Bricklayer to Blue-Collar Empire

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay. And what caused you to pivot from doing real estate on the side to founding your own masonry business.

Anybody familiar with the trades knows that every tradesman tries to get additional work outside of their normal 9 to 5 job, which is side work. And you know, over time, around 2012, 2013, it really started to, you know, my demand for side work outweighed my demand for my personal job and my real estate portfolio.

And the thing about it was too, you know, I always knew, I always had a rationale idea of, of how fragile my, my bottom line is for some of these, you know, investment properties. Right. Like. What do you mean? What? Well, you know, for instance, if I have to replace a boiler, there, there goes my, my net profit for probably six, seven months on that, on that property, depending on if it's a…

So, and then I was, you know, just, just doing weekend jobs. I was clearing more than I was making it several, several months of, of investment properties. Right. So, hey, it was an easy decision.

I really started to focus my time and then it's not like one day I just decided to sell all my real estate. Right. But it, but you know, it took a few years, but I did, I sort it all in focus, streamlined all my, all my time and energy and money into my masonry business, the first one that I started.

And when did you quit your, your employer?

I quit my employer. You know, my, my previous employer was cool enough to let me do for a couple years, like six months on, six months off. Right. But eventually it got to the point where, you know, doing the math, I was losing money going to work. So obviously when that happens, I, you have to, you have to make the jump.

So you're actually, this part of the story is you are exactly what the foreman and owners are scared of. That you'll do side work and that side work will build up into a business and then you go and compete with them.

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of for sure now. I'm afraid of it. Yeah, you're spot on. Correct. Yep.