Building Legacy: Donovan Everett on Billion Dollar Construction Success

In this episode of the Beyond Normal Podcast, we sit down with Donovan Everett, President & CEO of D.A. Everett Construction Group, to explore what it takes to build a $100M+ business grounded in legacy, leadership, and long-term vision. From managing construction sites at age 15 to overseeing over $2B in completed projects, Donovan shares a powerful blueprint for growth rooted in people, process, and purpose.

Tune in as we discuss the evolution of the Spectrum Center, the importance of placing the right people in the right seats, and how Donovan balances entrepreneurship with community impact. Whether you’re leading a company or just getting started, this episode offers real talk on building with intention and leaving a legacy that lasts.

Thanks for tuning into the Beyond Normal Podcast!

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🔗 Learn more about Donovan’s work at: https://www.daeverettgroup.com

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Transcript

Kenny: 0:33

I I just wanna start out by, uh, thanking you all for being part of the Beyond Normal podcast, uh, first live session with an audience. It's been an incredible, uh, seven seasons for us. And so everybody is telling us that they're back outside and they want in person engagement. So we're, that's what we're gonna give them. And, uh, we're starting out, uh, with a bang, with an incredible first guest and, uh, Donovan Everett here. So I think we're gonna be, uh. Starting hitting the play record button rather soon. But I just wanted to start out by saying that for you all, appreciate you all for coming out with us. Um,'cause this is definitely the first of many more Oh. With in incredible individuals like Donovan.

Donovan: 1:16

Oh no, thanks Kenny for having me here for, for the first in person podcast. Get my

Kenny: 1:22

No, we're gonna get to it. We we're just breaking the ice. We're just breaking icebreaking the ice.

Donovan: 1:26

We're breaking

Kenny: 1:26

ice.

Donovan: 1:27

Everything else.

Kenny: 1:28

So, Darren, we're, we're good. Alright, bet. So, um, yeah. Thank you all for, for being here with the Beyond Normal Podcast. As I just told you all this is a very, um, special inaugural episode. Uh, but before we get to that, we have some housekeeping things, some very special individuals that we want to say a couple things. So we have Toya. Oh, yes. First. Toya. Everett first. Uh, so Toya, do you need me to pass you the mic or No? I do, I need the mic.

Toya: 2:03

Okay. No. Just to echo what, um, Kenny said, thank you all so much for coming out. I am one of the co-presenters with Kenny, um, of this special event today. So when Kenny, you know, reached out about having Donovan on the podcast, you know, me and my vetting mode, um, I said, you know, where do you typically do your podcast? Is it gonna be virtual? Or do you do a podcast studio? And he said, well, I do. Sometimes I do a podcast studio and I do it at Do Greater. I said, well, let's meet at Do Greater. And so when I came out, learned a little bit more about Do Greater, saw the space, I said we should do this in person. Um, you know, one of the things that, uh, you know, growing up in a family of small business owners, we understood the importance of, and the impact of ensuring that small and minority businesses are able to grow and scale the impact that they have on communities. We also learned, and I've been in Charlotte for about 20 years and one of the things that I saw, um, was that there were a lot of minority businesses. Owners who reached, um, a certain growth and scale, but they didn't share their stories on platforms such as these. And so I told doma we need to be very strategic about, you know, partnering with the right partners and ensuring that other minority and small businesses have access to information and exposure. Because that's what it really comes down to, access and exposure. Um, so again, what better place to host this event than Duke Greater, who's our event sponsor for the evening? Um, you know, a place that drives innovation and creativity through entrepreneurship. So thank you so much, duke. Greater, and I'll turn it over to Karina and then she'll flip it back over to Kenny.

Karina: 3:41

Latoya. Um, welcome to the Creative Lab. I am Karina Anderson with Degrader Charlotte. Um, I'm the events and operations coordinator here for Degrader Charlotte. So. I'm in charge of all of the events, um, the coworking membership and everything that happens with the adults in our space. But we are a nonprofit organization, and so our mission is to serve, um, the youth, middle school, high school students and teach them about entrepreneurship. So really excited to have you guys here today. Um, small, uh, business owner, I won't say small business owner. And so you, you guys are inspirations to, to us as well as our.

Kenny: 4:27

Appreciate that from, uh, Toya and Karina. Um, my very first time stepping into this do greater space, um, I was really, um, in awe at just the, the, them having a space like this for the next generation, I think their Gen Zs, is that what they're called? Right. Um, but the next generation to really come up with their own business ideas, be creative. Uh, they got, uh, I was here last week. They had some, uh. Some students that were coming in, they were interested in, uh, podcasting, photography, DJing, like these are the, the, the areas where they wanna spend their time. And so I think it's really important for a place like Duke Greater to exist, uh, for them to have productive positive avenues to, to kind of spill that creativity into, in addition to that, I know Corina didn't mention it, but they do have some incredible growth. Um, coming up soon. And so as you all being, uh, here with us today, we'll definitely be following up with you'cause there's some opportunities to, um, really invest a little bit more, um, time, energy, money into the spaces and the, the opportunities that they have moving forward. Appreciate y'all. Uh, so without further ado, I think we are going to hop into the conversation, uh, with, uh, Mr. Donovan Everett.

Donovan: 5:45

Yep. Well, no, Kenny, thank you for having me here on the very first. In person podcast and thank you do greater for allowing us to be here again. Uh, it's amazing to always get to tell my story, um, because when I was trying to start my business, I was looking for information and I was seeking how others did it and what helped me. I said, if I had an opportunity to be able to do that for others coming along, I wanted to do that. So anytime I have an opportunity to tell my story. And share, share things that helped me along the way. I'm more than willing to do it because I know it helped me and I had to pay a lot of money sometimes for that. So I can, if I can have that, do help y'all do that without paying all the money that I did in some of those cases, you know, I'd be more than happy to do it. So, no, it's always exciting to be so thank you for, uh, for doing that.

Kenny: 6:25

Appreciate you throwing that in there. And so you, you mentioned a little bit about your, um, experience and some of the, the things that you've had to dive into over your career. Before we kind of dive into the, the meat and potatoes of the conversation, though, I do have a brief kind of intro. Yeah. A couple things just to, to set the stage for the things that, uh, Donovan has really done with his career. I had to definitely do my research and take some notes. I wanted to make sure for this conversation in particular, because you've done a lot, Donovan, um, but Donovan is a season construction executive with$2 billion in projects, um, completed. And so that is no small feat. Um, he, he will definitely tell us a little bit about some of those projects throughout the conversation, but I just wanted to shout that out. That is a really big number, and that's something that we should all be highlighting, uh, each and every day. In addition to that, uh, you know, from a construction background perspective, Donovan has really, I don't wanna say you spent your whole life in this space. I spent my whole life since this, but you have spent this whole, your whole life in this space, uh, since the age of 15. Uh, you, uh. Got your degree at NC State, which I think is really, really cool as well. Um, I am a UNC Charlotte alumni myself. Just wanted to throw that out there. So, uh, the, the NC Education System is definitely represented well on this stage today. And in addition to that, um, you've worked for some really. Uh, big global firms, right, to really, uh, sharpen your sword. And so that, that, that's something that I want to tell folks to really set the stage. And in addition to that, most recently, uh, you were actually acknowledged by the Charlotte Business Journal, uh, number four, I believe Charlotte, uh, owned business in terms of the largest. And then in addition to that, um, which is a much more important stat or figure to me is you're on the list for Charlotte Business Journal CEOs to admire. And so not a lot of CEOs are admired right now, I'll say that. So it's really, let's, let's, let's, let's, uh, give Donovan a round of applause for that.'cause that's something, uh, we don't talk about a lot today. Um, the CEOs that are doing it right. Then lastly, um, I just wanted to touch on real briefly, your, your focus on community, um, and nonprofit work. Some of the advisory work you do, you're actually on the board. We'll get to it later, I believe, um, HBCU, uh, impact as well. And so I just want to set the stage with that and really, um, I'm excited to have this conversation with you. Thank you for joining us today. Oh, thank you. Is there anything I missed? I'm joking. I'm joking. We'll, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. We'll talk about it, I'm sure. So, and so before we dive into, um, I gave, you know, just a general kind of overview of Donovan's, uh, a journey in this space, the, the movie that, that Donovan is really painting and, and, and filming right now in terms of your career. Um, tell us from your perspective, right, um, like would, if you. Or writing a book, or you're writing your, your, your own movie right now. Like what is the story that you want to tell the pieces that I didn't necessarily paint the detail on?

Donovan: 9:27

Yeah. No, and you know, I'll take, take a step back of what, where my journey started. You know, I grew up in a small town, small town, Beaufort, North Carolina. Um, and I, I'm, I'm nobody special. I'm, you know, I just, but I, I'm a person that had big dreams and big goals. And I, and I never, and I've never said, I, I said I'm never gonna quit on him. So ever since I was a small kid working with my dad in the construction industry, uh, I always wanted to own my own company at some point in time. Um, but as I've grown and gotten, you know, growing his business, saw also leaving a legacy I. Um, you know, you, you, you see, you know, if you drive around the city and you see names on buildings and family names on buildings and what the, the families are doing in the community that, that, that has allowed outlast lived some of the people that the names on the buildings. So it's the community, it's the, uh, it's the legacy that leads where lead the community in a better place. Than you were before you got there. So by growing this business, giving folks opportunities, um, that, and opportunities creating that, that legacy to last, uh, outlast of me. You know, if I can do that, man, that's just, you know, that, that's just the, uh, icing on the cake to be able to do something like that. So

Kenny: 10:38

I think that's, uh, actually a cheat code naming the business after yourself. Like I, I, a lot of business owners we see now, they, they come up with like the catchy, you know, the, the, the, the, I fly where they add the, i at the beginning of the word, the buzzword. Right. But naming a business after yourself, like there's intrinsic value for you. You want that business to be successful because it's your namesake. Yeah. That's a easy way to not psych yourself into making the business successful, but you believe in it from day one.

Donovan: 11:09

Yeah. I, it's funny when you, you said that when I started a business or when I was, had the idea to start the business. I went back and forth like, should I name it after myself? Should I, should I name it something else? And you know, just through talking with folks, he's like, no, they know you, so they know your brand. They know you the the name, so you need to name it after yourself. So, you know, but it does forces you to, when your name's on the door, if you will, you gotta live up to what that name is. You, you, you can't go out there and. Live this, have this life of, you know, bad business when your name's on the door, you, you know, doing unethical stuff and, and, and not living up to what the business and the brand is. So when, when you have a business that is named after that, it it, you, you gotta live up to it. So it's, it's a forced a way to make you continue to keep the pick picture in front of you. But also too, knowing that you gotta, you want to keep the name, keep, keep the name proud and, and, and keep going forward. So, yeah.

Kenny: 12:03

Thanks for that. And you know, next up, you know, perfect segue, I think in terms of you having, you seeing your name there, right? And a lot of leaders, a lot of founders, they want to build something that gets to the scale that you've built, right? A hundred million plus, right?$2 billion in completed projects. But they don't necessarily know like what all goes into that. So can you talk a little bit about, um, just your strategy around. Like what do you put in place from a strategic perspective for your business?

Donovan: 12:34

Yeah, so I want to kind of go back a little bit about the name. You know, even though my name may be on the door, it doesn't operate without people. I. So you gotta have good people in your organization that will make this thing go. Um, and to scale a business, you need people. Um, you, it doesn't cost money to have people. It costs you money not to have people. And, um, it, as I was going to business, it was hard for me to learn that. Uh, because you're, you know, you make, you're making some money. You're like, oh, I gotta keep the money so I can continue to grow it. But, and you're like, I don't wanna hire a person yet because you, uh, I don't wanna spend the money. But what I learned when getting in the rooms with the right people, who've grown businesses to us upscale, they teach you very quickly. I. It's gonna cost you more money not to have the right person in the seat. Um, and so when that mindset for me, it allow, when you have the right people and the right systems and the right processes in place, it just starts to multiply. Because what, what is, what is scale? It's through people, it's through process, through it's through processes, through and through, uh, systems. So as we've been growing our business. Getting the right people, getting the right leadership team in place, um, and continue to just so you can replicate yourself and others in the business. So you can out continue to do that. But you know, you gotta keep the brand, the brand too, um, as you grow and scale. So, and I think the way to do that, well, I have to, I have to, I have to be able to set the tone for the brand. Um, of what I'm doing and hopefully that the team sees that. So to continue to, to model, mimic that brand that we have and that allows you just to grow and scale because clients are gonna continue to hire you and, and they see you are able to do what you say you're going to do. So that's scaling 1 0 1 and, and like the quick snapshot, but yeah, that's, yeah.

Kenny: 14:12

I appreciate that. Um, definitely a Jim, I, I'm taking notes. I know some of the folks in the, all of the folks in the in the audience are definitely taking notes on that. Um, that's something we can relate from day put into our business from day one. Yeah. So I appreciate you sharing that. Um, next up I want to talk, I want to dive a little bit into, um, the specific, uh, projects. That you've worked on. Right. And so some of the projects that you've worked on or you're currently working on would, would be the Spectrum Center, for example, or in the past you've even had the opportunity, um, to work, uh, do some work at HBCUs. Yeah. Uh, such as North Carolina Central. Right. And so can we talk a little bit about what. What all goes into those, getting to those projects? Like you can't, obviously I can't start from day one saying I'm gonna work with the Hornet. So like, how do you get to that level?

Donovan: 15:07

Uh, you know, when you, you start a business, you gotta have a, you gotta be able to see where you're going. You, you wanna know where you're going from day one. So when we, when the business was literally nothing, I had this vision of where I wanted to be in 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now. And so all these projects didn't just happen overnight. It started, I. Years ago, um, and it started by what we did, what we did 15 years ago is paying off today if that's exactly what's, because it's a brand that's been recognized over 15 years that they, they're gonna do what they say they're gonna do. They're gonna execute and they're gonna, and they're going to show up and do what they said they're gonna do each and every time. So the, let's just take the Spectrum Center for an example. That was a strategic win, uh, for us. It wasn't one that we just happened to walk into, you know, we had been working in Charlotte for, for many, many years and, um, we worked with the city of Charlotte, did the Bojangles Coliseum, and, uh, we had heard about the Hornets gonna, uh, the Spectrum Center was gonna be renovated. So five years before the job dropped, we really started. Putting that deal together, if you will. We, we found our specific joint venture partner that we knew can execute. So Turner, who's probably the largest, uh, sports builder in, in, in the, in this, in this area, they have done work with, with Atlanta Hawks and doing other things like that. So we aligned ourselves with a, a sports builder Turner, and we just started working that. And when the, the job dropped. We, we had already had five years, if you will, of early game. Um, and so all these things are very strategic in what we do. Um, I, I'll give you another example. So right now we're working with one of the largest automotive dealers in the, uh, in, in, in, in the auto, in black owned automotive dealers in, in the market. Um, but just happen to be, you know, part of the, uh, owner of the, uh, hornets. But that was, that was probably eight years of working that relationship. Eight years of working that relationship with him to try to get in front of him. And it wasn't until the hornets that he picked up the phone call, we had built dealerships from here to the Virgin Islands. But it wasn't until that time that we wanted the hornets that he picked up the phone and answered and, and, and, and said, Hey, let's talk. And what I, as I sit back and think about that, I said, wonder what that was? But what I realize now. I'm glad it was wasn't a until the opportunity because we probably were not ready to do his work. We were still fine tuning our, our business. We were still building our platforms and systems out, and now we're on project number three with, or number two with him, uh, about to build, uh, ultra luxury brand for him out in, out in, uh, north of here. And um, so you gotta kind of look at it and be strategic and do your self-analysis on your, on your own business. Because a lot of times when you lose. That's, it's for good reason. And when you look, sit back and look at it, sometimes it's the best thing to lose. So you can sit back and retool and think about what you needed to do as a business so you can get correct for when your time comes. I got asked a question, uh, guy, you asked me where, where, where, where is it? He left out, but he asked me a question like, what, what do you do when stuff is coming at you and you're not ready for? I said, just the best thing you can do is always be ready. You know, just, just always be ready.'cause you never know. An opportunity's gonna knock. Um, that's how our, our opportunity with the Virgin Islands came about. Um, we, we've done work in the US Virgin Islands and that opportunity just came out of, came outta nowhere and I didn't know how I was gonna do it, but I, we, we said we're gonna do it and did it. You know, that whole saying commit first and figure the rest out later. That, that's, that, that is literally business commit first and figure the rest out later. Because a lot of times those opportunities aren't gonna keep coming. If they're gonna come one time, and if you can't show up for it and be strategic and creative enough to figure it out, they probably won't show back up. So that, that mentality of commit first and figure the rest out later, that's how I run. And I know Wendy's back there. She's probably like, don't I hate when you run like that. So,

Kenny: 19:05

so, uh, that is a, that's not an easy skill, I would say to, like you said, say yes to something I. Before you even have it built. Yeah. Like, so I wanna go back a little bit. Are there, are there any moments from your early career that helped you get to that point?

Donovan: 19:28

Yeah, I think, I think over time you just build success is the, uh, what is success? It's the me, it's the memory of winning. It's the memory of winning. So as you're, it gets easier to make, see these decisions as you're going along in your business because you, one thing for me, I'll tell you, I'm not afraid to fail at all. And the faster you can fail, the quicker you learn the lesson and what you need to do to get to where you're going. So, um, you know, you just build that, it's like going to the gym. You show up every day to build that muscle. Um, and you just, you make the decision, um, because whatever the decision is, whether it's, if it's the wrong decision, you're gonna figure out very quickly if it's the wrong decision. If it's the great right decision, well you, you're gonna be on your way a lot quicker. So, and also too, I'll go back to surrounding yourself with people who have done what you're looking to do. Hands down, I, I, to, to, to really go back there. I stopped talk, I stopped listening to people who hadn't achieved what I was looking to achieve because they couldn't tell me how to get through this hurdle that I was gonna face.'cause they had never done that. That's not a knock on them. But they just, they weren't equipped to tell me how to get through a hurdle in this part of my business. So I surrounded myself with people who had, who were aware I was trying to go, who have achieved what I was trying to achieve. And I surrounded. So it allowed me to make my decisions easier.'cause I, I can see where the roadblocks that I was possibly gonna hit.

Kenny: 20:49

Over here taking notes instead of thinking about the next question. But, uh, this is, uh, this is really relevant, um, in the time we're in now, where it seems like, uh, the Gen Zs that I mentioned earlier, they do want to fail fast. Yeah. They, they have a little bit more appetite for it, it seems.

Donovan: 21:11

Well, is it appetite or they just heard on Instagram? Hmm. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't, I I hear you. It is the buzz word of fail for Yeah. I mean, I hope, I hope that's what they want, because that's really the hack, if you will. Um, you, the quicker you can fail, the faster you'll get to where you're going. Um, and that's what happened, uh, for the business. You know, we, we try, we've tried all kinds of things. I mean, just any and everything, we just, it is, I don't know if it's gonna work. I don't know. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, you know? Um. Posting. I mean, I, my first video was trash, but I was like, I was like, uh, what I, the, the information I got from somebody who had achieved what I was trying to do said, you need to get out there and promote and post your business and talk about it. And that's, it was just a muscle that just kept doing it. It, I probably failed something along the way in trash videos, but. Y'all are here from the video. Right. So, I don't know, maybe it works. I don't know. So,

Kenny: 22:12

well, there's a And

Donovan: 22:13

Terrence made my video

Kenny: 22:13

look good. So I imagine that, uh, so there, as you were talking, I was thinking about, like you said, these five, potentially five year sales cycles. Yes. Like really embracing the, the, the, the wins. Right. And kind of forgetting some of, not forgetting, but. You know, failing fast and then moving forward. And that, to me, one of the words that came out, came top of mind was endurance. Like having some sort of endurance. So like how do you build, um, endurance into yourself personally versus the business as well? Yeah,

Donovan: 22:49

no, I think I'm big on health and wellness. Um, and I think you, you individually, you gotta be equipped to deal what comes at you. To do that, you gotta be able to master this unit right here. First. You're 24 inches or whatever you are. And if you can't get this right, you can forget everything else. Um, you know, I, I, I'm, I'm big on health and wellness and that, that, that, that allows me to absorb. The stuff that you get day in and day out because you, as a business owner or, or leaders or whatever, you, you going to go through some stuff. This, this is not an easy cakewalk to have a business or leading stuff. It it, it is not. So the best way I can do is if I can control this, then I can control whatever else comes at me and I'm equipped to do it. So going to the gym, eating healthy, as healthy as I can, that transfers, translates into the business. So when I go to, to do my work. I know I can achieve that because I did that part. I control what I could control with my body, my mind. So if I could, if I can control that, you can control everything else that comes at you. And as far as, you know, losses or, you know, the sales cycle. I mean, there are projects we lose and things like that. Um, but there's always a lesson to it. There's always a lesson to a loss that we take. So we. We don't sit there and oh, well, we lost and this and that, and we wallow in it and, and, and whatever, man, we, we, we take the whooping and go home and we get on the board and figure out why we lost. We're gonna get back out there the next day and figure out, okay, this is what we need to correct. And, and for us, you know this, every day is Monday. What do we say every day is Monday. Why? Because what happens on Monday when you come in, y'all reenergize, you got a new week, and I'm gonna kill this. I'm gonna kill that. Well, Friday comes, it's Monday for us because what's happening on Friday for most people, they ready for the weekend. Mm-hmm. They ready to go hang out, but we ready to kill it like it was Monday because we know we got, we got big goals to achieve. So Friday is Monday for us.

Kenny: 24:59

As you were talking, and we mentioned social media earlier, the idea of like work-life balance is a hot topic right now. And so for a lot of people, work-life balance means working less. And spending more time on life stuff. Right. Uh, so I'm curious, like for you, like you mentioned some of the things that you build into your routine, like what does work life balance look like? You in particular?

Donovan: 25:24

I'll say

Kenny: 25:24

this, if you want to

Donovan: 25:26

build anything big, be prepared to be out, be prepared to be out of balance, hands down. You, you can't build something big and say you're gonna be balanced here and here and here because at some point in time you be working so hard on this that you gotta focus on this. But then there may time you're gonna have to focus on this and this is outta balance. Um, so you know, when I was uh, getting into my fitness journey, my sleep was outta balance.'cause you gotta get up early morning and go, or if I'm working a lot of hours, family's outta balance. But it's all for a bigger purpose. So if you know where you're going into what you're trying to do it for, then the result of the win that you're trying to get, balance everything out. But I don't think there's ever gonna be a quote balance, and if anybody believes that they've been fed some bad stuff, I'll leave it at that because it is just, it's just, it's just not possible, man. I mean, and not be successful. I, I don't believe that. It's just, it's just. To be wildly successful, you gotta, you gotta go out every, each and every day and put in, put in extraordinary amounts of effort in whatever you're doing. Um, I, I don't, I don't know how you, if somebody can achieve balance and write a book, sell it.'cause I don't know how you can do it.

Kenny: 26:50

Got it. As you were speaking, like I was believing. What you were saying, like you gotta really like, like the waking up early, like do some of those things. Yeah. And that throws other things off balance. Like it could throw your family life off balance at times. Right. But you gotta, there's gotta be, there's gotta get, be a give and take When you're going for and in

Donovan: 27:09

life, whatever you're trying to achieve, in order to get something, you have to give up something. You always have to give up something in order to achieve what you're looking for. Always. If you want to get in shape, you gotta give up the donuts. If you want to build a business, you gonna have to give up, sacrifice something, money, time, whatever. When I was building this business, there's a, there's a lot of things I would've had been rather doing, but I knew that there was a bigger thing. But you, you always gotta be willing to give up something to, to, to, to get to something greater. You know, I was working for a corporate company before I started business, making good money. I had to give all that up. Mean I moved to Charlotte, what, two a year or so ago? It was in Raleigh for 24 years. You have to give up something sometimes. It's what you, sometimes what you pray for. You gotta give that up. I prayed to, had that house in Raleigh. I had to give it up to come to Charlotte for something bigger and better that I believed that was the the right thing to do to achieve the goals and dreams that I was setting to do. But most people aren't willing to give up stuff. Because the comfort kills them. You know, it might be, and that, that giving up could be people, could be things, could be material things, could be whatever you have to give up. But most people aren't willing to give that up, and that's what kills them and stops'em because they aren't willing to give up what is comfortable to them in order to, to get to where they're going. So if you, if you, if you can get to yourself that I'm willing to give up something in order to achieve something more. Over time with that discipline, you'll start to see the pieces come together.

Kenny: 28:50

Appreciate that. And as you were. We're speaking just now. You, you've talked about how you've, you started to sh or you, you're sharing more about your brand publicly now. Yeah. Like you're, you're recording content, like you said, you fail at first and then you figure out what you want your story to tell, be told to the world is like, so what is the relationship between how you're showing up publicly, having speaking engagements like this, and then how you're leading your team?

Donovan: 29:16

Well,

Kenny: 29:16

I hope

Donovan: 29:17

they say I'm the same person here, that I'm. At the office or at home or wherever. So here, what, what is a brand? A brand is what a brand is. It speaks to who you or the business is, whether you're there or not. So when I'm not there or the business is not there, it should be the same whether I'm there or not, the experience should be there. Who I am, that's what, who I'm at work. This is who, this is who I am. Um, you know, I'll give you an example. We just come back from New York. I went to walking down the street, went to es. From the moment that I showed up at that store, the brand hit me and it wasn't, it wasn't what I was buying there. It was the experience. It was the experience. And as I was starting to go through there, I. You know, they walk you through the door and they greet you, Hey Mr. Hey, how are you doing? How can I help you? And first thing they do is, can I get you some water and bring out sparkling water and this nice Hermes branded coaster. The coaster had about$2,000.'cause it was, it was cashmere and all this other stuff, but they experience right there that just, that taking that experience through there. And just so you know, I was never going to buy anything. I just was like, lemme go in the store. I'd never been in Hermez before. So I go in there and. Give us this soda and or the sparkling water and the experience. They sit you down in this nice, probably a chin chill, a chair or whatever it was, and you sit there and they're like, what? Can I help you? Like I'm just looking, are nice shoes over there. Well, I walk outta there and was intended to buy nothing, but they experience hooked me. Their brand hooked me, and I was looking around at all the people and every sales professional was treating the customer the exact same way. That's brand. And I'm sure if I go to LA it's probably gonna be the same way. That's probably why they charge half a million dollars for those bags. I don't know. They got me to buy these shoes, but I was not intending. But my point of that is to say the brand is who, who you, who you are at all times. Whether you're there or not, you show up whether you're there at the door, whether you're not. The brand is the same thing. And if it can't, it can't, you can't give mixed signals, mixed signals with your brand.'cause the moment you give mixed signals with your brand, it's just people don't believe it. And so for me, health and wellness, I'm hoping I'm showing up to look and communicate that I'm trying to be healthy, driven. I, that's me message. I'm communicating, I'm driven. Um, I'm pushing hard sometimes delusional, but, but that, but that's'cause I have big goals and big dreams. Very just, you know, so that, I think brand has gotta be consistent whether you're there or not and just, it's gotta be able to speak that at all times.

Kenny: 32:09

That's interesting because when, think about some of the, the CEOs that we all know, we know very little about their, about their personal. Life. Right? And so that's the part where, for me, I'm trying to figure out if you have to, if those two have to align, but, but who are the CEOs you're talking about?

Donovan: 32:36

It was, that's a serious question. Like, um, like corporate? Yeah. Corporate. Yeah, definitely corporate, right? They got it. I'm gonna tell you why. It's not their agenda, it's corporate. So they have to be a way that corporate tells them to be. I'm not corporate. I'm Donovan. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna be how I want to be. So I want people. So,'cause me, I was looking for somebody to tell me how to show me how to do this. I wanted to know what it, those corporate CEOs can't tell me what it's like to go sign your house over, put your house on the dotted line. Can't do that. So. But, and there's nothing wrong. I'm just not saying anything about, but they, they're in a different capacity. So I, I, I've had to what? This business, I had to create things. I didn't, I didn't have a marketing department. We didn't have a accounting department. We didn't have in-house legal attorneys. We didn't have, we had to create all that. Well, corporate, it's already there. Mm-hmm. They're, they, they just, they screw it up. They get a golden parachute to go to the house. Mm-hmm. I screw it up, we shutting it down, we gonna lose a house. He ain't gonna be able to go to school and all this other stuff because I screwed it up. So there's a big push to make this thing right. I'm gonna push hard on this business, promote it,'cause it's got to win. There's no plan B. I don't have a golden parachute to go to the house. So I got, I'm gonna show everything why we're gonna make this successful. I'm gonna promote it. I'm gonna show why we're doing this. I wanna track the right people. Because if we can't get the right people, the business ain't gonna survive. I don't have a backend office that's going to go start looking, calling through 10,000 resumes. We gotta do this, we gotta do this here.

Kenny: 34:24

I appreciate you, um, breaking that down for me personally, because I'm coming from corporate into this space now as a founder of a company. And so that is a switch. That has to be turned. I mean, I came from corporate. Again, I'm

Donovan: 34:38

not knocking corporate.'cause corporate, the reason why I am where I'm'cause of corporate, they, they, they pay me good money to learn how to run a business. But what I also learned coming outta corporate was it's time to swim. You gotta, you, you, you don't have that corporate monster behind you protecting you. So what are you going to do? Take all the things that corporate showed you to do, surround yourself with people who act actually built businesses. Take their advice, learn what you learned there and put it all together and it happens. And that's, that's what what I did, you know, my advice come from people who built business. Um, and when I, when, if you look at our growth trajectory, the where, where it started to really take off, I got more intentional about listening to people who were where I was trying to go because they quickly showed you how to get past the hurdles. They told you some of the roadblocks that you're gonna hit before you got there, but they always told you to keep your foot on the gas, but be cautious of these things right here. So, um, I keep saying surround yourself with people who have what you're trying to achieve. That is the ultimate, one of the ultimate hacks of business life in general, uh, to get you to the next, next level. I'm sorry folks, like

Kenny: 36:07

I'm sitting here taking notes again in my mind and trying to wrap my head around what you're saying. Yeah, I, I certainly appreciate it because you're build, you're, you're saying these things. You're building your company in a public. Manner. And you're not necessarily like, you're not gatekeeping, you're not keeping this in a treasure chest and throwing away the key. Yeah. That's super powerful. Now,

Donovan: 36:27

I mean, you think about most people that built they, they got the curtain in front of them and they're, they're hiding'cause people looking for'em, coming out stuff. But for me, I mean, there's somebody out there that is, you know, I get messages back on when I post stuff and messages back. People go, thanks for sharing this. It really helped me. That, that, that, that feedback, that's, that's more powerful than anything because you, you know, you're actually giving back to somebody to help them. And I know how they felt because I felt the same way when I was able to get that information. So I, I'm, I'm trying, I want to be able to return the same thing that was given to me in so many ways, because if I hadn't have had that, to be able to see that. We say all the time. If we'd learned a lot of stuff we learned early on, it'd be a lot further off. Further, further along. But to be able to do that and to help somebody along the way with information, you know, you know, like I said, I said it earlier, that paid to be in rooms where people would do it. I mean, paid money to sit in rooms with people worth billions, and the information that they gave. Long, as long as you apply it, go back, apply it, stick to it, stay disciplined, it works. Um, so, so that, that,

Kenny: 37:44

that's a, a great segue for me. Thank you so much for saying that. Uh, so I think about networks and like you just said, like you may have to pay to be in some of the, in these rooms, like how do you strategically go about leveraging your network, whether it's in construction or not. Yeah. To get stuff done for DA ever. Yeah.

Donovan: 38:04

Um, so I'll go back to pay. There's a saying, if you pay money, you gonna pay attention, pay enough good money, you gonna stick with it'cause you don't wanna waste your money. Um, but as far as the network, you know, a lot of successful people spend their time building their networks. They're very selective about who they spend their time around. So, so for, for, for me, I'm, I build a lot of, uh, I work, I spend my time building a lot of networks of, in, in, in the industry, outside the industry of whether it's pol political, uh, community relationships because those relationships actually can help you in the big picture. And if you just focus it solely on. Construction or specific market, uh, uh, relationships, you're limiting yourself. But, you know, coming to Charlotte, I realized Charlotte was a, a community, uh, a place of community. So community is a big thing. So when I got here, the first thing I started doing was started building networks and relationships in the community and those that come back tenfold. And we do a lot of community projects. Spectrum Center, that's a community project. Um, you know, schools, it was a community project, so. If you're not investing or building networks in the community, how do you expect the community to reward you with any of that work? So, um, I spend a lot of time building those networks because those are important. Um, and, and, and, you know, it's not about, it's, it's, it's all those things start to come together and, and, you know, everything's a transaction, but how you transact. If it's relational is where, where it matters. Everything's a transaction, but you, if you don't make it transactional, that's where the juice comes from. So are you getting to know people? What makes them tick? What are their families like? So you can, you know, we got these tickets to the, to the Hornets, and I was building a relationship with someone and their son wanted to go to a Hornet scheme. They, they had never sat courtside, but to be able to do that and give that, give them the ticket so they can take their kid and they, man, they sent me handwritten notes, called me, said their, their kid had the most absolute time. But that's a relationship building.'cause I took the time to understand what would make them tick. So I didn't do that just to get something in return out of it. I heard what they wanted or heard what they, what would make them tick. And I was able to do that with my means. So by doing that, that opened up a different level of relationship versus just saying, well, what can I buy from you? What can you gimme? What can, that's not? That's not relationship building. Relationship building is built spending time with people and understand what they need to help them get to the next part of their life or how you can help add value to them. Um, and so. Networking piece and, and building those relationships, staying present. Um, one of the best pieces of advice I got from another business owner is you gotta stay present in your business. A lot of business owners get to certain levels, you know, certain revenues, certain things, and they, if you will, turn the keys over and get out the car, I'm gonna turn the keys over, I'm staying in that car because you gotta make sure you're pushing on the business. It stays consistent and you gotta see your leadership. The community's gotta see, I might not be on the project sites building the projects, but am I meeting with community leaders? Am I doing things in the community that the community needs from leaders like myself and or others in my organization? So it's a all, it's, it's always a, a, a, a, a ever changing thing, but it, it involves you to stay involved in what you're doing.

Kenny: 41:47

So you talk about. I appreciate you bringing that up. Just about eventually some business owners, some founders, they turn over the keys. Yeah. I guess in terms of the conversation around legacy mm-hmm. Like what is, what are your, what is your game plan with that? Do you see this being something to your point where, you know, the. From a leadership perspective, it stays with like, I guess like a, a, a family led business or do you feel like you can step away and then other individuals can come in and run something? Build? Yeah. I think as a business

Donovan: 42:25

grows, in order for the business to grow and folks in your organization to grow, I have to continue to grow. To, to grow and get out of their way so they can continue to do stuff. Um, I don't know. What's Hunter? What does he wanna do? Uh, uh, y you know, the legacy could mean anything, whether I'm there running it every day. The legacy, what I built, can continue by me not being there every day.'cause bringing leaders and others that I can bring in the organization, continue on what the vision and mission is of the business. Legacy is what it is. I mean, you look at it, there's a lot of businesses with family names on it. The original owners and original founders aren't there running it, but their legacy still continues long after they're gone. So that's intentional. And they, they might, may or may not be family members still there, but it still continues. So for, for, for me, that's what I want to be able to do to even when I step away. Mm-hmm. What we set up continues on. Whether I'm there or not. And if he wants to, maybe if, if it's something else, you know, don't know that he may not wanna do it, who knows.

Kenny: 43:35

Appreciate that. Uh, that, that clarity there. Uh, Donovan, I am early on in my figuring out what my toddler wants to do, so with her life. So that's why I asked that question. So I appreciate you giving me that gym. There it is. Whatever they want to do. Yeah, right. At the end of the day,

Donovan: 43:51

you can't. I didn't get pushing. This is what I wanted to do. And I think where, where you, when you try to push them into it, it kind of, it, I think it may backfire in some, in some regards that, you know, I tried to, one thing I do with him is take him to take him to meetings with me. Take him where all I'm trying to condition him to do is to be able to communicate, communicate, maneuver, and whatever those skills that he, those soft skills that he's learning, whether he wants to. Race cars or, or build or build buildings or whatever. Those soft skills that I want him to learn, he can take them any and everywhere and be successful wherever he wants to be.'cause what I learned is communicating, building relationships. If he can learn those basic skills, the rest of the stuff will come to him. So, you know that that's, that's really what it boils down to. Mm-hmm.

Kenny: 44:44

Appreciate that. Um, I think

Donovan: 44:48

where we at in time. Okay.

Kenny: 44:57

I just wanna make sure we got time for folks that, that, that may want to ask a question or two. If there's anybody who has a question, feel free to raise your hand and we will figure out how to get a mic to you. I wanna make sure we make time for folks to ask questions.

Audience 1: 45:15

Thank you. Donovan, thank you again so much for being here. Um, I wanted to ask specifically, when it comes to access to capital, you know, it's critically important to be able to grow businesses, especially when starting off, what type of advice would you give a early startup when trying to get access to more capital? You know, lines of credit might be there, you know, personal or business credit cards might be there too, but maybe like a non-traditional route. Um, when looking to get, I. Large, larger amounts of capital.

Donovan: 45:49

Yeah. It, it, it goes, I think it multiple, I think it goes back a couple things. It's about building relationships with people that have capital. You said non-traditional. Um, you know, I, I didn't start with a lot of capital. You know, we, I did not start with a lot of capital at all and we're gonna be a hundred plus million dollar business. We basically financed our company. Year after year, after year. But, so I think just really building relationships with people, getting in those circles and understanding, but as you're doing that, build the wins.'cause money follows success. And if you're winning, the capital will come easy. So I'll give you an example. I wouldn't got some capital to start my business and it, it was no money. Like when I say no money, I mean it was, it was just enough to, to get the thing going. It took me, I was in his office probably like three hours. Fast forward several years later, I wanted to grow my business. I was like, I need some outside. I need some capital to do this thing. Like I probably need about a million,$2 million. I went to the office, but keep in mind that was five years, six years have went by for the first time, but we've been winning. You know, we've shown success. Whatever. It took me 10 minutes to get that money. Seriously. 10 minutes. And I go, man, I should ask for more. But what my, my point about that is, is you gotta, you gotta build that success so people can understand that you're serious about what you're doing. Traditionally with the outside capital, no different with banks. Banks gonna wanna see a success story. Banks gonna wanna see, are you profitable? Are you, are you, are, you know, what, what are you doing in your business? No different than people on the outside. And as long as they believe in you, they'll give it to you. You can have a, you can have a business model that might not work, but if, if you believe it will work, they go, they'll stroke you a check. But I think you gotta build success along the way so you can help make that case. Um, so that, that's my, that's my advice. So much

Audience 2: 48:06

Donovan. Um, I've been writing down a

Donovan: 48:08

lot of notes,

Audience 2: 48:09

um, and to include some questions. I do have a couple of questions, but I'll wait till the end. Um, my first question is, how long were you a subcontractor before you became a prime contractor? Or were you ever a subcontractor?

Donovan: 48:20

Yeah, so no, we started out as straight up general contractor, construction manager. Um, that was, we. I started, uh, corporate company. Um, so we were a general con or construction manager, and that's how we started our business. We, and we intentionally, we knew that was what we wanted our business to be a general contractor. So we had people offer, you know, will you be a subcontractor? And we intentionally did not. We gave up because we wanted to stay. Remember I said brand? Yes. We wanted our brand to be what that was. So we. And again, we were in a, i, my position may be a little different, so I, I don't want to say don't turn out opportunity, but my, but I knew that this is what I wanted this business to look like, and we, general contract is all we've ever been. It's all we, that's all we've ever done. So, um, and it was just, it's, it's a, it's a discipline, you know, it's opportunities come along. He's like, oh, I can do this and do that, but. It is a brand we wanna stick to it. And I'm glad we did because now people don't, they don't even, they don't even come to us about things and, and they, they, but they come to us about the, what we want them to come to. So, yeah. So, you know, I'll talk about Yeah. Joint. Good point. Joint ventures, you know, we, we've done some joint ventures on larger projects. Um, where we're a minority share in a large project, but we're still at the prime level. But that allows us to really be a part of big projects, but also sometimes learn from the bigger the, the bigger, uh, animals that their systems and their processes and things that we wanna bring back to our organ organization to do that. But they're all strategic. You know, we don't do it just to do it. We do it for a strategic reason. And over time, you know, that helps your business. Um, but also Sue, say with your business, if you're wanna do joint ventures, you don't wanna make that your primary business because you will live and die on the partnership. You think about it, if, if all majority of your work is joint ventures, the joint ventures drop and you don't have anything to go to your own, you gonna die when the partnership dies. So just make sure you build your business, whether it's partnerships or subcontractors. You want to do it in such a way that it aligns with your business and, and that it doesn't put you as dependent upon one, one thing of anything, dependent upon one thing of anything is terrible on it just is just a bad place to be. But we all be in that position'cause you're growing your companies. But once you, the quicker you can quick, uh, quickly think about that and get outta that part, the faster you'll be able to, to grow your business. So, yep.

Audience 3: 51:03

Hey Jonathan. Uh, just wanted to thank you again for coming. Yeah. Out. Um, Grayland Heard Young up and coming real estate developer 29. Um, uh, so I've heard you talk about relationships building them, um, as someone that is young, successful black man. You know, sometimes we see the pitfalls of young black men being, or just. Men in general, women in general as well, is the partner and who they choose. Right. Um, and I think the, the most important relationship that you could have is someone that you're married to. Right. So I know that you talked about balance and things of that sort. What advice do you have in regards to picking the right partner and managing that relationship as being a successful entrepreneur?'cause that's kind of where I'm at right now.

Donovan: 51:47

Yeah, good question. I got my partner here tonight. Um, I think. The who you pick in, in your partner is, is will either break your making for sure. And I think whoever you pick, you gotta make sure you are in alignment with your goals and your dreams and they gotta be in alignment with that. I, I'd say all the time, if I gotta sacrifice my goals and dreams for somebody else's happiness, yeah, I'm not gonna be a very happy person. So you gotta make sure you communicate that to align that, to say, this is what the goals and dreams are, and this is why it's gonna benefit this unit. I'm doing this because it's gonna benefit the greater good, but when I go out and I'm pushing and I'm, and I'm doing what I need to do, there's an alignment on that. What I'm doing is for that reason. So I think if you have a partner that understands that of what your goals and your dreams are and they can get behind that, then that's what's, that's gonna make it easy for you. But if you don't, it's gonna make it hard for you. Because think about it, if you're pushing the gas, and I've used this example before, if you're pushing the gas and she's pushing the brake, where are you going to go? Not, not, not anywhere. So I think you, you got, you got, you gotta have alignment in that because that will, I mean, if you can't, if you can't get that part right, it's gonna be hard when you. Go out and try to do your business because something's gonna be pulling at you. And until, and I think if you can get in alignment with that, you know, and if you can't get in alignment with it, you're gonna have to choose. There's no balance. Me, me, me. Meaning, meaning if you're in alignment, that's the balance. They know where you're going and why you're going there, then they should understand what you're doing. That's the balance. Um, so you gotta, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta communicate. And, and so we didn't go on trips for, for, for a while. When I say trip trips, like trips, because the business went, the business went where it need to be. Uh, it need things like that. So, and they have to understand that. We can't go buy, yeah, we made some money here last year, but we can't go buy a new car, a new house this year.'cause I'm got, I have goals. We have goals to get this business to world or whatever the case may be. So they gotta understand the sacrifice, but you also gotta understand the sacrifice they're making to help you achieve your goals and dreams. You see what I'm saying? So, uh. It's, it's all comes back to alignment and communication. Um, because when you're building your business, it's going to take it, it's going to take time from you and a time away. But I think if you can align that you, you do. But if you can't, only thing I can say, it's probably gonna be hard. So Good.

Kenny: 54:48

Yeah. Appreciate the questions, uh, that looked like what we had, um, in terms of folks having follow-ups. Is there anybody else? Just real fast. All right. Um, so, so in closing, I really want to, uh, thank Donovan for having this incredible conversation with us sharing your Gs your, your, your experiences is really second to none. Right. And, um, it was amazing just for me from the very first day conversation that I had with Toya, um, just having this, this sort of opportunity put in front of me as I build my brand. So I definitely just appreciate you for, for coming on the platform and sharing your story. I do want to leave it, um, kind of final thoughts to you in terms of like closing this out, kind of what you want the audience, and then obviously we'll have listeners who listen to this on other platforms takeaway.

Donovan: 55:41

Yeah. Um, well, no, thank, thank you all for. Coming out, like I said, anytime I get an opportunity to share a journey and help others, you know, that's, that's what it's about. You know, like I said, I'm just the guy from Beaufort, North Carolina that had big goals and big dreams. But what, for me, what did happen is I, I said I will refuse to quit on my goals and dreams. So whatever y'all are doing that you're trying to do, and it doesn't have to be a business. It could be your careers, it could be business, it could be family, whatever those things are, all these things still transfer over what I'm saying, but established goals and dreams, big, like wildly there there's a, there's research that shows the bigger the goal, the more fulfilling that it will be and the more easier that it will be to achieve'em because you get creative. So set these big wild dreams and big wild goals. Stay committed to him. Don't quit. Don't quit it. Just, and, and it's, it's just gonna take discipline, commitment and creativity to figure it out. And then you'll get there. So you, you going to, you going to, if you stay disciplined over, you know, keep My dad, my dad used to, he used to, he used to tell me this thing. He used to thing called nudging the ball. He said, every day if you just nudge that ball a little more, just keep nudging the ball. You gonna look, even if you nudge it just a inch a year, five, 10 years from now, if you've nudged that ball every single day, no matter if you nudged an inch, two feet, three feet, or four feet, you're gonna be a lot further along than you were if you did not nudge that ball every single day. So my advice is to whatever your goals, your dreams are, nudge that ball every single day. Because once you look up, you're gonna go, I'm a lot further along than where I was. And you're gonna be a lot more happy with yourself because you've worked towards your goals and your dreams, and you're gonna see some fruits of that labor as you've been nudging that ball all that time. So just don't give up, keep dreaming and it will show up.

Kenny: 57:41

Appreciate that, Donovan. Uh, thanks for everybody for tuning into the first, uh, live episode of The Beyond Normal Podcast. Appreciate it.

Audience 1: 57:48

Yep.