Brad Leavitt: AFT Construction

November 25, 2022

Brad Leavitt: AFT Construction

“As I graduated high school I was like, “this is it! I love this career!” I was fortunate to work on some great projects and decided to pursue custom home building, which, definitely at the time, seems a lot easier than it is until you undertake that task.

And then you got to realize, “Okay, well, one thing’s, having the entrepreneur mindset and going out on your own and maybe having a skill set in your expertise but running a business is another thing.” Unfortunately, those are two completely different things.”

– Brad Leavitt

Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Brad Leavitt, President, and Founder of AFT Construction, a business that provides custom home-building services, is here today with your host Steve Larosiliere. Brad began building in 2005 and worked for a company for six years before deciding to go into business for himself. Brad describes how he got started during the recession and met Dave Clark, his business partner and mentor.

In this episode, Brad discusses how the timing worked in his favor when he and his business partner first got off the ground, some reflections on his mentor Dave Clark’s life and legacy, the lessons he taught him, and the importance of your company’s employees. Trying to grasp how to cost and be financially sound has been a significant challenge for Brad. This sounds relatable for us beginning a business from our passion and how many of us set aside the business component, which is one of the essential parts of being successful. Hear it from Brad’s perspective firsthand. Get the complete story by listening right away!

“I think something that was definitely a big hurdle for me is trying to really understand just how to cost and be financially sound running a construction business. People that have listened to me on podcasts know that I say, “you’re a business owner that happens to focus on construction.”

So many of us put aside the business aspect, which is one of the most key parts to being successful.”

– Brad Leavitt

Building a Brand in the Midst of a Global Recession

Through the years, social media has become more than just a way to keep us in touch with friends and family. It has also been a fantastic and sought-after marketing tool for this generation. Brad shares how he uses the power of social media to create their narrative, introduce their business to their target market, share their mission and vision, and how they organize their projects. Brad was a relatively young lad without much credibility when he was starting. As things progressed, Brad saw himself expanding his network, increasing his influence, and working with the best architects and designers. Social media opened up a lot of opportunities for Brad as he had the correct strategy in place and a burning passion for his craft.

“Trying to get into the high-end community. It’s really a tight niche here in Arizona and being fairly young without that credibility and this pipeline of historical data on projects in my resume. Social media was a way for me to create the narrative. I could create the marketing strategy; this is who we are.

This is our personality. This is what we’re trying to achieve. This is the quality. This is how we organize our projects. It really started that way and what I didn’t realize at the time is a couple of things happened. I was really active on social media and through that LinkedIn, primarily Instagram as well, is I started networking with other contractors, which now helped me better my business.”

– Brad Leavitt

Want to get in touch with Brad Leavitt?

Contact him through:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aft_construction/?hl=en