¶ Fundraising to Construction Industry Transition
I'm ready to go , you ready .
I'm ready .
Hey everybody , welcome to the Make Trades Great Again podcast . This is a little bit special of an episode here . I'm on the road and I don't have Andy with me . I don't have him on a computer , we're not looking at each other . This is the first time ever where we've done just kind of a solo mission . But I have a special guest today .
I'm on the road down in Columbia , missouri , visiting job sites , shooting videos , everything for the Build Show Network , doing some Instagram for Mechanical Hub . It's been a lot of fun . I've met a lot of people . But I've been with my friend , jake Bruton , owner of Arrow Buildings . But that's not who's on with me today .
I actually have a guy who is new to the construction industry , really kind of professionally been around it for a number of years and that's what we want to talk about today . So we have Brent McCauley , who is a job soup officially for , or maybe is a job superintendent , project manager , project manager that's a better term .
Yeah , I don't know what I'm talking about half the time . Brent McCauley , project manager for Arrow Building . How are you doing ? Man , doing great .
Thanks for having me on Awesome .
Thank you for having me . We don't have video on this one . A lot of times we have video on our podcast , and so today we're audio only . We're on the road . I've never done it without my co-host . My very important co-host Keeps me in line , andy , so we're winging it .
Man , that's the first for both of us , because you said you hadn't been on a podcast yet . No , it's probably one of many . It's one of many . It's one of many . I can tell already . Right .
Right .
He's smiling at me and he's thinking what in the world is this guy talking about ? But actually what we wanted to talk about , brent , was how you got to where you're at today . So you graduated college what 10, ? A little over 10 years ago .
Yeah , I guess , what are we at 14 years ago ? 14 years ago .
But you didn't go to college for construction management or anything like that . No , what is it that you ? I want to know what 18-year-old Brent was thinking . He graduates high school and what You're like I'm going to college or everybody's telling you you need to go to college .
Yeah , college was important in my family . My dad was in admissions at a university back in my hometown , but we were always I didn't go there , so actually none of his children did , even though he was in charge of getting people to go there .
Because I think there's something beneficial to going away and opening your eyes , and it's the same thing with what you see on the build show and seeing what other people do . It's just trying new things . So Columbia was three hours away from home far enough away and I actually walked on and played football here .
Oh wow , I don't think you knew that . I didn't know that .
At 5' 9" . We didn't have a fullback or anything so long . Snapping was my ticket in .
Nice .
But while at Mizzou , I then went down a leadership track and ended up having the desire to work at a university and got the best way to make money . I'm not a faculty member . I'm not going to read . I don't like to read one specific topic that much . So , I said how do I make money in higher ed ? And it was fundraising . I can talk to anybody .
It's fun making connections with alumni and people that have the means to give back and making a difference in students' lives . So I did that for a decade .
Really , yeah , and you enjoyed it . You said earlier before we started recording . It was correct me if I'm wrong , but it was your dream job .
At the time . I'm an optimist , so I'll certainly I'll find a way to say anything is my dream job . But what I had worked towards was I had worked up and I spent a decade at Mizzou and then I went out to be the boss of a team at the University of Kentucky , leading their fundraising team for the College of Agriculture and Extension .
And it turns out I love fundraising for one-on-one conversations . I don't love administration that much . It was just . It just wasn't my cup of tea .
Yeah .
In the same time , for about the last decade , my wife and I have been working on our house .
So that's the connection right there .
That's where we worked on the weekends .
So Jake's senior project manager , brad , is a great friend of mine and he is the one that got me started on one weekend , just toward three windows out of the front of a house Our own house Two months before we had our first daughter , oh yeah , and we started Remodeling the basement and all kinds of craziness and I love that .
I loved having that tangible piece with my hands and that's kind of what the difference was In fundraising . I loved it , but you couldn't touch or see or feel , or you shouldn't touch any you could see some you don't know who your hands off .
You could see some of what came from your hard work and efforts and the planning and I'm sure that long , long time planning , a lot of execution to make it happen . But yeah , I mean the building industry of any sort . As you know , andy , my co-host , were plumbers . We do heating systems like every day we are literally solving problems .
That's doesn't get much more tannish , tangible than that something's broke . We come in . Hopefully it's fixed before we leave , right , yep , like that's satisfaction . And so the building industry you're , you're , you know getting into it , basically at home , diy projects with your , with your pal who is Brad , who's from arrow building .
He's helping you Complete tasks probably that were a little outside of your pay grade as far as experience and tools and and things like that go .
Oh yeah , well he wasn't with arrow at the time .
Oh yeah , we're working in a furniture shop . Oh really , oh yeah he's .
He's a creative guy that had a background in in that world and had had some remodeling experience . So no , we were just on the fly and he's more thoughtful . I am like Blow and go .
I'm the speed guy and he's .
He's like well , let's step back and think for a little bit . So we're the perfect balance here on the arrow team to play off each other , with Jake in the middle with the knowledge and the foundation he has .
Well , our second house we were working on just so happened to be down the site from that , from the arrow Spring Valley Road house , which is Jake's personal house , and all of a sudden one day all these dump trucks are driving by and I'm like what the hell is going on , and Brad was looking for another job at the time .
So I went down and there's an arrow building sign and their website said they were hiring . And so Brad walked down there and the rest Is history . He's been with arrow for five years and Learned a lot more along the way . I remember him coming to me and saying yeah , jake's doing this Build show thing .
Like there's people with video cameras coming up here to watch us we're what is going on ? Yeah , clearly paid off . And so a decade later , I wasn't happy in my job . My wife saw it and she said you want to do this for 30 years ? And I said no . And she said well , let's go . Go see if Jake has an opening .
You've been talking about it and I took a 50% pay cut to come do it . Yeah , but I'm happier for it . It's better . We'll find that the money's not everything . We also had the perspective that Columbia is where we wanted to raise our kids .
Okay .
Lexington was great . It's fun being around horse racing and bourbon and .
Great food , but but not in a job that you weren't passionate about anymore . You're losing interest , and it was yeah , was it like a stress thing or kind of that ? Corporate .
Lifestyle . Plenty of stress because in it , in a college of agriculture that has an extension program , there's 50 academic chairs that have fundraising expectations of you and there's a hundred and Kentucky 114 counties . Missouri has 120 counties , kentucky has 114 and there's a an extension office in every county .
Oh , wow and they have needs and expectations and it just , man , I had I had , it just was more than I was ready for at that point in my career and I had made a big leap and and but I , but it turns out I think I'd been burned out before we went out there .
Yeah , and so , getting the to do to get into the building , and I came back for Jake , and I was just a carpenter , sure , and it's not just that's not .
You know what I'm saying . Yeah , you started out labor in .
Yeah , on the carpentry team for eggs on demoing so many plaster bathrooms and yeah and dusty messes , but I learned so much and it was fun . I got to ended up tiling one of those bathrooms and I ended up Doing well observing the plumbing on that on the project and putting in a crazy awesome mahogany door with With stained glass .
That cost more than my college education . Do all this and the first year in the industry has been awesome and Take you with arrow .
Well , you jumped in feet first , but it sounds like the experience you were
¶ Changing Careers and Learning on Job
gaining early on was setting you up to get to where you're at now . Yeah , and admittedly so we had . We visited a couple year Jake and I visit a couple your job sites today , one of which you were Still at and and we got to see you in action and it was so cool to see you .
You know , you and Jake kind of went off to the science her talking about some plumbing and things like that , and it wasn't .
It was more of an opportunity for because the two of you were on the job together at that moment For him to just kind of relay some information to you , just kind of a teaching moment for you because ultimately , every day you're , you're in the learning phase of your position and within the company you've . I think 20 .
While I say that I Not , I'm not making any assumptions , I mean yeah we had the conversations last night at dinner and stuff , and you just came out and said like look , this is new for me , I'm , and what we've talked about so far today . You said how many years you're five years into it now no one one year .
Oh my gosh , see how misunderstood that I was a .
I was started the car we moved back to Missouri a year and a couple months ago .
Oh , wow , and so you're your Fresh . Yeah , that's into this .
Yeah , I'm , I was a carpenter for six months and then it . We've had the growth that required some projects for Prad to Focus on more . And Jake said one day you guys think Brad is stretched a little thin and Travis and I Travis is our lead carpenter . We both said yeah . He said all right , brent , your project managing and and I got thrown into it .
If you listen to one of Jake and Steve's , if you listen to the unbuilt at podcast yeah , they did an episode in both Steve and Jake and Peter said that this house that was my first project was the worst . They couldn't imagine having to remodel it because there was termite damage . It was an old house with settling issues and I learned so much .
Yeah that was a perfect house . It sucked . It sucked early on and there was a . It was a big mind-eath , but it was awesome . Like I learned so much from that and I've made a lot of mistakes . I am making tons of mistakes and break and luckily Jake gives me room to make mistakes .
Yeah .
I asked him what . I said hey , jake , if I was working for you 10 years ago and this or that happened , what Would you have reacted the same way ? He said oh no , yeah , no , not a chance , because he what ? He didn't have the war chest to Weather a mistake that cost a certain amount of money or anything else , and so well , his patients have grown too .
And yeah , you know , I think he's he's definitely gonna listen to this episode .
He listens to all of our podcasts religiously and I think , just given his advanced age really , and you know , not just his experience- yeah but as he's advanced in age over the years and and become a little bit more wise , probably more patient , especially bring no , but be honest like to bring you on and and you're very new to this and he knows that See ,
that's , that's a huge opportunity for the owner of a company in his position to Hopefully train you and see you grow into what he needs you to be right , yep , oftentimes we talk about like in the skilled trades of , like , plumbing , heating , electrical , we , we have apprenticeship programs and there's a reason why because there's a lot of technical information and
know how you need , by the time we can trust you to , you know , start and complete these jobs on your own Right . You work with these trades all the time . Now , yep , and you could see the value of somebody Training daily , oh yeah , as somebody shadowing them and showing them the ropes every single day .
Well , in your position , he can't be there all the time before him to end up at , you know , one , let's say , one job , one project at a time , because who knows how long it really takes right for you to be to finally say , like I'm confident in this , but for him to run his , you know , train you into that position for his company , like specifically how he
wants the job from things like that . That's huge . And I , as you talk about this , is so cool because your eyes are like huge , you like smile . I wish everybody could see this . You're excited to talk about it and I let me ask you how old are you ?
thirty seven just turn .
Thirty thirty seven , and we just had an episode recently and we talked about changing careers . Like yeah , like , literally , like would you ever consider you know we're both plumbers would you stop doing plumbing and just try something different ? Like do you have any inkling at all ?
Like I wanna be an electrician and like just go work , start an apprenticeship at our . You know it's the age , let's call it you know because we're not . We're not eighteen , twenty , twenty five years old anymore , so that was a huge step for you . You talked about it already , but you know it was a . You know you took a pay cut . That's .
That's a given , though right , you're not generally gonna move from you know one career path to another and be anywhere near where you were when you've already established yourself . But that decision talk about that for a second like that was a decision you made with your wife . There's no way this I know she . She asked you . You already said are you happy ?
And you said I'm not sure if I wanna do this forever . Yeah but like what was there's gotta be like a moment . You probably just knew like what was there ? Was there anything big that happened that ? Just I don't wanna do this anymore .
It was some of the stress and the way it was presenting itself physically . Yeah , not sleeping and certain pieces like that . So you know , I think With the , with the pandemic and the , we're all more willing to talk about mental health . Yeah , and I probably been saying for four or five years he actually see someone and talk to someone and never did .
And then during the pandemic , everything went virtual and it was provided for free and I'm a frugal guys like all barriers to To being better mentally were removed and so I undertook that on top of my wife seeing it , and here we are and it worked out . I talked to someone . It's been great to see them and talk through just that . I actually haven't .
Yeah , you found a new person here in columbia needs to get . That's actually been on my list to do because things are good now so I don't need it right , but I gotta find a way to To be better there .
Well , sometimes we think we don't need it right legs that well , that's it .
What needs to be talked about that ? I don't know .
Yeah , it's really cool though that I'm gonna make an assumption now though , but just talking to you , got to know you a little bit over last two days , like in , like I just said , like you're , your smile , like you I can tell you're happy . You're happy Because you made these changes .
yeah , but it's fresh right so yeah , tell me , tell me think quickly .
You don't have to get in detail or anything , but like Quickly think over the last year , like what was something that was like I opening , maybe a little fresh , and like did you and maybe that ? Maybe you don't have a scenario , so don't make anything up . Yeah , I wanna know for for fact .
But Like , can you think of something that was like made you second guess the switch ? No , nothing .
No , there are harder days than others yeah I am . So what ? The closest thing to that ? Alright , so jake and all the folks went out to see again to or they were in switzerland , yeah , and jake came out .
His biggest takeaway was like hey , everybody in switzerland ages out like thirty six , so that's why they're moving to use cranes , are using to be More thoughtful with how we're using our bodies and moving , and I've got a bad back at times . So I'm like jake , you know that you're in .
Everybody on your crew is like thirty six years old , yeah , and they're all geriatric here in Switzerland .
We are yeah .
So we're finding ways to be better about not carrying that 2,000 pound sliding glass door . We just installed it on one of our projects to bring out the boom jig , the boom jib and with the suction cups and do all this really cool stuff and so that would be the closest thing . But that was just more of a . You know , we just joked about that .
There's some monotonous when it comes to a window replacement project and it's the same thing over and over again . And then it was even more difficult because it was kind of a mid-century modern house here in Columbia where all the trim on the interior was tied into other trim . So it's that trickle effect If you touch this , then it affects that and then that .
And that was a mind that really had my mind going and at some days was just kind of got a little boring . But we filled it with podcasts and you get in the repetition and now I know how to install a window really well .
I know how to flash it appropriately , I know how to check it for plumbing level , I know how to check , set control lines and make sure everything's level . So I learned a lot . It did get monotonous in the moment , but never once did I say , nah , maybe I'll go back .
How about this , though ? Okay , great answer , by the way .
That's awesome .
I got to tell you for a day and a half now that I've been in . Maybe it's only been like 24 hours . I've been in Columbia , missouri , and I'm from the Midwest , so I get both extremes of weather where I live to . But right now there is , like this crazy weather thing happening . What do they call it ?
Like a heat dome or I can't remember what they called it . I don't know what they call it ? I think it might be called a heat dome .
Our electrician today called it Miami . Yeah , yeah .
No , kidding , it is so stinking hot right now . But it's not the temperature . I'm just going to do the most Midwestern thing . It's not the temperature , it's the humidity . Right yeah , it is , folks listening , I'm not kidding you . I'm walking around on a job site , a new construction job site , not air conditioned , anything like that .
It's just in the rough stage and I'm sweating through my pants . It's so stinking hot it's crazy . So I halfway expected you to say like anything make you second guess , like your career change . I halfway expected you to say like well , you know , sometimes
¶ Career Growth in Building and Construction
the weather sucks , no , no .
I've been good man . I've lost weight , I've gotten more . Just being like my back is better because I'm on my feet .
Well , you're using muscles you didn't use before and you're active , and that changes a lot of things too . I love that piece too .
Yeah , just using the body .
I know that when I spend a day in the office . It affects me physically in a way that I don't necessarily experience when I'm just out there climbing up and down ladders and turning wrenches and you know , whatever it is that I do , you know who knows really what I do , but so , brent , we weren't maybe .
I just want to tell everybody we were maybe going to call you Trent McBrenterson , because I think earlier before I have to apologize , I think earlier before we even started recording I might have even called you Brad , but I didn't mean to . So I'm sorry , I'm so terrible .
Like I have to look at my co-host , andy , just to remember his name , that's how I call it .
Yeah , yeah .
It's crazy . You know you're a boarder , you're in and you're gaining like this massive , like super charged kind of classroom experience on the job through Aero Building . What do you think is in front of you in the next year ?
Just do you want or what do you hope to see in front of you , like , are there any jobs that have happened this past year that you didn't necessarily you weren't able to take on yourself or maybe oversee , but you're hoping , like , maybe in the next year or so I can take on that kind of project ?
Or what is it about this last year that you like the most and you hope to do more of ?
over the next year . Oh man , you know where we're going to is that more project manager model and really being the connector between the trades , between our trade partners and our clients , and making sure projects move smoothly . So I I got this year With boots on the ground , bags on experience so I could talk the talk .
I got to frame a house , we got to set the trusses , we got to do it all , got to tile a bathroom , got you know just everything . But now it's gonna be moving into that more of my strengths in my background , that relationship management and fundraising .
There was a word being a social chameleon , sure , and I grew up in rural Missouri but kind of on the edge of its city , so I know the rural folks can connect with them . I know people from the big city , I can somewhat connect with them , and so it's the same thing in building and construction .
We you know our clients may very well be on one of those two spectrums are Get put on a different hat when we're talking with our different trade partners , and so I just got a . Really I want to .
I tried to grow too quickly in my previous career and right now I got it and I'm constantly in the back of my mind , talking myself like no , just just get some reps , you're gonna get some reps this year and that's where I'm focusing on .
But we've got some awesome houses coming down the pipeline and I'm building a 1800 square foot house out in Millersburg right now . That's my project now . We take the team approach here . Brad and I talked through things , jake and I talked through things .
We poke fun at each other for stealing each other subs or whatever , but we're always like it's fun and again Brad's thoughtful , I'm let's get moving and we meet in the middle of Jake and it's . It's a great balance .
Well , so I just need the reps . That sounds awesome . Dude , I'm so glad to have met you . It's refreshing to talk with somebody that's so . I you know that is new at what they're doing , they're new to the trades and I mean you're happy again .
I said it like three times already but I can tell , yeah , like it's genuine , and a lot of times I it's probably your . You were established and you're mature and You're not 20 , you know , I talk .
I talk with apprentices that are just a year or two into the maybe it's a plumbing program or its HVAC program or something and they just lack the Experience that you have with your training and your real-life experience in your previous career .
So congratulations to you because , like everything you just said about the Social chameleon , just having that experience and sales and being able to speak with different people , really no matter who they are , that is the position that you're working into right now .
Well , I mean you're doing it but as you grow and grow into that position that you took all the right training , you just were in the wrong career .
Yeah , yeah , I've thought back . What if I had , you know , gone straight into the trades and I don't know where I'd be ? You know , I probably wouldn't be here , though I'd probably I would . Maybe I would have heard of the build show , but I Just love where I'm at the stuff we're doing it there .
It was cool to be on on , you know , with Jake always trying new things and being open to that , and Brad and I bring hey , we found this and saw this .
It's cool . Let's be honest , you would have been a plumber probably .
Yeah , I mean , that's where the money's at really . I don't know .
I saw community and it seemed to me like the HVAC guys are the money's at , but you're not wrong . Especially around here . Oh my god
¶ Cautionary Advice on Social Media
, on a day like today , on a day like today , earning their paychecks . Yeah , well , they're earning it , but they're gonna be cashing it for months . Yeah , alright , guys , hey everybody . Thanks for listening , brent , thanks , man .
Thank you coming on .
Yeah , it's been so nice to meet you . I wish you could meet my co-host , andy . Yeah who I'm like pointing to right now that isn't here with us , looks friendly , he is super , is way more friendly than I am , I promise you . But no , I appreciate you coming on , and when . Where could somebody find ? Yeah , are you active on social media or do anything ?
like that . I lurk on social you lurk , yeah , I did make a handle and I do observe . Okay , but I don't need to you're not advertising that , just yeah . I posted stuff early on and then I just I don't have the bandwidth . I can just learning so much that I I Don't take the time .
I know Jake is said yo , you should , you should post and you should get on the forums at at JLC and Final . You know I'm not there yet , Okay .
Well , that's so much , that's fine . Don't do , I don't do Facebook . Yeah , no , no , no , no , I don't . Maybe I caution people . Actually these days I caution no tick tock , don't do it .
It's not worth it . Just that , just because of Instagram . You know it build build show seems to be Instagram and so I , we follow all that . We do market research for Jake to make sure he's got interesting topics and everything .
I know he's always . You guys are always in on my videos .
All right man .
I do appreciate you coming on everybody , thanks for sticking through this long . We will not be on the road too much longer .
I think we're gonna try to do one more episode with Jake , but if you do want to follow along with like Jake's Instagram , for example , jake that Bruton , the owner of arrow buildings , your boss , like you could see what the projects you guys are working on , which is exciting to me . All right , man , I'm gonna sign it off . Sweet , you're good .
Thanks , yeah , all right , awesome , all right , dude , see ya .