Latest / The Nick & Nick Podcast / Brandon Bywater w/ Royalty Roofing and Siding

Transcript

Brandon Bywater w/ Royalty Roofing and Siding · The Nick & Nick Podcast

• Nick Prososki: welcome to the Nick and Nick podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Royalty Roofing and Siding. Crown your home and your commercial property and then wrap it with royalty. Today we got the team lead on the podcast. His name is Brandon Bywater. He is one of the leaders. you is it legit title team lead now for the project managers here at Royalty Roofing and Siding? Is that like that's what they call it? I guess. Have you accepted the title more importantly? Yeah, no, it's it's different because I got to take care of these guys. especially one of them walking past us. No, but literally you've been here a couple different times. You had your first tent here with royalty. When was that? What year? I I was 21. Okay, for a year or two? Three years. Three years, yeah. Then you went somewhere else? Yeah, I went and tried something else out. know, Nick told me grass isn't greener on the other side. But you never know until you go check it out. You never know until you try it. So then I tried it out and he was right. And now you're back. One of the team leads for the project managers here on the residential side at Royalty Roofing and Siding. So first of all, thank you for joining us on the podcast. Looking forward to this conversation. Been looking forward to actually for a long time. So I appreciate you sharing it. But you're a father of four, right? Correct. Or five? Four. Four, yep. Five on the way. Five of the works. Four and that's it. No, we're done for good. I love it though. OK. It's nice. So. Yeah. What are the ages of your kids? I have an 11. an eight, a five, and then a two-year-old. boys, girls. Oldest is a girl and then the other three are all boys. Okay, do want to give a shout out to your wife while we're here? Oh yeah, she's an amazing, amazing person, you know. Putting up with you? Oh, putting up with me, my work schedule, the things I want to do outside of work for like the events and stuff we have to go to. She never questions it. She never bats an eye. I just told her, when was it? It was yesterday. I said, hey. You said you need me Tuesday and Friday. Well, Tuesday I have this and Friday I'm busy with this. And she's like, don't worry, I'll figure it out. She always does. Doesn't seem, amazes me every time. Cause I'm like, how do you do this? But that's the life of a high performing salesman, right? You're aware you need to be where, when you need to be there ⁓ at a moment's notice. ⁓ I mean, obviously you're one of our best sales guys. No matter whatever, whatever company you've been to, you've been one of the top sellers. That's great. ⁓ You could be selling anything. Why have you chosen to sell? roofing, siding, and windows, and why have you chosen royalty to plant yourself? Ultimately, I think I chose royalty just because of Nick. It's very rare to work for someone that actually cares about who works there and takes... He cares more about us than he cares about himself. So that's something I've realized along the way of working for him is when you find someone like that, you don't take advantage of it. So I was very grateful that I came back. It's a great place to work. So when you went to check on the grass on the other side, it was different. a greener, different, a lot of weeds. It wasn't what you thought it would be. It was. It's one of those things. At first it was, did I make the right choice? Luckily, we got blessed with a hail storm in twenty four, so it really wasn't Yeah, it wasn't a big downfall to it. It was one of those things where. At first, I was scared because I'm like, oh, no, did I'm going to have to go out here and like really, really have to work and work just to. make ends meet and luckily like I said the hailstorm came by so I was able to gain a lot of success off that. ⁓ It was one of my best years I think I've ever had in the roofing industry. In terms of you talking ⁓ sales wise or you talking about in personal growth wise or both? Well sales wise and personal growth because when I worked here the first time I had a lot of maturing to do so ⁓ it was one of those things that you don't realize until you leave ⁓ really what things you were doing incorrect and what you needed to work on so. there was a lot of things that I took for granted. And then once I came back, I told, like I even explained it to Nick, I said, I just want to do it right. I don't want to have all like any bickering within the office. I just want to work on my jobs, be where I need to be, go to these events that we have. And so I don't ever question it. I just do it. It's easier just to do things than it is to argue. It takes a lot longer to argue about things than it does just to take care of it right away. So recently you've been promoted, think, would you call it a promotion of the team lead? Yeah, yeah. Of the project managers on the residential side. Where did that come from? A desire for you to elevate yourself within the organization and mature personally? I just went to Ryan and I told him I wanted more. You know, I hate sitting around. Right. I felt like there were some things that I could help within to help take some things off of Ryan's plate as well. You know, he does a lot for this company. Right. ⁓ And even just me doing that, if any of the guys have any questions or concerns, they can come to me for whatever. Even if I don't know the answer to the question they potentially are asking, I'll figure it out. It's very easy. And royalty most recently has been an exponential growth trajectory. invaluable for somebody like yourself that has how many years of experience in the industry? Going on 10. Yeah. For the new guys that are coming in, they have somebody to lean on that's... actually in the field with them doing what they're doing, just doing it at a higher level. ⁓ yeah, that's correct. So I used to be one of those that liked to, I always wanted to win on my own. But then I started realizing that if you want a successful team and you also want these guys to appreciate coming to work every day, you also want them to win. So that's like another thing is I told Ryan, said, with these new guys coming in with no experience, I don't mind going out and helping them potentially land a job or. inspect something just because a lot of people get in this business with the idea they're going to just make a bunch of money right off the bat. It's not that simple. You got to build relationships within to hopefully get a bunch of referrals. Real estate agents will send you some work. You have to be on that. On the grind. Yes, at all times. so one of the things with the new guys is I'll go out, help them potentially sell a couple of jobs and then that gives them enough leeway to then keep building themselves as they go. So it's different, but. Back to my original question was, with your particular skill set, you can sell anything. ⁓ yeah. Why have you chosen to land with roofing and siding and windows? ⁓ I didn't really. Or did it choose you? Yeah, I really didn't think I would ever be in this position. actually, before I did roofing, I did hospice. I worked with this nurse and she came to me one day and she's like, hey, you're so good with people. You should go do this. ⁓ And I remember the first guy I ever worked for, I came to him for an interview and he's like, yeah, I want you on the roofs. And my exact words were, yeah, these hands don't tear roofs off. I said, you know, if you ever decide to come to me with a better answer or a better opportunity, we can have a conversation. A couple of weeks later, he reached out to me and said, hey, I want you to come sell for me. ⁓ So I went and sold for him for a couple of years, basically taught myself everything. ⁓ When you jump into ⁓ a hail year, You don't really have enough time to train someone. So it's kind of like you just get thrown to the wolf on the job training. You better just hope that you figure it out. Cause if not, you're going to have a lot of issues within. So I did that for a couple of years. I actually, how I ended up meeting Nick was when you guys opened up this office or when he opened it up and ⁓ a buddy of mine actually just got a job here. And I sat down when they had their, what do you call that? When they open house? Yeah, an open house. So I came in here, I talked with Nick and Nick looked at me and the guy came here with him and was like, feel like I should have hired Brandon. I said, hey, if the opportunity is there, I'd love to talk about it. He's like, well, when do you want to start? And I was like, it was a Friday. I started on that Monday. ⁓ I never look back because you can tell going from a company that's just starting to grow versus a company that has been built, you have a lot more. And so I went from selling, I've always been a million dollar salesman. So it's very easy to do that. But then coming from having to really grind to get there, to coming here. I say it's easier now just because I know what I'm doing. ⁓ And I stopped looking at it from a money aspect, because you can make pretty good money within all these jobs. I started looking at it as more like relationship. So if I build good relationships with these homeowners, they're one, gonna refer me out to other people, or two, even if it's just a repair, you go there and take care of something super small, they're calling you back. They're not gonna call and get... other inspections done by other companies. mean, the one we just finished on Friday, ⁓ I worked with that guy for the last nine months. ⁓ So it wasn't easy, but he told me from the get-go, was like, hey, when we can have the money to potentially fix the roof, we're not calling anyone else, we're going with you. And they did. But I mean, you look back at starting out as a hospice nurse, it doesn't sound like a normal transition into roofing. But the common denominator, the common thread through both of them is taking care of people. Yeah, that's really it. I learned that. Advocating for people. Yes. So before I got into hospice, you really don't appreciate a lot of things. So once I got into that and I saw like, ⁓ no, I'm dealing with people that are end of life. They don't have much time left. So you are really their main point of contact throughout. And I would meet some people that had no family. So you were really the one that... So I'd go to some of these and I would block off an hour. I'd be there for a couple of hours just because, you know, it's not that I feel bad. I just have a heart. And I know I try to treat everyone. When I was in the hospice industry, I treated everyone like they were a family of mine. You know, I treat people as if it was like my grandma, grandpa, dad, mom, brother, doesn't matter just because not a lot of people have that. Some people, you know, when they get old, they don't have people to take care of them. So they just... sent to a nursing home or an aid they'll stay home a lot of people like the idea of passing away at home it was kind of different ⁓ it is not for someone that just is looking for it to make money that that is that is a job that you you really have to like love and I did but it I was getting really burnt out because I did a lot I like to do a lot I hate sitting down, I like to keep moving. So it was one of those things that wherever I can see more and like the potential to grow, I do it. And then that's why when I came into the roofing industry, I continued working hospice for the first year. ⁓ really? both? I did both just because it wasn't easy just to stop. It was one of those things that I made a promise to myself that the people I was dealing with before I got into roofing, I would not quit until they were gone. them through to the end of their life. That's commitment. And so that was one of the things I had to do. ⁓ One of them ended up surviving, I think it was like six, seven months. In hospice. Yeah, way longer than he was supposed to. ⁓ One of the other ones I was helping take care of, he actually came off of it. So sometimes you can go on it because they want you to, hospice is one of those things where it's end of life. You get a lot more care, ⁓ but it's also one of those things you can't potentially come off of it. It's weird how the world works. But it also helped with me with like, so my mom passed when I was 10. Then my brother passed when I was 18. So those were very hard on me. But my dad just passed a few years ago and I was able to take it a lot. Wouldn't say easier, but I know that you don't live forever. And it's one of those things you have to accept that someone eventually is going to pass and you either can. keep pushing forward and living your life, or you can just sit there and be sad about it and upset. Don't get me wrong, I was extremely sad when my dad passed. We had a really good relationship. ⁓ But I know he wouldn't want me to sit there and be sad and upset about it. so I just look at it from different perspectives. I had a great, my dad being a single parent taking care of four kids was crazy. So he was able to get things done. A lot of people probably would have walked away from that situation if I'm being honest with you. And so that's why like now with my kids, I look at it from a different perspective because I want them to have everything. Whatever they want to do, I want them to be able to do. ⁓ And that's why I work so hard. Now, father's been gone. We joke around here. We call you Brandon Burmell. ⁓ little bit of a joke, I mean there is some value to the relationship that Nick has brought to you in terms of what would you call that in terms of that unique relationship you guys have. Well I tell everyone Nick's my dad. We joke around here, but... Yeah, no. I mean I come to him with a lot. If I have questions or concerns about anything, he's easy to talk to. And it's been that way from the beginning. So, like Nick is kind of like who I want to be as I keep... know, growing. Developing. Yes. Because we kind of have the same upbringing. I mean, when I grew up, we were poor. We didn't have much. I'd go to school sometimes and the clothes I wore the last two days, I didn't have a choice. Where are from? Council Us. OK. Crossword. It explains a little bit. But it was one of those things. But he tried. That's all that mattered. And I never really... looked at it from that perspective until I had my own kids and I was like, you're not just focusing on yourself anymore. You now have a life that you have to keep pushing and moving forward. So as many times as I tell myself, like, I just want to do something different, I then think to myself, I'm like, financially, the world we live in, you have to make. pretty decent money to keep things going. I have four kids. Inflation, there ain't no such thing as deflation. Yeah, so three of them are in sports right now. It was funny, I called Nick, I think it was a few weeks ago, and I said, you weren't lying when he told me a couple years ago when I kept asking him about his kids in sports, like how does he do it? And with this job, and it's one of those things that you have to have like a... Perfect significant other that's willing to shout out number two. Are we keeping track here? Hey, she she is great. She does just crazy things that I always think I'm doing a lot, but it's also at the same time like that's a full-time job So at all times, you know With sports going to like numerous practices throughout the weeks numerous games and I always told myself I don't want to ever miss a game Practices are very hard just because I'm always working, that was one of the things is with my dad, he always made it to everything. That's awesome. He didn't care what he was doing, how he was going to get there. Found a way. He found a way. Even though, like I said, financially we struggled a lot. And some of these things, like now you have to pay to get in. Right. If we were to be in these sports like they are now, even just spending 10 bucks to get into these games, we wouldn't have been able to afford. it's... It's different. How has that upbringing shaped you and helped you become the top level sales guy that you are in terms of what has that instilled in you? She hates it when I say this because I always tell her, I'm like, once my bank account says this, I'll be fine. She's like, you'll never be fine. I said, yeah, because it can be gone in an instant. Something bad could happen. You could lose everything. Bad investments, just little things like that. fall off a roof today, break my leg, and then I'm out of work, and then financially, we're fine, but also it just scares me because I know what I went through when I was younger. And it wasn't my dad's fault. He did the best that he could possibly do, but also at the same time, I always tell myself if I feel like I can do more, I'm gonna continue to do it. And so that's why me going to the gym and stuff, I do that just because I want to be here as long as I can for my kids. Everyone in my family hasn't really lived past a certain age to where it's like, I don't want my kids to ever have that. I don't want them to grow up without a father. As long as I can make it to where they're grown, out of the house, living their own lives, hoping I live long enough to have some grand, be a grandpa. But that's my goal in life is just take care of them, make sure they know that I tried. So you want your kids to have the life that maybe that I wanted. But, I mean, you could always want, but it's just not that easy. You have to work for it. If I could wake up tomorrow and I'm a multi-millionaire and life's great, that would be fantastic, but I know it's not that easy. I didn't get blessed in that upbringing of just having things handed to me, which I'm glad I didn't because you know what work is actually is and the money aspect of it. I probably wouldn't appreciate it as much. as much as I do now if it was just handed to me. Growing up on the other side of the river over in Council Bluffs, lot of people, maybe a lot of people here don't even know about your boxing background. Oh, that was fun. Where did that come, was that related to your upbringing in terms of the fighting mentality and having to defend your turf? It was one of those things that, like I said, we were poor and people made fun of it. And so I was bullied a lot. And then one day I had a kid, my freshman year, he's like, hey, you should come to practice with me. And I was like, ⁓ no, I don't wanna just willingly get punched in the face, come on now. And then I was just like, why not? Let's try it out, let's see if it works. And it was fun. It actually, it helped me out a lot. It helped, I did it as like a, to stand up for myself. defense, yeah. Yes. Was it boxing or was it martial art? Yep, so boxing, so. And when I did it at first, I didn't take it too serious. And then I lost my first two fights and I was like, I don't like losing. I hate losing. It's one of those things. I feel like I want to be the best at absolutely everything that I do. So ⁓ what I ended up doing was training a lot harder. My boxing coach, his name was ⁓ Mike Brinson. I looked at him as a father figure as well because he helped me in ways that he probably didn't notice, but that also helped me mature. a lot and it helped me to appreciate things because he actually paid for everything for me. He bought the uniforms, paid for my books. ⁓ When we went and traveled, he paid for everything. He knew that financially we could not afford it, so he made sure that he took care of a lot. And then my little brother actually got into it right when I was fading off of it and he did the same thing for him with no questions asked. Him and my dad actually had a really good relationship. ⁓ which helped. So my dad was at boxing practices and all my little brother's fights. ⁓ He wasn't too much involved in my practices. He didn't get really too much involved until my little brother started doing it. But he made sure he made it to all the fights. And everyone always asked me, like, how does he willingly watch his kid get punched in the face? And I'm like, you know, I'm going to have my kids do it. But then I started thinking about it. was like, you know, it's hard for me to remember things now. I tell people that like people joke around with me in here because I set alarms and Reminders I'll have like well I used to do reminders, but then I'd shut it off. So I put an alarm For the simple fact that it's going to go off and then I'll read it I'm like, okay I got to get this done now or I'm gonna forget And it just helps so that's the negative connotation related to boxing But what's the positive maybe that has translated into your ability to in the sales market? that you learned from boxing and translates into sales and because the reality it is there's a lot of young salesmen out there. Just like you that have lost their first two fights or their first two 10, 20 deals. ⁓ What have you learned from that and how did you translate that into your roof? I always learned that the harder you work the better things will get. especially within like boxing. Because that's the only thing you can control, right? Yeah. The amount of effort and energy you put into your work. So if you put little amount of effort into whatever you do, don't expect to be the best. It's not that easy. ⁓ So like boxing itself, when I lost my first two, I told my coach, said, I will face them again and I will win. And I did and I beat both of them. But it was because I was putting such little effort into training and running and doing all this stuff that I didn't think that mattered. Once I knew how to do it, I felt like I would be good no matter what. You get in a ring for however long you're in there for, you get tired pretty quick. So one of the things I focused on was just getting better every single day. And how did you get, whether it's 1%, 5%, 10 % better every day? I put a lot of work in. in work. Yes. So every day after school, I'd either go to practice. Even after practice, I'd still go run. I would train. I thought I was going to go a lot further in it than I did, but I ended up having one, it was my very last fight and Taylor just came to me and she's like, you got to understand you're either going to A, make something out of this or B, something bad is going to happen and you can't live with the kids and grow up with them like you want. And so I was like, yeah, she's probably right. I think I need to call it quits. It was very depressing. I enjoyed it a lot, but as you get older, you gotta understand, you gotta give up some things for your kids. ⁓ And that was one of the things. I always tell them every day, I always tell her every so often, like, maybe I just do it one more time so the kids can watch. And then she's like, yeah, but you'll actually have to train. I was like, ⁓ I would. If I knew it was like one more 100%, I'd put my all into it. I'd get back in there like how I left. ⁓ But the downfall to it is, like my very last fight I ended up, they kind of call it like a smoke show. You show up to an event, you get paid some money, you fight three times, it's like a, literally like a day period. In a day? Basically. So I fought that night and then you fight first thing in the morning and then if you win you fight again. My first one was great, easy, easy fight. Second one was difficult. You know, I was fighting in heavyweight. I've never done that. What's the weight on that? ⁓ Well, this smoke show I went to, anything over 190. It's heavyweight? Okay. Yeah, so I weighed in at 191. ⁓ And so I'm fighting guys that are 250 plus. good thing is I was a lot quicker than them. Right. The bad part is when they hit you, it felt like you were getting hit by a train. that was the one too. I got a really, really bad concussion that one. ⁓ geez. Knocked out? Yeah, I wasn't able to go to the gym. Nothing. And so it sucked, it was terrible. And it was one of those things where it's like, I'm not able to do the things I love because I put myself in a predicament just for what? think it was like five grand or something that you won. At that time, was in, I think I was doing the hospice. Yeah, I was. So I wasn't making barely any money. We were getting by. Kids were still able to go do the things they wanted and we were able to. I was able to provide, but I wanted more. And that's the downfall for me is I always want more. I feel like there's never enough. ⁓ And that's why when I came to Ryan and I said I want to do more within the company, you don't even need to pay me any extra. I just want to do it. Where did that drive come from? Always wanting to push the envelope, to move the needle? Watching my dad. If we wanted something, he would always find a way. Find a way to get it. Yes. He would find a way to do it. like, it was hard to even go to him sometimes and be like, Hey, can I get $5 and go swim? And we just, we didn't have it. But if I would come to him so often, he, I think it would make him feel bad. he would be like, you know what? I'll do this or I'll go do this and I'll get it for him. And so it motivated me just to do better. mean, without my kids, like I tell people, I say, If I didn't have a kid so young, because people are like, oh my gosh, you had your first one right after you turned 18. said, yeah, it's kind of scary. I said, but it also motivated me to go want to go out there, get a job, get a place. I I bought my first house when I was 19. And the lady that I got the loan through, she told me she's like, I actually have never gave a loan to a 19 year old before. This is different. And I said, yeah, I never thought I would be in this position in life. But my daughter is the one that really like opened my eyes when she was born, was like, all right, it's not just me anymore. I gotta focus up and even through the years, it took a lot of growing up and maturing because, you all my friends are out, going out and having fun, living their best life. I'm inside, you know, she's asleep and whatnot. so there were still things that I would go out and do. And like I say, and I tell everyone this third shout out, but. Taylor, she... We got a ticker going. She didn't ever do much about it. If I told her, I want to go do this, she was always okay with it. She's always been okay with whatever I've wanted to do in life. Her number one thing is, and she'll tell everyone that she never has to worry because she always knows that I'll figure it out. You'll find a way just like your dad did. And so I always tell her is, if for whatever reason this didn't work out and I wanted to go do something else. we would be fine. Even if we had to live below our means, that's okay with me, I don't mind it. Like I grew up having nothing. So having something right now is just like an extra benefit. And that's what I try to teach the kids too is because at first I was always like, ⁓ you want that? Get it. But then they don't. ⁓ What's the word for it? How do you, they don't appreciate it as much if you just- Take it for granted. Yes. And you can start seeing that even though they're still so young. Even my daughter, she's 11, she'll tell me something, hey, can I have this? I'm like, sorry, I'm broke. And she's like, ⁓ no, I know we have money. And I was like, nope, not anymore. I spent it all on, she's just like, no, because you'd be working more. And so she's not wrong. And that's the thing is ⁓ I don't ever want them to ever, ever struggle. And that was my number one goal in life is for them never to ask me for something. and have a feeling that I can't provide it. I want to always be able, even if it's super small or super big, if they come to me, I want to be like, yeah, let's do it. But now I make them actually do things to do it. Like my daughter will text me, she just got a phone for her birthday. She's going to the middle school ⁓ next year, be in sixth grade. That's crazy. But ⁓ one of the things I told her is why I got her the phone is it's the first time she's going to be alone. She's been out school with her grandma and her mom the last five years. ⁓ So I wanted her to know if she ever needed anything. I'd just be a call or a text away. So now she texted me a few days ago and said, hey dad, what can I do for $22? And ⁓ I'm like, okay. And it's good that she knows I'm not just gonna give it to her anymore just because. I need them to understand the benefits and to be able to appreciate things and not take things for granted. I don't want them to ever look at someone and judge them because they potentially have more. And that was what I dealt with when I was in school is I had nothing. So you have those kids that obviously have everything. ⁓ And they make fun of you. They don't talk to you. And that's the biggest thing for me is I don't want my kids to ever act like that. But the other goal. when I was in high school is I told everyone, said, everyone that's ever made fun of me, I will make sure I am better than them at all times. And it's kind of a, you know, a sore subject, but I just, I saw what people go through and you know, I felt the effect of it and people doing it to me. So I just, don't want the kids to ever feel like they're better than anyone. And so like my kids will hang out with whoever, they appreciate everyone. ⁓ They're friends with people that their parents have a lot of money. They're friends with people that their parents don't have a lot. And so that's one of those things too that I do is if like, and I had to tell Taylor to stop telling me this is when she would be like working at the daycare with our kids or something, she'd be like, oh, so and so doesn't have this or that. And I would feel obligated like, all right, let's just go buy him something. But eventually. You can't do that for everyone in That doesn't help them anyway to receive something without, you Yes. We want to help them, but like what you said, that's built through not having something and then having to work your way, building that work ethic over time and developing that and maturing that. And eventually, you know, there are a lot of young entrepreneurs out there that are listening to your story. Maybe they have, maybe they came from the other side of the track, so they didn't, they were given everything, but they're trying to figure out. how to develop a work ethic that translates into success in business. What does that practically look like for you, your work ethic at work in terms of working for you in sales, the relationships, the real estate agents, know, you're wherever people are, at the gym, everything's your... Yeah, I talk to everyone. ⁓ And that's why like when I'm in the office with everyone, ⁓ I tell everyone that it's finally the place where I can unwind, joke around a little bit. You don't have to be so serious. Yeah, because you're not on. When you're in there, wherever you're at, you're on. When you're out of the office, you're in the field. It doesn't matter even if I'm off work. It's a Saturday. I'm running the Sam's Club. I always feel like you never know who you're going to meet. Absolutely. You might embarrass yourself in front of someone and then you're at their house on a Monday. And it's like, you're not getting that because they saw how you acted. when you're in your personal life. ⁓ And that's just, it's just one of those things that at all times I feel like I gotta be perfect. People ask me, why do you get your haircut every week? One of the things They don't even know about that. This is every Friday. Every Friday, yeah. Shout out Ace of Fades because those guys take care of me over there. But I do it because I always want to look the part. I want to, I don't want- ever to, you never know who you're gonna meet. I could walk into a store today and meet a multi-millionaire and I just don't wanna... You just stay ready so you don't have to get ready. That's correct. If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. But ⁓ I don't know, within sales, it's all about the relationship you build with people. ⁓ Cause some people do it for the money. That was me at first. mean, yeah, I make... People sniff that out, especially homeowners. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. They sniff that out whether you're actually at... there for their best interest or it's for personal gain. Well, and I tell people that too, is if like someone says, ⁓ you're the fourth person that came out, but you're the only one that told me I didn't have damage. I tell them, well, then you're going to go with what I said. Why is that? Well, because I'm the one, this is my job. If you have it, I want to tell you you have it, but I'm going to be upfront and honest with you and tell you you don't. Why? One, you don't have it and two, that's gonna build a relationship and trust. And if you don't trust me, you're not going with me. So like there's some houses I'll go to, I'll be there 20 minutes, be able to build a little bond. Homeowner respects me, trusts me to take care of them. Some of them I'll be there for two hours. And at the end of the day, it's just, that's what it takes to sometime land these jobs and work with these people that we work with. Cause the bottom line with that is people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. about them. Correct, yeah. And when you know it, when you know your stuff like you do and you care about them, then you win the job. That's the truth. I remember I lost my very first job. It was a huge job. It was right when I started and it was all because I didn't know the difference between gutter apron and drip red. ⁓ yeah. Well, it sounds very, it sounds silly to talk about it. But at the end of the day, I didn't know. I didn't have the training that I needed. I was teaching myself everything. And so the homeowner knew what he was talking about. And when I called him a couple days later to follow up, he told me that you, I liked you, I respected you, thank you for coming out here, but you not knowing the difference between these two things scares me. So I can't go with you. Let me ask you this, in light of that. Has that ever, have you ever put yourself in that position again? Where you didn't know more about the product than the homeowner did? No. So you took what you learned from that and that's driven you to know as much about everything as I possibly can. Cause I'll never put myself in that position again. And even if I don't know something, ⁓ I'll look and homeowners usually will ask you on the phone, okay, I want to discuss this with you. Perfect, yeah, we'll discuss this in person tomorrow. All right, if one of those questions that I know he's gonna ask me I don't know, I'm gonna go learn it. I'm gonna figure it out because I don't wanna go unprepared to anything. It's pretty embarrassing on my part if I come to your house and I don't know the simple things that you're asking me. So that's why I always tell people I like to be more hands-on than I do watching things. I feel like if I do it once, I'll know it forever. And that's just somehow, someway it's played itself out. I never thought in a million years I would be selling anything. I didn't like talking to anyone until I did How about being on a podcast? Is this your first podcast? Yes. Have you ever thought you'd be on a podcast? No. It's always been, don't put that camera in front of me. Yeah, no. But, Grace has been here and we're just putting the camera more in before you know it. We're just having a conversation and letting the world know. Oh, It's pretty easy. And so, like, even with Grace, like, it's huge that she came here because I never thought I would ever be on a TikTok. Right. Never thought you'd see me in the front, like, Let alone you got these 20, 50, 100,000 views. Yeah, and that's like when I did the one with your son and Grace, like... I wasn't doing it unless Cooper did it with us or Mason. One of them was doing it with us because we needed a dancer in there that knew what he was doing. And that's one of those things too. You got to get out of that shell and kind of like open up a bit. Taylor said it too to me as well. She's like, I never thought in a million years I'd see you on a TikTok. I said me neither. I was like, I didn't think I was ever going to do it. It was kind of weird to me at first. And now I'm just like, you know, you got to stop caring what people think about you. That's one of the things too. I look at things way differently now than I did even just a year ago. I try to tell people when... I used to tell people it must be nice, growing up with stuff and having these things. Now people say it to me. I don't ever flaunt anything. I don't go out and anyone, like, ⁓ I have this or I have that or I could buy this or I can buy that. We all have the same 24 hours. I just use mine a little bit differently. Yes, I work a lot, but I also know where I want to go within my life and where I want to take the kids. Kids are in so many sports. It's like if I were to just quit here today and go do hospice like I used to, I wouldn't be able to afford any of that. The house we live in, I would have to get rid of. ⁓ So that's what motivates me to do more. And I think that's why one of those things where I could have $10 million in my bank account and I'm still going to work like I'm broke. Because like I said, you just never know when it's gonna all just disappear. Something, somewhere, somehow can happen and it can all be gone in an instant. But what I do know now is if I lost everything, I would be able to figure out how to get it all back. It might take me a little longer, but I will did you figure that out? ⁓ I'd say a few years ago. So a few years ago, I never told Taylor this and I kept it to myself, but... ⁓ I was just, you know, I'm in the roofing industry, I'm making all this money while I'm spending it too. And I had one person one time tell me, don't spend it all because you'll never know if like you're gonna go through a drought. I didn't listen. I went and spent all of it. One time I went to a gas station to buy something, two of my credit cards I had, they kept declining. I'm like, what the heck? I know I have money. Well, they reached their limit. So I paid them just not even thinking about it, paid them all off. Well then I looked at my bank account and I'm like, ⁓ no, I only have enough money for... How many kids you got at this point? All four of No, we only had two at this point. Okay. And I was like, I only have enough money for two months worth of bills and like food and stuff. And I'm freaking out, it's winter time. I don't know what I'm going to do. I wasn't going to go tell Taylor. So then I started picking up all these odd end jobs and working and getting out of like the sales industry side of it. And I was going in people's houses and council plus for like people that would flip them. and I would tear them down. A demo? Yep, I would do the demo side of it and it was great but it also was like, what did I just do? Luckily, I don't know how it happened. And I'll say this, it's not like I mean to do it but I rarely ever pray. But this one time I was like, you gotta do something because I don't know what to do. Because this was one month later and now all I have enough money for is this month coming up. for the next bills and I was freaking out. I didn't know what to do. So I did, I prayed on it and weirdly enough, my realtor called me and he said, hey, someone's coming to look at your house. I bought the house when I was 19 for $100,000. This guy comes in, he gives me $100,000 more than what I paid for it. And I'm like, when do want me out? Three weeks, three weeks and I'm like, and I don't have to stress about it. I don't have to do nothing. don't, this is the thing too is when you. I started praying more and I had to realize that you don't pray for when you want something. You should just always do it if I'm being honest with you. ⁓ So when I did it, I literally, my household, I now have, I think it was after closing costs and all that, like $70,000 in the bank account. A week later I meet Nick. And then a month later I'm getting the biggest checks I've ever gotten. ⁓ And it's just one of those things where it's like everything started falling into place. And then I came to Nick and I said, hey, I want to buy this house. I need you to do this for me. He didn't even bat an eye. He just did it for me. And so that's why I appreciate, well, not only Nick, but also Nikki. Because I can go to her too when I talk to her about stuff like, hey, how do you and Nick do it with him being in this industry? me and Taylor, it's not like we don't struggle by any means. There's arguments you get into. A little too much work, a lot less being home. But that was one of the things I had to realize too. I needed to stop putting so much effort into work and also put that effort into family. Come on, preacher. You're preaching the sermon here. I talked to one person one time and he said, this is how it should go. She should always be your number one. Your kid should be your number two. Exactly. Even though it's hard to think it that way, you've got to put her first. And then work should always be three. And so once I started doing things like that, which sometimes I'll fall off, sometimes I'll put work. Especially with the seasonal stuff. The seasonal stuff, but that's why I appreciate her so much is because she knows this is my time to take care of things, make as much money as possible. So in the winter time, we can relax. She doesn't work the whole summer. So it's one of those things that I need to be able to not only provide for myself, but for her. And if she wants to go out and do things with the kids or whatever. I want her to be able to do that. don't want her to ever question, can we afford this or can we do this? I do try to tell her she has to chill out sometimes because she'll just be going and blowing some money. And I'm like, what in the world are you doing? So, but yeah, no, it's great. I love it. So you mentioned faith. How have you matured in your faith as you've matured in your life? Especially the last few years. I'd say a lot more because ⁓ every time I've ever asked him for something, somehow, someway it's happened. Okay. Because I remember in 24 when I left. You're even talking way back as a child? Are we talking just as a... As a child, we... So when I was growing up, we went to church. Okay. When I was eight years old, I was on my way to church on my bike. lived in You remember this? Yep. I lived in a Voka, Iowa. My dad was supposed to take us, but he was just getting off work and he worked a double. So me and my older brother Jordan ended up getting on our bikes to ride to church. We're on our way. I wanted to go a different way to get there quicker because we were already late. I hated being late. Well, I go down this hill. Well, little did I know the cars coming this way didn't have a stop sign. So they hit me. It was crazy. A lady hit me on a bicycle. She was You remember this at eight? Yeah, she was going 45 miles per hour and smacked me on my bicycle. I woke up in the hospital, no broken bones, perfectly fine. No brain bleeds, nothing. I was sore. You were unconscious? Yep. Went to the hospital, woke up. Yeah, I think I was unconscious for a few hours. And I woke up because my little brother was like tapping me in the face. it's weird how you can remember like those moments in life. Like I can go do something today that's like... I feel like I should remember, but I can't. But when you have those traumatizing moments, you won't forget. And so then when we moved, we moved because they felt like I just kept thinking about it and I wouldn't want to get in the car or go do anything. So that's how we ended up in Council Blast. And then a couple of years later, my mom ended up passing away. That was a hard part too, because when you're in school, people used to make mom jokes and stuff. ⁓ your mom? Yep. Yeah, those ones. it never set right with me, I didn't know how to defend myself, so I would just have to eat it. Walk away. Yeah, and so even in boxing, my boxing coach made it very clear. He's like, I'm not training you just to go beat up people. offensive, but defensive. he's like, but if you ever have to defend yourself, I want you to know the basics. Right. And even when I got into boxing, I got a few fights in school because people, they wanted to test the boxer, test the knowledge. And so... I would defend myself and people finally started to realize like, okay, he's actually, he knows what he's doing now. But as I got older, I had to realize that once you turn 18 and you get in a fight, you can get in a lot of trouble for it. When you're in school and you get in a fight, you get suspended, you go home, it is what it is. But as I got older, I tried to Yeah, they call that assault, right? Yeah, it gets bad. So it's just like, I don't want my kids to ever... wake up one morning and be like, what's dad and Jill this time for? So I always told her though, and I make it very clear. said, if anything, if we were ever put in a predicament and you or the kids or your lives or anything are in danger, I said, just know that I would die for you guys. And that's just how my dad was too. My dad was, when we were growing up, we would always know him as this guy, this fighter. ⁓ really? Yeah, he never boxed or anything, but he could fight. Scrap? He could scrap? He could. And as he got older... Did you witness that? ⁓ I've witnessed some. Okay. And so I was... And I've watched some and I'm like, ⁓ no. But once my older brother had his daughter, that's when my dad turned into like this soft teddy bear. It's like, if only you knew what we knew when we were growing up. Like this guy is way different than he was now. And that was, think, the part that got me the most is because like every night I would always try to call him. And I knew something was going on because for the week before he passed, I kept trying to call him. He wouldn't answer. ⁓ And I actually told him I was proposing to Taylor and I didn't get a response. And I was very weirded out. So I was like, okay, I'm going to call him. So we had a conversation and I said, hey, I'm coming to Council Bless on Monday. I'll come see you once I'm done. And I was going there for this volleyball thing. So it finished at... think it was like 10.30 at night. So I sent him a message and said, hey, I'm not going to come tonight. It's a little late. I don't want to bother you. I'll see you tomorrow. Go to work. Everything's fine. I get a call from a random number and I'm like, what the heck is this? Well, it was my grandma telling me something happened to my dad. And so I actually went there to the hospital to figure everything out. Like what's going on? I didn't want no one to freak out. dropped off my daughter's softball stuff, went to council blasts and I walked in. When my mom passed, when we walked in, they'd just take you into this room. And so when they started walking me to the room, I said, I'm to the point in my life that you can just tell me what happened. If he passed away, I want to know now, do not put me in that room by myself. And they're like, no, no, someone's coming in to talk to you. I said, I just want an answer now or I'm just leaving. I was like, you just got to be upfront with me. And so he told me, he's like, yeah, we tried. And I was like, OK, I don't know what to do. And it was one of those things where I was kind of shocked. I didn't really feel anything. Most people in that predicament probably would have cried, but I was like, what in the world do I do now? You think about it, you grow up with these people every day. As you're growing up, you see them every day, you talk to them every day, and then you go from that to nothing. That's the sad part, very depressing. then I had to... call all my family members and let them know. And the bad part is, is I joke about a lot. So they did not take me serious. And I said, you know, they are you serious? I'm like, you ask it again. I'm just hanging up. I was like, just come, just come to the hospital. I said, I'll meet you here. And that was one of the things too. was the craziest thing. I just probably got one of the biggest checks I think I've ever gotten at the point where I wasn't roofing. And I was so excited. was like, oh, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. Well, check went to whole funeral side of it just because, I don't know, my grandma told me that when my dad told her a few weeks prior, if anything happens to me, you gotta call Brandon. And I don't know if he did it just because I talked to him every day or because he knew that I would figure it out. Not saying that my brothers don't do the same. It's just that, I don't know, I have... bonds with everyone. try to make sure I keep on everything. Lately I've been so busy with work and stuff I always catch myself thinking about it like I haven't talked to my brothers in a couple words. And when people hear me know hang up with my brothers or anyone I'm like alright bye I love you. They're like why the heck do you tell someone you love them? I'm like you just never know. don't my last words not to be that. The great thing for me is I know my last words with my dad was I love you and he said he loved me too. And that was how every phone call ended. If ever I needed something, he was always there. ⁓ So it's just different, because when I go through things now, it's kind of like you're alone. ⁓ But you're not, mean. But yeah, you're not. One of the biggest things is, as a man, you never want to let anyone know what you're going through. You kind of just swallow it, just keep moving forward. Tough it out. Yeah, at all times. And I try. ⁓ But like, There's times where you just break down, you don't know what you're doing. don't want that. It's like pushing, keep pushing, suppressing something before you know what you blow up on somebody or And one of those things. I try to chill out. I do it a lot when I'm driving. You think about some things. There's times people probably drive up to me and I'm talking to myself and it's just like conversations that I'm trying to figure out and think why I'm upset about something. But Taylor's been a huge help with that too. There's another one. We're up to five now. If I ever need anything, she's easy to talk to ⁓ and listen because I really don't have that anymore because my dad used to be the one I'd go to for everything. Any concerns, anything that I was bothered by, I'd go to him. So Taylor and my aunt, ⁓ my aunt helps me out a lot too. If I ever have any questions or concerns, I can just call her for anything. I mean, I could not talk to her for a couple weeks. She'd get a random phone call and I'm like, this is what I'm going through. Tell me how to fix it. even though it's not easy to tell someone how to fix it when they're upset at the moment, just having a simple conversation and knowing things eventually will get better helps. Yeah, that's just how I do it. What would you, in closing, what would you hope that your kids, other coworkers, people that you work with here, what would you hope they would say about you in terms of your legacy, who you are, how you function? ⁓ Dad was or Brandon was or is this? ⁓ Well, I just want my kids to always think I was a great dad. ⁓ Now you're gonna make me. Go ahead, that's what. You don't know this about, we're having this conversation, you don't know about this. I just lost my dad two days ago. I heard about that. Driving in the car, we just left Broncos, heading to the pharmacy to get his drugs. I'm driving, he grabs my arm and tips, and I look over and he's tipped out, game over. Which I wouldn't know that, because you're still the same person, you kept moving forward, it was crazy. you know, I... I want the bond with my kids. ⁓ Wow. Like I did with my dad. ⁓ And if anything were to ever happen... Because in your words, we never know. Yeah, you never know. Me and my dad were having a conversation and he tipped out. That's the crazy thing. At any moment it could happen. it's like, as long as they know that I tried throughout life and did everything I could to ⁓ take care of them. And that's what I left. We just put him... buried him yesterday and it's like, I had no regrets because every opportunity that I had, like your dad, I took advantage of it when I had the opportunity. Because the opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity. Once that opportunity's gone, there's no... I believe that. And so that's the thing too is, that's why I don't take any moments for granted. Every time I leave the house, I tell Taylor I love her and each kid individually I love them. And it's just because... You don't know if I'm coming back. I could leave, go get in an accident or something, or something bad just could happen, and then those kids are now without a father. And I want them just to know that no matter how bad life potentially is for me, they would never feel it. They will never know what I'm going through. ⁓ Just because that's just how I grew up. You would never know my dad. was who my dad was just because he always acted differently, just so we never had that feeling. ⁓ The only reason we knew that we were financially not there was because obviously you see other people out doing other things and I'm like, well, I wanna do that. ⁓ Single parent though, doing things on his own, we didn't have the benefits of two incomes. We had to work on just the one, so. It was different, but I will tell you the way I grew up helped me be the parent I am now to my kids, even though there's still things that I have to work on, because you're never perfect. You will never be perfect. I don't care who you think you are. You will never have it all figured out. You will always keep learning as you go. And that's the beauty of it is once I mess something up and I realize that and I think about it, I'm like, I could have done this differently. or I could have done this and this, it now helps me out, you know, just as a parent. But yeah, so it's different. And like the coworker side of it, I mean, I want them to know if they ever need anything, they can come to me for whatever. It's not a big deal to me whatsoever putting a little more work into something and having to ⁓ help someone out. Even if it's not helping me personally, I then know that if I help them out, if I ever need something, they'll be willing to help me. So that's what a team is. So if you don't have that team at work, then it's kind of pointless. Well, I didn't mean to take you back there, but I kind of did. Yeah. Because this is a great opportunity for us to look back. I mean, you lost your dad a couple years ago, three years ago. A years ago, was just a couple of days ago. I'm right where you're at. Yeah. And I really appreciate you sharing that story. And I think. I only see, I just want to say that I'm proud of you. Yeah, thank you. You know, I've known you for maybe five years now. And ⁓ you're doing an awesome job. I know Nick appreciates you. I know royalty appreciates you. And just the way that you've matured and taken the bull by the horns and taking your life and your family by the horns and just make the most of it. We're all proud of you. I'm just glad to be on the same team. Hey, I appreciate that. That's huge. And that's my number one goal in life is for people to be proud of me and to know that I've... been a benefit to their life. Even if it's not a long term, I still want to treat everyone as family. Because if, I don't know, that's just how I was raised. And that's kind of the golden rule, right? Treat everybody how you want to be treated. And that's what's accelerated and exponentially grown your ability to sell, no matter what it is. Because, you know, You just care about people, care about their wellbeing, care about getting them what they want, when they want it and how they want it. That's customer service. Customer service is a lost art. Yeah, you're not wrong. There's still a lot of people that I see out in this industry, not even just in roofing, just sales in general. it's just like, wow. You look at other people and you're like, I will, I do not want to be that way. And then sometimes I'll catch myself in a position to where if I ever catch myself being lazy. I remember why I'm doing it. And then once I remember my why, then I'll be able to keep pushing forward. One of the guys asked me today, they said, Brandon, why are you running in so many 5Ks just for fun? I'm like, well, one, my son wants to do it. My son is so motivated when it comes to those things. And it's like a family thing we do. So like me, Taylor, Nevada, and Maddox. We have run so many 5Ks. Do I like doing it? No. But am I ever going to let my kids know that? Heck no. I'm going to just keep moving forward. And it's fun because I'm one of those where I love to win. I know I'm not going to beat these guys that train. But I just know as long as I can run the whole thing ⁓ without stopping, it's a big achievement too. And so my son is the same way. So we run it together every single Do you guys stay together the whole race? You stay with him? Sometimes he'll sprint a little bit, get up there. He did it on Sunday. He sprinted towards the finish line and beat me by two seconds. And he did it on purpose. And I was like, that's fine because I want him to succeed that way. it was actually a big moment for us too. So it was me, Maddox, Nevada, Grayson, Bryson, and Taylor. Did the 5K, everybody did together? Taylor ran it while pushing a stroller with Bryson and Grayson ran next to her and I was like, in my head I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, she's probably not gonna finish this thing for like an hour and a half, so we're gonna stay here for an hour. Here she comes through the finish line and I'm like, you literally were like only six minutes slower than normal, how the heck did you do it? And she said she had a piggyback Grayson at one point and I'm like, that's why I didn't stay with him. And I knew it too, because Maddox is a runner. And I didn't want him to be alone. And so that's one of the things, because I remember Nevada did a 1K run one time while I was running the 5K. And she wanted me just to be there with her. Well, the only thought in my head while was running the 5K is I have to finish this quick because she'll be alone. At that point, she had no phone or anything. So after her one mile run, what is she supposed to do? She's all alone. So it just made me want to finish quicker. Get her done, huh? It's different. But anything that I can do, family related. on days that I'm not working. I'm 100 % in on it. I used to hate going to games and watching, like, it's not that I hated watching the kids, it's that I hated the, there was really no playing. It was just a whole bunch of messing around and I'm sitting there for an hour. Now I enjoy it because they want to win. And it's so nice just seeing, like, Maddox is probably gonna be exactly like me, just because if he figures, like, he's not good at something. He wants to find a way to get better at it. And so even the 5K, I just told him, said, we're running a 10K next month. And he's in. He won't question anything. Now I told him I'm running a half marathon in September. And he said, well, I'm going to run that with you. I'm like, if you start running with me, I said, I will run with you every night. Because that's not something you just hop into. You're training for that And so I was like, if you do it with me every night, I'll let you run it with me. Lastly. We got Mother's Day coming up. You mentioned her name seven to ten times on the podcast. What do you got planned? Do want to let the cat out of the bag? ⁓ no. Heck no. No, I'm one of those where what's that called? Where you wait until the last minute. Procrastinator. Yes, procrastinator. That used to be me. So now I'm trying to like really think. So what I used to do is I would buy a bunch of things ⁓ that she didn't need or want. So now what I do is I listen and I try to figure out like, okay, she wants this. Like I know one thing she really wants. Well, there's a couple of things she really wants, but one of those things is like eight grand and that's not happening. And so it's like, now since I'm listening, I'm able to figure out like, all right, I'm not gonna go waste a bunch of money on things she doesn't want. And yeah, she'll have a good time. We'll just leave it at that. Yeah. Hey, I really appreciate you being on the Nick and Nick podcast. Thanks for joining us on the podcast. If you enjoy the content of the podcast, subscribe to the Nick and Nick podcast on YouTube. You can watch it on Spotify and Apple as well. We'll see you next time. Thank you Royalty Roofing and Siding for making this possible.