Jason Richmond w/ BuildWitt – DT 418

Summary

Dirt Talk Podcast – Episode 418

Jason Richmond w/ BuildWitt – February 19, 2026

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Episode Overview

In episode 418, host Aaron Witt sits down with Jason Richmond, President of Dirt World at BuildWitt. The conversation dives into BuildWitt’s evolution, the lessons learned from organizing the Ariat Dirt World Summit, the power of leadership communication, the importance of authentic storytelling, personal growth, and how mental health and physical wellness intersect in the construction industry. The episode is rich in behind-the-scenes anecdotes, honest self-reflection, actionable insights for industry leaders, and memorable moments about personal values and family life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Embracing Change and Focus at BuildWitt (00:00–05:00)

• Reflecting on Chaos and Growth: Both Aaron and Jason acknowledge past chaos in the organization as they experimented with different business arms—media, agency, software, events, podcasting—before finding focus in three main segments: Dirt World, BuildWitt, and Improve.
• Letting go of the creative arm was a massive, positive shift for alignment and scalability.

  “We let go of creative, which was no small feat... it was just a different business. A service business. Very different.” — Aaron (01:42)

2. The Ariat Dirt World Summit: Growth & Impact (04:28–09:30)

• The Summit is nearly sold out—over 1,050 tickets with only 200 left, and 60 sponsors lined up.

• Early years required intense team effort to build momentum; now, reputation and word-of-mouth drive registration and sponsorship.

• Unique leadership focus sets the Summit apart from association events and expos.

  “It’s the best leadership conference in the industry—by a mile.” — Jason (05:53)

• Participants now attend in groups, accelerating meaningful change in their companies:

  "Now there’s a group of five plus people that have all experienced learning, growing, benchmarking, networking... they’re cascading it into their organization to actually make change." — Aaron (08:02)

• Industry leaders are sharing the Summit’s impact, influencing other industry gatherings and formats, such as seating arrangements and speaker selection.

3. Leadership Development & Communication (11:00–18:00)

• Jason and Aaron discuss how focusing on the “top of the industry” creates a ripple effect of positive change without having to “convince” the entire industry.

• Jason’s shift in business development: “If I’m still having to talk you into it… you’re off the list. I’m just focusing on people that get it now… I’m not here to convince people anymore.” (11:14)

• Importance of communication skills for leaders—Jason details his journey in public speaking, the fear, and the progress made.

  “It’s easily the hardest, scariest skill I’ve ever worked on… now I’m starting to play with it and iterate, I think, faster as a result.” — Jason (12:13, 13:52)

• Regular, authentic communication—like Aaron’s “Monday morning” video updates—are highly valuable, even if simple or imperfect.

  “Keep it simple, stupid… Every time we simplify it, things get better.” — Jason (16:17)

4. Creating Transformational Experiences (18:00–22:00)

• Dirt World provides a platform for authentic industry leaders to share real stories from the trenches—not just highlight reels, but also struggles.
• Speaking at Summit helps foster better communication skills among leaders, driving growth back at their organizations.
• Highlighting new Summit speakers (e.g., SRM, Jerry from Ames, Barry Tutor) and what they bring in terms of perspective—international, family-based, and mining.

5. Building Resilience, Facing Doubt, and Long-Term Vision (23:53–29:14)

• The parallels between personal/professional faith, passion, and persisting through doubt.
• Barry Tutor’s mining operation as inspiration—vision, perseverance, and global, forward-thinking perspective.
• Aaron and Jason discuss how international exposure breaks down “American arrogance” and brings valuable perspective back to the U.S. construction industry.

6. Personal Growth, Family, and Work-Life Balance (54:30–60:00)

• Physical fitness and daily routines as keys to mental health and productivity.

• Sharing struggles and embracing imperfection builds connection, both at home and in business.

• Jason and Aaron candidly discuss parenting philosophies, regrets, and the evolving approach to nurturing family creativity and choice.

  "I was winning at work, but I was losing at home last year and had to make some changes." — Aaron (58:54)

7. Breaking the Mold: Creativity in Life and Business (63:33–68:16)

• Life and business are more fulfilling with creativity—apply this to offices, events, and even family vacations.
• Dirt World Summit experiments with event formats, intentionally disrupting comfort zones to foster deeper engagement.

8. Vulnerability, Shame, and Letting Go (87:15–90:00)

• Honest reflections on how shame from past mistakes can poison future growth if not addressed and released.

  "You can let that shame poison the future... it perpetuates the suffering in a way the longer you carry it." — Jason (87:26, 89:32)

• Sharing mistakes, learning from them, and moving forward are crucial—not just personally, but for organizational health and innovation.

9. Mental Health, Physical Well-Being, and Leadership Modeling (93:10–105:13)

• Mental and personal health issues (suicide, addiction, physical health) far outpace on-the-job fatalities, but remain under-addressed.

  "Suicide is five times [more frequent] than on-the-job fatalities… accidental drug overdose, sixteen times the on-the-job fatality." — Jason (93:22)

• Real leadership in this space starts with personal example—not just policy. Authentic stories from leaders, not directives, drive change.

• Faith, trust, and supporting each other are ongoing themes.

  "Are you healthy? From a mental health standpoint, the only effective thing I’ve done is talk about how I’ve worked through it myself." — Jason (100:32–101:06)

10. Faith, Authenticity, and Community (110:19–119:45)

• Faith is a personal journey for both hosts; they celebrate transparency and respect differences, while noting a strong undercurrent of faith in the construction industry.
• Initiatives like Dirt Theology and Dirt World Connect foster ongoing support, community, and personal flourishing.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Letting Go and Focusing the Business:

  "I’m not here to convince anybody anymore… just focusing on those that really understand—boy, is that a big shift for me at least." — Jason (11:22)

• On Speaking & Leadership Communication:

  "In the early, early years, it was just like, just try to say something that's kind of coherent… now it's like I'm starting to dig into the craft of it, which is really cool." — Jason (12:46–13:21)

• On Industry Impact of the Summit:

  "The industry is starting to talk about what we’re doing—it’s not just us telling the story now… it’s people that are in our ecosystem starting to share." — Aaron (06:48–07:38)

• On Inspiring (Not Forcing) Change:

  "You create a new model that's so good, it makes the old model obsolete." — Jason (44:11)

• On Progress over Perfection:

  "Progress over perfection is the important part of communication." — Aaron (17:34)

• On Fitness and Mental Health:

  "If you have problems mentally... what are you eating? Are you exercising? That’s pretty low-hanging fruit." — Jason (55:16)

• On Being Transparent with Teams:

  "Here’s the information as of today. Just so you can be thinking about it… Just so that when we do create a plan, you can weigh in." — Jason (75:44)

• On Industry Challenges:

  "It’s hard for me to buy into 'our people are number one' when there’s that level of focus and investment in something that is a very small piece of what’s actually going on." — Jason (95:20)

• On Faith:

  "It's not about church, I don't need church. It's not about anyone else. It's just me, Bible, God. That’s it." — Jason (111:19)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Letting Go of Creative & Focusing – 01:38–04:18
• Dirt World Summit Momentum – 04:28–05:53
• Authenticity in Industry Events – 05:55–09:30
• Leadership Communication & Public Speaking – 12:13–13:52
• Five+ Ticket Strategy & Group Impact – 07:57–08:44
• Table Assignments, Disrupting Comfort Zones – 68:16–69:32
• Parenting, Regret, Redemption – 78:03–82:01
• On Shame and Letting Go – 87:15–90:00
• Mental Health - Industry Data & Critique – 93:10–98:33
• Faith and Personal Growth – 110:19–117:00

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Final Thoughts

This free-flowing conversation is packed with honest leadership lessons, practical ideas for building resilient organizations, encouragement for personal well-being, and the importance of authenticity at both the summit and in daily life. The takeaway: by focusing on transparency, communication, and community, Dirt World leaders can create a new paradigm for the construction industry—one grounded in purpose, wellness, and connection.

Transcript

[Jason Richmond]

This Dirt Talk podcast episode is with Jason Richmond of buildwit. Jason is Bill Witt's president of dirtworld, encompassing our annual leadership event, the Ariat dirtworld Summit, and our community building efforts on Dirt World connect. After decades working in the construction and materials industries, working his way up from a shovel to company leadership, Jason's now putting his skills to the test to help build the dirt world's next generation of workers and leaders. I am eternally appreciative of Jason, his attitude, his efforts. He's been here for years, he's done everything under the sun, and it's a really exciting time for him, for Bill Witt, for everybody. Because I feel like over the past six months, he's found the perfect place for himself, not just at Bill Witt, but in the dirt world. With Dirt World. Go figure. So he drove down from Indiana. We got to shoot the poop. We had a great time. I hope you enjoy this episode. Jason Richmond of Billwood. I think the chaos. I don't know if the chaos has gone down over the past few years because I feel calmer, Chaotic. This year I feel a lot calmer. But it's. What do we continue? Like, what do we persist with versus when is something like, yeah, this isn't working.

[Aaron]

Sunset.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, we do have to get on, let go, get on with the program. And I think that's been a constant.

[Aaron]

Yeah, well, last year we let go of creative, which was no small feat.

[Jason Richmond]

No.

[Aaron]

I mean, that was a big win to let go of and get focused.

[Jason Richmond]

And that was a. That was a big one. I don't know if I should have felt more than I did, though. I didn't really feel anything about that.

[Aaron]

I felt a little bit more because I lived it for a while. Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. Because I. I was so removed from it for so long at that point that I. Yeah, in a lot of ways, I was already out of it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And it was just like, so clearly the right move for both sides. Right. Both teams, I think, are much better off now.

[Aaron]

I had a lot of conflict. Like, there was a part of me that was, like, connected to the people. And so it was like, that was hard to kind of let go of. Sure. But in terms of, like, chasing work and, you know, trying to procure enough to pay for itself and to add value and to do all the things, like there was a part of the business side that wasn't scalable.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

That was nice to let go of.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, and it's just a different business.

[Aaron]

It's a. It's A service business. Very different. Yeah, very, very different. A lot of hand holding. Lot of, Lot of Takes a lot of effort and work not only internally but externally, you know, when you, when you're doing, you know, big time work like that. So. But yeah, it. Once the initial release and let go kind of took place, I could start to see it quickly. Oh, yeah. Three parts of the business. Makes sense, Aaron. Dirtworld build would improve.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. And I, I've never been. I've never been married to the business or whatever business we're in.

[Aaron]

Mm.

[Jason Richmond]

Frankly, I don't care what business we're in.

[Aaron]

Sure.

[Jason Richmond]

I do. Like, people might take that the wrong way.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But it's. I care about the problem we're solving and the industry we're serving.

[Aaron]

Mm.

[Jason Richmond]

That's it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

However we do that, and that's I think, why we've gone from me taking photos to a media to an agency to then a software company to an event.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

To podcast. It's like we're just like, we're not. That's what I love about it. But that's what creates chaos. But that's also what I love, is we're not constrained.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But we do have to focus at a certain point. And I think last year, 12 months ago was like, okay, yeah, we've gotta dial this thing back.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Gotta focus. And now come January, February, it took 12 months to do that. It's so nice. It's like, wow, this just makes perfect sense.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Well, I don't wake up every day now wondering like, well, what do I gotta go do today? No, it's like I. We kind of have a vision of what needs to be done and you just get up and put in the work.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, and on the dirt world, the exciting thing about dirt World this year is that we're damn near sold out.

[Aaron]

It's crazy. 1050 tickets, only 200 to go. And I mean, it is just amazing. 60 sponsors already, you know, in total. And so Q1 is. Is looking like we're going to hit that. That goal so that we can focus on the rest of our business and delivering value to. To those that are coming to the summit.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. I mean, but to create the first three years, it was a lot of effort on your part. A lot of effort on my part. We had multiple salespeople involved full time. We had Dan almost full time on it.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

We had Randy involved. Like Kara's been really involved. I mean.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Nikki, you can go down the list of all and then all the other People, everybody's had some kind of involvement, but just the bandwidth it's taken to create the momentum that we're now benefiting from.

[Aaron]

That's right. For sure. And I also give a lot of tribute to, you know, Randy's had a great vision this year with the five plus, you know, ticket strategy and the tiered pricing and, you know, just the way that, that, you know, kind of came to fruition. The other thing too, I would say is after three years, like the first few years, people were like, I'm going to go check it out and see if it's worthy. I'm send one or two people. And you know, after three years they're like, it's the best leadership conference in the industry.

[Jason Richmond]

And by a mile.

[Aaron]

By a mile.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, but, but also in fairness, it's the only leadership specific conference in the industry.

[Aaron]

100%.

[Jason Richmond]

So it's like when people compare us even to like associations or Con Expo, very different. It's just, it's very different. It's not productive. It's a totally different. It's like, well, like pizza versus steak. I don't know, like sometimes I'm in the mood for steak. Sometimes, like, they serve different purposes.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

That's not the best analogy.

[Aaron]

No, I get it.

[Jason Richmond]

They're. They're just very different. And I think an association is, is filling a totally different need.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

But there was this need across the industry that was leadership workforce.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

How do we make ourselves better?

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And that. Cool. We can fill that and we can just focus on that. And so we can do it better than anybody because we have the luxury of just being focused on it and not being tied to a game plan that we've been running for 70 years.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

Which is again, it creates some chaos because you're working on a blank slate. But you're working on a blank slate.

[Aaron]

Yeah, well, and another thing that's happening now, you know, Nikki just got back from Napa and she was telling me a story there where C.W. matthews and Duvall Asphalt ended up hanging out together. And specifically Dan Garcia was talking to the leader at Duvall and saying, you know, the summit's the best leadership conference. You gotta come. The guy from Duvall was going, we're on build with improve and you gotta get it. And it was like the industry is starting to talk about what we're doing and they're starting to refer and promote and, and to me, like, that's a really exciting time because it's not just Us telling the story now it's people that are in our ecosystem are starting to share. This is really good stuff.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. Well, and it is good stuff. It's like. But that's the cool thing about just delivering. When you just deliver.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

When it's just good, when it's just great. Everything else takes care of itself.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And I think we're like, even on the groups, 2/3 of companies coming this year. 5 +.

[Aaron]

Unreal.

[Jason Richmond]

2/3.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

So majority of the audience. Well, it's in a group.

[Aaron]

And the great part about that is it's not the telephone game now. It's not one person going to the summit where they got to go back and try and relay to their company and convince others. Now there's a group of five plus people that have all experienced learning, growing, benchmarking, networking, where they're able to come and talk about challenges and problems that they're trying to solve. And they're, they're figuring out how other companies are doing it. And you know, they're not just inspired from stage. It's like they've got real action plans that they're now going back, they're debriefing and then they're cascading it into their plans and strategy, but cascading it into their organization. To actually make change. Yeah, to actually make it. Make it better.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, and a lot of it is like you said at Napa. I mean, it's, it's made its way into other meetings.

[Aaron]

Yes.

[Jason Richmond]

Like I saw Jesse Cole was the speaker at Napa.

[Aaron]

Yep.

[Jason Richmond]

And it's like, I don't want to say we had everything to do with that. We didn't, but we had a. There was a little bit to do with that of, yeah, let's bring in some real high value people. Or I'm speaking at a, at an event. I don't know when it is, but they. Maybe it's the one this week. I forget which one.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But they're like, hey, we wanted to. We heard from one of our members that you guys sat everybody at different tables and we want to do that too. We want to do it this year, this and this and that. And I was like, well, I wouldn't rush into it because it can go the other way as well. But they heard because of how well it worked at summit that this was a great format. Now we want to go do it.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

And it's like, yeah, well, even the

[Aaron]

pastor, Darren Earlywine, you know, he was at Napa and spoke.

[Jason Richmond]

He's everywhere now he's everywhere now.

[Aaron]

I mean, like, he's getting hired by dirt road companies and bringing them into their organization. He's everywhere.

[Jason Richmond]

Rich Jones is everywhere right now. Like, just.

[Aaron]

It's fun to see. Like, it's cool, but that's part of what we're doing is we're shining a light on great people, great companies, great things that are happening within the industry and giving them, you know, a platform to share their story and to lead change and to lead how to build a better business. And ultimately, like, it's not about us. It's about, you know, leveraging what we have and, and, you know, the summit and all of our mediums to connect people with people and then let good things happen.

[Jason Richmond]

It's awesome. There's. There's a part of me that's, that's always like the, the human nature side of me that's like, oh, man. Like they're, they're taking our ideas. But it's like, that's the whole point, you dummy. I'll slap myself around like, yeah, you idiot. Yeah, that's the whole damn point. Yeah, but that's marker to fidget with.

[Aaron]

Oh, good.

[Jason Richmond]

But that's also. People are like, well, are you just going to keep growing it and growing and growing it? It's like, we don't have to.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Because you can just focus on a very small subsect of the industry, make them as good as possible, make them extraordinary, and then they force the change necessary throughout the industry.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

We don't, we don't have to force it. We just have to pour into that very top level.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Like I told you, even my business development strategy for this year, which has been the most effective. Go figure, is I've gotten rid of all the people that haven't come for three years.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Listen, if I'm still having to talk into it. Nah, fuck you. You're off the list. I don't have time for you anymore. I'm just focusing on people. I get it now.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And we're damn near sold out as a result.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Go figure. And it's just, I'm not here to convince people anymore. I can't convince anybody. You can't convince people.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

So just focusing on those that really understand. Boy, is that a big. That's a big shift for me at least.

[Aaron]

Yeah. I am curious. You talk for a living.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But I know speaking on stage has been something new for you, and you're developing and growing and whatnot. How is, how's that going Like, I know that you've taken some Carnegie classes now. You've been practicing. You practice all the time.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

You've. You've. You've been on Summit stage, but you've also been speaking out in companies and at different associations. Like, how is speaking going for you now?

[Jason Richmond]

It's easily the hardest, scariest skill I've ever worked on. I mean, it's tough because you can only practice. You only get reps in front of people. Yeah.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And there's no hiding when you're on a state wall. There is. You can, but it's. It's tough. It's. It's really tough. And it's very against my nature. But I think I've had. I'm having more fun with it than ever before because I'm past the Just total fear.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And I give. Seen. You've seen my iterations over the years now. Yeah. I think in the early, early years, it was just like, just try to say something of.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

That's. That's kind of coherent.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And as long as you don't look like a total idiot, you're good to go.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But I probably looked like a total idiot anyway. Now is like, what's my style? Like, once you. You. I kind of have the ABCs figured out. Okay. I can. I understand how to put a message together. I understand how to be on a stage. I understand how to put, like a presentation together to be.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Somewhat intriguing. Now it's like I'm starting to dig into the craft of it, which is really cool. It's like, all right, how do I. Like, how do I tee this up? How do I begin it? How do I end it? And how do I illustrate this point with the most effective story possible? How do I make people laugh? Like, there are so many things to it to think about, but now I'm starting to play with it and iterate, I think faster as a result.

[Aaron]

So part of the reason I ask is when I think about the dirt world, there are good companies and great companies.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And I think one of the things that makes a great company is a leader who is willing to practice the skill of communication and to communicate effectively, if not daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, et cetera. And so as I think about what you've been through in your speaking and communicating journey, it's like, how do we get more dirt world leaders to take the risk or the chance to be that fool or to not be perfect, to speak more and connect internally, you know, to. To make sure that they're leading Their people, you know, in the right ways.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. I, When I reflect upon, like, the best leaders in the industry, they're the best communicators.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And, and, and there's a hundred different ways to do it. They all do it in their way, but they do it in their way like they're very much themselves. I mean, I can think of like a Herb Sergeant.

[Aaron]

Yep.

[Jason Richmond]

He's very much just Herb. Or a Dan Garcia.

[Aaron]

Yep.

[Jason Richmond]

He's just very much Dan. Or Tim Paulson. Yep, he's very much Tim.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

They all very different styles, all three of them, but they're doing people, but they're doing it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And they're really, really effective at it. They're really effective at it. Which. And go figure, they have very effective organizations now. That's not everything.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But man, like, that's why I do it selfishly, so I can lead more effectively.

[Aaron]

And so, you know, maybe everybody listening to your talk, following along, you know, knows all the different methods. But all kidding aside, like your Monday morning build with video that you send every Monday. I look forward to it.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

I want to know, like, what's on Aaron's mind, what's he thinking about the business, what's coming up this week, where is he traveling to, what's the wins, what's the lessons learned, you know, etc. And so when you send out that message, it's. It's usually five to ten minutes, pretty simp, you know, looks like you record it with a phone and it's coming out. But it's effective. And I think it gives me the confidence to know, like, okay, check marching orders. Here's where we're going this week.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, it's, it's. And it's that simple. Keep it simple. Stupid to company. Value for a reason. Because every time we simplify it, it gets. Things get better.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And so everybody's always like, well, we're thinking about starting a podcast, this and that. I'm like, okay, that's great. If you really want to start a podcast, go for it. One, though. It's like, you're probably not going to do it all that well. It's probably going to not be worth listening to. And, like, you've got to be dedicated to it for years and years and years and years and years.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Once you do it for years and years and years, you might get better.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Again, like Sargent Corporation, for example, they've been doing it for years.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Once you. Once you do it for years, once you're 100 episodes in. Okay. Now it's actually something worth listening to.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But it's as simple as. Yeah. It's just me on my phone and the audio sucks and the visuals suck. There's no intro or anything like that. But. And I email it out to everybody.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I put it on Google Drive. I email it out. That's the mechanics of it. Yeah, but. And I don't even know if people are listening and watching it, which will change with improve and announcements pretty soon. But that's probably the number one thing I've heard about from a feedback standpoint from our people is it just keeps them in the know as to what.

[Aaron]

And my favorite part is when the phone drops or you make a mistake or you have to make an adjustment, it's like. It feels real.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

It feels authentic. Like, oh, no, that's, you know, like, just. And I think that authentically, you. That you were just talking about all these other leaders. Like, it's okay. Like, progress over perfection is the important part of communication.

[Jason Richmond]

But there. That's the cool thing about Dirt World, too, is we've. We've given like, again, going to another values where the stage hands, not the stars. Dirt World is a stage. That's the coolest thing about it. It's not about build with. It's not the Buildwood show.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

Which is all. I love that. I love that. And we've given people like Dan Garcia the opportunity.

[Aaron]

Herb.

[Jason Richmond]

The opportunity. Ryan Schmidt.

[Aaron]

Yep.

[Jason Richmond]

The opportunity. Even people like, I know, like a Glen Barenko.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It was a big deal for him to get up on stage, and it's a big deal to get up on stage. Yeah. In front of a, you know, whatever a thousand plus people say. Over a thousand people.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And you've. You've never been on a stage in front of even more than a hundred people.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It's a big deal.

[Aaron]

Huge.

[Jason Richmond]

But then even he remarked about it, like, man, that was a. That was. That was really good for me because it made me really uncomfortable, but it made me understand that I need to lean into this more. It's like a hundred percent.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And whose organization's better as a result? His, because he's become a much better communicator.

[Aaron]

Right. Well. And interestingly, you know, the feedback that we get from Dirt World year over year is that those genuine, authentic leaders and the messages and the stories of, you know, what it's like to be in the trenches and growing a business and, you know, in their lows, you know, and thinking like, you know, the lights are about to be shut out and how they've, you know, turned it around or the process that they went through and that story. You know, it's like people love to hear leaders talking about the good, you know, the process that they've been through because it's all relatable. Like everybody's at a different place in their business, you know, history. And so it's great to be inspired by Jesse Cole and to hear his story. But man, some of these dirt world leaders have got some really amazing stories as well as well.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. And we're, I mean, we'll have more speaking at this event than any others.

[Aaron]

Yep. 100. Yeah. We got the H's head family coming in from SRM, which is super exciting.

[Jason Richmond]

I can't wait.

[Aaron]

Ointment. What's his name?

[Jason Richmond]

O U I. Yeah, Jerry from Ames.

[Aaron]

Yep. Got Jerry coming in and then Barry Tutor.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, Barry. I can't. Yeah, he, he's going to have a hell of a story because. Yeah, he's going to have a hell of a story. There's been some drama over there in the past year.

[Aaron]

Has there?

[Jason Richmond]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Aaron]

I'm not even, I don't think he's

[Jason Richmond]

going to talk about it.

[Aaron]

That's fine.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. But yeah, I, I, I've something I've reflected upon too over the past 30 to 60 days is like, where do I get energy and what conversations do I get energy from? Like, who am I with, where I'm like, I leave it. Just like, wow. Fortunately that happens quite a bit now. I'm spoiled in that regard. But those three in particular I selected just because there was, there's just always something about it. Like, like srm.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Just what they're doing is just unbelievable.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And you, and you hear about it because there's all these whispers about what they're doing and how they're doing it. Oh yeah, yeah. Everybody likes to, you know. Yeah, yeah. But low key like, yeah, I'm this, you know, good guy over here, but I'm going to go gossip over there.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

It's just like, all right. But seeing what they're doing and how they're doing it as a family and faith based, it's just like, this is unbelievable.

[Aaron]

Well, I was like just amazed at their growth. You know, just from an acquisition standpoint, it's just been crazy. Now they're one of the largest, you know, privately held family run ready mix com companies in the country. But you know, after you doing a quick visit with them and then calling me and was like, hey, they're the real deal. Like these guys are amazing.

[Jason Richmond]

There's something here, there's something. I don't know what it is, but something.

[Aaron]

And it's right here in the backyard. Smyrna, you know, Tennessee. Like we need to, you know, do. And so when you were able to bring them on board for summit and to let them, you know, the, the family members, you know, all get on stage and kind of share their story in a breakout session, I'm like, I can't wait to hear that.

[Jason Richmond]

I can't wait to hear it either. And then you've got Jerry, who's leading Ames I think by far one of the best contractors in America. Yeah, by up, by far. Yeah, they get it done, man. And he's not a construction guy by background and he, but he has the humility to know that he's not a construction guy. He's not there to be a construction guy and he's there to help the company transition to this next generation post Dick Ames. And it's a big transition, employee ownership and that alone's pretty amazing. And then you've got Barry. I've spent now three times with Barry. Three, three visits to Australia in the Bowen Basin with, with him and to, to like there's been few days in my career that have been better than those days driving around and this guy's Toyota listening to him explain how he's building a mine. I mean this is a 10 to 15 million ton a year steel making coal operation for 75 plus years. Like big mining operation. And this guy brought it all out of the dirt. It was nothing. And to see it all and to see someone in such a visual sense, I mean, toil for a decade and then here's the result and then here's where we're going. It's like this is just too cool for me. Especially somebody that's also building something. It's like that's intoxicating for me.

[Aaron]

Well, there's, you know, leaving a, you know, large material supply and construction company that was well established to joining build with was a big leap and a big, big jump. And there's a lot of people that are like, you know, thought I was crazy. And then for us to be, you know, building something from scratch for the most part and creating something. There was a lot of doubt along the way, you know, like. But you gotta have that faith and that hope and that vision and know that, that problem that you're sol see, you know, someone like him have that vision. It's like where probably a lot of people didn't believe in him and what he was doing, like that probably thought he was gonna fail. And some people, I mean, I hate to say this, but, like, we're probably rooting against him. Like, it's weird. A lot of people how, like competition or friends or it's like, you know, there's no way it's gonna make it. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, yeah, they're gonna make it. And so it's like a shift in the way that things are happening. And I kind of feel that a buildwit now. Like, you know, after being here for four years, it's like there's been a lot of days where I'm like, I hope we're going to be able to keep the lights on.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. And I, I'm in a different. I'm in a different. I'm in a unique position that is like, I mean, I'm going to make this work or I'm in the ground and that's, that's where like, if somebody tells me no or doubts me, it's like, bro, you don't, you don't get the program here. Like, I will give everything for this.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I have something I will give everything for. Which sounds dramatic, but it's like, if you want to beat me, you've got to at least give everything as well.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I am hell bent on making this happen or I'll be in the ground and. And it's not up to me ultimately, like, God willing. Which I love that. Saying I love it more and more and more is like just God willing. God willing. God willing. But I'm gonna do my part at least. And. And I'm gonna go. Go all in.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And. And I think Barry will be good too for Dirt World because he's Australian and I mean, whenever I talk with him, it'd be like, I saw him in mine expo. He's like, yeah, on this trip I've been to London and Switzerland and I had to go over to Singapore and then I had to then go up to Vancouver and. And then I'm here and then I go to, you know. Like.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

All in one trip.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Because it's such a global enterprise mining.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And that's why I like mining people because they're, they have a different perspective. They have a much bigger worldview, especially than Americans. Especially than the American civil construction industry.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And I think that's good to bring in as well. Let's get some outside perspective. Somebody that talks a little funny can Speak English, but from a different part of the world and who's seen the world to tell us how the world works.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And I think the US construction industry will benefit from that because it is. It's not a criticism. It is just so close minded. I mean, just. Oh, it's just mad.

[Aaron]

Well, it's one of the things that, I mean, like, I hate to even admit this, but, you know, I kind of ran in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Ohio and Southern Michigan. And I thought I knew the construction industry.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And then what I realized when I joined Build it was, oh, it's a lot bigger than my area.

[Jason Richmond]

I mean, and you were working for the King of the Castle area. I'd never even heard of that company until we started talking to you. Because I grew up in a different

[Aaron]

area, but that happens to us all the time now. It's like I'm still after being here for four years and, you know, massive. My eyes are open to a much bigger world now than it's ever been. And I'll see something come through slack and I'm like, who's that company? Yeah. I had no idea how many Dirt World companies there actually are.

[Jason Richmond]

No. I was talking to a guy the other day at the, at the conference in Panama at the West Virginia contractors and. And he's like, yeah, we're on a highway job with two six thousand twenties. I'm like, what? I thought I knew every dirt job in America. You know, I thought I had pretty good tabs on everything. Yeah. I didn't even know. I didn't even know this guy existed. I didn't even know he had these machines. Like, those are. That's a unique. That's a unique machine. Very unique. I thought I knew where everyone was in America, Right. And this guy's just banging out, you know, a few million yards up the road from. Not even that far from Tennessee. I've never even heard of it. I'm like, shit.

[Aaron]

But I do think, I mean, you've talked about this before, but I do think like, you know, traveling the world and seeing so many different businesses and operations and ways of, you know, scopes of work and ways of doing things and being able to share that, you know, is such a valuable thing. And now that we're bringing it to Dirt World at the summit, that's like just an evolution from the vlog and showing it in one location to now bringing it to the summit. And I'm really excited about that.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. And I think, I mean, Dirt World is not an accident either. I think There's a global play at a certain point, because that's. I mean, I've talked about this, but it's just incredible. I'll go halfway around the world, and it's the exact same thing. Like, same. You know, everybody's. They're kind of working the same. Same sense of pride, same machines, same methodology. Like, it's not all that different everywhere you go.

[Aaron]

And.

[Jason Richmond]

And. And. And it doesn't surprise me as much anymore, but it's just. The American arrogance is very real, where we just think we're awesome. And then I'm. I'm telling you, go abroad and don't go to Europe, for goodness sakes. Go somewhere else other than Europe. O Canada, which is a tall order for an American alone. But once you start to see the world, you're like, wait a minute. There's things that are way better. Like, way better. Like, wait a minute, everybody's better. And it's very frustrating. It's very depressing in a lot of ways. It's the opportunity that I'm looking at as well. But we're way behind when it comes to infrastructure and our methodology. And the amount of money we get, you know, the amount of money we have to spend per unit of infrastructure is more than anywhere else in the world. It's not any better. I mean, I'll go to, like, the most random countries and it'll. I'll be looking at the highways. I'm like, this is unbelievable. Look at this. Like, I was just. I was. I was thinking. I was like. I feel like that just happened recently. Yeah. Last week I was in Panama. I'm in Panama City. I'm like, how good can Panama City be? How could been Panama be?

[Aaron]

The country not in Florida. Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Yes, the country. And I'm looking around, I'm like, this is pretty remarkable. Like, this is very well done. And sure, it's. It's apples to oranges in a lot of ways, but.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

I don't know. I've been to enough airports to know that Chicago o' Hare is not the creme de la creme where I was just at. Where was. I flew through Newark. Going through customs in Newark is, like, a very depressing experience. You know, we're going through customs in Indonesia, and Jakarta is, like, unbelievable. It's the prettiest place you've ever been in Jakarta, of all places.

[Aaron]

Yeah. I would say that's one thing I'm not gonna say I'm jealous of, but I do think is super cool, is that you've been able to travel so much over the years, like, you know, building the business, you know, but the travel, the things that you get to see, the people that you get to see, I mean, that's just priceless. And I think it's one of the reasons why. I mean, I'm still a fan. I love to watch the vlog. It's like, where's Aaron at, you know, this week? And, you know, what. What can I learn from, you know, from the vlog? But I love that you do get that opportunity to travel the world. And it's something I want to do more of, you know, at some point in time. But right now, I'm traveling vicariously through your vlog.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, but that. That's the cool thing about it is I do get to bring people along. Yeah. Like, I. It's not. I don't go places when it's when I can't share.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

That to me, the utility, sure, there's some utility to it, but the utility is just limited at that point. It's like, why would I go somewhere if I can't share with people what the heck is going on and what it takes to make it happen? That, to me, just doesn't get me excited.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And, I mean, that's a big motivator for me, though. Like, I'm fully aware of these opportunities that I have, and so that's why I'm like, I'm just gonna run like a dog, man. Yeah, just send it. Especially this year, I mean, we've got some really cool opportunities that just came up. Like, in two weeks. Yeah, two weeks. I go to Yellowknife, Canada. Go nine. Nine hours up the ice road where Ice Road Truckers was. But they kicked him off because they were trying to portray it as dangerous. It's not. Up the ice road to a diamond mine.

[Aaron]

Wow.

[Jason Richmond]

Go underground to see the last ore from this diamond mine. That mine.

[Aaron]

Crazy.

[Jason Richmond]

It's these yellow diamonds that are just beautiful. But we're like, it's touching the Arctic circle.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Out in the middle of fucking nowhere. So I do that, and then five weeks later, we're on a flight to South Korea to go visit job sites and factories in the shipyard out there with Hyundai. And then they were like, oh, by the way, we also have facilities in India. We'd like you to do it at some point as well. I was like, well, can we just go there after South Korea? And they're like, sure. So then we go from there to India. I've never been to South Korea. I've only Flown through. I've never been to India. And then we go see customer site mining sites and a factory in India. Then I'm like, can we go see a taj Mahal too? And they're like, sure. So we get to see the taj Mahal as well. And then we fly home. So on that trip, we'll go all the way around the world to do that. And then I'm working on Africa right now.

[Aaron]

Let's go.

[Jason Richmond]

I wasn't. I mean, I've been invited by multiple people this year out to Africa. Like, hey, we're. It's the biggest, you know, new gold

[Aaron]

mine in the world developing.

[Jason Richmond]

We'd love to have you out and this and that. It's just like, how can I say no to these opportunities? This is too good.

[Aaron]

So has the tables completely flipped? Where in the beginning you are seeking opportunities to. Now you have more opportunities coming in, or is it kind of both? Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

You're still planting seeds.

[Jason Richmond]

People. People think it's like effortless. I'm like, no, no, no.

[Aaron]

I'm going to work at it.

[Jason Richmond]

Oh, my God.

[Aaron]

So from the time that an opportunity arises, I am curious, like, what is that? You got to plan it. You got to get. There's so much that probably goes into it that I don't even know.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. But like, so the diamond mine is Rio tinto.

[Aaron]

Okay.

[Jason Richmond]

One of the world's biggest mining companies. We have a phenomenal relationship with them. They've been nothing but good to us.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But that relationship began with me, my first year business. So it was 2018.

[Aaron]

Okay.

[Jason Richmond]

I wanted to go see the kennecott mine in salt lake city. The biggest hole in the world. It's up the road. I was in Arizona. It's up in the road. Up the road. So I'm like, I need to see this damn place. I called the same guy for a year, like once a week. I found this guy's phone number. And I just kept calling and calling and calling and calling. And I remember he picked up one time. I'm like, I got you. And I got him. And he ended up connecting me with somebody. One, two, six months later, we end up touring kennecott, Utah copper, just outside of salt lake city. And so then, you know, we're. We're kind of in the door with Rio tinto. But it wasn't anything huge. It was just kind of a tour. They let us take some pictures, but they were still pretty, pretty closed. Which I get. It's giant company understood. But then with that, I then got years Later, a tour with Kennecott again to actually make a video because I had now the credibility of, well, I already did this and I kind of knew some people, so on and so forth. So then we got in to do a video of the mine and then the smelter as well and everything like that. And then I used that. I'm like, hey, I'm going out to Western Australia. Like, oh yeah? Well, maybe we can show you some of. Can I see some of the iron ore? So they connect me with their Western Australia. I go see their iron ore and then they call me and then they're like, hey, that worked out really well because if you Google iron ore, our videos number one, we rank number one on Google for iron ore. So take that all you fucking haters, all right? Mission accomplished. So so they, they, they say, hey, we've got all these operations. We'd love to have you out. We go back up to their. To WEPA bauxite. Very northern Queensland in Australia. That does great. And then I'm like, Diavik diamond mine. You guys have been up there. I saw a documentary on these diamond mines when I was a kid and I've wanted to get into these damn places since because they're unbelievable. Unbelievable. I cannot wait to go last or is March. We're going at the end of February. I squeezed by, by a whisker. But that one came about because they started poking around Rio corporate. But then their COO follows me on LinkedIn and so he DM'd me on LinkedIn, saying, Hey, I heard you want to come out? Let's make it happen. I'm like, yeah, let's make it happen.

[Aaron]

That's great.

[Jason Richmond]

So that's the, you know, that's the whole. Yeah, you know, that's one example. Yeah, that's one example. And then every country is different. Every relationship's different. Like, it's no different to what you do. I mean, you can't approach.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Two companies in the same way. They're all different. And every, every opera. Yeah, everything's different.

[Aaron]

I'm just gonna ask because I'm curious. How do you know, like what to say yes to and what to say no to? Because I, I'm assuming that there's probably some things that just don't fit.

[Jason Richmond]

Whatever I think's cool, you just chase it. Whatever I think's cool, I just seriously, I approach like a six year old. Like if it gets six year old Aaron excited, yeah, I'm all in. Because I can't fake I'm right I'm a shit sport when it comes to, like, I can't get excited about something I'm not excited about.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

I just.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But if I'm excited about something.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I will go around the world.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

To see it. So.

[Aaron]

Yeah, it was interesting. I was fortunate to join you on a call that was like pre vlog that you're going to go do.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And there was a lot of people on the call.

[Jason Richmond]

Which one was that?

[Aaron]

It was, it was a tire company.

[Jason Richmond]

Okay, okay, okay.

[Aaron]

And the, the, the, the part that was fascinating to me was there was a lot of really smart people on that call and they were very strategic.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And there was a lot of conversation about the vision for the vlog. And then you came at them with, well, I'm just going to explain it like a, I'm explaining it to a six year old.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And when you started to talk about, like how you do the videos with them, it's like the light bulb went off. Like, oh, that's what's so interesting about what he's doing is it's educational, it's inspiring, it's entertaining. But he's explaining it like he's talking to a six year old and it's like, we are probably over complicating everything in a lot of ways. And so I've really taken that into consideration just as I. Talking with people about what we're doing.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. And like part of it's being direct, but then there's always a dance, especially when you're abroad. Like, that makes sense what you push and what you're just like, all right, I've just, I am at the whim of whatever's happening right now.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And because if I'm not, it's very rude and you know.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But the corp. The corporate stuff in the United States, hard. Like, thank God we have somebody like you. I mean, it's like, I think that was the call I left that call. Like, this is actually becoming a struggle for me. Like, I, I'm, I have less patience for it now. Like, I just, my tolerance is not.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I just don't have time. Like, I don't have time for it. Like, I'm, I'm just.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And I don't want that to come off the wrong way, but I just, especially these corporate people, they're just so. Or, you know, there was somebody and this, this one pissed me off. And I had to reflect upon, like, why did this piss me off so much? And it was, it was one person that was just super Dismissive on Dirt World. Like, I was like, hey, I'll circle up with you in the. In the new year to try to get this over the line. And they were like, listen, we have the information. We get it. You need to stop selling us this and this and that. And I thought about it, and I was like, listen, I eat what I fucking kill. If I don't kill, I don't eat. That's the program I'm on. We speak a different language here. You can go to the grocery store and buy whatever the you want. That's not how this works over here.

[Aaron]

Right?

[Jason Richmond]

If I don't kill, I don't eat.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And this is life or death. So. Right. You don't tell me to stop. You don't tell me to stop. Like, that's not how this works. And. And it just drove me nuts because I'm like, do you think I just wandered into all this? Like, yeah, we just found the Dirt World Summit under a fucking rock.

[Aaron]

Right?

[Jason Richmond]

You know, it's like, Right. No, I. We had to will it into existence and pound it into existence.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And hammer on every single person that has signed up. Every one of those tickets has been a fight.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

No one's been. Especially the first year. Like, sure, I'll come to your event. That's never happened before and is actually really expensive. Yeah, let's go.

[Aaron]

Right?

[Jason Richmond]

Every single one was.

[Aaron]

You know what's interesting? As I'm hearing you say that, I've never been more grateful than I am when I'm at the summit that week.

[Jason Richmond]

Oh, yeah.

[Aaron]

Because you just seem. And it's like, thank you. I love every single human that's there because they said yes. Because they believe in what we're doing. They believe in a vision and hope and to come together. It gives me. I mean, just a Gratitude is just. I've never experienced that much gratitude than what I do that week.

[Jason Richmond]

I agree. I've never had a more fulfilling two days.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Anywhere. Like, it's just unbelievable. It's unbelievable. But everybody's always like, oh, you must be just really happy and excited. I'm like, no, I'm just relieved, dude.

[Aaron]

I don't know why I'm thinking about this, but I'm just gonna share it. It's like. It kind of reminds me of, like, benefits almost. It's like, until something's taken away, you don't realize what you have. And I think sometimes in the Dirt World, like, people become complacent, you know, it's like they're Making so much money, the business is so good. Like, you know, they're kind of doing their things that, like, when they see this thing that somebody else is trying to do that's innovative and creative and. And challenging, the status quo and new or potentially, you know, different, it's like they're not willing to kind of stop and get off, like, this warm pile of poo that they're on because.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

You know, it's like they're just comfortable with where they're at.

[Jason Richmond]

This has taken me, though, I mean, almost 10 years now to figure out. You know, sometimes a lot of times, especially younger guys getting into it now, they're like, how'd you convince people? How'd you convince people? Fortunately, I learned this pretty early on that was, you can't convince people. You can't convince anybody.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

They either believe in it or they don't.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Serve those that believe.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

And that's what I always did. And fortunately, there was a big degree of luck where I was just kind of like the first guy to arrive on the scene as well. So I could capitalize upon then the first people that were bought into it and kind of chart a course from there. But I wasn't. I wasn't really ever convincing people. Everybody had to be bought in on it day one. And. And so now it's like, well, how do we convince an industry to get off their throne, for lack of better term, Right. For this. This very comfortable place that they're in? And you don't. I. The quote. I think I sent it in ELT a few weeks ago. You don't. There's no sense in challenging the current or previous model. You're just gonna piss people off as well, which is what I've done and what we've done. You create a new model that's so good, it makes the old model obsolete.

[Aaron]

That's good.

[Jason Richmond]

And that's exactly what we're doing. We're creating a whole new model that is so good and that makes each company so much better that it just like, why would I ever go back to that old model?

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Why would I ever be stressed out about people and not trust people and struggle with workforce and be so pissed off and bummed out and make less money ultimately, and have people turning over left and right and, like, why would I ever do that?

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

When there's a better way and then once they start going down the better way, it's like, hell, yeah, this is awesome. And a lot of people that I have on the Podcast. They've been like, even, even Judd from jp, I had him on recently. Great, great conversation. I mean, they've done some incredible things, but he was still, you know, kind of like an older dog. Self proclaimed. Like, I kind of have, you know, I'm in, I'm in my ways. He went to Dirt World. He's, he's implemented all of these changes within his business within a two year period.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Dramatic difference.

[Aaron]

That's great.

[Jason Richmond]

And you can tell he's like, he's, he's enjoying it. He's, he's finding so much fulfillment in it as well. Like he's the number one beneficiary.

[Aaron]

Right?

[Jason Richmond]

Go figure.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But then that just creates a whole new model that's so much more appealing, not just for his business, but now it forces everybody else to catch up.

[Aaron]

Yeah. So good. Yeah, it's, it's. And then you get a shine of light on jp. People get a watch. Exactly. And I was shining light on someone leading from the front and they get to see the benefits and you get to learn from them. Like, here's what worked, here's what didn't work. And so that's one of the things that I love that I'm seeing at the summit every year is like people are trying stuff and then they're coming back and they're getting together and like, hey, I tried that. That was amazing. That was awesome. That worked. Thanks for sharing that last year. Check. Or hey, I tried some stuff. Didn't really work. Might want to avoid this. And it's like those wins and lessons learned are just so valuable.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, and, and the relationships are compounding now as well.

[Aaron]

Well, and now I'm getting calls and saying, hey, can you connect me with. Yeah, because we're going to go do benchmarking. We're going to, we're going to go visit, we want to go see. And it's like, yes, this is amazing seeing people fly across the country, you know, to go and look at what others are doing. Because that's how you level up the entire industry.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, and, and it's kind of like, I think peer groups are still great, but it's almost circumvented the traditional peer group model now it's just been people like, yeah, I just, I see it on LinkedIn every day. I go on LinkedIn now. Some, two guys I know that's like, yeah, he just. Some guy somebody texted me the other day. He's like, yeah, you know, so and so is flying in. I just want to see if you'd have dinner with us. I'm like, what are you guys doing together?

[Aaron]

Right?

[Jason Richmond]

Dirt World, go figure. But two different. Totally. Parts of the country. Like, yeah, we can share anything anywhere.

[Aaron]

Totally.

[Jason Richmond]

And it's like, great.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

That do that.

[Aaron]

I can't imagine a dirt world leader saying, no, you're not welcome.

[Jason Richmond]

Like, not at Dirt World, but in the construction industry.

[Aaron]

True.

[Jason Richmond]

I can give you a long ass list.

[Aaron]

True. Because they're in that protect and defend mindset. Like, no, but Dirt World, like, if you're in that ecosystem, they're like, yeah, come on over. Yeah, come check it out. Let's go, let's go right around. Let's go see jobs. Let's go talk to people.

[Jason Richmond]

But it's, but, but again, like for us, even selfishly, it's so much more fun to deal with people like that. Oh, instead of just banging your head against the wall.

[Aaron]

Yeah, like, oh, yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It's just exhausting. Right. I just, but, but again, I'm like focused on where I get energy. Banging my head against the wall takes my energy. Go figure. Let's do less of that.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And let's just again pour into those that are pouring into themselves in the industry.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

That's where it's at. Let's go reward that. And the bigger we're only, our weight is only becoming more and more substantial. And so as we can continue then to put that weight behind those that are the great example now it goes even faster.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Like, it only goes faster from here, I think.

[Aaron]

Yeah, totally. So that's good. Yeah, that's fun.

[Jason Richmond]

I'm excited. Yeah, it's a really exciting year.

[Aaron]

It's gonna be an amazing year. It's hard to believe it's only February.

[Jason Richmond]

I know, I know, I know.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But it's, I've, I've never been as excited for a year.

[Aaron]

Yeah. We saw the dots. I think Randy or somebody shared, like, how many weeks are left for the, you know, for the year? 52 weeks in a year. Four weeks are down. You know, it's like 48 weeks left. And it's kind of been a motivator for me this year is like, make sure that you're being productive every single day.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. Well. And just acting with urgency that that's one thing that it just bothers the shit out of me. But it's, it's been a, it's been a skill that I've built over a long period of time, but just like doing a lot like being urgent.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

One of the things I've always thought about was. I read a book by Steve Irwin's widow.

[Aaron]

Haven't read it.

[Jason Richmond]

It's, it's, it's. I don't really. I read it years ago, but it was about them and Steve and it was like the relationship and everything. Like, that was really interesting. But she said something that just really. That just clearly stuck with me and that's. He just had this sense of urgency because he had this feeling that he didn't have a full life.

[Aaron]

That's interesting.

[Jason Richmond]

And so he died so early, but he lived so much more life than anybody that's living till 80 and made a way bigger impact on the world. That's good than anybody. That's, you know, most, most, most people that have lived a full life. And I thought that was so, so interesting. Like, he had this feeling that, like, I'm not gonna have it all.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And so I better just maximize what I have. But that's, I think that's such a great way to live because worst case scenario, you do have it. All.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Or best case scenario, you know, and then now you have more time to do more with, like. But to assume that I have a full life, a full career, is a really silly assumption.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Like, that's a very, very faulty line of logic.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

So I, like, I better go as hard as I can today.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I better go as hard as I can this week because that's kind of all I got.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And then I do it again tomorrow, I do it again the next week, over and over and over and over again. And then that compounding kicks in. Now you're cooking.

[Aaron]

Totally.

[Jason Richmond]

That's really cool. But it's just so many people lack urgency. It's like, I don't have time to just sit around, man. I don't have time to think about things. I don't have time to have three fucking meetings about the same thing. Like, I can't, I can't do it. I can't do it. Like, we've, we've just got, we've got to get on with the program here.

[Aaron]

Yeah. One thing I found when it comes to that is, no, nobody wants three meetings. And so the first person that just says, let's act with urgency or let's get to the point, or why are we doing it this way? Like, everybody is like, oh, relieved. Like, oh, thank. Good that, you know, we're moving forward faster, you know, when it comes to this. And let's make decisions and let's move forward. So that's good.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. Yeah. Even when, when someone's having me on their podcast, can we meet about it beforehand?

[Aaron]

I'm like, no.

[Jason Richmond]

Why? No, like, yeah, we will meet about it when we have the podcast.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Ask me anything. Yeah, we'll talk about it. Great. That's good.

[Aaron]

Speaking of urgency, I was just thinking about 150 tickets already sold for John Deere's Training Center. That's going to be pretty cool being in Phoenix, been in your home state, but going to Sacaten to go to the training center. I'm pretty stoked about that.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, I haven't been there since 2018.

[Aaron]

I'm looking forward to it. It should be a lot of fun. They've got like 28 new machines. They're gonna have a whole bunch of them there. I'm gonna be able to get, to get out and you know, run some

[Jason Richmond]

equipment and it's really cool.

[Aaron]

I'm pretty stoked about that. I think that's gonna be a lot of fun this year.

[Jason Richmond]

No, it's. It's really cool. Con Expo will be great. Yeah, we'll spend time with them. We'll spend time with, spend time at Komatsu, at Hitachi.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Hyundai. There's one manufacturer that could give a. They also paint things yellow. We bear.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Great relationship with them now. So it'll be a really good show.

[Aaron]

Yeah. I've seen several people posting here recently, like going to Con Expo. First time. What's the best advice? And it's so funny how many people talk about wear comfortable shoes.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, it's a lot.

[Aaron]

Be a few miles. Do you still work out that week?

[Jason Richmond]

Every day.

[Aaron]

Every day.

[Jason Richmond]

Every day. Yeah, every day. Every day. Every day.

[Aaron]

That's good.

[Jason Richmond]

Every day.

[Aaron]

Mm.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah. I've gotten on that program. I do take Sundays off, but.

[Jason Richmond]

That's good.

[Aaron]

Yeah, it's been quite good for you.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah. It's been good for. My body needs to recover.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. Yeah. So you've been running every day, 5

[Aaron]

miles, 5am I haven't stopped. I ran this morning, 3amI got up early before drove down to Nashville.

[Jason Richmond]

So that builds character. There you go.

[Aaron]

I'll never forget that I called you that one day. I was like talking to you about like, it's dark, it's cold, there's snow on the ground, you know, and, and you said it builds character. You're like, that builds character. And so now when I'm out there on Those crappy days, minus 14 degree weather, I'm like thinking about Aaron's like, I'm out here Building character.

[Jason Richmond]

It's good for you. Yeah, it's. It's really good because life is so cush.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It's so comfortable.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And that's where I think a lot of people are just so anxious because they don't get it out of them. Like, if you're. If you have problems mentally.

[Aaron]

Mm.

[Jason Richmond]

Like, step one, what are you eating?

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Are you exercising?

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

That's pretty low hanging fruit. Not saying there's other things that don't need to happen, but.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Until those two basic conditions are met, even if you're not feeling well physically, like.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Any problem with your body or mind?

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Are you. What are you eating?

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Are you exercising? I would start there because I would be a disaster if I didn't work out everybody every day.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I'd be a mess. I'd be. I'd be. No one would work here because I'd probably just be such a terrible person.

[Aaron]

Yeah. I'm looking at your Ironman hat, and one thing I'm thinking about too. You probably don't even know I paid this much attention to things that you say, but, you know, I was doing that challenge the whole month. And I'm a talker. I tend to share what's on my mind and on my heart pretty regularly, pretty often. But this one, I was like, no, I'm gonna hold back. I want to complete the mission and then I'll talk about it. And I've heard you say things like, you know, I don't wear the hat until I finish the race.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And the whole time, you know, I was thinking about building character. But also on those days that I didn't want to do it, I'm like, I want to be able to wear the hat. And so, you know, 135 miles for the month of January, it was like, just keep going. That's.

[Jason Richmond]

That's big mileage. Yeah, that is big mileage. That's more. Yeah. Like I told you, that's more than I did in January.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Well. And, you know, I've got an artificial hip.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And so, like, there's a million excuses that I could kind of come up with, but, you know, it. I feel so much better mentally, physically. It makes the hard days easier. Just like you're saying, and now I'm on the program now it's like, I don't want to quit.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, and that. That. That's one of my core motivators is like, this is. This is it. This is the rest of my life.

[Aaron]

Right. Well, I've learned I'm an addict.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

In general. And so I have to be really careful with what I commit to because my personality is all or none.

[Jason Richmond]

That's why I've never done drugs. I'd probably have too good of a time, honestly.

[Aaron]

That's why I had to quit drinking eight plus years ago, is because I didn't know how to have two.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Aaron]

I tell people I had two, but it was more like two at a time. The industry, like, it was normal. Hey, let's go here, let's go, you know, whatever. But no, it's, I, I've had to get better at what I'm saying yes to. And physical fitness has been one of those things that I'm glad I'm saying yes to again right now.

[Jason Richmond]

Has it? Because I know your kids are pretty active.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It's probably helped with family as well.

[Aaron]

Oh yeah, it's. Yeah, it's been interesting. Like the family's watching and they're cheering and they're asking like it's, it's created a new conversation. How was your run today? Which seems so simple, but it's like I have a 16 year old and a 14 year old and just trying to connect with them is, you know, sometimes challenging. But the fact that we now have, you know, an activity that they could ask, you know, how it's going and what's going on and they're, they're super active as well. Graham's playing basketball and golf. You know Drew, she works out with Carrie, which is, you know, incredible. And that's awesome. Yeah. So the family's all active and having

[Jason Richmond]

a good time and you went on a two week hiking adventures.

[Aaron]

Yeah, to Zion out in Utah. That was, that was fall break last year, right before the summit. So, yeah, it was amazing. But we've really gotten into hiking as a family and just to be honest with you, you know, like I was, you know, I think I've shared this with you, but, you know, I was winning at work, but I was losing at home last year and had to make some changes. And one of the things that I learned in digging in at home was, you know, that Carrie loves to go hiking. And what I learned was like, oh, the family likes to go. And so we started doing some Indiana hikes, just local state parks and some different places. And next one, two, six, we're going to Zion. And we spent, you know, 12 days out there, two weeks. It was incredible. We went to Bryce Canyon, went to Grand Canyon, went over to Antelope, and I mean so we. We just hit, you know, all the different places that we could, and we had just an absolute blast out there.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. Because you're thinking before, that was Florida.

[Aaron]

Yes. So I was the traditional, like, way different vibe. Vacation was just like, go to the beach, go south, like, you know, all the time. And now it's like, like, well. And you've kind of helped inspire me, too. Just like, you know, I. I've never been to Salt Lake City, but I got to fly out there with you, and I get to see all these different parts of the world. Now that I've kind of opened my eyes to the west, it's like, oh, I want to help show my family other parts of the world, because there's different places and cultures that.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. And there's, like. There's so much value to an experience as well. It's just so much more rich.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Like, I don't know, I get sitting on a beach and being comfortable, but you're not going to be thinking about it.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Years from now, you know, like, wow, that time that I was on a beach, like, I thought about this when we were in Maui last. Last year. You know, you go to Maui and you go to this resort. It's beautiful.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And then everybody just sits at the resort pool.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And you're like, I mean, I get it. Yeah. It's very comfortable. It's very nice. But, like, doesn't this get old? Isn't. There's not a lot here? Like, it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Doesn't give me a lot. Whereas, like, going on that trip, going to Lahaina and, you know, helping. Helping, like, the conference, everything was great. But, like, helping chemo at this house.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

For a morning.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

That to me. Yeah. That to me was just, like. It was a lot more rich.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

That's what I'll remember.

[Aaron]

Mm.

[Jason Richmond]

I won't remember.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Hanging out the pool. I'll remember that.

[Aaron]

The experience.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, the experience, which I think is so cool. And I've even, like, I'm not. I don't have a family yet, so who the hell knows? But even, like, the older I've got, even things like Christmas and all the gifts and everything like that, I'm like, I don't get it. I don't get it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It doesn't. It doesn't make sense to me. Like, why not create an experience.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Instead of.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

A bunch of stuff that no one's gonna recall three months from now.

[Aaron]

Right. Totally. We're on that program now. We're doing. We're planning More trips like that. As a matter of fact, my daughter, she'll be a senior next year. And so we said, you know, hey, you get to pick the, the trip. And she's always wanting to go to Hawaii. So we are planning to go to Maui.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. But the hiking in Maui or Haleakala,

[Aaron]

we're going to go watch sunrise, you know, from the top of the mountain. There's, there's several different.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, Maui's beautiful.

[Aaron]

I can't wait.

[Jason Richmond]

There's so much to Maui that most people don't see, but it's unbelievable. It's a beautiful place.

[Aaron]

Some of the things I'll do that I won't be excited about, like ziplining, I'm not my thing, but I will be doing it just because the family wants to do it. So whole different mindset, you know, when it comes to experiences. And they're going to get to watch me scream.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So that'll be a lot of fun.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, that's fun. That's. I like it. The experience thing is.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Far greater.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. I've tried to.

[Aaron]

Well, what's the crazy thing is like what I found is since post trip, like even at home, you know, we're doing more sit down meals and having conversations and talking about things. How many, how often we gravitate back to you remember when you remember that one day or oh my gosh, we laugh so hard about that, you know, experience. And it's all from the experience in the trip. And you just, you don't get that over an item or a merchandise or you know, something that you've, you know, kind of given. So this is a, this is a whole new world that we're loving.

[Jason Richmond]

That's cool.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. I just, yeah, it's, it's just like life's more fun when you have some creativity to it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Everybody lives like the same.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Just the same life.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And I'm looking around, I'm like, why you don't have to do that. Or even weddings is another thing I've thought about. Like everybody has the same wedding, the same thing.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It's, it's identical. Like you just switch out the bride and groom.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And it looks, it's like, why, why? Like sometimes I get it, like sometimes for your parents, this and that. But thank God my parents aren't like that. I don't have to live for them, which is very backwards.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But it's like, why wouldn't I just have something that I would enjoy.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

With my wife, to be with, with people. I Want to be there.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And I know I don't have a vote in this. Depending on who I marry, I pray I marry someone aligned on this. But it's like, why? Why? Just. It's like everybody goes to the playbook. Like, marriage playbook. Tear that one out. All right, we'll run that. And they don't. They don't. Or. Or another, like, random topics here.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Company offices. We're going to build an office. Let's make it look like an office. And it's like, why? Yeah, why? Right, why? You don't have to do this. You don't have to make it like this. You don't have to make it sterile. You have to make it like bank of America.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Does anybody. Is anybody like, wow, my life just got so much better walking into bank of America today. You know, it's just like, no one wants to be there. Like a dentist's office. It's just nothing. Nothing about. It's warm.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Unless you go to my childhood dentist, which had, like, giraffes and shit, which is pretty cool. But it's like, you build this beautiful, big new office, spend millions of dollars. You could have spent the exact same amount of money.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Putting a little bit of creativity into it all.

[Aaron]

That's right. Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Why not do it? It drives me nuts.

[Aaron]

It's funny that you're talking about this. I think we're cut from the same cloth. Just decades apart. I proposed to carry on the Statue of Liberty in New York. So very unique, Very different.

[Jason Richmond]

At the bottom of the top.

[Aaron]

At the bottom. It was windy that day. We can't get to the top, so we were just at the base. But it was. It was fun being there, you know? And then to your point, we got married at the Atlantis in the Bahamas on the beach. So cool. I wore shorts and barefoot. I said, yeah, I'm not doing the traditional tuxedo.

[Jason Richmond]

So that place is incredible.

[Aaron]

That place is just. It's. It's so amazing. But 100% aligned there. And then, you know, over a decade ago, I'd have to look back. I don't know. It was 15 years ago, but I can remember studying Googleplex and thinking to myself back then, like, what an amazing. Like, I get it, you know, slides and stuff. In the dirt world, maybe aren't, you know, the perfect thing, but they were just doing so many unique things with the office space and creativity and thinking different and stations and spaces and experiences and all the things. And. And so I talked about creating Irvingplex and how we could do something uniquely different. But it was so far fetched type thing. I do think that there is a huge opportunity in the dirt world for people to rethink office space in a much more meaningful, experiential way.

[Jason Richmond]

100%. Yeah. And every time I talk to somebody doing it, I'm like, think through this, think through that. I try to. Cause they're about to go spend a boatload of money. It doesn't cost any more money. That's the crazy thing about it. It just takes a little bit of like, all right, I'm gonna break the mold here a little bit. I always liked the example of Pixar with Steve Jobs and how he designed it. It was actually like, it wasn't that great of a design because it forced everybody through this central atrium and it was actually kind of inconvenient. Or even Zappos was the same thing. He would lock all the doors, which I don't even know. It might have been against fire code, except for the front door. So that everybody had to go through the front door to just create random interaction. Yes. Between people. That wouldn't happen otherwise.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And it's like that's the kind of design and thinking that I love.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

That's incredible. And I think that's what we're trying to do. Not to bring it all back to dirt World.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But also with Dirt World.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

How do people flow through space?

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

We're like, we're trying to socially engineer it all to maximize value. And like one of the more obvious things we did was the table assignments.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Which I was nervous about.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I didn't think it was gonna work. And it worked incredibly well. But like, without a forcing function, it's not gonna happen.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

People are not gonna go get out of their comfort zones. Like, it's just. It's human nature.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

So you've got to disrupt it in some way.

[Aaron]

Totally.

[Jason Richmond]

And force it to happen. We did. Everybody. It's in everybody's best interest.

[Aaron]

So much so that people are actually calling and asking if we're going to do it again this year.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And we are. Which is amazing. We're going to do a little different, which I think is a lot of fun. But we are going to do it. We're going to do it at lunch. So we've got like a 90 minute lunch planned and we're going to do that forcing action at lunch this year. Great. Plus we're going to put some conversation starters, you know, out on the table, you know, potentially to kind of prompting Questions. And I'm sure they'll take it and run with it, but sure. It's going to be, you know, last year, Wally and I were on stage and asking questions. Questions. This time we can just do it right from the lunch table. So that's really. Get them to know each other, talk to each other. You know, I think that that'll be a really cool lunch. Something that they've, you know, never experienced before.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, that'll be great.

[Aaron]

Yeah, it's gonna be good this year.

[Jason Richmond]

And even last year, it was incredible how many people were in the exhibit hall the whole time.

[Aaron]

Oh, totally.

[Jason Richmond]

Unbelievable.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, they genuinely want to learn. Like, the exhibitors that are there are unique. They're different. It's, you know, it's boutique. But, like, they're adding value. And so those that were in attendance were genuinely interested in their products and services that they had. And so it was really cool to see the interaction, you know, that was taking place throughout the entire exhibit hall.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. But I mean, that was last year was a stark contrast to the first two years. Like.

[Aaron]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

The first year was just basement. We were winging it, man. That was. Everybody was like, why was it in Houston? Because it was available.

[Aaron]

Dan lives in Houston.

[Jason Richmond]

He could drive down to go look at it. Yeah. And it was cheap. And. Yeah. It's like, there's not a lot of thought here.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And then San Antonio was. Was better.

[Aaron]

Sure.

[Jason Richmond]

At least. At least the speaking and the exhibitors were in the same space, but it still wasn't all that busy because you could. Where were the meals on that one? The meals were in the same place. It was all in the same place. So you could kind of just walk through and go right to.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Whereas this time, to get to the meals, you had to flow through.

[Aaron]

Yep.

[Jason Richmond]

So you had to check out the exhibitors as you were going to eat. Yeah, that was. That worked out brilliantly well.

[Aaron]

And this year at Summit in Phoenix, we have the whole south convention center. So we're gonna have main stage. We'll have all the dining and then the exhibit area, all one floor. So it's lots of interaction, lots of flowing. So it's going to be really, really good this year.

[Jason Richmond]

Sure. Well, and that's the. And I've tried to explain this to people. Like, you can get something like the Gaylord. That's a. It's like a great experience from a resort standpoint.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But then you're stuck with the space that they give you.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Which is not flexible.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

At all. Like, the exhibit space was two floors away from the ballroom this time around. That's right. And then they're very particular. Like there was this big screen going into our space, but it was like 15 grand to put anything on the screen. It's stupid stuff like that. And then, and then there was a weight restriction for. So we couldn't really have equipment this year or anything heavy. Which. Which sucked because a lot of people asked for it. And again, we don't want to be Con Expo, but.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

It's Dirt World.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

We want some, we want something.

[Aaron]

Some equipment.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. Come on down.

[Aaron]

Let's go.

[Jason Richmond]

So the convention center is not as good from like a facility like.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Like all encompassing resort.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But the point is not going to a resort. Like, if we're building an event around where it is, I think we're doing it wrong.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

We're building an event based on the quality of the event itself and a convention center. Blank slate.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Which gives us so much flexibility on how to make it as good as possible.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Which I think.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Will be really beneficial this year.

[Aaron]

Totally. Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And Phoenix is so funny because like I said when we were looking at it, I grew up going to car shows in that convention center.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And we're renting the. We're renting it now.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Go figure.

[Aaron]

It's gonna be yours for three days.

[Jason Richmond]

That's so funny. It's just, it's. It's so fun. Like I. Yeah. When I was a kid, me and my brother, my dad would go to the car show every year.

[Aaron]

That's amazing.

[Jason Richmond]

At the convention center.

[Aaron]

That's amazing. So it's gonna be a lot of fun from a fan's perspective. It's like it makes you real.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

I see like all the equipment and the stuff and all, but like some of these posts that you've shared here recently of like the family. I'm like, oh, man. Just warms my heart.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

It's good. It's good for you. It's good for the soul. It's good for the dirt world to see. Like you're. You're truly like leaning in and leading by example.

[Jason Richmond]

I try, I try to just share what's going on. Family. Family is one thing. It's another one of those things. Everybody acts like it's just great all the time. And then you talk to people one on one. You're like, this family thing is pretty messed up.

[Aaron]

Are you talking about humans?

[Jason Richmond]

Like, yeah, pretty messed up. Like, so why didn't anybody talk about this? What's going on here.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I mean, it's. It's. It is so complicated.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Relationships are hard.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

I mean, that's just all there is to it. It's relationships. It's communication. You've got different visions. It's like trying to keep everybody on the same. It's. You think it's like this perfect, you know, line. It's like, it's not.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And so, I mean, like, even in my own small family, like, I'm trying to figure it out, but there's always stuff going on. Like, I want to air the dirty laundry, but it's like somebody's sick or somebody's hurt or somebody's got a problem or tires.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, the goal post is always. And then with kids, too, it's. I mean, year to year, it's different with just where they are.

[Aaron]

Oh, yeah. And it's ever changing. And our son, 14, is going through, like, all the changes right now. It's just like, bro, come back to, like, where'd that sweet, innocent kid go?

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. I mean, yeah. You get into that party life where you're like, all right, like, I've got to figure myself out here.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And then you start to see your parents as, well, people, not parents.

[Aaron]

Right. And that having real conversations that are very different than I've ever had.

[Jason Richmond]

Well. And. Yeah. And accepting that your parents are flawed just like you.

[Aaron]

Yeah. It's like, oh, mom, dad, why didn't you tell me that you guys struggled with xyz? I would have been nice to have known. Like, you could have shared with the class. Yeah, but that's. It's super healthy, and it's one of the things, like, transparency wins is one of our core values. It's something Carrie and I have been adopting more of. And so we've been talking with our kids and our family more transparently, and it has opened up some fantastic conversations. Like, hey, we're struggling with xyz. Just want to make sure everybody knows we're struggling with xyz.

[Jason Richmond]

Sure.

[Aaron]

Oh. Then everybody starts trying to solve xyz, and we're in it together. So. Yeah, it's been beautifully hard.

[Jason Richmond]

Sure. Yeah. Transparency, though, is such a. Just an unbelievable tool. I mean, even I don't know if it's right, wrong, and different. But like I was saying at the beginning, we're thinking about changing the structure of a part of the team right now.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And we've done that a few times, and usually it's behind closed doors. Let's figure out the structure and then just roll it out to everybody, and then it doesn't go well.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Go figure. So this time, we're. We're, like, halfway through. I don't have any of the ideas, anything like that. It's still in the discovery phase. But I was like, all right, you know what? I'm just gonna sit everybody down tomorrow, and I'm just gonna be like, listen, we haven't figured any of this out. Yeah. I don't have any of the answers right now, but here are the conversations that are happening.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Here's the information as of today.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Just so you're aware.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Just so you can be thinking about it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Just so that when we do create a plan, you can weigh in.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And we can ensure that this is the best plan for everybody.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And everybody was like, cool, thanks.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And you're like, oh, yeah, this is a better way. I don't have to just do all this behind the curtain. I can just talk to everybody about it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

We can just have conversations.

[Aaron]

The Durworld team's meeting right now talking about connect, and it's the same thing we talked on ELT on Friday. Challenges, what we're trying to accomplish, you know, this way. And I talked to the team yesterday, and I said, hey, just dig in. You know, be critical. But transparently, like, we don't have it all figured out, but some things have got to shift and change, and, you know, we've got to figure out champions, and what does that look like? And how do we get more. More people in and how do we open it up and, you know, all the things. But I promise you, here's the wild thing, like, because I was transparent about, like, the conversations that we're having, and then give it to the team, it'll be a thousand times better than Jason tries to figure it out.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

A thousand times. But they are so smart, and they'll come up with so much better ideas by just, you know, giving it to them and then working on it together as we try to figure out the best solution moving forward.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, but you'll be surprised when you just genuinely trust people. Like, I think that's part of the reason why I wasn't such a. As a kid is, like, I felt like I had my parents trust, and I wasn't gonna mess with it. Like, and I would brush against the guardrails every once in a while, and they'd be like, all right, hey, Got a little closer. But I wasn't really gonna push.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Because I didn't want to screw it up.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Which was a really good system. And then I made a post about the other day. Like, it's actually incredible. I don't even know why my mom has this shit, but she's a mom. Of course. It's like a piece of paper that's like, what I want to be or whatever it is when I'm like 7 or 8 years old. And it's like, I love trucks. I love fish. Well, I have an aquarium at my desk that's covered in trucks with truck pictures, and all I do is look at trucks.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Pretty spot on.

[Aaron]

I love that post.

[Jason Richmond]

It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable almost. It's like, you can't.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Are you making this up? But then it's. It's just because my parents were like, no, you're gonna go be a doctor, right? You're gonna go be a lawyer. Like, that's. My dad was a lawyer. Like, you think, like, you should be a lawyer, right? He was like, don't be a lawyer because you're gonna hate it. He loved it.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But he's like, not for you, bucko. Not your thing.

[Aaron]

It's interesting because with my kids 16 and 14, you know, in high school, they start being conditioned to, what are you gonna be when you grow up? What are you gonna do? And they start trying to move them in this pathway. And there's always been military or college.

[Jason Richmond]

Sure. And then even within college, it's pretty limited. You go get a business degree, you get a marketing degree, Get a communications degree.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Pre med.

[Aaron]

Ironically, for Drew, my daughter, or our daughter, she kind of went through the system with the old system, and now Graham is about to go through it with a new system. And the new system, for the first time, has door number three. Door number three is skilled traits or careers. So it's military college or career path. So he's now taking classes like engineering and construction, you know, trades and all these different. You know, he's being exposed to so much more, and. And I'm just really excited for him to go and experience high school and to be able to try out some of these things.

[Jason Richmond]

It's so cool.

[Aaron]

It's so different.

[Jason Richmond]

It's in, like, again, I can't. I can't speak to this. I'm not a parent, but I feel like a parent. Parents job is to, like, allow their kid to go explore a bunch of stuff and then to pick up on what they're really jiving with.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And then to nurture that.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Like, this is too special. Let's breathe life into it, whatever this is, but help them explore and play around with stuff. And that, that's the biggest tragedy that I think high school and college is. It forces these kids into this path.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

When they're 17, 18, 19, 20, they don't know what the heck's going on. Going on.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

They can't, they don't know.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

It's so unreasonable. It takes, it takes so much experimentation to find anything. And then you get a whole generation that's miserable and frustrated, which is where we are.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Well, you've talked about, like, in your 20s, like, that's been like, the most amazing time. You were able to go and see the world and try new things and experience stuff and, and fail. Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And, yeah. And learn things through relationships and, and I mean, man, there was a, a lot of experimentation in my 20s from a parenting perspective.

[Aaron]

I've talked about this before with others, but, you know, I, I, I, I did this men's group, and they talked about, like, zero to six, you're nurturing your children six to 12, you're coaching them. And then 12 to 18, you're influen. And if you don't go through those stages, then when they get out past 18, you don't have influence over your children. Sure. And so for me, it's been, you know, I probably was not as present during the nurturing phase. Like, I have some regrets, just to be totally frank with you. I was working. I was, you know, 60 plus hours a week, you know, and I was grinding and doing the things and whatnot. And then I came in about halfway through coaching. I was like, oh, I'm a parent. This is important. Carries by herself. I'm screwing up. Things need to get, things need to be different. It's part of the reason why I quit drinking eight years ago. Do the math. It's pretty simple. And so, you know, but I, I wasn't too late. And I think that that was the thing that was, you know, it's like, I could have just been like, ah, it's too late, I'm done. Like, I screwed up. Cash me out. But no, I'm like, no, I'm gonna dig in right here. I'm gonna do as much as I can. And so it's just been an incredible process to kind of go through. But Carrie and I are speaking about it transparently, and I'm just grateful now because at 16 and 14, like, if we didn't have influence over them right now, we could be in a world of hurts.

[Jason Richmond]

Sure.

[Aaron]

And so, but we're also one of the things that we talk about a lot is we want them. You know, like, the world tries to take away their creativity. It's like they could compartmentalize them, put them in a box, put them, you know, put them in. And so we keep trying to open it up and it's like, ah, they're, they're naive. Like, we're worried about. Are they too naive to what's. It's like, no, it's a beautiful thing. Like, just let them think that they can do anything that they want in the world because the truth is they really can.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And so we want to make sure they. So Drew, for example, she loves animals. Love. Just loves animals. She's taking a vet class right now. She. She's trying to figure out, like, what am I going to do with animals? And so we've like explored all these things. Like, you could be a dog walker, you could be a vet tech, you could, hey, crazy thing. But like, just, what if you own the entire building and you did like pet grooming and had a vet tech and you had supplies, like all in a one stop shop. She's like, oh, you mean I could do something like that? I'm like, you can do whatever you want. Blank slate, Blake slate. Graham, on the other hand, he's 14. He's like, dad, can you get me a job in landscaping this year? Like, I need a Toyota Tacoma and a trailer. I'm like, you're 14, you're going on 15, bro. He's like, so here has to fill out the paperwork. So he's already signed up freshman year. He's gonna do engineering classes at the top. You have to put in like, career. He wrote down entrepreneur.

[Jason Richmond]

There you go.

[Aaron]

I'm like, this dude's gonna be. This is gonna be fun.

[Jason Richmond]

If you've got that itch, you've got to scratch it.

[Aaron]

Yeah, yeah. He's gonna be chasing it for sure.

[Jason Richmond]

And you know, if you do or don't, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like my, my path was predetermined. I knew I was going to be starting at some point. It's just, it's just in my DNA. But it, but it's, it's. Yeah, it's the biggest blessing to know that you're doing exactly what you should be doing.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

It's, it's so, it's such a blessing.

[Aaron]

Well, and I feel like that's where I'm at now. Like, I've talked about it before, but, you know, I've had several roles here at Build wit. And I. I didn't really. I kind of just have done whatever because I believed in the mission, and I love the people, and I want to change for the industry for the better. Like, a fit, you know, I just. And so I was really excited to be a part of this. And, you know, last year, June, July, when, you know, I was talking with you and Randy and others, it was just like, I was kind of like, oh, I don't know. My identity was kind of wrapped up in, did I fail at this role? You know, I only did it for six months. Normally, I would do a role for six years and then I would change. So six months kind of felt short. And then it was like, hey, we really want you to, like, go over here and explore this dirt world thing and, like, you know, unite the industry. And the more I dug into it, I'm like, this is what I was called to do.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, but that. And that was what was fun for us. And that's part of leadership is. And sometimes it takes time to really observe your people and really understand. Like, this is what I'm doing with media right now as well, is like, it was really cool because I. I penciled out, like, all right, maybe here's what the org chart looks like. And I'm looking at it. I'm like, like, everybody wins here. Like, everybody wins. There's not a single loser here. Like, this is all so paired nicely with who they are and what they're best at and I think what they want to achieve. And maybe there's some things, assumptions that are wrong, that can be solved in conversation, but, like, for you, it was like, something needs to change, and we recognize that there needs. There needed to be a forcing function of, like, yeah, oh, yeah, this needs to happen. But. But it was in such a. It was. It was from our perspective. I know it wasn't easy from your perspective, but it was so easy from our perspective because it's like, wait, this is so much better. Yeah,

[Aaron]

my life is a thousand times better.

[Jason Richmond]

And then it ended up being better. It's like, yeah, I. That was a pretty safe bet.

[Aaron]

Yeah, I was so grateful, like, at the time, I didn't. Like, when you're in it, sometimes you don't get it. And I think that happens in any business, in any position and whatever. Sometimes, like. And so I would just encourage, like, the lesson I learned was take a step back, trust your team, trust the. Trust your leadership, you know, and then give it up. Give it hell, Give it everything you got. And what I found is, you know, I joined an incredible team with, you know, Nikki and Kara, and we brought on Robert, and we're working with Brandon and Tracy. And, you know, it's just a really talented group of people, and my job is almost like, at times it's just like, stay out of the way. But also, you know, partnering up with you, I mean, you've crushed it with ticket sales and, you know, me going after sponsorships and, like, we all just kind of got in our lanes, and it's. It's beautiful when, you know, you. You get it, right.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And it feels. It just feels really good right now.

[Jason Richmond]

It's. It's so much more fun. And. And like, parenting is one thing, but in business, it's the same thing. I see so many people trying to do everything and not trusting their people.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Like, dude, I. I would. I would be screwed if I didn't. It's so much more fun and fulfilling to just trust everybody.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

To do their best.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And to be an adult, like, that's right. It's. It's incredible.

[Aaron]

Totally.

[Jason Richmond]

It's. It's so much fun. One. One other thing, too, that I was thinking about when you. When you were talking is the. The power of shame. I've thought a lot about this.

[Aaron]

Let's talk.

[Jason Richmond]

It. It is so corrosive when you, like, you were talking about parenting and how you have regrets.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Like, you can let that shame poison the future.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

It is just. It is such a powerful force that I. That I have. I have succumbed to, especially over the past few years personally, from a relationship standpoint. Like, I had really some things up that I just let stay with me, which then sabotaged the future and then same in business. Like, that's. I think part of the reason why this year so different is one. I mean, we're not, like, I'm not wondering about payroll next. Next week.

[Aaron]

Sure.

[Jason Richmond]

Which is.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. That is such a luxury. That in itself, man. I feel like a million bucks. A million bucks. So that's part of it. But. But I've had a lot of shame that I've carried for years from a lot of dumb shit in the past. Like, we made a lot of mistakes. We screwed up a lot of things with a lot of people with all kinds of stuff, and I was just carrying that with me, and it was just weighing me down further and further and further. And that's what's so devious about. Doesn't just make you suffer in the moment. It perpetuates the suffering in A way the longer you carry it. And it just. I'm still working through it, but I'm at the point where I'm like, I'm not carrying this around anymore. All right, yes, I fucked up. Yes, I'm going to learn some lessons. I have learned many lessons as a result, but I was doing my best. I wasn't intentionally trying to screw up people over, screw people over, screw things up, make bad decisions, do dumb things financially, like, in the moment, I was genuinely doing what I thought was best.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

The whole time like that. That's. That's never been false. I've always genuinely been doing what I think is best and what I think is right. Yeah, it's been wrong a lot of times over, but, yeah, I can learn from it. Let's keep on moving.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And that's been. It's been. It's been a weight off.

[Aaron]

Like, truth will set you free. And. Yeah, I. You know, I have openly been more transparent and talked about, you know, things that I'm shameful for or dealing with, you know, and it's like as soon as I get it out, you know, when it's stuck inside, it's just in this weird spiral, and it just keeps revisiting and revisiting and revisiting and re. And I just. Just. I've got to get it out. So sometimes I'll journal or write it down. Sometimes I'll call a friend.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Talk to Carrie, maybe talk to a counselor, you know, whatever. It may be like a prayer, it's got to get out, because you can't heal until you move forward. And at times I've been like, oh, I gotta go repair all these things with all these people and go make everything right, you know, and it's like, I'm never going to be able to chase down all of that. No.

[Jason Richmond]

And.

[Aaron]

And.

[Jason Richmond]

And you will be more unkind to yourself than anybody will be unkind to you.

[Aaron]

100.

[Jason Richmond]

You are 100%, your number one worst critic. Number one critic. I mean, but in just sometimes in terrible ways, I mean, really destructive ways, you can go down some pathways that is just. Again, it's not in anybody's interest.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

But it's so easy to do.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It's so quick to do.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

So I've just. I've thought a lot about that, but, man, it just. I just feel so different. Feel so light.

[Aaron]

Yeah. It makes me think about. You know, I have conversations with people every day. On the dirt world, you talk to

[Jason Richmond]

more people than anybody all day, every day.

[Aaron]

Just. I'M talking to people every day and, you know, a lot of times I'm talking about, you know, just kind of who we are and what we do and all these different things. And, you know, I get to. We have a slide deck that kind of shows all of our solutions and stuff. And I. And sometimes when we're talking about build and improve, we're talking about our content categories and, you know, there's the job training, professional development, personal development and safety. And I always lean into personal development. And, you know, I've kind of got this saying, you know, where it's like, you know, too many people bought a house they can't afford, a boat they don't need, and Harley they can't figure out how to pay for. Next thing you know they're drinking or doing drugs. Now they got relational problems now they're not sleeping well, now they're in gas station food, they're spiraling. Now they got, you know, mental health, you know, challenges. And they show up on the job site and they can't figure out why Johnny or Sally got hurt. And it's like they're not even there. They're not present, you know, like they're physically there, but mentally, you know, they're hurting. And so, you know, as we talk about, like shame and guilt and all the things, it's like, I feel like there's a certain part of the dirt world that we've got to own up to. These are humans that are dealing with real life, with real problems, whether it's. And digging into that personal side of things, checking in with them. How you doing? You know, what's going on in your life right now? Because if you can't identify that somebody's in a bad space, chances are they're probably going to get hurt on the job that day or they're not going to be as productive, they're not going to be as efficient, they're not going to be a team player. And so, like, there's just such a huge opportunity to lean into this, developing the whole person.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, and I. That's the biggest opportunity in the industry. And I've reflected a lot about this. It's actually in my latest talk that, like, why is the safety helmet thing bothered me so much?

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And it's like, I don't even give a shit about safety helmets. Okay. I believe all the research, this and that. They're better. Okay, great. Like head injuries, so and so forth. Head injuries are about falls, so not strictly head injuries, but falls are about a third of the Deaths within the construction industry. But then you have suicide being five times on the job fatalities, so 15 times head injury and then you have accidental drug overdose. The last year it was measured within the construction industry. 16 times the on the job fatality. So that's 48 times or more hitting your head. And yet you have the construction industry spending $100 million plus to make this transition forced by general contractors, not by any kind of law, to a type 2 hard hat with a chin strap so that it doesn't fall off and it has side protection, so on and so forth. Someone falls off a ladder, I get it, I get it, I'm all for it. But it's under the guise of our people are number one. And it's hard for me to buy into our people are number one when there's that level of focus and investment in something that is a very small piece of what's actually going on. And that's where I struggle with it. Like the whole thing is just an admission of like, well, our people aren't really number one. Liability is number one. Like just say that, like just say injuries on the job site caused strictly by the work itself is bad. That's what we're focused on here. Sorry, we can't do anything about suicide. Sorry, we can't do anything about people dying by pills that they've been addicted to probably because of the work they've been doing because they got injured or they have chronic pain that they've had to solve through medication and then through pills, probably from a buddy. Yeah, they're not getting them from a drug dealer.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And that, that to me it just doesn't math. It's like in a six year old could say something doesn't add up here. It's like two plus two does not equal seven.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And that's my problem. It's just, it's very hypocritical and it's all driven by the general contractors who don't really have skin in the game. And, and like they'd say different but they don't really have skin in the game.

[Aaron]

The thought that comes to my mind, I'm curious as you what you think about this. It's like a hard hat is very visual. You can see it, it's tangible, it's on somebody's head, it's measurable, it's potentially a check the box. But it's like it's a visual thing that you can see change. Right. And I think sometimes about like the whole mental health side of things. It's like, it's not visual and it's at times hard to potentially quantify.

[Jason Richmond]

It is.

[Aaron]

And so, however, just because something's hard doesn't mean it's not important or more important than the other thing. And so it's like to me, I'm like sitting here looking at like, well, the numbers are real.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So how do we, how do we as an industry grab a hold of those real numbers and work on that, solving that problem together because it will create a place that people want to be.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, that's the thing. Yeah. It's in everybody's best interest.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

You want to solve the workforce challenge. That's a pretty good place to start.

[Aaron]

Create a better dirt world.

[Jason Richmond]

And it's not even me being overly critical. I'm sure, like, the EH&S guy is not like, you know, screw these people, let's just make them more type 2 hard ass. Solve this problem. Let's. Paperwork. Like, everybody's out to genuinely. And if you ask any kind of leader in the industry, do you care for your people 100%, but I feel like someone has to be like, are you guys not seeing this? Like, yeah. It's just so blatant at this point. Like, the numbers are so bad.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

That it's like, what?

[Aaron]

Yeah, what.

[Jason Richmond]

Why is no one saying anything about this? And like, even the fact my lips bleeding, you know? You know, again, type two hard hats. That's. That's. I would say, I would, I would say within the past five years, that's the biggest innovation in safety. Would you?

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Biggest innovation in safety.

[Aaron]

Sure.

[Jason Richmond]

Type 2 hard hats. But again, we're not going to say anything about someone potentially getting more likely to get injured because they're 100 pounds overweight. When have you ever heard someone talk about physical health and, well, being on a job site from a safety standpoint, and that's what drives me nuts, is I have to be lectured to by safety professionals about what's in my best interest physically. It's like, dude, just look in a mirror. Not to be. This isn't. This is factual. I'm a triathlete. I know what's in my best interest.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I'm good.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

You're. You're overweight. You don't look at all healthy. Like, just looking at you like, we're not the same here.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And so to trust you to tell me what's in my best interest physically.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

I'm good. I'm gonna trust myself to take care of myself.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I know what I need to do. And within reason, like. But I know what I need to do. I need to wear a damn hard hat, safety glasses, gloves, three. Three points of contact. Don't walk on your phone. Like, it's all the same shit everywhere I go, no matter where I am in the world. It's like a very common set of principles.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Very simple shit.

[Aaron]

Okay. So I'm just gonna throw some stuff at you. I'm just curious. So, you know, we. We've partnered with First Form. We. We've done some training and development. We've got it on. Build would improve. We. In this personal development side of things, you know, we're talking about, you know, suicide, drugs, you know, all these. How do we. How do we get the industry. Which. We can't tell them what to do, but it's like, how do we encourage, motivate, inspire, and the. The industry as a whole to really take this on as a challenge? And what's the. What are some steps or solution or the direction that we need to be going? You know, when it comes to this?

[Jason Richmond]

Like, the way I see it is there's no. There's no easy button here.

[Aaron]

Okay.

[Jason Richmond]

It's a very complicated issue.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But it starts with, again, the people in the room at Dirt World.

[Aaron]

Yes. Yep.

[Jason Richmond]

We clearly need to be healthier as an industry.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And if we're healthier, we will be more productive. We'll have happier people. We will have people living longer. We'll have people that aren't injured as much. Like, I think we can all agree that that's in everybody's best interest. That's a great win. Win. But it starts with everybody in this room.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

That's it. Like, it doesn't.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

There's nothing more than that.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I've tried. I've tried to think of another way around. Starts with leadership. It's. It's. Are you healthy? Like, even my talk now is, is from a mental health standpoint, the most effective thing, the only effective thing I've done, talking about mental health, and this is based on experience. The only effective thing I've done is not talking about it, but it's talking about how I've struggled with it and how I've coped with it and how I've worked through it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

That's the only effective thing I've done to inspire anybody to care for themselves mentally, physically, is the exact same thing.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I've never told someone, dude, you should work out more. And it's worked. People have just seen me working out every day.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I need to get after it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And then there they are. It's the only way.

[Aaron]

Well, and I just, I would say, like, because you've been vulnerable and open and honest, it's unlocked me to be more vulnerable, open and honest.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And so I would just say, like, we need dirt world leaders. I mean, it's not easy leading these businesses and trying to balance life and family and all the things and challenges and casual building a business is not easy. And so you can't tell me that, like, these leaders aren't experiencing challenges when it comes to it. And so it's like, man, I just. I hope that they would be more vulnerable, open and honest with themselves, which might unlock their teams, which might cascade down into their organization. And I agree, like, building dirt world athletes is something that is absolutely critical to the success.

[Jason Richmond]

Oh, no. The only guy who would you say, from mental health standpoint, has been most successful in getting the word out and has been most impactful in the construction industry. Vincent Felli. You knew it as well as I did.

[Aaron]

Yeah. As soon as you started talking about it, I knew exactly what you're gonna say.

[Jason Richmond]

Why has he been so impactful?

[Aaron]

Because he told his story.

[Jason Richmond]

He told his story, and it's very public now.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

He planned to take his life.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And he explains, here's exactly how I was going to do it, so on and so forth. Yeah. And then one thing changed, and. And then he kept it in for a long time.

[Aaron]

16 years.

[Jason Richmond]

Long time. Yeah, That's. But that's why it's. He's effective. Yeah. He's not. He's not Mr. Clinician saying, here's how you need to do better.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

It's. Listen.

[Aaron]

But you don't have to be on stage, you don't have to write a book, you don't have to be on a podcast to qualify to tell your story. Like, you can do it right where you're at with your closest group of people. And I think that that story actually started from Vince. He was actually in a board meeting or in a meeting, and he just, like, stopped and told his story right there. And that was kind of what started it for him. And so, yeah, I mean, I think that's a great challenge to the industry and to the dirt world is to encourage people to be brave and willing, you know, share share their story and I think the more open, vulnerable, transparent communication is only going to help.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. But it's. It's. That's the harder path to take care of your shit. But you get a lot More for it. Like, I haven't, I haven't met a single person that's gotten healthier and is like, this sucks, dude. I really regret doing this. I've never met a single person. Regretful.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Of getting better and healthier.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

Not a single one.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But I just don't see another way around it.

[Aaron]

That's a good point.

[Jason Richmond]

That's the solution. There's, there's, there's no other solution.

[Aaron]

Yeah. It's interesting because, you know, I find myself, you know, I've been working out for the past, you know, I'll call it a year now. Six months year. And you know, down, you know, 30 pounds. But mentally, physically, just feeling so much better. I'm more productive, more present at home. I'm more active. Just. I'm more clear in my thinking. I'm more innovative. I'm more, I have a bigger teamwork. I want to be around more people. You know, just like everything gets exponentially better when I feel good. And so, you know, eating healthy, putting in the work, it's. I, I've heard you say it before, but like it's a non negotiable.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Well.

[Jason Richmond]

And I, that's how I look at it, as a leader. But a lot of people, that's like a very common question. How do you do all this? How do you travel so much?

[Aaron]

Priority?

[Jason Richmond]

Well, one, I'm healthy.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I view myself as an athlete.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

If I wasn't healthy, if I was getting on the plane this afternoon and yeah, I'll take a Sprite and double Tito's and then give me another one, you know, and, and eating like, and never working out this and that. Which most everybody else on the plane's doing.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It's incredible. You get on the plane 7am Tuesday. Yeah. Give me a, you know, double Jack and Coke. Let's go. I wouldn't, I'd be able to do a fraction of it.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

I'd be a shell of, of what I can do right now. It's no accident.

[Aaron]

That's right. That's good.

[Jason Richmond]

So. Yeah, I, I just, I, I don't like there's no trick to any of this. I don't think there's no magic bullet. It's. But I think we have the right people.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Agree.

[Jason Richmond]

I think we're already on that train. I think the people in the room at Dirt World, they're already on the path.

[Aaron]

Yeah. You know, which I love totally, 100%. And you know, one of the things that we're Wanting to do a better job of, is sharing some of those stories. And so I think you've been encouraging us to go and collect some of those stories. And so as we're connecting with. With those that are in attendance to Dirt World, like, we're going to be reaching out, looking for all kinds of stories, and, you know, if somebody's brave enough to share, we're looking for testimonials personally, professionally, across the board. I think. I think getting some of those stories out could, could. Could be really advantageous.

[Jason Richmond]

It's really cool. Yeah. And that's. I think what Dirt World offers, too, is. It's just it. It offers a group of people trying to get better.

[Aaron]

Yeah, that's right.

[Jason Richmond]

It's not the same old bullshit.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

There's not. Everybody's not there for golf.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

You know, and we're. We'll probably make a video this year on, like, if you're here to drink and screw around, I've just leave right now, man.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

You're just gonna waste your time.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

This is. This is not the place to be hungover at the next day. That's not the program we're on.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Again, if that's why you're here, there's a lot of other events for you that are much cheaper.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Go to those.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

You know.

[Aaron]

Well, and that's one of the things that we're trying to do with Connect is, you know, the summit is two, three days. Connect is something. It's an online community where you can create that accountability. You can continue to learn and grow 365 days out of the year. You know, when I did the 5 at 5 challenge in January, you know, one thing that was cool was we just started a WhatsApp group, and every day when you finished your run, you went on and just wrote dunk.

[Jason Richmond]

Nice.

[Aaron]

And it sounded so crazy, but I could not wait to write Done. You know, it was just like a sense of accomplishment. But then there were days, too, where, like, people struggled, and so they, like, they write a little message. Struggled today. Really didn't want to get through it. Had to walk, you know, whatever was just on their mind. But it built community, and I loved being a part of that community. And so it just, like, it starts to make me think about, you know, the dirt world, and, you know what? How could things be better if we were doing this in community? And so if anybody's out there and they're alone or they're struggling or can't figure it out, like, reach out to me, reach out to Aaron, reach out to us. You know, jump on Dirt World, Connect. It's free, it's easy to join. There's a ton of members in there that are building the business, you know, all at the same time, just like you, that they're going through some of the same stuff, good, bad, ugly and different. It's a safe space for you to share and for you to connect. And I'd love to see that kind of help start to solve some of the challenges.

[Jason Richmond]

The. The number one thing I've heard about too, is dirt theology.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Yeah, it's been really incredible. It's so much fun. I mean, you know, 23, we brought Darren and we did fellowship and coffee. At the first One, we had 50 people. Year two, we set out 140 chairs. It was standing room only. This year at the summit, we did. Did two days, there was over 200 people and each so amazing, you know, just to see the number of people that are coming out for faith, hope and love. And so, yeah, dirt theology, it's every other week now. The most fascinating thing that's happened for me anyways, is, you know, Darren jumps on every call with us, which is great for both. One, he's leading in teaching and coaching, which is amazing. It's a lot of fun. About 30 plus people that are on there. But the dirt world spoke up and we've got a lot of people that are coming. They're saying, hey, I'd love to deliver a message. So we had Brandon Lauerman from Wayne Brothers on here recently, and he delivered a message and then went through the Q and A. And it was just a fun gathering of people talking about things. And we have Josh Malott coming up. He's getting ready to do one, which is gonna be a lot of fun. But to see that the dirt world has taken ownership of that with dirt theology to learn about, you know, things is just absolutely, you know, incredible. And I know I was really shocked when I found out last year that you. I shouldn't say shocked. I was really excited when I found out that you decided to just your curiosity and you jumped into doing a little bit of reading of the big book.

[Jason Richmond]

It's been really good. Yeah, yeah. I've been really, really grateful. But it was just. I try to talk about it in the context of me again, how it's benefited me and what I'm finding from. I, frankly, I don't like church.

[Aaron]

That's fine.

[Jason Richmond]

And that's always been my big roadblock. I just. I don't like, doing what everybody else is doing.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I don't know what it is about it, man. If everybody else is so gung ho about something I have an allergic reaction, I'm out. I'm like, nah, I can't do this. And then when someone's like, real forward about it or a little preachy, again, I'm out. I'm just, just. Yeah, but, but when I realized, like, it's not about, it's not about church. I don't need church. It's not about anyone else. It's just me. Bible God. That's it. Yeah, that's it.

[Aaron]

That's beautiful.

[Jason Richmond]

And it's like, once I, once I connect those dots, I'm like, wait a minute. That's it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Then it's like, oh, and, and I've really, really come to love it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But just, I like it. I like it. It's like, it's a very personal, personal thing. I like talking about it sometimes with people, but it's like, it's a, it's just, it's a personal thing, and it's supposed to be a personal thing. Like, I don't feel the need to tell other people about it to try to, like, get them in the fold or anything like that. I went to church over Christmas. It was fine. I don't know. It was the first time I'd been to church in 10 years. And I was like, eh, you know, it's just not my thing. But, but I love the act of reading the Bible more and more every day and thinking about it and praying. Like, it's so, it's, it's really cool. Yeah, it's really cool. And so I, I. And if church is for you, that's great. If Bible studies for you, that's great. Like, everybody has their own thing, but I don't like it when people are like, oh, it's this, or they're trying to make you do this. I'm like, dude, I'm out. I'm, I am, I am so out at that point.

[Aaron]

I, I appreciate that more than you'll ever know. I respect it too. And I think that that's cool. Everybody's on their own path and their own journey and doing their thing. What I love about you, though, is, like, you're curious, and I think that more people need to be curious. You actually, you don't even know this or not, but you've inspired me. I just finished Genesis. Oh, I've never read it cover to cover.

[Jason Richmond]

It's a little dense.

[Aaron]

It is so Far. Genesis has been really weird reading it.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But I just want you to know, like, I'm just. Thank you for being curious. You don't even realize it, but you're inspiring not only myself, but many others through your curiosity. And I think that that's cool. And by just briefly talking about it, like, I don't know that there's a right way and a wrong way of doing it. Right.

[Jason Richmond]

No.

[Aaron]

We are all over the board. We actually attend multiple churches with our friends.

[Jason Richmond]

Great.

[Aaron]

Most of the time we're making pancakes at home or we're watching on tv. But more importantly, what I want out of it is with my family. It's an hour or two that we're gonna spend together. We're gonna hear a message that's usually a teaching message. And it could be Bible or it could just be like, non Bible. But it's like, there's usually a leadership lesson in there. And then we talk about it as a family. And to me, I'm getting just so much out of, you know, that. That, you know, it's been great for us. And so I think every family's got, like, a different walk or a different. Different thing that works for them. And I. I think that that's great.

[Jason Richmond]

I love it. Yeah. And I. I love it when it's for them. When it's for you as an individual.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It does mutate in really weird ways when everybody's trying to, oh, I'm a Christian, so on and so forth, and I want to tell everybody about how Christian I am. And then I'm gonna judge other people for not being as Christian as me. It's like, dude, you're missing the whole point. Like, the whole point.

[Aaron]

Right, right, right.

[Jason Richmond]

It's just right over your head head. Like, you're not. You're. You're really not keeping up here.

[Aaron]

That's right.

[Jason Richmond]

And even from a leadership standpoint, like you said, like, yeah, just. Just the principles that Jesus teaches.

[Aaron]

Amazing.

[Jason Richmond]

Pretty sound. It's like, that's a pretty good message. Like that. Even, like, I was thinking maybe I talked about it, you know, recently. One I read recently. They're like, he's sitting down with the sinners. And they're like, why would you spend time with the sinners? Why not spend time with. With the people that are. That are good and holy? And he's like, well, these are the people that need me most.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And it's like, yes. Damn. That's just. Yeah, that is good stuff.

[Aaron]

And they.

[Jason Richmond]

Boy, is that solid story.

[Aaron]

That's Going to impact the world in a much greater way.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the parables. And when you really think about it, you're like, this is just solid.

[Aaron]

Like, I'm listening to a book on the way down here. You know, I drove four and a half hours and I was listening to Lead Like Jesus by Ken Blanchard. And you know, it's just amazing. It's like, it's one of the greatest leadership books of all times. When you start looking at, you know, like, Jesus walked this earth and he was an incredible leader, you know, and just, you know, all the different things that he taught was just absolutely amazing. So I'm loving, like, relearning it and then talking about it, because that's how I learn and grow and. Yeah, it's fascinating right now. You know, we talked earlier about, you know, like, I talk to a lot of people and I did something really weird. You know, just, I put on my LinkedIn profile, trust God, build people. And there's not a conversation that I have every day that somebody doesn't say something about it.

[Jason Richmond]

That's amazing.

[Aaron]

And it just opens up a door to. Then they get to share that where they're at. And it just, it has opened the floodgates to somebody just sharing thoughts, ideas, where they're at deep. There's just a quick instant trust that's built, you know, kind of walking together. So it's fun. Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Which, which again, I appreciate.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I don't go looking for that, though. I frankly, I don't want to talk to people about it.

[Aaron]

It's all good.

[Jason Richmond]

Like, I'm, again, I'm open how it's helped me, but now that I've been open, people are talking to me about it and I'm like, or have you done this? Have you, have you done this? Have you given your life to Jesus? It's like, I appreciate all that.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

But again, I'm like, hey, yeah, yeah. I just. There's. There's two people in this conversation, right? That's it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

No one else. And, and maybe that's a flawed way to look at it, but it's what served me the best so far.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

And it's. What's, what's.

[Aaron]

Yeah. People have asked the most. Sense me is building a faith based company. I'm like, I don't, like, I don't even know how to answer it. I'm like, no, it's not like, it's on the, on the wall. It's not in the bylaws. Like, it's just. No it's just like, no, we're a business trying to solve, we're on mission trying to solve a problem. We do have a lot of faith based people that are in there and that's just kind of where it is.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah, but I, I look at it like, if you don't want to be faith based, dude, that's, that's your business. It's not my business. I'm gonna talk about it again, how it's impacted me or we'll bring it up in meetings or.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Randy was talking about in a leadership meeting the other day.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It's like, yeah, this is solid stuff. Reading from the Bible, right?

[Aaron]

Totally.

[Jason Richmond]

So we, I mean we are. But yeah, again, I, I don't, Yeah, I don't want to force it upon anybody.

[Aaron]

Of course not. And the crazy thing is people have asked me before, like even summit wise, they're like, hey, all these speakers that you have, there's been like a weave of faith that's there, you know, and I can remember like Nick Lavery ending, you know, with I'm an unapologetic Christian. And it's like, whoa, okay. You know, ironically, like we've never architect that before. Like that wasn't ever part of it just kind of happened like by virtue of Jesse Itzler or Echelon Front or Nick, like whoever's been up there, you know, Randy Gravett, all the, you know, Mark Miller, all the people, like, it's just there. It's a part of who they are and what they do and what they say. We don't really even give them anything of like, hey, here's what we want you to talk about.

[Jason Richmond]

Nothing.

[Aaron]

We just say nothing. Here's the audience, here's the challenges that they're experiencing. Take your years of experience in life and business and beliefs and books and studying and offer them value. And it's been amazing to see kind of the messages that have come out on stage.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, and there's significant faith undertones in the construction industry.

[Aaron]

100.

[Jason Richmond]

Seriously. And I haven't ever really thought about it until the past year once I've got tuned into it a little bit more. It is everywhere, man.

[Aaron]

It's everywhere.

[Jason Richmond]

And I don't think that's by accident. I don't think the people building our world and enabling society and humanity, the fact that they're plugged into faith, I don't think that's an accident in.

[Aaron]

Yeah, I don't.

[Jason Richmond]

And, and, and the, the industries and people that are corroding the entire world.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Are not plugged in.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

It's like there's a, There's a theme here. Yeah, there's a theme here.

[Aaron]

It, it feels like, you know, and I don't just want to say like the pendulum is always shifting really hard. Right. And if you look at kind of the world, it's, it's, it's ugly, it's chaotic. Like there's a lot. But now it's like you're starting to see this shift in these kids, this next generation. Like they're thirsting for faith, hope and love. And so like there's a, there's a movement that's starting to happen. It's kind of bubbling up. And I think people just want peace and joy and happiness and safety and security and love. And you know, it's, it's. I'm not surprised that when the world is getting chaotic and feels terrible that like this is starting to happen on the other side.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. No. And it's. I don't know, we're almost at time here. But it's, it's like I said in the message this morning, this ruling class, they want chaos.

[Aaron]

Ah, true.

[Jason Richmond]

They want everybody to divided. They want me hating you. They want us weak.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

They want us stupid. They want us poor. They want us to be so that, that enables them to do what they can do what they do further. Taking more and more and more and more and more and controlling more and more and more and more and more.

[Aaron]

Right.

[Jason Richmond]

The only way to fight against it is. Nah, man. I'm actually going to be healthy.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I'm actually not going to drink myself to sleep every night. I'm actually going to reconnect with my faith. I'm actually going to invest more in relationships. You know, like, I'm not on your. I'm not on their program anymore.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

When you do that.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

That's like. That's power.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I think that's power. That's true power is, is the like influencing you.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

And taking charge of you.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

If you want power, that's it.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Marty Newmeyer wrote a book called Zag one Times. Like when everybody's zigging, you're supposed to be zagging. And I feel like that's what you're talking about is like, hey, I'm not going there with the rest of society. Like, I'm gonna go here.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. And like Minneapolis, dude. I have no say over what the fuck happens in Minneapolis. Us. Okay. 00 voice in that matter. And people are gonna be, oh no, you do you need to speak up on social media. You have this big platform now. Fuck all you. I don't have any influence over that. What I have influence over is me. And I'm gonna do my best to live in the best way I can and to influence those around me to live in the best way they can. That's it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

That's the program I'm on.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

It's not that much more complicated, right?

[Aaron]

Yeah. No, that's beautiful.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

I loved your message this morning. Thanks for sharing.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah. It was prompted by Jennifer. I wasn't even thinking about it, honestly.

[Aaron]

That's good.

[Jason Richmond]

Well, thanks for coming down. I know that's a long day.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

So.

[Aaron]

Always fun to catch up.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

In person.

[Jason Richmond]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Here in the Dirt Talk studio.

[Jason Richmond]

It's way better.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

I'm sure we'll have you again.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Jason Richmond]

Down at some point this year.

[Aaron]

It's beautiful. All right, man. Safe travels.

[Jason Richmond]

Right on. Yeah, thanks.