Surety Bonds Made Simple: How Contractors Protect Projects, Get Paid, and Scale Nationwide

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In this conversation, Gary Eastman discusses the current state of the real estate market, emphasizing the importance of relationships and understanding global changes. He highlights the need for businesses to adapt to market conditions, the significance of building strong networks, and the impact of geopolitical shifts on future opportunities. The discussion underscores the value of integrity and the role of people in driving business success.

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Gary Eastman (00:00)
that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And so, you you can do that by education or by process or whatever it takes. I think people get frustrated is when it’s, you know, hidden or you’re like, you don’t want to mention it to them. We tell people right up front, here are the issues here, the problems, let’s deal with it. People tend to love that, right? Because they’re like, hey, now I can deal with it.

Quentin (01:53)
Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I’m excited to be here. I’m excited about our guest. You know, I’m always delighted when I get the chance to talk to somebody and see things from their unique advantage, from their, through their unique lens. And today is no different. We have someone that’s going to talk to us about surety bonds. He’s an attorney by trade, and I’m excited just for him to take us into his world and get to know more about what he do.

So I introduce you all to Mr. Gary Eastman. Mr. Gary, how you doing today,

Gary Eastman (02:25)
great. Thank you so much for having me today.

Quentin (02:29)
Absolutely, man. Thank you for

here, taking time out. And I’ll be honest with you, I kind of want to jump right to it. I want to dive in. I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story, a kind of about how you got into what it is that you do, we would love that. And also, if you want to tell them what part of the world you’re in, we would love to know that too. So Mr. Gary, the floor is all yours, sir.

Gary Eastman (02:55)
Well, thank you so much. do appreciate that. As you alluded to earlier, I am an attorney by trade. You know, did all the big law and in-house thing, you know, ⁓ and then got into surety bonds almost by accident, like think like all of us business owners do. ⁓ And so started, you know, I’m here in Kansas City started doing surety bonds across the U.S. specifically, you know, pro-wage bonds across the southern part of the United States, Florida, Texas, California, Georgia.

and then expanded from there. So now we are across all the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. So, surety bonds, as probably nobody knows, just to guarantee when people do construction contracts. It’s a three-party contract which allows ⁓ everybody to work together so they don’t have to, hopefully to avoid court. What it does is it provides a guarantee that the

construction project gets done on time and everybody gets paid. And according to the terms of the contracts, there’s also a warranty there. And I fell into it by accident and I’ve enjoyed it though. And so we just have tons of clients in the real estate and construction business all across the US.

Quentin (04:10)
it man. I love it man. Thank you so much. ⁓ Listen, know, all of us, we all kind of got our superpower or our strategies that we kind of use and whatever, you know, room that we in, whatever niche that we in, whatever field that we in. Are there some of the strategies that you can talk about that you use, even business-wise and personally, when it comes to, you know, what you do and how you think and how you analyze? And I would love to hear some of those strategies if you have some.

Gary Eastman (04:40)
Yeah. So what we try to do is, you know, take a look at what our customers are doing and see where there are issues and problems and opportunities because we have thousands of clients across the United States and diverse geographically.

We get to see where different areas, areas of the United States are, what they’re doing and how they’re doing it and what areas are starting to slow down, what areas are really speeding up and being continuing to keep track. so.

We are lucky in that we get that information firsthand. We get to see it real time and that helps us take a look at what’s there and how we do it. Yeah, strategies for how to make that more efficient. We use everything we can from people to AI to whatever it is. But I think that our real advantage is using all of that customer base that we are fortunate to have access to to see what’s going on, right?

you know what what issues seem to be poppin up

Quentin (06:30)
Yeah. I love that, you know, using pretty much the old, you know, people, studying people, studying trends. What are people doing? Talking to people, really getting a feel on what they need and what they’re doing. mean, yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s, yeah, that makes total sense to me. And so, yeah, I absolutely love that. ⁓ Let me, let me ask you this. You know, I always tell people there’s a journey to a success, right? You know, businesses are built.

one moment at a time, know, relationships are built one moment at a time. And so as we go through these moments and go through the journey, sometimes we face opposition. so within your field, has there been any kind of adversities, times when maybe something went sideways or a time when you had to fast? Within what you do, do you face adversities or have you faced adversities that you can look back on and say, woo, that really helped me get to where I am right now?

Gary Eastman (07:28)
Yeah, that’s a great question. And so ⁓ we always take a look at adversity as quite frankly, something of an opportunity because a roadblock is something to be overcome, right? And the good thing about a roadblock is many people have to find a roadblock and then they go away. And we say, no, that just limits competition. Do we face roadblocks all the time? So the focus of our business is to take our customers as quickly as we can from the beginning of where they want stuff.

to the end where they can get to work, right? So we’re always trying to push that down, trying to make it easier, trying to make it better on them, do processes, procedures that make it so that they can do, you know, really get to work rather than deal with us, right? While trying to eliminate risk. So we always have to deal with problems as they arise. But there’s always things that try to jump in the way, those roadblocks that pop up, we’re like, oh, let’s add this additional problem, let’s add this thing over here or.

we saw a problem down the road. So therefore we’re going to try to create an extra step or two of issues. They arise, they rise all the time. And yet we, you know, try to relentlessly focus on making it easier for our customers because we know we’re not number one in their site, but we’re critical parts of what they do. So we want to just make it so that we can make that as part of their core process. Did that make sense? I explained that. Okay.

Quentin (08:50)
Yeah.

Yes, sir. That made total sense. And I loved your analogy about the roadblock. Like, I absolutely love it because a lot of people are, they’ll give up after the roadblock. And so it sounds like you guys like, no, there’s a roadblock. Let’s find a way to get around it. And a lot of people, they don’t have enough exterior vision to really look at how can we get around this roadblock? Sometimes it’s just that tunnel vision. They see it and they throw their hands up and they give up.

And so I love how you said you want to make it easy on your customers. So y’all see the roadblock, y’all don’t avoid it. there, but you find a way to get around it. That’s what I heard. Did I synthesize what you just said?

Gary Eastman (09:32)
that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And so, you you can do that by education or by process or whatever it takes. I think people get frustrated is when it’s, you know, hidden or you’re like, you don’t want to mention it to them. We tell people right up front, here are the issues here, the problems, let’s deal with it. People tend to love that, right? Because they’re like, hey, now I can deal with it.

And so it’s those hidden things that bothered them.

I also think it’s a great way that we can use our, you know, our experience and our other clients to say, Hey, here’s how somebody else has dealt with this. You know, and it could be something as silly as, you know, how to bid on jobs. You know, for example, we’ve gathered enough data over the years that we see that jobs, you know, like federal construction projects.

Margins are smaller at the beginning of the year because everybody’s trying to load up their calendar. We have some clients that don’t bid on any jobs until the end of the year after July because they know that the margins are higher. So they’re like, Hey, we’re just going to wait, bid on it at the of the year. And then we’ll take a few months off in the beginning of spring because I don’t care because their margins can, you know, deal with that. So, you know, it’s that experience that hopefully we can use for people.

that they can start understanding, hey, here’s how we can do these different things. It’s not right around, right? It’s just whatever fits into their business. ⁓ And the same thing with your clients, right? How can they use data and experience and also, hey, there’s a problem that’s occurring over here. What’s going on? Is that going to come our way? Maybe, you know, or how do we deal with this problem before it gets there? Because when you deal with a problem upfront, it’s a smaller problem, right?

When you deal with it right at the end, that’s a huge problem. You know, I like small problems. I hate huge ones.

Quentin (12:01)
I love the way you just broke that down. So bear with me, I’m gonna tell a quick little story. know, when I went, I started going to therapy and my therapist used to say, you you’re scared of confrontation. And I was like, what? And she was like, but let me explain what confrontation is. Confrontation is just confronting what’s in front of you. And I love how you said you like small problems and not big problems. So you want to help people just confront.

what’s in front of you. Let’s confront it now before it’s a big thing. It’s a small thing. Let’s confront it. So confront is not a bad word. It’s just focusing on what’s in front of you and let’s deal with whatever’s in front of you head on. And that’s what I hear, like something that your business is good with the clients. It’s confronting what’s right in front of you before it gets too big that we can’t handle.

Gary Eastman (12:51)
That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right.

Quentin (12:53)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah. I love everything I’m hearing, Mr. Gary. Let me ask you this, sir. What’s the next real goal for you? Like, what are you and your company looking to solve or scale next?

Gary Eastman (13:06)
Yeah, so we are looking to again, expand and help out more clients. mean, just like everybody we’re trying to expand, but we’re also trying to selectively look at opportunities that exist out there. We think that there are a lot of opportunities out there and they’re, you know, in different timeframes. So over the next year, we’re really focusing on what we call the short term timeframe of what deals exist today.

where we can find people that are trying to sell at a price that makes sense for us. We think in the two years beyond that, what we call the medium term for us, we think that there are a couple of things that are changing. For example, we don’t believe the interest rates are going to fall too much more, at least on the private side. Maybe the government gets a deal, but we won’t. But there’s also going to be some different changes. We believe that labor supply will be OK over that two-year period.

⁓ Not great, but okay. We believe that material shortages will probably be the biggest issue. In the longer term, we believe that there are some significant constraints. And so we are old models on how we actually looked at ⁓ business. We’re actually kind of getting rid of and changing to new assumptions. We believe that interest rates are going to be higher because believe inflation is going to be significant. We believe that there will be labor shortages.

There’s just not enough people to do the work today. And so when we take a look at a business, we don’t want something that is heavily people dependent unless those people are already identified and available, right? And so we’re not like, hey, we’ll just buy a business that where we think we can hire a whole bunch of folks. That’s not what we want. We want ones that are more, yet even if they’re service provider businesses,

more identified folks.

We believe that material shortages will continue because our global worldview is, you know, the population is shrinking. So, you know, China is shrinking rapidly, Europe is shrinking rapidly, rest of Asia is shrinking, not as rapidly as China. But we believe in the United States, you know, our population is going to be essentially flat. You know, it’s went down slightly, it’s growing slightly, but basically flat. You know, the Americas are going to remain slightly growing, but

That’s not enough to make up for all this loss of labor, you know, and supply that’s coming from other countries. So we believe that the end result of that is, you know, cheap stuff is probably a thing of the past, right? So let’s not build a business around cheap stuff. Let’s build a business around good margins, good, you know, what we call moats or barriers to entry. If we can do that, you know, get really good people. mean, if you have good people, that’s a…

Quentin (16:25)
Mm.

Gary Eastman (16:39)
competitive advantage because everybody else is going to struggle to find people. That’s a huge advantage, a huge moat. Things like that where we want to focus on in the long term. Over the next three years, we think that we’ve got some

to make some money but not go crazy into that until that comes back. So that’s kind what we’re looking at.

Quentin (17:02)
⁓ I love it. I love how you talked about people, know, finding good people, building things around the right thing, like around good systems. You said it so eloquently, but when you said people that kind of really stuck in my mind because I’ve heard you talk about your clients and helping your clients. So I just want to talk about relationships and I want to get your opinion when it comes to building relationships and growing your network. What has made the biggest difference for you when it came to building relationships?

Gary Eastman (17:32)
Oh, great question. So I’m again, I’m an attorney by trade. So I already kind of had this, you know, competitive advantage of built in people that I knew, you know, other attorneys are always kind of a little like a fraternity that way. But I also went out and got, you know, I’ve been lucky that I have lots of clients that are out in the world to own their own business. So that’s been luck, but also going out to build relationships with people that are

medium, small size business owners, figure out what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, what they see, sharing our opinions. Because to be fair, we don’t all agree, right? That’s good. Getting that, hey, Gary, you’re an idiot comment all the time. Hey, I love it. I want to hear where I could be wrong. I want to take that into my analysis. Because there are things that are going to change. For example,

going forward there be less access to capital, right? We just totally believe that the, you know, free money supply of capital going into business is shrinking, right? And so because of that, they’re going to be more, a lender is going to be a lot more, you know, selective in who they change. So let’s use that, right? We want to be on the winning side of that not be the guy that’s like, I can’t believe I can’t get capital. Let’s do that work upfront.

talk to the people up front, make those relationships up front, because at the end of the day, people really matter, right? Yes, you can use all these tools to be more efficient, AI can make you more efficient, whatever it is, but at the end of the day, people are going to drive the real value. And that person could be like, hey, I’m not even going to work for you, Gary, I’m going to go down here, and here’s a good resource for you to contact.

You know, like for example, here’s a good lender, here’s a good mentor, here’s a good, you know, somebody that can point you to somebody else to find the right folks. We take all that in, we analyze that, we use

as part of our process in determining what’s a good opportunity and what’s not a good opportunity.

Quentin (19:45)
I love it. People are the real currency. I say that all the time, you know, long before there was credit cards, long before there was social security numbers, you know, people used to do handshake deals. Like your name meant something. Like people valued you and your character. And so for me, people will always be the real currency. I know it’s maybe, you know, a sappy thing to say in here, but it’s just so true. Like deal in the currency of people, building great relationships, being honest, being a person of integrity. And so.

I hear those different themes come through every time you mention your client, every time you mention people. And so I really appreciate you highlighting people relationships, Mrs. Gary. I really do.

Gary Eastman (20:27)
Well, it is the key, right? mean, and I’ll tell you a great lesson I learned early on as an attorney. People that are good people will document up a deal day one, right? Like I told you this. Yeah. You make the contract say we’ll do it right now. People that push back on that are the ones are like, why, you know, like, you should trust me. I’m like, not people that are trustworthy. They’re like documented up all day long. I’m keeping my word. So.

You’ve moved forward to that today. The guys that you want to deal with are the ones that’ll do the handshake deal and live by it. Because what you find is that goes through their entire life. I said what I’m going to do and I’m going to do it. And then it gets done. Well, that starts not just with contracts, but with the basics. I hired the right guy. I kept him on my payroll. I treated him well. I did this. I did that. I figured out what it takes to keep

Quentin (21:23)
Mmm.

Gary Eastman (21:26)
the business moving by making the people stay moving. And that’s everything, right? I’d rather have a bad business with good people than a good business with bad people.

Quentin (21:33)
Yeah, yes sir.

Ooh, that’s,

this is what I, that’s what I call a drop the mic moment right there. That’s, we call that a bar, Mr. Gary. That was a bar, sir. ⁓ No, you’re absolutely correct. And that was great. Listen, Mr. Gary, I thank you so much for coming through. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you, sir?

Gary Eastman (22:06)
Yeah, think the easiest way is you can just go to our website, swiftbonds.com or axcess-surety.com. We’re also on all YouTube, LinkedIn, all the Facebook, all the axcess-surety.com. But yeah, our website’s easiest way just to get in touch with us.

Quentin (22:20)
Absolutely. Is there, before we leave, is there any other inspiration, encouragement, education that you want to give the people about what you do or just about life in general? Anything that you want to give that you think is worthwhile listening to.

Gary Eastman (22:36)
⁓ I would say the one thing I would point out to is just, know, we believe that it’s all about the numbers. You do everything from a micro perspective, but if you want a global perspective, ⁓ I would read a book called The End of the World is Just the Beginning by Peter Zahan, ⁓ which talks about ⁓ geopolitics and the change in globalization and essentially the shrinking, you know, demographics all across the world and how that’s going to change how the world exists in the next, you

20, 40, 50 years. So that’s just a good way to think, okay, how can I exist in this changing world that we live in?

Quentin (23:13)
The end of the world is just the beginning. Correct? Yeah, I wrote that down. I love a great book. So thank you, sir, for giving that recommendation. Well, listen, Mr. Gary, thank you, sir. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your story. Definitely thank you for your perspective, the way you see the world, the way you implement integrity and honesty.

Gary Eastman (23:18)
That’s exactly right.

Quentin (23:40)
and just being there for your clients, building great relationships, honoring people, valuing people. I really appreciate you being here today, Mr. Gary.

Gary Eastman (23:48)
Hey, thank you so much. We really appreciate being on.

Quentin (23:51)
Absolutely. So listen, you heard Mr. Gary, you got the value. He’s giving you a book recommendation. He’s giving you a ton of nuggets. Please go ahead and subscribe because I can promise you we’re going to continue to bring up great people just like Mr. Gary. And so Mr. Gary, thank you again. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.

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Surety Bonds Made Simple: How Contractors Protect Projects, Get Paid, and Scale Nationwide

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