Christmas Special — Dirt World Talk! — DT 402

Summary

Podcast Summary: Dirt Talk by BuildWitt

Episode: Christmas Special — Dirt World Talk! — DT 402

Host: Aaron Witt (BuildWitt)
Date: December 25, 2025

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Overview

In this “Christmas Special” of Dirt Talk, host Aaron Witt presents the message he shared at the 2025 Dirt World Summit. Although jokingly labeled a holiday episode, it's a passionate, honest, and motivating state-of-the-industry talk combining Aaron's signature candor, firsthand global insights from construction and mining, and a clarion call to the “Dirt World” to embrace change and responsibility in order to secure a better future. The episode weaves storytelling, industry data, and lessons from around the world, encouraging listeners—especially industry leaders—to challenge outdated mindsets, put people first, aim for continuous improvement, and lead from the front.

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Main Themes & Purpose

• Confronting harsh realities in the construction and mining industries
• Recognizing unique global opportunities and urgent challenges
• Emphasizing a future-focused mindset over clinging to past practices
• The critical importance of leadership, storytelling, and people-first culture
• Drawing lessons from international and American companies that have embraced change

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Fear & Value of Public Speaking (00:10–01:34)

• Aaron shares a personal anecdote about being thrust into public speaking despite not feeling naturally suited for it.
• Notable Quote:

  "I never intended to be a speaker... The only way to get better is by doing it."
  — Aaron Witt (00:48)

2. The Power of Persistence: Saudi Arabia Story (01:51–07:22)

• Early days of BuildWitt: Aaron admits to aimless hustling until a surprising opportunity took him to Saudi Arabia.
• Describes breaking through skepticism and cultural barriers, resulting in unique access to global job sites.
• Lesson: Don’t take “no” for an answer—persistence creates access and opportunities.
• Notable Quote:

  "The lesson here was not to take no for an answer. And I haven't taken no for an answer since."
  — Aaron Witt (06:50)

3. Perspective from a Unique Data Set (07:25–08:49)

• Aaron acknowledges he may lack decades of hands-on job site experience, but he has a global, “bird's-eye” perspective from visiting countless operations.
• His goal: report what he sees and inspire the industry to recognize its unprecedented opportunity.

4. The Industry Report Card—Brutal Reality (10:43–14:38)

• Industry Spending: Record highs due to federal investment (10:43)

• Wage Growth: Despite wage increases, workers’ buying power has declined (12:40)

• Productivity: Down for five decades—despite advances in money, equipment, and technology (12:22)

• Worker Health: Worker overdoses far outnumber jobsite fatalities (13:39)

• Workforce Shortage: Immediate deficit of 439,000 skilled laborers in 2025 (14:18)

• Cultural Challenge: Difficult to convince young people (or their parents) that construction offers a superior future.

• Notable Quote:

  "We as an industry, as a whole have been pointing at all the other things on the outside and we haven't looked ourselves in the mirror."
  — Aaron Witt (15:42)

5. Acknowledging Responsibility—And Power (16:44–18:31)

• Real change starts with owning industry shortcomings rather than blaming external causes.
• Opportunity: Despite the gloom, Aaron views this as the greatest time for transformation since post-WWII.

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Global Examples & Actionable Lessons

Aaron shares stories from five continents, pairing each international example with an American counterpart:

Chile & Baranko: Changing the Model to Include Women (23:30–28:49)

• Chile: Mining support shop intentionally recruited, trained, and accommodated women—altering tools and schedules to foster a thriving, inclusive workforce.
• Baranko (North Dakota): By investing in community, onboarding, and team events, turnover dropped by 70% in three years.
• Lesson: "If you want different results, you must change the model." Challenge the status quo by questioning longstanding beliefs.
• Notable Quote:

  "Instead of just saying, well, that's it, they said, what do we need to change to accomplish that?"
  — Aaron Witt (25:57)

Saudi Arabia & C.W. Matthews: Humanity Before Production (29:40–34:20)

• Saudi Arabia: Operators stopped D11 bulldozers for daily prayers—demonstrating culture and humanity taking precedence over productivity.
• American Example (C.W. Matthews): Regular team prayers before jobs create a culture of genuine care.
• Lesson: Companies that genuinely put people first (not just in words) build trust, loyalty, and improved retention.
• Notable Quote:

  "It was the first time... I have ever seen humanity override production. And I thought it was beautiful."
  — Aaron Witt (32:34)

Japan & Blunt Contracting: Pride in the Details (34:30–39:04)

• Japan: Hitachi plant visit reveals laser focus on presentation and detail, led by staff with decades of tenure.
• Blunt Contracting (USA): Pristine jobsites and branded equipment reflect pride—down to picking up trash.
• Lesson: Pride in details—visual, procedural, cultural—raises standards and performance everywhere.
• Notable Quote:

  "By taking pride in the details, you'll not only look better, but you'll have better timelines, better safety, better quality. Everything starts with the details."
  — Aaron Witt (39:02)

Denmark & Quality Enterprises: Tell Your Story (39:21–44:05)

• Denmark: Tunnel contractor embraces radical transparency—public tours, real-time info, and direct communication.
• Quality Enterprises (USA): Goes all-in on social media storytelling, which significantly boosted recruiting and company pride.
• Lesson: Telling your story draws new talent and engages communities—the burden is on the industry to explain itself.
• Notable Quote:

  "Everybody's like, oh, they just don't understand what we do. Why should they? Whose job is it to tell them it's ours?"
  — Aaron Witt (43:11)

Switzerland & Shea Stutzman: Building Better—Continuous Improvement (44:05–48:34)

• Switzerland: Eberhard devises new technical solutions for rapid, flawless airport runway reconstruction.
• Shea Stutzman (USA): Adopts European techniques in Aspen, leading to less turnover and higher profitability.
• Lesson: Relentless improvement and openness to learning (even from abroad) are essential for financial and cultural sustainability.

Australia & Leading from the Front (48:41–52:09)

• Australia: Barry, a coal mining CEO at all of Downs, regularly visits the field and interacts directly with miners.
• USA: Leaders like Larry Ames (Bemis), Chad Goodfellow (Goodfellow), Herb Sargent (Sargent Corp) are present with their teams, never losing touch with the work or workers.
• Lesson: Direct engagement by leadership builds respect, understanding, and better decision-making.
• Notable Quote:

  "Very rarely do I see a senior leader engaged with those that do the work... But we as leaders cannot forget what makes the whole industry run. And that's those that build."
  — Aaron Witt (51:06)

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Final Call to Action: Choose the Future (52:18–end)

• The industry stands at a crossroads: Cling to the past and comfort, or build the future through new mindsets and bold responsibility.
• Impact: The industry's choices will determine the strength of American infrastructure, future prosperity, and the lives of generations to come.
• Notable Quote:

  "The future of our country is on the shoulders of those building the infrastructure that everybody needs to live their lives... and right now, there's a question mark over that future and it is unacceptable."
  — Aaron Witt (53:05)

• Aaron encourages every listener, especially leaders, to think consciously about their influence and responsibility—"Think about the future. You have a role to play, and we need you to play it now more than ever before." (54:23)

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Key Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Context | |-----------|-------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:48 | Aaron Witt | “The only way to get better is by doing it.” | | 06:50 | Aaron Witt | “The lesson here was not to take no for an answer.” | | 09:37 | Aaron Witt | “If we're not here to make the future better, what's the point?” | | 13:39 | Aaron Witt | “Drug overdose rate is 16 times on the job fatalities.” | | 15:42 | Aaron Witt | “We…have been pointing at all the other things… [not] ourselves.” | | 25:57 | Aaron Witt | “What do we need to change to accomplish that? And they changed it.” | | 32:34 | Aaron Witt | “First time… I have ever seen humanity override production.” | | 39:02 | Aaron Witt | “Everything starts with the details.” | | 43:11 | Aaron Witt | “Whose job is it to tell them [what we do]? It’s ours.” | | 51:06 | Aaron Witt | “…Leaders cannot forget what makes the whole industry run…” | | 53:05 | Aaron Witt | “The future of our country is on the shoulders of those building…” | | 54:23 | Aaron Witt | “Think about the future. You have a role to play, and we need you…” |

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Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |-------------|---------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:10–01:34 | Aaron’s speaking journey and starting message | | 01:51–07:22 | Saudi Arabia story, importance of persistence | | 10:43–14:38 | Industry report card: spending, productivity, worker health | | 23:30–28:49 | Women in construction—Chile and North Dakota stories | | 29:40–34:20 | Humanity before production—Saudi Arabia & C.W. Matthews | | 34:30–39:04 | Pride in details—Japan (Hitachi) & Blunt Contracting | | 39:21–44:05 | Storytelling—Denmark tunnel project & Quality Enterprises | | 44:05–48:34 | Building better—Switzerland's ingenuity & Aspen adaptation | | 48:41–52:09 | Leading from the front—Australia & US examples | | 52:18–54:23 | Final call to action—choose the future |

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Tone & Style

• Forthright, passionate, and unsparing in critique but ultimately optimistic
• Encouraging, sometimes playful, but with grave urgency regarding the industry’s crossroads
• Shares both big-picture industry data and granular, story-driven anecdotes

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For Those Who Missed the Episode

This episode distills Aaron Witt’s hard-won, globally informed wisdom about the construction and mining industry’s current crisis—and immense opportunity. He calls for honest self-appraisal, people-centric leadership, pride in the basics, better storytelling, relentless improvement, and humility. Rooted in actionable case studies, the talk motivates all “dirt world” stakeholders to take responsibility for building the future, rather than preserving the past, recognizing that the fate of American infrastructure—and national well-being—depends on their choices today.

Transcript

[Aaron Billwith]

Foreign.

Welcome back, Dirt Talk podcast. We're calling this the Christmas Special, but it has nothing to do with Christmas. This is going to be me. Giving my talk that I gave at Dirt World Area dirt World Summit 2025. So if you're at the Dirt World Summit, you've already heard this. I've spent a lot of time working on messaging, working on, working on public speaking. I never intended to be a speaker. I was asked for the first time many years ago.

It was very scary.

And so I thought, well, if it's scary, I better do it. And the only way to get better.

Is by doing it. So I jumped into it and it's taken me quite a few years to.

I think, learn what I have. I'm not world class, but I'm not terrible anymore either, because I've had enough practice. I'm not naturally a speaker. I've had to build this skill, and it's one of the hardest skills I've had to build, if not the hardest skill, because you can't get better without being in front of people and oftentimes hundreds of people and even thousands of people, which is emotionally and mentally quite scary.

So I've done this quite a bit now.

I wanted my message to be very relevant for the industry this year and hopefully you enjoy it. So this is my message. This was the Dirt World update that I gave at the Area dirt World Summit 2025.

Now, first to start off with a story, we'll rewind the clocks back to 2019.

I was like a dog chasing its.

Tail, going to whatever opportunities presented itself.

Which weren't that many at the time.

There weren't all that many companies sharing on social media. There weren't all that many companies wanting.

To let a kid on their job sites with a camera. It was hard to find various opportunities.

But I was gaining at this point.

A little bit of traction.

And a company reached out out of.

The Middle East, Saudi Arabia, and said.

Hey, we would love for you to.

Come take pictures of our machines. Now, I ignored it at first because I thought it was like one of those scams, you know, rich Nigerian uncle type thing.

I've got lots of money.

Come on down to the Middle East.

But it wasn't.

They were completely legitimate and persistent. Fortunately, they were.

I got on the phone with them, it seemed legit.

And so I said, man, all right.

This is an interesting opportunity.

Let's go. They sent me a plane ticket, I packed a bag and I flew to Saudi Arabia to the Middle east. For the first time in my life.

Which was, as you can imagine, quite the cultural shock. Now, fortunately, I am. I'm Mr. Culture.

If you look at me, I'm very, very cultured, of course.

So I fit in like a glove. I didn't at all. It was wow.

It was just incredible.

And each day I would go with.

Somebody, a stranger in a different country.

To a different city to visit a.

Different job site, to then take pictures of machines.

So at this point, I am. At this point, I am about 5, 6 hours into a drive through the.

Middle of the desert With a guy.

That doesn't speak english, I don't speak arabic. And so you just sit there looking out the window. And out the window, if you picture what Saudi Arabia looks like, that's exactly where we were. It was sand dunes, rolling dunes, camels in the distance.

The.

There was nothing. It was so remote where we were.

That you can't drive there at night.

Because if you break down, no one.

Is coming to save you. I thought new Mexico was remote.

And then I went to the middle.

East, and I've went to other places now.

It's like, boy, you better fill up your fuel tank when you have the.

Opportunity, because you don't know when the next time will be.

So we're out there, we're driving along middle of nowhere, And I start to see some mountains in the distance. And we get closer and closer, and I realize their tailings piles from a mining operation. And as we drive in a little closer, Given the armed guards and the razor wire and them checking my passport.

I determine this is a gold mining operation.

And so we get cleared by security, we go past the mine, and we.

End up at the equipment shop.

Now, the guy with me, he just motions to the shop office and says.

You know, go in, in, in, you know, in a few words.

So, okay, I go over to the door, I crack it open, and I.

Hear english from an englishman, from a British guy.

And I feel relieved.

I'm like, great.

Somebody that speaks my tongue.

This is going to be a great day, Great visit. We're going to be able to do this, no question.

And I walk in, he looks up.

At me, and he just says, who are you? And I'm like, oh, boy. He doesn't know who I am and why I'm here. And I so then explained, I'm Aaron. I'm an American. I'm here to take some pictures.

And he interrupts, now is not a good time. Come back another day. And he goes back to his work. And I'm standing there. What do I do. And I walk out of the office and I'm standing in the the workshop. I can't call anybody, I can't text anybody, I can't talk to anybody. I'm halfway around the world. The heck do I do? And I determine, I muster up a little bit of courage, maybe some stupidity as well. And I go back into the office. He looks back up at me and.

I say, hey, I've traveled a long ways to be here. What is it going to take to make this happen today? And he just says, give me 30 minutes. I give him 30 minutes.

We end up going out to this.

Saudi gold mining operation.

And it was spectacular. It was a great, great day. I got exactly what I wanted. And I ended up having a great.

Time with this British guy because I think he was relieved that he had somebody else to talk to there.

The lesson here was not to take.

No for an answer. And I haven't taken no for an answer since.

I am a pain in the ass for this industry. But fortunately, that has given me unbelievable access. Not taking no for an answer has not just given me access to job sites now in 48 states, but all around the world. Like this year, I've been to four different continents on different job sites, construction and mining. And so I didn't really understand the.

Value of this when I first started.

Doing this, but I have now, as I'm a little older and further along, I've realized the value of this data set I'm creating. I might not have this huge resume of industry experience, but I do have this data set of what the heck.

Is going on in the industry and.

In a very broad sense that no one else has. And that's really unique and that is really special. And so when I began speaking, I would try to justify my position on.

The stage by trying to sound smart.

And saying smart things and trying to convince everybody here. I'm supposed to be here because I'm smart. And that wouldn't work out very well for me.

Surprise, surprise.

But now I'm 30, which means I am a wise man. I'm a wise man. I'm 30 years old. I can nearly grow a beard. And so I'm not here to tell anybody anything they don't already know. I'm here to just report on what the heck I see happening in the.

Industry, not just across America, but worldwide.

And not just what the heck is going on, but talk about the opportunity.

In front of us.

I think it is a remarkable opportunity that we have that we haven't had in lifetimes.

Potentially especially in America, to make this.

Not just industry, but country so much better.

[Commercial Announcer]

Better.

[Aaron Billwith]

And I, by the end of this, hopefully will have explained the benefits of having a future focused mindset. By focusing on the future, dedicating yourself to building a better future, you won't just have a better workforce, make more money, better projects, but you will make the future better for a country and, and for your children and their children.

Your children's children, your children's children's children's children.

Because if we're not here to make the future better, what's the point?

What's the point?

The top question I'm asked is what does Bill Witt do?

Our purpose is to build the dirt world's next generation.

The dirt world is the companies and people building the critical infrastructure and, and supporting those who build our critical infrastructure that we need to live the lives that we do. Our business is much bigger than me. I run around the world building our brand.

But the business itself does two things.

One, we help develop the next generation.

Through our product called billwhit Improve. It's a daily training and development platform at about 300 civil construction companies are.

Using to not just make their people better workers, but, but better people. And of course, we have the 2026 ARIAT Dirt World Summit, the best opportunity to develop yourself and your teams as leaders. So check us out. Billwhit.com book a meeting with us and.

We'Ll talk to you soon.

Before we talk about the good stuff though, we need to look at reality, starting with money. So if I put a report card on the screen, the first line item is spending. And spending right now within the construction industry is record high. So we oftentimes determine success as money overall. There are huge cheers. Infrastructure bill, federal spending. You go to the ENR 400. How are contractors ranked by money? You go see associations, talk about success. Here's how much money that we got for the industry. Money, money, money. We've never had more money within this world. There's never been this much spending. It's insane, it's crazy. And that is historically the indicator of success in the construction industry. And yet everybody is very uneasy right now.

Everybody's uncertain. There's an angst.

Why is that? Why isn't everybody tap dancing to work, skipping their way to the office or job site? Because something's wrong and they know it.

And there's other line items here.

The next one is productivity.

Is the construction industry. Are we better at building than we.

Were 50 years ago?

And yeah, of course we have More.

Money, we have more technology, we have better equipment, means and methods.

Well, unfortunately for us, productivity in the American construction industry has been declining for five decades. Declining. And so when it comes to productivity, we're worse. We're worse.

Now what about wage growth? Well, everybody's making more money. So the people building things then those out in the field should be making more money. And yes, wages have gone up by on average 20%. However, because of inflation, buying power for.

Those building things in America on average has declined by 1%.

So there's been record growths, growth in overall revenue and profit, especially with the big companies.

And they act like, oh no, no, there's nothing here.

But they're public.

You can look up these materials companies for example, they're publicly traded, you can.

See how much money they're making. They're making more money than ever before. And yet the people in the field.

Making it happen, they're worse off financially. So that's not winning.

Next we have worker health. Are people healthy? And there's a lot of metrics for this one.

The one I chose though, the scariest one is that drug overdose rate is.

16 times on the job fatalities. So right now we're transitioning the whole industry to type two helmets because safety and people is, is everything. But we're not even gonna Talk about the 16 times amount of people dying off job sites in this industry because of drug overdose.

And finally the result of this is a workforce deficit of right now, this year, 439,000 people. Which means we can't build what society needs, which means we're failing.

So if we walked up to a.

Job site, they didn't know we were coming, they didn't even know we were there.

And we're with a bunch of parents. And our job is to convince those parents that their 16, 17, 18, 19 year old son or daughter, our job is to convince them that their son or daughter is best off in the construction industry than any other place in society. And so we're standing there, it's a morning meeting, six, five, seven. And we're looking at the construction workers, the people there on site, what do they look like? What is their expression? Are they happy? Are they well rested? What do they physically look like? Are they healthy? Are those parents going to believe me that that's the best place for their children? Especially after seeing numbers like this as well? I don't know. I've run this by a lot of very smart people and no one's argued with me because everybody knows that this is True. We as an industry, as a whole have been pointing at all the other things on the outside and we haven't looked ourselves in the mirror. I've learned in business this year that the first step to any kind of meaningful change, any kind of better future, is acknowledging reality for what it is. We have to acknowledge as an industry that we're the problem here. This is what we can control. We can't control the world, we can't control the next generation, but we can control us. And if we are responsible for getting ourselves here, that means the good news is we have the power to get ourselves somewhere better. And we have to get ourselves somewhere better. And this is way bigger than any one individual, any one company, one state, one region. There's a question mark over the future of the United States of America. Our infrastructure is the leading indicator of the future here in our country. And our infrastructure is inadequate. It's failing. It's becoming more and more expensive for less and less, if it even gets built. There's a question mark over the future of infrastructure in America, which means there's a question mark over America. And to me, that is unacceptable. That's unacceptable. It's much bigger than us here. It's much bigger than any one of us.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Aaron Billwith]

But this is where the doom and gloom ends. This is where the opportunity presents itself. I think this is the biggest opportunity.

The construction industry in America has seen since post World War II.

It is amazing the opportunity in front of us. The world is changing. America must change with it. We must transition from developed nation to again developing nation. We've got to develop ourselves. We've got to build what our country needs to be for the future. And we need those that are going to do it. And I'm around world class companies and leaders and their mentality. They're not sitting around at the bar bitching about the next generation. Oh, poor me. They're saying, good, this is great. This is a huge opportunity and it might require us to do some things differently, but that's okay because we're gonna take full advantage of it and we're gonna crush everybody as a result. And we're gonna build a better future for ourselves, our people and our community. There's two mindsets here. The first, and this is the majority, those living in the past. It's protect and defend. It's if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Keep the, keep the train on the tracks. Hey, it's still working. Let's just keep the show on the road, guys. We don't need to do anything differently. We don't need to get uncomfortable. It's still working. We're making more money than ever, so let's just keep going. But it is a small mindset. Again, it's protect and defend. I have to hoard what I have. Build the walls higher, you can't come in. And if this was the right way, if this was the future, we wouldn't have the problems we have right now. We'd have the workforce we need. People wouldn't be killing themselves with drugs and alcohol and physically killing themselves because they're so worn out. They'd be financially better off. Their families would be better off. They'd be telling their kids, get into construction, it's great. We'd be able to build everything society needs faster and better. But that's just not the case. So this can't be the model forward. But that's how progress works. That's how all of humanity has worked. So there's the second mindset. That is those living for the future, those that are willing to accept responsibility and those that are willing to challenge previously held beliefs, adopt new ideas, help those around them put themselves aside and ask, what do I have to do better and differently to ensure that everything, the future that I won't even see is better off? And we all have a choice to make here, past or future Me, it's an easy choice to make because I've got, if everything goes well, 50 years. I have to think about the future because that's all I've got in front of me.

I have to be thinking about the future. And that's what the rest of this talks about. So for the rest of this talk.

We'Re now going to go around the world and I'm going to explain the examples of the future, what the companies that do have that future focused mindset are doing day to day and what you might be able to implement within your team, your life, your company as a result.

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[Aaron Billwith]

First, we're going to start with Chile. Chile, it's an amazing place. It's a very long country.

It has the Andes mountains, one of the highest ranges in the world.

And it has a reddish metal called.

Copper that modern society is built upon. It conducts electricity. So without copper, there's no modern life. It's pretty simple. And Chile produces more of this stuff than anywhere else in the world. And so you have these monster mining operations, Huge mining operations, big shovels, ultra class mining trucks. The scale is, is enormous. And all of the mines are typically high up in the mountains.

And then down below you have all.

Of the equipment manufacturers supporting all of these big machines.

So when I was there, I was.

With Finning Caterpillar, I believe, I think the world's biggest cat dealer or among the world's biggest cat dealers. And they have a facility called the Component Rebuild Center. CRC is typically the name for it. And that's where they take components like engines and drive trains from mining trucks.

Down from the mine and rebuild them.

To then put them back in trucks and to get multiple life cycles out of the same engine block, for example.

And so we're walking around this shop and there's big stuff everywhere. These are some of the world's biggest.

Engines getting worked on.

It's amazing. But the one thing that stuck out.

With me the most was that there were a lot of women.

And, you know, you might see one.

Woman on a job site every once in a while.

That's not uncommon in a shop, though. It's pretty rare. And there were like a lot of.

Women in this shop.

So much so that I asked, you know, how, how'd you do this? How'd you do this? And they said, well, it's, it's, it's pretty straightforward.

We have a training and development program that recruits young women from the community.

And gives them real world skills, whether.

They'Re going to work here or not. Just teaches them. Okay, cool.

And then we realized once we got.

Women in here that because the bodies of men and women are different, go figure, that we needed to develop some different tooling to make women just as effective. Okay.

And then we started to mess with.

Schedules because women are often caretakers of the home. They need more flexibility. And so we had to adjust schedules, work hours, Et cetera.

And it made perfect sense as they explained it. They wanted a different outcome, which was, we want more women. And instead of just saying, well, that's it, they said, they asked, what do we need to change to accomplish that? What do we need to change? And they changed it and they got that outcome. Now there's like the conversation within construction in America, women in construction, we need more women. But when you ask, well, what are you doing to change your model to actually accommodate that, there's no answer. So, okay, you don't actually want more women in, then just don't say it if you're not willing to change, to create a different outcome. And now as I put this together, I knew there would be people, especially Americans, are very proud sitting there saying, well, that's cool, that's chilly, awesome. Good for you. You get to go all over the world. But that doesn't work in America. And fortunately, I also put an American example to each one of these points. The first one is Baranko. They're a general contractor civil construction company, midsize company in Bismarck or no, excuse.

Me, I was just with them in Bismarck, but they're in Dickinson, North Dakota. That's a pretty tough environment to work in.

It's a harsh winter. You've got the oil patch right up there. You're traveling very far to work because it's sparsely populated. It's a harsh world to exist in. And they were admittedly like any other contractor. They were turning people over left and right. They just weren't having all that much fun. And Glenn, who I've had on the podcast, he thought there might be another way. And so he started to adjust small things within the business. They started to get more involved in their community. They started to onboard their new people. He would go to lunch with their new folks every week, made it a priority. They got a lunch truck that they would bring around to job sites. They still do. And then community events as well so people could know who Branco Brothers was. They had now have a team meeting where they bring in speakers to hopefully make their, their team better. And as they've implemented each one of these changes, they've become better and better.

And their turnover has declined by 70% over 70%. They're a completely different company now in.

A three year period and everybody is.

Better off as a result.

They thought maybe there's a better way. And it started with Glenn looking in the mirror and saying, wait a minute, this is on me. What do we need to do to get better and to Create a better outcome. So the, the lesson here is that you have to challenge the status quo by questioning your long standing beliefs. You can discard those that no longer serve you and get those that do to get you further into the future.

With where you must be.

Now. Next we go back to the Middle east, back to Saudi Arabia.

And this is the second time I was there.

Now we had left the capital city of Riyadh.

Beautiful city. We drove down a highway and then turned off the highway onto a two lane asphalt road.

And then the asphalt stopped and we were down a dirt track for a.

Long time and into the middle of the desert.

And what was happening out there as I learned, was that they were building a Formula one track out in the middle of the desert. But they had to get to it, they had to build a road.

And there was a huge elevation difference. I don't know, hundreds of feet, maybe a thousand feet.

It was a big, big difference.

It was like this big mesa we were sitting on.

You could look out over the valley below you and we had to wait for a blast.

I wasn't sure what the heck was going on.

But once we were cleared to go.

Down into the cut, I walk down.

I look over the berm and I.

See a whole herd of D11 dozers.

Now I wasn't expecting to see one.

D11 on this trip. Not even a 10, maybe a 9, that's cool.

But an 11, that's a big machine.

A really big machine.

And they didn't just have one, they had all bunch of them, a whole herd. And they were all slot nosing. It was really damn cool. Really damn cool. And so I, I was really excited. I start walking down into the cut.

To start taking some pictures and I.

Start photographing one of the 11s and as I'm getting comfortable, it slows down and it stops. And the operator gets out of the cab. Now I'm like, what the heck's going on here? Maybe he's broken. It's not lunchtime, it's still mid morning.

Something's going on.

I'm like, alright, that's fine. I've got others to choose from.

I'm spoiled.

So I go to the next one, I start photographing that one and it stops. And I'm looking around and they're all stopping and I'm like, what the heck is going on? We just came so far. They just got started. I was just getting warmed up and so I climbed out of the cut to go over to our host who.

Did speak good English this time.

To ask him what the heck was going on.

But before I could, I turned around.

And I saw the operators in the corner of the cut. So in the background they had all.

The parked up dozers. And in the foreground was the operators with their prayer mats that they had.

Grabbed from the cab of their tractors.

Rolled out onto the cut faced Mecca. And they were praying because that's the Islamic faith. You pray five times a day.

Now, this wasn't a discussion.

This was the immovable object on this operation.

And it stuck with me because it.

Was the first time and one of.

The only times I have ever seen humanity override production. And I thought it was beautiful.

Beautiful.

Now, for the American example here, I.

Was quick to choose C.W. matthews.

If you go out to a C.W.

Matthews project, before the job, they'll have a safety meeting. And at that safety meeting, their team will pray. All their teams.

Now you're not required to. They don't talk about it, they don't.

Really publicize it, but it's extraordinary.

It makes you feel special.

It's like, wow, there's something unique going on here.

People really are first here.

It's like an acknowledgement that everybody, we're all humans, and that's what makes it really beautiful.

And so the next point is that those that are positioning themselves well into.

The future, they start with people.

In every decision that they make, every company will say people are number one. Until the pressure is applied, until the.

Schedule slips, until the money doesn't come in, until the weather hits and that goes out the window. People know if they're number one or not. Saying it does not make it so.

Most of the time they're not number.

One and they know that.

And when you're saying they're number one and acting in a different way, that is no recipe for trust. So by making every decision with people in mind first, you will develop far more trust. You'll lower turnover and you'll increase loyalty.

To a level that it's never been before.

Off to Japan for the next one.

Hitachi called us, beginning of this year. He said, hey, would you love to. Would you like to see how we build our machines?

And I said, boy, would I. I.

Would love to see how you make your machines.

So we, we toured some of their factories and their factories are everything you would imagine them, imagine them being. It's, it's Japanese manufacturing.

It's world class. Lean just in time, all right in.

Front of your eyes. It was, it was incredible.

The factories were really spectacular.

But I also, I asked them to.

Go see a customer. I wanted to see machines on the move, doing what they do, making money. And they said, we've got a great customer, he's a quarry customer.

And I was expecting, you know, maybe.

Since this was hitachi, like a 1200 at its biggest, that's a big machine in a quarry application. 1200, 120 ton machine. I was completely wrong, though, fortunately, because their customer, who was in his 80s, great guy, I really enjoyed my time with him, had a machine that was 550 tons, an EX5500.

Now, why did he have this size.

Machine, a 550 ton excavator in a quarry?

My best guess is that because he.

Can, which I'm totally on board with.

It was very cool to see. It was a big machine, really big.

Machine for the pit, but totally on board with it.

Now, when we were there at this quarry, we were joined by this delegation.

Of people from Hitachi. I didn't know who they were, but fortunately we went to lunch. Afterwards, I sat at one of the tables and I was able to ask each one of them and learn that.

They were all with Hitachi, all Hitachi executives.

And. And so one, you know. How long have you been at Hitachi?

Oh, 43 years.

Wow.

The next one.

Oh, only 37 years. The next one.

Oh, I'm basically new.

Only 23 years.

The pride.

I could just reach out and grab it. I could put my hands around it.

It was remarkable. And when we were out at the quarry, I took a photo.

I wish I could share here. I shared my presentation.

I took a photo of these guys headed back to the car because it was them. Presentation in Japan is everything. So it was them wearing their suits. They're executives. They have to wear their suits. They have to be as buttoned up.

As they would be in a boardroom. But they were on a quarry, so their footwear wouldn't work. So they had these gumboots and they had their suit pants tucked into the gumboots.

And now in America, it'd be like, well, they're out of touch.

That's just a little tacky. That's a little silly.

But in Japan, it was a sense of pride and a sense of pride.

In every detail, starting with how they presented themselves, especially in front of the customer. The details were everything.

Now, when I was thinking about American.

Examples, I was quick to think about Blunt Contracting, which Randy Blunt's former business, he sold in 2020.

When I went out to Blunt Contracting.

Projects, I went out to a bunch of them. They were the best looking projects we went out to, all the machines were painted blunt gray. Everything was branded very nicely. Everybody was looking good. Everybody had a really nice, blunt contracting sweatshirt or vest on or hat, nice boots.

Everybody was looking good.

The site was looking good, the equipment was looking good.

And you know what, they did really good work as a result. And when I was putting this presentation.

Together, Randy said, you know, you called me and you said something to me that made me more proud of our team than anything I'd heard.

And that was that while you were on the job site, they had trash bags and they were picking up trash, the parking lot. And that's how I knew we were.

Building the culture that we needed to have that was focused on the details. Because the details are where every project begins.

And that is the next point here, is that the best companies, those that are future focused, they take pride in the details. Because by taking pride in the details, you'll not only look better, but you'll have better timelines, better safety, better quality.

Everything starts with the details.

This is a very simple concept, but I have not seen an exception to this, anybody, anywhere. Take pride in the details. Next we've got Denmark.

I love going to Europe. I think it's a glimpse into the future. I, I think they're far further ahead than we are because they've had to be because of workforce. Their workforce has aged faster than ours.

So before our Denmark trip, someone said.

You'Ve got to check out this tunnel project. I look up the tunnel project.

It is spectacular.

And although it's amazing, I think, well, it's a long shot to actually seeing something like this because in America, if I want to go see a big infrastructure job, good luck.

It's a pain in the ass to.

Get any kind of approval whatsoever.

Public infrastructure. Public infrastructure. If I showed you the contractors that.

Have told me to kick rocks just this year, you'd be amazed.

For all different types of bullshit reasons, they're building public infrastructure and yet they've.

Forgotten who they're building it for. They treat it like their little kingdom, their fiefdom.

But I reached out, I found this great project website.

I found some information, contact information, sent.

Them an email, and a few months, a few, a few days later, I hear back. And not only do I hear back, but they say, come on out, we'd love to have you. And I didn't believe it at first.

Because again, that's just not how this world works.

Over here.

I get on the phone with them and I run through, here's what we want to do. And they say, yeah, yeah, yeah, come on out.

Just let us know when you'll be there. And so we go out and we tour this job site.

It's just incredible. They're building this submerged tube tunnel across the ocean connecting Denmark and Germany in a much shorter way for rail and highway. And they're doing it by building these enormous concrete precast tunnel sections, which are 73,000 tons apiece. They're then pushing them, rolling them into a dry dock, capping both ends, floating them into the ocean, and then sinking them, connecting them all together. And there you go, you've got your tunnel.

It's crazy. So as we were driving around the.

Whole operation, it was amazing. They let us see it all. I was telling him about how difficult it is to go see big infrastructure projects in other places, and he just didn't understand it because he's like, well, we're. We're building this for the public. We want the public to know why we're doing it and how we're doing it.

And the amount of interaction they have.

The amount of storytelling that they have, is remarkable.

They have social media, they have a regular newsletter.

They have a 247 call line. They have a visitor center. They have a virtual tour. They have a project viewing platform so you can actually go there and see what the heck's going on.

And then, of course, they have legitimate.

Contact information on their website to tell their story.

When it comes to an American example.

I first thought of Quality Enterprises. And when I talked to Quality, they said, hey, we were like any other contractor out there, struggling for people left and right. But we started to not only get on social media, but to have fun with social media. For example, we. We were with them about a month ago, and they made a 200 foot by 200 foot drawing of a D6 dozer with six different types of dirt. It was insane. It was so detailed, it almost looked fake. Like people didn't believe that it was real.

And why? Well, to have fun. Because if they can do that, what does it say about their work? And if they're doing stuff like that, that must be a cool company to work for. And guess what? They don't struggle to recruit people anymore. Not just entry level, but across the.

Entire company, because they're telling their story. And so the next point here is.

That we must tell our stories. Everybody's like, oh, they just don't understand what we do. Why should they? Whose job is it to tell them it's ours? And by telling our story, not Only can we build pride with our existing workforce, but we will attract the future workforce. People can't come to work for you if they don't know you exist. And that is still the norm in the dirt world. And. And to me, it is as perplexing as it gets. But not for the companies that will be here well into the future. They're telling their story. Next. We're still in Europe.

We're going to Switzerland. This was the first time I was in Switzerland. One of my favorite companies, Eberhard, they were demolishing a airport centerline Runway. Centerline Zurich International Airport. Replacing it from concrete to asphalt. I've talked about this project a lot.

But it was spectacular.

They had from the time the last plane landed each night at about 11 to the time the first plane took off at about 5 the next morning to do their work, which was far too little time to do the whole center line. So they had to divide it into 80 sections with one per night, and it had to be perfect.

So within just a few minutes of.

The last plane touching down, they had two 85 ton excavators that they would.

Wheel out with wheels to then start work.

They would punch some holes with a hammer, they would pull up the concrete with a ripper, and they would then put slab buckets on, start ripping up these big chunks of concrete, putting them into articulated trucks. And then you had smaller excavators come through, brooms and mills to get everything just right profile.

You had the electricians come through to.

Place conduit for the lighting. And then, of course, you had the asphalt placement.

Now, the asphalt was a very special.

Low temperature mix because just a few hours after it going down, you'd have fully loaded jumbo jets landing on it.

Hitting it with a lot of weight, a lot of force.

So it had to be pretty tough stuff, which was why it was low temperature.

So they would bring in all of.

The asphalt before they even started work. They'd put it into a warming tent and then they would start placing it once they had their work area finished up.

And because it was low temperature, they could place a majority of the cross.

Section in one giant lift. But the lift was too big for pavers, so they would do one giant lift and then finish the surface with pavers and they could do the giant lift then with the dozer. The problem, though, with a dozer is that it's not built for paving asphalt, of course, it's built for dirt.

So the first problem was the tracks.

The grousers, it would mark up the asphalt too much. It wouldn't give them the surface they need. Well, that's okay because they replaced the tracks with triple grouser excavator pads.

Great.

That'll actually help with compaction. Well, the traditional dozer blade, though, wouldn't carry the asphalt like we need to. Okay, that's no problem. We'll build a custom blade for this application.

Well, but asphalt sticky. What if it sticks to the tracks in the blade? Well, that's no problem. We'll use a sprayer setup mounted to.

The dozer with solvent to remove the sticky asphalt as the machine works. Problem solution.

There's a better way to do this.

How do we make it better and better and better and better?

And as I was watching this, there.

Was an American contractor next to me, Shea Stutzman. And he thought, maybe I could do this in America.

And that's exactly what he's done.

It's incredible. He's a contractor in Aspen. He's not a huge operation, and yet he's implemented most of what he's learned from Europe. And his operations are better. They're making more money, they have less.

Turnover, they're far better off than they were. And they keep investing in their fleet, in their means and methods as a result. And the most incredible part about it is that he talks about it online and yet no other contractor has done it because. Oh, that would never work in America. Well, it's. But it's working in America. It's working. And they're saying it's working. They're not even keeping it a secret. So that's the second to last point. That is we have to, as an industry, build better. By building better, we will perform more work in less hours, which means each company wins.

But most importantly means that we can.

Raise wages to ensure that the people performing the work themselves, doing the work.

Are financially better off because they have to be. For this to be a sustainable career.

We have to build better.

We have to chase continuous improvement.

Finally, we go to Australia, my second.

Favorite country in the world.

And we have been a few times.

Now to this region called the Bowen, the Bowen Basin.

The Bowen produces more steel making coal.

Than any other region in the world. And steel making coal is very important because it makes steel, which is very important for modern life.

So this place is a really big deal, and it's as big as it gets. These are massive mining operations with some.

Of the world's biggest companies there. And my favorite mine we've been to there is the all of Downs complex.

And all of downs.

They've got all kinds of fancy equipment like autonomous drilling and they've got world class koala research.

But what's stuck out with me the.

Most over the years was their CEO.

Now, the first visit we were there.

We were checking out a 9800 Lee bear excavator. This is an 800 ton excavator.

It's a very big machine.

It can move about 4,000 yards of dirt per hour, 24 hours a day, maybe 22 hours a day.

Really big machine.

One of their primary dig units.

And as we were drooling over it.

There was another guy there that looked like everybody else. I started talking to him. It turns out he was the CEO of the company. Barry and I made a connection with him and again he was just out there.

He wasn't there because we were there.

He was out there to just see what the heck was going on.

And over the years we visited a.

Second time and a third time.

And both times Barry spent the whole days with us. And it wasn't because he was nervous.

About the cameras or what we were going to say or anything like that.

It was because it gave him the opportunity to be with the people, to be with the miners, to be with those that made the whole thing go. He was there on the front lines. And when it comes to America, it's the exact same thing. I thought of some leaders first. First ones that come to mind. Larry Ames at bemis, Chad Goodfellow, Goodfellow.

Herb Sargent, Sargent Corporation.

They're out with the people. They are under no illusions that it's them that makes everything go round. They're there to serve those that really do the work. And again, this is very straightforward, but very rare. Very rarely do I see a senior leader engaged with those that do the work. And I get it. There's a lot going on to make a company run. But we as leaders cannot forget what makes the whole industry run. And that's those that build. So this is the final point that is the best. Those that are future focused, they lead.

From the front lines.

By leading from the front lines, you'll not only develop better relationships with those.

That you ultimately serve, but you'll also.

Gather critical intel to make you a more effective leader. And you will be a whole lot.

More respected as a result.

So to bring it home here.

To.

Bring it home, we all have a decision to make. Are we going to cling to the future that is proven, or are we going to cling to the past that is proven, that is comfortable, that is trusted. That's all we've ever known. But is no longer serving us, therefore jeopardizing the future? Or are we going to dedicate ourselves to the future? Are we going to acknowledge that, hey, it's on me? I need to do better. I've got to discard these long held beliefs and I've got to find some new ones that serve me so that I'm just not better off. But my team's better off, my company's better off, and the future is better off. The country is better off. My kids, their kids are better off. The future of our country is on the shoulders of those building the infrastructure that everybody needs to live their lives. And right now, there's a question mark over that future and it is unacceptable. And that future starts with those listening to this podcast, those leading any kind of operation of any sort across America. This is a big deal. It's much bigger than us and we've got to get on with it because we are running out of time. And I'm going to do everything I can to ensure the future is better than the world that I have come.

Up in, that I'm living right now.

And my hope is that you will join me in making that a reality, because we have to.

So think about the future.

You have a role to play, and.

We need you to play it now more than ever before. So that is my talk for this year's summit. I don't have a whole lot more to say after that. I am talked out right now. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll be giving that talk to hopefully some. Some more leaders in 2026, and then we'll be working on whatever my next talk is. I'm learning a lot here. It's changing constantly, but it's the best I can do. It's the best message I can deliver. And I felt it was the message that the industry needed this year based on, again, not me being smart, but me just seeing more than just about anybody now.

So, as always, thank you for listening.

Give me a shout at any time. Email is aaronbillwith.com and we'll see you on the next one. Everybody stay dirty.