Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryan Bitterman.
Hi Bryan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Born October 20th 1982 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Moved to Michigan in 1984. Family moved around when my parents found new or better work opportunities, lived in Clio, Birch Run, Haslett and Holt Mi. We purchased our first home in 1992 in Holt Mi where I attended elementary through high school. My Senior year I decided to transfer to an adult education school in St. Johns because they allowed me to graduate in December, this allowed me to follow my childhood dream of becoming a United States Marine. Prior to leaving I learned that my then girlfriend and I were expecting a child Zach.
February 2001 I shipped off to California for boot camp. I graduated boot camp May 18th 2001, 2 days after my son was born. I then graduated High school in June of 2001. I attended combat training in the summer of 2001, and was in mechanics school at Camp Johnson from July – November. In November I received orders to report to Camp Pendleton Ca where I would be based for my term. Due to the events of September 11th 2001, all new Marines were reporting to Camp Pendleton due to the build up for Operation Enduring Freedom. Prior to this event I was slated to go to Okinawa Japan.
In December of 2001 my girlfriend and I got married. She was living in Michigan finishing high school while I was in California with the intentions of moving her to California when she graduated in 2002. In January of 2002 I learned through her family that she was unfaithful, I later filed for an annulment of our marriage.
June of 2002 I met the love of my life and my current wife Cheryl. She helped navigate through the courts and custody procedures with my now x wife. Cheryl grew up in a broken home and had first had knowledge of how to get through it. Cheryl had a son Johnathan who at the time was 3, born out of wedlock, with a father who wanted nothing to do with him. Johnathan in a way filled the void for me that was missing since I couldn’t see my son.
In 2003 February – June and in 2004 January – September I was deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. In 2003 my unit received the presidential unit citation, for being the first unit to cross in to Iraq from Kuwait. Not much happened this deployment, after crossing into Iraq, we stopped and built up a camp called Camp Viper just outside of Fallujah. Our unit was supposed to only be there for a couple weeks and then continue north, there was a huge sandstorm that covered the region when our replacements were supposed to stop at our camp. Unfortunately they passed our base due to no visibility and they ended up taking our mission, leaving us behind to be support. So we lived in sand with the consistency of baby powder and non stop wind, all while living in 2 man tents that did not stop any of the sand. We would come back from work and have to shovel out our tents nightly. We went home in June, Cheryl and I got married in September 2003, in her grandparents backyard.
January 2004 I shipped out on the advancement unit, we flew from March Airforce base in Ca. to Indonesia, where we boarded MPR Lopez, a Maritime Prepositioning Force ship that we took to Kuwait, this ship was loaded with 7 levels of vehicles, tanks and warfighting vehicles. While on the ship we had to go through all of them for inventory and maintenance, to make sure they were ready when we got to Kuwait. When we got to Kuwait, we unloaded the ship, my unit then flew on a C130 to Al Asad Airbase in Iraq, about 100 miles west of Bagdad. We then built up the living quarters for the support unit and our unit. I was part of the recovery and maintenance detail, our job was to recover vehicles in the Anbar providence that had been disabled due to various reasons, IED’s, Land mines ECT. During this deployment my daughter Nataly was born (March 31st 2004) Originally I was not supposed to deploy on this detail, however I had learned that one of my fellow marines was having a hard time with the thought of deploying, plus we were going to utilize a new 7-ton vehicle that I was trained on, he wasn’t. I talked to my command about it and convinced them that they would be better off having somebody who wanted to be there and new the equipment better, instead of sending somebody who didn’t want to be there. They agreed and I was supposed to be able to fly home in March for the birth of my daughter, however, in the spring of 2004 it became too dangerous to get me out of where we were, so I missed her birth. May 9th, I was on a security detail for a convoy going to a base near the Syrian border, we got there at night with no issues, slept on the hood of our vehicles for the night which was our normal, at night it got cold there and the engines provided heat so it was easier to sleep. The next day May 10th was Mothers day, we were treated with a satellite phone to use to call our moms, we each got less than 5 minutes, just to say hi and wish our mothers happy mothers day. On our way back to Al Asad, our vehicle was hit by an IED or a roadside bomb. You know when they say in the movies that everything slows down in situations like that, its true. I still remember the ringing in my ears and being able to see individual specs of dirt moving very slowly across my face. When we gathered ourselves and came to a stop, a couple snipers who had seen it happen drove towards us to make sure we were good. They let us know that they had been watching this area for possible IED traps and the people who placed the IED made a mistake. The IED’s blast went away from our vehicle instead of towards us, leaving a huge hole the wrong way. I have no doubt, had this mistake not been made, I wouldn’t be writing about this today. We continued back to base, 3 of my fellow Marines in my vehicle received Purple Hearts due to injuries.
I spent the next few months continuing to do what we had been doing, in total I was in over 100 successful security missions, I received the Navy and Marine Corps accommodation medal for this. I was also on over 50 successful vehicle recovery missions, these took place all hours of the day, sometimes we would have a security detail and sometimes, we went in 3 vehicles and 6 Marines. As time went on we became very used to the area and knew when we needed back up. September we flew home.
I did not reenlist so my term with the Marines ended in January of 2005, we (Cheryl, Johnathan, Nataly and I) moved to Michigan to start our lives. I didn’t want the mother of my children to have to work, this burden was mine to bear. We thought by moving to Michigan that would allow us to live with Zach as part of our lives. Zach’s mom made it miserable, we went through the courts where I was granted every other weekend visitation, the judge cited my lack of time with my son as the reason I didn’t get more, I was not happy that my time in service was being used as a punishment, but what could I do. Almost monthly like clockwork Zach’s mom would make getting Zach miserable, she would either not be home or say he’s too sick, or even by getting married to the guy she cheated on me with on my weekend. In October I had enough and Cheryl had convinced me that for the kids it would be better for us not to put them through this, and that Zach’s mom would mess up at some point. We moved back to California. Cheryl was right, Zach’s mom wasn’t being a good mom, I got a lawyer, went to court and got full physical and full legal custody in 2007, Zach then lived with us till he graduated.
While in Michigan I worked as a loss prevention officer at Kroger for a few months, I then quit that to go work in a gravel pit for less pay, but I was working 60-70 hours per week so it was more money. When we moved to California a Marine that I served with had married Cheryl’s sister, he got me a job where he was working as a mechanic on semis, so we would have an income when we got back. I worked there for a year or so, we had a guy come do some welding and custom work, I started talking with him, liked what he did and seen an opportunity, so I took it. In 2006 we welcomed our second daughter Mckenzy. By the end of 2007, I was the shop foreman at our main shop in Gardena Ca, I was also managing 2 other garages along with running a service truck that I would go on the road and work on broke down semis and semi-trailers. I did this until the crash of 2009, California regulations on the trucking industry almost killed the business, I was only working 20 hours a week and money was running out. It was time to move on. My brother in-law who had gotten me the mechanic job in California had relocated to Texas and I was discussing moving there to again work with him. Fate had other plans, Cheryl’s stepdad was in the sheet metal union and was a shop foreman. The union wasn’t hiring at the time because of the recession, but he convinced the owner to bring me in. So, we stayed and I became a union sheet metal worker at GES sheet metal.
I worked in the shop for a couple years, then transferred into working in the field. I attended the SMACNA sheet metal apprenticeship and finished top of the class in 2015. Prior to graduating I had left the first company and went to work with a friend who I had met in the field, he was a project manager and brought me to his company VNSM sheet metal do be a lead worker. I became a foreman running a crew and had over 10 jobs simultaneously while still technically an apprentice. Shortly after I had graduated I had another friend of mine offer me a superintendent job at a different company. Again I was faced with an opportunity calling, I took the job at Crowner sheet metal. In 2013 we welcomed our third daughter Brailey.
I was at this company for a couple years, I had noticed a lot of mismanagement within the company, this was a very small company. They did less than 10 million worth of work a year, had 1 project manager and a field crew of less than 15 workers. Once I started pointing out the wasted money and mismanagement, I seen the true side of the ownership. My last straw was, I tried to get the owner to have a Christmas dinner for the workers, she refused, citing not enough profitable work throughout the year. She then went on an elaborate vacation and remodeled her house with the companies earnings. This was her right to do, but I felt like it was a slap in the face for my crew, shortly after that I quit. When I was in the apprenticeship I met a guy who was teaching a project management class, I took his class and he told me that if I was ever looking for work to let him know. I called him, got an interview and was hired as a superintendent at Best Contracting. This was a big step, I was used to working for companies who had less than 20 total employees to this company having over 500 employees and working the entire west coast from San Diego to Seattle. This company has 4 separate divisions, roofing, sheet metal, waterproofing and glazing.
I was a superintendent for the sheet emtal division at this company from 2018-2020, in 2020 I was promoted to project manager. Once I had became a project manager, the owner and I got along very well, and he trusted me. I was managing over 60 million in work and had 3 superintendents working for me, with a field crew of 30-40 workers. I was managing work in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. I was all over the place and very busy. At the end of 2020 we had decided because of the Covid mandates and the chaos in California that we wanted to find a better place to raise our kids. We decided to follow our son Johnathan to Cache Valley Utah where he had moved a year before. I had to convince the owner of the company that I would be able to manage my jobs from Utah, we agreed on a schedule that had me in California for one week, then Utah for one week, still managing Seattle and San Francisco jobs so I traveled frequently to say the least. In 2022 the owner approached me and offered me a project executive position and to groom me to become the CEO of the company when he steps away in 5 years. The only caveat was, we had to be in California full time. Yet again I was faced with an opportunity, I again took it. After a lot of discussions with the family.
Cheryl stayed in Utah while Nataly and Mckenzy were still in high school and Brailey in elementary school in Utah. In the summer of 2022 Nataly had graduated from high school, Cheryl and Nataly came to work with me as my assistants, Brailey began remote school and Mckenzy stayed in Utah. Cheryl would travel back and forth while Nataly and I stayed in California full time. Now with Cheryl living in two states, I was now in charge of 3 project managers, 3 project engineers 3 superintendents, almost 100 field workers all over the west coast, totaling in over 100 million projects managing all sheet metal and glazing. I was busy. I would frequently be in Seattle, SF, SD and LA weekly. I was at the top and everything was great.
Just like what happened at Crowner, I seen waste, and mismanagement. This time the owner listened to me. I had slowly took over the accounts payable dept. for my division, I had discussed moving my division to a different more central and efficient location. The owner wasn’t open to it but said lets wait a couple years. I was ok with that, worth the wait. When I took over these divisions, they were not profitable, within 1 year we had cut our overhead in half, hired better workers and realigned how things ran. Christmas 2023 came, I discussed bonus for my divisions with the other executive, upper management and the owner. Bonus’s were split 75% – 25% between our divisions. I didn’t take a bonus so I could give my workers a little more, as they had deserved it. I didn’t agree with the split because my divisions overhead was a fraction of what the other sides was but the company decided to share the expense of the entire overhead 50 – 50. The problem with that is, my side was 30% of the company, so obviously it was a huge hit to our budget. Beginning of 2023, I began taking as much overhead away from the main office to further reduce our budget, still profitable but Cheryl, Nataly and I were working from 5am till 9pm almost every day. We gave everything we had to make it work. I dug further into the mismanagement and waste, when I did this, the board members began to push back on my demands, I seen the writing on the wall that I was never going to be given the keys so to speak. I was being led to believe that I was going to be the CEO eventually when in fact it was a ruse just to get me back to California.
I called a meeting with the owner and the other executive in the beginning of May 2023. I told them I was moving back to Utah full time and they had till the end of the month to find my replacement. They were shocked, but it was causing too much stress in my family and I was working 80 hours a week for no real benefit to my family, just a hope that CEO was around the corner. We agreed in the meeting that they wanted to keep me in an advisory role till the end of the year to get the other executive up to speed on what I was working on and to help manage, (remotely). I took the deal. When I left the meeting I went into my office and informed Nataly and Cheryl what I had just did, they were speechless, I had made this decision on my own and I knew they would be ok with it. June 2023 we left California for good and we have been in Utah since.
The end of 2023 I negotiated a contract to stay on with Best as a sheet metal estimator working remotely from Utah as an independent contractor. I am still doing this work today.
With the free time that working remotely provides, I had idle hands and had been used to running 100mph all day every day, I had always wanted to own my own pizza business so I started looking into either a storefront or a truck. I found a pizza trailer for sale cheap in Oklahoma. July 2024 we opened 5y pizza pie. We sell in the warm months at fairs and festivals, from June to November.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There has been a lot of struggles, relocations, job changes, COVID, economy crashes and so on. We have just kept our heads down and worked through it.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Owner operator of 5y pizza pie. My wife and kids work with me.
I created a crust recipe that makes phenomenal NY style pizza crust, I have also created my own marinara sauce along with my own BBQ sauce. We won Best of Foods at Franklin Co. fair in Idaho last year with our BBQ chicken pizza. I have a neighbor who has had our pizza who has been to Italy, according to him, ours is way better.
My hope is to one day have a storefront; this opportunity will come along at some point.
What were you like growing up?
Athletic, popular enough to know everybody but not really part of any crowd. I wrestled and played football in high school.
Contact Info:
- Website: 5ypizzapie@gmail.com
- Instagram: 5y_pizza_pie
- Facebook: 5y_pizza_pie
