will have tough days and it separates the
true leaders that can bring them up out of those
tough days. And we know that construction has the highest
(30:47):
suicide rate, Like, let's be honest, that's how tough the
industry is.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
It's the highest.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
So what are the leaders doing to enhance their emotional
intelligence and get better at having conversations. How are you
adapting to these times to make a difference. And I
feel like, you know, you can have faith, you can read,
you can do everything, but the main main route thing
(31:16):
is you have to be just nice, Like be nice,
be be humble, be nice, talk to everybody regularly.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
How how you should talk to people?
Speaker 3 (31:27):
You have to get to know and listen. You know,
I would imagine there are some people that tune into
this podcast. There's no way, there's no way that they
could speak to every single person in their company. It
is a problem of scale, right, But you can create
a culture in which you demand that leaders check in
(31:51):
with their direct reports. So so as a as a leader,
you may not be touching these people directly, but indirectly
you can in set of standard in which you were
just I call it just be in tune with your people.
You know you have I'm a realist too, right, Like
you don't have to be everyone's best friend, right, but
(32:12):
you should have like in sports, we call it like
knowing the heartbeat of your team, right, you should kind
of know what's going on with people or have you know,
I had a situation and this was before Polong started,
but you know someone will come say, hey, you might
want to go check on such and such.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Oh yeah yeah, right, So just knowing, like.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Setting that standard and then making yourself known and seeing
viewed as someone who is safe enough for someone to
come and say, hey, man, you might want to go
go check on Jimmy man, you know, and it's just important.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I like the keeping that open forum is super important.
And I'm sure you even having conversations when you were
playing in the NFL and like that's that's also a
tough that's a tough Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yeah, that's that's the league.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Like you you're talking to some tough people, some tough guys,
you know, when you were playing.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I guess do you have any It could be fun too.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
We can change the subject as far as any stories
that you like to talk about of you know, some experience,
like you can name one, what was one really cool
experience that you had when you were playing in the NFL?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Yeah, man, I have. I played for eight years, man,
and there are so many experiences that mean a lot
to me. And you know, it's kind of like when
you're in something, it doesn't seem like a big deal,
it seems normal. And then but now that I'm out
of it, I'm getting older and I look back and
(33:49):
I'm like, oh man, that was kind of formative for
me or for this relationship or that relationship. You know,
I would just say if I could give an example.
It's hard to give examples because I don't want to
make another group seem like, you know, negative, So I
(34:09):
would just say eighteen. It's still narrows it down to
two teams, but you have to pick one. When I
was with the when I was with the New York Giants,
I'll say this outstanding leadership was there and led in
a way in which you didn't even realize how good
(34:30):
you had it. Right, they were just they were. They
were the team that drafted me. I didn't have anything
else to compare it to. Okay, the other teams I
played for, they were fine, but they weren't anything the
level of when I was with the Giants. Okay, they
(34:53):
cared for us. And when I say cared for us,
not just the players, but like programs for our kids,
programs for our while like people. You know, man, we
work out butts off, we're on the road a lot,
we're gone a lot for them to say, hey, like,
I'm going to invest in this whole person, right, I'm
not going to send them across the country to go
play a game. And they got a pregnant wife at home,
(35:16):
you know, so let's address that also. You know, it
was just really really special and I didn't realize how
special it was until I went somewhere where the level
of care wasn't the same, Right. I think that is
a lesson as I sit in the sea that I
(35:36):
sit in now, there's two things, two things that I
take from that story, and I hope that can be
helpful to you. The first is, man, it's really hard
to go ask the people on our job sites to
do the difficult jobs that we're asking to do and
(35:57):
treat them like a Social Security number or treat them
like a commodity.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Man.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
And the main reason I don't do it because I
know what it feels like, right, like I would don't.
Don't don't treat someone right and in a way that
didn't feel good to you. Is a very good chance
they're not gonna like.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
It, egaloop, Right, You're just another number.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Don't treat them like that, right, because I've had that experience.
The other thing is this, and and and when I
talk to groups, I try to share this pretty I'm
pretty candid about this. A lot of times in a
young person's career, excuse me, we they find themselves surround it.
(36:43):
You're trying to give them everything you can, right, all
the resources, all the opportunities. You know, you're surrounding them
with an advocate. But they just want to go right.
Something about them, they just they just want to go right.
There's a point in my life where I took that
(37:05):
personal right, like, you're ungrateful, blah blah, you leave, you'll
never come back. And I've never said those words directly
to anyone, but inside, you know you're trying to help
someone and it's just like I'm gonna go to this
other company for two dollars two dollars a year, right,
Like there's a point of that that is just human nature. Yeah,
(37:28):
it is really Again, it's just my story. Man. It's
really hard to appreciate a place, a relationship, whether it's
a friend, whether it's a spouse. Right when you haven't
experienced anything else, your words as a leader have a
limited amount of impact on helping someone understand that, man,
(37:52):
this is a really good space if they don't have
anything to compare it to. So, you know, I have
been a part of several times since I've been in
this world where if someone has left in a year
or two, they come back, and man, this may be
an unpopular opinion, but man, we welcome back with open arms,
(38:13):
you know, because sometimes people just have to go on
that journey. It's not disrespectful to you as a leader.
It's not ungratefulness. Sometimes the journey requires them to leave
before they come back, you know. And man, I just
learned that play and ball.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
That's that's amazing. I mean, it means it's so serious.
Everybody does have their own chapters in their books, and
they might need to flip to that chapter, but you're
in a later chapter, you might come back.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
I liked it.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
I liked there's other company. Of course, I'm big on culture,
huge culture within my company. Treat everybody with respect, create
a safe environment, just you know, very open conversations with
everybody in the company. I mean they I have an
open door policy. Everybody comes to me if they have
any questions or anything like that. And it's funny the
(39:09):
people that have worked in the industry for a long time,
even just like doing sales or whatever, they will tell
the younger ones that are just out of college that
are coming in.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
They're like, hey, just so you know, this place is different.
This place is nice.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
So if you get comfortable, I think twice if you
think about leaving to go check out, you know, other places,
because you are getting very spoiled here. So and it's
not just spoiled but like you know, with giving them
too much, But it's just spoiled with the culture that
we've created. It's so much fun to come to work.
(39:49):
And that's the kind of environment that we've created. But
you're right, like you almost have to be warned of
what else is out there, how other people work, or
how other people are treating each other. We I mean,
let's be honest, we have competition, and the competition's employees
are coming to us because they didn't create the right culture.
(40:10):
And I'm like, but then I'm going to protect my
current employees.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Like, hey, we got to vet everybody.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
We got to make sure that they're a right fit
for everybody else because I got to I have to
protect everybody else. And this culture that we've created, that's
it's very relatable.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Of what you just said, and that.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
Job you're talking about is uniquely yours. Yeah, like that,
I say, there are very few jobs in here that
are mine. Like there you know, there are things that
people can run and do, and they're not going to
send me an email and just right, they're very talented,
you know, but oh, you know, protecting the culture and
who comes and who gets to come and who must leave.
(40:49):
You know, as a as a leader at the top,
that's our job and can't shy away from it. You know,
you must be be willing to fight for people who
needs to come in and stay. But you also need
to be willing to, you know, ask people to leave
that shouldn't be there.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
So before we wrap up, Reggie, is there it? You know,
you're you're getting your feet wet.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Would you have any advice for anybody that's thinking about
getting into construction today?
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Yes, two things I would say. One, don't do it alone.
I could not imagine trying to start regardless of your
talent level, or skill level or money financially. Right, I
am you know you notice about me? I am. I
am a proponent of team. I just think things are
(41:44):
better done on the team, and this is one of them.
So make sure you have a group of people surrounding
you and that are committed. The second thing I would
say is be patient. Be patient when it comes to
the relationships that you involve yourself in you know, when
you're getting off the ground construction, Like, obviously cash flow
(42:07):
is a huge problem, right, and you get those you
need jobs, right, You don't have two years worth of backlog, right.
And it is very tempting to take a project that
the only reason you're taking it is for financial I
have experienced it, and I will be transparent against the
(42:31):
against the advice of a mentor of mine. Right, put
us in a position in which we were pursuing a
project with someone that I could tell you right now,
like I knew within thirty minutes not a good person.
Oh wow, Right, But you overlook these things because you're like, oh,
if I could just get past this and it trusts me,
(42:54):
it will never end well. It'll never end well. It
is so concisely. The second piece of advice I would
give is it is better to wait another month or
two and fight it out and figure out how you're
going to stretch money. It's better to do that than
to get involved with someone on a ten, twelve, fifteen
(43:16):
month project that is like sleeping with the enemy. It'll
never turn out well, and for most companies it's catastrophic,
especially in the beginning phases because you're not strong enough
financially operationally to endure it.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
This is strong advice. So this is really good. You know,
I gotta throw it out there. I know you spoke
so much, so great about how you're building pylon and
how you're going about business's it sounds like it's bulletproof
of how you're doing things, which is amazing. You know
(43:59):
you have you have a support behind you. I'd love
to before we like say by and everything like that.
You know you have I'm guessing you have a family
behind you. Is that like your your motivation?
Speaker 2 (44:12):
You know, you get going.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
You see them every day and like, did you get
throw out there a little bit about and of course
they'll probably watch this too, so you got to give
them a shout out.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah you mean my personal family? Yeah? Yeah, oh yeah,
man man listen, man, man, trying to get me emotional
enough man. So so it's funny, I tell you, like,
I've achieved a lot of things in my life, right,
coming from a little kid in Baton Rouge, right, all
the things that I do, right, they're pretty special things.
(44:44):
But at the core, I just really wanted to be
a good husband and a good dad. Love that I
want to be able to provide for my family. I
wanted to be able to be able to set be
a great example. I wanted to be able to help.
I just wanted to be someone that my wife and
my kids were proud of. So, man, they really pushed me.
(45:07):
My wife, I've been married twenty years, met her at Auburn.
That's mcgirl, Michelle. And then I have two boys, nineteen
and eighteen. They're both out of the house. Some inter nestors.
I'm an inter nestor. One that's South Alabama. He runs
track there and he majors inbout medical sciences.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
And my youngest is a freshman at the univers at
West Virginia. He plays football there and he studies on engineering.
So and hopefully one of those will come to the
new family business at some point will say.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Oh, yeah, I love that. I love that. Come work
for dad.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
Yeah, I'll treat you right.
Speaker 2 (45:47):
You should, you should be so proud.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
And I can't you know what, out of this whole podcast,
I can't wait for them to see that part.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Pretty cool man, Yeah, no, I really.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
I really appreciate you. Is there anything else that you
kind of want to leave with the with with the viewers.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
You know, where can they find you? How can people
get a hold of you?
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Yeah, yeah, so pretty simple. You know, Pilon Building dot
com is our website and also it's you know, there's
no need to hide your phone number addressing more. People
can google and find anything. So you know, just just
want to reach out to me, you know, R T O,
R b O, R pile on building dot com And
we're always looking for partners, whether it's business or from
(46:32):
a civic duty community standpoint. We we have this view
that we're better together and if there's ever any partners
that want to work together, we're always.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
For amazing and I hope, I hope this really works
out for you. I hope some people reach out to
you to give you some business. Reggie, you deserve it
for all this hard work that you've done. Well, thank
you for being a guest on the show, and please
everyone like, subscribe, comment, share this. The builder up a
(47:02):
show with everyone that you know in the construction industry
and we will see you next time.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
If you're a construction contractor and would like to appear
as a guest on our podcast, write us an email.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
It's lou at Lumberfi dot com,
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