Built With Purpose

As we kick off the first Between the Builds episode of 2026, host Chris Fay takes a step back to reflect on leadership, priorities, and the pace of change ahead. Building off last week’s conversation with Patrick Murphy, founder and CEO of Toggle AI, this episode introduces a powerful framework for modern leaders:

What should be systematized? What can be automated? And what must remain deeply human?

From business operations to family life, Chris shares how intentional reflection, smart systems, and thoughtful use of technology can actually create more space for the human connections that matter most. This episode is both a leadership reset and a practical guide for planning your next 90 days with clarity and purpose.

Why the best leaders schedule time to think, not just to execute

How over-systematizing can quietly damage culture and relationships

Practical examples of what should be automated—and what absolutely shouldn’t

How AI and modern tools can give leaders more time for people, not less

A simple reflection exercise to realign your calendar, priorities, and energy for 2026

Founders and CEOs

Construction, AEC, and operations leaders

Anyone navigating AI, scale, and leadership in a fast-moving world

Leaders who want growth without losing their humanity

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In this episode, we sit down with Patrick Erin Murphy to break down what it truly means to build with purpose—not as a slogan, but as a daily commitment to leadership, integrity, and long-term thinking.

Patrick shares how staying grounded in values has shaped his approach to leadership, decision-making, and growth, especially in environments where shortcuts and short-term wins are often rewarded. This conversation explores what it takes to build something meaningful while maintaining discipline, clarity, and trust.

From leadership principles to navigating hard decisions, this episode dives into how purpose-driven thinking creates stronger teams, better outcomes, and businesses that actually last.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, operator, or leader at any stage, this episode offers perspective and lessons you can apply immediately.

What “building with purpose” really looks like in practice

How leadership rooted in integrity impacts long-term success

Why values matter most when decisions get difficult

The importance of discipline and consistency in leadership

How to think long-term in a short-term results-driven world

Why meaningful growth requires patience and conviction

Lessons learned from navigating responsibility and pressure

How leaders set the tone for culture and accountability

Purpose isn’t optional — it’s a leadership responsibility

Integrity compounds over time in business and life

Long-term thinking creates sustainable success

Discipline matters more than motivation

Strong leadership starts with clarity of values

Patrick Erin Murphy is a purpose-driven leader focused on building with intention, integrity, and long-term vision. Known for his thoughtful approach to leadership and decision-making, Patrick emphasizes values-based growth and the importance of doing things the right way—even when it’s not the easiest path.

Built With Purpose explores the intersection of business, leadership, culture, and long-term growth. Each episode features founders, executives, and leaders who are building intentionally — and proving that purpose-driven businesses don’t just feel better, they perform better.

In this Between the Builds episode of Built With Purpose, host Chris Fay reflects on leadership, culture, and growth as the year comes to a close.

Drawing from recent conversations — including insights from Wes Palmisano of Renegade Construction — Chris explores what it truly takes to scale a business without sacrificing culture. From promoting leaders from within to empowering teams through clear frameworks and shared vision, this episode focuses on how intentional leadership creates sustainable growth.

Chris also shares personal reflections on year-end planning, the responsibility of leadership, and why documenting culture is just as important as defining strategy. The episode closes with a thoughtful reminder to reflect not only on business goals, but on personal purpose, family priorities, and the legacy we’re building beyond work.

This conversation is for leaders, founders, and operators who want to build companies — and lives — with purpose.

Why culture must be intentional to scale

The power of promoting and developing leaders from within

Building team-based organizations instead of top-down hierarchies

How vision and autonomy drive retention and performance

Preparing your company — and yourself — for the year ahead

Reflecting on leadership, purpose, and personal growth

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In this episode, we sit down with Wes Palmisano, founder of Renegade, to break down how he’s building one of the most forward-thinking construction companies in the industry.

Wes shares how Renegade scaled by challenging traditional construction norms, prioritizing culture and leadership, and embracing technology and innovation in an industry known for doing things “the old way.”

From hiring and retention to operational efficiency, AI, and long-term vision, this conversation dives into what it really takes to grow a modern construction company without losing your values.

Whether you’re in construction, entrepreneurship, or leadership, this episode delivers real-world insights you can apply immediately.

How Renegade was built by doing things differently

Why company culture is the foundation of sustainable growth

The biggest mistakes traditional construction companies make

How leadership directly impacts employee retention

Why technology and AI matter in construction today

How to scale without sacrificing quality or values

Building trust, accountability, and ownership within teams

Lessons learned from rapid growth and hard decisions

What the future of the construction industry looks like

Culture isn’t a “nice to have” — it’s a competitive advantage

Leadership sets the ceiling for company growth

Technology enables scale, but people drive success

Breaking industry norms can unlock massive opportunity

Long-term vision beats short-term wins

Wes Pamisano is the founder of Renegade, a construction company redefining what it means to build in today’s market. Known for prioritizing people, culture, and innovation, Wes has helped Renegade grow by challenging outdated systems and focusing on leadership-driven growth.

Built With Purpose explores the intersection of business, leadership, innovation, and culture. Each episode features conversations with founders, executives, and industry leaders who are building differently — and winning because of it.

In this episode of Built With Purpose, host Chris Fey returns with a powerful Between the Builds reflection—breaking down one of the most important leadership lessons from his recent conversation with Burton Hackney, President & CEO of JORIS General Contractors, one of Texas’s most admired construction companies.

Rather than chasing size, geography, or market dominance, JORIS made a bold and clarifying decision: to become one of the most admired companies in Texas. Chris unpacks why that single choice reshaped how the company hires, leads, allocates time, and builds culture—and why clarity like this is the difference between growth that compounds and growth that creates friction.

This episode goes deeper than construction or leadership theory. Chris challenges leaders to confront a hard truth: most organizations don’t fail from lack of vision—they fail because leaders don’t spend enough time on what actually matters. Drawing from Burton’s philosophy, along with insights from The One Thing and Unique Ability, Chris explains why leaders must spend a disproportionate share of their time reinforcing culture, alignment, and direction.

Through candid self-reflection, Chris shares how even well-intentioned leaders get pulled into meetings, emails, and “important” tasks that quietly steal focus from the work only they can do. This episode is a reset—a reminder that your company will never rise above the clarity of its leadership or the discipline of how time is spent.

Whether you’re leading a company, a team, or your own life, this conversation will help you recalibrate your priorities, refocus your calendar, and recommit to building something that’s not just successful—but truly admired.

Key Takeaways

• Clarity beats scale — JORIS didn’t chase being the biggest; they committed to being the most admired, and everything flowed from that decision.

• Culture is the real differentiator — when people love where they work, customers feel it in every interaction.

• Your calendar reveals your leadership — vision without time allocation is just aspiration.

• Leaders must focus on their “One Thing” — spending time everywhere guarantees impact nowhere.

• Disproportionate focus creates disproportionate results — at least 50% of a leader’s time should be spent driving the most important initiative forward.

• Fragmentation kills momentum — meetings, emails, and distractions slowly erode strategic progress.

• Delegation requires discipline — letting go of good tasks is necessary to protect great ones.

• Great companies are built intentionally — admired organizations don’t happen by accident; they are designed daily through leadership behavior.

• The same rules apply to life — the question isn’t just what matters most in business, but whether your time reflects what matters most as a human being.

Episode Summary

In this episode of Built With Purpose, host Chris Fay sits down with Burton Hackney, President of JORIS, one of Texas’s most respected and long-standing construction companies. Across a candid, energizing conversation, Chris and Burton explore what it really takes to lead a 700-person organization through growth, uncertainty, and generational change—without losing sight of culture, people, or purpose.

From JORIS’s 50+ year Texas legacy and the reboot that reshaped the company’s values, to Burton’s view on servant leadership, hiring for character over résumé, and creating psychological safety across four regional offices—this episode goes far deeper than construction. It’s a masterclass in what happens when a business bets everything on culture, clarity, and human connection.

Chris and Burton unpack how to develop young talent faster, balance demands on modern leaders, build powerful partnerships instead of transactional clients, and why focusing on who you’re being, not just what you’re doing, is the real competitive advantage in today’s market.

Whether you’re scaling a team, navigating change, leading a legacy business, or building one from scratch, this conversation offers grounded wisdom, tactical leadership practices, and the inspiration to build with more intention—inside and outside the jobsite.

Key Takeaways 

• Culture IS strategy — JORIS believes its long-standing values are its true competitive edge in a crowded construction market.

• Leadership starts with authenticity — Burton models transparency and vulnerability to encourage honest communication company-wide.

• Psychological safety drives high-performing teams — people speak up when they trust the environment.

• Great companies hire for culture, not just capability — character, curiosity, and a servant mindset outrank résumé credentials.

• Legacy requires intentional resetting — JORIS hit pause, recalibrated its identity, and rebuilt values into daily habits.

• Growth without clarity leads to friction — regional expansion forced the company to rethink rhythms, communication, and accountability.

• Leadership is a mindset, not a title — employees at any level can lead without positional authority.

• Experience still matters, but tech can accelerate it — the future of knowledge transfer will blend mentorship with AI and accessible internal expertise.

• Healthy leaders create healthy companies — burnout, overextension, and lack of boundaries limit organizational impact.

In this Between the Builds episode of Built With Purpose, Chris Fay reflects on his recent conversation with Landon Messal, Founder & CEO of SiteMarker, and digs into one big theme: the people closest to the problem are usually the best equipped to solve it. Chris expands on what this means for leaders who aren’t always in the field or on every customer call—and how to build systems that surface insights from across a growing organization.

Chris also explores how AI is transforming knowledge capture and enablement. By recording internal meetings, customer conversations, and team discussions, leaders can use tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to quickly analyze information, build strategies, create training materials, and transfer critical knowledge across teams. He shares how his own company reduced a six-month enablement project to just a few weeks—all by leaning fully into AI.

This episode is a practical guide for leaders who want to scale their teams, speed up innovation, and ensure that institutional knowledge becomes an asset rather than a bottleneck.

Key Takeaways:

• Being close to the problem is a competitive advantage. Landon built SiteMarker by experiencing the pain firsthand—proof that great solutions often emerge from lived frustration, not theoretical strategy.

• Leaders can’t be everywhere. As teams grow, leaders must intentionally design systems for surfacing insights from employees and customers who experience challenges in real time.

• Record everything. Customer calls, internal meetings, support conversations, strategy sessions—every recording becomes raw data for improvement.

• AI enables analysis at unprecedented scale. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini can digest hours of conversations, extract patterns, and convert them into strategy, documentation, and training.

• Enablement can happen dramatically faster. Chris’s team used AI to build a full go-to-market strategy, video content, learning paths, and quizzes in under two weeks—work that used to take six months.

• Knowledge transfer is a massive challenge in experienced-based industries. Construction, AEC, manufacturing, and engineering depend on decades of tacit human knowledge. AI can help capture and pass that knowledge forward.

• The best prompt is honesty and curiosity. If you don’t know how to use AI, ask it. If you don’t know what to do with transcripts, ask it. Curiosity is the new superpower.