American-Made Construction Revitalizes Travel with Brian Kronberg
Episode 989th August 2023 • Construction Disruption • Isaiah Industries
00:00:00 00:37:00

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  “There was no playbook for us to follow. It was just a few people sitting in a room trying to map out what the next steps would be. And that’s how we got started, and the rest is history.”  

  

Brian Kronberg- VP of Development at Brightline, Founder of Amerified 

  

While American railroads enjoy a rich history of passenger and freight travel, for decades now, the car has dominated. But what about those routes that feel too long to drive but too short to fly? 

  

Enter Brightline, a Florida-based passenger rail line serving major cities like Orlando and Miami. Determined to offer a comfortable, enjoyable riding experience, they operate as America's sole privately-owned passenger line. 

  

We spoke with their VP of development, Brian Kronberg, about his experience launching Brightline and the challenge of finding American-made materials that led to the founding of Amerified, a database of products made in the USA. 

  

Topics discussed in this interview: 

- How did Brian’s career end up here? 

- Why was Florida a good spot for passenger rail? 

- Using rail systems around the world for inspiration 

- Designing and building stations 

- Demographics of Brightline riders 

- Brightline’s growth plan 

- Unique benefits of a Brightline train 

- Sourcing American-made materials for a major project 

- The development process  

- The inspiration for Amerified 

- How can you use Amerified? 

- Rapid fire questions 

  

This episode of Construction Disruption is sponsored by TrueLook, the easiest way to view, secure, and document your jobsite. Get your free, no obligation quote at TrueLook.com.

  

To find routes and schedules, visit gobrightline.com, and to discover a range of products Made in America, visit amerified.io.  

For more Construction Disruption, listen on Apple Podcasts or YouTube

Connect with us on FacebookInstagram, or LinkedIn

This episode was produced by Isaiah Industries, Inc.



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Transcripts

Todd Miller:

:

Hey, Ryan, we have some pretty exciting news. I think Construction Disruption now has our first ever paid sponsor. There's this company that approached us about getting in front of our audience, and we're so pleased to have them now as a sponsor.

Ryan Bell:

:

That's right, Todd. That company is TrueLook, and what they offer is pretty awesome. They've made it incredibly easy to view, secure, and document job sites with their construction cameras.

Todd Miller:

:

You know, a lot of times I think we think of construction cameras as, you know, just being there for security. But with TrueLook, they also have features like custom time-lapse videos and remote live viewing.

Ryan Bell:

:

Yeah. You know, a term we throw around a lot here on Construction Disruption is game-changing and TrueLook certainly falls into that category. Being able to document your progress on job sites and then go back and show your clients that high quality, in-progress video is certainly something that I would call game-changing.

Todd Miller:

:

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Ryan Bell:

:

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Todd Miller:

:

You know, I don't think anyone makes construction cameras as hassle-free or feature-rich as TrueLook, anyone can go and schedule a free, no-obligation quote at truelook.com. That's truelook.com.

Intro/Outro:

:

Welcome to the Construction Disruption podcast, where we uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.

Todd Miller:

:

I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building materials. Today, my co-host is Ethan Young. Ethan, how are you today?

Ethan Young:

:

I'm doing pretty good today. Looking forward to the holiday. How are you doing?

Todd Miller:

:

Yeah, that's true. We are recording this right before the 4th of July. So yeah, I'm looking forward to at least a few days to chill and watch my favorite Reds team. Man, they've been turning up lately. Hopefully they can keep that up; we'll see.

Ethan Young:

:

Yeah.

Todd Miller:

:

So, looking at our guest today, Ethan. Based on your age, I guess you may have been a Thomas the Train fan at one time. Am I right on that?

Ethan Young:

:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I definitely remember having a bunch of Thomas the Train, all the different trains when I was a kid, and we actually went to visit. I guess there was like a full-scale Thomas the Train or whatever. I don't remember where it was, but I have a memory of going there as a kid to see it, yeah.

Todd Miller:

:

I remember that. I think it was in Indiana or southern Ohio or something. Yeah. I think I think our family visited there too.

Ethan Young:

:

I think my mom just sold all the Thomas the Train stuff from when I was a kid, like a year or two ago. So, yeah, definitely a big fan.

Todd Miller:

:

We gave ours to somebody. I don't remember who it was. Well, pretty interesting, though. I think all you kids kind of grew up at that age thinking, I'm going to build a railway someday and I don't really, really remember. So each of the characters, they had different characters and personalities.

Ethan Young:

:

I only remember a couple of them, but yeah, and actually when we were talking about this for the episode, the movie Bullet Train came up because one of the characters in that, his whole thing is about Thomas the Train and like how different people's personalities fit into those characters or whatever. So I only remember a couple of the names, but if you're if you want to know more Thomas the Train stuff, go watch the movie.

Todd Miller:

:

Good deal. There had to be a Percy. Was there a Percy?

Ethan Young:

:

Yeah, there's Percy, there's Toby, there's Diesel.

Todd Miller:

:

That makes sense.

Ethan Young:

:

Well, I think Harold is the helicopter. That's all I really remember, though.

Todd Miller:

:

Well, good deal. So, for those out there who grew up wanting to build a railway. Today, our guest is someone who did just that. Believe it or not, he built a railway. Folks like this don't come along every day, so I'm pretty excited to talk to him and learn about what they've done and find out more about their plans for the future. Plus, really as kind of bonus content that's pretty exciting, we're going to dig into a specific problem they had along the way, and that problem was sourcing American-made construction products for their project. And so we're going to look at a way in which they're working to solve that problem for other companies. So today's guest is Brian Kronberg. Brian is Vice President of Development for Brightline Trains and he is also the founder of Amerified. Brian, welcome to Construction Disruption.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Thank you very much for having me, Todd and Ethan. I'm very excited to be here today.

Todd Miller:

:

Well, we're glad to have you. So your career started, I believe, as a project manager for a leading commercial real estate firm in South Florida, southeastern Florida. I'm curious, how did this all happen? How did you get where you are today? Did you just suddenly wake up one day and along with a few others, decide that Florida really needed a high-speed private passenger train system? Or tell us kind of about the needs and the dreams that you developed that resulted in the development of Brightline trains.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Sure. So it's a bit of a windy road. No one comes out of college thinking that they're going to go build trains and train stations, and neither did I. I kind of graduated college and expected and had a job opportunity to go to New York and work with one of the banks. And I was planning on doing that. I got home back to Miami after finishing college. The Miami Heat had just won the championship with Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade, Gary Payton. I decided to go to the championship parade in downtown Miami, saw the team that the Heat had built, and being a huge Heat fan and the change in skyline of Miami, there was a lot of new construction and the skyline was just changing. And I, I felt like something special was happening in Miami. And I was always interested in real estate and architecture and figured, you know, I didn't want to go to New York and work in the banking industry, then I would pursue an opportunity in real estate. So I got an entry-level job working for one of the top commercial real estate companies in Miami. And the first part of my career was really developing business parks, industrial business, parks, for that matter. So large scale, well warehouses, about 200,000 square feet. Then we would lease some two companies and then ultimately sell the buildings. After many years of doing that. I took a rare vacation with some friends out to Spain. This was before I was married and had kids and got a call. They tracked me down in Spain and said, You know what? When you get back, we're going to pursue train service along the passenger corridor that was once owned by and established by Henry Flagler. So consider that what you'll be doing when when you get back home. I had no idea where the call was coming from or we hadn't talked about it before, but was anxious to get back. And sure enough, it was the vision of the gentleman and the founder who still is involved today, a gentleman by Wes Edens who saw the need and had the foresight to put passenger rail back on this corridor that runs through the downtowns of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, all the way up to Jacksonville. So they said, we're going to do it, and there was no playbook for us to follow. It was just a few people sitting in a room trying to map out what the next steps would be. And that's how we got started, and the rest is history.

Ethan Young:

:

That's really interesting. And I wanted to ask, too, because I know obviously America has a pretty rich history with passenger freight back in the day. Obviously, we don't really do it as much anymore. We still have a lot of, not passenger freight, passenger trains. We have a lot of freight trains today. But what kind of spurred the idea to do specifically like a passenger train through Florida?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah, that's a good question. Well, Florida was a growing state, and this was back in 2011-12 when we really initiated the company. Had no idea what was going to happen to Florida since from what's happened from back then to now is just the the number of people moving to Florida and the population growth. But Florida is so narrow and there's only so much room for highways, and more and more people were coming. The railway was already there and we had the rights to run the freight service. And we said, we'll give it a shot. We were, the city pairs that we were connecting were Miami and Orlando, which are two of the most visited cities in the United States. And it's also a distance that we say is too long to drive but too short to fly. So the the amount of time that it would take you to get on a, go to the airport, go through security, board your plane, get off the plane in Orlando, we said we can do it faster than flying, faster than driving, and it's far safer. The roads down here are dangerous, congested. And this was an alternate mode of transportation that we saw the need for.

Todd Miller:

:

I'm curious, as you suddenly branched into this and you come back from Spain and you're trying to figure this all out. Did you folks look at other passenger railway systems, perhaps in other countries, or were there some things you used as a model in trying to figure this all out?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah, so we absolutely did that. We had a good idea of what we wanted the system to be in terms of brand attributes. We wanted it to be a hospitality-focused system where people were treated differently or felt differently getting on our system as compared to a another type of public transportation or what sometimes people perceive as public transportation. So we knew that, but we also knew that this existed in other parts of the world. So we looked at London, Paris, Rome, Milan and other examples that were were well-respected and and profitable. And we took the lessons learned there and put it into Brightline, and that's how we got started. We also, the other thing we did is we wanted to find the right team with architects, engineers and contractors to help us build this. Not having any experience in train stations, but knowing that we wanted signature stations. It was going on Google typing in "top ten architects in the United States" and cold calling architecture firms, seeing if they'd come down for a meeting with us. And some of them said yes. Others didn't know what we were talking about and said, Too busy. Thank you very much. So grateful to to the firms that took our call, and we've been working with them.

Todd Miller:

:

So how many actual stations did you have to design and build then? I really hadn't even thought through that part of all this.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah. So the the initial system that we launched in 2018 was three stations, one in Miami, one in Fort Lauderdale, and one in West Palm, West Palm Beach. And we have our signature, the other signature station is in Orlando at the Orlando International Airport. That one will open within a few months, maybe by the time that this episode airs, it might be already opened. And in addition, we added two more stations in a city called Boca Raton and then Aventura. So in total, there will be six stations by the end of this year.

Todd Miller:

:

Wow, that is an accomplishment. So, you know, you folks are the only privately-owned and operated, you know, inter-city passenger railroad in the country. I'm kind of curious. I mean, well, who are your commuters? Who are your users? Are you getting a lot of tourists who are utilizing your service or is it mainly work commuters or, you know, and do you anticipate that changing with the opening up of Orlando? It seems like that potentially could shift a little bit.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah, absolutely. Right now, we're fortunate to have a variety of different users. We have regulars that use it every day to get to and from work that don't want to be driving on the I-95, congested highways that every day the traffic is worse and worse. We have people that choose to come to Miami Heat and Marlin games from up north, whether it be West Palm Beach or Aventura. And you don't need to deal with downtown Miami traffic or pay the fees for parking, which sometimes for these big games is quite high. And then we also have the tourists that are coming into Miami. And before they were likely just coming to Miami and staying in Miami. But now they have the opportunity to easily, more easily see these other cities that they really didn't have an easy access or exposure to. So that's the the combination now. And then certainly when we go to Orlando, the the tourism market will open up far more. And again, those are areas where people flying into Orlando, they they go to Orlando or they go to Miami, they're not really visiting both. So with the introduction of Brightline connecting Miami to Orlando, we'll be able to get visitors that that are able to visit both cities.

Todd Miller:

:

So how far would that ride from Miami to Orlando take?

Brian Kronberg:

:

About 3 hours.

Todd Miller:

:

Okay. Well, that's not bad at all. So, Brian, tell us a little bit about, you know, where you folks are in terms of, you know, your overall growth strategy. I mean, once Orlando is in place, I mean, does that fulfill that or are you thinking even other areas of the country at some point?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah. So step one is get Orlando open, which, which will happen imminently. And from there, there are other cities that we're looking at within Florida. We haven't announced where because once we announce, it becomes far harder to if we need land to assemble the land or access the land, but we likely will do additional stations in Florida. And then also our company is also pursuing Las Vegas to Los Angeles. So I don't personally work on that, but our company does and they've been in design and that construction should start soon as well. So we'll connect L.A. to Vegas and then who knows, there might be other city pairs within the country where that market exists. Again, too long to drive, but too short to fly. So those are the those are the areas that we'll focus on. And there might be one or two other ones within the country.

Todd Miller:

:

Well, that L.A. to Vegas route sounds ideal. I mean, it sounds pleasant. That sounds like a cool way to go between the two cities. And you know, it's interesting as I, think about it, I mean, ever since I was a kid, we always heard, you know, passenger railways are going to have to be more of the United States future. And they're very common in other countries and all that type of stuff. And, you know, for many years this predates me, believe it or not, Ethan, you know, back in like the twenties, thirties, forties, there was, I think, called an inter-urban train that even ran between several towns or cities here in Ohio that would bring commuters back and forth and so forth. And so, you know, it just seems like a very natural thing to do. And, you know, it seems like it kind of ebbs and flows. I mean, you have a little bit of inflation and the price of gas goes up and everyone's looking for mass transit and other ways of getting places. I mean, is that part of your thought process, too, just kind of looking at, hey, how do we how do we be more green in the way that we live? How do we be more efficient? Tell us a little bit, too, about your trains. I mean, can people, are is there wifi? Can people do work on the trains if they're commuting?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yes to everything that you just said. I mean our, we're green, sustainable, safe and yes, you could work. We have wifi on the trains. We're actually the first train in the United States that's fully ADA accessible. So you could take a wheelchair from within the station all the way onto the train. And then once you're on the train, you could navigate the wheelchair throughout the whole all the different coaches throughout. So, yeah, we're really proud of what we've been able to design and build and put into service. The other feature that you hear everyone talking about are the restrooms on the trains. They're not at all what you would expect out of the train and it's all touchless. You go in there and you don't want to get out of there. It's so nice in there.

Todd Miller:

:

Well, I remember several years ago I was in Japan and and rode the bullet train a few times. I mean, is it an experience similar to that probably?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah, we're not going nearly as fast as they're able to go in Japan because we're crossing through the downtowns. But the the overall experience, absolutely.

Todd Miller:

:

Very cool. So I already clued our audience in to the fact that, you know, you one of your challenges through all this was sourcing American-made construction materials. But before we dig into that, I'm kind of curious, what are some of the other surprising challenges that one runs into as they attempt to build a railway? It just seems like such a huge undertaking.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah, it's an undertaking and you got to be cavalier about it. But essentially the way that I explain it are when you start out, there's a whole checklist of things that you needed to be able to accomplish, and there are thousands upon thousands of items. But the big categories I would say are, you need to have the necessary land, the necessary land to connect the the stations and have the corridor. You need to have the funding in place, enough money. These are quite capital intensive. And then you need to have the government approvals and there's a whole subset of items underneath that. But you need to be able to to get every one of them done. If you don't get one of those three buckets there, there's no project. And these projects frequently don't make it as as we've been able to do because they run into challenges with with any and all of those three. So those are the big things. At the onset, we did not own all the land that we needed to connect Miami to Orlando. And there's a lot of small, small parcels that we had to go out and looked at a map, figured out what parcels, what's the track path going to take and overlay that on to property maps, figure out who owns the land and go meet with the landowners. And you need everyone to agree to sell you that land and if you're able to get that, you've crossed one big hurdle only to encounter the next surprise. But you don't know what that is until you're in it.

Todd Miller:

:

Till you get that far.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah, perseverance. And we've got a great team that kind of just knocked through walls to make sure that we were able to get everything that we needed done.

Todd Miller:

:

So what was that time period from, you know, the time you first said, let's do this to the time that your first train was running and you had your first passenger car?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Really, 2011 was when we started. And then 2018 is when we had our first passenger, which is extremely fast. That period of seven years, states and countries spend that long studying projects. And we were able to arrive at the concept design and get it funded, build it and put it into operations in that short time span.

Todd Miller:

:

Wow. Is there anyone else doing this in other areas of the U.S. that you're aware of working on privately-owned rail?

Brian Kronberg:

:

There's a project in Texas. I haven't followed it too closely, so I'm not sure where where they're at and their process. But they are connecting some of the major cities in Texas.

Todd Miller:

:

Interesting. Yeah, those can be some long drives across between the major cities in Texas. I can see benefit to that too, sure. So let's dig in to the difficulty that you ran into finding USA-made products to use in your construction. Well, first of all, let me ask this. Why was using USA-made products important to you? And you know, how big of a challenge did it end up being?

Brian Kronberg:

:

But using U.S.-made products is always a priority for us at Brightline when when we're able. But it was a little different when we recently were awarded a federal grant by the Federal Railroad Administration called a CRISI Grant and along with the city of Boca for our Boca Raton project. It was a partnership and between the FRA, Brightline, and the city of Boca, and whenever you take a federal grant, at least through DOT, it comes with the requirement to comply with Buy America. Which is, it's been around for for a while. And recently with the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, it's getting a lot of attention. But the requirement for our Boca station came with this Buy America because of the federal grant that we took.

Todd Miller:

:

Interesting. So that led you to the development of something called Amerified. Tell us, tell our audience a little bit about what Amerified is and what you're accomplishing through it.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Sure, so a matter-of-fact is a company that I started, I consider myself a third-shift entrepreneur after I take care of the family. My job with Brightline when all that is done and I'm able to spend some time with with a few others, we work on Amerified. And Amerified is really an online database that I wanted to create to promote U.S. manufacturing and avoid the the challenges that I had, which were sitting in owner, architect, contractor meetings trying to find products that comply. And we're all on on the Internet, on Google, making phone calls, spending a unnecessarily enormous amount of time trying to source certain products that will comply. And I thought for something that as many people are actively doing with existing plus the Infrastructure Act, which is an additional $1.2 trillion that the federal government is putting into the economy, there needs to be a an easy button, as I call it, for sourcing and finding us products. And I called Department of Transportation and tried to do my research to see if this existed and it didn't. And I said, I'm going to do it or give it a shot. They said, Go for it, good luck. It'd be a great resource if it existed. So a team of us spent many hours, weekends, nights trying to map out how this would work. And fast forward to to now. We were able to launch the site about a month ago and the the activity and interest has been tremendous so far.

Todd Miller:

:

Well, I certainly applaud you what you're doing through that. And I know you and I have talked a little bit about it, and you invited us to submit our products, for which I'm almost there. I'm going to get those to you here real soon. I'm excited to be a part of it. And I love the platform that you've developed. And I'm kind of curious, You know, you mentioned, you know, here we are Googling and trying to find these products. Did you ever run into situations where, you know, you'd have a lead on a product and you think, surely this is USA-made and, you know, then you'd get to a certain point and find out, oh, doggone it, it's not after all?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah, all too often. And to make matters a little bit worse, the government has set up they have Buy America, but they also have something called Buy American that has "an" on the end. So it just makes it that much more confusing. And the level of domestic manufacturing between Buy America and Buy American is different. And you talk to someone on the phone and you say, we're looking for products that are Made in America and comply with Buy America. And they say, yeah, we have it. Yeah, You go down the road with someone, you agree on price, you send them the certificate, ask them to sign it, and they say, oh, sorry, we're we're Buy American, not Buy America. And then so you've just wasted all that time. And then you need to restart the process and go through everything. All the time that you spent, you need to spend it again.

Todd Miller:

:

Wow, yeah. That had to be frustrating, goodness. So tell us, you know, how can someone tap into the Amerified database either as a user, you know, an architect or a specifier trying to look for products or as someone, you know, like us as a manufacturer who has products that they would like to list on it?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Sure. So our website is amerified.io, and it's an extremely user-friendly website. You could go on to the website. We have a red button that says "Get listed", you type in your information and within the day or so we'll have someone from our team reach out to you, send you an easy Excel spreadsheet for you guys to fill out. Send it back, and within another day or two, your products will be on the site. Ultimately, we're working and we'll roll this out in a few months where you'll be able to register and handle everything online. You'll be able to have a username and password so that if you're a manufacturer, you'll be able to log into your account and modify, do whatever you need to your products without the need of interfacing with any of the Amerified stuff. And it's all free right now. I should say, the best part is for for all users, manufacturers, architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors it's for free to log on, see all the products that are on the site. And it's also free, too, for manufacturers to put the products on. We really want to make the the database as comprehensive as possible and get products from all product types and from manufacturers all over the country.

Todd Miller:

:

Well, that was what really impressed me as I learned about was the fact that, yeah, right now you're doing this completely for free. And because, you know, as a manufacturer, there are lots of databases out there we can list our products on, and they get pretty pricey real quick. And, you know, but they are not USA-made databases either. So here you are doing something very specific. So certainly I applaud you for that. Well, you know, Brian, I have to say, you're obviously an ambitious young guy. You know, here you are, you saw opportunity in this, what we consider to be a great field, great industry of real estate development, construction. And then you brought in the transportation piece and, you know, you've pursued it with gusto. What advice would you have for younger folks, other younger folks who are pursuing their dreams in construction or really in any field? I mean, you saw something and made it happen. How can you inspire others to do that, too?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Well, first of all, you have to enjoy what you're doing. And if you enjoy it and you're willing to put the time in and be persistent and keep your head down and put the work in til good things happen and prepare for meetings and take everything seriously and don't take it for granted, I think you'll set yourself up for success.

Todd Miller:

:

Wow. Good advice, good advice. Well, thank you so much, Brian. This has been really fascinating. We're actually close to wrapping up what we call sort of the business end of things here on the show. Is there anything we haven't covered about Brightline or Amerified that you'd like to share with our audience?

Brian Kronberg:

:

No, this is this has been great and I invite both Todd and Ethan down to Florida to see Brightline for yourselves and tell your friends about it. And then for all the manufacturers and architects, I know there's a large listener base. I invite you all to go check out amerified.io and register and look forward to our continued conversation.

Todd Miller:

:

Oh, that's good stuff. And I, yes, I am going to be there. I'm looking forward to riding on a Brightline train, hopefully before too long. Well, before we do close out, I have to ask if you're willing to participate in something here on the show we call our rapid fire round. So, rapid fire consists of seven questions. They may be, some are serious, some are silly. All you have to do is give an answer to each. So have to ask, are you up to the challenge of rapid fire?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Of course. Can't say no to that.

Todd Miller:

:

Yeah. No one ever has, I'm not sure what we'd do if they did, so glad of that. Well, we will ask you these seven questions. We will alternate. Ethan, I'll let you take the first one, if that's okay.

Ethan Young:

:

That's fine. Alright, so can you think of a product that you purchased recently that's been kind of a game changer for you? Sort of like where this been all my life? You know, something like that.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Actually, my wife and I recently had another baby.

Todd Miller:

:

Congratulations.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Thank you. With that comes the purchase of a sound machine. And just absolutely helped the baby sleep, drowned out some of the noise. And any sleep that the baby gets is that much better for us. So I'll say a good quality sound machine.

Todd Miller:

:

Oh, wow. So that just creates like white noise or background noise or.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Exactly, and then drown out the other kids. So, you know, makes it easy.

Todd Miller:

:

Fantastic. Well, congratulations again on the baby. And I'm glad to hear that sound machine is working, that makes a little bit easier, too. So question number two, would you rather have the ability to see ten minutes into the future or ten years into the future?

Brian Kronberg:

:

I'll take ten minutes into the future. I don't want to see too far down.

Todd Miller:

:

That's yeah, that's what someone else said. I don't know if I want that responsibility of seeing that far out.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yeah, I'd get into some good sports betting, too.

Todd Miller:

:

Good indeed, good deal.

Ethan Young:

:

Alright, next one. What's your favorite meal?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Simple, pizza.

Ethan Young:

:

Good choice.

Todd Miller:

:

Can't go wrong. Question number four, I think. Do you have a bucket list vacation that you look forward to taking someday?

Brian Kronberg:

:

I would love to take the kids to Australia, kids and wife to Australia.

Todd Miller:

:

Cool. Have you been there?

Brian Kronberg:

:

I have been there.

Todd Miller:

:

Okay, now you got to take the family.

Ethan Young:

:

Alrighty, next one. If you had an extra hour every day, how would you spend it?

Brian Kronberg:

:

I would spend it working out. I like to work out and don't always have the time or make the time. So that's certainly if I had a dedicated hour, that's what I would use it for.

Ethan Young:

:

Nice.

Todd Miller:

:

Good answer. Next to last. So far it's been pretty painless. This one's a fun one though. If you had to eat a crayon, what color of crayon would you choose to eat?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Probably orange, and I hope it would taste like an orange.

Todd Miller:

:

Assuming it would taste like that. Good luck with that.

Ethan Young:

:

Yeah, I think it would be fun to get a really bright one. Something like a bright green or periwinkle blue or something. Just to stain your teeth as much as possible. Alright, last question. Who is one person who's had a big impact on your life and how have they had an impact?

Brian Kronberg:

:

My father. So he just, his work ethic, persistence, how he's been able to juggle his profession and family. That's been a great model to follow.

Ethan Young:

:

That's great.

Todd Miller:

:

That is awesome, I'm glad to hear that. And what a role model that creates for you as a father, too.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Certainly.

Todd Miller:

:

Try to be doing that same thing. So, yeah, that's cool stuff. Hey, this has been great. So I need to report to our audience that we were all successful on working in our challenge words. So good job, guys. Ethan, you had the word?

Ethan Young:

:

I had periwinkle, which took me a while to get it in there, but I got in there right at the end, so. I like to do that sometimes.

Todd Miller:

:

Yeah. Good job. Brian, your word was?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Was cavalier.

Todd Miller:

:

And you worked it in seamlessly. I had the word inflation, which... Good job, guys. We all got our challenge words in there.

Brian Kronberg:

:

I let you off too easy, that was too easy of a word.

Todd Miller:

:

Well, someday I'm going to give someone something like colitis or constipation or something like revert back to the fourth grade Todd or something. I don't know, but anyway. Well, Brian, thank you so much, this has been a pleasure. For folks who would want to get in touch with you or folks who maybe want to see that schedule for Brightline because they're planning a trip to Florida. What are some easy ways for them to to do that?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Yes, So far for Brightline, we've got a great website. It's the websites gobrightline.dotcom and anything you need is on the website there. And for Amerified the website is amerified.io. We have get listed and contact pages there, so we make it really easy for you to get in touch with us.

Todd Miller:

:

Very good. And we will put that information in the show notes as well so folks can look for it there too.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Thank you.

Todd Miller:

:

Well, thank you so much, Brian. This has been great. I enjoyed our time together and keep up the great work on everything.

Brian Kronberg:

:

Thank you, Todd and Ethan. It was fun.

Todd Miller:

:

Well, and thank you to our audience for tuning into this episode of Construction Disruption with Brian Kronberg of Brightline Trains and also Amerified. Just to make that clear, it's A-M-E-R-I-F-I-E-D, Amerified. Okay, and that's amerified.io. Is that right?

Brian Kronberg:

:

Correct.

Todd Miller:

:

Yeah, good deal. So please watch for future episodes of our podcast. We're always have great guests. Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. Until the next time we're together though, keep on disrupting. Keep on challenging yourself and those around you to better ways of doing things. And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone you encounter. Make them smile and encourage them, simple yet powerful things we can all do every day. So God bless and take care. This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode of Construction Disruption.

Todd Miller:

:

Intro/Outro: This podcast is produced by Isaiah Industries, manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building products.

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