Dawson Hackett

My journey to CBC began earlier than most. I actually grew up with Hoss (CEO) from the time we were in kindergarten through 8th grade. We reconnected roughly 10 years later, and he told me he was now a construction consultant and was looking to expand his business. Seeing a young, ambitious founder setting out to do things differently in the construction industry was an incredible opportunity that I absolutely wanted to be a part of.

Right now, my focus is growing our team. We have established ourselves as a firm who can bring solutions, now we must keep up with the demand by constantly being on the search for great people. When I am not working on recruiting, I also handle our billing, bookkeeping, and payroll.

I was essentially born into the construction industry as my first job was working for my grandpa finishing concrete at the ripe age of 11. Eventually I decided the heat was for the birds and made my way into the project management side of construction, where I have been blessed to represent the owner’s interest of several large heavy commercial construction projects. The majority of my experience has come from working with large educational institutions to make sure their projects are done the way they want with the money they have.

A project that I am very proud of was a large remodel of a public safety facility on a college campus. This was the first project that I was the lead on, and it forced me to grow up. From the very beginning stages of design, to picking out office furniture, to handling the chaos of a contractor knocking out the campus wifi the day before graduation, the entire process was me receiving the very responsibility that I had (naively) asked for. I had a great team backing me up and stakeholders who were always grateful for the effort they got, and it made for a very memorable project that I am glad to have been a part of.

When I work with a client, they can expect service that they couldn’t ask of their own people, and a product they can be proud to put their name on. Part of being a consultant is asking someone to trust you with something they care more about than you ever could, then treating it like it is your own. I am a father of three, so I try and keep the mindset of taking care of someone else’s baby when I am working on a project for a client.

My time at CBC has taught me to be thorough. When I started, there were only three of us in the company. That meant there was no relying on someone to catch tasks that had fallen through the cracks, there was no one in an office in another state to make sure all the bills were paid, and you couldn’t avoid things you didn’t want to do. This has carried over into my project work and forced me to think with a true “cradle to grave” mentality.

That question depends solely on the person it is being asked to. If you are someone who thrives on being given room to run and maximizing opportunities, it is the best place you’ll ever work. If you are someone who just wants to do the minimum to not get fired and doesn’t care about vision, it’s probably not going to be an enjoyable experience.

If you are scared to try something, that is probably a good indicator of where you should push yourself. Fortune favors the bold, and the fear of failure has killed more careers than mistakes ever thought to. Try, fail, and try again and you will build a perseverance that will carry you further than the hard skills you are developing.

I am a man of faith and therefore am very involved in my church. I am a husband and father, and spending time with my family is when I am at my happiest. Outside of that, I officiate high school and college football which means I spend most of my fall getting yelled at and the rest of the year waiting for it to come back around!