20. Building a Side Hustle into a Business with Brady Pearson of BP Customs

**Brady Lindquist** (0:16)
Welcome in to Brew Chat, I'm your host, Brady Lindquist. It's been a long time, Blake.

**Blake Piipke** (0:21)
Yeah, it has, for sure.

**Brady Lindquist** (0:22)
For sure, it's good to have you back. And we have a guest.

**Brady Pearson** (0:27)
My name is Brady Pearson.

**Brady Lindquist** (0:28)
We got another Brady here.

**Brady Pearson** (0:30)
Two Brady's in here, yep.

**Brady Lindquist** (0:31)
Two Brady's. Give us just kind of a little background of who you are and where you're from, that kind of thing.

**Brady Pearson** (0:38)
Yeah, so I grew up in New London. My parents were both music teachers, so I have instilled that kind of artsy background already. I ventured away from the music side of it, even though I'm involved in musical things. Sure. So my parents are both music teachers. My grandparents are both music teachers.

**Brady Lindquist** (1:00)
Wow. So you broke the cycle.

**Brady Pearson** (1:02)
I broke the cycle. Yeah, I don't know.

**Brady Lindquist** (1:03)
But you're really good at guitar.

**Brady Pearson** (1:05)
So yeah, I tried. So we're still involved there. But yeah, I grew up in New London and went to school there. Got to meet you through that. Mutual friendship. And then eventually went to college, SMSU, graduated, came back here with art major. I had no idea what I was going to do with my life at that point.

**Brady Lindquist** (1:22)
You're like most people feel.

**Brady Pearson** (1:23)
Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I don't know why I went for that major. I don't know where I'm going to find a job. Eventually just started working at any place and did some graphic work, Rambo. So that expanded my something I wasn't very familiar with.

**Brady Lindquist** (1:39)
Yeah.

**Brady Pearson** (1:40)
Well, I just I've kind of polished some of those areas that I feel unfortunate that I've had the opportunity to do that. Because now I incorporate a lot of graphic work with the custom orders that people want. I can mock up different things or I've even made logos for people's woodworking companies.

**Brady Lindquist** (1:58)
You're primarily using like Illustrator to do those things.

**Brady Pearson** (2:01)
Yeah. Illustrator primarily. I know Photoshop as well, but Illustrator is where I like to do all the vector stuff in. So yeah. And then I bought a house in Willmar after I got a teaching position later on. I started doing para work, led me into an art position later on where I'm currently at CCS.

**Brady Lindquist** (2:23)
Well, nice.

**Brady Pearson** (2:25)
So I just patiently waiting. Every job that I've been to is kind of shaped where I'm at now. I've taken different things away from it.

**Brady Lindquist** (2:32)
It's amazing how that goes, right? You learn a little here and a little there, and then somehow it just kind of builds over time.

**Brady Pearson** (2:38)
Yeah.

**Brady Lindquist** (2:38)
And actually kind of leads to something.

**Brady Pearson** (2:41)
I've always learned to just work hard no matter how much you hate the job, and you're going to get something from it.

**Brady Lindquist** (2:47)
You'll get something out of it.

**Brady Pearson** (2:48)
These people are going to see your work ethic, and you're also carrying that with you wherever you go if you get lazy.

**Blake Piipke** (2:54)
But you only get out of something what you put into it.
So if you put 75% in, that's exactly what you're going to get back out. So if you go to work every day thinking, this sucks, I can't believe I'm here, that's exactly what you're going to get out of it. Nothing.

**Brady Lindquist** (3:15)
It shows. Totally.

**Blake Piipke** (3:17)
Especially when you're open to new ideas and take things in and be like, how can I use this later?

**Brady Lindquist** (3:28)
Well, this is a Brew Chat, so we need to crack open some beers here quick. Let's get the first one open. I'm going to make Blake do it here. Perfect. That way we save my computer from any disasters. But the first beer here, we've got something from Blackstack. This is the Altogether.
The Altogether series is pretty cool. It's basically, I think, I'm trying to remember the, now I'm butchering this here, but it was hosted by Other Half Brewing, which I think we had with Dwayne, I want to say, something from Other Half, but they're a brewery out in New York. They put this together basically for all the breweries and people that are in service industry during COVID. It's kind of all together, right? I mean, so many of those people lost their jobs or are in kind of hardship because of COVID. So kind of a cool little collaboration, if you will. Let's get in. All right. Let's let you mention different jobs and different skills and leading up to custom work. So let's get into what that custom work is. You're creating things out of wood, right?