Full Transcript for Integrity and Resilience in Business: Lessons from Beau Killingsworth

background. Speaker 1: 5:22 I always wanted to be a business owner, had no idea what it took in the beginning. Speaker 2: 5:27 You know, I had no idea. Speaker 1: 5:30 I just was kind of allured by the freedom and flexibility and potential financial freedom that you can get from operating businesses and stepped into it and learned a lot and failed a lot, I would say in my business journey, learned a lot and failed a lot, I would say in my business journey. And I'm just always trying to grow in everything that I do and learn. That's kind of me, I try a lot of different things. Speaker 1: 5:56 I've tried a lot of different things and I try to be as risk adverse as I can. A lot of my people that I would talk to or you would ask about me would say I'm slightly conservative. For a regular entrepreneur, you know a little bit, but over time I've developed the ability to take bigger risks and swallow that and control that scenario for myself mentally, I guess, but that's pretty much it. I mean, I got into construction after that flood in 2016. I was a financial advisor at the time. I didn't particularly like what I was doing and I didn't feel like I was really helping that many people and just kind of leaped out on faith and didn't really know anything about the business but started a business in that environment and that's where the failure started. Speaker 2: 6:43 Well, that's a good way to put it. Speaker 1: 6:46 That's where the business failures started. Speaker 2: 6:48 I would say, oh, so is that in 2016, with the floods? Speaker 1: 6:51 Yeah, yeah, there was just a lot of work and I had a buddy of mine that I went to college with and he was interested in getting into construction and he invited me to go down the journey with him and I had separated from the firm that I was working at and and I was like you know what, why not? And and I just tried it and I had no experience in it and it was tough. It was rough, didn't really, didn't really. It's not like one of those stories where you, you start a business and, oh, it's just everything's falls into coming together. Speaker 1: 7:23 It wasn't like that at all for a long, long time, and I'm still learning and still trying to grow and become a good operator, in that space at least. But that's where it started, man. I didn't have any experience and I'm one of those guys that did start a business with no experience. It's not a route that I would suggest for everyone, that's for sure Takes a little tenacity, I'd assume. Right, yeah, yeah, and I didn't really. You know, I knew that I had the capacity to, to, to, to handle it because I had drive, but I had no idea the, the, the mental aspect of, of everything that I was going to go through, and I still go through today. Speaker 2: 8:03 Yeah, sure. Speaker 1: 8:03 For sure. So, um, if we're trying to be raw on this podcast like I said which is when you said that earlier, I was like

you know what it's a? It's a great, uh, it's a great thing to say that, but it's hard to be raw and authentic sometimes in these settings. You know, even with the podcast, you know cause I try to get there too with the content that I do, and I have to actually really force myself to get down there because some of it's dark, you know. Speaker 2: 8:28 It's tough man. Speaker 1: 8:29 Owning a business is not. Speaker 2: 8:32 Well, and that's exactly why we're doing this thing we're meeting business owners that they have so much more under the surface that you would have never known about. So what I'm going to pick on first, or highlight first, is, as a sports fanatic I'd say you know, congrats on playing college football. I would have loved to have done that. I played through high school and you know I was about this size, which you can equate to not playing college football, and I wasn't fast. So, with those two things here we are. Speaker 1: 8:58 We had both those in common. Speaker 2: 9:00 No doubt. So that's awesome, man, that you're able to play. So how was that experience? Speaker 1: 9:04 Oh, interesting, yeah, I uh, I was never like a football star or anything. I mean, I'm an athletic guy, um, uh. But uh, you know, my father growing up uh had a huge impact. Both my parents did, you know. Speaker 1: 9:17 But my father would have me read self-help books when I was younger you know uh 13, 14, 15 years old, and and I used to watch Rudy as a as a as a child and it was my favorite movie, you know, and I I actually my father got connected with a guy named Mike Robinson and and he was the strength coach at McNeese when I was still in high school and I was trying to, you know, get as good as I could to potentially play in college, you know, and so I started working out at Maneese while I was in college with him and he just let me work out with the team. He would give me private strength coach lessons and stuff, and he did all of it for free. It was crazy. Speaker 2: 9:57 Wow man. Speaker 1: 9:57 He's an incredible guy. I hope he sees this. But yeah, I just started there and I worked my body up to where I was reasonable and uh, and just like Rudy kind of I I just walked on, I sent them some footage and uh, and they needed some extra scout team people and that's basically what I did. I, I was a deep snapper. I played defensive line in college in, uh, in high school school, and then I got into some other trades inside the team just to help the team out. Once I played, but I was just essentially a scout team guy. I would dress out for the games but I didn't play in the games. So it was just. You know, that was an experience for me where I had to get that under my belt. You know that's the reason I went there. Speaker 2: 10:43 That's awesome, though, man. That's a great experience. I wanted to get that under my belt, you know. That's the reason I went there. That's awesome, though, man.

That's a great yeah that's a great experience. Speaker 1: 10:46 I wanted to try and I was very small, I was slower than these guys. I mean, once you get to the college level, I mean it's completely different. Oh, it's absolutely. Yeah, it's a different ballgame man. Speaker 2: 10:56 I actually a little-known part of my story. So I locally from Como High School, yeah, Graduated in 2003 and kind of really went through a little bit of what we'll call an internal crisis, initially because I've done nothing but play sports track, football, baseball all growing up and decided you know what? I'm going to try to walk on UL's football team and I went to one workout. Speaker 1: 11:23 Yeah. Speaker 2: 11:24 And I was like this is not. They don't have room for me. Speaker 2: 11:30 And everything's obviously, you know, going great and stuff. Since then I, you know, I still try to stay pretty active, but anyway, to be able to play college football obviously is a feat, so congratulations on that. Now, aside from that, going to law school that's, that's something a lot of people, you know, strive to do alone. So you don't always, I guess, find somebody that went to law school, that owns and runs a business that has nothing to do with law school. So that's a unique combination, yeah, so I guess, tell us maybe how that has attributed to your success at this point that has attributed to your success at this point. Speaker 1: 12:05 Yeah, um, it is different, for sure, um, but it is. Uh, you'd be surprised at how much you you use with the knowledge you get in law school and in general business, obviously, but in what I do specifically, um, it, it, it helps me a lot. It certainly is not the key to success in in operating business at all, really, uh, but it, but it definitely helps a lot and it gives me it gives me the ability to at least understand things at a different level, that's. Speaker 1: 12:33 that's definitely an advantage for me. But I tell people all the time that, uh, you know, um, having that knowledge, you know, that's one thing, but that that has nothing to do with winning in business and surviving the ups and downs and what's really demanded out of you to become the person you need to become to be successful. It's very different. Speaker 1: 12:57 It's a completely different journey than what you learn in school even if it's law school, even if it's law school, but uh, but what I do a lot of the time. You know, if you look at some of my content that I put out that we talked about it earlier that I put a lot of content about insurance out there because I've I have a lot of experience in it from from many different sides. Speaker 1: 13:15 But what I do in in the restoration world, in the insurance restoration world from roofing water mitigation uh full restoration projects, things like pursuant to insurance claims the insurance claims environment these days is is so much different than it used

to be. Um, so essentially, guys like me um, the construction is ultimately a small part of what we do and dealing with that so so, um, the stuff that I know about insurance and the law uh helps me out a lot. Speaker 1: 13:47 I would imagine that in the ability to control the business and understand the business and understand the, the, the leverage you may have, or or what insurance companies are supposed to do what they should do and what they fail to do a lot of the time, you know. Speaker 2: 13:59 So when you were growing up, did you know you wanted to go to law school, or was that something that just kind of happened as you got into those? Speaker 1: 14:07 adult years. Uh well, my mother's an attorney, she's a. She was a career prosecutor in Lake Charles, so she uh, she would prosecute criminals uh felony. Speaker 2: 14:16 So some law and order stuff going on in the family. Good man, that's one of my favorite shows. Speaker 1: 14:20 Oh yeah, she was like those, uh, those DAs over there in law and order, you know, SVU. Speaker 2: 14:26 SVU man, that's the one everybody watches. Speaker 1: 14:28 She put those guys in the slammer, for sure, she was hardcore, but she went to LSU Law School as well. And you know, when I was in college, I didn't know what I was going to do. I liked numbers. I'm a numbers guy primarily, and so that's why I studied finance and business, but I wanted to get a higher education, you know. Speaker 2: 14:48 For some reason, I just wanted to. Speaker 1: 14:49 Uh, I wanted to do that. I didn't have any bright ideas as to what I was going to do. I wasn't blessed with the clarity of of where I was going to go with my life early and uh. Speaker 2: 14:57 I don't think too many of us were. Speaker 1: 14:59 Yeah. So I wanted to go to grad school and I could get an MBA, I could get a master's in finance or I could go to law school, and after talking to many people, I determined that law school was the best fit for giving me the ability to do anything that I wanted to do, rather than just in the finance sector or just in some type of role at a business. But, having that law degree gave me the ability to potentially practice law or do whatever you know. Speaker 2: 15:30 So when you go to law school, do you pick what you want to go to law school for? I'm just kind of unfamiliar. Do you pick, like, criminal, civil contract? Speaker 1: 15:39 No, there's a specific curriculum you have to do you know, in your first year. Basically everybody in their first year of law school is taking the same classes, whether you're at Harvard or whether you're at Southern or or uh LSU. Speaker 1: 15:51 Here, uh, you take the same classes, which is you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, criminal law, you know contracts, uh, basic things tort law a civil procedure which is basically the mechanics of uh, of how you navigate the justice system and the rules for that, filing

deadlines, things like that, jurisdiction, all this kind of stuff, so uh. But but after that you can kind of navigate which classes you want to take and that you want to focus on, but it's not like, oh, I'm going to be a tax attorney, so this is the route I'm going. Speaker 1: 16:21 It's you don't choose, you don't choose a major but you have some more flexibility later in the school system to kind of take different classes, and I focused all my classes on business and tax business stuff like this. Speaker 2: 16:35 Tax man. We might need a meet-all fare for tax. I don't know if this last year was the first time ever we had to pay. We typically have enough deducted in our income taxes. I don, yeah, I don't know. It's a, it's a tumultuous world out there. I think an insurance and taxes right now tax world. Speaker 1: 16:51 So for sure, minutes, I don't know it's, it's crazy. The the tax system is. It's wild man, because you know anybody who can understand it. You can get away with not paying any tax. You know as a, as as a high net worth individual, if you structure everything right. You know. But people who don't make that much money are paying a lot of taxes. Speaker 2: 17:14 It's, it's it's interesting I'm not an advocate or don't have maybe the knowledge of the tax system. Speaker 1: 17:18 Exactly, or the or, or the resources to align yourself with the people who do, or just the general knowledge that you need those people. It's interesting. I'm not advocating for either side, I don't really care, I just want to get through it all. Speaker 2: 17:32 Get through it all. Speaker 1: 17:34 But yeah, it's interesting, yeah, man. Speaker 2: 17:37 So 2016 flood you said that's when the mistake started with the business. Oh yeah, so was that color wheel or was that a different business? Let's get into how that all transpired. Speaker 1: 17:46 Yeah, yeah, the first construction company I started with my buddy was called Patriot Home Improvement and I called it Home Improvement, or we did, because that was the license you got. It was the home improvement license in Louisiana, that's right. It allows you to get that license and you can do residential projects up to $75,000 without having to take a construction test, which was key for me because I knew nothing about construction. There you go, so you could get that license and do residential projects as long as you had insurance, and home improvement seemed like the category of the business we were going to do, so that's what we called it. Speaker 1: 18:21 But I started that one and then, you know, made a lot of mistakes, barely survived and ended up ultimately just growing in the construction space and learning from different people. And then fast forward. I aligned with some other contractors and filled some voids with some different other contractors. I got into the restoration space after Hurricane Laura. I wasn't really doing although I was doing restoration construction, I didn't really know much about the insurance restoration part of it and dealing with the insurance companies. Speaker 1: 18:57 And then I did some business development for some law firms after Hurricane Laura to supplement my income, but all the while I still was operating and doing deals in the construction space and ultimately I it led me to uh uh, find some niches within the business, um to where uh I can help um uh other larger roofing and restoration companies gain licenses in different spaces. Um, uh kind of as a consultant, if you will you know, and I did that and I kept learning about the business. And then uh it of as a consultant, if you will you know, and I did that and I kept learning about the business. And then it got to a point where I was doing projects with other companies for for an extended period of time and I was doing very well, but I wasn't doing anything in Lafayette. I wasn't doing any projects here. I had learned I'm basically I'm a different person than I was when I started that first company and I wanted to go back to it and give it a full go. Speaker 2: 19:52 Sure, right, okay, with the knowledge that I had. Speaker 1: 19:55 That's what this company is. This company really is a rebirth of sorts for me, with all of the knowledge that I've gained over the past. You know, decade, almost, uh, in the space, so, um, I'm in a different position to to uh, handle it. It's very hard business, Um, but uh, but that's what this is about, and, uh, and it's going well. Man, I have a good team around me and I've identified some people that are that are really good, uh, people to work with that are working on my team, and we're just doing the best that we can to serve the people here rather than you know out of state or anything like that. Speaker 2: 20:35 Yeah, so some of what we will talk about is the contracting industry. Speaker 1: 20:39 Yeah. Speaker 2: 20:39 You know some of the bad players out there and how easy it is especially when you start talking about insurance and different things for consumers to be taken advantage of by some of those bad companies. But before I've got to cover this obvious question, yeah, okay. Color wheel. Speaker 1: 20:54 Yeah, yeah, Everybody. It's a question. So where did it come from, man? Everybody asks. Speaker 2: 20:57 Because, I'm going to be honest, I think paint yeah, yeah, I know Some of my distributors do. Speaker 1: 21:13 I went to a meeting the other day. It's like, oh, you're a painting company. I'm like, nah, there's nothing to do with that, but uh, I got you. Uh, no, it's a roofing, the roofing industry, which is something that I aim to uh penetrate right, um right, roofing is a good business. Speaker 1: 21:19 I think that it aligns with my skills and my team. Um, and I think it's a good business. That's why we market ourselves as a roofing company um, we, uh, we, uh.

We do other things as well. We're, we have different capabilities, but, but roofing is a space that's highly competitive, um and uh, and there's a lot of players. Um, and I knew that. You know what I wanted to present to people. I wanted something to be a very modern, clean and approachable by everyone. That's, that's, that's really what was on my mind. And, uh, and I don't know how I came up with this, to be honest, I think I just just kind of popped in my head and I wanted the logo to have many different colors, not just one. Uh, I wanted it to be clean, different, uh and uh, and I just kind of came up with it and I was like you know what this is it doesn't really mean much to me personally. Speaker 1: 22:15 It's not like I have some sort of like. Oh, my nickname back in the day was color wheel, you know, no, it's not have been cool, nothing like that. Speaker 1: 22:20 But I just thought that it was a brand, because it's all about branding, and that what I'm focused on is creating a brand that that creates an emotion with people. And, uh, and I thought that, as long as I served people the right way with the business, um, uh, this would be something that they could attach to and it would be just different enough to, um, elicit some sort of emotional response rather than, you know, bow, bow construction, or I actually had a company called killings- worth construction at one point, and uh, you know, I just having my name on it everybody uses their name, and construction or whatever. Speaker 2: 22:56 Yeah. Speaker 1: 22:56 Yeah, and that's exactly why I I chose something kind of off the wall on the other side. I tell you it's. Speaker 2: 23:02 It's pretty neat Cause I'm by far I'll preface this with not a marketing communications expert, but to me, a brand is something that you want people to remember after the fact. You want them wondering what do those people do? It's not immediately apparent what they do. Next thing you know they're looking at your website. So it, to me, checks those boxes. Man, pretty cool way to go about it, yeah. Speaker 1: 23:29 I appreciate that. Speaker 2: 23:30 When you became accredited. So all businesses, when they apply, get looked into and we do what's called a UMAP, basically a background check on the business, and then before it goes to our board, I have to look at all the applications and sign off on them. Yeah, and I remember color wheel and I was like oh, okay, painting contractor. Speaker 1: 23:52 Yeah, and I started looking at him like Nope, I'm not painting. Speaker 2: 23:53 Yeah, you could, right, I mean, you're a contractor, so you could, but you're not a uh you know a paint company. So it stuck with me ever from, from that one instance of of coming across it, you know so from an outsider's perspective. I think you did what you wanted to do with it. Speaker 1: 24:06 Yeah, that's a great story. That's exactly. You know what you want, I think. You know we're a new player. You know nobody knows us, even though we have a lot of customers. You know Lafayette's a big place, you know these communities are big places, so that's exactly what I wanted to do, for sure. Speaker 2: 24:27 And I think that's a. So when did? Speaker 1: 24:28 color will start, uh, about a little over a year ago. Speaker 1: 24:30 Oh, cool, okay so it's very, it's very new. Um, like I said, I've I've been operating in the space for a long time, but you know I needed a, a fresh start. I needed a fresh, fresh brand and actually start building something. You know me and me and my wife. My wife owns Worth Counseling Group. She's a business owner here as well and and it's a counseling center for mental health children, families. Her name's Shelly Killingsworth. We weren't sure if we were going to stay in Lafayette. You know we didn't know, like I did business out of of state. I have construction licenses in a lot of different areas in uh South Carolina and Florida and uh in Tennessee, all these other areas where uh our potential business places for us, and we didn't know we were going to stay here. But we kind of in the last year, decided this is, this is the one for us well, you probably started eating and realized there was no way to leave. Speaker 2: 25:24 Right. Speaker 1: 25:24 I started eating a long time ago, man, that never stopped. Speaker 2: 25:28 Man, every time we travel or go somewhere, it's like you know it's great, it's fun. There's always that aspect of wanting to get home, but I always want to get home and eat. Yeah, because the food is just so diverse and so good around here. Sorry to go sideways with that, but so where do you guys live In? Speaker 1: 25:46 Lafayette or we live in. It's a Youngsville address, but it's, but it's. It's close to Ambassador Caffrey down south we live down there. Speaker 2: 25:52 It's grown so much out there, yeah, yeah. Speaker 1: 25:54 It's a really great place. I didn't know. I lived in Lake Charles, lived in Baton Rouge. Speaker 2: 25:59 Yeah. Speaker 1: 26:00 And I just passed by Lafayette a million times. I never really gave it the time of day, you know, when I was a younger kid, and uh, and then I took that financial advisor job here in uh, I think it was 2015 or 2000, late 2014. And I moved here and my sister had moved here and uh, and I was like you know what? This is a nice, but this is better than definitely better than Lake Charles. Some people might, uh, lake Charles is cool, all right, but it ain't it, ain't it ain't Lafayette it is not even close to Lafayette and, uh, baton Rouge super spread out. Speaker 1: 26:32 I was never really interested in new Orleans, you know, and uh, this was kind of the sweet spot and I learned that over time. But we, we, we recommitted to this being, you know, our long-term space because of her business. Speaker 2: 26:43 Cool. Speaker

1: 26:43 And that's why I was like, okay, well, now I can settle down and I didn't want to build a business here or a brand here and then move to Texas or something a year later. I'm committed to this community and staying here long-term yeah, that's important. Speaker 2: 27:00 Obviously for consumers. You don't know a business is going to be around after the fact. You have a good experience with a business. Unfortunately, you may need your roof repaired again. Then you want to be able to go back to that same business. You know I did a great job the first time around. Speaker 1: 27:13 No doubt. Speaker 2: 27:15 So yeah, lafayette's a unique area. You know, I worked actually in Baton Rouge for two years. I was commuting every day, which was pretty horrendous. Speaker 2: 27:22 Yeah pretty horrendous, yeah, um, pretty long days when you got quite a long day at the office and then you're driving. You know I try to leave about 6, 20 ish in the morning, um, try to avoid the traffic and then I either left at four or left at six to come home. You know it was, uh, it was a little different, but the people I met they're great, you know. You know it's it's still south louisiana, yeah, but the community in baton rouge and I might get some flack for this is not. Acadiana. Speaker 1: 27:50 No, it's very different. Speaker 2: 27:51 It's not the same culture, and I'm from here. Broussard-youngsville area is where I grew up. Yeah, you know, left for a stint of that with the Marine Corps and different things, but for the most part, you know I've spent my whole life here and I, you know I've spent my whole life here and and I just love being in the acadian area. Speaker 1: 28:10 It's a unique culture and there's a lot of unique people. Well, I just I've met a lot of people who moved here, and I'm one of them, uh, uh, and I don't know if I I'm still waiting to hear one of them that regretted it you know they don't. This is a this is a good place. This is a special place here. This is different. It's different than other places. South Louisiana has some good people, no doubt, but Lafayette is just. It's like the good people are proud of being good people here. Speaker 2: 28:38 You know what I mean. Speaker 1: 28:39 It's something different. Same reason that we're talking about it right now in the same fashion we are, because not only our general population is good people generally speaking, but it's something to be proud of here and I think that that pride there it's a little bit different than other places maybe. I don't know, it's just a different community feel. I tell people that all the time that if they move here like it's you know, yeah, it's not going to be New York City, you're not going to get the big-time metro feel of. Speaker 2: 29:10 Dallas-Fort Worth or something. Speaker 1: 29:12 But you got everything you need and there's plenty of positives here to stick around. Speaker 2: 29:17 It's a great place. It's a unique story. I talked to a business owner recently that is doing some mortgage stuff on the side. He's retired, retired CPA, and he just kind of got into helping out with some mortgage stuff on the side. He's retired, retired CPA and he just kind of got into helping out with some mortgage things for a little extra money here and there. And I noticed he's from California. Speaker 2: 29:34 Yeah, oh yeah, interesting, and he's here you know, and I said so, how'd you end up? You know, he said well, you know, I was retired and I met a woman from Gaydon. Speaker 1: 29:42 Yeah, and now he's living in Gaydon. Yeah, talk about culture shock. Yeah, his whole professional life, california. Speaker 2: 29:50 Now he's in gaydom, so, yeah, um, you know, but it's such a unique place and, uh, you know, we're, we're, I'm in a unique position with bbb to be able to serve our community no doubt it's great meeting businesses that are out there doing the same thing. Speaker 2: 30:03 So in the contracting industry, just from a BBB perspective, it's probably it's our most reported on or most inquired about, our most um turbulent industry in general contracting, not necessarily roofing, but just in general, and typically it's because of you know a couple of different things, um, you know you know a couple different things. Um, you know people calling themselves contractors that aren't. They don't. Speaker 2: 30:31 They don't have any licensing, even the home improvement registration that doesn't require the competency testing yeah you know, basically just show your insurance to the state and pay the fee and you get your registration you know they don't have that um, but they know there's a lot of money to be made in it. Speaker 2: 30:44 So they're going around telling people they can do things and either not ever doing it you know, just truly criminal or they're not doing a great job and companies like you guys are having to come after the fact and fix it. You know, and for some reason and this is across the BBB system, you know there's 98 BBB offices all across the U? S and the contracting industry is kind of the one with the most accredited businesses. The best businesses that are out there are contractors, and we find some of the worst ones too. So what do you see out there, kind of on the street, sleeves rolled up, doing contracting work? What do you see out there? Speaker 1: 31:21 as far as that's concerned, Do you think that 85% to 90 percent of those complaints is residential construction? Wouldn't you say? Speaker 2: 31:33 yeah, let's say residential hits is hit a lot harder than business for sure? Speaker 1: 31:37 well, I want to preface this by saying that construction. One of the main reasons for this year is, um, the construction is hard, dude, it's hard, it's dude, it's hard, it's very, very hard. It's hard to meet expectations with people. It's

hard to set those expectations because there's so many things that can happen in the construction process that you can plan for maybe, or are unforeseen, and it's very hard to manage those expectations with customers. Speaker 2: 32:07 So I don't know if you thought that I would say that, but that's one thing. No, I wasn't thinking that, that's one thing, okay. Speaker 1: 32:13 That's the overarching thing that is happening here, and what happens, in my opinion, with all these people who want to be contractors is there is a lower barrier to entry into the space. You have to pay some money to get some paper stuff like that insurance, but it's a low barrier of entry. You don't have to have a college degree If you want to do it, and and and and, hang your shingle out there, you, you can do that, Right, Um, so it's extremely hard, Um, and most of the people that get into it don't really know that and I was one of them that that that's the thing I was one of them. Speaker 1: 32:48 I was a professional, no doubt. I went to, I went to law school, I did all these things. So I understood business, understood, like you know, customer service, I understood sales that's what I did, Right. But but I didn't understand how hard it was to meet those expectations, you know. And then it's a competitive environment and then there's people that will come in and and do things for cheaper with all those, without all that overhead and legitimate business expenses, and and tools that you need to actually succeed in that environment. Speaker 1: 33:18 So if you have a truck, you know, and a ladder maybe, and spend a little bit of money, you can probably become a roofing contractor, you know. But but to succeed and and and and meet all the expectations necessary, it takes a lot of people, it takes a lot of money and that's that's. That's another thing. If you don't have a significant amount of money to be able to operate in the space, you can get into a situation where not only are you hurting yourself you're for sure hurting yourself but you're hurting customers as well. So the money aspect of construction is very, very real and I think that people think that they can operate with very little of it and get people to pay them up front in a larger amount, and it just creates problems in the expectation and throughout the project when unforeseen things happen, I don't know man. And throughout the project when unforeseen things happen, I don't know man. It's just a really hard space to operate and it's even harder to meet expectations and keep a good name for yourself. Speaker 2: 34:17 Sure. Speaker 1: 34:21 Because, at the end of the day, integrity and doing what you say is the biggest thing that you can have or choose in a contractor. It's the empathy that your contractor has to not leave you hanging. That's the biggest thing you know. If I'm hiring somebody, I know how to hire and fire people. At this point, subcontractors and deal

in the construction space. It's very different than other places. It's rougher. You're dealing with people who who aren't educated, who you have to speak to differently, potentially set different expectations as far as your workforce goes very difficult, especially for me, because I didn't come from that world. Speaker 1: 34:59 Um, but uh, but yes, it's, it's just, it's just a different business to operate and uh, and it's just, it's just a different business to operate. And uh, and it's very so, that's a unique perspective. Speaker 2: 35:10 So, um, you know, about 80% of our complaints that we get are non-accredited businesses. Speaker 1: 35:17 obviously so, but you're adding a different, I guess um layer to the conversation I advocate all the time because I want people to realize that because I'm not the contractor that's going to leave you hanging. That's one thing. That I didn't finish my point, that's the one thing I'm looking for if I'm hiring somebody, somebody that is not going to leave me hanging, somebody that will put their name and brand and reputation ahead of the money. Speaker 2: 35:41 Sure. Speaker 1: 35:41 Because you can cut costs and you can rip, pull money out of projects if you want to, if you want to be a crazy person, and you don't care and you don't care about your name and you don't care about what happens you can do that, and then you've got a lifetime now for this business. Speaker 2: 35:58 How long is it really going to last, like this? Speaker 1: 36:00 Yeah, you open yourself up to a whole other bag of tricks if you do that, sure, but you can potentially maintain more money in that situation temporarily. Yeah, until it's ripped back from you in a lawsuit or something like that. Yeah, but, but it's the people that will put their name and brand and reputation and not leave their customer hanging. That's the biggest thing because at the end of the day, in construction, if you pay someone a specific amount of money to perform services on your home or your business, at the end of the day you may hate the guys. Perform services on your home or your business. Speaker 1: 36:30 At the end of the day, you may hate the guys, but if they did what they said and they didn't leave you hanging and they finished the job even if it took longer than expected, at the end of that day, in my opinion, that's a positive experience as compared to all of the host of negative things that could have happened. Speaker 2: 36:45 Yeah, absolutely, and that's actually going right into you know one. What we wanted to cover in this podcast is is what is unique about about your business, and what I'm understanding is, you know, in a nutshell, we have integrity If we tell you it, if it's something we tell you, we're going to do it, and and at the better business bill. That's one of the things, obviously, that that we report on. Speaker 2: 37:07 You know a business's track record in the

marketplace is just as important as what the guy's telling you at your house today, because you met with him to do a project. You know what has he been doing for the last couple years out there with everybody else, and a lot of times that can be the differentiator in. Well, it's pretty obvious what's going to end up happening with this. Or, you know, man, he's been treating everybody else right, you know. But two things I want to cover, based on what you talked about and this is something we try to impress so much on the community is what are some of those things you need to look out for in a business. You know, getting things in writing, which feeds right into you know, this is what we said we're going to do. We're going to meet those expectations. But for one, cheaper isn't always better For sure, because a business that is charging you way less, they still, at the end of the day, want to make money. Speaker 1: 38:02 Yeah. Speaker 2: 38:02 So if they're able to charge you that much less, where are they cutting the corners that you're not seeing to be able to charge you less? Now, obviously, competitive pricing. You know, of course we always encourage people to get multiple pricing and typically the the companies that are doing things the right way are probably going to be right around the same area. Yeah, you know, the service aspect may be what the differentiator is. Speaker 1: 38:25 Yeah. Speaker 2: 38:25 And that seems to be what you know, what you guys pay most attention to, but also what I'm hearing is the communication, yeah, the ability to communicate effectively, precisely on the front end. Yeah, so that at the end of the day, they didn't hear just what they wanted to hear, and now you didn't do this, this and this. Right, you know exactly what you're going to receive that way, the day the project's completed. Speaker 1: 38:51 Yeah, they're happy with it yeah, yeah, I would say communication is a another one of those things that is absolutely necessary in any construction project, and it's it's not just on the front end, you know, it's, it's all the way through. Speaker 1: 39:02 You know, depending on the project, depending on whether it's a it's a longer term project, if, if somebody is at your house or we're at your house for four, five, six weeks potentially doing a large project, or whether it's, you know, we're doing your roof in one day, you know those are completely different projects, completely different expectations and completely different customer experiences. Every one of them is different and that's the thing. Not differentiating you know what service is required for different types of projects is something that an unsophisticated person who's just getting into it just like I was when I first started my business they don't understand all those because they haven't seen that or felt the pain of not doing it right. So, yeah, communication is a big deal, but again, that one main thing

I think is the biggest thing, and it's the guy that's not going to take money and run. I mean that's the number one thing doing what you say you're going to do, because at the end of the day as a business. Speaker 2: 40:00 you're saying for the consumer to look at that right. Speaker 1: 40:02 Yes, yes, that's the primary thing. And you, you mentioned you know what. What should they be looking for you? Know, potentially when they're looking at these things. In my opinion, it's transparency, and right now transparency looks different. Transparency is not really telling someone you know how the project's going to go. Speaker 2: 40:25 That's not what you might not know, that Right. Speaker 1: 40:27 Yeah, you might not know it and you might be mischaracterizing it because you can't see the future or the project could change all these kind of things. Transparency is putting out information to show the customers what you're about and how you operate and what your values are. That's the biggest thing because that's going to answer the question of is this person going to do do right by me? Speaker 1: 40:54 And if you have a group of people who care about those things and that's the their primary focus, you can usually figure that out, not just by Google reviews and other reviews but other content social media content is something that I like to do to try to show people what kind of person I am and, uh, and I don't know, there's there's not a lot of uh owners of companies or, or or managers or operators that are doing that, and I think that, uh, I think they need to to be honest with you, because it because it all starts with them. They're setting the tone. They're setting the tone with these businesses and everything comes down from them. So, if it's a good piece of fruit there, you know who you're dealing with, and all of the subcontractors potentially, or workers and things like that, it'll flow through to them. But I think transparency is the biggest thing, and figuring out how much and to what extent uh these businesses are being transparent with the marketplaces is probably the biggest thing yeah, absolutely, and um, that's obviously that's. Speaker 2: 41:58 That's one of the standards that we rate businesses against, to show you how important that is but also, um, as a business operating that way. You know, from the consumer perspective because I don't have a construction business or have any ambitions to, but from a consumer perspective, you know you're more likely to. You know you talked about not being able to see the future and you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know what. You rip all that off if something's rotten that you didn't know about and you know these things that happen. From a customer perspective, at least as far as I'm considered, I'm much more likely to probably give that business some understanding and grace because of the way they're treating me and operating. Speaker 1:

42:38 Yeah. Speaker 2: 42:38 Than well. No, you said in your contract that wasn't going to be an issue. You know what I mean. Yeah, You're more likely to understand where they're coming from. Yeah, Because of how they've approached you from the beginning. So I think you're more likely to understand where they're coming from because of how they've approached you from the beginning. Speaker 1: 42:53 So I think you're almost setting yourself up for success with these consumers from the front end. Yeah, and stuff like that. You really need to be transparent about those possibilities, obviously on the front end, and it makes things go smoother because construction's a rocky road. It's very like I said it's very hard to operate and you can't see the future a lot of the time. Speaker 1: 43:06 It's very like I said, it's very hard to operate and you can't see the future a lot of the time. But if you know you're dealing with somebody who's not going to leave you hanging and has your best interests at heart, you know everybody says you know only focused on the consumer. I'm like well, you may not have a business You've got to balance all these things. Speaker 2: 43:25 Yeah, you do right. You've still got to worry about the business, these things? Speaker 1: 43:26 Yeah, you do right you still got to worry about the business. Yeah, you've got to protect yourself as well. That's a line that I try to do. As best I can is to focus on the customer, but also, you know, not give everything away. We have to operate this business and continue going. I mean these guys that I have working with me. They've got to put food on the table for their families as well, and it has to be profitable at the same time. So it's a balance, but the better that you can get your customer to understand that you're real people too, and you're not one of those guys that just runs off, they're much more likely to work with you throughout the process and understand that. Speaker 2: 44:02 Yeah, so you set these expectations? As far as I know, there's only one of you right. There's only one Bo. Speaker 1: 44:07 Yeah. Speaker 2: 44:07 So at the end of the day you've got I don't know, everybody's got a lot of things these days. Speaker 1: 44:12 I don't know there could be another one somewhere. Speaker 2: 44:16 But so you're, you know you're most likely, you know meeting, setting up these contracts with these consumers, but you can't be the guy there at every project every time, Right? So how do you ensure that your subcontractors, or maybe, if you have employees, how do you ensure that they're carrying that through? Speaker 1: 44:34 Yeah. Speaker 2: 44:35 Once Bo left and now you're relying on them to do it. But you know, set the expectations up. Speaker 1: 44:40 Yeah Well, number one I don't. I don't let them in, unless I think they're going to do that anyway. You know, so I don't, I don't, I don't put people, uh, uh, alongside my existing team members If I don't think that they have that one thing, which is the don't leave people hanging, you know, in this business and have integrity with what they're doing and do what they say. If I don't think that they're going to be like that, um, I won't, uh, I won't, put them in the program, if you will. Speaker 2: 45:06 Yeah sure. Speaker 1: 45:07 So that's number one and I'm a faith-based guy, I'm a Christian, and I try to do everything in line with that and I try to lead with that and I try to find other like-minded people to work with because that's who I align with better. So that's part of it. And then it's just, you know, general business stuff, and checking in with people and and making sure people are are setting those expectations right and and following through and if they don't, you know, talk to them. It's, uh, just general business stuff, and and uh, and checking out those performance indicators of what people are doing and and uh, and keep the ball rolling. Speaker 2: 45:45 Yeah, a side note on that you know, I don't know, probably 15, 20 years ago when everybody had the you know WWJD bracelets. Yeah, yeah. You know, you kind of just look at it and overlook it, probably at the same way. But as a you know mature, I guess professional we'll call it. I really kind of just matured like the last couple years. But you know, and I really don't have life figured out yet, but I find that a really good question sometimes. Speaker 2: 46:09 Yeah, you know what would Jesus do in this situation. That's going to help me make a decision a lot more easily than, how does Chris feel today? Speaker 1: 46:17 Yeah, yeah, that's an interesting point because I ask myself you know, I don't think Jesus would own a I don't know operate a construction business like this or something. So it's, I try I think about that stuff a lot as well, you know. But yeah, I mean having a tone with that in everything you do, not just business, but thinking about that is the most important thing. Speaker 2: 46:43 It's helpful, right For sure. Speaker 1: 46:44 For sure, absolutely, you know. Speaker 2: 46:46 Now, as we get close to wrapping up, I'll ask you a little bit more about the workforce, because that's what we continue to hear from every business owner. Speaker 2: 46:54 I was meeting with a guy that specializes in making homes accessible for handicapped, that's kind of like his niche and he's like I've got so much work and I can't find a guy to come in here that can read a tape measure, much less show up for an interview, you know. So so how hard has it been really to find those, those great employees Do you typically have? You typically found, you know, indeed, resumes, or you typically kind of word of mouth. Get to know people and I can teach you what I need to teach you. I just need the right kind of person. Speaker 1: 47:34 Yeah, yeah. What way would

you say, has worked best for you? Um, I found them both ways, you know. And I, I, I pray to God all the time to to just bring people in front of me that I can work with, and, uh, and, and I've been blessed to have some, some really good people, uh, uh, you know, come into the hemisphere. I guess you should say but, or could say but, um, I don't know, man, I, I, I don't, I don't have big crews of people that directly work for me as far as tradesmen goes, you, know, um, that's. Speaker 1: 47:59 that's not really how my business is structured, so I'm not day in and day out trying to find those specific guys that that guy is trying to find. Speaker 2: 48:06 Okay, okay. Speaker 1: 48:07 I understand that it's very tough for those guys, but I think I don't know. I mean, you know, the cream always rises to the top and there's always going to be people that are willing to work at the right price and things like that. I think that I think it's a struggle because small business, you know big business will raise their prices very quickly, you know, and then, they will never basically come back down. You know, you see it across the board especially after COVID, things like that, right, yeah. Speaker 1: 48:38 But small businesses, you know if they try to raise their prices everybody's. You know knives and pitchforking, you know to be honest with you. I feel that that's the case a lot of the time and it just puts a further strain on that. That. That that situation, because you know if you have that ability to hire good people. Yeah, cause at the end of the day, everybody's got to put food on the table and uh and prices are going up. I mean it's, it's, it's, it's let me ask you material costs. Speaker 2: 49:04 Does that stabilize, or is that still it's? Speaker 1: 49:06 always going up, man, it's, it's always I? I to be honest with you. It the price of materials, besides the fact that, uh, I may have to raise prices or perform better in a different area. I don't care about that stuff, you know it's not, that's not going to be the key to my success. I don't. I don't really worry about it. It is what it is, and if I have to charge a little bit more on specific projects, it it is what it is. Speaker 2: 49:27 Well, and if you're having, if it's that cost for you, most likely it's that cost for everybody else. So it's not really a differentiator, right? That's right, that's right. Speaker 1: 49:35 So yeah, everything's getting high. Everything got really high after COVID. Things stabilize and they go up more. I mean, these things I don't know, I don't. I don't think about it at all, to be honest with you. It's just a part of the business, and I just hope that small businesses have the strength and the guts to charge what they should be getting, because, at the end of the day, you know, small business is the reason for the proliferation of America. Speaker 1: 50:06 You know, small business is the backbone

of of of everything we got going on. There's big, big names that are controlling tons of money, especially insurance companies. They're one of them. They're, they're, they're the richest people in the world. Those companies are the richest companies in the world and, uh, and they'll raise their premiums. They'll double them in a year. Speaker 2: 50:24 So we so we've experienced um locally. I'm actually shopping, for those that may be listening, that provide insurance. Speaker 1: 50:32 Our general liability policy at BBB. Speaker 2: 50:36 You know, we've got a couple of different insurances, we have a board of directors, so we've got directors and officers insurance for covering them and our general liability and building insurance that we have Our general liability and building insurance that we have. Well, I just reached out to our board for some suggestions on companies to shop this rate with, because, for whatever reason, we have our insurance coverage through an agency in Florida and we're shopping it locally. It was like that when I started with BBB almost six years ago. Speaker 2: 51:03 We just continued to renew the same policy, but two years ago it was X amount. It went up about 25% and then this year we renew it every year in july. I just got the invoice. It's about 30 percent more than that. Yeah, so it has doubled in two years. Yeah, just a premium. I know we've had no claims. Speaker 1: 51:19 Yeah, yeah, oh, I know they don't. They don't increase claims by claims made. They they increase it by area code, by geographic reason, region. One of one of the things that you got to understand because one of the biggest things that I personally don't understand with customers that we deal with, that I try to communicate with them is that you know your premiums are going to go up or go down based upon many other factors than you filing an insurance claim, and some people are scared to file an insurance claim because they think that their rates are going to go up and they're just kind of scared you know people are scared of filing insurance claims. Speaker 1: 51:59 And I mean, once you get into the business and you understand insurance at a different level or you see it a lot you understand that you're paying so much money every year, year after year after year after year Talk about. You're paying premiums through the nose, owning these properties for decades, and then they've created an environment where you're scared to file an insurance claim for legitimately damaged property. Speaker 2: 52:23 Or we've heard multiple times with just around, through whether it's you know, through whether it's you know homeowners insurance and different things People can't even get coverage. Speaker 1: 52:32 They're not even allowed to renew yeah. Speaker 2: 52:34 They have to shut. Speaker 1: 52:36 It's like it's a crazy world. Yeah, these companies, they've been writing policies in places like Louisiana that are hurricane prone areas and they've been making billions of dollars with a B in these areas for years and years and years, and then you have a couple of a couple of catastrophic hurricanes in 2020 to 2021. And and then they just pull out. You know they've made now they're not here. Speaker 1: 53:01 They made billions of dollars in premiums. Then they get a little taste of a loss for one year, if it, if it even is, and, and then they just pay Now, they won't provide coverage anymore. And then they get the legislation involved to help them create a more difficult claim environment for people to get money on legitimate insurance claims. And, man, I don't know if we want to go down this dark road, but I don't have a lot of good things to say about the country. Speaker 2: 53:25 Well, we're wrapping up the podcast. Luckily, before it gets dark, I could blow it up, you know. Speaker 1: 53:30 But the point is the claims environment is tough and that was just an example to highlight big business increasing prices when small business is hesitant to do so and even consumers are hesitant to pay those higher prices to their neighbors. It's not a great thing and I think that's a real thing, yeah, but yeah, it's a difficult claims environment and there's a lot going on with insurance right now and in claims, and certainly if you have any questions about that, you know I might be a guy to consult with. Speaker 2: 54:03 Yeah well, and I would say you know, not many contractors or construction companies have that kind of in-house knowledge of the insurance game, so it's probably a good thing for a consumer that may be, knowing they're going to be claiming whatever project on insurance, to consult you guys as part of that yeah. Speaker 2: 54:21 Kind of an all-in-one package. So, bo, as we're wrapping up, it's been great to get to know you and Color Wheel and what you guys are doing. For one, thank you for being on the podcast. But the last thing I like to ask and it's a stumper for some people and I've already learned some things about you I didn't know. But what's one thing you would say people don't know about you before we wrap this up? And if you want to go with the law school and that was a pretty big surprise for me yeah, or one thing you want them to know that maybe they don't know, or something along those lines. Speaker 1: 54:56 That is a stumper man. It is a stumper in the interest of being raw, is that? You know? If anybody's watching my content or something and thinks that I have it all figured out or anything like that, that's just. It's just like you said. You were very, you were very transparent on that a moment ago. I was surprised to hear you say you know, I'm still figuring it out, things like that. Speaker 1: 55:24 I was refreshing to hear, and I'm the same way. You know. I go up and down as well. I have a mental health issues, just like a lot of other people you know, and and entrepreneurship or owning your own business, exacerbates that that and squeezes it to its limit. To be honest with you, and uh, and it's a struggle for me every day to to deal with the ups and downs. You know I put myself in these positions to uh, to try to grow and get the most out of my life and and change into something that I'm proud of all the time and uh and I'm, I'm just, this is just me trying to do that. Speaker 1: 55:58 You know, I'm not uh, I'm not God's gift to construction or any of this stuff, I'm just, uh, I'm just a guy trying to get the most out of my life and trying to grow through it. But I do have those issues as well, those mental health issues. And you know, I just don't want anybody to see this, because you talk to a lot of business people probably people who are much more successful than me and then they look at that and think that it's unattainable or have a skewed view of it and uh and I think that that's what I would tell people is that I'm, I'm just, uh, um, that that's it, I mean I'm just here trying to make it happen too. Speaker 1: 56:36 Yeah, I'm just uh, I'm just out here trying to uh to create a better life for myself and my family, and uh, and I have the same struggles as everyone else, so there you go, know you can you can do it. You can do all of these things and battle all that. It's not easy, but but it's worthwhile to do because you grow a lot. Speaker 2: 56:55 But that's great advice man, you know, we're all, we're all just. You know, to make you feel a little better too, we're, we're all just students of the game, you know, and I think that game in general is just life and it's it's tough. There's a lot of tough parts of it. But, um, we're all here just just trying to make the most of it and and help each other along the way. So appreciate you being on the show, man, joining everything with us, being raw with us. Speaker 2: 57:16 Um, thank you guys for you know obviously you being an accredited business and doing good things in the community as well. Speaker 1: 57:22 Yeah Well, thanks for having me, chris, it's been nice. Speaker 2: 57:26 I really hope you enjoyed the show. Thank you so much for joining us to help support the show. Please like, share, follow us on whatever podcast application or even on YouTube, wherever you caught this episode at. If you want to find out more about the better business beer, you can contact us 337-981-3497. You can find us on social media, bbb, acadiana and, as always, you can go to BBBorg for any information you're looking for. See you next time. Thank you so much for joining us.