The Hiring + Culture Playbook for Construction Teams That Stay | Roggen Frick

Most trades and construction businesses don’t stall because of workmanship. They stall because the business gets bottlenecked by people, process, and the unsexy stuff like logistics.

In this episode, I sit down with Roggen Frick from Bear Iron Works to unpack what it really takes to build a company that scales: spotting a niche, learning fast in “round one”, rebuilding properly in “round two”, and creating a culture that keeps good people around. We also get into hiring for your gaps, how honesty builds trust inside a team, and why a four-day work week can be a genuine advantage in the trades.

You’ll take away

• How to start scrappy, validate demand, and then rebuild properly for “round two”
• Why shipping and logistics can kill sales, and how to treat it as a core capability
• How to hire major players by filling your knowledge gaps (not hiring clones)
• How honesty, transparency, and reward-based safety build real trust on a team
• The three retention levers: time, benefits, and money (and why time often wins)
• How building systems makes the business run, even when you’re not there

Guest: Roggen Frick

Roggen is the CEO of Bear Iron Works, a US-based manufacturer of construction equipment built to support excavation and construction crews. He’s grown the business by pairing practical systems with a people-first culture focused on honesty, trust, and safety.

Website: https://beariron.com

Host: Wes Towers

Wes helps trades and construction companies become the obvious choice online. As the founder of Uplift 360, he builds high-performing websites and runs Search Everywhere Optimisation so the right customers can find you, trust you, and choose you, without you having to rely on referrals alone.

Website: https://uplift360.com.au/

Want to be a guest on Built. Trusted. Chosen.?

Book here: https://uplift360.com.au/built-trusted-chosen-podcast-guest-booking/