In this episode, learn how Matt Moldenhauer went from big-time business consultant to southern logging business owner (Bellwether Forest Products). Even though he knew nothing about logging when he started, thanks to his consulting skillset combined with humility, Bellwether moves five times the wood than it did just a few years ago when Matt joined the business. Since Bellwether was one of the first-ever businesses I visited with BuildWitt, I have a soft spot for the company. Not only do I have...
Sep 17, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 33
This past weekend, I made a post via Instagram stories asking for questions that I'd answer on an upcoming podcast episode. To my surprise, people actually submitted somewhat thoughtful questions. With that, I turned on the microphone and went down the list of questions cold-turkey. From business ownership to whether I believe mayonnaise is an instrument, I answered each as genuinely as I could. Hopefully, you enjoy -- if people like this, maybe we'll do it again sometime!...
Sep 09, 2020•48 min•Ep. 32
In this episode, I stayed up well past my bedtime to talk dirt with Jimmy Starbuck, owner of Starbuck Excavation in Melbourne, Australia. If you're on social media, you've likely seen Jimmy's diggers with the enormous "STARBUCK" logo on the boom and counterweight. We get into how he went from working in a soap factory to buying an excavator with a car loan, how he's grown his business, how he's become vertically integrated, and how COVID is affecting Australian businesses. Not only is this inter...
Sep 02, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 31
On this episode, Herb Sargent and I chat about life, anxiety, my recent struggles and his life lessons.
Aug 20, 2020•51 min•Ep. 30
When it comes to excavators, Ryan Neal knows just about everything there is. As Regional Product Application Specialist for large excavators at Caterpillar, Ryan spends his days testing new excavators, talking to customers, and training operators worldwide. After working as an operator in the construction industry for about a decade, Ryan had the chance to become a demonstrator instructor at Caterpillar's Edwards facility in Peoria, Illinois. During his time there, he became familiar with every ...
Aug 19, 2020•55 min•Ep. 29
In this episode, I explain why I went to college, what I think the major mistakes people who go to college make are, and how to get the most out of it if you do go, in my opinion. Like anything else in life, there's a right and wrong way to do college. While it's no longer a requirement for "success" in the year 2020, it's still a fantastic thing to do, if you do it right.
Aug 13, 2020•26 min•Ep. 28
Chris Guins (better known as letsdig18) lives for earthwork as an owner/operator for his family's excavating business and himself. At any point in time (weekends included), odds are you'll find him mucking out a pond in North Carolina with a Volvo excavator while wearing cargo shorts. I titled the episode "dirt celebrity" as somewhat of a joke, but thanks to Chris's few hundred thousand YouTube subscribers and millions of weekly video views, a lot of people know who he is. Started somewhat on ac...
Aug 05, 2020•59 min•Ep. 27
On the second installment of me talking about my background and experiences in the Dirt World (you all enjoyed the first one more than I thought you would), I pick up back on the railroad. I explain how Skanska nearly fired me for accidentally ripping out an important railroad signal line, how I got a job with Kiewit, how I got a tour of the largest tunneling project on earth, and why I began posting dirt photos on Instagram. As I'm typing this out, there's more than I thought there was in the e...
Jul 30, 2020•37 min•Ep. 26
Since I'm a terrible planner, I forgot to schedule someone interesting for this week's episode. Instead, and to your likely disappointment, I opened up the microphone and talked about how I started in construction. I talk about the early years before construction entered my life, how I learned to work hard, how I got my first construction job with no experience, and a few other summer construction adventures leading up to my junior year of college. Whether you're someone looking to learn more ab...
Jul 24, 2020•44 min•Ep. 25
*If you don't like swearing, then this ain't the episode for you!* In this week's episode, I sit down with Taylor White, who runs the day to day at Ken White Construction in Ottowa, Canada. I first saw Taylor's videos and photos on Instagram and Youtube. I was immediately curious since he does a damn good job bringing people along on the day to day of a growing family business. Even though he didn't start the business, he's hell-bent on transforming his father's business before him built into a ...
Jul 17, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 24
Initially beginning his career as a site development contractor, Isaac Barlow started to see issues with how his business and other construction businesses tracked time and costs associated with each project. With little to no data, no one could accurately manage and estimate work. Once he realized he could potentially create a solution for his company, but many other construction companies, he set out to research why construction companies fail. The number one reason? Not lack of skillset. It w...
Jul 09, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 23
"Listen, we don't expect you to know all this stuff. Ask -- there are people with much more experience here who are here to support you. But the minute you say, 'I got this, and I know this,' you own that. And if you can't do that, then that's a problem. We want you to ask for help and give you whatever support we can, but if you try to be too confident and it doesn't work, then there's a different conversation that has to be had." From a young age, Ford Berg and his siblings napped in the famil...
Jul 02, 2020•57 min•Ep. 22
Dan and I break down BuildWitt and explain what our business does, why our mission is so important, and how we make decisions in this episode. Since we get so many questions as to what BuildWitt is, we thought we'd take a bit of time and break it all down the best we can. To learn more about BuildWitt, check out buildwitt.com!
Jun 24, 2020•40 min•Ep. 21
MILBURN Demolition began in early 2014 as a one-person show -- a guy who thought demolition didn't have to be unsafe, dirty, or old-school. James Milburn stumbled into demolition while going to school at Purdue for Construction Management. After attending demolition conferences, he fell in love with the world of demolishing stuff and decided it was the career path for him. He quickly went to work for a few demolition companies after school and began to learn how the industry operated. What he le...
Jun 17, 2020•55 min•Ep. 20
In this episode, I interview Quinton Galbraith, the man behind @caterpillarwrenching on Instagram and a technician at Peterson Cat. From the moment you meet this guy, it's obvious that he loves wrenching on big iron, and he has absolutely no fear of getting his hands dirty. Unlike many technicians, Quinton didn't have any mechanical background before joining Peterson. While he was young, he worked odd jobs from moving to construction. He found the world of Caterpillar equipment through a relativ...
May 13, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 19
At the bottom of the recession, Alan Guy, along with two other partners, Richard Leider and HT Tran, started a construction company called Anvil Builders. The three of them began to bidding work in a cramped hotel room in downtown San Francisco and took whatever they could to make a dollar. Less than a decade later, Anvil was leading disaster cleanups after wildfires swept through Santa Rosa, Malibu, and Paradise. "I'm employee number 35 at Anvil, which means that there were 34 people at this co...
May 07, 2020•48 min•Ep. 18
Tom Squeri is the CEO of Graniterock, a 120-year old materials and construction business based out of Watsonville, California. Even with nearly 1,000 people among their ranks, they're still a humble, family-owned business with a caring and local feel. In 2012, when Graniterock's then CEO Bruce Woolpert tragically passed away, Tom abruptly found himself in Graniterock's lead role from his position of general counsel. While Graniterock's board acknowledged that they had their business units led by...
Apr 30, 2020•49 min•Ep. 17
Jason Miller is the President of Midwest Mole, an Indiana-based tunneling contractor. Jason started with Midwest Mole in his teens since his dad was a foreman there at the time. After giving college a shot for a semester, he decided it wasn't for him, so he dove headfirst into tunneling as a career. Starting as a laborer, he worked his way through the ranks to the top as an owner while maintaining an extreme sense of humility. He hasn't forgotten where he started, and he leads the company with t...
Apr 22, 2020•54 min•Ep. 16
Garrett Moss is the President of Moss Utilities, a utility contractor in the DFW area that he began three years ago in his early 30's. Even though he's the fifth generation, he's built his own business from the ground up after his father's business closed during the recession in 2008. The growth of Moss Utilities has been wild over the past few years as they went from nothing to hundreds of employees seemingly overnight. While Moss's "success" looks fantastic from the outside, it's come with str...
Apr 15, 2020•52 min•Ep. 15
BuildWitt VP Dan Briscoe and I talk about how we met, why he joined BuildWitt, and how it’s worked out so far. Dan’s been with me since day one and has had an enormous impact on our business. That said, he’s typically behind the scenes, so everyone online thinks all this BuildWitt stuff is just me. If it was just me, it would be a disaster. The nice thing about the podcast is that we have a new avenue to show everyone how we make the sausage at BuildWitt. Stay tuned for more episodes from Dan an...
Apr 08, 2020•28 min•Ep. 14
The world's in a crazy place, and business owners are scrambling to ensure the future of their companies. With so much uncertainty, I thought I'd interview someone who's lead a successful business through many troubled times. While I don't know what to do, Herb Sargent, President of Sargent Corp, might have a better idea. First, we briefly touch on his response to the crisis and what new policies Sargent Corp has enacted over the past few weeks to keep their people safe while continuing to work....
Apr 01, 2020•36 min•Ep. 13
While the podcast is titled Dirt Talk, we barely touched on dirt in this episode and instead discussed life, religion, marriage, painful lessons, and leadership. Many people know Mikel Bowman as an extremely upbeat and inspirational mining industry leader, but it took a lot of pain and work to get to where he is today. We dive into his past only a few minutes in to talk about his mistakes early on, how he met his wife, and how he eventually found his way into Bible college. From there, he went o...
Mar 25, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 12
Odds are you've heard of Keaton Turner if you're on social media in the dirt world. He's made a whole lot of noise online when it comes to recruiting the next generation and has used it to his advantage to build a nationwide mining company. While most everyone's heard Keaton's philosophy on hiring and seen Turner Mining's culture online, most don't understand what it takes to build such a large business in only a few short years. Keaton and I dive into the struggles of starting a business, how h...
Mar 18, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 11
Due to much good fortune, I had the chance to speak with Dave at this year's Conexpo on the differences between our generations. Since not everyone who'd like to hear our talk could be there, we made it a podcast! Dave and I talk about our frustrations with our generations and each other's, how Dave is training and hiring, and we get into Dave's new show, Dave Turin's Lost Mine. Despite Dave being over twice my age and me lacking a majority of his real-world experience, we're both on the same pa...
Mar 12, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 10
Herb R. Sargent, President and CEO of Maine-based Sargent Corp, has an incredibly unique story because he's third-generation construction while also being a first-generation business owner. In 1926, Herb Sargent's grandfather started a heavy construction business called H. E Sargent with a dump truck and steam shovel. The company expanded and changed over the decades as Herb's dad and Herb himself joined the family business to build airports, interstates, and dams. In 1988, a large French compan...
Mar 01, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 9
Most everyone in the heavy equipment world has dealt with a Caterpillar dealer at one point or another, but most don't understand how much goes on behind the scenes to support every machine. There's an enormous effort that goes into selling, maintaining, renting, financing, and everything else machines require. Craig Kahoun is the Executive Vice President of Carter Machinery, a world-class equipment dealer based out of Virginia with over 90 years of history. You'd think that many years of hittin...
Feb 25, 2020•51 min•Ep. 8
This episode follows my first interview with Missy Scherber, where we discussed what she does daily and what it's like to be a woman in construction. While I thought the conversation went great at first, she was frustrated about having to defend herself for being a business owner. Initially, we thought it was best to delete it and start over. I set aside my excitement for releasing the episode, and we dove into why she was bothered by the original interview. After talking through the unintention...
Feb 13, 2020•32 min•Ep. 7
Five years ago, Missy Scherber dropped what she thought was her dream job in the nonprofit world to become co-owner of her husband's dumpster company so they could also focus on starting an excavation company. How bananas is that? Missy is a passionate person who, when she sees a gap, she immediately fills it. When I say she dove into the dirt life, I mean it. She's spent the last few years building a massive community on Instagram where not only does she show the daily work of the T. Scherber e...
Feb 11, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 6
I texted Kimo asking when he was available for a podcast, and there we were talking 30 minutes later after he finished his run. Kimo is the owner of Maui based Truth Excavation, a company performing excavation and utilities work around the Hawaiian island. He's as honest as it gets regarding his business, life, and lessons learned in this impromptu podcast interview. Unlike a lot of other business owners in the dirt world, Kimo didn't grow up in love with heavy equipment. By chance, he got his s...
Jan 30, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 4
When Don needed to support his family at age 17, he went looking a well-paying job. Not exactly flush with options, he found a gig at a local demolition company thanks to an intro from his friend's dad. Starting as a laborer, he worked his ass off and grabbed ahold of more responsibility and leadership opportunities when they presented themselves. By his 20's, he was managing demolition crews across town and learning a whole lot of lessons while he did it. Fast forward a few years and he's now p...
Jan 27, 2020•54 min•Ep. 5
