Unlocking Success with The Contractor Coach: Brandon Fuchs' Blueprint for Contractors

Unlocking Success with The Contractor Coach: Brandon Fuchs' Blueprint for Contractors

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 164 of the business development podcast. Are you a contractor? Maybe a general contractor who's struggling to run your business and complete your work at the same time. Today, we're talking with Brandon Fuchs, the contractor coach himself, and he is going to chat with us all about. The work he's doing and how to effectively run your contractor business.

Stick with us. You're not going to want to miss this episode.

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. 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. Welcome. To the Business Development Podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 164 of the Business Development Podcast. It's an absolute honor to be on with you today. Today we have an absolute rockstar expert guest coming to us all the way from Saskatchewan, Canada. Brandon Fuchs. Brandon is a pathfinder in the construction realm and stands at the helm of North Canadian Construction Group as its president and CEO.

With nearly two decades of experience spanning residential, commercial, and industrial construction, Brandon is more than just a leader. His journey is a testament to the transformative power of dedication and expertise. Beyond the boardroom. Brandon's passion pulses through his veins, evident in his role as a mentor in the construction coaching mentorship program that he spearheads via Instagram @the_ contractorcoach.

Here he selflessly imparts the wisdom gleaned from his years in the industry, guiding aspiring contractors through the labyrinth of profitability and operational excellence. At the core of Brandon's philosophy lies the belief that experience is the linchpin of growth. A mantra that he champions with fervor.

His dedication to fostering change in the construction landscape echoes in every project undertaken by North Canadian Construction. Under his stewardship, the company has become synonymous with excellence, a beacon of trust in the industry often marred by uncertainty. Brandon's leadership isn't about erecting structures, it's about building a community of empowered contractors and satisfied clients who understand that with North Canadian construction, the journey is as rewarding as the destination.

Brandon's influence extends far beyond the confines of the construction site. His commitment to delivering unmatched quality and service is matched only by his passion for giving back. Whether it's breathing new life into established neighbourhoods through meticulous renovations or spearheading innovative commercial projects, Brandon's touch leaves an indelible mark.

With North Canadian Construction, every endeavour is infused with Brandon's ethos. To listen better, listen now. Plan better and build better as he continues to redefine the standards of excellence. Brandon remains steadfast in his mission to shape the future of construction. One project, one mentorship and one community at a time.

Brandon, it's an honor to have you on the show.

Brandon Fuchs: Wow. That was, that's quite the intro. I don't think I've had anybody say so many nice things about me in my life.

Kelly Kennedy: Dude, I love reading people's rockstar intros. And you know what? Everybody says this. They're like, oh man, like, wow, that's over the top. But it's like, no, that is exactly who you are.

I think just as people, we're so reluctant to give ourselves any type of recognition or praise.

Brandon Fuchs: Yeah, I do agree with that. Like, I do look at a lot of people in my life that I would probably you know, identify in a similar matter and they probably wouldn't think about themselves like that. And so, you know, I can appreciate I can appreciate what you said about me.

And I thank you for that.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh, no, no, the the honor is very much mine. And I'm really excited to do this with you today. Like I said, you know, we've had lots of people on this show from across Canada around the world, but actually I think you're my very first one from Saskatchewan.

Brandon Fuchs: Well, we're, we're a small little place in the middle of nowhere.

So, you know, I might be hard to find.

Kelly Kennedy: My fiance's families from Saskatchewan. We do lots of trips to Saskatoon. I actually really liked Saskatchewan.

Brandon Fuchs: Well, I appreciate that.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, I suppose I haven't spent a ton of time there, but the time I have spent has been excellent. So we'll give it that.

Brandon, you've been a serial entrepreneur for over 20 years.

Brandon Fuchs: Yeah, that's a deep breath. Let's take a deep breath there.

Kelly Kennedy: Obviously not always easy, but take me into that. You know, bring us back. Who is Brandon Fuchs? How did you end up on this path? Take us back to being a kid.

Brandon Fuchs: Oh man. Okay. You better sit down.

I'm sitting down. All right. Well, I was raised by a single mother. And so a lot of grit and determination. We didn't really come from a lot. And so I always had aspirations for greater things. I don't know if that was just natural transition, but but it was part of my life. I've actually lived with my grandparents for a few years.

And so I was really close with them and I would always have these big visions all the time. Like I told my grandma, I was like, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna build a semi, put a house in there. You're gonna come with me everywhere we go. And she's just like, this is crazy. I did, I did wild stuff like in the winter I would take my My bike and I built like a ski at wood and try to drive around in the winter.

I put screws through the tire above a little, I did, I did all kinds of unique little constructive things. As a kid, it was just kind of always like onto the next thing, onto the next thing, onto the next thing. Then as I grew I I really had this like subconscious interest in business, but I, but I I wasn't, I didn't really have the ecosystem around me, you know, like my, nobody in my family was really an entrepreneur or anything like that.

They're all blue collar workers and, you know, you get up, you work your ass off and you go to, and you go do your job. And then that was the mindset of my family. And and so that's what I did for a few years, but I was always. My subconscious was always looking forward to these business opportunities.

I remember like looking at Island inkjet. I think they created this like little cartridge refilling thing. And I thought about, I was like, Oh, this would be cool. Like if you had a place where you could like refill your cartridges. So I searched up like. Curtain franchises and I found them and then two weeks later it was open.

So I was always like a little bit behind these opportunities. And so then I I never really had any business drive when I was, you know, in high school or anything like that. And I ended up taking a bunch of courses. I was planning on getting a job at the rates. I didn't know how to get the job.

I applied. I tried to make some calls. I couldn't get it. I couldn't get it. Like nobody would call me back. I couldn't get a job, which is wild because right now I know how much worth I have and how much value. And so thinking back, I'm like, that was a dumb decision by everyone that didn't answer the phone.

So so I continued on that journey. Couldn't get a call, but then I ended up entering into industrial carpentry at a potash mine. Knew nothing about it. It was minus. Like 30 that day and a potash mine, if anybody's worked there, it's like plus 30 and up and it's super humid. It's gross, salty, burns your face.

And so you know, people always explain that that moment of time where they had to go through some stuff that a lot of uncomfortable moments. And that was one of my uncomfortable moments. I called my supervisor. That was, I didn't know. And I said, Hey, like, are we working inside or we're working outside?

And he's like, Oh, we're outside. And I was like, okay, sweet. I have all my winter gear because I was going to the rigs. Yeah. So then I go there with a, with a makeshift toy tool belt and a fiberglass hammer with a big round claw, no idea what kind of tool I need and no idea what I'm getting into. And I find out right when I get there that we're actually working inside on the 16th floor.

And all I have is winter gear. And all I have is winter boots, big, heavy winter boots. And the elevator's broken. And all we're doing is hauling everything up the stairs. And I'm away from home and I can't get boots cause I've got big ass feet. And this, we're in a small town in the middle of nowhere and there's just nothing there.

So for a week I was in hell. And I hauled and hauled and hauled everything up the stairs on my breaks. I would go outside and try to cool down a little bit. I I would dump like sweat out of my boots.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh.

Brandon Fuchs: It was torture. I'm not sure that happened today. I don't know. I have no idea if that would happen, but I, I just, I remember in that moment that this is, this is what life is like, this is the real deal.

Kelly Kennedy: Ya

Brandon Fuchs: You know, like, man, I got to do this forever.

And it, and it, and I didn't know what else to look at. That's all I had, but I, you know, like I deal with struggles today. But I understand that tomorrow's a new day and I can get to that tomorrow if I get through today. Right. And I didn't see that in that moment. I also grew up with a single mother. So I didn't have a father mentor to kind of coach me through those struggles.

So it was just me, myself and I and so came back the next week, got some real boots. Everybody was surprised that I came back. Everyone was pretty surprised that I came back. And within like four years, I was a superintendent. Wow. So that's the fast track there. And I was, I think I was pretty young and I recognized that there was only a few other people above me at that time, but it just wasn't the place for me.

I didn't, I didn't like the traveling. I didn't, I didn't feel like I could build a family on that. And so alongside that. Journey while I was working there, I took an interest in, you know, renovating and, and creative transformations and spaces. I was really into Mike Holmes and all this kind of stuff.

I, I didn't watch cartoons. I watched Bob Vila, you know, so I was always into building stuff in high school. I would, you know, not just build a little entertainment center, build an entertainment set. When everybody else had to build an Adirondack chair, I would build 25. It was always. Bigger and bigger and bigger.

Every idea was always bigger. And so I had an opportunity, somebody had reached out and there was, there was a layoff coming up and somebody had reached out and they're like, Hey, would you like to like renovate my commercial building? I was like, okay, well maybe I could take a little break from this.

You know, I need a little bit of a break and something different. And so I went on my own and I renovated that commercial space, did a couple other things, had no idea again, what I was doing. I didn't know what a permit was. I didn't know anything. It was a completely different world. But I, I, I woke up and I failed and I figured out the solution and I continued to press forward.

And I've been doing that for, for a long time. Alongside all of that construction stuff, I kind of have elevated a little bit into a bit of a business fanatic, I guess, so to speak. I really liked that the the components of a business, I like the marketing components, I like the brand components, I like the.

The psychological connection with your client and the understanding of how that transaction takes place. And so I really started to show interest in other types of service companies and other types of marketing companies. So I've, I've created I think almost a dozen different companies. I don't know the number right now.

I've lost count. But I've had marketing companies, I've had drywall companies, I've had cork companies. I I owned a garage customization company, and alongside all of that stuff, I've been always doing renovations and construction. Wow. I could never get out of that space, but I was always playing in these other spaces.

Clients would always call me and say, Hey would you renovate? My house. So I wasn't really marketing construction. Yeah. I was just getting work because I was good at it. And then in 2018, I, at that time I had a garage customization company a construction company, and I was going through a divorce.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow.

Brandon Fuchs: And that was right before, well, that was before Covid a little bit. And I was, I was. Scheduled to go look at a client's home. And I didn't know if I was there for a garage customization or a renovation or what I was there for, because I was I was in a, you know, not a great headspace pulled up and I had a client that was looking to get a quote on a renovation, convert a bedroom into a, into a bathroom, accessible bathroom for their daughter.

And they were, they were in a position where they were going to cash in their pension, their mortgage, everything to get the successful bathroom. And in that moment, I was sitting in my truck prior to that, thinking about my divorce and all the struggles that I had in that moment. And I was just like, man, I'm complaining about things that don't matter.

I'm stressing out about things that really just don't matter. And I decided that I was just going to take care of that bathroom. I didn't know how I was going to take care of it, but I decided I was going to take care of that bathroom because I held the tools. In my hand at disposable value, they were just, they were just nothing, you know, like the bathroom to me, it was just easy.

I could do it with my eyes closed with the resources that I had within my network of people. And so like, I built a team of entrepreneurs in our community. And we renovated the whole house and for free, the total value of the renovation was 600, 000, roughly fully reactive. And the nonprofit was called the built love project.

Alongside that I'm still running my construction company, my garage company, going through my divorce, taking my kids to hockey, doing a lot of things. And I have no idea how I did it. To be honest, because that job was reactive, right? Like I looked at it within weeks, we were there demoing and, you know, and the news is there and all these things are exploding.

And, but it was a great feeling. It's probably the best feeling of my life. Because I was able to understand my superpower at that point. And my superpower was people. I had a incredible ability of bringing people together and and, and bringing out the best in their skills and abilities. And so we did it again.

Year two, our team grew from like eight people to 60. Wow. And we we put out a nomination process and had people nominate a family alongside still doing all these other businesses, keep this in mind. This is all, I'm not getting paid. But my time is, you know, being invested in this and we a family a mother with MS was, was Was nominated and she ultimately was the family that we selected as a group.

And we put an elevator in her home. It was nearly a 1. 5 million renovation, all free live streamed on Maryland Dennis and the world was starting to get crazy now. Now we had every eyeball on us. Like we were like extreme home makeover without the big, you know, news budget. We just had, we just had a small community.

And so I think that's one of the things that really unique about Saskatchewan is that if you look at some of the big successful businesses that have come into Saskatchewan, I think they come out of here because we have to work a little bit differently. We have to work focused on our community and focused on the assets that we have within it.

And so I continued to grow. It was just growing and growing and growing and and then COVID came in our third year of that nonprofit, we had we had. A huge concert planned, and we were just about to start selling tickets and then COVID shut us down. And it was kind of like a blessing in disguise because the unfortunate reality, even though we created a great mission, there was never a plan for it to be a sustainable business.

So it had no cash, we didn't get paid, it had no operational support. Like it didn't have people to help communicate and admin and navigate all these challenges. People were just working and assisting us as a, as a valued asset. That's why we had so many people helping us. And so we got shut down. And then we had to recreate everything.

And that's where I kind of created North Canadian construction, because what I really enjoyed, I knew that COVID would go away and leave us to, to be in, we could have our lives back. But North Canadian construction, the goal was that was, I enjoyed what we were doing so much that I wanted to do it everywhere.

And so I wanted to create general contractors and builders in every city. And then I was going to teach them how we, we did, we did the nonprofit. And the challenge with that is hiring a general contractor in a city that you're not in is different than partnering with a general contractor in a city.

You're not in. Being a business owner means that you will wake up when you need to wake up, you will fight the battles you need to fight and you will do things differently. An employee, on the other hand, will not do those things. They will not make those sacrifices. And so those were the struggles and things that I learned along that way.

We had converted that in hiring employees as partners into a franchise process. So for the past couple of years, I've developed a systematic construction franchise with all the policies, all the strategies, all the procedures to help general contractors become successful. 20 years ago, when I got into this industry, it was not fun.

I went on my own and I would wake up at three in the morning puking. Bile trying to figure out where my next job was not knowing what was going on in my ego was so proud that I wouldn't tell my wife at the time that we were struggling. I wouldn't, I wouldn't show my kids that pain and that suffering. I would just get up and I would go battle and I would go to work and I would do my thing.

And being a general contractor it means that you need to be a counselor. You need to solve people's problems that maybe they don't even understand exist. You need to, you need to be the support mechanism and the connecting. You know, fundamental solution to every problem. And it's just a nest of noise and stress and struggle.

And so what I, what I intended to do with North Canadian Construction Group franchise expansion was create a space where general contractors could be a part of a system of organized solutions to provide what they love doing. I love transforming spaces, but I, but I also, Didn't know the problems that were coming down the pipe and I didn't have the solutions.

And I felt that we could create an ecosystem of support for all those people. When I was creating this nonprofit, sorry, when I was creating North Construction, there was a little bird telling me, Hey, what about America? Hey, what about America? Why are you calling this North Canadian Construction group?

It's just specific on Canada. And then in the past couple of months I've actually been approached by a lot of Americans to help them too. Wow. So that's where this is now flipping into a bit mentorship program. And we're going to have basically little add ons, like if you need us to help you with your administration, if you need us to help you with your you know, your accounting or your marketing or whatever, just operational components, we'll be able to help you.

So the world is kind of like traveled on this journey of life and. Failures and struggles to a position where now I feel like, you know, I've got this guy in Winnipeg that I'm chatting with and, and you know, I, I really feel for some of the struggles that he experiences and I want, I'm doing everything I can to help him understand that they're not that bad, you know?

And, and, and when you're in, when you're in the noise, it's really hard to understand that the problems aren't that bad and the solutions are very much obtainable. And so I'm, I'm super excited about where this will go, but that's, that's ultimately been my journey. And that is a bit of a story to get to where I am, but, you know, I've got two, I've got two incredible kids.

I I wake up super early. I go to bed super late and I work. The entire time, I don't make a lot of money doing this. I could make a lot of money and I hope to at some point, but that's not the goal. I'm not in this for the money. I'm in this for the difference and the change that I can make on people's lives that are, that are wanting to play in this space.

And and it's exciting.

Kelly Kennedy: It's super exciting. And when we met, that was something that totally stood out about you. For you, this isn't about becoming a multi multimillionaire. What it is, it truly is. I have worked my ass off for 20 years. I've struggled. I've persevered. I've had to go through grit after grit after grit.

You know what I mean? You can tell that when, when we first had our kind of opening words where we were talking about your 20 years and you're like, yeah, right? Like. For you, it's like, yeah, like, I did that, but it was incredibly challenging and it took a lot of resilience to do that. And it's such an interesting perspective compared to so many of the entrepreneurs we've had on this show, where it is about like, yeah, I did all these things.

And sometimes it's, it's not that. Sometimes it's, I worked my ass off to get to where I am today, and it hasn't been easy. And it did take a lot of resilience. And there were many times that I wanted to quit. But I didn't. And I wanted to spend just a minute with you. 20 years in any industry is an incredibly long time.

But 20 years in the construction industry, especially, I think is over and above. I think it's incredibly challenging. And I think hearing your story has really had that impact on me to just show me how challenging that truly has been to navigate. How were you able to motivate yourself on those days? You know, like you said, that day that you decided to take that reno for free.

And I get at that point, you're probably just feeling like, God, I got to do something that makes me feel good. That makes me feel good about life and about myself and about my situation. But how were you able to do that, Brandon? And like, there's so many people who would have just been like, I'm done. I can't do this.

Like, I'm going to go take a day job, a nine to five, and I'm going to figure it out. But no, you persevered, you did it. And so many entrepreneurs are looking for that strength, and they don't know where to get it from. Was it all intrinsic? How were you able to do that?

Brandon Fuchs: That's a, that's a tough question.

You know, my whole life has been about

persevering to the solution, I guess. Like, and I don't believe in failure. I don't believe in giving up. I don't believe, like, I don't believe in saying, even saying the words. I don't even put the words out into the universe. I only speak what I believe and, and I've always been in a position in my headspace where you know, if I'm doing something, I focus on that something and I, and I ignore any potential failure opportunities it's not that I'm.

Delusional. It's just that I'm very focused. If I start talking about, you know, what if I give up or what if I fail, if I throw that stuff into the universe, my subconscious will leech onto whatever it feels more in tune with in that moment. And so the only things that I put in front of myself or my subconscious is valued added.

Things that will help me progress and help me move forward in that moment where I was with that client I have always been a bit of a people's person, a bit of a, let me help you with this problem. Let me solve your, your issue. And, you know that's just who I am. You know, I I appreciate people.

I know that everybody has a different struggle and different, different problems and challenges. And if I can add a little bit of value to their problem or challenge, I want to do it. It's just, that's just my DNA. And, you know, I think the world needs a lot more people like that. I was trying to explain to people, even my kids, I'm like, you know, whoever you're talking to or whoever you're conversing in that moment, you have no idea what they're going through.

No idea. So give them the benefit of the doubt that they need you in that moment. Something, something has happened and there's a reason why you're together. So approach it from a positive perspective, remove all those negative components so you're not throwing that stuff into the universe for either your subconscious or for theirs and focus on the, on the change that you can make for them and their lives.

You know, and, and I just, I fight and I battle. With every situation as hard as I possibly can myself and I, and I really want to encourage that to other people because I think that that's the solution to a lot of problems. If you allow negative toxic conversation or behaviors to be around you, then that's what you'll leech onto.

So really it's about, you know It's that, that's what it is for me. It's really about focusing on the positives and and doing the right thing.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. And, and, you know, like just given the industry and this is something that we kind of touched on, I think like the trades in general, there is a bit of like, like you said, an ego to trades people, right?

Especially as trades men, a lot of men out there who are afraid to ask for help. And I think that this is very much. Like very centered in the trades. I think that there's an atmosphere that goes on in the trades where everyone has to be strong, be tough, get it done. The Alberta way is just get it, get her done.

Right? Like that's the, that's the world I grew up in. I, you know what I mean? Those were things that I had to kind of deal with as an adult, because I realized that so many of the challenges that I faced as a kid, as a young man, you know, even as a young entrepreneur that I just took in. And I, I was like, this is mine, you know, this sucks, but I'm not going to put this on anyone else.

I'm just going to, I'm just going to tough it out. How do you help those people? Because I think it's literally a culture of hiding their pain.

Brandon Fuchs: Well, you build a space. It doesn't exist right now. And that's why I'm building it. You know, I remember when I was getting into this industry I'd have a problem and I'd Google the solution.

In my own space and whether that solution was right or wrong, you know, it's kind of like listening to podcasts. Sometimes you can listen to information that might add no value to your, to your journey. And you have to be able to, to, to remove what is value and what is not. And so building a space where general contractors can.

Come and be free and share their real problems and discuss real solutions is is needed. And the ones who want help will come, you know, and the ones who feel comfortable will come. And I think the way it starts is with people bringing in people that you wouldn't normally see in that room. You know, like we've got I've got about 60 guys right now that we've compiled over the past couple of weeks that are connecting with us weekly on these Wednesday calls that we're having and that they're from all over Canada, the United States.

And some of the people are on, they're very successful and you wouldn't suspect that they're in a space where they would, you know, even want to converse any struggles that they're experiencing, but they're there because there are, there are components to their life that they want to improve on. And so they may still not be vulnerable in that call, but I will be, I'll show them that it's okay to share the things that you're going through in your life that need to be shared with other people that experienced the same thing.

And I think like when you. When you share a little yourself, it will encourage others to share a little bit more. And so, you know, I hope my, my, my big goal would be that we have hundreds of thousands of people in this community of general contractors because they're everywhere and they're all dealing with things on their own.

And they're all dealing with the mental health struggle of managing their clients, managing their family, managing their projects, managing their subcontractors, managing their cashflow, managing their business, and just doing all of these things that they probably can't do on their own.

And they don't know who to ask for help.

And so building a space where the answer is very accessible is is what I'm doing. What I'm focused on doing.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, and it's so needed. And you know, congratulations on, on stepping up and doing that because you don't mean any, any initiative starts with one person stepping up and saying, I think we can do better here.

I think we can fix this. You know, with the business development podcast, one of my goals with this show when I started was to shine a big bright light on business development, because for a long time, for whatever reason, it just kind of got Hidden. Nobody wanted to put any light on business development.

Nobody wanted to share any of the information. Nobody wanted to talk about the struggle, about the, about the meeting anxiety, about the challenge of, of meeting, you know, unrealistic goals at most organizations, right? And so I came on here and I said, you know what? I'm just going to be straight. I'm going to be honest.

I'm going to talk about it. I'm going to talk about my meeting anxiety. I'm going to talk about my imposter syndrome. I'm just going to be open about all of the challenges that I still struggle with to this day. Right. Like, The reality is, I still get nervous at meetings sometimes. I still am very nervous to do public speaking.

There are things that, you know, never really go away. We overcome them. We, we don't run away from the challenge. We run towards it. But that does not mean that you don't still struggle with meeting anxiety. You don't still have days of imposter syndrome that you, that you don't. Sometimes question, am I enough?

Should I really be here? We all face this and I think it's time to just stop hiding and stop pretending that that's not happening to everybody in these positions.

Brandon Fuchs: I think that so when, with the nonprofit, I never spoke in front of people. Never. And all of a sudden now I'm in the face, I'm in front of everyone.

I'm on the news. I'm in front of thousands of people speaking. The, the only other time that happened was at my wedding. And I just said, awesome. I said, this is awesome. That's awesome. That's what I just kept saying. You know? And I think. I think what I learned over the past, you know, decade was that you know, when you say that you are still experiencing those struggles, even though you're, you're really good at it, you're not giving yourself enough credit, you know, like you're probably a lot better than you think you are.

At whatever you're struggling with because you've, you've, you've went there, you've opened that door and you've entered into that space and now you're moving forward in that room, right? And now you're, maybe you were uncomfortable to open the door, but you've created a space where you're a little bit more uncomfortable.

And so I think you need to give yourself more credit personally. In, in the successes of maybe navigating, maybe, maybe navigating a meeting, you're actually a lot better than you ever have been and your fear thinking that you're not is creating new barriers, new doors. I think you need to, you need to appreciate the growth that you've made.

And that's what I've, I've kind of done through every challenge that I've experienced over the past decade. It's like, I'm going to stand there at the door. Hell, I'm going to open it and I'm going to stand in there and I'm going to feel what it feels like for a bit and if I don't like it, I'll step out.

But if I like it, I'm never going to step backwards and I'm going to continue to step forward to the next door and I'm going to appreciate everything that I've learned in that space and move to the next one. And I'm going to bring that with me. And, you know, I think you probably probably you probably give yourself a little bit more credit and you'll do the same thing and you'll understand.

Holy, holy crap. Like I'm, I am really good at meetings now. Holy crap. I am really good at public speaking. You know, these podcasts are great. I've listened to them a lot. You carry the conversations well, you're, you know, you're in the moment with that conversation. I think that you have a great ability of navigating things like this.

So I think that Yeah, I think that that that's the encouragement that I want to give the people that I work with is that, you know, wherever you are in your journey, there's a door to grow and improve. All you got to do is open the door.

Kelly Kennedy: I would agree completely. You know, like I, I realized a while ago, Brandon, that it's the things that I'm the most uncomfortable with.

That I need to do more of. And even though it's still scary, like I want you guys to understand that there are still shows that I do that freak the shit out of me. There are still, there are still meetings and people that I get in front of that I'm like, oh my gosh, like these people are, you know, 100 millionaires.

You know, not billionaires yet, but they well off, you know what I'm saying? Right? Like, it's like, wow, like, I have nerves in this moment. Like, do not think for a second that there are not moments that I have insane nerves, whether it be on the show, whether it be in real life, because I still do business development.

I'm not hiding. I'm still very much active in the business development community. And I still have big meetings with big companies that freak the shit out of me. But I do it because you're absolutely right. It's like if you put yourself in more of those situations, they start to become more comfortable, less scary, and you essentially elevate to a new normal that was better than where you were at before, but you can't do it unless you are brave enough to take that step.

And so I just want everybody to understand that having nerves is okay. It just means that you give a shit. And that is important. Being able to care about something and have a little bit of nerves just shows that it's important to you. But you can still do it and no matter how terrified you're feeling when you put yourself in that situation, it very likely will not be as bad as you thought it would be.

There's something weird about like our fears versus how scary they really are when you're in that situation. Yeah, it might be scary for a moment, but trust me, it gets better.

Brandon Fuchs: Those, and those, those people that you're, you're meeting with. They've been there, right? Like you didn't, these people didn't get to that, that space without living in that moment as well.

They might've jumped out of that space faster and went to the next door. But they lived there too. So they were there once where you were. And I think that the other thing that I've learned over the years is I'm not just a general contractor. I am very intelligent in my space. And if I'm in a room with other intelligent people.

They're intelligent in their space, and they will look at me as the solution to their problem because I, I carry carry that solution to their problem. If I'm looking for a doctor or a lawyer, they are educated in their space. I'm not going to pretend that I'm a doctor or a lawyer or any of these educated professionals, but those individuals look up to you.

So it depends on which industry you're in. Understand that if you're a professional, here's my recommendation. In any industry. Whatever you're going to do, find a way to be the best at it. You need to be the best at whatever it is you're doing because you won't, you won't succeed if you're not. And if you're just there for the ride, then sure.

You know, be there for the ride, but you need to be. The best because the people around you will look at you to solve their problems when those problems arise because that's not their space and that's your space. And if you're the best at it, you'll be there to answer those questions.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, and I would agree too that if you started your own business and you are trying to do something amazing, why not try to be the best at it?

Brandon Fuchs: What do you have to lose? Yep. If you don't try, that's what you have to lose. Everything you didn't, you didn't do or that you could have done. Yes.

Kelly Kennedy: I agree. I think at this point in my life, I am more afraid of regrets than I am of taking that next step.

Brandon Fuchs: Yeah, for sure. Like, like this, this coaching thing, you know, I'm potentially in a bit of a rebrand position where I have to provide these solutions to, you know, or the space, build this space for these, these general contractors.

And, and that's like, And I'm, I'm jumping through like 20 doors at once and it's fricking terrifying. But I'm still going to do it because I know it needs to be done. And, and I just hope that I can find like minded general contractors to come for the ride. And I've already, you know, I've, I've spent about two weeks of time calling a few people and it's not hard.

It's not hard to ask somebody, Hey man, Would you like to join a space of general contractors that are all going through some stuff in some way, shape, or form and collectively as a group, we're all going to find solutions for each other to improve our lives. And we meet once a week. And if you want some one on one coaching with a specific individual, we can help set that up.

Like the conversations are really easy. And, and so I believe, I believe that we will attract a lot of great people because 20 years ago when I got into this, I would have loved to have had something like that. And and that's why I'm building it. That's why I'm fighting for this.

Kelly Kennedy: Brandon, it's, it's a hell of an opportunity and a much needed one.

And you know, I, I think there's a lot of people listening who are, who are very interested, but I want to spend a little bit of time here chatting with you about general contractors in general. Like we have a lot of entrepreneurs. Probably listening to this show who are general contractors of one type or another.

You know, they might be stepping up and they're doing their own business development, but When me and you started this conversation, you really shone a big bright light on general contracting and said, Kelly, they are struggling. They are struggling. They are carrying eight plates and they only got two hands and it is really friggin hard.

Like being a GC, you, you kind of said in some ways can be totally soul crushing to the point where you said you were getting up at three in the morning puking your guts out. Scared about the future, worried about the future, worried about how do I look after my family in this situation when I'm just trying to do too many things?

What is the state of general contracting?

Brandon Fuchs: Well, it's a, I watched this one story on Instagram where this guy was like, he, he was kind of pressed down his chair and he had all these hats on him, right? And, and that's, that's what it feels like in a nutshell to be a general contractor. It's when you're one person wearing.

20 to 30 different hats, you're, you're, you're literally everything you could possibly think about in an ecosystem of people, right? You're the coach, the mentor, the solution, you're everything. You're the teacher, you're the doer. And it can be. Extremely overwhelming for a lot of people when they don't have the right support system.

And it doesn't matter how good you are at managing problems or, or, you know, navigating complex situations. Those things don't matter. They're good, but they're, they're just one element to a bigger picture. I think like a normal day for a general contractor will probably consist of them waking up pretty early.

They'll check their emails. There might be a few clients in there that are pretty pissed off at them about something that, you know, they did their best at that day, but couldn't actually complete because they were probably on site trying to manage some other things, and then they probably also have a few projects that they have to look at, but They're on site doing things.

They can't look at projects. So that means that they have to sacrifice the life for their family. So they have to go in the evening and then little Johnny's calling them saying, Hey dad, you missed my hockey game. But you have to go to the job site cause the job sites to work that pays bills for the future.

So it's like this forever. And it's this never ending journey of challenge. And you're doing it alone. A lot of people are doing it alone. And sure, you can hire somebody on site to help you do some stuff and you can hire an admin person to help you do some stuff, but there are still so many hats that you're still wearing as a general contractor.

And it is almost impossible to pull them all off. You can't, you can't just wear one. You have to, you still have to wear a lot. And what I want to try to do is build a space where you can pull them off and you can put them on the right people. Because there are people that are professionals in each industry, just like a general contractor, we hire a professional drywall or a professional tile or a professional carpenter, a professional cabinet maker.

We hire these individuals to take care of that component of the job. Why wouldn't we hire professionals to take care of the business component as well? You know? There's, there's so much more to life than to being 20 people in one. And, and I think that that's, that's in a nutshell what it's like to be a general contractor.

It's, it's not easy, you know, like a doctor, I don't know anything about. Being a doctor. So I apologize to any doctors that may understand this, but in my mind, you're a doctor, you've went to school, you've been educated, you've, you've got continuous education and whatever you're learning, and then you go to work and then you come home and then you're on call and you go to work and you come home, you're not necessarily having to deal with some of the challenges that That a general contractor would have to face, you know, you're not, you're not worrying about marketing.

Do you have work who's paying you, you know, these, these normal struggles that are faced with being a general contractor they're real. And generally you're alone in that space. And so it can be, it can be very nerve wracking. And I think a lot of people get really excited and they're working for, you know, Bob the builder, and they're like, Hey, I'm going to go on my own.

And they think that the grass is greener on the other side because they've got some skills and abilities, but they don't see everything. They don't see all the things. They don't see all the stuff and the grit that is happening behind the doors. And then it's not as pretty as they once thought it was.

So it can be really nice. Like there are skilled professionals that. That could be, could be the most successful general contractor on the planet. And they failed because they didn't have the right support system around them.

Kelly Kennedy: Agreed. Agreed. And, and I always say this, right? Like people go into entrepreneurship because they're good at something, right?

Like for me, I was great at business development. I wasn't necessarily great at running my day to day business. These were things I had to learn along the way. And you're right, it was a completely different skill set. Things that I had to learn and research and get better at. Hell, even producing this show.

I was great at business development, but I produced my own business development show and I had to learn every skill along the way. And if you go back to the beginning of the show, you can, it was still pretty good, but you can tell that it has gotten considerably better over time as my skills improve.

But like you said, it took a lot of time, a lot of off hours, time that should have been with my family learning podcast production. Learning how to run a business, figuring out financing, figuring out, am I making enough money? How can we grow this thing? How can we constantly improve? You're right. Those are all things that have nothing to do with the day to day work.

And when you're trying to squeeze all that stuff in, You only have so much time. It's not easy. And this is a, this isn't just a problem for general contractors. This is a problem for every single new entrepreneur on some level.

Brandon Fuchs: Yeah. And you know, and I, and I completely agree, like with the franchise, the goal was to build an umbrella of support.

So that they could, they could hold onto the handle and we could, we could, we could shade the rain and all the other things, right? Every business has the same struggle, your business the hairdresser, the painter the flooring company, they all have the same struggle and there really needs to be. And I, and I believe it will come.

I, there needs to be a support ecosystem for every industry that exists out there to help them make their businesses more successful and make their time more available to that. There's, there's so many of these networking groups and so many of the same conversations happening, but they're not focused in an industry.

So my, like my recommendation would literally be if you're a professional in a space. Help everyone in that space. If you want to be the guy that champions that solution for everyone in that space, do it because they're going to need your help in some way, shape or form. And they're, you know, in every business, everybody has a bit of an ego in their industry.

Right. And so building that space for each and every one of them, I think is, is, is an opportunity for so many people that are professional in that space.

Kelly Kennedy: I think Brandon, one of the challenges and like, I agree with you completely. If I could outsource some of these things more often, I would be a happier human.

I know that right now. I know that my life would be a lot easier if I could just focus on making this show and helping as many people with business development as humanly possible. And that being all I did every day, my God, my life would be amazing. The problem is the cost of those support services are hard to stomach.

Brandon Fuchs: They are if it's on one, one to one, but, but you're never needing anything one to one, right?

What you're doing, there are other people doing. And so it wouldn't be one to one, it would be one to five, or, or one to ten. And so that's where the cost is now shared. And it's now distributed equally. So instead of you hiring a full time administrative assistant, you're hiring an administrative system for, for the moments you need them.

Kelly Kennedy: It's fractional.

Brandon Fuchs: Yeah. All of that would always, that's what I'm, that's what my strategy will be. I will be fractionally providing solutions for individuals that want them.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow. Can we spend a little bit of time on that? Cause I think that's pretty revolutionary for the construction industry.

Brandon Fuchs: Yeah, absolutely.

We can, we can break it down. So, you know, the typical day, like we had mentioned earlier for the general contractor would be that you wake up in the morning and you, you know, you do all these things. Let's say that somebody took that away from you. Let's say that an admin team took away the organization of your day.

Okay. That would be one thing that I would do. And the reason. Somebody else should do that is because that somebody else that organizes is probably more efficient with organizing the day to day tasks. And if they're specialized in that industry, they'll be even better. Those notes for those job schedules that you're going to look at, we'll have all the drawings, they'll have the client's information, they'll have the client's first and last name, because maybe that's things that you've forgotten.

They'll also have the correct phone number and the correct email and all this data will be compiled by somebody else. So if it's. And sent to you incorrectly you're going to fail already. So you're already avoiding these failure points by hiring somebody that is specialized in that, in that industry.

It's the same thing if you were to hire, do your own tile work or hire a tile professional. The tile work that you do yourself will be okay, but the tile professional will be great. So use the people that are great. The other components would be estimating. There are all kinds of softwares that are out there to help you perform at a better level and help you estimate at a better level.

But the reality is estimating is time consuming and being there present with the client is necessary. That component is necessary that entering the, doing all the things. Not necessary. Somebody else can do that. So creating a space where that also gets taken care of by professionals in that industry so that it is detailed and it is organized and it is provided for the client.

So that would be another added solution that I would provide for our partners. And then you enter into a project where you're managing it. Those are things that you need to be doing as a general contractor. You need to be able to manage the schedule. You need to be able to manage the sub trades. You need to be able to manage the cashflow.

You need to be able to be a part of that stuff, but what you don't want to be a part of is data entry. And the data is what makes your project accurate. So somebody else should be managing the day to day data organization and updating your client of where things are at financially. And all you should be doing is managing the project and sharing this information with your ecosystem of support.

Additionally, there needs to be somebody else that helps you manage your marketing. Because I don't care if you're great at marketing, you can't do it all and manage a job, right? So you hire a company to manage your social, you hire a company to ensure that you've got good ad campaigns and retargeting campaigns and, and you're getting in front of the right people and you're focusing on the avatar of the client that you're actually focusing on versus marketing to a thousand of the wrong people.

You hire a company that is focused on doing that. And that company. They're not just like, none of these people are working just for you. They're working for other people too.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes.

Brandon Fuchs: Right. And so it's a shared support system where you're only paying a percentage. And then you get to the end of your project and you've got some project management organization tools and some other support systems, coaching and mentorship when you're dealing with problems on site and connection points to other people in other cities.

These are the tools that will provide you in our support system as we build And here you are down here. Your job is to manage a job site. You, you got the job, you do the job, you generate the money. Now you have all this profit, right? You've, you've taken a large percentage of your profit. It's just you potentially, maybe you have a little helper and you distribute those funds to those people appropriately.

And you take a realistic percentage of value out of the, out of the, out of the project versus. Trying to organize all this stuff and get to the end of the job. Your job is to just get the work, do the work, finish the job, make the client happy, get to the end of the project. These, all these support tools that are above it are shared with other, with other people in the same space.

Kelly Kennedy: Dude, this is like, this is big.

This is big, because the more that I'm thinking about this, I'm thinking about it from a standpoint of if you're a general contractor, your job is to do a job, right? To build something, complete a project. But if you're not spending your time doing marketing, data entry, reports, you have that much more time to be making your next dollars, to be doing that next project.

Brandon Fuchs: Instead of you managing one job, you're managing five. And it changes your, your space. You have time for your family. You have time for yourself. You have more money and you're happier and you're a part of something greater and your clients are happier because they're getting the transaction. They wanted.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow. And so this is, this is something, an initiative that you're taking on through North Canadian Construction?

Brandon Fuchs: This is what North Canadian Construction provides in our franchise growth. And so 2024 was, was gold as our beta year to onboard partners all over Canada. The challenge is that I had a few American friends that knocked on the door and said, Hey, what about us?

We're the same, we're in the same boat, we're in the same struggle. And so and, and everyone's at a different position, right? Like Bob building might not need the the estimating support might not need the data entry support. They might already have that stuff, but they might need other components.

They might just need the coaching and everything essentially starts from this is the process, right? And so that's why we, we, I've backed all the way up. Again, today, it was a couple of weeks ago, essentially, and said, you know what? I think I'm going to offer a bit of a five step solution on how I run my business with everyone in the U.

1. It doesn't matter where you are. And if you want to, if you want to work with our team to help you with your estimating or your marketing or your invoicing or data entry, we'll build the team around you. And so depending on who comes with us on that journey and where they are at in their business will ultimately dictate what we're giving them in return, it removes the struggle with the franchise because the franchise is like, Hey, you're under our brand, you're doing X, Y, and Z, and that's the end of it.

And for some people with the ego. It's like, well, I've had, you know, this is, this is, you know, Bob and son's home building. And it's my father's company and, you know, we've been doing this for so long, but we would love to get better, but we just want to change our name, you know? And it's like, well, I get it.

I understand that everybody's in a different position of life, but. By doing it this way, there is no barrier. There's no, there's no territory. There's no nothing. It's whoever wants help will work with us and we'll help them.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. So essentially you're going to create this gigantic network of interconnected general contractors who can do basically anything.

And they can order all these services through one company. Wow. It's like an Uber of contracting.

Brandon Fuchs: Yeah.

That's very cool. The franchise was big. Like the franchise vision was big. We were working with advisory teams at Calgary. We were in front of, I mean, we still are in front of, a lot of investors, a lot of venture capitalists. And we, we have a, a wireframe for digital portal to organize all this data and all this information which will be available to our, our partners as we grow.

You know, and it was big with with Canada. But now with us playing in America, it will be, it will be enormous. And, you know, my son, my son, my son's 16 and my daughter's 12. And, you know, life isn't a unique journey. They, they start out small and they grow up and they become, you know, something in life.

And what I've learned is that on my journey. My job is to show my kids what a legacy looks like. They know what the journey was like. They were with me with those struggles. They were, they saw me in pain. They see, they've, they've seen me in my worst state of life. And. I want them to see that hard work has a conversion.

And so when we get to the end of this journey, my kids will see that all of that struggle has a value, you know, no matter what industry you're in, if you believe in what you're doing, that's the, that's the first component with the belief that you provide value in that world or in that space. And as long as you believe that is number one.

If you can have a couple of people come with you along the way, then that's the second component. And if that, that momentum grows with you, then you're in the right space. And my space is growing every day. So without question, I know I'm in the right space. And without question, I know what I'm doing is a solution to so many problems that exist right now in this industry.

Kelly Kennedy: No, for sure. You can definitely tell that you have momentum here. One of the questions that I get when I hear the potential scale of this, Brandon, And obviously you've met with venture capitalists on a certain level. Are you still looking for investment, both like in United States and Canada?

Brandon Fuchs: So we've had, we've had big calls over the last couple of weeks.

I mean, we're always looking for money. We need, you need money to make money and I didn't come from money. So you know, what I would be open to is partners. With value. I don't want money. When we did the nonprofit, I didn't want money. You wrote me a check. I didn't want to, I want you to show up and do something.

So I would be open to partners with value connections, tools that can make this grow faster, bigger, and stronger. And, and that's something that I would be interested in. I'm not interested in sitting in a room being dissected by VCs that want to know, you know, Every single futuristic detail of something that we don't necessarily have today.

I want somebody to understand that the problem exists, the solution is here and they want to be a part of it. And that's it. And it's going to take money to do it. In some way, shape or form, it's not going to take a lot of money. It just takes a little bit of money to start the flywheel. Once the flywheel is rolling, the momentum will be neverending.

Kelly Kennedy: Okay. Are you, are you do you have a vision for like who this partner might be? Are they Canadian? Are they American? Do you have any, any requirements?

Brandon Fuchs: No, no requirements. It, it is, it is somebody that, Believes that the problem exists and the solution is available to us in that room. And they either want to be a part of the solution or they don't they need to have some liquidity that they're interested In injecting into this into the solution and they would also need to have a little bit of connections You know, like I would love to connect with somebody that has some connections in other cities other provinces other countries because it grows that That that space that you're in, you know, like when I mentioned about opening a door of struggle and entering to the next door, I would love to, to continue to blast through doors.

When you're surrounding yourself with incredible people on the way, you can blast through doors and get to their position of life. Right. And if you can, if I can, if I can take my current position of life and position alongside other people that are, you know, maybe closer into the space than I am and they can work with me to, to get there, it will help the momentum faster.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. Okay, perfect. And I think that gives a pretty good guideline if people are listening and they want to get involved in what Brandon is doing of who, who should reach out. If this is you, give him a call. I'm sure he wants to know about it. We'll have all that information. Brandon, I also want you to spend just a minute on the coaching because I think the coaching in this space is very revolutionary.

Very new, but also very required. Can we spend just a minute there, overview your coaching service and tell our listeners who it's for.

Brandon Fuchs: Yeah. So the, so the coaching program that I'm, I'm looking at building if you want to find me, just find me on Instagram @the_contractorcoach. That's the best way to find me on my phone numbers right on there.

You can text me and call me right now. I'm available in the future. I might not be depends how big this grows, but for now I'm available to everyone that needs me. And so. The goal of the coaching is to, to, to educate general contractors that are just jumping into the space that don't actually know how to profit themselves, that don't know how to organize themselves, that don't know how to manage their projects.

Maybe they, they have an idea. Of how to do it. They don't know how to do everything. I'm going to help them do everything that I've done over the years in literally five months, and then we're going to have a bit of a retainer that will assist them month to month or week to week will will navigate through individual challenges that they might be experiencing to help them progress their business.

Imagine a space where you have a client that calls you and now that you're a part of this, you know, this, this. This legacy or this unity or this group of elite builders your client finds out, Hey, they're a part of this group. That's great. That signifies that they're, you know, they're improving themselves, improving themselves.

They enter into the space that client calls. They're like, Hey, I got this 2. 5 million renovation. That's the biggest project this guy's ever received in his life. What's he going to do? You know what? What is he going to do? How does he price it? He's probably freaking out. He's probably like, I want to get that job.

Here's where the benefit becomes extremely beneficial. He's going to go to our network and he's going to find somebody in that space and they're going to help them get that job. They're going to help them build that estimate. They're going to help them build that proposal. They're going to help them navigate that client and we're going to help them win that project.

And when he gets that project, we're going to help them. We're going to help them complete that job. And so that's, that's what the space will look like. There will be a list of skilled professionals. That are like me in different specialty industries that will be available for you to hire essentially to help navigate your problem.

Kelly Kennedy: That's awesome, Brandon. That's awesome. Well, that takes us to the end of our show today, Brandon. It's been an absolute honor having you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on and just educating us, you know, about the challenges of general contractors. Like I said, it's not something that's really come up on the show much.

We had Paul Hola from Fleur Driver come on kind of in the beginning and I'm really close with Paul. I've worked with him for a very long time, but The construction space isn't a space that tends to come up in the business development realm a lot which is weird because I've spent a lot of time working with construction companies and inspection companies and things along those lines but it's really nice to have that insight and Thank you for what you're doing.

Brandon Fuchs: You're more than welcome. And to all those contractors that are out there that are looking at playing in the sandbox I encourage you to try it out. You know, you don't need to come work with me if you don't want to, but if you want to, I'm available and I'm I'm here to help you. Amazing.

Kelly Kennedy: Until next time, this has been episode 164 of the business development podcast.

And we will catch you on 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 at www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the business development podcast.