Episode 120 - Creating with Heart: Billy Beson on Authentic Design, Family, and Setting Boundaries
#120 | Billy Beson | Billy Beson Company | Authentic Design, Family, and Setting Boundaries
In this episode of The Curious Builder, host Mark Williams sits down with legendary Minneapolis interior designer Billy Beson for a heartfelt and lighthearted conversation. They explore Billy's journey in design, the importance of setting boundaries for work-life balance, the value of mentorship and genuine relationships, and the impact of building with heart rather than just for scale. With touching stories, laughs, and some honest takes on today’s design trends, this episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about the people side of building beautiful homes.
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About Billy Beson
Billy Beson Company is a full service studio specializing in high-end residential and commercial interior design. From a private island in Hawaii to a ranch in Montana to upscale beach front property in Florida we pride ourselves in the diversity of our style that allows us to design personalized environments in every regional genre.
Our expertise includes custom interior architectural design and space planning; custom lighting, cabinetry, furniture and rug design to create the perfect turn-key environment. Coupled with an infinite number of resources, the cornerstone of our business is project management, working with the home owner, architect and builder to create a cohesive, creative design team with impeccable results.
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Mark Williams:
There's something Billy in every one of your homes. So if that's true, how do you advise them on a 35,000 square foot house? Because that's that's not a house that you would build. How do you balance that? Well,
Billy Beson 00:14
I mean, it's exciting as an interior design Well, sure, but it's also kind of gross when
Speaker 1 00:19
I think about it, you know, do you have that conversation with them? No,
Billy Beson 00:23
no, it's not my business. Today,
Mark D. Williams 00:31
on the kirstenberger podcast, we had Billy Beeson, and what a ride this one is going to be. It's going to be a heartfelt you're going to get goose bumps. You're going to hear stories from one of the icons of Minneapolis design. Without further ado, here's Billy Beeson. Welcome to curious builder Podcast. I'm Mark Williams. Your host today. I've got a special guest. I've got Billy Beeson from Billy Beeson co interior designs. Welcome Billy. Thank you, Mark. It's great to be here. So you're a legend in the town of Minneapolis, probably a legend all over the country, but we have pretty unique history with family. So I thought we'd start there. We do you. You went to high school with my aunt Holly and my mom way back in Edina. You're looking ball. You didn't remember my aunt Holly. Lure, Holly Lincoln, oh, my God. Oh, you're kidding me. Was is my aunt? And I was gonna roast you with this, because she said you were the best dancer in Edina High School, and you guys danced all the high school parties together. Oh, yeah,
Billy Beson 01:25
I know my mother used to say I have company and dance for these people. I was like, Are you out of your flipping my No way.
Speaker 1 01:32
So funny. Well, so it just I was also
Billy Beson 01:35
voted class clown and best sense of humor, and my best is best kisser.
Mark D. Williams 01:41
Oh, okay, you're man, you triple crown back in high school. May have to take my word for it. I'll ask Holly and see what she says. That's funny. I was gonna actually, we'll get a video when we're done here. And said to her, because my mom knows that you were coming, so I didn't even know that. Yeah, so, I mean, it's kind of weird, because you've known my family, but I haven't known you. Yeah, and drew Beeson, your nephew and I are fantastic friends. He and I spent a lot of time together, and we really connected a lot after Diane passed away, oh, I know. And so that was really we always knew each other. Yeah, we always joke that we were the favorite son of our moms, because my mom, Debbie, and Diane were just, yeah, best buds. Oh, I know. And so after Diane passed, Drew and I started spending a lot of time together. We had drew on the podcast. He's done, he's helped me with the charity. So we had the joy collaborative. We had a charity last year. And Ellie, his partner, and drew, did this really cool art experiment, and it was just so rich and giving. And then I just, obviously, he invited me to your was it the prairie fund, Prairie Care Fund, Prairie Care Fund, I just got an email from them today, and you were obviously the start of the show that night. Oh, I don't know about that, but what an amazing event. We'll start there. Two weeks ago, we came to Drew, invited me, said, Hey, we said it both Billy and I said, Absolutely. Brought my mom. Was her birthday, so I thought that would be really fun to
Billy Beson 02:59
her. That was just mind blowing that it was her birthday. I mean, these are coincidences.
Mark D. Williams 03:05
It's just it's serendipitous, and it was beautiful. So it means, really, it's a surety help children to help prevent teen suicide, yeah, and it's just, I was blown away at how high the number is the second leading cause of death for for
Billy Beson 03:19
teens, next to car accident. Suicide is number two,
Mark D. Williams 03:23
and it's super sobering. And so anyway, we had a great night raising money for a great charity. And yeah, so anyway, that was, it was
Billy Beson 03:29
a wonderful night when you're you do something like that, like I invited 30 people. I was a sponsor. I got the four seasons for them. I got the twins package, and you helped me out on a lot
Mark D. Williams 03:45
of those things. Oh, you're laughing. I remember the twins when I was bidding on it, and there was the lady and she didn't want to do it. And you're like, Oh, there she goes. And you talked about how in the past, you've been at charities where you bid, and then no one else keeps bidding.
Billy Beson 03:58
I guess I own this trip to Iowa.
Mark D. Williams 04:02
Yeah, there was a lot better trips than Iowa. But I actually was really excited. I think I bid on the food truck that had like five different beers on taps feeds 100 people. So I'm gonna do a public event, like for misah, who's or we have this development honey hills, like, I'm like, I actually want to do this many times that
Billy Beson 04:18
and the barbecue, I think were incredible opportunities. I mean, I think with the barbecue, you can feed 100 people, and those five taps can have cocktails, yep, in them too. Yeah, you want whatever you could have. Yeah, I, I'm a Diet Coke guy. Personally, that's a long story, yeah.
Mark D. Williams 04:37
Well, let's get into your story. I was talking to drew on the way here. He said I had to talk to a little bit about your childhood. How did you get in design? Because you've had, what a 40 year career in design.
Billy Beson 04:46
1982 I started my own business, and before that, I worked for my mom's brother, Robert Lennox, for about 10 years, and there's no. Way I would be sitting here today without him. I mean, I caught he was Uncle, Bob. You know, my parents were divorced when I was seven years old. So he was a very strong figure in my life. He was just ooze love and class, and was impeccably dressed and funny, and knew everybody who was anybody, and treated of the parking lot attendant in at his office the same way he would treat, you know, Mrs. Pillsbury when he saw her at Woodhill. And he had these amazing parties where he would sit people that were total opposites next to each other. And that was the magic about the whole event. I'm so lucky to have had a mentor. We talked earlier about going to school really only prepares you how to start to learn how to be in business, but I was lucky, because while I was in school, I bartended at two places, one at night and one on the weekends, and worked at Robert Lennox for my uncle. And I did everything from answering the phone to folding samples, which I lasted about two days at before Dorothy, who was the commando of the office, came in and said, Get out of here. You that tag is supposed to be and I was like, Whew. That
Mark D. Williams 06:31
reminds me of an old covenant Hobbs one was like, he looks at the reader and he's like, if you do a job, bad enough the first time, they won't ask you to do it again. Totally. We were so happy that you didn't have to fold those. Oh,
Billy Beson 06:41
my god, yeah. And, you know, in those days, we probably had 10,000 samples in our sample room, and every time a new price list came in, they looked it up to make sure it wasn't discontinued, and then priced it. I mean, there you can go in a showroom, in any Merchandise Mart, and they have no idea, right? You know, it's, it's just,
Mark D. Williams 07:04
so give me some context. I mean, I gather that Uncle Bob was a well known designer. I don't know. I don't know the name. I don't know at all. I
Billy Beson 07:11
mean, he was the society designer, okay, yeah, and I used to his, unfortunately, his wife had Guillain Barre, and so she was hospitalized a lot, and so he would take me to these events at Woodhill Country Club or minnecata,
Mark D. Williams 07:30
and you're at this point, you're just post college, or you still in high school?
Billy Beson 07:33
No, oh, I'm still in I'm in college. I'm like, 20 years old, yep, I'm towards the end of college. And I would follow him. And the thing he would do, and this will stay in my mind forever, is he would walk around the room and talk to everybody that was too old to stand up, because that's that's where the power is, that's where the kindness is. That is where tradition is. That's where the roots of our community were. And you could see him go around room, and it'd be like, ha, ha, ha. And he'd take five feet and it would be, hahaha, you know, I mean, he just, he brought love. He brought just love, really, you know, we'd go down Ferndale road, and he'd have a bucket of roses in his backseat, and we would stop at the fort Bell mansion and go in through the back door, and the flowers were for the housekeepers that were standing in the Kitchen in white uniforms and white shoes.
Mark D. Williams 08:41
You know it was, wow. He sounds like quite a man. Oh,
Billy Beson 08:45
I mean, I can't I think he's always with me.
Mark D. Williams 08:49
How long ago did he pass?
Billy Beson 08:52
This is the sad part. He was one of the first people to die of AIDS in Minnesota, and 19 Well, I bought my boat because of him in 1989 because I thought, hell, I could drop dead tomorrow. I'm taking Fridays off.
Mark D. Williams 09:14
Really, you started taking Fridays off? Oh, yeah, back then, that's amazing.
Billy Beson 09:18
Oh, I know. And my clients would say, Well, I can see you on Friday. I said, Well, we don't have clients on Friday. And they would say, Well, why is that? I'd say, because I don't want to, you know, if I work on Friday, I won't want to come to work on Monday. It's just, you know, that's
Mark D. Williams 09:36
amazing. Billy, one of my favorite quotes last year. It was boundaries create freedom. And I'll just give you a short version, because the audience has heard say this so many times. I am goose bumps, and it was about time. So do I? I'm not sure why, but look at that and my The reason the quote was so important to me was, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything, those types of quotes. But the boundaries for me. Was family. I have a family of five. I have three children. And I talked to another builder. I give him a lot of credit. He told me a story where on Saturdays, he met with this hedge fund broker for like, three years every Saturday at one o'clock, and he said I would never do it again. But it was his story that's why I have the podcast is to share these kinds of stories so that people realize you don't have to work nights. You don't have to work weekends. And here's the deal, you know, if you go to your dentist and you're like, Hey, I'd love to come by Saturday at nine o'clock. I'm sorry, our office is not
Billy Beson 10:27
open. I got a filler, yeah, and it doesn't happen, right?
Mark D. Williams 10:30
And so I don't know why, in the building community in general, we sort of are like, open 24/7 or that was the that's what a lot of people expect. And so therefore, a lot of people think they need to do it, and I don't think it's healthy. And so I'm really it's really amazing, because I think that narrative is out there, let's call it the last 10 years. I feel like, you know, it's become, you know, wellness and health and life and balance. I feel like that message is more broadcasted today than it was in 1989 so the idea that you were doing this in 1989 is, that's good. If I had a hat on, I'd tip my hat to you. Do
Billy Beson 11:03
you know what setting boundaries, I think, involves acknowledging that you're worth it. You know that you're worth having time with your family, and you know that is the most important thing, and understanding your own worth has taken me a whole lifetime, and I just think if you acknowledge your value, your worth to yourself, that's the first step in setting boundaries. I think, seriously, I agree
Mark D. Williams 11:37
with you, because I was just going to say, even if you don't have a family, and even if you do, I actually think you need to spend time on yourself, with yourself alone, right? Like someone had mentioned their day, I'm 44 and my cousin is 40, and he lives out in Portland, and he was lamenting the fact that he was 40. And I'm like, buddy, are you kidding me? I said the 40s are awesome. I said, you go to bed early, you wake up early. You've got lots to do. We've got lots of energy, all these things you want to do. But the best part is, you know who you are, you know, versus like, I sort of feel bad for the 20 year old mark to for me, the hardest years of my life were probably hard as relative, everyone's heart is different, but I would say from about 24 to 31 were the most difficult years for me. I had a business. I wasn't married. You know, there's you're making all these massive, life altering decisions, where you're going to live on, you're going to marry, yeah, alone, you're in you're trying to figure it all out. I kind of feel like, I don't know this is just my bias. I'm convinced that men don't read and that men are super immature. So I'm convinced that, like, really, from about the time that you're 20 to 26 men should be unemployed, you should just be like, you know, fold it. You should just not have a business, because you need that time to mature. And everyone has kind of their, their their journey that they have to go through. But looking back all the mistakes you made, all the failures you made that led to the successes,
Billy Beson 12:55
when was the last time you learned anything, when everything was going great? Do you remember that beautiful Saturday five years ago, when you were on the pontoon on Lake Minnetonka? Maybe not, but I bet you remember if you broke your leg or had surgery or banged your head or whatever it was,
Mark D. Williams 13:16
or you ran out of gas on Lake Minnetonka, you had to row home the battle. Oh,
Billy Beson 13:20
my God, I've done that before, but there's a guy, and I hear snippets, so feel free to verify, but I know his last name is Reed. I know he's an author, and I heard him say one of the most important things is as people, we remember like you. You know remember that you gotta brush your teeth, or you remember this, you remember that, but people do not remember the things they should. He said, As As humans, we remember what we want to forget and forget what we want to remember. Wow, that's powerful. I know and it's, it goes hand in hand with the Groucho Marx line, where he says, I would never want to belong to a club that would have anybody like me as a member. I mean, doesn't that say at all? It's pretty funny. Like in a relationship, you wonder why it doesn't work. It's because you're, you're thinking, how could this person like me when I have this, this, this, this as issues,
Mark D. Williams 14:26
everybody does. Yeah, I want to counter. I would say to that is, love yourself. I think sometimes people can be really hard on themselves. And I think what's really beautiful about diversity of talents and people and personalities is just in businesses, you can have the same business and it's run completely different. I mean, how many interior designers do I interact with on a regular basis? And they all have different ways to do because it's not surprising. We're all different people. And so it's, it's the people like, I feel like a lot of times, like, when I'm interviewing interior designers or builders or architects, i. Not builders for my normal job, but like, I am really playing matchmaker for the client, right? Like, not every designer is the right fit for every single client, and nor is every builder, nor is every architect. It's like it's up to whoever the first person is to sort of do the matchmaking to make sure that I always think of vacation, like, if I'm going to go to Hawaii, the Johnson family, they're great. Oh, man, the the Andersons, I'm not sure I want to be on an island with them for 10 days. Yeah, whatever analogy you want to use
Billy Beson 15:29
here, yeah. Well, you know, I a lot of builders, think that I had more input than I did in choosing a builder. You know, I probably only chosen a builder for a project maybe once or twice in 40 years, because I usually come to me after they have the architect and after they have the builder, and as soon as they have a quarter inch plan, I'm brought in for space planning and designers can see things that architects can't have, like, Okay, you might have to have a drapery on that window because it's sunlight coming in there, and they might want to watch TV, or it might be blinding, and there's four inches on each side of the window for the draperies to stack. Well, you, you know you should know that ahead of time, and that's why I get involved. You know that. And just, I always know the client better than the builder or the architect.
Mark D. Williams 16:32
Does I agree with you? I think I just had this. We had a client yesterday. They were building on honey Hill, which is a development or no, and there's three architects that they get to pick with. So they interviewed all three, and they picked one. And then I haven't I don't know them well enough, because a lot of it for me is personality. And I was I really as I only had to interact with them one time. I sometimes it's very clear, okay, I know this person. I know who they'd match well with. I had to meet with them a couple times, and I and I'm trying to figure out who the right chemistry matches with the interior designer. And I said the same thing, I said, and this isn't disrespectful to builders or architects listening, because I think everyone is very valuable, and these are somewhat stereotypes that we all break sometimes, but I do think the interior designer has the highest chemistry factor, and they also are the best listener, and they also tend to be the one that is most involved with their lifestyle, you know, their kids' names, like the fabrics that are important to them. And not that the architects and the builders shouldn't be asking these questions. I think they should. It's just historically, the designers are just better at it. They also have more exposure to it. And I think part of it is, is that they usually, probably maintain contact with clients more regularly after the job is done as well. So they're sort of trained with hospitality in mind. Or, I
Billy Beson 17:47
mean, I have clients that I've done five or six houses for over the years, you know? And it's, I mean, you learn from every experience, and my job is to deliver to the client what I think they want. And every time you do a project for them, you learn more and more. It's like refining anything. It's like practicing it. Golf. It's like shooting skeet. It's about anything. The more you do it, the better you are. And if that doesn't happen, you're doing something wrong. This
Mark D. Williams 18:27
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Billy Beson 20:59
know. What's funny is that I invest financially nothing into getting a client my and I never have. I've never advertised because I was lucky enough to be like in 1982 I was voted star on the horizon by the Chicago merchandise smart sources. And so I was in Chicago for the week with interior designers that were the at the top of their game at the time, like six of them. One was John Saladino, you know, the other is Calif alatani. Was the hottest designer in California, and I spent the whole week with them, with the Chicago Tribune, following us all week, and they all after a day, were envious of me because I was 29 or No, yeah, I was 30, maybe, and they were 40, 5060, and they're looking at me, knowing what I know, and thinking what I will be when I'm their age. And like John Saladino said to me, I'll tell you one thing, the first 40 years of my life, I took beep, he says, The next 20 years of my life, I'm gonna give and I'm, he's a New Yorker, you know, I'm a Minnesota boy, so I can understand what he's saying. I don't feel that way. But just to have that opportunity to be in the, I mean, you you could open any Architectural Digest, any month, and you would find these guys in it. I mean, that's how good they were. And I just I was so fortunate. And from that point on, guess who flew to Chicago to interview me, a guy named rt rybeck. Oh, really, who was, might as well have been a cub reporter for the star and Tribune. He was so young, and he came up to me after an event, and he said, You know, I came here to interview, but I can see you're pretty busy. We'll just talk at home. Oh, funny. It was so funny and the article, no offense. RT was horrible. I mean, the details, the dates, the titles of things, you know. And I just thought, I don't care. Here's my picture, and I'm on the cover of the variety section. This is even before they had a home section, I think, yeah. And then, you know, like, I've, you can't imagine what it does to be on the cover of Minneapolis St Paul magazine. And I've been on the cover four times. Wow, Belinda's been on twice. Oh, I got, I got, she was at the charity, yeah. Pat Miles has been there twice. So, I mean, it's, I go to the grocery store, I go to Lunds, and I look at the top rack, and there is a picture of me holding a little crystal lamp, 123456, and I bought a magazine, and I said to the checkout girl, I go, this guy's pretty good looking. And she goes, not my type.
Mark D. Williams 24:20
She didn't draw to it that you had no idea that's amazing. I was
Billy Beson 24:24
like, pardon me, that's
Mark D. Williams 24:28
actually super fun. Yeah, oh, man, I would have loved to have met Uncle Bob, as you're calling him, Robert Lennox here. You know listening to you, one of my favorite things to talk about lately has been hospitality. The book unreasonable hospitality was my favorite book last year. And I when I think of concierge service or hotels, I mean, I think they do a much they're trained in it. They're very focused on it. I think the home building business could use a huge dose of hospitality, totally framework, but Uncle Bob was doing that. That in 1982 the idea that he was, and I think it comes from caring, because I think hospitality means you care. It comes from your heart. And he was the idea that he was bringing these flowers and going in the back door and giving them to the people that worked. And that's the part that really struck me, that he, he cared about people, and you, you saw that. I mean, how, how would you describe how you interact with people, or your soft people skills over the years in terms of like, not only because you wanted to do it, but also how it benefited your business.
Billy Beson 25:30
You know, seriously, I think it was just being who I am naturally, you know, and being the same with everyone, whether it's a guy in the backyard digging a hole with a shovel or the client, you get respect when you give respect, you know you create that opening for that person to be acknowledged and respected. That's what life is all about, to me, is empowering other people to be the best they can, whether it's design or seriously, I'm two or three people right now that I'm coaching through difficult situations. Ian. I'm not licensed. I'm more of a Yenta, I guess is what I am, a tall Yenta, yeah. But it's empowering other people. Makes you so much more powerful. And when I say powerful, I mean power that can be directed towards loving people, towards creation of something from nothing. All of those things are the most powerful things that as a designer or a builder, that's basically what we do, is we create something from nothing. You start out with a blank sheet, and the rest is the most fascinating part of the whole job is the creation of it. And I'll give you an example I've had. Well, I don't have a lot of new employees. I'd like to acknowledge Debbie Ward Baker, who's been with me. I think it's 27 years, and she's part time now. And Kate moffin, buyer, the new girl, as we call her, was there 23 years.
Speaker 1 27:28
I'm a New Girl. 23 Yes.
Billy Beson 27:32
But you know, I've just, I want to not only be a designer and creating somebody's environment, but I want to do everything that you're talking about and the at the concierge level with heart. So I'm a concierge, in a sense, but I have this emotional attachment to the client that maybe a guy in a hotel wouldn't to, right?
Mark D. Williams 28:03
And it's a relationship, it's a lot longer duration, which gives it more meaning. Yeah. I mean, you have some clients that you've had for decades, so almost 40 years, in some of those early years, not having seen you or your work in person, only seeing I've seen, obviously, it online, or I've seen pictures of it, especially because you've curtailed some very high profile, very well known, famous people. How does one work for clientele of that strata? And what was your journey into that world? Was it because that's who Uncle Bob was working with, and it's it kind of just kept on translating, and then your talent just took you off and like, how did that arc come along?
Billy Beson 28:42
He gave me one of his clients when I was starting off, and because we had hit it odd, the client and I had hit it off personally and adored each other. And I think that's the only client I got from Uncle Bob, really directly. I was naive. I
Mark D. Williams 29:06
in a good way or a bad way. Well,
Billy Beson 29:09
here I am. Yep, I didn't park a turnip truck out in front. So I guess everything worked out. That's funny, but I think that the bottom line is, I have always been grateful and amazed at what I've been blessed with, and it's It's not by chance. I really think there's a greater power that sees the good that you do and offers rewards. And I know for a fact that I'm an old soul. I love old classical music, I love antiques. I love antique porcelain, antique tapestries. I feel a connection to them, and I think it's because I'm an old soul. And every time you. Go through life, if you don't learn what you need to grow, prosper and stay curious, then you come back again until you get it right. Yeah, I got goose punch. Yeah.
Mark D. Williams 30:12
It's well said. It's not only the name of the podcast, but Ted lasso made it famous too, right? Be curious, exactly. And I think when you're curious about other people, I think that informs good design, good architecture, good relationships. I mean, when you're genuinely curious about people, it, it shows up in so many ways that are hard to there's not just a formula that you can say, follow these formulas and you get this result. There's a lot more nuance and feeling in it.
Billy Beson 30:37
Oh, totally, you know. And I mean, curious of product, you know, you're telling me about the, what was it, Misa, who's the miso, who's and, I mean, there, there's a whole realm of undiscovered opportunity, and you are a trendsetter for it. I I think it's, it's amazing. And the the way you got there is because of your curiosity. You know, you wanting. You know that. Like people say to me, what's your favorite job? It is always the job I'm working on, because I get to take everything I've learned on all the past jobs and put it into this current one.
Mark D. Williams 31:19
That's a good I like that. I think recently, someone we were talking about interviewing people, and I decided that I've a couple years ago, I decided I'm a terrible interviewer for my own company. I'm too optimistic. I think everyone's going to be the best ever. And it makes me very good at remodeling, because I can see the possibilities. It probably makes me not the best for HR. So I have my team sort of do that. But where I'm going with this question is it? Question is it's going to be my new favorite is, like, you could list all the things that, hey, you have to be qualified at this and this and this and this, or I like this. Billy, what are you passionate about? Because at the end of the day, I'm trying to figure out if you're a culture fit. And I like what somebody said. They said, If you because there's this well known quote that says, culture will eat strategy for breakfast. And if you have a good culture, fit in your on your team, even with your people, like, you know, if the architect and designer and the client are all just they feel that high, you know, chemistry, culture, whatever word you want to use there, like you're going to get through it together. You're going to figure out. And this home could be a number of different things. I mean, think about every home you've designed. I mean, the home could have been five different versions in the one that you got as a piece of art. It's never going to be created ever again, just like that with the same team. It's one of one, and that's okay. And I think sometimes people get so focused on perfection that they lose sight of enjoying the journey where you're at right then and there.
Billy Beson 32:39
It goes back to the Groucho Marx line. That's like, you've gotta, you've gotta have faith in yourself, you know, you've got to realize the opportunity that you're given, you know. And you can look at my portfolio, and there aren't any two jobs that look at all alike, I mean, and I don't know how or why, and people say, Well, what, what do you talk to about your clients before you do the job? And honestly, the less I talk, I think the better it is for the client and better for me. Because if you're asking a client what they want, even if they traveled the world, they've only seen probably 10% of what is available in the marketplace. So I always tell my clients that you know what, like, you know that you can drive home. You know what you can't do. You know that you don't know how to drive the space shuttle, but then we design in the whole third realm of what you don't know you don't know, and that is the value of an interior designer if you don't know something or see something or hear something, or have knowledge that your client doesn't have. Why did they need you, other than to manage this huge project that they're doing,
Mark D. Williams 34:07
which probably is not something that should be undervalued either, because that is a colossal undertaking on top
Billy Beson 34:12
of it. Yeah, that just I'm not good at that, right? But I've always been smart enough, obviously, if I've got people that have worked over 25 years for me been smart enough to not micromanage. And I think Debbie Ward Baker looked at me one day and I told her, I think I've told her how to what to do
Mark D. Williams 34:33
once. How many times has she told you what to do? Oh,
Billy Beson 34:37
that was it. I mean, I essentially worked for her, you know, I can't. I we talked about ADHD. I'm I'm medicated, and I still can't do that. You know, it's a lot for me to change a password on my telephone, yeah, because I get interrupted, you know, oh, look a squirrel, you know. And what was that not to go back and look the password? Sort of, yeah, if you're trying to do everything yourself, it's tough, and that in 2001 I did a ton of public speaking all my career, but this was the best thing that I came up with, I think, when it was creating the design team for the new millennium. And what that says, if you are a mom and pop company or just a single person doing business, you share your talent, your ideas with, say, people in showrooms or the contractor or the foreman, or like, I go into a showroom and I don't just say I can find where I want, you know, I show them what I'm doing in the house, even if it it's nothing that they have in their showroom. But as you do that, you enroll people, and they have ownership in your project. And no matter who it is, as you enroll people in your projects, you essentially are having people that are willing to work for you for nothing, because you have spiked their curiosity and you have brought something to their day. Otherwise they would either be checking on orders or waiting for somebody to come in the door.
Mark D. Williams 36:23
And it's another word for that you're empowering them exactly. I mean, which is what you said earlier about helping people. I I like that. I mean, it also just seems like you mentioned your old soul. A lot of the principles it seems like, for success aren't super complicated. A lot of them just are basically what you're hopefully your parents or someone in life has modeled for you, which is, say please and thank yous be grateful, open the doors for women and older people and be respectful. You'd think that would be the baseline of humanity. You know, really is not
Billy Beson 36:55
no today. It's unfortunate, but yeah, that's all you have to give. Is respect. You know respect or is based in etiquette. Respect says that if you don't know someone, you automatically respect them, because you expect them to respect you. And when you respect somebody, and they know that it opens millions and millions of doors for mind to mind, heart to heart, conversations. You know, without that, you can't have those conversations. Respect is
Mark D. Williams 37:35
a building block. You'll like this. My mom used to always say, kindness is never out of style. Oh, exactly. And she said that to a lot, or to us a lot as children. And the other day, I had a graduation to go to, and I don't know that the I know the parents really well, but I don't know the daughter very well as a past client of ours. And anyway, that's the quote I wrote in her because Abby, she I don't she probably never knows in this podcast, your parents might. And I just simply said, like, she always struck me as a very kind person. Then as she goes to college, I just wrote in there, kindness number goes out of style. It's funny how these little sayings or these little quotes or these
Billy Beson 38:10
little things are not they're not little. That's yeah, and they
Mark D. Williams 38:14
mean a lot to you. And as you try to model that to other people, or sometimes you hear something with my small children, I'll tell them something and then add and every parent can probably relate to this. As you're telling your children this, you're like, Oh, I I should probably do that too. Maybe I should pay attention totally. It's like you didn't realize the words were in you. And you're like, oh, wait a minute, I need to heed those. I
Billy Beson 38:33
mean, that's why I do coaching for people like, for example, architect friend of mine, who I won't mention her name, but she's was just named one of the top 50 architects in the US, not women architects, but architects. And she is six feet tall, and she's from Poland, and she's one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen inside and out. We started out a project that ended up not being done, so I got to develop the whole project with her, and then the clients decided not to proceed with it, and at that same time, she was going through. Well, there's obviously no good divorce, but a horrible divorce with her husband, who thought he should be patted on the back every time he unloaded the dishwasher and she cried. I held her hand. I told her everything was going to be all right, and that she was a rock star and had so much to offer, and she was down. So imagine being ripped up because you're realizing that the person. You've been when since you were 19 years old, is not the guy for you, and is not validating your feelings and is not respecting you. And she was terrified, scared, tearful. Her mother died in Poland, and she had been back and forth from the US to Poland a number of times. And her mother passed away after being sick for probably a year, almost. And at the funeral, she met her high school sweetheart, who she admitted she was always in love with, but never connected. They were sweethearts for years, and she moved to the US, and I think the relationship stopped when she met her husband in Poland when she was 19. So she got married at 19. She goes to her mother's funeral and meets her high school sweetheart, and they are married today. That's a beautiful story. Oh my god. I look at the I look at her and get teary. I mean, I just, it just shows if you step out of yourself and give to other people, expecting nothing in return, you just get landslide with love and hope and
Mark D. Williams 41:30
opportunity. There's an interesting thing about expectations, because I'm thinking of I was just talking to a good friend of mine. He's taking his family to Iceland. They're in the air right now, actually, well, he's probably landed now. He called me last night. And
Billy Beson 41:44
how long can you sit in the snow in a steamy bath? The
Mark D. Williams 41:47
Iceland is amazing. We did our honeymoon, really? Oh yeah, I love, I love Iceland. It's beautiful, but you got to love the outdoors. I mean, it's like, the average temperature is like, 52 degrees. Well, I love that. Yeah, so you're hiking and, you know, thermals and all that. But I said, what x I got all excited because I loved it, and I didn't know he was going. And I said, What are your expectations? He goes. I have no expectations. I had someone else plan it. We're going, and I'm like, you are. I said, I love that. You have no expectation. He's gonna have an amazing time. He has no expectations. And I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about this. I'll ask you the question, Is there value in having expectations. There clearly is value in not having expectations. But sometimes both things can be true. And where I'm going with this a little bit and maybe framing it more around the house is like, I think clients, a lot of times, people ask us to build them their home, or you design their home, and they don't. They either don't have expectations, or we have to sort of set in line what expectations would be if they're looking to us as a professional. If you get open heart surgery, you really want the surgeon to be like, Hey, Mark, when I lay in the table, this is what I'm doing. This is how I'm doing. Like, okay, this makes me feel good that he has a plan. Or if he came in, like, yeah, we're just gonna kind of wing it. I'm not. That's not gonna make you real comfortable, because they're looking for us because people are spending a ton of money with us to build beautiful homes and anyway, but you and I also are artists. You're trying to let the expectations only go so far, because you also want to have room to breathe and create. How have you balanced that in your
Billy Beson 43:18
career? It seems automatic. It's one of those things. It's like, how does this house look like this? And how does this other house look nothing like that? And I hate it when people say, you have a gift, but it's got to be that either that or it's that I this is my I've seriously been to probably three or four people that have told me I've had 1800 lives and I'm like, no matter I'm tired,
Speaker 1 43:48
like ADHD is just one personality per person. Yeah, exactly when
Mark D. Williams 43:58
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Billy Beson 44:37
interior designers like you said earlier, need to set boundaries with their clients, and the answer of why you don't work on Saturday is because you don't want to, you know? I mean, you don't like you said before, you don't ask your dentist if you can swing by and get a cavity filled.
Mark D. Williams 44:56
I'm just so impressed that you were there in 1982 and I. 89 sorry, because I feel like that's just becoming a very common thing now, but it didn't seem to be that way. And I understand everyone has to work their different lives. I mean, this was well before, you know, cell phones were just coming out and, no, all that stuff. And, like, I can only relate to it as my dad, who was a builder, like, you still have to build the home. And it's always relatable. Like, you know, you don't expect your, you know, the Mason to show up at nine o'clock at night. I mean, the Masons, you know, yeah, he's, if anything, he's coming really early. Yeah, he's coming at 5am you know, before it gets hot or something. And so I think it's just, again, it's setting expectations. That's really what boundaries are, setting another set of expectations. Let me ask you a different question. In as you look at the building community and the design community specifically today. What are your observations of it? What were you how do you compare and contrast it to the last 40 years? What do you think it's and where do you think it's
Billy Beson 45:51
going? Well, I've been through a lot of different things in my career. I think a big mistake that is happening right now is that people are building houses that are too big, and I think people are starting to think, Do I really need this if I leave my keys in the prime in my bedroom? Do I really want to take five minutes to go back there and get them before I can go back to the garage and drive wherever you're going. And it's like people my uncle Bob used to call houses expensive, ordinary. You know, I mean, how many houses in my neighborhood I live in, any Dinah off France Avenue, and they're originally all Ramblers, and the some of them are being torn down, obviously, like they are everywhere, but they are putting up these white boxes with black hardware and black front doors and black windows and a black roof and calling it contemporary farmhouse. And then you talk about your project that you're working on. These houses are probably 50% plastic or composite, I mean Hardy board or vinyl siding or whatever, polyethylene columns. It's a plastic house. And when I bought my house, I thought I came from four different penthouses. I've always been fascinated with being able to get on the elevator and push pH, Oh, funny.
Speaker 1 47:41
I don't know why, but I've loved it.
Billy Beson 47:43
But this house is, you know, I moved during COVID, so here I am. I thought I could rent an apartment and that would allow me to travel whenever I wanted to. I couldn't do it too loud, too I mean, the elevator going up and down, you can hear the wind change every time the compression goes down, and people walking down the hall, tanked or whatever, and making noise or knocking on your door. So when I found this house, I bought it the same day I found it, and I thought, I mean, I'll send you the pictures. We live pretty close to Drew, don't I live eight blocks, and you've got to remember that drew lives in the house that I grew up in. I know that's amazing. So I walk in there and I'm like, Do not be afraid. I mean, I feel like a giant in that house. It's it's mind blowing to me that I grew up there with three boys, my three brother, my two brothers, and myself and my mom. And seriously, you could stand at the end of the hall and pivot and there was Dave's bedroom, my brother John and I's bedroom, my mom's bedroom, the bathroom, yep, the linen closet, Yep, that was it. And I just don't, I just don't get these houses that are so huge. I think what I always say to myself is, what am I going to do with it when I'm done on it? And what are these people gonna do when they're done with a house that's 28,000
Mark D. Williams 49:25
square feet? I completely agree with you. So here's my question. You work, and have worked with clientele that have incredible means. How do you how do you honor what they want and also give them good advice? Because how often are you telling them like, Hey, you don't need a 35 and maybe need is not even the right word. How are you having these conversations with the clients that are saying, hey, I want 3040, 50,000, square feet, or whatever the square footage is. Because you're right. I like what Bob said, expensive, ordinary. I mean, yeah, you can happiest my kids have been was last summer, we went camping in a little you know. I wasn't that happy, because they all move like little iguanas. They're all over me in the middle of the night because they just roll like little washing machines. But anyway, the point is our standards, and I'm being somewhat facetious here. I know we know, we're not all living in tents, but like a home is a home. Like homes have been around since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. A home can be a number of different things, and obviously we build really high end homes. And I like building high end homes that they're interesting, they're they stoke curiosity. I love architecture. It is harder, frankly, to build a smaller home really well and just nail it. It is easier to bigger build. It is easier to build a bigger home if the client has the budget, obviously, because you can just keep adding stuff. Yeah, going back to the original part of this question, before I got lost on my own, excitement happens a lot is, How do you talk to your clients? Because you, I think what makes anyone good at their craft is, there's some there's something in Billy, in every one of your homes, right? So, if so, if that's true, how do you advise them on a 35,000 square foot house? Because that's that's not a house that you would build. How do you balance? How do you balance that?
Billy Beson 51:01
Well, I mean,
Mark D. Williams 51:02
it's exciting as an interior design Well, sure, but it's also kind of gross when I think about it, you know, do you have that conversation with them? No, no, no, it's not my business. That was my question. Yeah. Was, how much do you step in and say, Do you want this? And at this point, you're often coming in after the architecture has already sort of been baseline established. And yes, yeah, so that ship has sort of sailed a little bit.
Billy Beson 51:26
We do most of the interior detailing, either by ourselves or with the architect, you know, paneling doors and floors and arches and columns and paneled ceilings and all that stuff. So fireplaces. But I just think, like, Take, for example, the old Pillsbury mansion on brackets point. It's not there. They tore it down. And how much was it for sale for? Was it 50 something million?
Mark D. Williams 51:55
I don't I went through it. That was a number of years ago now. And now the house up there is enormous. Yeah,
Billy Beson 52:01
you know what? I don't I'm really not interested in seeing it. I've only seen it from the outside. That Pillsbury House was one of the most amazing houses you'd have ever been in.
Mark D. Williams 52:11
It reminded me, like, if you were the Kennedys, like it was like this malt and it was on the point at the iconic American flag out on the point there. It was incredible piece of property. But a lot of people can't envision. Obviously, styles change and what people want for a long time on the early 2000s till, let's say 2015 everyone wanted open floor plans. Open floor plans. Open floor plans. In the older homes, the colonial, I think that was a colonial home, if I recall, or cottage colonial, and it was a lot of small rooms, tons of different little but it was, there were some huge rooms. Oh, I'm sure I know, but I mean it now I actually think we're coming. Everything's recycled. And it's like, now we're seeing a lot of our clients like, yes, we want to open kitchen and great room, but we also kind of like, want, you know, I always say people gravitate towards the smallest, well lit room in the house, which is usually a sun room, which is not a big one. It's usually like, can you have two to four people in there comfortably. Sun is coming in. I just, you know, the MISA, who's the kitchenette, right? Like, I want this little nook, this little Snuggery. I want to just feel cozy. And I kind of want to feel like I got a blanket, and we like this feeling of being enclosed. I'm not sure why, and I don't say we don't like open too, but I don't know. Do you find that well as well?
Billy Beson 53:18
Yeah, it's nurturing. My very best client I've done. I can't even count how many houses and how many times I've done them over, but their favorite room always is what they call the cozy room. And it is just that it's not for 10 people. You know, it's not for it could maybe just be for six, eight people tops. But, and it's funny, because people look at a floor plan and the way you arrange furniture, most people don't know that if you how far you are and I are part about maybe six feet right now, a little under you get eight feet away and you don't have an intimate conversation with somebody, because you're shouting at them, right? Yeah, and stop yelling at quit yelling at me for but I mean, it's, it just piggybacks your idea that bigger is not necessarily better. You know, the bigger the room, the harder it is. And honestly, this is probably the biggest compliment I get, is that this room is huge, but it's still intimate that you can turn to your left and talk to somebody, or turn to your right or somebody. And I think that concept comes from living a life of conversation and intimacy and realizing how cozy it is to be in a little room and wanting to share that concept, that idea, that feeling, with the client and I have, I know I've changed people's lives by. Of what I've done in their house, and it's that is the most rewarding part. The funny part is it's not seeing it done. And everybody usually, like, I remember Debbie Ward Baker first couple of times we installed the job. She goes, Do you believe this? It's so gorgeous. And I go, Hey, yeah, I know it better be. I mean, it's in the curiosity, it's in the research. It's in drawing from your bank of knowledge as a designer. That is, that is where my joy comes from. It's not from. I mean, I love to see my ideas come to fruition, but it's more about the creating process than it is about the finished product.
Mark D. Williams 55:52
That's funny, you say that, I I'll ask you, well, I'll share mine, and I'll be curious to yours. Like my favorite part, and to be clear, like there's lots of favorite parts, but I think my favorite part is in maybe this is the part of the salesman in me is like, I do love meeting the clients for the first time. I love the initial art of the sale. Like, they say, Billy, we're gonna go with you. Like, there's this, it's kind of like a, if you will, like a first date thing. It's like, it went really well. You feel this spike of adrenaline. And, hey, they chose me like you, there's this surge of like endorphins, and yes, there we're going to create something. And I really love the interview process. I love interviewing with the architects. I love interviewing with the designers. I like assembling the team. I really because, mainly because I just love people. I think a home for me is a conduit to spend time with people. And I love relationships. I love lifestyle. I wish I had realized it earlier in my career. And what we're really trying to solve, I think good design, good builders, good architecture, is really just understanding what is your lifestyle, what are your goals. And like you said, you don't know what you don't know. Let me offer up a few things that you might not even know you like, and then I just want to see you. I'm okay if you say no, but I do want to offer them to you like, are you interested in this buffet options. Anyway, I love that initial design part, and then the building's the hard work, right? You're putting in the miles like it's digging the hole. And concrete is not super glamorous. I respect it, and I like it, but I like that initial, that kind of that first surge for me. And then, of course, yeah, that's the high point. It's funny, my high point is the very beginning, because I know all the rest of it's like the engagement. Now, the marriage is a lot harder. You put a lot of work into marriage, but the engagement is, like, everyone's happy. Got the ring? Yeah, you got the ring. Like, this is big white. This is happening. What? What were your highs and lows of a
Billy Beson 57:35
Oh, God, I gotta tell you one story. When my office was downtown, on the Nicollet Mall, I was the latest bay of Brits. So I went from Robert Lennox associates that was on lagoon and Gerard in uptown, when uptown was beautiful and quaint and punk people and you know, every kind of person you could ever imagine getting along with each other. It's been way over built, unfortunately. But when I left there, I leased the space, and the first day I was there, the city came in and tagged all the electrical your first day, yeah, and I had saved $25,000 This is 1984 probably 80 No, yeah, 8485 maybe I'd save $30,000 well, it was $90,000 Oh, yeah. And in those days, that was a lot of money, but especially since we were next to Brits, and you'd walk in the morning and smell warm beer and cold fish, you know it was. And Nigel, the owner, used to come over and go, Well, I don't know what you're talking about. It smells. All I can smell is her perfume over there. And I go, Hey, we don't need a distraction here. It smells in here. We need ventilation. That's
Mark D. Williams 59:00
a pretty good accent there. Billy, I thought we might have do the rest of the podcast in that accent. That's pretty I like Nigel's voice there. That's pretty good.
Billy Beson 59:08
Well, my mother moved from Kenwood to Edina and developed a little bit of a British accent. Yeah. My mom, my friends, used to say, Where's your mom from? And I go, Kenwood.
Mark D. Williams 59:22
Where was I? They're talking about the high points. Like, what was your What are your favorite parts? Looking back now, it could be favorite memories too, but during the process, beginning to end, what started the seed for me was when you were saying to your your team is they're so excited at the end, and you're like, Yeah, better be but like, your excitement was in the curiosity in the process, in the beginning.
Billy Beson 59:40
And I to be honest with you, whenever I interviewed for a job, I never got it because I was honest and open, and the first thing I talked about is a budget, and now I refer to it as the B word. We just don't, please don't use the B word around me. Yeah,
Mark D. Williams 59:57
that's what you say. Or that client says, No, that's what I. Say, yeah. How do they react to it? When you say that, they laugh. Yeah,
Billy Beson 1:00:03
I mean that if you can't find humor in what you do, you're a great you're going to be crying
Mark D. Williams 1:00:08
a lot. Yeah, I do. I use humor a lot. I actually use it a lot as a way to understand if it's my ideal client or not. Oh yeah, because I'm not going to not joke throughout the process. It's just part of who I am anyway. And so you might as well enjoy this. It kind of so this is a, I just saw this an Instagram was really funny. It was like, basically, people who find farts not funny, you still are gonna have the same amount of smell in the room, so you might as well find it funny. Yeah, tree falls. It's like somebody because my boys, I mean, boys are just dumb, but, Oh, they're so funny. Boys are boys, boys are boys, and my wife is not impressed. I'm like, car still stinks on it. You might as well laugh. I think. Anyway, it's like a building we're going to be on this job site for a couple of years. Like, what's, how about we enjoy each other? Yeah, how about we have some fun here too?
Billy Beson 1:00:52
Yeah? Kid each other, yeah, you know. But my, my best interview was with it was when I was downtown, and it was probably I'd always wanted to do a hotel, and one of my clients was the controller for a guy named Marty cap who owned what was originally the cap towers in downtown Minneapolis. The building is still there, and it is across from the Hyatt Regency. And I remember my client said to me, we're interviewing three or four people. We want you. And so I this is the days of me doing renderings three point perspectives in watercolor with a triple zero pen, putting wood grain in a coffee table kind of thing. And I worked for probably two weeks on these drawings, and had an intern spray mount them, because that's the way we did it in those days. Showed up about an hour before I was supposed to walk a block down the street to go to this interview, and they had all rippled, oh no, and were basically unrecognizable. So I had come up with the theme. They said that they wanted to relate more to Loring Park. Loring Park was a little different than it is right now. I still think it's a wonderful, beautiful park. So I came up with the idea of having the restaurant be called Georges in the park. And it was all taken off of the George Seurat painting, Sunday afternoon. I can't remember the French line, but it's Sunday afternoon in the park, basically. And it's all he's he was the founder of pointillism. So everything is dot, dot, dot, teeny, little dots, but it's all these people, women and bustles and men in top hats, and they're out on this beautiful park enjoying a sunny day with and so I high I had this poster of the mural and my clients, I called him and I said, I'm so sorry, but I'm not going to be able to interview. Everything I had has been destroyed by our intern. And he said, Well, you know, if we don't see anything by noon, we'll give you a call. And I was like, yeah, no way. Noon, the phone rings. I go down to the cap towers, and I'm in their conference room.
Mark D. Williams 1:03:26
Did you bring the stuff that you had?
Billy Beson 1:03:28
I brought the poster. Yeah, a poster. And I walk in, and there was a hotel firm from Dallas, big architectural firm from Minneapolis, and me, there were easels all around the room with all these beautiful renderings and programs for this project that were 100 pages. I didn't I thought a program was on TV, you know, I didn't know a program was. I didn't even know what a program was. So I go in with this poster and Marty cap. First of all is, has shoe polish, brown hair, rose colored sunglasses. He's wearing a burgundy polyester jacket with a matching shirt, a surfer cross and matching burgundy pants. And I was just like, Oh my God. And I started talking. And after 10 minutes, or five minutes, I looked at me, he was doodling. And I said, Mr. Cap, don't you think you should be paying attention? And he chuckled and left. But I was serious. It was like, Don't doodle. Listen to what I'm saying. So the bottom line is, I give them my spiel. They all the guy who was head of the hotel that runs the hotel, Marty owned the building, flew in from Hawaii, and another guy from New York to interview. And he said, Okay, Beeson, give us a minute. And they all left the room. So I'm sitting there looking at these presentations, thinking there's. No flipping way I'm gonna get this job. And he comes in. He goes, Okay, Beeson, we're gonna give you this job. We want you to do it. He said, But I've heard you're the most expensive guy in town. And I said, he said, Our budget is a million bucks, which in those days was a boatload of money. He says, our, our budget is a million bucks. He said, Can you do the job for that? And I said, Well, Mr. Cap, I can make this place look like a million bucks. For a million bucks, I got the job.
Speaker 1 1:05:35
That is, that is, that's gold, right there,
Billy Beson 1:05:38
isn't it? It's true. Okay? I tell I tell people these stories, they go No way, like I have stories from my childhood. I have to call my brother and say, did I make this up, or did mom really put a sling on John's arm to cover a spot of blood on his shirt when I punched him in the nose to go out to dinner? And he goes, No, she did that. I was like, my little brother looks up waitress. He goes, What happened to you, honey? And she goes, it's a long story.
Mark D. Williams 1:06:08
We had one the other day where my my youngest son was he got in trouble. And I said, Tate, you can't do that. He goes, Well, how am I going to beat he always says, Be member, because he can't say, remember, oh God. He says, I can't remember that. He goes, How am I going to be member that Simon's going to tell on me? So he missed the point that he wasn't supposed to do it. He thought he's like, Well, how am I gonna know Simon's gonna rat me out?
Billy Beson 1:06:31
How do I get around? So funny. Oh, kids say the funniest things, man. So prices, well, you know, speaking of your brother, I had meant to ask this earlier in the interview, you'd mentioned that, you know, in the early 2000s you're doing a lot of public speaking, but you know, your brother, Dave was, I mean, his whole career was public speaking, correct? Dave was Mr. Microphone, Mr. Microphone, yeah. And, I mean, he was way, way ahead of his time, yeah. He had a whole software system called, it was, like, promo U you know, like college, collegiate, you promo, you so it was about directing comments to people that are realtors, again, ma and pa deals, or working for a big company, whatever. But I saw him speak a couple of times, and he was a wizard at it, and he just, he captured people, and he was, he's a storyteller. I mean, if you're not a storyteller, you won't ever be able to sell anything to anybody. Do you know what I mean? There's got to be romance, there's got to be story. There's got to be a happy ending to why you chose what you chose? I 100%
Mark D. Williams 1:07:41
agree with you one of the things that's probably been my favorite, again, I didn't realize I was either doing it or now we know it as storytelling, but tell the story, and like, let the story sell for you. And people remember stories. I mean, if you want to go old school, right, like a troubadour, back in the day before that even written words, people remember stories or sing songs. And like, you know, we have an affinity to remember a story way more than remember, like, a single fact exactly. And I think I know that it's something I'm much more interested for the next 20 years, God willing, of my building career, even with miso, the whole point of why we're doing it is storytelling. Oh, yeah, all. We're not talking about the house, what it costs any of those. We're telling you a story, and if that story resonates with you, then you're going to want to know more. Yeah, and so it is, Tell me more, like, what's more about this? And I think anyway, whatever your career is, whatever your craft is, whatever you're interested in, like, if it can, somehow everyone has a story to tell. And so it's really just you sharing your story. And yeah, sure, some people are more charismatic than others, like Dave, I could imagine he's pretty charismatic, but like, you
Billy Beson 1:08:40
know he is, he kind of also talks that way on the phone, though. It's like, hello, this is Hi, Bill. How are you? It's your brother, Dave. And I'm like, Are you on W, d g y, back in ninth grade, or W, d g y, that's funny. Oh man. Mr. Microphone, Mr. Microphone. Oh man, I love the guy. He's, he's, he's done it all, he's been through a lot, and he's happy. You know, that's all I care about. Yeah, I mean,
Mark D. Williams 1:09:12
going back to what you're passionate about, I think when you get to do what you're passionate about, you, it does help you be happy. I think Jim Carrey had a quote the other day that I was talking about. It was basically, if you're going to fail at something you don't like, you might as well fail at something you do like. So go follow your passion Exactly. That seems pretty obvious, but it seems like a great
Billy Beson 1:09:29
quote. Yeah, I think so. When I started my business, I had not an inkling that anything could not work out, and I think it's because of having a role model and seeing what makes a designer successful, and it's a lot more than having excellent taste.
Mark D. Williams 1:09:50
I love what you said about I wrote it down just to remember. I love that he would walk around and talk to the older people that to me, you learn. So much from Bob about how to be a human and how to connect with people, and how to give people time and to listen. You mentioned later in the interview how the best thing that you could do for a client is not actually say much and just listen. And he was showing you that at a young age, you were walking you're watching him walk around the room. Give people time.
Billy Beson 1:10:19
Yeah, love, yeah, love, respect. It's something that we need to do more, especially today. That's what got me involved in the prairie Care Fund. Was thinking about how I was as a little kid when my parents were divorced, when I was seven and I had to leave school in the middle of the year, I remember we had a lift top desk, and I remember having my desk top on my head while I'm bawling my eyes out, cleaning out my desk. And then Miss Manning my second grade teacher followed me to bus. I had this paper bag in front of my face I was crying my eyes out, and then she kissed me, and then I just totally, I was so my teacher kissed me second grade. I didn't know, you know, I was like, anyway, I go to a new school. I meet my two best friends, probably for the next 1520, years life, the first couple days of school, and they're still my dear friends. And I was little, I was cute, and I probably was a little Nelly. Do you know what I mean? And that didn't go over big, especially in Edina. If you're not a National Merit semifinalist or quarterback of the football team, there's a big crack you fall into because they put all their energy. I mean, they did, I don't know now with the situation, but at that time, only the stars got the accolades and the people that didn't Excel because of ADHD, depression, anxiety, whatever, were kind of shoved under the rug. And I remember I had to go in seventh grade to the school psychiatrist, and they came in, or they over the loudspeaker, Billy Beeson report to Doctor Raymond's house, his office. And I was like, what? Who the hell doctor in school, you know? And he just I was I was shocked, and I got teased and and bullied about it that I had to go see the shrink and what's wrong with me? And well, I couldn't sit still. I couldn't concentrate. I grew up in chaos. I felt comfortable in chaos. I didn't know how to be orderly. I remember one teacher saying, every time you want to I had a obsession with sharpening my pencil because it there and back was time where I didn't have to do what I didn't want to do, right? And one teacher said, I want you to make a check mark every time you want to wash you want to sharpen your pencil today. And I handed her a page. It was all check marks.
Mark D. Williams 1:13:31
Whole thing, yeah. And that's pretty smart of your teacher to bring awareness to it, though, nobody
Billy Beson 1:13:37
Yeah, and nobody knew, and for sure, nobody talked to it. And I think me being stepping into the little boy sitting on the end of my bed, wondering how I'm going to get through the next day without getting beat up or, you know, verbally assaulted or whatever. And I look at how complicated life is today, and it is hurts me. It hurts my heart to imagine what it's like to be a kid nowadays, you know, and be exposed to what's happening in government to the forest fires in California, floods, tornadoes, division and government, big separation between the very rich And the very poor. To me, it's heartbreaking, and I think that the pendulum, pendulum has swung so far this way that it's got to come back the other way, because it always does. Do
Mark D. Williams 1:14:55
you think you'd mentioned Do you think children are. Better off, because do you think our society is more tolerant or less tolerant? Where I'm coming at this from specifically to ADHD, like it's different things, whether it's autism or ADHD or learning disabilities. I feel like there's, well, there was, until I got all canceled recently, but like, you know, there's more programs, there's more help, or it's more socially acknowledged than it ever was in the 70s and 80s and 90s. So do you think a that's better? Because you sort of alluded to like kids have maybe more difficult now, because there's a lot more things wrong, but, but it's a lot more, but there's a lot more options for help.
Billy Beson 1:15:34
What they don't have, in most cases, is, well, oh god, there's a book called The anxious generation, or the anxiety generation, and what that says is, when the internet came out, learning switched from being fun based, you know, a, b, c, d, just as simple as That, to they call it phone based, which is any screen you're looking at. So there are algorithms in every in any coding that's done that encourages the user to come back and look at it again or look at something different, and what the kids are are spending way too much screen time at too young of age. They're not learning how to develop interpersonal relationships, communication skills, how to share your feelings, how to share your thoughts, how to be realistic about your expectations. They are comparing themselves the girls at age 910, 11, are comparing themselves to full grown women that are telling them what kind of makeup they should wear and how their hair should look, or that they need to have a bigger butt or bigger boobs or whatever. And this may be a shocker, but according to this author, the boys are eight, 910, years old and exposed to pornography. So kids are growing up addicted to pornography, and the girls are the boys are insecure and the girls are so totally insecure because they're not perfect.
Mark D. Williams 1:17:23
Yeah, I think it affects every part of society, just in terms of screen. It's something that we've been in the middle of it, right? I mean, it's whenever you get your first cell phone or whatever. I think it takes way more active discipline. There's actually a Netflix series on it that was really helpful. But anyway, basically there's two industries that use user to describe their clients. One is the drugs. You know, anything drugs related. The other is computer software, right? You're a user, software based user, and it's meant to be addictive. To your point, we could spend a whole nother podcast that's not about the curious builder, about just observations. And I'm kind of coming into it with my three young kids right now, and sort of looking around and seeing people, you know, what are the boundaries? As I mentioned before, I've talked a lot about in the podcast, that's it's helped me show up for work. You mentioned taking Fridays off and taking, obviously, the weekends off, but coming to Monday like you're excited to work, like, when you have more energy, like you're like, kind of like, if you're big into working out, like, if you're not taking rest days, you're actually doing yourself a disservice in the long run, because you break down. Have Billy's flexing his biceps, yeah, and and so barely bicep, yeah. So, I mean, you need, you need that downtime in any way. Would just be spending time with family, things like
Billy Beson 1:18:33
that, just the fact that we call that downtime, I mean, that should be our uptime, yeah, good point. I mean, if work is up and spending time with your family is down, something's,
Mark D. Williams 1:18:45
yeah, I mean, that's, I actually really appreciate that kind of that, that
Billy Beson 1:18:50
framework. And you know, you, you already know that, because you're the kind of father that you
Mark D. Williams 1:18:54
are. But it's semantics a little bit. I think it's aware, being aware of what the words we use. I do like that. I think the other thing too is it's, I've often said this, I love my job. I love working with people. I've never been bored. Well, a day in my life,
Billy Beson 1:19:05
I never, I'd rather be dead than bored, you know, I mean, you know, you
Mark D. Williams 1:19:11
would have been a really good, you know, working for a number two pencil. You would just been just, you would have been the official pencil, Mr.
Billy Beson 1:19:17
Ticonderoga, or whatever they were, called number two as number
Mark D. Williams 1:19:21
two. Well, to respect the audience's time and yours are a bit over here, so I want to thank everyone for tuning into the curious builder Billy is that we could talk for days, and we'll have to come back on again. Actually, it'll be fun. We'll have to, because Drew's been on. It's sometimes fun to have a guest and introduce him to the audience and then come up with a different topic down the road. But it'd be kind of fun to have you and drew in at the same time. Oh
Billy Beson 1:19:40
God, that'd be a ride. My nephews and my great nephews are my life. Yep, and sneak peek, I think I'm in love without a boy, all right, but thank you so much Mark for having me. It's time flies when you're having fun. That's all I can
Mark D. Williams 1:19:56
say. I agree. Appreciate it. Thanks again for tuning the curious builder podcast. Thank you. Yeah, we've had the podcast now for two and a half, almost three years now, and we have a consulting page, one to one consulting. You can book my time for one hour. Perhaps you've heard a guest where you like one of the topics. Maybe you want an introduction to some of the guests that I've had on. Perhaps you want to talk about branding or marketing or anything that we've covered on the podcast over the last two and a half years. You can book a time at curious builder podcast.com thanks for tuning in to curious builder podcast. If you liked this episode, do us a favor. Share it with three other business owners. The best way that we can spread what we're doing is by word of mouth, and with your help, we can continue to help other curious builders expand their business. Please share it with your friends. Like and review online, and thanks again for tuning in. You.
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