BB113: Faith, Family and Football with Brandon Leone of South Tex Asphalt

[Music]

this episode of blacktop banter is

brought to you by Craft goals the

world's leading manufacturer of package

pavement preservation materials and

equipment for the asphalt industry learn

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a lot of heat a lot of heat been out

here lately and blacktop manner's back a

great episode today with a good friend

of mine so let's hop into it

dude it's been hot here like Wisconsin

has been hot on fire hot and every time

it gets super hot I'm like man I'm glad

we ain't in the south

uh my guess today is he's in the South

and uh does it get as hot there as it

does here

absolutely it's always out here it stays

especially in Houston man right by the

Gulf Coast we we get the Heat and the

humidity combined and so you just always

feel sticky like you're always doing

like you're sweaty and so yeah we stay

hot down here

I got you I got you well my guest today

is Brandon Leo and that's his voice

you're hearing uh him and I have been

friends now for a few years and uh we

connect a lot of multiple places

throughout the year uh we stay in

contact and and talk fairly often I'm

not maybe not as much as we want to we

always have big plans when we're

together and we're going to link up and

do some cool stuff but uh we both get

really busy everybody knows that in this

industry that we stay really busy and uh

Brands stays busy at South Texas asphalt

um my guy does Business Development

there

right and I'm gonna let him kind of talk

about a little bit more about what he

does at South Texas and then uh we're

gonna get talking about how you got into

this industry to begin with but give us

a little background quick

yeah man right I feel like everybody no

matter what role they end up in

sometimes people have a plan when

they're younger but a lot of times man I

think the Lord just opens up doors and

you know people end up stumbling into

things at times for me I never

anticipated being in the pavement

industry and my role previous to coming

to South Texas Asphalt Services I was in

Commercial Insurance risk management and

then business succession and Estate

Planning and so I worked in northeast

Houston and I worked for a company

called Federated insurance is a direct

insurance writer and we would write the

PNC insurance and benefits for

contractors auto dealers machine shops

manufacturing companies oil jobs you

know people that are hauling material

about 10 Industries right so property

work comp general liability inland

marine all those different types of

coverages and so South Texas was one of

the companies that I wrote

oh no three four years into my time

running that territory and I developed a

strong relationship with uh Andy Jackson

who's now the division president

his dad had started the business in 74

they were a Sealcoat only business

something I know you can relate to right

big sealco guy yeah so that's all he did

man Andy's dad

um sealcoated all over the city of

Houston for everybody and like back in

the day like he wasn't really job

costume he did great work but he was

doing everything for like five cents a

square foot didn't matter how dirty it

was like people loved him and so his son

Andy you know he went to Texas I bet

yeah oh I'm telling you right that's a

that's a great deal especially if lots

of dirty you don't know how many

mobilizations like all that stuff but

yeah you know Andy Andy went to a m

graduated and then made the decision

during his time to come help his dad out

and so anyways he took the business over

from his son or from his dad grew it and

eventually ended up getting into full

you know asphalt repairs asphalt install

and then so then I came to work for him

and we became friends after I wrote the

business

and it's just kind of a long crazy story

but ultimately you know he ended up

asking me to come work from him work for

him yeah learn the business with the

hopes that one day maybe purchasing it

if it was a good fit for both of us so

dang man that's wild that's a crazy

story dude I never knew that I never

knew that that's how the connection was

made from you writing the policy

yep the PNC insurance man

now now when we see you you got your

phone out and you're on payment jobs hey

we're milling and pavement we've got

this parking lot in doing whatever and

it's just like to know that that's

that's where you're at from where you

started is is wild tell us a little bit

about tell us a little bit about like uh

your family like you know what what did

you what were your parents like what did

they do

um siblings and whatnot that type of

stuff because it's always crazy to kind

of hear somewhat of the background of

people and then they're here in the

asphalt world so can you shed a little

light on that for us yeah I can

um yeah I had man a bit of a crazy

upbringing Marvin so my mom my real dad

got married they had my older brother

and then they had me and at about 15

months you know my real dad left the

picture

and so he was out he was out of my life

and my mom was a single mom with me and

my brother for a really long time

he was super abusive dude and so she

struggled with some substance abuse man

she turned to some substance abuse to

cope and so really a lot of my childhood

was was moving all over the place my mom

you know had some a lot of stints in

prison and rehab facilities and so you

know from kindergarten to sixth grade I

was in three states

um I don't remember how many schools we

would just kind of live with people who

would take us in but you know behind her

struggle with substance abuse and

addiction if you've ever been around it

she was just yeah man the most she was

the most amazing person super humble

super sweet but she had she had been

through a lot of things and she just

didn't really know or have the community

around her to be able to process things

in a healthy way

so she turned to substance abuse to kind

of numb things and that took a pretty

heavy toll on her ma'am we got back to

Houston Texas when I was in like sixth

grade so I finished Junior High in high

school just north of Houston football

was a big thing for me man like that was

was ultimately what kind of gave me

structure because man at home bro I mean

there was a lot of times I lived with

friends it just wasn't a lot there and

so yeah football gave me that structure

it gave me something I was passionate

about that I love that gave me purpose

and you know ultimately that's what

ended up getting me to Texas A M is you

know I signed there in 2002

um under coach Slocum one of my favorite

guys of all time you know played there

all four years redshirted you know had a

great experience there we weren't that

good when I was there unfortunately but

but my time at Texas A M was really

probably the most formative season of my

life as far as cool you know becoming a

man I became a Christian there I mean

there's a lot of things about me that

changed um yeah you got that structure

you know got that structure kind of got

mentorship right like I I talk about a

lot in my upbringing dude like even the

people that were mentoring me didn't

know they were mentoring me right they

were just there I seen it and I was like

oh that's stable it kind of feels good

being stable all right let's do that one

thing I want to ask you a couple

questions about that background and uh

you know you're always looking real

clean

whenever we're somewhere

um and there's drinks or whatever you

always take care of yourself really well

um very well disciplined and whatnot and

this kind of reflects I think on myself

I think about this when I look back

sometimes too

um same thing right I had an unstable

upbringing

um Mom and Dad weren't there my

grandmother you know kept me alive for a

lot of years until I moved out with a

different family and they had a stable

structure and that guy was a grinder a

business owner and that's kind of where

I got my upbringing one thing I notice

and maybe it's just me I'm gonna ask you

about it too

um like I said you're very well

disciplined I don't know that you have

to be disciplined like there are certain

things that I don't partake in because

the people around me I seen partake in

those things and watch what it did and I

think it just built in me second nature

where I'm like no I don't go that route

I can think about my dad and some of the

stuff he does and did that I don't touch

or do and the same thing with my

grandmother it'll be simple stuff but

do you think that that's part of that

dude that that's just ingrained in us

like all right we're not gonna we're

gonna stay away from that because we

want this and this is what we've seen

what was placed in front of us we know

that those two things you know two plus

two equals four not five not six if you

know we want it to add up and make sure

that it it comes out correctly

no I I dude that's a great Point man I

had a mentor that used to tell me you've

ever been crabbing out on the beach ever

seen crabs in a bucket I've seen it done

I've always wanted to do it but there's

a lot of things I wanted to do I ain't

got to do yet but yeah tell me about it

hey you're on the way though brother I

promise you that

um so if you go crabbing on the beach

right you know in Houston we got

Galveston which is not you know pretty

compared to Florida beaches but you put

crabs in a bucket and they're all just

man they're trying to get out like they

just want you see them they're climbing

on top of each other they're trying to

get out my mom and and some mentors used

to tell me like you know Bad Company

corrupts good character right that's

Proverbs that's in the Bible but

for me one of the benefits of having a

hard upbringing is you know you can't

control the cars that you're dealt we

don't get to pick who we were born to

where we grow up like it I think it's

just sovereignty right that's just what

happens what your blood is choose you

know you don't get to choose any of that

stuff all we can choose we can draw a

circle around ourselves and focus on

who's inside that Circle and so for

whatever reason I think that I don't

know if it's wisdom or just Grace sounds

like you have it too I would see the

damaging decisions that my my mom would

make that my brother you know friends

people would make um and I would want to

go the other way now I had a season in

college where I made a lot of really bad

decisions and man thankfully I uh um the

Lord kind of pulled me out of that but

yeah dude when you see

destruction or you see people making

decisions or partaking in things that

you know are going to produce a result

that you want in your life it's it's I

don't want to say it's easy to make the

decision not to do it but when you've

seen it in your own life so much like

the people in your inner circle when

you've seen Destruction come to them

because of the decisions they've made

it's really really really a blessing to

be able to say oh I'm not trying to go

that way I want to chart a different

path like I want to go The Road Less

Traveled Robert Frost style like I'm

going to do something different yeah so

yeah what about

um you know we hear I hear it all the

time right I don't listen to all the

podcasts in the world but I got guys

that I look up to and guys in the

business world who I listen to their

podcast and I hear conversations like

this all the time with guys that are in

high performing uh roles right like I

consider myself to be in a high

performing role just because of all we

have going on here and I do with you as

well but we got all these projects we

have all the meetings we have all the

logistics of getting everything all

together

um

I've noticed

that

most the time guys that can produce

really well uh

look back on that upbringing and

wouldn't change it for a bit like mine

like when I tell the story people are

like damn

and I'm like yeah but I don't think I

would change one bit of it because I

really like who I ended up who that what

that did to create me who I am right now

right do you feel that when you look

back on that would do obviously you want

more comfort you want some people to be

around you wanted to be able to feel

those things I can feel some of that

stuff missing now but I still know that

I like who I am I like who created I

like who I am I mean you and I wouldn't

have met if that stuff wouldn't have

happened to me when I was young that

stuff wouldn't happen to me when he was

young we'd never be in those two

positions to meet but yet here we are do

you look back on that and have that same

type of feeling

a hundred percent you know and like I

get the opportunity to share my story at

different things or FCA or high schools

or whatever and people will inevitably

come up and just be like oh my gosh you

know like you've been through so much

and everybody has their own story but I

always tell people man like don't waste

your pain like on the other side of pain

on the other side of our comfort zone I

think is that's where you know you can

really find growth I mean you are who

you are today like blacktop Banner is

what it is today your business that you

run is what it is today because you've

made the decision to use the pain that

you've been through and chart a

different course for yourself and like

for me now like as a as a professional

as a husband as a father like that's the

same motivation that I use like I can

look back and reflect on the things that

I've been through and look forward and

look to my children to my wife and say

you know what I'm going to create

something different like I I am going to

try and leave a legacy of impact as

opposed to destruction and so you're

doing a phenomenal job with that dude

you impact a lot of people and obviously

man no one knowing a little bit more of

your story that that's obviously

probably a huge part of it yeah I think

so too man I'll tell you what else it

does and maybe you can you can speak on

this a little bit because you're in

charge of people and you manage people

and whatnot too

um when you see the full gamut in full

spectrum of people right like the people

that weren't around in our upbringing

are people that had problems in our

upbringing or were this way or that way

or had all these different personalities

and then you're around people like your

coach right you're around other people

who are high performing individuals we

got multiple friends you and I mutual

friends throughout the industry that we

look up to

um what it does is allows you to I don't

know perceive people in a way to where

you know whether they fit with you well

or not whether they're the right person

for the job whether they have the

characteristic traits that you know

um you need in order to produce more of

whatever you're trying to produce in

your life Chris would just point to

himself over here a minute ago but like

he's like I made the call to call him to

come here you know I like I'm I made

that call

um and that's because of him you know

it's the way that I've seen him kind of

do his thing I knew that if he was here

I would be able to perform better and

then I can perform better that means

that blacktop Banner at its entirety

will

form better as was code as well and uh

you know that's all the credit I'm

giving him right now until maybe we get

to the end we'll go a little bit farther

but I want to talk about

um

uh

well you want you want you want to talk

about that at all no yeah I mean I think

that's huge for me the way that I look

at it is and this was something that I

think impacted me like in high school

you know reflecting back on football

right like I was the best player on our

team like I was the district MVP and

like you know you you transitioned out

of this season where you were like the

dude and and that's fun and that's a

blessing and it's a gift and it's it's

you know it's an enjoyable season but

then you transition you know to that

next level and when I got to a m it was

like I wasn't the best person in the

room uh and that was good because what

that did yeah what caused me that caused

me to work harder that caused me to want

to emulate the things that the people

that were either starting in front of me

or that were having more success in me I

wanted to do what they wanted to do and

so man I approach it now as a

professional uh in my personal life with

my friends who I surround myself with

like I want to be around people they're

going to build me up not tear me down

and I don't want to be the best person

in the room like I I want to be around

people that are achieving more than me

that are accomplishing things that I

want to accomplish because man you more

stuff is caught than taught like I want

to be in community and be around people

like yourself that are making me better

you know I don't want to be the dude in

the room that's like just like oh look

at me look at me I'm trying to look up

to the people that are going to make me

better and that's a big part of it do

surround yourself with people that you

know are going to make you better in all

aspects of life that's important

yeah

you know when we are at an event you

know or somewhere as

I do my bit and get all the content and

everything we need but a lot of times

we're standing around listening you know

what I mean because I'm catching stuff

you're catching stuff you're learning

absolutely I'm catching stuff to put

stuff together and come back and be

creative and figure out how we can

communicate or create a podcast or do

something together to make something

really awesome happen

um dude I get that feeling like when I'm

around uh my my bro Matt Stanley and

around a lot of other people that are

um you know on social media and killing

it crushing it does

um

shoot dude Jacob Buck Right and uh

Rigsby boys like that yeah dude sharp

these guys are sharp and they're

crushing right and it at one point it

was I was there alone and I was like all

right I just have to create and here I

am when these boys started killing it I

was like cool now I get to kill it right

now we all get to go together elevates

everybody at the same time we got a

rising tide finally you know I'm not out

there in my dinghy catching bluegill

like we're out here some rise in time

we're about to have some big fish we'd

be reeling in now that this Pond's

getting bigger and I like that aspect of

it you know and what's crazy is our

industry wasn't always like that Brandon

it was always we don't want any

competition we don't want anybody up

here on our level we want it all

due to all that's happened since we've

all connected and been around each other

is everybody seems to be getting more

like like all around I like that aspect

of of what we do

and for you to you know be talking about

sports and whatnot with it I kind of

want you to touch on that a little bit

because I know that you've seen some

similarities of course between your

career at a m and in football and here

um take us back a little bit and tell us

about it you're being as uh you loved it

tell us some of the highlights of it

what position did you play by the way

so growing up like everywhere like my

whole childhood Junior High High School

varsity and then my end of my time of

day and I'm also running back that's all

I ever played

um that was my favorite sport like I

grew up you know later you're half 80s

early I was a half back yeah I was a

tailback and so I ended up signing at a

m as a defensive back just because as a

kid I love them no real reason why in

the in the 90s A M was just phenomenal I

mean they they lost no games at

Caulfield from like 93 to 97 I think I

mean they were just amazing and that's

an hour from here so I just they were on

TV

but then I signed as a safety played two

years as a DB that was fun it's funny

how you can going back to not being the

best in the room you leave High School

you kid to college I never I played a

few games of Defense in high school I

was like I'll be all right man I was

really fast you get up there you get up

there and you start covering you know

like my roommate was a second round pick

the Green Bay Packers right Terence

Murphy who's drafted behind Aaron

Rodgers you start covering these guys

that are technical that you know precise

route Runners that have trained their

body specifically and you're used to

just being the the fat you realize yeah

crap I need to humble myself up work

hard and so defense was not a highlight

for me man I was I was decent at best

man I was a role player I played a lot

of nickel a lot of Don but I got

switched to running back my Junior and

Senior year and that's when it was fun

for me so you know yeah you could be

able to rest back on what you had before

you must delivery and whatnot throughout

all the years absolutely will James I

meant will James with the Giants he told

me one time he's like you want to know

how you get good at being defensive back

he's like figure out where they're going

before they decide where they're going

he's like you know the chance the

problem with that is they know where

they're going before you know where

they're going right and he's like so

when you see these guys do it and

they're jumping routes dang bro you get

a whole new respect for it

listen imagine you know me and you both

run a 4-3 and I'm on defense and Mike we

are gonna have to imagine that just so

you know

there you go well you're lined up you

know exactly

you could drive one bro you could do

that all right so you're lying you're

lined up in front of me or I'm lined up

in front of you you're the receiver you

know where you're going I'm on an island

I'm I'm playing man-to-man right so

imagine covering some of these dudes in

the NFL so

I'm having to try to guess what you're

gonna do so I'm not able to utilize the

athletic ability I have because I'm you

know where you're going like your path

is set

um I mean and so defense to me was

extremely challenging because I was a

lot more athletic from a speed and

explosiveness standpoint but I wasn't

really good at anticipating like what

will James was talking about and so the

dude

do you think that helps you in business

and in with what you do because we we

adapt to problems and overcome that we

don't see coming do you think that

helped you at all well no I was

literally about to transition to that is

think about two business owners one

knows one no don't be sorry one knows

where he's going one has a plan you know

one is executing it at a high level one

it's thinking big one's trying to score

and the other one's like lined up raw

talent you know trying to think I need

to describe person so it's like a

business owner that's just showing up

each day like oh let's see what comes in

today versus one that has a plan and a

team and they're executing it you know

every day you know like yeah defensive

back was hard bro it was challenging I

bet man I played uh I only played until

middle school but I played uh linebacker

and I played running back and I had

asthma so I was like dude I'm not

running around so I'm not doing this and

I remember coach I I had a good I was

always Stout dude and he was like uh uh

he's like you know who Jerome Bettis is

yeah he's like that's why I want you to

be

yeah he's like I just want you to be

doing better he's like you see that

marker over there he's like just run

until you go past that and then fall

over I don't care he's like just keep

doing that over and over and over and uh

you know you got pictures of me like as

a young I I look back at it now because

Eli's that age and I would had I had

guys on me you know what I mean I just

fall over and then I I had to flip and

go to middle linebacker and wait for the

holes to open up and I would just be

plowing through there hoping to God that

the running back was coming through

there most of the time but it's crazy to

work both sides of the ball it teaches

you a lot of different aspects of it but

you know me asking that about adapting

um you know as a defensive back uh to

not seeing problems and stuff that are

coming down the line tell us a little

bit about South Texas and what you do

there is your role I know business

development but as I said you're on jobs

man with the guys and stuff like that

what's a day look like for you at South

Texas asphalt Brandon

man every day is different and you know

that I mean there's some days where I

have appointments where I'm just going

to meet with with prospects or customers

to look at jobs you know measure their

jobs you know talk through anything as

far as hey if we are in this opportunity

where we're going to be staging our

equipment you know how much access can

we have at one time so having those type

of meetings going out to the job helping

the guys going to get the guys lunch I

mean we're small at South Texas here in

Houston but as you know we're we're

obviously not part of a bigger platform

but just our division here man we have

one crew we have 15 employees and so for

as small as we are we're very efficient

we do extremely quality work and so I do

Social Media stuff the interesting thing

about the the LinkedIn videos my buddy

whose house I'm at you know doing this

podcast he uh does some digital

marketing things as well um different

different type of customers but when I

first started at southex was in February

of 2020.

and okay covert hit right after that so

nobody was really meeting not many

people were meeting and I'm like man I

got to get in front of people right I'm

in sales people need to you know I need

to get to meet people develop

relationships and my buddy Logan was

like dude you are comfortable in front

of the camera like you know y'all have

great equipment looks like y'all do

great work you need to get out there and

just talk about the job you know show

your equipment in the background you

know highlight to people you know the

brands or the companies that you work

for you don't even have to say hey we're

at Target today you know just say hey

we're out in southwest Houston people

are going to see the logo just be doing

that like start getting your face in

your company's name out there and man

that was a great decision by him

um and that was something what have you

seen what effects have you seen from

doing that

I'm sitting here with you with well yeah

this podcast industry

you know so I mean it's think about it

dude realistically South Texas was a

small yeah 15 employee company you know

there's multiple companies bigger in

Houston but it's changed my life without

a shadow yeah professionally I think I

think it I think it works two different

paths there

um obviously for South Texas it's great

right um helps you develop more uh

awareness but I think for your personal

brand it's helped out a lot too dude and

not a lot of people think about that

when they're making video content

um that it could do that right same

thing with we were just talking about

our buddy Jacob Buck yeah it's a

struggle a lot of times for me to get

Jacob in front of the camera

right but his stuff that he puts

together is so killer that that's all it

took for us to realize that that's what

he does he did that through his personal

brand and we know that that's him and

for the few moments that I have had him

on this week uh whether it was live or

just short videos or whatever

that's all it took to realize his

personal brand and I mean last year uh

you and I spoke at ignite conference

right and people are what it does is it

allows you to speak in a way where

people understand that you understand

what you're talking about and they want

you to be there and they want you to

speak and that helps with with

connections and stuff and we'll get to

networking later on but I wanted to ask

you about a large project that you guys

have coming or did already

um because those are always the funnest

ones those are the ones that get

submitted for pavement Awards and

whatnot as well these large projects and

they're always the most painful so if

you could go over a large project that

you did with us and some of the pain

points that you can remember and then uh

you know how you overcame those things

and we're we're on one right now

um in the middle of it so I'll probably

speak to one in the past but we're doing

a very prestigious High School in

Houston right now called St Thomas

um it's a 9th through 12th High School

only I'll send you some videos of it

later of like their their baseball

stadium they have I mean dude it's yeah

it's better than most cars nuts huh so

it's very prestigious it's it's dude you

you wouldn't believe me high school

baseball but I think the one the first

one we won an award for uh was probably

my favorite project you know since I've

been here it was uh 1.5 million square

foot Sealcoat uh opportunity and

restripe for a uh you know global auto

manufacturing company it was a

distribution facility for them here in

Houston right by the Ship Channel and so

they got a lot of really nice vehicles

coming in that they didn't send out from

here out to their locations across the

country and so you know seal cope

Houston one of the biggest challenges

with the seal code is the temperature

the humidity and we get pop-up storms

constantly so yeah

mine on that size