Episode 4 - David Belman - Award-Winning Business Owner

David Belman is an amazing business owner who had to find his own path despite being a second-generation business owner. David now runs an award-winning business that also allows him to give back to his community, one of David’s passions is Project Finally Home. He and his company are able to build homes for deserving veterans through the charity of others. On top of this, he is involved in many other personal projects and has created an amazing culture that people want to work in.  

 

Leighann Lovely  00:18

If you are an HR professional business owner or at the operations level trying to understand what people want. You may be struggling; our systems have been shocked practices have been questioned and culture is the leading conversation. Let's learn how culture is created, sustained, and why it should be the leading conversation when discussing hiring, training and retention. This is the foundation of any business and it's time to address it. So tune in to Let's Talk HR humanizing the conversation. We tackle topics that influencers of change need to understand and struggle to overcome every day, such as where to start, and what the new workforce wants and how to attract and keep positive momentum going. I'm your host Leighann lovely.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:06

Welcome to this week's episode of Let's Talk HR. I get the honor of talking with an amazing individual this week, who's not only well liked in his community he gives back to his community and is just all around an amazing person. David Bellman is a second generation builder, developer and realtor and past president of the Metropolitan Builders Association in 2016, and past president of the Wisconsin Builders Association in 2017, as well as director of the National Association of Homebuilders. David is a Wisconsin trustee for the National Association of Pac fundraiser, David hosts a podcast called home building heroes, which has been downloaded 270,000 times. David has won numerous awards, including 2017, Walkinshaw, Freeman, citizens of the year Top Choice Award for best builders in Milwaukee six times in a row, and 2020 Emerging Leaders award for Waukesha County, and 2022, Wisconsin Builder of the Year. This is an amazing individual that I'm very excited to have a conversation with. Thank you, David, so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to talk with you.

 

David Belman  02:28

Thank you so much for having me on. Leighann, I'm honored that you chose me to have have you as a guest on the podcast here. So yeah, I love to talk some HR with you.

 

Leighann Lovely  02:36

Yeah. Excellent. So David, why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?

 

David Belman  02:41

Sure. So for those of you that don't know me, I am a home builder. That's how I started my career. And so I always tell the story of how I kind of got into the industry. And I literally grew up in the homebuilding industry. It was in the basement of our home. And so dinner table at night and everything, her heard the conversations about homebuilding and trades and contractors and all that kind of stuff. And so one day, I found myself nine years old, getting a little sassy with my dad. And I said, something I probably shouldn't have said, and I found myself on a job site with a broom and a shovel. And he dropped me off there and left me there. And he said, start at the top and work your way to the bottom. And I swept out the house and cleaned it. And he came back later and picked me up. And I don't think you can get away with that anymore nowadays, but No, probably not. But, you know, there was some valuable lessons learned that day, you know about the value of hard work and respect. And he gave me a check, which when you're like 1010 years old, or whatever, 910 years old, you get a check. It's pretty cool. You think you're really cool. So, but I learned I learned, you know, the value of hard work and what it took to kind of build these homes and the hard work that it takes and you know, like that track. And so I just got more and more involved and kept doing more, more work on the sites as I got older and more skilled and eventually took over the company and have do homebuilding land development real estate now.

 

Leighann Lovely  04:13

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I Yeah. Like you said, I don't think that you could do that nowadays.

 

David Belman  04:20

Yeah, the HR bells are going up right now. Like, yeah, you can't take a minor and drop. Oh, yeah.

 

Leighann Lovely  04:26

Ding ding ding especially, especially a job site. You know, those are the Yep. But definitely a valuable lesson. Wow. Growing up in a family business is definitely different. Different dynamic. Yeah. So you transitioned to basically run the business. What, how many years ago now is that?

 

David Belman  04:53

Well, it's it was definitely a process. So my father, you know, started the business in the 70s. It was land development. Real Estate and then we get into building in the 80s. And then around 99, I, my brother and I were in the business together. And my dad was like, Well, I want to start to phase down some things. And then, you know, in talking to we had a lot of conversations with attorneys and different things like, Well, why don't you guys set up your own corporation, we'll kind of phase down the line and build up the other one. Because there's a lot of assets and things involved with real estate and land development. So that just seemed to make sense. So he could wind out some properties, we could, you know, so we worked together for about 15 years, a little bit short of that. But what happened is, after partway kind of doing this, this partnership with my brother, it wasn't wasn't really equal, as far as we had equal ownership, but not equal workload or anything. And so, you know, he moved out to a lake and wasn't coming in all the time, and was doing other things. And, you know, I was kind of running the show, so to speak, and, you know, it was fine, I was like, this is for the greater good, just keep the company going the best way we can. But you know, after about, you know, 12 or 14 years of it, it was really wearing on me, and, you know, my father was, you know, more transitioned out by that point, he was going down to Arizona in the winter and stuff. And it became hard when my brother would come in and try and upend everything I had done. And I'm like, Well, I've been here all week, and now you just showed up, you know, so it created conflict, it did get a little bit difficult for a while and challenging. And I finally got to the point where I didn't even want to go into my own business anymore. No, no. And you know, when you own your own company, and you want to call it that's not good, right? That's not where you want to be mentally. And so it was hard on my team, and I could see it. And I kind of got to the point where I said, I can't put up with this any longer, I either have to buy him out, or I'm just gonna go off on my own, I can't deal with this anymore. And that's kind of how I had to, I had to have the difficult conversation with him. And I talked to my father about this too, because obviously, this was, you know, his business and is his vision to have us work together. And in he's like, I know what's going on. And he's like, I support you, I don't want to get in the middle of it, but I support you. So I was like, Okay, so, you know, I had that difficult conversation with them. And, you know, said, This is it, we got to do this, and it was difficult for a while. But I'll tell you what, after we got through it, I bought him out. It was like this, like black cloud lifted over the company. And it was just amazing. After that the the spirit of the company, the energy, the engagement, the results, I mean, it just all like started to happen, like, you know, for somebody that was watching from the outside, they're like, What the hell like, what happened, right. But it was something that was going on for a long time, because I was trying to improve the company and raise the bar and install a vision and, and, you know, a culture in there. And he was resisting it. So it was like, once we kind of got that piece out of it. You know, everything just kind of happened, the award started coming in, and all sorts of just stuff like that. If you didn't know what was really going on, you would have just been like, what happened there? Because that's just just look like we shot out of a cannon all of a sudden.

 

Leighann Lovely  08:13

Right. Very interesting. And this is a conversation, obviously, that's happening at so many companies, which is what if I'm sure that most of you grasp that, which is the the the underlying culture that's happening within companies? And it starts from the top right, it? Oh, absolutely, yeah, it's from the top, if the top is not actively seeking and actively taking control of the culture of an organization. The culture is going to be in turmoil trying to figure out

 

David Belman  08:48

There's culture and yeah, there's culture in every company, whether it's written down or practiced or not. So it's why take that chance, because if you don't have it written down, it's probably not going to favor your company. And that kind of favor you as the owner. So you want to have kind of a rules of the game. And I always kind of, say culture, much like a sales process is kind of like playing a board game with a three year old. If you've ever played a board game with a three year old

 

Leighann Lovely  09:14

Oh, yeah, I have a four year old. Yeah.

 

David Belman  09:17

So you know, it's like, it's great, right? You kind of talk about the rules for a minute, and then you start playing the game, and they're like, Okay, and then as soon as something bad happens, right, and they have to go back to start or something. It's like, they start trying to you know, change the rules media play, the rules, are they just want to walk away and quit the game, right? So you have to be really clear on setting the rules of the game, whether it's your culture, or your sales process, or whatever it is, and when you start to build those things in. And then the cool thing with the culture on top of you know, just having now clear rules, when you have a really good culture, then the team is actually enforcing the culture. So sometimes even you as the owner aren't always following the points of culture that you wrote down to a tee you know, and they're holding you accountable which then you You know, you have a really good culture. But it also makes it more apparent when you have a culture that you're committing to when someone doesn't fit the culture. And I experienced this as well. So we really went all in on that. And, you know, that's when a lot of that good stuff started to happen. But then I brought someone else in from outside the organization when I hired them. And within a week and a half, I knew like, this isn't really going, right, this person doesn't seem to fit in. And then I was having people from the company come to me and be like this, this person isn't cutting it. And, you know, I had when I had three people come up to me separately, and I'll say that I took the person in my office the next morning, first thing in the morning, and I let them go. And I just said, this is not, it's just not a fit, I'm sorry, you know, let's it's on me, I, you know, we made no mistake here. And I apologize. And you know, and then you can't just help separate people out like that, when you have a really good culture, you can see the really good people, they'll tend to even perform better. And some of the moderate people that you have in your company, they'll either step their game up to meet meet the standards. And then if there's someone that doesn't, they kind of stick out more. And a lot of times you don't even have to fire them at that point, they basically realize that this isn't a fit for them, and that they actually will a lot of times move on. And it saves you from firing somebody to

 

Leighann Lovely  11:20

Right, Absolutely. Yeah. And this, this happened a couple years, I'm assuming a couple of years ago that you and your brother parted ways. Yep. Yeah, was about 2014. Okay. So parted ways. And I'm sure that that had to, you know, first I didn't mean to skip over that that had to have been a very emotional rough time for you. Because while you are, you know, going through all that you're also at the same point, trying to save the company culture, save, you know, and rise the company up. Yeah,

 

David Belman  11:53

I mean, there's a couple of things that, yes, it was extremely difficult. And I always say, that was probably like, the most difficult thing I've ever had to deal with in my life. And, you know, it also kind of was coming to a head because like, in the building industry, you know, the 2010, like, 2008, took, like 2012 2013 was really a terrible housing market, and is putting a lot of stress on the organization, just from a financial perspective. And then, you know, when you have somebody that's, you know, taking a lot of you no money out of the company, a good salary, and, and, you know, he always wanted to pull money out, and it's like, okay, if I let this keep going, we're not going to have a company. And so I was kind of like, at the same time, I kind of had the I have to do this, or it's, I know where it's going to head, it's got to go one of two directions. So you know, it my dad had been in the business long time, I think he was wore out with it. And this especially going through a recession, like that just didn't want to deal with it. And so it was like, I have to step up and take the reins. And so it was also like another lesson in having one voice and one direction. Because it was kind of like, we had too many chiefs and not enough Indians. So kind of came in and said, Okay, I'm the voice. I'm the one steering the ship now. And this is what we're going to do. So we are all on the same page, everyone was super excited about what we're doing. And we put a, you know, a vision together, not just the culture, but the vision of creating the ultimate building experience for the customer at a time so that we really raise the bar. And, you know, at first I was like, gosh, are we ever going to do this, and we still, you know, have to improve on that every day. But when we raise the bar like that, it just, it really differentiated us. And it really made it a focus. Instead of, you know, most of my competitors trying to be the cheapest, or the you know, I have the best quality, which is super subjective. We're like, hey, we want to have a good experience, because this is a stressful time building a house. So it was really need to kind of go off on that direction. And it really, really helped us grow and set us apart.

 

Leighann Lovely  13:59

Awesome. So let me ask you now kind of going back to this, this cultural piece, when you started down that path. So now, you're you're in a position of okay, now I'm the I'm the owner of this business I now have it's my voice. It's my it's my vision. How did you even begin to I mean, did it? You know, I'd like to say, oh, it just magically falls into place. Right. But there's obviously it's very intentional. Yep. Yeah. So how did that what did that look like?

 

David Belman  14:29

So what I did is, you know, I just didn't want to have something on a piece of paper on the wall, right? You know, I mean, everybody can write up something, a mission or something. And, you know, maybe they slap it on the wall, and then they forget about it. And that's not what what I wanted to do, and I knew that that wouldn't work. So what what he did is well, first of all, we engaged everybody in the company, as far as when we built the vision, the mission, had some general ideas and you know, we had a meeting or two to kind of refine what it was going to be. We got people's input so we have a, I have it in three steps. We have the vision, which is the overall top of the mountain, this is the where you want to get to the pinnacle. And then you have the mission statement, which is kind of how you're going to get there. And then I had the points of culture. And these are the characteristics that we want our team to exhibit in order to get there. And so the points of culture are really important, because those are the little nuggets that, you know, hey, we're innovative, hey, we, you know, honesty is a key piece. You know, there's so many, like, I have 14 of them, actually. So I don't presume to remember them off the first cop. But those are the our points of culture. So what I did is, we wrote these all out and how they relate to Bellman homes. But then what we did is every single month, we had a meeting. And as part of our company meeting, we would spend about 15 minutes on on a point of culture. So we would say, let's take, you know, innovation. And I would have some educational material, whether it was a video or a discussion, creativity is one of them. So okay, we did an activity about creativity, I remember, we actually I gave everybody a certain amount of Legos, and we had the beachhead, to build something out of this random pack of Legos to show their creativity. So we just always added elements into our meeting. So not only do we have this big thing, blazoned on the board and on our website, and on our literature, but we actually started to actively learn and, and, you know, practice what we were talking about. And we we did that for several years, where we just went really hardcore into that we've lightened it up, because I have the same people now. And it's like, okay, they get it, and they don't have to beat it in their heads anymore. But as we add new people that kind of add those elements back in,

 

Leighann Lovely  16:37

well, that's amazing. And you know, use it's a key thing, you have the same people, which means that whatever you're doing means that you are creating retention.

 

David Belman  16:46

Yeah, yeah, we don't really have a lot of turnover anymore. And you know, like, long time ago, I mean, we've always had being a smaller company, it's been pretty good as far as retention. But, you know, I love my dad, he was great builder. He was not good at the people side of the employees part of the business, he would rather be on the job site, he didn't want to manage the office or deal with Office stuff. So I always kind of naturally fell into that. And, you know, there was a lot of times where he hired people. And it was like, Man, I can't believe we had that person for that long. And we put up with this for this long. And so I've been very intentional, like, we actually have a hiring process. And we have, I have pre made Interview Questions where I get certain pieces of information out, we're very deliberate about hiring, I don't hire somebody right away. And I know, that's probably a no no, in this market with things being so tight. But I would rather like take my time. And even if I lose out on somebody, I'd rather get the right person because for me, if if the Fit isn't right, if the the group isn't good together, it's not worth it. And so I hire very slow, I do fire quickly if I have to. But I'm a big believer in that. And even in a tighter market, I've still it might hurt me, but that's how I would do it. Because I'm looking at somebody that I want to be with my company, not only today, but 10 years from now.

 

Leighann Lovely  18:08

Right? Well, and like you kind of said, One bad hire can up and the cohesiveness of our team. And so

 

David Belman  18:18

You know, the whole bad apple spoils the bunch is is very, very true. And if you have a bad culture fit, and you don't deal with it, yeah, I mean, it can rip your your company apart, and it might cost you a really good employee. And so I've seen it in other organizations where that's happened. And, you know, I've made the mistake, I've not had perfect hires. And I remember just kind of an example for you for hiring, you know, I have real estate sales, right? So for a while, I was just okay, if a realtor came in, they had a license, they wanted to come work for me, they were hard to get. So I was just like, okay, you know, bring them in and give them a try. And I got really good at finding the realtor's and then bringing them in, and then I realized, like, okay, they need a lot of training, they don't really get new construction. So I built a training program. And then what I was finding is that my competitors would just kind of see my salespeople, and they would reach out to them and they'd be like, well, you know, you come work for me, I'll, you know, I'll give you you know, 1% more, whatever I have present more. And so I get them all up and running and getting productive. And then I had it stolen. So then I was like, Okay, this this stinks. So I had to I then rebuilt my my program again. And and changed and created my own comp program where I actually guaranteed part of a salary to them. And I was like, Okay, it's still my people. No, no, you gotta pay on the salary and all of a sudden, nobody stole my people anymore,

 

Leighann Lovely  19:38

right? You shifted with the market or you shifted with, you know, the situation in order to continue to rent retain, which I've never heard a real estate agent getting a salary.

 

David Belman  19:50

Yeah, did you have like a salary plus deal that we created and it worked out really well. So it was, you know, but basically, there was always a conversation with the salesperson when you put I'm on this program like, you know, you know, you're gonna get get a stable salary, it's kind of an off basically, is how I did it, it's like, it's enough that you can, you know, pay some bills and put gas in the car and get some food and all that. But, you know, if you're expecting to live off this, it's not, you know, they had to sell something, or a couple of things to really, you know, and then as he did this, the Commission went up. And so that worked out really well. And that allowed me to then really heavily invest in these people a lot more, but then there was always a conversation of, you know, first six months in or eight months in and you're not producing, you know, we're going to have that difficult conversation. So they kind of knew, like, yeah, I gotta, you know, I gotta bring some stuff across the finish line here on occasion, and it worked out good. And the other thing that it allowed me to do, which was really amazing, is that, because it is so hard to find agents and get people involved with something where you may, you know, when the market is good, the sales come in pretty well, when the markets bad, you could not make money for a long time. Right? Right. So it kind of allowed me to bring in people that didn't have a lot of experience, but that were good people or fit the culture of the company. And then I could take a little more time with them and train them, and also build that loyalty. So I had some connections with the Tech Tech school in the area. And a lot of design students were coming in, we were talking to him about home building. And most of those design students, were not going to find full time jobs in design, because there just isn't that many of those jobs in this market. So I said, you have to learn how to do something else like sales, you can still do design and do sales with this type of job. And so I was able to recruit some younger people and teach them. And that's worked out really, really well. Awesome. Awesome. So so when you run into a roadblock, I guess the moral of the story is like, there's there's always a different path or a different way, and you got to stop digging. You know, all I have to do is put an ad in the paper and then you know, interview somebody and hire them. It's like, there's definitely other ways to go.

 

Leighann Lovely  21:55

Right. Right. Great. So I want to shift a little bit, you know, so you, in your intro, we, you know, I talked a little bit about, you know, some of the amazing awards that you have won, and you had mentioned that, you know, as you took over the company, that's when you really, you know, you just kind of shot exploded? Yeah, you exploded. So let's talk, you know a little bit about that. I mean, what you've, you've won multiple awards, including the what the Walkinshaw Freeman, citizens of the year, the Top Choice Award for the best builders in Milwaukee six times in a row.

 

David Belman  22:38

Wow, we yeah, we were, yeah, we've been very fortunate, you know, part of this, you know, can you can attribute to culture of the company, because a lot of the words are company awards. But you know, as I was kind of going through that process of buying out the company, and things like that, I worked with a coach a little bit. And, you know, one of the things that really stuck with me on this was, if you want to grow the company, you gotta grow yourself, and you can only grow as much as you're willing to grow. So I started investing more in myself. And that's really where a lot of this came from, is I started, you know, you know, I went through college, I graduated college, I did pretty good grade wise and stuff like that. But, you know, when I was done with college, I'm like I've done with textbooks, I've dealt with reading and dealt with learning. And I did I kind of just shelved it for a while. And, you know, I started to kind of get back to, you know, I, I want to start learning more about this stuff. So I started reading about things like I'm not not as good of finances, as other people saw, I started reading books about finance. And I started reading books about hiring and culture and just other business books. And I developed that kind of hunger to learn and grow. And as I was doing that, you know, it was also seeing the company grow. And, you know, I made a point to every day spend 15 minutes learning and reading something, and investing in myself. So I think that was a big part of it as well. And then the other thing was the mindset shift. And I wrote a book about leadership. And so that's in my book about mindset is really key. So, you know, being grateful for everything that happens to you. And that day, even if it's not been a great day, there's always something to be grateful for. And then taking the time to focus on where do you want to go? What's your vision for yourself? And who do you want to be what's, you know, where do you want to get to? And so I started to develop this Yes, mindset. And I started getting more involved in a lot of different things. So I, I volunteered, I got chosen to be the president of the local Builders Association. And then I got the asked to be the state president, and I'm serving on the national committee now. And so I you know, those are things that I've done because one of my thoughts for myself was I want to be a leader in the housing industry. So if I want to be a leader in the housing industry, how do I do that? I have to have to be a leader, right. I have to choose to lead. And so yeah, I think that's a lot of that. then, you know, just kind of all comes together, right?

 

Leighann Lovely  25:02

Absolutely. And it was something you said that in order for you to grow your business, you have to grow yourself. And that's, in the people that I talked with that is a common thread that you have to be willing to continue to educate yourself and in emotional intelligence, really a great deal. But also in, in areas of study, you know, make yourself if you're weak in one area, you know, try to expand your knowledge. And if you need to hire somebody to, you know, be the expert in that area, you know, sure.

 

David Belman  25:32

Like, for example, I got C's in accounting in college, I know, I don't really like the subject, it's not that interesting to me. And I'm like, I know, I can hire somebody to go do that. And they'll do a lot better job than I do. So part of it is understanding where you're weak, and bringing in somebody that that has the skills that you don't have. But at the same time, I like, when I learned accounting in college, it was like, Well, this is a debit, this is a credit, I'm like, I know, I'm not going to do this work. So I'm not interested in it. But now as I'm older, I've read, you know, a lot of stuff about accounting, but I look at it from a different perspective, I want to say, what information on those balance sheets and income statements is on there that that I can use to now make more money or improve my business, or have better results. And so I it wasn't that accounting is bad, it's just that the information that I was presented wasn't the type of information that I needed, as a business owner. So sometimes it's learning, uh, you know, a better way to utilize that information, or get information that you find more valuable, right?

 

Leighann Lovely  26:37

Sometimes it's, it's learning what you don't know, in order to be dangerous with the information that you that you Yeah, yeah.

 

David Belman  26:46

And, the more knowledge you have, I mean, the more dangerous it can be right. And it just, you know, there's, there's that whole knowledge piece, and then there's the whole kind of the mindset piece, which is hard to quantify, but it's just the mindset and the Law of Attraction piece, which, which I do believe in, I don't, I don't push it hard, because a lot of people think I'm crazy, but, you know, you get what you put out and you get what you're thinking about all the time, right? What you focus on. So if you're focusing on positive outcomes you're focusing on in, you have an actual plan for yourself, or a vision of where you want to go, you're much more likely to get there, it's just like being on a boat in the middle of the ocean. You know, if you don't know where you're gonna go, you can paddle anywhere, but you may not end up anywhere. But now if you got that map, and you go, Okay, I know, I want to at least go this direction, and I got some food with me and I got an order and this and that, well, not now you might have a much better chance of succeeding. And so I think those kind of things, the education piece, and the working on yourself and having a direction, you want to have those, those are the things that can get you to where you need to go,

 

Leighann Lovely  27:50

Yep, and I'm a huge, huge believer in you, what you put out to the world will somehow come back to you, it may not be one of those immediate, it's, well, it won't be an immediate thing, but it put up positivity and positivity will eventually come back to you. And if you walk around, you know, with negativity just seeping out of you. Yeah, that's what you're gonna get back.

 

David Belman  28:12

Yeah, and huge believer in that, I've learned that and obviously going through that with with the buyout of the company. But you know, I started to surround myself with more positive people, more growth minded people. And then more opportunities came because I'm surrounding myself with more of the correct people that I need in my life. And I still yet to this day, there's, there's somebody that I get, you know, a bad vibe from, it's like, I almost have this natural instinct where I just, I will get out of that conversation almost immediately, like, yeah, it's just, there's just certain people that have a bad vibe, and you can almost get attuned to it, you can kind of pick it up. And so, but then when you have somebody that, you know, you connect with, or you have a similar thought process, you know, you tend to attract more of those type of people. So, you know, again, you want to attract more of the right people than the wrong people. So I believe the mindset thing is, is key. And we spend a lot of time on that, especially in sales, too. It's like, you want to attract the good customer, you want to attract the customer that's going to drive you nuts for for a year and probably cost you more sales, right? And we don't want to answer that is so well, and

 

Leighann Lovely  29:16

it's, it's interesting when you you said sales, so what one of the rules when I first somebody was like, okay, when you make cold calls, set a mirror in front of you, and make sure that when you're doing those, those calls, that you have a smile on your face, and you're like, that's crazy, you know, but it's 100% true, because when you're smiling Your voice sounds completely different. It is

 

David Belman  29:38

Oh, absolutely. So that's great advice. Yeah. And, you know, again, going back to the mindset piece to it, you know, it's just, you know, I've read some sales books where they, you know, they talk to this guy, and he would go into a sales meetings and they was doing well with the pitch. And then he said, I started sitting in my car for 10 minutes. I get there early, and I'd sit in the car for 10 minutes and I visualize and I predict or, you know, visualize the outcome and how this went. And then all sudden, he was, you know, closing a lot more deals. And it's, it's a lot of what's between the years and how you present yourself. And now you're right, smiling is huge. The other big thing is just understanding personalities. And I've been fascinated with that. So I spend a lot of time with disc, and I teach my sales, Team disc profiling and stuff like that. But when you can kind of match someone else's personality or their learning style, and understand what it is and present the information in a way, you're automatically miles ahead. And so that's a big part of it, as well. So it's, you know, not only how you present yourself and, and your, your state of mind, but it's also then, you know, connecting with that other person in a way that they appreciate, right?

 

Leighann Lovely  30:47

Yep. So, okay, I, we were gonna bring us back and rein us in, because, you know, I could go down this path, obviously, being a salesperson, you know, my day job, and you obviously, you know, being owner, but also salesperson, you know, we could talk about this forever. Anyways, so you, you are involved in a lot, the things that we have, we've talked about, but you've done some amazing things. One, you are involved with young guns, which I have. I have actually attended every single young gun. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's it's great. And that, you know, mindset and everything. Every time I go there, there's always great tidbits of information that I walk away with, it's always energetic. It's always just, you know, very energizing. But something that I really wanted to touch on is Operation Finally Home. Tell me about this. And, sure, where did this start? And how did you know that?

 

David Belman  31:42

You're gonna find some parallels with a lot of what I've talked about. But yeah, so operation find the home. First of all, what it is, is, it's a really awesome organization, it started down in Texas, and what they do is they find a very deserving wounded war hero, and they give him completely or her completely free of charge a free home. And what we do is, they, they basically, look for builders that want to, to help with this, and the builder tries to get as much material and labor donated as possible. And then, you know, do some events to raise money to cover the rest of the costs. And there's a lot of media, there's a lot of things we do to create awareness for this. And then operations, my home finds the really deserve a family. So most of these people are people that have wanted to serve their entire life, they've had a severe injury in, in battle, they, you know, obviously need the help. So these are people that are very selfless people they've given to the country, they're given to, you know, the rest of their lives for us. And I can't think of a better person to give a gift like this to than someone that's, you know, taking a bullet for us. So it's an easy sell sometimes to people. But when you meet the families, and and then you help them, it's just so amazing. And I, you know, kind of going back to when I was going through this stuff with the company, you know, and trying to find the right people and all that kind of stuff. I was at a trade show in Vegas of all places. And one of my vendors took me to this concert, it was a country music concert. I'm not a country music fan, to be honest with you. But I'm like I was in the mindset of I'm going to accept I'm willing to learn and grow. So I'm like, Okay, I'll go. And it was a benefit for Operation fly home. So I learned about it. The people were so positive, they're so amazing. The story I learned about a veteran that lost his legs in the war. He had six kids at home, and he didn't know what he was gonna do with the rest of his life. And then they give him this home and totally changed his life. So it was touching. And it was right at that time when I wanted to grab onto something. And I needed something positive while I was going through all this negativity. And so that's where I kind of got involved with it. And I committed to doing a home I was the first one here in Wisconsin to do it. It was such a great thing that now we've done six of them

 

Leighann Lovely  34:01

Wow, that is I cannot I get goosebumps, I cannot imagine the feeling that not that the veteran and the Veterans family have because one to to serve your country and to be injured is obviously an extremely traumatic event. And to have that, that, Oh my gosh, what am I going to do from here in order to support my family, my family, but then to be able to, you know, be given some hope of now I at least have a landing. I have a landing, you know, to be able to put my family in a good spot and a good.

 

David Belman  34:45

Yeah, I mean, when you think about it, you know, like, Okay, this is, let's say you're young and you're idealistic, and this is what I want to do for my whole life, right? And then all of a sudden, just in this snap of an instant, right? It's taken away. So that alone is traumatic. It's stressful. but then they have like a physical ailments attached to that on top of it. And it's not always physical. Sometimes it's a mental issue. You know, PTSD and traumatic brain injury are huge. And most of our families not only have the physical injury, but they have the mental injury. And so sometimes people see that people are giving a home too. And they go, Well, they look okay, well, they might look okay, they might walk around fine. But you know, they've seen things that you and I would never want to even imagine. And probably seen that daily or multiple times over their career. And so that affects them too. So there's all this stuff going on. And then, you know, the home just takes away so much of that worry for them, because now they know if something happens to them, at least, okay, we've got the home, we've got a place to live. You know, yesterday, Sony had to cover utilities and insurance and stuff like that. But that just takes so much burden away. Right? And, yeah, so we, we not only just, you know, give them this home, but we do a lot of cool things, so we can surprise them. And they don't even know they're getting the home. And a lot of times we'll we'll find them, they think they're gonna get an interview or something with me. And then also like, Oh, hey, we chose you for the home. And we surprise him, we catch that on video. So you get all this really cool, organic stuff that happens. And then we bring them out to the the groundbreaking we do a really cool ceremony, we get a big 50 foot flag hanging from a fire truck, we drive them under and the communities out there cheering for them. And I mean, it obviously creates good PR and awareness and the news media, but it also creates, you know, the excitement in the donations and everything else that keep this in, you know, moving along. And so I've been very blessed to do this. And I've learned, you know, I don't just build houses now. It's like, okay, I know how to put on events and do other things. It's kept me very busy. There's a lot to do with that I could, I could come into work at four in the morning and leave at midnight and have plenty to do every single day. Obviously can't sustain that. But yeah, there's it's always something to, and it provides a lot of energy to be able to, to do something for someone else, and you make a difference in someone's life. I can't help hundreds of people with this the way it's set up. But I can I can change someone's life forever. And that's so impactful.

 

Leighann Lovely  37:15

Well, and we, as people can't help everybody, but we can help one person. Everybody does that, you know, what an impact we can make. And the fact that you're, you know, your company, your business is able to do that. It's awesome. It's absolutely amazing. And and you're absolutely right. You know, obviously I have I have you know, bipolar disorder, I have, you know, I've struggled my life, my whole life with mental health issues. So the idea that somebody comes back with PTSD, I can't even begin to imagine even experiencing what I have experienced, what it would be like to experience PTSD from being in war be seeing what individual like the see, and then also have a physical ailment, you know, from being shot, losing your legs, I mean, those those sort of be Yeah,

 

David Belman  38:06

it's a lot to you know, and the hardest part for me, quite honestly, when I do this is that I get the final sort of sign off on the family. And so I get a stack of papers, these people are extremely vetted as far as we don't want to give a home to just anyone, we want to make sure that they're very deserving somebody that's going to do something really well with this gift afterwards. So I mean, I get a stack of papers that's an inch thick, and I'm reading I feel like I know their whole life story, right when I but you know, it's it's hard to read these sometimes, especially when they start to talk about the injury and what's happening with them and their family and their dynamic. And it you know, when I first heard about this, it really frustrated me because I was like I thought our government did a better job of taking care of these folks. And yes, they get, they get, you know, a retirement thing and things like that. But it's not enough, they can't live like this, and especially if they've got an ailment. So I was like, Man, this just it was like my sins where I'm like, it was just a wake up call that we have to do more for our veterans. And I was never a veteran my father was was in the military, but I have no military experience myself, but I felt guilty and I feel like I have to give back. And this is a great place for me to get back.

 

Leighann Lovely  39:15

Right. No, and I wish that our government could do better for a lot of these individuals and you're seeing more and more people popping up. You know, I've met quite a few people who are veteran, I served in the Army National Guard for short for your service. Thank you. I didn't do anything I broke my leg. You know, before I did anything for our country, so I don't advertise that but of course now I'm interested but anyways, that's okay. But the journey there's it is part of my journey, but there is there. I feel like we need to get better as a complete society on how To help these individuals trans transition back into society and give them more mental health, you know, assistance and give them to, you know more, it's the same thing. And I don't want to compare these two, but it's the same thing with somebody who's transitioning back into society coming out of incarceration, a lot of vegetables go right back into jail, because it's easier.

 

David Belman  40:22

Yeah, well, and you haven't fixed the core problem, right, you know, especially with with inmates, and, you know, we've done some work, because obviously, you're trying to get people in the trades, you're, you know, sometimes that's the pool that's there. And so, you know, they've actually created this cool program. It's called the homebuilders Institute, and they actually all set up a training facility and in a jail cell. And they'll, they'll teach them a practical skill, they'll teach him how to weld, or they'll teach him how to do carpentry or whatever. So at least, you know, not only they have something that they're productive at, and they're not just sitting there all day, thinking about what they did, but now they actually have a useful skill. And so now they're starting to attack the root problem. And, you know, this, you know, saying what the military is, like, you know, they have to kind of go through some, some mental things, you know, and, and, but then taking that big worry off their plate helps a lot. And I've seen these people completely changed from when I first met them, and know, you provide them the home. And then, you know, obviously, we have six families we've helped, and I know, at least folks, and we invite them back out to a lot of things that we have, and you see how they're doing. And, and in general, they're doing a lot better, you know, and they're, they're starting new careers, and they're growing their family, and they have time with their kids. And that's the whole other piece is like, when they're deployed, they miss their family, like they're not there. And they might have missed six months, a year, two years of really important time with their family.

 

Leighann Lovely  41:46

Right? Wow. Well, David, you, you obviously, I mean, your journey is definitely one of you know, amazing, it's amazing. You've you've gone from, you know, young age, being in a family business to, you know, changing the culture of your company to being involved in some very amazing things. You know, we're coming to time. So I have the question of the season that I would love to hear. So if you could go back to your younger self and give yourself advice, when would you go back? And what advice would you give yourself?

 

David Belman  42:24

Well, as far as when, I guess, I would say probably maybe early in my high school career, because I think that's a good time when you're still trying to figure out who you are. And as far as the advice would be two things, and I kind of touched on it already. But one would be, you know, the mindset piece, and that you get what you think about most of time, and really have a vision for who and what you want to be. And then to continually learn and invest in yourself and grow. So you're not done with your textbooks, when you're in school, you don't want to continue to learn, you want to continue to grow. And if you're growing yourself, you know, you're a living organism, just like a tree, a tree doesn't stay in one spot, the tree is always either it's going to grow or it's going to die. So be be like a tree that continues to grow and branch out. Otherwise, you know, you're going to cap out pretty early. So that's what I would tell myself because, you know, I was a good student in school, but I wasn't I had no confidence like I was the shyest kid ever. I like I thought of me even doing this as a kid, I probably would have been like, No way I wouldn't do this. And now I like I'll go out and talk on stage with a couple 100 people, and I have no problem doing it. Because I've built that confidence. I've built myself by doing these things, and then challenge you know, be willing to challenge yourself to, you know, and push yourself out of your comfort zone. That's that's another funny dad a third one, that would be my third one. So I'll stop there. Because no, I go on all day.

 

Leighann Lovely  43:48

That's great. That's great advice, because there are a lot of young, young adults, young kids are the older kids, young adults that still have not grown that confidence. And to, you know, here's somebody who's as successful as you give your, your younger self that advice. Don't be afraid to ask

 

David Belman  44:11

Yeah, some of the best stuff in life is, you know, it's not easy, right? And you have to do something harder, or be willing to take that more dangerous path or difficult path to get to the really good stuff. And so I think, you know, we have to, we have to be mindful of that sometimes. And, you know, kind of leave you with this. And I remember when I agreed to do the Operation Finally Home house, I was at a thing in the Dells. And it happened to be that day that they asked me to lead the state Builders Association. So within like a couple minute period, I had to make a decision to lead this organization, which was like a five year commitment. And then they happen to also be talking about Operation fly home and I was the only builder in the room that knew about it. And I volunteered at that meeting as well then to lead the first project in Wisconsin, and then I'm driving home in the car for two and a half hours sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, what did I do to myself? But, but it was like, I made those difficult decisions. But I knew I was the right person for this. And this was what I was meant to do. And it was gonna be hard, but it was gonna be worth it. And it very much was. So I guess that's just sort of the story to tie it all together, that you get to kind of push yourself and challenge yourself. And it's way more rewarding when you do that.

 

Leighann Lovely  45:25

Right? You didn't You didn't bite off more than you could chew you you actually took the entire sandwich and just shoved it.

 

David Belman  45:34

Well, I remember driving home to when I was like, how am I going to tell my dad this, he's gonna kill me. But you know, sometimes you have to also trust in yourself that it's going to all work out. And you don't always have the answer right? This second, right? Like, I didn't know how I was going to raise all this money. I didn't know how we're gonna get this whole build. I don't even know where we were going to build it. But I knew that somehow it would work out.

 

Leighann Lovely  45:55

Right? Sometimes, you know, taking a leap of faith is is okay. Yes, yep. Right. So, if somebody wants to reach out to you wants to get involved in anything, you know, young guns or Operation Finally Home? Or how would they go about doing that? And know that it'll also be in the show notes. So you don't have to go through the entire thing. But, you know, please,

 

David Belman  46:19

Yeah, the easiest way, I mean, there's a couple of ways. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. So just look up David Bellman on LinkedIn, and connect with me there, send me a message, I'm glad to start there. Otherwise, if you want to email me, it's my name. So David, at Belman homes, it's B E, L, M, A, N homes.com, you can email me there, you know, and then from there, you know, I'm usually better with emails. So that's the best way to go. And then, you know, we can certainly have a phone conversation or whatever. But now I have a lot of people that I connect with, and they help out with, you know, volunteering with Operation fly home or things like that. So, you know, we can have a conversation and you know, that kind of thing, if that's something you're interested in, or you just want to learn about the home building process, or you want some inspiration, you want to grow and learn, come to young guns, events, they're really great. And the best part about it, not just as the education with the people that you meet there, and the connections that you make over time, because there's a lot of great people there. And they're all in the same mindset. And so, you're gonna you're gonna make some, you know, great connections, just networking with people there too.

 

Leighann Lovely  47:21

Perfect. Well, David, again, thank you so much for you know, talking with me today. It's been Yeah, it's been a very great conversation and I've really enjoyed it.

 

David Belman  47:29

It's my pleasure. Leighann thank you so much and invest lucky Tia.

 

Leighann Lovely  47:34

Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode, to follow us, like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

 

Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbelman/

 

Website - https://belmanhomes.com/

 

E-mail - david@belmanhomes.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/cruen/family-time License code: 2330NZD3BLNDKPYI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, home, culture, company, conversation, talk, piece, hire, day, business, mindset, david, family, grow, vision, deal, learn, builder, bellman, created

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