Today we’d like to introduce you to Bridger Hopkins.
Hi Bridger, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I tend to think of how we get anywhere in life as a journey. The destination matters, sure, but the route we take usually tells the real story. The “where” is rarely as interesting as the “how.”
I grew up as a busy kid. Not athletic, not particularly adventurous in the traditional sense, but endlessly curious. Reading, writing, building things, tearing them apart, trying something new every few months – that was my rhythm. I’d dive into something, get good at it, and then move on to the next thing. The only constant was what I thought I wanted to be when I grew up. As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. That spark came from an old TV show called Junkyard Wars, where teams of contestants built machines out of scrap in a junkyard each week. Something about that clicked in my brain at age six, and it never really let go.
So that became my path. Activities, academics, and most of my interests pointed me toward engineering. In high school, when we were trying to figure out how I was going to afford college, my parents and I bought a foreclosed house. My dad and I remodeled it together. I quit sports my senior year and poured my time into that place instead. It paid off. I lived there debt-free during community college thanks to roommates, and my share of the sale helped my wife and me get through the rest of college with no loans. That was the moment I realized the actual, practical power of real estate. When people would ask what I was planning to do with a mechanical engineering degree, I’d joke, but not really joking, “real estate.”
I spent a handful of years in mechanical maintenance after graduating, using my degree, more or less. In 2021 I got my real estate license, mostly to support my own investing and maybe do some sales on the side. Real estate became my hobby. Then it became a small business. Then it started snowballing. I never planned on going full-time, but my engineering career wasn’t offering much direction, and the contrast between the two worlds was getting harder to ignore. In March of 2024, I finally made the leap into full-time real estate consulting and sales. That’s when I really found that all along, my passion really had never been for engineering, but problem solving.
Since then, the growth has been steady and real. My business has doubled every year. Now I’m moving into the next stage: building systems, hiring full-time assistants, and bringing on new agents to join my team, Legacy Bridge Real Estate, brokered by Grand Properties Real Estate.
At Legacy Bridge, we believe real estate is still one of the most powerful tools for building wealth and leaving something meaningful behind for your family. Our focus is simple: understand our clients’ goals, build a clear process around those goals, and create a plan that actually gets them where they want to go.
This journey hasn’t been linear, but it’s been mine. And every step from engineering, investing, remodeling houses, getting licensed, and eventually taking the full leap, has led me right where I’m supposed to be.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve always liked the analogy of the road for the journey we’re on. Nothing about this path has been straight. Things rarely go the way you plan; sometimes because they go better than expected, and sometimes because life hits you from an angle you never saw coming.
The hardest stretch came just a few months after I stepped out on my own. We lost our house to a fire. One day we were settling into a new chapter, and the next we were a family of six living out of a hotel room, and later a small three-bedroom rental. I was trying to keep momentum in a brand-new business, meet with clients, grow my pipeline, and hold things together while fighting insurance battles that ate up days and weeks of time. It was stressful. It was refining. And most people around me had no idea what we were walking through and honestly, I preferred it that way. My job is to serve my clients, not hand them my burdens.
What I learned through all of that is that running your own business never goes in a straight line. And the more I talked to other entrepreneurs, the more I realized my experience wasn’t unusual. Nearly everyone has a version of the detour, the setback, the thing that forced them to rebuild, rethink, or push through.
Seeing how universal that was is what led to the creation of my podcast, Bridge Out Ahead. Yes, the name is a play on my own, but it also captures a truth I’ve seen repeatedly: everyone in business hits construction zones. Everyone faces detours. Everyone has to keep moving forward without always knowing exactly what’s around the bend.
The show has become a weekly opportunity for long-form conversations with business owners, professionals, and community leaders. Episodes run anywhere from forty minutes to an hour and a half, and it’s one of the few places in my life where I can sit down uninterrupted and dig into someone’s story of what drove them, what tested them, and what they’re building now. People are endlessly interesting, and giving them a platform has been surprisingly rewarding.
In the five months since releasing episodes, the reach has exceeded anything I expected. A real community has formed around it — listeners, viewers, guests, and people who simply resonate with the idea that life is under construction for all of us.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Real estate agents are often known for big personalities and big branding. Billboards, wrapped trucks, flashy SUVs, the whole thing. I’ve gone in a different direction. My goal is to make my work about other people, not about me. I don’t need to sell someone a house just to sell a house. If a client ever feels like that happened, something went wrong somewhere in the process.
What I care about is elevating others whether they’re buying, selling, or investing and helping them move toward the goals that matter to them. The podcast has become an extension of that same mindset. I’ve always believed in being a go-giver. When you make a genuine effort to help others, things tend to work out well for everyone involved. You don’t need to hoard knowledge or gatekeep success. There’s plenty to go around, and if we all do better, the profession as a whole gets better too.
I’m proud of a lot from this past year, but helping more than 60 families buy, sell, or invest stands out. That’s 60 real stories, real goals, real lives that changed, and being trusted in those moments is incredibly rewarding. I’m excited to continue building on that, bringing an even better level of service, better systems, and a better client experience moving forward.
I’m also excited about where the podcast is heading. Community groups, local organizations, and different media outlets have been reaching out about collaborations and ways to expand the reach of the show. It’s been surprising, in the best way, to see how quickly a community has formed around it. What we’re doing is different from anything else happening in this part of the state. We have strong businesses, strong leaders, and genuinely interesting people here and being able to bring their stories forward in a meaningful way has been powerful. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
When it comes to credit, my family is at the top of the list. They’ve been unbelievably patient with me through all of this. What I do takes an incredible amount of time, energy, and focus, and they’ve supported me through every late night, every early morning, every season where the demands were heavy. My wife’s support in particular has been everything. None of this would be sustainable without her.
I’ve also been blessed with a solid group of friends and colleagues – people I trust, people I can bring challenges to, people who genuinely have my best interests at heart. Having relationships like that changes everything. When you’re building a business, you need voices around you who will give honest feedback, encouragement, and perspective when you’re too close to the problem to see it clearly.
And of course, I owe so much to my clients. They took a chance on me, especially in those early days. Their trust has allowed me to grow, learn, and improve year after year. Every family I’ve worked with has shaped my business in some way. I don’t take that lightly.
The truth is, nothing I’ve built has been built alone. If anything, the credit belongs as much to the people around me as it does to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.legacybridgere.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgerh/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bridgerh1 and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577936230672
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bridgeoutahead
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4X3gjdAPy40x7vIXf4WP3X
- Other: https://www.bridgeoutahead.net/
