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Hi, everybody. Welcome back. Monday Dirt Talk podcast. Happy to be back. Nashville, Tennessee. Today we're going to answer more questions. If you have questions Future State, you can email me directly Aaron aaronildwit.com We would love to hear from you. I would love to hear from you. And with that, let's get into it. I've got five here that I have chosen from. The first is who would you work for if you didn't work for Build Wit? This is a great thought. I have a few answers. There's a lot of great companies, but we did a Q and A recently and someone asked, where's the best earth moving in the United States? My response is live where you want to live. And I also answered the Southwest. I'm from Phoenix, Arizona. I grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona. So the first company to come to mind would probably be Rummel, which is owned by Emory Sapp and Sons. A few phenomenal organization rumble. They do a ton of earth moving. They do the big dirt in Arizona. I'm from Arizona. They're moving dirt all year round. That's where I started construction. The first two companies I worked for were in Phoenix, so that's probably where I would work. Nashville is a little tricky just because the weather is tough here. I'd rather move dirt where. Where the weather is very good. Arizona. You're moving dirt almost the entire year, if not the entire year. So that's probably to give a specific answer. What I would do the only time I've legitimately thought, like, man, if I was living a different life, this is what I would do. The only time I've thought about that otherwise is some of the mines out in Australia. Um, I would go to work for the mines in Australia. I think mining in Australia is a way better lifestyle than it is in America in a lot of ways because it's more fly in, fly out. So you live, if you're on the east coast, in Sydney, Brisbane, somewhere, you know, like Gold coast somewhere, somewhere along those lines, along the coast. And then you fly in to wherever you're going to work or you drive in to wherever you want to work on the east coast, you can drive to a few more locations on the west coast. Do you live typically in Perth? And then you fly out to the Pilbara, which is just, I don't know, it's like our hour and a half flight, maybe two hours, if that, from. From Perth. You work for a week, you're off a week, or you work two weeks, you're off two weeks, you're working less than half the year, you're making good money, you're doing cool stuff. If I were to go to work for one mine, the first one to come to mind is for sure, Pemrook's all of Downs Complex. I could not be a bigger fan of what they've done. I had Barry, who runs the company, on the podcast a while back. If you haven't listened to that episode, if you listen to it, you'll understand why I'm such a big fan. T is out there doing the mining. It's just big equipment doing big stuff. I would be all about it and it's a really good lifestyle. So fly and fly out. You know, it's not always great. There's still plenty to be desired, I've heard. But based on what I've seen, big picture, I think it's great and I think it's a lot more sustainable than some of the mining recruitment and workforce strategies in the U.S. i think the U.S. can learn a lot from the fly and fly out model. I think a lot more young people would be willing to do that if it was an option, but it's not really an option. The only option is you want to work out here. Well, here's your schedule. You're working every few days. You know, at most you've got a few days off. You have to live close to the mine. A lot of these mines are out in the middle of nowhere, small town. I don't really want to do that. Some people do, which is great. It works for them. That's not what I want to do. And mining in Australia allows for the best of both worlds, which I think is pretty cool. So that's what I would do. I would definitely be in the industry. And at this point had buildwit not come about. I would like to think that I would have my own construction company at this point. But it's a silly thought exercise because my life is so far from that nowadays and will not be that ever at this point. So that was my initial plan. But here we are, we're doing the build with thing. We're still in business. We made payroll this week. Life's grand. So I'm going to keep running down this path because it's working out okay for me so far. So that is who I would work for if I didn't work for billwhit. But I like my employer so I'm sticking with it. Next question. What got you into dirt work? This is not dissimilar to another question I answered, but in a different way. The other question was what's your best advice post college? How do you figure out what you enjoy? For me, dirt is just always what has drawn me in. Big machines, I don't know what it is. I was bit by something as a young child like a lot of other people to then just program me to love. Bulldozers pushing dirt, excavators moving dirt, trucks hauling dirt. Anything dirt related, anything machine related. Machines moving material, doing stuff. I'm just like a moth to a flame too. And so I remember growing up, I would go to school and they were building the loop 101 at the time. Which is a big highway in Phoenix, Arizona through Scottsdale. Brand new highway from scratch through town. It's a great highway. Phoenix. Their highway system's phenomenal. And I remember watching all the earth moving and all the big concrete pipe they were laying down the. Down the freeway and all kinds of work happening. And I was all about it. Anytime I'd see earthwork around town, all about it. Skid steers. I mean anything small, anything big, that was it. Then they started redoing the golf course I grew up on. They, they reconstructed the entire golf course which meant there were big dozers. There was the biggest out There was a D10. It was a rental detent this golf course construction company brought on. They had maybe even two D10s, a D9, D8. Like big dozers pushing big dirt. Slot dozing in the middle of this golf course which was very unusual. Redoing a golf course like that. Highly, highly unusual, very expensive. But I would go there and watch non stop after school. That is All I would do because it was right by my house and I would get just close enough, you could get pretty close. And the feeling of that D10 going by, maybe 20, 30ft away, the ground, I could feel, feel the ground moving. I was just like, yo, this is it. I don't need to look for anything else I want. I don't really know what this is yet, but I want this. Whatever this is, this is what I want. And then of course, I've told the story a million times. Once Pearson Construction Corporation started laying the 108 inch concrete pipe in another neighborhood I'd lived in for a little bit, they had a 385 excavator that they had rented. It was, I want to say a 385D. Yeah, I think it was a D model. Biggest excavator I'd seen at that point. And walking up, you know, I'd watched from afar. But then when I asked Rich Pearson to take me out to the construction project, he met me out there. I remember walking up to the trench box for the first time, peering down into the trench, seeing how far down the concrete pipe was and then how much further down the guys were down in the trench and just seeing how big the boom and the stick of the machine were. And the boom was all the way down. They were digging like 25, 30ft down. So it was almost fully extended down. And it had this big rock bucket on it that had these pretty damn cool tiger teeth on the front. But it was also like this wild edge to the front of the bucket, kind of like this leading edge bucket. And then all the way down the back, it had more ripper teeth mounted to the back of the bucket as it was just ripping on the ground on the rock that they didn't think was there when they bid the job. Of course, just ripping the rock and how big the cylinders were and how it sounded and how it smelt. I didn't have the fortune of growing up around the industry, so it was like these small moments of pure intoxication. But again, that was, that was it. That's, that's, that's why I did it. And had, I had parents that said, you're not going into construction, you're going to be a lawyer, you're going to be a doctor, you're going to be an engineer, you're going to be a businessman, whatever it is, there's no way I'd be here. But they didn't do that. And so I had the ability to follow my curiosity and my desire and my curiosity was firmly rooted in earth moving heavy equipment. The first opening I had was at Pearson. I jumped in with both feet and then from there I just ran. And that's why I never thought about any kind of. Any, any kind of construction. Once I found out heavy civil construction is what type of construction uses equipment, that was it for me. So I don't know what the hell the reason was. I just know I've always loved heavy equipment since I was a very small child, like a lot of people. And I had the gift that was my parents not telling me what to do. So I was able to just run down that path. And I couldn't love it more now. I love it more and more and more as time goes on. And the machines are cool, the operations are cool. But what really now gets me excited are just the people doing the work. I think earth moving equipment, any kind of building, working on equipment, whatever it is, it's such a remarkable, beautiful skill. I don't have it. I don't think I could develop it. I don't think I'd be a worthwhile operator. And so I have the utmost appreciation, respect for anybody that's operating equipment at a high level, anybody working on equipment at a high level, managing equipment, transporting equipment, just anything equipment related. I'm all in on next question. This one's from nick. I'll be 46 years old when my kids graduate from high school. Is there any hope of me joining the construction industry at this point? I think there's a lot of hope to join the construction industry later in life. Getting out into the field later in life is tough because at that point you do have a certain cost of living. You probably have a mortgage, car payment, cell phone bill. You're sending kids to college. There's just dollars and cents. There's a monthly target you've got to hit, and if you're not hitting it, there's big problems. And if you're going to get into the construction industry, you're not. I mean, you could have some experience that could translate to maybe running a project or getting into that management level on site. But the odds of you from the beginning getting to a level of good money right away is pretty slim. Is it possible? Sure. I've seen people do it. I just think it's slim. I think the more likely scenario is rolling your skill set. He didn't say what it was. But rolling whatever skill set you have into the administrative office, running work, managing equipment, whatever it is, side of things. I think there's a lot of opportunity there. I think the work happens on job sites, but there's a huge infrastructure of people behind the scenes making those job sites happen, financing the equipment, making sure the equipment's there, bills are paid, payrolls squared away, insurance requirements are met. There's enough backlog for the company over the next 12 to 18 months. There's legal challenges that are squared away, all kinds of stuff going on. Construction is a really big place. The people that, that do the work, I think are the most important. But there's a lot of opportunity beyond that. And you can serve the construction industry while not being in the construction industry as well. There's all sorts of other companies on the outside, like equipment dealers for example, that serve construction companies, serve the industry. But from an outside perspective, or technology providers, you know, a GPS dealership or, or technology provider along those lines, like that's really valuable stuff nowadays that, that construction companies need or like I said, insurance or legal or all kinds of stuff, accounting. So I think there is a ton of opportunity. I think if you have valuable experience, which by the time you're in your late 40s, you do have valuable experience that you can offer people. If you have humility to say I don't. Even despite this experience, I don't know everything and I'm willing to learn and relearn some things and you're willing to work hard and dedicate yourself to something new. I just can't imagine why it wouldn't work. Now that said, if you're just applying for positions through websites, you're probably not going to find anything. It's amazing how much how many people struggle to get a job in construction, regardless of how many construction companies need people because the hiring system are so bad. So I would. If you know anybody in construction, that's probably where I would start. Or I would research companies in my area. I would use LinkedIn. LinkedIn is my favorite tool for finding companies and finding people at companies and contacting those people about potential opportunities. So that's where I would go. If I don't have a traditional experience set. If I don't have traditional experience, I'm going to have to apply and find a job in a non traditional way. And so I would even be potentially going into these company offices and talking to them and asking for people or asking for advice or seeing if I could take people to lunch, so on and so forth. So I think it's very possible. I just think you may need to get creative. But I think it's really worthwhile I been around a lot of other industries. It's not a comparison thing, but it is. I haven't found nearly as many great people in other industries as there is in construction. There's just a different level of humility, a different level of understanding, a different level of hard work in construction than a lot of other more traditional American industries nowadays. Question number four. What sets the best operators apart from the rest? I can only offer an outside perspective. I've been around a lot of operators, I know a lot of operators, I know a lot of great operators. I'm not an operator, so I can't say here's how I've done it, but based on what I've seen, I just talked about humility. I think humility is key. Great operators, best in class operators, they, they have a confidence in their abilities, but they're very humble. They're very hungry to continue learning. I think the worst operators are those that think they know everything, which is quite a few of them always looking for more opportunities. Like, you know, for example, I think some of the best operators I've ever been around are these older school blade hands running blades with gps. And I think that's because they understand the fundamentals of running a blade. They can finish like nobody's business on any kind of blade without technology. And then they've had the humility and desire to learn the technology on top of that skill set and it's allowed them to produce so much more in a lot of different scenarios. Those are some of the guys that I find are the most impressive. So I think that's a great example. You need to have a desire to learn, you need to have a desire to get after it. Humility also comes into play with operators. I think there's a lot of operators that think they're, they're better than the other people on the team. The best in class operators are there to help everybody on the team. They recognize they're only one person within that team. And if they make everybody's lives easier, their life is easier as well. So some of the best operators I've seen, they're always looking like if it's an excavator and a pipe crew, they don't want the guys on the ground doing any of the heavy lifting. For example, if they can be using the machine to lift stuff, to move material, to even get material just a little bit closer so there's a little less shoveling, they're going to do that. If they can make life easier for everybody else, they're, they're going to do that. Another characteristic I've seen is the best in class guys, the they're never sitting, they're not on their phones, they're not idle. They know there's always something else to do. Even if they're waiting on trucks or waiting on another machine or waiting on a crew, whatever it is, there's always something to be doing. Or even if there's not something to be doing, there's something to be thinking about. They're, they're, they're, they're looking around, they're trying to better understand what the heck's going on, how they can do even better. They're always looking for opportunity. On top of that, off that the best in class operators, they can visualize and plan the work better than most as well. And so like in a production excavator setting, I think there's a lot of people, it is a skill set to load trucks quickly, but a lot of people can throw dirt in a truck. The best in class guys though, they not only can throw dirt in a truck consistently, but they, they understand that they have to plan their day tomorrow, the week, visualize the entire cut from start to finish. Even the further out they are, the better off they're gonna be. Because you can watch an operator, you know, you can throw dirt in a truck and even load trucks consistently pretty fast. But then they'll back themselves into a corner and they'll spend 25 minutes getting their getting but out of that corner and getting set up on the next bench, whatever it is, and the trucks are waiting and it's like, okay, that's great. You just pounded out all those loads really quickly. But now because things weren't planned effectively, everybody's sitting around and the best in class guys, there might be some odd or end. There might be a corner that you just have to back yourself into because of how the cuts laid out or how the boss wants it. Or maybe there's a crew over here so you can't do full production mode. But those great, great operators, they're thinking ahead, they're planning their work and they're visualizing as much as possible. Then finally, I think there's a lot here I could go on for quite a while. But finally, the best in class operators take a ton of pride in their work and their machines. They don't have dirty cabs typically the floors are very clean, swept out. They ensure their machine is taken care of, is greased properly, doesn't look bad to the best of their abilities, to whatever's in their control. They're shoveling their tracks most of the time themselves. They might get help, but they want to make sure their, their machine is orderly, is taken care of, is is well maintained. The, the windows are cleaned. They take a lot of pride in their machine and how it looks because they know that machine is what allows them to feed their family, support the crew. That's their tool and they better take care of that tool even if other people are abusing the tool. But yeah, best in class operators, if I open up a cab and it's spotless, it's a, it's not like a direct correlation, but it's a pretty good sign that that person knows what the heck's going on based on what I've seen. So I would say that's some of the stuff that sets best operators apart. And I guess one last point is the best in class operators, they can communicate effectively. It's one thing to know how to run your machine better than anybody else. But again, very rarely are you a one man operation just on your own. You're typically working within a bigger ecosystem with other machines, other people, other subcontractors around the public, whatever it is. And those that know how to communicate can be more effective, effective in those more dynamic environments. So that is a few things top what sets best operators apart from the rest. And finally, last question, do I see battery equipment becoming a greater trend? I don't think so. I'm just not buying it. Big picture, I think it's great. There's a lot of companies working on it. There's a lot of promising technology. It's being heavily trialed right now in Europe because it's being pushed by governments. So governments are requiring companies to that are bidding on these projects to have a certain number of battery powered machines, electric machines, some noise constraints are requiring battery machines. Battery machines I think are great in some applications. Indoor demolition is great. Underground mining is great. In scenarios in which you can't have a lot of noise, great. If you remove the engine, you're running that machine by battery. It's pretty amazing how much quieter it is. I think electric machines in general are great in certain applications. For cranes, for material handlers, for foundation machines that are in one spot for long periods of time. They can plug those into the grid with a trailing cable. Much like a lot of modern mining machines. Most production units on mines are electric. So when people see oh, it's an electric shovel, it's like, yeah, they've been doing that for a very long time with a Lot of success because it's cheaper to run it with electricity than it is with diesel. But just the battery thing becoming mainstream. I'm just, it's just so far from being economical. It's so far from making good business sense. There's a lot of companies out there arguing that, no, it makes perfect business sense. If they make it make business sense, good for them. And I'm happy to be wrong, but I just haven't seen anything that has really suggested, yeah, this is gonna be like the new next thing. I think diesel is so good. It's such an amazing, abundant form of energy. These new diesel engines are so efficient that I just don't see it being cost effective anytime soon, anytime soon. Especially with energy prices rising in a lot of parts of the world, like in Europe, where they're pushing this, mostly energy's through the roof right now because a lot of their, almost all their energies from fossil fuel and all that fossil fuel is, almost all of it is typically imported. And those imports have become a lot more difficult in certain scenarios, like Nord Stream for example. So I think it's a wait and see thing, but I just can't imagine diesel going anywhere now. Diesel electric, I think, is a great technology. It's really interesting to see Toyota, Toyota, arguably the most successful car manufacturer ever. What they've done is pretty incredible. They're a big deal in the States, but I mean, you go to any other country, they're one of the main brands in every other country I've been to in the world, which is wildly impressive. And that's because they make great, very reliable vehicles. They turn their nose at the whole EV thing to say no. Instead we're just going to make the hybrid thing better and better. They helped to pioneer that technology at the, at the mass scale. They've done very well with it. Equipment manufacturers have been bringing that in more and more. Like diesel electric trucks, diesel electric loaders, diesel electric dozers. I think there's a ton of opportunity in diesel electric, in those hybrid type powertrains. And companies are spending a lot of money to develop that technology. Companies are spending a lot of money to develop diesel engines right now and the future combustion, internal combustion type engines. So if they thought batteries were the next thing, they wouldn't be spending all the money they are to develop the next version of diesel engines. So I think in niche applications it's great mainstream, it's not going to happen anytime soon. And I'm a lot more excited about diesel electric than I am about battery. So that's my opinion, but it's not worth much with that. That is another Q A. As I said when I started this, if you have questions, topics to discuss on the podcast, send them my way. Aaron@buildwood.com would love to hear from you. And with that, we'll see you on the next one. Stay Dirty.