Connect with Michael Moore and Bob Wierema

The Climb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-climb-podcast/
Bob Wierema: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wierema/
Michael Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpmoore/

Connect with Brendan Deely

Gabriel's Light: https://www.gabrielslight.org/
Brendan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bdeely/
Banner Solutions: https://bannersolutions.com/

TheClimb_BrendanDeely

[00:00:00] Brendan Deely: Let me tell you a problem. You go from 2.6 billion to 1.1 billion in a year in sales. That's a problem. 

Bob Wierema: Wow. 

Brendan Deely: That was a problem. So, we had to go from 5,500 people to 2,100, close a hundred facilities, and just try to stop the cash burn. And so that was the business – fight or flight. I'm all in and it said online, the Dragon Slayer, you ever see that Teddy Roosevelt speech  about people just basically saying, “if I die, I'm going to die knowing that at least I was in the arena.” All these naysayer and bullshit sideliners who don't do anything. 

Bob Wierema: Welcome to The Climb: Crossroads and Defining Moments. Today, Brendan Deely joins Michael and myself for conversation about business, about his family, about some of his personal trials and tribulations and how he got through them.

Brendan's an amazing friend of mine, a mentor, and just a hell of a guy. You’re definitely going to enjoy this episode of The Climb. Thanks for joining us.

Brandon Deely, welcome to The Climb. We appreciate you joining Michael and me today. 

Brendan Deely: And to be here. 

Bob Wierema: You know, this is a fun one for me. Brendan, you and I started in working together through business and since, it’s turned into a personal relationship. That means a lot to me in a lot of different ways. We'll talk about that a little bit, but I think a good way to kind of kick things off is giving us the overview of who is Brendan Deely? 

Brendan Deely: Well, thanks Bob. It's been a hell of a relationship that we've built and continue to build. I'm glad to be here and tell you a little bit about me and maybe how I think about [00:02:00] things.

So, Brendan Deely, I'm a husband, and I'm a father to five first and foremost. I really liked building things, businesses, teams, to good outcomes. I don't have all the answers and I don't want to. And so, I think it's how do you leverage people? How do you deal with things truthfully? And I think I've learned over the years that it's just hit things head on and be real and there's always a way out, and to never, ever give up, I think I've found out over time that there's that fight or flight. I don't run. And I think I always want to win. I don't always win, but God damnit I go into everything wanting to kick ass and win. And so, there's just a mentality. I see people that just meander through their careers and  just incredibly boring for me. I think the only thing you'd do to wreck a business is do nothing. 

Michael Moore: Sounds like he's got a little Texas in him. 

Bob Wierema: I was hoping that we were going to be able to avoid the Texas comment, but it took all of about two minutes for it to come into the conversation from Michael. 

Michael Moore: Just born and bred, baby. 

Brendan Deely: I was born an army brat. I was an army captain for a couple of years. And then I've been in kind of building materials for 30 years almost. So, some of those toolkits have helped me kind of move through my career. 

Bob Wierema: When you're an army brat, Brendan, as you say, what does that mean? Were you guys traveling a lot when you were a kid, were you guys all over the place? Give maybe a little background there and growing up in that type of world? 

Brendan Deely: I was the youngest of six, and we're six and a half years apart, so good Irish stock. So [00:04:00] my dad did three tours in Vietnam. I didn't really know him until I was five. Didn't have that as a problem, but it just what it was. I was born in the U.S., moved to Germany, moved to Brazil, moved to Panama, left the U.S. when I was three, came back when I was 12, 13. I don't watch a lot on TV because of that, because it was never in my language.

And I think if you're in an environment where you move a lot as a kid, I think you're going to go two paths: introvert or extrovert. And so, I've always found it pretty easy to talk to people. I've always found when you moved into a new place, you meet the dorks first because they're starving for friends, and then you move it forward. But I mean, I didn't know any different, but I think that's helped me. When I went to college, it was kind of a non-event, but the people that lived in their same town just went crazy, I had my versions of fun too, but it's a good background. And I think it gives me a perspective that most Americans don't realize that there's other countries that have far worse issues, and we have two sons adopted from Ethiopia. So, it's just the whole perspective is healthy. I think a lot of times people see poor countries and they're frankly, some of the happiest people I've met because they don't have anything but faith and  food. We can break an ATM card and everybody's triggered for a day.

So, it's just keeping balanced, I think is good. 

Bob Wierema: You mentioned you're one of six. So where is everybody today? And were you close brothers and sisters? You mentioned some people down in Texas.

Brendan Deely: My mother's still alive. She's 86 in Philly. My twin sister is in Philadelphia as well. And then I have a sister and a brother in the Dallas area. And then two brothers outside of DC in Virginia. So, we've gone West [00:06:00] as it were, but still very close. And it was kind of cool with you’re a kid when you move in – I had three older brothers. I'm six foot. They're both six foot four. So, we came in, we took over the neighborhood. We had every kind of coverage. And if you want to bug me, I got some big guys behind me. It was pretty cool, but it was really close now. But one of the things that's come out of this whole COVID gong show is we do a weekly zoom calls with my mother, with all of us. So, it's how you do immediate bingo with my wife's mother and family.

We never did that, so we're talking a hell of a lot more than and seeing each other more than we ever did. So, there's always good that comes out of bad. 

Bob Wierema: And then you mentioned you did some time in the army, right? Was that after college? Before? Where did that fall in that spectrum?

Brendan Deely: It was after college. I went to ROTC. I had a four-year scholarship and I went to basic training when I was 18. So, I was in the reserves while I was in school, but I got commissioned in 1988 and I'm an infantry officer and – at 22 years old – here's 40 guys for ...