PODCAST INTRODUCTION

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2.28

Jaemie: Hi Fred and welcome to Engineering Success.

 

Fred: Hi Jaemie, thanks for having me.

 

Jaemie: It’s great to have you on the show. Can we start with how you started your career in the construction industry and who was the first company you worked for?

 

Fred: Sure, so I mean probably like many people anyone you ask about their journey into construction -  I was quite into building things when I was younger, I think everyone says that. I really enjoyed design and technology at school. I then went on to study Architectural Engineering and Design Management at Loughborough University. I did a year out in industry as part of that, so did 4 years altogether – three years at uni and one year out, one year back at uni. I graduated in 2008 and then joined Wilmott Dixon, who are a main contractor in the UK on their graduate trainee programme. Went through that and became Assistant Design Co-ordinator, Design Co-ordinator and I was sort of doing pre-construction management. Yeah, so that’s kind of my initial journey from being a young boy to coming into the industry.

Probably fair to say I wasn’t – I don’t think its any big secret – I wasn’t that happy at Wilmott Dixon. Not because of the company or the people but because it was kind of my first expose to design and build contracting in the construction industry, and I kind of realised that, I guess being a young naive man – the world wasn’t quite as nice as I’d been led to believe it was. And it was quite confrontational and adversarial and yes, I didn’t or wasn’t really enjoying it and I’d look for ways to try and improve the industry and make it better. I remember one night in December 2011 – I drove home – I drove home on the motorway and had the windows open……in December……. It was cold, but I kind of just wanted a bit of, I just to be honest was on a dull treadmill and wanted a bit of excitement in my life! That came down to windows open on a motorway, which is about as crazy as my life gets really……….. and I got home that night and I came up with the idea of The B1M. I left Wilmott Dixon in January 2012 and joined Osbourne, who are again a UK based main contractor. Really family-orientated and I absolutely loved working at Osbourne – really a great group of people.

Registered B1M and started the company on the side, Osbourne were completely aware of what I was doing, really supportive of it and it got the point in mid-2015 where we’d had quite a lot of traction on The B1M, we had some sponsorship money coming in, we’d won some big industry awards – which was great – and I had a conversation with them and said ‘look I want to do this, this is what I want to do with my life. I want to maximise my potential – and yeah, they took a stake in the company, which is really useful in terms of helping with HR and advice and guidance. And we really diversified the content out from what it was originally. You know it was centred around Building Information Modelling to really “celebrating the best of construction”. My goal is that, we say we love construction and we want the whole world to love it too. My goal is to fundamentally change the perception of construction on planet Earth. Which is obviously and enormous goal, but one I am deadly serious about.

I had someone say to me in a pub when I first started The B1M “you’re never going to get one million people watch your videos are you. You’re kind of embarrassing yourself, you should go back and get a real job!” and I look at where we are now – and its conversations like that that have spurred me on more anything. I remember I had an appraisal, again quite early on in my career where my line manager said to me “you need to let go of this ambition to rule the world, just accept or…… come up this objectives that are more attainable” and I just thought – I didn’t come out of that meeting agreeing with him, I came out really thinking – no! That’s not what I want to do – you’re not going to trample down my ambition or put me in a box somewhere, this is – I’ve got the drive, I’ve got the determination and that’s what I’m going to do, so yeah – fundamentally change the perception on planet Earth – it’s an enormous goal but it’s one I think we’re making massive inroads in. From starting The B1M we’ve now got a team of nine people, we’ve got growing revenue streams, we’ve got phenomenal audience, we’ve got global following, we’ve got partnerships with major household name brands like Aviva, Volvo and others – Shell is one of those as well. We’ve got a merchandise range, we’ve got all sorts of things.

But its funny going back to that slightly crazed, safe – safe I should say not crazed – safe drive down the motorway – I remember thinking “I want my life to be..” “what if my life cold be all those wonderful things, and I could do that with my life, I’d enjoy every day so much” and it felt a million miles away but now its here and it’s incredible and it’s hard work and it’s intense but I get to get up everyday and celebrate the best of this industry, work with a team of amazing people and do something that doesn’t feel like work. So I guess that’s kind of testament to doing something you believe in and if you want something hard enough – it is possible.

 

7.36

Jaemie: So what was your biggest inspiration?

 

Fred: I think like anyone my immediate circle are a big inspiration. My parents have always been a huge inspiration for me. My wife’s a big inspiration to me, you know, she has an incredible ability to keep me very grounded in moments of extreme success. But also when I’m really low, and you know there’s been – I don’t mind saying this – but there’s been tears. She has an ability to pick me up and focus me and keep me going and so you know she’s – my parents have been relentless support, but I guess my wife has been through ever single twist and turn every day, ever issue. So she’s lived it with me and been a phenomenal support. So yes, those three people, my mum, my dad and my wife are my biggest inspiration. My kids, so I’ve got a four year old and a one year old, they’re a big inspiration to me as well – obviously the one year old not so much………… but they can of see the world with remarkable clarity, they have an ability to speak very candidly about things. You know, my four-year-old sometimes says to me “I haven’t seen you Daddy, you’ve been working too much” and you don’t really have an answer to that. It’s just “you’re right, I am working too hard – I should see you more”. So those people are a big inspiration to me.

But also, maybe a little bit cheesy, but the people in the industry are quite a big inspiration to me as well, in a less direct way. But, seeing the individuals who, many people don’t understand construction, they don’t necessarily give construction the respect it deserves. You know, these are individuals who are making decisions that shape our world, that shape our hospitals, our schools, our homes, that shape our cities, they have a phenomenal impact on each of our lives and yeah, I find that really inspirational as well.

 

9.26

Jaemie: So a lot of leaders have daily or weekly habits, do you have any habits that you’d like to share with us?

 

Fred: So when you sent this question through I was like “I must have something interesting surely?” Oh yes – eats six eggs for breakfast!! I’ve looked back over my life over the last few weeks really, really hard to try and come up with an interesting habit. I really, really don’t have any…

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Jaemie: No?

 

Fred: The slightly intense answer is that I guess, the one thing I get up and do every day is kind-of get up and push for the vision of The B1M and company that we’ve build. I don’t really see it as a company, I see it as a mission and a movement and I guess yes, very sort of corporate answer but I get up every day and “I push for the mission of my company” so yeah……..

 

 

10.14

Jaemie: So what attributes do you need to be Co-Founder and Managing Director of The B1M?

 

Fred: I think the biggest thing is tenacity. So what we did has never been done before and we live in a very……………….. we were doing it in a very traditionally orientated construction industry.

My biggest challenge, and this kind of leads into your next question – sorry, but the biggest attribute and my biggest challenge is people who cannot see beyond the world we currently inhabit. I have this vision for The B1M and it’s about reaching a billion people, its about fundamentally changing the perception of this industry on this planet. It’s about every single person out there on the pavement walking by in this huge city understanding and valuing what this industry does. It’s a huge, huge goal but I’m absolutely clear on what it means and how to get there and people who think it’s unattainable, people who think it’s not do-able, people that don’t get-it, people who think we need to stick to the status quo, they’re my biggest challenge. I’m lucky that I don’t have any of those people in my team – we’ve been very selective, I think we’ve – obviously I’m, you need to ask them because I’m biased, but as the leader of the business I think we’ve got a team of people who don’t really see it as a nine-to-five job – they see it as a mission that they’re part of. We are a big family which is great. So yeah, biggest attribute and biggest challenge I guess is being able to see something that isn’t there yet – by virtue of being a big vision you haven’t achieved it yet and it’s in the distance so you have to imagine it before other people can, so, the biggest challenge and frustration is yeah, people who just can’t see something.

 

Jaemie: Which you will change..

 

Fred: Yes, hopefully..

 

12.07

Jaemie: So what would your number one advice be for somebody starting a career in construction?

 

Fred: Listening back to previous episodes I completely agree with everyone else has said, so the thing about – it’s an amazing industry, you can go as far as you want to go, you can be what you want to be – I completely agree with that. But I guess just to add to that for your benefit – if that’s the open door that you push against, the push needs to be “have the guts and determination to have your input and make your mark and do what you want to do”. I remember in the early days feeling like I was being kind of trained into the old way of the industry and how it works and I remember rebelling against that I guess. Never really seem myself as being a rebel, but yes, rebelling against that in a way and thinking “well no I don’t accept this is how it has to be, I don’t accept that the next generation have to come into the industry and accept it the way it was I want to change it, I want to do something different”. And when I first spoke about the idea of The B1M and my mission for it, as I said, people laughed at me. No-one took it seriously, no-one really got where I was going or where it was headed. We’ve pushed and we’ve made that difference.

I think the other thing I’d say is that - one of the best books I ever read was ‘Essentialism by Greg McKeown’ which is all about rather than doing lots and lots of things to make yourself very, very busy, do one thing……….. exceptionally well. And actually, say no to things. There’s this whole kind of like Richard Branson – say yes, its much more fun when you say yes! I think it was Richard Branson, sorry Sir Richard if you’re listening and I got that wrong.

I see a lot of people who are very, very busy and I read bio’s of big industry leaders who are you know – John or Dave or Sally is on this board and this board, this board, this board and this board – and we’re supposed to go “oh wow, that’s amazing”. What they’ve actually done is taken that nob of butter that they are and spread it across twelve pieces of toast and then served it in a restaurant. What I’m doing is take my piece of butter and put it on one excellent piece of toast and be very good at that.

So yeah, my biggest advice, I guess for anyone in the industry, is………… simplify and focus on the single greatest contribution you can make and do that exceptionally well, rather than trying to do everything. That’s the biggest thing that made The B1M a success. Our objective was “let’s be the world’s biggest YouTube channel for construction”.

 

14.32

Jaemie: Why do you feel there has been a skills shortage in the construction industry?

 

Fred: I don’t think that’s a difficult question to answer…… I think you look at the world we live in at the minute, is a media rich, social media driven, exciting, twenty-four-hour news cycle world that we live in. And the kind of dear old construction industry hasn’t really sold itself in that way, we haven’t made the case for people – we haven’t communicated the stuff that we do – we’ve relied on, as good as they are, we relied on trade shows, careers fairs, individuals being minded enough to go out of their way and go into schools. Some school’s curriculum training programmes or a website with some range of careers that are available in construction, with the idea that somehow the youth of today are going to go out and find these things and look at these websites and go and read these things and go to these fairs. It’s just……………………. a bit controversial but, I see it as madness. You know we have these platforms that billions of people check every day. Let’s take our industry and put it in an exciting and compelling format and put it under their noses on those platforms.

You know, don’t ask people to go to a website about different jobs you could do in construction because it’s very, very dull.

So yeah, obviously there’s a lot of more economic reasons around the skills gap, but I think the appeal of the industry needs to be much better – we have to do it in a different way. We have to literally re-invent the wheel.

 

16.15

Jaemie: So, do you think we are actually starting to do that now, obviously The B1M is a good example of that on a media platform?

 

Fred: Yeah, I mean I’m conscious that I’m answering this question through my eyes. So I know I have a different view to other people and I’m always open to listen to other people views, of course I am. I think what was – you know, The B1M was dismissed for a long time – I think now where we are with the traction and success and the momentum we have behind it, we have got big institutions talking to us. We got industry leaders talking to us and understand what we’re doing, so that is beginning to move the dial but I think we’ve got a very long way to go.

We still have………………probably a little bit controversial……………….but we still have big summits going on talking about the future of construction that’s four-hundred quid to walk in to that are attended exclusively by white men and over fifty! You just think “what on earth are we doing here?” we’ve got construction leadership council that I thinks got thirteen people on it, two of them are women, all of them are white, and they’re all over fifty, or certainly in their late forties and onwards.. There’s no young representation there, there’s no diversity there, I don’t understand how that, again controversial, “hello everyone that’s listening from the construction leadership council” but I don’t think it represents the industry, I’m just not sure that the industry leadership at the minute quite gets exactly what is required to do this successfully.

 

17.46

Jaemie: So, what are the biggest changes you’ve seen in construction from the start of your career?

 

Fred: Yeah, so I mean, I started 2008 and literally as I joined the industry in October 2008 the world was in melt-down with the financial crisis and the big recession so I kind of saw construction reacting to the recession and then I saw it on it’s way out of recession to where it is now. I’ve also seen the impact of Carillion, as we all have, and the impact of the Grenfell Tower disaster, which was a huge incident, well I think that’s putting it mildly, a horrendous incident in particular with Grenfell. It really tainted our industry. So, I’ve seen those changes and the reactions to them.

I think the other thing is technology, so, on the technology side I remember 2008 – this is when the iPhone was a special thing – I knew somebody who had the first iPhone – I’ve seen that completely transform in the industry. It’s gone from “what is technology? We don’t need that!” to “Ah, we do need this stuff, what can we do with it. What benefit can it bring?” And we’ve kind of been through some peaks and troughs and we’re now on a plateau of productivity where people are looking at technology in a serious way and a credible way and saying “Right ok, what can this do for my business? What benefit can it bring?”. Still a long way to go but I think that’s been the biggest change technology uptake.

 

19.07

Jaemie: So, what do you think going forward the biggest changes will be in the next five to ten years? Would you say technology even further?

 

Fred: Yeah absolutely, I think – there’s kind of two scenario’s I see.

One is the industry carries on as we are and we have technology progression, we have innovation, we have things like the rise of manufacturing and so of that expertise coming into the sector. I think if you look at the last ten years there is going to be technological change and it will feel very different in ten years’ time. But it’s going to be very slow, steady, easy kind of……… not easy, I mean easing in of those approaches.

The other scenario is that we have some sort of big external intervention. So the likes of the iPhone entering the mobile phone market when Nokia was the dominant player. You know, I think one of the major technology giants something like that coming in to our sector and doing what we do in a way that seems obvious, and just completely disrupts the business model and the approach could be another factor.

 

21.14

Jaemie: So, how do you keep yourself motivated?

 

Fred: I don’t really struggle with that. I think I said at the beginning I’ve kind of carved out this…. I carved out space for something that wasn’t there before and I’m now doing what I describe as my dream job. And I’m on this incredible journey where the nature of the conversation, the doors that are opening, the opportunities we are having, the places we’re travelling to, the impact we’re getting, the number of views coming in, the number – tens of thousands of comments coming in every week – that is just so easy to keep motivated in that scenario.

I admit going back, I’ve had my hard……………..it’s been hard over the years, particularly when you know, you’re leaving a professional job to go and start a YouTube channel. Which is what people saw it as. That’s hard! Particularly for some of the older mentors in my life. You know, some of the older generation who just don’t understand why I would do that. You who I had built relationships in the industry who respected me – people just didn’t really understand what I was doing. Particularly as well with that business model, you have to build a very large audience and then you can monetise it. So it’s not like a business where you’re selling hot-cakes and you start a stall and on day one you’ve got cash coming in. You have to have a lot of faith and patience and hope. So yeah, I had moments where – I don’t mind saying – I’ve had moments when I gone home and been like “I can’t do this anymore, it’s just too hard. It’s coming at too high a price. It’s taking too much time away from my family”. And always my wife’s been there and talked me out of those things and talked me out of quitting all together. So I’ve found it hard ‘back in the day’. Since the business turned around and we’ve really, you know, momentum has finally kicked in and traction finally kicked off – that was transformational, now I don’t find it a problem.

But yeah, I think it’s important for people to know that it’s very easy to look at it now and think “it’s a phenomenal success – it’s all been great” and you’re kind of seeing the tip of the iceberg, because underneath it there was a real tough journey.

 

22.31

Jaemie: So, we know it’s important to continually develop ourselves as individuals – how do you develop yourself?

 

Fred: A couple of different ways really, I think first of all I’m kind of in this….. I’m in the intensity of The B1M every day so we’re scaling rapidly, we’ve got challenges coming across our plate thick and fast. I’m doing things that I haven’t done before – I’m growing in that way so I feel like I’m being, I’m being stretched. I feel like I’m operating at the limits of my ability every day which is great - I can feel myself growing and being stretched which is huge. I also look at what other businesses have done and where they’ve gone wrong. We look at other successful media publishers who’ve come into the video and YouTube space. There’s a really good podcast, obviously not as good as this podcast…….

 

Jaemie: Thank you……..

 

Fred: Another good podcast called ‘I built this’ which is really interesting. It’s kind of the founders behind some of the biggest names out there – you know – Buzzfeed and Voice and Virgin Group as it happens and AirBnB. And hearing their journey’s you know, they’re real world stories of what we’ve been through and being able to relate to that is – I find that really interesting. So they’re the things.

 

23.41

Jaemie: So, obviously you touched on it- your mission is to fundamentally alter the perception of construction throughout the world – do you think you’re getting there?

 

Fred: I know we’re getting there. We put a video on YouTube four days ago that’s had one million views. We’ve got over one hundred million views altogether now. We’re getting tens of thousands of comments each week, and they are people saying:

 “I didn’t know I loved construction until I watched The B1M. I’m now changing my career, I’m changing my major at university to go into architecture.”

“I quit my job last week and I’m training to go into construction.”

These aren’t just one or two comments, we have tens of thousands of people saying it so we can see the impact of what we’re doing, which is great. And it’s very easy to kind of sit back and rest at that a go “yeah…… we’ve done really well” the trick is, we know that’s good, that’s a good platform but as you said in your question ‘we want to fundamentally change the perception of construction on planet Earth’. We think this is the way to do that – we see that traction that we’re having so far so now it’s about scale and taking it to it’s full potential.

 

24.56

Jaemie: Yeah… So, have you had any mentors on your journey, when you first started and today?

 

Fred: Yeah definitely - I think the constants have definitely been my parents – my mum, and my dad, my wife, in particular I think have been really strong mentors throughout. The executive team, the executive leadership team at Osbourne and the Osbourne family have been really strong mentors to me really big supporters of me. And different line managers I’ve had through the years, I guess have been mentors as well. It’s always good because they’re kind of people that, whilst we’re doing something that’s never been done before, in certain kind of business scenarios or commercial transactions they’re all individuals that have been there and done that. And as you probably know, or as anyone listening probably knows, you get some big decisions in life that you run by the people closest to you – and its when you have one of those decisions that there is a group of four, five individuals who I’ll always check in with, and that gives you the answer really. They’re your mentors!

 

26.06

Jaemie: So, if you had the opportunity, do you think you’d change anything in your career so far?

 

Fred: No…… I won’t just leave you with the one word…..

 

Jaemie: I was going to say that was quick……

 

Fred: Obviously the benefit of hindsight it’s very easy to say “I wish that hadn’t happened” “I wish I’d have done that differently” and yes, there’s a lot of things we wish we’d done differently or said differently to different people, But ultimately all of those things have led me to the place where I am now. They’ve had some sort of formative shaping impact that bought me to the place I am today, so while it was a hard journey at times – there are things I might change – no I wouldn’t change anything because it’s brought me to where I am today.

 

26.49

Jaemie: So finally, having accomplished so much, what does the future hold for you?

 

Fred: Good question because as I say there is……………. You know my jaw was open quite a lot with the success and traction we’re having and it is fantastic. The trick is to draw a line and say “right ok, we’ve got one hundred million views. We’ve got half a million subscribers. We now need to have a start-up mentality. What do we do next? How do we get to a hundred million viewers every month? How do we get to a million subscribers? How do we fundamentally change the perception on planet Earth?” So, it’s hard because I have to kind of stand on the shoulders on what we’ve done already and use it to move forward without being complacent. But it’s clear in our vision, we want to get to a stage where the inhabitants of this planet truly value this industry. For people to truly recognise the power of construction and the impact that it has on all of our lives. Yeah, we want the whole world to love construction.

 

Jaemie: Fred thank you for your time it’s been great to have you on the podcast.

 

Fred: Thanks for having me.