Ep. 78 - California Concrete: Navigating Rules and Regulation With Kyle Harris

A good pour rewards speed and precision, but building a company takes a different mix. We sit down with Kyle Harris, president of Harris Company Concrete Construction, to trace how a young finisher who loved the rush of pour days became a leader who runs on systems, coaching, and clear numbers, while navigating California’s maze of regulations without losing his edge.

Kyle walks us through the early wins and the 2008 gut punch that forced him to learn business the hard way: licensing scrutiny, cash flow shocks, and contracts that bite. The breakthrough came with a coach who pushed him to replace heroics with policies and procedures, install checklists for everything from demo prep to payroll, and fit people into roles where they actually excel. He explains how reading financial statements, understanding true overhead, and pricing the real cost of trucks, iron, and time changed his bids and protected margins.

Then we get real about California. Low-carbon mix mandates, VOC restrictions, CARB compliance, and multi-layer inspections make structural work slower and riskier, yet the climate and markets in wine country, custom residential, and commercial builds offer year-round volume and rates that can offset overhead. Kyle shares practical tactics for RFIs, inspections, scheduling pours a month out, and why paying experts; CPAs, safety consultants and attorneys, buys back the only asset that scales revenue: your time.

This conversation is a playbook for any builder who’s great at the trade but stuck in the business. You’ll hear how to let go of the tools without losing respect, lead crews with clarity instead of speed talking, and build a peer circle that keeps you honest and moving. If you’ve felt alone, underbid, or buried in red tape, Kyle’s hard-won lessons will help you reset the formwork and pour a stronger foundation for your company.

Enjoyed the conversation? Subscribe, share it with a friend in the trades, and leave a review telling us the one system you plan to implement this week.

Transcript

Meeting Kyle And Shared Struggles

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast where we discuss the realest, rawest, most relevant stories and strategies behind building every corner of a blue-collar business. I'm your host, Cy Kirby, and I want to help you what it took me, trial and error, and a whole lot of money to learn. The information that no one in this industry is willing to share. Whether you're under that shade tree or have your hard hat on, let's expand your toolbox. Guys, welcome back to another episode of the Blue Collar Business Podcast. Um a guest I met personally, uh, you guys heard me kick off the show this year with speaking with Aaron, Aaron Witt of BuildWit, and they do something called Dirt World Summit. And on a couple of the episodes this year, I've already talked about how, you know, yes, you have to sit at an assigned table. You you talk to some different people than you normally would talk to, but at the same time, um, it's the conversations that are in between the tables that can be so influential, so crucial. And our guest today, I met in one of those conversations. He was a couple tables away from me, uh younger guy, like same age, kind of in the same age range as myself, running a concrete business. And we got to talking. We're both uh guys that probably could sit there and talk to uh a brick wall for two hours. So we really got to talking and dealt with the same of the same struggles, uh, talked on the same level of uh ego where we're scaled back and we're really vulnerable in what we're sitting there talking about. Because as you guys know, you meet so many different individuals across entrepreneurship, and you know instantly if you're gonna connect or you're not, and you know where they are at because of where you're at. And uh Kyle was one of those guys that I was like, dude's a G, what a guy! And then he tells me he's been dealing with California licensing concrete and subcontracting. So that's a whole different uh different arm that we're gonna go down, and I'm gonna learn, and you guys are gonna learn something about working out there in California. Is it as bad as they say it is? And or is he just used to it? So uh furthermore, man, uh you've been in business since 2010. Um, did a little bit of small college time at Santa Rosa Junior College, and sounds like you kind of figured out your pathway in life. But guys, uh, I have the president of Harris Company Concrete Construction, uh Kyle Harris, man. Thank you so much for joining me today.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Sai, thank you for having me on, man. It's a it's an honor that you were interested in me and wanted to hear my story. And you're out there in Arkansas and I'm in California, and you made it together. Same thing. Right when I I think I was sitting at breakfast by myself and you and your uh some of the dirt guys who are around me. I don't even know what joke I cracked, but instantly I looked over you and we're like, all right, this guy, he's he's going. And then I sort of like I like talking to you, listening, and uh it's fun to it's fun to be at those events around kind of people in the same situations, right? You get pretty siloed in your small town or with your group of friends. So that was huge. Like consider you a friend right out of the gate, and uh I'm stoked to be here, man.

Kyle’s Path Into Concrete

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Man, everybody's got a story and uh where we started, why we're in what we're in. So, you know, concrete's not something that you normally pick, usually it picks you just the same as water and wastewater. Nobody really starts off in life and goes, I want to go move poop every day. You know, I mean it's definitely a different path, and it usually picks you. And man, give us the background, give us the story as far back as you want to start. Love to hear how you got started and why you chose concrete and why you chose to start your own business and do it the way you've done it.

2008 Crash And Licensing Gauntlet

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Uh, just for all your listeners, this was not where I thought I'd be when I was 14 years old, right? So I always say a little joke if you can't finish concrete, you can always finish concrete. Uh, you can't finish school, you can always finish concrete. Sorry, you can tell how my education went. But uh really young, grew up on a ranch. Um did great childhood, but like no money, right? Mom raised me and my brother. Um, so getting jobs. Started really young doing construction. She got this really cool boyfriend named Brian that was a framer and a project manager at the local like company. So I started out actually like as a framer. And so, you know, floor joyce injects, framing houses, all that fun stuff. But I'm terrified of height, so I don't know if any framers are working in. But once you get to the once you start stacking plates and roll, like rolling trusses out of freeze, I'd be looking for a a bathroom wall or something to stand on. And I remember looking over in there, he's like, You could you get you work hard, but you're not gonna make it in this framing situation. So did construction like through high school, always had like after work jobs because of Brian always did weekend jobs, like he took his side jobs. I worked for this company, McDevitt McDevitt out of Penlinwood, did all tilt-ups for like we built like Amy's kitchen, one of their main things they have, like frozen food things and Costco's and all that stuff. So big cool tilt-ups and concrete. And I definitely gravitated towards concrete because you know on the ground is pretty interesting. So I don't want to go too long. Right out of high school, a local guy that was like three years older than me, he already was doing his own concrete thing, like doing pool decks, doing patios, fire pits, like on a small scale. And um, I went to work for him and I already knew how to frame and like construction. And Brian taught me how to cut rafters, use a framing square, work, had some common sense of being around the job and like growing up on the dairy, like being aware of the job site. So man, I just I don't know why, but I just loved it all of a sudden. Concrete was fun, and we didn't do hours, so it was like, all right, today we're forming this whole thing and then we go home. So it didn't really matter. And then poor days are poor days is like chaos for people that are in concrete, they'll understand, but there's no like hours on pores, right? Like there's just the concrete gets there, and when it's done and our tools are clean, you go home. There's no like clock watching, and I got major ADD and stuff. So that was perfect for me. I don't I I tried a million jobs. I was I built swimming pools, I was an electrician, I worked at a muffler workshop, I welded, I framed, I did all, but for some reason, concrete drugged me in. So kind of accelerating now to where I'm at now. In 2006, I was a 21-year-old, know it all. Uh I felt like I was unemployable because I was stubborn and the smartest kid in the world. So I went off on my own. That was in 2006, it was the heyday in California. I mean, I graduated in 2002, and the economy was just insane, right? So I just had a bunch of side jobs, so I knew everything. We left my boss hanging, hitting pool decks, patios, whatever, and then 08 slapped me in the face. So my story's a little interesting. 08 was like, oh my god, we're freaking paying to stay in business. Um, at the time I was 23 years old by then, going nowhere, and uh went in this little copper field store and bought Rich Dad, Poor Dad and the E-Myth and a bunch of business books, and finally started learning how to read and reading stuff that I was interested in. You know, at school, they push stuff down your throat that you don't really know if it applies. And then finally I had to figure something out because it's not going good. And uh so my story is strange where I've actually been working self-employed since 2006, and I signed my own experience in 2010 after I got rejected from my license because of background history for four years. So I passed my test in 2006 in California. I kept going to background investigation because they're like, How do you have four years' journeyman experience? You're only 21 years old. And to tell you the truth, I did it and I didn't know what I was doing, but I was going and blowing and going. So by the fourth time that I reapplied, because your tested good for five years out here, when they asked for experience, I just wrote in like five lines of letters, it just said side jobs. So the background investigator called me and he's like, What is with your application? And I was like, dude, this is like 2010 now, so things are really bad, right? The economies just fell out. There's nothing going on. So I said, Man, I'm I passed the test four years ago, and I have this whole cash thing figured out. Like, you can't, unless you're recording this conversation, you're not gonna catch me. And I'm taking licensed people's work. I've been doing these jobs, like I got a crew, like freaking, and there's no jobs. I can't get a job, there's nothing, right? This is I I'm gonna keep going with no license, and you'll learn later on that probably was probably even better because license holds you accountable. It's a consumer protection agency. So uh yeah, he's all how do you do your taxes? I said, Why, you know, self-employed. He's like, Well, if you send me your schedule, your K1s or schedule C's, I'll sign your experience today. So, anyway, my simulate my license is signed from my experience, me. That's not the right path. Don't do that. I'm not recommending that. So that's how I got into concrete, and then from there, it's just I don't know, ups and downs, man. We can talk about a lot of things, but concrete drew me to it just like the style work. Um, it's very physical, it's pretty cool. Product, you know. It's a really, I think it's the second most used building product in the world to water. So like concrete's and everything. Um it's the start of everything, and and it's instant gratification. Like you pour dirt work, guys, you do so much work, it costs so much money, and then we're like, Well, what'd you do? Oh, where's all your pipes? I don't see anything. The concrete guy put this beautiful winery on top of it. You know what I'm saying? So, like that instant gratification kind of drew me to it. And uh, and then when you're 21 and ambitious and you're doing all that, I was good at the trade, and then I got a lot of lesson about business that's very humbling, and we can touch on any part you want from there. So 2010, finally got my license, 25 years old, and then uh becoming a businessman, I think finally set in because before that it was just a side job, a side job, but I had to literally it's uh what a story number one to live through 2008.

Trade Skills vs Running A Business

SPEAKER_01 10:30

So many people had to live through that, and you know, people are talking about in the last couple of years what we've lived through and whatnot, but it wasn't it wasn't anything like that from what I what I remember. But uh man, you hit something nail on the head like you knew the trade, you knew the trade inside and out, you or so you thought. You'd done a lot of uh you had a ton of experience, probably poured a lot of different uh types of applications out there. But at the same time, you start on this business venture and find out so quickly that it's not about the trade. It doesn't matter what trade you pick. Business is business. And man, I learned the freaking hard way too, uh, as I talk about weekly on this show. And if it wasn't for people I've been reaching out to, man, I don't think I'd have ever learned. And um, you know, in those early years, you have this ego because it's like you're almost, or I did, you know, almost uh scared and fearful of everything. You can't let anybody know that you don't know. And I knew everything about this trade, but uh what are you talking about? Uh W9 or, you know, those first couple of jobs that you have no idea about the most general items of business, a COI, W9, and then you start learning these things, but and then and then you start doing some projects and figure out, oh, I I I guess I don't know how to estimate, I don't know what my cost is. And uh, it's all those items. But no, this is exactly why you're here today, brother. Is this this show is exactly designed for a resource for gentlemen just like myself and you that learn to trade really well, but then man, just got wiped out in business. But to go looking for books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I'm working my way through it for the first time myself. I'm not a huge reader, but yes, I'm starting to uh self-improve as well, as fast as I as I can. But you know, you made mention to me that you went also looking for help, or maybe did that run into you. Tell us a little bit about you know, figuring out those years of tradesmen to businessman.

Policies, Procedures, And Delegation

Right People, Right Seats

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Perfect. Yeah, so I'm gonna keep this little path going. So 2010, 2006, 10, 21-year-old know it all. A lot of people are probably gonna, this is gonna resonate. Just like you said, you don't want your ego hurt, you don't want to know you're wrong. You are a people pleaser, you're gonna get cornered. Big contractors are gonna talk you into shit you shouldn't do. You're you're trying to please it. So 2010, it's you know, I'm growing, I got my license, I'm thinking I'm the deal. I'm getting in with some big GCs around here. We're learning lessons on lean releases and TOIs and retentions and what that all looks like. And uh, and then around 2015, I was really over it. Be truthful. That was like about 2015. I had I was like, this was a bad idea. I swear to peach knee, like this shit sucks. You know, like everything I remember calling my boss, I'm like, dude, I'm sorry I left you hanging. Like I didn't know you weren't on a yacht all the time. I I get what you were doing now. So anyway, thank God. So great lumber company in Sonoma County, actually, great company all over California, Golden State Lumber, most generous people, successful in business, third generation, lucky enough to be third generation, yeah. Lucky enough to become friends with them, the people taking over now my age, and they want all their customers to do great because they do great, right? They're very smart. They're like, we want you to do good. If they do everyone does good, they do good. So Rob Sherry, who's been a mentor and uh a friend, and I actually coached him in CrossFit, and he could see I was burning out at the time. I think I had like 16 guys and I was ready to go back to two. And uh he's like, you know what you should really do is go to my business coach David, uh David Parr. He coaches like all my leadership, and you're talking about a 700-person company, right? Talking to me, a 16 people company, and he's like, and and thank God he's like, I'll pay for your first thing. So this is my recommendation, and looking back now, what I should have done the first place is David Parr, I almost bailed on this meeting because I was nervous, and then I didn't want to look like an idiot, and I didn't want my ego to show that I don't know what I'm doing. And I was like, how can I go sit in this room with this guy like Rob's suit, and like this guy like coaches La Tartilla factory execs and Sonic internet execs and all these California big companies executives, and he works for CEOs, and I'm just like at the time I'm still covered in concrete because I would do the concrete and then work all night to find the job. Like, what this is I don't know about this, I'll just quit, right? It's easier than then be showed that you're dumb and or whatever, that you don't know what you got going. So thank God I didn't cancel, accepted me with David right away. David would change my life 10 years ago. I'd never have made it here without David or any kind of coaching. So he walks in, super cool. What's your problems? You have to like interview to get in with them. So he has to see, do you have an ego? Are you coachable? Are you greedy? You know, because business isn't always about money, because money can is whatever you can have your opinion about money, but if you're on an island and it was just you and all the money in the world, it'd be pretty fucking boring, unless you wanted to like burn money or do something. I don't know what you do with it. But there's a lot of pieces to being self-employed that you gotta grasp. So he said, Oh yeah, you're coachable. You you know, you you're you're willing to give people money to help you, right? Like if you're if your business is doing really good and you don't want to die because you can't handle it all by yourself, you're willing to give up some profits to good people to be part of it, right? And so he found these things, and then we oh, then it was fun. Then it was on with David. I think he had fun with me as his only owner. So he just you second meeting in. What are your problems? Oh, these guys are telling all this stuff, they don't freaking get it, they do it wrong. He's all well, how where where's your policies? Policies, where's your procedures? What's that? Like, did you write it down? No, he's like, Well, it sounds like it's your problem, man. Like, how you talk so fast and you no one knows what's going on. Like, how do you think these guys are gonna run when you have like no procedures, no policies? You're like, you're going out to these jobs, you're spitting everything 90 miles an hour because I talk fast and I'm intense. They don't know what the hell's going on, and so the last thing you say is the first thing they do. That's 100% your fault as the leader, right? Like, you didn't make a clear path. So, what David was awesome. This guy coached me. I think at the time, I think we had reverted back to like 12 guys, and in like two years, we went from like 12 guys, 35 guys. I wasn't dying. We had operations, we had like dispatching going on. I was letting it go to let it grow, delegating. But I'll touch on that real quick. It's not as easy as let it go to let it grow. We had to change from like very fancy concrete to like production, right? Because you gotta let things slide. And and uh, and you know, when you run a business, shit's gonna happen. And looking back now, all the stuff I'd get on about my guys, I screwed up the same stuff, but I have paid for it, right? So, like we all make mistakes, we all grow in our mistakes, and like having a business and like letting your people make those mistakes is very hard when you're a founder, right? Like if you came from no money, you like construction is high risk, low reward, right? Especially you dirt work guys and you guys getting bonds, you're putting your family house on the freaking line. You got some gnarly contractor, you're you're in the weeds with contracts, you're in the weeds with exclusions, inclusions, change orders, management. Like, it's crazy. So those sticks say, Oh yeah, it's all right, you just gotta let it go to let it grow, man. You'll be like, What? Like, there's tons of money on the team. So he taught me some valuable lessons that people can take away, or whatever. First of all, coaching is great, like eliminating the problems of learning on your own. I did so much shit on my own the wrong way. Looking back now, I'd take a coach any day, right? Because they have already experienced it. They know you pay the money for the experience. When I first sat down and he told me it's$375 an hour, I was like, this is insane, I can't afford it. When I was done with him, I'm like, I would have would I know now I ought to give you anything you want because he also teaches you about humans, about everybody has something they can do. Right? And as the owner, the leader, you're trying to find out you might have the wrong person in the wrong seat. Like, my problem is I just blamed everybody, but it was main my fault. Like, I don't explain things clearly. I didn't have a right in policy, we didn't do training, right? And like I might have a guy in the wrong thing. He said he's a finisher when he started. He sucks at finishing, but I I fired him. I should have found out if he was good at tying rebar. I should have found out if he wanted to set forms, I should have found out if he wanted to be on a path to become a Greek finisher. I should have found out a lot more about him, and then so that's what David helped me, like learning how to get the confidence to go up to somebody and say, I hired you as a blade hand, and you said you were the world's greatest blade hand, but you can't hit the ground with that blade. But we have a spot for you because I need someone to set cones, and this is the path to get you there, right? And like that's what changed my life is being able to read people, look at people, and know when it's time to call it, right? Like, that's the hardest part. You get a good employee, and sorry if I'm getting off the rails and keep me in line, but a lot of business owners, you're gonna get some great employee, or you're gonna get this employee, and he's not cutting it, but you like him. He's your bud, or he's cool, or Joe's a good guy, but you don't want to hurt his feelings. But then all of a sudden you have enough of Joe and you haven't held it up and you never had a conversation with him about how much he's not doing the job, right? And then you just blow a gasket on Joe and you fire Joe. It happens. I did that like 25 times, right? But it's it's not fair to Joe because as the owner, as a leader, you should tell Joe he's not cutting it, but we have this path over here for you. So, what I got out of David that is so valuable is uh learning how to deal with people, learning how to delegate, learn how to understand financial statements, understand how to calculate your true overhead, because what's on your profit and loss, there's also this little thing called a balance sheet over here that has all your bills and everything, and you gotta find out what is your real money, right? And then policies, procedures. So by the time I left David, we have a policy for everything. We have a policy how to strip a pool deck, we have a policy how to script a Burke system wall. We have a policy, a checklist for the day that we're gonna go do some demo. What's the checklist? Do we have vacuums? Do we have saws? Do we have cones? Do we have delineators? Check, check, check, check, check, check, check. You know, procedures for everything, how the office operates, you know, how we do payroll, how you do your 401k, how we do health insurance, how you save a file, how you do extra worksheets. So, like that for me was not fun because I hated homework and that shit's close to homework, and I like. Physical stuff, but the reality for running a business is you're so far, in my opinion, and this is for me, I'm so far from what I liked when I started. Right? Like, I didn't imagine that I'd be doing so much homework and I'd be getting calls with HR problems, and I'd be doing contracts, and I'd be doing paint. I'm not even close to what made me love concrete. But that's the step you have to take if you want to be a business owner, in my opinion, right? Like my way is not the right way. I'm not the all no. I don't, I'm not, I still am working on, I've never made it, right? But you just gotta have a like if someone told you when you're 18 or told me when I was 21, Kyle, owning a business is nothing that you like, right? So you have to learn how to get good at it, right? You have to learn, are you gonna be a contractor? And so the day you get your license, you're not the tradesman, you're the contractor. What does that mean? Pricing, contracts, linked, billing, safety, people problems, right? And so that's the eye opener, but with without David was great because he'd been through it, and I'd go to him once a month and he'd give me homework and I'd come back. By the time I'd come back to him, I was so fucking over it, and then he'd weep at me again and get me on some new thing to work on, and then he'd send me out the door, and I'm like, I'm going big, you know? I'm freaking David's got all my problems fixed. So, and that's like coaching, right? Like, you gotta be held accountable when you're on the top, and and it's low, it's not low. If you don't have a bunch of business owners that sit down to and have lunch all the time, it's pretty weird because you're just calling the shots, and at a young age is difficult because I deal with people. I mean, thank God I went bald at like 24 because I finally was using it to my advantage. I'm like, dude, if I just take my hat off, this guy ain't gonna think I'm 24. Maybe it'll give me a little more respect because I'm running 50 year olds and they're like, I'm not listening to this kid. And it's like, I'm the boss. It's like, you know, like age doesn't matter, it's how quick you grasp it, right?

Financial Literacy And Real Overhead

SPEAKER_01 24:52

So hopefully that was kind of uh some guidance, or I kind of went off the rails, but yeah, that goes No, dude, that was you hit so many very, very interesting, very spot on points, things that and that's probably why we gravitated together because SOPs, policies, proceed uh all of it, process, checklists, like figuring out how to put everything in my brain on a piece of paper so somebody can accurately and clearly follow and hopefully lead them to success every time. My brain didn't work like that, boy. Like it just it doesn't go that it doesn't jive like, oh, well, we made this mistake three times. Well, let's stop making the mistake. How about that? Instead, no, let's write up a process and procedure, how to get to success. So failure might not be an option. And so I learned that the extreme hard way, like the hardest way possible. And then I had a gentleman sit me down in a coffee, just like uh as I would call David, he's a doctor, entrepreneurial doctor, and sniffed out the problems and found the symptoms and stuck the stethoscope and and he figured out Kyle and and knew how to motivate Kyle, but also knew how um to fix your problems to to see the value in what he's doing. Yes, he has the experience because he's sitting there, you'd be like, Oh my god, I have all of this happening all at once, and you just drop this problem on him, and he'd sit there and smile halfway through, and and he already has the answer. And it's so simple. And he and I'm just taking a guess because there's people like this in my circle. He was probably sitting there and figuring out your symptoms. And I've had people like that in my life. And if it wasn't for a guy sitting down and at a coffee house, and I was complaining and moaning and groaning, like, I don't know how to fix it. It's so frustrating, and you don't know how to fix it because you don't know what you don't know, and you've never lived through it. And he sat me down, he's like, You need to be at this coffee house tomorrow at eight o'clock. I'm sitting you down, we're talking. And he sits across the table from me and says, The only thing that you need is processes and plan and strategy and lay this out clearly out of your head. Start giving these people the information they need to be successful. Please and thank you. And I'm like, uh, I don't want to do that. Well, then go find somebody that does. There's fractional people out there, and I'm like, what's a fractional person? Well, they're an expert at what they do and they fractionally work on your business at their specific job duty. What? So there's like people out there that will help me do this, yeah, man. And you just don't know because you're so, you know, you're pouring concrete at 3 a.m., 4 a.m. If it's not on a podcast or YouTube, you're probably not catching the evening news. And same here, dude, you know, so you don't know what you don't know. And then then I went looking for it. But just like you've got, David, I've had uh some absolutely crucially influential people. I I swear to God, I mention it every single episode. And I hope that encourages you guys to understand that it may be your direct competitor, he may be a uh mentor to you or an advisor to you. It may be great advice, maybe bad advice. That's for uh from your experience to know. But if you don't have somebody you can go to, like Kyle's David, like my Eric's, like you've got to find some people, man, because it is absolutely the way you get over a lot of the, as you would probably agree, Kyle, like the entrepreneurial hurdles that you don't even understand that are in front of you, if that makes sense. And they have because they've been there, you know, 100%.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

Yeah, to touch on that is like one eye-opening thing is you're gonna be a business owner, not the tradesman, and so that's a tough transition, right? So and there's different businesses and where you want to take it, but if you're looking for freedom, then you wanna figure out that because in my opinion, there's every well, I don't know. You can for me when I left my boss, I thought I was just gonna be free. I wasn't really worried about the money. I was like, I'm gonna be free. I'm 21, I'm on my own. That wasn't a thing for 15 years. You know, there's no freedom because everything's on you, and then in your schedule is your customer's schedule. You don't make your own schedule unless you're the developer. And that might be, and he might have the bank schedule, right? Like self-employed is a it's a false thing sometimes, man. Like you think you're free, you think you make your own schedule, but if you don't want to piss a lot of people off, you don't have your own schedule. You have the schedule of your customers, right? And you can't, and you gotta make it work. So hey, it's a hard thing to be like, I'm gonna be. I think what would help if people took it and you really wanted to grasp what I'm trying to say is if you want to do your own business, make sure that you're interested in business, that'll help, right? So there's pieces to it.

Letting Go Of The Tools

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Kind of trippy. It's right on place. If I had any idea ten years ago what I would be doing on a daily basis at this point, the first time I've been in a machine for a producing project in a very long time was this week. We were on the phone earlier and you heard the dozer click, click, click, click, click, and and and dude, man, it brings you back to your roots so quickly. And um, but yeah, I promise you it ain't because you know, take that Komatsu dozer that we had. That thing had like 2200 hours on it. It was a fully auto GPS, blah blah blah blah blah, all the things. And I had never ran it in fully auto. Like I had just, you know, not on a producing project though. There was somebody in that machine that knew how to operate that system efficiently. And same thing, Lane Pipe. I'll go out there and I'll I'll get in the way and ask questions, see where they're at, check production, stuff like that. But there's not many times that I get to jump on a crew because I've got a phone call or I've got a meeting about the next job that's been I've been putting together for a year that's going to be three months worth of work. And um, you just don't even understand the accounting questions that start coming at you, and you're just all of a sudden as a CEO, you're supposed to understand all these accounting terms that you've never heard in your freaking life. And so you you hit Google and you hit YouTube University as quick as possible to try and catch up. Like we've lived it. Like, I mean, you just don't know. But you know, and if it's if it wasn't for people that I could uh lean on, you know, the one thing you hit on that I I gotta say um from earlier that I don't want to just skip over that can absolutely take a business down, or it can absolutely launch pad it. And it's the right person in the right place, or the wrong person in the wrong place, and they may be great at something else that you need in your business. But kudos to you, Kyle, because there's not many people that I meet that had the ego before, because that's how we got here, and then stripped that ego back, dialed it back for your people to be a better leader, to create a better work environment. Dude, there's not enough of us willing to go through because it's brutal, it's shameful, it's embarrassing because everybody's going through your financials, or they're going, they're, you know, they're telling your team, well, you guys should be doing this, and you're like, Yeah, of course, you know, and you're like, I've never heard of that. What are you talking about? And you know, you're seven, eight years in, you've got, you know, just like yourself, 20, 20, 30 guys, and you're trying to navigate all of this, and it's just so crazy. But that wrong person, I have elevated the wrong person at the wrong time into the wrong seat before and cost us gravely. Not maybe in the first little bit, but over time, just absolutely slashing the top.

Pay Experts To Buy Time

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Everybody's done it. I think we're all the same boat, you know. And uh it's hard. It's hard to know, it's hard to admit when you made a big mistake, right? And it's uh it's hard to be vulnerable. Same like money making things. I remember when I like you're learning financials, you're learning all this stuff. I think it was like 2012 when I went to my accountant and they're like, your AR is less than your AP. It's like, oh what? No, well, don't worry, because some guys are gonna pay us, and they're like, it doesn't matter, mate. It doesn't matter if they're gonna pay you. You aren't making enough money to make your bills. Like, you got a flaw here. And you I remember feeling like an idiot, right? And I'm like, I don't even know what this guy's like, I'm trying to be like, don't worry, because checks are coming up, and I haven't billed a few things, so we're all good. Like, you know, there's a few things I just got to bill, so that AR will get above the AP and um yeah, and then just yeah, I don't know how you get that. That and that's like some stuff that I'm not a part of. How you get let go feeling like not wanting to feel like an idiot all the time, but now that I'm in my 40s, I don't really care. It's been an eight. For me, it's easy, I don't give a shit anymore. I'm 40, I know I'm I like I am very clear about what I don't know. I'm very fast to say, I have no idea, but I'll get the right person. Like we hired once you get used to this coaching thing, and like you said, your fractional help. We have consultants, like I have a CPA consultant that comes in once a quarter. We have our actual CPA, like just start hiring professionals, right? And then like the money thing is part of it, but you're when you have free time to focus on what you're good at, the money is gonna be fine, right? Instead of you over there digging in the weeds on uh what would I use? A consultant that I don't want to waste my time building safety policies and trainings, right? Instead of me on the computer picking out silica training and this and that, trying to save all the money. Well, we have consultants that do that, right? They'll build up our safety policies, they'll do that, like, and you go, oh God, that's a lot of money. But it's it's gonna be fine because you can go do what you're really good at, you know. And then us as business owners, me and you, our job is to get jobs. Well, and my that's my job. And it took me a long time. It was really hard for me to walk away from the cruise because I felt like they'd be like, oh, freaking Kyle, he's just driving off and just denolly, he, you know, he's just I don't know what this guy's doing anymore. He used to work with us, he used to pour. Now he just shows up at eight and like gives us some plans and then all of a sudden he's gone, he's always clean, you know. But like that's a hard transition to be like, well, my job is getting you guys jobs, and you guys are all busy, right? So I think I'm doing pretty good. But it's hard to let that go. And that was like another insecurity of mine. Like, these guys are working for me, but I was like working for them. I was like doing everything for them, trying to make it as easy as possible for them. Then you get animosity, at least in my case, out of animosity against the guys that are like, why am I out here at three in the morning for this big ass job? And I'm so cutting it, and at 3 p.m., they're all going home and I'm bidding jobs. Well, that's my own fault. That's my own insecurity, right? That's you as an owner. People might resonate with that, like the transition from working with your guys to running with your guys to getting jobs from your guys and being okay from walking away. Like you hired a supervisor, you're on the job. I wouldn't recommend walking away when shit's hitting the fan. Like, still, when I show up, if shit's hitting the fan, I jump in and help out. But when there's a point where it's running smooth, let your people do the job. They can do it, right? Let they're gonna have more pride in it if you let them do it. If you don't micromanage them, at least in my experience, they feel fulfilled, they start getting it. Yeah, there's gonna be some days you're like, why did you do it like this? All right, oh my god. Like, but it's like you gotta be like, well, the customer's happy. Like, you know, we're gonna build on that. Like, we're not gonna say it's great and it's not the hair's way, but here's what we can do to fix it and uh let your people do your stuff and help you out.

California Reality Check

SPEAKER_01 37:47

I have I have a bunch of them too, and so I appreciate you fighting those to join us today because literally, man, you're hitting some vocal points that I share, uh, we shared, we talked about, and this is exactly what I wanted this episode to be uh uh be about. And you said earlier, same struggle I hit is when you started looking into these professionals and these experts to come in and help your business. You're sitting there looking at their, what do you mean you're$550 an hour,$300 an hour? Like, I can't afford this. But I want you guys to just listen to me for just a second, and I'm gonna pick up where kind of Kyle was letting down there. He was, you know, Kyle had said, you can be off doing what you're good at. And what he means by that is instead of spending the 16 hours that you're going through Chat GPT and looking at your insurance policy and trying to match everything to build an employee handbook or a building safety book or whatever job specific project safety manual, whatever it may be, all that time could be handed to somebody that could shorten the time, number one, but number two, and it's not going to take them the amount of time to do uh the same that it would take you to do that said task because that's what they do. Now, if you ask that same expert to go out there and climb on a mini-ex and dig you a straight ditch 200 feet, it would probably take them twice or three times as long as myself because that's what I do. So why don't I go use that 16 hours to go get a job, do a job, collect on a job rather than sit there and worry about the 16 hours that I've got to put this together and it's got to get reviewed by somebody, anyways, and they're gonna be like, well, why does this say this and this say this? And you're gonna get frustrated and pull your hair out, and nothing ever gets done that way, and you just hop back on the cycle of death of never getting anywhere. And trust the you can't afford not to with the CPAs and the lawyers, and uh especially when you start dealing with contracts in the commercial world, guys. Let somebody start reviewing the contracts outside of freaking Chad GPT because they aren't there to protect you and help you, but that's a totally different subject matter, is you have to find a way to cover that money, to cover that said subject because you're buying time and you're buying experience. Anytime that comes across your desk in what we do, you have to double down on it. And if you don't know where to start, LinkedIn. I I've said it a couple of times in the last couple of weeks. It's a weapon, guys. Those those people are out there on LinkedIn posting professionally, trying to acquire. For some reason, they all want to come down here in the blue-collar world because I think they're just now finding out, oh, these guys need help. They don't end the, you know what? They don't BS me around and give me this corporate talk. They're raw, they're real, and they'll tell me exactly what's going on so I can jump in and start to help them right away. And that's what I've heard reoccur. I just had a leadership team. Um uh shout out to Missy and Macy that were on last week. They have dude, huge companies, global companies sat in front of teams. You know, Missy and Macy were just here, I believe it was last episode, and they have certain built a business around leadership, teaching people, teaching people like me and you how to be better leaders for the team that are below us so we can quit, you know, hopefully retain a few folks and not have to deal with, you know, turnover every other week at some of these companies seem to deal with. And so, man, it's just so important to go find a resource of some of some a resource of some sources. I guess that's uh lack of better term, um, to point you in the right direction, to give you some strategy. I I just did it this past weekend, kind of crazy. I just took a flight, went down, a guy had uh some time for me, and I went and sat down with him, and it was you know five hours of his time and my time, but it was invaluable to my mindset moving forward in what my direction should be and what my goals and plans should be. So, no man, I think you've hit it completely on the head when it comes to that point. And just again, kudos for being open about, hey man, I was this, I was the 20, I built my business through my 20s as well. We already have that. I gotta prove the world wrong mentality. Nobody takes it serious because um, you know, we got the 20-year-old face, and you you gotta work harder than everybody. And so we've kind of had the same similar story, but to to hear, you know, you strip that back and go looking for the the resources to help you and your team is amazing, man. And I wanted to highlight it today. But the last one of the one of the last things I got for you, I want to hear about, you know, we've talked more entrepreneurial stuff. I want to hear specific working in California. I've heard so many people complain about it over the years. What is some specifics that, you know, we don't hear about, you know, say in the southeastern region of the United States or anywhere else in the 49 other beautiful states of this wonderful country, but kind of and some of the things that just completely caught you off guard, and some of the things that you may be like, you know what? Everywhere should do this, but they don't. So give us some of them.

Inspections, Engineering, And Delays

Costs, CARB Rules, And Inflation

SPEAKER_00 43:38

Sweet, you got it. That was the most asked question at uh Dirt World 2025. How do you work in California? You're from California? It's like, yeah, we're all nuts. Um, but a little clear to the air. I'm in a farm down in California. We used to feed the whole nation in eggs, got a little California used to be the egg capital of the world. Dairies ranch. Um, we're like an hour north of San Francisco, so California's crazy. And um, I only know California, but I'll tell you the things that have gotten crazy in my 20 years of doing business. So lots of regulation, lots of bureaucracy. Sonoma County is trying to be the most greenest place in the world. California is the greenest state, and Sonoma County is trying to be the most green county in California. So through the years, they've, in my opinion, made concrete very difficult for everybody out there. We gotta have a certain percentage of fly ash to meet low carbon mix designs, right? And you gotta have all the good sealers. They took out all the low VOCs, so I don't do colored concrete, I don't seal concrete. And uh they've changed so many things to make it hard, so the product's not as good, in my opinion, as pure cement mixes and big rock mixes. Mixes and you can do all the additives in the world. But in my opinion, pure pure cement concrete is the best concrete. That's how it was made, right? You start putting all this um slag and fly ass and stuff to meet these carbon compliances. You got shrinkage issues, you got color variances. It's tricky. But you roll with the punches. I mean, that the thing with California, there's a lot of muddy here, right? There's a lot of customers. Up until last year, our bread and butter was wineries. We did wineries for a decade. We're in the wine country, Napa Valley, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley. Like we're we have there's a lot of money, a lot of opportunity. But you just learn as you go. Like I remember I always use this sealer. I use the same sealer from 2006 to 2012, right? And then all of a sudden, every job we're doing is hydrolocking. And this is back when I did fancy concrete. Now we do structural concrete. So like we do a lot of architecture concrete in the beginning, but there's a whole I can go down a rabbit hole of that. But just little funny things is I I go to the world of concrete, 2012. I'm I'm like, take a sealer class. I'm like, I don't understand it. From 2006 to 2010, I never had a problem. Now everything's hydro-locking, every sealer is whitened out. And I go to this sealer's application class put on by Glaze and Seal, and the first 25 words, the guy's like, so let me guess, if you're in California, you've been having this problem since 2010, right? And it's like, what the heck? This guy, like, how does he know this? He's like, oh yeah, they change all your VOC rules. Like the product is not even close to the same anymore. Unless you're in the other 49 states, that's still the same, right? So we in California they pull your VOC for all this carb compliant stuff and air board. And so now I have nothing but problems. So my solution was I don't do color concrete, I don't seal concrete, right? I'm done with colored concrete, great concrete. And so there's a lot of craziness in California, but also the like I can pour, we poured two jobs a day and it's kind of rainy. Like we don't have big weather, right? Like California is in Sonoma County is stable, man. Like I could work almost 365 days a year. It is the best weather for concrete. We're 40 minutes from the ocean. Every night it gets 50 degrees, no matter how hot it gets. We get like five days at our 100 degrees. Most of the time it's 75 and sunny. And I mean, even like a rain, I got I got humbled with my wife at the time when we were dating. She moved to New York for a year for this job. And in California, when it's raining, you're like, ah, it'll go away, right? Like this, like it starts raining in the morning where you're like in an hour it's gonna be gone. So you're like poor and you're like, whatever, it'll be gone. We went to New York and it started raining. We looked like the biggest Californians ever. It came down. I never seen such a thing. The streets were flooded. I was running in a store about a hundred and fifty dollar freaking umbrella. I'm in sandals in New York. I'm like, what the hell? So California, there's good things for California for construction, right? Like, we don't get nervous if there's a like if there's a rainstorm, like next week it's gonna say it's gonna rain all day, then we'll like entertain that. But today it's like, oh yeah, there's some rain. It's a quarter inch of rain all day. We poured 95 yard slab in Forestville. It rained a little bit. You put some plastic down, go inside, have a have your lunch, come back out. It's not gonna rain all day, right? So you got good weather, but you know, the things that everyone wants to hear for sure, those are the product issues, right? That's the compliance issue. If you're doing demo and stuff, you got you gotta meet all this recycling, right? You gotta track how much of this stuff got recycled. You're demoing a job, we're gonna fill out all these forms. I got in trouble just recently because I thought I had a low carbon mix, but it wasn't low carbon enough for the for Marin County. So I had to drop it even more fly ass, more stuff, which means cracks, right? Means that you're gonna call me and be like, Kyle, this thing cracked. And you're gonna go, I think you need to come look at it. And I'm like, Sai, I've been doing this for 20 years, I've seen a lot of cracks. I don't think I need to come look at it. Like, it's cracked. But this is the reason, right? The homeowner doesn't want to hear, well, this is why it cracked, because they added this fly ash to meet Marin County's crazy green standard, and that is a byproduct of coal, and that makes shrinkage, and that makes strength very slowly, right? Like cement makes strength fast, flash will keep making strength longer, but like no homeowner wants to hear this chemical mess, you know? So it's putting strain on contractors. The biggest problem that I've seen in California over the last decade is that everybody is so nervous being sued all the time. I don't know if it's like that where you're at, but engineers are changing the plan as we're in the middle of it. We're doing this big podium, you know what a podium deck is two-story concrete. So podiums, once you get above ground, put all this, you know, we use a this lumish shoring system, plywood. We got like 16 post-tension girders to this house. This is crazy house. 25,000 square foot house, two-story, like the bottom story is 9,000 square foot garage, is beautiful. Second story is 24 inch thick, double mat slab. It's cool. Customers get ass. We so we're building these girders, and the engineer comes out. Uh, I recalcit it. The thing's already formed. Like, I think it should be four feet deep and 24 inches. And you're like, what? It's like I do concrete for a living, man. Like, we gotta do it first to right the first time. Like, maybe if the engineers tried that, right? That'd be something. Like, engineer the job right the first time. So, what we find out here a lot, and it's super frustrating, and it gets into your overhead. California, you gotta run overhead, man. You gotta have people, like I have two field supervisors that I shouldn't even need. You know, 15 years ago I didn't need these guys, but these guys protect us because they're looking. Is this the right plant? Did we get the new plant? Did we RFI this? Oh, we're about to pour tomorrow. We got a new plant. Oh, they ordered, they added 15 bars in this footing and why did it third three more inches, right? Like it just seems chaotic out here because everyone's so nervous of getting sued. We have earthquakes, so structurally, things are overbuilt. I went and did a house in Reno for a customer, and they asked that we're like out here, we're used to engineers observation. I don't know if it works like that for you, but structural concrete, big commercial jobs. The inspection process is this, it seems crazy. You got three days of inspections. Number one day, engineers observation or special inspection, they go in either order, but you got to have an engineer's observation, which is someone from the engineering office comes out to say everything looks like the drawing. You submitted shop drawings, everything's correct. And they normally come up with something. So I like to leave easy things. Those are little tips. If you want to come to California and pass some inspections, just leave the obvious out. They'll be like, God, we forgot the adobies. Sorry, engineer, I'll put the adobe's in. Good. Then you got a special inspector, that's a third-party inspector on behalf of the engineer and for the county. And then when you pass all that, then you got a county inspection. So that's crazy, right? You miss one of those. It's it's like in concrete is like planning a wedding every day, right? Like out here, I don't know what it's like there, but concrete is a month out. If you want to pour, you are booked out a month. So, like my dispatcher every day is booking concrete and scheduling for March already, right? Middle of March. This this month's booked, and everybody's busy because there's a lot of work out here. It's slowed down a little bit right now, but you got to be on the ball. So one of these engineers decides I want to change something or inspection goes bad. Now you're kicked three weeks, right? It's crazy. So it's like, those are my things that some of the other state people might think is crazy because when I went to Reno and did that house, I kind of started this conversation and then veered off it. But I'm calling the inspector and he's like, dude, I'm your only inspector, man. It's like we dig the foundation. I'm like, do we need to have the engineer come to give you a special inspector? He's like, no, man, I'm your inspector. And I'm like, well, what about this? He's like, you guys are crazy. He's like, dude, just send me pictures, man. Like, I don't need to come out here anymore. You guys are over the top. You know, like, it's like when we go to other states and we don't often, it's like we're pretty contractors in California are pretty used to like a lot of being on the ball, right? Are the details, submitted mixed designs, all these inspections, like we're pretty uptight. And uh, and I feel like when I went to other states for the better or whatever, we I don't know if everyone has earthquakes. You guys have other things, right? Tornadoes or hurricanes in different states and different natural disasters, but earthquake being pretty gnarly, it's pretty like intense on the structural stuff of it. And so that would be a crazy thing for California. Taxes are high, fuel's high, but wages are high, money's high, right? Like customers are high. I moved away from like the common residence to do like the residential we do now is for someone who's building a 10,000 to 25,000 square foot house, right? They're spending 7 million to 30 million on their house, right? And those are like structural jobs. And then we have wineries and we have affordable housing complexes, and we have like bigger business things that can afford bigger business bills because your overhead's high in in California, right? And uh and I don't know what does concrete cost in Arkansas a yard? Do you know by any?

SPEAKER_01 54:36

I think it's about 185, 195 a yard right now.

SPEAKER_00 54:41

Oh, that's crazy. Okay, so that's the same. We're I mean, out here if you're Joe Blow off the street and don't have a counts by like 235, but contractor that's busy, 185. So that's prices about literally.

SPEAKER_01 54:53

Yeah, I was gonna say re sale would probably be 225, probably every bit. Yeah.

Weather, Work Volume, And Opportunity

SPEAKER_00 55:00

Yeah, so that's expensive, and uh wages are high out here. You know, people make good money in Sonoma County, and uh yeah, but then then one other crazy thing that would affect all dirt work people and people that listen to your podcast is just the carb compliance. Anyone from California knows it, right? You can't have that carb thing that can got kicked for years, right? It's supposed to be 08, you're supposed to have all these tier four machines and nothing older than at the time, 2009, right? And then the can kick so the next year. And the can kick. So some poor companies went out. This one poor company on a nap, but they're a great company. They tried to follow the rules, they get all new machines and everything, the recession, yes, they go out of business. People that aren't following the rules are like, ah, California is just California is guilty of making these extreme rules. Like, we're not gonna sell gas cars in 2035. That can't gonna get kicked until 2050, right? Like we make these big rules, but if you've been here long enough, you know that those all get kicked. Now carb is strict, right? Now you need to have tier four stuff, or you there's a balance of horsepower in your company in new versus old, but that makes it real hard for a guy to start now, like a brand new. I I couldn't do it today. Like my first work truck I bought in 2007 was a Chevy 3,500 flatbed dually diesel with a 12-foot harbor bed, which is like is a sweet truck.$36,000, right? I'm like, oh my god, this truck payment's$550. How am I ever gonna make this thing? That truck's$110,000 today, you know. Like, that's insane. Like for companies that are building things, and you gotta know how to charge, like, how do you charge for that work truck? You better understand that that's a tool, right? That's$25,$30 an hour, and that better be built into something. Oh, your tractors. I just bought a brand new 305, and I bought a brand new 305 in 2010, and I bought one in 2017, and I bought one last year, and the first one was 46,000, and the next one was 60,000, and this one was 110, right? So it's like it's just some crazy inflation when you've been around and you start swapping machines out, and that's that's not, I'm sure that's the same in every state, right? So I guess where I'm going with this long-winded conversation is there's some goods of California where things are very expensive in my company trucks and my equipment is the same as Georgia, right? Like, I feel like Ford F 450 decked out. I'm sure it might be a little bit less because the real estate on the property is less at the dealership, but you're paying 90,000 to 100,000 outfitted if you're in Ohio or California. We're paying the same for the truck, the chain of the track. So the the good thing that I'm saying in here is it is off all the craziness and the high taxes is offset with higher rates, right? A lot of opportunity, a lot of customers, a long working year. Now, if you're in Tahoe and you're north, you're gonna get whacked by snow. But if you're down here in Sonome County or you're in San Diego or you're in LA, those guys don't know what there's no seasonal work. Like construction. I got into Call of Greek Zolo snowboarding. I thought I was just gonna be off every three months for three months in the winter and snowboarding because that's how it was when I was young. I'd be the first one to be like, I'm young, I got nothing. You can lay me off. I'm going snowboarding, you know, I'm going to Tahoe, I'm gonna tuck in this cheap hotel for four months and then I'll see you in the summer. That's not a thing, man. We work all year round. We don't have like you like there's no winter break, there's no stuff like that. So that's like a a plus of California. Um, yeah, you gotta do corporations, right? Like I'm not a sole proprietor, you get you'll get killed. I don't want to get fried by the IRS that they're listening to you. But yeah, like if you're in California, you gotta understand business entities and write-offs, and that's how you shield yourself from all the taxes, you know. And that's probably the same anywhere that has a high state tax, you know. If you're you, you know, like every state, you gotta figure out how to keep it. You know, because even if you're buying write-offs to avoid taxes, well, the next year that payment is now income. So we didn't appreciation this year, and you didn't amortize it over three to five years and wash out your payments versus your write-off. You just take the bonus appreciation this year, and now you got three years of payments. Well, that money you made is income, right? So not only are you making the payment, you're paying taxes on the money that you made to make that payment. So, like, that's where it gets to business, that's where it gets to finances, right? There's there's ways to navigate all these taxes and and stuff. And at the end of the day, you know, you make your company better, you do more tools, you reinvest, and uh you gotta learn it, you know, you gotta be up on it. You get consultants, what's this thing? You know, bring the lawyer in. What's this new employee law? Oh, they just got rid of our we used to have a self-employed tax ceiling, so I don't know what it's like for you and your state, but California is insane to be self-employed. Before you make anything, it's self-employed tax. Is it like that in Arkansas? You have a self-employed tax, self-employment tax with 15.37, I think. Yeah, it's the whole it's insane.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

So you make a dollar, you gotta do whatever you gotta do to record it.

Community, Mentors, And Peer Circles

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

Yeah. So that's my gist on California. It is getting tougher and tougher and crazier and crazier, but like the politics stuff that people see in general is not our farmtown community. Like, if you came and visited us, you'd probably think that everyone's pretty similar. I have a I've had been lucky to have a great group of friends. Like, as I've grown older in chase business and let go of my party friends, and let go of this, and became like friends with business owners and do things with business owners. I got a couple really good friends that I feel are way more successful than me that we talk like me and my buddy Jake talk every morning, five o'clock when we're driving somewhere. Buddy Greg's like been successful, third generation company guy. I got a guy, Nick, he has a clothing company, my brother. Like, we have a circle of people that you talk to and you help each other out with like how do you navigate this new thing? Oh, do you see this new role? How'd you do this? Are you guys doing your uh silica training? Are you guys doing your chopsite active shooter training? Like you kind of just talking to a like-minded group of people and figure out how to navigate it, you know? And so, yeah, I feel like San Francisco, LA, it's pretty crazy. Bad Lima's not far off from where you're at, probably.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

I mean, there's some of that in there we could go of like yeah, definitely. When you said five inspectors in three days or whatever it was to pour a footer, it's kind of silly. Yeah, it is, but uh at the same time, no, that's that's a good way of putting it for us. I mean, that definitely, if you have an open mindset, you could definitely understand how that could offset. Of course, it's just like anywhere else, but um definitely different from here for sure. Um go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:07

I don't want my touch on what you want to do. You can ask anything specific that you want. I could help you with too.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:13

Nah, dude, you nailed it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:16

I I just I appreciate your interest in me. I want to make sure that you're getting out of it what you want. You know, anything you want to ask, I'll let you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:26

No, for sure. Tell them tell the audience where we can find you, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

So you can check out Instagram at Harris CompanyConcrete, and uh, we have a website, Harris CompanyConcrete.com or out in Sonoma County. Um, if you have a job out here that you want us to look at and you're in the Sonoma County, California area, we're estimating at Harris CompanyConcrete.com. You can send plans. My email is Kyle at Harris CompanyConcrete.com and uh yeah, Sonoma County, California, and trying to keep going, man.

Where To Find Kyle & Sponsor

SPEAKER_01 1:02:59

Just learning and going. Blue collar performance marketing's passion is to bring attention to the honest work done in blue-collar industries through effective results-driven marketing tactics. They specialize in comprehensive digital marketing services from paid advertising on Google and Facebook to website development and content strategy. I started working with Ike and the team earlier this year, and they've had a huge impact on our specific marketing campaign and trajectory of our overall company. Their expertise in digital ad management, website development, social media, and overall marketing strategy has been an absolute game changer for our sales and marketing at SciCon. If you're looking to work with a marketing team who does what they say, does it well, and is always looking for ways to help your company grow, book a discovery call with Ike by going to bcperformance marketing.com backslash bcb podcast, or click the link in the show notes slash description below. Thanks, guys. I would uh I would encourage you, concrete guys, and I actually had my manhole and uh we do cast in place out here on all our elevated structures, and he will he does manholes in storm boxes for us and had him on here. So you're not the only uh concrete guy that's been on here, but man, I gotta tell you, I hope some guys that are listening in the concrete lane reach out because Kyle's an absolute OG who's figured this out through hardcore experience, and I can tell that by talking with him, not just today, but guys, he's uh one of the real ones, is what I gotta say. And you can tell, like we said earlier on in the show, the uh really quick if somebody's learned from experience or not. And so um, man, I ask everybody on the show this same question, but um right here at the end. Well, if you were sitting there as a blue-collar guy, just trying to get it through the end of the day, what's a a takeaway for that guy mentally, emotionally, physically, getting unstuck out of the mud, man, mentally, physically, emotionally, you get down, oh weight, all those years. What's the one thing um that that helps you kept trucking through, my dude?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:16

Yeah, don't don't silent yourself. Start talking to people. You'd be surprised at who's in the same boat. Start looking at people that you think are mentors, tell them what you got going on, be transparent, ask them about coaching, ask advice, open your ears, be ready to listen, be ready to learn, and start trying to put your ego away. You know, that's a really hard one, and learn fast what you don't know, you know, and be okay with that.

Final Takeaways & Closing CTA

SPEAKER_01 1:05:41

Man, I ask everybody on the show, uh, literally 75 plus episodes, I think we're at, man. It's it's unbelievable. Um, you know, you've shared your story a little bit about 08 and some of the hard times and hard lessons that you had to learn through experience. But maybe maybe go back to that 21-year-old kid who was sitting there going, man, I know every I know everything and I know better. And uh I'm gonna go off and do my own thing because I'm tired of being stuck in the mud, whether it be mentally, physically, emotionally, but uh give a piece of advice uh to the audience that that can help them.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:22

Yeah, my advice to someone you know, stuck in your head, stuck in a rut, can't get it going, is don't silo yourself. You know, then reach out to mentors, you know, if you're dealing with vendors, I don't know if you're in dirt work, you have a salesman, you have somebody start telling them you're struggling or what what's your issues. And and and I found all the time that like successful people will help people that they think are interested or want to work hard. Like I've got a lot of tips out of people that are super successful, just asking questions, you know, looking up to people that you want to. Be and just asking them questions. A lot of time they'll take you in. Oh, sorry, yeah, no, this is what you do. I got a guy for this, or who give you advice. Most successful people are pretty interested in you being successful, you know, especially if you're a customer.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:08

So well, guys, we will catch you on the next one. Kyle's having a little bit of trouble with that California internet out there. Um, you guys be safe. We will catch you on the next one. Be safe. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like, share it with the fellas, check out our website to send us any questions and comments about your experience in the blue collar business. Who do you want to hear from? Send them our way, and we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have. Till next time, guys.