Latest / Contractor Business Builder Podcast / Why America Needs More Builders, Not More Career Politicians - Denny LaVé

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Why America Needs More Builders, Not More Career Politicians - Denny LaVé · Contractor Business Builder Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another great episode of the Contractor Business
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  Builder Podcast. Maybe America does not need more
• 0:11
  career politicians. Maybe it needs more builders.
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  I'm joined today by Denny Levay, his US Senate candidate and
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  cofounder, Precision Precast Erectors.
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  How you doing today Danny? I'm doing fantastic, thanks for
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  having me on. But yeah, looking forward to
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  learning about your your journey and and now you're new, you
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  know, running for U.S. Senate candidate.
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  You've been a you've gone from like ironworker, entrepreneur,
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  now running for for Senate campaign.
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  What's the story behind that? How did you get to where you are
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  today? You know, it's, it's very funny
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  growing up, I told my dad who was an ironworker.
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  I said, I said, dad, I'm never going to be an ironworker.
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  I'm never going to be an ironworker.
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  And you know, one of the, the surest ways to make God laugh is
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  to tell him your plans, you know, and because I did end up
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  becoming an ironworker and becoming a fairly good iron
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  worker and then starting a company as an ironworker.
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  And along the way it, you know, it came to me that, well, maybe
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  I should run for office. And my mentor said, no, not yet.
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  But if God wants you to do that, he'll let you know.
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  And you know it, It took 18 years for that sign to come up,
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  but it did come up. And so that's that's why I
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  started exploring the campaign and I see the need even more now
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  that I've been exploring this and then on the campaign trail
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  because frankly, builders, builders think differently than
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  career politicians. You know, we, to be a successful
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  builder, you have to be able to solve problems at all sorts of
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  different levels. You know, it's one thing to be a
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  tradesman and you're still, you're solving these problems at
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  the trade level. And that, that alone is amazing,
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  right? I, I have the ultimate respect
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  for trades people because they are everyday geniuses and they
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  don't get the respect that they deserve.
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  You know, but then when you become a contractor, you know,
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  if a full builder like now you're solving problems not just
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  at the trade level, but you're solving problems at a business
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  level, you're solving problems contractual level, you're
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  solving problems at a regulatory level.
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  And, and I think that breadth and that approach of we have a
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  limited budget, we have a timeline that has to be hit that
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  those constraints force us to come up with better solutions
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  than if you have unlimited money and unlimited time and you can
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  just make it as ugly and complicated as you want.
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  And I think that's that's a great reason to send a builder
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  to the Senate instead of a career politician.
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  Definitely well said and yeah, very, very true.
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  As a a contractor, you know, the challenges of trying to, you
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  know, make a profit and, and having, you know, competitors
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  and dealing with other companies, you know,
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  subcontractors or even independent contractors and
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  suppliers. And there's just, there's a lot
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  of moving parts and a lot of a lot of things that can crop up
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  and, and yeah, builders definitely know how to be able
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  to be resourceful and, and manage people, large varieties
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  of different types of people and businesses.
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  So, so definitely, so you know, you, you built a reputation with
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  precision precast erectors growing that company.
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  What have you learned as like leadership in in growing a
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  company, being in the entrepreneurial business space
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  that that will translate into, you know, your your Senate
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  candidacy. One of the things that I have
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  learned is that you need all different types of people.
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  And by that I, I don't mean I don't mean ages or I don't mean
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  male or female or I don't mean colour of skin.
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  I mean, you need people that have the ability to think
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  outside the box, but then you also need people that are
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  willing to simply rinse and repeat 1000 times over and over
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  over the course of a week and do the same thing over and over.
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  And then you need people in between, right?
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  And you need people that are really assertive leaders.
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  You need people that are very thoughtful and analytic.
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  You know, you need people that that can rally the team and you
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  need people that can just dig in and, and get the work done
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  right. And that that's the kind of
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  diversity that we need to bring to projects, right?
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  If we have a project team where everybody wants to do it their
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  own way, well, we don't get anything done right.
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  But if we have a project team that everybody wants to do it
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  the same way that we've always done it, then we don't innovate
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  and we don't solve problems and we don't make money.
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  And I think, man, if people could recognize that the
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  importance of having people not like you on the team, like not
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  like yourself on the team and value that, like learn to value
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  those differences, that's when teams start to get strong and
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  that's when teams start to do amazing things.
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  And you know, partly it's a we, my dad and I used to talk about
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  it in terms of, of this, like, you know, he's, he's the, the
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  Michael Jordan of precast, right?
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  He's excellent. He's amazing.
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  He gets incredible output and people, people light up around
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  him, right? He just has this charisma that
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  really can get a team excited and and moving.
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  And we had to come to a place of realizing that in order to grow,
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  we had to be OK with not every leader on on the teams being a
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  Michael Jordan, right? And that we can be have a
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  successful business by building out people that are very
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  talented and then building support teams and support crews
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  around them that allowed the whole system to work, not just
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  based on one personality. And and that's I think, an
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  important thing when it comes to government because, you know,
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  you look at government and it's a very large enterprise, but it
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  doesn't matter what country you're in, it's a large
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  enterprise. And you do need the diversity of
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  people in that to be successful. Yeah, I like how you articulated
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  the different types of people. And often we, we see the, you
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  know, we think of leadership as the person that's out front and,
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  you know, speaking to the masses and, you know, super confident
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  or whatever. But there's a lot of different
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  types of leadership. And in strong organizations, you
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  do have, you know, those leaders who maybe been around for, for
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  years and do have a big influence on the company, even
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  if they don't have maybe a senior management role or
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  something like that. Just by the way that they
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  present themselves, their, their work ethic and, and their, you
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  know, their morals and things like that.
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  So having that diversity and, and realizing that there's no
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  necessarily one-size-fits-all for leadership and, and it's
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  the, the collective strengths of of the group that that really
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  make something, you know, strong as an organization.
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  And 100% I look at it. Here's a very, very unintended
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  concrete example. Right.
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  As an Ironworker and as someone who's highly creative, I don't
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  solve problems the same way twice typically.
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  That that makes life exciting for me.
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  It makes life painful for my team sometimes.
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  I've had to allow them to build systems and then force myself to
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  kind of not break the system in order for us to be successful.
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  But on the flip side of that, like I have guys that do
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  patchwork for us on concrete. They go in and they patch lift
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  inserts, They patch minor damage.
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  Those guys, they mixed their patch mix.
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  They they go and put the patch mix in, they pound it in, they
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  trowel it, they stone it, they make it look look good.
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  And they'll do 500 patches in a day.
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  And they'll do that five days a week and they'll do that 200
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  days a year. And they're perfectly happy
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  doing that, right? Like they enjoy the work, they
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  enjoy making it look good, they enjoy being part of the team and
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  their content. And it's like in order to be
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  successful, we need that whole spectrum of people that solve
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  problems creatively, you know, people who can do the same thing
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  over and over and then people who are willing to, to build
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  systems. It's really a beautiful thing
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  when you when you realize that in an organization and then you
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  build your organization in order to do that.
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  Yeah, it, it takes all, all types and finding, you know,
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  the, there's analogy, you know, the right people, the right
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  people on the bus, but also the right seats on the bus.
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  So everybody is doing what they're what they're good at,
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  what they enjoy. And yeah, you're going to have
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  those people that, that want to have, you know, higher
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  management or leadership positions.
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  And then there's, there's lots of people that just really enjoy
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  the, the hands on getting out there every day, being part of
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  the crew. I remember when I was framing
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  houses like, you know, I, I really enjoyed that part of it
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  with just being with the crew. You all show up at the same
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  time, you have your coffee or whatever, you get, get some
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  things done. You see the, you know, the work
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  that you did, you know, building a beautiful house or, you know,
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  creating a foundation or, or whatever.
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  And it is, it is very fulfilling your hard work.
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  And it's not easy, but, but you, you have a sense of
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  accomplishment at the end of the day, whether you're managing
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  A-Team to, to run a business or, you know, doing the, the
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  physical work, you know, on sites.
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  So you've mentioned the past that mentorship has been a big
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  part of of your journey and your growth.
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  Can you talk about how mentors have influenced you over your
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  life or your entrepreneurial journey, if you will, and and
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  how that helped you kind of now run for for Senate?
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  Yeah, one of my, one of my in business, one of my longest term
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  mentors is a guy by the name of Jay Abraham, who's a, he's
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  actually a marketing genius. Um, Jay, Jay really impressed on
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  me early on that there's a difference between having
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  clients and having customers. And you know, customer is
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  someone who buys a commodity, right?
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  They're looking for the, the, they think that everything that
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  they're buying is the same and they're, they just want the
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  lowest price, best value in their mind because of the
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  commodity. And so it doesn't matter if it's
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  Kellogg's or it doesn't matter if it's multi meal, it's a
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  cornflake. I want cornflakes.
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  I'm going to buy whichever one seems to be the best value for
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  me. The cheapest 1 to me, right?
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  A client. However, a client is someone
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  who's under the care and protection of another right.
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  That's why when we think of like attorneys, we have the
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  attorney-client privilege. While that the client is the
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  person who's under the care and protection of that attorney,
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  right? They that counselor has a a
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  legal fiduciary responsibility to protect to the best of their
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  ability, the fullest extent of the law.
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  That client well, when you when you translate that over into
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  other areas, right? And you say I am going to care
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  and protect for my clients and you apply that, you know,
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  especially now in, in construction, like when we apply
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  that in the construction world, that is not something you see
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  every day in the construction world.
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  And then you realize, and then he, he expounded on that.
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  He said, look, you don't just have clients that pay you, you
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  actually have clients that you pay right, that are under your
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  care and protection. And if you start to treat your
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  employees as if they're under your care and protection, the
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  your world is going to change. Your whole level of service that
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  you deliver to the market is going to change.
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  So Jay had a huge impact on how I set up the business, how I run
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  the business and I think it's been for the better, right.
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  I mean, we have, we have, we have very, very good retention.
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  Our guys know that they are expected to care and protect the
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  people that they're working for on the job sites and they're
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  also expected to to care and protect for their employees.
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  And then if it's not reciprocal, that it's OK to let people go
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  and it's OK for us to not go work for someone again if they
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  can't, if they can't reciprocate on that relationship.
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  And it it it it's a whole different space to work in when,
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  when you're working in these mutually beneficial
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  relationships up and down the chain.
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  Then when it's a dog eat dog, you know, everybody's out there
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  to make a bucket, everybody else's expense world.
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  And I think when I look at how that relates to, to, you know,
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  my political aspirations, umm, you know, most especially when
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  we get to this highest level of government, most of these, most
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  of these folks, they have big donors.
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  They're supported by large industries.
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  Umm and those industries don't always represent the good of
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  people of the country in America and sometimes it around the
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  world. And, you know, as a political
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  outsider coming in from a successful construction company,
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  I think I can, I think I can really bring a different level
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  of care to that role, right? And I that I can really embrace
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  that role that I'm there to protect the people, the people
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  that sent me to office, not the big corporations, not big
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  pharma, not, you know, these big private equity owned hospitals
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  that are, you know, bleeding America dry, but the people,
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  especially the people of my state of Idaho, right?
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  That's it's a very different place to come from, I believe.
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  Yeah, the, the, the mindset that you have there of, you know,
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  having clients and they're under your care and protection, I
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  think is, is profound and, and something that's much needed in
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  business as general, especially the construction business and
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  government for sure. You know, you have, as you
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  mentioned, the, the people, you're there as a representative
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  of the people and you've in the construction business and
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  industry. You know what it's like to have
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  all these different people from different walks of life to
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  provide for them to know when they get hurt or sick or you
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  know, there's safety things, there's regulations.
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  You know, there's there's a lot of stuff that goes on.
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  You have any number of things that can come up that were
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  people maybe don't have the best interest of, you know, the other
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  companies are working with or the clients or whatever, trying
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  to make a buck or, you know, whatever it may be.
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  But being close to that kind of level and situations, I think
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  gives you a really grounded foundation to to be able to act
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  as a as a representative, you know, in in the government
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  positions that that you're going for here.
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  So you've, you've written a book, I think recently was it
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  was the last year on some of your, your story essentially of,
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  of your life and then some of the different things that have
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  happened to you and how the the shaped who you are.
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  Can you talk a little bit about what inspired you to, to write
• 16:47
  the book and, and a little bit of like a, a picture of of
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  what's what the story is in the book?
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  Sure. You know, in a, in a specialty
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  construction company, you, you know you're, you're in your
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  lane, right? You do what you do, my mentor
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  said. Hey, spend your time building
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  your business, working on your faith, you know, raising your
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  family, raising your kids. OK, great.
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  Well, but when it comes to running for politics, you know,
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  people need to know who you are. I thought, OK, well, one of the
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  best ways I can help people know who I am is I can tell the story
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  of my life. And it is not.
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  It was not an aspiration that I took up lightly.
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  In fact, several. Well, probably about 10 years
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  ago I had someone recommend that I start taking notes and
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  consider writing the story of my life.
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  And the response for me was not very charitable and not very
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  nice. It was not something that I
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  thought I wanted to do. So, so to come to a place where
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  I could actually share some of the, you know, gritty details of
• 17:52
  my life that represents a lot of healing and a lot of progress as
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  a human. And I thought, OK, we're going
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  to do this. We're going to be very
• 18:02
  respectful and, and how we approach this, but we're going
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  to write the book. And you know, I, I start out
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  with, Hey, this is where I was born.
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  And, and here's here's some of the crazy stuff that happened,
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  you know, whether it was being taken across state lines and,
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  you know, kind of kept away from my mom when I was four years
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  old. So that to set up for a, you
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  know, for a divorce in another state, like, OK, that's wild.
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  That would not be legal today, but it was back then, right?
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  You know, to some of the wild adventures of my childhood to,
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  you know, unfortunately it's, it's even more and more common
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  today. But being, being exposed to a
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  lot of unhealthy things, you know, I mean, let's, this is not
• 18:50
  a builder specific thing, but you know, the exposure of
• 18:55
  children to hypersexual material and to pornography is, is
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  getting worse and worse in our culture, right.
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  When I was when I was young, first exposure was typically,
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  you know, at like 15, you know, somewhere between 14 and 16.
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  Today, some studies have put that at 8 years old, right?
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  And, and frankly, you know, my, my first exposure to these types
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  of materials was around 3 years old.
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  And like, the human brain isn't supposed to be dealing with with
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  sexuality and hypersexuality at those ages, right?
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  It's just, it's not mature enough.
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  It's not ready. And the reality is, you know
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  that that causes issues, right? And so dealing with those issues
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  was part of the the story of the book, you know, and then you
• 19:50
  come to, OK, you're starting a business and people, people
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  really want to know, you know, how did you, how did you grow
• 19:58
  your business? Right.
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  So we talked about growing the business.
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  We talked about family life. You know, we dealt with some
• 20:03
  medical issues in our family and you know, whether it's
• 20:09
  medications being used off label in ways that they're great for
• 20:13
  the doctors and they get the result the doctor wants, but
• 20:15
  there may be very harmful for the patient in, you know, OK,
• 20:20
  we, we approached that and had some issues there.
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  You know, whether it was, you know, I actually had the joy of
• 20:27
  delivering one of my own children because the midwives
• 20:30
  that we hired weren't there yet, right?
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  Not their fault, but you know, that's, I think that's pretty
• 20:38
  formative, right? Like, there's not very many
• 20:40
  people in the world that have delivered their own child, but
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  there it is, you know, done that.
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  And then, you know, part of the, you know, we've, we've faced off
• 20:52
  with the medical system, you know, and other times where my
• 20:58
  wife's wishes weren't being respected as she was delivering
• 21:01
  our last child. And so we did what we needed to
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  do to make sure that she was comfortable and having the, the
• 21:09
  delivery that that she wanted to have.
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  And you know, again, it's, it's one of those it comes back to
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  that client relationship and that, you know, versus patient
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  relationship, right. You know, I don't think a
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  patient is necessarily someone who's cared and who is cared and
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  protected. You know, there's someone who's
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  treated right and that I think that's kind of a mentality that
• 21:38
  needs to change in the medical industry, you know, like we see.
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  Anyhow, that's off topic for the book, but Needless to say, the
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  book has actually been very successful.
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  It's been very well received, very positive reviews and in
• 21:54
  fact we actually just this just this week made international
• 21:58
  best seller status on Amazon so. Wonderful, yeah.
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  Inspiring story and I know it. It's couldn't have been easy
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  probably to write and then share some of those, you know,
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  personal details about your life and your journey and you know,
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  ups and downs and all those things.
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  But it's, it's doing a lot of good, I'm sure for a lot of
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  people to know that, you know, these types of things can, can
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  happen and everyone's got, you know, their story.
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  You're obviously coming in with a lot of experience from a lot
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  of different things in your life that that have made you a
• 22:42
  stronger person. So for for people who want to
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  learn more about you, where you stand, your, your, your campaign
• 22:49
  run here and your business, what's, what's the best way for
• 22:52
  them to, to get more information and, and connect?
• 22:56
  If they were, if they go to dennyforsenate.com, they can
• 23:00
  find out all about the the campaign and the issues that
• 23:03
  we're standing for and they can reach out and connect through
• 23:06
  them. Perfect.
• 23:08
  So we'll put a link in the description here to the website.
• 23:13
  Go check it out. I really appreciate you coming
• 23:16
  on here today, Danny, sharing your wisdom and appreciate you
• 23:19
  stepping up, you know, moving into this sort of new larger
• 23:25
  sphere of of ability to to help people and, you know, move into
• 23:32
  government and make the world a better place essentially through
• 23:37
  your leadership. So really appreciate you.
• 23:38
  Today, I appreciate our conversation and you.
• 23:41
  Take care, Derek.