← The Mulder Life Podcast
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- [00:05]
A
Welcome to this week's episode of the Molder Life podcast, A live show featuring your questions about all things landscaping, equipment, business and life. Join our live show weekly on Instagram Older outdoors, Monday nights, 8:30pm Central Standard Time to ask your questions or tune in here for the replay.
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B
And now from the Incon Studios Incon, a world leading manufacturer of tilt rotators and attachments enhancing your business. Here's your host, Andy Mulder.
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A
What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Motorlife podcast. We are live here in the EnCon studios and we are excited to be here with you tonight. We're a little bit early tonight, about 8 o', clock, but we have some special guests with us live in the studio and before we get to that, we'll thank our sponsors, Pave Tool Innovators. Pave Tool.com Be sure to go check them out. Use the Coupon code molder outdoors50 and save yourself some money at checkout. Also synced up. Synced up project management software. Cut your estimating time by 90% and make a profit with synced up. Go check them out. And thank you for them being our sponsor and also live in the studio ad equipment. Anthony and Donna are here. They drove all the way here for this. Oh wait, no you didn't. They came all the way here from the east coast for our Mulder Outdoors open house and ENCON demo day this past weekend and they are sponsor this week and are also here live in the studio. So thank you for being here.
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C
Awesome. Thanks for having us.
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D
We're very excited. Yeah, we figured it was worth a couple extra days to stay here and then fly home tomorrow.
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A
Yeah, it's. I'm very grateful for you guys being here tonight, um, and waiting two days to do this. They. You did some things around town and relaxed and we did.
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C
We actually went to go visit a customer actually two of the days that we were here. So we did that yesterday, this morning as well. So it was good to catch up with some customers around the area as well as to go to your amazing open house, which was fantastic.
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A
Yeah, thank you. It was, it was crazy. We could talk about that a little bit if we want. But if we had just an incredible time at the open house, over 500 people came, tons and tons of equipment for people to try out. We had a lot of really awesome food and incredible vendors and sponsors and I just, I can't really put into words like what it was like. I mean, I don't know. I mean, it was, I mean, what do you guys think we've been a
- [02:57]
C
part of a lot of open houses and demo days through our years of experience, and I gotta say, yours is probably the best one I've ever been to.
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A
Wow. Thank you.
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C
That was pretty impressive. And your facility, your new facility is. I want to live there.
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D
There is a shower.
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A
My wife thinks that I'm gonna live there. She thinks we're living there.
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C
I want to live there. That place is pretty awesome. You have thought of every detail.
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A
Thank you.
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D
Yeah, it was great to see everybody come together, and it was a family event.
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A
Yeah.
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D
So it's great to have the kids there and the demo area where people could actually try machines hands on. I think that's key. And it's great to see how many people in your community support you, but then in the industry as well.
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C
Yeah.
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D
You know, there were several people that we talked to that had driven five, six, seven hours.
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A
Yeah. You know, that was very humbling to me. I. I mean, somebody said they had driven 700 miles. I know somebody came from Canada. I mean, multiple different states away from our. From where we live. And it was really a huge honor. And just, I was very humbling that people took that much time out of their day to. Or their. I mean, days to come and spend the day with us. It was really something.
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D
So that's a testament to who you are, Andy.
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C
Yeah, it is.
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D
And how you do business and how you walk in the world. You're a great role model. Thank you, everybody out there.
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A
Thank you.
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D
We appreciate you.
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A
Thank you.
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C
You touch people wide and far.
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A
Yeah, it's. Thank you. It's. I often say the Internet's a really wild place. Yeah. I mean, the amount of people that came up to me and said stuff about the podcast actually were. Was very surprising to me because it's not always like, coming to do this is the easiest thing I do every single week. And there's times when it's like, you know, is this the right thing to keep doing? And is anyone listening? And does it really matter? And, I mean, the amount of people that said that they listened to the podcast every week, it was really inspiring, and it's motivating, and I think it's good. I often think that about any industry event that I've gone to, that it's a breath of fresh air and realize that you're not all alone. And it's not that I'm saying I feel all alone, but it's just good to go and be among other people that are doing what you're doing right
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C
and having to acknowledge. Acknowledge that is fantastic for you.
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A
Yeah, yeah. So I. That was really cool. And the family part of it was really great. And the equipment demo area was really cool. I think we had seven excavators running. Six or seven, I don't know. We had a bunch of machines and a few static machines that you could get on a bunch of loaders and all kinds of different equipment to check out. And Don and Anthony were here showing their rotostar screening bucket and also the MB crushing bucket. And maybe you could shed some light on what you guys did there and how that went and whatever you want to share, I mean, you're welcome to introduce who you are in case there's listeners that don't know who you are. I know we just kind of got into this, so you're welcome to start with that. Whatever you want to do. So. All right, this is a free for all.
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D
Okay, here we go. My name is Donna Lafada. I'm the president and co owner of A and E Equipment. I was a schoolteacher that married an excavating contractor and I quit school teaching to work in the family business. So We've been together 22 years and I guess first and foremost we're excavating contractors. That's where we started. And then about 15 years ago we started selling attachments and that's A and D equipment.
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C
I thought first and foremost you'd say we were married.
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D
No, no, I'm president and co owner. That's first and foremost.
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A
First and foremost. Let me tell you, Donna didn't want to be on the, on the podcast. And I said, well, why wouldn't you be on the podcast? You're gonna sit here and stare at us, you might as well talk.
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D
Yeah. So here I am. So what do you want to say, hun?
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C
Well, I'm Anthony Lofata, obviously Donna's husband. And you know, we've been doing this excavating thing for many, many years and we started A and D equipment I don't know how many years ago. And the big turning point for A and D equipment in the last several years has been my wife. To have her come into this business and be a part of it has really expanded our touch and our ability to bring good products to the market. And if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be sitting here next to you. And that's what she brings. She brings that element to the company that I could never do. And being a part of that has been fantastic. And I can't be more Grateful for her. Without her, this doesn't, this doesn't work.
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A
Yeah.
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D
So thank you, honey. Yeah, well said.
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C
Trying to stay on a good side.
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A
There you go. That's really cool. Well, I, I'm glad you guys are here. I'm glad you were both able to be on the podcast live and, and, and yeah, so I guess why don't you share then? What. So we had two machines kind of in your like end of the area and had my KX80 with the road, our Roadstar screening bucket. And also I recently bought a MB crushing bucket from them and that was on my, my 973 track machine.
- [08:31]
C
So, yeah, those, you know, these events are really good for us to come to them and teach. That's a big part of what we do, is we teach companies what these attachments can and can't do and how they can bring value to your company. It's one thing to go to a show and see stuff, but it's also, we like to bring that different element than just sales as education. And it's important to educate the person or company that's purchasing products is what is your return on investment. And it's really awesome to have companies like yourself host a demo day where we can actually show what these can think what these attachments can do, and then give them a breakdown from start to finish and help them have a better knowledge of the rate of return that they can get for those products and what they can and can't do with them. And the different element that we bring, I think as a company that has an excavation and demolition company and recycling company, is that we've done it all. And being able to take these pieces of attachment and utilize them in a way that most people don't think of when they think of our screening bucket or a screening bucket, they think of screening topsoil. When you tell them that it can do many other things in many different ways and many different output sizes, a light bulb goes off in their head. And then when you introduce how many different ways or areas that you can screen and how you can manipulate this products to generate revenue, both in saving money for your customer, but increasing your bottom line for yourself, we like to bring that to the market because our job is to make sure that the people who buy our products make revenue so they come back and buy more products. And you know, my father always said, you got to leave enough for the next person. You can't try to take it all. That does nobody any good. So we always try to bring a level of education to everything that we sell.
- [10:32]
B
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- [11:32]
A
50. Well, and I. I would say that you're doing a very, very good job of that. And that ultimately is what has drawn me to purchasing these attachments. Because I know, because, because I'm. I'm not just buying them with. No, nobody's telling me how they work. Like, you're a good teacher. Like, today we, this afternoon, we had some time where you just showed me how to change the. What. What are we. Obviously, I didn't listen the shims. I wasn't good in listening in school either, so. But I could do it.
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D
B minus.
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A
Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'd be proud of that. The shims in the screening bucket, I mean in the crushing bucket, so that you can change different size materials and just the time that you're willing to take to do that. And you said you could make videos if I wasn't able to do that. And so I think it's important that people know, like, if. If you're looking at purchasing an attachment like, this is the kind of company that you'll be able to get the support you need even though they're not sitting in your backyard.
- [12:37]
C
Yeah, absolutely. It's important to be able to teach and convey that information to a customer. And some of the things we do, depending on the customer's level of experience with anything, obviously some companies are more experienced in attachments than others. But for the bigger companies, where they have hundreds of employees, we'll go there and train them on how to use the product. But during the training, we film everything and then we put it in. We download all those pictures and photos and videos, and then we stamp QR codes to the windows inside the machine so they can simply hold up their phone and physically see themselves being trained.
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A
No kidding. I love that.
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C
So the big companies, I mean, technology has made it so simple today to take that few extra minutes to leave that phone on or have someone hold the phone up while you're explaining the control system in a machine and how to change over the system to run your attachments. You know, for example, we had a company called last week, and they were having an issue with the attachment. I said, did somebody change the control system? And they're like, well, no, no, no. They always say, no, no, no. And I said, well, go take your phone, hold it up with a QR code, and run through it. He calls me back. He said, yep, we changed it. And so it was as simple as that to get them. Sometimes it's hard to even get them to use the QR code that's there. They just call, which is fine, too. But little things like that make a big difference.
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A
Yeah, that's a really great idea.
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C
Every, you know, downtime is everything.
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A
Yeah.
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C
You know, you can. If you break apart in a machine and it's $2,500. It's not the $2,500 I'm worried about. It's the $10,000 an hour. We're not generating revenue because that one machine's down, because that one machine may keep the whole flow going. Trucks, trailers, employees, deliveries, workers, stuff like that. The whole thing stops if that one machine is down. Not all the time, but sometimes. And that matters. So it's not always the part. It's like, let's keep uptime going, and maintenance and service and teaching is a big part of it.
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A
Yeah, that's awesome.
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C
But, yeah, to have those two products at your facility this past Saturday, being able to show people how we can screen materials, how we can process material with the crushing bucket, which you've already seen, that you've taken some of the waste that you've generated, and we can now make a uniform product that you can use for multiple different applications. It's going to do several things for you. If you can process waste concrete, you can now use it for base materials for driveways. You don't have to pay tipping fees anymore, especially if you can process the material right on the job site. If you're ripping up an old patio, put it through the crushing bucket. Even if you don't need it for the job, crush it. You can crush it right in the back of your truck and you can sell it to the next job, or you can bring it back to your facility and dump it in the appropriate bin rather than take up real estate at a facility of raw material that you now have to pick up and process again. So there's a different ways, and those are the things we like to bring to light when operating. Things like the MB crusher or the rotostar screening bucket is to teach you every step of the way on how to generate revenue. But the most important thing is when you pick up the phone and call us, everybody wants to know price. Right. We really want to learn more about you and if the product would even work. And sometimes in some cases I stare people away from it because they're getting into something that really is not going to work for them. So it's important to understand where they're coming from first prior to, you know, giving any prices or talking about that stuff.
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A
Yeah. What. So we were messing with the crushing bucket today, and something that I found interesting was just that you took the time like we hooked it up and you took the time to make sure that the flows were right and. And then you found that the hoses were swapped the wrong way. And like, those are things that I feel like are super valuable to have that kind of knowledge. And I think it's important again to have the support something like that, like, it just helps a lot. So I just appreciate that you did that.
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C
So, yeah, there's a lot. I mean, there's a lot of companies and people that get on equipment and run and you know, it's important that, especially if you're running hydraulic attachments, is to know what that machine's capability is and not hook. Hook it up the wrong way. And for example, not a lot of people know that in some machines like your machine.
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A
Oh yeah, this is the Kubota thing was. Yeah, this is what I was like, whoa. What?
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C
You have high flow on your machine and a lot of machines are set up this way, not just like Kubota, but on the high flow side of it, you have ability to run high flow, but not both ways. It only runs high flow through one way. On the other way, you're only going to get 24 gallons a minute. So we had to swap the hoses around and that's a Common mistake. And mostly because people don't read the book.
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A
Yeah, right.
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C
You know, as men, we don't pick up the instructions. We try it first, and then we say, well, why isn't it working? And that sometimes gives the attachment a bad name and. Or the piece of machinery a bad name because it wasn't hooked up correctly. And they say, well, this thing's not working right. And then. So it's important. Like, you'll see on the tags, when we send the machine, we send the tag, we call. We specify to call us prior to operating. Not everybody listens, but it's nice to make sure that they understand how the pressures and the flows are set up so it runs that tool correctly. And for yours, we needed to get the gallons to 36 gallons a minute at a pressure of at least 3300 psi. And that's what we're able to do. And that new Kubota is really cool to be able to change that within the machine now compared to their older ones.
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A
And didn't you say on my machine that it automatically will switch? Like, if I plug that attachment, do I have to change the auxiliary output or whatever it's called? The. Yes.
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C
So we hooked it on and off several times. And typically, most machines, like in the older Kubotas, you had the. You had to flip the switch one way to auxiliary and then flip it back and hold it to go into high flow on your machine, it appears when we hook it up, it goes right to high flow. It recognizes that you're in that circuit.
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A
Gotcha.
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C
So keep an eye on that and make sure it continues to work that way. But, yeah, we did it like, six times, and it worked flawlessly each time.
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A
It's good to know.
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D
And that was just years of experience on your part.
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C
Correct.
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D
Having run the other Kubotas and now looking at Andy's Kubota and knowing after running several Kubotas in your lifetime, this is what needed to be done.
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C
As soon as I heard the crusher, Tim ran in the crusher and the crushing bucket and ran it. And as soon as I heard it, I was like, it's too slow.
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A
That's funny, because I've tried it. I'm like, oh, wow, that's going really fast.
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C
Yeah.
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A
So I'm excited to, like, use it like that.
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C
Right.
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A
How it was. Because after you changed it, I never ended up getting back there to see it happening live. So probably rips now.
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D
Yeah.
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C
But, yeah, from experience, you learn what the sounds should or shouldn't be just by ear.
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D
You Knew.
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C
And so Tim's like, oh, it's on high flow. And I said, no. I said, there's probably the hoses need to be switched. As soon as we switched it, it was fine.
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A
Yeah.
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C
But on your monitor, it actually shows the gallons per minute where we're pulling.
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A
Does it?
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C
Oh, okay, cool. So it was easy. As soon as you see it, it shows the left side pulling 24 and the right side pulling 40.
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A
Okay.
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C
So we just swapped the hoses around and readjusted the computer, and we're good to go.
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A
That's awesome.
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C
I'm come with every. A lot of people don't have that experience.
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A
No. Right.
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C
That's where we like to teach. Yeah.
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A
Totally.
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C
Make sure that they understand. Because we want that tool and also for the machine part of it, we don't want the machine working incorrectly with the tool because it could be detrimental to both.
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A
I would imagine. If. Would it hurt the machine if I kept running it like that?
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C
It won't hurt the machine. It's more so that you're not going to get the production you want. And that particular machine, it's really not going to hurt it. It's just you might get some stalling where you're going to crush. And it would stall because it doesn't have the flow it needs. And then you're going to get aggravated, and you're going to call me up
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A
and say, this is work. What have you done?
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C
Right.
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A
I'm strongly considering taking it out to. We have a job that we started today, and it has a concrete sidewalk that we're going to take out. And I think I'm going to take the machine there and just crush it right into the truck. I'm not planning to reuse it on the job site, but you and I were talking about that today, like, just if I have the ability to take the machine there and crush the material there, I'm only handling it one time to crush it. Because if I take it back, number one, it's more wear and tear on the vehicle. On the truck itself. I could fit more in the truck. And I'm only handling it once to give me the product that ultimately I really want anyways.
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C
Sure.
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A
So why wouldn't I take the time to haul the machine there to do that? Do you agree, or.
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C
Oh, no, I definitely agree. It's. It's one of those things where it's.
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A
I mean, I can do it in the yard, but I feel like it. I feel like it'd be cool to just bring it there.
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D
I was gonna Say you just want to be cool.
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A
Well, it's kind of cool. I mean, we're recycling.
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C
Yeah, you're recycling. You're, you know, you're, you're. If you're crushing in the back of the truck, then you've got a uniform material that you're not damaging the lining of the bed.
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A
Yeah.
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C
The tailgate going out, the lights at the back of the truck when the, when the concrete slab hits it just right. A lot of those things go away. And again, you're not tying up your, your, any real estate at your yard with, you know, product that you have to process again.
- [22:30]
A
Yeah, yeah, totally.
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C
You know, every time, my father used to teach me, every time you pick something up, it costs money.
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A
Well, that's what I, that's the main. To me, I'm thinking to myself, why wouldn't I just do what I want to do with it the first time? Even though it may seem like I'm spending more time at the job site, ultimately it is saving time.
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C
It is saving time. Not every job is applicable.
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A
Right.
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C
But if you can, if you can organize the job in a sit in a situation where you can get it done, why not? And if you can process that material and sell it to the next job, that's even better. Skip the yard altogether. That's what we ideally try to do in all the jobs we do in our excavation division is all our guys are trained to process 90% of everything we do on the job site, whether it needs it or not. Because we always have 20 to 30 jobs going at any given time. And we can always, no big deal. Yeah, we can always run that. We figure in different jobs and where those materials can go so you can get more work done. If you plan it that way, who cares if you spend an extra couple days on a job, you know, but if you're saving, if you're reducing the amount of trucking and material purchases, why not? I mean, what do they, you know, each, each area of the United States has different fees for dumping and tipping. I don't know what they are here in your state. I mean, what do they charge for tipping fees of.
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A
Well, I mean, if I were to take eight, I mean, just a simple thing, my one ton dump truck full of concrete to a local landscape yard to dump it. I'd be paying 150 bucks for four yards of concrete.
- [24:07]
C
Now that's just to dump it.
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A
Just to dump it.
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C
Plus the time of the employee going there.
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A
Yeah.
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C
And the truck and the fuel and,
- [24:14]
A
and it that continues to go Up. That's why I'm. Look, that's why this excited me. Because I'm thinking, number one, now I have the space in my yard to process material, and why would I not try and use what we're bringing back anyways?
- [24:30]
C
Why not? So, I mean, if you can. If you Talked about the $150, it's not just the 150, it's that truck and the time and that whole circle. So that 150, and then you have to upcharge the customer and removing that or it becomes part of the job pricing. Because you have to figure that. Correct. So that 150 is really more like 300, 400, 500, whatever it may be. Right. So if you could eliminate that part of it and spend an hour crushing the material, now you've got material that's worth something. And that truck is now not on the road because every second those trucks are on the road, it's a liability. Less wear and tear, less purchase of materials. I mean, there's math to it. And if you go to our website, we have a services area where you can click on and then there'll be a revenue calculator in there. And this is set up for our screening bucket. And we're going to bring that to the crushing bucket and whatnot. Soon you can actually pick out a size bucket that you would fit, that you work on your machine, and it'll give you an output of material that you can process per hour. I always tell people, look at that. Look at the bucket that might fit your machine. Pick that number which might be. Let's say it's 40 yards an hour and just cut that in half. Say you're going to process at 20 yards an hour and go through the calculator and figure it out. You'll see that you're going to generate a lot more revenue just by adding that attachment to your machine. And the same thing goes with the crushing bucket and whatnot. So it's about the math. It's not really the cost of the product or a machine. It's about the math. Does the math work? Are we going to generate more revenue by adding this to us? Who cares if it costs 10 grand, 50 grand, 100 grand, as long as it's generating enough revenue to justify it.
- [26:19]
A
Yeah, there's a couple comments on here before we keep going. Ben Perkinson's said, loved running the road to start the demo day. Can't wait to get one someday. That's awesome. Aching Acres says, love that comment. That was back when he was talking praises about your wife.
- [26:34]
D
That's good.
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A
Dan's a great guy. He has a screening bucket. Chris Bland 3 says, what does it do if it has rebar or metal in it, if not seen while crushing it?
- [26:47]
C
Oh, great question. So the great thing about the crushing bucket, whenever you're crushing something, as long as the metal going through the crusher isn't larger than the output size. So the crusher kind of looks like this and it kind of operates just like this. And this output size at the bottom can be adjusted. So if you have an output size of say 2 inches and the rebar is 3/4 of an inch, it's going to simply crush that material and the rebar will fall right through it and come right off. The concrete will come right off that rebar or steel. Now if the rebar or piece of steel is larger than the output size, it could just jam up. If it jams up, you're going to just have to dislodge that. But as long as it's not bigger than the output size, it'll just simply go right through it.
- [27:32]
D
Yeah.
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A
And I mean in my mind most of the time I'm gonna be cut crushing 3 quarter inch or bigger. And so something like that. So it for me to run into a piece of rebar bigger than that would be very rare.
- [27:45]
C
Yeah, typically you're looking for me. Yeah, half inch material and like sidewalks is gonna be fine. It goes right through the crusher. And it's really cool to watch it happen because it cleans it right off. Because you can simply pick that steel out and scrap it. And on some of the largest crushing buckets, you can put magnets on there where it'll collect that steel as well, simply by using the battery on the machine.
- [28:06]
A
Is that something I could put on mine?
- [28:08]
C
It is, it is. But a lot of people don't do enough steel to justify the cost. You know, if we're talking a few pieces of rebar here and there, you can simply pick it out as it comes through.
- [28:17]
A
Yeah, yeah. Okay. So I have a few things that I've been writing down as you've been talking. One of them I've never heard you talk about, but I would rather I. We talked about it today. You said that if you crush it to the right size, you can mix cement with it and make your own concrete.
- [28:38]
C
Sure, absolutely.
- [28:39]
A
I think it'd be cool to talk about that.
- [28:41]
C
Yeah. So once you get the material down to a size, typically around a half to one inch, three quarter size, and as long as there's enough dust in there, by crushing concrete, you can simply add Portland cement to that, run it through a mixer, and reuse it. And probably 20 years ago, I went to the world of concrete and brought that idea to a testing labs that are always there at this show. And every one of them told me, you can't do it. And so we came back to Connecticut and we ran a bunch of samples.
- [29:15]
A
Can't do it. Because just physically you couldn't do it or it wouldn't be strong enough.
- [29:18]
C
So you're not. When you're crushing concrete and you're installing concrete for specific uses like buildings and highways and stuff, that concrete has to meet a certain specification, whatever that may be. I wasn't talking about reutilizing concrete in the way that we're going to put it on the highway, but if we can mix Portland cement with it, maybe we can use it for simple things like landscape footings and stuff like that, where we're not speccing the material, but as long as it's it specs out or you test it above 3000 psi, you're really never using anything bigger than that. Typically maybe 4,000 on sidewalks or something. So we ran a whole series of tests and we mixed different amounts of Portland cement and water and had a testing lab come out and we filled all these samples so they can core sample it. And we didn't have one test come back lower than 6,000 psi.
- [30:12]
A
Come on.
- [30:13]
C
It was insane. So by adding two bags and all
- [30:15]
A
you were doing, what were you crushing? Just regular concrete.
- [30:17]
B
Just.
- [30:17]
C
We took samples of residential footings, sidewalks, commercial concrete from like commercial buildings, and jersey barriers. So we took different samples, tried each one individually, tried mixing them. Because when you're crushing concrete, it could be a mixed bag of stuff. Right. It doesn't always necessarily be that one thing. So when we crushed it all and we sampled it all, the mixed bag of stuff was tested out the best. But even the smallest stuff always tested out to 6,000 for some reason, because you're not adding. We're adding Portland cement to it, but all the elements are still there. Now, I'm not a concrete specialist by any means, but I know when we tested it, it all tested out great. And then we took samples in our building. We had some cracking concrete. So we cut it out and we replaced it with the simple mixture of crushed concrete and Portland Cement. And 15 years later, it's still there.
- [31:16]
A
Wow.
- [31:17]
C
And you know, we run heavy dozers and excavators over this stuff all the time. So we Even make concrete mafia blocks out of it.
- [31:25]
A
Yeah, that would be phenomenal. And then you have your own molds.
- [31:29]
C
Obviously we have our own molds. And then I've always thought about buying a mold. They're inexpensive, you know, and if you're doing.
- [31:34]
A
I looked them up.
- [31:35]
C
If you're doing a lot of concrete work, especially if you're like years ago we used to do a lot of concrete work. You always ordered a little bit more and you'd fill a couple moles. But yeah, you can definitely use that stuff and make mortar with it or concrete with it in some form or fashion that might be useful for you on the job.
- [31:54]
B
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- [33:21]
A
so the other question that I was have, I was thinking while you were talking was so for us, a lot of times we're using open graded type systems where there's no fines in our patio base or driveway base or whatever. Can you. Have you ever taken the material you crush with your screening bucket, with your MB bucket and then screen it through the rotoscar?
- [33:46]
C
Oh, absolutely.
- [33:47]
A
So you could get all the fines out of it.
- [33:49]
C
Take all the fines out of it so you can crush it, you know,
- [33:52]
A
depending on what sounds like a dream come true. I mean, we're talking about all your buckets giving whatever you need. This bucket dumps into this bucket and then it dumps over.
- [34:03]
C
So you could do that.
- [34:04]
A
Really?
- [34:04]
C
Yeah. You can run that through there.
- [34:06]
A
Wouldn't be like, tear up the stars.
- [34:09]
C
It adds a little bit more wear than normal. Like normal soils and whatnot. But again, you have to do the math. Is it worth it for me to do this?
- [34:16]
A
Yeah. Yeah. And just sacrifice the stars?
- [34:18]
C
You sacrifice the stars and replace them a little more often than you would. But if you did the math, does it work? Or is it worth it for me to spend $3,000 on a set of stars, but I'm saving $50,000 at the end of the year.
- [34:33]
A
Bingo.
- [34:33]
D
I'll send you a set of stars, Andy.
- [34:36]
A
I mean, because, correct me if I'm wrong, I could just crush it into whatever size, like you were crushing what it's set up for now or whatever. Maybe a little bit smaller. And then I could put the half inch or minus on the rotostar, and then all the fines would come out of it.
- [34:56]
C
Correct.
- [34:58]
A
Very interesting.
- [34:59]
C
You can do that if you have.
- [35:00]
A
You also could probably run water on it at the same time. Right?
- [35:03]
C
Yeah. So a lot of landscapers use our screening bucket. Well, that decorative landscaping stone, like, they dig out an old bed, but then you know how expensive that beautiful stone is. They'll pull it up with a screening bucket and then wash it and wash
- [35:18]
D
it with a water hose.
- [35:19]
C
Just throw the water in there and wash it. Comes out nice and clean. And then you can dispense of it how you see fit.
- [35:24]
A
That's wild. So here's my problem. I. I need another screening bucket for my smaller excavator because a lot of our landscape jobs I don't have. I'm not bringing my big excavator there. So I need another one.
- [35:37]
C
Right.
- [35:37]
A
Not good. I know. Great problem for you.
- [35:39]
C
It's. Yeah. Oh, it's all about the. It's all about the math. Just do the math and. Yeah. Yeah.
- [35:45]
D
Anthony tells people all the time that they need to.
- [35:48]
C
Yeah.
- [35:49]
D
Like, if it saves you this much money, then why are we even talking about.
- [35:52]
A
I know. That's how I bought it in the first place.
- [35:54]
D
It's. Are you gonna buy one or two? And then ultimately it's two.
- [35:58]
A
Here's. Here's what I needed to come up with, which I. You wouldn't. Why would you do this? Because this would shoot yourself in the foot. I need a S40EC oil bracket to an S45 so that I can just take the S45 attachment and just put it on my 57 S45. So you. So you have the top of it as S40. The bottom is S45. And I never have to get out of the machine.
- [36:27]
D
No, we have to keep you fit. Yeah, you have to get in and out of the machine some.
- [36:31]
A
You know, one time I did, I. I searched for this type of adapter and there was a company overseas, I think it was in Sweden, that made this. It was mechanical, but you could put you. It's exactly what I'm talking about. It's S40 to S45. Or you could get it the other way. I just couldn't figure out how they wouldn't ship it to me. So anyways, I just thought that was super genius. But.
- [36:53]
C
Well, a little bit of thought. Anything can be done.
- [36:55]
A
I know you could figure it out.
- [36:57]
C
We'll figure it out.
- [36:58]
A
IG anth12 says. I would have never thought you could use it to separate decorative gravel. I seriously have never thought about that either.
- [37:05]
C
That's wild.
- [37:08]
A
That would work.
- [37:08]
C
It wasn't me who thought of that. We had a customer, Trevor Lott.
- [37:12]
A
Oh, I know him. Yeah, no kidding.
- [37:15]
C
Yep. He sent us a video of doing it.
- [37:18]
A
So he's digging it out just straight. I mean a lot of times you have fabric in there, but whatever, you pull the fabric out.
- [37:23]
C
Yep.
- [37:23]
A
And then he's washing it and.
- [37:25]
C
And reusing it. Reusing it rather than throwing it away.
- [37:28]
A
Oh my goodness. That's wild.
- [37:31]
C
So the other thing too that you could use with attachments such as the screening bucket and the crushing bucket is a lot of these companies may have already invested in the money in a conventional plant, like a little box screener or something. And so I tell guys all the time, if you already own it and you're thinking, well, I use this, but it's problematic. I have to transport it to the job or whatnot. But if you reutilize it using our attachments with it, it's pretty cool to be able to take a screening bucket over a deck screener and screen into it. Say 3 quarter minus. And he has a 3, 8 inch deck on there. He's going to get a 3, 8 inch product in the box, but a 3 quarter inch minus uniform where his tailings would normally be. Because the bucket has now done all the work, he'll be able to process more. With that screening plant, he'll be able to make three products. One will be the fine material. Your tailings will now be three quarter minus. And then the tailings that are left in the bucket can be used for fill. Or if it's an aggregate, mostly aggregate. You could simply dump it into the bucket of the crusher and crush it all.
- [38:39]
A
Crush it all.
- [38:40]
C
Yeah. So we did a video of that years ago where we showed how you can screen.
- [38:44]
A
That'd be four different products.
- [38:46]
C
Yeah. And you could there. And you have a guy in the skid stair, and you would dump into the skid stair, Then he would run over and crush right into the driveway.
- [38:53]
A
No kidding.
- [38:54]
C
Yeah. So it's a little bit of thought goes a long way. And it's not rocket science. It's just using the attachment. There are so many cool guys out there doing cool stuff, and I'm always watching for that, thinking, oh, what if we did this and just try it?
- [39:07]
A
Yeah, no kidding.
- [39:08]
C
So that's one of the things that separates us from a lot of companies is that we have the equipment to try it and we have the jobs or facilities to try it at.
- [39:17]
A
Yeah, that's. I've been to your pit. It's unbelievable. What you could test there anything at literally anything in large quantities. It's truly unbelievable. So if. If you were to. So let's say I take my machine to my job tomorrow to do this. And I'm probably going to just. Because why wouldn't I? But.
- [39:40]
C
So we're changing my flight.
- [39:41]
A
Yep. Oh, really? You're gonna come watch me do it. So if I do this, what. What would. It's literally this big curved sidewalk, and we. The front stoop, we have to jackhammer out no matter what, because I know I have to. But would you be saw cutting this sidewalk and then putting in chunks, or would you just jackhammer it into small pieces and then lift it with the excavator right into the bucket? If this was your job.
- [40:06]
C
This is a curb.
- [40:08]
A
No, it's a sidewalk.
- [40:09]
C
Sidewalk. And how wide is it?
- [40:11]
A
Six feet wide?
- [40:12]
C
It's six feet wide.
- [40:13]
A
Yeah, it's pretty wide sidewalk.
- [40:14]
C
So you need to get it small enough so you can get it inside. So are you. You have a hammer?
- [40:21]
A
I have a manual hammer.
- [40:22]
C
Manual.
- [40:22]
A
Like a jackhammer?
- [40:23]
C
Yeah. You could. You could hammer it up enough so you can get it inside.
- [40:27]
A
Barely enough that I need to get it in.
- [40:29]
C
Yeah. Or I mean, the bucket is. I forget what that bucket is. It's like 40 inches wide. If you saw cut it, then you could take the whole length. It doesn't matter how long it is, as long as you can get it in the.
- [40:41]
A
Because I could just grab the thing. Piece of my grapple and just slide it right in there.
- [40:45]
C
Slide it right in there, right into the truck. You know, you just don't want to be too long that it becomes unstable and somebody gets hurt. But if, you know, if you made it into sections, you could simply crush it right into the truck and be done with it.
- [40:56]
A
I'm 100% going to do that.
- [40:58]
C
Okay.
- [40:58]
D
And eliminate the jackhammer.
- [41:00]
A
Yeah. Because if I just saw. Cut it well. And it wouldn't take much of a saw cut to saw cut it and hit it with the excavator and break it and then grab the piece.
- [41:08]
C
Yeah. It is probably going to have just wire in there.
- [41:11]
A
Yeah, maybe.
- [41:12]
C
Yeah.
- [41:12]
A
It's in pretty good shape, so probably some kind of wire.
- [41:14]
C
Yeah.
- [41:15]
A
But I don't know. I'm very excited.
- [41:17]
C
You could run it through there. I would bring a couple. I would bring some more shims with you in case you wanted to close it down a little bit.
- [41:23]
A
Oh, okay.
- [41:23]
C
You know, this says you wanted to crush enough so it. It.
- [41:27]
A
Yes. Okay.
- [41:28]
C
It separates that wire from the top.
- [41:29]
A
I should bring those tools with me and I would. Yeah, that's a good. That's a good thought.
- [41:33]
C
You know, that size might work just right for you, but depending on where the wire sits in the concrete, it could. You could mush it. Not quite enough.
- [41:43]
A
Yeah.
- [41:43]
C
So because it's probably only four inches thick.
- [41:46]
A
Yeah.
- [41:47]
C
You might want to close it up a little bit more. But I would try it just like that first.
- [41:50]
A
Okay.
- [41:51]
C
Yep.
- [41:51]
A
I'm going to do that. It's. It would be only needed to do that. I don't need the machine there for anything else. But I think even if I brought the machine there for a half a day, it's not. I mean, I'll have to bring it there all day. But yeah. I don't have to then rehandle the material back of the yard. That's what I think about.
- [42:09]
C
Right.
- [42:09]
A
It's the rehan. The more. The longer I'm in business and the more. Even with the short time I've been in a bigger yard to have material, I'm quickly learning that I don't want to handle things more than once.
- [42:22]
C
My father used to say, don't wear it out. Right. Don't wear the material out. Try to move it one time or as little as possible.
- [42:29]
A
Well, it's harder to. It's way easier for me to do it there's. Than it is for me to try and scoop it off the ground. Because of course now my bin pad I thought was the biggest bin pad in the world. And now I'm like, oh, I need more bins.
- [42:43]
C
It shrinks pretty fast, doesn't it, it's
- [42:45]
A
embarrassing how fast it shrinks.
- [42:48]
D
Now Andy, will you let people at some point you think dump at your place and charge them?
- [42:53]
A
Yes.
- [42:54]
D
And have that.
- [42:54]
A
That's what I'm.
- [42:56]
D
Another revenue stream.
- [42:57]
A
Yeah. Because my, I have that whole area where we were parking for the open house that I, if I don't do something with it, it will become a weed fest first of all. And second of all I, it will be several years before I put something up there that's seriously income producing, like another building or leased space or whatever. And I think that if I can find ways to utilize the space for material in some way, shape or form. This is what I feel like is I want to do something like this.
- [43:29]
C
Yeah, no, that's a great space to have a. You know, you could, you can have one or two guys just manning that space and handling that materials that come in. It's going to be helpful to the local community of other contractors that have a closer place to get rid of material and also will help them have a closer place to take material that you've processed. Correct.
- [43:50]
D
So do you do the same thing with fill as well and screen that maybe.
- [43:54]
C
I don't know, fill materials, anything.
- [43:57]
A
Ultimately, I see myself having a dedic. I mean the main thing that I have with the screening bucket is I, I never, I so far sometimes don't have the machine where I want it, when I want it. Like I wish I had my 80 at my yard all the time because it, it would be so awesome for all kinds of stuff. But I only have 180 and it's out on the job site a lot of times. Well, a lot of the jobs that we're doing, I don't need to screen out there. And so like then we use the screening bucket with the loader, which is amazing. It works phenomenal. But it's faster with the excavator.
- [44:31]
C
Sure.
- [44:32]
A
So now it's like, okay, well maybe when it's time to get rid of the 80, I just keep the 80 and that stays at the yard, the process material and I get a new 80 that goes to the job or whatever I do. You know, that's. I, I'm starting to see like the writing on the wall with how if, with all this, with the space and if I'm going to process material, the machines need to stay there so that there's running material or whatever.
- [44:55]
C
Right. And you start to think long term because it's not like you're going out of business in a year. You start to think long term. I add more equipment. Which equipment do I add to the company? Again, it's about running the numbers and seeing what works. Like for us, you'll see is that we have a bunch of 80s, a bunch of 40s, a bunch of 210s for a reason. Because all those attachments fit any of those machines. If we had too many varying machines, then we have to have too many varying attachments and coupling connections. Correct. So those coupling connections are important as you grow. At least for me it is. As we grew, we want to make sure we can share that hammer with any 210 that we have.
- [45:37]
A
Yes, 100%.
- [45:39]
C
So, yes, we have more than one hammer, but sometimes we need five hammers running at the same time on the same machine.
- [45:46]
A
Same coupler size or.
- [45:47]
C
Yeah, same coupler size on five different jobs. So as you're moving forward, think about the sizes of the machines. You know, and you know, sometimes we don't, we don't need that oddball machine. Maybe we just rent that machine for a month. There's no reason to add an oddball in there. Then you're like, nothing fits.
- [46:06]
A
Yeah.
- [46:06]
C
Or you have to custom make a coupler for it. But then you have to be careful about weights and measurements and all that stuff.
- [46:13]
A
Gotcha.
- [46:13]
C
You don't want to be putting a 60,000 pound machine on an attachment that belongs on a 10,000 pound. You know what I mean?
- [46:19]
A
Because you destroy it.
- [46:20]
C
You'll destroy it. Yeah.
- [46:23]
A
Have you done that?
- [46:24]
C
I've had customers.
- [46:26]
A
I feel like you've done that.
- [46:27]
C
You know, some customers think, well, it's,
- [46:29]
D
you know, have you done it?
- [46:30]
C
I have not done it, no. I mean, I've had customers take a 70,000 pound machine and think they could put on attachment that only belongs on a 30,000 pound machine. But the trouble with a lot of those bigger machines, they can't get the flows and pressures down low enough.
- [46:44]
A
Ah, it blows out the insides or whatever.
- [46:47]
C
So that thought, that question does come up quite often, but we've never done that. The closest we've come is to putting a product that should be on a 55,000 pound machine and putting it on a 70,000 pound machine. But it's okay. It's borderline okay. We can just barely get the pressures down. But it's important to educate that customer as what they're doing.
- [47:13]
A
Yeah, yeah, right.
- [47:14]
C
But they wanted to do that because the next size down are they 55,000 pound models. And they use that on all their other machines for the. Once in a while they go as a big Machine. It's okay, sure.
- [47:25]
A
This is kind of off topic, but I guess it made me think about it, but. So you have multiple multiples of the same size excavator, Correct? You said forties, eighties, two tens, whatever. What do you feel like? This is maybe a stupid question, but what is the. What do you feel like is one of the most versatile size machines?
- [47:48]
C
Personally? Yeah, I love the 210 size for our area, but not everybody does those kinds of jobs. But you can't imagine how many small, tiny jobs I've gotten the 210 into. I mean, Stavsi would say, there's no way you're gonna bring that machine in there. But, you know, it's one of those things where you're like, well, I can bring the 80 and be here for a week, or I can bring the 210 here and be here for four hours, because I can reach all the way across the job and capture all that material. I might have to set up some parameters to get that machine in there or whatnot, but it might be worth that extra hour or two of setup time to get all that done, because I've got to reach further with the job, pick up more weight materials, and I've got to cast it over several obstacles or whatnot. So I've done that lots of times where people will be like, you put a 210 in there. I'm like, yeah, absolutely, I did. And then all the sizes are really good. I love the 80 size, and I love the 40 size. They all have their place, but the 40 is probably the one that gets used the most after that. And the 80, probably the least.
- [48:57]
A
Okay.
- [48:58]
D
And you love the 80, Andy?
- [49:00]
A
I love it.
- [49:00]
C
Yeah, I love it, too. It's a great machine.
- [49:02]
A
I love it. I Sometimes I wish it was a little bit bigger because it's a little tippy with a tilt rotator on. Especially when you grade a grapple and then try and pick up a big, big rock. But, I mean, you. I took them to see the landscape masterpiece today, and we did that whole job with an 80. And in hindsight, I would never do that again with an 80, because now I've used a bigger machine, and now I see the productivity, and I'm like, I should have had a bigger machine. But at the time, like I said, I had no idea what I was getting into, and I hadn't. I thought the 80 was the biggest machine I'd ever seen in my life right now.
- [49:36]
D
Andy, would you ever use a 210 or is that just I don't know.
- [49:39]
A
I've never ran one. I mean, the 245 that's at the shop right now is that's how much bigger than a 210? I don't know.
- [49:45]
C
Not much.
- [49:46]
A
Okay, that sound, that seems like it's the world's biggest excavator to me.
- [49:51]
D
But I mean, but the 80 felt like that.
- [49:53]
A
It did. It's just like anything else. It's like once you're in it for a minute, you're like, oh, I get it. Yeah. I mean I've been demo. I've. We have John Deere 444@ the yard right now for the demo day. And I used it for a week moving our whole asphalt millings pile to use it for the demo day. And I was having my guys load one of our dump trucks with the 97 just to move materials faster with the truck, when you're only using the skid loader to lose the truck. But I was running the 444 and I was moving triple them on a material, just driving it back and forth. Then they could load the truck with the track machine. And I'm like, I need a bigger yard machine. This is unbelievable. Like it was so much faster and like loading time. And I had two people to do what I was doing. Triple the amount of what one, two people were doing I was doing by myself. And like that's. Financially, that's a no brainer.
- [50:46]
C
Yeah. And you had to do the numbers, do that math of how many loads per year you take out of there. Right.
- [50:51]
A
I'm. Well, yeah, I don't know because it's also new. But you know, it's going to be a lot.
- [50:56]
C
It's not going to be one, it's not going to be 10, it's not going to be 500. It's going to be more than that. Right. And so then you do the math, right.
- [51:02]
A
And get the little big. Get the bigger loader.
- [51:04]
C
Right.
- [51:05]
A
So what I've been wondering as my business grows is does it make sense to have an 80 and the KX57? Because sometimes I feel like the 57 is almost as capable as the 80 lifting wise. Like it's impressive what I can do with that 57. And I'm wondering if I need something that's a more of a jump than just the 80 because the 57 can do a lot. But then there's times when it's like, I could have never done that with the 57. I needed the 8.
- [51:35]
C
Right.
- [51:36]
A
But maybe the 40 and the 80 is the better.
- [51:39]
C
You just buy them all.
- [51:40]
A
Yeah, just obviously, obviously you sweat, you struggle.
- [51:46]
B
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- [52:33]
A
Allie says my wife is commenting on the podcast. She doesn't comment on the podcast. So this is pretty big. I know you've changed, changed my husband's game with these attachments, but really for me, it's that you got him to try and like lobster rolls. For real?
- [52:50]
D
Yes. Andy came to visit us last December for an event that we were doing, and we took him to a restaurant on the water, which is pretty standard for us. We live for me. Right. And there was a lobster roll on the menu.
- [53:03]
A
And I think you ordered it. And I looked at it. I'm like, that looks really good.
- [53:08]
D
Yeah.
- [53:08]
A
And there was a lot of butter on that.
- [53:10]
D
Right.
- [53:10]
A
Like.
- [53:11]
D
And so we ordered one for Andy.
- [53:13]
C
We ordered one for you to try.
- [53:14]
A
I feel like you gave me yours and then ordered me one.
- [53:16]
D
Something like that.
- [53:17]
C
We ordered one for you to try, and I said, you try. If you don't like it, just leave it there. We'll eat it. And you started eating it. And I looked at her, I'm like, he's gonna finish this thing in like three bites. And I just slid the one that I ordered over to him. He's like, I can't eat if I close my eyes.
- [53:33]
A
And I. I can taste it in my mouth.
- [53:36]
D
Yeah.
- [53:36]
A
It was literally one of the best things I've ever eaten.
- [53:38]
D
Yeah. New England lobster roll.
- [53:39]
A
It was unbelievable. So when they came here, I pointed them to a restaurant and encouraged them not to order the lobster roll.
- [53:46]
D
Right. Which we did not.
- [53:47]
A
You did not?
- [53:48]
C
No.
- [53:50]
A
Yeah. I just with Allie says he, I never do that. I don't. I never try things ever. And so I've been Trying to try more things.
- [54:00]
C
And we tried to sneak one on the plane that wouldn't let us take it.
- [54:03]
A
That would have been incredible. It probably wouldn't have been as good. No, would have been soggy. Yeah, I just.
- [54:13]
C
Yeah.
- [54:13]
A
I think I just need every size of excavator. I mean, I think that's really the only solution, right?
- [54:19]
C
I think so.
- [54:19]
A
I have the E20, so really I need the 35, 40. I have the 57. Then we go to the 80 and then we just keep going.
- [54:28]
C
Keep going.
- [54:29]
A
How many x fitters do you guys own?
- [54:32]
C
I don't know.
- [54:32]
A
He doesn't know that's the right amount.
- [54:35]
D
Yeah.
- [54:36]
C
A couple 50 maybe.
- [54:40]
A
No way.
- [54:41]
D
No, not 50.
- [54:42]
C
I think we have about 30 some odd.
- [54:45]
A
30 some? Yeah.
- [54:47]
C
So love that it's.
- [54:49]
A
But you've been in business for a long time.
- [54:52]
C
We've been in business a long time. We have all kinds of equipment. Probably 30 or 40 pieces. And not all of those are excavators, but there's excavators and loaders and skid stairs and whatever else we have. But it's. Sometimes I walk around and I'm like, damn, that's a lot of stuff.
- [55:10]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [55:12]
C
But. Yeah, not a lot of trucks. We have a lot of pickup trucks, but not a lot of. We have one tri axle and one six wheeler and one mason dump. I really. I hire out all our trucks.
- [55:25]
A
Yeah.
- [55:25]
C
I found trucks to be. For us. It's more economical. Again, it's about the numbers. The numbers work better for us in our area to hire out.
- [55:36]
A
Yeah. Donna, explain to me what it was like to marry Anthony and come into this equipment game. And how have you serious answer? No, I don't know. I mean, how do you go from being a schoolteacher to now you're running and selling equipment attachments to contractors all over the country and world. Maybe.
- [56:02]
D
Yeah.
- [56:02]
A
And can I leave?
- [56:04]
D
Yeah, you're good.
- [56:05]
A
I mean, that's. That's a huge. I mean that's a lot to learn.
- [56:09]
D
Right. And I had a career, you know, when we started dating, I had a career. I was a school teacher. I was finishing up my master's degree. And then we got married and his parents were getting out and I. We talked about it. It was a choice. It was, you know, donna, you can do whatever you want to do. You've worked really hard on this degree. You've been teaching for five years. And I was good at it. I loved it. He said, or you can come into the business and take over for my mom and work Probably a little bit less than you do now. And it was an easy decision for me to work a little bit less. We knew we were gonna have a family and I could be like a trusted person in the business with the money. Right. So I did the books for Lafada and son. A and D didn't exist back then.
- [56:56]
A
Yeah, sure.
- [56:57]
D
So, yeah, we have an accountant that I leaned on. I leaned on my mother in law because numbers weren't my thing. But I just took my skill set from life and teaching and my college degree and I figured out how to do it. So I did the books for a few years and we had four children. And then he got into the attachment thing, and I kind of thought he was crazy. And I said, I am not going to raise four kids, do LaFada and son, and you're going to start selling these crazy attachments. And that was about 15 years ago. So I actually took a break for about eight years and did the kids. Just the kids and a small amount of paperwork. So we hired a office manager to do most of my job to take
- [57:43]
A
over what you were doing.
- [57:44]
D
Yeah, I mean, I still signed the checks and managed a little bit of it, but not a lot. And as the kids got bigger and then 2020 hit and things were kind of changing.
- [57:54]
C
Covet happened.
- [57:55]
D
Yeah. And it wasn't just Covid, but that was a piece of it for us because it changed our staffing. And so I was like, oh, I guess it's time for me to come back more.
- [58:04]
A
Yeah.
- [58:05]
D
And so I did. And then it was like a. And equipment was always the small thing on the side. And Lofada was the big company. And we kind of made a decision together because we're older and we're like, let's try to build a and up and we'll, you know, keep Lofada at, you know, a smaller number or even have it go down a little bit. It's hard to balance that, you know.
- [58:29]
A
Can't imagine.
- [58:30]
D
Yeah. Because they both make money. They make money in different seasons. One has to sell, the other is time and materials, out of jobs, servicing. Yeah. But here we are. And a D has grown quite a bit in the last five years since we made that decision. And so, yeah, I mean, I guess I'm a people person. I was a teacher. I was a bartender. I was a whitewater rafting guide. I mean, so people are my game.
- [58:58]
A
Yeah.
- [58:58]
D
And selling is people. People is selling relationships.
- [59:02]
A
Yeah.
- [59:03]
D
And I think that's always been more important to me than the sale.
- [59:07]
C
She's brought a whole new flavor to it in the social media aspect of it that we're learning, and just a really good vibe to the whole thing.
- [59:16]
D
I think it's because I'm a people person and a relationship person first and because we own our own excavating company that's just made us really good at attachments.
- [59:27]
C
She has a natural voice that will penetrate through anything. And if you've ever gone whitewater rafting with her and she's the guide and you're the one at the other end of the boat, you're gonna hear her.
- [59:41]
A
I did not know that about the whitewater rafting.
- [59:43]
C
No kidding.
- [59:44]
D
I did that in my 20s for five or six years.
- [59:46]
A
Okay.
- [59:47]
D
Yeah, it was. It was very cool. Massachusetts and Vermont.
- [59:51]
A
Wow. So the next time I come, we're going to do that.
- [59:54]
D
We could do that. Oh, it'd be great. The kids and alleys.
- [59:58]
A
You still do it?
- [59:58]
D
I. Well, I don't guide anymore, but we go as a family, and I've taken our kids, so I still have friends up in the area in Maine.
- [60:06]
A
Okay.
- [60:06]
D
And so we can go up and just have our friends take us down the river as a private trip.
- [60:11]
A
Wow.
- [60:11]
D
It's very cool.
- [60:12]
C
Yeah.
- [60:12]
A
That's so cool.
- [60:13]
D
Beautiful Maine wilderness. The Kennebec River.
- [60:15]
A
Yeah.
- [60:16]
D
Gorgeous. You would love it.
- [60:17]
A
That's so cool.
- [60:18]
D
Yeah.
- [60:19]
A
So how. How does it work? How do you feel like you guys work together as a team? Do you feel like you're always talking about work? You struggle with that. I mean, who. I mean, I'm sure you love what you do, so I don't think that's. I'm not saying that's a problem.
- [60:36]
D
Right.
- [60:36]
A
Just asking, like, how does that. How does. How does that work?
- [60:41]
D
I think pretty much all we do is talk about work.
- [60:44]
A
Okay.
- [60:44]
D
Yeah. Yeah.
- [60:45]
A
But it's something you love to do. It's not like it's. We're both chore.
- [60:49]
D
No. We're both very passionate about it in different ways. And sometimes that's problematic. Right. He wants to do things one way, I want to do things the other. So that's not always easy, but you work through it. You know, I guess when the kids were little, it was always talking about the kids, and now the kids are older, and now it's talking about work. Do I love that all the time? No. Do I wish there were a little bit more free time or separation? Yes. But there's not. And that's okay because we love what we do. Yeah.
- [61:18]
C
And at the same time, we do talk a lot about work all the time, but we also talk a lot about the cool things we're able to do, and we're doing one of them right now to be able to meet people like you. I mean, if it wasn't for the work that we do in the business that we in, we don't have these opportunities. You know, I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd be sitting down with the people that I've sat with in the last five years. It's been insane. And it's work that's brought us to that. It's work that's built those relationships. And, you know, I've built relationships with not just companies here in the US but abroad as well. So. Yeah, you know, Sweden and England and Italy and all these different manufacturers that manufacture stuff and I'm dealing with them and visiting them and. Yeah, that all happens because of this.
- [62:05]
A
Yeah.
- [62:07]
C
So it's. Yeah, it is sometimes exhausting. But there's. There's some rewards in there as well.
- [62:14]
D
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of rewards, for sure. Yeah.
- [62:18]
A
That's really cool. I appreciate you sharing that. That's. I.
- [62:23]
C
How about you? Do you guys talk about work all the time?
- [62:26]
A
Allie, do we talk about work all the time? If you're still listening. Yeah, we talk about work a lot. She doesn't work in the business at all. Not in the day to day in any way. But I often say that, like, just because she doesn't formally work in the business doesn't mean she doesn't work in the business, because she often is a huge sounding board for basically any issue that I have going on. And so I bounce all of my ideas off of her. Anytime I'm going to buy something, most of the time I bounce off of her. I think there's a threshold that has grown to where I say something or don't say something anymore, but that's okay. That comes with trust. And, and, you know, I. I think I. Ultimately, a lot of the reason that I talk about work with her is because I value her opinion so, well, so much, you know, because it's obviously proven to me to be extremely valuable. And so I want her opinion on stuff 99.9 of the time. She somehow has exactly has the right thing to say when I don't know what to do or say. And she'll say something to be like, duh, yeah, I've been screwing around with this in my head all day. And you say that one thing and I'm like, oh, that's. Why didn't I think of that.
- [63:48]
C
Right. It's always nice to have an outside perspective on things.
- [63:51]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [63:52]
C
I know.
- [63:53]
D
When we do, you talk about her work.
- [63:55]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [63:55]
D
Okay. Yeah. So it goes both ways.
- [63:57]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [63:58]
D
Good.
- [63:58]
A
Yeah. She does financial planning and goes the same way. I don't know if I can give her as much advice as she can give me. She's much wiser than I am.
- [64:07]
D
I'm trying to picture her, like, giving you something and.
- [64:09]
A
Yeah. She doesn't.
- [64:11]
D
You coming up with the answer for some financial.
- [64:13]
A
No. You know, the older I get, the more I. It's more about listening. I just. I don't. I have. I mean, it's a man problem you want to listen to fix, and that's not always the. That's not really what it's about. I need to just listen to listen and not listen to respond.
- [64:30]
C
Right.
- [64:32]
A
So. Yeah. I don't know. I. I've said it many times. I mean, I wouldn't. She is. I. I wouldn't be where I'm at without her support, you know, so it. You definitely talk about work a lot. But sometimes I have to just take a breath in the driveway and leave my problems in the driveway because, I mean, business ownership is the biggest roller coaster. I mean, within minutes, it can be the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and it's. It can wear you down. But you have to have a good support system.
- [65:07]
D
It's a lot of pressure. It's a lot of late nights. It's a lot of thinking about the people that you're taking care of.
- [65:12]
A
Yeah.
- [65:12]
D
Right. You're responsible for a lot.
- [65:14]
A
Correct.
- [65:15]
D
When your head goes down on that pillow. And then sometimes when you wake up at three in the morning, you don't go back to sleep.
- [65:21]
C
Right.
- [65:21]
D
Because you're thinking about everything.
- [65:23]
A
Correct.
- [65:23]
D
That you're responsible for.
- [65:24]
C
So I don't tell her everything, especially when she was just taking care of the kids for that seven or eight years.
- [65:34]
A
Yeah.
- [65:34]
C
You know, she'd look out the window, she'd be like, another escalator. And I can't get a pool.
- [65:42]
D
Yeah, we still don't have a pool. I'm married to an excavating contractor.
- [65:46]
A
I took them around to see some landscapes today, and. And there was a lot of, like, elbowing, like, look at this really nice pool, Anthony. And Anthony gave me the finger, I think, at one time, because he was like, why are you taking me to these places?
- [65:58]
C
Stop showing us this stuff.
- [65:59]
D
Water features.
- [66:00]
C
Oh, man.
- [66:03]
A
Well, I. Yeah, it was. It's just. You need a good support system.
- [66:08]
D
You do?
- [66:09]
C
Definitely.
- [66:10]
A
Well, I think. I think we'll wrap it up, guys. I. I really appreciate you both being here today in my super fancy podcast studio.
- [66:18]
D
Yes. This is schwanky. I love it.
- [66:20]
A
This is.
- [66:20]
C
This is stunning.
- [66:21]
D
This is a treat.
- [66:22]
C
I've never been in a studio quite this nice.
- [66:24]
A
It's ginormous.
- [66:25]
D
Yeah.
- [66:26]
A
I was joking about my fancy podcast studio and we. It's. Yeah. So I appreciate you guys coming. I really, really do. You waited two days to come and do this podcast. That is completely unnecessary. And I'm very grateful for our friendship and your support of my business and the podcast and are coming for our open house and demo day. That was a really. I really appreciate it. That's a long way to come and it's a big expense for everyone and so thank you. I really appreciate.
- [66:54]
D
You're welcome.
- [66:54]
C
Our pleasure.
- [66:55]
D
Our pleasure. We appreciate you and your business and your friendship for us, so thank you.
- [67:00]
A
Yeah. Thank you.
- [67:02]
C
Give me your hand.
- [67:03]
A
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, sir. So, yeah, let's thanks to synced up project management software for being our sponsor. Pave tool innovators and ad equipment for being our sponsor. Thank you for tuning in to the Motorlife podcast in the ENCON studios and we will catch you on the next one. Thanks.
- [67:34]
B
This has been a molder outdoors and Mr. Producer production.