174 | How To Build an Empire in Commercial Construction W/ Justin Beedle

Mar 18

[00:01:06] Chaz Wolfe: All right, everybody. I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the King's King's table today. Invites Justin Beedle to the stage. [00:01:12] Justin Beedle: How you doing? I'm doing great. I really appreciate the opportunity to be on here and to be able to visit for [00:01:18] Chaz Wolfe: a while. Yeah, you know, I just was, just really appreciating just our few minutes here before we hit the record button and, I mean, I know you have just a ginormous business and just our couple minutes back and forth, we're talking about kiddos and we're talking about like the things that are, are really important outside of, just the business world. So I'm really anxious to see where this conversation goes, but Sure. Justin, tell us what kind of business that you have and what you. [00:01:40] Justin Beedle: Sure. Yeah. so I am majority owner of Patriot Development and Construction. I have two other partners that are involved with me on that, on this business. we are a commercial general contractor. We basically build projects in every division of construction. we retail office, financial, veterinary, medical, dental, lot of retail, car washes, gas station. And then we also have several hundred units of multi-family projects that we also do. Yeah. we're based out of the Dallas Fort Worth area and, pretty much do projects all over the state of Texas. Other than we, we generally have not, done anything south of San Antonio. Okay. So, but pretty much, veteran-owned, commercial general contractor, and we have a large majority of our workforce that is also veteran. that's incredible. We really try to hire veterans that are transitioning out of the military Yeah. To be able to, put them to work. And they have a lot of the intangibles that are hard to teach nowadays. A sense of urgency, the ability to make a decision. Yeah. you know, characteristics like that. So, but yeah, that's, that's what we. [00:02:53] Chaz Wolfe: I love that. and, and of course, thank you for your service. For the service. Sure. collectively from your team, I'm sure. I'm sure if you added up all of that, just that in itself I'm sure would be a very impactful number across your entire organization. That'd be pretty cool to know. Yeah. No, it's, but, but thank you for all of that and, you know, to have, to have somebody like you, you know, doing such large projects and, and in different industries, you know, in different, I guess, skill sets, across the mm-hmm. commercial contracting space. obviously you've, you've attracted quite a bit of,people to your team and, and to be able to do it in that way I think is really, really special. one of my. Friends has, spent three tours, overseas in the Middle East. And, and, and when he came back, it was, it was his own business, or in this case construction, that that helped him transition back into what you guys call a civilian life. sure. And so it was a, and it was an amazing opportunity, for him. So I'm, I'm, it's incredible to know that you're facilitating that for for many [00:03:47] Justin Beedle: others. So, yeah, no, we, we appreciate that and we appreciate, being able to help him. [00:03:53] Chaz Wolfe: For sure. Yeah. Well, so you're, you're, you've been doing this for a while and my, my first question is always the same, to everybody, and it's, why are you still pushing? Cuz obviously you've got this, this certain level of success. but mm-hmm. , but I would even say you, you know, I, in addition to just a certain level of revenue and money success, you've been doing it for a long time now. So you've got like the history, you've got the money, you've kind of got the whole, the whole thing. Why are you still doing it? Why are you still. [00:04:18] Justin Beedle: You know, that's a great question and, and the really, the only way that I can answer that is I love what I do. I love what we do. and I love helping entrepreneurs. we really try to focus on entrepreneurs and first time investors in, in, the real estate market. we, the bulk of our business is designed. And the design build is essentially, you know, the majority of our clients will call and they'll say, Hey guys, I've got a two acre tract of land in McKinney, Texas. I need you to tell me what I can do with it. Right? And we will perform a site assessment. we'll put together with some additional information. We'll put together a preliminary site plan and a rough budget. They can get qualification for financing. And then we handle the full design process and the permitting, and then we execute construction contract. as a separate contract to build it out for 'em. But I love helping individuals to do that. So whether it's an entrepreneur that, that is expanding their location and is taking on additional lease space that we can help build out, whether they are now building their second or their third location in a different city. and the ones that that really mean a lot as. , our mom and pops who have accumulated enough capital over the years to qualify for some type of a construction loan. We love walking them through that process. And, and I just get a lot of, get a lot of sense of enjoyment from doing that. And then also, as I mentioned, the, the first time, individuals that are wanting to maybe invest in real estate. We have some programs that we've put into place. , if you know, for instance, it's, one of them is called the pick and place. So we've basically taken three multi-family elevations and you select what you want it to look like. Out of those three, you select the unit mix and you select the interior design package and you find a piece of property and we put it on there for you. Wow. And it just takes all of that time. and design away. So that's why I do it. Just love helping. [00:06:18] Chaz Wolfe: I, well, first there's so many questions I have. being, a retail business owner and a real estate investor, you're, you're tickling all my fancies over here, but yeah, be, be to stay, to stay focused here for a second, I want to know. Was that even back in the day when you got started? Was that why, like part of the, why was it helping the entrepreneur? Was it just helping others? Has that grown over [00:06:42] Justin Beedle: time? That's grown over time? Because obviously in the beginning it's a sense of survival, right? It's a sense of providing for my family's needs, and something that I've realized over the years is it doesn't matter what anyone says. No one cares more about you and your family than you do. Yeah. So you can go to work for a company and they can tell you that a hundred times over, but in the end, I'm sorry. It comes down to number one, when, when, you're in that situation. So in the beginning, it was a matter of survival. I remember as. A fourth grader, and this is going way back obviously as a fourth grader. Yeah. My dad used to take us with a tractor and a six foot brush hog mower and drop us off at client's houses to mow their pastures. Yep. As a fourth grader and yeah, 10 years old. Yeah, and being able, and at that time we were making $15 an hour, which we might have been. Might as well been millionaires, right? Oh yeah. at that age, but mowing pastures. And I remember one specific experience where I had finished mowing a pasture, and that evening my parents took us to the local bike shop and I bought my own Diamondback Formula one bmx. and I could see the reward from the work that I put in and I just loved Yeah, you were hooked. So, yeah, so I was hooked. , [00:08:18] Chaz Wolfe: the story there of, of, You know, the, the little bit, the, the little bit of work for the bike eventually turned into taking care of your family. Yeah. And, and now it's the purpose of helping entrepreneurs e and, and, and you have a staff of, of quite a few that I'm sure. Sure. You're constantly thinking of taking care of them as well. But from a, from a, from an entrepreneur perspective, You know, you're getting, you're getting to like get in on the project in the very like beginning stages of like Right. It's part of the dream. The dream is starting to come to fruition. Like a lot of excitement in your stage Yeah. Of their project, [00:08:52] Justin Beedle: right? Yeah, absolutely. And if you think about it, if you're, if you're already running a, a, a business, you really don't have time. dedicate enough time to make sure that it's designed properly and still do everything that you're doing over here. Right. So the buildout process can be really stressful. Oh, yeah. And the design process. And so anytime that we can take that load off of that entrepreneur's shoulders Yeah. And show them, Hey, we are competent. We know what we're doing, we can handle this for you, so you can concentrate on doing your business. So instead of that property, For that business owner managing four or five different vendors, right? Architects, structural, civil, mep, engineers, cities. , they're only dealing with one person. Yeah. And that's us. [00:09:39] Chaz Wolfe: Exactly. And we're handling the remainder. Yeah. You know, it's, I told you I was thinking about this from a couple of different angles. as a retail franchise owner, even having the plans and the design put together for you, generally speaking, cuz there's always things that gotta get moved around. That in itself is, Definitely something that's, that's burdensome, let alone Yeah. If I didn't have that from the franchisor, as we built out multiple occasions over the years, if that had just been up to me, I mean, geez, I totally see the, the value there. And then on the real estate side, I actually, you know, it's interesting. Several years ago, and this was before I was, in a different place in real estate, much more, much more green. , but, we, we had a, a buddy of mine, we had this piece of land that we had l locked up in a contract. We knew the people over at the bank and they had owned it for plenty of years, and we were gonna get a good deal on it. We had this multi-family, commercial, retail space underneath and Yep. Had this whole idea and, and if I had known you then, or if you were in my area, then yeah, gosh, it would've been a done deal because that, that was the next step for us and me and him looking at each other. okay, we gotta talk to the city. We gotta do this, we gotta do that. Like, all this long list of stuff. And we started going through the process. Eventually just kicked it out. Just knowing that it probably wasn't gonna be a good fit, but that would've been so much easier. Sure. If we had known someone like you. [00:10:56] Justin Beedle: Yeah, absolutely. You know, and, and, and really in our industry, the end user. from a percentage standpoint rarely comes to us first. So I try to implement what I call first touch marketing. So when you're looking for a piece of property to, to expand on or build, first person that you touch base with is going to be more than likely the broker. Right. Or it's going to be the banker. Yep. Right. Or maybe a civil engineer. . So we really try to make efforts to reach out in the network with those individuals. Yeah. And that's the first battle. The second battle is once you develop a relationship with them, you've gotta perform so that they continue to refer you. That's right. Right. They're only gonna do it once you mess it up. That's it. So, so we really try to target those individuals, and to develop those relationships. After a while, it's just a matter of referrals. Yeah. From those groups. Cuz more than likely, you know, a lot of times you're gonna say, Hey, you happen to know a good general contractor that, that you would recommend. Right. [00:12:02] Chaz Wolfe: And so, yeah. Yeah. It all starts with that initial connection and you just happen to be able to do it all, which I love. And so, okay, let's go back. you kinda gave us a little bit of your history of just being obviously raised by a dad who would throw you out onto clients, pastures on with tractors and, and yeah. And mowers and such. That's, that's phenomenal. I assume that that has, Part of who you are, you kind of gave the like description, but when you got started originally, before maybe you were doing millions, give us an idea of what that looked like. Like why did you get started in this business? How did it happen? Kind of give us a little bit of the beginning. [00:12:36] Justin Beedle: Okay. So originally how I got started in the, we'll call it the construction business, was, newly married, attending University of North Texas. I was managing a feed. Okay. And when I would check clients out at the register multiple times a week, I would have individuals say, Hey, do you know anybody that builds barns and does pipe fencing and fencing? Yep. And and at that time I didn't have anyone that I could refer. And I was standing visiting with a horseshoe friend of mine at the time, Monty Clayton, good guy. And and he said, well, Justin, why don't you do it? I had never really even thought about that. And so, I'd gone through FFA and learned how to weld in high school and all that type of stuff. And so I went straight home from meeting with him and I printed off some flyers and I called it ranch hand fencing. And Barnes, there you go. And I set 'em on the countertop. And the first week I had seven calls. Oh yeah. I'll never. and and being able to go and meet with those clients. And I was absolutely clueless on how to even create an estimate. Oh yeah. Or to do any of that totally new, but I knew that there was a need for it. Yeah. Yeah. And so that was really the first business. Ranch hand fencing. And Barnes, obviously, I didn't even know anything about DBAs or LLCs or anything. Yep. So it eventually became ranch hand livestock. And we built several hundred barns and shops and probably miles of fencing for people all over North Texas. And then, and then from there, my wife is from, Northern Nevada and we started a group called Nevada Cornerstone Group, which was residential commercial construction in Nevada. Ended up selling that business and moving back here to Texas and, 2008 to 12. I was, Aldi, Aldi's construction manager for the state of Texas. So Okay. Worked with a fantastic team and we rolled out, I believe it was around 47 grocery stores throughout Dallas Fort Worth. And then from there, you know, with some other stops, ended up starting Patriot Development Group, which ultimately came Patriot Development and Construction. [00:14:51] Chaz Wolfe: So, yeah. Yeah, I love that. that beginning. You know, the inkling of the story. You know, the one thing that I picked up, you, you said the second thing, which was that there was a need, like this obvious need. Yeah. but the thing that I picked up and pulled away from that is that it was your buddy, or it was the other guy Yeah. That said, why don't you do it? And I, I can just so relate to that and I think everybody listening today, Has that person Yep. Or people who has just almost naively inspired us to, to, to take action Now, whether we have or not in those moments, you know, that's up to us in those moments. Yeah. But, yeah, I think it's so interesting to be able to look back and, because we probably, you probably have multiples of those now, like multiple options. yeah. To tell that same story, right? Yep. [00:15:34] Justin Beedle: Yeah, absolutely. And, and you know, I even ran across him a few months back and thank. Wow. Again. And and his response was, is I just knew you were a good person and you were gonna be genuine and good to people. Yeah. But for him to even suggest that and to give me that confidence of, Hey man, why aren't you doing it? Yeah. Go give it a shot. It just, it changed everything. [00:16:00] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. For me. . You know, it's interesting, I I, I'm just kind of piecing this together, even in my own story. I think, I think every entrepreneur has both parts, and both parts. Meaning the time where someone told us that we couldn't do something and that kind of fired us up and said, watch Yeah. Yeah, and I think we could probably tell stories on that one for podcast on days, on, days, on days. but I, I think that this, this por portion or part of our stories kind of gets a little, it's not as, it's not as flashy. It's not as exciting to say, they told me I couldn't do it and then I did it anyway. But when, when that small little whisper from someone that we trust, or someone that we just, you know, come in contact with, that gives us the confidence is what you said, to be able to kinda like take that next step whether we thought we were going to or not. and, I look back and those are, those are as if not more impactful in my own story. and I think we probably all relate to that. We just don't, they just don't get those moments, don't get the credit, I don't think, you know? [00:16:52] Justin Beedle: Right. I don't think they get the credit. And then the other thing that I think is important about that too is I think it's really important for us to be those individuals for others. Oh yeah. Right? Yes. We didn't get, we didn't get to where we're currently at right now. Not that we're tremendously better than anybody else. We didn't get to where we were at, without others involved in our lives and hundred percent we didn't have it all figured out. And so if you can be a mentor to somebody or to pull 'em aside and, and just say, Hey, I see what you're doing here. Let me give you a couple gotchas that I ran into. Yeah. That you might just wanna watch out. . Yeah. And I'm just a big believer in that. I love helping people. I get several calls for individuals that are wanting to start businesses, and I'll take time, we'll bring 'em in, sit down and say, okay, what are you thinking? Here's some things that I see and and what I try to follow. And if I'm starting to bore you, you tell me. But no, that's good stuff. there is. I don't know if you've ever watched the documentary on, Warren Buffet that's on H B O I have not. Please, explain. Okay. I recommend it for anybody that's listening, but there is a, there's a section there where Warren Buffet, when he is making the decision on investments or businesses, is he takes on a board and draws like a house and writes the name of that business or that investment, and then he takes, and he draws a moat around the outside. Okay. And then he and his team, all they do is sit and shoot arrows at that investment in that business of how it could possibly go wrong. Yeah. And what's wrong with it then? From those arrows and those and, and I know I'm paraphrasing, right? Totally. Then that's right. All you're doing is coming up with solutions for each one of those issues. Yeah. Right. I love that. And I've used that so many times, throughout my. That's just a, that's a great, that's a great documentary [00:18:49] Chaz Wolfe: to watch. Yeah. Such a great resource. And just even the mindset there of, of not, not negativity, but of, okay, what, what's the future hold? And let's just be honest about it. And then that way we can solve the problems ahead of time. Yeah. The one, one thing that you just said here that wanna encourage a listener, From a perspective of mentorship, obviously, you know, you sharing an hour of your time here today is a, is a huge part of that. They're listening today, they're grabbing some of those things here from you, and we'll get to the good and bad decision of yours here in a minute. But what I wanna encourage the listener to, to do right now is to take what they've got and turn around and give it to the next guy behind them even because, everything that's being shared here, you know, About mentorship and even the fact that Justin's given you not only just the ability to understand mentorship and receive when you can turn around and give it. For me, every single time I've done that, I've, I've grown and I've grown usually more than when I'm try to get myself into a place where I'm receiving. I wanna be able to give. as much if not even more than, than what I'm receiving. So I just wanna encourage you to do that. So, perfect transition here to, for us to go right into some mentorship from you, from the man himself. Let's talk about a good decision that you've made in inside your business as you, as you've scaled it, that we can take note of here today and, and learn from you. [00:20:09] Justin Beedle: You know, as I look back on my career, I've always had a leadership style of conciliatory, right? I want. Individuals around me. Good people. Yeah. That I can sit in a room and discuss different decisions that we wanna make. Yeah. I don't have it all figured out. Most people don't have it all figured out. But if you bring good people who are smart around you, you can pretty much tackle any decision that you have. And the way I've always looked at it is, you know, from a business standpoint, if you look at a wheel, you got the hub in the. which is typically how people form their businesses. You're the hub and you have all these outside groups that are around that, that form the rim. Right. Well, in a sense, you don't own a business, you own a job. Right? Yep. That hub leaves, that wheel falls apart. That's right. And so I've really tried to, Throughout my career create that wheel, but with good individuals all the way around that rim and together we make that hub. Yeah. And then that way when I go on vacation or when we go do these things, the whole thing doesn't fall apart. Yeah. Right. And so one of the best decisions that I've, that I've always tried to make was just making sure that we just had really good people around us that are. , hopefully smarter than I am. Right? And, and that, that are willing to tell you the truth about things and not just Yes. To whatever idea you have. [00:21:41] Chaz Wolfe: A hundred percent. I mean, the, the notion of. putting people around me. And then the analogy that you gave of the spoke is huge. that's, it's a great word. Picture. How did, how did you experience that knowledge? Like how did you come to the place where you're like, okay, , I gotta have other people around in order to have the rim, otherwise it falls apart. Was there something that happened or circumstances, a story maybe, that you can share? [00:22:05] Justin Beedle: I think it was just, realizing after a period of time the pressure that came. owning a business and then leaving, or wanting to separate yourself for a period of time, whether it's on vacation or whatever, and realizing that I couldn't do it and um Right. Couldn't do it because you were worried about things falling apart. And so I can't think of one particular experience where that has happened. It's really been more of a series of experiences. . Yeah. and maybe it, maybe I don't have a lot of talents. Maybe that's a talent that I have. Right. That, that, sure. I've always been able to see the importance of having smart people around so that they can help shoulder some of the burden and bring 'em into the areas that they're really good at and let 'em run. Yeah. Do you think that [00:22:53] Chaz Wolfe: comes from, from the military at all? I mean, that's kind of like how a good, how a, how an operation works. Like everybody kind of has their thing. ? [00:22:59] Justin Beedle: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think that that's, that's a good way to phrase it. Yeah. you know, not everybody can, can be, running the mission. Not, not everybody can be doing everything it wants, and so, right. It's just, it's just a way that I've just naturally been able to, to lead. [00:23:15] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, exactly. Why I, I think. I mean, that's great that you've been able to press into that maybe natural skillset. what would you say to the person right now who, you know they're listening? They, they know that they need to put good people? I mean, like Justin, I've heard it. I know, but it's so like, how do I can't find good people? Or, you know, like if I hire them, you know, the, everything on the inside's a mess. They're just gonna leave anyway. Or, you know, they just have all the scarcity around what, how much is gonna cost to, to have a good person. Like, what would you say to that person listening right now and they're having all these doubts? [00:23:49] Justin Beedle: Yeah, I think, well, first of all, the doubts are real and they're legit. as I look back on my career, what I have realized is that obviously the team that you have around you is the most important resource that you could possibly have. And what I personally have learned is that you spend the bucks that you have to spend to get the best possible people that you can get at that. time Yeah. And a lot of times as entrepreneurs, and I know that a lot of people are, are cash strapped. I know that, you know, they're startup stages and things like that, but whatever you can muster to bring on the best possible people, and preferably somebody that's experienced right, and knows what they're doing, that's the best route to go. Something else that. If as I look back, some advice that I would give for individuals that are forming new companies and trying to attract good individuals is to, one, you can promise things such as equity or bonuses or things like that. However, don't say anything that you're not willing to put in writing. Yeah, right. So if you are, if you manage to find somebody that you want to bring on board, and in order to do that, you have to give them a portion of ownership or profit sharing or whatever it is. Don't just verbalize that, put that in writing because if you don't fulfill with that, you are going to breed nothing but. an animosity towards you, and that's going to go on down the road ahead of you many times. And so you might not have the cash up front, but if the individual believes in what you're doing and you've put in writing what you're gonna do for that individual, if they perform with you, yeah, then you can, you can overcome a lot of the obstacles of. Maybe tremendously high salaries and things like [00:25:47] Chaz Wolfe: that. Yeah. And I was gonna kind of just transition that, such great information unto, has that been, something that you've done that's been a repeated success tool for you, which is find the person, like the entrepreneur or the high level salesperson who, who wants a piece of the pie or a commission instead of a, just a big salary? Is that, is that something that's, . [00:26:10] Justin Beedle: Yeah. I mean, in the end, I'm a big believer in your, you're always just training your competition, right? And so when you have individuals within your organizations that are go-getters are self-motivated, know what they're doing, yeah. They're probably aren't too many things ahead of them that are preventing them from just going and doing it. The. , right? Sure. So you've gotta take care of the people who are rock stars within your group or within your industry. Yeah. And sometimes by giving up little small portions, you're gaining significantly, right? Yeah. People get caught up on a one, two to 5%, 3%, whatever it might be. And I don't think that you're thinking, at least for me, right? I'm not judging anybody. , you should be willing, when you get individuals like that, all I am saying is, is think about the fact of what they can help you do, rather than that small portion of ownership that you might be giving up or that portion of bonus or profit sharing, right? I mean, think big picture, not small picture. Not the here and now. [00:27:24] Chaz Wolfe: I love that. like you just said, not the here and now, it helps you build something for tomorrow. Right. What are you looking for in that person? Let's just keep the van going here for a second. Who's that person that you're willing to give a one or three or a 5% equity sector? Yeah. [00:27:38] Justin Beedle: Well, I mean obviously they have to be proven right. in, I think in many industries, but at least in our, in. , my personal opinion is, is there are just certain people who can get it done and there are certain people who can't. Right. What I have tried to do in the past is when I come across an individual that just makes it happen. Okay? Yep. That's a huge skill, and so I want to try, well, first of all, I, when I, when we find individuals that can just make it happen and get it, Then that's one part of the equation. The other part of the equation is really looking at those individuals from a professional standpoint, right? Appearance, communication, both written and oral. Yeah. Are they somebody that you, that they, that you want to represent as a partner, right? Of your business or a leader within your business? If you, if you start to, to check the boxes of each one of those things. . You need to seriously think about whether or not you're gonna let that person go down the road and truthfully compete with you, because that's what they're going to do, right? Yeah. Yeah. So give 'em a reason to be there with you. And so that's what I've tried to do is when I come across individuals like that, I want 'em here. I want 'em with us and the other partners that are involved with our group. They have the same exact opinion, but we want 'em here. . [00:29:10] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I think that you're, you're spot on. And I think even for, for that side, for that person, you know, they're possibly capable of doing it themselves. Yeah. but we, we all know that they're gonna run into a bunch of bumps in the road trying to do it Oh yeah. Themselves, even if they are gonna be good at it and be a, a potential. Threat or competition. Yeah. So you're actually, by combining forces, not only are you, protecting yourself, I, I like, I like to think of it as giving them an opportunity to kind of bypass some of the things, some of the mistakes, some of the early bumps. And it, and it really is a win-win if, if, if it's the right [00:29:44] Justin Beedle: person. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, and frankly, you hope that you're coming across individuals that are grateful for that experience that you're already going to teach. Right, right. And sometimes you find those individuals and sometimes you don't. And they go down the road and they bump their head a little bit. And more times than not, they come back and they say, Hey, man. I had it. Good . Yeah. I appreciated my time with you and, just the things that you taught me, but Yeah. You know, so, yeah, that's right. [00:30:16] Chaz Wolfe: That's right. You know, and I think that that's kind of a marker. You know, I, I, I haven't realized that until, you know, some of the more, maybe more recent years, but even, even folks that worked on different, different teams of ours years ago, you know, they come back. And even, even just the, like, the fact that they didn't wanna come right back, you know, it's just like, oh man, I, I, you know, they left thinking something was gonna be different or better. And, and obviously Yeah. Even in the retail space, it's just difficult. You know, you, the opportunity's only so big, there Yeah. For folks, but yeah, when they've, they've gone, I've had a few where they go, and they've grown some skillsets and they come back, not only appreciating what they had once before, but now they're mm-hmm. now they're seasoned a little bit, and so, they've, they've made themselves even more valuable. So thinking a couple Yeah. Best case scenario. [00:31:01] Justin Beedle: Yeah. Yeah. Best case scenario. They've learned something that you didn't know and they're bringing it back to you. [00:31:06] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, exactly. But the only reason they're coming back to your point is because you spent the time, you, you were, you reduced, I mean, doing the right things that we should have been doing as employers, as people, mentors, yeah. You know, all of that. Just, yeah. Just being, being. [00:31:21] Justin Beedle: Yeah, and, and you know, having the opportunity of, you know, in this industry there's, there's turnover, right? And I, and I mean it 100%, when an individual comes to me, when a team member comes to me and they are leaving because of what they perceive to be a better opportunity or a better situation for their family, I genuinely hope it works for 'em, right? Yeah. I really want it to work for 'em, but I also tell them if it doesn. . First of all, don't be ashamed of taking the risk, but two, don't be prideful and not want to come back and talk to me or us about coming back. Yeah. Right? Yep. Because you admire the the wanting to get ahead. Just sometimes, maybe it's the same situation where the individual promised all kinds of things. They get there, it doesn't materialize, and they realize, right, oh, that's not where I want to. Right. Yeah. So just [00:32:15] Chaz Wolfe: be genuine. I'm sure that happens quite a bit. yeah, a hundred percent. I think that what you're saying there is just life lessons, and it's something from a place of care or mentorship, not from employment. It's, Hey, as an individual, I care about you. I care about your family, and yeah. And I can remember a scenario where I had, you know, one of my first, multifamily multi,unit managers. she was a single mom. And, and even though she had the best opportunity within my organization at that time, many years ago, she found a better opportunity and left me, uh, In a tickle of a place. yeah, yeah, yeah. But, man, it was like, wow, what an, what an amazing opportunity for her, as a single mom, to be able to, to grow and, and get her skillset on another level. And, and so to, to be able to bless somebody in that. really is a whole nother level as, from us from a, as business owners of, of the mature place. You know, and, and you can call it kingship versus warriorship. We use those words all the time here, gathering the kings. But, you know, it's a, it's just a maturity that you have a perspective. Yeah, [00:33:13] Justin Beedle: absolutely. Yep. [00:33:14] Chaz Wolfe: I agree. Okay, so I wanna know a process that you've got. around decisions. And actually I'm, we kind of, we may have skipped over your bad decision. Did we skip over your bad decision? Like come back, hold on. Before we go process, tell me what you've done. Just to screw everything up. Justin , [00:33:30] Justin Beedle: you know, really, I've thought about this a little bit and just trying to, I think for me, as I look back on my career, the times where I've really messed. Is when I don't trust my gut instincts. Yeah. When, and we all know it. We've all been there. We, our, our gut instincts have told us at times when we should be involved with a project, when we shouldn't, when we should be involved with a person. And we're, and we are, and just the gut instinct of saying, no, I, I can't help you. I'm not going to be the right person to help you. Because more times than not, that's always come back to bite. not listening to your instincts and telling you whether you should be involved or not. And so I fortunately, I haven't had too many situations where, and maybe it's because of that conciliatory approach to decisions, right? Yeah. And having a group of individuals around, I can't pinpoint one single experience, but I can, I can definitely. Tell you that over the years, not listening to my gut and not not being willing to tell somebody the word no. Mm-hmm. That's come back to hurt me at times. Because you spend so much time, time to help them. Yeah. And to get them through a situation and in the end you really didn't help 'em do. [00:34:57] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Tell, you've got a story there. Tell, tell me some information there about, about not saying no. [00:35:03] Justin Beedle: Well, I mean, you know, within our industry at times we have individuals that ask us for, who might refer friends or family to us. Sure. And it might not be a project that we are geared to handle, for instance, . As you continue to grow as a general contractor, there are certain projects that work well for you and certain ones that don't. Right. You have certain groups of GCs who, who can go knock out $150,000, finish out all day long, right. But might not be able to tackle a 10 million ground up office building. Right. And vice versa. Right, right. And when you get to a certain. and you're going, I don't want to, you're going back to one of those, those types of projects to help a friend or family member, when it probably could have been accomplished a lot cheaper and a lot easier with somebody who is geared towards [00:35:58] Chaz Wolfe: those types of project. right? Yeah. I think this, this is applicable for, for, I mean of, of course construction. All trades. Yeah. Heard what you just said and thought Yep. I've taken on the wrong type of client or the wrong Yeah. Project size or I took on my friend, you know, all of those things. Yep. Even outside of the trades in, in marketing, even, certain clients that we have in the retail space that, that, we do catering or, or larger stuff for, you know, you just, you. you just know who your tribe is, is really what it comes down to. Yeah. And the people that aren't in the current tribe description, it just, it just never works out. Not, not at least how it should . [00:36:38] Justin Beedle: Yeah, no, you're right. You're right. And we spend time, resources, [00:36:42] Chaz Wolfe: effort, energy, and it just, ah, [00:36:45] Justin Beedle: yeah. And you really go above and beyond to try and make them happy because you want them to be happy with it, but in the end, you just frustrated. more than anything. A hundred [00:36:55] Chaz Wolfe: percent. Which frustrates you cuz you're like, wait a second, I really cared about this [00:36:59] Justin Beedle: thing. . Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I shouldn't have been messing with it in the first place, but I did to help out. Yeah. And it just didn't work, [00:37:06] Chaz Wolfe: so. Exactly. Yeah. It, it really is. yeah, I've heard it, I've heard it before, but as a, just a. Just a slow down moment for the listener. Again, I, you, you, hopefully you wrote all that down, but I'm gonna give you another 15 seconds here to write it down again, which is, you just gotta know what it is that you're looking for because it's, it's when you're a little unclear that you'll take something on, when you're not super, like right here, this is where I'm at. Like this is my lane. and when it's not that clear, which means you're convicted about it, that's when you, that's when you waiver a little bit, which is just, Yeah, it never, it never turns out right. and so I think we , I'm just, I guess so many experiences could running through my brain, but, I think we can all relate, to that, to that terrible, scenario. So yeah. Out outside of the spoke example that you gave about how Kelly, you like process decisions, anything that comes to your mind when it comes to, like any disciplines that you exert or any process that you have around decision making? [00:38:03] Justin Beedle: Well, I think that, in order to make good decisions, you have to have a statistical history of what you perform well at, right? Yep. And I do think that it's important to measure numbers and, you know, for instance, in our industry, my personal opinion is the most important metric that our industry. That I want to know about is our estimating capture percentage, right? Mm-hmm. , so for instance, it doesn't do a bit of good how many sales leads are brought into this building, right? If we're not capturing on those sales leads, if we're not signing contracts, they mean nothing. Right. We're, we're just basically paying for people to get experience and so, exactly. I think that that's really important. So in order to make decisions, you've got to have someone or yourself keeping statistics on what you perform. Well, is your best project, right, a 1.5 to 7 million project, or is your best project, you know, from a profit stand? , seven to 15 men. Right, right, right. So that you know where to hone. In going back to that same documentary I was talking about, Warren Buffett's got a picture of Ted Williams in his office, and if those of you out there that wanna look it up, there's Ted Williams, he's a baseball player, and he was the first one that really started to look at the statistics of where he hits the best. And he was always in the 400 s if it was in the strike zone, but slightly. He figured out that if it was outside anywhere in that area, that it was best for him to not swing at it even though it might be a strike. Right. And so the only way he was able to do that is to be able to process that information. So in some form or fashion, you need to measure statistically what you're good at as a company. Yeah. So that when when you sit down and you have an opportunity come in front of. , you can make an educated decision on whether or not you're actually gonna pursue it. [00:40:08] Chaz Wolfe: Right? Yeah. I I I love the, lens, which you just gave to us. That lens gives clarity, which then helps you make the decision, which is what you're talking about, right? But the lens of data. I, I, I see so many people, I mean, bigger companies too, but especially guys that are listening right now, guys and gals, you're not at the seven figure mark yet. It's, it's likely because things are kind of maybe written down or maybe just in your brain still, they're not even, they're not even written down. and so I think what, what Justin's saying here is you gotta figure out. Just sit down for a second, get, get out of the grind for for 15 minutes and take some time to ponder what is it that makes the most sense for us, makes the most money marginally, and also what are we best at? And then, then look at the history and go, okay, like how often do we do that? How do we get those? And if we just put all of our effort into that, how much, how much more efficient would the thing be? [00:41:06] Justin Beedle: Yeah. And even if you don't have. . Yeah. Even if you don't have a software system that spits those reports out to you, which a lot of them don't, whether you're in QuickBooks, whatever software you're in, you've got job profitability reports, you can look back and see if you don't have the contract amount, maybe you can look and and see what that is and determine What you might even figure out is you're not shooting high. Right. Right. You might be looking. If you're a contractor that deals with, let's say 30 to $50,000 remodels and you're spending your wheels all day long and every year you're increasing incrementally, maybe you know 10, 15%, well, maybe you need to start looking at bigger projects to get where you need to be, right? Yep. You might be good at where you're at, but maybe you need to stretch it a little bit. Yeah, that's right. And start [00:41:58] Chaz Wolfe: reaching. Yeah. It really. Exactly. Make, it helps you make the decision and move and move the projects in the way that you want to go or the revenue, yeah. And either or. So you, it's funny, you, you, you dwindled your, your metric down to one for us here. Even before I ask, I don't know if you knew this, but it's one of my, one of my top questions here, dwindle the hold down the business all the way down to one metric. And so for you, it's this capture rate, and, and, How, how can someone who maybe doesn't have the software or who maybe doesn't even know how many leads that they're getting versus how many they're closing? Like how, how do you start with this, with this metric that you've given to us? [00:42:35] Justin Beedle: If, if you don't have software that's tracking that, first of all, I would definitely look at a way to be identifying those things. But you've got a pad and paper. . Yep. Yep. So every time you send out a bid for a project, you're writing down what that project name is, the date, the contract amount, and beside it you've got a, a capture, or really we do three categories captured,non-a awarded, and then we also have never materialized. Right. Because there's a lot of projects that are bid that are never, that never even come to fruition. Right, right, right. So in the end, it's just simple. after a period of time, you know, hey, I've bid 50 projects this year and I captured 25% of 'em, industry average for our industry in the, in the general contracting realm. Commercial, you generally want to be in the thirties to the 50 percents, right? Somewhere in there. If you're above that, you might be too cheap, right? Yep. If you're below that, there's probably a couple of different factors involved with that. One, they don't trust you enough. You might not be presenting yourself the way that you should, right? Or you're way too high. or they just don't have confidence in you that you can do it. So at least by keeping those statistics, you can sit back as a team and say, Hey, why aren't we getting. . Right, right. Then you're, then you're asking the the client, can you give me an explanation of why we might not have been awarded this job? Right. Right. Yeah. We're always looking to get better. Can you tell us why? Well, you were $25,000 higher than somebody else. Okay. Write that down. The numbers don't lie. Right. Over a period of time. Exactly. So over a period of time, you're realizing, Hey guys, 70% of the time we're higher than everybody. . Why is that? Yeah. Yeah. Well, in our industry, yeah. I think maybe. [00:44:36] Chaz Wolfe: Go ahead. No, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off there. I was just gonna say that, you know, you're, you're you're giving such valuable information, but it's just flowing out of you like, like it, just, like it's natural. and so what, what he is talking about here, I want you to really pay attention. In fact, if you're listening now, I want you to hit pause and rewind it and come back because everything that he just gave, it seems so easy. Like, of course, you, you, you understand these things. You, you write them down, you ask these questions, but the, what he said with those most, most, I. Is that over a period of time, it basically tells the story. Data will tell the story over a period of time. And so number one, you gotta let the period of time happen, but you gotta make sure that you're tracking the data in that period of time so that you can look back and be able to understand the story that the data's telling you. So I wanted to make sure that they understood that. I've got a couple more questions here before, before we wrap up. Justin, you're, this is just, okay. So good. you enjoyed it. Good. Good. Okay. So my, my question to you around networking and mastermind groups, do you spend time networking with other entrepreneurs and or, or do you mastermind with any other entrepreneurs? [00:45:39] Justin Beedle: I do. I, I definitely try to find individuals that, who I can tell that I perceive are smart, successful, both what I say spiritually and. , right? I believe that they go hand in hand, right? Yeah. So I find individuals that I respect and then I, and then take 'em, golfing, take 'em to lunch, whatever it might be. Just bounce ideas off. We have set up an advisory board within our company, right? So, for those of that might be contemplating that, that's valuable. input, right? Yeah. Look towards where are the risks within your industry, whether it's legal compliance, right? Whatever it might be. Marketing, find individuals that you really respect. Set up a board. and then come to 'em every quarter, every six months. Present what you're doing and get their input on what you're doing, right? Yeah. Sometimes you're so involved, you just can't see the forest for the trees. But it's amazing sometimes when you put that information in front of board members and they smack you on the forehead and say, what are you doing? That's right. Right. That's right. Why are you, why are you doing this? You're opening yourself up for liability here, or are you guys not seeing the numbers? I'm seeing that you're not very profitable or, or whatever it might be, but, right. The board approach is, has worked out fantastic throughout my career. [00:47:12] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love, I love the idea of the board. In fact, we, we didn't start out with this, with gathering the kings as far as this idea, but as, as the mastermind groups, specifically, the seven figure, and eight figure group has grown, that's been more of the language. It's. , this group of 15, 20, 25 other owners that are in a high level thinking, but in different industries, I can come to the table, I can bring my issues, I can bring what's working, what's not, and then I can get this feedback. Yeah, just like what you just said, you just happen to have your own, Yeah, which is just this incredible opportunity to have a board of directors of people that, you know, they're in the grind or they're in the, the building. They're in the, the leadership, they're in the, they're doing the thing that you're doing, you [00:47:53] Justin Beedle: know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It's just, it's just really, really valuable input from, from outside individuals, but find that trusted friend or two that's successful, like I said, spiritually and temporarily, and bounce ideas off of them. Ask 'em how they handle it in their. Most industries are similar, right? When it comes to the core of it. That's right. So find out how they approach something. The other thing is, you know, when you're running into issues, it might not be something that you have to solve, right? Look, look outside of your industry for a third party group that might do it significantly better so you can concentrate on something else. Right. That's right. Try and figure out, hey, do I even need to be messing with this? And, and if you don't, try and, you know, sum it out to somebody else, to another group and let them handle it so you can focus on something else. [00:48:49] Chaz Wolfe: That's right. I love that perspective. Who, not how, what book would you recommend Justin for a six figure business owner who's, trying to, trying to [00:48:55] Justin Beedle: level up? Yeah. Well, I know I mentioned it earlier, but, your next five. Is a fantastic book. Yeah, I have read that multiple times and I've taken a lot of notes in that and I've looked back on different decisions that I've made that I could have done differently. Yeah. and that's just a book that I've, that I've always really enjoyed. and, and having said that is, is my personal opinion, is we challenge ourselves as an ownership. That we need to be involved and all of our team members in continuing education, it's not an option whether or not you participate in a course or not. Okay? Right. I'm currently in a real estate financing course. our, one of our partners is over pre-construction and estimating. Just went through a course with m i t. you've got to be a student of your craft, right? Yeah. You've got to have the mindset that you don't know at. and get out there and learn new things. Just because it's worked well for you doesn't mean there isn't a, a, a nugget of knowledge that can't take you to a different level. Yeah. And so be willing to read. Right. And, and to learn new things, so I [00:50:06] Chaz Wolfe: love that. Okay, Justin, last question here for you. If you lost it all, and obviously, you've done quite a bit mm-hmm. , what would you do if you lost it all? [00:50:20] Justin Beedle: If I lost it all, I would do the exact same thing I'm doing, but with a couple of changes. Okay. One, as I said, I would trust my gut instincts more than I did in the past two. I would, as I mentioned, being able to, to, really finalize my, my focus and say, More often. Okay. But the most important thing that I would've done differently is I would've figured out a way to be building my own projects significantly sooner than what I am now. Right? Hmm. It took, it took several years of building for other individuals before I really understood, the process of building for myself Now that we're, we build our own internal invest. I look back and I think why in the world was I not building projects for ourselves early? Right? Yeah. And so I would've figured out a way capital raise, whatever it would've been in the beginning, to partner with individuals so that I could build as many projects as I possibly could where we had ownership in them. Yeah, that's what I would've done. [00:51:37] Chaz Wolfe: I love the perspective, the humble approach that you've given here today. I, I do not take it lightly. How can, a listener who wants to connect with you, they wanna find you, they wanna, they wanna reach out to you, how can they find you? Yeah, [00:51:51] Justin Beedle: absolutely. So obviously they can go to our website, which is patriot development.com. our office number's 9 4 0 2 3 0 2900. my email address is on our website. I don't hide behind anything. None of us do. Our, our emails are right there, for you to send information. You can also send emails at, info patriot development.com if you're interested in building a project and you want somebody to walk that process through, the city for you and the. We'd love to hear from you. And then, you know, obviously once, once, you call the office here, they'll pass that information onto myself or one of the other group and we'll personally come and sit down with you and, and go through whatever project that you have and we'll give you the good and the bad, the red flags, right, that you need to look at. I love doing assign assessments, so if you've got a project that you're looking. that you're wanting to do. We'll sit down, we'll look at that. Setbacks, easements, flood planes, utility locations, all of that, and we'll be able to tell you, yeah, I think it's doable, or, yeah, you ought run. Gotta run from that one. [00:53:01] Chaz Wolfe: Yep. I love that's something you touch with. Yeah. You've given us so much, not only opportunity to connect, but I mean, I think if people go back and listen to this one, seven times over, they, they, they probably wouldn't have gotten it all. So you've given us value from decades of experience. hundreds of millions of dollars of, of, of business. And so I just, I just am so appreciative of, of everything that you've done here today. We wish you nothing but success in all that you, that you're up. [00:53:27] Justin Beedle: Chaz, I really appreciate, appreciate the opportunity to be on here and yeah, I would love to answer any questions that you have or anyone else has. I'm here to help.

Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Join host Chaz Wolfe as he sits down with a king of the construction industry, Justin Beedle. As the majority owner of Patriot Development and Construction, Justin has built his success on a foundation of quality investments and a commitment to hiring veterans transitioning out of the military. With expertise in every division of construction, including retail, office, financial, veterinary, medical, dental, car washes, and gas stations, Justin's portfolio of projects spans almost the entire state of Texas. So how did Justin achieve such incredible success? By surrounding himself with people who are smarter than him and building the right teams. In this episode, he shares his years of experience and insights with Chaz, revealing how to make the most out of your investments, how to find and retain top talent, and how to create a winning team that will take your business to new heights. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business. Tune in now to "Make It Happen & Get It Done" with Justin Beedle.

Justin Beedle:

Website: http://www.patriotdevelopment.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/patriotdevelopmentandconstruction/

Phone: 940-230-2900

Email: info@patriotdevelopment.com

Chaz's favorite morning drink to fuel him for his day

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