Forge Contractor Alliance Podcast

Instead of teaching a framework or breaking down a business principle, we're inviting you into a real conversation that was happening behind the scenes. As Ridgeline Roofing & Solar and Gott Energy explore what a future together could look like, Josh and Joel sit down to work through the questions every growing company eventually faces. How do you scale without losing focus? When does a great...

Hiring can grow your company, but hiring the wrong people can quietly destroy the culture you've worked so hard to build. Forge Contractor Alliance, Josh, Kenton, and the team share honest stories from years of building companies, making hiring mistakes, and learning what truly matters when bringing people into your organization. From the dangers of hiring out of desperation to the importance of v...

Hiring is one of the hardest and most important responsibilities a business owner faces. In this episode of Forge, Josh, Joel, and the team dive into the realities of recruiting, hiring, and developing great people. They discuss why experienced hires don't always work out, the value of hiring for character and culture over technical skill, and how building a strong team often starts with finding p...

Hiring is one of the hardest parts of building a business, especially in the trades. In this episode of Forge Contractor Alliance Podcast, the crew sits down for a real conversation around hiring, leadership, work ethic, and what it actually takes to build strong teams in small business contracting. Kenton, Josh and Joel, on the Forge Alliance team dive into their personal experiences hiring in ro...

Hiring people is easy. Hiring the right people is one of the hardest things a business owner will ever learn how to do. In this episode of the Forge Contractor Alliance Podcast, the conversation goes deep into the realities of hiring, leadership, company culture, and the long term impact people have on a business. The crew unpacks the difference between simply filling a role versus intentionally b...

What happens when entrepreneurs stop fearing AI and start learning how to use it properly? In this episode of the Forge Contractor Alliance Podcast, Josh sits down with Tim Joyce of Nooma Logic to talk about the real world impact of AI and automation in business, especially for contractors, entrepreneurs, and growing teams. From streamlining repetitive admin work to improving customer communicatio...

In this episode of the Forge Contractor Alliance Podcast, Josh sits down with Kalen Blake, the creative behind Ridgeline’s media and a key driver of the company’s growth over the past year. Kalen shares his path from working multiple jobs at a young age, to building and scaling an e-commerce business, to running a brick-and-mortar operation that generated millions in revenue before the age of 21....

In this episode of the Forge Contractor Alliance Podcast, Kenton Friesen of Friesen Contracting and Josh Eisworth of Ridgeline Roofing and Solar sit down to unpack something every trades business struggles with but few truly dial in, training and recruiting. This is not a surface level conversation. It is a real and honest look at what it actually takes to build a team from the ground up, especial...

Welcome back to the Forge Contractor Alliance Podcast. Josh Eisworth from Ridgeline Roofing and Kenton from Kenton Friesen Contracting. Two contractors in the trenches every day, on the tools, in the books, working with crews, customers, and everything that comes with running a business. This podcast is just an extension of that, real conversations about what we’re actually dealing with. In this e...

In this episode of Forge, Kenton sits down with Chris Wiebe to unpack a side of business most contractors avoid the numbers. From hard lessons in financial blind spots to the reality of growing too fast without control, this conversation digs into what actually drives a healthy company. They break down the difference between revenue and real profit, why operational strength matters more than hustl...

In this episode of the Forge Contractor Podcast, Kenton sits down with Joel for a real and practical conversation about people pleasing. What it is, where it comes from, and how it slowly starts running your life if you’re not careful. What starts as a strength, being perceptive, caring about people, wanting to do a great job, can quietly turn into a burden. The hard truth is that a lot of us aren...

In this episode, Josh and Kenton sit down for a real, unfiltered conversation about something a lot of contractors think they understand, but most have never actually worked through what makes a business truly saleable. Speaking from their experience in Prince George, they unpack the gap between what owners believe they’ve built and what someone would actually pay for. The conversation quickly get...

In this episode of Forge, Josh and Kenton explore what it really looks like to build a business around the work you actually love. As the demands of leadership grow, so does the pressure to fit into a predefined version of what a CEO “should” be. But the reality is far less rigid. For many builders and entrepreneurs, the path forward isn’t about stepping away from the work that brings energy and c...

In this follow-up episode of Forge, Josh and Kenton continue the conversation about failure, resilience, and the long road of learning that comes with building a business. After reflecting on the collapse of Kenton’s early real estate momentum in the previous episode, the discussion turns toward what came after. The years that followed were not defined by a single event, but by the slower and ofte...

In this episode of Forge, Josh and Kenton dive into a deeply personal story from Kenton’s early years in business.  In his twenties, Kenton was heavily involved in real estate investing, building momentum with multiple properties, partnerships, and ambitious development projects.  It was a time marked by optimism, energy, and the feeling that anything was possible.  Deals were working, banks were...

In this long-distance episode of the Forge Podcast, Josh and Chris sit down nearly 800 kilometers apart and do what they’ve done for almost two decades challenge each other. What starts as a simple catch-up turns into a raw reflection on friendship, ego, business, faith, and the question that keeps surfacing in both of their lives why do we really do this? They rewind to the beginning dating roomm...

This episode is raw and real. We unpack what it is like to sit at the table with another fast growing company and seriously explore a full fledged joint venture in a brand new market. Valuations. Ownership splits. Hard conversations. Big vision. Even bigger responsibility. We just walked out of a meeting that felt like a dream come true. But here is what stood out. There was no greed in the room....

Sometimes the biggest chapters in your life start in the most ordinary places. This episode goes all the way back to a random moment in a Walmart parking lot, when Josh was still in high school, pushing carts, with no real plan for what came next. That one conversation turned into a job, then long days on rooftops, brutal winter projects, and years of learning what hard work actually looks like. J...

In this episode of Forge, we dive into the unseen weight of leadership: decision fatigue, opportunity overload, and the pressure of making calls that affect employees, families, customers, and entire companies. Joel and Josh unpack what it really feels like to be in a season of expansion joint ventures, partnerships, new markets all while trying to stay anchored to who you are and why your busines...

Winter is usually the slow season in roofing. Fewer crews, quieter phones, time to breathe and reflect. But this January feels different. In this episode, we talk about what it looks like when years of groundwork finally start to show up in real ways producing revenue in what’s historically been our slowest month, watching a second market gain traction, and realizing that growth often arrives quie...

What’s the real difference between generosity and waste and why does it matter in leadership, trades, and everyday work? In this episode of the Forge Podcast, the guys dig into a tension most leaders feel but rarely name: how generosity, efficiency, waste, stewardship, and gratitude all collide in real-world operations. From roofing crews and tools, to company culture, entitlement, and maturity, t...

In this episode, the Forge team welcomes Chris into the conversation for the first time. Chris steps in by sharing an unfinished, vulnerable moment from his leadership journey, reflecting on one of the most difficult decisions he’s faced: stepping away from a business partnership. Chris opens up about how, overtime, he became convinced that staying would limit not only his own growth, but the grow...

In this episode, the Forge team welcomes Chris into the conversation for the first time. Chris steps in by sharing an unfinished, vulnerable moment from his leadership journey, reflecting on one of the most difficult decisions he’s faced: stepping away from a business partnership. Chris opens up about how, over time, he became convinced that staying would limit not only his own growth, but the gro...

In this episode of the Forge Contractor Podcast, the conversation turns into a direct and honest debrief of the Ridgeline Roofing and Solar AGM, and why it marked a real turning point for the company. Coming right off the pruning discussion, Josh and Kenton walk through what made this AGM different. Not just inspiring, but actually useful. After years of learning the hard way, they reflect on the...

In this episode of the Forge Contractor Podcast, the conversation becomes a year-end reflection centered on one defining idea: real growth comes from pruning, not piling on. What begins as a thought about revisiting the AGM quickly shifts into a deeper discussion about 2025 as a season of cutting back so the right things can grow. Josh and Kenton talk candidly about what pruning has looked like at...