Bold Construction - Delivering Innovative, People-Focused Projects with Brandon Losse, Director of Business Development.

On the show, we chat with Brandon regarding the growth and momentum of Bold Construction over the past 10 years. We talk about how culture, values and a commitment to relationships has been crucial to Bold’s growth and success. Shaping everything from what clients they work with and which employees they hire. We dive into the values and mission that define Bold and impact their project sites. We also speak with Brandon about his personal career journey and how his commitment to relationships and innovative selling has helped him to where he is today. We dive into different steps in his career and some of the lessons he has learned along the way. 

About Bold Construction:

Bold Construction is a General Contractor and Construction Manager that specializes in multi-family, design-build, tenant improvements and commercial construction in Vancouver BC. With the ability to execute on projects ranging from custom commercial improvements to large scale multi-family projects of over 100 units, Bold has been able to build a reputation focused on innovation and quality. 

https://boldconstruction.ca/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Site Visit Podcast. Leadership in construction with perspective from the job site. With your host, Andrew Hansen, James Faulkner, and Christian Hammond. Let's get down to it. Hello everyone. Today is a special day because this podcast has now reached a point where a sponsor wanted us to talk about them. How good is that? Feels pretty good. So, first of all, we got to thank our audience for listening and getting us to this point because without them, no one wanna pay us to do anything. So that's pretty cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

And it's been great just to hear feedback from the people that were on the show and people listening. And yeah, it's been great.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Oh, totally. And the whole thing is like this is this is a fun thing. This is evolving into something. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah. So who's our first sponsor officially? Okay, guys. Drum roll. Christian.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Got it? All right. So today's episode. This episode is sponsored by BuildX Vancouver.

SPEAKER_06 1:10

Oof.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Love them. Yeah. And the Vancouver Show, which is happening on the 12th and 13th of February. That's next month. That's three weeks from now.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Where?

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Vancouver Convention Center West. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

That's the new one, the nice big building. Yeah, it's a great building.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

It's a great building. In addition to all the great speakers and exhibitors, it's going to be a feature on the Vancouver Building to Zero Solutions Center. You can learn all about Passive House Canada. Not to mention, there's a huge tech-centric area where you can learn about the latest technologies. I think we all went last year and awesome. Good speakers. Yeah. It was awesome. Good sponsors for the tech-centric area.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Yeah, and it's in our backyard. And we're going to be there.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

We are.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah. So officially the site visit is going to be recording live episodes at the show, February 12th and 13th. So we are on booth uh 1815, 1815. We have a big booth, right? Big booth. We have a couch? We got a couch there. Couch. Backdrops. Oof. It's going to be good. So we're going to record live episodes both days, which is going to be great. And just share more about the site visa, what we're doing. It's going to be awesome. Look for us there. And um where can people get tickets about for build X and learn more about Build X? So if you haven't got tickets yet, um go to Buildex Vancouver, official URL, buildexvancouver.com and click register now and grab your tickets for the show floor. If you have any questions, uh reach out to us on social media. We're happy to direct you to the page. Um but it's an awesome show. We'll get a lot of value, learn from really good speakers, and uh it's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Um hopefully we can meet some of our listeners and come by and say hi. That'd be awesome. Absolutely. Introduce yourselves. Yeah, see the real deal.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Okay, well, let's get to it. Okay, episode number 24. Today in the podcast, we speak with Brandon Lasse, Director of Business Development for Bold Construction. Bold Construction is a general contractor and construction manager that specializes in multifamily design build, tenant improvements, and commercial construction in Vancouver, BC. With the ability to execute on projects ranging from custom commercial tenant improvements all the way to large-scale multifamily projects with over a hundred units. Bold has been able to build a reputation focused on innovation and quality. Started in 2010, Bold has grown to a team of over 30 staff, both in the field and the office with multiple projects all across the city. On the podcast today, we speak with Brandon about his personal career journey and how his commitment to relationships and innovative selling has helped him to where he is today. We dive into the different steps in his career and some of the lessons that he has learned along the way. We chat with Brandon regarding the growth and momentum of bold construction over the past ten years. We talk about how culture, values, and a commitment to relationships has been crucial to Bold's growth and success, shaping everything from what clients they work with and which employees they hire. We dive into the values and the mission that defines Bold and how this impacts their project sites. This is a great episode to learn from a leader in business development in the construction sector, as well as the opportunity to learn what goes into building a great corporate culture and a construction company that is leading the way in the industry.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Let's get to it. All right. Brown number two. Actually, this is two in a week. Got Andrew and James, Christian, and we're joined by Brandon Lasse from Bold Construction. Oh, it sounds so good. How are you, Brandon? I'm good, brother. I'm good. Thanks for having me, you guys.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

It's great to be here. Oh well, it's really good to for you to be here. It is. It's quite festive. What are we at? December 20th.

SPEAKER_06 4:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

Yeah. Christmas lights outside. People will be listening in January.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Evening, evening podcast here at the site visit in Yale Town, and it's festive outside. 4 30 p.m. It's dark out.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah. It's Canada. Usually do the wine, but today we are doing something else.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

What are we what are we enjoying here today, Brandon?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

This wonderful gift you brought us.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Yeah, yeah. We're uh we're a tequila family. So I brought you uh it's it's called the uh 1800 Cristalino, which is an and Yeho tequila, triple filter to look white. It's got a little bit of a sugary aftertaste. And uh we're we're having some of that today, courtesy of the Lasse family, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, let's just uh one more here. Let's do that. We'll jump into the story.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Sure. Right on, that's awesome. Cheers, guys.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Cheers. All right, Brandon.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

So refreshing.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

So bold construction, Brandon. Actually, yeah, tell us about yourself. Let's I want to give the background. I've known Brandon for a little bit. This is uh this is kind of special, actually.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Oh man, special. Yeah, thanks, man. If you think it's special. A little bit about me. Uh, you know, I I've often been told that my resume is a recruiter's nightmare, which I kind of take pride in that. I like that. Does that mean it sucks? That's a good line. I like that. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Well, like how do you when it lands on the desk, like, what do we do with this?

SPEAKER_03 6:20

That's what Who is this guy?

SPEAKER_01 6:21

He looks good. What do we do with this?

SPEAKER_03 6:24

No, I I I um I don't know how far back you want to go, but um, you know, 10 years ago I started out in the field. Was a guy on site, drywalling, tiling, landscaping. And I always had this, I was always that guy on site that was talking to everybody else, right? And I come from a family of of sort of a long lineage of sales guys. My grandfather, my dad, my brother, my my twin sister, but we're all in sales. And uh, she was working for TELUS at the time.

SPEAKER_06 6:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

Selling phones. And I always said to him, you know what, I can do that. I can definitely do that. So I jumped in. I was I was that guy. I was that guy in the mall hounding you to come on in and buy a phone, totally unrelated to construction. And uh, you know, sort of carved out a bit of a reputation there, and I was headhunted to do B2B and B2C, C standing for corporate, not consumer. And I went on over to uh work for a good good guy named Andrew Westland, who I think you know, Andrew. There you go. At Apex Wireless, and they brought me on. I think it was 21, and they brought me on, and like right away I was on the they called it the national dialing team. Luckily, I sounded a lot older than I was on the phone, which definitely helped. They call long distance, yeah, man. Like PE. Oh, I I had clients at PI. They would call me at four o'clock in the morning, not realizing that the time was different.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

So these were like uh corporate clients, right? Corporate clients, right? So trying to get like uh companies to have their whole multi, what do you call it, like multi-device kind of thing going on?

SPEAKER_03 7:51

Yeah, yeah. If you were a business with a phone, you're my client. Like that's as simple as it was, right? Uh similar to to you know SiteMax. If if you're in construction and you're using software, well, you should be using SiteMax. So it was really uh Boom. Didn't actually not say anything about that. Yeah, Chris just gave me a$20 bill. He's like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

You did bring the tequila, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

So I spent I spent six years in uh in corporate telecom. Uh cold calling was was big. That's you know, that was one thing that I was very good at. And I I can really sit here and tell you that that is one thing I am very good at. And I landed, you know, throughout uh throughout the years that I was there, I think you know, I started at zero, and when I left, it was about 90 different companies, about 4,000 end users, and I was totally responsible for all of them. And that's sales, service, and support. And the unique thing with telecom is you're you're interfacing with with every different type of industry. Like, like I said, you got phones, you're you're my client, right? And oftentimes you'd get you'd get a cell phone sales guy that would that would just sort of move on, and their client would headhunt them. And we celebrate that, we love that. Uh at Apex, you got a lot of young blood coming through, and you know, you you see someone come in, they they learn the ropes, they're mentored, they they become really sharp, and their client says, You're the guy I want. And that's actually what happened. So I had I had one client uh for six years, like every time I saw him, he's like, Brandon, I want like what do I need to do? Like, I want you, you're the guy I want. And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, you know, I just sort of like he was a good guy, you know, it was one of my smallest clients, but anytime he called, I would just drop whatever I was doing. I was like, Yeah, I'm taking care of you. Doesn't matter what you want. I'd leave and I would like deliver a car charger just because I like the guy. And finally on the sixth year, he's like, What do I have to do? What do I have to do to get you on my team? And he was in construction and development on the multifamily side. So you can obviously see where the story is going, right? Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Did any of your because you just you glossed over something a little bit there, but like uh you tequila. Tequila, tequila, you um uh said something about you were on site, you were in the field, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:58

That wasn't that wasn't made up. I think what you were saying is when you were on site drywall tiling, yeah, yeah, in the probably the lower you know side of the trades, like you're actually in there, you know, moving the doing the work, doing the work, yeah, yeah. Um not a red seal, not a you know, a plumber. Yeah, did that impact going back in the construction like I I want to go back in the sector, I want to, you know, I want to build any sort of ties to it at all or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Yeah, no, and I yeah, okay, I see what you're saying. Yeah, no, and and there's a ton of respect for the guys in the field. And like I love what they do. Almost all of them are passionate about what they do. I I I I do I I respect them a lot. I don't know if it had a lot to do with my decision making, moving on from TELUS to join to join my client. Um, but there was a comfort factor there, and I I knew that I could sort of speak the language. I knew what it felt like to be on site. Yeah, uh, but this was uh you know, definitely a different role, right? It was in the in the in the office, you know, bringing in the work, right? So anyway, yeah, so six years in telecom, and you know, when he approached me, it was you know, the golden years of telecom were sort of over. That's when everyone was flipping, you know, going from a flip phone to a Blackberry to an iPhone, and it was just like just new clients every two weeks, right? Like just tons of activity. And then it's sort of, you know, you hit this peak, and I was ready for a change. I feel like I learned a lot. Um, definitely, you know, harnessed some skills and honed out what I thought was a good skill set, and I was ready for a change. He called it his director of business development, but really it's just business development with a cool title. And I uh I went on board, I jumped on board and uh did that with with him for two years. And uh that's where I met you know the principal of bold, um, Jaime Tariba. Solid. So I know I'm jumping a little bit too far ahead here. No, it's all good. But uh, you know, for two years. It's funny, Jaime originally from it's Jamie, so it's he's originally from from from Mexico. This six foot five guy, you know, he looks German and he's got a Spanish accent, it's awesome. He's he's the best. Yeah, he was our principal PM. And uh I sold Jaime his first phone when he came to Canada in like 2009, I think it was. And um, you know, so here's this guy, he goes from my client to like, you know, the my my principal PM. And uh, you know, we do this for two years. And on his way out, you know, because he found a different opportunity, and uh, you guys can guess what that one is. On his way out, he comes out to me, he's like, Brandon, if if I can ever have a chance to work with you again, I would love to. And I thought it was more of like, hey brother, it's been good, I'll see you around. Um, as you guys will know, and as people in the industry will know, and our clients know, Jaime's a man of his word. Yep, absolutely. Right? You know that. So uh so he jumps over, he starts up bold with uh with a couple partners, and very quickly I get a phone call. And it's like Brandon, what are you doing? And he doesn't talk to you. Long story short, I think my business card says bold construction on it now.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Oh, yeah. It does. You have really cool business cards too. Not to be used as coasters. No, they're awesome. Um that is cool. I mean, that's a that's a journey. I think I think um I mean every journey is unique, but in construction, relationships play such a huge part in the way people move. I could share similar stories. I think we could all share these similar stories and how we we've moved to to certain things or customers have shared certain things, and then you you go from there. Um, but tell us a little bit then about bold construction.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Yeah, yeah, sure. Please. So, first of all, I mean, I think it's important for people to know, you know. So, Jaime, Jaime is the principal. Um, I think when I joined in 2016, I guess it was, uh I suppose it was employee number seven, and we're up to 29, be just over 30 in the new year. Uh and we're a general contractor, construction manager, specializing in three different areas, uh, multifamily tenant improvement, and commercial. So on the multifamily side, that four to seven story wood frame concrete, mixed use condo, uh, market rental. Um, that's sort of our sweet spot on the on the on the residential side. And then the commercial side, um, you know, we have our own design build team in-house in terms of tenant improvements. And we're doing a lot of commercial new builds right now and including next year. Um, yeah, so tenant improvement commercial, we'll we'll say that to two different categories. Um and yeah, that's that's who we are, that's what we do.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

I've seen some retail stuff you guys have done, right? A lot of the TI stuff we're we have, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

So so T that's that's a big part. That's a that's that's a really big part. We have uh we have a phenomenal design design team in-house. Um it's spearheaded and led by by a lady named Daria Abdullahi. She's sort of a she's a phenom. She's amazing at what she does. Um she often, depending on the size of the job, she'll be the designer and then the project manager. So she shows up on site, and you know, our subtraits have no excuse. Like, oh, you know, your designer designed it this way. And well, you're you're talking to her, right? Uh, she's incredible. Um, I think one project that really sort of put us on the map downtown was 651 Robson, which is obviously just down the road from here. Uh, we had our we had our signs up on site for a long, long, long time, and people are like, what's going on here? Um so that just so you guys know, that's a cannabis retail store. It's pretty cool. Uh for what I was talking about. Yeah. Uh yeah, no, we've been pretty fortunate to to to earn a client in that space, which is like a growing, you know, but they're spending quite a lot of money in that kind of thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

So it's not like it's a crazy stupid box with glass uh glass cabinets.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

They are not cheaping out, let's just put it that way. Yeah, yeah. It's a cool experience. Yeah, they're sort of these these particular guys are are their whole MO is to be like the ex the like the luxury experience of cannabis. And you know, you walk in, they educate you. It's not just you know, here buy this and see you later. Um it's yeah, no, it's so yeah, anyway, the City Cannabis Robson, in case you guys were wondering what the name of the client is. So we just we did a soft launch in there. Uh they were moving from 601 to 651, and it's a whole interactive thing because they uh their their current building was being demolished and they were like under a super crazy time crunch. And if they're not open, it's they need just to say they need they need to be open. Uh so we're doing an interactive design build uh reno. So we're doing like we open, we got our occupancy, and then we're we're slowly doing each section of the store. Um so anyway, if you guys have a chance to go in there, no. Totally recommend it.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

So highly recommend it. You you guys um I know a lot of people in in town, um, just through the industry and stuff like that. Uh your signs started popping up, you know, and people are like, what where are these coming from? Who's bold construction? Who are these guys? Right? And um, you know, things have come together pretty, pretty quickly. Yeah, and you guys have like super sharp branding, uh, cool company culture. Talk a little bit about yeah, like even this, the the that softer side of uh of bold and and kind of how things have evolved in a short period of time.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

Yeah, I mean, we were pretty lucky. Uh when we started, we had uh a number of investors sort of backing us that were also developers. Uh so we were doing work for them, uh treating them just like a client, I guess you can call it. Uh and so very quickly, I mean, this would have been 2016, 2017, the market was super hot back then in terms of new starts, new construction, new capital coming into the city, lots of cool stuff going on. And we were lucky to carve out uh some pretty cool relationships. Um so very quickly, and uh actually when I you know when I left my previous employer that Haim and I used to work for, they caught wind that I was leaving and they were like, Well, where like where are you going? And I told them where I was going. I'm like, Okay, well, we'll just follow you. And it was my my first week starting with bold, you know, on the Monday, on the Friday, their their father flew out from China and we we inked our first deal on you know five days after starting. Um and I think that's a pretty good testament to any sales guy out there or anyone in business development or relationship building.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Deal on the first day. Yeah, I'll take one of those.

SPEAKER_03 17:59

Yeah, yeah, go somewhere else and uh get a get a deal five days later. No, uh is is relationships like yeah, like keep those, these are real people, right? So anyway, we were lucky there um, you know, to get positive cash flow, like five days into really starting that, you know, like being you know, going out there, marketing ourselves, being a true GC CM, competing in the market.

SPEAKER_06 18:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:21

And then very quickly, it was you know, through them, we were we were introduced to a lot of other developers, and very quickly we're able to uh to be a player on in the scene. Um so that that played a big part into uh into launching who we are today. And then, yeah, you mentioned branding.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

The weird thing about the branding stuff. So this um when I had my branding agency a long time ago.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Yeah, the first Faulkner brands.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah, yeah. Well, the the weird part was is that this when the company really started to take off, I hired this guy um right out of design school, and he's the guy who designed Bold.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, which is which is a pretty cool story. So he was my lead designer. I love that guy, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

And I gave him his first job. So there's a bit of like Faulkner in that logo.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Well, I I he had his own company after this because I was doing what we're doing now. He worked for you. He did, yeah. So I can't take any credit for it, but it there is a connection, which is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

Small world. Yeah. There's a bit of Faulkner spirit in our brand. You can say it, man.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Just say it.

unknown 19:26

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Yeah, our brand has played a big part. I mean, it's you know, when when you're when you're in the brand and you're and you're you're part of the team, you don't often see it the same way other people do.

SPEAKER_05 19:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:38

And we we get that all the time. Like, guys, like, you know, we'll be interviewing someone or we'll be meeting a client that knows who we are. I'm like, oh I love your business cards. Like you said, oh, I love your brand. I love your logo, I love your way, I love what you guys are doing. And like we got we we got that like almost instantaneously once we went out. Instant credibility. Yeah, yeah. And I don't I'm not sure what it what it is. Maybe it's the name, like we've been often commented on the name.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

The name is the thing because I mean you it kind of everything has to be good after that name. You can't you can't be weak and say bold. Like you can't have crappy design after that. Like you gotta back it up. But what is it? What does it say on your on that Robson store? I remember you guys have uh signage that was in the glass there that said something bold.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You got it.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Something bold, what was it?

SPEAKER_03 20:22

Something bold is coming.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

That's that's pretty cool. I like that. Yeah, yeah. And that was on the the ban, the hoarding when we shot the video as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Yeah, yeah, it that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

Yeah, I think I think what you're talking about was North Van, uh Bel Air Apartments. Um it it says be part of something bold. Yes, be part of something bold. Yeah, which is good message. It's like a double-edged sword in the in the sense that it's uh like almost like a recruitment message, like, hey, you know, if you're looking for someone to work for, yeah, come work for us. But it's also like, hey, there's something you know, something bold's coming behind these signs, right? So you know it's it's like a statement to the to the client in a way. Yeah. Like they they chose a bold general to work for.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

They're courageous, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

They're courageous, yeah. Yeah. And the cool thing, like construction projects take some time, right? They're just not there and then they're done overnight. Like you will drive past the construction side if you live in the community sometimes two, three, four times a day. And so you'll see this and it kind of gets ingrained in what you're doing. So, like proper language and communication through your branding plays a big part. And like everything's followed up with it. Like, we filmed a case study. You guys are right.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yeah, our listeners can go on and look at that because that was pretty cool. We did that uh we'll put in the show notes.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

We'll put in the show notes. Yeah, it's a cool case, and but the site was like clean. I know you guys were like finishing up some like um facade and mudding and masonry and all that kind of stuff, but still, super tidy site, tight site follows right from the branding right through to this.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Awesome, awesome staff. Everyone was excited, happy. Yes, yeah, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

No, that matters. I mean, that's your as a GC or CM or anyone in construction where you have the opportunity to brand, especially a site like that. Yeah, like that speaks about your entire everything, right? Like that just yeah. And so we we took a lot of pride in just making sure that that was a clean, that's tidy, or Signs are tight, uh, branding's good, colors are good. You know, Jaime's really good at that. You know, we'll sit down. If we're going to brand a site like that, we'll we'll make sure that it's perfect. Uh we take a lot of pride in that. And same thing when you walk into our office, right? Like it's how it is.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Do you guys sit around and we're like for the next for the next project, think of the tagline and throw out like your little bold puns?

SPEAKER_03 22:19

No, but my my circle of friends are always throwing bold puns at me, man, all the time. Oh, Brandon, you're so bold. Bold, Brandon. Wow. So bold.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Can't shake it.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

No, I love it. I love it because there's some awareness out there. It's fun. It is cool. It's cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

We love that. We love that. You're okay. You said 29 people. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_06 22:37

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Uh, you have your split there. I mean, we're not all in the office, obviously. No, so the question is uh you self-perform your stuff. Well, you have you have a fair amount of people on site. Not only fully self-performed, I mean like you've got you know supers and CSOs and and some staff in the field.

SPEAKER_03 22:52

Yep, yep. So we're we're 14 in the office, 15 in the field. Yeah, and like I said, that's gonna change um in in 2020 for the better. Yep. And that's planned, by the way. That's not just bringing people on for the sake of bringing them on. Nice. But yeah, you're right. So it's it's project management, project coordination, estimation, design, uh, and leadership in the office. Yeah. And then in the field, it's you you you said it right. So our superintendents, uh, we have a few red seal carpenters, CSO, uh assistant site supers, depending on how you know how big the site is. Uh, we have, yeah, we have we have a really good team. Really, I mean, obviously, I'm a little biased because it's it's our team, but we've been super fortunate to attract a lot of great talent and and just like phenomenal personalities in the industry. Really, honestly, we have. Yeah, super good guys.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Drive driving around in my truck. I had one of your superintendents flag me down in a parking lot just to come say hello. Had a really good conversation. It was really, really cool. Uh yeah, you can see it kind of resonates through all of your team.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Yeah, it's exciting. I mean, when when we were when we were growing, you know, when it was 2016, 2017, we were hiring a lot, and I think I was, I guess I was employee number seven, I guess you can call it. And um, that was including site and office. And now we're up to 30. And yeah, a lot of that had to do with our branding. Like people were saying, like, you know, you're fresh, you're exciting. We almost operated internally, like it we made it seem almost like a tech company, like it was new, it was vibrant, it was it had all these different, different. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, you know, like we would get we get together on you know Fridays at three, and maybe we can talk about that later.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Yeah, I was just gonna ask you, you guys do something, and does that include field and office?

SPEAKER_03 24:27

It it can, depending on, you know, field is you know in production mode. So we don't wanna, you know, we don't want to touch that. But if you know if they're in if they're in the area or if they feel like they're able to do that, yeah, absolutely. They they do come in, they hang out. And it's good for you know, some of our field guys and and and office guys to mingle, right? You invite partner like like partner companies down too?

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Like I think we got an invite once, didn't we? Good uh good people that you like. I hope you got an invite. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

I think we did.

SPEAKER_03 24:51

Yeah, so we call it bowl Fridays, just so you know, it's totally open. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Okay. So anybody listening.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Yeah. If you're out there and you want to hang out with me, Fridays, three o'clock.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Deep stores. Do you guys have a frequent spot you go to? Is there like a routine?

SPEAKER_03 25:05

So it's totally internal. Uh it's in our office.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

And it's it's really honestly, it's a hard, it's a hard stop at three.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

That's great.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

And we know that it's it's our chance to get together, hang out. Um, our office manager Jessica puts on a really good show in terms of you know, food, drink. She's phenomenal. She's great. We love her. Well, and you know, for the first half hour, it's just sort of getting warmed up, you know, getting, you know, shaking it off and and uh talking it out a little bit. And at 3 30, we it's uh it's announcements from the team. So either myself, Jaime, um anyone else on the leadership team that you know has something to talk about or something's coming up, we'll use that time to to inform everybody, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:44

So around 2 30, everything seems to be leading up to three, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

In half an hour.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Because I mean, especially if you're doing if you're really into a proposal or you're trying to do something that you it takes heavy concentration, or you're doing some bulbers or accounting.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Or like sending emails like halfway through your podcast.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Yeah, like what Andrew's never doing. I'm looking at my show notes. I saw you do command tab. I saw it. Okay, well, all tab.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Ultimate Mac. Is it command tab on on Macs? Anyway. Command tab. Yeah, there's a bit of anticipation at 230, right? Because we know like we we have a we have a we have a good time together. And it's it's cool to see, you know, go from you know, 7 to 30. You walk in and it's 3:30 or it's 340, and people are into it, and you know, you got people telling stories, laughing, smiling, like they're that really served as like a basis to building our culture.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Yeah, and when companies like actually execute on like if they like you look at your job sites and you look at your projects and you go, okay, proof is in the pudding, right? But if you then say, Oh wow, it's no doubt why that happens, and you look at what these types of things that are happening in your office, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yeah, and and I think when you look at construction in general, we've had a couple of people come on the show, Caliber does their app ray work on Fridays, but when you look at the industry as a whole, you know, there's a lot of similarities between a lot of construction companies, and it does come down to the way they build the people that are the ones that are building the projects and the culture, and so it can't be kind of overstated too much that it's super valuable and it attracts the right people and it brings them on and 100%.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

Yeah, and you know what you had. I was listening to Caliber Projects, and I'll I'll name drop right now. I think Justin and uh I forget a CFO's name, they did a really, really good job, Zach. Yeah, it's all about the people, man. Like I just can't stress that enough. Um, you know, I'll double click and just we have been super fortunate to attract the type of people we have, and when you have them, you you you gotta keep them. Yeah, and we appreciate each and every one of them. Um, I think who was it? Uh owner of uh Virgin Airlines, what's his name?

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Richard Branson.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

Thank you. Richard Branson says it best. He says, if you take care of your people, they'll take care of your company.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

And I wholeheartedly 100% believe that. And I see it, it's happening right now.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Well, one of his uh the paradigms he operates by is is developing your people so much that they feel confident that they could leave, but they love you so much for doing it that they won't.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

That's his thing.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Yes, which is super cool. I mean it's powerful.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah. And there the the the leadership part, like when you're talking about culture, there's obviously the leadership of the company, it's the transfer of being people being under to being able to understand character. Because really, character is what this is all about. It's when you have a problem on the jobs job site, if the character of how you deal with that transcends throughout the entire company, that's going to come from leadership top down. Yeah. Yeah. So and it and it doesn't matter whether that's something to do with your uh your three o'clock Fridays, it's the character of we do this because it's important. And we do this, you stop work because we all have to connect. That means that there's a more of a human element to business rather than just business. Business, anyone can you know, fire up a spreadsheet, anyone can count numbers, but when it comes to people, you have to connect. So that's probably what you guys have done really well. And and the other part is that with the brand stuff, right? It's the sum of its parts. So you you you've done a very good job of people wearing a badge saying, I work for bold. And that means that I get to hang out at three o'clock when other people are still sweating it till 4 30, 5 o'clock. We're having fun chatting with each other, connecting as a business, you know, celebrating wins, all that kind of stuff, which is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

There's and there's a lot of that. And we and we we yeah, we're we're big believers in that.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Um so right now they are there having so you're not there right now. That's the thing. Are they is it still going on right now? Was it five or two?

SPEAKER_03 29:44

It was, it was. I mean, it's so how long does it go?

SPEAKER_00 29:46

Three till what?

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Yeah, it'll usually go from like if you're if you're into something, if you're into a proposal or there's something going on, like you'll join us at three to three thirty, and then you know you'll go back and do it, you know, wrap something up, right? But most of the time it'll go till five, and just depends on who's doing what that day, right? And then sometimes it'll it'll carry on in into the night. I mean, it's it's Friday, first of all. Um, we all like each other. We we really like each other, it's great. Like the the there's a lot of love in the office, and I think that you can feel that as soon as you walk in.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Um so this this character thing kind of kind of ports itself into the core values of the business. 110%, yeah. So and so have you guys uh how how did that go down? Do you transfer that? Like it do you is there is that an intentional thing you guys have done and you've gone through those and you have them written somewhere like a credo?

SPEAKER_03 30:34

Oh you do. We do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Okay, we'll take us through it.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

So we all have branded bold notebooks, and if we go to a meeting, we're likely whipping these out. And right inside the the top pocket, there's this card, and maybe we'll Instagram it later. But there's there's a card that essentially states our mission, vision, and our core values, and it's just a constant reminder as to who we are and and why we do what we do. Um, I mean, I can read it out for you, but I'm gonna take pictures of you.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Keep reading.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

Yeah, go for it. Yeah, sure. Why don't I just talk why don't yeah, why don't I jump into it? You know, mission, vision, and our core values, and it's probably important for people to know what what those are. So as of today, these are our mission, vision, and core values, but we are currently in the midst of re-evaluating these values heading into 2020. But I will share how they are today. So, mission to construct real estate that enhances the lives of people and their communities. And our vision is to be Canada's most innovative construction company. And then we get into our core values. So integrity, our word is our bond. Integrity is the foundation of who we are and everything we do. Trust is earned through transparency and authenticity. Innovation, we are brave and bold in pursuing continuous improvement and in challenging industry norms. Our innovations are purposeful, practical, reliable, and enduring. Passion, the betterment of people, community, and spaces is what drives us. Our passion shows in the care and commitment we put into every aspect of our work. And finally, collaboration. We focus on common goals with open and honest communication. We trust, empower, and challenge one another while showing support.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

So were you part of uh like a D have a workshop that you put this together, or how how did this thing come into fruition?

SPEAKER_03 32:24

I wish I was part of this, but I wasn't. That was uh that was Jaime, uh, that was Justin, that was a few others in the office. It was uh a bit of their MO, if you will. So no, I I I wasn't part of this, but but in saying that's a seller job, I think.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

But it's something you can believe in. Yeah, I was gonna say, do you buy into it, right? And do you believe in it? 110%. Yeah. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

And that's not just because I worked there. Come on, guys.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Well, that's because it's that's probably a representation of who they are. Yeah, and you like them, so it's this is just them on paper.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

Yeah, you nailed it. It's yeah, it's it's them and it's it's us on paper. And and we follow that guideline when we're bringing on new people. That is, we're looking for them to share those same core values. And if you spend enough time in our office and you know who we are, and if you're a client, I mean, I'm pretty sure you would agree with all this. And it it's it's very well alive in the office and and throughout the field. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Let's uh what's up, Bill for you?

SPEAKER_01 33:20

I could get in trouble for this one. I was just thinking of uh of you in an action living out these mission and these uh and these core values. I don't know if you remember when we were filming one of the case studies, and uh as all construction sites are they're tense, they're there's not much parking available for the street. And if we were filming when we were filming one of the commercials, we opened up some space to film, and we got your CSO Aaron, I believe Aaron Michel. Aaron Michelle, yeah. Love him, great guy. Awesome guy. He's a great guy. And uh he moved to Hawaii, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Sorry guys, he moved to Hawaii. He's gone? Aloha. Oh, I know, I know, we miss him. He kind of fits the whole vibe. Oh, he does. Yeah, he's got the cool hair. He's not here anymore. He yeah, man. It that was a hard one, man. We that was that hurt. That hurt. He went to Hawaii. His girlfriend's from Hawaii, her family's there. Yeah, there was a bunch of it's nice. Yeah, there was no reason why he was leaving because of us.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Well, he's forever famous for being in our video with that tape. Yeah, remember the tape. Is he still on construction?

SPEAKER_03 34:18

Hey, he's still doing construction. I think so. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, I love him. He's great. Anyway, anyway, my story. So he listens to this. Yeah, this is a good thing. He's gonna fly back and work for us, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Yeah. Why'd you come back? Well, I heard the site visit podcast, and I just I had to come. I boarded a plane as I'm listening to it. Yeah, Brandon, I'm coming. Um, anyway, we're filming this uh commercial, and it was yeah, uh, we tried to get the lighting right and the brand you know presented well. So we had this perfect spot on the side of the street where the it was a multi uh multi-family wood frame building, gorgeous product you guys are finishing.

SPEAKER_03 34:49

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

We got all the lighting, we got all the everything ready to go, and we had to move a couple cars um that were parked on the side. And um, we cleared them out, uh, we got it all moved, and then Aaron was in the light, and we were just like, Kate, roll camera, and we started rolling the video, and then all of a sudden we did a couple takes, and then someone that lived on the street had the complete right to park there, pulled in and parked right in front of our cameras. And he had the right to do that, and it was his it was his place, and you know, we know we tried to chat with him and say, Hey, like um, we need this spot, and you know, full defense to him, he's like, Hey, I'm just home from work. And so we were just asking him to, you know, if politely move his car, and I wasn't as I wasn't as uh what's the word, um, convincing. And then Brandon stepped in and just had a great conversation with him. And it was, I just saw the dialogue that you took that you cared about this gentleman that was parked here, you cared about how he felt, you were empathetic about him, and you, you know, working with him, you got to move his car down the road, you took his cell number down, you're gonna call him. I was just watching this and I was like, I was really impressed with you know, you're a busy guy, you have a million things to do. A, you're helping us in this video production, B, you care about this customer. So when you read these values out, yeah, I think it's bang on. You did it, and I I just we didn't catch it on camera and I was like, Oh, here goes our whole film day. But you were able to diplomatically work through it, and I think great example of the culture piece.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

I don't know if you remember that story, but it was I do, I do, and I I love I live for those little moments. Yeah, I love that. Um I mean, I was always the guy like going back to high school, I was always a guy like walking home, walking through the hallway, and just like complimenting someone that I didn't know. Like awesome shoes, man. I love your hat, love your shirt, have a good one. I was just always that guy. So when I when I have those moments to interact, I just I jump on him. I just yeah. I don't know. I I think I love people, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 36:32

So was the guy in like a crappy old Tercell? And you're like, you know what? Great car. Yeah, just love your car. So I mean zero to sixty in two weeks.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

I mean, I think anybody, our audience, our audience listening to this podcast, we know how it is. When you go to a construction site, like any available parking on those streets gets filled up by subtraits. Oh, yeah. And um, yeah, there's always that gray area are they allowed to park there, they're not allowed to park there. And I think this guy was just through that process and you handled it correctly. And I think uh for us, it was just cool to see the bold values come out through you. Um Aaron was there too, and I'm really excited because we got the shot and it turned out to be a great video. Um, but I think that was awesome. Just a little side story.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

I really appreciate that. Thanks, man. Thanks for remembering that. Yeah, yeah, and that's that's that's all of us. That's who we are. That's just what that's just what we're that's what what we're about. Like and you'll you'll you'll see that. I mean, if you're a client, if you come into the office, I know I've been sort of repeating myself a little bit, but it's important that people know that. And you know, they see this brand all around downtown, Burnaby, Port Moody, Richmond, North Van. And it's it's important for them to know that you know who we are and what we do. And that resonates, I think, with a lot of people. And you know, if I wasn't there, I'm sure someone else would have stepped up and I'm sure Aaron would have had a good conversation with the guy.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

But it's all about those little moments, man.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Totally. Because you look at construction and building, it's you're building, you're building, building, but that moment there is like that's how someone you know interacts with the bold brand in that moment in a parking spot. And I think you can build for a you know a competitive per square foot price. You can hit your schedules, hit your timelines, but that point in time right there is how someone interacts with the bold brand. And you you better believe someone, general public's gonna be able to reach that developer and say, Hey, do you know what your builder's doing? And like those elements is what makes a really good builder. And I think you guys have done that. I think one of the questions our comments Christian had to the show notes today was momentum in construction is like so impacted by momentum. You get a project win, you get another one, you get another one, and some signage goes up. Then you all of a sudden you you hire some some really uh experienced and skilled superintendents, and then they know five other superintendents, the best of their game, and then they come on board and all of a sudden you have this 30-person construction company that's delivering really good product, and that comes down to culture, it comes down to who you hire. And and I think um yeah, one of the things behind you was momentum and that big push where I know I felt it all of a sudden it's like bolds everywhere. Yeah, yeah, we yeah, they got a great director. They got a they got a great director of business development.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

Yeah, great guy. I've met him, good guy. Uh, you know, yeah, we there's been a lot of momentum, and hey, it wasn't easy at the beginning at all. Uh I mean, yeah, we got that project, you know, the first week, and then we're just sort of cash flow positive for a little while, but by no means was it easy at all. And the good part of our industry, and I know I sort of had I had a note sort of on the last page, is the the GCCM construction world, like our competitors are awesome. And it's it's like it's just not easy being a new GC. It's not. Uh if you're a developer and you're you're doing a five-story wood frame, I mean you just like rifle off three names. Like there's a ton of guys in town that you can go to and full well know that you can get this thing built, right? For us, you know, it's it's all about that, it's all about that relationship. And that was sort of an MO that I believe in in the telecom world. And that's I think that's what sort of got me through it and and you know put me where I was in that world is I just valued people. Like I really appreciate just people in general. Like my clients would text me at 10 o'clock at night. You know, they'd they'd call me and leave me you know funny voicemails just for the heck of it. Text like it was I guess what I'm trying to say is like that.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

You were you were saying you get like that, that whole industry engagement thing. Like you are like how how is this?

SPEAKER_03 40:13

I just love I just I just love people, man.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

It's it's probably the this is probably the you element of it.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

But it's like Jaime too, right? I met I met hi and it's the people side, like the culture, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

You know, we'll we all get lost in sort of in in who we are and and all that kind of stuff. Not lost in who we are, just like lost in our day-to-day, lost in our work, lost in our Excel sheet, lost in our proposal, and and for us, you know, to take a step back, take a breath, and like actually connect with someone, right? Like, you know, we're on social media, we're texting, and I honestly feel it's more of a personal thing is that I feel like we're losing a bit of that that human connection. Yep. And I'm seeing it in the in the younger generation.

SPEAKER_06 40:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 40:55

Not that it's a totally a bad thing, but you know, people would just rather text than call.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:59

When people call me, I like I love it. Like I love when my phone rings. And I don't care what it is, I just I love picking up. If it's a random number, if the number says spam, I'm still picking it up. Yeah. Because like I just I like those moments. Unfortunately for you, they're cracking down on that.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

So I I can even uh not to say another story, but you and I, this was my mistake. We were had a lunch, we had a lunch planned a couple weeks in advance, and I uh for some reason it was I didn't read it or anything, and we had a miscommunication on the meeting. So instead of texting you, I called you, and then we talked for like 15 minutes about just what's going on, what are you working on, what am I working on, and then in a 15-minute call, I'm like, oh yeah, and I can't make the lunch tomorrow. Like, right on. Yeah, we'll do something in December. But you made that good point. It's like that's all relationship, and you're just like talking about it and you're being vulnerable, you're talking about, you know, what are you working on, what are you challenged with, what's frustrating. Yeah, and I think all of us at this table do that with each other. We have those conversations, but yeah, you you nailed it, like the younger generation, I'm part of that too. It's like it's so easy just to text and to you know send a message, but those rich phone calls that you get with you know what's going on, what are you struggling with? You're an old soul though. I'm an old soul. You are episode one, Kevin uh Swenson just still impacted me from from uh the texting.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

But you know, we uh I I found that you never know what someone's going through. Always like that's the problem with uh you know when you're texting things and you're and you're and you're not you can't you can't hear anything in anyone's voice. Like today, oh man, I was I was giving um I was I was gonna give something to a client for uh for a Christmas thing and I said, Hey, uh I sent a text, are you on site? It says, uh no, I'm not. My father just passed away. And I'm thinking, oh man. You know, so I called him right away and I could, you know, um he didn't answer because obviously he's you know, uh probably dealing with his family and everything. But you know, even you don't know what's going on with someone, and all of these lives are are crossing, especially in construction, right? You've you've got so many different vectors that are going on with people. Um, and especially we've talked about this a lot, um, you know, with some of the um, you know, field workers, et cetera. I mean, it's not so much as you as you as you move up, but there's some complicated things people are dealing with, like life stuff. And that's where the character and brand and all of these things and how you do things around here and you care about people. So, you know, that's uh it's a very important thing.

SPEAKER_03 43:24

It it is, and and you know what, you you can't communicate that through like a text or an email. Um, you know, even if you're you know, like this gentleman's dad that passed away, like a text is never gonna do it justice. Like it's nice, yeah. Send the guy a text, know that you know so he knows you're thinking about him. But the phone call, like the the tone of your voice, like the pace of the call, um you know, the interaction back and forth, like there's a lot of value there. And I think I think some people either don't know that or they just they just they're just not aware of it. Um for some people they may not know what a cold call is.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

What is a cold call?

SPEAKER_03 43:58

It's true. Some people. Friend. A cold call is uh it's calling into a company. I mean, most of my cold calls are B2B, so it's calling into a company, um, doing a little bit of research, but but calling someone you've never spoken to before, yeah, and trying to get in front of them, you know, to tell the tell the bold story. Um there's absolutely no way I'm gonna be able to like relay the same emotion through a through an email. And if someone picks up that phone and we're like we're we're in a conversation or depending on what their what their day is or what they're doing, and you know, if we can get a chuckle or a laugh and you can get an emotional response out of that person, you're never gonna do that through an email, and you're gonna be just one step closer to to potentially meeting them. Um I think I mean I've had some of my cold calls, I've had meetings booked in 30 seconds, and it's just the time of day, the tone of your voice, who's picking up on how to do that.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

You got the tone down. I'll give you that. I'll give you that much. So it's weird, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

SiteMax.cloud.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Yeah. I I had a cold call come in today, which was kind of interesting. It was a sales training call. Okay. And that they're selling sales training programs. And the guy goes, Hey, how's it going? Yeah, I just want to let you know of this opportunity of the uh best sales training platform on the planet. I went, Really? The planet. Let's let's talk about that for a second. I said, uh China's got quite a few people. I'm sure they got some sales going on there. Have you have you checked out their sales programs? Or this I mean, we're talking the planet here. So it's the weird thing is is you the the credibility right out of the gate is the character part.

SPEAKER_05 45:34

It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

And so when you call, when you have a cold call for the first time, you're gonna make sure that even if they don't do business with you, that they're gonna the digested message there is that you know you you have coordinated that call well, you haven't wasted their time. And they also think something good of the company's name because you are gonna say, hey, it's Brandon from bullet construction. 100%. Right. So yeah, a deal or no deal, you never know what it's gonna be later down the road. Could be a referral, could be whatever, you know. So I mean, you obviously know that from being in the wireless business. You you understand that it's not always the first calls that is the transaction.

SPEAKER_03 46:07

Yeah, no, it's not. And uh there's a fine line between being resilient, persistent, and annoying. And if you're a cold caller, you really got to find out what that is. I I still haven't, I mean, I think I have it down pat, but there's no definitive um slot that fits that that criteria.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Well, this was interesting today because the guy was uh he was talking about um the best sales thing on the planet. Well, he was, but there was um but something was very interesting is they were they were talking about uh they were using these sales techniques. I could tell that it was a sales training call. And they were doing things like, you know, the whole fear of missing out. You can do that, it's you can implement that. And and they were saying, you know, if you don't do this now, so this is whole creating some sort of a friction there, so that's gonna make me act.

SPEAKER_03 46:54

Or urgency, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:55

And the problem is is I didn't even know anything about their thing. So there's no equity for me to risk losing until I know what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 47:02

Anyway, I know I've gone down here, but I love getting a cold call. Yeah, and I do get them, and I just you put them through the test a little bit, but I just I want to get to know who they are. Yeah, and I'll be like, is this a cold call? I'll ask them. Is this a cold call? Yeah, well, yes, yes, sir, it is. Like, man, I'm like, I love this. I'm like, what's your name? And we'll just talk. Yeah, you can appreciate it. I just want to break that ice right away. Yeah. And I can appreciate it. I've made thousands and thousands, and I've been rejected hundreds of times. And that's the beauty of telecom, man. I mean, you you gotta make you do have to make thousands of calls, and you get you do get rejected, and you go through this circuit, and you can't replicate those numbers in in this industry.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Um, not everyone's building a building.

SPEAKER_03 47:44

Yeah, you're not trying to build a building.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

I mean, everyone wants a self.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

Now that you think about it, I'd love to build a multifamily unit group. Hey, yeah, let's go. Let's do this. I'm ready to go. Toss in yourself.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

Yeah, I got eight million dollars, burn a hole in my pocket. Um called the right guy.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

One of the uh you uh you were mentioning too about the cold calls and you loved building a relationship, getting on the phone, yeah, learning about them. One of the notes we had on here to talk about was just the importance of industry engagement and community engagement, and just how um bold being relatively new, um newer business in the general contracting space uh compared to the legacy guys that are hundreds, hundred and fifty. Um, you you gotta invest in the community, both like the competitors you go against, you know, the clients, the architects. So talk to us about you you mentioned you had a couple of unique stories of just the importance of industry engagement, community engagement.

SPEAKER_03 48:33

Yeah, yeah. So those are two different things industry engagement and community engagement. Uh industry engagement totally, I think it's you need you need to be engaged in the industry. I think you can be choosy on where you spend your time. I don't think every industry event that says the word construction in is a good thing for you to go to. Um I wish I did a little bit more of it, but it's uh it's a good chance for you to clarify a few things. Uh you're gonna have your competitors that are you know seeing your signs, seeing your progress, and they're gonna just make up their own version of who they think you are. The only way to clear the air is to talk to that person. Um and so there's a ton of value, I think, just doing industry events and and telling your story to your competitors. And I respect all of my competitors, I think they're fantastic. A lot of people are doing really good things. I'll never talk bad about them. Um, but here's a here's an example. I'll get I'll give you two examples of industry engagement. Just recently, we're at a a passive house event. Well, I am uh with my our new PM who's joining us next year. Great guy. He calls himself the fossil. Uh can't wait to learn from him. Young guy. Super young, yeah. Rookie, rookie, yeah, eight.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

Fresh on a BCIT. What did they call you? The fossil.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

The fossil. No, he's great. I got to spend that night with him. And it was it was a passive house event, and it was an intimate uh private dinner. Um architect was there, uh, a famous YouTuber, Matt Reisinger was there. And uh look him up, he's got like millions of millions. He's sort of like the new homes on homes kind of guy. He's an awesome guy, and actually commented on our brand, it was pretty cool. He's like, I love your cards, bold. Oh, I love this. He loved it, he ate it up. Anyway, at the end of the night, one of my competitors is walking by, and I know him, and I know what he's what he's done, and I I know I know his name. I've never met him though, and I just pulled him aside. He's like, Yeah, bold, oh, I I know I know you guys, I know what you're doing, and we've lost jobs to him, and we've won jobs away from him. And so we're chatting, and he's like, I love what you're doing, and I love that you're involved in Passive House. Um, I'm excited for you guys going into 2020. We do have a 51-unit Passive House uh multifamily that we're doing next year. And he says, You know what, Brandon? I'm so busy, and my clients are coming back to me, and I'm in a situation right now where I have to turn down work. I don't want to, but I have to. I would love to introduce you to them. Now, I'm not saying that's gonna happen at every industry event, but if I wasn't there, it wouldn't have happened. It definitely would not have happened. And this is a guy that did some research on us, he knows who we are, right? So there's a bit of a comfort there. And I think we built very good rapport in like, I don't know, it must have been five or maybe maximum 10 minutes that we spent. I mean, he was leaving, right? So it was, you know. Um, but it's important. It's important for you to to clear to clear the story, tell your story, get rid of any, you know, potential thoughts that people have about you, and and go up there and and really, you know, and and and own it. Similarly, on the other hand, I've I've had clients where they've brought projects to us and it wasn't a good fit just based on location, size, and scope, various different things. And I refer that out. And I refer that out to to people that I met in a very similar way that I met my other competitor, right? Um so you just never know where that's gonna where that's gonna take things. And these jobs, I mean, these jobs are are you know they're not small. It's hey, I got 50 units. Do you mind looking at it? Yeah. And you know, that's that's exciting, right?

SPEAKER_02 51:55

On that note, tell us about some of the most recent projects you guys have completed. Different types, and then kind of what's upcoming for bold.

SPEAKER_03 52:04

So recently completed the we talked about this already, the the job in North Van, where we had Andrew Hansen and team out there to talk a little bit about SiteMats. Were you there, Christian? Oh, actually, we were all there. All three of you guys were there. Um, yeah, so that was a 34-unit uh wood frame rental, single underground parkade, and pretty cool story there. I mean, we can get into it later, but um so we just wrapped that up. Uh we're wrapping up a townhome site in uh Port Moody, 38 townhomes. Just got occupancy last week. Uh nice, congrats. Way to go, Ben and Dane and all the other guys on site. Uh we wrapped up a few TIs, cannabis store that I was telling you about. And heading into 2020, uh on the books, we have 166 residential units, and that's a mixture between market condo and rental, with a potential for those 166 to be uh just north of 350, depending on how things go, of course, and close to 50,000 square feet of commercial and industrial uh either renovation, tenant improvement, or new build.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

But the the the different types of projects you're doing multifamily townhome, doing um commercial TIs, all that kind of stuff, right? So it's a big the breadth of your work you're doing almost in one year.

SPEAKER_03 53:17

Yeah, yeah. And and we're doing that on purpose. I mean, our strength, if you ask me this in 2016, Brandon, what's your what's your home run project? I'd say 25 to 100 units, wood frame, six stories. Like that's it, right? Boom. Um, but we need to diversify. I mean, we're seeing a little bit of a multi-fam, I don't want to say uh like a downturn, but there's some skepticism there with with multi-fam. And we have a ton of experience in-house. I mean, have we have guys that have done high rise, we've had we have guys that have done you know$500 million oil and gas projects. Uh we have a ton of skill and a ton of expertise, and we're like, well, we need to branch out, right? So we've gone from that multi-fam builder in the 2016, 2017 era to the design builder on the on the retail space, and that's that's offices, that's gyms, that's restaurants. Um, and then yeah, and we're doing a new build commercial, uh just a two-story, 25,000 square foot uh commercial build in Richmond. Because we see where the market's going. There's gonna there's a huge gap in the commercial industrial arena. Um we're starting up an industrial expansion next year, January uh 2020. And so we're we're sort of filling our portfolio with with a lot of different work, whereas prior we were really hitting that multi-fam market and we did, and we did well, and we're still that's still our I guess you could say that's a our bread and butter, but we're we're open to to to a lot right now.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

So and you bring like you talked about your vision, or I can't remember mission or vision, but like being an innovative builder. You're naturally gonna follow those trends like passive house. There's a reason why you're doing 51 events. Like that's that's innovations, that's a more complex build. Bold's gonna that brand's gonna find itself in those conversations.

SPEAKER_03 54:56

Yeah, and we're and we're super fortunate. Like we love to be able to participate in the passive house movement. Um, I was talking to one of the passive house guys at this event, and he said, you know what, two years ago we had an event and there was like eight of us, and now there's eighty. Yeah. Um, so you know, Jaime and I were sitting down, we were talking about that, and we look and we looked at each other and we said, Wow, like we're we're very fortunate. Like we're lucky, we don't take anything for granted. And we see that the passive house movement, you know, whether you call it passive house or lead platinum or whatever you want to call it, um, that is the new way. Um, so you know, to hit the Vancouver 2030 targets and 2050 targets, you're gonna see you, yeah, there's gonna be a whole lot more passive house projects coming up, and we're sort of catching the wave, and we're yeah, we're very fortunate.

SPEAKER_01 55:42

It's a good mix of projects and what's coming, what's been built, what's coming on the pipeline. So that's exciting stuff.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're fortunate to be in the uh the cannabis retail space.

SPEAKER_01 55:53

But you're in the you're in the experience space, you're building products for a branded experience, but also just those are fast builds, tight schedules, oh yeah, change orders. So you look at like the product, and you mentioned like demolition moving, moving, like that's high, high, high client care, high changes. Like your pickup truck builder with you know two superintendents and you know running around from job sites can't execute on that whereas even like large-scale guys can't, you know, deliver that. So bold well positioned to do hey, branded experience, high touch points.

SPEAKER_03 56:25

Um yeah, so yeah, and that's uh you know, when I talk about our talent in-house and our our lead design team and our design build team, that that's Daria. And I you you know, you give me a mic, so I'm gonna I'm gonna say way to go, Daria, because she she kills it. They love her.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

Two shout outs for her. Like she's gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 56:41

Oh, yeah, is that too? Okay, we're done. That's enough.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

And love you, Daria. And here's here's your feels it. Oh, yeah, she she feels the love. Here's your chance, too. If you want to tell anybody out there, uh, our audience, those who are listening, if they were to use the services of bold or if they wanted to come and work at bold, you guys are a growing team. What are the things you're saying, Brandon? What are you telling people? Well, call me. Uh six no, just kidding. Um you gotta wrap you gotta like wrap your vehicle, man.

SPEAKER_03 57:12

Well, Jaime's vehicle is wrapped.

SPEAKER_02 57:13

Is it? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_03 57:16

F-150, wrapped, brand, yeah. I haven't seen it while I don't know if it's wrapped, but there's there's a lot of decles on decals, logos. You know, if you're looking for a builder um, you know, with a cool brand, obviously, uh, but one that's gonna take care of you. Our MO has always been we're not here to do your one project, we're here to do the next one. And when you say that, that means that you really care about what you're doing right now. Um, another, you know, Jaime is uh as a principal owner, a lot of interactions at the beginning stages are with myself and him. And you know, when you when you're going through that sort of client relationship building and you're you're getting close to you know signing and going forward, it's very important that myself and Jaime don't just disappear. Um which I think in you know in some sales industries that does happen where the sales guy just kind of just, oh, where did he go, right? Goes hunting, goes hunting, yeah. Uh so Jaime, he is so involved. Um, on the pre-con side, especially. Uh, and then he's going around to from site to site every week. Like he's touch, he's physically touching every project that we have. And as an owner, I think clients will will really appreciate that. Um and then, yeah, I mean, just our team. I mean, come into the office, sit down with me, you know, call, call me, give me a chance. Let's go for coffee. Uh, I think you'll feel it, you'll see it, and you'll you'll like what you see. Um, yeah, so that's that's my answer to that question. I don't want to sound too salesy because that's just no, I mean we did give you the mics.

SPEAKER_00 58:47

Yeah, we did used to sell cell phones.

SPEAKER_01 58:50

And your product has to speak for itself too, like you said, experience, product. So, no, it's exciting.

SPEAKER_06 58:57

I think it's cool.

SPEAKER_03 58:57

Yeah, yeah, no, and you know, we we pride ourselves a lot on transparency. Um, you know, just to kind of go back a little bit, right? It's we we've been in situations before where we were we were working with, call it a new developer, someone that hasn't done anything ever. Um, they might have just had capital or they owned a piece of land and they were sort of putting that developer hat on and we were walking them through that. We're making them feel comfortable enough that they're learning enough that their next project were the no-brainer choice. Yeah, totally. Yeah, you're a true building partner on that. Yeah. And and like we're in this for the long term, right? We're not just a one and done. Um, I think in 50 years you're you're hopefully you're still gonna see a bold sign. And that resonates through all of us, and we all know that. Uh, a big part of our team is sort of at that early to middle stage of their career, and they, you know, when they come on board, they know they're coming on board for the long term. Uh so if you're looking for a long-term builder that you can trust that's gonna teach you just some of the ropes and and be transparent, um, we're the right choice for you.

SPEAKER_02 59:56

Dude, it's been awesome. It's been a good time hanging out with you, Brandon.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:02

Thanks, man. Yeah, I was a little nervous at first, but uh, it's been good. That that cannot be 60 minutes or something. But we're not done. We're not done. We're not done.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

Actually, actually, yeah, it was. We're coming up on an hour here, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:13

Anything that uh anybody else want I mean, I are you are you gonna before I jump into the one to the uh there's a bunch of stuff we still didn't cover in here, but yeah, um the one question I always love asking, we love asking is um, and you probably went through it a bunch just in our conversation, but what are you most proud of? Both like the time you've been there uh at bold and and the people you've worked with. What are you most proud of?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:36

Yeah, well you you just you sort of gave away my answer. Yeah, it's just like that. Yeah. It is 110% the people. The people that we've been uh able to attract to our team, uh the people that we've been able to work with, our clients. We're we're just we're so fortunate. Um I have to say that I'm I'm proud of the team. And they know that, they feel it, and that's yeah, that's my that's my only true answer to that question.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:04

Sweet. No, it's a good answer. You got good people, you got good people.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:07

Yeah, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:09

There you go. All right, we're gonna jump into this, okay? It's our favorite part. Okay, it's where everybody makes jokes and and says things that they don't mean, and um leave it at that point. We should stretch. I think we should stretch, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:25

Can you say it in German?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:27

Nine, nine. Do you speak German? No, I don't. Faulkner, German?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:33

Relax. Uh Swedish.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

Right. I should be the one who speaks German. I yeah, I don't know why my parents didn't teach me. But anyway, all right, go for it. Okay, here we go. Rapid fire, Randall. Here we go. Holy smokes, ready, Brandon?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:45

What inspires you? Oh my. I hope this doesn't sound corny. Uh, one thing that really inspires me is uh is friends, family, and people I work with at achieving something, achieving some goals. Yep. Whether it's you know buying their house, um, you know, going through a course and getting to the end and finishing it, starting a family. Man, I love that. I love that stuff. Yeah, sharing people's success.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:09

It's I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:10

It fires it fires me up. Like I wake up in the morning, I'm scrolling through the Instagram stories, right? Shouldn't look at my phone in the morning, but I do, and there's people doing awesome things. And I I just I love it. It fires me up.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:20

Totally. What is something that you believe in that others would think is insane?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:26

I think to answer that question, I'm a big believer in uh in the law of attraction. And basically to sum it up, the law of attraction is what you think about is what you get. Um Andrew Wesley introduced me to that. And I think it's true, especially in sales careers. It's um there's a documentary on Netflix, I know it's kind of oh, Netflix documentary, whatever. Watch it more than once, and you'll find that you'll likely have a like you'll you'll resonate with with some of the things that are that are shown in this. It's it's just all about what you hold in your awareness as what you're going to achieve. And what's that called? The law of attraction, man. Oh, oh, sorry. That's it. The documentary, you know, it's called The Secret. The secret.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:09

Oh, that one, Rhonda Byrne. Yeah. Yeah. She had that book with the whole wax seal on the front.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:14

That's the one, yeah. So there's a story about this this broker where he was like, he wanted to buy this house, he had his mind on this house, and he packed up all his belongings, and he had this vision board in his office with all these things that he wanted, right? So he'd be like on the phone, he'd be dealing with a client, he'd be looking at his vision board, you know, whether it's a Ferrari or whatever it is that you want. It doesn't have to be material. And there's this house. And he was unpacking this box in this new house that he bought with his son, and out comes this vision board, and he didn't even realize it, but the house on his vision board was the house that he was just in, the house that he just bought. And he didn't, he had it, it was a total like coincidence. That's that's crazy. Yeah. I mean, look into it. I love it. I highly recommend people look into that. Just into that principle. I'm a big believer of that principle. The vision. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:00

All right. What is the most important piece of your background that contributes to your success at bold?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:05

Oh man. Uh that's yeah. So I mean, I would say um definitely the sort of the relationship building aspect, yeah. My general network um and cold calling. I don't know how many guys on the GCCM side of things are picking up the phone and not many. Yeah, I I think you're right. I don't think so. And I I pride myself in that, and that's something that I, you know, did a lot when we first started. So maybe I'd I'd say that. I don't know what Jaime would say or what what my coworkers say, but I think those are the top three.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:37

Well, and this one kind of ties in probably. What's the most challenging part of selling in the construction industry?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:43

Ooh, you know, if you're if you're uh if you're selling construction products, your challenges are gonna be way different than mine. Yeah. Uh on the service side. Okay, so permits. Oh yeah. Uh then that might be a weak answer. But as a new startup, when you're when your client's potential building permit takes like eight, nine, ten a year, months, or or twelve months, whatever it is, that that that kills. Um, so I'd say that's definitely one of them. Um two is is probably our competitors. Our competitors are awesome, they're really good at what they do, and we're going up against great guys all the time. Um, so we're we're trying to be that no-brainer choice, but when you have a guy with a portfolio that just is like the size of an encyclopedia, it's tough. Yeah. So a little bit of that's when your culture and your brand comes into play. Totally.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:29

Everybody starts somewhere, and yeah, you got to find those differentiators. Differentiators, yeah, the innovations. Yeah, that's awesome. That's good. What do you wish or sorry? What do you know now that you wish you would have known before you started at bold?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:42

Uh that commuting from Langley to Waterfront will slowly kill you. No. Uh Andrew's coming home with me tonight. We're taking the HOV lane. Uh no, I think I how I would answer that is you know, four four years ago when we had an opportunity, um, we would just we'd say yes. And oftentimes we come to find that we were like the check number. Yeah. Or like the third guy that looked really good that can probably do the project, but we just got to verify our other two bids and we'll use this guy. Yeah. But you don't know that. You never know that.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:14

Um so I think that that'd be that'd be a lesson. And then to get some type, you know, when we when you're going through a client relationship and you're you're sort of getting on board and you're doing a little bit of work for them, whether it be pre-con or helping them with demo or just through any type of permitting, get some type of commitment. And we have acted on good faith a lot, and we like to, but when you get burned once on good faith, you never do it again. Um so whether it be a letter of intent, pre-con agreement, a CCC2 that's maybe half filled. I don't know. Probably not half filled, but you know what I mean. Some type of commitment. It it it really matters. And you know, now that we're a little more established and we've arrived on the scene, we're um we're very careful with that now.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:01

Okay, here's the fun part. Brandon, what is the best or most memorable story that you have from the job site? Oh, the job site.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:13

So I do have one. Um back to our North Van project that we've talked about a few times. So I'll try to be quick with this because I know we're almost out of time. But uh, it's all good. That project came from a cold call. Uh I was using a prospecting tool. Uh, found the owner somehow, somehow. I'm a little bit of a fiend when it comes to prospecting. Give me a name or an address, and I'll get to the owner somehow, somehow. And I called this guy, uh, great guy, I love him, won't tell you the name. And he's on the golf course in Palm Springs, and he answers his phone. We have a good chat. And he's like, Brandon, call me back on this date at this time. And so I did. Anyway, one thing led to a next to the next, and we were building this awesome rapport. And every time I called him, he was either in Hawaii or in Palm Springs, and we're laughing because I'm like, man, am I ever going to be able to meet you? Like you're never in town. And so we finally met, and you know, he was doing a bunch of checks on us and you know, relationships and talking to his architect and his warranty provider, and just basically checking everybody out, everyone out on his team in the industry, uh, and doing a reference check on us. And it all came back positive. So fast forward, we secure the relationship. Um, we end up, you know, being his chosen CM and we execute, we roll out on site, and a month goes by, and I'm like, I'm going, I'm going to site. Because once a once a job becomes a job, I I like go with a gas pedal a little bit, and then project management takes over, right? So I showed up there and we had our, you know, I drive there and we have our we're we're we're digging the parquade and our signs are on site, our health and safety, all of our are it's totally branded. And like I remember sitting there in my car looking at this, driving up to this site, and I just got emotional, man. I got so emotional, and I thought, wow, all of this from a phone call. Well, and that's not the story with everybody, and that might not happen a lot or even again, I don't know. But it was super powerful and it really hit me.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:04

Wow. That that's something that yeah, like you never you see these things come together and you just think, oh man, everybody was on the same page from the get-go. This thing had been planned, this thing had been whatever, but you never you never know when a project gets derailed or or why or the design ended up a certain way, or how it even ended up in that piece of the or that place in the city, right? But it's just like these initial moments, right, that can kick something off that you just go that go unseen, unheard of, and all that kind of stuff. So that's pretty cool. And you're gonna drive by that building anytime you're up there and you see it, and it's gonna bring back everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:42

And there are yeah, it will. And I mean, it's uh you know, it's a little far away from home, but I'm definitely gonna keep that in my uh in my route whenever I drive into the area. Um it's all about those little micro moments, and then you and I talked about this before. Yeah, like that initial phone call could have been just horrendous. Yeah, like he was like, Oh, who the heck's calling me what's going on? I'm on the golf course, leave me alone. Yeah, well, first of all, thanks for answering your phone. Yeah, and it was almost like it must have been a minute or two-minute call, and I felt like this guy was my best friend. And I don't know if that's him or me or who it was, but we just we clicked right away, and a ton of love and a ton of respect for him. Palm Springs and golf. Palm Springs and golf.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:22

And a cold call from Brandon. That's a good day. Cold call in the heat. I'll take this call.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

Um, hey, this is this has been fantastic. Um, you guys got anything else to add or say? I mean, this is uh this is fun. It's been long awaited getting you on here, Brandon, talking about the Boltzmann. It has been.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:40

I've been resisting a little bit, so thanks for pushing hard.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:42

I got a photo of you on the top of that building. Oh, yeah, we do. We've got some great photos. Yeah, a couple of things. That's right. Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:48

We'll put that short. I think for me, awesome to have you on the show. I think your energy, your passion is super uh motivating. You're authentic too. I think uh you care about the people, you care about even us in this room, and in your here and you're present. But that last story for me, um yeah, that was cool. I think so many people here that listen, like I hope people hear that. Yeah, and I yeah, it's at the end. So there's a little treat. But construction's hard. And construction's hard, man. And those moments are so unique. I I know we've all had them at the table here too, but I think hearing you share that story, that's that's what it's all about. And I think that's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:23

All right. I appreciate that, and I agree with that. And luckily, I have an awesome team behind me that was able to execute flawlessly on that. So um yeah, it's a beautiful thing. Sweet.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:33

Okay. Well, we're into the holidays, so Merry Christmas. Yeah, Merry Christmas. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:38

Excited for uh for 2020. Happy New Year. Totally. We're coming out hard in 2020, just for you guys. We'll have you on again then. You're gonna be seeing a lot more signed, let's just put it that way. Love it. Very humble. I'm trying to be humble here. No, it's coming out. Yeah, that's it. Uh-oh. Look out. There we go. Thanks, guys. Really appreciate it. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:59

Thanks for listening to The Site Visit, a podcast dedicated to leadership in construction with perspective from the job site. If you like the show, please subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play. To learn more, check us out online at thesitevisit.com.