man, what a good conversation with Aaron. That
was kind of humbling for me just because what
he does, I'm that person that he's targeting
to. So that was a super fun conversation towards
the end there. We talked about ego, we talked
about therapy, we talked about him starting his
businesses and what's his drivers and things
like that. And I just, I really loved that conversation.
I can't wait to go listen to it again. Aaron
was the perfect first guest to have on the dirt
bags podcast. And, you know, he just encompasses
that dirt bag vibe. So he's got it going. You
know, we had a great conversation and let's dive
into it. All right, guys, we are here. Episode
one of the dirt bags podcast. Luke and I are
stoked to have our first ever guest on. We've
got Aaron Witt. What's going on, man? Where in
the country are you recording this from? I am
at home, Nashville, Tennessee. Yeah, I'm happy
to be home whenever I get the chance these days
because it is quite rare. What do you think?
You're home for a couple days a month or it seems
like you're always traveling? Yeah, it was just
a few nights at home in January. February has
been a little bit better. Not by much. So I'm
here for a few days and then I leave again Wednesday
morning. It's just about, just about every week
right now. I was going to say, do you travel?
Like it's probably the better question to ask.
How many days don't you travel a month? I don't
count because I think I'd just be sad about it.
It's, it's, it's a good deal. I, I, I bitch about
it because I like to complain, but I, it's, it's
awesome. And it's why. largely why I'm at where
I'm at because I've been able to see so much
cool stuff so quickly. So it's, it's, it's awesome.
I'm super, super grateful for it. Sure. What's
been like, Luke, go ahead. Sorry. When did you,
when did you guys close on the office space?
I know we've been following you guys for a while,
but when did you actually close on the building?
Signed the lease fall of 2019 or like December
of 2019 started construction last March finished
up maybe September. So we've been in here since
September. Right now it's February. So not super
long. But yeah, it was about three years in business
before we got the office space. I just crashed
coffee shops wherever the hell I was in the United
States for three years worked out of my apartment.
my girlfriend's house at the time, my parents'
houses. It was just, it just kind of worked wherever
the hell I was. And then three years down the
road, moved to Nashville and figured, hey, I
think we need, we need a dedicated space for
the company for a few different reasons. So that's
where we, when we settled down here. And now
we've got this little spot here pretty close
to downtown Nashville. Did you have a team when
you were jumping around or was the team, did
the team come when you did get the building?
We had a little bit of a team. So it was like
I have bigger plans for our office space than
just using it as office space. We're working
on a separate project right now that should be
a little bit bigger picture. But it was to the
point where, okay, we have a team now. We got
people running around. We need a place to meet
that's just dedicated to our business because
doing the whole over the computer thing seven
days a week is awesome. You can be really flexible.
You can hire from wherever you want, but also
it has significant drawbacks that I think are
very much understated in today's virtual business
world. That's cool. I kind of have a question
right off the bat, just shooting from like when
you guys signed your lease and the team and everything.
Aaron, when you were working, did you work at
key with or what was like your job? I remember
you saying you were like the jumping jack guy.
You were always backfilling pipe or you were
counting the blasts. Are those two different
companies or were those the same? Yeah, it was.
So when I got into construction, I got a job
at Pearson Construction Corporation and I just
asked for a job. So the job they gave me was
labor, of course, because that's the job available
when you go work for a construction company doing
pipe. So I started out on a pipe crew as a laborer
for Pearson. The next year I went to work for
a company called Markham as a laborer. And that's
when I just lived on a jumping jack for a month,
backfilling waterline. And then I got put with
an awesome pipe crew, a bunch of Mexican guys
that were just the absolute, they were just animals.
It was so much fun working with these guys. And
I was the, the wereo, the wereito, the little
white, white boy on the crew. That's what they
would call me. And then third summer, third year
went to work for Skanska on the railroad, because
I was told that, hey, it's cool, you're getting
equipment experience, you're laboring, you're
doing construction stuff, but you need to learn
how to manage work and how the office side of
projects come together. So reluctantly got a
job as a field engineer with Skanska, they sent
me out to the railroad. That was just incredibly
miserable, but also very enlightening learned
a lot that summer. And then fourth year was with
Kiwit doing drill and shoot up in Washington
as an engineer, but also part -time laborer,
helping load every single shot we did. So I was
the powder monkey, throwing bags of powder around.
And we didn't have a truck. We didn't have a
powder truck. When you load big shots typically,
you have a truck that's full of AMFO. And it
comes along and you have a hose and you put the
hose into the hole and it fills the hole up with
how much AMFO you need. we didn't have that fancy
stuff we just had 50 pound bags of ammonium nitrate
fuel oil so i'd have to haul all those to each
hole load each hole and then stem each hole which
is basically filling up the hole to the top with
gravel once you've loaded it with the explosives
and uh i just did that with basically a five
gallon bucket you just fill it up with rock you
pour it down the hole and you repeat until the
hole is full and it takes sometimes a lot of
damn buckets of gravel to fill it up So did that
and then went to work in road construction after
I graduated college. So it was a lot pretty quick.
So you were really getting your workout in Jesus
Christ, I used to do concrete. And just the manual
labor part, I remember, for when I was like 1617,
I would work all day, we'd haul up these wall
forms. And then I'd be like, God, I got to hit
the gym. But then I'd get to the gym, I'd be
like, I have no energy left in me. Yeah. But
going from that, you know, obviously, working
that really, really manual labor job, you know,
what was kind of like your light bulb moment
to where I know you were doing stuff with I build
America right on the Instagram page. Yes, different
timing. Yeah, that was my last job before I started
the company. So I went I was working road construction,
Texas, HSS, which had I build America found me,
they hired me moved to Houston started working
for a software company. did that for a few months.
And then that's the last job I had before I started
started build with. So what was like your light
bulb moment to where you're like, I can do this
by myself. This is this is what I want to do.
Like, what was there like an event that happened?
Or were you just like, I'm doing this already?
Why not do it for myself? There wasn't I, at
least for my experience, I light bulb moments
have been a fallacy. There really hasn't been
a light bulb moment ever in my life. It's you
just, I don't know, you take one step and then
you take another step. And maybe it's a good
step, maybe a step and shit, whatever it is.
I don't know if I can swear or not, whatever
the format of your podcast is. So I went to work
at iBuild America. And the way I like to put
it is there were just differences between how
I thought it should be run and how they wanted
it to be run. And I was just I was in a very
fortunate situation in which I could quit my
job financially and it just got to a point where
I wasn't I wasn't enjoying it and it wasn't what
I liked to do and so I just said hey I'm not
gonna do this anymore and so I just quit and
it wasn't like I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna
draft my brilliant business plan on how I'm gonna
build a marketing business because that's the
opportunity it's like no I don't want to be here
anymore. So I'm going to walk in to my boss's
office and tell him, I am not going to be here
anymore. I'm going to be done on Friday. That
was it. And the guy's office I walked into was
Dan briscoe, who now president of our company
has basically helped me build the company from
from nothing. And we've we've built it together.
So and he ran the marketing. the whole marketing
function of HSS for quite a while. So that was
it. It was a, I don't know, there was just differences.
I just got to a point where, hey, this isn't
for me. So I quit. And that's what I tell people
starting out or wanting to start something. I'm
like, well, don't underappreciate putting yourself
in a situation that forces you to figure your
shit out. Because amazingly enough, you're probably
going to figure your shit out when it's life
or death when you throw yourself in the deep
end. you just got to figure it out. And so that
was somewhat of the situation I put myself into.
That's really interesting. I think, so correct
me if I'm wrong, but Dan, he was like the first
with you and you didn't know anything about websites.
He had sold the website. You're like, Dan, I
need help building the website. Wasn't that kind
of how that went? Yeah. He left the company shortly
after I did. And he went to go work for some
other companies because he's you know, high level
marketing executive and had done sales and former
military. And he said he's had a long, very successful
career. So he was going to work for some other
other companies after H CSS. And yeah, I got
into that little bit of a pickle where I told
someone I could build a website, I didn't know
how to build a website. So Dan was my first call
because, you know, he was the He was the marketing
guy. He knew how to do marketing. I didn't know
how to do marketing. And he helped me out just
on the side while he was working elsewhere. And
he helped me out for probably the first year,
year and a half. He came officially full time,
maybe a year and a half or two into business.
But he's basically helped me on the side since
day one. He had a job for a while, but this was
a lot more fun than what he was doing at his
day job. So that's why he eventually came over
here. Yeah, there's two things that I got from
that. Sorry, Luke. Fake it till you make it.
And it's who you know, not what you know. Kind
of. It's like, yeah, it's like fake it till you
make it. But I think that's also twisted to be
disingenuine. You have to have really genuine
intentions. You have to act a little bit more
capable than you really are, or else you wouldn't
get any work in the beginning. Um, but also intent
has a smell, which I like that's stuck with me
since I spent time with echelon front this past
summer. And so if you're just faking it, you're
just some jive turkey that's trying to act bigger
than you are with no real intention behind it.
People are going to pick up on that and it's
going to re click bullshit. Uh, but if you're
really doing your best and you're really, and,
and There is some of that. There is some of acting
like you're more capable than you really are.
But also I've done pretty well on the other side
of things to saying, I don't know what I'm doing,
but I'm going to do my absolute best. I am going
to go find people like you were talking about.
It's important who you know, I'm going to go
find people that do know what the hell they're
doing. I'm going to work my ass off and I'm going
to make this work for you at the end of the day.
And if it doesn't work at the end of the day,
I'm going to start all over from scratch and
I'm going to do it right a second time because
I probably learned some lessons the first time.
So you do when you're starting company have to
act more capable than you really are. But also
there's so much value in saying, I honestly,
I have no idea how to do that, but I'm going
to figure it out. Yeah. I think Aaron that's
spot on because it really falls into your first
point that you made. And it's really about just
taking that first step. And it's not that you're
being disingenuous, it's just saying, hey, I'm
not going to be the one building your website.
I'm just going to throw that out there, but I
work with people or I'm going to find somebody
that can do it right. And the good thing about
me as the leader of this company is I'm transparent.
I'll tell you how it is and I'll definitely make
it right. You know, we're in the business of
people and not transactions. So I definitely
love that example too of you got to get started.
You can't craft up a 10 year business plan before
taking your first step and even bring it on one
client or one customer. So, um, Is that your
first customer you took on? Tell me a little
bit about that. Did you sell them a website and
a social media fee? Or what was that first service
that you sold? Very first company I started working
with. So I went to lunch or dinner with Keaton
Turner while I was working for HDSS. And we talked
about storytelling, mining industry. He had just
started this mining company. I was working at
iBuild America. I was doing social media on the
side, and we just shot the shit for a while.
He came back to me and said, hey, why don't you
come work for us? And why don't you do what you're
doing over there, but for us? And then not shortly
after that, I left to go do it on my own. And
so naturally, he was my first call. And I said,
Hey, I just quit. I'm doing this full time. Can
you pay me some money to do it for you? And just
give me whatever you got. And let's go do this.
Let's go blow your company up. Let's go make
you guys look really good. Let's go change up
the mining industry like you're wanting to do.
I think we could do it together. So he was technically
Turner mining group is technically our first
project. Granite Rock was really early on. They
flew me out to Monterey to go see their quarry
and I thought I was just, man, I thought I was
the biggest deal in the world getting flown out
by a company to go see this quarry and D11s and
992 loaders. It was just awesome. And then Dylan
Stevens with Rosso called me pretty quick as
well. And he flew me out to Nashville, Tennessee.
I was actually just at his office yesterday.
Flew me out to Nashville or Murfreesboro. checked
out some job sites, asked for a website, and
then there we were. There I was calling up Dan
saying, I don't know how to do website, like
I just talked about. So I think those are the
initial ones. It was really just, just grasping
at straws, or just throwing things at the wall
and seeing what sticks. But at that point, I'd
already had a decent social media following.
So it wasn't like I was starting from zero. For
sure. And you know, I think it's great about
that story is that Luke and I, I mean, Luke is
one of the our first ever clients in April of
2020, you know, and same kind of thing. I just
resonate so much with this and we weren't even
niche down in the dirt world yet. So we were
just real estate agency, a bakery, coffee shop,
demolition company, whatever, we'll do it. And
what's really cool now is that we are so focused
and, you know, as of six months ago or so, and
it's because of Luke and I's relationship of
how we're growing together and like, you know,
this isn't I tell Luke and I tell all of our
clients, we don't do magic tricks. We don't,
you don't hire us on. And we just automatically
things blow up and it's, it's more of a, we build
good marketing habits. And that's why we love
this industry so much is that we see the value
that, that you guys bring from build wit of,
you know, you're trying to reform this industry
and change this industry. And we're kind of just
jumping on with you guys and like, Hey, there's
a whole section of these. excavation companies,
one to 10 million in revenue, that they don't
have a digital marketing team, and they don't
want to hire in a full time digital marketing
staff. So it's really cool to hear, you know,
who you've started with from the beginning, and
just how you guys have really treated each other
like human beings. And you know, you guys don't
know everything, they don't know everything.
But let's work together and like figure this
shit out. And like, let's win together. Yeah,
like, everybody's been in that position before
of just not knowing what the hell's going on.
And so if you're genuine about it, and you just
admit, I don't know what I'm doing, they are
even more inclined to help you out because they
can then relate to you. And they can then relate
and say, Yeah, dude, man, have I been there too?
And man, do I know how you're feeling and they
can empathize and then that gives you a lot more
flexibility to figure things out, rather than
just saying I know everything and then screwing
things up and then them being upset about it.
We've had some of that too. I mean, we're definitely
not perfect. That's for sure. And how, how important
is it off of that topic to, you know, niche down?
I was thinking about it yesterday actually, and
thinking about, okay, if Aaron Witt was a marketing
agency for small businesses, you know, how important
is it to niche down in an industry and become
the expert and, you know, networking with these
same people, going to these same trade shows
rather than staying broad and kind of doing everything.
I'd never really created it like that. It's become
pretty important to us. But I just I started
with the dirt world. I didn't start with marketing.
I accidentally ended up with a marketing company.
I had no intention of starting a marketing company.
I'm not all that stoked on marketing. Honestly,
I'm stoked on the dirt world. I fucking love
the dirt world. I love the diesel, the smell
of diesel and the smell of earth being moved
and the sight of like on my while I'm looking
at a Hitachi 1200 overfilling the shit out of
a 775 rock truck at a pit in Corona, California.
Like, I just love that. Love telling those stories.
So we just ended up with a business that told
those stories. And I've just, I've always stuck
with that because that's, I don't know. I got
lucky and I figured out early on what really
gets me going. And that's dirt. And I'm building
companies that serve the dirt world. So that's
when someone else says, well, why don't you go
do general contractors or residential construction
or railroads or whatever it is? I'm like, yeah,
we could do that. And it would probably work
out really well. And we'd probably go make a
ton of money. But that doesn't really get me
going at the same time. So let's just stay here
because we've got something good going. There's
a lot of room to run. Let's stay focused. And
so it's not necessarily, I don't know. there's
so many different ways to do it. You can go serve
everybody. You can go serve one industry. You
can go serve two industries. I don't I don't
know enough to say this is the right way to do
it. And I don't think there is a right way to
do it. I just know that it's the right way to
do it for me, because I love this industry. We're
on to something. The industry needs help. And
I want to be the group to at least help accelerate
the change in the in the dirt world. How did,
again, kind of hammering that down a little bit
more, how did you find that Aaron? Like how did
you figure out there's such a need for that industry
other than, you know, I'm sure you maybe saw
it through, you know, previous jobs that you
were at. And again, you always talk about the
human piece. You know, people don't treat humans
the best. So what, I mean, obviously you love
the dirt world. What were you, were you just
like, I just want to tell stories and see if
something goes from there. Or you're like, Hey,
this industry is so under captured. We're going
to try to run with that. It's just again one
step after another everybody thinks it's this
it like maybe it's been a light bulb moment for
other people It hasn't been for me I I give we
have onboarding and so every time someone's hired
on they have three days of onboarding before
They start anywhere. No matter who they are at
the company. They could be an executive. They
could be an intern They go through the exact
same onboarding experience One of the classes
the one I teach is on mission and I basically
explain how our mission came to be and it's a
long list and it's to illustrate that it's been
an incremental process. So I started out, I borrowed
money from my friend's dad for a fish tank and
ended up working in Montana as a result. Okay,
I got my ass beat. I started to see the world
and sit there and say, huh. Maybe I should choose
something that I find interesting to do as a
job because I have that opportunity. Financially,
I don't have this financial pressure on me right
now. I don't have parents forcing me to be a
doctor. I can go choose whatever I want to choose.
So let's think through what gets me going. Well,
I love every time I drive by a bulldozer. I think
it's the coolest thing in the world. So why don't
I call a construction company and ask for a job?
I call a construction company, I ask for a job.
Rich Pearson, he's the owner of a construction
company. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, man,
I want to start a construction company, because
that sounds awesome. How the hell do I do that?
Well, go study construction engineering. Well,
go work for as many companies as you can while
you're in school. Okay, cool. I can go do that.
So I go do that. While I'm in school, I listened
to a podcast by Andy, you know, Andy Fercella
talking about personal branding. And I'm thinking,
huh, what's my unique story? Well, I'm this young
kid. I'm going to all these job sites. I'm learning
a lot. Why don't I start posting about that on
the internet? Create this this stupid page on
Instagram called build with that I just made
up in college one day. Fantastic. I go to work
in road construction. I'm going to go work for
a few years. I'm going to go save up. I'm going
to go buy a backhoe like you or whatever the
hell you bought a skid steer for the first time.
And I'm going to just give her hell. Awesome.
Well, then HDSS calls me. Hey, we noticed you're
telling these cool stories. Why don't you come
to do it? Do it for us too. Well, okay, great.
I'll go tell I shoot if I can go do this full
time. Why the hell not? And then like I just
explained, you you know, go to HDSS doesn't work
as planned quit. Okay, I'm gonna go tell stories.
I like telling stories, but I want to go do it
on my on my way. Well, shit. Now I need to go
find some stories to tell. So now I need to go
to LinkedIn and find some people like Dylan Stevens
or Keaton to hit up and then granite rock and
then okay, hey, now Dylan wants a website. So
now I need to do websites and hey, I want video.
So now I need to go build a marketing business.
And that's just see the see the I don't know
if you I don't know if you wanted all that but
it went from it went from Huh, I have a very
unique opportunity. I can go do anything. Let's
start with something that gets me going. And
then I just took it from there. My favorite thing
and I'm not trying to switch the topics at all.
But Luke, did you notice as Aaron was talking
how passionate he was? just about the whole process.
So I think that was my favorite part of the whole
thing about just the actions and then your purpose
and telling that story. I think that was super
cool. Just show it shows how passionate you are.
And I love that Luke, I noticed you were kind
of smirking too. And I had a big smile on my
face. So hopefully, whoever is listening to this
goes and watch that because that was pretty cool.
Well, that's where the like I talked about to
intent and if I wasn't super jazzed about this
industry, I couldn't fake being jazzed about
this industry, you can just pick up on yeah,
the guy's not bullshitting. He's actually stoked
on it because I am stoked on it. So it's like,
find what you're stoked on. And maybe it takes
you decades. Like I said, I got super lucky and
found it pretty damn quick. Sometimes it takes
a long time. I don't know. No, absolutely. Absolutely.
Aaron, I was listening to your video. I think
it was with Randy the other day. And you guys
are talking about uh, different businesses scaling
or not scaling and, you know, being comfortable
with where they're at. Uh, I thought it was super
interesting because I, you know, talked to a
lot of businesses and not all of them want to
go to the moon and, you know, scale their business
like crazy. Um, what, what do you think is different
between, you know, somebody and obviously neither
is right or wrong, but what is different between
somebody who maybe is good with where they're
at in their business and somebody who wants to
scale it up or what have you kind of seen? I
just think first is like self -awareness. It's
just super sexy to wanna go scale the hell out
of a company and go be the man, go be Mr. Elon
Musk. And sure, it's, yeah, and it's ego and
like rightly so, like we're all young males.
So fuck yeah, I wanna go be the man. Like that's,
it's just wired in us. Self awareness, I think
is big to just understand like, do I really want
to go scale a business? Do I really want to just
operate? Like, like Randy, he scaled his business
up to a certain size. But he was just staying
where he was, because they were doing very, very,
very, very well. And that's what they could do.
And that's what they could do and stay very well
without having to take additional risk. He was
stoked with where they were. So they were a mid
-sized business, but he wasn't going to go scale
the hell out of that thing because he didn't
want to take on the risk. They were making the
money they wanted to make. They were employing
the people they wanted to employ. They're building
the projects they wanted to go build. So it doesn't,
it's not that there's, okay, hey, you don't want
to go scale a business. So you're just going
to dig basements. If you want to go just dig
basements, fantastic. Like a Devin Dyer, he's
got it good, man. He's got it so good. He employs
maybe 10 guys. They do all the biggest basements
in Salt Lake City for all the wealthy folks up
on the mountains. The basements they dig are
just insane. And he's home with his family every
day and living the life he wants to live. Or
you can go grow a business up to a certain point
like a Randy Blunt and then say, Hey, this is
really good. Let's kick it here. Or you can say,
No, I just want to go send it to the moon because
that's, that's really what I want to go do like
a Dylan Stevens, like he's going to go do with
Rosso. I guess like we're doing right now. It's
just like there's not right or wrong. It's I
don't know. It's just again, what's right for
you? What's where you at? What do you want? Figuring
that out and then building a business that that
is tailored to that desire or being a part of
building a business that's aligned with that
because that's another point is I tell people
Honestly, the whole building a business thing
isn't super sexy. Like, you know, my brother
comes into town. I'm like, sorry, Tyler, I'll
hang out with you. But I'm not going to the bars.
I'm not hanging out with people. I'm not dating
right now. I'm still waking up same time Saturday,
Sunday. I'm still in the office Saturday, like,
and it's not that and I don't go tell people
about that on the internet like yeah I'm just
fucking I'm grinding on a Sunday here I am I'm
a business owner I'm working but that's just
like the reality of just you just have to do
it at that point and it's just something that
doesn't align with a lot of what people want
I don't know I'm still trying to figure all this
out so I can't speak on it very well I'm in the
midst of it right now yeah Aaron I am as you're
talking about that too as thinking about another
question that we could kind of dive into that
I was really curious about actually is, you know,
you've got construction, business, dirt, what
do you do outside of that? Like, obviously, there's
things that you like to do, like, what are some
of those things that you like to do when you're
not at work, or even just appreciating a dozer?
Honestly, this is this is it right now. I've
gotten to a point where like we just grew our
business from 35 to over 70 people in two months
and the business is getting much bigger and we're
going to go take even bigger swings this year
and we are in full send mode right now and I've
just gotten to a point where I've sat down fully
swallowed the bitter pill and I've just acknowledged
I need to focus I need to just get dialed in
on this because I can't afford for my focus to
be anywhere else right now. And so this is like
I've gotten it. I've got it dialed right now.
And and but the cool thing is, this is all I
want to do. I'm having so much fun building this
thing right now. And like, like, don't get me
wrong, it's it's it's brutal some days, but I'm
having so much fun right now. I just want to
work. I just want to I just want to do this.
I just want to be with our people. I just want
to solve problems. I just want to have conversations
on, you know, challenging each other. I just
want to be on job sites. I just want to be at
our office. I just want to be a part of this
of this company because I'm having so much damn
fun. So there's not really anything else like
yesterday. I did some skid steer work, but that's
still aligned with build it. So I guess that's
my one escape right now is getting in my machine
once every six weeks when I have an extra day
to do it and trying to do a little bit of work.
But other than that, it's just travel, work.
I'm just dialed in right now. Do you guys have
any merch for your original company with like
that first logo? We need to get some. I was thinking
about that this morning. Like some old school
hats, you know, with the little wire thing. Everybody
loves it. And I'm still bitter at Chase Harris,
he's creative director for a company. He took
he took that from me and made our new branding,
which our new branding is like, far beyond just
a lot more sophisticated, a lot more appropriate
for where we're going. But everybody loves that
stupid little dozer logo that I made on 99 designs
when I was a senior in college. Set the build
with reading logo, right? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I put it because Because I asked Chase
and I asked Chase before I created bill with
excavating grading. I said, Chase, I need a bill
that excavating grading logo, or I'm going to
make one myself. And he said, knock yourself
out. I'm like, well, say no more. I'm going to
knock myself out. So I made my own damn logo,
and he can't do anything about it. Well, I like
it. I see you post, like, obviously joking, but
Some people don't understand that you're joking
with the whole grading and excavating side of
things. I love the responses that you give on
TikTok where you're like, no, I'm fucking terrible
at service. I'm fucking terrible at what I give
for my product, but I love what I do. And people
are like, are you kidding? Why would you do that?
I always get a kick at those. It's all just one
big joke. So I'm an idiot. And so messing with
people is a ton of fun. It's good for branding
because everybody's talking about our skid steer
that looks like a Holstein cow because it's ridiculous
and it's amazing how many people care about my
little like how many 259 d3s are there and yet
they all care about mine and so it's working
and then three I talked to Eric jumper about
this morning doing just a little bit of work
gives me and I've done work before but just like
being out on your own as a quote unquote contractor
like there's no one there's no form in there
there's no crew there's nobody to save you it's
your machine you're trying to go build some kind
of work it gives me a whole new appreciation
and perspective to view the dirt world through
and it's it's been really valuable like even
something as simple as how how much of a pain
in the ass it is to chain a machine down on a
trailer you're like so every time you move a
machine you have to chain the thing down and
this is how you do it this sucks and just going
through those kinds of of motions and just even
just a little fraction like one percent of what
a contractor does day to day gives me so much
more appreciation for the dirt world so it's
yes it's a joke but also it's been really really
valuable from a branding standpoint and from
just a personal growth standpoint. For sure.
So, well, obviously, you get both appreciations.
You know, you're talking to, you know, the people
that kind of have set the bar on the industry.
And then, like you said, you're going out and
kind of doing it on your own. So you see both
sides, you know, into that a little bit. If I'm
sure you get multiple questions on, oh, Aaron,
how do I start my business? How do I start my
business? But like. I feel like there's a lot
of opportunity in the sub -side of work. So if
someone's trying to get into that type of field
and you're having these conversations with these
bigger companies, how do these people get in
the door? How do you make that introduction to
say, hey, I do this type of work. If you guys
don't do this, I'd love to get on board with
you guys and show you what I can do. Is there
any opportunity in that space? I look at it like,
if I started out as a subcontractor, I think
I've talked a little bit about this on our podcast.
LinkedIn is crazy powerful. You can find a lot
of people on there. And I would start talking
about my work on LinkedIn. That's step one. I'd
start documenting what the hell I do. I would
go build a little potato website showing what
I do. I'd be taking pictures of every job every
single day. I'd be sharing about my jobs. I'd
be sharing about my experiences. I'd be sharing
about the GC I'm working for and how kick ass
they've been on this job. I'd be sharing about
the other subcontractors as long as it was cool
with them. I would be hitting up people on LinkedIn.
Okay, hey, who are the guys that I would be working
for in Nashville, Tennessee? Who are the big
GCs, for example, or who are the big contractors
that sub this workout? Okay, I'm going to go
be a silt fence contractor. Okay, so who needs
silt fence? Who are those contractors? And then
who are the bosses at those contractors? Who's
the the general manager, the vice president,
the president, whoever it is, the equipment manager,
start hitting them up? Hey, just so you know,
I'm you know, I'm in this is where a little bit
of you want to be credible, but also honest,
hey, I just started up a con, you know, a company
not too long ago, I'm I've been busting my ass,
I'm having a lot of fun, but I'm always looking
for new opportunities. So here's my website,
check us out and let me know if I can ever help
you out. That's probably where I would start.
And then don't underestimate just picking up
the phone calling people or going up to a job
trailer and knocking on the door. Hey, guys,
what's going on? I saw like, just just letting
you guys know if you ever need silt fence, like
I'm just a kid. I'm just a guy. I'm just some
person started a company not too long ago. Like
I said, I've been, you know, working hard, but
always looking for new opportunities. If I can
ever do anything for you guys, just give me a
shot. Yep. Absolutely. No, awesome points. I've
Yeah, like you said, your LinkedIn is huge. And
Luke actually turned me on the LinkedIn about
a year ago, and it's been a huge game changer.
But yeah, it's been a great tool. But as far
as like, you know, the conversations, I feel
like on those ends, because don't you have to
be following each other on LinkedIn in order
or you have to have like a connection or something
for that message to show up or connect? Or do
they? No. So so what I did was, you know, while
you're while your girlfriend or whoever's sitting
there watching The Bachelorette, you're sitting
there on LinkedIn. OK, hey, I want to go be a
subcontractor for Rosso. So I'm going to search
Rosso and I'm going to start Connect, connect.
Here's a brief intro. Hey, my name's Aaron. I,
you know, I'm doing silt fence now in the area.
I'm trying to connect to local contractors. If
I can do anything for you, give me a shout. Connect,
connect, connect, connect, connect. Maybe 40
% of them accept. Okay, cool. Now your connections
are 40 % greater in the, you know, in the market
you want to go into. And then also, you can go
get, okay, for $50 a month, I can or whatever
it is, I can go get the LinkedIn premium. and
I can send messages to people. So now you can
start targeting people even further and start
reaching out to them and write custom messages
to these people that go right to their inbox,
even if you're not connected with them. And then
also, you know, if you're posting about it every
day, and now you're connected with a few of these
guys, you go on to your newsfeed, you see posts
from people that you're not connected to because
other people have liked them that you have in
common. So now you're still getting your work
in front of these people that you're potentially
not connected to. So there's three different
ways that you can access people that you're not
directly connected to very, very easily. Huge.
Huge. Love it. You can't just set up the automation,
you know, and blast out automated messages to
these people without posting content. And I still
don't even do automated messages. And no one
wants an automated message. Every time I get
one, I'm like, fuck you. Yeah. I'm like, you
could have taken two seconds to just research
my company and then reach out to me. And I guarantee
I probably would have jumped on a call with you
because I'm interested in helping people, people
helping me. Just being in the business of people.
So, but Aaron, I think you made a few really
good points there. Uh, the LinkedIn algorithm
right now is better than any other social media
platform. In my opinion, uh, Facebook, Instagram,
they're very saturated. Um, but LinkedIn right
now, there's a lot of people watching. There's
a lot of people wanting to do business. That's
why they're on there. And there's not a lot of
content producers. So if anyone's listening and
you kind of wondering where you want to go. Create
a personal LinkedIn and create a business LinkedIn.
If you own a business. it's not going to take
off right away. But just getting that consistent
rhythm of posting on there and just documenting
what you do. Exactly. I've got kind of going
back here. I've got one more question, Aaron.
You know, you talked about obviously how you
love what you do. And that's kind of your driver
right now. during like the tough times, like
the early earlier times, how did you stay so
motivated? I know I struggle with it a lot to
where I'm like, God, this day just fucking sucks.
This happened, this happened, this happened.
You're like, I just want to throw in the towel.
What did you do to, you know, keep that motivation?
Other than the passion side of things, obviously,
I mean, yeah, step, step one, choose a career
or go build something you genuinely believe in.
So there's, there was the higher purpose and
the mission isn't just for selling people or
for employment. It's really, it's really for
you first and foremost, because you need to show
up and yeah, the days are going to be long and
it's going to be pretty harsh, but you know why
you're doing it beyond, well, I'll make some
money one day. It's, it's the mission. So the
mission's one. Two, just I don't think people
talk about this enough. I keep myself very physically
healthy and very emotionally healthy. It gives
you a massive advantage. I've worked out seven
days a week for three, almost four years now.
I have not missed a day where I haven't worked
out. I eat very well. I drink lots of water.
I sleep very well at night. I go to therapy every
other week. I'm just dialed in from an emotional
physical standpoint so I can just tolerate more
than most and then and then three I've somewhat
had to rewire my brain and something like 75
heart has very much helped with this to really
like the misery like yes this sucks let's get
it like the Saudi trip we just went on was so
brutal. We just got the shit kicked out of us.
It was in a seven day period, 120 hours of just
travel, not work, not sleep, just travel. It
was gnarly. But I was I was like, I was just
licking my chops before that that trip because
I knew it was going to be gnarly. And it's like,
yes, this is what we do. This is what we're this
like angel and I were like, yeah, this is what
we've been training for for years. Like, we're
ready to get it. And That's the kind of stuff
that you need to learn to love because it's never
going to go away. And that's the kind of stuff
that differentiates you from other people as
well. That's that to feed that competitive part
part of you. It's like, yeah, hey, this other
people aren't willing to do this shit. This sucks.
But here I am. We're here making it happen. So
I think those are the three things I've done
is kind of rewiring myself through 75 heart or
something like that to really enjoy. the tough
things because that's part of the process, having
that higher purpose, and then getting myself
just physically, mentally, emotionally dialed
in so that I can just tolerate more. Absolutely.
Luke, remember Mr. Elliot always used to say,
embrace the suck. And I did and I hated when
he would say that at the time, but definitely
makes it Mr. Elliot was Luke and I used to wrestle
back in high school. And I remember that would
just kill you. you know, physically and emotionally,
but he'd always say embrace the suck. So, you
know, some correlation there is, you know, always
kind of wanting more and more and more, but I
think Aaron, I think that description you just
gave is like the perfect definition of a dirt
bag. And I mean, that's why we're here, man.
It, uh, I think it's hilarious just because it's
kind of a joke, but then at the same time, like,
it's not really like where we like to have fun.
We like to play in the dirt and we like, to do
big things too. And Luke and I are still nailing
down that definition. But honestly, I think you've
been a great. first guest, like thank you for
taking time out of your day to be on this podcast
and to just, you know, bring more of this out
there. You know, we want to bring more content,
more information and more resources to people
that are in the dirt world because, um, Luke
and I have a passion for it and it's clear that,
uh, you do as well, Aaron. So, uh, kind of as
we wrap up here, um, actually before we wrap
up, Luke, I know you wanted to talk about ego
because that's been huge. Um, what Luke, I'll
just let you jump into that topic because you
and I have been talking about it. Yeah. Honestly,
Mike, it's kind of, you kind of answered it a
little bit, Aaron, but how do you keep your ego
in check? Like, how do you, obviously you have
build with on the side of the building. When
you look at that, you're like, fuck, that's my
name right there. I'm the man. Like fucking fuck
with me. Like I, I think I struggle with it too,
but everyone has a huge ego. How do you, how
do you control yours? Is that part of, you know,
the the mental toughness that you have developed
through your working out your eating habits,
things like that? Or is it more so, you know,
like you had said, that higher purpose to where
I'm, you know, that purpose is so much greater
than I am. And that's where I kind of have to
ground myself. Um, I, um, so I, funny enough,
this is not going to be super relatable, but
I actually, I got to talk to Jaco about this
last summer and, um, I wasn't self -aware. I
think you kind of have two types of people. You
have people that are just naturally like they're
just the big ego and you need to dial them back
a little bit. And you know this managing people,
you have to dial them back a little bit. And
then there's other people that you have to build
up and they don't naturally have that confidence.
I'm actually, I don't actually naturally, I'm
not actually naturally confident. I've had to
build myself up. So I, I struggle more, like
I need to add a little bit of ego rather than
take it away a lot of times. And I'll make jokes
about me being the man and this and that, and
people can misconstrue that into me just being
a dick. And sometimes, yeah, sure, I can have
an ego. But I've actually been on the other side
of the spectrum where I've had to build myself
up and build that confidence, which is where...
that just showing up every day comes in, which
is where dealing with the nonsense comes in consistently,
which is where working out every day, and the
discipline that takes comes into play to build
everything I can up so that I have the confidence
to go, go deliver. But also, I guess to control
ego a little bit, again, going back higher purpose,
like, hey, this isn't build its mission is to
go make Aaron with the man build its mission
isn't to go make Aaron with rich is to go make
the dirt road a better place. I'm a part of that.
And just just reminding yourself like this is
why you're here not to go serve yourself I think
is super, super helpful. Absolutely. No, definitely
hit it on the head there. And I didn't mean to
I wasn't assuming that you had a big ego. I just
think it's like Like I thought that's where I
was until nine months ago. It just takes self
awareness. You have to really audit. Okay. Who
the hell are you? How are you? How are you? Like
what are your natural gifts abilities? What was
your upbringing like? How were you wired? Because
is sure you have some natural gifts and abilities
you're working with. Sure. You have some probably
some great things that happen in your childhood,
some terrible things that happen in your childhood,
childhood that you still carry with you today.
How does all that come together into who you
are? And then the more you understand who you
are, the more you can tailor your actions and
build your life accordingly, so that you're not
being dictated to by past experiences or emotions
or whatever it is, you can be a hell of a lot
more productive. How did you? How did you find
those things? Was it? You know, again, speaking
asking personally here, how did you kind of do
like a self audit? Was it through the therapy?
Was it through just kind of, you know, almost?
I can't think of the word right now. But like
reflection, just like self reflection. Yeah.
Self reflection, creating just dead time. Like
in a few weeks, I'm going to Savannah, Georgia
to just think. So I'm just going to walk around
Savannah for five days and just think you have
to create that space. to even reflect in the
first place you have to go to a therapy has been
enormously valuable having an outside perspective
on on your life that totally unbiased that's
not family that's not friend that's not co -worker
that's just someone completely and that actually
is clinically and from a educational background
equipped to guide you through that is super valuable
it's podcasts it's reading books it's having
difficult conversations. It's, okay, hey, I've
always voted x, y. What's my reasoning for that?
Huh? That's interesting. I've never even questioned
how I voted because that's just how my parents
voted. So that's how I vote now. It's like, a
lot of that it all comes together into, okay,
wow, this is actually I'm starting to figure
myself out a little bit better. Okay. Yeah, no,
definitely. Thank you for that. That I mean,
that obviously kind of hits home too, because
one, I always used to think therapy was for the
birds. I'm like, God, if you go talk to somebody,
you're kind of soft. And, you know, no offense
on that. But I, I would absolutely go just to
try to figure that stuff, you know, that stuff
out myself as well. So maybe, and maybe it does
make you soft. Okay. Yeah. As someone's like,
wow, you're, you go therapy yourself and like,
check. Cool. Yeah. Great. I guess I'm, I guess
I'm soft. Yeah. Because I guess it's like like
I'm self confident enough to know that it's doing
me such so much benefit that okay Who gives a
shit what you think about me going to therapy?
Like it's giving me such an advantage and clearly
you need it more than more than I do right now
But you're just gonna go live the life that you're
living that probably isn't very aligned with
where you want to go. And I'm going to go over
here and actually going to go, I'm actually going
to go do it. I'm actually going to go do it according
to what I want to go do, because I'm now no longer
controlled by those emotions. Absolutely. You're
dialed in man. Like Luke and I are so pumped
to be a part of this journey as well. You know,
we That's the unique thing about this industry
is we don't see competition between all of us.
It's like we're we're all in this together. So
definitely appreciate you being on the show.
Kind of as we wrap up here, what's the best way
for people listening to either follow along with
what you're doing, some of your podcast stuff,
you know, the app, what's the best way for people
to kind of get in touch with you guys? Yeah,
build with on any kinds of social media, Instagram,
Facebook. LinkedIn, TikTok, Dirt Talk podcast.
That's starting to really grow, which is pretty
cool. And then the BuildWit app now, you can
search BuildWit. And we're there and it's actually
pretty damn slick. Yeah. What can you tell us
a little bit about the app? I've seen you on
everything else, but I haven't dove into the
app yet. So we put together this thing called
BuildIt Leaders to start educating people on
leadership and other things in the dirt world
last summer. People asked, can I do different
things with it? And the reality was, we are constrained
by the platform we use to put the content out
into the world. So we were like, well, why don't
we just go create our own platform? So we created
our own app to house all of the Build It Leaders
content. So it's somebody like Jaco talking about
leadership applied to the dirt world. It's all
completely for free. You just download the Build
It app, you make an account, and there you go.
You can learn how to lead more effectively. This
is the very first course on leadership is Everybody's
a leader regardless of if you're a laborer if
you're a foreman if you're a superintendent estimator,
you're all leaders at the end of the day So there's
that we have the your talk podcast on there and
then we have the build it vlog as well So it's
all build it content and then all of our leaders
content in one place all complete for free and
no ads No nonsense. We're not we're not smart
enough to monetize it quite yet. So while it's
pure, I would go and enjoy it because it's it's
really good stuff. And it's helped me advance
my life in in incredible ways. Absolutely. And
yeah, so there it is. I mean, go check out the
app and you know, definitely give you know, build
with an air and a follow on Instagram if you're
not already. And Aaron, thanks again so much
man for being on the first episode of the dirtbags
podcast. It's been a pleasure talking to you
having you on. And we just are wishing you all
the best, man. Appreciate you guys having me.
Thanks. Thanks, Aaron. Appreciate it.