How Army Veterans Turned Brotherhood Into a Homebuilding Business

But do you go so fast and so hard for so long like that's your life?

Just the mentality is I'm going to go as fast as hard as I possibly can for as long as I can.

“The only thing that's going to stop me is if I fucking die.”

So you get a custom of this lifestyle and then it just goes away. You do that for 20 years and you are indoctrinated into it. It becomes your identity. This is who I am as a person and when I leave the military, I lost my identity. And nobody prepares you for that.

And that's kind of what I've tried to provide for the guys coming out is like, we're here for you. Like this is how you do it. Jared Gay and Rob Moore are veteran entrepreneurs and business leaders. With Jared as the founder and CEO of TGU home solutions and Rob as a renowned entrepreneur, investor and founder of Disruptors.

Nobody cares who you used to be. I think we're here today. So I mean we try to live that. My dream as the owner of this company has to be big enough to fit all nine people's dreams inside of. Whatever these guys and again we talk a little bit different than most is like, what are you what are you dreams?

Where do you want to go? What is your future?

“What can we do as a company to help you and then what can I do as a family to help?”

So to be able to figure out what everybody's dreams are as an individual person and then put them in a group. That's as big as we're going to go. And we're going to keep climbing until we can get everybody's dreams inside of this company. [Music] It spans the globe.

Like a super high school. Internet elders. [Music] Today Apple is going to reinvent the fall. It's not over.

I'm telling how we're. The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. [Music] Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy podcast. I'm your host again, Jason Langen.

And we're down here in the quarter finals of the World Cup stage in South Beach, Miami. We got a exciting weekend of football games going. The Norwegians have started taking over South Beach. And so these do it. These big guys we got here from for Operation CEO and I'm happy to introduce them.

But actually, yeah, just introduce yourselves. Where you guys come down from and what's your business? I'm Jared Gay. I'm the owner of TGU home solutions out of Aberdeen or Carolina. I'm Rob Moore, Chief Operations for TGU home solutions.

I live in Fayville, right outside for Brad, but work in Aberdeen. Operation CEO where we talk with former people that were in the military or serving our country somehow. And they've transitioned into civilian life, right? So tell us, I mean, I just went over there back around filming where they were stationed and what they did. And wow, I was kind of, I've done a few of these shows now.

But yeah, some of your guys stories was some of the most intense. But just really quickly, like, where were you guys stationed for the majority of your time and what was your position? I know that it's many different positions in a long time. But if you were to tell, you know, another military guy, like, what you did in a minute, right? Well, what would you guys say?

We started, well, we spent most of our time at corporate ag North Carolina.

“That's why we kind of stayed in the area because it's home now.”

We've been there for so long. It was a combat engineer in fourth and first brigade, 82nd.

I worked in the division headquarters and 18th never on course staff.

Better cool right. Yeah. That was a common engineer. I'm in station in Alaska. Fort Bragg, Fort Lennarwood with this guy, and then back at Fort Bragg.

So I mean, most of our careers have been in a Bragg. And then I've done everything from being a machine gun team leader to plan and parachute operations for the 18th or more core headquarters. Yeah, I'm so kind of the full spectrum of. And a lot of time in Iraq, Afghanistan. Yeah, I've got three plane of staff, Afghanistan, a little over two years.

And it's a different stuff too. I've got three and a half planes in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

As a civilian, that's never been in the military myself.

You know, doing this show. I'm more appreciative of that. Hey, thank you for your service. You know, honestly, like when talking to the dudes that have come through and women that have come through this show. I'm always just blown away by some of these stories.

And what you guys go through in order for us to enjoy the life that we get to live.

So I would just want to thank you guys, right?

So thank you for your service. Appreciate the support. Yes, what we do. A lot of what this show is transitioning into civilian life, right? What was it like was where I'm sure there was a lot of questions.

“Okay, I'm retiring from the military, but kind of my civilian life and other half of my life is just starting where you scared worried.”

Was it was it the government helpful in that transition like what what's going on for me. The transition like I wanted it. I was ready. I knew this was coming. This is it was time.

And I think most service members like when that time comes, it's like, yeah, it's time for me to go. The transition for the from military like from the support of, you know, the army wasn't the greatest. The show you video take you to a class. It's real mandatory scripted. It's like a one day.

Yeah, I think it's a week, but it was check the block. Check the block type. Good luck. Here's your finances. Like, yeah, I've been doing fine as a football.

Yeah, I know how to pay my bills.

I think the the biggest thing for me being one of the first ones of my peer group to retire was like,

the isolation. You know, being away from the boys. You're with them six o'clock in the morning to, you know, six, seven and night every day. And then some days, you know, whether in the field or on deployments, you're with them. You know, nonstop.

“So they know more about you than most of your family does.”

So being away from them and that like minded personality for me was the hardest. Yeah. And nobody prepared you for that. And that's kind of what I've tried to provide for the guys coming out is like, we're here for you. Like, this is how you do it.

I figured out the VA, I figured out, you know, submitting life. Now, let me show you how to do it to kind of give you a leg up and make it faster. Also having your daily life kind of planned out for you. Like, like, it's like prison. It's like the Shawshank Redemption and the guy talks about.

Like, I've been told when and where to piss for 20 years. Yeah.

And you get indoctrinated into, I know I had 630 in the morning.

I had to be for PT from 6 to 9, I do PT from 9 to new. And I've got to take care of the boys here. And then from noon to 6, I'm planning whatever the next day's operation is. You do that for 20 years and you are indoctrinated into it. And it becomes your identity.

This is who I am as a person. And when I leave the military, I lost my identity. And when you say it was, that was the most difficult thing. How difficult, like you get into depression or for me, I'm one on I stayed in the area. So being, you know, we're 45 minutes from pork rye.

I was able to, you know, go see these guys. They're still in every day. Like, if I had a problem, I could come in and see them. Yeah. People up to a drop zone one day in the TG airport truck.

I was out running a drop zone nine the morning about there for, you know, 18 hours. And it's, it's like, what's up? I just got my ID card. I mean, I don't think just being able to be that close. But the guys that leave and move back to their hometown or wherever they're from.

Like, I know a lot of them that I've talked to of the depression hits hard. Yeah. And the loss of identity or their family, like their spouse or whatnot. They can't relate to them anymore because you're not that same person. Well, you're in some of it.

You're swinging now. It's totally different. So I've been blessed one. My spouse is phenomenal. Like, she understands the game. She understands the military game. But she also is successful in her own right outside of the military.

So that helped me. And then being so close to these guys, I was, you know, I call anytime I want. And hey, I'm having problems. But it's the thing that's a different world for us. Or for me is I'm a better out than in.

I might overshare my information. Like, most people don't want to tell people their weaknesses. Yeah. I don't care. I'm going to tell you what I'm doing.

I'm scared. I'm having a problem. And then they'll be like, yep. It's a quick idea. You're good.

Yeah. Yeah. And they picked me up and we moved. Yeah, that's a, I noticed man. I wasn't quite ready to be done.

I think I still have some fight name, but the army felt differently. But do you go so fast and so hard for so long? Like, that's your life. It's just like Jared said, I mean, you started six o'clock in the morning. Just the mentality is I'm going to go as fast as hard as I possibly can for as long as I can.

“The only thing that's going to stop me is if I fucking die.”

I'm not going to quit. And you get so used to that lifestyle. Just go, go, go. And then the sheer chaos of, especially an airbort community man. There's no.

There's a plan for sure. But like 90% of it. Once the, you know, plan starts falling apart. It's just dude's pulling shit together and making it happen. So you get a custom of this lifestyle.

And then it just goes away. You're kind of parachuting into civilian life.

It was an easy transition.

It took me a while to turn it off for sure. You know, because I'm a phone ring. I mean, you know, we are, our unit was on, you know, called global response. Like, do my phone rings. I have to be at work in two hours and we're gone.

I don't know what I'm coming home. Yeah. You know, so like to turn that off for a while, took a minute. But then like, if I'm on a prawn, do you know? I'm still surrounded by the dudes that I went through all this shit with.

Yeah. And like the guys that run off back to their hometowns and like nobody understands them. Like I joke like, you know, call me Dr. Phil sometimes. But like, you know, he's phone calls from dudes that are solid dudes. You know, they're, they're great dudes.

They're fucking outstanding soldiers. And they're just having a hard time in life because nobody can relate to like their, you know, experiences for the last two decades.

“I guess it's hard for for a men in general to open up, right?”

But I guess when you have, you know, you all of you guys refer to each other as brothers, right? So I guess when you have these brothers, right? It's, it's your moral over to share with each other. Well, that thinks so.

I think a lot of it is pulling that. Yeah, I can carry him as far as I need to. Yeah. But like, it was for me to, and you're off like,

first, it's like somebody to say, like, hey man, are you good? Yeah.

In a real, like, to be vulnerable is important. And to be able to, like, I learned early on after my first deployment to Iraq. I got home when I was having some, you know, we're actually on the plane, getting off the plane, onto a bus for them to drive us around to see our families for the first time.

And my, but soon started at the time, Jimmy Griff looked over at me and he says, "I love you." And I'm like, "Well, you guys don't say that." Yeah. You know, and then he's like, "No man, I really love you."

And like, if you need me call me. Yeah. And I went home for 30 days back to California. And I was sitting at dinner with my family. And I was like, starting to get overwhelmed.

And it's just, like, it was like an emotional response. And so it's, it'll be back. And I walked outside and I called them and was like, "Yeah, and I'm freaking out a little bit." Mm.

It's like, "No problem." And we just talked through and we told Cove jokes. Calm me down.

I never had a problem again.

Yeah, yeah. But being able to be like, "Hey, I love you." And if the company, like, when we get off the phone, all right, love you by, I don't care. Like, I'm gonna tell you all of you.

You're gonna know today. Yeah.

“I think that vulnerability is important to one to say,”

"Hey, I'm having problems." We need to talk about it. I might not go to a shrink, but I'm gonna talk to the boys. Yeah, yeah. You know, so I just don't think a lot of veterans

are willing to let that masculinity down and say, "Hey, this is who we are." Is it, like, raw? Yeah, no. I mean, that's, that's something that I've learned

through talking to all these dudes and these people. And women also is that there is that kind of, like, sense of, we're gonna help each other out, especially in the transitioning into the civilian lifestyle, right? So that's what you guys have done.

You guys have helped each other out. And now you got your business, right? It's pretty big success from what you've grown from. And yeah, tell us about your business a little bit. I had nothing about construction.

I mean, I, my job was to break things. Yeah. So I didn't have a break 'em. But, like, the building side of things was completely new to me. So for me, and I love the planning.

That thrived at in the service. So I love taking a problem and being able to see it through. Yeah. You know, being a facilitator to make all these things happen. It's a huge skill.

Like, when, like, event planning, or logistics, or planning a build of a house, right? Get just to take all the pieces of everything, also back up plans of what ifs, all those things.

“You know, like, it's a massive skill that they never really teach you in school, right?”

And yeah, as you got, you learned it on the field, right? And yeah, you transition that skill into, I guess, planning a build of a home. I mean, it's awesome to go through the whole process. And, you know, we talked about really, like, takes sometimes 18 months

to from planning to finish a house. But when it's done, you know, like, all right, we fucking did that. Yeah. Like, that was awesome. We get to do it with, like, good dudes and, you know, awesome clients.

Like, I think from most part of clients love us. Mm-hmm. Just 'cause, you know, you get what you see, like, we don't put on an act for you. Yeah.

And they love it because you're getting robbed more. You know, you'll hear some four-letter words. And I'm like, "Well, should I just say that in front of an 80-year-old woman?" You know, but they appreciate the authenticity. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, you know, everybody on the whole team is like that. And it's, that's awesome. And then we get to, yeah, we want to make money. Like, good I'd love to one day. I mean, we have a private company jet.

Like, that'd be awesome, right? I don't want to. All right. You know what they were doing? We're doing a company meeting in the outstair,

bring your families. Yeah. You know, but if it doesn't get there, like, we get to make a living with people we want to be around.

And then we get to do some good for the community. We get to give back. We have to keep mentoring, like keep helping dudes out. I mean, it's rewarding. Yeah.

“And you've hired, I believe, seven veterans.”

Out of the nine in the company, there's seven that we've actually all of us have served at some point in time together. Yeah, okay. Wow.

The only one that hadn't was Archea, our office manager. But he came through other guys. Look, guys that we had served with. Archea was getting out. And he's like, and he took a gamble.

He was one of my first veterans to come. Yeah.

And he came out of Fortless, Texas and had never lived in North Carolina.

I mean, he loves it now, but it was a struggle at first. Yeah, yeah. So having the veteran mindset for precision and, like, integrity, the same values that the army gives you is the same values. We provided the clients and it's going.

So like, does it get to a point of like, you're on a job site and then it's like, remember when we were stationed out here, like, you owe me. You still owe me for that, right? So this story's come up for sure.

Yeah. So this is the first time all of us.

“The first job we've ever had that is trying to make money.”

Mm-hmm. Like, in the government, like, when you're working in the army, like, there's not a dollar sign that you're trying to bring to your piece of the pie, it's like, I need money to go do this or whatever. So you're really think about the money aspect.

And time is irrelevant, really. If there's nothing going on in me and him or work, we can sit and have a conversation about whatever for three hours. Yeah. Or telling stories or telling jokes.

You can't really do that here in the world. Yeah. You actually can. Time is money. Kevin O'Leary, the shark.

He often talks about it as as money as his soldiers. Right.

He's sending out his soldiers and, yeah, always having them come back home.

Right. So, yeah. What was the most difficult part of, of, I guess,

“building a team, building the operations of, of, of, of having your own company.”

I bet there's a whole lot of trials and tribulations that you had to learn. One is, like, I didn't finish high school. Yeah. You know, a G.D. class in '99 kid, I learned how to study. I learned, you know, everything from the military.

So, and the school hard knocks. So, when I started, you know, hey, this is how I need to keep the books. Well, that didn't, it worked, but it wasn't profession. You know, all my receipts and a shoebox and trying to hand them to an accountant. It just looks at me like I'm crazy.

Yeah. You know, to now everything has a system. What I didn't, you know, learning. If you hand it, that shoebox of receipts to an officer above here.

I guess they won't be too happy.

But it's the same thing as the military. We're just trying to figure out the different language for it. Yeah. You know, so in the military, you have a SOP standard operating procedure. You know, your turn a kid.

For your arm goes on your leg or in, you know, in this pocket. This turn a kid goes in this pocket. Everybody's exactly the same so that if his arm comes off, I can take a target from him and put it on the other arm. Everything has a system to it.

How do you place your magazines in your pouches? So I just had to figure out this civilian language of what an SOP is for construction company. Yeah. And, you know, like I kind of talked about earlier, you know, having a mentor in the civilian world. There's not a thing that's no such thing.

Everybody wants money. You want to be my mentor. Be my mentors. How much money can you get? I guess I guess the test of what you're saying would be to open up one of your trucks and see the organization of it.

Yes. Is your truck organized? And did you get that SOP down? Yeah. I mean, everything's there now.

It took us a couple years to get it. Yeah. But having the SOPs. Really when you're tired, you fall back on your training. Mhm.

And the SOPs are our training. Like, hey, these are the SOPs. You might be operating way above them. But when you get tired and you start forgetting overwound, you go back to the SOPs. And these guys understand that.

And like they've everybody follows along. So that was the biggest for me, the biggest hurdle in business was learning the civilian language from military disability and how to talk to clients with it. I heard you talking about, I mean, you scaled to like 16 people two quick. Then you had to scale back down to three people. Now you've got nine people.

And one of your best friends and brothers in service, kind of joined the team. And then he's going to be being CEO soon, right? What's the vision and the scale? How do you go back from nine people and then grow back to the 16 people?

The systems, I think is really going to be the foundation of of how it works.

“I mean, everybody understanding everything.”

Like we, we've when probably we're done in the into our processes and systems. But people are going to come and go.

I mean, our field managers are amazing.

You know, his wife's in the service. Like he's going to leave one day. Yeah. You know, like, I just come and go, but they have the systems in place. So when that happens, I can say, here you go, bro.

Here's the book. Yeah. Let me teach you how to do it. Yeah. That's a lot of what we do here inside success, too. The SOPs, you know, we've got a SOP for every document and everything.

Right? It's all about the systems. So I can't remember the guy's name. There's two things. So there's a billboard by our house that says, God wouldn't put a dream in your heart.

There was too big you couldn't achieve. And then the other one is. Dan Martell said, my dream, so my dream as the owner of this company, has to be big enough to fit all nine people's dreams inside of whatever these guys. And again, we talk a little bit different than most is like, what are you,

“what are you dream for? Do you want to go? What is your future?”

You know, what can we do as a company to help you? And then what can I do as a, you know, as family to help? So to be able to figure out what everybody's dreams are as an individual person and then put them in a group, that's as big as we're going to go. And we're going to keep climbing until we can get everybody's dreams inside of this company.

Yeah. And whether it's a private jet or, you know, I want to reach house or whatever it may be in life.

We're always just going to push and try to be the best version of us for each other.

Someone that works with you guys being able to support a veteran base team, you know, someone that's a team that's served our country. It's almost like extra special because people want to have their home. It's like their dream home, you know, but to be able to tell that story of hey, you don't who I had work on my home.

These dudes that were out battling for our country. And they came here and those hands that, you know, did so much. All right, like the stories that you guys said, Wow, and to have you guys build those people's houses.

I think that's that is that extra special story on top. That they're able to kind of tell their children and pass it alone. We get a lot of support for the veteran, you know, and our community is primarily veterans, right? It's the greater forpregueria.

Yeah. You know, it also is saying to like, nobody cares who you used to be. I'd like for you today. Yeah.

So I mean, we tried to, we tried to live that. Like, yeah, we did at least, you know, we had a crazy time. It was, it was awesome. Some of those scary, some of those terrifying crazy. You know, like, who are we today?

All right, you know, because I can't bring that to, to work everyday, right? Like, what are you doing today? And we've tried to live up to that. It's a legacy.

It's not our legacy. Like, yes, we build homes. But it's your legacy. This is your home. Yeah.

I have this person. I don't care what you have in your home. So you tell me what you want. I'll put your hardwoods or whatever it is you want in this house. You want to pull in your basement.

We've done it. Yeah. I don't, I don't want everyone to do it again. But I'll do it if you want it. You know, so it's, but it's your legacy is that home.

Your family is going to eat dinner every night in that home. You're going to celebrate Christmas is birthday. So if we can produce the best legacy for your family in that home, we win. Yeah.

It's a, it's a winning strategy for us. Well, right on, guys.

Well, how, uh, you're amazing dudes.

I would say I have to learn your whole story and everything in your business. So, uh, yeah, if anyone out there wants to hire us some amazing dudes in your area, how do they find you? TGU homesolutions.com. Uh, TGU.home.solutions on Facebook.

Uh, Instagram's Instagram. This is a gift. Give us a call. All right. We will be happy to take care of whatever you need.

Thank you guys so much for for joining us and sharing your story. And also, uh, thank you guys for tuning in to another episode. And if you guys are into, you know, just learning about, uh, military and how they transition into and grow businesses,

“yeah, uh, tune into their episode because honestly,”

they got, that's, they got some great stories. So thanks again, guys. And thank you. Thank you. Have a good day.

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