Building Spaces & Systems - Felipe Freig on Custom Home Craftsmanship and Coaching Builders to Thrive New… Grid view List view Unsorted

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This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Rusk How you doing, man? Good, man. I got a good friend that I grew up with named Felipe. We call him Flip. I have a Oh, wow. Look at that. It's one of those little quinky dinks, you know? That's right. Well, hey man, great to connect with you. I know that we connected through the great Dan Martell's elite coaching program and spent some time in Canada, my first time to Canada. So glad we could get you on the show here. That's awesome, brother.

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Yes. Don't come here now. Where are you at in Canada? I'm in Vancouver. So Toronto is way worse, but that we're on the, on the West coast here. So you had a quick trip to Kelowna then? Oh yeah.

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It takes me three and a half hour drive. Oh, nice. Yeah.

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I flew into Seattle. It was like 25 minutes. Oh yeah. It was all elite people on the plane, which was kind of fun. That's funny, right? Yeah, absolutely. You know, I love telling people's stories on the show, hence the name beyond the story. I love going back for context purposes for our listeners to the beginning of the story, wherever the beginning is for you, uh, when you first got started and what brought you to present day with some of the incredible work you're actually doing with, uh, with Yeah, so I mean, I started in construction back in high school with my construction teacher. If you snoop through the Instagram, you'll see him there. We still talk. We still hang out. He's one of my biggest mentors, so I love hanging out with him still 30 years later, right? But yeah, I had a high school, play some music and I was in and out of working, you know, I was, you know, working for a company here and there. And then I landed with a buddy of mine named Josh. He actually owns Easy Trim Reveal, Engage Building Products, $100 million a year company now. And he was a tile setter. So I started tiling and he quit his business and said, hey, it's all yours, go for it. So I did that. And from tiling, it went to renovations, from renovations, it went to home building and started that in 1999. And now 26 years later, it's here we are, right? Yeah.

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Wow. That's a long time building homes. You got it. Building homes started up in 2015. So that's 10 years ago. Got it. So you guys started with the tile business. Tile and renovations and then home building. So how'd you get into music? Oh, I played music. I started playing guitar actually quite late and I was 19, almost 20. And I started playing in bands and got into the local scene and was lucky enough to land in a band that got a record deal. And I got to tour all over the U.S. actually with Three Doors Down, Hinder, Stain, Puddle of Mud, Shine Down, jeez, you name it, a bunch of guys. Yeah, it It's actually kind of a crazy. Well, it wasn't a spark. It was an inspiration. A buddy of mine actually got killed. He got stabbed in the back and he was a drummer for a band called Seaman. And I knew he wanted to do music. And I kind of did it for him. I felt like I had to do it. You know, I picked up the guitar and I taught myself and So you taught yourself, how does that happen? Because I Well, you know, today it's pretty easy to teach yourself. Back in the day, there was no YouTube, there was nothing. So as a result of the year, you start to hang out with friends, they teach you a couple of chords and, you know, you go to the music store, pick up some books, try to figure out what things are and you go for it, right? But mostly ear, right? You listen to music and Yeah, I mean, I guess. I haven't picked up on that skill Yeah, I mean, today's easy, man. You just go Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. That's a good idea. I'm going to add that to my to-do list over here. YouTube guitar lessons.

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So, when did the tile business start and why did that start?

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I know you said that you have always been tight with your construction teacher. I don't even know a construction teacher existed. Maybe it's a Canada thing. Yeah. Did it all start in It did, yeah, grade eight, I fell in love with woodworking and then woodworking progressed to construction and they just teach you, you know, shop stuff, right? Not too much to get you ready for if you want to go in the construction field or if you want to continue the education in university or they call it here BCIT. So it's BC Institution Technology place where all trades go to. But I just kept going. I went to work for Home Depot. I learned customer service. I choked at truck drove for a while. After that, I started installing railings in high rises. And I just always loved working with my hands, right? And I just went for it. And one day with Josh, I was actually back and forth touring with my indie band. Not the one that I got signed, but one before that.

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And I would come back from touring and say, hey, I need a job. And he said, OK, well, you can come and help me tile. And then I was back and forth. And one day he said, hey, I'm done. If you want to keep doing this, it's all yours. And I took over it and started tiling. Didn't know what I was doing, but I got through it. And eventually, obviously, we got good, like every other trades. And from there, we went to renovations.

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Actually, after tile, I was already renovating a couple of bathrooms, but I got the record deal in 2007. And I sold that tiling company. And when I came back, flat broke in 2009. I'm like, man, I got to get back to work. But I didn't really want to compete. We didn't have any paperwork on that, but he did buy the company. So I didn't want to compete. So I said, I'm going to start renovations. I'm not going to do tile. And I started renovations. You know, one thing led to the next and we're renovating crazy homes, building crazy homes by 2015. We built a home for Chad Krueger, singer Nickelback, and it just kind of took off. Why does Nickelback get such a bad rap? You know what? It's completely not true. I've been good friends with him for about 10 years and the guy is stellar. He is the best host and really a guy with a huge heart. I don't know where this started, but I tell you, he's probably pretty glad it started because it just promoted him even more, right? I think they should go back on tour with Stained. I tour with Stain for 28 shows. Stain, Three Doors Down. Aaron Lewis is like one of my favorites. That dude's awesome.

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I saw him with Linkin Park. Oh, wow. How was that? Chicago. I want to Yeah. I played Chicago with Stain, Three Doors Down Des Moines, not Des Moines, Des Plaines, Illinois.

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Was it an outdoor place? No, indoor. Indoor, It's quite the outdoor fest. I can't remember what it was. That was a Yeah, I mean, I don't remember it too much. You know, you play every single city. You don't even know where Yeah, yeah. So the music career wasn't too lucrative. You Yeah, flat broke, like literally $87 to my name. And then actually, if you look at my story today, you'll see the little story. I came back and I'm like, hey, I need a job. So I did go to a tile store and I said, hey, can you guys send me a job? They sent me to this lady's house, and I walk into this place, and it's a 9,000-square-foot house, 17 acres. I'm like, who the heck lives here? This is crazy, right? And anyways, little did I know, I got the job. I started tiling it. And this is the house, actually, right here. Wow.

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Yeah. Yeah. I bought the house. Yeah. From being, you know, flat broke to buying this house here in Canada, things are expensive. You know, this is a six and a half million dollar house. Wow.

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Your work is absolutely incredible. I'll be sure to put a link to your Instagram on the show notes so people can check it out. Be sure to follow him. His work is fantastic. Yeah. So Is it just, uh, we just do custom homes, right? We, we just, uh, we do custom homes and we coach builders as well. Um, so I do have a coaching program for builders and we build high end luxury homes for, uh, Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mean, you're as good as your trades, right? So if you have to go somewhere else and you got to find new trades and you know, you're at the mercy of the trades. So when you, you create a good circle of people to consistently build you a good home, you Yeah, absolutely. You just run the company. Obviously, you're not out there swinging hammers and Good old Dan Martell taught me well. You know, got the EA, got everything happening. Everyone's running things for me. I do my unique ability, right? So go get the job, mingle with my clients, network, package the job together and hand it over to my project manager. And I love doing that, right? So, and that gave me the opportunity to do many more things like coaching, you know, running my company, doing only the things I love to Yeah, that's a great way of doing things, buying back your time. That's right. What would you say the best part about the work Honestly, like looking at it and going, what the heck are we building? Like the stuff that we're doing, it's unreal. And the stuff that's coming up is even more crazy. Like we have a 55,000 square foot home coming up.

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We're building one right now, 16,000 square feet on a cliff, essentially.

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And I literally go to the job center and go, holy crap, like what the heck? You Yeah, it's nothing like blowing your own mind when you're Oh, you know what it is? I think I love the thrill of being scared and taking on the challenge. And every time I do, it's just like, I don't know if it's overwhelming. I don't think it's overwhelming because not that I don't like it. It's kind of like, what the heck? Again, we did it again. You know?

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It is. Yeah, it is. It is fulfilling. It's scary. It's awesome.

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It's challenging. It's every emotion you can think of, Sure. So what's on the docket for 2026? What What am I excited about? I'm excited about coaching, actually. I've been coaching, I started two months ago and I got, you know, 16 guys on board and we're coaching, doing a group call. It's going really well. I'm excited about the projects that are coming up. They're pretty crazy.

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You know, as I take on the coaching, my company is growing even more just because I set it up that way. Now where it's not on autopilot, but it's pretty much on, you know, running itself, right? Yeah. So I'm excited about that. I'm excited to see what's going on. I'm excited to see the GASM coaching grow. And some of them already three weeks in, they're just killing it, which is super exciting to see. It's a whole level of, You know, you're proud of your homes you built, and then all of a sudden you're proud of the guys you're teaching, right?

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So, what do you do? Are you teaching them how to build custom homes? Is No, it's business coaching, right? So, how to run your construction company correctly so that, you know, you get to do your unique ability, how I'm doing it. So, the cool thing is that I'm not just coaching, I'm actually coaching it and doing it myself as well. So I'm not reading off a book. I'm not. We're talking about like daily scenarios and daily things that challenges that guys are going through and we fix them on the spot. And the community is becoming pretty Yeah, I bet. I can only, it sounds just like it. I mean, but people are probably excited to learn from you based on you being a product of the product of what you're actually teaching. I mean, not specifically with home And that's the thing, right? Like I'm teaching something I'm doing. You know, I used to take coaching from others and what they're teaching, it's not something they're doing. So anytime you ask the question, you could really tell that they haven't really stepped foot into the field. Um, you know, they're just kind of coaching you through a book or a program that they've been taught, uh, but never actually been on the field doing the thing. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

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Love it, man. Well, it's clear that you're doing work that matters, work that you care about, and you're passing it on. You're lifting as you climb here, helping other people do what you've done and continue to do so. Hats off on that. I really enjoyed our conversation. Thanks Yeah, I said, always believe in yourself, man. Like what we've done from zero to 100, anyone can do if you can just focus. I always tell people, put your blinders on, don't look sideways, just go straight ahead, you know? And then go for your dream, right? Yeah, absolutely. For sure. Felipe, thanks again for your time, my I'll see you real soon, man. Sebastian, you rock, buddy. Thank you. Likewise.

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Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios.