#029 - Curtis Reed from Bear General Contracting - Architecture and life

Welcome to our podcast. If you're new to our podcast, the podcast was created by two Architect that felt they needed to  share their experience and hardships not only in our profession but in life and family.

On today's episode we invited Curtis Reed, AIA. He works for Bear General Contracting and is involved with highly technical and design portions of the business. Graduated from Mississippi State, lived in Montgomery Alabama for a few years before coming to Pensacola with his wife. He now works for a general contractor helping with all sort of technological equipment and has brought his knowledge of architecture into the company to make them amazing.

If you guys have any questions or comments please reach out to us at our Facebook pages or via email.

Transcript

Audio file

Podcast #29 - Curtis Reed - Schooling profession licensure and present.mp3

Transcript

00:00:05 Speaker 1

Welcome to the T ^2 dad's Brown Bag podcast. Here's your host, Kyle Baker and Dieter Burrell.

00:00:18 Speaker 2

Thank you Curtis for, for, for joining me on this podcast I wanted to.

00:00:24 Speaker 2

Gonna just let everybody know that Curtis Reed, he's a licensed architect and he works for Barry.

00:00:29 Speaker 2

General contracting.

00:00:31 Speaker 2

If I'm saying it correctly, I I invited him to come to this podcast so that he can tell us a little bit about his his background.

00:00:38 Speaker 2

What university he went to and how he kind of stumbled into into working with with these contractors.

00:00:45 Speaker 2

Tell us a little bit about about your history.

00:00:47 Speaker 3

Yeah, I appreciate you having me on, Dieter.

00:00:49 Speaker 3

Pleasure to be here knowing you for a couple of years now.

00:00:52 Speaker 3

It's been a pleasure working with you on the the instances that we do get to work together.

00:00:57 Speaker 3

My journey to where I'm at has definitely been a little bit.

00:00:59 Speaker 3

Different than the traditional path started out at Mississippi State University, where part of the curriculum, as you're in the second semester.

00:01:08 Speaker 3

The second year and the first semester of third year.

00:01:11 Speaker 3

It branches off a little bit and you actually partner up with the building construction Science department.

00:01:15 Speaker 3

So in our education we get a lot more exposure to the construction side of things and we actually get the real world experience of having to estimate a project and actually doing the hands on construction of some physical built projects while still in college that are on a lot larger scale than most.

00:01:31 Speaker 3

Architecture schools are with so.

00:01:33 Speaker 3

I did work in a traditional architecture firm for a number of years up in Montgomery.

00:01:36 Speaker 3

AL moved down to Pensacola and still continue to work for that firm remote for a bit and then got picked up by their general contractors to kind of.

00:01:45 Speaker 3

Bring a lot of the technology that's used on the architecture side into the general contracting profession where they don't typically have a lot of technology.

00:01:53 Speaker 3

On site. So yeah, we're integrating 3D modeling and we've got drones that work out there. We've got GPS services with some of our site utility equipment.

00:02:01 Speaker 3

So it's a lot of tech and my role that kind of just gets integrated and tries to make our entire process a little bit more hands off and a little bit faster to operate.

00:02:12 Speaker 2

So so you're you're a Mississippi State.

00:02:14 Speaker 2

So they have a what, a five year degree or or?

00:02:17 Speaker 3

Yeah, five year bachelor and I I took some sweet time with that. I think from start to finish I started in 2012 and finished up in 2019 with a a full year Co-op in there.

00:02:25 Speaker 3

So I took a little bit of a victory lap but made.

00:02:28 Speaker 3

It eventually, and that's the important part.

00:02:29 Speaker 2

Were you a big football fan?

00:02:32 Speaker 3

You know, going into it, I couldn't care less about college football, but it only took about one year to really get into it and see the environment of it.

00:02:40 Speaker 3

Now I've got I think I keep a cowbell in my car at all times, just in case if I ever need to ring it at someone.

00:02:46 Speaker 3

But yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to college football season in a few weeks.

00:02:49 Speaker 2

I know, I know that when I went to the University of Florida, I I didn't.

00:02:53 Speaker 2

I wasn't into the Florida Gators.

00:02:55 Speaker 2

I actually was a dolphin fan and then became a little bit of a hurricane.

00:03:00 Speaker 2

You know, Miami hurricane.

00:03:02 Speaker 2

But I think there's a college experience you get, you get pulled into that whole, you know, college football mentality.

00:03:09 Speaker 3

There's no avoiding it.

00:03:10 Speaker 3

You have to be a.

00:03:11 Speaker 3

Part of.

00:03:12 Speaker 3

And it helps that the first year I was there, we were not a great team, but I was there for the Dak Prescott years.

00:03:18 Speaker 3

So that was pretty exciting to see and the team was #1 in the country for a number of weeks. It didn't last forever and it definitely won't happen anytime again soon, but.

00:03:27 Speaker 3

Yeah, that kind of environment transforms you pretty quick into into being a big.

00:03:31 Speaker 3

College football fan.

00:03:33 Speaker 2

So, so when you graduated and so you stayed, you stayed in Mississippi, or did you kind of?

00:03:39 Speaker 2

Travel somewhere.

00:03:40 Speaker 3

Now Mississippi.

00:03:41 Speaker 3

'S got a.

00:03:42 Speaker 3

Pretty decent problem with brain drain.

00:03:45 Speaker 3

Mississippi and Alabama kind of both do where they do anything they can to try and retain you in state.

00:03:49 Speaker 3

But yeah, the.

00:03:50 Speaker 3

First, the the main years of the the curriculum for architecture in Starkville, Ms.

00:03:55 Speaker 3

which is kind of just in a desert in the middle of nowhere.

00:03:59 Speaker 3

There's not many opportunities.

00:04:00 Speaker 3

In that size city, the last year of school, they send you to Jackson, Ms.

00:04:04 Speaker 3

which has kind of had its problems of its.

00:04:06 Speaker 3

Known, and they're losing a lot of people out of state too.

00:04:09 Speaker 3

So from those I had a full year Coop in Montgomery, AL back to Jackson, Ms.

00:04:15 Speaker 3

for my last year and then back over to Alabama when I graduated for about three years.

00:04:20 Speaker 3

So now never besides, school never, never really stayed in Mississippi.

00:04:25 Speaker 2

How long did it take you to get licensed?

00:04:27 Speaker 2

And we, we always have like a spectrum of people, especially the old.

00:04:29 Speaker 2

Guys, I take it it takes them almost 10 years to get licensed and some people just like within, you know, a few years to get license right away.

00:04:35 Speaker 3

So I'm definitely, yeah, definitely on the low end of that spectrum.

00:04:38 Speaker 3

And I'll feel free to talk through any of the process that kind of helped me pass those pretty quick.

00:04:43 Speaker 3

A lot of it behind it is kind of having a supportive firm that gives you the materials.

00:04:47 Speaker 3

We had study materials provided to us and I used.

00:04:49 Speaker 3

To work for a company called.

00:04:51 Speaker 3

In Litchfield, Montgomery, AL.

00:04:52 Speaker 3

And they, they have a very developed program of training interns.

00:04:56 Speaker 3

I think they took on something like 30 summer interns this year.

00:04:59 Speaker 3

I mean, they take just a ridiculous amount because they got.

00:05:01 Speaker 3

Kind of work, and they've always been really good about that.

00:05:03 Speaker 3

We would about double in size over the summer, but we had access to study materials and if you pass the test, they reimbursed the cost of it.

00:05:12 Speaker 3

So a lot less risk of going in there for a first time and not having to kind of put up the money.

00:05:16 Speaker 3

If you felt confident you could pass.

00:05:19 Speaker 3

But I graduated and I guess may.

00:05:22 Speaker 3

Of 2019 and my plan was to take one exam per month and get them all knocked out in.

00:05:27 Speaker 3

Six months.

00:05:28 Speaker 3

So December of 2019, I passed my 6th exam without failing any of them and was licensed in six months.

00:05:36 Speaker 2

That's that's that's amazing.

00:05:37 Speaker 2

I I heard also, I don't know if.

00:05:40 Speaker 2

Jordan Lee.

00:05:41 Speaker 2

If you've ever met him.

00:05:43 Speaker 2

I I heard that he he was able to take all his tests within a year or something of that.

00:05:47 Speaker 2

And and I knew another gentleman, too, Craig Dupuis.

00:05:50 Speaker 2

He used to work with me at STOA.

00:05:52 Speaker 2

He also went through that same process.

00:05:54 Speaker 2

And he.

00:05:54 Speaker 2

Passed those things fast.

00:05:56 Speaker 3

Yeah, there, there are a couple of people.

00:05:57 Speaker 3

And part of it is kind of just making the competitive environment to it.

00:06:01 Speaker 3

If you have a couple of people that you're kind of racing against, we had a big board that was hung in the side of the office and you get to move your little cut out of your head on to the next test.

00:06:09 Speaker 3

As you passed each.

00:06:10 Speaker 3

1 So it's if it's a competitive nature, sometimes that kind of makes you.

00:06:13 Speaker 3

Try a little bit harder and saying I got to make sure I can do what I can to to pass on the first try, but we had a couple of people.

00:06:19 Speaker 3

That were under a year to pass all six exams and yeah, me and I think one of the other guys at the time were around 6 to 8 months through it.

00:06:28 Speaker 3

And so it it was a process.

00:06:30 Speaker 3

I mean it was, it was me getting out there and I lived across the street from the office and pretty much every single day I didn't have social media during this time period.

00:06:39 Speaker 3

I would get.

00:06:41 Speaker 3

Off work, walk across the street.

00:06:43 Speaker 3

Study for a couple of hours.

00:06:44 Speaker 3

Go to the gym, eat dinner, study for a couple more hours.

00:06:47 Speaker 3

So it's it's a rigorous routine that it takes, but it's definitely something possible.

00:06:51 Speaker 2

Yeah, but you knocked it out fast and then and then we moved on.

00:06:55 Speaker 2

So once you got licensed, what did you did you stay with the company for a while and then kind of moved on?

00:07:03 Speaker 3

So I was.

00:07:04 Speaker 3

So I was with that company for probably about three or four years total one of those years was the Co-op at first.

00:07:10 Speaker 3

And then, yeah, within my first six months of being back, I got licensed there while I was in the the test taking mood.

00:07:17 Speaker 3

I also got lead AP certification after all those ones.

00:07:20 Speaker 3

Just to kind of have that knocked out as well because I you and I both know it.

00:07:26 Speaker 3

The longer you kind of let it go, the more busy you get and the more things kind of get in there and.

00:07:30 Speaker 3

If I had to take, if I had to have that study routine for for the six exams these days, I don't know if I'd be able to find that time.

00:07:37 Speaker 3

Anymore. So it's.

00:07:39 Speaker 3

Just ripping the Band-Aid off and getting to it before you get too busy.

00:07:42 Speaker 3

You know.

00:07:43 Speaker 2

It happens to a lot of the students and a lot of the interns that I've seen where they where live just becomes overwhelming.

00:07:50 Speaker 2

They have.

00:07:50 Speaker 2

They get married, they have kids, you know, and also.

00:07:53 Speaker 2

And the kids just eat your, eat your up, your time up.

00:07:57 Speaker 3

They're time consuming.

00:07:58 Speaker 2

Yeah, it it does, you know, and then you have all the work engagements and everything else and it just kind of overwhelms people.

00:08:06 Speaker 2

A lot of the times, you know, it's like it's just too much and that's what they end up perpetuating.

00:08:11 Speaker 2

And I hate that end card and I don't know, maybe if it be hate is maybe too strong of a word, but I I dislike that.

00:08:18 Speaker 2

End card kind of created that five year.

00:08:22 Speaker 2

Window and also when you start dropping.

00:08:23 Speaker 3

The rolling clock.

00:08:24 Speaker 2

Yeah, the rolling block.

00:08:25 Speaker 3

So they've, they've since rescinded that and I think that was a big push during COVID when people schedules got thrown all out of whack.

00:08:31 Speaker 3

So yeah, if that was something affecting you in the past.

00:08:33 Speaker 3

Luckily I think that they've gotten rid of those those requirements now.

00:08:38 Speaker 2

In the offices that you worked in the past, did what was the culture, did you, did you guys have a really good culture depending on where you where you worked at or did you feel a lot of conflicts you know with?

00:08:51 Speaker 3

I've no, I've never.

00:08:52 Speaker 3

I've never worked in a in office.

00:08:53 Speaker 3

It was too confrontational when I worked in CC and Litchfield, it was that was the third company I worked for.

00:09:00 Speaker 3

So I had had two previous summer internships back up in Saint Louis.

00:09:04 Speaker 3

Through my first couple years of school.

00:09:06 Speaker 3

Those were very small firms, so it was a small residential and then a small commercial.

00:09:09 Speaker 3

So this firm was more medium sized.

00:09:13 Speaker 3

I think the thing that makes kind of the biggest difference in how you like to operate, there's like the vertical structure of a firm or a horizontal structure of the firm, the horizontal being, I think if you start the project, you take it all the way through CD's, you take it all the way through construction administration.

00:09:27 Speaker 3

I might have these reversed, but it's one person kind of managing the project from start to finish rather than a firmware.

00:09:33 Speaker 3

Someone does the construction documents and then they pass it off to a different department to write the specifications.

00:09:38 Speaker 3

So the firms that I've always worked in the the way that I like to, to manage projects is you're attached to it from the start to the.

00:09:51 Speaker 3

You are the person that did the specs and I think that makes a big difference in kind of the culture because you don't have this department pitted against that department and saying why did you do it this way?

00:09:59 Speaker 3

Why did you do it this way?

00:10:00 Speaker 3

You didn't transmit this.

00:10:01 Speaker 3

I think that kind of helps resolve a lot of the issues there.

00:10:06 Speaker 2

You know, I get a lot of people or some people.

00:10:09 Speaker 2

When I was working at another company before I went out on my own was, I think that the biggest failure that occurs in bigger companies is that you come out of.

00:10:20 Speaker 2

Much they put you in a niche to just draw draw all the time and and then they.

00:10:25 Speaker 3

Bathroom details and.

00:10:28 Speaker 2

You you don't get the whole full spectrum from start meeting the client, going through the process of, you know meeting with your engineers, you know, figuring out the details, figuring out the structure, figuring out the design and then, you know, going through the whole construction process, administration, etcetera and then closing out.

00:10:49 Speaker 2

They don't.

00:10:50 Speaker 2

You don't get to see that.

00:10:51 Speaker 2

I realized that when I was working at a big firm in Miami and then going to a small firm, I think the small firms do give you more.

00:10:59 Speaker 2

Of that spectrum.

00:11:00 Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah.

00:11:01 Speaker 3

And and I've never personally worked at what I would consider to be a large firm.

00:11:05 Speaker 3

And that is kind of the comments that I hear sometimes and nothing against the way that they operate.

00:11:08 Speaker 3

Obviously they handle projects on a much different scale than we were capable of doing, but I have heard so many people that kind of just get so siloed or pigeonholed into this is what I do.

00:11:17 Speaker 3

And I I know how to do this and I can't really get outside that box, because now that I'm good at this.

00:11:22 Speaker 3

They bring me to that for everything.

00:11:25 Speaker 3

When you're when you're with the smaller companies.

00:11:27 Speaker 3

That's only three or four people sometimes, and it's one of those you have to be the guy at the table for the first meeting, and you've got to be the guy out at the field for construction administration.

00:11:35 Speaker 3

You got to wear a lot more hats when you when you kind of have to cover all the bases there which.

00:11:39 Speaker 3

If I'm going to advise anyone for an internship anywhere, I would say start at a small firm so you can see the wide range.

00:11:45 Speaker 3

It might not be as big and.

00:11:47 Speaker 3

High profile work.

00:11:48 Speaker 3

That you think you want to see in the magazines or something, but it lets you really experience from start to finish because they need people at all those bases.

00:11:57 Speaker 2

Right.

00:11:57 Speaker 2

So so you're you're you're doing your business, you're you're in your company, you kind of migrate and also in how did you, how did you land in Pensacola?

00:12:08 Speaker 3

So my my wife is actually born and raised in Pensacola, and she went off to Mississippi State.

00:12:13 Speaker 3

We met up there and she got a good job.

00:12:15 Speaker 3

She works with the hospital systems here in town and I was up in Montgomery, AL, and I was like, you know, wouldn't be.

00:12:21 Speaker 3

Wouldn't be the worst thing to move down to Pensacola for the beaches, a little bit better beaches in Pensacola.

00:12:26 Speaker 3

I always say the Montgomery.

00:12:28 Speaker 3

Not that I didn't enjoy my time there or anything, but yeah, having the opportunity to move down here.

00:12:34 Speaker 3

Definitely a great place to be.

00:12:35 Speaker 3

I really, really enjoy it.

00:12:37 Speaker 2

So so you came here, you landed a job.

00:12:39 Speaker 2

What was your first job with Bear?

00:12:42 Speaker 3

So it was actually while I was at CC and Litchfield Architects.

00:12:46 Speaker 3

I don't know if I'd want to share the screen to show a picture of the project we had.

00:12:51 Speaker 3

We had done a lot of kind of historical architecture projects around Alabama and we saw an RFP for renovations to the old Defuniak Springs Courthouse project. It was built in like the 1920s.

00:13:02 Speaker 3

We were trying to expand into Florida a bit and because of our experience, we ended up winning that project.

00:13:07 Speaker 3

I was the one kind of over top of putting together the drawings and I was down here already meeting with general contractors to try and find people to bid the project.

00:13:16 Speaker 3

Bear ended up bidding the project and to want it so kind of on the early stages of me handing off to the GC, I started to meet the guys, got I got ingrained and got an offer to kind of start something a little bit more experimental.

00:13:28 Speaker 3

On this side.

00:13:29 Speaker 3

So I was I was kind of playing for both teams on that one and that there be a problem that pops up when they point back to well, who drew it.

00:13:35 Speaker 3

And I was like, oh, that was me that drew it.

00:13:38 Speaker 2

What year was that?

00:13:39 Speaker 2

I'm trying to you said it.

00:13:42 Speaker 3

Yeah, I want to say that that was.

00:13:45 Speaker 3

I think it was during COVID. I think it bid in late 2020 or early 2021 and construction just wrapped up July of 2022.

00:13:54 Speaker 2

OK.

00:13:55 Speaker 2

OK.

00:13:55 Speaker 2

That makes sense.

00:13:56 Speaker 2

So you you went, you went to bear and they said, hey, we need an architect and we're going to do what?

00:14:03 Speaker 2

I mean the date brainstorm with you and or did you bring something to the table that said I got great ideas.

00:14:08 Speaker 2

Guys, we're going to do this.

00:14:10

Now I've I've.

00:14:10 Speaker 3

Got to give them credit.

00:14:11 Speaker 3

This was all something on their own.

00:14:13 Speaker 3

Of their leadership kind of saying, hey, I heard about this term VDC where you kind of integrate technology on that side with the construction things we think that could help us give an advantage.

00:14:23 Speaker 3

It was nothing on my radar whatsoever to to make a jump like that.

00:14:28 Speaker 3

I actually kind of operated an office down here for the other firm where I was doing a lot of DoD kind of military.

00:14:33 Speaker 3

Working this opportunity came directly from them saying, hey, this is something more experimental and all the work that we do is on the commercial side.

00:14:41 Speaker 3

We don't really handle anything better, so it was kind of a change in pace and what I'd be working on and really just for the the connections that I think it offered.

00:14:48 Speaker 3

I mean it's one of those.

00:14:49 Speaker 3

Being in Pensacola, I wasn't too connected to anyone here, but as soon as I kind of jumped ship and started working for Bear GC, it's one of those I can walk down the streets and I can tell you who probably owns these buildings and what they're planning on doing with them.

00:15:02 Speaker 3

It's a lot more insight and under the hood with a a city that's kind of as connected as Pensacola is.

00:15:08 Speaker 3

So just a unique opportunity.

00:15:10 Speaker 2

And it's and it's growing and and, you know and you touched on a few things you know using drones.

00:15:15 Speaker 2

You know 3 dimensional walkthroughs integrating all this kind of stuff, this new technology.

00:15:20 Speaker 2

And you know, there's probably a lot of students out there that that they, they always wonder.

00:15:25 Speaker 2

And I think even in the in the field of architects, because you listen to the architects and I've worked for like the three biggest firms in Pensacola and there isn't this dialogue like you're you're having.

00:15:35 Speaker 2

Right now, and you're sharing what bear Bear is trying to achieve.

00:15:39 Speaker 2

You know, with your help, did you did you have to go through like some sort of like seminar to try to see what things to implement into the field of construction that that will help them?

00:15:49 Speaker 3

It's it's kind of trial and error really and and a lot of the times it's not even the tech necessarily on things that can make the biggest improvements.

00:15:56 Speaker 3

It's me saying, well, I've worked somewhere else. This is how we used to kind of manage or one of the first things that I did when I came over is our file system on our back end of where we save. Everything was really kind of brought over from someone else's past company and there was a lot of information we weren't using.

00:16:10 Speaker 3

I made an excel sheet that tracked down every single branch of every single file and I showed what we're actually using and it was less than half.

00:16:16 Speaker 3

So I revised our entire entire file saving structure to really just kind of streamline and make sure that our PM's and superintendents aren't having to dig through a bunch of folders to find the information.

00:16:26 Speaker 3

They need, it's it.

00:16:27 Speaker 3

It's really just kind of as someone like yourself who's an architect.

00:16:31 Speaker 3

You understand that the profession is definitely not just black and white.

00:16:34 Speaker 3

I mean, you quickly become a Jack of all trades.

00:16:36 Speaker 3

So it's me kind of looking for any instance that I can make an improvement that helps someone else operate better.

00:16:42 Speaker 3

So we're kind of the go to department of someone throws up a red flag saying I've got this.

00:16:47 Speaker 3

Here is this something you can look at and we'll say, yeah, we'll turn around to solution and have it back to you and.

00:16:52 Speaker 3

Try and help you out with RFI's or something like that if it helps.

00:16:54 Speaker 3

You move the project forward.

00:16:57 Speaker 3

There's definitely been some solutions that we've tried to implement and it was things that after a couple of weeks, couple months we're like.

00:17:02 Speaker 3

That's just not the way we need to do it, so trial and error also on.

00:17:05 Speaker 3

What doesn't doesn't work.

00:17:07 Speaker 2

Yeah, I've seen some video videos where the contractors use uh.

00:17:13 Speaker 2

I think is some sort of mapping system that uses the computer and you can wear either an AR camera like glasses and then you can walk around.

00:17:23 Speaker 2

You can see like the technical BIM modeling in space with the what do they call the QR codes in certain locations?

00:17:32 Speaker 2

Are you guys kind of progressing into that to get better?

00:17:35 Speaker 3

We've we've seen that we do have a VR set up that we can.

00:17:39 Speaker 3

It's been a while since we've used it and it depends on what rendering program you're using.

00:17:43 Speaker 3

Yeah, some of the first things that we did is putting yourself in there.

00:17:46 Speaker 3

So you can see what it's like to be on the 12th story of a, a hotel high rise or something really gives you a kind of different perspective on what you're looking.

00:17:52 Speaker 3

At and the scale of things being.

00:17:56 Speaker 3

With this company, one of the things that helped us kind of do is make connections with other.

00:17:59 Speaker 3

Companies in the area not as a competitor.

00:18:02 Speaker 3

So Brasfield and Gorrie, who's doing the Baptist hospital?

00:18:05 Speaker 3

We were really ingrained with them to kind of see behind the scenes in their process and the reason that RV DC department kind of got started is because that they've got a pretty advanced BDC department.

00:18:16 Speaker 3

And I talked a lot with a girl over there named Pauline, who's a background of a civil engineer.

00:18:22 Speaker 3

And she.

00:18:22 Speaker 3

Manages VDC for the Baptist Hospital construction, and they've got the big budget for.

00:18:28 Speaker 3

I mean, they had those robot dogs walking around.

00:18:30 Speaker 3

They had the helmets with the AR goggles and stuff.

00:18:33 Speaker 3

They were kind of a test site for brasfield and glory to say.

00:18:36 Speaker 3

Here's some new technology.

00:18:37 Speaker 3

Throw it out here.

00:18:38 Speaker 3

See what you like, and they let us come out to the site, walk around the construction site and.

00:18:42 Speaker 3

And see these kind of technologies too.

00:18:44 Speaker 3

So it.

00:18:44 Speaker 3

Was they're really the ones that are the powerhouse. We're about 1/2 version of that. That just kind of streamlines for what we think is effective. But yeah, they really they really let us.

00:18:53 Speaker 3

See what's going on in the world of that?

00:18:56 Speaker 2

You know it.

00:18:56 Speaker 2

It's it's really awesome that you're sharing what that our that contractor is doing because you know, I've seen videos where bigger contracting groups implement these, these new technologies and new methods of kind of like capturing what's being done.

00:19:13 Speaker 2

Because I always get the.

00:19:16 Speaker 2

When I've been working in other companies, you get a phone call and say, hey, we're having some issues with the the cook, the the exhaust for the for the cook on this particular grill and everybody opens the the ceiling up to to see where that thing's.

00:19:30 Speaker 2

Routed to because they can't figure out which one's going where and having a place to go to.

00:19:37 Speaker 2

Like a contractor where has recorded, you know, exposed structure where things are laid out. It helps a 1,000,000, but that's the one thing.

00:19:50 Speaker 2

I know that a lot of the times a client will call the architect thinking that they have developed some method of recording that, but you it really is going to you guys now and now you guys are becoming the, the the technology experts when it comes to that.

00:19:57 Speaker 3

Something like that.

00:20:06 Speaker 2

And I'm super excited that bear is incorporating.

00:20:09 Speaker 2

All these new technologies because it's going to, you know, push the company further further up there.

00:20:19 Speaker 3

Any like you were saying, any, any record you can have of existing conditions or conditions during demolition or renovation before you put the drywall on is a huge advantage?

00:20:28 Speaker 3

I know that you have used matter port in the past and that's one of the things that that was one of the first things that I implemented because I had experience using that in the past and on our sites if.

00:20:36 Speaker 3

It's going to be if we know it's going to be complicated.

00:20:39 Speaker 3

Whenever we've got all the walls exposed before we put the sheetrock on and we'll walk the camera through there and we'll just kind of save an archive model of that.

00:20:46 Speaker 3

So if that comes up, we can say, well, here's what the inside of your wall looks like, because we actually recorded it at one point in time.

00:20:52 Speaker 3

So yeah, just having little things.

00:20:54 Speaker 3

That is, it's all in an effort to save peoples time.

00:20:57 Speaker 3

You know it takes twice as much time to rip it off.

00:20:59 Speaker 3

Investigate and and look back at it so.

00:21:03 Speaker 2

Do you have people underneath you that you're kind of helping them?

00:21:05 Speaker 2

Like train them to do certain things that use certain software and say, hey, it, it'd be great if, like, maybe maybe one more person to to know what I do to help me.

00:21:16 Speaker 3

So I've actually got a guy in the office.

00:21:19 Speaker 3

He's in a different office right now.

00:21:20 Speaker 3

His name is Baron Nick case.

00:21:21 Speaker 3

But he's got a similar architecture background with me from Mississippi State.

00:21:25 Speaker 3

He's a couple years younger than me, but what he brings to the table too is he's got a big background in photography and videography.

00:21:32 Speaker 3

Marketing is half of what a company has got to be, you know, to kind of get attention and.

00:21:37 Speaker 3

Maintain in the spotlight we self perform all of our finished photography. If we do any videography, all of our social media handling, even when it comes to like marketing documents where we're putting together RFP's, RFQ's or just a folder of stuff to.

00:21:51 Speaker 3

Into someone's we do all that in House to kind of save on expenses there. Canada has been a big one that we switched over to and the the time savings with that as opposed to using Adobe Indesign in the past.

00:22:04 Speaker 3

I mean, that's hours and hours of time saved, so anything that we can do to bring in technology or kind of consolidate and reduce.

00:22:11 Speaker 3

The amount of time someone has to spend on it is all dollars and cents, you know.

00:22:15 Speaker 2

Well, that well, that's awesome.

00:22:18 Speaker 2

You know what?

00:22:18 Speaker 2

I really appreciate you taking the time to kind of just share a little bit about you bear technology and everything else.

00:22:25 Speaker 2

And I'm I'm sure there's a lot of listeners out there when the the more we grow as a podcast.

00:22:31 Speaker 2

The more we're going to see more more of these type of interviews because I kind of want to get different opinion, like I'm gonna be invited in a couple of architects out from South Florida to give us hit their opinion and their their history as they kind of progress through the career.

00:22:47 Speaker 2

But you know, knowing full well I was, I did some work with bear.

00:22:52 Speaker 2

I think before you showed up and then when you showed up, I I think there's a there was a huge improvement in the the way they kind of the language or the lingo that was occurring between the architect and the contractor was getting it was becoming more fluid with with someone there on staff.

00:23:07 Speaker 2

That could understand the same language in in the difficulties between Germans and and.

00:23:14 Speaker 3

And I think that that's definitely what we try to improve on as compared to maybe other general contractors you might have worked with.

00:23:20 Speaker 3

I'm not here to try and make one side or the other win on any certain issue.

00:23:24 Speaker 3

I'm just trying to make sure that the project gets completed and we're all OK at the.

00:23:27 Speaker 3

End of the.

00:23:28 Speaker 3

Day walking away from it.

00:23:30 Speaker 3

Yeah, nothing against general contractors.

00:23:33 Speaker 3

I feel like part of my responsibility is also communication with the architect because architects would rate.

00:23:38 Speaker 3

Have a kind of conversation, especially if we're talking like VE or something where we understand the budget has to go down.

00:23:42 Speaker 3

I'm not trying to just chop your building in half or anything, I'm trying to say how do we lightly touch this to remove cost but leave your design intent and everything.

00:23:50 Speaker 3

It's a lot more careful conversation that I think I could typically have with the.

00:23:53 Speaker 3

Architects and engineers, as opposed to some of the other people in the office.

00:23:57 Speaker 3

That might just say that's.

00:23:58 Speaker 3

My way or the highway, you know?

00:24:00 Speaker 2

Yeah, I think I think if anybody does a contractor and it's big enough to be able to take on somebody like that plays your role and it would be beneficial with that.

00:24:11 Speaker 2

With that said, I think I appreciate you kind of taking the time to join us in the podcast.

00:24:16 Speaker 2

And you know, maybe we'll have another one and we'll kind of maybe.

00:24:20 Speaker 2

Here's some of the more detailed technology and and just.

00:24:25 Speaker 2

Have you show us some of the equipment?

00:24:27 Speaker 2

And that would be pretty cool.

00:24:29 Speaker 3

Yeah, well, I appreciate the opportunity.

00:24:31 Speaker 3

I'll always welcome for for more of it.

00:24:33 Speaker 3

And if you haven't spoke on the city of Pensacola and the growth that we're going through at the moment, I mean, when you have some people up from South Florida, the statistic I've been telling people is probably over the next 10 years is a billion dollars worth of development which someone from Miami might not see that as a huge number because they probably have a couple billion dollars of development.

00:24:50 Speaker 3

But for a small town like Pensacola, that's a lot of growth and a lot of action happening here, so there's there's no.

00:24:55 Speaker 3

Shortage of it?

00:24:58 Speaker 2

Thank you.

00:24:58 Speaker 2

Thank you, Curtis.

00:24:59 Speaker 2

Appreciate it.

00:25:00 Speaker 3

Appreciate it. Thank you.

00:25:00 Speaker 2

Alright, take care. Bye bye.

00:25:11 Speaker 1

Thanks for listening to the.

00:25:12 Speaker 1

T ^2 dad's Brown bag podcast please subscribe on your favorite platform and we will talk.

00:25:18 Speaker 1

To you next time.