Partnership is Key: Exploring Atlantic Canada's Business Terrain with Shawn Sooley

Partnership is Key: Exploring Atlantic Canada's Business Terrain with Shawn Sooley

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 134 of the business development podcast. And on today's expert guest interview, we are bringing you Shawn Sooley all the way from Newfoundland. We are getting a 101 on how to better do business with Atlantic Canada. Stick with us. You are not going to want to miss this.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world.

You'll get expert business development, advice, tips, and experiences. And you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs. And business development reps, you'll get actionable advice on how to grow business. Brought to you by Capital Business Development. CapitalBD.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the Business Development Podcast.

And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 134 of the Business Development Podcast. Today, we have an expert guest from Newfoundland, Canada. Welcome We are bringing you Shawn Sooley. Shawn stands at the helm as the CEO of Shield Group of Companies, headquartered in the picturesque locale of Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, Canada.

His journey from the trades to the executive Sweet exemplifies his adaptability and unyielding determination, with roots deeply entrenched in heat and frost insulation, Shawn's trajectory expanded to encompass the diverse realms of rope access and scaffolding, showcasing his versatility and commitment to continual growth.

As the leader of the Shield Group of Companies, Shawn's leadership ethos is defined by a profound belief in the power of collaboration. He champions a culture where individual excellence is celebrated, but recognizes that the collective effort of his team is the driving force behind the company's success.

Under his guidance, Shield Group fosters an environment of mutual respect and achievement, where every member is valued for their contributions. In the dynamic landscape of business, Shawn's story serves as a beacon of inspiration, reminding us that with a steadfast, we can do anything mindset, and a supportive team by our side, we can surmount any challenge.

As CEO, Shawn epitomizes the fusion of individual ambition and collective endeavor propelling shield group of companies to new heights while inspiring others to believe in the limitless possibilities of collaborative leadership. Shawn, it's an honor to have you on our stage today.

Shawn Sooley: Thanks, man. Really appreciate it.

Really happy to be here.

Kelly Kennedy: It is awesome to have you here. And I'm really, really excited. We're going to get into it later in today's show. But to have an Atlantic Canada perspective on business. And we have a worldwide audience right now. And Shawn, you don't notice, but you have a little bit of an accent.

That is very much Canadian. It is very much Canadian. You were in Newfoundland with a Newfoundlander accent. And so anybody listening, he is very much Canadian. Newfoundland.

Shawn Sooley: We, we, we, we speak a little different over here.

Kelly Kennedy: Don't worry. Don't worry. It's, it's basically a second language in Alberta.

Shawn Sooley: Oh my God.

Yes, absolutely.

Kelly Kennedy: Shawn, it's an honor to have you. Take us back to the beginning. You know, who is Shawn Sooley?

Shawn Sooley: I mean, I grew up here in Newfoundland in St. John's. You know, Newfoundland has always been for me a bit of a, an outside Canada, you know, and, and the rest of the world really as back as, you know, Paul really is as late as the, the mid 2000s.

Like I remember feeling very much like Newfoundland is not, it's just not the same. And like that translates crazy amounts into the business world, you know? But like, you know, growing up here, limited. Opportunity for a really long time kind of made it a bit confusing, I suppose to try to find out what you want to do, you know, what, what do you want to be when you grow up?

And that's kind of what that's kind of what drove me to really push and look and dig. And you know, I've just got that drive that, you know, I had to figure it out, but it made it really difficult. So like there were some, there were some learning curves there and, and, you know, There's a, there's a bit of a disconnect, like I said, from the rest of the world.

So opportunity being limited, you kind of pick and choose something, you just grab onto it and then you start, you start working towards seeing where it goes, I guess. But Newfoundland off and on had, you know, ups and downs in the, in the economic sense. You know, oil and gas kind of picked up pretty good here.

We had a really good run with with the Hibernia platform being built. And, you know, some of the other industrial projects going on, but very few compared to say Alberta, you know? So it made it, it made it really hard. Like I know, you know, in, in the Western provinces, you know, I, when I, I spent a, about a year out there living when I got out of high school moved out there with my brother.

And I, you know, I got some friends out there that, you know, kind of give me the perspective when you, when you live in, in places like Alberta, it's, it's easy to find a path, you know, a lot of guys, you know, they get into farming right away. Cause that's what their, their dad did and their dad's dad did and their grandfather's, you know, Just generation upon generation.

It's just what they did. So that's just what they had the passion for. And, you know, you get a lot of oil patch guys out there that, you know, it's just a clear path, they got a strong back and they don't mind working long hours and they get into the batch and that's their, that's their heading. And, you know, the oil patch is incredible because there's just so many places to go.

Once you get into the oil patch, you just need to get your foot through the door. And. Back when I had it out there in 2008, 2007, 2008 just before it really took a downturn, you could get in and kind of get a feel for what happens and easily find a path to a place that you really enjoyed being, and that does like those types of things just weren't available over here, even, and I mean, the education system is, is not built for helping you find your path.

You know, so growing up in Newfoundland, I guess, like from the very beginnings you know, it was, it was a bit difficult to kind of, To figure out, you know, who I was and where I wanted to go. And I guess moving out to Alberta and seeing the industrial world and realizing how much opportunity is actually out there in Alberta made it really easy for when I came back to understand that, you know, what, that, that same potential is back here.

But like, just not as obvious, it's not as abundant. And as long as you have the drive and the willingness to dig and really push, there's the same opportunities, just not as many. So that's kind of what happened. I went out West and you know, we had that little downturn in the, in the oil industry there. I came home, you know, started down the path of, you know, kind of figuring it out back here, got into the, heat and frost insulation trade and that was actually meant to be a really short served thing.

I I didn't intend to you know Start in as a heat and frost insulator as an apprentice and then turn in it turned that into a a manufacturing business And a construction business. The intention was to start and just get enough time in the field to kind of follow my, my father's trajectory there with occupational health and safety.

You know, dad was a an OH& S guy for, for a time. You know, he did some OH& S training and stuff like that on his own. And I thought that was a great idea. Figured that might be a good business opportunity. I always, I've always wanted to do my own thing. Like in finding that path was always too.

Okay. What am I going to do for me? Where am I going to go and what am I going to do? As a, as a business person, and that was, that was the intention. So just finding a path to get there. Cause I didn't care what I did. I just knew that I wasn't going to do it for somebody else. Yeah. So going out West, coming home, kind of figuring out that path, you know, trying to get into the OH and S world through.

Heat and frost insulation kind of, kind of changed my outlook on things because once I got into the field, it's like, wow, there's not a lot of safety people. You got an awful lot of trades guys and girls out there, but not so many, not so many occupational health safety guys and girls for hundreds of hundreds of employees on a site.

You've got a couple of OH& S people. So like, maybe not, maybe not. And insulation was really good money. It did, it did really good by me. I did quite well while I was in the trades world. Always just chased the bigger jobs and yeah, like from there, I just started noticing how many opportunities there were in Atlantic Canada, but specifically in Newfoundland, because we're just so reliant on the outside world.

Everything comes here. You get a, you know, when it comes to the industrial trades, you're, you're watching things being built from the ground up and it's just like, man, where does this thing come from? What do you mean? It comes from Quebec. Why is it coming from Quebec? Why is it coming from Ontario? Why are we bringing this thing from Saskatchewan?

What like that's a world away. What are we doing? Why are we doing that? Why, why can't we, why can't we do it here? And you know, all the, all the things that I was told right from. None of them turned out to be true. They were all, you know, they were, they were just all assumptions. And, you know, at the point when I said, you know what, like I've just, you know, I, I had some opportunities, you know, I, I got out of the field.

I went into kind of took on some, some management positions in around 2017. Came out of the field and, and, you know, started in on the on the, on the administrative and on the management side. And I, I really then started to see like, okay, wow, those opportunities are legit. And some people do.

Really take the shot when they have it and and that kind of that drove me to to dig in a little further And it got to the point where I still couldn't really figure out and pinpoint exactly what I wanted to do now I know like I've had you know in in my mind to do what I'm doing now for some time and You know some of the stuff anyway And then some of the stuff that I'm doing right now kind of just came as a spinoff or out of necessity But like it really drove me to figure out like how is it?

What really what was really slowing me down was more so like How do you do it? Not from a well, what do you do perspective? But like, how do you do it? Everyone thinks that there's this big secret out there that okay well Unless you go to university all these secretive processes are in place and if you don't do them Then somebody's gonna come this this magical, you know entity is gonna come from the government or something and they're gonna they're gonna put the hammer down and you're gonna get you know, You're gonna go bankrupt because they're gonna take everything from it doesn't work like that man Like people they want you to be in business.

The system wants you to be in business You And I know I just didn't get that so like I take now I take the mentality of okay Well, I want to do something. I just do it Well, then if I miss a regulation or I miss, you know, like a regulatory body where I miss you know, something that I had to register for, or, you know, a license that I need to have for something, Oh, sorry, I missed it.

I didn't know you didn't put off a billboard. Sorry. Yeah. You know, sure. I'll pay it. Maybe I'll pay a penalty or maybe I'll, I don't know. I'll fill out the registration now. I don't know, but you just do it. And I didn't realize that. But once I, once I kind of understood that, then it became very easy, but I didn't know exactly how or what, so I kind of dabbled in the the business development space for a bit there.

And you know, I just kind of put it out. Like it took a really short period of time for that to go on the back burner. But I just said, you know what, I had a, I had a piece of advice from. A really good friend of mine that I met throughout you know, and, you know, he's, he's one of those guys that I, you know, we don't, we don't speak a whole lot.

I don't I don't get to catch up with him very often because he's also an entrepreneur and he's really busy all the time. Super high energy, great guy. His name is Chuck McCarthy. He does he does a lot of coding's work. He's into the nice inspection world. And, you know, he, just said, man, like, you know what?

Nobody is going to listen to you but you so like why don't you go out and do what you do best But instead of doing it for somebody do it for as many people that will that will that will take you on just You know go out incorporate a business. Yeah, it's not very hard It's a couple of hundred bucks at the registry office, man.

Just just do it. So I did and that kind of spun into That really I just just taking that first step just taking that leap And and going down that path that kicked it all off and everything since has just been like dominoes. Everything just falls. Yeah And that's kind of, that's kind of the backstory really of how the business or the group of companies started.

You know, from there, you know, I, I had a really, really great partner early on you know, right in around what about say six months pre COVID I, you know, I was doing the BD thing and I had kind of solidified some agreements with a really, really great product out of New Zealand that was in the infection control world.

And that kicked off the real, it's the real rocket ship that pushed the businesses all ahead early on. And you know, I, I solidified some agreements with them did a lot of really close work with them and. When COVID came about, it was about six months ish after after I had solidified those, those agreements.

And I had been working a little bit with my with my, my business partner or my first, my, my old business partner For some other things like the things that we're doing right now, like we were working on a business plan for Like our manufactured products that we that we make right now we were looking to do a couple of things together and then when the when the when the real worst of it kind of came about, from Not really not the worst of covid but like the the worst of the the fear came when we knew it was coming I kind of I know I I went to my my old partner steve.

Yeah, who's still you know, one of my closest friends And I said, man, like, I don't know what I'm doing. Like, I know what I'm doing to a point, but like, man, I don't know how to manage something of this size. Like, this is, this is huge. He's like, what do you, what do you mean? Like, I was like, man, this is coming down the tube.

Like you, like, I know we're doing these other things, but like, put those on the back burner, you jump in with me here. Let's, let's do this together. Like I, I'm not going to be able to manage all this on my own. Let's let's, let's do it together. And and we did, we started in men and it was a wild relationship.

It was amazing. We worked so well together. It was like me and Steve were like brothers. Still really close. Like I said there was a shelf life on, on the relay, like on the business relationship anyway, you know, he committed to coming on and helping me out through that business with you know, it's through COVID and through the infection control business that was supposed to be something different, but then turned into a totally different animal during COVID.

He came on, helped me out with that. And he said like, look, man, like, I'm not looking to get into business where we've got a bunch of HR heavy stuff because like I'm business side. I know who's going to get the the rough end of the hr deal if we got a lot of people I was like, yeah fair enough. So he said like look when when it becomes When it gets to the point where I'm just handling stuff that I don't like doing, that's when I'm done and you got to be okay with it.

I said, yeah, man, sure, whatever. That's, that's fine with me. So like it kind of got to that point a little over a year, maybe a year and a bit ago. And well, it really started like a year and a half ago. He's like, man, like this, this isn't fun anymore. So yeah, we, we went separate ways on that. He kind of helps if I have any kind of questions or I need anything, like he's always just a phone call away.

And you know, it worked out really well. He set up everything that we needed set up from an administrative perspective, because that's something that I wouldn't have been able to do. You know, got all of our, our systems in place digitally made sure that we were connected really well. And like, just set us up really well for.

Long term like we, there's not much that we need to change internally. So he did really well on that side and that gave us a really good start and it allowed me to focus on the operation. So after we started to kind of, kind of whittle down a little bit on how busy we were with with immune shield, which was the the infection control.

Company that we had things were just kind of running or learning itself. Like again, man, my team is everything like they, they're incredible without my team, you know, I'd be nothing. So you know, they were kind of just handling stuff and I never had to ask them to pick things up. And run with them and take them over.

They like there's there's none of this. Hey, man, listen, you know what we're trying to grow here Could you take this extra thing on they are always out ahead of me every time every step of the way like hey, man I'll handle that you you go do this thing or that thing And communication is usually key there.

So like when they see like, okay You know, Shawn's struggling. He's got a lot on his plate. Oh, I'm going to do that. I'm going to take that. That's, that's my responsibility. Now they started picking things up. So the, you know, that, that was right from the get go, even through the chaos of not knowing how to grow or not knowing what we were going to do or where we were headed, really.

They just knew like growth was the plan, what we were growing into. We had no heading. Well we, we did, but not like from a an organizational or structural You know, standpoint, so they just pick stuff up, man. And if they weren't good at something, they got good at it, you know? And Kenny, Kenny's, Kenny's my right hand.

Me and Kenny have been working together for years. Like we were both apprentices started out in the trade, basically the same time, both, both insulators. And soon as I, you know, once I got into management or, or sort of supervision, even you know, Kenny was always on my crew. Kenny was always a guy who I kept around and.

You know, I had a really high level of trust, trust for Kenny. We always work really well together. And it's just been like that, you know, forever, you know, so we you know, we've done really, really well together operationally and he's 100 percent without Kenny, there's no way that I'd have, you Any amount of the success that I have now, he's, he's unreal.

And yeah, I mean, things like that are what really drove us to be able to take on more or less anything. When it came to okay, it's go time to start something new. You know, people kind of come and go a little bit. In these types of situations, but once you get a, like a bit of a footing on, okay, well now we've got a really great foundation of the people that we need here, then things start to like take a vertical climb and it took really for the manufacturing.

That was the first thing right after the infection control stuff. That kind of went from super high level of. Involvement on, you know, client facing out there just dropping deliverable deliverables, you know, one after another, getting it done all the time, like just completing contracts and, and, you know, completing obligations for clients to, okay, now we need to do R& D.

We just got, we have to figure out what we're going to do for people and how we're going to do it. So that took, honestly, we kept really quiet about what we were doing. And what we were intending to provide to the market for a good period of time. We were like, probably a year and a half before commercialization, when we started to, you know, do our R& D, try to figure out how to do what we do.

You know, in between the use of, you know, technology and the understanding that looked It's going to cost a lot of money. It's going to take a really long time and accepting that with the crew that we have that turned into another really great business. And somewhere in between there, we, you know, we picked up a little, a little bit of work here and there that required certain things.

Scaffolding is something that's not. As I guess It's not as available here as We could use because It is a bit feast or famine, you know, it's one of those things where yeah You have periods where there's just not much work and if you have too many people in the market There's going to be some guys go under and I think everybody realizes that so unless you have a good system where Either you have a really big market that's either national like Safeway, Safeway is a, is another scaffolding company here.

We've got a great relationship with them. We actually, we, we rent some gear from them from time to time when we need it. And a really good professional outfit. They do great work, great leadership here locally. And they have. You know, national accounts all across the board. And they, you know, they take a little bit different of a model.

They do a lot of rental and stuff. So, you know, that, that makes sense. But like, if you start off and you're starting off small and you don't have a lot of resources behind you, scaffolding is a really hard, really hard thing to get into here because we can't move. It's not like we can just say, okay, well, no big deal.

We'll, we'll, we'll take on some work over in PEI or in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, just the logistics make us not feasible. And nobody wants to leave here. Like if you've got a crew that's. Consistent and you gotta leave here and drive all the way over there just doesn't work like our our industry for the most part is very heavy on the Avalon Peninsula, or at least on the eastern portion of the island.

So, you know, being able to service the whole island is one thing, but then to go off the island is it's just it's very difficult. If you're a smaller setup, so you kind of have to have the resources and the availability to go a bit bigger and have some other things behind you to get started. That took a little bit of time too.

So the availability in the market wasn't there. We needed some scaffolding. It was difficult to figure out how we were going to achieve what we needed. And I said, okay, well, my, and Steve was still with us at that point. Like we need like 20 grand max worth of scaffolding material to do this little job that we have.

We've got a scaffolder on staff helping us out anyway. So like one way or another, we're buying some scaffolding material. Do we bring in some tractor trailers full of it or do we just bring in what we need and probably chew up the profit on this little project that we're doing. So we started this company.

Kelly Kennedy: Shawn, I want to pause you there for a second because you know, we're obviously getting into the story of the shield group of companies and I want to spend just a little more time there because you know, you, we talked about this before and you essentially started with immuno shield, but you started that ahead of COVID.

And so like, Was that just dumb luck, or did you see, did you see an opportunity?

Shawn Sooley: No I mean, I didn't know that there was going to be a pandemic by any means. I mean, like, listen man, I, I swear, I've been accused of it, but I did not put that bat in that hoop. I didn't do it. I swear. I deny any allegations.

Kelly Kennedy: You couldn't have picked a better time to essentially start, you know what it's a, it's a sanitation product, correct?

Shawn Sooley: So the product that we picked up is called Zoono and it's a, it's a product that When you apply to a surface there, it's, it's not a chemical. It's the craziest thing. So it's not a chemical.

It's extremely safe It's child safe pet safe You can i've drank the stuff out of just to be like because i've we've had some people you always get the naysayers You know, it's like, you know, is it really that safe? Yes, it is How do you know? Because I understand the signs. Yeah. But like, how do you really know?

Okay. All right. I'm done with this here. Watch. And you drink a bit, you know, that's how I know. Cause I've done, I did that like six weeks ago and I still don't have web feet. That's how I know. So it's, it's a really great product. You, you, when you apply it appropriately. It's good for 30 days and it's a mechanical kill, not a, not a, not a chemical kill.

So basically what happens is the, the cell membrane of a of a pathogen, like a virus such as the coronavirus becomes ruptured when it comes, when it comes in contact with the silica strain that's in this in this material that once dry, it covalently bonds to the surface, any surface. And again, it's a, it's a, it's a positively charged silica strain that's, going to attract a gram negative, pathogen So basically it draws pathogens in folks with a with a needle like a balloon a needle pop on a balloon and that works really well. I understood the science behind that early on and again, like i'm an insulator. I like I just when I when I see something that has potential I dig in and like I become obsessed with it until I find a way to drag the value out.

So I saw that you know, again, a friend of mine who actually the guy who, who lined me and Steve up together was involved with bringing that product into Canada. And you know, he kind of gave us the opportunity to look at it and see if we could make something of it. And I understood the science behind it.

You know, I, I saw the value in it and I said, you know what man? Like there's a lot of stuff that's just gross. Like planes. Yeah. Planes are just gross. You know, I've, I've been in camps, you know, I've seen, you know, oil rigs and, and boats. Man, like all the ventilation is connected. People are sick all the time.

Like camp flu is the worst. You hear a guy cough, you know, a couple of doors down in your camper. I'm like, Oh God, another flu. That's minus for the outside right now. I don't need another flu, man. Like, so, you know, it's, it's well known that, you know, that's the, you know, that's, that's the killer of productivity right there, man, a sick crew.

If you've got, if you've got and it doesn't matter if your crew is on a boat, on an oil rig in a camp, if your crew is sick, they're not putting out, man. They're just not putting out. And on top of that, they're not coming to work. So like, you know, camp flu sucks, boat flu sucks. So, you know, we, we had some early on before COVID was even a thing.

We had some we had some success with the Marine world because influenza is a problem on vessels, you know? So we had some success there. And because of that we were we were well known to ExxonMobil right away when COVID was on the way down the tube they picked up our service right away.

And I mean, like our service was great. Like it's not just, Hey, we're just going to come out and spray this stuff around. And we had exclusive right to that product. So like nobody could get it. You couldn't buy it. You couldn't spray it. You could not get it inside of Atlanta, Canada, unless you came through Wasp.

You know, I had you know, another one of my mentors in the industry kind of, he built some some agreements that were airtight that really helped us out to make sure that nobody else could get it. And then when COVID came down the tube, nobody else could get it. So we sprayed the stuff, but we also did, we did our due diligence.

We made sure, we made sure we knew how to apply the stuff. We made sure that we knew how to verify its efficacy. And then we made sure that we knew how to report it back to our clients to give value so that they could go forward saying, Hey, listen, We've done our due diligence. Here's our outbreak prevention plan.

This is a part of it. This is the plan You're going to you know You're going to take these steps when you're when you're in our ass or when you're on our asset or when you're in our camp or wherever and not only that here's what we've done and here's the Adenosine triphosphate reporting or a testing in this comprehensive report that shows the you know the entire boat the entire camp It's all good.

It's clean, you know, and we did, we did a lot of that stuff. So like we, we took what we had and we turned it into an extreme value ad for anybody that had an asset that couldn't stop during COVID.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow. Wow. And it's like it to me, it just, it seems like just the right place, right time kind of product. Like it's, you know, it was, I'm wondering if the timing almost seems a little magical.

Shawn Sooley: Hey, it was, but like I said, I mean, we had some success in the marine world there right away before COVID, like before anyone knew what, no, no one had, no one could, Dream that that, you know, this new coronavirus was going to cause a global pandemic when we started working with the marine world here and I mean that was turning into success, but I I saw it and I said, you know What like this there's value here and like totally, you know, the the the average person would look at it and say, you know What?

This has value in the healthcare system. This has value in the school systems daycares, you know, seniors, complexes. But when I, you know, like when I think about these things, it's like, okay, but who has money? Who, who has, who has the desire. To use a product like this to increase productivity or to increase their, you know, their production or their, you know, decrease their sick time and leave time.

And I know the industrial world. That's, that's my sandbox industrial marine oil and gas. Like I, I know that world, I know what makes it tick. I know how it, I know how it operates and everything is right now. Let's get it done. This thing is urgent. We have a timeline. We have a budget. We can't do this.

We, we, you know, we have to do this. We can't do that. And it's all very. And it has to be that way all the time. So you just, you have to keep moving. You, you can't stop. So when, when it comes to something that, you know, if you can prove it, if it's, if it's, if it's quantifiable and tangible and you can put it in their hand and say, Hey, look, I've got something that's going to make your life a lot easier.

And your bottom line is going to reflect this value add they will pick it up and I know that so that's what I did I said, okay Well, you know what i'm gonna take i'm gonna take the chance on this because I mean I I didn't just you know Have some some paper signed and say hey You know if I do it I do it if I don't I don't but they gave me they gave me a commitment and I I also made a commitment that I was going to make sure that I purchased you know, a fair amount of a fair quantity of this of this material every quarter.

So you know, I had a, I had a pretty good, I had a pretty, I had a pretty good confidence level that I could make something of it now, where and how wasn't exactly sure, but I knew I had a few lines and if I could, if I could show the value that people would. Would buy in and they did so that it wasn't it wasn't really a and I mean there were other things too Like I mean at that time with the with the business development piece that I was doing, you know, I was working with a couple of other products that I that I believed in products and services and either one of those Could have also blown up and probably will sooner or later.

Now I got way too busy with what we were doing with with Amy shield and with Zoono to continue on doing the other things, but it was, it was one of those things where, you know, I, I, people say all the time that, you know, and it's a well known statement, you know, people say, oh yeah, you got, you know, you got lucky on this thing.

You got lucky on that thing. It's funny that, you know. Me and a lot of others that I know that are kind of in the same kind of world that I'm in, the harder we work, the luckier we get.

Kelly Kennedy: That's right. That's right. It's funny how that works, you know? I hate it when people say you got lucky because they didn't see the like, the sleepless nights, the full days of work led into a 5 o'clock a.

1. start the next day just so you can get some work done before the day actually starts. People. Business is hard work. And if you want to be successful, there's no magic bullet. The magic bullet is hard work.

Shawn Sooley: There's, there is no way around it, man. Like I spent, after we bought our place on in Donovan's here like, and I wasn't working out of home anymore.

It's when it started becoming really evident how much I was putting in on a daily basis because I was here every night until like, Every night until like midnight, one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning. And then like back at it again, eight, nine o'clock in the morning at the latest. Yeah. And you know, it's just, it, it takes a real toll on you, but like you reap what you sow, you know?

So like if you're going to put it in early on and you're going to plant those seeds and you're going to get a good harvest, you know? So we had like, I had no choice. Like I knew what I wanted to do. And there was really only one way to do it. I'm not, I'm not a tech guru. Like I, I don't, like, I mean, I had, I had an issue trying to get on here today to, to, to talk with you.

I was, I was delayed, you know, just because I didn't know how to log in. So like, that's off the table.

Kelly Kennedy: And I would argue, nobody knows this, but you are going through like a wicked, wicked snowstorm in Atlantic Canada right now. I swear to God, I'm surprised you even went into

this.

Shawn, when we, he's like, Kelly, look at this.

He's just like Shawn in the camera, you know, you can't even see anything. It's a blizzard.

Shawn Sooley: Yeah, it's not nice outside, man. But you know, you know, it is what it is, man. Like if in all honesty, I mean, like I told you know, first thing this morning, you know, we have a a certain time when our, you know, our managers will put out a, an announcement, okay, we're, we're coming to work or we're not coming to work.

That was like six o'clock this morning ish. But I mean, if, you know, and again, like I'll leave it to, to Kenny and, and Kenny and Liz and Matt to say, okay, you know what, no, this isn't, this isn't a good day to, to be coming to work or Yeah, we got, we gotta go to work today. So I mean, if those guys say, yep, it's good to go, then, then I'm, we're going.

And realistically, you know, I, I have a, a four wheel drive, very large tires and a lift kit because if I want to go to work, I'm going to go to work.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, it's funny too, because like, I also drive a truck and my choice to pick a truck, like I'm in business development, but I picked a truck for that very same reason.

The reality is if I got to be in a meeting, I'm going to be there, whether it's a blizzard or not. And that's just Canadian.

Shawn Sooley: Yeah, well, man, I mean, you know, when it really comes down to, you know, the, like the reality of doing business, like people just don't care. My, my inconvenience. Does not negate my obligations.

Yeah. So you know what, if I want to be the guy that takes a project on, or if I want to be a guy that, you know, that, that wins the, wins the award for whatever bid, I kind of got to be Johnny on the spot. You, you, you've got to be out in front. And I mean, even with the BD stuff that, you know, I did before and, you know, I'm, I still consistently do BD.

That's why I like BD. I mean, I'm, I'm always going to have my hand in the business development side of things. But I mean, like if you're not the first, the fastest, the best, well, then you're last. So either you're willing to go that extra mile or you're not.

Kelly Kennedy: That's right. That's right. You know, and, and it's, it's obvious too, because you've grown this business in a very short period of time, you've, you've done what takes most companies, I think probably 10 to 15 years, and you've done it in five, which is pretty wild.

And, you know, like I look at the jumps, you know, like. You started off, you know, essentially with a product to help sanitize, you know, ships and whatever else that you guys are doing. And then you went into manufacturing, which is a pretty wild jump, but you also came from that background. So you understood what it is you were building.

So it was, it wouldn't have been as big of a leap as others might think, just considering you'd already come from that installation and covers background.

Shawn Sooley: Advanced manufacturing. It doesn't matter what you're doing. Advanced manufacturing cost a ton of money. It takes a really long time and it takes a big team to do it Right and I mean like when I say a big team, I mean a big team for me you know, it's not a big team for you know, the coca colas of the world Or the fords of the world but for for me It takes a lot of people that have a really high level of dedication and a Individually, a certain skillset that become a machine in itself.

If you don't have that right team and you don't all have the same values and goals. You are not going to succeed if you like, unless you have some magic ticket that I don't know about you. You're the, the team is everything. So I mean, most of our processes, I don't even know how to do a lot of this stuff here.

And I don't care too, because I mean, my team, I trust my team, my team. If I ask for something, Unless it's unrealistic and they, you know, they quickly throw it back and say, Hey, man, listen, like, Whoa, calm down here. I know that it's going to get done and it's going to get done really well. And when it comes to advanced manufacturing, you have to have that.

You have to have that foundation of a reliable team that have the same goals and goals and interests. And, and we, we have that and that's what allowed us to go to where we are as, as fast as we did. And honestly, man, yeah, it was five years ish, give or take since, since we really kicked it all off. But man, most of our progress really happened within the last year and a bit.

Like the team, like once when Steve said, okay, you know what, man, like, let's just, let's just call that it for me. HR is a nightmare. I'm spending more time, you know, on the phone talking about cell phones and stuff that I really don't want to be dealing with. Like it's time for me to move on to the next chapter.

And I said, okay, I got it. I've really got to. To focus in even more now on the team, because like, I mean, we lost, like I lost a huge chunk of support when, when Steve when Steve was, you know, tapping, I was, nope, that's it's all the fun I've had. That's all the fun for me. So, you know with.

Kenny's help. We just kind of looked at it. It's okay. What what do we need to get where we're going fast fast? And yeah, you know luckily enough, you know, my better half Elizabeth she she's she's a BD person and she's a really really good BD person but she's also super organized and she's as invested into this as myself and Kenny and I She came on board to help us out because I needed, I need a BD help.

I just didn't have the time to do it myself. And I also needed other help, like administrative help. So she came on board and like, she's realistically the glue that holds our entire team together. Because she, and like, she does not take BS, man. Like there's like, if we're not on our game, we know about it right away, like right away.

I got one of them. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She doesn't mess around. She does not mess around like stuff gets done over here and like we don't drop the ball on very much. I mean, everybody drops the ball a long time, but we don't drop the ball very much at all because she knows we're capable and she knows that we know what we're doing, but she reminds us that we have to do it quite frequently on top of, you know, making sure that she also has her, her, her part played, you know And like I said, the team is awesome.

Like Kenny. Kenny is incredible. Kenny legitimately runs everything here. Cause I mean, like I could be absolutely anywhere in the world at any time. I mean, I could turn around tomorrow and I could be in, you know, I could be in, in Guyana for whatever reason next, next week. If something popped off or I could be in, I don't know, man, Brazil or I have no idea anywhere really.

Like it's just the way my life works and Kenny, Kenny is really good as well. And then he, he takes care of primarily the. The manufacturing side. And again, Kenny's an insulator man, but like Kenny's learned how to go to great lengths with procurement. He's learned how to go to great lengths with with, with 3d design.

He's learned how to do basically anything that you need to run our business. And he takes care of all of that. And he also oversees the scaffolding side with Matt, who takes care of our scaffolding division. He's the he's the driving force behind shield access which is our, our rapidly growing scaffolding division.

And yeah, those, like those guys just, they, they keep it all together. They row the boat in the same direction and there's just, there's just no stopping us. It's like, you know, effectively getting in our way is like getting in the way of a freight train at this point. It's incredible. And it's because of those guys, like the, the, the weight that we have is, is from the collective because we're all rowing in the same direction.

And everybody, like everybody legitimately cares about everybody else on this team. You know, I hear people talk all the time about, you know, Oh yeah, you know, this, this company is like a family and you see all the memes and you know, the tech talks that make fun of that. And like, it's legit here. It's, it's legit.

Like, there's no, there's no two ways about it. If you have an issue here, inside or outside of work, I mentioned it to you earlier, man, anybody inside of this company could go to anybody or, and not just this, like anybody inside of these companies, the group. In total any one person in any one of the companies could go to any other person Inside of any of the other companies and say hey, I need help Can you help me and it could be inside or outside of work and they would jump on it immediately There's and that makes a huge difference and we've been striving for that for for quite some time and we I don't we you know, we had people here that just didn't fit that bill and you know, People came and came and went but we have a really strong team here now and You know, like anybody else, like, and then like any, you know, family will say, like, there's, there's a level of dysfunction, no matter what you do.

But because everyone legitimately cares about each other and about the business, I mean, it's just, it, it, it works. It works really well. And every now and again, it doesn't work. And then as soon as we see that it doesn't work, everybody stops. Okay. How do we make it work? Do we work harder? Do we work longer?

Do we have to redo something? Do we have, you know, it doesn't matter what it is, but it gets, it gets done. And it's because everybody really cares, you know, and we put the right people in the right places. And I don't micromanage anybody. Nobody here micromanages. You do your job, and if you mess up, you're not accountable because ultimately, the buck stops with me anyway.

So like, if you mess up, that was my fault. Somebody didn't get the tools to do what they needed to do. So it's me. It's on me. It's my fault. So like, I don't hold anybody accountable. So everybody here, no one is afraid to give it a go. Whatever it is Everybody knows here. Okay. Well, I don't really know what i'm doing, but i'll give it a shot So that encourages people to just do their job and if they don't do their job well enough, whatever someone will help them and you know figure out why their their job is not the way or their their work is not the way it should be and no, no reprimand for it.

It's just, okay, well, you know, this shouldn't be this way. It should be this way or that. So let's figure out how to get you there. So that encourages them to do their job. But on top of that, it also encourages people to try to do more. Okay. Well, Hey, I can help out over here. I know this is my job, but I can do this with you.

I can help out with that. Because what's the worst that could happen? You screw it all.

Kelly Kennedy: No, I agree. You know, I agree completely. I, I, I'm a huge fan of family values in business and I'm sure I always call it the F word because I definitely get, I get that kind of same feedback too. Like, ah, but you know what?

I've worked in enough organizations, I think with smaller to medium sized organizations, it can work really well. I'll be the first to say that those people tend to work harder. They're driven towards the same goal. Like you said, they're on a freight train going the same direction, and they'll put in the extra effort to make sure it's done right.

I don't see what's necessarily wrong with that. I do think maybe like at a certain size of organization, it gets frowned upon because Every single area can work like its own click. And so I think, I think that's where it doesn't work as well, is if you got this like gigantic corporation. But I think for most mediums to small sized organizations, it works just fine.

And I, I think it should be encouraged, not discouraged.

Shawn Sooley: Even with the smaller organizations. Like it didn't just happen overnight like that, just, it's, it's not something that just happened here, you know? As we grew, people started to silo off. There were some issues. And I just, I held really steady on the fact that like, look, if you work for me.

Your personal issues matter to me. If you're not happy for whatever reason, or you're not content, then whether it be a work problem or a at home problem or whatever, if there's something that I can do to help, I'm doing it. If something, if there's something here that any of the management can do to help, we're going to do it.

Now, if the business itself can do something to help, we're going to do it. And it's just, it's a give and take system. I mean, people don't look at. Employment the way that they used to and rightfully so because There was a time when you know, if you had a job Then you know the employer or the company has already done more for you than you're doing for them Because you were you're lucky enough to have a job.

I I just I don't look at any of it the same anymore Look, you're either you're with us or you're not and either is fine But if you're with us, then you don't have a job here. You're just with us We have something that we're trying to achieve you want to do that with us And if so awesome, and I really appreciate And all the rest of the the team from from bottom to top here Everybody really appreciates the fact that people here want to help.

Yeah, and that that's what makes the difference And you know, it's not about you. You don't have a job yet You have you have employment, you know, you're you're getting a paycheck, but it's because you gotta live and things are expensive And they're getting more expensive so you need you need a paycheck, but it's not about that.

It's not It's not a you come here In you know in turn for for what you get come thursday on on your on your pay stub It's about hey, listen, we're doing this thing. Do you want you want to be a part of it? We we have a great atmosphere You got to do something in your life So like it's just as well to come and do it here because you know, ultimately it's it's a good atmosphere We really appreciate people We want people to be happy and it's really fulfilling when you when you have that environment where you feel like you're a part of something and Something has been accomplished like it's really fulfilling to people and that's again That's really what makes the difference people want to be a part of that and they you know And and I want people to be a part of that, you know It's it's not a you know It's not a gimmick or a trick to get people to to boost the levels of you know Profitability here is and ultimately You know, I committed a long time ago that profitability is not my main process or not my main my main priority, my main priority here.

Like I have it, I have even my whole life, I have a tiered system for priorities. My family and kids come before anything else. And they are my main priority after that, like very close, like touching are the people that I work with in my, my, my extended work family. So like their wellbeing is far more important.

Than what it looks like at the end of the year financially And like that and in turn it's a happy bonus that that's what that's what creates success Yeah, because I don't need to worry about the profitability anymore I'm worried about them. They're worried about the profit. Yeah, they want success here.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, and you don't have a business without the people in it. Like the reality is none of it matters if they're not happy and coming to work and doing the job they need to be doing. And so that's why I think this shift has to be on your people. You know, one of the things, Shawn, that I really wanted to spend some time with you here today on is, like I said, you're my first Atlantic Canada guest.

And I know we talked about this when we kind of had our initial meeting, but I think that there's a misconception from the West, right? From Western Canada on business in Newfoundland and one of the goals that I was really hoping for from this interview with you was how does the West better work with Eastern Canada Atlantic provinces specifically because I think.

I've seen them try, and it's very hard to do, and it's not hard to do, they don't know how to do it, right?

Shawn Sooley: There are, there are so many, so many little intricacies that just aren't understood, and a lot of them are cultural.

Kelly Kennedy: Absolutely. And so I was hoping you could spend some time today on, you know, on helping us Western provinces work better with, with our, with our Eastern neighbors.

Shawn Sooley: You know what? That's something that, like, I, I love that because. We have, we still have limited resources here. We, we do and bigger projects, especially we need some outside help and expertise. In building things, you know We've got a lot of great companies here that are willing to take on big projects well both big and small there are a lot there's a lot of misunderstandings and there's a lot of there's a lot of things that happen here that aren't understood because you don't understand like the the folks from outside of atlantic canada, but specifically newfoundland don't understand the history and I mentioned it earlier that Newfoundland has been extremely feast or famine in terms of industrial work and even like the larger commercial stuff, you know, it's, it's very feast or famine.

It's not a huge population. So infrastructure requirements are not nearly as for, and for, for geographic purposes. Region like the island of newfoundland. I mean it's a relatively big space, but Not a lot of people so we don't need as much infrastructure as you would need in nova scotia new brunswick ontario So that means that there's not a whole lot of commercial work going on here.

You don't see high rises here. You don't see you know A lot of hospitals and a lot of you know, there's a few but there's not a lot. Yeah you know, there's just not as much infrastructure. So the work is less abundant. So When you have a project that comes up there are a lot of things that that that play into The either the success or the struggle of a project.

And a lot of it comes back to the cultural issues. You know, environmental issues are obviously also really, really huge. Newfoundland is just not an easy place to do business period, you know, and, you know, inside Newfoundland specifically, it's a well known fact amongst the business community. If you can do business in Newfoundland, you can do business anywhere in the world.

You have a lot of things. Playing against you here. And again, those, those things like lack of, or the, the smaller population size and client base, the you know, the inherent poor weather year round, really we've got, you know, well, I mean, we have summer, which is good for construction, that four days that we get a year that's fun.

You, it's great working those four days a year that we have decent weather. But I mean, spring. Springtime is a bit rough depending on where we're to winter is really hard and you know, fall is, you know, it's, it's not, it's not as bad as, as winter and spring, but it's still also pretty, pretty rough.

So like, you know, you get, you got mine sites and, you know, you got big projects, like we did the muskrat falls project here that it was, it was, it was a complete catastrophe. And you know, we had, we had an Italian company. That came here that are really well versed in building dams and that dam did not go as planned.

And again, issues with the demographic, issues with environmental just supply chain problems because of, hey, we're an island and not only are you working on an island, you get outside the greater St. John's area, now you're really remote. So like, yeah, we have, you know, we have a city or we have a couple of cities right there that, you know, you would think, Hey, oh, well there's a city real close.

So we, we know that from before we've done all these projects, you might've done a hundred projects in the past. And now you factor in okay, there's a city just you know, 30 minutes 40 minutes You know 60 minutes from from the site or an hour from the site or whatever We'll just we'll get supply from the city over here.

It's not the same St. John's is not equipped the same as halifax or toronto. It's not We don't have those resources that they have to support the bigger projects We don't have a great supply chain. It a lot of this stuff has to come you might be able to order in st john's But it has to come from off the island because we're not stocking things here because we're not we're not a hub We're not we're not sending things out the way that they are now I mean some things I mean lots of valve shops around lots of electrical supply shops around sure But when when it gets into the nitty gritty and the you know, the things that are a little more niche There's not great supply or Realistically, even the stuff that we do supply here, we don't have it in quantity the same as that you, you would get in Toronto or in, in Halifax or the bigger centers or, you know, you know, Vancouver or in Edmonton or Calgary or wherever.

Yeah. So like, you know, pre planning. Is extremely important in Newfoundland and not just from a, this is how we're going to do our job perspective. We're going to where this building is going to go here. Then the piping and the mechanical is going to go with, no, that's, that's not, that's all the same once it's all on site and you have an understanding of the workforce.

The workforce here becomes very difficult to manage if you don't understand how they like to be managed. Newfoundlanders are different than the rest of Canada. Okay. That I think that's a well known fact, like our, our population and demographic is a very unique set of people in a, in a really good way most times, but it can become difficult to manage if you don't understand how that the, like the, the construction folks and, you know, the industrial folks like to be, like to be treated and, you know, the, the way they like things done it can, it can become a bit of a nightmare and it Not only just the individuals themselves, because the people are great people here.

Everybody's extremely friendly and extremely willing to help when you need help, you ask someone to help you here, they're probably going to help you. But when you start to consider that we have an aging population and the workforce is dwindling so fast everywhere in a place like Newfoundland, where our population is so low.

Yeah. And honestly, even the population we do have. The younger generations, they don't have the same ambition to be tradespeople and industrial folks the way the generations before had that drive to be, you know, to be out there in the field working with our hands. It's just not there. So the population is smaller anyway.

And the percentage of that population that wants to be in that space is also smaller. So Working with newfoundland companies from an outside perspective how to work with them is to work with them Don't just say hey, okay. We're going to partner on this thing. And this is how we're going to do it engage early Plan, understand, you know, and a lot of the work over here is, you know, any of the big stuff for the most part is, you know, either covered under, you know, the the different bodies like the, the CLRA and the, the building trades.

And you know, you're, you're dealing with union union work then, which comes with its own set of understanding to be successful. And that understanding for the most part comes from, okay, what's my availability. Yeah. Because with the, like with the unions, man, you get really high quality work, but where are they getting the folks to do the work for you?

Because we have a much smaller population right now, for example, we have some work going on or, you know, over the last couple of years, we've had some work going on. So, you know, these trades people, you know, the, the guys and girls that are doing the work are spread out all across Newfoundland and it's hard to get them.

So understanding that working with somebody who has an attachment to those, to those unions and to the, the pots of labor outside of the unions as well. If you're, if you're not talking about union work, having access to someone. Who already has connection to them will make or break your, make or break your job.

So getting in early is really important.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, and like the importance of partnering with local companies is absolutely critical to the success of projects in Newfoundland. That's what I'm understanding here. You are not You're not going to walk into Newfoundland and just bring your company in there and get it done.

It's just not going to go as you hope.

Shawn Sooley: I've seen a lot of companies try on a lot of jobs and it does not go well. It does not go well. I mean, we've had, I mean, we've, we've worked side by side with companies from outside of Newfoundland. And you know what? Some projects go better than expected, but they never go as well as they could.

And I mean, that, that's what makes the difference to, okay, well, are we going to do the next phase of this project or are we just going to call it quits? Or are we going to do another project or even from outside investment? Oh, Hey, maybe we can do this thing in Newfoundland. We saw how this job went. I mean, it wasn't pretty.

Maybe we, maybe we look at somewhere else. Yeah. So that's what, that's what matters to, you know, the overall economy here. And then the availability of that work. Okay. To the folks that would like to come here to do work. Yeah So if if you pre plan and I mean our natural resources here are endless. Yes We have so much so much opportunity here when it comes to natural resources So anybody who wants to come here to go to work?

They want to bring their they want to bring their company and their skill set and their their knowledge their experience their expertise Yeah, do it do it come over here Help us Get things done But don't shoot yourself in the foot with your own confidence that you can do it on your own It works far better if you come in here and work with The folks that already have those connections and the understandings that you need for a successful project.

And those companies are available. There's a ton here.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. And that was going to be my next question was, do, does Newfoundland even want our help? Did they want help from the West?

Shawn Sooley: Newfoundland, there's, there's a lot of misconceptions out there. And, you know, I would think that, you know a big portion of the.

The market in canada thinks that newfoundland wants to do things on their own Or they don't want outside companies coming in and grabbing up our work And I mean like we've gotten the we've gotten the wrong end of a lot of deals over the years We have had a lot of potential and a lot of opportunity that's been Ultimately just signed away because either we didn't know Or we were we were misled or we've we had a misconception on how much value we had versus You know outside entities, but ultimately that's not the case We we are perfectly fine with with others coming in here to help as long as it's very collaborative.

Yes And I know that, you know, Newfoundland as a whole, I mean, we have things like the Newfoundland Labor Benefits Agreements where it's like, okay, look, well, if we're going to do it with, you know, if we're going to do this thing, then we're going to do it, but we are going to benefit as a province. Because we've been misled and we've we've had opportunity taken from us but we have things now in place that you know That allow us a little bit of an upper hand in a lot of areas and Those things a lot of the companies that are here locally would be very Very welcoming to outside outside companies or what would have otherwise been competition in other areas coming and saying, Hey, listen, why don't we, we would really like to do the work over here.

We know that you have a better crack at it really because of, you know, legislation and different things saying that, Hey, listen, the Newfoundlanders need to get first consideration on this work if they have the capacity and the ability to do the work. But we'd like to help you. I see very little of that.

It's you know, it happens from time to time but usually it's forced or it's it's made very clear to who's coming when they express interest in taking on a project So hey, listen, well, you kind of got to got to partner with a newfoundland company to to make this work Yeah, because you got to give the benefit to newfoundland It's better.

It's better. It's way better served when You know, when they come and say, Hey, listen, we want to work with you. Not, Hey, listen, we got to have a new plan partner. So, Hey, would you like to be it? It works really well because there's a huge potential here. Like I said, and we also have value, not only just in Newfoundland.

Like there's a lot of, there's a lot of folks here that are really good at what they do, and there's a lot of synergies that can be, that can be found. If you know if folks from outside were willing to come over here and I know a lot of and you know Even aside from the ones that do want to come here there are a lot of there's a lot of companies out there that don't want to come here Because and I mean I was I was at a conference just last week.

In in florida and I guess an otherwise competitor, but like another, another scaffolding company, they're represented and said, we are not coming out to Newfoundland. I would love to supply you with some material. We are not coming to Newfoundland. Forget it. We're not getting on that ferry. No way.

And I'm like, why? Like, what are you talking about? I, man, I have absolutely no problem. If you think it's cause I don't want you there, you're saying this is, you think I don't want you over there picking up my work. I welcome. I welcome fair competition in this market. I welcome it.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, let me tell you, Shawn, I haven't met a Newfoundlander yet that I didn't like.

So I think that's a good sign.

Shawn Sooley: For the most part. Like, I mean, the people here are, are relatively good people, you know, like, you know, I've, I've been, I've been a lot of places, man. Like I've, I've been all over and. You know newfoundlanders they they stack up pretty high on the list of you know People who are easy to go get along with and you know, just genuinely good people.

Yeah But you know again A lot of the time, you know, I find that it's not just the people that you know kind of deter some of the you know Some of the companies that could come and do work here from coming here I think a lot of the a lot of the things that you know snowball off of you know, they, they are things like you've got, you know, well, we've got small population, not a big market.

So, okay. Where are we going to go and do that one project? Or do we focus over here where we can get a bit of a foothold on a bigger market and take up that in Alberta, Saskatchewan, you know, there's all kinds of places across Canada where you can where you can focus in and try to take up more market, not just one project here and there.

And it's, it's sad because there's a lot more of a market here than what's realized. So that's a misconception. And. You just, you need to know where to look for it. But then it gets snowballed in with the, okay, well, the demographic there is hard to work with sometimes, not a lot of the work there you're forced into union work.

And honestly, that's another misconception, but it's two misconceptions. Cause you know, yeah, it's not, not all the work is, you know, is. Is mandated to be union work a lot of it is but Not all unions are bad depending on the trade and the skill set I mean, there are some unions out there that I have no love for and there are some that I think are great Amazing organizations.

For example, like the UEC, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. Awesome. Awesome folks. Really, really great crowd. They take care of their membership really well. They have a good organizational structure. They're very progressive. They don't mind investing into their Into their membership. They don't mind investing into their contractors.

They don't mind investing into the end clients great organization so to come over here the union like I mean if you're gonna come over here and you're gonna You're gonna work under the united brotherhood of carpenters man. Like that's not a disadvantage They have the workforce. Yeah. They will help you every step of the way.

Like the guys that are running the show over there. I, I mean, like I'm sure other people have other perspectives of what they're doing. I mean, since I, like, I mean, we voluntarily recognize the United Brotherhood of Carpenters almost right away when we started our our scaffolding company, I mean, those guys have been a huge, huge help to us.

They've shown us. Incredible support. Incredible. I mean, we probably wouldn't have been able to do it without them, to be honest. Like they're the, the director of organization Paul and and, and Mike Mike runs the show over there and man, those guys are incredible. I mean, if someone wants to come here and do work.

The support that you can get from organizations like them you the success is Just as important to them as it is to the guys doing the work and the end client So, I mean that's it's not a reason to be concerned about coming over here to do work But I know that oftentimes it's misconstrued and it is but I mean speaking from A fair amount of experience.

It's not a disadvantage on that front again And I mean again, not every not every building trade union is the same. They're not all built equal Sure, i'm i'm not speaking for every one of them But like those guys if you can, you know, if you can Create partnerships with, with folks like that, you're in really good hands.

And again, that comes back to, well, you partner with local companies, then you kind of understand who to work with and who not to work with.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. So like, to me, if you could only give one piece of advice to Western companies or companies that would like to do business in Newfoundland, I'm going to let you say it.

What would that be?

Shawn Sooley: Just start conversations, ask, pick up the phone. Hey, we don't have any, we have no market share in Newfoundland right now. We have no market share in Atlantic Canada. What's going on? Is there any synergies between us? Can we work together? Do you see a potential here? What, what could we look at or what are the possibilities?

Just start the conversation. Pick up the phone. If you don't have a market share here, you think you have value in the industrial world, pick up the phone, call somebody over here, have a conversation with them.

Kelly Kennedy: Perfect. Perfect. Have a conversation, look to partner. That is the way forward in Newfoundland. Take us through the shield group of companies before we close up.

We are coming to the end of our show today, but I would like you to spend a little bit of time talking about what products and services that you do offer, as well as the locations that you're willing to work in.

Shawn Sooley: Absolutely. Well, I mean, When it comes to locations for work it's a little bit scattered, I guess.

I mean, the infection control stuff that we still do some of that. It's not nearly obviously as prevalent as it was. But I mean, we, we will do that all across Newfoundland. We do have great partners out in in Nova Scotia who take care of Nova Scotia and the Brunswick. If it does come up, they're happy to help us out there.

But with the installation side, so with the mechanical installation we have A really good partner here that that helps us out if you have a whole scope where you want you know, insulation work and you want removable insulation covers the stuff that we manufacture we can do that realistically.

And they're our partner, they're stretched all across Canada and I work with them absolutely anywhere. So, you know, we can do the removable insulation stuff. And you just kind of let us know where you're doing. If we got to send somebody, we send them. And that not just in Newfoundland, not just in Canada, I mean, North America, South America, wherever I, all we need is measurements or, you know, a 3d scan and we can, we can do basically anything for anywhere.

And we just ship out of here. That's another misconception. That's. That absolutely drives me crazy. Our logistics is not nearly as bad as what would be expected. We can ship we can ship products our removal installation jackets anywhere in the world. I mean, we ship them offshore here. We ship them to, well, we just, we just made a shipment the other day to BC.

You know, we can, we can ship things anywhere. Anywhere. And then for the, on the, on the scaffolding front our access company is primarily Newfoundland based right now. But we'll partner or we'll work with anybody anywhere in Canada, realistically for for, for our access work. Our scaffolding and access company is is growing in leaps and bounds right now.

We've taken on some pretty big projects and we intend to keep, keep moving and taking on more. Big focus for us is to bundle in the insulation services with our, you know, with our partner there to kind of create more of a holistic scope where we can give a a pretty good bundle of insulation, scaffolding, and the removable insulation jackets for for jobs realistically anywhere in Canada, primarily our, most of our work happens in Atlantic Canada, but we're, we're willing to work anywhere really.

Kelly Kennedy: Who are your ideal customers?

Shawn Sooley: We don't have an ideal customer man, like we will work with anybody and our ideal customer is someone who Wants to work with us as much as we want to work with them So if you need if you need access or if you need, you know, removable insulation systems or what have you Anything that we do if you are willing to work with us And you have a, if you have a really serious problem where, listen, our margin isn't going to be as high as we would like it to be, and we've got to put in a little extra work to kind of help you figure it out, we're happy to do that.

We don't care. We, we really, we, we do encourage people to come to us with challenging situations because we kind of have fun with that type of thing. It's a, it's a big pride piece for us to be like, Hey, listen, look what we just figured out. We got this thing done. So, I mean, when it comes to ideal clients, it does not matter if you have something ahead of you that needs to be done, whether it's routine and it's just a lot of work, happy to do that.

We get it done and we usually get it done a lot faster and cleaner than anybody else. And if it's really complicated, you will not find another team that's more eager to help figure it out. If it's going sideways for you, we love that. We thrive in, in chaos and in, you know, in really high, high tense high tension and and high pressure situations.

Our team does extremely well. So all across the board, if you need construction services or industrial services that we provide with insulation, scaffolding, access, we are, we are the guys, we don't care how big, how small, how complicated, you got a client that you're trying to, if your client is really hard to get along with and you got to, you know, you really got to make a show, we're, we're good for it.

Kelly Kennedy: Awesome, awesome. And Shawn, what is the best way for them to get a hold of you?

Shawn Sooley: The best way for anyone to get a hold of me is either email or through well, honestly, through our BD team you know, through sales or through through Elizabeth our, our business development manager. So you can email her at elizabeth@shieldgroup.ca Or you can email me at Shawn at shield dash group dot c a or just call the general line right on our website.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. And Shawn, you've had some amazing success in an incredible short period of time. And I know that I came with nothing but a ton of hard work behind it. I know it wasn't luck. You have one piece of growth advice for the entrepreneurs listening right now who are inspired by you.

Shawn Sooley: Just do it. People get so caught up in what. Could trip them up or what might be a detriment who cares so you fall down whatever it is What it is you learn from that stuff you usually you know, it's a it's a fool me once kind of world, right? You know people don't forget, you know so Go at it, like face it as, as hard and fast as possible and just do it.

If you don't know how to do it, do it anyway and learn, just learn while you're doing it. Once you start, it's a do or die situation usually in business. So like, chances are it's in ya. You just don't know what's there. Just do it.

Kelly Kennedy: Just do it. I love it, Shawn. This has been episode 134 of the Business Development Podcast.

We've been graced by CEO of Shield Group of Companies, Shawn Sooley, for the amazing education on not just business, but business in Atlantic Canada. I appreciated that immensely, Shawn. Until next time, we'll catch you on the road. The flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020. His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation. And business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists.

For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.