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Foreign. Welcome back to Building Bill Wit. This is number 35. We are cruising through the year. I've titled this one Dubai MQLs and benefits. As always, this is the attempt at explaining what the heck billwhit is. I get most of the exposure because I'm the one. I'm the pretty face of the company. Someone's got to do it. It's hard work, but you know, I'm running around the world and everybody's seeing what I'm doing and featuring various dirt world companies, people, operations all over. But they always ask, what the heck is Bill Wit? Is it just you? And I say, no, no, no, no, no. It is a team, a brilliant team. The best team I could ask for of 40 plus individuals focused on building a training and development platform to improve, to build the dirt world's next generation. To train people coming in for the first time to train experienced people on new things within the industry and most importantly, to train the future leaders on how to care for people better, how to, how to train people, how to communicate, etc. So that's what we're after. And this podcast, these weekly updates, the email, the short podcast episodes are an attempt to bring you along, to open the door and just show you what the heck is going on here. Because we've got nothing to hide. We're not building this business for ourselves, we're building it for the dirt world. And I want the dirt world to be a part of it as we do it. So here the heck we are. Now, first up, this is the next installment of where the heck was Aaron this week? Where was I? And my last trip of the year was a banger. It was the United Arab Emirates. So this was my fourth time to the Middle east and my third time to uae. I spent the week with Omar Juan who's a leading equipment supplier, developer and contractor. I originally connected with them by DMS on Instagram. So for you that say social media is stupid, I beg to differ. I just went to Dubai thanks to some messages on social media. How good is that? Before I get to the visit though, coincidentally I scheduled this trip. So again my fourth time going to the Middle East. I, I, I know my climates now. I know I didn't really think that this would be a knowledge base of mine, but I know when the better times of year are to go to certain countries depending on where they are. Middle east, very hot. So December, January, February, that's when you want to go. July, August, pass. So I have the past three times, I've always aimed to go in December. It's a great, great time of year to go. And coincidentally, I scheduled this visit to line up with the final race in the Formula one season in Abu Dhabi. And, you know, I noticed that, and I looked up ticket prices, and they were pretty insane. They were for half decent seats, about twelve hundred dollars. And I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna do it. Like, yes, I'll be right down the road in Dubai, which was about an hour and a half away from Abu Dhabi. But that's a lot of money. And then, you know, the whole second to race, second to last race happened. And I've been a Formula one fan since high school. I have loved the sport because it's such a crazy blend of global politics. You're going to 24 different places around the world in a single season, which is insane. Just the logistics of that is incredible. You have the. The. The absolute pinnacle of engineering and human ingenuity, which is, to me, incredible. These cars are just so advanced, and then you've got, like, the pinnacle of athleticism. People don't give these drivers very much credit for the athletics that it takes to even get these cars around the track, but it is insane. So I've always loved this sport. I've never been to a race, but then this year was the first time in 15 years that three drivers could potentially win the driver's championship. And at the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi. And I was like, that's just too. That's too good to pass up, man. And I, you know, don't have a family to buy Christmas presents for, so why not treat myself? And I did my research. I picked a seat in the second row of the main grandstand. I was really worried, and I thought about it for 24 hours, but I spent $2,100 on this seat, which is insane. That's insane. That's. That's insane. Like, I don't make a ton of money. I don't have this big old salary. I don't spend a lot of money. I live above somebody's garage. I don't have a car payment. Like, I live very affordably. I don't buy new clothes. You've probably seen this shirt a hundred times because I wear it once a week. I wear the same pair of pants every day. I'm simple. I'm simple. I like it that way. Other than, um. So, yeah, I splurged on a Formula one ticket. I was a little nervous getting there, but holy shit, was it so Cool. And so worth the money. It was extraordinary. So if you're a Formula one fan out there, you haven't been to a race. I highly recommend sitting in the main grandstand. I was able to see everything going on. If I hadn't sat in the main grandstand, I would have been in. Bummed out, but that was amazing. But okay. All right, all right. You're not here to hear about Formula one. Good view. Wow. Congratulations. You got to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. You know, again, someone's gotta do it. Okay. Might as well be me. 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 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 that about 300 civil construction companies are using to not just make their people better workers, 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. Monday rolled around. We got back to business again. We were with Al Marwan. So we went out to a huge casino development. It's the first casino in the uae. I think it's Wynn that's developing it. It's all on a man made island of course, because where else would it be? Then we went to a remarkable cast in place bridge pour. It was at sunset because this time of year the sun sets at like 5:30. Just unbelievable. So cool to see how they build things in a totally different part of the world. A high speed rail project, which was pretty neat out in the middle of the desert that's going to connect the entire Middle East. Spectacular. It turns out that they can build high speed rail, which we're totally incapable of in America. Look no further than the California high speed rail project. If you haven't, it's a complete embarrassment. And then we went to one of UAE's master plan communities, a giant site that they were leveling for new homes, golf courses, etc because uae, United Arab Emirates is growing like crazy. And then we did go see a new island project, but I can't necessarily talk about it right now. Unfortunately, I will just say that it was one of the best experiences of my career and probably the best hour I've had this year from a work standpoint. Sorry, Mom. Really, really, really incredible. So I can't wait to share with everybody what the heck we got. And you know, the work is incredible. But the best part, people have asked, I've talked about it at length. I posted about it this weekend. Everybody's always like, so what, what are the, what are the major differences? And yeah, there, there are some differences. Frankly, it's, it's not all that different. It's people building stuff. They use rebar, they pour concrete, they move dirt, they burn diesel, they, they run big machinery, same machinery we use here. They don't have emissions, which is way better. But same stuff. There are the differences. But the coolest thing about it and how I always answer is that just how similar people are. You can go halfway around the world to a totally different culture and bond with people over their pride in work, over their love for their family, over laughter with others around them like it's. Everybody's just a person. And it's so cool. I'll never take these opportunities for granted. And again, the best way I can explain it, traveling to these places is like, it turns life from black and white to color. It just gives. Or from 2D to 3D, it just gives life so much more texture. And so if you do have the ability to travel to a totally different part of the world, I highly recommend it because it's amazing and I couldn't recommend the Middle east more. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the best reputation in America because of our fuck ups, for lack of better term. Really unfortunate because it's a beautiful part of the world, not just from a landscape standpoint, but from a culture and human standpoint. I love it. I love it out there and I can't wait to go back. Thanks to Al Marwan for having us and I'm sure there will be future visits in the not so distant future. So that's what the heck I was doing, you know, running around the world, globetrotting, being Mr. Formula One. But fortunately for me, we've got an incredible team back home that is far more capable than me making sure that we are blocking and tackling. First up, our product team completed the executive summary feature for BillWhit Improve, which will allow our customers and the business leaders within each customer new insight on how much their team is training daily. So this will help us reinforce learning cultures as we, as we roll out the new feature here, here in the new year, really exciting stuff. Again, we just don't. We now have real time information on how our customers are doing and then we're giving the customer real time information on how their people are doing so they can reinforce the daily training. And a cool thing too that they can see is they can see who's hungriest within their company, which is great. You can pour more into those individuals. So that's a really exciting feature and I can't wait for it to be out here in the new year. Next up, I've talked a lot about our business development, our BDR program, it's up to speed and I don't need to talk a lot about it going forward because it's moving. The bdrs business development reps, they're kicking ass. They're doing what they need to do Now. Dan especially is focused on MQLs which are leads driven by marketing activities. So these are leads generated, for example by our website. They are, you know, someone sees an ad for billwhit improve or they just see Bill wit, they hear this podcast, whatever it is, they go to billwhit.com maybe you will generate an MQL if you follow my instructions. So one, you go to billwit.com but if you're driving, don't do it. That's not safe. If you go to billwit.com, you can peruse the product page and then you can book a meeting. That's the ultimate goal. We want to get people meeting with us so we can show them in detail. Well, one, we can learn about their company and their challenges in training and developing their people, retaining workforce, etc. But two, show them what the heck we've got going on from a product standpoint and what other great customers are doing to successfully train and develop their people. Whether it's BDR making a phone call to do that or our website to do that, we just need to do it. There's not one right way to do it. So that's what Dan is going to be focused on. Those MQLs using our attention, our reach, all of the activities we're generating to then drive the right people and into our ecosystem. Book those meetings and eventually get them on as customers for Bill Whit and prove, get their people training themselves and those around them every day. Bingo bango. That's how you make the dirt world better. That's how you build the dirt world's next generation. Let's go. So I'll have a lot More to report on in the coming weeks on that front. And then finally, you know, this isn't something that's, that's sexy by any stretch of the imagination. Jennifer, she handles everything. People behind the scenes and she handles benefits. It's. It's a thankless task. It's something that a lot of us don't really think about. I never think about it, but it's a really big deal. It is. It is huge to offer top tier benefits. I have always prioritized benefits for the sake of retaining, attracting and retaining top talent. I think pay is key, but I think benefits go just as far, especially with people's families. Especially with people's families, especially insurance. So we've gone above and beyond. We have some really great vendors involved as well to not just offer our team great benefits, but to help them get the most out of those benefits. And open enrollment. It's not just an opportunity to dot I's cross T's, but it's an opportunity to remind everybody what the benefits are here and how to get the most out of them. And we need to do a lot more educating. You know, for example, we've got U turn Health. Our team or their families can reach out to them at any time to receive counseling for addiction, substance abuse, stress, anxiety, a death in the family, etc. We've got a really great 401k program with some phenomenal advisors at Assured Equity Management. They're just some great folks that really take the time to meet with our people to make sure that they understand how a 401k works and to make sure that they're getting what they need depending on where they are in life. And, and then healthcare is an absolute bear. It's brutal, man. The costs went way up this year, but we did our best to absorb that ourselves, not pass that along to our team. And since we offer such great stuff, we want people to be taking advantage of it, especially their families. So great opportunity to educate. We can do more. But if you. It's always that time of year to say, hey, here's what we got going. Use it please. It's right there for you. That's why it's there. So benefits, big deal. And that's everything. Bob's your uncle, so I really appreciate you all listening. I really, really appreciate you listening, reading, following along, supporting Build Whip if you're a customer, if you're on Build Improve, if you like our posts, if you come to the Dirt World Summit, it all goes a long ways. This isn't my company. This isn't Bill Witt's company. This is. This is the dirt worlds. And it takes all of us. That's why one of our values is where the stagehands, not the stars. It's not about us. We're not on the stage. Which sounds funny coming from me. You know, it seems like everywhere you look, it's my damn face. It's because that's the role I'm in. You know, I do need to be a spokesperson, but I'm not. I'm not in this for the attention. I don't like it. It makes me very uncomfortable. It's taken me a while to honestly accept does not motivate me one bit. But that's never been the intent. The intent is to build a great stage, to raise the dirt world up and to allow the dirt world to build its next generation. We're just providing the tools, the exposure, the storytelling, etc. So thanks for being here. Check us out. Billwhit.com Email me anytime. Aaronillwood.com A A R O N not E R I N that's the girl, Aaron. I'm the boy, Aaron. If you can't tell, I hope you can tell. And we'll see you on the next one. Stay dir. It.