We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joseph Binning. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joseph below.

Joseph, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

What we do as a company here at MEPCor is called BIM, which stands for Building Information Modeling. BIM is an acronym for Building Information Modeling. It is creating and managing digital representations of physical spaces. These representations can include not only two-dimensional drawings but also three-dimensional models, as well as schedules, material lists, and other important project information.

At the time of MEPCor’s conception, this technology was relatively unknown even though its conception originated in the early 1980s. When I was first exposed to it by accident, I could see the potential of the process,

Not being a businessperson, I sought to find a team that would help be bring MEPCor to fruition. Four months later, I was accountable to a business coach, a marketing director, and a business manager. Before our first website was live, I received a call. Word it had appeared traveled fast in my circles in San Diego, Calif.

Before I quit my last place of employment, and before our website was even live, someone asked me to take part in a local hospital project.

In the thirteen years I have watched MEPCor, my dream, grow into a nationally recognized company, who regularly takes part in large projects nationwide, has an amazing team, and has revenues far beyond my wildest dreams.

What I remember in my early planning stages was the advice of a very dear and trusted mentor who said, “always be ready for when opportunity comes knocking. Never say just a minute while I get ready. Just jump.”

When my opportunity came, I jumped. And I am still jumping to this day. But now, I jump for joy.

Joseph, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

MEPCor is a construction support company for contractors both locally and nationally. We work with the “little guy” to help even the playing field.

Before I started MEPCor, only large contractors with large amounts of staff could take part in the BIM process. The amount of cost to train and equip each operator in the BIM process is quite expensive, so typically the “little guy” couldn’t take part in projects requiring BIM modeling.

Our client from day one, and to this day still, is the “little guy”. The process can save as much as 30% in both labor costs of installation and material costs, so it is quite beneficial to our clients. It’s also very satisfying for me.

It’s quite comforting knowing, and hearing, that we helped companies save jobs by being more competitive in the industry. Profit margins are growing smaller and smaller with this economy and employers are looking for ways to stay in the game and keep as many people working as possible. I’d like to think that we will help with that.

Since our first day as a company, it has been my standard to be honest with all of my clients. We work in an industry where people do not admit when they make mistakes. They have their own reasons, of course, but it has always been our policy and culture to admit when we are wrong.

I believe when we admit it, and fix it, it grows the trust in the relationship you have with your clients.

If your client doesn’t trust you, everything you do is a waste of your time and theirs.

My attitude as a leader is to take responsibility for mistakes and give credit for all victories where credit is due. I believe this makes you a better example of those who choose to follow you.

My mentor reminded me in the early days that a man who reaches the top of the hill and is alone is not a leader, just a man on a walk. I want all my people up there with me. I bet it’s a great view.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

This is my favorite subject, actually. Managing people.

It’s my opinion the in order to have people follow you as a leader and always look out for your best interests you need to be worth following.

One question I always ask people is “would you follow you, or would you quit?”

In my industry, I see many leaders and managers who don’t actually “manage” their people. I see managers place people in positions of importance to the company’s bottom line, and yet not give them the support they need to succeed in the task they have given them.

I see managers who give people a task they themselves know nothing about and expect the subordinate to “go figure it out”. That’s not managing. If you as a manager do not have the resources to instruct someone in what to do to be successful in the task you have given them, you have no business assigning someone else to do what you, as a leader, do not know how to do.

Next, I see impatience in leaders who “just expect” you to know. This is both unfair, unrealistic, and unprofessional, not to mention counterproductive. I like to remind fellow leaders to remember what it was like for them when they were just starting out or a subordinate.

Last, I like to remind leaders that in order to lead, one must be worth following. That starts with humility. Give credit where credit is due and take responsibility for failures that happen under your watch. It was not the subordinates’ fault; it was the leaders.

When I meet a leader in a social or business occasion, I like to introduce myself and ask them simply “what do you do?”. Mostly, they will answer what they do for a living. This tells me two things about the person.

One, they have no sense of self. What they do is not who they are, it’s just what they do. A leader who associates who they are with what they do sees it as a personal attack on themselves when someone under them makes a mistake.

Second, they are likely to be unhappy because mistakes happen often sometimes, so they think they are at war. And no one like to work in a war zone.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of my favorite story’s is how I wound up in construction that led me to where I am today.

I was seventeen, homeless, and broke. I rented a room for a week at a local no tell motel and walked across the street to a construction site and asked for a job. Imagine a seventeen-year-old kid, tanned, wearing corduroy jeans, a hang ten t-shirt, and Pooka shells around my neck asking a burly man for a job.

He laughed so loud I imagine everyone on the job site heard him. He gave me a chance to prove myself and keep himself entertained; I imagine. I learned what blisters felt like. A lot of blisters, in fact. But he kept me on his payroll. Maybe he saw some of himself in me.

Flash forward twenty years later and I am running crews on some of the largest construction project in California. Out of the blue, I my employer asked if I was willing to learn something new. With computers. I knew how to turn one on. But that was it.

Twelve years later and I am highly respected in my new Skillset. During a meeting, I witnessed what turned out to be the rudimentary beginnings of what was to be my future calling and venture that would launch MEPCor and introduce the nation to Joseph Binning and his new crew.

MEPCor was a dream of mine but I didn’t know what it would be. I always dreamed of being independent somehow and then the opportunity came. And I jumped.

At the time they exposed me to what became the standard in construction, I could “see” the future. I knew it was not a fluke like everyone thought, managers all of them, but a useful tool that would change the face of construction and design forever.

Once I had the bug, my MEPCor bug, I slept, ate, dreamed, and breathed MEPCor. It became me and I became it. When it was hard, I kept going. When it looked like I would fail, I tried one more time. When all seems lost, I gave it one more shot.

When I speak to young people, I tell them that story. Not to make myself look good, but to show them that if I can do it, a homeless, no blister, no experience kid, that means that they can too.

A dream is a dangerous thing to waste.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mepcor.com
• Instagram: JosephbinningYouMatter
• Facebook: MEPCor
• Linkedin: Joseph Binning
• Twitter: MEPCorJoe
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVOIny2nfgWlJWiqIn2NpDg

Image Credits
all images are of MEPCor projects and are the rightful property of MEPCor Inc.