Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kenneth Bryant . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kenneth, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

My name is Kenneth Bryant with Catapulting Change Academy. I have been a business owner for over 10 years, contractor for 25 years, and an entrepreneur for 26 years. I was born raised in Baltimore and at the very young age of 11became an entrepreneur. During that time of my life I wasn’t doing the right thing. I was stealing candy from the store and selling it to my friends for a dollar. At the age 12 I got caught and I started working with my family doing construction. Originally my goal was to be a professional football player but, by the age of 15 I was selling drugs, doing construction, and getting into all kinds of trouble. Which lead to me at the very young age of 15 facing 30 years in prison for counterfeit money and drug possession. My parents convinced me to drop out of high school and work with my family full-time in the construction industry, installing all types of flooring. I became my dad‘s boss after a few years of being with the company and he hated it. He hated the fact that I have always been a leader, entrepreneur, and a go getter. By the age of 19 I bought my first house I was uneducated and stuck in a 5.1 arm adjustable rate. I ended up losing it and having to file bankruptcy which caused me to have to start all over again. At the age of 23 I was studying entrepreneurship and reading many books. I will be honest I had never taken school serious until, I started studying entrepreneurship. I got addicted and obsessed with learning how to build your own business, and how it allows you to take control of your life. By the age of 25 I started my first business called Sincerely Yours LLC. I ran this business while I still worked a job. The last employer I worked for was MC Dean, I was an electrical contractor at the Pentagon for them, and I had the pleasure of working there for over 10 years. I had to get my GED to work at Mc Dean, my base pay at the beginning was $22, at the end of my career with Mc Dean I had reached a base pay of $67 per hour. I also became the crew leader while working  there. When the project ended the company gave me an offer to go to Texas giving me the same base pay, per diem and living expenses. I turned it down because at the time my children were only 4 and 6 and I did not want to leave the state without them. And I was going through a separation with my ex at the same time too. I believe because I turned down the job offer the company decided to punish me.  I was transferred to a different division of the company and ended up having to take a $30,000 pay cut. While doing a job I didn’t enjoy, which I believe is what motivated me to finally decide to start my own business full-time.
I hired a mentor/coach, and he told me that the business name Sincerely Yours  was not a good fit for a construction company. He told me that in order to become successful I needed to work my business full time, I took that advice and ended up making a decision to quit my job July 14 of 2014. In order for me to finally get to the point of quitting my job I had to believe. One of the strategy’s I was taught to do was to write down my goals every day but, write them down in a way where you actually believe, and all of the doubts and maybes will disappear. I had to get to the point where I said to myself I will, I must, and I can. I ended up giving my supervisor a six month notice before I quit my job which he said was too much, that I only needed to give them a 30 days’ notice. I remember counting down the days waiting for the day to arrive. When the day finally came, I worked the whole day clocked out and never looked back. When I first quit my job my business name was still Sincerely Yours LLC and I changed it because I realized that it was not the name for me. At which point I came up with Catapulting Change LLC. My first year quitting my job I made $12,000 I went from taking trips to Hawaii to taking trips to the backyard. It was very challenging I had no idea what I was doing but I ended up figuring it out by reading and executing. I realized I had to go from working one job to working 15 jobs you literally must become everything as a business owner, before you can get to the point where you can hire a team.
It took me around five years before I finally started making the same amount of income I was making when I was working a job. After the fifth year the business started to grow exponentially by 200% per year.
This is the thing most folks don’t understand there will always be challenges in life especially when you’ve never done something before. You must go through the process of winning and losing but don’t look at it as losses look at it as lessons, to getting closer to winning and as long as you stay disciplined and consistent you will get the results that you need. Not when you want them but as they are needed. I now have multiple businesses Catapulting Change Academy, Catapulting Change Fitness ,Catapulting Change Renovation. My wife and family own Eileen Elder Care and assisted living business. We all live our life by design, we are the CEOs of our lives. We are still learning and growing.
Becoming a business owner and entrepreneur has been the greatest decision I ever made. I have two kids that are now 16 and 14 and when they grow up, they will become CEOs as well. They are already being taught the same things that I’ve learned so far as an entrepreneur. I come from seven generations of failure, people that have done the same thing expecting a different result. Don’t get me wrong I’m not beating people up that work a job all their life, it just wasn’t for me. The key to success is not just to have an idea, you need to have the drive, passion and develop consistency. You must be open to change and remain teachable as the world is changing each day. If you aren’t open to change you will get left behind and that’s why I will forever be a student. Regardless of what you’re doing in life, you can start a business anytime you feel like it. You don’t necessarily have to quit your job until you feel comfortable. You may not even have to quit your job; you can open the business to supplement your income. It’s a great way to earn more income which will allow you to spend more time with your family, travel the world and attend family events. Instead of making excuses about you have to work.
My biggest passion now is teaching and educating other individuals on how to become entrepreneur and business owners. I would love to see everyone live their life by design I would love everyone to be able to free themselves from the daily grind. Now remember you must hustle throughout the business owning process but, what’s most important is you must find a way to use the income you acquire to invest to produce residual passive income. Which is what I do currently, I invest into real estate, cryptocurrency, stocks, and anything that interests me. Anytime I see an opportunity to make money I take it. Remember this fear is a created illusion, it doesn’t exist it is created by our minds, eliminate the fear and take control of your life.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I ended up getting into my industry of becoming a remodeler and a fix in flipper after I first quit my job I failed my MHIC license five times and the state of Maryland made me wait one year before I could take it again. Which means I couldn’t work with homeowners., What I ended up doing is going downtown to Baltimore County Courthouse and getting my commercial license which will allow you to work in none owner occupied properties. residential or commercial one of the things you can do is educate the owners on how they can pull their own permits, now you do have to use a architect or engineer to create a set of plans that are professional but it is possible to pull your own permits as the owner. I finally ended up getting my MHC license which allowed me to do many different projects from bathroom remodels, kitchen remodels, basement renovations, Full house renovations working with investors. What I discovered when I was working with Investors it is very difficult to win because they didn’t understand the process of construction, So they would think that the budget is one price when I actually ended up being more than that , never did I run into a situation where it was less investors are very greedy and they are uneducated when it comes to construction. So that’s what motivated me to start buying my own houses.! My first house I bought I bought it for 62,000 I put 125 into it and ended up selling it for 255,000 it wasn’t much profit but there were a lot of learning lessons along the way. Nowadays I will generate between 30 and $50,000 profit off each property that I flip on top of that I get paid for construction. So it’s like you’re double dipping as the owner because you have construction skills and renovation skills which allowed me to become the investor. I specialize in restoration work properties that everybody else is scared of I have the ability to take them on even if they’ve caught on fire, flooded, One or the biggest problems I’m gonna be solving here in the future with Catapulting Change Academy is I will be teaching and educating 12 to25-year-olds not just a skill and a trade but how to become entrepreneurs. They will learn how to live their life by design., As The students attend my apprenticeship program they will learn how not to be a one trick pony and develop the skills to remodel the entire house going from one test to the other. Which will allow anyone to become more effective and efficient in the process of getting the project done. I will also be teaching them how to get into our affordable housing program providing 255,000 or less to citizens in the area that cannot afford to live in areas that are 300,000 and above. One of my key principles and things I would love for my potential clients/followers/fans to know about my brand/ my work/ etc. Is the fact that I will always go above and beyond providing more value and knowledge than the average business owner entrepreneur out here. My goal is to teach and educate 5000 entrepreneurs by 2025 it is very possible but I have to help others develop the mindset and drive needed to sustain success going to the growing stages. Also I will be teaching the contractor how to become the investor and the investor how to become a contractor because in the marketplace of fixing flips there’s too much confusion and hardships due to the lack of education. The contractor does not understand investor and the investor does not understand the contractor, therefore they will never come to an agreement to be able to be productive effective or efficient results. while a project is being done , Anything is possible and if your desire is to become a entrepreneur business owner fixing flipper etc. I’m here to help you navigate through the troubled waters and the challenge in time to allow you to have access to a mentor and a coach that has been through it and is still going through it as i continue to grow throughout the years. My coaching program living your life by design allows you to learn all the steps necessary to thrive in the marketplace and business. All of my knowledge and information I provide is based off my data and my results I would love to guarantee everyone success but it’s really up to one individual rather than that they develop the ability to keep pushing through the pain before they finally seen success.

Any advice for managing a team?

The voice I have for Billd in the team is you have to allow an individual to have an opinion and feedback in the process because if they don’t and you only tell people what to do do you never ever get the results you are looking for from anyone. Also there has to be growth opportunities what are the things I tell all my students is this you may be paying for my coaching program but you will be getting paid for learning where do you go to college and get paid learn that’s the benefit of my apprenticeship program so it makes me stand out more than the average company. When you allow your employees to become entrepreneurs and business owners they will have more invested because it’s up to them the results they get instead of you systematically put them into a rule that they just do over and over again. Now you will have team members that prefer to just do one thing and never ever experience any other avenues which is fine as well if they do that test effective and efficient. I just want everybody to develop many skills that will allow them to become a walk in ATM in the future there’s a famous saying never put all your eggs in one basket not sure who the author is who said that but I’ve heard it over and over again growing up and it’s very important because if there’s only one thing you do that’s the only result you have. To keep her morale up it’s very important to Be positive and inspirational you have to build your team up not break them down when do you become a effective communicator you no longer hurt peoples feelings or beat them up you understand it’s very important to communicate with them to come up with a solution to get better results. We all deserve happiness and who wants to work for someone that is miserable that’s never fun.

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

I would love to share a story about my journey I remember the first time I went skydiving I was afraid of heights. I had a strong desire to do this as I’ve always loved a rush and I was always addicted to speed so I found that skydiving would be an alternative that was legal for me to go 120 mph Freefallin for 14,800 feet two 5000 feet when you pull your Parachute and then of course landing on the ground. I successfully completed this even though my shoot got tangled up and I saved it it was the greatest rush that I have ever received and from there I was never afraid of heights anymore. Of course the first time I went up I have a fear of dying Theo my shoot not working and fear of not making it home to my family. One of the things that I always say and I will continue to say for the rest of my life when fear presents itself is “ LIFE IS GREAT! DON’T BE SCARED!” As I said before fear is a create an allusion to many of us are always talking about scenarios that have never happened to us the best advice I can give anyone along their journey to develop resilience is to eliminate the fear and do it anyway..

Contact Info:

• Website: Catapultingchangerenovations.com
• Instagram: Kennethwilloambryant
• Facebook: Kennethwilliambryant
• Linkedin: KennethBryant
• Twitter: CATAPULTchange
• Youtube: Kennethbryant
• Yelp: Catapultingchange
• Other: http://catapultingchangeacademy.mastermind.com/masterminds/28117 catapultingchangeacademy.com

Image Credits
Kenneth Bryant