When Brandon Blagg was growing up in Dublin, he worked every summer on a nearby ranch. The owner, Weldon Huston, was a friend of his family’s from Greens Creek Baptist Church, where Blagg’s father was the preacher.
“Weldon had been an entrepreneur in the oil field in West Texas, and had moved back to Dublin after he retired, and he was just somebody that I really looked up to,” says Blagg. “I learned a lot from him, and knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur like him.”
Now, 30 years later, Blagg has made a career doing just that.
Blagg graduated from Dublin in 1996 and went on to Baylor, where he majored in communications studies and minored in business.
“It ended up being a good fit for me, because a lot of the degree is about leadership and organizational behavior, which is all part of being an entrepreneur — understanding how people work together and communicate together, and what motivates them.”
He graduated from Baylor in May 2000, and found a job in Fort Worth for American Express.
“They had a financial services division, and I was helping people with investment strategy,” he said. “That was such a good experience — working for a large company really gave me a lot of training that I’ve used for my whole career.”
Blagg worked there for three years before going back to Baylor for a masters in communications studies. Then, in 2007, he opened his own outdoor and bicycle store called Bear Mountain.
“I had gotten into hiking, backpacking, riding my mountain bike, and Waco didn’t have a store for that at the time,” Blagg said. “I just thought, ‘I can do it.’ I saved a little bit of money and got a loan from a bank, and off I went. I think the best thing I had going for me at the time was that I was a little young and naive, and I wasn’t scared to take a risk, you know?”
The store was so successful he opened another location in College Station. Blagg enjoyed spending time at the Waco store and engaging with the community there. “I got to meet everybody in town,” he said.
During the time he operated the store, Blagg also spent a few semesters between 2014 and 2016 teaching organizational behavior parttime at Baylor.
In 2016, Blagg had just turned 40 and decided he wanted to make a career change. “After 12 or 13 years of doing retail, I just was ready for a new challenge,” he said. “I’ve always been somebody that likes to try new things.”
So he earned his real estate license, and in 2018 he sold the store and went full time as a real estate agent. “I mostly sold farm and ranch type properties, a lot of them around Clifton,” he said.
A friend of his was president of Magnolia Realty in Waco, and Blagg ended up working there and leading the office through the pandemic.
In 2021, Blagg decided he wanted to become an entrepreneur once again. He and his friend started a roofing business, and then in 2022, Blagg purchased a company called Waco Fence, which installs fences for sports fields. “We work with several companies that install astroturf,” he said. “They convert fields from grass to turf, and we follow them around the state of Texas installing the fence that goes with the turf. In addition, we do some residential fence work.”
Blagg currently has fencing projects all over the state of Texas. “We’re spread out, so in my role, I primarily manage materials, I read blueprints and interpret those to make sure that we have all of the people and the materials to keep everything flowing,” he said.
When Blagg isn’t working, he’s usually spending time with his two sons, Fischer 17, and Eli 12. Both attend school in Bosqueville.
“My boys and I like to play golf, pickleball, and spend a lot of time on the lake,” he said. “And then we have some land in Goldthwaite, and we like to go out there and hunt and hang out.”
Blagg also enjoys traveling. This summer he’s spent time in Colorado and is about to head to the Dominican Republic.
Even as he lives in Waco and travels the world, Blagg has never forgotten his small town roots. “The country values and everything that I learned in the church there were foundational,” he said. “That shaped so much of who I am and I wouldn’t change growing up in a small town for anything.”
Throughout his life, Blagg has always kept an open mind when it comes to business and life. “I’m always learning something new, which is good and also wears you out sometimes,” he said.
“Change is inevitable, and one thing I’ve learned is to be good at solving problems. That’s really I think what makes somebody successful is how good they are at solving a problem and moving through it. I’m always learning something, and it keeps you humble.”
Blagg has the following advice for future Dublin graduates. “First of all, be kind to everyone,” he said. “And if somebody tells you that you can’t do something, that doesn’t mean you can’t. You’re never too old to stop learning — you have to learn your whole life.”
He also offered some practical tips. “Learn Spanish,” he said. “And also, we live in a world where technology is getting better and better, and I think there will be lots of money to be made in the future by people who know trades. If you learn a trade and learn Spanish, you can probably do pretty good.”
Where are they now chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.