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From Banking to Building: Jonathan Bowser's Visionary Journey in Community Construction

• Erica Rawls

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Curious about how a former banker became a visionary force in the construction industry? Join us as we sit down with Jonathan Bowser, the mastermind behind Steel Works Construction. Jonathan shares his incredible journey from the world of banking to transforming Central Pennsylvania's real estate landscape with innovative designs inspired by major cities. Discover the bold moves he made, like the redevelopment of Allenberry Resort, and the passion that drives him to breathe new life into communities.

Jonathan doesn't just build structures; he builds communities. We explore the delicate balance of aligning developer ambitions with community desires, emphasizing the importance of community engagement and partnership. Jonathan enlightens us on the challenges and triumphs of ensuring that projects reflect the true aspirations of local residents. By valuing transparent communication and collaboration, Jonathan turns dream projects into sustainable realities, overcoming the hurdles of attracting big-name retailers and meeting community expectations.

A powerhouse of knowledge on mentorship and risk-taking, Jonathan’s story illustrates the importance of faith, purpose, and discipline in both personal and professional growth. Listen as he shares the wisdom behind his success, from establishing a morning ritual to surrounding himself with talented allies in the industry. Jonathan's insights on maintaining a balanced life and nurturing professional relationships offer invaluable lessons for anyone eager to thrive in the competitive construction and real estate sectors.

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Jonathan Bowser:

On everything we do internally at StillwoSr. It always is. Are we building community? Are we building community? They were doing what they were doing for money and not for purpose.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

And so when you get the money, the money just creates more problems, more headaches, more issues, more liabilities, more things that can go wrong. That's the downside of money that most people don't realize. They just think, oh, you got money, you got to be happy. That's the downside of money that most people don't realize. They just think, oh, you got money.

Erica Rawls:

You got to be happy. Welcome to another episode of Keeping it Real, where we have real conversations with extraordinary people in multimillion dollar homes. Today's episode is going to be dynamic, but first I do want to give a shout out to our wonderful sponsors to allow this podcast to happen. We have Toch Construction, Fidelis Mortgage and Allstate Insurance, as well as this podcast is funded by my own real estate business. Today we're excited to have Jonathan Bowser, the owner of Steel Works Construction, joining us today to share with us his journey through this amazing and also complicated business. He is dynamic in his own right. He has a wonderful family and I believe he started out in the banking world, but we're going to allow him to elaborate on that. One thing I do like about him is that he's also an HBCU grad, local to most of us in Central PA Morgan State University, and he also has a real estate development company, so we're going to get right into it. Welcome, Jonathan.

Jonathan Bowser:

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Erica Rawls:

You're welcome. You're welcome. So thank you for being here. I've known you from a distance right, Because I think I'm older than you. I'm probably a lot older than you, Maybe a little bit and I've actually admired how you've actually progressed. It seems like you just came on the scene out of nowhere. If I did my research correctly, the business that you have, you've actually started with Steel Works Construction. What four years ago, yes. Four years ago and you're doing amazing.

Jonathan Bowser:

Thank you.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah. So please tell us like like how did that actually happen?

Jonathan Bowser:

So Steel Works Construction started about four years ago. Prior to that, I was one of three partners, part of Integrated Development Partners, and we started out back in 2016. Okay, and it was three of us that got together and we just started off with a vision that we wanted to try to transform and shake up what we thought was a pretty dull real estate market here in Central PA. We thought that the product, the inventory, just didn't really match what we've seen through our travels other places we're outside of Philly and DC and Baltimore and New York and you see what the housing design looked like. You see how apartment designs are starting to look. You started to see a lot of mixed use development and here in Central PA, it was still kind of your cookie cutter housing. You know, a quarter to three acre, 0.3 acre, lots, your very cookie cut brown, white designs. On your retail front, you just were still seeing a lot of strip centers and like, very like EFIS, very plainlooking buildings, no real design to it, nothing that would really inspire you, and so we really just started off with that. That was our whole mission and we each had different skill sets, and so that's where the integrated part came from. Is, you know, let's integrate all of our different skill sets, our resources, our knowledge into something.

Jonathan Bowser:

And so I stepped out on faith, left a nice job as CEO in Cumberland County at an organization and my wife and I just built our house like five, six months before that and stepped out on faith and we started and never really looked back. And so we really grew the company. One partner is an engineer, so we were doing a lot of engineering work. I was doing a lot of construction management, development work, property management work, and our other partner was more silent from a day-to-day operational perspective but just provided a lot of value to us as an entrepreneur in his own right. And you know we got started. We did projects like Allenberry Resort. We did, you know, homes out that way. We had projects in Hershey. We redeveloped a big part of Stilton downtown with a brownfield site, an eight-acre site down there. We did a couple housing projects here in Mechanicsburg, converted a Montgomery Ward, a department store down in Hanover with mixed use with luxury apartments and first floor retail, did a big project out in Hershey.

Jonathan Bowser:

So we really just grew and I didn't see that coming. I couldn't have dreamed it up, I didn't. You know, it wasn't a roadmap to really get us there. We just took advantage of opportunities that presented itself and we just kind of followed our gut and our intuition and, you know, fortunate for us, it worked out our gut and our intuition and, you know, fortunate for us, it worked out.

Jonathan Bowser:

So as we grew that, you know, I started to really like the construction management side of what I was doing. I really liked being able to be involved in that and working directly with subcontractors and having a more hands-on approach as a developer. You usually hire your construction manager, your GC, and you know you oversee it and you're more or less paying attention to the numbers and the schedule, but you're not in the weeds or the layers of detail of design and you know schedule and how that all kind of comes together. And so I really started to like that side of the business and so I started researching. I started, you know, asking questions. I started talking to my general contractors, my CMs, about like, hey, what are you doing? You know, just trying to. You know how do I better understand how to read blueprints and all of those aspects that come into construction, doing the job training.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, yeah. So I was doing that for a while while nobody was really knowing that that's what I was really doing. But you know, my goal, really, my passion, was really starting to turn towards, you know, the construction side of it. I still love the development side, but it was more like I really like this construction side of it. And so, you know, four years ago, you know, I decided to create Stillworks Construction and I was very fortunate because we already had projects that I was working on.

Erica Rawls:

Right through your integrated development, Through the integrated development partner.

Jonathan Bowser:

So it was like I was again getting that on-the-job training and was able to start to develop my team and start to develop processes and just really start to build the brand of Steel Works, because prior to that I was focused to build the brand of Stillworks, because prior to that, you know, I was focused on building the brand of IDP. So now I'm like I was trying to pivot to okay, I don't want everybody to just know me as that anymore or as a developer. I want them to know me as Stillworks and I want them to know me as a construction manager and that we have a construction management firm. And so you know, we've been transitioning that over the last couple of years from branding and marketing and just really, you know, for me, just reminding people, you know like, hey, I do this. Now you know, when people ask me what I do, I don't say I'm a developer anymore, like I literally don't say that Really. I say, you know, I have a construction management company.

Jonathan Bowser:

Okay, and because that is my, that's my real focus. Got it, and so yeah so we've done well.

Erica Rawls:

Does IDP still exist?

Jonathan Bowser:

Yes, it still exists, Steel owns assets,Steel owns real estate, Steel has projects. Nothing active, but you know, we still have assets and projects that we own that are still in the portfolio. So, yeah, it's still still in existence. But my focus is is really on building Stillworks to be a bigger brand, to be a bigger player in the market and to really take it more state and more regional, meaning mid-Atlantic and then, of course, probably a little bit in the Florida market as um, as we also have a place down that way.

Erica Rawls:

So so yeah, oh, wow, okay, so then still works as global.

Jonathan Bowser:

Not global, but definitely from PA to Florida is the goal right. So, um, so, that's, that's, that's kind of how we see it. Uh, for where we want to be long-term.

Erica Rawls:

So how does this fit into like your personal purpose that you have for yourself?

Jonathan Bowser:

So for personal purpose, you know I always see things like you know, I want to be able to build community, and that's on everything we do internally. That still works. It always is. Are we building community? Are we building community?

Jonathan Bowser:

If it's not, then it's something that we probably don't want to do, and so that's more of our personal and more of my personal touch to what we do is, you know, anything we do, I want it to be building community, and so there's no other better way, in my opinion, to do that other than to really be building your community up.

Jonathan Bowser:

And it's so gratifying because I can actually see, physically see and touch what I do every day, and not everybody can do that. Not everybody can see you start with raw land and then you do your site work and your footers and your foundation and you're building your foundation and then your walls go up, and then your roof and your windows and you enclose it and then just to see it just mature over time into then livable space or workable space, uh and um. You know that's just really, that's really fulfilling to me, uh, and then being able to do projects in my hometown being from Harrisburg, you know that's always, it's always a blessing to be able to do projects, whether it's in the city of Harrisburg or Stilton or you know. Whatever the case may be is to be able to give back in a good way, in a positive way.

Erica Rawls:

So yeah, and there's a lot of redevelopment going on and a lot of opportunity. So what would you say? Okay, your purpose is to see yourself build a community, right? And if there's nothing, if you can't feel that, then you're just like is that what you use as a litmus test? Is okay, this is not the right project for me.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, we do. So one thing that I don't do is I don't do a project that a community doesn't want.

Erica Rawls:

And how do to find out.

Jonathan Bowser:

You find out pretty quick, people. People are not shy about letting you know what they don't like, right? So you know whether it's the local municipality, the local officials, elected officials, whether it's the constituents that live in those communities. People are very passionate. That live in those communities, people are very passionate. I'll stick with the word passionate about what?

Jonathan Bowser:

they do and what they don't like, Right? So when people tell me what they don't like, then my first response back is well, what do you like? You know, just don't always tell me what you don't like.

Erica Rawls:

Anybody can tell you, come with a solution.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, Anybody can just tell you what they don't like. But what is it that you actually do like? And usually that's where we can then start to find common ground. But if I'm just combating what you don't like, then we're never going to get anywhere. But if we can get to understanding okay, here's what you do like and here's what I'm trying to achieve a lot of times you can come to some type of consensus with local officials and with the neighbors and constituents. But if for some reason I can't and there seems to be a disconnect, then I'm gone, because I never want to bring something to the community that isn't for the community and that the community doesn't feel as though it's for them. Because in a lot of these places, you know, we come in Monday through Friday, 7 to 4, and we go home. These folks actually live here and have to see it, you know, 24-7, so to speak.

Erica Rawls:

That's fair.

Jonathan Bowser:

And so I always try to be mindful, and I learned that very early in my career where I thought that, oh, I have the vision for what you need in your community. You know you can't really tell someone what they need in their neighborhood. You know your neighborhood better than I do. But if I come into your neighborhood and say, well, this is what you need, no, we don't need that here. I live here. So I just try to be very mindful of that when we do projects, and so that's really my litmus test.

Erica Rawls:

So is it possible with that same thing, cause I I see myself in you in that comment only because of things that we're looking to do too. So is it possible that, instead of saying that I see a need, is it possible to say, okay, here's an opportunity and help them buy into that vision? Right?

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, putting it on my developer hat for a second. What I've tried to do in more recent years is meet with local elected officials and say, hey look, I do see opportunity in your community. What do you need? What do you want? What do?

Erica Rawls:

you want.

Jonathan Bowser:

What's important to you and I've seen that work and a lot of elected officials have been like, wow, no one's ever asked us what we think. So I don't try to come in with a preconceived. Here's what I want to do, here's what I'm going to put here. I try to start off with with what are you looking for? What do you need? What are you trying to see in your community to develop your community?

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

And then sometimes you've got to have that real conversation with them and say, well, that's not going to work. I've got people that will say, well, we want a whole food. Whole food's not coming here. We've just got to be honest, coming here you know we just got to be honest but it's.

Jonathan Bowser:

But I'm glad you're telling me here's what we want, and then that's if correct, but here's the other things you have to do to be able to to get to that point, because here's what whole foods is going to look for, here's what trader joe's is going to look for, here's what starbucks is going to look for. You know they're going to want to see so the amount of vehicles. They're going to want to see a certain income level. They're going to see certain things that they're going to look for. That we know. So if that's the goal, that's fine, that's the goal. But here's some other things that we're going to need to do along the way.

Erica Rawls:

Right, and along with that need to, sometimes we don't know what is needed, correct, right. So then, and we're ignorant just because we don't, because we don't have the resources, or we don't understand it, or we don't have the time to understand it, sure, right, cause there's other things that are more important. So I do think that people like yourself, right, do have a responsibility to make people aware like.

Erica Rawls:

Hey, this is what you know could potentially work. This is what we're seeing in other areas that look similar to yours. Right, but the same number of people that live there, that could be successful. So I do applaud you for that, because I do think there's a huge responsibility behind that.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, yeah, because knowledge is power. So a lot of people they don't really know the process and and sometimes you know, um, people will look at the end result and forget about the process that you went through to get there. Um, and that could be said about someone personally you know they could. They could look at you and be like, wow, I want to be erica. But they don't know the struggle you've been through for 10 plus years to get there yeah.

Jonathan Bowser:

They just focus on that end result. And the same is to be true about development. Is that it's development, it develops over time. And so people could say, like you know, hey, I want my community to look like Littitz or I want my community to look like, you know, camp Hill or whatever they're inspiring to be, but it's like, all right, but we just can't jump right to that. So what do we have to do? We have to cover the basics first. Do we have good health care? Do we have, you know, access to food? Do we have access to transportation? Do we have what? Does our housing stock look like? You know? Do we have apartments? Do we have single family homes? Do we have programs to help older homes get rehabbed? Do we have all these things in place? Because then, once we start doing those things now, we can look at the next, the next bigger picture and the next goal. But sometimes we just skip all of that and then we want to go right to to the end result, and so and it takes a long time.

Jonathan Bowser:

It's a process.

Erica Rawls:

It takes a long time, so, and I it takes a long time, so, and I've learned that too. Um, looking at different things because you want it to happen right away yeah and, depending on how big of a change that you're looking to make, it could take upwards of like five years and sometimes even ten more.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, yeah, so yeah because of the all of the I'll call it red tape, if you will that you have to go through, um, and because of the all of the I'll call it red tape, if you will that you have to go through, and then just a mindset of people that are living there, and then also how some people may want to protect what they already have, don't understand that there's a way to make it even better. So, so, yeah, so, in your upbringing, like how has that helped you, like get you into your career choice that you're in? Like how has that affected you?

Jonathan Bowser:

I mean there was no direct correlation towards any of that.

Erica Rawls:

Wait a second, you just stumbled on it, it's a stumble.

Jonathan Bowser:

It's a stumble process. Since I was young, I've always been competitive. I grew up playing sports. I was fortunate. I was a good basketball. I grew up playing sports. I was fortunate. I was a good basketball player, played at Central Dolphin East, went on and moved on to Morgan State.

Erica Rawls:

You broke some records right. I did yes. I did Okay. Hall of Famer.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yes, yeah, yeah, and I still hold the men's record for points and I think I've been out of school 20-something years and I always said to myself, if I hold it for two years I'll be good. It's been 20-something years later, so yeah. So I think a lot of my where I'm at now, the correlation probably just goes to my competitiveness, my preparedness and just being disciplined. And you know that goes a lot to, you know, my parents, my mom and my dad. My dad was very big on discipline, he was very big on structure and he pushed me in those areas to to be, to put, you know, discipline, like you know he would always say like that's, that's half the battle is if you show up prepared and disciplined, then whatever talent you bring just is an add-on. And so I've always kind of lived by those principles of you know, just being disciplined, being prepared, and my mom really gave me the soft skills piece.

Erica Rawls:

Absolutely.

Jonathan Bowser:

Because, you know, she always taught me the piece of you know, put God first, treat everybody fairly, treat everyone with respect. You know you're no better than the next person. And so she kind of gave me those kind of soft skills that I think are needed for anyone to be, you know, successful in their career, no matter what that career is. But you know, for me, I started off in banking. I started off in commercial banking, at Commerce Bank. I fell in love with commercial real estate and so within my portfolio I had several construction companies, I had development companies and I kind of just fell in love with putting those deals together and understanding how they worked. And understanding you know how business worked, how to manage cash flow. And you know, when I was an analyst, you know that's what I did. I analyzed businesses and I would pretty much grade them like okay, this business is doing well because they're doing these three or four things, this business is doing bad because of these things. And so when I got into business for myself, and even when I was a CEO before I went out on my own, I always kept that in the back of my head was all right, how would I putting on my analyst hat, how would I evaluate where I'm at? And I'm always going to be more critical of myself than anybody, but I would always think, okay, where is my business at and where do I need to focus to continue to get it to the next level? What does that look like? What's needed from an operational perspective? And so like that really was my jump start, you know, to be honest.

Jonathan Bowser:

And then I wanted to leave banking for a while because I just knew long term it just wasn't fulfilling me, like it was a great start to my career, the skills that I learned during that period I wouldn't be where I'm at without them. But I just knew it wasn't. Like you know, I didn't get that purpose and so I went on and I, through just some contacts, you know, I was able to get into economic development in Cumberland County and so I was the CEO of the county's economic development and tourism arm and industrial development arm, and then we also had a real estate arm, and what we did in the real estate arm was there were certain projects that private developers just didn't want to take on because they had environmental issues. They were old manufacturing buildings that had a lot of asbestos, mold, anything that had a whole bunch of red tape and hairy situations.

Jonathan Bowser:

Most private developers was like well, I can go develop that over there where it doesn't have any of those issues, why do I want to deal with this? And so we found that there was a need, and so we created a nonprofit development company to fill that need. So basically what we did was we bought up old buildings like we bought. The old Lemoyne Middle School was a great example. Okay, we bought that had been sitting for five or six years, deteriorated.

Erica Rawls:

I do remember that.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, and then, and then we sold it to a private developer. We went in, we got some money for it did a lot of asbestos removal, uh. And then we sold it to a private and we got some grant money like a a couple million dollars in grant money got it all ready and then sold it to a private developer.

Erica Rawls:

Okay.

Jonathan Bowser:

So we did all the early heavy lifting to then get it to a point where a developer could come in and then just take it from there, and so that's what we did, and we created that entity and it's still doing very, very well with what they're doing over there. But that was where I really started to get into.

Jonathan Bowser:

Okay, I really do like development right because that's what we were doing as a nonprofit agency. But then I just always felt like, alright, I kind of did this, but like there's more, there's more and there's a bigger purpose, there's a greater purpose. And so I was getting that itch of like, okay, I think I've done everything that I could do here.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

And I knew it was kind of time to move on. So I was like, all right, what do I want to go do next? And so I was fortunate because I had a lot of different offers. I had offers to get back into banking as an executive. I had offers to be a lobbyist because I was in economic development, so you're in that political space, and so I had opportunities to get into that. And then it was just like little opportunity to get in and go on my own. Now the other two were financially very lucrative. You know, really no risk, right, it was the risk here, right. So I decided to boss those and there's, you know, decided to go on small.

Erica Rawls:

So because of the competition, I think the competition, but I felt I felt like.

Jonathan Bowser:

I felt like for me it was, it was more about purpose, you know. You know people can flash a couple of dollars in front of you and it was enticing to be like, oh man, like, all right, I can really make, I could do well for myself, you know, or I could take this risk and still do well for myself. But are you willing to take the risk? And I felt like I was at that crossroads of purpose versus being comfortable, and so I said I'm going to take the road of being uncomfortable and I'm going to take this risk and see where it goes.

Erica Rawls:

Can you just stop right there, just say that one more time, because that is huge. A lot of people are afraid to take risks, right, but if you don't truly know who you are and live in your purpose, you're going to just, you're just going to live life, just live in life just to get by.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah.

Erica Rawls:

But what you just said was hey look, I want to take this risk because I'm truly living in my purpose and it's something that I truly wanted to do. So because of that and you were strategic too, because all of the things that you've done in the past was setting you up for the opportunity- it happened that way.

Jonathan Bowser:

I didn't plan it. But yes, and that's the, that's the part because, correct, but that was God's plan, it wasn't mine. Because people do say like, oh man, like when I, when I hear your story, like everything lined up to where, now I see why you're doing what you're doing and I'm like, yeah, but I didn't have that roadmap, that wasn't my roadmap, it was God's roadmap. I just was fortunate that I listened to, to that roadmap. But to your point, you know most people, when they don't want to take risks, it's because they haven't found their purpose. And so when you take risks with no purpose, it's extremely daunting because what's the purpose behind it? I'm going to take this risk, but I don't understand the greater purpose. Because most people think, well, you know it's about the money, but and you know this, you know people who have money, a lot of times they're not happy, you know a lot of people are miserable.

Jonathan Bowser:

They're miserable and I and I learned that, like people that I know that have the most money, a lot of times they're not happy because they they were doing what they were doing for money and not for purpose.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

And so when you get the money, the money just creates more problems, more headaches, more issues, more liabilities, more things that can go wrong. That's the downside of money that most people don't realize. They just think, oh, you've got money, you've got to be happy. And people say that to me. They're like, oh, you're fine, you've got money. I'm like it's the're comfortable, correct?

Erica Rawls:

The higher you get up. Yeah, you want to get to a point where you do feel like I'm comfortable. Right, I've set myself up so I can live the life that I choose to. But it's not easy, it's not easy because you have. The higher up you go right, the more responsibility you have, and it's more than likely there's others that's underneath you depending on you as well. Go right, the more responsibility you have and it's more than likely there's others that's underneath you, depending on you as well.

Jonathan Bowser:

People are depending on you people depending on you. People are depending on you, yeah, so yeah, I was sick for two days and a couple people on my team kept asking me like are you okay, you okay, I'm like why y'all keep asking me I'm okay?

Jonathan Bowser:

they're like because we need you. You know what I it's like, those subtle reminders that, like people are truly depending on you for your, for their livelihood Right and and that's a that's a big responsibility to hold, because it's not only my, my team, but it's all my subcontractors. They're relying on us to perform so they can get paid.

Erica Rawls:

Correct so if you weren't in your purpose.

Jonathan Bowser:

Correct.

Erica Rawls:

You'd be like you know what On a bad day, I'm out of here, I'm out.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, I'll go do something else.

Erica Rawls:

But because you know, this is bigger than you.

Jonathan Bowser:

It's bigger than me.

Erica Rawls:

You're like okay, so I got to figure this out. Yeah, let's work this through.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, and you know, you're an entrepreneur too. There's a lot of days where I'm like man.

Jonathan Bowser:

I'm done with this. You know, like I don't want to deal with this today and I would be okay. I have enough skills, I know enough people, I'd be fine. You know I've done well for myself, so I would be fine. But what puts you over the hump to continue, even when you don't want to, is it's the purpose, that it's bigger than you, it's bigger than me, it's bigger than what we're doing. We're building community, we're building people, we're improving lives.

Jonathan Bowser:

I gotta keep going yeah and that's, that's what gets you out of the bed. When you don't want to get out of the bed, um, or when you have to work late, or you got to be up early, you know, or you got to answer a phone call on a Saturday or Sunday when you just really wanted to relax that day, or, you know, or someone stops you in the grocery store and wants to talk business, but you really don't want to talk about business at the moment, but you do it because it's bigger than you.

Erica Rawls:

It's bigger than you. You, yeah, much is given, much is required. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then, how do you keep yourself in a good like a mental space? Right, because, as entrepreneurs, sometimes, like, the burden gets really heavy.

Jonathan Bowser:

Sure.

Erica Rawls:

So how do you keep your mind sharp, keep yourself in good physical condition? You know, how do you are able to show up for your, your family and your friends.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah.

Erica Rawls:

Right, without being like the I guess the ogre, if you will. How do you keep yourself?

Jonathan Bowser:

So that's a really that's a really good question, because when people say, what keeps you up at night, or what do you worry about the most, or what's the hardest part of what you do, it has nothing to do with what I actually do. It's not construction, it's not managing people, and that can be difficult, but those aren't the things that worry me. What worries me the most is me keeping myself spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally in good health to be able to then do everything that I'm able to do, because you know, we do have a lot going on. I do have a lot going on, but I don't do it by myself. I do it with a team of people, but I have to be mentally ready every day to help them do what we do how you do it to be successful.

Jonathan Bowser:

So, so, um, I have, I have a really good. I have a really good ritual that I've been with for about 15 years now.

Erica Rawls:

Um 15 years.

Jonathan Bowser:

I've been doing it for 15 years 15 days, 15, 15 years, 15 years strong with it. But, um, you know, I wake up at 5.00 AM, um, or a little bit before um, I go to the gym so I work out, um, in the morning, I do about, I do my cardio, um, I do about 20 minutes of devotional, um, I meditate, I pray every morning, um, and I usually listen to a podcast. So I usually go to the gym in the morning and I, would you know, listen to rap, whatever I want to listen to, and in the last two, three years I've switched that to where I listen to different podcasts. Some of them are religious-based, some of them are business, entrepreneurial-based, and all of that is so that before, and I try to get it all done by 7 o'clock, so my kids wake up at 7 and then we get to school.

Jonathan Bowser:

So I try to do it all before they get up so that I am mentally prepared for everybody for the day, first with me, then with my wife and kids, and then it's on to everybody else and everything else I have to do that day. But I got to be done by 7 o'clock because if you don't, then you're chasing his tail, because then the day has now started and problems have started. Things have started. My kids maybe not in a good mood that morning, and so what? I try to tell people that are kind of like I can't figure this out, and I always ask them when do you start your day? Well, the kids usually come in and wake me up. No, that's the first problem.

Erica Rawls:

There you go, your kids are coming.

Jonathan Bowser:

Your kids are beating you to the punch.

Jonathan Bowser:

You haven't had you time yet and you've got to have that time to yourself, you know, spiritually, emotionally, physically, if you really want to get a jump start on your day, and so you know I've been strong with that, pretty religiously. There are times every once in a while where I'll do a lot of that and then I'll go to the gym after I take the kids. So I do switch it up every once in a while, but for the most part, for the last 15 years, I've been consistent with between 5 and 7, it's me time and here's I've got to get done with that Win the morning, you win the day.

Jonathan Bowser:

You win the morning, you win the day, yeah, and it's just putting you in the right perspective because you know, as an entrepreneur, you don't know what's going to happen to you that day. You know, and I was telling you this morning about you know what I ran into this morning. I didn't know that was coming. When I woke up by the time I had to deal with it. I was ready Mentally, I was ready for the day, and so I was like, okay, this was hitting me at 7.15 in the morning. All right, let's deal with it. And then we got it resolved.

Jonathan Bowser:

So that's just how I've tried to juggle it all and then I've also tried to not tried to, but what I have done is learn to delegate and then really focus on what decisions and what do I really need to do in a day to move the needle. And I try to limit that to like three or four things that I like I got to get done there, and I call them there my, my impactful things. And so every morning I jot down on my phone and my notes you know what's impactful, like what do I got to get done a day to move the needle, not all the other stuff that you got to do in your to do list.

Erica Rawls:

And you know what's impactful.

Jonathan Bowser:

Like what do I got to get done today to move the needle? Not all the other stuff that you got to do in your to-do list and you know we all got those things and a lot of that's busy work. So if you sit back and you really look at that to-do list, a big chunk of it is like stuff that somebody else really should be doing. You really shouldn't be doing it or it shouldn't even be on the list.

Erica Rawls:

And then you start to shrink that list and then you really look at okay, what do I really need? To do, to grow my business and I think that's huge for entrepreneurs to know that you have to be intentional with managing your day One in the morning get yourself prepared for whatever may come, before even open up emails.

Erica Rawls:

Don't even like, do not disturb, right, and then start your day. And then I like to start from the night before. So then when I get done with that morning ritual and I'm able to, okay, yep, I know exactly what I need to do. I also throw in there gratitude. I have to put in there something that I'm grateful for. Yeah, because it's whatever you focus on expands.

Erica Rawls:

And if you're focusing on, like the, you know the drama that may come up or you know dealing with a disgruntled employee or team member, that really can just mess with your psyche. So it's intentional that for me I have to sit there until I can think of at least two things, three things, on a great day that I'm grateful for Cause, then I'm like okay, good, I got myself centered, let's go. Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan Bowser:

I have a planner. I forget who got it for me, but at the top of it it does say today I am grateful for. And then you got to fill in the blank.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Jonathan Bowser:

And um, and so I do do that every day. I just started this. Someone got me a 2024 for every day in the year, and so it is something that I want to be able to carry on as I go on to 2025. And it's something I picked up this year only because somebody got me the planner and at the top it says I am grateful for, and then I fill in the blank. So, yeah, I think that is a really good way to start the day about your, your children.

Erica Rawls:

I know that the age ranges are. You got a big gap in there, right?

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, yeah.

Erica Rawls:

So do you see them going into your business?

Jonathan Bowser:

Oh, you know my 18 year old. You know I'm super, super proud that he's a senior at Susquehanna. You know he wants to get into international politics. He just did a civic. He just did a civic to get into international politics. He just did a civic government panel yesterday with Representative Patty Kim and Tim DeFleur and Justin Fleming and a bunch of other local elected officials. So I'm really it's really good to see him kind of come into his own at such a really young age and really excel. You know and do his thing. And so you know he's off doing his political thing of what he loves.

Erica Rawls:

He might be the lobbyist.

Jonathan Bowser:

He might be, and you know some of the schools, so he wants to be in either DC or New York.

Erica Rawls:

Oh, that would be nice.

Jonathan Bowser:

So those are the schools that we're looking at in those areas that really play to what? He wants to do Now. He doesn't want to look at Morgan State. He did apply for Hampton. Oh, that's awesome. He did apply at Hampton.

Erica Rawls:

Okay.

Jonathan Bowser:

But you know he likes Columbia, georgetown, hofstra, american University, george Washington, nyu, so he loves the DC, dc and New York schools, yeah, and so you know. So, yeah, very fortunate with with his progression and what he's doing. And then, yes, I dropped down to a nine-year-old and my nine-year-old is he were a lot of like, we're very similar and personalities and and drive. And you know he's he's my sports kid, so he's he in the basketball. We're in football right now.

Jonathan Bowser:

Okay, so he's your competitor, yeah yeah, so he's in the football right now. He plays for the Little Crusaders and then we've got basketball coming up and I'm the basketball coach, so we have basketball coming up in a couple months. But very smart kid does very well. I'm just blessed. My kids are very good kids. They're very polite, they're just. They're just good kids.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

And so we're very, we're very fortunate, very fortunate from that perspective. And then my youngest turned four today. So so, yeah, so he, you know he loves trucks, you know he goes to school his little construction hat and you know, even this morning he's like I got my loader, dad, I got my loader. So you know he's infatuated by big trucks and construction equipment and all those things. But you know, I always tell my kids, no matter what you do, you know, whether it's your education, whether it's your career, whether it's sports, I want them all to experience life the way that they want to and pursue their passions Good for you and don't be led by what I did.

Erica Rawls:

Right my path was my path.

Jonathan Bowser:

And so don't feel forced to play sports, because that's what I did, or go to this kind of school, because that's what I did, or get into construction, because that's what I did, or you know, follow your own path and your own purpose, and so and so with each, with each of them, I try to really try to lock in on where I think their passion is and help bring it out of them. And if it has nothing to do with what I do, great.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

I am 100% okay with that.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

I don't need to be fifth generation of anything, or even second generation of anything, as long as they're happy and as long as they're pursuing what they want to do and what their purpose is in their life.

Erica Rawls:

And you're a role model. So just that alone having a role model in their life, having a dad in their life because a lot of men they are absent from their children that's going to be a huge impact on their life, like it really is.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, yeah. So we try to. We try to make sure that God is first. Education is there, that you have all the soft skills and giving them the best opportunities that we can to help them be successful, but then also be humble in that process and just know it's a process.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

And I preach that to you, know, my kids daily.

Jonathan Bowser:

It's a process. It's a process you start off. You're not going to start off being the man You're not going to start off being here. You're not going to start off being the man. You're not going to start off being here, and if you are for some reason, because God has just gifted you that way, we still have a long way to go and we still got to. You know, daily, improve and improve 1% If we can do a little bit better today than we did yesterday, and just you know it's a process, and so that's the way that I always try to present it to my kids. Is even my son, who's going off to college, is I always tell him like bro, you're going to start all over again.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah.

Jonathan Bowser:

You know you've made your mark here at Susquehanna. You know you're student government president. He was homecoming king, you were all those things, but you weren't that. In ninth grade you built yourself up.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

And then you got to the, to the top of that mountain. But guess what, when you go be a freshman in college, you start all over again, all over. And so and so there's levels to it, you know, and it's levels to what we do, you know, you get to a certain point and then you're like, all right, I'm going to take the next jump up. Well, you're not the big dog at the next level you start at the bottom and you work your way up again.

Erica Rawls:

So so yeah, that's awesome, that was great. So what would you say to the person that wants to get into your industry? What would you recommend that they do, and how can someone get in contact with you too, should they want to use you, you know, for your business?

Jonathan Bowser:

Sure Business. So the first thing I would tell people if they want to get into construction or development is check why you want to, because construction and real estate and you can understand this very well being an agent and having your own team is that for a lot of people. Because they can physically see it. They just think I want to go do that and I can hop in Right and so a lot of people come to me.

Erica Rawls:

Oh, my God.

Jonathan Bowser:

So many people come to me and say like I want to be a real estate agent.

Erica Rawls:

I'm like why yeah, why yeah?

Jonathan Bowser:

And it's like, oh, because I want to make some extra money.

Erica Rawls:

Wrong answer, Because most real estate agents do not make money 50%, 60% of them do not make money.

Jonathan Bowser:

Probably more than that. There's probably like 10% or 20% of you all that make money. Others do not make money. So that is the wrong answer to why you want to get into our space. But again, people see it and so they think, okay, I want to latch on. Also, people come to me and they're like I see what you do, I want to go do it and I'm like why? You know what I mean. So I always tell people if you want to get into development, if you want to get into construction, if you want to get into real estate, it truly has to be your purpose.

Erica Rawls:

It definitely has to be your purpose, because this game is not easy.

Jonathan Bowser:

It's very cutthroat. It definitely has to be in this space in this business?

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, are you sure you want to do this and you're sure you want to do it.

Jonathan Bowser:

So I think that's the first litmus test is, is you have to check why you really want to do it and check your ego, why, why am I doing this? Am I doing it for, you know, attention? Am I doing it for audience? Am I doing it for money? And um, I think a lot of people are in that space. They, they, they want to get into this space for those reasons. But if someone comes to me and say, look, I really want to um me and say, look, I really want to build my community and here's what I want to do, and I can tell that it seems very genuine. It's so wide open as far as what you can get into and how you get into that space. Some people have gotten into construction and have built construction companies because they were slaying in a hammer somewhere. That's the furthest thing from what I've done. I don't really even have too many hammers in my house.

Jonathan Bowser:

Right, right, so I'm going to hire somebody to come to my house to fix that.

Erica Rawls:

Right right.

Jonathan Bowser:

I can look at something and be like, oh, you need to do X, Y, Z, because I've seen it a million times over. But if you give me the hammer and say, well, go do it, I can't do that.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

So you just got to look at where your skill sets lie and then balance that with others around you that make up for what you don't have skills in. So in development and in construction, because there's so many facets to it, you can attack it from different angles, but you've got to have some baseline skill set to get into the space. For me it was finances and me understanding business from that angle and understanding, okay, here's how a construction company should run, here's how a development company should run, here's a good asset to buy. I have those skill sets because that's what I went to school for. When I started off as an analyst, I spent two years doing nothing but evaluating companies and businesses, and so that was my skill set. So I never lost sight of that. But when I got into construction and I got into development, I said, okay, well, I need to bring people in with me that have the skills and the knowledge that I don't have.

Erica Rawls:

Surround yourself.

Jonathan Bowser:

And you surround yourself with the people and that's where the humility comes in. At that. You have to have that humility to say here's what I do know, here's what I don't know and here's where I need help, and you go seek those people that can be helpful with you to then make you well-rounded. But I've seen some people get into the space and they know this one little piece but they don't bring the other people in. They need to get them to understand the rest.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

Because they're trying to do it themselves. And so you know, I've just always tried to surround myself with people that can help me grow. And you know, I've just always tried to surround myself with people that can help me grow. And you know, people have said to me sometimes not directly but indirectly like, oh well, you got started because you had that person with you, had that person with you. And I'll be like yeah, I did.

Erica Rawls:

And and Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

I didn't do this by myself, and I had God with me too. So what are we talking about, like you know? So yeah, I did have those people with me because I realized I couldn't do it on my own. I'm not self-made, you know. I don't even know To me, I don't even really know what that means.

Erica Rawls:

Yeah, I'm not self-made and you can go further with others. People have to understand that. Yeah.

Jonathan Bowser:

Yeah, I'm not self-made, because I didn't do this by myself. I didn't build this by myself. I am growing it with the most talented people I can find around me accountants, lawyers, construction people. You know I try to go after the best talent I can find. As far as construction people Like, I want the best of the best that I can afford, that I can have.

Erica Rawls:

Right.

Jonathan Bowser:

Because it's only going to make us elevate. And so you know. If I could give people advice, hey check why you're why. Why are you doing this? Does it fit into your purpose? And if it does, then understand. Okay, here's my skill set, here's what I bring to this table and then bring others to the table that you need to be able to make that full circle.

Erica Rawls:

And I think once you do that and it aligns with your purpose, then you just got to be willing to take that risk.

Jonathan Bowser:

That's awesome. Ok, so who should be getting in contact with you, man? That's a good question. It is difficult for me to try to be helpful to people a lot of times because my time is is.

Erica Rawls:

My time is limited and I truly try to work on aspect like for business, like what, who, what's the type of person that should call steelworks construction? I do apologize. We were talking about like how can someone get into the business?

Jonathan Bowser:

Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, so, but but if I'll finish that thought, I'll finish the first thought and then I'll go on to the second part. So what I've always tried to explain to people is is that, you know, I feel like everyone should get a mentor, and I do feel like mentorship is very important. It's important to me and I have a few mentors that I have, but what I've always tried to balance out is a your mentor should be someone that's not like 10 steps ahead of you, but maybe one or two, but maybe one or two that don't see you as a threat, that then you guys can somehow work together in some capacity to where there's a mutual benefit, but they're also mentoring you. That sounds complicated, maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but that's what I've always tried to do.

Jonathan Bowser:

I've always tried to find people that are a little bit ahead of me, that don't see me as a threat, that just wanted to help me, but I'm bringing value along the way, and so, therefore, you know it wasn't feeling like it was a burden to them or wasted their time, or I've got to carve out time for this, because I understand that people are busy. So I do feel like everyone needs mentors and I don't think it's a bad thing to try to shoot for somebody to be like where you ultimately want to be. But I feel like when you do that sometimes you miss the process in between, because then again you're looking at I want to be that, but yeah, to get there you got 10 more years to go probably give or take or not years. I don't like to value things by years or time but, like you got these steps to get before you can get there, and so I think that that's that's critically important.

Jonathan Bowser:

So I do think people should find a mentor. I do think and I like I say when I see people I'm always trying to, you know, help for people. Drop me a line. Or I'm always trying to respond back as quick as I can, like hey, I got this thought, or can I get five minutes of your time? Hey, I got this thought, or can I get five minutes of your time? Like, I try to make time for that, to try to help people out. But then I also try to tell people, like you know who else is in your circle that maybe you know could give you a little bit more time, because there's things that you guys could be doing together. So I think that that's always kind of critically important.

Jonathan Bowser:

But as far as business wise, you know, we do smaller projects we do, so we're're commercial, so we don't do like um, we don't do like a home renovation. Someone says, hey, I want to finish my basement. It's not, that's not what we do, right, but if somebody wanted to build a home, if somebody wants to build like a multi-unit, if somebody wants to renovate multi-units, um, so anything that's more commercial based If people wanted to buy office space, office buildings we do a lot of tenant fit out stuff. So you know people bought. You know I'm leasing an office but I got to do the inside space. You know we come in and we do, we do that, we do medical and there's a couple other areas that I'm super excited about that we're looking at that, I think, will that's part of our goal to get to that next level as far as you know, spreading our wings a little bit and going a little north, south, east and west, but yeah, anybody that has what I would consider a commercial project.

Erica Rawls:

Okay.

Jonathan Bowser:

That's either multi-unit or commercial in theory, is really who our clients are. We have some institutional clients that we do work for schools, universities, corporations, and so you know we try to be as diversified as possible and be very thoughtful in the kind of projects we take on. But again, it's all about building community and that's where we kind of start from.

Erica Rawls:

That's awesome. Thank you so much. No problem, this was a great conversation and hopefully you all agreed. If you have any comments or just words of praise or want to get in contact with Donathan Bowser, just put those in the comments and we'll make sure that we get you connected with him and we'll also give you a link to his company so you can see exactly what he does in the community. Although he did a great job explaining that right now. But I really did enjoy you. Thank you so much.

Jonathan Bowser:

Well, thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me on.

Erica Rawls:

You're welcome and you know what y'all. Until next time, we'll see you.

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